And now for a five point summary of the last chapter:

1) Knight is having knightmares! (Ha! Get it?)

Knight: NO! THE BAD PUNS! THEY'RE EMBEDDED INTO MY BRAIN!

2) Teacher Rune explains the laws of the universe!

Rune: The answer to everything is 42.

3) Infi gets a muffin!

Infi: Touch my muffin and you die.

4) Eva teleports Vapor's chair and Vapor freaks out!

Vapor: MY CHAIR IS GONE. I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT. YOU JUST MURDERED ME, EVA.

5) A wild Echo appears!

Echo: ECHO-MON! GOTTA CATCH'EM ALL!

CHAPTER START!

You know that moment when you're in a compromising position and someone else walks in? And then there's this awkward silence that settles over everything until someone moves or makes a noise?

Yeah.

That's what Rune felt right now.

Except most people wouldn't consider a chance encounter with your school teacher a compromising position.

Echo cowered next to the tent, looking torn between acting like a teacher and getting the El out of there as quickly as possible. Her hands trembled slightly, adjusting her goggles slightly. Rena, who stood across from her, looked sensibly baffled. Rune could relate. Heck, if he could see them all at the moment, he probably would've thought that they were demonstrating how to perfectly drop ones jaw.

"So, um... Ms. Echo?"

Echo let out a soft 'eep', stiffening up almost immediately. "E-ECHO IS NOT MS. ECHO! ECHO IS... ECHO IS ECHO'S TWIN SISTER!" That somewhat confusing answer seemed to satisfy her, as she nodded as she continued with her crazy, not-quite-believable story. "Echo's real name is... is... Parrot! Yes. Ec- Parrot is Parrot's name." Insert nervous laughter and shifty eyes here.

Rune raised an eyebrow. "Alright. So, Ms. Parrot, was it?"

Echo nodded vigorously. "Yes, E- Parrot is Parrot. What can Ec- Parrot do for you?"

Coughing awkwardly, Rune rubbed his hands together. "If you really were Ms. Echo and not her twin sister, Ms. Parrot - theoretically speaking, of course - what on Elrios would you be doing here?"

Echo thought for a moment, genuinely considering her answer. "Parrot thinks Echo would be here because she's not just a school teacher, but also a military woman who transports herself between the school and the army using a special, Echo-patented alchemy formula that only Echo knows how to create. Parrot would also say that Echo's real objective in the school is probably top secret, and has something to do with recruitment, but it is top secret so Echo wouldn't be able to say. Theoretically speaking, of course."

Rena nodded carefully, folding her hands in front of her. "So. You're saying, that if Ms. Echo was actually here, she would have some way to get everyone who is here back home."

Echo nodded. "But Parrot is not Echo, so Parrot can't help you. Parrot is sorry." Taking that as her cue to leave, Echo scurried out of the way, disappearing into one of the many tents. Rena rounded on Rune.

"Rune! Do you know what this means?!"

Rune nodded grimly. "Yeah. Ms. Echo is batshit insane."

Rena twitched, her hand lifting to make threatening motions. "No!" She then giggled. "Okay, that is kind of funny."

Rune nodded sagely. "Isn't it? But now we're going to have to find Ms. Echo's tent and get that formula. I'm worried about the school; so many strange things have been going on that it's hard to think Hamel Academy will be untouched."

Rena nodded solemnly. "Let's go find Vapor first; if we can get her to distract Ms. Echo for a bit everything will be much, much easier for us."

Ara sat on a bench, staring distantly out into the sky. Beside her sat Eve, also staring out at the sky. Ara sighed.

"You can feel that something's about to happen, can't you?"

Eve tilted her head slowly. "What I find so interesting is that multiple people are working towards the same objective, yet none can recognize that objective for what it really is."

Ara shifted in her seat. "Does that mean that you know everything that's going to happen?"

Eve smirked. "Perhaps."

Ara rolled her eyes, standing up and brushing off her pants. "Yeah, right." Beginning to pace around, her calm demeanor melted into nervous fidgeting. "It's just... the air... tastes bad."

Eve raised an eyebrow, also standing up. "The air tastes bad." The duo, now standing, began to walk back to the main camp site, Ara moving nervously and Eve moving smoothly.

