Blazing Steel and Freezing Bullets

by Shinn of Destiny

Left alone in a blazing forest, Relon is soon saved and the path before him opens. With much to learn about such as his past, family, friends, even the very people trying to destroy the peace and him to an extent, his enrollment at Thors will be anything but normal.

56. From Zero To Hope Part 1

Gachas like Genshin Impact & Honkai Star Rail, as well as others like Love Live & Bluelock, Gundam, Quintessential Quintuplets, Highschool DXD, Trails of Cold Steel are in the works. Check them out :D

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Unknown

Vision returning to clear images from the bright coloration, Relon and Rinwell are sent crashing to the ground as is Grimoire on the opposing end of the woods. Wincing, Rinwell's eyes shutter open to the sight of Relon already dashing forward with both swords. Recovering in time, Grimoire looks to him to scan for her book. Finding it, she dives for it as he pounces. Grabbing it in the nick of time, she rolls to a kneel already flipping through pages to slam a hand on one. A bright light engulfs her as Relon strikes. Lowering her arms as her eyes adjust, Rinwell comes to the sight of Relon with both swords lodged in the ground.

"She teleported away…" Rinwell realizes aloud as she slowly gets to her feet. "Relon, are you-" Stopping as she nears, her eyes trace his trembling figure as do her ears the sound of his grip around his blades' handles.

Retracting them, he remains still. After a moment, his muscles ease as a long breath follows.

"Shit." A mutter escapes him.

"You… okay…?"

Body reacting as if having forgotten about the witch, his gaze goes to her. Her own eyes scrunching in confusion at the sight. His normal vermilion eyes seeming to have dulled several shades. As soon as her eyes notice the odd sight, his orbs return to their normal shade.

"No. I'm not." He answers by releasing his swords for them to float in place before throwing a punch. "No fire." He grips both hands taking a stance. "Hmpf! And no Nameless." He loosens himself up. "I am in a very bad predicament." He mutters. "She's gone now. At least from what I can sense."

"What was that? When you both struck, there was a weird light and then there was some strange sensation and next thing I know we're rolling in the dirt."

"Don't know. Too focused on the Leaguient to notice. Anyway, you good?"

"Yeah. What about you, Hootle? You okay?"

"Hoot hoot!"

"That's a relief. Looks like we all made it out unscathed… kinda. So we should- whaaaaaaat are you doing?!" She screeches averting her gaze as he discards his jacket and shirt.

"Looking at the damage considering someone didn't get out unscathed." He rolls his eyes inspecting his abdomen to find his lone marking no longer present. "Shit. She really reverted me back. Grimoire… Sephiroth… Argh! I knocked on wood for Luna's sake! Why did they have to attack before I even got back to Thors?!" He mutters putting his tops back on. "Who the hell even is she?"

"Her name's Valkyrie. She's a witch like sis and myself. She also has an older sister named Rossweisse. Both of them left the clan with the help of Agatha."

"Demeter…" A nod comes from Rinwell. "What the hell is with witches wanting me? Demeter has a child obsession and this one flat out attacked out of nowhere. Gah, I can't let my guard down for a second now can I?"

"By the way, what was with you a little while ago?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Helloooooo? Your eyes?" She points to her own in emphasis. "I know they go slitted when you use your powers so what was the deal with them being so dull? I'm talking noticeably dull like you being possessed."

"Dull? Seriously, what on Earth are you talking about?"

"You were being more aggressive than usual after she struck you with that attack. You got mad and the rest speaks for itself. Did you seriously not notice?"

"All I could think at the moment was how pissed I was. Hmm…"

"Ever feel like that before because you were definitely like your dad's name suggests."

"Beast-like, huh…? I haven't felt that mad since we fought the Leaguients. As far as-" Stopping mid sentence, Rinwell notes of his eyes widening to a halt.

"You remembered something I take it?"

"When I fought Asuma… I hadn't thought about it at the time but I was in such an enraged state."

'Yeah, and?" She asks to receive a sigh.

"Look, when I first started learning how to control Nameless' power, I would always go into a blind rage. Little recollection if any of what I've done. The same thing happened earlier that day against one of the Leaguients I… I defeated." He averts his gaze. "My emotions got the better of me and I lost it."

"So what was different with Asuma?"

"I was in control for starters." He eyes the girl before returning to surveying the area. "We Lucinances gain powers as we ascend. Stage one is the increase in fighting parameters, stage two we gain increased ocular perception and reflexes, and at stage three we just become destruction itself. When I fought Asuma, I had my mom's magic imbued in my flames. At the time I thought that was what was helping me combat his Stage 2 but I guess I was wrong."

"So what? Those dull eyes are another way of countering Stage 2?"

"I guess so. I never learned or heard anything about them though." He mutters going into thought. "Could it occur when we experience a mental strain or when we're focused on a specific emotion? Possibly both? What of those already in Stage 2? Can they further amplify said reflexes…?"

"Save those questions for later. We should get back with Sis and the others so we can go home."

"Hoot Hoot Hoot!"

"Easier said than done." Relon speaks up, gaining their attention as they take sight of him stepping onto Pippin.

"Why do you say that?" Rinwell asks stepping onto Pappan as they're lifted into the air to which she widens.

"Because Rinwell, I don't think we're in Celdic anymore…"

Beyond the horizon, they lay their eyes on what they can make out. What they once knew as luscious greenery and small farmland now no longer exists. Ruin and destruction lay amongst what was once the familiar now desolate and barren wasteland. Large, odd, roots coursing throughout the land with an eerie glow.

"At least… not our Celdic. Much less Erebonia from the looks of it."

"What's… going on? We were only caught in that light for a few seconds!" "Grunoja!" He shouts before cupping his hands. "GRUNOJAAAAAA!" Breathing out, nothing responds. "I thought it was odd how he didn't immediately appear but… if the forest and land is as dead as it looks, then…"

"Then what? We've been transported to another world? Because there's no way you guys' clash did all of this. So how-"

"Hi, nice to meet you. Guy from another plane of existence here." He interrupts with a dry wave.

"No. Freaking. Way! We're in a different world?!"

"Considering Senate has a hate-boner for me, I wouldn't put it past the literal devil himself to send me to another dimension. Per say an Alter Erebonia." He mutters eyeing the land.

"You are taking this way too calmly." She blinks.

"Hoot…"

"Literally anything can happen when you're around me. Thinking so close-minded is what will get you killed when dealing with Senate. Anything is possible with them." He murmurs, Pippin floating towards the direction of Celdic with the others close behind. (That's why I wanted to remain alone in the first place…)

Nearing the desecrated landscape, both pairs of eyes widen as does the owl's own. Lowering to the ground, both step off. Walking through the West Highway Gate, both slowly come to a halt.

"Oh my Aidios…!"

Once the booming Grand Market town now stands nothing but ruins, rubble, and more of those odd glowing roots pulsating out parts of the ground and remaining structures. The damage was all too clear; no machines did this. This was the result of someone or something.

Frozen at the sight, a single image of his family flashes. Snapping on a dime, he bursts off.

"Relon?!" Coming to a halt, his panting chest goes still. Catching up, she and Hootle can only watch as Relon stares at a lone structure resembling a church. "What are you-"

"It's not here."

"Huh? What do you mean? The sign for the church is-"

"The orphanage. My home… It's not here. It's always been right next to the church so… why?" He drops. "WHY THE HELL ISN'T IT HERE?!"

Flinching at the roar of anger, Hootle withdrawing into the depths of her hoodie, Rinwell momentarily glances at the lone structure missing its roof. No roof, not a single window left untouched, rubble and debris amongst the seats and aisle reaching the podium. No space left for any other building of the sort. There simply was no… nothing.

"Rinwell." Snapping her head back as the Lucinance raises up, she takes in his stoic demeanor locked on the holy remnant. "Sorry. Come on." He turns to stop looking back at the inner sanctum.

"You don't need to apologize, that's… Anyone would react that way." She says as he walks back past her once more before walking into the ruined place.

"Relon?"

Raising his head into the air, Hootle flaps into the air.

"Hoot…? Hoot Hoot Hoot!"

"Hootle?! What's wrong?!" She exclaims as the bird flies after Relon. "Hey, wait for me!"

Rushing inside, she looks at the empty seats. Eyeing the podium, Relon and Hootle.

"What's wrong?"

"Smell that?"

"Smell?" Wafting the air, her eyes scrunch slightly. "Now that you mention it, what is that?!"

"The putrid smell I hoped I'd never have to take in. On the Gigantic, all of those aboard perished in the explosion and Demeter ended those soldiers down to an atomic level so I never could smell the terrible scent dad told me about a long time ago." He explains reeling back a gloved fist before punching the podium.

Watching it go flying before shattering against the wall, all eyes focus now on the small trap door.

"A secret passage?" Rinwell wonders.

"Rinwell." He speaks, gaining her attention as Hootle returns into her hoodie. "That foul odor…" He kicks open the latch with his boot for her eyes to widen in horror as his narrows in disgust.

"Is the smell of rotting bodies."

Like that of a well, the hole itself is lit with candles along the stone ends as bodies lay atop one another. Men, women, children, elderly, even pets and farm animals; all confined into the space. Buried amongst a few in the familiar attire, an elderly man. Feeling his blood shift in rage and discomfort, he looks away.

"Pippin. Pappan. Please." Acknowledging his plea, both swords descend knocking over the candles as soon after, the bodies catch fire.

Stepping away in disgust, a cry releases from the girl forcing her to turn away as Relon can only remain locked on the abominable sight.

Mayor Otto… With balled fists, he turns away as both leave. Rest in peace.

"Who… Who would do such a thing?" Rinwell croaks, Hootle chirping in condolance as they depart through the East Highway Gate.

"I don't know. Whoever did this was using scented candles to mix in with the odor. I thought nothing of it at first but looking at all of the destruction, we never saw a single drop of blood or creature in sight. No small monsters on the road or beasts in the forest."

Dad always described the odor of rotting corpses but not once did he ever reveal how he knew. Now I can see why. He thinks looking back to the closed secret. No one wants to remember something like that.

"Hey…" She calls softly, Relon taking notice of her pause in motion to do the same. "Do you think… we'll find the others?"

"One way to find out." Relon answers hopping onto Pippin once more as Rinwell does the same.

"Do you think Sis and the others are…?" Meeting her hopeful eyes, he can only sigh.

"I don't know. I'm not a liar so I won't say something just to get your hopes up." He says looking at the fork in the road. "All I can say is let's go find out."

"Hey…" She calls.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks, Cuz." Looking at her for a moment to see a wry smile, he turns back ahead. "For being honest."

He often took pride in being an honest person. Never telling a singular lie. Yet, right now, he wishes he could have. In silence, they flew. Their next destination; Thors Military Academy.

Trista

"What the hell is that?!" Rinwell exclaims, both having situated themselves high in the air.

Below them; Trista. Or so one would think. Surrounded by a heavily enforced metallic wall, numerous armed men wearing colors consisting of black military uniforms stand guard around several bases with two standing in grandeur size. At the center where the school would be, a base with a large reactor of sorts accompanied by numerous machines most likely anti-air gunnery. In the back where the schoolhouse is, a cube-like structure.

"What indeed…?" Relon narrows, the group taking sight of numerous officers saluting one another as armed vehicles enter and exit. "Damn."

"What's wrong?"

"See those turrets?" He points. "They most likely either are going based off of sight alone or they have sensors of some sort. Either way, if we get any closer we'll be swiss cheese."

"So then what do we do?"

"We can't exactly hang onto anything if these two need to go full throttle." He points to the swords. "And because I can't use my flames, I can't just warp us around the place should we alert them. As much as I hate it, for now we should back off.

"But-"

"I don't like it anymore than you do but we're in the dark right now. Even if we approach those guys, they may apprehend us. Even if we get away, we'll have targets on our backs. Not to mention we don't even know if Em and the others are down there."

"Then… what can we do?" She asks, the two turning and flying away

"For now, we do some traveling. See what's still intact, who's still viable. I need to check Heimdallr, Legram, Ymir, Raquel, and Ashland. What about you?" At the question, her downtrodden eyes illuminate with life once more.

"We need to check the village! The others may be able to help!"

"Here's to hoping nothing's changed…"

Before long, the five reached the park clearing.

"Come on, it's this way!"

"I know where it is." He retorts. (We bumped into each other not that long ago after all.)

Walking through, his eyes furrow at the sight of two burials not being where they should be. Pushing through the shrubbery, they take sight of the familiar cave.

"So far so good." He says walking after the girl having already taken off into said cave.

Entering, his eyes soon take in Rinwell awaiting him.

"Come on…!"

"Last time I got near this, a certain someone popped out of it."

"Curious on how it works?" She beams a childish grin.

"I'd be lying if I said no. Heh."

"What's so funny?"

"It's nothing really. Just remember that Nameless made a comment similar to yours is all." She could see it; the forlorn look in his eyes.

"Do you think he's still with you?"

"I hope so. I'm hoping he can hear us and simply can't speak." He says inspecting himself. "It's odd. It's been eight years since I was 'normal' and yet even after being hit by Grimoire…"

"You still feel the same, right?"

"Yeah… I just started talking to Nameless when our field study in Celdic began and yet it feels as though I've talked to him all my life."

"Hey, cheer up." She smiles, punching him lightly. "Everything will be back to normal before you know it."

"... Thanks, Rinwell. Anyway, sorry for wasting time. How does this work?"

"Simple. Just touch it like this." She smiles cheekily, grabbing his hand.

"Wait, wha-"

Cut off as an odd light overtakes him, they vanish.

Eerie Woods

"Aaaaaat…?" He slowly peels his eyes open to the new area. "Huh, similar feeling when going through Pappan's rifts." He blinks dumbly as Rinwell releases his hand.

"Yeah. Welcome to the Eerie Woods. At least that's what Grandmother deemed this place as."

"I think I know where my bad naming skills come from." He chuckles, both departing along the cliffside and past the waterfall. "For it being known as the Eerie Woods, the place is surprisingly beautiful."

Pausing mid-step, she turns on her heels to arch a brow.

"How?"

"It's quiet. Still air, calming sounds of gushing waterfalls, softly lit particles scattered about in the air; it's quaint." He shrugs. "I wouldn't mind relaxing here every now and then."

"Easy for you to say." She deadpans. "You haven't seen the monsters- Whoa!" She exclaims tripping to the ground.

"Rinwell/ Hoot Hoot!" Both boys exclaim moving to her sides. "You okay/Hoot?"

"Y-Yeah. Just tripped on something." She winces, taking Relon's hand helping her back up.

"Just what did-" Noticing him stop, she looks at his bothered expression before going back to where she tripped to widen.

Before them an already familiar root exuding an eerie glow.

"What's with these roots?" Rinwell growls in annoyance squatting before it.

"Rinwell." Relon calls for her to look over to said protagonist at the cliff. "I think I have an answer to your question." He answers over his shoulder, Rinwell hurrying over to gasp.

Before them, the clear sight of said roots implanted in the low water. Clear evidence of the once abundant volume having shrunk immensely over the course of the unknown time.

"It's in the water…" Relon mutters, eyes tracing the roots.

"It's even in the cliffside…! Is it absorbing the lifeforce of whatever it touches?" Rinwell questions, both instinctively turning to look at the path ahead filled with more small glowing roots. "Relon."

"I know. Let's-"

"GGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRR!"

Snapping back to the water in response to the tremble, a shadow begins to emerge before an eruption of water bursts forth.

"Watch out!" He exclaims lunging for Rinwell.

