The sounds of weapons clashing could be heard anywhere in the camp, some were practicing their combat skills, others their magic and some their aim. Issei was currently trying to learn how to use magic with the help of Winda and Ariel. "You usually need a staff to cast spells, however if you become proficient enough you might be able to cast them without the need of one." Said Winda. "In your case, it seems like you're like Lazuli, not needing a staff to cast attacks."

Ariel on the other hand simply looked at Issei, analyzing his position alongside the time he needed to cast the spells. It did, however, make Issei feel a bit uneasy being watched so closely, but he proceeded with the training while ignoring it.

Issei concentrated as he tried to summon a gust of wind towards the training dummies. On his side was Yaldabaoth, who proceeded to explain more about the biblical factions. "Since you technically have the power of all biblical races, summoning elemental attacks shouldn't be as hard for you compared to normal humans." He continued indicating other pointers for the attack to come out.

He had been trying to cast the various elemental attacks and spells with the help of those around him, Avance, Winda and Lazuli were kind enough to teach him about the casting process and any other spell he should learn, most of which were of basic level. Ariel and Kamui also tried, but they did so with mixed results, with Kamui being a terrible teacher, and Ariel not giving many indications.

Despite how little he interacted with others, he thought that he had made a decent connection with those he did continuously talk to. As far as he was concerned, Ariel was just a bit hard to talk to due to how she was, so he decided to be patient with her until they could finally talk to one another casually.

"You've come a long way Issei." A Knight in shining white armor came towards him, this was Crystal, he was considered one of the most powerful Gem-Knights of the current generation, despite his outstanding power, he preferred teaching and helping others, hence why he now trained Issei and many other warriors of the various tribes.

"Thank you Crystal, so is it time for combat practice?" Issei had been sparring with many of the people in the camp, from someone at a similar level as him as Avance and Kamui, or a more experienced warrior like Reeze or Crystal. "No, not yet, there is still time before we continue with the scheduled training, so don't worry about it." Issei smiled, it was peaceful in this camp, while there was constant training, none of the tribes seemed hostile to one another, they had bonded over the course of the days.

"With that being said, take a break, I see you've been practicing continuously, I admire your determination." Complimented Crystal. Issei looked at Ariel and Winda, both nodding in agreement as they decided to stop for now.

Only a week was left before they would start their assault, they didn't hear much from Steelswarm enemies aside from an attack here and there, yet unlike the first one, they didn't have many officers, and they were sure none of them were generals.

He decided to go around on a stroll and watch others fight, he noticed that a lady with fiery red hair had shown up at the base, this took the attention of many present, but it looked like the Laval were the most intrigued. Judgement Lord's second in command, Laval the Greater, had gone up to her. "Princess, it is unexpected to see you come from the deep woods of the blazing lakeside." Greeted Laval the Greater, he had kneeled as he had given his salutation to the princess.

"At ease Greater, I came to talk with father." She was the daughter of the Lord who reigned over the Laval tribe. As she continued towards the tent that had all of the strategists, her father had come out from it after hearing the commotion.

From the tent Windaar, Avance and Aquamarine came out from the tent as well. They saw as the Laval Judgement Lord was looking at her daughter. "What are you doing here?" Asked Judgement Lord, his voice was strict, perhaps even intimidating to some, at the same time, his voice gave a sense of no care from seeing his daughter.

Her daughter seemed annoyed at the fact that his voice didn't have any sort of care for her. "I am here to tell you that all of the crossbred Laval Coatl chicks with Gusto birds have finally hatched and are looking healthy, you have completely ignored the care of these creatures."

"Very well then, thank you for the information, you may go back to the Laval lands." He said bluntly. Yet her daughter didn't seem satisfied with that response as she lashed out. "Is that how you're going to treat your daughter?!"

"You don't even dare to call me by my name!" As the princess continued to express her frustrations with her father, Judgement Lord simply stood silent, not caring how her daughter acted towards him, he simply got back into the tent to continue strategizing. Laval the Greater tried to calm her down by talking to her. "Princess, please understand that your father is busy at all times, if it weren't for him, the land of the Laval would be in a complete state of anarchy.

She, however, refuted. "If he truly loved us, then he would at the very least look at me with actual emotions of happiness, or better yet, be happy to see us grow." She was resentful of her father's lack of affection, as he never truly seemed to give them the care they needed when they were young, they spent the whole time in the woods away from their castle as people kept trying to propose to them, and yet their father continued to act like it was nothing.

"I am sure he truly loves all three of you." A black Gem-Knight warrior said as he arrived at the scene. Obsidian had walked towards them upon listening to the commotion, the girl seemed to recognize him. "Obsidian... So this is where you decided to end up? With the Gem-Knights?" She looked at him with hatred, Issei alongside those out of the loop were unsure about what backstory they had, some wondered about how the Laval seemed very fond of Obsidian.

"Indeed princess, I have joined the Gem-Knights as they reminded me of the past." Confirmed Obsidian. "And their motives to protect everyone resonated with me." Obsidian looked at her with sorrow, unseen by any due to the helmet he wore. In response, she yelled at him. "So all you cared about is past glory?! All this time, working for the Lavals as a guard was nothing to you?! We the Lavals saw you as one of our kind, even though you were an outsider, we respected you, we were grateful for your work… and you decided to join the Gem-Knights just because it reminded you of your fallen companions of the X-Sabers?! Everything we've been through, the troubles I've told you, the advice I asked you, was that all for nothing?!" Her screams afflicted a sense of guilt to Obsidian, it was untrue that the work he did for the Lavals was for naught, as he was truly grateful for his time in that tribe.

Obsidian was a failure as an X-Saber, he wasn't able to get into Gottoms' Second Generation when he was a young boy. It pained him to see the eldest sister of the three princesses he used to protect give such a message full of hurting words. He saw as she curled up her fists. "If you truly feel like you miss the X-Sabers, then why didn't you die alongside them." She started to cry as she left the camp.

To her it seemed as if someone who she once considered to be close to her decided to go to the enemy's side. It made her feel betrayed, and she needed to express such hatred towards the man who abandoned the Laval. "You idiot… Why couldn't you have stayed… we were all happy together…" The thoughts of the Laval princess sunk into the past memories, of happier times when there was someone there for her when her father wasn't.

With the sound of steps slowly fading away, this left everyone with an awkward silence, Obsidian simply sighed as he went back to what he was doing, in the meantime, Issei decided to continue with his break. Issei recalled when he had finished the quest.

Quest #1

Elemental Alliance

Condition: Discover the mysterious new entities

Failure: The four main Tribes become hostile to each other

Completed!

Reward: + 1 Fortitude, + 1 Justice

Quest #2

Insect Eradication

Condition: Defeat the Steelswarm Generals during this assault

Failure: Any of the tribes are eradicated or you fail to defeat the Steelswarm Generals during this assault

Accept

The following quest he obtained was pretty simple, while the reward of the first wasn't really special, having more Health was possibly the best thing he could ask right now, after almost dying to Girastag, it made Issei become much more aware of the importance of his Health stat, the first stories didn't need him to do anything dangerous aside from the fight with Kokabiel, but this story was going to be tough if he wasn't cautious.

