(WARNING: THIS CHAPTER COINTAINS PHYSICAL VIOLENCE)

Having arrived at the front entrance of Eristal’s Castle, Cyrus had planned beforehand the right moment to apologize to June and Evelynn. This act had been delayed for far too long, and they too, knew that this was the right moment to apologize.

Cyrus speaks up, “H-hey..!”

“Hey!” Evelynn also spoke up simultaneously, talking over Cyrus. “This is where we’ll part ways now. Right, June?”

June nods, “Owen, group up with the rest of the scouting team members and stay on standby until you get called.”

“Y-yes! T-t-then I’ll get going now!” He waves as he heads back outside and down the stairs.. stumbling on his own steps along the way. 

“Then for you two…” June turns to face Azrael and Cyrus, “You should head to the infirmary to get your injuries checked. Looking at the state of you two, I do not think it should be delayed any longer. Then…”

As the two turned their backs and started walking deeper into the halls, Cyrus felt stuck, unable to gather the courage once more, to call out to them. 

“..!” Cyrus felt a sudden weight on back. They turn to look at Azrael who put his hand on their back.

“Don’t you still have something unsaid?” He asks Cyrus. “You should do it... Before you miss your chance.”

Cyrus came back to their mind and smiled at him. They called over to June and Evelynn who were far over and rushed over to them. Looking at Cyrus doing what they needed to do the most made Azrael let out a small smile. 

‘I should head to the infirmary first then..’

.

.

Cyrus caught up to the other two.

“H-hey..”

Evelynn and June stop and turn around.

“Cyrus! Darling, did you forget something?” Evelynn asks. 

“So.. I… I..!” They start fidgeting and take a deep breath. “I wanted to apologize for what happened back at the festival.” They explain, and the two then focus their attention on Cyrus. “I really don’t know what came over me that day… I.. I would never– I never had any intentions to harm anyone..! I–”

June lifted their palm. “I know you didn’t have any bad intentions, you just unfortunately lost control.” They pause and look elsewhere. “However, I do wish you to apologize to my Lord.”

Cyrus’ eyes lit up. “O-of course! Y-yes, I will!”

“Great, we still need to deliver the Demon, and you still have to go to the infirmary.” 

.

.

They watch as Cyrus quickly heads off to meet with Azrael.

“Honestly.. I’m even surprised they apologized after a long time. I thought they would have forgotten.”

“It has only been almost a week since that… But I agree, it must have really taken some time for them to gather the courage to apologize..”

Time was ticking and they were afraid that the Demon would soon wake up, so they too made haste to meet with The Lord, God Aria.

***

A tall figure looks outside from a balcony with a glass ceiling. Their peach colored hair gently follows the way of the wind. Having noticed someone's presence suddenly appearing behind them they let out a sigh of relief.

“You all have been gone for a long time now.” The person says. “You were not even responding to my calls. I was getting worried..”

The other person behind them takes a step forward and knelt before them. “My apologies, Master Aria. It was not my intention. The De–”

Lord Aria comes over and helps June get up. They open their arms and hug June and they also hug Aria back. They let go with a smile. “No need to worry about too much. Won’t you tell me what happened?” Aria asks. “We also have some guests over who are also curious to know.”

June proceeds to explain everything that happened from their departure, to their encounter with the Demon, the mutants at the rundown building and seeing Cyrus and Azrael ‘defeating’ the Demon together. Hearing that last part fascinated the God and got them to rethink about what kind of action they should take. 

“How interesting.” Aria ruffles Junes white fluffy hair and chuckles. “I reckon we should head to the ballroom now, I believe everyone should be there by now.”

“...Yes, Master.”

While June was fixing their hair, Aria took a step forward and summoned an oval shaped three dimensional hole with a snap of their fingers. They step into it and next thing, they are in the ballroom, standing next to Aria’s throne. 

The ballroom was the same as before, glossy interior, tall windows that brightened the inside and the size of the room large as before, still able to hold more than 200 people. Aria stepped out from behind the silk curtain that was hiding the throne and started descending the long stairs. 

In the room there were several people present including General Evelynn, The Head Strategist Sho, a man in an elegant looking suit with brown hair with slightly silverish parts peeking in between. Lastly, behind all of them was the Demon floating, chained up by their hands and feet.

