Setsuko ran quick exams on Yuko, Nori, Ximena, and me. Apparently Yuko had a mini growth spurt from 'leveling up'. She looked the way that she should've looked, had her growth not been stunted during her younger years. It was the same case with Nori who had grown since Serrano and Ximena saved him. The stunting itself was likely a result of Kuroshi starving them.

Yuko and Nori also appeared to have gained new powers, but the palace's database had no information on them. Nor did we have the time to run longer exams.

Following the exams, we headed to the vortex. There the other knights and our soldiers awaited, except for those of Setsuko.

"Sister," Rosalba called out as she ran up to her. She tensed up once she saw me. "Why...did you bring him?" She took in deep breathes. "No... Don't come any closer...." She backed away.

I lowered my head.

Rosalba... I...

I shook my head.

These feelings... why were they so difficult to suppress? Come on Tetsuya, numb them. Act indifferent toward her, that is the only way to help both her and you.

"Look, I was right. That scumbag is triggering her," Hideo yelled. "Get out of here!"

"Yeah," Eiichi agreed. His eyes shifted from me to Yuko. "Who is that girl?" He ran over and reached his hand out to her.

Setsuko slapped his hands away. "Don't touch her..." She glanced at Yuko who stood by in surprise. "Yuko, stay away from this man. He's nothing but a creepy flirt."

Eiichi eyed me and laughed. "That's not as bad as that-"

"Enough!" the first princess yelled. "I gathered us here to save Serrano. Sister, if you're feeling bad then stay here. As Father said, we need all of the knights. Even if some of them might be creeps." She wasn't looking at me, but at Eiichi. "Or better yet we can split into squads. Go with Hideo and Eiichi's groups. I'll be going with Hyosetsu and Tetsuya."

Rosa didn't move. She stayed in place, as if contemplating what she should do.

I hoped that she stayed. She wasn't in a state in which she could fight.

"Soldiers, accompany the other two Knights, listen to their orders unless if you think they're the opposite of what I would do in such a situation," Hyosetsu commanded his army. "You two, take care of my soldiers. If anything happens to them then I'll hurt you."

Hideo shrugged and walked away.

Eiichi smiled at Yuko. "Take care little girl, if you'll like you can join us."

Nori pulled Yuko away and bared his fangs at Eiichi. "Listen to princess. This man seems dangerous."

"Who asked you, you brat!" he yelled.

"Don't call Nori a brat," Yuko said, glaring at him.

Eiichi smiled and laughed. "Sorry. I meant to say 'kid'."

Nori continued to stare him down. And suddenly the Kyuu Hyakuians have proved to be my favorite people...

"Why did you send your soldiers with them?" I asked, glancing at the Sword Knight.

Hyosetsu snickered. "I don't need them at this moment. We have Kohri, Setsuko, and me. Plus, a small group will keep us from attracting the attention of the enemy. If those two are smart, they'll split into two units or more. Also, be sure not to drag us down."

Yuko, Ximena, Nori, and I grumbled.

"Sure," Nori said.

"I'll make sure that we stay out of your way, your majesty" Ximena said, rolling her eyes.

Hyo scoffed.

I turned around and walked toward Rosalba who was curled into a ball on the ground.

I reached a hand out but quickly stopped.

"Go back, you will only hinder us," I said with cold eyes.

She glanced up and gasped.

"What's with that reaction?" I asked with a grin. "Did you think that I would try to console you? Or try to convince you of my innocence again? Seeing you again has made me realize that is but a dream. If your feelings for me proved to be that weak then so be it!"

Suddenly, I felt a cold sword against the back of my neck.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Hyosetsu whispered as he inched his sword closer.

"Are you as blind as Eiichi? Can't you see that I'm talking to Rosalba? Now how about you buzz off?"

Ice spread throughout my neck. "You dare speak to me in that tone?"

"You guys!" Setsuko snapped. "Stop this at once! And Tetsuya, I will not allow you to speak to my sister in that tone. Even though I too think she should stay."

Rosa clenched her hands into fists and stood up.

I grinned. "Finally, now turn around and wal-" A piercing pain raced through my face.

"I hate you!" Rosa yelled as she clenched the hand she had used to slap me. 

She hit me in the chest with her small fists, not that they hurt as much as the slap, and much less than her doubt in my innocence. 

"I hate you... so much...so much..." She yelled. Tears dripped down her face. "Yet... Yet... I can't stop..."

My face reddened. She didn't need to finish her sentence for me to know how she felt. I too felt the same way toward her.

"Hate me," I said, grabbing her by the wrists and bringing her face close to mine. "Hate me with all your heart if that'll make you stop crying! If that will help you grow stronger than so be it!"

