Remnant

Fierce shrieks and the echo of clashing steel rose over the ruins of Feita, shattering the calm of a midsummer's night and staining the ancient stone with blood and bile. Burning in the shadows, a pair of gleaming, ravenous eyes bounded through the ruined halls and crumbling courtyards, close on the heels of a troupe of soldiers in a desperate retreat.

"Fall back! We'll hold them at the gates!" The Royal Guard, Lento, shouted back toward his soldiers as they scrambled away from the horrifying crunching and scraping that followed in their wake. As they rushed toward the light of a distant fire, the flood of darkness and glistening fangs closed in around them, snapping at their shields and lashing out with bloodied claws and blades. Racing around a dark corner, one of the newest recruits stumbled and fell to his knees, his voice overcome with terror as he faltered and the shadows swirled around him.

"No! No, no, no!" As the soldier scurried across the ground, a swift silver flash swung over his back as Lento cut the throat of a demonic beast, his gleaming blade splashed with thick, black blood.

"Get up!" Lento reached down and pulled the recruit up by his shoulder and dragged him down the corridor. "If you waste time screaming, you'll end up like them." Lento tilted his head toward a ghastly fence of corpses atop the chapel's inner wall, their limbs mangled and their faces maimed beyond recognition.

"Y-Yes, sir!" Steadying himself, the recruit ran with all his might, his heavy armor clattering loudly as he and Lento hurried to join the rest of their comrades. As soon as all the soldiers were together again, Lento pointed silently at a darkened doorway, the last open passage to the grand gates and their only hope of survival. As they hurtled desperately toward the exit, a creeping, ominous unease swept through their ranks. With just a single foot beyond the threshold, the soldier on point suddenly froze, leaping back and raising her shield to block the heavy blow of a demon's axe.

"Get back! This way's blocked too!"

Lento scoffed and looked around quickly, directing his troops to a high wall on the far side of the courtyard. "Everyone to the wall, backs together!"

Trembling and clutching their blades as though they were holding their very hearts in their palms, the soldiers gathered together with their backs to the wall, spread out in the shape of a half moon as gleaming eyes and gnashing teeth filled the shadows all around them. Growls and shrieks rumbled in the dark, their echoes mounting until all sound melted into a single, terrible roar. Then, silence. The eyes gleaming in the dark closed one by one and their cries of malice faded in an instant as a piercing howl rattled the ground and stirred the shadows into a frenzy of fierce snarls and blood-chilling screams. Emerging from the dark and advancing slowly, a host of unearthly beasts poured into the faint firelight, their monstrous fangs bared and bloodied as they approached Lento and his soldiers.

"Sir!?" A panicking soldier glanced aside to Lento, hoping for even the slightest reassurance. "What's the plan?"

Closing his eyes for a moment, Lento flourished his blade and fixed his gaze on the approaching tide of steel and malice. "Kill as many as you can, for the glory of the Lady..."

His words robbed the recruits of their final doubts; today would certainly be the day of their deaths. With their fragile resolve instilled in their quivering blades, they quietly accepted their fate and prepared for a painful end. As they raised their weapons and the first wave of demons charged toward them, a brilliant steam of light shot through the air and knocked away their attackers. Hesitant, the demons paused and stepped back, searching for the source of the sudden attack as Lento lowered his blade and smiled.

"No, on second thought, just stand out of the way and watch. The 'captains' are here..."

The troops' morale soared immediately, the pallor in their faces replaced with bright grins and confident relief as the demons finally fixed their gaze on their new opponents. Standing high atop the outer wall, a pair of silhouettes cast their shadows over the roaring crowd as the demons below huddled together and slowly backed away. Wrapped in the pristine armor of Feita's Royal knights, the two brandished their shining silver blade and bow, ready to strike at the horde below.

"Trapped again?" The deep timbre of Raven's voice filled the night as he stepped into the firelight. "They really want your head on a pike, don't they?"

"They're overreacting." Lento rolled his shoulder and grinned. "I only killed two of their commanders today, and they get this worked up."

"I'd rather not kill any of them..." Rena sighed as her hair fluttered in the warm summer breeze, "...though we're not really given much choice, are we? Raven?"

