Its summoner protected, the Mist Dragon disappeared in another soft flash of light, leaving Rydia to widen her eyes at the display of Cecil taking down somewhere close to a dozen of the demons with a single use of his shadow power. She had expected Cecil's time living it up as the King of Baron would have sapped a bit of his strength, but apparently her old mentor and friend was stronger than she had ever known him. Despite the situation, she had to a smile a little bit as she felt that same confidence she had back in the old days, when there wasn't a doubt in her heart that Cecil would lead them to victory against Golbez, and then Zemus. He wasn't leading this army, of course, but the hope was still there.<br/><br/>"I could have the Sylphs go and scout for the leader," Rydia would have offered, were she not interrupted by gunfire from a nearby stairwell. The stairwell in question was one of the main ones of the castle and had massive, open windows to the outside, allowing the trio to witness as a pink-haired female (http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy/images/5/53/Lightning_%28Dissidia_012%29.png) backed up the steps while firing her gunblade upon a wicked creature (http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy/images/d/dd/Zu_ffx-2.jpg) that seemed to shrug off most of the rounds. The bird creature molted an absurd amount of black feathers and swayed its head back and forth as he swiftly dragged itself up the stairs after the female, nearly hitting her with its very sharp talons a few times while she patiently tried to put it down. She didn't seem in too much real danger, but it was still a drain of energy.<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>Further down toward the base of the castle, too busy to notice any old friends that were just arriving, the Warrior of Light (http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy/images/c/c6/Dissidia_Warrior_of_Light.png) found himself assailed by a pair of wyverns, though he hardly had time for such trivial beasts. As one swooped down to bite off an uncomfortable percentage of his flesh, he held out his sword and summoned a set of six magical light blades, bringing all six together into one radiant spear before throwing it directly into the open mouth of the creature diving at him and out through the back of its neck, leaving it to plummet into the clear water below.<br/><br/>The second wyvern was hardly more of a problem. It go much closer to the Warrior in its dive, but as it reached within a mere few meters of him, the Warrior threw his shield, crushing the skull of the monster and letting it follow its friend in dropping like a stone as the shield came back to his arm. The armored man turned his gaze toward the massive summoning glyph and the mountain range beyond, his eyes narrowed in determined calculation. Figuring it was time to assemble, he held his sword straight up in the air and emitted a thin but immensely strong beam of light directly into the sky, informing his allies of his current location. The castle and its denizens throughout needed protecting from the flying hordes, but there was a dark feeling in his heart that, whatever was coming next, it was far, far worse...