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Scars of Wind

Summary:

Rani Starrett is an ordinary girl from Earth, taken to Glenwood at random one day and ended up embroiled in the entire plot of Tales of Zestiria. However, her mere existence changed the story from what it was to what it is now. Incapable of going home without help, Rani travels the lands of Hyland and Rolance to finish the story and hopefully go home.

Notes:

(This note can be skipped)

Left this for ages, forgot to bring it back and now it's been rewritten.

There's a lot of things in here, like lore I created for the story itself, more of an OC focus than canon characters, (1) canon/oc ship and a lot of trying to figure out how to make the story interesting without fully rehashing everything.

EDIT 4/9/2023: All instances of Ryda's name have been swapped to Inanna/Ina. Ina is used for her nickname.

Chapter 1: Sparrowfeathers

Chapter Text

It hurt, it hurt, it hurt. The searing pain in my back, in my head, in my arms... like I'd been slammed into something. It was that pain that brought me back to consciousness, but I was reluctant to open my eyes. Reluctant to wake up. No, let me sleep a bit more, please. I don't want to wake up-

"Hey."

A hand gently shook me, and I reluctantly opened my eyes. The pain vanished as soon as it had come, making me believe it had been an illusion. There was the scent of horses, and there were a few boxes around me but nothing to block my sight. I was in a caravan, it seemed. The person who had shook me gently was a red-haired girl with bright blue-purple eyes and a perpetual cat-like smile. She seemed relieved when I woke up, and I noted a hat out of the corner of my eye. With familiar-looking decorations, too. But the girl didn't take any notice of him when she sat back down.

"Oh good, you're awake. You gave us a scare, you know. Didn't you know passing out in front of a caravan was dangerous?" She chided softly, handing over an oval-looking orange candy. "You were crying out in pain, so this might help."

I couldn't find my voice to say thank you, so I took the candy and gave a small nod while mouthing "thank you" at her. She seemed a bit more cheerful after I ate it, and helped me sit up. The man with the hat, who the girl didn't even notice, scoffed and adjusted where he sat so the girl could sit back down comfortably. These two being together felt familiar, but I couldn't place exactly why. It bothered me slightly because of this. I knew I had a bum memory sometimes, but if they looked familiar then why couldn't I remember them?

"Is she awake now, Rose?" A male voice asked. The girl nodded. Rose- That was right! Rose and Dezel, they were here in the caravan. So this meant the timeline I was in right now was prior to Rose joining Sorey as his Squire. But it didn't tell me exactly where in the timeline I was. So, at this point, I had nothing to do but speculate.

"Yeah. Think we can spare one of the stronger Gels to help boost her recovery? Those wolves really did a number on her before we got there."

Wolves? I didn't remember coming across any wolves. As I looked down, I noted how my chest was bandaged up and my pants were now shorts... and I had no shoes. But there were bandages on my legs and my arms as well. They'd patched me up? Were the Sparrowfeathers this charitable, or did I owe them in the future? As I tried figuring that out, I noted how there was another gel held out to me. A rainbow-like colour... so a Rainbow Gel? Did those even exist?

"Here."

"...Thank you." Ah, there was my voice. Taking it, I popped it in my mouth. It tasted like pomegranates, despite the rainbow colour. A familiar taste that reminded me of home. I wondered about that for a minute, if I would see home again. That was when the caravan was attacked. I heard the sound of wolves, and I felt my heart hammer against my chest.

"Not again!" The horses were going haywire, neighing loudly and rearing back. The man at the reigns hopped off the driver's seat after calming them and Rose gave me a 'stay there' motion before she hopped out of the back. So it was just me and Dezel in the caravan. He didn't seem like he wanted to go after her. Probably because it didn't need his attention. But he seemed to notice me staring at him and looked up at me. His bangs were covering his eyes, like always, and he seemed moodier than usual.

"Stop staring." He didn't seem surprised that I could see him. "It's annoying."

"Er, sorry." I shifted, and tried to distract myself with the pomegranate aftertaste from the gel. But I glanced back over at him, and he looked away. His arms were perpetually folded across his chest, it seemed. The caravan shook a little, and that seemed to get Dezel to actually acknowledge me properly.

"There's a rope on the other side of the boxes. Secure them so they don't fall." With a nod, I followed his command. Finding the rope wasn't difficult, but securing the boxes were. He gave me directions, though reluctantly, and I followed them to the best of my ability. This was the Sparrowfeathers' livelihood, so I had to protect it like this. One of the wolves tore at the caravan covering, but I heard a yelp and it pained me to hear that. I had to remind myself that wolves in this world were just hellions, and nothing more to stop myself from telling them to stop. But, as I did that, I began to think.

If the caravan was under attack, then... that meant I was set before Sorey met the Sparrowfeathers. And this meant that I had been picked up by them while unconscious so I wouldn't just be laying there. After what felt like hours, but was merely minutes, the man climbed back in the driver's seat and Rose climbed back in. I sat next to the roped-up boxes, and Rose raised a brow at me.

"How'd you figure that out?" She asked. "I don't remember telling you to do anything but stay here..."

"Well, there's a bunch of boxes, right?" She didn't know of Dezel, so I couldn't tell her anything about him. "And I saw the rope, and then I put two and two together! This is your stuff, yeah? It was the least I could do!" It was a lie. I would tell her the truth when she was able to perceive Dezel later on. She'd probably dislike me for that, but for now I couldn't tell her or else I'd risk her freaking out.

I hated knowing this about her. She didn't deserve to have someone who knew everything about her fears and why she could actually cook stalking about or... whatever. I swallowed lightly, and Dezel just softly scoffed before adjusting where he sat again. Rose sat back down, and then looked me over.

"Once we get the caravan repaired, I'll give you some gald to replace your clothes. The gels should've healed all your wounds by now but..." Rose opened a bag next to her, pulling out a tunic and a pair of pants. "We're about the same size, I think. You look a bit bigger in the chest area, though. Ah well. Put these on. They're just spares I keep in case I need to change clothes."

"...Alright." She handed me the clothes and helped me take the bandages off. To my surprise, the wounds were healed as she had said. I pulled on the tunic, and it felt a little tight around the chest. But it would do for now. The pants came next, and I would potentially have to walk barefoot- until Rose pulled out a spare pair of boots. Was that a bag of holding or something? It was easy to put them on, so I wouldn't have to deal with hot cobblestone on my poor feet. The colours really didn't suit me, or at least I didn't think they suited me, but that was what Rose had on her so I wouldn't complain.

Stopping at the bridge to Ladylake, where the guards would keep the wolves from attacking us again, I helped them unload the boxes and sat next to one. I didn't look like I was a part of the caravan itself, but because I was with the Sparrowfeathers, the guard doing a paperwork check basically just had a few questions that Rose answered- Except one.

"What's her name, then?" He asked as the final question.

"It's Rani." I piped up from my spot.

"Alright, here's your passport. Don't lose it." He handed me a paper that Rose quickly took from me and put in her bag as I didn't have anywhere to store it currently. As the two of us waited for the caravan to be repaired, two sets of footsteps reached my ears and I turned around to see-

A boy with messy brown hair and green eyes with a darker blue shirt and a black shirt underneath, black pants and a sword on his hip accompanied by a boy with gradient blue hair, purple eyes and wearing a very ornate and complicated outfit.

Sorey and Mikleo.

Chapter 2: Destiny Awaits

Chapter Text

We were blocking the way into Ladylake with the caravan, but it wasn't really a problem as Sorey had to answer the same questions as I did to get entrance into Ladylake. I kept quiet the entire time, knowing what was to come. Or hoping I did. The wolf attack had damaged the caravans, but we were never told when exactly it happened in the game, just that the Sparrowfeathers had to block the road to fix their caravans and it took a bit for Sorey to get in to Ladylake anyway.

"Hey-" I tapped Sorey on the shoulder, startling him a little.

"O-oh. Hi there." Sorey rubbed the back of his head. "Was there something you needed?"

"There might be a point you have to follow a dog. Don't let the dog out of your sight, they're important." I warned. Okay, that would cover that. It was cryptic and kind of jarring, but I couldn't let the poor thing die because they couldn't keep up. I wouldn't be able to do anything. Lunarre would destroy me before I got a chance to attack. "That's all. Sorry about that."

"Follow a dog? What's she on about?" Mikleo asked.

"I dunno, Mikleo. Maybe there's a reason she'd tell me that." Sorey responded. I had turned away from them to walk back over to Rose when I'd heard them, so I looked over my shoulder.

"There is, you'll figure it out when it happens!" I said with a smile before continuing my walk over to Rose. The caravans were fixed, and we all loaded everything back into them before walking with them into the city. Rose stayed for a moment to talk to Sorey and Mikleo before she caught up with us. Entering the city wasn't hard, we just had to show the entrance papers and get them approved by the guards. The Sparrowfeathers were commonly coming here, so their papers were stamped almost immediately. Mine, however, went through a bit of scrutiny before getting stamped.

There was a house there in Ladylake that we stopped at, unloaded the cargo from the caravans, set up the horses and then moved the cargo into the house. It was a little dusty from no use, but that was cleaned up almost immediately. Rose rested her arm on my shoulder, and I glanced over at her. "I'll be taking our friend here out to get new clothes, so make sure things are finished before I get back!" She said with a smile before leading me out of the house. I noted Dezel out of the corner of my eye. Following along, it seemed, and I was worried he would take over Rose while we were out. I knew that was why he was sticking around her, she was a convenient vessel for him and her fear of ghosts stopped her from seeing him entirely.

We walked a while until we came across a shop with a hanging banner that had a tunic, a shield and crossed swords on it. A clothing and weapon shop? Rose opened the door, and I followed her inside.

"Hey, Maria!" The door closed once Dezel was inside, and Rose walked up to the shopkeeper to have a friendly chat with her. I glanced around at the store. Weapons everywhere, of different types. Swords, whips, daggers, a trident that looked like a fork, lances, gauntlets, greaves- You named it, they had it apparently. Noting something out of the corner of my eye, I walked over and picked it up. A faded gold bracelet, but purposefully made that way. Looking it over, noting the patterns on it, I realized what this was. How did it get here when humans couldn't see what the seraphim turned into their own weapons? Or was this a replica of his-?

"Oh, that old thing." Rose's voice startled me and I nearly dropped the bracelet. Looking to her, eyes wide and fearful, body hunching together as if trying to protect myself, I was on the verge of a panic attack. She'd spooked me, and she noted how I was acting before giving me a little space. It took me a moment to calm down but, when I did, I just kind of glanced over the bracelet again.

"How'd it get here?"

"I'unno. Someone brought it in a couple years back and no one's wanted it. I'm guessing you do? I was gonna get you a set of daggers so you could defend yourself."

"You still can, I'd... just like this too, if that's alright."

Rose grinned. "Sure! I think Maria would be glad to be rid of it. She doesn't like it much. Anyway, we should go upstairs if you're done gawking at it. The clothes are up there."

She and I went upstairs to the clothing and armour section, where there was a selection of different types of clothes there. We both looked around for something for me to change into instead of wearing a set of Rose's clothes. A blue coat with white fur around it, a black top with no sleeves or straps with blue-ish ruffling, a pair of short light red shorts and black boots. A pair of brown gloves were tossed at me by Rose, and I stared at them before shrugging. Something to pull it all together, I suppose. Heading back downstairs with Rose, Maria gave her the total and Rose just grinned before pulling out a sack of gald and setting it on the counter.

"We have a dressing room right over there if you want to change," Maria said as she counted out the gald Rose had given her before she ushered me off to the dressing room and had me change. As she did, Rose handed me a bag to put the other clothes in. We'd gotten me a new set of underwear too, so I changed those too as I changed clothes. The outfit seemed to suit me well, so I carefully left the room and carried the bag with me that held the clothes, folded up as neatly as I could get them.

"Thanks for the business, Rose. Always a pleasure to see you."

"No problem, Maria! Oh, yeah, we have your items you asked for. I'll have Rosh bring it over later."

"Alright! I'll talk to you later, then." With a wave, the two of us left the store and I felt weird. Attempting to hand over the bag to Rose, though...

"Think you should keep it. Never know when you'd need a change of clothes." Rose said with a grin. "Anyway, we should talk about how you're gonna pay me back."

"I-I don't have any gald, I-" Rose laughed and shook her head.

"You can just help us out in exchange. I'm not going to ask for money you don't have!" She patted my back. "We're gonna help set up the Festival, so you can help too."

I wondered if it would be weird to ask to join the Sparrowfeathers, so I could help out more and potentially be set on the path to help Sorey on his journey. Give him hints and not something as direct as I did before... like some sort of guide or something. That would probably be a bit too much, in all honesty. I'd already made things weird with the dog thing, but I just wanted to make sure the dog would live and not die like in playthroughs I've seen of Zestiria...

"Alright, that sounds fair."

We headed back to the house the Sparrowfeathers had stopped at, and Rose explained to the group that, after extensive talks, I'd be joining them in helping with the festival as one of the Sparrowfeathers. Eguille didn't seem to mind, and neither did any of the others. Which was odd, shouldn't they be protesting because I could potentially blow their cover as the Scattered Bones? Or was it so I didn't find out that they were- when I already knew?

"Then it's settled!" Rose turned to me and handed me the daggers, which were sheathed. I placed them under the cape of my outfit, where Rose usually put her own, finding they fit into my belt as if I was holstering them. The outfit would keep them hidden and I could get past the guards with them... Devious. But that was if they didn't make any sort of indent or note that they were there, which I looked behind myself to make sure they didn't. It seemed the cape covered them well, and there was no indication I had them at all. If I moved too fast, perhaps... but then again, perhaps not. I wouldn't know until it was pointed out to me, so no reason to worry about it.

"Here, take this to the Sanctuary." She handed me another bag, this time filled with items needed for the festival happening in the city. "We'll meet up with you soon."

With that, I was ushered out of the house and the door shut behind me. Huh. Despite this, I made my way towards the Sanctuary, where the festival would be taking place. I would have to take the back way to get in, as the Sparrowfeathers were seen coming out of the back... weren't they? It wasn't too hard to find, but the guard stopped me before I could go in.

"Festival Staff only beyond this point." His lance was in the way, and I looked over at him before raising up the bag.

"I'm a part of the Sparrowfeathers." A lie, and I'd have to deal with that later. "I was sent ahead to bring these to the Festival, so... can I pass?"

He held out his hand, before I realized something. Handing him the bag, he just handed it back. His guard friend wasn't even looking, so it seemed this was common. Getting inside? He wanted a bribe to let me pass. Checking my pockets, then the bag itself, I noted Rose had stuffed a bag of gald into it. Convenient, wasn't it? Handing the gald over, I was admitted entry almost immediately. The back was full of people preparing for the festival, and I was instructed on where to put the stuff for the Festival by one of the people helping set up. I caught a glimpse of Alisha and Maltran as I went about my business and a part of me wanted to ask Maltran if she was working for Heldalf, but I swallowed the question and headed back out once I was done. It was around then that I met back up with Rose outside of the temple, and Sorey was talking to her about something. I didn't see Dezel anywhere, so he must not have been around.

"Hey, it's you-" Sorey looked to me and I gave a sheepish wave.

"Hello again." I said, nervous.

"What you told us when we first met was really weird, but it came out to be true!" His attention was fully on me now. "What else do you know? Anything about ancient ruins? Will I come across any?"

His face was full of childish adoration, and I sheepishly rubbed the back of my neck. Well, it wouldn't be a lie... "Yeah, you come across a lot." But how? I wouldn't tell him. "But that's all I'd know, honestly."

"I bet you're just hyping him up!" Rose teased with a grin. "Come on, Rani, it's not nice to hype someone up!"

"R-Rose! I'm just-" I shut up automatically and looked away, feeling my cheeks burn. Of course, I'd feel like I can't defend myself. It always happened, and I felt defeated. An arm crossed my shoulders and a finger poked my cheek, which made me jolt a little.

"It's alright. I'm just messing with you. Sorry about that, didn't think you'd get upset." It was a genuine apology, and I looked over at Rose who was smiling softly at me. She pat my back before walking back to one of the twin Sparrowfeathers- I think it was Talfryn. Regardless, she got Sorey into the temple to go warn Alisha of Lunarre before the three of us walked back to the house.

"We'll be heading out a few days after the Festival is over. It'll be pretty busy, like usual. You up for that?"

I gave a small nod. "Yeah. I'll help as much as I can."


Can you hear me?

It was dark when I opened my eyes. The voice had woken me suddenly, but I still felt like I was dreaming. A strange glowing light was in the corner of the room. Sitting up, I noticed a little boy in the corner holding a strange device. His eyes glanced over me, before a somber look came over his face.

Sorry for waking you, but this is important. His voice rang loud and clear in my mind.

"What is?" I whispered, careful not to raise my voice.

There's a lot to start with... He set the device down, and I noticed it was a compass. It was oddly designed, but it looked neat. But I don't have a lot of time. There's a few precious moments before I fall back into Malevolence, so please listen carefully okay?

"I will."

He looked hopeful. I want you to help me. I'll guide you when I can pull myself back out, but please don't expect it all the time. There's... some things out of line here, that happened out of line since before you were called here-

"Wait, I was called here?"

The boy looked away a bit, out the window. We couldn't see much out of it, but we could see a bit of the sky. It was moments before he responded.

Yes. I called you here. It was a desperate attempt to right something that should've been fixed long ago, but it's still bleeding out into the world today. And I need you to cooperate with the Shepherd. He's with my former apprentice as we speak, and he'll be the one to show you the way. Follow him, alright?

That was a lot to take in for me. "...I'm in debt to the Sparrowfeathers. A-and, if I remember right, their paths cross with Sorey's a lot-"

Rayfalke Spiritcrest. The boy said, picking up the compass. Go there.

"...What's at the Spiritcrest?"

My old friend, Eizen. And his little sister too. The lights started to float upwards more and more, like he was dissipating. Which was probably true, his time was probably up by now. You can help the Shepherd. The world is different from the one you remember, and here there is something known as- Oh, it looks like my time is up. I'll tell you more when I'm capable.

"Wait a secon-" But he was gone before I could finish my sentence or ask him what he was going to say... or who he was. How did he know Eizen and Edna? It was mind-boggling. With a small frown, I got out of bed and dressed before making the bed and quietly trying to sneak out. If I was supposed to go to the Spiritcrest, then I better get a head start. Sorey would be out for three days, and that's about the amount of travel time distance-wise when you're not in a game to get to the Spiritcrest.

"Leaving already?" Dezel's voice came out of nowhere and I jumped before looking over my shoulder.

"I know I'm in debt to the Sparrowfeathers and I promise I'll pay it off, just let me do this real quick and I'll meet you all in Marlind!" I said, trying to keep my voice from going higher than a whisper. I couldn't tell Dezel's facial expression, but his mouth twitched a little before he tossed me something and walked off. A way of sending me off, I supposed.

Catching what he had tossed me, I peeked inside and noticed it was a bag filled with gels and bottles of all sorts. I felt bad, I really did, and I hoped I could repay the Sparrowfeathers for their kindness at some point. Thinking, I put the bag down before-

"I can't write in Glenwood script. Help me write a note."

"And why should I?" Dezel stopped but didn't look behind him. Windreading at its finest, not that it mattered much in the grand scheme of things.

"So I can let them know I'm not skipping out on my debt! Especially with Rose, I don't want her thinking that either!"

He gave a sort of non-committal noise before grabbing a quill and a piece of parchment paper to help me write the note. Well, he wrote it but I helped with the wording and left it in an easy-to-find place before thanking him and leaving Ladylake in the middle of the night. It wasn't the best decision, but the compass had been pointing to the southeast, and that was the direction of the giant mountain in the distance.

Following the compass. It sounded cliché as all hell, but I didn't mind.

No, this was the start of my adventure.

Chapter 3: B is for Bandits

Summary:

Rani's adventure is one crazy ride.

Notes:

Minor OOC-ness and such. This was worked on for a while, but I finally got it finished.

EDIT: 9/25/2023 Minor editing.

Chapter Text

"I wonder if they found the note."

The grass was trampled under my feet as I walked through the plains, obviously not following the road. There had been a few Hellions around, which I avoided fighting as I had no idea on how to fight and I didn't want to kill them. And I still had to get to the Spiritcrest, right? That was what the boy had said. Continuing forward on this adventure was difficult. I wasn't used to walking all the time and constantly had to sit down after a while to take a breather and stop my legs from aching before I continued forward. It was a process, and I had been a homebody until now so I was very... unused to so much activity. I didn't even have an exact time! But that wasn't the problem.

I'd meet travellers on the road, point them in the direction of Ladylake if they were headed there and then hear in an inn out of the way that the travellers never made it there. Bandits were attacking them, and it left a sour taste in my mouth. I wondered exactly what type of bandits were attacking them. Perhaps they were desperate for food or gald. And I wondered why I wasn't being attacked too. Saying my goodbyes to the innkeeper I had come across, I left the inn that I'd been staying in last night and headed back on the road. Having to work in exchange for room and board for a night had been a bit of a task but... At least they were nice.

That had been... two days. So if I was looking back at Ladylake, I wouldn't see it anymore. Marlind wasn't too far from here, but it would be in the throes of a plague caused by malevolence. I'd rushed on ahead without any form of idea of where to go except for the Spiritcrest. From what I could recall, Eizen was on that mountain... but as a dragon. There was something else, too. Something I knew I was forgetting. I didn't know exactly what it was, but I just knew something important was slipping my mind. Regardless, the bridge was still up. That meant that it was too early for it to collapse. But the rain was endless. I was soaked upon my arrival to the area, and shielded my eyes against it as I looked towards the sky. Different, I supposed, but I couldn't do much of anything.

Spiritcrest, Spiritcrest. What awaited me at you? Nothing but death at the moment. Nothing but death- but I couldn't divert from my path just yet. There was a little pathway before I was able to reach the bridge, so I turned up that path and headed up the sloping hill. As I did so, I noticed something falling from the sky. As if thrown, and it turned out not to be something but someone. Their body hit the ground and they came to a stop at my feet. Long, white hair with green ends covered their back, and they wore black pants with turquoise designs. The oddest part yet was the belts on their wrists and the solitary glove on their left hand. With a frown, I shook the person who had fallen.

Stupid me. A fall from that height meant they were dead, right?

"What am I doing...?" I murmured to myself. "They're dead. That fall was from a very high height and..." I sighed, deciding to push the body over to get a better look. A male, and a young one. And then it hit me, and I smacked my forehead with a groan. This was before Sorey scaled the Spiritcrest and met Zaveid for the first time, so obviously something had happened prior to their meeting! It just so happened that this was what happened instead. Something important. He was the something important I was forgetting about! Zaveid the Hellion Hunter!

"Gods above and below, what the hell..." I sat back, staring at the sky for a few moments. I didn't have much in the ways of items but... I hadn't used any of them since starting my adventure. I had to shuffle through various items in my bag before grabbing a blue bottle with a label on it. I couldn't exactly decipher what it said, and quietly wished I had an interpreter for Glenwood Script with me. But I uncorked it and heaved a heavy sigh before moving back over to the unconscious Zaveid and pressing the bottle to his lips. The clear liquid slowly left the bottle, and in moments his eyes fluttered open. I removed the now empty-bottle, re-corked it and put it in my bag while muttering to myself about how idiotic this seemed as I noticed him sitting up slowly.

"Try not to take a giant fall like that again, I don't have a lot of these and I'm not around enough to play babysitter." I said, standing up and dusting myself off. I didn't know how many Dezel had given me but... I probably didn't have much in the way of Life Bottles, if that's what I used. Those seemed really expensive and rare.

"You're not here for the dragon are ya, kid?" Zaveid's voice broke through my thoughts and I glanced at him. He'd stood up during the time I was examining the contents of my bag while deep in thought, and towered over me in height. With a short, non-committal shrug, I waved a hand.

"Does it look like I can fight a dragon? I was just told to come here, and then I met you when you landed on the ground like you did. Thought you were dead until I realized nope, very much alive." I closed my bag and turned to him. "Well, no. It's more like a little kid told me to come here because a couple of people lived here. Eizen and Edna. Heard of them?"

His body tensed. I noticed his gaze wasn't even on me now, instead away as if I'd said something unintentional. But this was what I was sent here for. Something at the Spiritcrest, and I would have to find out exactly what the kid had wanted me to do. But... if anything, the hellion that was usually here was guarding the place and I couldn't have Zaveid kill it too soon. That would set everything awry.

The path of Tales of Zestiria was never very straight-forward, but this was something that had Sorey first meeting Zaveid. The fight with the hellion blocking the way.

It was an uncomfortable silence, regardless. For a few minutes, there was nothing. The wind seemed a little colder, even. Then-

"They're up on the mountaintop. Why?" His tone was sharp and bitter.

"Again, little kid sent me up here. 'Bout this tall, wearing a robe.. And had a strange device in his hands. He said that Eizen was an old friend of his-" Like that, I was cut off with Siegfried in my face.

"Not another word." Very out of character for him, but perhaps I'd hit a sore spot for him. That was alright, he didn't have to answer me. "Listen, kid. I don't know who you are, or where you're from but don't bother with either of those people. And don't talk about them around me. Got it?"

"..." I stared at him and he stared back. With a sigh, Zaveid put Siegfried away and started walking off. I just watched him go before shaking my head and staring up at the mountain. I couldn't save Eizen right now, but.. Once I had the capability to, I would be back. I would do as I was asked, but only when I was able to and not a moment before. I turned around, heading back down the path.

Just wait for now, Eizen. I'll be back to make sure you're saved.


"Deliver medicine across to Marlind?" I asked, with a slight frown. The rain hadn't washed away the bridge yet, but the guy had just thrust the package at me and told me to deliver it to Marlind. The epidemic town, where a plague ran free... that was caused by malevolence.

"Of course! Are you stupid and hardheaded?! Get going!" He shoved me away from him, and I caught myself before I fell. Rude. Rude and... cruel. I took in a deep breath and turned to the bridge. This wasn't going to be too hard. Get it to Marlind and then come back before the bridge went out of service. That was easy enough for me to do. Delivery sidequest and all, and then no reward. It was fine, really. It was alright. It was...

"Wh-what-"

Halfway across the bridge, I heard footsteps behind me. A knight, lance beared. The bridge underneath my feet started to crack. He'd seen something I hadn't, and had charged in to protect me. But, it was too late for that. As soon as he reached me, the bridge broke and the two of us got thrown into the river. The current was fast, and I couldn't keep my head above the water long enough to take a breath of air. I was drowning, I was actually drowning.

They say death by drowning is the worst, and I had to agree with that. I choked, and filled my lungs with more water. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't breathe. Everything was going so, so wrong. The light dimmed around me, and I heard a splash and a hand reach out to grab me before the entire world went dark. And, for a while, I dreamed.

I dreamed of home. Of my life before this. Dreamed of sleeping, dreamed of cooking... Dreamed of going outside and taking walks when I couldn't bear seeing the same four walls any more. But, as I headed to the kitchen for something to eat, I jolted awake with a gasp for air before turning over and coughing. My lungs were clear but burning for air, and I was gasping for a good few minutes before my breathing straightened itself out and I found myself in a bed. A warm, comfortable bed. The oil lamp was still burning, which meant that it still had enough to keep the flame up. In the bed next to mine was the knight, though his dark hair was splayed all over the pillow. I could tell from the tunic and helmet in the chair next to the bed, and the lance. He'd been the one coming to my rescue... I swallowed hard and was about to get out of bed when the door opened and a few people filed in. Immediately, I was on guard and went for the daggers Rose had given me- only to realize they weren't there. They were with my bag along with my bracelet and jacket on the chair near my bed.

"You're the only one awake." One of them said with a smug grin. "Guess you'll be givin' us a payment for rescuin' ya. C'mere, girl." He started forward, but I went for my daggers and grabbed them as I tumbled out of the bed. The blanket had, mercifully, not been tangled up with my legs. Rose hadn't taught me how to use them, so I was running blind here. I didn't ask for them to save me-!

"Didn't I tell ya not to bother our guests?" A rough female voice asked. "Move it or I'll kick yer asses!"

"We only answer to the boss, not his side girl!" One of the men said.

"Oh? An' I guess the boss will be happy t'hear that you were tryin' to assault our guests fer rescuin' them. Don't forget it was the boss who saved 'em. We may be bandits, but we ain't gonna assault an' harrass the people we save. The boss will be pissed. Now get the fuck outta here." A female with her blonde hair in a pixie cut walked in. She was wearing a cloth around her breasts, and a pair of pants but not much else. Her body was scarred, but muscular, and she didn't seem too fussed about shooing the rest of the bandits out. With a sigh, she shut the door but I still remained on guard. When she saw this, she raised her hand up as if in surrender. "Ain't gonna hurt ya. Put those away an' I'll tell ya where both ya and the knight boy there ended up."

"...Mm..." The boy in the bed groaned and woke up. "Wh—what happened...?" He sat up, and both the bandit and the boy looked at each other. She sighed, and gestured for me to put the daggers away. I reluctantly did so, frowning as we both were ushered out of the room and to another, much grander room. It was a nice house, I'd give them that, but it felt... out of place. Like we were being sent towards our doom. At the table was a man, about mid-thirties, sitting in the chair with a goblet in his hand. A silver one, not gold like I'd expected.

If I recalled correct, malevolence showed itself as little purplish-black specks, but there was none here that I could see. Or I was blind towards it, either or. He glanced at us, grey eyes narrowing just a bit before he sat straight in the chair and set his goblet down.

"So, the princess and her knight awaken. I thought that Princess Alisha carried a spear. It seems that I was wrong." He said. He'd... mistaken me for Alisha? How? I tugged at my hair slightly, seeing the black colour as it always was. That was when he burst out laughing and I froze before looking at him. Laughing now? Why? His red hair, long and messy, moved back as he laughed heartily. As if this was the funniest thing in the world. "I'm kiddin', lady. I know Alisha's a platinum blonde and can defend herself. I ain't as stupid as I look. So, can I have the names of the kids that I saved?"

Wait... He was the one who saved us? Bandits... actually stuck their necks out for people in danger? I had to rethink about what I'd heard about them, then. With a slight nod, I obliged.

"Rani."

"..." The boy seemed a bit awkward. "Why should I tell a bandit?"

"Because he saved yer worthless hide, you Hyland freak!" The girl with the pixie cut exclaimed. The man shook his head and the girl nearly avoided getting hit with his dagger that he'd thrown at her out of nowhere.

"Enough, Inanna. We are not like the Evergreen Bandits. You would do well to remember that." His voice carried authority, and Inanna backed away while muttering under her breath. This was a weird dynamic, and perhaps normal for them... but back home, he would've gotten arrested for attempted murder. Not here, though. Not here. "Now, knight, please tell me your name. I want to know who I've saved."

"Fine." He muttered. "It's Aevar Wraith."

The man seemed a bit thoughtful at that. "Wraith, huh? Know a Maribelle Wraith?" He asked, curiosity in his voice.

"...That's my mother." Aevar said with a frown. "How do you-"

"Maribelle's my sister. Haven't heard from her in years, an' now her son's a Hyland Knight. Guess she really did flee from him.." The man looked thoughtful for a moment longer. "Name's Arvald Chester. Leader of the Hyland Bandits, and yer uncle. You an' Rani were lucky I was out huntin' when I was, else you two might've never seen the light of day again. Speakin' of-" Arvald got up out of his chair and gestured to the window. The sun was, slowly but surely, rising. It cast a light on the man, who I could see wore the pelt of an animal, perhaps a bear, around his waist with trousers and a white long-sleeved shirt. There was a belt around the pelt with multiple sheaths for multiple daggers. But he was strong, extremely strong, as shown with how the tension around his sleeves were near to bursting with how big his muscles were. He was a bear of a man, and had a matching red beard to his hair. How had I not noticed this before, and only noticed his eyes?

Aevar stood quiet, his head turned away. As if he didn't believe this. I couldn't blame him. His uncle was a bandit, but he had morals... though his lackeys didn't seem to have any of those morals he did. With a shaky breath, the knight spoke.

"Why did you save us?"

"Because you two would've drowned. Ain't like us to just leave travellers for dead." Arvald shrugged and sat back down, putting his feet on the table after picking up his goblet. "We tend to only strike merchants that've been price gougin' as they think the higher prices will give them more money to line their pockets with. Only a few merchants, like the Sparrowfeathers, are exempt. Some travellers think the same, so we have to teach 'em a lesson. But that's it. We ain't murderers or anythin' of the sort."

"Good-willed bandits. I've literally met good-willed bandits." I said without thinking. Voicing my thoughts aloud, as it were. Arvald laughed at that.

"So, where're you two headed?" He asked, taking a long swig from the goblet.

"I need to get back to Ladylake and report." Aevar responded.

"...I'm going to Marlind to drop off some medicine."

Arvald sat upright at that, goblet hitting the table. "Why the hell are ya goin' to a plague town, kid? Even if it's medicine, if you catch it-"

"I have a strong immune system, I'll be alright." I said in response, looking away.

"Hmph. Well, ya ain't goin' alone. Ina, yer in charge 'til I come back. Aevar, are ya just gonna let her go alone? Ain't very knightly of ya."

"I wasn't going to-" Aevar was cut off as Arvald laughed and stood up, walking over to us.

"Get yer things together, you two. We're goin' to Marlind."


During the course of the two days that it took to get to Marlind from the bandit hideout, Arvald had taken me under his wing and taught me how to use the daggers I had. I could see the hellions, and apparently so could Arvald and Aevar. We wore them down and then fled as to not bloody our hands. People with resonance enough to see Seraphim and Hellions were far and few inbetween, and so running across two in one go was extremely rare. But there were things that could happen like that, and I counted my lucky stars that I didn't have to go about this alone. Aevar and Arvald took shifts, saying that I should sleep at night and keep up my strength for the morrow. They were used to this kind of thing and me, being a newbie traveller, wasn't. But that was fine with me. At least I'd be able to help while we were walking to Marlind.

When we came across the town, it was bad. There was purplish-black particles everywhere and there was a haze hanging over the city that seemed suffocating. But I had to deliver the medicine, I just had to do that job. The sanctuary wasn't too far, but I noticed something near the tree as the three of us headed in that direction. Four figures with one sitting down at the base of the Great Tree. Instead of continuing on towards the sanctuary, I diverted and headed for them. As they came into view, I noticed that Sorey was there... And Mikleo. Alisha and Lailah, too, but I hadn't actually met them properly. So that would mean that Edna had left-

Which meant, by the fact of Sorey being here before me, I'd missed them meeting Atakk in the museum and their encounter with the woman who was trying to sell books to get gald for something nice in her life for once. I'd missed a good chunk of the Marlind excursion, and that was something.

"Lady Alisha!" Aevar exclaimed, running ahead to her. He'd been outfitted with travelling clothes instead of his usual knight outfit, but he wore the gauntlets and the greaves for fighting instead of the spear he was carrying around. So she didn't recognize him at first before her face broke out in a smile as she heard his voice.

"Sir Aevar! -And who are they?" Alisha asked, gesturing at me and Arvald.

"Hey! It's you again!" Sorey got back up on his feet and walked over. "Haven't seen you since Ladylake! Didn't think we'd meet up here..." He rubbed the back of his head. Sorey was really a kind person to have remembered me from then, even though he'd been through so much already.

"Yeah. Looks like our paths keep crossing regardless of circumstances." I looked over the others. Aevar and Alisha were in conversation while Arvald examined Mikleo, who was a bit put out by the action. Lailah stood there, hands clasped in front of her, with a small smile on her face as if this was perfectly normal. Then again, it probably was. "That reminds me, I've forgotten to introduce myself after this time. I'm-"

"Rani, right? The girl who helped us get into the Sanctuary said your name." Sorey responded.

"Yep. That's me." I gave a small smile to him. "So, uh, not to cut this short but-"

"Please, cut it short." A deadpan female voice said. "I don't think I can take this sappiness much longer."

Everyone looked at the girl who had come up with her parasol closed and pointed towards the ground. With her was Atakk, the normin from the museum. Edna, the Earth Seraph who was now Lailah's sublord. So they'd met Zaveid... Her outfit wasn't the same I was used to in the game, however. Instead of the usual dress, she wore a short black jacket, what I assumed was a white tunic with an orange undershirt and black shorts. Her glove and boots remained the same, but her hair wasn't in its usual ponytail. Then again, her outfit was more practical than Lailah's in many regards. She was an up-close fighter unlike the Fire Seraph...

