Chapter 2: Meeting at the Fooji Mountains

After breaking through the planet's atmosphere and breaking away the flames surrounding his body, Riku flips himself around and quickly grinds to a halt as he approaches the surface of the planet's ocean. The speed he leaves himself at causes him to press down against the water, creating a ten foot wide pocket below his feet before he stabilizes himself in place.

Now that the boy had arrived on this world, he saw that he was faraway from any visible landscape. The closest thing he could see was a large mountain ridge at the edge of a continent a mile or so away from where he was levitating. The teenage Overlord folds his arms in front of his chest and stares at the landscape, his heart beating heavily a beat due to how much of an effort he exerted to get down here from the other planet.

"Hmmm…" Riku thinks about his situation for a few seconds before he decides to head off. Looking up towards the sky, the boy finds that the purple planet was no longer visible. Not only that, but a quick glance behind him showed no signs of the dimensional rift splitting the world in half.

"Wish I could recall how they hid both of those anomalies…Oh well, so long as I know they exist that's good enough for me." Riku turns his head back to face the mountain after making that remark, drawing his arms back out and glaring at the tall land mass for a couple more seconds.

Letting out a worried sigh, the teenage Overlord mentions to himself "I really should have thought this out a little more…Nobody on this planet will be using elemental energy, so I'll just be flying around blindly hoping I run into the Chosen One's group."

Riku shakes his head and tries to put on a more confident expression before saying to himself "Guess if I'm going to start anywhere those mountains are probably my best bet. I can get a clearer overlook of the land from there without drawing attention by flying around."

Thus the boy flies off from the center of the ocean towards the mountains, keeping his speed at an almost bare minimum so no one would notice him from afar due to the ripples being left below him as he flies. At his current pace it takes him only three minutes to make it to the face of the mountain, and upon finding that the pathway is a good distance away he chooses to slowly ascend up the side of the mountain until he could land on solid ground.

As expected of a mountain, the pathways were made-up of cracked stone and grass while the faces were composed of a very stable collection of dark brown rocks and bits of moss. The route Riku landed on ascended around the side of the mountain, and it was clear that he wasn't far off from the top. But before he made any further progress he hears a ghastly growl coming from behind.

Glancing over his right shoulder, the boy finds a couple of bizarre monsters readying to approach him. Riku says to himself "Can't waste any time fighting off the wildlife here, but it'll be troublesome if they follow me."

The teenage Overlord extends his right hand out behind and creates a thick wall of fire with a swing of the arm to prevent the monsters from getting any closer. He then comments "Though really, you'd think these monsters would not want to fight a human who can fly…Oh well, guess you can't expect much from a non-sentient species."

Riku then runs off along the mountain path, ascending the remainder of the mountain in about thirty seconds. What greets him past the mountain faces is a scene unfolding between what appears to be two different factions. The boy flinches in surprise and his heart skips a beat, but before he gets close enough for anyone on the mountain top to notice him he slips behind one of the large rocks in the area with a few soundless movements.

Once behind the rock the teenage Overlord takes a quick peek past the edge and then reels back while holding the palms of his hands against the front of the rock, thinking to himself in turn "There are ten people gathered here already…I shouldn't make a move until I identify them all."

Riku glances past the rock again to get a prolonged look at everyone gathered. The first thing that draws his attention is the fact that six people are trapped inside of domed barrier composed of 2-D yellow diamonds. It was clear that the one who set up this barrier was the dark-blue, slick light-blue haired person standing a little to the left of the shield with his arms folded slyly in front of his chest. He was joined by two soldiers with advanced looking steel helmets that covered their ears and eyes completely.

Outside the barrier was a teenage girl with flowing, shiny blonde hair and a holy-based white shirt with a similar colored cloth laid over both of her shoulders. The girl was surprisingly stationary, not even budging an inch in spite of the commotion going on in the barrier.

At that moment, the brown-haired teenage swordsman in the barrier was cracking a joking remark at the suave looking red-haired guy near the back of the barrier. The guy sighed and sadly pouted for a moment, and with the way his lips moved afterwards it was clear that he felt a tiny bit guilty for ending up in this barrier.

The blue-haired man states in a confident, authoritative tone towards his two soldiers "You. Retrieve the Rheairds."

The soldiers reply with a swift "Yes, sir!" And as they turn their bodies around afterwards Riku pulls behind the rock and thinks to himself "I didn't identify them all, but at least I can be certain of where I am and what time period it is…Wait, did he say to seek out the Rheairds?"