Glancing aside, she waited for Raven to nod quickly and draw his sword. "Let's go."

Cutting through the tense standoff in an instant, Rena leapt down from the wall and buried her heel in a demon's face, knocking it to the ground as she spun quickly and kicked away the demons within her reach, jumping back into the air and unleashing a stream of arrows into their midst as she darted through their ranks. Just a few feet away, Raven hurled a pair of demons into the air, slashing at their backs as they flailed helplessly overhead. His blade dripping with black blood, Raven bounded across the field cutting down his foes as the demons struggled to match his rapid pace.

"Stay together, and watch your backs!" Lento called back to his recruits as he rushed off to join Raven and Rena, smashing through the demons' ranks with powerful swings and silencing their growls with swift, deliberate strikes. Within the breadth of a minute, the overwhelming horde of monstrous claws and fangs was reduced to a ragged band of less than a dozen demons scurrying off into darkness. Just as Lento moved to sheath his sword, a thunderous crash tore through the courtyard as the northern wall crumbled away, the gleaming edge of a massive blade buried in the collapsing rubble. As the broken stone fell away, a colossal shadow climbed through the open wall, its body clad in dark steel and its head conspicuously absent from its shoulders.

Surveying their surroundings quickly, Rena turned aside to Lento, her eyes stern as she drew back her bow. "The path to the gate should be clear. We'll take care of this and meet you back at the camp."

"Right. Recruits, in formation!" Lento hurried back to his awestruck soldiers, gathering them together and leading them out toward the grand gates of Feita. Now facing the lumbering, headless knight, Rena and Raven turned to one another, their eyes locked together for a single instant before they charged toward the hulking mass of clattering steel. As Rena fired off a quick volley, the knight raised its heavy, smoldering shield and blocked every arrow. Sliding in beneath its shield, Raven thrust his blade in between the knight's heavy armor plates only to have his sword slide inside right up to the hilt, as if he were cutting little more than air.

"It's hollow?" Raven quickly pulled his sword away and stepped back just as the knight swung its massive blade out in a broad arc, missing Raven by a hair as he leapt to the side and rushed out of the knight's range.

"Are you alright?" Rena stood before Raven as he climbed back to his feet, shooting a powerful blast into the knight's chest that hit with a dull thud.

"Yeah, I'm fine. That thing's empty though, there's nothing inside holding it together." Raven dug his feet into the rubble as the knight recovered from Rena's assault, charging toward them with its shield raised and its sword ready to strike a killing blow. As Rena prepared to dodge the next attack, the gleam of the knight's shield caught her eye and she looked aside to Raven.

"Can you hold it still? For just a second?"

Shocked at first, Raven quickly visualized the creature's strike and nodded. "You know what you're doing?"

Rena grinned. "Probably not."

As the knight's heavy steps rattled the ground beneath their feet, Rena leapt back and Raven ran forward just as the knight thrust its blade toward the ground. Stepping to the side, Raven deflected the knight's blade into the stone at his feet, his own sword grinding against its edge and sending a shower of sparks into the night sky. With the knight struggling to pull his sword from the stone's embrace, Rena hopped onto the flat of the blade and ran along the knight's arm, leaping off of its shoulder and rolling her body in the air. As she passed over the dark hollow at the base of the creature's neck, she fired a single bolt of condensed air deep into the armor that exploded in a deafening blast, tearing the knight's armor apart piece by piece and scattering its remains across the field while Rena landed softly on the ground below.

With its armor tattered and lost, the burning eyes set into the knight's shield flickered and faded into the night. Surrounded now by little more than a pack of lifeless demons and the warm summer night, Raven and Rena breathed in deeply as they checked their injuries.

"Another cut on the right side?" Rena tilted her head to the side as she ran her finger across a shallow wound in the middle of her back. "I guess fighting in a place like this really lets you know about all your openings..."

Raven scoffed, his eyes agreeing as he pulled the matted, blood-soaked gauze away from a gash on his leg. "It's better than not knowing, but I'd rather find out in training..."

