"Sir, we should retreat," one of my group members said as she glanced at the shattered cores thoughout. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by hoards of abyssmals.

"Yeah, I think we've gone far enough for today," a second person said as we came to a stop.

"There is no sign of the Makkuroyama children," another said.

I took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright, let's get..." I stopped. A cavern on the side of the wall caught my eye. Where did the cavern lead to? Did it lead to where my aunt Rocio lived?

"Do you wish to explore the cavern, sir?" a fourth soldier asked.

I glanced up and studied the giant spiral rock. From here, one could see its peak move back and forth like a buoy at sea, even though it was submerged in the dark waters of the realm.

"Hmm, no. I think it'll be best to just note down this location and come back another day," I said. I knelt down and I picked up a shattered core for further study on the enemy. "Alright, let's get go..."

"Ahhh!" bone-chilling shouts echoed. I turned around and saw nine of my teammates being dangled over me. Gray tails had impaled each one of them. As the others turned, they were met with needle shaped lances to their chests.

"Sir, run..." one of them said before falling to the ground.

"No," I said, taking a step back. "Everyone, get behind me!"

"Not so fast!" a familiar voice echoed. Lightning rained down on my remaining teammates.

"It's too... strong," one of them said as they collapsed to the ground.

"Burn! Flaming wheel!" another familiar voice shouted.

"You! You're that Reno kid!" one of my soldiers said as he stepped back. "And you're Roa!"

I took a deep breath. My grip on Avalon's hilt grew tighter. I flew toward the tails. Each of the nine released their prey over me. I had to dodge and push aside my fallen comrades in order to make it to Satoru who stood at the edge of a cliff-side.

"Ahh, so you're here. Nice of you to come to us, peasant," the fox abyssmal said with an impish grin. "Tell me, how are is the princess and her peasant boy doing? I hope they're well."

I narrowed my eyes at him. What was with that tone. It was almost as if he knew what had happened.

The fox snickered.

"Wait, let me guess. That 'knight' finally revealed the lust hidden within him to his princess, or perhaps it was the princess who took advantage of him."

I gasped. "What did you say?" I asked, pointing Aventine at his neck. "Do you know what happened?"

Satoru grinned. "What? You mean I guessed right? Tell me, which of the guesses was right? The first or the second?"

"Guesses?" I tilted my head and dove Aventine into his neck. "To me you sound awfully sure about your words! Tell me, what do you know? Are you the one who took advantage of Rosa?"

"Took advantage of Rosa?" Roa asked from behind. Reno and he had slaughtered nearly all of my group.

I swiped Satoru's head off and charged at Roa.

Roa grabbed the sword between his hands. "Hey, that's a rude way to welcome your cousin!"

"Tell me what you know about what happened between Tetsuya and Rosa!" I yelled.

"He doesn't know," a voice echoed in my head. I turned around in time as nine tails sprung at me.

"Tsk. Should've found the core and shattered it first," I said as I sliced the tails with ease. "Speak what you know fox!"

He shrugged as his head finished regenerating. "Know what? I already said that it was merely conjecture, nothing more."

"What happened to the princess?" Roa asked again.

"Ha, like you care! You merely used her for your own advantage," I said as I flew down toward Reno who remained at a lower elevation. "And you! Tell me where your cousins are!"

Reno blocked my sword with his blood covered blade. "Hehehe, so we finally get to meet in battle properly."

I was outnumbered. It wasn't gonna be easy obtaining answers like this."

I watched some of my teammates limped away.

I flew down toward them. "Can you fly?" I asked.

"No, sir. Our bodies, they're too heavy," one of them responded. "One of them came at us from out of nowhere and with a simple tap made our bodies like this."

I gasped. There was another?

"Go, I'll buy you time," I whispered.

"Die!" Satoru yelled, descending like an eagle about to snatch its prey from the ground.

I spun around and swung Aventine, cutting him in half. "You are the ones who are gonna die. Right here, right now!" I yelled as a wave of energy covered my body.

Satoru grinned as his two halves came together once again. "Such power. No wonder they call you the strongest of the Seven-Hills of your generation."

"You talk too much," I said, appearing behind him and sending him crashing into the spiral rock.

Roa charged at me, sending me flying back. "Satoru, get up and go to Xeleria with Reno and Man-Kin. I'll hold off Serra here."

