*Onami*

Mr. Itou snickered. "Master didn't tell me about this," he said, his eyes glistening.

I narrowed my eyes at him. Mr. Itou has always been a suspicious guy, but the man in front of me...

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Ahh, it appears that you discovered my secret," 'Mr. Itou' said as his body began to distort. Burning black coals appeared underneath his feet as he transformed into a lanky black-haired boy with red eyes. "My name is Camio, a Great President of Cianio."

A Great President of Cianio? Then he was a leader of the legions of Cianio. While 'Great President' might not be the highest title, it was still something.

"What is a demon like you doing here?" Kohri asked, glaring at him.

"Ask questions later," I said as I jumped out of my barrier. I held my foot out, aiming for the Camio's chest. He side-stepped out of the way.

"My, are you eager to fight." He smirked. "Why do I feel that you're in a rush? Does this power of yours have a time limit?"

I vanished and reappeared behind him, aiming for his left arm. He smirked and blocked it, though, his smirk soon vanished as his hand made a creaking sound.

He gasped and jumped aside. His crimson eyes widened at the sight of his bleeding arm. He glanced back at me. "Incredible..."

"I'm not finished yet!" I screamed, rushing at him.

He held his hand out, catching my foot. "Tell me how you gained this power," he said. His wide eyes creeped me out as if he were trying to peer through me.

"Let go!" I yelled, kicking him with my other foot as my hands touched the ground. I raised the foot he was holding up, lifting him off of the ground.

He let go and warped behind me. "Give it to me."

I formed a barrier of light behind me. "I won't ever hand over these secrets to you."

He tapped the barrier with his arm three times, causing cracks to appear on it. "Then, you force me to do this the hard way." He jumped back and stretched out a pair of black, bat-like wings. A massive amount of dark energy started to accumulate all around him. "Second Hell!"

I held my hand out and formed a set of seven barriers around Kohri, Yuko, and the others and then another set for myself.

Camio rose his head and let out a primal growl, causing a wave of dark energy to travel across the forest, destroying whatever it made contact with.

Thankfully, my multi-fold barriers managed to shield my sister, my boyfriend, and the others. Unfortunately, trying to hold the barriers together was draining. It wouldn't surprise me if he had just cut into my time.

Once the dust cleared, Camio stood in the middle of a crater, surrounded by a dark-red-aura. A small pair of demon wings had grown beneath his original pair. Also, on his forehead was a pair of red horns.

Camio turned his head toward me and then vanished.

I held my hands outward, reinforcing the barrier around me as well as those around my sister and friends.

The demon kicked my barrier, cracking half of it, but it the pieces remained in place. He vanished from view against and kicked the other half, which again, managed to resist his attack.

He smiled. "Not bad. Now, to see if it can take another!" He vanished again and reappeared overhead.

"Freezing Strike!" Kohri screamed. A wave of freezing air roared above me, freezing the top of the barrier and forcing Camio to use his wings to pull himself up to avoid touching the ice.

"Kohri, return to the barrier!" I yelled. Darn, I should've made it so that they couldn't leave without my permission.

My boyfriend smirked as he swung his hammer over his shoulder. "Sorry, Onami, but I'm not letting you fight this guy by yourself."

The ice on the barrier sprung forth, causing Camio to fly out of the way. Then, in mid-flight, he vanished.

"Kohri, look out!" I yelled, reading another beam of light.

Kohri smiled and raised his hammer up, hitting Camio in the head. "Opps, I didn't see you there."

Camio laughed as he stepped away from him. "Oh, did you really?" He lifted his sword into the air. "Then, you better pay more attention, before you beloved girlfriend dies!"

How did this guy seem to know so much about us? Had he been pretending to be Mr. Itou for longer than this? Or maybe, the real Prime Minister truly is a demon himself and told him. Then again, it could've been that he disguised himself as one of the gossiping guards at the Imperial Palace and overheard a thing or two about us.

"You should be the one paying more attention!" I yelled. The dust around us created by Camio's aura started to spin around him.

He gasped and vanished from view, but the amount of dust his transformation had kicked up was so great that it remained thick even several meters into the air.

The dust coiled around his leg as he reappeared.

"I won't let you get away!" I yelled.

He smiled. "It does seem that I underestimated you. Honestly, I'm still not used to using this form. I'll allow you fellas to win this match, but the next one is mine. You got that?"

