A dark light covered his view, and he was knocked into the shallow water. Leopold was nowhere to be found, and the Morian tumbled to the ground, disoriented, as both of them turned towards the sudden noise on the right.

Leopold struggled. Only now, his oppressor was none other than Zuimu, wrapping his chain around his neck. She stared intensely into his white, shining pupils, and was almost ready to yell something out. Horns grew on her beat-up face, much to the shock of Bancho.

The demon tried striking with his hand, all in nought. The hammer didn't budge either, unresponsive to his silent callings.

Blood spurted out from his neck, covering Zuimu's face. Leopold trembled, and she only seemed to squeeze harder and harder. Her breath grew heavier, and her eyes then, for a moment, caught Chyuuichi, who stared at her in awe.

Zuimu screamed out, ripping the chains into two, as Leopold's hand finally pushed through and travelled into a wound on her side. She let go, before using the Purpur Warfare to stab through Leopold's abdomen.

She spun the weapon around its axis, and with one final gasp, the demon was defeated, lying in a pool of blood.

Zuimu dropped the spear and turned to the enemy, breathing heavily.

Finally, she took off her mask and turned back to the awestruck Mirillian, who observed their saviour. A smile appeared, although crooked, it matched her nose. Tears swelled in her eyes.

"Go," she uttered.

Zuimu fell to the ground and fainted, in a splash of blood.

***

Jyuzou stared blankly into the extending, grey, yet slightly orange abyss before him.

His feet were sore, barely treading forward, and his body was giving up, bit by bit.

He didn't advance much in all honesty. Jyuzou was rather slow and considerate with his steps but didn't think twice before taking a risky leap or making a decision that would impact the rest of his travels.

The journey back home, as he seldom recalled Morio's harsh words.

He collapsed on multiple occasions, either from endless exhaustion or from the lack of any will to accomplish anything. He didn't seem to follow any plan, but whenever he looped back to the same spot, he'd remind himself, that he was supposed to be heading to Mistwick.

But how was he to get there? Morio was known for handling maps and seeing out towards the goal. Then, it changed to Daress, who led them astray, and apart.

His anger that accumulated for the filthy demon was hidden behind a mask of calm sorrow. He had no way to express his anger. He wished to have taken the opportunity back then and killed him, but it was too late now.

And above all else, he was mad that Morio wasn't there anymore. That, the friend he knew so well was... gone.

Jyuzou crashed, as a rock rolled beneath his feet, and he landed on sharp stones, down a small slope. He slowly looked up, feeling the dust and all the particles in the air settling on his once-fluffy hair. He fixed his broken glasses and sat still, before feeling a sharp pain in his finger.

He turned to it, noticing the unwrapped, dirty bandage, and the long wound that hid beneath, which was once again, bleeding.

He breathed in through his nose, before staring forward and spotting something that wasn't an unusual sight. There it stood, the familiar ghost, with chains wrapped around its body and half-a-crown which only seemed to get more loose each time it appeared.

Back when he first saw it materialize, he grew fearful but realised that oftentimes, whenever his fear reached its limit, he always felt that something scarier hid behind the corner.

Yet, after seeing the horrors of Morta, the apparition didn't seem as scary as it once was. More or less, Jyuzou thought of it as a sign that reminded him that he was still the same Morian when he first stepped out into the real world. When conflict arose, when the roads seemed to split, that part of him was there, barely out of reach.

It could've been just his exhaustion creating afterimages of what once was.

...or, it could've been as real as it was.

However, that notion created a train of thought that instantly went into Jyuzou's mind. He frowned, looking back at the wound on his finger.

"Ow... ow..." he cried out. "It hurts..!"

"Oh, Shin." Victoria shook her head, quickly wrapping a small cloth around Jyuzou's finger, as he kept weeping. "You're not much more mature than him, you know?" she continued.

"Hey! I-It's a s-serious wound!"

His hand started shaking before he instinctively covered the wound with his hand and turned to Mount Aria, stretching in the distance like a massive entity. They always saw it in Mistwick, it became bigger in Magna, grew scarier in Morta, and now only seemed closer with each second that passed.

Even though he kept moving back. Even though he kept running away, just like back then.

Jyuzou furrowed his eyebrows and clenched his fist, breathing out.

"W-WE'RE BOTH COWARDS, THEN!" Morio screamed, spitting out some of the water and Jyuzou was stunned.

With a shaky breath, he muttered.

"I'm not going to be a coward!"

Jyuzou took a key step forward, against the winds of the plateaus, seeing the extending landscape, now clearer than ever.

The Morian wasn't going to leave his friend to torment.

It was high time for one to prove themselves.

Jyuzou picked up on speed, fuelled with new and hopeful determination. He passed through the plateaus, climbing atop and sliding down, all while intensely analysing everything around him. He recalled Daress' words. The sky cleared after a while, despite what he said. The mountains didn't get steeper, as he warned, and Jyuzou took different paths than those he saw the two follow from afar, and much more quickly.

Soon enough, he found himself eyeing the foundation Mount Aria formed itself. Taking a deep breath, he didn't hesitate further and started following the two sets of footsteps left in the damp, brown ground, sometimes covered in sand, but otherwise, visible.

He looked back to the Harm Lands, which, unsurprisingly, led with a much safer path to the mountain. He felt the white sand picked up by the winds flying into his face, as he actively searched around for Amaru Toni, the place they were promised to reach first, but no traces were ever found, as he expected in the very end.

