Author's Notes:
This war isn't over yet flea bag!

"Captain, it's been nearly an hour, we need to send out the scouts!" A Captain demanded.

"Captain, I volunteer for the mission," Kathyln stated sternly.

"No! I won't diminish our forces by even one until after the original projected time with the beast horde," Captain Flamesworth replied sternly.

Ever since he saw the purple flames, Trodius Flamesworth had been grappling with an overwhelming fear, all centered around Arthur. He couldn't explain it, but he knew deep down that if he continued down the path he was walking, he would be lucky if everything only ended with his own death. Being the type of man he was however, no one knew the fear that was currently driving him, only that it was as if someone was chasing him around cracking a whip.

First he abandoned the original plan of sacrificing so many of the soldiers, and falsifying his report back to the council. Then he paid the teams making preparations in the tunnels a visit, and gave them even more personnel to get their work done even faster. Next he modified Arthur's plan slightly, using the arial scouts to attack from above while circling the horde for when the attack began. He even used his personal funds to purchase every single potion and elixir from the merchants before they left and had them distributed among the defending forces appropriately. Lastly, he ensured that the ground team, intended to attack the beasts after the trap was sprung, that included Reynolds Leywin was to be the last to engage the beasts.

"Sir, what if Arthur is in trouble?" Kathyln demanded.

Trodius tilted his head and eyed Kathlyn curiously.

"She knows the General well enough to be on a first name basis with him? Perhaps I should hold her back as well."

"Ahem," Trodius cleared his throat as he straightened back up. "If the General is in trouble, what will you do?" He asked Kathyln.

"Help him."

"And if that trouble is a Scythe or Retainer, what then? Do you believe you can provide adequate support without becoming a burden yourself?"

Kathyln looked away frustrated.

"You may be a prodigy with a dark silver core, but he is a prodigy as well, and with a white core no less. If you go and he is indeed battling one of Alacrya's strongest, you would be nothing less than a burden on him."

Those words stung more than anything ever said to Kathyln, but she also knew it was true. Hester put her hand and Kathyln's back in an attempt to comfort her. She couldn't argue with her brother's words, but wished he could have been a little easier on her. During her time helping Arthur train with the others, all she could do was barely hold her own. If not for the restrictions placed on him and the team work with the others, she was confident that she would have quickly been overwhelmed.

"THE GENERAL IS RETURNING!" A man on the Wall yelled.

Everyone looked up as they saw him clearing the top of the wall. As they got closer everyone could feel it, something about Arthur had changed. It had nothing to do with how he looked or the pressure from his core, which was kept remarkably under control, it was his presence that felt different. When he left it felt as if they were in the presence of a king not a General, but now it felt as though they were staring at a god descending from the heavens.

As his feet touched the ground nearly everyone took a knee and bowed. Only his parents and Kathyln remained standing, and for Kathyln it was only because she knew that was something that he wouldn't have wanted from his friends.

"General," Trodius said, his eyes locked on the ground. "What happened with the beast horde?"

"Didn't you see the flames? They're all dead," Arthur replied calmly.

Everyone's eyes widened. What Arthur had just accomplished was nothing short of a miracle, they didn't even care that all of their preparations were now pointless.

"If I may ask, why wasn't this the original plan?" Trodius asked.

"This was only the fifth time I've used that spell, and first at this scale. Every other time I lost control of it, if I did this time the whole glades probably would have been reduced to ashes. It just so happened that I had gained, insight into a new way to control it before I left," Arthur replied as he stared down at the man who was a traitor in the previous timeline.

Arthur wanted to nail him to the wall, to destroy him as he did before, but now that he changed things, it would be a lot harder.

"Everyone can get up now," Arthur said, feeling a little uncomfortable seeing everyone like that.

"Where is Sylvie?" Kathyln asked with a tilted head.

"On our way to the horde we saw a large Alacryan force marching on Elenoir. I sent her to offer support," Arthur replied as he started walking to the Captain's tent.

"Captain Flamesworth, I'll be borrowing your tent to rest for a bit, but feel free to keep using it," Arthur said, hoping he would do something incriminating while he was acting asleep.

