Chapter 4! Battle: Liger Queen!

About the Tree Golem, let's see what happened after it!

Oh and I might want to say this now: I used the Canadian way of spelling. So if you're more familiar with US or something like that, sorry.

Also, this was edited and betaed by my lovely and new beta: Mieu. Thank god for editors/betas… Even though a few of them are oni…

Disclaimer: I don't own ToA.

Battle: Liger Queen

The four of us stood and panted once we crossed a river via a tree bridge. Luke had his sword stuck in the ground as he used it for support. Across from him was Tear, who was bending over with both of her hands on her thighs. I was on my knees with Mieu in my arms and with my head thrown back. Ion was standing near me with one hand on his thigh with the other holding his staff. All of us, with the exception of Mieu, were tired from our who-knows-how-long sprint.

When we ran into that gigantic tree monster, we all ran as fast as we could with me in tow. It was mainly because I had Mieu in my arms (and that I was closest person to the monster when we had encountered it) and I was trying to block the path by burning some dead trees along the way. When we reached a dead end, Luke yanked Mieu out of my hands to burn the rotting roots of a tree across the river. The tree fell and we hastily crossed the river.

On a positive side, that tree monster wasn't able to cross the river and so it let us go. On the negative side, there was another one on this side of the river. Luke distracted it by diverting its attention towards him and once its back was on us, he ordered Mieu to breathe fire. Once it was too busy trying to douse the flame out, we ran for our lives across another river this time with Luke in tow.

Never had I ran so much in my life.

Scratch that. I ran for much longer…In Daath.

Luke was the first to recover, he grunted as he wiped the sweat off of his chin. "Dammit. That monster was ridiculous!"

"You said it." I agreed between my panting.

I wanna go home now.

"If you hadn't set that creature on fire, we wouldn't have been chased!" Luke accused, pointing a finger at me. Tear stood in between us.

"She was just trying to help out. You wanted to go beyond the vines so she just did that to help you." Tear countered.

"Oh, so it's my fault?" Luke snapped at Tear.

I watched the two of them helplessly, unable to say anything myself. If I were to interrupt in the heat of the argument, it might cause even more problems than it had before.

Ion straightened his posture before standing on between the two of them. "Please stop. Now is not the time to argue." He pointed towards a hole that leads deeper into the woods. "We found the Liger Queen's liar. So let's think of it as a good sign that we were chased."

Ion was the first to make his way towards the lair. Luke glared at me before he followed Ion's suit. Tear and I soon followed after the two of them, although I was pretty upset over the last incident.

"After we leave. Just wait til after. We. Leave." I told to myself.

"'After we leave'?" Tear repeated.

"Best. Part. Of. My. Day." I answered her through gritted teeth. Tear gave me a confused look and I just gave her a smile. "Think nothing of it."

I quickened my pace so that I was walking next to Ion. I had a large grin on my face just thinking about the end results of this ordeal.

On our way to the den itself, I just noticed that once you experience the game in real life, there were some small aspects missing. For example, the memory circle you usually have just somewhere in the game is gone when we neared the entrance of the liger queen's den. I can assume that there wasn't going to be any memory circles in any inns or dungeons from now on. If my hunch is correct…if the memory circle is gone, then that means the wing bottles are also gone.

Wait…

We have to trek back to the entrance of each dungeon the long way? Oh, for Christ's sake! This blows!

I let out a rather loud groan that caught Ion's attention. "Is something wrong?"

"Eh?" I looked up to face Ion. "A-Ah, nothing really. I was just wondering if a certain two is going to catch up to us."

"You mean Jade and Anise?" Ion asked. He gave me a smile before looking at the path in front of him. "I'm sure they would find us here. After all, you did scream really loudly back there. I wouldn't be surprised if they heard you at that moment."

"I wouldn't be either…" I agreed nervously. I sighed as my shoulders sagged a bit.

It would be better if they never heard it at all…

We entered the den where the liger queen was laying on a large nest of dead grass with three purple eggs with greens spots on them. The liger queen had brown fur around her neck, tail, and paws including her forepaws. The majority of her belly fur was a beige colour; her entire body was covered in brown fur with claw-like slashes of beige fur running vertically across her body. She appeared to have a large pair of green-blue ears. The queen was resting peacefully until she noticed our presence. She immediately stood up and growled a warning at us.

