Yes, I managed to update in a timely manner this week. Thank you all for your support and reviews for this story. I have gotten a lot more feedback than I originally thought, so I am very grateful for all your kind words.

Now, onto the story.

Chapter 11: Restless Night

The walked back to Triet was thankfully peaceful. Kratos kept the lead while Lloyd explained the workings of exspheres to his teacher. Raine kept mostly quiet and only spoke to ask a question. Since they were busy talking, Raine and Lloyd fall in the back of the group. Lloyd couldn't fight anyway since his legs were still damaged.

They reached Triet late into the night and they wasn't a soul to be found in the marketplace.

"This place is kind of creepy," Lloyd whispered. The city was like a ghost town and only the wind kicking up the sand made any noise.

"Be wary, this is when the city is the most dangerous," Kratos advised.

"Triet is well known for its lawless areas," Raine added.

"I'm too tire to care," Genis said with a stiff yawn.

They made their way to the inn and checked into the rooms Kratos rented earlier.

They piled into one of the rooms as they reflected on today's events and Raine took the time to fully heal Lloyd's legs, but she wasn't concentrating completely on the task.

"So, the exspheres are amplifiers that awaken our dormant capabilities," Raine summarized as she finish her spell. "I wonder if I could use one too?"

"That would be difficult," Kratos stated. "Exspheres are harmful to the body without a key crest."

Colette tilted her head in confusion. "Uhmm, could we make a key crest?"

"As Lloyd has stated, a key crest is made by processing inhibitor ore, then engraving it with a crest to control the exsphere attached to its surface." He turned to glance at Lloyd. "It is said to be a secret art known only to the dwarves."

Lloyd took no noticed of Kratos' stare. "Yeah, I can engrave the crest, but only my dad can process the ore."

Raine frowned as she contemplated Lloyd's words, but she suddenly brightened up as she ran towards the bed where all of her stuff was placed and reached for her bag. She carefully emptied the bag on the floor. To everyone's surprise, Raine had a small collection of items and other materials.

Kratos briefly wondered how she could carried all that stuff from such a long distance. Maybe Ms. Sages was stronger than he original thought.

"Well, is there any inhibitor ore among these materials?" Raine asked as she shuffled through her stuff.

Genis jumped down from the bed and looked over everything. "Raine, did you bring these from our house!?" He should had figured Raine was a traveling pack rat.

"Of course, they're valuable research materials," Raine said with pride in her voice as she presented some of things. "This is a holy vase from the Balacruf Mausoleum. This is a jeweled sword from the Martel Temple. This is a priest's crown from the Asgard Ruins. This is yellow ore from the Hima mines..."

Lloyd grew a little frustrated as his teacher went on. "What the...it's all junk!"

He knew it was a stupid thing to say the moment the words left his mouth. Both Genis and Colette looked at him in horror. Yeah, his lack of sleep and his natural smart antics was about to get him killed for the second time today.

Raine was in Lloyd face within seconds. Her face was red with anger as she glared at Lloyd. "What did you say!?"

Kratos stared down at the floor, not wanting to see his son murdered. Something shiny caught his eye at that moment. It was different from the other things on the floor. He reached down to grab the object and carefully looked it over. He knew immediately what it was.

"This is..." Kratos said with a level of uncertainly. He didn't want to give too much away about his knowledge.

Raine turned away from Lloyd before she could do any physically harm to him and looked at Kratos. Lloyd gave the older man a grateful smile.

"Ah, I picked that up in front of the human ranch," Raine explained, losing all of her previous anger. "It was engraved with angelic language, so I took it home."

Lloyd moved in to get a better look at the object. "Professor, this is a key crest!"

Kratos turned the key crest over to look at its back. "The crest is half worn off. It's unusable like this."

"I can fix it," Lloyd assured without any hesitation. He took the key crest from Kratos. "Don't worry, Professor, you'll be able to equip that exsphere tomorrow."

Raine's entire face lit up. She attempted to hide her excitement, but she did a poor job controlling herself. "Really, thank you, Lloyd! I'm sorry to make you go through the trouble, but I appreciate it."

