The last few chapters have all been fighting and whatnot, so it's FINALLY time to return to my specialty; character development and dialogue. Meanwhile, it's about time we caught up with a few of the other SC characters, don't you think?

Sobering. That was the only way to describe this situation. Looking upon the large mound of upturned soil at his feet was sobering; it would be for anyone, but for Cyril it was especially so. He had spent several hours digging a sizable hole to bury the slaughtered victims of Zanshin in. If he had possessed the time, the Sentinel would have dug an individual grave for each of the victims, but they numbered over a hundred, and Cyril was on a strict schedule.

Still, the fully armored Sentinel took the time to pay his respects. These innocent people had died pointless, worthless deaths. Their lives would amount to nothing, because of the violent whims of some beast. It reminded Cyril far too much of a moment from his mortal past.

Cyril's dismal thoughts were interrupted by the approach of light footsteps behind him. He wasn't surprised; after all, he had left Amy alone for several hours now, being busy with his somber work. But he was glad she had stayed away until all of the bodies had been buried. Amy put on a big show, and seemed like a far more mature person than she was; but she was still young. Still naive. Cyril knew the sight she had seen today had hit her hard, but he also knew that Amy would act as though she were completely fine. She was stubborn like that.

Amy was silent as she came to a stop a few feet behind Cyril, no doubt kept quiet by the mound of earth that hid so many bodies. Cyril decided it would be best if he prevented her from thinking about it for long. "I'm sorry I took so long. You're probably a bit stir-crazy at this point, so why don't we continue walking for a while? Sundown is still a handful of hours away."

Amy may have been thrown off by the Cyril's nonchalance in the matter, but perhaps she had realized that he had no desire to discuss what he had been doing for most of the day. Cyril was a little sick of death at the moment, even if it was just in discussion.

Either way, Amy only offered a silent nod. Even though Cyril couldn't see the gesture, he took the young redhead's silence as an affirmative, and turned to walk in the direction he desired, knowing Amy would follow. Today had been a huge usage of valuable time, and the Sentinel was eager to return to his quest and forget about what had transpired here. As he had expected, Amy followed, but for the first time since the odd duo had began traveling together, the air between them was only filled with somber silence.

"How is Luana holding up?"

Hilde -bandaged, bruised, and hurting- stood outside of the chamber where the castle physicians tended to serious injuries. Currently within the chamber was Luana and any of the Wolfkrone soldiers that had managed to miraculously survive the brutal combat with Astaroth. Many of the patients, including Luana, were sporting missing limbs, while others were afflicted with crushed bodies. As for the maniacal girl that had inflicted such serious damage to both Luana and Hilde, she had been roughly stitched, bandaged, and tossed into a cell, still unconscious. Hilde needed her alive to interrogate, but beyond that, she wanted the aggressor to suffer. There was no need to afford her the comforts of intense care.

Some physician Hilde had never memorized the name of let out a long sigh. He had seen a fair amount of gruesome things this day. "Lieutenant Luana is in critical condition. Her arm had been severed for several minutes before we were able to staunch the bleeding, and that's actually worse than the limb itself. We aren't sure if she'll survive the massive blood loss, but even if she does, she'll certainly be unable to perform like she used to. My apologies, Princess."

Hilde scowled as she rubbed her aching forehead. Luana had been a close personal friend and loyal aide to her for years now; knowing that she was on the brink of death and facing a handicapped life besides, Hilde swore to give that harlequin bitch hell when she decided to wring some answers out of her. "And the rest of the soldiers?"

The physician shook his head forlornly. "Most of them won't make it through the night, Princess. Many of the few that do will be hopelessly crippled. Only a few of the men managed to escape without permanent injuries."

Upon hearing this, Hilde felt like banging her head against the wall. Those troops were her loyal soldiers and followers. They had been irreversibly injured protecting her and the country they loved. Their deaths and wounds felt like a personal failure for the princess of Wolfkrone. "I see... do you know where Gerhilde is? I need to ask her about the malfested."

