Tales of Xalthia

by xXGhostStalker

*DISCLAIMER: This holds no relation to Tales of VS. This is an original story* A mysterious lineage. An unimaginative power. Oblivious to Tsuki Himura, he defends his kingdom from evil and learns of a sinister plot. Forced to seek help, he travels the globe for much needed allies. Join him as he learns more about the world and about himself as something awakens inside him

22. Birth and Betrayal -1st Revision-

Tales of Xalthia

Chapter 21: Birth and Betrayal

The kingdom of Eresseas was under seige. Instead of an annual festival that everyone looked forward to and made extensive efforts to make happen, what was given to them was a surprise attack by several squads of knights all bearing the crest of Honegroth and all acted under the orders of none other than King Caius. Panic and terror erupted in the streets and spread like wildfire as people attempted to flee from the conflict and seek sheltar. The knights of Eresseas and the local mercenaries put their lives on the line to make sure as many people get out of the conflict zone as possible while minimizing as many casualties as they can. Coordinated attacks took place within the Business and Recreational Districts in an attempt to divide the defensive efforts.

Numerous buildings were set on fire as thick, black smoke billowed up into the night sky. No one knows how such a force was able to get so far in-land without being detected. According to Basilwell reports, they saw no fluctuations of foreign traffic nor have they seen anything out of the ordinary. Not only that but the Honegroth soldiers fought with unnaturally high resilience. The knights and mercenaries were having some degree of difficulty fighting them off. Something was strengthing them which gave me heightened battle capabilities. Being split up as they were, the Royal Eight had immediately taken action in the districts that they were still in. Thanks to the warnings that Ramza and Reia had put out, there were some that were prepared for an outcome like this but it was only natural to expect their warning hadn't gotten to everyone yet.

The central plaza had essentially been cleared out with citizens and all that remained were those that were engaging the enemy. Lynette and the others stood their ground, fighting off against several waves of solders before Delvin decided to step into the fight. Even with their combined efforts, Delvin somehow had the upperhand in their fight. Not only was he unnaturally powerful but he was also utilizing the power of Arcanum, the same type of power that Caius was using. Arcanum gave Delvin more than enough of a power boost to be able to fight on equal ground against Lynette, Ruko, Ramza and Reia. Not only did he seemingly have the upperhand in their fight, but he showed no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Most of the attacks that they threw at him barely touched him while the rest either missed or he ended up breaking through them with his own abilities. Besides Caius, they've never seen someone fight like the way he does. No matter what they did, their efforts were coming up short. Meanwhile, chaos continued to erupt all around them and it appeared to be becoming a one-sided battle. They were starting to see Eresseas forces being pushed back and being overwhelmed. Even some of the veteran, high ranking mercenaries that were around were starting to have difficulty keeping up with the enemy. It was an attack that put the one at Basilwell to shame.

Lynette had casted one of her light-based spells at Delvin who retaliated by swinging his scythe in a horizontal direction as the blade portion glowed violet. He released a crescent-shaped blast of energy at the attack that Lynette sent out, slicing through it like butter and impacting into the ground inches away from her feet which knocked her back off her feet. Delvin rushed at her, giving her no time to recover and prepared to make a swing at her. An incantation circle formed behind Reia as her eyes glowed brightly. Moments later, several swords of light shot out from the incantation circle and were aimed at Delvin. He was easily able to deflect the swords of light with his scythe and dodging the rest as he closed in on Lynette. Once he was close enough, he made a diagonal swing at her in which Ruko stepped between them just in time as he blocked the blade portion of his scythe with his gauntlets.

Ruko then swung his arm to the side to attempt to break his stance and stagger him and tried to swing his leg around in a sweeping motion to try and knock him off his feet. Delvin dodged by backflipping. Once he was back on his feet, he struck the blade portion of his scythe into the ground and swung it in a vertical direction, the blade slicing the ground the ground as violet energy trailed behind it. As the blade came out of the ground, he released a ground-based attack at Ruko, unleashing a wave of energy at him. Ruko brought his arms together with the gauntlets facing outwards as he attempted to block the attack only to have explode on impact which knocked him back towards Lynette but managed to stay on his feet while holding his defensive stance.

Meanwhile, Ramza came in from the side to try to catch him off-guard. He rushed towards him as a blue aura emitted from him and managed to slam his shoulder against Delvin in which he followed up with a quick swing of his sword. Delvin attempted to block the attack but when his sword came into contact, a blast of energy shot out in the face of a lion which knocked Delvin back towards the side. Ramza took the chance to launch another attack while he was knocked back. He brought his sword up close to his face and ran his hand across it as ancient writing formed along the blade. He then brought the sword down to his side with the blade pointing behind him, grabbing onto the hilt with two hands and then swinging with force, releasing a dense blast of energy at Delvin. As he recovered from the attack, all Delvin could do was watch as the attack made a direct hit on him which caused a minor explosion on impact.

By this point in time, it's been almost an hour since the attack first started. It was rough at first but the Eresseas knights and mercenaries were slowly starting to make their push back against the enemy. They've already suffered some heavy losses in such a short time. Lynette and the others were starting to become exhausted from their fight with Delvin. Once the smoke disappeared from Ramza's attack, Delvin was seen down on one knee, bleeding with some of his armor destroyed.

Ramza soon pointed his sword at Delvin "You can't win, Delvin! Look around you! It doesn't matter how powered up your troops are, you're outnumbered! I don't know how you managed to get Honegroth soldiers here but your numbers are limited!" he shouted. The troops he had brought with him were certainly powerful but they were far outnumbered with the knghts and mercenaries acting in unison.

Delvin had his head down as he chuckled a bit. "I admit, the amount of resistance was far more than what I had expected..." he said. He then stood up and used his free hand to brush his shoulders off. He still had plenty of fight left in him. "Which is why, we have this" he said. His free hand started to become enveloped in a dark, violet aura before shooting it off towards the spherical crystal that sat on top of one of the floats.

The spherical crystal started to glow with a bright, violet light. It appeared that the crystal itself was charging up its power for something as it started to audibly pulsate.

Ruko looked up towards the crystal and didn't like where things were going. "That doesn't look good..." he said.

Reia did an appraisal on the crystal and saw another strange type of magic welling up at a fast pace. She didn't know what it was charging up for but what she did know was that it needed to be stopped. "Ramza, quick! Destroy that crystal!" she shouted. He was the closest person to the crystal. She could attempt to launch a spell at it but didn't know if she could get the spell off in time.

Ramza looked back at Reia and nodded. He was in full agreement at her quick assessment. "I'm on it!" he said. He then charged towards the float, holding his sword over his shoulder and prepared for a downwards slash.

Delvin had a sinister look on his face with an equally sinister chuckle. "I'm afraid I can't allow that" he said. Suddenly, he was enveloped in darkness and disappeared from sight. Before Ramza could get close to the float that had the crystal on it, he appeared in front of him and swung his scythe at him.

Ramza didn't expect for him to suddenly appear in front of him. He had no choice but to block the attack with his sword but the clash ended up knocking him back and stopping him in his tracks.

Reia didn't know what she had just seen. It looked like Delvin had some form of teleportation but it looked different. "What was that movement? It looked like teleporation but..." she said.

Lynette recognized what he just did. While it was a little different, it had similarities with how Caius was able to make his escape from Briswater and Basilwell. "We've seen this before. Caius had a similar ability too" she said.

Ramza wasted no time thinking. He held his sword up and started to charge up for another attack. "If I can't slice it in half, I'll just obliterate it!" he shouted.

Delvin chuckled a bit more, opening his arms up as if he was welcoming him in to try. "Go ahead, let's see you try then" he said.

Ramza held his sword up close to his face with the blade pointing out towards Delvin and the crystal that was behind him. He charged up the Mana within the blade of his sword and prepared to fire off a blast of energy at Delvin and the crystal. However, just as he did that, the crystal shot out a thin blast of violet light high up into the sky. Once the blast hit a certain altitude, the blast then started to expand out. Moments later, a massive dome-shaped barrier covered the entirety of Eresseas and its surrounding area. The air within the dome suddenly felt a lot more heavy as there was a dramatic shift in Aer. The Mana that Ramza was charging up within his blade was suddenly canceled out.

Ramza didn't understand what just happened. "What the helll?" he asked. He tried to harness his Mana but something appeared to be blocking it. He even tried to use Physical Artes but those were also blocked. "What is this!?" he asked once more.

Lynette felt the dramatic shift in Aer which had a direct effect on her as she suddenly felt her strength sapped out of her completely. "H-huh? What is going on...?" she asked. She tried to use her spells but nothing was coming out. She couldn't feel a connection with her own Mana. "M-my Mana! I can't cast any spells!" she shouted. She didn't have the strength to stand up. She felt liie how she does when using up all ofher Mana. She tried consuming an Orange Gel but that had absolutely no effect.

Reia also felt the immediate effects that Lynette was feeling although she was able to keep her bearings. She attempted doing an appraisal but it didn't work. Throughout her years of being a master when it comes to the Magical Artes, she was able to figure out what was happening right away although she couldn't believe it. "It can't be. Is this an Anti-Arte Field!?" she asked.

Ruko looked over at Reia, tilting his head. "Anti-Arte Field? What the hell is that?" he asked.

Reia shook her head. She didn't want to believe it but there was no denying what she was seeing. It was the only explanation for why they were suddenly no longer able to do either Physical or Magical Artes. "One of the meny lost Arte techniques. According to ancient texts, it was a technique that sealed all forms of Artes within a given area. It was believed to have been lost over 200 years ago!" she said.

Delvin let out a sinister laugh as Reia quickly connected the dots. "I'm impressed that you were able to figure it out so quickly. Yes, it is an Anti-Arte Field although you'll find this particular field much different than what history books have to say" he said. Delvin then held his scythe up as the blade started to glow once more. Moments later, he swung it down, releasing a crescent-shaped blast at Ramza.

Ramza was caught off-guard by his sudden attack and blocked the attack which exploded on impact, knocking him back towards the others. He didn't understand what was happening. He was still able to utilize Artes while being within this supposed Anti-Arte Field. "If this thing is suppose to block all forms of Artes, then why is he still able to use it?" he asked. He then took note of the area around them. It wasn't just him that was able to use Artes still. The soldiers that were with him were also still able to use Artes while the knights of Eresseas and mercenaries were unable to. This caused mass confusion among the fighting force that the enemy took advantage of and made a concentrated effort to push back even more. Not being able to use any form of Artes have placed them at a serious disadvantage.

Delvin approached them with a casual pace as he watched everyone around him struggle in vain. "With Arcanum, we were able to take the old studies of Anti-Arte Fields and redevelop them. Now we're able to block the Artes of all those we specifically target within the field while we remain unaffected" he said. He then held his scythe out towards Ramza and the others. "With this field active, I'm afraid you have no hope in winning" he said.

Ramza stood up and assumed an offensive stance with his sword. "We'll see about that. Artes don't make a warrior, you know" he said. While he's never had to fight without Artes before, he was confident in his own skills with the sword.

Ruko walked up beside Ramza and prepared himself to join in on the fight. "We don't need Artes to fight the likes of you!" he said. He then glanced back at Reia and Lynette. With having the Magical Artes essentially sealed, they were unable to fight or defend themselves so it was up to them to protect them. "Reia, Lyn. You two behind us" he said.

Reia hated the fact that she was unable to provide aid, let alone be able to fend for herself. She had no other choice. "Don't you worry about us. I've been in my fair share of sticky situations before" she said.

Lynette felt completely helpless. All of her skills and growth up until now was practically taken away from her. They were in a situation where things were looking very grim. "Tsuki...where are you...?" she asked.