In doing so, he grabs her rotating his back to face the ground hovering just off it thanks to his swords. Coming to a stop, they take in the behemoth. With a shiny rock-like exterior resembling that of a canine, it has elongated purple bones protruding from its forearms and hindlegs with purple claws. Its size equal to that of Grunoja and the Orbal Mech Knight.

"What was that you were saying earlier about not seeing monsters?" Relon questions letting her go as both assume a fighting stance with Hootle hiding in her hoodie once more.

"Screw that! Why is this Dog Mummy so huge?! And since when could they swim?!"

"Different world, different type of monster. Questions for later, we need to take it down!"

"Relon, look! At its leg!"

Focusing, he narrows at the creature making contact with the root from Rinwell's prior accident. Its bones glowing brighter as said leg swells slightly.

"I get it. The roots take in the life force therefore infecting the environment."

"And the monsters become affected which in turn makes them grow in size and power when they make contact with them!" Rinwell widens. "And that thing came out of contaminated water!"

"Reaaaaaaaally hating Senate for the nerf right now!" Relon growls, both swords going to his hands. "Anything to watch out for?!"

"Dog Mummies tend to fight in packs but this one is so big it probably doesn't need-

"RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAWWWWWWLLLLL!"

"Erk!" Both wince covering their ears.

"Grrrrrrr!"

"You just had to say something." He breathes, more of the corrupted canines appearing around it of normal size from the surrounding cliff. "I'm counting eight in total and the big one makes nine!"

"Less complaining, more surviving! Here they come!"

Howling in command, the eight rock-wolves charge.

"Pippin, Pappan!" Relon calls, both shooting out of their sheathes at the ready.

Nearing the two in rows of two, the first row leaps into the air to suck in air.

"What are they-" Relon questions to widen. "Back up!" He exclaims, both jumping back to the sight of the four wolves unleashing a torrent of purple water towards the ground leaving corrosive holes where they once stood.

"Since when could they- Argh, I hate this place even more now!"

"Here comes the next wave! Watch your step of the roots!" He cautions charging forward flipping the swords into a reverse grip.

"I don't have to worry about the roots." Rinwell mutters. "Since you'll be drawing their attention." She adds landing on a page.

I'm still not fully recovered. We need to end this fight fast! He narrows approaching the hounds.

Sidestepping one, he sends Pippin through its maw severing the creature in two before it vanishes in a puff of smoke. Pushing forward, the next one pounces directly at him. Springing on his toes, he somersaults slashing from the creature's head to its rear before it too vanishes into nothingness. Landing, he takes sight of two more at both sides with their maw agape.

"Oh violent darting winds intersect! Cross Blade!" Rinwell exclaims, her tome glowing in a green light before disks of wind cross over one another past Relon to sever the hounds' bodies.

Looking back at a nodding Rinwell, he gives a nod of thanks before instinctively jumping back from the other four.

"That thing hasn't attacked yet. Why?" Rinwell questions regrouping with him.

"Is it observing us?"

"They usually don't have such high intelligence though. Another symptom of this world then?"

Releasing another growl, the four remaining hounds retreat taking defensive parameters in front of the large creature.

"Definitely have an intelligence." Relon corrects.

"If they want to huddle up, fine by me!" She retorts, already flipping to another page. "That'll make this easier! A whirling struggle…"

Releasing a surge of power, the large canine's cheeks puff out followed by the smaller mummies.

"Rinwell…!" He cautions, their heads raising to the air.

"Winds of heaven…"

Snapping their mouths open, they fire streams of acidic water towards them.

"Watch out!"

"Burst- Whoa!" She shouts as Relon picks her up speeding down the path on Pippin.

"I was one word away from my chant being done!"

"And we were one second away from being melted!" He barks back as they turn to the sight of the beast upon them.

"Eeck!" Rinwell shrieks hugging Relon as to avoid the attempted chomp of the beast. "Look, there's the marker!"

"Tch! Pappan!" He calls the sword flying next to them.

Spinning on a dime to intercept the beast, it leaps into the air. All they can do is follow it as it lands sliding to face them guarding the contraption.

"Damn it!" Relon curses as they come to a halt stepping off.

"Behind us!" Glancing back, he takes sight of the other canines slowly approaching.

"AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Now what?!"

"Look at the ground!" In doing so, both widen as the glowing roots surface from the earth itself.

"It can command the roots themselves?! You have got to be kidding me!" The sight of the roots acting as tentacles making the girl twitch her eyes.

"Rinwell, Pappan, handle the hounds behind us. Pippin and myself will deal with this thing until you can back us up." He grips Pippin.

"But Relon-"

"No buts. Right now I can't fight to my fullest. Not to mention I'm still recovering from everything."

"Then I should fight it!"

"Who's more agile? You or me?!" He snaps, silencing the girl. "Alright then!"

"... Be careful." She readies herself, Pappan hovering next to her.

"I can only try."

Locking eyes with the creature, he walks forward twirling Pippin around.

"Senate wants to kill me, do they? Sephiroth wants to test me, huh? The people wanna do who knows what to me still, aye? It's one damn thing after another. Aidios herself is a shitty Goddess who can't even look after her own world or her own chosen ones. She can't do anything right. And I can't get a single day of reprieve without shit hitting the fan. Okay universe, I got two words for you. Screw the hell off!" He glares.

Releasing a howl, Relon stands unfazed. Launching the earthly tendrils towards him, he jumps.

Time to find out if our earlier hypothesis works. Landing on a glowing root lodged in the ground, he reels back quickly jumping off.

"Simply touching it does in fact weaken those unaffected. Even though it was only for a second, I felt it albeit barely. It could be that is takes a percentage away and not a flat amount." He speaks up.

"Well good to know!" Rinwell shouts rolling to a knee. "Photon Flash!" She points her finger like a gun firing an electrified orb towards a canine who is burnt to a crisp. "Ha!" Firing more, the two canines dodge the attack before spewing another gush of acidic water. "Tch!" Firing another towards the incoming water, both attacks collide as the orb slowly begins to be pushed back. "Oh. No. You. Don't!" She retorts, firing one after another for the orbs to increase in size overtaking the gushing water to disperse static amongst the canines before they are defeated.

"GAO!" Snapping her head around to the sight of the last canine pouncing, she widens for it to slam into the ground.

Looking at Pappan embedded in the creature, it explodes into puffs of smoke.

"Thanks Pappan!" She smiles to return her focus to Relon.

Cutting root after root, Relon kicks off the ground avoiding a slam of the beast's claw.

"Let's see how you like being in pain!" He growls striking its stomach for a roar of pain to come from the behemoth. "Get in there buddy!" Relon growls dropping as Pippin seeps deeper and deeper, blood spurting out in the process.

Taking notice of the creature crouching down, he lets go as it jumps into the air.

"Oh no the hell you don't!" He snarls, Pappan instinctively zooming for him to grab it as he's sent upwards after it.

"Relon!"

"Thought you could get away, did you?!" He growls quickly reaching the creature's face for it to unleash a blast of water to which Relon dodges.

Careening for its stomach, he reels back his fist to slam into Pippin. The canine howling in pain as the sword comes out its back covered in an odd colored blood. Noticing its head tuck in prepping another blast of deadly liquid, Pappan drags Relon around its side to land on its back.

"You seriously thought you could beat us?!" He questions enraged, taking Pippin in his other hand to slice at its back for a roar to erupt. "You thought you could beat me?! You thought you could hurt my precious lil' cousin?!" Another two slashes with both swords. "You're no Laura! You're not Rean!" He runs atop as it rotates its body, Relon directly in its face before he unleashes a flurry of strikes. "You're not Uncle Victor or Aunt Cecily! You're not Dad! You aren't Grunoja! And you… certainly… aren't… the… Great… ELDER!"

"GRRRRRRRRAAAAAAHHHHH!" The creature roars, the tendrils within the ground shooting up towards the nearing beast.

"RELON!"

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Kneeling down, Rinwell anchors herself as a plume of dust and debris scatter in all directions. As it settles. She takes in the sight of the beast's silhouette followed by a human shape jump off. A plume of dark particles explodes pushing the remaining dust away to show Relon and the two swords.

"Come on." He quips patting off the residue.

"Um… Relon?" She calls after, careful not to step on any of the corrupted roots.

"Yeah?"

"Are you… okay?"

"My mood is somewhat better but that's about it. Body hurts like a mofo." He comments, both looking back to the battered landscape. "What about you? Are you hurt?"

"I'm as fine as a fiddle. Though I could so go for a bath."

"Same. What about you, Hootle?" He asks looking over to her hoodie for the small owl to pop its head out.

"Hoot hoot hoot!"

"That's good." He breathes out.

"You can understand what Hootle says?"

"Son of the Wandering Beast, remember?" He points to himself. "Dad taught me how to talk to beast-like monsters. From there, I learned other species are just slightly different in body posture and speech pattern. Avians included."

"Huh. That's actually really cool."

"It wasn't cool hearing those things growl in the numerous ways they were going to kill and eat us." He responds dryly, both tapping the device to vanish in a coat of light.

Eyes fixating on the new setting, he immediately notes the lingering particles in greater density.

"I don't see any roots." Rinwell notes. "Seems they haven't reached this far yet." She adds as they depart.

"I'm not sensing any monsters."

"There usually aren't any in this area since it's surrounded by so many magical signatures."

"Such as?"

"The numerous teleporters in the area for starters. Monsters tend to stay away from them."

"That explains why we weren't jumped. That's relieving."

"There's also the labyrinth." Rinwell adds, both stopping as she points to their left down a path. "That place has one of the largest magical readings aside from the village. It's where Grandmother would take sis and I to train. We should check it out when we get the chance." Nodding, he looks towards a slight incline directly ahead.

"What's that way?"

"A device that'll take us to the Sutherland Province."

Gaking, he snaps to her.

"Wait, seriously?!"

"Y-Yeah? Why are you so surprised?!"

"Covering that large of a distance in such a short time… That may come in handy." He mutters.

"Relon?"

"Sorry, just taken aback by it all. From Celdic to Sutherland. Even Dad can't travel that fast… unless he uses magic."

"Hey, speaking of which-"

"I didn't find out until the other day so I don't know squat about it." He cuts off.

"... Nevermind then."

"Sorry. All I know is he made an 'oath.' Whatever that means."

Taking a right, both return to their small trek seeing the object of interest further ahead.

"This entire portion has lamps surrounding it. Hey, what's over there?" He points to a path.

"Oh, just a normal clearing. Some of us will go there just to relax." Rinwell dismisses.

"Hmm."

"Ready?"

"Are you?"

"Yeah. Hootle?"

"Hoot!"

"Alright then." Pressing their palms against the device, they're whisked away.

Eryn

Coming two, both immediately ready themselves.

"I'm not sensing anything." He mutters, eyes dancing all around before they lock on the sight of houses down a path.

Looking at one another and Hootle, they nod slowly walking along the path.

(The barrier isn't up anymore…!) Rinwell whispers, her eyes widening to the normal sky before they bulge even more as does Relon's own.

A home encircling itself. Numerous homes with hip and valley roof tops slanting at a steep slope to curve at the edes. At least, what it would normally be if not for numerous portions of said homes being missing with smoke exuding from inside. Along the outside of the small pond, buildings embedded in the ground with some of their doors having been smashed in. At the center, the main cause for their horror. Roots radiating that ominous glow seeping out from the noticeable lowered water along portions of the bridge and the center itself.

"Oh no…"

"Emma! Grandmother!" Rinwell shouts bursting off.

"Wait, Rinwell!" Relon hisses chasing after the girl.

Hopping over root after root, he looks to the red-roofed building.

"Ngh!" She runs blasting the door to come. "EMMA, GRANDMOTHER, CELINE! ANSWER ME!"

"Rinwell, wait!" He shouts watching the girl run up the steps.

Looking up to the second floor, he gives a low growl in annoyance. Running for the wall and leap off of it onto the second floor as Rinwell passes by.

"Emma?! Grandmother?!" She exclaims opening a door to a room.

Seeing nothing, she turns about to move for a pair of hands to grip her shoulder as her eyes meet a scowling Relon.

"Cool it, will you?!" He growls, shaking the frantic girl. "We don't know what the hell is nearby!"

"But-"

"NO BUTS! We've possibly lost the element of surprise because you let your emotions get the better of you!" He says releasing her to take sight of her shocked expression. "Look." He sighs. "This is a different world, Rinwell. We don't know who or what is alive, much less exists here." He breathes out running a hand through his scruffy hair. "It's just like me and Celdic. We shouldn't assume things are as is."

"... Sorry."

"... I am too."

"No, I deserved it. What you said, you're right. It's just…"

"I get it. Really, I do. But we gotta take things one step at a time, okay?" Answering with only a nod, Relon gives a small smile in acceptance. "So this Grandma's room?" He asks.

"Yeah. And Auntie's."

"Auntie's?"

"Your mom."

Blinking for a moment, it dawns as his eyes scan the room taking notice of the two beds; one red and the other blue. Slowly walking towards the bed, he touches it sensing a familiar essence albeit faint.

Mom's… huh. At the thought, a smile graces his features.

"Well, it may be a little late and the state isn't what we'd like but… welcome to the Hidden Witch Village, home to the Hexen Clan. Otherwise known as Eryn!"

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Anchoring themselves from the sudden rumble, both widen to one another before their gazes focus to nod. Rushing down the hall to peer from the second floor at the village, their attention immediately goes to the entrance where smoke is being kicked up from the rumbling.

"The hell's going on?!"

"That's where the clearing is!"

"Start prepping a strong spell!" He exclaims jumping over the railing and onto Pippin. "We'll go on ahead!"

Zooming through the village back from where they entered, he turns left flying over the gate to widen. Portions of ice, those weakening roots, and ruptures in the ground litter the area. Though what's at the center is where his attention draws. Covering nearly half of the field, a large plant-type monster and down on the ground across from it a small white cat. Taking sight of the creature's arm rising into the air, he widens.

Crap! Come on…!

Rushing close to the ground, he watches out the corner of his eyes as it drops. Grabbing the feline, Pippin zooms out and away as the arm hits the ground. The force from the impact nearly stumbling Relon off Pippin.

"Don't worry, I gotcha." He reassures the cat as it weakly looks up revealing its gray eyes.

"WWWWRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOAAAAAHHHH!"

"Pippin!" He calls, the sword evading shot after shot of its vines.

"RELON, GET BACK!" Raising his head to the sight of Rinwell atop Pappan, he nods retreating into the forest. "Flames descend! Burning Strike… times two!"

Zooming across the root-infested ground, his eyes lift to the sky as six small fireballs descend.

Releasing another cry, the plant monstrosity gives out another cry before it does, a large assortment of symbols begin to manifest around it.

"It's casting an art!" He shouts as it finishes as soon as it began.

In an instant, tendrils of ice rip out of the ground to meet the attack canceling it as flame and ice scatter in all directions.

"It canceled out my magic that fast?!" She exclaims as Relon reamerges next to her.

"If we're gonna want to take it down, then we'll need to diverge its attention. I'll keep it busy as you prep another round! This time, something so strong it can't negate with a quick chant." He says laying the cat down at the gate. "You'll be safe here." He smiles at it before refocusing on the ruthless overgrowth. "Ready?"

"Leave it to me!"

Nodding, he finally takes in the monstrosity. Large and ugly would be the description Yujiro would use. The creature is easily around Grunoja's and the Orbal Mech Knight's height. A gaping mouth with jagged teeth. Long, narrow, appendages made of vines acting as hands. Egg-like sacks around its base seem to be smaller mouths. Overall, it was clearly something Relon hadn't encountered much less studied before.