Rena smiled faintly as they headed off toward the gate and the promise of a restful evening. "Well, at least we've gone through another day without losing anyone... We'll have to-" Rena's voice fell away in an instant, her eyes narrowing as she glanced around and raised her bow. Judging by the caution in Raven's stance and his wary gaze, it seemed that he had noticed as well; a faint pattering followed by a low, steady creak, as though a hundred tiny cords were being stretched to the point of breaking. Then, as the torches danced in the dying breeze, a sharp whistling shot through the silence as a hundred archers loosed their bows all at once, their arrows flying through the air toward Raven and Rena.

Drawing back her bowstring, Rena released a strong gust of wind that knocked the arrows away, frantically searching for cover as the archer's readied their second round. A single gust could easily protect them from one wave of arrows, but Rena knew the demons would never make that mistake again; if even one of the archers fired just a second later than the others, its arrow would find a clear path to its target as the wind cleared and Rena readied another burst. At best, she could protect them out in the open for another few seconds, but without cover she was forced to forgo a counterattack that would leave them both open to the next assault. Scouring the field himself, Raven fixed his eyes on the fallen knight's shield, wondering if he and Rena would be able to reach it before the hail of arrows hit them.

The slow creaking resumed as the demons drew back their bows, each glancing to its neighbor and deciding on the timing of their strike. The moment they steadied their aim and prepared to fire, however, the sky flashed brightly and a blinding light filled the air as scorching flames filled the parapets. With their bows alight and their arrows little more than smoldering ash, the demons who were able to escape the tremendous blast retreated quickly into the depths of the inner courts. As the flames roared and swirled all around, Rena lowered her bow and sighed fondly while Raven sheathed his sword. From the heart of the howling flames, Aisha and Elsword stepped out into the courtyard side by side, grinning confidently as they greeted Raven and Rena.

"Wait..." Elsword blinked, looking around at the pile of bodies and rubble all around. "...are we late?"

Raven smiled faintly. "Heh... a bit."

"You came at a good time though." Rena smiled brightly at them as she and Raven headed toward the gate. "We were kind of in a rough spot."

Relieved to see everyone safe, Aisha sighed and then turned to Elsword and scowled. "This is your fault, you know. What were you doing taking so long to get ready tonight?"

"T-that doesn't matter!" Elsword glanced aside, avoiding Aisha's eyes as he searched for some sort of distraction. "Anyway, we gotta get out of here quick. The gate's closing in a few minutes."

Rena laughed softly at their exchange and smiled. "Alright then, onward to dinner."

With the gates closed and the bonfires blazing brightly, all was calm at the soldiers' camp outside of Feita's grand shrine. After receiving a hearty meal and a quick dressing for their wounds, Aisha, Elsword, Raven, and Rena headed over to the center of the camp where Allegro, the region's secretary and archivist, was busy hanging an array of maps and charts while Lento prepared to address the troops.

"Listen up!" Lento shouted across the crowd and the clamor of crass laughter and idle chatter faded in an instant. "It has been one month since the demons appeared and seized the Shrine of the El Lady. In that time, we have lost one-hundred and twelve men and women in the fight to reclaim the shrine... but we have killed over a thousand demons!" The crowd erupted in a raucous cheer, less joyful than incensed as the bitter memory of a comrade's death still hung fresh in the minds of nearly everyone present.

As Lento continued reassuring the troops and praising their continued determination and bravery, Raven sat and poured over the large maps that hung on the makeshift signboard behind him. Although they could easily boast about the number of demons they had killed, their actual progress in the shrine was minimal at best. In a month's time, they had managed to retake only the shrine's entrance hall, an area which amounted to little more than a tenth of the full complex. Moreover, new patrols flooded into the entrance hall each night, forcing the soldiers of Feita to clear the area again each day before venturing further into the shrine. In truth, even though he knew the soldiers needed to stay in high spirits, Raven was less than optimistic about their progress. With only the grand gates of the shrine to halt the demons' progress each night, they were locked in a constant struggle for the same blood-stained ground day after day.