“Greetings, O’ great Lord.” Said the brown haired man. “I see you are looking stunning as always–”

“Erm.. Yes, thank you.” Aria greeted him in a hurry with a smile and walked over to the hanging demon. 

Before anyone could approach Aria, June quickly came in between them to stop anyone from getting too close.

“My Lord..” Evelynn’s face tenses up. “We don’t know its intentions and we are left with little time. What are we going to do about the demon?” She asks.

Aria chuckles. “I was simply thinking that we should ask it directly.”

They raise their hand and aim it towards the Demon’s face.

*SLAP!*

“...!!?” Everyone blinked, stunned by the sudden slap.

“Haha.. You all look so surprised.” They shake their now red hand, trying to cool it down. Aria focused an immense amount of magical energy onto their hand and struck the Demon’s face, causing their hand to swell a bit. “To wake up someone in a deep sleep like this… Is a slap not the most effective way to wake them up?”

“...Master, I am not even going to comment.” June replies.

Aria smiles back and turns to face the Demon again. Unsurprisingly the Demon started groaning and slowly gaining their consciousness back. Slowly opening their eyes, it focuses on the people in front of it.

“Wh– WHAT IN THE NAME OF HELL???” The Demon starts to struggle, trying to get free but immediately notices the chains. “Y-Y-YOU DAMN FOOLS WHEN THE DEMON KING GETS NEWS OF THIS… HE’LL- HE’LL—”

“He will what?” The God looks straight into its eyes.

The Demon gasped in fear and got quiet. From everyone else’s perspective it looked like the big angry dog finally learnt who was the master.

“The Demon King huh… Though that person has such a presence, he never uses it for anything meaningful.” Aria says as they wipe off dust from their robe. “He has never accomplished anything, so how could his little followers?”

Threatening words said with a sweet and calm voice gave goosebumps to the Demon, including the others present in the room. Aria showcased to everyone in the room that though they are always relaxed, they would not tolerate any kind of threat in their country.

“And now…” They summon a portal underneath the Demon with a clap of their hand. “Go back home and tell your little ‘King’ to keep his followers under control. Next time Heaven won’t hesitate to take action.” 

The chains holding the demon disintegrated and it fell down the portal with their scream fading further and further away into The Underworld.

Everyone watched the show quietly in silence. No-one dared to say or comment anything. As Aria turned around, they noticed how the atmosphere had turned dark quite quickly.

They clear their throat loudly, getting the attention of the whole room. “Let us get back to business, shall we?” They make their way in front of the long stairway. 

Sho also comes forth. “My Lord, I’ve already sent out more scouts and doctors to the site of the crime based on Scout Owen’s report. I’m sure they will rendezvous with the other Knights shortly.”

“I see. Thank you for your hard work, Sho! Evelynn and June as well, considering I sent you two on such a dangerous task.” 

Sho’s transparent-like horns started glowing and cheeks turned a lighter shade of their dark blue skin. The others let out a laugh.

“Speaking of which… Sir Jacques,” Aria addresses the elegant looking man in the room. “I also have to thank you for bringing your troops to assist as well as your son. He has been really helpful to us.”

Jacques caresses his beard, smiling. “I am glad. However if it was not for that insol–” He pauses to correct his words. “If it was not for my son's mistake, this all would have been prevented… And look at him now, late as always!”

Jacques made the room’s atmosphere even worse with the complaining of his son. June and Evelynn tried to steer the somewhat negative conversation away by mentioning that his son was getting treated and should be arriving soon, however that allowed him to talk about his other children to belittle his son. He went on and started bragging about his other children, which in his words are far more well-mannered. 

*KNOCK!*

*KNOCK!*

Two loud knocks came from the other side of the tall golder door of the ballroom. The door is opened by two guards from the other side and Azrael and Cyrus step into the room. Azrael halted upon seeing the man with brown hair.

“Father…” He greeted him hesitantly.

Jacques Montagnac was the father of Azrael Montagnac alongside his six other siblings. Jacques was the current head of House Montagnac and his House’s high position allowed him to be favored by the Queen of Solis. Thus allowing him to take on the quest involving the mutants invasion in Solis, that he had entrusted to Azrael. 

Cyrus was always a step behind Azrael, to not attract any extra attention to themselves. They looked at the way Azrael greeted his father, his voice sounded confident and so did his face filled with scars but Cyrus who had spent a good while with him noticed the slight twitch his face did that revealed his discomfort. They chose to not say anything and stayed quiet. Cyrus takes a glance over to Jacques Montagnac and realizes that they once had seen him in a family picture at Azrael’s mansion.

