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

34. Raven's Claw -1st Revision-

Tales of Xalthia

Chapter 33: Raven's Claw

Tsuki and the others soon reached the Third Haven outpost in a matter of 2 hours by use of the newly designed Sand Skimmers. The ride across the desert was fairly smooth and uneventful aside the typical monster encounter that got in the way but nothing else more exciting than that. Despite the unique design of the Skimmer, it held up and did what it was designed to do pretty well. When the Skimmer eventually pulled into Third Haven, the locals were surprised. Colin had explained to the locals at the outpost what was going on and introduced them all to the Skimmer which came across as a huge convenience to many, particularly the merchants and travelers. They were all eager to try out the Skimmer.

Waiting in the outpost were the group of mercenaries that were sent out. Seara went and greeted them while Colin talked to the locals for a bit. After about 20 minutes, the commotion started to settle. Seara brought the group of mercenaries towards the Skimmer and had them climb onto it. The group consisted of 2 A-ranks, 5 B-ranks and a handful of C-rank and lower. She didn't expect a big group to be sent out so she was going to have to make two trips across the desert with Colin.

When everyone was ready to go, Colin readied the Skimmer to return to Chesberry. Before he set out though, he looked back towards Tsuki and the others. "You guys watch your backs out there. If what happened at the underground auction wasn't enough of an eye-opener, then I don't know what is" he said.

Seara nodded in agreement as she sat in the back with the rest of the mercenaries. "I agree. I'm not sure what you guys got yourselves involved with but I can expect that you will have some troubled times ahead of you" she said. She glanced over towards Ramza for a brief moment. There was a faint trace of worry in her expression but barely noticeable for them. "Stay safe out there, you hear?" she asked.

Ramza shrugged his shoulders. "Aren't I always? Don't worry so much. Spend any more time worrying and you'll sink quicker than quicksand" he said. He didn't need her to be concerned about them but it was appreciated nonetheless.

Colin gave them one last wave goodbye. "Make sure you drop by to visit! After all, a new age of desert travel is upon us!" he said.

They waved each other off and activated the Skimmer. People standing around were watching in amazement as the carriage came to life. Moments later, the Skimmer took off back into the desert, quickly disappearing behind dust trails and sand dunes. People stood around, talking about the invention with excitement. As for Tsuki and the others, they headed in the opposite direction back towards the exit of Third Haven that led them back out into the grassy fields of Ersheath.

Tsuki took a moment to take out the map of Ersheath in order to figure out where to go. "So, where is Nobuo Shrine from here?" he asked.

Ramza walked up to him and pointed with his finger where they currently were on the map. "We're right here. If we follow the roads north, we'll eventually start to see Ustrisu Fortress, which is right here" he said, tracing his finger northeast on the map. "Somewhere along the road, there will be a path that diverges west through a small forest canyon" he said. He traced his finger along the map again slightly southwest on the map on the main road as he moved his finger through a woodland area that stretched to a cliff that overlooked the ocean. "Here is where we'll find the Nobuo Shrine. It's a remote place so you can't miss it" he said.

Ruko crossed his arms as he looked at the map for a moment. "So, what kind of place is the Nobuo Shrine? Why is it in such a remote place?" he asked.

Ramza took a moment to gather his thoughts. "The Nobuo Shrine is a research institution of sorts. Scholars and researchers gather there to study astronomy and oceanography" he said. He's never been there himself but he's heard that it's one of the places most aspiring researchers try to reach. "The remote location offers the best opportunity for stargazing as you're far away from city lights and noise. The heightened views of the ocean from the cliffs allows others to study the ocean from afar while also seeing the effects the moon has to the ocean currents" he said.

Lynette tilted her head a bit. When she heard of the name, she was thinking that it was some place of worship or had some form of religion to it. "A research institution, huh? Not quite what I was expecting…" he said.

Ramza chuckled a bit, shaking his head. "You aren't the only one to feel that way. A lot of people tend to have misconceptions about Nobuo Shrine" he said.

Phi grew a bit more worried. "So, not only is the Raven's Claw at risk, but civilians as well" she said.

Allie shook her head and pumped herself up a bit. "Who cares? With us on the case, there's nothing we can't handle!" she said.

Elle nodded, sharing some of Allie's enthusiasm. "Allie is right. If we can get there before Kaito does, then we can try and warn them of the approaching danger" she said.

Cheria glanced at the map for a moment. "Maps always seem to make things look closer than they actually are" she said. She scratches her head as she tries to judge how long it would take to get there. "Looks like it's about 4 hours from here on foot" she said.

Cesela stared off into the distance in the direction they needed to go in. "Will we make it?" she asked.

Elle nodded and stepped forward onto the path. "It's not even mid-day yet. We should be able to get there by early afternoon" she said. It would be a good thing to arrive there early so that they can give them enough warning time and possibly fortify the area.

Nagi pumped herself up for the trip ahead of them. Not only were they going to see some new sights but she could finally contribute to the group with her new spell book. After doing some training with Mina and Elle, she felt that she was confident enough to join them in battle. "We also have to find that person we're suppose to meet. They're suppose to wait for us there, right?" she asked.

Tsuki nodded at her, rolling the map back up and putting it away. "Supposedly. Let's not keep them waiting. According to what the report said, they've already had a head-start on us" he said.

Lynette tilted her head a bit. It would seem that they were missing something. "How will we even find this person? We weren't exactly given a description of what they look like…" she said.

Tsuki shrugged his shoulders a bit. "Well, it's a research institute. Just look for someone who stands out" he said. If this person was sent out to intercept Kaito, then he wouldn't come with a book and quill dressed like a scholar. "Let's get moving while the day is still young" he said.

They grouped up and started down the pathway into the grassy fields. They followed the straightforward path northwards for what felt like an eternity. Along the way, they had the usual monster encounter which gave both Nagi and Cesela a chance to practice on real targets. Nagi already had some experience with fighting during the chaos that ensued in Chesberry but Cesela was a total novice with no battle experience. For a number of monster encounters, she struggled quite a big with using a bow. Thankfully, Cheria was there to teach her how to properly wield and use it. She was only 2 years younger than her when she first started to learn the way of the bow, taught by her teacher and former Royal Eight member, Malana Faust.

After a while, Cesela slowly started to get the hang of it but still had a long way to go to be able to call herself an archer. It was the first time Cheria took someone under her wing to learn how to wield a bow so she was pretty nervous herself. Remembering the lessons that her teacher taught her helped guide her. With her training out in the open field, having her to face off against living monsters right off the bat posed a challenge for her since Cheria started out shooting at targets and practice dummies for the first few months of her training. Surprisingly though, Cesela managed to catch on to things pretty quickly once she started getting used to it which surprised her.

Nagi showed everyone her potential and what she was able to do so that she could prove to them that she could equally contribute with the rest of them. Seeing her finally break out of her shell was a relief and a breath of fresh air for Tsuki. Her skills were still much to be desired but it was plain to see that the Darkness she wields was a destructive, powerful force. Tsuki could tell that his concerns for her aren't warranted.

Their trek northward continued on, keeping with the same pace. After about 2 and half hours of traveling north, they could start to see the high, stone walls of what could only be Ustrisu Fortress start to appear over the horizon. Not only after they started to see Ustrisu Fortress in the far-off distance, they were coming up to a woodland area off to their left. There was a side path that split off from the main road and stretched into the forest. They checked where they were on the map and saw that they were at the place they needed to be. They took the path that split off into the woodland area and soon entered the forest.

It didn't take them too long after entering the forest until they reached a small clearing with a large tree in the center, surrounded by flowers. There weren't any signs of monster activity so they didn't have to worry about that. The sun's rays shined down through the tree canopy as a cool, gentle breeze blew through the forest, blowing eastward. The forest clearing offered a sense of serenity and tranquility.

As they stepped into the clearing, Cesela was starting to feel fatigued from all the walking. Not being accustomed to long-distance travel, it was especially hard on her. "So tired…" she said, dragging her feet across the grass.

Tsuki glanced back at her for a moment as he approached the large tree and stopped under the provided shade. He stretched his arms out and turned to face the others. "This forest eventually leads to a canyon before spilling out to the cliffs so I assume the path is going to get a bit more rough. Let's take a quick break to recover some energy before moving forward" he said.

Cesela dragged herself further a bit more before dropping down onto her knees, feeling totally exhausted as she let out a tired groan. "I didn't think travel could be so exhausting…" she said.

Allie walked in front of her, reached down and took hold of her hands, lightly pulling at her. "Come on, don't let exhaustion wear you down! Big sis Cessie is stronger than that!" she said, trying to encourage her.

Cesela looked at Allie as she was pulling her arms. She shook her head, not finding the energy to get up. "I'm afraid you're putting too much stock in me. My body isn't used to long-distance foot travel" she said.

Lynette felt a sense of déjà vu from her statements. It made her chuckle a bit as she thought back to when she first joined up with Tsuki in Crescentia. "You'll adjust to it. I went through the same thing when I teamed up with Tsuki" she said. She still gets tired from long periods of walking like the rest but compared to when she first started out, she's seen a noticeable difference in her stamina.

Tsuki remembered the early days of his travels. "You used to complain a lot back then from what I remember. It wasn't until after the whole incident with the Briswater Mines that you started to complain less" he said. She always tried to push through as much as she could but she could only endure so much.

Lynette looked over at Tsuki, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm a country girl who's never left her village! What did you expect?" she asked. Granted, they ran into a lot of hardships that they could have been avoided.

Elle shrugged her shoulders as she walked up to the large tree and sat down, resting her back up against the wide tree trunk. "There's also the fact that she's still pretty young. It's only natural that she doesn't have the same physical fortitude as we do" she said.

Cesela lets out a heavy sigh and takes a quick glance at Allie, who was still full of energy. The fact that she was younger than her, at least by how appearances go, didn't make it better. "I'm not sure if that makes me feel any better…" she said.

Ruko walked up to Cesela and lightly patted her on the shoulder. "Don't mind her too much. It's been said before but Allie is a special case" he said.

Cheria tilted her head a bit as she came to a realization about something. "You know, we never gave her the full run-down of our journey, now that I think about it" she said.

Cesela's ears twitched a bit. She was so focused on the fact that she was freed from the Cursed Mark that she hadn't realized that she never asked them what their journey was really about. "That's alright. You don't have to tell me" she said.

Tsuki shook his head. If she was going to travel with them, then she was going to need to know the full story behind their journey. "No, it would be better for us all if you knew what was going on" he said.

Tsuki and the others spent the next several minutes explaining to Cesela about the state of the world, the purpose behind their journey and what led them to the present. As to be expected, Cesela had a hard time understanding everything. The story was already outrageous enough for a grown adult to hear and, as a child, it didn't sound real at all. They did their best to speak about things in a way that she would be able to understand but there were things that were impossible to explain easily such as the whole thing with Tsuki and the Sigil.

Cesela was left scratching her head with one of her ears lower than the other as she processed what she could. "Mmm...it's so confusing…" she said.

Phi chuckled a bit as she could sympathize with her on that. "That makes two of us. I've already heard this story a few times already and it still sounds absurd to me" she said. The more she hears it, the more crazy it seems to sound.

Lynette thought couldn't help but think back on their journey so far. Everything started out rather calm and peacefully but quickly started to spiral out of control. "It's crazy to think how things turned out this way" she said.

Nagi could sympathize with that feeling. It's like every chance they get to take a breather, something always seems to happen that throws them back into the fray. "It really has been one thing after another, hasn't it?" she asked.

Cesela rocked back and forth a bit before her ears twitched slightly. She could hear sounds of faint rumbling starting to occur which prompted her to look up into the sky as she sniffed the air. "Uh oh. Looks like we have a storm brewing" she said.

Ramza took note of the skies above them. He could see how fast the clouds were starting to circulate around them. "Looks like we got some weather coming in. We better continue along and pick up the pace if we want to reach Nobuo Shrine before the downpour comes" he said.

Cheria nodded. After the last big storm that came through, she didn't want to take any chances of being caught outside. "How you feeling, Cesela? Can you walk?" she asked.

Cesela nodded and stood back up, stretching a bit to get the blood flowing again. "I should be fine now. The rest helped quite a bit" she said. She was still feeling a bit tired but she knew that they had to press on and didn't want to slow them down further than they already have.

Tsuki nodded, looking over towards Allie. "Keep an eye on her, will you?" he asked. He then glanced over at Cesela for a brief moment. "And if you ever need to rest, just say so. You're part of the group now too" he said. He wanted to make sure that she was fully aware that she could speak up if anything's bothering her.

The both of them were of the same mind as they gave him a casual salute and spoke at the same time. "Okay!" they said.

Everyone gathered their things and continued along the forest path. The deeper into the forest they went, the more they could start to smell the scent of the ocean from the off-shore breeze coming through the forest. The path through the forest was maintained pretty well and was lit up by lights posted along the path. As per usual, they fought the local variety of forest monsters as they made their way along the trails. They could hear and see the storm building up above them as sounds of thunder could be heard getting stronger by the minute. Seeing the storm build up faster than anticipated, they quickened their pace. In order to stay ahead of the storm, Tsuki carried Cesela on his back so that they could move along faster.

The path eventually opened up to a small canyon that went through a split in the mountains. It was a straight-forward, narrow passageway that didn't take them long to travel through. They weren't being protected by the tree canopies of the forest though so they could start to feel the start of light rain. Thankfully, they exited the canyon not long after this as the area opened up to a small area free of trees that overlooked the vast oceans.

On the far end of the open plain, there was a stone, two-story building sitting right up on the edge of the cliff. The building was covered in moss and various flowers and even had a number of small garden areas scattered around the open area. The place was so remote yet also self-sustaining. Off to the right side of the two-story building, there was another smaller building and surrounding the whole area was a stone wall and an iron gate.

Ramza took in the sight of what he was seeing. He could now understand why some people make this their goal. "So, this is the Nobuo Shrine, eh?" he asked. He looked around as he saw various people tending to the small gardens just outside of the gates. "They got a whole set-up here. A small farm and a number of gardens to keep them sustained and a great view" he said.

Lynette tilted her head a bit, putting her finger up to her chin. "I suppose that being in such a remote location, they don't necessarily get a whole lot of supplies delivered here so they grow their own" she said. It reminded her of her Crescentia a little bit. Aside from the occasional merchant caravan that came through, most of their stuff was grown in their fields.

Nagi looked at the surrounding area with a captivating look to her eyes. "I can see why this would make a great place to research the ocean and the stars. A wide open view of the ocean and an unobscured view of the night sky" she said, looking up towards the sky. She took in a deep breath of the salty sea air from the ocean as she heard the sounds of waves crashing against the bottom of the cliffs. "The sounds of the ocean, the peace and quiet, the remote location…it really sets a certain mood" she said.

Tsuki bent down to let Cesela off his back and stood back up. While the view wasn't quite the same, he was reminded of the top of Celestial Hills, where he retrieved the Moonlight Flower for Lynette way back when. "It's got a charming, calming vibe, that's for sure" he said.