Ramza and Ruko engaged with Delvin once more, this time without having any Artes to bolster their offensive and defensive capabilities. Meanwhile, the scene shifts over towards the orphanage a few minutes before the Anti-Arte Field covered Eresseas where Tsuki and the others were at. With the fighting going on in full swing all throughout the city, they were lucky that the conflict hasn't reached them yet. The citizens worked together to calmly evacuate out through a service entrance that led out of the city with the help of Tsuki and Georg directing them. Cheria was doing her best to keep the residents in the orphange as calm as possible as they made their evacuation while Nagi was helping to coordinate their efforts. Allie volunteered to play the role of lookout as she continuously scanned the area. It was only a matter of time before the fighting made its way over to them.

The surrounding community was fairly small and most of the people that lived there were in the nearby districts when the fight started. Thanks to the small number of people, the evacuation efforts were going pretty smoothly. In cases of emergencies like this, there were places outside of Eresseas that are used for sheltar in the event of an evacuation.

Tsuki stood off to the side near the service entrance they were using as Georg guided people through it. He heard numerous explosions rumbling in the distance. "It seems that things are starting to intensify. What the hell is going on?" he asked.

Cheria ran up to Tsuki, slightly short of breath. "The orphanage and the surrounding area have been cleared out!" she said.

Tsuki looked at her and nodded. "Excellent. We'll secure the evacuation route and then we'll-" he said.

Suddenly, Allie went into full alert mode as she materialized an energized form of the Caliburn in her hands. "Master! Enemies inbound!" she shouted.

Tsuki looked in the direction where Allie was. She was in charge of handling lookout from the rear and saw several people dressed in armor approach her. Tsuki drew his sword and looked at Cheria. It wasn't safe for her here. "Cheria, you-" he said.

Cheria shook her head and took the bow off her back and removing an arrow from the quiver. The bow and set of arrows that she had on her wasn't her normal set of weapons. They were more so used for practice but combined with her own abilities that she's picked up, they were more than enough to defend herself with. "No, I'll stay and fight. I've been training too, you know. Besides, I'm worried about everyone else" she said. This as her first time in actual combat but she's been put through some intense training so she was pretty adjusted to it.

Tsuki attempted to argue with her about her decision but he noticed that Allie had already engaged with the enemy soldiers. "Alright then. Hang back and provide support" he said. He then looked back at Georg for a moment. "We'll hold the line here. Get these people moving!" he said.

Georg looked at Tsuki and nodded. "You got it. I'll let you know when we're done over here! Be careful, you two" he said. He then looked over at Nagi. "Mind helping me out a little bit longer?" he asked.

Nagi looked at Georg and nodded. She knew that she wasn't able to help them out. She still hasn't fully mastered her own abilities yet. Not to mention the fact that she didn't have a weapon to channel her magic through. "Of course!" she said.

Tsuki soon rushed over to Allie and, with the support of Cheria and her skills with a bow, they were able to fend of the soldiers that approached them. However, the soldiers didn't go down easily. They showed incredible strength and resilience as they were able to fight toe-to-toe with Tsuki and Allie with relative ease. Their strength and resilience reminded Tsuki of the strange entities that he's encountered before. The only difference was that he was fighting against other humans this time. They weren't nearly on the same level as Caius but they put up a decent fight. Eventually, the fighting settled down.

Tsuki walked up to one of the bodies and examined it closely. He was an ordinary soldier but displayed incredible power. "It's just like with Caius. These guys were able to take quite a few hits" he said. He then glanced over at Allie. "What do you think, Allie?" he asked. If anyone could tell him, it would be her.

Allie nodded. "The power that they wield have a striking resemblance to what Caius displayed. It's on a lower level but still quite powerful" she said. She didn't know why but the power felt very familiar to her. She wasn't sure why but she started to have a few fuzzy flashbacks through her mind. The flashbacks weren't clear enough for her to remember properly, however. What they did though was give her a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Master, Allie advises that we should-" she said.

Suddenly, they saw a blast of violet light shoot up into the sky that came from the direction of the central plaza. Moments later, they saw the Anti-Arte Field dome envelop Eresseas completely. Cheria didn't feel much of a change at first but she did pick up on the fact that something has definitely changed. Meanwhile, both Tsuki and Allie felt the effects of the Anti-Arte Field directly. Tsuki felt a portion of his strength get sapped away.

Tsuki didn't know what was happening. He felt a sudden headache hit him that made him almost drop down to one knee. "Ugh...w-what is this...?" he asked.

Compared to Tsuki, Allie was severely affected by the Anti-Arte Field. The manifested sword in her hand suddenly disappearedin a bust of light as her feet became unstable, making her stagger back. She could see her vision start to become blurry as she could feel her consciousness suddenly slip from her. "M-Master...!" she said.

Tsuki saw that Allie wasn't looking too well. "Allie!" he shouted. He rushed over to her and caught her as she started to fall back. He noticed that her physical body was starting to fade away. "What's wrong with you?" he asked.

Allie looked up at Tsuki, fighting to stay conscious as she reached up her arm up. "Master...something's happened to the surrounding Aer. My Mana...has been completely sealed off" she said.

Tsuki grabbed onto her hand as he saw her start to lose consciousness. "What do you mean, sealed?" he asked.

Allie shook her head slowly. "Danger...Master...you must run...!" she said. She soon lost consciousness as her body disappeared in a burst of light and retreated back into the Caliburn.

Tsuki could feel his connection with Allie grow weak. It was as if something interfered with their connection and blocked access. "Allie!" he shouted as she vanished. As expected, she did not respond to him.

Cheria soon noticed a single enemy soldier appear and rushed towards him. "Tsuki, look out!" she shouted.

Tsuki noticed the soldier approaching him and attempted to use one of his Physical Artes. Unfortunately, nothing happened. "Huh? What's going on?" he asked. He attempted to use other Physical Artes but nothing was coming out. "I can't use my Artes!" he shouted. He noticed that the soldier had quickly closed the gap and swung at him, shouting. Tsuki dodged the attack and swung his in a horizontal, slashing the soldier across the chest with a deep, fatal injury. The solder fell forward, dead before he hit the ground.

Cheria ran up to him with a concerned look on her face. "Are you okay!?" she asked.

Tsuki didn't know how to answer her question. "Something's wrong. I can't use any of my Artes. Not even basic ones like First Aid" he said.

Cheria tilted her head and attempted to do the same. Much like with Tsuki, she was unable to use any of her Artes. In fact, the magic that she uses to infuse her arrows with was also unavailable to her. "Neither can I! What's going on!?" she asked.

Tsuki shook his head and looked towards the direction of the central plaza. "I'm not sure but I have a gut feeling that this strange dome has something to do with it. We need to get back and investigate what's going on at the central plaza" he said.

Georg soon approached them from behind. "If you're going back, leave this area to me" he said.

Cheria looked back at Georg who volunteered to stay behind. "But Georg, without your Artes...!" she said.

Georg shook his head, holding his hand up as if to stop her. "Have you forgotten who I am? I didn't get this far in life solely based off Artes, you know. Not only that, someone needs to make sure that everyone here is evacuated safely. Besides, you're in danger out here, Your Highness. You need to retreat back to the safety of the castle" he said. He knew that she can't expose herself to danger like this. Their top priority alongside with the evacuation efforts was to get her back to the castle.

Tsuki was in agreement as he nodded. With having their Artes apparently blocked, they were put at a serious disadvantage. "I'm counting on you, Georg. Don't go and get yourself killed out here, got it?" he said.

Nagi soon walked up past Georg and approached Tsuki. She was feeling weak herself with not being able to feel her own magic. "I'm coming with you. I don't want to be separated from you like last time again" she said.

Tsuki looked at Nagi and could see that she was serious but also afraid. Deep down, he wanted her to go with Georg but she had that look in her eye that she would follow him even if he said no. "Alright. Just stay between me and Cheria" he said. He then turned and faced in the direction of the central plaza. "Let's get a move on!" he said.

With that, the three of them ran off into the streets and ran as fast as they could to the central plaza, fighting off enemy soldiers as they appeared. As they made their way through the streets, they saw people running away in full-blown panic. Buildings were burning as smoke filled the air. The closer they got to the central plaza and the surrounding districts, the worse things seemed to get. Wanting to avoid any major fighting as much as possible, they used shortcuts and back alleys to work their way through the districts. With Nagi unable to fight and Cheria not exactly having the right set of tools fit for fighting, most of it fell on him which made things difficult. He hadn't realized just how dependent he was on Artes until this moment.

Eventually, after taking numerous shortcuts and avoiding the more intense fighting, they made it back to the central plaza. They saw that the knights of Eresseas and mercenaries were having great difficulties as they were being pushed back by the enemy. The central plaza, in particular, was in complete, total chaos. The morale of the knights and mercenaries was starting to run low but they still remained to fight for their lives. As Tsuki looked around the area, his eyes soon locked onto Lynette and the others. He saw that Ramza and Ruko were struggling to fight against Delvin who had them on the backfoot. They were doing the best they could to fend off Delvin while protecting Reia and Lynette who were unable to fight due to having their Magical Artes most likely blocked as well. Not wanting to waste any time, they rushed over to their side to offer aid.

Ramza had clashed with Delvin while Ruko came in from the side. Delvin swung his scythe to the side, breaking their clash and knocking Ramza back a few feet and countered Ruko by blocking his attack and then swinging his axe upwards, sending out a blast of energy which blew him back off his feet. By this point, both Ruko and Ramza were starting to feel exhausted. They weren't sure how much longer they could keep fighting.

Ramza was down on knee with his sword down at his side against the ground. He was bleeding quite a bit from his forehead and right arm with part of his armor destroyed. He was also slightly short of breath too as he felt his own muscles start to become heavy. "Damn it all. Even after all this, he still isn't letting up...!" he said.

Ruko struggled to get back up to his feet. He was also pretty badly injured himself, bleeding from his forehead, left arm and right leg. He was taking quite a beating compared to Ramza due to him having a bit more of a hard time evading Delvin's attacks. "His strength is unreal. If he's this strong, I don't even want to imagine how strong Caius is" he said.

Delvin laughed a bit as he looked back and forth at the two of them. He was actually enjoying this more than he thought he would. "I must say, to be able to last this long even after having your Artes sealed away is quite impressive. How's about this? Why don't you two come and fight for us? We could use fighters like yourselves. I will even put in a good word to His Majesty for you! What do you say?" he asked.

Ramza scoffed at his request, shaking his head. "Sorry pal, but my life belongs to that of a mercenary. Not to become someone's underling" he said.

Ruko was of a similar mind. He almost found offense to his request. "You must be out of your mind if you think we would ever join you!" he shouted.

Delvin shrugged his shoulders a bit with a heavy sigh."Oh well, can't blame a guy for trying. Don't say I didn't give you a chance to escape" he said.

Moments later, Tsuki appeared on the scene as he ran up to Lynette and the others. "Guys! You okay!?" he shouted.

Lynette looked over at Tsuki and felt relieved to see him. She wasn't worried about him while he was separated from everyone else but having him here was something that could ease her mind, seeing as how Ramza and Ruko were taking a heavy beating. "Tsuki! You're here!"' she said.

Ramza looked back at Tsuki as he ran up to them. "Decided to finally show up, huh? Did you get lost or something?" he asked.

Cheria walked up beside Lynette and Reia, stepping in front of them to act as a shield as she held her bow and arrow at the ready. "Sorry. We had our own set of difficulties getting here" she said.

