It was a quiet and somewhat peaceful night for our heroes in the hotel until the bounty hunter fooled the prince into fighting instead of settling the situation with words. Taski dodged Fang's attack and stumbled into an old cabinet from behind; Fang then swung his whip at the prince like a dog. Taski's mind was overwhelmed, and he struggled to defend himself in his predicament against the mighty Fang. "Common, the so-called future king. What are you gonna do when backed against the wall like now? Seems like you ain't all what they say you are." Fang asked and insulted him harshly. Taski avoided combat with his opponent and asked him in the intense movement of dodging the attacks, "You seriously want to do this right now, dude. I have my reasons for bringing your bounty with me along the way. It is simple." He announced to Fang confidently while avoiding the attacks. Fang then knocked Taski unbalanced and shoved him to the floor, looking down upon him with a smirk determined of victory. Taski knew what needed to be done; he spit in Fang's face and stood up again. Fang rubbed off the saliva and spoke to him in preparation for humiliating him, "I see, kid, so you do have a fighting spirit in your heart there. Nobody ain't ever been that arrogant enough to defile this face of mine; you're about to regret even living, kid." Fang then charged at Taski quickly and knocked him into the front desk of the reception area of the main lobby, striking Taski's face multiple times aggressively. The two attacked each other repeatedly, leaving blood dripping from their faces and mouths, and Fang pulled out his gun and trapped Taski. "Listen here, kid, I ain't afraid to pull this trigger on your sorry butt. You even think about striking me again, you're dead." Fang jeopardized the prince with his weapon of swiftness. "Go ahead and pull it; I'm waiting. No weapon you pull against me is going to put me down or stand in my path." Taski challenged him without hesitation. Fang then fired a missed shot intentionally and charged him; he smacked Taski in the rib. Taski failed to stand up and lost his concentration on Fang; he rushed to the nearest window and focused on catching his breath. "(I can't keep up with his speed, he's much quicker than I thought. He doesn't seem to even possess any kind of ability, unless he can focus his attacks more precisely.)" Thought the prince as his opponent charged him without vacillation. Taski dodges expeditiously and smacks Fang across the face, along with Fang across Taski's face, causing the two to strike each other together. After the two traded attacks, Ariah and Mandy appeared before the two and stopped the battle, separating the two. "It's a shame that you two would be up to no good; what a way to draw attention we don't need." Mandy lectures both of them harshly. Shortly after Mandy and Ariah returned to their rest, Fang and Taski agreed to let go of their differences and remained calm about each other's beliefs. The next day had arrived, and our heroes had set out towards the city streets again; the streets had heavy traffic with Dark Eibax soldiers roaming around them. Fang had then asked Taski about his plan, and it seemed as though he had not developed a plan that would be safe for them. "For now, we should all keep our eyes out for anything threatening our mission of reaching the castle. If anything comes up, we'll have to fight, flee, or whatever we can work with for now." The prince commanded them. Then, as Taski looked forward, the fog in the distance revealed a large building structure that appeared to be that of the Treesape Castle. Hope had filled our four survivors' hearts, that was until large swarms of the Dark Eibax soldiers charged toward our heroes with only the purpose of slaughtering their lives with their blood across the streets and taking their form. "Everyone. Looks like we're going to have to fight after all. Ariah! Get somewhere safe and get ready to transfer your abilities to us. Mandy, you know what to do; don't overdo it, and Fang, give them all a good shot for us." The prince commanded them as their fight commenced. The soldiers charged them vehemently with their weapons, ready to strike them with deadly, blood-hungry intentions; their loud screeches were as loud as sirens throughout the skies. Taski ignited his flames into Flame Core, causing his sword to become a large flame to scorch the flesh of its enemies; Ariah's ability force was already in effect from Flame Core's strength. Mandy attached to the building next to her and jumped from wall to wall as an acrobatic soldier would, and she took to the skies, swinging around