Ara nodded, wringing her hands. "It's something I can't really describe. The air just... tastes black, like evil. It's not something that you can describe; you can only know what it's like when you can taste it yourself. The air is just disgusting, so black and thick and disgusting."

Eve remained silent. Ara took her silence as a sign to continue, pausing slightly before sighing. "I thought... Maybe it was my brother. That taste always follows the air around him wherever he goes; I've come to accept it. But... even when Aren isn't close by, the air is still thick with this horrible flavor. I think something horrible is about to happen soon, and... It's driving me crazy."

Now it was Eve's turns to sigh. "Ara, I believe you are over-reacting. Perhaps it is just the air of this camp; it is a military camp, after all. Or perhaps it is the foul taste of the Glitters that wander beyond the hills that you are tasting on your tongue." Eve clucked her tongue, crossing her arms imperiously and tossing her hair. "There is no need to worry yourself, Ara. If there is something horrible coming on the horizon, we will deal with it. Humanity, elves, and Nasod alike have always survived like this; never knowing what will happen until it does. We cannot predict the future, nor can we prevent it from happening. Do not worry. We will survive."

Raising her hands above her head, Eve stretched, several parts within her clicking and coiling mechanically. "Now, if you excuse me, I have some things to take care of right now."

Ara tilted her head, watching Eve with wide eyes. "You do? Is it really important? Can I come?"

Eve shook her head, staring impassively at Ara. "This is something of the utmost importance that can only be accomplished by me. There is nothing you may do to aid me in my endeavor, and no, you may not come. You must stand there while I fulfill my duty."

By that, she meant that she needed to go watch some more cat videos. She couldn't help it! After Infi had uploaded those cat videos to her hard drive, she had a... craving... for the fluffy little animals. It was like an addiction! If Eve went for more than twenty-four hours without seeing at least one furry little face... the results would definitely not be pretty. Not at all.

Damn that Infi.

"One day I will tear his puny head off of his spine. Then I will cleave him in half and leave his bones to rot. But first the fluffy kitties."

"What was that, Eve?"

"It is none of your business, Ara."

"But you just said flu-"

"It. Is. None. Of. Your. Business."

"Okay, okay. Sheesh."

Eve nodded in satisfaction, before turning on her heel and striding off to find a quiet, secluded location to be alone with her kitten videos.

Leaving Eva and Chung alone with a slightly fuming Vapor probably wasn't a good idea. Her special alchemy chair was, of course, absolutely fine, but it was the principle that counts. Vapor was decidedly not happy about Eva teleporting her chair through a Nasod portal and had to voice her displeasure to everyone around her.

"You've tainted it! Look! Now it's got Nasod goop all over it! Yuck!"

It was perfectly fine.

Vapor was being dramatic.

Crossing her arms, Vapor huffed. "I need to purify it. You!" She pointed to Chung. "I command you to go and find me some Wind Cores! They're absolutely necessary to purify my poor, poor chair. And you!" This time she pointed to Eva. "You go get me some Vigor Potion!"

Eva's eyes narrowed fractionally, her hands set on her hips. "I am a monarch; I see no need to obey your orders."

Vapor narrowed her eyes back. "What did you say, you little brat?!"

Eva huffed, crossing her arms. "Do your auditory organs need to be checked, little alchemist? It appears you are unable to hear what I am saying. Must I repeat my words slowly for you? It appears that is what humans do for others who are exceptionally slow in the mental department."

Snapping her head back to Eva, Vapor let out a low growl. "Why you little-" "Hi! Vapor! How are you?" It was at this point that both Rena and Rune decided to barge into the borderline-awkward argument, nearly banging into Vapor in their hurry.

Rena flashed her a brilliant smile. "Hi, Vapor! I heard that you needed help purifying your chair?" Vapor narrowed her eyes suspiciously, fixing her glasses with one hand.

"How do you know that?"

Waving a hand airily Rena tittered. Okay, now Chung knew something was up. No one - and he meant no one - laughed like that unless they were seriously drunk or being suspicious. Considering that Rena didn't seem like the type to drink, Chung assumed that it was the latter. "Elven hearing, Vapor, Elven hearing. Why else would our ears be so large and pointy?" Then her hand landed firmly on Vapor's shoulder. "Anyway, I heard that Echo was hoarding a whole bunch of Vigor Potion in her sleeping tent. I'm sure she'll let you share some with you!" By this point, Rena was practically pushing Vapor out of the tent. "You really should go talk to her about that!"