He then noticed Ariel getting close to him, the blue haired girl wearing black robes and a witch hat that symbolized the tribe she came from was not very good at talking, nor expressing herself. To some it felt like they were talking to a blank sheet of paper that sometimes responded, but Issei was patient enough to hear her out.

He waited a few minutes as she simply looked at him blankly, he supposed she was curious about his origins, after all, everyone seemed to ask him about his past. He smiled as he decided to be the one to start the conversation. "May I ask if you have anything to tell me?"

Her staring stopped as she blinked once. "Ah, sorry about that, I may have dozed off as I thought about you." She bowed in apology as she then said. "I wish to ask you about your thoughts on each tribe." She explained. "We have been able to interact for the past few weeks, so I wish to know what you feel about each one of them."

Issei hummed at the question. "Mmmm... Well, I can tell you that the Gusto and Gem-Knight Tribes are very kind to me, I am grateful to be in their care." He smiled as he could remember the cooperativeness of both factions. "As for the other two..."

"The Laval are quite easygoing, although a bit crude at times." He answered honestly. "But it doesn't really affect me, they're pretty honest about everything they do, they may seem like the most barbaric at first glance, but they are possibly the most prepared when it comes to war."

"And the Gishki... Uhmmm, I'd say that they are a bit reserved compared to the other tribes." Confessed Issei. "Not that I think it's something bad, you and Avance have been of great help, and I am very glad that we're able to talk like this. It's just that I haven't had the chance to talk to the Gishki much."

Ariel smiled at the response. "Thank you for your words." They would have continued with their talk if it weren't for a bell being hit by a Gem-Knight member,the practice now changed, it was time for them to do combat practice between inexperienced and experienced warriors.

He stood up as he bid farewell to Ariel, he was then followed by Winda who tagged along as they would be in the same group for when the battle against the Steelwarm started. When they got to the training field, they saw that Crystal and Laval the Greater were standing in front of them.

Issei looked at his left to see Kamui and Lazuli going up against Reeze and Shadow, meanwhile on his right he saw Ariel and Avance go up against two Laval members that he recalled were called Cannon and Blaster, they supposedly were brothers but he couldn't see the resemblance aside from the fact they both had an arm cannon, two in the case of Blaster.

Issei looked at Winda, who seemed to be prepared. Issei grabbed his guandao with both of his hands, waiting for Crystal and Laval the Greater to make their move. He took one breath as he prepared himself for the incoming attack. Laval the Greater initiated with a fireball that went towards Issei, Winda proceeded to use her magic to redirect it back towards Greater with wind, as the fireball was sent back, Crystal put himself in the middle and slapped it, extinguishing it as he then rushed towards Issei.

Issei swung his guandao against Crystal who caught the blade between his hands, Greater rushed and jumped over Crystal to slam his fire embedded fist against Issei, but Winda sent a whirlwind that pushed back Greater before that happened, she continued with a follow up by summoning harsh winds that blew towards Greater, these winds cut the grass as they traveled to their destination.

Crystal kicked Issei, making him recoil back, he then proceeded to try and punch Issei, only to be met with Issei's blade which blocked the punch, Issei turned around and swung his weapon, Crystal was able to deflect the swing with his gauntlets, he then grabbed Issei by the wrist, while he tried to break out of Crystal's grasp, he was lifted by the Gem-Knight and then thrown towards Winda, before she could react both of them had crashed onto the floor. Greater was able to dodge the wind blasts easily thanks to Winda's concentration being broken, both warriors closed the gap as they stood in front of both of them.

As they looked at the, Crystal finished assessing the battle. "That's the end of the match, both of you need to attack together more often, you both keep taking turns attacking rather than coming at the same time. Your support to one another was good though, keep up the good work." Crystal held his hand out, helping Issei get up, when he did, Winda was able to finally stand up after having the weight of Issei over her.

He looked at the other fields, noticing that Avance and Ariel had finished already, Avance was on the ground while Ariel was trying to stand up, Cannon had his gun in front of Avance while Blaster was knocked out on the ground, meanwhile Kamui and Lazuli were still sparring with Reeze and Shadow.

He decided to sit down alongside the ones who have finished to watch the remaining spars battle against the experienced. Kamui was trying to win a clash against Reeze while Lazuli stopped the incoming projectiles by Shadow with her own.

"You've grown stronger over the last few weeks Kamui, you might end up joining the Warrior House with this progress." Reeze was smiling as she tried to push Kamui over with her own weapon. "Really? Then maybe I should try to become the new Main House instead." He proceeded to have his bird companion, Falco, start jamming its beak on Reeze's head, this pissed her off as she then strengthened her grip on her weapon.

"Uh oh." Kamui said as he noticed that he was now losing the clash, he finally fell over as the strength that Reeze was using was too much for him. "Argh! Your damn stupid bird friend is so annoying I'm gonna crush your skull for ruining my mood!" She was about to hit Kamui with her weapon, Kamui started screaming for his life until Lazuli was able to shoot at Reeze, making her recoil back and turn her attention towards her, in response, Reeze swung her weapon.

The swing of Reeze's weapon created heavy winds that went towards Lazuli, she proceeded to dodge them with her short stature, only to be hit by Shadow's magic, both Lazuli and Kamui were in the ground and couldn't get up, signaling the end of the spar. "Argh, I thought this time I would be able to win against you!" Kamui was disappointed about this spar, but Reeze helped him get up.

"Geez, you're so impatient, if you had let your bird friend go sneak towards Shadow then maybe you could have won." Reeze held Kamui tightly to make sure he didn't fall off, when all of the spars finally finished some of the support groups came to make sure there were no injuries on the others. Some of them took this as a chance to talk one to another as they were being healed.

One of them being Emerald. He was currently being examined by Caam as she looked at his body to make sure there were no injuries. "So how is Musto now Caam?" The Gem-Knight initiated the conversation. "Well, he's finally recovered fully, there isn't much else to say about dad." She smiled at him, as the Gem-Knight saw her smile, he looked away not knowing what had happened to him when seen her so happy.

In the meantime Issei, Avance and Lazuli were sitting as they didn't have any injuries. Talking to them was pretty nice as Lazuli brought out the liveliness of the conversation while Avance gave more depth to them. "I'm telling you! There is something going on between Emerald and Caam!" Lazuli seemed to be gossiping. "The fact that the both of them have been hanging together a lot, the fact that Emerald keeps looking away whenever he stared at Caam for too long, the fact that it's always Caam who checks on Emerald, you've gotta believe me!"

"Don't gossip about others like that, I'm sure you wouldn't like people gossiping stuff like this about you." Scolded Avance. On the other hand, Issei was unsure what to say about the situation, he didn't think there was anything weird going on between the two, if they did end up hooking up, good for them, it wasn't his business to meddle with their relationship.

"Can we change topic too? I don't think we should be talking about this." Avance said a bit annoyed. Lazuli seemed a bit bummed but didn't say anything against it. "Anyways, I am curious about something Lazuli." As Lazuli looked at Avance, he continued to ask.

"Why don't you have a core like the others? You're the first Gem-Knight that I've met who doesn't have a core." That was true, Obsidian despite not originally being part of the Gem-Knights was able to gain one. Lazuli responded without taking any kind of offense from it. "That's because I was born as a conjoined twin to my sister Lapis!"

