"Why's it so dark?" Fallen mumbled.
Suddenly, soft golden lights illuminated the cave-like room. Beautiful golden crystals the size of watermelons sparking with a dazzling gleam jutted out of the earthy walls, emitting the light.
"Welcome!" A mysterious, alluring feminine voice said. A strange feminine figure began to morph out of the ground. She looked like Fallen, but her skin was a darker tan, and her hair was an earthy brown.
"It’s you!" Shrine said, shocked.
"You can call me Kathryn,” the girl told him. She continued, “as I believe I told you last time we met. I am the Earth Mysl. I brought you here."
"Katherine's a strange name," Fallen commented.
"Maybe you're name's the strange one," Katherine retorted.
"Why do you seem vaguely familiar...?" Fallen pondered.
"So this is a dream?" Shrine asked.
“Oh. No, no. I’m quite real. And it looks like I brought you here just in time. You two were nearly killed!”
"So I’d assume we’re in the Stalactite temple, but… Why are we here?" Shrine asked.
"Stalagmite," Kathryn corrected.
“Whatever.”
“Shrine, don’t you get it? She saved our lives!” Fallen said. She turned to Katherine. "Thank you!"
“It was no problem at all," Katherine shrugged off Fallen with a wave of her hand, continuing to talk to Shrine. "In any case, the real reason I brought you both here is so we can form a pact.
“Ah, alright. I guess I owe you, but what is a pact?”
“As the chosen Acrutis, your task is to form pacts with all six of us Mysls. If you do that, we can reunite to form the all-powerful deity we once were. Now, hand me your scroll. We don’t have a lot of time.”
“I feel a bit dizzy…” Fallen mumbled. She fell to her knees and Shrine started to help her up.
"You shouldn't have drank so much Cracky Cola," Shrine sighed.
"No, I don't think that's it-"
“It’s because she’s my Host,” Katherine explained. “In this state, all of us Mysls need a Host to survive. When we are in our tangible forms, as I am now, we must draw power from our Hosts, so she will get fatigued and possibly faint while I’m in this form. Don’t worry though -- this won’t take long, so she’ll be fine.”
“Why don’t you sit down then,” Shrine suggested, leading her to a wall of the small cave. She leaned on it and fell asleep almost immediately.
“Well. Now that that’s settled…” Katherine clasped her hands together. “I’ll need that scroll.”
“Oh, This one?” Shrine drew the scroll he received from Traveling Cat and showed it to her.
“Precisely. Thank you,” she said, taking it from him.
“What are you going to do with it?”
"You'll see." She winked at Shrine. Then, Kathryn held her arms up horizontally, slightly raised above shoulder height. The scroll floated in front of her. She closed her eyes, concentrating her power towards the scroll, and it began to glow a soft brown. This light slowly shifted to white as it got brighter and brighter, finally filling the room with a brilliant white glow, nearly blinding shrine. Suddenly, it stopped glowing.
Shrine stood there, blinking away the spots in his eyes. "You could've warned me about that…"
"Here," Katherine handed Shrine the scroll.
"Whoa!" he jumped, surprised. "The scroll feels… different than before. It feels… alive!"
"Yes. With this scroll, you'll be able to summon any Mysl you make a pact with. I've already infused my power with it; you may summon me if you feel the need."
Suddenly, Shrine recalled the mole that appeared when he had attempted Earth Magic. "Hey, can I summon animals, too?"
"Yes, you can. However, to summon Mysls and material items, you will need the scroll. Don't lose it."
"Material items?"
"Yes, you can use the scroll to store items, or to shoot out weapons. However, you have to make sure the weapons are in the scroll before you try to use them, or else you'll use your own Spirit to construct weapons. You can do that whenever you want, of course, but why waste Spirit when you can just store weapons in your scroll?"
"Makes sense," Shrine said. "Anything else I should know?"
"Nothing about the scroll. You'll know wheat else it can do, when the time comes. Oh, and don't forget to go find the other Mysls and make pacts with them."
"Okay. Where are they?"
"Oh, I don't know. They'll probably be around things of their own element. See, I'm the Earth Mysl, so I prefer the desert, where there's lots of dry Earth, since water makes earth mucky and hard to move."
"So, there's one of you for each type?"
"Yes."
"Cool… Hey, what's my time frame? I mean, I do have to rule a country, after all- and get it back, for that matter- so I won't have too much time to travel."
"Oh, that's fine. Do it when you can. The Gatekeeper is still asleep, and it doesn't look like he'll awaken for a while."
"Gatekeeper?"
