1.

Cheerful Anguish

She was tensed for the attack. Her back was pressed up against the massive tree trunk behind her. It would hopefully offer protection to her back and sides. She needed as much of it as possible, for she was dealing with one of the fastest demons alive.

And he was staring her down.

Don't blink, she thought. Don't blink.

He stood only a few feet away, but his hazel eyes seared into her. His dark blonde hair was pulled back into its usual low ponytail. Several silver studs, loops, and cuffs twinkled on both his ears, but not as brightly as the twin daggers he held, one in each hand. His stance was relaxed and casual, matching his lazy grin.

Don't blink.

Her eyes began the early stages of drying protest.

Don't blink.

Her ragged breathing was the only movement she dared to do. Her legs were aching with multiple gashes that were currently spewing blood. The bottom half of her shirt half hung by threads from a slash she had barely dodged enough for it to not fatally wound her. A gory laceration across her stomach was the result of that attack. Other minor scratches besieged her entire body, but despite such injuries, she dared not heal herself. Any undertakings besides natural breathing would break her stare on Gahn.

Don't blink.

She felt her eyes muscles spasm with the urge to close.

Don't...

Watering. They were watering.

...blink.

He now flashed a fangful smirk at her.

She blinked.

When she opened her eyes, he still stood before her but it was only an afterimage now. She pushed herself hard up against the tree to ensure she was still stabilized on solid ground. Earlier, he had swept her off her feet before she could even adjust her sights or balance her body to the upside down position he had imposed on her. Though holding her up from her ankle had made is easier for her to kick his face.

Now, however, the jagged bark jabbing her spine secured her position. She unleashed her energy. Curled wisps of a misty blue substance outlined her entire physique. The azure mass gathered entirely onto her left arm and shot out in the form of a round, transparent shield. Almost simultaneously, the sharp clack of grinding steel was heard as Gahn's daggers slammed down on it. The entire scenario played out within a centisecond.

"No, Reyna. That's not what we said ya were gonna practice on," Gahn's exasperated voice rang as he backed away from her. Reyna's shield disappeared as well.

"I'm sorry!" she pleaded. "I panicked!"

He answered her with a frustrated look. She returned it. He sighed and lifted his daggers to the side of his head, each sharp blade pointed at his ears. As he shoved the weapons towards his head, they rapidly began to shrink. By the time Gahn's hands touched his ears, the blades transformed into two small silver earring studs that he effortlessly and expertly clasped onto his earlobes.

Reyna pouted. "No! Don't put your weapons away already! I promise to do it this time. Please?"

Gahn smiled. It was a warm one. "Next time, cutie. It's Dante's turn now."

A long time ago, Reyna would have lashed out at him for calling her 'cutie,' but now she simply smiled at her endearing pet name.

"Yeah, it's my turn," Dante said. He had been sitting not too far from them, watching Reyna's training. Usually Gahn's sessions with her hardly required a vast amount of space. She was always quick to defend against attacks but hardly moved in for assaults of her own.

Dante rose from his seat on the grass and approached them. He had grown quite muscular since their arrival into Demon World. The simple black T-shirt he wore comfortably hugged his toned torso extremely well. Though not exaggeratedly huge, the two figures before him were small in comparison.

Reyna's body had also gone through psychical strengthening. Her build was more athletic, muscles taunt and smooth under her skin. In addition to her change in physique, she took on the task of regularly cutting her hair. Her long black locks had been reduced to a feathery pixie cut to prevent it from hindering her fighting.

"Reyna didn't do it again, huh?" Dante spoke up to Gahn but looked at her.

"Shut up," she spat and crossed her arms across her chest. "I'll do it next time."

"What ya should do is heal yourself," Gahn ordered.

"I'm already on it," she said starting with the large slash on her stomach. She placed a hand on it and green glows ran through her fingers. She repeated the process with the major wounds on her legs. The smaller cuts either had or were already healing.

"You also need a new shirt," Dante teased.

Reyna fingered the loose cloth. "I'll change in a bit."

"Gonna watch me train again?"

"Yeah. It gives me extra practice in keeping up with Gahn. I don't know how you do it, Dante. Sometimes you just look like you're trying to swat a bee with your sword."

