Chapter 7: The Battle at Aurnion

City of Hope Aurnion (12:10PM)

Flynn was jumping from side to side, avoiding the attacks of the two monsters. Apparently not all of the monsters covered in red aer used one element as demonstrated by the two aer covered monsters in front of them.

One of the monsters in front of them had two devil like wings and had 4 horns. The monster looked a lot like Belius, but a lot more intimidating as the eyes were bloodshot red. The monster also used lightning elemental, and dark based attacks. Avoiding the Bloody Howls of the monster while keeping attention to the other monsters, and avoiding them from getting closer to Yuri and the town, was no easier said than done.

The other monster looked similar to the other monster except its eyes was color green and had no horns. It had many thorns in its side making physical combat as dangerous as avoiding each attack of the said monster. Despite this physical element of the monster, it was hard to approach it physically as the fact that it uses wind element in conjunction with the red aer to keep physical attacks from coming any closer.

Avoiding each attack was becoming a problem as they can't go into the offensive. The only spells that Rita can do at the moment, was Fire Ball, and Stone Blast. Not much help as they can barely stay at one place without being aimed at by the two monsters.

The monsters seemed to attack in perfect unison as they avoided attacking one target at a time, but rather attacked those that had the most chances of penetrating there red aer. Judith couldn't do the same tactics that she did in the previous monster they fought. The previous one had many wounds and was already weakened to the point that her attempt to pierce the barrier actually worked.

Estelle was staying by Yuri's side getting her shield ready to guard any attacks coming there direction. Yuri was initially against this, but she proved adamant and told him to focus on getting his power ready. Luckily, Flynn was diverting much of the attention of the enemy by creating a powerful Demon Fang enough to graze the barrier, startling the monsters over the power. Raven on the other hand, focused on healing everyone else with his arrow, not much he could do since his arrows proved to be useless against such a barrier.

A bright light then appeared at where Yuri was standing. He was covered by a huge amount of light and his sword was beginning to form to a feather blade. This show of skill attracted the monsters attention, making them realize that the man who was covered with light was the target of their master.

"That light…" The monster that had red eyes said in a low voice. "It's Yuri Lowell!"

Crap… this is bad. Flynn thought as he dodged a compressed wind attack from the green eyed monster. As Flynn looked over to Yuri's position, he was still focused and didn't seem to mind that the monsters have now recognized he was the bigger threat out of all the people fighting.

For the first time in the whole attempt to act as a diversion, the two monsters aimed at one target, Yuri. Estelle however placed herself in front of Yuri to shield him.

"Estelle!"

"Lady Estelle!"

A loud explosion was heard as the fire and wind attack of the two monster converged and created a huge fiery explosion.

Am I dead? Was the first question that came to Estelle's mind. She clearly didn't feel anything, so she pretty much thought that she was probably hit way too hard for the pain to be absent. As she opened her eyes, to her shock, she was surrounded by a white light. Yuri was in front of her, the light radiating from his body, signifying that he was the one that blocked the attack..

"Are you ok Estelle?" Yuri asked without facing her, instead facing the monsters before him.

"Umm… Yeah." Estelle replied. She was wondering as to how Yuri shielded the attack, but decided to hold out the questions until after the enemies were defeated.

"Ok then, time to begin…" Yuri said quietly to himself.

As Yuri said those words, the magic circle below him lit up much brighter, infusing his Vesperia No.2 with more energy. Yuri then raises the sword above him, the sword continued to lit up brighter and brighter, growing in size. The size was big, but it was no where near the height of the original feather blade.

"That light!" The monsters stopped in their tracks there face was replace with that of horror.

"Is that… Yuri's?" Karol has also stopped in his tracks and looked at the source of light.

Yuri then grabs hold of the sword with both hands, the circle below him dimming but was still clear as day to those who looked at his direction. With slight difficulty he then began to slam the sword down at the monsters before him. The monsters were too stunned to move from there current position, apparently the white blade that Yuri was now wielding was now sucking the monsters of there aer leaving them completely defenseless and without energy.

"Heaven's Soaring Light Blade!"

The white feather blade slammed down at the monsters, the onlookers was temporarily blinded by what followed after: a bright light that covered the whole field. Once the dust cleared and the light dimmed, the only remains of the monsters that fell prey to the feather blade were 2 fragments.

Karol, who covered his eyes to protect it from the light looked around and found the remains of the monsters. "It's over?"

Raven and Rita approached the fragments and to their surprise, it was the only remains of the monsters just like the previous monster they defeated – they leave fragments when they're defeated.

"Yuri defeated it with only one swing?" Raven asked to nobody in particular. He was still somewhat shocked at the power display of Yuri; he'd never thought that the young man was hiding something this powerful.

Flynn, Judith and Repede headed to the direction of Yuri, they were wondering what happened then but was shocked to find that Yuri had already collapsed, beside him a broken Vesperia No.2. Estelle was frantically trying to wake Yuri up.

"Yuri!" Estelle was shaking Yuri, hoping that he wasn't dead or injured.

"Ugh…" Yuri stirred. Once he gathered his wits, he sat himself up. "They're gone now right?"

Though Yuri asked a question, it seemed to be more of confirmation. Judging by his tone, it seemed he was confident that his action has indeed defeated two of the monsters.

"Yeah." Flynn answered he then crouches down and helped his friend up. "We'll take you to an Inn here, there's something I still need to ask you."

City of Hope Aurnion: Inn (12:50PM)

"Did you find the star fragment?" Yuri asked as he was supported by Flynn towards the Inn, where Repede, Judith, Karol, Raven, Rita and Estelle followed.

