Ara was eagerly devouring her portion of rabbit stew along the rest of The Band. Though Elder Yiu Hie was missing, the atmosphere within the cave was just as lively as it had ever been. Banthus was, as usual, retelling old stories of his life on Ruben and Elder. The black-haired girl had trouble picturing such a warm, righteous man living in that gloomy city at any point in his life.

Cities change, Ara. The Elder we know might have been a beautiful place when this man was your age.

Ara lowered her gaze and smiled somewhat sadly. 'Surely. I wonder what changed…'

"Boss!" One of the Iron-Masked Brure said, "Ara, has she heard you story of Conwell?"

The girl turned her head to the right, looking at the imposing, four-fingered man who had broken the hubbub with his guttural voice.

"Conwell?" she asked before turning her attention to the leader of The Band. "What is it, chief Evans?"

The muscular man shrugged. "It's a story I haven't told a lot," he answered with a smirk, as if to imply the contrary of what he said. He then ruffled the hair of the Toto that sat immediately to his left. "You guys all hate that story so much, huh?"

One of the Totos laughed, incurring hearty chuckles from all the men around.

"Tis a true story, Boss Banthus," the small, iron-masked Toto said. "Though its details are foggy to all of us. It's inspiring yet tragic. Human, as we all will be, thanks to you."

Banthus seemed to pause at that for a moment, and though his blue gaze sank for a moment, his words still bore his natural confidence.

"You are human, Toto," he reminded the creature. "And always have been. Your soul is and will always be human. No matter what."

The masked Toto stared in silence at the leader before nodding at his words.

"Back on topic, everyone," Banthus said with a clap of his hands. He looked at Ara and asked, "Would you like to know more about this place and…" he paused, opening his hand. Golden threads began gathering from all corners of the room until they formed the shape of the sheath of a sword. Banthus grabbed it, and what was just energy moments ago transformed into an intricate, almost ritualistic, sheath of what Ara assumed to be a bastard sword.

I see.

'What is it, Eun?' The girl asked her only guide.

Nothing. That weapon might be the only morsel of truth in all the lies.

"...This weapon?" The blue-eyed man concluded.

"If you wish it truly," the girl answered, bowing her head at him. "Chief Evans."

"Hah, don't be so formal, Ara," Banthus answered as he scratched the back of his head. "I understand Yiu is set on his ways, but you could learn to be a bit less formal. Just treat me as your comrade, okay?"

Ara pondered that for a moment. What kind of honorific should she use for a comrade? She had almost always trained alone, the only person she had ever sparred with was her brother. "Brother…Evans, then?"

The man gave her a half-hearted smile, "If you're okay with considering me family, that works. But think it over, Ara. I don't want to take away from the importance you give to that word. On this side of Elrios, we usually only use our first names among friends and brothers-in-arms."

The golden-eyed girl was left speechless. Though she did not know what to think, she felt grateful for the man's consideration. He had been the only one besides Eun to know what she had gone through.

"Thank you, Banthus," she muttered as she looked down, clasping her hands together.

"Ah, don't worry about it," the chief of the Band answered. "I promised you a story, anyhow. It's not the happiest one, for sure, but it's a pretty good one. The version I read, the Elderian one, is particularly popular with the girls. I hope you like it, too."

Ara eagerly nodded as Banthus began his tale. He first clarified that the place they were in had once been the lair of the Knight of Dawn, a man who wielded the divine sword, Conwell. The man himself was named Vincent Conwell. The tale of his exploits was very well known in the region. His friend Lowe Stevanson would argue over which was the true legend because Hagen claimed the great Vincent Conwell was not only one of their own, but that the old traditions had always honoured him as a saint. Nobody disagreed that Vincent had been born in Hagen, but besides that, nobody agreed on what most of his life had been like. And Lowe would get very passionate about arguing the veracity of the Hagenian myth.

Mr. Stevenson was apparently a man who was very serious, with ashen hair and brown eyes that made him look far older than he was. But, he was also apparently someone who could be the life of a party, after he loosened up with a drink or two. The description made Ara chuckle, mostly from the way Banthus would recreate some of his interactions with Lowe. Somehow, she could almost feel the man's presence, even if she had never seen him before.

"So, when my friend got in the mood to gather everyone around the fire, like we are here today," Banthus explained, opening his arms as he gestured to his audience of almost a hundred men, "He'd tell the stories that Sven, the Elder of Hagen, would tell him when he was a kiddo. That old man took care of him like a son and made Lowe learn the Old Ways, as all Hagenians call their traditions."

He clasped his hands together, shrugging a bit dismissively as he set the mood for the new story. "Hagen, today, is a small, nobody village. So small it's barely called a settlement on almost every map. But a long time ago, and I mean so long ago the Elrian Church wasn't even around, Hagen was the capital of an entire kingdom. Ancient spirits were worshipped by humans who, in exchange for their devotion, were protected by them. And Hagenians worshipped an old Tree Spirit that asked to never be named by the people who worshipped it."

