A cold sweat rolling down his back and sending electricity flying through his body was the first thing Christian Ddraig felt as he was pulled out of the perpetual darkness that swallowed his consciousness. The spine tingling sensation of this simple salty liquid was much welcomed as it meant that after everything he was still alive, and as the old saying goes, only the dead can't feel, or something like that, he couldn't quite remember the full quote.

Chris forced open his heavy eyelids. At first the world around him was blurred but it cleared as his vision adjusted itself. As he became ever so aware of his environment he realised that he lay uncomfortably upon his back with his head resting on something softer than the hard concrete floor.

This pillow was warm and soft, it brought much comfort to his head than the concrete floor. But this was simply too good of a position for him to rest in, Chris remembered crashing onto the floor after sealing away Pyrrha's wound. That fall was not graceful nor was the floor comforting by any stretch of the imagination.

As the blur of the roof began to clear, four figures began to come into his view and from the chattering he could tell that they were deep in conversation.

His vision finally cleared for the better and he could see Hamanymu, Ursa, Joan and Thor who looked like they had fought through hell like he had.

The four of them leaned down to him looking at him with joy etched upon their face's. They laughed and crashed into him for some kind of hug that Chris couldn't help but wince from the pain of being crushed under four people forcefully dog pilling him.

He wanted to get them off of him but this moment was too precious for him to easily cast aside. He waited a few moments as he bathed in their warmth before he finally spoke.

"Um, guys." he chocked a bit as Thor's elbow accidentally rested upon his throat. "You're crushing me."

They all instantly jumped off of him with looks of embarrassment. Chris suddenly remembered Pyrrha, she should have been resting nearby. He looked to the left, he looked to the right but there was no sign of the red haired elf, except for a dried pool of blood not too far from him.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Ursa asked, having noticed his concerned face as he looked around.

"Were is Pyrrha?" Chris didn't want to worry about that elf, he really didn't. But he couldn't suppress the feelings of worry the plagued his heart.

Ursa opened her mouth to say something but she stopped herself as a hand from behind his head reached forward and cupped his right cheek in an almost affectionate manner. Chris felt his body stiffen, his cheek muscle's tighten and his face get hotter as Pyrrha's face loomed over him and he came to a single conclusion.

"My head...my head...is..is on, Pyrrha's laps!" He thought in shock as his cheeks tighten even more and as he looked at her face from this angle and she almost looked... beautiful.

Chris pushed himself back to his feet and turned to face Pyrrha who knelt as she looked right at him with a blushing face of her own, as she looked away from him making everything even more awkward.

He sharply turned to look at Joan, unable to believe that his twin sister of all people had allowed this to happen. Joan looked back at him and she simply shrugged whilst saying.

"She saved your and besides, I am not going to put your head on my laps."

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Chris had never once felt so embarrassed in his life, he wanted to turn and run away but that would injure his leg further. Instinctively his hands reached for the gaping hole in his thigh... But he found nothing but torn armour, ripped cloth and flesh sealed with only a half faded scar that belonged to an old wound rather than a one caused not more than an hour ago.

"Impossible." he whispered in awe as he curresed the scar.

He touched himself over and over to make sure that his eyes and nerves had not fooled him. But his wounds were healed, he looked at Pyrrha and he could see that the cut to her side that had been covered in ice, was healed with no ice covering it.

"What... what, just happened?" He stretched his leg as he tried to think of what had caused him and Pyrrha to heal from such wound's faster than was natural, even for magic infused creatures like themselves.

Ursa pointed at Joan. " I don't know how she did it."

"I am a practitioner of Divine magic, brother. Healing wounds is the easiest thing that I can do." she responded as white flames snaked across her fingers as if to prove a point.

He then remembered something that had been in the back of his heard for so long. "Nimue, she is doing something about becoming a.... what did she call it... an Archetype-King."

"What the hell does that mean?" Hamanymu asked.

"I don't know, but it is bad enough that my mother sounded spooked when she told me about it."

