It's that time of year again where I finally get around to publishing a new chapter to this story. And what a chapter this is. After all these years, a certain someone finally gets introduced to the story. Who is it? Well, you'll just have to continue reading to find out.

Disclaimer

Dragon Quest IX is the property of Square Enix and not me and probably not you.

What I do own are my own original characters, including, but not limited to, Michael, Jessica, and Allison, as well as some of the crazy things that happen to them.

Reviews:

outcast247: It is starting to get exciting, isn't it? Hopefully, it'll be exciting enough to motivate me to write the chapters even faster (Like that'll ever happen). In any case, I hope this chapter was worth the wait.

TKXJ23765: Who doesn't love occasionally knocking on the fourth wall? And I agree: Stella revealing herself to Allison was definitely an entertaining scene.


Act 2 – Part 13: A New Hope

(No one's POV)

An audible thump was heard as the body of a young warrior collapsed onto the bloodstained deck. Wiping the blood off of his knife, Zachary looked around the once lively deck of the Royal Gleeban Aqueus, now a silent mass grave. "It has been far too long since I was able to have fun like this," he mused contentedly.

"W-Why…?" a small voice groaned from a body lying nearby.

With a knowing look, Zachary turned and glanced over at the body of the young girl who had spoken, whose armor was splattered with the blood of her fellow passengers. Unlike her fellow passengers, however, she was still alive, though very much still beaten.

"Because," Zachary explained, stepping over the still-burning corpse of an armamentalist to crouch in front of her, "I needed to prove to you that you're not strong enough as a paladin yet to protect others."

"Why would you care…?" the young paladin begged, struggling to push herself to her knees. "I'm still in training…"

"Are you?" Zachary answered with a knowing smile. "Well, if that's the case, then it seems the Sinndicate hasn't exactly been doing a good job training you, have they? Not that that's that surprising…"

The paladin lowered her gaze at Zachary's words, knowing there to be some truth to them. "But…why me?" she asked, her voice cracking.

Smirking, Zachary replied, "That's a question you don't need the answer to quite yet." Softening his expression, he offered his hand to the young girl. "Now, come with me, and I will get you the training you need to become the strongest paladin in the world."

"What? No!" the paladin flatly refused, disgusted. "Why would I want to go with you? I mean, you literally just murdered all of these innocent people in front of me. Did you actually think that would convince me to join you?"

Zachary's expression immediately darkened, and, in one swift movement, his extended hand shot forward and grabbed the young paladin's throat, lifting her off the ground. "You misunderstand," Zachary coldly explained as the girl struggled to break free of his chokehold. "I wasn't asking. You will come with me."

The girl breathed out her response with great difficulty. "I…will…never," she declared. Not waiting for Zachary's reaction, she pulled back her right foot and kicked it right between Zachary's legs. He immediately dropped her and, landing on her feet, she wasted no time in pulling out her hammer and swinging it directly at Zachary's head.

Unfortunately for her, her attack never connected, as her wrist was caught in midair from behind before being thrown across the deck, slamming the surprised paladin into the outside of the ship's main cabin.

"Ah, excellent timing, Marshall," Zachary acknowledged, regaining his composure. Marshall merely grunted in response.

"M-Marshall…?" the paladin repeated, dazed. "Could it…?" Her thoughts were interrupted by another young woman exiting the interior of the ship beside her.

"There's no one else left on the ship, Zachary," Willow somberly reported. "Marshall knew the layout of the ship like the back of his hand. There were nowhere people could hide." She glanced down at young girl laying besides her, a shocked look appearing on her face. "Is this the person we came here to recruit? She's practically a child."

"What about it?"

"…Nothing," Willow answered, looking away.

"Good," Zachary replied before turning back to the young paladin. "Now, enough of this nonsense. You're coming with us!"

"I would rather die," the girl responded adamantly.

A vein popped out of Zachary's forehead. "Normally, I would forcibly drag you kicking and screaming with us, but you've been such a pain today that I think I agree with you: I would rather you die, too."

"Just try it," the girl challenged, jumping to her feet ready to fight.

Zachary responded by forcefully kicking her back down against the wall, pinning her against it with his knee. "I won't even have to try," he sighed. With one swift movement, Zachary grabbed his dagger and stabbed it through the paladin's left shoulder, breaking through her armor and embedding itself into the wooden wall. The young girl shrieked in pain as both blood and tears started dripping from her. All the while Willow looked away, unable to watch.

