Terribly sorry for the two month wait. I will try to make updates more frequent.


The next morning, Arthur told Ludwig about the importance of posting sentries at the front and back of the group when walking in an open area. Ludwig agreed and decided that they would use the buddy system. Two people in the back, two sets of two in the middle, and two in the front.

"Okay," Ludwig said, pacing in front of the group. "I have chosen the pairs, so no whining about who your buddy is. I assure you that the choosing was random. Now, in the front will be Lizzie and myself. In the middle will be Feliciano and Antonio, and behind them will be Francis and Gilbert. In the back will be Arthur and Lovino. Take your positions, and let's be off. If we keep a good pace, we should be there by tomorrow morning, at least."

Arthur obediently moved to the back with Lovino.

"I guess we're here again," he commented.

Lovino nodded. "Hey, why were you so wound up yesterday?"

Arthur shrugged. "This is still rather overwhelming for me."

"Yeah." Lovino was quiet a moment. "Hey, Arthur."

"Hm?" Arthur was surprised that Lovino had called him by his actual name.

"If we never see each other again after this, then..." Lovino hesitated. "I'm glad that I got to be your friend," he said hurriedly.

Arthur was touched. "Y-yeah, me too."

Lovino turned away and didn't speak to him for a long time after that.

Arthur knew just how hard it must have been for the hot-tempered Lovino to say that, so he kept silent, too. He realized that he and Lovino were rather similar, and if given the chance, could be really good friends. It made him sad to think that he might not see him ever again.

When the sun was directly overhead, Ludwig called a rest stop.

"We are making good time," he observed, checking over the map again. "We might even make it by tonight, if we don't stop anymore."

Everyone took this news in silence. No one was looking forward to that time.

After a short break in which everyone had a bit of water, they set off again. The sun was climbing higher in the sky with every step they covered, and it was soon burning directly overhead.

Not wanting to be silent in their last hours together, the group made small talk. It was rather half-hearted though, as the eventual separation loomed over them.

Arthur didn't know why he felt so crushed. They had barely known Feliciano, Lovino, and Antonio for any time at all, yet the bonds with his group and theirs already felt very strong, particularly between Ludwig and Feli and between Gilbert, Francis, and Antonio. And, of course, between himself and Lovino.

Is this what having true friends is like? Arthur asked himself. I have many more now than I ever thought I would have before. I just wish...

Before he could finish the thought, Ludwig stopped abruptly. "We are having another rest stop here," he said, without looking at anyone.

With a happy exclamation of, "Ve~!" Feliciano hugged Ludwig briefly and skipped off to look at a pretty bird he had spotted.

Gilbert grinned and winked at Ludwig, who avoided his gaze.

However, as everyone has to learn eventually, no good thing can last forever. Much too soon, the sky glowed orange in the light of the setting sun. A few plumes of smoke could be seen rising a short distance away, signalling a village.

Gilbert sighed as he shaded his eyes and looked towards the village. "I guess this is it, huh? In the morning, we'll have to..."

Lovino scowled. "I thought I would be happy to get home. Tch..."

Feliciano frowned, tears glimmering in his eyes. "I don't want to say goodbye, Luddie! I want to keep travelling with you!"

Lovino sent his brother a harsh glare. "We're not part of the legend, idiot. We have to stay at home and leave them to their journey."

"But won't you miss them, Lovi?" Feliciano asked in surprise.

"N-no!" Lovino shouted. "I'll be glad to be rid of them!"

Antonio, Francis, and Gilbert were setting up camp nearby.

"He'll really miss you guys," Antonio translated Lovino's 'tsundere' speak.

Gilbert looked sad. "Do you really have to go, Toni? We can't be a trio without the third person..."

Antonio nodded. "As much as we all want to stay, Lovi is right. We're not part of the legend. You must keep on going without us. But..." he hesitated. Then he looked up and gave a small smile. "After you save the world, will you come visit sometime?"

