As we travel through the city in the Summer Sector, I keep throwing occasional glances between Melantha and Reine. I still don't know what prompted Melantha to feel like she had to warn me about Reine, but I have a bad feeling about it.

"After we finish here in Seikara, we should train the...new recruits... more," Dimitri says as we walk through the streets, "I'm assuming you showed them some things while I was away, at least."

"Yes," Reine nods, "we did."

"Seikara?" Nathan asks.

"Seikara is the name of the capital of the Summer Sector. It's the city we're in now," Reine explains.

"Where were we in Spring then?" Nathan asks.

"Rinebeck," Dimitri answers, "not the capital by any means, but I still love it anyway considering Reine and I were born there. Winter is probably my least favorite."

"What were the frontlines like in Winter, Dimitri?" Ayette asks, her deep brown eyes focused on him carefully.

"Uh, well," Dimitri rubs the back of his neck, his expression somewhat pained, "they weren't fun. I guess that's the best way to put it. One day, you could become best friends with someone just to watch them die the next and not be able to do anything about it. You had to survive out there and help your comrades survive as well, but you could only do so much. Coralyinn stirred up the season there and made everything ten times as terrible as it normally would be. The only good thing to come of it was probably meeting Aislinn."

"You met Aislinn on the frontlines?" Melantha's eyes widen.

"Uh, yeah," Dimitri chuckles, "I met her one day on the field. I was bunkered down behind a pile of snowy rocks with some of my comrades when I saw her walk through the snowstorm like it was no problem and take out multiple enemies with swift, effortless strikes from her longsword. I decided, hell, if she can do that, then why can't I? I nearly got hypothermia after a few hours and she was perfectly fine. That was when I learned she was a native to Winter and we quickly became allies. I brought her home with me one day to meet Reine because Aislinn didn't have a home anymore. She met Reine and Ciana, and the three of them never left each other's sides."

"That's so cool!" Melantha's gasps.

My eyes flicker over to Melantha to see her smiling brightly at Dimitri and I roll my eyes. So, you're not about Reine because you think she's bad for me, but you're all about her brother who still somewhat has it out for me? Yeah, that makes total sense, Melantha.

"Hey guys, look," Nathan suddenly points out and raises a hand to point at one of the rooftops of the nearby wooden buildings.

A figure with a black jacket that has the hood up, dark grey cargo pants, and black combat boots is running along the rooftops and leaping around from building to building. In the moonlight, I can see the shiny glint of a weapon in their right hand and I narrow my eyes in suspicion.

"I got it!" Melantha calls out and summons her silver chain that glows bright blue, taking off in a run.

"Melantha, wait!" Reine calls after her, but she keeps running.

"Dammit," Dimitri sighs under his breath and runs off after her, summoning his broadsword in the process, the rest of us following suit.

"What does she think she's doing?" Nathan sighs as he runs next to me, "we have barely any training."

"I don't know," I shake my head in disbelief as we continue running.

The hooded stranger glances down to see Melantha matching their pace on the ground as she dodges pedestrians and multiple obstacles in her way. As they come up to the next jump, the stranger leaps through the air and turns around as they do so, throwing a silver dagger that's nearly invisible, only completely reappearing when it strikes into the ground by Melantha's feet. Melantha stops in her tracks and the rest of us catch up to her, noticing the stranger has landed multiple feet in front of Melantha and is standing there.

"Who are you and what do you want?" the stranger asks, their voice and stature revealing them as a female.

"Are you Tsukumi Shoyou?" Dimitri asks and the stranger pauses.

From here, I can see that she's wearing a moon pendant that hangs from a silver chain and rests against a dark grey tanktop. Her eyes are still covered by her hood, but her pink cupid's bow lips are pursed.

"What do you want?" she repeats steadily.

"We're here to help you," Dimitri says, taking a step forward, "believe it or not, we don't want to hurt you."

Tsukumi's head shifts slightly as she looks at something further beyond us before her gaze goes back to us.

"Then, you've come at the right time," she says, her dagger flying back into her hand right before she throws it directly passed my head.

My eyes widen as the silver blade seems to fly by in slow motion and I turn once it's passed to see that a woman dressed in a long white jacket with the hood up, a white ruffled skirt, tall white boots that go up beyond her knees, a turquoise colored tube-top styled shirt with straps, and a diamond choker. Her lips curve up into a smile as she holds the dagger by the blade inbetween her turquoise manicured fingertips and she tilts her head up so that her face is more visible. Ringlets of curly, turquoise, shoulder length hair frame her face and match her eyes that seem to scream vile intent in the manner that a sly cat's would.

"Coralyinn," Dimitri scowls, his hand clenching tight around his blade, "you're not supposed to be here."

"Am I not?" Coralyinn muses as she glances at the dagger in her hand before looking back at Dimitri, "I thought I could use a nice vacation. Seeing all that bloodied snow gets old after a while, you know."

Dimitri clenches his jaw and grits his teeth, going to take a step forwards, but Reine places a hand on his shoulder and shakes her head, stopping him.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a pretty little Moon Iegashyia to collect," Coralyinn says as a frost spreads over the dagger she caught and begins to crack the blade before it shatters completely and falls to pieces on the ground, the moon engraved handle falling with it and rolling on the ground.

