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“Why are they here..!??” General Evelynn’s anger was directed at Cyrus who had arrived at the Strategy Hall with God Aria, June and Azrael. Feeling guilty and not knowing what to say, Cyrus just awkwardly smiled.

June calmly replies, “We had yet to decide the punishment for them and we cannot let them roam free for now, thus we took them with us.” 

Evelynn who was standing beside Raya sighed and let it go, “Anyways, I heard you messed up, Azrael. Isn’t that just hilarious?” 

Azrael groans in annoyment, “Let’s just get to it, all right?”

The Strategy Hall’s outside was heavily guarded and compared to the other room in the castle, the current one they were in, specifically felt a bit darker despite the room having multiple wide french windows. The room had a few white and gold vases in the corner of the room. In the middle of the Strategy Hall was a large oval shaped table with around twenty long chairs surrounding it. 

“You young ones always have plenty of energy.” Aria laughed as they walked over to the oval shaped table and sat down.

After Aria, June, Azrael joined the other members of Eristal’s Knights, Cyrus stayed outside of the room and stood behind the tall white doors, peeking inside.

‘Am I even allowed to enter the room or… was I just supposed to stay outside??’ Cyrus kept thinking. Well even if they would have been allowed to enter, Cyrus didn’t know if they had the guts. When they saw General Evelynn, one of the people Cyrus had hurt was present in the room. Guilt started flooding in the back of Cyrus’ mind, making them feel sick by their own actions they couldn’t remember anything of.

Azrael noticed Cyrus who was hiding behind the door, he walked over to them and asked, “Are you not coming in?” 

Cyrus stares at Azrael and then looks to the ground.

“This is a meeting about the.. uh thing right? I’m pretty much an outsider so I shouldn’t intervene..” 

“Intervene?” He let out a scoff, “I don’t know what happened here before I came but seeing how Lord Aria showed kindness to you during your ‘trial’ and even told you to come along, pretty much means that they don’t regard you as an outsider, at least from my point of view.”

What Azrael had said was pretty much straight facts, but Cyrus simply couldn’t walk into the room, especially since they couldn’t face the people they had hurt yet. Cyrus knew they personally had to apologize to Evelynn, June and Sho..! Cyrus took a peek inside of the Strategy Hall to look for Sho, only to see that out of the three people they had hurt he was the only one missing..

Cyrus sighs as they turn back to Azrael, “You’re probably right.. You can go inside first.. I uh.. am just gonna prepare myself before I come in, alright?” 

Azrael’s facial expression turns suspicious upon hearing Cyurs’ reply but lets it go, “Alright then.” 

He entered the room and the guards closed them afterwards so Cyrus had to knock when they were ready. Cyrus stood in front of the now closed with stress piling up in their heart. Loudly beating in fear and guilt. Anxiety was slowly rising up.

Inhale..

Exhale..

Inhale once more… 

And repeat..

Breathing wasn’t helping to keep Cyrus calm. Being inside of the castle was suffocating.

‘I… Need to get outside..’ Cyrus kept thinking but with the guards posted in front of the Strategy Hall’s doors, it was impossible to even attempt to run away. Even though they knew it was impossible, that had never stopped them before, so without much thought they started sprinting away. 

“H-Hey!!” One of the two guards shouted.

“Come back!!” the other guard also shouted, “Hey, report this to our Lord, I’ll go catch that rascal..!” The guard runs after Cyrus while the other one is preparing to go inform June and Aria.

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*Huff…*

*huff…..*

Cyrus was panting very loudly as they were running away from the guard who was following them. They never entered this castle on their own so they didn’t even know where the exit was.

“Wh- Why am I so out of breath..!” Cyrus yells in annoyment with their rugged breath.

Every hall Cyrus passed looked very identical to one another with similar patterns and colors.

“E-Eek!” Cyrus’ running came into a halt. They were surrounded by other guards from the other end of the hall and from behind..

“Stop right there, kid! You’re not supposed to be running around without our Lord’s permission!”

“Ahhh…! Why does everyone keep calling me a kid??” 

The guard started closing in on Cyrus with their sharp swords on their hands. Cyrus was in a tight situation, stuck against the wall with no place to run anymore.. Except for a large window behind their head. Cyrus looked at the window and with no second thought they forced the window door open. 

*Wham!*

“Hey! Wh– What are you doing?!” The guards exclaim.

Cyrus looked down to the tiny looking landscape of the City of Eristal from the open window. From the floor that they were in, it seemed like the castle they were in was on top of a tall hill. Cyrus started to feel nauseous. They get up on the window board and take a deep shaky breath.

“Please, do not jump! It’s basically suicide if you do!” One of the guards says in a panic.

“Yeah! Just get down and l-let’s just talk like rational people, yeah?” The other guard says.

“...” Cyrus looked at the guards who all looked pale and stressed, “If I stay here.. There’s no guarantee that I’ll even live, seeing that my deeds were bad enough.. By jumping now..  I’ll basically be doing them a favor.”

The sun from Cyrus’ behind shined brightly on the corners of their face, making them look like an angel with a bright smile on their face.

“Wh-Wait…! You’ll be reduced to a pancake!–”

Cyrus was gone. 

All of the guards present rushed to the edge of the window and looked down. 

“Shit...”

“Guys.. What do we do now..?” 

“I.. don’t know but I certainly do not want to be the one to report to this Lord Aria or General June..” Another guard responds with a pale face.

“Well anyhow.. It’s gotta be you man, since you were assigned to look after the kid in the first place.”

“...” The guard's face turns plain and he sighs.

