Luscious green hills swept by the window’s of the carriage at an insane rate. Franker’s men marched with a certain urgency on the horses surrounding his carriage. Inside the carriage, Franker and his two guests sat quietly as the hills became even more of a blur. Franker had a clean black blazer on and a vest and pants to match. Though the man in the carriage was larger than most men, he dressed as if on a mission of diplomacy rather than war. Lorna and her mother held each other inside the carriage. The woman parted her lips slightly to speak and the general interrupted her. “Your name is Crescinthia Bloom is it not?” Franker waited for a response as the woman loosened the grip on her daughter Lorna.

“My name is Crescinthia. How do I know you? The woman squinted as if trying to the see the huge man as someone else. Franker brushes his curly sideburns while he states a simple retort. “The town records have picture ids on everyone. I know that your name is Crescinthia Lotus Bloom. Your occupation is a clerk at the Peach front store. Your daughter’s name is Lorna Thorn Bloom. Though you two have residency in Central Lavi your hometown is East Lavi. Franker Moon’s face turns pale as he finishes that sentence.

“There is an uprising of sorts in the east. I want to know exactly what my men are marching into. Franker Moon taps on the hilt of a dagger on his belt as he stares at the woman and child.

“How should I know what they have there? I haven’t been there since I was a small child. Crescinthia clutches her child again. “Why don’t you just leave our country alone, you monster!” That remark caused Franker Moon to unsheathe his blade and point it at little Lorna! “You haven’t seen a monster yet woman!” General Moon did not blink at all waiting for the woman’s response.

“Wait. Wait. I’ll do whatever I can to help you.” Crescinthia sobbed on her daughter’s shoulder as Franker sheathed his sword again. Lorna just sat there mesmerized by the blurring country side as her mother sobbed on her shoulders.

‘What kind of weaponry and defense does East Lavi Sorraha have?”, Moon awaited an answer from the sobbing woman. “At the main gates there are cannon turrets, three of them. The woman grips her daughter’s wrist through the shackles as if checking for a pulse. Franker doesn’t notice this and continues with the questions. “Through the gates woman...Through the gates what are there numbers and what kinds of defense do they have?” Crescinthia leans in and sobs. “There are 1400 of them all wearing special...” the woman’s voice trails off and Franker leans in to hear the sobbing women’s claims. Crescinthia’s shackles shatter as do her daughters. A bright flash fills the carriage knocking the general back into his seat. When the light disperses and Franker looks around, he sees that the mother and child have disappeared into thin air.

On the scorched rye fields of Mis Le Mis, Lake’s tired body moved as fast as possible towards the Information Capitol AB. The wounded Voih’s bleeding had stopped thanks to Lake’s make shift stitching of the wound. Every muscle in his legs ached from the speed he was going and the extra load of the dying man on his back.

He ran for about twenty minutes straight before he himself collapsed from thirst and exhaustion. In Lake’s delirious condition he watched as men in a medical caravan scooped Voih up on a gurney and rode off.

Hours go by as Lake lay there zoning in and out of consciousness. At times he awoke for a few moments and crawled across the hot fields towards AB. He kept that up for a while actually moving about twenty feet every hour. The caravan of doctors that assisted Voih, obviously didn’t care whether he lived or died and this made the pink barbarian boiling mad. His state of delusion escalated for an instant as he imaged that the Green Wizard Vosce was still controlling him. Eventually Lake Rivers gave up fighting his body’s natural instincts and curled up in the fetal position and went to sleep.

After Lake’s final descent into unconsciousness, another caravan arrives and picks Lake up. The group of men seemed to be carrying rifles this time. They put shackles on Lake Rivers and place him on a gurney as well. The riflemen take the pink barbarian into custody and head back towards AB.

Norte watched as the man named Ted put together the second of two ramshackle devices.
Norte looks down the corridor where he’d heard Ryhasola scream and his stomach turned a little. The boy held back his objections against waiting to strike and waited patiently as the Thygearist put the finishing touches on his devices.

Ted extends a hand out towards Norte. ”Take this. "The demons won’t be able to do any physical harm to you as long as you wear that.” Ted slipped the torch into a slot he had created in the other metal device and gripped it in his hand. In his other hand, the Thygearist pulled out his huge hand cannon and motioned for Norte to follow him.

The faster the moved through the marble hallway, the more bloodied the room became. As they reached the end of the passage, the looming tunnel opened up into a giant underground hallway with many separate pathways.

The walls were soaked in fresh blood and the ceilings dripped with it as well. “Papa. Ryhasola!” Norte's frantic screams went unanswered as Ted Copper walked towards the puddle of blood in the middle of the room. “This isn’t human blood”, Copper stated this after scraping some of it up with a thin shard of metal. “This is a trap for a demon though.”

