Chapter 81

Saito fell asleep soon after coming back from Germania. He had felt exhausted over the past few days and never had the chance to regain any energy.

His sleep was, for the most part, quite peaceful. However, mid way through his pleasant dreams, he saw something strange.

He saw the great beast Gandalfr laying on the ground, quite injured, but otherwise okay.

When the beast looked his way, he suddenly woke up in a cold sweat. He wasn't sure why he would dream about, but he decided to deal with the matter at a later time.

More importantly at the moment, he felt like his energy had returned to him. He had slept into the next day, so he quickly got dressed and went to Shion's room to finish healing her.

When he reached her door, he knocked and waited for a response. After a few seconds, he heard a weak "come in".

He slowly opened the door. Inside, he saw Shion sitting up in bed, with her wings tucked behind her back. Next to her bed, an unconscious Alex held her hand as he slept .

"You shouldn't be sitting up." Saito said.

"I'm fine." She replied.

"So stubborn. Well, if you insist, the I guess it's fine. I can heal you now." He said. "It might hurt a little."

"I can handle pain." She said in her normal, cold personality.

He walked next to her and put his hand on her stomach. He then closed his eyes. For a few seconds, nothing happened.

After a while, however, Shion began to feel as if fire was pouring into her body. It was very painful, but she didn't make a sound to make sure Alex stayed asleep.

The wounds that remained on the surface of her body seemed to begin glowing, then healed. Her wings started to glow as well as the scarred skin was healed.

After several minutes, Saito finally finished. Shion took several deep breaths as she got over the pain she had felt.

When she was calm, she noticed that she didn't feel any pain anywhere. Her wings, while they still lacked feathers for flying, had down feathers instead.

"Thank you, Saito." She said.

"No problem." He replied.

"Don't you feel exhausted after that?" She asked.

She made a very good point. The last time he had to heal anyone, he needed weeks of rest before he could do it again.

"I don't feel tired at all." He said to himself, realizing how strange that was. "Could it have something to do with..?"

He remembered the person he met after his family had died. He wondered if perhaps having all of his magic available was somehow responsible, but wasn't sure.

"Something to do with what?" Shion asked seriously, raising her voice slightly.

"After I found out about my family...I met someone." He said quietly.

"In your head?" She asked.

"Yes." He replied.

"Who was it?" She asked.

"They were very vague." He replied. "He referred to himself as a human who was in a situation like mine."

"What did he want?" She asked.

"He unlocked the rest of my power, but said he'd borrow it as well." Saito replied, remembering his conversation. "He also said he gave me some gift."

"Gift? Do you know what it is?" She asked, not liking such vague language.

He thought about what it could possibly be. He tried to think of anything beneficial that had happened to him since then.

"Not at all." He said.

"Did anything strange happen to you since then?" She asked.

"Well, I occasionally have these really bad headaches." He said. "When I open my eyes...I see other things. Places I don't recognize. It's like I'm looking through someone else's eyes."

"What did you see?" She asked.

Before he could respond, Alex suddenly woke up. His long hair was matted on the side of his head he slept on.

It took him a while to realize that there were other people in the room. When he realized, Shion was awake, he became wide awake and immediately started checking if she was okay.

"I'm fine, Alex." She said.

"Are you sure?" He asked, patting the soft fur like feathers on her wings.

"Absolutely." She replied. "Mother and Saito healed me, so I'm all better."

"What a relief." Alex sighed. "Thanks Saito."

"Again, you don't have to thank me." Saito replied. "I'm happy to help."

"So what were you two talking about?" Alex asked.

"Nothing useful." Saito said as he walked out of the room. "I'm going to go look for Louise."

Alex knew immediately that Saito was lying. He could tell from the look Shion's face. Besides that, she tended to not speak about things that were unimportant. Especially during such a serious time.

When Saito was gone, he turned to Shion. She already knew what he was going to ask.

"Saito told me a few interesting things." She said in her low voice. "He spoke with...an entity. He was rather vague, but we need to be careful."