"Apparently, there were 3 monsters that originally came here." Flynn said as he sat Yuri down to one of the beds in the Inn room. "The one that had the star fragment, already left before we even got here."

"Damn…" Yuri muttered.

Rita decided to ask a question she was meaning to ask but didn't find the chance before hand, "What exactly are these fragments? We already know it has something to do about reviving this ancient monster, but these fragments in itself has they're own power don't they?"

Yuri would have been surprised at what Rita had just said, but of course this was the genius researcher Rita Mordio. Yuri then sighed and looked at Rita at the eye, to make sure that whatever he's saying is the truth.

"Yeah, they have a power on there own." Yuri said without breaking eye contact. "There are 5 fragments, Life, Decay, Power, Drain and Hope. Life has the ability to create any creature so long as the user sacrifice something of importance, or they replace the payment with something like a huge amount of aer or mana. Decay has the ability to destroy anything that comes into contact with the energy it radiates, again a huge amount of aer or mana is required for it to work. Power has the ability to bestow anyone that uses it with great amount of power physically and magically, but is utterly useless without Drain. Drain has the power to efficiently drain the mana or aer around a given area. Drain is so efficient that with it, the user can effectively use all the previous fragments."

"So judging by what's been happening lately…" Karol said as he came unto a conclusion, "We can safely say that this enemy of ours has Life and Drain… so what's the last fragment?"

"The last fragment is Hope." Yuri said now facing everyone. "Hope is the final key to reviving the ancient monster. In itself it's believe to be useless."

"How do you know all of this Yuri?" Flynn asked. He was skeptical as to how Yuri would know something like this, seeing as he didn't have an interest in ancient structure even when he was traveling with the group.

"Well I'd have to do some research beforehand if I planned on going after a guy alone don't I?" Yuri said with a smile. With his poker face it was hard to tell if he was lying. Judith apparently can see through it.

"Yuri, you first said the reason of your disappearance was because you were being followed by monsters." Judith said as he looked Yuri at the eye just to see even a moment of hesitation indicating that he's lying, "But now you're saying that you left to go after the mastermind of all this, now which is the truth?"

All the eyes were at Yuri now, he mentally hit himself for letting his mouth slip and making them more skeptical than they originally were.

Sigh… I guess she's the only one that can see through me. Yuri then looks at the anxious crowd in front of him and began to speak. "Originally, I found myself being followed by a type of monster that had red aer covering there bodies. As soon as I confirmed that they were following me, I asked for a week break and I decided to track where the monsters were coming from. They lead me to Shizontania."

Yuri then started rubbing Repede's back as he continued explaining what happened during his absence. "I took a stop at a town nearby, and there I met Hisca and Chastel. After meeting up with them, I headed to the Shizontania ruins. That guy…"

Yuri paused as he clenches his fist in anger. "That guy was using the remains of the failed blastia research a few years ago; there I found out that he was the one funding Garista's research. He took a part in causing the death of Lambert, Captain and the loss of the Barrier Blastia of Shizontania."

Yuri then unclenches his fist and looks up to the ceiling and continued, "I've made it my objective to make that guy pay, so of course I was hesitant on involving you guys in this. Cause technically it seems more of a personal problem for me."

"That doesn't matter Yuri!" Karol exclaimed to the injured man. "We're your friends! Even if it's like that we'll help you! That's what friends are for right?"

Yuri can't help but smile at the young guild master's sudden response.

"What?" Karol said as he noticed that Yuri smiled. "Did I say something funny?"

"Nah…" Yuri said as he looks at Karol. "You've really grown into a reliable guild master Karol."

"Uh… Thanks." Karol blushed at the compliment.

"Anyway, what are we going to call these monsters?" Rita asked, these monsters' lacking a name was surely something that has been bothering the party.

Just before Karol could give out his idea, Rita cut him off. "Don't even think of naming these monsters Karol."

Karol then frowned and closed his mouth.

"Well judging by how these monsters are made, we can call them the Remnants." Estelle answered.

"Why Remnants?" Raven asked, the name was good and all, but he wasn't quite sure why the monsters should be called Remnants.

"It's because they use aer around us to take a form, in a way they're using the remnant aer to take a physical form." Yuri explained.

"Ok we've got those things settled, so what's our next destination?" Karol asked. "I mean those guys already have Drain, Life and the fragment that was found here."

"According to the writings on the wall in the Desert in the Ruins," Rita said as she thinks back to the events that occurred in the ruins. "One of the fragments is found…"

"Deep Underwater." Yuri finished for Rita

Author's Notes

As I've mentioned before hand, this chapter is late by at least a few days. Updating weekly is now difficult since I now have school.

The next chapter won't be an actual chapter that affects the plot in anyway, but an interlude revealing the thoughts of one character throughout the events that has happened. I would periodically do this and hopefully have an interlude for all the characters before I end this story. Though the interlude doesn't affect the plot in any major way, it would sometimes have explanations for several plot points, if I haven't given enough information or for a simplification of what I've pointed out thus far.

I'll be revising accordingly if I find something wrong. If you find anything confusing (like if it's written badly), or its giving the wrong information, please inform me and I'll try to make the corrections accordingly.

Due to internet restrictions during school days, I'll be updating my fan fiction at Friday, Saturday or Sunday. The frequency of my updates would now normally be 1-2 weeks. An update will be considered late if I don't update during the period.

Reviews and constructive criticism is highly appreciated. Due to school, reviews would be like a fuel that keeps me, the writer, writing!