"Judging by its appearance and the art from earlier, physical attacks may not be very effective against it." Rinwell notes.

"Another reason to be pissed at Senate for sealing my powers then!" He growls bursting around the creature as Rinwell preps her next art.

Considering it's a plant, burning it with fire would be ideal but oh well! Sliding to a halt, he shoots both blades as they rush forward cutting at the incoming tendrils.

Nearing the plant monster, it sends more roots into the ground for Relon to throw both swords.

"Oh no you don't!" He roars as they cut through each to strike the egg sacks causing the screech of pain to resound. "Trying to attack Rinwell…!" He roars jumping at its face taking ahold of both swords. "Was too obvious!"

Striking with a double slash at its face, the creature roars unleashing a plume of spore.

"Shit!" He curses holding his breath as the swords drag him out in front of Rinwell.

"You okay?"

"Y-Yeah. Just slight numbing." He answers, shaking his leg. "How much longer?"

"Halfway there…"

Feeling a surge in power spike, both take in symbols appearing under its feet for Relon to instinctively throw both swords for numerous tendrils to intercept, slowing them down.

"Damn it!" He curses, turning and picking up the cat to place it on top of Rinwell's tome before picking her up bridal style.

"R-Relon!"

"Keep focusing on that casting!" He urges taking off as stalagmites of ice erupt behind. "Pippin, Pappan!" He calls, both retreating to zoom next as he hops onto both rising into the air.

Taking the momentary chance to catch his breath for a spike of magic to erupt, he snaps back as the glyph under the behemoth's body spreads across the clearing.

"Such power…! What in Luna's name is it casting now?!" As if answering, the sky begins to blanket a gray color before snow descends.

"Oh sparkling stars of light…" Sensing her culmination of magic end, Rinwell's eyes shoot open.

"Send it! Hurry!" He exclaims

"Rain down and purify all!" She roars raising her hand to the heavens. "Meteor Storm!" As quick as the downcasting pelts of snow came, it ends as enormous molten rocks burst through the now black clouds.

All the group can do is watch as the pyro droplets descend. Forced to cut off its casting as the heat nears, numerous roots stretch from the ground to crumble under the heat's embrace. Crying out in agony as its body catches fire, Relon lowers Rinwell as when the final meteor hits its mark, all goes silent.

As the dust settles, both descend to the sight of the monster vanishing with an explosion of particles. Breathing a breath of relief, Relon walks forward outstretching both hands for the flames in charred ground to be absorbed as only the scorch marks and singed trees around remain.

"Nice work, Rinwell." He smiles, turning to face the girl finally having caught her own breath.

"Thanks. I'm just relieved I managed to get the chant off this time. Although…" She begins, a tint of pink appearing on her cheeks as the memory of Relon carrying resurfaces.

"Although what?" He tilts, his body relaxing as he doesn't sensing anymore danger.

"N-Nothing!" She dismisses with frantic waves. "Ahem! Anyway, what should we do with this little guy?" She gestures to the cat, handing it to Relon.

"Let's head back to the atelier for now. Judging by the injuries, it must have suffered from that thing." He turns for something on the ground to catch his eye. "Huh? What's this?" bending down, he picks up a blue card with odd writing inscribed on it. "A card? Any idea what it says?"

"Yeah. It's written in our native language. All it says is 'Frozen Epoch.' WHatever that means."

"Maybe the name of it?" He arches a brow as Rinwell hands it back.

"Seems that monster dropped it so maybe it could come in handy for something." She shrugs as they depart.

"Could be…"

Having returned to the home, both split off. Relon to tend to the feline and Rinwell to gather usable medical supplies. Thankfully, the rations Rinwell knew of had not been damaged. Before long, the cat was resting on his mother's bed.

"It's throat was injured so bad I don't know if it'll fully recover." He mentions focused on said area carefully bandaged for his hands to curl in frustration. "I hate this. Not being able to heal others and only myself…"

"You're not the only one." Rinwell mutters sitting on Rose's bed. "I can't even do healing magic. All I can do is cast an incantation spell. All my magic can do is cause destruction…"

"Rinwell… No. That's not true."

"Heh, did you not see what I did to that monster? Not to mention the clearing itself?"

"I did but that wasn't destruction itself. You were doing the same thing I was back in Celdic." He begins taking a seat next to her.

"Which was?"

"Protecting what was precious to us." He smiles for her forlorn expression to shift to confusion. "This place; Eryn. It's not y our Eryn but it's still Eryn nonetheless. It's home regardless of where you are. You wanted to protect it and so you did. The same way I fought and tore up the forest against Senate."

Taking in his kind words, her face lessens into a gentle look of understanding.

" Our home, Relon." She corrects nudging him with her side.

"Huh?"

"Eryn. It's not just my home. It's our home. You're family after all." She grins hopping up and walking in front of the cat.

"What are you doing?"

"Ever since I started learning how to cast magic, I've been learning how to heal. Of course, I've never succeeded but maybe a miracle can happen." She rolls her sleeves before lifting her hands atop one another over the feline.

Closing her eyes, he watches as her hands glimmer a green glow.

"Strands of forbearance… give name to your radiance… Pixie Circle!" She calls low for the light to die out as a breath escapes her.

"Did… Did it work?" He blinks for a sigh to escape.

"No. What's supposed to happen is after my hands glow, a circle appears and heals everything around me."

"Is that one of the basic-level healing arts?"

"Yeah. There's a lesser level but I couldn't even make my hands glow green. Out of all of them, Pixie Circle is the one with the most signs of success." She explains with another sigh as Relon walks over to crouch to eye-level.

"At least you tried. I'm sure you'll be able to do it soon enough."

"I hope so…"

"Well. For now, all we can do is let it get some rest. It doesn't seem like anything is life-threatening."

"What should we do? Wait until it's awake to ask what happened?"

"We should probably go to- huh?"

"What?"

"You tell me. What do you mean 'ask what happened?'"

Blinking at him to which he tilts his head, a giggle escapes the girl.

"Did you ever think as to why a cat would be in a magical village?"

"Why a cat would-" Stopping at the epiphany, he can only facepalm at his slow realization. "It's a familiar."

"Uh-huh. Hopefully one that can actually talk either through its mouth or through writing."

"Let's hope. For now, let's head for Heimdallr. I want to see what's going on over there. Maybe find some answers as to Trista and these weird roots.

"Sounds good."

"We'll be back, okay?" He says, gently rubbing the resting cat before they depart. "Next stop; Heimdallr."

"Let's find a way home, Cuz."

"Yeah. I'll get you home. I promise."

Heimdallr

"Oh no…!" Rinwell gasps.

Once more, another home he's come to love lies before him in ruin. The deceased bodies of civilians littering the streets as do the life-sucking roots.

"Heimdallr…"

Celdic, Trista, Eryn. One home after another, each place once believed to be a safe place no longer is. Floating down the ruined city, numerous of its once bustling and active buildings only half standing if even that. Alto, Vaniquer, Vesta Street. Heimdallr's Port, Central Station, the districts, Even the bridge leading to the famous Valflame Palace. All of it is no more than rubble amongst itself.

"How…?" That is all Rinwell can muster out from above. "Even the palace is…!"

Eyes sporadic, they stop as his mind thinks of one thing.

"The school!"

"Hey, wait!" She calls diving after him.

Halting soon after, the tension in his body leaves once again.

"What…?"

"Relon?"

"What the hell is going on? Why is there so much death and destruction everywhere we go?!"

Floating next to him offering a hand in comfort, her gaze lifts to the building. What was once a school now stands only a small portion as if something crashed into it. The top where a bell would be is only barely intact though only half of its form remains. The rest of the building in ruin as though something crashed into it.

Looking around, Rinwell speaks up.

"It doesn't seem like those roots have gotten this far."

Soon lifting his head, the sorrow remains evident in his demeanor as does the hurt.

"Yeah... Let's go." He slowly flies with her behind him.

"Where to?"

"The dorms. They're still standing somewhat." He says flying through the school to a window on the second floor.

"Whose room is this?"

"Musse's." He says breaking it open. "At least in our world it is." He enters landing in a crouched position to pause. "... Okay. I'm not sensing anything." He speaks for the girl to hop in followed by the two swords.

Looking around, the sound of him rummaging catches her attention.

"What are you doing?" She asks peering into the bathroom to find said boy looking under the sink.

To answer her question, he reveals his upper body along with orbal cameras in his arms.

"These."

"What are they? Televisions?" "Orbal surveillance cameras. You can connect them to one another so I'm hoping that there are some still intact throughout the city. We may figure out what happened."

"That's similar to one of the spells Grandmother uses. It makes a screen appear out of thin air showing someone's location."

"Exactly the same." He nods, working his ARCUS.

In response, multiple screens light up for a screeching sound to release.

"Ah, cut that down!"

"Hoot hoot hoot hoot!"

Quickly doing so, he breathes a breath of relief as do the two others.

"Now then… let's hope we can find something. First up, the databases."

Taking a seat next to him, Relon flips through the screens one after another.

"Nothing, nothing, nothing, noth- hm?" Pausing on one of the televisions, their eyes watch it pan to a familiar area.

"Looks like a park."

"That's Mater Park." He mumbles.

Watching the scenery, a large explosion erupts from the Crystal Garden as civilians flee. The sight of nearby soldiers opening fire in all directions before they run out of sight. More explosions sounding from all around.

"What the? Just like that? An explosion sounds and the police open fire on those civilians?!" Rinwell exclaims.

"Hold on." Relon says fastforwarding the recording.

Resuming play, numerous soldiers battle in man-made trenches against what seems like other soldiers. Though what comes next makes all three widen as a black silhouette blurs over the trenches unleashing a shockwave-like attack killing the opposing force before vanishing with the soldiers close behind. Pausing, Relon takes a deep breath.

"Who were they?" Rinwell furrows.

"Possibly the ones responsible. But that one guy… it couldn't be…" He shivers at the thought rising to his feet.

"Relon? What's wrong?" She questions standing up with him.

"Whoever that was. They were moving too fast to get nearly as good of a look but… I really don't want to say it now." He pauses to look directly at Rinwell. "That shockwave attack, the weapon that guy used, even how he looks albeit for only a moment; it was all similar to Rean." He grimaces.

"Huh?! What are you-"

"Here me out! Look, I could be wrong. Hopefully I am. Though that attack was clearly his Arc Slash, his weapon seemed like a longsword. Moreso a tachi. Even his stance resembled Rean's. But something's not right. That speed… that power… It was similar to him using Ishmelga's power except he clearly had his black hair. And then those soldiers. The Rean I know wouldn't kill without hesitation like that guy did."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's think for a second then." Rinwell raises her hands in emphasis. "If that is the case, then what about the others? The rest of Class VII? Sissy?"

"Like I said." He kneels down tuning the monitor for one to turn in front of Central Palace. "I can only hope I'm-"

Interrupted by the sounds of gunfire, Relon widens instinctively pushing Rinwell and Hootle down.

Pausing for the briefest time, Rinwell lifts up for something to rattle across the ground. Looking to see an odd object, Relon snaps her collar tossing her and Hootle into the bathroom.

"Relon?!"

"Tch, Pippin, Pappan!" He exclaims as they go in after followed by Relon shutting the door.

Rushing in front of it, he raises his hands.

Alright, do or die time! He clenches his teeth.

"RELON!" Rinwell exclaims banging the door both swords reinforce.

BOOM!

The entire structure rattles as a flash of light comes from the other side. Lowering from the door, Rinwell runs out to hit Relon's back nearly knocking her down.

"Oof! Relon!" She scrambles to her feet to find the boy still as stone before he slowly lowers his arms.

"What a relief." He breathes out to clench his fists looking over his shoulder at her. "I can still absorb heat."

Looking past him, she takes in the entire structure blown to smithereens revealing the city itself.

"That includes explosions such as from grenades. Some things you can't steal from a Lucinance it seems. I should have known, considering Dad found me in Ashland." He flexes his fists to fall back. "I'm feeling a little better off of that now." He growls, stepping forward.

Following him, she takes sight of a small group of soldiers walking away.

"Those are-"

"Yeah. Let's get some answers, why don't we?" He runs off the edge onto Pippin as Hootle hides in Rinwell's hoodie before going after him. "HEY!" He roars, the men turning around to the sight of the two for Relon to jump off slamming a fist into one shattering their helmet as he slides past the group.

"What the- OOF!" Another grunts as Pippin crashes its handle into their head.

"Fire-"

"Celestial Hammer!" Rinwell chants unleashing four thin beams of light crashing through the legs of four making them fall to the ground in pain.

"That just leaves one." Relon growls to the soldier frantically aiming between him and the landing Rinwell.

Blitzing the lone soldier, Relon uppercuts them off their feet before following through by grabbing their arm and slamming them to the ground before embedding his fist into their abdomen.

Sitting atop of him, Relon removes the helmet before lifting him up.

"Start talking, how did you know we were in there!"

"Ugh…"

"I said…" He lifts himself before dropping. "Start talking!"

"Gak! We didn't!" He breathes out.

"Then why?" Rinwell asks.

"Anything that remains standing, we destroy!" He wheezes out.

"Why?!" Relon slams him against the ground.

"Because… because…" He mutters weakly as a dark aura radiates from him and the others forming in the air above.

" Because I am cleansing the world of the wretched filth." An alternating voice of the group speaks before it bursts into nothingness.

"What the hell…?" Relon blinks to snap to the man. "He's dead…" He realizes as he slowly gets off of him.

"Huh?" She blinks as well slowly looking to the downed soldiers. "But they look fine." How can you-"

"Rinwell, don't!" He reaches out as she kneels before a soldier to freeze upon contact.

"Huh? There's no pulse…"

"Rinwell…"

"But I. I. I…"

"Come on." He quickly grabs her hand leading her away for more explosions and gunfire to sound. "Rinwell, hey, look at me." He speaks calmly, raising her head to look at him. "You did nothing wrong back there, okay? Whatever that was was something out of our control." He reassures, wiping tears out her eyes.

All she can do is nod releasing a sniffle.

"Hoot…"

Looking in the direction of the noise, he looks back to Rinwell.

That's sounding from Central Station. Or at least what's left of it. If that really was Rean, then… Laura and the others may… Nrgh.

"Go." He looks back to Rinwell with puffy cheeks as she wipes her eyes. "We'll wait back at…" Another sniffle. "The school. Doubt those guys would bomb it again, right?" She forces a smile.

"Rinwell…"

"Hoot Hoot!" Her faithful familiar chirps atop her head saluting him.

"Hootle… Alright. I'll check things out and be back soon." He steps onto Pippin.

"Be careful!" She hollers for a thumbs up to come in response.

I can't bring Relon down with my inexperience. Death… I have to push through! She thinks to hop onto Pappan.

"Let's go!"

She's putting on a brave face. Rinwell… I swear I'll get you back home!

Central Station

Coming to the ground on the outskirts of the battle, Relon hops off as he crawls to peak at the fighting. Both sides full of soldiers both dead and alive firing at one another. Further away, large mechs maneuvering around each other.

"Are those Orbal Mech Knights? No, they don't look anything like what Shifu had. Come on, where had I heard about those before…?"

"A seven-arge-tall humanoid weapon. A Panzer Soldat or somethin', yeah?" The voice of Agate resurfaces.

"Soldats! Could those be those Panzer Soldats?"

"Ha!"

Looking away from the soldiers to another skirmish of much smaller proportions though somehow even more deadly proportions, his eyes lay upon several familiar and unfamiliar faces alike.