"Oh, relax. It's a non-fatal wound," Zachary explained. "That would be far too merciful a death for you." He smiled cruelly. "But, try as you might, that dagger is not going anywhere, and neither are you." Turning away to board his own boat, he made one last simple request. "Marshall, if you would be so kind."

Without another word, Marshall summoned an immense boulder out of thin air and tossed it into the sky. Soon enough, the boulder started plummeting back down at an incredible speed and, in a matter of moments, crashed straight through the ship and out the bottom, cracking the ship in half in the process. The ship quickly started collapsing from the damage as the sea poured in from below. As Zachary's ship sailed away, the wreckage of the Royal Gleeban Aqueus slid beneath the waves, ferrying the dead of that day to their final resting place.


(Michael's POV)

"There you are!" the ship warden greeted us as we arrived at the Bloomingdale harbor the next morning. "I've been waiting for you! I expect you've been busy being showered with gratitude by Ms. Bloome, have you?"

"Um…well…no, actually," I answered solemnly.

"Really?" the warden asked, surprised. "You didn't find her before she left on her journey? She's a standoffish one alright, that young lady!" he scolded. "She could have at least thanked you for rescuing her before heading off." An uncomfortable silence fell between us as we were once again reminded of our burden to keep Marion's death a secret from the rest of the world. "Anyway… As promised, this old vessel is yours now, to sail on wherever you please! Take her far and wide! She likes to travel, this one!" He stepped to the side, allowing us access to the ship's gangplank. "Go on then, climb aboard. There's a fine wind today. You wouldn't want to waste it!"

Grateful, we said our farewells as we boarded The Pride of Bloomingdale. "Thank you again, for all of your help," I thanked.

"Yes, we really appreciate it," Allison agreed.

"I promise we'll take good care of her," Jessica added.

"Have a safe journey, lads," the warden waved as we pulled the gangplank up onto the ship. "I'll be praying for you."

"Yay! We've blagged ourselves a boat at last!" Stella cheered. "Let's set sail and see what we can see. Other than the sea, if you see what I mean…"

"I'm just happy to be finally leaving Bloomingdale," Allison admitted. "It's a nice city and all, but I just couldn't handle the emotional stress much longer."

"Out of curiosity," Jessica interjected, "does anyone here know how to sail a ship?"


"Right, that's the sailing one-hundred-and-one course done and dusted with," Stella concluded. "Now, let's soar across the seas till we're sea-sore!"

"I'm pretty sure I already took this exact class before," Allison commented.

"Then you can sail the ship," Jessica groaned, "because I didn't understand a word she said."

"Is this what school is normally like for you mortals?" I asked, confused. "If so, I have several questions."


Between Stella's crash course and Allison volunteering to take the helm, we eventually managed to get our ship out of Bloomingdale's port and into the open sea. Not really having a clue on where to go next, we decided to visit the next nearest area we hadn't explored yet: the Djust Desert and the Kingdom of Gleeba, located on a continent to the northeast.

Following the eastern shore of the Bloomingdale continent north, we soon passed by the small port of Slurry Quay and a small group of fishermen from Porth Laffan, who waved at us as we went by. As we sailed away from Newid Isle and around the northern tip of Bloomingdale, Jessica and I were chatting about the current state of our adventure.

"I can't believe we already only have three Fyggs left to find," Jessica sighed, looking out over the water.

"Yeah…" I agreed. "To be honest, I was not expecting to find the first four Fyggs so quickly. I suppose I can't complain, though. Who knows how much damage they would've caused if they were still out there."

"I'd say we've certainly gotten more than our fair share of damage from them," Jessica remarked, smirking. "But I suppose that's to be expected when you're actively hunting down cursed magical fruit of the heavens. Speaking of which, what three do we have left to find again?

"Deceit, Wrath, and Lust," I listed, counting on my fingers.

"Oh, good," Jessica responded sarcastically. "So, one will lie to us, one will actively try to kill us, and I don't even want to think about what the other will try. Shouldn't be a problem."

"You say that as if we had problems getting the first four Fyggs."

"Well, I don't know how it works for you Celestrians," Jessica snarkily explained, gesturing towards me, "but for mortals like Allison and myself, we typically consider nearly dying multiple gruesome deaths to be a problem."

