Xylek: Xegros and Xylek have such a great friendship… like me and Tiger!

Tiger: Ah, the simplicity of the complexity of guy friendships…

Chapter 10: Reunion

"I can't believe they managed to bring Derris-Kharlan back this fast…" Lloyd said, staring wide-eyed into the purple mass of mana that illuminated the night sky.

"That explains where all the mana went," Raine said, joining Lloyd in staring at it. "A spell to translocate a mass that large would have drained a ridiculous amount of mana. Not to mention the caster would have to be exceptionally skilled to execute such a feat successfully."

"Indeed. The caster was most likely Xylek," said Celsius. "He's always been exceeding good with magic."

"But, as a human, how was he able to get so good?" asked Zelos. "I had to have magic transfusions to be able to use my magic, and that's nothing compared to a spell like that. It shouldn't be possible for him to cast spells that powerful."

"There's your first mistake," responded Celsius. "He's not human. He's essentially a half-elf. You can't tell by looking, though."

"A half-elf? But he called me 'half-elf' with disgust…" Genis said trying to analyze their villain's strange behavior.

"That doesn't matter now. They've progressed far faster than we thought they would," Lloyd said, "Kratos will probably wonder why he's back here, and if he runs into Xylek and Xegros, there will be trouble. I'm going to fly over in a rheaird to check things out."

"But Lloyd-" Sheena started.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'm not going to fight, just to look at the situation," Lloyd said putting his hand on Sheena's shoulder to reassure her, "I promise."

Lloyd walked off to get one of the rheairds.

"That's… very unlike him," Regal commented. "He normally doesn't make such level-headed decisions."

"He's still not sure what to think of Xylek and Xegros," Colette said, knowing how conflicted Lloyd was. She wasn't sure herself, after what she had heard from her friends, she didn't believe they were truly evil, but was also afraid they could hurt innocent people.

"Well, Xylek spared his life. Everyone's, if you look at it," said Raine. "He could have killed everyone when we were all in bad condition. He didn't though, and I suppose Lloyd isn't sure what to think of that. He's acting very pragmatically."

"Yeah, Lloyd showing a fair amount of logic and caution. Scary…" Genis said with a shudder as a rheaird flew by overhead, heading towards where Derris-Kharlan floated over the planet.

Kratos and Yuan charged side-by-side, their paces perfectly matched.

"Just like old times, eh, Kratos?" Yuan asked as the two charged at their foe.

"Yes, and we even have an old acquaintance to warm up on," Kratos responded as his blade collided with Xegros' own sword.

"I hope you aren't implying that I'm a warm-up," Xegros said as he threw Kratos back several feet as Yuan attacked from the side. "I'll rip you to shreds if you underestimate me."

"Ha, you lack any form of skill with a blade. It looks like you just flail your sword around. You'd be just as effective with a stick," Yuan said as his bladed staff slammed into Xegros' blade, who had barely parried the attack after forcing Kratos back.

"Did you know that blades and armor all conduct electricity magnificently?" Yuan said as Xegros' eyes grew wide with sudden fear.

Yuan discharged a large burst of lightning form his blade which flowed effortlessly through Xegros' sword and armor sending him flying in a large explosion. The armored warrior was blown back several feet, shocked by his foe's power. "Maybe I should supplement that," Kratos said as he began casting a spell. "Thunder Blade!"

The large sword crashed into the ground next to Xegros and discharged a large amount of electricity into the already dazed swordsman, knocking him to the ground. He laid there motionless, smoke slowly rising from his armor as small sparks of electricity randomly danced along him.

"That was rather… anti-climactic," commented Yuan. "I was sure he'd be able to stand after that. Oh well, I guess we can work on his friend now," he said as he glanced sideways at Xylek, who was still sitting on the rock he had been the whole time. Xylek looked at them, and then at Xegros, and, for some reason, began laughing.

"Xegros, get up you moron. I'm not helping, so playing dead like that isn't going to make me stand up. If you can't handle these two by yourself, how the hell are you going to govern the planet?" Xylek said as he calmed his laughter.

Xegros twitched, and then began to stand up, brushing dirt off of his armor as he rose. "You're an ass, you know that?" he said as he cracked his neck.

"Yes, I am."

"Heh, I didn't think that was enough," said Yuan as he readied his blade again.

"Alright, this time it's for real," Xegros said as the red runes on his armor pulsed and a giant fireball erupted from the tip of his sword, which shot out at the two warriors.

Kratos and Yuan both dodged the fireball with ease as they charged into melee range. Kratos, using his complex swordsmanship, began slashing at Xegros with a flurry of attacks. Xegros was barely able to parry the attacks as Yuan leapt over his head and struck him in the back. Xegros staggered forward from the blow, and Kratos promptly stabbed him in the chest. Or, would have, if the armor hadn't turned the blade aside.

"Damned armor," Kratos said as his blows glanced off. "Maybe we should aim for the breaks in the armor at the joints," he said to Yuan as they both positioned themselves on either side of Xegros.

"Won't work," said Xegros as he crouched into an unusual stance. "I'm not going to give you any more breathing room. I hope you haven't gotten rusty in these 4000 years, because I want to enjoy this before I remove your heads."

There was no time for comment as Xegros lunged at Kratos with speed that nobody wearing a suit of armor should be able to move at. Kratos barely got his blade up to deflect the attack. The sheer force of the blow forced Kratos' feet several inches down into the dirt. Yuan rushed to his aid, but Xegros leapt into the air with a flip and fired several fire balls at both of them. Kratos deflected a few of them, and Yuan rolled out of the way as they blasted craters into the ground where they landed. Before both swordsmen could regain their focus, Xegros was between them again, the runes on his armor glowing.

