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Episode 71 Saving an Angel

An orange sun sits over a nest of bright crimson and red-orange clouds far in the horizon. A cool breeze blows by, gently caressing the boughs of leaves in the endless forest of trees.

A little black figure sits loftily on a wide, sturdy branch of one such tree, watching the sunset as the sun dips ever closer towards the end of the world. Heaving a soft, gentle sigh, Ivy glances further up, at a dusk sky where one or two stars have begun to shine.

‘Kunai…’ Ivy thinks to herself, drawing her knees closer to her body in an attempt to keep warm, ‘I know you’re out here somewhere in this Ellinian forest. That’s why I’m here to find you.’

A mental picture of Kunai forms in Ivy’s mind, as she struggles to fight back tears. ‘I know exactly why you chose to leave us, Kunai…back then, you were always talking to me about it. Revenge? After a while, you stopped speaking to me about revenge. I thought you had decided to forget it after all.

‘But all this time, it seems like you never forgot about it, and now that you’ve grown all powerful, you’re acting upon those feelings of revenge…I wouldn’t mind so much, if only you could just bring me with you…’

“Ivy,” Rill’s voice interrupts Ivy’s train of thought.

She starts, looking around for a moment, before spotting Rill standing directly below her, right under the tree. A pile of old, dried up branches is sitting at his feet. “This should be enough firewood for the night.”

“Right,” Ivy replies distractedly. She remains silent for several moments, thinking.

Rill shifts uncomfortably, looking up at Ivy from below. “Well,” he mumbles, “I’m gonna get the fire ready, and then we can have dinner. Come down when you’re ready.”

Ivy sighs, wrapping her arms around her knees. ‘Thanks to Rill’s Haste, we’ve already managed to make it halfway back to Haven in less than one day. We should be there by tomorrow…hopefully, that’s where Kunai will be…’

Rill glances gloomily up at Ivy periodically, as he tends to the kindling. ‘It’s obvious she’s extremely worried about Kunai…one look in her eyes and you can just tell. I’ll do everything I can to make sure she sees Kunai as soon as possible.’

The dark shadow of a hanging tree branch suddenly slips over Rill, and he jumps slightly in surprise. He narrows his eyes. ‘…Kunai. Just what is he? From just watching that one fight with Lord Gilford, he could obviously fight on par with him. Is he really thinking of taking on Gilford himself, alone? He’s got to be insane.

‘All the same though, even with one quick glance, I could feel the danger in his every move, the willingness to do everything to win. And what am I? Weak. If I ever get caught in a fight with him, I’m doomed.’

“Rill? Rill! RIILLL!”

Rill suddenly jerks back into the present, as Ivy begins shaking him violently. “Huh? What?” Rill mumbles idly, staring at Ivy confusedly.

“Your pants are on fire!”

“WHA—?!” Rill shouts, looking down towards the ground. Sure enough, a thin trail of grayish smoke is leaping into the air from the bottoms of his pants.

Rill immediately drops to the floor, rolling frantically round and round in order to put out the fire. At the same time, he squeals and screams fearfully.

Eventually, Rill stands up at last, patting his smoldered bottoms with a heaving sigh. “There. Am I safe now, Ivy?” Rill asks.

“Er…yeah,” Ivy replies, peeking at the heavy masses of dirt glued to Rill’s back. “Safe from fire, anyway!”

“Ivy…” Rill murmurs sadly, staring into Ivy’s dark black eyes.

“Huh?” Ivy replies, surprised by the look. “What? Why are you looking at me like that…?”

Rill sighs, shaking his head in a depressive state. “No, it’s…nothing. But it’s just, I promised myself before we set out that I’d make sure I protected you at all costs. If you got hurt, it’d be all my fault…”

Ivy shakes her head, interrupting Rill. “No, don’t think that way,” she says, a kindly glitter in her soft eyes, “if I got hurt, it’d be my own fault, because I was so eager to help save Kunai. I don’t want you to feel responsible for me, Rill.

“Just make sure you take care of yourself first and foremost, all right? And…if something should happen to me, I’d like you to please keep going and save Kunai yourself. You’ll promise me that, right?”

Rill looks at Ivy strangely, startled by her bold words. He reluctantly nods, his eyes wide. “Uh—uh, yeah. I will. I promise.”

“Thanks, Rill! You’re really so kind and dependable, you should show it more often!” Ivy cries, throwing herself onto Rill and hugging him fiercely. Rill merely blushes, his legs buckling slightly under the weight of carrying Ivy.

“N-No problem,” he stutters.

Rill sighs contentedly, as he sits back with a satisfied look on his face, facing the now blazing fire. Across from him sits Ivy, arms wrapped around her legs, and a light blanket thrown over her shoulders. All around them, darkness has fallen in the night sky, and bright stars twinkle jovially overhead.