Banthus took a brief break to drink some water from a skin pouch. Once he had quenched his thirst, he continued:

"And so, the Hagenians merely called him The Protector. And they took that 'no naming' rule to heart, so much so that kids didn't even really get named back in those days. If you were, say, the first child of the blacksmith down Floral Alley, that was your name until you made something out of yourself." The imposing man gave his audience a small chuckle and an almost comical shrug. "As you can imagine, kids looked to have something shorter to call themselves pretty early on."

'Were there a lot of spirits like that, Eun?' The girl asked as she chuckled with the crowd. 'Spirits who protected humans instead of attacking them.'

Ara, that was the order of the world before Ishmael and Henir came to pit powerful spirits against one another. I never took sides, and so I was merely sealed away. Batara, my brother, wasn't so lucky. But that's all in the past; don't worry too much about it.

'Alright,' the girl thought dejectedly. She had never seen Eun talk so sadly before. Whatever was making her feel down had to be something more serious than what she had just shared with her. Maybe it even had to do with Elder Hie's absence.

Banthus continued by saying that Hagenians had a ritual in which The Protector would select some men as its Wardens or curse them with powers that would eventually destroy them. A young man, the firstborn son of a very prominent clan of Wardens, was praying and hoping that he could be blessed by The Protector and take his father's mantle. He had trained every day and night for as long as he could remember to be selected.

Ara closed her eyes, picturing a younger version of her brother training tirelessly to be worthy of inheriting the position of head of the clan. She could sympathise with the man in Banthus' story that way.

She was surprised to learn that when the day finally came, the boy was not only not chosen by The Protector, but he was also cursed by them because they believed his fear was more rooted in his shame of failing his clan than his fear and respect for the spirits. He was prophesied to die sixteen springs after that day.

"What? Why?" Ara interrupted the discussion. "He spoke so respectfully to The Ent, right?"

So this is Batara's legacy… To think some humans convinced themselves for generations of his lies. And they twisted them, too.

'What are you talking about?'

My brother, when he came to find me half a century before his death, told me a totally ridiculous story. Remember when I said he was a liar?

'Yeah,' the girl agreed. 'I remember you mentioned it while we saw Ain and Lu drinking. You said that he believed that, in the past, a demon and Celestial got along.'

The fox grumbled something about her brother being stupid and a liar, yet somehow Ara got the impression the ancient spirit was trying to convince herself that the story Banthus was telling them was nothing but fiction. However, the girl was not naive enough to confront the Millenium Fox about it.

Banthus looked down at the bastard sword and its scabbard for a moment before giving the girl a dejected shrug.

"Well," he said. "You gotta remember this kid barely turned ten, Ara. If the fear towards his clan, at any point, overpowered his respect and devotion to The Ent, they would've felt it. It isn't fair, but most spirits aren't exactly defenders of justice."

As he said that, he softly passed his fingers over his scarred face, almost flinching as he went over the ugly mark that had replaced his eye. His gaze was lost in the void for a second, and Ara recognized that kind of look better than most. Even if Banthus or any of his companions had never spoken of their war wounds, Ara could tell that Banthus had lost part of his soul along that eye.

"In any case, our hero is cursed and, as such, is immediately banished from the Kingdom." The man looked up at his audience again, ending the silence that was perhaps too heavy to carry, even for someone as big and strong as he was. "But the good news is that he doesn't face his family. The Ent sends him right next to the White Mist Swamp, real close to Elven territory."

Time would go by as Banthus told in great detail how the young Hagenian had to resort to banditry to survive. Fortunately, he was quick in battle thanks to his training as a Warden. Once he grew up, he became the leader of a fearsome but honourable group of bandits that shared their loot with other exiles and misfits that lived in the forests, far from any other human or elven settlement. They set up their small community within this cave system, doing what they could to make it a comfortable, underground village. While his comrades spoke so easily of their futures and goals, the Hagenian boy was dreading each spring that passed by. He missed his homeland, but he knew that he was unworthy of returning.

"One day, the twenty-one bandits hit their jackpot," Banthus explained, "A group of priests on a mission to convert the locals to the religion that dominated Elrianode came on their turf, full of what these bandits assumed to be gems. They murdered every single priest and got to the loot, sure that they could resell those gems for a fortune in the Elven Citadel."

The one-eyed man chuckled, "But the gems these priests were carrying weren't just some ordinary gems. They were powerful. So powerful that a goddess spoke through them. And she recognized the strength of every single one of them. You'd think she'd be angry at these men killing her devotees, but no. She saw this as a gain. Because if she offered these men power beyond belief, they would be her sword on Elrios for the rest of their lives."

Banthus let his words weigh on his captivated audience. Ara could guess who this goddess was. While her brother had told her that the Church of the El was made of good people, she had only experienced the contrary on her journey. This story was blasphemous, but it rang true to Ara's ears.