And it was probably a choice for travelling, too. After all, the Seraphim would probably want to walk along with Sorey as well..

"Welcome back, Edna- Oh, and Atakk too!" Sorey seemed pleased to see the normin. As I expected, the conversation about Atakk helping with the arrow shot against the Drake to bring it down happened as Arvald tapped my shoulder.

"I'll take the medicine to the sanctuary." He said, holding his hand out. "You an' Aevar help 'em out while I'm gone, alright?"

"Alright." I agreed, handing over the medicine that was still in its bag. Once the conversation was done, they headed to Neif's house which was the best place for this attack to start. Standing with Alisha, Lailah and Edna, we watched as Sorey armatized with Mikleo and readied an arrow. Atakk, at Lailah's command, helped amplify the power and the arrow flew from the bow to the Drake, hitting it and causing to fall into the clearing nearby. I pulled out my daggers, and Aevar readied himself for a fight. We charged in, ready for combat as no one would see us fighting what was essentially air to others. Our participation in the battle wasn't contested, either. It was like they'd accepted we were helping regardless of our ability to purify malevolence.

"Sorey!" Mikleo called out from the Armatization. The drake swiped at him, and he dodged around. I attacked from a flank, stabbing it with my daggers before pulling back. Lailah cast a fire spell, it exploding all around the drake. Edna, too, cast a spell that sent it staggering down as she did so. It swiped its tail at Aevar and I, and we dodged and rolled out of the way. Alisha wasn't lucky enough, however, and got hit in the side. It sent her flying and rolling to a stop. Lailah ran over to her to heal her wounds, leaving us to continue the fight.

Sorey dodged another attack, the armatization coming undone so they could fight together without it. Though a choice I had made myself once upon a time while playing the game, it wasn't one I would encourage as it boosted their power. As soon as I took my eyes off of the drake, my fate was sealed and its tail hit me, sending me flying. I hit the ground, feeling the pain as I smacked into the dirt, and groaned as I opened my bag and grabbed a gel to pop into my mouth. I was fine, this wasn't going to take me down. The pain was irrelevant to the task.

But damn it, it hurt like hell.

I charged back in, stabbing and weaving as Sorey sliced and Mikleo cast spells. Edna reluctantly teamed up with Aevar and the two of them combined magic and his punches to cause a bit more damage. The drake was about to attack again when three daggers came flying at it as well as an explosion and Alisha returning to the fray. Arvald had joined us in the battle, his delivery done. I didn't know how much time had passed, but his presence was welcome. After that, it was easy to overpower the drake and confuse it, giving Sorey enough time to purify the malevolence and shift its form back to its original one.

The drake shrank, the flames of purification burning away the malevolence it had. In its place was a seraph with striking blonde hair and very intricate robes. The Guardian Seraph of this place, whose name was Rohan.

Chapter 4: Of Oracles and Squires

Notes:

Due to current world events, I've skipped over the rest of the Marlind part.

5/19/2022 Update Note: The Marlind part will be skipped indefinitely. Not due to world events, but moreso that anything I would write now would screw with the following chapters and have me rewrite the entire story. It's basically the same as in-game, but ending as Sorey got told of Alisha's detainment to force him to participate in the war.

Chapter Text

Alisha... had been detained. And Sorey was being forced to go along with Hyland's whims to ensure her safety. The man who had gave us the message had also said that she'd put up a fight while being detained for being a potential traitor to her own country. So that had left us no choice but to go along. Arvald had cited that he needed to get back to his people, and disappeared on us before we'd gotten that order. Which meant that Aevar and I had to go along with Sorey. We were assumed to be a part of the Sheperd's group, and therefore the order had gone to us as well. It was stupid in all regards. Neither Aevar nor I could be of any use in war. We weren't Squires, we couldn't do anything. Dead weight, that was just what we were.

But still, we continued forward with Sorey. Aevar looked despondent, and I was resigned. As we followed along, we listened in on what the commander of Hyland's troops had to say. That Sorey was to follow his orders and do as he said, but Sorey was defiant and did his own thing...

Like rescuing Lucas and the mercenaries. The Hyland troops abandoned them, so we had jumped in to save them. It was the first time I'd actually killed anything, too. Aevar was used to it, his lance stabbing through the people and cutting through. But I wasn't. Fighting the Rolance soldiers, I was barely able to keep on my own two feet. My daggers were flailing everywhere, trying to block the attacks so I didn't get hurt. I hated being hurt, and being hurt in this case meant my death because I would be incapacitated, and that wasn't a good thing. Blocking attacks was all I could do, until I heard the sound of my clothes tearing and then the sharp pain in my side.

I had no choice.

With the shriek of pain, I aimed for what I thought was his arm. To disarm him and spare his life, you know? But my eyes were blurry with tears of pain, and I stabbed him in the neck instead. When he went down, I did too while clutching my side. My blood quickly cooled as it hit the air, and I heard the sound of Lailah's heels as she moved to my side. The warmth of healing magic, concentrated on my wound, sealed up the injury I had sustained and stopped the bleeding. But my clothes would need multiple washings and- I'd deal with that later.

What was the worst part, was when I realized what I had done. I had gone to retrieve my dagger when I noticed the puddle of blood under the body... and my dagger still in his neck. My eyes widened, and I hit the ground again. No, no... It wasn't supposed to be like this! Had I aimed wrong?! They had a family to go home to, and I just...

No, no. This was war... I had to remember that. This was currently a war and if I hadn't killed him, he would've killed me. But that didn't stop the tears from falling as I whispered apologies to the person I'd killed. Sorey and Aevar didn't seem distraught, but then again they were good at putting on brave faces... Sorey especially.

"We should rejoin them." Lailah said, once the path was clear. I gave a small nod and stood up, sheathing my dagger. This was going to be hovering over my head for a while. A life, I'd taken an actual life. It was in self-defense, sure... but it was a weight that I'd have to carry for the rest of my life. I wouldn't be the same person as I was before... would I? I'd always heard that killing changes people, and perhaps that was true... but I didn't want to have that kind of change. I didn't want to-

A pressure that I'd never felt before interrupted my thought process and I felt like everything was being squeezed harshly. It let up after a few moments, but that was enough to tell me that the malevolence had strengthened. By the look on everyone's faces, it wasn't good. Up on a hill was a very dense ball of malevolence, and I could hear Sorey and the others talking about it being the Lord of Calamity. It was funny, thinking back, that this whole thing started 1,000 years ago in Glenwood's history about a Shepherd and a Lord of Calamity.

Instead of continuing forward, we retreated... but we didn't get too far until Landon attacked us, citing that the chancellors would think again about Sorey being useful if his severed head was brought to them. His form meant that he had become a hellion due to this malevolence. And there was nothing either Aevar or I could do except fight and help wear him down. But the malevolence didn't disappear, and Lailah explained that the domain was stronger than her power of purification. That was... problematic for them. We, again, were just along for the ride. It wasn't going to be too long before Sorey was about to get Rose as a Squire, so...

"Please! Help me!" A voice cried out.

"Someone's in trouble?!" Sorey looked for the source of the voice. A young woman was fighting back hellions with a... wait, was that a hammer? When we reached her, the hellions were closing in. Sorey armatized with Lailah, defeating them within a swing of his sword. It was a bit too easy, and that thought turned out to be correct as the hellions rose up again. The woman held her hammer tight, before taking a few more swings.

"Why are you here?!" Lailah asked as Sorey armatized with Edna. "Water seraphim are more suspectible to being corrupted by malevolence, Izayoi!"

The seraph, Izayoi, shook her head. "I followed my dreams, Lailah. They told me the Oracle was here! Even if I turn into a Hellion, I must see this through!"

Lailah gasped. "But that's just a fairytale!"

Izayoi smacked her hammer against one of the hellions, and bubbles appeared. They seemed to glow with the same light that Lailah's flames of purification did, but it was no use. "No, the Oracle is real. They help the Shepherd. But I suppose your oath prevents you from speaking about it." The water seraph tucked her hair behind her ear. It was silver, with light blue at the ends and reached her waist while tied back in a low ponytail at the nape of her neck. There were some pieces of her hair that fell free, framing her face. Izayoi's outfit consisted of a white off-shoulder shirt, a black corset and a pale blue skirt that reached only the middle of her middle finger. Black leggings and silver boots brought together the ensemble, and on her hands were rings of silver and blue. Her eyes were a silver colour as well. A beautiful woman made for combat, it seemed.

"Izayoi!" The malevolence seemed to be converging on the water seraph, who was trying to hold it back with the bubbles. Lailah was concerned, and tried burning the malevolence away. It didn't work. "Izayoi, you need a vessel! You're going to become a hellion!"

"I know, Lailah. But the Oracle... They're here, and I'm going to help them. That's why I made my purification oath, so I could also help." Izayoi held out her hand. It wasn't hard for me to imagine who she might've been waiting for. With a sharp intake of breath, I took her hand. She looked at me, and then her face softened into a smile.

It was almost instant, our pact. Unlike Lailah's, there was no fancy words. No "I'll become the Oracle!", a mirror of what Sorey would have done. It was a silent agreement, something we both decided on within a moment. But when she entered me, I felt a weight and a pain in my chest. Like something was wrong, an imbalance in my body. I took in another breath, and exhaled slowly. She hopped out of my body in a flash of light, hammer held in one hand.

"Our pact is complete." Izayoi said. "Now I can assist you, Lailah."

"...Izayoi.." Lailah's eyes glistened with tears, and she hugged the water seraph. Izayoi gently pat Lailah's head, and looked to the hill where the malevolence was. She'd held out this long, it seemed almost natural that she was going to head there. Before she did, she turned to me and held out a crossbow once Lailah let go of her.

"Here. This will be the focus of our armatization." Izayoi said. I took it and put it in my bag with a small nod. With that, we headed towards the hill that the Lord of Calamity stood upon. It took longer than we expected, with the soldiers under the grips of malevolence. Neither Izayoi or Lailah's purificatio worked, and it seemed extremely bleak. Especially with the weight remaining in my chest. I coughed, punching my chest a couple times and it seemed to dislodge the weight to where it didn't even feel like it was there anymore... which was good, I didn't want that dragging me down in this critical moment.

When we reached the summit, Sorey stepped forward.

"You must be..." He trailed off, uncertain.

"So, another shepherd is born at last... but what's this? You've brought your Oracle with you." It was mocking, that last line, as if he'd thought that Sorey would come alone with his own strength. Sorey was shaking, and the Lord of Calamity caught on to that. He looked smug.

"Frightened, are you? Ah, but the sound of death is so sweet..." He looked away from us, to the battlefield once more. The pressure of malevolence made my ears start ringing loudly, and I clapped my hands over my ears to make it stop. It wasn't something I usually did, but then the rest of the scene played out as I couldn't hear them speaking. Sorey armatized with Lailah, and attacked the Lord of Calamity. The sword was caught in his hand, and I vaguely remembered what would happen next. The Lord of Calamity sent Sorey backwards by merely overpowering him, and Lailah fell to the ground. I watched as he advanced, and spoke to Sorey. This was it, the malevolence was really starting to get to me. Like a foreign agent entering my body, but I resisted the faint feeling for as long as I could. Izayoi was at my side, washing the malevolence away as best as she could to keep me on my feet. I figured she knew that I was weak due to the pact we formed, and that I'd be passing out any moment now... But I had to keep strong. I made my own advancement, hands over my ringing ears, until the pressure made both Sorey and I fall to our knees. Aevar was nowhere to be found, and I was glad for that. He didn't need to see this, the Shepherd and I both unable to handle the pressure from the Lord of Calamity expanding his domain even more.

But then, he vanished, leaving behind nothing but a message of his name, and a wonder of how much longer the two of us would live. The ringing stopped once Heldalf, the Lord of Calamity, was gone and both Sorey and I stood up. This was going to be a desperate problem. The war would continue, and what could we do about it...? That was when I noticed Sorey looking around... and realized that I couldn't see any of the Seraphim. Then it hit me. That was right, Heldalf temporarily made our resonance absolutely nothing because of his actions! But Sorey seemed really distraught. It was when the armies arrived, all turned into malevolent beings, that it really hit us that we were powerless at this point. Sorey called out for Lailah using her true name and trying to armatize... but nothing worked. I had to dodge every attack, as I didn't want to kill any of these people. Nothing was going to work...

And then, one of them hit my stomach. It knocked the air out of me, and I found myself falling off the cliffside. The last thing I remembered, before I lost consciousness, was Sorey and someone else falling too.


The stars were in the sky when I woke up, sitting up and staring at nothing in particular. I had thought I'd died, but I hadn't seen anything... just the usual nothingness that usually accompanied my sleep. Glancing about, I noticed Sorey on my right. He was awake too, and looking at Rose. That was right, Rose tried saving him but got hit instead... It was a miracle she was okay. Perhaps that was Lailah's doing... The seraphim probably saved all of us. That was a relief.

"Rani! You're alright!" Sorey said, as he picked up Rose onto his back. I nodded and got up, dusting my clothes off. I owed Rose big time, didn't I?

"Yeah, looks like it. You're okay too. I'm glad." I gave a smile to him, and the two of us walked into the forest. It was a quiet walk, neither of us wanting to disturb the unconscious Rose. She was actually awake, but I wasn't about to tell Sorey that.. No, that would be too off the rails. Instead, I let her feign waking back up, and listened to them talk while keeping an eye out. We were to head north, due to our pursuers. When we got to the designated location, the rest of the Scattered Bones, who were also members of the Sparrowfeathers, met us there.

It was like I was watching this happen on the TV again. I didn't follow this time, only sort of sitting on some rubble while waiting for them to come back. Once Sorey did come back, with Rose, we headed towards the Tintagel Ruins that served as the hideout for the Scattered Bones. Meeting up with the man Rose called 'Old Man Mayvin', he and Sorey talked for a bit as well as some conversation with Rose until we descended into the hideout once Mayvin had left. We were free to use the beds in the back, but I was still slightly worried over the whole... debt I owed to Rose. I knew she'd said it was alright back in Marlind but...

"Rose!" I caught up to her as she was about to enter another room, grabbing her arm as gently as possible. That had her attention turned back to me.

"Rani? What's up? Don't tell me you're still thinking about the debt-" I nodded, which cut her words off.

"I know you said that I could just ignore it back when we were helping distribute medicine amongst the sick but... I want to help. I want to pay it back. Please, Rose..."

She sighed, getting her arm out of my grip before leading me into the room and sitting on the bed. She pat the side to her left, which indicated to me that she wanted me to sit beside her. So I did, carefully. When I was seated, she sighed and put a hand on her thigh. "Listen, I told you it's alright. I never intended to make it permanent. You helped us with the festival, and even left a note saying you had to go somewhere. It's just clothes! Jeez, you act like it's an entire catastrophe." The last part was said with a smile, as Rose turned her head to look at me.

"Well I... didn't want you to think I was skipping out on it." I admitted sheepishly, looking at my feet. "You helped me when you didn't have to, even bought me clothes. What else am I supposed to do except think I'm supposed to pay you back for it?"

"You're a dummy, Rani." Rose pat me on the back. "Why don't you rest here for today? I bet the Shepherd's already asleep and you both have had a long day."

"A-alright." I gave a nod. Rose got up off the bed and I laid on it. The pillow had a slightly floral scent to it, and it smelled really nice. It was difficult to get to sleep at first, but soon I found myself dozing off and dreaming of home again. This time, however, the boy was with me. With his compass, and staring at the scene. I was sitting on the couch, one of the old ones... so this was long before we got the new ones, it seemed. This dream, that is.

"So this is what you dream of?" He asked, walking to sit next to me.

"I guess. I miss home, kiddo. I dream about it a lot when I'm not home. Like if I'm out at a friend's house... or at a hotel..."

"I didn't think I'd be able to access your dreams when I wanted to talk to you. I guess that makes this easier." The boy set the compass aside, before looking at me. His green eyes had a slight purple colouring to them, possibly because of the malevolence. "But you're on the right track. Staying with Sorey will help your journey and make it easier. So don't lose track of him..."

As he said that, the entire room faded. And he looked at himself before fading from view. I felt something shaking me, and groaned as the world returned to me. I was in Tintagel ruins, and I was being shaken awake by Eguille. Sitting up, I rubbed my eyes a little before looking at him. "Whassamatter?"

"It's morning." He said. "You weren't waking up for a bit there."

"A-ah... sorry about that. I guess the events of yesterday caught up to me." I chuckled nervously and got off the bed.

"The Shepherd is up, and Rose is with him. You should go catch up before they leave without you." He just laughed a little at my concerned face. "They're going to explore deeper into the ruins. They got the door open."

Oh... Oh yeah. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

Meeting up with Sorey was easy, as Rose had already gone on ahead. I could see Mikleo, Lailah and Edna again, so the rest I took must've helped my resonance. Izayoi was there as well, and I gave her a thumbs up to note that I could see her again. The six of us continued in, and I felt the weight in my chest again for a bit as Izayoi took up residence within me as her vessel. It didn't last too long walking through the ruins as Rose accidentally sealed us in a room. That was great, but at least things would continue on as they should. As time passed for Rose to find a way to open the door, Lailah talked about Rose potentially joining the group. I tuned it out, knowing exactly how it went and counting down the seconds until the snake hellion trap was activated. It wasn't too long, about thirty seconds before that happened. We were able to take them out as Sorey told Rose we were fighting ghosts- which made her let him deal with it.

The second one, however, was smoke. The puzzle for it was going to be difficult to figure out.

Both Sorey and I tested out each platform and figured out which ones stayed down. It took us about a minute to figure it out, thankful that it didn't take longer than that. The smoke dispersed, and we were safe. I coughed, having held my breath for as long as I could to stop myself from inhaling any smoke and damaging my lungs. It was difficult in a trap-filled room. Maybe ruins just weren't for me...

The door opened, but there was a hellion's domain that suddenly flashed into existence. Rose's scream drew us to her, and she was standing scared as Dezel protected her from the Hellion. Sorey drew the hellion's attention, and I ran over to Rose instead of joining in the combat.

"Come on, this way." I said, helping her back to the other room.

"R-Rani, there's..." Rose was shaking something fierce. Her fear of ghosts was all Dezel's fault, wasn't it...? "Th-there's..."

"Take a few deep breaths, you're alright. It's not with us." But she'd be running back in soon to help Sorey and become his Squire.

"But... Sorey, he's... He's back there fighting it and I..." She looked back, past Dezel and to the fight itself. Sorey was trying his hardest, but... They needed the Wind Element for this one, and the only one who could help was Dezel himself. But he wouldn't if Rose didn't... And there was no way it would happen on its own. With a sigh, I gave her a pat on the back.

"Go on. I'll be right behind you."

"Y-yeah!"

And it went the same way. Except the true name Sorey gave her was something along the lines of "Wilk Suatya" or something like that, which had me raising an eyebrow. Either there was some inconsistency, or Sorey never wanted to name Rose "Wilkis Wilk". Regardless of the matter, joining in on the fight was easy and soon Rose started to fight alongside us as well with Lailah. We were able to defeat the hellion and return it to normal, but then Edna played a trick to reveal what Dezel had done- Make Rose an unwilling vessel for his power, to use her as he pleased. It made it easy to puppet her around, and I bit my lower lip. I'd known that this entire time, and yet...

I kept it to myself.

Rose wouldn't be up for a bit, and neither would the dog seraph. I hadn't needed to use Izayoi's power like the others had used Dezel and Lailah's... It'd been just me fighting with them, and it'd helped just a bit. I was fine with that. Walking over to where Rose laid, I pulled off my jacket and used it as a makeshift blanket while letting her use my lap as a pillow to make sure she had a good rest while we waited for her to wake up. It was different, watching everyone converse while I just stayed out of it. I always did, after all. I didn't want to influence things too much... But I guess I had already by meeting Rose when I did.

Maybe this journey wouldn't be so bad after all.

Chapter 5: Margaret and Watts

Notes:

EDIT: 9/26/2023 Updated a tidbit from the story to make it flow better, removed brother death mentions and made it more concise with Rani as a character.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"Next!"

The line moved forward. Sorey, Rose and I were in the back. Izayoi was lingering behind me, a hand on my shoulder. We'd explored Tintagel Ruins, and found the Trials for the Shepherd. Oysh was reflecting on what had made him a hellion, and Dezel's intentions had been revealed. The Trials were what we were currently going to look for in Pendrago, or at least a mural for them. The first stop was Lastonbell, and there was a line because of the current tensions and the prospect of war on the horizon. Because Rolance had deemed the Shepherd a heretic, we had to be more careful.

"How far to Pendrago from here?" I asked.

"Shouldn't be too far. Maybe a day's travel at most on foot. By carriage, it takes about four hours." Rose said with a smile.

"I wonder if we'll see anything on the way there... Like some sort of ancient ruins!" Sorey pondered. Apparently the seraphim said something, because Rose's face went pale. She still wasn't used to the whole disembodied voice thing. I didn't blame her, it was why I'd requested Izayoi stay out unless absolutely necessary to hide. She had seemed very compliant, especially after my... minor breakdown hearing her voice in my head. That had been heavily unpleasant.

"Can you quit doing the disembodied voice thing? It gives me the creeps!" Rose said, frustrated and scared because of whatever was said inside of her head. Since I wasn't a part of the Sorey circle, I didn't know exactly what was said but I could surmise it might've followed along the lines of the usual chatter that went on during this part of the game. A few things had changed, but not everything had. Dezel's intentions remained the same, and everything seemed to be following the directed path that I was familiar with... But I couldn't be sure.

Rose's True Name, given to her by Sorey, should've been Wilkis Wilk. Not Wilk Sutya, or whatever it'd become. Perhaps my presence had changed that, or perhaps that hadn't been the intention in the beginning... I shook my head, hearing the guard calling for the next person. The merchant in front of us went into Lastonbell for the check, and soon it would be our turn. I wondered how we would get by the guards... Would they act as if they were husband and wife again, or...? Maybe I should step in on this one. Lies... weren't my forte, really, but I could definitely try. As we waited to be called, I formulated a plan of action. We were merchants, Sorey was our bodyguard and we were there to deliver goods. That sounded good!

"Next!"

And now it was our turn. The three of us headed into Lastonbell, immediately stopped by Sergei walking up to us. He introduced us, and Rose showed him her merchant's pass which allowed her access, and said we were here making a delivery. We were allowed to pass, but then Sergei noted Sorey's sword and how it looked ceremonial. As poor Sorey looked at his sword, I stepped forward.

"We don't know what kind of things we may come across as we travel, so we hired a bodyguard. His sword may look ceremonial, but it's just to get people's guards down about how strong he is!" I pat Sorey's back.

"I see." Sergei didn't believe me, I knew that already. He didn't believe it when Rose had made up a place to deliver goods to, so he wouldn't believe me saying Sorey was just a bodyguard. Izayoi made a motion to knock him out with a quizzical look and I shook my head. It seemed I confused Sergei, as his face became quizzical.

"Sorry, I was thinking." I said.

"Well, if there is nothing else." Sergei stood straight. "Welcome to Lastonbell."

With that, we were allowed to continue into the city. People were talking about a lot of things, and overhearing it was weird. There was some talk about Margaret... and that made my heart sink. A demon child saying there was no Seraphim in the church, as they called her. It seemed this information wasn't picked up by Sorey and Rose, so I knew what I had to do. Just this once, just this one split.

"Hey, guys. I'll stick around here in Lastonbell for a bit and meet you guys in Pendrago when I'm done. If I'm not done by the time you guys are through there, come get me." I said, before going off to investigate. This was going to be the day I make something sad not happen. What happened to Margaret and Wiggs had broken my heart. It was going to change, I had to make it change... I knew it was inevitable, but there was something pushing me to change something. I didn't know what was pushing me to do this, but I would have to do it.

Izayoi looked around as we investigated the tale of Margaret. It seemed she'd just been saying that there was no seraph in the church, not that there wasn't a seraph. This had made the Lastonbell seraph leave because of the way people had been treating the girl. Like a heretic, it seemed. That, plus the murderers at night, had made things simple for me. I'd have to wait until night to do what I had to do... but if things went right, I'd be able to save a life, go to the caverns and ask for the seraph to return. If not... well, I'd have to wait for Sorey to come back.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Rani?" Izayoi asked. "We... we shouldn't be too far from Lailah, you know..."

"Why not?" I asked, curious as I sat on the bed. We'd be staying here until night, so we could do some shopping and other things while we waited. I wasn't too bothered about being separated from Sorey. This way we could do some good, and not have to hang on the plot's coattails since we weren't really a part of the story.

"Because! It's safer with her. Wherever the Shepherd goes, it's safer..." Izayoi sat down on the floor, back against the wall. "I know I have the power of purification, but I don't want to stray too far from her. She's been a Prime Lord longer than I have, and it..."

"We'll be fine, Izayoi! Besides, we have Armatization, right?" I asked with a smile. "Even though we haven't tried it yet!"

Izayoi gave a laugh. "I suppose that's true, but..."

"But?"

"...I don't know. Perhaps it's my oath preventing me from speaking about it, but something just doesn't feel right."

Something doesn't feel right? That was a curious statement. Instead of pressing it, I ended up laying on the bed and staring at the ceiling. I should've been out for a long time after Izayoi and I had made our pact, to get me used to her power, but that had never happened. Perhaps it was because I wasn't the same... type of human like Glenwood usually had. For all intents and purposes, I was an alien. God, thinking of it that way was weird... but how could I understand any of them? I hadn't actually given it much thought since being here, though now I had enough time to ponder that. Perhaps it had something to do with that kid that I kept seeing, or perhaps I was just translating their words without realizing it. Turning onto my side, my back to the room itself as I stared at the wall, I wondered if I could really do any sort of change to this world that was substantial.

I wasn't sure about it, but I had to try regardless. Regardless of what I wanted to actually do, which was continue on with Sorey and the others. It was a bit of a risk to do what I was doing, which was take on a couple hellions by myself... but the pressure in my chest was pushing me forward. I coughed, closing my eyes for a moment and finding myself waking up while hearing a scream. Bolting out of bed, I saw Izayoi on her feet with her hammer. We looked to each other and then headed outside of the inn to see a woman about to get attacked by a hellion. Izayoi ran in and hit it with her hammer, and I ran to the woman's side before helping her up.

"Come on, get out of here before it attacks you!" I said, pushing her towards the inn. Once she was out of the way, I reached behind me and under my coat to grab the daggers I had. With Izayoi's power, perhaps we could purify Margaret before she ran off and... That's right. Her escape route had to be blocked off. "Izayoi, can you form a barrier of bubbles or something along the perimeter?!"

"I can- but why are you asking?"

"Just trust me and do it!"

Izayoi gave a small nod before starting to cast a spell. The hellionized Margaret tried to take the opportunity to attack Izayoi but I pulled her attention to me by attacking. I hated this. I was hurting a child, in a way. I hated it. I hated it so much. But to get her back to normal-

I had to do this.

"I'm sorry, Margaret." I said as I struck. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. "I'm so sorry."

She'd been bullied so badly she'd hellionized in response and became a monster. Became what the people had called her, and that wasn't right. Izayoi finished her cast, and a barrier surrounded the area we were fighting in. It cut off Margaret's escape route, which was what I was hoping for. We could continue to fight, and hopefully purify the malevolence that encased the poor child. This was something I was truly hoping for. The weight in my chest increased slightly, and I coughed again as I went to strike so it knocked me off my balance and had me stumbling instead. I was lucky that Izayoi had her attention, or else it would've been difficult for me to avoid an attack.

As expected, Margaret tried to flee but found her route cut off. I ran as she looked for another way, and quickly called forth Izayoi's power of purification. Silvery bubbles engulfed my daggers, and the weight increased again. I suppressed the cough, knowing that there was a chance I could break my ribs if I did that, and stabbed my daggers into her back with an apology. The bubbles burst and turned into the silver flames of purification, which burned all over the wolf-like hellion. I hoped and prayed I hadn't actually stabbed her in the back, and watched as the wolf hellion disappeared and left a girl there. She was out cold, and I couldn't leave her there. I checked her pulse, making sure she was still alive... and she was. Margaret was still alive, and I looked to Izayoi.

"We're taking her with us. I'll fight the second one on my own so look after her." I said with a smile on my face. I was truly, truly happy even though I could feel the tears rolling down my cheeks. The increased weight in my chest didn't help, and I coughed. Covering my mouth as I did so, I slowly pulled my hand away once I was done coughing and saw blood on my glove. All the coughing I'd been doing lately must have torn my throat up, as it did feel dry... and now had the taste of blood in it. It wasn't metallic like people always described, as it had absolutely no taste whatsoever, but it was concerning. Disregarding it, I picked Margaret up and we headed to the opposite end of the city.

"I'm glad she's alright." Izayoi said. "I'll protect her as much as I'm able, but..."

"But?" I looked over to her.

"If you need me, say my true name for the Armatization. My true name is Yufuwasu Ezavi."

"Got it."

We left Lastonbell, just as a big Hellion started making its way towards here. The guards were skeptical, due to me carrying a child, but had let us pass when I said I was stepping out to see if there was an herb to help Margaret's current state of unconsciousness. Setting her gently on the ground, I gestured to Izayoi to take care of her before pulling my daggers out to meet the Hellion halfway. A fight started between us, with me on the defensive after a few attacks. It seemed Wiggs had been a hellion much longer, and this would take some effort.

But he was powerful. Too powerful.

Though I did my best to attack, there was little I could do without leaving an opening for him to get me with his claws. Izayoi didn't know this type of hellion, which was bad for me... If I didn't already know. A Breed Wolf, which was a beast turned into a hellion itself. But unlike the game, there were no openings for me to attack after he did. This was bad... This was really, really bad. And I knew that from the first moment I made this plan, but I had to hold out. I had to do this, if not for the sake of a child then for the sake of the mother who would never know her daughter's fate.

Purification was out of the question if I couldn't even get a hit in. I dodged as many attacks as I could, having shucked off the coat and threw it aside to increase my mobility without it and hopefully not get it ruined. I felt the tear of my skin as I dodged a swipe, and felt blood roll down my arm. It hurt, but I grit my teeth and bore it. There were things I had to do, there was a small child who needed her dog back... And I wasn't going to let this continue.

I jumped back, sheathing my daggers and pulling out the crossbow that Izayoi had given me. I couldn't do this on my own, I needed her help.

"With this divine artifact, I invoke the Armatization!" I said as the Breed Wolf started to charge me. "Come to me, Yufuwasu Ezavi!"

The crossbow glowed, and I felt Izayoi's power cloaking me. My outfit changed with the armatization, mirroring her own but with white, silver and blue. There was a cloak covering me with a hood, and I noticed Izayoi's ring designs holding the cloak together. The crossbow was hooked to my left arm with a silver bangle, and was a bit bigger than what it was before I'd armatized with Izayoi. There was a trigger that could be squeezed so I could fire arrows...

"Let's go, Rani. Margaret will be fine for a few minutes without me." Izayoi said.

"Right." And our fight began again. This time, Izayoi guided my arrows as I shot at the Breed Wolf. He was resistant to Water, but I wasn't going to give up. This was a mission of mine, away from Sorey and the others...

"Rani!"

Speak of the devil. "Sorey! We need your help, this is too much for us!" Izayoi and I said at the same time. Had he known all along, or had Dezel sensed my intention? They shouldn't have gotten back so soon... Maybe something had happened? Or was I asleep for longer than I should have been? Either way, their help would be appreciated at this point. "It's resistant to water, but Earth should be its weakness!"

"Alright! Hephsin Yulind!" Sorey armatized with Edna, and assisted us in the fight. Rose, not wanting to be left out, armatized with Lailah and started to attack. It took what seemed to be an eternity, but soon the Breed Wolf's malevolence was purified, and I separated Izayoi's power from me. I walked over to Wiggs, kneeling down to put a hand to his chest. He was unconscious as well, but alive. The weight increased again, perhaps because of the armatization, and I found myself coughing a bit harder than usual.

"Oh dear!" Lailah was by my side in an instant. "Are you alright?"

"Fine.. Just fine." I said, with a weak smile before pulling my hand away from my mouth. Hearing Lailah gasp, she took my hand to examine it.

"Blood! Don't tell me... you have consumption?!" There was a concerned look on her face.

"No, no. This isn't consumption. If it was, Sorey and Rose would have it too." I said. "Don't worry."

"But it could be fatal! Let me see-"

"Lailah-!" It was futile to resist, and Lailah checked my hand and then me. Putting her hand to my forehead and everything, making sure that I didn't have consumption. Once she did, I picked up Margaret and gestured for Sorey to carry Wiggs. Heading back into Lastonbell, we were greeted by the mother of Margaret. She took the child from us and had Sorey come with her to drop off Wiggs too. Once he was back, we all returned to the inn and ordered something to eat. It was then that I was greeted by the fact that they had been gone for four days.

The pork belly had been halfway to my mouth when Edna had offered that information in her deadpan tone. I let the fork drop into the bowl, staring straight at them. Four days? "You guys... were gone for that long?" I asked, surprised. How the hell...? What made me miss four days of them being gone?

"Yeah." Sorey nodded in response. "We were just coming back when we saw you fighting that Breed Wolf."

"Not to mention how reckless that was." Mikleo commented.

"Typical." Edna turned away.

"You got hurt from it too!" Lailah said with a frown on her face. My arm had been bandaged and taken care of, but it would need a bit of time to fully heal. "You shouldn't be so reckless, Rani. Taking on a Breed Wolf without our help was endangering your life!"

"Sorry, but I... I wanted to help Margaret." I said, looking at my shoes. "Her mother would've been in denial of her daughter being dead, and no mother should ever have to bury their children. I know that too well."

"You're a mother?" That was exclaimed all across the room. I looked up immediately.

"No! I've... heard stories of mothers who lost their children too young. I've had a few encounters with people that lost children early. There's nothing good about it..."

I offered to stay until they came back from that, and was there when they left to say goodbye. Rose looked... oddly worried, however, and put a hand on my cheek.

"You look pale. Are you sure you should be up?" Rose asked, voice filled with concern.

"I'm fine, Rose. Hurry or they'll leave you behind!" I said, false enthusiasm in my voice. "I'll be here to go with you guys to Gododdin, so don't worry about it alright?"

"...Okay." Rose wasn't convinced but left anyway. I waved goodbye as they headed out of Lastonbell, and watched the doors close. Suddenly, I felt very sleepy. Like to the point I needed more sleep. That was weird, I was usually fine when I first woke up... The energy felt like it had just been depleted from my body, and I could barely keep my eyes open. One of the guards noticed this, and started to ask me questions but everything looked like it was fading away.

The last thing I remembered, before the world went black, was feeling a pair of arms grab me and a voice calling my name.

Notes:

1) I skipped over a lot of stuff because I went too far in my ToZ playthrough, and needed to catch the fic up.
2) True names are hard.

I had a bit of a time with this, finding myself crying during the Margaret and Wiggs scene in Zestiria proper enough to change it in here. This will have a consequence later on, as it's already planned out, but for now I'm kind of happy. And I know it was supposed to carry the message of "not everyone can be saved", but after legit crying I figured I would have to address it at some point...

Ah well.

Chapter 6: Fate is Cruel

Notes:

Hey so, if you want to ask me questions and stuff about the story, you can do so over at my tumblr!

Sorry for the fast pacing of this one.

Chapter Text

It felt like an age.

Everything felt so heavy, including my eyes. But I tried my hardest to open my eyes. I had been in an unending void of nothingness, so time felt weird to me. What had happened? It felt like there was a fog in my head, stopping me from thinking properly. I heard voices, and one of them was concerned and worried. The other was a deep, familiar voice... Arvald...? How had he...?

My consciousness faded as I let that thought cross my mind.


It wasn't too long before I found myself regaining consciousness again. I still felt so, so heavy. I heard voices again. But this time a woman's voice.. A rough voice... Inanna? Was I with the bandits again? Izayoi's voice broke through, and I heard her say something along the lines of there being something wrong with our pact and that I shouldn't be having this problem...

Or perhaps I misheard.

It wasn't long before I fell back into the darkness, unable to stay conscious for longer than a few minutes.


