"Heah!"

She hurdled her lance once again, barely missing Lass and crushing the wall behind him. The entire room shook more than it ever did before, as crystals started to fall from the ceiling, forcing them both into maneuvering around them. What ended up afterwards was a sight both unique and terrifying. The crystals were beautifully laid around them in a peculiar pattern, mirroring their image throughout the room. They both looked around, only to see each other's image around every corner, as if they were standing side by side.

"What a god damn drag.", she scoffed.

"You still haven't answered me! Who really are you?", Lass slowly moved around the crystal maze.

"Refer to me as Enemy. That's the only thing you need to know, that's the only thing you need to call me."

"Oh, real nice, that answers just about every question I had in store."

"You're treating this as a game? Aren't you?", she started advancing through the maze.

"I don't even know you, how the hell could I have dealt such heavy pain to you?! You've clearly mistaken me for someone else."

"You piece of shit! Shut it!"

She swiftly traversed through the maze, found Lass, and landed massive, heavy punch onto his face, him not realizing a thing from the sheer speed of the action.

"What?! She's way stronger...", Mellistar echoed.

"You wanna take over then?!", Lass wiped the blood off his nose.

"Listen to me. She is among the most dangerous and volatile enemies you can ever come across. This is no joke, I've seen more than what she's capable of and she's not the least bit afraid to immediately go out, especially against...you. You have to run!"

"Not a chance. I can't run away with Anya in this state...and even if I were to run, she'd catch up to me for sure. Is she a Sentinel?!"

"No. And even if she was, she wouldn't be under the gods control. There's no sovereign region around here, and much like Magi, she's free to roam around and do whatever she wants. Furthermore, her power is unequaled and far above that of any beings I've come to know, especially those of mere Sentinels.", Mellistar said in a worried voice.

Another swift strike followed up on Lass's face, more cuts and bruises landing their mark from her metal gauntlet and more blood flowing out.

"Time's running out. Finally I get to see you willing...and helpless.", she echoed from within the maze.

"You clearly know a lot more about her, why won't you face her?!", Lass yelled at Mellistar.

"I...I can't...", Mellistar started to fade away.

"You're...afraid. Aren't you? I know that voice tone-wait! Don't sleep the one time I need you, you moron!"

As Mellistar faded away, Enemy, as she chose to be pronounced, placed herself right behind Lass, fixing her stance for a finishing thrust...

"You're done. Checkmate!", she jumped at him.

"Screw it...come on!", Lass turned around.

In a split moment, Lass focused all his remaining strength inside him. The result was a massive Obsulyte surge within his body, which he forcefully pushed outside, causing a massive explosion that broke every single crystal in the room, blasting Enemy away to the wall ahead. Not losing her focus, Enemy landed feed first to the wall, controlling her flight and summersaulting back to the ground, as if nothing had happened.

"Finally, this is getting interesting. For your ass, you'd sacrifice everything anyway. Huh?", she looked away from Lass.

As she gazed at Lass, preparing her next attack, she widened her stance and saw an injured Anya, motionless on the ground. As she turned to face her, for the first time, even through Lass's nightmares, a slight look of surprise was put on her face...

"What? This is your driving force? Huh...there's no way.", she looked back at lass. "Tsk. I refuse to believe it!", she charged at Lass.

"Come on!", Lass dropped his sword and fearlessly grabbed the edge of Enemy's lance. "I'm gonna kick your ass!", Lass reached for her head with Anya's weapon on his other hand.

"Hnnp!", Enemy tilt her head, barely avoiding the slash. "Close."

Enemy then stopped holding her thrusting stance. She lift both her feet off the ground, placing one on Lass's side and lifting the other off the ground, all while firmly holding on her lance. What followed was a powerful blast coming from the tip of her lance, which send Lass flying backwards, crushing into the wall and creating cracks on it, while Enemy softly flew a little bit backwards at an upward angle.

She flipped and landed back on her feet, regaining her stance and lifting her lance up. She shook her lance up, as two things looking like crystallized shells dropped from it. She then lowered her lance to her side, and started walking towards Lass.

"You really thought you going berserk and blasting with energy was going to save you?", she walked towards Lass.

Lass was kneeling in front of her, barely holding on.

"No...but this will."

A rock dropped right between Lass and Enemy, as numerous others started to collapse around them.

"What?!", she looked around. "You sly piece of shit!", she tried to finish Lass off, breaking the rock between them.

Despite her breaking the rock, Lass was already gone from behind it, having rushed right back to Anya, lifting her up in his arms. Regaining her composure, Enemy simply looked over the shoulder at Lass, the room around her collapsing.

"This isn't over. You know that, right?"

"Watch me. This is just the beginning." he boldly answered back.