"Shouldn't you be getting to bed?" Kratos asked. "We still need to go to the ruins. We have already wasted enough time."

Genis glared at Kratos. "Saving Lloyd was not waste of time!"

"It shouldn't take me too long," Lloyd said. He was so busy looking over the key crest that he didn't hear Kratos' snub remark. "It should only take an hour. Two at the most."

Kratos sighed in defeat. "Do as you wish." He stepped out of the room.

Everyone else did the same to give Lloyd space to fix the key crest. With everyone gone, Lloyd sat at one of the desks that was in the room and got to work. Although he didn't have his full crafting equipment, the tools on his wrists were more than enough. Tracing the crest back on was mind-numbing, tedious work. It seemed simple, but the crest had to be carved perfectly. If it was off, even a little, the key crest wouldn't work. He got scolded by his dad a lot over his rush work when he was younger.

For some reason his dad made sure he knew how to carve key crests. He said he needed to learn just in case. Well, looked like his dad was right again. He had no plans to tell him that, of course. He kinda wished, actually, that his dad also taught him how to process the ore instead of just the crest, but that required letting him used the furnace.

Despite the delicate work, he was finished in little more than an hour. He looked over it to make sure it was correct before he stood up. He gave a smile as his handy work as he went to give the professor her new toy.

As he walked towards his teacher's room he passed by Colette's room, which was next door to him. Curiosity got the best of him and he wanted to check up on his friend. He hadn't really gotten a chance to talk to Colette about what happened.

Lloyd straightened his jacket as he knocked on the door.

"Come in," a muffled voice answered.

Lloyd slowly opened the door and saw Colette getting up from the floor. She either tripped or was praying.

"Hey," Lloyd said awkwardly. Despite everything that has happened, he couldn't think of too much to say.

"Lloyd..." Colette trailed off.

Lloyd gave her a concern look. "What's wrong?"

"I'm...I'm sorry that father, grandmother, and I couldn't prevent your exile." Colette said in shame.

Lloyd chuckled lightly. She was sorry for events that she wasn't even there to see. "You dork. It's not your fault, so you don't need to worry about it." He suddenly lost his previous humor as his eyes became downcast. "And besides, I'm the reason why the village was devastated."

Colette walked up to him and gently grabbed his hand. Lloyd looked up to face her and saw the determination in her eyes. "For Marble's sake and for the sake of the villagers that were killed, I'm going to do my best to regenerate the world."

Could everything truly be fixed by regenerating the world? It sounded too perfect and made the people who suffered at the hands of the Desians seem like a bad joke, especially if all of this happened because Martel fell asleep. What kind of all loving goddess was she?

Lloyd didn't voice those thoughts to Colette since it would just end in another debate and he was too tire to fight. "Yeah...I'll let you get some sleep."

Colette gave Lloyd a soft smile. "Good night, Lloyd."

"Night," Lloyd said as he left.

Colette put her hands together in a pray. Her eyes became a little moist as she continued to look at the door. "I'm going to do my best for you, too, Lloyd."

He maybe a nonbeliever now, but she knew he would see the truth when it was all over. He would live in peace in the regenerated and finally find true happiness. She trusted Martel to answer her prays.

Lloyd walked towards Raine's room and knocked softly on the door, not wanting to disturb the other guests.

"Enter," the voice of his teacher answered.

Lloyd walked into the room and saw Genis already dead asleep. His snores filled the room as Raine stood up from her desk to greet Lloyd.

"Professor, you're still awake," Lloyd said in slight surprise. He half expected her to be asleep by now.

Raine gave him a tired smile. "Yes, I've been organizing the data we've collected about monsters we've encountered."

"Yeah...okay," Lloyd said slowly. Leave it to the professor to do boring stuff on her off time.

Raine looked down to see the key crest in Lloyd's hands. "Thank you, but you mustn't overexert yourself. It's going to be a long journey and I don't mind if it takes a while to fix."

"Are you saying that it's okay for Genis and me to come along on this journey?" Lloyd asked with a faint hope.

