Here is the next chapter. Thank you for your review and follow. Glad to see people enjoying the story.

Now, the chapter.

Chapter 31: Asgard

Yuan leaned into his chair as he was being debriefed on the latest news from the lower worlds. From the report that Pronyma's was given the Chosen's group made quite a scene in the Palmacosta region a couple of days ago.

"So, Magnius is dead," Yuan stated neutrally.

"Afraid so," Pronyma answered, although her tone clearly said that she didn't care.

Yuan frowned and rubbed his chin. "Why would Magnius try to kill the Chosen? He knows that he wasn't to harm her."

"I agree," Pronyma said. "Magnius was an idiot and a fool, but his loyalty has always been to Cruxis. I suspect someone may had used Magnius' foolishness to do their own dirty dealings."

Yuan was impressed by how on the ball Pronyma was. However, he couldn't let Rodyle's involvement be reveal quite yet. He was all but certain that he was the one behind Magnius' actions. Rodyle needed a Cruxis Crystal and what better place to get it than off the Chosen's body.

"I think we know who the usual suspects are," Yuan replied in a casual tone, not betraying his thoughts.

"Kvar has been up to no good lately, but I doubt it was him," Pronyma said. "He's been too busy on other things to concern himself with the Chosen."

"Namely the Angelus Project and the Angelus," Yuan concluded for her. "No doubt he will try to acquire both, especially since they have entered his domain."

"That has been my assessment as well," Pronyma said as she crossed her legs as she floated in midair.

Yuan remained silent for several seconds. "Has Lord Yggdrasill given any new order regarding the Angelus?"

"None," Pronyma stated as she shook her head. "We are only to focus on the Chosen."

Yuan could tell that Pronyma knew something he didn't. She was on to Mithos' plan. It was frustrating that he couldn't see what it was.

"I see you chose to hold a meeting without me," a voice said as the metal door slid opened. Both Yuan and Pronyma stood at attention.

"Lord Yggdrasill, to what do we owe this honor?" Pronyma asked as she bowed before her lord.

"I've just finish reading your report," Mithos replied with a small smile. "It would appear this Chosen is more 'energetic' than the last few."

Yuan gave a slight nod. "It would appear." He looked directly at his former friend. "I actually thought you would be more upset."

Mithos chuckled and waved his hand. "The lost of Magnius is of little importance. It's actually very good for the Chosen to fight the Grand Cardinals. It forces her to become more stress and allows her to become closer to Martel's vessel."

Yuan sensed that Mithos wanted to add something else and gave a strange knowing glance at Pronyma. Damn, what did they know?

"In the mean time, keep a close eye on Kvar," Mithos said, losing his good humor. "That man is a loose cannon and could ruin everything."

"Of course, my lord," Pronyma said humbly as she teleported away.

"Really, why do you put up with Kvar?" Yuan finally asked. "After that fiasco fourteen years ago, I am surprise you haven't put his head on a platter by now. If it is his research you are concern about, we can replicate his results here given time. It isn't like he's any closer to recreating the Angelus Project after all this time."

Mithos smirked. "Oh, he will be dealt with. In fact, I'm certain that Kvar will meet a very similar fate to Magnius."

Yuan gave Mithos an odd look.

Those were not the choice of words he was expecting. Did he want Kratos to be the one kill Kvar? Kratos definitely had the right to send that bastard to hell, but that didn't seem right. No, Mithos wasn't doing this so Kratos could get revenge. He had another, darker purpose wanting to sacrifice Kvar.

"It's just ashamed they won't meet Rodyle by the time they reach the Tower of Salvation," Mithos mused as he turned back towards the door. "That would be another thorn out of my side," he said as he left the room.

"Damn you, Mithos," Yuan growled under his breath. "What are you planning?"

Lloyd squint his eyes as he tried to get a better look at the city in the distance. After spending days traveling on the dusty road in the cooling weather, he was happy to see civilization. He was ready to sleep in a real bed again.

It didn't help that Kratos was riding him more than usual over his training. It was so bad that his arms were sore to the point that he could barely lift them.

He would say something, but he figured sore arms were better than broken arms.

"You're okay, Lloyd?" Colette asked gently as she walked beside him.