Rosa looked up at me straight in the eyes for the first time in ages. "You're... crying."

I covered my eyes with my arm. I quickly let go of her and turned around. "I-I feel the same way about you too," I said in a whisper before running off.

"W-wait!" she yelled, reaching out for my left arm. However, my weight pulled her down with me, into the abyss I sought to protect her from.

This time, we appeared at a different place than we did last time. It was a floating plateau that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Rosa looked around the alien world. "This world, it really is more frightening than that castle," she said, still holding onto my arm.

"Yeah," I said. I turned away from her. I wasn't sure whether I should've felt joy, sadness, or even anger.

Yuko, who had gone on ahead of me with the others, ran up to me. "Master...do you sense that?" she asked as she grabbed my right hand.

"Yeah, we're being watched," I said, turning around.

Nori grasped Ximena's hand. "This place is scary..."

How odd...last time I couldn't sense much at all, but now that I had awakened more of shadow powers I could.

"Lucky," Eiichi said, eyes focused on Yuko and Rosa.

"What a creep," I muttered.

Rosa quickly let go of me and backed away. She must've realized that she was still holding on to the guy she thinks took advantage of her.

"He sure is," Nori said, baring his fangs at the Spear Knight once more.

Eiichi pointed his spear at me. "Sh... Shut up! I don't get why you're trusted by these folks. Especially someone like Hyosetsu."

"I don't trust him," Hyosetsu corrected. "But as the King said, we need him." He walked between Rosa and I. "After this is over he can get what's coming to him."

Yuko and I jumped over to a nearby rock. "Sure, whatever. I hope that by then I'll be allowed to argue my case before an impartial court."

We felt the rock slowly move away from the plateau behind us like some platform in some side-scroller video game. Hyosetsu, Kohri, Nori, Ximena, and the princesses jumped after us before it could float away from them but as soon as they did, the plateau that the others were in sunk deeper into the Abyss.

I was rather surprised that Rosa was coming with my group after all.

"Is this supposed to happen?" Ximena asked, eyes wide.

"This world doesn't fit the physics of the others," Setsuko said, glancing at the sphere of light. "Up can be down, and down up."

Rosa ran up to her and held her hand. "Yeah..." She was still shaking, but at least she wasn't having a panic attack.

"Will they be fine?" Kohri asked. "Won't they get lost if these islands move so erratically? This place might resemble the depths of a sea, but it's not the same. Actually, we barely know completely how it works. They might not be able to swim to safety."

"That's up to them," Hyosetsu stated. He swung his sword lightly, forming an ice bridge over to another rock. "According to the returning soldiers, Serrano headed down a spiral rock or perhaps up one... Whatever direction, we have to locate something like that if we hope to start our search."

"Spiral rock?" I asked. I looked around the pitch black sea which seemed to go on forever and ever. I had to turn away and glance at something else or the infinite darkness would have driven me mad.

"Yeah, it's where Serrano is said to have last been seen," Kohri said. "Does it ring a bell?"

I looked down at the black rock below my feet, though it might as well have been brown as the sea was far darker.

"Last time I came here with Yuko we landed on one It should be nearby if it wasn't taken away by the current like the plateau."

"Gah!" a loud sound echoed in the darkness. I spun around and raised my shield over my head. I was knocked back by the force of a large starfish-like limb slamming against it. "Gahhhh!"

"What in the world?" I said, blinking. The arm vanished into the darkness as quickly as it had appeared.

Nori's ears rose and he bared his fangs. "Something is coming!"

Rosa raised her bracelet but nothing happened. It didn't transform. She grimaced and formed a crystal sword.

"No worries, I'll protect you," Setsuko said as she spun her meteor hammer.

Hyosetsu grinned and stabbed the monster. All of us looked as a six armed pale starfish rose from beneath the rock. The thing tore its frozen arm, though a new one rapidly replaced it. With its new arm, it proceeded to attacked us from all sides at once.

The Sword Knight snickered.

Is this guy crazy? I thought that was Eiichi's role!

"Everyone, duck!" Hyosetsu yelled. He spun around, sending out a chilly wind. Its entire body was reduced into ice in an instant. The tentacles crumbled, leaving behind an orange-reddish core which floated away fast, lighting the darkness as it went.

Hyosetsu waved his sword like a wand and unleashed a cold aura in the form of a dragon. The ice dragon opened its mouth and devoured the core whole except for the outer edges which it drove its silver fangs into.

The school bus sized core rustled frantically as if it were alive. The red-orange crystal crackled like electricity as a wall of darkness seeped out to shield it.

"This is amazing," I said, observing the strange creature's struggle.

Hyosetsu grinned. "Enough playing around!" The fangs grew wider and large and the core shattered, unleashing an explosion strong enough to send our rock-raft several miles downward, at least what I thought was down.