The torch on Ted Copper’s device flickered as he looked around with very frightened eyes. “Norte, get out of here! Backtrack one of these tunnels to your father and get as far away from Vosce as you can. The young boy paused as if doing a quick mathematic equation and then disappeared through one of the many doorways.

Ted Copper Steelman arms stretched yells in an aggravated manner. “I thought I finished you back at the garden. Come out already.” Thousands of black snakes slither out from all the entrances and congregate in the center of the main hall. Ted fires a few cannon shots at the gathering to no avail. The snakes perform a stacking procedure that was almost ritualistic in appearance. Copper backs up and watches in disbelieve as the snakes melt into a humanoid form.

The dark scaled ungodly thing fashions a thin sword from more melted snakes and aims it at Ted Copper. “Oh I get it. You want my soul. Well you can’t have it. I gave it up a long time ago demon.’ Ted dodges a razor sharp swing and fires his hand cannon at the beast.
The huge minotaur like creature swings his blade wildly, tearing through the blood-soaked marble walls all around.

The Thygearist has his hand cannon swatted away by the monster’s tail and slides across the bloodied floor to get it back. The demon uses this as an opportunity and corners him.
“You can’t speak until you extract a human soul correct?”, Ted converses with the monster trying to stall until he can reach his gun. “You know it’s a shame that a low level demon like you has to feed on other demons to stay alive. What a worthless being you turned out to be...huh!?”

This infuriates the ambiguous humanoid shape so much that it screams some incoherent thing. Ted gets his hand on the weapon and uses his torch device to ignite a huge fireball in the monster’s line of sight. The Thygearist rolls out of the corner and aims his cannon at the back of the hulking figure. ‘You know it took me years of running from your kind that I finally realized an easy way to defeat you.” Ted’s cannon opened up and started to suck back in the flame. The vacuum pulled the flame as well as the black hulking mass of demon too! After that the rest of the loose snakes slithered off and the hand cannon closed. Ted Copper Steelman was alone once again as he finished his thought. “The only way to destroy Demoni is...containment.

Norte winded up in another cramped dark crawl space. He moved with less fear now feeling less terrified holding Ted’s gift around his neck. He pulled out his cracked calculator and began his statistical probability of his survival by firelight.

“You’re such a young and beautiful boy.”, A woman’s voice echoed from around the way. Norte ran through the passage in utter horror trying to find the source and in a few more moments he’d reached the exit.

Ryhasola was leaning against a huge stone pillar motionless. The room Norte was in this time was significantly bigger that the one that Ted was in. The floor was cobblestone and the walls were laced with metallic gold leaf and there were only two doors.

“Ryhasola. Are you alright?”, Norte ran to the woman’s aid and when dropped to the floor to check on her the laughing woman’s voice sauntered through the walls. “The little harlot tried to put up a fight, but she never really stood a chance.” Norte rolled Ryhasola over and saw her lifeless expression. Hugging her lifeless body close, Norte let out a scream that echoed throughout the entire waterway.

“Show yourself. Norte grabbed Ryhasola’s legs and got her and him against a wall. The floor quaked and then cracked. The center of the room’s floor gave way and collapsed into the dark abyss. Norte held onto Ryhasola’s body as the hole became bigger and bigger. The walls turn gray and moist rotting hands oozed through the cobblestone groping and slapping Norte into even a more terrified state. The hands grope and push Norte even more as the hole widens and Ryhasola starts to slip into the floor.

“Are you in love with her? The women’s voice echoed right in front of Norte now. Closing his eyes the terrified boy lays over Ryhasola and pulls her back against the wall again. A shapeless mass appears in front of the young Adder. It had the face and body of Ryhasola but the eyes were glowing red.

“You can’t hurt me. You can’t hurt me because I have this! The beautiful crazed apparition swats Ted’s gift into the abyss. Norte looks down into the nothingness and back into the misting figure in front of him. The hands behind Norte start pushing stronger now and Ryhasola almost falls in again. Norte takes a blind swing at the ghost and his fists meet air as begins to fall in to.

“Norte!’, A man’s voice cries out across the hallowed hall and a broadsword flies out shortly after. It strikes the female specter and she disappears immediately. The hands sink back into the cobblestone wall and the hole in the floor mends as if part of some illusion.
The man at the other end of the room stood in the doorway, watching the young Adder with the dead woman in his arms.

“Son.”, A bloodied Master Adder hung his head in sorrow. “This was not in my calculations.” Norte’s eyes fill up with tears.