Arthur raced through the sky at breakneck speeds, using wind magic to adjust the air pressure ahead of him to maximize his speed. Due to his efforts he was on the verge of breaking the sound barrier, something that any other day he would take notice and be a little excited about. But now wasn't the time for that, his father was dead, and the one responsible was also after his little sister. He wasn't certain if Cadell was at the Lancer Academy, nor was he certain if Ellie was safe. If he was lucky Bairon and Mica got there first and were able to get her back to the castle, but he wasn't going to the academy thinking he was lucky. He was going with the thought of the worst case scenario, that Cadell got ahold of her.

Within his core Regis remained silent, but his blood lust made it like he was screaming at the top of his lungs. Regis may have never met Reynolds before, but due to Arthur's memories he couldn't help but have felt like his own father was just murdered.

As they flew over Kalberk there was a sudden boom that got everyone's attention as even buildings shook as he raced overhead. Arthur had just broken through the sound barrier, and due to his altitude just about everything that wasn't secured down was flying up after him. Quickly the campus came into view, and he took notice of a training field near the pond.

The field was littered with patches of scorched earth, craters, and protruding stones. In the middle of the field stood a tall dark figure, as another armor clad figure appeared to be held up by his throat. While just a few yards away another figure was laying in a pool of red.

"Here we go Regis, Gauntlet Form."

—————————————————————-

There Bairon stood before Cadell, his spear shattered, his core nearly depleted, his right arm broken, and blood trickling from his head. Behind him Mica laid motionless in a pool of her own blood, leaving Bairon wondering if she was even still alive. In front of him Cadell stood tall and powerful, other than a few scratches, nearly all of the damage to his armor was what Arthur and the others inflicted during their last encounter with the Scythe.

Bairon looked down at his left hand as he channeled mana to it, but was only able to create a few sparks. He wasn't sure how far Curtis and Ellie were, but he knew he needed to buy them as much time as possible. Reaching down he pulled a dagger out from his right boot, and held it firm as he prepared to fight Cadell one last time.

"I do not understand you, General," Cadell said curiously. "From what I have come to understand, you hate Arthur Leywin. So why are you fighting so hard to protect his little sister?"

"Because she is a child, and doesn't deserve to be judged by his sins against me," He replied, then charged forward.
He swiped his dagger across towards Cadell's throat, but the scythe stepped back to dodge him. Bairon made several more attempts, causing Cadell to constantly take step after step back, away from Mica. Eventually Cadell got tired of this, and instead of dodging, smacked Bairons hand, knocking the dagger free. He then grabbed the Lance's throat and lifted him up to his eye level.

"Your efforts merely delayed the inevitable. Arthur Leywin will suffer for the disgrace he caused me," Cadell said, and began to squeeze.

As he did this there was a loud boom that got their attention. He turned, and they both could see something coming in fast, so fast that the air around it was being visibly distorted.

Knowing this had to be Arthur, Bairon pulled a small knife from his belt and stabbed Cadell in the narrow gap in his armor on the inside of his elbow, and channeled lightning magic into it.

"Grahh," Cadell grunted as he dropped Barion.

Once free Bairon scrambled to Mica as he reinforced his body with all of his remaining mana, and climbed on top of her to act as a shield.

Cadell pulled the knife from his arm and went to draw his sword. However he wasn't fast enough, and Arthur reached him first, slamming a flaming black fist into his head.

The force of the strike shook the ground, and was felt outside of the school grounds. Bairon dug his fingers into the ground in an effort to hold on and keep from being blown away from the shock wave. Dust and dirt filled the air and hid Arthur and Cadell from view, but within the cloud the force of the strike had forced all of the debris in the air out.

Within the cloud Cadell was laying on the ground within a crater with Arthur towering over him. Arthur was looking at his right arm, though gauntlet form was still active, he could see his father's gauntlet almost completely destroyed by the overwhelming impact. The little bits that remained crumbled off as he moved his hand.

"That was for my father," Arthur said as he turned his focus back to Cadell

Cadell had been laying there in a daze, but as he recovered his left hand went up to his head. His eyes opened wide in horror, as he felt the rough edge where his left horn once came out of his skull, completely shattered from the immense force.

