(During Issue 12: Meridianites retreat)
"We finally arrived!"
Grantaire says as the alchemy circle above the training hall disappears. After a rough travel from the other side of the universe, Queen Weira's large rest house has finally emerged back to the barren land where the main 'Old Palace' settlement is located. After months of staying on Earth it finally founds it way back home.
"Hurraah!" the rebels cheer out as they finally see out from their windows that they finally get back to their home city after months of worth training.
"Save your hurrahs! We better get going!" Gruul sternly grunts to the rebels as he gives Martin's unconscious body to Grantaire. He covers him with a nearby cloak before he carries him on his back.
The rebels quickly move out of the large rest house and to the front yard where they notice the empty atmosphere around the settlements of the 'Old Palace'. While they ascend up the winding road to the natural ground, they hear not only the rustling winds of home but the echoes of screams and yells far ahead away from them and the large puff of dark smoke beyond the horizon.
"We're too late!" Gruul grunts.
"Phobos has already made his move." Grantaire worriedly comments as the 'Calluna' rebels talk worriedly talk to themselves.
Suddenly, they gaze to see an anxious citizen Meridianite runs to them, as if he was chased away from someone behind him. "Help! Phobos' men are destroying the city!" his voice yells out to them.
"What happened? The rebels?" Gruul asks as the Meridianite approached the rebels.
"Caleb's gone! And the rebels are on the retreat!" the crazy citizen cries out frantically as he passes them by. "Help! Help! Meridian is burning!"
"Then we're too late to stop them!" Gruul angrily irritates and clenches his fist and looks at the small hooded Grantaire who carries Martin on his shoulders. "…if we could have gone sooner, we would have won the battle by now!"
"Either way, we will be overwhelmed by the Annihilators!" Grantaire reminds. "I think we should regroup with the rest of Caleb's and Nigel's forces before we make any risky attack ourselves."
"Alright, yet where should we find them?"
"At the 'Ruins' perhaps? We better check it out right now." Grantaire replies as he leads out the 'Calluna' men must take a long run along the stoned streets as the rebels make their way back to their original base, before they were enlisted to the 'Calluna Fort'.
Grantaire then takes a glimpse on the hill as they see the rebellion flag with the 'Vanguard sigil' in the air and hears the distant explosions that come out from heir location. 'Atlas has taken the hill! That gives me a bit of hope…'
(During Issue 12: Vathek and rebels escape to the underground.)
"Don't lose hope men!" Ray yells as he reveals himself before the scutum line and pulls the string of his arrow. "Farsight Sixth Technique: Grenade Barrage!" he chants as he releases his fast electrifying arrows down the hill and multiplies during the flight.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" the arrows lands before the enemy front and create a series of explosions before they get nearer and nearer to the first line of defense. "Arrghh!" "Ughh!" "Ahhh!" they cry out as the men roll back down the hill.
"Retreat!" "Fall back!" "The lieutenant has fallen!" the soldiers yell out as they retreat once more down to the foothills. They once again run back to the camps down the foothills.
"Cease fire!" Eric calls out to the archers as he lowers his bow and arrow. As the rebels hear the enemy's echoing command. The rebels once again tirelessly rested and exhaustedly waited for the next attack. Ray, on the meantime, returns back to east edge of the hill to see the situation again once more.
"How long should we keep this up, Atlas?" Rius asks as he wearily approaches Eric. "It has been seven onslaughts and the enemy keeps on coming. The archers especially are getting too tired."
"Phobos men are trying to exhaust us our army in any way possible to take their position on this hill. We have no choice but to counter for what we have now." Eric explains. "How's the left flank of the hill? Ever since they took position on the long stretch of trees where we our first raid began, they somehow used it against our disadvantage." Eric recalls when the Vanguards and the chosen men used the trees to hide before they climbed the hill and raid the dungeon.
"Ever since they have been charging at our front and left flanks, our scutum lines becomes too thin and the archers need to spread out. But Uilly and I still hang on to the situation fairly enough." Rius explains. "The Meridian Army also had their archers and they begin to shoot at us since the fifth onslaught. Yet they manage to only take down twelve rebels since because as you said, the enemy archers are presently amateurish and poorly trained because you defeated their well-trained archers at the Battle of the Old Palace." He slyly praises.