When I was finally able to open my eyes, a week had passed. I'd been meaning to wait for Sorey and the others, but I'd spent the entirety of the time they were gone fading in and out of consciousness. Sitting up, I put my hands to my face. My head felt fuzzy and there was the feeling of brain fog. I probably woke up too quickly, but that would be a problem for later. It didn't seem like there was anyone there, so I got out of the bed, though shakily as I hadn't moved for quite some time and my body had to readjust to it. It took a few moments to reach the door and open it. I was in the Lastonbell Inn, and...

"You're awake!" I heard Rose's voice, and looked over to see her hurrying to my side. A good thing, too, as I fell over onto her and she had to hold me up. With a sigh and a smile, she helped me over to the lobby of the inn and helped me sit in one of the chairs. The weight in my chest was heavy. Heavier than it usually was, and it felt like it was pressing against my chest and forcing me to breathe a bit harder than usual. There wasn't much I could do except try to breathe normally with the weight in my chest. I didn't know what was wrong, but I knew I didn't like it. It felt like my entire body was rejecting something, but what was it? I didn't know, and it was suffocating.

"Are you alright?" Lailah asked, putting a hand to my head. "...You're not feverish. But you still look really pale."

Izayoi shook her head. "It's never really happened like this before. I don't know what's wrong with her, Lailah. I don't understand." She looked depressed, and very upset with herself.

"Don't think too hard on it, Izayoi. We'll figure out the solution. In fact, we're going to Goddodin soon. Maybe there's a solution there."

"I can carry her along." The voice of Arvald was surprising. I looked up at him, the tall intimidating man. "That way she won't overexert herself and collapse again. And if she passes out, well, she's safe with me."

"Alright. Thank you, Arvald." Lailah bowed a little, her hands still clasped in front of her. "I appreciate yours and Aevar's help."

"Guys, I'm fine..." I said, but obviously I wasn't. I wanted to be, and yet... there was no way for me to be. This had been happening since the moment I'd become the Oracle, and I suppose it was a way of saying I hadn't adjusted to Izayoi being my Prime Lord. I didn't understand why I hadn't, but... perhaps there was a reason as to why. Maybe there was something wrong, that neither Izayoi nor Lailah could understand.

The plan ended up being that Arvald would carry me there, and I'd basically rest in the places he put me as to not use up all the energy I was already low on. It wasn't ideal, but it was something. Though there was a bit of a spat between Sorey and Dezel about bringing me along in this condition, the wind seraph relented and just scoffed. A "do as you want" coming from him. Guess he cared, but I'd gotten that feeling for some time that he was just a big softie in the end. Maybe it was just my memories of playing the game that was influencing this, but at this point I didn't really care. As soon as everything was set and ready, Arvald picked me up in his arms and ducked under the doorframe. I'd forgotten how big he was, or never paid much attention. Arvald was a giant of a man, and he easily dwarfed the others by quite a bit. Perhaps his genetics were different from others, or he just had an intense growth spurt.

Either way, it was effective since he could deal with hellions with one hand free. Aevar, who was trailing behind and had been quiet the entire time, spoke up after a bit. "You scared me, you know? Fainting like that. Izayoi keeps saying she doesn't understand what's wrong, but there's something amiss. When did this start happening?"

I had to think. When exactly did it start happening?


"Why are you here?!" Lailah asked as Sorey armatized with Edna. "Water seraphim are more suspectible to being corrupted by malevolence, Izayoi!"

The seraph, Izayoi, shook her head. "I followed my dreams, Lailah. They told me the Oracle was here! Even if I turn into a Hellion, I must see this through!"

Lailah gasped. "But that's just a fairytale!"

Izayoi smacked her hammer against one of the hellions, and bubbles appeared. They seemed to glow with the same light that Lailah's flames of purification did, but it was no use. "No, the Oracle is real. They help the Shepherd. But I suppose your oath prevents you from speaking about it." The water seraph tucked her hair behind her ear. It was silver, with light blue at the ends and reached her waist while tied back in a low ponytail at the nape of her neck. There were some pieces of her hair that fell free, framing her face. Izayoi's outfit consisted of a white off-shoulder shirt, a black corset and a pale blue skirt that reached only the middle of her middle finger. Black leggings and silver boots brought together the ensemble, and on her hands were rings of silver and blue. Her eyes were a silver colour as well. A beautiful woman made for combat, it seemed.

"Izayoi!" The malevolence seemed to be converging on the water seraph, who was trying to hold it back with the bubbles. Lailah was concerned, and tried burning the malevolence away. It didn't work. "Izayoi, you need a vessel! You're going to become a hellion!"

"I know, Lailah. But the Oracle... They're here, and I'm going to help them. That's why I made my purification oath, so I could also help." Izayoi held out her hand. It wasn't hard for me to imagine who she might've been waiting for. With a sharp intake of breath, I took her hand. She looked at me, and then her face softened into a smile.

It was almost instant, our pact. Unlike Lailah's, there was no fancy words. No "I'll become the Oracle!", a mirror of what Sorey would have done. It was a silent agreement, something we both decided on within a moment. But when she entered me, I felt a weight and a pain in my chest. Like something was wrong, an imbalance in my body. I took in another breath, and exhaled slowly. She hopped out of my body in a flash of light, hammer held in one hand.

"Our pact is complete." Izayoi said. "Now I can assist you, Lailah."


Back then... when we were forced to fight in a war. I'd felt so odd when the pact was made, and it merely persisted until I armatized... and then it got worse. I coughed a little, a dry cough that still hurt my chest and didn't dislodge the weight that I felt in it. Leaning against Arvald, I closed my eyes for a bit. When I opened them again, the sun had nearly set and camp was being set up for the night. I was sitting against a tree, and I hadn't answered Aevar's question from earlier. I'd probably passed out when I just wanted to rest my eyes for a few moments to ignore the pain...

"You're awake." I looked over to Izayoi, who was standing with her back towards me. "I've been thinking. I believe I know why you're having such a hard time, and I had to ask Lailah to confirm. The last time I made a pact was when there was an Earth Seraph as a Prime Lord. Now that Lailah's Prime Lord, we're imbalanced."

Imbalanced? Wait, didn't that mean that the pact was the problem? "Izayoi?"

"You can walk, so come with me." Carefully, I stood up and started walking with her. We walked for a bit, until we came across a couple of hellions. There was a seraph attempting to fight them off, but failing badly. Izayoi sighed and armatized with me, and I could feel the weight increasing even more. I stumbled, but moved myself forward to help the seraph before they got killed by the hellions.

It wasn't too difficult to defeat the hellions, but it was extremely taxing. My body felt heavier and heavier, and I had to force-cancel the armatization before I fell over. I coughed, collapsing to my knees and unable to breathe. The weight was suffocating me, continually. I could hear Izayoi's panic, and then a resigned noise from someone else. The weight, slowly, lifted from my chest and I was able to catch my breath. There was a hand on my back, and a warm feeling.

"I can't do this every time, Izayoi. You're making her worse." The seraph snapped, turning to her. I stood and looked at the two. The seraph had long, black hair tied into a ponytail with the Fire Seraph pink ends and wore a tattered red scarf, a grey dirty tunic with black trim, long black pants and matching boots. Attached to his belt was a chakram, and sheathed at his side was a sword. I couldn't see his face, but what little skin I could see was tanned. His face was mostly covered by a red mask, as if he was hiding from something. His belt had an unusual pattern to it, as I'd noted when my eyes travelled over him to get a better look at him. His eyes, though, were as red as his scarf and mask. A crimson colour, if I was correct.

As we stared at each other, Izayoi wrung her hands a little, glancing away from me. Looking between us, the seraph sighed and gave me a slight shove back. Usually, I could catch myself but I felt overwhelmed and fell backwards into the grass. I could see spots as I hit my head on the ground, and covered my eyes to make sure the pain would go away. What was he trying to prove by doing this?

"She's not going to last much longer, Izayoi. Maybe a week at most. Look how far she's deteriorated just from being in a pact with you!"

"I-I know, I just..." Izayoi's voice was thick with grief. "I don't want to leave Lailah unprotected!"

"I don't care about your perceived feelings for Lailah. Instead of letting them go, you choose a human vessel not even two months after the previous one died because of you." Wait, what? "Now you're killing another because you want to be close to Lailah. I won't be able to save her unless you undo your pact now."

"I can't! Lailah needs me, and I-"

I heard the sound of a hand meeting someone's face and uncover my face, sitting up. The seraph had slapped Izayoi, who was holding her hand against her cheek. Her eyes were filled with tears, and she looked back at the seraph.

"Kain, you know that I have to be with Lailah..." Izayoi said, causing the seraph to grab her shoulders.

"You're killing this innocent human in the process! Didn't you learn about the Oracle Rules?! Dissolve the pact, or she'll-"

"Wait..." I stood up. "...I'm dying? Izayoi, is... the pact killing me?"

"No, of course not!" Izayoi said, lying to me. "You're just having some problems adjusting to being my vessel!"

"It is," Kain said bluntly, letting go of Izayoi and walking up to me. "With how far you've deteriorated, you only have about a week or less left to live unless Izayoi dissolves the pact with you."

A... week or less?

I was going to die without being able to go back home? My vision blurred as tears filled my eyes. I wouldn't be seeing anyone at home again, would I? Not my friends, my family... or my pets. I'd die in Glenwood, never being able to go back home and... It was just too much, so I left the two of them there as I ran off towards the camp. If I'm to die, then I'll do it with the others.

Not alone. Never alone.


Izayoi hadn't talked to me since. It'd only been about eight hours since we talked and I'd passed out once I reached camp. The burden of knowing my life was being cut so short was heavy, but not heavy enough to outweigh the weight in my chest. The sign that my life was close to ending. I didn't understand why this was happening to me of all people, but I had always had shitty luck. When I'd gotten back to camp yesterday, I'd informed them of the fact I only had a week or less to live due to Izayoi's pact with me. They all had taken it as well as they could, but I knew they were concerned.

Arvald's shirt was soft, and it felt nice against my face. Something I wouldn't feel again once I passed. Izayoi was being selfish, concerning herself with assisting Lailah with me being the Oracle without being concerned about my well being. She didn't even seem to care that I was dying because of her, as she continued on like nothing was happening. Kain, the seraph from before, was trailing behind with Aevar. We were headed in the same direction of Goddodin, so he had decided to tag along.

Once we were there, Arvald set me against the wall at the gate and Aevar sat beside me. I didn't really care about what was going on, more concerned about how short my life had been cut because of Izayoi, who was outright ignoring me now. I wouldn't help Sorey with taking down Cardinal Forton, I wouldn't be able to see the end of the journey. I was dying, and I wouldn't make it to Pendrago in this state.

I would be dead before then.

I hadn't taken much thought into my own mortality until I learned, and Kain had been brutally honest about it. I wasn't going to survive for much longer like this.

"Izayoi, please... I don't want to die..." I said, voice weak. "Just... dissolve the pact."

Izayoi didn't respond, like usual. For a moment, anyway. "When you die, I'll use your friend. I have to help Lailah, and I'll go through as many humans as I have to so she'll be safe."

That...

Was it.

"So you don't care, huh?" I stood up, the movement paining me as the weight had gone from just my chest to my entire body within the night. "If I die, you'll just use Aevar, right? Dissolve the pact, I'm not going to die because of you!"

"No. I won't." Izayoi turned to me, narrowing her eyes. "Lailah is the most important person in the world to me, and I won't let stupid humans keep me from protecting her!"

Malevolence... Izayoi's entire body was engulfed by it. I hadn't been corrupted, but... perhaps Izayoi had been even before we made our pact. It would make some lick of sense. A whirlwind of malevolence formed, and dispersed soon after to form a drake. I felt the pressure in my body increase, and my vision started to fade. I choked and coughed as I collapsed. I couldn't even keep myself up anymore. This entire time, that feeling... was malevolence? Izayoi... had already been corrupted by malevolence before making her pact with me?

"Damn it!" I heard the familiar rough voice of Kain as warmth spread throughout my body. "I hate it when this happens to old friends. Sorry, Izayoi."

But before I passed out, I saw Sorey and Mikleo move in front of me. Protecting me...? I...

I don't understand.


When I woke up, I felt better. The weight was gone, and I didn't feel as bad as I usually did. Sitting up, I noted I was in an inn room. The familiar décor of the Lastonbell inn tipped me off that it'd probably been some time since what happened with Izayoi. I rubbed my eyes, deciding to get out of bed. It was easy to move around, and I cleared my throat a little. My clothes had been changed, and I was just wearing a sleeveless nightshirt with a pair of shorts. Someone must have done that while I was out. Looking about, I didn't notice Izayoi anywhere. If she was a drake, like she had been, she should've been purified and here. When I went to the lobby, I noticed Arvald there without Aevar, and took note of only Edna and Rose there out of Sorey's crew.

"Hey, she's awake." Edna said, obviously meaning me. "About time, we were worried."

"Where's Izayoi...?" I asked, my voice hoarse from not being used for as long as I'd been asleep. "She... should be here."

"Dead," came Edna's response. "If she lived, she would've killed you regardless, so it was the only course of action."

Dead...?

They... killed Izayoi to keep me alive? "But..."

"It'll be hard to adjust, but Sorey's willing to take you on as a Squire too. You alright with that?" Rose asked. "He wants you to come along, and Lailah told us that there's nothing saying an Oracle can't become a Squire until he or she finds another Prime Lord of her own!"

A Squire? Me...? So early into the adventure? But for them, it wasn't as early as it was for someone who spent most of their time sleeping... was it?

"I guess her oath doesn't go into not saying anything about the Oracle business. Not that I know much about it myself. I thought Lailah said it was a fairytale." I took a seat next to Arvald. "Anyway, besides that, are you guys sure Sorey would be okay with it?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" I heard Sorey's voice say. Looking behind me, as best as I could, I saw him with a couple bags in his hands. Lailah, Dezel and Mikleo were with him. "I figured, since you'd probably still want to come with us, it'd be alright to make you a Squire too."

Arvald hadn't spoken up until that point. "Welp, since you kids are gettin' things squared away, I best be off. It was nice travellin' with ya for as long as I did." He was leaving? ...Well, he did have a group of bandits to lead... "I'll be seein' ya when you come back to Ladylake. Don't be a stranger!"

With that, he got up and left. I watched as someone else I knew left me behind... Izayoi, then Arvald..

"So, what do you say?" Sorey's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "Gonna come with us?"

I pondered it for a moment, before giving a small nod. "I still have a lot to do, I guess, so I'll keep travelling with you."

Chapter 7: Eizen

Chapter Text

"It feels different than when I was armatizing with Izayoi." Lailah appeared beside me as I released the armatization. "Like... I'm not feeling that weight in my chest anymore. It's... strange, but not unpleasant."

"That's how Armatization should be!" Lailah exclaimed, clapping her hands together. We were on our way to Pendrago, and the rains were pouring down on us. For a moment, I stared up at the skies and watched the rain fall. Soon, we'd have to face Cardinal Forton and...

I couldn't think of what would happen next. I didn't like that thought.

We continued onwards, into the city proper. The Knights were in danger of being disbanded, and Sergei had gotten a letter from his brother. Though he was going to go to the Church, Sorey encouraged him to leave it to us. It would be a bit difficult, but with all of us together we could do it-

Or so I hoped. The Cardinal had proven difficult but with the blessing of Musiphe, Sorey could probably finish her without my help. Not that I'd be any help with what little experience I had with the Armatus. I just hoped I could avoid being petrified by her. As we headed for the church, Forton's domain threatened to cut off our resonance. At Mikleo's command, Sorey purified the domain to allow us to keep our resonance.

The whole church was like a maze, and none of us really knew the way. The way forward was blocked by stone tablets that referred to each of the elements. The first one was red and, the moment we got it, it was easy to find the others. Gathering them was our priority, as it helped us find and fight Forton. But it was like running in circles once we found each tablet. Difficult, and very much like a quest for fetching. A fetch quest, if you would.

When we made it into the inner area, there were a ton of statues. Ah- Forton had petrified them. Hearing the others talk about them as if they were just mere statues reminded me that they weren't. I walked up to one in particular, the one that looked like Sergei, and put a hand on the shoulder. Petrified forever. There was no way for them to become human ever again.

A fate worse than death.

And when Forton had noticed us, Dezel had taken her on almost immediately. That was when the rest of them realized he was blind. I'd known since the first time I'd met him, but that was because I had known about it before ending up here. I had to react as shocked as the others, but we were pulled into the battle with Forton.

"Lukeim Yurlin!" I called out almost immediately, armatizing with Dezel.

I had to prevent the others from getting petrified, so I had to knock them down as Forton opened her eyes to petrify. Using the Armatization as best as I could, I was fighting as much as I could solo while protecting the others from getting petrified. But in the end, we prevailed. Releasing the armatization, I felt a little weary afterwards. Perhaps from running around so much and using up a lot of energy.

Watching Rose assassinate Forton and give the calling card of the Scattered Bones, we left the church into the outside. The ground was still wet from the constant rain, but the sun was out and shining. Mid-afternoon, it looked like. I stayed silent as things played out in front of me. Rose talking about the calling card, giving us an alibi almost immediately, and we headed to the Pendrago inn to rest.


Rayfalke...

The dream I was having was interesting. I stood atop the Spiritcrest with the boy next to me, and there was a man not too far from us with the black and purple specks of Malevolence around him. As if consuming him. The boy stepped forward a bit.

"That's Eizen." He said, looking to me. I looked down at him before back at the man, Eizen, who was staring at the sky. A dragon with four horns flew the skies, and it seemed he was watching it. "It seems there's still some of him left... Even though there shouldn't be since he gave himself to the Malevolence..."

I took a step forward myself, and then another. The bracelet on my wrist burned, and I winced. Silvery light came from it, and the boy put a hand to it. "This was his, wasn't it? How did you come across it?"

"...At a store Rose took me to." I look back at the boy, and the light faded. We heard footsteps, and noticed brown boots. One of them was pulled up while the other was folded over. Ah, it was Eizen. Looking up, I noticed how he was looking at us. But his gaze was turned to the boy almost as instantly, and he looked confused.

"...Laphicet?"

"Hello, Eizen. It's been a long time."


It's been a long time.

She's coming to save you from falling fully into Malevolence.

Power of Purification...

I woke.

Sitting up, I shook my head. My first destination had to have been Rayfalke, but I'd gone astray. Perhaps I could go back at some point, just with Lailah, and save Eizen from his fate. But... then again, I'd need Sorey nearby to keep the Squire's power going. This was going to be difficult. Climbing out of bed and grabbing my bag, I left the room to go take a bath and think about this.

Perhaps... I'd have to go back at some point. For now, though, I'd have to follow until I had a chance to. Izayoi was no longer with us, which meant that my powers as the Oracle were nil and I couldn't do it on my own. I needed to find a way to bring back said powers, and that would help Sorey immensely. Feeling as if he was straining himself with two Squires, when usually a Shepherd had one active at a time, I had to wonder.

Perhaps Kain could help?

Chapter 8: Morgause, the Earth Trial - Edna's turn

Summary:

The second trial commences, and Edna may have accidentally messed it up at first.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"It shouldn't have any averse effects. Your resonance is high enough to offset any potential problems Sorey may have by taking you on as a second Squire. It is... unheard of for a Shepherd to have two Squires, but it isn't uncommon."

We'd travelled back to Goddodin to check up on the former Pope and make sure he was doing okay. Well, Sorey and the others did, but I had decided to talk to Kain. He was knowledgeable about many things, and he seemed to know more than Lailah would ever tell us. His advice was... something I needed, especially now that I wasn't able to be the Oracle.

"It's not too uncommon...?" I asked, concern in my voice. I'm sure that I also had a concerned look on my face, because he laughed and patted my head.

"It isn't. There's no need to worry, Rani. Sorey can handle you and Rose due to your resonances being higher than Alisha's." Kain ruffled my hair and I fixed it as best as I could. "So, where are you off to after this?"

"We're going to the..." I thought for a moment. "The closest place is Morgause, the Earth Trial shrine. It's within Aifread's Hunting Grounds, so.."

"Alright. I'll be staying in Goddodin for a while and then moving on afterwards. If you need me at any point..." He pulled out a small bell and handed it to me. "Ring this, and I'll come as fast as I can."

I put it in my bag after accepting it. "...Thank you, Kain. Though, could I ask something?"

"Certainly."

It was a question I'd had for a while. Why was he moving about so much? What was he looking for? Was his search along the lines of Zaveid's? A way to...

"Why are you travelling so much? Doesn't that put you at risk?" At that, he looked a little somber and looked away. And, for once, I saw something different. A speck of regret, and concern. "...I'm sorry, did I upset you...?"

"No.. There is a reason..." Kain stepped forward a little, before looking back at me. "I have a younger sister, but she's been gone for centuries. I've been looking for her. I had followed her trail here, but it's gone cold. I'll pick up clues and move on until I find her."

His sister, huh...?

"I hope you can find her someday, Kain." I offered. He chuckled, before giving me a soft pat on my head.

"Thanks. I hope you can find what you're looking for, too."


After reconvening with Sorey, Rose and the seraphim, we headed off to Aifread's Hunting Grounds. It was strange that they were called that, though perhaps Van Aifread had actually hunted there prior to- I shook my head, clearing my mind of the train of thought I was about to go down. That wasn't something I wanted to think about right now. We would have to do the trial, and get the power of Earth for Sorey. It was Edna's turn to shine, and she didn't seem too enthusiastic as we walked through the stone doors. As we did, the feeling of malevolence made us turn to what had caused it. A big, bull-like man with an axe in his hand.

"That must be the Minotauros!" Lailah exclaimed, stepping back. "Be careful, it's very powerful."

"And it's put us in such a mess..." Another voice said. My attention turned to the source, which was a man garbed in white with nothing but the lower half of his face and hands showing him to be a human... It was another Seraph. "With it standing guard there, what will we do? Such a bind it's put us in..."

He was weird.

"Shepherd Pawan?" Lailah seemed confused as to why he was here.

"Lady Lailah!" Aaand Pawan wasn't paying much attention to her eyes, as his head dipped down a little. "You're looking as lovely as ever!"

"And you're as creepy as ever." She turned away, possibly regretting her outfit choice. I let them talk amongst themselves, tuning out for a minute, as I looked over to the Minotauros. How would we make it move? It seemed impossible from our position but... Wind beat Earth, after all, so perhaps armatizing with Dezel would work in this situation.

But that would be a pickle if it was just a one-on-one...

"Huh?!" I heard Rose's shock and looked over as Pawan advanced on her. With a sigh, I put myself in front of her, pushing him back a little. He was excited because of there being women around, and was giving off a creepy vibe.

"We're here to get the Shepherd's power. No more, no less. So please stop creeping on my girlfriend." The words were out of my mouth before I realized it, and I groaned audibly. I just gave this creep more ammo. Terrific.

It seemed to stun everyone, even Pawan.

"Wait- Rani, what? Did you just call Rose your-" Sorey started, but Rose cut him off to finish his sentence.

"-girlfriend?"

"I-I mean, you're my friend! Who's also a girl. And someone who's helped me! So... uh- friend... girl... who is friend, yeah. Something like that." I tried, but failed miserably, to explain it away. I hadn't meant to use the term, but...

That was when Edna walked up to Pawan while I was trying to explain away what I actually meant and failing. It caught all of our attention, so we stopped and watched.

"Hey, mister?" Edna put on a really cutesy voice. "Edna's so lonely... She could use a big hug." She was even acting cutesy! This wasn't the Edna we knew- Perhaps it was just that, an act?

"Well! Aren't you a precious little thing! Your name is Edna?" Pawan's attention was turned from Rose and I to Edna, which was terrific. Now he'd stop being a creep- hopefully.

"Aw, please, mister! Edna's so cold!" Edna was trying her hardest.

"Oh! But... but there's a trial, you see? And we need to get to the altar and-"

And the act was dropped immediately, as Edna let out a huff of air. "Useless. Is that all you can think about? The trial?"

"I mean- the Shepherd is here for the trial, and-"

He wasn't going to get a word in edgewise acting like that. Edna seemed truly fed up with him as she walked over to the Minotauros after closing her parasol. Sorey and Lailah protested, and the Minotauros turned to face her as she stopped behind him. Oh boy, this was going to be-

"Scram."

The Minotauros looked taken aback by what Edna had said. I stared. Was this the proper course of action?

"Get. Outta. My. Face!"

With that, the Minotauros fled, and Edna seemed satisfied with herself. However, that hadn't been the proper course of action, as Pawan soon told us. The trial had been to quell the Minotauros, which had been my first thought but I hadn't really said it aloud. I'd thought it, sure, but it was obvious that, if there was a hellion...

Well, it needed to be quelled. No ifs, ands or buts... Except for the Cardinal. That was for her own good, after all... Or so I hoped it had been. Rose had done the killing, but I still wondered how it was affecting Sorey to see her killed in front of him when he wanted to quell the malevolence and turn her back to a human form.

Though, it wasn't hard to track down the Minotaurus. It'd taken a few simple steps, but we found it standing inside of one of the buildings. The bull hellion had decided to stop running, and so we would have to fight and quell it. Immediately, Sorey called for Dezel and Rose called for Mikleo. I, however, chose Edna. This was her trial, dammit, and she would need to fight too.

"Just terrific. I get you this time. Don't mess up." Edna said, her deadpan tone sounding less disappointed than earlier. "Watch the Minotauros and let me aim the punch."

"Okay." I gave a small nod in understanding, curling my hands into fists and taking a fighting stance. The rock fists to my sides did the same, following my arms. It was Edna who guided my fighting. Minotauros roared loudly, and rushed at me first. I crossed my arms in front of me, bringing the rock gauntlets in front and blocking the heavy axe swinging at me. It caused Edna to give a little grunt of pain, and I remembered she was the armour covering me.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry, just fight!" Edna said.

After he went after Rose, who had caught his attention with a perfectly-timed arrow, I ran at him and pulled my fist back, thrusting it forward. The gauntlet caught the side of the Minotauros, sending it skidding sideways before it gave a guttural roar and charged, head down. We jumped over, with Rose shooting off another arrow and Sorey sweeping his arm, sending the wind-aspected swords raining towards the Minotauros. Landing, I headed in for another punch but it got me in the side with its axe. There was no blood, just pain. Edna was getting the worst of it, but she was sturdier than I'd given her credit for. Both of us had cried out in pain when that had hit, though the pain had been temporary at best.

Rose swapped with Lailah, holding the claymore tight in her hands as she swept it in an arc towards the Minotauros. It deflected her attack and went to cleave her with the axe when I caught it in its ribs, sending it flying into the nearby wall. The sound of the wall breaking as the impact caused a Minotauros-shaped hole in it reverberated in the chamber. It roared again, and came charging out of the hole towards us. Sorey blocked its path with wind-aspected blades, and swooped in to deliver a kick. The blade cut its side and it roared again. It really liked roaring.

"It's not working!" Sorey exclaimed as we jumped over its charge yet again, trying to avoid getting hit and hurting the Seraphim. "What do we do?!"

That was when the sound hit our ears. The sound of children crying. And I stopped, remembering my own cries when I was that young. We were... fighting children... They had been bullied, hurt and damaged just like I had been, and it felt awful to know what I was doing. I stayed put, hearing the yells and screams of the people who had been meant to care for me while my mother wasn't able to. I understood too well what this meant.

"...They're crying." I said, voice low. "It's... no wonder the Minotauros ran away when Edna told them to. They're... children."

"...It's not impossible for children to become hellions. You know this, Rani. You quelled Margaret and her dog when they were hellions themselves." Lailah said. I nodded, and looked at the Minotauros before releasing the armatization. I had wanted to save them, and I had done it... but this seemed impossible. Though...

I turned to Edna. "Hey, I think you... may have something to say to them." I said. Edna looked over to me, and I saw her bright blue eyes filled with tears. She covered her face with her parasol, as if hiding that fact. She didn't like to show emotion, and I didn't blame her. But I watched, along with the others, as Edna walked up to the Minotaros.

She stared up at it.

"Sorry for scaring you." Her voice was thick with emotion, and it was obvious she was trying hard to keep herself together. "Goodbye. Rest in peace."

The hellion was purified, and several orbs of light spun in the sky before disappearing from view. Edna then turned away, to head down the path to the altar by herself. I caught up to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

We were out of view of the others, in another chamber. The altar wasn't far, maybe two or three chambers ahead of this one. Edna looked over to me, but her parasol blocked the view of her face. I knelt down and hugged her, knowing she probably wouldn't like it. But it felt right, at that moment, to let her know everything was okay.

Or maybe it was for myself, to let myself know that things were going to be okay.

I heard Edna's parasol clatter to the ground and she gripped me tight. Not pushing me away, but hugging back. Tightly, as if she needed to keep herself centered and I was the only way to do so. I held her for as long as she wanted me to, until I felt the gentle shove of her hands and broke away from her. She sniffed, wiping her face and picking up her parasol like nothing happened. I stood up and looked to where the altar was as the others came walking around the corner.

"...Thanks." Edna muttered, loud enough for only me to hear. She looked back at the others, though they couldn't really tell. Her parasol was open again, hiding her head from view. "Finally done talking? Let's get going."

Ignorance is unforgivable. I finally understand. Even if it's a pain, I'll never take the easy way out again. Though it totally is a pain.

Notes:

Rani calling Rose her girlfriend is like your best friend saying "Hey, you can say I'm your lover to get people to stop fucking with you".

Edna crying was something that happened during writing and actually wasn't planned, but it works-- I think.

Chapter 9: Lost in Ladylake

Summary:

Rani gets lost in Ladylake.

Chapter Text

Gaining the power of the Earth Empyrean hadn't been anything special. According to Lailah, it'd been the same way back at Igraine. They were tests to make sure the Shepherd was worthy of said power. Unlocking a new Mystic Arte for the Earth armatization, it was time for us to leave. Heading back through the temple, and heading out into the fields, I followed along with them as they talked amongst themselves about Lefay, the next shrine and the next trial. It meant we'd have to go all the way back to Hyland. This meant I could stop by and see how Arvald was doing. I doubt Sorey would mind. They'd gotten along while I was out like a light, so asking if we could wouldn't be too difficult.

"We're heading to Ladylake?" I asked.

"It's near the Water Trial, so it'd be much closer than the Wind Trial." Lailah pointed out. "The map was quite clear on that."

"Yeah- That is true, though..." I paused for a moment before looking to Sorey. "Do you think we can stop by and see Arvald and the others? It's been a while since we've seen them. I want to see how they're doing since... I've gotten better and all."

"Rani is right, you know. She hasn't really seen them since her fainting problem got resolved... Which was about a couple weeks or so ago." Rose took out a leather-bound book before flipping through it. Stopping at a page, she nodded to herself before closing it and putting it away. "Three days from an entire month since. We've been travelling that long?"

It hadn't really felt like it'd been that long. But, now that Rose mentioned it, things had changed a little with the temperature. It wasn't really by much, but it was getting a bit cooler now that it had been pointed out about being travelling for at least a month. Time seemed to just fly by, but I'd spent a good part of it unconscious it seemed.

"It doesn't really seem like it, but yeah. We have." Sorey responded. Rose pat me on the shoulder before falling into step beside me as we walked towards the trail that would take us to the bridge I'd... never crossed. I remembered falling into the raging river with Aevar, and that had been how I'd met Arvald and the bandits he lead. I'd woken up in their hideout, and... they'd been nice to both me and Aevar. So, with the distance, it was probably somewhere around here. The hideout was also potentially very well-hidden, so I doubted anyone could find it easily.

"We can come by when we're headed to the Wind Trial!" Lailah offered. "Would that be preferable? We can't find them right now."

I gave a small nod. "Okay. I'm not in any rush. I just want to let Arvald know that I'm okay now is all. It can wait, don't worry."


Sorey got a very warm welcome from the people of Ladylake when we arrived to the city after a couple more days of travelling. We headed to the inn to get our rooms for a couple nights, as we would rest here after the Water Trial was complete, and decided to look around the city for the day. The plan was to reconvene for dinner tonight and get some sleep early so we could leave at dawn, do the trial, and return mid-afternoon.

Ladylake was unfamiliar to me. It'd been some time since I'd been here, my last time only lasting a few hours before I had left. But it was also very easy to get lost in the winding pathways through the city itself, and that was how I had gotten lost in Ladylake about ten minutes into our stay here. There wasn't much that I could find to help me get back to the inn and wait there instead of wandering about by myself. The knights patrolling the place didn't seem to notice when I tried to catch their attention- or they just outright ignored me. I grew frustrated with the fact I couldn't find my way, so ended up finding a place to sit and curl up, hoping that at least Dezel would be able to track me down.

I didn't expect Rose to find me.

It had started getting dark around the time that she did, and I'd just pulled my jacket tighter around me as I stared at nothing. I was kind of upset that I'd gotten lost so quickly, and the fact no one wanted to help had soured my mood considerably. So I had stayed until I heard footsteps, in which I just looked up to see if it was another knight coming by.

It was Rose.

"You've been here all this time." She said, before going to sit beside me. "Something on your mind?"

"I got lost." I responded honestly. "No one seemed to want to help me, so either I was bad at gaining someone's attention or I was being ignored intentionally."

"Yeah, sometimes the knights can be unreliable unless you're in extreme danger or something." Rose waved a hand before getting up and holding said hand out for me to take. She was going to help me back up, and I gingerly took her hand and accepted her help back up. The two of us sort of stared at each other for a moment before awkwardly laughing and heading back to the inn.

Dinner was a filling stew made for the seven of us, and Rose made it a point that she and I were going to room together for the night while Sorey and the Seraphim take another room. When we went into the room, I glanced around to make sure there were enough beds for the both of us. Unfortunately for us, there wasn't. I kind of make a move towards the wall when Rose put a hand on my shoulder.

"We can share the bed, you know. It's fine!" She said, a smile forming on her face. "Besides, I doubt the ground'll be comfortable to sleep on."

She did have a point. Sharing a bed wasn't too bad, I just didn't want Rose to be uncomfortable because of me. We both pulled off our shoes and set aside anything that wouldn't be comfortable wearing while sleeping and the two of us climbed into bed. I kept my back turned to Rose, curling up a little to take as little room as possible. I felt a tap and looked over my shoulder to see her gesturing at me to turn over. I did.

"What's wrong? You're acting... really off." There was concern in her voice, and I just smiled a bit weakly.

"I was lost, remember? And I don't want to make you uncomfortable while we sleep." I shook my head a little. "I'm fine, though. I jus-"

Rose put a finger to my lips, taking my hand in hers and moving closer. "It's okay. Let's get some sleep, okay?"

I nodded.

Our fingers entwined and we both closed our eyes, falling asleep to the comforting silence of the night.

Chapter 10: The Plot Twist of the Century

Summary:

Things move forward, and yet some things change. A plot twist no one expected has arrived!

Chapter Text

Rose and I emerged from our room the next morning, holding hands. To Rose, it just seemed like she was used to it. But to me? I just knew I was blushing and keeping my head faced away from people. Including Sorey, who seemed inquisitive about what was going on. Lailah said something about young love, and that just made me want to sink into the floor. I groaned, covering my face with both my hands. This was definitely something I should've thought of before I agreed to come out holding Rose's hand.

Last night had been something. The two of us had held hands while we slept, and Rose didn't seem too fussed when we held hands outside of the room. I didn't really understand, but I hadn't minded- at least until comments were being made about it. After breakfast, we ended up leaving Ladylake and heading towards the waterfall where the Shrine would be.

"I think I'll stay at the entrance this time," I said as we headed there. "As much as I'd like to go with, I feel like it really should only be you and Rose going, Sorey."

"I don't think they'd mind. You were with us on the second one." Sorey pointed out. I grinned sheepishly as we approached the shrine under the waterfall.

"Honestly, as long as I stay at the entrance, I don't think the Seraph there will get too upset about it. Really, though." I shook my head a little. "I don't think the Oracle should be undertaking these trials with the Shepherd. Even if there's nothing against it."

"Well, if you're sure.."

It would mean missing out, but if memory served correctly- I wouldn't want to deal with this Trial at all. So, as they headed further in once the task was set, I stayed behind and looked up at the point where they would eventually end up.

"Even the Oracle can undergo these Trials." The Seraph said, arms folded against his chest. It was a different Seraph from the usual Water Trial Seraph, a young man with long, icy blue hair who looked about as old as Dezel. His eyes were gray, and he didn't bother with the mask the other Seraphim that guarded these trials went with. "You didn't have to stay behind. Only the Shepherd needs to get the powers. You'll get them by proxy, but the experience-"

"...I hate how many eyes are on this thing." I muttered, sitting down. "I don't have a Water Seraph to cover me, so I.. don't really have a way to get through regardless. Mikleo's shield can only cover so many people."

