Fie was confident that she had witnessed more than most people in her short sixteen years of existence. From the horrors of the bloodiest battlefields to the beauty of a simple garden of flowers to the weirdness of a drunken Sara taking a wrong turn and passing out in Alisa's bed – the blonde's shriek the next morning when she discovered her unexpected bed mate had become something of an urban legend in Trista.

But a massive two thousand arge glowing tree of doom in the middle of Crossbell State? Yeah, that was entirely new to the girl.

At least Toval was cool enough to contact the Courageous. It seemed that communications with the Crossbell Bracer Guild was back up, but not even they knew fully what was going on. Still, it sounded like there were operations in the work to deal with the tree and that it wasn't an immediate threat to Erebonia.

That being said, its mere presence was a very unsettling reminder that things weren't normal. There was a funny feeling in her gut that something was coming to a head and that the endgame would soon be upon them. If Class VII wanted to make it through whatever was coming they would need to pick up the pace.

"I think we should accelerate our plans." Yeah. Just like that. Good on Rean for picking up on the clues, "I know we all want to do the request to help Celdic and you must be worried about the situation in Legram, but I think we should prioritize the Spirit Shrines for now."

Laura frowned at the suggestion, but recovered to nod resolutely, "I understand. I trust Klaus to keep everyone safe for now, so long as we can make the trip there once we have finished with the Spirit Shrines." Rean's assenting nod was unnecessary – he was the same guy who got an S grade on every field study Class VII did, after all. Nobody left without help and all that.

"I feel bad for the people of Legram and Celdic. Left behind cause Rean's too excited to get his new toy."

Sara's words were clearly a tease and not meant to be seriously, but the way the swordsman looked away uncomfortably made Fie frown, "Shut up, Sara. We all know it's the smart play."

The bracer held up her hands in mock surrender, "I know, I know! It was all a joke. Don't need to get so protective of your man." Fie only rolled her eyes, already far too used to Sara's brand of humor.

"A-Anyway." Emma spoke up, drawing attention away from their annoying teacher, "Excluding the one we've already cleared there are three more Spirit Shrines that we know about on this side of the country, yes?"

"One in Nord, one near Legram, and one near Garrelia Fortress." Gaius confirmed, "According to George we will need the ore from all three shrines to make a weapon befitting Valimar."

Elliot hummed thoughtfully, "Between all the traveling and clearing the shrines themselves this is going to take some time. Is it alright if I contact Rosine and let her know I'll be ready for the concert in a few days?"

"Actually..." Rean had a thoughtful look on his face, "This may be a risk, but I was thinking it might be possible to split up and tackle all three Spirit Shrines today."

"Tackle all three at once...?" Alisa frowned thoughtfully.

"Hmm... It could work." Gaius muttered aloud, "I see two potential problems, however."

Rean nodded in agreement, "I know. Emma and Celine are the only ones who can open the doors."

Despite finding herself at the center of attention the young witch didn't flinch, "I think it should be alright. As long as the Courageous is willing to wait for us I can simply open the door before returning from each shrine..."

"That's a lot of work." Celine grumbled with a hiss, "You're gonna owe us big time for this!"

"Oh, hush Celine." Emma gave her familiar a gentle boop, "I agree it won't be easy, but I'm more than willing to do whatever I can to help the class out, both as a witch of the Hexen Clan and as your class president!"

Fie – who was sitting right next to the witch – took the opportunity to reach out and give her a hearty thump on the back. It was nice seeing the once meek student grow into her own.

"Great. Thanks, Emma. Celine." Rean nodded gratefully at the two before readdressing the class, "As for the second problem I can only assume you are referring to the difficulty of the shrines themselves?" The Nord's nod was all the confirmation he needed.

"I believe it is safe to assume that all of the Spirit Shrines have a guardian like the Magic Knight we fought." Laura pointed out, "While I believe we have the strength to overcome foes of that caliber I am uncomfortable considering the prospect with smaller teams – especially the team that will only have three people."

That made sense. There were eleven of them so one team would get screwed over, "Don't worry about it." Sara waved the blue-haired girl off flippantly, "I'll just stick myself on the short-handed team. I've been holding back so I didn't show you all up, but I'm worth like five of you! Maybe even six!"

