Chaos side

We're in a grass-covered valley just north of the Ogely mountains, where the cults of self-mutilating kobolds live. The winds are quite cold as we're both farther north and at a higher elevation. Tokomaha is wearing an Arkaim-made version of her outfit from back when we were still in Armeria, so she should be pretty cold.

However, instead of complaining, she takes off her clothes instead. I stare at her in surprise, then glance at Flann, whose expression doesn't change. Don't tell me she wants to do it one last time before everything might end.

"I don't think this is the time and place-" I start, but she turns around and glares at me, causing me to close my mouth.

"I'm getting ready." She stabs her bone spear into the ground and walks over to me. Then she raises her face and closes her eyes, demanding a kiss from me.

I oblige her, putting my arms around her slender body and pressing her against me in a warm embrace. That's when I realize that she's shivering, not from the cold, but from a feeling of uncertainty. She was confident in her ability to stop the moon, but it seems that being faced with the reality of the situation has made her feel uneasy.

When I press my lips on hers, I feel her shaking stop. Pouring all my love for her into our connection, I let her know that I believe in her. Even more than what it means through the Imagination Engine, this should help her greatly.

Our lips part, and I look into Tokomaha's amber eyes, which are slightly glazed over from our sensual kiss. She still bears some uncertainty in her gaze, but I give her a smile that clears her last doubts.

"I'll come here to get you once we finish up on the moon." No more words are needed. The implications are enough to tell her that I don't doubt for a second that she'll stop the moonfall. All that's left is for me to do my part. "[I love you.]"

Tokomaha's face flushes red at my straightforward expression of my love for her, and she averts her gaze. Then she turns to look up at me with a broad grin that shows her sharp canines. At this sight, I have to stop myself from embracing her again; she's beaming with joy and confidence, and behind it all is her reciprocation of my love.

"Go." She says while maintaining her grin. Then she turns away and walks over to her spear to cut our prolonged farewells short. I watch her for a moment before turning to Flann. She has, with all her sense of tact, kept a close eye on our exchange of love.

"Interested?" I ask her with a grin, but she only moves her staff slightly, upon which my vision warps once again. It changes from the windswept, treeless valley to the plaza in the center of the Prichet district, right where I left the others behind earlier. Looking around in surprise, I face Svanhild. "Where did everybody go?"

"Rolan and the others went to look for Runa." The former Dragon Knight replies while leaning on her broken lance.

"What about Aurelia and Aorutihaua?" Glancing at the crater behind Svanhild, I only see the remains of Alverost, untouched as they were from before I left.

"Aurelia said she had a bad feeling and followed them" Svanhild shrugs and sighs as if this has nothing to do with her. "Aorutihaua took off to the sky."

I look up and find that the clouds have spread thin, meaning that Exla has yet to find Areteniha. At this point, she most likely already returned to the Rhodos station to make sure that her solar winds will reach Earth. We'll have to deal with her later then.

Suddenly, Svanhild staggers and falls, but I quickly catch her in time. Looking at her face from up close, I find that it's ghostly pale and covered in sweat.

"What happened?" I ask, but then notice the blood on the floor underneath her feet. "You're wounded?"

"It's... nothing." She tries to stand on her own two feet but is too weak to do so.

"You stubborn mule!" I yank her lance out of her hand and toss it aside before lowering her to the ground. She can't even protest my rough handling of her new but broken weapon and coughs up blood.

I examine her chest, but the plated crimson dragon armor makes spotting any bleeding wounds difficult. Without wasting time, I extend my fingers between the various segments of her armor and cut the leather straps holding them together before removing her breastplate. But she suddenly moans from pain and grabs my wrist.

"Under... my ribs." She presses out from between her bloodied lips. I look down but can't spot what she means. Then I move my head closer and angle it to look up between the armor plates to find a piece of shrapnel stuck in her chest.

"Alright. Bite down on this." I grow out a tentacle and give it the consistency of leather. While I can instantly heal her, there's no point in doing so if there's something stuck in the wound and prevents it from closing.

"What... is this?" She asks while looking at my offered appendage with disgust. Instead of answering, I plunge it into her mouth to prevent her from biting off her tongue.

At the same time, I pull off her chest armor with one quick movement, causing Svanhild to bite down on the mouthpiece I prepared in my foresight. Her muffled cry from the pain continues, but she's able to keep her arms and legs from flailing.

"Brave girl." I mutter to her while ripping off the shirt underneath her armor to expose her flawless white skin - save for the deep gash between her two lowermost right ribs. Pressing my hand on the open wound, I close it in a matter of seconds, upon which Svanhild's expression softens.

I caress her cheek and press a kiss on her forehead, upon which she jumps up in surprise. Her face is flushed red, and her mouth flaps open and closed in silence.

"Here, wear this." I pull out a shirt from inside my body - one of many I keep there just in case anybody might need it. Svanhild looks down at herself and realizes that her chest is bare. Quickly covering herself up with one hand, she yanks the shirt out of my hand.

"I shall remember this!" She yells while turning away.

"So shall I." With a smug grin, I glance down at her still partially exposed skin demonstratively. Despite some past personality flaws, Svanhild has grown into a cute but also sexy woman.

Then I remember that we're still not in the clear. Luna disappeared somewhere, Rolan and the others went to find her, and Aurelia said she had a bad feeling about it. All of that looks like Shelnir's handiwork, and without an Imagination Engine inhibitor, they can't defeat an Old Human. She was close to dying last time when she lost her cool, and Aurelia stabbed her through the back. But she should be prepared this time and won't show such an easy opening anymore.

Really though, she's one twisted person to let Alverost die despite being nearby. It seems this time she succeeded in the scenario she attempted in Zohigal by making Areteniha witness our side kill her son. While it ended up being Kerry who did it, I stood up to protect them, making me a target of her wrath as well.

"Where did they go?" I turn to Svanhild and ask. She has taken off the rest of the armor on her upper body and slipped into the shirt, but her well-endowed chest is pushing up the cloth. When this is all over, I'll make a move on her.

"That street, first alley to the right." Not noticing my thoughts, she points the way with a still peeved expression. If only she knew what awaited her in the near future, she would most likely be much more peeved.

"Alright, wait here." With these words, I fly straight toward where Svanhild pointed. Healing her took a lot of time already, so something could have already happened to Rolan and the others. But kidnapping Luna and having her lover come to rescue her sounds much like the setting of last time.

Don't tell me Shelnir is once again trying to make me kill Luna and have Rolan fight me to the death over it? She should know not to underestimate me this time, so it's going to be more complicated than strapping her to a machine where the falsely labeled release button will cause her death.

Whatever the case, I'll smash her prediction once again, and this time, there will be no Serent to save her.

When I reach the alleyway Svanhild pointed me toward, I find Aurelia standing with her back toward me, facing Rolan and the two other men. The leader's hand is gripping the glowing sword Roshanee, but his arm is dangling down listlessly. His despairing expression is shared by Gram and Halthor, whose eyes are swimming as if thinking hard.

"What happened here?" I walk toward them and ask in a commanding tone. It helps bring their thoughts back to the present, as they look at me in surprise. Aurelia turns around to me, her expression grim.

Then I notice the mutilated body on the floor between them. Several swords of gold are stuck in its back, from which four iridescent wings sprout.

"Shelnir put an illusion on her." The golden girl explains in a hate-filled tone. Two of the body's four slender and chitin-covered limbs have been severed, and the wounds are cauterized. A deep gash runs across the aviation-visor like compound eyes that cover almost the entire top half of her face. "She made us kill her."

It's Nymphy, the dragonfly maid.