The Seraph turned his head upwards. It was obvious at this point that he was blind, much like Dezel was. He didn't turn his eyes towards anything, only listened and moved his head in the direction of the person. It meant that he was... surviving in the best way he could. Without his sight. I wondered, briefly, how that was like. But I relied on sight for multiple things, so I couldn't think of how it was like to live like that.

"You don't trust him?"

"No, it's more of... Hm, how do I put it? I don't like the eyes. They teleport you back to start. The frustration? Infinite. I hated that part."

"You talk as if you've done this trial before. You haven't, I'd know."

"Well... Not here." I looked up at the area Sorey and the others would be at probably soon. They'd fight the boss, and then they'd get offered the spear. Knowing things like this sucked, and I really didn't like it whatsoever. Why couldn't I be an isekai protagonist with no prior knowledge of the world I was in? That would help a bunch. I hated having prior knowledge like this. There were no twists, no turns.

None at all.

"Altul once stood here, long.. long ago. Until his soul was eventually devoured by the sword he held close to stop Asura from killing him as well." The seraph spoke after a bit, reaching behind him and unsheathing a sword filled with Malevolence just as Sorey and the others arrived. "And I see the Shepherd has succeeded in quelling Asura's soul."

"Oh-! You're back!" I got up to my feet before going to join them. "Sorry, I just hate this place-"

"It's no trouble. We were able to pull through and defeat Asura."

"Then you should take this, Shepherd." The seraph held out the blade in front of him. "This is made of mythril, and holds the power to cleave the world. If you use it, master it, it could become a great conduit for your spiritual powers."

Sorey shook his head. "I've already got a sword."

The seraph chuckled. "I see you've passed this trial as well, Shepherd. You're a purehearted boy. Don't let anything corrupt that."

It was heartwarming, at least for a moment- and then.

"If you will not be using that sword, I will!"

Alisha's voice broke through our thoughts. She stood near the entrance of the Shrine itself, and the sword was in her hands after it had vanished from the Seraph's. She stood there, staring at all of us. As if she could see everything. This wasn't right- that should've been Maltran standing there... And yet, the darkened swirl of Malevolence was under her feet- the same Malevolence that took the sword from the Seraph.

"Alisha?!" Sorey stepped forward. "When did you become a Hellion?!"

"I'll prove it to you..." Alisha raised the sword, eyes cold and narrowed at Sorey as he began to approach. "I'll prove that I can be a capable Squire just like Rose! And I'll start by rending this world in two!"

That was... logical.

"Alisha, wait-" But she swung the sword, sending a shockwave at us. We dodged out of the way in time, but Alisha had disappeared. Sorey looked shocked, Rose had her hands to her mouth and I... stared. I hadn't really known Alisha in this world, and now it seems I'd never will. It didn't seem like anyone wanted to take point, so we all stood there staring at the place where Alisha had stood.

How... and why had she become a Hellion?


"We'll spend the night here." After finding out that Alisha was a hellion, none of us felt safe returning to Ladylake. That was where she lived, so it would mean walking back to the enemy's base. We'd decided to camp out tonight, and Dezel had picked our spot. It was in the forest, not too far from the Shrine. The same forest that Sorey and Mikleo had come out from at the start of their journey.

Lailah got a campfire going, and we all didn't speak that night. Just ate food and decided to sleep. It was rough, knowing an ally was now an enemy. But no one would be taking this information harder than Sorey was probably taking it. She'd been his Squire, once, and now... How long had it actually been since they last saw each other?

I didn't know.

It was a restless night, and I woke up several times over the course of the night. We packed up and left, silence heavy over us all. None of us wanted to break it, and yet...

"Sorey.."

I was the one to do so.

"Besides... what happened yesterday, how are you feeling?" I asked. "Two Squire contracts going at once... is probably rough on you."

"I'm fine." Sorey shook his head in response. "You and Rose can see the Seraphim, so there's been no averse effects on me."

"Still, you're like... a pedestal of support! If you crumble, what are we supposed to do?" I put my arm around him, and give him a half-hug. "Listen, Sorey... we're all shaken up by yesterday. But not as much as you. You don't have to bottle it all up. We're here for you, Sorey. All of us."

"Rani's right, Sorey!" Rose chipped in. "You've been mopey. More mopey than usual. Listen, whatever's behind Alisha's change, we'll find it out. And then, we'll purify her. So don't worry, everything'll be alright!"

"I hope so..." Sorey's reply didn't have its usual happiness behind it... and it affected all of us, whether we realized it or not.


It took us a week to get to the Wind Trial shrine, and not for lack of trying either. When we reached Lastonbell and decided to take a break, Sorey hadn't want to leave. It'd taken a lot of coaxing for him to come out. It was depression, plain and simple. He was upset over the fact that Alisha had become a hellion and now was planning to cleave the world in two. I couldn't blame him for feeling this way, but we had a mission. To get all the trials done and get all the power to help beat Heldalf.

We'd headed to Westonbolt Gorge via the path in Pearloats Pasture, once we'd gotten Sorey up and moving. It was a perilous journey, fraught with- No, I'm pulling your leg. It was relatively uneventful, due to the fact that they'd purified the hellions around here a while ago and no new ones had taken their place yet.

Which was good for us, for a while. As we kept heading in the direction, I wondered if I'd be able to help out. But when we got to the trial area, I took one look at it and decided I'd be sitting out again on this one. Heights and I didn't mix... at all.

"Look, up there!"

"Is that a person?!" Sorey stepped forward, calling forth Dezel to armatize with him and the two of them stopped the person from falling to their death. But then Dezel noticed the hellion, and the person behind him. Running down the wall, looking badass the entire time-

Was none other than the Wind Seraph, Zaveid.

Chapter 11: Thoughts of Protecting Her

Chapter Text

The hellion, Dullahan, crashed to the ground when Zaveid kicked it. He used it to jump in front of us, before glancing back at all of us. His eyes landed on me, and narrowed slightly. Unlike everyone else, I probably wouldn't be a recipient of his usual flirting. So I kept my gaze away from him, firmly on the Dullahan.

A headless warrior that brought death.

"You're planning to kill again, aren't you?" Sorey asked. His voice didn't carry any of the usual firmness when he asked that sort of question. It was dull, lackluster.

Even Zaveid noticed.

"You're not tellin' me that's got you down, Sheps. Didn't I tell ya? My way is to put the hellions back in hell." He pulled out Siegfried from where it was improperly holstered. The hellion got back up during this time, with Sorey and Dezel in front of it. "Now get out of the way."

"I'm not moving! I won't let you do it!" He tried his hardest to make himself sound assertive, but it fell slightly flat. Zaveid looked a bit frustrated at this, still holding Siegfried in his hand. The Dullahan hellion started to move, and Zaveid went to attack when Dezel tied his wrist with his pendulum wire.

"How do you intend to kill the hellions?" Dezel asked. This was a chance that Zaveid couldn't pass up, it seemed.

"Introduce me to your pretty young lady-friends, and maybe I'll tell you."

It wouldn't be Zaveid if he wasn't flirting. Even his comment of us being eye candy made Rose bristle. I gently placed my hand on her shoulder and shook my head. It really wasn't worth it. Empty words, as I'd figured. He didn't mean that. Truly. Edna commented about how he hadn't changed, and he raised Siegfried to point the pistol at his head.

And fired, powering himself up.

I backed off. I wasn't ready for this- Wasn't ready to just needlessly fight. But it seems the others didn't share my apprehensions and went in to fight alongside Sorey and Dezel. It left me standing there, kind of uselessly, as I watched them all attack him. Zaveid was a tricky one. Spells that looked like they hit missed entirely due to him using Windstep to get out of the way before it actually went off. He dodged strikes.

The Seraph was toying with them. But eventually, they were able to knock him down. And he left, after giving a few parting words. I hadn't been paying attention until he stopped beside me. I glanced over to him, but looked away.

"Didn't think I'd see you with the Shepherd." He said. I shrugged.

"Comes with losing my Seraphim to the Malevolence." In a display of non-Zaveidness, he took my chin and forced me to look at him. I could barely read his expression but... I could see a hint of concern. He let go just as quickly, and I just rubbed where his hand had been not moments prior.

"Least you didn't lose yourself. I'd have to kill you if you did."

With that somber note, Zaveid walked away. I stared at where he'd been, and then kind of collapsed afterwards. Honestly, what kind of problems did I get myself into these days? First it was ending up in a new world, now it was a seraph I thought hated me showing me his own version of concern. It didn't sit well with me.

I walked up to the door, the others having already gone inside. Instead of entering, I sat near it. I knew they'd come out of it eventually. For now, I'd just have to entertain myself and figure out my next path. Sorey shouldn't have two squires. It wasn't supposed to be like that. I knew that, I knew... and yet, here I was. His second Squire, despite being the Oracle. I shouldn't be.

And yet I was.

"Maybe me taking this place has had a lot of terrible side effects. Like Alisha becoming a hellion. I don't remember that ever happening." I pulled my knees up to my chest. "...Was it a bad idea to bring me here? I'm just ruining everything set up."

I stared off into the distance, wondering if I should head to Pendrago alone. Maybe it was a decision I shouldn't make alone.


I must've dozed off because Sorey was shaking me awake. I blinked the sleep from my eyes, staring up at him. How long had I been out? "Oh... Did you complete the trial?" I asked, voice sounding kind of off due to being asleep for so long. Sorey nodded and helped me to my feet.

"It wasn't too hard." Sorey admitted. I dusted myself off and gave him a small smile. "Though, do you and Zaveid have something against each other? Before we headed into the Shrine, I saw you two talking."

I waved a hand. "He was just asking me a question." That was completely avoiding the entire question, because I didn't want to delve too fully into it and give them all a false sense of hope. Right now, I couldn't purify Eizen like Laphicet- the boy Eizen gave a name to- had asked. I didn't actually have the Power of Purification, so that meant I couldn't do anything as of yet for that questline.

Rose walked over and took my hands in hers, moving Sorey out of the way as she did so. "You can tell us what's really going on, Rani."

I smiled.

"Maybe later, I don't really want to dwell on it too much." I offered. This seemed to please her, and she just took one of my hands to hold instead. While we headed away from the Wind Shrine, I wondered briefly if things would play out this way. If things would go the same as they'd always gone, with just a few hiccups, and I'd be able to go home.

I clearly didn't know exactly how badly I'd screwed up this entire world.


We continued down the path to Pendrago, instead of heading to Lastonbell. It meant that our course had been set, finally, and we'd have to deal with what was going on. And for me, I knew what would come up next. A fight with Zaveid, and Dezel's eventual death. Because Rose was important to him..

But she was important to me, too.

I had to plan something, and fast. I didn't want Rose to get hurt. I knew he'd use her as a vessel and exact his revenge while somehow breaking his Sublord contract with Lailah. I knew what was to come, and I had to do something about it.

The night before we reached Pendrago, we'd found a cabin to stay in. Lailah had lit the fire and we'd all gotten ready to go to bed. Except for the Seraphim and I, who remained awake even though Rose and Sorey were out like lights. I stared out the window, wondering what I should do. What I would do... about Dezel and Symonne's eventual fight.

"You should get some sleep too, Rani." Lailah said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "We'll be leaving in the morning."

"I know." I shook my head. "My brain's a bit too active to sleep. I'm... thinking of all the could've beens, instead of staying firmly in the present. Like... is there a route I could've taken to prevent all of this?"

"No one could've seen Alisha becoming a hellion. Even I didn't realize it until it was too late." Lailah looked sad at the thought. "But we'll figure it out eventually, okay?"

"Yeah.." I gave a nod.

Eventually turning in for the night, after figuring out what I'd do tomorrow night, I slept dreamlessly and woke to Rose sitting on my bed.

"Good morning..." I yawned, sitting up and leaning on her, putting my arms around her. Rose chuckled, putting her hand on mine.

"Morning, sleepyhead." Rose said with a grin. "Dezel cooked breakfast, and I got you some." She gave me a plate of food, which was expertly cooked despite the fact Dezel couldn't see. He could read the wind, though, and that seemed to be the reason he could cook as well as he did. Giving a smile at the food, I ended up eating it as fast as my body would allow.

After breakfast and getting properly dressed, we all set off. I stayed close to Rose, holding her hand and leaning against her. I had figured out my plan. I'd call for Dezel before he could use Rose, and then let him use me instead. That way, Rose wouldn't nearly die. That way, Dezel didn't have to have any regrets.

Oh, if only I knew.


The sun was now low in the sky as we reached the path to Pendrago proper.

We'd gone around to Glaveind Basin, and talked to some of the Sparrowfeathers. Our path had been set from there, and everyone was keeping Rose in the dark... me included. I had actually winced when she had used that sarcastic tone, and resolved myself towards my own secret plan. One that would definitely work, even if I had to force it to.

I would not let Rose get hurt, no matter what.

"Wait a second-" Sorey stopped us as he spotted Zaveid in the distance. "Zaveid?"

"Just a word of advice." Zaveid's voice carried through the wind, as if he was projecting it. We walked closer, to where he was leaning against a tree. "Leave your opponent this time to me."

Dezel, irritated, took a few steps forward, closing the distance between himself and the older Wind Seraph. "Don't toy with me, Zaveid!" The anger and frustration was clear in his tone.

"I'm not toying with you. Especially not now. You can listen to me or not, but I'm handling this either way." Zaveid began to walk away from the tree after standing straight, and Dezel cut him off by flinging his pendulum in Zaveid's direction. Zaveid dodged.

I didn't save these last two shots of mine just to throw them away.

Two left.

My chances of saving Eizen dwindled further with that reminder. My chance of saving Rose was one in a million. But I'd do it. Unlike the last time, I didn't sit out of this fight. But Zaveid seemed to know what I was going to do before I did it, and avoided my daggers with ease.

"The Rangetsu Style, eh? Who taught you that?" Zaveid asked.

Rangetsu Style?

"Arvald taught me how to use these, so-!" I attacked again. "I don't know about the Rangetsu Style!"

He dodged. "Haven't seen that style in centuries! Glad Rokurou passed it down!" It seemed he didn't mind chatting during battle. But, in the end, even with the talk of the Rangetsu style... Zaveid still lost. And he handed Sorey the gun, Siegfried, with the final bullet in it. Telling him if he couldn't stop Dezel from killing hellions, then he could use that instead. Before proceeding to proclaim he needed a nap and going to lay on the ground away from the path.

It wouldn't be needed. I'd make sure of it.

I didn't want my last hope of purification to be thrown away needlessly. There was someone out there who needed it. A dragon that sat atop the Spiritcrest, whose soul was still there.


"Sorey, Rose. I need to tell you two something."

If this was going to be a fight we all would be fighting, I'd have to tell them the truth before things got too far. Before I fully threw myself into my plan... There was one thing I needed them to know. Both of them looked over, and the Seraphim too. It was a bigger room that we were in this time, enough to fit all of us. I knew the Seraphim would be listening in, so I didn't want to hide it from them either.

"...I know this'll be hard to take in but... I'm not from Glenwood." I admitted, shaking my head a little. "I'm not even from the same planet. I was brought here for some reason, and I'm... Ugh, I don't know! I look like a lunatic."

"Wait, you're... not from Glenwood? What's the place you're from called?" Sorey didn't laugh, didn't balk. He didn't even say that was untrue. He had gotten up from where he sat and stood in front of me, hands on my shoulders. I looked anywhere but his face.

"That's gotta be some sort of weird lie..." Mikleo remarked.

"It's not." Dezel pointed out, lowering his hat a little. "She's not lying about it. I would be able to tell if she was."

I sighed. "Of course I'm not lying. Why would I lie about not being from Glenwood? Hell, I asked you to write that note, Dezel. That's proof enough I'm not from here." But I returned my attention to what Sorey asked instead of dwelling too hard on the facts of how I showed I wasn't originally from here. "...The place I'm from. Well, the town's called Avalon. The surrounding place? California. It's on a world called Earth."

For a good while, no one talked. Well, until Rose shoved Sorey out of the way and pulled me into a hug. She let me rest my head on her shoulder, and didn't say anything. Sorey's exclamation of "Whoa!" had broken the silence momentarily, but it hadn't lasted.

"...Don't worry. Nothing's going to change between any of us. Just because you're not from here doesn't mean a thing." Rose comforted me, and I hadn't even known I needed it. Pulling away from Rose, I stared at her for a moment before leaning in and giving her a kiss.

The entire room fell silent yet again.

"Finally." Edna broke the silence. "I was wondering when you two would finally kiss after skirting around each other for... what, months?"

"It hasn't been that long!" Rose shot back, but we all ended up laughing after a little bit and I hugged Rose tight. She was warm, soft and I wanted to hold her forever. But I couldn't do that forever. I knew that, but I still wanted to.

The rest of the day went by, with Sorey promising he'd help me find a way home and getting teased by some of the Seraphim about my relationship with Rose. It was nice, even though it would eventually end.

But, for now, I'd cherish these moments that I had left with all of them.

Chapter 12: Start Again

Summary:

Something terrible happened, and now the world must go back to when it all began. But there's a difference this time, and the difference is a bitter pill to swallow.

Chapter Text

The day seemed to last forever.

By the time the sun set, we'd taken a quick nap. Even with the information that I was not of this world, I wasn't really treated any differently. Dezel knew right off the bat, too. Or at least, I thought he did. The fact I'd asked him to write a note for me spoke volumes about how I didn't know how this world's lettering system worked.

The reason why we were waiting until nighttime was that there was a job that Rose needed to do, and she had to do it at night. The information had come from the Sparrowfeathers when we'd stopped by to see them earlier that day. Sneaking into the castle wasn't too big of a deal, but this would be the first time we'd ever assisted in something like this. Leaving the inn once night fell, we walked towards the entrance of Pendrago to start our mission.

But, as we walked, a fox-like man walked out in front of us. Stopping us in our tracks, in other words.

"Well, if it isn't the boss!" The man's voice grated my nerves already, and it was just a few seconds after I'd met him.

"Lunarre!" I looked to Rose, who took a step back. The expression on her face was... anger "But you're a hellion!"

Lunarre laughed. "Oh, you're scaring me with that face, Boss. Haha, what exquisite anger!"

"I really, really don't like this guy." I muttered to myself, taking a step forward. Put myself between Rose and Lunarre, get him to focus on me instead. That was my thought, but it was immediately cut off.

"It makes me so HUNGRY!" And he lunged at Rose.

"Hepsin Yulind!" I called Edna to my side almost immediately, armatizing with her and punching Lunarre away before he could make contact with Rose. I put myself between her and Lunarre, like I'd originally thought of doing. I knew Rose could protect herself but... I wasn't about to let her get hurt while I could do something about it. Both Rose and Sorey drew their weapons.

"His malevolence is extremely strong!" Lailah said, having materialized next to Sorey. Dezel materialized next to Rose. "Be careful!"

"Just like the cardinal..." Sorey said, voice low.

I didn't wait to hear the rest of what they said, launching myself at Lunarre and feinting to make him dodge left. When he did, I punched him as hard as I could. The punch sent him tumbling back, but he jumped back to his feet and growled at me. I knew... I knew they could defend themselves, but something in me kept saying I had to fight and protect them. Perhaps it was because I could protect them, but perhaps it was because I couldn't bear the thought of them getting hurt.

It would ruin my plan, sure... but I had to do something. As I went in for another hit, the world lost all its colour.

"Might you refrain from acting out of turn?" A voice asked. Clearly feminine, and clearly speaking to Lunarre. There was no owner in sight, however.

"It's you!" Dezel said to the disembodied voice.

"Shut up!" Lunarre growled. "Do not interfere with what I'm doing!"

"Such a foolish and reckless fox. Did you forget your role in this story? You were supposed to lead them on. Bring them to me." The disembodied voice said. "If you act so recklessly and provoke anger, what will you do then?"

Lunarre growled again, and ran off. As he did, more Lunarres came out of nowhere. The disembodied voice sighed. "This wasn't a part of my plan. But I'm flexible."

"Damn..." I turned around and immediately launched myself at one of the Lunarres. It didn't seem like this Lunarre knew what he was doing that well, and was constantly getting hit by my attacks. I stopped after a few minutes of just needlessly punching the Lunarre I was fighting. My arms lowered, and I looked to where Lunarre had run off to.

The job offer had been fake.

It'd been a trap.

Releasing my armatization, I took off while Rose and Sorey were busy dealing with the other two Lunarres. In the direction of where Lunarre had run. The area mapped itself out in my head, and so did the scenario of what I was about to do. For Rose's sake, I had to do this.

The Shrinechurch wasn't too far away.

What the hell are you doing?! I heard Dezel's voice in the back of my head. You left them behind!

"I'm doing what I have to." I said plainly, continuing to follow Lunarre's path at a sprint. "You should be with them, not me."

And let you get yourself killed? Rose would be devastated. Though filled with naught but thoughts of revenge, Dezel could think rationally when things came down to it. I slowed to a walk before stopping, and Dezel appeared beside me.

"I'm doing this for her." I said, turning to look at him. "Remember when I said I wasn't from Glenwood? I... know what happens next, Dezel. So I'm going to prevent that, no matter what it takes."

"..." Dezel sighed. "You're a complete and utter fool to think you can do it alone. I may have used Rose for my own gain, but I'm not going to let her girlfriend die because she's a reckless idiot."

I laughed at that, before starting to walk again. "I am a reckless idiot, yeah. So... when the time comes, Dezel. Don't use Rose."

Use me instead.


Sorey and Rose caught up to me after at least twelve minutes passed. I'd stopped walking at the steps up to the Shrinechurch, and had decided to wait for them to arrive.

"Rani!" Sorey called out.

"You idiot!" Rose walked up to me, smacking me across the face before giving me the biggest hug she could muster. "Don't leave me behind like that..."

I laughed a little, giving her hair a soft ruffle. "...I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking straight."

She let go, before giving a small nod of acceptance. We all then looked at the Shrinechurch, before walking up the stairs together. Running up them was an idiotic idea that could end in someone's ankle getting twisted. At the top, near the stairs that lead to the doors of the Shrinechurch, was Lunarre.

"Lunarre!" An angry growl emitted from him and, as we approached, a bright light eminated from him before expanding out. We had to cover our eyes to not get blinded... but it took a few minutes nonetheless for the light to fade and our eyesight to readjust. Covering our eyes did nothing.

Instead of Lunarre, it was a girl. A short, pale-skinned girl with black hair that ended in a dark purple ombre. "Rather productive for the opening act... But what splendid anger you've shown me, girl. If it were to blossom into hatred, oh how happy he would be!"

"I've waited for this..." Dezel said.

"Indeed. The time is ripe, for both of us." The girl said.

"Wait, Dezel-" But I put my arm out in front of Sorey, to get him to hush. I stared at the exchange. Dezel hadn't forgiven Symonne for what she did, even though the hatred he had was wrongfully placed on her. He couldn't remember what exactly had happened, only that she'd appeared during that time. It was why he had a personal vendetta and revenge plot against her.

It got heated. Sorey tried to stop Dezel, the girl continued to provoke him and Rose asked for answers.

And what Symonne gave had her falter. She stood there, staring, as she heard about how Dezel had continually used her for his own gain. Although he did, I knew he still cared for her. He... just didn't know how to show it beyond small things. He probably did regret what he did, but there'd been no turning back once he made the decision to use Rose as he did.

"That's enough creepy little girl for now." Edna said.

"I agree. There's something wrong about all of this..." Mikleo looked hesitant.

"Let's get out of here!" Lailah said, preparing to run.

"I think not." The girl changed with a quick flash of light. A hellion took her place.

I knew what this entailed.

I knew what was coming next. And I'd do whatever I could to stop the last chance to save the one person the boy had asked me to save... from being needlessly thrown away. So I prepared myself for battle, but not in the way most people would. I was steeling my resolve, readying to throw my life away to save Rose and save that one last shot from Zaveid.

I didn't want to die, but...

"Lailah, get ready to purify her!" Sorey shouted, snapping me out of my thoughts. This was it.

"Not this time! I'm gonna kill her!" His body turned teal, and he disappeared.

"Dezel?!" Rose cried out, confused.

And then it struck. I felt Dezel's anger and hatred, his embroiling emotions. He wrenched control of my body from me, and I didn't fight back. I felt the familiar power of the Armatus, but I could do nothing. I was a passenger in my own body, seeing things as if I wasn't even in control.

Because I wasn't.

"Rani!" I heard Sorey's voice from so far away. I clutched at my head, but I couldn't regret my choice now. I knew where this lead. I'd given Dezel the permission he needed to use someone other than Rose for his revenge plot, all to save her from what would happen to her. I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream. I wanted to wrest back control and tell Dezel how foolish he was being.

I knew. I had known all along.

But still, I'd played the fool. Played a part of an act to keep people from being suspicious of me. Only Dezel knew, and that was how it would stay.

I watched the events unfold from where I was, Dezel's hatred and anger preventing me from getting close enough to stop being a passenger in my own body. I just wanted to protect Rose.

I regret this... I regret it. I...

There was a sharp pain, and I broke through the barrier to take back control. It was unintentional and disorienting, as I blinked a couple times to make sure I was actually back in control of my own body. Made sure my arms worked... and then the pain hit me again. I hissed, and looked down. Stabbed through my stomach was a tendril, the same tendril that would've stabbed through Rose.

I could only let out a weak "ah..." as the tendril removed itself from my body. I felt myself starting to fall, and the stone floor met my body. I stared at the arm of my jacket, trying to will my body to move again. I couldn't hear anything, only ringing in my ears and the sound of my own heartbeat... which wasn't beating as much as it should. It was skipping beats.

I was dying.

I felt the tendril grab my leg, and felt an overwhelming sickness. But I couldn't do anything about it, just lay there as it dragged my body. Even the feeling in my body was fading with each beat of my dying heart. I couldn't hear a word anyone was saying.

And then, I was alone.

The world was pitch black, and I could only see myself. I'd somehow found the strength to sit up and pull my knees up to my chest. But I couldn't hear anything... Or feel my heartbeat. I was dead now, wasn't I? I'd died to save her, and I couldn't even tell her I loved her. Sure, we'd... only been together for a few hours, but I hadn't even gotten the chance to actually ever say it.

"I'm such a fool..." I said to myself, burying my face in my knees. "...Such a reckless, idiotic fool..."

I'd sacrificed everything. I'd done what I wasn't supposed to.

And I was paying the price for my foolishness.

Though, slowly, the world brightened up around me. It was gradual, like something was changing. People usually said to not go to the light, but I couldn't do that when it was surrounding me already. But the world changed colour. A gold colour, with white particles around me.

"Hey."

Dezel's voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I looked up at him. He held out his hand. I was hesitant on taking it, but he grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. It was here I realized how tall he was in comparison to me.

"Listen, Rani. I'm-" I put a hand to his mouth before he could say another word.

"I told you to do what you did, you dummy." I said. Though I'd regretted it, I had done it to keep Rose from going through the same thing. "It was for Rose. I know you care about her... Hell, I do too. I love her, and I... I didn't want her getting hurt. I knew this was going to happen... So don't apologize to me."

"...You're too kind." Dezel remarked. "Don't let go of Rose, alright?"

"I won't."

"And tell them that it wasn't half bad, gallavanting around those musty ruins."

"Okay."

"And if they get bummed out about this, tell 'em 'Hey, I thought you had good to do in the world! Keep mopin' and cryin', and I'll chain you up so tight that you can't even breathe!'"

"I will."

He started to fade away, and he was smiling the whole time.

"Good luck out there. Keep on keepin' on."

"I'll do my best!"

And my entire world went white.


Somehow, I opened my eyes. I felt someone shaking me, but I barely had the strength to tell them to stop.

"Rani! Oh, thank goodness!" Rose's voice was thick and held a tremble in it. As if she'd been crying. I felt her hug me, and just rested my head against her shoulder.

"We really thought you wouldn't wake back up..." Sorey said. "You were breathing and everything, but..."

"I'm..." I could barely get my thoughts together, but I forced myself to. "...I'm... okay now..."

"At least you're okay." Edna said. Her back was turned to me, as far as I could tell.

"There may be some lasting damage from that wound... but you'll be okay." Lailah smiled at me.

I gave a weak smile back. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, and noticed Zaveid there. He'd come too late...

Rose let go after a moment, and helped me to my feet. I could barely stand on my own, so I leaned against her to help. It was like all the strength had been drained from my body. I'd almost died, so it was probably me recovering from a near-death experience. But it was odd, I shouldn't have felt so tired... Like I was completely drained physically, mentally and emotionally.

"Geez, Rani... You'd think you could walk." It was a joke, and I knew that. "...something wrong?"

"...I'm tired..." I finally get out after a few moments of silence. "...can... we go back to the inn?"

"Sure."


I didn't know how long I slept after we'd gotten to the inn. Rose had to help me eat some dinner that the innkeeper had made for us, and help me change into sleepwear. But the moment I'd laid down in bed, I was out like a light. What had happened was exhausting, yet necessary to keep Rose from getting hurt. She'd stared at my stomach for a bit while helping me change, and I couldn't blame her.

The wound there had scarred over. The skin there was a lot paler than the rest of my skin, a testament to the hellionization I was undergoing before I was saved. A reminder of what was lost that day.

Finally, I'd woken up. It was still nighttime, it seemed, and Rose was sitting on the bed. She looked over at me when I sat up and gave me a smile. "Hey, sleep well?"

"Yeah... Yeah I did. What about you?"

"Eh, couldn't fall asleep." Rose waved a hand. She didn't seem too bothered. "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"What's up?" I asked.

"Sorey's made a pact with Zaveid, and we're leaving to Glaveind Basin." Rose said, sliding off the bed. I tried to get up to follow, but it felt like something was keeping me there. She turned, before giving me a hug and kissing my cheek. "I want you to stay here and recover, okay? We'll figure out how to get you home once Sorey defeats Heldalf."

"Wait, Rose!" Rose let go, turning away and walking off. Out of the room. "Rose, wait! Rose...! ROSE!"


I jolted awake almost immediately, before sitting up and looking around. No one was there. Fearing the worst, I quickly got out of bed and dressed. The only outfit I had was the one Rose had loaned me at the beginning of my stay here, which was just her usual travelling outfit. It seemed that they'd taken my usual outfit because it'd gotten ruined due to the fight...

I had to push that out of my mind and grab my daggers and their sheathes, putting the belt that held the sheathes around my waist and making sure it stayed. After I pulled my boots on, I ran out of the inn. I had to make it... I knew where they were, and I knew what fight was next. They'd be fighting Heldalf again. So I had to make it to Glaveind Basin as soon as possible.

I ignored everything around me, focusing on my one solid task. Even if my lungs burned and I could barely breathe while running, I kept pushing forward. My body gave out at one point, forcing me to collapse onto the ground. I let myself lay there for a few moments to catch my breath and let my lungs recover from the sprint... before I pulled myself back up and started running again. I couldn't feel the Squire pact anymore, so I couldn't call one of the Seraphim to assist me in my running.

They'd left me behind, nullifying the pact so I'd recover and not be a part of the journey anymore.

I didn't blame them for that, but it would've been nice to call Edna to launch myself through the air with Earth to catch up.

It took at least five hours from when I woke to arrive at Glaveind Basin. There was no malevolence here like there had been before. It was dull, dusty and dry. I slowed to a walk, looking around. Up ahead, I saw the familiar silhouette of Lailah and started to run towards her again.

But I stopped halfway there.

Lying on the ground was Rose and Sorey. They were staring at the sky, and I could hear the faint sounds of sobbing. Slowly, I approached the scene and stopped near Lailah. She was the one sobbing, and I couldn't blame her. There was no signs of life from either Rose or Sorey, and they couldn't bring themselves to even touch the bodies.

How had Heldalf done this...?

"Rani..." I heard Mikleo's voice, but I didn't look at him. I started to walk again, and it felt like I was walking in place. Rose never seemed to get closer. Sorey never seemed to get closer. But I knew I was walking towards them. It took my mind a few minutes to adjust to this reality, and I fell to my knees next to Rose.

"...I..." Carefully, I pulled Rose's lifeless body into my arms, closing her eyes. I just held her, even knowing she was a corpse and would never hug me back again. Our relationship hadn't even lasted that long, and she was already dead. I couldn't even understand it... I'd done what I did to prevent anything from happening to her... and yet here she was, lifeless.

"...It's a little cruel." Zaveid's voice carried over to me as I just held Rose without looking at anything else. "Takin' Rose from you so soon."

"..." I finally gathered the courage to look over at the Seraphim. "...What does this mean for all of you? Is the journey over...?"

"It is." Edna said. "Without either Sorey or Rose, we can't fight Heldalf."

"Then you can use me!" I said. "I'll take over for them!"

"I... Sorey didn't want you involved any further..." Lailah said, finally composing herself. "He asked me to dissolve the Squire's pact between the two of you. After what happened with Dezel, understandibly he didn't want you to come to any more harm."

"But this isn't fair!" I shouted. "I was involved from the beginning! Ever since I took that pact with Izayoi, I've been involved in the Shepherd's journey! And now you're telling me that Sorey didn't want me involved further? I wouldn't have cared! It would've prevented them from dying!"

"I know you're upset-"

"I'm pissed. Rose was my girlfriend. And now all that's left of her is a lifeless corpse! I'll never hear her laugh, never feel her hug me back, never see her smile... and never be able to tell her how much I love her!" I all but screamed that. "I loved her, and she's dead!"

The silence hung in the air for a while, until a new voice broke through.

"I can offer a way to fix this." The voice was familiar. I looked behind me to see the boy that Eizen had called Laphicet standing there. But this time, he didn't have the compass like all the other times I'd seen him. His hands were at his side. "But... your body as it is won't survive what I'm going to do."

"What're you talkin' about?" Zaveid asked. "Her body won't survive?"

"I think he means that the damage to her body means it won't survive whatever it is he wants to do." Edna said plainly. "And what is it you're going to do?"

"I can really only do this once." The boy said. "I'm going to reset it back to when Rani first arrived in Glenwood because of me. But I'll use Rose's body as a vessel for her soul this time."

"...A vessel for my soul?" I looked at him in disbelief. "You want to use my girlfriend's body to house my soul?!"

"It's the only way you can survive things being reset." The boy walked over to me. "I'm not supposed to use my powers like this, but it's the only way things can be saved."

"What about Lailah? Mikleo? Edna? Zaveid...? What about them? What's going to happen to them?" I asked.

"...I don't know."

I looked away. There was one thing I could do. I could at least take one of them with me. If I recalled correctly, because Lailah was fire... being in a pact with Izayoi caused things to become problematic. Izayoi had said, so long ago, that she'd been looking for the Oracle. And that was me.

"If my soul gets transferred, will a pact with a Seraph remain?" I asked.

"Yes."

I gently laid Rose's body on the ground and walked over to Zaveid before holding out my hand.

"...I know we've had our differences, and that you might not like me that much. But I can't pact with anyone else for a Prime Lord." I said, looking up at him. "Lailah's Sorey's Prime Lord, so Edna and Mikleo can't be who I choose."

Elemental opposites.

"...So that's why you're choosing me, huh?" Zaveid took off the hat he'd been wearing- Dezel's hat, and put it on my head. "Yeah, we've had our differences, but if this means I can help Sheps not die when the world's reset- Hey, Lailah." He turned to look at her.

"The Sublord's pact was already dissolved when Sorey died." Lailah responded to an unasked question. "I am no longer a Prime Lord."

Sorey's death had shaken them all. I could see it. None of them were the same anymore. If this reset prevented everything from going awry, then... I could help them see a different ending. Resolving myself, I entered into a pact with Zaveid as my Prime Lord. It restored my powers as Oracle, despite Sorey being dead.

"...Alright, I'm ready." I said.

"Then we'll begin." The boy said, before closing his eyes and holding up his hands. The world slowly darkened around me, and I closed my eyes.


When I awoke, I was sitting against a tree. It took me a moment to realize where I was, and what part of Glenwood I was in. So far, it seemed I was near Ladylake again but this time... not with the Sparrowfeathers. Which meant that I'd be doing this alone. Checking myself over, I noticed that I had all of Rose's items and her weapons. I wasn't honestly sure about what the boy- Laphicet had said. Transferring a soul to a new body wasn't a thing in this world, was it? Or was it only because I interfered with the natural order of this world?