The teenage Overlord glances to the right and notices a mythical, bird-like machine crashed against the ground a few feet away from him. At that point the boy's expression tenses up and his heart's pace fastens as he realizes that the soldier's will have to move around the rock to reach this machine. Riku tries to think of a way to deal with this scenario without being caught, but before he can even budge he hears a voice proclaim in a deeply puzzled manner "Hey! What do you think you're doing here?!"

Riku swiftly looks to the left and sees the soldier wearing the purple cloths looking straight at him, which causes him to leap onto his feet without saying a word. The soldier reaches into the right part of his armor and begins to pull out a whip while saying "I'm taking you in to Lord Yuan. Don't try and resist, human!"

Now that his cover was blown by this single soldier, there was really no need to go for secrecy and subtlety. The boy sighs and comments "You should have just said nothing and walked away…" Before he thrusts his left hand out and releases a blast of air that strikes the soldier in the stomach and launches him straight off the side of the mountain, where as he descends towards the ocean he lets out a surprised yell that alerts the blue-haired man called Yuan about what's going on.

The man turns himself around quickly, interrupting his conversation with another figure as he exclaims in as composed of a manner as possible "What is going on over there?!"

Yuan looks at the boy, who was now halfway extended past the rock thanks to his last attack and says "I missed one?!" Growling slightly at his miscalculation.

His company, a middle-aged looking woman wearing a pants-less red and black skin-suit with a golden helmet covering her green hair and levitating plates of some sort floating around her body, comments on the sudden appearance of this mysterious boy by saying respectively towards Yuan "The reports said that there were only seven people in the Chosen's group. Don't tell me I was misinformed."

Yuan replies with "You weren't, Pronyma. Just continue your mission to hand the Chosen over to Yggdrasill, I will deal with this sudden nuisance."

The woman nods her head and turns to head towards the blonde-haired girl while Yuan slowly approaches the boy and says to the remaining soldier "Continue with the Rheiards…It'll just take you a little longer to get the task down now."

When the soldier departs Yuan has finished moving towards Riku, who walks out behind the rock all the way and stands before the man, finding the fact that he is a few inches taller than himself to be a little intimidating when combined with his calm and confident stare. Yuan keeps his arms held behind the front of his cape and says to the boy in a serious, inquiring tone "Just who the hell are you supposed to be?"

Riku could tell that Yuan was itching for a fight, even if he likely wasn't expecting a battle against him specifically. Remembering that the man was almost equal to Kratos in strength, the boy drew his helix-bladed sword and bent down in a battle stance before setting the blade on fire. Yuan flinches momentarily and holds his right hand past his cape slightly before mentioning "Those flames…And that wind blast…Could it be that you're-"

"N…No!" A feminine, panicked cry draws both Riku and Yuan's attention away from each other. The man turns around and is once again surprised as he recognizes the sound coming from the blonde-haired girl, who currently had Pronyma's hands approaching the ruby crystal wrapped in gold below her neck.

"This is a birthday present that Lloyd gave me!" The girl exclaimed, valiantly defying Pronyma's attempt to remove the gold border around her crystal.

Inside the barrier, the young, pointy eared boy with ruffled silver hair and teal-blue clothes said in quiet shock that swiftly changed into an uplifted exclamation "C-Colette…spoke!" Swinging his left arm out, the brown-haired swordsman asked of his friend "Colette! Are you back to normal?!"

Pronyma, with her eyes widened in disbelief, slowly backs away from Colette as the girl turns to face the barrier and folds her hands in front of her chest, puzzled about what was going on as she asks "What? Why is everyone…inside that thing?" Her overall tone was kind and subdued, which was a huge contrast to the harsh and surprised tone Yuan takes as he proclaims in regards to the situation "Impossible!"

Shaking his head as though he briefly believes that what was happening is a dream, Yuan goes on to state "There's no way that pitiful Key Crest could restrain the Cruxis Crystal!"

The suave-looking man lets out an impressed whistle, saying to the brown-haired swordsman "Wow…not bad at all, Lloyd."

Pronyma, left staring at the backside of the Chosen in stunned silence, breaks it by stating "How could this happen? …" Realizing that things were unchanged in her plans, Pronyma regains her haughty composure and states "Still, in the end, it is but a worthless bauble. It shan't last long! Now, it is time for you come with me!"

