Chapter 3: Into the Sewers

With Lloyd extending a curiosity born invite to Riku, the teenage Overlord smiles and says "I was waiting for the right time to explain myself. Looked like you were enjoying a happy moment with the Chosen." He starts to walk forward to join up with the group, but Raine walks beside Lloyd and presses down on his extended hand while glaring suspiciously at the boy.

"Hold on a moment Lloyd. How do we know for certain that this boy is on our side?" Raine asks, something Genis agrees with as he swings his right hand out and mentions "Yeah Lloyd, don't you think it's really odd that he just happened to be here at the same time as Yuan and Pronyma?"

Lloyd turns at Genis and says "Oh come on Genis, give him a chance. He wouldn't have helped us against Pronyma if he was our enemy."

Raine folds her arms and looks at Lloyd, reminding him in a calm tone "Kvar and Magnius were our enemies as well. That didn't stop Kratos from cutting down his allies while he was in our group."

Lloyd turns back at his professor and takes her words into consideration, mumbling to himself "Ugh…You're right professor. But think about it, it's seven of us against one of him. If he tries to betray us, we can just outnumber him, right?"

Raine hums and says "Hmmm…I don't think it's worth the risk." While Raine and Lloyd discussed the risks of trusting the boy, Zelos interjects between the two's conversation with a slick tone and says "Come on now my wise young beauty, there's an easy way to find out what side the kid's on."

Zelos turns towards Riku and asks of him "Hey kid, show us your arms." The teenage Overlord nods his head and complies to the command, and after pulling his sleeves back he holds his arms vertically in front of his body and moves them around so the group can get a good look at them. Zelos murmurs for a few seconds before saying confidently to the others "See? He doesn't have an Exsphere on him. Even the grunts in Cruxis and the Desian forces have one on them."

Raine groans lightly and says to Zelos "Huh…That just raises more questions than it does answers, but I suppose you're right. For now, we can trust this Riku person."

Lloyd says excitedly "Alright!" He then turns towards Riku as the boy lowers his arms, exclaiming to him "You hear that Riku, you can come over here now!"

The teenage Overlord bows his head and jokingly says "What an honor I've been granted." He then lifts his body back up and smiles as he walks over to the Chosen's group. Once he stands amongst them Zelos points out "Ok, now that we've finished up with that little distraction, shouldn't we be making our way back to Sybak to help sweet little Presea?"

Genis comments "I appreciate your priorities Zelos, but haven't you forgotten that the bridge back to Sybak is down?"

The feminine ninja says to the group "Hmm…I have contacts in Meltokio. We could try asking them for help."

Genis looks over at the girl and says to her "But we're wanted traitors Sheena, how are we going to get back there?"

Zelos grins the brightest grin, slyly saying to the group as he waves his right fingers in the air "Leave that to me. I know Meltokio like the back of my head." Lloyd looks at Zelos and says jokingly "The last time we listened to your suggestion we ended up in a trap."

The suave man's confidence breaks down a bit after that, and he slumps forward and says in a pitiful voice "Why you gotta bring me down like that Lloyd, that was an honest mistake."

Lloyd murmurs and points out "Welllll…I suppose you do at least live in Meltokio. We're counting on you Zelos."

Zelos lifts his head right up as though he was just faking pity, saying with all the energy he can muster "All right then! Now my hunnies, we're off to Meltokio!" With a swift 180, Zelos begins to walk down the mountain with the rest of the group following. Colette chuckles at Zelos' antics, and before he joins up with everyone else Lloyd turns at his friend and says "Colette?"

Colette pauses and says in a puzzled tone "Hmmm? What is it Lloyd?" Lloyd also pauses hesitantly before saying to her "…Welcome back." The girl smiles brightly and thanks her friend, saying "…Hehe, I'm glad to be back."

