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

39. Black Snow

Tales of Xalthia

Chapter 38: Black Snow

Reis and the rest of the Melte Team, which consisted of Ruko, Nagi, Melphi and Ramza made quick and easy progress across the snowfields of the Rosedes Tundra. There were a few obstacles that stood in their way, but nothing that proved to be difficult for them. With the snowstorm gone, they had a clear view of where they were going. The sun shined down on them and there was barely any clouds to be seen. Since the report from the scouting team had mentioned footprint sightings that belonged to the Elder Behemoth, they were extra vigilant on their surroundings. Thankfully, a monster of that hulking size would be able to be seen from far away. The snowfields practically flat lands with a few slopes and hills here and there, but there were no places that a creature of that size could hide. The only places they had to worry about were any large forests but the path to Melte that they were on steered clear of the forests, so those weren't a problem to avoid.

After about an hour ride across the snowfields, they were finally able to see the village of Melte in the distance. Not wanting to get too close to the village and stir up attention, they found a small cave underneath a sloped area somewhere in the outskirts and parked their Skiffs. From where they stopped, they just had a little bit of a walk to do until they reached the village gates. Ramza and the others stayed hidden away in the cave while Reis went out to scout the area. He was gone for about 20 minutes.

Reis came jumping down from the upper slope and entered the cave. "Well, it looks like the scouting team's report on the missing villagers was true. The village is eerily quiet and I don't see any signs of recent life" he said. He didn't like the fact that there weren't any signs of the villagers.

Ramza stroked his chin in thought. "That's not good. Could Draxus have rounded up the rest of the villagers?" he asked.

Nagi shook her head, holding her hand up to her chest. "Oh no. Are we too late…?" she asked. She wanted to believe that they were still alive.

Melphi shook her head. With her heightened dragon senses, she was able to verify the state of the residual Aer. "I don't believe so. I can't sense anything resembling recent ritual activity. If they are using the villagers as living sacrifices, then there would be an abundance of Uncondensed Aer" she said. She could sense that the balance of Aer around Melte has become tilted, but nothing on the level one would expect from a sacrificial ritual.

Ruko mumbled to himself. If the villagers were still safe, then they still had time to act. "Then, we better act fast and find them. If they're really planning to do a ritual, then preparations must be underway as we speak" he said.

Reis nodded in agreement. "Before we do that though, we should learn more about who we're up against. Our first goal should be to find the house that the scouting team was using" he said. He had told them that they were staying in a house with a blue roof. Most, if not all, of the buildings had brown roofs, so finding the house in question should be a simple task.

Ramza wondered if they would find anything there. "Assuming Draxus hasn't found it themselves. There's a good chance we might not find anything" he said. If they knew that they were operating within the village, then they might have scoured the place for their base of operations.

Nagi wanted to remain as optimistic as possible. "If their main goal is to acquire victims for their rituals, then they had no reason to search buildings that they've already cleared out. They're pretty narrow-minded, all things considered" she said. Draxus was driven by pure arrogance. Because of their reputation, they think they can get away with anything. That arrogance would eventually lead to their downfall though. It allowed Tsuki and Lynette to sneak into Prophet Castle with little to no issue which lead up to the dismantling of their operations.

Reis hoped that would be the case. If the scouting team had learned anything about Draxus or the activity that's been happening around the village lately, then they would have documented it. That was information they couldn't afford to pass up. The worst part about their situation is that they had no idea at how ma ny cultists they were dealing with. "I spotted the blue roof not too far from the main plaza area. We will make our way there first before checking out the church" he said.

Just then, Reis heard a bit of static in the ear where his ComLink was in followed by Tsuki's voice. "Reis, you there?" he asked.

Reis put his finger up to the ComLink and activated it. "I am. What's wrong?" he asked.

Tsuki's voice came back through the ComLink. "We've arrived at the Glacier. Most of Flynn's survey team was standing by the front entrance to the ice caverns, but they tell us a few more are still inside. No sign of that samurai yet either" he said. Tsuki spoke a bit more ybut there was some static, so he couldn't make out what was being said on the other side. It sounded like others were talking over him though."How are things going on your end?" he asked.

Reis was relieved to hear that most of the survey team was out of harm's way. "I scouted around the village and saw no signs of life. We think they may have rounded them all up by now" he said.

More static buzzed in his ear before Tsuki responded once more. "Any sign of Draxus anywhere?" he asked.

Reis shook his head. It was more unnerving that he didn't see any trace of them as well. Either they were hiding out somewhere or they really are commencing final preparations for their ritual. "Not yet. We're going to check out the scouting team's base of operations and figure out just what we're dealing with here first. Better to do that than wander around in the dark and a potential trap" he said.

Once again, more static buzzed before Tsuki spoke. "Be careful over there. Also, if you see anyone holding a crystal of some kind containing Arcanum, make sure you destroy it. If Draxus is dabbling into that as well, then there's potential that some of them could be Lesser Daemons. No crystal means no sustainability" he said. Considering the last encounter with Draxus that he had, he wouldn't rule out that possibility.

Reis remembered when the crystal that Raiden had was destroyed, the Lesser Daemons that he summoned with it had disappeared. "Like what happened in Haven Village, right? Got it. I'll keep that in mind" he said.

There was nothing but static coming in for about a minute or so. Voices could be heard talking on the other end, but they were indiscernible. "We'll be heading into the Glacier now. As we get closer to the Wellspring, I imagine the signal will become sketchy, at best. Once matters here are settled, I'll contact you again"he said.

It was obvious that the signal between the two of them was getting worse. The swirling energies of a Wellspring was more than enough to cause interference. It didn't matter how strong or weak the Wellspring was. "You be careful in there yourselves. You'll be heading into some dangerous conditions without any proper protection. If you feel weak at all, leave right away" he said. They didn't have any suits or anything and there were only enough suits for the survey team. There was more static, but no voice reply this time. At this point forward, communication with Tsuki and his team were effectively cut off. Seeing no further point in trying to reach out to them, he deactivated the ComLink and rested his arm at his side.

Ruko looked over towards Reis as he seemed to finish his talk across the ComLink. "It's still so bizarre that you can talk to someone across a wide distance in an instant" he said.

Reis shrugged his shoulders. "It definitely has it's perks. Now, if only we could work out the kinks" he said. He walked over to his Skiff and gathered his things before looking back at the rest of his team. "Tsuki and the others are heading into the Glacier, so we should head out as well" he said.

Ruko gathered his belongings and made sure he had enough Gels stashed away. "Anything we should keep our eyes out for?" he asked.

Reis shook his head. "I didn't see anyone in black cloaks, so the coast is clear. However, we should remain vigilant so we don't find ourselves in the same situation as the scouting team did" he said. He recalled being told that the scouting team were meeting up in the outskirts when they were suddenly ambushed by Draxus.

Melphi had that covered. Because of her heightened senses as a Dragonkin, she is able to pick up on things faster than they could. "Leave that to me. Nothing will escape my senses" she said.

Reis nodded and headed towards the cave entrance. "We make for the house with the blue roof first. Let's get going" he said.

Reis and the others soon left the cave and walked across the snowy outskirts of Melte. There was a light wind and as they walked towards the village, it was as if they were walking into a genuine ghost town. It was eerily quiet, almost unnaturally so. Upon walking through the main archway of the village, all they could hear was the faint whistling of the wind and the creaking of signposts blowing in the wind. The area around the village looked to be almost abandoned. There were no footprints in the snow aside their own to indicate recent activity. Any footprints would have been covered by the recent snowfall. It was like everyone in the village just up and left.

As they made their way across the seemingly empty village, they peered through the windows of various dwellings and everything was left exactly how they were. Fully furnished homes with personal belongings to those that owned them. Food that was left on the table, uneaten. It was an eerie atmosphere and to see everything left behind like this was unnerving. For Reis, he's seen this type of thing before around Nargelond. There were a number of abandoned villages scattered around the mountains. For Melphi, it brings up memories of her hometown before the villagers lost their lives to Kaito all those years ago. As for everyone else, this was the first time they experienced something like this. Nagi was abducted by Draxus and never saw the aftermath of Tomoha. For her, this only creates a bigger pit in her stomach. As they made their way across the village, they didn't see a single person, not even someone from Draxus.

After a few minutes of walking through the empty streets, they approached the lone house with a blue roof. Before entering, Reis peered inside through the windows to make sure the coast was clear. After not seeing anyone inside, he opened the front door and took a step inside with everyone else. The house looked like any ordinary house with bookshelves lining the walls. There was a coat rack with several black cloaks hanging from it. The dining table had stacks of papers and files on it. There was also a chalkboard and written on it was a daily report as well as various points of interest that were crossed out. This was no doubt the place the scouting team used.

Ramza stepped forward into the house and looked around. He took notice of spare armor and equipment that sat on a nearby couch. "Well, this is definitely a base of operations. Heavy equipment, maps and charts and who knows what else they have scattered around here" he said.

Melphi walked up to the spare armor that was on the couch. The armor itself wasn't in the best condition and had signs of recent repair work done to them. "By the looks of things, they were planning to take action to probably settle things before they got worse" she said. She sighed heavily, lowering and shaking her head. "Unfortunately, Draxus got the drop on them before they were ready" she said.

Reis approached the dining table and started to skim through all the papers and files that were left behind. He found daily logs and status updates among them as well as spreadsheets detailing some of the Draxus members. "Hmm…according to the documents they left behind, they were dealing with roughly 15 members of Draxus. Amongst those 15 members, 5 of them had the ability to manipulate monsters…" he said. He continued to skim through the documents as he looked for more specific information. Eventually, he found what appeared to be the name of the one that led the whole group along with a description. "Here we go. They said that the leader was a woman named Freyja and served as Magister" he said.

Nagi reached up and held onto her left arm with a grim expression. That was one word she didn't hope to ever hear again. "Magister is considered to be a High Priest while followers are referred to as Acolytes. All orders come from the Magister in charge of a Draxus cell" she said. This reminds her of her time in captivity. The poor, inhumane treatment she and others had to endure. "Everything is absolute when it comes to the Magister…" she said.

Ramza stroked his chin in thought. If there was one person that would have access to Arcanum, it would be this woman. "Then, it would probably be in our best interest to find her. Cut off the head of the snake and the rest will die with it" he said. The faster they can remove the person in charge, the faster they can settle things and save the people.

Reis finished skimming through the bundled sheets of paper and started to go through some of the files that were stacked on the table. What he saw within them seems to confirm what they were all thinking. "At least, we were right about one thing. They're definitely planning a ritual of some kind. Thankfully, it seems like they haven't brought harm to the villagers just yet. Look at this" he said. He laid the file out across the table for them to look at and pointed to a specific spot on one of the papers. "It seems they not only have the ability to manipulate monsters, but they took it a step further to effectively brainwash the villagers" he said. He had thought it was strange that the villagers were disappearing one after the other in short intervals and no one raised a voice of concern about it. "The scouting team noted that the villagers that they saw were acting strange. Almost as if they were being controlled" he said.

Melphi stroked her chin in thought as she scanned over the document inside the file. Considering where they were, it was a smart plan. "Well, they couldn't raze down a whole village with it being so close to Imil. Flynn would swoop down on them faster than you could believe" she said.

Flynn was a formidable fighter in his own ways. He was much like Taichi; he had overwhelming strength though not on the same level as him. Taichi was the type that would put all of his focus into raw power for the sake of becoming stronger. Raiku had a more versatile fighting style who could adapt to any changes on the battlefield. Emma dominated the field with her Magical Artes while also served as the group's main pillar of support with her Healing Artes. Shana was simply just an overpowering beast that had fighting capabilities that one would think they were using cheat codes or something. As for Flynn, he fought more defensively. His fighting style relied on defense and repelling the enemy. His calm and composed nature prevented anyone from seeing what he had up his sleeve. He was more than your simple paladin. His sword and shield has kept Taichi and everyone else safe from harm on numerous occasions. He was someone that any knight would look up to and aspire to be as he showed the true embodiment of a knight in shining armor. Because of his exemplary skills and reputation, he's been scouted numerous times by different kingdoms and agencies, all of which he has turned down.

Ruko thought it was odd that what they were seeing in Melte didn't really fit the memo of Draxus. They typically attack a village first and abduct people and kill those that oppose them before burning the place to the ground. In this situation, Melte was still standing and it didn't appear that there was a whole lot of struggle aside from what happened with the scouting team. "Brainwash manipulation…why go through all the effort and risks that come with burning down a village and initiating a slaughter when you could just have the villagers do your bidding?" he asked himself. This would also help conceal their activity from the public. Draxus was fully aware that they were public enemy #1 in the eyes of the kingdoms, even in Honegroth.

Reis mumbled to himself in silence. After a few moments, a thought came to his mind. "You know, now that I think about it, it's been almost two and a half months since the last known activity of Draxus occurred" he said. He glanced over towards Nagi for a moment. "That business with Prophet Castle that Tsuki and Lynette talked about. There were rumors flying around Ersheath around that time that put many people on edge. Those rumors eventually led to open conflict, but thankfully, they were repelled" he said.

Nagi tilted her head a bit. "What happened?" she asked.

