Chapter 8: Rayfalke Spirit

After the squire's pact was made Sergei went to Boris to tell him about finding a seraph and asked him to cover for him for a few days. Boris happily agreed. However Edna still felt that something was off about Boris. The three, or rather two as Edna hung out in Rose's body most of the time, gathered supplies and headed out of Lady Lake. About a day and a half later they went to a rainy Falkewin hillside with a raging river quickly breaking down the bridge that was the only thing connecting Lady Lake and Marlind.

"Oh god … this normally doesn't happen when it rains." Said Sergei.

"What does happen then?" Rose asked.

"Well minus the flood from a few years ago the yearly rains normally end up raising the water level a bit and the river does pick up but with this … this is similar to the flood we got but the current is far more violent than it was then." Said Sergei. Edna walked close to the bank.

"He's right, there's nothing's right about this." She said. Just as she said that a large black snake sprung out of the water, but it looked like a water spout to Sergei. Edna jumped back then sprinted.

"What the Edna?!" Rose shouted.

"Run!" She shouted back.

"Sergei! We need to go!" Rose shouted running off, Sergei followed with his armor making a lot of noise. When they got far enough from the river, which was half way to Rayfalke the three rested to catch their breaths. "Edna, what was that, and why did we run?"

"What was that?" Sergei repeated.

"That was an Oroboros, a really damn strong hellion." Said Edna. "You can't use some of my powers yet so there's no way you can take that on."

"…Thanks." Said Rose. She then turned to Sergei. "That was a strong hellion."

"Okay, so Falkewin is out of the question, now we have to look for one at Rayfalke and hope we don't run into a dragon." Said Sergei.

"Haven't been there in a while but I doubt there's one unless the rumors are true that there were two seraphs living on that mountain and one of them did in fact turn into a dragon." Said Edna.

"All right, to Rayfalke." Said Rose. The trio, or rather, Sergei and Rose with Edna in Rose's body hiked up to Rayfalke. When they got there they started up the trail to the summit. The three ran into some hellions but were able to purify them without any trouble, then they ran into a wall of ice. "Well shit how are we supposed to get past this?" Said Rose with her arms crossed. Edna came out of her body.

"You should try using my powers." Said Edna.

"Your powers?" Rose said.

"What are you two going on about and why am I locked out of the loop again?" Said Sergei.

"Too much of a hassle." Rose and Edna said simultaneously.

"Anyway Edna said that her powers should help me knock down this hunk of ice." Said Rose.

"Well then, what are you waiting for, just do it." Said Sergei.

"All right." Sighed Rose. "Just punch it right?" Edna went back into her body.

"Yes, but don't break your hand." She said. Rose shook out her arm and clenched her fist. She lunged forward and punched the ice wall at full force causing it to shatter. Sergei's mouth dropped.

"So that's what a shepherd can do." He muttered under his breath.

"You coming?" Rose asked. Sergei shrugged and followed her. They continued up the mountain running into more ice walls and with Rose breaking them as they went. But as they got higher Rose felt that same pressure in her chest that she felt in Lady Lake. The number of hellions also increased as they went up. "There's something pretty malevolent here." She said.

"Yeah." Said Edna.

"I'm guessing we should try to find this seraph quickly." Said Segei.

"Yeah." Said Rose. They continued as it got noticeably colder. They passed it off as simply them climbing to higher elevations until they saw a humanoid figure on the path ahead in front of another ice wall. As they got closer to the figure they saw that it was neither human nor seraph, its flesh was withered with pieces peeling off the bone, its whole face but the lower jaw was nothing but bone and even the flesh there was starting to flake off. It had on a robe that covered the majority of its arms but only went down to its knees with nothing protecting the exposed wrinkled legs and feet from the elements. It stood there holding a staff, and judging the amount of malevolence the figure was emitting, it was a hellion.

"Turn … back…" The figure warned in a raspy whispery voice with puffs coming out of its mouth as if it was snowing before coughing. "Go … away …" It said. Edna came out of Rose's body.

"Edna, this hellion used to be human right?" She asked only familiar with the fox man and what Lafarga had said about talking hellions.

"No. That's a Lich, unless a human went really crazy with seraphic artes this was a seraph." Said Edna. "And from the looks of it this is a pretty young lich."

"Should we turn back?" Rose asked.

"Leave …" The lich coughed.

"No. This is our best option, hellionization for it likely happened within the last two months judging by its state. If it still has plenty of flesh on it and can still speak it means that the lich is pretty weak." Said Edna.

"Good enough for me." Said Rose drawing her knives, "Sergei! Let's go!"

"All right." Said Sergei drawing his sword all the while squinting at what he perceives to be a cloud of dust. The lich coughed again.