"Right… I forget sometimes how this whole mortality thing works."

"How could you forget something like that!?" Jessica asked. "Are you not yourself mortal at the moment?"

"I don't know. Maybe," I answered, unsure of the answer myself. "If I am, I hopefully won't be for much longer."

"Oh…" she responded, turning back towards the water. It almost seemed like she was saddened at the thought of me regaining my Celestrial powers, but I couldn't figure out any reason why that would make sense. After a period of silence, Jessica asked a new question. "What happens after we find all seven Fyggs?"

"Then we take them back to the Observatory, I guess."

"And then what?" Jessica interrogated resentfully. "All you Celestrians just disappear and that's that?"

"I'm not sure... I suppose that could happen."

"So you're just going to abandon me and Allison at that point, right?" Jessica snapped. "We won't matter to you anymore since we've served our purpose and you'll just leave us to fend for ourselves. And then…and then…" Her emotions finally boiled over at that point and she quickly turned away again in an attempt to hide her tears. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry," she sobbed. "I didn't mean…my temper…"

I gingerly pulled her into a gentle hug, letting her cry into my shoulder. "I don't necessarily want to leave you guys," I comforted. "But even if I have to, you will always matter to me. I'd never want to forget this adventure we've had together."

"It's alright," Jessica apologized. "We'd understand if you had to leave. I guess it's what we signed up for, even though you technically lied to both of us when we each both joined you."

"Hey!" I objected. "You helped lie to Allison, too. And it wasn't lying. It was…leaving out part of the truth."

Jessica giggled. "Anyway, I just wanted to tell you how personally grateful I am to have you there for me. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have you to help protect me from Zachary."

"Well, I was only repaying the favor," I said, rubbing the back of my neck. "I mean, without having you with me, if the Wight Knight didn't kill me, Morag definitely would have."

"You already made up for that when you prevented the Ragin' Contagion from killing me," Jessica countered.

"I'd argue that Allison deserves most of the credit for carrying you through that battle, as well as against Tyrantula."

"That may be the case," Jessica conceded, "but there's no way you can pass on the credit for rescuing me from the monsters at the Heights of Loneliness."

"Fair point, though I'd argue that Stella actually deserves most of the credit from that day, considering I wouldn't have been able to get you out of those caves without her help."


(Allison's POV)

"Don't say a word about it, Stella."

"You know I'm right!" Stella insisted. "I didn't even bring it up and you knew what was flapping happening."

"You're just seeing things."

"You might want to get your glasses checked out if you're this flapping blind to the obvious."

"Maybe you're the one that needs glasses, considering you're seeing things that aren't there."

"First of all, I bet I would look flapping amazing in glasses. Second, it wouldn't change a flapping thing. Deny it all you want. It is what it is."


(Michael's POV)

"You know what, let's just say we're even."

"I suppose that's fair," Jessica agreed. "Though, I still think that you're more even than I am."

"That's not how tha-" I began to argue before something caught my attention from the corner of my eye. "Did you see that?"

"See what?"

"I swear I just saw some small green thing fly past just now," I explained, leaning over the rail of the ship to try to find any trace what I had seen. "I'm telling you, I saw-"

"Michael, over there!" Jessica yelled, pointing out ahead of us. "There's something in the water."

My eyes widened in shock as my gaze followed in the direction of her finger. Floating in the water was the splintered remains of what appeared to be the wreckage of a ship. Chunks of wood were pushed aside in our wake as we sailed through them.

"What happened here?" Jessica asked breathlessly. I did not answer, for I did not know.

As I continued looking over the wreckage, one particular piece caught my attention. "Down there!" I called out. "There's a person in the water!"

"What!?" Jessica exclaimed. "Get them out!"

"But how?" I asked, looking around for an answer. "Jessica, lower this lifeboat for me. I'll go down and pull them up."

Jessica nodded and quickly lowered me to the water. Once I was close enough, I reached out and grabbed the board that the person was lying on, pulling them onto the lifeboat with me. Oddly enough, they seemed to be stuck to the piece of wood, as it came with them. Jessica slowly lifted the lifeboat back out of the water, and once we were back on the deck of the ship, we laid the unconscious person – and their board – flat on the ground, where Allison and Stella had come down to see who we had pulled up.

Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I was finally able to take a closer look at the person we had just rescued. She seemed to be a younger girl, no older than fourteen mortal years. She had curly blonde hair that peeked out from underneath her helmet. Slight shadows under her eyes contrasted against her soft, lightly freckled face. The rest of her body was hidden within a suit of armor, covered in countless scuffs and dents and the occasional drop of dried blood that had survived the ocean's waves.

"It's a miracle her armor didn't pull her to the bottom of the ocean," I remarked.

"Yeah…" Allison breathed, looking the young girl over for injuries. "Hey, what's that in her shoulder? Is that…a knife?"

Looking at her left shoulder, I realized that there did, in fact, seem to be a knife sticking out of it, though only the hilt was currently visible.

"How deep did the knife go?" Allison asked, looking at it in horror.

"I bet it's why she seems to be stuck to the boards beneath her," I replied.

"Who could stab with that much force, though?"

"I recognize that blade," Jessica solemnly interjected. "It's one of Zachary's."

"You're saying Zachary did this?" Allison gasped.

"I'm saying Zachary probably attacked and sank the whole ship," Jessica clarified.

"But…why?" Allison asked.

"Zachary doesn't always need a reason to do something like this," Jessica answered. "But, if there is one, maybe she would know."

"In that case, let's wake her up," I declared.

"We should probably take the knife out of her shoulder first," Allison cautioned. "It would probably be a lot more pleasant for her if she stayed unconscious when we did that."

"Sure," I agreed. "How do we do that?"

"I was planning on just trying to pull it out," Allison explained. "Just to see how stuck it really is." Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the hilt of the knife with both hands. "Okay, on three. One. Two. Th-"

She stopped suddenly as a small green ball of light appeared out of nowhere next to the knife. It seemed almost as if it was watching. After an extended silence, and despite not actually having any notable features, the floating ball of light seemed to look up and around at us.

"Huh," spoke a small voice coming from the light. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say these guys could see me."

The three of us exchanged a handful of awkward glances before I finally responded. "Uh…we can."

"Oh… Huh," the ball responded rather calmly. "Well, in that case… Hi, I'm Phil!" he excitedly introduced himself, flying around to each of us. "Nice to meet you, and nice to meet you, and nice to meet you!"

"Uh…it's nice to meet you, too, Phil," I replied, a bit taken aback by his energy.

"What exactly are you, Phil?" Jessica asked curiously. "If you don't mind me asking."

"…You don't know what I am?" Phil asked, concerned. "I'm a soul spirit guide, duh. Every paladin should know that!"

"We're not paladins, though," Allison pointed out.

"No kidding?" Phil exclaimed in disbelief. "And here I thought only paladins could see other soul spirits. You learn something new every day, I suppose."

"I'm only slightly bothered by how calmly he's taking this news," Stella admitted begrudgingly, probably looking back upon her own past moments of revelation.

"Well, I guess not everyone is as high strung as you are," I laughed.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't see you earlier!" Phil called out, flying up to meet Stella. "I'm Phil! What's your name?"

"Um… I'm Stella," she answered, caught off guard.

"Wow! What a lovely name!" Phil complimented, spiraling around Stella. "I've never seen anyone like you before. You're far too beautiful to be another soul spirit."

"He never even asked our names…" Jessica remarked quietly.

"Oh! Well, thank you, Phil," Stella responded, blushing!? "If you must know, I'm a faerie, and I can't tell you how flapping nice it is to finally meet someone who truly appreciates me." Many eyes were rolled at her comment.

"A faerie? That's amazing!" Phil exclaimed. "You know, if I-" Phil suddenly cut off as he started flashing yellow. "Oops! I almost forgot!" He quickly flew down to where the unconscious girl was still lying. "My paladin still needs your help," he explained. "I know you were about to help her before I distracted you, so I – well, we, I guess – would greatly appreciate it if you could continue."

"Well, I was about to try to pull the knife out of her shoulder," Allison explained.

"Oh, yeah, we already tried that," Phil pointed out. "It's really stuck in there. Even we weren't strong enough to pull it out."

"Maybe we should let Michael pull it out, Allison," Jessica suggested. "He's definitely the strongest out of us."

"I suppose you're right," Allison conceded. "It would probably be better to avoid pulling on the knife more than we need to. While he does that, you and I should hold her body down."