Cesela ran up to the edge of the cliff off towards the left to look out at the ocean that expanded out to the horizon as well as the drop down towards the ocean. They were high enough from the ocean that they were save from the waves pounding against the cliffs and potentially cause serious injury if one were to slip and fall. If not by the impact of the water, then from the currents and force of the waves slamming against the rocks. "Whoa…we're so high up" she said, admiring the view.

Cheria walked up behind Cesela and put her arms around her, resting them against her chest as she kept her close and away from the edge. "Be careful now. Wouldn't want you to slip" she said.

Cesela was busy admiring the view when Cheria came up to her and pulled her towards her as she lightly held onto her, her ears twitching a bit. "O-oh. I'm sorry, I just got a little excited, that's all…" she said. Her ears lowered a bit as she felt her warmth shroud around her like a blanket.

Ruko looked around them, scratching his head a bit. "So, we're suppose to meet up with this person, right? You think he's through that gate up ahead?" he asked.

Phi shook her head. "If the only way for us to gain entry into the Shrine was through that passport Shinzo gave us, then I doubt he would be inside" she said. There was obviously no signs of battle either so that ruled out the possibility of him forcing his way inside.

At that moment, a deep male's voice came speaking out. "And your doubts would be correct" the voice said.

Soon after that, a person came out from behind a nearby wall. The person was dressed in a full-body robe so he immediately came off as suspicious to Tsuki and the others. He stopped within a few feet of the group and removed the robe in order to reveal himself to them. Underneath the robe was a man who looked to be in his late 20s with spikey blonde hair and blue eyes. He wore light clothing with a katana strapped to his waist and had a pair of black gloves on his hands. His attired resembled that of a young samurai mixed in with casual clothing.

The man folded the robe up and placed it into his bag before locking his gaze on Tsuki and the others. "You must be the people I was instructed to meet. The name is Reis Shukaku. It's a pleasure to meet you" he said, bowing slightly towards them.

Tsuki connected the pieces together as he realized that this person was the person they were told about. "Pleasure's all ours. My name is Tsuki Himura" he said. He examined the man closely as he took stock of him. As he did, he felt an all-too familiar feeling coming from him. "Hm? This feeling…" he said.

Allie approached Tsuki's side, sensing the same thing that he was which put her on guard. "You…bear Arcanum inside of you…" he said.

Reis looked down towards Allie with a surprised look on his face. "What? How did you know?" he asked.

Ramza slowly reached up and grabbed onto the hilt of his sword as he readied himself. "What's going on here? Is this a set-up!?" he asked.

Everyone else understandably went into defensive mode as they prepared themselves in case he suddenly attacked. Meanwhile, Reis looked at them in shock and surprise while also looking a bit dumbfounded in the process.

Cesela could see the swirling Aer around the man. She was able to gauge just how strong Arcanum was through Aetherflow. What she saw was a mass of dark, corrupted Aer but what was strange was that he was blending in with Reis's own Aer. It was almost as if both types of Aer were supporting each other. What she felt was powerful and dangerous but not threatening. "Wait, hold on! I don't think he means us any harm!" she said.

Ruko shook his head. The fact that he wields Arcanum alone was a bad sign. "Cesela, you aren't aware of this yet, but Arcanum…the power that he has is not to be trifled with" he said.

Reis shook his head as things seemed to be escalating pretty quickly. "Wait, how do you all know about Arcanum!?" he asked. He was left extremely confused as he had no idea what was going on.

Elle gave him a cautious stare as she assessed him. "I think the better question is, how and why are you wielding Arcanum? Are you in league with Caius?" she asked.

Reis tilted his head a bit. "Caius? I'm sorry; I'm unfamiliar with the name…" he said. He looked completely lost at what they were talking about. It would seems that they had mistaken him for someone else. "The only person I serve is my commander, Flynn Callus" he said.

Ramza seemed to immediately recognize the name he just spoke. "Wait, THE Flynn Callus? The person that's otherwise known as the Destructive Blade?" he asked. He didn't think he'd hear his name cropping up in these parts.

Cheria tilted her head a bit. "Who's that?" she asked. Based off his reaction, it must have been pretty significant.

Ramza nodded, looking over towards Cheria as he lowered his arm and rested it at his side, as if he were relaxing. "Flynn Callus. He's the Commander of a guerilla force that operates in Nargelond that opposes Dolothlond" he said.

Nagi crossed her arms with a contemplative look on her face. "So, a rebellion of sorts" she said.

Ramza started to piece things together in his head, particularly this "secret contact" of Raiku's. If Reis was sent out to Nobuo Shrine by orders of Flynn, then it would only be proper to assume that he was this "secret contact". This only prompted more questions such as how Raiku came to form a connection with a foreign rebellion commander. "It would seem His Majesty's reach and influence extends out further than I had expected" he said.

Phi took note of the worsening skies as they talked. "Hey guys? Unless you want to be soaked to the bone, why don't we head inside the Shrine first before we get into any deep talks?" she asked. The wind was starting to pick up from the gathering storm.

Lynette nodded. "I second that. I'd rather not be in wet rags" she said. She had a change of clothes but it won't do her any good if they got wet as well.

Everyone seemed to look at each other in agreement and started to make their way over towards the gated Nobuo Shrine. It took them about 15 minutes to walk from the canyons over towards the Shrine where they got some curious looks from the gardeners and farmers that were lingering outside of the gates. For the people of Nobuo Shrine, they didn't get very many outside visitors so it was natural for them to be curious.

Tsuki and the others soon approached the closed gates of Nobuo Shrine where they saw two guards standing by. The two guards were a little suspicious of them at first as they stood in the way between them and entry into the Shrine.

One of the guards cautiously approached the group. "It's not often we get visitors this far out. Unfortunately, Nobuo Shrine is only open to certified scholars and licensed students and researchers" he said. He examined Tsuki's group a bit more. "Is there something we can help you folks with?" he asked.

Tsuki approached the guard that spoke out to them. "We've come bearing news of great importance on behalf of Raiku" he said.

The guard tilted his head, looking more suspicious of them by the minute. "His Majesty? I'm going to need some identification then…" he said.

Tsuki reached into his bag and took out the red passport that Shinzo had gave him before he left, handing it to the guard. "Will this suffice?" he asked.

The guard took one look at the passport that Tsuki handed him, taking note of the seal of the royal family and Ustrisu Fortress and his attitude immediately changed. "T-that passport…!" he said. He handed it back to Tsuki and looked over towards the other guard. "Inform the Headmaster immediately!" he said.

The second guard saluted him with a metallic snap. "R-right away!" he said. He soon entered through the gates and went sprinting off towards the main building of the Shrine.

The other guard bowed towards Tsuki and the others before saluting them himself. "My deepest apologies, folks! We weren't aware that we were receiving important guests today!" he said.

Tsuki tilted his head as he looked at the passport in his hand. "Important guests…?" he asked. He then glanced over towards Ramza. "Ramza, just what is this passport?" he asked.

Ramza scratched the back of his head, not looking surprised at all by the guard's reactions. "I figured this would happen. That type of passport isn't exactly handed out to just anyone so I was a little shocked that His Majesty and Shinzo gave you one. Not even I had the honor of having one when I served as General" he said. He pointed at the thing that Tsuki was holding. "What you're holding is what's known around here as the Oval Pass. Only select individuals that meet the approval of His Majesty and Shinzo are granted it. It's the highest honor someone in Ersheath can obtain" he said. Honestly, he felt a little envious that Tsuki was granted such a prestigious item, something even the most faithful and loyal of supporters were otherwise not.

Phi scratched her head a bit as he talked about the significance of this Oval Pass. "His Majesty, I could understand but…just who, exactly, is Shinzo?" she asked.

Ramza let out a sigh since Shinzo never actually told them what his official title was. "To put it simply, Shinzo is the High Commander of the Esseand Royal Knights and also serves as the head honcho of Ustrisu Fortress" he said.

Lynette remembered when the townspeople of Chesberry all seemed to flock over to him with excitement. He definitely had the looks and aura of a powerful and distinguished knight but she didn't expect him to have such a title to his name. "I guess that explains the overexcitement that the townspeople had…" she said.

Phi still had a confused look on her face. "But that was the first time we met him. Why did he give Tsuki the Oval Pass? If it had that much significance to it, I can't imagine that he would simply just hand it over" she said. It made no sense to her. They were total strangers who didn't know each other for more than an hour, at best.

Ramza shook his head, unsure how to answer that himself. "That's the mystery right there. Maybe he was able to judge his character at a glance. The Oval Pass isn't something that can be passed down with ease. Even if His Majesty were to approve of someone, he had to as well" he said. He crossed his arms and fell into thought for a minute. "Maybe it was because of our actions with the underground auction...?" he asked.

Tsuki shook his head as he had a hard time keeping up with them. "We can ask them later about the details when we see them again. Right now, it's not important" he said.

Around the same time as he said that, the other guard soon returned to the gate with an older individual with grey hair and a matching beard in a researchers lab coat, wearing a monocle.

The older gentleman approached Tsuki and his group, adjusting his monocle slightly as he examined them. "So, these must be our honored guests. Quite an odd bunch but who am I to complain if both His Majesty and Shinzo approve?" he said. He then bowed to the group. "My name is Yoshiki Tenzu. I'm the headmaster of Nobuo Shrine. It's an honor to meet you" he said. He stood off to the side, stretching his arm out towards the inner courtyard. "Come, let's talk inside. Better to do it around a warm fire than in a rainstorm" he said.

Taking note of the worsening weather, he ordered the guards and the lingering gardeners and farmers to come in and take shelter from the storm. Meanwhile, Tsuki and the others were hurried on inside as the rains started to pick up. With the gates to the Shrine locked and secured, everyone else still lingering outside quickly took shelter in one of the two buildings within the courtyard. Tsuki and the others were brought to one of the classrooms with Yoshiki as they proceeded to introduce who they were as well as getting some information about what the Nobuo Shrine was.

The main building of Nobuo Shrine, the same one Tsuki and the others were hurried in, was a literal shrine that was repurposed into a small research institute of sorts. The building was made out of stone and brick and the architecture had a lot of history to it. The first floor of the shrine were rooms dedicated to those studying the nature of the ocean such as its currents and riptides while the second floor were for those studying the stars. Researchers and students even use the rooftop to stargaze and study the vast ocean that expanded out in front of them.

The adjacent building was a dormitory for those that were residing within the Shrine. Because of it's remote location, everyone who is attending Nobuo Shrine has a place to stay and are given all of the commodities that they would need. A cafeteria where they use freshly grown produce and other foods that they keep in storage from the occasional delivery, a full array of baths and showers, a place of rest and leisure for those who want to take a load off and they even have a big open-air spa. Even in such a remote location, everyone had all that they would need to feel right at home. It wasn't all that crowded either which made it better. There were only roughly 100 people residing at the Shrine. 15 of them were certified scholars, 55 were students, 20 were general staff such as cleaners, cooks, gardeners and farmers and the remaining 10 were guards.

Yoshiki would eventually go on to tell them the history of Nobuo Shrine. Before it was repurposed into a research institute, it used to be a place of worship. The various ruined walls that were scattered around the fields outside of the gates were remnants of housing and other buildings that once stood in this area. According to the preserved texts and scroll, Nobuo Shrine was a place where people once worshipped Spirits of all kinds, even the Great spirits themselves. The shrine stood as a monument of prayer for people for centuries. That is, until faith in the Spirits dwindled and the shrine received fewer and fewer guests. Eventually, the shrine was forced to permanently close its doors. The shrine was then abandoned and essentially left to rot for the next few centuries. The houses and various other buildings that once stood had all but succumbed to the ravages of time and exposure to mother nature and eventually caved in on themselves. The shrine itself had, at one point, partially caved in on itself as mother nature started to lay claim to it.

It wasn't until Year 2850 that Nobuo Shrine would be fully restored under the order of the royal family that ruled Esseand at the time. They rebuilt the shrine and made it into the research institute that it is in the present age. The royal family at the time wanted to preserve the history of Ersheath and rather than constructing an entirely new building, they wanted to bring back a long-forgotten piece of history. While the original designs of the shrine had long been lost, builders and architects did their best to recreate the ruined parts of the shrine and made several sets of classrooms within the newly rebuilt Nobuo Shrine. Unfortunately, the outer buildings had all already been destroyed beyond recognition so they were removed.

Yoshiki continued to talk to them about the deep history of Nobuo Shrine for a good while as the gathering storm clouds above them gathered in strength and intensity while having heavy rains batter the walls of the shrine. The rain was so heavy that you could hear it from within the stone walls. The thunder was pretty loud too as it rumbled the skies. Once they were done talking about the history of the shrine, Tsuki and the others proceeded to introduce themselves properly to both Yoshiki and Reis. They told them about their journey and what their goals were.

Reis was stunned to know that there were other people out there that were aware of the existence of Arcanum while Yoshiki tried to process the bad news about the approaching threat of Kaito. Naturally, there were things about what they said that left them even more confused but for their sakes, they decided to keep the more complicated details to themselves.

Yoshiki was the first to speak out after the matters that were brought to his attention. "Ordinarily, I would need consultation to verify the story but the fact that you carry the Oval Pass is all the proof I needed" he said.

Tsuki still hasn't fully grasped the significance of the Oval Pass quite yet. "You believe us just like that?" he asked.

Yoshiki nodded at him. "The Oval Pass is only given to the most trusted and capable individuals, something that both His Majesty and Shinzo don't hand out lightly so, yes. That's all I need to believe you" he said. He then glanced over towards Ramza, giving him a slight smirk. "Besides, you have the illustrious former General in your entourage. What more could I need?" he asked, shrugging his shoulders.

Lynette was glad that he came to understand them so easily. It would make the process going further much easier for them. "Then, you'll evacuate the shrine?" she asked.

Yoshiki shook his head. "Unfortunately, that's not possible now. With this storm, it'd be too dangerous to move 100 people through a narrow forest trail" he said. What they were experiencing was another typhoon, similarly to what happened a few days ago when they were in Esseand. "I'll initiate a strict curfew for everyone to not leave the Residence Hall under any circumstances after nightfall but that's the best I can do" he said. Since they almost never have any sort of conflict around these parts, they never had a need to build an emergency shelter of any kind.

Phi didn't particularly like the idea but he did have a point. The storms have darkened the skies which would reduce the already low visibility of the forest and the added torrential rain would make it worse to walk along the narrow dirt paths. A curfew was their only other option. "Where's the Raven's Claw located?" she asked. What she was concerned about was the exact location of what they're trying to guard.

Yoshiki pointed up towards the ceiling. "Sealed within a small chamber on the roof. Ordinarily, it would be locked away in the vaults but the stargazers are using it for a project that they've been working on for months now" he said. He wasn't told exactly what they were working on yet but the stargazers did have a demonstration planned for their project in the upcoming days. Whatever it is though, they've boasted that it will change the way how astronomy is conducted.

Ruko shook his head. Of all the places where it could be it had to be on the roof, exposed to the elements. "That's the worst possible place for it to be right now too. Can it be moved elsewhere, by any chance?" he asked.

Yoshiki shook his head slowly. "According to the head astronomer, no. Once the project starts, it can't be removed until it's finished otherwise they jeopardize months of work" he said. As a researcher, he knew how important things like this were so it was impossible for him to simply put a stop to it. "Unfortunate as it is to say this, there are some people here that care more about their research than their own lives so trying to convincing them is a wasted effort" he said.

