"Hello Emilia." - says the Demon. "I was expecting you."

Okay, this is crazy. I clearly remember yesterday wandering around the village and chatting with whoever I would see along the way. Everything was so simple; so orchestrated. I learned to control my impulses and calm myself in whatever scenario. But this is something completely out of the ordinary. And it has been happening one after the other. I mean, my team going batshit crazy and wanting fame for selfish reasons was the pinnacle, I thought. Maybe I just hit my had on one of the multiple trees I went through and now I'm just having a bizarre dream. Could be.

"I know how this must be for you." - continues the Demon.

"You don't know anything." - quickly replied Emilia.

"I can imagine this being illogical and irrational, and this is exactly why I chose you."

"Chose me? You chose me? What does that even mean?"

"I will gladly answer your question, but why don't we take a break first and let you gather your senses back."

"I am more than okay, and I would like you to keep going."

"I see. Will do then."

The next thing that happened was one of those things you see in books. The entire cave lit up and I didn't need the torch anymore. I threw it on the floor and waited for the next thing to do.

"So, where should we start? I believe I own you an apology first of all. I did not mean to fight any of you, and everything that happened was solely me defending myself. You have to understand that what you guys did was very impulsive. Not in a million ages, did I ever thought I would get to witness such a happening."

"I'll start off with a bit of a backstory. Your friend Vandal came to me one day, alone, and he tried telling me to surrender and give up on my place and a bloodshed wouldn't need to happen. He was sounding very delusional, like a schizophrenic. I told him to go away and never come back. And he apparently didn't take it well. My mistake was not realizing how powerful you guys were. I had to struggle quite a lot but I didn't wanna kill any of you. So that's why I did what I did."

"What did you do?" - interrupted Emilia.

"The moment you slashed me with your last attack" - continued The Devil. "I peeked through your soul and realized you were a pure one. You meant no harm and came there solely out of misinformation. That's how I 'chose' you. I knew this wouldn't sit well with you and I have been waiting for your arrival."

"I don't understand." - said Emilia.

"Me neither.." - replied The Devil. "That's why I want your help to infiltrate the kingdom and confront the Heroes. They probably have the answer to our questions. But I can't do it without you."

Emilia had come to a point where she had to think about everything that came at her. And even though, on normal circumstances, what the Devil told her would be total nonsense, she was really considering it. She took a second to think about all the occurrences that had been happening the past few weeks and to her disbelief, it made sense. The way the Heroes had been acting; the way Vandal had been acting; the statues; the "caring" talk. It was all an attempt to push her away. But why?

"Why is this all happening?" - asked Emilia finally.

"That is exactly what I don't know." - replied the Devil. "And I was hoping you would lend me a hand on this matter."

What could possibly go any worse?

"I would have never expected to say such a thing, but, let's do it. There's a secret passage on the east from the forest that we are currently in. If we take that route, we are pretty much unseen from anything else. But I remember Vandal telling me that he wanted to rebuild that into a watching position for any intruder so it's going to be tough to surpass that."

"Worry not." - said the Devil in a confident voice.

And out of blue the Devil became a.. Human. This is one of the things that I wanted to take the guy and just talk to him about. Like what he does for a living, is he really a bad guy, what powers does he have. But we didn't have time for all of that. We needed answers. Quickly.

"That will do!" - replied Emilia. "Let's get going then! - Also, I was wondering. What is your name?"

The Devil let out a chuckle.

"You can call me Lipe."

The path back to the castle was smoother than what Emilia had initially thought. What bothered her the most was that Lipe was not saying a single word the entire way. She knew that they were not friends by any means, and it was mainly a business inquiry. Yet again, she expected it to be more co-operative. It still was surreal to her what had just occurred, but at this point it was mostly a matter of death and life. She had a gut feeling that things were not gonna go crystal clear with the Heroes, yet a part of her really believed that.

The worst part about the journey was how much it lasted. Considering the last time, she had been invisible and gained the extra movement speed, this time around she was walking at a normal pace. People getting by did not seem to recognize her and she did not mind. Fame was something that Emilia never wanted; a normal life was all more than acceptable. But for a reason, she felt discredited but being merely noticed.

The forest was one of the most boring journeys she had been to. It was not as much as the place, it was all due to the fact that she wasn't having any conversation and the wait to resolve this situation dreaded her. With that being said, she was finally on the Kingdom. Where it all had started.

She quickly gave a look at Lipe and he was waiting to nod her back. Right as they were about to make their way to the castle they were stopped.

"Excuse me miss." - said a guard. "I have been waiting for your arrival for hours. The Heroes told me that I had to escort you back to Vastera."

"That's very appreciated from you and my teammates." - replied Emilia irritated. "But at the moment, I have matters to attend with the Heroes."

"I-I am sorry to interrupt you, but the Heroes made it clear to--"

"I don't care what the Heroes said. I have something I need to discuss with them. Right now. Would you happen to know where they are."

"But--"

"There's no but here. Who are you even defying? Do I perhaps have to remind you that I was one of the so called Heroes that saved this kingdom?"

"I am sorry, m'lady. You'll be able to meet the Heroes on the hall. They just got done with Lord Vekum and they should be gathering their strengths back."

"See, it was not so hard after all. Thank you."

"Uhmm, who's the guy following you?"

"That is -- that is my bodyguard. You can never be too sure for a figure like myself."

"You are right miss. I'll be waiting for your return then."