I noticed the river nearby, and went to go see my reflection in the water. What I saw when I got on my hands and knees to look at the water's surface...

Rose's face stared back at me. My hair wasn't the same pinkish-red shade as hers was... no, it was black like mine had been. Everything else was purely hers. I could only stare as tears welled up in my eyes. I was technically piloting a corpse at this point, but the corpse was alive and my soul and memories were in it.

I didn't know how Laphicet had transferred my memories, but I didn't care at this point. Standing up and dusting myself off, I decided to head towards Ladylake.

I'd start again, and this time...

I wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

Chapter 13: Lady of the Lake (Pt. 1)

Notes:

Basically I forgot to upload this chapter. Uhh, here it is very late. Original post date of this chapter was on December 4th, 2021 on FF.Net.

Chapter Text

Ladylake hadn't changed one bit.

As I pulled my cloak a bit tighter around myself, I glanced about the place. They were preparing for the festival, as they had been when I first arrived here with the Sparrowfeathers. And people were talking about it a lot. A new Shepherd was to appear at this festival, and the supplies were coming via the Sparrowfeathers. Which meant... that I'd be meeting Sorey and Mikleo if I kept this up. So, instead of going down the pathway, I ducked down an alleyway and headed for the clothing store. Remembering how Rose had taken me there after coming to the city, I was lucky enough to come across it.

And, opening the door, I did the most cliché thing ever. I ran into someone. Instead of falling over, though, the two of us remained standing.

"Sorry 'bout that." The person in front of me said. I looked up at him. He was unfamiliar, with black hair that was wild and spiky, covering his right eye and... well, was pretty long and tied back into a ponytail. His only visible eye was a sunset orange colour, it seemed. His outfit consisted of a long-sleeved dark blue shirt with a short-sleeved orange and red loose cloth coat that extended to the middle of his thighs, with the right side not being worn properly. A couple of black belts held the coat in place and his pants were loose and white. The funny thing about this whole ensemble was that he was wearing socks and sandals.

But the weirdest thing was that he had two weapons. A set of daggers on the back of his belt, and a huge sword on his back.

"...No, it's fine." I stepped aside. "I didn't know you were coming out of there. It's my fault." I looked away from him as best as I could, hoping to end this exchange and get some clothes that weren't Rose's. Just wearing them made me feel horrible. I intended to get something done with my hair, too, so the similarities ended with our faces.

"Alright." And the strange man left without much of a word after that, leaving me to head inside and start looking for new clothes. I knew that the clothes I wore before were upstairs, so I would avoid choosing them for familiarity. Instead, after picking up the bracelet, I checked around the downstairs for what I needed.

And then I saw it.

In Tales games, they usually had costumes made specifically for the game and a collection of outfits that were worn by past Tales characters as DLC. Tales of Zestiria had a set of costumes for Sorey, Rose and Alisha from God Eater 2. Sorey's was Julius, and Rose and Alisha's was Nana. And what do you think I found there?

The same two outfits, hanging up on display. Walking over to it, I then looked over to the woman. I remembered Rose called her Maria. She was gorgeous, honestly. Honey-coloured hair, green eyes and wore a simple yet elegant-looking short dress and stockings. I waved a hand to get her attention, and she looked up from her book.

"I'd like to buy this one." I pointed to Nana Kozuki's outfit. "How much?"

"It's a display model but... no one's been interested in it." Maria closed her book after bookmarking where she was in it and stood up, walking over to me. "How does 100 gald sound for the set? It's pretty worthless just sitting up here."

I gave a small nod. Thinking about it, the downstairs the last time I was here had all the weapons while the upstairs had clothes. It seemed as if things had slightly changed. But right now wasn't the time for that random train of thought. Pulling out Rose's- no, my gald purse- I opened it up and counted out 100 gald before handing it over.

"What about this bracelet?" I held it out too.

"...Just take it." Maria looked away. "Is that all you need?"

"Yes, thank you."

After helping me get the outfit down and pointing me towards the changing rooms, I went into one and started to change clothes. It took a bit of work and a little bit of freaking out internally to notice that it wasn't just Rose's hair that changed to get the outfit on.. but once it was on, I strapped the daggers I had on the belt and added the bags to it. It seemed they were easily detachable from the original belt, so it was an easy transfer. After putting away the other clothes and making sure everything was on right, I put the cloak on and headed out.

The next place was a place that could do someone's hair. It took me a bit of looking and asking around to find it. It was run by a burly-looking man who looked like he'd rather be crushing boulders with his bare hands than doing such delicate work... but appearances really didn't matter. Once in there, I specified what I wanted.

Choppy, wild, spiky. It didn't matter how much length I lost, I just didn't want to look like this. And he could do whatever he wanted with my bangs. With that, I ended up having my hair washed, combed and then he started to cut and style my hair. I kept my eyes closed the entire time, not wanting to see the process or the hair falling to the floor. Just had to wait it out. When I heard him say he was done, I opened my eyes to see exactly what I'd asked for.

It was nothing like Rose's old hairstyle. Thanking the man and paying for the services rendered, I left the shop after putting the cloak in my bag. As I walked, I heard a dog barking and immediately turned to run. I hadn't warned Mikleo or Sorey of this fact this time, so it was up to me. Following the sound, I immediately came across Lunarre and the dog. Running up to the dog, I nudged it gently with my foot to get it to run away. Pulling out my daggers, I held them at the ready in the same stance that Arvald had taught me when we were travelling together.

Zaveid had called it the Rangetsu Style when we fought... it felt like ages ago since he said that, too.

"And the prey comes running." Lunarre said with a maniacal laugh. "Did you enjoy the gift that you were left?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"The Shepherd and Boss!"

"...Wait, are you telling me-"

It made no sense. How did Lunarre kill Sorey and Rose? Or was it Heldalf that actually did it and Lunarre was just saying it to get me riled up? I shook my head, preparing to fight when someone landed in front of me. I backed up just slightly, daggers held at the ready. The familiar outfit and wild hair tipped me off on who this was-

It was the man who'd I bumped into earlier!

"I'd take a hike, if I were you." He said, pulling out a couple of daggers. "And I'm not going to ask twice."

Lunarre growled, before getting ready to fight again. It only took about thirteen seconds for it to be over, as the man utterly overwhelmed him. Putting my daggers back in their holsters, I had to wonder if this was really real. The style and flow was about the same as my own, except mine was a lot rougher since I didn't train that long. His was elegant, but brutal in its execution. A clear line between master of the craft and rookie at the craft.

It honestly didn't take long for the man to look back at me once Lunarre had run off. Where was Sorey and Mikleo? Did they get caught up by Alisha...? Was Alisha still corrupted by malevolence or was it just Maltran this time around?

"...Who taught you how to fight like that?" Was his question. His own daggers were still unsheathed, as if threatening me. However, I stared back at him and frowned. Who had taught me to fight like that?

…..It'd been Arvald who'd taught me, but he wouldn't remember. Not after everything had been reset. In fact, the last time... He hadn't been here. But then again, I hadn't gone the same route Sorey and Mikleo did so-

"The dog's safe!" I heard Sorey call out. I glanced behind me to see them running up. The dog was sitting there, scratching their ear before they decided to walk away. No longer wary, it seemed. The messy-haired man put his daggers away as they approached, and I went to leave. Funnily enough, he let me go without much hassle. I knew I'd be talking to him later and telling him where I'd learned how to fight.

After all, the style wasn't that common. At all.

I had to see, however, if I could feel any malevolence from Alisha or Maltran. It was still on my mind on how Alisha had wanted to prove she was better than Rose. Was it because she felt she'd been replaced by her? From memory, her and Rose seemed to kind of be friends in a way. Heading up, I noticed Rose and one of the Sparrowfeathers. Damn it, it looked like I couldn't get out of meeting with them...

But then I just kind of darted past without really thinking about it, hearing a shocked "Hey!" from Rose that made my heart squeeze and tears start to form in my eyes. I wiped them away immediately and went to go find the way back to the entrance. I'd go see the festival, see if I could sense any form of malevolence... and then start on my way to finding Kain. I needed to, I had to find him. He was the only other Seraph I could think of that would help.

When I reached the stairs to the place the festival was being held, I noticed the crowd. So they weren't being let in yet? Or was it overflowing? I had to slightly push my way to the front and through the crowd... into the building itself. And I felt a stabbing pain in my head when I glanced at the place where Alisha and Maltran stood. There were thin, dark tendrils coming from Maltran for a brief moment before they disappeared. It made me wonder- had Maltran corrupted Alisha while she was away from Sorey? It made no sense.

And then, I saw her.

Laying in front of the sword was...

Lailah.

Chapter 14: Lady of the Lake (Pt. 2)

Summary:

The hellions run amok at the Festival.

Chapter Text

Hey, is everything alright? For the first time in a while, I heard Zaveid talking. So the pact had sent over and been kept during the reset. I'd feared the worst, in all honesty. That it hadn't stuck, that I would be left without my Oracle powers until I could find Zaveid again. The image of the scene was stuck in my mind, of seeing both Sorey and Rose dead.

But they were alive now.

Hey! I snapped out of it as Zaveid called a bit louder this time. Stop spacin' out. Somethin's goin' on with the curtains and the surroundings.

"You can't be seriou–" But I looked around. Dark flames of Malevolence. Flames that threatened the place. Because of the people with malevolence in their hearts that let it overtake them. Because of the hellion that went after Sorey, and ended up in the fire. Right, this meant that I had little choice in the matter. Getting through as the crowd started to disperse out of sheer fear. I saw Mikleo trying to put out the flames, and Sorey talking to Lailah about becoming the Shepherd.

One of the Slime hellions moved towards me. I took out a dagger and stabbed it almost immediately.

You can't purify it without Sorey becoming the Shepherd!

"He's going to. Then I can purify them without a problem." I said under my breath, kicking the slime away from me. The hellions were coming out in force, and I probably wasn't making things any better. Not that it really mattered.

"I offer myself to you as your vessel, and shall bear your burden!" I heard Sorey say, and looked over at the altar where the sword was kept. It was kind of like when Arthur Pendragon drew the sword from the stone and became king of England. I watched as Lailah put her hand on his, and a glyph travel downwards from his head. Showing that she had become his Prime Lord.

And he pulled the sword from the altar. At that moment, I felt the power of purification kick in. It was… familiar, light and not heavy like it'd been the first time around. I'd felt this lightness only once before, and that was when I'd offered myself as Zaveid's vessel. The slimes went forward, and the werewolf hellion went for Sorey. He went to intercept when I intercepted instead, knocking the werewolf hellion aside.

The slimes came next, and Sorey cut a couple of them in half while I cut down two myself. Lailah took care of the last ones with ease. The werewolf hellion was all that remained to be purified, and I took care of it quick by knocking it down. Leaving Sorey to purify the flame and make Alisha his first Squire.

But I had to talk to her first.

"Princess Diphda." I addressed her as the people started to file out. "You plan on travelling with Sorey from here on, do you not?"

"...Y-yes, as permitted.." Alisha seemed a bit shy, honestly. "I am a knight of Hyland, so my country would come first. But I would like to travel with Sorey until such a time that I'm needed by my people."

"...Do you need to be accepted so readily?" I asked. "Do you seek approval of those higher than you? Like Lady Maltran, or Sorey himself?"

"..." It seemed I'd hit the nail on the head. With a shake of my head, I turned away.

"Don't lose yourself to the malevolence, then." I walked off, leaving Alisha with more questions than answers. Keeping my cloak tight around me, I decided to leave Ladylake that same day. I'd need to find Kain, and see if he could share some insight and become a part of my team. I would… have to make sure Sorey would survive past the events of his demise. Past that point, past… it all.

As I headed for the entrance, a hand grabbed my shoulder. I turned around immediately to see the man from before– from both the clothing shop and the fight with Lunarre. I still didn't know who he was, but I remembered that he'd asked me who taught me how to fight while threatening me with his daggers.

Rokurou?! He's alive? came Zaveid's shocked voice from the back of my mind. Almost immediately, he appeared beside me and folded his arms against his chest. "I didn't know you were still alive and kicking."

"Didn't know you were, either. It's been about a thousand years, Zaveid!" Rokurou grinned. "This your partner?"

"Yup. She and I are Prime Lord and Oracle." Zaveid rubbed the back of his neck. "Kind of a long story."

"Thought I saw you wandering about near Rayfalke a couple days ago. Decided to become a Prime Lord instead, huh?" That made me and Zaveid look at each other before back at Rokurou. "What? Something I said?"

"Zaveid was near Rayfalke?" I asked.

"Yeah. 'Course, could've been my eyes playing tricks on me, but since Eizen's up there and you two have that promise." Rokurou made a handwaving gesture. "Figured you were going up there to try to kill him again."

"Guess that'll be our next stop then. Rayfalke."


It wasn't that difficult to get to Rayfalke. The bridge to Marlind was still up and running, which meant that it'd go down because of a hellion soon… That really wasn't the point though, as I headed for the mountain itself. Rokurou had decided to come with us, as he did want to see if his eyes had been playing tricks on him. Honestly, I didn't know what we'd find. A memory of my first meeting with Zaveid flashed through my mind, and I focused on one thing.

Siegfried. His gun. A gun that could sever the ties of malevolence. A tool I could use in my quest to bring back Eizen. He was still there, and I'd need to combine Zaveid's power of purification with Siegfried's bullets to free him.

Power of purification… Maotelus' voice echoed in the back of my mind. I gave a soft sigh and stared ahead. And there, I noticed him. Standing near the bridge, staring directly at me from an angle.

"...Kain?"

Chapter 15: New Game Plus

Summary:

A pact is forged, and events go awry.

Notes:

There is a lot of internal dialogue about New Game+, hence the chapter's name. That's about it.

Chapter Text

The fact that I found him so soon was… daunting, to say the least. I hadn't expected that he'd be lingering around the bridge to Marlind. Or that he recognized me, of all things. Despite what I looked like, he had called out my name.

"Rani!" Immediately, he made his way to my side and looked me over. "Huh. So you did lose your original body. Man, think Maotelus would make it sound less made up?"

"Wait, you only know it's me because of Maotelus?" I asked, literally staring at him. "Didn't he use up the last of his power to send me back in time? There should be two of me… But I wasn't there with the Sparrowfeathers."

"I think it's a little tricky to explain." Kain moved my head from side to side. I didn't understand why he was doing this, but then he sighed. "Well, your face looks like Rose's, but your body is definitely more towards your old one. How you were able to manage that, I don't know."

"Okay, so just help me figure this out. How strong are Sorey and Mikleo right now?" I questioned. Back home, if you started a New Game+, you basically got to carry everything over. If this reset worked the same, then they should've carried things over. Unless me being there when the New Game+ was initiated screwed things over.

"About the same as they were when they started the journey." Kain said, glancing me over. "But it seems like everything's fine with you. In fact, I'd say you're as strong as Sorey was before Maotelus turned back time. Do you have anything on you that could've been someone else's?"

"Rose's stuff."

"Did she have a bag?"

"Yeah, but I don't–"

"Check it." Kain watched as I pulled the bag out from behind me and knelt down, opening it. As I started to look through it, I noticed items that should've been in Sorey's possession. Siegfried, the Divine Artifacts, Lailah's sword… All of these things should've been on Sorey. Pulling out Siegfried, I gave the gun a lookover before holding it out to my side.

"This is yours." I said, feeling Zaveid take it from me. Dezel's hat was in here too, and here it would stay. Quite a few changes of clothes and….

The last thing in there was Izayoi's hammer. Pulling that out, I looked it over. She used this during our short time together, and I didn't really get to see her use it that much. With a frown, I put it back in the bag. "Everything from our journey's in there. What does this mean?"

"It means that it's all yours now." A New Game+ carried everything over. I was the receptor of this New Game+. Did this mean that now, I was a parallel Sorey? I shook my head at that thought. If that were true, the world should've imploded when Sorey and I were within proximity of each other. "I don't know anything else. Maotelus fell into a deep slumber once this world was reset, and it's just the malevolence now."

"That's fine. I've got… a few theories about why I've got all of these." I said, before closing the bag and putting it back on my belt. There was only two, really. One was that this was a New Game+ and that I'd basically become the Shepherd from the prior game, which meant that I had all the power Sorey had before the New Game+. The second was that this was literally a borked version of a New Game+, a glitch in the system. Either way, I had to get away from this line of thought for now. "So, you want to join up with me? Zaveid and I are gonna head up to Rayfalke."

"Where we first met. Kinda nostalgic." Zaveid chuckled. I rolled my eyes and elbowed him in the side gently. "Though I'd be careful. Sheps and Mikboy are gonna head up there."

"Your part is usually walk up to kill the Hellion, then fight those two and Lailah." I said, remembering my frustration with the first encounter with him. I could barely dent him with armatization! "But maybe we can come from the mountain and get Edna to join with them?"

"...You intend to kill Eizen, then?" Zaveid's tone was more serious, and that's where I shook my head with a smile.

"No. I don't." I responded, looking from him to Kain. "In fact, I promised Maotelus that I'd save him, so that's what I'm going to do."

"You can't save a Seraph who's become a dragon, Rani. If you were able to, Theodora wouldn't have needed to be killed." The pain in his tone was obvious. Even though a thousand years had passed, it still weighed heavy on his mind. The day that Eizen killed Theodora, and now he was to return the favour and end Eizen's suffering…. As well as Edna's.

"Here's the thing with that, though." I held up a finger. "Two months ago, I had a dream about Maotelus and Eizen. It was why I started my journey at night instead of in the day like most adventurers would. Maotelus told Eizen I would come save him with the Power of Purification. I think we need Siegfried for that. As you said before, it's basically what severs the link between a person and the malevolence."

"And I'm needed for that? It sounds like you two have it well in hand." Kain frowned a little. "What am I needed for?"

"Your sister is about this high, twin ponytails, barely wears what's constituted as clothing?"

"Yes, but you shouldn't talk." He gestured at both me and Zaveid. He had a point about that. "I've been looking for her for about a thousand years. Maybe more."

"...Symonne's your sister?" Zaveid looked a bit confused. "But you're a Fire Seraph."

"She was born from the same Earthpulse I was." Kain admitted. "But she wasn't truly affiliated with any element, which many Seraphim saw as a curse. She was my baby sister, and I cared about her a lot."

"Man, you're just like Eizen." Zaveid shook his head. "Melchior got a hold of her. I used to be teamed up with her on a near-constant basis, but don't know where she is now."

"We can find her with you." I said. "All you'd have to do is enter into the Sub Lord's pact with Zaveid and use me as a vessel. That being said, which one do you want? Sword, bow or gauntlet?"

"I'll take the sword." I pulled the sword out of my bag, and held it out.

"Alright, Zaveid. Make the Sub-Lord pact."

"..." Zaveid looked at me and then at Kain. "Y'know, don't think I know the whole thing. Lailah gave me the abridged version when I made my pact with her."

"She had to speed through it with Mikleo, so she probably got used to saying a more abridged version when she had to deal with taking on Rose." Though my own squire's pact had been the same length as both Alisha and Rose's, I wondered if it had any bearing on the timing if there was a fight going on. "Though the first part is usually either Sacred Currents of Peace or Firmest Resolve."

"Alright then."

Both Kain and I closed our eyes, and Zaveid started to recite the pact. Upon hearing Kain's true name, the two of us opened our eyes and looked at each other. Feeling a gentle warmth, I put my hand to my chest. "The pact's been forged. We should head up to Rayfalke, and get ourselves one more Seraphim."


Of course, the moment we tried, a hellion got in our way. The same hellion that had stopped Sorey, Mikleo and Lailah from getting up the mountain at first. This majorly sucked big time. Of course, upon our arrival, it decided that we were its targets and combat was initiated.

"Are you kidding me right now?!" Zaveid said, anger apparent in his voice as he dodged around it. "The hell is this thing's problem?! It wasn't this strong when I killed it last time!"

"There must've been an error when Maotelus turned back time!" I said, rolling out of the way of a club attack. "We should be able to handle it, but it's not… budging!"

I hated these pre-scripted events, especially since I should be stronger than this thing by now. But it didn't seem to go down no matter what we did. Kain flicked something from his hands, and I noticed that they fell onto the ground. Coins? None of this seemed to work at all, and I was definitely at a loss.

"Damn it! We're not makin' a dent in this thing!" Zaveid really did sound angry. Instead of sticking around, he returned to rest within me. Probably because he was too angry to really deal with this right now, which I didn't blame him.

"It's not budging, definitely not budging." I sheathed my daggers and moved out of the way as it slammed its club down. An arrow of water shot by, and I watched the hellion deflect it before looking back at where it came from. Sorey was there, in his Water Armatization.

"How did that not work?!" Sorey said, Mikleo's voice saying the same thing. Though it didn't take long for someone else to speak after that failed attempt.

"Man oh man, what a bunch of amateurs." I looked over to see… another Zaveid?! But how was this even possible?! No wonder the one I knew had vanished. And he was being awfully quiet, too. Though, this was something none of us could've expected. As he walked forward, he took out Siegfried and twirled it, pointing it directly at his head before pulling the trigger. Watching as the winds grew stronger, I knew what was coming.

"Can't take the heat, huh? Looks like Zaveid here is gonna have to show you first-timers how it's done!" Immediately, he ran towards us before skidding to a stop and using his Mystic Arte. Once the hellion was downed, I knew what was coming next. He walked slowly towards it before reloading the gun and pointing it towards the hellion.

The sound of the gun being fired sounded off, and the hellion returned to looking like a human being. I remembered being angry when I saw this the first time when I played the game. I screamed at the television of how that person had a family, and how the family would be sad that they were gone. It wouldn't do to get upset here, not when my goal was so close.

"He… he killed it?!" Sorey sounded upset. Mikleo stepped forward.

"You bastard!" That was easily brushed off as Zaveid walked over to the human.

"Hey, it was a hellion. And hellions belong in hell." I watched him as he crouched down near the body, and took a deep breath before exhaling and stepping forward.

"...I was having difficulty with it myself. Thanks for helping." I said, which cut off the rest of what Sorey was going to say. He couldn't have safely quelled this hellion. It was necessary for me to get up there. Starting to walk away, not wanting to get involved with the fight, I heard an indignant Hurry up and get the bullets from him! in the back of my mind. That made me pause and I turned to see the four of them looking at me.

"...What?"

Damn it, Rani! If we're going to do things your way, you have to take the bullets from him! Or get him to give up a few! I sighed, rolling my eyes slightly.

"The Spiritcrest is way outta your league. Both of yours." Zaveid said.

"Well, I have some business up there and I'm… going to need those bullets you have." I said, before backtracking a little. "Not all of them, just. Like. Ten. Maybe."

"You do know there's a dragon up there, right? If it yawns in your general direction, you'd be gone." He moved forward, towards me.

"Yes, I know. And that dragon's the reason I need those bullets. So if you could spare some, I'd be grateful."

His pendulum whizzed by my face. A warning shot. "If you're so eager to get eaten by the dragon and compound his power…" I dodged the next pendulum by Windstepping out of range, pulling out my daggers. "Then it's better that you die by my hand! Right here and now!"

"Hey, leave her out of this!" Sorey swung his sword, and Zaveid dodged out of the way.

"Kain!" I raised my hand up into the air, and felt the power of Fire cloak me in an armatization. I didn't know what I looked like, but the sword in my hands was all I needed. Running forward, using Windstep to close the distance between me and Zaveid, I swung it in a large arc. He backflipped out of the way, throwing his pendulum in my direction. I deflected it with the sword as Mikleo let loose a Seraphic Arte. It knocked Zaveid off-balance temporarily, giving Sorey an opening to attack. His sword met flesh, tearing a wound on Zaveid's arm.

Lailah started to cast a spell, but had to stop chanting and move out of the way as Zaveid's pendulum flew towards her. I rushed in again, swinging the sword shorter this time. His pendulum's wire wrapped around one of my arms, and I disengaged before my arm was torn to shreds. He was a lot tougher than I imagined, especially since I was having such a hard time with the hellion from before.

"I just–" Blocking another pendulum, I lowered the sword. To talk to him, to make sure my words were known. "A couple of months ago, I met him. I met Eizen!"

That got the entire battle to stop cold. Zaveid looked like he was about to say something, but stopped. I continued. "I was tasked by Maotelus to save him. I promised myself I would, no matter what. I don't care if dragons can't be turned back to seraphim! I'm going to try, no matter what! So please, lend me some of your bullets."

Zaveid stood up straight, as did the others.

"You can't use 'em, though." He pointed out. "You'll have to take me along, and I've already promised to kill him to save Edna."

"...Here's what'll happen. We go up the mountain, and let them recruit Edna. You, me and Kain will stay behind and deal with Eizen. But killing him is off limits. Maotelus will be cross with me if I allow it." I didn't know if the boy would be cross with me, but I knew I would rather not risk having one of the Five Lords being upset.

"Why are we being dragged into this?!" Mikleo asked.

"Because you three need an Earth Seraph, right? I just have to fulfill the task given to me by Maotelus a couple months ago." I turned around, releasing the armatization with ease. Kain appeared beside me, and fiddled with one of his coins. "So we just kill two birds with one stone and get both done. Let's hurry up, we're burning daylight."

With that, I started to head up the Spiritcrest.

Chapter 16: The Reaper's Curse

Notes:

This chapter explains at least one thing, which is why things are now so much more difficult than before- which was previously theorized as it being a "glitch in the system". Also, this chapter is the last that I'll be referring to both Zaveids by the same name. The Zaveid with Rani will remain known as Zaveid, while the Zaveid who will later join with Sorey will be called 'Zav'.

I still cannot write fight scenes for the life of me. I'll make a chapter of just fight scenes to work on that.

Chapter Text

The journey up the Spiritcrest was mostly quiet, with Sorey asking a question here or there. Mostly to Lailah about taking on another Squire. Referring to me, though I didn't really acknowledge it at the time. I heard Zaveid murmur something in the back of my mind, but couldn't really draw attention to it due to the fact I didn't want there to be any miscommunications between me and the rest of the group.

Though, as we arrived to the cavern near the top of the Spiritcrest, the world around us changed. It was the indication of this being Eizen's domain.

"She's coming to help you, with the power of purification." Maotelus' words rang in the back of my mind, and I stepped forward as the dragon landed near the cavern mouth and roared. Threatening us, but in reality telling us to turn back and run. Lailah, however, thought it was Edna until she came out from the cavern and walked towards us. Eizen, the dragon, was blocked off as Edna made a comment about him not hearing her voice anymore. It wasn't true, he could hear her!

He just couldn't communicate back beyond trying to protect her from humans. So she didn't share the same fate as he did.

"What are you doing? Move!" Edna said, but I shook my head.

"We'll keep him from getting any closer. You guys get out of here!" I said, shooing them away and avoiding an attack from Eizen. "This is asking a lot, but don't look back here! Just keep moving forward, no matter what! We'll meet again, I'm sure of it!"

I'm sure of it.

I couldn't do anything to Eizen with my daggers, I knew that already. Raising my hand up into the air, I called out Kain's true name and Armatized with him. The large greatsword was easier to combat him with. Flames of purification erupted on each slash I made, hoping to chip away at the malevolence as much as I could. Bring down the outer shell, and release the seraph within the dragon. I could hear Edna crying in the back of my mind, and I paused in my attack for just a moment.

"...Edna?" I asked, looking behind me. For a moment, I thought I saw the Edna that I'd travelled with briefly. Wearing the same adventuring outfit as she did before, staring at me with eyes filled with tears. A rare showing of emotion on her usually blank face. But, as soon as that image was there, it vanished. As if not there at all.

"Damn it-!" Zaveid tackled me out of the way as Eizen swiped at me. I'd forgotten I was in a battle, but gave a quick thanks as the two of us got back to our feet. I held the sword at the ready, before running in and starting to slash at Eizen again. Edna's voice seemed so much clearer as I fought, begging me not to kill her brother.

I'm not killing him, Edna. I'm saving him. I promised that I would save him, didn't I?

As each cut was made, I heard Zaveid starting to fire Siegfried. Watching each burning bullet hit the scales and erupt into flames, burning away the malevolence… it was mesmerizing in a way. But I had to keep up my assault, otherwise it wouldn't work. We wouldn't be able to destroy the malevolence and save him.

Eizen, hold on. Just a little longer, and you'll be free!

A deafening roar escaped him, and he smacked me into the mountainside with a swipe attack. As I flew back, I let go of the armatization and slammed into the mountain on my own. I saw blood as I hit the mountain, and then fell to the ground. All the breath in my lungs had been practically torn out of them, and my entire body hurt. I heard Kain shout my name, and Zaveid yelling about getting me back up.

I felt warmth encompass me, and realized Kain was healing my wounds. "You're an idiot for letting go of the armatization like that! You wouldn't have gotten so badly hurt otherwise!" He chided as he healed me. "It would've barely done anything to us if you'd kept it up."

"...So-sorry…" I choked out, getting to my knees. "I didn't want you getting hurt."

What an idiot. That doesn't mean sacrifice yourself, you know. And if I was there, I'd tell you myself! Edna was suddenly scolding me in the back of my mind, which was unusual. But her voice was shaky, as if she was trying not to cry. Getting yourself killed doesn't help anyone!

I stood up at that, re-activating the Armatization and holding the sword in front of me. Taking a deep breath, I charged at the dragon as Zaveid fired another bullet.


I heard footsteps coming over to me, and Zaveid crouched down. "Didn't think anyone could save a Seraph who'd turned into a dragon. Hell, we all thought they couldn't be brought back. But here we are, having saved Eizen. Don't know how you figured it out, but hacking away at the malevolence until there was less to sever him from worked."

"...It was a wild guess." I admitted, giving a partial truth. "But… at least he's alive. Edna will be happy… if he decides to tell her."

I sat up, looking over at Eizen. He hadn't moved from his spot after realizing he wasn't a dragon anymore, staring out at the world from his vantage point. He looked the same as he did in my dream, which meant I'd truly done it. I heard a sob of relief, but then quiet as the voice faded from my mind. Perhaps Edna truly held onto hope that her brother would one day be saved, and this was just one thing I would have to tell them later.

Zaveid stood up and turned to Eizen. "Are you gonna stand there and mope all day, Eizen? C'mon, you're alive. That's all anyone could ask of you."

Eizen didn't say anything, but he turned around to face Zaveid after a few moments. Watching him walk up to the wind seraph, I winced as he punched him. But Zaveid laughed it off, before waving a hand and disappearing. Standing up, I dusted off and walked over to him. He looked at me with a quizzical look on his face, before he spoke.

"I can't tell what kind of Malak you are." He said. I patted myself for a moment before shrugging and looking down at myself.

"I'm human." I pointed out. He raised a brow, and then looked me over. "What? Maotelus said I'd come to save you with the power of purification and I did! Though it took me a bit longer than I expected…"

"That's not it. You shouldn't have a domain." Eizen folded his arms against his chest. "You should be a Malak, but you're not. Yet you have a domain…"

"Is that bad?" I inclined my head just as Kain and Zaveid appeared on either side of me. This got a curious look from Eizen, before he shook his head and returned his attention to me.

"Here." He tossed a coin to me. "Flip it and see what it lands on."

"...Is this some sort of game?" But I shrugged. "'Kay. Let's see what happens."

I flipped the coin, watching it fly into the air. Catching it, I slapped it on the top of my right hand and uncovered it. "...Tails. Okay, let's try again!"

Tails. Again. And again. And again. I turned the coin over to see if it had a different design on the back and I wasn't being pranked. It did, and I just looked back at Eizen with a raised brow. "What's this supposed to mean?"

"What I expected it to." He held out his hand for the coin back, and I gave it to him. "You also have a Reaper's Curse, though how you have it as a human is still a mystery."

"...Explain that to me. What does a Reaper's Curse entail?" I asked, and got the answer I hadn't hoped for. It was basically that my domain was bad luck in and of itself, that affected me and those close to me. It was my 'blessing', but not the same blessing as other Seraphim had. This was why Eizen had been confused. How was I exerting a domain when I was human? That didn't really… make any sense to me.

But I took a breath and held out my hand, knowing that I couldn't do anything about my new ability– my Reaper's Curse. It would constantly be active, be exuding its influence, and anyone in it would be affected.

"Eizen, this is a long shot but… Would you like to travel with us? You'd have to make a pact with this Zaveid-" I nudged him to make a point. "-but I think it'd be nice to get off this mountain. See the new world and stuff. I doubt you could really enjoy it as a dragon."

He looked over at me, brow raised just slightly before chuckling. "I warn you, things will get tougher from here on out if I join you. Are you sure you want me to?"

"I wouldn't be asking if I didn't want you to. Besides, Edna left the mountain."

"She. Left the mountain?" Eizen sounded confused.

"Yup! Walked off with the Shepherd! We could go catch up to them. What do you say, wanna travel the world and see your little sister again?"

Eizen thought long and hard about that, before nodding and stepping forward. "But if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not run into Edna too soon. It might make her not want to continue travelling herself."

"Sure. Refrain from mentioning you, got it." I moved to stand in front of him, before looking back at Zaveid. "It's 'of firmest resolve' this time too."

"You're telling him how to do the pact?" Eizen asked. "He's done it before."

"...What." I looked at him, and then back at Zaveid. "Wait, Zaveid. Is this true?"

Zaveid rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, but we didn't really do it the normal way. Used to be a Prime Lord before Eizen turned into a dragon."

"'Kay. So let's get the pact over with and head down the mountain. I want to make sure we get to Marlind and scope out Alisha. Something was funny with her the last time we met, and I want to see if it's true this time around." With that, Zaveid and Eizen formed the Sub Lord's pact and I became Eizen's vessel. Though he entered me briefly, he was just as quick to leave. I pulled out the divine artifact that Edna had given Sorey when she made the pact and held it up.

"This'll be our pact link… Uh, Armatization link, I guess." I said lamely. Eizen shook his head.

"No. It wasn't that." With a confused look, I started looking for something else and pulled out the bow. "Not that either."

"...All I have left is a hammer that a seraph used as her weapon." I said. That got me a confused look, before Zaveid quickly pulled Eizen aside and explained the name shift from Malakhim to Seraphim. Pulling out the hammer while they spoke, wondering why Rose's bag was practically a Bag of Holding, I held it up.

"That's it." Eizen said, breaking off from the conversation. "That's the weapon that resonated with me when I made the pact."

"...Izayoi's hammer?" I held it out to him, and he weighed it carefully after taking it from me. "I guess we could try it."

"Anyway, we should hurry up and get down the mountain before it gets too late." Kain cut in, starting to walk forward. "We've got to head to Marlind."

"Wait, before we go to Marlind!" I stopped him really quickly. "I want to head towards the bandit base. I know where it is… I just hope Aevar's receptive to going with me."

I wanted to know if Arvald was okay, and if Aevar remembered anything. Even if it was now dangerous for me to be around them, I wanted to know. With those thoughts in mind, I headed down the mountain with the Seraphim.

Chapter 17: Acquainted with the Bandits

Summary:

After purifying Eizen, Rani finally goes to look for the bandits and gets a little more than she bargained for.

Notes:

I forgot Rokurou was tagging along, so I fixed that this chapter. Oops.

The character called "Topaz" belongs to a friend of mine and is being used with permission.

Chapter Text

It was late when we finally got back down the mountain, towards the makeshift bridge that Sorey had made prior. Noting that neither of the guards looked anything like the knight I'd run into before, I took a running leap, and windstepped to the other side. It was like I was there one minute and on the other side the next. Landing on my feet, I took a different route than going straight to Marlind.

Arvald was in this general area last time, if I recalled right. He probably wouldn't remember who I was, or what was going on. Not like Kain, who Maotelus had told about me and what was going on. I would probably still have to figure out where Aevar was first, because of the relationship between him and Arvald being nephew and uncle. It was probably why he let us off easily, because of Aevar.

"Kain, have you ever been with the bandits?" I asked.

No, I haven't, Kain replied with a small sigh. If I did, I would've helped you find them already.

Why are we looking for bandits, anyway? Eizen asked, confusion apparent in his voice. Nothing good can come from them.

"Arvald targets the greedy, not random people."