A spike of ice jutted out of the ground, impaling Calio's chest.

Calio laughed as his hand curled around the giant stake of ice. "I made you that mad, huh?" he asked as the ice shattered.

Kohri rushed at him. The aura of his transformation continued to grow brighter and bigger. It was shocking that he had managed to maintain it for this long. Guess that Tekeshi's coaching had paid some dividends in using more of Second Heaven's power.

My eyes moved around the sky, trying to track them down, but they were moving too fast. If they were still on the ground, at least I would've been able to feel them using my earth magic. Though, even then, there would've been a short delay. But a short delay was enough to make the difference between life and death.

I glanced at my sister who was watching the battle too. She seemed to be shaking. I moved our barriers together.

"You okay, Yu-yu?" I asked.

"Yuko's fine, but worried about Kohri. His transformation won't last for much longer."

I gulped. I had the same fear. He had managed to drag it long enough. If only he had more practice with it, but after Conrad's death, he refused to fight again. If Zionia's fate weren't on the line, he probably wouldn't have taken his hammer into battle, outside of his sparring matches with his older brother.

While I wished that they got along better, I needed to thank their sibling rivalry for helping keep him on his toes.

"Yuko, stay here. I'm going to go help Kohri out."

"No," Yuko said, looking up at me with the same worried eyes she was giving Kohri.

"Why n-" I gasped as my body felt heavy.

Yuko lowered her eyes. "Big sis is at her limit too."

I gritted my teeth. Was this really all the time I could keep it for?

I glanced up at the sky. "Kohri... I'm sorry, I couldn't help out more..." I muttered as the golden aura around me vanished.

My vision distorted as I struggled to keep myself conscious. Please, stay safe. I don't wish to lose you too.

***

*Kohri*

I twirled Esquilino overhead as Camio swung his sword down from above.

"Is it me or did you get stronger?" Camio asked, jumping away.

I pointed my hammer at him. "You could say that."

"Though, it seems that you're at your limit. You should've allowed me to escape."

I scoffed. "You weren't escaping. You were just trying to get Onami and me to drop our guard," I said as I froze the water-vapor around me.

"Ahh, so it appears that your ability to discern the truth from just a look wasn't just hyperbole. Honestly, that's a rather scary ability. Is it connected to your hammer?"

I took a step forward. "No, I've had this ability since I was a baby."

He chuckled. "You must've been a frightening baby."

"I was actually rather cute." I took another step forward and appeared behind him. "Now, die."

Camio blocked my hammer with the hilt of his sword. He smirked. "Is that so? Then how did you grow up to become such a frightening teenager?"

"I'm not usually like this, only when someone threatens my friends!" I yelled as I poured more mana into my hammer. Esquilino might not have the fancy abilities of Rosa's Caelio and Serra's Aventine, but it did have this. My hammer shrunk back into its mundane form, but instead of having a silver body, it was blue-crystal.

The demon laughed. "It shrunk!"

"Freezing Comet!" I threw the hammer at him. A stream of ice crystals flew out from the opposite side as it flew toward the demonic-entity.

Camio ducked and grinned. "Opps, looks like you missed, kid."

I wagged my finger at him.

He gasped as something smacked into him from the left and then on the right. He spat out a wad of blood mixed with saliva as it smacked him on his stomach. Unfortunately for him, I didn't let him have time to lick his wounds as I moved Esquilino around more, and this time faster, with each hit striking harder than the other.

Camio held out his sword hand. "You... will... die! Atkazhia!" The sword's red blade formed a red sphere of highly concentrated energy.

I flew back as I held out my hands to create a barrier of ice, but then, the blue aura around my body flickered off. I grimaced as my body became heavy. I only had enough energy to maintain my barrage.

The sphere of energy detached from the hilt and flew at me slowly. Even though it was a decent distance from me, I felt an intense heat radiating from it. If it weren't for my ice keeping me cool, I probably would've been incinerated by now.

"Deflect!" a voice yelled out. Suddenly, several black drones appeared in front of me and formed a makeshift shield.

Camio vanished in a puff of black smoke before his own attack could hit him.

I recalled Esquilino rapidly and watched as the sphere of energy flew off in the opposite direction.

"No, I need to stop it!" I yelled. "If it touches the ground then it'll turn the entire island into a boiling lake of lava!"