"Arthur?" Reynolds said as Arthur passed the Captain. "Are you ok?"

Arthur smiled and turned and walked to him.

"I'm fine, just a little tired," Arthur said, then gave his father a hug.

"Arthur?" Rey said as he returned the hug.

"Sorry, it just feels like I haven't seen you in years."

Rey chuckled. "And yet it's only been a few hours."

Arthur released him from the hug. "When you and mom get back to Kalberk, how about we get Ellie and have a family dinner together?"

Rey smiled proudly. "Alright, and try and bring my future daughter-in-law, she will be family after all."

"Sounds like a plan," Arthur replied and continued back to the tent.

Once inside and alone, he allowed his control to crumble. Happy tears poured from his eyes, as he thought about the future with his father he now had.

—————————————————————

Sylvie flew steadily towards Elenoir, the Alacryan guiding spell burning brightly. Even though they had a plan to cancel out the spell, they didn't actually know much about it.

After Arthur had returned to Dicathen, he had met one of the scholar mages who had studied the spell in the sanctuary. There he learned that it was in fact a series of interconnected spells that most likely activated when the last spell was cast. The scholar mage had suspected that if they could have somehow canceled out any of the spells, all of them would have gone down with it. With that knowledge the plan was simple, Regis would use destruction on the spell closest to the elven village, and they both would kill anyone that got in their way.

Regis was lying quietly on Sylvie's back as she flew when they caught sight of the retainer.

"Goose this is Maverick, I have the first target in sight," Regis said excitedly as he stood up.

"Why in the hell are you calling me that annoying bird? Do it again and I'll throw you down to the ground with all my might," Sylvie replied with a low growl.

"I've got access to all of Arthur's memories, you should take a look some time. He has got some awesome references in there from his past life," Regis replied as he kept his eyes locked.

Sylvie didn't reply and continued to fly in silence. She had always respected Arthur's privacy in regards to his past life, and never wanted to pry. But now seeing Regis had these memories and with how close they seemed to be, she was starting to feel a little jealous.

"Hello Lady Sylvie," Cylrit said as he levitated over the trees of Elshire Forest. Sylvie remained in her dragon form and she continued to fly in place.

"Where is Arthur Leywin?" The retainer asked as he looked around.

"Sorry Cylrit, but the role of Arthur Leywin has been replaced with this blood thirty, homicidal, bad ass," Regis said as he stood tall and announced his presence.

"Where is Arthur Leywin?" He asked again more urgently.

"He stayed behind to deal with the beast horde," Sylvie replied.

"He should be done massacring them all by now," Regis chimed in.

Cylrit looked uncharacteristically nervous.

"Regardless, I will not allow you to pass. By order of lady Seris, no good will come from your involvement here. The battle has already been decided."

"Yeah, we kind of know a lot about what you think is decided," Regis chortled.

"Agrona said it himself, Arthur has the ability to alter your plans in his favor," Sylvie added as she thickly clad herself in mana.

"And we're going to show you right here and now," Regis added, then leapt from Sylvie's back towards Cylrit.

As he flew through the air aetheric flames spiraled around him. When the flames burst out in every direction the aetheric wolf was larger with spikes jutting out of his body, and flames of destruction on his fangs and claws. A black cloud formed in Cylrit's hand and formed into a black greatsword. He then moved the sword out to his side, expecting Regis to be drawn to it, but quickly realized this wasn't working. He then abandoned his sword as he realized he wouldn't be able to move it in time, and instead grabbed Regis by his front legs as he was tackled into the forest.

—————————————————————-

Deep within the Elshire Forest the battle raged between the Alacryan forces and the defending force of Elenoir soldiers, trailblazers, and civilian volunteers, all led by Tess. A majority of the Alacryans were focused on Pasta, appearing to be doing all they could just to keep him pinned down. The remainder clashed with the remaining forces, hoping to defeat them so they could surround Pasta and attack him from all sides.