Afterwards, Lass dashed outside the room, Anya in his arms, and weapons in their seethes, all while taking a glance back to see the entire dungeon collapsing on top of Enemy. He dared not go back, because he had more pressing matters at hand.

Coming outside the back of the dungeon, he settled Anya down at the rock-side. He desperately tried to find a way to get her back up and standing.

"Come on, mutt! Get up!", he looked around to patch her wounds.

He then noticed a very peculiar book being held on to by her.

"What the...what is thi-eh?!", Lass tried to open the book.

The book flew out of his hands and started flipping its pages, and coming to a sudden close. Then out of nowhere.

"Whew! Man that was a ride and a half! Oh, hello! Are you my new master?", the book spoke.

"You know, in a neo-age where we managed to combine guns with swords, magic with boarder-line flying cars and horses...the book is talking now. I'll take it, this is the least of my troubles now.", Lass said with a straight face, going back to Anya.

"Um...I'm not sure what happened. I don't know what age this is, but if it helps, I can give you an infinite amount of knowledge based on what I already have, master!", the book happily spoke.

"I don't want any knowledge! I just want to save my friend...if anything, she is your owner, not me!"

"Ah, I see, I see. Ok...her wounds are severe, but not fatal. They will require treatment from an expert, for sure."

"What can I do now? I can't carry her back to Risa-chan...my body itself is giving in after all this..."

"If I may...there is a certain...curse I can apply to her. It will perk her up almost immediately but..."

"Do it! I don't care what it is, just don't leave her like this."

"It's dark magic, there's a lot of side eff-", Lass stopped it.

"Just do it already!"

"I mean...ok.", the book flew onto Anya.

In a flash, the book began chanting on top of Anya. Her wounds seemed to fade away, as her body went back to normal...somewhat normal.

"Alright, I'm done!", the book flew away.

"O-Oh...oh...that's a...", Lass took on a surprised look in his face, "That's uh...furrier than I thought."

"I did warn you about the side effects..."

"God...dammit.", Anya got up. "Am I still hang over or is my head detached from my body?"

"H-Hey Anya. How are you...feeling?", Lass worryingly said.

"I've been better. But at least we survived! So, where's that relic I picked up before getting smacked to the wall?"

"Right here, new master! I'm ready to be of service!"

"Ah, a talkative one.", Anya looked around. "So, where's Risa? Need to thank her for the healing!"

"Uh...she didn't do the healing. This did.", Lass pointed at the book. "Given how we're both still alive, Risa would have probably killed us after we told her what we did."

"A healing book relic. Now that is extremely interesting. Anyway, we may need-", Anya felt her injured shoulder, "Wait...what? Wait-", she looked at her hand, "What?", she looked at her tail, "What?! What the hell?! I-I uh-what?! What's happening?! Mirror! Mirror now!"

"Here you go, master!", the book flipped its pages into a mirror.

A long pause happened right after, as Anya and Lass both dared not to speak a word, before said silence was broken by the book.

"So...are you done, master?"

Anya touched her face and inhaled a long breath.

"What the fu-"

An extremely loud shout came from Anya, as Lass covered his ears and birds with wildlife around rushed to the opposite direction.

"What's happening?! What is this?! Who am I?! What am I?!"

"Mutt, calm down-", Lass was stopped by Anya.

"No, piss off! Look at me! No-no-no, there must be a mistake here...I'm dreaming! I'm still knock down cold or drunk or both! No-no, I'm high! Yes, that's it, there was something in my drink and I'm under the influence! I got it!"

"Nope, your vitals are a hundred percent healthy and this is reality, master!", the book happily answered.

"You're not helping.", Lass whispered.

"What did you shitheads do?!"

"Well...you were injured badly, and so am I. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to carry you back to Risa-chan for healing so..."

"So we decided to recover you back to full health with dark magic!"

"Recover?! What kind of piss poor version of recovery is this?! Hello, I'm a furry monster! Look at this mister, no skin, a god damn snout and just fur all around my body. I'm Wolven, not this!"

"Well...technically you are Wolven still. The spell I used enchanted your bodies natural healing abilities, but the downside is that it also enchanted the...instincts, so to speak. You basically unraveled your most truest form, which is a pure Wolven...you must be from a noble, alpha bloodline master!"

"Please tell me I'm high.", Anya sat down with her hands on her head.

"I wish.", Lass sighed.

"Tell me how to fix this, you piece of shit!", Anya pointed at the book.

"Master, I understand your mental state right now, but you must realize that it was either your life or this..."

"Kill me!"

"That's not how it goes, mutt! You realize what heart attack you gave me when I saw you motionless and bleeding on the ground?! God damn idiot, I told you not to go into this place! The only thing we got out of it was our asses kicked!"