The ice dragon returned to Hyosetsu with the core in its mouth. It had lost all of the darkness wrapped around it as well as some of its glow.

Baldo's knight held out a hyperspace ring toward it. The thing rapidly vanished like a star being swallowed into a black hole. He then extended his hands outward and formed seven icy rapiers around the edges of the floating rock. "Don't get too close to them, or you'll also freeze."

All of us moved toward the center of the floating isle, except for the younger Kuroyuki no San brother who stood by the edge, peering down at the darkness.

Kohri shook his head and leaped into the air with his hammer in its giant form. He closed his eyes as if awaiting something and then moved to slam an emerging lizard which had flown out of the dark sea. The green bodied, purple tailed lizard flew in a half circle angle, knocking another monster which had decided to jump at the same time. The resulting pile-up became a massive glacier.

Kohri grinned and jumped on top of the pile.

"Get on. We can navigate this to find Serrano quicker!" he yelled.

Wow, the guy was amazing. It was his first time in the Abyss, yet he wasn't fazed by the monsters. Actually, both Kuroyuki no San brothers were incredible. 

"Tch, show off," Hyosetsu grumbled with arms crossed.

"Please, don't carry out your sibling rivalry here. The squabbles in the temple already costed us what could very well prove to be valuable time," Setsuko said. "We have to find Serrano before the day ends. We won't be able to return until day break if we don't."

"Why?" I asked, turning over to her.

Setsuko glanced up at the now faint light which somehow managed to penetrate through the Abyss' oily waters. "The deeper we go into the Abyss the weaker the link with the sphere of light at the center of the vortex."

"And the darker it becomes outside the temple, the weaker the sphere itself becomes," Hyosetsu said, putting his sword away in a black scabbard with a dragon design. Had Kohri made it for him? No, that seemed unlikely given his pride. Maybe it came with the sword? He did have it already when we first met.

"Foolish mortals," a voice rang out. We looked up and saw an three-foot tall angel-dragon like being. However, its head looked like a helmet of some sort. With one wave of its wings, it shattered the glacier.

I quickly pulled Rosa and Yuko toward me and casted a barrier around the shield. The barrier cracked with ease, but it managed to do its job of keeping me and the others alive by weakening the blow. However, we were sent deeper and deeper into the Abyss by the remaining force of the attack.

Just then I heard my shield shatter.

"No way," I exclaimed over the rushing of the wind. "That thing's force...it's... Was that the monster that Serrano faced? It hit harder than Satoru!"

"Thankfully it doesn't seem to be as strong as the Ruler," Kohri said, shielding himself with his arms as the force of the attack continued to propel us across the darkness.

Setsuko tried to slow our descent down by molding the darkness around us into a blanket. She then shifted surrounding rocks together for us to land on. She looked down at the red dust around us, the remnants of the cores of the lizards at the center of the glacier. 

She smiled at me. "I was right to bring you."

I let go of Rosa and Yuko to examine my shield better. There were cracks against the top of its silver surface. "We better run, I don't think that we'll be able to survive another hit."

Setsuko gasped at the sight of the crack across the top of the shield. The area around it had flaked. "No... impossible. Your shield is supposed to resist even the strongest of blows."

"Well it didn't, at least not without scars," I said, sighing. "Though it did endure the attacks of Satoru, Daisaru, and Takon. Not to mention countless blobs. I guess that, despite the power up, it couldn't help breaking from all the built up stress."

"B...blobs?" Nori asked, blinking.

"Weak creatures," Yuko said, glancing around. "None to be seen..."

She was right... the creatures we just encountered were surprisingly strong. Stronger than the primates Rosa and I had faced off at the dark castle at least.

Why weren't any of the weak ones around? It was as if someone had lured us in and sent stronger foes...

Wait, is this a trap? By who? Takon? Or maybe Daisaru?

"Hand that over," Kohri instructed, holding a hand out to me. He had a headband around his forehead. "I'll fix that for you. Meanwhile get us out of here. That monster might decide to check if he finished the job. Nori, think that you can provide me some flame?"

Nori nodded and ran over to him.

"Alright, hit my hammer with your fire, it will heat it up. I would normally have you strike the shield itself, but the flames might prove too much for the wood," Kohri explained.

While Kohri and Nori worked on fixing up Agnes, the princess and I used our powers of darkness to move the dark waters. Slowly, our makeshift island started to move. Though we had no idea if we were going in the right direction. In a realm this enormous and foreign, we could only hope to find the spiral rock before the day ended...

**Solar Note: If you enjoyed this chapter then click on that star up or down there to show your support :). Thoughts? Predictions?**