Pronyma floats forward to try and take Colette by her left arm, but upon feeling the woman's touch the girl reaches into her dress and pulls out two pearly rings. Swinging her body around Colette smacks Pronyma in the chest with her right ring, pushing the woman away while she bitterly declares "Let me go!"

However, Colette put too much forward moment into swinging her body around and ends up kicking her left foot against a solid, circular device. The cloak surrounding it drops as it starts to short-circuit, and Colette finds herself quickly going off-balance.

Her serious expression fades into one of awkward surprise as she swings her arms around to try and delay the inevitable, but it only takes two seconds for her to fall on her butt right as the top of the glowing orange device starts releasing smoke from the center. Colette drops her rings and looks at what she had done, giggling slightly and putting on an embarrassed expression as she says "Heh…Whoops."

But Colette, with little of an idea that the barrier trapping her friends had fallen, assumes the worst of what she did and says in a stuttered tone "Oh…oh, no! I broke it!"

The suave looking man smiles and looks at Colette, saying in a slick sounding congratulatory tone "All right! Good job, my little Colette! I think I'm falling in love! "

Off to the sides, Riku ponders just how the man said " " while at the same time looking at Yuan, who was staring flabbergasted at the fact that everything was falling apart. The man says "The only good thing that's happened is that I reclaimed the Rheiards, and even that is likely to backfire on me if this keeps up."

The teenage Overlord looks around and notices that the lone soldier has managed to clear the area of Rheiards somehow, leading to him thinking to himself "Shouldn't have been focusing on Yuan, I could have prevented that from happening" before turning to face Colette and her freed friends once more.

The young boy has a jolly laugh at Colette falling over, saying as he barely contains his tearful joy "Hahaha! Now that's our Colette!" The woman in the orange robe who had a similar type of hair-style as the boy sighs and says while rubbing her fingers against her forehead "Some things never change…"

In the back of the group, the black-haired female wearing an ivory kunoichi outfit with revealing cleavage groans and says as though she was recalling a past experience "That brought back some painful memories…"

While Colette rises to her feet and puts her rings away, Lloyd smiles as brightly as he possibly could and runs forward while exclaiming his friend's name. Once the two stood close together, the girl happily holds her hands in front of her body and says while closing her eyelids "Lloyd! Oh Lloyd…Thank you for the present! Is so happy…I was really happy, but there wasn't anything I could do at the time besides-"

Lloyd holds his hands out and cups them around Colette's own, stopping her mid-sentence to say in a comforting tone "It's okay…Don't worry about it."

While those two shared a tender moment, only the woman in the orange robe was aware of her surroundings. Glancing over at Pronyma as she takes out her staff and prepares to interrupt the scene with a magical attack, the woman proclaims "Lloyd, Colette, behind you!"

As the two turn to face Pronyma, the woman angrily proclaims as he face slightly contorts in fury "You impudent humans! Prepare to die!" With a swing of her staff Pronyma launches a large red lion-headed projectile at Lloyd and Colette.

Lloyd reaches for one of his swords, but before he can deal with the attack Riku leaps between him and Pronyma while using his sword to cut the projectile down in one fell swoop. Naturally, Lloyd and his group of allies are puzzled by the boy's sudden appearance.

Pronyma lowers her staff slowly and then glares over at Yuan, saying to him in a somewhat disappointed tone "I thought you said you were going to deal with this nuisance?"

Yuan folds his arms in front of his chest and replies harshly with "And you said you were going to bring the Chosen to Yggdrasill. It seems I'm not the only one whose had their plans foiled today."

Pronyma growls and turns her head to look at the boy while directing one more comment at Yuan "Then allow me to correct BOTH of our mistakes, Lord Yuan!"

Riku glances back at Lloyd and Colette while holding his sword off to the side, putting the swordsman back on track by saying "She's not safe yet! Hurry up and draw your swords!"

Lloyd snaps out of his confusion and grabs onto the handles of his thin bladed swords, pulling both out at the same time while saying to Colette "Some of you should stand back and protect Colette, the rest of us will handle this woman!"

Colette turns to Lloyd and says to him "I-I'm fine Lloyd, really, I am. I can help you out, honest!" Lloyd shakes his head and protests to her offer, saying to her in turn "I'm not going to risk that again Colette! Please, just stand back for now and rest a bit…"

Feeling the heavy amount of melancholic concern in Lloyd's voice, Colette nods her head and agrees to what Lloyd asked for her to do. She walks off to the side, and the pointy-eared boy and woman walk over to assist Lloyd. The boy pulls out a kendama toy while the woman pulls out a golden staff with a medium-sized blue orb in the center of it. The boy grins at Lloyd and says "Lets show her what we got Lloyd!"

