Chapter 31: Sins of the Father

After making haste all the way back to Altessa's house via the Rheairds, Lloyd doesn't waste any time in running straight to the door with Colette still on his back. He opens it up with a hard kick, which nearly gives Altessa a heart attack as he turns to face the boy. "Altessa!" Lloyd exclaims with all of his might, and the dwarf stares at him and the Chosen on his back while asking in a puzzled tone of voice "What's going on?"

"Colette's fainted!" Lloyd exclaims, and Altessa's eyes widen as he urgently tells the boy "Hurry! Take her to one of the beds!" Lloyd runs straight for the quest room and lays Colette gently on top of the sheets. Altessa followed him inside with Tabitha beside him and examined the girl's condition, noticing that the crystallic effect had started to creep close to her elbows.

"No…Tell me you managed to figure out a cure for the poor girl…" Altessa laments, and Lloyd wastes little time in reaching into his clothes and pulling out the Zircon, Mana Fragment and Mana Leaf Herb he had collected before throwing them against the bed. A wide-eyed Altessa looks at Lloyd as he desperately begs of him "We have all the ingredients to create something called a Rune Crest! The Professor has likely remembered all the details, so PLEASE, save her!"

"It's true…" Raine comments as she enters the room and pulls out the Unicorn Horn she had on her. "Altessa, let us get to work, Colette does not have much time left…" Altessa nods his head in agreement and notes "Very well…Tabitha, bring me my crafting tools…Lloyd, I would like to ask you and your friends to wait outside this room until Raine and I finish."

Lloyd grits his teeth in anger at this whole situation, but then sinks his head lower and comments "…Ok, I'll wait. Please Altessa, I-I mean, we're all counting on you." Lloyd then exits the room while Tabitha states "LET US HURRY, MASTER."

Now that he's left Colette in Altessa and Raine's hands, Lloyd could do nothing but wait in the other room of the house with his head hung low and a distraught look on his face. No one bothered to talk to him for quite a few minutes until he said "I wonder if Colette is going to be okay…"

"We've done everything we can Lloyd." Sheena points out empathetically, which makes Lloyd shake his head and comment "I know Sheena…But it doesn't make any of this easier for me…What if we aren't capable of saving Colette anyways? What if all of this was in vain?"

"…I can't believe you're saying that, Lloyd." Regal comments in a surprised tone of voice, while Zelos looks at Lloyd and says to him "Come on Lloyd, if you're letting Yggdrasill's wack-job sentences get to you, then he's going to triumph over us. You should really have something to eat and calm down."

Lloyd immediately turns around to face Zelos as the man is seen chopping up some meat and says to him angrily "I can't eat at a time like this! What the HELL is wrong with you Zelos?!" This comment seems to affect the Chosen for a moment, but he nonchalantly smiles and drops his knife to pick up two vegetables in both hands and say "Come on now Lloyd…How about some carrots? Or a potato?"

Lloyd just lets out an annoyed sigh and glares away while saying "…I really don't want any." Zelos frowns for a moment, but then perks up for a moment and asks "Hey, what's with you and Genis? Why are you both acting so gloomy?"

As he mentions this he glances over at Genis, who was huddled close to a wall while secretly looking down at the flute he picked up from Yggdrasill. As he does this, Mithos walks up to him and asks "Yes, what's wrong, Genis?" Genis' heart skips a beat as he hears his friend's voice, and after stuffing the flute away he turns around and looks at his friend, stuttering out as he recalls everything that happened in the Tower of Salvation "Mithos…actually…umm…" Genis did not want to say what was on his mind, which made Mithos curiously stare at his friend for a few seconds before another voice calls out to the entire group.

"TREATMENT IS COMPLETE." It was Tabitha, who walked out of the guest room with Raine and Altessa. Lloyd runs straight over to the three of them and asked "How's Colette?!"

Altessa looks up at the boy and merrily answers "She's sleeping now. When she awakens, her body will be back to normal, and the Cruxis Crystal shall be controlled by the Rune Crest." Upon hearing this, Lloyd places one hand against his chest and lets out a relieved sigh. "I see…Now Colette doesn't have to suffer anymore."