Reis took out the map of Ersheath from his bag and laid it out on the table before pointing to what appeared to be a lone village somewhere in Ersheath that sat between Velika and Ustrisu Fortress near the eastern coast. "The rumors were that Draxus was plotting to attack a village called Barbeau not too far northeast from Velika. Draxus had been spotted skulking around the nearby forests, so this put everyone on edge. Once King Raiku got word of these rumors, he had dispatched a rather large contingent from Ustrisu Fortress to safeguard the village" he said. He recalled the events that were reported. The fight between them wasn't long and some of the knights suffered some bad injuries, but they were able to force Draxus into retreat. Unfortunately, they avoided capture by using the surrounding forests to slip away. "It was a one-sided battle. Because of his orders, Barbeau was safe and as a precaution, they remained there for several days in case they ever retaliated. Thankfully, they never did. That was the last known skirmish with Draxus" he said.

Unbeknown to Ramza and the others, Tsuki and Lynette did, in fact, overhear a brief exchange back when they infiltrated Prophet Castle. While they waited for their chance to gain entry, they overheard Magister Yuno talking to a couple of his Acolytes about something. One of them asked what their plan was going forward after Nagi's sacrificial ritual was complete. They heard that Yuno had mentioned something about one of the villages in Ersheath was being targeted for an attack the following morning.

Nagi would never forget the day that Tsuki and Lynette rescued her. Not only that, but it was the day that she lost her beloved friend, Meghan. It was a day that would be forever burned into her memory. "I remember that day. Two and a half months…it definitely seems to fit. I remember hearing something about an operation that was to take place in Ersheath as Meghan and I attempted to escape" she said.

Ramza thought about the timeline of events. While he wasn't present for the events that took place, based of what Tsuki and Lynette, as well as Phi, have said on the subject, it seems to coincide with the failed attack of Barbeau. Thinking about their history, Draxus was always an active threat so the fact that they went into radio silence for all this time was definitely suspicious. There was only one obvious reason that could be. "It's because of what took place in Prophet Castle, in conjunction with the failed attack. Word must have gotten around to other Draxus cell groups about how Tsuki and Lynette, along with the help of the Eresseas royal knights, exposed them to the public and captured them" he said.

Melphi leaned up against a bookshelf, folding her arms. "One operation was a complete failure and another was completely wiped out before they knew what hit them. Having two separate operations like that be taken down with little effort must have rattled them into doing things more discreetly" she said. This was all conjecture, but it would make sense. Draxus may be a small organization, but what they make up for with their arrogance is their intelligence.

Reis nodded slowly as he started to put the pieces together. "And so, they opted for a more covert approach and operate right under our noses without so much of a scent to go off on" he said. He sighed heavily before taking his bag and putting it on the table. He started to gather up all the important files and documents that the scouting team left behind and piled them away in his bag. "Well, at least now we have an idea of what we're dealing with. All that's left to do is to confront it" he said. He looked over towards the chalkboard and looked at a diagram of the village. There was a building that was circled which was an indication that it was the church. "We need to get to that church and find out what's going on underneath it's altar" he said.

Ruko walked over towards the coat rack and grabbed the black cloaks that were hanging off it. "It seems like they were using these to get around the village in order to not raise suspicions. We can use them to infiltrate the church" he said. He handed each of them a black cloak to wear before putting it on himself. "I'm all for breaking down the front door, but we don't know what to expect" he said.

Reis was in agreement and was going to suggest the same thing. If they are able to pass themselves off as just regular members of Draxus, then they could move around freely. They would just need to be careful with how they acted. "Sounds like a plan. Everyone ready?" he asked.

Everyone nodded in agreement and put on their black cloaks. Their bodies were covered head to toe and most of their faces were covered by the hood and cloth over their mouths. Nagi felt a little uneasy to be wearing the robes that belonged to the people that almost killed her, but she did her best to endure it. She came here to face her past demons, so she had to stay strong. With everyone ready to go, they set out from the house and made their way across the village again towards the church that sat alone on a small hillside. Much like with before, there were no signs of any people around.

As they approached the church with caution, they did a quick survey of the area. Unlike with the main part of the village, there were signs of recent activity. They saw a pair of footsteps that were leading away from the church and what looked to be storage containers that have been opened recently due to the lack of snow that covered everything else. The footsteps appeared to have came from the steps leading up to the church entrance. Ramza and the others hid along the walls of the front entrance while Reis slowly opened one of the doors to peer inside. The main hall was completely empty and silent, so they cautiously entered into the congregation hall.

The inside of the church was rather humble. The interior was made out of high quality dark oak as colored stained glass murals lined both sides of the walls that led up to the pedestal where priests would hold their sermon. There were rows upon rows of benches for people to sit and worship. The stone pillars that lined all around the church were all lit up by candlelight. The entire worship hall looked like no one had touched it, much like how every house and building looked as if everyone just got up and walked out. This was suppose to be a place full of light and worship. However, the feeling and vibe they were getting from this place was grim and eerie. Something felt incredibly off and it wasn't hard to determine what that was. This once holy site has been tainted by a dark, evil presence where the most inhumane acts were being committed.

Nagi recognized this feeling immediately. It another feeling that she had wished she would never feel again. The heavy sense of dread and suffocating darkness in the air. It was as if she was back in Prophet Castle. "I don't like this…" she said, shaking her head.

Ruko walked up to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "I may not know what it was like in Prophet Castle, but you don't need to worry. We're in this together" he said.

Nagi felt comforted in his words. He was right; she wasn't alone to face this feeling. She had the encouragement and help of her friends. "Thanks Ruko" she said.

Melphi took several steps into the worship hall as she walked across the red carpet that went straight down the middle towards the pedestal. Unlike outside in the village, her senses were going off like crazy now. She was definitely picking up on the disturbances in the surrounding Aer. "We're definitely in the right place, I can tell you that much. The Aer in here is charged up and slowly growing more unstable" she said.

Ramza shook his head. If that's the case, then they were going to need to pick up the pace. "The sacrificial ritual must be starting. We better hurry; the villagers' lives are in danger" he said as he quickly made his way over to the altar behind the pedestal.

Reis accompanied him to the altar and examined it to see if there was any sort of mechanism that might make it move. "The altar must be covering a staircase. Now, if I was a secret switch, where would I be…" he said. The altar was made out of pure stone and marble that had a rather large statue on top of it. Moving it themselves would be an impossible task, so it stands to reason that there should be a button somewhere on the altar to press in order to make it move.

Ramza examined the backside of the altar and ran his hand across the stone. After a few moments, he felt his hand graze over an indent in the carved stone. "I think I found it. Stand back" he said. He pressed down against the indented stone piece and could feel it push inwards. After a soft thud and click, the altar started to move to the right on it's own. Underneath it was a small set of stairs that led down to a single door.

They gathered around the top of the stairs and looked at each other briefly before heading down the small stairwell. Once they approached the wooden door, Reis took hold of the door handle. "Remember, we need to act like we belong. Wait until my signal" he said.

They nodded in agreement and pushed open the door. The wooden creaking of the door echoed across a small, dimly lit stone corridor. On each side of the corridor, there were prison cells that looked like they had been repurposed for storage. Crates and barrels were piled on top of each other in some of the cells as well as what appeared to be beer kegs and a bunch of non-perishable foods. For the next few cells, you would think this was just a creepy cellar where the town stores most of it's wares and supplies. However, as they got closer to the other side of the corridor, they encountered prison cells that contained exactly what they were looking for. The remaining prison cells had every single villager locked behind them, some in large groups and others in small ones.

Reis approached one of the larger cells and grabbed onto the bars. "Hey! Is everyone alright!?" he asked. He looked at the prison cells and thankfully, the villagers were none worse for wear.

The villagers in the cells looked towards Reis, some giving him looks of scorn and disdain while others did in fear. This reaction was understandable since he was disguised as one of Draxus. It would seem that the villagers weren't being manipulated and were conscious and aware of the situation that they were in.

As expected, no one replied to his question. Just more people whispering amongst themselves. Then, an old man's voice came speaking out. "Why the hell do you care? You're just going to kill us all in the end anyway" he said in an angry tone. Moments later, an older gentleman with a cane and long white beard and bald head came walking towards the bars. "What's the hold up then? Trying to weaken and starve us so we don't have the strength to fight back?" he asked, glaring at Reis.

Reis shook his head. "No, you got it all wrong. We're here to save you" he said. He then removed the hood and cloth from his face so that they could see who he was. Since their occupation of Imil, the Nightwings have made numerous runs back and forth to the two separate villages across the Tundra to offer supplies and aid whenever they need it. As such, both Flynn and Reis have made multiple visits to Melte, so his face should be easily recognizable.

The old man's eyes widened as he immediately recognized Reis. "You're Reis, Flynn's boy!" he shouted in a hushed voice. The mention of his name caused a reaction with the other villagers that were being held captive.

Reis nodded at him with a smile. "I am. We heard about the suspicious activity going on around here, so I had sent out a scouting team to investigate. However, things didn't end very well for them…" he said. He shook his head with a sigh before glancing back towards Ramza and the others. "In light of this, I decided to investigate myself with some friends of mine" he said.

The old man tried his best to contain his excitement so that they don't attract attention to themselves. "Ohohoho lad, you have no idea how much relief this brings us" he said. When he mentioned the scouting team that was sent out, he lowered his head. "Those were your boys, huh? We saw them. Their cold, lifeless bodies being dragged away. I'm terribly sorry, lad" he said. It wasn't long after Draxus had struck down the scouting team that the rest of the villagers were rounded up through their manipulation spell. "After they were done in, those that remained were "summoned" to the church through whatever strange magic they are using. Next thing we all knew, we were locked up in this underground cellar" he said.

Ramza looked over towards the door not too far from where they were at. "They're preparing for a sacrificial ritual, aren't they?" he asked.

The old man looked towards Ramza and nodded. "Yes. They say that our sacrifice will serve as the new lifeblood for their fallen God" he said. He followed his gaze over towards the door. "Beyond there is where it will be held" he said.

Ruko took his right fist and pressed it against the palm of his left hand. "Then, all that's left to do is crash this party" he said.

Melphi nodded in agreement. "The sooner, the better, preferably. These cold, wet cellars don't provide the best field advantage for us" she said. They were in an enclosed setting with only one exit. They were going to be in trouble if their one and only exit is blocked.

Nagi thought to herself for a few moments. While she wanted this to be settled as quickly as possible, this also gives them a rare opportunity to gain some insight into Draxus. "Before that though, why don't we try to learn as much as we can? Draxus, as arrogant as they are, can be quite elusive. We might not get a better chance to gain some information about their inner workings" she said. Unfortunately, when she was rescued and brought to Eresseas to be examined and eventually debriefed about her experiences and Draxus, she couldn't provide many answers. Most of her memory during her time in captivity has been largely suppressed by her subconscious. This was something out of her control and served to protect her in the long run.

Reis agreed with Nagi. This may be their best and only shot to learn more about Draxus. They didn't have much information to go on that wasn't already public knowledge. If they can learn something new that the public isn't aware of such as future plans and goals or potential locations of other Draxus cell unites, then it would help them be able to understand and deal with them better. "I agree. Let's take a look at what's on the other side of that door before we do anything" he said. He looked over towards the old man. "Once we've eliminated every trace of Draxus, we'll be back to set you all free. Just sit tight for a little bit longer" he said.

The old man nodded. Just the fact that Flynn was there in person to deal with the problem brought comfort to him and also helped reassure the other villagers. "Be careful in there" he said.

They were in agreement and made their way across the rest of the corridor to the door on the far end of it. They went completely silent as they tried to hear anything through the door. It was very muffled, but they could definitely hear voices on the other side of the door. Melphi could also sense the Corrupted Aer swirling around with great intensity. It was a clear sign that whatever was beyond this door was the ritual site. They looked at each other and silently nodded before assuming the roles of Draxus members. They opened the door and strolled into the room while trying to pretend they belonged there.

In the ritual room, there were 11 people dressed in black cloaks that stood around a large invocation circle that slowed bright violet. When they entered the room, those that stood around the invocation circle didn't even acknowledge them. They continued their invocation chant for a few more moments before sparks shot out from the invocation circle. When Reis and the others got a closer look at what was happening, they saw a scene that was something straight out of a nightmare. In the center of the invocation circle were the corpses of the remaining scouting team, some of them which had been mutilated and others looked like monsters had taken a few bites out of them.

After another few moments, a pool of darkness started to form underneath the corpses as the sparks intensified. Then, a serpent-like made out of darkness shot out from the pool and ate the bodies whole before receding back into the pool and disappeared with it. This was the first time Nagi has seen how the sacrificial ritual is conducted. She couldn't help but let out a light gasp of shock as she put her hand over her mouth.

Ramza shook his head in disbelief. "Well, looks like we know how their rituals are conducted now…" he said in a low tone.

Reis wasn't amused when he saw the remainder of the team he had formed mutilated and eaten. However, he had to keep his cool in order to stay incognito. "They'll pay for this…!" he said.

After the pool of darkness receded, one of the cloaked individuals lowered their arms and looked up to face the others. "And with that, my brothers and sisters, the beast has been stirred. We are ready to begin the ceremony" he said.

Another cloaked member soon spoke in a female voice. "Is the Magister still making her preparations?" she asked.

The cult member who just spoke nodded. "It's in the final stage and should be finished soon. As she attends to that, we're in charge of feeding the livestock to Sarex" he said.

A third member spoke afterwards that stood close to where Reis and the others were. "About time. This bowl of snow is starting to become an eyesore" he said.

A fourth decided to chip in as another woman spoke. "Can she really keep that beast of hers under control? That's not your typical monster, after all" she said.

The first cloaked person looked over to the one that just spoke. "Don't worry. Arcanum's influence is powerful. There isn't a creature alive that can't resist its power" he said.