Emilia proceeded walking straight for the hall and payed no attention to what the guard had to say anymore. She had a mission. She felt a sort of enragement coming from within her that she couldn't explain. When she finally got to the door of the hall, she slammed it open.

"It's me again." - said Emilia.

This time around, they did not seem as surprised as the previous time. They were mostly wondering why a mere human was amongst them.

"Emilia, we can talk this out together." - said Vandal back.

"You do not need someone to protect you." - said Barus. In that exact same instant, a gigantic light filled the entire hall and when everyone came back from being blinded, they were completely in awe.

"Wha-what are you doing here?" - asked Anna shakily.

Barus had his eyes wide open. Meanwhile Vandal was kind of expecting it?

"What is going on?" - asked Barus after a long pause.

"That is exactly what I wanted to ask Vandal" - replied

Emilia.

"I-I told you that we would come after you. You should have listened and not fought against us." - said Vandal.

"Why are you doing this for?" - finally said Lipe.

"Why did you talk to the Devil beforehand and convinced us that he was evil?" - interrupted Emilia.

The look of shock did not leave the face of Barus and Anna.

"V-Vandal..?" - asked Anna.

"Are you really gonna believe what they are gonna say?" - replied Vandal. "The monster has brainwashed Emilia. That's why I wanted to send her away. So she could be healed. But she got taken in the dark side."

"You are delusional Vandal." - said Emilia. "I never thought that your greed for fame would make you go insane."

"BARUS, GET THEM!" - yelled Vandal angered.

Barus without a moment of hesitation tackled them. It was like seeing a chess piece getting moved by the game-master. Barus was one of those tanks where no matter what you through at them, it wouldn't get remotely close to scratch them. Emilia saw this thing when she was fighting with him against Lipe. No matter what Lipe threw at him, he would not break. This time around tho, Lipe rushed right back at him and got blown away. He immediately healed the wound and tackled him again. Rinse and repeat. Emilia was not understanding the strategy, but she saw Barus breathing heavily with each impact more and more. Anna didn't hesitate and started throwing fireballs at Lipe. Emilia was surprised since she did not know Anna possessed such powers. There was something that did not feel right though. Vandal was not present. The moment Emilia saw that, she got invisble and on alert. Behind Barus, Vandal was gathering his strength to send a giant storm wave towards them. Emilia did not waste time and jumped at Vandal, she had to stop him. Anna was on alert though, and had set up a shield around Vandal which deflected Emilia's attack. Anna had a lot of aces up her sleeve thought Emilia. Emilia thought that the best way to get at Vandal was to get rid of the two others first. She quickly prowled her way towards Anna and hit her right arm making her scream in pain. Anna did not know where to focus first and started panicking. She was not used to all of the multitasking.

The Barus and Lipe fight looked hopeless cause no result was being drawn from it. Barus had to switch focus and go help Anna out since Emilia was having the best of it. Emilia tried giving a powerful hit to Anna but Barus was fast to intersect her and blocking. That did not stop Anna from falling to the ground however. Vandal started cursing and muttering words. Barus got very angry and assaulted Emilia with a quick attack that Emilia did not see coming. She was still on her feet, blood coming out of her mouth. Lipe started healing Emilia back up.

"What can we do? This is not going well." - complained Barus.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY" - yelled Vandal.

It was something very fast. Like light speed. A moment you could see Vandal's angry face, and the other thing blindness. Emilia opened her eyes seeing the entire ceiling gone to pieces. Anna was completely unconcious and Barus was left in awe. There were guards coming from all the guy,

shocked as ever.

"What happened here, my lord?" - asked one of the guard.

But before he could properly finish the sentence, Vandal blew away his head with a movement of his finger. Vandal had reached a state that Emilia did not see before. He did not use this ability not even against Lipe. So this time around she was genuinely scared. She tried rushing at him, but she couldn't get close to him before getting pushed away by his movement. Emilia got up just to see Lipe close to her.

"Quickly, hold my hand Emilia." - said Lipe.

"What?" - replied Emilia.

"Just do so."

Emilia extended her hand and reached to Lipe's. As in an instant they beautifully merged together into one. The new entity that appeared from their fusion didn't have a face, neither clothes. It was just a liquid floating on air. Vandal did not seem to care as he progressed marching forward. This time around though, his projectiles were all ricocheting right as they made contact with the entity. Now, this is where Vandal got worried. He decided that it was now or never and he launched himself at them forming a tornado where the three of them were. It was hard to react to that,

but Lipe and Emilia were flawlessly dancing around the tornado. They understood that everything came from Vandal's hand. So they stopped the tornado, got invisible, and slashed Vandal's hands. One at a time. At that point, Vandal collapsed on the floor defeat.

Other guards came rushing but they were stopped from the ones that were already spectating. Barus understood how selfish Vandal had been and he was taking care of his loved one, Anna. Anna was still in a bad situation, since the blow from Emilia had left her damaged. Lipe got his name cleared and had gone back to it's place, living there peacefully. Vandal was taken to prison, where he would have time to take care of himself properly. And the kingdom thanked Emilia for fixing things up and offered her a high position on the royal guards.

Emilia had decided to decline that and go back to Vastera. She was the only place that made her feel like home. Before her departure from the kingdom, the King asked her is she knew what the name of the monster was. At everyone's surprise, Lipe meant "Unity".

So they were trying to kill the thing that kept their world going.