"Wasn't that your intent from the beginning," Raine stated with a hint of humor. "Stop pretending."

Lloyd blushed at Raine. She really could read him way too easily. "Here...here's the key crest," he said as he handed her the object. "Ask Genis to show you how to use it."

Raine nodded her head in confirmation.

Lloyd walked over to Genis and pulled the covers closer on him. Genis was still snoring, unaware of anything in the world.

"That's some impressive snoring," Lloyd humored. He was glad that he wasn't sharing a room with Genis tonight. He wondered if Raine slept with ear plugs. Lloyd had a strong urge to pinch Genis' nose to see if that would wake him. Genis suddenly stir slightly, making Lloyd pull back. Did he wake him?

"Lloyd..." Genis muttered with a smile on his face.

"Is he talking in his sleep?" Lloyd asked in wonder. He thought he only did that. Was Genis having a nightmare?

"Best friends...forever," Genis whispered.

Lloyd felt his face go red. That was the last thing he was expecting.

Raine gave a soft smile as she walked over and patted Lloyd's shoulder. "He is really attach to you. Before we came to Iselia, he never really bonded with anyone."

Lloyd turned to face his teacher. "Why is that?"

Raine didn't answer for a moment, but she had a far off look. "Genis is different than most boys, which makes him an outcast. You saw him before he became friends with you and Colette."

Lloyd had nearly forgotten those days. They felt like distance memories despite it happening only a couple years ago. Genis was a very shy boy who spent most of his time hiding behind his books. Most of the kids saw him as a teacher's pet and left him alone.

It was really Colette who befriended him first, being the sweet, caring, social butterfly that she was. After that, Genis kinda just became part of the group. The terrible trio, according to the other villagers. The Church was more than a little displeased to have another person 'corrupting' the Chosen, ignoring the fact that Genis was an active member of the Church.

"Professor, I'm sorry," Lloyd said softly, still lost in his memories.

"About what?" Raine asked, although her voice suggested that she knew what it was.

"Things wound up like this because I tried to save someone from the Ranch without thinking things through," Lloyd said sadly.

"Do you regret what you've done?" Raine questioned.

Lloyd bit his lip and lowered his head in thought. "I...I don't know." His body began to shake with rage. "I just couldn't ignore someone suffering right before my eyes."

"What you did was morally correct, but was against the law," Raine stated neutrally. "You can't change what has already happened, but you can change what's going to happen. Change yourself as well as the world around you."

Leave it to Raine to never give a direct answer. She also kept her voice perfectly neutral and didn't give a way her own personal opinion. Maybe it was best left that way.

"Night, Professor," Lloyd said as he made his way to the door.

Raine smiled as he left. "Thank you, Lloyd. Sleep well."

As Lloyd closed the door, he caught something moving on the edge of his sight. He went towards the stair rails and saw Kratos walking out the front door. Wasn't he the one who said it was dangerous at night?

"Where's he going at this hour?" Lloyd muttered as he carefully went down the stairs. The inn was completely empty and no one saw him leave out the door. Lloyd didn't have to look far since Kratos had only walked towards the stable where Noishe was sleeping. Noishe was also awake and appeared happy to see Kratos.

Lloyd walked quietly behind him, trying to see what he was doing. Before Lloyd could blink, however, a flash of silver came across his eyes. Within seconds, a sword's edge was right at his neck. It was so close that if Lloyd turned his head even a little, he would have cut his own throat.

Lloyd grasped in shock as he caught a glimpse of Kratos' face. His eyes burnt with intent and his face was harden, hiding any emotion. The blade was completely steady and was ready to make the final kill. For the first time since he had met Kratos, he feared this man.

"Lloyd..." Kratos whispered as the trance between them broke. His eyes softened a little and he relaxed his grip, pulling the sharp edge of the sword away from him. "I'm sorry to have startled you," he added softly as he sheathed his sword.

Lloyd was as white as a sheet and he didn't move for several seconds. "St...Startled isn't the word..." he barely managed to mutter. He swore his life flashed before his eyes.