Delvin looked over towards Tsuki as he, Cheria and Nagi regrouped with the others. A sinister grin soon formed on his face as his gaze locked onto Cheria. "Well, if it isn't Princess Cheria. It's an honor to meet you" he said, bowing to her.

Cheria scoffed at him, giving him a displeasing glare. "The pleasure's not mine. Your kind aren't welcome here" she said.

Delvin let out another laugh as he slapped his side with his free hand. "What a feisty little girl you are! I do so love people like you..." he said. He then glanced over at Tsuki and gave him the death glare. Moments later, he disappeared in a burst of dark energy and reappeared behind Tsuki, holding his scythe back and readied himself to swing it. "It's a delight to break feisty spirits!" he shouted.

Once again, his sudden teleportation-like technique caught them all by surprise. Cheria couldn't react in time to interrupt Delvin. "Tsuki, behind you!" she shouted.

Delvin swung his scythe at Tsuki at an angle that would very easily decapitate him. Unfortunately for him, however, he didn't expect Tsuki to suddenly power up. Despite being under the effects of the Anti-Arte Field, he suddenly felt a familiar surge of power as he started to emit a red aura. Moments later, Tsuki reached out and grabbed onto the blade of the scyhte and held onto it with a tight grip. Obviously, this caused his hand to get sliced up and bleed but he didn't flinch at all.

Delvin was caught by surprise as he didn't know him to be able to not only stop his attack at such a close range but to still use Artes. "What!? How!?" he asked.

Tsuki soon turned his head and looked at Delvin. His azure blue eyes had turned to blood red to match the color of the aura he was emitting. "Is that the best you got?" he said in a strange vocal tone. It was almost as if two voices were speaking at the same time. One was Tsuki's and the other was someone else's who had a deeper vocal tone.

Tsuki then released the scythe and spun around, swinging his sword in the process. He managed to slash him across his chest slightly before Delvin was able to dodge by teleporting back to where he was initially. He held his hand up to his chest and groaned from pain as he bled from his injury.

Delvin looked at Tsuki with a pained expression on his face. He had heard about the fight between him and Caius but the power he was dispalying now didn't match up to the power he used against Caius. It felt a lot weaker in comparison but it was enough to break through the effects of the Anti-Arte Field. "So, it seems our intel was spot-on. You are definitely a subject which could prove to become a major thorn in our side" he said.

Almost as fast as it came, the power surge within Tsuki faded away as his eyes turned back to normal as he could feel its effects being suppressed once again. He felt more drained than he did before for some reason. He remembered what he was told in his dream by the strange spirit called Cliff Steele. He wanted to try and tap into this "ancient power" that he referred to but it seems that he had failed and only managed to pull out a fraction of it. The suppressing effects of the Anti-Arte Field also played a big part in it as well so it wasn't just him that was the problem.

Delvin noticed that the power surge he had vanished just as fast as it came. "It would seem that you don't quite have that power of yours figured out. No matter. You will all die here. As for Her Highness, Caius has a special treat waiting for you" he said.

Cheria shook her head and pulled the string of her bow back as she readied to release an arrow at him. "Well, you can tell him that he can treat himself to whatever he has" she said. She then released the arrow at Delvin.

Delvin chuckled a bit and used his scythe to block the arrow. "Don't be shy now. His Majesty won't bite. Much" he said.

Tsuki, Ramza and Ruko stepped between her and Delvin and readied their weapons for another attack. As they did so, Tsuki's glare towards him turned deathly cold. "You'll have to get through us first" he said.

They soon started another around of fighting Delvin, only this time, with the added help of Tsuki and Cheria. As they fought, the fighting around the city continued to intensify. Eresseas knights were being mowed down and pushed back and some of the mercenaries ended up either fleeing or surrendering their weapons because of how one-sided the battle was becoming. The members of the Royal Eight were doing their best to handle the situation and making sure people reach safety but they were starting to struggle as too much was happening all at once.

The scene shifts over to the main entrance to Eresseas where Lydia was with her squad of archers. Even without the use of Artes, they were still a deadly force to be reckoned with because they were also trained in close-range combat as well. Thanks to her efforts, the area around the main entrance started to settle down as bodies were strewn throughout the streets. Nearby buildings were destroyed from the fighting or from extensive fire damage as the city's inferno continue to blaze strong. With the area seemingly clear of enemies, the archer squad formed up in front of Lydia.

Lydia looked at her squad. Her squad of archers consisted of about 10 in total and each of them were considered masters in their own right. "Excellent work, everyone. The fighting still rages on, however, so I want you all to spread out and provide aid in any way you can. You can rejoin the fight or aid in the evacuations. It's your choice" she said.

One of the male archers saluted Lydia before speaking. "What about you?" he asked.

Lydia shook her head a bit. "I'll stick around here for a bit longer so I can make sure that there are no more enemies hiding" she said.

A young female archer was the next person to speak up. "By yourself? In that case, I'll stay with you" she said.

Lydia looked at the young female archer and shook her head with a smile. "I appreciate it but your aid is required elsewhere. Don't you worry about a thing, I'll be fine" she said. She then looked at each member of her squad, giving them all a nod and making sure that they understood their orders. "We're all going to get through this alive. You understand that? Do what you have to do but think twice if it puts yourselves in danger" she said.

Every member of the squad stood at attention, giving her a salute with a simultaneous shout. "Yes ma'am!" they shouted in unison.

The squad of archers then turned around and headed into the deeper parts of the city. Some split up from the group on their own while some stuck together in small groups. Once they were gone, Lydia proceeded to inspect the surrounding area. Due to all of the rubble and debris, it was pretty easy to conceal oneself. However, after a thorough inspection, she couldn't find anyone nor could she sense anyone's presence. She spent the next few minutes looking around and didn't find anyone hiding.

Lydia soon nodded to herself. "Alright, the area seems to be clear. I better move on to-" he said.

Suddenly, a male's voice shouted out to her. Hey, Lydia!" the voice shouted.

Lydia immediately recognized the voice and so she turned around and saw Mike and Stahler come running up to her from the entrance. "There you guys are! You're late, where the hell have you been!?" she shouted. The last time she saw them was when they parted ways back earlier in the day when they were given orders to investigate the dead bodies of knights.

Mike ran up to her, slightly short of breath. "I apologize our lateness. We were investigating the area around where those bodies were found and it took longer than expected. We heard explosions and saw the smoke clouds coming from this direction so we hurried back as fast as we could" he said.

Stahler took a moment to compose himself, taking in a deep breath. "What's the situation here?" he asked.

Lydia felt a sense of relief now that Mike and Stahler were back. With the Royal Eight all assembled and taking charge of things, there was a chance that things could turn around for them. "We're not sure yet. Right as the festival started, fighting suddenly broke out in the central plaza which spawned simultaneous attacks in the Business and Recreational Districts. Not only that but something appears to be blocking all forms of Artes, both Physical and Magical. Suffice to say, we're having great difficulty fighting back against the enemy who appeared to be buffed up by something" she said. Seeing as how this was the first time she's came across someone under the effects of Arcanum, she didn't know what to expect. She didn't even know what Arcanum since Tsuki never made a mention of it to anyone except the king and queen during his initial debrief.

Stahler nodded to himself, folding his arms in front of him. "What about positions? Where's everyone at right now?" he asked.

Lydia folded her arms in front of her as she had to think for a moment. She wasn't sure where everyone was since she hasn't seen them but if they're still where they've been sent out to, then they should still be there. "I can't be too sure but if they haven't moved from their spots, Phi and Aya should still be in the Recreational District while Zero and Jula should be in the Business District. As for Tsuki, I'm not too sure. I would assume he would be in the central plaza" she said.

Mike nodded and walked past Lydia towards the central plaza. "We better get going ourselves. We have an enemy to fight. It would seem that Tsuki's report of Arcanum was spot-onb. It provides a number of different effects, including the bolstering of offensive and defensive capabilities" he said.

Lydia was just about to start following Mike down the road when he mentioned something about Arcanum which caused her to take pause and tilt her head. She didn't recall Tsuki ever mentioning anything about Arcanum to them when they asked him for a summarization of events that took place. "Huh? He did? I don't recall hearing any mention of that..." she said. She thought back to the brief report he made to them sometime after his initial debrief with the royal family. She recalled him making a mention of some "strange power" but never said anything by name specifically.

Mike soon came to a stop. He was under the impression that everyone knew what it was by now. If not by Tsuki himself, but from the royal family. "He didn't say?" he asked. He then shook his head, shrugging his shoulders. "No matter. It still poses a great threat. Honegroth knights will continue to hold the advantage over us if we don't do something about this" he said.

Lydia suddenly became extremely suspicious. Something was wrong here. "Huh...that's funny. I don't recall mentioning who was attacking us..." she said. She's had her eyes on him the whole time and not once did she ever see him actually take the time to examine the crest that were on the enemy armor, which were either covered by blood or scrapped up beyond recognition.

Mike soon fell silent. The fact that he wasn't saying anything made her even more suspicious. Things stayed this way for several more moments between them. Then, almost as if bodily and gut instinct took over, Lydia quickly attached one of her arrows to the bow string, pulled back on it and took aim at Mike and released it without hesitation. However, she deviated her aim at the last second which caused the arrow to shoot just inches past the left side of his face, giving him a scratch on the cheek and causing him to bleed a bit. She wasted no time to attach a second arrow and took aim once again.

Lydia shot glares at Mike who continued to stand there, motionless and silent. "Mike...I'll only ask you this once. Where did you get that information from...?" she asked. She didn't need to hear his answer. She already knew it but she didn't want to believe it.

Mike sighed, scratching the back of his head. "Well, this is a problem now. I suppose it's best to deal with you first before the proceeding forward" he said.

Lydia had her fears confirmed. She was about to fire off the arrow she had pulled back but before she did, she felt a sharp, piercing pain coming from the right side of her hip. She looked down and saw the blade of a sword pierced right through her as blood dripped from the blade. This caused her to release the arrow and missed Mike completely. She then looked back and saw Stahler standing right behind her, holding the sword that had pierced through her. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. "S-Stahler...you too...?" she asked.

Stahler didn't say a word at her question and soon pulled the sword out from her which caused her to bleed out heavily. Lydia stumbled off towards the side, still holding onto her bow as she faced both Mike and Stahler. There wasn't just one traitor but two. Seeing the two of them stand together, everything was starting to make sense to her. The two of them had been going out very frequently together, even on missions that didn't need more than one person. This wasn't a recent thing to have started either. It's been happening for a few months now. What she didn't understand though was why. They had been serving the Eresseas royal family for a few years and had hardened, unwavering devotion towards them.

Lydia coughed up some blood and held her right hand over the wound she received. She could feel her strength quickly leave her as fast as she was losing blood. "W-why? What caused...you two to turn...?" she struggled to ask.

Stahler looked at Lydia with no remorse as he swiped his sword to the side to shake off the blood on the blade before putting it back into its sheath. "Stagnation. This kingdom...no, the world has stagnated. If we continue along this path, our way of life will continue to degrade as it has been over the last 3,000 years" he said. He then held his arm out and formed a fist. "Our ancestors lived in an advanced, prosperous age. Our world today pales in comparison. The only way for things to change is a power shift" he said.

Lydia shook her head. He was speaking of ideologies and concepts that had been long lost to the ravages of history and time. She knew that the world today wasn't anything like how it was in the past. "You speak of fantasy. The world...may have been that way for a time, yes. However...things change. Some of it...beyond human control..." she said.

Mike shook his head and turned to face her. "Which is why a shift in power is necessary. Humans and all other forms of life require evolution and they will not attain that with the way they are now" he said. He then started to approach her with a casual stroll.

