Spirits of the Earth

"God damn, this heat is going to murder me if i dont get a move on," Excanos grunted as he started to awaken from his unnecessarily long nap in the canopy of a manola tree.
He proceeded to climb down the tree and continue onto this make shift path that would lead him somewhere with something to drink. It was about midday when he started back on the path, now it was almost sunset with not a single lifeform to be seen, hallucinations began to kick in after not properly finding a water source for 2 days. Hey, that looks like the gate to hell i opened up as a kid, maybe it has a place where i can drink. And just as the he passed through the "gate", he immediately passed out.
"Make sure to apply the wet towel to his forhead, he needs to stay cool in this heat."
"I'm aware mother! Go tend to the drunks downstairs before they break another table like last time , i have this under control"
What in my father's name are those voices? I could've sworn I was dead by now
Excanos opened his eye to see a girl, about his age, tending to him, he also was covered from neck down in a floating bubble of water that flowed serenely about him. He noticed that his mother's robes were hanging on a hook on the back of the door along with the family katana. He also noticed he had undergarments on when he has never owned a pair in his life. He looked back at the girl and was about to speak when:
"OH MY GOODNESS YOUR AWAKE! Im terribly sorry I didnt notice! My mother and I saw you passed out in a mound of sheep shite, and we immediately came to check if everything was alright, and we-"  
"Its alright, I appreciate you taking care of me, may i kindly ask you release me from the bubble and hand me my father's blade hanging on the door there?"
"Yes,sir"
After a brief chant, the bubble was released, and all the water condensed into a sphere to witch the girl then turned into ice and set it onto an ornate plate. Just as she was about to give Excanos the robes, he stopped her.
"I require the sword first, also may i ask for you to step out of the room for a moment?"
"Yes, sir"
As the door shut behind her, Excanos examined the runes on his mark to make sure they had not faded, for it had been a while since he reapplied them.
Just as expected, the bubble she had put me in had almost completely cleaned the runes , its a miracle that I awoke in time.
Excanos took the blade, with his left hand and began to slice the skin on top of each rune, the cuts had to be precise and in line with the shapes of the runes themselves, a long and arduos process but necessary nonetheless. After the cuts were made, he recited a small chant that ignited a black flame is his left hand, he then pressed the flame on each of the ruins to sear the blood into place. After about 45 minutes, the runes were refreshed and he was able to calm himself. He opened a nearby window and saw the sun was coming down again, he felt as if he accomplished nothing again, but he already was used to the feeling. He grabbed his mother's robes and proceeded downstairs.
"GENTLEMAN! IF YOU DO NOT CEASE THIS TOMFOOLERY I WILL HAVE YOU THROWN OUT AND NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN"
Although she was yelling, Excanos recognized the voice, it was the girl's mother trying to calm some drunkards down who were about to pull swords on each other.
"Quit shoutin' ya old hag! I just came to have a drink with meself to lighten up, and yet this dumbarse over here tries to steel me ale! I cant let that go without punishment! I pride my ale!"
An extremely obese man attempting to justify his drinking addiction, was about to start a fight with a calm and composed elf. He appeared as if he was royalty in shaggy clothing.
"I did no such thing and you are entirely aware of this."
"MY ARSE, YOU CLEARLY STOLE MY DRINK YOU PIECE OF DRAGON SHITE"
The obese man charged at the elf, only to be down on the ground and practically unconscious in the matter of a split second.
"You drunkards are all the same, assuming that just because im an elf not born into royalty that i steal someone's ale? What kind of drugs are you on?"
The elf, acquired the ale that he had paid for, drank it faster than Excanos has ever seen, and left.
Excanos, admiring the fellow elf's compusure, kept a photographic memory of his face and voice for future reference. He then approached the bar.
"Kind sir may i ask for a mug of ale?"

"It's on me," a small girl said. The girl was unbelievably beautiful, especially compared to what kind of people took up the space in the bar. She sat on a barstool with a wooden staff intricately craved with runes leaning against the counter. The silver and black falcon next to her chirped lightly, ruffling his own feathers. The girl glanced in Excanos' direction with silver-white eyes and the slightest of grins. She pulled out her coin pouch, and the falcon took out a coin and placed it on the counter.

The girl took a breath and finished off the last bit of her drink. Her slender fingers wrapped around the staff, and the falcon hopped onto the leather armguard she wore on her right arm. "My name's Julianna," she said, practically looking through the man. "Enjoy your stay." She stood and started walking out of the bar with the staff to guide her graceful footing.

Goddam why do I have to be so handsome, yet I cant even talk to a girl that payed for my own drink nice going you bumbling bafoon.
Excanos's own worst enemy: the mind. Although he may be a half demon with powers beyond belief, he can not talk to a girl for the life of him. Being the desperate casual he is, Excanos attempted to follow the girl. Thank goodness for his tracking skills from wandering so much or else he would have no damn clue where to go.
Excanos gathered his belongings, thanked the mother and daughter for their hospitality and left the tavern in an attempt to find the girl.
A couple days later...
"Goodam my desparation, but i'll be damned if I dont find her."
It was a sunday, about midday in the La'marri forest, Excanos had been doing nothing but attempting to track the girl, no luck.
"Maybe taking the high ground will help."
He climbed to the top of a nearby manola tree, and began to scan for any kind of sign. After a couple hours of non-stop searching Excanos was about to give up entirely.
"Damn me father, still no luck, sunset is coming fast and the cold winter night isn't going to help, I better bundle u-"
Out of the corner of his left eye he saw it: the falcon the girl had on her shoulder. Excanos put all his weight onto  the top base of the manola tree, the tree leaned back almost to the forest floor, which was about 5 meters down, and launched himself from the tree.
The falcon clearly seeing this deranged flying man, effortlessly dodged Excanos, he was now on a collision course with a fully fledged campfire.
"Shite, shite, shite, SHIIIIIIIITTTTEEE!"
After finally recognizing the situation, Excanos recited a quick chant which summoned black water to douse the fire. His face planted into the ashes of the once lit flame, and his mother's robes were mostly black again. Excanos in a very excruciating amount of pain lifted himself to see the girl completely drenched.
"I, am, terribly, sorry. Let me get this lit for you again"
Since he already recited the chant, conjuring a black flame to light the firepit again was a piece of cake. 
"Hi, I've been looking for you."
Completely studdering the sentence, he still stood as if he made the biggest mistake in the world.

Julianna jumped up, grabbing her staff to balance. She found her satchel and rummaged through it until finding a dry rag. Whipping off her silver amulet, she quickly dried the moonstone and held it tightly with rapid breaths. "Where the hell do you think you're going?" She demanded to stop him from leaving, putting the amulet back around her neck and sitting where she was before.

Putting her fingers in the corners of her lips, she blew two sharp whistles and raised her right arm with a bent elbow. The falcon soared down and gripped onto her armguard. "Hi, Pitch," she said softly, stroking his soft feathers.

Julianna seemed to look in the direction of the fire, while expecting him to answer. "Well?" She pushed.

"Actually, I- I  really don't know, I was mainly loo-looking for you so I could say thank y-you for paying for me ale, I don't normally drink, in fact I haven't had anything in months, and yet you come along and and just well you know the rest. I just got me intrigued, I-Im a wanderer I dont necessarily know where I'm going, but I do know I want to help people. Sorry, I'm not really that good at talking (he mumbles) especially to girls, but is there anything I can to do repay you? Again im extremely sorry about the fire and I have the upmost gratitude for payin for my ale."
Completely butchering his attempt at a pickup line, Excanos managed to stand a little more firm than usual.
"Also good job on, Pitch was it? For moving out of the way before I crashed into you, I would've been devastated to have hurt you."
He mustered himself one last time, really trying to focus on not butchering this next part.
"As I previously stated, I'm a wanderer and really have no where else to go, mind if I can tag along with you for a bit?"
THANK MY FATHER THAT I FINALLY DIDNT BUTCHER THAT

She stayed silent for a few moments, still not making eye contact with him. This moron's going to get himself killed out here, she thought to herself. They said that about me too, though.

"I propose a deal," she said, standing with her staff, and once again, looking through him instead of at him. "I travel alone. I trust me. If I allow you to come along, you have to do three simple things for me. One, you have to be willing to deal with Pitch's chirping. Believe me, it can get obnoxious, especially at night. Two, you have to understand that I do things a certain way for a reason. If you mess with my method, we part ways. Three..."

Julianna paused, taking a breath and running her fingers along the runes carved into her staff. "Three, you cannot mock or take advantage of me for losing my sight."

Excanos sat on the log Julianna was sitting on, a good distance away but turned towards her.
"First and foremost, I have much respect for the blind and the wisdom they bring, second the only other woman I've truly known is my mother, so I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you say 'take advantage of' if it means stealing your belongings I doubt that considering im a clumsy wreck. Third, you've allowed me to stay with you, so anything you do I wholeheartedly agree with so long as it brings no malice. Finally, i have no problems with chirping I'm the son of a dead shepherd imagine having about 100 or sheep next to your window for the majority of your life everynight, quite the enthralling experience I might say. Now if you do not mind, may i ask you, a personal question? Is your blindness natural or a curse?"
That last sentence made his spine chill whilst awaiting a response, for if it were a curse, then there is more to this girl than he thinks there is.

Julianna tried to hide a breathy chuckle at the thought of 100 sheep bleeting before the rooster crowed. She felt the log with her foot and sat down, laying her staff on the side of the log opposite the fire. "I was born with my sight, but I was cursed at four years old."

She reached out and felt the cloth of his robe on his shoulder. "You are absolutely covered in ash, aren't you?" Julianna grinned again and sighed. She moved her hand up to his face and gingerly moved her fingers along his face. She swallowed slightly, took her hand away, and ran her finger along the outer edge of the moonstone. It glowed slightly, and she stopped.

Pitch flew up to a branch, and Julianna lowered her head awkwardly, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Sorry. I know I have an issue with boundaries. All started because of these things." She covered her eyes with her hand. "But yes, I was cursed. What difference does it make?"

Excanos grasped one of Julianna's hands with both of his and spoke:
"None, actually it makes us almost one in the same."
Excanos lowered his hood and rolled up his right sleeve.
"I don't know if you can see this or not, but I was cursed as well. In an attempt to take vengeance upon the demonlord thieves that brutally murdered my parents, I summoned my own demon from a book my mother had from her past life, I gave the thieves the death they deserved but at the cost of half my body-" Excanos's voice deepened immensely with a demon-like tone " being consumed by a demon."
Excanos guided Julianna's hand to one of the runes along the mark.
"This is one of many runes used to keep the demon under control, I can access his magic through the use of these runes as well, which is why the campfire is a blackflame right now. All magic that I cast is black as a reminder to my actions that night, hell the demon even scarred my eye almost making it completely shut, every morning when I look in the mirror all I see is myself and the eye of a demon that can and will consume me at any moment. Which is why I've made it my sole duty to avoid as much conflict whatsoever and keep these runes as fresh as often as I can quite the process to get them refreshed as well, but I will find the reason why my parents were executed that night in such a horrific manner."
Excanos rested Julianna's hand onto her lap, he proceeded to get up and start a chant. Soon afterwards black water swirled around him cleansing the ash from his mother's robes.
"Also, I have no problems with boundaries, my mother would almost out of no where pinch and slap my arse whenever she wanted, and since you can not see me, the way you can "see" me is by touch so i do not discourage your efforts."
The water stopped swirling, Excanos lifted his arm and the water flowed over next to the log and froze into two tents. After another brief chant, a fire lit inside the frozen tents.
"There, now there's no way we can freeze out here for the night, I even gave Pitch his own perch and nest to sleep in." 

(alright, well, since this is an open topic, I'm not gonna join in. Just don't have the patience for it. The rest of you have fun.)

Julianna gave the first genuine smile she had in a long time. "It's not often I get to honestly confess to being impressed," she said.

She rubbed her fingers together and ran them around the moonstone, then turned in the direction his voice had come from. "Those runes... They felt like they were carved into your body... But, freshly." She lifted the moonstone with another smile. "I'll see it tonight in my dreams, so do not think you can lie to me! Did this happen to you recently?"

"I have never told a lie nor will I ever, never needed to so there's no point. To answer your question, yes and no. The runes themselves have been with me ever since I made them to control the curse, but the process of refreshing them requires me to slice the skin in the exact shape of the runes, and the only thing that can actually harm my cursed skin is this blade from my father. On the night when I summoned the demon to enact revenge, it needed a material object to consume as well should I have died in the process, so I offered my father's katana as an object that the demon deemed worthy enough to let me live. After the wounds are open I need to burn them with my black flame to properly seal them otherwise the runes do not become as strong as they need to be, also red does stand out in me mum's white robes."
He didn't know if it was the fact they shared a curse, or the fact that she paid for his drink, but meeting this girl was no coincidence.
"Alright now its my turn to ask a question: whats with that moonstone? Why are you caressing it like a child?"
Me stutterin is completely gone, I guess i do know the works so long as the other one shares the same fate as meh

"That must be painful to do all the time," she said, playing with her drying hair. Pitch chirped sharply, and Julianna jumped up with her staff gripped firmly in her hand.

Pitch dive-bombed a small rodent, and the small squeak reassured her that all was well. Julianna laughed nervously and started kicking dirt onto the fire. "You would think after years with him, I would know what he's saying. Just a little jumpy I suppose."

She felt to make sure there was no more active flame.

"If you would, kindly point me toward these ice tents you've made? By the sudden temperature drop, I believe it is same to assume the moon is nearly directly above us."