Anya lowered her head, tightening the grip of her hands on it, "It's all my fault, I know. The only thing I wanted out of this dungeon was that love potion...I seriously just wanted to see what would happen between you and Risa once you were true to each other. I-I...I...", tears started rolling down her face.

Lass sad down next to Anya. "It's ok. I swear...thanks for trying that but...natural would be the best way to go about this. It's partially my fault too...if I had just held on a little longer and carried you back to Risa..."

"No...you did enough as is. Were it not for you, I'd be dead anyway. And now, just because of my stupid childish behavior...", she started crying, "I have to live the rest of my days like an abomination?!"

Lass got up and forced Anya's hands off her face.

"Shut it! Furry or not, you're still my friend, got that?! We will figure something out...but until we do, I don't care if you're a human mutt or a furry mutt! We're moving on!"

"Big guy...I...thank you.", Anya got up and hugged Lass, lifting him off the ground.

A short moment of silence followed again, as Lass hugged his now massive friend, tears rolling down her face, this time not from sadness, but from happiness.

"Actually...there is a possibility that you can return to normal. It's a double edged dark magic spell, that enables you to recover, but brings your true nature after it. Said nature can be tamed, if you also tame the beast bounded to you...", the book said.

"What the hell does that even mean?", Lass answered back.

"I really don't know...there's no records of someone ever using this spell and recovering the curse..."

Anya sighed. "Like the big...small guy said. We will figure it out."

"Switching my nickname now?"

"I was already taller than you anyway.", Anya smirked, "Not much changed now."

"At least you're back to being you. Rather quickly too.", Lass folded his arms.

"Gotta thank you for that too. But let's call it even. You saved my ass, but turned me into a monster. Fair enough, right?"

"Fine. Let's call it even, forgetting who got us into this mess in the first place."

"You lost that game of cards fair and square."

Lass sighed. "I'll gloss over this. Anyway...who are you?", Lass looked at the floating book.

"My name is Omniconneversamationedex! But you can call me Omni! I'm a masterpiece created by a now deceased alchemist, made specifically for the purpose of recording and using every single piece of knowledge existed! Everything ever written down on a piece of paper or digital surface is also recorded within me...in fact, ever since my reawakening, I've already began collecting information I missed during my slumber!"

"I think I heard about that. Your owner was a previous champion, right?"

"Correct! Marilena De Filicio Fenel! After her passing, her legendary Goliath known as Dismel, which was the last of his kind, got corrupted. The reason is unknown, but I was stolen by him and was led into a deep slumber when he sealed me away into his core. Thanks to you defeating him, I'm now at your service as my new owners! All as instructed by my previous master!"

"This thing is gonna give me a headache. Well, my name is Anya. Anya Golver."

"Yep, I know! I've already taken hold of the Reingard citizen records. The famous daughter of Gado Golver and holder of both the Golver Industries and Knight of Knights champion role! Recently disappeared after making a scene at the gathering of the Reingard royal palace. Or more specifically, you went your own way after finally admitting to your discomfort for your fathers actions in forcing you to take over the family business, instead of following your own dreams!"

"That's...insanely fast and insanely accurate. Where did you get the info on the last part?"

"Off your personal diary, master!"

"Listen here you little shit.", Anya grabbed Omni.

"I-I assure you master, it was all in good faith! Everything is safe with me! If anyone asks me anything personal, I'll never tell! I'm not an open book, promise!"

"This is giving me a headache.", Anya grabbed her head.

"Possible medications to treat headaches are-", Omni got stopped by Anya.

"Silence. Ok since I'm your master, you'll obey my orders, correct?"

"Yeap!"

"Good. From now on, you'll hang around my belt and only come out once I truly need your help, as to avoid meaningless blabbering, which I can see you're annoyingly good at. Got it?"

"Y-Yes master! I'm always by your side, ready to help!", Omni closed itself and got attached to Anya's belt.

"This is an interesting one to have.", Lass said.

"I know...we will figure it out soon. For now, let's head back. It's gonna be morning soon."

"You got it. I need Risa to help fix my wounds too."

"You actually seem rather fine. Golem fight aside, even from the fall..."

"Eh, I manage. But I still won't leave it untreated."

"Yeah, for sure. Let's get going."

And as they both finished gathering themselves, the king way back to the camp started. Dawn behind their backs, they slowly made their way to their friends...but.

"Oh...uh, mutt?"

"Yeah?"

"You're a big furry monster and I'm bleeding head to toe..."

"Uh...yea. We are. What's new?"

"How do we explain this to Risa."

A small pause came from the two before they ascended from the meadow's hills to the campsite.

"Uh-oh...", they both sighed.