The hellion, Dullahan, crashed to the ground when Zaveid kicked it. He used it to jump in front of us, before glancing back at all of us. His eyes landed on me, and narrowed slightly. Unlike everyone else, I probably wouldn't be a recipient of his usual flirting. So I kept my gaze away from him, firmly on the Dullahan.

A headless warrior that brought death.

"You're planning to kill again, aren't you?" Sorey asked. His voice didn't carry any of the usual firmness when he asked that sort of question. It was dull, lackluster.

Even Zaveid noticed.

"You're not tellin' me that's got you down, Sheps. Didn't I tell ya? My way is to put the hellions back in hell." He pulled out Siegfried from where it was improperly holstered. The hellion got back up during this time, with Sorey and Dezel in front of it. "Now get out of the way."

"I'm not moving! I won't let you do it!" He tried his hardest to make himself sound assertive, but it fell slightly flat. Zaveid looked a bit frustrated at this, still holding Siegfried in his hand. The Dullahan hellion started to move, and Zaveid went to attack when Dezel tied his wrist with his pendulum wire.

"How do you intend to kill the hellions?" Dezel asked. This was a chance that Zaveid couldn't pass up, it seemed.

"Introduce me to your pretty young lady-friends, and maybe I'll tell you."

It wouldn't be Zaveid if he wasn't flirting. Even his comment of us being eye candy made Rose bristle. I gently placed my hand on her shoulder and shook my head. It really wasn't worth it. Empty words, as I'd figured. He didn't mean that. Truly. Edna commented about how he hadn't changed, and he raised Siegfried to point the pistol at his head.

And fired, powering himself up.

I backed off. I wasn't ready for this- Wasn't ready to just needlessly fight. But it seems the others didn't share my apprehensions and went in to fight alongside Sorey and Dezel. It left me standing there, kind of uselessly, as I watched them all attack him. Zaveid was a tricky one. Spells that looked like they hit missed entirely due to him using Windstep to get out of the way before it actually went off. He dodged strikes.

The Seraph was toying with them. But eventually, they were able to knock him down. And he left, after giving a few parting words. I hadn't been paying attention until he stopped beside me. I glanced over to him, but looked away.

"Didn't think I'd see you with the Shepherd." He said. I shrugged.

"Comes with losing my Seraphim to the Malevolence." In a display of non-Zaveidness, he took my chin and forced me to look at him. I could barely read his expression but... I could see a hint of concern. He let go just as quickly, and I just rubbed where his hand had been not moments prior.

"Least you didn't lose yourself. I'd have to kill you if you did."

With that somber note, Zaveid walked away. I stared at where he'd been, and then kind of collapsed afterwards. Honestly, what kind of problems did I get myself into these days? First it was ending up in a new world, now it was a seraph I thought hated me showing me his own version of concern. It didn't sit well with me.

I walked up to the door, the others having already gone inside. Instead of entering, I sat near it. I knew they'd come out of it eventually. For now, I'd just have to entertain myself and figure out my next path. Sorey shouldn't have two squires. It wasn't supposed to be like that. I knew that, I knew... and yet, here I was. His second Squire, despite being the Oracle. I shouldn't be.

And yet I was.

"Maybe me taking this place has had a lot of terrible side effects. Like Alisha becoming a hellion. I don't remember that ever happening." I pulled my knees up to my chest. "...Was it a bad idea to bring me here? I'm just ruining everything set up."

I stared off into the distance, wondering if I should head to Pendrago alone. Maybe it was a decision I shouldn't make alone.

I must've dozed off because Sorey was shaking me awake. I blinked the sleep from my eyes, staring up at him. How long had I been out? "Oh... Did you complete the trial?" I asked, voice sounding kind of off due to being asleep for so long. Sorey nodded and helped me to my feet.

"It wasn't too hard." Sorey admitted. I dusted myself off and gave him a small smile. "Though, do you and Zaveid have something against each other? Before we headed into the Shrine, I saw you two talking."

I waved a hand. "He was just asking me a question." That was completely avoiding the entire question, because I didn't want to delve too fully into it and give them all a false sense of hope. Right now, I couldn't purify Eizen like Laphicet- the boy Eizen gave a name to- had asked. I didn't actually have the Power of Purification, so that meant I couldn't do anything as of yet for that questline.

Rose walked over and took my hands in hers, moving Sorey out of the way as she did so. "You can tell us what's really going on, Rani."

I smiled.

"Maybe later, I don't really want to dwell on it too much." I offered. This seemed to please her, and she just took one of my hands to hold instead. While we headed away from the Wind Shrine, I wondered briefly if things would play out this way. If things would go the same as they'd always gone, with just a few hiccups, and I'd be able to go home.

I clearly didn't know exactly how badly I'd screwed up this entire world.

We continued down the path to Pendrago, instead of heading to Lastonbell. It meant that our course had been set, finally, and we'd have to deal with what was going on. And for me, I knew what would come up next. A fight with Zaveid, and Dezel's eventual death. Because Rose was important to him..

But she was important to me, too.

I had to plan something, and fast. I didn't want Rose to get hurt. I knew he'd use her as a vessel and exact his revenge while somehow breaking his Sublord contract with Lailah. I knew what was to come, and I had to do something about it.

The night before we reached Pendrago, we'd found a cabin to stay in. Lailah had lit the fire and we'd all gotten ready to go to bed. Except for the Seraphim and I, who remained awake even though Rose and Sorey were out like lights. I stared out the window, wondering what I should do. What I would do... about Dezel and Symonne's eventual fight.

"You should get some sleep too, Rani." Lailah said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "We'll be leaving in the morning."

"I know." I shook my head. "My brain's a bit too active to sleep. I'm... thinking of all the could've beens, instead of staying firmly in the present. Like... is there a route I could've taken to prevent all of this?"