"Uh, now that I think about it, I wonder how she's doing back at the tribe..." She hadn't seen her sister in awhile now, while Lazuli wanted to enter the battlefield as soon as possible, Lapis preferred not to, instead she wanted to help behind the lines with strategies or helping the injured.

"But where did the light magic come from?" Avance didn't know what connected Lazuli with light powers. "Well... Actually I don't know either." Lazuli was currently asking herself more questions than usual. "Either way can I mention how cool Issei looked with that light spear! I'm gonna experiment and try making a light sword for myself!" They all laughed at Lazuli's excitement.

They noticed that the Vylon had come to their camp, in response they all got up, expecting to listen to an update about the situation. The Vylon that seemed to be the leader, who the camp unanimously named Omega, commenced with the meeting.

As everyone in the camp grouped up, each of the leaders had come towards them expecting to hear news. They all went towards the Vylon, when everyone was there, Omega finally started talking. "Message received. Showing message. We have come to choose four of your greatest warriors to strengthen themselves with the powers of the Vylons." A group of small Vylons came towards them. "The plan of the attack is the following, our main attack is a laser that needs to be charged to kill all Steelswarms at once, however, it needs time to do so, in the meantime you with the help of the other Vylons will take care of the Steelswarms that will come in the decisive battle."

The leaders looked at each other and saw the Vylons, Windaar then suggested. "To make sure the power is distributed equally, should we all choose one of our best warriors?" Aquamarine and Judgement Lord agreed. Meanwhile, while Noellia simply nodded, she saw this as the perfect time to try and help the Steelswarm, these creatures seemed to be machines, and if she could infect them, then she could make sure the Steelswarm stood a bigger chance.

"In that case, I myself will be the one to choose one of the Vylons." Noellia proclaimed, all of the Gishki didn't say anything against it, be it because they couldn't or if they agreed with her, it didn't other tribes however, looked a bit wary over this decision.

Aquamarine then went next. "I nominate Sir Crystal as the one to gain the powers of the Vylons." The Gem-Knights hoorayed over the decision. "But Sir Aquamarine! Are you sure you don't want this power to yourself?!" Crystal was unsure over this decision, yes, he was the strongest out of the Gem-Knights according to the populace, but he believed that there was someone other than him that would gain more from the Vylon than him. "Oh I assure you Sir Crystal, you are one of the greatest warriors of this generation, and you deserve to become a hero with the help of the Vylons."

Meanwhile Windaar looked at Reeze, as their eyes met, Reeze then said. "Oh you can't be serious." Reeze was surprised about this decision, but also because he didn't feel like she deserved it either. "You've been there during the Trishula Incident, of course I was going to choose you, you're the one with the most experience in our tribe." Windaar smiled. In the tribe, Reeze was known as the strongest member of the tribe who didn't have a companion, Windaar thought that maybe now was the time to get one for her.

Lastly, Judgement Lord was thinking about who to choose, Laval the Greater was waiting for his response by his side. The Laval Lord was known to be the best strategist in the land, this was the reason why he was considered the leader of the Laval Tribe. "Cannon." The person mentioned was surprised at being chosen. "You will act as the artillery in the battle, you should target places with high concentrations of Steelswarm." Upon hearing those words, Cannon became grateful for his lord's decision, his brother patting his back as Cannon started to cry.

"Message received. Showing message. Now that all of you have chosen the Vylons will automatically equip themselves to the chosen warriors." A bright light came as the four small Vylons went towards the selected.

The light slowly decreased as all of the present could see that they all had white armor. Vylon Omega finished the meeting by saying. "Please practice your skills with the new found power for the next few days until the time of attack."

A few days after, at night Issei was currently recollecting every single piece of information with Yaldabaoth. "Did you find anything else about the books?" Yaldabaoth had both books in hand, he hadn't done anything but teach Issei more about his powers and investigate more about the books. "Not much, like I've told you before, the books, while they are related to Ddraig and Albion, don't seem to be truly related to them. In fact, they seem to be related more about their powers rather than them."

"What do you mean by that?" Inquired Issei. In response, Yaldabaoth tried to explain it a bit. "The concept of multiplying and dividing is said in here a few times, yet for some reason there is no mention of either dragon."

"They have a connection in a way that isn't related to their dragon forms so to speak, one cannot live without the other, and so it becomes a perpetual flow where they need to rely on each other to exist." Theorized Yaldabaoth.

"According to what you've told me, Ddraig's and Albion's current hosts are destined to fight right? Given the fact that I no longer have the Boosted Gear trait... Would that mean that the cycle has been broken?" Suggested Issei. Yaldabaoth thought a bit about it. "I'd say yes in a way, however, due to the intervention of the Writer's System, I supposed that the existence of these two books is to balance it out with the broken cycle."

They both stood in silence as they thought a bit about it, in the end Issei decided to call it a day. "Well, either way, take your time, you told me they would take a long time to discover what they have." Issei was looking at the moon, he had finished writing another poem, the day they would finally start their attack was coming closer.

Issei then noticed that Winda had gone outside of her tent, she looked at Issei, surprised that he was still awake. "I didn't expect to see you awake at this time, Issei." She sat down beside him, they stayed silent while looking at the stars.

Then, Winda started telling a story. "There is a legend that has been passed down through generations, that the constellations represent the saviors." This got the attention of Issei. "I don't know if these legends are true, but if anything, I believe that the Vylons are those saviors that the elders talked about."

"You really need to teach me about your culture and legends."Sighed Issei. Winda laughed a bit in response. "Maybe I will, but probably after the war ends." She looked a bit sad at the mention of the war, Issei saw this and asked about it. "You seem sad, are you perhaps worried about what could happen during the war?"

"No, it isn't that, I am worried about Ariel." She admitted, out of all the Gishki members, it pained her that there was the chance that they would go back to fighting one another once the Gusto and Gishki war resumed.

They were both close during childhood, and she wanted to believe that they could still be close, as they both were very interested in the fauna of their tribes… or at least when the Ice Barrier Tribe still existed, additionally, Wynn had sent her messages that she had also met a blue haired girl with water powers who reminded her of Ariel,perhaps it was a sign, that she needed to reconnect with her, no matter the different ideologies of the present tribes.

"She'll be okay, you've seen her battle in the camp, I'm still a bit unsure as to why you haven't talked to her yet..." Issei assured her about it. "It's... a bit complicated, we haven't talked for years, and it looks like she has forgotten about me..." Winda seemed a bit sad about it, but it was to be expected they hadn't talked in years.

They continued to look at the stars, but just then Winda asked about the book on his lap. "Hey, what's that book about?" Issei looked at the book only to say. "Oh this? It's a poem I've been writing, would you like to read it?" He handed her the poem.

Object

Poem Frozen Flames

Grade: Great

Description: An orange book that tells the story of two enemies at war, while one controls the powers of fire, the other controls the power of ice, they devastate the battlefield with their confrontation, destined to fight, only to become rivals in the end.

Effect: Increases damage dealt from magical attacks up to 50% based on the amount of Sanity left while in the user's inventory.

"Sure." She took it from his hands as she opened the book to its first page. "Uh, weird, despite being a poem it's really long." She started to flip a few more pages. "How long did you make this?"

"Uhhh, it's hard to say, but I hope I could get your opinion on it." Issei laughed a bit, not knowing how to explain it. Winda continued to read as she continued to comment on it. "You know, I'm surprised how close the plot is with my situation with Ariel, did you perhaps try to write this to cheer me up." She commented while giggling.