The two then run forward to catch up with the rest of the group. Riku is standing in the center of them all, listening somewhat as everyone communicates with each other to pass the time while they descend the mountain. All the while the boy holds his fingers out and tests the limits of his powers after the flub with his lightning element earlier. He is able to create a fire spark, a tiny seed, a little water fountain and a fingertip-sized tornado before he runs out of elements to use.

Curling his hand into a fist while dispelling the tiny elemental projections, Riku sighs and whispers to himself "Geez, why am I always losing some of my powers." As he tries to see if he could communicate with Takashi inside of the dark dimension he ends up glancing to the right, where Raine can be seen glancing at him with a curious look in her eyes.

Raine looks away upon being detected, but the damage was done and Riku asks kindly of the mage "You're welcome to ask me any questions you want, Raine."

Raine sighs and rubs her forehead, projecting her thoughts out through her mouth by mentioning "I don't even know where to begin with you…You don't have an Exsphere yet you were able to stand up to a Desian. Not only that, but you can use elemental magic without an incantation or glyph."

Sheena glances over her left shoulder, seeing a perfect opportunity to not have to listen to Zelos' flirtatious comments as she asks of the boy "Here's a good question. What is your story Riku?"

Zelos folds his arms behind his head and sighs disappointingly, saying in a joking tone "Oh come on Sheena, we might be a few hours away from Meltokio but that doesn't mean we should fill that time listening to a long story."

Riku waves his hand out and says to Zelos with a smile on his face "Eh, I just need to give you an abridged story anyways. Most of my tale isn't relevant to you guys."

Zelos shrugs and says as he looks back on ahead "Do whatever you want, nobody's stopping ya, I guess…" Deep down the man was hoping that somebody would be against the story, but Lloyd quickly interjects with interest and says "Go for it Riku, we're all listening." Which adds enough fuel to the fire that Zelos basically gives up and decides to listen in on the story anyways, but not before mumbling to himself "Damn it Lloyd…"

"This may come as a surprise to you, but I'm not from this world." Riku starts off his story with a bit of a bomb, which makes everyone glance at him with surprise in their eyes before Raine's eyes light up and she comments "Interesting, so you're an alien."

Riku nervously chuckles and mentions "No no no don't get the wrong idea Raine. I'm a human just like most of you here. I just happen to be from another world. It's a luscious green and blue planet called Earth. I'm an Elemental Overlord, a being capable of controlling nine elements ranging from Fire to Darkness. My goal is to travel to various worlds and help out in whatever way I can manage. Thus I ended up here."

"That does explain quite a bit." Raine says after her excitement had been lost from the fact that Riku wasn't actually an alien. "But how did you know where to find us?" She then asks.

"Ummm…" Riku, naturally not expecting Raine to asks such a question, has to awkwardly make up an answer to avoid revealing too many details. "When I first arrived on this world I ran into that Kratos guy, and he mentioned something about the Fooji Mountains and the Chosen before he left. So I researched a bit about the Chosen at the Sybak library before I came over to help you guys out."

At the end of Riku's explanation, Colette chimes in excitedly by running beside Riku and pumping her fists up, mentioning to him "Wow! So you're a real-life superhero, that's so cool! Come on Riku, tell us all your catchphrase!"

The teenage Overlord glares blank-eyed at Colette and blinks twice before stuttering "Umm…C-Catchphrase?"

Colette nods her head and says "Every superhero has a catchphrase. Something that strikes fear into the hearts of enemies like 'Beware evil-doors, for I have come to deliver righteous judgment!' or 'Give me your name, and I shall give you mine!' "

Lloyd butts in at that point, saying to Colette in a reminding tone "Umm…Colette. That second one's my catchphrase, remember?"

Colette blinks awkwardly and pulls herself back so she can turn to look at Lloyd, and after sticking her tongue out she chuckles and says "Hehe, sorry Lloyd…That slipped my mind."

Riku says to the Chosen afterwards "Don't worry about it Colette, I get what you're saying. Sadly, I don't think a catchphrase is necessary. I really don't think of myself as a superhero anyways."