"We tend to only strike merchants that've been price gougin' as they think the higher prices will give them more money to line their pockets with." Arvald's words echoed in the back of my mind as I said what I did. There weren't a lot of good merchants, only those wanting to make a quick buck. The Sparrowfeathers had always been the only ones exempt from this, as were the only good merchants….

Wait, hold on. Zaveid's voice had me pause in walking. There's a few people coming this way. Don't think they're friendly, either.

"You've gotta be kidding me." I groaned, shaking my head. "If not being able to find Arvald was bad, this is ten time worse! Ugh! Guess I don't have a choice."

Pulling out my daggers, I glanced around and took a few steps forward before feeling myself being pulled up into the trees. A typical trap I'd walked right into. Of course, out of the shock of being swept off my feet, I'd dropped my daggers. Lovely. Whose bright idea had this trap been? And then, as if to answer my question, a few people came out of the bushes. One of them was familiar– a woman with a cloth around her breasts and a pair of pants for clothes, but not much else. Her hair was blonde, and in a pixie cut. Just like before.

"Inanna?!" I exclaimed, causing her to look up at me and squint for a minute.

"...Holy shit." Inanna exclaimed. "Yer fuckin' kiddin' me. If it ain't Rani! But what the hell happened to ya? Topaz, the rope! Cut 'er down!"

"Alright." A tanned brunette with amber eyes, wearing a sleeveless tunic with a purple cloth around the midsection, blue short pants, blue armbands, brown gloves and brown boots used a sword to cut the rope. I fell to the ground, yelping in pain when I hit it and laying there for a moment.

"Could've just untied it and lowered me down…." I said as I sat up. Noting someone else was there, but was more secluded by shadows, I didn't really bring any attention to them. Instead, I focused on Inanna, who shook her head and gestured at me.

"C'mon, kid. Someone's waitin' fer ya. Two someones, in fact." She said. With a nod, I got the rope off my ankle and picked up my daggers before going to follow her towards where the two someones were waiting. It was mostly quiet on the way there, as not even the Seraphim wanted to break it. But soon, the familiar building of the bandit's hideout appeared, and there were two people stationed outside that I didn't recognize. We did, however, walk past them and down the hallway to the main room where I'd first met Arvald.

In the room was Arvald, who was staring out the window with his back turned to us. Sleeping in one of the chairs was Aevar, who looked a bit worse for the wear. Upon hearing the door opening, however, both of them were alert and looked straight at us. I winced a little, moving to the side and out of the line of sight. In another one of the chairs was Rokurou, who I'd thought was following me originally. It seemed, at some point, he'd gotten separated from me and the others. This meant that I'd lost track of everything while going to go save Eizen. And that would mean that-

"So, finally decided to show up, huh?" Rokurou asked, leaning forward to get a better look. "Guess that means that you did what you needed to?"

"After a bit of begging during a fight." I shrugged, looking from him, to Arvald and then to Aevar. "I'm guessing, with Ina knowing who I am, you two also know? Your memories weren't wiped during the reset?"

"Nope. Hate t'break it to ya, but we remember very well." Arvald chuckled, shaking his head and sitting down in the chair at the head of the table. "And, seein' as Izayoi isn't with you this time, guessin' the Oracle business is off?"

"I have another Seraph as my Prime Lord." I responded. "A Wind Seraph instead of Water. That was... kind of the problem, besides Izayoi being corrupted by Malevolence and none of us knowing about it until it was too late."

Both Aevar and Arvald winced. It was Aevar who spoke up next. "So, I'm guessing that you don't know where she is? If you did, I'm sure that you could've taken her on as a Sub Lord instead."

He was right. I could take on Izayoi as a Sub Lord... but she'd died so long ago, due to all the malevolence she'd generated while going after Lailah. It meant that she was probably not here, since she died long before the reset could even happen. It really did mean that she was... gone-gone, completely dead. That didn't exactly bring my hopes up in actually ever seeing her again, but I would take what I could get at this point. I had three Seraphim, following the same pattern as Sorey but... a bit mixed up, in a way. I'd gotten Zaveid first, then Kain and then Eizen... Next would be Izayoi, if she was actually alive. I hoped she was still at Glaivend Basin, where I'd met her before, so I could at least initiate the pact first before anything could happen.

Or just purify her. That could work, too. She becomes a Hellion, I purify her and then everything's hunky dory. That was really wishful thinking on my part, though. It didn't mean anything if I could purify her. Water Seraphim were easier to corrupt with Malevolence, and that meant that Izayoi was probably holding a lot of it, even now... If she really had been brought back with the reset, that is. I didn't really have high hopes about it at all, since it would be a bit too on the nose and obvious. Maotelus just handing me what I need to help Sorey. Hah! That was most definitely something that shouldn't happen, especially with all that had gone on at this point. A sigh escaped me, and I looked over to Rokurou.

"So, you're a part of Arvald's group?" I asked, changing the subject away from that. I didn't want to think of how many times I'd passed out while being Izayoi's Oracle. That was one too many times of just days of unconsciousness. No thanks. Didn't want to relive those memories.

"Pretty much. Kind of an informant for 'em, to be honest. Found me when I was injured, so it's a debt I'm inclined to repay in any way I can." Rokurou shrugged, not really bothered by that. "Arvald and his gang have been pretty welcoming, despite the fact I'm a hellion. Guess when their name changed, daemons really stopped being as sentient as they used to be."

"The malevolence is really to blame in all of this." I wondered if this was actually true, or if humanity here had really fallen further than they had when Rokurou was known as a daemon. "I'm surprised, though. Who would've thought there were sentient hellions that could talk amongst others?"

"Ha ha." Rokurou shook his head.

"Despite all o' this, I should inform ya about th' hellions." Arvald took a drink from the goblet near him.

"I know all about the hellions, unfortunately. I used to travel with Sorey, remember?"

"Ah, the Shepherd. I'm hopin' the kid doesn't get 'imself killed." He looked a bit thoughtful, but shook his head. "From what we've been told, yer gonna need a lot more help than what ye had before. An' this means that we're gonna have ta support ya in yer endeavors. In that case, Aevar here can be yer own Squire."

"...My Squire. I can have a Squire? Isn't that the Shepherd's thing?" Yet again, I looked from Arvald to Aevar. "I thought it was the Shepherd's thing."

It's not. An Oracle can also have a Squire, though if the Oracle and Squire separate, the Squire can't use any of the powers of Purification. Eizen said. How the hell did he know any of this?! Damn two thousand-year-old Seraph. This was some information I could've used at any other time! Maybe to actually help out instead of being dead weight to Sorey while I was his Squire. It felt... like some sort of cheap new information that could've been told to me at an earlier date. Did Lailah not even know about this? What the hell!

"I have been sufficiently informed that it is a thing Oracles can do and holy cheez-its, I wish I'd known this earlier!" I heaved a sigh, shoulders slumping a little. Straightening up after that, I finally decided to ask my own question. It wasn't going to be a big one, but I knew I'd probably run into Sorey again. If I wanted to ditch the cloak and actually walk around while being able to look less suspicious, I would have to at least get a mask. It didn't really matter what kind I got, only that I did.

The door opened behind me, and I moved out of the way. A woman walked by, a bag in hand, before tossing it onto the table. She had pale hair, ending in a darker gradient with the right side of her hair being shorter than the left, lightly tanned skin, bandages covering her right eye and wore a long-sleeved blue-violet shirt with a blue fur collar that exposed her back and her cleavage, a dark corset that flared out into a half-skirt with lace trimmings and white pants with black lace-up boots. Her left eye was a bright blue, which was... the same colour as mine was.

"Sorry I'm late, Arvald. Figured to pick up a few more supplies before coming back." She gave a smile, before turning to look at me. Placing her hands on her hips, she leaned forward before knocking the hood of my cloak off my head. "And hello to you, miss Oracle. I'm Zero, and I'm gonna be your Sub Lord."

I put the hood back up, but she knocked it off again. "Stop that."

"You shouldn't hide your face."

"I can, and I will. If you want me to get rid of the hood, give me a mask and I'll wear that instead."

"Let's see if we have one!" Zero returned her attention to the bag, opening it up and then searching through it. "Hmm... Aha! This was something some guy gave me because he was trying to hit on me, but I told him off. Here ya go, one mask." She held it out towards me, the smile still ever-present on her face. I took it from her and looked it over, noting how it looked. It wasn't too fancy, just a black mask with golden trim. A mask that seemed to catch Rokurou's attention.

"...Never thought I'd see that mask again. Guess it survived, somehow." Rokurou got up from his seat to come look at the mask. "A long time ago, a Seraph wore that mask. She later got eaten by a friend of mine."

"Huh. Guess I learned something new today." I put the mask on my face, finding my vision not impared in the slightest. Strange. This mask didn't have any holes for eyes and yet I could see through it like it was nothing. With a shrug of my shoulders, I took off the cloak and stored it in my bag. At least now I could walk around without having to hide myself behind a damn cloak. It'd been getting annoying at this point, and I was glad to finally be rid of it.

"And, of course, you'll be making the Squire's Pact with Aevar!" Zero seemed confident enough in that.

"Now hold on a minute." Zaveid made himself known by appearing right beside me in a quick flash of light. "Who says you get to make the orders?"

"It's really easy. In fact, why don't you do it right now, Mr. Prime Lord? Make it official!"

I looked from Zaveid to Zero and back again.

This was definitely going to be some form of argument happening, wasn't it? I hoped I was wrong but... It sounded like it was going to be.

Chapter 18: To Marlind

Notes:

Topaz belongs to a friend of mine and Grimm belongs to another friend of mine. Both are used with permission.

I tried to properly translate Aevar's True name but fell flat. Uh, let's just pretend I know what I was doing there.

I also drew art of Rani with the mask she got last chapter. You can see it here.

Chapter Text

The two of them just stood there, staring at one another, while I wondered exactly how this would end. Would Zero get her way, or would Zaveid say no to the whole deal? It was really concerning, and so I merely walked over to Rokurou and took a seat beside him before removing the mask and letting my head rest on the table. Really, now. I had to wonder why she was so overly cheerful and forward like that. Like she just wanted it and would get it no matter what. For most people, that would be a red flag. For me, though? That was just how Seraphim were. They were human, in a manner, except immortal and not actually all human.

"You walk in here and start makin' demands like that? What the hell do you think you're trying to prove?" Zaveid's voice was low and dangerous. Zero, however, was unconcerned by this fact.

"I'm trying to be a Sub Lord. You guys can't just go around with three Seraphim. You need a fourth, regardless of element. And, it just so happens that I'm a jack of all trades. Fire, Water, Earth and Wind, I've got you covered." She smiled at Zaveid, who just narrowed his eyes at her before looking to me. Instead of saying anything, I just raised my hand in a thumbs-up. I had no reason as to why I shouldn't accept her on the team, though I did hope that there wouldn't be any arguments forming after this. Sometimes people just didn't get along. That was a fact of life, though I wondered if everything would end up going the way that it was supposed to after this. The fact that Maotelus allowed enough people to keep their memories of me while everything changed about the world I'd once knew was kind of concerning.

Maybe he thought I needed more help than I already had? Who knew at this point. There was no way of contacting him anymore. He was gone, fallen back into the malevolence because of his bond with Heldalf. Raising my head up, I looked at the two of them. "Sub Lord application has been approved. You can go ahead and make her a Sub Lord."

"So does that mean I get to choose my own artifact? If so, I call dibs on the bow and arrow!" Zero exclaimed.

"Fine, fine. Let's get this over with." Zaveid closed his eyes, as did Zero. And thus, it began.

"O ye born of the Sacred Currents of Peace. Here let our pact be forged, that my unquavering incandescence be of thy purification. Shouldst thou accept this burden, recite aloud your name."

"Fethmus Lkwi." Immediately, Zero disappeared and I could feel the same warmth in my chest as I did before. She only took a second to reappear and look from me to Zaveid. "See, that wasn't so hard! Anyway, think we could get going? I got everything we needed, and then some. Grimm is probably getting antsy, too. You sure know how to pick people that have resonance, Arvald."

"Trait o'mine. Ina, get Topaz and make sure Grimm stays put. We're gonna be headin' to Marlind to deliver some supplies we got from those merchants from a couple days ago." Arvald got out of his chair, heading to the door. "An' Rokurou, best keep close to the Oracle. Ain't no tellin' what could happen, an' yer recovered enough to do so."

"Sure." Rokurou got up out of his seat as well. It was just me, Zaveid, Zero, Rokurou and Aevar now. With a small sigh, Aevar stood up and walked over to Zaveid.

"The Squire's pact. Should we initiate it now?" He asked.

"I don't know the old language, so... Zaveid, I'm going to have to defer to you for a true name." I looked ot him and then at Aevar. "Because I never did learn it..."

Not being from this world, there was no way I could have learned the Ancient Tongue. This also meant that I was kind of useless in creating True Names for others. We stood there for a bit, seemingly trying to figure out how to get a True Name for Aevar. It didn't seem like we would get one for a few moments before I finally thought of something. Despite everything that happened last time, he'd basically been a steadfast friend. One I could trust. Even after he'd left, it seemed like that was something that remained the same.

"What about Steadfast Aevar? What's the translation for that?" I asked Zaveid.

"Kisuytaks Apau," came his reply. "That's what it would translate to. Not that I'm an expert. Eizen would be the one to ask on that."

It's correct. Eizen spoke up. Don't let him fool you, he knows more than he lets on.

"Cool. So, let's start the Squire's Pact, then. I've got the True Name, and I've got the Squire to do it!" I put my mask back on before walking over to both Zaveid and Aevar. This was probably something that Zaveid had done before, given the fact Eizen knew he'd been a Prime Lord before all of this. I briefly wondered what had happened to the old Shepherd he'd been Prime Lord to, but decided to keep that to myself instead of asking. I didn't want to dredge up bad memories.

"Workin' me to death today, aren'tcha?" Zaveid said, a smile in his voice and on his face as he took both mine and Aevar's hands. "Once I complete this incantation, give Aevar the true name we decided on."

"Okay." I nodded. The Squire's pact was abridged this time, to get us on the road faster. After giving Aevar the True Name I'd decided for him, Zaveid and Zero disappeared to reside within me and Rokurou, Aevar and I left the room to head out where Arvald and the others were waiting. The moon was a bit higher, giving me the idea that it was almost midnight and that we'd been in there for quite some time. We would need to head to Marlind as soon as possible, and hopefully help out in making the malevolence vanish once the Lord of the Land was instated and the land purified. The epidemic would cease at that point, and people would be able to recover and return to life as it was before. At least, I hoped so.

With Arvald, Inanna and Topaz was a young man. He had long, fluffy black hair that was tied in a ponytail over his left shoulder, pale skin, purple eyes and wore a gray overcoat with purple lapels and cuffs, a black button-up shirt with a belt over it and a charm with an unfamiliar insignia on a chain on the belt, white pants and grey mid-calf boots with black soles. He looked over to us when we walked out, before returning his attention to Arvald.

"And that's the report. People aren't taking one step into Marlind because they're afraid of catching the illness spreading through there." He said.

"There was a young boy that went in there earlier," Topaz pointed out. A young boy? That was probably Sorey. I suppose this meant that I'd yet again get embroiled in the war between the two countries, and this time actually be able to help instead of be an entire hindrance. I didn't want to deal with having to explain how I'd gotten Eizen from a dragon to a normal Seraph. Or the fact that I had a Reaper's Curse. I wondered briefly if I would ever have to explain it to them, but figured I'd never have to if I never brought it up. That made things easier on me. Sorey didn't need to know... did he? If I explained anything, I'd have to rely on Eizen's knowledge of it instead of fumbling my way through 'it made everything more difficult than it should've been'.

"Guessin' that's the boy that got told to take the medicine across." Arvald looked over in the general direction of Marlind. "We should be off. Got everythin' set, Ina?"

"You know it, Boss." She pat the bag on her hip, before looking to me. "An' what 'bout you, Rani? Got everythin'? Pact settled?"

"Everything's done on my end, so we should be going. Otherwise, we may end up getting there a bit too late." If we got there too late, Alisha would be taken hostage to force Sorey into the Hyland side of the war instead of leaving him neutral like he should be. It also meant that I would have to find a way there before the sun rose. Once it did, the malevolence would be gone and Marlind would be okay again. I needed to see what was going on myself in the reset's version of Marlind. The last time, it'd just been like the game. But this time? I honestly didn't know.

Without much fanfare, we started heading off towards Marlind. The moon was full, shining and bright. But there was anxiety bubbling in my chest. For what, I didn't know. I hoped that it was nothing, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going wrong at this exact moment.

Chapter 19: Diverged Path

Summary:

Something unexpected happens when Agatha is caught with the books.

Chapter Text

 "I understand you wanting to trust her, but something's wrong." Mikleo said, folding his arms against his chest.

"Kind of funny to bury books in a graveyard..." Sorey looked over his shoulder towards the woman who was standing at the grave. "What do you think, Alisha?"

"I think there's something going on. Let's hide and observe," she responded. Sorey, Mikleo and Alisha did so, hiding near the sanctuary and watching as a merchant walked up to the woman and she held out the book. The man shook his head, narrowing his eyes at her and then looking at the book with a look that showed utter discontent with what she'd brought.

"Don't kid yourself, Agatha. That's worth a thousand at best," the man said.

A thousand? Alisha and Sorey looked at each other before heading around while the man and the woman named Agatha talked. However, their footsteps alerted the man, who looked over at the general direction they were in. "Who's there?!"

"You--" Agatha noticed the disappointed look on both Alisha and Sorey's faces. "Haven't I suffered enough?! Can I not have something good for once in my life?!"

Both Sorey and Alisha were taken back by how quickly she reacted to their presence. The malevolence began to coalesce, surrounding Agatha and turning her into a Hellion. "I want something good for once in my life! I deserve that, at the very least!"

The merchant was knocked to the side by her swinging her arm out. He hit the sanctuary wall, falling onto the ground unconscious afterwards. There was no signs of severe injury, though Agatha abandoned the books and took off. She left behind a key, which glinted and caught Sorey's attention. Walking over, he picked it up and looked it over before looking at the merchant. "Alisha, help me get him to the sanctuary."

"Alright."


"This place is an utter mess." I looked around, noting that Marlind had a lot more buildings than I'd originally known of. But the malevolence was everywhere, and it was probably the cause of this whole epidemic. Remembering the last time I was here, I wondered if the plant hellion was still the cause of all of this. Reinstating the Lord of the Land was probably not going to be easy, especially this time around. Arvald took a look around before starting to walk in the direction of the sanctuary.

At least, until a big hulking hellion landed in front of us. Arvald backed up a bit while the rest of us prepared for battle. "Damn, a hellion? Here?!"

"Boss!" Inanna deflected the incoming attack with her sword, holding it at the ready. "If you fall 'ere, there ain't anythin' bringing ya back, ya hear?! Ain't gonna letcha be killed by no damn hellion!"

Topaz shook her head. "And this isn't the least bit worrying. Malevolence everywhere the eye can see, and a hellion right in front of us."

"You guys know about hellions?" I asked, surprised.

"There's no time to talk about that!" Grimm dodged an incoming blow from the hellion. "Fight, damn it! Fight!"

Seems like we've got no other choice. Zaveid's voice echoed in the back of my mind during the beginning stages of the battle. This hellion's going to be harder than the one we faced before gettin' here. I'll bear to you my true name! Call it, and let it become your armor!

Two words. Two simple words that could change everything. Raising my hand up high into the air, palm facing the sky, I called out Zaveid's true name.

"Fylk Zadeya!" Immediately, the power of wind converged and donned me in armor reminiscent of Zaveid's own outfit. Wings made of blades hovered behind my back, and I levitated just slightly off the ground. The hellion moved in, and I called for the blades to defend me. Holding a hand out, they converged in front of it as a shield. Something I didn't know that could actually happen. The hellion's claw bounced off the blades, and I used that chance to move in, swinging my leg in an upward arc to attack. The hellion dodged out of the way, and Topaz moved in quickly. She jumped out of the way of an attack, going in and slashing at the hellion's face before the hellion smacked her out of the way. Rokurou took her place, going in for preciser strikes than hers. Slashing at any opening he saw, making sure to make the blows count and dodging out of the way of any incoming attacks. Inanna ran over to Topaz, helping her back up and giving her a gel to deal with the healing aspect of everything. Arvald moved as quickly as possible, running in to deliver a few pummeling blows before getting hit by the hellion's attack that was directed at Rokurou.

"This thing really is tough." I said, focusing on the inner magic of a Wind Seraph. The power converged, letting Zaveid and I call out the name of the attack together.  "Razor Vortex!"

Pummeled by the arte cast, it left an opening for more attacks. I decided to finish it off quickly, try to purify it before things got any worse. "Zaveid, let's finish it!"

"Gotcha!" Flying high into the air, I raised my hand to the sky. "Come, divine wings! Swarm the skies! Sylphistia!"

Millions of swords fell to the battleground, missing my allies and stabbing into the hellion to pin it down as an arte circle appeared under it. The heavy blast of Wind Magic combined with the power of Purification soon took hold. The swords disappeared as the flames purified the malevolence, revealing a woman under all of that. I recognized her from the last time I'd been here. The malevolence had turned her into a hellion instead of just sparking up this time? Landing on the ground, I released the armatization and walked over to her. Kneeling down, I put a couple fingers on her neck to check for a pulse.

There was none.

".....She's dead." I said, standing up. Trying not to let it get to me, trying to ignore the fact that it was my fault. Just like that soldier from so long ago... I just had to bury it deep and never think about it! That would definitely work... wouldn't it? "We should take her body to the sanctuary for proper burial. At least... that's all we can do for her. If Sorey's here, we can let him deal with the malevolence."

"Sounds like you don't want to linger here." Rokurou pointed out.

"I don't like being here. Everyone's basically a hellion at this point, and I'd rather not fight the townspeople." I responded, looking over at him before looking to Inanna. "How's she?"

"I'm fine." Topaz waved a hand. "Don't worry too much about me, alright? I'm a tough one."

"Alright." I gave a nod, and Aevar picked up Agatha's corpse. We walked towards the sanctuary, garnering looks from the townsfolk not there. The moment we saw a guard, we immediately passed off the body to him and asked him to bury it. As the guard walked away, out of the sanctuary came Sorey and Alisha. Sorey seemed a bit surprised to see us, but moreso me.

"Aren't you the girl from the mountain?" He asked, coming towards me.

"Yuuup." I let the 'p' pop in my response. "Didn't expect to see you coming from there. Had something to do?"

"There was a merchant meeting a woman, but he fell unconscious." Man, he was bad at lying. I could see how nervous he was upon saying that. Since it was just us, I looked behind me at the direction we'd come from. "...Something wrong?"

"We were attacked by a hellion upon entering the city." I said, looking at him. "We took care of it, but... unfortunately, Agatha didn't survive."

"You killed her?!" Came Mikleo's shocked response as he, Lailah and Edna materialized. I looked away from Sorey. "How could you?!"

"I was trying to purify her, but I...." I shook my head. "I guess I overdid it and killed her by accident."

It's the Reaper's Curse. It's that damn curse. If it wasn't for the curse, I'd.... I felt tears prickling at the edges of my eyes, before I hastily rubbed my face with my arm. I wouldn't have overdone it and ended up killing her, would I? I don't know, maybe I would have?! This didn't happen before...

"It wasn't intentional." Edna stated outright. "You can tell, just look at her."

For a moment, it was all quiet before Sorey held out the key to me. "Do you know whose this is? Agatha dropped it when she turned into a hellion."

"Oh yeah, that's Neif's key." Rokurou said, causing all of us to look at him. He looked from me to Sorey and then back. "What?"

"Of course you'd know that." I muttered, looking at the key. Shaking my head, I looked around and then realized I wouldn't know where Neif was in this place. Maybe we could just look around and try to find it. "So, if you know about that, then where do we go?"

The last time I was here, we'd gone towards the museum and met Attak who had been hellionized. Basically still following the script of Zestiria and its pre-determined path. But this time, things really had gone off the rails and I wondered if Attak would be the same or stronger. Because of both Eizen and I having Reaper's Curses, it would probably be the latter option. That didn't fill me with much confidence, and I had to think of how we could do this. Was there any way to do it without me being near? Could I be bait for the drake until they exited the museum?

"Hmm..." Rokurou folded his arms against his chest and closed his eyes. "It's been a couple years since I've been here, so I'm not too sure if Neif still lives in the same place. We could look in that dusty old museum."

"Oh goodie." Edna said sarcastically. "We're entrusting this entire mission to a guy who wasn't here for two years."

"Hey!"


Arvald, Inanna, Topaz and Grimm had decided to stay behind while the rest of us headed to the museum. The medicine delivery took priority, after all, and we couldn't really blame them for staying behind. At least we knew where they were if we needed their help. But the museum looked a bit old and dusty, especially on the inside, and I glanced around. The layout was the same as always, so I supposed there was no need for it to change. I turned to Sorey, who was in awe over this place. "We should split up. I'll try and find where the hellion is. If I do, I'll send Kain to let you know."

"Who's Kain?" Immediately as Sorey asked that, Kain materialized beside me and did a two-finger salute towards Sorey.

"That would be me," Kain responded. "I'll let you know if we come across the hellion and lead you right to where Rani is."

"....You know, I just realized we never introduced ourselves and we've been talking for... what, a bit now?" I laughed a little, feeling awkward. This whole time, I'd never introduced myself and I knew their names. That came off as creepy, no matter how you put it. "Sorry, I forget you don't know me. I'm Rani."

"It's nice to know your name after all this time." Alisha pointed out. "We just called you the cloaked girl."

That was some sort of nickname for certain. "Yup, I can see why you'd call me that. Well, anyway..." I started to walk off in the direction I needed to go. "If I find the hellion, I'll have Kain come your way. If you guys find the hellion, send Mikleo my way."

"Why am I the one being sent off?!" Mikleo demanded to know. I just laughed and waved, walking away and not responding. It really didn't take all that long for me to find the way there, recalling it from the previous time I'd been here with Sorey. This did mean that I would just linger outside, sitting with my back against the nearby wall and taking stock of the situation. First, Agatha turned into a hellion and I ended up accidentally killing her while armatized with Zaveid. Second, after Rayfalke, it seemed that Mikleo was more tense than usual about everything. And third, despite me knowing their names and them not knowing mine... it didn't seem like they were too bothered about it. I had to wonder what had changed from the last time I was here to now. What had truly changed when Maotelus set everything back to before I'd gotten caught up in everything and was it because of me or something else? I honestly didn't know.

Standing up after about thirteen minutes of sitting there and debating, I turned towards the door and walked over to it. "Kain, go find Sorey and tell him we've found the hellion."

"But it isn't here," Kain said, pointing that out to me. "That would be a false alarm."

"The moment I get to that faded painting, the hellion's going to come out of hiding." I said, looking back at him. "I want Sorey on his way here before I initiate the fight."

"Alright." Kain shrugged before running in the way we came. I walked towards the painting and prepared myself for the fight that was soon to come.

Chapter 20: Saying Goodbye

Summary:

The torch is passed, and Rani says goodbye to someone she knew.

Chapter Text

As predicted, a suit of armor came out of hiding when Attak laughed, and attacked me, Aevar and Rokurou. Immediately, the three of us were thrown into this combat situation and were completely out of our element fighting a literal moving suit of armor. This really sucked, for certain. Deflecting its blows was most of what we could do, and I didn't even know if I could make a straight attack on this thing. "Eizen, need a little help here!"

"Wait, what?!" Came Rokurou's shocked response as Eizen materialized and moved in to punch the helmet off of the so-called hellion. The helmet flew off, and Attak was tossed to the ground unceremoniously as he was sent with the helmet. It was all quiet after that, with the tension in the room so thick you could cut it with a knife. Both Rokurou and Eizen stared at each other. And then, Rokurou laughed. "Didn't think I'd see you again, Eizen. It's been, what, about a thousand years since?"

"More or less." Eizen gave a half smile at Rokurou. "You've been around this entire time?"

"Yeah. Been indebted to Arvald's crew for saving my life. If it weren't for them, I'd have been dead a looong time ago." Rokurou shrugged. "And since Arvald wants me to go with her, guess it means we'll be travelling together."

"It does." At that point, Attak wobbled over to us and we all looked over at him.

"Uuuuugh.... Ya didn't have to hit me that hard...." He complained, before rubbing his aching head. "And why are you being a bunch of prancin' prickleboars?! You could've damaged something in here!"

"You attacked us. I just asked Eizen to help." I shrugged. That was the truth, no matter how you looked at it. Walking over, I crouched down to him. "Listen, there's a drake flying about outside. We need your help to deal with it before it becomes a problem for Marlind."

"And why should I help? What's the catch?" Attak asked, staring at me with those big eyes of his. "You aren't gonna use me for something nefarious, right?"

"Because if we don't deal with the malevolence, then this entire town's probably going to become hellions." I stood up, looking down at him. "And if that happens, then there'd be less people here to appreciate the art stored here."

Attak drooped. "Awww..."

"You sure know how to deal with a normin, Rani. Didn't think you knew him." Rokurou seemed impressed. I shook my head.

"He's in an art museum, so you can connect the dots from there." It was a half-truth at best. I knew why, I just didn't want to say it aloud. However, before we could continue conversing, we heard footsteps headed our way. Eizen returned to residing within me, and I stared at the door. When it opened, revealing Sorey, Alisha and Kain, I breathed a sigh of relief. "False alarm, it's just a normin."

"That doesn't explain the domain remaining, though." Lailah said once she materialized. Noticing Attak, she continued. "If it wasn't Attak, then who or what is exerting its domain here? We should scope the area out more and find out what it is."

It isn't us. Eizen said, answering an unasked question. I breathed a sigh of relief before looking towards Rokurou. He shook his head, as if explaining that it definitely wasn't him without saying anything. So what, then, was causing the domain to remain standing? Was there really a hellion here unrelated to Attak? I thought it over for a bit, trying to figure it out. Maybe it was something that none of us could've ever thought of. Maybe someone had come in here and become a hellion... but where exactly were they? Did they even exist in here? Or were they outside, exerting their domain over this area from there? As I thought it over, I heard the sound of weapons unsheathing and looked up.

Coming from the door was a strange-looking hellion. It looked as if it was partially human, only half overtaken by the malevolence itself. But its walk was... different. A shamble, kind of like a zombie except without its arms out. It limped forward before raising its head and staring directly at me. The voice that issued from it was slightly grating on the ears, if not blanketed by the malevolence. But it was a familiar voice that I'd heard so much.

"Ra.....ni....." The voice said, and I took a step back. One of its arms rose up, holding the same sword Sorey was holding in his own hand. The Sacred Sword. This was wrong... This was all wrong. I took another step back, eyes widening behind the mask as I watched it start shambling closer. Edna quickly cast an arte to get its attention, but it continued forward regardless. "W....hy....."

I hit my knees, staring in fear at it. Hearing voices, but not being able to register them. In the back of my mind, I knew that this was a trick. An illusion of Symmone's, more than likely. But it wasn't registering as that.

"She's not responding!" Sorey said, moving in front of me. "What's going on?! What is that?!"

"It's some sort of hellion!" Lailah responded, pulling some papers out of her skirt pocket and setting them aflame before going in for an attack. "And it's focused entirely on Rani! We're not registering at all to it no matter what we do!"

Would Sorey would have wanted this? Wanted to become such a shambling creature? I didn't know what why the Sorey I knew had been turned into this, but I knew I had to do something about it. I found the strength to finally get back up and walked over to the shambling hellion, pulling the sword out of his grasp. He stared at me, eyes not seeing anything. I could tell, as they weren't even focused. I took a shaky breath before gripping the hilt of the sword tight after turning the blade towards him. I heard screaming, and I saw the blade sink into the hellion's flesh just as his hand pierced my shoulder. My world went white for just a few moments.

At least, until the past Sorey appeared before me.

"....Hey." He raised a hand towards me.

"Hey...." I smiled, though it didn't last long. "I'm guessing... this was your way of trying to send a final message? Turning yourself into a hellion?"

"I dunno. All I knew was that I had to say something to you. Next thing I know, you're hitting me with a sword! That hurt." The past Sorey laughed a little. "But I guess this makes it easier."

"Makes what easier?" I tilted my head to the side a little before I saw four elemental lights fly out of him towards me. I pat myself down after that, and realized I was wearing the same clothes I'd worn prior to nearly getting killed by the hellion Dezel had gotten paralyzed by. Which meant that, in this white room, I looked like I used to. So, when it faded, I wouldn't look like this anymore. "What was that?!"

"I'm passing the torch. Figuratively and literally." He was starting to fade away, and I didn't know what to do. My vision blurred with tears, and I blinked. "Even though it really was my fault that Rose and I got killed... I shouldn't have asked her to come with me. I should've had her stay with you. Then, maybe, none of this would've happened."

"Are you an idiot?!" I walked up to him, smacking him on his semi-transparent shoulder. "Rose would've gone with you anyway! You know that as well as I do! But hey, if you see Edna, tell her I got Eizen back."

"Oh, she knows." The past Sorey grinned. "She's known for a while. Can't believe you did that! Something I couldn't even do...."

"Don't start beating yourself up for that." I looked away. "......I'm sorry, Sorey. I'm sorry for not being... able to help you more when you needed it. If I was there, maybe you and Rose wouldn't have-"

"It wasn't your fault." He was fading even more now. "I'm glad I got to talk to you again, even if it was just for a short few minutes. Tell Mikleo I said hi, would you?"

"....I will." The world turned a blinding bright light, and I saw the silver flames of purification disperse. Staring at where he'd been just a few moments ago, I found myself dropping the sword and falling to my knees. Sobs wracked my body as I hugged myself tight, trying to deal with the emotions and shove them all back down. I had to, there was no other choice for me. Neither he or Rose would've wanted me to grieve over them like this.

It took me a few moments to finally compose myself, and I didn't know how to explain this to the others. It turned out I didn't owe them an explanation, only an assertion that I was okay. I nodded, giving a smile and we walked out of the museum with Attak.

Chapter 21: Dissociation

Summary:

Rani meets Izayoi once again.

Notes:

I forgot I had this sitting in my drafts. Oops. Here's a new chapter for y'all!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

 I ran as fast as my legs would take me, towards Glaveind Basin. Towards the battlefield that Sorey would face Heldalf on, and utterly fail. It'd give him time to learn about Heldalf, instead of blindly running after him in a foolhardy attempt to purify him. It was how Sorey was, and I knew I had to help him. As I approached the area, I slowed my steps until I saw the figures in the distance. Sorey, laying on the ground.... The Seraphim, nowhere to be found.

And near Sorey?

Lunarre. Feasting on his flesh like some sort of cannibal, though it was the only way he could "eat". Lunarre's head shot up and he looked at me with a grin, blood on his lips. I stared at him, hearing screaming. Who was screaming? I didn't know, but it was getting louder. And louder, until I realized something about it... That was my voice. I was the one who was screaming.


I forced myself awake, my body covered in cold sweat from the nightmare, Lunarre's face still burned into my retinas. It took me a few minutes to compose myself, trying desperately not to just start bawling right then and there. He'd told me he'd killed Sorey and Rose... had that actually been true? I didn't really know, nor did I actually understand what had actually happened there. I'd gotten there too late, to see the two of them dead. If Lunarre had truly killed them.... then what did that mean for me? Did I just let him go, let Rose deal with him in this new world? Or did I go after him myself, get revenge for what he'd done?

Revenge.... That sounded more like something Dezel should do and not me. Not me at all.

I sat there in bed, trying to figure out what to do from here. Marlind was finally recovering now that the Drake and the Hellion were defeated, and Alisha had left a few hours ago. Sorey had decided a nap would do us all good before travel continued, so we'd gotten a room at the inn. Getting out of bed after a few more minutes, I changed back into my usual outfit and made the bed before putting my mask on and exiting the room. It seemed that Sorey wasn't awake yet, though he probably didn't actually get to sleep until a while after I did. Heading into the lobby, I just quietly ordered the veggie sticks as my breakfast, not having the stomach to eat anything heavier than that. Taking a seat, I stared at the wall and contemplated things.

Things like... how I'd ever explain my appearance change to my family. How I'd explain about the haircut, the eye colour change... How I'd explain why I'd been gone for so long. For all they knew, I was kidnapped and dead by now... which wasn't too far from the truth, really. In all actuality, according to Eizen, I should've been dead. I should've become a Seraph by now, but I wasn't. It was like I had one foot in the grave and I was struggling to pull myself out.