Elle sighed heavily, hanging her head a bit in disappointment. "How long would this project of theirs take? We're talking about a potentially dangerous scenario here" she said.

Yoshiki didn't have a clear answer to give her. "The part of the project that involves the Raven's Claw is still going to take a couple of hours. I can't say when but I'm confident it'll be before the day's end" he said. They had commenced the project earlier in the day and once they were able to gather enough of their findings, they could finally reveal and demonstrate whatever it was that they were working on.

Nagi had a look of concern on her. "And we don't know when, exactly, Kaito would show up. Is there no other way?" she asked.

Tsuki shook his head. He knew that their options were limited. "Regardless if there is another way or not, the fact of the matter is, is that people's livelihoods are in danger and we can't just ignore that. We'll just have to make do and keep our eyes open" he said. He then glanced over towards Yoshiki. "The less people that are out moving around after nightfall, the better" he said. He wanted to minimize the risk of civilian casualty as much as possible.

Yoshiki nodded at him and stood up from professor's table. "I'll go inform the students and faculty then so they have time to finish up what they're doing. Leave it all to me and feel free to make yourselves at home here" he said. With that, he headed towards the door to the classroom and left.

As he left, Reis couldn't help but think about their situation. While it was true that they were fighting against Dolothlond's forces by using a small guerilla force, he never thought that things would come to this. "To think things have gotten this bad so fast. Something must have accelerated things over there…" he said. He was aware of the tense relationship between Esseand and Dolothlond but this was a significant step forward.

Tsuki took deep breath before turning to face Reis. "While he handles the situation here, it's your turn now. You know what it is we want to know; tell us what you know about Arcanum and why you wield it" he said. He was curious to know what his circumstances were. He didn't seem to be their enemy but that doesn't make him any less of a threat so long as Arcanum is added into the mix.

Reis looked over at Tsuki and nodded. "Much of it is still a mystery to me but what I have concluded is that Arcanum is essentially just heavily concentrated Corrupted Aer that was condensed in the same way pure Aer is condensed and stabilized into Mana" he said. He walked over towards the chalkboard in the room and drew a few diagrams, labeling them appropriately as Corrupted Aer and Pure Aer. He then drew two figures that represented a person by both diagrams. He then proceeded to draw a visual representation of Aer passing through a person's soul and how it is circulated across the body. "As common sense would dictate, Pure Aer is regulated through someone's soul. It then undergoes a natural process that condenses the Aer down in a way for a person to use it safely. This is what we all refer to as Mana. As we all know, there's a limit to how much Mana a person could have and that limit is highly dependent on the strength and depths of the soul" he said. He drew on the chalkboard near the diagram labeled Pure Aer to correspond to what he was talking about. "The creation of Arcanum essentially follows the same exact processes. The major difference is the highly corruptive and destructive nature. A soul can easily become twisted by Arcanum beyond recognition if one were to abuse it. Some may even lose their humanity and morph into terrifying creatures" he said. Much with the other diagram, he drew on the chalkboard to visually show them the process.

Ramza had a flashback play out in his head of when Gepard seemed like a totally different person in the auction hall up to the point of him becoming a Daemon compared to their first encounter with him in the desert. Meanwhile, Tsuki and Lynette had flashbacks play out in their heads as they shared the same look with each other, thinking back to their encounter with Draxus in Prophet Castle and Yuno Garcia, the Magister that attempted to offer Nagi up as a sacrifice. Phi also had several sequences of flashbacks, depicting Mike and Stahler from who they used to be to who they became.

Elle thought to herself as she processed the information in her head. After about a minute of silence, she looked at Cesela. "What do you see with Aetherflow?" she asked.

Cesela examined Reis closely. Her eyes had a strange symbol that glowed within them as she could see the density in the Aer that circulated in and around Reis. There was barely any hint of Pure Aer that she could see. "I don't know how to explain it but…it's almost as if the Corrupted Aer took the place of Pure Aer inside of him" she said.

Tsuki rubbed his chin as he examined Reis further. "How long have you had it inside of you?" he asked.

Reis crossed his arms as he leaned his back up against the chalkboard. "Since I was little. About 5 years old, I'd say. I was out with my parents and little sister one day when we were caught in an accident which claimed their lives and exposed me to a well of Aer for a brief period" he said. It wasn't the fondest memory to think back to because, by all counts, he should have perished too from an overexposure of uncondensed Aer.

Elle held her hand up to her chin in brief thought. "A Wellspring. It's likely that exposure to it tainted the process of how Aer is condensed through the soul though such a thing is extremely rare. Most end up dying in a gruesome way so you're a lucky one" she said. She could feel the Corrupted Aer within him but compared to their experiences with Arcanum up until now, it felt much more stable and in control.

Nagi tilted her head in confusion. If he had nothing but Corrupted Aer inside of him, then she didn't understand something. "And you're still…yourself? But how?" she asked.

Reis shrugged his shoulders while shaking his head. "Probably because I've learned how to properly harness it and know how far I can take it. Corrupted Aer eats up a lot of my strength so I have to use it sparingly. That's why, I have this…" he said. He rolled his sleeve up to reveal a bracelet of an intricate design to it. In the center of the bracelet was a blue jewel.

Tsuki took note of the jewel in the bracelet that he wore. "A Blastia..." he said.

Reis nodded, holding his arm up to show them the bracelet. "Correct. This Blastia allows me to tap into Pure Aer and use it for as long as I'm able to. The effects are obviously far weaker than normal but I've learned to make due" he said. He fixed his sleeve and brought his arm back down to his side. "That's about all I know of Arcanum" he said.

Ramza crossed his arms, rubbing his chin in thought. "So, it's not some unique, special power like the Sigil is but just a big collection of Corrupted Aer" he said.

Reis shook his head. While he was correct in his assumption, after exploring the prospects of Corrupted Aer for as long as he has, he knew that there was something else underneath the surface. "I don't think it's that simple. I've only just scratched the surface of it, but something tells me there's a darker secret hidden in it's depths" he said.

Elle shook her head slowly. It wouldn't be advisable for him to seek out the hidden secrets, given the corruptive nature of the type of Aer that circulates within him. "For everyone's sake, it'd be best if you didn't indulge in it too much. You may have melded it into your very being but that doesn't mean you aren't insusceptible to it's corruptive influence" she said. She was concerned for not only the future of his well-being but anyone who's affiliated with him. "The last thing we'd want to do is kill an ally-turned-Daemon" she said.

Reis patted himself on the chest, giving a confident smirk. "Don't you worry about a thing. I know when I've reached my limits" he said. He then held his right arm out and moments later, the whole length of it was covered in black flames. "Arcanic Artes are much more powerful than your standard Artes that consume Mana but even after all of my experiences with it, my body can only take so much" he said.

They were all surprised by the black flames that enveloped the length of his arm. It was the same type of flame that Gepard wielded before transforming into the Daemon wyvern. Meanwhile, Lynette tilted her head on the last thing he had said. "Arcanic Artes?" she asked.

Reis nodded. "Since I'm unable to use standard Artes and abilities, whatever I can use, I call Arcanic Artes" he said. It wasn't the most original name but his selection of Artes derive from the use of Arcanum. Just like he said, he was unable to wield normal Artes that others can use because he uses Corrupted Aer as opposed to Pure Mana. He was forced to be creative and develop his own style of Artes that would work for him. After about another minute, the flames disappeared as he brought his arm down to rest at his side. "So, what's the plan now?" he asked.

Tsuki shook his head. "Not much else we can do besides wait for Kaito to show up. We'll have to be on our guard because this storm will only further mask his approach" he said. It was bad timing for typhoon-like weather to occur. Not only will they have to contend with someone who they've been told was a threat but Mother Nature as well.

Lynette stood up from her seat. "If that's the case, then I'm going to do a little bit of exploring to kill time" she said. With so much history the shrine had, she wanted to walk around and take in the sights and maybe talk to some of the other faculty members and students to learn more.

Ruko stretched his arms out and stood up from his seat as well. "Then, I suppose we're breaking off until later then. I'll go out and familiarize myself with the area" he said.

Ramza and Elle both had the same looks and walked up alongside him. Ramza patted him on the shoulder as he walked past him towards the door. "We're of the same mind, it would seem. It's best to know the lay of the land so there won't be any unwanted surprises" he said.

Elle was in agreement. Not only that, but she was also interested in the history of the shrine as well so it would kill two birds with one stone. "We'd better dress appropriately for the inclement weather. So long as we stay within the gates, we should be fine" she said.

Ruko thought it would be a good idea to get in some more training. Having the views of the ocean to serve as a backdrop would be a perfect place for him to center himself. "I think I'll go check out the views. A place like this has to have that sweet spot, you know?" he said.

Allie yawned a bit, rubbing her right eye as she looked like she was about to pass out in the chair she was sitting in. She used the desk in front of her to rest her head within her arms. "I'm a little tired, so I think I'm going to stay here…" she said.

Cheria rubbed Allie's back gently with a slight giggle as she sat down next to her. "I'll stick around as well. I might take the opportunity to browse through some of these books" she said. She looked around the classroom as there were bookshelves filled with books.

Phi chuckled a bit, shaking her head a bit. "You did always love to read old books. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to read a little bit" she said.

Nagi scratched the back of her head and walked up to Lynette. "Do you mind if I come with?" she asked. She's always had an interest in old ruins even though they've long been repurposed. Despite the changes that were made, there was always history to be found somewhere.

Lynette nodded at her with a wide smile. "Of course! The more, the merrier" she said. It would also present an opportunity for her to get to know Nagi a little more as well.

Tsuki nodded as everyone was content with splitting up for the time being. "Just be sure to be ready to act. I don't expect him to make a warm welcome like we did so be ready for a surprise attack" he said.

With that said, those leaving the room to go out to patrol the area and explore walked out of the classroom while those staying behind remained around the desks. The only ones that had yet to decide what to do from here where Tsuki, Cesela and Reis.

Cesela was interested in the Raven's Claw that everyone was talking about. "I don't know why but I feel drawn to the Raven's Claw" she said.

Reis was planning on checking out the rooftop where the Raven's Claw was. "Want to come with? I was about to head there myself" he said.

Cesela looked at Reis, her ears twitching a few times. "Is that alright?" she asked.

Reis nodded at him, patting his chest. "I don't see why not. We're all in this together, after all" he said.

Cesela looked over towards Tsuki as if she was looking for his approval. "Can I…?" she asked.

Tsuki shrugged his shoulders, shaking his head. "You're free to do what you want. No one can tell you what to do anymore, remember?" he said. She's still hung up on the idea that she needs approval to do whatever it is she wants but considering how long she had submitted herself to obedience, it's no surprise. "Keep an eye on her for me, will you?" he asked.

Reis looked at Tsuki with a nod. "You got it" he said. He headed towards the door, looking back towards Cesela. "Let's get going then" he said. He soon walked out of the classroom with Cesela following behind him.

Tsuki watched the two of them leave and scratched the back of his head. With everyone splitting off, he was left alone. He glanced towards Allie, who appeared to be fast asleep while Cheria and Phi were both browsing through the different bookshelves, looking at the various types of books. "I guess I'll go meditate or something…" he said.

Tsuki walked out of the classroom and headed down the stone corridors. He walked around the shrine for a little bit, popping his head into the various classrooms as he saw a number of students hard at work on their studies. Everyone seems to have gotten the message about the curfew as people were frantically going through lesson plans and studies. As we walked through the corridors, he could overhear various different conversations relating to the ocean currents. It would seem that because of the storm that was brewing prior to the rainfall, the currents picked up in strength and shifted northwards. The waves also picked up in intensity as well which was a natural thing for typhoon-like weather.

Eventually, Tsuki found a chamber that housed a small, open-air garden. With the smell of the garden and sounds of rainfall, it was a perfect place to meditate. He wanted to use this chance to try and get in touch with Cliff or Fumiko. He sat down near the garden space while still, closing his eyes and taking several deep breaths. As the minutes crept by, he could his consciousness slowly being pulled from him. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself floating in the vast, empty space of the Celestial Bridge. Only this time, he was the only one there. He didn't feel any masses of energy around him like before. No traces of Cliff or Fumiko could be seen or felt.

Tsuki found himself drifting through the vast space that seemed to have no end. He didn't know where he was drifting to but he could feel like he was being guided by something. After what felt like a long time of endlessly drifting, he soon came to a pocket of energy that glowed a bright, golden color. The energy felt different compared to Cliff or Fumiko which only meant one thing for him. Whoever this energy belonged to was the third and final soul that resided within the Sigil. As he drifted closer to the mass of energy, a familiar vibe flowed through him. Almost as if he's felt this before.

It was in that moment he had a scene flash through his head. It was the scene where he had his second encounter with Caius in Basilwell, just moments before Caius inflicted that grievous injury across his torso. He recalled putting up a powerful barrier in an effort to protect him and Allie from his attack. The barrier was strong enough to withstand the brunt of his attack and ended up absorbing most of the damage that would have been inflicted on him and potentially could have even killed him. It was a barrier that belonged to an unknown Arte that he didn't wield. He then had a brief memory flashback that played afterwards in the moments just before Gepard transformed and turned into the wyvern, sending the pillar of raw energy into the air. It was the same barrier that protected them from the blast, only far stronger than before.

As these memories flowed through his head, a deep, older male's voice spoke out from the mass of energy. "So, the time has finally come. Took you long enough to make the connection" the voice said. Moments later, the mass of energy let out a bright glow as the energy shifted and started to take shape. The mass of formless energy soon shifted into the form of an older individual who had the appearance of someone in their late 40s. This person had short, blonde hair with golden eyes, wearing an eyepatch over his left eye. Attached to his back was a large shield along with a spiked war hammer. "Leave it to the younger generation to leave us old folks for last" he said, shaking his head.

Tsuki wasn't surprised at this point. He could feel the drastic difference in power in him compared to that of Cliff, or even Fumiko. Based on the feelings he's felt. Cliff was all muscle who was the strongest of the three souls. His strength was almost unparalleled that calling him a berserker would be the most appropriate title for him. In exchange for incredible power and strength, Cliff essentially sacrifices any and all defensive capabilities. As for Fumiko, while she wasn't nearly as strong as Cliff was and had average defensive capabilities, she exceled in speed and evasion. Her attacks were pretty average but her true strength lies in the ability to dish out multiple attacks with incredible speed and precision. Her specialty in speed also makes it difficult for enemies to target her.

With this new soul though, he could feel his overall power and strength significantly lower than that of Cliff's and even lower than Fumiko. Not only that, but his speed also suffers slightly. What he seemed to excel at, however, was his defensive capabilities. His overall defense far exceeds that of Fumiko and Cliff, essentially becoming a literal immovable wall.

Tsuki examined the man that had formed in front of him. "You're…" he said.

The man nodded at him. "It's a pleasure to finally meet the new Bearer. Name's Alexander Idris, but you can call me Alex for short" he said, holding his hand out towards Tsuki.