Gilbert burst out laughing. "C'mere!" he said joyfully, enveloping Antonio in an (awesome) hug. Francis chuckled at the look on Antonio's face and joined in.

"Are you going to help, or keep hugging like idiots?" Lovino yelled angrily at them. "Do some work or something!"

With rather heavy hearts, the group finished setting up for the night. Gilbert took the first watch and everyone else gradually dropped off to sleep.


During the night, Arthur had a very strange dream. He had seen three people, back to back, holding up tomes and chanting urgently. The sounds surrounding the three had been clashing of swords and roars of the wounded. Arthur couldn't tell what was going on at the time, but he thought he recognized on of the three people as himself, standing out because of his cloak. The second had looked a little familiar (though he hadn't been able to place whom) and the third was quite unknown to him.

Upon waking, he puzzled over this for a bit before dismissing it with a shrug. Maybe it was nothing.

As everyone else woke up amid the weak sunlight, the mood was dampened. Feliciano was sniffling more than usual and Lovino was snapping at the others more. Finally, the last bit of camp was cleaned up and there were no more excuses.

Feli embraced Ludwig. He mumbled something to the Fortis that made him smile slightly and pat him on the head awkwardly.

Antonio and Lovino pried him off Ludwig and nodded a final goodbye. They waved, turned, and in a blink, they were gone.

Arthur scowled. It was so unfair. Did meeting someone only mean that you would one day have to say goodbye?

Lizzie sighed. "We have to go on," she reminded the others. "We can't let this stop us. We have to do this for all the people of Terra Deaeque."

Ludwig nodded firmly. "Let's go."

They turned away from the village and continued past it, the sun climbing in the sky.

They were mostly silent for the walk, occasionally stopping to switch up the positions in which they occupied to take watch and keep an eye out. In what seemed barely any time at all, they had reached the treeline of a thick, dark forest.

"This is the border between Procul and the Bellator territory," Ludwig observed, studying the map. "If we keep going north from here, we should reach a small village called Vitta soon, right next to the Bellator temple. We can rest there for a bit before taking on the next trial."

Lizzie furrowed her brow uncertainly. "I sure hope we meet up with the other Bellator soon. I don't fancy having to take on the trial without them."

"I'm sure things'll work out!" Gilbert guessed. "Maybe we'll find them in this village?"

"Hmm." Lizzie shrugged. "I find it kinda strange that they weren't led to Arthur like the rest of us."

"Well, I'm sure there's a reason," Francis said.

Arthur added, "Ludwig didn't need to receive a dream, obviously. But if this person was this far away from all of us, then I guess it wasn't as simple."

"At any rate," Ludwig said, rolling up the map, "we should make headway into this forest before the sun sets. We should be able to reach the village by the day after tomorrow, if we keep a steady pace."

They found a small, winding path to follow, ducking under low hanging branches and avoiding any clusters of suspicious-looking plants. Soon, although it was quite hard to tell with such a dense canopy, the sun had set beneath the horizon and an almost suffocating darkness had fallen upon the forest.

"I say we set up camp before someone trips and breaks their neck," Gilbert suggested.

No one could argue with that, so they managed to set up next to what seemed to be a odd slope of some kind.


Arthur took first watch. About half an hour of boredom passed, with nary a sound but the shifting of trees and the occasional night-time creature going about its business.

Arthur yawned. It was almost time to switch. He was about to get up, but then he heard it. A rustling noise that sounded like it was made by something larger than the usual small creature. The rustling turned into the sound of something crashing through the undergrowth, and Arthur decided he'd better investigate. Hopping down from the large rock he was seated on quietly, he pulled up his hood and headed towards the commotion.

He hid behind a particularly thick-trunked tree and peered out, only to see very strange sight.

A beautiful spotted deer was forging through the woods, occasionally looking back and whispering words of encouragement. Stumbling along behind it was a small girl, fourteen at the most, looking as if she was about to collapse from exhaustion.