Tess' plant magic was being pushed to its limits, roots ripping from the ground only to pull the Alacryans to their graves, as carnivorous plants popped up like traps and took hold of any soldiers unlucky enough to get close to them and worked to devour them. The carnivorous plants were only traps set up by Tess before the wall was breached, so many of them had already been used and were now useless. Tess bore the entire weight of this battle on her shoulders, every ally's blood was her own. She was supposed to be focused on defending only her area with her team, but she ended up using her plant magic to help the entire front line.

As she did this she saw an Alacryan soldier mounted atop a large wolf like mana beast cut through her roots then throw a spear, impaling a civilian mage. She tried to attack as he rode through their ranks, dodging attacks while throwing spears and killing the civilians. He was working to make a hole in their line by targeting their weakest. She desperately wanted to stop him before he could kill more, but she held her position with her team. He killed another, then seemed to go out of his way to pass by Tess again, almost as if he was taunting her, trying to lure her away, and it worked.

Tess spun around on her heel and was about to take off running after him, but stopped as a pike came out of nowhere and impaled both him and his beast. Instinctively she looked to Pasta who was still fighting, but suddenly cast a series of wind blades around him, killing everyone within ten feet. He turned back locked eyes on Tess, glaring at her as if scolding, before diverting his back to his own battle. Tess realized the mistake she had made and ran back to her position before it was too late.

The battle continued to rage, until a powerful pressure bore down on everyone from above. Everyone, even Pasta stopped fighting as they all looked up. Close by, an aerial battle was ensuing between two powerful foes. Many wondered if it was General Aya in combat with a retainer. It made sense that the Alacryans would have one of their strongest close by in case a lance showed up, but then the defending elves wondered about their reinforcements, if they were even still coming.

Suddenly a ball black and purple fire crashed through the forest canopy with tremendous force, as if thrown from the sky, and crashed down on the middle of the battlefield. A dust cloud hid the mage from view as everyone waited with anticipation as to who would be revealed.

Within seconds a black spiked wolf flew backwards out, but landed on his feet as he skidded to a stop. Everyone looking upon the wolf shuddered in fear, as the wolf looked as if it had crawled out from the gates of hell. A powerful roar was then heard from above, followed by a stream of pure mana flames. The flames hit the dust cloud and dispersed it as it was blocked by Cylrit with a new sword in hand.

Seeing an opening Regis charged in, and tackled Cylrit again as he sank his teeth into his right shoulder, and knocked him out of the fiery stream. Then to everyone's shock and amazement an obsidian dragon landed right where Cylrit once stood.

"Sylvie?!" Tess shouted, completely caught off guard by the sight of her.

Sylvie's head snapped in her direction.

"Move this battle away from here now!" She roared, and charged back into battle.

Cylrit spun his sword around and thrust it back into Regis' stomach, but this had no effect. He grabbed Regis by one of the horns on his head and flipped him hard into the ground as he broke his grip on his shoulder. Before he could recover though Sylvie charged in and tackled him. Seeing her at the last second he thrust his sword forward, piercing her chest slightly below her throat. Adrenaline rushing through her veins she ignored the pain and continued, trying to bite down on his head. He again abandoned his sword and grabbed the top and bottom of her jaw, and held them open from clamping down and killing him.

Having recovered, Regis took off running full speed towards Sylvie to help finish Cylrit. Being unable to sense any mana coming from Regis, Cylrit was forced to rely on his other senses. So when he heard the rhythmic thumping of Regis running, he released his black fog into Sylvie's mouth.

"Throw him now!" Regis yelled in her mind. Even though they didn't know the extent of Cylrit's fog, the fact that he could create a sword from it opened a vast array of dangerous possibilities if inhaled.

Without a second's hesitation Sylvie swung her head and fired a blast of pure mana, sending Cylrit flying behind her. A purple glow then came from Sylvie's mouth as Regis ran past her.

"You ok?" Regis asked as he prepared to continue attacking.

"That fog burns, but I'll be fine," Sylvie replied as she finished healing the inside of her mouth, remembering the effects of the black fire.