She and Rune made eye contact, before Rune helped shove Vapor out the door. "I heard she even has Advanced Vigor Potion! That'd cut down the purifying time by what, half? Go get it! And don't take no for an answer! Echo has plenty to spare!"

Successfully shoving Vapor out of the tent, Rena and Rune then whirled around. "Go, go! Start looking!"

Then it became a flurry of activity, the duo pulling out cupboards and rifling through papers, digging through leather-bound books, and even examining the strange experiments littered around Vapor and Echo's shared alchemy tent.

Wait...

Echo?

"What is Ms. Echo doing here?"

Rune snapped his head to stare at Eva and Chung, eyes wide. "Lady El! Don't scare me like that!" His look of surprise then shifted into a smug smirk. "What were you two doing here? Together? Could it be that you two w-"

Thud!

Eva: 21

Chung: 5

Rena: 1

Rune: 1

Rena glared at Rune, raising another book menacingly. Rune rubbed his head, feeling an odd combination of pain, irritation (seriously, he needed to up his score), and fear. "Stop talking and start searching! You two help as well!"

And that is how Rena managed to rope the Regal Queen of the Nasod and the White Wolf of Hamel into searching for some unnamed papers. After a few moments of silence, Chung cleared his throat.

"So... what are we even looking for?"

Oh. My. El.

Aren scratched his head, slightly confused. He hadn't seen Elsa in a couple hours, which was odd, because normally she would've been terrorizing the majors, privates, colonels, and lieutenants under her (being a lieutenant general gave her that privilege, apparently). "Hmm... Maybe she's busy with paperwork?"

So Aren checked her tent.

No one.

"Maybe she's in the mess hall?"

So Aren checked the mess hall.

No one.

"Maybe she's in the washroom?"

There was no way in hell Aren was going to check for her there. Instead, he pulled aside a random private - at least, he hope he was a private and not some high-ranking officer - and smiled disarmingly. "Excuse me, sir, but have you seen Lieutenant General Sieghart? I have some important matters to discuss with her."

The private paled, clearing his throat. "Lieutenant General Sieghart... I'm not sure where she is, sir. You could check with Lieutenant General Edel or General Vernon, but I'm not sure if they'll know where she is either. Now, if you'll excuse me..." Nodding tentatively at Aren, the private slid away to do whatever it was he was doing.

"Are you looking for Sis?"

Turning to face the new voice, Aren flashed a smile. "Ah, Knight. How are you? I was looking for Miss Elesis, but she appears to be missing at the moment."

Knight frowned. "I'm fine, thank you. That's odd... Elsa should be up and-" "Terrorizing the other members of the army? That's what I thought."

Chuckling, Knight shook his head. "I was going to say, 'Elsa should be up and practicing by now,' but that works as well. It probably fits Elsa better, anyway." He then ran a hand through his messy red locks in a half-hearted attempt to neaten them up. "Have you checked her tent? She could be bogged down with paperwork."

Aren nodded, shifting his weight from one side to the other. "Yes, I did. I checked the mess hall as well. No one seems to know where she is right now. Any clues?"

Knight shrugged helplessly, flashing Aren a slightly cheeky yet reassuring smile. "Knowing Elsa, she probably decided that she was getting pent up here in camp and went to go kill some Glitters. Don't worry, she'll be alright though. Elsa once beat up and entire division of the Red Knights because they laughed at Rune's... well, his runes. Or his attempts at one." Spotting the horrified look on Aren's face, Knight laughed. "Relax, relax. That was when I was what, six? It's also because of that particular event that the military started taking her seriously." He shrugged again. "Elsa's always been like that. She always takes care of the family, you know? Kinda like a mother."

He paused. "Ah, but she's our sister. Aish, now I'm just rambling. You get what I mean though, right?"

Smiling, Aren patted Knight's head. "Completely. Miss Elesis must just be preoccupied, that's all. I'm sure she'll turn up eventually, like you said."