Suddenly, Zelos runs up behind Lloyd and gives him a celebratory hug, saying merrily "Okay then! Let's have dinner in celebration of Colette's full recovery!" Lloyd glares at Zelos over his shoulder and comments "…What's with you and wanting to eat so much?"

"Cause we're best friends, right?" Zelos replies with a smile on his face, and he says in turn "I'm worried about you. We've been running rampant all day, you've got to be tired." Mithos comments on the matter nicely with "It looks like you're good friends."

"Yep! Doesn't it, though?" Sheena says. Mithos nods his head and then turns to face at the nervous Genis, asking him politely "Are you tired too, Genis?" Genis pauses for a moment and thinks about that question, but ultimately responds with one of his own "Mithos…we're friends, right?"

This question befuddled his fellow half-elf, who looked at him and asked "What? Of course. What are you talking about?" Genis firmly asks "We're really friends, right?" Mithos stutters out a response of "Y…yeah…"

Genis gives a half-hearted smile and replies "I believe you, okay?" He then walks off to join the rest of the group for dinner time while hanging his head slightly. Mithos has a concerned look on his face, and he doesn't say much more after that on the matter. Zelos decides to take full cooking duty in the kitchen despite Regal and Altessa's offer to help, and everyone just sits down around the table feeling a little better about the overall situation.

Well, save for Sheena, who says to Lloyd and the others "I'm going to have to skip out on dinner for now. I need to go back to Mizuho and fight Kuchinawa, if that's alright with all of you." Lloyd turns to face his friend and says "You want one of us to come along and make sure he doesn't try anything funny?"

Sheena shakes her head and notes "This is something I have to do myself…And I trust Kuchinawa not to try anything. Besides Lloyd, you have to be here for Colette when she wakes up." Lloyd stands up and comments "Sheena, good luck."

"Yeah, we have no doubt you'll be able to handle the problem perfectly." Riku says, leading to Sheena nodding her head with a confident smile and saying "Yeah, I'll definitely do my best…Well, see you guys in a few hours." Sheena leaves through the front door, with Zelos commenting "Well, guess I'll save Sheena's meal for her. She'll probably be pretty hungry after battle."

Zelos then turns back to the food he was working on, where he takes a small vial of liquid out and puts a few drops inside of Sheena's meal before he puts it off to the side. Riku looks at Zelos' actions and stands up, saying to the group "I'm not feeling hungry tonight. Anything I can do to help around here?"

"Huh? You don't want to eat? You sure Riku? These steaks are looking preeeeetty good!" Zelos tries to lure the teenage Overlord in with his tantalizing words, but Riku just looks at him and says "You know I don't need to eat, Zelos. You don't need to be so insistent."

"Awww, but you're going to miss out on so much Riku. This meal will leave you breathless! Consider it an apology for me accusing you of working with Cruxis!" Zelos turns around with a plate of steaming potatoes and steak, hoping to use the smell to make Riku change his mind, but the teenage Overlord shakes his head and comments "Maybe another time, Zelos."

Riku then looks at Lloyd and says to him "So hey, Lloyd, I got something I want to ask you." Lloyd turns his head to face him and tilts his head in confusion before asking "What is it Riku?" The teenage Overlord says "…What is your opinion on Yuan?"

"Huh? That came out of nowhere…Umm, I definitely think I can sympathize with his goal, but I really don't like his methods. But if he wants our help again, then I won't try and bicker with him…much." Lloyd's response makes Riku nod his head and comment "Huh, interesting. I was just curious, you never really say much about the guy."

"Yeah…I wonder what he's up to now?" Lloyd inquires, and Zelos shrugs his shoulder and mentions "Probably trying to cause trouble for Yggdrasill and his buddies. Who knows, who cares?"

Raine glances at Riku and says to him "So Riku, what is YOUR opinion on Yuan?" The teenage Overlord looks at Raine in surprise and says "Boy, now that one came out of nowhere. Well, my opinions are pretty much the same as Lloyd's in that regard. If he was just a little more trusting of others, we might have been able to stop Cruxis already. In the end, we both want almost the same thing."

"Come to think about it, he probably knew about Colette's illness since he was one of the people who traveled with Martel. We should have just gone to him for help instead of going around everywhere in Tethe'alla." Lloyd says, to which Regal points out "But had we done that, we never would've dealt with Vharley or the Pope."