Principal Vandyck?! Instructor Sara?! Aurelia?! Emma?! Fie?! Laura?! Why are….

"This time, your life will be severed! That's for certain."

"That's where you're wrong. We'll be the victors!"

Snapping his head even more, his eyes catch sight of Rean. Just like in the surveillance, his stance matches what Relon saw. Noticing his opponent take a readying stance, Relon grits his teeth.

Damn it! They're not giving me time to think!

Leaping into the air, his eyes momentarily take sight of another figure having done the same as him.

"Pippin!" He beckons his faithful companion as with a quick interception, the sound of metal clashing reverberates both in front and behind.

"Who… are you?!"

"Of course you don't recognize me." He breathes out to deliver a kick which Rean blocks, sending the Eight Leaves Practitioner away. "It's like my very existence and anything related to me doesn't exist in this world."

"World…? Whatever you're talking about, I don't care. If you side with him, you're an enemy. Meaning I'll have to cut you down."

"Him?"

Looking over his shoulder at the back of the teen seeming to be around his age with guns in hand. Across from him, a young man with what seems like metallic tonfas.

Considering the guy with the guns is opposing the other, he must be a third party like me. Judging by him leaping at the same time as myself, looks like he's somewhat friendly. What's with the mask though? Turning back to Rean, his gaze takes notice of the once fighting soldiers now aiming their weapons at the four.

"Can I ever go a day without a gun or something pointed at me?" He groans tiredly. "Now would be really good to have Spirit Unification…" At his words, Rean seems to widen, lowering his sword.

"Spirit Unification? You're capable of using it too?"

"Too? You don't call yours Demon Unchained?" Relon quips back, not lowering his guard as he overhears a little of the conversation going on behind him.

"What kind of name is that?" Rean readies himself.

"That's another term for it a buddy of mine calls it." He vaguely answers.

I need to be careful. Saying something like that could mess with the laws Luna warned me about. If my existence truly isn't a thing here, then what of the Lucinances in the Beyond? Or Ashland if they're there? Should I risk it? What if Aidios doesn't recognize my existence? What if-

Snapped from his thoughts, Pippin shoots out of his hand to clash with Rean.

"It can move on its own?!"

"Pippin!" Gritting his teeth, he mentally reprimands himself for the foolish action before charging in. "Let's go, Rean!" He charges, catching the pushed off Pippin to careen towards the swordsman.

"Hmpf. So you've chosen death. Very well." Rean blurs forward.

He's fast!

"Pippin!" Relon shouts snapping his arm up for his sword to drag him in the direction narrowly avoiding the attempted decapitation.

Not even using Ishmelga's power and he's that fast. The footage didn't do him any justice! He mentally notes with a grimace situating himself on Pippin

"So can fly, can you? Interesting…" Rean smirks crouching into a stance sheathing his sword.

"Shit, he's gonna use it!" He warns as Pippin zooms around the area.

"Arc Slash!"

Taking sight of the attack, he widens at the sheer size of the singular attack. Clicking his tongue, Relon jumps off Pippin going high as the sword goes low before conjoining. Looking back, he takes sight of a structure off in the distance get sliced in two.

The sheer size, both width and length, of that attack…! This Rean is stronger too!

"We can't beat him as we are." He grimaces coming back shooting for Rean. "In that case…!"

"Retaliating with a frontal assault? Very Well…!" Rean readies himself once more to sense something.

Sidestepping as another sword comes barreling through, his eyes widen at Pippin coming from his blindside. Caught in midstep, he parries the sword for his eyes to catch Relon in front of him.

He has two swords? Not only that, he used both as a diversion! The first as a surprise attack and quickly followed through with thew second so I wouldn't be able to counter!

"Eat this!" Throwing his fist forward, it connects with Rean's face.

A moment of resistance comes as Rean brings out all the [power he can muster to finally send the swordsman off his feet.

"Hey, guy with the guns! Duck!" Seeming to hear, the teen jumps into the air as Rean Soflies under, correcting himself to skid next to the other male.

"So, guy with the swords, what's your name?" The gunslinger yells out dropping to the ground unloading a clip into the other male who does a combination of dodging and deflections.

"Relon. And you?" He answers, both blades returning to his side as catches his breath.

All my energy from those grenades went out the window that fast…

"Shade. So Relon, we are about to get lit up pretty bad. Any ideas?"

"Yeah. Ever rode on a skateboard before?" He arches a brow hopping onto Pippin as it and Pappan lay before the boys.

Looking at the look of absurdity on the teen's face, Relon gives a quick glance to Rean already recovering.

"Well no, but you're never old enough to learn!"

"Just think of it like one but it can fly. Unless you want to get intimate with those guys cause they seem really interested in us!" He adds, urgency evident in his tone.

"I'd rather not get intimate with any enemy of mine, don't want a repeat of Miranda…" He responds, hopping on.

"Time to retreat!" He shouts, both blades shooting into the air.

Glancing back, Relon notices both sides having ceased with all eyes including Rean's looking at them. Scanning further over, his eyes lock onto the distant Laura, Fie, and Emma.

Damn it…

"What's next? We fighting or fleeing?" The voice of Shade snaps Relon as his words process for Relon to tilt his head. "No offense Shade but I'm not exactly in top fighting condition. So unless you want to sabotage them or leave a 'present,' I think retreat is best for right now."

"You're controlling these swords, yeah? Take me down towards the mechs quickly!" Nodding, Shade veers off with him close behind back in the direction of the mechs.

There's four in total. What's he up to?

Noting of the humanoid mechanisms follow them, they speed up to blur close off the ground. Nearing them, Relon takes sight of Shade jump off Pappan to slide towards a mech.

"Relon keep moving and be prepared to dodge!" Shade calls out reeling a fist and denting the leg of the machine causing it to fall.

Following up, he grips both hands around it before spinning it around and around. Seeming to reach his limit, Shade releases it as the mech crashes into a second for both to topple over. Following suit to jump onto the downed machines, Relon comes close.

"Relon, need a sword here!" Shad calls jumping off the head of a machine.

"Gotcha!" He shouts as Pappan zooms by.

"We should be good with them down!" He voices in joy as both look at his work.

"Nice work! Now let's get the hell outta here."

"I have a… friend nearby, she's by the gate leading towards Trista. If it's not a problem could we swing by and grab her?"

"Fun fact; that's the direction my cousin and I were heading back." He says as they begin to veer in the direction of the school. "Rinwell!" He cups his hands before hollering as the girl and Hootle reveals themselves.

"Who is that?" She blinks at Shade.

"Questions for later. He's an ally. Hop on, we gotta go. Army might be chasing us." He answers with haste, extending a hand for her to hop on as Hootle returns to her hoodie.

Wrapping her arms around his waist, they depart in the direction of the gate. Flying through the air noting numerous soldiers littering the destroyed ruins of the once lively city, they eventually leave the populated area finding the gate in sight.

"Relon, down there, the house with the hole in the roof."

Looking down, Relon spies numerous homes with holes. Arching a brow, he looks over to the masked teen.

"Which one?"

"The one with the annoying blond girl that is currently waving at us." He sighs realizing the issue.

"Ahhh…" Both teens sound in unison as they fly down to the woman seeming to be dressed like a… witch?

Giving a subtle glance at Rinwell, the girl seems to understand his quizzical look to shrug.

"Also, don't take anything she says seriously."

"A woman who isn't serious? Where have I heard that before?" He responds dryly as they near the young woman running their way.

"Oh, Shade! It was awful! That house had no running water at all! I couldn't take a bath to relax…! Also what's with the swords and the kids?"

Blinking, Rinwell is the first to respond looking at Shade as she points to the woman in question.

"Is she an idiot?"

"Sometimes I wonder the same thing." Shade answers as Magilou grows closer. "Anyway, this is Magi-" Cut off by a hand, owner of Magilou herself, she intervenes stepping back.

"No, no. Let them ask me my name!"

Blinking not at all amused, both sigh.

"Who exactly are you?" Rinwell sighs as Relon crosses his arms.

"Hooray, you asked! I'm thrilled to introduce to you the wise sorceress who travels the eleven seas, who scoffs at the might of dragons… None other than the acclaimed, the illustrious Mazhigigika Miludin do Din Nolurun Dou! Magilou for short." She proclaims posing with a smile.

"..." Unresponsive except by blinking, both look to the other. "Yup. She's an idiot." They answer in unison.

"Yeah, saw that coming, anyway. Since we have time let me properly introduce myself." Shade mentions discarding his mask to reveal his face. "My name is Shade Junge."

Seeming to come back to her sense, Rinwell is the first to speak up.

"Oh, right! My name is Rinwell Millstein. And this little guy is Hootle. Say hi." She offers glancing over her shoulder for said owl to peek out hopping atop her shoulder.

"Hoot Hoot!" It chirps happily.

"And this is my cousin…" She gestures to said individual with a light jab of her elbow.

"The name's Relon. Relon Lucinance." He greets with a smile, a hand resting on his hip as both swords hover in front of him. "The black and gold sword is Pippin and the darkish red and purple is Pappan." He adds, both swords bending their handles to give a friendly wave. "Glad to finally meet some people for once. I've had it with monsters." He chuckles.

Now that I think about it, we've got quite the group. Relon mentally notes. Rinwell, Hootle, Pippin, Pappan, and finally myself. That's five and if that familiar gets well, that'll be six.

"Millstein?" Shade mutters to himself. "I see and these swords of yours, Pippin and Pappan, they have their own will and sense of self, yes?"

Catching his comment, Relon dismisses it for the time being.

"Yeah. They have their own personalities but listen to me."

Better to not reveal everything in case things go South…

About to respond, Magilou cuts him off.

"Well, it's nice to meet both of you! I'll let the idiot comments slide for now, but I will remember them~." She hums walking to what looks like the same orbal vehicle Relon and Rean saw outside of George's orbal shop.

"So where to?" Rinwell asks, all attention returning to Shade.

"This place isn't safe and I have no doubt that everyone is looking for us, so it's best we get out of the city…"

Lifting his head as do both swords, Relon looks up before to Shade seeming to have sensed the sudden presence as well. Focusing for a moment, both boys look to the door. Exchanging a glance, Shade walks over towards the side as both swords aim at it from the front with Relon motioning for both girls to step away.

"What's wrong?" Rinwell questions.

"Company." Is all Relon answers as he posts on the other side. "And not the good kind." He adds silencing Magilou's follow-up response.

Moments pass before Shade yanks the door open and with it, the lone grunt. In quick succession, he disarms the man of his gun before sending him to the ground.

"You're one of Rean's men, yeah?"

"Hahaha…" On instinct, both sword aim at his neck and skull.

" Hahaha! You both seem like fun!"

"His voice changed!" Rinwell gasps.

"The hell?" Relon narrows.

" I'm quite glad to have you with us now, watching those two go at it was getting boring… Now I have something fun to play with in the meantime!" His eerie grin widens to disturbing proportions.

"Wait, does this mean you can control those under Rean's and Lloyd's command?!" Snapping his eyes to Shade is shock for only a moment, Relon's gaze reverts back to the odd soldier before to Rinwell.

"Control? What do you mean control?!" Rinwell roars, retrieving her tome.

Laughing at her rage, the soldier turns to Relon.

" You didn't tell her? About her sister? Oh, for shame, young man. Keeping a secret from such a frail maiden. Tsk, tsk, tsk."

Snapping to Relon in question, her expression is all he needs to see to understand what she's inquiring about.

"Painting me as the villain isn't going to work, whoever you are." He comments before looking at Rinwell. "I found Rean and some of the others including Emma. But…" He averts his gaze to mentally reprimand himself once more forcing his eyes to meet hers. "They're not the good guys."

Stone-faced, her once boiling blood freezes over as the feeling in her legs leave. Hitting the floorboard with her knees, her tome rolls out of her hands.

"Sissy is… evil…?" Her shaken eyes fall from Relon to the ground in disbelief.

"Rinwell… Tch, start bastard! Who are you?!"

" Does a bug need to understand why it needs to be stepped on? All you need to know is this. I am the beginning and I'm also the end, the world will soon be reborn all in the image of Zero!"

"Shit!" She exclaims kicking the grunt in the face. "We need to leave, now! They know where we are at!" He shouts donning his mask.

"Rinwell!" Relon rushes over grabbing her tome and helping the girl up. "We gotta go!"

Jumping off the ledge to land on Pippin and Pappan together, he and Rinwell hunker down to take sight of Shade and Magilou on the orbal vehicle. "Punch it!" He shouts, the engine roaring to life as the four take off.

Looking over his shoulder past Rinwell, he widens at more of those humanoid mechs with Rean and the other young man with tanfas from earlier rushing their way on foot.

"Shit!" He exclaims, rushing towards Shade's side. "We got company!"

"Knew it, they weren't firing at us when we fled before, more than likely to catch us off guard. Zero however used that guy to tell them all where we were at."

"Who the shit is Zero anyway?!"

Looking over her shoulders, Rinwell's dead eyes come back to life in horror. Behind Rean and the other figure, Emma flying atop her orbal staff.

"Sissy…!" She mutters loud enough for Relon to hear as he feels her grip around him tighten.

Hearing her, he snaps back around focusing to see said girl as well as Laura and the others.

Asking Rinwell to prepare a spell with her mental situation is beyond impossible now!

"I'll explain later once we ditch them, speaking of which. Any ideas where we could hide from them?!" Shade shouts back.

"Hide…?" He repeats to himself before his eyes widen. "We need to get to Celdic!"

"Celdic? That's far off and to get there we need to get by Trista!"

"Does it matter really! Just get us away from them!"

"Just trust me!" Nodding, both sides push forward for Shade to whip out his gun firing.

Snapping to him before behind at the ground with an indent, he looks to a woman with a sniper.

"That's it!" Relon growls flying over and to Magilou's side to toss Rinwell atop the young woman. "Thanks for the save, Shade! My turn!" He growls flying directly up towards the sky.

"Relon!" Rinwell calls out.

"One thing after another, no moments of reprieve, death and hurt everywhere we go…!"

He grits his teeth as his hands flex before his gaze hardens at the sun. Reaching out his hand, the warmth of the solar stars draws inwards. Taking a deep breath, he calms himself. Snapping wide, his eyes turn to the sight of his group being chased by the army.

"I'm beyond pissed!" He raises his hand taking a hold of Pippin before diving down.

Sephiroth, Senate, everyone…! Nameless, Luna, just this once! Help me be the one to save them!

For a split second, the tiniest inkling of power surges from within.

Relon!

Feeling the familiar sensation, his gaze locks onto the ground.

"We're gonna collide!" Magilou exclaims.

Eyes meeting Shade's from above, time slows. Taking in the smallest of nods from the teen, he revs the vehicle as Relon flips off Pappan with Pippin overhead.

"ABLAZE!" A bellowing explosion sounds from the air gaining all's attention as the three look behind. "FLAME…" Pippin's shape shifts from its normal sword form to a large greatsword shaped in flames. "CLEAVER!"

Crashing into the ground, the touch on impact causes nothing to happen. A second later, the entire road bursts as the ground erupts. From it, numerous pillars of fire-like geysers surge all along the road towards the dispersing clouds.

"Well, that's something new!" Shade exclaims with a shit-eating grin, Rinwell looking on in worry for the silhouette of Relon atop Pippin and Pappan on all fours. Seeing him, her worry turns to a wide smile of relief.

"He's okay!"

Feeling his body weaken, he barely holds on as he rejoins the others now falling on his stomach with his arms and legs dangling off as though he's on a surfboard.