While Raven tried to unravel the dense cluster of passageways and corridors on the map of the shrine, a round of jubilant applause and cheering shook him from his thoughts as Rena poked his shoulder and motioned for him to stand. It took him a moment to return his focus to Lento's address and once he did, Raven realized that he was now the subject of everyone's attention.

"Another round of applause for our honorary 'captains'!" Lento roused the crowd and they all cheered loudly as Elsword, Aisha, Raven, and Rena bowed slightly, a bit uncomfortable for all the attention. "I want to thank you again, both for saving countless lives and for inspiring us all. Even though none of you are citizens of Velder or Feita, you've worked tirelessly to defeat our enemies and reclaim the shrine! On behalf of us all, thank you."

Although Rena opened her mouth to accept his thanks, the roar of praise and applause drowned out her voice, leaving the four 'captains' to simply nod, bow slightly, and take their seats. After encouraging the troops, Lento's voice lowered and he moved on to discuss the tactical failures of past operations and their present plan to push in toward the Chapel entrance, though Raven was scarcely paying any attention to the details of his strategy. With his bones aching and his energy spent, it was all he could do just to stay awake and maintain his composure through the briefing, much less pay serious attention to its content. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Elsword nodding off and Aisha jabbing him in the side, smiling faintly as he watched the two bicker and blush. With the bonfires dying and midnight only moments away, Lento dismissed the troops and left the 'captains' to return to their quarters and tend to their wounds.

"I honestly didn't expect to be given a rank and badge when we volunteered here..." In a small recovery room at the edge of camp, Rena smiled slightly as she peeled the dried gauze from Raven's leg and applied a dark green paste that bubbled and stung as it cleansed the open wound.

"That's the way Velder is, even in its territories." Raven's brow wrinkled up as he felt the sharp pain of an antiseptic working its way across his wounds, pleasantly surprised that he had feeling in his remaining limbs after all he'd done in the past few days. "Exceptional soldiers are given a title to inspire the others, though it doesn't always mean much when you question real authority." His voice held a trace of caustic bitterness as he recalled his recent 'promotion'.

"Bad memories?" Rena wrapped a bandage around Raven's knee and fastened it in place with a long, sticky leaf. With the last of his injuries addressed, Rena turned away and raised the back of her shirt, revealing a pair of long cuts along the middle of her back.

"...Just a few." Raven scowled unconsciously as he applied an ointment to Rena's wounds, recalling the blood and toil of his days as the leader of the Crow mercenaries and how the Velder aristocracy had scoffed at his attempts to gain their recognition. Though his bitterness had faded recently, he was still wary of Velder's ruling class. For that reason, and to avoid the potential awkwardness of having a bounty on his head, Raven had insisted that he hailed from far to the north, denying his Velder citizenship from the moment he stepped into Feita.

"I don't think we-" Rena winced as Raven doused a shallow cut with alcohol and patted it dry. "-we have to worry though. Lento would probably listen to us if we had any real concerns about the way things were going..."

Despite her attempts to disguise it, Raven picked up on the hesitation in her voice. "Then why do you sound uncertain?" He slowly cut a long strip of gauze and layered it over her back, holding it in place with a long strip of cloth wrapped around her waist as she sighed and gave a weak smile.

"You heard, didn't you? They were all so excited to hear how many we'd killed so far... I know we don't have much choice, and the demons aren't likely to back down, but... when people start to celebrate and cheer after spilling so much blood, it makes me uneasy."

Raven paused, taking a moment to absorb her words and internalize them. While he was used to her endless, ecstatic calm in battle, her bright cheer and gentle warmth in peace, it was only since they arrived in Feita that he had begun to see a subtle, distant sadness spill over into her smile, something that he had only caught brief glimpses of in the prior months.

Finished binding the slashes across her back, Raven began cutting another patch of gauze for the scrapes across Rena's shoulder. "Bad memories?"

Rena gave a weak, heavy smile, her eyes narrow as she stared through the floor. "Just a few." Although she had always been vague about her past, especially her past as a warrior, the web of scars that lay across her back and shoulders told Raven more than enough; considering that Rena always carried a pack full of potent medicine that could mend even the deepest wounds without leaving so much as a scratch behind, he couldn't imagine what could have left such scars across her body. He was covered in old wounds of his own, of course, but Rena had always been better at hiding them and it was only in the past few weeks when they had taken to dressing one another's wounds that he had finally seen the record of battles carved into her skin. As he pressed a bandage across her shoulder, he felt a strange stirring in his chest, a familiar chill that he couldn't quite grasp.