Kratos looked at him in concern, which got Lloyd's attention. He had never seen Kratos concern about anyone. Granted, he only met the man a couple of times, but he was as emotional as a block of ice in a snow storm.

The concern quickly faded and gave way to his all too common mask of indifference. "You'd best not stand behind me."

Lloyd steadily shook himself out his shock. "Yeah, I won't."

After fighting a base full of Desians, it would be mess up for him to die because he stood behind an axe-crazy mercenary. This guy had the reflects of a cat.

Noishe began to whined softly, getting Lloyd's attention. Despite the near fatal incident, Noishe seemed to be comfortable around Kratos. Which was strange given how Noishe usually acted around strangers.

"Do you like animals?" Lloyd asked, although Kratos didn't strike him as an animal lover.

"No, not particularly," Kratos answered, never turning to face Lloyd.

Lloyd frowned in thought. "Well, Noishe seems to be quite comfortable with you. He usually doesn't like strangers."

Kratos was quiet as he gently stroked Noishe's fur. For a moment, Kratos actually seemed human.

"I once had a pet, long ago," Kratos said.

Noishe barked and whine several times.

"Really?" Lloyd asked. He wondered if it was a goldfish. Knowing Kratos, he probably ate it for survival reasons.

"Lloyd," Kratos suddenly said in a firm voice. Kratos turned to look at Lloyd and he once again gave him that odd look.

Was there something about him that was so strange? That Desian at the Ranch also gave him that same cold stare too. It was really starting to get old.

"Why are you staring at me like that for?" Lloyd finally asked.

"Your swordsmanship is unrefined," Kratos said. "You should focus a little more on eliminating your vulnerabilities." He turned to leave. "If you care about your life," he added as he left Lloyd to his thoughts.

Lloyd stood there slacked jaw for a moment. He gave him that look over just to tell him that? "Just because he's a little better than me, he has to talk like he knows everything! Well…a lot better than me. Damn!"

He knew that Kratos was much better than him with a sword. He clearly saw that at the temple after he beat that huge Desian like it was nothing. Today just confirmed everything. The man can cut through freaking steel! Man, he hated Kratos for being so good.

Lloyd let out a few more cusses in dwarven as he stomped back towards the inn. He shouldn't had follow that arrogant jerk out.

Kratos watched Lloyd leave as he leaned against an empty stall. He didn't mean to upset Lloyd, but those words were the first thing to entered his mind. From the little he had seen of Lloyd's fights, the boy had a long way to go if he wanted to improve his skills. His father would had never allow Lloyd to become so unbalanced.

At the same time, Lloyd was self-trained and didn't know any better. Given where he grew up, he wasn't too bad. He could see how Lloyd could get cocky with his skills if he only fought the footmen that guarded the Ranch and did the dirty work during a raid. The common dirt farmers during the war were more skilled in combat than them. If Lloyd wanted to live through any real fighters, he needed to get stronger, especially if Mithos was after him.

But he swore that Lloyd would never become a warrior. That he would never filthy his hands with blood and the life of another man.

Those, however, were long broken promises. He also promised to protect Lloyd and Anna. He killed Anna with his own hands and abandoned Lloyd to his fate. He also promised to rid the world of Cruxis and Desians. That Lloyd would not grow up under their cruel rule.

Yet, he allowed the Desians taint Lloyd in the worst possible way. Although he didn't know the woman, Marble, he was grateful that she killed herself and not made Lloyd do the deed. Lloyd may still feel guilty for her death, but that pain would had been greatly worse if he stuck the final blow.

In either case, he had broken all of his vows to Lloyd. What was one more in the grand scheme of the things? Lloyd was on this journey now, whether he liked it or not. Might as well trained him so he wouldn't be a burden.

He, however, couldn't force Lloyd to train with him. A teacher, student relationship was sacred and couldn't be force. If he wanted Lloyd to learn, he had to trust him. At the moment, Lloyd seemed to despise him. As he should, since he has done nothing but mocked him. It was best for him to eased up on his criticisms and allow Lloyd to come to him. Once that happened, they could build on that trust.