Colette's bubbly laugh afterwards ensures Riku that the girl wasn't too saddened by the lack of a catchphrase from him. After discussing this matter with the Chosen, Riku turns back and notices both Raine and Zelos pondering something to themselves, leading to him thinking "Guess they didn't completely buy my story…It's not going to be as easy to keep my knowledge of this world away from them compared to usual."

After ending up off the mountain, the group started to cross the grassy plains of Tethe'alla in the northwest direction to head to Meltokio. They passed the time fending off some of the rabid wildlife and having conversations with each other, which ensured that the three hour trek went by quickly. The grassy plains began to transform into a more vibrant environment as the vast, rich kingdom of Meltokio slowly comes into view.

There was a large wall surrounding the kingdom, making it difficult to see much besides the castle at the very top of the area as the group approaches the bronze gate, which is protected by two pike wielding, silver armored guards. Zelos continues to take the lead of the group as they approach the gate, but the two guards walk close together and cross their pikes to block the advance of the group. The left guard says "Chosen One. I'm sorry, but I cannot allow you to pass. While it pains me terribly to say this, you and your companions are currently wanted."

Zelos says to the guards "Well, thanks for not trying to arrest us right away." The group then turns around and backs away until they are out of earshot of the guards, where Lloyd points out to the Tethe'alla Chosen "Got any other bright ideas Zelos?"

Zelos tries to stay suave while he looks at Lloyd and says to him "Now, now, just hang on. I told you I had a plan. For my cute hunnies, I'll show you a special entrance, just follow me."

Zelos leads the group off to the left of the gate without the guards watching, and it only takes them a few seconds for them to arrive in front of a half-built grate underneath Meltokio. Genis comments in confusion "Whoa, what is this place?"

"The underground sewer. Waste water from the city flows out from here." Zelos explains. Lloyd says afterwards "Huh, that's a pretty good way of sneaking in." While Riku mentions afterwards in a joking tone "Though it's not exactly something I'd call a 'special entrance for your hunnies.'"

Zelos glances at Riku with a fake look of sadness on his face before he says "Aww, why you got to be like that? It may not be the cleanest thing in the world, but at least I can bring my hunnies back into Meltokio when I stay out too late at night."

Colette blinks in confusion and asks "Huh? Why would you wait until night to come back?" Lloyd and Genis groan at Colette's question, but their groans come out even louder when Zelos replies in a slick tone of voice "…Hmm, if you'd like me to show you, I'll be happy to educate you tonight."

In response to Zelos' lechery, Sheena glares and scowls at him, causing the Chosen of Tethe'alla to melt momentarily as he comments "Hey now it was just a joke! Don't get jealous Sheena."

Sheena pulls back a bit and slaps her forehead, groaning and saying in disbelief to Zelos "You have GOT to be kidding me!" Colette looks at Sheena and tilts her head, saying in bewilderment "Ummm…Why is Sheena upset?"

Raine quietly defuses the whole debacle by stating to Colette "You'll understand when you're older." The little pink-haired girl, Presea, says in an almost robotic voice to the group afterwards "Enemy presence detected…There is danger."

Lloyd takes note of Presea's warning and nods his head, saying to everyone afterwards "Yeah, let's be careful." Turning to the grate entrance, the group enters the Meltokio sewers.

Naturally they are swiftly robbed of the light, leaving them with the dark and damp atmosphere surrounding the walls. Thankfully, the sewer is spacious enough to not leave anyone feeling cramped. It doesn't take them long to reach a strange aquamarine altar that projects a tiny pillar of light with an orb in the center of it. If the light wasn't enough, the two lit torches besides it made it's presence here prominent.

"Oh hey, it's another one of those altars for the Sorcerer's Rings!" Lloyd exclaims before he runs forward past everyone to examine the altar. Riku, in an attempt to keep the charade of knowledge up, asks of Raine "Sorcerer's Ring? What's that?"

