Deep within the forest at the cave where Haiza's true body had awoken, a small group of demons gathered.
They wore no clothing and walked around bumping into each other stupidly. Iplis was hiding nearby within some bushes, wearing Kioku's Shadow Guard cloak.
'The cloak works better than I expected, they can't sense my Arch at all,' thought Iplis.
'Who cares about Doran and Soyin, I can do this on my own.'
Iplis started muttering under her breath, she spoke In a strange tongue that seemed like a song. Green energy flowed from Iplis's body and formed into ten arrows that pointed at each demon.
"Chorus Of Hope: Cleansing Arrows."
The arrows shot towards the demons and struck each one right on the forehead. The demons started to burn and disintegrate, their screams echoed into the night until there were none left.
Iplis hummed happily as she approached the cave whilst kicking the ashes of the demons. She stopped abruptly and closed her eyes, silence filled the area as if nature itself was holding it's breath.
'I can sense them, they're close, Soyin and Doran were just a bunch of cowards.'
"Grrrw."
Iplis quickly looked behind and saw a demon rapidly approaching. She had no time to react as the demon raised its hand to strike.
"Tch."
Kioku appeared and gave the demon a high kick to its head that sent it flying and crashing into a large tree. He turned to Iplis after it disintegrated and glared at her.
"Explain."
"Huh?"
"Why you stole my cloak."
"I was only borrowing your cloak, I wasn't stealing it," said Iplis, she took off the cloak and offered it to Kioku who snatched it away angrily.
"Where is my uniform?" Asked Kioku.
"Soyin has it, he was the one who gave you those clothes too."
'Tch, pervy bastard,' thought Kioku darkly.
"Well, thank you for saving me I guess," said Iplis walking towards the cave.
"I only saved you because I didn't want my cloak to be messed up," Kioku said, he put on the cloak and looked at the cave Iplis was approaching.
"Where are you going?" Kioku asked curiously.
Before Iplis could answer a group of men wearing ruined green robes emerged from the cave. They looked malnourished and their robes had claw marks, Iplis ran to hug them the moment they emerged.
"I knew you were alive," She said with tears in her eyes.
"They didn't believe it but I knew."
"Lady Iplis, we're...glad to....see you escaped," said the nearest man who looked exactly like Doran.
"Fool," said Iplis as she wiped her tears. "Don't worry about me, look what they did to you."
"Who the are they?"
Iplis forgot Kioku was still present, she looked at each face in front of her and remembered the day they separated, the day Haiza's clone attacked them.
"This is Doran's brother, Laske and his unit, they are my guards."
Laske knelt slowly and his men followed suit, the action seemed extremely painful to them but they endured.
"Lady Iplis," said Laske with tears.
"Forgive us, we were too weak to protect you. They provided us food but we did not eat as punishment for our incompetence, we prayed for your safety every day, hoping that the gods would have mercy and save you."
"Our useless selves do not deserve your forgiveness!" Shouted the rest of the men.
Iplis had look of exasperation on her face as she approached Laske.
"I have such fools for guards," said Iplis with a warm smile as she helped Laske to his feet.
".....Pathetic."
Kioku put on the hood of his cloak and made to leave, the moment he took a single step, red light enveloped him and the rest.
Iplis shielded her eyes from the bright light and when she opened them, she was no longer in the forest but in a large hallway with its walls and ceiling made of stone.
"Where are we?" Asked Iplis.
"Lady Iplis are you alright?" Asked Laske worriedly.
"No need to fret I'm fine," Iplis turned to Kioku and did not like the look of deep concern he wore.
"It was a trap," he said slowly. "They knew you would try to save your shitty guards and set up a teleportation circle which brought us here."
"Where is here exactly?"
"If I could hazard a guess," began Kioku, a loud beastly roar came from ahead, Iplis felt an immense presence, one that was incredibly evil.
"Hell."
'So close,' thought Iplis. "But now they're in even more danger because of me. Fate must be laughing arse off."
"What do we do?" Asked Laske.
Iplis turned to Kioku who was staring towards the path ahead with dark look, he noticed everyone was looking at him and sighed.
