Mine turned to Addai, confused. “What do you mean-”

“AH!” Tieran growled.

He squirmed so much in Addai’s arms it turned impossible to keep holding him. Addai tried to grab the baby, but that little demon swiftly fell from his arms and jumped towards the first shiny thing cutting the air.

Tieran grabbed that shiny thing with his fangs and dropped it on the floor. It was a sharp dagger imbued with miasma; its faint aura drifted in the air after the baby crunched it into bits. His once toothless mouth now had two hardened structures on his gums – a pair of miasma fangs.

“You three should go first,” Addai looked at their surroundings. He took Tieran from the floor and gave him to Lydia to hold despite the baby’s whimper. “I’ll take care of this and see you soon-”

“Like Hell!” Mine grabbed Addai by his arm.

Shuffling his pockets, Mine took a small flask of purple liquid. He flicked its lid and chugged down its content. Addai barely had time to look at Mine and protest, because Mine crossed the air with his fingers and formed an enchantment sigil. It worked as a shield and protected them from the other miasma daggers that would almost have crossed the shield if it wasn’t for Mine’s quick action.

Mine wiped the purple liquid from his lips and coughed. “Don’t be stupid! We can’t split!” he sterned and looked at Addai, he didn’t notice but there was a glowing diamond symbol on his forehead and other patterns all over his arms.

Addai, noticing the purple liquid stain on Mine’s lips, quickly spotted what had happened: Mine had taken a mana enhancer. Those items were illegal, so where did Mine find one of those…?

“You…” Addai started, but Mine grabbed him by his arm again.

Lydia, also noticing what had happened, wrinkled her nose and her face almost turned red. “Mine!! You little shithead!! You can’t take-”

“There’s no time to scold me!” Mine hurried and grabbed Lydia with his other hand.

Tieran clapped his hands now joyfully at the chaos and a glowing path led to a door. Mine took the chance and dashed towards the opening and shut the door after trespassing it. He released Addai and Lydia’s arm and slumped on the floor, coughing. He spat a golden liquid on his hand and exhaled, the mana enhancer he slid in his bag from Ajal’s locker was giving him side effects.

“Later we’ll talk about it,” Mine felt a hand wiping his mouth. Addai looked at him with his thin pupils and a worried expression, but he didn’t scold him further.

Mine nodded and faintly grinned, almost like teasing. “Heh… it seems I’m in trouble,” he chuckled.

“We are in bigger trouble here,” Lydia whispered, tightly holding Tieran.

It was a distorted room, barely resembling a simple apartment.

The colors swirled around them, dancing and flirting with the darkness, but never giving in to it. Specs of miasma floated around them, which made Tieran giggle when a speck of miasma dust landed on his nose.

Mine raised his hand and the glowing patterns on his arm flickered. He coughed more and the glowing faded completely. Addai touched his shoulder and lifted his hand. A small flame lit on the tips of his fingers, illuminating the room.

“Baba!” Tieran pointed to a corridor on their right.

When they crossed the corridor, they encountered a woman lying on the floor. Her white-as-snow silky hair partially covered her pale face. On her side, another woman was wide awake and staring at the group, her burgundy hair faintly glowed in the dark and made her fangs clear.

“Bebi!” Tieran widely smiled, waving at her.

The woman gasped, and her eyes immediately stopped glowing. Her face was different, and so were her features, but she really resembled a human.

“Your Highness Tieran!” the woman called, and Tieran cooed.

Addai frowned, and the woman tensed, hiding the other woman in her arms. “It's been a long time, Belial-”

“BLANCHE!” Mine interrupted Addai and dashed towards Belial and Blanche.

Mine stumbled toward Blanche, tripping over his own feet—

—and didn’t expect Belial’s fist to slam into his face.

Crimson splattered on the floor and Mine rubbed his now broken nose. He staggered and looked at Belial, who looked back at him while covering Blanche under her wings. Her fangs were on display, ready to bite and her hands, bruised after punching Mine in the face, brought Blanche closer.

Tieran started to get agitated, but poor Lydia didn’t know what to do. Between trying to stop the imminent fight and monitor their surroundings, she was torn between both things plus Tieran.

When Mine saw Addai’s shadow cross his vision, he immediately reached for his hand. He stopped that man from landing an even harder punch on Belial’s face.

“We don’t want trouble. Blanche is our friend, and we came with Tieran so he could finish his assigned mission,” Mine explained, trying to fix his nose by relocating it to its place.

Belial looked at Blanche, then at Tieran, who looked at her with teary eyes. She retracted her fangs and huffed. “Where’s Your Highness Tieran’s mission chart, shitty human?” she hissed.

Addai threatened to move again and Mine held him tighter. “Show her, Lydia,” he asked.

“With a baby in arms is quite hard but ask Lydia anyway,” Lydia grumbled under her breath, her voice slightly wobbly from anxiety.

Lydia showed Belial every detail from Tieran’s mission chart, with the baby glued in her arms while she explained and showed. After analyzing the chart, Belial’s expression turned way softer.

“My apologies, I…” Belial started but trailed off.

“Just don’t further stress my friend,” Mine sighed, still not releasing Addai’s hand. “Is Blanche stable?” he asked.

Belial nodded negatively and stroked Blanche’s hair. “I did my best, but she’s perishing…”

While the trio solved their things – and kept their respective dogs on the leash –, Lydia was stressing over another very important thing: their way back.

The door they had entered through had completely vanished, and the room they were in now... it was impossible to tell where the walls were anymore. She crouched and placed Tieran on her side, the baby looked at her confused but soon got amused at her exquisite belt bags.