So not only was one team gonna be undermanned, but it would also have a cocky Sara on it? Fie pitied whoever got stuck on that one.

Rean – who had been looking like he swallowed a lemon after Sara's obnoxious declaration – let out a sigh before grinning wryly, "Right. Well, thank you Instructor. I know this plan is risky, so I want to make sure we're all in agreement before we begin."

Some members of Class VII voiced their support. Others did so non-verbally. Fie fell into the latter camp as she simply nodded along. The key thing, however, was that everyone fell into those two camps, even if some looked a little less confident about it.

"Great. Now all that's left is to decide the teams. We should start at Legram and work our way to the northeast. Laura, can I entrust Legram to you?"

"It would be my pleasure."

"Perfect." Their black-haired leader glanced around the room before settling on his decision, "Jusis, Alisa, Elliot. Can the three of you support her?"

Fie hummed in approval. It was a nice balanced team and Laura had already proven herself as a good commander. They would do well. But if she was leading one team and Rean would certainly be leading another, who would be on the final one? Gaius maybe? Hopefully he doesn't-

"Fie." Dammit! "Think you can handle the shrine outside Garrelia?"

She felt kinda bad shooting him down when he had such a hopeful look, but there was no way she was- "Ooh! That sounds like fun! I'm going on Fie's team!" The way Sara was grinning shamelessly at her made it quite clear to the younger girl that she knew exactly what she had just done there.

Also it was now painfully obvious to her which team was gonna be the undermanned one stuck with Sara on it. Today officially sucked.

"Can't help but feel a little bias in who Rean chooses to lead the teams." Alisa groused.

As uncomfortable as the situation made her this was too golden an opportunity to tease her friend, "If you think that's how Rean decides who to put in charge of teams I don't mind inviting you the next time we have some fun together...?"

"Eww! No!"

"I think it's okay." Elliot chimed in helpfully, "Laura and Fie are the most similar to Rean. It's like they all play a beautiful chorus, especially when together."

A few snickers sounded out, mostly from Sara. Fie groaned. She respected the young musician a lot, but his oblivious innocence and need to turn everything into a music analogy made him say some weird things. That definitely could be turned into a sex joke, something which Sara looked about to make.

Thankfully Machias realized that too as he cut her off, "What Elliot's trying to say is that all three of them are weirdos obsessed with fighting." Rude, "And since we're going into combat I have no complaints with this delegation of responsibility for the Spirit Shrines."

"I... uh." Rean looked entirely bewildered by the progression of the conversation, "Can... uh... Do you want to go with them, Millium?"

"Aye Aye, Captain!" The youngest member of Class VII turned to her with a wide grin on her face, "We're gonna have so much fun together!"

Her smile was infectious and Fie couldn't help but return it in kind. Actually, Sara and Millium... Now that was a unique combination. Maybe she could make use of that in some way...?

Ideas began to form in her head. She barely heard Rean tell Gaius, Emma, and Machias that they would be tackling the Nord shrine. In fact she was so caught up in her thoughts that it wasn't until Sara poked her obnoxiously after everyone left that she responded, "Bwah?"

Her inelegant response caused the immature woman to snicker, "So were you taking a nap or were you using that head of yours for something?"

"Actually..." Best to just ignore her teasing lest she give the woman more ammunition to use against her, "I know it's been a while, but how much of your jaeger training do you remember?"

An arched eyebrow was the teacher's answer, prompting Fie to go into more detail about the plan she had in mind.

"I know I should not be complaining about the condition of this place after our last foray into a Spirit Shrine, but why in Aidios' name does this place have to be so wet!?" Jusis griped as their feet made squelching sounds with every step they took.

"Ugh!" Alisa took the moment to squeeze the hem of her skirt, watching with annoyance as a trickle of water ensued from the action, "How are you holding up, Elliot?"

"Achoo!" The young musician looked pretty pathetic at the moment, but it was understandable. A nasty monster ambush had ended with him being knocked into the water. While they had fished him out easily enough it didn't change the fact that he was now thoroughly soaked. Alisa had done her best to dry him off, but no amount of fire arts could fully purge the chill and humidity of this place, "I-I'll be fine. J-just need to keep moving, right?"

