Fragile Hearts (Book 1 - Complete)

The Arcane markings suddenly flew into the air and began wrapping around the Behemoth. Then it lashed out and wrapped around surrounding anchors, and appeared like chains.

Behemoth was scared and roared.

Sarice tripped for a second before getting back to her feet. "This is the last chance. Attack with all you got." She held her blade behind her as she forced mana into it. It became a flaming yellow colour. "Bright Barrage!" Sarice swung her blade multiple times, sending many shots towards the Behemoth.

Tyson was surprised that such a young girl had so much power. He wondered how she got it.

Their blades clashing as they dueled, the two jumped back and ran to the side, they ran up the wall and clashed again. Tyson landed on the ground and looked up.

Sara pushed off the ceiling and came down at Tyson, "Hammer's Rain." Mana exploded out as she smashed against Tyson.

"Your pretty strong for a kid." Tyson knocked her attack away. "Yet your eyes are sad."

"That's not your concern." Sara let her guard down a moment.

Tyson saw the opening, and rushed forward, and pushed her in the stomach, trying to knock her out.

Sara slid back and coughed some blood into her had. She grinned. "That was a nice shot. But you have to do more then that." Suddenly origin began glowing brightly. "Light the Path, Origin!" Mana burst out of her blade and a golden aura engulfed Sara and Origin. "Come on, let's dance." Sara rushed forward.

Tyson's eyes went diagonally as he brought up his defense. This might take more effort.

Dante arrived in a dark cavern. "So. I made it passed the realm of her memories and into that of her consciousness." He said to himself as he searched for signs of Yuki.

"Why are you here?"

Dante turned to see a little girl. She wasn't any older then 7. With white hair and big red eyes. Dante smiled, "I'm looking for an old friend. Maybe you've seen her." He kneeled down to come face to face with the girl.

"Trespassers are not welcomed here. The dark one will destroy you." She replied.

"Hmm. Can you tell me about this darkness?"

"It's been here for a long time. Though she's unaware of it." The girl examined Tyson. "The darkness waits until she's weak then tries to consume her." She hung her head. "I'm no longer strong enough to protect her."

Dante patted her head. "There's a little to what children can do." He smiled. "Would you like my help?"

The girl became happy. "So your here to destroy the darkness?"

"I can't guarantee anything. but I'll try my hardest."

The girl got sad again. "That's what the other guardians said before the darkness consumed them. Me and her are the only ones left."

Without warning Dante picked her up and placed her on his shoulders. "I'm gonna try to help anyway. Just tell me where to go."

She hesitated for a second, then leaned down and hugged Dante. "Your... Warm." With that she fell asleep."

Tyson began walking. Making sure the girl didn't fall off him. "Looks like this was more serious then I thought."

Uriel looked in wonder as he saw the marking move out of the ground, and wrap around the Behemoth, completely restraining it. Even the Behemoth seemed to fear this enchantment, which was quite astounding to him. He had seen the Behemoth take some truly impressive attacks and assaults without flinching. He had the Behemoth already completely set up within his attack. He hadn't planned it out, but it all turned out very conveniently. No longer pushing his weight against the Behemoth's leg, he kept Longinus impaled in its leg. He gripped the handle of the lance with his right hand, and drew a cross in front of his chest with his left hand. After a cross made out of mana materialized for a moment, he slammed his left hand into Longinus, causing it to push deeper into the Behemoth's thigh, and also causing it to roar out in pain.

"Execution." Uriel said. Light suddenly began to shine brilliantly in the Behemoth's wound, leaking out light from lasceration. Uriel poured his mana into the lance, and his mana began to course through the interior of the Behemoth's leg. When the light had become blinding and painful to look at, Uriel pried Longinus out. The light only began to shine brighter and brighter, and suddenly exploded, engulfing the Behemoth's leg and Uriel in light.

The two slid away from each other.

Sara aimed Origin at Tyson. "If you dodge this, the door will be forced open."

Tyson looked behind him. Dam, So she got me where she wanted me.

