He ground his teeth, and without further hesitation, leapt above the tombstone, trying to stab the demon. He slid on the ground, before moving his sword up while the devil found himself only a few seconds away from kicking his skull in. Morio suddenly teleported with a flash of lightning, moving up towards its torso and slamming himself with all force against one of its wings that started flapping.

The demon moved, climbing out of the temple, and Morio made eye contact with Daress. He focused, trying to slash through the wing, yet none of his hits connected. He was flocked to the side, and once again, he flashed up, desperately climbing on. He raised his sword, trying to strike its neck, but nothing worked. He panicked, clenching his jaw nervously.

Daress once again eyed Morio, with seemingly angry eyes.

Then, the creature slammed its head against the rocks, destroying them and sending Morio down into a drift, forcing Jyuzou to fall into the temple as well. The Morian quickly made haste, running towards the tombstone while holding the spear in both hands, gasping for air. The demon reached one of its hands towards him, grabbing Jyuzou's arm and holding him back, pushing harder and harder.

Morio screamed out, instantly moving out of the ruin and up towards the demon, slashing at its hand. Although no blood appeared, the creature let go of Jyuzou and rolled on the ground. The white-haired stood back, noticing the bloodstream going down from his forehead. He looked at his red hands, and quickly rubbed them off. He peeked at Jyuzou, who desperately stood up and crouched behind the tombstone.

Grinding his teeth, the two looked back at the demon, as it threw Daress' body up into the air, and it landed right in between its sharp teeth.

"MORIO!" Daress screamed, feeling the teeth sinking through his skin. The devil focused, extending its arms.

"The... t-the..!" Jyuzou mustered. "The demon can't be killed until the temple is d-destroyed!" he bellowed. "Morio, lead it away, don't fight it!"

Morio brushed off something from his lips before sticking his sword out. The demon's sharp and blank eyes focused on the Morian, and when Morio flashed through the air once more, it reached out, trying to grab his body, but instead, slammed into the wall, while Morio remained untouched, but wounded.

Jyuzou threw his backpack to the side, opening it with his trembling hands and searching through the books, before stopping at the temples. A part of the page was ripped out, but he made out the text written down. "Temples are powered by crystals. With life energy... sacrificed..." he muttered, before gazing up at the stone shining in the tombstone.

He hesitantly reached his hands out, trying to take it out.

Morio sprinted back, leading the creature through, while Daress glimpsed around as if he was observing everything unfold. Morio growled but didn't give up, holding onto his weapon tighter than ever. At one point, he took the other sword out, Victis, sticking it in the ground and jumping off towards the sky, as the demon followed.

Jyuzou took the spear that lay next to him and tried crushing the crystal, but to no avail, nothing would've gotten through its glassy surface, and with each attempt, he felt a strange pulse going through his body. He ground his teeth, putting the weapon in its sheath and grabbing onto the stone, pushing as hard as he could to take it out.

Morio flailed down, and crashed near the tombstone, trying to quickly stand up, but with more and more anger that gathered inside the demon, it finally caught up, grabbing Morio in its thick grasp and not letting go. The swords remained in his hands, but there was no way for him to use them.

Jyuzou breathed heavily, as more and more stress surrounded him. With each step the creature took, the worse it got, and the harder he pulled, the redder his hands were. Finally, something in the stone snapped, letting go of the crystal, as it bounced off the ground and caused Jyuzou to lose his step. It flew up into the sky, while the Morian quickly gathered his backpack and tried standing up, but the demon grabbed onto his body, trapping him.

Jyuzou screamed out, while Morio remained silent, struggling. Daress simply observed. He watched as the crystal slowly descended before...

...it landed in the demon's eye.

In shock, the creature loosened its grip, and Morio managed to jump out, holding his sword. Jyuzou took advantage of this and dropped down as well, grabbing onto the spear, and much like last time, swinging it around without much thought. The forces of wind didn't seem to affect this demon like they did the other, and without resisting, its hand slowly landed in front of Jyuzou's terrified face.

"Give me that!" Morio quickly took the weapon out of Jyuzou's hand and put it against his sword, before throwing both forwards, towards the shining eye that looked down unto their fearful faces. It struck, connected.

Morio opened his eyes in shock, as the demon screamed in pain.

