The Shade grew stranger the more time that Ursa Tudor spent within it. Just their time within Mano-Nzelu's domain was a for lack of better words a trippy experience, it became even more confusing when they had been attacked by demonic looking Mizihimo and their rescue came at the hands of a familiar face...

Well face was not quite right, she wasn't truly sure if Mizihimo wore masks or if these were their natural faces. Perhaps she would ask Gradvan the Mizihimo who had saved them when she had time to ask.

That wasn't possible now as all everyone was marching forward as fast as they could to escape the Shade before those Mizihimo who wanted to rip apart from limb to limb found them.

The very ground upon which they stepped morphed and shifted at infrequent intervals catching them off guard every time. Sometimes they were marching through a blistering desert, other times they fought through the stinging winds of a blizzard and other times they were in wide open savannahs. These were the tamest aspect of the Shade that she had experienced so far.

As of right now they found themselves walking upon clouds with Gradvan shouting for them to stay upon the solid gasses, least they tumble down into the abyss below.

Ursa tried to catch a glimpse of the said abyss below the clouds, but she saw nothing but a neverending void far below them and that was enough to convince her to focus on the facts that she was walking through the atmosphere.

"Anyone else feel something odd here?" Hamanymu asked as the world was washed away and they walked upon a yellow brick bridge which snaked through the vacuum of space and yet Ursa did not suffer from any lack of oxygen.

"I understand, it feels like we have been walking for days... no months, and yet..." Thor trailed off from his words as a pod of sixty meter long whales flew past them in the void of space. "...It also feels like mere seconds from when we started."

Ursa noticed that while Thor spoke from besides her, his voice almost sounded like he was several meters ahead of her.

"Because it has, technically of course. We are walking through the deeper sections of the Shade, here reality as you know it is a more malleable concept, a suggestion if you will." Gradvans voice on the other hand sounded so close that it was like a whisper in her ear, even though the Mizihimo stood at the head of the marching collum with Chris.

"Malleable indeed." she thought as she looked over the guardrails of the yellow brick bridge and in the void of space below, she could see a miriad of stars and nebula which burnt with more vibrant colours than anything that she had seen in the natural nights skies.

"What is down there?" she asked Gradvan.

"The deepest layers of the Shade, where the oldest and most primordial of us Mizihimo reside. They are beings of such magnitude that they represent the very aspects of the multiverse itself, everyone in this upper layer and even the mortal worlds mean little to them. Though they did accept many of the defeated lords and Mizihimo from the Magic War, so it is best not to go down there if you want to leave in one piece."

"Are those the Ancient Ones?" she had always heard people reference these beings but Ursa was from earth, the term meant nothing to her.

Gradvan burst into laughter. "Heavens no, they are their servants. The Ancient Ones are no Mizihimo, they are greater than that. A simple way of putting it is that the primordials down there are to the Ancient Ones what a fly is to a supernova."

"Okay." Ursa nodded, but she didn't understand a single thing that he said.

The void beneath vanished as a layer of soil and massive blades of grass warped into existence and Ursa almost tumbled over as she was no longer on a solid brick bridge, but soft soil.

Once more the world had changed into a savannah, but this time they were shrunken in size with blades of grass equaling them in size and the trees around them were so large that Ursa could not see their tops.

"I don't like this place," Ursa muttered as an anxious sense of dread took her.

She could not help but imagine that some oversized version of an animal was just beyond her line of sight, just waiting to pounce and gabble them down.

"Really, I thought you would be the one to like this kind of place, so much for you to learn and what not?" Hamanymu asked her.

"I would like to do that in some lab elsewhere, not here. This place is too unstable, too.... chaotic for my liking," she replied whilst constantly looking arounding for any possible predator.

"Damn it Ursa, don't let the lizard brain's instincts control you." she thought, scolding herself.

Once more did the world change and they found themselves under a nights sky with twelve moons hanging in the sky in a spiral formation. Beneath her feet was grey sand which stretched out for infinity behind her, but ahead was an ocean with a glowing white hue just beneath it's surface.

