Chapter 12: Gnome

With Colette freed from Rodyle's cruel grasp, the group traveled in their Rheairds in pursuit of the remaining Summon Spirits in Tethe'alla. Lloyd looks at Sheena and asks her "So where is Gnome's domain?" The ninja has to take a moment to recollect her information on the Summon Spirit before replying "His temple should be north of Meltokio. It shouldn't be too hard to find from up here."

"Anything we should know before going there?" Raine asks afterwards. "Well, there are gnomes in the temple." Sheena's explanation is mixed up by the wind blowing, and the aloof Colette replies "Well of course he is, that's why we're going there."

Lloyd's eyes narrow as he stares at Colette and says to her "Ummm, Colette. She said 'Gnomes', not 'Gnome'." Colette looks at Lloyd and tilts her head while saying "Huh? But isn't there only one Summon Spirit per element?"

"…Sheena was talking about the species, not the Summon Spirit." Genis lets out a groan before he points this out to his friend. "Even I knew that Colette. We're you out of class that day?" Lloyd replies in an inquiring tone.

"Hmm…I don't know." Colette replies in an aloof tone as she pokes her eyes towards the sky and goes deep in thought. Lloyd looks back on ahead and sighs while saying "…Glad to have you back Colette."

The group flies off past Meltokio, heading towards the rocky gorge near the northern half of the continent to try and seek out Gnome's temple. Descending from the clouds up high, the group takes their Rheairds close to the ground and head for the very end of the gorge, where they find the only cave entrance within the area. "Lets try looking there." Lloyd says.

After landing the Rheairds a safe distance away from the edge of the gorge, the group place their feet on the ground and head towards the cave. Immediately upon looking at the deep chasms and barely stable cliff sides, Lloyd looks at Zelos and says "How did any of your Chosen complete these temples? Nothing in Sylvarant looked as bad as this and Temple of Lightning."

Zelos lifts his head up high with a smile on his face and says "Well when you have Chosen that are bred to such perfect specimens of life such as myself, is it any wonder that we've succeeded even in places like this?"

Lloyd narrows his eyelids again and pauses in place, glancing at Genis as the half-elf says to him "Big talk from someone who hasn't gone on a Journey of Regeneration." Even though he whispered, Zelos still overheard him and glanced back while saying "Hey hey, I could easily handle these temples on my own!"

"With your hands held behind your head?" Lloyd asks. Zelos faces the boy fully and nods his head while stating boldly "You could even blindfold me and I'd be able to handle it!"

Sheena, who was listening in one the conversation, stands beside Zelos and glances at Lloyd while saying in a jovial tone "Well, why should we deny him the chance to prove himself? Let him handle the Temple of Earth on his own."

Zelos flinches, thinking that Sheena was being serious considering the track-record of her remarks regarding him. He turns towards her and comments "Whoa now, lets not get ahead of ourselves here! I can't make a pact with Gnome!"

"Of course you can't. You can just handle him all on your own, and then I'll make the pact afterwards." Sheena replies. Zelos looks at her in disbelief and says "This isn't funny darling, now cut the humor and start acting serious."

The Lloyd and Sheena choose to end the matter with silence as they continue back through the cave, leaving Zelos to whisper out "…Ummm, guys? Hello?" As he's left puzzled by whether they were serious or not, Sheena and Lloyd glance at each other and let out a light chuckle, while Riku glances back and thinks to himself "He brings it upon himself, but I can't help but feel sorry for him at times…"

After a few minutes traversing the inside of the cave, the group comes across another Sorcerer's Ring altar. Lloyd excitedly places his right hand into the light of the altar and pulls it away as the ring absorbs a new ability. Raine says to Lloyd as he looks far too eager to just activate the ring "Careful Lloyd, think about what the ring can do inside of a cave."

"Don't worry professor, I'm not going to blow-up my face." Lloyd says as he points the ring in front of his body and activates it with a thought. The ground around the group starts to tremble rapidly, and considering the condition of the caves most of their hearts skip a beat until the tremor ends a couple seconds later.

After hearing the dying out crumbling of the rocks around their feet, Lloyd looks at the ring with a wide-eyed glare and says "Whoa!" as his expression creaks into a smile. Genis clasps one hand on his chest and breaths in and out while saying "That was…startling!"

Raine, composing herself after the earthquake born from the Sorcerer's Ring, says to the group "We should be able to change the shape of the temple with this…Just remember not to go crazy with it Lloyd."