The other cult members looked at each other and mumbled amongst themselves. It would appear that whatever this beast was that they were talking about was significant enough to cause even them some concern and worry. They didn't doubt the power of Arcanum, but some didn't truly believe it had the capability of manipulating something like that.

The same cloaked person raised his hand up to silence them. "Now now…settle down, everyone. Magister Freyja is a skilled sorcerer who has a deep innate talent for the Darkness element. If there's anyone among us that can utilize a dark, twisted power like Arcanum, it'd be her" he said. He then raised his hands up into the air. "Let the Magister do her part. We have a ritual to commence" he said. The invocation circle started to glow a violet color once again as if it were powering up. "Now, let's go fetch our-" he said.

Just then, something strange was happening to the invocation circle. The power that they had gathered within it began to quickly dwindle. The swirling Aer around the invocation circle started to become absorbed by something. This caused confusion and alarm amongst the group. When the cloaked figures followed the trail of where the Aer was being absorbed into, they were put on alert. The Aer was being absorbed into the spellbook that was attached to Nagi's waist.

Nagi had no idea what was happening. All of a sudden, her spellbook started to glow the same bright violet color that the invocation circle emitted. She felt the power of it being unexplainably absorbed into her spellbook. Whatever her book was absorbing, she could feel it making her abilities stronger. She's never felt anything quite like this before. After about another minute or so, the invocation circle that the cultists had formed on the ground completely disappeared with the last of it's power being absorbed. Moments later, the spellbook released it's glow and returned to normal.

Melphi was watching the whole thing unfold. She could feel all that dark Aer being sucked in like a vacuum. The most curious part about it was that Nagi wasn't causing it. Not consciously, at least. "What…was that…?" she thought to herself. She didn't know what it was, but she felt a strange power that belonged to a completely different presence. It was something she's never felt before. She knew that, without a doubt, whatever it was that she felt, it belonged to a Spirit and a powerful one at that.

Ramza put his hand on Nagi's shoulder who was looking very confused. "Are you okay? What happened?" he asked.

Nagi shook her head. She had no idea what just happened. "I-I don't know. All of a sudden, my spellbook...it just…" she said. She took the spellbook off her waist and held it in her hands. She could feel it brimming with new power and she didn't know why. She opened it up and flipped through the pages and, sure enough, she somehow had gained some new spells, some of which seemed to be quite powerful and demanding.

Ruko was relieved to know that she was okay, but now they found themselves in a predicament. "Uhh…guys? I think our cover is about to be blown" he said.

The cloaked individual that had done the most talking approached Nagi and looked very upset. "You! Our invocation! What have you done!?" he shouted.

Nagi shook her head and tried to keep her composure, but there was no hiding her visible confusion. "I-I don't know. I…" she said.

The cloaked person threw his right arm to the side in anger. "You don't know!? Everyone here just saw what you did! Do you realize how hard we had to work to gather all that power!?" If I didn't know any better, it looked like you wanted it all to yourself!" he shouted. He pointed his finger towards her. "Hand over that book of yours, now!" he said.

Nagi gripped her spellbook tightly to her chest and shook her head. Handing over the spellbook was something she could not do. Not only is it her only way to fight and defend herself, but she felt like something terrible would happen if someone else got their hands on it. "…I can't" she said.

The cloaked person gritted his teeth in anger and reached out to grab hold of the collar of Nagi's cloak. "If you won't hand it over, then I'll take it by force!" he shouted. With his right hand, he drew a short dagger out from underneath his cloak and didn't hesitate to lunge it forward in order to stab her in the stomach.

Before the dagger could stab her, Melphi quickly put her arm between the dagger and Nagi. The dagger made a clanging sound as if it made contact with a wall as half of its blade snapped off like a twig and clattered against the stone ground. Melphi then glared at the cloaked individual with piercing yellow eyes.

The cloaked person was left shocked and surprised which caused him to step back a bit with his broken dagger. "What!? You dare to interfere!?" he shouted.

Melphi continued to glare at him before lunging towards him and swung right arm in an uppercut motion. As she swung her arm up, the cloth that covered her arm slid down to reveal her scales and claw. The claws ripped through the cloak of the individual as blood shot out from across his torso. The man was thrown up into the air slightly before falling onto his back where he bled out and died. The other cultists looked towards Melphi as flames started to engulf the cloak she was wearing. As it burned away, Melphi's figure became exposed. Both of her arms had transformed into her dragon claws. This obviously caused the other cultists to draw their weapons in response to this.

A different cloaked figure shouted out after witnessing the death of his comrade. "A Dragonkin!? What's one of you doing here!?" he shouted.

Melphi shook her head a bit. "I think that should be obvious" she said in a cold, menacing tone. A few embers could be seen being exhaled from her mouth as she spoke.

Reis sighed a bit, scratching the back of his head. "Well, our stealth approach sure didn't last long. Oh well" he said. He took his cloak and threw it off him and drew the katana from his waist.

Ramza and the others would soon follow suit by removing their cloaks and drawing their weapons. This threw the cultists into confusion and alarm as their operation had been infiltrated. This time, they were the ones to be victims to an ambush.

The woman that spoke earlier shook her head. "I knew it! There were more of those scouts in hiding!" she shouted.

Reis looked over towards the woman that just spoke and glared at her. "So, you must be one of those rats that struck down my team" he said. He pointed his katana towards the woman. "You'll regret what you've done" he said.

The woman chuckled a bit with a pleasing grin on her face. "Oh? Do you miss them? Don't worry, you'll be joining them soon enough" she said. She took out what appeared to be a whistle of some kind and blew on it. The sound that emitted from it echoed through the chamber. Several moments later, two Frost Wolves came running out from a small passage off to the side of the chamber along with a black and brown bear called a Ravager Bear. Their eyes had a faint glow to their eyes that gave off the same color as the invocation circle.

Reis looked around at the monsters that the woman had summoned. It would seem like the report that Draxus had the ability to manipulate monsters were true. "Looks like we got a monster handler on our hands" he said.

Ruko shook his head and brought his two iron gauntlets together to make a loud, metallic clanging sound. Unfortunately for the cultists, they've already had their fair share of Frost Wolf and Ravager Bear encounters, so this was cakewalk for them. "Is this it? Honestly, I was hoping for something a little…more, you know?" he said. He was slightly disappointed that their choice in monsters wasn't that impressive.

Nagi shook her head a bit. The last thing they wanted was something they couldn't handle. "Please, don't say that…" she said.

Reis nodded in agreement. "If there are 4 others that can summon monsters, even the most basic of variety can overwhelm you. Since we're dealing with Draxus, it'd be best not to drop our guard" he said. In terms of numbers, they had the advantage. However, with their combined strengths, they should be able to outmatch them.

The woman pointed her staff out towards them. "Attack! Show them no mercy!" she shouted.

The cultists let out a collective shout before charging towards Reis and the others with the three monsters leading the whole group. With 11 members of Draxus and 3 additional monsters, they decided to divide and conquer. Melphi charged towards the three monsters while the rest divided up the cultists. Reis and Ramza took on 5 of them while Nagi and Ruko took on the rest.

Melphi isolated the three monsters away from the crowds by drawing their attention with some light taunts. Once isolated, she found herself surrounded by the monsters. The wolves snarled at her while keeping their distance at first while the bear charged her and swung its claws at her. Melphi dodged its claws easily and managed to swing around behind it and slashed the bear with her dragon claws across its back. The bear let out a pained growl and quickly turned around to take a swipe at her. Again, Melphi dodged it and in that moment, her dragon's tail formed and used it to sweep down at the bear's feet in order to knock it down. The bear stumbled over her tail and fell facedown on the ground but before it could get back up, Melphi used her tail and slammed it down on the back of it's neck, breaking the bones and effectively killing it.

The two wolves suddenly charged at her at the same time, each coming at her from different directions. One came at her from behind, baring it's fangs and ready to pounce on her. As it made the leap to jump on her, Melphi spun around and grabbed onto the wolf's neck and slammed it down onto the ground, her claws digging into it for a quick, painless kill. The other wolf came at her from another direction, but it would never reach it's target. Flames and embers started to generate from Melphi's mouth and moments later, she let out a breath of fire at the wolf. It was consumed by the flames and after several pained howls and cries, the wolf fell to the ground where it stood, charred and burnt to a crisp. There was no question that it was dead.

As she fought off those monsters, Nagi and Ruko took on the 6 cultists that were left to them. Ruko took on three of them at once as they swung and thrust their respective weapons at him. He was easily able to block and dodge their attacks with the metal plating around his arms and legs. Seeing as how ganging up on him wasn't getting them anywhere, the cultists tried to come at one at a time from different angles in order to throw him off balance. Unfortunately for them, such a strategy wouldn't work on him. Rather than relying on his instincts, he was using his mind's eye in order to judge their attack patterns. When one of them came at him from behind to attempt to pierce him with his short sword, he slid to the side at the last second, grabbed onto his wrist with his left hand and used his right elbow and slammed it down against their arm hard enough that bones could be heard breaking. The cultist screamed out in pain but these shouts were quickly silenced as he took the man's now broken arm and threw him over his shoulder onto his back down onto the ground with force.

The remaining two cultists came at him from both sides of him, holding an axe and longsword high up over their heads. Ruko got low to the ground and held his right arm back as he channeled his Mana into his right gauntlet. Once it started to emit a yellow glow, he slammed it down onto the ground which kicked up the stone flooring a bit in a small radius. The one cultist wielding a longsword evaded this by jumping back but the other one holding an axe had too much momentum going and ended up stumbling and lost his balance. Ruko turned towards the stumbling cultist as shards of earth formed around his right arm to form a fist made of stone. He rushed the cultist and slammed the stone fist against him and sent him crashing into the wall behind.

The cultist wielding the longsword had quietly made his way behind Ruko and was about to deliver a downwards slash, but as he did so, a wall made of earth shot out from the ground between them. The blade of his longsword ended up grazing against the earth wall which caused the blade to break in half and graze against the cultist's shoulder. Before he could react from this, Ruko's fist came bursting through the earthen wall and slammed into their stomach. Some of the broken shards from the wall ended up piercing him. Despite this, the cultist still managed to stand his ground despite his injuries. He tried to swing at him again with his broken sword, but Ruko simply put his foot forward to make him trip. He grabbed the back of their head and slammed them down onto the ground.

Meanwhile, the other 3 cultists were throwing all they had at Nagi. Having only her Magical Artes, she was at a bit of a disadvantage when it came to a 1 vs 3 battle. Despite that though, she was still managing to hold her own. When one of them came charging at her with a spear, she did a quick incantation to summon her shadow chains. The chains shot out from incantation circles that appeared behind the charging cultist with one wrapping around their waist and two more wrapping around their left arm and right foot, effectively rendering him immobile.

At the same time, one of the other cultists drew back their bow with three arrows attached to it. They started to glow just before being released from the bow. The arrows turned into three separate blasts of energy that swirled around each other. In retaliation, Nagi used the opportunity to use one of her new spells and generated a barrier of darkness around her. The arrow blasts crashed into the barrier and let out several sparks before exploding and filling the area around her with smoke. The two other cultists slowly started to approach the plume of smoke until two spears of darkness shot out towards them. They had no time to react with how fast they came in and ended up both being pierced by the spears, one through the heart and the other through their chest. They both collapsed to the ground and bled out, if they weren't dead already.

The last cultist that she was facing struggled to break free of the shadow chains that bound him in place. However, he was unable to do so but continued his struggles. Nagi turned to face them and stretched her arm out towards her as her spellbook started to glow, along with her eyes, a bright violet color. Suddenly, the cultist found themselves being dragged down into a pool of darkness that had formed under his feet. Still bound by the shadow chains, he couldn't break free and pull himself out. After a few moments, the cultist was fully consumed by the pool of darkness before it disappeared completely with the cultist.

Across the room, Reis and Ramza were standing with their backs pressed up against each other as the remaining 5 cultists surrounded them. Three of them wielded swords while one had an axe and the last one, who was the monster tamer, wielded a staff. The three that wielded swords came at Reis at once, swinging their swords at him. Reis deflected two of the attacks and threw them off to the side before clashing blades with the third cultist. After a brief stare down, Reis's blade was enveloped by black flames before he swung it forward to break the clash and released a wave of black flames at the same time. The flames passed through the enemy's blade and consumed the cultist. They stepped back, swinging his sword around blindly as he screamed out in pain as he became a black human torch. Eventually, he dropped his sword and fell to the ground. The two other cultists wasted no time to charge at him. Reis sheathed his katana and held his hand over the hilt while leaning forward. He waited for the two to get a little closer to him before taking hold of the hilt and shot forward with incredible speed that caused him to briefly disappear. Moments later, he appeared behind the two cultists with his katana held up into the air and blood shooting out their chests.

With two remaining cultists, the one who wielded an axe had a stand-off with Ramza. They both stood there as they stared at each other, motionless. Suddenly, they both charged each other and clashed blades with one another. Ramza soon parried the clash but the cultist quickly recovered and swung his axe down over his head. Ramza jumped back and charged his Mana into his blade. Moments later, the blade was engulfed in flames and unlike Reis' black flames, his served as an additional layer to his broadsword. He rushed at the cultist once more and clashed blades with him a few times. They were both using heavy weapons, so speed and dexterity wasn't their strong suit but compared to an axe, Ramza had more motion to his attacks. The cultist did his best to deflect all of his attacks, but he was being worn down with each strike. Eventually, Ramza managed to knock the axe out of his hand which opened him up for one final strike. He slashed the cultist down across his torso, inflicting a deep wound. The flames around his blade served as additional hits of damage, which caused even more injury to him. After a few screams, the cultist fell onto his back.

