Rainoric and Sakura climbed over a rock while keeping their heads down. The size of the Cultist nomadic style camp shocked both of them as they nearly littered around the entire ravine. Dusk was falling and the skiey darkened to a blackend blue revealing shadows that they can sneak through.

"Dear Godan, is this a f****** raiding party or a f******* invasion army?"Rainoric says.

"Take a guess."Sakura said.

"Sara, can you use the Eyes to count how many bastards walk here."

Sakura picked up the mask that she got from 'the Observatory' and placed them on. Her mind expanded in 4th person 'God view' to see the map. She could see thousands of them walking about in the camp. She deactivated the mask afterwards.

"I say maybe more than ten thousand."Sakura said.

"Damnation, with that many chaos could follow from Aksyar to even Ghogthal!"Rainoric replied.

"The larger the beast the more it feeds. That's what Sun Tzu say. So we need to find some sort of supply place."Sakura said.

"Your a genius aren't ya? Okay let me see."Rainoric fanned over his hand on his eyes to scour the camp. He then pointed at one of the tents to Sakura.

"Orange cloths drapping over you see? Cultists  mark those as supply depots. Looks big enough to fuel half the army at least."

"So we go there?"

"Yeah, we will need disguises. Listen to Sakura, in order to get out of here alive you need to follow me and do what I do. Culitst bases are no more than killing an entire wolves den."

"Hai!"Sakura grasped her hand into a fist.

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Rainoric quietelt snuck up behind a couple of Cultis warriors and simultaneously slit both of there throat with his seax as quietly as he could. He was careful not to spill as little blood as possible less they stain the white gards with their previous owners blood.

"Wear this one and follow me."Rainoric passed some clothes to Sakura.

Sakura undressed which embarassed Rainier to see as he turned around the corner as soon as he saw Sakura take of her shirt.

"You seem quiet shy right now."Sakura said.

"You...got...uhm...."Rainoric tried to say.

"Its okay we are friends you know. I won't get mad."Sakura said.

"Well if you say so, you got some nice looking skin, for a slave."Rainoric said.

"I bathe a lot. Thanks I get that alot."Sakura said covering the womanly parts of her body.

"I like your belly."

"Excuse me?"

"I like your belly. Not in the way Ulrich will say he likes a belly of his pig before heading face first to rip it off. Your belly it looks smooth and that belly button of yours, it looks hilarious." Rainoric pointed to Sakura's poked in belly button while still not looking at Sakura directly.

"I remeber that during gravure shots the camerman will always talk about it to make me laugh in between shoots. I would smile in front of  the camera while dress in a Bikini...."

"What the hell is a 'Bikini'?"

"A swimsuit. It's hard to explain to you. Okay done are you ready?" Sakura finally wore the last touches of her disguise and look nearly unrecognizable save for the a pink scarf she normally wears that she would put in her fashion.

"Okay follow me and stay close." Rainoric walked out of the tent.

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The Cultist camp was huge. Everywhere you go there is a white masked Cultist every inch they walk. Decorum and liveries associated with them also brightened up the camp but were shadowed by the lanterns that were lit up that night. Sakura and Rain's disguises were working like charm. She could feel like Solid Snake from the video games infiltrating an enemy base right under their noses.

"Hey!"A Cultist next to her said.

"Oh no, we are found out." Sakura thought.

"You bumped into me you little---"The Cultis was about to grab her when Rainoric stepped in.

"Sorry friend, she's a new recruit. Kinda clumsy. Gonna take her to the tents and have her read some scriptures. Do you have some sort of meeting to go to?"Rainoric's silver tongue rolled in.

"All right, I am in a rush to go to the gathering. Just keep your friend's clumsiness to herself okay?"The Cultist walked away.

"Rain-chan....saved me. Whew!" Sakura thought.

"Sara, stay as close to me as possible now. We have to go through the prison brig. Hold my hand tight and don't look at anyone in the eye."Rainoric grabbed her hand and pulled her.

Sakura blushed as she was never held in the hand like that. It felt dreamy for her to me pulled by a man or some ghost strapped in armor by her hand. Sakura's eyes was staring right behind Rainoric's helmet/head untill she noticed a familiar face from the prisoners. She quietly unhooked her hand from Rainoric and walked to that girl who was squatting down in ragged clothings.

"Anna, it's me Sakuratan." Sakura quickly revealed her face to her friend while trying to keep quiet.

"Sakura, please you got to get me out of here. I saw them take girls away and never see them again."Anna Murashige the Half-Japanese and Hald-Russian said.

"Sara, who is this girl?"Rainoric asked.

"She is my friend from HKT48 Anna Murashige."

"Please you got to get me out of here."Anna pleaded with her hands together.

"Damnit, too many guards right now. Will have to wait untill there's less of them. But Sakura, we need to sabotage the armory right now."Rainoric reminded her.

"Kuso! Anna, just stay put. I will be right back. And I won't forgive myself if I break it okay?"Sakura reassured.