"Yes, use it on small groups of rocks…And make sure none of us are near the edge of the chasm." Regal points out, recalling how eager Lloyd was to use the explosive effect back in the mines. Lloyd saying "I know, I know" was not a reassuring remark for the shackled man.

The group proceeds onwards, using the ring to collapse a wall of rocks into the chasm so they can approach a bridge close by. But standing in the middle of the bridge was a creature that was just tall enough to reach below Colette's kneecap. It had no nose, no mouth, and definitely no fingers on his stub-like arms. It's clothes were rather archaic, but that was really the only interesting feature on this smooth skinned creature.

"Hey, you losers can't just barge in here!" The creature states in a cutesy little voice that tried sounding a little bit tough. Everyone takes pause at the front of the bridge and glance down at him, with Colette kneeling down and letting out a joyous "Awwww…" before she clenches her hands below her chin and says "It's so adorable!"

"Hey hey toots, who you callin' adorable?! You wanna piss me off with an insult like that?!" The creature pumps his stubby arm into the air and tries to proclaim his toughness, but save for Colette everyone just glances at him with a dull expression on their faces.

Lloyd then glances back at Raine with a look of disappointment and says "Ummm…This is a gnome?" The half-elf nods her head and replies "Unfortunately, yes."

Raine then steps forward and says to the gnome "We have business further on ahead. Will you please let us through?" The gnome's face turns a slight but prominent shade of red while exclaiming "You barge into our home and demand passage over MY BRIDGE?! Oh that does it, you are just looking for a fight with me!"

The gnome puts his "fists" up and pumps them at the group which makes Raine closes her eyelids and let out an embarrassed sigh before asking "…Is there anything we can do to change your mind?"

"No way! Big Brother told me to guard this bridge from any intruders! If you want to pass SOOOO badly, then get Big Brother to tell me to stand down or fight me off, punks!" The gnome proclaims. His bravado was getting on everyone but Riku's nerves. Zelos pounded his fist against his hand and grimaced at the gnome and said "Oh I'll be more than glad to kick you off the bridge you little garden statue!"

The teenage Overlord releases a cold sweat and thinks to himself "Ah darn it, we forgot to meet the gnome in the Toize Valley Mine! I can't believe I forgot such a minor detail!" While the group was discussing the matter of the gnome blocking their way, Riku slowly slipped out of sight towards the exit of the Temple of Earth.

"Zelos, you can't kick a gnome into the chasm. They're an endangered species." Sheena points out to the eager Chosen. Zelos glances at the ninja and points out "With how arrogant they are, I'm not surprised!"

"…And that doesn't remind you of anyone?" Sheena nonchalantly points out, but the comparison goes over Zelos' head as he glances back at the gnome and says with a scowl "Please Sheena, I'm doing the world a favor."

"Oh, so you want be the first to step up and get smacked, pretty boy?" The gnome says to the Chosen of Tethe'alla. Zelos steps forward and says "Oh, it will be my PLEASURE!"

Lloyd doesn't really do anything to stop Zelos as he glances at the group and says "So, we're ok with letting Zelos get beaten up by a gnome, right?"

Regal holds one hand against his chin and mumbles for a moment before commenting "I really think we should try to solve this without violence…Sheena is right, we can't kill a member of an endangered species."

As Zelos and the gnome were almost face-to-leg, Colette runs between them and holds her arms out while saying urgently "Please Zelos, don't hurt this cute little gnome."

"Colette…My dear, sweet little Colette…" Zelos sounds as though he was calming down as he spoke suavely to his fellow Chosen, but then he glances over right shoulder to scowl at the gnome while exclaiming "Sorry, but I'm not backing down from this one!"

Colette holds her hands against Zelos' chest, using her angelic strength to try and hold the advancing Chosen back as he tries to get as close to the gnome as physically possible. The gnome leaps at him a couple times while stating "Get out of the way toots! I'm going to bruise this punk's face so badly that he'll be as purple as my hat!"

With Colette getting involved in this matter, Lloyd is quick to rescind his earlier statement as he says "Zelos, seriously, back off. Are you really going to put Colette's life in danger after we JUST rescued her?"

It takes that reminder for Zelos' to calm down and re-assess his priorities in a matter of seconds. He glances down at Colette and backs away to take the pressure off of her efforts, smiling and saying in an all-too suave tone "I'm soooo sorry my sweet, sweet Colette. Come on, let's come up with another way of dealing with this gnome."

Zelos turns around and begins to walk off as Colette stands in place and smiles joyously, while the gnome blurts out in a very arrogant tone "Yeah that's right, run! Run like the coward you are!"

