Author's Notes:

Hey guys! Second chapter I'm writing in a row. I was so excited to keep writing the story, that I wrote this all night last night. I hope the effort was worth it! Enjoy chapter 13!

Chapter 13: Close Call

Saito, Alex, and Shion had been fighting Sheffield's gargoyles for several hours.

"There's no end to them! Saito, what do we do?!" Yelled Alex whilst fighting off 3 gargoyles at once.

They were all fatigued and had to finish the fight quickly.

Saito used his eye to look at the gargoyles with more detail. They each had a string of magic attaching them to their source, Sheffield. It took Saito several moments before he had an idea. He noticed that although they were attached to Sheffield with magic, they themselves had no orbs within them.

"Alex, Shion, I figured it out! We need to get to Sheffield as quickly as possible! They'll disappear that way!" He explained.

"There's no way we could make it past these gargoyles though!" Shion said while decapitating 4 gargoyles at once.

While fighting a battle of his own, Saito decided to use Derf to teleport to Sheffield's location.

"Derf, I need you to teleport us to Sheffield!" Yelled Saito.

"That will take a lot of magic, Partner!"

"Use my magic!" He said desperately.

"Got it!" Derf said. "Everyone grab Saito!"

Shion and Alex jumped at Saito. As soon as they touched him, they were teleported to another group of woods. About two soccer fields in front of them was an old church.

"She's in there." Derf said, sounding exhausted.

"Let's go!" Saito said. However, when he began to move, he collapsed onto his knees. His vision returned to normal, as he no longer had enough magic power left to sustain it. Shion and Alex rushed to his side.

"You can't continue to fight." Shion said. "Come on, we'll hide you in the woods until you recover."

Saito tried to protest, but he was too fatigued to move. Alex and Shion laid him behind some bushes.

"You two can't take her alone…" Saito said weakly.

"We'll be fine. Don't worry." Alex said, smiling.

Shion and Alex gave him a hug and then departed, leaving Saito safely hidden behind some bushes and trees. He could clearly see the church from his location.

Shion and Alex jumped onto the roof of the church, hoping to launch a surprise attack on Sheffield.

They slowly crawled into the building. It was dark and quiet. There was no one in the building. As they searched the building, Shion caught sight of a door to a cellar. She slowly moved closer to it. When she was about to open it, she paused. Something felt off. Just as she became suspicious, a sword thrust through the wood of the door, cutting a deep wound into her shoulder. She screamed in pain as she fell onto the ground.

Several gargoyles came out of the cellar, wielding several kinds of weapons. Alex quickly came to Shion's side and jumped back just as one of the gargoyle's swords landed in the spot where she had just been. The sword had slightly cut Alex's arm, but he was otherwise okay.

"Shion, are you okay?!" He asked. She didn't respond. She was in too much pain to form the words properly.

He kept dodging the gargoyle's attacks, but he couldn't strike back due to Shion being in his arms.

"Shit!" He thought to himself out loud. He had just had his leg cut by one of the gargoyles. It was, again, a light wound, but he knew that he couldn't keep dodging forever.

Meanwhile, outside, Saito was laying on the ground looking up at the sky. He had heard the scream from Shion inside, but he could barely move. He wasn't in pain, but his body was devoid of energy.

"Derf, Sheffield is in that building right?" He asked.

"Yes, Partner." Derf replied.

"Can you pinpoint her for me?"

Derf was silent for several seconds before speaking. "She's in a hidden room about 100 feet below the surface."

"Take me there." Saito said.

"What?! No! If you don't die from being teleported, then she'll kill you!" Derf argued.

"She won't be expecting me to appear so suddenly behind her. I'm sure she's aware that I'm not in the church, but she won't expect me to appear behind her. Besides…" He smiled and looked at the church. "If it's for their sake, I think I'm happy to die. Louise won't be too happy with me, huh?"

Derf was silent for a long time. "Very well, Partner. I'll do it. Forgive me, Louise."