As the leader of the team it fell to her to reassure the boy, "Don't worry. I believe we are making good progress. It shouldn't be long before we reach the end."

The Spirit Shrine had a very unique layout. The path it seemed they needed to take was a relatively straightforward one, but the real challenge was in controlling the water level. Most of the area had been fully submerged when they entered, but it was by design as there were switches scattered about that lowered the level of the place. In the end it was a simple but time consuming matter of exploring around, fighting any water monsters that attacked them, and finding the switches to advance lower and lower.

As the Arseid stared down into the murky water one thought stood out above the rest, "I want to swim." Glancing up she noticed three pairs of eyes upon here, "...I said that out loud, didn't I?"

"If you wish to swim in the monster-filled waters be my guest." Her fellow noble deadpanned.

She couldn't help but flush slightly at the tease, "That isn't what I meant and you know it! This just reminded me of our club activities. I haven't had much chance to swim since we left Thors."

"You think that's bad?" Alisa countered. "Try playing Lacrosse by yourself with no equipment! I'm glad we found Theresia and Emily, but I'm still worried about Ferris..."

"Same with Lambert." The horse rider added, "While I am quite certain he is fine I have found myself missing his... enthusiasm while riding to and fro."

The youngest Craig rubbed his hands together, but that might have been more to stave off the cold than any actual nervousness, "I've gotten to play the violin a few times, but only by myself. Hopefully the entire Wind Orchestra will be able to perform in the upcoming concert..."

Perhaps it was a little dour to be thinking about things lost, but Laura saw it as extra incentive. They just needed to push a little more and the war might soon be over. After that they can all return to those halcyon days they missed so much.

She couldn't help but notice the time when she glanced at her ARCUS. Fie's team should be entering their shrine about now...

"Huh..." Fie muttered as she gazed across the open expanse of the Spirit Shrine's interior, "Definitely not what I was expecting." Sure she had heard from Laura and the others just how weird the first shrine had been, but seeing it in person was a different story.

Instead of fire and brimstone they were greeted by the far more pleasant scenery of the Terra Shrine. Wood and rock formed a long twisty path. Would have made for a picturesque landscape were it not all the dangerous looking monsters running around.

"Ooh! Look at those big bridges!" The ever excitable rabbit pointed out gleefully, "Lammy's gonna smash em real good!"

Given that those bridges were currently in a vertical position Fie was certain that that was what the trial intended – even if she wasn't entirely sure they could withstand Lammy's powerful fists. Still, as much fun as it would be to loose Millium on the hapless shrine the former jaeger thought there might be an alternative in mind.

Walking over to the edge Fie followed the visible path with her eyes. The shrine itself wasn't all that large, instead opting to use multiple levels to pad out the experience. The path they were expected to take involved them circling around before going down a level where they would do the same thing all over before ascending at the end.

But the thing that stood out most to her? "That's not even an eight arge drop..." She muttered to herself.

"Something on your mind?" Sara asked as she moved to stand next to her.

"Yup. Instead of running around doing all that." She pointed to the road ahead, "Why don't we just jump down here?" She could definitely handle a drop like that – she still remembered Rean's panic when she did a bigger jump in school. And Sara was about as agile as her. Millium was no issue either as she could just fly around on Lammy.

"Hmm... Could work. Won't save that much time since we still need to clear the bottom level before ascending at the other side."

Her response caused Fie to smirk knowingly. Reaching into her pocket she withdrew... "Grappling hook. Never leave home without it."

Sara tutted obnoxiously, "This is supposed to be a trial for us to undertake. Are you really gonna cheat the system like that."

Fie could only look at her teacher in disbelief, "Really? You of all people want to follow the rules?"

"Nah. I just wanted to see your face." Urge to punch Sara: rising, "I'm all for cheating the system. Fight smarter, not harder. A true mercenary through and through."

"Aww." Millium pouted. "I wanted to smash things up!"