"Burning Theory of Scientists, Big Bang." A massive amount of power shot out from origin.

Tyson's eyes changed, "Dragoon's Blood!" From out of his wounds Tyson's blood formed a circular shield.

Sara's attack hit the shield and Tyson slid back. Then it began to crack.

"Dammit." Tyson fell to a knee trying to keep it up.

"Let us go." A dark voice shouted at Dante. "We demand freedom. We are the demon seed."

The girl woke up slowly. She heard the voices. "Idiot. You brought us to the hive. If I disappear, no one can save her."

"I said I'd do what I could." Dante took her off his shoulders and placed her on the ground. He thought about his weapons and they formed in his hands. He took stance.

There were many dark figures.

"Who are they?" Dante asked.

"The corrupt ones." The girl replied. She ran forward and hugged his leg. "The one you should really worry about is the one who corrupts."

The corrupt looked like they were about to attack when suddenly they stood down. "The main has requested your presence."

"Don't go. It cannot be trusted." She was crying.

He kneed down next to her, and patted her head. "It won't get me that easily. Can you escape?"

"Mhmm." She nodded, tears still in her eyes.

"Very good. Run then. Hopefully this will be over in time." With that Dante stood and went to where the corrupt beckoned him.

Taking one last look at Dante, the girl vanished.

As soon as Sarice's spell took effect, Mai let go of her chain then began to concentrate her power. She realized she would have to create a very powerful attack if they all really going to destroy Behemoth this time. Gathering up everything she could, her aura glowed as she prepared to attack Behemoth.

Then she unleashed all the power she could, the same swirling mana attack she used before.

"Stop!" A voice yelled out.

A sword flew out and hit the ground before the Behemoth. Suddenly a barrier formed around the dragon. The attacks hit the barrier and died out. Uriel's attack was nullfied before it could cause too much damage.

Sarice fell to her knee again. She was out of breath. Her binding dissipated. The arcane markings dissolved into the air.

The barrier fell after the attacks.

Sarice looked for who had protected the dragon.

The behemoth didn't move much. It didn't try to fight back.

"You are all idiots!" Kara yelled, landing by the sword. "Can't you see you've all been tricked?" She said sternly. She turned and jumped towards the dragon's head. Landing on it's nose, she knelt down and placed her hand on it's forehead. She passed on a feeling of peace to it. "It's ok now. There's nothing to fear."

The Behemoth calmed down.

Sarice grabbed her shoulder and stood up. "Tricked?"

Dante felt the darkness trying to engulf him, but he resisted.

Before him the source of the corruption appeared. It was a average demon. Long dark hair, demonic green eyes, and boring clothes. It didn't have a dominate gender. "So your Dante. I saw you in her memories. I've had a long time to watch them." The demon sounded sad.

"Why are you here?" Dante asked.

"I'm an experiment. This appearance to see here, is merely a collection of memories of demons, that she has met. I have no true form anymore. I am now known as a demon seed."

"That doesn't answer my question." Dante said.

"I'm an experiment. I was forced into this form, then forced into her body. I was ordered to take control, to find out how it would react when demon blood is forced into a powerful warrior." The demon took a step towards him. "There's been others before me, and others after me. Until the one who is doing it stops, it will continue." The demon smiled. "The first Vampire was the combination of a bloodthirsty human, and a demon seed. The first werewolf was a ferocious human and demon seed. Almost all such beings had started from the experimentation of demon seeds."

Dante was carefully listening to the words. "Why do you tell me this much?"

"Another one of my orders. 'Anyone who can hear my words, deserves to learn the truth.' That is it simplified." The demon walked around him. "Though I do not wish to be inside a human. I want to be freed."

"I propose a deal then." Dante said. "If you release all the corrupted, I vow to find a way to separate you two."

"From what I've seen of her memories of you, you would at least try. So as a counter offer, I will only release half. That way, if you fail or succeed it's easier to fix."

"And release control of her body back to Yuki."

"That I had already understood. Now go. Get out of this body."