With their numbers shrunk down to just one remaining cultist, all that was left was the monster tamer. Seeing her comrades all struck down and her summoned monsters defeated, she took a few steps back as she tried to cope with what was happening. "H-how…? T-this can't be happening…!" she said. They were all influenced by the power of Arcanum. There was no way they could have lost.

Reis pointed his katana towards the woman. "If you thought you had an edge over us just because of a little power boost of Arcanum, then you were sadly mistaken" he said. With their power infused with Arcanum, they were stronger and tougher than the average fighter, but they've all fought stronger opponents than them at this point. This was basically a warm-up exercise.

The woman gritted her teeth and clutched her staff with a tight grip. She could feel the anger and rage swell up within her. "W-who are you people!? How can you stand against our power!?" she shouted.

Reis shook his head and glared at it. "Draxus is arrogant. You all believe that because you have this unknown power, you can go unchallenged…" he said. Without hesitation, he charged towards the woman and pierced her with his katana. "How does it feel to be beaten by your own power?" he asked. The black flames soon ignited around his blade and started to consume the woman.

The woman let out a scream of pain after being pierced, coughing up blood as she dropped her staff. She took one look at his eyes and almost couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Y-you…can wield…Arcanum…?" she asked.

Reis didn't respond and instead, he removed his katana from her gut and stepped away. He watched as the black flames envelope the woman as she fell to the ground. There were no screams of pain, just the sounds of a burning fire that filled the now empty and quiet room. He swung his katana to get the blood off his blade before sheathing it.

Ruko used his arm to wipe his forehead. He was a bit disappointed from that whole fight. Regarding the reputation of Draxus, he expected more difficulty and fight out of them. "Is that it? Wasn't that a little too easy?" he asked.

Melphi shook her head as her dragon claws transformed back into human arms. "It's not over yet. Remember the report from the house? The scouting team documented at least 15 individuals. We only saw 11 in here…" she said. They weren't out of danger just yet.

Nagi stroked her chin for a moment and then remembered something. "Hey, remember those footprintss we saw outside? Maybe those belonged to the remaining 4 people" she said.

Ramza nodded. "I would assume so. Besides, one of them mentioned that this Freyja was in the final stages of preparing something big" he said. He took note at the amount of hesitancy and doubt the cultists had when they mentioned the monster that was apparently under her control. He didn't want to think about it, but he had a gut feeling of what it could be and he prayed that it wasn't what he was thinking about.

Reis turned and headed back towards the door to the previous corridor. "We better follow those footsteps and see where they went. Let's go free the villagers from their cells first" he said.

They nodded in agreement and went back into the corridor where the prison cells were. They went to every cell that the villagers were in and broke their locks. With the cell doors now open, they could now escape to freedom. Reis and the others explained to them about their encounter in the other room and were relieved to know that they wouldn't have to be sacrificed in the same way as the remains of the scouting team were.

The old man from earlier put his hand up to chest and lets out a sigh of relief. "I can't express how fortunate we are to have you guys here. We're greatly in your debt" he said.

Reis shook his head, raising his hand up. "Don't mention it. That's what we're here for" he said. He was concerned about how the village will cope with recent events, but after seeing the faces of the villagers and how they support each other, he was confident that life would return back to normal. "We're not quite done yet though. We still have to confront this Freyja person, so I have to ask that you guys remain here in the church" he said.

The old man nodded as he looked around the corridor. "Of course. Besides, some of are famished so we'll make use of some of our stock in here to fill everyone up" he said. Some of the villagers had been locked away for several days, so there were a few that have been left without food for a while. "Freyja boasts that she has a trump card under her sleeve, so watch yourselves out there" he said.

With that, the old man went to assist his fellow villagers and made use of the supplies they had piled up in other cells. Meanwhile, Reis and the others left the corridor and returned to the worship hall of the church. They made their way outside looked down at the ground. Some of the footprints were partially covered because of some new snowfall, but the were able to make out a trail. They followed it with their eyes and saw that the trail led up to a small hillside with a lone, two-story wooden cabin. They followed the trail up the hill and as they got closer to it, they were able to make out even more footprints left behind in the snow. The front yard had dozens of tracks going back and forth and there was even a fire that had been recently lit.

They looked around the front the house but saw no one outside. However, when they snuck up to one of the windows, they could hear several voices speaking from within. They decided to sit tight and eavesdrop on the conversation as Reis peered into the window. Inside, he could see the remaining 4 cultists and since they only encountered one that could manipulate monsters, these were all monster tamers. Three of them had their cloaks on, so they couldn't see their faces, but the fourth one had their hood down. It was a woman with short, curly brown hair and grey eyes. She had a staff with a unique design to it. It was a white staff with gold plating around it and topped with a pair of wings and a red jewel. With how the three other cloaked individuals were interacting with the woman, it was an indication that she was who they were looking for.

Reis looked his eyes on the woman with the staff on her back. "That must be Magister Freyja we've heard about…" he said. He looked around the room from the window, but there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. "I don't see anything that stands out" he said. He looked over at Melphi. "Are you picking up anything?" he asked.

Melphi shook her head. She wasn't sensing anything on the same level as with under the church. "No, everything feels normal around here" she said.

Ramza stroked his chin in thought. "Which begs the question, what is she preparing for?" he asked. She wasn't preparing anything on the levels of a sacrificial ritual, but whatever she was preparing involved that monster that caused some unrest with the cultists.

Ruko shrugged his shoulders as he tried to listen in on whatever they were talking about. Unfortunately, he couldn't hear much. "It doesn't help that we can't hear what they're saying" he said.

Nagi took a peek through the window and saw that they were preparing to make their move. "Guys, I think they're about to walk out" she said.

Reis nodded and readied his katana. "Let's get the drop on the three monster tamers first" he said.

Reis and the others got into position behind a small shed just off to the left of the cabin. After about another minute had passed, the door to the cabin had opened up and the woman assumed to be Freyja and the three monster tamers came out behind her. Reis and the others waited until they all had their backs turned so that they can strike them down with ease.

As they stepped out of the cabin, the woman stepped forward a bit before turning around. "Rejoice. In mere minutes, we'll be one step closer in gaining Sarex's favor" she said.

One of the monster tamers scratched the back of their head and spoke in a rough, male's voice. "What is our plans after this?" he asked.

The woman put her right hand on her hip. "We go into hiding. Those scouts must have came from Esseand which means they are aware of our presence. We will wait until things settle down before we make our next move" she said. She wasn't thrilled that they had to go into hiding, but the risks weren't worth it otherwise.

Another monster tamer spoke in a female's voice that screamed of pure sass. "Why must we hide? We're Draxus! Since when did we become cowards?" she asked.

The woman looked towards the monster tamer that spoke and shook her head. "Have you forgotten what happened to the cell unit in Cayhill? They were brought down by just two people" she said.

The third monster tamer spoke out in a calm, male's voice. "Rumor has it that Eresseas had been aware of their presence in Prophet Castle for some time and sent out a small, elite team to take them out" he said. He folded his arms and shook his head. "Not only that, but we've recently had several operations that have either failed or have been destroyed. Our failed attack on Barbeau, the destruction of our ritual site along with the cell unit responsible for it on Megrove and the assassination of High Magistrate Vahl in Nargelond" he said. He was one for caution under such circumstances. It would seem that the kingdoms are starting to put pressure on Draxus.

The woman nodded in agreement. "It's because of recent events that we need to fade from the spotlight for a while. Magister Yuno would say the same thing, if he were still here" she said.

Nagi put her hand up to her mouth in order to muffle her surprised reaction when she uttered a familiar name. "Magister Yuno…?" she mumbled to herself.

The cloaked woman sighed heavily, lowering her head a bit as she clenched her fist. "Magister Yuno…I want to find the two that were responsible for his death. Their sacrifice would be most welcome" she said, gritting her teeth.

The first cloaked man spoke out as he put his hand on her shoulder. "Calm yourself. Do you really think you would pose a challenge to them where the late Magister could not?" he asked. While he did share in her anger and dissatisfaction, they would need more than what they had now if they wanted to take down the two individuals responsible for their defeat.

The brown haired woman put her hand up to her chest and gave the other woman a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. Once we spread news of our ability to manipulate monsters, no one will be able to stand against us. Especially with that on our control" she said.

The woman snarled a bit as she thought about the two unknown individuals. "You're right and I can't wait. I want to feed those two to that beast. I want to watch them scream and beg for their lives" she said.

The brown haired woman nodded once more before turning around. "The day will come where no one will have the power to stand up to us" she said. She then waved her hand and started to head towards the church at the bottom of the hill. "Come. The ritual should be complete by now" she said.

The three monster tamers nodded and started to follow her down the hill. However, after they turned their backs and started to walk away, they were suddenly attacked. The pained shouts of the three monster tamers caused the woman leading them to stop and turn around. The three of them were struck down with ease before they had time to react by Ramza, Melphi and Ruko. Ramza ended up striking at the female tamer at her waist while Melphi dug one of her claws into one of the men's back. Ruko slammed his metal gauntlet against the back of the other man's neck hard enough to knock him out for a few hours. Rather than simply kill him like the other two, he figured they could take him prisoner for interrogation later. Reis and Nagi soon approached behind them not long after.

The woman was caught off guard by their sudden appearance. "W-who the hell are you people!?" she shouted.

Reis stepped forward from the group and stepping onto the backs of the male that had been cut down with one foot. "Vice Commander and Lieutenant of the Nightwings. We've come to put a stop to your activities here" he said. He then pointed his katana at the woman. "I'd ask you to surrender, but I know you Draxus folk don't know the meaning of that word" he said.

The woman gritted her teeth a bit. She was both surprised and not surprised at the same time that this had occurred. She knew that striking down the team of scouts that they discovered days prior was a bad idea. They took too long in their preparations. "Damn it all. We were too slow, after all" she said. She briefly glanced down over towards the church. If she could warn the other cultists, then they would be able to easily crush them.

Reis shook his head as he saw where her glances were being directed towards. "Don't bother. Do you really think the underlings from the church will be able to help you?" he asked.

The woman's eyes widened a bit with surprise. "Wha-!? How did you…!?" she asked. If he knew about her fellow Acolytes underneath the church, then that could only mean one thing. "No…!" she said.

Reis nodded. It seems like it was a good thing that they took care of the cultists before confronting her. If she wielded a crystal that contained the essence of Arcanum at it's fullest and used that to give the others a power boost, then they would have been in some trouble. "We already took care of your underlings and freed the villagers. Your sacrificial ritual has been broken. You are all that remain" he said. He wanted to intimidate her into surrendering herself, but he knew that wouldn't happen. "I suggest you get down onto your knees and surrender. You'll only make this harder for yourself if you don't" he said.

The woman was almost seething with anger. The look of pure hate and frustration she was giving him was that of a wild beast. "This can't be happening! My cult. My ritual! You've ruined everything!" she shouted, throwing her arm to the side in a fit of rage.

Nagi walked up next to Reis and glared at her. Looking at the woman was almost a reflection of that of Magister Yuno. "You have no one to blame for this but yourself. Sacrificing innocent lives to appease a long, forgotten devil? We aren't livestock to satiate your twisted desires!" she shouted.

The woman glared at Nagi, giving her a look of pure disgust. "Silence! All who oppose Sarex are nothing more than feed! This world has lost its balance and only He can bring salvation to it!" she shouted. She held her arms up into the air and had a crazed, twisted look in her eyes. "This world is for the strong. If you're strong, you live. If you're weak, you die! That's how things should be, not this false sense of peace and harmony!" she shouted.

Nagi shook her head and held her hand up to her chest. In that instance, she recalled back to a time when she was still in captivity. She was curled up with her back up against a stone wall. Standing next to her was a girl with long, blonde hair and red eyes. Nagi looked to be around 16 years old from her flashback while the girl standing next to her appeared to be around 20 years old. The girl was looking up at the moonlight that shined down through a small window that had metal bars.

The girl continued to stare up at the moon for a few moments before speaking. "What will you do when you get out of here?" she asked.

Nagi had her knees pressed against her chest. She looked quite skinny on account of the fact that she hadn't been eating. There was barely any light in her eyes as well. "Get out…? We'll never get out of here. Even if we did, Draxus would hunt us down…" she said. There was almost monotone in her voice.

The girl shook her head and held her arms behind her back. "That's the wrong answer, you know. You'll never get out of here with that kind of attitude" she said.

Nagi closed her eyes and didn't respond. She remained silent for several moments. "I don't know how you can be so positive. We're powerless against Draxus. It'd be easier to submit" she said.

The girl sighed heavily and turned to face Nagi. "There you go again. You're tougher than you look if you managed to survive this long. All you need to do is redirect that strength elsewhere. If you're strong, you'll live, right?" she asked. She gave her a bright smile almost to try and reassure her that everything will be alright.

Nagi looked up towards the girl with a blank look on her face. "What is there to live for? Draxus took everything away from me. My family, my home, my friends…everything. There's nothing to go back to and no one to go home to" she said. There was no point in her living if there wasn't anything left of her past. She's tried so many times to do herself in, but those attempts had always failed.

The girl got down onto her knees and reached her hands out towards Nagi's face. She rested them against her cheeks as she pressed her forehead against hers with a light blush and a smile. "I told you, so long as you have me, I'll make sure you will live a normal life. So what if we lost everything? What was once lost can be regained" she said. Much like with Nagi, she had lost everything and everyone she held dear. However, that didn't break her spirit. Her will to live was strong and unbreakable. After spending all this time with her, she wants to share the future with her. "I can't replace the friends and family you lost, but I can share my love with you and support you the same way they could" she said.