Lydia looked over at Mike as he approached her which made her take a few steps back. "So you use this...power as a catalyst to bring about your change..." she said.

Mike chuckled a bit as he continued to approach her. "A catalyst? My dear Lydia, this power will serve as the focal point of everything and the person that will lead our world into a new age is Caius Ames" he said.

Lydia felt her legs start to give out as her vision started to become blurred. With not being able to perform First Aid, there was nothing she could do to stop herself from bleeding out. "So you...believe the words...from a mad king who's lost their mind. What the hell happend to your honor...?" she asked.

Mike soon stopped a few feet away from her and stretched out his arm towards her with the palm of his hand facing towards her. "Honor doesn't bring about change. Action does" he said. Then, the palm of his hand started to glow as a ball of energy started to form in front of it. "Arcanum will be the new driving force for humanity's evolution" he said.

After he said that, he fired off a blast of energy at Lydia. Not being able to defend herself, she had no choice but to take a direct hit as the blast of energy collided into and sent her crashing against the wall of one of the nearby buildings behind her. When the smoke from the blast cleared, Lydia was face down on the ground with her bow broken in half. Amazingly, she was still alive but just barely as she bled from multiple injuries. Mike pointed his arm towards her once more to finish her off.

Stahler walked to him and put his hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. "It's done. With her injuries, she only has minutes left. Leave her to watch as her beloved kingdom falls into ruin" he said. He then started to walk off towards the central plaza soon after he said tha.

Mike scoffed a bit and lowered his arm. He then turned to face towards the central plaza. "Goodbye...Lydia" he said. He then started to walk down the road, brushing himself off and followed Stahler.

As they walked away, all Lydia could do was watch as she bled out on the ground. She no longer had the strength to move. Her vision continued to grow more blurred as she watched them soon disappear from sight. "King Taichi...Queen Emma...I'm sorry. I've failed you all..." she struggled to say. She soon submitted to her fate, turning her head away towards the main entrance to Eresseas.

As she started to close her eyes, she was able to make out a pair of what appeared to be purple, metal greaves run up to her from the entrance. She could faintly hear a female's voice call out to her but she wasn't able to make out what they were saying as she soon lost consciousness afterwards.

Meanwhile, in the Business District, Zero was fighting on the frontlines with several other knights and mercenaries while citizens were being evacuated through through a tunnel passage that led under the lake and out of Eresseas. The tunnel, much like the service entrance near the orphanage, would eventually lead people to safety. By this point, they've pretty much evacuated most of the Business District but they suffered major casualties. Thankfully, civilian casualties were extremely low for some reason. Zero had their armor torn up and had suffered a number of minor injuries and cuts which caused some bleeding but still had plenty of fight left in him. The knights and mercenaries providing assistance were also putting up quite a fight, at least defensively. While they acted as their defensive line, the evacuations were being handled by the mercenaries and knights that were unable to fight due to not being able to use Magical Artes and were led by Jula. She was in charge of the evacuation since the Anti-Arte Field blocked her Magical Artes.

Zero looked back towards the tunnel as people funneled through them slowly. "Jula, how are things going over there!?" he shouted. The enemy presence is minimal for the moment but their situation can change at any moment. They needed to get people out faster before reinforcements arrived.

Jula stood by the entrance as she guided people through looked back at Zero. "Just a bit longer! They're almost through!" he said.

Standing next to Zero was a mercenary. It was a man with short, black hair and blue eyes. He carried what appeared to be a gun or some other type of firearm on his waist. His name was Lance Ordelia, an A-rank mercenary that mainly operated around Cayhill. "Things could change at any moment. Hurry!" he shouted.

Jula knew that time was running short. The longer they remain idle here, the longer they're away from where they need to be. The citizens were a top priority but so was safeguarding the castle. There didn't appear to be any signs of attack on the castle itself just yet but it was only a matter of time before the enemy shift their focus from the town to the castle. "Try to pick up the pace!" she said to the people going through the tunnel.

Zero stepped forward from the defensive line and took their brief moment to try and assess their situation. Something about this whole attack scenario felt off to him. "This is too coordinated. It's strange enough as it is that we're fighting Honegroth soldiers but it's even more strange that they knew exactly where and when to strike" he said. He looked around the area as buildings continued to burn and saw the bodies of knights and mercenaries scattered around.

Lance looked at Zero as he stepped forward. "I agree. It'd be impossible to plan an attack like this otherwise. I smell a rat" he said. They had a traitor among them but no one knew who. It was the only logical option.

Zero glanced over at Lance. Seeing as how the Guild Branch sees a lot of traveling mercenaries, he was curious if any seemed suspicious. "Have you seen anyone coming by the Guild Branch that may have stood out or was suspicious?" he asked.

Lance shook his head. "Not to my knowledge, no. That's something you'd have to ask our receptionist, Rush. He's the one that sees all that swing by. If there was anyone like that, chances are, he'd know" he said. Unfortunately, Rush was last seen around the Recreational District and had no way of getting in touch with him. "Besides, something tells me this isn't the work of a mercenary" he said.

Moments later, a male's voice came calling out to them accompanied by multiple footsteps. "Shall I offer you a hint, then?" the voice said.

Zero and Lance turned in the direction of the voice and footsteps. The person that Zero saw surprised him. He recognized the person immediately and so did Jula who was watching it all as well. "Utaru..." he said.

Utaru stopped not too far from him along with 6 other soldiers all wielding katanas. "You were right. We had a bit of inside help though you may not believe the truth once it's told" he said.

Zero took the spear off his bad and held it at the ready in case he acts either offensively or defensively. "Who is it? Tell me!" he shouted. He wanted to know who it was that sold them out to Honegroth.

Utaru shook his head. "If you want to know who our informant is, I'm afraid you'll have to beat it out of me" he said. He then drew his katana and assumed a stance where he put his right foot forward and held his katana back with his left hand while stretching his right hand out towards him. To samurai, it was known as an Isshiki stance for a sword technique called Gatotsu. It was a technique that maximized its destructive power while minimizing their exposure to strikes against them. "Shiki Squad, engage. Remember, spare those who are unwilling or unable to fight and do not bring harm to the civilians" he said. The squad of 6 other samurai all drew their katanas and began charging towards them.

Lance drew the gun from his waist and pointed it at the incoming soldiers. "Defend this position! Don't let a single one past you!" he shouted.

The surrounding knights and mercenaries let out a collective yell and began their charge towards the samurai. It wasn't long before they engaged in combat. While the knights and mercenaries handled the samurai, Zero and Lance could focus on Utaru. Their circumstances only became more strange. Meanwhile, the civilians were trying to work their way through the tunnels as fast as they could.

Zero was able to connect some of the dots immediately when Utaru gave out his order. "So, that explains the low number of civilian casualty. At least, you've kept your honor as a warrior. No need to spill innocent blood" he said.

Jula knew that they were in for a struggle. Utaru came with only 6 other soldiers while Zero and Lance had a combined number of at least 15 knights and mercenaries. "Be careful, you two. There's more to those samurai than meets the eye" she said.

Lance nodded at her response. "Picked up on that too, did ya? If these guys can get this far on their own, then they're not your average, run-of-the-mill soldier fodder" he said.

Utaru kept his Isshiki stance up as he stared down Zero and Lance. Since Jula was unable to fight, she was not on his list of targets. "You'll find that fighting pure blood samurai is different than your standard squad of soldiers or knights" he said. He then shot forward like a bullet with incredible speed before lunghing the katana forward at Zero.

Zero was caught off-guard at his speed. All he could do was dodge his attack by jumping towards the side. "Agh! He's fast!" he said.

Utaru followed up the thrust by swinging his katana in the direction he dodged. Zero blocked it with the shaft of his spear as the blade clashed against it. Since his spear was reinfoced with metal, it wasn't an easy thing to break or cut through. Zero used a good amount of strength and pushed him off to break the clash before jumping back. Meanwhile, Lance loaded up his gun with ammunition and shot 3 times at him. Utaru ended up dodging two of the shots by jumping and then used his katana to slice through the third one. However, as he did that, the bullet exploded in a small magical burst.

When the smoke cleared, part of Utaru's armor plating was broken and had a few scrapes along his left arm. He was surprised that he was able to use Artes even under the effects of the barrier over them. "Impressive. I didn't expect you to be able to wield Artes in these conditions" he said.

Lance shook his head. "Wrong. That wasn't an Arte that I used on you. The ammunition I'm using is special. Each bullet contains a special powder inside them that are infused with the different elements. This allows me to cause magical damage even without Artes" he said. He then shot at Utaru several more times.

Utaru dodged the bullets as they came at him. Everytime the bullets came into contact with any type of surface, they immediately explode. They were like miniaturized magic bombs. The blast radius from the explosions weren't very large but they still packed a punch they have direct hits. As the barrage of bullets ended, he examiend both Lance and Zero and realized that he was going to have a hard time. He had to be able to fight against Zero while also taking into account of the ranged attacks of Lance. Their strategy, however, also had some flaws to it. Zero would be caught up in the ensuing explosion if Lance were to shoot him and get a direct hit if he was close enough.

Lance soon loaded up more of his special ammunition into the gun. "There are, of course, some drawbacks to using these bullets. Because they detonate on impact, they don't puncture. Which means, you don't have to worry about being fatally shot. I call these Magic Bullets" he said. Dealing with samurai, it would be easy for him to counter his bullets either by dodging or, just like he did before, slicing through them. Ordinary bullets weren't going to work in this fight. While there was a chance his Magic Bullets can cause harm and injury to Zero, they wouldn't kill him outright if he took a direct hit like how an ordinary bullet would.

Zero assumed an offensive stance by holding his spear to his side with the blade portion pointing towards Utaru. The stance he took looked like he was about to charge at him. "Impressive. I didn't think there was much when it comes to the use of firearms but it would seem like I was wrong. Now, it's my turn!" he said.

Zero then lunged towards Utaru, keeping his spear close to him. Once it was within striking distance, He made several with thrusts with the spear in rapid succession of each other. Utaru used his katana to deflect a few of the thrusts and dodged the rest. Although, some of the thrusts did manage to scrape him up a bit along his right cheek and arm, making him bleed slightly. After one more thrust, Utaru spun around to dodge it and swung his katana downwards, the blade clashing against the metal shaft of his spear and pushing it down towards the ground. He then quickly kicked his left leg out and kicked Zero in the stomach, making him hunch over a bit and stumble back.

With Zero stumbling back, Utaru quickly lunged towards him to get in a quick strike. Lance tried to slow him down by shooting several rounds of Magic Bullets at him but he simply jumped from side to side to dodge them. As Utaru got in close, he swung his katana at Zero in a horizontal slashing motion. Thankfully, Zero was able to recover from stumbling back just in time to block the attack. The impact pushed him back further back towards Jula as his feet skidded against the pavement. Utaru then shifted his focus over to Lance and held his katana down to his side with the blade pointing behind him. The blade soon started to glow red and moments later, Utaru swung in a vertical motion, releasing a red arc of energy at Lance. He rolled off towards the side to dodge but as he looked back towards him, Utaru had lunged towards him. The attack he used was a feint and he fell for it. Utaru swung once more and since he was too close to dodge, Lance ended up pointing his gun towards the ground between them and shot one of his Magic Bullets. The ensuing explosion engulfed them both. Utaru came jumping back out of the smoke while Lance was blown back from the explosion.