The goddess of the El gave all of the companions of the Hagenian man new names and a mission to turn their swords around and fight for a greater cause. She left the leader for last because she would bless him the most. The goddess lifted the curse on his body and named him Vincent. He, as the leader of the group, wielded the most powerful weapon of all: Conwell. Naturally, Vincent forsook his old clan name and took the name Conwell as his surname. What Banthus held in his hands was Conwell. And the Brure had found the other twenty weapons within the cave. Ara realised that her new spear, despite how pristine it looked, was surely part of the ancient weaponry, considering one Brure had retrieved it from the cave and gave it to her. Yet, she did not dwell too much on her own thoughts, for she was enthralled with the tale of Vincent Conwell.

The twenty-one bandits-turned-knights set out to convert the people who depended on them to the new religion. And, after that, they established a reign of terror over the pagans who did not convert. The goddess would grant them more praises and bless them and their newly-formed village the more blood they shed. Yet, despite all of that, the more they killed in the name of Ishmael, the more Vincent hesitated. He snuck out of the base and left to live as a vagrant for as long as he could. He brought none of his riches with him, and, naturally, Vincent found himself on the brink of death when a harsh winter came. He ended up being saved by a pagan woman from a tribe that lived in Elder. She was a young and beautiful maiden who taught him her dialect. Though Vincent had a hard time forgiving himself for what he had done in the past, he helped the maiden's village in any way he could. He wanted to turn the page and become a man worthy of the maiden he was slowly falling in love with.

Ara could not help but smile ever so slightly when Banthus got into the details on how Vincent was becoming a truly righteous person. Using his strength to protect what he cherished instead of acting like a mere mercenary. Though Banthus' recreation of the maiden's voice – a rather unfitting falsetto – was very funny, not even the Brures laughed when their leader got to the part where the maiden began to love Vincent back. The couple eventually married, with the blessing of the other villagers and Banthus' audience. Ara was the only one who began to clap, but she stopped the moment the leader of the Band lifted his hand. The story was not over yet.

"Normally," Banthus concluded with a shrug, "That'd be the end of the story. But,Vincent couldn't run forever from his new duties as a goddess' sword. His men found him living among pagans, and they showed him no mercy. He and his wife died in each other's arms."

'That's so unfair…' Ara thought, feeling tears dwell in her eyes. 'Why wouldn't they at least hesitate? He was their leader!'

The storyteller took a deep breath and passed his hand over the nape of his neck, "Now, I haven't told this to any of you, but my mother liked this story in particular, go figure. And when she died, my father commissioned a group of sculptors to build a fountain honouring the two lovers."

He let out a dry chuckle, "It was a beautiful piece of art, but Wally has other goals that don't include preserving our folktales."

"Banthus," Ara began, "I wanted to know why-"

An explosion echoed from the entrance, and not a second later, everyone had grabbed their weapons and prepared to fight the intruder. To their surprise, only three men emerged from the clouds of dust. One was a knight as imposing as Banthus while another was some oddly-dressed teenager with white hair and some kind of magical artefact that he used to levitate. The last one, however, sent chills down Ara's spine.

She could recognise the old, woollen coat and the walking stick Yiu Hie used, but the aura he emanated was nothing but hostile. Banthus perhaps felt the same way because he leapt ahead of everyone else and pointed his sword towards the older man.

"Who are you?"

The man took off his hood, briefly revealing a fox-like grin that lit his golden gaze with malice. He lifted his arms, as if he were giving up, "Aw, come on, Mr. Evans. I'm the victim here. These gentlemen captured me and left me no choice. But my kidnappers have no bad intentions, you see. In fact, they want to negotiate with you."

Ara took up her spear and made her way next to Banthus, ready to fight by his side. However, she was surprised to see that her other companions were hesitating. She could see their hands trembling, and some even took steps back.

We need to run, Ara. Don't be foolish.

'I'm not going to run,' the girl thought, 'I've been running all this time, waiting for you, my brother, or any other kind soul to save me. I have to stand up and fight.'

The oddly dressed teenager sniffed the air and coughed, almost gagging as she approached. His purple gaze examined her from head to toe, filled with disgust. "Fuck, what do these people take a bath with? Rotten meat?"

Ara gripped her spear tighter, but before he could make a step closer to the white-haired teenager, Banthus put his arm in front of her. The black-haired girl understood. There could be a peaceful way out of this, however slim it may be.

Child. Run away from the man who's disguising himself as Yiu Hie.

Yiu Hie chuckled at the albino's comment and tapped him over the head, "Now, Now, Add. Don't be so rude to them. You, General Vergnert, and I are here to solve things peacefully for Wally's sake, remember?"