Satoru rose from the ground, his smile gone. "No, I refuse to lose against yet another peasant!" He launched a beam of ice from his hands, but I sent it back with an energy wave of my own.

Satoru gasped as ice appeared around him. Though, he remained unaffected by it.

"Alabaster!" Reno shouted. Blood trickled down the teen's lips and eyes. Was his djinn still not fully healed yet?

"Not this again," I said as the djinn appeared behind me. I sliced at the thing but like last time, my sword went through it.

"That sword..." Alabaster said, eyes wide. He reached his hand out for it, a longing look in his eyes.

I slashed the air repeated to keep the gaseous being from being able to reform. "Oh-" I opened my mouth but no sound came out.

"Oh now you don't!" Roa said with a grin. "I learned a little something from my squabble against Hideo. Your attacks are stronger when you speak while preparing them. I guess it makes sense, just like the creator deities you use your voices to create. Same goes for the mages."

I snuck a glance on my remaining group members as they inched away.

I needed to find a way to allow them to escape safely. Slyly, I covered them in a layer of mana while I had my back turned to them. Luckily, Satoru and the others were too preoccupied with me to care for them.

Next, I formed a pair of earth daggers on my elbows and spun around. The blades sliced through Satoru's barrage of tails and kept the others at bay.

Satoru grumbled. The fox abyssmal raised his hands out. "Freezing Frenzy!" He released a massive wave of freezing air while a black haired boy jumped at me. He formed a bubble of the abyss' dark water around me. The water strangled my body as the ice froze it.

"Nice job, Man-kin!" Roa yelled as he prepared to unleash a wave of electricity.

Was this dark water really water? Why wasn't the water around Satoru's hands frozen or caused Roa's lightning to discharge? Was it that it only gained water-like properties in the hands of a water user?

"ARGH!" I yelled as the ice and lightning spread across my arms and then to the rest of my body. My entire being felt as if it were on fire!

I couldn't let it end like this. Not after what they did to my teammates!

Beams of darkness flew out of my body, destroying the bubble. I fell on all fours and glared at my opponents as they closed in on me. I felt like an animal about to be butchered.

Satoru chuckled. "You were fools for coming here. Say, where is the princess? The older one. I have yet to properly meet her."

"That's none of your business!" I growled as a tiger-like tail sprung out of my lower back.

Roa gasped. "What in the world?"

I smiled as I looked down at the shadows around me. The shadows in my feet were shaped like the feet of tigers. "Is this my abyssmal form?"

"I take it that it is, though it's crudely put together," Satoru said, eyes wide. "It's just like with his cousin."

"You mean the draconic tail?" I asked. I snickered. A tiger and a dragon, how fitting.

I charged at Satoru. I gasped as I realized my voice had returned. Had Roa removed his ability's hold on my voice when he asked me a question?

Satoru held out a hand. "Ice Wall!" he chanted. A wall of ice resembling a mirror formed in front of him. I slashed the barrier with Aventine, slicing it into two perfectly neat halves.

"Tsk. We won't be able to defeat him like this," Man-Kin yelled as he jumped at me.

I turned around and swatted him with my tail but he managed to grab a hold of it. Suddenly my entire body felt as if it had become ten-time heavier.

I fell back on all fours.

"Die!" Satoru yelled as he whipped me with his tails.

I cried out in agony as the tails punctured through my armor. Was this how he felt? Was this the pain that Tetsu endured in that dungeon? I couldn't bare to see him in agony then. Yet I did hear his screaming, those cries of agony begging for mercy. This fox knew something, yet he wasn't talking. He either had something to do with it, or had some knowledge the rest of us were not privy to.

Satoru grinned and continued to hit me harder.

I needed to move. At least a little...

The fox's grin widened. "Yes, there's that same look in your eyes as the one that peasant and his sister gave me back at the palace, more so the former. The look of agony as he struggled to move. It was so lovely. Now, Serrano, pay for the actions of your beloved cousin!"

I slashed his tails in a single swoop.

His eyes widened even more as he stumbled back.

"I will, but his victory over you is not one he nor I should pay for!" I yelled as I pushed myself up.

"I can't die here. I still have a lot to do in life. Even though my brother is gone and if Tetsuya were scum, I still wish to live!" I yelled, causing the ground below me to rumble. "Oh hear me out—"

"Nope!" Roa said, quieting me once more.

I turned my attention toward him and directed a wave of earth at him.