"I'll give you the details about him some other time. Right now, you should go back to F2GF. Your country needs you."
"Oh, right! Fallen!" He dashed over to his friend and began to shake her vigorously, to wake her up.
"Mmmm… hey, stop it, I'm awake, mom."
"We have to go!"
"Huh?" Fallen stood up, gazing around. "Oh… right!"
"Farewell," the Mysl said, vanishing in a small burst of brown light.
"Kay. Let's go, Fallen!"
"Wait! Shrine, you're not going to try and find Nemesis's killer, are you? Please don't… I don't want you dead, too," she said the last part quietly.
"Oh… fine, but we have to at least get F2GF back!"
"Right. But… how will we get back?"
"Use the scroll." The voice of Kathryn said. Her dormant form, a sphere of glowing brown energy, appeared beside them.
"How?" Shrine asked her.
"You already know. Focus your power on what you want, and the motions will come naturally."
"Okay…" Shrine closed his eyes and concentrated on going back to F2GF. Then, he opened his eyes, shining with determination, spun his scroll around his head once, then threw it to the ground and placed his hands upon it. The ground glowed a golden brown under him, Fallen, and the scroll.
Suddenly, the ground beneath him and Fallen erupted in a huge earthy whirlpool, sucking them in.
* * *
"Whoa, it's dark!"
"I guess we were in that stalagmite for a while… it's already twilight." Shrine told Fallen.
"Stalagmite?"
"Yeah. Katherine's temple is shaped like a stalagmite."
"Oh. How do you know that?"
"She visited me in a dream once… Come on, we should probably head to the Palace."
"But we need a plan of attack!"
"Don't worry. I have one."
The two began to walk towards the Palace. Coming upon the main road, they noticed very few people. Some were lying on the streets, dead or dying, helpful neighbors trying to save them.
"This is horrible!" Tears had come to Fallen's eyes.
Shrine looked away. "Yeah."
"Mistress Fallen! Master Shrine!" A civilian called, running up to them. "Where have you been? Master Nemesis is dead, and the Church has claimed control over F2GF!"
"What's your name?" Asked Shrine.
"Taco."
"Well, Taco, can you fight?"
"Um… a little."
"Okay, then you can come help us."
"With?"
"Taking back out Country, of course!"
"Oh. Okay!"
The three ran towards the Palace. On the way, other civilians joined them. Soon, a fairly large group had gathered to help fight the Church.
As they approached the Palace, Fifa came out, a few select soldiers guarding him. The rest of his small army was camped out to one side of the Palace.
"Where's Acno?" Shrine demanded.
"Oh. He left already." Fifa told him. "I was wondering when you'd come back. He chuckled. "We thought you had chickened out and abandoned your precious heathen country!"
"Well, I didn't. Give it back!"
"Shrine, be careful," Fallen whispered. "The Bishops are all very powerful. Plus, he has an army with him! Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"Don't worry," Shrine whispered back.
"Haha!" Fifa laughed. "I'm afraid I can't just give you back the country. Acno, the Archbishop, has ordered me to stay here, to make sure scum like you never gain control over this country again."
"Well, okay. But if you don't hand it over now, you'll regret it."
"Haha! What, are you going to fight me? You're only 19! Fifa just kept on laughing. "A worthless pig like you and your little girlfriend would never stand a chance against a Bishop! Especially with such a cruddy, untrained militia like that!"
Shrine began to get angry. "I warned you…" he said through gritted teeth. Suddenly, his eyes began to glow a crimson red. He whipped out his scroll, swirled it in a circle gracefully. His body and the scroll began to glow the same soft golden brown as before.
"What's that?" Fifa sneered. "Some sort of cheep tri-" His eyes grew wide.
The ground beneath Shrine began to slow the same brown, and the earth began to rumble. A huge pillar of earth shot up under shrine, on top of which he stood. The earth below cracked open in huge fissures, barely missing Fifa.
Katherine's true form appeared beneath the pillar, ready to attack.
"Feel the power of the Gods!" Shrine called, unleashing a wave of earth, causing Fifa and his guards to be flung into the Palace wall.
Fifa scrambled to his feet. "Retreat!" he called, running.
Shrine chased Fifa and his army until he was sure they had left the city.
He returned to the palace upon a wave of earth.
Fallen's eyes were wide. "Was that… Katherine's power?"
"Yeah…" Shrine told her, as the earth returned to the ground and the fissures vanished. He and the scroll stopped glowing. A wave of dizziness came over Shrine.
"Shrine? Hey, what's wrong?" Fallen asked.
"I'm… really tired…"
With that, Shrine fell to the ground, out cold.
