Marty dropped us just outside the demon territory. We have a few days worth of food and Marty warned us to move quickly. This could be a nice break. Going from holy knights and colossals to just regur demons is a nice change. I also don't have to hear Frank's whines anymore, it was starting to piss me off.

  There's a rge wall at the border, much like the giant territory's. The only difference with this one, is a ck of a line. There's only three people before us, and two of them are bandits. The other person has shackles on their neck and hands. Must be a sve, it's sad to see people being treated like that.

  We reach security, it's a rge group of soldiers. They check our belongings, I'm guessing for magical items. One of the guards takes me to the side. He touches at my neckce.

  "This must've been expensive." The soldier says.

  "No, it was quite cheap actually." Just took beheading a guy...

  It's better to lie, especially to these guys. For all I know, they're apart of those bandits sve trading too. This guy specifically gives me the creeps. While all the other soldiers are rge men, he's smaller. He's one of the few people that use a bow here. I've only ever seen one other person even touch a bow, and that was Frank. Safe to say, don't trust bow users.

  "I have one just like it y'know." The guard tells me.

  He picks at his neck and grabs a small neckce. He holds it out and shows me it. Could this guy have the third talisman? He stares at me for a second. His eyes kind of freak me out, they give me a strange feeling.

  "You're free to go..." The guard says, "I hope we can meet again."

  He takes me back to the wall entrance. Another guard writes something down and sends us through. The air gets warmer almost immediately. The grass is a dark red, heads are scattered around the area. The bandits from earlier are kicking one of them around. Their sve is ying on the ground, there's a rge bruise on their face. It smells terrible, almost like rotting flesh. Dead trees are scattered around the fields. They looks even worse than the ones that pgue the orc territories.

  As we walk away I catch the guard from before staring at me. He has a creepy grin on his face, almost like he's trying to seduce me. The bandits are done pying football with the heads and they walk off. I almost want to follow them. It's just... Seeing them treat people like that... It pisses me off!

  "Why is that guard staring at you?" Pyra asks me.

  "We have simir neckces..." I chuckle.

  "Weirdo! I'd bet he's just another bandit." Pyra says.

  She's not wrong... There's no way he isn't a bandit. We walk along a small dirt path for a while. There aren't many maps for the demon territory. We'll have to wish ours is accurate. There's a small vilge named Ringe nearby. It should be just a few days, and there's even a little tourist stop along the way. It's a rge tower, called the tower of mirrors. I do wonder why the demon territory would have a pce for tourists. Maybe Marty was just exaggerating.

  "I was thinking we could stop here." I show Pyra the map and point towards the tower.

  "I'm fine with that." She shrugs.

  I show the map to Cole and point back at the tower. He stares at it for a second.

  "We shouldn't go there..." Cole tells me.

  "Why not?" I chuckle.

  "I've been there... It's no good." Cole says.

  He turns away from me and cracks his neck. He stretches his arms and looks back down at me.

  "A demon lives there anyways. I don't want to deal with that, especially on what's supposed to be a small detour." Cole tells me.

  I never told them why we're here did I? I don't know if they'd want to save somebody they don't know, let alone somebody that tried to kill me. It may be better to just... Bring it up naturally.

  We reach a cross road, the map tells us to go left. A loud bang comes from the right path. There's a small forest there. A huge cloud of smoke covers the sky above the forest. More loud bangs come from the area. A small man bursts out of the forest and in front of us. Another man comes from inside of the forest, they're much rger than the other. The two men run at each other, they both reel their arms back. The smaller one punches the other man, causing his head to completely explode.

  The small man has dark green hair and light green skin. He stands over the others decapitated body.

  "I knew your blood was pretty! I'm so jealous..." The man says.

  He wipes the blood off of his chest with his finger and licks it. He grabs the sides of face and crumples to his knees.

  "The taste! The color! You're the definition of beauty!" The man excims.

  I step in front of the others. Who is this guy? Why is he acting like this guys blood is a delicacy! This guy won't hurt them! I'll kil him if he tries anything. He slowly turns over to us. He stares for a second before stumbling to his feet. He wipes off his shirt and pants. He clears his throat.

  "Cole! I've was waiting for you." He says.

  "Envy? It's been forever!" Cole says.

  "You've gotten big, I'm quite jealous." Envy says.

  Envy huh? Isn't that a sin? Why would somebody purposefully name their child after that. How does Cole know this guy anyway?

  "You've just gotten smaller." Cole chuckles, "Were you waiting for me this entire time?"

  "No no. I heard you were nearby, so I was waiting for you here." Envy tells him.

  He looks over at us. His hand pulls over his mouth.

  "Are these your friends? They seem... Nice." Envy says, "Anyways! The others might like to see you. We have a few new members."

  "New means dead... Who'd the boss kill?" Cole asks.

  Envy looks down at the ground. He pulls out a small knife from his pocket.

  "Me, Lust, and Wrath are the only ones left... Hades got angry after your transformation." Envy tells Cole, "Maybe you could convince him to heal them! He'd do anything if he knew you were back!"

  "I'm not here to stay this time... It's just a small visit." Cole tells him.

  A ringing sound comes from nearby, then a small zip. An arrow pierces Envy's chest. He looks down at the arrow. A small piece of paper is stuck to the arrow. Envy grabs the paper and examines it.

  "A bounty poster?" Envy says.

  Envy looks over at me. He drops the paper and shrugs his shoulders.

  "This isn't enough for me! Who ever sent this must not know who I am!" He says through his teeth.

  He stomps on the poster a little bit. He looks back over at Cole. A quiet ringing noise comes from Envy. He grabs his ear and nods.

  "Lord Hades needs me. Come see us Cole, please." Envy says.

  He steps back and gets flung into the air. He flies out of view before a rge bst of mana comes from his location. Cole picks up the paper Envy dropped. Cole gives the paper over to me. It's the same poster Frank had. Why would somebody shoot this at Envy? Who even is Envy? It seems Cole isn't telling us everything he knows...

  "Shall we continue?" Cole asks us.

  Hilt grabs Cole's wrist as he's walking away. Cole looks back down at her.

  "What the hell was that!" Hilt says.

  "He was an old friend." Cole shrugs.

  "So your friends with the sins? You have connections with Hades, god of hell? Those are your old friends." Hilt says.

  Coles pushes Hilt off of him. He rubs his wrist.

  "My past has nothing to do with you elf! I chose to travel with you, and all you want to do is kill me!" Coles shouts.

  I run in between the two.

  "Hilt! Stop it, we have other things to worry about!" I say.

  "Like what? It's not like we're on a mission. I'm not in any particur hurry." Hilt says.

  "I'm just saying... We're a team here, not enemies." I tell her.

  "Sure we are... Killing innocents really screams 'hero.'" Hilt says.

  She steps back and sits down on the ground.

  "Let's just go. We can talk about this Ringe." I tell them.

  "Fine." Hilt pouts.