The Way Back

[Thanks.]

Kentaro:<Are you all right?>

"Yes."

*Allina shoots a light beam at the Undead Searaptor, slamming it against a wall. Kelphy then jerks her hand forward, a sphere of water shooting from it through the monster and the wall like a goddamn cannon ball. The monster Returns. The remaining Undead Searaptor launches itself towards Hitomi, biting at her. The remaining Brute Canupus punches at Kentaro with incredible strenght.*

Kelphy: <W-What?>

*The King just stares blankly at the floor.*

=====

*Parker blushes and looks away, shrugging.*

Parker: <Well, you're so clumsy I figured you'd kill yourself before a monster had a chance to.>

*Another laser explodes yet another section of the city. Parker widens her eyes when the red flash occurs.*

Parker: <It's getting dangerous out here... we need to find the big bad soon!>

=====

Luna: <A-Alto... Your clothes...>

*She widens her eyes in surprise, staring at him.*

"Its fine, that gift is nothing compared to the others you've given me. You've given me the gift of clarity and purpose; you've given me the gift of strength and resolve; and most of all you've given me the gift of having a mother again, Luna" Alto smiles a big, goofy, warm smile.

---

"I don't know what he's done but he claims its for your own good and protection. Clearly he's never seen you fight!" Creed says as his hand twitches. Its fairly obvious he's trying hard to resist his urge to kill the king.

*The two point their weapons at the monsters, energy gathering in the barrel before firing a large blast at each of them. Due to their close proximity the attacks merge into one big blast that engulfs both monsters. The resulting recoil from the attack knocks them both on their asses.*

Crowley: <Yeah, wherever they might be. This is quite a big place, after all.>

*The monsters are killed by the blast and Return. Kelphy widens her eyes in surprise, looking from Creed to her father. Three consecutive explosions are heard that make the palace shake violently.*

Allina: <Now that the monsters are gone here, we should help everyone else!>

*Allina grows light wings and flies out through the balcony, but is blocked by the barrier surrounding the palace. Upon hitting it, she's hurled back and falls on her back on the balcony, groaning.*

Kelphy: <W-What...?!>

Allina: <What the hell, we're trapped inside?!>

*Another large beam shoots down from the sky, this time headed for the palace. It hits the barrier right above Allina, and the resulting flash of red light blinds them all momentarily. When it's over, Kelphy slowly walks out to the balcony as well.*

=====

Parker: <Wait here.>

*She jumps real high into the air and lands on a 3-story building's roof. After a few seconds, she jumps back down.*

Parker: <I don't see any more monsters around here, oddly enough. Maybe we should meet back with the others.>

*The ground shakes as the sky turns red once again and three beams hit the city. Then, a flash of red light blinds them momentarily as a beam shoots down, this time headed for the palace, but is blocked by the blue barrier surrounding it.*

=====

*Luna smiles warmly. Suddenly, the ground shakes as the sky turns red once again and three beams hit the city. Then, a flash of red light blinds them momentarily as a beam shoots down, this time headed for the palace, but is blocked by the blue barrier surrounding it.*

*The two stand up, groaning.*

Kentaro:<That wasn't pleasant.>

"YOU LOCKED US IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????" Creed's blade is out and flying at the king's neck an instant only for it to be caught by Lucien's shadow hands.

"Enough Creed" Lucien says.

---

"GAAAAAH... lets get back to the palace Luna."

*Crowley shrugs.*

Crowley: <Fine, let's go back then. But I'm kind of curious regarding where those red lights are coming from...>

Kelphy: <T-Trapped?>

Allina: <How do we get out?!>

*The King looks at Allina and slowly shakes his head. Aera walks up to him and grabs him by the collar, looking mighty angry, tears swinging at the corner of her eyes.*

Aera: <What did you do?! My brother is outside! And Alto is outside!>

Razz: <Crowley and Parker are out there too.>

*Kelphy seems have shut their voices out, staring at the burning city. Suddenly, a group of at least ten giant laser beams shoots down at the same time. Almost the entire city is caught up in an immense explosion that releases a flash of light so bright it blinds everyone for at least a minute. When they regain their sight, not much can be seen of the city. Black smoke rises from everywhere, and what little can be seen is darkened and in ruins.*

Jade Rabbit: <T-This is nothing like what happened at Sephira.>

=====

Parker: <Explosions. The city is being obliterated one district at a time, we need to hurry and meet the-->

*She lets out a shriek as she spots a group of at least ten of the giant laser beams shooting down from the sky towards the city. Grabbing Crowley's arm, she runs into the house directly to her left just as the beams hit and almost the entire city is caught in an immense explosion. The everything goes white, and then black.*

=====

*Luna nods and starts walking towards the palace when the same I described for Crowley happens.*

Kentaro:<No... No it's not.>

*Kentaro's grip tightens on his gun as he turns towards the king, glaring.*

when the light clears Lucien and Creed are both standing with their blades drawn on the King with their Aeldi being the only things holding them back.