"NOOO!" Cadell cried out in rage.

He tried to get back up and attack Arthur, but he brought his fist down again, this time breaking the other horn off, while the force was also enough to blow the dust cloud away.
"That was for the pain I had to carry all these years after I was forced to leave Sylvia because of you."

Arthur raised his fist again, but this time Cadell didn't see a human, a Lance, or even an Asura. Now as Arthur stood above him wielding such overwhelming power, he saw a god, a true god delivering his divine punishment upon him.

"And this is for Sylvia."

Arthur channeled as much aether as he could into his fist, and brought it down, and again, and again, and again. Each punch sent cracks outward from the crater in every direction.

Bairon saw one heading his and Mica's way, and wanted to get up and get them both out of there, but his body wouldn't move, it couldn't move. His body had reached beyond its limits, something he hadn't done in years, and now all he could do was lay there and wait for either the cracks to stop, or for his body to start listening to him again.

Thankfully, the cracks stopped just short of them. He then saw Arthur levitate out of the crater, with his right fist dripping with blood. Arthur's feet touched the ground and he bent down and picked up Cadell's horn and stored it in his rune, then he walked over to his fellow Lances.

"Mica," Bairon managed to force out. "She's worse off than me. She needs an emitter."

"Don't worry. You both will be ok."

Using his last little bits of aether from his core, Arthur began using Vivum to begin healing both of them. He only lasted a few minutes, but it was enough to stabilize Mica and heal Bairon enough so he could move off her.

"Regis, go get them an emitter."

Regis emerged from Arthur's body much smaller than usual, not puppy size, but still significantly smaller.

"Yeah, a talking wolf won't scare anyone," he replied sarcastically.

"Do you have any better ideas?"

"Piss on Bairon and see if that fixes him?"

"Just go," Arthur groaned.

"Fine," Regis groaned, then ran off.
"Since when could you use healing arts?" Bairon asked, but Arthur just ignored the question.

"Where's my sister?"

"Fine, but you'll have to answer eventually," Barion replied as he moved out his left arm. "That way. I told Curtis to run with her and to get them both to the castle while we held the scythe off."

"Thank you," Arthur replied as he meditated, absorbing as much aether and mana as he could, as fast as he could while waiting on an emitter.

—————————————————————-

Curtis and Ellie were riding their beasts through the plains of Sapin as fast as Boo could go. Grawder could move faster, but Boo wasn't exactly built for speed. Ellie wasn't sure what Curtis' plan was, the closest city with a teleportation gate was Carn, but it was in the opposite direction. They didn't exactly have the supplies for a long trip either. All she had in her dimensional ring for food was a few snacks for her and Boo and some water for the two of them, but that would only last a day at best.

"Just a little further," Curtis yelled to her.

"Well at least he seems to have a plan," she thought in relief.

After close to another fifteen minutes of riding they arrived at the top of a hill overlooking what looked like a small walled off village. Ellie expected Curtis to stop and give her some kind of explanation, but instead he kept going.

Shortly after reaching the bottom of the hill they were at the wooden gate doors, which to Ellie's confusion was actually chained and locked shut from the outside.

"Umm, professor? Where are we?" Ellie asked as he was removing the chains.

"You know that war game you were supposed to be taking part in next month? Well this is where it happens," Curtis replied as he pushed the doors open.

The war game was an exercise that most combat related majors take part in every year starting in their second year. The premise behind the war game was simple: a group of students would occupy the village and defend it against another group of students who were trying to get in.

The attacking students had the advantage of numbers, but they also had no cover and had to send students back to campus every other day for more supplies. The defending students might have had smaller numbers, but they had sturdy walls and structures for defense, and enough food, water, first aid supplies, and weapons to ensure they could hold out for the two weeks of the exercise.
They entered the village, which looked like people could actually live there if they wanted. Curtis led them to the center where there was a water tower with several pipes coming out, one of which was lined up with a water trough. He opened a valve at the end and water began pouring out.

