The yellow-skinned devil haunted his dreams.

Weeks had passed since the beast had hurtled from the sky like a cannonball, wings unfurled, teeth bared, and cresting through stone, brick, and bone like a dragon through the ocean waves. Back then, Faris had wasted time prowling through back-alley streets, taking bets, and drinking away the nagging fears that had driven him mad since awakening on the beach of this strange continent. Now he hardly slept for the visions that lurked behind his eyes. Wailing screams. Roars like the bellows of hell. Viscera spread beneath the monster's great horned feet.

Faris was like a man possessed. Awakening after a few hours of restless sleep, marching across another trail, slaying a few beasts, and asking too many questions. So far, Faris had made his way through the fielded farmlands outside of Torensten. Every family he came across would marvel at his new, rune-laden cloak. The messengers from Torensten hadn't accepted his rejection of it, and now it seemed he was stuck with it. Faris wore the damned thing only at night when its heavy silks protected him from the bitter cold or when he was trying to swindle bread, gold, or booze from yet another hapless traveler.

Yet, he never lost himself to the pirate's life again. Faris had a mission -- track down the great beast called Chaos and end it for good. Avenge the lives of the innocent, and most importantly, bring the vile fiend what it had coming to it. Chaos had cheated Faris out of a proper fight the last time they met. It had fled with its horned tail between its legs, and Faris wasn't about to be beaten by a coward. Yellow -- that's what he was. Yellow, spineless, and cruel. Faris' teeth ground at the mere mention of that demon. He searched high and low for any mention of its whereabouts. He held no doubt in his mind that the beast still lived.

"So have you seen the devil or not?" Faris crossed his arms impatiently as the farmer leaned against his rusted spade. His travels had taken him to the outskirts of a town called Provo -- not exactly his kind of place with its well-lit streets and vigilant guards, but a hot-source for information. The farmer's wrinkled eyes trailed from the intricate embroidery across Faris' cloak sleeve to the ornately carved symbol at his chest. Faris shifted beneath the weight of the thing. He far preferred his own worn tunics to any legendary garments that he couldn't materialize away with the power of the crystals.

"A yellow monster, you said? So that's what attacked Torensten?"

"Aye, now tell me what you have to say or I'm moving on. I haven't got time for blabbering."

"Hm..." The old man touched his chin and looked up to consider the sky.

A muscle in Faris' jaw twitched. "Will you get on with it?"

"I'm thinking," he said, rubbing his jawline between his thumb and middle finger. "Did you hear it from Betty at the Old Mare?"

"I heard it where I heard it. You saw something, now are you going to tell me or are you high-winded louts all wasting my time?"

"Hold on, hold on. I'm telling. I'm telling." The man rubbed the spade between his calloused fingers as though trying to start a fire. "I'm just thinking, that's all. Getting my story straight." When he'd finished, he looked up at to the sky and clicked his tongue twice. "Yeah, I saw something around here. Up in the old forest north of here. Cursed, that place is. Haunted with all sorts of demons. I wouldn't tell you to go in there if you were my worst enemy."

"Demons?" Faris perked to attention. "That's where you saw it then?"

The man hummed in answer.

"Well, out with it! Where was it? What did it look like?"

"It was..." The man started, but then shuddered against it. "Terrible. Great big wings. Roaring like a dragon. I ran like I couldn't run before. Never got a good look at it though." The man clicked his tongue again. "And that's all."

Faris stifled a growl of frustration and ran a hand through his tangled violet hair. "Well, it'll have to do. That's all I'm getting out of any of you thick-headed cowards."

"You're going in then?"

"I'm going wherever the fiend flies. I've some business with it."

The man clicked his tongue again as though he was going to say something, but then thought better of it. He shook his head. "Better you than me," he said. Faris turned away, scowling.

"I'm coming, Lord of Chaos," he muttered, "You'd best savor your life while it lasts."

Faris heard plenty more stories about this "Headstone Forest" along his way up the northern side of Provo. Legend had it the place was a graveyard of lost souls and ill-intention. 'Haunted.' He heard that word more than once. When Faris asked about the old farmer's stories, the townspeople called the man a chronic drunkard and more than a little unhinged. Still, Faris had a mission, and if all he had for guidance were the mad ravings of an unstable drunk, well, there wasn't much he could do about that.