"You'd be right, thankfully its not a full moon or i'd have to reapply the runes again, they're weaker on full moons and are at their weakest on a solar eclipse. Nearly killed an entire village that day, my other half tried to warn them before hand, I tried to heal them after as well but nothing worked. But hey that's a story for another night, get some rest we've got to get moving by sunrise."
Excanos guided Julianna to her tent, he also lit the flame a tad bit brighter for her sake as well as gave her his top robe to use as a blanket.
He placed his family blade into a perfect crevice in his tent, and began to chant, the flame was encased in blackflame, the flame in the sphere was noticeably bright as well, more so than usual.
"Night. And thanks for the hospitality again."
Excanos bounded into the tent from the top and slammed onto the ground with a loud thud
Black ground arose to perfectly situate his body for a restful night.
2 hours later...
You filthy piece of shite you couldn't honor our death even if you went searching for years for the men who plotted to kill us. Your mother and I could not be more disappointed in you!
You are not the son I once knew your a bloody demon! I WISH YOU WERE NEVER BOR-
Gasping for air Excanos awoke from his deep slumber. Mumbling to himself:
"Whelp, there goes me good night sleep, another nightmare another night to feel completely shite about meself, I bet Julianna is sleeping fine though."
Excanos left his tent as quietly as he could to check up on Julianna, as expected she was fast asleep, along with Pitch.
She sleeping like shes known me for years, almost like a sister... ah well its probably me just making up shite. Better head back to bed to attempt to get a good night's rest.
he spent the rest of the night trying to get into the perfect position.

Julianna awoke, shivering violently. Pitch purred next to her, picking at her hair with his beak. She walked out of the tent and leaned heavily on her staff for support.

"Come here, boy," she said, lifting her arm. He perched on her arm, and she made her way to the log she was sitting on the previous night. "Sometimes these dreams can be hell." Julianna sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

She rubbed her neck. "I should've been gone two hours ago, Pitch. This is putting a major dent in my plans!"

Hearing a voice come outside from the tent, Excanos awoke abruptly. Checked to see if his blade was still in its crevice, heaving a sigh of relief, it still was. He stepped outside and noticed Julianna practically awake.

"Mornin, sun's about to rise, we'd best get a move on. To wherever you need to get to."
Excanos grabbed his father's blade, the flame dissipated into the mark and placed it on his side. He grabbed the top part of his robe from Julinna's tent. After reciting a brief chant, the tents evaporated, he also covered the firepit with the black mound  he slept on.
"Lead the way."
The two left the site on a beaten path.
"So how'd you sleep? I heard you saying something about seeing things with your dreams?"
 

"You weren't supposed to be eavesdropping," Julianna snapped quickly.

She suddenly became silent, the only sounds being that of their footsteps and her staff stretched in front of her. Pitch flew above with a watchful eye. She listened at the silence around them.

"Sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have snapped at you." She twirled her amulet. "Look, I kind of have this thing that started when I was twelve. I have the Seer's gift. Basically, I see the future through my dreams. Also, when I touch something and rub around the moonstone on my amulet, it gives me the power to see whatever I touched in my dreams that night." She stopped walking and lowered her voice, forcing him to listen. "Excanos, after touching you and the runes on your body, I touched the moonstone. Last night, I saw everything."

"I'm guessing you saw me dream then? I dunno if you saw them or not but my parents were harsh on me as a child, but they loved me nonetheless. At least before they were murdered my father told me `You are an Akvaarian, wear it as proudly as you would wield your sword everyday in training, don't you ever forget that, we love you son, get a good knights rest.` they kissed me on the cheek and left the room. And until the torturing, that was the last I ever saw them happy. But every once in a while the demon corrupts that dream. That's probably what you saw if i wasn't mistaken. I'm sorry you had to see that."

"I saw none of your dream," she said. "I saw your life. Childhood, adolescence, etc. I saw what happened to your parents. I saw your motivation."

She frowned slightly, kicking at the dusty ground. "I saw the version of yourself that you try so desperately to hide, as well as that village you spoke about. Still, I can't stop wondering... Have you tried to control your other half without the help of the runes? Tell me; why do you hide it when it's so pure a form?"

Excanos stopped for a moment. The meadow around them whistled quietly, but in tune to something that can be perceived as a funeral.
"Take 20 paces back."
Julianna did as requested. After a brief chant Excanos summoned a clear  black ice wall in front of Julianna, thin enough to see through it, but thick enough to withstand what was about to come.
"Call Pitch down with you as well."
She did as requested.
Excanos revealed his mark in full, from right ring finger to foot and eye.
"Unaki vaus curbas."
Black water swirled violently around his arm, then his leg and eventually his eye. Each of the runes were ripped off entirely and held in the air like captives, blood spewing from each of the holes. But the blood was black as the darkest of nights, it began to erupt in flames as it burned his skin that was not covered by the mark. The flame grew massively, to the point where a figure appeared above Excanos. his head was completely still, his right eye was completely open. It was the eye of a demonknight. A voice boomed from the figure's mouth:
"This is his curse, he bears the mark of the Demonknight Galith, right hand to the king of hell himself. He summoned me to avenge his parents as you already know, but what he failed to realize was that as a the right hand of the king I may do as I please with anyone and anything. he cannot come to terms with his parents murder for he never truly know why they were killed in the first place. For he will die trying to search for them! Isn't that right my puppet? Ah it serves no purpose, when I'm awakened he has no control over me for 5 minutes i am free to reign down any hell I desire with his body. Speaking of which..." 
Excanos, staring completely through Julianna, unsheathed his father's blade, it was coated entirely in black flame, the orb had created another black flame guard on top of the original one.
He raised the blade with one arm, in one slice the entire meadow was completely destroyed in flames, Julianna fell to the ground from the sheer force of the slice, thankfully she and Pitch were unharmed.
"I must warn you, if you dare tell him the truth about his parents, I will guarantee a painful death for you, these runes? Childs play, i can break free whenever i want, giving him the taste of hope of controlling me is what I feast on. I see my time is up, glad to have met you Julianna, I hope we meet again soon... HAHHAHAHAA!"
The figure vanished, the ice wall protecting Julianna evaporated, the seals hastily carved themselves back into their slots, and Excanos passed out onto the ground.

Julianna stood, leaning against her staff with a slightly weakened ankle. Pitch had flown off at the fright the figure had given him. Julianna walked toward Excanos, finding him with a light tap of her staff. "I knew you'd die out here," she whispered.

She knelt beside him and put one hand on his chest with a finger under his nose. He was breathing. "You scared my bird!" She yelled at his unconscious form.

Reaching for her staff, she gasped slightly and yanked her hand back with a sharp and searing pain. When he had fallen, Excanos had dropped the enchanted blade. Julianna felt along the flat side of the sword until reaching the handle. She wrapped her hand around it and felt a sudden heat fill her with some kind of power.

"I could easily kill you right now, you daft fool," she whispered, touching his bloody arm. She stood, leaving the sword next to his body and grabbing her own staff. Julianna raised her arm and whistled. Pitch chirped but didn't move. "Pitch, come on!" She whistled again, but he didn't move. "I never thought birds could be so headstrong!"

She knelt back down next to Excanos and traced the mark, her fingers following the carvings of runes on his body. Julianna kissed her moonstone amulet and removed it, placing it on his forehead. "Per deos, qui in corde eorum." She covered his eyes and mouth with her hands, as his body shook. "Stop moving," she commanded.

His shaking stopped and he woke with a large breath through his nose. "Relax!" She said, slowly moving her hands off of him. "You're fine. Just don't get up."

Excanons looked to the side, he couldn't afford to move his body at all.
"You ask me why I hide such a pure form? That form is the furthest thing from purity. it's a wretched beast that I summoned out of my own vengeance. The runes are child's play for the demon, he could easily come out whenever he pleases. The runes control him once hes outside of me. Each rune stands for a minute of time that he can use to do as he pleases. i hide this form because it has been nothing but a reminder of destruction and agony in my life. Did he tell you the old `I feast on the hopes of searching for the people who plotted his family's murder` spiel? he says that every time I reveal him to someone, it's a load of shite. The bastards are in Connlaoth, I've known that for years, I've just been waiting for the right moment to strike.
But you see what this demon does? Look this entire meadow, once beautiful and luscious filled with flowers of all colors shapes and sizes, are now all gone in flames, nothing but ash left, just like my home."
The blood on the runes had finally dried completely, the blade was now back to it's non magical form, but still held some heat from the flames.
"I'll be good in about 5 minutes or so, try to calm Pitch down and get him to relax, i don't want t o see another friend run away because of me."
After a brief chant, Excanos was lifted upright in a bubble of black water, it flowed serenely, the complete opposite of what had just happened not even 10 minutes ago.
"Excratos Terranos"
The ground of the meadow starting shifting, but smoothly, almost as if it were being massaged. The ashes from the meadow were consumed and compiled back into the black earth in the hopes of seeing a meadow again.   

"You must remember that I am incapable of seeing what the demon form of you did," she said, pointing to her eyes.

Julianna stood and dusted her clothing off. She held onto her staff, running her fingers along the runes. Glancing in his general direction, a grin crossed her lips.

"You're a damned fool," she said, chuckling lightly. "Never once has purity referred to beauty. Purity is the simplicity and basis on which one is created. I am not pure, you are not pure, even Pitch is not pure. That demon is pure. It has no purpose other than to cause chaos to whatever may lie in its path. That is purity. It may even be considered a wretched form of beauty."

She whistled, and Pitch flew down to them, landing on her armguard with a shake of his feathers. "Besides," she started, twirling her staff three times before planting it firmly on the ground, "there just might be a way you can be of some real use to me after all."

Excanos released himself from the water bubble, donned his mother's robes, and sheathed his father's blade.
"I'd at least figure you could smell the ashes of this meadow, doesn't matter now anyways in about a week or so black flowers will cover this again, so long as the weather doesn't change dramatically. And I would assume when you say `of use to me` that doesn't mean your going to dissect me or anything of that matter, as well as I would hope you would have no intentions of malice.
Here me when I say this, I don't want to hurt another living soul. The only abomination that has the honor of being cut down with this blade is Galith himself, and he resides in the 8th level of Hell, as its prominent guardian of the gate to the ninth. He sits on a throne made of melted corpses with stakes driving through their skulls. He is the only being worthy of being completely eradicated by my father's blade. Unfortunately I am not powerful enough to face him let alone open a portal to Hell itself. But I still have business here so this is where I need to be for now, but that's not important at the moment, what is important is where you need to get to. So lead the way."
Excanos heaved a sigh of relief, he was finally able to talk to someone about his endeavors without them fleeing in terror. It almost soothed him in a way.
I'll follow this girl to wherever she needs to go, but I'll be damned if that bastard in Connlaoth lives another damn year. Hope fully she'll be able to help me, and if not, I still must thank her for her hospitality.   

Well, that had been a very interesting development.

Faelis had been having a relatively normal day.

He had left La'marri a few days before and had been making his way through the forest when he had come upon this strange pair.  He had been tracking them for over a day by now.  He had no reason to be following them, except for the fact that they didn't seem to be normal travelers.

Faelis just wanted a bit of excitement.  If he had wanted to live a boring, peaceful life, he wouldn't have abandoned his life as a prince and run away.  He probably would have been married to some boring Lady by now and spending his days doing paperwork and looking after an estate.

No, that was not the life for Faelis.

Instead he was spying on two magic users.  He eavesdropped on their conversation the first night, hidden safely up in a tree, and the next day he tracked them through the woods and to the meadow, where the real excitement began.

Faelis knew that interfering would help no one, and it might even get him killed, so he decided to watch.  He heard the demon's booming words, and the words of the two young people as the demon left.

Faelis watched them as they spoke, and was itching to reveal himself.  He was not the kind of guy who would stand by and watch while others had all the fun.  Well, while they had his idea of fun.  But perhaps staying in hiding would be smart, he had no idea how these people would react to him.  They may even attack.

Faelis stepped out of the trees, pretending to not even notice the two people.  He made a very convincing show of looking around the destroyed meadow in shock until his golden eyes landed on the pair.

"What happened here?" he called across the field as he made his way towards them. "Did you do this?"

"Faelis," Julianna said, not moving with a grin spreading across her lips. "I was expecting you right about now." She felt the shared confusion between Excanos and Faelis. "Faelis, a little surprise for you. I dream the future. You were in one of my dreams. Now, walk with me."

The trio walked along a beaten path, and Julianna began. "I feel I must be honest when I tell you my intentions are not completely benevolent," she said. "Excanos, you say malice as though it were a bad thing."

Pitch flew overhead, and Julianna smiled at the vivid images floating through her mind. She walked with pride, not caring that she tripped slightly every few steps. "I want you to understand one more thing, and Faelis, you get to find out another quirk of mine."

Julianna touched specific runes on her staff, and each one began glowing red when her finger left. "Aperiam in porta," she repeated with each touch. At the last one, she spun her staff rapidly and slammed it on the ground.

A fiery circle began growing in front of them. Julianna smiled, as the force of the opening portal tried to blow her back from it. It grew until the portal's destination was clear to them all. "Welcome to the 1st level of Hell." She touched the runes in the reverse order, repeating, "claude ostium." The portal closed, leaving no trace of its existence.

She stood straight, fixing her wind-whipped hair. "No business or craftsman wants to employ a blind girl." Julianna took a breath and frowned. "I survive through malice. I am a thief, a Seer, and a very powerful mage. I would never willingly cause true harm to another being, but I will do whatever is necessary for me to survive.

"Excanos, Faelis, hear me now and listen well," she said with a white glow emitting from her eyes, "I am not on this path to make friends. I am traveling to take back something that is rightfully mine. I will help you with ease complete whatever tasks you undertake in the future, but I am getting my property back first."

Excanos, awe struck and in tears, bear hugged Julianna into the sky.
"THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!"
He kissed her on the forehead and proceeded to cartwheel around the now black ground.
"You don't understand how important this is to me, if I can slay Galith I just may be able to undo my curse! I could finally start a family without the fear of scarring my children!"
Excanos knelt before Julianna.
"It is my honor, to follow you wherever your endeavors take you, I will protect you with everything I have. Thank you Julianna."
He turned to Faelis.
"Now I understand you've been watching us, so I don't need to catch you up on anything, old pal."
Excanos hugged Faelis as if he were a long lost brother.
"By my father, how long has it been old friend? I knew i recognized that face at in the bar."