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***

At the Strategy Hall

All of the strategists, generals, available allies,  Lord Aria and Aria’s right hand man June were present at the Strategy Hall, all sitting in their own respective chairs around the oval shaped table. Azrael, being the one with key information, started informing everyone about the catastrophe that could befall The Kingdom of Eristal if they didn’t act fast enough. 

“So this is the last place we encountered them and as they move only at dawn I believe they could still be around this area.” Azrael points at a forest area near Eristal from the map.

“I see.. I will send someone to scout that area then. In the meantime we will gather our fighters up-to-date and ready for the fight.” June replies after observing the area on the map.

“Scouting the area is great but I think we need more than just a scout to go.” Evelynn states from the other end of the table, “If we’re really against demons, we’ll need to take extra measures on this.”

Aria hums with a calm face, “That is true, but–”

Just as Aria was talking, sudden loud knocks interrupted them and alarmed the whole room. Without Aria or June giving the O.K to enter, the person on the other side quickly opened the door. The disrespect.

“M-My Lord..!” The guard from the outside came in with a panic, “M-m-my Lo-Lord.. Well uh..- I..-” 

Aria quickly gets up and approaches the guard, “Calm down.. Breath..!”

The trembling guard tries to gather their courage to speak, “We-Well.. My Lord.. Um.. We lost um.. the prisoner…” The guard was even too scared to face their own god.

“Oh.” Aria lets out a sigh of relief, “That is all? Haha, then there is no need for you to be so scared. If Cyrus is still in Eristal, then there is no need to worry.” Aria says with a smile.

The panicked guard also gave a long sigh of relief and June came by, “I suppose we will need to get people to look for Cyrus too..”

“There is–” Again, just as Aria was trying to talk, more guards rushed to the room.

“M-M-MY LORD!” All four other guards yelled simultaneously.

Aria was smiling but it really looked like they were getting slightly more annoyed, “Yes..?” 

None of the pale looking guards had the courage to speak and were bickering amongst them to decide who was going to talk.

“Hey!” Azrael suddenly shouted, “With all due respect, could you just please get to the point?? We are really busy here.”

Azrael looked visibly annoyed but so did everyone else attending the meeting. 

One of the guards stepped up and spoke, “We.. well followed the prisoner..”

“Uh huh..?” Everyone present replied, all being interested.

“And well.. After we cornered them.. they…” The guard started tearing up, “ They.. Ju-jumped off the window…” He started crying.

Aria’s calm smile turned into utter shock, completely baffled over the turn of events.

“What the hell??” Azrael broke the silence.

“Please don’t use that word around Lord Aria..” Raya whispers to Azrael. 

He rolls his eyes and sighs, “Why pressure Cyrus to the point of that happening? I don’t know what they did, but whatever happened, I’m sure they didn’t deserve it..”

“It’s because you weren’t there that you are severely underestimating what had happened..” Evelynn says, “You know, it was really scary, seeing someone who you interacted friendly with just suddenly show a violent side to them–”

“Violent? I really don’t believe that they’re capable of that.. They’re too dense to even achieve that.” Azrael cuts Evelynn off.

“...” Everyone else stayed quiet hearing Azrael saying that in confidence, “And how would you know that? Were you two close or something?” Evelynn replies back.

Azrael looked like he got caught off guard with that question, he coughed and replied, “Uh.. No..??? But we did spend a few days stuck together and while I was taking care of them I got to know them a bit better, so I’d say they didn’t have any real malicious intentions..”

Everyone raised their eyebrows..

“What..? Why are you all looking at me like that..??”

“No, nothing.” Evelynn laughs.

“I must admit, I am surprised. It seems you have a kinder side to you underneath that arrogant facade.” June joins.

Flustered, Azrael turned bright red and started going against everyone who called them a sympathetic person.

The atmosphere had turned from a gloomy one quickly to a lively one. 

“Ahem!” Everyone turns to Aria who made a noise, “It is so very warming to see you all get along, but I feel like we have strayed a bit too far from our original problem..” Aria says with a smile. 

“Firstly Cyrus’ magical trace has not faded away so we can quickly conclude that they are still alive, so we only need to find where they ended up. As for our current problem, June and Evelynn, I would like you two to join the scouting team, is that okay?” Aria asked. 

Even though Aria seemed like a pacifist and relaxed god, they were highly known for being an impressive strategist and merciless on the battleground. However nowadays they would just avoid any kind of conflict as they saw them incredibly troublesome to handle.

“Yes, My Lord!” Both Evelynn and June answer.

“I’ll come along too.” Azrael said.

“Alright then, I do not think I could convince you otherwise.” Aria replies, “Also, I trust that you had notified The Queen of Solis before your arrival, yes?”

“Ah, yes. She wrote that she would bring reinforcements in case the situation turns for the worse.”

Aria nods to Azrael's reply and instructs the guards who were present to search for Cyrus at the location where they estimated they would have fallen at. Meanwhile Evelynn bids a brief farewell to Raya who looked a bit sad that her wife would leave again. Azrael packs his longsword and heads towards his door with June and Evelynn following. 

“Everyone, remember to be careful out there. May the gods bless you.” 

“My Lord.. Aren’t you just talking about yourself?” June asks.

“Haha, you got me. Now stay safe, all of you.” Aria replies with a gentle smile.

June, Evelynn and Azrael were finally ready to head out to the forest to check on the current situation. Bidding everyone farewell and good luck on their own missions. The group had left with full confidence, but had no idea what trouble would come their way during their scouting mission..

To Eristal - Arc end

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The demons and otherworldly dimensions - Arc start