“Who knew marshmallow and cookie salad could be that fulfilling?” Rill says humbly, staring into the fire.

Crickets chirp softly nearby, as Ivy yawns sleepily. “Y-Yeah,” she replies, failing to stifle a yawn, “it used to be Arai’s favorite. You like it? I invented it myself!”

Rill smiles to himself, staring at Ivy’s illuminated face through the bright fire. ‘Looking at Ivy right now, it makes me want to go right up and just hug her. But I know her heart belongs to Kunai. I can see it in the way she looks at him, speaks about him. Even now, all she cares about is going after him, making sure he’s okay…’

A twig suddenly snaps right behind Rill, barely audible over the sound of the crackling fire. However, it draws Rill’s attention immediately, causing him to turn his head in the direction it had come from.

“Hm?” Ivy wonders out loud, noticing. “Is something the matter, Rill?”

Rill narrows his eyes, straining his ears to hear the noise again. He hears nothing, and eventually, he shakes his head in resignation. “No, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about something, that’s all.”

“Okay!” Ivy replies cheerfully, and with a childish grin.

Rill remains tense, however, as he sits still, listening intently for any sign of movement. ‘That was definitely a twig snapping that I just heard. Looks like there might be a possibility we’re being followed, or at least monitored. I’ll have to keep a quiet lookout just in case.

‘I shouldn’t let Ivy know unless absolutely necessary, just to make sure she doesn’t panic. Besides, if I speak of this out loud, it would give whoever’s following us a heads-up that I’m on to them. I want to catch them while they’re at it. Hopefully, it’s not too strong of an enemy…’

Ivy suddenly stands up, stretching her weary arms and yawning widely. “I think I’m going to go to bed now, Rill. It’s getting late.”

“Huh?” Rill mumbles, his train of thought interrupted. He watches Ivy for a moment. “But where are you gonna sleep? We didn’t really have much of a chance to bring anything with us.”

“No,” Ivy responds brightly, “you didn’t have much of a chance to bring anything with you! I brought my sleeping bag! I’ll be sleeping up in that tree over there.”

“Sleeping in a tree?” Rill repeats, blinking slightly. “Are you sure you’re gonna be all right up in a tree and all like that? It’ll be a cold and windy night.”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine!” Ivy replies. “Like I said, Rill, don’t worry about me.”

“Mm, okay,” Rill says, watching as Ivy climbs up the same tree she’d been hiding in earlier, sleeping bag strapped to her back. ‘She obviously hopes to be able to see Kunai from up there, even though she knows she won’t find him in this darkness.’

Rill shakes his head, punching his forehead lightly with his fist. ‘And why didn’t I think to bring my sleeping bag?! Oh man, it’s gonna be cold tonight…I wonder if Ivy would let me share a sleeping bag with her. Wait! What am I thinking?!’

A slight breath of wind washes by, causing a faint rustling amongst the trees and shrubs in the forest. Rill tenses again, cautious of the immense darkness around him. ‘Right…whoever’s following us might still be around…I better keep watch or something.’

Rill stumbles over to the trunk of the tree on which Ivy is sleeping in. He props himself up against the tree, sitting down gingerly in the leaf-covered forest floor. He shivers slightly, narrowing his eyes at the approaching darkness.

‘I’ll just sit here and keep watch for a couple hours, if nothing happens, it should be fine. No need to wake Ivy up or have her worry about this sort of thing. It’s probably just my overactive imagination, anyway.’

Rill yawns and shifts his legs, in order to sit more comfortably. ‘I’ll just…sit here and see if…anything…hap…pens…” He quickly closes his eyes, only to fall asleep near the comfort of the fire.

“Rill! Rill! Quick, hurry up! Wake up!”

Ivy stands hunched over Rill, shaking him vigorously in order to wake him up.

“It gives you wiiinnngggssss!” Rill cries sleepily, still emerging from some unknown dream. He suddenly opens his eyes wide, aware of the current situation. “Huh? Ivy? What’s…going on?

“Rill—” Ivy cries fearfully, “I think we’re being followed!”

Rill immediately scrambles to his feet, whipping out two Tobis in his Sapphire Slain even more quickly. He narrows his eyes, his breathing heavy. ‘So they’re still around…’

Baring a snarl, Rill cries out, “Come out, wherever you are! I know you’re out there!”

A quick, rigid silence follows, as Rill and Ivy wait for a response. Suddenly, Rill cries out, throwing Ivy and himself to the floor. “Get down!”

An explosion of fiery arrows burst out of the surrounding darkness, like rockets. They clash through the air, illuminating the entire clearing. With several crackling thuds, they crash into the tree Ivy had been sleeping in nearby, setting it afire.