Well, she was a seer.

Faelis laughed as he made his way towards the two. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised."

Then, before he could say much else, there was a portal opened in front of them.  The elf sighed.  "Ah, Hell.  Again."  But then the portal was closed, not a trace of it remaining.

He turned to Excanos, only to be engulfed in a hug.  The elf slipped out of the other man's grasp, his reflexes working before his brain.  When he realized it was not an attack, he relaxed and smiled at the young man.  "Not nearly as long as it seems," he said.  "We were in Essyrn, right?  I started that barfight, you unwillingly got involved. . ?"

Excanos looked off into the dsitance.
"Aye, quite the funny tale as well, you were quite hammered but still kept your composure. You saw me standing in the corner eyeing the pretty elf that was sitting next to the fire pit.  You then proceeded to introduce yourself and offered to help me out to talk to the woman. I cowered in response, but you gave me a reassuring laugh and patted me on the back, afterwards was a little foggy but it somehow wound up with the both of us knocking out every other drunkard in the room."
Excanos reminisced in the memory and gave himself a slight chuckle and a pat on the back to Faelis.
"Alright now that were acquainted, Julianna, kindly lead the way."
Excanos bowed to Julianna. 

"I have been hunting someone for nearly two years," Julianna said, walking down the path. "I have no idea who she is, nor have I ever met her. All I can go by is word of mouth and the extremely vivid memory of her voice."

Julianna shuddered at the memory, trying not to relive it. She turned around and showed Faelis and Excanos her moonstone amulet. "This was given to me by the man who raised me. It has magical properties that I won't go into, but its power was cut in half, quite literally I'm afraid."

She turned around once again and kept walking. "The woman broke into my home one night and split the stone, stealing one half. Since then, my magic has limitations and my dreams aren't as clear. That's also why I can't help you yet in your mission, Excanos. I may be able to open the portal to Hell, but once it closes, I won't be able to open it again for several days. We would be trapped in Hell until my power returns. Once I get the other half of the moonstone, I'll assist either one of you in whatever tasks lie ahead of you."

Pitch landed on Julianna's armguard at her command, and she continued. "Her voice was that of a piglet's squeal, but sharper. Anything you both can tell me will be greatly appreciated. I don't know her true name, but she is known by others as the Raven."

"The Raven," Faelis pondered. "I've definitely heard of her, but not much."

He glanced over at the other young man before turning his gaze back to Julianna. "Do you have any idea why she would want the stone?  You know it's magic and it's abilities.  You know it best, so, between the tree of us, you probably have the best idea of why 'The Raven' would want it.  Was it just for it's power?  Or do you have enemies."


(OOC:  Sorry for the super late reply, :P)

Julianna scoffed with an almost annoyed tone to her voice. "Of course I have enemies," she said. "I make my living primarily by stealing. But when the moonstone was stolen... I was a child. The magic can be the only reason for its theft."

She scuffed the dirt with the heel of her boot and touched the amulet softly. "The magic is different." Her voice was gentle, almost inaudible. "My adopted father created it with his own two hands. He took the most perfect moonstone he could and enchanted it with his own magic to strengthen mine. The magic is more powerful than anything I have ever come across. The Raven was known to steal objects of magic purely to prevent others from overpowering her. My amulet could easily be on that list."

It was obvious that she wasn't telling all there was about the amulet, but Julianna didn't care if they knew she was hiding. It was her right to have secrets. All they needed to know was that the full moonstone has more hidden power than most can comprehend.

Excanos stood there, puzzled, for the description 'voice of piglet's squeal but sharper' rang a faint bell in the back of his mind.
The voice of a piglet's squeal, that almost the exact description of the woman who raised me after my parents were murdered. It was only for a year, but I still remember that voice until this day. I'm not entirely sure if I want to tell Julianna though, just by saying that I was raised by the person who stole half of her precious stone might make her turn on me and ruin my chances of facing Galith at all, I've got to make this convincing both in word and in mind, otherwise I'm screwed. I mean she was the one that taught me to embrace the black magic.
Excanos cleared his mind of anything else and spoke:
"Actually, when you brought up the fact that her voice is that of a piglet's squeal, it reminded me of a woman who attempted to steal my father's blade a week after the incident with my parents. I was sound asleep one night in my home, and I felt a strange presence lurking about, I woke up when I felt that it was practically looming over my head. I saw nothing but I got up and went to check on my father's blade just in case. I saw this... black robe, attempting to take my father's blade, but every time she touched it, it would sear her hand. I grabbed the blade and threatened to kill her if it didn't leave. All it told me was `That magic is too much for your poor corrupted soul, hand it to me so that I can relieve you of your pain and suffering.'  I refused to hand it over, it lunged at me at a vicious speed, and the next thing I saw was its hand bleeding profusely on the ground. After letting out a shriek of pain, the figure dissipated into nothing, leaving behind only raven feathers."
Excanos's voice was steady and calm, almost as if this actually occurred.   

Julianna was silent. She knew that she had no way of proving whether or not Excanos' story was true, but something just didn't sit right with her. The fact that he willingly told them what happened should count in his favor, though. Still, something just told her that it wasn't the whole story.

Plus, the idea that he felt some presence but found nothing until going to another room didn't make sense to her. She was particularly strong while asleep because her initial magic came to her from her Seer's power, which was centered around sleep and dreams. When the Raven came to Julianna's home and stole half of the moonstone literally right off of her neck, Julianna felt nothing.

Deciding not to press it, Julianna simply -

"If she was burned multiple times, why would she then demand you give the blade to her?" Julianna asked quickly, ignoring her sense of trust. Pitch chirped, turning his head toward Excanos. Julianna frowned and chewed the inside of her lip.

Shoot I didn't think that far, I must've messed up wording. I got to say something quick otherwise she'll catch on.
"I had no idea why, I would assume she would've wanted me to somehow stop the burning, but at the time I had no clue the blade even felt hot, mainly cause I always held it in my right hand, which never burned me. I had no information on her intentions, all I remember was what she said and that she really wanted the blade. Keep in mind I was still a child and after what happened to my parents I could've only imagine what fear struck me even from seeing her."
That sounded convincing enough, I mean it does make sense.

OOC:  So sorry it took so long for me to respond guys, :P
___________________________________________________________

Faelis wasn't surprised at Julianna's remark, something hadn't felt right about the story to him either.  However, he kept it to himself, but didn't ignore it, simply stored away the information for a later time. 

Excanos's explanation for Julianna's question seemed legitimate, but still. . .

"So, if you have seen this woman before," Faelis started, "and seem to have a more vivid memory of her that Julianna does, do you think you'd be able to recognize her if we did end up finding her?"

"Yes, I could definetely identify her hands down, without a doubt if we find her."
Excanos's voice was steady and stern. He was ready for anything

"In that case, you will be my eyes when we find her," Julianna said, turning toward Excanos' voice. "Unfortunately, I have no idea where to start. All I can tell you about her possible whereabouts is that she lives somewhere within this forest. To my disadvantage, I could quite literally walk a circle spanning three feet for days and believe I travelled for miles!"

She sighed and rubbed her thumb along the runes in her staff. "Do either of you have any idea where she could be?"

Excanos looked puzzled for a moment, but then without even thinking he blurted out:
"well, we could probably go check her house that she practically raised me after my parents were murdered probably find some clues ther-"
Excanos realizing what he had done, facepalmed himself and held it there long enough that his skin on his face started to burn.
WOW, I'M AN IDIOT. Whelp there goes my shot with Julianna.

Julianna smiled quietly. "I knew you were lying," she whispered. She wanted to see Excanos' face so badly, but she could feel the regret he was exuding.

The girl loved acting as though she could magically tell everything about a person, but that was only good when things weren't intense. Still, when something as high stress as this was being discussed, it was better for her to explain her methods.

"There were two things that gave you away," she said softly. "First, too many details. You have your sight, while I don't. All I can possibly remember from my encounter with the Raven is her voice, and I can't even recall what words she spoke. You have your sight, so there is more information your mind had taken in. It is more than highly unlikely you could remember what that woman said to you.

"And second, I am a Seer, if you recall." Her words had poison behind them. "My power is at its strongest when I sleep. You sensing a presence in the other room while you slept is absolutely impossible when I did not sense the Raven stealing half of my moonstone from off my neck."

Julianna took a few steps toward Excanos, her hand extended until she felt his arm. Slowly, she ran her hand up his arm, over his shoulder, and eventually to his face. Smiling softly, Julianna withdrew her hand and touched the runes carved into her staff.

"Excanos, I am forced to trust because of my blindness. For you, I began to open my mind and choose to trust you." She gripped her staff and spun in the air, hitting him in the face twice with both ends before handing again. Julianna was able to hear Excanos stumble slightly. It wasn't enough force to knock someone of his side down, but it was definitely enough to stun him for a second or two. She straightened herself, and Pitch chirped nosily, having flown into the air. She whistled, and the falcon landed on her shoulder.

Julianna took a long breath, her head turned toward Excanos. "Don't ever try to lie to me again. I can promise I will never help you if you lie to me one more time."

Excanos rubbed his cheek where the staff had hit him.
"I-Im sorry, I completely deserve that, it's just I was conflicted Alexandria was practically my second mother. She took me in at probably one of my lowest points. On top of the fact that you're really ho-" Excanos slapped himself "I'm just genuinely bad with women. I want to be the kind of man that can stand up for the things he believes in as well as the things and people he protects. Could you please forgive me?"
Excanos knelt on the ground hanging his head. He knew there was no shot with Julianna at this point and he was completely ready to accept whatever decision she had come to.

Julianna had no idea Excanos had knelt until she felt a sudden change when the sun hit her face. His size always seemed to place her quite literally in his shadow, so the heat from the sun was a tool she used to figure out where he was.

"I'm not deciding anything now," she said simply. "You help me get my moonstone back, then perhaps we can talk." She started walking, but stopped quickly. "If you try to deceive me again, I can guarantee you will have no assistance from my powers in getting to and from any level of Hell. It's up to you now."

Pitch purred slightly, and Julianna looked in Excanos' general direction. "And stand up. I'd imagine you look like a blubbering fool."

Excanos stood making sure to cover Julianna with his shadow.
"Thank you for your acceptance, well for the most part at least, follow me we can probably find her home within a days time or so. "
The group started to follow Excanos, after about a couple hours they stopped for a break.
He turned to Julianna, "Julianna with all due respect I didn't mean to deceive you in any way possible. It was just a hard decision to make and I didnt know how to approach it. I just didn't want you to," Excanos practically started to mumble incoherently, "like me..."

"If you have something to say, just say it," she spat.

After Excanos' albeit brief deception, Julianna was in no move for his or anyone else's guilt-ridden bullshit. She clenched her jaw and frowned.

"Out with it!"

Excanos was overridden with anxiety, flutter, and his heart was racing.
Thankfully Faelis wasn't near them, but just for caution Excanos grabbed Julianna by the arm and took her behind a tree that was a good distance away from where they had stopped.
Excanos looked around a little panicked. Not knowing who was watching him if anyone at all. He stood as if was at attention and spoke:
"Julianna please do not take this the wrong way, you can obliterate me whenever you want to but know this: I... am... in... l-lo..."
OH JUST FUCKING SAY IT ALREADY YOU SHEEPISH IDIOT!
"I am in love with you."
Excanos dropped his father's blade to the ground, it started to burn the grass around where it landed, but not as much heat as there was in his heart. He grabbed Julianna's forearm with his left hand and jerked her towards him. Their lips met for only just a mere couple of seconds, but it was enough for Excanos. He released her and walked a few paces away and knelt to the ground turning away from Julianna. He spoke:
"Do your worst, I deserve whatever I'm about to receive, due to my immaturity."
Excanos waited for his trip to oblivion.

Excanos had begun to wear down her walls, but she raised them immediately when she learned the woman who split her moonstone served as a mother figure for him. That alone could have been forgiven, but his lies to protect the Raven would take a lot longer.

Julianna's breath slowed, and she just listened. It was an emotionless silence that lasted a lot longer than Excanos probably wanted. She just stood, feeling the natural energies around her, which included Excanos' blade. She found it with her staff, then used it to flip the blade onto the rocky pathway.

"You're a fool," she said, kneeling to the ground with her palm facing the ground. Julianna felt the life of the grass and brush, then the death and emptiness where Excanos' blade had scorched the land. She muttered an inaudible spell and waved her fingers over the empty patch of land.

A small smile crossed her lips, and she felt life return as little, green buds sprouted from the charred patch. She stood, facing the direction Excanos had been. "You broke my trust, Excanos," she said. "There is nothing you can do to erase that." Pitch flew above, guiding her back to the path. She walked onto the path and slowed, cocking her head back over her shoulder with the slightly smirk. "Life always has the opportunity to rise from death. It just takes the right touch."

Wow, I really am the biggest fool in this land, holy dragon shite.
After noticing that he hadn't been completely blasted into oblivion. He stood, hanging his head. He pulled the hood from his mother's robe completely over his head so that his eyes couldn't be seen at all anymore and grabbed his father's blade.
He walked completely past Julianna, and spoke with a very low and depressed voice:
"Follow me, we should reach her home within a day if we don't stop."
One of his hands rested of the blade's hilt while the other sat in one of his pockets. Excanos developed a hunch to his walk.
I would've rather been blown into oblivion instead of trying to understand a metaphor that basically says fuck off. Great job me, you blew it completely.
Excanos was practically a ghost guiding the path for Julianna to act revenge, and there was no way he was going to stop her at this point, he just needs to accept what will come.

They walked along the path, the only noises being those of nature. Excanos clearly had nothing more to say to Julianna, so Julianna had nothing to say to him. Pitch circled above, gliding on the gentle air currents.

As they walked, the girl felt a strongly negative energy radiating from Excanos, but she ignored it. The task she was undertaking would likely take much, if not all of her skills. If the Raven was able to shield herself from the sleeping Seer, she would have to be powerful. And after discovering Excanos' history with her, there was no way she'd let him go in her place.