Saito fed all of his power into Derf. It was only barely enough for the teleportation to work. Saito appeared in a room that was lit with candles. In the centre, Sheffield was sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed. Saito hadn't known her to be one to meditate, so he figured that she must have summoned more gargoyles than she ever had before, requiring her to focus. Either way, it worked out well for Saito, as Sheffield didn't hear him slowly dragging himself closer to her, ready to kill her with Derf.

As Saito crawled closer ever so slowly, upstairs, Alex had reached his limit. He was severely wounded, having several cuts on his body. His movements had become much slower and less graceful. Shion was barely conscious, having lost a lot of blood. A gargoyle then managed to inflict a deep wound on Alex's arm, forcing him to drop Shion. It knocked him aside into a wall. He landed on the ground, unable to move. The same gargoyle picked him up by his neck and tensed it arm, prepared to kill him.

Saito, unaware of the situation transpiring upstairs, finally made it close enough. With all of his remaining strength, he heaved Derf into the air and brought him down as hard as he could. Sheffield was impaled directly in her chest. She took a big gasp as she felt the sharp pain. Saito made sure to pull Derf out of the wound, not wanting to give Sheffield an ironic way of killing him, as well as making sure she bled to death.

She slowly crawled away from Saito, coughing up blood. She eventually collapsed and rolled onto her back.

"You bastard!" She said, panting. "How…did you g-get in h-here?"

Saito crawled up against a wall and was now sitting up. "Like I'd ever tell you." He said, smiling.

She cursed him in her own language, but then began to laugh, making Saito feel uncomfortable.

"To think…" She said as she reached under her robes. "that I'd have to resort to actually using this. Just to deal with a few punks. She pulled, from under her robes, the firestone. Without hesitation, Saito threw Derf at her hand. It was a weak throw, but it was strong enough to knock the stone away, out of her reach.

As she did her best to reach for the stone to no avail, she began to cry. "You can't even let me…do this one thing for him?" She said, sobbing.

Saito felt extremely bad for her. She herself was not particularly evil. At the very least, she went through with all she did because of her love for Joseph, who never showed her any affection in return.

"I'm sorry, but he was using you. He's an evil man who never gave a damn about you. He only kept you around because you were useful to him." He said.

She began to cry more heavily when she heard his words.

"I'll kill him…to avenge you. I'm sorry we had to be enemies." These were the last words she heard from Saito. She was somewhat glad that he didn't hate her. "I'm sorry…" She said, before falling asleep forever. Saito shed a few tears for her. He genuinely despised killing people, especially if they had lived such sad lives as Sheffield did. He soon wiped away his tears when he remembered his comrades upstairs. He crawled to Derf and slowly made his way up the stairs, closing Sheffield's still open eyes on his way.

He was very worried, as it was completely silent. Not a voice or sound could be heard. It took several minutes for him to finally reach the top floor. As he crawled onto the floor, he saw several weapons scattered everwhere, presumably carried by gargoyles, who had disappeared when Sheffield was stabbed.

As he crawled over the floor, he saw movement in the corner of his eye. He at first thought it was a gargoyle. He went into a state of panic, but was relieved when he saw that it was just Alex. However, the relief soon went away when he paid closer attention to him. The gargoyle that held him by his neck had succeeded in stabbing him in his abdomen. The sword went straight through him, coming out from his back.

He paid no attention to Saito, who himself was slowly starting to lose consciousness. He saw Alex walk to another body on the ground, which Saito recognized as Shion due to her silver, albeit blood stained, hair. Alex fell on the ground next to her. It was the last thing Saito saw before falling unconscious.

In Joseph's Palace.

"She should be back by now." Joseph thought to himself. It had been nearly a week since she had departed to fight the three intruders, and yet he could hadn't heard from her at all.

"I must make sure to punish her for this insolence." He said to himself as he sat in a warm bath, unaware that his Familiar had been dead for one week. He sat in the bath for several hours, eventually falling asleep. By the time he woke up, it was night time.

He walked to his bed and called one of the Palace guards.

"How are Sheffield's defenses around the palace?" He asked the guard.

"I told you already sir, they disappeared about a week ago. Every monster that guarded the palace disappeared." The guard responded. Joseph waved for the guard to go away.