Arthur hesitated. He knew it was a bad idea to reveal their location to anyone, because you never knew who could stab you in the back later, but this girl was obviously tired, hurt, and in desperate need of shelter and a meal. Crawling to a bush, still out of sight, he weighed the pros and cons of helping her.

Before he could decide, the girl made his decision for him. She tripped and fell right into his hiding spot behind the bush, slamming into him with a cry of pain and knocking them both a ways away.

Arthur sat up, rubbing his head. "Watch where you're going," he groaned.

The girl scrambled away from him, fear in her eyes. "I-I'm sorry!" she cried. "I didn't see you there, and it's dark, and…"

"Calm down," Arthur muttered halfheartedly. He supposed that now that they had seen each other, he had to take her to the impromptu camp that they had made.

She looked at him, trembling. "W-who are you?"

Arthur chose to ignore that question as he looked around. "Where did that deer you were with go? What was it doing, anyway?"

The girl looked around her as well. "Melody started acting weird the other day. She kept trying to go into the dangerous woods bordering my village. She spoke to me, which I didn't know was possible, and told me that I had to follow her to achieve my destiny. We got lost, though."

Arthur didn't know why she was spilling all her troubles to a stranger she just met that refused to introduce himself, but he chalked it up to her being tired and frightened.

"What's your name?" he asked as gently as he could.

"Lili," she said, looking him directly in the eyes, making Arthur feel uncomfortable again. Her eyes were deep green-blue, different from his own emerald. Her gaze was strong, and Arthur felt an inexplicable urge to turn away.

Breaking eye contact, he hurriedly turned back the way he had come.

"Come with me if you want shelter," he instructed. Without waiting for an answer, he strode back up his path.

He could hear her hastily following him. Perhaps a bad choice, Arthur mused, though it looked like all rational judgement had abandoned the poor girl at the mention of a safe place to rest.

When he arrived at the camp, he expected it to be as silent as he had left it. On the contrary, however, all of his friends were awake and roaming around, seeming to be anxiously searching for something.

Arthur felt a pang of guilt. How long had he taken? He was supposed to be on watch, and then he just disappeared… No wonder they looked upset. Gesturing for Lili to stay put for a moment, he purposely made a lot of noise as he deftly slid down the incline they had situated their camp near.

Francis was on him in an instant, scolding him. "You cannot just disappear on us!Do you know how worried we were?"

"Yeah, yeah." Arthur shook off Francis and addressed the others. "Everyone, I've made kind of an important discovery."

Lizzie raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Important enough to leave everybody at risk at night?"

Arthur glared back. "Yes," he said. "I think you'll agree that it was rather important."

Lizzie leaned forward. "Then why don't you show us this 'oh so important' reason?"

Gilbert laughed. "Cat fight," he remarked to Ludwig, smirking. His brother nodded silently, a smile twitching at his mouth.

"You can come out now," Arthur called behind him.

Lizzie froze. "You brought a person into the camp!?" she exclaimed in disbelief. "Are you crazy?" She turned to the figure making its way down the slight incline. "I hope you know what you're doing, Arthur."

Arthur crossed his arms. "She's tired, hungry, and in need of shelter," he retorted. "What would you have done?"

Lizzie frowned. "Can we trust her?"

"Ask her yourself," Arthur replied irritably.

Lili botched the landing to the slope and tripped, falling to the ground. Arthur made no move to help her, regarding her with his arms crossed as she picked herself back up and stood in front of them.

Francis looked at Arthur with some disapproval for letting such a delicate girl fall over, but let it slide. He supposed the girl had to prove herself to the group, and requiring assistance from the get-go was not a very good start.

After an uncomfortable silence, Lizzie spoke first. "What's your name, dear?" she asked with a surprisingly tender tone.

"L-Lili," she said quietly, staring at Lizzie with wide eyes.

"Why are you all alone in the forest?" Lizzie quizzed.