Just then, two privates walked past, one of them shaking his head angrily. "Honestly, those kids are such brats! We were playing a card game - a CARD GAME - and then that punk with the stupid dual-tone hair thinks he has the right to go and stab the table. What an asshole. I swear, if I that fucking brat and the Sieghart bitch weren't related, I would've crushed his skull then and there."

Knight's face darkened as the private continued talking, his companion laughing and nodding in agreement. "These kids are all so retarded. We should just use them for Glitter bait, starting with those annoying-as-hell redheads. Who cares if they're related to Sieghart! We sho-"

He was cut off as Knight's fist collided with his face, sending him flying. The second private, whirling around to face Knight, flinched as his eyes met Knight's cold ruby chips. Knight, without hesitation, slugged him across the face too.

With a wave of his hands, Knight's sword, Winterthorn, appeared in the air. Grasping the handle, Knight effortless swung it around to threateningly hold it in front of the first private's head. "What's your name, trash?"

The private gulped. "P-Private Tross... Sir." The 'sir' was added on as an afterthought. Knight's eyes narrowed. "And your friend?" "H-He's P-Private G-Geon-n, s-sir."

Nodding, Knight stepped closer. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't turn you two fucktards into ribbons for badmouthing my family and friends."

Private Tross shivered. "W-Well, that... ah... that is... Because we'll get you first, asshole!" From slightly further away, Private Geon sat up, pistol in hand, and fired a point-blank shot at Knight.

Knight glowered and growled out two syllables. "Sandstorm."

Aren had to shield his eyes as everything around him turned to sand, whipping around in his eyes and blocking his view of what was going on. When it subsided, Aren blinked the remaining sand out of his eyes, only to find the two privates cowering before Knight. Striding up to the two of them, Knight examined his sword blade. "Do you want to know why this is called Winterthorn?" He asked casually, eyes flicking between the sword and his victims. The two men shivered.

Walking closer, Knight bent down and pressed the flat of the sword to a strip of Private Tross's exposed skin. He hissed, attempting to recoil from the blade. "It's called 'Winterthorn' because the if you don't pay attention, the chill of death it gives its victims bites its master as well." Then he shrugged. "Not that I've ever killed, though. Now..." Standing up, Knight slashed his sword through the air. "Freeze."

As soon as the command left his mouth, a torrent of icy air and snowflakes burst forth from his blade, encircling the duo and practically freezing them on the spot. Aren gaped. Catching his look, Knight smiled. "Relax; it'll wear off in a couple of hours. I'm able to control Winterthorn a lot better now. If I did something like this a couple years ago... Well, they'd probably be a couple of military popsicles."

Closing his mouth, Aren walked closer to inspect the thick layer of frost that covered the two men. "This is... impressive, to say the least. Since when were you able to do something like this?"

Knight rested the flat of his sword on his shoulder, seemingly unperturbed by the eternal cold of the blade. "I got Winterthorn when I was nine. It took me a couple of years to master is; most of my practice targets were the older kids that wanted to bully Rune because he was into magic or wanted to beat up Infi because he said something really rude."

Aren nodded. "If you were capable of something like this, why not stop Rune and Infi from, ah, teasing you so harshly?"

Knight shrugged, before hissing and letting go of Winterthorn. It clattered to the ground, the patches of grass beneath it shrivelling up due to the cold. "Knight, are you okay?! Let me see your hands." Grasping one of Knight's arms, Aren only caught a glimpse of reddened, nearly frost-bitten flesh before Knight pulled his hand back, waving a hand to dismiss Winterthorn and cradling his hand quickly.

"It's nothing, a side-effect of using Winterthorn. Thick gloves are needed, but I got so angry I forgot to put them on..." He let out a huff. "As for your earlier question... Well, they're my brothers. Yes, they can get a little rude, and a little hurtful, and maybe on Infi's part a little abusive, but they're my brothers." A mischievous smile crossed his face briefly. "Besides, they're so headstrong. It hurt them enough when they learned I was taking care of them quietly, so if I can alleviate just a little bit of their burden and stress, I don't mind being the punching bag."

Aren let out a sigh, shaking a bit of his ebony hair out of his face. "Alright. But Knight..." Said redhead lifted an eyebrow. "Don't let yourself be too much of a punching bag. Your brothers will want your open support as well, you know."