Well…I think it was a warning. All of these monsters go 'growl' or 'screech' as if we, humans, can understand their damned way of speaking…Speak human language so that we all know what you're talking about, damn monsters! Why was it so one-sided? I mean, monsters were able to understand us. The cheagles were proof of that. Monsters were able to understand monsters, and yet, humans were the only ones that were left out of this cycle.

"That must be the queen." Tear noted as she approached us in a threatening way. The queen's silver eyes glowed with malice as she continued to growl at us. She made no move in moving towards us, just warning us about something or something to that effect.

"The queen?" Luke asked.

"Ligers live in packs formed around a giant female," Tear explained as she tightened her grip around her weapon in case there was no way in backing out.

Ion picked up Mieu. "Mieu, please go talk with the liger queen."

Mieu nodded at Ion's instructions. "Yes, sir!" He hopped off of his arms as he approached the queen cautiously. He wasn't too close to the queen, he kept his distance in case she decide to suddenly attack us. "Mieu mieu mieu mieu mieu mieu mieu mieu. Mieuuu mieu…!"

The queen answered Mieu's call with a loud roar that caused the young cheagle to squeal and flee behind Ion. He wasn't the only one hiding behind Ion; I was too. I was quaking in fear just like Mieu; I had one hand on Ion's shoulder as I used him as my shield though it should be the other way around. The queen was HUGE! She's about half the height of the trees around her when standing. Oh god, the claws and fangs were also huge. It was more than enough to cut down an entire town like Engeve. I don't even know how three people managed to defeat something with her stature.

"Hey, runt," Luke snapped at Mieu, who cowered at Luke as well. "What did she say?"

"She says her eggs are just about to hatch so go away." Mieu told Luke what he heard from the queen. Both Tear's and Ion's eyes widened in horror as they both came to the same conclusion. "Her Highness is really mad that I accidently burned their home."

"Eggs?" Luke repeated in shock. "Ligers lay eggs?"

"I was born from an egg, too." Mieu pointed out. "A lot of monsters are born from eggs."

Tear faced the liger queen. "This is bad. Ligers are more violent when they're guarding their eggs."

"So what, do we come back later?" Luke asked, nervously.

Ion shook his head at Luke's suggestion. "But if the liger eggs hatch, the young will likely swarm the village in search of food."

"And they'll attack the people for sure." I cringed at the thought of people being eaten. Flames bursting out of homes as the villagers tried to exterminate the baby ligers, little ligers, about the size of huge cats, pouncing on defenceless villagers, blood spewing out of their necks or from whatever raw wounds the villagers receiving, the sounds of dead people shrills, the wails of young children and women as the sound of raw flesh being ripped out from the dead carcasses…

I turned around and covered my mouth to prevent myself from throwing up as I felt bile rise up my throat. Ugh, horror movies were really bad references when it comes to a discrete image but the images in my mind were basically a replay from horror movies. And even those images made me feel sick.

Luke looked between Tear and Ion in confusion. "Huh?"

"Liger young like human flesh, so people hunt down any near cities before they can reproduce." Tear explained to Luke. Now it was Luke's turn to have his eyes widen in horror.

At least he wasn't thinking of bloody images in his head.

Ion knelt down to Mieu as he patted Mieu's head. "Could you ask them to leave this land?"

Mieu nodded to Ion once before relaying the message to the liger queen. Once again, he received a loud roar from her but this time, it echoed through the trees causing loose branches to fall randomly to the ground. The branches fell to the ground with a loud thud; dirt from the ground flew up into the air causing a small cloud of dust. Tear pulled Ion into a protective embrace; she intended to use herself as a shield for Ion. I covered my head with one arm and covered my eyes with the other as the branches fell near us as well. One of the branches fell just above Mieu, which was quickly sliced in half by Luke as the little cheagle covered his head with his small arms. A small piece of wood fell onto Mieu's forehead causing him to look up to see that Luke had just saved his life. He quickly turned around to face Luke who was standing between Mieu and the Liger queen.

"Th-thank you!" the young cheagle chirped.

Luke huffed as he looked away from Mieu. "Don't get me wrong. I wasn't protecting you, I was protecting Ion."