Lili nervously adjusted the ribbon in her hair, which had miraculously stayed on through her entire experience. "My animal companion led me here, but we got lost." She swallowed. "Then I saw that boy-" she gestured to Arthur- "and Melody disappeared. He told me that there was shelter this way, and I am terribly sorry to intrude, but I have been lost for quite a while..."

Lizzie smiled softly. "Of course you can stay," she said warmly. "What is your clan, dear?"

"Bellator."

Lizzie's smile widened. "Me too! Now, come with me. Let's get you some food."

The two Bellators disappeared into one of the tents.

The others stayed outside. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Gilbert asked excitedly.

"No, what?" Francis asked.

Gilbert lowered his voice conspiratorially. "You know. A mysterious girl comes out of nowhere and ends up staying with us. She also happens to be a Bellator. And we happen to be missing a certain Bellator hero."

Ludwig rolled his eyes. "That seems like an awful lot of coincidences going on there."

"No, it's perfect!" Gilbert insisted.

Arthur shook his head. "I doubt it's Lili. She didn't seem to be looking for a leader like you guys were; you know, like we were discussing before."

Gilbert thought it over. "But we only went looking for you because we were sent dreams by the goddesses," he muttered to himself.

"I don't think Lili got a dream like that," Francis guessed. "But neither did Ludwig, oui?"

"Hang on, something's coming back," Gilbert interrupted. He held up his hand, scrunching his eyes closed in thought.

He stayed like that for a good minute or so. Ludwig sighed. "Bruder, I don't think-"

"Shh!" Gilbert hissed. "I got it!"

"Got what, dare I ask?" Ludwig said, a little miffed at being shushed.

The albino Fortis grinned. "I remembered the dream the stupid goddess sent me. She mentioned a little detail that might catch your interest."

"Enough with the fake suspense. Out with it already!" Arthur demanded.

Gilbert shrugged. "If you insist. She said that they could only send one dream message each."

"But the Fortis and Bellator goddesses both must recruit more than one person," Francis said in exasperation. "That is a terrible system."

"Whatever," Gilbert said, smirking. "That means my awesome theory must be correct!"

"Wait, how does having only one dream to send suddenly make your stupid theory make any sense?" asked Arthur.

"It's like this, Artie," Gilbert drawled, shooting Arthur a smug smile. "If Lizzie got the Bellator dream message, then how was the other Bellator going to find us? Why, by being led straight to us, of course!"

"Hold on," Arthur said skeptically. "You're saying that Lili's deer was told by the goddess to lead her into the forest, where we just happened to be?"

"That's exactly it! I knew you'd see it from my obviously correct point of view eventually."

"Don't get your hopes up," Ludwig said, frowning slightly. "She may not be part of the legend. We will have to make sure. We cannot force her into joining us."

"She's the one," Gilbert said confidently. "You'll see."


In the morning, they started packing up their hastily assembled campsite. Lili assisted with rolling up the bedrolls and packing them away.

"Alright," Lizzie announced when they were done. "I've decided that Lili is going to be travelling with us for a while."

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "You've decided? Since when did you make her decisions for her? Besides, doesn't she have to go home?"

Lili shook her head. "My big brother is away for guard duty, and he hasn't been back for a while. He won't notice I'm gone."

"But do you know who we are?" Gilbert pressed, heroic grin on his face.

"Yes," Lizzie butted in. "I told her about it last night."

"I know the legend, and I'm honoured to be travelling with you," Lili said with a little bow.

Gilbert elbowed Lizzie. "Hey, you agree with me, right? She's totally the missing hero."

Lizzie glared at the Fortis. "It's not your decision to make. Her companion is lost, and she's in need of a group to travel with so that she isn't alone."

"No, no, I'm right, I know it!" Gilbert insisted. He sauntered up to Lili.

"You know the legend, you say?" he asked. Lili nodded earnestly.

"Well, you know there's supposed to be two Bellators, but we only have one, right?" he continued.

Lili tilted her head. "We could go back to my village. Your last hero may be there."

