“You two… I thought that I lost you.” Azrael says with a sound of relief coming out of his mouth.

June lets go of Evelynn who was supporting them. “For a moment I thought I was.. But the further the Demon went, the easier it was for me to gain my consciousness back since its influence was not as strong.”

“Hm.. Agreed, however…” Evelynn looks around. “It seems you did pretty well here without us.. and with some help I see.” She points at the unconscious Cyrus with a surprised face. 

“...I really have no idea, and I was as surprised as you when we met.” Azrael responds.

June walks over to the demon who was missing a chunk of its chest. “We should move fast and bring the demon back to Eristal, I do not know how long that injury is going to keep it unconscious..”

“You’re telling me that blow didn’t kill it??” Azrael complains.

Evelynn's face seemed troubled but didn’t add anything to Azrael’s comment. She walks over to June and the Demon and makes a circle with her finger in the air, creating sturdy looking purple thorn chains out of magic, tightly trapping the Demon.

“Let us put that aside for now. As for the mutants… We’ll have to come back after we get reinforcements.” She claps her hand. “Alright we should hurry back then, hop hop–”Save

“Wait!” Azrael interrupts. “What about.. them?” He points at Cyrus. “I’m too injured to carry them…”

.

.

June ended up ‘princess’ carrying Cyrus. As for Evelynn, she was smoothly carrying the Demon with a levitation spell and Azrael followed from behind. Unknowingly the group was closer to the entrance of the forest, so the walk wasn’t bad. Azrael kept peeking at Cyrus’ face that looked like they were at peace. He still couldn’t hide the worry from his face though.

Taking note of that, June asks. “Is something the matter, Azrael?”

“..!” He quickly averts his eyes away. “I was just worried they were going to stay unconscious for long, like last time.”

“I remember you mentioning something like that, not too long ago” June says. “What happened then?”

Azrael proceeds to tell how he had met Cyrus for the first time and how he took them in for the mission. He talks about how he tested Cyrus’ strength that exceeded his original expectations and how they had ended up sleeping for several days due to magic exhaustion. After Cyrus had woken up, both of them agreed to go separate ways after coming to the conclusion that they weren’t fit for the job. 

“Hm.. In the end it seems like they were the most fit after all.” Evelynn replies with a gentle laugh. “Mayhaps we judged them too early..” She continues.

June simply nods with Cyrus in their arms.

The group continues walking through the forest in silence. As they walked, Azrael kept silently grunting in pain due to the crumbling pain in his whole body, especially on his thunder burnt hand. Evelynn and June took notice of that, but avoided making it obvious, since Azrael had a weird habit of being prideful at moments like this… 

After some time of walking the rain had stopped. And quickly after, they found the path that led out of the forest. Evelynn checks on the unconscious demon and nods to the others. The Demon seemed like it would be unconscious for a long time, so they proceeded to leave the forest for now. What waited for them however was a surprise.

“Ah..!” Evelynn’s eyes stared wide open in shock. “Owen..! You made it!” 

Her mind tired, but upon seeing Owen who had left to get reinforcements, now with numerous guards, she joyfully shed a tear. There were numerous knights from Eristal, some on foot and some on horses. All of them were wearing dark blueish uniforms including some guards who were wearing orange and white uniforms among them– Knights from Solis.

“A-a-ah, um, were we too late..?” Owen asks in his usual meek voice.

“Not really.” June casually replies, dropping their polite attitude from being worn out. “However, the mutant's bodies are still scattered around the forest. We’re heading to give Lord Aria a report, meanwhile please gather all of them, and also make sure no passerby enters the forest. Is that clear?” They ask the Eristian knights.

“Yes, Commander June!” They all salute and head towards the forest. 

Amongst the Solisian Knights, a knight on horseback came forward. A young man with shiny gold hair wearing a charming smile stepped down from the horse’s saddle.

“Evening to you all, Commander June, General Evelynn, and last but not least.. Team Leader Azrael… Dear brother.”

“...” Azrael coldly looks at his brother then turns his gaze elsewhere, seemingly not wanting to acknowledge his presence. “What are you doing here, Lucien?” He asks in a flat tone.

Lucien chuckles, “Well, brother, after Father saw your incompetent self not being able to handle a situation as simple as this, of course he had to dispatch me, the one who is most fit for the job.”

“...Hmph.” He turns his back to him once more, “Arrogant as always. Just keep your speech to yourself.” Azrael then continues walking toward the path to Eristal.

Evelynn shrugs her shoulders. She waves with a smile and walks in his footsteps.