It merely took a second for Shin to realize to avoid Alex's Blue Heat blade. He dodged every attack from the gunblade, sweeping back and forth through the air, the force of his aura holding him up. Flying back, he led Alex on a chase, jumping and swerving around the fallen buildings. He stopped in front of a building, planting his feet upon it with his body parallel with the ground. Then he looked towards Alex seeing him approaching quickly.

Crouching for a moment, Shin prepared to launch. His mana swirled in a circle around him before he forced all his power off against the building, the entire structure collapsing just after he did. Shin held his sword back, flying head-on toward Alex. Just before it seemed they would hit, Shin immediately seemed to vanish. What happened was that he barely swerved past Alex and appeared behind him.

Shin immediately flipped and his feet hit the side of another building then he pushed off of it then slammed completely against Alex from behind, sending him flying into another building. Then he moved up onto another building then summoned up more energy for a devastating attack.

"Dragon's Claw" Shin announced before he swung his katana diagonally from his left side and up right. A giant formed blade of energy was released, and started ripping through everything in sight and was headed toward Alex.

During this whole time Shin paid no attention to what was going on with the others binding or releasing their attacks on Behemoth.

Alyse had moved in closer to the battle ground. She heard the deafening roar of the Behemoth after it had been chained down by Sarice's spell. She looked at each of the individuals fighting Behemoth carefully before she concentrated on the beast itself. Realizing that it had been restrained, she figured it would be a good chance for her to help the strangers destroy it.

Bringing up her flute to her lips, Alyse began to play. She began to summon up all the mana she could muster from her own power within. She wore an amulet around her neck which began glowing brightly, as well as her flute. Mana swirled around her and soon a white, angel-like figure appeared. It was lithe like a woman and it grew and rose up above Alyse. Fire, wind, water, and earth energy swirled around the being as Alyse played her flute to build up more energy.

Aurora, bring your power upon the demon beast and smite it... Alyse said through her mind. The white figure flew upward then shot toward the Behemoth, along with Mai and Sarice's attack.

----

Mai watched her attack fly toward Behemoth, just barely noticing where that other strange attack came from. However, she had no time to look for where it came from when she realized that all the attacks had been blocked by a barrier that suddenly surrounded the dragon. She gasped and stared in surprise when she realized what happened. She saw Kara appear and then calm Behemoth. She was utterly confused, especially when Kara said that they had been tricked.

"What do you mean??"

Before Execution could finish its damage on the Behemoth, a field was suddenly thrown around the Behemoth, throwing Uriel away from the Behemoth. He recovered his balance in midair, and landed on the rooftop of a building, looking around for the person that stopped his attack. He saw a woman appear next to a sword; she appeared to be the one that cancelled their attacks. He was surprised when she moved extremely close to the Behemoth, but wasn't attacked.

"What is going on?" Uriel said quietly to himself, keeping a tight grip on his lance.

Brianna stirred a bit as she felt the atmosphere settle down. Using all of the energy she had in her body, she slowly opened her eyes a little and saw the Behemoth being shielded by a girl in the distance. As she continued staring at the spectacle, the words she heard in the dungeon returned to her mind.

"No...it's more...than we think..." She said with great effort, before passing out from exhaustion.

"First the Orc army attacks, at the same time as the Kingdom fleet. Completely overcoming the Empire. To lay siege to this fortress city." Kara said. "There's only one reason to let everything like this unfold. Everyone was being used to obtain something in this city while they're all distracted." She still had her hand on Behemoth's forward. The her one gripped her new sword. She was prepared to fight for what she believed in.

Sarice thought about her words. "Distraction?"

----------------

Alex landed on his feet and slid. He looked towards Shin with his empty eyes, and watched as he released a dragon attack. Without hesitation Alex took stance, and Blue Heat tripled in intensity. Alex rushed forward.

Alex slashed at Shin's attack.

Blue Heat clashed against Dragon's Claw. A wave of energy spiked out.

Alex merely added more mana. The two attacks exploded.