Knight smiled brightly. "Understood."

Add was walking down the camp in search when it happened.

It being a scantily-clad, red-haired woman with large bat wings and a massive scythe swooping over the tents, cackling with enough insanity to match him on his bad days, and hurling balls of void magic and... hearts? at the many tents neatly lined up in rows.

What the actual El.

She cackled again, swooping once more before fluttering in a mockingly delicate way in the center of the camp. Two more bat-people-things - he was pretty sure they were called incubi and succubi, but he really wasn't sure - flew up next to the redheaded one. The first, a male, fixed his glasses, tilting his head to let the light dance off his pale, gray skin, a suave smirk playing on the corners of his lips. The second, a female with golden hair that hung in long locks, fluttered her heavily mascara-coated eyelashes at the camp below.

Were they... flirting? Now? Of all times?

The blonde one cleared her throat and waved. "Hello y'all, I'm Erilot, I'll be destroying your camp today. Here with me is my gorgeous partner-in-crime, Incoolord," the male waved, "And someone who needs a very special introduction. Introducing her Royal Majesty, the most gorgeous of all the succubi - and most of the incubi too - the Queen of the Succubi, Queen Karis! Wow, isn't she pretty, y'all?" Erilot clapped enthusiastically, frantically copied by Incoolord.

What.

The redhead in the middle smirked, re-crossing her legs coquettishly and flashing her panties to the world (Which Add really, really didn't need to see). "Aw, Erilot, you flatter me. My hair isn't nearly as gorgeous as yours. And I'm not nearly as stunning as Incoolord."

The male, Incoolord, nearly fainted, his face flushing. The blonde, Erilot, fanned herself with a clawed hand. "Oh my Queen, you're too beautiful for words! Oh my El, this is truly why you're the queen!"

As the three exchanged squealed compliments and exceptionally flirty quips (accompanied by a few whispers of "Oh my El that guy/girl is so hot/cute/sexy/gorgeous I call dibs" followed by disappointed groans), the entirety of the military camp had gathered beneath them. Noticing the crowd, Karis cleared her throat, smiling as she batted her eyelashes.

"Hello all you gorgeous men and women out there! And the ugly ones too, but I don't really care about you. Yeah, so, we're here on orders from our totally not-hot General, bleh." She stuck out her tongue, spikey tail flicking behind her. "Anyway, I'm supposed to have some fancy speech memorized so I can declare it really dramatically, but I didn't really memorize it too well, tee-hee!" Here she paused to make a cute face, or what was supposed to be a cute face. Add honestly thought it looked more like a Coral Serpent with diarrhea. "Yeah. So, here it goes!" She cleared her throat, pausing dramatically.

Then she threw her head and laughed. Crazily. That was Add's thing, El dammit!

Flinging a hand out to point at the camp, narrowly missing Incoolord's eye, she chuckled darkly once more. "Foolish humans, thinking you could hold back the Dark Army!" She turned to Incoolord and pouted. "Dark Army? What kind of lame name is that?"

Incoolord adjusted his glasses. "Indeed. It should've been called... KARIS' FABULOUS LOVE-LOVE KNIGHTS!" Erilot squealed and clapped, Karis nodding her approval.

"Now, where was I...? Right. Dark Army." She pointed dramatically again. "For going against your fate, we, the succubi and incubi of the Dark World - Ew. I don't like that name. Incoolord, babe, come up with another amazing name for me, mm-kay?"

Incoolord adjusted his glasses. "Indeed. It should've been called... KARIS' FABULOUS LOVE-LOVE WORLD!" Erilot squealed and clapped, Karis nodding her approval.

"Now, where was I...? Right. Dark World."

Add could feel his brain cells slowly dying an agonizing, painful death.

He wished he could die with them.

Karis cleared her throat once more, carefully reciting the speech. "We, the succubi and incubi of Karis' Fabulous Love-Love World-" how she said that with a straight face shall never be known "-have been summoned by General Scar - who is, by the way, totally bleh and not my type at all (Ran is totally cuter, why couldn't I have been assigned to his division?!) - to tear you down. We'll slit your stomachs like fish, then stuff you with salt to preserve you, and slowly savour the taste of your salty, preserved flesh! Fear us, mortals!" Throwing back her head once more, she cackled. Again. Incoolord and Erilot clapped, wiping tears away from their eyes.