"Nor would we have learned the truth about Yuan's connection to Martel in the first place. It would've been a sound plan, but only if someone in our group somehow knew of the connection between the two before our meeting with the Storyteller." Raine comments with a rather particular choice of words, which makes Riku glance at her concernedly for a moment before he sits back down and says "Either way, let's just wait for Colette to awaken, and then we'll worry about our next plan from there."

"Hmm…" Raine contemplates something to herself, but afterwards the group sans Riku sits down and enjoys a lovely dinner crafted by Zelos' own two hands. It was a wonderful feast that lasted a good thirty minutes before everyone got up, satisfied with what they had eaten. Zelos and Regal worked on cleaning everything up for the night, while Lloyd suddenly let out a tired yawn and commented in a drowsy voice "Now I'm feeling sleepy all of a sudden…Guess I should go to bed."

Raine turns to look at him and says "It's not good for your digestion if you sleep right away." To which Regal then asks "Are you feeling fatigued, Lloyd?" Lloyd shakes his head and says in response "I'm fine. I'm just going to go lay down for a while." The boy then walks off to sleep, with Genis and Presea following suit not long after. Once Raine and Regal were done cleaning, they headed off as well, followed by Altessa.

Tabitha, being artificially created, didn't have any reason to sleep and merely went off to guard Altessa for the night. With only Zelos and Riku left in the house, they waited for the moment when Sheena came back from Mizuho. She now had Corrine's bell back on her right hand, and Zelos clapped his hands proudly and said "Right on! I knew you'd be able to beat Kuchinawa!"

Sheena smiles at Zelos and says "Thanks…But it wasn't easy. Kuchinawa has disappeared now, but I don't think he'll be causing anymore trouble for us." The girl sounded a little depressed as she spoke, something Zelos picked up on as he walked up to her and commented "Well hey, my dear, dear Sheena, you should probably eat something now that you're done with that. I saved you a plate of my delicious steak just for this occasion!"

Sheena looks up at the man and says to him "Hehe, thanks Zelos…Say, what happened to the others?" As she looks around, Riku comments "They all went to sleep. Fatigue caught up to them, I guess."

"Huh, alright then. Guess I'll head off to sleep myself once I'm done eating." Sheena says, and with a tired look in her eyes she went to the table and had Zelos' meal after the man used some fire magic to warm the food back up. Once she was done she did as she said she would and went off to sleep, where Zelos and Riku were then left alone to take care of their own business.

"So…Aren't you going to sleep too, Zelos?" Riku asks, and the man replies "I was gonna ask you the same question, but I guess you don't really sleep much, do ya? So, wanna share guard duty with me tonight?" He sounded rather enthusiastic to work together with the teenage Overlord, but Riku replies "You can't stay up late like I can, Zelos. Just go to bed already…I'm going to probably head off too, I think we'll be safe tonight."

"Alright man, if you say so. Good night." Zelos says with little nonchalance in his voice, and the two retreat off for the night. However, the teenage Overlord faked sleep with closed eyelids as he thought to himself "Alright…Lets see how it goes tonight…"

After a couple hours of waiting around, Riku hears some footsteps in the house coming from the entrance. He opens his eyelids a mere centimeter and looks to the left to see Yuan and a few Renegade Soldiers approaching Lloyd's bed. Lloyd had woken up, but his body was stiff in place as he commented "My body…I can't move." Yuan raises his left hand at the boy and charges electricity towards his chest while whispering "…Do you want to meet your father?"

Lloyd flinches briefly in surprise and says angrily "What have you done with my dad?!" Yuan pulls his arm back and gestures at his soldiers, telling them to take Lloyd outside while a couple others check the room to ensure that the others haven't woken up yet. Riku closes his eyelids and stiffens his muscles up to ensure that when the Renegade guys come to check up on him they won't assume anything suspicious.

"All clear, Lord Yuan." One of the soldiers state, and after an approving nod of his head Yuan, Lloyd and the Renegade men proceed to exit Altessa's house. Once he knew they were a safe distance out, Riku got off of the bed and rushed for the window, kneeling down low enough to make sure that no one would notice him.

