As predicted, a suit of armor came out of hiding when Attak laughed, and attacked me, Aevar and Rokurou. Immediately, the three of us were thrown into this combat situation and were completely out of our element fighting a literal moving suit of armor. This really sucked, for certain. Deflecting its blows was most of what we could do, and I didn't even know if I could make a straight attack on this thing. "Eizen, need a little help here!"

"Wait, what?!" Came Rokurou's shocked response as Eizen materialized and moved in to punch the helmet off of the so-called hellion. The helmet flew off, and Attak was tossed to the ground unceremoniously as he was sent with the helmet. It was all quiet after that, with the tension in the room so thick you could cut it with a knife. Both Rokurou and Eizen stared at each other. And then, Rokurou laughed. "Didn't think I'd see you again, Eizen. It's been, what, about a thousand years since?"

"More or less." Eizen gave a half smile at Rokurou. "You've been around this entire time?"

"Yeah. Been indebted to Arvald's crew for saving my life. If it weren't for them, I'd have been dead a looong time ago." Rokurou shrugged. "And since Arvald wants me to go with her, guess it means we'll be travelling together."

"It does." At that point, Attak wobbled over to us and we all looked over at him.

"Uuuuugh... Ya didn't have to hit me that hard..." He complained, before rubbing his aching head. "And why are you being a bunch of prancin' prickleboars?! You could've damaged something in here!"

"You attacked us. I just asked Eizen to help." I shrugged. That was the truth, no matter how you looked at it. Walking over, I crouched down to him. "Listen, there's a drake flying about outside. We need your help to deal with it before it becomes a problem for Marlind."

"And why should I help? What's the catch?" Attak asked, staring at me with those big eyes of his. "You aren't gonna use me for something nefarious, right?"

"Because if we don't deal with the malevolence, then this entire town's probably going to become hellions." I stood up, looking down at him. "And if that happens, then there'd be less people here to appreciate the art stored here."

Attak drooped. "Awww..."

"You sure know how to deal with a normin, Rani. Didn't think you knew him." Rokurou seemed impressed. I shook my head.

"He's in an art museum, so you can connect the dots from there." It was a half-truth at best. I knew why, I just didn't want to say it aloud. However, before we could continue conversing, we heard footsteps headed our way. Eizen returned to residing within me, and I stared at the door. When it opened, revealing Sorey, Alisha and Kain, I breathed a sigh of relief. "False alarm, it's just a normin."

"That doesn't explain the domain remaining, though." Lailah said once she materialized. Noticing Attak, she continued. "If it wasn't Attak, then who or what is exerting its domain here? We should scope the area out more and find out what it is."

It isn't us. Eizen said, answering an unasked question. I breathed a sigh of relief before looking towards Rokurou. He shook his head, as if explaining that it definitely wasn't him without saying anything. So what, then, was causing the domain to remain standing? Was there really a hellion here unrelated to Attak? I thought it over for a bit, trying to figure it out. Maybe it was something that none of us could've ever thought of. Maybe someone had come in here and become a hellion... but where exactly were they? Did they even exist in here? Or were they outside, exerting their domain over this area from there? As I thought it over, I heard the sound of weapons unsheathing and looked up.

Coming from the door was a strange-looking hellion. It looked as if it was partially human, only half overtaken by the malevolence itself. But its walk was... different. A shamble, kind of like a zombie except without its arms out. It limped forward before raising its head and staring directly at me. The voice that issued from it was slightly grating on the ears, if not blanketed by the malevolence. But it was a familiar voice that I'd heard so much.

"Ra...ni..." The voice said, and I took a step back. One of its arms rose up, holding the same sword Sorey was holding in his own hand. The Sacred Sword. This was wrong... This was all wrong. I took another step back, eyes widening behind the mask as I watched it start shambling closer. Edna quickly cast an arte to get its attention, but it continued forward regardless. "W...hy..."

I hit my knees, staring in fear at it. Hearing voices, but not being able to register them. In the back of my mind, I knew that this was a trick. An illusion of Symmone's, more than likely. But it wasn't registering as that.

"She's not responding!" Sorey said, moving in front of me. "What's going on?! What is that?!"

"It's some sort of hellion!" Lailah responded, pulling some papers out of her skirt pocket and setting them aflame before going in for an attack. "And it's focused entirely on Rani! We're not registering at all to it no matter what we do!"

Would Sorey would have wanted this? Wanted to become such a shambling creature? I didn't know what why the Sorey I knew had been turned into this, but I knew I had to do something about it. I found the strength to finally get back up and walked over to the shambling hellion, pulling the sword out of his grasp. He stared at me, eyes not seeing anything. I could tell, as they weren't even focused. I took a shaky breath before gripping the hilt of the sword tight after turning the blade towards him. I heard screaming, and I saw the blade sink into the hellion's flesh just as his hand pierced my shoulder. My world went white for just a few moments.

At least, until the past Sorey appeared before me.

"...Hey." He raised a hand towards me.

"Hey..." I smiled, though it didn't last long. "I'm guessing... this was your way of trying to send a final message? Turning yourself into a hellion?"

"I dunno. All I knew was that I had to say something to you. Next thing I know, you're hitting me with a sword! That hurt." The past Sorey laughed a little. "But I guess this makes it easier."

"Makes what easier?" I tilted my head to the side a little before I saw four elemental lights fly out of him towards me. I pat myself down after that, and realized I was wearing the same clothes I'd worn prior to nearly getting killed by the hellion Dezel had gotten paralyzed by. Which meant that, in this white room, I looked like I used to. So, when it faded, I wouldn't look like this anymore. "What was that?!"

"I'm passing the torch. Figuratively and literally." He was starting to fade away, and I didn't know what to do. My vision blurred with tears, and I blinked. "Even though it really was my fault that Rose and I got killed... I shouldn't have asked her to come with me. I should've had her stay with you. Then, maybe, none of this would've happened."

"Are you an idiot?!" I walked up to him, smacking him on his semi-transparent shoulder. "Rose would've gone with you anyway! You know that as well as I do! But hey, if you see Edna, tell her I got Eizen back."

"Oh, she knows." The past Sorey grinned. "She's known for a while. Can't believe you did that! Something I couldn't even do..."

"Don't start beating yourself up for that." I looked away. "...I'm sorry, Sorey. I'm sorry for not being... able to help you more when you needed it. If I was there, maybe you and Rose wouldn't have-"

"It wasn't your fault." He was fading even more now. "I'm glad I got to talk to you again, even if it was just for a short few minutes. Tell Mikleo I said hi, would you?"

"...I will." The world turned a blinding bright light, and I saw the silver flames of purification disperse. Staring at where he'd been just a few moments ago, I found myself dropping the sword and falling to my knees. Sobs wracked my body as I hugged myself tight, trying to deal with the emotions and shove them all back down. I had to, there was no other choice for me. Neither he or Rose would've wanted me to grieve over them like this.

It took me a few moments to finally compose myself, and I didn't know how to explain this to the others. It turned out I didn't owe them an explanation, only an assertion that I was okay. I nodded, giving a smile and we walked out of the museum with Attak.