"Perhaps." That was the only thing Issei said, unsure as to what was truly written inside of it. She looked at Issei as she closed the poem. "Mind if I keep it? I really want to read it a few more times." Issei looked back at the stars. "Sure, you can keep it as long as you want, poems are meant to be shared with others."

Winda finally got up. "Thanks, I'm much more relieved now that I got to talk with you, I think I can go to sleep now." She went back to her tent, leaving Issei alone with Yaldabaoth again.

"So anything about the world then?" He looked back at Yaldabaoth. "Well shockingly enough the world is much smaller than Earth, although the current area is surrounded by a lot of mountains." Yaldabaoth put a hand on his chin. "They also seem to worship a goddess of some kind in the Shrine of Mist Valley, however I am unsure what goddess it is."

Issei noticed Yaldabaoth's look yet again, he looked uneasy, it was starting to worry Issei a bit, but he decided not to ask.

After the small talk about this strange world, Issei decided that it was time to finally get some sleep, he wondered if time passed in his world, if it did, then that could be a huge problem. But in the end, he'd still be able to do what he wanted even if he didn't make it through highschool.

While Issei went to bed, Yaldabaoth continued to look at the stars. "Why… does this feel so familiar?"

The day has finally come, it was time to go on the offensive. Every single troop was in line, waiting for the orders of their leader to go and attack. Aquamarine was not with them, but instead was a Gem-Knight called Ruby, while Aquamarine specialized on defense, Ruby specialized in offense. Issei could see Noellia, Judgement Lord and Windaar in front of all the troops, with Reeze, Cannon and Crystal all with their own squads.

On the back, were those who weren't going to be in the front lines, Caam and Musto were currently waiting patiently to listen to their leader commence the attack while Avance was told by his mother to stay, the same went for Emilia.

Ruby proceeded to yell out loud. "Everyone! The day has finally come! With the contribution of all the tribes and the Vylon, we must come out victorious!" The yells of determination started to get louder. He continued to talk. "Our enemies still do not know that we are going to attack them, we must make sure we make the most out of the surprise attack! Everyone CHARGE!"

Many of the groups divided themselves as each leader and Vylon powered warrior had a squadron with them, he could see Obsidian going with Judgement Lord while Kamui was with Reeze. They had divided each tribe with people of different ones as they all ended up bonding together. He didn't know which group Lazuli ended up in.

Issei was in Windaar's group, he saw that he was paired with Winda and Emerald, they all seemed calm about going to war, and now they would see how much the training had helped their combat abilities.

Many Steelswarm monsters realized they were being attacked as a few of them either rushed toward them or retreated, the place they had gone looked like some sort of open hole that was big enough for a whole sea to fit in.

Issei held his guandao and proceeded to kill the Steelswarm that came his way, swinging in various directions while running onwards. He saw as Emerald simply bashed them with his shield and Winda shot out wind blasts that cut through them.

More Steelswarm kept coming, even some officers, yet they were easily cut down by the many members of the various tribes that pushed forward. He saw some Vylons flying over them shooting down the incoming Steelswarms, Issei looked back for a moment to see Vylon Omega charging up, the plan was going as intended, getting the attention of them while waiting for the charged attack of Omega, once it charged the attack they would all retreat back and completely exterminate the foe.

As they slowed down their push they ended up near the hole, the enemies still rushed at them, but it was at a slower pace. Issei and Winda were working together while taking down an officer with ease. "Are you tired yet Winda?" Issei wanted to make sure no one was overexerting themselves, he was currently okay, the stamina training was doing wonders. "No, I can still keep going, how about you?"

"Still can continue on, do you think the other groups are doing ok?" Winda looked at him, not worried about the question. "Yeah, we've all been training for so long that I would be surprised if any of the teams was so easily defeated." Just then they saw Noellia at a distance as she decided to use the same mirror Shadow used to transform into a giant creature, at the same time he could see a giant ball of fire that he assumed was shot by Cannon.

"See? I told you." She smiled as she continued to cast attacks against the Steelswarm. He wondered how the other teams were doing.

Kamui was having little to no trouble against the Steelswarms, mostly because he had his companion Falco, being on the air was a huge advantage due to the fact that only a few enemies could get to him, he looked around to see who else had their companion out, only to see that Windaar was the only Gusto member aside from him that was riding their mount.

It was a very difficult thing to have their friend in a giant state unless their bond was incredibly strong, he knew that he was the closest to becoming the next chieftain, but he didn't let that get to his head, it meant that he'd have to abandon any of his childish acts, of which he would miss. He saw that the Laval were also in the sky, which surprised him, he saw Blaster mounting a fully grown Laval Coatl shooting down hoards of Steelswarms with ease.

He looked at his childhood friend Reeze, who had been chosen by the tribe to gain the powers of the Vylon, he saw as she casted storms that snatched the enemies up in the air. But that wasn't what he had his attention on, he saw her with her hair down, without the accessories that had her hair in a ponytail, he marbled upon seeing her eyes, which were blood red, they were different to the ones she usually did, those were same eyes he saw in the creatures of the forest.

She had become one with nature, and he was mesmerized by her. "What a blessing…" He gasped as he continued to lay his eyes on Reeze's moving body.

"Kamui focus on the damn battle!" Only to be snapped out by her as she continued to deal with the enemies. "R-right sorry!" He didn't know what got into him, it was the first time he was so focused on Reeze that wasn't related to battle. He continued to cast more wind attacks while Falco crashed through the flying Steelswarm enemies.

They both noticed that a Laval warrior had come towards their group. "I have come here to send the message from Judgement Lord!" They had their attention at the arrival of a messenger. "Our Lord has been forced to withdraw from the battle! A group of Steelswarm enemies have decided to attack the Laval lands! Laval the Greater has been put in charge of that group!"

"Fuck!" Reeze was not expecting this, they had a good start, but it slowly became much more difficult as the battle went on. Another messenger, now a Gishki, came as well. "I have come to bring bad news! Noellia has been wounded to the point she has had to withdraw! Her daughter, Ariel, has been able to withdraw alongside her!" The situation got even worse upon hearing those words.

The troops that had gone with Noellia have most likely been defeated by now, however, maybe a few survivors were able to flee together with the mother and daughter. Reeze sighed after hearing the bad news of both messengers. "We must continue pushing on everyone! We must fill the gaps that the fallen troops have left behind! Do not let the enemy envelop us! Onward!" She decided that the best decision to take was to move their forces up to make the area needed to control smaller. Given that the strategists of the various tribes had discussed various scenarios this was the one that would be taken by all groups after hearing the news.

A group of Gishki was rushing towards the camp, they held Noellia as she was near death. Upon seeing her, the many that stayed at the camp rushed to try and help her before it was too late. "Mother!" Avance saw her current state, he was surprised to see her mother in such a situation. As he stayed there looking at her, Musto and Caam came forward and tried to heal her.

Ariel fortunately wasn't as injured, she had used her pact to defend the few troops around her so that they all could flee. She wondered how Issei was doing, as she felt like she had failed to give enough support to the alliance.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Noellia was smiling. The situation was going perfectly for Noellia.