Colette opens her eyelids and pauses in place for a moment thanks to the insult the gnome tossed out at Zelos. She then starts to walk towards the group, only for her to suddenly start losing her balance and put on a rather fake look of surprise as she lets out an equally fake sounding cry before falling backwards towards the gnome. The little creature lets out a blurt of "Hey, wait a min-" Before he's crushed entirely by Colette's body.

The bridge trembles in the wake of her fall, but not enough for it to break apart. The group looks at Colette, with Lloyd letting out an urgent sounding "Colette! Are you ok?!" The Chosen doesn't take long to get back on her feet through, with the gnome blocking the way now knocked unconscious on his own back. Colette looks back at the gnome and sticks her tongue in her usually naïve manner, but at the same time getting the gnome back for insulting her friends.

She then looks back at Lloyd and reassures him "I'm fine Lloyd. But hey, now we can move on!" Colette's sheer nonchalance in the matter surprised Lloyd, who could actually piece together that the girl deliberately fell atop the gnome to get him out of the way.

"…Well, I guess this is as non-violent of an answer as we can manage." Regal points out after letting out a momentary sigh. After he mentions this, Riku zips back into the cave with another gnome pinched by the clothes on his back. The gnome was a tad beat-up and unconscious, and the teenage Overlord was panting in and out due to how quickly he flew back to the Toize Valley Mine.

"Sorry I ran off like that, but I found their Big Bro-" It takes a moment for Riku to notice that the group had somehow already knocked the other gnome unconscious, at which point he slaps the front of his forehead with his free hand and comments "Ah great, I went searching for him for nothing."

"Why is he knocked out?" Raine asks the teenage Overlord. "…He was attacked by a bunch of monsters when I found him, so I just picked him up and-" "You knocked him out yourself, didn't you?" Genis interrupts Riku's explanation with the obvious answer.

The teenage Overlord immediately goes on to say as he glances down at the gnome in his hand "I honestly don't know how something this small can be so stubborn." Riku tosses the creature off to the left, summoning a cushion of wind to catch it below a wall before he glances at the group just in time for Regal to shake his head and point out "At this rate, we're going to make another enemy out of the gnomes."

"Not like they'd be able to chase us through Tethe'alla. Besides, we'll never come back here again." Zelos is quick to point out, which leads to Sheena feeling a chill down her spine and commenting "Why does that sound foreboding to me…"

With their way open, the group crosses the bridge and heads for the deeper parts of the Temple of Earth. After a winding rock path, they end up in a darker area, where a more stable wooden bridge awaits them along with, much to the annoyance of the group, another gnome blocking the way on the other side. Lloyd groans at this and sinks his head, which causes the gnome to comment "What? You got a problem with me loser? You want a fight?!" He had the same cutesy voice and tough attitude the other gnome did.

"…All of them are like this, aren't they?" Lloyd mumbles out in a tone of annoyance as he stops in front of the gnome. "They must have had a poor upbringing." Zelos points out, leading to Sheena taking another jab at him with "Just like you."

Zelos flinches in surprise and then looks at Sheena before saying in a somewhat angered tone "Ok seriously, what did I do to deserve all these comments today?" Riku whistles innocently in the background, causing the Chosen to glance at him briefly before the gnome comments in response to these antics "What are you babbling about? What're you here for?"

This time, before Zelos makes an idiot of himself again, Regal steps forward and kindly bows his head while asking nicely "We wish to go further in. Would you mind letting us through?"

"You want me to let you through for free? The world doesn't work that way kiddo." It wasn't the response that took Regal aback, but rather the fact that the gnome called him a 'kid' that matter him stutter out the word and pause in place.

Lloyd groans again and points out "Not again…You and your brothers look and act way too much alike…So what do YOU want?" The gnome replies after taking a moment to think "Aha! I've always wanted to know what 'spicy' is like. Does 'spicy' taste good? Gimme something spicy to eat!"

Considering how demanding the creature was being, it's not surprising that Genis almost considered giving him a 'spicy' fireball to the face. But he calmed down and asked the gnome "Would curry work?"

"Yeah! That's good! Feed me that!" The gnome proclaims. "Then, let's take a break here for now." Raine states to the group, but then Regal offers up the question "But who shall cook the curry?"

Riku sits down in a crossed position and leans back against the nearby rock wall while mentioning "Wish I could help, but I've never cooked anything before. If he wanted a fruit or vegetable, I could just whip one up with my powers, but…"

"That's ok Riku, we have plenty of supplies on hand for curry." Lloyd points out, leading to Genis waving his hand and saying to his friend "Lloyd, I hope you aren't thinking of cooking."