"Kesesesese!" Gilbert laughed. "No need to. It's you!"

Lili's eyes widened in shock. "Me?"

Arthur had had enough. He pushed Gilbert out of the way. "Look, Lili," he said, glaring at the Fortis. "We don't know who the last hero is, but Gilbert here seems to think that your companion leading you here is a sign that you're the Bellator that we needed to find."

Lili blinked. "Melody said to me that she was bringing me to my destiny. And maybe something about a goddess? Does that make sense?"

"Well, I-" Arthur spluttered, while Gilbert let out a cry of triumph.

Francis shrugged. "That is good enough for me. Welcome to the team." He extended his hand.

Lili shook it firmly. "So, I will travel to the temples with you now?"

"Yup!" Lizzie said brightly. "We're on out way to the Bellator temple, actually, so it's really good that we found you!"

Lili smiled nervously. "The Bellator temple?"

"Yes, what's wrong?" Arthur asked.

"My brother is one of the guards. If he sees me travelling with you instead of at home, he... Well, he's a very overprotective brother," Lili admitted.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Gilbert said dismissively. "For now, let's take our first step as a full team of champions of the Goddesses!"

Ludwig rolled his eyes. "Enough of your theatrics. Let's go."

They all started walking away, leaving Gilbert with his foot raised dramatically. "Aww, come on, guys! Don't leave me hanging!" he protested.

"Hurry up!" was the response he got.

"Killjoys," Gilbert grumbled, following them reluctantly.


They trekked through the forest for a bit more until they finally broke their way through the last of the foliage. Lili recognized the place as the field bordering her village. Now that she knew where they were, she offered to lead them to a place where they could rest.

"There's a little alcove over there," she said, pointing to what looked like a cliff face. "I discovered it once while exploring, but it's rather hard to find, and I doubt anyone else knows about it."

"Good idea," Ludwig said, nodding. "After our past experiences, I think we should stay away from populated areas unless absolutely necessary. This won't take us too out of our way. Let's go."

They followed Lili through the field, Francis complaining about the dandelion seeds ruining his clothes, and everyone else snapping at him to shut up.

The sun was setting as they reached their destination.

As they all settled down inside, Ludwig grimaced. "We've lost another day. How close are we to the temple, again?"

"It's just past the village there," Lili explained. "It will take longer to get to if we skirt the village borders."

"That time will be cut in half if we just go through the village proper…" Lizzie mused. "Should we avoid it? Before, you said we could stop there to rest."

"Yes, but it's a bit different now. If someone spots Lili we might get into trouble," Ludwig said. "I don't want that to happen. We don't need a repeat of what happened in the Fortis city."

Everyone looked down uncomfortably. Lili tilted her head, confused. "What happened in Fortis City?" she asked.

"We got accosted by a gang," Arthur muttered. "They wanted to rob us, but we didn't have anything, and managed to divert their interest."

"Wow," Lili said, eyes wide. "Were you scared?"

Arthur glanced at Francis. "More like angry," he said softly. Francis broke his gaze, looking away.

"Anyway!" Gilbert shouted, startling everyone and effectively breaking the gloomy mood that had settled in the alcove. "What's our final verdict?"

"I think we should go through," Lili offered shyly. "I've already caused you enough delay. I don't want to be a burden and hold you back."

"It's no trouble, dear," Lizzie said warmly. "But in any case, I agree, we should go through the village. It's not a big city, so I doubt there are any gangs."

"Oh, no!" Lili shook her head earnestly. "It's quite small, really. Everyone knows each other, and there aren't any hostile groups that I know of."

"It's settled, then," Ludwig said, stashing the map away. "We leave in the morning."


As, one by one, they nodded off, Francis lay awake, contemplating his past decisions. He hadn't known that Arthur still resented him over the little incident with the Nordic Five, even after the talk they had, explaining his behaviour. He remembered how everyone had acted distant around him after that, even after he had told Arthur the reason. That was also the time I told Arthur about the ombra bite, he realized. He glared at his arm, still bandaged, yet so forgettable that he almost forgot it was there himself. Stupid shadow monsters. It was because of them that everyone stopped liking me. Everyone except...well, Matthew.