"Grawder, Boo, drink up. You two worked hard today, and we need to cover a lot more ground before nightfall," Curtis stated, before sticking his own head into the water and started drinking.

When he had his fill of water he pulled his head out, and made Ellie blush. The water caused his long hair to slick back and the way the sun hit the water on his face made him glisten. She tried hard to only ever look at him as her professor, but right now she couldn't help but see him as a complete stud.

"Thankfully it looks like they already brought supplies here in preparation for the exercise. So let's stock up on everything we can," Curtis said and started walking to the storage building.

"Ah, right," Ellie replied as she snapped back to her senses and followed.

At the storage building door Curtis tried to unlock it, but soon learned he didn't have a key. So instead he channeled enough mana to his leg and kicked the door open.

"Alright, fill that ring of yours with as much food as you can, keep your bow and arrows out on you so you have enough room," he said as he walked in and started opening boxes of dried foods and started storing them.

Ellie walked over and began to do the same.

"So, why does the school have its own village for exercises?" Ellie asked, trying to keep from thinking of the danger they were running from.

"I was told a vein of gold was found here about twenty years ago, and someone got a little too excited and decided to establish a mining village here before they determined how large the vein was." Curtis sighed and shook his head. "They mined all the gold after two years. They searched and searched, but there wasn't any more gold."

"Wow, I wouldn't want to be the idiot responsible for that," Ellie laughed. "Do you know what happened to the person who decided to put a village here?"

Curtis cleared his throat. "He Umm, continued to rule Sapin until the council was formed."

"Oh," Ellie said, realizing it was his father who was responsible.

"Anyway," Curtis said, steering away from that fact. "About ten years ago the academy bought the village and made the war game an annual event every student looks forward to."

They continued in silence, packing their rings full, then took some bags and rope for more food for their bonds.

"Rooooaaarrrrr!" Grawder roared.

"I've got a bad feeling about that," Curtis said and rushed out of the building, Ellie following right behind him.

Once outside they saw Grawder and Boo staring up and off into the distance in the direction of the academy. Every once in a while as they rode Curtis would activate the first stage of his beast will to look back and make sure they weren't being followed, and except for the sound of an explosion they had no indication as to what was going on back there.

Once again Curtis activated his beast will, and looked where their bonds were.

"Shit," Curtis said.

Even with his enhanced vision he couldn't tell what it was, but he was certain there was a person flying in their direction.

"Come on!," Curtis shouted as he grabbed Ellie by the arm and practically dragged her behind him.

"What is it?"

"Someone's coming. Flying this way."

"Couldn't it be one of the lances? Or maybe my brother?"

"Maybe, but we can't be certain yet."

They arrived at the entrance to the mine, which was blocked by a huge boulder. Activating the second stage of his will, Curtis started pushing the boulder, with Grawder and Boo helping. Soon they had the boulder moved enough for Ellie to get in.

"Get in, we'll leave enough room for you to crawl out, but you need to stay in there till tomorrow morning or until I come and get you," Curtis said as they couldn't get the boulder to move anymore.

"What about you?"

"Grawder and I will hide. If it's Lance we'll reveal ourselves and have them help get you out of there."

"And if it's a scythe?" She asked, sounding scared for his safety.

"Well, let's just hope they don't feel like killing without reason. If they land here they'll probably be able to tell someone was here, so if they find me maybe I'll be able to convince them I sent you away."

"That'll be hard with Boo out there," Ellie commented.

"Shit," Curtis said, realizing the flaw in his plan.

Pop.

"Ok, Boo you need to...where did he go?" Curtis asked as he looked around.

"Graa," Boo grunted from within the cave behind Ellie.

"How in the Hell did he get in there?" Curtis asked as he stared at the bear.

"Groa," Grawder said, gaining Curtis' attention then gestured up, showing the person could now be seen without enhanced vision.

"Damn, ok Ellie, I need you and Boo to go deeper into the mine, but don't go so deep that you get lost, unless you have to to avoid capture," he said as he let the bolder roll back mostly in place, with only enough room for Ellie to crawl out.