As the daylight started fading and they drew closer to the destination, Julianna stopped. "To be completely frank," she said, "I don't much care for your attitude. It's weak and pathetic. I need to know this because, if I don't like the answer, you will not be coming with me any further. When we get there, considering your history with the Raven, are you going to be strong enough to resist her?"

Excanos stopped and turned towards Julianna. The hood on his robe covered his eyes within a shadow. His heart wasn't moving he had no pulse, the only thing keeping his body functioning was the curse mark. He had an essence about him that was on par to that of the deepest level of hell itself. He straightened up a bit and spoke in a low and surprisingly calm voice:
"Resist? What is there to resist when there is nothing left. You don't have the power to win against her, you're too naive. You're intense focus on your moonstone will only get you killed. I'll approach her as I am, she and everyone else mean nothing to me."
Excanos continued for a bit before he unsheathed his blade and rested the sharp end on his shoulder.
"I'll bring her head if I have to."
Excanos had become what he feared the most: a demon.
He continued down the beaten path not knowing or caring for Julianna's response anymore. He knew at this point from what he had heard of his other mother-like figure, there would be no reason for her live.
His curse grew a bit, almost covering his entire calf and forearm now. The runes looked to be fading at a faster rate than ever before.
Excanos's mission was clear: return the moonstone, bring the Raven's head to Julianna, and get to hell so that he may at least serve his purpose.

Julianna continued on, following Excanos. The sudden change in him was frightening, and Julianna realized it could definitely spell trouble for her. She couldn't tell what had just happened, but there was no way she was going to ask. The sudden darkness that grew in him was enough to make her shudder.

That being said, Julianna had an issue with her curiosity. She had to know what just happened.

She stepped closer to him and lightly touched his arm, so gently that it could have been a breeze. Then, she touched her moonstone. Pressing the stone to her forehead, she closed her eyes. "Somnum," she whispered, then collapsed on the path in a sudden and deep sleep. Pitch screeched nervously, and Excanos stopped.

Flashes of red, black, and grey flooded her mind. Symbols all over... Runes? Yeah...that's it. The runes that he carved into himself. Darkness. Heat...fire? No...Hell. The runes... They're disappearing? Where? A face... A face of a demon.

She awoke with a start, gasping for air and shaking violently.

Excanos stopped and turned towards Julianna. He started to mumble a chant which sounded nothing like anything he would usually say.
"Vessos pernu sagos"
He placed his cursed hand just above Julianna's breasts and under her neck. A small mixed pulse of heat and cold circulated through Julianna, her shaking began to slow and came to a complete stop after about 20 seconds or so.
Excanos turned about face and began on the path again.
She's special... Excanos's voice mixed with Galith's echoed inside his mind.
The group continued down the past until they arrived at the home.
"Stand back..."
Excanos stood still. After the longest 5 minutes in anyone's life, Excanos's right arm shook violently. A hand made of his black flames sprung from his arm and tore every single rune from Excanos's body, leaving a cauterized claw mark in its wake. The arm placed the runes around Excanos in a pentagon formation. They began to glow violently, each one sprouting a different element. Fire, Earth, Water, Air, and Light. After 10 minutes everything stopped, Excanos was motionless for just a brief moment. The cauterized claw marks began to spout demon-like hardened black metal. Then skin on the right side of his body turned a dark crimson. His shoulder was completely covered in the metal along with his fingertips. His father'a blade floated before him, it snapped perfectly in half, except for the orb that rested in the guard, it grew to the size of Excanos's palm. The blade turned into a giant scythe, the orb situated itself just where the curve to the blade stared. The black flame turned into a flaming eye within the orb. The scythe looked to be something made from and for a demon.
The only thing that wasnt touched was his lips, Julianna had saved that aspect for him. His right eye turned into a demon's eye, dark crimson with a black slit. The top portion of his mother's robes were completely torn to shreads.
He took the scythe in his right hand, he raised it high and with one swipe he opened a rift, it spouted Alexandria otherwise known as the Raven onto the ground in front of Excanos, he positioned the scythe's blade just behind her neck as she was getting up and spoke with his and Galith's booming voice mixed:
"Give the moonstone back, now, or I will decapitate you."
Excanos voice at that moment could've shaken even the most courageos of warriors.

Julianna hadn't had such a heavy blow in years. And now she was supposed to face the Raven? This is going to be bad, she thought to herself.

Alexandria laughed maniacally. "I don't have it!" The Raven screeched. She sat on the ground in front of the boy she had practically raised, the boy who now threatened her life.

Her raven feathered cloak and beautiful red gown were slowly getting dirtier each time she tried to move. She looked straight at Excanos with a mad look in her eye, then pressed her neck into the scythe. Alexandria's silver eyes flitted back and forth between serpentine and human pupils every time she blinked.

Harder, further... She pressed into the blade of his scythe until her head was literally being held on by only skin. "You can't kill me, child," she spat, suddenly vanishing. "Because she wasn't real." The voice came from behind him.

Alexandria smiled ear to ear with the same devious glint in her eye she always had. "Come now, my son," she said in a motherly tone, drawing the other half of the moonstone amulet from the squared neckline of her gown. "A mere illusion. I thought I taught you better than that."

"I am no one's son, my name is Excalith, and you did."
Excalith took the ilusion's head and threw it in front of him. He began to twirl the scythe violently but with precision and beauty nonetheless. Opening rift after rift exposing all of the Raven's illusions in every possible timeline.
Excalith with one swipe killed them all until the real Raven was left cowering as to what her "son" had become.
He raised his left hand and lit a black flame without even chanting, he grabbed the Raven by her calf, burning it severly, then by her head. Making sure she was looking him right in his demon eye.
This is the real one.
Whilst burning her hood, and then hair, Excalith yanked the true moonstone out of her evil grasp and handed it to Julianna.
"That, is real."
He walked back over to the Raven who had severe burns on her legs and back of her skull. He placed the scythe's blade against her neck again.
"You are nothing."

The Raven laughed once again, running her finger along the blade of the scythe. "You gave in to your dark side," she said, looking at him. "I'm so proud." She glanced at Julianna, then back at Excalith. "There's still much you need to learn, though. For one, never touch the blood of a woman skilled in primal magic."

Without warning, she sliced open his wrist with her claw-like nails and drew blood. Then, disappeared in a cloud of smoke, only the echo of her cackle remaining.

In one of her numerous huts, she cared for her wounds, then dug out a magical orb. It was similar to a crystal ball, but used more for speaking to someone. She took his dried blood from beneath her nail and mixed it with a potion, then dropped the orb into the mixture. Alexandria took the orb out and it held a faint red glow, showing Excalith's image. "Mother is so proud of you," she whispered into it, knowing Excalith could hear her voice as though she were next to him without any way to track where it was coming from.

Meanwhile, on the path, Julianna held the other half of the moonstone with a shaky grasp. "I've waited to have the complete moonstone for so long," she said, running her thumb over the second half. She quickly wiped a tear away before it got a chance to fall and laughed breathily. "I almost don't even know what to do. We should make camp. I have to do a fusing spell, which will take a little over an hour."

She settled in a nearby field, while Pitch perched on a low branch. She felt incredibly uneasy around Excalith. There was a darkness that she couldn't recognize, but more importantly it was a darkness that she wasn't sure she could trust.

Sitting on a log and placing her staff next to her, she took off the other half of the moonstone and removed both from their frames. Julianna placed the flat sides of the stone together and closed her eyes. "Simul," she whispered. "Simul in perpetuum." She repeated that twelve more times and placed the moonstone back in her amulet around her neck. The spell wasn't completed yet, but the time remaining was simply waiting for the moonstone to heal itself.

"Thank you," she said, her hand reaching around her to find Excalith.

Excalith licked the blood from his wrist, the wound instantly sealed up. Minor wounds such as that had no effect on him anymore. The Raven's little comment on blood had no effect on Excalith. He shrugged it off just as he did with the wrist wound.

Excalith turned to Julianna and grabbed her with his left hand. His human voice spoke:
"No, Thank You, because I just found out who really killed my parents. The bastard in Connlaoth was a lie setup by her, she even managed to convince Galith." The scythe shook "That is not true. I just like fucking with your head." Galith's voice clearly emanated from the scythe for all to hear. "Regardless as a token of my appreciation..." Excalith brought himself to Julianna again, their lips meeting, but this time it was different. There a slight heat within the kiss. One not of sheepish-ness, or anxiety. To him it felt... natural. Although the kiss was again short lived, Excalith felt a little more at ease with himself.

"You are not my playtoy, I merely was showing my gratitude in the only human way I know."
Excalith sat on a nearby log, the Raven's voice did not phase his mind even in the slightest. In fact...

You, are really bad at hiding the truth, you old hag.

He looked over to Julianna who seemed to be in a state of slight shock. "So, now that you got your moonstone back, anything else you need to do?"

Julianna had never before been in a situation where she had to act like she was completely fine with everything that was happening. She had never before been in a situation where she was practically forced to travel with someone who chilled her to the bone. There was not a doubt in her mind that he could kill her if he wanted to.

She rolled the finally complete amulet around in her hands. "Please don't do that again," she whispered with what seemed like hesitancy. The girl wasn't normally shy in front of people who knew her, but Excalith seemed like a completely separate person from Excanos. "I don't need anything else. Just a few more minutes."

The moonstone completed its joining, and Julianna realized she might have an idea. "It's ready," she said.

Excalith stood from the log he was sitting on. Normally Excanos would've fainted at the opportunity to kiss Julianna again. But after his conversion with Galith, he wasn't entirely sure what to feel. The only thing he remembered before the transformation... was her.

He noticed her voice was tensing up, she was completely terrified of him. Neither Excanos or Ecalith would've wanted this. He spoke, his voice was as soft, welcoming, and goofy as it was before:
"Julianna, I meant what I said before this whole transformation. I don't want you to be scared of me, if anything... you're the last person I would ever let Galith take. And for that reason..."

Excalith twirled his scythe. He threw it up into the air and caught it between his feet, with a swift slice in the air. He tore open the portal to hell that he always needed. "I'm not letting you come to hell with me.
"You helped me find so much about myself through this journey, I found my own screwed attempt at love, I found the real person that killed my parents, and although I look different, I feel a lot better about myself than I ever would've without you." Before he stepped into the portal, he turned and approached Julianna one more time.

"You said not to do 'that' again, so I won't, instead..." He knelt to Julianna and gave her the most comforting hug he could ever give, even with his seemingly torn body. He pulled away: "Thank you."
Excalith stepped into the portal with the scythe resting on his shoulders.
I'll be back to see you again, and maybe when I return, you'll be able to see me.
The portal closed.

When the portal closed, Julianna jumped up. "You bloody fool!" She shouted, grabbing her staff. Pitch flew down and landed on her shoulder. She winced slightly, not having any protection from his talons. "I can't take you with me, buddy. Time moves different in Hell. Four months here is forty years there. That stupid bastard wouldn't know."

Her eyes started to emit a white glow, and Pitch flew away from her. She touched a few of the runes on her staff, each one turning red upon her touch. With each touch, she repeated, "aperiam in porta." At the last rune, she spun her staff rapidly and slammed it on the ground.

Once again, the fiery red circle appeared and started to grow. The strength from the portal was stronger than it was last time, and she knew it was because it felt she was stronger with her full moonstone. One thing she left out when she first showed Excanos her ability...

Not only can she now open and close the portal to Hell at will, but she can also open one to Paradise (what some call Heaven), and she can take people, dead or alive, to and from the destinations. It just depended if the spirits wanted to go with her.

She stepped through the portal, whistling a soft goodbye to Pitch, who chirped nervously at the portal from a very safe distance. Inside, she touched the runes in the opposite order. "Claude ostium," she whispered, a small tear falling from her eye when the portal shut.

Julianna kissed her moonstone. "Invenient," she said. The moonstone began to glow and give her an energetic pull toward the one she was looking for.

After floating through the portal for what seemed forever. Excalith finally passed through a glimpse of light. He landed gracefully out of the portal onto a seemingly endless plane of black. He stepped in a nearby puddle of black water, nothing like the river styx, just like the water he was able to conjure up. Lifeless husks of bodies walking by in the hopes of seeing paradise.

Excalith freed everyone he saw with his scythe.
"Limbo, the level for those who are unbaptized and whatever else. Presumably the easiest level, but sure as hell the creepiest by far."

After walking for which seemed like forever, Excalith didn't realize he had stepped off a cliff...
Instead of panicking, Excalith just went with the flow, nothing seemed to scare him anymore, Galith, death, girls. Nothing phased him.

After about an hour of falling, Excalith finally hit something he could at least call land. When he looked up, he saw a path to Colosseum-like structure that had deathly screams coming from it. Following the path, the screams only got louder and louder until...

"Number 6billion, 452 million, 378 thousand, 5 hundred, and 2 please show yourself." A lifeless groan came from what appeared to be an audience, the figure raised its hand. Soon after a giant demon with the top part of it's head looking like the outside of the Colosseum rose from the ground. It's large death ridden hand snatched the soul who quickly realized what was going to happen and started screaming and pleading for mercy. "No mercy with the house of pain." The giant responded. The demon slammed the soul onto a spire that was attached to a wheel like mechanism, it spun violently sending the soul's limbs flying off in every direction. The demon laughed: "HA HA HAA, that never gets old, next!"

Demon of pain, pretty much a pushover from the stories that I heard of from mother. But his sadism would and could terrify any normal mortal. He's blind so playing that to my advantage should help. Excalith closed his eyes for a moment pondering more possibilities as he kept on the path.

Julianna rolled her eyes at the sight of the hellish Colosseum. Hell was an interesting place, but she preferred to venture into Paradise; not nearly as many creeps in Paradise. She tied her hair back in a tight ponytail, then continued on, letting her moonstone direct her.

The Colosseum was a familiar sight, if dreaded and uncomfortable for her. She wasn't overly fond of the practices that went on inside those walls. Not that she objected to Hell itself, but rather the repetitiveness and unchanging punishments of the Colosseum.