"Thanks." Rena lowered her sleeve as Raven covered the last of her injuries, turning aside to smile cheerfully at him. "It's not easy reaching all the parts of your back when your arms are sore and bruised."

As Raven met her gaze, he felt a sudden surge of tension sweep through him, a wave of unexpected warmth washing over his face as he watched Rena's smile. Glancing away quickly, he tried to cough and clear his throat, realizing that his cheeks were flushed and his pulse unsteady. "It's nothing. Next time, I'll make sure neither of us has to walk away wounded."

Rena giggled lightly. "That's a nice thought, but you know that's not something we can really control..." She grinned as she packed away her supplies, "Ah, now that I think about it, Elsword says the same thing everyday. He must be a bad influence, making you that optimistic."

"Heh... impossible." Raven laughed lightly, but his thoughts were elsewhere, tangled and torn in a twisting, writhing knot. As Rena rose to leave, he felt an inexplicable sense of urgency. A powerful apprehension gripped his throat and strangled his voice, a shapeless fear stabbing through the pit of his stomach as the thought of being hurt, captured, or killed ran through his mind. Before he realized it, he was standing at Rena's side, his fists clenched and his heart racing.

"Wait, Rena..." His mouth hung open as she turned to face him, the strangling pain in his chest quickly overwhelming his restraint. For a moment, they stood staring at one another in silence, the air tense and taut as Raven slowly moved closer until Rena finally parted her lips.

"That's close enough, for now..." At the sound of her voice, Raven blinked, his head clearing as Rena smiled faintly. Stepping away, Rena gathered her things and headed for the door. "Sorry, but there are some wounds that I can't help you with." She stepped out into the hall and shut the door behind her, leaving Raven alone in the dim candlelight. Scowling at himself almost immediately, he turned and sat on the edge of a dust-covered cot, lowering his head and resting his elbows on his knees. As his anxiety turned to frustration, he whether he should run after Rena to apologize or sit and sort through the maze of his thoughts. Though she had rejected him kindly, he knew exactly what Rena had meant; she wasn't willing to be a substitute for Seris, and she wouldn't allow Raven to try and protect her as a way of making up for his inability to protect his late fiancée. He understood completely; no one should ever be expected to merely stand in for those long since lost, although up until now Raven was almost certain that he had buried his past completely. His sudden, inexplicable fear, the unbearable urge to save someone who wasn't even in danger, he knew these feelings well as they haunted almost all of his dreams for the past five years.

"Tch..." Raven scoffed, falling back onto the cot and staring at the ceiling. Why am I still trapped in that day? I can let go of everything else, the blood and the spite and the endless rage, so why is she the only one I'm still holding on to? He shifted his left arm and raised it overhead, glowering as its steel skin gleamed in the firelight. Will I still be holding onto her for the next hundred years? Even after that? He closed his eyes and recalled his time on Altera, when Chief Adel had called him aside and led him back to his study under the auspices of showing him something of great importance. Though Raven was unsure of what to expect, he was caught completely off guard when the Chief pulled aside his shirt and revealed a large, metallic device embedded into his side, a piece of Nasod technology just the same as Raven's left arm.

"Young man, I called you here to show you this so that you might understand what lies ahead for you in your life..." The chief's voice rang out through Raven's memory, clear and crisp as the winter winder.

"What lies ahead?" Raven scoffed and scowled, at the time entirely disinterested in any discussion of the distant future. Although he had sworn to help retrieve Ruben's El and promised Rena not to rush off to his death, he was still deliberating on the actual value of his own life.

"Yes... I believe you know what this device is... or rather, where it came from. Like you, I was captured in my youth and made into one of the Nasod's experiments. While my artificial parts are not nearly as sophisticated as yours, I believe they may have a similar function..."

Raven glared at the Chief suspiciously. "What are you getting at?"

