After the events of Duval, the group try to put the events behind them. After the group that was left behind introuce themselves to Leia and Rowen, Elle decides to strike a conversation with Rowen.
"So, you're friends with His Highness?" Elle asked.
"Indeed I am. I serve at King Gaius' side as his prime minister." Rowen answered.
"What's that?"
"He's like the king's regent." Sectonia answered.
"Yep! That makes him the number two guy in all of Rieze Maxia!" Leia said.
"The king's regent..." Elle thought. "But in fairy tales, the regent's always the villain."
"Hey, you're right! They're always secretly trying to steal the kingdom or mess with the king."
Rowen decides to play along with the little debacle. "How could a mere child see through my ambitions?" This left the three of them shocked, but Leia and Sectonia subsided quickly, knowing he isn't serious. Leia, because she knows Rowen, and Sectonia, because she has a royal background herself. "It's true. As you've suspected, I derive great pleasure from toppling kings. I remove their pawns one by one, as my loyal knights advance from the sides to flank them."
Elle, being a child, took it seriously. "We have to warn His Highness!"
"Of course, I'm talking about chess."
"What? You regents really are mean!"
"Rowen is pretty much always like this." Leia commented.
"Might as well get used to it." Sectonia adds, but looks down, as it reminded her of Taranza.
"You should take pride in it, Sectonia, as the queen is the most powerful piece on the board." Rowen says, trying soothing words for her.
"What exactly does that have to do with me?"
Leia chimes in on Rowen's support. "It means that you have great potential inside you. You just haven't awakened to it yet."
"Hmm... You know? You're right. Thanks, you two. That helped me feel much better."
Rowen bows at this. "Any time, my fair lady."
After paying off more of Ludger's debt, he gets another call from Nova.
"Hey! Since you've kept up with your debt payments, you've been given permission to travel to the Helioborg Research Station! You're the talk of the office! Not many people manage to keep up with their payments like that."
"Wow, that's high praise." Elle comments.
"It sure is! I knew I can count on Julius' little brother." Nova said cutely. "Oh, and his friends, too. I can't possibly forget them." Nova hung up at that.
Ludger and the group head to Helioborg, where they met a young man in a lab coat.
"Stop right there! Authorized personnel only!" The man tells the group.
"What's going on here?" Jude asked the man.
"Jude! I-I didn't realize it was you! Well, you see..."
A man in a black jacket with his haired combed back walked up. "Damn it. Someone really did a number on the security system. No way I can fix this by my-"
Jude remembers the man. "It's Alvin!"
"Well, if it isn't the honor student. Great timing. You even brought Rowen and Leia, huh?"
Alvin then explained the situation to the group.
"Exodus has hijacked the facility's security system?"
The man in the lab coat spoke up. "Yeah, which trapped a bunch of Rieze Maxian goodwill ambassadors inside."
"Ugh... This again?" David says in disgust, shaking his head.
"Again?"
Sectonia looked to the man. "Let's just say we've run into Exodus a lot lately, all of which to strain ties with Rieze Maxia."
Alvin spoke up. "Balan was showing them around, so he's there, too."
Lloyd spoke up now. "Balan? That's Jude's partner in spyrite research, right? We have to go save him!"
"You'll lend us a hand?"
Jude turned to Alvin. "Yes. We have some business with Balan."
Alvin looked to the entire group. "You guys sure about this? You know this is all more of Exodus' handiwork. I used to count myself among their members. Still want to trust me?"
Scott told him. "Don't worry. We trust you."
"Heh. You really are Jude's friends, aren't you?"
"What about you? Aren't you one of Jude's friends?" Sheena asks him.
"Tough to say..."
Jude decides to answer for him. "Yes he is, and he knows it."
"I don't know. He's seems sketchy to me." Elle comments.
"Kid's got a good head on her shoulders." Alvin said.
"Let's break this down." Jude said, breaking the tension. "Where are Balan and the tour group being held captive?"
The man in the lab coat answers. "Up on the Development Wing."
"And security is handled from where?" Genis asks.
"Top floor on the Research Wing."
"Then let's split into groups. Ludger, Jude, Lloyd, Raine, Sheena and Regal will head to the Development Wing. Leia, Rowen, Sectonia and I will take the contol room. The rest of you will scatter around and fight off any Exodus members you come across." David said, in which the group nod.
"Keep the hostages in one piece." Leia told Jude's group as the team scatters.
Alvin looks to the clouds. "The weather's getting nasty. Let's get this done ASAP."