"Here we are," Gradvan proudly declared as he gestured at the water.

"And here is?" Chris asked as he stepped to the beach's edge, though he kept out of the water.

"The way out of the Shade, well... one of the many ways to be exact."

"What are we supposed to do, just swim across this ocean?" Ursa asked as she moved to the front of the line.

As she got closer to the water she could hear the melodic sounds of the waves crashing upon eachother. This primal symphony was relaxing to the mind and she fought off the urge to simply sit down and stare at the waters for all eternity.

"Well, more like swim down into it and ride the currents of reality." that response drew her out of the melodic trance which had been slowly binding her.

"Are you asking us to drown ourselves?" she asked flabbergasted.

"I am asking you to swim into a cosmic current, Ursa. On my honour and the bond between you and sir William, I would not let any harm come to you."

Chris turned to her suprise and he asked. "You know this Mizihimo?"

"His name is Gradvan and he is in an Animus contract with my friend, William Redret."

"A simple friend, Lady Ursa. my poor master will be heartbroken," Gradvan said with a faux hurt tone.

Ursa felt a tinge of guilt as she thought about William. She had not thought about him in so long and she wondered what he must be feeling with what had just happened to her.

"We would have spoken to eachother in the afternoon... and Leza or Sophia knows how long ago that was," she thought as a layer of frustration and despair rested upon her shoulder.

"Ursa," Chris called, snapping her out of her stupor. "This Gradvan, do you trust him?"

She halted her breath as she muled over her next words carefully. Diving into this water unsettled her and she would rather try something else, but what else could she do, there was no other way to escape the Shade, that she knew about atleast.

She looked at Gradvan and she thought about William, he trusted the Mizihimo with his life and he knew the Mizihimo far longer than she did.

"I trust William and so I trust Gradvan... for now at least." she replied.

"For now, you should trust me, I could have led you to the deep Shade which you could never escape, but I follow my

Lord and father orders," Gradvan began ranting in outrage. "Besides, this is one of the best ways to leave the Shade. The other gateways are probably being monitored by those who would love to have a Ddraig's skull as a trophy."

"I see," Chris replied in a barely audible voice. "Well then, I suppose we should trust you."

Chris then suddenly grabbed Gradvans left hand with his own while and in his right hand he drew Lucius-Aurora and he brought the blue blade dangerously close to the Mizihimo's throat.

"What the hell are you doing?" Gradvan snapped in outrage as he tried to pull himself out of Chris's grip, but he failed.

"We will go through with what you want, but I will hold on to you and should you betray us down there, I will have your head as compensation." Chris brought the blade even closer to Gradvans throat as he spoke. "But if I am wrong in my distrust of your true motives, then as soon as we reach this Nexus of Narratives, then you can freely strike me in my face... deal?"

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Gradvan nervously nodded his head and he turned leading Chris towards the ocean. The two of them stepped into the waters and everyone held their breath as they watched the two reach knee deep levels within the ocean, they all expected something to happen, but after twenty seconds of silence, Chris and Gradvan remained the same.

"See, I am not a threat, I am looking forward to that free strike. Tell me, do you prefer a slap or a punch," Gradvan asked Chris with a mocking chuckle.

"You can come into the water." Chris ordered them, ignoring Gradvan.

"Come on, let's get this over with," Hamanymu muttered in irritation from besides her.

Ursa joined the others stepping into the waters and she felt a electric tingle running up her spine as some of the water leaked through the creaks within her armour and soaked her legs.

"So what now?" Chris asked Gradvan who he still kept in his left grip.

"Now, we sink."

"We Wh..." Ursa never finished her question as if felt like the ground beneath her feet was just pulled under her.

She dropped into the water and as she sank like a rock through the deep abssy. She held her breath as she went through the blackness of the water.

At the bottom of the water she could see a white glowing layer that almost looked like the skin of a bio luminance creature. She tried to swim and control her descent, but no matter what she did, it was like gravity itself was fighting against her and dragging her into the white glow and she saw no more.