Utaru didn't expect Lance to point the gun down and basically shoot himself to get out of what could have been a fatal strike with his katana. Zero's skill with a spear were pretty good as well. His attack speed was almost similar to his, just with a longer object. "You're both impressive fighters. Two completely different fighting styles yet you work in sync with each other to make it work" he said. He then looked around the area to see how the rest of the fighting was going. It appears that out of the 15 other fighters that were with them initially, only 6 remain. Two oif them were mercenaries and the rest were knights. As for the group of samurai he brought with him, two of them were slain. "I didn't expect things to end up like this" he said.

As they fought off their attackers, Jula had finished guiding the last group of civilians into the tunnel. When they were through, she looked back towards them. "Zero, Lance! The civilians have been evacuated!" she said.

Zero was down on one knee after being knocked back from Utaru's attacks. "Excellent! Now, it's your turn! Get out of here!" he shouted.

Jula shook her head. There was no way that she was going to leave them. "Are you crazy!? I'm the king's bodyguard! I can't simply retreat!" she shouted.

Zero shook his head and looked back at her. "And what can you do to help right now? Your Magical Artes are sealed and you have no other means to fight! You're a sitting duck while inside this barrier!" he shouted.

Jula knew that she was rendered unable to fight. If she didn't have her Magical Artes, then she couldn't perform her duties as the king's bodyguard, let alone that of a royal knight. All she could do was make a fist in protest. "But...!" she shouted.

Lance looked back at Jula who was understandably frustrated. "I'm sorry, Jula but he's right. You're completely defenseless in here. Don't go throwing your life away to fight a battle when you know that you can't contribute to it. Instead, use it to make sure those civilians to safety. That goes for the knights and mercenaries that were also unable to fight and evacuated with them" he said. He can understand the position she was in. She was in a position where her duty to protect the royal family and the people come first. However, she was unable to do that while under the effects of the Anti-Arte Field. At least with Zero, he could still fight on the frontlines without the aid of Artes though at a higher difficulty.

Zero nodded at her and smiled. "Don't you worry about us. We'll beat this guy and then secure the royal family. You just concentrate on getting outside of this barrier. At least then, you and the others will have a fighting chance" he said.

Jula fell silent as her arm shook with anger and frustration. She knew that what they were saying was right. It was a reality that was difficult for her to accept but she had no choice. "Fine. I'll go...but you two need to survive! If you die here, I'll drag your souls out from the graveyard and kill you myself!" she said. She then turned around and stepped into the tunnel. Before heading down into it though, she closed it off and sealed it from the inside. She wasn't sure how long the door would last if they decided to pursue them but at least it would provide them some time to get away. "Everyone...please, survive...!" she said. Once the door was sealed, she made her way through the tunnel and rushed to catch up with the others.

When the door shut behind them, Zero and Lance could hear it being sealed from the inside. Her last comment made Lance chuckle a bit, shaking his head a bit. "Well, she's charming. I think I'm starting to like her" he said.

Zero stood back up and assumed another offensive stance. "Yeah well, you can ask her out after we deal with this mess, if we survive" he said.

Utaru assumed another Isshiki stance for the same Gatotsu technique he used earlier as he saw both Lance and Zero ready themselves for another round. "Shall we begin round two then?" he asked. He used his right hand that was extended out towards them and motioned them to come at him.

Moments later, both Zero and Utaru lunged at each other as Lance loaded up more Magic Bullets into his gun as another round of fighting between them began. Meanwhile, the scene shifts over to the Recreational District where Aya and Phi, along with Rush, were fighting off enemy forces. Streets were covered with blood as bodies were littered all over. Among the bodies of soldiers and mercenaries, there were many civilian casualties who got caught up in the fighting or couldn't get away. Compared to the main entrance and Business District, the Recreational District had taken a severe blow. Many buildings were destroyed and much of the district was almost unrecognizable.

Aya and Phi also appeared to have taken quite a beating themselves. Their armor was torn up and were covered in scratches and many other minor injuries. Aya was bleeding from the forehead down the left side of her face while Phi was bleeding from both arms and right cheek. Rush, despite claiming to be not much of a fighter, was holding up pretty well in comparison. His clothing was all torn up and partially stained with blood but most of it wasn't his. His weapon of choice was a pair of chakrams and they proved to be very effective for long range combat. Even without the help of Artes, he was able to perform some pretty impressive techniques which helped keep him out of harm way, most of the time.

Aya was short of breath as they had just finished taking down several soldiers that had surrounded them. She never realized it before but the armor that they wear was pretty heavy. "Hey...does our armor feel heavy all of a sudden?" she asked.

Phi shook her head. She was starting to feel a little overwhelmed by everything as she did her best to keep herself in check. With everything going on, it was difficult to keep her real self and her knight self in check as both personas seemed to be mixing into one another. "This isn't looking good for us. What do we do now?" she asked.

Rush looked around the area. The place had been almost cleared out. The knights and mercenaries that were fighting in the area had either all been slain or moved on to other places or possibly could have even fled. All that was left in the immediate area were them and a street filled with bodies. "I'm not sure. If I may be blunt, this may be it for Eresseas. This attack is far too coordinated to be just a random hit" he said.

Phi shook her head. "No way! So long as the castle still stands under our control, then we can still fight! Besides, preparations for a counterattack at the castle must be near completion. There's no way in hell King Taichi and Queen Emma will allow this place to fall like this" she said. Even without Artes, the fight can still go on. Once Taichi and Emma took to the field, she was sure that things will turn around.

Aya was silent for a moment. She knew that Taichi and Emma wouldn't let Eresseas fall without putting up a fight. However, what Rush said made her wonder. "If this is a coordinated attack, then who's the tactician?" she asked.

Just then, a haughty, female voice came ringing out among the empty streets. "Wouldn't you like to know that!" the voice said.

Aya, Phi and Rush turned to where the voice was coming from and saw a group of soldiers led by a single female who wielded a bow and a shortsword. They didn't know it but the person that was leading the group of soldiers was the third person that was with Delvin when he first arrived at Eresseas. It was Lily Shirakami. Compared to how she looked upon arrival, she looked like a completely different person. Before, she appeared to be quiet and collected but now, she looked like she was completely unhinged.

Aya took a defensive stance, holding her shield out while holding her sword, ready to strike. "Who the hell are you!?" she asked.

Lily soon came to a halt along with the group of solders behind. She looked over to Aya and gave her an arrogant smile. "Lily Shirakami, 2nd lieutenant in service to King Caius of Honegroth" she said.

Phi was surprised when she told them who she served. She didn't even need to give them a full answer. "What is this? Payback for the thrashing your king took in Basilwell?" she asked.

Lily glanced over at Phi and for a brief moment, shot glares at her that would send chills down someone's spine. She was very displeased to hear her comment. "Payback? Hardly. It does feel a little nice to dish out a little hurt though. It's a shame that boy knight isn't around. I would be thrilled to return some of that beatng" she said.

Phi returned her glares at Lily. It was pretty obvious that Tsuki was one of her main targets. It's pretty surprising that Tsuki was able to make an enemy out of someone he's never met before. "Too bad. Looks like you'll have to settle with us" she said.

Rush stepped forward, taking a few steps towards Lily. "What are you people thinking? Doesn't King Caius understand the major repercussions he'll be facing by making an unprecedented and unprovoked attack on another kingdom?" he asked.

Lily glanced over to Rush, raising an eyebrow at him. "I'm afraid the other kingdoms are too busy with their own struggles to notice the takeover of a neutral one and it's not like the Mercenary Guild will lift a finger to do anything about it either" she said. She knew that Eresseas had no documented allies among the other kingdoms and the Mercenary Guild as a whole doesn't involve themselves with kingdom squables. If the Guild Branches were to side with a kingdom, then they would receive no support from their main headquarters if something happens.

Rush knew that she was right. Working at the Guild Branch, he's able to communicate with other Guild Branches through telecommunications. Everytime other kingdoms are brought up as a topic, people are always mentioning some sort of struggle whether it's something internal among the kingdom itself or if its conflict with another. They were literally on their own in this fight. He didn't even know how to respond to her.

Aya pointed her sword towards Lily. "Dish out as much hurt as you want. You'll find that Eresseas won't be an easy place to bring down" she said.

Lily chuckled a bit before drawing her bow. "I'll admit, for a small and neutral kingdom, your resilience is admirable. However, apply enough pressure to a boulder and it'll eventually crack" she said. Moments later, an energized arrow formed on her bow as she pulled it up and pulled the string back. "Without your precious Artes, it's only a matter of time before you crack" she said.

She then pointed her bow up towards the sky and shot the energized arrow up into the sky above them. Once it hit a certain height, the arrow explodes and from it, a shower of smaller arrows came raining down on them. Aya held her shield up over her head so she was protected from most of the arrows but Phi and Rush had no choice but to take numerous hits. Aya was able to get out relatively unscathed but Phi and Rush were heavily injured from the rain of arrows. Their armor and clothing were torn up even more and bled even more. With an ability like that, there wasn't much Phi or Rush could do. Yet, they still stood their ground despite their numerous injuries.

Aya looked back at Phi and Rush and saw how injured they were from just one attack. They weren't going to be able to take too many direct hits from those. "We're fighting at a disadvantage right now" she said.

Lily let out a crazed laugh. She was almost delighted to watch them struggle in a hopeless battle. "Yes. Struggle as hard as you want. It'll only make the thrill of the kill that much sweeter" she said. She then formed another arrow and was about to shoot off the same attack as before.

Moments later, a young female's voice came shouting out from behind the enemy soldiers. "You're laughing now because without that barrier of yours, you wouldn't be able to fight otherwise!" the voice shouted.

The voice caught the attention of everyone around as they all turned to look in the direction of where the voice came from. What they was was unexpected. To Phi, Aya and Rush, they recognized who the figure was that the voice belonged to but for everyone else, it appeared to be someone of a small stature dressed in a full-body cloak. Given her small stature, it looked like someone who was in their teens and the vocal tone of her voice didn't help much on everyone's first impressions.

Lily couldn't help but let out a loud laugh as she turned and face the cloaked figure. "Well, this is pretty comical. Have people gotten so desperate that they have to send children to fight!?" she asked. The situation was hilarious to her as she couldn't contain herself. "I like your spunk, child, but I would advise not getting involved with us adults!" she said.

The cloacked figure remained standing where they were with seemingly no reaction from her comments. "Face the facts. Without your little toy up in the sky, you wouldn't be acting so high and mighty. You're so weak that you had to bring down everyone's fighting capabilities to have a fighting chance" she said. Her comments towards her appeared to be intentionally provoking and it was working.

Lily's face turned to seething anger the figure continued to make provoking comments towards her. "What was that!?" she said. You could almost see veins popping out of her head with how angry she had gotten.

Phi couldn't believe what she was watching. A child provoking someone leading an army of soldiers with no signs of fear or hesitation. "What is she doing!?" she asked. She then tried to take a step forward towards them.

Rush simply put a hand on her shoulder to stop her and shook his head. "I...would advise not getting any closer, if I were you" he said.

Aya looked over to Rush, tilting her head. "Huh? What do you mean?" she asked.

Rush nodded and locked his eyes on the figure as he looked forward. "You'll see..." he said.

Lily soon stretched her arm out as the soldiers that were with her drew their weapons and approached the figure, stopping several feet away from her. "Think you can play with the adults, runt? I'm afraid the consequences will be more severe than a timeout" she said. She then swung her arm to the side. "Soldiers, show this child what it means to play with adults!" she said in a commanding voice.