Faris set off into the forest just after noon with nothing more to his name than the legendary cloak and the power of the crystals. He thought to stay on the path (if there was anything the people of Provo insisted, it was to stay on the path), but his journey grew boring, and before long, Faris found himself straying from it. Despite the forest's thick foliage, its quiet air, or its lurking, monster-filled shadows, Faris had seen far worse. He'd seen worse haunted forests too, actually. If this refuge for tortured spirits wanted anything on the Forest of Moore, it would have to severely step up its game.

What were a few monsters and visions compared to a world-destroying, botanical warlock, anyway? 

So Faris barely hesitated to step off the beaten, well-worn path of the forest and into the wilds beyond. The brambles caught at his boots and hair. Small, beaded eyes watched him from the cover of the trees. Yet still, he padded along, looking for something, though he wasn't entirely sure what it was. Some sign of the beast, he imagined. Or maybe just something to take his mind off of it.

It was near sunset when Faris saw it. As the air chilled and the skies darkened, it dawned on him that he couldn't have found his way back now if he'd tried. He was about to switch job classes to something capable of lighting a fire when, almost as though summoned by his thought, he spotted smoke rising above the dusky sky. Faris sniffed distastefully past the raw scented earth and caught it -- a faintly acrid trace of fire. Fire meant one of two things -- people or monsters. Either way, Faris thought it best to follow. 

It was sure to cause some amount of excitement one way or the other. 

The orange-red light flickered across the shadowed foliage as Faris crept closer. Wood crackled beneath its heat, but the flames did not roar above the trees or lick hungrily at the outer forest clearings. A campfire then. Faris stepped around the rotting twigs and logs with light feet. He caught a glimpse of movement past the leafy cover. A dark figure fed the flames. Faris crept closer and peered around the side of a tree trunk.

CRACK.

Faris' boot caught on a thorny vine and he lurched forward, cursing and spitting as the bushes and dead wood caught his fall. He scraped his hands against an old tree and winced as the brambles caught at his arms. For a moment, Faris just laid there, muttering angrily and waiting for the consequences of his failed stealth. There was movement in the clearing, and then a woman's voice.

"Hello?! I said hello!"

Faris groaned in frustration. "I'm not here to hurt you, lass!" he called back, "I just saw the fire."

Slowly, Faris pulled himself from the tangled embrace of the forest. He brushed off dead leaves and mud, straightened his scarf, and pushed his loose hair back over his ear. Then he strode straight into the clearing without bothering to check what waited inside. He'd already ruined the element of surprise, after all. There was no point in secrecy anymore.

The woman was a put-together type with pressed cuffs and an unruffled cloak. She wore a yellow band in her hair to keep it from her eyes, and in the late-evening light, she looked almost like a shadow with her black hair and dark eyes. Faris glanced between her and the fire before crossing his arms.

"Alone out here at this time of night, are you? Brave of you. The thick-pated louts back in town said this place was haunted. Spineless, I'd call them. There's nothing out here but trees and wolves."

Faris threw back his head in laughter. His free-lancer blade had been enough for those beasts. It still shone slick with their blood. "So what's a lass like you doing in a place like this? I didn't think I'd run into anyone for another ten miles, the way they talk about it."

Faris scowled again before quickly shoving his distaste aside and offering the woman a rough hand. "I'm Faris, by the way. Captain Faris Scherwiz of Tycoon." He gave her a lop-sided grin. "And it seems you're the only other person daft enough to go wandering into a haunted forest alone."

ulla

Some of the light had returned to the Warrior's eyes. The idea had strengthened him. He nodded at Faris with a silent kind of strength. “My sword will join yours in that fateful battle, if you will have it,” the knight offered.

"Of course, I will. And if anyone tries to stop you, they'll deal with me." Faris glanced distastefully towards the human-bearing pile of rubble. That woman...Something had been seriously wrong with her.

The next voice came as more of a surprise. “Should you ever find the monsters location I will gladly join the two of you as allies once more." The mage -- Terra -- had lit up at his suggestion. Not exactly eager or bloodthirsty, but determined. There was more to this girl than her frail appearance. "I want to stop this person, being, god, whatever it is from turning this world into what my world became. Never again will I idly stand by when someone destroys an entire world.”