Tsuki reached out and took hold his hand to shake it. "Tsuki Himura…" he said. Just by being near him, he felt a strong sense of protection. He felt like he could withstand even the hardest of hits. "So, you're the final soul of the Sigil. Cliff, Fumiko and Alex…" he said.

Alex was silent for a brief moment, taking a deep breath. "With this, you've formed a link between us three souls. Now, we can take the next step into Sigil mastery" he said.

Tsuki tilted his head a bit, unsure of what he meant by that. "The next step?" he asked.

As he said that, Cliff's voice could be heard speaking out from the void. "That's correct. You've established a link between the three of us and have already mastered the ability to harness our individual strengths, albeit subconsciously" the voice said. Moments later, a mass of crimson-colored energy started to gather and formed into the spiritual form of Cliff.

Following suit, the voice of Fumiko could be heard speaking out after him from the void as well as violet-colored energy started to gather. "You know how to harness our strengths to improve your physical capabilities, be it strength, speed or defense. Now, you need to learn how to wield us in battle in material form" the voice said. Moments later, the mass of energy morphed into the form of Fumiko.

Tsuki still wasn't understand what they were talking about. His eyes shifted between the three souls that were now floating in front of him. "I'm not following…" he said.

Cliff extended his arm out towards him. Moments later, crimson sparks could be seen generating around his arm and hand. Moments later, his Mana-infused axe formed in his hand as he took hold of it with a firm grasp. "With the Sigil, you have access to more than just our individual strengths. You also have the ability to wield our weapons which have their own unique traits to them that ordinary weapons don't have" he said.

Fumiko did the same by extending out her arm as a streaks of wind coiled around her arm before the scythe disappeared from her back and formed in her hand. "We call it Materialization. It takes a no small amount of Mana but once formed, you'll find that these weapons are in a world of their own" she said.

Alex held both of his arms out as the shield and war hammer disappeared from his back. The large shield formed along his left arm as he grasped the war hammer with his right hand. "It's an ability that also comes in handy on the off-chance you find yourself disarmed and separated from your main weapon. The enemy won't even see it coming" he said.

Tsuki examined them as they summoned their respective weapons in their hands from thin air. Materialization sounded like an ability that could potentially have many uses for him. "Interesting. How do I do it?" he asked.

Cliff lowered the arm holding his axe and placed his free hand up to his chest. "Feel for us. Reach into our souls and imprint the essence of our weapons into your mind" he said.

Alex pointed his war hammer out towards Tsuki. "Seeing as we've got some time to kill, now's the best chance for a tutorial session. Your goal is to try and materialize one of our weapons in your hands" he said.

Tsuki was still a bit lost but at least this time, he was being given some form of instruction when it came to expanding his knowledge about the Sigil and it's abilities. "Got it" he said. He closed his eyes, bringing his right arm up to his chest with his hand rolled into a fist as he began to do what they instructed of him. He wasn't sure just what exactly he was suppose to feel or imprint but he had the three of them to help guide him along and show him what needed to be done.

Meanwhile, the scene shifts back to Nobuo Shrine. The hours of the day slowly started to go by, unbeknownst to Tsuki where his consciousness remained within the Celestial Bridge. To those visiting the garden grounds where Tsuki was, they assumed that he was in a deep, meditative state. As time went by, the typhoon-like weather only seemed to be getting stronger. Loud thunder rumbled the skies and even caused the ground to vibrate a bit. By this point during the day, with the worsening storms and the sun starting to set, most of the students and faculty made their mad dash to the Residential Halls to seek shelter and leave the main building as the time of curfew was fast approaching. The only ones left in the main building were Tsuki and his companions and a handful of staff that had to stay behind and clean up.

Lynette and Nagi had long finished their exploring around Nobuo Shrine and returned to the same classroom that Cheria, Phi and Allie were still in. The two of them have made a pretty good dent skimming through all of the various textbooks that were provided on the shelves while Allie was still fast asleep. As for Ruko, Ramza and Elle, they eventually regrouped with them in the classroom a few minutes after Lynette and Nagi did. The only ones that haven't came back yet were Tsuki, Reis and Cesela. Minutes had passed after they all reconvened in the classroom, seemingly bored out of their minds.

Lynette was leaning up against the wall, looking out through the window to watch to raging storm outside. She could hear the whistling of the wind through the window as heavy rains bombarded the sides of the wall and window. "Man, this storm won't let up, will it?" she asked.

Ruko was on the edge of one of the desks, his arms crossed as he looked towards the window. "Maybe the storm will work to our advantage and keep Kaito away" he said.

Ramza shook his head. "No, I doubt this will stop him. Believe it or not, there are worse storms that occur in the mountains of Nargelond. If this Kaito is as ambitious as His Majesty and Mel make him out to be, then this will be disadvantageous for us, at the very least" he said. If Kaito were to appear, then they would be forced out into the elements in dangerous weather. The biggest threat would be the high winds.

Elle was sitting in at one of the desks across the room, leaning forward on it while resting her head in her hands. "Nothing seems to work out in our favor, does it?" she asked.

Phi looked over towards Cheria as she was in the process of putting the books away the books she pulled off the shelf. "I skimmed through most of these books but nothing really eye-popping was written. What about you?" she asked.

Cheria had a pile of books next to her that she had already gone through. She didn't really learn anything of interest in those but the current book that she was looking through seems to have caught her interest. "I…may have found something about the Great Spirits" she said, her eyes scanning across the book's pages.

Nagi walked over towards Cheria and stood next to her, looking down at the book. "Really? What does it say?" she asked.

Cheria shook her head a bit. "While it doesn't seem to directly reference the Great Spirits, this passage seems to talk about beings wielding unfathomable amounts of Mana" she said. She put her finger to where she was reading and started to read out what was in the book. "From ancient times, there were once eight beings that controlled the various elements. These beings were highly regarded in worship and given the highest of respect. However, over time, these beings soon fell into obscurity and started to fade away from minds of people. It's only a matter of time before these once respected entities will become simple myth and legend" she said, reciting what was written in the book.

Ramza scratched the back of his head a bit. He soon remembered when Luan told them about how there were once eight Great Spirits. "Eight beings, huh? It's just like what Luan told us. Does it say anything else?" he asked.

Cheria continued to skim through the passages in the book, flipping through a couple more pages before stopping at another passage. "For a soul to exist, one of two conditions must be met. A soul must have possess a Spirit Core, which serves a similar function to that of a Human heart. The Spirit Core is what allows the soul to become what is known as a Spirit. If a soul doesn't have a Spirit Core, then it needs to be bound to a specific object to serve as a what's referred to as an anchor. If a soul possesses none of these, then the soul breaks apart and joins in with the natural flow of Aer" she said. She continued to trace her finger across the page, skipping the less relevant information before coming to small section of text. "If a soul possesses a vast amount of Aer, this may cause the natural balance to be tipped, causing uncondensed Aer to spill out in dangerous volume" she said.

Phi leaned her shoulder up against the nearby bookshelf, crossing her arms and closing her eyes. "Well, it's clear that they're talking about Wellsprings. Which means…" she said.

Lynette nodded as she put the pieces together. "Then, there's a very good chance that the Wellsprings are indeed the souls of the Great Spirits" she said. She walked over towards the middle of the room from the window. "If that is the case, then how would we go about approaching them?" she asked. She then looked over towards Allie, who was still fast asleep. "Didn't Allie mention something about sensing something that felt closed off a while ago?" she asked.

Ruko nodded. "She did. As well as being able to pick up traces of Gnome, who appears to have opened his mind back up. Raiku also mentioned that the Wellspring grew erratic without warning" he said. This was all very puzzling to him. He wasn't sure what it all meant.

Suddenly, Allie began to speak out. "Once the right conditions are met, the key to the High Spirits shall open up to the one chosen to bear the Mark" she said. She slowly lifted her head up from the desk as she was now wide awake.

Nagi tilted her head a bit at her sudden statement. "What does that mean?" she asked.

Allie shook her head a bit, unsure of what she said, what it meant or why she even said it in the first place. "I…don't know. For some reason, it felt important so it just came out…" she said.

Cheria sat back in her chair, crossing her arms as her words echoed in her mind. "The key to the High Spirits…obviously, that must be referring to the Great Spirits. As for the second part, I'm not so sure…" she said. She mumbled a bit as she racked her brain of what it could mean. "The one chosen to bear the Mark, huh…?" she said to herself.

Ramza scratched the back of his head. He didn't know what to make of it. "If we were able to communicate with Shana, I'm sure she would have some answers for us" he said. Considering the fact that she was contracted with the lost Great Spirit, Volt, she would be the best person to ask what the meaning of what Allie said was.

Thirty more minutes would pass by and there was still no sign of Tsuki, Cesela or Reis. Thankfully, the storm that was raging outside hasn't grown any stronger than it already was but the winds and pelting rains battered the sides of the shrine still. It got to the point where they were going to lose their minds if they had to continue waiting any longer.

Cheria was getting a little antsy as she paced back and forth across the classroom. She had put away the books that she had piled up as she lost interest in looking through them any longer. "They're all rather late in returning. I'm not worried about Tsuki but as for Cesela…" she said.

Phi shook her head as she was sitting down on the ground with her back up against the wall. "You're worrying too much. Reis may be a stranger but he didn't seem like a bad guy. I doubt he will do anything to her" she said. She was probably worried about Cesela mainly because she had left with someone they literally just met.

Lynette wanted to believe that Reis was a good guy since it appeared that he had some sort of connection with Raiku. "In retrospect, we know very little of him. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to send her off on her own…" she said.

Cheria paced around for about two more minutes before looking towards the door. "I think I'll go see what they're up to. They went to the roof to look at the Raven's Claw, if I recall…" she said.

She headed towards the door and just as she was reaching for the doorknob, the entire building suddenly shook violently with the sounds of an explosion could be heard amidst the thunder. The shaking caused of loose objects on nearby tables and shelves to fall off and hit the ground. Even some of the lighting in the hallways and classrooms were knocked out.

Nagi was reaching for something on a nearby shelf when the sudden vibrations occurred which almost made her balance as she stumbled back. "W-what was that!?" she asked.

Ramza knew the answer immediately and jumped into action. "What else could it be? It came from the roof. Let's go!" he said. They were expecting a surprise attack to occur at some point and it would seem that their worries have been made into reality.

Everyone quickly gathered their things and bolted out from the classroom and down the hallway. Since Lynette and Nagi did some exploring, they were guided by them as they led the group through the various stone corridors to find their way up to the roof. Meanwhile, the scene shifts back over to the Celestial Bridge with Tsuki being trained to use Materialization by the three souls of the Sigil in the minutes prior to the sudden attack. Tsuki hadn't realized how much time had passed and was looking pretty exhausted. He felt as if he was pushing his Mana to it's limit. He was hunched over as red sparks could be seen coming off his right hand.

The three souls that were guiding him along through his little training session all looked at each other with satisfied grins. It would appear that, after much trial and error, that he was able to successfully materialize one of their weapons, Cliff's to be more specific. His axe had appeared in his hands after a few moments before he placed it back onto his back with the others following suit soon after, sheathing their weapons. Not only did they look content and satisfied, but they had looks of amazement too.

Cliff nodded with a wide grin on his face and his hands on his hips. "You continue to impress me, lad. To think you were able to pull it off in a mere few hours!" he said. He knew that he had potential from the very beginning. He reminds him of himself a little bit. Being a Dragonkin, there weren't very many people out there, much less that of Humans, that were capable of accomplishing such a feat.

Alex nodded, crossing his arms in front of him. "I agree. Materialization is no simple ability to learn and master. Not only does it require a good chunk of Mana but to be able to reach into the depths of our souls" he said. They could only teach him so much before basic intuition would set in. They had it worse than him since they had to figure things out for themselves back when they used to be alive. There was no manual for them to look through and no one really to help them understand what the Sigil was.

Fumiko had her arms behind her back with her eyes closed for a few moments. "It's not perfected yet but at least he has the fundamentals down. This place allows rapid Mana regeneration so feel free to use it for a spot of spiritual training if you want" she said. It wouldn't be recommended to hone his skills in any ordinary place considering how Mana-intensive the training would be. "Although, I do have to share Cliff's enthusiasm. You haven't realized it but you have untapped strength and fortitude within you" she said.

Alex felt it too. If only he could access that untapped potential for himself. He had the potential to be stronger than even Cliff. "Well, that's no surprise. I mean, he did take in all of our strengths when he fought against Caius, albeit subconsciously" he said. He still remembered that day clearly. He couldn't believe what he was witnessing. Not even he was able to take in all of the strength of each soul when he once lived. At most, he was only able to take on one at a time. It would seem that the Sigil continues to grow and evolve just as much as they do.

Cliff rubbed his chin in thought as that event was always stuck in his mind. It felt similar to Energize, the ability where Tsuki temporarily takes in the power of a soul and melds it into his own to enhance his own capabilities. However, it was also completely different at the same time, almost as if it was something at an entirely new level. "A heightened Energize…I still don't know what to make of that" he said.

Tsuki felt his energy quickly returning to him due to the nature of the Celestial Bridge. He could feel his exhaustion disappear gradually. "Where does Soul Swap fall into place in terms of scale?" he asked.

Fumiko played with her hands a bit. "Soul Swap is an advanced technique that ordinarily isn't taught until later because of how spiritually demanding it is. The only reason we did it of our own volition is because the situation demanded it" she said. Souls like them generally don't forcefully intervene with the Bearer unless their life is believed to be threatened. If the Bearer dies, so does the Sigil and, by association, the souls tied to it as well.

Cliff held up a finger as two masses of energy appeared around them. The masses expanded outwards in a rectangle shape and in the empty spaces, there were familiar images. One had the image of Draven and the other had the images of Gepard and the wyvern he transformed into. "With Draven, I sensed that there was more to him than he was letting on. I felt deep turmoil and conflict within him and that those feelings fed into the Arcanum that flowed through his body…" he said. He then pointed to the one that had Gepard on it. "As for him, even if he hadn't transformed, he still would have posed a large threat" he said. He shook his head a bit as he crossed his arms together. "You and your friends have gotten stronger since your first meetings, this much is true. However, you're not quite at the level to handle anything that could be classified any higher than a Lesser Daemon without assistance. If Mel hadn't weakened the wyvern, I doubt things would have gone as smoothly as they did" he said.

Tsuki grumbled a bit to himself. It was a similar situation to that of his encounter with Caius. While his memories of the whole encounter were still fuzzy, he had a sneaking suspicion that things wouldn't have ended the way they did if Alba hadn't brought him down so much. It made him realize that they needed to become much stronger than they were now if they were going to hope to be able defeat the threats that are soon to come. "We'll get there. I know that we can become even stronger than this. We can't keep relying on other people to fight our battles. We have to get stronger" he said, rolling his hands into fists.

Suddenly, they all felt a strange vibration that caused some of the nearby Aer to fluctuate around them. This was at the time when the shrine came under attack by, presumably, Kaito. Fumiko was the first to point it out to them. "Well, it seems like you have another opportunity to test your strength then. I highly recommend exercising caution, however. It would appear that whoever is attacking us gives off traces of Arcanum" she said.