Moments later, 3 of the 15 knights charged at the figure with weapons drawn and ready to swing. At first, the figure remained completely motionless. However, as the soldiers grew closer to her, the air around her took on a dramatic shift. The outline of her body started to glow as the cloak started to flutter from the surging air around her. Suddenly, the figure threw out their arms from underneath the cloak and what they saw emerging was completely unexpected. Everything from below her elbow was not of a human arm. They were arms covered in black scales with enlarged hands. Each hand had a set of razor sharp claws. Before anyone could react, the figure lunged forward with incredible speed. She formed a fist with her right hand as she approached one of the soldiers and threw her fist forward, slamming it against the blade of his blade and completely shattering it. Immediately afterwards, she took her other hand and used her claws to rip through his armor like paper and practically gouged out his stomach, killing him instantly as he coughed out large amounts of blood.

The figure then turned her focus on the second figure as he ran up to her and swung his sword. She used her left arm to block the attack with the blade hitting the scaled portion of her arm which ended up breaking the blade on impact. She took her other arm and drove her claws through the soldiers stomach, piercing him completely and killing him. By this point, the third soldier came to a stop as he watched the first two get savagely killed. He tried to take a step back but then the figure grabbed the neck of the soldier she just killed and chucked it at him with force. The body ended up colliding into the soldier which knocked him off his feet and onto the ground. Before the soldier could get up, however, the figure could be seen leaning back as if she was charging up for something. Moments later, an intense blast of fire shot out from the concealed figure's mouth and engulfted the two of them. The soldiers scream of agonizing pain echoed through the streets for a few moments before they faded away. Once the flames were gone, all that was left was charred remains of the flame's impact with an outline of where the bodies were.

Everyone was frozen solid from the sight that they had just witnessed. It wasn't just a simple killing that they just saw. It was a 100% pure, merciless massacre. It was like a monster movie coming to life.

Phi stood there, completely paralyzed and speechless and wide eyed. Her eyes couldn't get anymore wider than they were now. "W-what...is this...?" she said.

Almost as if time returned to the surrounding soldiers that were around the figure, they began to panic and attempted to step away from the figure. The figure, however, had other plans. Her attention soon locked on to the soldiers that were around her as she appeared to charge up for another fire breath attack. The soldiers saw what she was doing and tried to run away but it was too late. Moments later, the figure shot out another blast of fire as she spun around. The fires quickly engulfed the fleeing knights as their screams of agonizing pain collectively filled the streets. One after the other, the screams soon died down and left nothing behind.

Lily watched in awe as she saw her soldiers die in the most gruesome, savage way possible. Once the last of her solders were killed, she was brought back to reality. "This can't be happening. What is YOUR kind doing here!?" she shouted, throwing her arm to the side.

By this point, the hood of the cloak had came off from her the surging air of her breath attacks. Hidden underneath the hood was a girl with long, red hair that went past her shoulder and had piercing yellow eyes. What stood out the most, however, was the fact that she had a pair of black horns on her head. Not only that but it would also appear that the girl also had a tail as well. The figure soon turned back to face Lily as puffs flame came out of her mouth as she breathed. "The arrogance of you Humans never ceases to amaze me" she said.

Aya couldn't believe her eyes. It would seem that she was able to recogizne who, or what, the figure was as she slowly turned her head to look at Rush who had his eyes closed with a stoic expression. "No way...is she...?" she asked. She didn't even need him to answer her question.

Rush nodded at her slowly before opening his eyes once more to look at the figure. "Yes...she's exactly who you think she is" he said.

Lily formed a tight fist as she threw her arm to the side in anger and frustration. "What the hell is a Dragonkin doing here!? This wasn't in the reports at all!" she shouted.

Phi tilted her head when Lily shouted out a strange name she didn't recognize. "A...Dragonkin?" she asked with hesitation.

Rush nodded. "As you are aware, there are many other living races around the world aside us Humans. You have Elves that dwell in the forests and Dwarves that make their homes deep inside mountains and caves. Then, you have those that fall under the Faeries category. Wolfkin, Foxkin, Catkin, Dragonkin and so on. Among the Faeries, Dragonkin are the most powerful and most feared" he said. These were revelations that were not native to Cayhill. Faeries are widespread around the world but rarely do they show themselves.

Phi had heard mention of Faeries before but she didn't understand the term fully. "What are they? The Faeries, I mean" she said.

Rush folded his arms in front of him. "Faeries are the offspring between Human and Beast. They share a physical appearance of a Human parent but inherit power from their Beast parent. Dragonkin are a special case. Not only do they share a human appearance and inherit their dragon powers, they also have the capability of transforming themselves into a dragon for a short period of time" he said. Faeries may share a human appearance but they always have something that distinguishes them among normal humans which is either usually a pair of horns or ears to match their Beast parent and a tail. Some Faerie races are about to hide their Beast appearances but not all of them are capable of that. Much of the world think of Faeries like any other human being but there is also a major problem that the Faeries were having which put them on edge with Humans.

Aya knew all of this. However, something didn't make sense to her when it came to the Dragonkin. "If I researched things correctly, aren't the Dragonkin extremely hostile towards Humans? From what I read, they also don't go anywhere near Human settlements or engage with other Humans unless provoked. Not only that, the vast majority of them make their home in the mountains of Nargelond" she said. She glanced at Rush for a moment before looking over towards the dragon girl. "Which brings the question, why is she here?" she asked.

Rush shook his head. "Most likely because she was called her by a certain someone. There are very few Humans that she would actually listen to and even fewer that she would accept commands from" he said. He then looked back towards Aya and Phi and could tell by their body language. They were on edge as they didn't know how to regard her as either a friend or foe. "Rest your minds, however. She didn't come here to act as our enemy. If anything, you can consider her an ally for the time being and I would highly recommend you do that" he said.

Phi recalled them mentioning a "certain someone" earlier in the day but refused to elaborate further. It made her wonder just who it was and what connections they possibly had to be able to get in touch with someone as powerful as a Dragonkin. After seeing a display of raw power like that, it was a little hard for her to take in. "Easier said than done..." she said.

Aya shook her head and stepped forward towards Lily. She had many more questions but now wasn't the time or the place to ask them. They were still in the middle of a battlefield, after all. "We'll have to sort things out later. We have a fight to finish" she said. She then glanced back towards Phi and Rush "If she's going to act as an ally right now, that will make things easier. Leave this place to us. Phi, get back to the castle and inform King Caius and Queen Emma what's happening. Rush, I would like you to provide as much aid as you can in the central plaza. By the sounds of it, the central plaza is where the fighting is at its most intense." she said.

Phi shook her her head. She wasn't too comfortable leaving Aya behind with some they knew nothing about or what their intentions were. "And leave you here by yourself!? I can't do that!" she said.

Aya looked back at Phi. "Don't worry about me. I just have to stay on that girl's good side. Besides, I have a feeling that the castle will be their next target. Someone needs to be there to repel the enemy and lead the knights!" she said. Another reason she wanted her to go on ahead was because she was far more injured than she was. Not only that, but the less people that are around, the less she has to worry about getting in the way of the Dragonkin.

Rush patted Phi on the shoulder and gaver her a nod. "Aya will be fine. Trust me" he said.

Phi fell silent for a few moments and soon nodded at her. "Alright. Make sure you come back alive, understand?" she asked. She didn't want to leave her but decided to listen to what she said against her better judgment.

Aya nodded at her, tapping her chest. "Of course. I don't plan on dying here today" she said.

Phi and Rush looked at each other and nodded once more before turning and running down the street towards the central plaza. Lily saw that they were seemingly trying to escape and quickly turned and shot three energized arrows towards them. Aya quickly moved and put herself between them and the arrows and used her shield the block the arrows. With Aya and the Dragonkin on both sides of her, Lily had nowhere to go and no other choice but to deal with them first.

Aya soon pointed her sword towards Lily. "If you want to give chase, then you'll have to go through me first" she said. She then looked over towards the Dragonkin for a moment. "I don't know who you are or why you're here but I hope you can put up with teaming up with a Human for a little while" she said. She then assumed an offensive stance with the shield pushed out in front of her.

The Dragonkin put her left foot forward and got into a lunging stance as she readied herself to strike with her claws. "So long as you don't slow me down" she said.

Lily formed three energized arrows on her bow and readied her bowstring as she pointed it up into the sky above her. "Fine then. I'll just have to strike you both down first! Come!" she shouted.

Lily released the arrows into the sky as both the Dragonkin and Aya shot towards her to begin a new round of fighting. Meanwhile, the scene shifts back over to the central plaza where Tsuki, Ramza and Ruko were fighting with all their strength against Delvin. They had been fighting him for a good 30 minutes and with a combined effort of all three of them with Chera using her arrows as support, they were finally starting to cause some damage to Delvin as he started to become slower in his attacks. Of course, they didn't achieve this unscathed. Ramza and Ruko were both nearly at their limits and sustained more injuries than before. They were both exhausted from the fighting and could barely keep up with Delvin anymore even when she's slowed down. Ruko was down on one knee, bleeding all over and could feel his bones ache everytime he moved. Ramza was barely able to stand and looked like he was about to fall over. As for Tsuki, he still had plenty of fight left in him since he was able to conserve his energy prior to his arrival. He was also able to keep his injuries down to a minimum.

Delvin was short of breath as his fight with the four of them seems to have came to a standstill. Ruko and Ramza were both ready to tap out of the fight but he also had Tsuki and Cheria to worry about. "What a rot this is..." he said.

Ruko was near Lynette, Reia and Nagi as he was down on one knee. Having to fight against Delvin who was able to use Artes against them and to also protect the three of them was a difficult task to complete. "This fight...is getting us nowhere" he said.

Ramza could feel his body ache all over from the injuries he's endured. He hasn't been in a situation like this where he's this injured in a long time. "This guy's stamina is impressive. To think he's been able to last this long even after everything we've thrown at him" he said.

Tsuki looked towards the castle and saw that it was still relatively untouched for the moment. "We need to get back to the castle. We can recover from our injuries there and work on a counterattack to drive the rest of these guys out" he said.

Cheria looked over to Delvin who stood in their way. "Something tells me that he won't let us through if we simply ask nicely" she aaid.

Reia was beyond frustrated that all she could do was watch everything unfold without being able to lift a finger. "If only I still had a little bit of magic..." she said.

Suddenly, a male's voice came shouting out through the crowds of fighting. "What's the struggle for!? I thought you were better than that!" the voice shouted.

Tsuki recognized the voice immediately and turned around in the direction the voice came from. Charging through the crowds, he could see Mike and Stahler run up to them with their weapons drawn. "Mike! Stahler!" he shouted.

Mike ran up alongside Tsuki with his axe held closely beside him. He examined Tsuki and saw that he was still managing. "Sorry we're late. Our investigation too longer than expected" he said.

Stahler walked up to Tsuki and examined Delvin. He looked to be running low on steam. "This guy giving you trouble? After your run-in with Caius, I would think someone like him would be child's play" he said.

Tsuki shook his head a bit. The fight between Caius and this one were under different circumstances. "Yeah well, not being able to use Artes can be a deterrent" he said.

Delvin looked at Mike and Stahler as they made their appearance. He simply scoffed at them. "Call in as many reinforcements as you like. It won't change the outcome of this battle. All I have to do is kill you all and bring the princess to His Majesty" he said.

Mike looked back at Cheria for a moment before shifting his gaze towards the castle. "We need to get Her Highness back to the safety of the castle. She's in grave danger out here" he said.

Delvin pulled his scythe back as the blade started to glow violet. He then took aim towards them and swung it, releasing an arc of energy at them. "Like I'd let you pass!" he shouted.

Stahler shot forward, taking his two shortswords and slicing through his attack with ease before swinging them at Delvin who blocked the attack with his scythe. As he clashed with him, he looked back towards the group. "Mike, get them back to the castle! I'll handle this guy!" he shouted.