Faris blinked. "While someone destroys a...?" he started, but then decided not to ask. Whatever it was, it sounded bad. Apocalyptically bad, actually. Not something to be brought up in idle conversation. "Well, we'd be proud to have you! Flying around, doing...Whatever it was you were doing! It was really something, let me tell you that!" Something crazy, but Faris didn't need to go that far. Her spells had been the works of legends. The black, sparking power. The lava (which he still hadn't quite forgive her for, throwing it around like that). And then...

Some of the humor left Faris' eyes. He gave her the kind of scolding look he'd give his pirate crew. "Just don't go opening the Rift again, you here? I don't know how you did it, but that thing's dangerous. Keep ripping it open like that and we'll all end up in the Void!" Not that the girl would know what Faris was talking about. Faris only knew because of the Sage Ghido, and that had taken a submarine and a large suspension of disbelief to swallow. Still, Faris knew what he'd seen. The Rift -- vast and empty and right in front of him. It was a dangerous power, even for the most well-intentioned of users.

Faris knew that better than anyone.

The Warrior was looking at them now. He held himself with a patient dignity that was hard to ignore. “For now, I shall depart. Chaos is unlikely to return here, and I must track him down and stop him from causing any more tragedies such as this." Tracking down Chaos. That sounded like as good a goal as any that Faris had heard. He nodded hard in agreement.

"Aye. The beast needs to be stopped," Faris said, but before he could offer to join him, the knight was already walking away. He headed towards the rubble -- towards the pink-haired murderess. Faris' expression turned somber at his approach -- was he going to put her down? -- but no. The knight just knelt beside and her slid his hands beneath her knees and back. When he stood, the woman was cradled against him like a newborn child. With her eyes closed and her mouth slightly open, limp in the knight's arms, she looked almost innocent.

Only she wasn't. Faris had seen the woman slice a man in half so viciously that his viscera had fallen like clotted rain. His eyebrows furrowed in frustration. "What're you-?" he started, but the knight was ready with an explanation.

“I will take her far outside of the city, so that when she wakes, she can cause no trouble to these people.”

'When she wakes?' Faris eyed the woman skeptically. A broken arm, bleeding, unconscious. The woman had crashed through a brick house so hard it had collapsed. "Er...Lad, I don't think she'll..." The words trailed off as he saw the knight's expression. Troubled, almost worried. He held her strangely close, and with that soft expression, Faris might have almost thought...

“Thank you, for everything.” The Warrior gave them one last, grateful look and then turned on his heel. He left before Faris could offer to come with him, before they could exchange battle plans, before, well, anything. It was like he wanted to be alone.

Alone with that woman. And maybe his thoughts.

“You are welcome, Sir Knight. If our paths cross with no battle, I think we should share a quiet afternoon. Much more enjoyable then today." The girl beside him called after the knight, and Faris found himself nodding.

"It was nothing," he said with a wave, "Good luck with your search. And let me know if that fiend dares show its yellow face again!"

Then the knight was gone, carrying his dark burden to gods knew where. Maybe to revive her. Maybe not.

Faris hoped not.

Terra turned to him then and looked up curiously. “So a Captain?" she asked, "I take it you are a ship's captain and not an airship captain, yes?” Faris blinked stupidly at the question and then laughed.

"That's right. Captain of a pirate ship! Or at least, I used to be." Back before stranding himself here. Back before Exdeath. The girl started walking and motioned for him to follow. They walked together through the ruined streets, past the crowds of terrified and blood-stained people, past the bodies (there was no helping them now), until they were some way away. Faris could still smell the smoke wafting on the wind like poison. He could still hear the sirens, the weeping, the signals of destruction. But the battle was over. There was nothing more for the two defenders to fight.

There was only this girl who looked so fragile but could stare down monsters. There was only Faris who had the mind of a pirate and the heart of a warrior. There were only cracked streets, lined now in singed grass and rubble. From far away, Faris heard the soft rush of water. Consistent. Clear. Faris looked to the sky and imagined its spray and the smell of salt.