Curtis and Grawder then split up and took up hiding spots within some of the building. Curtis restricted his core completely to avoid detection, while leaving the front door of the building he was hiding in cracked open so he could see. He tightened the grip on his sword, ready to strike if he saw an enemy. He lied to Ellie about hoping the scythe wouldn't kill him, from what he heard about the retainers Arthur fought, they seemed to take a great deal of pleasure in killing people, so he expected the same from the Scythes. With that said, if he was discovered he had no intention of going down quietly.

Suddenly he heard footsteps on the wooden deck outside his building. This was it, he prepared to release the mana from his core and charge outside, all he needed was a glimpse of the individual to know if they were friend or foe. Based on the footsteps they were right outside the door, but his angle was poor, he couldn't see anything. Suddenly a dark figure stepped right in front of the crack as he felt an overwhelming pressure bearing down on him. Curtis dropped his sword as his legs gave way and he fell to the floor. He then looked up as the door slowly creaked open, and the source of the pressure was revealed.

—————————————————————-
Ellie sat quietly within a tunnel a few turns away from the opening. Boo was crouched down beside her, as she waited patiently with an arrow knocked in her bow. A sudden pressure sent chills down her spine. She had been there when Arthur and Varay had spared during Arthur's training, so she knew how powerful a Lance felt, but this was so far beyond that she questioned how someone so powerful could actually exist. She ran her fingers through Boo's fur, calming her nerves.

A few minutes later she heard a thud followed by voices, but she couldn't identify them. The boulder was moved, she knew it, and now someone was coming in looking for her. She trembled, if it was Curtis she knew he would have called out to her, it had to be a scythe. She pulled back her arrow, as she carefully began to step backwards. She tried to pull Boo back by his fur, but he wasn't moving. She caught sight of a dim light coming from the intersecting tunnel, and it was getting brighter, the scythe was almost there. She pulled harder on Boo, but he wouldn't move. Through their bond she could tell he wasn't scared, but something was bothering him.

She could hear the footsteps, they were close. Knowing it was too late to run she pulled her arrow back again and took aim at where she hoped the scythe's head would be. A figure came around the corner and she released her arrow. The figure jerked, but didn't go down. Its right hand was on fire, and was raised up so she now could see the face.

"Art?!" Ellie gasped as she saw her brother, holding her arrow in his teeth.

Arthur spit the arrow out.

"Is this how you greet your brother?" He asked, trying to sound annoyed, but failing as he was so happy she was ok.

She then ran to him and threw her arms around him.

"Do you have any idea how scared I was? Why didn't you call out to me?"

"I told you sneaking up on her was a bad idea," Curtis commented as he shook his head.

"You were trying to scare me!?" Ellie broke the hug and punched him as hard as she could in the stomach. "You're such a jerk big brother."

"Sorry," Arthur replied sheepishly, completely unphased by her punch.

"You should be sorry," Regis commented, bringing attention to his presence. "Geez, I'm not even that bad."

"Brother, did that wolf just talk?"
Arthur sighed. "Ellie, Boo, this is Regis, the Asura weapon that was collecting mana in my hand."

"Grooo," Boo grunted.

"Nice to meet you too Pooh Bear."

"Come on, let's get out of here, we need to get you back to the castle," Arthur said as he placed a hand on his sister's back and began leading her out.

"Fine, but why was the Scythe after me? I've been going to Lancer Academy for over a year now, they could have attacked me sooner."

"It's a long story. But basically he was targeting you to get revenge on me," Arthur replied.

"Revenge? Wait, if he targeted me, what about mom and dad?" Ellie asked urgently.

Arthur's face darkened. "Mom is already at the castle waiting on you."

"And dad?"

Arthur didn't reply.

"What about dad?" Ellie asked as she started to panic.

"I'm sorry," Arthur said as the tears began to flood his eyes again.

"No," Ellie said as the tears came.

Arthur moved to hug her and try to give some comfort, but she pushed him back.

"No! This is all your fault!" She screamed. "If it wasn't for you we would have just lived a normal life! We wouldn't be targeted like this! We wouldn't be in so much danger!"