Mike nodded at him and glanced back at Tsuki and the others. "Now's our chance! Let's go!" he said. He then ran off towards the castle.

Tsuki nodded and looked back at his companions. "You heard him. Best not to fall behind" he said. He then looked over at Reia. "Come with us, Reia. There's no way we're leaving you out here" he said.

Reia nodded. She was going to follow them even if he didn't say anything. "Like you had to say anything" she said.

The group gathered themselves and rushed off towards the castle to catch up with Mike while Stahler held off Delvin's assault. The streets the led from the central plaza to the castle were just as chaotic as the rest of the city. Thankfully, as they got closer to the castle, they started to see an increase in defensive lines. Several squads of knights and archers were positioned along the streets and rooftops to defend the castle against any enemy that may try to approach the castle. With Tsuki and Mike leading their group, they were able to make it through the defensive lines with ease and enter the castle grounds.

Within the castle grounds, knights were running around frantically as they appeared to be bolstering up the castle walls and reinforcing potential spots that could be viewed as potential weak points. Knight captains were issuing out various different order to the knights as they were doing their best to plan out any contingency. Tsuki and the others made their way through the castle and directly towards the audience chamber. Inside, they saw Taichi and Emma all suited up for battle and appeared ready for a fight. They were also giving out various commands to knights and other royal officials. It was chaos everywhere they went. However, when they saw Tsuki and the others return, the felt a huge sense of relief, particularly when they saw that Cheria was with them.

Emma looked over towards Cheria and ran over to her. "Cheria! There you are!" she said.

Cheria ran over towards Emma and embraced her in a tight hug. "Mother!" she said.

The both of them embraced in a tight hug. She knew that Cheria was out in the city when they came under attack and was worried sick about her. It almost made her tear up to see that she made it back relatively unscathed. Emma gently stroked the top of her hair as she held onto her. "Thank goodness, you're safe. I was so worried about you" she said.

Taichi walked up beside them and smiled before shifting his gaze over to Tsuki and the others. "You're all safe as well. That's good...at least, for the most part" he said. He noticed just how badly injured Ruko and Ramza were and yet were still able to move around. He then looked over at Tsuki and Mike. "So, what's the situation in town?" he asked.

Mike shook his head. "Total chaos, as you can probably imagine. It doesn't appear to be looking good for us. The mercenaries are all but scattered around and our offensive line is breaking apart. It's only a matter of time before they're at our doorstep" he said. Things were looking pretty grim for Eresseas.

For the next several minutes, they proceeded to tell Taichi and Emma everything that has transpired from the moment the attacks first started. From the sudden appearance of the supposed nomadic group all the way to where their current situation is. They also brought up the barrier and the fact that it was was the cause for not being able to use any Artes.

Taichi had his arms folded in front of him as he thought back on everything that they had to say. It was hard to take in at first so he needed a moment to sort things out in his head. "So, it is Honegroth, after all. If Caius isn't leading the charge, then someone else is" he said.

Emma knew things were bad but she didn't think they were that bad. "What about the others of the Royal Eight?" she asked. She was worried for them just as much as everyone else

Tsuki also shook his head. "I haven't seen or heard anything. What about you, Mike?" he asked.

Mike folded his arms in front of him and looked at Tsuki. "I'm afraid I haven't seen anyone either. Stahler is fighting off the enemy force in the central plaza. That's about all I know. Chances are, the others are still fighting in other districts" he said.

Taichi rubbed his chin a bit as he fell into thought. "I see..." he said. Everyone was too far split apart. If they were all together, then they would be able to fight with better odds. "We'll have to worry about them later. Right now, we need to prepare for our counterattack. We're just about ready to launch" he said. He then looked over at Ruko and Ramza. "Why don't you two hang back and let our medics patch you up? We can't use any Healing Artes but modern medicine is still just as effective" he said.

Ramza nodded at him. "We appreciate it. In our condition, I don't think we'll be able to be of much use on the battlefield anymore, in any case" he said.

Ruko sighed, putting his left hand on his right shoulder as he rolled his head across his shoulders. "I have to agree with Ramza. We both took quite a beating out there" he said.

Taichi's gaze then shifted over towards Lynette, Nagi and Reia. "Reia, it's good to see you again. It's been quite some time, hasn't it?" he asked.

Reia let out a nervous laugh as she scratched the back of her head. "Likewise, Your Majesty. I just wish it was under better circumstances" she said.

Taichi nodded at her. "Don't we all?" he asked with a sigh. He shook his head a bit before looking at them once more. "In any case, seeing as how you three can't use Magical Artes, I want you all to hang back as well. I can't promise total safety within these walls but hopefully, it'll allow us some time to think of some alternatives" he said.

Lynette sighed heavily, dropping her shoulders. She felt completely useless. Everyone was fighting for their lives and dying as a result and she can't do anything about it. As a Healer, it frustrates her to extreme levels. "We don't have much of a choice, do we?" she asked.

Taichi soon looked back at Mike and Tsuki. "As for you two, I want you to-" he said.

Suddenly, there was a large explosion that occurred along the lower castle walls that rocked the whole castle. Power to the whole castle was cut as the halls and rooms went dark. Panic swept through the castle in an instant. No one knew what caused the explosion but what they did know was that the castle was now under attack. The vibration from the sudden explosion made some of them fall off balance.

Ruko had fallen down to one knee from the violent shaking from the explosion as the stained-glass windows behind the throne chairs shattered, exposing the audience chamber to the outside view of the lake. "What the hell was that!?" he shouted.

Reia had somehow managed to keep balance from the shaking. "Damn. Are they here already!?" she asked.

Emma shook her head. Judging from the intensity of the vibrations, the explosion came from very close by, not from an attack on the outer walls. "No, it's almost as if something exploded inside the castle" she said.

Tsuki didn't understand how something could explode from within the castle. The castle grounds were secured. There was no way for the enemy to sneak in. "From inside? What could possibly explode from within the castle to cause-" he said. He then came to a realization. He suddenly had flashbacks of during his fight with the Rhybgaro and with the Magister of Draxus, Yuno. He recalled the crystals that they had exploded when they were destroyed. He looked over at Lynette, who also seems to have drawn the same conclusion. "The crystal shards!" he said.

Moments after he said that, Elle came rushing in through one of the side doors of the audience chamber. Her armor was half-destroyed and she was bleeding pretty heavily from her forehead and right shoulder. "Your Majesty! We have a situation!" she shouted.

Taichi looked over at Elle and saw the condition she was in. He knew that Elle has been down in the lower levels of the castle to deal with the crystals. "Elle! Don't tell me the purification failed!" he said.

Elle shook her head. "The purification never got a chance to take place! All of a sudden, the crystals all came to life and exploded! That's not all, however..." she said. She then felt an intense pain on her right arm as she gripped it as she leaned against the wall. There was a pretty significant burn injury on her right arm and it didn't appear to be from a normal burn mark you would get by getting too close to a fire.

Emma saw the injury to her right arm and appeared to recognize the burn injury. "That mark...it can't be...! " she said.

Taichi also seemed to recognize the burn mark on her arm. To the both of them, they thought that had seen the last of that type of power over a decade ago. "Shadow Flames? But how? That power was suppose to be sealed away" he said.

Elle worked through the pain as she had more to tell them. "Your Majesty...the lower levels of the castle...they're crawling with Shades and Dusks that spawned from the explosion!" she said.

Taichi and Emma's eyes widened with shock. They both looked like they had a look of pure, genuine surprise and shock. It was enough for Tsuki and Cheria to realize that whatever was happening was not good.

The scene then shifts to the main entrance to the castle, just a few minutes before the explosion occurred. Knights were stationed along the bridge that lead into the castle walls, prepared to defend the castle with their lives. The knights grew on edge when they saw someone running towards them in full sprint but soon realized that the person in question was Phi. She had been running almost nonstop since leaving Aya in the Recreational District. At some point along the way, she ended up getting separated from Rush but had no time to search for him. She needed to inform Taichi and Emma of what was happening. Phi ran along the bridge, stopping halfway across to catch her breath. She was still feeling the effects of her injuries so she needed a few minutes to catch her bearings. She ended up walking towards the edge of the bridge and put her hands down on the low stone wall.

Phi took several deep breaths to try and calm herself down as she bled from the injuries along her arms and forehead. "Almost...there. Just a little...longer..." she said. After about a minute or so, she managed to get her breathing under control. She stepped back from the stone wall and got ready to continue towards the castle.

Before she could go off into full sprint again, a male's voice shouted out towards her. "Hey, Phi! Wait up!" the voice shouted.

Phi recognized the voice and turned around. She saw Stahler running up to her and felt a bit of relief to see him again. "Stahler! For once, it's great to see you!" she said. She then looked around to see if Mike was with him but he wasn't. "Where's Mike?" she asked.

Stahler pointed towards the castle. "He should be at the castle right about now" he said. He then started to walk over towards her.

Phi looked towards the castle when he said that Mike was there. "Great! Once everyone gets back, I'm sure we can-" she said.

As she turned back to face Stahler, it was too late for her to react. As she turned, she felt a sudden sharp, piercing pain in her left side. She looked down and saw that Stahler had taken out a dagger and stabbed her. At first, things didn't register right away in her head. She couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing. However, reality was cruel as her eyes didn't lie.

Phi was stunned and speechless as she tried to understand what just happened. "S-Stahler...? W-why...?" she asked.

Stahler chuckled a bit, pulling the dagger out from her and stepping back. "To bring about change, that's why. Eresseas shall be the staging area for a new era" he said.

Phi stumbled back a bit towards the stone wall, holding her right hand over where she was stabbed. She could feel the blood start to pour out of her. "Stahler...you...you're the one responsible for this coordinated attack, aren't you...!?" she asked. She recalled Aya mentioning that these attacks were too coordinated. It was obvious that there was some sort of mole but she didn't expect the mole to be one of her closest allies.

Stahler chuckled a bit, tossing the dagger to the other side of the bridge. "You're partially right. I'm not the only one to take credit for this attack. No, I'm just the assistant" he said.

It didn't take long for Phi to connect the dots at all. She knew who it was that was also behind the attack. "Mike...!" she said under her breath.

Stahler clapped his hands together in celebration. "Yes, you got it! Mike was the one who planned out everything. I'm just here to play the role of the mastermind's assistant and garbage disposal" he said. He had no remorse at all for the actions he's taken. In fact, it looked like he was enjoying everything like a crazed maniac would.

Phi didn't want to believe what was happening. She wanted to think that this was all just one bad nightmare and all she had to do was wake up. However, she was wide awake. Two of her most trusted allies turned traitor for no inexplicable reason. "How long...?" she asked. She wanted to know how long has it been since they've turned. She was afraid to hear the answer.

Stahler tilted his head at her question. "7 months. Ever since that day me and Mike went out to investigate that ruin to the northwest of Briswater, near the cliffs. There, we learned the truth and it was there that we opted to change sides" he said. He then stretched his right arm out and formed a tight fist. "King Caius is the person that understands the world. He is the one that will lead us back on the path to prosperity!" he shouted.

Moments later, the sounds of fighting started to become heard from the other side of the bridge. The enemy soldiers appear to have moved on from the town and pushed their way towards the castle. The knights standing guard along the roads and bridge had started to engage the enemy as they made their approach.

Phi shook her a bit and grabbed onto the hilt of one of her katanas that she had sheathed. "If you think you can get away with this, you're-" she said. All of a sudden, she felt extremely weak and dizzy to the point where she almost lost her balance, causing her to stumble back more all the way against the stone wall where she almost fell backwards over it. "Is this...poison!?" she asked.