The professor responds with "It's a magic focusing device that can utilize different spells depending on the type of altar we run into. Otherwise it's basic ability is to shoot a tiny fireball."

Lloyd holds his right hand in front of the altar, causing the orb of light to transfer itself into the ring and change it's functionality in a flash of light. Lloyd turns around as everyone gathers around him, and while examining the ring the boy says to everyone "Alright, I can't wait to find out what it can do this time! Hi-yah!" With Lloyd enthusiastically touching down on the ring, everyone is consumed in a prolonged flash of light.

When it ends, the area around them seems larger than it was before. Not only that, but everyone was separated a greater distance from each other than they were before. Lloyd blinks a few times and looks around, thinking that something went wrong with the ring before Colette comments in a squeaky sounding voice "Hmm? It looks like the path got wider."

Genis exclaims as he realizes what was going on "No, we got smaller!" His voice was comparable to that of a mouse now. Presea still sounded the same though as he said to the group "…I guess so."

Colette looks at her body and then compares herself to the altar off to the right, saying to everyone "Oh wow, you're right." Lloyd furiously looks at the ring and presses down on it multiple times to try and reverse the effect but to no avail, leading him to comment "We can't do anything like this!"

While Lloyd and a few others were worried about their new size, Zelos naturally remained optimistic and whispered to himself "Oh, I see! Now that I'm this size I can do this and that without anyone finding out it's me…" But with Sheena being close enough she said to him "Oh brother. How can you be thinking about that at a time like this?!"

Riku stood around in disbelief for a few seconds, since it was quite a new experience for him to be this small in stature. The squeaky voice was definitely something else he had to get used to, but he knew that it wouldn't be beneficial to stay this way for long. Looking at the rest of the group, he comments "We should figure out how to get back to normal."

Raine murmurs to himself as she glances at a lone blue panel in the room, and as she walks towards it she says "Now that you mention it…" Upon stepping on the panel, Raine instantly shoots back up to her original height, which catches everyone entirely off-guard.

With everyone just up to her foot in height, when she ends up talking her voice carries quite a bit of weight to it that could have deafened the group had she continued for long "I see. It appears that stepping on these panels will restore us to our normal sizes…"

One after another, the group goes back to their normal heights by standing on the panel, and once they've assembled Lloyd comments "Well, maybe we'll be able to make use of this after all."

The group thus starts to traverse the sewers, using the ring and the panels together to cross spider-webs and thin planks before they come across a slight roadblock in the form of a sealed up stone door. After a moment of silence, everyone turns to glare at Zelos, with Sheena in particular furiously saying to him "Zelos! Didn't you say you knew this route well?!"

"Huh…That's weird. It was never closed when I came through before." Zelos tries to save face with that bit of reassurance, leading to Presea adding to the that comment with her coldly spoken logic "Maybe it was close along with the sealing of the city?"

"Then that means someone expected us to come this way." Raine says. Genis groans and points out in a disbelieving tone "Then we have to find another way around?!"

Riku glances behind himself and notices a turn wheel on the floor below. Looking back at Lloyd, he asks of him "Hey Lloyd, I think I have an idea."

Lloyd turns to the teenage Overlord and says to him "What is it Riku?" Riku gestures his thumb over his shoulder and says to him in response "There's a wheel below us that might be able to open the door. I was thinking maybe you can just shrink Colette down so she can turn it for us. There's a panel nearby too, so she can just return to her normal size afterwards."

Lloyd asks "Why Colette exactly?" Colette walks forward and summons forth her wings in front of Lloyd, turning around as she stands between him and Riku and says with a smile on her face "Because I'm the only one who can fly back up Lloyd."

"I guess you're right Colette, but are you sure you'll be able to turn the wheel? You've never been physically strong." Lloyd says with a bit of concern in his voice. Colette nods her head and says "I'll be fine."