Hearing those words brought some light back into her eyes. "Meghan…" she said. She fell silent for a moment as her mouth quivered a bit. She didn't want to believe in something that probably won't come true, but it was hard to do that when she gives her that look with those words. It almost makes her want to strive to live on. She reached up and placed her hands over hers. "Will you…stay with me…forever?" she asked, hesitantly.

Meghan pulled her forehead away from hers but kept her face cupped in her hands as she gave her the warmest smile she has seen in years. There was no need for words to answer her. All she needed to convey was action and this was done in a way surprising way. With her face cupped in her hands, Meghan leaned into her face slowly and kissed her on the lips. Nagi's eyes widened with surprise for a few moments before returning to normal as she seems to return the kiss. After about several moments that felt like they lasted for minutes, they pulled away from each other, both of their faces slightly red.

Meghan continued to give her a warm smile as she could feel her heart pounding. "Does that answer your question?" she asked.

Nagi could feel her heart almost bursting out of her chest. The kiss caught her by surprise, but she didn't hate it. In fact, it eased any lingering doubt her in mind. "Yes…it does" she said.

Meghan nodded with a wide grin on her face. "Good! So, don't you go giving up on me. We'll get out of here one day and we will live on. So long as we both remain strong, nothing will tear us apart!" she said.

With those final words, the scene switches back to the present where Nagi was glaring at the woman. The words that she cherished most from Meghan, the person she loved, were etched into her mind. She truly wished that Meghan could be standing by her side right now. All those times when the two of them talked about freedom and their future plans together beyond Draxus were now bittersweet memories. Even though she was no longer with her, she could feel Meghan's presence both in her heart and beside her with each passing day. She knew that she was watching out for her, even in death.

Nagi felt empowered by old words that spoke in her mind. It was what she needed in order to confront her past demons. To wipe the stain clean that Draxus left on her. This was her chance to do just that with her newfound abilities. All of this brought on a sudden surge of power within her which caused something to stir. "You're right about one thing. You need to be strong in this world in order to survive. Without strength, one can't hope to make it far" she said. She held her right hand up and stretched it out towards the woman and clenched her fist. "That's why I'm going to seize that strength. For those that couldn't be here. For myself. Mag-Yuno Garcia once attempted to take that away and now he's four feet in the ground, thanks to two of my close friends" she said. She took the spellbook from her waist and opened it up to prepare herself as it started to emit a violet glow. "For too long, I was powerless to do anything. Too long have I been protected. Now, I must do my part and that is to rid the world of wretched worms like you" she said.

She showed a side to her that completely surprised Ramza, Ruko and Melphi. Her behavior, attitude and even tone of voice was almost unlike her. It's almost as if her personality had completely changed. It was in this moment that Melphi started to pick up that strange feeling she got from before when all of that Corrupted Aer got sucked into her spellbook. She wasn't sure then, but after seeing her now with this sudden surge of power, she knew, without a doubt, that the presence she was feeling was that of a high level spirit and not just any ordinary spirit either. "This dark feeling…this suffocating darkness…could this be…a Great Spirit…?" she asked herself. Out of all the Great Spirits to exist, there was only one that would match up to what she was feeling. This brought on a revelation that shouldn't be possible. "But…that's supposed to be one of the Lost Spirits. Could it really be…?" she continued to mumble to herself.

When the woman heard her mention Yuno's name in full, her eyes widened a bit. "How do you know about…?" she asked. She then recalled a time when she was talking with Yuno several months ago. He had mentioned that he was preparing to sacrifice a vessel with significant Darkness. A vessel that he claimed would serve as a turning point for Draxus as a whole. Witnessing her sudden surge of power and the familiar feeling of the element, Darkness, along with her mentioning of Yuno, she came to a conclusion. "You…! So, you're that Vessel of Darkness Magister Yuno mentioned! Which means, you were involved in the death of one of our greatest Magisters!" she shouted. She took the staff off her back and held it in front of her as she gripped the shaft tightly. "You'll pay dearly for what you have done!" she snarled.

Suddenly, an incantation circle formed underneath her feet as her eyes started to glow violet along with the red jewel that was attached to her staff. They could all feel a familiar power brimming from the both of them. It was the power of Arcanum and it was palpable. The levels that were being emitted were some of the strongest they have felt so far. Despite that though, she didn't seem to be able to summon forth Lesser Daemons like others were able to. In fact, they had a much bigger problem on their hands that would pose a far more grave threat than Lesser Daemons.

Ruko was starting to get a very bad feeling about this. The sense of dread was very heavy in the air. "Uhh…guys? Do you hear that…?" he asked. In the distance, he could faintly hear something heavy moving at a fast pace.

Ramza knew what this meant and it was his worst fear. "Things are about to get very bad for us…" he said. Out of all the scenarios that could happen, it was their rotten luck that the worst one possible was about to occur.

Melphi quickly turned around to face the cabin where they had just came from. Her draconic senses were going off the charts. She sensed an extremely dangerous threat fast approaching them. "It comes!" she said. For the first time in a very long time, she actually felt extremely nervous with a good amount of fear.

Suddenly, the cabin exploded outwards as wood and other debris flew into the air and scattered all over the place. The whole structure was mowed down to the ground in an instant. Standing on top of the now destroyed cabin was the beast that they had heard about. The one beast that they were told to avoid at all costs. The Lord of the Mountain. The Elder Behemoth. The beast itself had thick, violet skin with numerous scars imprinted all over it's large, muscular body as if they were tattoos. It had a pair of large, piercing horns and a black mane that went along it's spine down to it's tail. The beast had a powerful jaw that could easily take a bit out of a concrete building with razor-sharp fangs. It's hide looked incredibly thick to the point that there was a possibility that ordinary weapons won't do much against it. It's jet black eyes looked like two bottomless pits of pure hatred and rage. The creature was of a hulking size as well. It was large enough to plow through and demolish a two-story building with ease. It was far bigger than the Daemon they fought in the desert and possibly far stronger.

The behemoth stomped it's front left leg down onto the wreckage of the cabin and leaned it's head back to let out a loud, monstrous roar that reverberated across the entire area. The roar was loud enough that it could be heard for miles as it echoed across the empty snowfields. This caused the small fry monsters and local animals to flee in sheer terror. The behemoth looked down at Reis and the others with ferocity and intensity as it growled at them, baring it's large fangs.

It was obvious to Reis that their situation just became grave. He quickly took out the ComLink and placed it in his ear before activating it. "Commander! We have a serious problem here!" he shouted.

There was some slight static before Flynn's voice responded to him into his ear through the ComLink. "What is it? What's wrong?" he asked.

Reis kept his gaze locked onto the Elder Behemoth as he readied himself to react at a moment's notice. "It's the Elder Behemoth! It's here!" he shouted.

There was a great shock in Flynn's next words. "What!? The Elder Behemoth!? Where!?" he asked, shouting through the ComLink. You could almost hear something fall down on the other side of the ComLink.

Reis couldn't believe what he was seeing himself. This was definitely because of the enhancements that Arcanum was providing. "Right in front of us! It's being manipulated and controlled by Draxus with the use of Arcanum!" he shouted.

Back in Imil, Flynn was left in total shock of this news. To think that the effects provided by Arcanum would have such a powerful influence. He heard how unpredictable it was from Tsuki and the others, but he didn't fully grasp it until now. "The Elder Behemoth is powerful monster that are SS Marked beasts. To think that Arcanum was strong enough to put such a beast under the spell of manipulation…" he said. He leaned forward on his desk as he thought about what options they could take. "Can you get away from it?" he asked.

A bit more static rang in Flynn's ear before Reis responded. He could hear the roar coming from the Behemoth through the ComLink. "No, it's completely locked it's sights on us. There's nowhere for us to go. Besides, if we run, we'll be putting the lives of the villagers at great risk!" he shouted.

Flynn didn't like where things were going. He hasn't had any run-ins with the Elder Behemoth, so he didn't know what to do in this situation. What he did know was that it was going to take more than the five of them to take down the beast. "It's extremely dangerous, but I have no choice. I'll send out as many people as I can to assist you. Can you hold out until then?" he asked.

More static played in his ear. He could still hear the roars of the Behemoth in his ear. "We'll do our best. Make sure they double time it!" he said.

The connection between the two ComLinks ended, cut off by Reis. This was the worst case scenario for Flynn. He didn't have many people who were remotely capable enough to take on an Elder Behemoth and Tsuki and the others were still unreachable due to them being inside of the Glacier, so they were unaware of what was happening. All Flynn could do was hope that a miracle would play out. "Things can't get any worse than this" he said

Cesela was sitting on one of the couches and had a look of great concern on her. She didn't know much about an Elder Behemoth, but she understood that they posed a grave threat that dozens have lost their lives against. "Are they going to be okay!?" she asked. Thanks to the heightened senses of Foxkin, she was able to hear the intense roars coming from his ComLink.

Flynn looked over towards Cesela, unsure of how to respond to her. He wants to strongly believe that they'll be okay, but they were up against a fearsome foe. Even a coordinated task force of A-rank mercenaries with careful planning have great difficulty dealing with an Elder Behemoth. He could see that she was very concerned about Reis and the others, but he had trouble uttering any words of comfort. They were in an extremely dangerous situation and it wouldn't do any good if he were to sugarcoat it.

Cesela got off the couch and went over towards the nearby window to look out in the direction of Melte. She rested her hands on the window sill, looking very anxious. "Reis…everyone…" she mumbled.

Back in Melte, the Elder Behemoth let out another monstrous roar. At the same time, the woman started to laugh maniacally. "Behold, our ace in the hole! So long as we have this Elder Behemoth on our side, we'll be unstoppable!" she shouted. She pointed her finger towards them. "I am Freyja Elrod, Magister of Draxus and I hereby sentence you all to death. Go, my hungry beast! Feast upon their bones!" she shouted. She then put up a powerful barrier around her to protect herself from any attacks.

Melphi turned to Freyja as she brought out her dragon claws. She charged at her to attempt to break through the barrier, but not even she was able to break through it. In fact, the moment her claws touched the barrier, he repelled her by giving her a powerful shock which forced her back. "Agh…what kind of barrier is that?" she asked.

Freyja laughed a bit more as she looked at Melphi. "Don't waste your time. This barrier is made out of Darkness with a few enhancements from the influence of Arcanum. Not even a Dragonkin's claws is strong enough to break through it" she said. She had the look of absolute delight. They thought they had her cornered and it pleased her to see the tables turn on them.

Ruko glanced over to the staff she was holding. There was no doubt in his mind that the jewel embedded in it was the crystal they had to destroy. "What do we do now? So long as that barrier of hers is up, we won't be able to reach that crystal" he said.

Ramza shook his head as he kept his gaze on the Elder Behemoth. "Worry about that later. Right now, we need to figure out how to deal with this monster" he said.

Reis scanned the beast carefully to see if there were any weak spots they could target. "We don't need to kill it. We just have to incapacitate it somehow" he said. If there was a specific spot that they could hit, that would make things a bit easier but from what he sees, there weren't any.

Nagi's eyes had started to emit a violet glow, the same as the glow coming off her spellbook. She didn't understand where this power surge of hers was coming from, but she could feel it's raw power. It filled her with confidence and determination. "I have a plan on how to deal with that barrier, but the incantation will take some time. The behemoth needs to be brought down first" she said.

Melphi was curious to know where this dark power surge of hers was coming from. It was a power surge that was coming from not only within herself but from the spellbook as well. She had many questions, but she would have time for that later. Puffs of flames and embers started to exhale from her mouth as her eyes turned piercing yellow. "I'll keep it's focus on me. You all concentrate on weakening it" she said.

Suddenly, she was enveloped in a sphere of energy as the Aer within her started to stir. After about a minute, the sphere of energy soon changed shape and morphed into Melphi's dragon form. Melphi let out a loud, draconic cry towards the behemoth which caused it to roar back at her. Then, she took to the air and flew towards the behemoth. The behemoth locked it's gaze on Melphi and hunched back a bit before making a leap towards her. The two colossal beasts ended up colliding into each other and knocking each other back. Melphi leaned her head back for a moment before releasing an intense blast of fire from her mouth. The behemoth dodge it by using it's four powerful legs to jump up into the air. It came down and swung one of it's frontal claws at. Melphi swung around and canceled his attack by slamming her tail against the side of it's neck. The behemoth fell to the ground, sending intense vibrations with caused the surrounding area to shake. Melphi came flying in with, ready to take a swipe at it with her claws, but the behemoth quickly recovered and immediately leapt towards her. It ended up crashing into Melphi, knocking her onto the ground on her back with the behemoth on top of her.

The behemoth leaned it's head back to let out another roar before thrusting it's head down to take a bit out of her neck. Fortunately, she stopped this by breathing out another intense blast of fire. This time, the flames made contact it and caused it to stop and shake it's head as flames burned it's face. Melphi used the opportunity to counter the behemoth by leaning her head forward and latching onto behemoth's neck with her fangs. The behemoth let out a cry of pain and soon threw her off by slamming it's front left leg against her and sent her crashing into the hillside. As Melphi was recovering from behind thrown back, the behemoth dug it's four heavy feet into the ground and lowered it's body so that the two horns were sticking out. After a few moments, it began charging towards her in order to use it's horns to impale her. Melphi recovered just in time and took to the skies, but not without taking a hit. While she did manage to save herself from being impaled, one of the horns grazed her against her side and dug into her a bit, leaving a serious injury. Melphi let out a pained, draconic cry as she couldn't keep herself up in the air and fell onto the rubble of the cabin.