"Explosion!"

The giant blast of fire threw both Kratos and Yuan back a long ways as they landed on the ground.

"I don't remember him being this fast," Kratos said as he slowly stood, wincing from the injuries the explosion had caused.

"No kidding," Yuan agreed, kneeling on the ground. "Maybe a head-on approach won't work on him, even if it is 2v1."

Kratos nodded, and both warriors' wings materialized on their backs. The both flew into the air as they began chanting the words to their sacred spells. Xegros ran at them at a dead sprint, covering the distance in mere seconds. He jumped into the air, but Yuan had already stopped chanting as he flew to meet the swordsman of fire in midair.

"Midair combat is not your forte," said Yuan as he easily Xegros' attacks. "Especially since you can't fly."

"Who said I can't fly?" remarked Xegros as a large fireball materialized behind him, which then exploded.

"Oh shit," Yuan said as he saw Xegros flying at him with unavoidable speed, not giving him enough time to prepare for the coming impact.

Xegros grabbed Yuan and they struggled in mid-air, though Xegros clearly had the advantage. Kratos had finished his incantation, but was unable to strike without catching his partner in the blast. Yuan's eyes went wide as his own weapon was struck from his hand. The sound of a sword ripping through flesh echoed through the air, and both Xegros and Yuan crashed to the ground.

"Yuan!" Kratos yelled as he descended to help.

Xegros stood, and pulled his sword from Yuan's abdomen. "Lucky, you managed to prevent a fatal wound with your struggling, but you can't fly away now, little birdie. Time for you to meet your beloved in the afterlife."

Yuan clinched his teeth, preparing for the pain. At least with it over, he would be with Martel again.

Xegros lifted his sword in the air, poised to stab Yuan through the chest, however Kratos crashed into the gloating swordsman and knocked him away from his wounded friend. Xegros turned, furious that he had been unable to finish his opponent before being interrupted, only to see Kratos standing a few feet away from him, glowing with holy energy.

"What're you… oh crap!" Xegros eyes widened as he realized his mistake once Kratos lifted his blade into the air.

"Shining Bind!"

The surge of holy energy blasted Xegros, sending him flying through the air. Xylek barely got out of the way as his partner slammed into the rock he had been sitting on.

"Hey, watch where you get sent flying. You almost hit me!" he said as Xegros sat up, holding his hand to his head.

Xegros didn't say anything, but he pointed his sword at Xylek and detonated a fireball in his face, which caused Xylek to start coughing from the smoke.

"Alright, Yuan, we need to get out of here. Come on," Kratos said as he helped the injured warrior stand.

Kratos rose from the ground, carrying Yuan over his should, as they made their escape. Not too far from where they had just battled, Kratos saw a rheaird flying towards them. He wondered who it was coming to meet them in midair, but then he recognized the red clothes the pilot wore. He stopped in mid-air, as Lloyd flew up next to them.

"Here, jump on!" he said, seeing that Yuan was injured.

Kratos helped Yuan onto the rheaird, and flew next to it, staring at his son.

"We need to get him some advanced healing. My own healing spells stabilized him, but he needs more," Kratos said.

"Alright. Everyone else is in Mizuho at the moment, so we should head there," Lloyd commented. "Oh… and, well… I'm glad you're alright. I was worried something might happen, so I hurried over. I'm sorry I couldn't help…" he said with a thousand emotions rushing through his mind. Concern for Yuan, regret that he hadn't made it in time to help, along with joy at seeing his father again.

"No, it's fine. I'm glad to see you again, Lloyd," Kratos answered.

"Yeah… we should get to Mizuho though. The others might worry about me,"

"Alright, let's go," Kratos said as they both flew off to the hidden village.

Xylek was cleaning the soot off his armor as Xegros stood there, his posture showing he was thoroughly angry.

"If you had helped, we could have killed them both. Don't you remember that it's because of them we were sealed?" Xegros snapped at his friend.

"Yes, but I have no strength. Do you have any idea how hard that spell was to cast. Not only did I have to drain the mana from the air, I had to supplement it with my own to keep it stable. I wouldn't have been able to do much."

Xegros stared at his friend for a while, and noticed that Xylek was indeed drained of strength. He sighed, and looked up at the glowing mass of Derris-Kharlan.

"I… suppose that it was difficult to move that whole thing here with no error," Xegros said, realizing that he might have been asking too much from his friend, "Fine, but you need to hurry up and recharge."

"What do you mean, 'recharge?' I don't work like a mana battery."

"No, but that does," Xegros said as he pointed to Derris-Kharlan. "You just don't want to do anything for a few days. Stop being lazy and replenish your mana so we can get to work."

"There you go with that 'we' again…" Xylek sighed as he began draining mana from the giant mass currently in orbit. "I was hoping you would forget and let me just rest for a few days. I've done a lot recently."

"You had 4000 years to rest. I want to move ahead with the plan as quickly as possible."

"Yes, yes, enough already. Did you find the entrance?" Xylek inquired.

"It's been sealed shut, but yes, I found the old entrance to the Ginnungagap. It looks like we're going to have to break it open."

Xylek sighed again, knowing that the "we" Xegros used meant him again.

"What would you do without me?" Xylek asked his companion.

"Destroy everything," Xegros said with a laugh.

Xylek wasn't sure whether he was serious or joking.