the giants and slicing off their necks. Now, Fang had a slight ability to precisely aim at anything he locked onto and penetrate his target with a deep-cutting bullet. Taski sliced many of them during their battle with his scorching, hot, blazing flames. However, the soldiers noticed the prince's shocking power within him and attempted to take his power; they failed to stop the prince's high-speed rush and were quickly defeated. Fang sniped many tall soldiers while Mandy chipped off the giants attacking Taski; dust and destruction filled the area and covered the streets heavily. Taski lured some soldiers into the alleyways nearby to clear out mass chaos for the others, "(I certainly hope this works out; they can't fight off these guys all at once out there.)." Taski thought as he lured them down the alleyway. Once the soldiers gathered around the corner of the alleyway, the prince unleashed his flames like a flaming phoenix, scorching them; the fire desiccated the soldiers to ashes and smoke. During his attack, the buildings near him fell apart and tumbled into many other soldiers around them. Ariah shielded herself and the surrounding others with her vines of covering love; Taski then recovered from the destruction of the buildings and resumed sweeping the other soldiers, striking them. Fang shot down many of the flying soldiers without sweat while Mandy swung her kunai knives out at her targets, feasting on her enemy's blood cautiously. It seemed the fighting had reached a climatic end, and victory appeared tangible for the four. Ariah appeared out from the hidden corners of the streets and found Taski knelt to the concrete streets from his mighty attack, "You seem wounded from those attacks. Are you okay?" Ariah asked her prince caringly. Fang and Mandy then found the prince and Ariah in the smoke and ashes shortly after to regroup, "Well, looks like you got some neat skills there. That performance you showed us won't bail you out in the end, but not a bad job handling those soldiers back there." Fang announced to Mandy, impressed by her performance in battle. Then, as it seemed to be that, the soldiers discontinued their invasion; that was until fog filled the area suddenly out of nowhere. Then, heavy footsteps smashed the ground in the distance of the fog surrounding them, "(What? Are there more of them?)." Ariah thinks to herself, with terrible fear forming in her heart. Taski grabs her hand and warns her to back away from the scene; unexpectedly, the fog had formed behind the four of them quickly and blocked all pathways for escape. Then, out loud from the foot stomps came a voice that shouted, "PRINCE OF ASALIKITH!" It went from a loud voice in the distance to a demonic and sluggish tone. There was a short, quiet pause at that moment; after that, a strange outstretched arm grabbed Taski's whole leg, swiftly pulling him into the fog. Ariah attempted to save Taski, but unfortunately for her, the strength of the arm was far mightier than hers. Taski was dragged into a thick fog, and Ariah lost her vision of him. Taski's scream was loud and cringing; Taski's scream became worse and more frightening; he was tortured to the brink of death. Ariah develops into a paralyzed state of mind and heart from the sounds of the princes' cries of tormenting pain. Then, as if the cries of the son of Asalikith weren't enough for the other three, Taski was swung back to them abruptly, and his appearance was horrifying to Ariah, Fang, and Mandy. Taski's face returned to them with much blood and scars, and his body was ruined and broken; his sword was tossed back and nearly pierced him. Ariah then let out a horrendous scream, "(His body, almost all his bones are broken. He's wounded severely, and he's losing so much blood.)" Ariah thought to herself. The massive Dark Eibax soldier appeared out of the fog and presented its intentions to Ariah and the fallen prince. The soldier let out a compelling roar before the four, striking the prince and Ariah down; she covered him and began forming vines from her back to cover herself and him in hopes of protection. "I'll protect you, no matter the cost, MY LOVE!" She shouted in determination to protect the one she dearly loved. As the Dark Eibax soldier comes closer to slamming its massive weapon down upon the two, out of nowhere, an ignited spear covered in molten hot magma slices the soldier's arm off. Out loud, the colossal cried in pain as the blood from its arm gushed out from the unknown attack. Then, suddenly, an unknown individual wearing the skin of a Dark Eibax unit slashed through the monstrous soldier fluently, killing the titan