Kneeling behind trees and some bushes, Tomoe and Titania watch over lake Butterfly and how the invading army has occupied it. Men and women, from all races, form their ranks, wearing leather to metal armor, making rounds along the shore of the lake, while the others are resting, some inside their tents, some outside of them, waiting for them to be called to the battlefield that is further bellow.

Further bellow, multiple pillars of smoke rose over the horizon.

“That’s gotta be the city” says Titania.

“What do you think?”

“Well, seeing how they are stationed here, I would wage that the battle is going on right now.”

Tomoe bites her lower lip “You sure?”

“Yeah” Titania says, as she points in the direction of the river that supplies the city with its water channels “look.”

Tomoe looks in that direction, only to discover two banners, each at one side of the road, with people that are wearing more distinct armor are beside them. A banner has a Ruby on fire, and the other has a bluish rock, enveloped in white angular arcs.

“I’m sure they are watching over the attack.”

“I see. We were and are still on time then.”

“Fortunately. I would wage that if… if the fight would have been over by now, those soldiers wouldn’t be stationed there.”

Out of the blue, Tomoe takes Titania by the shoulders and pulls her down. Titania’s face almost meets the ground. Looking at Tomoe, she is about to say something, when Tomoe puts a finger to her mouth, indicating to keep silence.

Footsteps can be heard from the other side of the bushes. Two men of the invading army pass through, yawning.

“So tired” says one of the men.

“A rush towards the city. Full speed non-stop. Can’t understand why Lord Falco is so apprehensive about this.”

“Is the last state standing” answers back the man “once this state falls, he will have unified the entire country once again.”

“So, it is about the glory? Like they say I guess, the fruit never falls far from the tree.”

“Aren’t you a poet” Titania and Tomoe can hear, as the two men leave the area.

“So, how are we going to ring that disk?” wonders Titania, as she incorporates herself, pushing Tomoe away, into a crouching position.

Standing enough to see over the bush, Tomoe gives the lake another look “I think I can be fast enough for that.”

“Don’t be ridiculous” says Titania “No matter how fast we are in the water, they are camping right in front of the statue. Once you’re on the ground, you will get found.”

“What do you suggest then?”

“A distraction.”

“A distraction? A distraction with what? I can make it Titania.”

“Stop thinking of acting alone!” Titania lashes to Tomoe “Don’t you see? This isn’t anymore the life in the city as we used to know it, where you could go everywhere and kinda handle everything on your own. This far surpasses our own experience…” Titania makes a stop, takes a deep breath, and adds “You could make it, yeah, I agree, but there are too many eyes and is in the day, and you would have to carry the bong with you, so if you get caught we would lose it. We can’t have that, we can’t lose any more time too…” clenching her fist against her chest, she adds “Please Tomoe, it is not only about you anymore. I want to give everyone back at the city a chance, I want to give my family a chance so I can see them again… please, let’s work together.”

“Titania…”

A sudden gust runs through the forest, the trees dance at its invitations, while the bushes shake in fear. A fruit falls from a tree beside them, all the way into a bush. They can hear how this fruit hits something hard, and the sound that comes afterward.

“What in the actual styx!” the voice claims, making its best to whisper instead of yelling.

Titania, still ducking, moves to the bush, and calls him “Lacus? Is that you?”

“Titania?” the voice can be heard, replying. From inside the bush, the head of Lacus pops up, looking first at Titania, then at Tomoe “You’re alive!” Lacus says while chuckling at the prospect.

“You managed to escape” Tomoe says while smiling back at him.

“Barely though. One moment the bell started ringing, and the next, this swarm of people came and occupied the lake.”

“It… it is good to see you” Says Titania as she gives Lacus a hug. Then, she asks “What about Aversa and her husband?”

Lacus’ stops. Looking down and to the side, he says “They… both are gone.”

“What!?” Tomoe says, raising her voice. Grabbing Lacus by the collar, she says “Why!? Isn’t your job to protect innocent lives!?”

“Tomoe, lower your voice!” whispers Titania, as she grabs Tomoe’s right arm “let him go too!” she adds.

Tomoe releases Lacus, and he falls into the ground.

“I’m… I’m a red Aura, Tomoe” Lacus says, coughing “I’m not as strong as you are. I couldn’t carry both Aversa and her husband with me and enter the lake fast enough to guarantee them not seeing us! The expenditure would have been too much!… I couldn’t risk it…”

“Say it like it is! In the face of danger, you just ducked your tail between your legs and ran away!... You coward...”