"Is it important enough to report to my Mother or Sasha?" He asked.

"It very well may be." She replied as she spread her massive wings behind her back to stretch them. "Everyone has lost someone, but Saito has just felt the pain of losing his kids. Now isn't the time to confront him."

"He doesn't seem as affected by it compared to when he found about his Japanese family..." Alex said, remembering the feeling that radiated from Saito on that day.

He remembered being afraid of something for the first time when he saw Saito's reaction to his family's death.

"Both he and Louise probably recognize that showing excessive depression won't help us right now." She replied. "I can't imagine what they're going through."

A silence fell on the room as they thought about the grief their friends had to be feeling.

"How do you feel?" Alex asked her, trying to lighten the mood.

"I'm not in pain." She said as she moved all of her joints. "Just a little stiff."

"I'm really proud of you." He said as he stroked her soft feathers. "You're really strong."

"That man was stronger than me." She replied, rather embarrassed.

"Well, you're alive and he's not, so I beg to differ." He replied, kissing her cheek. "How did you beat him?"

"His powers all involved light." She replied, letting her wings shrink behind her. "At first, he tried to use illusions to confuse me, but light has no weight, so I figured out how to expose the real him. He then used light to create a beam like a magnifying glass. I used my feathers to reflect the light until I was close enough to dispatch him."

"That must have hurt." He replied, feeling quite sorry for her.

"It did, but I had to do it, so it was worth it." She replied.

"You really are a genius." He said, giving her a hug. "But I'm never letting you fight alone again."

"That's impractical, Alex." She replied, although she enjoyed the hug.

"Then I'll be impractical." He said.

He gave her a long kiss, which she gladly accepted. Although she wasn't going to admit, she was terrified of the thought of dying during her fight, so she enjoyed every second of being with him.

Meanwhile, Saito walked through the palace looking for Louise. Eventually, he turned on his eyes to look more easily.

He soon found her sitting on the palace roof, starting up at the sky. He slowly walked behind her, then stood next to her without saying anything.

"Are they safe?" She suddenly said.

"I hope so..." Saito replied. "Those two dragons wouldn't let anything happen to them."

"But Soren and Tempus are gone too." She said. "What if they couldn't protect them?"

"I trust them." Saito replied as he looked across the landscape. "Don't worry."

"They're my children. How can I not be worried?" She said.

"They'll be fine. Trust me." He said.

"How can you be taking this so well?!" She exclaimed, looking up at him.

But when she saw him, she took back her words. She could see easily that he was very agitated.

His fists were clenched, he was gritting his teeth, his tail wagged from side to side in an irritated manner, and she could feel the heat coming off of him.

Realizing how hard he was taking it, she slowly held his hand. It seemed to calm him down a little.

She had him sit with her and leaned her head on his shoulder as they both stared at the garden of their palace.

"Of course I'm worried about them, Louise." He said. "I'm really broken inside. You're the only one I have left. But I can't let my grief show right now. We have to fight. Looking sad isn't going to help us."

"I'm sorry." She said, feeling bad for shouting at him.

"It's okay." He replied. "You're their mother, so I can't imagine how hard this is for you."

They sat in silence for about an hour, thinking about what they should do to find their kids.

They were interrupted when Alex climbed onto the roof.

"Guys, Wales and Henrietta are downstairs." He said. "They say we leaders need to talk. It's important."

"What now?" Saito sighed.

He picked up Louise in his arms and jumped off the roof. He then set her down and they walked back into the house.

Inside, they saw Henrietta and Wales sitting, rather uncomfortably, with Sasha, Alex, and Mariel.

"Hello you two." Henrietta said. "How are you?"

"Could be better." Saito replied as he sat down. "What did you want to talk to us about?"

"Before that, I'd rather everyone is here." Wales said. "Where is Shion?"

"She was recently badly injured in...an accident." Alex said. "Saito just finished healing her, so she's still a little shaky."