"Tired… Rinwell… Please guide us…" He pauses to inhale a heavy breath. "To the entrance into… Eryn that's near Trista.." He breathes out. "Losing… consciousness… You're… welcome…" He drops his head onto the blade's handles.

"Rinwell, you heard the man. Guide us to Eryn!" Shade grins.

"R-Right! To Trista!" She points.

"Also, Magilou… you seem comfortable there."

"Can we just get somewhere safe already!" Magilou groans adjusting herself to have more space from the small seat she and Rinwell are now occupying.

As time passed with no signs of the army, the ride was more relaxing for Shade. Well, for Shade and Relon at least. With the assistance fo Rinwell's directions upon nearing Trista, the group had to slow to a halt as they diverged into the nearby woods to follow a small trail leading to a more dense area.

"This the place Rinwell?" Shade asks, looking around as the girls get out.

"Yes, just don't panic when it happens." She moves aside some dead brushes to reveal a familiar device.

Gathering around, she takes a hold of Relon's hand.

"Just touch this and off we go. Ready?" She asks looking at the others.

"Does the bike come with?" Shade asks moving closer.

"As long as you're making contact with it before you touch the device then yup."

Nodding, he gets as close as he can with Magilou still in the seat before hovering his hand over it.

"Hold on tight, just in case." He warns before looking to Rinwell nodding his readiness.

Touching it at the same time, a flash of light encompasses their vision before all goes white. A moment later, they're in what seems like a cave.

"We made it." Rinwell breathes out in relief. "How are-" She pauses seeing both unperturbed. "You two holding up…?" She blinks.

"Felt weird, but I'm fine." Magilou says while getting out of the sidecar.

"Same, was something supposed to happen?"

"Huh. Usually people's first time teleporting through those makes them queasy." She chuckles.

"You'll get your answer to that later, but for now we should find a place to rest. I'm sure you and Sleepyboy over there are hungry."

"Yeah. I'll lead the way. Here's to hoping none fo those monsters appear." She comments as the group departs.

"What kind of monsters?" Magilou asks.

"Wolves that fire jets of acidic water." She answers nonchalantly.

"It's always wolves, well you lead on then, but if they do show up I'll take care of them." Shade reassures hopping onto his vehicle. As they made their way through the familiar area, they eventually came to the equally familiar intersection. Turning to face them, Rinwell spoke.

"We're almost there. Eryn is just over that way." She points to the illuminated path where another teleportation device stands.

"Good, I need a place to get some good sleep!"

"Says the girl that was napping in the sidecar all day."

"Seriously?" Rinwell deadpans. "Why does that not surprise me."

"A girl like me needs her beauty sleep! Besides with him driving it's not like I could get much rest anyway!"

"Same thing right? Just touch it?"

"Yeah." She nods as all do before they're whisked away.

"So this Eryn?" Shade questions as they reach the end of the path.

"What's left of it at least." Rinwell sighs coming behind to freeze. "Huh?"

"What's wrong?"

"The roots. They were emerging from the center of the village over there. Now…they're gone. The water looks like it's been purified. How…?"

"Maybe someone cut them?" Magilou shrugs.

"But who…" She stops to look in the direction of Roselia's building as noted by the smashed hole where the front door once stood. "Could it be…? Come on!" She takes off across the waterway towards said home.

Entering, she looks around before heading up the two flights of staircases to reach the second floor as the others enter, catching sight of her running down the corridor. Opening the door panting from the sudden burst, the others come behind. Looking into the room, all find a white cat curled up on the floor.

"I knew it." Rinwell smiles walking in and crouching before the feline. "You cleaned up the village while we were away, didn't you?"

"Hoot Hoot."

Not getting a response from the resting cat, she lifts back up to turn towards the two. Walking past them, she looks over the balcony at Pippin and Pappan still with Relon.

"It's okay, you two can bring him up." She waves before they elevate the boy.

Guiding him into the room, they gently lay him on the blue bed before moving out from under him.

"You make sure he's alright, I'll bring the bike around and get some food and water for you both… or the three of you I guess." He eyes the cat before leaving.

Tending to Relon, Rinwell turns around to Magilou taking a seat next to the cat simply looking at it.

"What are you doing?"

(Popping a squat and admiring this beauty~. Now hush, she's resting!)

"... Okay then." She blinks dumbly turning back to tucking in Relon. (Wait a second! Who are you telling to be quiet?!)

(Who else?! Certainly not the two asleep!)

(Where do you get off being sweet to a cat one second and snappy the next to me?! Hell of a mood swing if you ask me!) Widening to glare at the girl, she rises as their eyes lock.

(You do not want to go there do you, brat?) She grins darkly, a tic mark forming on her forehead..

(Bring it, Grandpa!)

(Weren't you raised to respect your elders, kid?) Now a tic mark appears on Rinwell's face as both stomp to literally butt heads.

"Hey, I'm ba- Uh…" Both snap to him. "I don't even want to know why, but please just calm down, the both of you." He says taking off his mask and sitting at the edge of Roselia's bed. "Everything you need is downstairs on the table. I'll watch over this one here." Watching them leave, he grabs Rinwell's sleeve to let go. "Rinwell, can I say something real quick?"

"Sure." She breathes, calming herself. "What's up?"

"I won't go much into it not until Relon is awake, but I do know you both aren't from this world, same with me and Magilou."

"How could you-"

"Relon was careful, but with the way you acted to Emma being an enemy, well that was a dead giveaway, haha."

"The way I acted…?" Searching for said instances, she mentally widens before refocusing on the chuckling Shade.

If Shade was an enemy… then I would have been a liability. One he could have taken advantage of against Relon…

"O-Oh. I get it." She chuckles. "Relon's an expert in fighting and how to act. I don't get out much so being blasted to another world has been more stressful for Relon so… so…" She scrunches walking back to take Relon's hand in hers. "It's frustrating. How can he do it?" She allows a sniffle to escape. "He fought against Sissy and everyone without hesitation. That attack was full of his rage but it wasn't directed at them." She kneels against the bedside resting her head on the soft sheet looking to Relon.

"...What do you mean?"

"Shade. How can you prove to me right now that you're not an enemy? How do I know you can trust you won't doublecross us?"

"Rinwell-"

"Answer me. My back is to you. We both know you're far stronger in every aspect in this current moment. Even if I wanted to reach for my tome, you'd stop me before I could so much as move. Couldn't you…?" She asks, her gaze never leaving her cousin's elevating chest.

She knew far more than anyone out of their group just how inexperienced she was. Relon was a monster albeit nerfed heavily. The question of how he came to use flames again remained a mystery and would stay that way until he woke up. Then there was Shade. The teen with the mask. Even an amatuer like her could tell from the easy takedown that he had experience. His handling of the vehicle, his accuracy and marksmanship with his guns, his attitude shifting on a dime, it all reminded her so much of her cousin. They were mature in their own right. It was as though both had gone through their fair share of life and its harsh realities.

She was envious of it. She was blessed to be born into such a wonderful clan and even more to have Grandmother and Emma. Eryn, its civilians, all of it; it was her home. She loved it so which is why seeing it, albeit another version, in such a decrepit state hurt to her core. And that was her problem. Her 14-year-old mind could not handle it like Relon could. Relon, the very boy who has NEVER EVEN BEEN to Eryn was better composed. He got the hell beaten out of him, became hated by an entire country if not more, and the list goes on yet he's still acting calm and collected now with his powers sealed. She was just now looking back on the number of times he's had to tell her to cool it because her emotions kept getting the better of her.

Was she really that pathetic? Again, it came down to an experience in which she has zero, zilch, nothing. The anatomical number of points she would be capable of giving herself would be found out in some empty meadow. Emphasis on empty. She was a liability. It hurt but she had to accept facts. Up until now, she was such and Relon knew it. That was most likely why he decided to word him getting her home instead of them getting home.

" You didn't tell her? About her sister? Oh, for shame, young man. Keeping a secret from such a frail maiden. Tsk, tsk, tsk."

I fell for such a simple bait. I really am pathetic…

Scrunching her hands against the sheets, her gaze hardens. Reaching a hand to Relon's own, she holds it feeling that familiar warmth he's famous for.

No more. She wouldn't be a liability any longer. Relon and his swords have protected her up until now but that wasn't the case. Now, she would be the one to protect him until he was awake. From there, they fight as one. Covering each other as equals.

"I know I'm nowhere near your level but rest well, Relon. You've done more than enough. So this time, let me be the one to watch over you." She speaks up, snapping Shade from his own thoughts. "So? Are you friend or foe?" She reiterates not leaving her gaze from Relon. "You could stop me right here and now, couldn't you?"

Seeming to struggle at coming up with an answer, he eventually does.

"You made a good point, I could stop you from using that magic book and completely overpower you, but I'm not doing that. You know Emma and even called her Sissy, so that means you must know Celine, right?"

"You know Celine too?" She looks over in semi-shock, retaining her open back.

"She was my friend. Told me a lot about this village and Emma. Reason I brought her up was so you can have a little trust in me, and I'm sure you still have doubts, but trust me. I'm a friend."

There it was. That same look of genuine care that her sister and Relon gave her. Their faces couldn't be any more different but that calm, surreal expression of acceptance and kindness; that was without a shadow of a doubt what truth looked like in a human.

"And Magilou?"

She still needed to know his answer. Even if one may had been honest, the other may not be. He could simply vouch for her or maybe not. Likely would but she still had to ask him regardless of his answer. This one mind boggling topic that's bothered me since they met Magilou.

"I've known her for only a small amount of time, but she's not going to do anything bad. I'll make sure of that, but she's… a somewhat good person from what I know, annoying yes, but still good."

"I see… I'll be the judge of that then." She smiles walking past him. "Thank Shade." She offers a smile of sincerity. "For being a good guy. You too, Relon." She cheekily adds. "Pretending to be asleep." She giggles leaving.

"You have a good one there, so how long have you been listening?" Shades turns to Relon for a sigh to escape the Lucinance. Opening his eyes, he slowly lifts up to roll his legs over the bedside.

"Believe it or not, I never truly lost consciousness. Moreso pitter-pattering in between being fully awake and being out. If I was fully out, then Pippin and Pappan would have dropped after I used my attack. And you guys would have had to turn around and get me and blah blah blah else." He prattles covering his face with a hand.

Getting up, he takes notice of the white cat still curled on the rug. Smiling, he carefully picks her up to place said cat on the bed.

"Thanks. Both of you." He turns to Shade. "For everything up until now."

"Awake the entire time, huh? So you were just lazy I see. Whatever. As long as you aren't dead then everything is almost fine." Annoyance clear as day in his tone though Relon doesn't care, instead looking at the smile on Shade's own face.

"Heh, I literally couldn't move my body in my defense. If something would have come up, Pippin and Pappan would have left me without a second's hesitation. Regardless, at least Rinwell took care of what I was going to do."

"Speaking of Pippin and Pappan, what are you? You aren't a witch. That much I can tell. I sense something else from you…"

"Hmm. It's funny that you bring that up cause I could ask you the same. Your heartbeat isn't exactly normal nor are you, am I right?" Both smirk at the other, no sense of tension at all in the air.

"My heartbeat, huh? Not the fact I grabbed a giant robot and swung it around? But yeah, I'm not normal at all… Only a monster."

"Haha, if I was in better condition, I would have thrown one myself. But a monster? Hmm. You address yourself as a monster but what I heard a moment ago begs to differ. Monsters are known to be seen in both the good light and the bad. Although, that's only if you want to be seen that way. I for one can't talk much myself."

"Have you ever taken a life before?" He retorts flatly.

"Yup. Nine and a half years old was when I got my first blood with the Rean of my world." He nods, matching Shade's tone.

"I was five when I killed someone, then after that I was fourteen. The worst part was that I didn't feel a thing about those I killed or anyone else afterwards. I have killed countless people which in turn resulted in many innocent dying in the process. I have been called a Monster by those I was fighting for and those I killed, so in the end I just accepted that fact."

"Okay. So you embraced slash accepted what you were called." Relon shrugs while walking to sit on the bed. "Let me ask you this then." He looks back to Shade. "Those who you were killing, protecting, and fighting for; do you think they would call you a monster?"

"Most that only heard of me did, but those that did know me, those that I wish were still around now. Those people called me a friend. Celine being one of them and many others." He gazes out the window releasing a breath.

"Then that's what matters. Screw those idiots that don't know squat. As long as you know that your friends are behind you as friends, then whatever else you're called shouldn't bother you."

"I'll tell you what I am, but first let's head downstairs… You can move around, yeah?"

"Ugh, jerk, making an exhausted guy move so soon." Relon softly groans, getting back up reaching out holding Pappan for support like a cane. "Lead the way."

"Alright, there is food and drink waiting down there and I'm sure you need it."

"Much appreciated, good sir." With that, they depart.

Making their way downstairs to the kitchen table, they both stop eyeing both girls glaring once more at the other.

This is already getting old. Relon mentally sighs.

"You two are going to be the bane of the other's existence, aren't you?" He sighs, taking a seat already filling his plate.

"She-" Both begin for a hand to be raised by said Lucinance.

"Too tired to even hear it. You two can go at it like cats and dogs after I'm done." He says before digging in.

Feeling Rinwell's pout and Magilou's annoyance beam upon his exterior, he ignores them with ease.

I wonder if I'll be able to make night tea later on once I've recuperated…

"As much as I would love to see this fight, we have other issues at hand." Shade comments while walking to pick up some maps. "Let me say this first; everyone in this room isn't from this world, but that alone raises another question. Why are we here to begin with?" Shade questions, seriousness written on his demeanor.

"Evil witch sent by the literal devil decided to test me." Relon answers in between bites.

"I happened to be with him when she appeared." Rinwell answers next.

"For Magilou and I, we happened to come across some type of glowing device. Once I had touched it, it sent us here. But the odds that both of us would get sent to a world like this around the same time are highly unlikely."

"Is it though?" Relon wonders, biting his bread. "Seems pretty normal to me."

"I can't say it's normal to me, but I think we were brought here, or rather the world itself made us come here." He suggests showing a marked map of the continent. "This is all that remains of this world." Erebonia, Crossbell, Liberl, and North Ambria being the last designated locations.

I mean there's still the realm of possibility with other continents not yet discovered but that's not important.

"Been a while since I went to Liberl. Crossbell too." Relon comments having finished his food. "Hey Shade, Magilou, ever hear of a place called Ashland to the South of Ordis?"

"Nope, can't say I ever heard of a place named Ashland." Magilou says while leaning back in her chair.

"Same here, but speaking of locations…" Shade turns around grabbing two more maps with blue markers. "When we got here we started heading towards the closest place, Twin Dragon Bridge. When we got there I found people trying to fight back against Zero. All of the blue markers are where they set up their own bases."

"A resistance, huh. At least that's helpful against whoever this Zero guy is. Speaking of, who is this Zero guy?" Relon asks bluntly.

"From what I was told, Zero is the leader of both Rean and Lloyd. He took power around thirty years ago and set up these reactors which are draining the life of the planet and sending it to him. These four markers are the reactors while this one here is where he is at."

"Wait, then why were Rean and Lloyd fighting?" Rinwell asks.

"For fun. The resistance isn't strong enough to do anything to Zero, so Rean and Lloyd use them for training and would fight each other for fun. I'm pretty sure Zero is the one making them do it in the first place." Shade states, looking towards her. "We saw some of it at Twin Dragon Bridge, they showed up, killed a few people and left to go and fight Rean. I didn't even get a chance to help out in the fighting."

Sighing, Relon leans his head back gazing at the ceiling.

"A world where evil already won." He mutters. "How did it come to this?" He wonders aloud to no one in particular. "Regardless, it's not just Zero's group we need to watch out for."