I raised a brow in confusion when Luke said that. Both Tear and I exchanged glances with each other as we looked at Luke before looking at Ion then back at Luke. If someone were to measure up the distance between Ion and Mieu, they would notice that the distance between them was not close at all. Ion was right next to us while Mieu was a good five feet away from the three of us, the newly sliced up tree branches weren't even remotely close to Ion either. Tear sighed as she gave Luke a slight smile while shaking her head behind Luke's back; I ended up faking a cough quietly to myself.

The liger queen roared once more and Mieu cried out before hiding himself behind Ion. "What is it, Mieu?" Ion asked as he picked up the cheagle. Mieu's ears drooped as he relayed the queen's message to Ion.

"She says she's going to kill us and feed us to her children…"

"So negotiations are over, huh?" Luke asked as he readied his weapon. Tear ran up to join Luke in battle, though she was a few feet away from him. She readied her weapon while I grabbed Ion and pulled him away so that we were a good distance away from the fight. I whipped my bag over my head, dropped it to the ground as I opened it to pull out my rifle. Once it was out of the bag, I quickly loaded it with a bullet from my pocket and grunted at the weight of it as I hoisted it against my shoulder. I closed my left eye and looked through the scope with my right eye.

The battle had already started the moment I looked through my scope. I would have joined the battle since I was at a pretty good distance away from the queen, but knowing my luck, I might accidentally hit Luke or Tear. For now I could only wait for an opening as the battle continues. The liger queen had intended to finish Luke off with one slash, but since he changed weapons from a wooden sword to a cutlass, he deflected the attack. However, due to the force of the attack, he was thrown back against a tree. He hit the tree with a grunt and the liger queen looked like she wasn't about to give him time to recover. She charged right at him the moment he fell down to the ground. Luke had seen the attack coming; however, he was too slow to react. The liger queen was already in front of him with her claws up in the air for a final slash.

From the corner of my eye, through the scope, I saw Tear pulled out her sets of daggers, which were held in a pouch that was strapped onto her right thigh. She quickly threw them at the liger queen's paw, which successfully diverted the queen's attention, but it didn't even graze her. The daggers bounced off of her thick fur like rubber bullets (not fired from a gun nor whipped at a person) hitting human skin. The liger queen paused a second to look at the damage, Luke used this opportunity to run off to the side. She roared furiously as her target had scampered off like a mouse.

I tore my eyes off of the scope to get a full view of the battle. I don't think normal attacks were hurting her. Even so…She seemed really pissed. Tear was distracting the liger queen with her daggers while Luke took the opportunity to run around and slash at the liger queen's hind legs. From where I was standing, I wasn't able to tell if Luke injured her or not, but she appeared even more pissed than she was before. Since no one was near her at the moment, I decided it might be a good opportunity to shot her from where I was.

I looked back into my scope and hastily pulled the trigger intending to hit the liger queen on the forehead but she moved before the bullet hit her. She struck at Luke one more time as the bullet flew past her head and at a tree. The bullet burst causing several loose branches to fall…directly above Luke. Luke yelped as he avoided the falling branches, and I swore I heard a loud cracking sound. It must be the branches.

Yeah…must be the branches.

"WATCH WHAT YOU ARE DOING!" Luke roared at me from where he was. He was waving his blade in a very threatening manner but I see it more as a sign of frustration.

"IT'S NOT LIKE I DID THAT ON PURPOSE!" I shouted back at him as I ejected the empty shell from my rifle, the bullet shell popped out of the rifle and hit the ground. I tsked at the empty shell; that was what I call littering. I would pick it up the moment it fell, but it would be better if I do that after the battle. I was just about to load another bullet when something purple and sizzling flew past me, singeing a small portion of my hair. I squeaked as I touched the spot that was partially singed and stared at the liger queen with horror. From her mouth was a purple light that looked like it contained a series of lightning bolts in them.

Aw crap. Can she shoot at long distances, too…?

My suspicions was confirmed when she fired at me again. I cried out as I dropped my weapon and held my hands out in front of my face. It wasn't the smart thing to do, but it was the first thing that came into my mind. The next thing I knew, something heavy tackled me to the ground and the lightning bolt flew past me, above me. It hit something, which caused that something to fall. I didn't know what fell since I never bothered looking up.

Yep. I was that scared.