Tsuki nodded, giving them a look of confidence. "In order to better myself, I need to gauge my opponent's strengths with mine. Let me handle it this time" he said. They've assisted him before in situations like this with Soul Swap but he wants to pick the fight for himself so he can understand what he's dealing with.

Cliff wasn't sure if he was ready to handle things but it wouldn't hurt to give him a chance. "Just so you know, we'll step in if things get dangerous" he said.

Alex drifted closer to him and tapped him on the chest with his fist. "Watch your back out there" he said.

Moments later, Tsuki felt his subconscious pull back from the Celestial Bridge and soon found himself back in reality. He snapped back to his senses quickly as things started to unfold around the shrine. He could feel a number of vibrations and muffled explosions coming from somewhere. It was pretty easy for him to discern whether they were explosions or crashes of thunder. He knew that they were coming from the roof as that's where the Raven's Claw was. Once he gathered himself, he stood up and took off running back down the adjacent hallway.

Time shifts back 30 minutes when Cesela and Reis were standing underneath an awning to stay out of the rain. They were sitting down on the ground with their backs up against a nearby wall as they looked at the contraption that the Raven's Claw was in. In the center of the roof, there was a strange-looking machine with a bunch of complicated gadgets and gizmos on it. Sitting on top of the machine was a glass chamber and inside of it was a crescent-shaped crystal. There was particles of light emanating from the crystal within the glass chamber as it levitated and slowly rotated around.

Being slightly exposed to the elements, the two of them could feel the full effects of the raging storm above them. Because of the high winds, certain objects spread around the roof seems to have shifted around and been knocked over as rain hammered against the shrine. The loud sounds of thunder were unreal as webbed lightning shot across the sky. These were considered dangerous weather conditions, even more so with being near the ocean with a pretty significant drop to the water's surface. Some of the other equipment scattered around also appeared to be damaged from flying debris. Even some of the drapes and cloth tents that were used to cover some of the equipment were either completely ripped off the scaffolding or torn to shreds.

Cesela swayed back and forth a few times before standing up and walked up to the edge of the awning that they were sitting under. It didn't offer a whole lot of protection from the rain as it was blowing sideways but it was better than nothing. "What a storm…" she said.

Reis wanted to get a closer look at the Raven's Claw but with the storm overhead, this was the best view he was going to get for the time being. "Typhoons like these tend to be unpredictable, especially at this time of the year" he said.

Cesela glanced back at Reis. "Are you from Ersheath?" she asked. Since this gave her the opportunity, she wanted to get to know him better in order to gauge his personality and character.

Reis shook his head slowly. "No. I'm a native to Nargelond. I was born in a town called Mercides which is located in the Lowborn Flats in the southern region of Nargelond" he said. It was a small town that was located on a small plateau surrounded by the high mountains. There wasn't anything too special about the village aside from the fact that it was connected to one of the many mineshafts that stretched deep into the inner workings of the mountains.

Cesela tilted her head a bit, giving him a look of curiosity. "How did you end up fighting against your homeland?" she asked. She felt like there were a lot of circumstances that played behind the scenes.

Reis scratched the back of his head. He wasn't sure just how much he should say to her. "I'm part of a rebellion that seeks to dismantle the Dolothlond's War Council. Deep-seated corruption has altered the old ways and traditions that we once valued. Ever since the former High Commander of Dolothlond suddenly retired, things haven't been the same, for both civilians and military" he said. Many people across Nargelond grow more worried with each passing day as unrest spreads all across the kingdom. The majority don't approve of the path of violence that Dolothlond is taking with Esseand. He let out a faint sigh, shaking his head. "Our numbers, however, are too few to be able to take on the bulk of their forces. Right now, all we can do is chip away at their forces" he said, looking a bit disheartened.

Cesela turned around and walked up him, patting the top of his head gently. "It'll be okay. I'm sure everything will work out just fine" she said, trying to cheer him up.

Reis looked up at Cesela as she tried to comfort him. In that moment, old memories from his past flashed through his mind. They were memories of a young girl with short, brown hair. The girl was comforting him when he was feeling down about something. It made him chuckle a bit. "You remind me of my little sister. She used to encourage me every time I was feeling down" he said. He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes as memories of the accident that changed his life soon popped into his head.

It was suppose to a normal, average day. He was on a carriage ride through one of the canyons somewhere in Nargelond with both of his parents and sister. They were heading towards Dolothlond for some family business when tragedy struck. Along the way, they were ambushed by a large group of individuals dressed in full-body robes. The carriage they were riding on was toppled over by falling boulders from the top of the canyon. His parents tried to protect him and his sister but were easily overtaken and killed. Seeing an opportunity to escape, he attempted to guide him and his sister away from the danger. Unfortunately, the path he took lead them to a dead end with a pretty high drop. The assailants quickly caught up with them and surrounded them, effectively blocking their only escape.

As the assailants closed in on them, they were backed up all the way to the edge of the cliffs. The assailants didn't attempt to attack them so it was clear that they had intentions on kidnapping them. That would never come to be, for better or for worse for them. The edge of the cliff that they were standing on was unstable and gave way from their added weight. He and his sister ended up taking the plunge as they fell down the side of the cliff into a forest area below them. Miraculously, Reis survived the fall, albeit with serious injuries and multiple broken bones as the trees and soft ground padded his fall. His sister, however, did not survive the fall as she sustained a serious head injury and a punctured lung. Reis, unable to move from where he fell because of the extent of his injuries, submitted himself to his fate as he slowly fell unconscious next to his dead sister.

Little did he know, they ended up falling into a region that was pretty close to a Wellspring. This lowered his survival chances even more. Thankfully, he wasn't exposed to the Wellspring's effects for long. Someone, presumably a Wellspring researcher, ended up finding them at some point and quickly moved both him and his sister out of the exposure zone. They were immediately taken into urgent care as resuscitation efforts were performed on his sister but to no avail. Reis, remarkably, was still alive but in critical condition not just because of his injuries but also because of his prolonged exposure to the Wellspring's effects. Still being a child, his Mana levels were already weak so it didn't take much time or effort at all for his Mana to become corrupted.

Many people began questioning him on the circumstances that led him to be found unconscious in the forest with his dead sister once he was deemed healthy enough to do so. He would find out later that those responsible for the attack on his carriage and the murder of his parents and sister belonged to the infamous cult, Draxus. People were sent out to retrieve the bodies of his parents, who had all of their belongings pilfered, right down to the clothes on their backs. The bodies of his parents and sister were returned to his hometown, Mercides, and were given a proper burial. Not having any other family, Reis was taken in by one of his neighbors who raised him all the way up until he was 18. After hitting 18, he became a mercenary but this career choice wouldn't last long as he was eventually scouted by Flynn Callus, the commander of the rebellion force that opposed Dolothlond only a year and a half into his mercenary career.

Back in reality, Cesela didn't know what to say to his last comment. She had heard that his family had passed away because of an incident in the past. "I-I'm sorry if I said something uncomfortable…" she said. Her ears and tail lowered as she closed her eyes while hanging her head down.

Reis shook his head, standing up to return the pat on her head. "Don't be. It's all in the past now. Their deaths made me stronger, in the end of all things" he said. He could see a lot of his sister in her eyes. Much like with Cesela, she was shy and timid but tried her best to put on a brave face to break down the walls that divide her. He didn't know her circumstances but he could tell that she's been through many ordeals that someone her age shouldn't have. The surprising part about it all, however, was that she had a hidden strength to push on despite the difficulties she will end up facing.

Cesela played with her hands a bit as she looked towards the ground. She wanted to ask something but wasn't sure if she should ask. In the end, she took a deep breath and steeled herself as she looked up at him. "What was her name…?" she asked.

Reis closed his eyes for a moment as the last few images of his sister popped up in his head. He had a soft, warm smile on his face as he pictured her. "Akari Shukaku. I have no doubt in mind that you two would have gotten along" he said.

Cesela held her hand up to her chest as she took her name to memory. "Akari…" she mumbled to herself. She wasn't sure why but saying her name made her feel a bit of warmth envelope them for a brief moment. It was almost as if her spirit paid them a visit from beyond the grave.

The two of them continued to share some of their stories with each other and bonded a bit. She spent the next several minutes to explain to Reis about her past and the circumstances that led her to being with Tsuki and the others. Reis gave her the same reaction as Tsuki and the others did. He was shocked beyond words at the treatment that she had to endure and was mortified that such a thing was even happening in the first place.

Reis had heard rumors of illegal slave trade of Faeries but to hear firsthand accounts of it from someone who experienced it themselves was an eye-opener. It painted a not-so-pleasant picture in his mind from all that she described. "Man…and just when us Humans couldn't become more vile than we already are. We destroy nature and flatten lands all for the sake of Human advancement with no regard to anyone else that may be affected by the changes. We soil our waters with chemicals and pollute the air with toxic vapor. Now, we abuse and take advantage of those that should have the same rights as Humans do" he said. He couldn't help but think back on the Dolothlond military, specifically their elite force. "The dragons that the Dragon Riders use were once properly tamed and treated with respect. Now, dragons are captured and forced into submission to serve as no more than tools to be thrown out when they're no longer needed" he said.

Cesela spun around and hopped out from under the awning into the pouring rain. "Tsuki and the others say that they want to join in the efforts of freeing us Faeries from the dark shadow that hangs over us" she said. She could feel the truth in sincerity in their words when they told her what they hoped to accomplish at some point in their adventures. She didn't know how they were going to do it but she wanted to see it through. "I want to believe that they will bring us into a new age" she said.

Reis chuckled a bit. She was saying some pretty outrageous stuff but that didn't mean he didn't empathize with her. He was in the same boat, now more than ever, after hearing firsthand accounts of the poor living conditions and treatment the enslaved Faeries deal with. "It's not easy to change but with the right level of determination and guts, nothing is truly impossible" he said. Faeries should be deserved the same number of humanity rights as anyone else. They may be half-Human, half-Beast but they were still living beings with a will of their own. "Maybe once the situation with Dolothlond is finally settled, the rebellion could-" he said.

Cesela's ears suddenly twitched rapidly as she heard something coming from the skies above them and it didn't belong to the storm that still raged on. "Wait! I hear something…from the skies…" she said. She could hear what sounded like faint crackling that sounded familiar. "It sounds like…fire?" she asked, unsure of what it was exactly.

Reis immediately jumped into action as he knew exactly what was coming towards them. He could feel it in his bones due to having many run-ins and experiences with it. "Shit! Look out!" he shouted. He quickly ran over towards her, throwing himself over her by pulling her into his arms with a firm grip just before a large fireball shot out through the storm clouds and crashed against the roof and exploded. The explosion blew both of them off their feet as Reis skidded across the stone roof while holding Cesela in his arms, taking the brunt of the sudden attack to minimize injury to her. The fireball was aimed directly at the contraption that was in the center of the roof and practically destroyed it in an instant. The Raven's Claw ended up flying out from the shattered glass chamber and clattered against the ground near Reis and Cesela. A thick smoke cloud covered the roof and sounds of heavy wing flaps could be heard.

With a powerful gust of wind, the smoke cloud was blown away to reveal a black dragon with yellow scales that had landed on the roof. Sitting on the back of the dragon was a middle-aged man in heavy purple armor wielding a spear in the shape that resembled a dragon. He soon climbed down from the dragon and landed onto the roof with a metallic thud. As for Reis, he suffered minor burns along his back and left arm but thankfully, Cesela only ended up with a few scratches from them being blown across the roof.

Reis got up onto one knee while holding onto Cesela and looked up at the man in armor that towered over him. He had long, black hair and violet eyes with a nasty scar that ran down the left side of his face and the side of his neck. Based on the reports he has read, he immediately recognized the man that stood in front of him. "Kaito Isamu…!" he shouted.

The man named Kaito approached the two of them and stopped within a few feet of them. He raised an eyebrow at them for surviving the fireball that his dragon launched from the sky. "Well now, you managed to survive. I'm a little impressed" he said. He was mostly unfazed that they survived since he wouldn't have a hard time finishing the job himself. "It's unfortunate that you did. Your deaths could have been quick and painless" he said.

Cesela shook her head as her ears rang from the previous explosion and sudden attack. She soon noticed that the Raven's Claw had landed next to them so she instinctively reached out and grabbed it, holding it close to her chest. "Got it…!" she said.

Right as she did that, Kaito immediately drew his lance and pointed it directly at Cesela, the tip of the spear almost right in her face. "Hand over the crystal, girl. That doesn't belong to you" he said with a cold stare.

Cesela grew extremely nervous and anxious from having the tip of his lance right in her face. Thankfully, Reis kept a firm hold of her with his left arm around her as he drew his katana with his right hand, hitting the blade against the spear to knock it away before positioning his right slightly in front of her in a defensive stance. "The crystal doesn't belong to you either" he said. His katana was of a unique design. The hilt looked like any other katana but the blade was jet-black with a red streak across it and jagged edges. Because of the jagged edges, it maximizes the damage and injury he would inflict with a single slash.

Kaito brought his lance to his side as the tip started to give off a vibrant red glow. "Hmph. We'll see about that" he said. He twirled his lance around a few times as the glow intensified. Then, he lunged it forward, firing off a blast of red energy at him.

Reis tightened his grip on Cesela, using most of his body to shield her as he pulled his katana up over his left shoulder. The blade soon ignited with black flames enveloping it before he swung it horizontally, firing off a wave of black fire at the oncoming attack. The flames cleaved right through the energy blast, causing it to explode and continued to hurl towards Kaito. He was a bit surprised from the type of attack he used but managed to dodge it. The wave of black flames ended up colliding into a nearby pillar behind him, cleaving through it like butter and sending it crashing down over the cliff side.

Kaito looked back at the now destroyed pillar and saw just how clean the cut was through hard stone and marble. He glanced back at Reis for a brief moment as he seemed to connect the dots immediately. "Those black flames…now I know who you are. You must be that lieutenant from that feeble little rebellion group, Nightwing. The one that wields black flames fueled by Arcanum" he said. He soon chuckled a bit in amusement and intrigue. "Very interesting…" he said.

Kaito soon snapped his finger which caused the black dragon behind him to take action. He leapt up into the air, blowing gusts of wind across the roof from the flapping of its wings as sparks of fire appeared to come out of its mouth. Moments later, the dragon leaned its head back for a second or two before breathing out a breath of fire at Reis that shot across the roof in a straight line. Reis jumped out of the way to avoid the flames while holding Cesela in his arms. The dragon flapped its wings a few more times before compressing them against its back and lunged towards him in a spiral. Again, Reis dodged the attack to avoid being hit. The dragon soon realigned itself behind him and fired off another fire breath attack at him. Reis countered by firing off another wave of black flames with a swing of his sword, just like before. The black flames cut through the dragon's fire and ended up colliding with the dragon. Smoke covered the dragon as it let out a pained roar from within the smoke.

There was a moment of silence before the dragon shot out from the smoke in another spiral lunge. Much like before, Reis dodged it but as he did so, the dragon used it's long tail to take a swipe at him. Reis quickly blocked the tail but was knocked across the roof towards the edge. Cesela had flung out from his arms and landed not too far away from Reis. Cesela was a bit bruised and scuffed from the attacks as she tried to stand up. Before she could, she was, once again, met with the tip of Kaito's lance in front of her face.