"He's right." Rinwell speaks up. "We still don't know what Valkyrie is up to, not to mention where she even is."

"A part of me is glad she didn't randomly pop up when we were fleeing from the others. That would have made things even more harder."

"Valkyrie? Evil witch you mentioned earlier, yeah?"

"Yeah. Also, you brought up Miranda I think? Who was that?" At his question, a heavy sigh comes from Shade.

"Miranda was bitch that tried to kill me, but in the end I popped a grenade in her stomach and blew her up."

"Language." Relon snaps with droopy eyes.

"Whoa, you killing someone like that even though you became a cop? You surprised me, Shade." Magilou remarks with a smirk.

"...I think it's time I told you what I am Relon, and not only that but where 'I' came from." Shade began with a hard gaze.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath before speaking.

"I was born in a village in Calvard, to a human mother and a demon father who I never saw. I am half demon, but I was also born into a world that was taken over by evil, just like this one. He takes a breath. "My world was a dark place that was conquered and at the age of fourteen I stepped into it to end the evil just like my adopted dad wanted me to. I found a resistance, killed people for them and in the end it was all for nothing. We had lost, and in a last ditch effort to save what future we had, everyone I knew, my friends, sent me to the past to change the future." He pauses once more, his voice become increasingly louder. "I'm telling you all this because this world reminds me of my own, I want to get back to where I came from with Magilou, but I want to, no. I need to save this world before all hope dies in it!" He ends panting.

"Shade…" Rinwell murmurs, her eyes shifting to Relon holding a stoic demeanor.

For a moment, none speak. Only the sound of Shade's erratic panting can be heard. Even Magilou looks to her companion before at the others. In doing so, all hear the scrapping of hardwood to see Relon rise to his feet. Becoming for his sword, Pappan answers by planting itself in his hand.

"Relon, where are you going?" Rinwell asks.

Raising a hand to massage his cranium, he doesn't bother turning to the group.

"Where else? Back to bed. All this information is hard to take in as is."

"But what about-"

"I'm not done." He interrupts turning to face Shade. "Look, if you had the ill thought that Rinwell and I weren't going to help then you're not as smart as I originally thought." He gives the teen a deadpan expression. "We were already going to decide on figuring out how to save this world and its people so you seriously didn't need to give your backstory." Relon continues massaging his temple. "Now having heard it, I get why this urgency of yours is so strong but do remember something Shade. This ain't your world. Go in with the same expectations as you would your own and you may be in for a rude awakening. Not trying to sound like an asshat or anything, but giving out such personal stuff to people you just met isn't the most smartest thing. Although… it's very much appreciated. Glad we're all on the same trust level. Do me a favor though; don't act so personal with people you just met. That can come back to bite you in the ass."

Seeming to allow the flame-user's words to sink, Shade offers a smile in return.

"...I got a little heated, but I only told you what I felt like was needed. I know we can't rush things which is why I planned on organizing the resistance together and my background will help with that. Oh and one last thing, Relon." He walks around the table to stand in front of said male. "Seeing as we're teaming up now there's one thing I gotta ask again. Just what are you?"

"This can't wait until after I'm rested, can it?" He sighs noting of Rinwell's knowing look. "Do you have Aidios in your world?" He arches a tired look.

"Yeah, don't really care much for her, plus I have bad experiences with churches." The words seeming to

"Great! Same! I'm her chosen one." His smile deflates back to his tired self. "An offspring of her offspring per say. Technically, my mom is 50% human and 50% witch while my dad is 100% Lucinance so that makes me 25% human, 25% witch, and 50% divine being. So your earlier comment of me not being a witch was actually wrong by the way." He chuckles once again.

"Not tired enough to pounce on a chance at being right it seems." Rinwell deadpans. "Hey, leave me alone! Speaking of, are males even considered witches or are they mages like in the fictional books?"

"Obviously they're…" She pauses blinking in thought. "Huh. I don't know."

"Seriously?" Relon retorts now the one to give her a bland look.

"The other males in the village never identify as mages or witches. They just say they use magic."

"So magicians?" He inquires.

"No…?" She hesitates for Magilou to lean forward, gleaming in excitement. "Definitely not!" Rinwell reinforces pushing the woman away.

"Oh well. Questions for when we get back. Any other questions before I knock myself out?" He looks at Shade.

"Um!" Both turn to Rinwell standing up. "If it's… not too much trouble… Could I get some training?"

"I can help you out a little, but that can wait until tomorrow as it's getting late and everyone needs some rest."

"Once I'm rested, I'll be more than happy to help. It feels like forever since I got any training in." Relon says, turning to pause. "Uh, stupid question but I'm going to ask it anyway. Who's sleeping with who?"

"I can't sleep actually, downside of my demon side, so I'll stay up and take watch in case something happens."

"That's actually quite the nifty ability. I could do more research with that…"

"Relon and I will sleep in one room while you can have the room across from us, Shade. This technically is my house." Rinwell giggles.

"Oh yeah. That actually slipped my tired mind. Hey, did I mention I was tired?" He wonders turning and departing up the staircase with Rinwell behind as Shade heads outside.

"Ugh… Hey, where'd everybody go?!" The voice of Magilou exclaims, rushing out the kitchen to the front area.

"Magilou?" Relon looks over the balcony with Rinwell. "Huh, forgot about you. Sorry." He chuckles.

"I didn't." Rinwell deadpans. "You can sleep on the couch down there Grandma. I know how your back must be." Rinwell waves off walking towards her room.

"What was that?! That's it, I'm coming up there to give you a piece of my mind brat!"

"Rinwell…" Relon calls in a knowing tone as Magilou reaches the top to snap in the direction of said witch.

"Ugh, fine. You can take Shade's room." She points with a thumb at said door down the hall. "And… sorry. For how I've acted towards you, Magilou." Rinwell bows.

Seeming taken aback, she and Relon exchange equally shocked looks to shrug.

"Hm, don't worry about it Rinwell. I was kinda mean myself in hindsight I suppose. Let's let bygones be bygones shall we?"

"That's great!" She lifts up beaming a radiant smile. "Have a good night then."

"You too~." She smiles skipping down the hall and through the door to pause feeling a slight cool breeze.

Opening her eyes to the sight of the small cliffside, she widens snapping back to Rinwell pulling her eye down while sticking out her tongue.

"Bleh!" She sounds before slamming the door.

Blinking at the girl come back his way before departing inside, Relon can only at the hole in the front, he can only sigh before turning in himself.

Understanding Women 101. Women will be women.

Morning

Waking up, the first thing Relon was met with was the white cat on his chest. Chuckling, he gives her a few strokes before carefully moving her off of him. Stretching, he moves over waking Rinwell up. Before long, both departed seemingly at the same time as Magilou. Looking between both females, Relon was ready to stop them only for the two to pout averting their gazes from one another.

Lucky me.

Descending the short flight, the smell of food filled their nostrils.

"Morning." The voice of She greets as they enter the kitchen.

"Morning. How was your night?" Relon greets as said male turns to them.

"Looked around and had time to think about stuff, so it was alright."

"Dope. Seems like someone made breakfast." Nodding in response, Shade takes a seat next to Magilou. "It's the best I can do with what we have."

"We'll need to go out for supplies soon then."

"Right now we have two, maybe three days of food left, so we need to come up with a plan or find somewhere to get more food." Shade comments looking to Magilou eating her food half asleep.

"Hmm… Then we'll depart on the second day."

"Why do you say that?' Rinwell asks.

"Because by then, I'll hopefully have recuperated enough so when we leave, we'll have traveling food for wherever we go to next. Sounds good, Shade?"

"That's what I was thinking as well, so within that time I'll help out these two here." He looks at the girls.

"What exactly can she do?" Rinwell voices pointing at Magilou.

"I haven't seen her do much with it, but she can use a staff."

"I'll have you know the name of my weapon is Crimson King!" She grins, pulling out said item and extending it across the table and past Relon and Rinwell's heads before it retracts.

"So you can fight!" Rinwell twitches an eye in irritation.

"Not like it would of helped back there, but still it would be best to train her. Now Rinwell, I want to know what you can do."

"Simply put, I can fire spells and dodge. The stronger the spell, the longer it takes to charge."

"I see. Well, I hope your dodging is good then. Our foes will be quick so you'll need to be quicker and attack them while doing so." He comments, rising to his feet as the group wraps up breakfast.

"R-Right. I'll do my best."

"Don't be so worked up." Relon pats her back. "You'll be fine. Just do the best that you can do. Also, don't push yourself or you'll be getting an earful from me."

"Everything will be fine, but I don't want you to hold back. During our spar I want you to fight like you're trying to kill me."

Facepalming, Relon gives Shade an annoyed look.

"Idiot, you don't have to word it like that."

"N-no, it's fine. Don't hold back. Got it." She blinks in understanding.

"You don't have to worry Rinwell, I won't die. In fact I can't die. Period. I can lose an arm or even my head and it will regrow."

Blinking, Relon's head slowly begins to tilt as he comprehends the words having departed from Shade's lips. About to speak, he dismisses it returning to normal.

Alternate worlds have different stuff. Gotta keep that in mind. Okay then.

"Coolio. Alright, let's get to it then."

"Alright, we'll be outside if you need anything." Shade bids alongside Rinwell and Magilou as well as the divine swords.

"Roger, roger. Good luck." Relon waves as they leave. "Time for more bed rest…"

Reaching the door, he opens it to find the familiar at the foot of his mother's bed curled up as he left her. Stroking her fur gently, he tucks away in bed releasing a breath.

World hopping was something he wasn't at all ready for and both Sephiroth and Ishmelga went right along with it without any form of warning. That was a villain for you. Striking when he least expected. Doing something like this was his mom's job. She was Aidios' emissary from what he understood so she should be the one to do this, not him. Oh wait, let him correct himself. "Plane hopping" is what she does. Jumping into a completely different universe is another story! Ugh, what were the others doing back home? Has time in their own world paused or has it been over a day like it has here? Considering who and what he was, Relon honestly felt like he should know more about this than what some scholarly books offered. The more questions he gained, the stronger the need to go to Ashland became. Here's to hoping it was in this world but considering he hasn't found anything of pure existence related to himself, the odds were pretty low.

Speaking of, what exactly are the odd of a Leaguient attacking so soon after he left. If she really wanted, she could have killed him but didn't. She caught them off guard, she sealed his powers. She wasn't having too much difficulty against Pippin and Pappan so why? Could it have to do with Sephiroth wanting to groom him into a seasoned Lucinance. One worthy of the title "Senate Hunter?" She didn't seem like the tye to play with her food unlike Demeter. Also, where the hell did she disappear to? Ever since vanishing from Celdic, neither he nor Rinwell had encountered her again. Rinwell mentioned moving all of the teleportation devices ever since the witches went rogue but still…

Giving a glance to his full stomach, Relon sighs glancing to the ceiling. Then there was yesterday…

Relon!

" FLAME… CLEAVER!"

No doubt about it. That was Luna. He knows that voice anywhere but…

Extending his fist, nothing comes out.

How the hell did he summon fire? Did his absorption of the sun draw flames to Pippin? But he can't conjure any so how could that be?

Thinking more out the box, his hand feels where his once flame marking resided.

Could this world's Aidios be connected and somehow allowed Luna to save him? Thinking up random possibilities that sounds like bullshit is starting to seem more and more normal the more he does it. Regardless, a miracle happened otherwise they'd be either locked up or dead by Zero's… by Rean and the others. Evil Rean and Class VII not to mention the others that Shade seemed to know. They seriously had his work cut out for them. They need to find a way to both of their homes while finding a way to take down this Zero guy.

The sooner he was well rested, the sooner they would be able to take action. As much as he wanted actual rest for days worth, they didn't have the rations to last that long as noted this morning. Bedrest was the human was of resting. He plenty of that when Yujiro trained him while he was Aflin's bodyguard. Now, he needed to recuperate like a Lucinance. As much as he loved bedrest. Time waits for no one and he doesn't want to be jumped once again by something unexpected.

Swinging his legs to the side his gaze falls on the feline familiar.

"You get some more rest, okay?" He says rubbing it once before getting to his feet.

Lucinances absorb heat to regain energy and it was a sunny day out. Combine that with the hot springs and he should be back to nearly top form. Departing out the home's front hole entrance, the sounds of explosions catches his ear in the direction of the clearing.

Best to not interrupt.

Continuing around the village, he stops before his destination. Entering through the door, he undresses leaving only a tower around him.

Not seeing my marking feels weirder than before I had it as a kid.

Entering, a smile comes at the sight of steam elevating into the air.

"Oh, I am so taking all the heat." He grins, discarding his towel to the ground and stepping over and into the water.

It's been a few years since he last experienced a hot spring but having a better grasp over his absorption of heat, there were very few things to say except…

"Oh…. Shiiiiiiiiiiiit." Releasing a small moan of pleasure, he sinks so only his head is above the water. "Note to self; go to hot springs every chance I get…" Feeling the steam enter his body, he gives a glance up at the morning sky. "I wonder if mom got to enjoy this a lot growing up. Probably." He shrugs refocusing on his absorption.

Although he was quickly feeling rejuvenated, the issue at hand still remained. He had no flames to conjure even though his energy was returning. If he becomes fatigued once they leave, he won't be able to break for the hot spring. He'd have to absorb the closest heat source. Thinking back, Rinwell's art of summoning small meteors might help like how the others used fire arts back when they fought Senate. Though it would help him out, it would weaken Rinwell's mana reserves.

Pausing in thought, his eyes furrow as he raises back to sit properly.

Wait, what were Rinwell's mana reserves like? Now that he thought of it, if he was 25% a magical entity like her and his mom, what was his deal with mana? He knew his flame gauge was like a substitute for said anomaly. Hell, he's never even bothered to try any orbments back when he first got his ARCUS. All he did was nod when Sara suggested the cause for being incompatible. SUGGESTED. Luna, how had he not bothered to try this before?!

"If I can figure out how to use arts like the others, that could help in the long run. Nameless, add that to the list." He sighs, leaning back to realize his mistake. "Oh… yeah…" He alleviates himself with a short breath as he once again looks to the sky. "Nameless…"

Raising a hand, he gently slaps his cheek.

"Now isn't the time to sulk. He'd make fun of me for something like that. Okay…!" He relaxes inhaling a long breath, all of the steam and heat from the surrounding area beginning to surge towards him.

Time passed, the numerous soft rumblings, gunfire, and explosions quickly becoming the norm.

"Hmm, judging by the sky, I'd say it's around noon." Relon muses lifting a palm to gaze at the warm water puddle.

Taking notice of the heat still coursing toward him, his brow arches as it ceases.

"What the-" Cut off, a burst of heat explodes from himself sending the water up to temporarily drizzle. "Whoa…" He gasps looking around t the springs slowly refilling itself. "Did I just explode? Wait…" Looking to the steaming rising to the surface once more, he focuses slightly more for nothing to happen. "Huh. So there is a limit to how much I can store…" He thinks aloud to ball a hand into a fist. "Interesting…" Hopping out, he stretches his body feeling the brimming heat coursing through himself. "Time to burn some of this off I suppose."

Clearing

Huh, looks like that explosion sent some water all the way here. Walking through the gate, his sight goes to the group resting before focusing on Shade still on his feet. Considering how further beat-up this place looks, that and the girls clearly fatigued, I guess they got some good training in.

"Yo." He greets.

"You feeling better?"

"Much. Almost too good if I'm being honest. Just learned there's a cap to how much heat I can absorb so that's pretty neat."