Lloyd gave a long sigh. "Yeah, I guess. It's just Kratos has been getting on my case again."

"He just worries about you," Colette assured.

"He has a funny way of showing it," Lloyd grumbled as he glanced at Kratos, who was leading the party.

"But he is," Colette said as she suddenly became somber. "Plus, there has been something bothering him ever since we left Hakonesia Peak."

"Really?" Lloyd asked in surprise.

Colette nodded. "I just don't know what it is."

Lloyd frowned. Kratos couldn't be afraid, could he? The man was so powerful that the average Desian trembled in terror before him. He also showed no fear in front of Magnius.

"I wonder what it could be?" Lloyd wondered mostly to himself.

"Maybe Kratos will tell us once he gets more comfortable around us," Colette said, regaining her cheer.

Lloyd snorted. But, he then remember that Kratos did opened up to him about what happened to his family. Maybe the Desian that murdered them came from this area.

"WE'RE FINALLY HERE!" Raine cheered, catching everyone attention.

The road opened up before them and led to an old stone archway that went into Asgard. From what Lloyd could see, most of the buildings were made of stone that looked weather by time. The air was also very dusty, causing Lloyd to cover his nose.

"It's even more beautiful than I imagine," Raine cooed in awe. She looked closed to tears. "We must explore the city!"

"Our first order of business is to find the seal," Kratos said, keeping the annoyance out of his voice. He knew this would happened. They would be lucky to leave the city by next week thanks to Raine 'Ruin Mode'.

"We can do that too," Raine replied in a dismissive tone as she waved one of her hands at him.

Kratos inwardly sighed, accepting his fate.

"But where do we even begin to look?" Genis asked, rubbing a hand through his hair. "This place is filled with ruins."

Raine paused in thought. "Maybe the stone dais will have that information."

Kratos remembered that dais. It was ancient even during the time he was growing up. The Professor was right that the dais held secrets, but they had nothing to do with Cruxis.

"Well, it's a start," Genis groaned. This was going to be a long day.

They made their way to the edge of city and attempted to keep Raine from wondering off into the many caves that held ancient writings. It was a tough task since Lloyd and Genis nearly got beating to death trying to stop Raine. Luckily, Colette was able to keep her teacher focused on the current task.

It took awhile, but they finally reached the flight of stairs leading to the stone dais. The area around the large stone stage was misty and no people seem to be around.

The hair on the back of Lloyd's neck stood up as a strange energy flowed through him. He unconsciously rubbed his exsphere since it too was beginning to tingle.

"Lloyd, state the historical background of this ruin," Raine suddenly ordered, getting his attention.

"Ah, um, well, let's see..." Lloyd stuttered. He knew nothing of this city besides it being really old.

Genis sighed as he came to Lloyd's rescue. "It's the temple where Cleo III held a ritual to offer a sacrifice to the Summon Spirit of Wind in order to quell a storm that had raged for a week."

Lloyd gave Genis a grateful look. "That's it."

Raine was not impressed as she glared at Lloyd, causing him to shift uncomfortably. "Have you learned anything at all these past five years? We reviewed this subject just yesterday."

"PE and Art and..." Lloyd started as he counted down on his fingers.

"Never mind!" Raine yelled in a huff. Her face was full of disappointment. She turned away from Lloyd to look more closely at the stone dais. "What perfect form! This delicate curve is said to express the flight of the Summon Spirit of Wind through the sky. In addition, it is said that this stone is infused with a large volume of mana, and at night..."

Lloyd tuned out Raine somewhere in the middle of her lecture. He looked around to see Genis listening to every word Raine was saying. He was even taking note, although he was having trouble keeping up with Raine.

Colette nodded her head at certain parts and asked Raine to repeat specific sections, which the Professor was more than happy to do.

Kratos looked as bored as him and a little anger for having his time wasted in this way. If Colette wasn't here, Lloyd had the feeling that Kratos would have walked off by now.

"She must really love ruins," Kratos said when he noticed Lloyd was looking at him. His arms were crossed as he stopped for a moment in thought. "Perhaps...something happened to her when she was young."

Lloyd would have laughed if Kratos didn't sound so serious.

