Copyright: I own nothing.

Mayor's Office, Palmacosta

"Governor-General Dorr!" A citizen cried out as he lunged at the intruder and was handily knocked away by the pommel of the warrior's hilt.

"Chill bro...I'm just making sure that the General and I see eye to eye." A handsome swordsman with long red hair stated to the General's assistant with his sword held an inch from Dorr's neck, "See...I don't look kindly on liars and hypocrite my friend."

"You're the liar here boy!" Dorr shouted defiantly, his stare fixed on the intruder's ornate key crest, "I don't care if you do have an exesphere! You're not the real Chosen!"

"Really? You're really gonna doubt the obvious?" The swordsman laughed and pointed his sword to the girl who hid against the closet, "Guess I need to convince you some more...don't I?"

"Not my daughter you bastard!" Dorr shouted before being kicked down as holy energy gathered upon the swordsman, "Please...don't do this...she is innocent!"

"Then she's got nothing to fear...does she?" Zelos asked the mayor as a beam of light blasted through the roof and caught the screaming girl in a pelting ray of light beams that fell from heaven. As Door watched in horror, violent light erupted from the floor underneath the girl and brought even more intense pain upon her decaying features, "Oh...guess she wasn't so innocent after all..."

"My daughter!" Dorr cried out as he ran to the girl after the rays of light faded and found only a small mis-shaped skeleton amidst a pile of ash, "Why...why have you done this? What did she do to you?"

"You defied the Will of Martel by allying with Desians and selling out your own people." Zelos pointed out when he spun around the spear of a heavily armored warrior and quickly slashed through the side of the warrior's chest. As he sheathed his sword and stretched his arms, the armored soldier gasped and fell forward onto his chest, "I mean come on...why would my holy spell kill a child if someone in this room wasn't guilty of a some great sin? Again...doubting the obvious."

"The Chosen was meant to save us...not condemn us!"

"Sometimes you've gotta pull out weeds to save the garden." Zelos noted as he bowed to the mourning mayor, "I think that I'll head to the Academy and sort out this identity thing that you heathen folk seem to be working out. I'll take the best suite at the local inn, no questions got it?"

"Yes...my lord..."

"Hey! Zelos is fine!" The swordsman chuckled before shutting the door behind him and catching the punch of one of his companions, "Farah? What did I tell you about bad ambushes?"

"You killed that little girl!" Farah cried out before grabbing Zelos and throwing him down the stairwell where he gracefully landed. Apologizing the maid who had fallen in shock of his stunt, Zelos quickly lifted the woman into his arms as he dodged Farah's much more violent landing, "Explain yourself!"

"So I'm the Chosen won't cut it?"

"You know that it won't!"

"Then will the real Kilia please stand up?" At Zelos' words, a girl that completely resembled the one that Zelos had killed appeared from next to Zelos' other quiet companion and ran up the stairs crying for her father, "The one in the office was a fake...otherwise the spell would've only mildly irritated the real child."

"Oh..." Farah said apologetically while blushing and looking at the crater that she'd made in the middle of the office lobby, "I will pay for this."

"That you will." Asbel commented with a neutral scowl while Zelos pat the boy on his shoulder, "Now what will we do, Chosen One?"

"Oh simple...we root out all who would dare defane this town by associating with the monstrous Desian scum." Zelos declared with a dramatic flair that earned the admiration of surrounding citizens while Farah and Asbel were taken aback by the performance, "Then I shall track down this "false" chosen and bring her intentions in line with the will of the goddess!"

"I think he's going a bit over the top..."

"That's the point." Asbel said to Farah while Zelos was surrounded by a circle of pretty young women as Asbel buried his face in his palm, "Some reasons for such are more pointless than others..."

"So what's going on?"

"Desians have started searching the ruins." Sheena reported as she returned to the mostly buried mansion where the party had been hiding out for the past several days, "They had some monsters with them...so they may have heard about us killing their divine messenger."

"Evidently, Cruxis isn't taking kindly to our defiance of their plans." Raine replied as she reflexively massaged the stump on her right shoulder, "I'd say that we're even then..."

"Can we still get to the Seal Chamber once Lloyd is better?" Genis asked, strapping on armored bracelets that he'd found in one of the unsunken rooms of the mansion, "We may have beaten an angel, but an army's still an army."