"Ya can already do it, cutie," Gahn spoke. "Ya just haven't been able to do it under combat pressure."

"Yeah," she grumbled.

"Alright then, Dante. Let's go," the Teleporter said facing him.

"Right." Dante nodded.

Gahn glanced at Reyna. "Cutie, if ya gonna watch, make sure ya keep your distance this time. Don't want ya to get caught in the crossfire again."

Dante suppressed a laugh.

Reyna scowled. "Whatever. See if I heal you guys after your training session now."

The two smirked.

She trotted away until Dante and Gahn were out of sight and continued to distance herself even further. Picking one of the empty spots on the green ground, Reyna sat. She didn't have to physically see them to see them. They could be sensed. Their spiritual energy was a blueprint of their body and body maneuverings. When they moved, their essence shifted with them and it painted a picture of the scene. Reyna prided herself in being able to read them with such accuracy for not even Gahn could hone onto Magika that well.

The Teleporter had done much for Reyna and Dante the two years they had been there. He had taught them how to hide their Magika spirit, making them undetectable to others. Spiritual Suppression he called it. It was a technique Gahn had devised and mastered in order to accompany his Teleportation Magika. With such camouflage, he could freely Teleport wherever he wished without being detected to strike his targets with greater efficiency and increased deadliness. It was a method he hardly shared with anyone.

During their training sessions, however, they all sparred with freely flowing Magika. That way they could hone their ability of reading the spiritual energy from opponents with unsuppressed Magika.

Aside from being their mentor, Gahn was also their friend. Though the castle was moderately filled with lower demon servants that catered to the humans, they hardly spoke to Dante or Reyna. Auronmar himself was also a distant figure during their stay. Aside from each other, Dante and Reyna's only company was Gahn. His friendly smirks and even his human garments were a welcoming sight to the only mortals within thousands of miles. Though Reyna and Dante don't voice it much, they are beyond grateful for Gahn's presence.

"Ya know," Gahn said to Dante. "Reyna is right. Ya are pretty good in keeping up with me. We should work on something else today."

"Yeah. I was hoping you would go all out on me," Dante replied. He heaved his sword off his back and carelessly tossed it aside. It spun away and cratered to a stop on the ground.

Gahn eyed him curiously. "I always go all out on ya."

He rolled his eyes. "No you don't and we both know it. This time you have to. I want to work on my bare defense."

He crossed his arms and titled his head. "Ah. So ya've been training on it with Reyna?"

"Yes, but she is more of a conservative fighter. I need to test it on an offensive one." Dante smiled.

"Alright then. I'm gonna use all my arsenal on ya. For now, I'll just keep on attacking ya until ya tell me to stop. I'll increase my speed as I go. As a freebie, I'll let ya know I'm gonna start with this." Gahn pulled off one of the silver loops on right upper ear. As soon as he brought it down, it grew and transformed into a double bladed arakh entirely made of silver, hilt included.

Dante nodded but before his gesture was finished, his right arm was hooked and jerked up into the air by Gahn's weapon. The arakh's blade coolly sliced into his muscular forearm. Dante's skin reacted: it hardened. It still held its fleshy color but it was now a metal hide that trapped the arakh in the wound it created. Dante pulled his arm down, the fierce action hauling the weapon out of Gahn's hands.

The demon already possessed a new blade in his enclosed palm. A small sword, compact for quick wielding, but still long enough to inflict fatal strikes. Gahn weaved around Dante's standing figure and Teleported behind him. He thrust the sword into Dante's lower spine. At least, he tried to. The blade hardly penetrated the skin. In fact, it threatened to break.

Dante whirled around, but Gahn had already Teleported away to his right side. He again held a different armament. Gahn's fingers were wrapped around a clawed fist weapon with three jagged knives on it. Well within the time lapse of a centisecond, Gahn Teleported in front of Dante and uppercut the Berserker's jaw.

Again, his weapon met with resistance as the three mini-blades scraped against what felt like the armor of a tank. As Gahn's right fist came down, his left hand came up. It too held a fist weapon, different from the first. A curved blade framed over his knuckles, perfect for quick slicing.