The physical contact made the teen grab the man's hand to get it off him. Yiu Hie seemed to not even care, his polite smile only growing slightly wider, but the nasty aura around him only grew more menacing. Ara heard the sound of steel against steel before she realised where the sound was coming from. Yiu Hie had seemingly teleported to the other side where Add stood. The golden-eyed man held a greatsword made of black metal. The shape of the blade and the material itself was unlike anything she had seen before. His weapon would have decapitated the albino if not for Conwell. Its bare steel was carved with golden runes that shone as if the blade had liquid gold within it.

"You've got a lot of nerve," Batnhus hissed, "coming here crying for negotiations when you're the kind of scum who'd kill his own comrades."

The albino used his six floating artefacts to move away, mumbling something about bargaining too much. He peppered his every sentence with a good dose of swearing. Banthus and Yiu Hie remained locked in their stance, seemingly evenly matched in strength.

Ara herself was not sure if she should intervene or not. What she knew for certain was that she could not afford to take her eyes away from Yiu Hie. Whoever was using the elder man's appearance as a disguise had an intense bloodlust that dwarfed Ran's. For now, Banthus could keep him at bay, but part of her feared that the man was merely playing with all of them. An almost imperceptible and intermittent beeping sound echoed from one side of the cave chamber to the next. Was this some kind of magical illusion coming from Yiu Hie? Ara was afraid of such a possibility.

"Banthus," the armour clad knight who came with Yiu Hie and the teen calmly said, "You made a deal with Wally."

"It was blackmail," Banthus retorted, "And you know it. You were there."

"You still agreed. We need the El shard. Please don't make this any more difficult for me."

"Oh, and now we're just begging for bandits to play nice?" the teen mockingly said, impatiently tapping the floor with his left foot, "We should've just bursted through every fucking wall of this cave and-"

"A life for a life," Yiu Hie cut Add's words short. His voice seemed to belong to a much younger man. It surprised all the members of The Band. "Your plan would have cost a lot of lives, Add. The lives of the comrades of your saviour. Even if I killed you right now, you'd still have a huge debt to pay," His grip around his black sword tightened, and blue flames erupted from it.

"How about this, Banthus Evans?" the mysterious man asked, "You give us the Shard, the weapon you're tainting with your filthy, human hands, and I'll leave the albino nicely butchered for you."

"You're scum."

Banthus's blade was being pushed back, but the golden glow of Conwell matched his aura after Banthus put more of his energy into countering the opposing force.

"Vern, you think this monster is gonna give the El to Wally?" Banthus asked as his feet began to form cracks on the ground. "You aren't that gullible, I know it."

The knight passed a hand over the nape of his neck, "Yeah. The kid and I know he's a monster in disguise. But he's the only one who can hold all of you back."

A controlled blast of energy from Add's artefacts opened into some sort of portal, and after looking all around, Ara saw similar, smaller structures holding a magic circle no bigger than a hand mirror. That purple magic of his was so strange. Ara could not feel any energy coming from it, and she began to wonder if Yiu Hie had teleported himself using one of the dozen or so smaller portals that now surrounded the entire cave chamber.

"Phase shift is ready to go," the teen declared as he and Vergnert stepped into one of the portals and completely vanished.

"Ara, go after them, now! We can't let them take the El!" Banthus barked, "Men! Go back to the surface! Run away!"

"We'll fight with you!" The Band unanimously cried as they rushed towards the mysterious enemy.

Ara had leapt back and dashed towards the tunnels that led further down the cave system. She heard a splash on the floor, groans, screams and the roar of a flame, but she could not look back. She had to retrieve the El before Add and Vern. No matter what.

The girl reached the entrance, but before she could venture into the tunnel, she felt a blue glow closing in from the corner of her eye. Immediately, she jumped back, avoiding being hit by the icy cold flames from the white-haired man who wielded the greatsword. His hair was long and wavy, similar to the one of that demon girl, Lu. The two black horns that grew over his pointy ears indicated his true nature.

And yet, Ara was not entirely sure she was facing a demon.

She found odd that a sort of broken halo that rested over his head and the crystal-like wings that hung over his back. They looked almost skeletal, and yet, when the man flapped his wings, he closed the distance between them in a blink of an eye. Time almost came to a halt as Ara gazed upon the man's face. His odd eyes had the same four-star pupil that Lu's did. Ara was sure that, unlike Lu, this man only knew evil. For a second, the face of the demon who took over her brother's body flashed before her eyes.

'A Haan must always eradicate evil. Ara. Even if it's someone very close to you,' she could hear Brother's voice in her head. The Haan warrior could almost picture the evening where they had sat together after her training. It was peaceful.

'Even if it's you?' she had asked, back in those days.

'Yes. Even if it's me. But that won't happen, because I'll do everything to protect you. Until my last breath.'

Ara snapped back to reality and knew that the man was well within her range. She only had to swing her spear upwards and-

The man's hand gripped her throat in an instant, and he began squeezing. Ara held her breath, fearing being choked to death. Instead, she was violently thrown to the ground like a dirty ragdoll. The impact not only caved the ground, but Ara also heard something audibly crack inside her body. The girl gasped as the pain shot from her lower back to her entire torso. Tears welled in her eyes, but she found the courage to plant her spear firmly on the ground and try to crawl back on her feet. Yet, her legs were all tingly and had no strength left.

