For the past three hours, Dimitri has been driving in front of the rest of us, leading the way since he's been in winter for long periods of time.

"Are you sure your brother will be coming after us?!" I shout over the wind and the sound of the snowmobiles to Mikasa, who's driving to the left of me.

"Yes!" Mikasa shouts back as we wind a curve on a steep mountain road that's covered in snow, "he'll be here! He just has to make himself known..."

I sigh and glance over at the setting sun through the trees on the mountainside as we continue riding up the mountain path.

"We should be at Ashuwahara in about two more hours," Reine says.

"Too bad it's already getting dark," I say and Reine hums in agreement.

We soon reach the top of the mountain path and it levels out to a flat peak for a while and the scenery around me strangely gives me a sense that I've already been here before. I glance over at Mikasa to see that she seems tense and the realization hits me that we're in the area where Jin died.

"Wow! This is pretty!" Ciana shouts from the right of us and I look over to see her looking out at the valleys below and the snowy mountains across from us as snow blows through the air and continues to blanket the ground.

"J--Just be careful! There's no guardrails anymore!" Nathan shouts, eyes weary at Ciana's close proximity to the edge.

"It'll be fi--" Ciana starts but gets cut off whenever Dimitri shouts.

"Look out!" Dimitri shouts from the front as Ayette screams and Reine gasps, gaining the attention of Ciana, Mikasa, Nathan, and me.

My eyes widen as I watch a giant wave of blue energy slash through the air in our direction and Dimitri abandons his bike, grabbing Ayette by the waist and rolling them both down in the snow.

"Zen..." Mikasa breathes out, her eyes wide as Ciana slides her bike completely sideways and close to the ground, narrowly avoiding getting her and Nathan hit.

Mikasa, Reine, and I all abandon our bikes at the same time and roll through the snow as Dimitri summons his broadsword and Ciana and Nathan climb off of their bike. Once I regain my sense of balance, I look up in the sky to see Zen floating, suspended in the air by his wings of darkness, and holding his greatsword, which is burning brightly with blue flames.

"How fitting of you to return back to the place of where this all started!" Zen laughs out, "give me the relic, Mikasa!"

"Never!" Mikasa shouts up at her brother and summons her lasso while Reine and I summon our katanas, "this isn't you, Zen! And you know the relic can't bring her back! I want her back as much as you do, but it isn't capable of bringing her back!"

"Then I'll just have to take it from you," Zen seethes out and flies down angrily.

"Don't make me do this," Mikasa whispers, her eyes full of sorrow.

"You won't hurt her!" Ciana shouts and runs forwards in a sprint, her gauntlets now out.

Ciana leaps up in the air and pulls her fist back as Zen raises his greatsword and the two collide harshly, a battle of flames erupting in the sky. Runes of flames appear beneath Ciana's feet wherever she moves, keeping her suspended in the air as equally as Zen while they battle.

"You're in my way," Zen hisses and manages to knock Ciana off her feet.

Ciana gasps as she falls and Nathan's already on his way over to catch her, running at an almost impossible speed. Nathan grins at Ciana as he catches her and she looks at him in a confused manner before he points to his head with his index and middle finger.

"Insight," Nathan grins and Ciana smiles in realization.

Zen immediately flies towards Mikasa, who throws her lasso up in the air and transforms it into a glowing golden bow, her lasso turning into the string. Mikasa pulls back the string and three arrows of light appears notched.

"I'm sorry..." Mikasa whispers as she lets go of the string and the arrows sail forwards.

Zen reaches out with his free hand and effortlessly catches the one arrow, turning it to darkness before it explodes and shatters to pieces while he dodges the other two.

"I'm not," Zen says emotionlessly and Mikasa's eyes widen.

Mikasa summons more arrows and continues shooting sets of three rapidly at Zen, who only continues to get closer.

"Gabriel, boost," Reine says and I immediately understand due to our training sessions.

I nod as I run towards the descending Zen before I quickly turn on my heel and throw my katana straight towards Reine, who's already running towards me. Reine leaps up in the air and pushes off of the katana to give her and extra boost and she flies up higher in the air, raising her katana above her head as she goes on a course towards Zen. Zen turns his gaze towards her and time seems to move in slow motion as she narrowly slices through the ends of his wings as he goes by her, making him cry out as she lands on one knee in the snow.

"Enough," Zen snaps as he lands on his feet and retracts his wings as he keeps walking, holding his arms out and making a trail of blue flames light up on the ground and blaze wherever he walks.

Zen throws his greatsword up in the air and it flips around a few times before it lands sheathed in the ground, cracking through the mountain and lighting up a circle of blue flames for twenty feet around the blade. Zen leans his head back and holds his arms out as he stands in the fire and it begins to swirl around his arms. As Zen moves his head back to look at us again, I can clearly see that his blue eyes are now red and blue flames are coming off of them in anger.