cold, bloodily with magma. Before Taski's injuries worsened, Ariah sealed up his cut-open wounds and restored some of his strength to stand, as her healing love was low from previous uses before the battle. The Dark Eibax soldier then vanished shortly after being incinerated by the magma, and two more tall individuals appeared and called out the name Killian, a name that Taski knew of. The individual called Killian then ceased his fighting and halted from causing further damage; after answering his call, the three individuals removed their masks. It was then revealed to the four that Killian, Tailzy, and King David were in the skin of the Dark Eibax soldiers. "(King David, Queen Tailzy, and Killian?)" Taski thought to himself as he witnessed his companions reuniting with him again. King David then assisted Taski and the rest in recovering, and King David then realized the suspect, Mandy, was traveling with him and the rest. "Taski, do you mind explaining why she's with you?" King David requested of the prince. Taski briefly explained to the king of Treesape his reasons for sparing Mandy and bringing her along the way but was still mistrusted with his answer. King David and Tailzy rounded up the rest of the crew and returned them to the castle to recover their injuries, get answers to what they knew, and dig up Taski's reason for teaming with the Ex-Solar Pyramid assassin, Mandy. It was getting around evening time after they had returned to David's castle; Taski's severe injuries were healed, although he still suffered excruciating pain in his left arm, as his left arm contained multiple broken bones. "Prince Taski, I'm afraid to inform you of this, but your left arm is completely broken beyond what I can repair with my healing song. You need special attention to repair the damage." The healing nurse, named Amy, advised the prince. The news shocked him horribly when he discovered his damages from nurse Amy; it then caused a great depression to fall upon him suddenly, "No, this can't be the end of my journey. I've worked too hard and too much to make it this far and just give up. This is the worst day of my life, probably worse than the time Dakaski nearly killed my heart in the dark alley." The prince said out loud to himself as he walked through the hallways of David's castle, walking around to find Ariah and discuss other topics with her. He walked past an open room with a ruined and opened part of the castle that looked down upon the city, and he spotted a woman standing in dark purple, looking out into the town bravely. He entered the room where she stood and realized who the woman was, "Amber? Is that you? What are you doing here? It's unsafe for you to stand out in the open like this." He asked and warned her caringly. Amber Keppler, the daughter of King David and Queen Tailzy, stood quiet, looking into the destruction upon them; she then looked to the prince and said, "This is what I feared the most. You tried to save all the stones with your power, right? Thus failing to contain the stones' power altogether. Your hands seem to still be in one piece after that explosion, huh?" Amber explained and held a peaceful conversation with him. She then held his hands unexpectedly, and confusion fell upon him. She then explained to him a blessing she cast, "Taski, I know how you feel. I understand your intentions in life, and you only want to protect those you love and care for. You are one of a kind; there are little to none like you in this world. It must be nice to have a heart like this. My blessing is now cast on you. May you use it when it has become earth's darkest hour." Amber then kissed his right hand, and this caused Amber's blessing to form within him. Taski then left the room shortly after receiving her blessing and pursued Ariah, but it wasn't long until he found Ariah lying in one of the guest rooms. He sat at the edge of the bed and rubbed his hand through her silky soft hair as if she had bathed herself recently; Ariah felt his warming aura nearby and awoke to him. She clung to his hand tightly and reeled him towards her, "Taski, my sweet prince. I am more than grateful to have you in my life and to experience what it's like to be loved and cared for by someone like you. You have made me trust more, and I don't want you to leave me." Ariah spoke peacefully to him. The two hugged until their hearts felt the recharge they desired; Taski kissed her and laid her down, covering her to sleep throughout the night. Taski awaited for her to slumber the night away, he then reported to King David; there, he'll confess the truth of working with the ex solar pyramid assassin.