"She didn't die did she?" He thought to himself. "My familiar is stronger than that. She should have detonated the Firestone if she was in trouble, so she must have deserted me. Filthy wretch!"

He poured himself several bottles of wine in a few hours, quickly becoming drunk. He soon collapsed on his bed and fell asleep. His sleep was not peaceful. He had nightmares about the brother he murdered and the niece that he treated so poorly.

He sat up wide awake only half an hour later. He shook his head, trying to get the memories of his nightmares out of his head. He poured more wine, in an attempt to drink his sorrows away.

In an unknown area of the forest

Saito shot awake, sitting up immediately. He wasn't injured in any way, and simply felt like he had taken a much-needed nap. It was afternoon and the sun was on its way back down. He looked at his surroundings, which seemed familiar somehow. He was in a wooden tent. It was quite small, but it rather cozy, he thought.

"You're finally awake, Partner?" Said Derf, who was leaning on a wall in the corner.

"Yeah. What happened?" He asked. As he did, the memories of what happened at the church rushed back to him. He picked up Derf and ran out of the room. Outside, there was one other tent. He snuck close to it and took a peek inside. There, lying on a soft bed made of leaves, was Alexandre. Sitting next to him, looking extremely worried, was Shion.

When she noticed his presence, she immediately ran towards him, hugging him tightly.

"Thank you so much!" She cried.

Saito was confused. "Uhh, for what?"

She looked up at him, with tears streaming down her face. "We would have died if you hadn't killed that woman!" Saito was embarrassed, but also happy that she was okay.

"Don't sweat it." He said nervously. "By the way, where are we? How did we end up here?"

She finally calmed down enough to speak to him. She explained that she woke up in the church, feeling extremely weak with her shoulder in a lot of pain. It was very dark, but she could make out one body lying next to her. Upon closer inspection, she had realized that it was Alex, who with his last strength had managed to wrap his arms around her. She was mortified when she saw the sword jutting out from his abdomen, but she didn't remove it, knowing that it was stopping the bleeding. She picked him up and was about to leave, but she tripped over another body. She quickly realized that it was Saito and dragged the two away into the forest with what little strength she had left. She slowly dragged them for several miles, wanting to get as far away from the church as possible before making a camp.

"You seemed to be just fine, so I never needed to treat you. It seemed like you just needed to rest. But Alex…" She said, quietly.

Saito immediately understood what she was talking about. He walked over to Alex. He was asleep and obviously alive, but Saito could see on his face that he was in great pain. He looked at Alex's stomach and saw that it had been wrapped in pieces of black cloth, which he identified as scraps of Shion's clothes.

"I've tried to help him all this time, but his wound is too serious. His organs are damaged and I don't know what else I can do with the little that we have." Shion said, beginning to sob.

Saito looked very seriously at the resting Alex, trying to think of a way that he could help him. He then remembered something. When he had been stabbed in the heart long ago, he was told that steam was emitted from his body, helping to heal the wound.

He looked at his left arm. He slowly removed the scraps of fabric covering Alex's wound. Shion watched on with terror. "What are you doing?! He'll die even more quickly!" She screamed.

Saito paid no attention to her. He put his hand directly on the wound and then closed his eyes. He tried to focus on the magic inside of him. Slowly, he managed to start moving the magic onto his arm and into his runes, which began to glow brightly. After a few minutes the wound on Alex's abdomen began to emit steam. Saito remained in that position with his eyes closed for over 5 hours. After this time, he finally opened his eyes.

He looked at Alex's wound. It had completely sealed itself. All that needed to happen was for it to heal entirely, which would simply be a matter of Alex resting for a few days with continued treatment from Saito. Shion, who had left to get water from a nearby creek, came back to Saito's side.

"What did you do?" She asked, confused.

Saito stood up. "I helped heal him. Wash his wound off and see how it looks. He should be fine now."

She poured water onto his stomach, washing away the blood that had dried. His stomach looked as good as new, albeit with a massive scar stretching across it. Shion could barely speak any words. She was in shock.

"He's going to live..?" She asked shakily.