"The only thing we can do is follow this hallway, the fact that we haven't been captured or attacked means that the enemy most likely wants to negotiate."
"And if they don't?" Asked Iplis worriedly.
"Then we're probably going to die."
The group walked through the hallway slowly, remaining vigilant in case of a surprise attack. Everyone was on edge except for Kioku who looked surprisingly calm, after what seemed like hours, Laske spoke, breaking the silence.
"There is something important we forgot to mention," he said. Iplis stopped and looked back at him, Kioku continued walking but he slowed his pace.
"Whilst kept prisoner by the demon general, we learned a bit of their language and pieced together a frightening piece of information."
"What?" Asked Iplis.
"We don't know if we deciphered it correctly but..."
"Nitram plans to send a small portion of his forces to attack the Land Of Beginning in order to test our strength ."
Iplis gasped, Kioku stopped and half turned to face Laske, his expression grave.
"How many?" Asked Kioku.
"We couldn't find out exactly how many," said the round faced man with auburn hair behind Laske.
"But we believe their numbers surpass ten thousand."
"T-ten t-thousand!" Shouted Iplis. Kioku continued to walk but he walked faster and his feet seemed to be shaking. Iplis jogged to catch up with him and when she did, she saw that he was sweating up a waterfall.
"Are you really the child of Darkness?" Asked Iplis skeptically, she had expected the son of existence's worst criminal to be more put together.
"He adopted me."
'I should've have expected that,' thought Iplis.
'There's no way the monster who started the bloodiest war in history could ever father a child of his own much less find a woman who actually loved him.'
"I heard you were trained by Lord Longwang," said Iplis, She was fond of the Dragon god, despite his reputation he was pleasent company.
"Yes," said Kioku stiffly.
"How is he doing these days," said Iplis cheerfully. "He visited here once, he was nice to me so I was wonder-,"
"He's dead."
Kioku had stopped walking and Iplis nearly bumped into him. Kioku turned to face her with a blank look.
"He died so that Mora and I could escape."
"I'm sor-," began Iplis, but Kioku held up a finger and continued to walk.
"Its fine."
"You must be blaming yourself, I know how you fee-,"
"SHUT UP!"
Iplis recoiled, Laske and his men moved towards Iplis, thinking that Kioku would hit her.
"Never claim you understand how I or someone else feels, you aren't them so how would you now?"
The cold look on Kioku's face gave everyone chills, he took a deep breath and faced forward.
"We're wasting time let's continue."
'Just then, in his voice, there was anger sure,' thought Iplis. 'But also fear as well.'
"My lady, who is that man?" Asked Laske warily.
"I wonder as well," said Iplis staring at Kioku's retreating figure.
After many more hours of walking, they at last reached the end of the hallway and before them stood a pair of great metal doors. Iplis moved to open them but Kioku held her back, he turned and faced everyone with a solemn look.
"Once we enter, don't speak or touch anything. I will do the talking, if asked a question feign deafness and don't look anyone or anything directly in the eye, understood?"
Everyone nodded, Iplis found herself paying more attention to Kioku. He was acting calm but she could tell he was nervous but he hid it so well it was as though he was trained for such situations.
The doors opened and the group entered. They were in a large dimly lit rectangular room, it's floors were covered with human and demon corpses and the walls were each flanked by twenty demon guards in red armour.
At the end of the room was a large throne made of human and demon arms alike. Iplis already knew it's occupant even before he spoke.
"Welcome to my court, I am the demon god Nitram."
Iplis had not expected Nitram to look so....human.
His skin was pale and he had a mane of red hair that fell to his shoulders, his face was chiseled and his eyes were blood red, the only demonic thing about him were his black horns that sprouted from his temple and curved inwards, and his voice was soft and calming.
"You are surprisingly calm," said Nitram looking directly at Kioku who did not respond.
"If you think there is chance of escape, discard the thought," Nitram said leaning forward.
"That's what you think," said Kioku calmly.
"You won't be able to escape with that luggage you carry with you, even if you are a Godslayer."