***

Everything disappeared in a flash of white, and the two Morians found themselves at the edge of a steeper cliff, heading upwards, far from the destroyed arena. When Morio and Jyuzou woke up, they noticed their hacked clothes, and the wounds on their bodies, but instead of thinking twice, Morio stood again, looking out. He put his hands on the sword next to him, breathing in.

Rain appeared, slowly dripping down on their bodies, with a flash of lightning in the nearby distance. When Jyuzou felt the drips on his skin, he sat up, sliding into a small opening in the rocks, and putting his hands on his knees.

"Where..." Jyuzou uttered. "Where is he?"

"The d-demon?" Morio asked.

"Daress. Where did he go?" Jyuzou's voice broke down a bit. "Is he still... alive?"

Morio dodged his question. He stuck his hand out, feeling the rain on his palm, travelling between his fingers and washing off the blood that covered them. He turned to the sky, seeing the dark grey clouds forming right above his body.

"You're... you're gonna catch a cold, Morio," Jyuzou informed, feeling a bit of the cold water drop on his body. "Come here."

Morio slowly opened his eyes, and they weren't shining.

He blindly watched as the three-meter figure crawled out from beneath thousands of rocks and with its broken wings, looked towards the Morians once more, bellowing out.

"Ahh." Jyuzou breathed in, terrified. "Ahh!"

Morio's mouth twitched before he ground his teeth and angrily glimpsed at the creature which barely clung onto the last of its life. He ran forwards, while Jyuzou stared, terrified.

He couldn't reach his hand out or even yell out to his friend. Morio stood back up to fight, right after being knocked down.

The Morian raised his sword into the sky, and out of the blue, a thunder connected to its sharp and silver tip sent a terrifying spur of energy through Morio's body. It continued moving around in clusters, in and out of the sword, surrounding him in a magnetic aura which forced massive winds to appear, even bigger than those of Jyuzou's spear.

He raised his voice, before pointing the sword at the creature. For seconds there, it felt as if everything had slowed down. A thunder pierced right through the tip, and then, his blade connected, moving through the demon's chest.

It let out a scream and flew back miles, even thousands of them, far away from Morta, and even further than one's eyes would reach.

Morio put his weapon down, as the lightning went through once more, bouncing off his body and sending him crashing against the rocks, next to himJyuzou. Everything in his body hurt, his hair was all around the place, and his fingers were bleeding, but his body was slightly twitching.

He breathed out, looking up, as the rain covered his body.

"What...?" Jyuzou asked in disbelief. "What on Shin's good name was that?!" he suddenly yelled out, still confused and appalled.

Morio didn't add a word, and a small beam flashed on his face.

"You know..." Morio looked at him. "I don't think it's the sword doing its work. But the person behind it."

Jyuzou's eyes shined, in a newly lit hope.

"You... no, we! We don't even know half of the things we Demonears can do!" Jyuzou said.

"It surprises me each day, then." Morio closed his eyes, sitting up. "How far life will take me."

Both of them smiled.

For a moment there, it felt like they were ready to conquer everything, once again.

However, much like those little spurs of happiness, it didn't last long.

Daress jumped down from above. "MORIANS! MORIANS!" he yelled out in joy, with a smile on his face. "Morio! You did it! You killed the flying demon!" he immediately hugged his leg, crawling down, while Jyuzou took a few steps back.

Both of their expressions changed.

"Morians...?" Jyuzou asked.

"I killed it," Morio admitted. "We're... we're safe now."

"...and you! You figured it out, Jyuzou!" Daress pointed, clearly forcing a smile. "Oh, uuh, you're amazing! Amazing!"

"F-F..." Jyuzou muttered. "Figured what out?"

"That the orb needed to be destroyed!" Daress added, stepping up. "Come on, M-Morians! We can't waste more time! We're almost there, uuh!"

Jyuzou ground his teeth, looking down and holding his spear in one hand. Morio glimpsed at him, before turning towards Daress.

"Why didn't you destroy the orb earlier, then?" Jyuzou spouted, gasping, and coughing a bit. "You... you jumped down and saw it. I'm sure that claw of yours is stronger than my hand. You even smiled, as if you were sure" he pointed.

"J-Jyuzou," Morio muttered.

"Not now, Morio. I'm trying to get to the bottom of this," he added.

"I didn't smile. I would never!" Daress said.