Arthur couldn't speak. He already felt all of this was true.

"Ellie, it's not Arthur's fault, this is war and..." Curtis said, trying to defend Arthur, but Ellie wouldn't hear it, she was hurt too much.

"No! Don't you dare defend him! My dad is dead because of him, and now I have to give up a normal life to go into hiding because of him."

She then ran off out of the cave with Boo chasing after her. Arthur just sat there on his knees unmoving.

"Arthur? Go after her. Say something to her. This wasn't your fault."

"Isn't it? I let that scythe go. We had him cornered and he ran, but I decided we needed to stay in Etistin. My father is dead because I was arrogant. I had him beat so I wasn't worried about him, I didn't see him as a threat."

"Arthur..."

"Go. Go take her back to the castle. Kalberk is safe, you can use the teleportation gate there."

"Arthur, it wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known he would do this."

"Thank you for protecting my sister, I owe you one," Arthur said, unable to listen to his words.

Silently Curtis left Arthur there in his guilt as Regis followed.

—————————————————————-

Darkness had fallen over Dicathen as another day ended. Hours ago Curtis did as Arthur requested, and returned Ellie to the floating castle, where her mother greeted her immediately after exiting the gate in a tight hug. The two of them stayed like that for several minutes as they both lost themselves in their grief. Seeing this made Curtis miss his own parents, and decided to stay and visit with them for the next few days. Bairon and Mica returned shortly before, as they were brought back to receive treatment from the castle emitters. Arthur had managed to take care of the worst of their injuries, but even after the other emitters were done, they had ordered them to rest for a few days.

The only truly good news was that word had gotten back that thanks to Sylvie, no one else from the twin horns had died. News of Cadell's death was seen as bittersweet, as many people had seen the horrible condition Bairon and Mica were in after their battle, leaving the public wondering if they could really win the war.

Arthur exited the teleportation gate along with Regis and Sylvie. The guard immediately greeted him with a salute, and solemn condolences for the loss of his father.

"Art," Tess said, bringing attention to her presence.

"Tess? What are you doing here this late?"

"Waiting on you," she said as she walked up and hugged him. "I'm sorry about your father."

Arthur bit his lip, not wanting to cry right there, even if the guard was the only other person there.

"Thank you," Arthur said as his voice cracked. He took a deep breath as he looked around.

"I told your mom and Ellie they could go to their room, that I'd send you to them after you got back. Was that ok?" She asked, now feeling uncertain of her decision.

"Yes, thank you," he replied, not wanting to face either of them right now. "Umm, I got you something," he said as he pulled Cadell's horn from his rune.

"Oh, a horn? Thanks?" Tess commented, feeling confused on so many levels.

"It was one of the scythe's horns, they hold a lot of mana in them. I used a retainers to get stronger, so I figured you could use the scythes to get to the white core stage."

"Really?!"

"Mhmm, but you need to be careful. There is something weird about their mana that could drive you insane. Regis absorbed a lot of the mana when I used mine, so I was ok. I think we can use Regis in a similar way for you so you'll be ok."

"Thank you," she said, and got up on her tiptoes, and gave him a peck on the lips.

"You're welcome. I'm going to go to my room."

Arthur then tried to walk past Tess, but she wrapped her arms around him from behind, and wouldn't let go.

"Tess?"

"You shouldn't be alone right now."

"Maybe, but I doubt my mom or sister would really want to see me."

"Then let me stay with you."

"Tess..." Arthur started, but was cut off.

"I was the dummy this time. After everything you told me, I questioned who you were, but the thing is, I know who you are."

"Tess..." was all Arthur could say as he looked her in the eyes hopeful. After the hell of a day he had, he desperately wanted something good to happen.
"You are the same person I fell in love with when we were little, you just became a lot more open than you used to be."

Arthur smiled lightly as he looked in her eyes.

"So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I don't need anymore time to think, because I already know I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you."

The two then leaned closer and closer, until their lips touched lovingly and they both wrapped their arms around one another. Sylvie nugged Regis, realizing they both forgot they were even there, and the two quietly left them there in each other's arms.