“Felix, come on!” Cole yelled, becoming incredibly frightened, “I swear I’m not your enemy, man!”

“We should give him a chance to explain himself.” Azula hesitantly said, “He could be telling the truth.”

“You’re wrong, Azula!” Felix angrily replied, “Someone like you wouldn’t understand what demons are capable of… the things they’ve done to people like me... how they ransacked our homes.”

Having already readied his next attack, Felix ignored their pleas, swinging his sword at Cole’s neck. Unable to dodge, Cole turned away and closed his eyes. A sharp coldness quickly spread from his shoulder, making his hands shake even more.

Cole heard a loud cracking sound, followed by a firm tap against his neck. Is this really what dying feels like?

Cole slowly reopened his eyes. Felix still stood before him, his expression even more irritated than before. His less than pristine sword now had a growing mass of ice on it, slowly extending across its blade.

“What’d you do?” Felix asked, now pointing his sword at Lucy. “Do you really want to get hurt defending a demon?

“I’d worry about yourself,” Lucy replied, tapping part of the ice on Felix’s sword.

The mass of ice began to rapidly increase the speed at which it was engulfing Felix’s sword. As it reached the sword’s hilt, Felix was forced to drop his weapon. Felix glared at Cole as if he was about to burst.

Lucy’s hand was placed where Cole initially felt the chill that had suddenly gone through him. Her overall posture had changed completely, with her other arm now propped on her leg and her hand facing Felix. As it finished forming before Cole’s eyes, Lucy pointed a sharp projectile of ice at Felix.

Instead of returning Felix’s glare, Lucy’s gaze returned to Cole.

“Well, thanks for the assist, Lucy.”

Cole tried to sound grateful; Afterall, Lucy had just saved him from certain death. However, Lucy’s unwaveringly neutral expression had begun to give Cole a bad feeling. The last friendship he made didn’t exactly end well.

As Cole and Lucy continued to look at each other in silence, Felix took the opportunity to reach for his sword.

Fwoosh.

The shard of ice shot from Lucy’s hand, nicking Felix’s cheek. Cole could see a short stream of red blood flow out from the wound, confirming his suspicion. The reason Felix wanted to kill him was his purple blood.

The shard that shot from Lucy’s hand was immediately replaced, once more trained at Felix.

“Did you have a plan?” Lucy asked, ignoring Felix entirely.

“For what?” Cole replied.

“A plan to get out of here.”

“Ah,” Cole said, “I think I know about as much as everyone else.”

“Then we’ll have to keep waiting.” Lucy sighed, waving a finger at Felix. “Be good.”

Lucy let the shard in her hand fade away, seemingly ready to let things stand as they were. Not wanting to stay near Felix any longer, Cole wracked his brain for a way out. Felix didn’t seem like he planned to attack immediately, so Cole reexamined the room. As he came across the large sculpture, Cole looked down at the inscription below it. It looks the same… maybe it is.

“Actually,” Cole said, pointing towards the sculpture, “My plan's to head over there. I’m pretty sure it could be the way out of here.”

“Hmm.” Lucy mused, examining the wall he pointed at. “I already tried that. There's nothing over there.”

"But you didn't try it with me." Cole awkward joked, slowly inching away from Felix, who was still staring at Cole with a frightening intensity.

"Ah," Lucy replied, "since we need a partner for the first tier, you're saying a portal might open now."

"Uh, sure."

Lucy pushed herself off the ground and brushed off her pants. As she did, a thin metal tag fell out from beneath her shirt. This tag dangled from a flimsy-looking chain necklace. Felix’s stare wavered as he saw it, and his posture became less tense. Using the arm previously directed at Felix, Lucy bent down towards Cole, extending a helping hand.

While he couldn’t pin down her motive, Cole had no reason to distrust Lucy outside his newfound paranoia. Cole accepted Lucy’s hand. Before he knew it, they were casually walking to his recommended destination. The people who’d been watching from the other side of the room spoke among themselves, continuing to keep their distance. Cole and Lucy slowly began to gain distance from Felix.

“Why are you helping a demon?” Felix loudly asked.

Moments passed as Cole and Lucy continued towards the inscription. Unlike Lucy, Cole had trouble filtering Felix out. Even if he could, Cole was wondering the same thing himself. Why would Lucy make enemies for his sake? There had to be a motive behind it.

“Why would a platinum adventurer help him?” Felix shouted.

Cole inspected Lucy’s face, trying to gauge her reaction. While he had no clue where “platinum” fit in this world's hierarchy of adventurers, he could make an educated guess based on Felix’s reaction.

“It was the right thing to do,” Lucy replied, smiling reassuringly.

Cole’s paranoia began to fade. Even if everyone else wanted him gone, he was glad there was at least one person who cared enough to stand up for him. If Lucy turned out to be what this world considered ‘evil,’ Cole didn’t think he’d mind.

Turning his attention back towards Felix, Cole saw him eyeing his frozen sword. At that moment, Felix made his decision. Reaching down to his sword, Felix grabbed it by its frozen hilt. A flash of pain appeared on Felix's face, his lip curling slightly, but he didn't drop the blade. Bending his legs and leaning forward, Felix aimed himself towards Lucy and Cole. What’s he planning to do?

“That’s not good,” Lucy said, stopping to meet Felix’s gaze. Cole stopped moving as well, seeing Lucy raise her hand towards Felix. Cole looked back towards the inscription they were headed toward. Roughly ten meters away, Cole and Lucy were in the home stretch.

Do we really need to do this? Cole asked himself. At the end of the day, Felix was only doing what he thought was right. Cole knew nothing of his world. Who was he to judge? It’d be helpful if… wait, where’s Azula?

Cole swung his head back and forth but couldn’t locate Azula. She’d disappeared into thin air. Cole had hoped she could have helped ease the situation, but that now seemed even more unlikely.

Cole turned around, grabbing Lucy's right arm with his left, and began to run towards where he assumed a portal would appear. Surprisingly, Cole felt no resistance when pulling Lucy along and turned to see her trustingly running alongside him.

He wanted to keep moving away from Felix, hopefully keeping everyone uninjured in the process. Suddenly, as Cole and Lucy ran closer to the inscription, it began to glow purple, forming a portal over four times larger than the last.

Yes! Cole happily thought. It had been a rough start, but Cole would finally be able to make his start in this new world. As Cole and Lucy got within a few meters of the portal, Cole felt another chill. Emanating from Lucy’s arm, the coldness rapidly moved up his hand, through his arm, down his torso, and throughout his right leg.

Thwump.

Cole felt a slight sting in his lower leg, making him stagger forward as he ran. Looking down as he continued to run forward, Cole saw an arrow stuck to his calf. Unlike Felix’s attack, the arrow sticking out of him managed to penetrate deeper into the ice, making him bleed a little. Cole didn’t have to think too hard as to who had attacked him, considering Azula’s sudden disappearance. He turned to Lucy, seeing she had slowed slightly to match his new pace.

“Thanks again,” Cole said appreciatively.

“Hmm,” Lucy responded, not paying attention to what Cole was saying.

Cole looked at Lucy’s face to see her staring intently at the portal, seemingly confused by its appearance. Before Lucy could continue speaking, Cole heard a faint sound behind them. Cole turned his head further back, intending to check on Felix. However, after only turning his head slightly, he saw a figure in his peripheral vision. Felix had managed to close the gap between them in less than a second. As Cole watched helplessly, Felix struck Lucy with his icy sword, easily cutting through her torso.