As if on cue, Shion then walked down the stairs rather slowly. As she sat down, Wales and Henrietta caught a glimpse of the four wings tucked behind her back.

They at first thought that they were seeing things, but then saw the feathered appendages twitch slightly as Alex rubbed them.

"Hello." Shion said quietly.

"H-Hello." Wales said. "How long have you had...nevermind."

"What did you want to talk to us about?" Louise asked.

Henrietta could see that Louise lacked the glow and vibrance she usually had. She seemed downcast, even if her face wore a smile.

"We want to talk about this enemy you've been fighting." Wales said.

"What do you mean?" Saito asked.

"We are well aware that you're fighting someone." Wales said. "Ever since the last time we saw you, I've been wondering who could have been strong enough to hurt you."

"Yes. If there someone strong enough to defeat all of you at the same time, we would like to who exactly it is and what we're up against." Henrietta said. "Especially if this elf is, as she introduced herself as, the very first Gandalfr."

"We were skeptical of our suspicions, but then a few days ago, we got a few reports." Wales said. "Firstly, some of your friends from the Academy said you passed through looking quite distressed. Secondly, we suddenly lost contact with Empress Augusta. Lastly, we received a report from a farmer who said he witnessed a battle between two angels."

He looked at Shion as he said this, observing the four silver feathered wings behind her back.

"One who controls light and another who creates a dark, evil looking...being." He said. "My point here is that if Augusta somehow disappeared, we could be next. And more importantly, we think you have answers."

Everyone was silent for a few moments, but Sasha finally decided to answer the two leaders.

"You are correct." She said. "We have fought...many enemies recently. Would you like me to describe them?"

"Yes, please, ma'am." Henrietta said.

"You may call me Sasha, little girl." She said. "The first enemy we fought, the one who injured us when you saw us, was the void mage Brimir."

Henrietta and Wales' mouths dropped from shock. They didn't know what to say, so Sasha continued.

"We have yet to defeat him." She said. "The next enemy we fought was my sister's husband, Maximilien de la Foret."

"I know that name." Wales said. "I saw it once or twice in history books."

"He was a human who tried to bring humans and elves closer together around 400 years ago." Sasha said. "We managed to bring him out of his...trance. He is an ally now."

"How are Brimir and Maximilien even alive?" Wales asked.

"I'll get to that." Sasha said. "It's an enemy even more ancient than myself. After our battle with Maximilien, we went to Saito's world. It was in a disastrous state."

"Humans are at war in your world, Saito?" Henrietta asked.

"No. The Cataclysm Lífþrasir was sealed under a sea in my world." He said. "She was put under our enemy's control and devastated my world. I believe they were after our weapons. We had to fight Lifrasir. We won...at the cost of the life of one of our friends."

"When we came back here, Saito, Louise, Alex, and myself went to Germania to examine an ancient tomb underneath Vindobona." Shion said quietly, quickly shifting the subject away from Aigle's death. "It was there that we encountered the one called Lucifer. I was forced to fight him alone, which is probably what that farmer saw."

"Lucifer? I've never heard of anyone with that name." Henrietta said.

"He is an ancient prince of my race. A race humanity nearly made extinct." Shion said. "More importantly at the moment, he was revived by a man called Eztli."

"Eztli? Who is that? A King in Halkeginia?" Wales asked.

"He was an ancient king from a land that lies across a great ocean to the West." Mariel said. "He harnessed the power of the gods Soren and Tempus to rule the land in a vile way. The gods created the Cataclysms Gandalfr, Lífþrasir, Mjoðvitnir, and Vindalfir to destroy him and that land. But he somehow survived."

"As far as we know, he resides in Germania right now." Saito said. "It seems like he's repairing his body, from what we saw."

"Soren and Tempus? The myths?" Henrietta asked.

"Not myths. Remember our dragon? That was Soren apparently." Louise said. "The problem right now is that they've disappeared. The people in Germania could be in danger, but there's nothing we can do. We have to wait for the enemy to show themselves."

At this moment, Saito's ears picked up the sound of a horse and carriage coming towards the palace.