"Huh? Why not?" Lloyd asks, his tone insinuated that he was insulted by the remark. "You failed to make a sandwich back in Sylvarant, I don't trust you with a curry." Genis explains.

"Ugh…Fine Genis, then I guess YOU can make the curry!" Lloyd says as a rebuttal, which leads to the half-elf replying with "I can't make curry you doofus!"

"Ugh…" Lloyd looks away from Genis for a moment to glance at the rest of the group, thinking about who to pick out to cook the curry. He only glances at Raine for a moment and gets a sick feeling in his gut as he imagines what horrors would be inflicted on the gnome if she were to cook. Looking at Colette gives him a little more faith, but then he worried about Colette's tripping and spilling the hot curry all over the gnome's body.

He then looks towards Regal and Presea, but passes up on them when he considers that Regal's shackles might make things tough for him or that Presea probably hasn't a cooked a meal while she was 'possessed' by her Exsphere. That leads to him glancing right past Zelos without hesitation and looking at Sheena, where he asks her as she perks her head up while sitting down "Sheena, think you can handle curry?"

"Huh? O-Oh, you want me to cook?" Sheena points to herself in surprise, but is then saddened to admit "Sorry Lloyd, I'm not a very good cook." As she admits this, Lloyd reluctantly looks back at Zelos, who was nonchalantly smiling in place as though he was waiting to be chosen.

"Actually Zelos, wouldn't you know how to make a good curry because of your upbringing?" Lloyd asks. Enthusiastically, Zelos answers "Of course! I watched my lovely maids work in the kitchen sometimes, and curry was always a specialty dish whenever we had company. Just give me the ingredients and I can whip up a perfect dish for this gnome!"

Raine gives Zelos the ingredients out of the pouch she was carrying around, and after the Chosen glances back at Lloyd the boy says to him "I hope you know how much I trust you on this, Zelos." Zelos takes pause and appears to let out a half-hearted chuckle before he says in his usually jovial tone "I won't let you down Lloyd!"

Thankfully, there was some wood nearby with a pot on top for Zelos to cook in. While he got to work, everyone sat around waiting. It was nice to just take a break after everything they had already been through today. After a few minutes, the curry released a nice, spicy smell that caught Riku's attention. "Huh, so that's what curry smells like. Kind of wish we had enough ingredients to make some for everyone."

"You've never had curry before?" Lloyd asks in surprise. "Haven't really had much food in general. Kind of hard to cook when you're in space." Riku answers.

"Next time we're in a city where we AREN'T fugitives, we should get some more curry supplies and have a meal." Genis says, which is something everyone in the area agrees on with a nod of the head, with Riku in particular saying "Thanks guys, I really appreciate it."

After another ten minutes, Zelos has finished making the curry. He invites the gnome over to the bowl to try it out, and after the creature dips his hand into the bowling red food mixture without flinching he puts the food in his mouth and eats it quickly. After a couple seconds he turns around and proclaims "Oh! Oh! This is very spicy!" Even though his face doesn't start sweating or anything else in the slightest.

"…I guess he doesn't have any taste buds." Lloyd whispers out in the face of the gnome's reaction. "Awww, and I put all that work into choosing the perfect spices for the curry." Zelos' choice of words along with his tone of disappointment suggest that he was planning on turning the gnome into a fireball with a heavy amount of spices.

But the gnome doesn't pick up on this, and the little creature leaves the area without saying thanks for the food. Everyone stares blankly at the little creature before Sheena comments "These guys are really getting on my nerves. Even Zelos says thanks sometimes."

"Wait, were you comparing me to the gnomes before that?" Zelos asks, but the ninja ignores the question as she rises to her feet alongside the rest of the group. And despite his persistent for a bit, the Chosen eventually stops asking Sheena for an answer once they run into yet another gnome blocking their path. Like the last one, this gnome proclaims cutely "What? You losers got a problem? You wanna fight?"

"…Their reactions are identical to the point that it's just silly…No, we don't have any business with you." An annoyed Lloyd bluntly states to the gnome. But to everyone's surprise, the creature replies "Hmm? Your face says, 'We want to go further in, but there's a big chasm and we can't go any further. I wonder if there was some other place we haven't been yet? Well, I guess we'll go here.' Right?"

Lloyd blinks a few times before muttering out "…What kind of face is that?" Then the gnome further takes the group off guard by offering "Hey, want me to help you out?"

"What?!" Lloyd blurts out in sheer disbelief, while the taken aback Genis naturally asks "What do you want this time?!" Despite the half-elf jumping to suspicions, the gnome just nonchalantly replies "What? Nothin'. Don't need nothin'."