Kratos almost laughed at the word trust. If Lloyd did see this to the end; he would have to do something truly unforgivable. He hoped by that time he could turn Lloyd's eyes from what was going on. If Lloyd did go to the tower, he would be walking straight to Mithos for either an untimely death or an eternity of servitude. At this point, he could only hope for the best.

He decided he better turn in for the night. He still had to keep his front up and tomorrow was the real beginning of the Journey of Regeneration.

Lloyd quickly put his belt on as he rushed downstairs. He was running late and the others were waiting for him. It was not his fault. He only gotten like three hours of sleep. After he got back to his room, he needed to repair his pants. He wasn't so concern about the pants that everyone saw, but his long johns. He didn't have a spare of that and he didn't want to walk around with holes.

When he got outside, Raine, Kratos, and Genis gave him hard glares.

"You're late," Kratos scolded.

Raine shook her head. "Honestly, you can't even be on time outside of class."

Lloyd put his head down. "Sorry."

"Let's just get moving," Kratos ordered. "We may still be able to reach the ruins before the sun gets too low."

Even without Lloyd, they still got a late start. Since everyone went to bed late, it was impractical to raise everyone in the morning. Kratos had allowed everyone to sleep passed noon. Even so, everyone was still affected by sleep.

They didn't move as fast as yesterday, even with Noishe carrying Genis. The boy had next to no endurance and it was something that Kratos had to watch for. Despite his current shortcomings, the boy had the potential to become a powerful mage one day.

"Other than the Chosen, our group doesn't look like one that's on a journey to save the world," Kratos noted mostly to himself.

Raine, who was walking next to him, heard the comment and turned to look at the older man. "You still don't trust Lloyd and Genis?"

Kratos glanced at her from the side of his eyes. He hadn't meant for people to hear his statement. "They are much too young to bear the fate of the world," he said to cover himself. "I'm concerned that they will not be able to handle this journey."

Raine gave him a hard look. "While I may be an elf, but I'm still just a school teacher from a small village and you're a mercenary who fights for money. I don't think we're fit to handle the task of saving the world, either, wouldn't you agree?"

"Humph, indeed," Kratos muttered. She really did have no idea.

They reached the ruins around four in the afternoon, which was a welcomed change from the empty desert.

"Ah, so hot...man, I'm beat," Lloyd moaned. He had been nearly jumping in excitement about seeing the ruins after they left. Apparently, this was a common behavior for Lloyd.

Genis gave Lloyd a smug smirk. "See, you're already worn out."

Lloyd was too tire to even counter his friend. "I'm sick of this desert."

Genis would never say it, but so was he. There was nothing but sand around here.

Noishe began to shiver and moved a way from the ruins.

"What's wrong, Noishe?" Lloyd asked in concern.

Noishe suddenly turned around and ran the other way. He jolted so fast that Genis flew off the dog and landed ungratefully into the sand.

"Genis, are you okay?" Colette asked as she helped Genis up.

Genis grumbled as he dusted himself off. "Stupid dog!"

Raine shook her head. "That's what happens when you depend on another creature for transport."

Kratos was on guard as he reached for his sword. "Be on your guard, there are enemies about!"

Like clockwork, two rock like creatures came floated towards them.

"What the heck are those!?" Lloyd exclaimed as he reached for his swords.

"Fire Elements," Raine stated as she ready her staff.

Lloyd looked towards her. "Fire Elements? What kind of name is that?"

"Think about it later, Lloyd," Genis as he ready a spell. With his chant completed, Genis shot several blades of water towards one of the monster. The attack hit dead on causing the monster to flinched, but it hardly stopped its advance.

Lloyd moved in and hit the Fire Element with a Tiga Blade. The monster flared up and attempted to burn Lloyd alive. Luckily, Lloyd's clothes protected him from most of the heat.

"Sharpness!" Raine yelled as she enhanced Colette's weapons.

Colette threw her chakrams at the monster so hard that it became embedded itself into its body. The rock like skin cracked, but it was still moving.

Lloyd gave the finishing blow as he did a Sonic Thrust right in its weak spot. The monster broke apart and fell lifelessly unto the sand.