Lucien is literally shaking in rage, fear, and disgust.

Creed is the first to put his blade away but not before shooting an icicle the wall right next to the king's head where Aera was holding him up.

"If Alto is dead I will make it my personal mission to kill you and your daughter... depending on the state of his corpse I might have to kill her first" he cast Kelphy a malicious glance before desummoning Celsius and stalking off to be alone.

Lucien is still shaking before he drops to his knees and pukes.

---

Alto coughs as pushes through the rubble that fell after he raised the light barrier with Luna's help. "I... don't think anyone else could have survived that...."

*Crowley's eyes open. He glances up to see a giant shield of purple energy above him, protecting him from the rubble of the building.*

Crowley: <What... what the hell happened?>

*Crowley struggles to lift the rubble, but eventually pushes the shield up and clearing the rubble away from him. He gets up and limps over to a nearby wall. Not much appeared to be left of the house, but at least a little bit of the wall was left. He sits down and leans up against it.*

Crowley: <Dammit, why do I feel like I'm in pain like this? It feels like someone stuck a damn sword through me...>

*Suddenly, he looks down and sees a gaping hole in his left leg, and notices a sharp piece of wood stuck in his chest, missing his heart by only a few centimeters.*

Crowley: <Agh.... am I going to die here...?>

*The King looks from Lucien to Creed, eyes widen in horror. Kelphy drops to her knees out on the balcony, tears flowing down her cheeks. The barrier dissolves and the sky starts clearing. Allina runs to the edge of the balcony, growing wings, and dives down into the cloud of black smoke covering the city. Razz jumps after her. Soon, a young man with short messy blond hair and light blue eyes wearing turquoise armor stumbles in. He's in a pretty bad condition, with many cuts and burns covering his body. Coughing, he falls to his knees. Aera widens her eyes and runs to him.*

Aera: <Ari!>

Ari: <Y-Your Highness... we lost many people but... but...>

*He smiles and falls forward on his elbows, coughing.*

Ari: <...We managed to evacuate a large part, no, most of the population into the underground facilities...>

*Aera kneels down and hugs him, and he faints. Upon hearing this, Kelphy staggers to her feet and turns to Ari, widening her eyes. The King nods, takes the crown off his head and throws it at the floor before walking off.*

Fahren: <(So the city is completely destroyed... but at least many lives were spared.)>

=====

*Allina lands in the darkened ruins, and Razz lands behind her. They run off through the black smoke, shouting.*

Allina: <Alto! Alto!!>

Razz: <Crowley! Park--Allina, over here!>

*Allina runs to meet Razz. They've found Crowley sitting against a wall, impaled by a piece of wood.*

Allina: <C-Crowley!>

Lucien follows after Allina forming wings of darkness with Shadow's aid. He lands next to her right as Alto stumbles up and slams his back against the wall. Luna had to help him walk.

"Fuck I think I twisted my fucking ankle!" he swears.

Lucien stares at Alto in disbelief because besides the ankle he's scratchless.

---

The king ends up down the same hall where Creed is. He's punching a wall and crying like a rainstorm.

"DAMNIT... I... I DON'T WANT TO SEE... SEE ANOTHER OF MY SIBLINGS DIE!! NOT AGAIN!!"

*Kentaro mostly lets go of his gun, letting it hang on his finger by the trigger guard and he wanders off down a different hallway. Kari follows after.*

"Where are you going?"