Gahn swished it across Dante's stomach. Without pausing, he struck his chest twice, then up his right side and down his left side. He Teleported behind him and slashed his back, his arms, his legs. Though the initial strikes hardly did any damage, Gahn's speed and precision with his duel wielding weapons was faster than Dante's regeneration. He kept rending Dante's flesh, each strike biting deeper than the last.

"Stop!" Dante half yelled, half coughed.

Gahn complied, his bladed fist weapon centimeters from completing a lethal slash against Dante's now venerable throat. The thoroughly dissected Dante collapsed to the ground in a spray of blood. Within seconds Reyna was kneeling next to him, mending his wounds.

"This is gonna take forever to heal," she sighed. The Berserker's anti-Magika shell provided plenty advantages, but its main drawback came in repelling the mending waves of any Healer Magika.

"Ya held up pretty well," Gahn smirked down at Dante as he placed his weapons away.

"You almost killed me," he croaked out.

He shrugged. "Ya said to go all out."

Dante gave a weak grin. "Yeah, I know."

"So. Can I have my arakh that's still stuck in ya arm?" He pointed at it.

"Sure. You're pulling it out though."

~*~*~

Auronmar went far in accommodating Dante and Reyna in his castle. The separate rooms they resided in were huge and each was furnished like a huge, one room apartment. There was a kitchenette to the left with a two burner stove, a micro mini-fridge, and a compact sink. The black cupboards over them held dishes and silverware. To the right was a small dining room with two matching chairs.

Towards the middle of the room pushed up against the foot of the bed was a love seat. Its dark leather was always a fragrant presence in the room. A small, round coffee table that stood on three curved legs was in front of it.

The bedroom sat at the back of the room. The tall and heavy backboard was up against the wall. Flanking the mattress was a nightstand to the left and a multi-drawer dresser to the right. Up against the wall, diagonal to the nightstand, was another dresser with a mirror over it. On the other side of the wall was a door that lead to a functioning bathroom which held all the necessities expected to be found in one.

The rooms even supplied a television and a radio but nothing could be picked up by them. Despite their uselessness, there was familiar comfort in having them present.

Food was also in abundance, mostly to subdue Dante's incredible appetite. Reyna hardly ate at all anymore. Usually her meals were taken once or twice a week. It was found out that Healers regenerate so quickly they are capable of feeding and nurturing themselves.

Currently, there were half a dozen steak dinners waiting for Dante in his room. It was neatly set on his dining table by one of the elusive demon servants. It was also expertly left, for as soon as the servant exited the room, Dante entered it from the bathroom. A towel draped around his waist from his routine shower he took after training. He did not glance at the table, knowing the food was waiting for him.

He went up to his dresser first and opened the top drawer to retrieve some clothes. He let the towel around his waist fall and slipped into a pair of comfortable boxers. Over those, he donned on simple black pajama pants. He hung the towel up to dry on the bathroom door before sitting in front of his dinner. No sooner had he quickly devoured it that there was a quick tap on his closed door. It slightly opened.

"Dante?" Reyna's voice entered.

"Yeah. Come in," he told her. She did and closed the door behind her.

"Finished your food already?" she smiled at him. Her hair was wet from the shower she also came from. It sat in short, heavy curls on her head. On occasion drops of water would fall onto her green pajama top. "I came to see if you were feeling okay. I wasn't able to fully heal you at practice."

Dante got up from his chair and sat on his bed with his feet resting on the ground. Reyna followed at sat next to him, legs crisscrossed.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I almost died, but I'm good now." Dante grinned as he ran a hand through his wet hair and briefly thought how he needed to cut it soon.

She returned the smile. "You withstood about ten seconds of Gahn's attacks. That's about nine seconds more than me whenever he attacks me like that. I suck."

"But you can spend hours up against him at a time."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, 'cause he goes all easy on me."

"You could probably withstand more of his vicious attacks if you had gone through with what you were supposed to toady." He raised a teasing eyebrow at her.

Reyna's head hung. "I know, but I don't know why I can't do it on the fly. By myself I can do it no problem, but when I'm up against Gahn I just can't."

"Don't worry." Dante smiled. "That's what we're training for."

"Yeah..." Her voice trailed away.

"What is it?" he asked, keen on her sudden change in demeanor. His heart sank; he knew where this was going.