"So that big boom was you. Well, we're just about done here and it's lunch time, so let's head back so I can make you lot some grub." He suggests walking towards Relon.

"Actually…" He begins giving a cheeky grin at Shade. "I was kinda hoping you could help me burn off this steam. Literally." He chuckles. "Plus, I'd be lying if I wasn't eager to see how good you are myself."

It's funny, just earlier Shade was acting child-like and now I am. Ah, Nameless would so make a comment about it.

Looking at Relon with a blank look similar to Relon's own, Shade sighs putting on his mask once more.

"Fine, any rules for this fight?"

"The only rule that I'm familiar with. There not being any. Unless one of us yields of course." He shrugs putting on his gloves. s. "Besides, I know you're not exhausted so why not get excited for a change. Gotta make the most out of something like this, right? Not responding for a moment, Relon's bobbing head notices his hands clench and unclench.

"Alright then, Magilou mind sounding off the fight!" Shade yells taking one side of the beaten clearing.

"Seriously? Relon, shouldn't you save your energy for the fighting we may get in?" Rinwell chides.

"Can't. My body is literally radiating heat at an uncomfortable level. If I don't release this now, who knows what may happen to me. I could be an explosive heatwave for all we know." He shrugs walking to the other side of the field.

"You can't be serious!"

"Hey! I don't know my body!" He defends for both girls to take a few steps back. "Oh, and Shade! If you hold back, you might regret it!"

"Don't worry about me." He calls back pulling out his handguns.

"Hey, Pippin and Pappan, I'll fight on my own for now." Relon waves at the swords who seem to nod.

"Oh this is great! Front row seats to an amazing fight, and I get to start it!" Magilou coughs into her hand to clear her throat. "Alright! On the count of three boys! One! Two!" There was a pause and a loud silence. Sucking in a breath of air, Relon's eyes snap wide before focusing as his body leans forward.

"THREE!" She calls, dust kicking up on Relon's side immediately as the boy reaches Shade with his fist reeled back.

"Whoa, so fast!" Rinwell awes.

Barely reacting, Shade points his guns to the ground for an explosion to sound sending both away. About to land, the sound of gunfire catches his ears as he immediately begins rushing forward once again punching and kicking away every shot fired. Catching the sudden change in ammunition, Relon kicks to the side before launching into the air over the next volley to drop down.

Blocking the bullets as he descends, Relon flips over the last few to deliver a fist for a cling to resound in the air. Looking to Shade having blocked it with his gun.

"Not bad…!" Relon grunts.

"Get away!" He snaps pointing the other gun at Relon's chest.

Before he can pull the trigger, Relon leas back flipping to the ground avoiding the fire shot while kicking the gun out of Shade's hand.

"I told you…!" He growls with a snarl to crouch to the ground, Shade slowly responding. "Stop holding back!" He roars, embedding his fist into Shade's abdomen sending the teen skidding off the ground.

Righting himself, he skids to a halt stopping against a tree as his gun lands at his feet. Looking on at Shade recovers, the masked teen discards his guns into his holster before reaching behind himself. Narrowing, Relon takes him the crescent weapon as Shade walks forward.

A scythe, huh? So that's it… A grin of excitement looms over his face as he matches Shade's pace.

"Done holding back now?" He calls out for Shade to pause on a dime as his snapped from a trance.

Raising it into the air, Shade shifts the weapon so the backside of the blade hits the ground emitting a small quake. The action causing Relon to pause his stride as well with a curious look.

"Something wrong? Don't tell me you're having second thoughts?" In the form of an answer, Shade once again switches the scythe baring its blade at Relon before unleashing it from his grip. "Tch! I was expecting more!" Relon growls, punching the scythe to the ground for his eyes to catch Shade upon him reeling a leg back.

Blocking with his arm, Relon is sent skidding across the ground away.

"That's more like-" Cut off my Shade already upon him, he resumes focus as Shade unleashes a flurry of punches forcing Relon on the defensive.

He's gotten faster all of a sudden!

Feeling a punch connect with his face, Relon attempts to fight back against the sheer force but is sent off his feet into the forest. Slumped over a tree, Relon blinks a few times. The sensation of Shade's punch already gone as the uncomfortable heat within overtakes it for him to return to his feet.

"... Hehehe. Ahh, I am so enjoying this. Now then…" His gaze becomes focused on the clearing ahead. "Time to get more into things!"

Kicking off, a boom sounds as he shoots off the ground into the canopy. Landing on a branch, their eyes meet for a sliver of a moment before both vanish appearing in the air. Shade's scythe clashing with his fists.

"Since you're using something sharp, it's only fair I can too!" He grins, the whirling sound of something cutting the air for both to disperse as Pippin zooms where they once were.

Touching down, Relon resumes his stance with his partner at his side. Whipping out his handguns once more, Shade fires for a smirk to form on Relon's face. Splitting up, he circles towards the right as Pippin does the left nearing the gunman. Closing in, Shade with rotates back to his scythe swinging the backside towards Relon who grins a feral grin blocking and catching it with both hands. Attempting to wrestle free, Shade's instincts seem to shout as he looks up to Pippin obstructed by the sun.

"You're not going to give up on your precious scythe are you?!" Relon growls headbutting the mask to toss Shade off his feet and into the air.

Recovering, his form twirls in an attempt to counter the incoming sword but it careens out of the way past him to his shock before striking at his arm. An ear-splitting sound coming in response followed by a shriek from Rinwell. Spinning in the air to momentarily descend red rain; Shade's arm. Landing on the ground, Shade seems unfazed by the missing ligament. After a moment, like before, it began to grow back.

It's frustrating that I still can't combine my Arseid Style with the Beastial Arts. My forceful and aggressive nature can't merge with the calm and focused style. Not yet at least. Otherwise I'd be using Pippin properly instead of relying on our "unique" fighting style. Against Senate, I managed to do such to a point but that wasn't effective as I had liked. Not to mention I had Mom's magic and Nameless' power backing me up. Oh well, one thing at a- Cut off as a shiver goes down his spine, Relon's eyes roam to focus.

Furrowing his brows, his senses stop when his eyes stop at a portion of the forest. Giving a brief look to Shade, it seems the teen also takes notice. From the woods, more and more wolves slowly stalk towards them. Noticing Rinwell with a slightly worried demeanor, most likely due to her fatigue, Relon looks over to Shade.

"You got this." He calls over backpedaling to the girls with both swords.

Doing a quick head count, Relon noted of 16 wolves in total. The same as the one's Rinwell and him had fought. Watching Shade slowly become surrounded, he crosses his arms awaiting the first action.

"Shouldn't you help him?" Rinwell asks, wariness evident in her voice.

"Nah. He'll be fine."

"What makes you say that?" Magilou asks. "Not that I'm doubting him or anything."

"You heard him last night. The urgency in his voice of not just the people but this very world… he was holding a lot in himself just to keep cool."

"So that's why you kept egging him on during your spar."

"Considering I come from a lineage of beings who evolve through our emotions, I know better than anyone to let that stuff stay inside. That and I was genuinely curious what he was really made of."

"But was it necessary to cut his arm off?"

"I rarely get the chance to fight like this so I wanted to test it out. Sue me, Rinwell."

Standing there, Shade waited for one of the wolves to attack. The first came from behind. Turning around while it was in mid leap with its maw open, he swung his scythe through its mouth and out the other side cutting it in two as its blood covers the male before an explosion of dark particles erupts.

Two more followed but with a single slam with the backside of his blade, their skulls are crushed. Through the momentarily plume of darkness, his hand reaches out catching another by its lower jaw to kick it airborne. Seeming to have enough, the remaining wolves began pouncing one after another. Stabbing one with his scythe, the gore only continued as with a single snap of its handle, he rips out the wolf's spine before slicing it to pieces.

Grabbing the deceased wolf's leg before it vanished, he swings it knocking into a wolf before it collides with another. From his blindspot, a wolf appears ready to fire with its maw wide. As if having seen the attempt without batting an eye, Shade lets go while pivoting to grab the mouth with his now free hand closing it. Discarding his scythe for a split second, he yanks its tongue clean from its mouth seeming unaffected by the canine's teeth embedding themselves into his wrist.

"Oof. That's gotta hurt."

"Are you talking about Shade or the wolf?"

"The wolf obviously." Magilou feigns a slight grimace.

Tossing the tongue like crumpled paper, he ends the creature with a single punch. Looking to his left, he steps back as a wolves soars past where his head. Already having retrieved his scythe, a single swipe cuts its hind legs off as it skids across the ground. Leaping from the pincer attack, he lands on the now two-legged canine impaling his blade into its chest as an explosion of dark particles obstructs his vision.

"Only nine left." Relon muses.

From the smoke, Shade blurs towards a hound grabbing it bits legs before bashing it against one hound after another to jump into the air crashing with a hard thud. Seeing it barely hanging on, his masked gaze goes to the remaining wolves grouping up. Looking between them and the one in his grasp, he tosses it as if a message to the group. As soon as he does, however, he pivots his body releasing his scythe close behind the weak wolf.

Those closest to the front step back as their wounded member drops before them before their ears perk at the whirling sound. The last three of the nine see is a spinning blade before their bodies are cleaved in two. Hearing a growl, Shade and the others takes sight of another wolf. The same he had previously beaten as noted by its clear broken jaw. Barely hanging on, it releases a growl struggling to conjure a torrent of water in its mouth. Turning fully to the creature, Shade slowly walks before blitzing forth appearing above the creature to its shock before he drop on its back. Raising a single leg, his gaze goes not to the wolf literally below him but to the remaining wolves across. Death. Their instincts told them only that. The very end of their existence awaited as their bodied began to visibly tremble. One by one, they backed away as Shade proceeded to stomp the defeated wolf over and over. An ear-splitting crunch becomes more audible with every drop of his foot.

"I can't watch anymore!" Rinwell covers her ears looking away.

The moment the wolves turned to run, Shade instinctively snapped back to them about to give chase for his body to stop.

"Hmm?" Relon eyes with an audible hum for Shade to retrieve his guns.

Taking aim, each conjures a ball of electricity as the spheres slowly become bigger. Unleashing them with his triggers, a beam of light fires zooms through the forest for a blast of light to erupt in the distance. Shielding his eyes, Relon looks back to widen at a portion of the forest in the distance now with a new clearing. The elevating noting of a crater at its around at the remnants of his massacre, Shade's visage is unreadable as he drops to a knee. Soon, he slowly rises back up inspecting his scythe bathed in blood and dirt. Walking their way, Magilou is the first to break the ice.

"Impressive show! But I will say I think you went a bit overboard on a few of them." She claps her hands while saying all of this with a big smile on her face but in an instant it drops to a more serious expression. "But for real, you good?" He could only nod at her as he turned towards the others.

"Nice work." Is all Relon says with a reassuring nod, his own attention going to a slightly trembling Rinwell. "Hey…"

"I-I'm… fine." She forces out slowly lifting to meet Shade's mask for an image of fear to force her to take a step back. "... I'm sorry. That was just… a lot." She mutters looking away.

Feeling a pat on her head, she looks to Shade already walking away to stop.

"Sorry. Relon, let's talk tonight." With those final words, he walks off into the woods.

Seeing Shade out of view, Relon inspects himself.

That uncomfortable feeling isn't there no more. I guess I used a lot of my built-up energy towards the end of that spar. Still…

"Let's get some proper rest, you guys." A nod from Rinwell and a more nonchalant voice of Magilou responds as he watches them depart leaving him, Pippin, and Pappan alone.

His guns and that scythe. They're similar components to my gloves and these two. That electric blast attack seemed like his big finisher. The same as after I honed Flame Cleaver. Though now it's evolved to Solar Impact. Now that I think about…

"If the time came, could I ever do that again in a pinch…?" Discarding the thought, focus goes back to his sword. "A greatsword and a tachi. You've mastered both but you still can't change into anything else." He pets Pippin's handle for the sword to nudge into it affectionately. "You have the power and the speed forms but we need something more technical. Also something I have experience with. I'm starting to become more glad I studied so many weapons under Aunt Cecily these last three years. That scythe was something though, huh?" He chuckles to look over before rubbing Pappan, the red-purplish sword seeming to enjoy the sensation even more than Pippin. "I'm guessing Mom and Alister didn't do this as much, huh? I still need to get a better understanding of what all you can do exactly. Opening portals is convenient but against Senate, Alister swung you and some weird heat attack flowed from the portal. There's so much more we're capable of. Pippin's numerous forms, your hidden abilities, and my fire…" He looks down to clench a fist. "We need to get Nameless and my flames back. Senate won't wait."

Hour pass, Relon simply talking about possible ideas and various topics. Before long, the sun went down as nighttime came out. Reaching the middle of the village, it isn't long before the presence of Shade catches his attention. Approaching the teen, neither speak. Getting comfortable against the remnants of the monument, Shade begins.

"You guys eaten dinner yet?"

"Us? Nope. The girls? Maybe. Though I doubt they ate together or else we'd have heard screaming."

"I'll check if they did later, but how are they holding up… especially Rinwell?"

"Don't know about Magilou but I'm sure she'll be okay. Just consider this a rough patch. Most kids her life don't see much action. Especially in the form of blood and gore. I remember when I was a little younger than her age that I was terrified after getting my first kill. Scared the hell out of me to the point I became a bookworm."

"Yeah, I know how it feels. I was five when I killed and it was an entire village. Women and children included. Afterwards I was a walking husk and if it wasn't for my adopted dad, I would be dead or maybe used like a tool." He sighs, turning to face Relon.

A part of me can't tell if he's being sincere or if he's trying to just one-up me.

"It was around that time, hell I think it was only a few days later as he was going to take me to the closest town that a pack of wolves attacked, one got past him and tore right into my shoulder. He killed it and that's when we found out I could heal the way I do, doesn't mean I don't feel it. But because of that I have a small dislike towards wolves."

"Understandable. If you're blaming yourself for showing such dislike to Rinwell, then you need to stop beating yourself over it. A massacre protecting a life is better than losing one."

"I'm used to showing that side of me, so I'm not blaming myself. But seeing her reaction, it reminded me of someone and so maybe I'm just saying all of this so in the end I can feel slightly better."

"Take it easy, man. Our past may inflict turmoil on us, but it's how we choose to use that turmoil that'll make a world of difference." Relon smiles, patting Shade's shoulder. "I don't want to live with regrets but unfortunately I have some. Using what those events have done for me has allowed me to stop more trouble from happening. Hopefully the same has and will continue to happen for you too."

"Well, I plan to destroy the Dominion by using what I know. Not only that but I'll make sure that nobody will die like they did before, not like her…" I looked up to see the sky and what few stars were within it. "You're a… member of Class VII, right?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I guess it was kinda obvious considering everything. Class VII's 'special' student as Instructor Sara puts it."

"Just so I don't let anything slip, what is the date and year where you came from?"

"May 8th, S. 1204."

"If I'm right, then your first field study is done… My original timeline was in the year of 1222, but after going back to the past I ended up at the start of 1204. In the future, everyone dies from Class Seven, The Bracer Guild, The SSS and every other organization. That's what I'm fighting to stop."

"Your world's future sounds scary as hell, no offense. Wait a second…" He pauses to look up. "Hey, Aidios!" For a moment, he waits noting most likely the curious gaze Shade has. "Nameless' name is the abbreviated form of Age!" He flinches for nothing to happen. "My future self told me Aurelia and Millium die!" Nothing again. "Huh… Interesting."