The generic physician gestured down the hall. "She is discussing the outcome of the battle with the captain that brought reinforcements to the conflict. I believe she is back in the chamber where the attack began."

Hilde gave a slight nod of appreciation: moving her neck too much hurt like all hell. She wasn't even sure how she was still standing, but apparently most of her wounds had been superficial, which was a miracle really. Only a few cracked ribs and a a bruised gut offered any real threat. But being the princess of a kingdom meant Hilde had to push past those things to take care of business.

Getting back to the dining hall where all of this madness had begun took Hilde only a few minutes. Once she got there, she scanned the room full of blood, broken glass, and shattered stone until she spotted the green-haired Gerhilde conversing with an officer of lesser rank. Walking over to the current second-in-command, Hilde waited until Gerhilde finished her conversation. Fortunately the wait wasn't long, and the woman she sought a report from snapped to attention as she waited for Hilde's orders.

"Gerhilde, have you discovered anything of note about the attack? I'm still at a loss as to how the enemy could have gotten within the castle without anyone noticing them. Especially with that giant golem around."

Gerhilde dropped her salute and folded her arms behind her back as she offered a reply. "At first, I assumed the enemy may have simply silenced any guards they encountered in the midst of their infiltration. It seemed highly plausible, since the girl and man are quite talented assassins. However, after checking throughout the castle, I discovered that none of the guards that had been on patrol during the raid were dead. In fact, they were all moving along their regular patrol routes, and not a one of them noticed any intruders. Some of them did not even know there was a battle going on."

Hilde frowned, her brow furrowed in confusion. "Are you telling me that a giant, rocky monster eight feet tall wielding a giant axe as big as himself and screaming about maggots every few seconds sneaked into the castle? Is that really what you're saying, Gerhilde?"

The Lieutenant shook her head. "No, I found that theory to be completely impossible as well. Someone, somewhere, would have noticed. I have a different hunch, although it may sound ludicrous, Princess."

Hilde managed a very slight grin. "Not as ludicrous as imagining that giant tiptoeing around the castle. So let me hear it."

The woman took a deep breath before offering up her idea. "Teleportation."

Hilde stared down her subordinate for what must have been two minutes straight as she tried to figure out if she had smacked her head on something. "...what?"

"Teleportation. Instantaneous travel from one point to another."

"I know what it is, Gerhilde, but what on earth makes you believe that? That's completely insane."

Gerhilde nodded in agreement. "It is insane, but also one of the few sensible things we can assume at this point."

"And how is that exactly?"

Gerhilde pointed up at the wrecked ceiling. "First off, the enemy dropped down from the ceiling, which is in itself very strange. There's no way that golem could have climbed the outside of the castle without being spotted. The only other explanation would be that the three malfested actually took the time and the risk to sneak upstairs just to make an entrance. That kind of lack of discretion doesn't seem to fit the two human malfested. They had to enter from above originally, and there's no way they could have flown on something."

Hilde looked up at the hole in the ceiling, definitely seeing how unreasonable it would have been for the infiltrators to sneak upstairs to crash through the ceiling for effect. "So is there another piece of evidence you have to support this hunch, Gerhilde?"

The green-haired Lieutenant nodded and gestured towards the broken stained glass windows Astaroth and his limber companion had escaped through. "As you know, the enemy fled the combat area by leaping out of that window, which is several stories up. However, when we investigated, there was no evidence of the golem ever having hit the ground. There was no crater, and as you know, there was no rumble, which there definitely would have been if a creature of that size had plummeted to the ground from such a height. They simply leaped out of the window and vanished. I know it sounds crazy, but the only explanation is that they teleported or somehow managed to instantly travel elsewhere."

Hilde let out a long and weary sigh as she rubbed her forehead with an arm that was slightly less bruised than the other. "There is definitely something wrong with the world when an explanation like that makes more sense than any other..."