Jacques takes a look at Azrael from head to toe and laughs sarcastically. 

“This is just straight up embarrassing.” He says as he sleeks his hair back. “Everyone, from the bottom of my heart, I truly apologize that I had assigned this quest to him. I should have thought longer about it… Look at the damage you have caused!” He directed his line to Azrael. 

“What..?” Azrael asks as his anger is building up. “I already knew when you just threw this quest onto me that you wanted me to fail… But now you’re trying to put all the blame onto me while you didn’t even offer any kind of assistance!”

Jacques’ smile slowly disappears and walks toward Azrael. 

*SLAP!*

Everyone gasped in disbelief. June and Aria had come forward to distance Jacques from Azrael.

Azrael meanwhile was completely dazed, caught by surprise by the slap. He slowly reached his hand to his reddish cheek, unable to talk back to his father. 

Seeing Azrael hit by someone who was meant to be his family, Cyrus couldn’t hold back.

“S-Sir! How could you hit him over that!?? He finished this quest himself with his best efforts!”

Jacques sneers at Cyrus with disgust. “And you even dared to ally with that!?” He points to them. “Every time I thought I have taught you better, you turn out to be unintelligent like your damned mother.”

Everyone gasped once more, trying to butt in to the conversation to calm both of them.

Azrael draws his sword stained with blood. “SAY THAT AGAIN, YOU TRASH!?” 

Cyrus’ eyes open wide upon seeing the blade, yelling in panic to Azrael that it wasn’t worth it, slaying someone like that.

“You refer to Cyrus like they’re some kind of trash laying on the ground,” Azrael proceeds to point at Cyrus. “But in all honesty they’re much more than that, and I know that what they achieved that day was much more than you could ever achieve in the rest of your pitiful life!”

“..!” Cyrus was so surprised by his words that they accidentally loosened their grip on Azrael’s hand. Azrael, being free from restraint, aims straight for Jacques' left arm with his sword.

*CLINK!*

The sound of Azrael’s sword echoed in the ballroom. Aria had clashed Azrael’s sword with their crystal clear handed dagger. Jacques took this chance to attempt to slap Azrael once more, but he wasn’t slick enough and got his hand stopped by Aria’s other hand.

“ENOUGH!” Aria yelled, silencing the entire room. “...In my palace, I have witnessed many arguments take place.. however, I have never tolerated any form of violence and disrespect. Unfortunately, I have let today’s events go too far I am afraid.”

Azrael clicks his tongue and withdraws his sword to his scabbard. “I apologize to Lord Aria,” he says. “but I refuse to apologize to that worthless piece of shit!” He bows to everyone in the room except his father and storms off the ballroom. 

Jacques clicks his tongue and was about to speak before Aria quickly noticed and interrupted him.

“You seem tired, how about we continue tomorrow?”

He looked confused. “No.. I am quite–”

“Oh my, you really do seem tired!” Aria interrupts him again. “We have already prepared a room for you and I am sure your other son will probably arrive soon to meet up.”

“...” Jacques silently caressed his beard, seemingly understanding that Aria was hinting to him to leave the room. “You are right Lord Aria, I suppose I shall get going now. Should we continue tomorrow?”

“Yes, of course.” Aria smiles and waves him off as he leaves the room with Sho and Evelynn. 

Cyrus however, quickly grabbed Sho the arm to stop him. They try and find words to apologize to him, Cyrus stutters and nervously tries to convey their feelings to them. Sho smiles and tells them that he understood what they were trying to say. He says he was caught off guard at that time and felt hurt by their actions, but later on they realized that Cyrus wasn’t themselves. So Sho decided to put his negative feelings about them aside and forgave Cyrus.

With Cyrus’ mind finally at peace Sho left the ballroom and the only ones left were Cyrus themselves, Aria and June.

“...” Cyrus felt the peace fly out of them.

“Cyrus dear, how about we talk over tea in another room?” Aria says with a kind smile.

“..Sure…” 

Cyrus felt scared. They hadn’t done anything wrong this time but all the voices in their head just screamed that they were about to get some sort of punishment… They still sucked it up and followed Aria through a portal they created to another room…