Lacus downcasts his eyes to the ground. He doesn’t answer back.

“Tomoe, come on” Titania interrupts “focus with me. Focus on what we can do and change right now, and we need all the help we can get.”

Tomoe takes a couple of deep breaths to try and calm the fury that is shaking her entire body, then says “Ok” As she drops her shoulders and walks back into seeing over the lake.

“So, what are we going to do now?”

“Lacus” starts saying Titania, putting a hand to his shoulder “we are now planning how to sound the disk at the statue.”

“Oh right, you have the bong… but how in styx you’re planning to do that? You know that the statue is surrounded by tents and soldiers right?”

“I was thinking of a distraction.”

“Distraction…”

“That’s right. But… you have any ideas on what could work?”

“Hmm…” Lacus lets escape, as he rubs his chin with his hand “Why don’t we use the magic beasts?”

“Use them?” says Titania, as her eyes wide open “but how? Doubt I can go to any of them and ask for support.”

“Here nearby we have a bunch of bolgasts. I… saw them when taking this river all the way into the forest. There is a bunch of them.”

Tomoe says, still with an aggressive tone in her voice “How so? They usually are found in rocky environments, always by the mountains at both sides that form the forest corridor.”

“Surely they were displaced by this army, trying to secure a safe path into our city. It is like you say, the forest provides little food for them.”

“Well, it sounds more like an opportunity to me! We could make use of them, and raise a ruckus. But how? We can end as skeletons in an instant if we aren’t careful.” Says Titania.

“Why not make them run here to the lake?” Proposes Lacus.

“Why don’t I go to a grim wolf instead and try to pet him?” Replies Titania.

“Ehmm…” Tomoe interrupts the exchange, adding “actually, if it is about bolgasts, if you flash light at them, they get scared and try to get away.”

Titania looks at her, snickers, and says “the bolgasts, being so big, get scared with… just some light?”

“They run and hide all the time when a day with this weather comes by, once the thunders start coming down, even if the flash is from far away.”

“That… I like the idea” says Lacus “but how are we going to make this flash for light? I guess we can’t wait for this weather to give us one or two thunders to work with.”

“A torch works just fine” says Tomoe, as she crouches completely to the ground “just lit it with your Aura and Cinnamon, and move it fast from one side to the other, really close to them. That ought to do the trick.”

Silence comes by, as another gust shakes again the bushes and makes many trees dance.

Titania, standing up, then says “Come with me Lacus. They are really dangerous… I don’t want to scare them alone.”

“What about me?” asks Tomoe, standing up too.

“Well, what you said before is true actually, you’re the fastest under the water” says Titania, with a smile on her face “Besides, you’re the one in the best conditions right now. Go underwater and wait for the distraction.”

Titania and Lacus disappear into the forest, as Tomoe comes closer to the river, and dives upward back into the bedside of the lake.

Hugging the floor, Tomoe swims between algae and rocks. The lake is surprisingly deep, yet it doesn’t have any fish for some unknown reason.

She comes closer to the statue.

From the bottom of the lake, she can observe the shore. Light comes through the surface, and the shadows of people can be seen, coming in and out of the lake. Some are even taking a dip into the lake on the other side.

Tomoe stands on the bottom of the lake, within a bubble made by water taming. The bubble is perfectly still and only reduces in size as Tomoe breathes the air contained.

Nothing can be heard. From where she is at the bottom of the lake, she can see the place from where one of the underground rivers ends feeding the lake. The people in the surface continue moving, in and out of her sight. She can hear the muffled sounds of the people speaking closer to the side of the shore she is in, but she can’t make what they are saying. The underwater zone is mostly serene, with the light that continues to grace the surface and the wind that rises some waves.

This feeling of silence. She closes her eyes and felt her gut kicking in. She knows this feeling, but she can’t pinpoint were has she felt this before. Nothing comes up in her memory, only pure, pure darkness.

How much time has gone by? Tomoe opens her eyes back. The shores look the same, the shadows coming in and out. A different shadow comes forward to the shore, wearing some type of regal clothing, and stretches his arms towards Tomoe. Being taken by surprise, she rubs her eyes, only to find that the shadow is gone.

TK Should I go? I’m sure I can make it. But still, Titania isn’t wrong. If I’m caught, it will take far longer to sound the disk that if we go her way.