"I will wait, but I don't know how long I will sit here."Anna said.

Sakura with a heavy heart left the prisoner brig with Rainoric to continue on with their mission. She promised herself she will come back for Anna when thee coast is clear.

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Sakura knocked out the last sentry that was guarding the entrance of the armory of the Cultist camp. After a moment of some cunning stealth actions and maneuvers that would rival Sam Fisher and Solid Snake, Sakura promptly grabbed the keys and opened the locked door.

"Nice punch for a Yamanin."Rainoric complimented.

"Nice back flip kick."Sakura said back.

"That was an accident okay? I don't really do that well."Rainoric scractched the back of his hand in humility. A rare sight for him to do infront of anyone let alone a Yamanin like Sakura.

The armory was larger than what they first perceived. It was from the inside a dugged up trench filled to the brim of every weapon imaginable. Explosives, swords, guns, fire weapons, everything that can kill someone was inside the armory. Rainoric felt like he is in warrior heaven as he fondled with every exotic gadget he has no familiarity of wielding or knowledge of how it was used.

"Rain don't touch that!" Sakura reached her hand as Rainoric was touching a can of napalm which crashed on the floor and ignited.

"Shoot! I mean....uhm good! Sakura find more of these things and lets roast this place."Rainoric ordered.

Sakura scrambled to find more canisters of napalm She found a load of them in a box and began to unpin the grenades. The canisters exploded igniting the building and causing secondary explosions. But as the smoke began to rise. Sakura damned herself to forget that she can't breathe well with all the oxygen being turned into carbon monoxide. She caughed  as her vision began to darken as she could no longer see. Sakura knelt down to crawl as she was told many times during those fire safety drill in school, but the smoke was already draining all of the oxygen dry and she lost breath and passed out.

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"1.....2.....3......4........5...... Come on......please......1.....2....."Rainoric's voice woke Sakura up.

Sakura grasped for air as she now found her self outside of the burning tent with Rainoric touching her chest. Sakura feeling of being shy over having someone touch her there was soon changed when Rainoric spoke.

"Wait were you thinking of that? I'm sorry, I was preforming that thing you taught me called, 'CPR'. I guessed it worked."Rainoric said.

"Your....a good learner Rain."Sakura smiled which comforted him as he was worried that Sakura died from all of the smoke she inhaled in her lungs. He barely draggedd Sakura out of armory before it caved into a large bonfire.

"Oh s*** guards. Play dead, I will take you to the brig to get your friend we get the f*** out of here."Rainoric grabbed Sakura by the back and her legs in a lover's carry and silently walked out of the distressed Cultist who are trying to put out the fire that is now destroying almost half of their weapons.

Other than the fire fighting guards, there was barely anyone walking the streets and walkways of the camp as Rainoric carrying Sakura made their way back to the brig.

When they arrived Rainoric gently lay down Sakura and dashed for Anna's cell only to find it empty.

"No....No....No....."Sakura despaired. She was about to fall on her knees and cry when she noticed there was a sleeping Cultist  Warden lazily catching the Z's on his stool. Sakura walked towards the unaware Warden, grabbed his knife and placed it on his throat.

"Where is she?"Sakura asked the warden.

"Go to hell Loyalist!"the warden threatened. Sakura, in anger and desperation, plunged the knife into the leg of the man and he would have screamed if Rainoric quickly placed his hand on the warden's mouth to muffle them.

"The girl in that cell with the brown hair and looks a bit chubby and babyfaced. Where?!?"Sakura pushed her answer harder to the warden as she slowly slided the knife.

"We took her away to the caverns for sacrifice. There, I told you. You can't kill me ple----"the warden tried to plead for his life but Rainoric snuffed it out by punching his throat and collapsing his esophagus and have him choke to death with his own blood.

"Taken just now? We can still save your friend. Bloody Hell, I am doing this for you right now Sakura, come on."Rainoric said. With Sakura following right on his heels.

They reached the entrance of the caverns where important meetings were dicussed and they were just about to go in when the sentries stopped them.

"Halt, only high ranking warriors can enter. Your supposed to be in the rallying point  right now for the attack."the sentry said.

"Oh, sorry. I thought the rallying point was hear."Rainoric apoligised and dragged Sakura away.

They found a second way in by the form of  a small but navigable tunnel used to bring air in and out of the cavern. After squezzing their way through. Rainoric and Sakura now have a great vantage point for them to see the entire gathering room. Over a thousand Cultist were in attendance and they looked up towards a stage where a priest was conducting some sort of right.

"When the sun rises! We will attack Aksyar with one of the Guardians of Auriga at our side! We will crush that hedonistic city of greed and then we move to Ghogthal and soon the rest of Auriga!"the priest shouted

"For the eternal end!" Everyone in the room shouted in repetition.

"Now bring in the final sacrifice! We need one more to spill to summon our new weapn from the depths of this world!"the priest waved his hands to some guards who was dragging  a struggling woman. It was Anna.