"Well Princess, we do have a prisoner. We could get the answer from her."

Hilde wasn't so sure she could get anything worth knowing out of that batshit insane excuse for a human being, but she supposed that interrogation was her best option at this point. "I guess so. Let's go see if she's still sleeping; and kick her awake if she is."

Ezio Auditore grinned to himself in silent satisfaction as he finally laid eyes on land. He had been at sea for days, and for the love of all that was good and holy in Italy, he was ready to set foot on solid ground again.

Before Ezio, who stood on the prow of the vessel he rode like a badass, was the city of Athens. The location of the city on the Grecian coast was actually pretty far from the Italian port Ezio had began his trip from, but he had decided that this city would be the best for gathering information... and getting an eyeful of beautiful ladies.

Ezio was too suave and badass to do little more than chuckle on the outside, but within he laughed like a maniacal madman. He really was far too obsessed with women. But then again, he was so good at getting them in bed he figured it would be a waste to not use his skills. Hell, that one girl in Rome had been willing to sleep with him just for winning a horse race... on the spot!

So as the small Italian vessel approached Athens, Ezio stood epicly at the prow; an image that would only be upheld so long as no one could see his clearly perverted smirk under his super-badass hood.

After several hours of drying his forest green clothes by hanging them over a branch, Link was finally able to be fully clothed once more. He had been quite startled when he had been conversing with the crestfallen nature woman about the devastation of the forest, only for her to sneeze a gust of wind so powerful that Link was sent flying over the tops of several trees until he miraculously landed in a river.

When Link had resurfaced, he had been glad to see that the green-trimmed, armored woman had at least come to see if he was still alive. Then, much to his chagrin, said woman ditched him as she walked off back into the forest. Link hadn't seen her in hours.

Then again, Link was pretty sure that might have been a good thing. That woman seemed to have quite a few violent tendencies, and the power to back them up, so having her forget about the Hylian was probably in Link's best interest. Navi was clearly happy about it too, as she wouldn't stop talking about how mean and scary that steel-clad witch had been.

Link might have agreed with his fairy companion had it not been for his conversation with the woman after she had put out the raging fire. Before that travesty, she had seemed violent and mean, but her entire demeanor had changed afterwards. She hadn't offered a single insult to the pointy-eared blond as she tersely explained what had occurred. She had merely been depressed beyond measure, apparently having taken the destruction of part of the forest as some sort of personal failure.

He understood her pain, as Link himself was an avid nature-lover as well. Had he not been soaked to the bone thanks to a very, very powerful sneeze, the Hylian would have gone to the site of the fire to mourn alongside the first stranger he had met in this world. Of course, there was no guarantee that said woman had spent so many hours at the site, but now that Link was dry, he figured that either way, he would go and pay his respects to the decimated forest.

Fortunately, Navi remembered Link's "launch site," and was able to lead the green-clad hero back towards the location of the charred forest. It was easy enough to spot after a few minutes of walking, as the tall, full oaks and pines gave way to the burnt and desolate skeletons of their brothers. Link felt a wave of sadness wash over him as he walked by the once proud trees, that were now nothing more than black sticks shooting forth from the ground. Even the forest underbrush was little more than ash now. It was a wonder that the woman responsible for putting the fire out had managed to do so. What type of abilities did she possess to be able to subdue the roaring flames of a massive forest fire?

Speaking of the woman in question, Link spotted her soon enough. She was in a section of forest that was, a few hours ago, covered in bushes and fallen leaves. The fire had eradicated those things, turning the place into a clearing. A desolate one, yes, but still a clearing. The armored woman knelt in front of a particularly thick oak that had managed to hold onto a handful of its leaves. Her green-trimmed armor, which would have blended in so well under normal circumstances, was a garish reminder of the destruction here as it stuck out among the black ash and burnt wood.