Eric chuckles to himself. "Complimenting are you? We also defeated some of their archers here at Dungeon Rock right? I think you also take part of taking down those well-trained archers yourselves." he crooks a smile.
"And the bridges? How's the construction going on?" Rius asks.
"A while ago, Jehan, though badly injured, voluntarily went off in Ferroris place to the riverside. Gladly, he safely came back and reported that the bridge is half nearly done, though it might still take a while, since the Phobos' Fourth Corps is now after them."
"So we need to survive seven onslaughts more?"Rius sighs.
"In case we run out of arrows, then we can still use this Jolras' wagons and building stones for another purpose." Eric replies as he points out to Cpl. Jhaoully who manages the other rebels who work on the stones and the wagons. "You don't have to worry Rius, we could still keep this pace up."
"Atlas!" Ray calls out from the edge of the hilltop and fast-runs towards Eric.
"I'll better go now sir, and guard the left flank." Rius salutes and makes his way off to the other side of the hill. "I hope your plan works!"
Eric salutes back to Rius as Ray approaches him. "So what's the situation out there? I already see the blazing series of fires from here."
"Well I don't know if Caleb's Corps have received your message. But I do think they're on the verge of hiding for now together with 'your-Elyon' and the Guardians."
"So where are they now?" Eric asks as he unrolls the map out from his pocket.
"At the south." Ray points out on the map. "Yet I couldn't see them beyond this location. As the corporal said, they might have escaped to the underground."
"And the Frost's Corps and the Annihilators? I presume they still continue to follow them."
"Surprisingly, they actually left the 'Calluna' men as rearguard to slow down the enemy advance." Ray scratches his head and points out to the horizon.
"Nigel's here to begin with?" Eric crosses his brow. "Didn't an earthquake occur fifteen minutes ago, which means they used the rest house to get here? How could they be the rearguard if they were in the south in the first place?"
"That's what I also thought. Or it might be a coincidence that it was some earthquake that rocked Meridian since I can't see the rest house from here." Ray explains as he points out to the south outskirts of the city. "Yet I saw a series of explosions down below, a flicker blast of light and smoke. I also saw some familiar faces when we were at the 'Calluna' one time. So I'm pretty sure Nigel's and his men are here."
"How about Grantaire and Gruul? Have you seen them?" Eric asks.
"Funny you mentioned it, but I didn't see them during the fight. Unless—the earthquake?"
"It might be." Eric nods as he takes out a piece of paper and writes once again the commands. "The corporal and I were thinking earlier for some way for Caleb's Corps to regroup and at the same time counter their attacks against the Frost's Corps and somehow open the northern gates."
"Seems like a complicated plan, is it Captain Napoleon?" Ray sarcastically compliments at his smart friend. "You know where we are right? And you plan with a counter-attack against them?"
Eric snickers. "It's our turn to turn the tables to our favor…"
"W-Where are w-we, Grant—oire?"
Martin stammers as lies cold with his back on the rough stone. His hearing then becomes clear as he picks up on the commotion around him with a lot of disarray of voices around him. Though with his glasses on his eyes are still blurry in the less-lit environment.
"It's Grantaire and it's a good timing for you to be awake." Grantaire replies. "What did you say again?"
"W-Where are we?" Martin asks as he removes the cloak over him and rubs his eyes. He then sees more weird looking aliens around than in the 'Calluna' around him as they sit around the open area as more and more people came from the stairs opposite to the other side of the flowing water. "It smells kind of stench in here."
"We've just arrived in the underground tunnels of the 'Dark Ruins' where we suppose to meet up with Nigel and the rest, yet their still not here though." Grantaire replies as he covers him again. "And please wear this; the people in here might think you of as an alien here—"
"Wait! We're in Meridian—!" Martin surprisingly and mindlessly blurts out shockingly but Grantaire covers his mouth to shut him out quickly. He looks behind and see a few rebels who unknowingly gawks at him.