"Annin!"Sakura said. She wanted to go and save her but Rainoric was stopping her by holding her hip.

"Do that and we all die."Rainoric said.

"Let me go! I need to save her."Sakura said. But she felt powerless as Rainoric was anchoring her down and Anna was now closing into the sacrificial altar.

"Please! Don't kill me!"Anna cried. But she was then forced to lie down on the altar thanks to the strength of her two captors. Anna watched in horror as the priest menacingly approached her while unsheathing his ceremonial dagger.

"No!"Sakura reached her hand trying for one last push to release herself from Rainoric's graps but she was still to weak to even shake an inch off of him.

"Sakura! Save me!" were the last words of Anna. Tears were now flowing on her eyes like a waterfall as the Cultist Priest plunged his knife on Anna's heart before ripping it out of her chest. Then the etchings that surrounded the altar began to glow purple and the earth shook.

"Sakura.....and Crown Prince of the Gimaelics himself Rainoric Eadwulf graced us with their prescence! Your too late! Despite the annoyance of blowing up my armory we don't even need those weapons anyway. For now we have weapon far greater than you could ever perceive! Gios, the guardian of Earth. Accept this final virigin's heart and erase creation from this world!"the priest shouted. The ground began to split and a large figure of stone and earth of titanic height emerged from the fissure.

"I thought the guardians were just as myths like Paladin Armor."Rainoric whispered.

"What are guardi---"Sakura tried to ask only to be hailed by bullets from the Cultists.

"We get out of here now!" Rainori yelled. He grabbed on to Sakura and just as they came up to their vantage point, they slid down from the air tunnels like a slide while dodging gunfire. After making it down the tunnel, Sakura and Rainoric ran towards some nearby stables wear a Dust Horse was residing. They quickly climbed on top of the horse and galloped their way out. The horse ran over several Cultists while Rainoric shot some with his Plasma pistol and Sakura kept her head down.

"The gate is closing! Sara hold it open!"Rainoric pointed to the gate seperating them from the wilderness which was slowly closing infront of them.

With a force of will from her White Dust powers. Sakura hold the gate long enough for the horse to get through and now they are already galloping through the wilderness. They have already ran about 2 miles already and well past any Cultists to chase so Sakura asked the question she was about to say to Rain.

"What is a Guardian?"

"When Auriga was formed, Godan created 5 Guardians to preside over Auriga during its infancy. They were supposed to make sure creation runs smoothly but they got greedy and rebelled against him. For punishment, Godan imprisoned them and our friend the Priest of the Eternal End used Blood Sacrifices to reawaken Gios and that rocky bastard looks pissed."Rainoric said.

"But....Anna....she is...."Sakura couldn't hold back her tears for her friend.

"You will only get yourself killed if you tried to Cherry. I couldn't let you. I am sorry for your friend right now but if we don't rush to Aksyar right now or there won't be some friends to come back too! Stay with me! It's gonna be how do you Yamanins say.....'a bumpy ride'."Rainoric giddyuped the horse to make it run faster.

In the distance Sakura saw the cliffs they escaped from slowly erupting as Gios climbed out of its prison. It yelled a great loud roar before walking out with its own two feet. Sakura was shocked at the sheer size of the Guardian. Over a kilometer tall and towering like a mountain. It was truly indeed the Guardian of Earth.

"Mayuyu! Can you hear me?" Sakura telepathically contacted Mayu.

"Yes Sakuratan. I am back with the Edanzi and just warned them about the Cultists base."Mayuyu said back.

"Well change of plans. Get your friends to Askyar right now! The Cultist are going to attack the city."Sakura warned.

"What? Really? I am on my way!"Mayuyu said ending the telepathic call.

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Rena saw her hands cut with blood. Both Black Dust and Red Dust oozed out of her wounds. The blood began to conjure around her a Katana-shaped blade which was made from the purest of the two Dust essence and the Aurigan metal Palladian. The Blade which now was lost for millenia when the two siblings seperated was now reforged.

Rena grabbed the blade 'the Sword of Creation' and its the metal glowed as she touched it. Rena's eyes widened like a hungry wolf as she felt the overwhelming power of Life and Death vigorating her body.

"And now.....we are together again. You are the avatars of the Cycle of Life and Death combined into one body. Jurina and Rena, I see sinners and heretics coming to dictate life as they please! There hubris must be punished with their blood on the sand. Go forth and slay them in our name."The voice of Grimaldus and Samhane spoke in a Hive Mind like command to Rena.

"Yes my Master and Mistress."Rena and Jurina's voice spoke through Rena's mouth. The new avatar of Life and Death stood up with the Blade and grabbed the blade before blinking out of her blood splattered room in the Gimaelic Embassy.

The sun rose in a red color to begin the long day for the people of Aksyar. A long and grueling day where everyone is not expecting of the Cultist horde marching against them with the Guardian of Earth on their side.