The behemoth attempted the same attack again as it charged at her again. Only this time, it was stopped in it's tracks when chains of shadow shot out from nowhere and wrapped around it's legs and neck, forming a tight grip. On one side of the hill, Nagi stood in the center of several incantation circles where the chains where coming out from. Despite the hulking size and power of the beast, Nagi didn't seem to struggle to keep it restrained. As the behemoth was restrained, Ramza stood off to the side as he charged his Mana into the blade of his sword. Once the blade became ignited with intense flames, he struck the blade into the ground and channeled the flames towards the behemoth. Moments later, the ground started to shake a bit more before a large pillar of fire shot out from the ground underneath the behemoths. Cries of pain could be heard as it was being burned, but it would take a lot more than that to wear the beast down.

As the flames burned the behemoth, the tug on the chains became stronger until eventually, the chains shattered. Immediately after that, the beast came charging out of the pillar of flames towards Nagi and Ramza. Ruko gathered Mana into his right gauntlet as it started to emit a bright yellow glow. After gathering enough power, he slammed his fist onto the ground and channeled his energy through the earth. Moments later, several spiked pillars of rock and stone shot out from the ground as the behemoth drew closer. The first three slowed it down and the fourth and fifth one brought it to a stop. Once the beast was stopped, one final spiked pillar shot out from underneath it and collided into the behemoths stomach, making it stumble back a bit.

With the beast thrown off balance, Reis came charging in with the blade fully engulfed with black flames. He reached deep inside of himself to pull out as much Arcanum inside of him as possible for the purpose of a single attack. He let out a yell before leaping towards the behemoth with blinding speed and slashed the behemoth across it's side. Because his blade was infused with Arcanum, this allowed him to directly inflict harm to the beast despite it's hard exterior. The blade was able to dig into the beast's hide as he ran it across the length of it's body down to its tail. The black flames burned against the new wound and served as extra damage. However, this still wasn't enough as the beast thrashed around a bit and used it's tail to Reis with enough force to send him crashing back into the snowy landscape.

The behemoth let out another loud roar as several incantation circles appeared around it. Moments later, multiple spears of fire shot out from them and rained down over Nagi, Ramza and Ruko. This caused smoke to be kicked up into the air as the rain of fire continued without end for at least a minute or so. When they stopped and the smoke dissipated, Ruko was left crouching down with slight burns across the left side of his face and along his left arm while Ramza was standing in front of Nagi and used his fire abilities to form a protective wall around the both of them but not without suffering from minor burns themselves. The beast locked eyes on Ramza and Nagi and let out a low growl before it started to charge up a massive amount of Mana into it's horns. As the beast charged up, it stood up on it's hind legs and let out a monstrous roar as a massive ball of fire started to form between the two horns.

Nagi started to cast some of her spells to try and disrupt the beast's casting. First, she tried to bring it down with a Gravity Arte, but even with her power surge, she wasn't able to do so. Next, she flipped through her spellbook and started to do several incantations at once. Seven violet incantation circles formed around the behemoth and each of them started to charge up. This was a similar technique that Kaito used against them in Nobuo. The one that took herself, Ramza and Phi down in one shot. The beast looked around at the incantation circles that formed around it as if he were observing them. Several moments later, each incantation circle shot out a concentrated blast of Darkness-based energy at the behemoth. The blasts collided into the behemoth and exploded on contact, causing the behemoth to let out a loud roar with more smoke being kicked up into the air.

Unfortunately, when the smoke cleared, despite taking quite a bit of heavy damage from the blasts, the beast was still charging up it's attack. In fact, the fireball had grown almost three times in size. The power that the behemoth had gathered in the single fireball had more than enough power to cause widespread devastation and vaporize just about anything in it's path. After about another minute, the behemoth looked like it was about ready to launch the massive ball of fire at them. However, before it could do so, Melphi came flying from behind it and wrapped her tail around the beast's neck as it latched onto it with a tight grip. Melphi let out a loud, draconic cry as she used an untold amount of inner strength to life the beast off it's hind legs and managed to swing it around a little bit before slamming it onto the ground. This caused a disruption in the beast's casting and caused the massive fireball to explode right in front of it. The beast took massive damage from it's own attack and since Melphi was right there with it, she ended up taking a significant amount of damage herself as she came crashing down and sliding against the snowy landscape. Because of the damage the beast had taken already, the added damage caused by it's own fireball was more than enough to incapacitate it.

As for Melphi, while she managed to use some of her natural defenses to mitigate the damage, she did sustain some pretty serious injuries. She tried to get up, but wasn't able to and as a result, she was also rendered incapacitated. She then started to glow as her dragon form started to shapeshift down into her human form. She didn't suffer any puncture wounds like how she did with the Daemon in the desert, but her human appearance was almost as beaten up as her dragon form. Some of her clothes were burnt to a crisp, she was bleeding pretty heavily from her right shoulder and the left side of her forehead and had a pretty good gash on her right side which she was also bleeding from pretty heavily. There were also some burns along her right arm and along her left leg. She was left laying on her side as she bled out, coughing up more blood. Even after all the damage they had caused, on top of damage dealt from the beast's own attack, the behemoth didn't look like it was anywhere near close to death's door. The fact that they managed to incapacitate it using it's own attack was a miracle itself.

Freyja looked upon the view in utter shock and disbelief. What she was seeing was something that shouldn't be possible. "No…how!? How could my Elder Behemoth lose to such rabble!?" she shouted. She quickly regained her composure as she took a deep breath before shaking her head. "No matter. All I have to do is to just rose it from it's sleep and-" she said. Suddenly, a pool of darkness formed underneath her feet. Before she could have any time to react, a familiar serpent made out of the essence of pure Darkness shot out from the darkness pool, taking Freyja high up into the air along with her barrier. The fangs of the serpent grinded against the barrier with increasing pressure. After a few moments, sounds that resembled glass starting to crack could be heard. Sure enough, the barrier that surrounded Freyja was starting to crack and show signs of giving out. "No-! This can't be happening…!" she said. Her gaze shifted down towards Nagi who was standing in the center of a violet incantation circle.

Nagi's spellbook was emitting a bright violet glow along with her eyes. More so than that, the spellbook was hovering in the air in front of her as both of her hands were also glowing. The power that was surging out from her body and the spellbook was unlike anything Ramza and the others have felt thus far. In fact, she was giving off similar vibes as to when Tsuki channels the inner spirits within the Sigil. The only difference was that this felt something dark and unhinged. Nagi simply stood there, glaring up at her as the glowing coming from her spellbook, eyes and hands started to grow even brighter.

Freyja could hear her barrier starting to crack more as the pressure being applied to it increased in strength and intensity. "No no no no!" she shouted. Then, it finally happened. The barrier that surrounded Freyja cracked even more until it finally shattered. Freyja's quickly held her staff up over her head as the jaws of the dark serpent closed in on her, only stopping short from the staff that kept it's mouth pried open. Freyja was left holding onto the shaft of her staff, dangling over what looked to be an endless pit of darkness that comprised of the inner parts of the serpent. "This can't be…! How could I, a Magister of Draxus, lose to such trash!?" she shouted. As the pressure was being applied against both ends of her staff, she could hear it start to splinter and creak.

Nagi continued her unrelenting gaze up at the woman. "There's more to this world than being strong. Even the weak can triumph over the strong" she said.

Ramza looked up towards Freyja who was, quite literally, barely hanging in there. "The chains of fate have decided who the victor would be here today and they have sided with us. Your actions can not go unpunished and I can't find a more fitting retribution than you falling to your own hubris" he said. He pointed his sword up towards Freyja. "It's just a shame Tsuki can't be here to witness this moment. The moment where Nagi takes back what you all have stolen from her" he said.

The glow coming from Nagi intensified even further as she exerted more power out than she needed. In that moment, it was like she felt a hand on her left shoulder. She looked off to her left and for a moment, she saw the spirit of Meghan standing next to her with a smile on her face and look of determination. As she experienced this bizarre moment, she could almost hear her voice speak out to her through her mind. "Do it, Nagi. Show them what it means when you deal with true strength" she said.

Nagi felt the familiar warmth and comfort of Meghan beside her which empowered her even more. With a more intensified glow, the pressure being exerted against Freyja's staff strengthened. Soon after, her staff started to show visible cracks as it started to slightly bend. Freyja started to shake her head with fervor. "No…! I don't want to die like this…!" she said, almost pleading for her life at this point.

Nagi stretched her right hand up towards Freyja with her palm facing out. "How many innocent people have said the same thing to you and your fellow cultists? It's time you have a taste of your own medicine" she said. She then started to slowly close her fist as her hand emitted an intense glow. At the same time, the pressure that the dark serpent was increasing. "If you want to be with your forsaken Daemon God so much, allow me to show you the way" she said. She soon snapped her fist tightly shut.

With the increased and unrelenting pressure being exerted, Freyja's staff finally gave out and snapped in half like a twig. "AGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" she screamed. As she fell into the pit of darkness below her, the dark serpent closed it's jaws firmly shut around her, consuming her whole and silencing her screams. Moments later, the serpent retreated into the pool of darkness and disappeared along with it.

After the pool of darkness disappeared with the serpent and Freyja, there was nothing but silence that filled the air. All they could hear was the whistling of the wind. All Ramza and the others could do was look at Nagi with a stunned expression. It was like Nagi became a totally different person. Yet, unlike with Tsuki when he channels his inner spirits, she was still herself. It was as if the power that took over her almost altered her personality.

As Nagi lowered her arm to her side, she felt the warm presence of Meghan envelope her. It was as if her spirit was now standing behind her with her arms wrapped around her neck, holding her in a warm and loving embrace. Just like before, she could hear her voice speak to her through her mind. "See? I told you that you could do it. Always believe in yourself and no one will beat you. And most importantly…remember that I will always be with you. Forever…" she said.

The familiar warmth and voice of Meghan brought forth a flood of emotions as tears started to stream down Nagi's face as the power that had taken hold of her vanished along with that warmth she once loved. Suddenly, her body started to collapse to the ground like a ragdoll with her spellbook closing on it's own and falling onto the snow. Thankfully, Ramza came up behind her and caught her before she could fall over. He lowered her down to the ground and saw that she was out cold with tears running down her face.

Ramza had no idea what just happened, but what he did know was that he could no longer sense any linger presence of Arcanum. "What just happened here…?" he asked.

Ruko was about to speak when he heard a low growl. He turned around and saw that the behemoth was starting to regain consciousness. "Uhh…Ramza? I don't think it's over quite yet…" he said.

The behemoth slowly started to open it's eyes, only this time they weren't emitting a violet glow. After a few low growls, the beast slowly started to stand back up on it's feet. Even after all the damage it took, it still look like it had plenty of fight left back in him. Meanwhile, Ramza and the group were in rather rough shape. Melphi was down for the count with some pretty severe wounds and injuries and Reis sustained some heavy injuries with the worst being a broken right arm and a few broken ribs. Considering he took a direct hit by it's tail whose hide was tougher than stone and marble, it was a miracle he didn't have anymore injuries than that. With Nagi also unconscious, they were down to just two fighters against a hulking monster. For a few moments, the both of them thought that this was the end of the line for them. There was no way that they could take on an Elder Behemoth and protect three incapacitated allies.

The beast stared at the two of them with a low growl for what probably felt like an eternity. Then, something unexpected occurred. Rather than finishing them off, the behemoth started to glow white. Moments later, they saw a familiar phenomenon occur. The behemoth started to morph down in the exact same way as Melphi did. It morphed into a human shape and soon after that, the white glow disappeared and what was revealed was of great shock to all of them.

The behemoth had transformed into a muscular man who looked to be in their late 30s. He wore a half-torn, sleeveless shirt, had spikey violet hair and blue eye with pants that looked like they went through the shredder. His human form, much like with Melphi but less severe, also appeared to have suffered some injuries to it. It was in this moment that the feelings of dread and bloodlust in the air completely vanished.

Ramza looked at the man as it was at a loss for words. What he just witnessed made no sense to him and shouldn't be possible. "The Elder Behemoth is…a Faerie…?" he asked.

Melphi struggled to get up onto one knee, coughing up more blood as she did so. "No…this is impossible…" she said.

Ruko looked between Ramza and Melphi, tilting his head in confusion. "What's wrong? What's so strange about it being a Faerie?" he asked.

Melphi struggled to process what she had witnessed. It defied all counts of reason and understanding. "Because there shouldn't be one like it! There is no Faerie in existence that have the genetic code of a behemoth, much less one of the Elder variety" she said.

Soon after, the man spoke as he glanced over towards Melphi. "And you'd be correct. As a matter of fact, I'm not even a Faerie to begin with. I am an ordinary Human being. At least, at one point, I was" he said.

Ramza tilted his head a bit with curiosity. He was really interested to hear his story. "What do you mean, at one point? If you are a Human, how are you able to transform into an Elder Behemoth?" he asked.

The man scratched the back of his head. "It's…a long story and not one for out here in the bitter cold. Besides, it's important to treat those injuries I gave you" he said. He walked up to Ramza and gave him a sincere expression. "I'll explain everything to you once we've done that. I know it might be hard, but can you trust me?" he asked.