Kaito gave Cesela the cold, death stare as the tip of his lance glowed with intensity. "I'll ask this one more time. Hand over the crystal and I may spare your life" he said.

Cesela was understandably scared and frightened to be in this situation but she knew that these were the possible dangers that she would face when she joined with Tsuki and the others. She took several deep breaths, clutching the Raven's Claw close to her chest before looking up at him with resolve in her eyes. "I refuse…!" she said.

Kaito slowly pulled his lance back, the tip of his spear angled in a way to pierce her through the chest. "So be it" he said.

Cesela stood her ground against imminent death for good reason. Her ears twitched a bit when suddenly, chains of light shot out several incantation circles behind them. The chains wrapped around his lance and arm tightly and were yanked back, stopping him from moving his arm completely. When they looked back, they saw Lynette standing there with her staff drawn and eyes glowing. Cheria came running from behind her with five Mana-infused arrows attached to her bow. She took aim at the dragon in the sky and fired the arrows at the dragon. The dragon readied itself to counter it by incinerating them with its fire breath. The arrows, however, pierced right through the fire and ended up striking against the dragon, each arrow exploding on impact, making the dragon to let out a pained roar as it fell from the sky down to ground level.

Ramza, Elle and Phi appeared and quickly surrounded Kaito with their weapons drawn and ready to strike. Meanwhile, a violet incantation circle appeared underneath his feet where he felt the gravity around him intensify, restricting his movements. This was caused by one of the Darkness-imbued spells from Nagi's spellbook. Ruko ran past them and quickly scooped up Cesela and jumped over towards Reis, who was recovering from the previous attack from the dragon. Allie joined up with the three of them with an energized form of the Caliburn in her hand.

Ruko set Cesela down and glanced back at Reis behind him, who was down on one knee. "You guys okay?" he asked.

Reis coughed a bit, putting his left hand over his head as he shook it, revealing some of the minor burn marks on his arm. "A little scrapped up but I think we'll live" he said.

Ramza held his greatsword in a lunge-type stance, ready to act at a moment's notice. "So, this is Kaito, the supposedly dead General of Dolothlond" he said. From an obvious standpoint, he wasn't anywhere close to being dead.

Elle examined Kaito closely. She felt the twisted energy flowing around him. It almost felt unnatural and that's not because she was sensing Arcanum. "Well, this is interesting. I don't believe I've felt something like this before…" she said.

Lynette glanced over towards Elle. "You feel it too, huh? The Aer around him is all twisted and distorted…" she said.

Elle racked her brain to think of what it could be and while she has never had any personal experience with it, only one thing came to her mind especially if he was suppose to be dead. "Is this…Necromancy?" she asked.

Phi tilted her head a bit. She's never heard of the term before. "Necro…mancy?" she asked.

Elle nodded. "It's an ancient Arte that the Elves have classified as dark and forbidden. Any talks of it amounts to sacrilege and results in total banishment" she said. It was against the law in most Elven settlements to even bring up the topic, even as a casual topic of discussion. "Necromancy tampers with the laws of nature and cycle of life. It allows someone who has recently died to be resurrected back to life" she said.

Allie was familiar with the forbidden Arte, for whatever reason that she couldn't explain. She didn't know why but the thought of resurrection seems to have hit her rather hard. "Back to life…?" she asked.

It was in that moment where she had more age-old memories flash through her mind. She remembered feeling an intense feeling of cold and numbness at some point in her life followed by a feeling of being wrapped in warmth. Remembering these feelings, she couldn't help but think back to a previous flashback that she had. It was when she was lying on the ground in a pool of blood with a serious injury to her chest. There were a few people who were frantically applying Healing Artes on her. The next thing she knew after that, she found herself in a strange room with all of her injuries seemingly all healed.

Lynette heard similar topics from Reia. There were certain Artes in the Healing category that also served similar functions as to that of Necromancy but she was always told the same thing. Such Artes, no matter the good and relief they could bring, was also classified as forbidden research by magical research institute, Saiyaka. "I remember expressing my interests in those types of Artes but my teacher, Reia strongly urged me not delve into it" she said.

Kaito glanced over towards Elle, raising an eyebrow at her. "Oh? Someone seems to quite knowledgeable…" he said. He then exerted force on the chains that bound his arm by pulling on them. It took a bit of effort but after a moment, he jerked his arm forward and caused the chains that were wrapped around his lance and arm to completely shatter.

Lynette fell forward a bit, slightly unbalanced as her chains shattered with ease. Even with the wyvern, they managed to bind him for a short amount of time. All it took from him was one arm jerk to shatter them. "W-what!?" she shouted.

Kaito looked back at Lynette with an unfazed expression. "If you think these feeble chains can stop me, then you've got another thing coming" he said. He brought his lance down to his side and looked at the others that surrounded him. "So, it would appear that my arrival was expected. It would seem that I have a rat hiding in a wall" he said. He shook his head and used the bottom part of his lance to give one hard tap on the ground. "No matter. If you wish to throw your lives away to prevent the inevitable, then so be it" he said.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind shot out from over the edge of the roof. The black dragon that had been knocked out of the sky came flew up back up and hovered above them. The dragon looked down at them, letting out a loud screech. To their surprise, they found that the dragon was seemingly unscathed from Cheria's last attack.

Cheria couldn't believe that her five magical arrows essentially left no damage to the dragon. "Not even a scratch!?" she shouted.

Kaito glanced over towards Cheria for a brief moment as the tip of his lance started to glow with intensity again. "Black Dragons are the strongest breed of dragon, in terms of both strength and defense. Your arrows are no better than being prodded by toothpicks" he said. He then spun around to face down Cheria, pulling his lance back and fired off the same red blast of energy at her.

Elle quickly moved to put himself in front of her, assuming a defensive stance by holding her sword up in front of her. Moments later, a sphere of water formed around both of them to serve as a defensive barrier. The red blast of energy collided into the water barrier and exploded. The water barrier managed to absorb the attack so they were left unscathed. Afterwards, Elle retaliated by running her finger across the blade of her sword, forming a jagged sheet of ice that covered the length of the blade. She rushed towards Kaito and swung her sword at him.

Kaito used the length of his lance to clash with her sword, letting out a clashing sound of ice hitting up against a hard object. As they clashed weapons, three shards of ice formed behind Elle with pointed edges to them. Elle jumped back as she sent the three shards of ice forward, each aimed at a different part of his body. Kaito ended up dodging the first two by side-stepping and then used his lance to shatter the last one by striking it with the tip of his lance.

Kaito retaliated back by leaping up high into the air for a few moments. Elle had lost sight of him through the low-hanging clouds so she didn't know where he was going to come down from. Moments later, he came crashing down from the skies with his spear extended out right above her. Cheria took aim with her bow as three Mana-infused arrows formed on the bowstring. She released the arrows and watched them close in on him. When they were within a certain distance, she snapped her fingers and the three arrows exploded where they were and from the explosion was a hail of arrows flying right towards him.

Unfortunately, this didn't faze Kaito as h shot through the hail of arrows like a speeding bullet. The arrows didn't even get close to touching him due to the wind displacement from his attack. He came barreling in with high speeds so Elle had no choice but to dodge it. She jumped back towards Cheria just as the tip of his spear crashed against the roof. However, that wasn't the last of his attacks. Upon landing back down on the ground, he swung his lance against the ground, releasing a wave of energy towards Elle. This caught her off-guard and took a direct hit which sent her back skidding across the stone roof. Before she could recover from this, Kaito swung his spear in a vertical motion, the tip dragging across the stone roof before releasing an arc of energy at both Elle and Cheria.

Cheria attached two Mana-infused arrows to her bow and aimed up to the skies above them before releasing them. The arrows soon exploded above them, releasing a shower of energy over them as they were both encased within individual barriers. The arc-shaped energy ended up colliding against them, exploding on impact. The two of them were knocked back off their feet towards the corridor entrance but thankfully, the barriers absorbed most of the hit. Kaito's barrage of attacks wasn't done, however. He twirled his lance around a few times before jumping up, angling the tip of his spear downwards and landed back down on the ground, releasing three different arc-shaped blasts of energy towards them.

Still recovering from the previous two attacks, they were unable to act to defend themselves from the oncoming attack. Lynette quickly ran up to them and erected a barrier around them. The three arc-shaped blasts of energy soon collided against the barrier and exploded, shattering the barrier that she had put up. While she wasn't hurt, the force of the explosion blasted her back towards Elle and Cheria, who were knocked down onto the ground. Amazingly, she used her staff to help shift her weight before dropping down to one knee.

As this was going on, Ramza, Phi and Nagi had their hands full dealing with the black dragon. Because he was almost constantly in the air, both Ramza and Phi were fighting at a severe disadvantage. Nagi had attempted to bring the dragon down with Gravity-based Artes but nothing seemed to work. Gravity-based Artes are only effective against those weaker than the person who casts them. Since she was still a novice when he came to fighting, her skills in the Magical Artes weren't that strong yet. If she attempted to use Gravity-based Artes against a stronger opponent, while they will still feel slight effects of the increased Gravity, they would easily be able to break out of it.

Seeing as how Gravity Artes aren't going to serve her any good, she attempted to bring the dragon down another way. She used her own version of Lynette's Light Chains, that were appropriately called Shadow Chains, in order to bind the dragon and force it down from the sky. Due to the dragon's maneuverability however, this was a difficult task for her. That was when she came up with an idea. If her chains weren't able to reach her target, then she has to use them in a way where she could trap and ensnare it. All Ramza and Phi could do was coax it into attacking.

Nagi looked over towards both Ramza and Phi as she held onto her spelbook. She held her spellbook out in front of her as she closed her eyes. The air around flowed and encircled her a bit as she pulls her hand away from the spellbook, leaving it to hover in the air in front of her. Moments later, multiple incantation circles appeared and formed a circle. "Ramza, Phi! Try to bait the dragon into the center!" she shouted.

Ramza shook his head a bit, not liking the idea of using himself as live bait. "Bait the dragon, she says…" he said.

Phi was willing to try anything so long as they were able to fight on equal ground. "You can complain about it later. Right now, we can't do much of anything with it up in the sky" she said. Using her twin katana, she channeled her Mana into the two blades as they started give off a violet glow. Soon, electricity started so spark off from the blades. She swung her katana one after the other, firing off the waves of violet electrified energy towards the dragon.

The dragon let out a loud screech as the waves of electrified energy closed in on it. The dragon used its superiority in the air to evade the two blasts and retaliated by launching a fireball at them from it's mouth. Phi quickly jumped out the way moments before the fireball crashed into the side of the shrine and exploded, breaking down part of the wall.

Ramza held his greatsword out towards the dragon as his own ball of fire formed at the tip of it. After a few moments, he fired it off towards the dragon in which it fired back another. The two fireballs collided into each other and melded together before exploding in the air between them. Immediately, the dragon came shooting towards him in a spiral. Ramza swung his sword at the approaching dragon and clashed his blade up against the spiked horn on top of his head that the dragon had pointed out towards him. Ramza stood his ground for a few moments before the dragon swung its tail around and wrapped it around Ramza. With Ramza ensnared by its tail, the dragon proceeded to thrash him around wildly.

The dragon's hold on Ramza was too tight so he wasn't going to be able to squirm out of it. Instead, he imbued molten fire into the blade of his sword and angled it downwards. With one quick thrust, he drove his sword through the tail like butter, causing it to shriek out in pain. The dragon ended up releasing Ramza from its grip mid-swing of the tail which resulted in Ramza to be flung back down against the side of the wall near the corridor entrance.

With the dragon's guard down, Phi used this chance to attempt to lure the dragon into the center of the magic circles. She began reciting a long incantation as a magic circle appeared underneath the dragon, followed by ancient symbols that layered into stacks of three. The dragon looked around a bit before locking eyes onto Phi. It let out another screech but before it could do anything, it was struck by multiple bolts of lightning from above.

Phi finished her incantation due to the bolts of lightning preventing it from moving from the magic circle under it. An intense flow of Mana and electricity gathered at the top of the magic circle as whirring sounds could be heard as if something powerful was being charged up. "Indignation!" she shouted

Moments later, multiple bolts of lightning shot down and struck the dragon several times before one final, more powerful bolt of lightning came crashing down on top of him, causing an explosion as the sounds of pained roars and screeches could be heard from the resulting smoke cloud. There was a brief silence as the sounds coming from the dragon stopped. They didn't see a body fall from the smoke cloud so she knew that it wasn't done yet. After about a minute, her prediction came true as the dragon came spiraling at her like a drill. Phi grinned a bit before dodging the dragon's attack. The dragon was now in the center of the magic circles that Nagi had formed.

Phi moved herself so she was away from the magic circles, looking over towards Nagi. "Now's your chance!" she shouted.

Nagi's spellbook let out a bright, deep purple glow as her preparations were done. She held her hands over her the floating spellbook as her eyes started to glow the same color. "Binding Cage!" she shouted.

The magic circles that surrounded the dragon all started to glow and resonate. Moments later, multiple dark energy chains shot out from each magic circle and high up into the air. The chains filled the air and space above and around the dragon, make it impossible for it to escape. The dragon let out a roar and tried to dodge the incoming chains but it's efforts were soon put to a stop as there were too many to evade. The chains started to wrap around the dragon's body one by one, each one adding more restriction to the dragon's movement. After about another minute had passed, the dragon was completely enveloped by the chains. Once the chains were secured, Nagi pulled back on them and brought the dragon down, slamming it against the roof, causing more of it to cave in.

As they brought down the dragon, Kaito shifted his gaze away from Cheria, Elle and Lynette and looked over in their direction. He was particularly interested and fascinated in Nagi's display and control of the Darkness element, something ordinary people can't even do. "Fascinating. For such unrefined skills, it's a feat worth noting if you were able to subdue my dragon" he said.

Ramza had recovered from being slammed against the wall as he walked over towards Nagi. "It was obvious we weren't going to win in a battle that's solely taken place in the skies and considering that it's a Black Dragon we're dealing with, our chances of winning through brute force are slim, at best" he said. He knew right from the start that their battle with the dragon wasn't one that they were going to win. Not without consequence, anyway.

Phi chuckled a bit, feeling a bit proud for their collective efforts. "If we can't win in a head-to-head fight, then the next best thing is restrain and subdue. To remove the irregularity from the field through forced submission" she said. With the dragon out of the fight for now, they could concentrate their efforts on Kaito without any distractions. She held out one of her katana towards him. "Now, all that's left is to deal with you" she said.

Kaito shook his head, chuckling for a bit. He found it amusing that they thought they stood a chance against him. It's these types of fights that he loves; he enjoyed crushing what little spark of hope people may hold against him. "You all remind me of another group of adventurers who sought to get in my way at one point. And if it weren't for the Necromancy that was used on me, they may have held the victory…" he said. He took in a deep breath and let out a sharp exhale. Suddenly, a magic incantation circle formed underneath his feet and four more in the skies above Ramza, Phi and Nagi, surrounding them. "Compared to the raging inferno that fueled them, however, you're all nothing more than small embers, waiting to be snuffed out" he said.