After everyone takes a pause to think about the fact that there is such a thing as a nice gnome in this group, Raine kindly asks "Please help us." The gnome says in response "Sure thing darling! Just follow me and I'll lead you to the secret chasm!"

The gnome dashes past the group to a prior part of the caves, and after following him they end up back at the bridge where they knocked two other gnomes unconscious. But thankfully for the group, the friendly gnome doesn't notice this matter as he stands before a small, winding stone path leading to a darkened tunnel in the distance. "Took you long enough!" The gnome blurts out, leading to Lloyd whispering "…Guess even the nice ones can say the occasional mean remarks."

"Anyways, follow me! Just be careful not to fall, the road is a little rocky!" The gnome turns around and chuckles at the little pun he made, while Lloyd groans and says "…The sooner we're done here, the better."

Everyone goes in a careful line across the pathway while following the gnome, moving slowly enough that they won't cause the sides to crumble beneath their feet. The nimble gnome moves along with ease and makes it into the tunnel before the group has gotten past the halfway point. But once they catch up, they weave through the dark tunnel with a little difficulty and then find the gnome standing atop a rather creaky looking bridge.

"Alright, so now that we are here we need to lower this path in a very specific way. I'm going to need the one with the silly looking ring to stand beside me and use his ring at the same time as I jump, so that way we can lower the bridge and-" The gnome tries to use this long explanation, but Riku merely points his hand at the bridge and uses his powers to lift it up.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" The gnome blurts out before he leaps off the bridge and lands in front of the group. Riku brings the bridge over to the group and says to them merrily "Get on everyone, I'll carry us over to where we need to go."

"Hey! Why did you ask for my help when you had crazy powers like that at your disposal?!" The gnome inquires in a rather furious tone. The teenage Overlord glances at him and replies quickly "I didn't know we had to go here."

"Oh." The gnome says blankly, and after feeling a little embarrassed as the group walks atop the bridge he waves at them and says "Well! Have fun! I got things to do!" The gnome runs off soon afterwards.

Sheena turns around on the bridge and notices a beige colored seal in the distance atop an elevated rocky mound. "Go that way Riku." She says after the boy turns around. "On it!" The boy replies enthusiastically before he swings his hand forward and moves the bridge through the air. It was a short journey, and after landing the bridge on the ground the group gets off and starts to approach the seal. Zelos comments "I can't believe the bridge didn't break apart since we were all standing on it."

"Glad to help…" Riku says, letting out a tiny bit of sweat and catching his breath subtly after Zelos looks away. The group stands behind while Sheena walks towards the front of the seal with more confidence than she did with Volt, waiting patiently for Gnome to make his appearance.

The ground starts rumbling, but in a majestic manner instead of the usual violent tremors. Two spires of rock launch up on both sides of Sheena's body but then sink back down as the tremors calm down. Then, another spire launches up before the ninja, making her leap back to avoid being shunted into the air. A creature emerges from the center of the spire and flies high into the air as the spire vanishes.

The creature that emerges twirls around in an aloof manner as he goes towards the center of the seal. As it lands the group can get a clear look at him, revealing him to look like some sort of giant, cuddly mole with a shovel in his right hand and some sort of bow-tie atop his rounded head. "So this is Gnome…" Lloyd says.

"Since Volt was Undine's opposite, Gnone's is-" Before Genis can give an answer, Lloyd tries to be smart by snapping his fingers and proclaiming "Efreet! Once we pact with Gnome, that'll sever their mana flow!"

Raine immediately walks up behind Lloyd and backhands him across the back of his head, leaving a little burning sensation in his skin as she reminds him "No, it's Sylph! …Honestly, how many times do I have to tell you before you actually remember it?"

As Lloyd glances down in an embarrassed manner, Regal places one hand against his chin and chuckles while saying "I see that the level of education in Sylvarant matches the status of the world." This remark is insultingly to Raine, but Lloyd misinterprets it and says "Yeah, I guess you could say that!"

Raine and Genis both smack their foreheads, while Zelos and Colette giggle and Presea points out bluntly "Lloyd, that was not a compliment."

After glancing back at her friends, Sheena looks at Gnome and whispers to herself after building her confidence up with a deep breath "All right, here I go…"

The Summon Spirit hops up and down while scratching the back of his head with his shovel and saying "Hmm…so, you're a summoner, huh? Well look, sorry, but I've already got a pact with Mithos, 'k?" His voiced carried with it a cutesy echo that sounded just a little bit tougher than the gnomes.