"Stop lying, why did you go down there in the first place?!" Jyuzou asked, moving closer. "Why did you risk it all out of the blue and didn't do anything?! Were you waiting for the demon to kill us?!" he looked into Daress' eyes.

"No! No! Jyuzou! I swear I would never try to do that!" Daress shook his head.

"It's just like back then. Leading us right to a trap so a demon can do another demon's dirty work for him. To think I started to trust you, how foolish of me." Jyuzou uttered, scratching his nose.

"I thought you were finally getting along." Morio raised his voice.

"Don't you see it, Morio?! You too?!" Jyuzou turned to him. "He's been lying to us all this time and purposefully forcing us to tread danger after danger, seeing if it'd kill us! He wants us dead!"

Morio's eyes drifted towards Daress who slumped in the corner, looking terrified. He ground his teeth. "Why can't you finally lay it off, Jyuzou? Trust him for once. Once!"

"I gave him too many chances. It was obvious from the very beginning!" Jyuzou turned. "I should've killed that spawn of a demon when I still had the chance!"

"I'm s-sorry you feel that way, Jyuzou!" Daress said, moving around and putting his hands together. "I-I wanted to be your friend, uuh! I thought we could get along!"

"Stop it with that bullshit already!" Jyuzou's voice broke down. "You know damn well, you devil!"

"I'm anything but, I swear! We don't need all of these quarrels, and I'm here to prove it. Come on!" he took Morio's hand. "We can already see Mount Aria clearly from here." Daress stood up. "I'll show you home, Jyuzou...!" he ground his sharp teeth.

Jyuzou blinked, gathering something up in his mind. "W-What?" he uttered. "M-Mount Aria?" Jyuzou asked. "We were supposed to go to Amaru Toni. What on Errarion are you talking about?"

"Amaru Toni?" Daress raised his eyebrows.

"What's that?" Morio looked at him.

"Your... your civilization! YOU SAID THAT WE WERE GOING THERE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING! DON'T YOU LIE TO ME!" Jyuzou screamed out, as his eyes widened, taking a step forwards.

"There's no such place as Amaru Toni, Jyuzou." Daress shook his head. "A-Are you alright?"

Jyuzou put his hands on his face. "I'm damn sure. I'M S-SURE, YOU LIAR!"

"Jyuzou... what is wrong with you?" Morio asked, gulping. "What happened?"

"No, nothing happened to me! It's you! YOU'RE ACTING WEIRD!"

"I'm acting weird?! Look at yourself!" Morio screamed out. "You've been trying to ruin everything from the moment we arrived in the Horhor Basin, and now you're just... making things up to try and shift all your blame to the poor Clowinger who tried to help us!"

"What happened to you, then, Morio?!" Jyuzou inched closer. "You would never listen to someone's word! What happened to believing in what you trusted?"

"We both went here to change!" Morio grabbed Jyuzou by his undershirt's collar. "Stop denying everything! You filthy liar!"

"I AM NOT A LIAR! HE IS! HE DEMENTED YOU, MORIO!" Jyuzou pointed to Daress, before taking out his spear. "IT'S ALL HIS FAULT!" He ran up to him, trying to stab him with his weapon. "GAAAH!"

Daress screamed out in fear, and Morio suddenly pushed Jyuzou back, slicing through his hand with the Victis sword and creating a more significant wound. Jyuzou stepped back a bit and tumbled down to the rocks.

"Gaah!" Jyuzou covered his hand.

"Ha... ha..." Daress breathed heavily.

"G-Go back home, Jyuzou!" Morio raised his voice.

"What?" Jyuzou asked.

"Go home, and don't look back." Morio's lips were shaky. "If you can't handle this, you were never meant to be a Demonear."

"Morio. He..." tears appeared in his eyes. "H-He messed you up." he closed his eyes. "This isn't you!" he yelled out, grinding his teeth. "Morio! Listen to me!"

Morio turned around, before climbing up the mountain, without another word.

Daress waddled over, passing Jyuzou. He looked into his eyes, and beamed, before following the white-haired Morian.

Jyuzou cried out, without making much sound. Even if, it would've been hushed along the silence of Morta. He stayed still, while Morio and Daress trod, eventually leaving him behind.

***

"Go home," Jyuzou thought. "...and don't look back."