Along the way, they ran into a lot of Exodus members, even some with machine guns. Alvin complains about being the only good guy that can shoot back. That makes Ludger and the others wish that David came along. That's when Ivar came in and lent Ludger twin pistols to practice on him. After a training session, Ivar was holding his arm.
"I guess you don't have questions. You're just lucky it was me. Anyone else would be dead by now." Ludger scratches his head while team take into account how confident he is.
"You okay there, Ivar?" Jude asks in concern.
"Hmph... Better than some phony who keeps sticking his nose into everyone's business." Ivar limps away at that.
"Mr. Handmaid is as charming as ever." Alvin comments.
After a while of traversing Helioborg, the group finds a mechanical walker coming towards them, but a dark blast from a girl and a living plushie stopped it.
"Whew... That's the last of them." Says the girl. She walks to the group, revealing that she wears a school uniform.
"Elize!" Says Jude, recognizing her.
"Jude?!"
"Little buddy's here, too!" Says the plushie.
Alvin spoke up. "Wait... So those goodwill ambassadors were actually..."
"Yeah. My classmates and I were picked to represent Rieze Maxia."
Jude decides to do the introductions. "Everyone, meet Elize and Teepo."
Regal was intrigued at this. "So that talking plushie is Teepo? Fanscinating."
Lloyd added to this. "I know Colette would like one."
Ludger smiled. "You're actually really cute, you know that?"
Elize smiled and blushed. "Oh no. I'm a mess right now."
Elle gave Ludger a look, which caused him to smile nervouly. "Ludger is one smooth talker."
"So, Jude... Are these friends of yours?"
The group nods, with Teepo coming at them. "Hey there! How ya doing?!"
Raine was fascinated at this. "For something inanimate to come alive. It must take some powerful magic!"
Elize was smiling from Raine's comment. "I'm glad you like him."
Alvin decides to speak up. "Elize, what happened to your friends from school?"
Teepo spoke for her. "We got attacked real sudden-like!"
"Good thing I brought Teepo along today." Elize said in relief.
"Elize was so brave. She got all her classmates into a room that was safe."
"What about Balan?" Sheena asked.
Elize was nervous. "He got all the bad guys to chase after him so the rest of us could run and hide."
Teepo spoke. "I betcha he's still on top of the Development Wing.
"Yeah. So I came down here to call for help."
"Can you take us there?" Regal asked.
"Of course!"
A lightning bolt flashed and Elle flinched.
"What's wrong, Elle? Scared of thunder?"
"No! As if!" Elle tries to deny it, but another bolt flashed, causing her to scream and a light flashed on the group.
When the light faded, they were back where they were standing.
"Did you guys feel that?" Sheena asked.
"Yes. Exactly as Genis and the others told us." Lloyd said.
"Now, if what they told us is true, we'll make our way back if Ludger strikes something with a dark aura." Raine speculated.
"It...surprises me how calm you are about this, Professor."
"Come on, Lloyd. You know we've been through worse." Sheena said.
After making their way through a hallway, they found some sort of giant electric orb. Sheena seems to recognize it.
"Is that...Volt?!" Sheena asked.
"What's Volt doing here?" Raine asked.
"Volt is a spyrite in this world, one that couldn't be controlled..." Elize told the group.
"So we had to destroy it. I can't believe they recreated it!" Alvin said angrily.
Volt started to shoot some lightning bolts, the group managed to dodge them, but Rollo was hit and knocked out.
"Rollo!" Elle said in shock. This caused Ludger to attack Volt in anger.
"Volt's out of control." Jude said.
"Rollo's hurt..."
"We have to stop it!" Raine told the group.
"Alvin! Regal! You're our lightning rods!" Elize said.
"You've got it." Alvin says cheerfully, but stops when he found out what she meant. "Wai-wai-wai-wait... What?!"
"Sheena, can't you do something about this?" Teepo asked her.
"I would, but I already formed a pact with Volt in my world." Sheena said worryly. "Wait... In my world, Volt's opposing element is Water, so maybe..." Sheena had an idea. "I know just what to do, but it will take some time!"
"Alright! We'll hold him off until then!" Raine said.
However, the group finds it hard to do so with all of the lightning attacks that Volt keeps using. After a while, Sheena was finally ready.
"Okay, it's ready! Fair warning, Elize and Elle might want to cover their eyes." Sheena said.
"I've seen the Undine of this world. You don't have to worry about me." Elize said.
"Well put. Here goes!" Sheena brings out a blue card in front of her. "I call upon the Maiden of the Mist." The card starts to glow. "I summon thee! Come, Undine!" At this, a magic circle appeared and a mermaid-like creature came out.