"Aye, I was a captain once. Before the crystals." Faris paused. That wasn't where he'd meant to start, but the words had slipped. He'd meant to tell her about his ship-wrecking or even about Exdeath. But no, it had all started the day he'd kidnapped Lenna. "It's a long story," he excused. His muscles were heavy -- his head tired. He wanted to curl up in the shade of an unbroken wall and rest, but another part of him refused to stop.

That part of him saw something in the girl beside him. A warm kindness in her eyes. A self-sacrificing smile. They would part at some later hour once the chaos had faded and the city stood still. At that time, Faris would bid her farewell and set off on his quest into the wilderness. But that time was not now, and now Faris couldn't help but marvel at this girl and see someone else. Someone equally as brave as she was caring.

Lenna would have wanted him to continue, and seeing this woman so like his sister, Faris felt like he wanted to keep talking, just for a while longer.

"Let me start at the beginning."

ulla

“I do not plan on dying today, sir. So I will be as careful as I can…” The mage's words wafted over the sparking, the hissing, and the screaming. It took Faris a second to understand. 'Sir? She couldn't have meant...?'

Then he was laughing again, louder this time. "The day I'm anyone's 'sir' is the day the clouds fall in!" He shouted it to hear his voice, like an act of defiance against the heat that seared his cheeks and nose and the back of his eyes. It pressed in like an invisible hand, and it was all Faris could do to stay upright, staring back at it with that rebellious glint in his eye.  It pressed closer, closer, and closer still. Would Faris' reflective magic be enough? There was nothing to do now but wait. 

It would hit in 10, 9, 8, 7...

The pink-haired murderess jumped into the fray, to the other side of the knight and the great expanse of the Rift. For a moment, she just floated there, looking almost confused. It was like she was caught in a maelstrom -- the monster's magic pushing her away while the Rift pulled her in. The effect gave her an almost wild, half-feral look: hair flying, hip-cape caught like a flag in the wind. Faris narrowed his eyes, 'What is she...?'

Then she sheathed her sword across the strap on her back, held out her hand, and glowed. 

"Wha-? Hey! What do you think you're-?!" But Faris could only stare, slack-jawed, as the woman pulled the magic closer to herself. It flew towards her in heated tendrils as though she'd opened a Rift of her own. However, this magic didn't just disappear into some black void -- no, it disappeared into her. Her chest glowed with it, though Faris could tell from her face that it pained her. The woman gave an agonized scream and then she was falling. 

Falling, falling, until there was a horrific crunch and Faris glanced down to see the woman's limp body splayed out among a wreckage of brick and dust that had once been somebody's living room. Faris gave the figure a snort of disdain. "Serves her right, the witless lout."

What did she think was going to happen, absorbing the kind of magic that could vaporize cities?

Back to the countdown then. The woman, no matter how daft, had bought them a little more time between victory or death. Faris put his hands on his hips and watched the now weakened, now slower, but still absolutely deadly ball of fire edging its way ever closer. 

10, 9, 8, 7...

"The rules of the Cycles do not apply here, Warrior." The monster spoke. Above the magic hissing like a snake and the people shouting below and Faris' own ringing ears, the monster's voice bellowed out like thunder. "Things are different. Do you know what this means, Warrior? You shall practice your free will you so desired. Carve your own path with your sword. But, know this. There are greater forces at work here. Can you figure it out, I wonder?"

All of it was absolute gibberish, but Faris wondered how long the monster would stay smiling when his own magic sprang back to fry him in 3, 2, 1...

The monster raised a hand and the magic dissipated. Faris was left staring into an empty ball of nothing. "Wh-what?"

The residual energy came flying at them all in its place, but the effects were disappointing to say the least. Just a shock-wave of fire where Faris had been expecting an inferno. It bounced off his skin so lightly that Faris didn't feel a thing. Maybe an extra bead of sweat. Maybe a tickle of warmth. Maybe.

Its reflected power wasn't even worth it. The monster landed as though it hadn't felt a thing. The asphalt cracked beneath its horned feet. It crossed his arms, tossed back its head, and laughed. "Keep an eye over your shoulder, Warrior. You and your new friends, here." Its red eyes flicked to the unconscious murderess and then the monster was shadowed in a flare of shadows and fire. They swirled around him in flashing waves, and Faris raised a hand to shield himself from the heat. 