But Fie smirked knowingly. She had a way to get the blue gremlin onto her side, "Me too." She muttered in faux sadness, "You know what else would be fun? Finishing this shrine before Jusis and Laura finish theirs even though we started later and have less people. Think of the bragging rights!"

"Ooh! That sounds fun! I can't wait to see the looks on their faces! Let's go go go!"

"You heard the lady." With one final smirk at her companions Fie leapt off the side of the path and allowed gravity to do its thing.

Time for the jaeger slash Ironblood speed run to commence!

Laura wasn't sure if it was simply a byproduct of fighting inside the Aqua Shrine or if Elliot had simply had enough of trudging around in the wet dungeon, but the water art he blasted at the Magic Knight was more powerful than anything she had seen from the musician prior. So powerful, in fact, that it completely unbalanced the guardian of the shrine.

It was an opportunity nobody could pass up and with a cry the Arseid swung her powerful blade at the downed foe. The Magic Knight tried to protect itself with its arms, and while successful at keeping her blade away from the weak point in the center it did little to stop her from nearly removing the limbs for their impertinence. Something that even the Magic Knight would need plenty of time to restore.

"Jusis! Finish it! La Forte!" Instead of attacking Alisa opted to use her ARCUS to empower her friend with enhanced strength.

"Understood!" The temporary Duke Albarea assumed a stance unfamiliar to Laura before charging towards their downed foe at speeds more befitting Fie. For an instant it almost felt as if he was riding a destrier into battle, "Asteion Knight!"

While the attack was unfamiliar the results spoke for themselves. The Magic Knight roared in futile anger even as it vanished away. While still a dangerous foe, it actually surprised her just how easily the battle had gone. Fighting the same enemy time and time again really showcased just how much she and her friends had been improving.

But with the guardian eliminated a new problem arose, "Now we just need to get the ore out of here..."

"Sorry Laura." Alisa apologized, "but that last battle left me a little bushed. Not sure how much help I can be here."

Elliot? "Achoo!" It might have been her imagination, but that sneeze sounded a lot less real than the previous ones had been.

Jusis? Unlike the others he kept his mouth silent. All he did, in fact, was raise his hand and placed it gingerly on his face. It was the exact same spot she had slapped him in Celdic. The nearly imperceptible grin on his face caused her to twitch in annoyance.

"Rotten little..." Fortunately for her the Zemurian Ore was surprisingly light given its size and strength, but that didn't make her feel any better about the fact her classmates seem to have unanimously agreed upon her being the mule.

Still, given how amused the others were looking she would allow herself to suffer this injustice once again. Thankfully the other groups were responsible for the other ore so this would be the last time it was going to happen. And with the conveniently placed teleporter it wasn't as if she would need to travel far before they could exit the place and return to the-

Oh, right. The Courageous was probably in the Nord Highlands right now. Even on a direct course she still estimated the flight to take an hour minimum. She was stuck with this ore for quite some time.

Grumpily the blue-haired woman accepted her burden and together the four of them made the trek out of the shrine. What should have been a relief as they escaped the gloomy place only ended up making her feel worse, as the outside was covered in a very dense and unnatural fog. The same kind of fog that had becoming increasingly common in Legram ever since Lohengrin Castle started acting up.

"Hey." She was pulled from her thoughts as Alisa placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Why don't we head back to Legram and wait for the Courageous there? We're probably too tired to deal with whatever this is right now, but at least we can find out what's going on and help out around town."

Elliot nodded in agreement even as he once again drew his staff, "Yeah! And don't worry about the monsters! We can't carry the ore for you, but we can definitely keep you safe!"

"That goes without saying." The final member of their party scoffed as he drew his saber, "The people of Legram were very generous in offering me protection after our flight from Thors. This is the least I can do to make up for it."

"You guys..." They might be a pain to deal with at times, but at the end of the day they were some of her dearest friends and she loved them all. No burden was too heavy for her to bear so long as it was in support of her classmates.

As the four of them started walking towards her hometown she couldn't help but worry about Fie. Hopefully she was faring just as well despite having less people in her group...

The petite speedster felt her joints pop as she stretched while letting out a loud and very obnoxious yawn. She was more than ready for a nap now that they finally arrived at the Twin Dragons Bridge.