"Is it wise to act so carelessly?" Kratos asked, a rare feature of worry on his stoic face, "Do any of you have an inkling of an idea as to what your course of action has done?"

"In all honesty, there's something about this situation that isn't understood." Raine admitted, "And you seem more knowledgeble about these things than a common mercenary should."

"He's an ally, why ask for more?" Kyros pointed, "Then again, your kind is always the most suspicious...not without reason, but it can be a hassle."

"What do you mean? My kind?" Raine asked with suspicion, "Do you have a problem with elves?"

"Elf?" Kyros blurted out to Raine's subtle shock, "No, I have a problem with mana casters. But, you're partially responsible for my freedom...so I tolerate it."

"Where's my credit? I'm the one who busted you out!"

"And I did thank you...or did I?" Kyros asked the pouting Sheena and then bowed in the sand before her, "I pledge to honor my debt either way, Sheena of Mizuho."

"Okay! That's enough!" Genis shouted with his hands grabbing his hair, "I'm so confused...can someone just tell me what's going on? I trust Lloyd, but it's just so much...I just want to know what's happening in straight words alright?"

"Sorry Genis...no one hear can do that right now..." Raine stated, "So it's best to just wait for Lloyd to recover and then he'll fill us in on everything that's happened."

"With Colette in there with him...he'll never come out-" Genis was stopped when Raine's staff hit him on the head, "I'm just being honest-"

"Children need mind their business."

"Mind if I check on him?" Kyros asked while Kratos cautiously turned in his direction, "What? We apparently have the same enemy. I just want to meet a potential ally before I get tied up in a possibly suicide mission."

"Hey! Lloyd knows what he's doing!"

"Weren't you just complaining about how confused you were?" Sheena teased as Genis pouted with a blush, "Besides, it's not like this guy knows where he's going if he tries to walk off on his own. You're stuck with us at least until we return to civilization."

"Noted."

"Are you sure that you're alright?"

"I've been resting for long enough Colette..." Lloyd answered his sweetheart, who sat on the bed wearing her travel dress, "Besides...I don't think that we've seen the worst of things yet."

"The worst?" Colette asked with more curiosity than fear, "I know that we'll have to face Cruxis and the desians when we get to the seals...but we'll beat them...we'll persevere together."

"Thanks Colette...but I'm really talking about Yggdrassial and the Eternal Sword that Remiel told us about..." Lloyd clarified and exhaled, "I don't know...it seems like everytime we take a step forward...the next few steps seem that much harder."

"Then we take things one step at a time-"

"Pardon me...but being a few more steps ahead normally never hurts." A voice that Lloyd barely recognized said from outside of the room, "Your teacher sent me to check on you, mind if I come in?"

"Go ahead..." Lloyd replied after Colette kindly nodded to him. Lloyd buckled his swords onto his belt as a stranger in desian armor entered the room. On reflex, Lloyd moved to draw his swords, but the stranger held out his hand as a token of peace, "Sorry...force of habit."

"Understandable..." The stranger replied as he gave a curt bow, "Kyros Theron and you must be Lloyd Irving."

"Hello again!" Colette replied by giving a curtsy while Lloyd nodded, "You're the one who saved Lloyd! Thank you!"

"All I did was stop the fuel for the fire. Your teacher was the one who healed him," Kyros pointed out while Lloyd put on his jacket, "That thing on your hand...is that an exesphere?"

"This?" Lloyd looked upon his exesphere and held his hand out to Kyros, "You've never seen an exesphere before?"

"Just the one that was strapped to my chest."

"The one that's still there?"

"Still there-" Kyros looked down to find that an exesphere was embedded within the top of his rib cage, "Damn...damn...DAMN!"

"That could be bad..."

"Could be bad? Thanks for pointing that out..." Kyros replied with a hint of sarcasm that made Colette scowl, "I apologize...it's just that I have to fight every urge to rip this exesphere from my body...but it would be a bad idea for multiple reasons..."

"Well...it doesn't look like it has a key crest." Lloyd observed while noting the markings upon the gem, "So until we get you one...removing it will be a problem."

"Not to mention that I was the only thing that was keeping me alive..." Kyros added in defeat, "No wonder I've always healed in that damned pit."

"Hold on...what pit?"

"Oh yeah! The well of magma that Cruxis kept me in for the past 4,000 years." Kyros sarcastically chuckled as Colette's eyes widened in horror and Lloyd scowled, "This wasn't how I planned on telling you this..."