She heard the annoyingly confident inner voice of Excalith. Julianna sighed, watching Excalith walk along the path. She girl silently crept over and spun her staff in the air. She caught it and slammed it into his back. The staff hit Excalith with a considerable amount of force, making him whip around, ready for a fight.

Julianna smirked with slight arrogance, waving her fingers at him. "Nobody walks away from me, Excalith."

Excalith whipped around and saw her, the only other person he didn't want to see down here. He became frustrated beyond belief and started to shout rapidly:

"I DONT CARE ABOUT WALKING AWAY I CARE ABOUT YOUR SAFETY! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE I SPECIFICALLY ASKED FOR YOU NOT TO COME, THIS IS MY ENDEAVOR, I STILL LOVE YOU SO WHY WOULD YOU EVEN THINK FOR EVEN A SECOND TO FOLLOW ME? I WANTED YOU TO STAY SO YOU WOULDN'T DIE! EXPLAIN!"

Excalith didn't appreciate the fact that all of his efforts would be in vain if something were to happen to her. This was his fight in the first place, and now that he had the power to get where he needed to he didn't want to endanger anyone else. 

He pinched the bridge of his nose as he awaited for a response.

"Bullshit," she snapped, staring him directly in the eyes for the first time.

Excalith may have an emotional passion to him, but Julianna knew he had never physically been to Hell. He seemed to be handling himself pretty well, as she expected. Still, the fact remained that she had ventured into eight of the nine levels of Hell multiple times before. Nothing he could say would make her stay behind.

"First of all, I don't explain my actions to anyone. Especially not when I'm asked, or told to! Second, I don't give a kaadir's ass what you asked of me! Besides, we made a deal, and despite the fact that you lied to me, I intend to hold up my end of it." She looked at her staff, as she twirled it once more and planted it on the ground. "Now then, shall we?"

Julianna wasn't sure what to make of his expression. She expected him to be fuming, but there was something else...

Excalith sighed heavily. I should've expected this from her, there's no point trying to fight her. I dont even understand it. She completely rejected me and wanted to nothing to do with me when I was just Excanos, but now since the transformation she's all of the sudden interested? I would like to call that shallow but who knows whats going on in that mind.

Excalith made no attempt to retaliate since it was useless. Although he did find her stubbornness cute, he wasn't going to let anything happen to her.

Excalith noticed something, he grabbed Julianna's shoulder's and stared into her eyes, they were silver with a blue tint, she regained her pupil, iris, and most importantly SHE WASN'T BLIND ANYMORE?!?!

"HOLD THE PIGEON! How the hell did you get your sight back?"

Excalith's sudden realization excited her. She bit her bottom lip with an I contained smile. "It's complicated," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I regain my sight when I travel through Hell and Paradise. I don't know why, but to be completely honest, I don't want to know. All I can tell you for sure is I'll be blind again when we get back to our realm."

Her smile disappeared when she spoke about returning. More often than not, she avoided venturing into either dimension, simply because the loss of her sight when she returned was a painful reminder of what she was missing. There were times when she would just stand at the edge of the portal, staring into her world just to admire the beauty of life.

It was a curse. She lived blind to the beauties of life, but was forced to gaze upon the realms of the dead. She would give anything for it to be the other way around, but everyone was given their blessings and curses in life.

Excalith's intimate distance unnerved her briefly. Whether he left her for her own protection or not, she still couldn't get over the intimidating aura that he exudes. She didn't like it, but that was no reason to let him walk into an unknown world without some help.

Excalith also he had never been to hell physically, his mother's book's taught him everything he needed to know. The house of pain was a relatively easy demon to deal with, but still would require some effort nonetheless. Excalith began to walk towards the Colosseum while Julianna followed.

"I may not have been here physically, but I know what each guardian is capable of. If you're not going to heed my warnings at least listen to me when it comes to combat. Deal?"

They reached the Colosseum with no retaliation whatsoever. They entered into the main arena area. A soulless limb flew over their heads. "HAHA I LOVE THAT PART." The demon's voice boomed with maniacal laughter. He sensed to two new presences within the arena: "Oooh what do we have here? TWO BEINGS WITH SOULS?! LETS FIX THAT!" The house of pain attempted to grab Julianna. Excalith sliced it's arm completely off with one simple swing of his scythe.

"Julianna I need a hard hitting spell now!"

Galith I need you to work with me to protect her please.
Fine, but I get complete control next.

Excalith completely expelled Gailth into a giant shadow that hovered near Julianna. The demon summoned servants to try to overrun the duo. Without Gailth in his body, Excalith red skin had faded, the scythe's orb turned blue, and his eye's took on a complete cover of deep blue. Excalith began summoning shadows of himself to fend off the lesser demons. The house of pain attempted to strike Julianna with it's disgustingly long forked tongue, but Excalith quickly knocked away from her each time. He transported in between the shadows, killing minion after minion, waiting for Julianna's hard hitting spell.

Julianna rolled her eyes, stepping away from Galith's shadow form. She knew Excalith was waiting on her, but she wasn't wasting her energy in limbo. "No deal," she said to Excalith with a smirk.

She put her staff on her shoulders and hung her arms on the staff. "House of Pain!" She shouted wth a sigh. "Or whatever the hells your name is. Mihi beneficium!"

The demon seemed to freeze at her words. No one had ever dared ask a favor of it, and she caught its attention.

"Nunc revertetur gratiam," she continued.

"Disputatio," the demon answered.

All of the fighting stopped, and all eyes were on her. She strolled around the Colosseum, intentionally creating a dramatic suspense.

"Time to pay the piper," she said simply. "I've assisted you in many ways, ya big sack of shit, without any payments. Now, my turn. You know for a fact that you would not be as successful as you are without my help, so it's your turn to help me."

She looked at Excalith with a wink, then turned back to the demon. "Alrighty then! You're going to let me pass with that guy over there, and oir little secret of your clown phobia won't get out into the living world. If you don't let us pass, we'll never do business again."

The demon was clearly uncomfortable by her confrontation, but knew that she wasn't bluffing. "Haec sunt quae concedenda," the demon said, allowing them passage to the second level of Hell.

As the two stepped into the portal to the next realm of hell. Galith's shadow rejoined with Excanos's body becoming Excalith again. He knelt to the ground in sheer embarrassment. Greaat... She's been here before and can basically walk me through the entire thing. That's fun. He stood again hanging his head low as he motioned Julianna to lead the way.

The second level of hell wasn't as calm as the first unfortunately. Vicious winds swept through the land, souls fornicating with each other in the most absurd ways possible. Some even motioning for Excalith to join. Normally a mortal's mind  would be filled with hallucinogenic thoughts from this land. Thankfully, Galith naturally receded the thoughts from Excanos's mind to prevent any mishaps. He wasn't sure how Julianna was holding up in her head, but she most likely had something to keep her from those thoughts as well. Excalith didn't care what it was, he just knew she had SOMETHING up her sleeve.

Excalith made the mistake of looking at one pair of souls. The two had clearly only been with each other purely for lust and intercourse. It was disgusting to watch. Excalith hung his head again, just waiting for the next guardian to appear so they could kill it and move on. Or just sit on the side lines again and talk to the demon. woohoo...

As they walked through the second level, the lustful displays of intimacy between the spirits didn't even slightly bother Julianna. The many times she had been to that level had taught her enough that she knew not to pay attention to the disgusting acts.

Excalith had shifted his energy from overconfident to just plain down. He's moodier than I am, she thought to herself. The two lands of the dead were her territories, so Excalith's presumption that he could automatically know his way because of a few books was almost insulting to her high level of hands-on experience.

Before they made it to the demon guarding the passage to the third level, Julianna stopped and turned around with her hand extended. Excalith, with his head still hung, stopped short, her hand pressing against his chest. She leaned against her staff and smirked slightly. "Okay," she said. "You clearly have something to say or ask or whatever, so just speak!"

Excalith didn't budge whatsoever. "Just lead the way and do what you do. I'll shield us fro-, that doesn't even matter. I spent my whole life trying to learn about this place and what to watch out for once I finally came through. Now, it's just a walk in the park since you've been here already. So just lead the way I'll follow, I know nothing about this place anyways.

Excalith didn't look where he was going and accidentally collided with two souls that were in the middle of fornicating. They tried to include him in, but he simply got up and walked away. The souls clearly were afraid of Julianna for some reason, thus they didn't retaliate.

"Who's the next guardian again? Wait I don't think it'll matter. Since you can just walk us right through them." Excalith mumbled.

Ever since his fusion with Galith, Excalith had a lust for battle, especially with Julianna around. He wanted to prove to her that he wasn't the scared little boy of the world who practically feared women at one point. Excalith was leaning on his scythe to walk with.

Like she had said before, Julianna despised it when someone walked away from her. "Mutatio," she said, waving her hand toward him. His hellish scythe took on a diamond-like illusion with floral patterns all over it.

She smirked at Excalith's briefly shocked expression. "Nobody walks away from me," she said.

"You're being petty." Julianna huffed, leaning against her staff. "Look, if you want me gone, say the word. I'll go right now, and I won't look back. But that won't change the fact that I do know this place better than you do. If you really want to prove that you're worth anything down here, I suggest you swallow your pride. This is your mission, so I'll play along, but if there's a chance I get get us to the next level without unnecessary force, I suggest you have an open mind about it."

She was deadly serious. There was nothing that pissed her off more than someone who couldn't take criticism or directions. Julianna wasn't there for fun and games, but to get in and get out with her soul in tact. If Excalith wasn't interested in accepting what she had to offer, Julianna wasn't interested in helping him get what he came for.

Excalith straightened up a bit. Admiring the change of scenery of the scene for a little bit. "That option is up to you. You can leave whenever you want to. I need to face Galith on the 8th level, that's all I know. Whether or not you come along is completely up to you. I can't control you in any way shape or form. I don't think like you do."

Excalith continued onto the path. Getting annoyed by each soulless lustful couple that attempted to bring them into their little fuck-fest. After the 10th couple, Excalith snapped. "STOP TRYING TO BRING ME INTO YOUR LUST, SEX IS SACRED FOR MY FATHER"S SAKE!" He took the still floral looking scythe and began reaping every soul around him. His red skin started to take over a bit more. his other eye started to turn a reddish tint.

"Let's just get through this guardian already, kill it or not, just do it quickly." His voice deepened  with Galith's voice clearly present.

Julianna raced over to him, as Excalith was reaping the souls. "Stop!" She screamed desperately, jumping in front of a couple. She held her staff out, just as Excalith's scythe came down. Upon impact, the runes on Julianna's staff started emitting an almost blinding light, making everyone around, dead or alive, turn away from it.

When the light dissipated, the girl sank to her knees, a splitting pain emanating through her body, as she looked at the two pieces of the staff. The runes had a charred appearance to each one.

Her hands shook, and the two wooden pieces rolled onto the ground. "Master, forgive me," she whispered, touching her moonstone and thinking of the man who raised her.

The male soul of the couple she had just saved crept up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. She put her hand on one of his and looked back at his golden eyes. He kissed the side of her head, and she waved her hand around his face. "Veni mecum," she said. The soul was sucked into her moonstone, which gave out a faint golden glow.

She looked at Excalith and snapped her fingers, making the diamond and floral illusion disappear from his scythe. Julianna picked up her broken staff and stood. "I guess I'm stuck here either way."

Excalith upon realizing what he had done dropped his scythe and fell to his knees. Then fell completely on his back. He started to laugh hysterically, almost to the point of maniacal laughter. "OH MY GOODNESS, IM. AN. ABSOLUTE. FUCKING. IDIOT. I JUST LOVE MESSING THINGS UP!"

Excalith snapped completely. Rolling around on the ground, back and forth. Shouting "I AM AWESOME! IM THE BEST PERSON TO EVER EXIST!" He was a deranged madman. These weren't a side of effect of hell.

Excalith stopped for a moment. His body shaking violently, the red skin completely taking over. His other eye turning as red as the other. He stood grabbing the scythe from the ground. "MY TURN!" Galith's voice boomed from the scythe. The scythe floated in the air momentarily before sinking itself into Excalith's chest. A large flow of red energy bursted from him.

A figure appeared from the smoke. He had silver demon-like horns made of the same metal that was on Excalith's elbow and shoulder. His face was a sharp shape, his bone-like structures such as the jaw protruded out with the demon metal.

"It's Gailth time baby! This body feels nice and fresh!" The scythe was that of a true demon, curved fangs ran along the edges, the blade itself was vastly larger than before, and the ord was twice as big. Gailth looked over to Julianna "I must say thank you. But we need to get a move on, people to kill, souls to reap, the works you know."

Julianna felt a fire burning inside of her. She hadn't felt so powerless since she first discovered her Seer powers years ago. Without her staff, the magic she had access to was unpredictable and incredibly powerful. She didn't want anything to do with it because it was a destructive force, but the balance of Paradise and Hell was at stake, so there was no way she was just going to let Galith do whatever he wanted.

She marched in front of him. Why did he constantly insist on walking away from her? It was getting really annoying! She stopped in his path with her authority clearly exuding from every part of her body.

He was at least a foot taller than she was, but Julianna was still very capable of putting the demon in his place.

"Alright! That's enough!" She snapped. Her silver-blue eyes taking on a sudden red glow to almost match Galith's own. "You might think you're big and scary, ya slimy piece of shit, but you're about to stay right you are and listen to me. I've faced and killed much worse than your sorry ass, so I'm not afraid to say what I mean.

"This is Hell! It's a very important part of the worldly balance, so you will be doing absolutely nothing to disrupt it. That means no reaping! These souls are exactly where they belong, and I intend to make sure it stays that way. You don't know what I'm capable of. To be completely honest, I don't even know what I'm capable of like this. Without my staff, my magic is completely unleashed. I don't know what kind of power I can wield, but I do know you won't like it if I choose to do so.

"I'll play along with you on this little trek, but you better watch your ass when it comes to maintaining the natural balance."