Upon looking outside he sees Yuan facing Lloyd with Kratos standing behind him, bound in place by two Renegade Soldiers. Lloyd can be seen scowling as he asks in a surprised tone of voice "Kratos! The Renegades and Cruxis are enemies, aren't they?!" Yuan responds bluntly "Quiet…Of course, the drug should have everyone sleeping soundly."

"Drug?! …Where's my dad? If you've done anything to my dad, I'll tear every last one of you to pieces!" Lloyd was understandably frustrated and confused at the same time, and Yuan waves one finger in front of his body while saying "Now now, is that the way to act when you're about to meet your father for the first time?"

Kratos weakly states to Yuan "So it was you…You were the assassin who tried to kill me at Hima." And Yuan then turns to face Kratos while saying to him without any care in the world "Kratos. If you value your son's life at all, do as we say." This sentence caused Lloyd to widen his eyes with a blank stare as he asks hesitantly "What are you…talking about?"

"Release Origin's seal…" Yuan swings his left arm behind him and charges it with electricity before he continues to say "Otherwise, Lloyd will die right here." Lloyd suddenly felt his heart beat abnormally upon hearing this, as images of all of his previous encounters with Kratos flow into his mind one after the other. He focused mostly on the times Kratos betrayed them, and those images repeated multiple times as he grasped the sides of his head and began to say "No…Kratos can't be my dad…I c…I can't believe that…I won't believe that!"

He defied the reality in front of him, closing his eyelids and trembling at this news in pain. Yuan lowers his hand and smugly looks at Kratos, saying to him with a callous tone "How does it feel to have your own son reject you like that?" Kratos can only respond with a single "…Humph."

"…I guess from your attitude, you don't plan on releasing Origin…If that's the way it's going to be, then you'll just have to die!" Yuan reaches into his cloak and draws his double-bladed sword, looking to kill Kratos then and there. To make things harder for the man, the Renegade Soldiers holding Lloyd down draw their swords and point them at his neck, which causes Kratos to flinch and budge his bindings slightly. "One move, and your son dies!" The Renegade Soldiers point out.

Yuan sighs and says to Kratos "You changed once you got a family…Just like that time fifteen years ago. When Anna was transformed into a monster, you lost your ability to fight back." Lloyd, even with the swords to his neck, muttered out a devastated sounding "…What?" As Yuan further explains "If she hadn't been together with you, she would have never turned out like that."

Yuan's callous comments finally broke Lloyd's limits of patience, and with a swing of his elbows Lloyd knocks the wind out of the Renegade Soldiers and runs towards Yuan while reaching for one of his swords. Before he swing at Yuan's back he exclaims "Don't you dare mock my mother!" Before his attack connects, Yuan swings around and parries the blow then leaps to the left. While Lloyd was left surprised, Yuan had no hesitation in raising his right hand up and charging up electricity in his palm.

Seeing this, Kratos suddenly gains strength and rips through his rope bindings, running forward and taking the electricity blast for Lloyd. He endures a great deal of pain from the attack, ending with him dropping to his knees before Lloyd. Lloyd can only stare blankly at Kratos while letting out a simple "…What?" Kratos stares up at him and smiles, saying in a tired and proud tone of voice "…Are you all right? …Go…Good…" Kratos then collapses onto his back.

Everything that has happened so far, combined with the reoccurring repeats of Kratos' interactions with him breaks Lloyd completely, and he leans his head forward with hands embracing his head. With a scream of pain from Lloyd, Riku takes action and kicks the door open, heading outside and saying accursedly towards Yuan "Yuan! What the hell are you doing?!"

Yuan looks at Riku with surprise on his eyes, saying to him "W-What? How did the drug not affect you? …It matters not, this is not your affair, Elemental Overlord." The two Renegade Soldiers raise their swords at Riku, but the teenage Overlord grabs onto the blades and bends them into uselessness without having blood drawn, saying to them both "I'd reconsider this plan if I were you, Yuan."

Suddenly, Colette runs past Riku and looks at the heavily distraught Lloyd, saying in relation to his earlier scream "Lloyd? What's wrong? What's going on?!" Lloyd says in response "What am I…What am I supposed to believe?!"