He looked out of a window and saw a white carriage quickly making its way towards the front door.

When it stopped, Osmond, Colbert, and Kirche quickly ran to the front door. Saito opened it, but didn't even have the chance to say hello before Osmond started talking.

"I apologize for bothering you, but we have some troubling news." He said. "Our soldiers who occupied Germania after the war...some of them returned to Tristain. They said that there has been...a massacre in Germania."

"What?! What happened?!" Saito asked.

"They said the day was going normally, but...creatures seemed to appear from nowhere." Kirche said. "They said some of them looked human, others looked like elves and other races they've never seen. They shared in common one thing. They all looked like they were rotting. Like they were dead."

"That's the same thing that woman said." Sasha thought to herself, remembering what she was told when she went back to her kingdom after Brimir's attack.

"That's not all." Colbert said. "They're making their way across the Germanian borders. We've already deployed our militaries to counter them, but a few of them are exceptionally powerful. One in particular is...monstrous."

As soon as he said this, Saito fell to the ground. His head felt a sharp pain. Just like the last time this happened, when he opened his eyes, he saw through eyes that were not his own.

He saw an army in front of him, but they were all killed by a several beams of light coming from "his" hand.

They were all then picked up by flying creatures, deceased Anioły, and carried away.

His headache then went away and his normal vision returned to him. He was sweating and hyperventilating, but soon returned to normal.

"What did you see, Saito?" Shion asked.

"See?" Sasha asked.

"Yes. Ever since his family died, this has been happening to him." She said. "When it does, he sees through another's eyes."

"And you didn't tell us, Saito?" Sasha sighed. "It doesn't matter now. What did you see?"

"I saw someone fighting an army." He said. "It was one sided. He killed them all with some kind of white light, then those dead Anioły carried them away."

"Were you able to tell where it was happening?" Mariel asked.

"Not really." He replied.

"We need to go and fight." Sasha said.

"You're still unstable from what happened to Aigle." Mariel said.

"The pain from her loss gives me the strength to fight." She replied. "I'm going to fight. I have to fight. Going to the battlefield may be the only chance we have to put down some of the strongest enemies we have."

Mariel was silent for a few moments, but finally conceded.

"Very well. But if I see that you're off, I'll stop you from fighting." She said.

"Very well, elder sister." Sasha said. "Does everyone have the energy to fight?"

"I think we're all ready." Saito said. "Wales, Henrietta, Kirche, Colbert, Osmond. You guys stay here."

"We can fight too, you know." Kirche said.

"The enemies we're facing aren't human. They're out of your league." Shion said. "You're weak compared to them."

"Harsh, as always." Alex sighed as he put on his boots. "Will you be able to fight, Shion?"

"By the time we arrive to the battle, my body will be back to normal." She replied, also putting her gear. "I won't be able to fly with these feathers, but the surface area of my wings should still allow me to maneuver in mid air."

She stretched her wings behind her, allowing Wales, Henrietta, Colbert, Osmond, and Kirche to say how massive they really were.

Kirche looked scared, Wales and Henrietta just looked shocked, while Colbert and Osmond looked like they wanted to study them.

They then shrunk back behind her back as she got ready to leave.

Saito pulled Derf from his scabbard. He had been silent for a very long time, so Saito wanted to hear what he had to say.

"Derf, we're going to fight again." Saito said.

"Is that so?" He replied, sounding sleepy. "Against who."

"We don't know yet." Saito replied. "It could be anyone."

"Well, wake me up when we get there." The sword replied. "If you're going to die for a fourth time, I wanna see it."

"Great sense of humor, as ways." Saito said as he walked out of the door with his friends.

Louise bid farewell to Henrietta, then quickly caught up with Saito. She looked at his face to see how he was feeling.

He seemed to be in a better mood after Derf's joke. However, what Derf said stayed in his head, even if it was just a joke.

He had an awful feeling about the upcoming battle. Like Derf's joke wasn't really a joke, but an ominous prophecy.