Kratos was able to single-handedly handled his monster. With one slashed of his sword, he split the Fire Element in half. It pieces flew in opposite directions as Kratos sheathed his sword.

He did a quick scan and sense no more monsters in the immediate area. He looked over to the rest of his team, who just killed their own monster a second ago. Fire Elements were one of the weakest monsters. If it took all four of them to handle just one, this was going to be a severe problem.

"This is going to be a nuisance," Kratos muttered to himself.

Lloyd looked to him in confusion. "What is?"

Kratos shook his head. "Nothing." He really needed to keep his thoughts to himself. No point in discouraging them. "Anyway, it would be a good idea for you to learn techniques to protect yourself."

"Are you talking about self-defense training?" Colette asked.

"Something like that," Kratos said as he took out his sword again. "I'm going to teach you a technique that will allow you to used your own mana as a type of barrier. It will protect you against physical and even magical attacks up to a point."

"Wow, you know something like that?" Genis asked in awe.

"In my line of work, you use all your knowledge to survive," Kratos answered. "I will show you first and then you can try." He put his sword into a defensive position and a sphere of green mana surrounded him.

All of them stared in awe of Kratos. Even Raine looked impressed, but there was some suspicion in her eyes. There was something about Kratos that didn't strike her as right, but she could put her finger on it.

Kratos dropped his barrier and looked expectedly at all of them. "It's your turn now."

After about an hour, each of them could used a form of barrier to various degrees. Raine caught on the quickest and erected a Force Field. Kratos knew this type of barrier was more effective against magical attacks than physical. It was well suited for a caster.

Genis was next and he also managed to created a Force Field, although his was not nearly as powerful as Raine's. It was, however, impressive nonetheless for someone his age.

Colette was able to eventually learned to control her barrier, except hers was neither a Guardian or a Force Field. After he looked it over, he realized that she managed to create what was known as a Damage Guard. It was a shield that was equally good against physical and magical attacks. It was fairly rare for a person to be able to create one, but he should have expected no less from Martel's vessel.

Lloyd had the most trouble of the entire group. He had problems keeping his shield up and it kept faulting.

"You're not concentrating," Kratos scowled. "In order to maintain a shield, you must keep you mind focused on the barrier."

"Focusing and Lloyd don't get along," Genis said with humor.

"I don't get it," Lloyd said in frustration. "I can control mana when I use my attacks."

"That's because your move set require you to release a bust of mana instead of a steady amount," Kratos said. "Although it isn't completely your fault. Human's can't control mana easily. It is your exsphere that has allow you to control it to the extent that you have."

Colette walked up to Lloyd and gently patted his arm. "You'll get it Lloyd."

After a few more minutes, Lloyd was able to maintain his shield more. It wasn't much, but it should keep him a live for the time being.

"That's enough for now. As you train on your own, you all should become more effective in creating your shields," Kratos stated. "However, you can't abuse them and they will weaken and break if you depend on them too much. Only used them as a very last resort."

Lloyd nodded and gave a huge smile. "Okay, I don't really get it, but I already feel stronger!"

Lloyd's sudden mood changes were reminding Kratos more and more of a certain man child.

"I can't wait to try it out!" Lloyd continued happily.

"I think you're just imagining things," Genis muttered jokingly.

Lloyd stuck his tongue at the younger boy as they moved closer to the ruins. They also noticed that Raine's mood started to rapidly change. Instead of being her normal calm self, she was beginning to shake. She looked like Lloyd when he was particular excited about something.

Genis put his head down and looked away from his sister. He knew what was going to happen and he could do nothing to stop it. When they were within a couple steps of the ruins, Raine suddenly shot ahead.

This even took Kratos off-guard since Raine didn't know if the area was even safe. He sensed for any hostile mana ahead, but found nothing. Raine was too busying looking over everything to care. Her eyes were lit up like stars on a moonless night.

Colette caught sight of something and also ran ahead. In the center of the ruins was an altar of some type. "Say, is this the seal? It has my family's crest on it?"