Riku passes beside Colette and gives Lloyd a nod of confidence, and after deciding to have a little more faith in Colette's abilities he holds the Sorcerer's Ring up and tries to press it with a little less force to make sure that only Colette would be shrunk by the light that comes out. The tiny Chosen says in a squeaky, chipper tone "Ok, wish me luck!"

She then turns around and flies off the side of the area, slowly descending with her wings until she lands on the panel below. Back to her normal size, Colette walks over to the wheel and grips her hands on both sides of it, turning it to the left with relative ease while she hears the door opening above her. Once she's done Colette flies back up to join everyone, grinning in front of the dumbfounded Lloyd before saying "Hehe, see Lloyd? I knew I could do it."

"U-Umm…Sorry for not having a little more faith Colette." Lloyd apologizes to his friend, but Colette just lightly brushed it off and says "It's ok Lloyd."

Zelos says "I hate to break up this sweet little moment, but if they are aware of us coming down here we should get a move on before they find us." Reminding everyone of the urgency in getting through the sewers.

The group continue on further through the sewers, using the ring to keep weaving through paths while creating blocks of trash from a nearby compactor to fill in the gaps that get in their way. In a span of ten minutes, the group finally finds themselves nearing the end of the sewers as Zelos comments "Sweet! The exit is just up that staircase!"

As the group walks towards the staircase, Genis glances at Presea and notices that the girl is shivering slightly as though something was bugging her. "Presea…What's wrong?" Genis asks in a concerned tone. "I sense…danger…" Presea replies coldly.

Listening in on the conversation between the two, Zelos proceeds to look up and watches as three people suddenly leap down from above, blocking their path with heavy looking wooden bats in their hands. Two of the men were bald and the other's hair was a dirty brown, fitting the tattered clothing all three men wore on their bodies. The man with hair says to the group as he grins menacingly and glares at them "We've been waiting for you, travelers from Sylvarant."

The bald man at the front says afterwards "The Pope promised to lighten our sentences if we got rid of you. We've got nothing personal against you, but we need you to die!"

The prisoners try to rush all eight people in front of them, and as both Zelos and Lloyd prepare to draw their swords to fend them off Riku merely raises and swipes his right hand out in front of his body to carve a line of fire on the ground in front of the prisoners. All at once they stop running forward to avoid burning their bare feet, and as Riku subtly pulls his hand back Zelos grins and looks over at the prisoners as they nervously back-off from the group.

"Don't know what you were thinking attacking us like this, but since you're down here now…" Zelos takes his hand off of his sword's handle and starts to approach the frightened prisoners, one of whom was saying "T-The Pope never told us there was a magic user in their group! This is not what we signed up for."

"You signed up for murder, you should have brought more than bats if you wanted to carry that out. Now then, which one of you will volunteer to spill what the Pope told you?" Zelos keeps his cool as he gets closer to the prisoners, but before he can make his move all the way someone else leaps down from the staircase above and uses both of his feet to kick Zelos face first onto the ground, taking him completely by surprise as he lets out a proclamation of "Ah!"

Lloyd and the group flinch in surprise at the sudden appearance of this man, and have to take a look at him to see just who he was before they reacted further. The man was cuffed up by rather tough looking chains around his hands, and he wore a white shirt and green pants that could barely fit his rather muscular frame. His long, unkempt blue hair suggested that he had been in prison for a while now, but the glare he gave to the group as he turned his head was enough to tell that his time had not dulled his intimidation.

The man pressed one foot down on Zelos' back to keep him pegged to the floor, saying to everyone involved as he notices Lloyd going for his swords and Riku extending his hand out as though ready to summon his as well "Don't move…If you move, the Chosen dies. Understand?"

Zelos naturally squirms about underneath the man's weight, stating with a naturally high amount of surprise in his voice "Whoa whoa whoa! You think you can get away with doing something like this to the Chosen?"

The man glances down at Zelos for a moment and says "…One who plots the destruction of the world…can no longer be deemed the Chosen." It is at that moment that Zelos stops moving and says a realizing "…Oh…" As he now knows what the Pope told the prisoners to get them on his side.