“We need to be smart, little Tieran,” Lydia smiled, even if it was a bit tense.

She opened the zipper of the green bag and scattered a few seeds on the floor. Soon, many buds sprouted and unburied themselves from the floor. They quickly started running around Lydia and Tieran, making the baby giggle at the leafy beings.

Lydia glanced at the trio and saw Mine trying to heal Blanche’s condition while Addai’s focus was locked on Belial. Lydia’s stress level increased a little bit more.

"Hurry Lydia…" she muttered to herself and drew a pattern on the floor, where the leafy buddies gathered around it.

Lydia quickly took the small yellow bag from her belt and threw the seeds on the floor. Soon, what once were tiny leaves turned into a thick, vibrant vine – guided by her with a spell. Tieran cooed at the new gadget and clapped his hands, while two leafy buddies climbed his jumper.

Belial looked at Mine, her face turning pale. “Hey, little buddy… I don’t think I can follow you all…” she exhaled, feeling her body slowly give up. “Take Blanche and… I’ll do something here, I guess.”

Belial retracted her wings and uncovered Blanche, making way for them to take the woman. Addai carried Blanche like a bag of potatoes and looked at Mine, waiting for further instructions. Mine nodded at Lydia and Addai hesitated. Mine nodded again at Lydia and Addai sighed, heading to where Lydia and Tieran were.

“I’ll take you with us,” Mine crouched next to Belial. Her breathing was meek and her body was losing colors, but some of the bruises on her arms were slowly healing – which was a good sign. “Sleep a little bit, okay?” he smiled and reached for her forehead.

“Oi… little human…” Belial chuckled, feeling funny at the foreign mana running in her veins. “You’re not a human, right?”

Mine chuckled and grinned, “You’re right, just don’t punch me again.”

“Aw, man… I’m sorry for that,” Belial covered her face with her hand, embarrassed.

Mine chuckled and gently tapped Belial’s nose with his glowing fingers.

In the blink of an eye, Belial transformed into a dark, glassy sphere—about the size of a soccer ball.

A perfect spell, how lucky.

Holding Belial’s sphere, Mine approached the group. Lydia, noticing his approach, raised her eyes and smiled, “I found our exit with this little cutie’s aid,” she pinched Tieran’s cheek, whose tail waved joyfully. “Follow me,” she said proudly after taking the baby in her arms.

Beside Lydia, a mana screen floated in the air, looking like some kind of map.

As they walked, their surroundings were still unclear. Mine was as alert as Addai on the back, and Tieran was also wary. The tension in the air had to be endured because the exit was still far.

“What…?” Lydia gasped and interrupted her walk.

The mana screen glitched and turned off. Soon, many leady buddies came towards them. They were frightened, screeching while their little leafy arms were in the air, panicking. The long vine Lydia summoned earlier had withered and a few leafy buddies tried to make it go back, but they couldn’t succeed on the task.

A wave of noise surged toward them all at once—voices, clanging metal, grinding teeth, the beating of wings, and more.

It hit like an avalanche of sound, overwhelming and chaotic, flooding the air with too much to process.

Lydia's map turned on again and was full of red dots. The mana screen began to scream as did the little leafy buddies, which withered just like the vines.

Tieran began to growl, and his once fluffy tail became completely hardened and seemed to glow with an electric glow. The phenomenon on his gums also returned, and two fangs appeared while he was still growling in front of them.

“Oh God bless us...” Lydia prayed, holding Tieran tighter in her arms.

“Protect yourselves!” Mine shouted and stood behind them.

He started glowing, not his usual, but that could do some work. Activating the Chronos marks hurt as his core was still healing. Still, he conjured a few energy orbs to float around him and Addai. He was turning paler and paler, the cold sweat taking over his face and forehead.

When he was about to conjure the Chronos mask, Addai held his hand.

"Go," Addai led him to the rest of the group.

“What?! No! Stop acting like a superhero, you idiot!" Mine fumed.

When he tried stepping forward, Addai pushed him backward – while poor Lydia prayed for every God she knew.

“Go,” Addai insisted, stunning Mine's body with a spell.

Mine and Lydia didn’t know what kind of spell that was, but Addai ripped the air, and a portal was opened right there. Did it seem shady? Of course. Did it look very… suspicious? Hell yes. But Addai pushed them all inside it without telling a thing, as simple as that – and threw both Blanche and Belial’s sphere in it.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Mine shouted, grabbing Addai’s necklace and stopping him from pushing forward by planting a foot against the edge of the portal.

Addai’s hands were dark—Mine could see it even through the shadows—and his nails were unnervingly sharp.

His neck was marked with smudges and dark patches, almost like a massive, irregular blackout tattoo stretched across his skin.

And his eyes… oh, those eyes.

Mine had never seen them like that before.

They weren’t just unfamiliar—they were haunting.

Empty and shining, but what once was heterochromatic, now the colors succumbed to a vivid crimson.

Addai growled and ripped the necklace string with his claws. Mine barely had time to gasp.

Everything looked like it was going in slow motion.

Mine, in a desperate attempt to not fall into the portal, grabbed Addai’s hand. He felt the claws of his poking his soft skin, but he didn’t care. He looked at Addai, confused, mad, and worried, but all he got was Addai’s warm hand touching him and releasing his grip.

Mine fell in the portal, holding Addai’s necklace gem in his hands.

“I’ll be home soon,” Addai muttered, his voice deep and warm.

The portal then closed, followed by gruesome noises coming from it.