Kentaro:<Anywhere but there.>

*Due to blood loss, he starts to fade from consciousness and can barely see anyone.*

*Derek got into the fight and did stuff and got beaten up and all that jazz. He approaches the main group and slumps against a wall.*

Derek: <That was... brutality...>

Ambiance Music

~Kari & Kentaro~

Jade Rabbit: <T-This isn't fair... now I see what Crone meant when he said he was holding Origin back. I'm just glad they saved a lot of people but... Guardian, Kentaro. What is going to happen now?>

=====
~Creed~

*Upon seing Creed, the King wipes a tear from the corner of his left eye with his fist and starts walking towards him.*

King Alexander: <C-Creed.>

*Fahren walks by and motions the King to stop before turning to Creed.*

Fahren: <...Alto is alive.>

=====
~Kelphy & Derek~

*Fahren closes his eyes and a glyph appears on his forehead.*

Fahren: <...Alto ...and Crowley too...>

*He snaps his eyes open.*

Fahren: <They're alive.>

*With this, he walks off down an hallway. Kelphy is still staring at Ari and Aera, thinking. The guests are all still looking mighty traumatized at the opposite side of the ballroom.*

[He was never after the library... or anything... he just wanted destruction.]

*Kelphy takes a deep breath and walks to the edge of the balcony. Holding her hands out, she causes millions of water droplets to appear floating above the section of the city directly in front of the palace. She clenches her fists and they all fall down through the smoke, starting to clear it. She then takes another deep breath and lowers her arms, staring around at the ruins of the city. From the sun's position, they can tell it is at least 7am already. She speaks slowly.*

Kelphy: <How could this happen?>

=====
~Allina, Lucien, Crowley & Alto~

*Allina kneels down and checks Crowley's pulse.*

Allina: <It's... faint... This is just like...>

Razz: <W-What?>

Allina: <When Olympe got stabbed in the chest and the stone disappeared, she bled out too fast for me to stop it...>

Razz: <H-Hey, but when it was me you managed to save me. You have to help him.>

Allina: <Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Hang in there, Crowley, you'll be o-->

*She starts coughing loudly.*

Razz: <A-Allina, what's--It's the smoke, isn't it? Because of-->

Allina: <...My... asthma...>

*She falls down on her knees, closes her eyes, and holds her breath, placing her hands on the stick in Crowley's chest. It suddenly starts raining for a few seconds and the smoke starts to clear. From the sun's position, they can tell it is at least 7am already. Allina starts breathing in slowly and then abruptly pulls the stick out.*

Allina: <Sylphs!>

*She raises a fist and jerks it towards Crowley's chest, a sphere of compressed air shooting against his wound, keeping the blood from pouring out, and causing his whole body to shake violently, the wall he's leaning against cracking up behind him. When the wind sphere bursts, she places her hands on the wound and bright blue streams of light start flowing out of her hands, arcing around the group in a sphere shape before shooting back into the wound. Crowley regains consciousness, but his vision is very blurry and he can barely talk. Allina and Razz smile broadly.*

Lucien places his hand on Allina's shoulder when she begins casting to let her know he's there to support her. When she finishes he smiles too, "You're amazing Allina. So incredibly amazing."

"Oi, lover boy, cool it alright. Save the romanticism for after we get back to the palace!" Alto tells him but with an air of joking. "Allina... can you heal my foot?"

---

Creed looks up at the king with puffy red eyes and wipes his tears away when he hears Alto is alive, "That's good" he says trying to sound composed but its clear he's overjoyed. He bows.

*Crowley just groans. He doesn't even know what's going on at the moment.*

Derek: <I don't know... I don't know how, or why, but I promise you this: Sephira will do whatever it can to help Alda to rebuild its capital.>

Kentaro:<I really don't know.>

~Kari & Kentaro~

Fahren: <You two are different from what you were last we met.>

*Fahren is standing behind them. He smiles.*

=====
~Creed~

*Fahren smiles and walks off.*

King Alexander: <I'm... I'm perfectly aware of what consequences await me for what I have done.>

*The King also bows and walks away.*

=====
~Kelphy & Derek~

*Kelphy gives him a faint smile and nods, wiping her puffy eyes.*

Kelphy: <T-Thank you, Derek.>

=====
~Allina, Lucien, Crowley & Alto~

Allina: <Yeah, just ...a second.>

*She coughs some more but is obviously getting a lot better now that the smoke's gone. Sweat starts dripping down her face and Crowley quickly starts feeling a lot better. Suddendly, Razz widens his eyes and looks around.*

Razz: <W-Where's Parker?! Was she with you?>

"Alright, I'll wait Allina" Alto says.

"Are you feeling any better Allina?" Lucien says with concern.

---

Creed went back to the ballroom.