What I do know was that someone's arm was wrapped around my waist.

An…arm…?

"My, having fun there?" a familiar deep voice asked me, sarcastically. I dared myself to have a look at my saviour and when I did, I cringed.

"J-Jade?"

Jade released his hold on me and gave me a smirk as he stood up. "It must be nice to be young." He pushed up his glasses as the dim light partially reflected on his glasses giving it a gleam.

A sinister gleam…The look, the smirk, the posture, the entire being of Jade was sinister!

"D-Do you really have the time to make sarcastic remarks at a time like this?" I asked him, nearly wanting to scream and hide behind him for protection. "Do something!"

"Of course I will." Jade responded as he picked up my rifle and lightly threw it over to me. I barely caught it when he did. "Only if you do your share of work, with my guidance, of course."

I really hated his bargains.

I sighed as I used my rifle to help me get off of the ground. I don't have much of a choice. I, reluctantly, followed Jade, who was making his merry way to Tear. Luke was running up to Tear, regrouping as the two of them tried to form a new strategy. Luke was panting heavily from the fight while Tear healed his wounds from the fallen branches and small scrapes.

"Hey! What the hell? It's not dying!" Luke shouted, loudly.

"This isn't good." Tear muttered as the queen neared them. "Our attacks aren't hurting it at all."

Luke turned to face Tear angrily, his tiredness all forgotten. "So…So, do something!"

That was Jade's cue right there. He gave me a smile before walking up to them, making his presence known to the two of them. "Allow me."

Tear readied her weapon at Jade expecting him to be an ambush, but she recognized him as the soldier from yesterday. "You're…"

"Leave the inquiry for later." Jade ordered as he readied a powerful fonic arte. There was a blue fonic glyph forming underneath him so I assumed it would be a water-based attack. "I'll use fonic artes to take care of this. You make sure I have time to cast."

Luke shot a sneer at Jade. "You can't order me-"

"Let's leave this to him." Tear interrupted Luke. "We'll buy time by taking on the liger queen. Don't let her attacks hit him."

Luke grunted as he turned around to face the queen. "I know! I know!"

He darted towards the liger queen for round two. Around that time, Jade had finish casting his spell.

"Blessed drops!"

A large drop of water appeared above the liger queen and dropped right on top of her, drenching her from top to bottom. Luke was soaked, too, but he didn't pay mind to it. The drop of water caused a large ripple of water to form below the liger queen before a series of water droplets flew up into the air and bursting all around her. Luke used this opportunity to slash her one more time. This time, it was more effective with wet fur than it was it dry. The gash on her paw oozed with deep red blood that looked very similar to human blood. I was at awe from the combination of Jade's and Luke's attack. It wasn't until I receive a light smack to my forehead that I snapped back to reality.

"Pay attention to the battle." Jade ordered me as I rubbed my forehead while giving him a scowl. "Aim 45 degrees to the right and fire."

"Say what?" I asked him. Jade gave me a look that said he refuse to repeat the order to me, he resumed to chanting another spell. Tear, on the side, began chanting her own spell. I sighed as I did as Jade instructed and pulled the trigger like he told me to. To my amazement, the bullet actually hit the liger queen. Even if it did hit her tail, it was just as effective as a slash from Luke. The bullet acted very similar to Jade's Energy Blast so it burst catching her off guard as both Tear and Jade finished casting their spells.

"Photon!"

"...Toue rei zue Kuroa ryuo toue zue…"

A small ball of light formed right in front of the liger queen doing a series of damage to her, at the same time, a purple fonic glyph appeared underneath her and, like Blessed Drops; bubbles appeared and damaged the liger queen. The liger queen roared as us and, with Luke forgotten, charged at us intending to finish Jade, Tear and I in one sweep. Tear stood between her and us and held out her hand causing a fonic glyph acting like a barrier. The liger queen attacked the barrier with all her might, trying to destroy it, while Jade readies another spell, this time, with a very different coloured fonic glyph below us. Tear was on the defensive while the liger queen continued attacking the barrier. The barrier was then shattered and Luke intercepted by driving her attention towards him. This continued for some time until Jade finished his spell.

"O roar of the earth, bring forth the fangs of the mighty dragon." Jade chanted. "Ground Dasher!"