Francis gave up trying to sleep and sat upright, leaning against the rock wall. He thought about Matthew for what seemed the hundredth time. How the elusive, mysterious lynx had told him that they could find their animal companions again. He hadn't told anyone else about how the lynx had promised that if he lead them somewhere, they would be reunited. Then, he realized that Matthew had not even told him where to go. Not to mention he had yet to know why as soon as anyone joined their party, their animal companion almost immediately went missing.

That has to mean that I'll see him again, in another dream. Francis felt a strange apprehension, even though the lynx had been nothing but kind to him, letting him spill out all his troubles with nary a complaint. He closed his eyes and sighed. He would trust Matthew and bring his friends to their missing companions. No one could say they hated him after that.


In the morning, Ludwig awoke early and scouted the area around the cliff face. As the others emerged into the soft morning sunlight, blinking sleepily, he shook his head. "There are no salvageable supplies here. We'll have to buy some in the village and risk even more contact."

Gilbert yawned. "Stop being such a worrywart, West! It'll be fine!"

Ludwig rolled his eyes. "What you call worrying, I call being aware of all situations that could happen."

"That's just a really long way to say worrying," Gilbert said dismissively, shouldering his backpack. "Oi!" he shouted into the cave. "Get your lazy butts out here! West said we leave in the morning, and that doesn't mean we wait for everyone to wake up! It means now!"

"Keep your hair on," Arthur complained, dragging his own bag out of the space. "We can't all get up at inhumane hours of the morning like you two."

Lizzie and Lili also emerged, shouldering their packs.

"Let's get going," Ludwig said irritably.

"Where's the frog?" Arthur asked idly.

"I'm coming," Francis yawned, brushing out his hair as he exited. He absentmindedly followed the others as they began to walk toward the village, still pondering when Matthew would tell him where to go.

Enough about Matthew, he told himself firmly. Focus on the journey at hand.

The walk wasn't a long one. Soon enough, they had reached the gates of Lili's hometown. A few people could be seen going about their early morning business, but for the most part, it was quiet.

"It's like this for most of the day," Lili said. "We don't have a very big population. That's why it was an honour for my brother to be chosen as a guard for the sacred temple. Our village hasn't had much to be proud of, except for that."

"Then hopefully it should be easy to get in and out?" Ludwig asked, glancing around him.

"You said we could rest here for a bit," Gilbert whined.

Ludwig grimaced. "I suppose we do have to stock up on supplies... Fine. You may take a break and look around. But for heaven's sake, don't tell anyone who we are."

"Gotcha, West," Gilbert acknowledged, and immediately broke off from the group to go look at a small vegetable store. Francis followed him to make sure he kept out of trouble.

Arthur separated from Ludwig, Lili, and Lizzie to visit a shop that had a picture of a cat on the outside. Curious, he pushed his way in, only to be greeted with the meowing of several small, fuzzy kittens. His heart melted as one rubbed against his leg, purring loudly.

As he bent down to pet it, a voice said, "That one is named Jacob. He likes to be scratched behind the ears."

Arthur looked up, surprised. A man with shoulder-length brown hair and green eyes was sitting at a desk, surrounded by several more cats. He was leaning his arms on a pillow, and looked as if he might fall asleep at any moment.

"Who are you?" Arthur asked, petting more kittens as they crowded around him, vying for his attention.

"My name is Heracles," the man said, yawning widely afterwords. "And...and I'm supposed to sell these kittens. But I don't really want to let them go...you know?"

Arthur almost smiled. "I understand. They're quite cute."

Heracles nodded absentmindedly. "Hmm... Are you here to buy one, or some other reason?"

"Nope. Just here to check out your store," Arthur said, shrugging.