She could not hear anything, she could not see anything or even feel everything. She could find anyway to properly explain it, but it was as if all senses had been deprived from her.

She tried to think but it she could only feel a strange sense of static in her brain. It was as if her thoughts, her very sense of self was slowly leaking out of her.

The feeling abruptly halted and she felt something after a long time, it was a pair of hands which gripped onto her and yanked Ursa upwards and onto a rough patch of dirt.

The first thing that Ursa realised as her senses returned was that she was drenched in water from head to toe and she even had some of it in her throat. She immediately began coughing out the water as her control of her own limbs returned to her.

She could feel the warm welcoming rays of sunlight beating down upon her flesh and not the cold grip of the strange ocean in the Shade.

She slowly opened her eyes and though most of her vision was foggy she could that they were upon a river bank and out of the river she could see Chris and Gradvan grabbing unconscious bodies that floated upon the water and dragging them to the river bank.

Ursa tried to move but every part f her body felt drained of all strength and though she could feel her strength returning it was just too little.

"It appears miss Ursa is finally awake," Gradvan proudly declared as he stopped nearby her, his fram casting a large shadow over her.

Ursa wanted to respond but she could not force anything other than a few groans out of her mouth.

"Welcome to the Nexus of Narratives, I am a spirit of my word." she could not see his face but she could imagine a smug smirk behind his mask. "And speaking of honouring words."

He stepped away from her and she heard a loud smack of something hitting flesh while Chris's voice rose in a loud shriek.

"I am just cashing in on that free slap that you promised me." was all she heard from Gradvan as her exhaustion won out and finally she closed her eyes and drifted into sleep.

XXXXXXX

It had been six days since they had arrived in this Nexus of Narratives, Ursa didn't know what the hell that meant and she didn't ever get a moment to ask the Mizihimo who had brought them here.

Their first day in this place had half involved sleeping from sheer exhaustion and the single most embarrassing thing that she had ever endured.

They were forced to strip of their water logged armour and into their underwear so that the armour and some of their other clothes could dry off around the campfires that they had created.

Ursa had needed to seat in nothing more than a bra and a pair of boxers whilst being assaulted by the element and the awkward glances of every other person who wished for the same thing, that this whole ordeal end soon.

Though Ursa had managed to find one person who didn't mind so much about their exposure. Pyrrha Ulster had been casting long glances at Chris's half naked bottle whenever she thought he wasn't looking. It was one of the only things about this who debacle that she might call a positive, future blackmail material was always a win.

The next days they had moved north with Gradvan acting as their guide to somewhere he did not know but apparently his father and lord had left him instructions to lead them to said place.

Many wanted to grumble out accusations of leading them into a trap but the now healing cut on Chris's lip from where the Mizihimo had struck him, silenced them.

In their time on the move Ursa and a few other archers had been ordered by Chris to hunt for game while the others foraged for fruits and roots. She had been utterly clueless on what to do until another bowwoman showed her the ropes and Ursa brought down a large deer with her bow.

In all the days this had been the usual way of things and for the first four days Ursa slept with a content smile from the deer meat and fruit that had been scrounged up. Even if they slept in the open at the mercy of the elements, she still felt hopeful, infact the air around the troops was generally warm and jovial.

That was until they started coming across the ruins, first it had been farmsteads with freshly grown crops and freshly dropped corpses. The farms had been torn apart by what she suspected to be artillery fire, though the butchery which left the farmers and beasts dead in the thousands was clearly from more personal hands.

After the farms they began coming across entire cities that were halfway flattened and any attempt to investigate them had only yielded more corpses.

After that the temperature of their little caravan had become fridges and solemn. Not even Gradvan found a way to smugly speak when asked questions about why he was leading them through a literal valley of death with dead humans everywhere a settlement could be found.

The sixth day was very much like the last three. They woke up to a gloomy morning and those who had been acting as guards were allowed a three hours of proper sleep whilst the hunters prepared themselves for another hunt.