Through the explosion Alex flew at Shin. He attacked directly first, then dropped down. As soon as he hit a surface he bounced back at Shin.

Blue Heat was effortlessly cutting through anything that got in it's way.

Yuki woke up. She slowly opened her eyes. She saw a man with long black hair. Then felt that she was being carried. "Dante...?"

Dante looked down. "I'm here."

"What...happened?"

"Something called a Demon Seed is inside you. It took control of you, and we fought."

Yuki gasped. "Did I hurt you?"

"You got a good stab through my chest. But I'm fine now." Dante kept walking. His limp had disappeared before Yuki had awoken.

Yuki put her hand on his shirt and gripped it. "I'm sorry." Some tears formed at her eyes.

"Don't worry about it. It takes more then that to kill me. What I'm more worried about is your friends."

Yuki had suddenly realized that they went on with her. She tried to get out of Dante's arms.

"Don't. You need some rest. I'll let you down when we get outside."

Yuki felt the warmth of the old Dante she used to know. She smiled and cuddled against him, falling asleep again.

"If that's so then..." Uriel said to himself, considering the correct question to ask. But that was impossible, there were too many that had just been uncovered. Who was the one pulling the strings? What was here in this city that the mastermind would cause so much havoc to get? He slowly pulled off his mask, and rubbed his eyes. This all was beginning to take a toll on his stamina. He actually preferred his mission in the Upper Plane. They were more chaotic, but all he had to do was follow orders, and create his own orders for his comrades to follow. Here, nothing was ever clear.

Mai had a look of shock on her face. This whole time she believed she was protecting something, and now everything had taken a strange turn. She didn't know what to do now, especially since Alex had lost all consciousness and will of his own.

Alyse had moved in closer and heard what Kara said. She had no clue of what plot the others had gotten into, but that wasn't her prerogative to find out. All she knew was that she wanted the Behemoth to be destroyed, despite its true form as a dragon. Bravely and boldly she walked up, passing Mai before stopping in front of Behemoth and Kara.

"You who defends this monster. I ask you to move out of the way so that I may destroy it. If you decide otherwise, then I must destroy you as well." Alyse said very softly and calmly, her hazy green eyes gazing up at Kara.

Mai stared at the new girl, wondering where she had come from.

"Hey...I thought everyone in the city was evacuated...what are you doing here?" Mai asked.

Alyse paid no attention, and still waited for Kara's answer.

-------

Shin watched a moment as his and Alex's attack clashed and exploded. He grit his teeth and mumbled a curse under his breath before Alex came for him again. His aura surged before he flew back, feeling the intense heat from Alex's blade. He held up his own sword to block but he used his mana to form a barrier around it to shield off any attack though Alex's Blue Heat had sliced a bit into the metal of Shin's katana.

Gaining his wits he realized Alex moved down then came up to attack again. He swerved mere centimeters away before Alex passed, and suddenly he felt the sting of heat on his flesh from the blade.

Shin moved back then paused to take stance. Holding his sword with both hands up in front of him, his aura exploded again before blue flames began to swirl around his katana he moved it around in a circle, faster and faster before he threw the attack of a swirling tornado of blue fire at Alex.

Kara listened to the newcomer. "What're your reasons. I won't let to destroy this dragon." Her new sword flashed as she took stance. A fire burning in her calm eyes.

-------------------

Sara slashed Tyson across the chest.

He flew back and hit a wall. Blood running from his mouth and head.

Sara turned and slashed at the steel door. The door exploded inward.

A dark presence was sitting in the middle of the room, when the doors flew passed him. He opened his eyes.

--------------------

Alex landed and turned towards Shin. "Blue Heat Cannon." Alex prepared to fire.

Suddenly the supply of mana disappeared.

Alex pulled the trigger, but the suddenly mana shift made nothing come out. Blue Heat became less tense. Alex looked at his sword.

---------------------

Kana felt her strength drain. "Dam." She fell to a knee. "I relied to much on this stupid thing." She ripped the pendant off and threw it. She looked up at the remaining airships.