"Leave!" It hissed blasting ice at the party. Rose jumped back while Edna opened her umbrella effectively blocking the attack. Sergei ran at the hellion and tried to slash it but the lich ducked out of the way. While focusing on avoiding Sergei it didn't notice Rose and Edna to the side and behind it, respectively. Rose threw a dagger at it causing the hellion to lurch back which put it the perfect position to be whacked by a spinning Edna holding out her open umbrella. That in turn knocked it to a place where it can be struck by Sergei's sword as Rose slid past it and grabbed her dagger. Edna went for another strike. The Lich noticed this and put up an ice dome around itself. Rose sheathed her daggers and tried to use her shepherd's powers to break the barrier but spikes grew out of it nearly stabbing Rose's hand causing her to withdraw.

"God dammit." She muttered to herself.

"Rose, so you remember the thing we did with Dezel?" Edna asked with an orange light glowing around her. Rose's eyes lit up and then she smirked.

"Oh I get it." Said Rose.

"Get what?" Said Sergei squinting trying to see Edna and the hellion with no success.

"Rock lance!" Edna shouted, Rose heard a dull 'thunk' from inside the dome. She ran forward and punched the ice barrier completely shattering it. The lich fell to the ground when the spire that pinned it to the top of its own barrier returned to the earth. Unfortunately the lich wasn't knocked out like every other hellion before being purified, it instead got up.

"Stubborn thing." Edna growled. "I thought that would work."

"Boy it's a lot tougher than it looks." Said Rose. "Sure would be helpful if Dezel were to show up about now." Unfortunately no such help came. So Rose and Sergei charged at the lich from opposite directions but the lich jumped out of the way causing their blades to collide.

"This should knock you down…" Said Enda. "Air pressure!" and a force pushed the lich to the ground, doing the exact opposite of Dezel's geostigma spell. However when the spell faded it got back on its feet. "You little … you are becoming more frustrating the longer we fight you, you know that?"

"Cleaver!" Rose shouted swinging a dagger at it but it summoned a small ice wall blocking the attack but Sergei got to its side.

"Beast!" He shouted releasing a pulse of energy from his hand that gave off a sound similar to a lion's roar. The attack slammed the lich into the ice wall then Rose went around the wall and started stabbing the hellion. The hellion slammed its staff down.

"To … my … side …!" It hissed. The ice that covered the area, formed into small blue winged creatures.

"Oh come on!" Edna shouted in frustration.

"What did it do now?" Rose asked as the ice sprite things ran into her repeatedly. "Ow ow ow ow!" She cried as she ran behind Sergei who had his face and eyes covered with his arms where the ice sprites slammed into him turning into little ice bits from the impact. Edna threw up a stone wall and got behind it.

"It summoned ice feys, they're just fancy tiny projectiles that are just annoying." Said Edna.

"Die!" The Lich hissed slamming its staff down again but instead of ice feys the air around them got suddenly colder and snow started blowing at them. Rose felt a painful chill coming from her feet she looked down and saw ice starting to encase her along with everyone else.

"I thought you said this thing was weak!" Rose shouted.

"Normally." Said Edna.

"The hell does that mean?" Rose shouted.

"Well usually a Lich this young should've been purified by now after the beating we gave it. This one is just stubborn as hell." Edna explained. As time passes it became colder and the ice slowly crawled up their bodies. "Rose. Remember my true name?"

"Yeah?"

"Try to use it." Said Edna. "Just trust me on this." Rose fell silent for a moment.

"R-R-Rose?" Sergei shivered.

"Hephsin Yulind!" Rose shouted. Edna went back into Rose's body her she then started glowing. "What the?!" She then felt the sensation of being encrusted with earth then it peeled off leaving Rose with long golden hair tied to the side and in a white outfit that looked similar to Edna's but was sleeveless and showed off her back, it had more ribbon and had flower decorations on her hips as well as around the ankles on the rather heavy boots. To Sergei it did not look any different. "What the …" Said Rose looking at her hands with a pair of giant rock fists at her sides mirroring her movements. "What is this?"

"This is the armatus." She heard Edna say. "It is basically a fusion between the shepherd and a seraph using that sacred gauntlet as a weapon."

"Cool. Let's kick some ass!" Said Rose clenching her fists with the hovering fists doing the same. She rushed forward at the Lich. It clenched its teeth and threw up an ice wall. Rose however destroyed it with one punch causing the lich to try to back away. She then punched the Lich square in the jaw sending it flying straight into a boulder causing it to crack. It then slumped down and didn't get back up. "Aw yeah we did it!" Rose cheered. "How does this come off?"

"You should be able to do it at will." Said Edna.

"Okay, but its not coming off, and all I'm thinking is 'get off.'" Said Rose.

"You're kidding right?" Said Edna. Rose then glowed reverting back to normal and Edna appeared beside her. "Oh there it goes."

"So … for now I have to wait until it comes off."

"Yeah don't mind me, not like I know what you two are talking about. Though I'm sure whatever you had on was fabulous." Said Sergei. The form of the hellion faded into that of a white haired boy with blue tips dressed in primarily whites and blues with accents of gold and black.

Well since Edna is the prime lord here I wouldn't think that her armatus would look like the armatus Rose had in the original game where Lailah is the prime lord. Thus a different armatus design.