The black-haired girl barely had the strength to roll to the side and see the charred, dismembered bodies of at least a dozen of her companions next to a huge pile of ashes. Some corpses had been partially decapitated, others had lost their legs, and some had their innards spilling out from gaping wounds in their stomach. The blue flames still burned where the blade had pierced the bodies. Ara's eyes widened, and each heartbeat became louder and faster. She took short, painful, but increasingly fast breaths.

Ara did not know whether to tell herself to get back up or cry for Eun's help. One second, the image of her burning village and the smell of burnt hair and blood overwhelmed her so much she only wished to escape. The next, she could see Banthus fighting toe to toe with the monster. A hundred golden blades appeared from the ground and extinguished the dangerous flames as the two clashed steel against steel. The demon had already left some superficial cuts on Banthus' arms, but no flames appeared on his body. She could not find herself getting far in the state she was in, but she refused to leave Banthus to his luck. But she could not win against such a monster, even with all of her training. What if Banthus lost? That demon would kill her.

She had to fight.

With a howling cry fuelled by both her fears and her determination, Ara managed to summon the energy she had acquired from that strange incident all around her. The black and yellow energy enveloped her legs, making them feel just a tiny bit stronger. She forced herself up, despite how the muscles of her legs painfully twitched under her own weight. Every breath was like a knife that dug itself deeply in her guts. And yet, the sensation only heightened her senses. This was training, she told herself. The Haan warrior steadied her stance, planting her feet firmly on the ground as she gathered her inner energy on the grip of her weapon. The spear seemed to eclipse what little light present in the cave. Now that her spear was covered in shadows, the girl rapidly spun it with her hands and threw it. An impressive disk of shadows the size of a tree trunk spun towards the white-haired demon. He let out a chuckle, his gaze growing wide with excitement. Banthus swung Conwell against him in a flurry of fluid attacks, trying to pin him exactly where Ara's attack would hit him. The demon, however, flapped his skeletal wings and disappeared from where he was.

Ara heard a beep behind her as her spear returned to her hands, and she pivoted towards the sound. Her spear clashed against the demon's sword, sending sparks flying. One of the small portals Add had left behind grew to be large enough to let a person through.

"You're interesting, girlie," the creature said with a smirk, "It really is a shame you won't amount to much. You're really weak."

His strength almost tripled in an instant, easily dragging Ara's weapon to the ground. He used his oversized weapon as a pivot to charge a spinning kick aimed directly at her head. Ara felt herself be dragged back by her shoulder. She saw Banthus' sword take the blow for her. Anything resembling Yiu Hie faded away in a flash, revealing that the white-haired man was wearing a set of ill-fitted, full-plate armour. Parts of it seemed to have been mended or added in a different sort of metal to cover his body. The original armour was clearly made for someone smaller, at least by half a head or so. What struck Ara as odd was the fact that, despite every other piece being at least readapted to his body, he was missing the gauntlets.

What little strength she recovered finally left her as she rolled down on the cavern's floor. Every fibre of her being ached to the point where tears finally flowed down her face. All she could do was watch the two men fight through her blurry vision.

Ara, what happened? What did they do to you?

'Eun,' the girl had trouble thinking about anything that was not her physical pain, 'Where were you?'

I was completely sealed away the moment that creature touched you. Thank goodness it was only a temporary seal. Let me take over, child. I'll find a way to heal some of your wounds and take us away from-

'No, I can't abandon Banthus. I can't keep running away from every little-'

The fox spirit grew angry; Ara could tell from the way her hairpin began to feel warm against her head.

Little?! You think this creature, this abomination of nature, is some little threat? He's far too much for you and Banthus. You're no match for him.

'And so was Ran,' the girl thought, coughing profusely before she spit out a handful of blood. As much as she struggled to focus, the girl gathered her power once again and pushed herself back on her feet. 'He was so overwhelmingly strong; none of us could handle him. All the Haan clan fell, one after the other. Aren was last. He bought time so I could run away.'

This man is no mere demon, Ara.

'I know,' Ara thought as she steadied herself again. Her right hand trembled, and some of her fingers refused to wrap themselves around her spear. The girl took some of the bloodied and torn clothes from the nearby corpses and wrapped her hand to her spear. She was not going to drop it again.

I can't let you die.

'Then lend me your strength, Eun. This man has surely killed enough for you to heal most of my wounds.'


Add emerged back into the cave chamber they had left that freak in, only to find a slaughterhouse and no trace of the bloodthirsty maniac who was responsible for it. Some of the unarmed, human-like creatures Vergnert had forced him to spare were back here, apparently tending to their leader and that girl who accompanied him. The stench of blood that permeated the room was somehow more bearable than the stench of Elder's outskirts.