"We can't let you do that," Reine says and holds out her katana.

"Fine by me," Coralyinn smiles, "there's four pretty Links here, not counting Moon. I wouldn't mind taking you all down and letting the others watch as I drain the life from your corpses."

Coralyinn pulls her right arm back before whipping it back towards us and a sudden sharp swarm of icicles comes flying towards us. Dimitri curses and runs in front of Ayette as Reine summons a shield made of energy like she did when I fought Adrienne. The icicles continuously fly against the shield and batter it, making Reine's feet slide backwards slowly on the ground from the force of trying to keep it up. Coralyinn walks slowly up to us as icicles continue coming at us. She flicks her wrist to the right as she continues coming towards us, summoning a fingerless glove made of frost onto her right hand and citizens run away screaming, exiting the area in fear.

"They're not prepared for this, Reine!" Dimitri shouts over the loud sound of the crashing icicles.

"We don't have a choice!" Reine shouts back as she continues holding up the shield.

Tsukumi grimaces and runs forwards, leaping up into the air and sliding down the opposite side of the energy shield with another moon dagger in her hand.

"I refuse to be taken by the likes of you," Tsukumi snaps and slashes at Coralyinn, sending bright waves of white, silver, and royal blue energy at her with each strike.

Coralyinn summons a pair of curved, interlocking daggers with a rune carved into the center of each blade as she dodges Tsukumi's hits. Dimitri closes his eyes and holds out a hand, sending a wave of energy out that surrounds the area like a dome while Reine continues holding up the shield.

"This should keep anyone else from knowing what's going on," Dimitri says with his eyes still closed, "but I have to keep focusing on creating this illusion because Coralyinn's power is too strong for me to just let it up by itself. Unfortunately, this will also keep our allies from finding us..."

"I must focus on the shield," Reine says, her voice straining as she manages to hold her ground, "Gabriel, Melantha, help Tsukumi! Nathan, help guard us and Ayette!"

"On it!" Nathan shouts, holding his pistol up and ready as he stands between Dimitri and Reine with Ayette standing behind him nervously.

Coralyinn effortlessly catches Tsukumi's dagger between her own and twists it between the chain holding them together, ripping it out of her grasp and sending it flying across the area. Tsukumi scoffs and flips so that she's holding herself up with her hands before spinning herself around, sweeping her legs at Coralyinn before hand-springing up and over her as Melantha releases her chain, wrapping it around Coralyinn's waist while she's distracted. Tsukumi runs off after her dagger while Melantha yanks on her chain, attempting to drag Coralyinn towards her.

"Oh," Coralyinn tilts her head slightly, raising her chin, "bad idea."

The chain around Coralyinn's waist begins to spread with frost before freezing solid and shattering to pieces. Melantha's eyes widen and she looks down at her hands, staring at the pieces of the now fragmented chain she used to be holding. I glance between Melantha and Coralyinn, noticing Tsukumi running up behind Coralyinn with her dagger back in her hand.

"Right," I breathe out, "we can do this."

I run towards the front of Coralyinn in hopes of distracting her from Tsukumi at her back. Coralyinn glances over her shoulder and holds out her gloved hand before she kicks up one of her feet and twirls sideways in the air, drawing her hand back as she does so and I attempt to skid to a halt, noticing what she's about to do. Coralyinn connects her fist with the ground when she lands and a giant shockwave of snow, frost, and wind spreads out, the ground freezing beneath the shockwave. Tsukumi gets sent flying into a nearby wooden post and I fly backwards, sliding against the ground until I slow to a halt. I shake my head and look up to see that Melantha also got knocked down and Reine slid backwards multiple feet from the blast of Coralyinn's hit going against her energy shield.

"If only we could turn this ice to water..." I mutter, thinking about how that might give us an upper hand.

"Ayette!" Nathan shouts, his previously closed eyes now fluttering open, "grab ahold of Dimitri's arm, now!"

"Wha--" Ayette starts, her eyes wide.

"Just do it!" Nathan shouts, whipping his head in her direction.

Ayette runs up to Dimitri and grabs his right wrist, following Nathan's command.

"What do you think you're--" Dimitri starts, looking at her with a stern expression.

Suddenly, the giant field Dimitri made implodes on itself and Ciana can be seen flying towards us, grinning as her fist is pulled back. Ciana lands and her fist collides with the frozen solid ground, melting it all to water and evaporating it instantly, a sea of flames lighting up the ground and white smoke flying around the area in a ring.

"Boom goes the dynamite!" Ciana shouts.

"How did you know to do that?" Dimitri asks Nathaniel.

"I don't know," Nathan admits, "I just saw her running towards us, but I knew she couldn't see us. I knew Ayette could cancel out abilities temporarily, so..."

"Very good, Insight," Reine smiles and nods approvingly as she glances over her shoulder at him.

Nathan rubs the back of his neck awkwardly and smiles in response.

"Ember," Coralyinn narrows her eyes at Ciana and swings around her daggers.

"Come at me, bitch," Ciana grins, holding up her fists in a boxer's stance.

I watch in awe as Ciana and Coralyinn charge each other and everything seems to go in slow motion as fire and ice collide in a deadly explosion.