Galith chuckled maniacally. "Oh, little, little girl. You really do bring a tear to my demonic eye. You don't understand do you?" Galith disappeared, then reappeared behind Julianna with his typical devilish smile and the scythe's edge at her neck. "I don't reap, I DRINK." With a quick swipe he nicked Julianna's throat a little with the scythe, just enough to get little drops of blood flowing. Galith got closer to her neck and licked up as much blood as he could with one sweep. The wound cauterized immediately. Julianna winced at the burn. "These soul's are useless to me, reaping isn't my sort of thing. I drink the blood of mortals, and yours being especially pure definitely has me in the mood for seconds." Galith grinned.

Galith continued to walk again, but stopped unnaturally. His body began to tremble. A voice from the scythe that sounded exactly like Excanos started to shout violently: "HOW DARE YOU LAY A HAND ON HER YOU DEMON CUNT." The scythe dug itself into Galith's stomach, he fell to his knees coughing up blood. "I-I *cough* IDIOT, THIS IS YOUR BODY TOO!" "I DONT GIVE TWO STEAMY SHITE'S, YOU TOUCHED MY JULIANNA! NOT ONLY THAT YOU CUT HER NECK TO SATISFY YOUR RIDICULOUS DRINKING PROBLEM! I'LL MAKE YOU DRINK YOURSELF IF I HAVE TO!" Galith began to shake again, one of his hands balled up into a fist, he started to punch himself, hard, He practically broke off one of the metallic demon metal horns on his head. A small burst of energy appeared and Excalith was back again, the scythe falling odd to the side on the ground. Excalith was still coughing up blood.

Galith no longer scared Julianna. She was finished dealing with his showmanship because that's all it was. He might literally have fed off of mortal blood, but fear is what creatures like him actually craved. The burn definitely bothered her, but she'd been through worse. Even the scythe against her throats didn't bother her.

Once the scythe planted itself in his gut, Julianna whirled around, her heart pounded against her chest at the sound of Excanos' voice. It was shocking, but didn't leave much time for awe before the internal battle was evened out.

The burst of energy from the change charged Julianna's moonstone. She looked at her staff and saw that the runes no longer had a charred look to them. She knelt in front of Excalith, her hand on the side of his neck, stroking her thumb on his cheek. Julianna held the top part of her staff in her free hand and squeezed her eyes shut with a sigh.

"Oh, son of a bitch," she huffed. Julianna ran her fingers along the piece of the staff, magical energy flowing into her body. She dropped the staff and snapped her fingers, a faint glow appearing around her hand. "This is going to hurt."

She placed her glowing hand on the gaping wound and kissed him, not remotely caring about the fact his lips and chin were coated in blood. Golden energy flowed into his body from hers, and the injury from the scythe was instantly healed. She broke the kiss by falling slightly to the ground, coughing and gasping briefly. She regained her composure and sighed, looking sadly at the once again charred runes on her staff.

Excalith wiped the blood off his face and stood. He winced a bit, although Julianna had healed the wound itself, the pain was still there. Leaning himself on the scythe he offered a hand to Julianna to get up. He wiped the blood off her face with his thumb, gently. He looked down and off to the side: "I'm sorry you had to do that for me, I guess I really can't make it here all on my own. Thanks for helping me out. But we have to get a move on. I'll listen to whatever you have to order me to do."

He started to walk again, still leaning on his scythe and wincing every couple of steps. He chuckled a bit: "I bet the only reason you did that was cause we're in the land of lust." He sighed continuing on the path once again. Eyeing all the lustful couple's who seemed to be enjoying themselves. Some started to eye him again, but he knew it wasn't for the same reason as last time. They were practically terrified of him due to his previous reaping. I guess this world is just out to get me. Haha. Just got to push through is all, once we get to Galith, it'll all be over thankfully.

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Julianna said, running her thumb along the blackened runes of her staff. "There's still the matter of defeating Galith. If that happens, then it'll be over."

Excaltih looked at her with confusion, and she chuckled with a shrug. "Be careful what you think in Hell when I'm around. My powers are kind of awesome here."

They continued on their way, and Julianna avoided the eye contact of every soul that level. First of all, it would be a very awkward thing to see. Second, she wasn't exactly loved among them. A lot of the souls she brought to Hell ended up on the first, second, and seventh levels, so she had a feeling the other levels shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Something about killing the demon guardians just didn't sit right with her. Without the demons running each level, the souls would crowd onto the first level, the least painful. Still, it wasn't that she was opposed to shaking them up a bit...

"That was probably my fault," she confessed. "You wouldn't have been put in that situation if I hadn't come in the first place. And by the way..." She touched her moonstone and smirked at Excalith. "This protects me from succumbing to Hell's corruption. I'll explain more about it some other time, but the 'land of lust' had absolutely nothing to do that."

Excalith appreciated Julianna's, in his mind, hopeful comment. But he knew she was just saying that to make him feel better. Which besides the pain still coming from his stomach, did make him cheer up a bit.

"In that case," Excalith bowed and looked at Julianna, "lead the way captain. I'm just a sailor that follows orders, if you tell me to fight I will, if you don't I won't." He said with a wink.

"I just have to tell you," she started, "I'm not going to be okay with killing the demon guardians. Each one plays an important role in maintaining Hell, so killing them is out of the question."

Julianna took a breath, shaking her head. "I don't mind if you kick their asses, but no murder!"

They continued along, and Julianna looked ahead, smiling as she knew they were approaching the guardian. Walking through Hell's levels was nothing new for her, as she had done so multiple times. Even so, she had never faced off against the guardians because they had always welcomed her. Soul smugglers were highly valued in Hell.

"Just a heads up... The next demon is going to mess with your head. You're gonna have some really weird...desires...toward someone you won't want to. I don't know who, but it's an illusion the demon takes to screw with your head. Just don't overthink it."

They made it to the demon, who took the form of Excalith's mother dressed in rather...provocative...attire. Julianna covered her mouth to hide the smirk she was developing. "Go mess her up," she said, patting him on the shoulder and nearly breaking her straight face.

Excalith's pain had finally subsided, given Julianna's warning he wasn't surprised that his mother would be the illusion the idiotic demon would choose. "Thank's for the warning by the way. But this doesn't fly with me." He mumbled as Julianna walked back a couple paces behind him.

The demon spoke in mother's exact tone: "Hello son... You've grown mighty big and... Stroooong. Mmmmmmm." The image of seeing your mother portrayed in such a way, had no home within Excalith. "Come her baby and let me taste that nice juicy co-" The demon spewed boiling black blood from it's mouth onto Excalith's demon metal shoulder plate. Excalith's eye's sparkled purple for a mere second as his demon claws dug into the guardian's gut.

He spoke in a low and possibly the most terrifying voice ever heard (even Julianna could hear it): "Do. Not. Disrespect. Mother." Excalith pulled his arm out of the stomach and landed a hard hitting right hook to the demon's jaw. "HOW DARE YOU HURT MOTHER YOU SHALL PAY FOR THAT WITH A SPANKING." One of the demon's invisible hands repeatedly slapped Excalith across the face. He didn't budge.

"Mother would never harm a living soul, that's how I know you aren't her." Excalith dropped his scythe. "Ignitius manurros, Unaki vaus morbithem." A blue and red flame swirled in his right hand. He crushed the two onto his bicep and coated his entire left arm in purple flame.

Excalith vanished, no, he was moving so fast that a mere mortal's eye couldn't comprehend his speed.

The guardian felt a series of light taps across her body. Excalith appeared behind her.

"YOU DID NO-"

"Omae wa mou shindeiru."

"What in hell are you say-" The demon exploded into a rain of boiling black blood.

"You are already dead."

Julianna stood where she was, her heart racing. "I had one request," she whispered. "And I warned you what it would do!"

Her eyes looked over the mess the demon's blood had left. She shook her head, squeezing her eyes closed and breathing deeply. The girl knew Excalith didn't know what he had just done, but there was no reason to hold it over him, especially since it couldn't be undone.

"We have to run," she said, her voice shaky and her eyes darting around. "Hell is going to be hunting, and we're going to be the prey. Let's go."

Excalith looked at his hands for a moment. Purple... I like that color... Its more welcoming... Excalith completely tuned out Julianna, not forcibly but after using the unaki vaus morbithem chant, his ears were ringing as a side effect. It would go away eventually but at the moment he couldnt hear anything. All he saw was Julianna talking to him as if there was a sense of urgency. Excalith still hanging his head dashed up to Julianna and carried her as if she was some sort of princess. The scythe stuck to Excalith's back.

"Hang on." His voice mixed with Galith's.

He ran off the cliff, the portal appearing just below them sending them to the 3rd level of hell: Gluttony. Icy rain was never ending in this portion of hell.

Excalith landed on his back making sure to not harm Julianna. Thankfully the scythe floated out of the way as well to avoid any injuries. Excalith's voice was unmoved "we're here." As he laid in the crater his body made when they landed, thankfully Julianna was unscathed.

She stood, fixing her hair and straightening her clothing out. "Okay, I appreciate that landing position, holy shit please ask me before you do that again."

Julianna hit him in the chest, knowing there was never a chance she could actually physically hurt him.

"As powerful and magical as I may be," she said, rubbing her upper arm uncomfortably, also because of the sudden cold, "I am still afraid of some things. One of which is heights. I don't like falling."

The appearance of Galith's voice made no difference to her. She was no longer unnerved by the demon's presence, now simply seeing him as a nuisance. Albeit necessary, but still annoying regardless.

Excalith's mood seemed to perk up a bit, knowing Julianna was unharmed he actually smiled just in the slightest way. He stood up still carrying her, he chuckled "just following orders."

He let Julianna get to her feet before releasing her entirely. Julianna walked in front her stride as gracious as always. As well as something else. We literally just left the lust level, but damn I could watch this all day. He loved every aspect of Julianna, the way she walked, the way she talked, the way she handled situations albeit sometimes annoying, it was in a good way and with good intention.

The souls of the level took the form of yeti's consuming what seemed to be endless supplies of raw meat. One leaned back in an attempt to digest and take some kind of break, but some force held its hands and feet down and forcefully fed the soul until it's stomach quite literally exploded. The smell was repulsive, but thanks to the icy rain, it was contained.

The two walked for what seemed like miles, without even giving any thought and not even a cause of the level itself "I'm kinda hungry actually."

Julianna chuckled, ignoring the smell. She was accustomed to living without a sense, so blocking one out wasn't necessarily difficult for her. She glanced over her shoulder at Excalith. He seemed oddly at ease.

"Funny you should say that," she said, not stopping. The souls were being forced to die and relive death over and over and over again.

Not surprising when it came to Hell. It was, after all...Hell.

She gestured to the exploding souls being force-fed to the point they died. "This is the third level of Hell. Gluttony. Please, just do me a favor and don't fall for it? It's seriously one of the most pathetic things to be put into Hell for."

Excalith wasn't kidding, in all honesty when was the last time they ate something? It seems that it's been such a long time and Excalith's stomach was surely notifying the both of them of that. "Seriously though, when was the last time we ate something? I swear it's not the level because I actually feel my stomach growling for food."

Considering their current location, Excalith really doubted she would believe him at this point. "Do we have anything at all?"

She shook her head. "The only thing I have in my bag is what remains of my staff. Pitch usually collects food for me."

Julianna sighed, shaking her head. "And guess what? Hunger and normal bodily functions don't exist down here, other than to the souls being tortured. I promise... You won't feel hungry when we get to the fourth level. Speaking of which, let's get a move on. The next guardian isn't too far ahead."

The girl suddenly stopped, turning around with her hand out. "Before we go any further, I need you to promise me you won't kill this one. I need your word, and I need you to live up to it. Do whatever you want, just do not kill it."

Excalith started to chuckle a bit as he patted Julianna's head. "I'm pretty sure you can understand what that demon was portraying? Yeah I kind of wanted nothing of that sort. Plus you are the leader here, from this point on I listen to you. So long as it doesn't try to murder YOU in the process I think I can manage. I guess you're right about the hunger thing though. I'm probably fine."

Excalith gave a genuine smile for once. How ironic in a place with a setting of complete and utter misery.

The two walked up a beaten path until they reached a giant opening within icy rock. The rain beating down on the two as well as the seemingly empty cavern. Excalith looked at Julianna with a confused look and a shrug.

"What do we do now miss leader?"

"Try to avoid Spot," Julianna said, looking around. She glanced over at Excalith, who was clearly confused by what she had just said. She smirked and folded her arms across her chest. "The demon that guards this level is a three-headed dog-like creature. Only the three heads are made up of only mouths. It fits the theme pretty well."

Shaking her head briefly, Julianna pinched her eyes closed, rubbing with two fingers. Her vision was getting blurry, like looking through somebody's spectacles. After extended time in Hell without a constant stream of magic, the Seer's sight was often taken from her. It was a price that she had always been able to escape.

Of course Excalith wouldn't have known that, nor would she let him find out.

That was the reason her staff breaking was truly terrifying to her. If she could get back to the realm of the living, she could repair her staff. If she remained in Hell for too long, her vision was gone and her magic was unpredictable. Not a good combination.

"We should keep going. I'm not dealing with another confrontation like the last. There's a kind of back door that I'm going to need you to open." She knelt on the ground and began drawing foreign runes on the ground in a circle. "Step inside. Touch each rune while turning to the left, and repeat after me. 'Aperta ianua.' Got it?"

Excalith stepped within the circle following Julianna's orders step by step. Considering my last two random outbreaks it would make sense to not make any confrontation,

a portal opened and the two graciously stepped through to the fourth level of hell: greed. Lakes of pure gold gold scattered all around this level, souls were trapped endlessly screaming to attempt to get out of their misery. Others were forced to mine gold for their own greed, but the rock would always reform as they were just about to strike gold.

"This level seems... unsettling. Still a little hungry though."

"I don't care if you're hungry," she snapped. Julianna knew it was out of character, but she didn't feel she had the time to really pay attention. She squeezed her eyes closed again and took a deep breath. "Sorry. I guess I'm just a bit stressed. Just ignore your hunger until we get out of Hell. Please."

