"Oh, man. It's times like these that I wish I was a sorceress," Sierra complained as she looked at the incredibly tall staircase. She was standing in the entry hall of the Tower of Rezo.

"Why do these people always have to build these kind of buildings? God, what a pain. I wish could cast a levitation spell," Sierra continued to complain to herself as she ascended the staircase.

The insides of the tower were rather depressing. The area was poorly lit, only a few torches along the walls allowed Sierra to see where she was going at all. The gray walls were riddled with fractures and cracks. Mold and mildew lines the cracks and in general, decay was repulsively apparent.

"Well, I suppose since this place wasn't used for a century. . ." she reasoned to herself as she continued to run up the stairs, then she suddenly changed thoughts, "What am I doing? I can't believe I'm actually talking to myself."

Sierra's pace had slowed a little due to the fact that climbing a seemingly endless staircase was quite tiring, but as she looked up she noticed that she was about halfway up the staircase. She sighed heavily.

"The things I do for the honor of Lord Rekos. . ."

"It's about time we finish this," Toshi told the berserker, "I'm kinda busy and to be honest it doesn't feel good to be dueling when my arm hurts like hell."

The berserker merely grunted in response and swung his clawed arms at Toshi's face. Toshi leapt backward to avoid the claws but tripped on a loose rock and fell to his back. The berserker took advantage of his opponent's fall by diving at Toshi. Toshi rolled to the side just in time and stood back up. He swung his katana in a high arc at his foe, but the mercenary assassin dodged and the katana clanged against a leaning stone pillar.

Upon being hit, the pillar shook slightly. The pillar apparently had fallen from off of the tower and now was partially buried in the dusty ground, leaning at a forty-five degree angle.

Toshi took a moment to ponder his next move before deciding what would be the best course of action towards ending this battle. The berserker charged at Toshi again, but instead of bracing to meet his foe, Toshi intentionally dropped flat in front of the berserker's feet. The berserker (not expecting such a response) tripped over Toshi and fell underneath the leaning stone pillar.

Toshi quickly stood up and began chanting.

The berserker laughed upon seeing Toshi preparing a spell. "Idiot! You can't hurt me with your witchery crap!" he taunted Toshi with a gruff voice.

"I suppose I can't," Toshi admitted.

"Flare Arrow!" Toshi commanded, but instead of aiming the explosive spell at the berserker, he aimed it at the pillar.

The small explosion blew the pillar into two pieces and the one of the pieces fell right on top of the assassin, crushing him.

"Or can I?" Toshi asked even though there would be no response.

Toshi smiled slightly in acknowledgement of his victory, but cringed suddenly as the pain in his arm was remembered.

"Dammit, it's times like these I wish I had a priest traveling with me. Wait a sec. . ." Toshi suddenly remember the priestess from before. He had seen Kleo go off to search for her. Toshi wondered what the outcome of that situation had been and began searching for either one of the two women.

After about fifteen minutes of searching (in that time Toshi had determined that Kleo must have taken care of the priestess due to the fact that the berserker had not again risen) Toshi finally rounded a boulder to discover Kleo sleeping softly on the dry ground.

"Hey! Kleo! No sleeping on the job! Get up!" Toshi yelled to her while shaking her shoulders roughly.

Kleo mumbled something unintelligible and slowly peeked open an eye. She slowly sat up, yawned, and took a moment to try to recognize who was standing in front of her.

"Uhhh. . .Toshi?" Kleo asked while again yawning, "Hmm. . .what's up?"

"What do you mean 'what's up?' This is no time to be so casual. Did you take care of the priestess?"

"Umm. . .priestess? Oh! I forgot! The priestess! Where is she?"

"Don't you know?" Toshi asked, not quite believing that Kleo could've fallen asleep and forgotten her objective in the middle of a battle.

"I restrained her and she cast a sleeping spell on me. That's all I remember. She should be around here somewhere,"

Sure enough, an agitated mumbling noise from behind Toshi alerted him that the priestess was nearby. Toshi walked over to the white and green robed woman and noted in curiosity that she was gagged and bound by Rafahs Vines.

"How'd that happen?" Toshi asked.

"Oh, I did it," Kleo answered casually.

"You? But she's been bound with white sorcery,"

"Yeah. So?"

"You mean you can use sorcery? Why didn't you tell us that before?" Toshi asked Kleo with both excitement and disbelief.

"It never came up," Kleo blankly answered, "Besides, I'm far from a sorceress. I can only use simple spells like Rafahs Seed and Sleeping."

"You still should have told us about it," Toshi scolded.

"Right, whatever. So what should we do with her?" Kleo inquired while hoping Toshi wouldn't want to kill the woman.

"Let's see what she knows. Maybe she can heal my arm too,"

Toshi walked over to the priestess with Kleo a bit behind him. He chanted a few words and the glowing blue vines around the priestess's mouth dissipated. No sooner had he done so then the priestess's mumbles became something a little less savory.

"Damn assholes! Stupid bastards! I oughta kick you freakin' ass so hard-" the priestess was cut off by Toshi re-casting the vines around her mouth.

"Jeez! You have one foul mouth for a priestess!" Toshi commented, "I'm going to disenchant the vines again and I want to ask you some questions. No vulgar language please."

Toshi disenchanted the vines gagging the priestess. She didn't say anything, however she gave Toshi one of the nastiest glares he'd ever seen.