Link briefly contemplated saying something to get her attention, but decided that it was best to not intrude on her thoughts. Instead, the Hylian opted to slowly walk up next to the woman and kneel beside her, likewise paying his respects to the dead forest. Miraculously, even Navi understood the mood, and refrained from saying anything as she hovered silently to the left of Link's head.

For a few moments, all was silent. Link wasn't sure that his mourning companion had even noticed his presence at all. Perhaps she was just that deep in her own sorrowful meditation. However, she eventually found reason to speak.

"What are you doing here?"

Link was a little taken aback by the question. He had honestly not expected anything to be said for quite some time. "I am paying my respects to the forest."

The metal-clad nature lover was silent for a moment as she contemplated this. "If you think copying my actions is going to bring my favor upon you, you are sorely mistaken."

Link was confused as to why this woman thought he was doing this for such a shallow purpose. He tended to trust people a little too easily, so such suspicion always caught him off guard. "That's not why I'm doing this. The loss of such beauty and grandeur is a truly terrible thing. Such a tragedy deserves to be mourned. It is sorrowful to see nature harmed in such a way."

Once again, silence consumed the trio, but this time it was because the woman beside Link was stunned. After all, what she had just heard sounded an awful lot like herself...and she was really fond of herself. Perhaps she had misjudged this pointy-eared man...

"I see. If what you tell me is the truth, then... I do not mind mourning beside you. However, I will be here for many hours yet."

Link nodded. "That's alright. This deserves more than just a few moments of sorrow. I will be here for quite some time as well."

With those words uttered, the two strangers fell into silence for the final time that evening, sharing mutual grief over the destruction of something they loved.

"Cyril?"

The questioned Sentinel of Lightning kept his gaze forward as he walked alongside Amy, the two of them now several miles away from the village that haunted their thoughts. "Hm?"

If Amy was thrown off by such a lame response, she didn't show it. Both of them were very somber that day. "Are...you all right?"

Cyril wasn't sure if the young girl was referring to his emotional state or his actual body, but either way he'd try to allay her concerns. "Yes."

"...are you sure?"

"Yes."

Clearly catching onto Cyril's lack of desire for conversation, Amy fell silent. However, she still cast little worried glances at the Sentinel from time to time. After another ten minutes of walking, Cyril decided to call her out on it.

"Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

Amy stared at the ground, trying to form a worthy sentence. "It's just... since we started traveling together, you've never actually worn your armor while walking. So I was wondering if there was something wrong..."

"There's a lot of things wrong with this world, Amy. What we just experienced was evidence enough of that."

Amy seemed to regain some of her usual brusque attitude as she glared at Cyril. "I was talking about you. You've never actually managed to keep quiet for so blissfully long."

Cyril was in no mood to laugh, but he couldn't resist a slight grin underneath his helmet. It was nice for Amy to be her usual self around him, even if it was just her tendency to nag. "Well, the only thing wrong with me is a very nasty burn along my arm. Beyond that, I'm fine."

Amy furrowed her brow. "That doesn't sound fine to me. How much does it hurt?"

Cyril swung around his injured arm as a demonstration. "Gungnir burned away most of the nerve endings, so I'm not in any pain whatsoever."

Amy stopped dead in her tracks and pointed at the side of the road. "Sit. Now."

Knowing that cocking an eyebrow at the girl was futile while armored, Cyril settled for tilting his head in what he hoped was equivalent to the gesture."Why?"

"You burned yourself so badly you can't even feel your arm, and you have the audacity to ask me why?! Shut up, sit down, and take of that thrice damned armor so I can look at it!"

"What do you know about medical administration?"

Cyril could have sworn that a vein had popped in Amy's forehead. The expression on her face was more than enough for Cyril to submit to her wishes.

The accosted Sentinel let out a long and heavy sigh as he got ready to remove his armor with his usual mystical methods. He knew there would be no continuing until he indulged Amy in some way, although he was sure she had no idea how to treat a wound. If anything, she'd make it worse.