Zen runs towards Mikasa, who continues shooting arrows at him and backing up before she realizes that the arrows aren't working as Zen easily knocks them aside with his arm, barely phasing him at all as he continues his assault towards her. Mikasa soon takes off in a run and Ayette tries to intersect their paths, sliding in front of Zen with a greatsword similar to Khalida's, which makes Zen's eyes widen.

"You have her gift?" Zen narrows his eyes at Ayette and attempts to grab her and pull her towards him, but light radiates off of Ayette and sends Zen flying backwards like an explosion.

Meanwhile, Dimitri runs up behind Zen and attempts to attack him from behind, but Zen turns on his heel as he slides and knocks Dimitri back multiple feet with a single punch. Zen then throws a wave of burning blue energy towards Mikasa and Ayette. Ayette braces herself against the energy and holds up her weapon, a shield of glowing white light forming around her and making the flames shoot passed her instead, slamming into the side of the mountain with a loud boom that echos as Mikasa dives down in the snow to avoid the flames.

Reine, Nathan, and Ciana regroup with me and the four of us run towards Zen with our weapons drawn. Zen continues to target Ayette as we run up to him and Dimitri's eyes lock on Ayette firmly before he glances over to Zen.

"Zen!" Dimitri shouts and Zen stops in his tracks, turning to look at Dimitri.

As soon as Zen looks over, Dimitri summons an illusion of Jin to stand in the center of the battlefield and Zen's eyes widen.

"Zen, please..." the illusion's eyes hold what looks to be true sadness as she holds out a hand and she frowns, "don't do this..."

Dimitri starts to sneak his way around to Ayette and the four of us skid to a halt in order to not disturb Zen's trance-like state as he watches Dimitri's illusion of Jin.

"Not real..." Zen breathes out, his eyes wild, "it's not real!"

Zen screams out and flames engulf the illusion, who fades away upon the strong impact and Zen whirls to face Ayette's direction.

"Ayette!" Dimitri shouts and reaches her just as Zen goes to throw more flames in her direction.

Ayette's eyes widen as she turns to face Dimitri, who grabs on to her arm and forms an illusionary dome around her and himself just as Zen releases the flames, a pair of white angel wings unfurling behind Ayette just as they disappear from sight. The flames fly by Ayette and Dimitri and slam into the mountainside once again and Zen grimaces. Reine, Nathan, Ciana and I continue our assault towards Zen now that he's angered again and the four of us continue to team up against him, two fighting him on either side as he swiftly whirls around, dodges, and attacks all at once.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a flash go off and the dome around Dimitri and Ayette begins to come down. My eyebrows arch as I notice the two of them pressed up against each other, Dimitri roughly kissing her with his hands on her waist while she has her hands in his hair and a light is glowing around the two of them. The two of them slowly separate and Dimitri breathes heavily as he searches her eyes.

"I..." Dimitri trails off, unsure of what to say and Ayette smiles fondly.

"You don't have to say anything," Ayette says, her eyes understanding and full of love, "I already know."

It's then that the two of them notice the bubble is now gone and Ayette's eyes widen in realization. Ayette takes off in a run towards us and I realize what she's about to do, just realizing the same thing she probably did, and Dimitri goes to stop her before he realizes the same thing and he smiles knowingly.

"Move!" I shout and the others listen, although confused, as they leap off to the side.

Ayette jumps on Zen's back from behind and locks her arms and legs around him as he spins around and tries to get her off of him. Flames circle around his feet and a column of flames erupts around him, but the flames go around Ayette and completely avoid her, which makes Zen even more frustrated and his eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"What...are you?" Zen breathes out.

"I'm the Seraph of Defense and Purity, bitch," Ayette says as the flames begin to die and Zen's eyes turn back to their original blue color as he sinks to his knees, his powers temporarily gone.

"You...you're a relic? That can't be..." Zen raises his hands and his eyes wildly flicker between them as the last of the flames die out.

Ayette climbs off of Zen and just as we go to apprehend him, an arrow of light shoots through the center of his chest and his eyes widen as he looks down and releases a small sound of pain and surprise. My breath hitches and I trail my eyes over to where Mikasa is sitting in the snow, leaning back with wide eyes as she's holding her bow still in the air, unmoving.

"Mikasa..." Ciana breathes out, her eyes wide.

The arrow of light disperses and Zen falls over unconscious on his side in the snow, but no blood pools out of him. Mikasa slowly makes her way over, somewhat shaky, and she swallows thickly as she puts her bow away.

"That won't wound him," Mikasa says quietly, nodding towards her brother, "it'll only keep him unconscious for...maybe an hour if we're lucky...as his body tries to fight against the light."

"What do we do now?" I ask, looking towards Reine.

"Now," Reine breathes out, "now we wait and hope that Aislinn and the others reach us before he wakes up."