Lloyd says "Genis…Raine…" In a happy tone of voice. During that time, Riku walks back and stands beside Lloyd, holding his sword off to the side before the brown-haired swordsman looks at him and says with a little suspicion in his voice "What's your name?"

Riku glances briefly at Lloyd and says "Riku. And yours?" Trying his hardest not to show even a hint that he already knew everyone's name here.

"Lloyd. Lloyd Irving." The swordsman replies with. Genis, Raine, Lloyd and Riku then turn to look at Pronyma, who swings her staff down in front of her legs and exclaims "You will all pay for making a fool of Twilight Pronyma, Leader of the Desian Grand Cardinals!"

While the four began their battle with Pronyma, Yuan backed off a fair distance to avoid getting swept up in the collateral of the battle. As he stood back he stared at Riku and murmured "Lets see if I'm right here…"

Meanwhile, the suave-looking man, feminine ninja and young pink-haired girl stand around Colette and hope that their friends and the mysterious boy can take down Pronyma.

Pronyma makes the first move by swinging her staff out in front of her while floating back, creating a glyphic seal below her body that is purple in color. After a couple seconds she raises her staff towards the sky while her plates spread outward, causing a dark sphere of energy to start collapse between all four of her opponents.

Genis and Raine leap back out of the way while Lloyd and Riku run straight at Pronyma. Raine holds her staff in front of her body and begins to cast a spell while Genis flips the ball of his kendama around as a means of concentrating while he too readies some magic.

Lloyd runs until he's a few feet close to Pronyma, where he proceeds to hold his swords behind himself and charge forth with his left shoulder. The Desian Leader folds two of her plates in front of her body and pulls her body back, letting Lloyd collide with them while smiling at the futility of his move. Lloyd even tries to follow up on his shoulder charge by pulling back and raising his left sword with enough momentum to make him leap into the air and launch a beast-head projectile against Pronyma's plates that, but even then this only pushes the Desian back a few feet.

While Lloyd lands on the ground Riku descends from a jump he made mere moments go and slams his sword against the ground, puncturing through it hard enough to create cracks the extend below Pronyma's body. The cracks glow orange as the Desian Leader recognizes the severity of the attack and quickly uses her staff to cast a barrier around her body that blocks the eruption of magma that Riku creates from the crack.

But while Pronyma was distracted by the two-front assault by Riku and Lloyd, Raine raises her staff into the air and releases a bright glow while stating the word "Charge!" The bright light transfers to Genis, who smiles thankfully at his companion as he finishes using his kendama to charge up a spell. The ball drops atop the kendama and Genis lifts it into the air while enthusiastically stating "Stalagmite!"

Using the cracks created by Riku, Genis is able to quickly summon forth a large rocky Stalagmite from the ground right as Pronyma's barrier vanishes. The Desian Leader looks shocked for a brief moment as she's forced to glide back while folding her plates behind her body. The sharp tip of the stalagmite scratches the front of Pronyma's helmet so cleanly that bits of her hair are brought out afterwards.

"That level of magic…" Pronyma comments in her mind as she glances over at Genis and Raine before making a quick observation "Of course…They are half-elves." The Desian Leader recognizes the two spell casters as a high-priority threat then and there and points her staff at them, summoning a light-blue glyphic circle beneath her body that would only take a few seconds to charge.

Riku stands up and puts away his sword for the time being, raising one hand up and positioning the fingers like a pistol, taking aim at Pronyma's right hand while trying to concentrate electricity into the fingertip. Meanwhile Lloyd runs right by him to disrupt Pronyma's spell as well, forgetting just long enough that her plates were still a factor in this battle. The Desian Leader swings them back into position to block Lloyd's two sword slash, smirking at him all the while.

The teenage Overlord finds that he isn't able to produce electricity, an act which puzzles him for but a few seconds before Pronyma's spell cast drags his attention away. The raising of the Desian Leader's plates pushes Lloyd away, and the boy turns around and says to Genis and Raine "Watch out!"

Genis backs off as a circle of pure cold starts to form around his and Raine's feet. But Raine stays still as a rising tornado of frost begins to consume her body, holding her staff in front of her body to cast a spell while the young boy states in fear "Sis, what are you doing?!"