She looked across the molten gold, squinting to try and focus her vision. Julianna saw the soul she was looking for. She knelt down and started making hand signs to the soul. He then responded with hand signs. She looked back at Excalith. "He's deaf," she said. "Have to talk with hand signs."

Julianna stood back up and pursed her lips. "This is going to be relatively simple, but not easy. I have friends down here that will help us cross. Just make sure you don't fall in."

Excalith stepped cautiously around each pool of gold, he was never a greedy person so this area quite literally had no effect on him. He spoke: "Look, however you communicate with them is fine by me. So long as they don't try to bite your head off, I'm cool with it." Excalith looked over the souls forced to mine for the rest of their undead lives. How does one even bring them self to that point?Where the literal value of an object consumes their whole being? I just can't understand it.

Excalith continued to follow Julianna waiting for her friends to give passage to the next level. It seemed like they were killing a lot of time. It felt as if it was just yesterday Excalith had killed the lust demon. Time just felt weird. Excalith felt weird around Julianna, everything that happened before the transformation, now this. The place he's been wanting to get to his entire life, all given to him by some random beautiful girl he met at a bar.

"It isn't that difficult to understand," Julianna said, as they walked. The duo walked under the cover of the souls, so they wouldn't be detected. She glanced at Excalith with a smirk at his slight confusion. "I know there's a lot going on, but try to remember I can hear your thoughts down here."

She turned back in the direction they were walking. "Think about it... It may sound crazy, but what were you consumed by? It was enough to let a demon grab hold of your soul. Of course this is different, but it follows the same principle. It's an obsession that grabs hold to the point where you just can't let go."

Julianna touched her moonstone. She swallowed nervously and tripped for the first time since they had entered Hell. "I'm fine," she said a little too quickly. Her spatial awareness was starting to get effected by her failing vision. "Come on, let's keep going."

Excalith was a little zoned out by the fact that even his thoughts were accessible. That's pretty weird that you can read my thoughts. Although... Excalith made possibly the evilest grin he could ever think of. He pictured in his mind very... lewd images of Julianna as well as other scenes that best not be described. How's about that then?

Giggling to himself, they continued on their way to the guardian. "I summoned Galith for the sake of my life, if Galith hadn't been there I surely would've been dead..." Excalith thought for a moment. Galith even though being a demon himself, had always had Excanos's best interests in mind. Whether it be for his own corrupt intentions or he was actually looking out for Excanos he would probably never know.

"So who's the guardian for this place?"

Julianna smirked, hiding it well. She'd never journeyed through Paradise or Hell with someone who she wasn't going to leave there, so the whole thing was a new experience. Maybe it was better to leave his thoughts to himself.

"You're disgusting," she said, despite being slightly flattered in a strange way. "And the reasons behind summoning Galith don't matter. It's just the concept of being consumed."

She meant it. The reason someone got consumed by something was unknown to her, but she knew too many people it had happened to. When one is consumed, be it by greed or passion or revenge, there was no escaping.

"This guardian is going to be a bit a deceiving. It camouflages. I don't know where it's going to pop up, but it'll emerge from the molten gold. That's why we have to keep moving. There's no avoiding this one. You're going to have to fight it. But no killing!"

Just as Julianna had uttered her last word a lethargic being sprung out of the molten gold and attempted to grab Julianna. Emphasis on attempt. Excalith without even thinking landed a hard kick to the demon's face sending it flying across the small golden lake. Excalith looked at Julianna while his leg was motionless in the air. "I'm guessing that's him? He's a pusho-"

The demon had smacked Excalith with a golden cross that held a perfect emerald in the middle. He was sent flying into the lake. "OK, WHEN WE GET BACK WE'RE GOING TO BE RICH FOR ONE, AND TWO. YOU'RE DEAD NOW." Parts of Excalith's hair was now covered in gold as he emerged from the lake. His skin and the rest of his body was untouched. To him it felt more like an uncomfortably hot bath. "HOW DID A MORTAL SURVIVE A GOLDEN LA-"

"It's rude to interrupt someone when they're talking isn't it?" Excalith landed a hard blow to the demon's stomach causing it to vomit to the ground. Just for good measure Excalith threw the demon into the air and with his own cross, batted him into unconsciousness. "I'll take this too. Don't ever try to touch Julianna ever again... cunt." The cross fitted almost too perfectly onto Excalith's back. The emerald glistened as the duo passed through the portal to the next level: anger.

The duo were greeted with two souls attempting to fight them in the middle of a swamp. Excalith barely flicked a finger and the souls went flying. "I can see this level being annoying." 

The girl was incredibly surprised at herself for not knowing the demon was coming when it had. Every time she'd gone through Hell, she was able to anticipate the demons. Then again, every time she'd gone through Hell, she'd had her magic.

"Thanks," she said, her mind clearly occupied. Julianna shook the thoughts out of her head.

This level was one she really didn't enjoy. Anger was an inherent part of every being ever created. No species is born completely void of some kind of rage. This level could be easily endless, as it's much easier to be consumed by anger than something like greed.

She ran her fingers over the charred runes on her broken staff, as Excalith flung charging souls away from them. "This level scares the shit out of me," she whispered, her eyes darting around and her heart racing. She'd never been comfortable with the fifth level, but with her intuition and sight failing her, Julianna felt extremely vulnerable.

There were screams and cries of souls being torn apart in foolish battles for nothing. These souls were cursed to fight for the rest of eternity, and they knew it. This was absolutely the last level Julianna would have wanted to be stuck in. She knew it would drive her absolutely mad.

Have to get my mind off this, she told herself. Glancing up at Excalith as they walked, she smirked slightly. "You look good blond."

Excalith smirked for a second before catching up to Julianna. He hugged her around the waist and spoke lightly into her ear: "You're fine I'm here for you. I always will be. I won't let anyone or anything hurt you." He chuckled a bit: "Maybe you can help me dye my hair when we get back."

He released Julianna and went back to fending off the souls once more. "Oh and I hope you remember I can hear your thoughts too ya know." He said with a slight chuckle as he kicked another soul across the level.

Excalith felt more at ease, being able to comfort Julianna helped out a lot. Whether or not she accepted it was up to her, but even if she was faking it, he wouldnt know. He just felt happy to be of some use for once. The transformation not only changed his physical look, but it changed a part of him as well, in a good way.

She swallowed nervously. Julianna actually had forgotten her thoughts were accessible. She never traveled with anyone who she wouldn't want knowing her thoughts, so the concept never occurred to her.

First things first, make sure her vision was locked up tight. He may have been able to access the top layers of her mind, but her Seer gift was what allowed her to access anything he thought. He didn't have that. As long as she didn't solely focus on the oncoming blindness, Excalith would have no way of knowing.

It was hard to focus on anything on that level. The noises and energies were what really got to her. She was used to the constant threat on her life, she had to be for her to be as good at fighting as she was. Either way, those noises...why couldn't they stop?

"The demon guardian is close," she said, slowing her pace. "This one is going to be a little tricky. It'll look no different from any of the other souls, only its eyes will glow red. It's meant to ignite some kind of fury. I don't know why or how because it honestly never worked on me, but that's the point of the red eyes."

They kept walking, souls charging from all directions. Then...red eyes...

Excalith realized what was about to happen, he expelled Galith from his body and shouted: "GET BACK THE BOTH OF YO-" Excanos couldnt even finish his sentence before he was impaled with the dragon bone claws of his greatest adversary: his younger sister Kathia. "EXCANOS NO!" Galith's shadow shouted with a hand attempting to grasp him once more.

Still impaled Excanos spoke with a loud and clear voice: "JUST KEEP THEM AWAY FROM JUL-" Excanos was coughing blood onto the claw.

Galith was never one to take orders, but he knew what was coming. "Julianna stay behind me please, I understand you may not appreciate my protection, but for his sake please."

Excanos was being imapled over and over again while his sister shouted: "YOU WERE THE ONE THAT KILLED FATHER AND MOTHER!"

Excanos' sudden expulsion of Galith came extremely unexpectedly. If anything, Julianna would guess he'd want to use Galith's power. Once he actually told her to stay back, she got pissed: nobody told her what to do.

"Screw you," she hissed at the demon. The girl grimaced at the sight of the soul jabbing what could only have been claws from a dragon into Excanos.

Over and over and over again. No...

She turned away, not wanting to see him continuously stabbed by who had to have been his relative. No one got that enraged when attacking a stranger. "You were the one that killed father and mother." Definitely his sister.

Julianna glared up at Galith. "I'll listen to you, but you listen to me. If you know he can't take any more, and I know you need him, so you won't let him get killed. If you know he can't take any more, one of you take my hand, and I'll give you a fucking supercharge like you've never seen."

She was dead serious, and that possibly wouldn't be a metaphor if her power was tapped into. All she knew was that she couldn't watch him get hurt like that.

Galith attempted to reach out to Julianna's hand but Excanos glanced over and mentally yanked Galith's arm away. "I'm not the one telling you to stay back... he is. He doesn't want your supercharge either especially with your unstable magic." Galith tried his best to fight back against Excanos's wishes but "his will is too strong at this moment. He wants me to protect you at all costs."

Kathia screeched with maniacal laughter: "You were weak! You let those demon craft cunts rape mother and birth me right then and there! I took amazement in seeing your father perish like the little cunt he wa-"

Excanos grabbed the claw and spoke with a terrifying voice that even gave Galith chills: "You. Take. That. Back."

Kathia laughed in his petty attempt of righteousness. "Nice try brother, but that won't work with me." She brought out a soul knife and stabbed Excanos trough his cheek and his mouth. Excanos crumbled to the ground from the sheer amount of pain. Kathia walked over and easily kicked Galith away from Julianna. "Aww, pretty little girl my brother has. I wonder what would happen if she were to be," Kathia appeared behind Julianna and drove her claw into Julianna's back.

"JULIANNA NO!" Galith screamed as he attempted to get back up, but the other souls began to pull him back down preventing him from doing anything.

Excanos opened his eyes to Julianna being impaled from the claw. At that moment he didn't know whether it was the level they were in or what he had just witnessed, but thing was for sure...

"You're dead."

Excanos arose, the pain seemed to just disappear. He was covered in his own blood, perfect. "Unaki Vaus Ignitius Corpus." The blood on his skin began to boil turning a dark blue before spouting out flames. He dashed over to Kathia and spiraled kicked her in the face sending her flying. He lifted Julianna and brought her over to Galith, Excanos easily scattered the souls off of him. "Be useful for once and actually protect her, or I will destroy you." He laid her down in front, although he was a demon he knew how to tend wounds. Especially cauterizing them. "No one will lay a finger on her I promise."

"Good." Excanos turned to see himself impaled once more. "You didn't think I'd give up that easy do you?"

"Not at all." He grabbed the claw with both of his hands and forcefully took reeled them out his body. He slammed Kathia onto the ground with his boiling blood dripping all over her, and tore the claw to pieces. "Thats. Getting. Annoying."

"Oh Brother so predictable." As she slammed him into the ground from above. Excanos grabbed her by the throat and singed her. Throwing her off to the side. She came back with a heavy blow to his back, but he didn't move one bit. "You are even more predictable." Excanos vanished, three shadows appeared and grabbed Kathia at her arms and legs. "She's the real one."

"Now lets see how you like being tortured. Cunt." Excanos slit his wrist and forced Kathia to drink his boiling blood, all the while digging his scythe into her gut and ripping it out over and over again. Finally he ended the torture by clasping his sister's face with both hands and burning it. While his shadows pulled her limbs apart, spewing black blood all over.

"You were never family." Excanos returned to Galith fusing together once more, blood cooled and dripping onto Julianna. "I'm so sorry." He carried her through the portal to the 6th level. The landing wasn't pleasant for Excalith, but Julianna was safe once more as she laid on him while he was on the flaming ground not knowing of she was conscious or not.

She hadn't been injured to that extent in many years, probably since she first started learning how to fight. That had been interesting. Her teacher was skilled, but she was stubborn from birth; never listened to his warnings.

Snap out of it, she thought to herself. Her memories were fun to live in, but it wasn't the time or the place to live in a dream world. She gently pushed herself up and off of him, wincing slightly. "I'm fine," she said, reaching around to feel the wound. "Really. Had worse."

It was definitely deep, but Galith's initial action made sure she didn't lose too much blood. Her vision was gone. Her heart started speeding up in reaction, but she calmed when it slowly began to come back. Still, it hurt to breathe; Kathia had probably partially punctured the Seer's lung. Julianna squeezed her eyes closed, clearing her vision.

She glanced at down at Excalith. He was covered in blood. "Holy shit," she whispered, sinking gently to her knees. "What the hell were you thinking?" She asked him, not completely expecting a response. If it was painful for her to breathe, she couldn't imagine what he was feeling at the moment. "You should've let me help you." She examined as many injuries as she could as quickly as she could. The important thing was to somehow stop the bleeding, and she didn't have anything to do it with. Not to mention, she had unfortunately used up the little bit of magic the soul in her moonstone had to spare.

The flaming ground didn't bother her in the slightest as she had been there so many times before, but Excalith was in enough pain already that she really wasn't sure whether it was hurting him. Fuck, she thought, pursing her lips.

"That was a stupid move you made, expelling Galith." Julianna put her hand on his uninsured cheek, as she moved her hand over his other injuries. "I don't have my magic," she said more to herself, then turning to Excalith. "Why the hell would you do that?"

Excalith opened his eye's to see Julianna's beautiful face once more. His mouth was in a lot of pain so he couldn't speak much. It was for you, it always has and always will you have that promise from me. Excalith tried to sit up and spoke, it was light and mostly broken: "Ig-nnn-it-ous Co-rp-us" He burned all of the open wounds on his body making sure not to accidentally burn Julianna. With another chant water started to flow around him, he also made sure to keep it cool from the heat of the level by adding a frost layer on top. the injury from his mouth healed first thankfully allowing him to speak.

