Author's Notes:

Hey guys! Sorry for posting Chapter 6 so late last night. I had life stuff to do. I hope you understand. I'm glad to be getting some positive feedback in reviews. I really appreciate it. Now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, enjoy reading Chapter 7! Thank You!

Chapter 7: The Loss of One's Love III

Everyone who was on Sylphid was asleep. Everyone but Saito. He was reminiscing about what he saw a few hours prior. It began to bring him to tears. As he began to cry, Derf unsheathed himself.

"You okay, Partner?"

Saito was silent for a while. When he finally spoke, his voice was shaky and filled with grief.

"She's hurting, Derf. She's in so much pain. I failed. I failed as her familiar. As someone who promised to protect her. As someone who said I loved her."

He held curled into a ball, holding his knees in his arms. He barely had the will to fight anymore. He wondered if coming back to Halkeginia was a mistake, after all.

"You idiot." Derf said calmly, shocking Saito. "It's because you love her that you haven't failed. You've saved her multiple times, but all she ever did was treat you like a dog. But even through all of that, as well as the threat of going through it all again, you still love her. You still cry when she's hurt. You will only fail when if those feelings disappear because if they do, you'll never be able to save her again."

Saito took a deep breath and wiped his tears away. "Thank you, Derf. You're right. When all this is over and we save her, I'll tell her that I love her…again." He chuckled at the thought. Kirche, pretending to be asleep, overheard the whole conversation. She felt somewhat sad when she heard Saito confess his feelings for Louise, but chose to ignore it. After a few minutes, Sylphid let out a cry. Tabitha woke up and looked below them.

"Arrived."

Saito looked beneath them and saw a massive city that he recognized as Albion's capital, Londinium.

"Get me closer to the ground." Saito said. Tabitha took them to a place they wouldn't be seen, just outside of the city. When they landed, Saito grabbed Longueville, forcing her to walk.

"We're stopping by the Royal Palace." He told everyone. They walked into the city, making sure to take back alleys to avoid being seen. Suspicion would be raised if they were seen taking a prisoner through the streets. It took them several hours of sneaking, but they finally reached the rear wall of the Palace. It was at least 20 feet high. It was nearly dawn, so Saito wanted to make sure he was in the Palace by daybreak.

He shoved his fingers into the wall, cracking it and allowing for a place for the rest of the group to grab onto when they were climbing. Guiche and Malicorne were in awe at Saito's abundance of strength. He himself wasn't sure why he was this strong, but he had more pressing matters to attend to. When they reached the massive door into the Palace, two guards spotted him.

"Oi! You the-" In an instant, Saito had rushed to them and knocked them out. He quickly apologized, the heaved the gargantuan doors open, running into the Palace. They followed him through the many corridors of the Palace. Even though he was carrying Longueville, they could hardly keep up with him. He eventually stopped in front of a massive door. It was decorated with many jewels and pieces of gold. In the center, was a massive slab of marble with the Albion Coat of Arms engraved into it.

"Saito, what are we here for? Do you know how illegal this is?!" Montmorency said, feeling afraid of the possible repercussions. Saito didn't respond to her. He slowly pushed one of the doors open and peeked inside. There, he saw Prince Wales sipping tea. He looked like he had just woken up. Saito, without fear, walked into the room, startling Wales.

"Who are you?" He asked, expecting him to be an assassin.

"My name is Hiraga Saito. This woman will tell you what you need to know." He threw Longueville onto the ground. "Speak." She looked at him with hatred and then turned back towards Prince Wales, beginning to explain Reconquista and some of their plans, with Saito listening closely to fact-check.

After nearly 2 hours of explanation, she was finished. Wales looked at Saito, who was leaning on a wall and having a casual conversation with Derf as he waited.

"Mr. Hiraga."

Saito looked at Wales. "Yes, Your Majesty?"

Wales smiled "There is no need to be so formal. It seems you may have just single handedly saved my life. For that, I am forever grateful. As for Reconquista, I will assemble my armies. Until then, let's all relax. Would you like some food?"

Saito, who realized he hadn't eaten in nearly a day, happily nodded, as did the rest of his group. As they sat, gorging themselves on delicious food, Kirche seemed dejected. She was staring at Saito, who was laughing happily while having a conversation with Wales about his battles. Tabitha poked Kirche, surprising her.

"What is wrong, Kirche?"

Kirche shook her head "Nothing at all. Why?"

Tabitha looked back at her plate of food. "Saito is taken. Loves Louise, not you."

Kirche became slightly angry and began bickering with Tabitha, as Guiche, Montmorency, and Malicorne laughed at the scene. The mood in the room was jovial and happy. However, a guard soon ran into the dining room, exasperated.

"Yo-Your Majesty! I have horrible news! Londinium is being attacked! The east of the city has been destroyed! It was as if it was never there! The destruction is…it's unbelievable! No mage could have done this!"