“I will be taking this horse and wagon.” June says as they head toward an empty auburn colored wooden wagon. They rest Cyrus onto the corner of the wagon. June gets up the white horse and simply bowed to Lucien. “Owen! Hop on.” 

“A-ah..! Yes!” Owen replies.

Lucien looks at the rest of the party hopping into the wagon as it heads to the main city, he lets out a small chuckle. “What an odd group, don’t you think so?” 

“Uh.. Y-yes..?” The soldier next to him quickly forces a reply.

.

.

June was out in the front, leading the horse toward Eristal. Meanwhile the nervous Owen, Evelynn, the prisoner Demon and Azrael alongside the sleeping Cyrus were all in the back of the wagon, sitting in complete silence.

Azrael’s eyebrows frowned for a long time, looking at his lightning scarred hand, deep in thought. 

“Are you alright..?” Evelynn asked after a while of pondering if that was the right move. 

“...” He ignores her.

..She rolls her eyes in annoyment and continues. “Seeing you ignore me like that, you must be okay.” Evelynn turns to face Owen who was sitting in the corner of the wagon and summons a pack of cards. “Owen darling, let us play a match of cards to kill time.”

Azrael looks at the two playing cards in the distance, then he turns to the window exposing the bare night sky. Although the sun was starting to shine through from afar.

“..Mhm..” The sleeping deer who was sleeping next to Azrael, started turning around on the hardwood, quietly tapping on it. Their brows started to frown– Looking uncomfortable while resting on the cold wood.

Azrael’s attention gets drawn to Cyrus, who ended up finding their way onto his lap. Looking at their peacefully resting face, like they just weren’t about to get killed by a demon. Annoyed, he carefully pats Cyrus’ white dotted ear and leans next to it whispering. “Hey, is my lap that comfortable?”

“...” No response. 

A minute passes, and Cyrus carefully opens an eye to peek, but gets startled by Azrael who was still looking at them, accidentally locking eyes. He raises his brow, waiting for Cyrus to say something. 

“H-Hi..?” They say with an awkward smile on their face.

“Get off my lap if you’re awake.” Azrael complains as they try to shove their head off.

Cyrus fights back by pressing their head back to rest on the lap. Both of them started going back and forth. 

“Come on! My body hurts so much, so please lay off!” 

“My body also hurts…” Cyrus mumbles. They still quickly give up and straighten their back to lean on the wagon's wall. Cyrus starts fidgeting with their hands and whispers.” Azrael..?”

He sighs. “What is it?” 

“Say, if you wanted to apologize to someone for a bad thing you did in the past... How would you do it..?”

“Hmph” He lets out a scoff. “That's a simple one. I wouldn’t.”

“...Are you serious..?” They stare back in disbelief. “I shouldn't have asked you.”

He sighs again. “Is this about the thing that happened back at The Castle..– The Festival?”

Surprised that he actually was ‘kind of’ taking this seriously, caught them off guard but still nodded to the question.

“Look, I don’t know much about stuff like this, let alone about what had happened back then. However, you should go for it and just apologize.”

“What.. If what I did was so bad, that person wouldn’t accept the apology..?”

“That.. It doesn’t matter.” He says. “As long as you know what you did wrong and your apology is sincere.. I believe that’s all that matters.”

“I.. see.” Cyrus quiets down as their eyes focus to the outside. Quietly dozing off as the outside scenery changes to a grassy field full of crystals scattered all over. 

.

.

*** 

A sweet scent fills the nose of a youngster, standing by the fire stove containing a pie that was baking. 

“Mama! I think it has finished baking now!” The young child yells to ‘Mama’ who was in another room across from where the child was.

“Coming dear!” The ‘Mama’ seemed to be having a conversation with someone else in that room, but the child couldn’t make out what they were saying.

‘Mama’ then hurried from the other room to the one where the child was waiting. It was a room that resembled a kitchen. It was a not-so-large room containing a wide fire stove with an air vent made of bricks on top of it, a small sink, walls filled with small cabinets each filled with something, from food and herbs, plates and mugs, pans and other things.

A young lady with dark green hair on a side ponytail comes to the room. She smiled at the child, but somehow they couldn’t make up her face.. like it was covered by a fog. 

The child ignores it, “Mama? Is it ready?” They point at the pie with a golden brown crust on the top and a bit of red filling oozing out. 

The ‘Mama’ approaches the stove before deciding it was done. She picks up a small fluffy cotton towel as she carefully takes out the pie and rests it on top of the wooden countertop in the middle of the room.

“There! Now..” She looks around.. looking for something. “Say, Cyrus? Where is █████ ?” She asks. “Weren’t you two playing together earlier?”

The child– Cyrus hesitates before speaking up. “Well.. We had an argument.. I said something bad.. and █████ got upset and went home...”