She had left the frontlines with the excuse of being wounded badly so that she could infect the Vylons with the essence of Steelswarms, she'd make the Vylons turn against each other and the other tribes, making the Steelswarms gain the advantage, and so, she could learn about them and possibly get Natalia back.

As she was being brought to a tent for more intense care Musto looked somewhere else as Caam went inside. Musto was currently sensing that a spirit was near, as he tried to get closer to where this supposed spirit was, he went into a tent.

Inside that tent he saw a floating Emilia next to the body of Emilia.

"What?" Musto was confused about this, what was Emilia's spirit doing outside of her body? "Hello? Can you see me?" Her voice immediately made Musto nod in response, she sighed in relief as she finally got someone to see her.

"My mother did a ritual with me as the sacrifice, I need your help to get me back inside please!" Emilia didn't know what to do, seeing what her mother had done made her feel betrayed. At the same time she refused to believe her mother would do such a thing.

"I would help, but I am not sure what to do." Musto didn't know anything about the Gishki rituals, yet he was willing to help. Knowing that the Gishki leader had done such an atrocity to her own daughter disturbed him. "I can help with that, I have a bit of experience with rituals so you just need to follow my instructions." Emilia said as she went towards a mirror on the floor.

Musto nodded, he got closer to Emilia's body, it looked dead, yet it could still move. "Try getting the Aquamirror out of her hands." He did so, despite her gripping on it, he easily took it out of her hands. "What now?" Asked Musto, awaiting the next step he needed to do.

"You need to use a bit of your blood and point the Aquamirror towards my body, by doing so I should be able to move into my own body again." Instructed Emilia. Musto bit his finger and let drops of his blood run down the artifact, it then started to glow, seeing it as a sight that it was successfully activated, he pointed it at the body of Emilia.

As he did that, instead of Emilia's spirit going back, he felt that something was wrong. He looked at Emilia's body only to see it starting to grow tentacles. "Wait, this wasn't supposed to happen!" Emilia nervously said. Did her mother create a fail safe to her plan? The Gishki called upon the creatures of another world, making them form pacts with them to gain their powers, Emilia didn't call upon them, which meant that her mother had ordered her body to wish that in case Emilia's spirit was able to get help from someone to use the Aquamirror.

The giant creature that was Emilia's body was currently moving forward to where the battlefield was, while moving it destroyed the tent completely, making people outside notice it quickly and start panicking over such a sight.

Musto looked at what he had done, he took the Aquamirror that had fallen from his hands and drew more blood. "Wait, what are you doing?" Emilia's spirit was confused at what Musto was doing. "I am going to call upon another creature from this mirror so I can stop that thing before it gets on the battlefield and creates collateral damage."

"In that case, use me as the called spirit." Emilia said with determination as she looked at Musto. He decided that it was better to have someone who knew about Gishki rituals with him, he was also unsure if he could control the powers of the Gishki alone either.

He saw as Emilia's soul was sucked into the mirror, Gusto was then blinded by the mirror as it expelled bright light. When he opened his eyes he saw that he had completely transformed, yet his mentality was intact. He then heard Emilia's voice. "Mind if I take control? I assume you have no idea of what powers you have." Musto nodded as he then saw himself from an outsider perspective, it seemed like the control over the body was switched between him and Emilia, he was now the spirit.

He saw as the transformed body jumped into the air, looking like a flying fish and proceeded to rush towards Emilia's converted body. In the distance, Avance could be seen as he shouted Emilia's name over and over again.

Judgement Lord was currently rushing towards the Laval lands, hearing the news about Steelswarm attacking his land made him immediately go towards the territory. But what was surprising was to see Obsidian following him, he didn't think much about it as he knew that Obsidian's moral code wouldn't let him watch innocent people die.

As they got to where the attack was supposed to happen he saw various Laval Warriors and Burners fending off against some officers of the Steelswarm, he proceeded to shoot a raging flame from his hands, completely incinerating them. The defense personnel looked at the arrival of their lord in joy.

"My lord! Thank the goddess you've arrived, the princesses are currently in the woods, we are about to push forward to rescue them!" A Warrior informed him as Obsidian and Judgement Lord continued to delve deeper into the burning woods. The Laval Lord then declared. "There is no need, I will enter alongside Sir Obsidian and the troops that came with us, fall back and defend the lands."

The deeper they went they saw damaged trees and some marks on the ground, there seemed to have been battles going on here, they continued until they saw two of the princesses near a lake of lava.

Yet Obsidian noticed that they were currently being attacked by Steelswarm troops, he took out the giant bead necklace that he had and swung it against the enemy, crushing those that didn't notice in time. "Is everyone alright?"

There were only two princesses present, the middle and youngest, but he still couldn't find the eldest. Judgement Lord took out the remaining enemies as he continued to question. "Where is your big sister?"

"She's deeper in the woods, she told us to run while she distracted the big monster." The youngest replied scared, more Laval warriors came to support as they finally finished with the enemies, both of the princesses went towards the Laval troops as they were taken into a safer place.

Judgement Lord and Obsidian went ahead to search for the eldest. Only to see damaged trees and even an open space, as they continued their search they heard more trees falling down, they decided to go towards the sound, as they did, they saw a Steelswarm with white parts in his body which matched the description of the one who Ariel battled.

They saw the last princess on the ground, Judgement Lord went immediately towards the enemy and tried to attack him, only to be blocked by the Steelswarm general with its claws. Judgement Lord proceeded to continue punching as each attack kept being blocked, sparks flew as each attack ignited the grass below, seeing that there was no effect he backed off to regain his energy after the onslaught of punches.

"Well, I'll be surprised, the dead beat leader of the Lavals came to save his daughters." The Steelswarm general mocked. "You may call me Longhorn, since this will be the last time you hear it."

On guard, Judgement Lord then proceeded to throw fireballs from his hands, each being parried by Longhorn, the general then proceeded to rush towards Judgement Lord as he tried to grab him with his claws, an attack that failed as he was able to dodge, Judgement Lord then had his fist be ignited by fire as he went to punch Longhorn who had missed his grapple, but the Steelswarm gripped the Laval's leader's neck with his tail and struck him down creating a dent on the ground.

As he tried to get up he was kicked on the stomach, launching him and breaking a tree. Longhorn then rushed towards him, kneeing him by the throat, he couldn't get up from the sequence of attacks and kept being hit by the Steelswarm general.

Obsidian looked at the scene as he rushed in to help his former leader, he used his weapon to try and capture Longhorn, but it was ineffective as he easily broke through it, fortunately it was enough time for the Laval Lord to get up. Obsidian proceeded to dodge Longhorn as Judgement Lord threw fireballs towards it.

He then casted a wall of fire that surrounded both but not Obsidian and his daughter. "Obsidian, I am going to have to rely on you to bring my daughter back safely while I take down the Steelswarm general."

(Now Playing: Dynasty Warriors 9, Never Dying Wishes)

In his exhausted state, he then proceeded to say. "I am sorry that it had to lead to this but promise me to take good care of her." Obsidian started to worry as it sounded like a farewell. The eldest princess who had finally recovered yelled. "You idiot, why are you willing to sacrifice yourself for someone you didn't even care about?!" She was about to cry yet again, she was confused about her father's decisions. Why had he had a change of heart all of the sudden?