Heracles stared at him for what felt like a full minute. Arthur began to feel uncomfortable. Finally, the man spoke. "You know, everything has a reason. Even if you don't think it at the time."

Arthur slowly stood up. "O-okay," he stammered. He was increasingly getting the feeling that he should leave.

As he took a few backwards steps toward the door, Heracles spoke up again, still not taking his eyes off of Arthur. "You are the scion of heroes."

It wasn't a question. Arthur could do nothing but wait for him to continue.

"You are destined for something great. But...I guess you've heard that a lot, huh?" Heracles smiled sleepily and yawned again, breaking the tense moment.

"How did you-"

"Who knows?" Heracles interrupted. "Maybe we'll even meet again. But for now, you should go. Watch out for the Docte."

"Wait, what?" Arthur asked, but the kittens were all seemingly pushing him out the door. He stumbled outside, and the door swung shut behind him.

Thoroughly weirded out by that experience, Arthur decided to see if he could find any of the others. Luckily, he spotted Gilbert running through the street, laughing wildly, with Francis chasing after him. Hurrying to catch up with them, he tried to match Francis' stride.

"See anything interesting?" Francis asked him as they ran.

"Not really," Arthur lied.

Francis frowned. "You look shaken up. Did something happen?"

"I'm fine!" Arthur insisted. But still, one thing Heracles had said stuck in his mind. Watch out for the Docte.


In a couple hours, once everyone had regrouped in the centre of the town, Ludwig went over the supplies they had collected.

"Unfortunately, we lost more time by spending leisure time here," he said, checking the map for the utmost time.

"Lighten up!" Gilbert laughed. "It was fun. We can still have that, right?"

Lizzie scowled. "Yeah, well, when you were having your fun running through the streets like a maniac and terrorizing the poor villagers, I was stuck with Mister Strict here, shopping for supplies!"

Before Gilbert could retaliate, Ludwig put up a hand. "Enough. We are leaving now, before the sun reaches the highest point. With my luck, you will all be complaining about the heat if we wait much longer."

"I can show you the best exit," Lili said, directing them to the northeast gate. As everyone filed out, she turned around and said goodbye to her quaint little town. At last, she was experiencing an adventure. She just wished Melody was here to enjoy it with her.

"Arthur," she whispered, tugging on his sleeve. When he turned around to face her, raising an eyebrow, she continued, "Are we going to get our friends back?"

"Hmm? You mean your companion?" At her nod, he shrugged. "I really hope so. But we can't lose sight of the most important goal."

"I guess." She fell silent. Her mind turned to the Bellator temple. Oh please, big brother, don't make a fuss, she willed silently. You can't always be there to protect me. I owe my life to you, but I can go out on my own, too...

They kept walking. The sun climbed in the sky, beating down on them. The forests and grassland had long given way to the dry, dusty landscape of the Bellator territory.

"West-" Gilbert began to complain, but Ludwig shushed him harshly.

"I don't want to hear it," he growled, passing his brother a water bottle.

The mood was overall irritable, and there wasn't much talking.

Finally, finally, the sun began to sink below the horizon. The air cooled down to an acceptable temperature, and the sky became sprinkled with stars.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" Francis sighed as he gazed up at the celestial patterns.

"Very. Now help set up."


That night, it was eerily silent. The desert betrayed no sound but the gentle swishing of wind over the sand. Lizzie and Gilbert spent a while talking in low voices while on watch, but even that eventually petered out.

Arthur was trying to sleep, but his mind kept wandering to the strange shopkeeper and his warning. But that was silly- he already knew he could trust Francis. Right? To stop thinking of it, he decided to talk to Lili, who he could see was sitting on a rock, staring up at the sky.

"How're you doing?" he asked, sitting next to her. She jolted, surprised out of her thoughts.

"I-I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine. Do you missing someone?"

"I suppose I miss my big brother," she admitted. "He's been away guarding the temple for a long time. He visits me every so often, but it's not enough..."