"You also need to stop worrying about me so much, I might've never been here, but last time I checked I've been the one doing most of the work." He said with a slight chuckle. "I should be fine within the hour. Sis really did me good this time. Unfortunately, even with as much as I dismembered her, I didn't kill her so she'll still be the guardian on the way back up."

Excalith winced a bit as he shifted around, thanks to Galith the flaming ground had no effect on him. He put a hand on her head and ruffled her hair a bit "you got to save up your energy, Galith is not going to be easy to defeat, and I'm going to need your help."

She sat on her heels, glaring at him slightly with a smirk. "You're only doing most of the work because someone broke my staff!"

Julianna had gotten to a point that almost nothing he did shocked her. The strange way that Excalith healed himself didn't even make her bat an eye. She wanted to help him, but he was right. The further they journeyed into Hell, the more dangerous the adversaries became. She couldn't give her all unless it was absolutely necessary.

"If you need time to heal, this is a good level to do it on," she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. "The souls here are more focused on escaping over attacking. Most of them probably won't even realize we're here. Thank you for not killing her. I know it was probably difficult."

Before he did the spell, she saw his eyes had a softness to them. Julianna let herself into his mind again and listened to what he was thinking. Whether he intended for her to hear or not, she did, though she wouldn't tell him. "And you can't make me stop worrying," she said. "You're reckless, stubborn, and hell, you have a damned demon tethered to you." She smiled softly and gently pressed her lips against his for just a moment. "And there's no one else I'd walk through Hell for."

Hook, line, and seer. I guess i'm not that bad with women after all.
Yes, because almost killing two beings over and over again suddenly makes you good with women.
Oh shut up you know what I mean.

Excalith was relieved he didn't have to make the first move for once. Sure it required him to nearly kill himself, but it was worth it. The wounds began closing up and Excalith leaned on his scythe once more to stand himself up. "Let's get a move on. This guardian owes me one, I think." He reached out and graciously lifted julianna off the ground.

The duo held hands as they walked through the fiery pit of hell they were in. 

Part of her was confused at her own actions. Julianna was never one to be open to any kind of real attachments. She enjoyed not being tied down, partially because she didn't want to feel like a burden on anyone. Something about him just made her feeling differently...

Literally walking through the levels of Hell with him was better than walking alone in the realm of the living. It just didn't make sense!

"If I don't get my staff fixed, I'm calling dibs on the scythe," she said with a grin, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. She looked him over briefly, impressed with the rate at which his wounds were healing. "Wait, how does a Hell guardian owe you a favor?"

Excalith chuckled a bit before readjusting himself once more. "Well, if you can handle Galith being a little bitch, go right ahead, it looks like I can hold my ow-"

"No you can't, little boy! If it wasn't for me and Julianna you'd be dead by now!" Galith's voice emanated from the scythe as the scythe bonked him on the head. Excalith started laughing while swinging Julianna's arm a bit.

"Finding love in quite literally the worst place this world has to offer, kind of ironic a little isn't it? Or I am just being stupid?" Excalith said with a smile.

"Probably stupid." Galith groaned.

Excalith remembered Julianna's question. "Remember how I said I studied this place? Well, if what I remember is correct the guardian should owe my family a favor if it's the same one. Cross your fingers."

She smirked at Galith's reaction to the two of them. Just the annoyance from the demon made Julianna want to follow through. It was just one of those little things that gave her pleasure in bothering other people. She didn't even care if it was the right thing to do. You have to take entertainment where you can find it!

"And by the way, it's definitely the same demon. Unless something happened that killed the last guardian, which it is highly unlikely that we have more of you running around Hell, the guardians don't change."

As they walked, it felt oddly natural. Even the souls desperately trying to find their own ways out didn't bother her. The height difference was a little funny, though. Excalith was a full foot taller than Julianna was, as well as their general body shapes. She had a very petite form, while he was broad and muscular. It probably wasn't exactly what people would have expected from them!

"Why Hell?" She asked finally. "Of all things to study, why Hell? It couldn't have just been Galith. And how is this your first time coming here, if you've studied it so extensively?"

Excalith let go of Julianna's hand. His expression was stricken with grief as he remembered all the reasons to Julianna's answer. It was something he had been trying to keep out of his mind for the longest time, because he knew it would rub him the wrong way. He stopped walking altogether and spoke:

"My mother was born into a sadistic family of demon crafters, after she had learned about her family's true intentions to bring malice to the world, she gathered her belongings and left... permanently. She met my father a couple years later or so, and they wound up having me. Although my mother relinquished her ties to her family, she still kept all her books. All of which covered the breeding grounds for demons: hell. She used them to help around the house, if they ever laid a hand on anything other than what she ordered, they were banished into a tortuous oblivion," Excalith started to choke up a little. Remembering the night of his parent's death was not something he took lightheartedly, "on the night of their death they were put through the most brutal forms of torture, for my mother that also included being raped, having an accelerated pregnancy, birthing said child, accelerating its growth and filling my mother and Senurai WITH FALSE MEMORIES AS THEY SLIT HER THROAT RIGHT ON FRONT OF HER, ALL THE WHILE SCREAMING 'PLEASE NOT MY BABY NO PLEASE!' My heart sank, she had forgotten about me entirely before her death. Before I summoned Galith I asked him with tears and screams 'I WANT MY MOMMY BACK PLEASE HOW DO I GET HER BACK?' he was first to call out saying 'I can help you get your parents back, you must recite this first and I'll take care of the rest I promise child' I chanted as fast as I could knowing the group was coming for me. Then Galith cut them all down within the night, but I had no one left but myself. I studied hell because I was promised my parents back, but I know that isn't going to happen."

The scythe attempted to nudge Excalith, but it was useless. Nothing Galith could say at this point would just magically get rid of Excalith's grief. "Lets keep moving."

Excalith walked past Julianna, hanging his head low.

Stop fucking walking away from me! She thought to herself. He was making a habit out of it, and she made up her mind to break that once they made it back.

Julianna jogged up to him, grabbing his arm. "Look, I'm sorry for what happened to you. If you recall, I watched it before we got here." She touched her moonstone, remembering when she watched his life unfold. "I know what you went through was traumatic, and I swear I'm not making light of it, but you need to put that out of your mind. I have my own demons to deal with, so it's not like I don't know. But this is definitely not the place to deal with it."

She meant it. She had a lot that he hadn't yet discovered, so it wasn't like he was alone. Hell was just full of things that fed on weakness of any kind. Julianna knew that if Excalith dwelled on the past, it would make him easy prey.

Excalith looked behind him, Julianna looked like she was genuinely concerned for him. He chuckled wiping away a tear from his cheek before turning around completely and hugging Julianna. "Thank you," he said with a crooked smile "but man are you gullible."

Excalith tripped Julianna just so that he could catch her into carrying her like a princess. "Hold on tight!" Excalith backed up on his calf before sprinting into a massive leap. Just as I thought, massive fat priest who disobeyed the church. Used to rape unsuspecting children all the time, bastard deserves to be deeper but thats none of my concern. Excalith jumped off the head of the guardian while digging his demon claw foot into it's eyes. The portal opened surprisingly, and the two were sent to the seventh level: violence.

Avoiding a pool of boiling blood, for once Excalith landed on both his feet with a smooth landing. "Attention all passengers of Half-demon airlines, we have now arrived at the seventh level of hell." Excalith said with a smile and almost bursting out with laughter.

"I would say 'go to hell', but I think that would be a bit pointless," Julianna said, pushing away from him. At first she found his embrace kind of sweet, but then he had to go and be a douche about it.

They moved carefully around the pool that literally made blood boil. It was a very thin pathway around the seemingly endless sea of bubbling red that was consuming every soul in sight. Forgot about this level, Julianna thought to herself, frowning slightly. These people don't really like me.

One of the souls sprang upwards, grabbing onto Julianna's satchel. If there was one thing she refused to lose there, it was her staff. She slammed her foot into the soul's face, making it disappear beneath the blood. She glanced at Excalith with a shrug. "Yeah, I'm not really popular on this level," she said with a smirk. "And what the hell did you mean I'm gullible?"

"You'll find out once we get out of this..." Excalith smirked, "hell hole." He drummed the air to mimic a ba dum tss sound. That was a horrible attempt at a pun. Still worth it. The light-hearted atmosphere between the two was quite ironic to their current location. How could these people just be joking around when they were quite literally on the third deepest level of hell? Let alone developing feelings fro each other. To everyone else the pair seemed to be absolutely insane, but to them it was just another level to get to know each other.

The atmosphere was broken soon after when one soul attempted to attack Julianna from the giant lake of boiling blood. A swift kick and the soul was sent back into the lake condemned to fight others for the rest of eternity.

Eternity... Excalith pondered the idea of death for a moment. Not in the sense of fear, but more so what actually happens. The loss of life and detachment from the physical plane seem like nothing in comparison to the emotional pain it has on the people still living in the physical world. What does it feel like to die? Even though he could clearly see that malicious souls were condemned to hell for eternity. What happens to someone more so what happens to their soul?

If anything Excalith threw the idea out of his mind. What was important was getting to Galith, kicking his ass, and then leaving. More souls attempted to jump onto Julianna, all were kicked back into the lake. Excalith shouted: "Stop trying to attack my g-... Julianna! You're only going to get the shit beaten out of you and thrown right back into the-" Excalith paused. He looked around and noticed they had been circling the lake the entire time.

Where's the guardian? Unless... oh come on! Excalith looked to Julianna and rubbed his eye. "There is no guardian on this level. We have to swim to the absolute bottom of the lake in order to get to the 8th level, and from I remember, the lake cancels out ALL magic of any kind. I think I may be the only one to go through since Galith's demon skin can protect me." Excalith turned away from Julianna and started to head towards to lake. He knelt down and put both of his hands in the blood. As expected, he needed to pull his non-demon hand immediately out of the blood.

I guess its just me from here on out. Great.

Scoffing at his horrible attempt at a pun, Julianna opted not to comment. Instead, she decided to observe him. He was deeper in thought than she would expect him to be given their situation. This was a level that she didn't frequent, but she but the souls knew her all too well.

She blushed slightly at the slip Excalith just avoided. His protective attitude towards her was sweet, but she was fully capable of taking care of herself. When he stopped in the middle of his sentence, Julianna knew that he had realized what she was dreading. The level itself was the guardian....

"Well, what you read isn't entirely accurate," Julianna said, lightly chewing her bottom lip. "There's a simple way to pass through though."

She reached up to the scythe's blade and sliced open the palm of her hand with a wince.

"It's simple, but not easy. Put your blood in the lake, and you'll be able to pass without a problem. You wanna pass through, you have to leave a piece of yourself in Hell." Julianna held her fist over the lake and squeezed, blood dripping into the sea of red. "Up to you."

Excalith was baffled at his own stupidity. So much so that he punched himself. "Wow, I'm an idiot... Whelp time to go for a swim!" Excalith ran his hand along the scythe blood dripping all over as he threw the droplets into the lake. He stepped in the lake, as expected she was right, the lake cooled thanks to the blood.

Excalith extended a hand out towards Julianna "Well? You gonna come in or what?"

She gingerly took his hand and stepped into the lake. "When we get back, I have to get a new job."

He looked away for a moment, giving her enough time to gain a bit of a backup plan. She waved her hand around the nearest soul, golden energy being absorbed into her moonstone. With her magic in the unpredictable state, she needed some kind of tie to steady magic, and no magic is as pure as that taken directly from a soul.

"And I'm kicking your ass for dragging me down here," she said, smirking at Excalith. "You know I can, too! Let's get going. I've only been to this next level once, so I don't know what's going to happen. Are you ready for this?"

Excalith chuckled: "You ask like as if I wasn't prepared for this at all!" Excalith yanked Julianna into the lake with him. Swimming as fast as he could to find the entrance. The lake seemed to go on forever, souls could be seen fighting nearby. Some tried to attack the duo but Excalith easily slapped them away.

THERE IT IS! Excalith saw it, the portal to the next level. The one to finally end this crazy life that he has brought himself into. He swam faster and faster until...

PLOP!

The two dropped down to the eight level, Excalith regained his balance before Julianna popped through. They had gotten separated at some point. Excalith easily caught her and placed her feet first on the ground, wiping some blood off her face. He smiled "How was your swim?"

"Fine," she said, wiping some of the blood from her arms. "That level's disgusting."

She was quite familiar with it, but the lack of magic was what sent chills up and down her spine. Despite being a talented fighter, Julianna wasn't fond of being powerless. Hence why she absorbed the soul. If things went bad, she would have some kind of power to work with.

Looking around at the area, she didn't sense any sign of the guardian. That was new...

"We need to just get through this. Lead the way."

First time she's letting me take the lead, weird. I guess it's justified because of the level, but it still just feels weird. Excalith walked forward a bit and shook the rest of the blood off his clothing ,or what remained of it rather, and lead Julianna along what looked to be a path.

As they walked Excalith noticed that the amount of souls on this level was significantly scarcer than that of any other level. It was understandable since they were on the 8th level of hell itself. It's just the fact there were so little that really bothered Excalith. He had been used to souls aimlessly attacking the duo at this point that this sense of loneliness hit home a little bit. He shook his head vigorously to try to get his mind together once more.

Of the souls he did see, they were either wandering with a demonic companion with chain necklaces, or being beaten senselessly by said companion. Not a single soul, or demon for that matter, even paid attention to them. It was just... weird. The fact that Galith of all demons resides in this level just made it worse.

"How ya holding up back there?"

"I'm fine," she repeated. There wasn't much to say. It was Hell. Did he expect her to say she was having the time of her life?"

Despite the souls and demons around them, it was freakishly quiet. Not to mention the fact that they were actually being ignored for once. She thought she would have been relieved, but it actually freaked her out even more.

"So, can we hurry up and get this over with?"

Might as well try to lighten things up a bit.

"Weeeeell," Excalith grinned "if you want you could hop on my back. We'd get there in half the time."