Ivy trembles fearfully, eyes widened at the brightened scene. “My sleeping bag’s still up there…!” she murmurs. “That could’ve been me!”

“Don’t worry, Ivy,” Rill mutters to her gently, “I won’t let them harm you or me.”

Rill holds up two Tobis in his right hand, searching the darkness for the source of their assailants. However, he fails to find them, and the next moment, two consecutive arrows fly out from the right, knocking the stars out of Rill’s grip.

Rill automatically grabs his wrist, momentarily stunned by the unforeseen attack. ‘Looks like there’re at least two of them, both long-range attackers.’

“All right!” Rill shouts. “Let’s get this over with!”

He draws another two stars, launching them blindly into the darkness. Far off, a very soft thud signals the stars falling to the ground, having missed their mark.

‘If I keep throwing stars all around into the darkness, eventually that should flush them out!’ Rill draws another two stars, aiming for the darkness again.

He hurls the stars forward with a grunt; they bounce off an adjacent tree and into one of the attackers. He gives a loud grunt of pain, stumbling out into the burning clearing.

The Crossbowman drops his Heckler, a Tobi lodged in his left shoulder. He clutches it tightly, as fresh blood pours from the wound. “Ah-gah—damn it, you bastard!” he shouts through gritted teeth, stumbling around.

“Sorry, but I’m gonna have to finish you,” Rill says to him, drawing two more stars. ‘God, I hate killing like this…but I’m gonna have to.’

Rill draws back his arm to release the stars, but before he has a chance to release them, a bright flash of white light screens past him, tearing the Crossbowman apart. The foot soldier moans loudly as he falls to the ground, dead as he hits the floor.

Rill turns, shock etched in his face. Standing in the nearby shrubs is Ivy, her Thorns in hand. She holds it up in a drawn position, having used it to cast a Holy Arrow. “N-Nice, Ivy!” Rill stutters, pleasantly surprised.

“You filthy snails!” a second soldier shouts, emerging from out of the trees. “Why, I’ll make you pay for killing my comrade!” The second soldier is a mage, dressed in a raggedy Red Starlight. He holds a Hall Staff in his hands.

The Fire Mage creates another Fire Arrow with his staff, holding it taut for a moment. “Take this!” he shouts angrily. The arrow blazes brightly, eagerly burning in the presence of all the surrounding forestry.

Rill’s eyes widen immediately. “Ivy! Get down!”

However, Ivy ignores him, creating her own Holy Arrow. The Fire Mage fires; the burning arrow leaps through the air, singeing everything along the way. With a blazing, fiery brightness, the arrow meets head-on with Ivy’s own Holy Arrow.

Together, the two arrows clash, causing a violent eruption of red and golden light. As the dust settles from the explosion, a large, blackened crater stands between the two mages.

“Leave us alone, now!” Ivy cries commandingly, drawing another Holy Arrow. Without hesitance, she fires with no warning. The Holy Arrow tears through the Fire Mage, piercing his entire body and flying straight through.

The Fire Mage coughs out blood, dropping to the floor like a fly. Rill stands, watching, awed by the power in Ivy’s attack. He glances at the two downed soldiers, lying next to each other in the burning clearing.

“We’ve…we’ve caused a lot of noise,” Rill announces, nodding his head towards the burning forest around them. “I think we better leave this scene as soon as possible.” He shivers slightly, still amazed by Ivy’s strength.

“Right,” Ivy murmurs in reply, quivering slightly. She lowers her Thorns, stowing it away safely. “We better get going, then.”

“Wait.” Rill kneels down, inspecting the bodies of the two soldiers. After a quick search, he produces two ID cards. “We should keep these, especially if we end up infiltrating Haven. I have a feeling we’re gonna have to, if we’re serious about chasing after Kunai. These cards may prove useful to us.”

“Okay,” Ivy replies, taking one of the cards for herself.

She turns, threading her way steadily through the trees standing around the clearing. Ivy quickly disappears into the darkness, prompting Rill to hurry up and chase after her.

‘Although we were lucky that those enemies were incredibly weak ones, Ivy’s a lot stronger than I thought,’ Rill thinks to himself wonderingly, watching Ivy’s back as the two of them trudge along.

‘I better try my best on this journey too, or else I might prove to be a liability to Ivy. Whoever knew love was so powerful, that it could give you this much strength? I wonder whether I can find this kind of power too, if I were to fight for someone I love…’

Next Time: Episode 72 Lord Gilford’s Haven

Kunai: I’ve finally arrived here in Haven…Lord Gilford! You are going to get the surprise of your life! Prepare to meet me again, as I break through all of your pathetic defenses in Haven!

Otis: Next time…Kunai-gorilla becomes Scary-Kunai-gorilla! Waahh!

Episode 72 Lord Gilford’s Haven coming soon!