"Anybody still living, or are you lot just embalming the corpses?" he hollered as he cautiously approached, evading the puddles of blood and the severed limbs that littered the floor of the chamber as much as he could. Even with poor lighting, the Dynamo system warned him that all the small teleportation gates he had made here were almost completely destroyed. It seemed that the fight had been brutal for both sides.

The albino gagged when he saw Banthus' severed arm in front of him. It still held the sheath of that sword he had been using. The teen looked away from it as he pushed the disgusting thing aside with the help of his Dynamos. The road ahead was so drenched in blood and guts that Add had no choice but step back on his gadgets and levitate.

He saw the girl first, with a gash on the side of her head that had completely severed her ear. Her forearms were blue and swollen, as was her right knee. The leg itself was twisted at an impossible angle, and her feet were only hanging to her ankles by a thread of flesh. Despite all of those injuries, she was still sitting down, turning down the help of her companions.

"Treat Banthus first," she repeated to one of the deformed, masked men who was bandaging her head. "He's lost a lot of blood. His arm was cut off. You need to treat him first."

Add rolled his eyes at her, "Care to take a look at yourself first? You got more to worry about than a missing arm."

The golden-eyed girl frowned at him, "I know what my injuries are. I feel them. My arms, my ribs and my head, I know."

"So you don't feel your legs anymore, huh?" The albino sighed, turning his attention towards the imposing, blue-eyed man who had saved him. He was delirious, muttering incomprehensible things and sweating profusely. Blood loss was probably just one of the things that were affecting him like that. Since Vergnert had already set off to put the El in Wally's workshop, Add figured he might as well put what he learnt from his mother into practice.

"Hey," he called again, looking back at the bloodied girl who perhaps was only awake out of her own desperation to survive. "Did you at least injure the motherfucker?"

The black-haired girl took a deep breath and gave him a nod. "Banthus managed to give me an opening to cut one of his wings. He paid for that with his arm. I don't know why, but that man was obsessed with Conwell. He kept saying nonsense about how nobody but him had the rights to that sword. I wonder how a demon could feel so strongly towards a weapon he couldn't have known about beforehand."

Add almost instinctively put his earbuds on as the girl began to ramble on after explaining she had cut the bastard's wings. Whatever monologue she was dumping onto him was really not his business. She had injured that freak, and that was all that mattered. He would try to patch up her body, too. The more practice, the better.

He sent two of his Dynamos out to make a makeshift stretcher for the girl. She looked surprised at his gesture, asking something that he could not hear over the beat. The girl pointed at Banthus, her eyes full of fear at the realisation he was taking her away.

"Don't worry about that big guy," he told her as he took one of his earbuds out. "I'll come for him later."

"No! Either you take us both out of here, or you take neither!" the girl insisted.

Add blinked a couple of times, completely floored by how a crippled girl was trying to boss him around. The worst part of it was that she sounded so confident that Add believed she could jump at him and headbutt him at the cost of her arms, or something like that. Maybe even bite him. Gross.

"You heard me!" she insisted before she broke down into a fit of coughing. Once she spat out some blood, she looked back defiantly at him. "I'm not letting you leave Banthus behind! I'll make you regret it."

Though she should be incapable of moving her fingers from the excruciating pain such a gesture would have provoked, the spearwoman managed to clench her weapon once again in her hands.

'I can't tell whether she's more delusional than Wally or if she's entirely fucking serious. Both possibilities scare me.' Add thought.

"Fine, have it your way. But you'll have to buy me new clothes," he grumbled as he stepped down onto the bloodied ground. He used his remaining Dynamos to create a stretcher for Banthus. Though the base of the Phase Shift was broken, the core circuits were still intact. It was easy enough to make the pieces stick back together temporarily. The teleportation gate was stable enough to last fifteen minutes. That was more than enough time for Add to take the injured to safety.


Ara dreamt of her battle against that demon-like creature. His gaze had an unnatural and dangerous beauty to it. One eye was an ocean blue; the other was a lighter shade of blue, bright as a cloudless sky. He did not only hold his ground in a battle where he was outnumbered, but he made sure both she and Banthus understood there was nothing they could do against him. He easily blocked both of their attacks with one fiery swing of his blade, and the explosive strength of such an attack pushed both of them back. Banthus threw Conwell at him, though Ara could see part of his aura connected to the sword. Even if it missed, the weapon would come flying back to its wielder.

Or so it should have been. The man did not even try to evade the desperate attack. He grabbed the blade with his bare hands without being cut at all. However, Ara noticed the skin on his hands had changed to a more crystal-like appearance. The tip of his fingers reassembled claws, and though a faint blue glow gave his hands colour, that part of his body had turned as black as a moonless night. What was more incredible was that his touch was disintegrating the link between the weapon and Banthus. The creature took a deep breath and threw Conwell up in the air before properly grabbing it as it fell.