Everyone in the room became very serious. Saito got up and ran to the window. He could see smoke coming from part of the city as a large army, perhaps 1000 strong, made its way to their location. He immediately picked up Derf.

"I'm leaving. Thank you for your hospitality, Prince Wales. Stay here, it is important that you live. The rest of you can come or stay if you want."

Tabitha, Kirche, Montmorency, Guiche, and Malicorne all stood up. "We're coming with you!" they all said at the same time. Saito smiled slightly and then looked at Tabitha.

"Call Sylphid. We need to move fast." She went to the window and whistled. After a few moments, Sylphid arrived. They all hopped on and flew in the direction of the army. As they flew over the destroyed area of the city, they all began to understand what the guard had meant. It was clear that no mage had the capability to produce such large amounts of damage with normal magic.

As they were flying, Saito stood up.

"Go a bit lower, Tabitha."

Sylphid flew lower, 30 feet above the ground at most. Without warning, Saito jumped off, much to the surprise and worry of his friends. He landed and rolled on the ground, uninjured. The army marching towards the Palace noticed him, but identified him as a Plebian. The commander rode forward on his horse.

"Step aside! We have no quarrel with you!" Saito said nothing. He drew Derf and walked towards the army. The commander smiled, amused that one person was going to try and fight an army of soldiers and mages. He turned to look at his army.

"We have a Plebian who would like to die for the Royal Family. Oblige him!"

When he turned around, Saito was nowhere to be seen. It was as if he had vanished into thin air. The commander scoffed. "Coward." As he said this under his breath, he heard screams from behind him. His men were falling to the ground. The commander observed closely before realizing that Saito had somehow found a way to get behind them. When he realized this, he told his soldiers to fall back. The army's fire mages sent spell after spell towards Saito, who was rushing at them at tremendous speed. Each spell that they sent was absorbed by Saito's blade. He killed every soldier in his way in a bloody, one sided battle that lasted for several hours, after which, Saito did not even have a scratch.

His body was soaked in blood. The corpses of his enemies lay around him. Some decapitated, some cut in half, and others simply unrecognizable. The smell of iron could be detected in the air, as a reddish mist clouded the area. Saito looked up at the sky, unfazed by what happened. His left eye was glowing, as were his runes. He sheathed Derf and walked away from the battlefield.

As he was walking away, his sanity started to come back to him. When he was fighting, he was a mindless machine. He had no sympathy for his enemies, not even contemplating the idea of sparing their lives. As he looked at his hands, soaked in blood, he began to cry. He remembered Colbert's words, telling him not to get comfortable with killing. As he was contemplating his failure, his friends came back on Sylphid. They were shocked at the scene before them. Hundreds of mangled bodies lay on the ground, soaking everything in blood. Saito was kneeling in the middle of all of these corpses, crying.

As they were about to go to help him, there was a flash of white light and a loud bang. They felt like they were burning and eventually, everyone became unconscious other than Saito. When he came to his senses, he observed the scene around him in horror. Whatever buildings had stood had been flattened. His own body was burnt, and he could feel that several of his bones were broken. He looked up and saw a ship hanging in the sky above. On one of its masts, thanks to his new eye, he was able to make out Cromwell, smiling at him triumphantly.

"How do you like my new weapon, boy?"

As he said this, he pulled something towards him by it's hair. It was unmistakable. Saito heart sank when he realized it was Louise. She was in rags and had a blank expression in her eyes. It was as if she had no soul. He could see that her body was scarred from whatever it was that Cromwell did to her.

"It wasn't easy, but she finally decided to help us!" From his jacket, he pulled out a little bell. When he rang it, Louise's face contorted in pain. She immediately began casting her Explosion spell. Saito was in too much shock to even attempt to dodge it. He was hurled hundreds of yards across the landscape. All of his ribs were broken. He had several lacerations on his body and some of his organs had been damaged.

In the distance, he heard marching. The army that Wales assembled finally arrived. Saito, however, knew that this was a terrible decision. He yelled at them at the top of his lungs.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" but it was too late. Cromwell rung the bell and soon after, an Explosion had been cast, decimating more than half of the army. Louise collapsed, bleeding from her nose. Her body could not handle casting Explosion so many times in one day. Cromwell, however, did not care. He kicked her in the gut.

"Hey, you useless thing! Get up! Who told you you could take a nap! Get up!" She fell onto the deck of the ship, out of Saito's sight.

Cromwell looked down at her. He pulled a gun from his coat.

"Get up or I end you here and now!"

Saito watched in horror. He wanted to beg Cromwell to stop, but his vocal chords refused to let him speak. He finally managed to let out one word.

"STOP!"

As he said this, Cromwell pulled the trigger. Saito heard Louise cry out in pain, making his heart feel like it had been stabbed. Cromwell shot one more time, and this time, there was silence.

Author's Notes:

Well, there you have it. Chapter 7. It was probably too short and riddled with flaws (also a little depressing), so I'd like to apologize in advance. I will get chapter 8 out today before 11:00 PM, I promise. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next time!