"Brava, brava! You were magnificent!"

"Oh my dear sweet queenie, do it again, do it again!"

"Alright, if you insist. Foolish humans -"

"OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE."

Oh. My. El.

[A/N:]

I'm totally not dead! After getting over a nasty case of writer's block and life, I came up with this chapter! Yay! So, two major announcements:

One: I've officially switched reviewer replies over to PM, so those should come in a few minutes before I actually post this chapter. For those of you who don't have a FF account, reviewer replies will still be at the end of the author's note like usual.

Two: This will be the last time I EVER say this. Note the caps lock, bold, and italics: KNIGHT IS UNDERGOING CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. PLEASE DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT HIM BEING A 'WUSS' OR A 'COWARD' BECAUSE KNIGHT IN THIS STORY IS MORE PASSIVE THAN AGRESSIVE LIKE INFI, ISN'T AS GREGARIOUS AS RUNE BECAUSE HE'S A LITTLE SHY, AND ISN'T SUPER OUTSPOKEN. HE WILL CHANGE EVENTUALLY - THAT'S WHAT "CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT" MEANS - BUT UNTIL THEN YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH A QUIET, PASSIVE, NON-VIOLENT KNIGHT WHO DOESN'T LIKE CONFLICT. THAT IS WHO HE IS IN THIS STORY AND I DON'T HATE HIM. JUST BECAUSE HIS CHARACTER ISN'T AS IN-YOUR-FACE AS RUNE AND INFI DOESN'T MEAN I HATE HIM. HE HAS HIS STRENGTHS AND HE HAS HIS FLAWS AND I LOVE HIM - AND ALL MY CHARACTERS - FOR THEM. DEAL WITH IT.

Ahem.

Sorry. I was just sick of all the reviews hating on Knight's developing character. I'm actually getting pissed because of all the re-explanations I have to give - which is really bad, because I'm not the type to get mad. My patience has been sorely tested by those who failed to read my other, much calmer and more civilized, explanations. I tried to be polite, but apparently no one bothers with politeness, so boom. There it is. In all its caps-lock-bold-italics glory. This means that if your review pertains to Knight's so-called 'weak' personality, I will be politely ignoring you. Thank you very much.

To those of you who never commented on such things, sorry for wasting your time with my angry ranting!

Moving on, onto ANONYMOUS REVIEWER REPLIES!

Guest (chpt. 7 review) - Please see the above rant on LK. Thank you.

LikeItOrNot - I have, actually. Plus... I've kinda already worked out how to cram them into this story (which APPARENTLY doesn't have enough main-ish characters XD)

Hobo (chpt. 2 review) - No, that would be Rune. You obviously can't see his total hit count too well. Also, please see the above rant on LK. Thank you.

Hobo (chpt. 16 review) - Woman. If you bothered to go to my profile, you'd see that. As you can see, Knight can stand up for himself. He prefers not to because he doesn't like conflict, but will for his friends. But, thank you for enjoying my story. Hopefully you will continue to read it, even if it's only so you can poke fun at characters that you deem to be 'weak' or 'cowardly'.

Guest (chpt. 5 review) - So, did you actually read Aisha's explanation? A Hyper Active can kill you if you're not careful. Infi got lucky, insane abilities or not. Knight is pretty much okay because the Hyper Active didn't hit properly, but the real concern that the school has is what happens if Infi unleashes another Hyper Active and can't control it? What if it goes berserk and kills not only Infi, but several other students? What will they do then? The best way to avoid that from happening to train Infi to control the Hyper Active. Yes, it means that when he actually unleashes Blade Rain it'll be more deadly, but at least then he won't be a ticking time bomb that could potentially go around accidentally murdering innocent people by mistake and killing himself in the process. Human lives, my friend, human lives.

Guest3 - Upbringing? I personally believe that because of all the dark energy Infi absorbs through Cornwell he's become a little socially awkward. It's kind of like 'how do I talk without bringing up how much this energy makes me want to murder you?' So I feel like he'd try to push people away, but allow people with darker personalities (like Raven) to get closer because it's more 'normal' for them to be like that.