"There's Mithos' name again. He must have been amazing." Colette says in a tone of sheer awe as she looks at Gnome and is entranced by how cute he is.

Sheena waves her hand at Gnome and proclaims "I am Sheena! I seek a pact with Gnome. I ask that thou annulst thy pact with Mithos, and establish a new pact with me." While continuing to scratch the back of his head, Gnome says in a bummer out tone of voice "Man, you sure use some stuffy language…bleh." He sticks his tongue out a bit and his eyes somehow cross into an X-shape.

Sheena nervously admits "Ummm, well…I mean, this is how I was taught to do it." Gnome pulls the shovel away from his backside and says "Really? Oh yeah well, whatever. All right, show me whatcha got. Bring it on!" The Summon Spirit swings his shovel forward ready for a battle, but before it begins the ninja crosses her hands in a T-shape and says "Hold on a minute, I need to ask something of my friends first!"

"Huh? Oh fine, fine, I can allow it…I guess." Gnome looks rather disappointed, but doesn't deny the summoner her request in a too offended tone. Sheena flips around and leaps to the front of the group, waving her hand out and saying "So umm, who wants to help me out?"

"After the beating I took from Volt, I'm definitely sticking this one out." Zelos says, stepping back a couple feet as Sheena gives him a half-open glare, which shifts to a more merry one as Riku and Lloyd both say to her "We'll help you out Sheena."

They glance at each other in surprise over the fact that they said the same thing, but Sheena smiles at them and says "Thanks guys. Anyone else?"

Presea brings out her axe and places the blade against the ground "I didn't get to help you with Volt, allow me to make up for that now."

"That's four then. Good enough. Hope the rest of you don't mind standing back and watching." Sheena says to the rest of the group. Raine nods her head and pulls out her staff while mentioning "I'll be ready to heal you when you're done. Good luck."

Sheena, Riku, Lloyd and Presea nod their heads in an appreciative manner at Raine and then approach Gnome. The Summon Spirit looks at them and says "Huh? Four-on-one? Sheesh, what happened to the standards of fighting these days…I remember when Mithos fought me, he did it by himself!"

Riku draws out his sword and points it at Gnome while saying "Hey, if it works it works. Don't mock it until we lose." "Eh, if you say so kid." Is the Summon Spirit's response. With an enthusiastic leap into the air, Gnome points his stomach at the ground and falls down in front of the steps with a heavy pound, flipping himself around onto his tiny feet and spinning around while saying "Time to taste DIRT" in a fun sounding tone.

Gnome immediately goes for a spell as he folds his shovel in front of his body and grabs the spade with his other hand while summoning a glyphic seal. It doesn't take him long to wave his shovel upward while enthusiastically proclaiming "Ground DASHER!"

The ground cracks apart in a scar-shaped ravine below the feet of his four opponents, forcing them to split apart as an eruption of earth-based energy bursts out from the scar. With the group split in two, Presea takes off towards Gnome and pulls her axe beside her head, letting out a battle cry as she stands before him and swings it at the Summon Spirit. Gnome swings his shovel down to casually block the axe, where a shockwave is created from the impact that pushes Presea back a few feet.

Gnome then digs right into the ground with his shovel while Sheena throws a seal at his body. The Summon Spirit burrows underground as the seal passes above his body, and he digs so far down that he doesn't leave a trail of rising dirt as he moves around. "Be on your guard." Sheena points out as she draws two seals and slowly moves about in preparation for when Gnome emerges.

It takes a few seconds, but the ground starts to tremble as Gnome rises back up. It was impossible to tell where he was coming out from, leading to mass surprise as the ground below Lloyd's feet begins to rise up in a crack mound. The swordsman tries to use his Guardian field to protect himself, but he's carried up into the air by Gnome's girth as large chunks of rock spread out around the emergence point.

Gnome flips himself to the side of Lloyd's body and gives his back a nice whack with his shovel to send him hurtling towards the ground. The mole giggles as the attack hits, but while he's in mid-air Sheena leaps up and taps both of her readied seals on his back, performing a kick off of his bulky backside to end up back on the ground beside Presea. The axe-wielder runs at Gnome as the creature lands and Sheena's seals activate, causing a light mist to appear around the Summon Spirit in the form of a moon that causes him to see an illusionary world.

Presea leaps up and spins around, performing a diagonal cleave that cuts apart the mist surrounding Gnome and dealing a decisive blow to his body that pushes him back and makes his eyes cross into an X yet again. As Gnome recovers, Lloyd swings his swords against the ground twice to send two-fanged projectiles into his back, stunning him with each impact long enough for Riku to run up and deliver a horizontal flaming slash on the side of Gnome's body.