"Right," Jessica nodded, getting into position.

I stepped over and grabbed hold of the knife. "This might hurt, Phil," I warned. "A lot."

"Oh, almost certainly," Phil agreed. "Don't worry, though. We'll be fine. It probably hurt a lot more going in then it will coming out."

"Alright," I said. "On three again. One… Two… Three!" On three, I pulled the knife upwards as hard as I could. It must have been really stuck, as it took even me a fair bit of effort to get it out. It did finally come loose, though, causing me to nearly stumble backwards as it did so.

At the same time, Phil turned a bright red and took a very jagged shape. After a few seconds, he shook himself and returned to his normal green self. "Wow!" he exclaimed. "You were right! That did hurt!"

"Knives typically do," Allison commented as she raised her spear to begin healing the shoulder wound.

"Okay, so now can we wake her?" I asked. "I still want to know what happened."

"Oh, I can tell you what happened," Phil offered. "…But, I should probably wake her up anyway. She doesn't like it when I talk to strangers without her."

Moving ever so carefully, he gently landed upon the tip of her nose. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then, all of a sudden, the girl's eyes shot open. She quickly sat up, knocking Phil away, and looked around her. As soon as she saw the three of us, she let out a startled shriek and started panickily pushing herself away from us.

"Miss Hope! Miss Hope!" Phil called out, flying after the frightened girl.


(Hope's POV)

I felt myself stop at the sound of my friend's voice. "Phil?" I asked, trying to find him. Within seconds, I was greeted with the sight of my little green soul spirit bobbing before me. "Oh, thank goodness," I sighed in relief as I offered a hand for him to land on.

"Yup, it's me!" Phil exclaimed excitedly. "At your side like always."

"But, where are we?" I asked in a cautious whisper, not wanting the strangers nearby to overhear us. "Is everything okay?"

"Uh… I don't know where we are. On a boat somewhere, I guess," Phil answered. "But we're safe now!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yup!" Phil happily confirmed. "Those nice people over there rescued us. Look, they even healed your shoulder!"

Looking at my left shoulder, I realized that it was, indeed, healed. "Would you look at that," I remarked. "But how do you know we can trust them?"

Phil made a slight wiggle that I recognized as his attempt at a shrug. "Well, admittedly, I don't trust the two girls very much," he quietly whispered to me. "They remind me a bit of the people who attacked us. On the other hand, I think the one with green hair might be a divine being."

"What!?" I whispered back in surprise. "You mean like-"

"Hang on. I'll go ask!"

"No, wait!" I shouted, but Phil was already floating towards the strangers. "Phil, you come back here right now!" I ordered, jumping to my feet. Stopping in his tracks, Phil quickly turned around and flew back in front of me, hovering at eye level. "What did I tell you about talking to strangers without me?" I quietly scolded.

"Not to," Phil answered. "But-" he trailed off as I gave him a stern look. "Sorry, Miss Hope," he apologized, turning a deep shade of blue.

"It's okay, Phil," I cooed, softly scooping him up in my hands. "I know you were trying to help me while I was hurt. But now that I'm all better, I can go back to taking care of you."

Perking back up to his usual shade of green, Phil flew out of my hands and swirled around my head a few times before finally settling down on his usual spot atop my left shoulder. "Okay!" he chirped. "But that means that now you have to go talk to the strangers."

"Oh, right…" I shuddered. "Did you at least ask what their names were?"

"…Was I supposed to?"


(Michael's POV)

"What do you make of them, Michael?" Stella asked, hovering besides me.

"I don't know what to think yet," I answered.

"Well, I like Phil," Stella admitted.

"You like anyone who compliments you," Jessica replied, rolling her eyes.

"You're just envious of his superior tastes in fashion," Stella countered. "Meanwhile, you have to settle for the occasional compliment from Michael over here."

"Come on guys, focus." Allison reprimanded. "Don't forget we still need to ask them about what happened."

"Oh, relax, Allison," Jessica sighed. "We know. But they're still over there having a private discussion amongst themselves."

"Actually, it looks like they're done," I pointed out as they started heading back towards where we were.

"Hi again!" Phil cheerfully greeted as he rejoined us.