"Gotta admit, that went a lot smoother than I expected." From someone like Sara that was actually high praise.

"Yeah! It was so cool! Everything went boom boom bang and Lammy went blammo!"

Despite her words being weird Millium's depiction of the battle against the Magic Knight wasn't wrong. It felt good that the plan she quickly came up with aboard the Courageous worked so well, turning what should have been a difficult battle into an absolute cakewalk.

The key was in the predictability of the encounter. Walk into the boss room and the Magic Knight appears. But what happens if a pair of former jaegers brings a bunch of explosives along and place them before getting close enough to trigger the spawn?

The answer was a big a explosion that detonated when the unthinking knight walked upon it.

Admittedly it was a bit of a costly action. All of her accumulated grenades and plastic explosives plus whatever she and Sara nicked from the Courageous, gone in an instant. But the results spoke for themselves. It wouldn't be hard for her to get them replaced as critical mission supplies the next time the Courageous stopped to resupply somewhere. Or she could guilt trip Rean into buying her new stuff. Either way.

Regardless, boom boom bang. It hadn't killed the Magic Knight, but it was enough to incapacitate it long enough for Millium to flatten it with Airgetlam. Watching the tiny girl absolutely obliterate the helpless machine had been pretty hilarious to watch.

And best of all? Lammy was able to carry the big hunk of ore with no problems!

With their mission complete Fie elected to have them walk to the Twin Dragons Bridge. It wasn't far away and it afforded them a safe place to kick back and relax. She already knew what she was gonna do, "I'm gonna go take a nap in the rest area."

"Ooh! That sounds good! Can I join you?!" Fie nodded in acceptance. As far as nap partners went Millium was at the lower end of Fie's list since the girl was a little too antsy for her own good, but she wasn't gonna deny her friend after their mission together.

"I think I'll sit down and have a-"

"Actually, Sara, as squad leader I've got an important mission for you." The elder woman's smile turned into a straight line when she realized Fie's dastardly intentions. "Someone needs to wait for the Courageous, after all, and I figure with your connections you might be able to get some info on what the division is up to. Go chat up Instructor Neithardt or Elliot's dad or something."

Fie didn't actually believe that Sara would do anything more than the bare minimum of work before slacking off with a beer or two, but it was still funny to pull rank on the teacher. Leaving the fuming woman behind she and Millium made their way to the rest stop for a much deserved nap.

Rean regretted many things in life. So many little mistakes that had come back to haunt him. Moments where he could have prevented bad things from happening had he only been a little stronger or more decisive.

...But right now he was sorely regretting his decision to split the class up before tackling the Spirit Shrines!

Traversing through the shrine itself had been no problem at all. With Emma, Celine, Gaius, and Machias at his side clearing the shrine in Nord had been a relatively simple affair, very reminiscent of their forays into the old schoolhouse. Had that been all there was to it he would have remained confident in his decision.

Except instead of the expected battle against a tough Magic Knight they found themselves forced to fight something worse. A lot worse.

The Magic Knight spawned in as usual, yes, but just before it could attack them it was struck by a bunch of magical blades and eradicated almost instantly. The owner of those blades was none other than Vita, Ouroboros' Second Anguis and Emma's sister. And with her came a magically enlarged Grianos who became their actual opponent.

To say the fight had started off poorly would be an understatement as the massive bird caught him with an icy breath attack. It had only been a glancing blow, but the effects of the freezing attack lingered and left him moving a little slower.

The worst part was he knew the attack had only landed because he made the greatest rookie mistake of all – He allowed himself to get distracted in the middle of a battle. Even now he found himself subconsciously thinking back to the vision they had seen and the knowledge Vita dumped on them afterwords.

That the visions he had been seeing in the Spirit Shrines were those of Emperor Dreichels he had surmised, but that he was following in the footsteps of that legendary figure in collecting ore for his Divine Knight was a surprise. That the war two-hundred and fifty years ago held so many parallels to the current one, that history had been forced to forget the machines that took place during it, and the role of witches in everything that had happened...