The other thing I contemplated was how I could beat Lunarre. Get him to tell me the truth. To tell me exactly how he killed them so I could do the same in return. If it was him, if it was truly him... Then I had no other choice but to kill him and get revenge. I had to, for the fact that he'd killed my girlfriend. For the fact that he killed my friend. It was his fault, wasn't it? It was--

I shook my head, dispersing the thoughts from my mind. No, it wouldn't do me any good to go down that sort of path while knowing where it could lead me. In fact, I shouldn't even think of it! But... I kept the idea stored in the back of my mind for now, to deal with when I could properly process everything. Despite how collected I was, I knew I was just waiting for the chance to break even further than I did back in the museum. I never handled death well, and yet I was trying to force myself to move forward faster than I should. I wasn't ready to keep going, but I had to. I had no other choice but to keep moving forward.

Stand up and walk. Keep moving forward. You've got two good legs, so use 'em. It'd been said once, a long time ago when I was a kid watching anime because my family was busy and didn't have time for me until late evening before bed. Even when my brother had died, there'd been no one. My father had yelled at me to stop crying, that "our family doesn't cry". The Starretts were strong, and crying was a weakness that no one should ever witness. Not even your own family. So I'd taken those words as my own philosophy, living by them. Walking even though I didn't have the strength to, when all I wanted to do was collapse and cry.

I had, earlier, but even now I felt ashamed of myself for it. I'd proven myself to be weak, and I had to be strong.

"Here you are, dear." A plate of veggie sticks and a small bowl of dip was set down in front of me, along with a mug of water. Thanking the server, I quietly ate my food while trying to figure out what I should do next. The logical thing was to follow Sorey, get involved with the war and try to find Izayoi and see if she's dealing with Malevolence here as well. The other idea was that I would head off on my own to Lastonbell and deal with Margaret and Wiggs again... Though if I went that route again, I wondered if I could stop her from becoming a hellion before it even began. Before she got bullied.

Or maybe I was too late already, and it'd already happened.

"You're up pretty early, Rani." I heard Sorey say. Raising a veggie stick in greeting, I continued to eat until my food was gone. "Couldn't sleep?"

"I slept, just not well. I'm fine." I responded. Not leaving any room for more conversation, I returned the dishes to the counter and headed out. I knew that was rude of me, but my mind was racing and I couldn't exactly focus too well on conversation right now. I had so many thoughts. How would I save Izayoi? Was she even alive in this timeline? What about Margaret and Wiggs? What would happen? And the biggest problem of all: What about Alisha? I remember she'd taken the sword and wanted to prove herself to Sorey back at the Water Temple a while back, before this timeline existed, so I had to wonder when exactly that happened. As I headed towards the entrance of Marlind, it opened and I noticed a man on a horse. One of his eyes was scarred and closed, and he had a few soldiers with him.

I could feel the malevolence radiating from him.

He was here, earlier than expected. Generally, he'd be encountered near the Griflet River... but Alisha must have been detained earlier than I thought. Commander General Landon of the Hyland Army, who only wanted the Shepherd to claim victory to get Alisha released of suspicions. Walking over to him, I figured I could protect Sorey and take his place in this. Give him a chance to go a different route, not get taken in by the violence of war... if only because I didn't want him to die later. Selfish of me. But I knew better than to take Sorey's place, as that would mean that Sorey would never meet Rose and make her into his squire. I had to keep that, if anything.

"You're bringing an army into Marlind?" I asked.

"I'm only here for the Shepherd. Are they with you?" Landon turned his gaze to me, before narrowing his eye and snorting. "Or did the Shepherd send their harlot out to greet me?"

I rolled my eyes, unseen by the mask. "I'm not a harlot. I'm the Oracle, the Shepherd's counterpart. What do you want with him?"

"That's between the Shepherd and I. Not for his harlot." Landon sneered. It was at that moment that Sorey showed up, and I was held back by him because Landon continued to call me Sorey's harlot instead of anything else due to how I was dressed. I didn't really let it bother me, as he did seem to spit it at me whenever I tried to talk, but it was really dehumanizing in a way. When we were sent off to fight, with Landon giving little care about anything but victory, I separated from Sorey to look for Izayoi while fighting my way through both Rolance and Hyland's men. When I saw a few bubbles, I looked around to see a hellion targeting a young girl. The familiarity of her features made me pause. Izayoi was back?

Armatizing with Kain, I ran forward and sliced at the hellion, watching the silver flames eat away at the malevolence before releasing the armatization and moving closer towards Izayoi.

"Izayoi...?" I asked, unsure. She looked at me, grey eyes staring at me strangely.

"Yes, but how do you know my name?" She asked, confused.

"....Do you remember me? Rani?" Izayoi shook her head, a small, sad smile on her face.

"No, but your name does sound familiar... Wait, if you can see me, then does that mean that the prophecy is true?! The Oracle is here?!" She looked almost happy about that. I checked her, noting malevolence softly raidiating from her. Water was easily corruptible, suspectible to malevolence. And she'd carried it for a long time. I glanced behind me, noting how no one has noticed my presence yet, which was a good sign. "Please, tell me if it's true!"

"Yes, though you need to calm down for a moment-"

"Calm down?! No, this is my chance to be near Lailah-" I grabbed her arm before she could escape. "What are you-- Kain?!"

Kain had materialized beside me, gently removing my hand from her arm and walking towards her. "Izayoi, if you were to pact with an Oracle, you'd kill them like you did the last one. Don't you remember? They suffered and died because of your obsession with Lailah. When did it all start?"

"...are you trying to stop me from going to Lailah?" Izayoi's voice deepened slightly, unnerving me. I remembered the last time she'd become a hellion and was thankful she wasn't my Sub Lord or Prime Lord this time around. "Well, Kain? Are you going to keep me from going to the one I love? If so, I'll have to show you no mercy!"

Malevolence.

There was so much it was suffocating.


"Izayoi, please... I don't want to die..." I said, voice weak. "Just... dissolve the pact."

Izayoi didn't respond, like usual. For a moment, anyway. "When you die, I'll use your friend. I have to help Lailah, and I'll go through as many humans as I have to so she'll be safe."

That...

Was it.

"So you don't care, huh?" I stood up, the movement paining me as the weight had gone from just my chest to my entire body within the night. "If I die, you'll just use Aevar, right? Dissolve the pact, I'm not going to die because of you!"

"No. I won't." Izayoi turned to me, narrowing her eyes. "Lailah is the most important person in the world to me, and I won't let stupid humans keep me from protecting her!"

Malevolence... Izayoi's entire body was engulfed by it. I hadn't been corrupted, but... perhaps Izayoi had been even before we made our pact. It would make some lick of sense. A whirlwind of malevolence formed, and dispersed soon after to form a drake. I felt the pressure in my body increase, and my vision started to fade. I choked and coughed as I collapsed. I couldn't even keep myself up anymore. This entire time, that feeling... was malevolence? Izayoi... had already been corrupted by malevolence before making her pact with me?

"Damn it!" I heard the familiar rough voice of Kain as warmth spread throughout my body. "I hate it when this happens to old friends. Sorry, Izayoi."

But before I passed out, I saw Sorey and Mikleo move in front of me. Protecting me...? I...

I don't understand.


"Fylk Zadeya!" I called out, armatizing with Zaveid almost immediately. Water was weak against Earth, but I couldn't use Eizen against her. Another sendoff.... was it? First the past Sorey, now Izayoi. Seeing the drake manifest where Izayoi was, it roared and came at me. I used the power of wind to fling myself into the air and twisted, throwing the wing blades at her. Landing behind her, I dodged out of the way of her tail and felt my eyes burn with tears. I couldn't just kill her. No matter her obsession with Lailah, I couldn't just kill her. She was the first Seraph I'd ever pacted with.

Her claws sliced at the space I was in, and I narrowly avoided it. The ground broke with the effort of her attack, and she took off into the air. I flew up, following her, throwing the blades at her as best as I could. There was no way I could cast a spell in midair, so I had to go with trying to go with ranged attacks. As she attacked, I dodged and released the armatization. Feeling myself start to fall towards the ground, I called forth Zero.

"Fethmus Lkwi!" The divine artifact appeared in my hand, and I drew back the bow string. Aiming the arrow towards Izayoi, who gathered malevolent energy in her maw. I focused on that, and used it as my target as I fired the arrow towards her. Izayoi spit out the malevolent energy towards me, pierced through and dispersed by the arrow I shot. Watching as it hit her, I heard her scream as the silver flames burned bright and purified the malevolence. Not through with me, Izayoi dove and I released my armatization.

"Ufemew Wexub!" Her hammer appeared in my hands, and I gripped it tight, swinging it in an arc. It hit her directly on her dragon snout, knocking her sideways and into the nearby battalion. Landing on my feet with some difficulty, I walked over to her. Tears streamed down my cheeks, knowing I would have to put her out of her misery. I couldn't enter a pact with her to keep her safe, so I had to do the next best thing. Before things got worse. Before everything got out of hand at Goddodin.

"Why.... Why can't I be... with Lailah?" Izayoi sobbed, returned to normal.

"....the same reason I can't be with Rose." I responded, letting the hammer rest on its head with my hand on the handle of it. "It's not possible. We can't be with those we love because they no longer exist as we knew them. So we have to move forward, continue to walk despite our feelings."

"That's easy for you to say! You've never actually been in love, have you?!" Izayoi stood up, tears streaming down her cheeks. "You just had a crush on this Rose!"

"She was my girlfriend." I snapped. "Rose was my girlfriend, and she was murdered. You think that your little... obsession with Lailah will ever triumph the pain and suffering that I've been through?! This body isn't even mine! IT'S HERS! This body is Rose's, and it's all I have left of the woman I loved!"

"Easy, Rani, easy. Don't go overboard." I heard Zaveid say, tugging at my coat sleeve. I yanked my arm away, gripping the hammer as tears continued to stream down my cheeks as well. "Rani!"


"She's not going to last much longer, Izayoi. Maybe a week at most. Look how far she's deteriorated just from being in a pact with you!"

"I-I know, I just..." Izayoi's voice was thick with grief. "I don't want to leave Lailah unprotected!"

"I don't care about your perceived feelings for Lailah. Instead of letting them go, you choose a human vessel not even two months after the previous one died because of you." Wait, what? "Now you're killing another because you want to be close to Lailah. I won't be able to save her unless you undo your pact now."

"I can't! Lailah needs me, and I-"

I heard the sound of a hand meeting someone's face and uncover my face, sitting up. The seraph had slapped Izayoi, who was holding her hand against her cheek. Her eyes were filled with tears, and she looked back at the seraph.

"Kain, you know that I have to be with Lailah..." Izayoi said, causing the seraph to grab her shoulders.

"You're killing this innocent human in the process! Didn't you learn about the Oracle Rules?! Dissolve the pact, or she'll-"

"Wait..." I stood up. "...I'm dying? Izayoi, is... the pact killing me?"

"No, of course not!" Izayoi said, lying to me. "You're just having some problems adjusting to being my vessel!"

"It is," Kain said bluntly, letting go of Izayoi and walking up to me. "With how far you've deteriorated, you only have about a week or less left to live unless Izayoi dissolves the pact with you."


"You're more than willing to kill anyone as long as you get to stay with Lailah. You killed my predecessor that way, and you almost succeeded with me."


I was going to die without being able to go back home? My vision blurred as tears filled my eyes. I wouldn't be seeing anyone at home again, would I? Not my friends, my family... or my pets. I'd die in Glenwood, never being able to go back home and... It was just too much, so I left the two of them there as I ran off towards the camp. If I'm to die, then I'll do it with the others.

Not alone. Never alone.


"You were more than willing to sacrifice me and use Aevar until you killed him too!"

"I have to do whatever I can to stay with Lailah!" Izayoi shouted. I heard screaming again, and found myself knocking her over before starting to stab her. Again, and again and again- Until I felt someone screaming at me, felt myself being pulled away as Izayoi turned into nothing but a puddle of water that muddied the ground. I screamed and screamed as someone struggled to keep me held.

I screamed until my world finally turned dark.

Notes:

You can talk to me over on twitter, if you want.

You can also ask me a question and get an answer over here! I won't give out spoilers, though.

Chapter 22: Tintagel and Lastonbell

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

 When I finally regained consciousness, I was staring at the familiar ceiling of Tintagel Ruins. This was where the Sparrowfeathers hideout was, as far as I could recall. Sitting up slowly, I put a hand to my head and held it there for a few moments. So, everything was still going as planned? But how did I get here in the first place? Hearing footsteps, I looked over to see Sorey making his way over to me.

"You're awake. It was kind of a shock to find you unconscious." He said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Thankfully, Rose is letting us stay here until it's safe."

Thankful they'd thought to keep my mask on my face, I just gave a nod at his words and stared at my legs. I'd sent Rokurou and Aevar ahead to Lastonbell before the whole war thing had broken out, so Margaret and Wiggs were probably safe right now. Hopefully. That was one tragedy I would never want to happen again, if I could help it. Looking over to him, I gave a weak smile before looking around. I couldn't make out the Seraphim-- had my resonance been cut off like Sorey's had? Or had I just blocked it off myself? Sliding off the bed, I stretched and glanced about. Nothing too special, just beds in a corner of the area. Had Sorey been unable to put me in the other side of the room so he just placed me on this bed?

"I don't really remember what happened," I realized, finding that after I'd talked to Izayoi my memory was blank until I woke up. Trying to hit the blank spot caused a slight pain in my forehead that I didn't understand. So I shook my head and ignored it for now. Whatever happened, the Seraphim would inform me... right? "All I know is that I found someone that I'd thought was long dead... and then nothing until I woke up."

"That must've been hard for you." Sorey stood up, walking over to me. "Finding them and not knowing what happened next... It must be tough to deal with."

"It happens. Memories are fickle things." I waved off the concern, looking around. "So... Where are we?"

"Oh, uh! This is where we're staying. They're called the Tintagel Ruins." Sorey said. "Huh? You guys!"

At that moment, Lailah, Edna and Mikleo appeared. They'd been worried about Sorey, from what I could tell. So I decided to see if things were okay with the others. "Hey, Kain, can you hear me?"

Yeah. After what happened with Izayoi, we figured it best to let you have a little peace and quiet until you called upon us. Kain responded. I nodded.

"I can get that. I don't know what happened myself. Could you guys tell me?"

Sorry, but we think it's best you don't know. Came Zaveid's voice. What happened wasn't like you.

"....Wasn't like me?" I was confused. What wasn't like me? What had happened? And why weren't they letting me know?? Besides for my own safety, but I knew I deserved to know. However, the Seraphim would end up keeping quiet about this. Even though I deserved to know... maybe there was actually a better reason than 'we think it's best you don't know'. How could I know, though? How could I know what was best for me when everything had been falling apart since the first day I came to Glenwood so long ago? That it felt like literal years despite being a few months?

And then I heard screaming and looked over, seeing Rose shaking Sorey's hand really fast and trying to get him to let her go. Lailah was trying to calm her down when Edna got an idea and walked over to Rose. Rose froze, then screamed again while punching Sorey and knocking him out temporarily. She ran off, and I looked to Sorey before chasing after her. A part of me wanted to hug her and tell her everything would be okay... but the other part knew that would just make her more freaked out.

"Hey! Hey... Rose, right?" Finally catching up to her, as she'd just run to another part of the ruins to calm down and get away from Sorey for now, I took a breath. "Sorry about him. He's... naive. Doesn't think to ask first before he does something."

"...It's fine! Really... He just doesn't get to do that again." Rose said, looking pale as a ghost. "At all."

"Are you gonna be okay?" I asked. She did look pale, so I assumed that she'd be feeling really really bad about everything right now. To my surprise, she nodded.

"Yeah. I just needed to get away for a moment. Sorey's a good person and all, I just don't want to deal with hearing those ghosts again." Rose walked over to one of the bags on the floor and opened it, pulling out some clothes. "Could you turn around? I don't really like changing when someone's watching."

"Oh- Sure." I turned away, wishing I could remove my mask for a bit and just wash my face or something without fearing what would be said if people realized I had the same face as Rose did. How I would explain that, how everything would go... Man, it just felt like an endless cycle of nonsense that I didn't really understand. But, regardless, I had to at least attempt to understand it this time around. There really wasn't anything else to it but that, really. When Rose was done getting changed, the two of us ended up headed over to where Sorey was. There was a bit of talk about how the ruin wouldn't open and both Mikleo and Sorey made a wager on who'd open the door first.

It was Sorey, of course, discerning that there were three buttons that needed to be pressed so we could continue in. Although Sorey did inform Rose of the dangers, she didn't really take it seriously and went ahead with Dezel following after her. I watched for a moment before heading in myself. Though I hadn't really gotten a good look at the ruins the last time we were here, I was hoping that I could understand a bit more this time around.

And then, the door closed, locking us into the room. Rose was in the other room, and she and Sorey had a small chat while the rest of us were... there.

"Rani, I have to ask. Where'd you get the power of Purification?" Lailah looked curious. "Back in Marlind, you were able to use it to purify that hellion."

"I'm the Oracle." I responded, shrugging. "As long as the Shepherd's active, I can access the power of purification. My Prime Lord and I figured that out when we couldn't do anything until Sorey took the sword." I knew I was lying about the second half, but it was better than telling them the whole truth of how I actually knew.

"Is Izayoi with you, then?" Lailah asked, moving towards me. "I'd like to talk to her."

"....No, she... She became a hellion." That made Lailah step back, hands covering her mouth. "It's only because of a few friends of mine that I'm even here now, and the Prime Lord that took her place. She was obsessed, and it generated too much malevolence. Nearly killed me, too."

"Oh no, that's horrible!" Lailah stepped back. "Izayoi.... She really wanted to help me, didn't she?"

"Help you enough to kill her Oracles." I responded, turning to look at the door. "She was obsessed with you to the point that she didn't care what would happen to me. What would happen to the next person she made her Oracle."

"It's true." Kain appeared beside me, folding his arms against his chest. "I was there when Izayoi asked me to relieve the burden on Rani's body. I couldn't do much for her, and told Izayoi off for what she was doing. She wouldn't listen to me, not even when Rani left to go spend the last moments of her life with those she was travelling with. We were just lucky enough that Rani held on despite nearly being corrupted completely by Izayoi's malevolence."

"....I see. That means that Izayoi was corrupted even before she gained the power of Purification, doesn't it?" Lailah asked. "But I don't understand how it could've allowed her to become a hellion."

"The malevolence was too great to be burned away." Kain shook his head. "And besides, at that time there was an imbalance so Izayoi's power was weaker than it should've been."

Lailah nodded, looking away. Though we ended up getting attacked by hellions and dealt with a smoke trap that Rose set off, it eventually ended up being okay for us. At least for a moment until the door opened, when the domain of a hellion could be sensed. That meant that there was a hellion here, for sure. Rose's cry was enough to spur me forward. Her not knowing what was going on because her rejecting the Seraphim made sense-- she couldn't tell what was going on or that Dezel was defending her from the Dragonewt.

"Hey, your scaliness, I'm over here!" I called to it, drawing the Dragonewt's attention to myself. Pulling out my daggers, I saw Kain pull out a coin from seemingly nowhere and prepare to fire it with just his thumb. "Run, Rose! Get out of here, quick!"

And yet, it went just as I remembered. Rose came charging back, Mikleo talked to her, she made up her mind to join the fight and join the Shepherd on her own... but the true name Sorey gave her sounded wrong. Wilkis Wilk. Rose is Rose-- the dumbest True Name I had ever heard. Though Rose did take the Dragonewt down, I recognized Edna's little act right away. I sighed and sat down near Rose. Though she'd left me, though the one I knew was dead...

It gave me peace, seeing her again like this.

I did my best to make her comfortable so she wouldn't end up all achy and sore after falling unconscious on the ground. As I did, I could feel the tears falling.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't save you..." I said, mostly to myself. "I'm sorry."

Would Dezel hate me for letting Rose die? For letting Lunarre kill her and Sorey?

Lunarre was the reason this had all happened, wasn't it? Lunarre... Lunarre would have to pay, wouldn't he? He'd definitely have to pay for killing them, wouldn't he? Wouldn't he? Wouldn't he?!

"....Do you guys know anything about Lunarre?"

"Huh? What's that?" Sorey asked.

"...You know that guy from Ladylake when we first ran into each other because you guys were chasing a dog?" My voice sounded so much deader now. "That guy. Do you know anything about him? Where I can find him?"

"Why are you interested in Lunarre?" Came Dezel's voice. I looked over at him before looking back at Rose. "He used to be a part of the Scattered Bones, but he isn't any longer."

"....because there's a score I have to settle with him. Lunarre took everything from me, and I intend to return the favour."

"You mustn't let yourself get blinded by that." Lailah scolded. "You hold the same values as the Shepherd. If you're lost to the malevolence-"

"I can't just let him go when he killed my girlfriend and asked me if I liked the gift he'd left me!" I stood up abruptly, staring Lailah down. "Finding him... hunting him down and making him pay... I have to, even if... Even if it's the last thing I ever do!"

"Two idiots with revenge ideals." Edna tapped her parasol against her shoulder. Before I could respond to her, the dog seraph finally woke up. Instead of continuing it, the entire conversation was dropped there. Revenge ideals? I just wanted to make sure everything from the past was settled before I truly moved on to the future. To this new normal that I had to deal with, that I had to learn to live with. I just had to deal with Lunarre and then I'd be free of all of this. I'd be free of the past and be able to move on. That was all this was for. It wasn't some silly revenge ideal.

After dealing with the rest of the ruin, we left Tintagel after Rose talked to the rest of the Scattered Bones and they said that they'd be off after they were done packing up. With that handled, we'd headed through the forest to Lastonbell... Well, a bit of a way until Rokurou landed in front of us.

"Rokurou!" I ran up to him. "Did you find them? Are they okay?"

"Almost arrived too late." Rokurou said after he stood up. "From what Aevar said, she was close to becoming a hellion before he stepped in. Children can be cruel, after all."

"Thank goodness..." I shook my head before looking back. "I... I had intel on a potential hellion happening in Lastonbell, so I had to prevent it. I sent Rokurou and Aevar ahead of me to make sure that it wouldn't come to pass. I was able to send them ahead."

"Thankfully, Aevar's from Lastonbell and I'm known to be a part of the Sparrowfeathers." Rokurou nodded, arms crossed. "Otherwise, we may not have made it in. Aevar's still in town. I'll head back to join him, so we'll meet you there."

"Okay, thanks!" I watched him walk off. A sigh left me and I shook my head, heading towards Lastonbell with the others.

Notes:

Rani's slowly letting Lunarre's words get to her, oops.

Chapter 23: Accident

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

 "Line up and wait! Those who don't comply shall be punished!"

"It looks like he got caught by the line." I stated, gesturing towards Rokurou. He was standing at the very back of the line, behind the merchant that Sorey and Rose talked to before. I took my spot near him, standing there and glancing around the area. Sorey and Rose lined up with us, and I couldn't help but feel like we were just asking for trouble, all grouped up like this. Though the line moved bit by bit, I waited for us to be called out for being such a big group. It seemed Rokurou noticed this as he nudged me a little.

"Relax. Being all stiff is gonna get you outed by the guards pretty fast. Trust me, Velvet was singled out because of how stiff she was once." He said. "If it wasn't for Magilou's quick thinking, she would've been captured."

I heard Eizen snort in the back of my head, and couldn't help but chuckle a little myself. "Okay. I'll try and relax a little so I don't end up needing some improv done on my part." I waved a hand with a shake of my head. As people were called, the line slowly dwindled down until it was us.

"What's the need for all this security?" Sorey asked.

"Oh, they've got intel on the Shepherd and want to prevent him from something or another." Rokurou shrugged. "Didn't really pay much attention when they told me the reason earlier."

"So... they're after me?" Sorey asked.

"Pretty much."

We were finally called in, and the guard captain, Sergei, met us himself. His spiel was the same as it'd been when I'd first played the game, and so I'd zoned out for a few moments. Rose's voice brought me back as she used the Sparrowfeathers as a cover for us going in there. The liquor establishment down the road, which didn't exist... though it seemed Sergei played along and called it Boris' Canteen. But we were just going to the church to see if the Lord of the Land was there... which, I knew she wouldn't be. Margaret had been bullied for saying there was no seraph in the church, and she'd become a hellion due to it. The seraph never lived in the church, and Margaret had to have some resonance to see said seraph and say what she did. Heading to the church, I paused when I saw Aevar standing there near the entrance and holding the hand of a little girl that I recognized as Margaret.

"Hey." Aevar raised a hand when he noticed us, heading over with Margaret. "She's still a little hurt from being shoved around, but I did what I can."

I crouched down, holding out a hand as Kain armatized with me. Margaret stared up at me, a frown on her face. She seemed... scared, so I smiled a little to try to ease her worries. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."

"You changed." Margaret said. "You didn't look like that a second ago."

"Wait, she can see the armatization?" Sorey asked. "Does this mean that she can see the seraphim, too?"

"I guess so. She told us a few times that there's no seraph in the church, but that's when a few kids started pushing her around for saying that," Rokurou replied, leaning against the brick wall. "Aevar and I spooked them, scaring them away, and prevented any disasters from happening."

As they talked, I released the armatization and Kain appeared beside me to crouch down too. He held out his hand to her. Margaret looked at him warily.

"I'm Kain, a seraph. May I heal your hurts?" He asked, keeping his voice gentle and level. It was different from when he'd yelled at Izayoi for putting me in danger, and different from when he'd talked. Like he was doing his best not to scare her, to show he wouldn't hurt her. Margaret stared at him, before taking his offered hand. A moment later, she withdrew it and stared at where the scrapes on her arm had been. Looking at him, she tried to smile but it didn't stay for long.

"There's no seraph in the church," she said to us, staring directly at Kain. "But no one will believe me. They call me names and push me around."

"You can see us seraphim, so I believe you when you say that." Kain responded. "Where would the seraph be, if not in the sanctuary?"

"It's Lastonbell," Aevar pointed out. "The place famous for having the only bell in Glenwood. Hence the name, Last. On. Bell. Last One Bell."

"I get it!" Mikelo spoke up, spooking me. I jolted before looking over to him and Sorey.

"In the Celestial, it says that this place used to go by the name Stonebury. Very famous for its wine, though now it's the home of the sacred Bell. They say that it was the Empyrean, Eumacia, who created the bell and gave it to the people of Stonebury!" Sorey said, looking excited.

"That's not exactly true." Kain stood up, turning to Sorey. "The people of Stonebury were the ones who created the bell. It was their only success. The reason it's said that it was Eumacia is because the villagers believed that it was her that blessed them with the ability to finally create the sacred Bell."

"Wow, you must know a lot!" Sorey said, taking out the Celestial Record. "I wouldn't have thought that was what really happened. I guess history does change over the course of many years."

It was then that Sergei's voice cut through. "Who are you talking to? The bricks of the church or the stained glass?"

We all stopped what we were doing and turned to look at him. He was standing there with one hand on the hilt of his sword and the other hand was clenched in a fist. Margaret yanked her hand from Aevar's grasp and ran up to Sergei. "They're talking to the seraphim, Uncle Sergei! I was telling them that there's no seraph in the church!"

"Margaret?" Sergei lowered his other hand and relaxed his fist. "What are you talking about?"

"You can't see them, so you wouldn't know!" Margaret said defiantly. "Uncle Sergei is a dummy! Why are you here, anyway? Isn't guarding the entrance to Lastonbell your duty right now?"

"Well, yes, but these people said they needed to get to the liquor establishment on the main road." Sergei said.

"You know there isn't one, Uncle Sergei!" Margaret huffed.

"You knew?" Sorey asked, looking at him. "Then why did you let us through?"

"I apologize for deceiving you." Sergei said. "I must ask that you tell me who you really are, and no lies this time."


We were treated to a fight between Sergei and Sorey, in which Sorey held back against him. Though Dezel had said he'd regret it, Sorey appreciated the wind seraph looking out for him. Sergei understood then, that Sorey was the Shepherd. After both of them apologized to each other, we got the information that the church had branded the Shepherd a heretic because he held power on par with the Cardinal. Which meant that I was probably considered a heretic too, given that I was a sort of Pseudo-Shepherd, in a sense. Our conversation was interrupted by a hoity-toity priest, who was all puffed up and full of himself and the Cardinal's lies.

"You're the one telling lies!" Margaret spoke up at the priest as he was trying to tell Sergei off. "You say there's a seraph in the church when there's not, and believe that Cardinal Forton is doing good! Why is there still rain in Pendrago, then? Why hasn't she stopped it?"

"Ungrateful child-!" The priest's eyes widened and there was a psychotic look to his face as he stepped forward. "Sergei has been filling your head with lies as well!"

"The malevolence!" Sorey called out as it started to surround the priest.

"Oh you're kidding me..." I said as the priest turned into a hellion. "Sergei, take Margaret and get out of here before she gets hurt!"

"No one's taking the ungrateful child anywhere! The Cardinal will want her executed for her lies!" The hellionized priest said, going for Margaret, who covered her face with her arms. Edna jumped in front of her, blocking the attack he sent with an earthen wall. As it crumbled down, the priest went for another attack.

It was like time slowed down as Edna started to cast an arte while the priest was starting to attack her again. I heard Eizen's voice in the back of my head, and raised my hand up into the air. He didn't want to reveal that he'd been saved, but with her in danger....

"Ufemew Wexub!"

....then there was no choice. I armatized with Eizen, gripping the hammer tight and slamming it into the hellionized priest's gut, sending him flying backwards and causing him to roll onto the ground before he jumped back up. I heard Sorey call out Lailah's true name, but my focus was on the priest and staying between him and Edna. I dashed in, hitting the priest again with the hammer. Sorey joined in the fight, slashing at the priest but the priest got out of the way.

"He's too fast!" Sorey said. I grit my teeth and jumped back. Sorey followed suit and the two of us stood there at the ready. "Any ideas, Rani?"

"One. I trap him in earth and you purify him." I said. "Only thing I can think of."

"Let's try it, then!" Sorey dashed in as a distraction while Eizen and I started the incantation for the arte.

"O Empryean of Earth, pass your judgement! Eumacia's Cage!" The arte was cast, and the hellionized priest was starting to be encased in stone when he moved... and a spear of stone struck him through the stomach. All of us stopped at that, and it reminded me of when I used Sylphistia to deal with the hellionized Agatha. It broke the armatization, causing Eizen to appear next to me.

"....I... I didn't...." I fell to my knees, distraught. Why did that happen? We were just supposed to encase him in earth so Sorey could purify him! The malevolence dispersed, and Sorey released his armatization to check the priest.

"....He's dead." Sorey's voice was hollow. "Rani, I thought-"

"It was her intention to just cage the hellion." Eizen said, cutting Sorey off as he folded his arms against his chest. "Not kill it. He moved to the wrong side and got speared."

"You're acting like it's not a big deal! Someone just died!" Sorey shouted. "We could've saved him!"

I stood up, staring at Sorey. "And I wanted to save him. It's the same thing that happened in Marlind. I was trying to save someone, and they died because of me. So go ahead, put his blood on my hands too. It... makes no difference, in the end."

"It was an accident." Edna spoke up, walking up to us. "Eumacia's Cage is a very volatile arte for seraphim to use. If the person tries to escape, it kills them. I've seen some seraphim on the mountain try to use it on their friends and they accidentally killed them because they decided to try to escape. It really only works if your target is immobile."

"So..." Sorey tried to wrap his head around it.

"It was an accident." Edna repeated. "Seriously, Rani didn't mean to do it and that earth seraph probably forgot how volatile the arte was before using it. We can bury him like you did the guy on the mountain."

".....Right."


I left Lastonbell in the dead of night.

Sorey wouldn't be able to deal with the death of Cardinal Forton, so I had to do it myself. It would mean I'd be up for an entire day and then some, but I didn't want a repeat of what happened when the hellionized priest had gotten accidentally killed by both Eizen and I. Edna hadn't recognized him, oddly enough, and that was enough for an explanation not to be needed at the time.

We could just stick around. Sorey'll get to Pendrago tomorrow. Zaveid said.

"I don't want to. Not after today." I said. "Not after I accidentally killed that man. Sorey didn't take it well, just like he didn't take that hellion being killed in front of him well."

"He's too pure." Aevar said. "And it'll get him hurt in the long run."

"Yeah. Think this is best." Rokurou agreed. "We'll deal with the dirty work. After all, who says we have to follow the Shepherd everywhere?"

"And it'll help me get leads on Lunarre, too." As I said that, I heard footsteps. Slowing myself to a walk, I soon came to a complete stop and looked behind me to see....

Alisha.

Notes:

So to answer a question that I know a lot of you would ask: Eizen and Edna don't recognize each other because they've changed in the years that they've been separated from each other. Edna isn't a child anymore, and Eizen looked completely different in the past than he did during Berseria (I refuse to believe he looked the same in the anime flashbacks. I feel it's more of Aifread's influence after he met the man).

Eumacia's Cage is an arte I made up because the game is lacking in earth-related artes. I'm finding I'm having to make a lot of artes to make up for the lack of magic-based ones. Why be magic if not use magic?

Chapter 24: Malevolent

Summary:

Rokurou notices something wrong with Hyland's Princess Knight.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

 Why was Alisha here? Hadn't she been detained for the war and to force Sorey into doing Hyland's dirty work? Or was there something else I was missing? As I stood there, thinking, Rokurou moved towards her with both hands on his daggers.

"She's a hellion. Don't be fooled." He said, frowning slightly. "Something must've corrupted her. She's just like me."

Something must've corrupted her? But what, and why? Thinking back, I remembered the event in the Water Trial Sorey undertook. Where Alisha had taken the sword that had been offered to Sorey and had said she'd prove she was better than Rose. By rending the world in two, in fact. I stared straight at her, unsure of what path I should take on confronting her. The smile on her face wasn't like any I'd ever seen on her face before, and not one I wanted to see again. The sword from the Water Trial was in her hand, and she stepped closer.

"I see that Sorey still takes Rose." She said. I noticed something on her neck, a sort of crack spreading out. Filled with Malevolence, no doubt. It seemed Rokurou had noticed this too, with the way he slowly pulled out his daggers and took a combat stance. Alisha's smile widened, and she charged him. He deflected her blow with ease, the sound of metal clashing against each other ringing out into the night. It was a grating sound, one that I lightly flinched to. Alisha slashed diagonally, but once again got deflected by Rokurou.

"How dare you get in my way!" Alisha yelled, infuriated. "By destroying the Oracle, I can weaken the Shepherd's reach! He won't be able to stop me then!"

"Man, you have problems." Rokurou said, blocking another incoming attack. "And here I thought I had major issues. Give it a rest."

"Fethmus Lkwi!" I armatized with Zero, aiming at her with the Armatus' bow and arrow. As I fired, she dodged out of the way and Rokurou dashed in quickly.

"Form Zero, Sunder!" He knocked her into the air with a slash, before gathering energy in the blade in his right hand. Lashing out, the gathered energy burst and hit her in a straight line. She fell to the ground with a thud, before getting back up and glaring at Rokurou. I aimed for her again, but she jumped up to the walls of Lastonbell.

"Know this, Oracle. I will kill both you and Rose. And then Sorey will see just how lost he is without me as his Squire. It's like it should've been, instead of that redhead bitch taking all the glory."

"Don't you dare talk about my girlfriend that way!" I yelled, releasing the arrow in her direction. But it missed its mark as Alisha dropped into Lastonbell and the arrow flew right by where she'd stood. I lowered the bow, staring at where she'd been. The armatization released after a moment, and Zero appeared right beside me. Rokurou sheathed his daggers and Aevar walked over to us.

"I didn't know Princess Alisha held those kinds of feelings in her heart." He said, looking at where she'd been just a few minutes ago. "I suppose she... had a lot of animosity towards Rose to end up becoming like that."

"It's not hers." I said. "While we were staying at the Marlind inn before we were conscripted into the war, Sorey told me about how his first meeting with Alisha went. She couldn't get to her spear so she pulled her fist back and punched him as hard as she could. He said he felt it for a week afterwards."

"That sounds like something she'd do. Lady Maltran trained her pretty efficiently..." Aevar frowned. "But then... why is she like this if it isn't hers?"