"My daughter, I am sorry that I was not able to be a father to any of you, I was scared that if any of you were to get attached to me, you'd end up crying more at my inevitable doom to die in the battlefield." These words truly hurt the princess who thought that he simply didn't care for any of them. "I truly loved all of you even if I didn't show it, I regret not making the most of my time to be with all of you." Longhorn then proceeded to rush towards him, only to be blocked by his hands which started to engulf Judgement Lord.

"I am sorry I could not keep my promise Anu Piranha, I could not keep your sons close to me..." He pushed back the enemy, casting more flames onto the enemy, the flames continued to burn, as each time it was harder for Longhorn to try and advance towards him. However, Obsidian knew that name, after all, it was his mother. "How do you know my mother?! What sort of relationship did you have with the X-Sabers?!" Questioned Obsidian.

Judgement Lord chuckled. "Obsidian, I couldn't tell you about this before, I wished to reveal this secret to you when you would marry my daughter... I am sorry for everything I couldn't do to help you." His white armor started to burn off as magma started to become more visible. "I couldn't save your brother... If I had brought your brother safely, I could imagine that Fulhelmknight would have been so proud to see you stand proud as a Gem-Knight."

Obsidian was shocked upon hearing what Judgement Lord was saying, Fulhelmknight was the name given to him while he worked as a member of the next generation of X-Sabers, connecting the dots, he realized who the Laval Lord was. "You're... Boggart Knight?" He asked, shocked by the revelation.

Judgement Lord, also known as X-Saber's next generation, Boggart Knight laughed. "Ah ah ah, indeed, sorry for keeping this as a secret from you, even if you weren't able to make it as a member of the X-Sabers, I knew you were skillful enough to be a guard for my daughters, so please, keep them safe for me." Judgement Lord's last wish was enough to make Obsidian start to tear up, he knew this would be the last time he was going to see someone from the X-Sabers ever again, and he wished he could have caught up in life with the one who had been his brother's best friend.

The ground started to tremble as Magma started to overflow, Obsidian then took the princess away from the battle, fleeing from what was going to happen, the Laval princess' pleas to stay to see her father were not met as Obsidian continued to hurry and leave the battlefield. Longhorn who finally got through the various attacks that Judgement Lord had thrown at him said. "You surely believe that I won't be able to defeat you and hunt both of them down now Lord of the Laval?"

"It is not that I believe that this will be your inevitable demise, but rather I know it is your fate." The ground stopped shaking as a pillar of lava had engulfed Judgement Lord. "And I am no longer the Lord of the Laval, for there is someone else who I think would make for a greater lord, right now I am the Exlord of the Laval." He then rushed towards Longhorn, this time with much more aggressiveness than before.

Longhorn, thinking that he could stop him, decided to try and grab him with his claws, as he did, he realized that his claws were starting to melt off. The Steelswarm general then used his tail to hit Exlord on the back of his head. But he didn't budge, instead he pressed on, Longhorn was starting to lose ground, upon noticing this he backed up from the clash to regain his composure.

He then proceeded to hit the ground, making the terrain even more unstable than before, he then went to fly towards the Laval while Exlord tried to gain his balance back. Once he did, Longhorn finally got close as he charged towards him with both of his broken claws to then proceed to slash at him. He succeeded to cut away his body but Exlord grabbed his leg, having his chest injured by the attack he knew that it was now or never, he grabbed Longhorn, hugging the Steelswarm, who started to scream as he felt the lava body of the Judgement Exlord, he then threw himself into the deepest parts of the broken rift, by doing so he expected for Longhorn to die in the lava under them.

Longhorn desperately stabbed and hit Exlord, yet he didn't let go, his imminent death was coming closer and in a last attempt to kill the Exlord, he bit his neck, yet he still held onto Longhorn despite being dead. The Steelswarm general yelled in frustration as he hit the lava, Exlord didn't move from there, still grasping even after his death. Both of them sank slowly in the lava, unable to escape. Small particles of darkness started to come out from the crack of the pit that had been created.

On the surface, Obsidian had the princess on his back, but he stopped as he heard her voice. "Obsidian, please stop." It was a weak voice, he looked back to see her incredibly pale, upon looking down he saw that she was injured the whole time. "Wait! Why didn't you tell me you were injured?" He stopped on his tracks as he gently let her down near a tree, she was bleeding and he felt at fault by not noticing and giving her help.

"Don't blame yourself, I was hit by Longhorn a while ago, I just didn't want to let you know about this." She weakly said as she held her side. "I was long dead before you and father came." Obsidian looked away as he couldn't protect, he had broken Boggart Knight's wish.

"Obsidian come closer." She gently said as Obsidian agreed with her request, she put her hand over his and looked at him in. "I should have said this before but, I don't hate you." She declared.

"Far from it, I love you." Obsidian was left speechless at this declaration. "I just wasn't sure if I could even tell you about this, I didn't accept any proposals because I wished for you to always be by my side."

"Yet when I heard that you were going to leave the Laval Tribe to join the Gem-Knights I felt betrayed, I felt like you didn't feel the same way, I knew that there was no reason for you to think about how you felt for me, my own insecurities hurt me far more than the words that I said to you." She started to let her tears fall as she wanted him to know this.

"I'm sorry that I didn't take your feelings into account, princess." Obsidian simply sat at her side making sure that at the very least in her last moments she was with someone she held dearly. She then put her head on his shoulder, as she slowly closed her eyes, knowing that her time was coming closer.

After a few minutes the elder princess passed away, still having her head supported by the knight she loved. When Obsidian was about to get up, he noticed that his gem was glowing. Just then he felt like he was burning up, fire started to surround him, yet it didn't hurt him, when the fire finally disappeared he looked at his hands and his body, he had changed, he was no longer a normal Gem-Knight.

The will of the princess had let him turn into a new being that had the powers of the Gem-Knights and also the Laval, he could have become an X-Saber with this newfound power, to regain the might of the Gem-Knight mercenaries, but to honor the lady that loved him, he decided to abandon his past as an X-Saber, he would also leave his position as a Gem-Knight, as he now knew that holding to the past glory of his former tribe was not necessary, he would accept becoming a Laval and carry on their wish. He would help the Laval, not as Obsidian, but as Ignis.

"I have come to bring bad news!" A Gem-Knight from a different group had come to give a terrible message to the group that Lazuli was currently in. "Cannon has fallen in battle!" Crystal and Lazuli looked back at Blaster, who was in their group. "What? No... You can't tell me my brother has been defeated by the Steelswarm." He got closer to the Gem-Knight, to the point he aimed at him as he pushed him back. "Answer me! This has to be a fucking cruel joke right?!" He was not stable, hearing his brother die in battle was something that broke him in a matter of seconds.

"Blaster! Focus! Do you think that your brother would be proud of you acting like this?!" Crystal put himself between the other Gem-Knight and Blaster. "You've lost your brother, yet your life isn't over! Avenge your brother by defeating the ones who have slain him, the Steelswarms!"

Blaster paused a bit, holding back his tears behind his helmet. "... You're... right, I should push forwards now." He lowered both of his hands as he got back on top of a Coatl, right now he wanted nothing but to kill every single Steelswarm monster he could find. The air was tense as the amount of messengers that came were about bad news.