Sunlight. Faris blinked in surprise as the storm clouds parted. Sunlight hit warm on the back of his hand, and Faris suddenly realized -- too late -- what was happening. 

"Get back here, you spineless cur!" He shrieked out his challenge over the wind, the laughter, the fire, and longed suddenly for the weight of his spear. But even if he'd had it, he doubted he would have made the jump in time. Almost before Faris could blink, the smoke had cleared, the fire had died, the clouds had opened, and the monster had disappeared.

Gone.

Faris let out a short cry of frustration. "We had him! We almost had him!" Anger sent Faris leaping off the roof, towards the place where the monster had vanished. Without the power of a dragoon guiding his feet, he stumbled a little on impact, but he hardly felt the pain shooting up his knees as he stalked towards the fire-scorched, stone-cracked nothing the monster had left them with. "You yellow bastard! You addle-pated scofflaw! You...You coward!" They had almost had him. Just a second longer and the magic would have hit and then it would have burned him alive. 

Or burned them alive, but rage blinded Faris to that possibility. He released one final, furious cry. "Some lord of chaos you are!"

With his wrath spent, Faris gave a moody kick at the wreckage left behind. A loose piece of concrete went flying. Faris glared at it. 

The city was on fire. Faris wasn't sure when that had happened, but he could smell the smoke wafting in thick and heavy from the west. People were still screaming. Wood cracked as buildings caved in. His boots tapped wetly against smears of blood. From the new vantage point on the ground, Faris saw it all first-hand -- mangled limbs, wrong-twisted faces, slabs of meat that might have once been human. Faris felt his nails digging into the flesh of his palm. This was all because of some stupid monster.

Faris would kill it one day. One day, when the devil stopped running and Faris could see it as clear as the open sea, he'd draw his spear against it and rain down its blood in a shower of black. One day, he'd stand before it again seeking vengeance for all of the lives it had ruined. 

On that day, there would be nowhere for it to run.

Faris joined his two allies with a sour expression. He kept his arms crossed, mouth scowling, eyes simmering. For a long time, they didn't say anything at all. They just listened to the sounds of destruction around them -- a siren call of their failure. Faris' eyes wandered to a shadow of pink among the nearby wreckage. The pink-haired fiend hadn't woken since her fall. Perhaps she never would again.

Faris hoped she wouldn't. 

After what seemed like forever, the knight raised his hand. There was a soft glow of light, and the mage-girl shimmered with healing magic. Faris hadn't noticed before, but sometime between opening the Rift and now, she'd lost her fur. Now she just crouched there on one knee, wrapped in silks and scarves and bangles. Her green hair had loosed from its tie and hung in wiry strands around wide eyes. If Faris hadn't known any better, he would have called the girl harmless, but of course he did know. He'd seen the girl flying around shooting lava from her hands. He wasn't about to underestimate her. 

“Thank you for your help." The knight's voice came hollow, but loud enough for them to hear the genuine appreciation behind it. “I only regret that we were unable to do more to save these people.” He took a shuddering breath, shook his head, and Faris looked away. Not too far -- too far, and he'd be watching the fire -- but far enough that he didn't have to see the pain in the man's eyes. 

“Should you ever need to call on me, I am the Warrior of Light. While I pray that we never have to meet in such terrible circumstances again, I am proud to have served this city alongside such valiant, selfless souls.”

Faris' eyes flashed in recognition, but the girl beat him to it. She rose to her feet and smiled at him. "We did what we could. It is all that we can do. We saved many a life with our actions, and stopped him from exterminating the entire town.” She placed a hand on the knight's shoulder. The look she gave him was almost comforting. "Terra. You can call me Terra, and yes. I hope when next we meet that we can have a quiet day. Instead of such excitement like today.”

Faris let out a barking laugh. It rang hollow even to him, but the force of it felt right. "'Excitement,' eh? Wouldn't be the first time I've braved this kind of 'excitement,' and if the winds keep blowing the way they've been, it won't be the last." Faris uncrossed his arms and placed them on his hips instead. He looked directly at the knight, eyes bright for just a moment as he grinned humorlessly. "A Warrior of Light? Well, that explains it then. I'd wondered how you came across such a mighty ton of power." He jabbed a thumb roughly into his own chest. "I'm Faris. Captain Faris Scherwiz, if a name be important to you. I fight with the power of the crystals, same as you. A warrior of light. Or at least, that's what they call me."