Nagi felt the intensity coming from the magic circles above them. Whatever he was about to use was going to hurt. "What intense pressure…!" she said.

Phi knew that they were in a dangerous spot and needed to move out of it. "Quick, get away from here!" she shouted.

Before they could move, all three of them felt the weight of gravity dramatically shift as they were all immediately brought down to one knee, unable to move from the sheer, crushing force. It used up a lot of their strength just to be standing on one knee as they were completely immobilized.

Ramza couldn't even lift his sword up from the ground. The force he was emitting was far stronger than that of Caius when he used Gravity Artes against them previously. "Shit…! Can't…move…!" he said.

Kaito looked at them with the same, cold look in his eyes. He looked to be enjoying this quite a lot. "Once ensnared in my trap, there's little hope for movement" he said. Moments later, all of his magic circles started to glow and resonate together. "Allow me to show you just how outmatched you are" he said.

The glows intensified more just before the four magic circles above them each fired off a blast of Darkness-based energy at them. The blasts struck the ground they were standing on as it blew away more of the roof, effectively disintegrating the rocks and rubble. A heavy, dense cloud of smoke filled the entire roof and lingered for a few minutes. When the smoke eventually passed, they could see Ramza, Phi and Nagi partially buried under rubble and debris, suffering from heavy injuries. Thankfully, it appeared that Lynette managed to put defensive barriers around them just before impact but because of the force of his attack, the barriers were only able to soak up about half of the damage. Despite the heavy injuries and bleeding, however, they were all still semi-conscious but were now unable to fight.

Ruko, Allie, Reis and Cesela could do nothing for them but watch as they were all being brought down with ease by a single individual. At this point, they were all very nervous and a bit shaken. Allie, in particular, seemed to be affected the most.

Allie shook her head in disbelief, her body trembling a bit with a nervous sweat. "Just who is this guy!? He's even stronger than Caius was!" she said. In reality, she didn't really know just how strong Caius was. When they briefly fought back in Basilwell, she could feel that there was a much darker, stronger feeling inside of him. Witnessing these events now with her eyes made her come to a realization. Caius had been holding back.

Ruko was at a loss for words. It was abundantly clear that Kaito was far out of their league. This was not a fight that they were going to win. In fact, they'd be lucky if they escaped with their lives intact. "THIS is who you and your rebellion is fighting against?" he asked.

Reis shook his head. This was the first time he's ever met Kaito but he's heard all the stories about him from Flynn, his commander. Nothing that he's told him even comes close to matching up with what he was witnessing. "No…Flynn told me much about him. About his old encounters with him. He was a powerful foe back then but nothing like this. It's like he's a completely different person…!" he said.

Cesela could see the intensity of the Aer that circled around him. It was as if the Aer itself sparked and overflowed with immense power. It was giving her a really bad feeling. "Something's wrong with the Aer. This isn't a natural phenomenon…" she said.

Kaito soon shifted his focus towards the remaining four. "And then, there were four. Still wish to continue this farce? I love crushing the hopes of people but this is starting to waste my time" he said. He slammed the tip of his lance against the ground, letting out a loud clang with sparks of darkness shooting out from it.

Ruko stood in front of both Allie and Cesela and assumed an offensive stance, with his left arm extended out and his right arm lowered at his side. "Things are looking bleak. Shall we run?" he jokingly asked.

Reis stepped alongside him, lifting his katana over his head as he gripped it with both hands, hunched forward a bit as the blade was enveloped by black flames. "Do you really think he'll let us run?" he asked.

Ruko shook his head at him. "Not one bit" he said. It was obvious that they weren't going to get away from this. As powerful as he was, he didn't seem like he had intentions of killing them. That blast that took down Ramza, Phi and Nagi would of done just that if it were any stronger and something tells him that it could have been. However, that didn't mean they weren't going to get through this unscathed.

Reis prepared himself to attack as he hunched forward a bit more. "Then, let's get to it!" he said. He then lunged towards Ruko with high speed, kicking up dust behind him. He did one quick thrust of his katana, aiming it towards his head.

Kaito saw the straightforward thrust coming and dodged it. However, as he did that, Reis quickly changed directions of his attack and swung it towards the base of his neck. Kaito quickly brought his lance up to block the strike but the jagged edges of his katana still scrapped up against the side of his face. The jagged edges slightly dug into the side of his face as Reis pulled back his katana, inflicting a deep scratch on the side of his face. His lance was also tugged forward from it being caught and pulled by the jagged edges.

This opened up a brief window for Ruko as he brought the two iron gauntlets on his arms together as they glowed bright yellow. Ruko did a few quick little jumps in place before leaning forward and shot towards Kaito with blinding speed. With his left arm down at his side, he swung his arm forward and slammed the iron gauntlet against the plating of his armor, sending a powerful shockwave through him on impact which made him hunch over a bit.

Reis jumped back and then up into the air, lifting his katana up over his head to swing downwards at Kaito. At the same time, Ruko spun around and slammed the plating on his left leg against Kaito's side. Both attacks appeared to be direct hits as he stumbled back a bit. The part of his armor where Reis had slashed downwards was sliced through while the plating around his stomach where Ruko's fist made contact with was cracked and damaged. Reis and Ruko slowly closed in around him while keeping their guard up.

Kaito was silent for a few moments before letting out a chuckle. He looked up towards them as he took his lance and slammed the bottom part of it against the stone ground. "Good effort. However, you're going to have to do better than that" he said. Despite two successful attack being struck against him, he appeared to be largely unfazed. Moments later, he exerted a powerful force out from him in the form of a shockwave and air gust.

Kaito faced towards Ruko and lunged towards him, taking his lance and delivered a multi-thrust attack against him. Ruko used his gauntlets to block a few of the thrusts but some managed to land against him as they shredded through his armor and inflicting several minor injuries on him. Kaito pulled his lance back and delivered one final, more powerful thrust towards him. Ruko's gauntlets emitted a bright glow as he held his arms up in front of him, forming a thick shield wall of rock and stone in front of him. The tip of his lance easily pierced through the makeshift wall of earth and clashed against the gauntlets with force, breaking his guard and making him stumble back.

Before he could recover, Kaito quickly closed the gap and while using a shoulder charge against him, he slammed him up against one of the stone towers in the far corner of the roof. Kaito jumped back to put some distance between them and as he did so, Ruko slammed his right fist down on the ground and fired off a blast of energy that ran through the ground towards him. Kaito didn't even bother to dodge and took the hit. He was completely unharmed by it as he retaliated by firing off a blast of energy at him from his lance. Ruko attempted to form a wall of earth in front of him but was easily destroyed by the blast of energy before it could finish forming as he took a direct hit.

While he was focused on Ruko, Reis came charging in from behind him, his katana extended outwards in a lunge. Kaito side-stepped to the side to dodge it and then swung his lance at him to counter him. Reis spun around and deflected it, throwing his lance off towards the side. He jumped back as three swords of black flames formed behind him. He sent each sword at Kaito one after the other and he used his lance to knock away two of them and then jabbed the tip of his lance against the third, which caused it to explode on impact.

Reis used the chance to close the gap on him once more to strike at him while under the cover of smoke but Kaito simply blew it all away with a strong burst of air. Reis came swinging at him from the smoke but Kaito blocked his attack, clashing his lance against his katana. In that same motion, he grabbed onto the wrist of his hand that was holding the katana and lifted him up into the air and slammed his left knee hard against his stomach. Reis let out a violent cough from having the wind knocked out of him before Kaito threw him across the roof like a ragdoll, landing back near Allie and Cesela.

Allie watched in shock as her friends were all brought down with extreme ease as she now found herself to be the only one left standing that could fight. "Master…where are you…?" she asked. They were in deep trouble and with how strong he is, she wasn't sure if even Tsuki could fend him off.

Kaito turned his attention over towards Allie and Cesela, holding his lance down at his side. "You all made a good effort, but that's all it was. You had no hopes in defeating me from the beginning. Do you see how futile it is now?" he asked. He looked back towards Lynette and the others as they all laid on the ground, injured and defeated.

Allie felt something stir inside of her. She wasn't sure what it was but it felt warm and powerful. "You haven't won this fight yet. Not until no one is left standing and unable to fight" she said. She was looking slightly downward, her face darkened a bit to hide her expressions.

Kaito wasn't fazed by the words of a child. But then again, he knew right away that Allie was no ordinary child. She had a totally different aura to her that the others didn't have. He could feel the energy within her surge and that it ran deep. The issue with this, however, is that something appeared to be restricting it's flow significantly so she wasn't able to channel it properly. "You've got guts, I'll give you that. However…" he said. He put his lance up and pointed it towards them. "Don't think I won't hesitate to strike down a child, Spirit" he said. He would remove anyone that stood in his way, even if they were the elderly or children.

Allie felt something come over her. A power that she couldn't remember and yet felt so familiar to her at the same time. "To fight against an overwhelming darkness, one must pierce it with blinding light…" she said. Moments later, her body started to emit a warm, white glow as a surge of power had built up inside of her.

Cesela was down on her knees to help Reis, frightened from the scene she was witnessing. However, after noticing Allie's sudden change in behavior and feeling the warmth of the light that she was giving off, she seems to have calmed her down instantly. It was like the light was a protective wall that made her feel safe. "It's so warm…" she mumbled to herself.

Kaito noticed the surge of power well up around her and knew that whatever was coming wasn't going to be good for him. He needed to stop her before she could finish whatever it was she was doing. It was the first time he actually felt threatened throughout this entire encounter. He pulled his lance back, channeling a significant amount of Aer into the tip as he started glow intensely and even generated whirring sounds of something charging up. "It's useless!" he shouted.

Kaito soon fired off an intense blast of Darkness-based energy at Allie, the strongest attack he's had to use yet. It was clear that he didn't hold anything back with his attack compared to the others. Allie simply stood in place as Cesela hid behind her, putting her hands over her head as she crouched down moments before the blast of energy collided into them, causing an explosion that sent shockwaves across the roof's surface. A plum of smoke stretched high up into the sky and took a few minutes for some visibility to return.

When Kaito was able to see through the smoke, what he saw on the other side genuinely shocked and surprised him. He saw pair of large, white feathered wings wrapped around where Allie, Cesela and Reis were. The wings appeared undamaged and appeared to be reinforced by a barrier of light in front of them. His attack should have been strong enough to blast through any type of barrier they could put up. It seems that his concerns about what he was feeling was warranted.

The wings soon opened up and spread apart, revealing the three of them under them, completely unharmed from his attack. The wings were attached to Allie's back as a halo had suddenly appeared over her head. The energized form of the Caliburn had transformed into a completely different sword. The sword had a unique design to it as it glowed with an intense, white light. There was a white ring in her eyes as she looked over towards Kaito.

Kaito looked at Allie in almost disbelief, seemingly shocked by what he was seeing. He wasn't sure what he was seeing but it felt powerful, even in it's restricted state. "What…is this?" he asked.

Lynette was busy tending the injuries of Ramza, Phi and Nagi as she looked on towards Allie, almost mesmerized by the wings on her back. "Allie…?" she said while at a loss for words.

Kaito kept his gaze on Allie as feathers seemed to materialize from the surrounding Aer as they floated down around her. He attempted to analyze her and this new state but all of his thoughts kept turning to fiction and myth. "What are you...?" he asked.

Allie didn't respond to him. She lifted her sword up, extending it out towards him as four swords of light appeared behind her. She sent them all flying towards him without hesitation and Kaito attempted to counter them by swinging his lance and releasing a wave of dark energy at them. The blades of light pierced straight through the wave with each and each of them made contact with Kaito. Two tore through his armor plating along his right side and left leg, scraping him up while the other two pierced into him. One pierced through his left shoulder and the other through his upper right leg. The other two blades struck into the ground just behind him.

Kaito stumbled back a bit, letting out shouts of pain as he sustained some pretty heavy injuries for the first time. That wasn't the end of her attack, however. As he stumbled back and placed himself within close proximity of the other two blades of light, Allie lifted her left hand up and with a snap of her fingers, the blades combusted in a Light-based explosion. Kaito shouted out more in pain as he sustained further injuries from the explosions.

Allie approached the cloud of smoke caused by the explosion and as she did so, Kaito lunged his lance out while firing a blast of energy from the tip at the same time in a two-pronged attack. Allie quickly dodged both attacks by taking flight with her wings. Moments later, several waves of dark energy came firing out from the smoke in the air towards her. She effortlessly dodged each one before flying down towards him, swinging her sword downwards. Her sword of light clashed against Kaito's lance, sending out a shockwave that blew away some of the smoke.

The two of them clashed for a few moments before Kaito used his lance to swipe off towards his left, breaking the clash and blowing Allie away. Allie ended up landing back onto the ground as she was blown over towards Cheria and Elle, who were still down on one knee. Kaito shot off the same type of Darkness-based blast of energy that he used against her before but Allie used her wings to block the attack and protect herself from damage.

Kaito held his lance up over his shoulder, angled downwards as he looked over at Allie. "Who would of thought a child Spirit would give me the most trouble…" he said.

Allie opened her wings up once more and as she did so, it became apparent that she was charging up for something powerful. A significant amount of Aer was building up around her as an incantation circle hovered in front of her, pointed towards Kaito. He prepared himself for whatever it was that she was about to fire off. From everyone else's viewpoint, it would seem that Allie had turned the tables on Kaito and that she now had the upper hand. However, that all came to a screeching halt in a mere instant.

As she was about to fire off the Arte that she was about to use, she felt a sudden disconnect with the power that fueled her. The incantation circle suddenly broke apart and shattered as the light around her started to dim. Moments later, the wings on her back, the halo over her head and the sword of light that she wielded all shattered into particles of light and reverted back to her previous form and appearance. The sudden break with her power caused her Mana levels to significantly decrease as she dropped down to one knee.

Allie, feeling exhausted and looking extremely confused, had no idea what just happened. She couldn't remember what she was doing during the last few minutes. The last thing she remembered was the feeling of power welling up inside of her. Now, she found herself on the other side of the rooftop with her Mana levels low and short of breath. "What…just happened…?" she asked herself.

Kaito was starting to feel a bit worried about what would have happened if she had successfully fired off her Arte at him. However, seeing her suddenly disconnect from that strange power solidified his previous theory that she was unable to properly wield it due to something blocking or restricting it's natural flow. "Well, that was sure unexpected. Any longer and I might have grown a bit concerned. It's unfortunate that you seem to have little to no control over whatever that power was…" he said. Allie was their last line of defense to go through and now that she was rendered unable to fight due to a lack of Mana, nothing else stood in his way between him and Cesela, who still held onto the Raven's Claw. "With that, this battle is won…" he said. He turned back around and slowly started to approach Cesela once more.

Cheria struggled to get back up onto her feet but wasn't able to. She couldn't believe someone could be this strong. It was an unnaturally high level of power and strength that was out of their league. "I can't believe it. How could one person defeat all of us and barely break a sweat…?" she asked.

Ramza tried to get up off the ground by pushing off it with his greatsword but the debris that partially buried him kept him from doing so. His heavy bleeding and injuries made it even harder. "It's obvious. Something very unnatural is at play here" he said.