Colette runs up beside Lloyd and says to him quickly "Lloyd, calm down!" Lloyd shakes his head and trembles while dropping to his knees, saying to his friend "It's not true! Kratos can't be…The man who betrayed us and made you suffer, he couldn't possibly be…my dad…"

The Chosen looked visibly surprised to hear this, and had to be silent for a few moments before she placed one hand on her chest and confidently said to Lloyd "Lloyd, don't lose sight of who you are! No matter who your parents are, no matter your background, you're still you!" Lloyd calms down slightly and says "I'm…me?"

He looks at his friend and hears her say "You're the one who told me that no matter what I look like, even if I become an angel, I'm still me…And don't forget…Kratos saved you." Lloyd takes that last part into consideration the most, and that allows him to get rid of all the bad memories of Kratos and mostly focus on the times he helped him out. He stands on his feet and says to Colette "…Yeah, you're right."

He then bends down beside Kratos and says to him honestly "Thanks…But I still can't call you Dad." Colette says his friend's name in a melancholy tone of voice, while Riku steps away from the door and goes between Yuan and Colette. Even though Kratos was mostly unconscious, Lloyd said to him "I hate what you…what Cruxis does. Too many people have died. People from Sylvarant, people from Tethe'alla…Desians and Renegades and members of Cruxis…They're all victims. I refuse to accept the idea that it's okay to sacrifice people for a cause. It's not okay to lose your life. No life should be born for the sole purpose of dying. I won't sacrifice the world to save Colette. I'm not giving up until I find a way for everyone to live!"

"…No life should be born for the sole purpose of dying, huh?" Riku murmurs out, but before he gets too indulged in those thoughts he realizes what was about to happen and glanced to the left as a familiar voice called out to those gathered in an eerie tone of voice "Wow, that was an amazingly corny speech. Congratulations."

Lloyd looks off to the right while Yuan stares expectedly at the door of Altessa's house as he finds Mithos standing there. "…Mithos?" Lloyd comments in a confused tone of voice. Mithos doesn't respond as he casually raises his hands into the air, blowing away the Renegade Soldiers beside him with two energy blasts. He then steps forward and casually does the same to the two that were holding Kratos hostage, but when he aims his arm for Yuan the man swings his sword forward and chops the energy blast down with ease.

Mithos chuckles ominously at this, while Riku draws his sword and says to himself "So he finally reveals himself…" Mithos looks at Yuan and says to him "Did you think I didn't notice what was going on? How pathetic. I had Pronyma keep tabs on Kratos, since it seemed he was leaking information to Lloyd's group…"

"Hmph, I suppose I should've expected you to use that leashed harpy of yours to spy on Kratos. But what does that matter, Yggdrasill?" Yuan comments. Lloyd glares back and forth at the two of them and lets out a puzzled "What?!" Mithos then proceeds to laugh and say "That was a pretty amusing scheme you had going. Hard to believe those filthy Renegades that were always getting in my way…were actually led by you. If it weren't for my sister's wishes to spare your life, I'd kill you right now."

Mithos raises his arms up ready to fight Yuan, but Yuan brushes aside part of his hair and says "How unfortunate for you then…For I have every intention of sending you to Hell, where you can never besmirch Martel's name again! Now!" After Yuan gives out the signal, Mithos looks rather puzzled for a moment before all of a sudden Botta lands on the ground behind him and picks him up, holding tightly onto his arms to prevent him from using his attacks while putting his sword close to his neck.

Everyone is surprised by this sudden move from Yuan's side, most of all Riku, who stuttered out of his mouth "B-Botta?! What are you doing here?!" Mithos struggles to break free, but something was preventing him from doing anything at the moment. He angrily says to Yuan "You filthy traitor…How dare you have your pawn touch me!"

"You thought you were in control of things, didn't you Mithos? And I'll admit, you could have held the advantage over me…But I managed to figure out that you were traveling with Lloyd's group in your younger form, and that allowed me to come up with a plan to trap you once you revealed yourself. Botta, I appreciate your patience up on the cliff. It is what will allow me to finally end this nightmare…" As Yuan says this, he holds his sword up and slowly approaches Mithos.

"It was my honor, Lord Yuan." Botta says politely, and Mithos grits his teeth while saying "You're a fool, Yuan, you can't bring yourself to kill me. I am your kin, your brother! You think Martel will look kindly on you if you kill me?!"

