It was his first time experiencing a pain of this magnitude. Being impaled was not something he intended to add to his bucket list. The tip of the scythe stabbed directly through his inner shoulder. Even his wing on that left side was pinned down. Dark Pit fought back the tears that threatened to surface while he held the blade between the palms of his hands to prevent Demetrius from inflicting any further harm. "I hate tainted half-baked souls like yours," Demetrius spat as he attempted to drag the blade downward.

        "Leave! Him! ALONE!!" The voice belonged to Pit as he screamed from across the field of dirt. He had somehow freed himself from the ropes binding him at the sideline. Dark Pit could not see the sorrow on Pit's face, but it was certainly there. Pit himself began to glow in a light blue hue that faded into magenta around his wings. Demetrius paused and squinted at how brightly Pit was beginning to shine. Dark Pit could only snap his eyes shut to avoid the growing light. When it vanished, Pit was still slightly glowing but only enough to outline his silhouette. His expression was entirely void of emotion, and he floated off the ground without the use of his wings. Demetrius stared at Pit, effectively taking his attention away from Dark Pit. The dark winged angel kept up his efforts to free himself but to no avail.

        "Impossible. Nothing should be able to break those ropes. They're enhanced against divinity!" Demetrius pulled his weapon free which only worsened Dark Pit's pain. The open wound left him close to hyperventilating as he tried to cope with the new feeling. The scythe disappeared, and the rope around Dark Pit's ankle left him alone to return to its weilder. "This dual's victor has obviously been decided, so I'll have to remove you from my area anyway."

        Pit didn't respond. All he did was raise a hand up and point at Demetrius. Several arrows that were the size of spears appeared behind Pit before they all simultaneously fired. Their target dodged easily, but the spears of light were locked onto their target. Every single one of them met their mark without fail. Demetrius, having failed to evade the attack, was left with burns of varying degrees.

        "Pit, stop! Wait!" (Y/n) had called him from where she had finally gotten free of the ropes. Demetrius' weakened state had allowed her to take her divine form and speed over to them. Dark Pit was unable to see much of what was going on since he had clenched his eyes shut to deal with the pain. He heard the hissing of snakes and began to feel his pain ebbing away shortly afterwards.

        Pit hadn't even reacted to (y/n)'s sudden presence. He floated there in front of her with his arm still raised and aimed at Demetrius who could no longer fight. The god of harvest was laid out across the dirt unconcious with an expression of shock still plastered on his face. "It's over," (y/n) tried to tell him. "You beat him, it's over. If you go any further, you'll kill him."

        Dark Pit sat up off the dirt and held his shoulder doing his best to ignore the fading injury. He saw that (y/n) was restraining Pit as best as she could. Their clashing auras seemed to spark as she did so. Dark Pit wasn't in the mood to deal with any of this. "Hey, idiot!" he called. "Don't you want to stop Palutena? You can't take him out before we get what we came here for or else we'll have to start over!"

        Pit's attention immediately flicked over to him. The way his twin's emotionless eyes landed on him sent an unpleasant chill down Dark Pit's spine, but the dark winged angel shook the feeling off. Pit's glow began to fade, and he returned to standing on the ground again. (Y/n) caught him as his knees buckled and failed to support him.

        "Huh? What happened?" Pit weakly questioned. He clung to (y/n)'s arms as she helped him back to his feet. Her own aura had also vanished. "Dark Pit!" The realization in his voice had him scrambling to get to his twin only for him to end up falling flat on his face after escaping (y/n)'s hold.

        "Hey, take it easy there!" (Y/n) was quick to pull him back up. All the while, Dark Pit watched them with a sense of defeat. He hadn't won that fight with his own power, and it brought along his first feeling of bitter victory. He didn't like it one bit.

        "He's unconcious. How are we going to get the fountains location out of him now?" Dark Pit spoke to keep the conversation off the fight. He picked up Asclepius' snakes and had them hang from his neck once again.

        "That's the least of our worries," (y/n) sighed. "Are you alright?" Now she and Pit both had their concerned gazes directly on him. He avoided their stares with a scowl. "I didn't know any of that would happen. Asclepius also once told me that Demetrius was not that powerful and I doubt he lied to me. Something wasn't right about that fight."

        "Don't ignore the fact that Pit started glowing. There's no way that's normal," Dark Pit pointed out.

        "Oh that," (y/n) mumbled. She glanced at Pit before looking off to the side. "I honestly don't know."