"Well..." Adel fastened his shirt back up and reached for his pipe. "You may have heard that I am the village elder, but I am also over a hundred and seven years old. I know it may seem a modest age to humans, but we Ponggo tend to live only thirty to forty years at our best, and even I am astounded everyday that I wake up and see the sunrise once again..." The Chief took a quick puff from his pipe before noticing Raven's impatience. "Ah, but, to the point... After many years, I have come to believe that it is the Nasod device in my side that has kept me alive this long... it filters out impurities, cleanses the blood, fights off infection, and even keeps me on balance. Your arm may very well work in the same way."

"You're saying that I'll live another hundred years like this?" Raven's voice was unsteady, somewhere between dread and disbelief.

"Well, possibly, or two or three hundred even. Humans live more than twice as long as Ponggos, so you may very well live more than twice as long as me. I tell you this because you still seem eager to sacrifice yourself in battle, and while that is certainly your choice, I believe you will be able to do more good for this world if you can fight to protect the weak and weary for the next hundred years... Don't you agree?"

At the time, Raven had been indecisive, but as he traveled across the plains of Altera, his resolve strengthened and he came to accept the possibility of a life that would last well beyond the next century. Even if he couldn't atone for his crimes, he could easily overshadow them with the work of a hundred years and to that end he was determined to move beyond his bloody past. Still, it seemed that there was a lingering fragment of time that remained buried deep in his chest, a potent blend of terror and regret that burned the image of Seris's corpse into his mind. More than that, in spite of his best efforts he was still unable to separate his deep trust and admiration of Rena from his desperate, unfulfilled desire to protect Seris from her fate. Regardless, he felt that he had to do something to close his festering wounds, even if he wasn't sure how to stop seeing Seris in Rena's smile.

Grimacing bitterly, he scoffed at his own stubbornness and indecision. Seris was dead, her heart long since stopped and her body firmly beneath the ground and no amount of anguish or regret or misplaced altruism could save her now. He knew this, he knew that she was definitely gone and that Rena was definitely not her and he knew that picking at his wounds would never help them heal. More than that, he knew that projecting his longing and regret onto Rena would only keep him from seeing her in the present, and that was hardly fair to one of his most trusted comrades. In spite of his understanding and his resolve, however, he soon found himself struggling to form even the simplest of thoughts. Exhausted in every sense, Raven laid back and drifted off to sleep as the candlelight gasped and faded away.

With the quarter moon scarcely peering over the horizon, Elsword waited atop a high, barren hill on the outskirts of the soldiers' encampment, staring up at the sky as he fidgeted anxiously. Still wearing the long jacket and light armor of a royal knight, he shifted uncomfortably with his hands held behind his back and his mouth wrinkled up awkwardly.

"What's taking her so long? She better not have ditched me here..." Elsword mumbled into the night, glancing back and forth until he finally saw Aisha walking along the narrow path below. When she finally arrived, she plopped herself down on the dry, crackling grass and sighed.

"Sorry I'm late, I got caught up talking to Rena."

"She's still awake?" Elsword stared quizzically. "I thought she wasn't on watch tonight."

Aisha shook her head slightly. "She's not. She seemed like she was annoyed by something though, but all she'd tell me was that she hated it when people expect someone else to deal with all their injuries..." She sighed and crossed her arms, "So, what'd you call me here for?"

"I-I just," Fidgeting and squirming in his seat, Elsword began to blush and struggled to grasp at fleeting words. "I found... this..."

"Spit it out!" Aisha scowled and fumed for just a moment, quickly lowered her head and softening her gaze. "...Sorry... I didn't mean..."

"I-it's fine..." Elsword paused for a moment, noticing the crease in Aisha's forehead and her clenched fists. "What's wrong? You look like you're about to break somebody's jaw."

"I almost did..." Aisha grimaced slightly and stared up at the sparkling sky. "It's the same as always though, I walked into the mess hall and suddenly half the room went quiet. This time they were saying that I stole the missing chickens from the farmhouse and drank their blood..." She huffed and pouted as Elsword scowled sympathetically.