Saito nodded. "Yeah. Just give him some time to wake up. It'll be a while, but he'll be back to himself in no time."

Shion jumped up suddenly and hugged Saito, causing him to fall on the ground. She was sobbing into his chest, overjoyed that she'd get the chance to talk to Alex again. When she finally got off of Saito he tried to stand up, but was unable to. Healing Alex had taken a lot out of him, so he could barely move.

Shion helped him sit down on a log. Night was falling, so they lit a campfire and sat in silence, waiting for Alex to wake up. Several hours later, late into the night, they noticed that Alex began to stir. They ran and stood over him. After a few minutes, his eyes slowly opened. It didn't register in his head that Saito and Shion were standing next to him.

After a few moments, he suddenly started having a fit. "It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!" He screamed repeatedly, like a small child. As he had his fit, one of his flailing hands accidentally hit Shion's cheek. It wasn't hard, but it was enough to make him stop and realize that she was standing next to him, smiling. She hugged him tightly, something that he didn't expect of her. She slowly pulled back and looked into his eyes. Alex looked over at Saito, who was watching the scene before him with a happy expression on his face.

"Hey, Saito. Is this that perfect moment you were talking about?" He asked.

Saito nodded. Alex looked back into Shion's eyes.

"I love you." He said softly.

Her eyes welled up with tears at his words. He sat up, with much difficulty, and hugged her. When he pulled away, they stared at each other for several seconds before, finally, sharing their first kiss. They remained locked together for several seconds before pulling away.

"I love you too." Shion said, with confidence.

Shion urged Alex to rest, which he reluctantly agreed to. Shion sat with him, stroking his long black hair until he finally fell asleep. She then walked to Saito, who was sitting on a log, staring into the campfire.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked him as she sat next to him.

He looked into the fire while addressing her. "Joseph. He'll be making a move soon. I have to kill him. I made a promise to Sheffield that I'd avenge her for how he treated her."

She didn't prod any further. She found it noble that he would try and avenge his enemy, although she didn't understand exactly why he was doing it. A thought then crossed her mind, making her feel depressed. Saito noticed the change in her mood.

"What's wrong?" He asked, still looking into the fire.

"Saito, I need to tell you something. The mission that I was given by Albrecht III of Germania." She said, quite seriously. This caught Saito's attention.

"What about it?" He asked.

"The mission he gave me was…after we succeed in killing Joseph, to eliminate you as well. I'm…I'm sorry." She said, full of guilt.

Saito nodded. "I see. Why are you telling me? You know you won't be able to complete the mission now right?"

She was silent for a few moments. "I-I don't want to complete the mission!" She finally said. "I know you probably don't trust me now that I've told you, and you have no reason to believe anything I say, but after being with you and Alex this whole time, I've come to see you as a close friend. I couldn't possibly bring myself to do it."

Saito sighed. "Jeez, don't get so worked up about it. I know you won't kill me." He said as he looked back into the fire. "If you wanted to kill me, you could have easily have done it while I was asleep at the church. You could have used one of the gargoyle's weapons to easily make it look like the enemy slew me. But you didn't. You dragged me from the church and brought me here. You even went so far as to tell me your mission. I trust you completely."

She was shocked for a few moments, but then smiled and looked into the fire with him. "Thank you." She said quietly.

After a few hours, they decided that they should rest as well. Shion carried the still sleeping Alexandre into her own tent to make sure nothing happened to him. Saito went to his own tent and laid on his bed.

"Proud of the kid, are we?" Derf said.

"Yeah. I'm happy for them." Saito said, smiling.

"Now though," he said, becoming very serious. "We have one more thing to do before we can go home."

"Right. It won't be easy, but with Sheffield gone, it'll be much easier than it could have been." Derf said.

Saito nodded. "Right. We took down the Queen and her pawns. Now, we just have to take down the King."

Author's Notes

Well, that's the end of Chapter 13. It was a blast to write. As always, please, please, please with a cherry on top, leave a review. Tell me what you guys think and would/wouldn't like to see. As always, have a fantastic day and, I'll catch you next time!