Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia or any of it characters.

Path of Ascension

Chapter 4

Scene: Elf Village the next morning.

Cracking one soft brown eye Lloyd awoke to find the village elder standing next to his bed. "Is it morning already?", he groaned. He watched with his one open eye as his host nodded and motioned for him to follow. He shook off the desire for additional sleep and quickly pursued the older man. When he arrived in the livingroom he found the shop keeper from yesterday sitting on a blue couch next a thick, wrapped package.

The shop keep smiled at Lloyd and stood up. She walked up to him and bowed her head as she apologized, "I'm sincerely sorry about what happened yesterday. I didn't mean to get you hurt so badly." The young business woman looked down at the young man's injuries and noticed something strange. She directed a commanding look at Lloyd's face and told him, "Sit down for a second." After the teen complied with her demand she removed part of the bandage across his stomach and found that the nasty flesh wounds he had been sporting yesterday were completely healed leaving not a scar. "How did...?", she questioned.

The brown haired teen looked at the exposed flesh and was equally suprised that there were no wounds or even dried blood on him. He spoke quietly without really intending to, "What's happening to me!"

The Elder who had been watching the confused guest asked, "What's wrong? Isn't this normal...", he paused as he looked the boy over one good time and then finished, "whatever you are?" He was suprised when the strange visitor shook his head and put one the front pair of hands on the back of his head.

"No...I am...was...human. Now I'm not sure what I am." he informed the elf. Lloyd was really beginning to feel uncomfortable as he was forced to think about his extra appendages once more. True he had had to deal with them during the night, but for the most part he'd been able to keep his mind off of them. The young swordsman sighed before he began his tale. He told the two elves about his life as a normal human, The Journey of Regeneration, his friends, and his painful transformation. During his story when he named his friends he saw the two elves quickly glance at each other before trying to cover it up when he told them about the traitor, Kratos. "They know something...I just know it.", he thought to himself.

After the four-armed boy finished his story somethings began to become clear to the Elder. He had his suspicion as to why the human now had four arms and knew he must tread lightly if his suspicions were correct. "Perhaps there is a way to help clear up some of what's happened to you." he told the boy.

Immediately following the old man's words the teen pratically jumped at his host, "What! Tell me please!" He was happy that he may finally get some answers, but a little afraid of what it might mean. There was after all the possibility that he was going to be stuck with four arms for the rest of his life, but he certainly hoped that wasn't the case.

The head elf spoke once more expecting such an outburst, "There's a shrine in the Torent Forest. It may hold answers you seek...But beware there could be a truth there you are not prepared for." He was certain the boy would ignore his warning of caution and rush head first into the forest. "Just like his father. I guess somethings are truley hereditary.", he thought.

Before Lloyd could reach the door the shop keeper grabbed him by one of his left arms. "Wait...I worked all night on these for you." she said as she grabbed the package from the couch. She opened it up to reveal two red shirts that only slightly differed from one another.

One shirt he immediately recognized as the one he'd asked to have adjusted and the other he guessed was the extra one the Elder spoke of. The additional shirt had two extra sleeves behind the first pair so he could have all his arms exposed instead of hiding them inside his shirt. His shirt now had the holes sown up and the shoulders had been expanded so that his other arms could be easily hidden inside. Trying on both shirts he found the four-armed to be especially comfortable. The normal looking shirt made it possible to hide his condition as long as he kept his arms wrapped tightly to his body. The swordsman decided to go with the four-armed shirt for now and quickly slipped it back on before he extended his hand to the shop keeper, "Thank you for your generousity. This shirt is just like mine except with extra sleeves, but still...it means a lot. May I know your name?"

She blushed as the boy had almost caught her drooling over the physique she had just seen, then she realized he didn't catch that and for this she was greatful. She remembered his question and replied, "My name is Ayena. Ayena Sahaleen. And you are most welcome." When she said the last part she turned red again thinking that her tone had sounded seductive.

Lloyd thanked the Elder and Ayena for their help before he got serious, "Can either you please give me directions to the shrine?"

Ayena looked away and the older elf looked the young boy right in the eyes. "I'll give you the directions after lunch and then you can go there. Before you say anything...I just want to make sure you have plenty of energy for the forest. It's not a place for the weak to enter." He was glad that his guest agreed, but he knew the kid was dying to get some answers.

In Welgaia Kratos continued to think about the young man he'd killed in the Tower of Salvation. "Something just doesn't make sense...Why did his body just disappear? That's not normal." the angel thought. "Perhaps I can find a way to bring him back..." he said to himself, but quickly shook off that idea remembering what that line of thinking had done to Yggdrasill. The Seraphim left his room to get away from the self made prison and walk amongst humans once more. As he left one last thing crossed him mind, "I destroyed your life...Now I will atone for it. I will put an end to this myself once and for all."

Once the angel used the warp pad another figure teleported in. "I guess I shall have to keep an eye on you after all Kratos. I guess you can never really change a human heart even if you change the body." said the angered being. He would not tolerate another betrayal from this man. "Pronyma don't let him out of your sight.", he ordered.

"Yes...Lord Yggdrasill.", replied the obedient servant.

Lloyd made good time getting to the forest, mostly because he had inhaled his food and quickly thanked the cooks before asking the Elder for the directions once more. The old elf sighed but relented to let the hyper teen have his way for now. Once the swordsman had reached the Torrent Forest he found himself quickly beginning to dislike wearing his new shirt. "Maybe this has something to do with why I have four arms?", he guessed. Shrugging he discarded his shirt and found himself liking having his upper body exposed to the world. The part that bothered him though is that it felt like he's always been like this. He flexed his arm muscles before summoning his two swords and staffs.

The monsters in this forest were unlike any he could remember, but he found that he enjoyed the challenge and somehow knew where their weaknesses were. By the time he had reached the shrine he was covered in the blood of the creatures he'd fought against. "Just great! -Sigh- At the very least I didn't have to worry about getting it on my shirt. A hot bath should fix the rest, but first things first...I need answers." he said to himself as he approached the shrine.

Once the teen reached the shrine a bright golden light blinded him. When the light receeded in front of the boy was a blonde man with cold, blue eyes. What caught the boy's attention was the fact the man had four arms just like him. "Who...who are you?", he managed to say with as much diginity as he could muster facing such an imposing being. Sure he had no idea who or what this was, but whatever the man was he had a tremendously powerful aura about him.

The blonde continued to stare at the young one in front of him as he folded his front arms and lowered his rear arms to his sides. He waited until the boy realized that he wasn't there in flesh but a small portion of his spirit alone. Then he spoke, "I am Origin. And we have much to discuss young Lloyd Irvine."

To say the least Lloyd was shocked that this being knew his name, but the way he said it made the swordsman believe he's known it a lot longer than a few days. It was then he looked the being over while he tried to gather the courage to speak. Besides the blue eyes and blonde hair he found the 'ghost' had gold colored armor floating above both shoulders. The armor looked kinda like huge claws providing protection for both shoulders. He also had many of some kind of thin, yellow protrusions extending from his back pointing towards the ground. Origin's legs were covered by some thick purple armor that Lloyd could tell was composed of mana and hovering around his body appeared to be a number of sharp arrows forming a circle around his body. Lloyd thought these reminded him a lot of a compass without the letters.

By this time the usually brave began to feel his courage return almost like an outside force was restoring it. He took a deep breath and asked, "What things?"

With that Origin allowed a brief smile to show on his face before he quickly covered it up. "Let's start with your current situation...", he began.