"Then what are we waiting for here, a party?. Let us go find that damn lady of the lake and burn her." Joan spoke with a bloodthirsty grin.

"We can't take her on by our selves and besides, the last time I saw her, mother was chasing the coward." he remembered the beating that Nimue had given him all too clearly.

"I know where she is?" Joan boldly declared.

"How?"

"Divine magic, Christian. I can divin and catch glimpse of the future... at least what pieces of it Leza and Sophia allow me to see."

" Fine." Chris took a few quick deep breaths in order to calm his heart. "Explain to me how we are supposed to win this?".

" I can't, I haven't seen that far and most of visions are symbolic. But I know exactly where Nimue is right now and I know that we need to face her."

"That doesn't sound like a reassurance of victory." Hamanymu grumbled.

"It never is, I can only see the visions, it doesn't mean that I am destined to win." Chris wondered how much of a burden it was for her to see the future, even if most of her visions were symbolic images. "So we can sit here and argue about it or we can take this shot at the head of the snake."

Chris looked to Ursa and her face was etched in reluctant agreement, He turned to Hamanymu who sighed and also gave reluctant agreement, the total opposite of Thor who's excitedly agreed. He caught a glance of Pyrrha who looked just as ready to go into battle.

Chris looked at Joan and with a deep breath he said. " We have come this far, so I don't see why we should not get the bastard."

"Good." Joan said with the type of excitement that was not expected from someone who had just been allowed to enter a potential suicide mission. She rushed forward and drew them all in another big hug.

Chris tried wiggling away but he stopped as he felt some hot breaths beating upon the back of his neck. He turned his head and caught a glimpse of Pyrrha who was squished behind him and her breathing was what was sending these shivers down his spine. He just wanted to die now as he felt Pyrrha's head resting upon the back of his own, causing a reaction that he was not comfortable with.

"Joan, let us go!" Chris shouted.

Joan seemed to only realise then that they were uncomfortable in her constrictor grip, he apologized and let them go. Leaving Chris to move away from Pyrrha, he wouldn't grant her the satisfaction of seeing that she had gotten a rise out of him.

"Hey, are you okay?" Hamanymu asked as he neared Chris.

"No." Chris let Hamanymu look at him and the red knights face twisted to appear like he had just seen a ghost. "I mean what could be wrong, how can anything be wrong. Are you insinuating that there is something wrong with me?!"

Hamanymu raised his arms and surrender as he backed away from Chris as if he was dealing with sort of savage beast. Chris couldn't understand why, perhaps it was something on his face, or something about how he spoke.

"I don't like this" Chris stated as he felt the true magnitude of their mission come crashing upon his shoulders.

"No sane man dose." Ursa added. "But there isn't much else that we can do."

Chris sighed and reached for his scabbard, but rather than finding his trusty sword holder whole, it was twisted in some parts and forty percent of it had been cut off, leaving it effectively worthless.

He unstrapped it from his waist as he thought of having to carry his sword by hand the entire way. " It might not be fun, but it will help keep my arm ready and my mind alert."

" Chris. Maybe you can use this one." both Thor and Joan said at the same time as they reached to pick up the same scabbard which they both touched at the same time.

The two looked at eachother and while Thor looked confused and Joan was more puzzled.

"Why did you pick this scabbard?" she asked him.

"I don't know... I just had too." Thor looked disturbed as he spoke. "What about you?"

"In my vision I saw a sword returning to water, a spear killing a king and scabbard... this scabbard." Joan responded as she picked up the black and gold scabbard.

He decided to ignore whatever cryptic nonsense Joan had uttered and so he reached out and accepted the scabbard which he strapped to his waist and thankfully the scabbard was large enough to fit his sword.

" You seen how bad is this going on to be?" He silently pleaded with Joan to at least give him any kind of hint for what was to come.

Joan paused and her face became sickly and grim. "I saw Azragothan. The Ancient One of Death standing in a field of skeletons."

That was all Chris needed to hear to stop himself from asking Joan anymore questions about the future.