Just then they started to hear something coming from afar, as it got closer they noticed that it was a gigantic creature with tentacles, like a kraken of some sorts, Lazuli looked at where the sound came as did everyone else only to recognize that it was Emilia on top. "Is that... Emilia?"

But then another creature came, this time it had the same crimson red hair that Emilia had but also the clothes of a Gusto Tribe member, it went towards the creature as it attempted to stop its advance. "What is going on?" Lazuli was confused over the current situation.

"I don't know, but I have to send a messenger towards the groups up ahead where Emilia is heading, I don't think she's going to stop any time soon." In just a few seconds the situation had gone awry, Crystal had a Gusto warrior fly on top of their bird companion to send the message as it was the fastest way to do so.

"But whose group is up ahead?" Lazuli asked, Blaster came back just in time to hear what she asked. "Those teams would be Windaar's and Reeze's group, due to the fact that they have the highest mobility out of all groups they are ahead of others." Blaster had come back after noticing the giant creature, he was still pissed, but right now it seemed like there was a need to change plans, and so, he needed to listen to the orders of the leaders of his squadron.

"Right now we must continue with our task and hold off the Steelswarms, we must simply hope that they retreat and end up fine." Crystal knew that he had no way of helping them right now, he was not willing to save others just to leave his group to die, he knew that there was a bigger chance for them to survive than the others.

Though he prayed to the goddess that the Gusto and Issei were to come back safely, as he was unsure as to what would happen once the Gishki decided to attack the Great Marshlands again after the annihilation of the Gusto Tribe.

But even more rumbling had started, looking back they saw a giant Steelswarm creature, who they assumed was the general and possibly the leader. "That thing is the leader?" One Gishki soldier commented as he started to feel his hands trembling. Crystal quickly yelled out to make everyone snap out of it. "Everyone! Remember that our mission is not to battle it, but to make sure no other Steelswarm enemy gets past us!" This calmed everyone as they realized they were not supposed to fight it but instead let it do its thing while they focused on something else.

Emilia saw the creature approach her, it seemed like it wanted to fight her, the ground that was in front of her was completely destroyed the moment she passed over it, anyone who was caught ended up dead immediately.

Issei was starting to struggle, he knew that just a month of training wasn't enough to make him a very adept fighter, Yaldabaoth kept assuring him that he had talent for it, yet he lacked the knowledge and experience which held him back a lot, Issei knew that those weren't the only factors, his stamina was far from the best and he had very poor footwork.

Seeing the two titans that rose from nowhere reassured him that he was no match for them, if they were biblical creatures? Maybe, but that was it, he had nothing to match those two titans, he simply had to stay in the dirtied grounds covered in the blood of weak opponents. He didn't know how long he spent fighting, but it was starting to take a toll on him, this giant creature was going towards him and he stayed there looking at it, his thoughts were cut short as both a Gusto messenger and some sort of Gishki fighter came towards them, Windaar upon noticing them went towards both.

"I have come to notify that the giant creature is coming towards this way, you must fall back this instant chieftain." Windaar nodded in understanding and yelled at the others to retreat from this place, he then looked at the other person who arrived. "And who might you be? I've never seen you at the camp."

"Uhm... Shit, Musto you take care of this." Emilia in this form whispered to herself, or at least it seemed like that, the voice of a female then became that of a man. "Well, Windaar, it seems like I ended up in this situation." Windaar looked surprised at hearing Musto's voice from what looked like a woman, he then ignored that fact and said. "Well, I was not expecting you to end up doing a Gishki ritual, so are you here to join the front?" Inquired Windaar, though as surprised as he was, he found this situation a bit funny.

"Somewhat, I came here to tell you that the giant creature is Emilia, so I advise you or any other group to not attack it." Explained Musto. A hoard of Steelswarm monsters came out of nowhere, the troops were ready to counter this attack but Musto then raised his staff.

A huge typhoon appeared as it completely sucked every single one of the Steelswarms, it was then sent back towards the hole. "Since I'm already here, I might as well help all of you." They all proceeded to fall back and avoid getting in the way of Emilia.

The group ended up dividing itself as it would be faster to retreat this way, Issei and Winda ended up alone as each time every single soldier ended up getting divided more and more. Both of them then noticed a Steelswarm creature in front of them, they then pointed their weapons at the Steelswarm, but then they heard it pleading for its life. "I surrender! Please spare me! I don't wanna die here!" It pleaded with its life as they lowered their weapons, it was the first time they heard one of the Steelswarms ever plead for mercy.

They looked at each other and ended up deciding on letting it go as they felt some sort of pity. "Just get out of here and never come back." Issei sighed as this interaction had broken the tension in the air. The Steelswarm retreated while thanking them for sparing him.

Both finally got back to the camp. Issei sat down as he awaited for Windaar's next order. Various other groups also got to the camp as they also got the message, he saw Kamui and Reeze bickering as they finally entered the camp. The Vylons ended up notifying all groups to get back to the camp as Vylon Omega was about to shoot the beam. Yet they all argued about bringing Emilia back to their camp first, unfortunately, they could not find a way to get her to leave the battlefield.

"No! We must bring her back!" Yelled Avance in desperation, he didn't want to lose Emilia, he just refused to let Emilia die as collateral damage, they always stayed together, even during their childhood, so losing her right now would be too much for Avance to handle. "Then what do you think we should do to bring her back?" Laval the Greater asked, leaving Avance completely silent as he didn't know how to.

"There is no need to do that Avance." Hearing the voice of Emilia, Avance looked at the direction heard it from, he saw the Gishki that Musto and Emilia's soul inhabited. "Mother tried to use me for a ritual that went wrong and ended up dividing me from my soul." She explained.

"Right now I am sharing this body with Musto who was kind enough to use himself as a vessel." Avance looked at the Gishki, sighed and proceeded to grasp his hair as he was processing what she was saying. "There won't be any need to save my body, we'll just resurrect me when we have the chance."

Laval the Greater then looked around wondering if Judgement Lord had finally come back, but he didn't see him anywhere, he was starting to worry that something had happened to his lord. They then heard more footsteps and fire, when they looked towards the direction of the sound they found someone they had never seen before.

"Who are you traveler?" Windaar asked, Issei was getting a bit of deja vu but was also curious over this sudden development. "I am Ignis, but you may formerly have known me as Obsidian." He showed his gem that was still in his chest, the others looked in shock as they had seen so many of them transform into a different being.

"I remember that you went to aid my lord, why have you not come with him here?" Blaster asked as he noticed that there was no sign of Judgement Lord. "He has defeated a Steelswarm general that had attacked the territory of the Lavals, however, by doing so he sacrificed himself to let the others survive, unfortunately the eldest princess wasn't able to make it." He declared with a somber tone.

The Laval troops looked in horror and shock as they had lost so many of their best fighters, Cannon and Judgement Lord were now gone. Blaster punched one of the tables near him, breaking it in the process. "FUCK!" He screamed. Laval the Greater had to sit down at the news of the death of his lord and her daughter, the morale of the Lavals was right now at an all time low.

"Why do you look different though Obsidian?" Lazuli asked curious over the fact that he had changed drastically. "The princess left her will to me, I unfortunately will be leaving the Gem-Knights to support the Lavals." The Gem-Knights nodded in understanding, they wouldn't have any bad blood even if they returned to wage war at them.