"4,000 years? Cruxis...put an exesphere on you just so that they could imprison and torture you for the past 4,000 years?" Lloyd asked, more shocked at the reason that this exesphere was upon this stranger than that the stranger was over 4,000 years old, "What did you do?"

"I'm on Yggdrassial's most despised list...if the list is even noteworthy anymore..." Kyros answered, tapping the exesphere as she sat in a chair next to the bed, "Can I ask about if you've heard of a Kingdom called Maxwell?"

"Maxwell?" Colette said outloud as if recalling something, "Oh! You mean the kingdom that marched on Treit with it's allies, killed its kings and left the city abandoned to the present day?"

"It wasn't exactly a victory or a defeat...but...victory sounds about accurate."

"That was where you were from?" Lloyd asked, sensing an opportunity with this stranger, "So you were here before Yggdrassial split the world into two?"

"Are you about to ask a long...long...list of questions about culture, history, custom or things that have no relevance now?" Lloyd and Colette exchanged a look as they saw how wearied Kyros was when he asked that question, "Your teacher just about drained me of all of that knowledge...thank you very much..."

"No, I think we'll spare you of a second round." Colette said while Kyros exhaled in relief, "But...we're enemies of Cruxis and we want to stop their plans...their cycle of suffering and all of their lies. If you could tell us anything about how they made things the way that they did...it would help us greatly..."

"I'll see what I can do...but no promises necessarily." Kyros said with a shrug, "I honestly have no idea about this new world...so you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours."

"If you were around all those years ago...you may have known Mithos," Lloyd guessed as Kyros nodded, "You knew the Hero Mithos?"

"Surprised that people know about him..." Kyros answered, "As one of the Princes of Maxwell, I crossed paths with him several times late in my tour of duty. Sometimes my men reported being eluded when he smuggled goods out and more often then not, I'd be called upon to honor my family's debt to one of his companions. I never had much time to personally speak with him, but I didn't need it. I could see it in his eyes. He was the most powerful spell-blade of the age; a cunning leader; a charismatic motivator; and a good friend. Naive perhaps...but the world could always use more people like that."

"Wait...you're a prince?"

"Not of royalty...You see...Sylvarant was divided into princedoms with one king who loosely governed them from a place called Symphonia..." Kyros explained, "I'd only been there once, but the laws of the king were more or less guidelines of conduct and honor that we only half kept. Each princedom was ruled by it's own kingdom as determined by their own set of rules. In Maxwell for example...the next prince was chosen by whomever could complete the Sigil of Aether. Afterwards, they would rule Maxwell until death or until a worthy successor retires them from their seat."

"So what about the Kharlan War?" Colette inquired, "I was told that the Kharlan War was ended by the hero Mithos after he sealed away the desians."

"Speaking of which...what's a desian?"

"I guess desians are just pawns of Cruxis really..." Lloyd answered after thinking for a second, "They attack human towns to pressure the Chosen further on their journey and take captured humans to a ranch where they put exespheres on them and use them as cattle..."

"Oh no..." Kyros breathed in slight panic, "They're that desperate to harness the power of magic...aren't they?"

"I take it that you don't like magic..."

"Apart from how it negatively alters the natural mana of life for petty and selfish intentions and if unchecked can completely distort the Natural Order like how Yggdrassial used it to split the world in half and keep me alive for 4,000 years because I accidently killed-"

"Okay...new subject!" Colette loudly suggested, sensing that magic was a heavy topic for Kyros especially considering his situation, "Can you tell us exactly who Yggdrassial is then?"

"And now we cut to the heart of the matter." Kyros muttered to himself and somehow Lloyd could tell that there was something that he didn't want to say, "Yggdrassial...was a powerful half-elf and a close confidant of Mithos. He meant well, but all he knew and remembered was the hatred that he bore since birth...something that shaped him into a fell creature. Mithos and Martel kept him in check...until..."

"Until what?" Lloyd asked while thinking, "In short, he's going to tell the truth...he may not tell all of it."

"Until after Mithos ended the Kharlan War..."

Author's Notes:

Despite Lloyd's misgivings, what can he and Colette learn about the origin of Cruxis and it's leader Yggdrassial from this lost prince of the past?

Find out in the next chapter, coming soon!