"No one could've seen Alisha becoming a hellion. Even I didn't realize it until it was too late." Lailah looked sad at the thought. "But we'll figure it out eventually, okay?"

"Yeah.." I gave a nod.

Eventually turning in for the night, after figuring out what I'd do tomorrow night, I slept dreamlessly and woke to Rose sitting on my bed.

"Good morning..." I yawned, sitting up and leaning on her, putting my arms around her. Rose chuckled, putting her hand on mine.

"Morning, sleepyhead." Rose said with a grin. "Dezel cooked breakfast, and I got you some." She gave me a plate of food, which was expertly cooked despite the fact Dezel couldn't see. He could read the wind, though, and that seemed to be the reason he could cook as well as he did. Giving a smile at the food, I ended up eating it as fast as my body would allow.

After breakfast and getting properly dressed, we all set off. I stayed close to Rose, holding her hand and leaning against her. I had figured out my plan. I'd call for Dezel before he could use Rose, and then let him use me instead. That way, Rose wouldn't nearly die. That way, Dezel didn't have to have any regrets.

Oh, if only I knew.

The sun was now low in the sky as we reached the path to Pendrago proper.

We'd gone around to Glaveind Basin, and talked to some of the Sparrowfeathers. Our path had been set from there, and everyone was keeping Rose in the dark... me included. I had actually winced when she had used that sarcastic tone, and resolved myself towards my own secret plan. One that would definitely work, even if I had to force it to.

I would not let Rose get hurt, no matter what.

"Wait a second-" Sorey stopped us as he spotted Zaveid in the distance. "Zaveid?"

"Just a word of advice." Zaveid's voice carried through the wind, as if he was projecting it. We walked closer, to where he was leaning against a tree. "Leave your opponent this time to me."

Dezel, irritated, took a few steps forward, closing the distance between himself and the older Wind Seraph. "Don't toy with me, Zaveid!" The anger and frustration was clear in his tone.

"I'm not toying with you. Especially not now. You can listen to me or not, but I'm handling this either way." Zaveid began to walk away from the tree after standing straight, and Dezel cut him off by flinging his pendulum in Zaveid's direction. Zaveid dodged.

I didn't save these last two shots of mine just to throw them away.

Two left.

My chances of saving Eizen dwindled further with that reminder. My chance of saving Rose was one in a million. But I'd do it. Unlike the last time, I didn't sit out of this fight. But Zaveid seemed to know what I was going to do before I did it, and avoided my daggers with ease.

"The Rangetsu Style, eh? Who taught you that?" Zaveid asked.

Rangetsu Style?

"Arvald taught me how to use these, so-!" I attacked again. "I don't know about the Rangetsu Style!"

He dodged. "Haven't seen that style in centuries! Glad Rokurou passed it down!" It seemed he didn't mind chatting during battle. But, in the end, even with the talk of the Rangetsu style... Zaveid still lost. And he handed Sorey the gun, Siegfried, with the final bullet in it. Telling him if he couldn't stop Dezel from killing hellions, then he could use that instead. Before proceeding to proclaim he needed a nap and going to lay on the ground away from the path.

It wouldn't be needed. I'd make sure of it.

I didn't want my last hope of purification to be thrown away needlessly. There was someone out there who needed it. A dragon that sat atop the Spiritcrest, whose soul was still there.

"Sorey, Rose. I need to tell you two something."

If this was going to be a fight we all would be fighting, I'd have to tell them the truth before things got too far. Before I fully threw myself into my plan... There was one thing I needed them to know. Both of them looked over, and the Seraphim too. It was a bigger room that we were in this time, enough to fit all of us. I knew the Seraphim would be listening in, so I didn't want to hide it from them either.

"...I know this'll be hard to take in but... I'm not from Glenwood." I admitted, shaking my head a little. "I'm not even from the same planet. I was brought here for some reason, and I'm... Ugh, I don't know! I look like a lunatic."

"Wait, you're... not from Glenwood? What's the place you're from called?" Sorey didn't laugh, didn't balk. He didn't even say that was untrue. He had gotten up from where he sat and stood in front of me, hands on my shoulders. I looked anywhere but his face.

"That's gotta be some sort of weird lie..." Mikleo remarked.

"It's not." Dezel pointed out, lowering his hat a little. "She's not lying about it. I would be able to tell if she was."

I sighed. "Of course I'm not lying. Why would I lie about not being from Glenwood? Hell, I asked you to write that note, Dezel. That's proof enough I'm not from here." But I returned my attention to what Sorey asked instead of dwelling too hard on the facts of how I showed I wasn't originally from here. "...The place I'm from. Well, the town's called Avalon. The surrounding place? California. It's on a world called Earth."

For a good while, no one talked. Well, until Rose shoved Sorey out of the way and pulled me into a hug. She let me rest my head on her shoulder, and didn't say anything. Sorey's exclamation of "Whoa!" had broken the silence momentarily, but it hadn't lasted.

"...Don't worry. Nothing's going to change between any of us. Just because you're not from here doesn't mean a thing." Rose comforted me, and I hadn't even known I needed it. Pulling away from Rose, I stared at her for a moment before leaning in and giving her a kiss.

The entire room fell silent yet again.

"Finally." Edna broke the silence. "I was wondering when you two would finally kiss after skirting around each other for... what, months?"

"It hasn't been that long!" Rose shot back, but we all ended up laughing after a little bit and I hugged Rose tight. She was warm, soft and I wanted to hold her forever. But I couldn't do that forever. I knew that, but I still wanted to.

The rest of the day went by, with Sorey promising he'd help me find a way home and getting teased by some of the Seraphim about my relationship with Rose. It was nice, even though it would eventually end.

But, for now, I'd cherish these moments that I had left with all of them.