Dammit! He was doing it again. The swordsman snapped back into reality just in time to duck out of the way of a wave of magic their enemy shot out. A quick glance around showed his friends were still fighting, but all of them were starting to look worn down...

It seemed that Emma had the same thought as he could feel the young witch charging her mana up for a powerful attack. That Grianos noticed it made sense considering the familiar was likely far more attuned to mana than he was. In response the large bird fired a powerful arts blast directly at the hapless girl...

"Raaaagh" Except Gaius intercepted it in the nick of time. Standing between the blast of energy and its intended target the Nord warrior began spinning his spear as rapidly as possible, intent on either deflecting or absorbing the spell. For a minute it actually looked like he would succeed, but at the very end his spinning faltered and he was forced to take the remnant of the spell head on.

When the smoke cleared it revealed Gaius on the ground. Unconscious, but fortunately still alive and mostly unharmed.

"Zodiac Rain!" Emma was quick to avenge her fallen friend as she unleashed a spell that Rean had never seen before. As the name implied it appeared that the class president had summoned a storm over their opponent, battering it with balls of pure energy that exploded on contact. The damage it unleashed over the area was vast, and with most of the attacks impacting Grianos directly...

The bird was injured, but still active. With a screech of pure anger it began slowly approaching Class VII. With Gaius out of commission, Emma seemingly low on energy after that final attack, and Machias struggling to make a dent with his shotgun he knew he had to do something. But to do that he needed to clear his mind of all these distracting thoughts and-

He did need to clear his mind. Not just of the recent knowledge, but of everything. Grianos, his classmates, the entire situation. All of it must be emptied from his thoughts.

That was the core tenet of the Eight Leaves One Blade's Seventh Form.

He hadn't been lying when he said it was something he had been practicing whenever he had free time, but it was something he felt he was only beginning to understand. The void was a fathomless thing, after all. Fitting for what his master considered the most esoteric of the seven sword stances of his school. Could he hope to pull something off right now in the middle of a real battle?

Only one way to find out. With a calming breath he cleared his mind of hesitation, of worry, of thoughts. He could no longer see his surroundings with his eyes. Nothing existed save his tachi. That was his guiding light.

With his blade leading the way the young swordsman's body began moving on autopilot. Distantly he could sense himself launching a myriad of slashes upon the great bird, but in the moment he felt as if it was someone else controlling his actions. Regardless, he allowed the process to play itself to its conclusion.

Exultation at the success of his attack inadvertently caused him to end the technique prematurely before he could reach true nothingness. Truly the void was extremely difficult to grasp and maintain control of. Still, as he watched Grianos return to its original form he couldn't help but feel as if he had taken a major first step down that road. He would need to come up with a name for that technique later on.

"Impressive." Vita admitted as her form reappeared where the once again little azure bird was struggling to maintain flight, "It seems you can back up your words."

"You don't plan to keep on fighting, do you?" Celine asked the astral projection.

The elder witch shook her head. "No, I think that will do for today. Poor Grianos needs a rest for one thing." She glanced down at her sister. "Well, Emma, you've demonstrated the strength of your resolve. Still, I don't think you need me to remind you... that resolve only gains worth when it's seen through to the end."

It was hard to tell if Vita was trying to compliment or belittle Emma with her words, but the way she nodded decisively made Rean think she picked the former. "Yes, I know. I'll find a path through life on my own... and I will stop you!"

The threat only caused the Anguis to giggle in amusement. "I'll leave the last of the treasures in your hands. I'll see you again soon – at the Infernal Rite."

"...There she goes." Gaius muttered as he sat up, seemingly having recovered from the attack he tanked.

Those parting words caused no little concern for Rean and the other members of Class VII. Infernal Rite? Any name that ominous bode poorly for them. Still, all they could do was prepare themselves for it. And that meant collecting that final piece of Zemurian Ore and ensuring Valimar was ready for whatever was to come next.

He and Machias worked together to carry the ore while Emma gave the Nord one final checkup. Fortunately they wouldn't need to carry the ore around for long because the Courageous was still in the area waiting for them.

...Hopefully Laura and the others never found out that he had intentionally chosen the final shrine solely for that reason. Lugging around this giant rock was no fun!