But seeing as he was still under the foot of this muscular man, Zelos had to swallow his pride a bit as he said kindly "Hey, Lloyd! If you abandon me here, I swear, I'll come back to haunt you!" Zelos adds a ghastly sounding noise at the end of his sentence to further emphasis what he would do.

Lloyd takes his hands off his swords while Sheena sighs behind him, and after taking a moment to consider his options Lloyd sarcastically says "…I just had a sudden, violent urge to abandon you."

But in the end, it's not Lloyd who does something to deal with the prisoner pinning Zelos down, but Presea, who pulls out an axe nearly as big as her petite body and runs at the man. The prisoner understandably flinches in surprise at a little deal charging so robotically at him, and he is forced to leap back as Presea slams her axe down against the ground beside Zelos, cracking the ground apart and leaving Zelos to let out a girlish "Eep!" as the blade of the axe nearly misses his arm.

Wasting little time in getting back onto his feet as Presea and the prisoner exchange looks, Zelos runs behind Lloyd and grabs onto his shoulders while faking a worried shiver, saying "Phew!" as Lloyd glances behind him with a disbelieving look in his eyes and silence in his mouth.

The muscular prisoner looks at Presea for a few seconds, and as though he saw a ghost his eyes suddenly go blank and his body goes numb. Stuttering out the word "Y-You're…" The prisoner slowly tries to approach Presea, but in anger Genis runs past Lloyd and channels magic through his kendama to toss a series of fireballs at the man, who leaps back before he is scorched.

Gathered with the remaining prisoners, the muscular man says hesitantly "…Ugh…retreat for now." One of the bald prisoners says "Damn, these guys are too strong…What the hell is the Pope thinking?"

The four prisoners begin to run off, but before they disappear from sight the muscular one takes one last glance at the frozen Presea and sighs, leaving a mere second later. With Zelos now off his back, Lloyd says happily "Looks like it's over for now." Which Colette follows up on with a merry "Thank goodness everyone's okay!"

As Genis puts his kendama away he walks up beside Presea, who appears to be thinking a little about the man she just attacked. With a concerned stutter, Genis asks "P-Presea…? Are you alright?" The girl says nothing in response and merely begins to walk towards the staircase, causing the young boy to nervously sigh before he moves on with the rest of the group.

As they near the exit, Riku says to Zelos "I hope that guy didn't break your spine." The man says "Please, the guy may have had all those muscles, but there's nothing in both worlds that can break the great Zelos Wilder!"

As he finishes that bit of bravado, he leans forward a bit and subtly groans in pain, leading Riku to sigh and shrug his shoulders in response. Finally arriving at the ladder, the group climbs one after the other up to the top, where they have to shove a circular grate up and off to the side before they can fully exit.

After sealing the sewers, Lloyd lets out a sigh of relief and says "We finally made it into the city." Swiping a bit of sweat off of his forehead brought on by the musty underground astmosphere afterwards.

Sheena says afterwards "Now we can meet my friends at the Elemental Research Laboratory." Colette looks at Sheena and says with an innocently interested voice "Oh, you have a history with that place?"

Sheena nods her head and points out "It's where I learned how to summon. It's also where Corrine was born."

Riku is the next to ask a question "Corrine? Who is Corrine?" As though on cue, a tiny puff of smoke appears on Sheena's right shoulder, summoning forth an adorable little yellow fox-like creature with three water colored tails and a bell wrapped around his neck. The little fox didn't open it's eyelids as it said in an adorable tone of voice "Hello there, I'm Corrine!"

Surprisingly, the teenage Overlord's first reaction upon looking at Corrine for the first time is to crack a wide grin and say to him "Awww! You're adorable!" Riku walks forward to try and pet the little fox, but Corrine quickly scuttles up Sheena's head, nestling himself in her hair to keep out of Riku's reach. The teenage Overlord awkwardly pulls his body back and says "I guess I came on too strong…"

Sheena giggles and lifts her hand up to pet Corrine slightly and calm her down, saying to Riku "Don't worry about it, she's just not good around strangers."