Now that he thought about it, he knew next to nothing about Raine before she came to Iselia. All he knew was that she was the hottest teacher he had ever laid eyes on and almost all the students agreed. He still had his Raine Fan Club button somewhere. He stopped wearing it, however, after Colette kept giving him disapproving looks.

"...the mana infused in this stone is also said to be fading," Raine went on without a care in the world. This was her paradise.

Lloyd sighed and he began to pull away from the group.

"Don't wonder too far," Kratos spoke as Lloyd went to explore the dais on his own.

Lloyd gave him a short wave as he looked around. He was impressed by the craftsmanship of the dais, especially the stone statues of some kind of wind spirit at the top of the four pillars. He didn't think it was Sylph, however. Although, he was told that the spirits had no solid form and could be anything they wanted at will.

"Listen, Linar, this is my invention, the 'breaker'," someone whispered from behind the dais.

Lloyd looked up and began to sneak behind the stone stage. He peaked his head and saw two teenagers standing besides some kind of device. It looked like something Dirk would build in his workshop.

"If we use this bomb, we can easily destroy this confounded dais." one of the teenagers said. He had his back turned away from Lloyd, but he could see the man had red hair that was covered mostly by a white rag. He was wearing a purple short-sleeved shirt with long dirty brown shorts.

"B...but, Harley..." the man, which Lloyd assumed was Linar, stuttered. He was wearing glasses that were partly covered by his blue hair. He wore a green vest that was overlapped by a white long sleeved shirt with brown pants that stopped by his ankles. "This is a rare and valuable remnant of the Balacruf Dynasty. We can't destroy it..."

"What are you talking about!?" Harley shouted in anger. "As things stand now, Aisha may be killed!"

Lloyd decided that he had heard enough and made his presence known. He casually stepped away from his hiding place and walked towards the duo. "What are you doing?"

Both Harley and Linar nearly jumped out of their skins when they saw Lloyd.

"Wha…who are you?" Harley stuttered in surprise.

"It's not what you think!" Linar exclaimed in terror as he put his hands in front of him like a shield. "We weren't trying to destroy the ruin at all!"

Lloyd suddenly heard Raine stopped talking in the background and everything became unnaturally quiet. Lloyd then heard the very familiar sound of boots running towards them.

"What did you just say!?" Raine yelled as she leaned over the two teenagers like a shadow from the dais. They both backed away from the enraged elf.

"Professor, these guys said they're planning to destroy this stage," Lloyd said. He had a feeling that he was signing their death warrants by saying that.

Raine's eyes widened in both horror and unholy fury. "And you call yourselves human beings!?" she all but screamed as she jumped down from the dais. With one quick motion she kicked both Harley and Linar in the chests, knocking them to the ground.

Harley slowly stood up as he nursed his wounds. "I am a half-elf."

Raine viciously kicked him again, this time in the face. "What has that got to do with anything!?"

During her assault, Lloyd noticed that Raine hit something on the device. He also noticed that a counter had started and they only had a few minutes before the bomb went off.

"You have no idea of the importance of this ruin!" Raine shouted once she finished beating Harley and Linar into a bloody pulp. "You say you're going to destroy this fabulous ruin? Now listen. During the final era of the Balacruf Dynasty, this ruin was..."

"Professor..." Lloyd attempted to warn.

"If you have any questions, I'll take them after the lecture," Raine interrupted with some heat before she went back to her lecture.

"The bomb turned on!" Lloyd yelled, despite the danger to his life by upsetting Raine any further. She could kill him after he made sure the bomb didn't.

Raine turned around and looked ready to knock Lloyd across the dais. "I said, if you have questions, I'll take them la..." Lloyd's words had finally reached her ear. "WHAT!?"

"Woman, you flipped the switch!" Harley yelled once he was able to pick himself off the ground again.

Raine responded by kicking him again. "Don't try to put the blame on someone else!"

"That doesn't matter now!" Lloyd all but screamed. Why was he the only one worried at the moment? "Is there a disarm switch?"

Harley once again lifted himself off the ground and dusted his clothes. "Of course not!"

Raine kicked him, yet again. This time he was sent sliding across the grass.

Linar flinched and shook his head. He briefly wondered if Harley was going to be okay after all of this.

"Don't act like you're proud of it!" Raine yelled in annoyance.

Lloyd let out a long sigh. "I guess I'll just have to disarm it myself." He took out some tools from around his wrist and got to work dismantling the bomb.