Kioku and Nitram glared at each other, killing intent flashed through their eyes.
"I assume we were brought here because you wanted to negotiate," said Kioku calmly, Iplis noticed Kioku's shadow expand slightly.
"More of, I'm giving you a chance to live," responded Nitram with a mischievous smile.
'How can such a vile creature be this attractive,' thought Iplis before pinching herself for having the thought.
"I wil spare you lowly ants in exchange for two things."
"Which are?" Asked Kioku.
'I'm not hallucinating, his shadow is definitely getting bigger.'
"One, allow me and my army to march safely through the city so that we may use the Yggdrasil root and two," Nitram smiled widely revealing his prominent black fangs.
"The other Godslayer who came with you."
Iplis's eyes widened, she had not expected that. 'What does he want with Mora.'
"If we refuse?"
"You'll die of course."
"I see."
'So what say you, Godslayer?"
Iplis looked at Kioku worriedly, they couldn't accept those terms but if they didn't, the chances of them escaping was zero.
"I don't think Hakai or my master would forgive me if I allowed lowly creatures like you to reach Asgard."
Everyone present looked wide eyed at Kioku, he had just insulted the demon god, in his own court.
"And whatever business you have with Mora is between you two," continued Kioku with a playful smile.
"You can talk to him yourself about that."
'Has he gone mad,' thought Iplis with tears in her eyes.
'I was wrong, he is the son of that lunatic.'
"So you chose death child of darkness?" Asked Nitram coldly, he was no longer smiling and looked menacing as he glared at Kioku.
"Earlier you said it would be hard to escape with the luggage I carry," began Kioku with a sneaky smile.
"What makes you think I wouldn't lighten the load."
Black swords shot from Kioku's shadow and struck the torches on the wall causing the room to go dark. Iplis heard shouts and felt someone grab her, she opened her eyes and saw she was back in the Land Of Beginning, with only Kioku next to her.
"The others, where-," began Iplis but one look at Kioku and she could tell the answer, tears swelled up on her eyes and she grabbed Kioku by the colar.
"The hell?" Soyin had walked out of a shop and saw the two there.
'Lovers quarrel? You move fast shadow prince, I underestimated you.'
"We have to go back, we have to save them," said Iplis frantically.
"We'll die if we go back," responded Kioku calmly and Iplis slapped him, Soyin and the nearby spectators all gasped.
'She's gone off the rails, oh shadow prince what did you do, get her pregnant?'
"I finally managed to save them, I can't leave them there to die!" Shouted Iplis with tears as she fell to her knees.
"There's nothing you could do even if you went back."
Kioku looked at her coldly as she cried and walked away.
"I...left them behind...once," said Iplis in a defeated voice.
"And now I did it again."
Soyin wanted to move forward to comfort Iplis but Kioku stopped him.
"She needs this lesson," he said then gritted his teeth.
"Is what I would have liked to say."
There was a flash of flame infront of Iplis and when the flames died, Laske and his men stood there with Draco on his shoulder. Iplis was momentarily shocked but then stood and hugged Laske tightly and cried.
"M-my lady?" Said Laske turning red.
Green energy exploded from Iplis, the energy caused glowing grass and flowers to grow from the road. Her Arch spread through the whole city, causing plant life to grow and the night sky was filled with beautiful green energy, everyone came from their houses and observed the beautiful sight.
"The prince of the deeply hated Shadow Realm caused this," said Soyin with a laugh.
"The world's gone mad."
Kioku looked at Iplis happily hugging everyone of Laske's men and the green energy that came from her, and smiled. His eyes changed colour from black to blue and back again, he felt the familiar pain on his chest.
'There's alot I don't know but it's nice to see that idiots like that exist.'
"I didn't want her...to experience the feeling of losing those...who tried to protect her."
Kioku started to fall but Soyin caught him before he hit the ground. Soyin put Kioku on his shoulder and smiled at the happy people.
"Barely been here long and already making miracles, you trained him well...."
Soyin's eyes turned red and slit like as he stared at the rising sun.
"Father."