This caught Raine's attention and she ran to Colette's side. She looked over the altar, examining everything. "Fantastic!"

Everyone, saved for Genis, looked at in surprise Raine. Even Kratos looked a little unnerved.

"Look at this slab covering the entrance! It's clearly of a different composition than the surrounding stone!" Raine exclaimed as she fall to her knees, feeling the stone with her hands. She began to laugh insanely. "It's just as I thought! This is polycarbonate, developed during the Ancient War to defend against magic! Oh, feel the smooth surface! It's wondrous!"

Kratos was surprised by her knowledge. He had thought such information was long since lost to this world. Then again, this woman was a freak of nature. "Is she always like this?" He had to asked.

Genis looked down in shame. He looked like he just wanted to disappear.

"Is she?" Lloyd asked, looking directly at Genis.

He knew he couldn't hide it anymore. "I've been trying so hard to hide it too. Raine...Raine's a ruin manic."

"Ruin manic?" Colette asked. "Is that some type of disease?"

Genis kicked the sand beneath him. "Something like that. She's been like this for as long as I can remember. Raine just goes nuts whenever she's near any kind of ruins."

"Humph," Kratos muttered.

"This depression…it reads, 'oracle stone'," Raine suddenly said, getting everyone's attention again. She turned to face Colette. "Colette, place your hand here. That should reveal the entrance."

"Really?" Lloyd asked in awe.

"This stone is enchanted with magic designed to identify the Chosen. There's no question about it," Raine said with certainity.

Kratos nodded in approval. He had to admit, when the Professor got her act together, she was extremely knowledgeable. He could see why the Church picked her to go on this journey.

Colette walked up to the pedestal and placed her hand on the stone. A loud rumble was heard as a slab of stone moved to reveal an underground passage. It was so hot, that they could feel the heat flowing out of the hole. It was followed by a stall smell.

"It opened!" Colette cheered. "Wow, I guess I'm really the Chosen!"

"Yes, I think we know that already," Genis said in a deadpan voice as he shook his head.

Colette just gave a cheerful smile.

"Okay, now it's getting exciting!" Lloyd said, barely containing himself.

Kratos glanced at Lloyd. "I hope you'll be able to maintain that enthusiasm."

Without waiting another moment, the group descended into the passage way and onto the first trial.

Finally, we are entering the first seal. The fun starts next chapter.

Kiomori, thank you for your continue support. I really enjoy reading your reviews and hope you keep reading. As for Botta, I already found it strange that after the Renegades attacked the temple that they never made no other attempts to kill Colette. I guess they became distracted after they knew about Lloyd, but that was something that kind of bugged me. It also made sense in that moment since Kratos alone could handle Botta so the entire team did not need to jump him like in the game. Also, I did not put together Kratos was Lloyd's father until late, mostly because I was thrown off by Kratos only being twenty-eight.

MysteriousClue, thanks for your review. Glad to have you back. I am so happy that enjoy my story so much. I always enjoy novelizations of my favorites games, but I have only found precious few that were good and were not just game scripts. Even worst, the really good ones tend to never get completed. I hope to avoid both these shortfalls in my story and I am please to hear that I am doing a good job so far. I do my best to make this story more base in reality and not so much game mechanics, but keep the heart of what the game so great.

Chocobo Scribe, glad to have your review and I hope to hear more from you. I am happy to know that my story is making you want to play this great game again.
I personally never saw Forcytus, however, as an honorable antagonist. Granted, he is not nearly as bad as the other Grand Cardinals, but he did kind of jump the moral horizon with what he did to Marble. Not to mention some of the other stuff he did before he was killed. If things were different, Forcytus may had taken a better path in life that would had put him more in line with Lloyd's ideas, but he did too much crap for me to see him as completely sympathetic.

I also don't know about Lloyd having ADHD. Then again, I don't know much about this disorder so I cannot comment too much on this subject. I personally just see Lloyd as someone who is not motivated by academic. I went to school with people like that who simply want to do things that they are good at, like drawing or music, and not bother with the other stuff. That is my take anyway.

With that, until next time.