"They're just being stupid. Why would they talk about you like that in the first place?" Lowering his voice, he shifted his eyes back and forth before mumbling to himself. "Besides, that's ridiculous. I'm the one who took those chickens and roasted them. How'd they get such a stupid idea anyway?"

"It's the same as it was in all the other cities we've been too..." Aisha leaned back on her arms and stared up at the swirling clouds overhead. "I use the same sort of magic the demons do, and most of these soldiers are really strict followers of the Lady of the El, so they think I'm just as bad as what we're fighting... Maybe I shouldn't have studied dark magic in the first place if people are going to keep acting like that around me." Her voice sank as the words left her lips, strained and frail as though she were on the verge of a costly defeat.

"Don't say that." Elsword's brow furrowed and he glared sharply at the campsite below. "We'd be dead if you didn't learn all that stuff, and there's nothing wrong with it. They're just being stupid and..." His mouth wrinkled up awkwardly as he tried to form his thoughts into a cohesive response. "Ah, damn it, I can't put it into words right, but... it's like they're trying to tell you your decisions are wrong because they're afraid of them, and that's stupid."

The warm breeze brushed against Aisha's face and she laughed, surprised to feel so reassured by such a clumsy statement. Sighing softly, she turned toward Elsword and smiled. "You know, you can't just call the other people stupid and expect to win an argument with them... But, still... Thanks."

"Ah, um, yeah..." Flustered once again, Elsword glanced aside and slowly pulled his hands from behind his back, revealing a small white statuette that shimmered in the starlight. "T-this is, um, anyway, I found it and I thought you might like it so, here..." He offered it up to Aisha, turning his head as far away as he could in a feeble attempt to hide his blushing cheeks.

Blinking and confused, Aisha carefully accepted the statue and turned it over in her hands. Even without careful inspection, it was clearly a delicately hand crafted idol of some sort, carved in the shape of a great bat diving through the air with an intricate spell inscribed at its base. As Aisha studied the inscription, she felt a strange tugging at the corner of her mind, as though a muffled voice was calling out to her from the other side of a rock wall.

"Where'd you find this? Is it from the shrine?"

Elsword shook his head. "I dunno. I found it there in perfect condition like that, but when I took it to Allegro he said it wasn't part of the shrine, and nobody else claimed it, so he said I could keep it. I-it's kind of pretty and I thought, maybe, you might like it... or something..." He blushed fiercely and stared off into the ground as Aisha felt her own cheeks redden.

"T-Thanks... I'm not sure what it is, but, it- it's nice..." They sat for a moment as the stars patiently awaited their next move. Although they'd spent several months together on the road since they left Altera, they still found themselves at a complete loss from time to time. Glancing aside and breathing in deeply, Aisha leaned over and hugged Elsword tightly. In less than a second, she let go and teleported down to the bottom of the hill, hurrying off to her room and leaving Elsword with only a faint warmth at his side. Still slightly feverish, he leaned forward and watched as Aisha retreated into her quarters.

"I guess... that went okay?" He suddenly recalled Aisha's smiling face and he shook his head out, ruffling his hair with his fingers and squinting to block out the memory. "Ah, whatever!" With his cheeks still flushed and his hair now a tangled mess, Elsword resigned for the evening and stumbled down toward his room.

In the morning, just as the sun rose over the hills in the east, nearly a thousand soldiers gathered at the gates of the shrine. At the front of the crowd, Lento explained the details of the day's operations, outlining their strategy for clearing the entrance hall and pushing on into the inner gates of the chapel all before nightfall. Waiting at the gates alongside him, Rena stood alone, waiting for the other 'captains' to join her and searching the crowd for their faces. Soon, a familiar shadow fell at her side and Raven stepped up to the gates of the shrine, taking his place beside Lento and Rena.

"Feeling any better?" Rena glanced sidelong at him while Lento finished briefing the troops on the day's operations.

"Yeah." He gave a slight, wry smile. "A bit disgraceful, but better."

As Rena stifled a quiet laugh, Lento concluded his speech and gave the gatekeepers his signal just as Aisha and Elsword made their way through the crowd. With everyone in attendance, the gates began to creak and groan, swinging open and prepared to accept the thousand lives that stood before them. As soon as the path into the shrine was open, every heart fell into immediate despair.