The girl was muttering something, and Faris glanced over in time to see the glow of magic about her. Before he could ask, the spell had been cast and washed over them both in a wave of heat. Faris sighed as it touched his skin. Bruises faded, cuts sealed, and suddenly he didn't feel so worn down anymore. He flashed the girl an appreciative grin. "Thanks, lass. That battle didn't exactly do me any favors."

The girl smiled a little. It was weak, but Faris hadn't missed it. "Though I feel a nice hot bath and a soft bed would be something I want right now," she said. Faris laughed a little more genuinely this time.

"You and I both," Faris said, "Gods, what I wouldn't give for a warm bed!" Faris glanced at the knight, but he seemed unaffected by their pointed shift in mood. He just watched the wreckage, mouth thin, and eyes hollow. He had something on his mind, and Faris wasn't stupid enough to miss what. 

"She's right, lad. There's nothing more we could have done." Faris' grin had faded. For once, his eyes were serious. Almost deathly so. "I'll find the beast myself. I'll bring the light from its eyes, and I'll send it to the depths, same as any other fiend. What happened here..." Faris let his eyes wander across the devastation. Just once -- just for a moment -- then he looked back to the knight once more.

"I won't let it happen again."

ulla

Faris missed his target, but only by a margin. The beast shifted as Faris fell, and instead of propelling himself into the monster's spine, Faris instead brought his spear straight down its great, yellowed chest. Blood splattered his hands and helm as his spear-tip ripped through toughened hide. The beast gave a roar of pain, and Faris let himself fall in a shower of blackened blood drops. 

'Aye, so many sacrifices have been made already. I won't stand by while more lives are lost!'

It didn't matter when or where he was, Faris wasn't the type to let innocent people be ravaged by monsters. It was as true now as it had been then. This beast was fearsome, after all, but it was no Exdeath. 

"Watch out!" A voice came -- female -- and then something hit Faris and hard. Faris gave a grunt of surprise and then he was hurtling backwards. For the second time, Faris caught a glimpse of buildings rushing closer and tried to twist himself out of the way. For the second time, the force was too much. Faris gasped as he skidded face-first into roofing tile. Wood splintered. Shingles flew. Faris grit his teeth and waited for his momentum to slow. When it did, it was all he could do to brace himself and take a few, shuddering breaths. His armor had absorbed most of the impact, but he still felt bruised, banged, and more than a little shaken. Faris sat up slowly and touched at his bleeding cheek. He didn't want to know what the rest of him looked like. 

He hadn't seen the beast swinging for him, but something had ruined his landing. When he was dealing with a dragoon's momentum, one wrong move could spell disaster. Faris grit his teeth and grabbed again for his Holy Lance.

The knight had landed safely in the street below. The furry mage was still protecting the girl the knight had saved. The only one left was that pink-haired murderess, standing right where Faris had fallen and taking a blow like the strike of the earth. The woman stood her ground, shield in hand, but couldn't take the pressure. There was a sharp crack and then she was sent hurtling backwards into a nearby tower. She fell then, but only lifted herself back up. "Not good enough!" she cried, and the skies darkened. Lightning struck the beast in scalding roars of light. Faris shielded his eyes from the blast, breaths heavy and limbs aching. When the sounds stopped, Faris lowered his hand and saw her drop, exhausted, down to one knee. The monster had crashed into another building and laid there buried in refuse and wreckage.

When had she decided to play the hero? Faris took a breath and stood, steadying himself as all around them there was noise. People were cheering. Faris glanced at them from his rooftop vantage point. They were dust-covered, bloodied, and shaken, but their expressions were overjoyed -- exalting even. Faris stared back at them. "What in the name of Neptune do they think they're doing?" Faris muttered. Even after returning from the Rift, Faris hadn't seen that kind of excitement. It felt wrong, somehow, in the same way he shuddered every time the knights of Tycoon called him "miss." A girl of about ten looked up at Faris in adoration. Faris gave her an awkward look and regripped the shaft of his spear. 