Raine takes multiple hits from the winding frost tornado, and though her concentration is momentarily broken she smiles and says "This is an elementary level spell. I expected more from the leader of the Desians."

After taking enough damage, a red jewel on the cuff of her right sleeve starts to glow as her body gets covered by a foggy black aura. Suddenly, the frost tornado barely affects Raine, and with all of her focus she concentrates on Pronyma's general direction and starts charging up a spell as a glyphic circle of pure light forms around her feet. A vibrant circle is formed around Pronyma's feet as a glimmer of light pierces through above her. Before the Desian Leader can react, Raine swings her staff forward and casts in a serious tone "Take this…Ray!"

Immediately afterwards Pronyma is struck with a solid bolt of light from above that hits her with enough force to make her flinch and freeze in place for a few seconds. Raine then lowers her staff and pants a bit as the aura fades around her body. Lloyd turns at Pronyma and then says to Raine while swinging his swords out to the side "You rock professor!"

Lloyd runs at Pronyma while the Desian Leader is stumbling back into full consciousness, performing at least a few sword slashes across her body, managing to break through the cloth and draw blood from the skin. But Pronyma recovers and closes her plates in front of her body to block Lloyd off, showing a little bit of anger at the fact that a human managed to scar her body. While the plates blocked Lloyd off from any frontal assaults the Desian Leader quickly used her staff to performing healing magic on her open wounds, sealing them up before she lost too much blood.

Pronyma watches as Lloyd stands back and waits for another chance to attack, while the mysterious boy leaps at her and prepares to perform a mid-air dive with his right hand coated in flames. The Desian Leader keeps her composure and uses her staff to cast a spell underneath the boy, proclaiming "Agarazium!" as a medium-sized neon seal opens up and releases a pillar of rings that block Riku's descent and launch him back through the air.

Lloyd charges forward while Pronyma swings her staff in front of her and proclaims "Leonezium!" To launch out another lion-headed projectile that forces the swordsman to cross both of his swords in front of his body to avoid being launched back. His feet drag along the ground for a few feet from recoil, but he quickly pulls one sword back and then swings the other one along the ground to send a fanged projectile at Pronyma.

The attack hits the very bottom of her feet, causing her to lean forward slightly in response. This is followed up by Pronyma holding her staff forward and creating a purple glyphic circle around the bottom of her body. "Dark Sphere!" She proclaims as simultaneously Raine states "Photon!"

A collapsing black sphere around Lloyd's body is swiftly counteracting by a glowing yellow expansion of light that completely negates the Dark Sphere without harming Lloyd in the process. At the same time, Genis uses his kendama as a focus point to cast "Thunder Blade!" The ground around Pronyma is surrounded by an electric circle as a magical blade of thunder comes crashing down upon the Desian Leader. The initial hit stuns her in place, preventing her from moving as the blade detonates in a dome of electricity.

Pronyma finds herself falling down, but places one hand against the ground before she lands on one knee. Her skin and clothes were partially scorched, and the plates around her spasm slightly. But she rises back onto her feet and says in a furious tone "You will not make a fool of me!"

In that very moment a blast of air smacks Pronyma from the left, pushing her off of her feet and sending her hurtling off the side of the mountain. Riku pulls his wind surrounded hand back and thinks to himself "So Wind still works anyways…"

He then glances at Lloyd as the swordsman looks back at him, saying politely "Be my guest Lloyd." Lloyd nods his head in an appreciative manner and then swiftly leaps off the side of the mountain after Pronyma.

He lands on the slanted, rocky face and grinds down quickly after the tumbling Pronyma, who recovers after a couple seconds and presses her golden shoe tips against the rocks to slow herself down. Noticing Lloyd coming after her, the Desian Leader takes her plates and holds them in front of her. The two meet in a couple seconds, and Lloyd starts off by slamming both of his swords against her plates.

Pronyma is forced to take the attack without fighting back, as sliding down the mountain made it difficult to focus on her spells. Lloyd pulls both of his swords beside his body and then rapidly stabs them outward at the plates while proclaiming "Sword Rain!" Repeated jabs of the pointed tips against the two weakened plates in front of Pronyma's body eventually get cracked apart, leaving her body vulnerable much to her surprise.