"Sorry! Some newcomer…" Grantaire replies to their strange gesture. He then turns back to Martin "Quiet down! Please don't make a scene and just calm down. Alright?" he hushes and quiets him.
"I'll do my best…" Martin nods weakly.
"Jeez, aren't you a legionate? As a legionate you should at least wear a disguise as I am." Grantaire says as he fixes his hood of uniform. "That's why I put you on a cloak to hide your identity."
"Well I'm not actually a legionate." Martin replies as he fixes the hood of his cloak.
"You're not?" Grantaire surprisingly asks. 'That's no surprise…'
"Ignitus says it was some kind of test run for him whether he wanted to be part of their Vanguard or something." Gruul replies on Martin's behalf.
"Oh is it?" Grantaire says. "So how was it?"
"Well, I think—"
"This my fault! All my fault!"
Martin stops when he hears a yell from the descending stairs beyond him. He stares at the beautiful yet sad young girl with the noticeable blond hair and golden lengthy locks over her body as she wears the same cloak as he is. 'Elyon?!' Martin recognizes as he stands up shockingly and squints his eyes from afar. 'So Eric and his Vanguards are right! Elyon is really here!'. He then sees how Elyon hug the two Meridianite couple. As it turned out it, he overhears their conversation that sheknow is reunited with her adoptive parents, Alborn and Miriadel.
His eyes then stare to five human mature women with her earlier. They wear these fancy and fashionable Halloween costumes of colors purple and they may be mature, Martin still recognizes each of them. 'Will! Cornelia! Irma! Hay Lin! T-T-The G-Guardians!' he slyly blushes at the great and bizarre beauty before him.
"C-Cupcake!—" Martin clasps his hands as he remembers to shut his mouth. Star and heart-struck, his brain blanks and face reddens as he eyes fixes on the love of his life, Irma. He was ever more dazzled and dumbfounded by her gorgeousness 'Woah! I never knew my cupcake would be this attractive!' he falls in love with her even more so. It was a good thing too, his awkward stare and his facial expression hides deep under the shadow of his own hoodie.
"We got another message from Lyndon's Corps—!" Vathek yells carelessly out after he reads the recent letter sent by the rebel messenger from Cadavigo Hill. "—I -I mean from the 'Pasture Heights' rebels!" He mistakenly rephrases as he gives out the letter to Alborn, who is now the next leader after Caleb's sudden demise earlier.
"Our enthusiasm would do little against Phobos' soldiers and his Annihilators." He says to the rebels after he reads the message.
"What we need is a surprise attack." Vathek says.
"That's right, in order to fulfill this—Lyndon's Corps'—decisive attack, we have to surprise our foes in the streets of Meridian! We need to distract and divide them. It's the only way we could weakened them. We' will make our move when they're all busy tracking us down as a small group will sneak into the palace and take Elyon's crown—"
"We'll take care of that Alborn!" Will voluntarily calls out to his attention.
"I'll go with them! I know the inside of the castle well so we can easily find our way around." Elyon says.
"Elyon, honey, are you sure about this?" Alborn asks with concern.
"It's what I want more than anything else dad!—" Elyon replies gladly.
Suddenly, the ceiling debris falls off from the sewage tunnel as thunderous marching of a hundred of men from above vibrates the underground. "The Annihilators are almost here!" Vathek says.
"One more reason to get going!" Will says as she, Elyon and the Guardians say their farewells to Vathek and go on their way to Phobos castle.
"What did you say?" Meanwhile, Gruul asks as he grabs on to the collar of a certain Meridianite and lefts him up to the air... "The 'Calluna' men are still outside?!"
"Y-Yes!" the rebel gulps in fright by Gruul's scary written face. "They were the rearguard for us to escape!"
"Then we better get going now. We should reinforce them by now!" Gruul lets him go and directs to the 'Calluna' men.
"Grantaire!" Alborn overhears Gruul's loud voice beyond the wall and recognizes the Imperial legionate uniformed figure with a band of men. "Not only are you going to rejoin with the rebels but Lyndon has a mission for you to do too…"