She looks to her bubble, the space turning so small that she has problems to freely move her arms. Opening a hole like before to the surface, smaller this time, she lets air come through. As the air comes through, the voices of the soldiers of the invading army can be heard more clearly, as well as the wind, that is getting more and more serious.

Some laughs can be heard.

Those bastards, don’t they know what they are doing? I may lose everything, and you still laugh… May Cinders eat your Soul.

Tomoe bites her lower lip, bringing her hands to her face.

Calm down girl... calm down...

She raises her eyes, still nothing, nothing has changed.

Maybe I should give it a go? If I succeed, It would be faster than with Titania’s method…

Titania’s face comes to her mind. That smile, those eyes, that petition. Tomoe would be betraying her trust if she goes like that. But will she be able to lure the bolgasts here? she could push herself with a long jump using the water pressure, maybe covering half of the way…

She takes a couple of steps back, keeping the hole open, making it now a diagonal path connecting the hole in the surface and her in the bottom. As she kneels, water starts entering the bubble. Tomoe casts her eyes to the ground, her heart pounding, the words of Titania rumbling on her mind. She clutches her fists…

A scream tears the quietness of the camp, making Tomoe lose balance for some moments. Rising her eyes, she manages to catch many shadows pointing towards on direction, getting up, and running towards it. She turns, trying to distinguish what is happening in that direction, but the light makes it so hard to distinguish the shadows of the people and the ones from the forest.

Suddenly, an arm reaches her, getting her startled and letting a little scream escape. Entering her bubble, Lacus and Titania appear.

“I’ll never understand how you can tame water this way” says Titania, then, looking at Tomoe’s face, she adds “Uh? What’s with you?… oooh, bet you were about to jump alone right?”

With her heart still pounding fast, Tomoe asks “How it went?”

A smug is drawn on Lacus’ and Titania’s faces, as she points towards the forest, seeing now how from the shadows of the trees, bright green liquid is shot with enough pressure to reach ten meters away, followed by a couple of big shadows, noticeable enough to even identify them from their point of view.

“They are now distracted, go!” says Titania.

“Right!” says Tomoe, as Titania and Lacus step out of the bubble.

Making the hole just large enough for her to pass, Tomoe fills the bubble in an instant with water, combining the natural pressure with the pressure she can inflict with her water taming skills, and pushing through. Coming bursting out of the lake, she flies well above the tents, covering about half the space. Before falling to the ground, she engages her Aura, and envelops herself in it, shielding herself from the damage taken from the fall. Standing up again, she now enhances her body and runs towards the statue.

Getting to it, she takes the bong, and seeing how no soldier has realized that she is there, and the bolgasts, large beasts that are a lot like Elephants but with many more protrusions coming off their heads and sides, are causing the ruckus, now controlling one side of the shore, With all of her might, she swings the bong, hitting the disk with all of her strength.

The vibrations that come off are strong, enough to make Tomoe lose equilibrium and fall from the statue. Part of the soldiers manages to realize that the disk has been pounded, but are still too focused on fighting the wild bolgasts. The lake starts vibrating too and starts to fill with light. The surface starts going wild, creating multiple upward spikes, as if the water were boiling.

Suddenly, the lake lights completely. The water rises about twenty meters into the air and stays like that. A wall of water and light.

Running back to the lake, stumbling a bit along the way, Tomoe sees Lacus and Titania from inside, reaching her out. Taking their hand, she enters into this wall.

“When your mother gave us the mission to ring the disk that the ugly statue was holding at lake Butterfly, I didn’t guess that something like this is what would happen” says Lacus.

“What the… aren’t we under the water? I can clearly hear you speak!”

“I’m surprised for that too!” joins Titania. She points towards the direction of the soldiers fighting the bolgasts and adds “look, it seems that they can’t enter now into the water” as the foreign soldiers try to run to the water, a futile attempt, and then they are turned into skeletons by the bright green liquid the bolgasts spew.

“And look at that too!” says Lacus, as he points toward the river that goes and feeds the water channels of the city: The water wall, rose up by the disk, keeps going downward, in direction to the city.

A sensation of calmness ran through Tomoe’s body “I hope that this brings enough help.”

“We can bring down our sorry asses too, you know” says Titania.

“Let's go” says Lacus.

“Yes” Tomoe says, as the three of them get at the level of the river, moving in the direction towards the city.