That was Jade's cue to Luke to flee before he gets caught in the attack. Luke fled the moment the ground below the liger queen cracked opened before a series of rocks impaled the liger queen from below. Rocks flew all over the place before they all receded back into the ground. The liger queen struggled to get up but, finally, she was completely still.

"Well," Jade pushed his glasses up as the liger queen's body fell limp to the ground. She landed with a loud thump and blood poured from her various wounds throughout her body. "That was pitiful."

Luke gaped at Jade; Tear was staring at Jade in amazement. Luke pointed a finger at Jade as he was staring at Tear. "W-Whoa. D-Did you see that?"

Tear nodded. "He's definitely not an ordinary fonist."

Jade smirked since the battle posed no threat to him. I don't even think he used a lot of his power either. I sighed.

This guy takes everything lightly. Unless it comes to that certain topic…

Luke sheathed his sword just before he fell to the ground in relief that the fight was over. Tear, on the other hand, was completely fine; she was tired, but she rather not show how tired she was at the moment. She looked at Jade who was walking off. He cast a quick glance over his shoulder before breaking it.

"Anise. Anh. Could I speak to the both of you for a moment?" Jade asked the raven haired girl, who was walking towards him, and I, who was putting away my rifle. I reluctantly nodded before walking towards him as well once I lifted the bag over my shoulder. Once the both of us were in front of him, he cast another glance towards Tear, who was still eyeing at us. He returned his attention back to us since he knew we were at a good distance away from her.

"Anh, is that woman a Seventh Fonist?" Jade asked me in a hush tone. I nodded.

"She's a Seventh Fonist." I confirmed recalling the situation where she healed Luke during the battle with the Linails and wolf.

Jade nodded. He wanted to make sure since she did cast some unusual spells like Nightmare during the battle. "And how about Luke?"

"Not that I'm aware of." I answered as I eyed Luke past Jade. He was still on the ground, staring at something in front of him. "He doesn't even know anything about casting. Brute force is his thing."

"And they crossed the Rotelro Bridge when we first encountered them." Jade concluded. He pushed his glasses up. "Anise, I want you to bring the Tartarus to the entrance of the Forest. At the same time, I want to issue an order to a handful of my men on it. Tell them to meet us at the entrance of the forest and make it quick."

Anise was nodding at his instructions as I watched Tear who was still watching us suspiciously. "Okay…understood. In exchange, you have to keep a good eye on Ion!" Anise chirped happily before running off to fetch the Tartarus. Jade nodded when Anise left.

"Our job now is to make sure they stay in sight." Jade told me before walking towards Tear and Luke.

"Yessir," I mumbled before following suit. I stood next to Luke. He was still staring at the thing in front of him. With my brow furrowed, I followed Luke's gaze towards the nest of eggs of the liger queen's. The eggs were cracked and greyish ooze seeped out of them. In between the three eggs was a fallen branch. I gasped as I realized that it was the cracking sound from the eggs that I heard a while back.

Oops…

There was blood, most likely from the fetus, coming out of the egg cracks as well. Bits of eggshells were scattered all around the nest as something that looked like a fetus laid there on the ground from a destroyed egg. I cringed at the sight of it. No wonder the game omitted the sight of the destroyed eggs and just showed Luke sitting there staring at the egg. The anime wasn't any different; they just omitted some stuff so that it doesn't appear that gory. The appearance of it was just nasty and the smell of iron from the blood was heavy in the air. Even though I had smelt blood before, it didn't stop the fact that my stomach was churning from the scent.

Luke stared at the eggs in disgust. "…This left a bad taste in my mouth."

Tear did not bother looking at the eggs, but she was just as disgusted as Luke. Her expression just didn't show it. She closed her eyes when she said, "You're quite kind. Or perhaps just soft."

"And you're cold!" Luke snapped at Tear. Tear shook it off as if it was nothing.

"Oh my. Lover's quarrel?" Jade joked. He heard the entire conversation and he seemed to enjoy every bit of it. His face said it all: a simple smile of amusement.

"Shut up!" Luke barked at Jade.

"Colonel Curtiss…We don't have that sort of relationship." Tear protested around the same time Luke said 'Shut up'.

Jade was waving his hand up and down in amusement. He held a smile on his face when the two of them immediately denied it. "I'm joking. And please, call me Jade. I'm not accustomed to being called by my family name."