"I was tempted to feel sad about your situation, Mr. Evans," the creature said as he carefully examined the blade.

Ara opened her hand, slowly charging an orb of energy to burn the enemy to atoms. She figured that if she played dead for long enough, the enemy would stop thinking about her as an opponent.

"But," the demon-like man added, pointing Conwell at Banthus, "You're actually just pretty stupid, aren't you? Why did you even grab a sword that not only doesn't belong to you but that you can't even wield?"

Banthus scoffed, "I've been wondering the same. You know, Conwell was forged to specifically kill your kind. It's not gonna obey you more than me."

The demon laughed and haughtily replied, "Oh, my kind, yeah. I suppose that's a fair assumption, and I'm well aware of what Conwell does. Any Ishmaelian weapon is tailor-made to kill all kinds of demons, even the Demon King." His smile did not vanish, but his tone became far more menacing. "Now, riddle me this, human: If I'm a demon, then why haven't I died already?"

Banthus did not answer, and Ara was only moments away from having her attack ready. She shared a brief glance with Banthus, and that was all she needed to understand that he was thinking the same thing as her.

"Let me tell you why," the man continued, ignoring how Banthus was grabbing Conwell's sheath. "It's because this weapon is mine. Stealing someone's inheritance is pretty low. Even for a bandit."

"Your inheritance? You mean to convince me you're related to Vincent Conwell?" Banthus smirked, before spitting out bitter words at the monster before him, "That joke isn't funny at all. A monster like you should pay with his life for slandering the greatest hero who has ever lived."

A red aura overflowed from the sheath, and Banthus slashed the air with it as if it were a sword.

"Final strike!" he barked as he slashed the air a second time. A vortex of energy distorted the space where the creature stood. The demon planted his greatsword firmly on the ground and steadied himself to avoid being pulled mid-air. He was, for the first time in their long combat, finally showing multiple openings.

Ara got up and fired her charged attack with a roar. Five wolf heads made of her aura flew toward the enemy, howling with hunger. At that very moment, the girl hoped to see their enemy dead once and for all. She felt strong and more determined than ever to retrieve the El. From the smoke her attack had lifted, Ara saw one of the creature's wings fall to the ground. They had won. That man had to be long dead, reduced to atoms by her attack. A smile crawled on her face, but before she could cheer, a cold sweat ran down her back.

She heard Banthus scream out in pain, and a warm splash of blood sullied her face. Her ears began to ring and her body froze. A sharp pain spread through her legs, and the side of her head felt like it was burning away, but those sensations did not last long.

Through the reflection of a puddle, Ara saw that the man had transformed even more. His face had turned as white and bright as the moon. His hair, on the contrary, had turned completely black. That monster was no demon. It was something much worse. He should not exist in this world. Such a creature should not be holding Banthus by the neck, let alone stand before her. Ara wanted to run as far as she could, but her body was no longer responding to her wishes.

"You don't know anything about that hero you claim to admire," the creature said with a ghostly voice. Tears began to stream down her face as she heard the man drop Banthus on the ground. "I won't even bother killing you, Banthus Evans. You are only a heartless, greedy bandit, and that's all you've ever been. You deserve to die very painfully at the hands of someone who admires you."

A few moments of silence followed, and the creature put its hand over her head.

"As for you, Ara Haan…"

She did not want to die. She did not want to die. Not here. Not like this. Eun was too injured to help her. What should she do? What should she do?

Her terror was so great that she woke up with a gasp. Her body felt too heavy to move, but she felt comfortable from her head down to her shoulders. She could not feel anything beyond that. Wherever she was, it was all white and so bright that it felt like a summer day.

"Did I die?" She muttered as she slowly looked around her. There were some kind of magical illusions around her bed, all of them displaying lines and numbers. She heard the rattle of glassware, and the face of the albino teen appeared above her. He had his face covered by some strange scarf, or maybe half a mask, that he tied with strings around his ears. He lowered it and raised an eyebrow at her.

"No," he said. "You're alive and well, just with very low blood pressure due to anaemia, multiple broken bones, including five vertebrae, a punctured lung, and severed tendons, but somehow not only are you alive but you woke up two days after your fight."

"You're fucking tough, like a monster," the teen continued with a chuckle. "I was half hoping you croaked so I could understand how you could still be conscious after so many injuries. Anybody else would've died ten times over."

Ara briefly smiled and softly spoke, "But you were also hoping I lived thanks to your treatment, right? Thank you, Add."

The albino froze for a couple of seconds, completely taken aback by her words, but a frown returned to his face. "You don't get to act like you're all sweet and nice now. Not after what you put me through."

"Ah, your clothes, right," she said. "Sorry about it, Add. But I can't move at all now. I don't even feel anything below my shoulders."

"Like I said," he explained with an exasperated sigh, "you broke 5 vertebrae. Meaning your spine is busted. If you weren't under my care, you would stay fucking crippled for life. You might have even croaked for real."