Ursa checked on her equipment to make sure that everything was in order though it felt unnecessary. Avalonian equipment was far stronger than anything that she could think of from earth.

But the military had beaten this routine into her and like a ritual she carried it out without fail. Her inspection stopped when she heard a loud rustling from the bushes ahead.

She paused and looked around, everyone had heard it as well and they all fell into defensive positions. Ursa could not help but feel a sense of excitement as she drew her bowstring not on some animal but a potential foe.

Her hopes were dashed when said foes came streaming through the thick forest in numbers nearing a thousand, though seeing how some could barely stand from how exhausted they looked, she was sure that they would be easily defeated by their eight hundred troops.

The group stopped when the caught sight of them and the children in their midst began wailing in terror. The men and women tried to look as fierce and defiant as a bunch of gaunt people in rags would look. An old from their head stepped forward with a great grey bushy beard and sword that had seen better days

"So this is it, you Lunar Empire dogs have finally found us. But we will not go down easy!" the man spat with full contempt as he readied himself for some kind of doomed last charge.

"Hold yourself man." Chris commanded as he stepped forward to their head. "What do you mean the Lunar Empire, where are they?"

The old man looked dumbfounded as he considered what Chris had just asked him. "You.... you are not Lunar Empire warriors, are you?"

"No, we are their enemies."

"Then... then you can help us," the man asked hopefully. " You can help our high king to defend our home."

Chris nodded and Ursa could see hungry anticipation burning in the eyes of every warrior. She could also feel it within herself, but that hunger was quenched when they saw what these people had brought them to.

It was a battlefield with more Lunar Empire forces than she had seen even at the battle in the norther. They all swarmed around a single a grey castle that had walls so thigh that reached five kilometres into the air and the castle itself was higher.

And this wonder of architecture was dwarfed by another wonder of creation, though this beast was not one belonging to the defending forces but the Lunar Empires forces. This was a flying carrier with two literal mountains upon its massive back, not works that added any practicality but a simple message.

This was the might of the Lunar Empire and they would meet it.

XXXXXXX

The moment Chris saw what he had agreed to send his troops into, he was immediately drowned by a wave of regret.

The thousands of Lunar Empire forces trying to breach the castle was truly staggering, and that was without bringing in their massive carrier which some madman had decided to stick two mountains on for no sensible reason.

His mouth felt dry as he tried to think up any kind of viable strategy which would not just end with this massive force falling on them like a swarm of locusts and tearing them apart.

"I am out of my depth here." he thought anxiously as he beheld the carrier fire down some missiles which were stopped by an invisible energy membrane that had formed a dome around the castle.

Looking at the defenders upon the Great wall, he felt a sense of envy as not only did their walls physical stature which could easily keep the attackers at bay, but also it's magical properties stopped the invaders from simply flying their aircrafts over the wall and shattering them with their artillery shells.

"If I had those walls, oh the things that I would be able to do. "

But he didn't have walls to fall behind and help him dictate the engagement. He was out in the open and pragmatically the best option would have been to simply wash his hands and avoid such a risky battle all together.

But looking behind him, the faces of the people's who they had just met were brimming with hope and his troops looked battle hungry and ready to unleash pent-up hatred against the Lunar Empire, some of them had even drawn their weapons in anticipation to rush the battlefield.

If he told these people to pack up and move along, the chances of rebellion by all eight hundred of his men was a high certainty. And even if they didn't rebel now, it would plant a seed of resentment and mistrust in his leadership that would ripen in the future.

"The dye truly has been cast, there is no going back now." he thought as he once more observed the battlefield hoping for a spark of inspiration.

He could tell that the defenders had powerful weapons which managed to not only shoot aircrafts out of the air, but also rain death on the infantry and mounted units of the Lunar Empire who encircled the castle.

"Wait... mounted?" he thought in joy as at long last a strategy that he had been praying for was born in his mind.

"Listen everyone," he loudly declared as he turned to face his troops. "I would have preferred more favourable odds unfortunately life has dealt our enemy the better cards, but when has life ever been fair. Today we will fight, and we will bloody the Lunar Empire for their unwarranted crimes against us, either in this or any other world. We shall not rush madly into this battle, we shall show these moon lovers that the best riders and warriors come from Avalon!"