They then heard as Vylon Omega had finished charging, they saw as a giant ray of light went towards where Emilia's body and the Steelswarm leader were fighting, the laser completely missed Emilia by a miracle and hit the Steelswarm directly, it slowly slumped down as it touched the hole that was on his stomach.

The troops cheered as they had finally finished off all of the Steelswarms, some more than others based on the current morale of the tribe. Some of them even hugged those nearby, even if they were from different tribes, even if they used to be enemies a month ago, they didn't care, they were allies right now and they had grown to see each other a lot.

Issei looked at his notification that mentioned the completion of the quest.

Quest #2

Insect Eradication

Condition: Defeat the Steelswarm Generals during this assault

Failure: Any of the tribes are eradicated or you fail to defeat the Steelswarm Generals during this assault

Completed!

Rewards: Skill (Phoenix Wing), Skill (Raging Storm)

Skills

(Weapon Appraisal): Allows User to differentiate grades of weaponry and gain other information. No Cooldown.

(Phoenix Wing): Creates a flame in the form of a Phoenix that deals Fire and Wind damage during your next attack. 30 Seconds Cooldown.

(Raging Storm): Creates an area attack that deals Fire and Wind damage to all enemies, blocks all projectile attacks, lasts 10 seconds. 5 Minutes Cooldown

After reading it, he wondered why it was a phoenix specifically, unlike Raging Storm which had connections to what the Gusto's specialties, there was no relation of a phoenix to it, but he ended up thinking it was just something that the system decided to give him, maybe not everything had a meaning behind it.

But then another quest appeared immediately after.

Quest #3

Corrupted Ally

Condition: Defeat the Vylons during this assault

Failure: Any of the tribes are eradicated or you fail to defeat the Vylons during this assault

What? He looked around to see the Vylons start to jitter around, then one of the Vylons lunged itself towards another, everyone else backed away as another Vylon started to turn darker, many of them ended up fighting between each other.

The rest of them were confused over the whole debacle until they saw some of them starting to combine with each other. Vylon Omega didn't seem affected by this weird development as it tried to attack this newly formed Vylon only to be defeated easily.

Other Vylons that didn't look affected came to fight it, as they did they all fended it off while the tribes ran away from the camp, this situation was getting worse by the minute as more Vylons then attacked those who were fleeing, what had happened to their ally?

Somewhere else, far away from where everything was happening a group was currently trying to find out what was happening. They all quickly went from side to side as they got their weapons ready. One of them then said. "Everyone, the Vylons have been infected by the Steelswarm!"

"Kaus, what's the current situation with the Vylons that haven't been affected yet?" One of them asked the named Kaus. "Vylon Omega has been destroyed, only Alpha, Delta, Epsilon and Sigma are still active, the other ones have either been infected or destroyed by this new threat."

"The infected Vylons have merged together into a cluster, we have decided to call it Disigma from now on. I will use the last few remaining Vylons to send the information of this new threat to the tribes!" Kaus was scratching his head over this problem, but a big knight came into view, getting the attention of everyone. "Pleiades! We have terrible news!" Kaus went towards Pleiades, but before he could continue Pleiades said. "I hear about the situation, everyone, I suggest we go immediately towards the planet to help the tribes."

"But we won't be able to make it in time!" Another person said. "I know, but it is not to help them with the current situation." This caught the attention of each member.

"We Contellars are a group that fight Steelswarm, which contain a terrible pandemic that feeds on negative emotions, the infection of Vylon which were meant to clean up after the war makes this disease spread easily, we are going there to make sure this terrible disease doesn't spread too much." Pleiades said, each member understood what their purpose was, they hadn't gotten to that phase of the plan yet as it has been many years since the plan was put into action. ·if we make it in time, the infection should have infected the tribes yet.

"Everyone, we must not waste any more second, we must depart as soon as possible." As he finished talking everyone present saluted and went to prepare themselves when they finally made it to the planet. Pleiades was standing there. "I just hope we are not too late before the disease spreads to the dead bodies."

(A/N)

Fun fact, these over 11k words don't exist in the Duel Terminal, the war is literally 20 words saying they all defeated the Steelswarm, the many transformations do happen but it is not said how or when so I basically made my deductions, thankfully all of them say who turns into what with who, the problem is actually how do I give the spotlight most of them, transformations won't really be having much screen time, this is due to how the story goes... And what's coming next as well.

Issei still seems to take a more Secondary Character, which in a way is logical given the story's role, in a way this is mostly due to the fact that, there is so much going on where Issei can't do anything, he has almost no combat experience he just has to rely on his skills and traits, he'll have his time to shine, but not always, this is how war goes, there isn't a main character in them, just a couple of notable figures.

I can see myself messing up next chapter, unlike this one, the next chapter has only 1 opponent, that being Vylon Disigma, yet I need to make sure the battle is long enough but at the same time not too long to take the whole chapter, maybe like a 4-5k should be enough, but there really isn't much content I can take from it. After this the story starts to get really dark, but I suppose there is a break in the middle.

Obsidian's and Lakeside Lady's relationship, does not actually exist, yet it is somewhat hinted that they at least knew each other, my take is something that is pretty bittersweet and I had to add, I don't think you simply "fuse" with someone else because you're good friends or anything like that, I'd say it's more of a strong bond, be it between warriors, circumstances or love.

As you can see, there are going to be soundtracks that aren't specifically implemented through the Writer's System, they are mostly there, optional for people to listen to while reading, they still don't have relevance to the story nor do they have anything to do with what is happening, it's just a compliment.

Now references. Not many but Phoenix Wing is actually Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, Nepthys is one of my favorite cards, and the way it works is similar to Diluc's Dawn, which is something I kinda added last second, this skill will have importance for later alongside other skills and traits.

Poem Frozen Flames is a very odd reference to Lobotomy Corporation, it has the interaction between The Firebird and The Snow Queen as they are polar opposites when it comes to E.G.O descriptions as well as the interaction between The Firebird's E.G.O suit and Snow Queen's Containment. But it can also be treated as its own thing tbh, there really isn't much to connect them, it instead has a much more original origin.

Raging Storm, more Library of Ruina, what can I say, I went towards a certain character with the same name and thought, "This would be funny", as you can see Issei has quite a bit centered around Fire and Wind attacks, this doesn't mean he'll solely focus on them.

Something I need to mention, light spear, elemental attacks like fireball and such won't be added as skills, they are pretty much minor attacks that are available at any point of the battle with no real cooldown aside from how long you can continue fighting. The skills are big attacks or really specific abilities that you use during or outside battle. Like Reasoning is a healing skill that is incredibly powerful if it works, hence why it has such a big cooldown, Phoenix Wing and Raging Storm have a much lower cooldown because you usually use them during battle but still need time to recharge, I don't understand why some combat skills have like a shit ton of cooldown in some fics.

New Archetypes that appear here are simply the Laval and Constellars.

Scrapped stuff from last chapter, honestly, there actually isn't much, Ariel was actually going to die in the last chapter, making the conflict between Gishki and Gusto much more tense, but I realized that it was a bit unnecessary to kill a character that could serve a purpose later. Additionally, I then tried to change it to show that she was gravely injured, but went against it as I needed her to be much more important in the story.

And that is actually everything that I can think of right now. I'll see y'all in the next update