"Ow! That hurt!" Gnome blurts out, even if his body didn't have a scratch on it. The Summon Spirit then slams his shovel against the ground and lifts it up to send a rain of large rocky chunks at Presea and Sheena. Gnome then quickly burrows back into the ground before Riku can strike him from behind with a wind-based sphere.

Presea cuts down two of the rocks that fly her way and then lifts her axe above her head, slamming it down into the ground with all of her might to send a shockwave through the ground in pursuit of Gnome. But to no one's surprise, the Summon Spirit weaves around the attack and leaps out behind Presea, and with the girl forced to drag her axe out of the ground Gnome is able to raise his shovel up with both hands and then try to bonk Presea hard on the head with the bottom of the spade.

The attack is barely blocked by Riku, who creates a thick cushion of wind above Presea's head to nullify most of the impact. The shovel manages to break through, but doesn't end up leaving the girl with nothing more than a minor daze in her head as it connects. "Now Lloyd!" Riku proclaims as he draws his left hand back and grits his teeth upon feeling a slight jolt of pain from holding Gnome's power back.

Lloyd leaps over the teenage Overlord's body and dives straight at Gnome with both of his swords pointed downward, hitting him with a mighty sword thrust to the face before landing and immediately jabbing both of his swords outward in a rapid fashion, followed up by him folding his swords beside his body as he slams his shoulder into Gnome's gut and then leaps up while thrusting his swords out with all of his might to launch out a beast-headed projectile that pushes Gnome off of his feet and sends him sliding across his back on the ground, creating a surprisingly heavy cloud of dirt as he goes.

Lloyd feels a tinge in his shoulder from colliding with Gnome, and as he lands on the ground he points out "Can't believe how durable he is…" With the dust fading out, Sheena throws two more seals inside the cloud to tag Gnome, but after a few seconds the seals explode on empty air and blow away the dust to reveal that the Summon Spirit has once more dug a hole to escape.

But this time, Gnome doesn't come back up to attack, preferring to stay in the safety of his underground tunnel as he prods his shovel into the ground to create a series of rocky spikes below Presea's feet. The girl is poked across the arms by the tip of the spikes and is launched back towards the seal.

Gnome sends multiple stone spikes across the area as he digs around and prods the surface with his shovel repeatedly, leading to the group leaping and dashing around to avoid being punctured. The lack of forewarning made it difficult to predict these movements, which forced Riku to take flight and Lloyd to swing his swords around to cut down the spikes before they raised too far up. But meanwhile, Sheena pulls out a blue seal and looks at the hole in the ground.

"Lloyd, I have an idea! Prepare to attack Gnome!" Sheena proclaims as she begins to use her summon magic. But Gnome has other plans, and summons forth a diagonal stone spike on all four sides of Sheena's body. The ninja is forced to duck down to avoid being impaled, where Lloyd then has to run past the other erupting spikes to free Sheena with a circular cut.

Sheena backflips out of the center of the shattered spikes and creaks her body backward to crack her spine back into place after narrowly avoiding death. With sweat trickling down her face, Sheena holds her seal back up while Riku leaps in front of her, brandishing his sword and saying "Go ahead, I'll fend off anymore attacks."

The ninja nods her head in an appreciative manner and works her summoning magic again, while Riku ignites his blade with fire and zips around Sheena's body whenever he feels the ground tremble, using his sword to cleaning carve the stone spikes down before they can extend far out of the ground. Lloyd is forced to preoccupy himself with the remaining spikes until Sheena can finish summoning.

"Come, Undine!" Sheena proclaims as she summons forth the Summon Spirit of Water, who immediately sends out a large stream of water into the hole Gnome dug into. The water went through so quickly that it didn't take long for the ground to crack apart and tiny spurts of water to be released before a large chunk of the ground erupts, launching Gnome into the air atop a geyser of Undine's creation.

The mole flailed his arms around while saying "Whoa whoa! You guys have Undine?!" Away from his domain, Gnome was left defenseless as Sheena sent Undine away and let the geyser vanish. "Now!" She proclaims to her allies afterwards.

Lloyd leaps into the air and uses both of his swords to slash across Gnome's underside, while Presea runs close to where Gnome is going to land and pulls her axe back with both hands, waiting for the right opportunity to bring her weapon down straight onto Gnome's gut, piledriving the Summon Spirit right into the ground, burying him in a large crater that nearly trips Presea up at the edge as it's created.