"Um…Phil tells me that you guys are the one that rescued us," the young girl nervously started. "So…uh…thanks. I'm Hope, by the way, and I'm a paladin, er, a paladin-in-training. I guess you've already met my soul spirit guide Phil."

"We sure have," I responded kindly, hoping to help relax the poor girl. "He was a great help in, well, helping you. I'm Michael," I said, introducing myself. "And this is Jessica and Allison."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Jessica smiled.

"I'm glad to see you're alright," Allison nodded.

"And I'm the flapping fabulous Stella!" shouted, jumping into the middle of the group. After an extended period of silence, Stella looked around and, seeing the startled look on Hope's face, slumped her shoulders. "You know, it never occurred to me that you might not be able to see me, but now that I know that you can, I…" She sighed dejectedly and flew back to where she was, shaking her head.

"Huh. So Phil was right," Hope stated. "You do have a faerie. How interesting."

"Well, it's really more of a burden than anything," Jessica remarked. "What I find interesting is that you can see her."

"Yeah, well, none of you are supposed to see Phil, either," Hope defended, tensing up at Jessica's comment.

"That's fair," I conceded. "I think we're just curious as to how you're able to see Stella. I figure other paladins aren't normally able to see faeries and the like."

Hope remained silent for a bit, staring directly at me as if she was judging me. Finally, she answered. "You're right. Paladins normally can't see magical beings beyond soul spirits and, honestly, I have no idea why I'm different. I guess I just never really thought about it that much, as all it amounts to is the occasional ghost sighting, and it really wasn't worth getting…others…involved over it. What about you?" she asked us back suspiciously.

"I, uh…don't know why, either," Jessica responded.

"Stella slapped me in the face."

"I am a magical being, and a flapping fantastic one at that!"

I took an extra second to think of an answer. "I'm…uh…a-"

"You're a divine being!" Phil suddenly shouted, excitedly flying off of Hope's shoulder. "Oh, wait, I'm not supposed to know that. Whoops! Sorry." Phil quickly settled back down where he had been resting. Hope gave him a stern look, then glanced at me expectantly.

I sighed. "What's the point of even keeping it a secret anymore? Fine. He's right. I'm a Celestrian," I revealed. "You got me."

"A Celestrian?" Hope repeated, shocked. "You don't look like one, though…"

"I know, right?" Stella chimed in. "I said the exact same flapping thing. I mean, look at him. No wings. No halo. Just generally…lacking in everything else. But take it from me, he is a one hundred percent genuine Celestrian."

"Thank you, Stella," I responded dryly, already tired of her sass today. "But, yeah, I'm a Celestrian. I've never been referred to as a 'divine being' before, though. How did Phil know?"

Hope glanced over at Phil before answering. "Well, he peeked at your soul."

"He what?"

"Well, he's a soul spirit," Hope explained. "He has the ability to read the soul of others. Despite how he may act, Phil's actually a pretty clever little guy," she said, gently patting him appreciatively. "When he was flying around greeting all of you, he was actually taking a look at each of your souls to make sure he could trust you to help me."

"Your soul was so bright, Michael," Phil explained, "that I knew I could trust you instantly. I've never seen such a brilliant soul before."

"Oh, uh, thank you," I said, flattered in a confused way.

"Don't let that go to your head, Michael," Stella warned, hitting me on the head. "Your soul is only so bright because you're a Celestrian, not because you're special or anything."

"But then I saw Stella's soul," Phil continued, "and it was even more amazing! Its magnificence is unparalleled to anything else in the world!"

"Can we keep him, Michael?"

"What do our souls look like, Phil?" Jessica asked, Allison nodding besides her.

"Meh," he answered. "Not great. Kind of dingy, you know? Swirling shadows and stuff like that."

"…Oh." was all Jessica said, shifting nervously.

"I see," Allison mumbled to herself.

"Anyway," I interjected, trying to get us back on track, "we were hoping you could tell us what had happened to you."

"I can try," Hope agreed. "They attacked us so fast, though."

"Who did?" Jessica asked, intensely focused on what the young paladin was saying.

"There was three of them," Hope explained. "Their leader was a man named Zachary. There was also a girl that moved through the shadows and a larger man named Marshall…"

"No Sarah," Jessica noted. "Zachary left her behind."

"I want to know where she is, then," Allison responded.

Hope stepped back as they spoke. "You know those monsters?" she asked fearfully.