Roa transformed into his pegasus form and kicked the wave back at me. I halted it and redirected it toward Satoru.

The fox attempted to freeze the ground in place but the earth plowed through the frigid crystals like a bulldozer.

Man-kin jumped in front and pushed the earth back with his raw strength. Moving the ground suddenly felt ten times harder.

The fox's tails wrapped around my neck and raised up into the air. I glanced down and was met with a chilling, sadistic look from Satoru.

I gripped one of his tails. I dove one of my shadowy, ghost-like tiger claws into one of his tails, causing him to shriek like a banshee. The fox's eyes became even colder as his tails squeezed the life out of me.

"You are but a peasant, know that," Satoru said as he continued to tightened his grip on my neck. "You aren't even a half abyssmal, so it should be possible to kill you by crushing your throat!"

"Enough!" a voice called out. Though there was no one around. "This young man might be a peasant in the other realms, but here is as much nobility as Roa, Man-Kin, and you are. Recall that his mother is one of the thirteen Pillars like your own mothers."

Roa put a hand on Satoru's shoulder. "You heard gramps, let go of him."

Gramps? Is this... does this voice belong to my grandfather?

Satoru raised me higher into the air as my consciousness started to wane. "But sir, you forget that this one's mother is a traitor, much like his cousin's father. I should do to him as should be done to any other traitor."

"Stop!" a voice called out. An bullet of flame ripped through the tails, causing their own to shriek.

Satoru glared at the one who had shot him. "Etsuo!"

I gripped my throat and watched as Etsuo glared at the fox. "You heard my grandfather. You are to stand down! If not, I will be forced to shoot you down for disobedience!"

Satoru tails slashed the ground as he laughed. "My, oh my. To think that I would hear those words from you. You spent too much time with the Zionians. It wouldn't be strange to believe that you are a traitor like your uncle and aunt who remained in Zionia following their dove mother's death."

"Satoru," the voice from before echoed.

The fox's eyes widened as shadows wrapped around his body.

"Watch that tongue of yours, boy. Or I will be forced to pull it out."

The fox glared at the shadow's around him. "You..."

"Do not dare give that defiant look when you're trapped. There are many ways I can deal with you which do not involve a quick death."

Satoru froze in place. Slowly the shadows let go of him.

"Much better. Go now. I need you to find the Ziz. In the meantime, I will be going to Wynaga soon to retrieve the Behemoth."

I clenched my sword and pushed myself up.

The Ziz and Behemoth, why were they after them? Do they plan to start the end-times? If so, then why? They must know that doing so will awaken the fury of the Sky Father. Or do these arrogant creatures think they can take him on?

Satoru stepped forward and unleashed an all out attack without warning. "Die you worthless, trash! Die!" he yelled as his hands shook with fury.

His tails pierced my side and tossed me toward the opening of the cavern.

"Stop it, Satoru!" Roa yelled as he pulled him back. "Get a hold of yourself! You're gonna be killed if you don't stop now!"

Etsuo pointed his silver gun at the fox and fired, though he missed this time. "Enough, Satoru or the next one will hit you where it hurts!" He turned to look at me.

I dropped Aventine on the floor. I couldn't speak even though my ability to do so had been returned to me. Only small, pathetic sounds like those of a dying tiger came out.

"Serrano," Etsuo said, closing his eyes.

Satoru grinned as he dusted himself off. He turned toward the cavern and walked inside..

"Let's go," Reno said, looking back at Roa.

Roa nodded and followed after them.

"Are you gonna help him?" Man-Kin asked his brother.

"Leave him there," the voice echoed. "Satoru did something he shouldn't have done, but it can still be useful to us. It's up to to this boy if his core continues to shine. If he dies, then it would be because he wasn't strong enough."

Etsuo grimaced and turned away. "Sorry, Serrano. I wish I could help some more, but I can't."

I placed my head against the ground. I couldn't let it end like this. I needed to find out what Satoru and the others were here for, what was inside that cavern? Information on where to find the Ziz?

Tetsu, what would he do in this situation? I recalled how he had continued to stand up during our various sparring matches, including the most recent one.

Simply remembering made me smile. That's right, the guy wouldn't surrender! He would fight, until his last breath.

I pushed my heavy body up and crawled deeper into the cavern, sword at hand. I was prepared to face the same fate that befell my uncle Tekeshi.

**Solar Questions: Thoughts? Predictions?**