---------------------

Tyson got to his feet, and watched the man.

The man got to his feet and slowly walked forward. He looked at Sara.

Sara kneeled. "Gilgamesh. My master wishes to meet you. He has sent me to set you free as payment for one."

"Then he is a fool. But I will meet him." Gilgamesh looked at Tyson. "Well well well. Tyson Aerfeld. It's been a long time, descendant of Draconis clan. About 2000 years." His eye still were blank. "I'll let you live. For now." He turned to Sara. "You will lead me to this master of yours."

"Sorry to be insolent. But the way we came are now blocked." Sara still was on her knee.

"Doesn't matter." Gilgamesh raised his hand above him and pointed at the ceiling. "Dominant Spear."

----------------

A few blocks away from the Behemoth a huge beam of mana shot out from underground. The beam grew bigger, destroying everything with a few blocks of it's origin. Then is dissipated.

-----------------

Yondaime's eyes went wide. "No. You haven't."

"Oh yes brother. Do you feel that? The ancient power that has been locked away for millennia has been released." Karse said flying backwards.

Yondaime didn't chase him. "So everything was a distraction?" His face angry. "Go, before I can't hold myself back."

Karse smiled and ran towards the new found hole.

------------------

Gilgamesh began floating. "Come near me girl."

Sara stood next to him.

Suddenly both shot up, towards the sunlight.

Tyson fell back to his knees coughing up blood. "Dammit."

------------------

Dante and Yuki arrived outside just as the huge beam ripped open the hole in the earth. Both didn't know what was happening or going on.

------------------

Alex was about to attack Shin, but instead looked towards the blast. Without looking back at Shin he was already heading towards the new threat.

-----------------

Kara never took her eyes of Alyse, even when the ground exploded. Even as Alex flew by her. She wanted to know what Alyse would do.

Uriel heard an explosion in the distance, and quickly turned, seeing a beam of mana bursting out of the ground, creating a hole. He saw the glimpse of a man and a woman flying out of the hole. Was that who the distraction was for? He felt Longinus warm up slightly at the sight of the girl. He looked down at his weapon, puzzled somewhat.

Was this someone that Kyo fought once? Uriel asked himself. Almost in response, the lance shined dully for a moment. He wasn't sure what to do now; the two people that had just emerged out of the hole was moving too fast for him to catch up with them.

Why hasn't Kyo and the others returned yet? Uriel wondered. He knew exactly the strength of everyone that had stayed back at the bridge, but there were several unseen threats that he detected on the side of the Orcs. He sighed; he couldn't help but feel worried about his son, it was normal for a father to feel this way, especially when Kyo was always in the midst of danger.

As the two reach the top of the hole, Alex flew at Gilgamesh.

"Hmm?" Gilgamesh put up his hand and caught Alex's blade. "Well who might you be?"

Alex's empty eyes didn't respond. Instead he pulled the gunblade out and slashed a dozen times at him.

Gilgamesh simply blocked the attacks with his hands. "Seems you don't have a mind right now." He vanished.

Alex looked round as he fell back to the ground.

Blood exploded from Alex's chest. Gilgamesh's hand had ripped straight through Alex. He held Alex in the air.

Alex looked at Gilgamesh ready to attack again.

"Hmph." Gilgamesh let go of Alex then aimed his hand at him. "Spear of Blight." A huge attack shot out of his hand, and hit Alex.

Alex flew diagonally to the ground and smashed through several buildings. When he finally came to a stop, he didn't move. Blood slowly dripped from him. Alex was unconscious.

--------------

Yuki got to her feet and saw Alex defeated in less then a few seconds. "Wait. Dante. Does this mean the vault was opened?"

"It seems so." Dante watched. He remembered when they had fought Gilgamesh. "Even after two thousand years of his mana being slowly drained, he looked even stronger then last time."

--------------

Matiko's eyes were wide. She didn't know what had happened, all she knew was that the mana field went down. Then she understood. "The mana field originated from the vault. Does this mean it's been destroyed?" She asked herself.