As Cyril's armor dissipated into little glowing blue particles that faded into the evening sky, his young companion gasped at the sight of his charred right arm. Cyril's regular dress was just a plain long-sleeved khaki tunic with a brown vest over it. The Sentinel had hoped that his long sleeves would hide his gruesome injury, but Gungnir had irreparably damaged the outfit. In fact, the heat from the white lightning had been so intense that some of the cloth was melted into Cyril's burnt skin, which looked less like flesh and more like some craggy waste of white, black, and several other nasty colors that skin should never be.

"Oh. My. God. You can't feel that at all?!"

The brown haired semi-immortal scrutinized his injury with calm sapphire blue eyes. For him, the wound looked a lot worse than it felt. As he had told Amy, Gungnir had burnt away any sense of feeling in his arm. That was probably the only reason he had been able to continue walking as if he had never been harmed at all.

"It's fine Amy. I can't even feel it."

Amy stared at the ghastly wound as she tried to formulate some sort of coherent response. She couldn't believe that her companion had been walking so nonchalantly with something like this. "I-i-it's not fine! You're supposed to be able to feel injuries! If you can't even feel something this...this horrible, then what do you think that means for your body?! This kind of damage is unreal! We have to do something right away! It could get infected, or worse!"

Cyril shook his head. "Amy, as a Sentinel, it will heal over on its own without a single scar. In a few weeks it will be like it never even happened. Besides, I'm immune to disease and other sicknesses. Being semi-immortal really does wonders for you."

Amy looked defeated for a moment, as she clearly didn't find Cyril's answer satisfactory, but then she perked up with a realization. "But what about the parts of your shirt that are burned into your skin? If we don't remove it, you'll heal over with those fibers still in you! What then?"

Cyril contemplated this for a moment, wondering if Amy had a valid point. It was true that being a Sentinel would heal all injuries with time, but the removal of foreign objects from the body was not included in the list of Sentinel benefits. If his skin healed over the fibers of his tunic embedded in his arm, Cyril would be in for a lot of hurt for an indefinite amount of time; that being until he decided to slice his own arm open again and pick the shirt fibers out then instead of now.

"Alright, you have a point. But what are we going to do about it now? I don't trust you with surgery any more than I can throw...well, I guess I could actually throw you pretty far. But the point is that I don't trust you with sharp things."

"What about my rapier? I'll have you know that it is very sharp and I am very skilled with it."

"I especially don't trust you with that."

Amy puffed her cheeks out in indignation, trying to cute her way into getting the surgical position for herself. Unfortunately, Cyril wasn't having any of that. "We'll have someone look at it the next time we come upon a settlement."

The young redhead tried one last shot at getting things done her way. "You can't feel your arm anyway, so why does it matter if I do it?"

Cyril glared at her. "First of all, you'd probably puke trying to pick bits and pieces of melted shirt out of my fried skin, and secondly, you'd probably accidentally cut my whole arm off, and that's something that won't heal whether I'm a Sentinel or not."

Amy scowled at the taller man, trying to make her displeasure obvious. Unfortunately, Cyril was little more than amused by the attempt. "If you don't want to sleep in the grass with the beetles again, we should probably get moving."

His female companion grumbled something crude to herself, but made sure she spoke up for her next sentence. "Alright, but if we don't find a settlement in the next two days, I'm doing it, no matter what! Got it?!"

Cyril got it alright, and that's why he started walking way faster than Amy could keep up with; he'd rather have anyone besides Amy perform surgery on him, no matter how small of an operation it was.

Many would say, "Amy is nothing like herself in this fic!" But I prefer to think that I've simply taken some liberties. Amy's personality in Soul Calibur canon is never really expanded beyond how she interacts with Raphael: who is to say she wouldn't be a bolder, more brash individual if she got involved with someone else?

So, Link is getting more screentime, Ezio is approaching two beautiful blondes, and Hilde's mind has been blown by teleportation. What's next? What's Talim and Co. doing? Taki and Setsuka? Siegfried and Ivy?