"I miss them," she whispered.

Dante reached over, grabbed her arm, and pulled her to sit closer to him. Her head immediately found his shoulder. Her hair was cool on his bare skin. "I know," he said. "I miss everyone too."

"I didn't even get to say goodbye to them. To Julie or mom or dad. Not even to Uncle Amon." Reyna's voice was quiet.

Dante placed an arm around her.

Gahn had been the one to tell them how he came across Amon's corpse on his way to rescue them from Blethinette. He had given him a quick burial under a nearby mesquite tree. Time was always something Gahn had.

He had also informed them about Blethinette and the Shadow Spirit. How it had been working for the queen all along. How it had been her demons she planted for Ram to summon. All to make it easier for Blethinette to bring her forces onto the earth. Easier for her to decimate it and take over. Easier for her to enslave the humans she despised.  

So much had happened and Reyna and Dante felt powerless to stop it. Blethinette's masses were too great. Auronmar's army, if it could be called that, was below nothing in comparison.

"Do you think we're the only humans left?" Reyna asked the same question for over the hundredth time.

Dante sighed. "No, Reyna. Remember what Auronmar told us? She always talked about ruling over them like slaves. Even if she did attack them, I'm sure some of them have had their Magika awaken and are fighting back."

"Yeah, but not many have Magika to begin with. Even those that do probably have the lower or mid-level of it."

Again he sighed.

"Well here we are the only humans. I can't believe we're the only human connection we have." Reyna looked up at Dante.

"I know. It's pretty crazy, huh?" He gave her a tired smile.

"I wonder—"

"No," he sternly said. "Reyna, we can't dwell on this so much. We both know this is not the end. The planet is full of billions of people, and some of those for sure have high Magika tier. It's all about them surviving."

Her hands balled up. "Yeah, but it's just frustrating. We've lost our home, Dante, and we can't even fight back! We're stuck here!"

His hands eased on top of hers. "I know how you feel. Gahn has been training us. I'm sure Auronmar has something planned."

"He hasn't told us anything. We barely even see him!" she snapped.

"Just be patient, okay? We don't know for sure how much time has passed in our world. There's still a chance."

Reyna stayed quiet, staring ahead while Dante gazed at her. "Yeah," she finally said and faced him.

He reached out and held her face between his hands. The flowery scent of her shampoo tickled his nose. He looked into her eyes. They were a wonderful blue from a calm, lapping ocean. No longer did they hold the fierce turmoil of an inner demon.

Reyna returned the gaze. When she first settled into the castle, all she had done was sleep. Her body was recovering from the harsh weather and Illusion implemented wounds it had suffered. She had slept for several days, and when Reyna finally woke up, Dante was by her side. Seeing his worried eyes and feeling his comforting touch caused her to accept a harsh truth: Mundus had left her.

Reyna and Dante had grown closer, of course, with each passing day in Demon World. It was impossible not to. They trained together. They lived together. More importantly, they mourned together. They were each other's remnants of a place they once called home. It was probably why they had finally given themselves to each other.  

Dante kissed her. He always kissed first.

It unfurled them. Reyna gripped his hair. He answered by pulling her closer. Their kiss momentarily broke only for Dante to quickly pull Reyna's shirt over her head. Her exposed skin warmly pressed against his. They fell back and between rushed kisses more clothing was discarded.

In another world, another occurrence, one where Reyna hadn't met Mundus, she probably could have loved Dante. But such a world was dead now. Such an occurrence did not happen. Reyna had met Mundus and that was why their tangle of lust was next to meaningless.

I don't know why I keep on doing this, Dante thought, his hands gripping Reyna's thighs.

She loudly exhaled but it wasn't out of pleasure. I am a detestable person for allowing this.

*******************************

Author's Note: Hello again. ^^

Okay...first time writing a sex --if you can even call it that!-- scene. Actually, I had added some more details, but I thought it was too much. 

Anyways...please enjoy this amazing drawing of Mundus on the side that Miss PaigeyLou made for me. It's awesome, isn't it? It also shows how Mundus clearly does not like what is going on at the end of this chapter.

Thanks for reading and for your support! Please leave your thoughts! :D

Drawing: Reyna by RobMay