Arthur sighed. "Hopefully when we see him at the temple you can say a proper goodbye."

"Yeah..." Suddenly Lili's eyes went wide. "Oh no!"

"What?! What is it?"

"I just remembered his next visit was supposed to be tomorrow! If I'm not there he's going to be very worried and upset!"

"Will we make it to the temple in time?" Arthur asked sharply.

She shook her head. "Unfortunately, it's two days from here, tops. My brother gets special transportation that makes him able to get here very quickly, so he'll be at the temple when we get there."

"This isn't going to go well, is it?"

"I'm afraid not."

Arthur frowned. "I'm actually kind of worried about the Bellator temple. With this added on, I don't know how we'll be able to even pass it..."

"How come?" asked Lili. "Why are you worried?"

Arthur bit his lip. "Well, at the last temple, the goddess made Gilbert and Ludwig do a bunch of crazy things. We met some new friends, but then one of those friends and I nearly died, and the goddess didn't really seem to care. She said that her sister was telling her to make it death-defying, however."

"And that sister was the Bellator goddess?" Lili guessed.

Arthur nodded grimly. "I don't even want to imagine what she has in store for you and Lizzie."

Lili wrapped her arms around her knees. "We'll just have to press on," she murmured.

"Mm," Arthur agreed. "Well, we should both get some sleep. Goodnight, Lili."

"Goodnight, Arthur," Lili whispered.


The next day went much like the last. They endlessly trudged through the desert, getting stuck in sand, stepping on various spiny plants, and avoiding possibly venomous insects. There was a particularly harrowing incident where Gilbert thought he had been bitten by a scorpion, and subsequently spent the next minutes freaking out and reciting his will, until it was discovered that there was a just bit of a spiky plant stuck in his shoe, which had caused the pinch. He was quite embarrassed and sullen the rest of the day.

Finally, day once again turned into night, and they made camp. One more day, and the temple would be upon them. Everyone was kept up by bad dreams that night.

The morning was quiet. Everyone knew what was coming. The only thing left to do was to keep walking.


Vash surveyed the horizon worriedly. Once again, his friend, Feliks, gave a loud sigh.

"What?" Vash asked sharply.

"You're, like, so boring," Feliks complained. "I totally hate sitting here all day, every day with you."

Vash winced at his friend's bluntness. "Believe me, I didn't ask for this job either."

"Why are you so anxious?" Feliks asked lazily. "Like, nothing ever happens at the Bellator temple."

"It's nothing to do with the legend," Vash revealed. "It's just...when I went home last to visit my little sister, she was gone! I tried to get permission to take a few days off from this job to look for her, but the elders forbid it!"

"You mean the little sister you're totally overprotective of?" Feliks smirked. "I'm sure she was just at the market or something that day."

"No!" Vash insisted. "I asked around, but no one had seen her for a few days, except for some fleeting glances. And they weren't even sure it was her!"

Feliks rolled his eyes. "You're such a worrywart."

"If you had siblings, you'd understand!" Vash snapped.

Feliks waved his hand in a carefree way. "I don't need siblings to know that you're being way uncool."

"She needs me," Vash half-whispered.

Feliks patted his head sympathetically. "Or do you need her?"

"Never mind," Vash said flatly, trying to change the subject. "Let's just concentrate on our completely useless job of guarding the deserted Bellator temple."

Feliks sat up, shading his eyes. "Like, think again, Vash!" he exclaimed. "There are people coming!"

Vash studied the newcomers from afar. They were still too far away to make out many details, but he could see that there were six of them, and they were most likely all teenagers. Vash noticed that one member of the group was shorter than the rest. She looked...familiar?

"Like, this might be crazy," Feliks started slowly, "but does that shorter one look like-"

"It's Lili!" Vash cried. "I'm sure of it!"

"What is she doing with those weirdos?" Feliks asked, trying to get a better look at them.

"I don't know," Vash said grimly. "I guess we'd better do our job and find out."