Violent crashes thundered across the courtyards and the earth quaked with fear as a gigantic, monstrous golem marched toward the gates, its head held higher than the tallest trees in the forest and its arms as thick as the shrine's outer wall. Following in its deafening footsteps, three dozen smaller golems charged toward the gate, hurling boulders at the outer wall as they ran.

"Close the gate!" Lento shouted and drew his sword, unsure of whether or not their blades would cut through a mass of towering stone. As the three gatekeepers struggled to close the shrine, a huge boulder crashed into the outer wall and knocked them over the edge and toward the ground below. Leaping aside, Rena and Raven caught the gatekeepers and helped them to their feet while Lento turned back to his troops and ordered an immediate retreat.

"Pull back to the hills! Bring the catapults around and prepare to fire!" He pointed his sword to the south and his soldiers obeyed, bolting to the hills as the shadow of the colossal golem fell upon them. As another round of rock and stone flew through the air, Aisha and Elsword rushed through the gate and cast a wide barrier across the outer wall. Even with the two of them shielding the gate together, their broad, thing barricade was already beginning to crack and splinter as a relentless hail of boulders rained down upon them.

Wincing as he felt his strength fading, Elsword clenched his jaw and stared out at the tireless brigade charging toward them. "Damn it, how the hell're we supposed to fight that thing? It's a giant rock!"

"It'd be a lot easier..." Aisha panted, pouring all her energy into the crumbling barrier, "If it weren't a hundred feet tall..."

"It'll be tough, but I'm sure we can cut it." Raven drew his sword and prepared to charge, "...This might take a while though."

"You know, I'm starting to look back on the times when we fought those endless swarms of nasod..." Rena hopped back, firing a stream of arrows into the air and knocking away the incoming boulders, though doing little more than scratching the golems themselves, "...and I'm starting to wish this was that easy."

As the golems finally reached the gate, Elsword and Aisha were both breathing heavily and nearly exhausted, their hands trembling as they struggled to hold up the tattered barrier. More than a hundred yards behind them, the soldiers had scarcely pulled the catapults into position and many were still scrambling to drag their ammunition to the top of the hill.

"Tch..." Lento scoffed and gripped his sword tightly. "Is this it, already?"

Now standing only a hundred feet from the gate, the giant golem reached down, scooped up a huge chunk of the shrine wall, and raised it high overhead, aiming far above Elsword and Aisha's barrier and straight for the catapults stationed on the hilltops. Then, just before the giant could attack, a blinding light burst from the clouds overhead and a calm, commanding voice filled the air.

"Surrender immediately. If you do not surrender you will be subject to immediate retaliation."

"Wait, is that-" Rena looked to the sky anxiously as she searched for the source of that unmistakable sound. As the clouds cleared, a smooth, sleek airship descending and hovered over the gate as Eve's voice echoed through the shrine once more.

"You have three seconds to comply."

Staring transfixed, everyone on the ground watched as the massive golem turned its gaze to the airship and launched a mass of rubble and stone toward it. Almost instantly, a bright flash leapt from the ship's bow, spinning through the air and slicing through the rubble with ease. As the golems ceased their charge and turned to the sky, the ship's cargo bay opened wide, revealing a small figure clad in armor of ivory and the shimmering blue light of El. As the golems gathered up another round of stones to throw into the air, Eve appeared on the ship's deck and glared at the field below with a harsh disapproval. "Your time is up."

As soon as she spoke, the armored figure leapt from the side of the ship, firing his massive cannon behind him and barreling into the monstrous giant. At the moment of impact, a violent shock wave ripped through the air, bending the trees and shattering the last of Aisha and Elsword's barrier. As the dust settled and the air cleared, everyone was shocked to see the shattered, broken shell of the giant golem crumbling to the ground. In the wake of this destruction, the lone knight that fell from the sky hefted his cannon over his shoulder, glanced across the field at the remaining golems, and dug his heels into the ground.

"Alright." He spun his cannon and slammed it into the ground. "Who's next?"