After Corrine has calmed down enough, the group heads over to the Elemental Research Laboratory on the east side of Meltokio. Along the way, Riku looks at the entire city now that he had a better point of view inside. The houses were rich in both design and placement, giving off a perfect atmosphere of a thriving society that was actually a little imposing considering the few cities he had gone through before.

It was only a minute before Riku had to look back ahead to avoid getting too overwhelmed. Once the group reaches the Lab, the boy says to everyone "You guys go ahead and take care of what you need to, I'll stay outside for now."

Lloyd looks back at Riku as everyone pauses and glances at him a moment later. "Hmm? How come Riku?" The teenage Overlord answers with "You said the Pope was after you guys, right? Well since the guy doesn't know what I look like yet, I'll stand guard out here and keep an eye out for any more prisoners or soldiers…Just in case there is one untrustworthy guy in the Lab."

Raine compliments Riku's plan, saying to him kindly "Hmmm, excellent idea. We shouldn't be too long in here, but be careful anyways." The group heads inside afterwards, and Riku stands in front of the door and keeps watch of the area around the building.

While he waits for the group to take care of business, Riku takes an opportunity to think about just what exactly happened to the remainder of his elemental powers. He sits down in front of the door and holds his hand out again, creating a flame at first before moving on the remaining powers, doing his best to keep conspicuous as people passed on by in front of him to take care of their own business.

"Hmmm…Elemental Research Laboratory…Corrine is a Summon Spirit…Summon Spirits are capable of controlling elements…" As Riku puts some information together he clenches his hand into a fist and looks up at the sky in a pondering manner, where he then begins to list off the elements that the Summon Spirits can control "Fire…Water…Wind…Lightning…Earth…Darkness…Ice…Light…"

It was only with the last one that Riku came to a swift realization and said to himself "Son of a bitch I control the same elements as the Summon Spirits here." Now he had a theory about why he only had a limited amount of elements, but before he could get too far into his thoughts he felt a push on the door and quickly got to his feet to get out of the way as the group walked out.

"Done already?" Riku says in a tone of surprise. Zelos glances at the boy and says as he walks past "We're heading off to my mansion for the night. If you want to learn more, talk to Lloyd."

Waiting for Lloyd to come by, the teenage Overlord asks "What's up with Zelos?" Lloyd replies with as the two walk side by side through Meltokio "Heh, he's just a little upset that he has to become a cargo package."

"Oh yeah, we need to cross a bridge to get to Sybak, don't we? So you guys figured out a solution in there?" Riku asks. Genis answers his question by saying "Tomorrow we're using a device called the Elemental Cargo to travel across the water underneath the bridge to get to Sybak."

"Huh, that sounds like fun." Riku says, while behind him Raine shivers slightly at the thought. The group then goes through Meltokio, climbing a couple staircases and then taking a sharp right past some armored soldiers to reach one of the fancier districts in the city.

It doesn't come as a surprise that Zelos' mansion is the biggest and most exotic looking one in the area. It was three-stories tall with enriched green roofing and peerless glass windows and various other details too numerous to note. Zelos says "Welcome to my loooovely abode. I'm sure you're having a hard time picking your mouths off the ground, but I'm not going to let you in if you don't."

Lloyd jokingly responds to Zelos' high-view of his house with "Eh, after seeing the castle, your house isn't THAT impressive." Zelos slumps forward and says to Lloyd afterwards "Your remarks hurt me Lloyd…"

But like always Zelos regains his confidence and opens the door to his mansion a few seconds later, where the group is instantly greeted by a suave looking man wearing a blue butler's garb with a curled mustache below his finely shaped nose. The man says humbly "Welcome home, Chosen One."

Zelos says to the man "Yo Sebastian, did anything happen while I was gone?" Sebastian says to the Chosen while plucking at the right side of his mustache "I was instructed by the Pope and an emissary of his Majesty Tethe'alla the 18th to report as soon as the Chosen returned."