Ramza examined the man carefully. There wasn't a hint of malice or ill intent in his words plus he felt like a completely different person compared to before. His eyes had sincerity in them. "Alright then. We can use the house that the scouting team used" he said. He placed his sword on his back and picked up Nagi, carrying her in his arms.

The man nodded and bowed slightly to him. "Thank you" he said. He turned and walked over towards Reis, who wasn't able to stand up because of his injuries. "May I?" he asked, reaching his hand out to help.

Reis looked up at the man and sighed before sheathing his katana. It was either he help him or freeze to death outside. "Sure…" he said.

The man reached down and grabbed onto his left arm and gently placed it over his shoulder and slowly lifted him up from the ground. With his help, he helped him walk over towards the village. Melphi had managed to regain enough of her strength to pull herself back up to her feet and followed closely behind while keeping a close eye on this person. Being a Faerie herself, she knew that there wasn't anyone of her kind that had his genetic code. The fact that he could transform into an Elder Behemoth while also claiming that he was a Human piqued her interests.

They dragged themselves through the snow back down the hill towards the village. With the silence of the behemoth's roars, the villagers had started to slowly come out of the church. When they saw the state that Reis and the others were in and the silence in the air, they knew that the dangers that have loomed over Melte has finally come to an end. Reis and the others eventually returned to the house with the blue roof and were given as much medical supplies and bandages that they would need in order to tend to their injuries. The slight burns on Ramza, Nagi and Ruko were very minor so a few batches of ointment, medicine and bandages would be enough to patch them up. Melphi had her powerful draconic medicines which would speed up her healing process, so she didn't need much of their supplies. Reis, however, sustained the worst injuries with a broken right arm and a few broken ribs. Unfortunately, these injuries were beyond what minor medicines the small village of Melte could provide as he would need to be seen by a certified doctor with the right tools. Which meant, his treatment would have to wait until they returned to Imil. At the very least though, they ended to whatever injuries they could and put his arm in a sling.

After they finished tending to their injuries, Reis took the opportunity to notify Flynn through the ComLink of what happened and to let them know that they were alright. It brought great relief to both Flynn and Cesela when they heard the news, but were still concerned about them because of their injuries. Flynn had sent out a team of Nightwings to Melte that would arrive in the next hour or so which gave them time to learn what the strange man had to say. Before that though, they waited until Nagi had regained consciousness.

As Nagi remained unconscious, she found herself floating in an empty dark void. She had no idea where she was, but she knew that she wasn't awake yet. "Huh…? What is this place…?" she asked.

Her voice echoed through the void and got no response to her question. She could have went into a panic, but for some reason, she felt strangely at ease. Then, after a few minutes of silence, a voice echoed back to her from the darkness. "So, you've finally broken down your walls. Oh, how I've longed to finally find you…"the voice said. It was in a low, male's voice but that's all she could make out.

Nagi looked around the empty void, but didn't know where the voice came from or who spoke. "W-who are you!?" she asked.

The voice soon responded back to her, but still showed no signs of where or who it came from. "Do not be alarmed, Child of Darkness. I mean you no harm. I have spent eons…centuries…searching for you. For someone who had the right compatibility" the voice said.

Nagi tilted her head a bit. "For me? Compatibility? I don't understand…" she saidd. She had no idea what the voice was saying.

The voice let out a low mumble that echoed through the dark void. "Nor do you need to right now. There is still much to be done for you to fully awaken. You've merely taken the first step and I am here to slowly guide you along. If you're willing, of course…" the voice said.

Nagi wasn't sure if she should be striking any deals with a strange voice in the pits of darkness. However, she wasn't sensing any malicious intent behind it's word nor did it feel like her surroundings were putting her in danger. "Guide me to…what?" she asked.

Again, a few low moans came out from the darkness. "The pathway to Darkness. In my centuries-long search, I have never found a more palpable soul such as yourself. One that would finally reach into the darkest depths. To reach…for Shadow" he voice said.

Nagi tilted her head once more. "Shadow…?" she asked. It was a familiar name that she's heard before. Obviously, it wasn't talking about Shadow, the Shinobi. It was talking about something completely different. She wasn't dumb enough to blindly accept an offer from an unknown voice. She was going to flat out reject him, but in that moment, a warm light appeared around her. It was the same feeling she got when she felt the presence of Meghan from before. She didn't hear her voice speak to her this time, but she could feel that she was telling her that things would be all right. "…Alright. I'll accept your guidance" she said.

The voice sounded like it let out a sigh of relief from the darkness. "Keep honing your talents and attunement with Darkness. While the day where we could formally meet is still far off, everything starts with the first step" the voice said. Suddenly, there was a flash of light before Nagi's spellbook appeared floating in front of her as it emitted a faint violet glow. "I'll provide guidance through your spellbook. Keep it close…" the voice said.

The spellbook continued to glow as Nagi reached out for it. Suddenly, it disappeared and the voice that had been speaking to her through the dark void never spoke again. She felt herself being pulled out of this bizarre dream. The next thing she knew, she was back in reality as she slowly opened her eyes once more. When she did, she was looking up at a familiar wooden ceiling. She looked around and saw that she was back in the house they were in before with her lying on one of the couches. She wasn't sure if what she just experienced was a dream or if it really happened. She let out a few soft moans before slowly sitting up on the couch.

Ramza, who was sitting on the other side of the room, saw that she had finally regained consciousness. "Ah, Sleeping Beauty is finally awake" he said.

Ruko looked over towards her when he spoke up. "Welcome back. How are you feeling?" he asked. She didn't have any bodily injuries aside a few minor burns, but she did cast some heavy spells that looked to be quite demanding, especially that last one she did.

Nagi put her hand on her head, feeling a little bit lightheaded and weak. "Awful. How long was I out…?" she asked.

Melphi was sitting on one of the wooden chairs near the dining table. She had her right shoulder, forehead and the right side of her torso all bandaged up. The draconic medicine that she had taken took immediate effect on her injuries and stopped the bleeding fairly quickly. Now, she just had to wait for them to heal naturally. The only thing that still caused some pain and discomfort was just bodily pains in general. "You're still breathing and that's all it counts" she said.

Ramza was relieved to see that she was feeling okay. "You've been out for a little over an hour" he said, scratching the back of his head. He had a few bandages wrapped around his arms, but there wasn't anything too serious that was wrong with him. "Things could have been worse, all things considered. We got off pretty easy" he said.

Reis was still in some pretty significant pain since his major injuries still needed attention. However, the painkillers and medicine that he was given was helping to relieve some of that pain to a degree. "Speak for yourself. I'll be out of commission for a while, indefinitely. Can't do much with a couple broken ribs and I'm not exactly left-handed" he said. He hasn't suffered a broken bone since that incident that got his sister killed.

Ruko was leaning up against the wall near a window with his arms folded. "To be honest with you, I was pretty worried there for a minute when that Elder Behemoth woke up" he said.

The mention of the behemoth reminded Nagi that they had simply incapacitated the hulking beast. She didn't know that it turned into a man. "Wait! What happened to it?" she asked.

Ramza looked over to the side of the room. "Well, it turns out that there was more to that Elder Behemoth that meets the eye…" he said.

As soon as he said that, the same man from before came walking into the room. "That Elder Behemoth was me, believe it or not" he said.

Nagi turned her head towards where the man was standing. He had bulky muscles and looked like someone who was dedicated to a serious workout routine. "What!?" she shouted in surprise.

Melphi shook her head a bit. "We were all pretty shocked too, myself more than anybody. He claims to be an ordinary Human, but has the ability to transform into an Elder Behemoth" she said. She looked down at her right arm as she stretched it out. Her arm then transformed into one of her dragon claws. "As you know, transformation is a trait locked only to Faeries, specifically Dragonkin. They're the only ones that have the ability to transform into their Beast forms" she said. Her arm soon transformed back before she lowered it back down to her side as she looked over towards the man. "Now that Nagi is awake, it's time we hear your story. Just who, or what, are you?" she asked.

The man took a deep breath before speaking. "My name is Kesuke Ida. I know it may be hard to believe after what you've already been through, but I am an ordinary Human. Or at least, I was. I am, by no means, a Faerie as you might think" he said. He walked over to the touch that Nagi was resting on and sat down on it.

Ramza watched the man with curious intent. "So you say. That doesn't answer our biggest question though. If you're a Human, how do you have the transformative abilities that are unique to only Dragonkin?" he asked. It was a question that everyone had on their mind and were curious to know the answer to.

Kesuke folded his arms and leaned back against the couch. "I was the victim of forbidden biological research. I had my genes tampered with for the sake of Human curiosity" he said.

Nagi tilted her head a bit. "Forbidden research? What happened…?" she asked. Anything labeled as forbidden couldn't be anything good.

Kesuke looked up towards the ceiling as he recalled his turbulent past. "I once lived amongst the Faeries and Beasts in Megrove. Times, as you may know, were filled with peace and tranquility. No one had any wants, needs or desires. Everyone was perfectly content with their life of serenity. That is, until the coup happened and the Syndicate rose to power" he said. Memories of a once peaceful time flashed through his mind. They were memories consisting of Humans, Faeries and Beasts living happily alongside each other, all of them living life to its fullest.Those once happy memories soon to dark and violent ones as it depicted those very same people being subjected to the new rule of the Syndicate and the start of the Faerie and Beastmen slave trade. "About two years after they assumed power, a group of researchers started to delve into research about the biological make-up of Dragonkin. They expressed great interest in their transformative abilities and wanted to see if they could somehow turn that ability into a weapon they could control" he said. More memories flashed through his mind that depicted people being dragged and hauled away in cages. Amongst those people, he was one of them. "The Syndicate wanted to see if they could take their transformative abilities and implant them into normal Humans to further boost their power. However, they would have needed to find a suitable genetic code that would be compatible with a Dragonkin" he said.

Melphi didn't like where this story was going. What they were doing was tampering with the natural laws. Black research like that is enough to warrant the death penalty. "I thought I knew plenty about the Syndicate, but to think they would resort to something like this. Honestly, I guess I shouldn't be surprised…" she aid.

Ramza was very disturbed by what he was hearing. It was a disgusting act that violates human rights and protection. "What happened next?" he asked.

Kesuke was silent for a moment as he could almost hear the agonizing screams of the victims that were subjected to this research. "They found that the genetic code of an Elder Behemoth was the only thing that would be compatible with a Dragonkin. After getting their hands on both genetic codes, they began experimenting and after a lengthy process of much trial and error, they finally succeeded. They removed all traces of the Dragonkin's genes, leaving only the genes that allow the transformative process to occur, and spliced the genes of an Elder Behemoth into what remained, thus creating an entirely new genetic code" he said. He didn't think such a thing could be possible. Not with how primitive the world was.

Ruko shook his head slowly before putting his right hand up to his forehead. "Geez…they could literally create a whole new race of Faeries…" he said. Something struck him as odd though. "If this happened two years after Sirione fell, then why haven't we heard more about?" he asked. Surely, news of a new race of Faeries would circulate quickly that not even they would be able to keep it contained to Megrove.

Kesuke took another deep breath as he looked down at his hands. "With their new genetic code, they needed to find someone who could handle it and I was unfortunate enough to be picked. They injected their new genetic code inside me as you could probably imagine the violent reaction my body had to it. A Human can only have one genetic code inside of them" he said. He would never forget the immense pain he felt when he had his violent spasms. The pain didn't last very long, but it was excruciating. "To the thrill of the researchers, the violent body spasms came to a stop as it seemed that my Human genetic code had melded with that of their mutated gene. As a result, I had gained the ability to transform into an Elder Behemoth while still retaining the part that still made me Human" he said. He slowly clenched his fists as more memories played in his mind as he continued to speak. They were memories of him being strapped down to a metal table in an operating room with a number of researchers standing off to the side and celebrating. "The researchers were excited to see that all of their hard work finally bore fruit and could proceed with injecting their code into other people. However, they made a grave error…" he said. It was there on that operating table that everyone witnessed the first time a Human transform into a monster. The initial excitement, however, quickly turned into instant fear and panic. His anger was enough to trigger the transformation which destroyed half of the building that they were in. Upon his transformation, he went off into a blind rage and leveled the entire building in short work. In his blind rage, he either crushed the researchers under his feet or tore them to shreds with his claws and fangs. No one survived the rampage, not even those that were left that were held captive. The remains of the building were later burned by intense flames. "I flew into a rage and transformed. I destroyed everything and killed everyone. There was nothing left when everything was all said and done. The only good thing about this was that all of their research material and samples were destroyed in the chaos" he said.

Nagi felt a horrible disgust at the blatant disregard for human life. "And with no more samples or research material, that makes you the only source where their mutated genetic code still exists…" she said. She shook her head, letting out a deep sigh. "The more I hear about the inhumane acts that us Humans commit, the more I start to wish I wasn't one…" she said.

Melphi clenched her fist tightly as anger swelled inside of her like a balloon. She slammed her arm on the dining table next to her and destroyed it, breaking it into several pieces as papers and other materials that were on there scattered across the room. "Humans…they just can't help themselves, can they?" she asked. She was furious that such research and experimentation happened in the first place. She was furious that innocent people lost their lives for black research, Faeries and Humans both.

Kesuke was silent for about a minute so that they had time to process what he said. "After I destroyed the facility and erased all evidence, I found that there was no place for me. I fled Megrove and sought a life of complete isolation and solitude. Someone with this cursed "gift" of mine posed a great threat, so I couldn't make a new life for myself in a town or city" he said. If he were to lose control of his ability in the middle of a major town or city, the results would be catastrophic.