There was a rumble and then a monstrous roar. The cheering stopped as debris rained down like water. The beast had broken out of his prison, and now crouched there, snarling like a wounded animal. Its eyes burned with fire and bloodlust alike. It watched the knight with a sneer of its sharpened teeth. "Big mistake, warrior." Its voice seemed calmer now than before, but somehow it settled even worse. Faris' eyes widened as it spread its wings.

"Hey!" he called to the people still standing below, "Get out of here! Hurry! It's gonna-!" The beast rocketed into the air with the kind of force that a dragoon could only dream of. Its wings let out ripples of wind and rock that pummeled the crowd in waves. Faris cursed beneath his breath and looked up at the fiend. Suddenly it was glowing -- all red, black, and flaming. 

"Even if I have to destroy half of this city, Warrior, I shall have my vengeance!" The monster's cry might have come from the bellows of the earth as its power grew, crackled, and then released. People were screaming. The air had grown hot. Faris' eyes widened as he stared up at the mass of energy hurtling towards him.

How was he supposed to stop that?

"Warriors! Take heed! We must save these people, and we must do it together!"

The knight's called pierced through the screaming and chaos. Faris glanced over to see the knight rushing towards the blast. Just when the two were about to collide, there was a flash of white light and a barrier formed between them. A shield? The energy crashed against it, and then pushed down against the struggling knight. The two were on a crash course for the crowd and half the city. 

Faris' mind raced. He'd never been one for quick thinking or plans, but that thing needed to be stopped, and he wasn't about to stab it away. "Think, think, you worthless lout. You have the crystals, don't you? There has to be something..." He needed to stop that magic. If only he could make a barrier for himself. If only...

Then he had it. Faris blinked in realization. He just needed to switch classes. 

As the knight slowed the magic's fall, Faris stepped forward and called upon the power of the water crystal. Soothing light washed over him in waves. Gone were the pauldrons, the bracers, and the plate-mail. In their place fell white cotton streaked in blue with jutting shoulders. His helm melted to make way for a bandanna and a single horn. Faris didn't only bring the strength of a dragoon.

With the power of the crystals, Faris could be whatever he wanted. 

Faris couldn't jump the same as he could only a few seconds ago, but for what he was about to do, he didn't need it. The mage girl zoomed into view, just behind that knight. From his place on the rooftops, Faris was close enough for the spell he wanted to cast. Faris narrowed his eyes in focus.

And suddenly lost it again as the mage girl muttered something and a great black sphere opened before her. "Did you just-?" he gaped. A chill ran down his neck, staring at the thing. "Don't go opening the Rift, are you daft?!" Faris didn't know how the girl had done it, but he couldn't mistake that crushing expanse of all-encompassing black. It sucked in everything near it, and a sudden wind whipped at Faris' hair and sleeves. But for all its power, it didn't seem to affect the knight. Instead, its pulls focused only on the ball of magic in front of it. The rift siphoned its power, and slowly it seemed to weaken. 

"Just try not to kill us all," Faris grumbled and then began a chant of his own. The water crystal's power stirred and then heated. Faris felt it on the tip of his tongue -- the word that would end it all. As his spell ended, Faris looked up to the sky and let out his final call. "Carbuncle!"

Light flashed and then rose above him. It formed into a tiny creature, about the size of a cat with wide eyes and a jewel placed squarely on the fur of its forehead. It gave a short shriek and its power spread out in a shock-wave of heat. Everything that its magic touched was immersed in a ruby red light. Faris saw its sparkle dance around the knight, the mage, and the fleeing crowd below. Its job done, the creature dispersed back to the light which had formed it. 

Would it be enough? Faris shuddered at the incoming magic. Its heat could have scorched the cliffs of hell. But the knight's strength could only hold for so long -- even with that flying girl summoning the godforsaken Void in its path. When it crashed, they needed some kind of protection. A chance. 

When that shield broke, then the magic would either fly back at the beast or they'd all die. Without anything left to lose, Faris liked the sounds of those odds. With the heat bearing down on them and the wind whipping at his face, there was nothing left for Faris to do. He looked up at their impending deaths and gave it a fearless laugh.

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