"Foolish girl..." Remiel levitated in midair with his arms crossed over his chest, proud of how the young woman lying on her chest cried out from the arrow that he'd shot through her knee, "Did you really believe that you could stand against an angel of Cruxis?"

"I still do," Colette cried as she broke the arrow and flew into the air and threw a chakram at Remiel which grazed his shoulder, "I will never give up...not as long as I live."

"It doesn't have to end this way child," Remiel warned Colette, projecting a fatherly tone as he spoke, "If you would but remove the blasphemous idol around your neck-"

"Stop lying!" Colette shouted as she gripped her birthday pendant, "I won't remove this necklace! I'll die before that happens and I won't become the vassal of a false goddess! I won't do anything to help your lies."

"I have no use for an unrepentant girl." Remiel declared harshly readying another radiant arrow to fire at the defiant Chosen, "Begone!" Remiel loosed the arrow while Colette braced herself for the attack.

"Guardian Thrust!" Colette didn't move as Lloyd appeared in front of her and thrust into the arrow with his blade. A guardian force field repelled the arrow before it flew towards Remiel and forced the angel to cover himself with his wings, "You alright?"

"Yeah..." Colette answered, further assured by Lloyd's arrival, "How do we stop him?"

"Flame Arrow!"

"Aqua Edge!" Genis cried out from behind Colette, a burst of edged water flew threw the arrow and clashed with Remiel's inflamed arrow. The attack doused out the fire mana, but the light would have hit Genis if it weren't for a card that flew out and sliced the card in half, "Thanks!"

"Don't push your luck kid!" Sheena warned the young elf and then turned to the lightly puzzled Colette, "By the way...sorry for the mix-up earlier."

"It's okay."

"Really?" Sheena asked, "That was easy..."

"Don't expect me to act similarly!" Remiel took out an arrow that glowed and the team watched as it enlarged into a single-pointed spear, "Eruption Lance!" Remiel cast the lance at the team, prompting them all to throw up their barriers before the spear hit in front of them and created a magma-filled explosion that threw back the angel's challengers.

"Everyone alright?"

"We are," Raine answered while Colette, Genis and Sheena rose to their feet, "But our barriers won't be strong enough to take another hit like that."

"Give me a minute and I'll help with that," Sheena stood in place as brown mana gathered around her arms, "Servant of the sublime Mother Earth, by right as the pact maker I command thee."

"Pact maker?" Remiel reacted with shock, shock enough to be distracted when Lloyd jumped at him and Remiel barely blocked the boy's attacks, "Stupid boy! Away from me!"

"No thanks!" Lloyd barked while he jumped up from Remiel and then dove back down, "Falling Tempest!" Lloyd descended on the angel in a vertical spin, slashing the messenger of Cruxis multiple times before both hit the chamber floor.

"Angel Hammer!" Colette furled out her wings, sending a gust of winged hammers that pummeled the off-guard angel as Lloyd continued his assault.

"Come forth, Gnome!" Sheena focused the mana into one of her seals, allowed it to float out into midair and struck it with her hand. The card floated to the floor and became a great concentration of mana from which emerged a giant mole with a shovel its hand.

"Hiya kiddos!" Gnome greeted to the shock of Raine and Colette while Lloyd didn't move his sight from the angel he fought, "Huh? We're fighting this guy?"

"Gnome?" Remiel asked in surprise while using an arrow to deflect Lloyd's midair sonic thrust, "Impossible! You're supposed to be in Tethe'alla!"

"Tethe'alla? So you admit it!" Colette shouted just as an arrow flew past her head, "Remiel! Why hide behind all of these lies?"

"Oh take your naivety and shove it!"

"I can help with that!" Gnome cried happily as he used his stabbed his shovel into the ground and gave it a light pat, "Stalagamite!" The angel was unprepared for when a pointed hill of stone and rock slammed into his stomach followed by two more that struck his wings.

"Thanks!" Lloyd rain up the hill of stone and began to rain a series of cuts upon the angel, "You're mine now!"

"It'll take more than this to stop me!" Lloyd's blade struck across his face as he finished, causing his skin to crack and a red magmatic energy to sip out of those cracks and cover him, "Holy Lance!" Lloyd gulped as a lance of bright light flew into his chest and forced him into the ground as he cried out in pain.

"Hang on Lloyd!" Raine shouted while raising her staff as Lloyd pulled out the lance, "First Aid!"

"Thanks!" Lloyd stated as he stood up and felt Raine's mana heal him while he turned back to the oversized gnome, "Any help would be great right now!"

"Already doin everything that I can..."

"What?"

"Remiel's invoked Efreet to fuel his power, so I can't directly get involved anymore than I have." Gnome muttered from the earth patch that he stood on, "Sorry kiddo, those are the rules."

"Why not?"

"He's still increasing our defense with his earth magic," Sheena said to the young elf before throwing out a card at Remiel, "It's not much, but it's better than nothing, all things considered."