"This is preposterous!" Pronyma proclaims. Nearing a ledge at the bottom of the rocky slant, the Desian Leader kicks away from the mountain side and leaves Lloyd to skid onto the platform. Pronyma folds her arms in front of her chest and says to the swordsman "If Lord Yuan wasn't interested in you, I would destroy the platform you stand on. Instead, I shall capture the Chosen just as originally planned!"

Pronyma uses her plates to fly back up the mountainside, leaving Lloyd to flip himself around and say "No…Colette!" Without wasting any time, the swordsman runs back up the mountain in pursuit of the faster Pronyma.

Once the Desian Leader arrives at the top of the mountain, she stares angrily at both Genis and Raine before glancing over at Colette and saying "I will capture you at any costs for Lord Yggdrasill!"

The suave-looking man was about to draw his sword to fight against Pronyma, but then the unexpected happens. "Pronyma, it's time for you to stand down." The words come from Yuan, who says them with a hint of urgency in his voice.

Pronyma, who was about ready to activate the red jewel on her right bracelet, glances over at the man and says to him in surprise "What? But what about the Cho-"

"You do not understand what you are up against here. Take a look to the right you fool." Yuan's harsh words reach Pronyma's ears, causing her to turn in that direction and notice how the mysterious boy was almost seconds away from incinerating her with a charged up ball of fire.

Pronyma scowls and hesitantly admits "…Fine, I shall retreat for now." Folding her arms against her chest and moving her plates into a circle around her body, the Desian Leader flies up into the sky to escape just as Lloyd finishes climbing up the mountain.

"Wait! Come back!" Lloyd proclaims, swinging one sword off to the side as he feels a bit upset at the Desian escaping. But then he looks ahead of himself and sees that Yuan is still standing about, and with a determined look in his eyes he states "This is the perfect opportunity! Yuan! I'm going to settle our score right now!"

Yuan looks at Lloyd and raises an eyebrow in surprise as the swordsman runs at him ready to cut him down with his swords. But as he makes his move a blur of red and ivory runs across the top of the mountain, interjecting into Lloyd's attempt to fight with Yuan by drawing out his sword and deflecting Lloyd's slash with relative ease.

Right after deflecting the slash, the figure sheathes his blade back into his hilt and immediately folds his arms, looking at the surprised Lloyd with a bit of disappointment on his face. Riku dispels his flames and looks to the left, freezing up slightly at the sight of Kratos' sudden appearance in the area. Lloyd naturally exclaims the man's name in shock, while Yuan, who now suddenly sprouted pink energy wings similar to Kratos' own behind him, glares at Kratos with an annoyed expression and inquires "…What are you doing here?"

Kratos ignores Lloyd for the moment and addresses Yuan calmly with "Leave, Yuan. Lord Yggdrasill has summoned you."

Yuan, who has had a bad enough day as is, growls angrily and glances away from Kratos, asking him thereafter "Are you taking the Chosen?" To which Kratos replies swiftly with "No…we shall leave her for now. It's the toxicosis…And not just that…"

Kratos turns his head at the end of his sentence, glancing at the teenage Overlord so briefly out of the corner of his eye that it was a surprise that Yuan picked up on the clue. Yuan nods his head after that, accepting the command that had been given to him as he turns to face Lloyd and says "Hmmm…It seems you battle will have to wait, Lloyd."

Lloyd glances at Yuan with a puzzled expression, but the man turns around and folds his arms into his cape before leaping off the ground and flying off towards the sky. The feminine ninja comments on the man's departure with "He's an angel too?!"

Lloyd runs to the end of the mountain, declaring with most of his might "Damnit, Yuan! Wait!" Kratos, puzzled by the swordsman's action, turns towards Lloyd and asks of him "…What are you doing?"

Lloyd turns to face Kratos and snaps at him for his question with a simple "What?" To which Kratos in turn replies with "Why have you come all the way here to Tethe'alla?"

"I'm here to save Colette." Is the answer Lloyd gives. Kratos then sighs and asks of the boy "What good will saving the Chosen do? The relation of the two worlds vying for each other's mana will not change. Their positions have merely been reversed by the regeneration ritual."

The feminine ninja looks a little worried by everything Kratos was saying. She steps forward and asks of the man "Has Tethe'alla already begun to decline?"

Kratos turns to face the edge of the mountain, unfolding his arms and pointing out to the tower in the distance that reaches up to the very atmosphere of the planet. Though Kratos was addressing the Chosen's group, Riku could tell that the gesture was meant to direct him towards the tower. "The Tower of Salvation can still be seen from this world as well. As long as that exists here, it means that this world is still flourishing. Although, in the event that the Chosen becomes Martel's vessel…"

Kratos turns back around and looks at the feminine ninja, saying in a serious tone to her "Tethe'alla will surely bid farewell to its era of prosperity."