Jude couldn't help but look. "Whoa... She's beautiful..." He says in awe. Ludger blushed and nodded at that.
"Sheena can summon spirits, too?!" Teepo said in amazement.
"Yep. It's sort of what I do back in my world." Sheena told the group.
"Your reason for my summoning, Sheena?" Undine asked in a soothing voice.
"Knock some hits on this world's Volt." Sheena commanded.
"As you wish." Undine shot some geysers at Volt, severly weakening him.
Volt then began to say something. "Error... Error... Error... Soul... Contamiation... Spreading..."
"Souls spreading contamination? This sounds serious."
"Control...failed! Error!"
"That'll be all for now, Undine." Shenna told her. "Thank you for your help." Undine bows to Sheena as she returned to the ring Sheena wears. Ludger transforms again and stabs Volt with his spear. After bringing out the gear, the scene shatters and the group are back in their normal dimension.
After Raine and Elize heal Rollo, and Elle reveals that she's scared of thunderstorms, Sheena told herself not to summon her Volt when Elle's around. After a while, the group made their way to the roof.
"No one's here." Lloyd said as the coast was clear.
"All clear, Balan. Come on out." Alvin called out.
"Impressive, Alfread. How'd you know where I was?" says a man, revealing himself to be Balan.
"Your hiding spots haven't changed since we were kids."
After Balan came down, the group explained to Balan what they saw.
"We never even considered recreating Volt, much less actually tried to pull it off." Balan told the group. "Honestly, we're having trouble controlling spyrites at all. We'd be insane to try tackling a Great Spirit."
"Then... What was the Volt that we fought?" Raine asked the group.
"Are spyrites really that dangerous?" Sheena asked Jude.
"Well, gaining total control over lesser spirits is possible in theory. But it doesn't really work."
"We still have a lot to learn about them." Balan told the group.
"Ah, that's right. What can you tell us about Julius? Do you know where he is?" Regal asked Balan.
"Not much... He really loves tomatoes?"
"Balan..." Alvin gave Balan a stern look.
"Sorry. Look, I haven't seen the guy in six months. I was shocked as anyone when I heard about the train hijacking."
"Any leads as to where he might've gone?" Raine asked him.
"You think he's gone to Canaan, maybe?" Elle asked.
Balan thought this out. "Canaan, huh? I think he mentioned the place, actually, but I don't remember the details or anything."
A woman's voice echoes, causing the group to look around. "It is a sacred land, where souls go to be purified and reincarnated." The group looked up to see the figure floating. "Why hello, everyone."
"Who is that?" Sheena asks in awe.
"That's the Spirit Muzet." Elize answered.
"That's a Spirit? Wow... She's not like the one I have encountered."
"She's Milla's big sis!" Teepo told the group. Muzet descends on the group.
"So, what's she doing here?"
"Milla's...vanished." Muzet says in disdain.
"Seriously?" Jude asked in shock.
"Something was amiss with the soul-purification process. Or so she said. But I lost contact with her after she used my power to exit the spirit realm."
"So, she's here in the human realm?"
"That's what I'm hoping. I'm guessing you haven't seen her." Jude nodded sadly. "Surely, she would've sought you out if she did. I hope she's all right. I must find her."
Muzet began to ascend again as the rest of the group came in.
"That was Muzet, wasn't it? What happened?" Leia asked.
"And Miss Elize is here, too." Rowen said reassuringly.
"It would seem we're all back together." Elize said happily. Elize walked over to Leia and Rowen to catch up on what happened. Meanwhile, the group confides to Jude.
"Milla's gone missing... But how?" Jude mutters to himself.
It was at this moment that Ludger received a call.
"Vera from Spirius Corporation here. A witness has spotted former director Kresnik. He's at Aladhi."
"Aladhi Seahaven. That's a Rieze Maxia port."
"Other pursuit agents are on their way to the scene. You must hurry."
The call was disconnected.
"Well, we still have some bills to pay, so I suggest we get right to it." David told the group.
"At least let us go with you!" Elize told the group.
"This isn't a field trip we're going on, princess. Shouldn't you stay in school?" Alvin asked Elize.
"If Muzet's appearance is an indication of anything, there's obviously something going on here." Sheena said, trying to reason with Alvin. "We need all the help we can get."
Alvin shrugs in defeat as Elize smiles at Sheena's support. "Count me in, too. Well, you know, when I'm not swamped with work."
"This group just keeps getting bigger and bigger." Sectonia says, giggling to herself.
A/N: Inspired by Jexi the Hunter and Hope the Victor