"That's right. You weren't there when it happened." I realized that he only knew a little of what happened, as he'd left earlier on before the reset even happened. Before Alisha had taken the sword from the Water Trial, and had proclaimed she'd rend the world in two to show Sorey just how much better she was than Rose. "After Sorey completed the Water Trial, Alisha took the cursed sword and claimed she'd rend the world in two just because she had something against Rose and wanted to prove herself to be 'better' in some way. I'm guessing that being imprisoned gave the past Alisha an opening to take over the Alisha we all know here."

"So that means the crack on her neck is the past Alisha, taking over this Alisha's body." Rokurou folded his arms against his chest and huffed slightly. "Wonder what exactly made that possible."

"....It was probably me." I said, taking off the mask and revealing my face to them. Rokurou, Aevar and Zero took a step back at this. "When the world was reset, I was given the past Rose's body to use as my own. With a good amount of you retaining your memories, plus that odd Sorey-amalgamation I had to kill in Marlind...."

"Might not even be your fault." Rokurou said, canting his head to the right just a tiny bit. "We don't know what kind of shit an entire world being set back would do. Right now, we just have speculations to go off of."

"I agree with Rokurou." Aevar said as I put my mask back on. "We don't know what's going on, but we just have to keep going. I think that's the basis of what he said, anyway."

"Yep." Rokurou nodded.

"We... should get going." I waved a hand, turning away. "There's really not much we can do here. Sorey and the others'll end up at Pendrago soon. Hopefully we'll have dealt with the Cardinal by that point, because it'll make one less stop for him on his quest."

"But shouldn't Sorey at least get the chance to realize he's not up to the task?" Zero spoke up as we all started walking again. "To head towards the Trials and undertake them to get the power to deal with Heldalf?"

"....You have a point there." If I took care of her before Sorey had a chance to realize he didn't have the power to defeat her at the time, then he would never find it in him to go to Gododdin to do the Fire Trial. It was crucial that he did, so he would start to gain the true powers of the Shepherd. More power than he would probably know what to do with, in all honesty. "We'll hang out at the inn until he leaves Pendrago, then we deal with Cardinal Forton ourselves. If we're lucky, maybe Miss Alisha'll give us another appearance."

"So we can deal with her?" Aevar asked, a frown on his face.

"So I can attempt to purify her. Given the crack on her neck, it might not be possible to do it the typical way." I replied, making sure to look around to see if there were any hellions. Oddly, the path through was pretty empty and devoid of hellions... maybe Alisha was the boss fight that made them disappear for a while, or someone-

"Oh yeah, I found this in the bag so I used it!"

-used a Holy Bottle. Zero tucked the empty bottle into my bag before patting it a couple times. There was a sly smile on her face the entire time she did that, as if challenging me to say something. I didn't, continuing the pace towards Pendrago. The weather shifted as we walked, slowly drizzling and then turning into a full-blown rain. It seemed Zero had retreated back inside of me to hide from the rain, and I didn't blame her one bit. The three of us remaining outside in the rain booked it towards the city limits and I shoved the gates open. Even the cobblestone felt like it was flooded as we made our way to the inn to escape the rain.

I pulled out as much gald as I could to buy a couple rooms. One for the guys, and one for the girls. It was only a couple hundred gald, given they didn't have much traffic here due to the rain, so I retreated to my room as quickly as possible before starting to pull off the wet clothes I was wearing. I shoved on whatever I could find in the bag, which turned out to be a spaghetti-strap white shirt with a slit in the left side that only went up to the beginning of my hip, a comfortable off-white jacket with light pink sleeves and pockets, a pair of black short shorts that mercifully covered enough. I forwent putting anything else on at the moment, knowing I wouldn't be leaving the room for now. I needed to sleep, but first...

I had to get my clothes up to dry.

"Hate wet clothes." I said, hanging my wet clothes over the headboard of the extra bed that wouldn't be used. It was the same bed I'd woken up in, when I had realized that Rose was gone and my dream had prophesized her death. I didn't really know what to do, besides go curl up on the bed that I was going to sleep on and stare out the window for a bit. The rain continued to fall, and I didn't really know what to do beyond just sitting here and staring out the window. Out of my peripheral, I saw Zaveid, Eizen, Kain and Zero appear.

"Worrying about what could happen afterwards?" Zaveid asked, taking a seat on the bed I was sitting on.

"Yeah. I'm wondering if what I'm doing is the right choice. Taking care of things, like the Cardinal. What if I mess things up? What if I end up causing major problems down the line?" I shook my head, looking at him. "Do you think, if I do this, Sorey'll get strong enough to not die this time around? Spend more time getting stronger so Lunarre doesn't get the better of him?"

"That's not really how Sheps works, and you know that." Zaveid leaned back. It was Eizen who spoke up next, so I turned my attention to him instead.

"You want to stop the Lord of Calamity, right?" He asked, walking up to look at me. His hands rested on his hips in a leisurely-like manner, but the look he fixed me with was a steely one. If I were the me of the past, the me before the reset... I would've flinched away. But I just kept looking. "If this is the path you're going to walk, walk it with pride. Don't let doubt keep you from doing what you think is right. If it means you're sparing Sorey from a harsher fate, then do what you can."

"Never thought you to be the one to give pep talks, Eizen." Zaveid said with a grin.

"Sorey's taking care of Edna, so we have to make sure to take care of him in turn." Eizen stated matter-of-factly. "And if this is the path Rani chooses to walk, we should support her every step of the way. Isn't that what you said eight hundred years ago?"

Zaveid laughed. "I did, didn't I?"

"If you two are done-" Zero cut in, folding her arms. "-then can we get some sleep? The sun'll be up soon, even though we won't be able to see it, so we should at least get some form of sleep before then."

"Zero's right." Kain agreed. "And lest we forget, Rani's the only human with us, so we need to keep her from keeling over."

"Yeah, I should get some sleep..." I took off the jacket, hanging it on the headboard carefully before moving to slip under the covers. "G'night. I'll see you guys later."

"Night, Rani." I heard them say, before I drifted off to sleep.

Notes:

I took inspiration from RWBY: Ice Queendom, at least the whole "neck mark" thing. It isn't the same as in the show, just inspired. And all I could think of.

Y'all probably thought I forgot about that plot twist, huh? I've been re-reading and keeping track of what I need to wrap up. There's more surprises down the line, and y'all are probably going to be like "when did you come up with this??" or something like that. I dunno, ideas just come and I make use of them as best as I can.

Also, I drew what Rani looked like before the reset. Woo.

Chapter 25: Forton

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"Ina!"

She was right there in front of me, her back turned. I could see every scar on her back from the years she'd spent as a bandit. Under Arvald's care, and his right-hand woman. As I ran towards her, reaching out my hand, she turned... and her form started to slowly change. Long, light brown hair that fell past her shoulders in slight curls, and the familiar swoop bang that Alisha had. And then, as she faced me, she changed into the Alisha we'd met outside of Lastonbell.

"No-- Ina-!"

"Have you forgotten?" Alisha asked, a smirk on her face. "My name is Alisha Diphda.... and I will be the one to rend this world in two..."


I woke with a start, jolting up into a sitting position. A nightmare, about Inanna and the Alisha from Lastonbell. I wiped my forehead with the sleeve of my jacket before looking out the window. It was still raining. Pendrago was always raining thanks to Cardinal Forton and her weird need to keep people under her thumb. It made me wonder how long she'd been like this, and just how long she'd been keeping Pendrago in such a torrential flood of rain. Was it a year? Two? I didn't really know, nor did I want to know. Getting out of bed, I pulled my boots on before picking up my bag and re-attaching it to my belt.

"We're going to go to the Shrinechurch. Zero, you can hide us from her vision, right?" I asked. Zero yawned in the back of my head, and I heard a groan like she was stretching.

"Yeah... I can do that once we're there. Gonna get the jump on her?" Zero asked sleepily.

"Need to. If we're going to stop Sorey from learning about killing as salvation so soon, then we need to get to her before she does... Well, beyond the whole Rayfalke scenario, that is," I said, heading out into the hallway after making sure I had everything. I went into the lobby of the inn, handing back the key to my room and thanking the innkeep before heading out into the rain. Thankfully, I'd closed up my jacket and pulled up its hood before exiting the inn. At least now I was somewhat protected from the rain. At this point, Sorey and the others would be headed here to Pendrago.

I just had to send them off to Goddodin and get them on the path of the trials. I could frame it in a way that would help Sorey in his quest, but... I wasn't sure if he would buy it, especially when the rain stopped. Heading in the direction of the Shrinechurch, I passed Sergei and the knights running after one of Forton's men. A hellion, I realized, but that was obvious. The specks of malevolence in the air told me that this was a hellion's domain first and foremost, and there wasn't much I could do about that until I killed Cardinal Forton. My thoughts went back to Rose, and how she had dealt with it before. If memory served right, she kept Sorey from staining his hands with blood by killing the Cardinal.

I would just have to stain my own hands, it looked like, to keep Sorey from staining his too soon. I knew the Scattered Bones' typical assassination line, so I could pass it off as an assassination from them. But how would I go about talking about that if I met them before then? Regardless, I had to get into the Shrinechurch first.

"Zero, invisibility if you'd please." I said.

Alright, one invisibility bubble coming up! Zero said with a laugh, and a bubble appeared around me. It would hide me from view, but for how long? I decided to run to the Shrinechurch and see, finding that the bubble didn't shrink with each step I took. Was Zero that powerful to be able to keep it up? How long had she been alive as a Seraph? Questions I wanted to know the answer to started popping up in my head, and I had no way of asking for now. Zero would need all her concentration on the bubble so we could sneak in and kill the Cardinal before she realized we were there. That way, the rain would stop and the land would dry so the crops could be replanted and Pendrago could get out of the rut it was currently in.

Heading through the raining city was easier now, though I had to weave through the passerby in cloaks who were running from one place to another in the rain. Trying to minimize their time in it, I supposed. I should be doing the same, but rain didn't bother me here like it did back home. Back home, it meant that the power would go out regardless if it had thunder or not and leaving us without a proper ETA of restoration. Here, it wasn't as bad. Pendrago didn't have a power grid, or electricity. Things were fine.

I made it to the Shrinechurch after a bit of running, opening the doors and letting myself inside. The feeling of the Cardinal's domain was pressing against my own, and it made me shiver a little. Like she was probing for intruders to petrify and turn into eternal statues, which she'd done to a countless number of people. Sergei's brother was among her victims, and I didn't want to think about how horrifying it must've been to have your body turned to stone. It reminded me of Blank from FF9, but without the Supersoft to rescue any of them. If only I knew what went in it, maybe I could've saved these people from being statues forever.

I couldn't think of that, though. I couldn't think of how to save them, only of how to save those still living here.

For those we have lost, for those we can yet save.

I continued into the Shrinechurch, shivering whenever the Cardinal probed around my domain. She saw it as an intrusion, and was trying to get to me. I had to get to her before Zero's spell broke and my advantage was lost. She would be in the back, "praying" for the rain to continue falling and for fear to continue gripping the hearts of those in Pendrago. The puzzle I had to do to get to her was ridiculously easy, mostly due to already knowing the layout of it. Metaknowledge came in handy, especially with how things were going so far. And when I saw the statues, I kept myself from making any comments.

"I know you're here," the Cardinal said, her back turned to me. "Why is it that you think you can sneak in without me knowing you were here?"

So much for that. Zero said, frustrated.

She's been probing at the domain since we got here, she would've known regardless. Eizen retorted. It was a good idea, but one that didn't have all of its points figured out.

"So, you caught me." I kept my eyes closed as my voice dispelled Zero's invisibility barrier. "Congratulations, Cardinal. You caught me. But don't think I don't know about your game. I'm not going to let you keep doing this. The rain has gone on long enough, and it's time you paid!"

"This rain is the reason people are desperate for the empire's victory. And it will be what brings said victory to them." She slid over to me, much like a snake. I could hear it despite my eyes being closed... and it unnerved me. "You will not interfere!"

"I'm interfering as much as I want! Fylk Zadeya!" Armatizing with Zaveid was the clear choice here. With him, I could keep my eyes closed and make out her movements with the guidance of wind. Or, as they'd said in the game, "Read the wind". It was kind of funny, using this ability despite the fact I could see. But with the threat of being petrified a constant with Forton, I had no way of actually using my eyes to see anything unless I wanted to be turned into a statue for the rest of my life. Dodging out of the way of an attack, I jumped back a bit before sending swords of wind her way. They hit the tile as she avoided them, heading straight towards me. This was like cheat mode or something, with her coming at me and me just... dodging out of the way. A weird sort of song-and-dance, if  you would.

"Jesus fucking tapdancing Christ, she's not giving any leeway for a proper attack!" Dodge number... 32, if I was keeping count, really. "Any ideas?"

"You will be a sacrifice for the victory of the empire!" The Cardinal said, attacking. Dodging out of the way, I sent more swords of wind after her. A few of them hit, but the rest hit the ground. Plink, plink, plink, into the tile they went. This was stupid. So, so stupid. All I could do was dodge and make sure she didn't hit me because that would be it. The pain would make me open my eyes, and then she'd get me. And then there'd be no hope for any of us. At all.

Zaveid, Rani, swap me in and keep your eyes closed! Zero said, voice breaking through my thoughts. We need more than one on her. Zaveid, keep her distracted while Rani and I use Wind Artes to tear her up.

"Alright!" Releasing the armatization, I kept my eyes closed and raised my hand up in the air. "Fethmus Lkwi!"

Instead of the bow, swords of void appeared behind me much like a wind armatization. It was interesting to see she was different from the others-- though her focus was the bow, I could use her armatization like I was armatizing with one of the others. Zaveid had his eyes closed, and was getting Forton's attention-- and was flirting with her. Of course he would, of fucking course. I had to stop myself from laughing aloud at the sheer audacity Zaveid had to flirting with a fucking Hellion and focus on the Cardinal herself. Zero and I worked well together, with her guiding me to hit where the Cardinal would hurt the most while Zaveid kept her distracted as best as he could. However, Forton soon turned her attention to us. I had to take this moment and use it for what I could. Dismissing the armatization, I ran towards her....

And sunk my dagger into the same spot Rose had in the game.

"May these weary bones find peaceful rest," I said, taking the calling card of the Scattered Bones and using it despite not being a part of the group. The malevolence dispersed from the Cardinal, leaving behind her human body. Dead, as she should be. A quick check of her pulse showed none, which meant my attack was successful. What I didn't expect, however, was the cracking behind me. Getting up and turning around, I watched as the petrification crumbled off of those who had been victims of the Cardinal. Including Sergei's brother, Boris.

I quickly took out my cloak and covered myself with it. Zero and Zaveid de-materialized, returning to me in little orbs of light that went inside of my chest. I wondered if that was where they rested, but I didn't really know what being a Seraph's vessel was supposed to be like beyond letting them reside in you. Maybe I could ask Lailah about it when I met up with them. Using Zero's invisibility, I watched as they caught a glimpse of me just as I disappeared from their view. Running out of the Shrinechurch, my feet hit the watery cobblestone and I dismissed the shield before shoving my cloak in my bag and heading towards the Inn.

The rain had stopped. With the Cardinal's death, things could go back to semi-normalcy now and people could pick their lives back up once the water dried up. The sky was starting to clear up, with some of the overcast dispersing from the time I'd killed the Cardinal to now. I... knew it was for the people, but killing someone didn't sit right with me. I had to suck it up, though. I had to.

"Rani!" I saw Sorey run up to me, with Rose not far behind. "We were looking all over for you! You just disappeared last night!"

"I had a couple things to do, so I left early." I gestured towards the Inn. "The rain's cleared up, though."

"Yeah, we noticed. Kind of funny, seeing as the locals say it just abruptly stopped about fifteen minutes ago." Rose put her hands on her hips. "Maybe this is their prayers finally getting answered."

"Let's hope it stays like this." I headed towards the Inn. "I'll see you two here once you're done with whatever it is you need to do. Catch ya later!"

Notes:

Did I foreshadow something? Probably. Who knows.

Chapter 26: Rani VS Sorey

Summary:

The ultimate battle of Oracle vs Shepherd.

Notes:

I suck at fighting scenes. Also there's a lot before the ultimate fight, sooo... yeah.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

You ran. Why did you run? Because you were scared of telling Sorey the truth? Or was it something else? Is it because you can’t stand to see our failure staring us in the face?

She stood in front of me, black hair flowing in non-existent wind. Green eyes staring straight through me, wearing the outfit Rose had bought me originally. The jacket also flowed in the non-existent wind, giving her a sense of ethereal beauty. I averted my gaze, looking away from the shame I held.

Because we can’t face the fact that these people are no longer the ones we know, but entirely different people? That we cannot help but blame ourselves for their deaths? We are cursed, that’s something that we will live with for the rest of our lives. Are you going to run forever?

“I can’t… let them know. They aren’t the people I knew before.”

They deserve to know. They deserve to know you as you are. Us as we are. Our truth, our failure.


I sat up, breaking myself away from the dream. It was already morning when I did, with the sun rising in the sky. Another day where I travelled ahead, another day where I did what I had to…. to make sure the past didn’t come to pass. Or however that quote went, really. I had to make sure that Sorey and Rose didn’t die… and that Lunarre was stopped in his tracks by me personally. Leaving the inn without getting breakfast, I made my way out of Pendrago and into the fields. With the rain stopped, things would go back to normal. At least, I hoped they would. Heading down the pathway, I didn’t really know what I’d be doing from here. I stopped Forton, but could I stop the rest?

I didn’t know.

Walking down the familiar paths, I wondered if I should head to the shrines and wait for Sorey there… but he needed to know about the trials and tribulations that he had to undertake. A challenging decision, but one I had to make nonetheless. I would have to continue, regardless of what had happened.

“I should’ve sent them to Goddodin.” I said, remembering that I should’ve waited for Sorey to wake up before leaving. He would probably figure it out, or already did. “I know I said I’d meet up with them, but I…”

You still can’t face them . The voice in the back of my head said. I hadn’t been able to except for brief moments, the guilt of their death eating away at me like a curse. Seeing them felt like a stab to my chest– especially when I saw Rose. The fact I could’ve prevented her death– that I tried so hard to prevent her death– was what was truly getting to me. If Lunarre was right, and he was the reason why they were dead, I would make sure he suffered for killing them. Rose especially.

The love I held for her would make sure of that.

Pausing as I heard footsteps, I looked around before glancing behind me.

“You wake up too early…” Rokurou complained, rubbing his eye. “Took us a bit to catch up. Glad you were lost in thought long enough to.”

“Sorry, Rokurou… Aevar…” I said, looking sheepish. “I was thinking of how to… well, save someone.”

“Who?”

A question I couldn’t answer. I put my arms around myself, as if trying to keep myself together. It was hard to just outright say I wanted to save both Sorey and Rose from the fate that I inflicted upon them. The death my Reaper’s Curse had given them. What they deserved was to live life, not… die fruitlessly and without seeing their lives to the finish. I was the reason that had happened… but Lunarre. Lunarre…!

“It’s… hard to answer that question.” I responded, finally. “There’s a lot that I’ve been through, and…”

Kain put a hand on my shoulder. “I know you’ve been through a lot. I was there when Izayoi was killing you, at least at the tail end of it. You recovered unnaturally fast, but there’s still the lingering doubt that it’ll happen again.”

I nodded.

Always lingering doubt that I couldn’t save anyone. Lingering doubt about my own capabilities. I would doubt myself because of the failure of a Squire I had been. Because of how Izayoi had tried to kill me in her quest to be close to Lailah.

I hugged myself, bowing my head a bit. Warm, strong arms enveloped me at that moment, the hug a gesture I hadn't known I needed. Zaveid held me for a bit, the entire world forgotten for now as I was given the comfort that I needed. That I… had needed for a while. Without realizing it, I’d started to sob and turned to hug Zaveid back, sobbing into his chest. It was stupid, sure, but..

I hadn’t grieved for Rose or Sorey since they’d first died.

It took me a bit to calm down, which I found myself feeling exhausted after.

“Feelin’ better?” Zaveid asked, having let go and put his hands on my shoulders. I nodded, taking off the mask I was wearing and wiping my eyes.. “Figured you were beating yourself up again over what happened with Sorey and Rose.”

“...Sort of. I… also thought of how Izayoi nearly killed me. If… anything, if anything… Well, I’m just glad I’m alive, even though I’m-”

“Using Rose’s body as your own.” He finished, pulling me in for another hug. “You’ve been pretty strong, trying to deal with it all on your own, but we’re all here for you.”

“....But what about my curse…?” I asked, unsure. “Even if I’m human, I’m a bad luck charm. What… what do I do…?”

“Fight and survive.” Eizen said, hands in his pockets. “Don’t let the curse become all you think about. Always take steps to be ahead of it, even if it causes pain and suffering around you.”

“...” I gave a nod. After being released from Zaveid’s hug, I looked at the mask I’d been wearing. Something to hide my face from view due to Rose and I sharing the same face… because I had her past self’s body. It still felt so unreal that I was able to inhabit her body when my own wouldn’t make the reset due to the stomach wound I’d received from protecting her…

But…

I gripped the mask, before shaking my head and putting it in my bag.

“We’re going to prevent the same thing from happening.” I said. “If Sorey can figure things out, he’ll meet us in Pendrago. I’ll… There, I’ll test his strength and resolve.”

“You’re going back?” Zero asked, confused. “But we just left!”

“....I need to talk to Arvald first. I need to get some information, and the best bet is our bandit friends.” With that, I felt the energy of all four Seraphim reside within me once more. Gesturing to Rokurou and Aevar, the three of us headed towards Lastonbell. Making a stop to see Margaret and Wiggs, who were alive and well under the protection of her parents, I was overjoyed to see that they’d survived and couldn’t stop petting Wiggs.

I think Margaret got jealous, because I had to play with her a bit before we left Lastonbell to head towards Marlind. With a promise to come see them again sometime, that is.

As we headed towards Marlind, it seemed that there was someone following us. I stopped, drawing my daggers while Rokurou did the same. Aevar drew his lance and the three of us turned around. Instead of it being someone following us, it was the other Zaveid. Zav, I suppose I should call him. Make it easier on us.

“He’s under attack.” Aevar said. “Rani?”

“I’m going in.” I said, running towards the hellion. I heard them shout at me, but I didn’t really listen. “Resistant to wind, it looks like. Then.. Fethmus Lkwi!

Armatizing with Zero, I shot at the hellion with a couple arrows that were aspected with the water element. It reeled back, turning towards me. As it headed towards me, I jumped over it and landed behind it to do the same thing again.

“The hell are  you doing?!” Zav asked. “I had it!”

“It’s resistant against wind. Your attacks weren’t working!” Zero and I said together. “You usually use that gun of yours, right? What’s stopping you?”

“It ate the damn bag of bullets I had!”

…oh.

Was this why he ran out so fast?

I sighed, taking aim. Zero took point, helping me cast a water spell to weaken it. It wasn’t really that tough, given that we were assaulting it with mostly Water Artes. It would then fall over after a few moments, letting me and Zero de-armatize and Zav to run over to get the bag it had swallowed back. With a sigh of relief, I walked over to pat him on the arm and pass him by.

“You’ve changed.” He said. “It’s only been about a month, but you’re different from before. Wonder what happened.”

“I grew up.” I said. “There’s a lot more at stake than just those I want to save. There’s lives at stake that may be affected by my own choices before, so I need to own up to it and make sure that the mistakes don’t  happen twice.”

“Sounds like you have it figured out. Just remember-”

“Hellions belong in hell. I know.” I shook my head.


When I went to visit Arvald, the entire company was in chaos. It turned out that Inanna had fallen ill and then disappeared, which meant that most of the bandits were out looking for her. I wondered what had happened. The bandits had been a great use to us before things were set back, but now…?

“It’s been about a couple weeks since Inanna vanished. And it’s not like her to do that.” Arvald said, staring out the window. “She’s always tellin’ me where she’s gone.”

“...Was there something on her neck when you last saw her?” Rokurou asked. I looked over to him, wondering what he was getting at. “Like bandages or a choker.”

“She started bandaging her neck before she fell ill. But then-”

“She left.” Rokurou tapped his chin. “...I think I know what’s going on. A Hellion’s got a hold of Inanna and is using her as a meat suit.”

“Crude.” I said, before remembering something.


Why was Alisha here? Hadn't she been detained for the war and to force Sorey into doing Hyland's dirty work? Or was there something else I was missing? As I stood there, thinking, Rokurou moved towards her with both hands on his daggers.

"She's a hellion. Don't be fooled." He said, frowning slightly. "Something must've corrupted her. She's just like me."

Something must've corrupted her? But what, and why? Thinking back, I remembered the event in the Water Trial Sorey undertook. Where Alisha had taken the sword that had been offered to Sorey and had said she'd prove she was better than Rose . By rending the world in two, in fact. I stared straight at her, unsure of what path I should take on confronting her. The smile on her face wasn't like any I'd ever seen on her face before, and not one I wanted to see again. The sword from the Water Trial was in her hand, and she stepped closer.

"I see that Sorey still takes Rose." She said. I noticed something on her neck, a sort of crack spreading out. Filled with Malevolence, no doubt.


“Wait. If that wasn’t this timeline’s Alisha, then-” I was cut off by Eizen finishing the sentence.

“She hijacked Inanna’s body at a weak time for her, rendering her unable to use her body. A form of possession.” He folded his arms against his chest. “And there’s no way for us to track her.”

“She’s after Rose and I to kill us- so Sorey will be forced to choose her as his Squire regardless of resonance.” I said. “Not to mention she… already has Asura’s Sword, so it means she’s a lot more dangerous than we imagined. I’ve got Sorey’s power from the last go-around, but I don’t think that’d be enough.”

“We’re going to have to consult someone about it.” Zaveid said.

“But we can’t reach Maotelus.” I reminded them. “Remember, Maotelus used up the last bit of his power to send us back to the beginning and give me a body to run around in. So, we have to fly blind. Arvald, we’ll find Inanna.”

Arvald sighed. “If she’s become a Hellion, there may not be a chance to. Especially if she’s possessed by one.”

“I know how to! She’ll either go after Rose or me, which means if I keep myself out and about, she might try to fight me!” I said, hand to my chest. “Let us try, please!”

It took a few moments before he looked at us. “Just come back alive, got it?”

I nodded. “Of course.”


There wasn’t much I could do beyond wait for Sorey after I exhausted all our options. We wandered for the next week, passing by Sorey and Rose a few times without them realizing it thanks to Zero’s cloaking ability. But, all things had to come to an end when I met up with Zav outside of Pendrago.

Before Sorey came here for the next opponent.

“I know you’re here to stop Dezel.” I said, walking up to the tree he was leaning against. “But leave Sorey to me. I… need to test him, to make sure he’s strong enough to survive this time around.”

“What are you talking about?” Zav asked, moving to stand where he could see me. “Ain’t like Sheps isn’t getting stronger. So-”

“If I don’t do this- If he can’t even make me break a sweat, he has no chance to finish his journey. He’ll die. He and Rose will die , and I’m not about to let them march themselves to death a second time!” I frowned. “So I need to make sure that he’s capable of defending himself. Of defeating the Lord of Calamity.”

“Wait. Hold on a second, a second time ?” It was while he was asking that question that Zero, Kain and Eizen appeared behind me.

“Sorey died once before, because of Lunarre.” I said. It was all Lunarre’s fault-! “So… we have to.”

“They have to be stronger than us when we fought the Lord of Calamity before, Zaveid. Strong enough not to have to resort to me devouring said Lord of Calamity.” Eizen folded his arms against his chest, blue eyes staring near-daggers into him. “If they aren’t, they can’t continue.”

“They need to be able to fight together. Fight as one, and not as separate entities.” Kain said, tugging at his scarf some. “If they can do that, they can do anything.”

“We just want to make sure they don’t die twice.” Zero said. “So please, Zaveid, let us take care of this.”

Zav looked all of us over, before sighing and shaking his head, hands on his hips. “You’ve got more than that reasoning. So, I want it.”

I swallowed, taking a breath before starting to recount what had happened. Slowly but surely, I told him of how I called Dezel to me and let him use me instead of Rose. Of my near-death, and then the discovery of both Sorey and Rose dead. I left out a bit, mostly Maotelus and the fact there was another Zaveid that was my Prime Lord. But I kept it clear and concise- that the timeline that was current was because of Sorey and Rose’s deaths and to prevent that, they had to be strong enough to stop me.

Strong enough to keep moving, no matter what.

“So that’s why. I don’t want it happening again. They’ll go to Glaivend Basin and they will die . To prevent that, I have to…”

“Make sure they can defeat whatever comes their way.” He shrugged. “S’long as I can stop Dezel, doesn’t matter to me.”

“....” I looked away. “History always repeats itself. He’s hellbent on his revenge.”

I need to defeat Lunarre.

“And that’s why- Huh, if it isn’t Sheps and his crew.” Zav’s words snapped me out of my thoughts that I hadn’t known I was in. I looked behind me to see that they were , in fact, just walking up. With a sigh, I looked at Pendrago. “So-”

“Sorey, I want you to leave Heldalf to me.” I said, looking at the sky. “If you continue, you’ll surely die.”

“I can’t do that! Heldalf is my problem as Shepherd.” Sorey retorted.

“Why are you trying to take his place, Rani? Do you not think him capable?” Lailah asked. I could imagine how she looked. Serene, hands in front of her, clasped together. “I assure you, he can defeat Heldalf without worry.”

I couldn’t help but laugh sarcastically. The laugh reminded me of Dezel, but I kept that from my mind. Finally, I turned to face them and saw their reaction to seeing me without my mask. I knew they were seeing Rose’s face, and I knew that they didn’t understand why I had the same face as her. 

Lailah’s hands covered  her mouth, Edna didn’t seem too fazed, Sorey and Rose both had shocked looks on their face, Mikleo looked disturbed and Dezel lowered his hat some. It didn’t really bother me at all. “I worry because the last time they went off to face Heldalf, they died . And guess who was there to see their corpses, lying on the ground? Me. So I want to make sure that they stay alive, even if it means taking the mantle of Shepherd and forcing Sorey to be the Oracle in my stead.”

“You wouldn’t-!” Lailah said.

“How could you say such a thing?! This is Sorey’s job!” Mikleo retorted. “And saying that they died before? What are you? Some sort of hellion sent by Heldalf to stop us?!”

“Idiot, she wouldn’t be able to Armatize if she was a Hellion.” Edna prodded Mikleo lightly with her parasol. “What she means is that she’s seen enough death that she’d rather spare Sorey the trouble of dealing with Heldalf. Isn’t that right?”

I frowned.

“She’s telling the truth.” Dezel said after a few moments. “There’s no change. So, then, how did you come to have the same face as Rose?”

“.....” I put a hand to my face. “Because my own body couldn’t handle what was to come, so I had to use someone else’s. Thankfully , Rose’s was right there for me to use. Given that, you know, she was a corpse .”

I hoped they could hear the sarcasm in my voice when I talked about that. I still, after all this time, hated the fact that I had to use Rose’s body instead of my own. But it was the only way I could’ve survived the reset. The only way.

“....A corpse?” Rose’s voice made me wince. The memories of spending time with her, travelling with her and… the day she died. All of them rushed through my head. “But I’m alive…”

“Enough.” I shook my head, raising my hand. “ Ufemew Wexub!

Armatizing with Eizen, I swung the hammer for our Armatization and pointed it towards Sorey. “Fight me here. Show me you can defeat Heldalf by defeating me, and I’ll let you continue. But if you can’t, consider this your journey’s end!”

Sorey and Rose got their weapons out, and it was time.

I didn’t give Rose any time to react before casting Crystal Tower on her, forcing her to move aside. Lailah peppered me with her Seraphic Artes, using her papers as a conduit. Dezel tried to hit me with his pendulums, but I avoided them. Sorey came at me with his sword, slashing at me as I dodged each swipe before hitting him back with the hammer.

“Your conviction is faltering, isn’t it? Why don’t you try gripping your destiny by the fist!” Eizen said, before we cast Stalagmite. It sent earthen spikes down the line where we stood, forcing the four to dodge.

Lukeim Yurlin!” Sorey shouted, before hitting me with a wind Arte. Both Eizen and I felt that, gritting our teeth before charging in and swinging. The hammer burst into millions of pieces before reforming into the Earthen Fists most commonly used for Armatization. Using it to my advantage, I used a left hook on him to knock him back before avoiding the Armatized Rose’s sword slash. Sorey used that moment to come in, hitting me with a wind-aspected Arte from their armatization, knocking me back.

I released the armatization and immediately called for Kain. “ Juheavs Qaev!

Swinging my sword to hit Sorey’s trajectory, I knocked him back before blocking an arrow from Rose’s new Armatization- with Mikleo. So they were trading off, it seemed. It didn’t matter. I couldn’t let either of them go. Couldn’t let either of them just go off to die .

I faced Rose, going after her and dodging by the arrow she shot at me, only to kick her in the stomach and knock her back with the sword. Love or no, I couldn’t go easy on her.

That isn’t the Rose I loved, anyway.

I turned to Sorey, moving to attack him next. Forced him out of his Armatization so he could block my incoming sword and– that gave Rose ample time to aim a water Arte at my back, forcing me to de-armatize. I raised my hand again.

Fethmus Lkwi !” I called out.

“....Zero the Pure?” Lailah asked, confused. “Oh, water! This means Edna-”

“Yeah, I’ve got it.” Edna armatized with Sorey, creating the Earth Armatus. I didn’t give them time to warm up, sending off Arrow after Arrow to keep them busy. Jumping back from where I was in response to Rose’s Wind Armatus attack, I shot at her before sending a Water Arte at Sorey. He would send up a bunch of Earth, which I used the arrows to bounce myself backwards a bit and avoid the attack. But Sorey then dove in, raring back to punch before meeting ground. I avoided it, but just narrowly.

I then switched it up, using a Wind arte on Sorey while batting Rose back with a few arrows.

“Wait- but you’re-! That’s cheating!” Mikleo shouted.

“Water and Wind can go as one!” Zero and I said together, before sending off a few more arrows at Sorey and Rose. But Sorey dodged them, using that time to hit me with a well-timed earth Arte and force me out of the Armatus.

I only had one left.

“I think that’s the end. Rani only has three Seraphim.” Lailah said. I smirked a bit before holding up my hand and armatizing with Zaveid without a word. The cloak that the Oracle wore covered me completely, leaving only my face and the sword-wings behind me. Hiding who I was armatizing with, and for good reason.

Fethmus Mioma! ” Sorey called out, armatizing with Lailah. Rose didn’t armatize, which meant it was just Sorey and I this time. I whipped up a whirlwind, which he cut through and charged at me with Flamberge. I used the sword-wings to deflect before aiming a kick at him. He parried, going to knock me back, which I avoided by sidestepping before punching him in the face.

It devolved into the two of us trading blows physically, either punching or kicking each other.

“You can’t stop me from saving Glenwood!” Sorey yelled.

“I’m trying to save you, you idiot!” I yelled back. “I don’t want to see you die again!”

“Stop comparing me to the other Sorey you knew!” That cought me off-guard, and Sorey’s punch connected with my face, sending me to the ground and knocking me out of my Armatization. I was lucky that Zaveid stayed de-materialized and instead returned to using me as his vessel instead of materializing and making this more confusing. “I’m not him! I don’t need protection!”

“I-” I sat up. “Sorey, I-”

“We aren’t the same people  you used to know, Rani.” Sorey said. “I… think it’s time for you to move on and come to accept that instead of trying to force us to be who we aren’t. Trying to protect us is only hurting us in the end. Because we aren’t the same as the Sorey and Rose you knew.”

“.....” I looked down at the dirt.

He was right. I…

I was projecting the old Sorey and Rose onto them, thinking that I could protect them when I was just hurting them in the end. I heard them start to leave and get stopped by Zav, who engaged them in his own fight before giving up Siegfried to Sorey and the last bullet he had.


In the end…

I just sat there.

As dawn turned to dusk, I sat there without even realizing it. Aevar and Rokurou had gone into Pendrago, along with Zero and Kain, to keep an eye on Sorey and Rose. And all I did  was sit and feel sorry for myself.

If one day, I were to see them again.

I wanted to tell them I was sorry.

Notes:

"This is drama for drama's sake!"

Sorey had the right of it. Rani said she didn't want to see them die again, and so it doesn't take a genius to figure out she's talking about the Sorey and Rose she knew.

The second fight is coming up. I'm on a roll, so two updates in one day.