At this point, Kaito was done playing games. He wanted to retrieve the Raven's Claw and leave. "With all of the obstacles now out of the way, nothing is left to bar my path" he said. He stopped within a few feet from Cesela, lifting his lance up towards her with the tip of it pressed up against her neck. "Hand it over. I'll pry it from your cold, dead hands if I have to" he said.

Cesela, riddled the fear as her body trembled from watching everyone being struck down and defeated, wasn't sure what she should do. No matter what her options were, they all seemed to lead to the Raven's Claw falling into his hands. She hoped that once he got the Raven's Claw, he would leave them be so she slowly started to stretch her arm out towards him to hand him it.

Kaito reached out to take the Raven's Claw from her but before he could do so, a strong rush of wind blew past him in an instant, feeling a sword strike against his back that tore through his armor. He let out a shout of pain. He couldn't even sense what was happening before it was too late. Before he knew it, he felt a force slam against his chest which blew him back a ways. When he collected his senses and looked over towards Cesela, he saw Tsuki standing there.

Tsuki glared at Kaito, giving him a look of strong defiance. He took notice that his friends were all scattered across the roof, all heavily injured and defeated. He kept a calm, cool attitude as the Aer around him surged. Kaito examined Tsuki closely and much like with Allie's sudden transformation, he appeared to be quite interested in Tsuki. He had sensed another powerful presence somewhere in the shrine and it appears to have finally made it's presence known.

Kaito raised an eyebrow, expressing great interest in Tsuki and what surrounds him and what lies within. He could feel great power that ran very deep, one that could potentially even rival his own, given enough time. "Well, I was wondering if you were ever going to show up" he said.

Allie looked up over towards Tsuki, struggling to stand up. "Master…!" she shouted.

Tsuki looked at the others on the ground for a moment before locking eyes with him. "Apologies for the wait. It was kind of difficult to find my way around, what with parts of the roof and walls collapsing" he said. He pointed his sword out towards him. "You've had your fun with everyone. I didn't want to be left out" he said.

Kaito chuckled a bit with a brief shake of his head. "With what you've seen, I don't know whether to call you brave or stupid for showing up" he said. He could feel the power that Tsuki had. It was powerful but at his current level, it wasn't going to be enough to beat him. "You're definitely strong, I'll admit. At a glance, I could tell that you're a cut above the rest. However, you're still wet behind the ears" he said. He extended his lance out towards him the same way he had his sword out, the tips of each weapon almost touching. "So, tell me. Do you honestly think you can still beat me?" he asked.

Tsuki shook his head at him. He felt the power long before he even arrived at the roof. He knew this was one fight he wasn't going to win. Not without being assisted by the Sigil's power. However, he wanted to test his base skills and abilities against an overpowering force to be able to properly weigh his strengths and weaknesses where he otherwise wouldn't be able to under the Sigil's influence. "Probably not. I'll give myself 10 minutes, tops" he said. He wasn't going to lie to himself and say that he could win.

Kaito was intrigued by his answer. He didn't show overconfidence in his abilities and he didn't over exaggerate what he could and couldn't do. He had the true makings of a humble warrior. For a split second, his visage was temporarily replaced with that of Taichi. He was stronger than Tsuki when they had their first meeting but shared the same presence and ideology. He couldn't help but chuckle a bit with a grin on his face. "Yes…I see him inside of you. An old friend with whom I crossed blades with several times" he said.

Tsuki, unaware of the fact that he reminded him of Taichi, tilted his head a bit, keeping his eyes locked onto him. "I don't know if I should be flattered or concerned but you can keep your daydreams" he said.

Kaito chuckled once more before giving him ma sharp glare. "Let's go with both, shall we?" he asked.

Kaito suddenly lunged towards Tsuki, his lance extending out for a multi-thrust attack with each individual thrust gradually picking up speed. Compared with Ruko, Tsuki had a better time managing his attack. He blocked and deflected nearly all of his thrusts while dodging a few of them as he retaliated back by swinging back at him. The two of them appeared to fight on equal ground for the next few minutes, each of them exchanging blows all while the storm above them raged on.

For a good while, they were fighting at a stalemate. No one was slowing down and no one was letting up. Both of them were taking light damage but no serious injury. Kaito looked like he had been enjoying their fight by the looks his face. He was impressed that Tsuki was able to keep up with him since he was fighting him with the same intensity as with Allie. However, he could start to see Tsuki start to slow down gradually the longer they fought.

Tsuki soon rushed Kaito, swinging his sword at him once more and clashed against his lance again. Kaito threw his sword off to the side with a powerful swing and then lunged his lance forward at him. Tsuki spun around off to the side to avoid it, swinging his arm around with his sword. Kaito jumped back to avoid the swing. As he did that, Tsuki quickly closed the gap between them as he dragged the blade of the Caliburn against the ground. Once he was within striking distance, he swung in an uppercut motion at him, cutting through some of the armor plating on his breastplate and swung back down in the same motion.

Kaito blocked his strike and angled his lance in a way that allowed him to lock his blade between one of the spiked edges on the top of his lance. He gave him a brief look in the eye with a faint chuckle. "Brilliant performance. With more refinement, you might be able to match even his strength. As for now, I believe this is checkmate" he said.

Kaito added a bit more pressure to his lance and used the angle of his lance to his advantage in order to rotate his body in a specific way to spin his lance around and forced the Caliburn out from Tsuki's hands, sending it flying out and clattering across the stone roof over towards Allie and the others. Kaito then jumped into the air and pointed his lance downwards and came crashing down moments later. Disarmed, Tsuki had no other choice but to jump out of the way towards Cesela and Reis to avoid the attack. Kaito then held his free hand towards Tsuki as an incantation circle formed above them. It was the same type of incantation circle that brought down Ramza, Phi and Nagi.

Moments later, a blast of dark energy shot out towards the three of them. In that moment, Tsuki's eyes turned yellow as he felt a rush of power flow through him in an instant. It wasn't power used for offensive purposes, but defensive instead. He threw his arms out as his body started to glow, forming a powerful defensive barrier around them. The blast made impact against the barrier and caused a large smoke cloud from the ensuing explosion. It took a minute or two before the smoke had disappeared to see that the barrier that Tsuki erected still stood and barely took much damage.

Kaito looked on as his attack was basically a wasted effort. After a moment, he let out a heavy sigh. "Impressive defense. Even against the odds stacked against you, you managed to come out the victor. If you can call this a victory, that is…" he said.

Tsuki removed the barrier, his eyes still glowing yellow as he tilted his head with a confused look. "Huh? What are you-?" he asked.

Just then, he heard the sounds of stone cracking and giving way as the ground under their feet started to shake. Tsuki was soon thrown off balance as he staggered forward a bit as he saw a deep crack go right past him. Moments later, the part of the roof that Reis and Cesela started to crumble and break away.

Reis knew what was about to happen and looked over at Cesela. "Shit…! Grab hold of me!" he shouted.

Just as he said that, the roof had completely broke away, causing them both to fall but not before Cesela could grab onto him by throwing her arms around his neck and held onto him tightly. With Reis' quick thinking, he quickly grabbed onto a the loose, hanging stone and marble that with his free hand as they both dangled over the side of the cliff. Below them was a sheer drop down to the ocean.

Reis somehow managed to calm himself down a bit to steady his movements so he could sheath his katana and grab onto the hanging rock and marble. He looked below him as he saw fragments of rock fall down as the reality of their predicament started to set in. "Whatever you do, don't look down and try to be as still as you can! I'm going to try to pull us up!" he shouted.

Cesela, keeping a firm grip around his neck, nodded as she still clutched the Raven's Claw in her hand. She was scared out of her mind so it took a lot for her to settle down. "O-okay…!" she said.

Tsuki quickly turned In the direction of where they were at as the roof broke apart. "Cesela! Reis!" he shouted. He ran over towards the edge of the broken roof and saw that Reis was barely hanging on as he was trying to pull themselves up. He reached his hand out towards him to help him up. "Give me your hand!" he said.

Reis looked up as Tsuki extended his hand out towards him. He was just out of reach of him so he was going to have to catapult himself up. In that moment, he heard more of stone cracking and breaking apart. He took a few deep breaths before using all of his might to catapult him upwards just as the his the side of the wall he was hanging on to broke apart. He grabbed Tsuki's hand with a firm grip while latching his hand on his wrist.

Tsuki grabbed hold of him with his other hand and made sure he had a firm stance. Moments later, he started to pull them both up slowly while also being careful about his unstable footing. Meanwhile behind him, Kaito pulled his lance back and readied himself to lunge towards him. With Tsuki disarmed and distracted, he was now wide open for attack and he was going to take advantage of that. He soon lunged towards him, thrusting his lance forward to pierce him in the back. Tsuki saw him coming from the corner of his eye but couldn't do anything in his position.

Before he got within striking distance, however, Elle appeared between them as she swung her ice-covered sword at Kaito, clashing against the pole of his lance and deflecting it to the side. She then held her right hand up as the air around it drastically dropped to freezing. After channeling enough Aer, she placed her hand on the ground as a streak of ice shot towards him on the ground. Within seconds, several jagged shards of ice shot out at him in a straight line.

Kaito leaped back several times to avoid the shards of ice shooting out of the ground and at the same time, Cheria was standing behind him with large, energized arrow attached to her bowstring as she held it back. She channeled a good amount of her Mana into the arrow as she readied to launch it. "Empyreal Arrow!" she shouted. Moments later, she let loose the energized arrow at Kaito while he was distracted with dodging Elle's attack and ended up taking a direct hit into the back. The arrow tore through his armor plating and left minor injuries near his right shoulder blade.

Elle looked back towards Tsuki as he was still trying to pull Cesela and Reis up. "Hurry, now's your chance!" she shouted.

Kaito gathered his strength and let out a loud shout as a black aura erupted from him. Moments later, he extended his right arm out towards Elle and fired off a blast of dark energy at her. Before the blast reached her, a pillar of light energy shot out from the ground between her and the dark energy into the sky. Off to the side, Lynette was standing in the center of a magic circle. The light pillar she created negated Kaito's attack, protecting not only Elle but Tsuki and the others who would have been in the line of fire.

Lynette soon started to twirl her body and staff around as a surge of Light-based Aer converged around her. This continued for a few seconds before she slammed the bottom part of her staff onto the ground. "Judgment!" she shouted.

The Light-based Aer that converged around her soon scattered up into the skies above Kaito where multiple rays of light shot down on top and around him. With Kaito's elemental affinity seemingly being that of Darkness, the rays of light served to be extremely effective against him as he took a relentless barrage of hits before one large one shot down and consumed him whole in an explosion of Light.

There was several moments of silence as Elle, Cheria and Lynette remained ready to act. Meanwhile, Tsuki was able to pull Reis up far enough to pull his head over the edge of the roof. Just as things were starting to settle, the air around them grew heavy. Kaito soon held up his arm when several balls of pure Darkness formed in the skies above them. He let out a menacing chuckle as he rolled his hand into a fist. Two of the Darkness balls were launched at Lynette where she attempted to counter them by firing off blasts of light at them. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to work and she ended up taking a direct hit as they collided into her and exploded. With her Light affinity, she took a significant hit as Light and Darkness goes both ways in terms of effectiveness. She managed to put a barrier around herself but it was only able to absorb a portion of it so she still sustained heavy injuries.

Another Darkness ball fired off to Cheria where she countered by using her Empyreal Arrow with more power channeled into it. The arrow was soon fired off and pierced straight through it but then resulted in the ball exploding which blew Cheria back a few feet against the ground from the shockwaves. The final three Darkness balls were sent off same time, two towards Elle and one at Tsuki. Seeing the previous three explode, she formed a suit of ice around her to serve as armor and extra protection. She ran towards the two that were coming towards her and jumped between them, curling herself up into a ball as she gathered the Aer around her. Moments later, she uncurled herself and shot out a shockwave of Ice-based Aer with a loud shout. The shockwave collided against the two balls of Darkness and completely froze them, encasing them with hard, solid ice. She then used her Ice Blade to slice through the frozen balls with extreme speed, cutting them up into multiple pieces and destroying them. Since they were turned into two massive balls of ice, there was no explosion.

Elle soon turned her attention to the ball of Darkness that was approaching Tsuki but as she stepped forward, she suddenly sensed a sudden surge of power very close by her. By the time she realized it, she was already too late. Within one of the balls of Darkness was a condensed ball of energy that was frozen but unaffected by the freezing effects. This resulted in the ball of energy exploding, blasting her off her feet and sent rolling against the ground.

Tsuki noticed that the ball of Darkness was quickly closing in on him but there was nothing he could do to stop it. His sword was on the other side of the roof and had no other means to fight. All he could do was attempt to defend himself but this also posed a major problem. "Shit…!" he said. He quickly formed a barrier around him using Alex's abilities.

Allie, taking notice of the situation, saw what was about to happen. It was almost as if time slowed down for her. For some reason, this was a familiar sight to her as blurry images of what appeared to be a battle involving her and what appeared to be a different set of companions standing against another individual. "Master!" she shouted.

The ball of Darkness soon collided into the barrier Tsuki formed and exploded. The barrier protected Tsuki, Reis and Cesela but that didn't completely save them. As a result of the explosion, a large chunk of the roof they were on was completely blasted away. This also lead to Tsuki, Reis and Cesela also being blasted off the roof and out over the edge of the cliff and sent crashing down the cliffside.

Reis reflexively pulled Cesela in front of him as they fell, holding her tightly in his arms with his back to the fast approaching water's surface. Tsuki, while mostly unscathed from the explosion, still took a bit of damage because of the damage the barrier ended up taking. As he fell, time suddenly seemed to sow down for him as he suddenly felt his consciousness being pulled away from him. It was the same similar feeling that he had when Cliff forcibly took control of his body back when they met Draven.

Instead of Cliff assuming control of his body, Alex had assumed control as his eyes started to glow a deep, bright yellow. With Alex in control, he took hold of both Reis and Cesela and formed a five-layered spherical barrier around them. Alex was known for his powerful defensive capabilities so he was the best person to deal with their current situation. The spherical barrier soon crashed into the raging waters of the ocean, taking significant damage in the process due to the height they fell from and the impact of the water's surface. Three of the five layers that he had put up completely shattered, leaving just two left to protect them.

If he hadn't put up the barriers, the impact of the water's surface would have definitely caused significant injury to all of them. Reis would have potentially shattered his spine and permanently paralyzed him, if the shock didn't kill him outright. Cesela would sustain some injury but nothing too serious as she was being shielded by Reis. Tsuki had Alex's defensive Artes so he probably would walk away with a few broken bones, at least.

Unfortunately for them, they found themselves completely at the mercy of the waves as the spherical barrier was soon caught by the strong riptides and currents from the raging storm. To prevent further damage to the barriers and to ensure everyone's safety, Alex had to exert an excessive amount of Mana to keep the remaining two barriers bolstered. Being at the mercy of the waves, they had no control of where they were going or what they impacted against. Without having to rely on someone with Water Artes, there was little that they could do at this point but hope and pray that they reach dry land safely before Alex ran out of Mana.

To be continued…