Cylrit regained his footing and created a new sword before swinging it at Regis. Much to his disbelief, Regis didn't try to dodge or counter attack, but instead caught the blade with his teeth. Cylrit saw Sylvie returning to join the battle, and tried to pull his sword away, but Regis held strong. Then with a smile, the purple flames of destruction flared out as he bit down and shattered the sword. Cylrit stumbled back in disbelief, leaving himself wide open for Sylvie to chomp down on his left side, narrowly missing his head. Then Regis ran up and chomped down at his waist.

"Hey Sylvie, let's play tug of war," Regis suggested, his blood lust coming through clearly.

Sylvie sighed, having no desire to take things that gruesome, but wasn't given much choice as Regis started pulling with all his might.

Not far away the battle with the Alacryan soldiers continued, but they weren't faring so well. The battle didn't move very far, but the little it did give Pasta the breathing room he needed to provide better support to the remaining forces. It also didn't hurt that Aya and her troops arrived and were able to flank the Alacryans on their right side. It was clear that Alacrya wasn't going to win this battle, but that didn't weaken their resolve to fight till their last breath, until Regis and Sylvie landed in the middle of the battlefield.

Everyone became silent as the two towered and looked down upon everyone with something hanging from their mouths dripping blood. Together they dropped them, revealing them each to be half of Cylrit's body.

"Cylrit is dead," Regis announced excitedly.

"Alacryans, this is your only chance to run, otherwise we'll join the battle as well," Sylvie added as she released the pressure from her core.

With the fight knocked out of them from seeing the dead retainer, the Alacryan's made a full retreat.

"Why let them go?" Regis asked. "With the two of us we could have wiped them all out?"

"True, but we already changed things just by being here. I don't want to risk anyone important to Arthur and I dying."

"Namely Tess," Regis said in understanding, as he looked out at the running soldiers. "Well, I have a job to do, so I better get going." Regis then took off running after them.

"You plan on killing more don't you?"

"Eventually you won't even ask, you'll just know." "Come on you little piggies, this big bad wolf wants to play some more!" Regis called manically.

Sylvie sighed. "How did Arthur work with him?"

"Sylvie?"

"Tess!" Sylvie cried out happily and returned to her human form.

Tess knelt down and the two shared a warm hug.

"What are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be helping Art?" Tess asked while she continued to hug her.

"Don't worry, the horde should be all taken care of by now. We saw that guiding spell activate and Arthur asked us to help."

"Us? You mean that wolf beast? And are you sure Art's ok? I know he's strong, but even that seems like a lot, at least for this fast."

"Don't worry, Arthur's fine. As for us, his name is Regis. Arthur's Asura weapon finally activated, and well, that's him."

"I would have expected a sword or an actual weapon," Tess thought out loud.

Just then the guide spell could be seen going down throughout the forest.

"Looks like he's done."

"Done with what?"

"Tearing down that spell the Alacryan's used to find their way here."

Regis was then seen strolling up with a satisfied look on his face.

"Well that was fun. I managed to kill another five before I got to the spell. The rest will probably wonder lost and die after a few days," Regis said, then with a swirl of aetheric fire returned to a more modest size, but still large for a normal wolf.

"You killed them retreating?" Tess asked, as this was something dishonorable among the soldiers.

"Part of his mana came from a sadistic retainer, I think that's where he gets all his personality quirks from."

"So this is Tess?" Regis asked, then started to walk around checking her out.

"Yes I am. It's nice to meet you Regis," Tess replied with a smile.

The parts of Regis' mind suddenly became captivated by that smile, leaving him staring at her smiling back. Noticing this Regis shook his head.

"Ok, I see the attraction, but I still don't get it," Regis stated as he looked at Tess confused.

"Get what?" Tess asked.

"How Arthur hasn't just fucked you yet."

Tess blushed a brighter red and anyone would think possible, as Sylvie's jaw dropped from his bluntly and vulgar comment.

"Seriously, your hot, you've got sex appeal. Why hasn't he just thrown you on the bed and just...."

Sylvie refused to let him finish his sentence, and quickly turned back into a dragon, and slammed one of her claws down on him, creating a small crater.

"Ouch," Regis said from under Sylvie's claw.

"Like I said, retainers mana," Sylvie said in Arthur's defense.