"We do have a history with Zachary," I clarified. "He's been hunting us – well, mostly Jessica – for a long time."

"We're not friends with them at all, if that's your concern," Jessica added. "I surprised he chose to attack you, though, to be honest. He's normally so obsessed with getting me. Do you have any idea why you were attacked?"

Hope's face darkened and she looked away. "We were a passenger ship on our way to Gleeba. We had nothing of notable value. But…" She trailed off, seemingly unable to finish her thought.

"They killed everyone," Phil continued for her. "Well, everyone, except for-"

"Except for me!" Hope wailed, collapsing onto the deck and crying into her knees. "He killed everyone to get to me and I couldn't stop him or even save one person. I'm the worst paladin ever!"

"He wanted us to join his group," Phil further explained, now a dark blue color. "He made promises to help train her to be stronger. He killed everyone else just to prove that she wasn't strong enough to protect anyone."

"And when I refused…he tried to kill me instead," Hope concluded, sniffling.

"That does sound like a classic Zachary recruitment technique," Jessica admitted, kneeling besides the crying girl. "Listen, what happened was not your fault," she reassured, putting a hand on Hope's shoulder. "Zachary is incredibly powerful. There are probably very few people in the world that could even challenge him. Heck, I think Michael might be the only person in existence to ever even land a hit on Zachary, and he's a 'divine being.'"

"Actually, that last part's not entirely true," Phil chimed in. "Miss Hope actually managed to hit Zachary once, too."

"You did?" Jessica asked, amazed.

Hope nodded in response, wiping away her tears. "He was choking me…so I kicked him…between the legs."

Even from where I was standing, I could hear the snicker that escaped Jessica's mouth upon hearing Hope's answer. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, covering her mouth with her hand, "but that's incredibly awesome. I guess that explains why he ended up trying to kill you instead of forcing you to go with him."

"I don't think this is something to laugh at, Jessica," Allison scolded. "This is a serious matter."

"No, it's okay," Hope defended, getting back on her feet. "If it's as big of a deal as she says it is, then I have no issue laughing at the expense at that murderous monster. Plus, it worked, didn't it? I'm here now instead of wherever he would've taken me. And, to be honest, it kind of felt good." She said that last bit in a quiet whisper, slightly blushing as she did so.

Jessica laughed again, more openly this time. "You know what, Hope?" she asked. "I'm really starting to like you."

"Really?" Hope asked, a genuine smile forming on her face.

"That's all well and good," Allison interrupted, "but don't we all have places to be?"

An awkward silence fell over the group in response to her statement. "I suppose…" I conceded. "Hope, you said you were heading to Gleeba, right? That's where we're heading, so you're welcome to come with us if you want."

"Of course she is, Michael!" Jessica exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "What would she do otherwise? Walk there?"

"Use a Chimera Wing."

Jessica opened her mouth, but she couldn't come up with anything to say to that. Pouting, she said, "I hate it when you're right on things like this."

A gentle giggling sound caught everyone's attention, only to find that it had come Hope herself. "I'm sorry," she squeaked, blushing. "I'm still sore and tired from the whole ordeal, and I seem to have lost most of my equipment, so I greatly appreciate your offer to help get me back to Gleeba."

"Was that a yes or a no?" Allison asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It was a yes," Phil clarified, bouncing atop of Hope's head.

"Alright!" Stella cheered. "Then let's set sail once more for Gleeba! In the meantime, Phil, you can continue telling me how flapping amazing I am."

"Okay!"


And there you have it. Our newest character is Phil and his paladin, Hope. Or maybe it's Hope and her soul spirit, Phil? I suppose it depends on how you look at it. Either way, I hope (hehe, see what I did there?) that you like the pair. I've waited literal years to add her to this story, and now that the gang's all here, now the fun can truly begin.

You know, it's been so long since I last introduced a new major character, hasn't it? Zachary first appeared in Part 2-2, and Allison goes all the back to Part 1-8. Hope and Phil may very well be the last characters I introduce in this story, too, which is kind of weird to think about. But, I suppose it's a sign of progress.

I really don't know what else to say at this point. Next chapter, our heroes arrive in the desert kingdom of Gleeba, and we'll learn more about Hope and Phil along the way. There may even be some secrets about a certain member of Zachary's gang to discover.

In any case, until next time, this has been D~F.