Mahina Armament

-THE REAL WORLD-

--Lia's Perspective--

"LOOK OUT!" A voice shot out of the sky above us and while Carl was peering up, a girl with brown hair fell on top of him and tackled him to the ground.

Everybody drew their weaponry, Fudo and Alatus stood back, and Eo held up her hands full of strands as the girl slowly pushed her body up.

She was skinny and small, a little smaller than me, but when she looked at me, I felt a maturity in her gaze that I didn't have.

"Eo? Where's Eo?!" She shouted out. Her voice... why was that so familiar?

"Faith?! What are you doing here?! How did you get here?!" Eo yelled out to her. She put away her strands and we all followed right behind her as the girl apologized to Carl and stood up on her own body.

"I found an opening and took it... Dani made it to our world and obtained the DNA, it'll be alright!" Faith announced.

Really?! This was a victory for us! Dani could do it... I know she could...

"However..." Faith paused again.

Damn, there's the bad news.

"Dad's incapacitated. Avie exited his body to preserve her own and now he can't control his body like he used to be able to. Mom admitted to putting a barricade between Dani and Belle and the other you, and if we remove it, we can stop her." Faith finally finished and took a prolonged time to breathe after spitting out so many words.

"So, this is that Faith girl you were talking about. She definitely looks like Sky, I'll give you that. Hey, Faith, do you need anything?" Lily asked her.

"I need... I need you to help me." She said.

"Well, we'll help you, but do you need water? Fudo might have some on his flying thingy." Lily said with a smile.

"You..." Faith stared at me while ignoring Lily.

Lily's face behind Faith turned into a sad one as she was refused and Faith walked up to me with an evil look in her eyes.

She put her hands around my body and drew a sword out from its sheathe on my back. She held it up and looked at the destroyed blade and handle.

"Where did you get this?" She asked me.

"It's Sky's main sword, from Ellie, right?" I turned to Ellie and she nodded, however, Faith wasn't impressed with that answer.

"You know what I meant. This sword... shouldn't be on any precious metal vein on the Isle. Where did you really get this from?" Faith asked her.

Oh...? This was getting interesting now.

"I... stole it, fine! It looked really cool! I mean, look at the guard, being a crescent moon and all!" Ellie admitted.

I never knew she stole it, which was pretty interesting coming from her, but I almost sort of expected it.

"This... Mahina's Armament. This was back from a long time ago, and you have it now? Hey, do you have any idea what this weapon is capable of?!" Faith shouted out.

"No, but why was it so important and it was in the hands of this trashy dude? I took it because it needed a better home. It's still a cool coincidence that it was actually important though." Ellie said.

"There used to be a girl named Mahina who wielded this weapon. The story behind it isn't important, but what it is capable of is. Here, I'll show you." Faith took up the weapon, pulled it back, and slashed at the dome covering Illya and Sky's bodies.

And it broke.

"What the?!" Eo couldn't help but shout out. She ran over to the two and placed her hand on Illya, surprised that it didn't shoot back like it did when she touched the dome.

"This is it... our entrance... it was here the whole time?" Ellie asked, looking at her old sword.

"You don't think this is the reason Sky won against Orion, is it? I mean, that sword can cut through that dome, it must be pretty strong." I said to everybody... but Faith shook her head.

"The Armament excels in Strand combat, and it isn't known for its sharp edges." Faith said.

"Uh... are you sure about that? Sky used that sword all the time and won against some pretty terrible people with it. Like Ethos and Logos, right?" Rin asked.

"Right, and he fought Orion with it too, right?" Ren, her sister, asked again.

"And, I repaired that sword twice using metals from The Isle. Is it really the same weapon you thought you saw?" Drake asked Faith.

Faith took the blade up and pointed it at us, and then snapped it over her knee, watching it closely regenerate, just as Sky's limbs always did.

"What the..." Drake finalized.

"Unfortunately, you didn't repair it, the sword repairs itself underneath the right conditions. This doesn't matter right now. What matters right now is getting into The First Trial with Belle and the others, and stopping Illya. Eo, how do we get in?" Faith asked Eo.

"We can't. You can only exit that world, we would have to wait for Belle and my other body to open up the bridge to get in. Otherwise, we're stuck here." Eo said.

We were all shot with surprise as Eo's look of defeat got worse and worse as the silence continued.

"I was afraid of it... but Illya has completely shut herself inside The First Trial. We stand no chance of breaking her out... but, the others can." Eo told us.

"Two questions. One, Faith, how did you get out? Two, Eo, you have another body? Who are the others?" I asked them both.

Faith explained that she forcefully pushed herself out, but Eo didn't give me a really solid explanation... she just said "I exist in both worlds and can see all".

"So... we just need to wait. Here, we can at least wait for the exact moment that the bridge, or whatever, is opened." Carl said, sitting next to Sky and Illya.

"That would be our best bet. We need to put our faith into the others." Eo said, joining him.