--------------

The airships stopped firing when the big blast from underground happened.

Kana took this moment to rest. She looked at what what was happening, but she saw a figure attack, then be defeated in a few seconds. "What now?"

-------------

Gilgamesh appeared beside Sara. The two began to move forward through the air. If someone wanted to catch them, it wouldn't be a problem.

"He must still be in his Berserk mode." Uriel said outloud to himself. He suddenly felt his mana flow decrease exponentially. He looked down at the pendant that Matiko had given them, and realized that they stopped working. Uriel looked up, and saw Alex as his body was thrown through several buildings.

The pendant must not be functioning for anyone else either. That means that the mana field has been distrupted or destroyed... Uriel realized. Concerned for the condition of the prince, he quickly dashed and leaped across several buildings, making his way to Alex. When he arrived by his unconscious body, he quickly checked his pulse. He was alive, but barely. Setting the tip of Longinus on his shoulder, Uriel poured some of his mana into his wounds, in an effort to heal them. He looked over his shoulder at the two people in the distance, and realized that they had stopped.

Are they challenging us? Uriel wondered, but he wouldn't be able to fight any time soon, he had to tend to Alex's injuries.

With the mana field gone, Mai suddenly felt herself drained. She fell to her knees.

What happened...? she thought.

She looked up when she heard an explosion. She gasped in surprise, looking toward the beam of light that shot up from the underground. Her eyes widened, just barely seeing some human-like figures rising up through the beam of light. She wondered where they had come from, and what was going on.


Alyse paid no attention to the explosion. She looked at Kara.

"I have reason to believe this beast had destroyed everything I once knew and loved...so I must destroy it..." Alyse replied simply. She saw the determination in Kara's eyes, and how she held her weapon as if waiting to defend the Behemoth.

"I see you will not back down..." Alyse added. With that, she raised her flute up to her lips. She began to play a haunting tune. Then a pillar of fire surrounded her and a winged creature rose. Its body exploded with fire, then shot toward Kara and the Behemoth.


Mai shielded her eyes when Alyse suddenly attacked.

"No!" Mai cried, wondering why this girl wanted to fight.

------

Shin suddenly felt his power drained somewhat. He dropped down to the ground on one knee, his body suddenly aching. He glanced up and saw that Alex was about to attack him again. The intensity of his demonic rage had died off. He thought for sure he wouldn't be able to move fast enough to avoid Alex's attack. It was then that nothing happened. He stared at Alex a moment.

Then he looked out in the distance where a beam of light shot up from from the ground. He stared at it a moment, then saw Alex heading off toward it.

"No you don't..." Shin mumbled, suddenly moving to stand. He stopped when he felt a pain in his left arm. He glanced down at the dragon mark, of which seemed to be giving off some kind of aura, but somehow it was stopping him from moving. Shin cursed mentally before he sank down on his knees again.

He looked toward the new threat and watched.


-----

Mai heard another commotion and saw Alex attack the new threat, Gilgamesh. She watched in horror as the prince was mutilated then thrown aside. She couldn't move. She just watched as Uriel went to check on Alex. Tears fell from her eyes.

"No..."

Anthro's airship arrived as the beam shot out of the city. He ordered the fleet to stop attacking the Empire.

Both sides had stopped.

"Aim at that being and fire." Anthro ordered the fleet to attack Gilgamesh.

Airship cannons ripped across the sky and aimed at Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh raised his hand. The explosions hit a mana barrier. As the smoke settled He struck out at the airships.

A whip formed from his hand and ripped across the sky. Even from the distance between them, the airships all took major damage. Several exploded instantly.

-----------------

The Nalvist took heavy damage, and the engines started to fail. Anthro quickly ordered the whole fleet to retreat. The airships that could retreated, while the airships that were failing were being abandoned.

------------------

Anthro swallowed his pride. He ordered his own ship evacuated. He turned to Rikka, Kalne, Kyo, Aryus, and Ying. "You better get off this ship too. At this height it won't survive the impact." Sirens and red lights started to go off. "It's already started. I say we don't have much time. And I doubt that thing in the city will just let us fall slowly." With that Anthro ran passed them.