"Then, I'll be sure to repay your kindness, once you get me back on my feet."

He furrowed his brow at her and hissed, "I'm not falling for your fake-ass nice girl act, you hear?"

"But I'm not acting," Ara clarified. I know I'm not the nicest when I'm fighting, but that's not who I am all the time."

"Yeah, right."

He brought one of his mana projections in front of him and vanished away from her sight with it. She could faintly hear small beeping sounds that seemed to mark some kind of pace. She glanced to her side and noticed the beeps coincided with the way the line on the projection closest to her went up and down before becoming horizontal again.

"Where is Banthus?" She weakly asked. "Is he well?"

"Physically, yeah," the albino dismissively said. "I had my Dynamos give him a prosthetic arm, and that's pretty much all it took for him to get back on his feet."

The girl furrowed her brow, wondering why Add had specified that Banthus was doing well physically. Did something else happen to him? "Where is he now?"

"Guarding the sewers, under Wally's orders. The dough was good enough for him."

"The what?"

Add walked back into her field of vision, his brow furrowed.

"Don't tell me you understand what a prosthetic arm is but not what dough means," he said, with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.

"I don't understand either. I don't think you mean dough as in bread dough, right?"

The teen clicked his tongue. "Figures," he grumbled. "Who knew society would regress so fucking much in the future? It's like the damn Stone Age all over again. Fucking hell."

"So, what does dough mean?"

"Money!" the teen exploded, "It means money! I swear that your ignorance makes me wish I had never ventured out of that fucking library."

"But didn't you send yourself to the future through a spell? That's what you were mumbling about just now, right?" Ara tentatively asked. "You're a powerful mage, I can tell based on all those spells you keep up, so-"

"It's not magic, for the damn El's sake!" The albino frustratingly hissed as he approached her. He slid one of those rectangular projections in front of her eyes. "This thing. This thing right here is called a screen. A holographic screen to be precise. It's directly powered by El energy, not my mana. I merely use the nanomachines in my central nervous system to momentarily take control of their placement. Or the information they display. In fact…."

Ara blinked at the lengthy explanation Add was throwing at her. He rambled something about Nasods, Dynamos, implants and sensors…all words she had never heard before. Still, despite how angry he seemed, the Haan warrior could tell he was happy to explain to his heart's content how his Dynamos and his implants could do anything without magic. He held magic in very low regard compared to what he called science. Whatever it was, it sure sounded a lot like magic.

"...Got it now?" He concluded. "I'm a scientist, not a shady mage."

"Mhm," Ara weakly nodded before she continued to lie, "I understood everything. But I have to ask you something. I didn't understand it, but maybe your science spells can help me understand."

"It's not spells, it's-"

"Thesis?"

Add sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before answering, "Yeah, yeah. Let's pretend that's it if it's easier for you to understand. Ask away. Either way, I got time to kill."

"That man you came with to the cave. Do you know what exactly he was?"

The teen's gaze grew wide for a moment before it sank to his feet. He removed his mask and turned away from her, summoning another of his screens in front of him to rapidly tap something on it with his fingers. Judging how text appeared on another screen at the speed Add tapped, Ara understood he was writing, though she could know what.

"Do you have an idea of what he is?" Ara asked again.

"Isn't it enough for you to know he's a freak? A bloodthirsty and really fucking powerful freak."

Ara sighed, turning her head back to the middle of her pillow. She closed her eyes and shook her head.

"No," she said, "I've seen a lot of freaks before coming here. Demons, Steel Crosses, priests, mages, and the like who have too much power. But that creature was something else. People's skin doesn't glow. It doesn't get as white as snow, and-"

"Did he have wings and a halo? Did he look like he was made of crystal or something like that?" Add cut her words short with an uncharacteristically fearful tone.

"Yes."

"Then he's the worst kind of freak," he spat out, "The kind of freak that will send Steel Crosses on someone's family."

Ara glanced at him again, noticing he was nervously tugging at that purple choker around his neck. The girl wished she could move, but she did not feel her body below her elbows. He, too, had probably witnessed the destruction of his homeland. But not at the hands of demons, but creatures far worse. She turned her head back and closed her eyes.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked. That must have been hard, seeing your family-"

"Who said anything about my fucking family, huh?!" He roared. "My only objective here is to find a way back to my era. And my family will be okay. I'll become as strong as I need to send freaks like that packing. You're just a nuisance to that plan."

"Then," Ara said, "we got a similar goal, Add. I also need to become stronger. Strong enough to beat the demon who destroyed my homeland. Maybe then, my brother will…"

A soft hiss interrupted her words. Her head felt increasingly lighter, almost as if she was falling into a deep sleep. Her consciousness drifted away, but she still heard Add's voice before falling completely asleep.

"First spine surgery preparations are complete. Dynamo, let's get right down to business."