Ion approached Jade when the tension wasn't that high. "Jade, I'm sorry for running off and doing this."

"I am, too." I apologized to Jade when he gave both Ion and I a scolding look. The both of us were looking sheepishly at the ground waiting for Jade to say something.

"It's unlike the both of you to do this when you both know it's wrong." From the corner of my eye, I saw Luke giving us a pity stare.

Ion lifted his head to face Jade. "Together with Yulia, the cheagles are the foundation of the Order of Lorelei. I felt I had to take responsibility for any trouble they had caused." Ion stated his reasons.

Jade narrowed his gaze at Ion. "And that's why you used your power? Didn't the doctor tell you not to?"

"Th-that's not his fault!" I said, lifting my head. I held a hand in front of Ion and took one step closer to Jade as if I was trying to protect him from Jade. "It was my fault for being unable to protect him. He was only protecting me from the wolves!"

"Regardless of whose fault it is, he still used his powers." Jade pointed out.

"But-!"

"Anh." Jade commanded in a stern voice even though he said no command to me. His crimson eyes did all the saying. He didn't want me to interfere any further than I already should.

"Yes sir." I mumbled as I lowered my gaze to the ground. My arms fell to its side as I took one step back.

"I'm sorry, Jade." Ion repeated. Jade turned his attention to Ion.

"And you both have involved citizens as well." He continued.

"Sorry…" The both of us repeated once more.

Luke tsked before he said his thoughts. "Hey, old man, they're apologizing, right? Give them a break."

Jade's gaze turned to Luke. Actually, everybody's gaze went to Luke. Jade, Tear and I all have surprised looks on our faces since Luke defended us from more scolding. Ion's face beamed when Luke complained in our place.

"Oh. I expected you to complain about being dragged into this. I'm a bit surprised." Jade said as he slightly tilted his head to one side. His expression was surprised but amused at the same time. He coughed before changing the subject. "Well, we don't have much time, anyway. I'll stop the lecture at that."

"The letter arrived, didn't it?" Ion asked. I said a mental 'yesss' in my head.

"Yes," Jade nodded. "Now, let's go ahead and get out of this forest."

"Nooo! We have to report to the elder!" Mieu spoke up as he ran up Luke's arm and jumped onto his head. It wasn't enough for the cheagle to say it in front of Jade's face, but at that height, at least he was known to them. He was waving his arms up and down when he got on Luke's head. Luke, on the other hand, didn't take it too well.

"A cheagle speaking a human language?" Jade mused at the thought of more monsters speaking human tongue. Luke yelled furiously before grabbing Mieu from his head and throwing the young cheagle to the ground. He was grinding Mieu's face to the ground with his foot. I winced at the treatment Mieu was receiving.

I felt sorry for Mieu…

"It's the power of the Sorcerer's Ring," Ion explained when Luke kicked Mieu elsewhere. The cheagle ran right back to the group but this time, he ran to me for safety. I picked the cheagle up and took a few steps closer to Jade so that Luke cannot do more damage to poor Mieu's head. Ion looked at Jade, his eyes pleading. "Jade, could we stop by the cheagles' home?"

"All right." Jade answered without skipping a beat. He pushed his falling glasses up. "But please don't forget that we haven't much time."

Ion nodded happily at Jade before turning back to Luke. "Luke, thank you for your help. Please join me for just a little longer."

Luke huffed before crossing his arms. "Well, I've come this far. Might as well."

We returned to the cheagles home as Mieu explained the entire battle and trip to the elder…In detail too…I think… Mieu had returned the Ring to the elder so he told the story in his own language. So I was assuming that the young cheagle had explained the entire thing in detail because it was quite a long set of 'mieu's. Jade was nodding his head in amusement seeing as it was nothing but 'mieu's coming out of their mouth. Tear was cooing on how cute the cheagles are underneath her breath. It was like heaven to her, I couldn't help but giggle. She sure loves cute things. A series of events happened soon after. The cheagle elder had decided to banish Mieu from the tribe for burning down the liger's home as punishment for his crime.

Though Ion protested that it was too severe for a child like Mieu, the cheagle elder quickly added that it would only be temporary exile. Thus the cheagle elder came to another decision.

"WHAAAT?"