A loud cheer erupted from the troops and even the refugees that they had come across joined the mass cheering. He was glad that they were far enough away from the battle and the sounds of the Lunar Empire and the castle clashing were so loud that they drowned out the cheering.

"We shall hide at the edge of this battle, any vehicle and beast that gets close enough is to be taken down and acquired. We shall then use shoot and retreat actions to harass the enemy and fracture them. Let them persue you if they must and the rest of us must joined in encircling actions." he instructed them, hoping that each one of them had adequate training in riding. "Remember to always stay on the move and to show them no mercy."

Every soldier from Knight to Asikari stood straight with postures that would make any drill instructor weep in joy and they brought their right fists over the left side of their chest in silent salute. For that brief moment in time, Chris felt an inferno of pride burned away the dread that clutched onto his heart.

This silence followed them as they snuck through the tall vegetation that coated the entire battlefield. As they got closer and closer to the battlefield Chris came across damaged vehicles and beasts that had ripped apart by artillery, their riders had not fared any better.

It was a disgusting sight that he tried to ignore even as crawled through the mixture of blood and mud with his eyes focused on those vehicles and beast riders would get just a little bit too close to the back of their formations and out of sight of their fellow solider. He could see some of the closest Avalonians to him strick at those unfortunate riders with a ruthless silence.

Chris snuck up behind the rider of a Gryphon, the rider was seemingly exhausted and they wanted to rest in the back where presumably their commander would not see them slacking off. A pity it was for them that their life ended in a flash when Chris silently snuck up close enough behind them and he drove Lucius-Aurora through the back of their skull.

He consoled himself by thinking that the rider had died quickly and painlessly, but it sounded worthless in his mind. He slowly helped riders body slumped to the ground so not to draw much attention from anyone who would be watching.

The Gryphon looked ready to start cawing in a panic as it looked at the bloodied corpse of its rider, but Chris grabbed ahold of its reigns and with a soft voice and a few strocks to its side he managed to calm it down and move its head away from the corpse.

Lacking a fire or bow he bit his lip in disgust at his next unceremonious actions. He led the Gryphon away by a few meters before returning to ransacked the body of his fresh victim and he picked up the main firearm that he had seen the Lunar Empire troops using. He had never tried to use this weapon but it didn't appear all that different from Avalons B57's or as the common solider called it, the Cramer.

He took some extra ammunition boxes and bombs for extra measure before jumping on the Gryphon's back. The creature was at first reluctant to let him command it, but some more sooth strocking and a bride of a few dried barries which he had in his pocket made the Gryphon start moving.

Chris was not sure if all the others had completed their parts as easily as he had. He didn't know how many were even waiting in the wings for his signal. He took a deep breath and he commanded the Gryphon to charge forward as he readied the shot.

"For Avalon!" he roared as he pulled the trigger while the Gryphon rushed towards with the bullets from his gun ripped through the air and into the backs of the unsuspecting Lunar soldiers who's death screams were more suprise than pain.

All around the back more Avalonians erupted forward on horse, Gryphon, motorcycle and some madmen had even managed to acquire tanks which did even more damage than Chris would have imagined.

Thousands of projectiles came flying into the Lunar forces who in their panic broke rank and fled into the shots from the castles defenders. Some tried to return fire but the Avalonians wheeled around in retreat.

Those who tried to persue them were cut down by the artillery shells from the castle walls. The Avalonians wheeled around again and they fired off more shots across the masses of Lunar Empire troops who lost more and more of their formations.

And every time that their enemies mobolized to persue them, they left them open for artillery fire from the castle walls. Some of the Lunar troops were doggied enough to continue their persuite regardless of how many shells rained down on

them, they still continued their chase.

These unfortunate few found themselves surrounded by the full Avalonian forces who were merciless in their butchery. It did not matter if they were on foot or even if they came in tanks, they died all the same.