Zelos slyly says "You can just ignore that." Sebastian humorously has no qualms with the order, saying to Zelos afterwards "Yes, sir. Ahh…and who is the guest with the two swords?"

To get back at Lloyd for his earlier comment on his house, Zelos jokingly says to his servant "My bud. Just make yourselves at home everyone." Sebastian, misunderstanding what his master said just as Zelos expected him to, looks at Lloyd and says to him "If there is anything you need, Sir Bud, please speak to me."

Lloyd, realizing what Zelos has just done based on the subtle chuckle the Chosen lets out, exclaims in a somewhat bitter tone "…My name's not 'Bud'!"

A few minutes later, everyone has settled down inside of Zelos' mansion. Lloyd and Colette are having fun looking at the garden out back, Raine is examining some of the pictures on the wall, Sheena is off doing something else with Corrine, Genis is trying to communicate with Presea in a rather awkward manner, and Zelos is lounging back on one of his chairs while Riku sits on the couch adjacent to him with a cup of tea in his heads served by Sebastian.

"This tea tastes really good. Thank you Sebastian." Riku compliments the butler after taking a gentle sip of the hot liquid. Sebastian bows his head and says "It is always a pleasure to whip up some tea for Master Zelos' guests. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

Sebastian turns around and walks off to take care of some other affairs, and Riku puts the tea cup down on a plate to save it for a little later. Zelos folds his arms behind his head and crosses his legs, glancing over at Riku and commenting "I wouldn't have taken you to be a tea lover."

Riku says to Zelos "I've honestly never had tea before." This grabs Zelos' interest, and he smiles and says to the boy "That was actually one of Sebastian's weaker blends. I always have him serve it to any male company we have."

The teenage Overlord leans forward and slyly smirks in front of Zelos' line of sight while saying "You save the best blends for the ladies, eh?"

"You pick up on things fast Riku." Zelos comments as he sits himself upright and holds his arms atop his legs.

"Speaking of ladies, have you seen where Sheena went off to? I have a question to ask her." Riku says, causing Zelos to murmur with intrigue before he rubs the bottom of his chin and says "Oh ho ho? Gonna try and make a move on the lovely luscious Sheena eh? No offense to you Riku, but if a beautiful specimen such as myself can't lure her to my side then you-"

"I'm just gonna stop you right there Zelos." Riku nonchalantly says to the man, proceeding to mention to Zelos "I'm not in love with Sheena. I just wanted to ask her a question or two about Summon Spirits."

"Oh that's all?" Zelos says with a little sigh of relief coming out as he leaned back against the chair and goes on to mention "Sheena went off to go meditate or something. It'd be best not to disturb her until morning."

"Alright, I guess I can respect that." Riku comments afterwards, going back to sipping down Sebastian's tea for the next few minutes in turn. When he was done with the tea, the teenage Overlord stretches his arms and says to Zelos after letting out a yawn "Ahh…Say, where are the beds?"

Zelos says in a surprised tone "You're tired already? Well, don't let any of us hold you up, just go to the second floor and take the second door to the right to get to one of the guest rooms."

Nodding his head in an appreciative manner, Riku gets off the couch and heads up to the second floor. When he enters the door that Zelos told him to he finds a nice sized bed with a laced sheet and a comfortable looking golden head plate. "Wow, can't believe that this is the guest room…" The teenage Overlord walks up to the bed and pulls back the sheets, sinking himself into the mattress as he lies down atop it and rests his arms down on both sides of his body to get into the best position for sleep.

"I am really not used to this…" Riku comments in a semi-happy tone of voice as he glances up at the fancily painted ceiling that depicts the crowning of the latest King of Meltokio. With both the tea and the events of the day taking hold of his mind, it doesn't take long for the teenage Overlord to sink into a deep slumber…

Next Time: The Angelus Project