"That's fine!" Lloyd said as he stood back up and readied to charge against the angel again, "We'll take this guy down anyway!"

"We need to neutralize that flame armor that he's wearing!" Genis pointed out as Remiel was pushed back by Colette's winged chakram, "Hey Lloyd, can your sword absorb mana?"

"This one?" Lloyd held up the Aeglos sword and thought carefully, "Yeah...I think so..."

"If that really is an Aeglos sword..." Genis muttered while in thought himself, "Then I can temporarily infuse it with my Aqua Edge spell."

"That's too dangerous Genis!" Raine chatised her brother as she erected a barrier to hold off another one of Remiel's arrows, "Your mana hasn't fully recovered from when that warrior sealed you! If you try to infuse that spell into Lloyd's sword, you might die-"

"And I if don't then we'll all die anyway!" Genis yelled back and regretted it from seeing his sister's hurt expression, "I don't really know what's going on or whose right or wrong...but I trust you Lloyd! I trust that you'll do whatever you can to find the truth and protect Colette."

"Genis..." Lloyd looked to Raine to see if she had any objections, the professor looked solemn, but she nodded her head, "Alright! We'll do it."

"Lloyd..."

"It's his choice Professor...and we don't have a better plan anyway!"

"Besides, I'll be fine." Genis assured his sister while holding up his hand to show the gemed crest around it, "I'll probably be out of the fight, but I'll have enough mana to survive."

"An exsphere? Where did you get that?"

"It was...Marble's..."

"Genis..."

"Am I interrupting anything?" Sheena asked while standing on a pillar of rock and throwing up a card to erect a small barrier to ward off one of Remiel's arrows, "No! No! Please take your time! I was just getting warmed up anyway!"

"Allow me to assist you in that regard!" Remiel declared while charging power to the arrow in his bow, "Inferno!" The angel fired the arrow straight at Sheena and laughed when Colette flew into it's path while the arrow exploded with furious mana that burned against the two women.

"Sheena! Colette!"

"Don't worry about us!" Colette shouted back to Lloyd despite holding her arm in pain, "Do what you have to do Lloyd!"

"What she said!" Sheena added while partially dazed, "This guy couldn't hit the broad side of a mountain anyway!"

"How about you?" Remiel asked as a Holy Lance flew towards the shinobi from Mizuho, forcing her and Colette to dodge to either side of the attack.

"I will..." Lloyd silently promised while Colette continued to fight, determined, he turned back to Genis, "So what do I do?"

"You'll have to put the sword's point onto my exsphere." Genis explained as Lloyd followed the instructions, "Good, now don't move it."

"Alright," Lloyd waited while Genis channeled mana from his exesphere that traveled along Lloyd's arm to the Aeglos sword. Noticing Raine stand and look at them, Lloyd grit his teeth, "What are you standing there for! Heal Colette and Sheena!"

"Very well," Raine solemnly agreed, "But hell will have no furry but my hatred if he dies Lloyd!"

"I know..." Lloyd agreed as he felt a warmth from his exesphere while Genis start to pant with rising exhaustion, "My exesphere?"

"What's happening?"

"I don't know..." Lloyd muttered as his arm was suddenly embroiled in a searing red mana, "Hot...Cold...Ah!"

"Yuan!"

"I know Botta." Yuan answered his lieutanent without looking while he sat in the office of the Renegade Headquarters, "Lloyd has discovered a few other capabilities of the Angelus Crystal."

"Absorbing mana?"

"Not just mana." Yuan explained to his long-time associate, "The crystal is reacting to the mana given off by Efreet after the Chosen released the First Seal. Now it's taking in Efreet's very signature, adding another attribute to Lloyd's mana."

"Amazing."

"If Lloyd can survive the transformation." Yuan mused, "Hopefully he isn't trying to absorb a spell with the Aeglos sword."

"What will happen then?"

"Pain."

Back in the crossroads between chambers, Kratos fought alongside a newly released Cruxis prisoner to hold off a squad of elite Desian guards. Based on their knowledge of anti-magic barriers and surprisingly competent equipment and skills, Kratos figured that they were personally trained by Angels from Cruxis.

To guard the prisoner who had cut down two of them.

"What was that?"

"You sense it as well?"

"A rising mana scent..." Kyros muttered while repressing the casting ability of one of the two warriors that he dueled and was momentarily stunned when the man's arm burst from his socket. Momentarily distracting his partner long enough for Kyros to stab his sword through the man's chest and slash out to nearly cut him in half, "Mithos completed the evolving exsphere, didn't he?"

"Yes..." Kratos answered while wordlessly embedding a sword through the visor of a desian and bashing his shield upon the side of another.

"I thought something was odd about that boy." Kyros muttered to himself while facing off with another desian elite, while strong, they weren't ready or faced to battle two foes of the calibur that they faced, "No wonder you let him go ahead so easily."

"I had no idea that this would happen..." Kratos admitted, "Lloyd has unlocked the Angelus Crystal's mana absorption ability..."