The entire forest shook when Luke screamed as loud as my previous scream. He marched out of the cheagles' home fuming with rage with Mieu (followed by us) right behind him. Mieu was hopping happily behind his new master, Luke. Mieu caught up to Luke only to be thrown into a nearby river because he was that upset by the decision of the cheagle elder. Mieu cried out saying that he can't swim (despite the fact that the water wasn't that deep) and Tear ran into the water to rescue the poor cheagle. I sighed as I watch the poor treatment Mieu was receiving and will continuously receive later on.

Luke…That's called animal abuse…

"How did I get involved in this?" Luke asked, indignantly, when Mieu was rescued by Tear. Tear glared at Luke.

"You saved his life." Tear reminded Luke. Luke ruffled his hair in frustration when she said that.

"I was only saving Ion!" he protested.

Tear and I gave him a very unconvinced look since we knew that was a fat lie. Luke completely snapped and pointed a finger at us.

"I'm telling the truth!"

"Sure. Suuure." I said sarcastically as we continued our way. Jade and Ion just didn't say anything as they continued along with Tear and I. Luke was the only one left behind; he was still frustrated that no one believed him.

"I DID IT FOR ION!"

After a hassle of arguments, we just agreed to Luke's protest. He was fuming and complaining at the back of the group so much that we just went with it so that he calmed down. As we neared the entrance of the forest, Anise ran up to us to greet us…along with some Malkuth soldiers who were right behind her.

"Welcome back~!" Anise chirped as several soldiers surrounded Luke and Tear. Luke had his hand on his sword while Tear held out her weapon. Both ready to fight when necessary but the soldiers kept their distance so neither of them could attack without being ambushed.

"Greetings, Anise. What's the status of the Tartarus?" Jade asked as he casually pushed his glasses up. Anise pointed to the exit of the forest.

"It's in front of the forest, just like you asked." She responded happily. "You said to hurry, so we came as fast as we could~!"

Luke grunted, he pulled out his sword a small bit but I forced him to sheath it when I pulled out my mini-gun. Luke face twisted in disgust as he sheathed his blade, slowly.

"What's going on?" Luke demanded when he removed his hands away from his weapon. His hands fell to the side and Tear had to lower her weapon when the Malkuth soldiers unsheathed their swords.

I gave a sweet smile to Luke. "No hard feelings, Luke. Colonel's orders, that's all."

"Restrain those two." Jade ordered. "They're the ones who have been emitting the Seventh Fonons."

Two of the Malkuth soldiers shoved Luke and Tear to form a line. Another two pulled their wrists in front of them as they placed handcuffs on Luke and Tear once their weapons was taken away. Ion proceeded to help them but Jade held him back.

"Jade! Don't do anything to hurt them!" Ion begged Jade. Jade only gave Ion a shrug indicating that they might have to go rough…if those two decided to be rough.

"Don't worry." He assured Ion as Anise took over his role of holding Ion back. "We won't kill them…Assuming they don't resist." He turned his attention to Luke and Tear. Like me, he gave them a really sweet smile, but his seems more deadly than mine. One arm movement and the order was issued. "Be good, kids. Take them away!"

"Wait!" Luke demanded when they yanked him towards the Tartarus. He was struggling in their grip but it was futile against three trained soldiers. "What's going on?"

"Resistance is futile." Jade answered with a crooked smile. He looked at me and nudged his head to the entrance. "Anh, go escort them to their rooms. Oh and be sure that they do not do anything drastic."

"Yes sir!" I responded with a salute. I happily took the lead as the other Malkuth soldiers flanked Luke and Tear's side.

Best part of my day: Luke's arrest. I couldn't be more than happy to take out any order from Jade right now.

Though I might regret it later…

I'll stop it at here! The arrest happens and whoop-dee-do! We're at the Tartarus in the next chapter!

I used the Romanized version for Tear's fonic hymn. If you don't like it now, get use to it. It's not harmful, but I don't like the English translation of it. And I also made a small reference to an anime that I don't think most of you would know. It's called Utawarerumono. If you're ever interested what reference I made, check out the anime. It can be found in the first couple chapters. I'll even give you a hint: It has to do with wet fur.

Now then…there's a niiice little button down there. Click on it and pretty stuff will happen!

See you all in the next chapter~!