"I'll handle it," Rosa said as she flew up to me. Five of her drones flew over to the sphere and formed a pyramid around the orb of intense heat, containing it.

I smiled. "I figured it was you."

She put an arm around my shoulder. "Sorry I'm late, I had to make sure that everything was okay with Queen Saya's health."

"No worries, I understand," I said, smiling.

She smiled back. "Let's go down, it's still dangerous here."

I glanced at the sphere as it continued to glow ominously.

Once we were at a safe distance, Rosa's pyramid of light opened up from the top, launching the demonic energy into the sky where it blew up, but a barrier had been formed around it to contain the explosion's effects.

"When did you learn that trick?" I asked, laughing. Though, I wished I hadn't as my side began to ache.

"I've learned several things these past few days," she said as she flew me down the rest of the way.

"Kohri!" Onami said. She was followed closely by Yuko.

"Hey," I said, forcing a smile.

She wrapped her arms around me. "You did well. Let's go and rest."

"I'll watch over Serrano," Rosa said.

"Yuko will too!" Yuko said, smiling.

Rosa laughed. "I appreciate that, but you should get some rest yourself."

"Yuko feels better now!" She showed off her arms. "Yuko's wounds are all healed."

"Where are the others?" Kohri asked. "It's odd that no one else came over here."

"Liang, and the Seven Flames surrounded this area to contain any possible fallout," Rosa said, glancing up at the sky. "Queen Saya nearly died closing the gap that had formed, so they did their best to contain it."

I gasped. "I saw her fighting, and I knew that she had to go to the infirmary, but I didn't think her injuries were that serious..."

Rosa lowered her eyes. "It was more that Her Majesty pushed herself to her limits." She grinned. "The good thing is that she's doing better. Koukyuu managed to stabilize her condition and that of the baby."

"You princesses sure are handy," I said, laughing.

"I didn't do much. I wasn't contacted until later on."

I nodded. "Makes sense, considering how they wouldn't want you to transfer more of your life."

Rose closed her eyes. "Still, I want to help others. Even if it means shortening my life, I will die happy, knowing that I managed to save others."

"Master would be sad," Yuko said, keeping her head low.

Rosa walked over to her. "I say the same to you, Yuko. You fought against the demon, didn't you?"

She nodded.

"Even though the chances of victory were low?"

"Yeah..."

"You did it to help Serra and the others, didn't you?"

"Yeah..."

Rosa patted her head and giggled. "See, you're not too different from me!"

"Well, you are doppelgangers," Ximena said as she made her way toward us. She carried the unconscious Serrano in her arms while Nori followed closed behind.

"Nori!" Yuko said, running over to her friend. "Nori okay now?"

Nori smiled. "Yeah." He rubbed his abdomen. "Though, Nori's wound still hurts a little."

"I got an ointment back in my room at the dorms which can help with that," Onami said.

Nori beamed, but then his smile faded. His ears twitched he turned around.

Onami and Yuko reacted the same way.

"What's wrong? Is that demon still here?" Rosa asked, using her drones to surround all of us.

"Demon? I'm not a demon," a voice called. Emerging from a cloud of dust was a man dressed in white robes. Part of his face was obscured by the hood of the robe.

"Who are you?" Onami asked.

Nori gasped. "He smells like mister Serra and Tetsu."

"He does..." Yuko said, furrowing her brow. "But more like Roa."

"Roa?" I asked, trying to move.

The man smiled and removed his hood, revealing a youthful face. The man looked not like Roa, but Etsuo.

"Seems you know my son," the man said, grinning.

"So you're Roa's dad," Rosa said, stepping forward.

"And you must be Osamu's daughter. Or at least, I think you are as you look a lot like Sofia. However, I guess you could also be her niece." He chuckled. "After all, my nephew Etsuo takes more after me than his own parents."

"You met my mom?"

He laughed. "Ahh, so I was right about you being her kid. Yeah, I knew her. My older brother had a big crush on her, after all. But, sadly I'm not here to reminisce." He pointed his index finger at Serrano. "I came here for him."

*Character Section*

Camio Saturnelia- Age: ??? Sex: Male Powers: Fire (Heat) Weapon: Solnegro Titles: Grand President of Cianio, Demon of Heat

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Today (January 15, 2020) marks half a year since I first published this book. In that time it has gained over 2.1K reads and 325 votes. I look forward to seeing where it is by the one-year anniversary.**