The bomb was crude and sloppily put together. Lloyd began to wonder if this bomb posed any real threat by the way it was constructed. He could have built a better bomb than this and he didn't even have half of Dirk's skills. Than again, his dad could be just that good.

After a few minutes and with plenty of time to spare, he successfully disarmed the bomb.

"Hey, you're pretty good to be able to stop the uncontrollable 'breaker'," Harley said in admiration. He was greatly impressed by Lloyd's skills.

Lloyd glared at Harley. "Don't go around building stuff you can't control!"

It was one of the rules that Dirk enforced heavily onto him. One of the few times Dirk had really beat him was over him doing something similar.

"The ruin seems to be unharmed," Raine said as she touched the dais in relief.

"You there, trespassing in this area is forbidden!" someone yelled from the other side of the dais.

"It's the mayor!" Linar shouted in horror.

"Shit, run!" Harley yelled as Linar and him bolted to the nearby cliff. They both jumped, shocking Raine and Lloyd.

"Wait!" Lloyd yelled as he ran after them. He looked down the cliff and didn't see either of them.

"Who are you!?" someone demanded in the distance.

"We are mere travelers looking to study the dais," Lloyd heard Kratos answer.

"It's because of people like you that we're currently in trouble with the spirits!" a voice yelled. "Leave at once!"

"We better get going, Professor," Lloyd advised as he tugged on Raine's sleeve.

"But I haven't had time to study the structure of the..." Raine started.

"We got no time for that!" Lloyd yelled.

"There's more on the other side!" someone yelled.

Lloyd turned around to see several old men facing them. Their faces were stern and peered right through him.

"Are you part of that group?" the older man asked.

"Well yes, we were..." Raine attempted to explain herself.

"Trying to study the dais?" the mayor spat. "Get out, before we have the lot of you arrested!"

"Don't have to tell me twice," Lloyd said as he dragged Raine away.

They quickly walked down the stairway and were met by Kratos and the others at its base.

"What was that all about?" Genis asked in annoyance. "They act like we were defacing the dais or something."

"I wanted to study it more..." Raine almost whined.

"Speaking of defacing, who were those two?" Lloyd asked. He also wondered how they were able to survive such a jump off the cliff. He didn't see exspheres on either of them.

"I wonder why they wanted to destroy the ruin?" Colette asked.

Lloyd looked up at her in surprise. Were they that loud that Colette was able to hear them?

"Yes, the ruin," Raine suddenly spoke, getting Lloyd's attention. "We have to stop them from engaging in such foolish acts like trying to destroy a ruin."

"Sounds nice, but we don't even know who they are or where they live," Lloyd stated.

"Then, we just have to look for them," Raine concluded as she folded her arms.

"But what about the seal?" Genis protested.

"That can wait until after we punish the evildoers who think they can destroy a relic of history without consequences," Raine answered with finality.

Kratos inwardly groaned.

At the rate they were going, it really would take them a year to finish this journey. Granted, he shouldn't rush the process of leading the Chosen to her death, but he didn't want to travel the countryside for months on end either. He also didn't want to stay in this area any longer than they needed to.

"I guess the only thing we can do is ask around for those two," Genis sighed, begrudgingly accepting the situation.

"In that case we should spread out," Kratos said. "The Chosen will come with me. Lloyd, you will go with Genis."

Genis was shocked by the arrangements. "But what about Raine."

"I doubt you can keep her mind on the current task," Kratos said dryly as he glanced at the Professor. Already, Raine was losing her anger as the wonders of the ruins called her. "We will meet back at this location in three hours."

"Got it," Lloyd said with a nod.

"Take care, everyone." Colette waved as she went with Kratos.

Raine had already left to Goddess knew where before they finished making their plan.

"So, where do start asking?" Lloyd asked the small mage.

Genis bit his lips in thought. "I guess we could go to the resident area and look around. It seems like those two are locals."

"Sounds good to me," Lloyd said as they walked down one of the dusty streets.

Finally in the Asgard region. To be honest, this particular part of the game is my least favorite because it's common RPG filler. The story line has next to nothing to do with the story. Thankfully, some of this was fixed in Dawn of the New World.

Until next chapter.