Rikka and Kalne nodded to each other and followed after him.

-------------------

Karse flew up and Sara caught him.

"Who is this?" Gilgamesh asked after turning from his attack on the fleet.

"His name is Karse. He set up the diversion so you could be set free." Sara said.

"Very well." Gilgamesh let Karse have the same floating ability as Sara.

Karse bowed. "Thank you." He grinned.

Without saying anything, they began their slow flight again.

Kara blocked the initial attack with a small barrier then attacked the flaming creature. "So this is what you choose?" Kara said. She could tell that Alyse had no true defense. If she got passed the flame being then she would probably be an open target.

Kara forced the being away from the Behemoth. Using mostly barriers she protected herself from the flames as she tried to destroy it.

------------------

Feeling Kara calming presence fight with the being, Behemoth became uneasy. It felt Gilgamesh's power. The red dragon got to it's feet as it prepared to attack Gilgamesh.

In the Nalvist...
"Whooaaa!" Kyo shouted as the ship shook, and the engines took heavy damage. Over the screaming alarms, he heard Anthro shout to them to evacuate and leave the ship. Rikka and Kalne had just left the room, leaving Ying and Aryus alongside him.

"Can you take anything serious for once?" Aryus said, scowling.

"I say it's better to be naively optimistic than painfully worrisome all the time." Kyo said grinning.

Aryus sighed, and crossed his arms. "So, do you think there's anything that we could use to land safely?"

Kyo kept smiling. "Our mana."

"I guess that would work but..." Aryus began to say before Kyo suddenly pried open one of the hatches of the airship. Outside, you could see the vast sky, and how small the ground looked. Beginning to feel adrenaline rushing through his body, he turned over his shoulder, and looked from Aryus, to Ying.

"I'll see you guys there." He said, saluting them. Kyo then lifting himself up, and plunged himself through the hatch. As he fell through the air, wind blowing his hair away from his face, he activated his mana, and his wings formed out of his back. Truthfully, his rush to get to the empire was mainly because of the strange feeling he felt a moment ago. He didn't know what it was, but he wanted to make sure that Uriel, Brianna, and everyone else was okay.

Ying had remained quiet the whole trip, until they reached the city. It was then she felt an immense power that left a tense feeling through her body.

"Ying...that power..." Talken said, still sitting upon her shoulder.

"Yes..." Ying replied, before she stood up. Then the airship was hit, and everything shook viciously. She stumbled slightly and tried to keep balance. Then Anthro went to then and told them to evacuate. She watched him leave with Rikka and Kalne following. She looked to Kyo and Aryus as they talked about what to do, and before anything else could be said Kyo decided to jump.

"Such a reckless man..." Ying mused after Kyo had left. Knowing there wasn't much time left, Ying knew she had to do something to get off the airship. She glanced at Aryus. Since first seeing him she could already tell he was a demon but he didn't seem too hostile like Shin was...at least not right now.

"Talken..." Ying said.

"Yes" Talken replied, taking off from Ying's shoulder to fly out the opening Kyo had made. Ying pulled out a scroll and made a few hand gestures before casting a spell to make Talken grow into a larger bird like before. Ying looked at Aryus.

"Well? Coming?" Ying said. Without waiting for a response Ying jumped out of the opening and landed on Talken who was flying around below the airship. Ying glanced up and waited for Aryus.


--

Her determination and hatred for Behemoth beginning to consume her, Alyse played a sharper, louder note on her flute to make her fire guardian's power explode and fly like a fireball toward Kara again, viciously and continuously trying to attack. Because of the anger and fire in her emotions and from her memories Alyse had used a fire guardian to fight.


------


Shin saw the mess that went on as Gilgamesh took down the incoming airships. Realizing somethign else was going on he tried getting up and moving again with what strength he had left. He jumped from the leaning building he was on and slid down. He felt some pulsing.

Then he ran to find Mai.