"The exsphere is absorbing mana?"

"Specifically Efreet's mana." Kratos explained to the intrigued Kyros, "But I never thought it would activate so soon."

"Is this worse than me accidently sealing his half-elf friend?"

"Possibly."

"Impossible..." Remiel growled with rage as Lloyd's swords glowed with the furious ember of Efreet, "How...how can a mere human...harness this raw mana?"

"I'll give you a hint," Lloyd said as he launched himself from the ground and dived for the angel, "Fire Rain! Aqua Thrust!" With his left hand, Lloyd rapidly thrust his sword to clash against the Angel's equally furious armor and ducked under the angel's strike before delivering a water-charged thrust into the angel's side.

"You'll have to do more than that!" The angel grunted as he pushed off the warrior, "Judgement Ray!" The angel held up his hand to summon a field of Cruxis emblems filled with angel feathers underneath him. Knowing that this wasn't good, Lloyd braced himself as the light of judgment began to rain down on the already ruined seal chamber.

"Guardian Feathers!" Colette cried as she flew above Lloyd and Sheena and furled out her wings to create a wave of feathers that each produced a barrier that blocked the rays of judgement.

"Thanks!" Sheena stated as she focused, "Earth Seal! Stone Grab!" Sheena slapped a card into the ground with a hand of earth and stone reaching up to grab the Angel.

"Release me!" The angel demanded as he emitted an aura of fire that burned the hand while he brought his bow to his hands, "Molten Arrow!" The angel fired a fire charged arrow at the party that exploded in front of them, sending out a burst of heated energy that burned their bodies as the angel laughed.

"Hold on everyone..." Raine muttered as her armless shoulder began to ache from the heat of the attack, "Healing Circle!"

"I'm going in!" Lloyd didn't wait for the healing magic to fully kick in as he ran towards the messenger of his beloved's oppression, "Here I come!"

"Don't push your luck!" The angel spat as he swat out his arm, only to have Lloyd cut through it and strike the angel's chest before jumping back, "Damn it!"

"His armor's starting to weaken!" Colette called out while focusing with her unfurled wings, "Angel Feathers!" A surge of white and bright feathers flew towards and around the messenger that cut at the weak points in his armor while he cried out in frustration and pain.

"Don't count me out yet!" Genis shouted while holding his chest, "Aqua Edge!" Using the spear of a fallen desian elite as a catalyst, the young elf focused his spell into the spear and threw it towards the angel where it embedded itself through the man's knee and broke the last of his molten armor.

"You unrepentant fools!" Remiel roared while pulling the lance from his knee and empowering it with his furious and holy might, "Holy Lance!"

"Hold on!" Colette caught the lance just as it was thrown and tossed it back at the messenger and embedded it through his chest while he cried out in true shock, "You can't call yourself holy anymore!"

"That's my girl!" Lloyd yelled with pride while Colette beamed back at him, "All out!"

"Hydro Ball!" Genis and Raine declared while Raine gave off mana for Genis to focus and harness into a ball of pure water which flew towards the Angel and encased him within it.

"Serpent Seal!" Sheena threw a card with the seal of snake on it onto the ball of water and watched as the card dissolved into a pair of dark liquid snakes that swam towards Remiel and wrapped themselves around him before biting into his neck and side of his head.

"Angel Ring!" Colette brought out her chakram and threw it towards Remiel while a ring of angel feathers circled around it. The chakram impacted the water and filled with light that caused Remiel to cry out within the water while it steamed and evaporated.

"Sonic Thrust!" Lloyd jumped up and shiftly stabbed down the angel with all of his might before jumping back to Colette's side, "Colette?"

"I'm here Lloyd!" She placed both of her hands on Lloyds while Lloyd guided them so that she was holding them in some strange duet, "Angelic Thrust!" With Colette's flight and Lloyd's strength, the couple flew towards Remiel and thrust through him once more while he gaped quietly at the reality of his defeat.

"Im...possible..."

Author's Note:

Hope you enjoyed the boss fight with Remiel...honestly, he's one of those characters that I always hated with repeat playthroughs. Everytime I saw that smug messenger float down and tell a young girl to sacrifice more of her humanity, I just wanted to reach in and shove my fist down his throat till he choked.

Hopefully, I wasn't alone and some of this sipped into the story, hopefully it had an enjoyable affect on this, the previous and the next chapter.

Got nothing else right now except...

Did anyone ever meet an NPC in an RPG that they really wanted as a party member but couldn't? Here's something fun, name em and explain why you wanted them in your party. It can be serious or silly, it's up to you.

Me, I always wondered why Yuan couldn't be a party member? He's such a deep character, technically a good guy who did a lot of questionable stuff to try and stop Mithos including attempting to murder his best friend, Kratos multiple times to acquire the Eternal Sword. Why didn't he just trick Lloyd and the crew into killing Kratos instead of telling Lloyd who his father is and giving him less of a reason to kill him?