Stahler chuckled once more, spreading his arms out like wings and gave her a look of delight. "Yes, the blade of that dagger was coated with a real, nasty poison. I'm afraid you don't have much longer" he said.

Phi gave him a look of disgust and disdain. "Cretin! To resort to using something as vile as poison...! The Stahler I knew...would never use dirty tactics like these...!" she shouted. She felt her strength quickly draining from her as her vision started to blur.

Stahler had an evil look on his face as he could do nothing but laugh. "I'm afraid the Stahler you knew is long gone" he said. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a violet crystal. He held it in the palm of his hand as it started to levitate. "Watch as the curtain rises to a new age!" he shouted.

Moments later, the crystal started to let out a bright, violet glow that was almost blinding. Not long after the crystal started to glow, down towards the lower parts of the castle on the right side, a large explosion erupted from within the castle walls, exposing the lower levels to the lake waters and causing them to flood. The explosion knocked out all of the lights from within the castle as the vibration from the explosion sent shockwaves out in all directions, shattering windows. Due to her unsteady balance already from being poisoned and from her injury, the strong vibrations were enough to cause Phi to fall back over the stone wall. As she fell over the edge, she could see Stahler looking down at her as soldiers stormed past him to cross the bridge towards the castle. Phi soon crashed into the lake waters below and after a few moments, the water ripples ceased.

Stahler stood by the bridge's edge for a few moments and stared down towards the water. Once he saw the ripples cease, he smiled an evil, delighted grin. "Goodbye, Phi. It was nice knowing you" he said. He then stepped away from the bridge's edge and made his way towards the center. He then faced towards the castle. "Alright then. Time for-" he said.

Suddenly, he heard what sounded like soldiers screaming in pain and agony from behind. He turned back around and saw two people standing in the middle of a pile of bodies with more soldiers behind them, all standing around as if they were too afraid to move. One of the people standing there was the Dragonkin from the Recreational District. She looked unharmed and not even remotely tired from her run-in with Lily. The other person was a tall woman with a young appearance and had the ears of an elf. She wore purple armor with a dragon-like design to it and a blue and yellow spear to match the design.

Stahler raised an eyebrow at what he was seeing. "Oh? Who do we have here? Aren't you a little late to play hero?" he asked, almost mockingly.

The elf woman completely ignored him. "Mel, go" she said.

The Dragonkin nodded at her command. "As you wish. Be careful" she said. She then ran over towards the bridge's edge where Phi once stood and jumped over the edge without a moment's hesitation as she dived down into the lake water below.

Stahler watched the strange girl run over to the edge and jump over it. "Playing search and rescue too now as well? I'm sorry to say this but that knight won't make it. She's most likely already dead by now. If the poison didn't kill her, then drowning will" he said.

The elf woman continued to ignore his comments. "Are you done? If you are, then kindly get out of my way. You're annoying" she said.

Stahler grew a little irritated by her comment. "What was that!?" he said angrily. He then took a few deep breaths before turning to face back towards the castle. "Whatever. I don't have time to play with trash like you. I'm not sure who you are but I'm sure my soldiers would love to tear you apart" he said.

He then started to make his way towards the castle as the soldiers that were initially frozen with fear all surrounded the elf woman. The elf woman simply sighed as she shook her head, taking the spear off her back. "Fine then. Let's get this over with. It'll be done with in an instant" she said.

As the soldiers engaged the elf woman, the scene shifts down into the watery depths of the lake. Phi could see the water's surface grow darker and darker the faster she sunk into the lake. She had no strength to bring herself to swim or to stop herself from drowning. She felt the poison run through her body as it started to form a tight grip on her. She all but submitted herself to her fate. "I guess this is it. This is how I die. What a way to go. It's not fair" she thought to herself. She felt her consciousness slipping as her vision started to darken. "King Taichi...Queen Emma...Georg...Tsuki...everyone...survive..." she thought to herself once more before losing consciousness completely.

As she sunk into the watery depths, a bright light could be seen coming from somewhere between her and the water's surface. Moments later, a large and dark silhouette of some creature with yellow eyes came rushing towards Phi and grabbing her. The creature then took Phi away as it rushed through the water with intense speed.

Meanwhile, the scene shifts back up to the audience chamber after Elle had entered the room and informed them of the creatures swarming the lower levels. Elle had briefly mentioned what happened prior to the explosion happening. She was preparing to perform the purification spell with several other royal mages but their plans came crashing down on them when the Anti-Arte Field was put up over Eresseas, blocking their Magical Artes. Without that, they were unable to perform the purification. However, Elle could sense something was terribly wrong so she had the crates that contained the crystal shards placed in a room in the lower levels of the castle. She was planning on doing the purification once they got their Magical Artes back. However, after she had everything moved, the crystals started resonate with each other and glow.

Moments after the glowing started, Elle could hear the crystal shards start to emit a humming sound. It wasn't long after that when she sensed a sudden surge of power. She was too late to react as the crates containing the crystal shards all exploded, blasting open the outer walls and letting in a torrent of water. She ended up being caught up in the explosion which practically destroyed her armor but was otherwise okay. Before she could make sense of what was happening, she saw that a strange, purple fog started to expand out from the explosion. Then, spawning from that, were the strange entities that Tsuki had encountered several times before and of different variety. She ended up fighting several of them as she made her way out of the lower levels but the fog had spread pretty fast and before she knew it, the entirety of the lower levels were filled with the purple fog.

When she made it back to the higher floors where the fog wasn't around, she was forced to seal off the doors that led down into the lower levels but not before taking a hit on her right arm from black flames. With the lower levels sealed, she hurried over to the audience chamber to fill the king and queen of the situation. She wasn't sure how long the door to the lower levels would hold, however. The situation they were in had become much more dire. They had enemy soldiers at their doorstep and a horde of strange entities within the castle walls that grew quickly in number in a short span of time.

Taichi nodded to himself as he listened to what Elle had to say. Frankly. things were looking pretty grim for them. They were being driven into a tight corner fast. "Things are progressing faster with every minute" he said.

Moments after he said that, they all heard a loud rumble that shook the castle. Right after that, they could hear sounds of yelling and metal clashing off in the distance. It would seem the fighting has broken through the front gates and reached the inner portions of the castle. It was only a matter of time at this point before they're completely overrun.

Emma glanced over at Taichi with a worried expression. "Taichi...maybe we should cut our loses here. Our forces are too far divided made only worse with the fact that half of our knights were rendered defenseless without the use of Artes" she said.

Taichi didn't want to agree with her but she was right. Emma, as she was now, was unable to fight because she can't use her Magical Artes. He had a lot of confidence in his own skills but one man can't stand up against a horde of soldiers, let alone an entire lower level filled with strange entities. "You may have a point. So long as we're within this barrier, we'll be fighting at a disadvantage" he said.

Mike soon bowed to Taichi. "Your Majesty, the escape tunnel for the royal family isn't too far from here. On your order, I shall lead you all to safety" he said. He was looking down towards the ground so no one would notice it but he had an evil grin on his face.

Taichi nodded at Mike. "We have no choice. Lead the-" he said.

Suddenly, Emma felt a powerful surge of power very close by which caused her to act. "Everyone! Get down!" she shouted.

As she said it, the doors to the audience chamber and the surrounding walls were blasted open from the hallway. A blast of electrified energy shot through the doors and wall that everyone had to dodge out of the way from. The blast blew through the throne chairs and out the through the already broken windows behind them. Smoke and heavy electrical static filled the audience chamber from the sudden attack.

Tsuki coughed from the smoke that filled the room. It was hard to see already because it was dark and the smoke made it worse. He could also feel how electrified the air became. It made his hair stand up. "W-what was that!?" he asked. He waved his hand in front of him his face to try and wave off some of the smoke in front of him. "Is everyone alright!?" he shouted.

Ramza groaned as he shook his head. "Ugh...my ears are ringing..." he said.

Ruko had thrown himself over Lynette to shield her. He took a bit of a hit himself from the blast and falling debris but thankfully, Lynette was mostly unharmed. "We're fine over here. Just banged up a little" he said in a slight pained voice.

Lynette looked up at Ruko who hovered over her, using his body as a shield. "Ruko...T-thank you..." she said. She was a little embarrassed with how close they were which was indicated from her light blushing.

Similarly, Elle had grabbed onto Nagi and held her close and used herself to protect her. The rest of her armor was all but destroyed at this point, her back bleeding from taking a hit. She winced from the pain but was able to grin and bare it. "Are you alright, Nagi?" she asked.

Nagi looked at Elle and nodded. "I-I am. T-thanks..." she said. She then took a closer look at her face. This was the first time she's seen Elle but something about her face looked strangely familiar. Her gaze shifted over to her eyes and it was within moments that she connected the dots. "Wait, could you be-?" she asked.

Elle put a finger up to her lips to stop her from talking. She realized what Nagi had realized and knew what she was about to say so she had to stop her from talking. She didn't respond to her and simply shook her head. As for Nagi, it would seem that she was correct in what she was about to say which almost brought her to tears but toughed it out so no one would notice. She didn't need to hear her say it. She just knew her answer.

Reia slowly stood up, brushing the dust and debris off her, coughing from the smoke. "Talk about a close one..." she said.

Taichi hovered over both Emma and Cheria. Amazingly, they were all unscathed from the sudden attack. "Of all the welcomes to get..." he said.

Tsuki looked around as the smoke soon started to clear. Judging from the sounds of fighting, it sounded like the main fighting force was still a ways away from them. They weren't alone. He looked towards where the doors used to be and as the smoke cleared, he was able to make out something. After taking a closer look, he saw that buried underneath the rubble from the wall and the doors was Stahler, who was severely injured. "Stahler!" he shouted. He then ran towards the pile of debris to help him.

Just then, a female's voice came speaking out from the other side of the smoke and debris. "If I were you, I wouldn't take another step closer to him" the voice said.

Soon, a pair of metallic footsteps could be heard walking across the fallen doors and debris. Soon, out from the smoke appeared the elf woman from the bridge in her purple, dragon designed armor. She looked like she didn't even break a sweat. The spear that she had was on her back as sparks of electricity could be seen coming from her right hand. As she walked into the audience chamber, she reached down and grabbed onto Stahler, pulling him up off his feet by his collar as he groaned from the pain. Without hesitation, she threw him down against the floor with force. You could almost hear a few bones breaking as hit the ground as he screamed in pain.

Naturally, Tsuki drew his sword and assumed an offensive stance. Since he didn't know that Stahler had betrayed them yet, he assumed that the elf warrior standing before him was an enemy and a powerful one too by the looks of her. "Who the hell are you!?" he asked.

The elf woman looked towards Tsuki as he drew his sword against her. His reaction was completely understandable. After all, he did just witness his supposed ally get pulverized and thrown down like a piece of trash. "Someone who's here to save you" she said. She then glanced over towards Taichi and Emma, giving them an expression of familiarity. "Isn't that right, Tai? Em?" she asked.

Everyone was thrown off by her words. They had all the signs of familiarity, right down to what sounded like nicknames for Taichi and Emma. All eyes were on all three of them as confusion enveloped the room. It was almost as if the sounds of fighting became more distant all of a sudden. With Eresseas crumbling down all around them, a mysterious pair suddenly appeared at the same time as the Honegroth soldiers. Judging by her looks, the elf warrior appeared to quite formidable especially since she was able to make it through the entire city while fighting off enemy soldiers without as so much of a scratch on her. Not even Stahler seemed to have stood a chance against her. The more they thought about it, the more curious everyone became of who she was and what her connection was with Taichi and Emma.

To be continued...