Yuan glares down at Mithos and says "That is the difference between the two of us, Mithos…I have long since accepted that the woman I loved is dead…You, on the other hand, have nearly doomed this world because you have not and never will move on." With sword raised above his head, Yuan proclaims "Now, die!"

As he prepares to swing his sword down, Lloyd exclaims to him "Wait, what the hell is going on?! Answer me Yuan!" His puzzled reaction to these events makes Yuan pause long enough to explain "Lloyd…Do not concern yourself with this. It's all over now."

Riku thinks to himself "I can't believe it…Something simple as saving Botta's life allowed Yuan to kill Mithos before things got worse for Lloyd and the others. I really did something fantastic here…" The teenage Overlord's pride in what he has done left him distracted long enough to fail and notice a series of fireballs flying towards both Yuan and Botta, their impacts stunning them both long enough for Yuan to fail and kill Mithos with a single stroke while also loosening Botta's grip enough for Mithos to use his powers again.

"Hehehe…Hahahaha!" Mithos laughed happily at his freedom and proceeds to swing both of his arms out, blowing both Botta and Yuan away from him with a blast of energy. With this divergence failing to reach the desired outcome, Riku quickly glances towards the entrance of Altessa's house and notices that Genis is standing there with kendama raised and a surprised look on his face upon seeing Mithos' reaction to being freed. Raine, Altessa, Presea and Tabitha were with him, and they along with the others express similar disbelief at Genis' attack on Yuan and Botta.

"I-I…Mithos…No…I-I…" Genis was overwhelmed, and as Mithos turned to face him he slowly grinned and said in a monotone voice "Thank you Genis…I knew I could trust you…Friend." Immediately, the teenage Overlord exclaims to Genis "Genis, what the hell have you done?!"

While he was consumed by anger at the half-elf, Riku is suddenly blasted in the chest by one of Mithos' energy shots, which dropped him to his knees as Mithos says to him coldly "What he has done, Elemental Overlord, is sealed all of your fates." Mithos turns his attention towards Presea and fires another shot at her, and as she reacts with shock Altessa jumps in front of her and takes the shot. The dwarf cries out in pain as he's launched onto the ground.

Tabitha, even as an artificial creation, felt confusion over Mithos' sudden change in behavior, and repeated out "MITHOS…SAVED ME…" This pissed Mithos off immensely as he immediately directed his attention towards her and blasted her unconscious against the ground, but before she shut down she continued to murmur out the same phrase "MITHOS…SAVED ME…"

"How could you do that?! You even risked your life to save her!" Raine exclaims in bitter rage, and Genis murmurs out "Why Mithos…Why? Why are you doing this? WHY?!" His murmurs increased in volume until he was pleading with Mithos for answers. Mithos coldly glared at the doll and said "Tabitha! That doll looks so disturbingly like my sister…I never could stand her! She's a failed vessel who couldn't accept my sister's soul! Just looking at her makes me sick!"

Mithos then ignores the group and turns to face Botta's fallen body, saying to him as he raises his hand up "Now…Time to kill the first of many traitors!" "NOOO!" Riku suddenly exclaims out in anger and leaps from his crouched position, pulling out his sword and going for a stab on Mithos' heart, but the half-elf turns just in time to get punctured through the shoulder. He exclaims out in pain before Riku pulls his sword out and stands upright, saying to him "After all I did to save him, you will not undo my progress you bastard!"

As blood leaked out from his partially paralyzed right arm, Mithos said angrily to the teenage Overlord "You are…a fool…Elemental Overlord!" Lloyd draws out his swords and is about to join in on the fight when Genis steps between him and Mithos and says "No! Don't do it, both of you! Please! You're both my friends!" After all that had happened, the words coming from Genis' mouth wounded Lloyd, who paused long enough for yet another figure to appear on the scene.

This time it was Pronyma, who immediately turned to face Mithos and saw the massive wound in his arm and exclaimed "Lord Yggdrasill! Human…How dare you harm him!" She knew to direct her anger towards Riku upon seeing his blade drawn, and the teenage Overlord says "Do you want the same to happen to you, Twilight Pronyma?" His eyes projected a cold, piercing glare, showing that he had every intention of fulfilling his remark.