The ‘Mama’ raises her eyebrows in surprise before letting out a small laugh and leans downward to reach the short Cyrus.

“Do you tell me what the argument was about?”

“...”

“I see.. I won’t force you then.” She says with a smile. “But! Like I’ve always said in the past. ‘You should always talk it out with the other person and give each other the chance to apologize.’”

Young Cyrus looks away as they frown. “But I don’t think I was in the wrong…” 

“Then look at me.” Cyrus timidly peeks at ‘Mama’. “You know? When I was younger, I used to quarrel a lot with my friends. Unfortunately one time we left off pretty badly, and after that day I never got the chance to apologize to them…”

Cyrus’ deer-like ears move downward along with their mouth.

“Don’t make that face!” She laughs. “I still regret that, but what I’m saying is… Don’t make the same mistake as me.. and talk to █████ about it together.”

“..Okay… Do I have to do it now though?” Cyrus asks as their eyes are fixated to the pie behind ‘Mama’.

“Haha! Of course! Or else you won’t get any pie!” She responds playfully.

Cyrus replies with a laugh, making their way out of the kitchen.

*Thumb!*

They blink in surprise then attempt to touch the entrance for a second time. The entrance to the kitchen had no door so anyone could just come and go out of the room as pleased. However in front of Cyrus was an invisible barrier that wouldn’t let them exit no matter how much they tried to force their way out. 

Panicked Cyrus cries out to their ‘Mama’ as they turn around to face her. “Mama..?”

Their eyes widened in horror as the kind lady who had portrayed herself as Cyrus’ ‘Mama’ started to shift forms– Melting would be the right term.. 

As the ‘Mama’ started to change form, looking less and less like a person and more of a ‘melted pudding’, she started to drag herself towards Cyrus who was stuck in the kitchen with no exit. What was worse, was that even the room started to break apart. Everything in the room started to become discolored, the floor was shattering and falling into a dark empty void and parts of the walls started to disappear. 

Seeing all of this made Cyrus realize this must be a nightmare.. They tried backing up with the invisible barrier they had nowhere to run, and they were cornered by the deformed ‘Mama’. 

With her liquid dripping hand, she caresses Cyrus’ cheek, pressing on it. Making Cyrus feel a sharp pain on it. 

“Darling, I think it’s time to wake up.” She says with a deep distorted voice.

“Wake up..”

“W̸a̴k̸e̶ ̴u̴p̶.̶.̵!̶”

.

.

.

***

“Wake up…!”

Cyrus’ eyes flash open. 

They stare at the gentleman in front of them, holding their cheek. Seeing that, they feel their cheek.. only to have it feel a little numb.

“Ah… Sorry, we’re in a hurry and you weren’t waking up.. Does it hurt?” Azrael asks as he moves his hand away.

“Yes it does??? …You’re not really sorry, are you?” Cyrus stares back at Azrael who was holding back his smile.

He chuckles before quickly reverting to his ‘serious’ face. “We’ve arrived, so get off the wagon.”

He hops off the wagon. Cyrus, who was still inside, looked around to see that even Owen and Evelynn had already left, leaving a pile of neatly arranged cards that they had played with in the corner of the wagon. 

They focus their eyes and feel their cheek once more, ‘That nightmare.. felt too real…’ they thought, feeling a heavy weight in their heart.

Cyrus shakes the thought out of their head and peek outside. They’re greeted by the clear morning sky and the lively town, looking small from their perspective.

‘If the town looks this small.. we really must be here…’ 

After stretching their back, they quickly crawl out of the wagon. Met by the sparkling sight of the tall crystal coated castle, Cyrus couldn’t help but be in awe. It was their first time properly seeing the building up close and really inspecting it.

A woman who was a bit further away from Cyrus clicks her tongue. “While I absolutely love this castle… What possessed our kind Lord to build it alongside these damn long stairs??” She complains to the two others standing beside her; June and Owen.

“June darling, how about asking Lord Aria to.. How can I say it..” She tries to find the right words. “Yes! Somehow tone down the length of these stairs..?”

“...How about you ask for yourself? Since I have no complaints about them.” 

Evelynn forces a smile as she sheds a tear. “Of course you wouldn’t, you probably fly in and out of the castle anyways.”

“That.. is very false..” June seemed to want to argue about it, but decided to give up. An argument with Evelynn would often derail and turn out very long...

June spots Azrael and Cyrus who had come out of the wagon. “Are you two coming?”

Azrael takes Cyrus by their arm and walks towards the other three. Walking along the long glossy stairway, Cyrus prepares themselves as their future will be decided by the God Aria.