Reis had put the pieces together after hearing his story. "And so, you sought for a place to live far away from any human settlements where it would receive very little unwanted visitors, if none at all. That's why you chose to make the high snowy mountains your territory" he said. It was the perfect place for someone to live completely off the radar. The constantly changing weather patterns up in the mountains only served to better conceal himself.

Kesuke looked at Reis and nodded. "Exactly. Life up on the mountain was hard for a while, but I learned to hunt for food and filter fresh water for myself. Sometimes, a few mountain climbers would cross into my territory in which, I would try to scare them off by turning into my inner monster. One look at an Elder Behemoth typically sends people quickly packing" he said. Most people that climb up the mountain don't do it to necessarily have a run-in with the behemoth. They just liked the thrill of mountain climbing to reach the mountain's peak. In most cases, he lets them pass but when they encroach too much onto his territory, he is forced to chase them off. This was how he got dubbed the nickname of the Lord of the Mountains. "However, recent visitors to the mountain have been most persistent. They wouldn't flee no matter what I tried" he said.

It was obvious who those visitors were. Ramza was starting to make sense of the other recent events that have been happening around the Tundra. "Draxus. That's when they put you under their spell of manipulation, wasn't it?" he asked.

Kesuke nodded. "Because of the reputation I had made for myself as this Lord of the Mountains, they sought out my power. Whatever spell they casted on me was too powerful for me to resist. The rest, you all know by now…" he said. The last thing he remembered before falling under their control was that they wielded incredible power. It was more than enough to subdue him in his monster form.

Nagi leaned forward as she looked down towards the floor, shaking her head in disbelief. There was so much to process that it almost gave her a headache. "I can't believe all of this…" she said.

Ramza was curious about one thing from his story. "How did those researchers even know how to tamper with genetics? There's nothing like that in any science material the public has access to and even if there was public records about it, I'm sure the Elves would have kept that information under tight lock and key" he said. He wished that Elle was here right now so that they could have her take on this. With communications with Tsuki and his team still blocked, they couldn't ask her through the ComLink.

Kesuke shook his head. That was the one thing he still doesn't have a complete answer to. "All I heard was that they found ancient research documents that belonged to a bygone era and used that to drive their goals. Beyond that, there's no much I can tell you" he said. Even he thought the research they found sounded far-fetched. That is, until they tested it on himself and realized the implications that type of research meant. It made him almost fearful of how intelligent and advanced people were back in the day.

Nagi took a moment to think about everything they had discussed. With the threat of Draxus gone and the mystery revolving around the Elder Behemoth's sudden appearance in the Tundra solved, they were left with what to do next. She glanced over towards Kesuke. "What will you do now?" she asked.

Kesuke scratched the back of his head. He didn't want to be involved in world events any more than he has to. It was for the benefit of himself and others. "I'll return to the mountains and continue my isolation and solitude. It's a blessing that they never used me to attack any villages or kill innocent people and I'd rather not overstay my welcome" he said. He soon glanced over towards Reis. "Before that though, I would like to meet with your leader so I can apologize to him. Even though I was under the spell of manipulation, I still caused trouble for everyone in the Tundra. More so than that, I inflicted some pretty serious injuries on you, so I want to make up for it, if I can" he said. With a broken arm and a few broken ribs, everyday life for him would be a bit of a struggle for a while. He wanted to atone for what he did.

Reis appreciated the thought, but it really wasn't necessary. Now that he has been able to gauge what kind of person he was, he could tell that he was good person despite harboring a hulking beast inside of him. "I told you already, you don't have to accommodate for me. Bones heal, after all" he said. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise since he has been feeling the strain his body was being put through when using the Arcanum inside of him. Slowly but surely, the effects on his body were getting worse. "If that's what you want though, who am I to stop you?" he said.

Melphi looked over toward Nagi. Now that they heard Kesuke's story, now she wanted to know about hers. "Nagi, what was that power you displayed earlier? It was unlike anything I've ever felt from you" she said.

Nagi was silent for a moment as she recalled the surge of power she felt. It happened briefly when they encountered the cultists under the church and again, much stronger, when they took on Freyja and the behemoth. There was also the undeniable fact that she felt the presence of Meghan standing with her at the same time, which further increased her power. "I don't know…it was as if a door had finally been opened for me, which caused a flood of energy to envelope me" she said. She put her hand up to her heart with a small smile on her face as she closed her eyes to remember the moment. "I felt…a comforting presence of someone I loved. It was like she was there, waiting to guide me through that moment" she said.

Ruko stroked his chin in thought. He didn't quite get what she was saying, but based off the calm and happy expression on her face, it must have been pretty significant for her. He remembered seeing her crying just before she passed out after what happened with Freyja. "What else do you recall?" he asked.

Nagi thought back to the strange dream she had. The interaction with a mysterious voice from the black, empty void. "A voice reached out to me. It told me that it would help guide me. To help me reach for Shadow" she said. The voice almost spoke in riddles that didn't make any sense to her.

Melphi folded her arms fell into thought as she leaned back into her chair. "Reach for Shadow, huh…?" she mumbled to herself. Based on what she knows and what she felt during that moment, all signs point to one thing. "Could it be…the Lost Spirit, Shadow…?" she asked herself.

Ramza glanced over towards Melphi, recognizing the name she mentioned. "Didn't Luan mention something about Shadow being re-classified from a Great Spirit?" he asked.

Melphi nodded. To think it's name would be brought up like this. "There isn't much evidence to off on and considering how little information we have, it's hard to make a solid conclusion. However, it's the only theory we got" she said. If the voice that spoke to Nagi was truly talking about Shadow, then that would open up so many questions.

Reis looked between the two of them, tilting his head a bit. He was completely lost with what they were saying. "Mind filling me in?" he asked.

Melphi looked over towards Reis. "You should know about the Four Great Spirits. Undine, Efreet, Gnome and Sylph. They govern over the elements of water, fire, earth and wind and maintain a natural balance around the world. However, there are several other Great Spirits that have either been re-classified or supposedly lost to the ravages of time. Shadow was one of those, appropriately dubbed as a Lost Spirit" she said. She glanced over towards Nagi and the spellbook that was on her waist. "It's said that Shadow governed over the element of Darkness and was very powerful when it was still around. However, at one point, it simply…disappeared. No one knows what happened to it or where it disappeared to" she said. The fact that Nagi was reached out to about this and her abnormally high levels of control she has over the Darkness element was all too coincidental.

Ruko leaned his head back as he looked up towards the wooden ceiling. "So, what you're saying is, a Lost Spirit reached out to Nagi and wishes to guide her to itself" he said. Unlike with the Four Great Spirits that are well known throughout the world and it's history, they know close to nothing about it. He wasn't sure if this could be trusted. "Is it trustworthy though? Perhaps, it's just a trick to get her to cooperate" he said.

Melphi shook her head with a slight shrug of her shoulders. Unfortunately, she couldn't answer that question. "That's something that isn't up to us to decide. With little to no information available, it's impossible to make a rational decision. For the time being, it's a decision only Nagi can make" she said. She then glanced back towards Nagi. "What do you think? It reached out to you and you alone, after all. Do you think it can be trusted?" she asked.

Nagi was silent for a few moments. She was asking herself that same question, but then she felt the reassuring presence of Meghan. She decided to put her trust in Meghan and believe that everything will be okay. "Yes…I want to believe that is the case" she said.

Melphi nodded at her answer. There was nothing else that they could do or say anything right now about the matter. "Alright then" she said.

Then, someone came knocking at the door. The voice of the old man from earlier soon spoke from the other side. "Reis, I believe help from Imil has arrived" he said.

Reis looked over towards the door and slowly stood up. He could feel the pain surge through his body as he did so which nearly made him fall over. "Great…have them wait for us in the plaza. We'll be right there" he said.

Ramza looked at Reis and shook his head. "Careful now. We're all patched up, but you're still in pretty rough shape. Don't push yourself too much" he said. He then stood up, placed his sword onto his back and picked up both his and Reis' bags. He almost forgot that he had stuffed the reports and documents from the scouting team in his bag. "Better not keep them waiting, shall we?" he asked.

Everyone soon nodded in agreement and gathered their things. With Kesuke helping Reis walk, they left the house and headed towards the town plaza. When they arrived, they saw at least 8 Skiffs parked along the sides of the plaza. There were about 10 members of the Nightwings scattered around with bundles of supplies and food strapped to the backs of some of the Skiffs. The Nightwings were helping to distribute out the supplies and food where it was needed. The village still had stock left underneath the church, but the added reserves was greatly appreciated by the villagers. When the Nightwings caught a glimpse of Reis, they were shocked to see the state he was in.

One of the soldiers approached them and offered them a salute before expressing his concern. "Vice Commander! Are you okay!?" he shouted.

Reis nodded. It was only natural that they would be concerned for him. He wasn't sure just what Flynn had told them before they departed Imil, but they must have had some idea of what's happened. "I'll live. What's a few broken bones, am I right?" he said. He was still in some decent pain, but he didn't want to cause them any more concern. "Any updates?" he asked.

The solder nodded. "We scouted the area and found no further trace of Draxus. Moreover, while we did find tracks that belong to the Elder Behemoth, we found no trace of the beast either. We've secured the surrounding area, so we can begin the relief efforts" he said. If he had to be honest with himself, he was expecting to see a far worse and grim scene when they arrived. It brought great relief to himself and the others that those expectations never came true.

Reis knew that it was probably for the best that they think the behemoth left the area. They wouldn't believe that they were standing in front of it anyway. "Good work. Mind if we borrow a few of your Skiffs? We need to report back to the Commander" he said.

The solder nodded and stepped off to the side for them to pass. "Of course. Take as many as you need. We'll be using the town as a staging ground for a while until things can return to normal" he said. They weren't going to need the Skiffs right now and getting Reis back to Imil was of the utmost importance.

Reis nodded. "We appreciate it. The Skiffs we came in on are located out in the outskirts not too far from here, in a cave located under a small slope" he said. He didn't want to forget those and leave them behind. Skiffs in these parts are in short supply, after all.

The soldier saluted him. "Understood. I'll send out a few of my men to retrieve them later. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to help get things ready around here" he said. He came to attention for a brief moment before turning and heading off towards where the people were gathered.

Reis and the others approached the Skiffs that were left and started to climb onto them. Kesuke took control of one of the Skiffs while Reis sat behind him. Everyone else paired up and climbed onto their Skiffs. They looked back towards the villagers that had gathered around the area where supplies were being distributed. They could see the bright looks on their faces. Despite experiencing a terrible ordeal, the villagers were quick to make a rebound. It only goes to show how strong a village can be, especially when they all come together under one cause.

Before they started up their Skiffs, Reis heard a voice coming from the ComLink. It belonged to Tsuki. There was a bit of static before his voice could be fully heard. "Reis, do you copy?" he asked.

Reis activated his ComLink and spoke. "Tsuki! Yeah, I copy. How are things over there?" he asked.

More static played before Tsuki's voice spoke out again. "We're just wrapping things up with the survey team. We chased off the person that was causing trouble here" he said. There was a short silence as nothing could be heard for a few moments. "The Wellspring that was inside the Glacier…is also gone" he said.

Reis raised a curious eyebrow. "The Wellspring is gone!? How did that happen?" he asked.

Again, static rang in his ear before Tsuki responded. "…Let's just say, a lot of things happened here. We'll talk about it once we're back in Imil. What about you guys?" he asked.

Reis couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "You too, huh? Shit hit the fan here pretty hard. We got rid of Draxus but ran into the Elder Behemoth" he said.

Tsuki was quick to respond this time as there was genuine shock and concern in his voice. "The Elder Behemoth!? Are you all okay!?" he shouted.

Reis scratched the back of his head. "Well…for the most part, we are. It's a long story, so let's wait until we return to Imil for a debrief. It seems we both have interesting stories to tell. We're just about to head back now" he said. It was better to have this discussion back in the comforts of a warm office and some hot chocolate.

Voices of concern could be heard from the ComLink, presumably everyone else when Tsuki shouted. "Alright then. We're just finishing things up here. We should be back in about an hour. We'll see you then" he said.

With that, the connection was cut. It was a relief to hear that Tsuki and the others were okay. It was a bit concerning that the Wellspring apparently disappeared, so he was interested to hear what happened at the Glacier, much like how Tsuki and the others are probably interested to know what happened here. From his reaction, it seems they had their own fair share of difficulties and surprises to deal with. Reis can only hope that they weren't on the same levels as what they had to deal with.

Reis grabbed hold of Kesuke and looked back towards the others. "Alright. Let's get going. We have people waiting for us!" he said.

They activated the Skiffs and soon took off through the village gates and sped off across the snowy fields once again. The return back to Imil was a lot more relaxing since they were returning back home to safety. With Melte in the capable hands of his fellow Nightwings, Reis had no trouble believing that the village will be okay. The ride back to Imil was also filled with anxiety and anticipation as everyone wanted to know what Tsuki and the others encountered in the Glacier, particularly about the Wellspring. Wellsprings aren't things that just simply come and go whenever they pleased if they went off the basic knowledge that they know about. It may have been a small Wellspring, but for it to just disappear made everyone wonder what happened. It almost reminded Ramza and the others when they heard that the Wellspring in the Cavern of Solace suddenly disappeared when everything went down in Cayhill. If it could happen again, maybe it was true that the Wellsprings were more than what they appeared to be. All they could do was speculate and wonder until they heard firsthand accounts from Tsuki and the others.

To be continued…