"Who are you?" Toshi asked.

"None of your damn business!" the priestess snapped only to be slapped across the cheek by Toshi.

"I said no vulgar language. I'll ask again, who are you?"

"And I said none of your damn business, bastard!"

Toshi sighed heavily before suddenly slapping the priestess again.

"This whole thing will be a lot easier if you just cooperate," he scolded.

"I'm Elayne," the priestess said with an incredible bitterness to her voice.

"That's better," Toshi replied, "Now then, Elayne. What's the deal here?"

"We were hired to kill you," she flatly stated, but then continued to add more "A blind woman with black hair and black plate mail along with some annoying priest in black robes. They paid us to eliminate you three, that's all I know!"

"I see. How many more of you are there?" Toshi inquired further while helping the still bound Elayne to get to her feet.

"Shit, you want me to turn traitor? I'm not going along with your damn plans!"

"You're a pretty slow learner aren't you?" Toshi asked calmly before slapping Elayne a third time sending her falling backwards against the ground, "You're in no position to resist us. Tell me how many more of you there are."

The redness along her cheek from Toshi's beating seemed to convince Elayne to comply; however, it also seemed in Kleo's mind to be oddly out of character for Toshi.

"It's just me and our leader now. You killed the rest. Happy?"

"Not quite. What was with the orihalcon armor? Where'd you get it? How is it that the anti-sorcery field didn't prevent white sorcery?"

"The plan was that the black priest gave us the armor to block your magic. Why white sorcery still works is beyond me," Elayne sneered at Toshi before continuing, "If that stupid berserker hadn't charged before the signal and gotten out of my healing range then we would've wasted you three! It also would've helped if we had known that your bitch over there had a gun that actually worked."

"My what?" Toshi raised his hand is if to strike Elayne again, but Kleo grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Stop it," Kleo pleaded while again helping Elayne to her feet.

"Two last questions," Toshi said while becoming reasonably sure that any real answers weren't going to come from this woman, "What's your leader planning?"

"She's in the tower somewhere. That's all I know,"

"Very well," Toshi said, "And finally, would you be so kind as to heal my arm if I were to unbind you?"

Elayne laughed. "Why the hell should I heal you? Why should I heal the enemy?"

"Because," Toshi hissed while leaning close to Elayne's face, "if you won't be so kind as to heal my arm, I'll be so kind as to give you a present."

Toshi tapped the hilt of his katana with his index finger. Elayne got the idea. She gulped nervously and nodded her head in agreement. Toshi smiled maliciously and unbound Elayne. She held her hands over the wound in Toshi's arm and began chanting. A bright white light blinded Toshi for a second, but when it was gone the wound had disappeared leaving only the bloodstains in his sleeve.

"My, my," Toshi commented, "You're quite a priestess. Why is it that someone such as you who obviously has had extensive training as a shrine maiden would be some foul-mouthed wench working for a gang of mercenary assassins?"

"You don't know anything about my past," Elayne growled, "and it's none of your goddamn business!"

"Maybe so," Toshi calmly replied while redoing the bindings around Elayne's arms but leaving her legs and mouth free, "I'm going to let you go back to the nearest town. Once there you'll need to find someone who can free your arms."

"Oh, so you've decided to spare me? How gracious! Maybe I should fall to my knees and kiss the shit off your boots!" Elayne's sarcastic comment wasn't received overly well by Toshi who kneed her in the stomach.

Elayne fell back against the ground again, coughing harshly and gasping for breath.

"Toshi! Stop it!" Kleo demanded, growing concerned that this was not the Toshi she knew.

"Let's go," Toshi commanded in a very dangerous voice. He walked towards the entrance of the Tower of Rezo, he turned back once he noticed that Kleo wasn't following and asked, "Are you coming or not?"

"I'm coming," Kleo replied while slowly following Toshi. She was afraid of him now. And perhaps if she had seen how his green eyes suddenly flickered silver she would've known more of what there was to be afraid of.

"Now is the time! Begin the chant!"

"I know. Just be patient,"

"I should think you'd be in more of a hurry to get your sight back,"

"And why do you seem to be in such a rush to have me get my sight back?"

"Oh, no reason,"

"I'm sure. . ."

The two were arguing. . .again. Anyone whom the black priest talked to seemed to get rather annoyed at him. But now the normally just annoying black priest was beginning to seem somewhat dangerous to Terra.

"I hope you're not thinking of trying anything," Terra warned the black priest, "because I'll have you know that I'm a Blade Dancer and highest ranking sorceress in the Shrine of Rekos!"

"Ooooo! I'm scared!" the black priest countered, but then continued on a more serious note, "Don't worry, I gave you my word that I would do nothing to harm you, and my people never lie."

"Maybe you never lie, but you're always telling half-truths," Terra reminded her accomplice.

The black priest ignored Terra's last comment and pondered aloud. "Hmm. Rekos, eh? It's been awhile since I've heard that name used. But I remember him. I remember him very well."

"What? You knew Lord Rekos?" Terra asked astonished, "I thought you said you never lied. Rekos died almost a century ago."

"It is time. I must go," the black informed Terra while teleporting off.

"Hmph! Well, whatever he brings I'm sure I can take care of!" Terra commented to herself while she took place to begin the summoning of Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo with the shard of the staff of the Sea of Chaos in her hand.