Gnome doesn't budge in the slightest for a few seconds as Presea lifts her axe out of the ground and twirls it before she stamps the blade into the ground beside her, but then the Summon Spirit lifts his right arm out of the ground and waves around a tiny white flag that he pulled out of nowhere, saying in a raspy voice "Uncle…Uncle…You win…"

Sheena, Riku, Lloyd and Presea look at each other and smile at their victory, and after a few more seconds Gnome leaps out of crater and lands atop the summon seal again. He coughs a couple times, saying to the group in his usual tone of voice "Geez, I guess there is something to fighting against multiple people…But man, I'm not even the strongest Summon Spirit, I hope you can get better before then."

"We already have four other Summon Spirits!" Lloyd exclaims, leading to Gnome saying in a surprised tone "Seriously? Oh, whatever then…Go ahead and make your vow, I guess."

Sheena rubs the front of her forehead and groans out "This guy is hard to deal with…" Before she waves her hand out and says "For the sake of creating a place in which the two worlds no longer must sacrifice one another, gimme your power!"

"Hmmm…well, all right. I'll go ahead and lend my power to you guys." After Gnome seals the pact, a bright wind blows across the air, and without Sheena's aid three small winged creatures appear before the Summon Spirit of Earth. These three creatures had different shaped wings and colorful clothing and hair, and their presence made Gnome poke his head up and say happily "Whoa, Sylph! Hehe, it's been like what, uh…four thousand years? How's it goin'? Lookin' good!"

The green-haired Sylph says "It has been a long time, hasn't it? It seems that the mana flow between us has been severed." Gnome nods his head and states "Yep, there's gonna be an earthquake here in a bit. After all, we just basically ripped out the mana link. Hello!"

Gnome lifts his hands up, using his powers to mend the battlefield back to normal while the purple-haired Sylph says "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." The pink-haired Sylph turns around and merrily waves at the group before saying "Take care, everyone! See ya all later!"

Sylph disappears from sight, and after a momentary pause Gnome looks at the group and states "Okay, later!" He then vanishes in a puff of light, leaving Sheena with a brown seal in her hand and a satisfied, confident look on her face.

Lloyd sheathes his swords and pumps one of his fists in front of his body while saying "All right! Just like we planned! Good job you guys!"

Riku waves his right hand up above his head, dragging a nearby rock up to the elevation of his fingers before saying "Alright, that's another of my elements back in my possession." He snaps his fingers to drop the rock back onto the ground, and then he turns around and joins the group as they gather together.

Zelos is the first to acknowledge the aftermath, as he claps his head a couple times and says "Good job, especially you my voluptuous darling…But hey, I've been thinking…If the worlds are separated from other, we won't be able to see each other again, right?"

Lloyd glances at Zelos in confusion and says "Huh? Why not? So long as we have the Rheairds, travel between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla should be easy." But Raine reminds Lloyd afterwards "Right now, we can move in between the worlds because they're connected by the flow of mana. Once they are split apart, we don't know what will happen."

"In other words, it's possible the two worlds may part ways forever…" Regal states in a somewhat melancholy tone. "So we'll have to say goodbye once we pact with the final Summon Spirit?" Colette asks, the thought of leaving everyone she's met in Tethe'alla being hard for her to imagine.

The group goes silent for a few seconds afterwards, and though the conversation picks up everyone speaks in a slower, saddened tone "…We don't know if that's really the case, so there's no point in worrying about it."

Zelos feels a bit bummed now that he brought the subject up and says "…True." Which is then followed by Presea trying to move away from the subject by asking "…Where shall we go next?"

Regal's surprising knowledge comes into play now, as he suggests to the group "I've heard that the Summon Spirit, Celsius, resides near Flanoir." Lloyd nods his head in agreement and says "Okay then, let's go have a look."

The group starts to depart from the Temple of Earth with Riku extending a bridge back to the other side with his revived Earth powers, but before they make it out of Gnome's room the teenage Overlord thinks about the group's discussion in an inflective manner "…It's nice to know everything will turn out different than what they expect, but it's got me thinking…What would it feel like if I could never again return to any of the worlds I visited before? All those promises I made to come back would go unfulfilled, and I could-"

"Hey Riku, you ok?" Lloyd asks, breaking the boy's concentration on this subject for the time being as he lifts his head up and replies in a stoic manner "Sorry Lloyd, I was just thinking about something personal, don't mind me."

"Alright, just thought I'd ask." Lloyd says before he turns his head back around and continues onward, and with him still in ear-range the teenage Overlord nods his head and says "Lloyd…Thank you."

Next Time: The Frozen Fracas