Everyone goes silent for a few seconds once Kratos was done, with the ninja and the suave man taking the explanation the hardest. Lloyd starts clenching his fists after sheathing his swords, and after punching the air to the right of him he exclaims "Dammit, isn't there anything that can be done?!" This proclamation grabs Kratos' interest, and he turns to face the boy as he continues. "Yggdrasill's the one that built this twisted world!"

Kratos responds in the utmost serious tone "Lord Yggdrasill does not consider it twisted. If you want to do something about it, use your own head."

Lloyd calms down slightly as Kratos speaks, and upon looking up at the red-haired man he hears him say kindly "…I thought you weren't going to make any more mistakes?"

The swordsman looks at Kratos, his eyes filled with determination as he declares to him then and there "Yeah, I'll do it. This stupid system of two worlds stealing mana from each other…I swear I'll change it!"

At that point, Kratos cracks a barely visible smile and chuckles before kindly saying to Lloyd "Well, do your best."

With everything he needed to say off his chest, Kratos slowly walks off and passes by Lloyd, turning his head slightly to give Riku one single glance before he looks towards the sky and kicks off the ground, taking flight away from the mountaintop mere seconds later.

With the enemies gone, the Chosen's group is left to ponder things over for a few seconds. Genis then comments after stretching his facial expression a bit in realization "I remember now! That Pronyma was the one on the projector at the Asgard ranch!"

The feminine ninja said in turn "Yeah, and she admitted that she was the Desian leader!" Genis follows up on this by mentioning "And now that Kratos came to interfere and all…It looks like the Desians and Cruxis are one in the same." Raine adds her own view to the mix by saying "It would appear that Yuan is connected to Cruxis as well."

Lloyd, out of a combination of confusion and hot-bloodedness, closes his left eyelid and tilts his head while groaning and saying "Gahhh…This is all so confusing! Wouldn't it be simpler to say they're all our enemies?"

Raine looks at Lloyd and says to him kindly "Yes, that means we must be careful of everyone, including the Renegades." Everyone nods their head in agreement of that decision. Genis then turns towards Colette and smiles at her, asking curiously "Colette, is everything else back to normal? Besides your voice, can you feel things and such?"

Colette grins warmly and folds her hands together, chuckling cutely and saying "Yup, I think I'm okay. Thanks everyone…And I'm sorry I made all you worry so much. Hey, you know what? I think I'm hungry for the first time in a long while."

Lloyd quickly pops a smile and chuckles, saying to his good friend "That's great!" Colette opens her eyes after concentrating for a bit, summoning forth a pair of violet angelic wings behind her body much to everyone's surprise. Colette says to her friends with a little disappointment in her voice "…It looks like I still have wings though."

Lloyd's happiness naturally deflates upon realizing this, and he lets out a quiet "Oh…" as he glares concernedly at Colette. The suave man looks at Colette and cocks a sly smile, saying in the most gentlemanly tone he can muster "Hmmm. Just like I thought. Colette is definitely cuter when she smiles!"

Hearing this lovely compliment, Colette turns towards the man and tries to draw on her memories before saying "Let's see, you're…Zelos?" She had a little lack of confidence in her voice, but Zelos snaps his fingers and grins a little wider before saying "Haha! You remembered my name! We Chosen have to stick together, you know what I mean?!"

Colette, oblivious to what Zelos was trying to insinuate here, responds with "Okay!" Lloyd naturally rolls his eyes at Zelos' actions. To switch away the discussion for a moment, Raine mentions to the group "Now what shall we do? Since Colette has regained her soul there's no need for us to head immediately back to Sylvarant, but…"

Lloyd says to everyone there "Well obviously we have to find a way to save both worlds and end this cruddy Chosen system before anymore have to suffer like Colette…But before we do that there's still one thing that's been bugging me."

The swordsman glances over his left shoulder at Riku, who had merely been standing off to the side waiting to be acknowledged again since he was allowing the group to deal with the aftermath of the Pronyma battle. Everyone's eyes were on the boy, a couple of them feeling that his presence was a bit suspect, but Lloyd asks of him "Riku, was it? You think you can tell us what you're doing up here?"

Next Time: Infiltrating Meltokio