Pronyma is about ready to go for her staff when Mithos says "Hehehe…We have lost for now, Pronyma. But this will not be the end of it…" With a mere thought, Mithos is surrounded by angel feathers and is swiftly transformed from the young Mithos to the elderly Yggdrasill, leader of Cruxis. His arm still retained the wound inflicted on him by Riku, but now he was able to safely summon forth his angels wings and say "Pronyma, grab Kratos…We are to depart."

The Desian obeys her master's wishes and picks Kratos up from the ground, and the two of them fly off to safety. Before they depart though, Yggdrasill had one last thing to say to Lloyd "No life should be born for the sole purpose of dying? What do you think those Exspheres are that you're using?"

After that moment, the rest of the group runs out of Altessa's house, noticing all the fainted bodies in the area and demanding to know what had happened once they had a chance to collect themselves. Yuan and Botta start to get back on their feet, but Yuan had a more difficult time getting up than his companion. Lloyd immediately runs up to him to try and get some more answers while he had a chance, while Riku dispels his sword and grasps his chest in pain, thinking to himself "…So nothing really changed here…Even my attempt to kill Mithos was defied by what fate demands from this world…"

The teenage Overlord turns to face Botta, and with nothing else to do at the moment he walks up to him and says "You took a pretty impressive shot to the chest. How are you holding up?" Botta lifts his head up and after a slight moan he replies "Fair enough, Riku, but I didn't expect to be attacked by the boy…Had he not interfered, Mithos Yggdrasill would once again return to being a legend."

"…Sorry, I feel like this is partially my fault. I should have sensed what Genis was doing and stopped him…But I was arrogant." Riku says in a melancholy tone of voice as he glances off to the right and sighs. Botta stands upright and says in turn "Do not beat yourself up, it wasn't something you could have foreseen, even if the boy apparently had a bond with Mithos. All we can do now is adapt to this situation and try again…"

"Heh…Thanks Botta. Mithos is running out of options at this point anyways. All he has is himself, Kratos, and Pronyma on his side." Riku explains, with Botta pointing out "And whatever hoard of angels he managed to amass, along with the Eternal Sword." The teenage Overlord chuckles and replies in turn "Yeah, well, I'm not too worried about the angels. At this point they're pretty much fodder."

"Botta! Come, we must evacuate the Renegade Bases before Mithos kills our members!" Yuan's voice calls to his ally, and both he and Riku turn to find Yuan slowly lifting up with a pained grasped on his chest. He limped forward as he tried to leave, which prompted Botta to say to Riku "Now I'll be off. Hopefully we'll both live to talk to each other again…" He then ran off to help Yuan leave the area so they can save the other Renegades.

Once the Renegades were gone from the area, Lloyd rushed over to Altessa's fallen body where Raine was using her healing arts to help him out to the best of his ability. Altessa looks up at Lloyd and murmurs out "Oh…Lloyd…" But it sounded incredibly painful for him to talk, forcing Lloyd to exclaim "No! Don't talk! Don't push yourself!"

"Altessa saved me! Please, Professor! Please save him!" Colette begs with all of her might, and Raine says to her in response "…I am doing all that I can." Meanwhile, Genis was kneeled on the ground with his head hung in guilt as he murmured to himself "Mithos was…Why did I…What have I done…?"

As everyone felt either depressed or angered about what had occurred, Riku turns to face Zelos, glaring at him so intensely that he was basically making it clear that he knew of his involvement in this whole affair. Zelos in turn raises his eyebrows in surprise before glancing down beside himself, seeming to feel a little guilt in the process.

The night passes on by after Raine gets Altessa and Tabitha onto a couple beds inside the house, and once she exits the house and is greeted by the morning sun she comments to the concerned group "I managed to administer first aid using the Unicorn Horn, but we should bring a doctor as soon as we can." In turn Zelos remarks "Yeah, unlike us, Altessa isn't using an Exsphere. Healing arts won't be very effective on him."

"Hmmm…I know a good doctor. We called him from Flanoir when our chief suffered a serious injury." Sheena says, and with a nod of his head Lloyd mentions "Alright then, let's go to Flanoir quickly then." It was with that prompt that the group left Altessa's house for now, and headed on their Rheairds to the frozen town of Flanoir…

Next Time: Lay all Truths Bare