Nothing bad is happening even though we're speaking of our futures freely. Could Temporal Laws not work here because we don't belong in this world? Then what about earlier with my flames. Did Luna intervene because it was life and death as opposed to now? I gues the Aidios of the world really gave up on it.

"... Well, I won't tell you anything else that may have to do with Class VII, but I know it will turn out alright on your end and on mine since I sent my brother to join up with them."

"Huh? Oh yeah! Considering we both ended up in another world, it's like we're destined to save our worlds." Relon grins.

"But first we need to save this one and return to our worlds. Which was the main reason I wanted to talk here." I stopped leaning and turned to face him. "I know what I plan to do next, but what about you?"

"Considering how messed up Rean and the others have become, I want to check out some places. Ymir, Ordis, Legram, and Ashland."

"I'm not sure about the state of Ordis or this Ashland, but Ymir and Legram are home to resistance bases. Also I think you should stop by Twin Dragon Bridge since the commander there already knows about me. Plus you can get some supplies for the road and get other info."

So his world doesn't have Ashland either.

"I figured after seeing Rean and Laura but I was hoping that wasn't the case. Twin Dragon Bridge, huh? Alright, we'll stop by there on the way."

"I'm not sure if you saw her, but there's someone that was at Heimdallr that I care about, so if you get any info or run into her I would like you to share it with me when you get the chance." I reached into my pocket and pulled out the photo I have of Tio and myself. "Her name is Tio Plato."

"Tio, huh. Alright. What about you?"

"You mean what I'm planning on doing? Well, the resistance base Bashton is where I'm heading. It's where all of the resistance's communication goes, so I want to make contact with everyone to better understand how this war is going."

"So I guess we'll be splitting up for a while."

"Yes, I'm not sure what will happen once we leave this place. And I have no doubt that Zero and the others will be on the hunt for us."

"Nothing new for us." Relon chuckles. "Keep a lookout for a girl in clothing like Rinwell. Silver bobcut, blue eyes, same age as her She's the reason for us being in this situation. She can hide her presence, teleport, all that. Damn Devil follower…"

"I wasn't brought here by some woman, but by some sort of glowing artifact. But I'll keep a lookout for this girl, anyway I think we chatted enough for now." I walked past Relon and started heading towards the main building. "I'll check on the supplies and in the morning after breakfast we can set out, sounds good?"

"Sounds good, chief. I'll help out in the morning then."

Reaching the house, both split ways. Relon for the stairs and Shade for the kitchen

"I'll see you in the morning, Relon, night."

"Night, Shade."

Before long, morning came. Stirring to, Relon immediately took note of Rinwell asleep as well as the cat atop him. Looking over to his swords begin to float, it isn't long before Rinwell awakens. Readying for the day, they open the door to the sight of a groggy Magilou. Neither girl give a verbal greeting instead only a small head gesture before they descend the staircase with Relon close behind.

"Morning. Time to get to work." Relon greets rolling his sleeves already messing with the ingredients.

"I'll handle the beans while you cook the meat. Also, good morning." Shade adds, opening the canned beans and splitting them up into bowls before he starts cooking each in a different way.

"Roger that. Both of you sit tight. We'll be done in a jiffy." He looks over his shoulder already chopping numerous pieces.

Within five minutes, the boys had finished placing the plates on the table.

"Be right back." Relon calls placing a plate on the table while holding another.

"Where are you going?" Rinwell asks.

"Gonna feed our friend. They've been resting so much I figured they'd be hungry." Heading upstairs, he looks to the cat resting on his mother's bed. "Hey." He calls lowly squatting before the feline.

Slowly opening an eye, its silvery-white eye looks to his vermilion.

"Here." He smiles, laying the plate and a small cup of water before it. "Figured you were hungry." He smiles as the cat begins to fully stir albeit weekly.

Attempting to release a sound, nothing comes for its ears to noticeably hang.

"Hey." He calls, their eyes meeting once more. "You're alive. That's what matters." He smiles as the creature seems to ponder on his words before digging in.

Allowing it its peace, he returns back downstairs.

"Alright, I'm back."

"We should explain the plan to them before breakfast is over." Shade advise for a nod to come from Relon.

"Okay." He nods, turning to the girls. "We're splitting up." He says bluntly.

"W-What? Was it me? Heck I didn't even know we were together!" Magilou yells out while holding her face.

Her exasperation earning deadpan expressions all around. Shifting from her to Rinwell, Relon gives his cousin a reassuring smile. He could tell what she was implying by that face.

Is it about me?

"Me and Magilou were heading towards Bashton before we met the both of you, that plan hasn't changed so once we're done here that's where we're heading." Shade comments.

"Our plan remains the same. Considering the others aren't exactly good guys here, there's a few locations I want to check on plus that base where the resistance is."

"You better be careful out there, while they may look like our friends, they will kill you. You better be ready just in case."

"Pfft, you make it seem like we're not used to attempted murders by people and miscellaneous creatures alike." Relon dismisses with a wave as Shade begins to pack.

"And? Considering I'm fighting my own family who's trying to kill me, fighting Laura and the others are more appealing than anything else."

"There's also a few villages around these locations, so you might find info in them but they are under zero's rule… Also Relon I wanted to ask something." I stood up and started packing the gear I had while I talked.

"What's up?"

"Last night I asked you to look out for any information on Tio, but I never asked if there is anyone you want me to look out for. I'd be happy to help."

"Someone?" Thinking for only a moment, he nods at his companion's question. "Actually, there are two people." He notes digging in his pocket and pulling out his ARCUS before flipping between two pictures. "The Icy Maiden: Claire Rieveldt who's an Ironblood. As well as Musse Egret. She's supposedly a student from Saint Astaria but… who knows. Just keep an eye out if you don't mind." Eyeing the two images closely, Shade nods telling he's memorized their faces before speaking..

"I've heard of both from other sources, so it should be easy to spot them… And that's an ARCUS right?"

"Yeah. You've heard of them I take it?"

"Well let's just say I know them pretty well, but since it has a call function you might be able to call me since my mask has an ear piece in it."

"Noted. We'll keep in touch."

Here's to hoping the proximity of our devices will work when the time comes…

I look around for a small piece of paper and upon finding one I take out a pen and carefully write the number that will connect to my mask and gave it to him. "There you go, not sure how well the connection will be but it will prove useful later on I'm sure."

"Better safe than sorry as most say." Relon notes writing his own number down before passing it to Shade. "Now then, where were we?"

"Is there a teleportation stone that leads to Osgiliath Basin?" Shade asks.

"Um… Where's that?"

"It's to the west of Roer. The highly advances city to the North of Lunaria Nature Park." Relon explains. "Consider it a little to the right from the right corner of the map."

"Hmm. If I recall, there's a device that can drop you off outside Alster. At the intersection, you'll take a right and from there, keep straight until you see the other teleportation device. It'll send you to the outskirts of the city."

"Thank you. Well, Magilou? You ready to leave?" Magilou stands up stretching.

"Yep, I'm ready to leave and get away from this brat here." She grins smugly at Rinwell.

"The feeling's mutual, Granny." She retorts, sticking her tongue out.

"Well, guess we'll be seeing each other later then." Shade mentions turning to look at Relon.

"Yeah. Be careful out there, Shade." Relon says extending a fist.

"I'll see if I can't make contact once I get to Bashton, but for now stay safe out there."

With those parting words and one last glare between the two, the otherworldly duo departs on their bike. If Relon didn't know any better, he'd think that the girl's spat of expressions were their own way of reassuring one another they'd reunite.

"And then there was just us again." Responding with a slow nod, both head back inside. 'Don't rush it, Rinwell." He speaks up gaining her attention. "What you're going through regarding Shade, it's natural."

"But still… This justification… feels wrong."

Allowing a smile to grace his features, Relon takes a moment to ruffle her hair before continuing up the staircase.

"The world needs more people like you."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll figure it out sooner or later."

Reaching the room, both take in the lone individual curled up on Relon's bed. In front of it lays an empty bowl.

"Good to see it still has an appetite." He notes with relief.

As if hearing his words, the feline gives a low "mewr" as its silvery eyes lift to meet his. Its colorless orbs seem to radiate with curious interest. Peering at the bandages around its neck, Rinwell is the one to break the momentary silence.

"Are we taking it with us?"

"That's what I'd like." He nods not breaking eye contact. "Considering… um." He purses his lips to look back to Rinwell.

"What is it?"

"Hey, Hootle?" From within the confines of her hoodie pops the baby familiar who responds with a curious "hoot." "Is our friend here a boy or girl?" Blinking as his words sink, Rinwell's own eyes look to Hootle who chirps. "Girl. Thank you." He smiles, returning to the feline familiar. "Considering she's by herself and still recovering, I'd like to bring her with us. That and leaving her behind while those corrupted monsters prowl all over the place doesn't exactly leave my mind with ease. So what do you say?"

"You're not just going to bring her along?"

"No. In the end, this is her home so I have no right to take her away. Not to mention this isn't our world so… that's just kinda wrong I feel."

Seeming to acknowledge his words, the cat's head lifts up more. Her glimmering silver eyes forcing Relon's senses to stir as the familiar's magical signature steadily increases to spike before it withers to nothingness.

"Whoa…!" He falls from his crouched stance onto his butt eyeing the cat. "'That magical signature…" He breathes out looking to an equally stunned Rinwell and Hootle. "Do all familiars have such a strong output?"

"N-No!" She blinks, it's obvious the sheer volume exerted from the now sitting cat.

"If that's the case…" He begins slowly recovering back to his feet. "How did that 'thing' nearly get you?"

In response, her glimmering eyes shine. In the air between them, symbols begin to form. Like that of a written sentence, symbols lay next to one another before continuing down before eventually becoming a paragraph.

"Is this…?" He murmurs already surmising the inscribed text for Rinwell to nod next to him.

"It's the Hexen Clan's native tongue. The language of we witches."

Watching as more transition into already a second paragraph, his eyes take in the symbols. A series of strokes, dots, and various other markings float before him. Immediately, his mind takes in the obvious fact of there being clearly more than 26 characters. Picking apart a few used more commonly than others, his focus remains on the markings as Rinwell begins her translation.

"For a time, peace flowed from day to day. Eryn, my home for centuries, prospered as I watched generation after generation of witches blossom into fully fledge masters before either embarking on their own journeys or dedicating their lives to the protection of the home that made them who they were. Then… he appeared."

"Zero." Relon utters, his eyes momentarily noting of the claws the feline flexes from the mention.

"A beam of darkness erupted from within the land humans have claimed as Erebonia. The once vibrant forest and colorful sky withered by strange roots emerging from the very earth itself as the air became blanketed by a veil of darkness. It was so sudden none knew of the cause much less what actions to take. Roselia, our leader, as well as myself sensed a spike in malevolence. An otherworldly entity that seemingly spawned from nothingness."

Furrowing his brows as Rinwell pauses, his mind begins to work.

From nothingness? One moment Erebonia is fine and the next shit hits the fan? Surely that can't be the case. Unless Zero was in hiding awaiting "something," then there is no way Grandma let something as major as this slip by. The only reason she, Mom, and whoever is watching over Erebonia could miss this would be…

Pausing for a moment, his eyes widen in realization as they meet the cat's own unwavering.

The Beyond. Wait, could Zero be of the same byproduct as Ishmelga. Could he be this world's devil incarnate?

Snapped from his uncertain thoughts by the voice of Rinwell speaking up, his mind refocuses on her.

"Before we could launch a counterattack, he appeared." She continues to widen at the words themselves for her pace to pick up. "A single figure obscured in dark energy appeared over Eryn's barrier. With a single touch, it shattered. Within seconds, the once docile monsters that lived within and around the village turned hostile as roots erupted from all over…" Pausing, he thinks to the current state of the village now knowing the proper cause. "At first, it seemed as though victory was foreseeable but…" RInwell blinks as the text ceases. "But what?" She repeats, her attempt at hiding the rising urgency apparent.

Closing her eyes, the cat soon reopens them after a moment.

" He unleashed his true power. Such a force that our own magic paled in comparison. Every single witch and familiar within Eryn was no more. No trace of their existences left. His personality was filled with superiority in a sneer only a jester would comandeer. Only Roselia and I remained… From many to two, Zero-" Her breath hitches for Relon to fully turn to the young witch.

Her form begins to tremble uncontrollably as her lips quiver and eyes shake. Taking sight of the girl hunch over fighting back the sobs, his concerned gaze shifts to dread.

"No…" He whispers out towards the cat whose own head fixations finally lowers to the carpet.

Rage. Uncontrollably and unbridled hatred soars to the forefront of his emotions as his warm body tenses all over. His own breath pauses as his teeth clenches in fury. Holding back the scowl his face attempts to make, his fists ball.

" I'm quite glad to have you with us now, watching those two go at it was getting boring… Now I have something fun to play with in the meantime! "

" You didn't tell her? About her sister? Oh, for shame, young man. Keeping a secret from such a frail maiden. Tsk, tsk, tsk."

" Does a bug need to understand why it needs to be stepped on? All you need to know is this. I am the beginning and I'm also the end, the world will soon be reborn all in the image of Zero!"

The final sentence no longer needs a translation as it becomes apparent of the end result of their battle. She survived while Roselia didn't. Before them stood the last remnant of Eryn.

Reigning in his bubbly anger, he releases a breath similar to the sound of steam from a kettle. Lifting up, all three see the teen's vermilion eyes dilate to slits as the life in their eyes fade to a dull coloration.

He understood full well that the Eryn of the world was not his but that did not make hearing the end result any better. The lives lost, the others manipulated into his playthings, he finally began to see the urgency behind Shade's tone the other night over saving this world. Relon, too, was on board from the start. Rean, Laura, Class VII's status. Not to mention Claire, Musse, and the royal family's whereabouts were causes for great concern but this… this did not put a smile on his face.

"R-Relon, your eyes…!" Rinwell croaks out through sniffles though he pays her no mind.

His deadly visage remains locked on the familiar who dares not look away.

"He'll pay. I swear it." His voice is devoid of emotion though his visage betrays such.

Each pair of words holds an undeterminable weight of conviction.

"This darkness…" The grip his balled fist forms speak volumes of his surge in anger. "We're shattering this veil of evil over the world."

"Relon…" Rinwell murmurs, a twinge of inspiration resonating within as she feigns an attempt at a wry smile.

Catching a shimmer from the corner of her eyes, she turns as both humans cover their eyes for the light to die down. Before them, both take in the cat no longer. In its place sits a woman.

Her hair, styled in an ornate fashion has a large majority of it carefully tucked in wrapping around her head for the end, being that of a drill, to drape over her right shoulder. From her head, her hair parts. One bang to the left side barely reaching her Sara-like bosom. To her right side, another drapes to her right. Finally, a third is coiled along the right side of her head. Retaining her cat-like self, a pair of feline ears makes themselves apparent through her hair as a tail subtly flails from her rear with a slow swish.

The familiar's attire resembles that unlike the attires of previous witches he's seen. Then again, she wasn't a witch. It holds a combination of dark blue, gray, and white colors. Donned in a robe-like skirt, only her right shoulder remains with cover. Her left hand shows a slightly baggy sleeve with her right in a middle finger loop glove. Overtop, a light gray corset wrapped by a blue sash hugs her womanly figure. Attached underneath at the sides, two gray sashes extending just past her knees. And finally, a thigh-length mixture between boots and leg guards connected to her flats.

Much like her feline form, her wintery-white hair and silver eyes remain.

Over her head, a single sentence of text. This time in English.

[My name is Munechika. Once, the familiar to the Crimson Witch, Roselia.]

---

A/N: Fixing the length of these to match parts 4 & 5 when they come out.