        "The three sacred treasures." All three of them went on high alert when they heard Demetrius say those words. In the moment, they had temporarily forgotten that he was still there. "The power you displayed is similar to that of the three sacred treasures," he repeated. "It's a power made to fight against all things divine whether good or evil." Dark Pit didn't waste any time getting up from the ground to brandish his weapon. "You still have the audacity to point your blades at me? Foolish. Regardless, I have lost. I will tell you the location of the fountain." He waited for them to lower their guard but quickly realized that they would do no such thing. "It's in some place called America."

        "Do you know how little that narrows it down?" (y/n) complained.

        "Fine, I lied. It's hidden beneath the earth somewhere in Japan where the humans marvel at the opening into the abyss. That's all I will tell you. If you were truly sent by Asclepius, then you should be able to figure that out. I want nothing more to do with any of you, and I certainly don't want the goddess of light on my trail." Demetrius waved them away but none of them moved. Dark Pit drew an arrow at him despite the injuries from Pit's mysterious attack still being present. "Listen, I can't just tell you exactly where it is. Anyone could be listening, and I cannot just give the location out to just anyone. You've already done enough by bringing traces of the three sacred treasures here. It's only a matter of time before the goddess of light comes to ask questions."

        (Y/n) sighed. "He's right. If that really was the power of the three sacred treasures, then we need to get going." She did her best to support Pit who was still drained of energy and looking a bit sick. "Besides, I wouldn't want to have to kill anyone today."

        "Kill?" Pit and Demetrius questioned at the same time.

        "Yes. If we were to start another fight, someone might not survive it. You're already injured, Demetrius. Don't make this worse for yourself. I won't hesitate if you try to pull another stunt like that again." The way (y/n) glared at him was enough to make even Dark Pit shudder. "Whatever happened to you since the last time Asclepius spoke to you has changed you. That much is obvious." (Y/n) turned her back to him and began to lead Pit towards the exit, daring Demetrius to make a move. "Come on, let's go." Dark Pit was hesitatant, but he dropped his weapon and began to head after Pit and (y/n).

        As they got on the elevator, the dirt arena began to disappear, and Demetrius began to limp back towards his thrown with more than just damage done to his pride. The sight was somewhat satisfying, but it still couldn't get rid of the bitter taste Dark Pit had gotten from his fight.

        "I should have made him apologize to you," Pit muttered. "To all of us actually. No one should talk to anyone like that."

        "That's the least of your worries," Dark Pit denied with a sigh as he rolled his eyes. An apology wasn't going to do anything for him anyway.

        The trio got off the elevator and returned to the surface. They were immediately greeted by the nymphs from before. Dark Pit couldn't understand them and found their voices annoying.

        "They're glad we're okay," (y/n) said. She was the only one who could translate. "They also apologize for anything Demetrius might have done. Guess that means he does things like that a lot."

        "Would Eosu have been nicer to us?" Pit asked.

        "Doesn't matter. We wouldn't have had the time to look for her. Your friend doesn't know where she is, remember," Dark Pit said before (y/n) could answer. Time was something that was not on their side, especially his.

        They all took a moment to rest at the edge of the river again. This time Dark Pit thought better of drinking the water and decided to take a quick dip instead. It was refreshing. He loved the cool temperature and the feeling it gave him and wondered what else in the world was like this. No one said a word as they enjoyed the waters in their own preferred ways. Dark Pit caught Pit staring over at (y/n) whenever she wasn't paying attention. He was new to this thing called emotions and wasn't sure what it was that Pit displayed in his eyes, but part of him thought it was best to keep things that way.

        "Alright, let's go before we have an army hunting us down," (y/n) announced. They all shook themselves free of the water as much as possible. (Y/n) bit farewell to the nymphs before pulling free a relocation charm. "I don't know where we're supposed to go, but after that ordeal, I think we need to go back to the underworld. If Pandora is still there, I'll deal with her myself. I just need to check on something important, then we can head to our next stop."

        No one voiced any complaints, so they were all taken right back to the underworld where they found themselves in the disorderly lab that Asclepius left behind. "I'm going to do a little research on Japan to find the place Demetrius was talking about. It shouldn't take long. Oh, I'm going to need to borrow those," (y/n) reached out for the snakes, and Dark Pit willingly handed them over. "You two are welcome to read anything on the shelves until I finish."

        Dark Pit didn't comment on that. Even if he wanted to read, he wouldn't be able to understand a single thing on the pages. There was no way he was going to let anyone know that, so he walked to a shelf, picked up the first thing he saw, and opened it in an attempt to look educated.
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I finally got another chapter done. Sorry for the wait. My schedule didn't work out, and I found myself stressed, so I'll be updating as often as possible. Until next time you amazing readers!