Finally, he reached the mountain's silver belows, travelling through a neat, rocky corridor and eventually walking to a massive gate, and an open pedestal, with another path leading elsewhere.

He took notice of something laid behind a rock, with the wind nudging its edges. He crouched, finding a ripped-out page, and his eyes widened. Jyuzou dropped the backpack on the ground and immediately searched through its contents, quickly finding the book from Wendigo, and comparing their designs.

A thick, black frame, and drawings of carolina flowers, exclusive to Malikan in Dear. They were a perfect match.

"That l-little..." Jyuzou muttered, in anger. "That little shit!" he yelled out, stepping towards the pedestal and following instructions which were written down beforehand.

He collected five, perfectly round stones hidden around the small area, struggling with the last one but eventually finding it below the ground, with remnants of a broken shovel that was out of reach. He slid them into the oval opening, and each time one fell and echoed into a small pool of liquid, the gate made a strange noise.

The fifth one, however, didn't even make a sound when falling. It collided with the others, and before he even realised it, the doors were open and led towards something that resembled the places he'd already seen. Grey, monotone and rocky, but eventually changing into something new.

He looked back to the paper, and read the explanation of the mechanism. Essentially, the gate opened itself when an object didn't meet the water below. He tried making out more of what was written, but too much dirt covered the words after 'Tributal'.

"It's that simple," he concluded, before treading inside.

After following a path without bifurcations, he met a grim corridor which grew narrower the further it went. He hesitated for a moment, trying to find a way to create any light to make sure he didn't bump into an obstacle. After quickly analysing his possibilities, he headed in, pressing his hands against one wall and staring at the light, which grew distant, and dimmer.

It was either the cave's swallowing darkness or the fact that it was a much later hour than he predicted. Although, fortunately for him, that didn't cause much trouble.

He felt a cold steel door, and he searched around the patterns etched into its thick material. He breathed in, before finding a loose chain above, trapping its horrors inside.

He took one final glance at Morta, before he pulled, revealing a shine that gleamed from the other side. He jumped up, and the chain pulled his entire weight, leaving the door open, although when he let go, it slowly shut.

Jyuzou kicked his backpack in, and then pulled again, crawling in right before it closed.

He brushed off the dirt from his clothes and glanced back and forth, with an open mouth. Thousands of tiny blue crystals making floral patterns on the ceiling illuminated the gloom, and its light bounced off the calm body of skim water, which erected a corridor further into Mount Aria.

He took notice of the writing on the walls, hundreds of tiny scribbles, drawings of demons and humans, and writing in old Manjuno. He turned to the door again, seeing no chain present on this side. The only way to tread was forward. Jyuzou needed to trust himself with carving his path.

He couldn't wait for anyone to tell him otherwise.

The Morian moved towards the edge and climbed a few steps towards a port with three boats. One was destroyed, wrecked in half and crashed behind a stone that stuck out of the stream, the other, was covered in a strange, brown ooze. The last boat floated in the middle and had one oar for him to use. He grabbed the backpack from above, threw it in, and eventually sat inside as well.

He took off his glasses, blinking twice, unable to make out the shapes of the crystals. He thought for a few seconds, and put them back on, despite their tragic state. One glass was broken and a part of it was missing, the thin line of metal that connected one lens with the other bent forward, and talking about the temples was another set tragedy in the making.

Nonetheless, Jyuzou swung the oar back and forth, swimming through the water and venturing further in.

From time to time, the corridor changed shapes, grew wider, or had softer and harder turns. There was no sound except for the ones he made battling the dripping water from the shining stones above.

He initially found it comforting, but soon enough it started to remind him of the place he had left. It was eerie. Everyone who spoke about Mount Aria described it as a human's hell, but perhaps the danger they mentioned was related to confusing corridors and winding paths in the deep darkness.

Jyuzou expected a fight, in all seriousness. At one point, he considered trying to sharpen up his Guardian Demon but finally concluded that he would waste too much time and potentially anger the being resting inside. He still didn't know much, after all, but his habit of writing down things he discovered returned. He scribbled the gate to Mount Aria and its mechanism, inspired by its rather simple, but clever solution. He painted down the quickest way from the arena to Mount Aria, and described the oddities on his way, such as the prized Kallunfikhuola flowers.

It seemed that hope came back, after hiding in the shadows for so long, but, perhaps at the wrong time.

Still, this was no reason to stand back and watch everything unfold without one's involvement.

During his boat travels, Jyuzou skimmed through Wonder Flora twice, trying to find anything about the crystals or oddities of these caves, finding nothing spoken about them. As mentioned many times before, these remain widely unexplored by people of today's times, as indicated by the writings in old Manjuno found almost everywhere. Perhaps somewhere in the ruins of Encea or Palan existed a book documenting the findings of these lands.

Eventually, the Morian noted stacks of papers laid around the edges of the river, broken and corroding tools as well as the same symbols appearing on the walls from time to time. Sometimes, instead of unrecognizable words, they'd turn into arrows, especially when the road branched. Jyuzou followed what was presented to him, and eventually hit the shore on the other side.

The crystals which once illuminated the watery path disappeared, bit by bit, so when he stepped out of the boat, he climbed up to one close enough and ripped it out of the wall. In his hand, it resembled a flask of shining, translucent water, and carved the path Jyuzou had to take.

He went through narrower, brown caves, with round pillars and rocks shaped into objects of everyday use. He found small sheets and dried blood in some, more well-hidden places, as well as an unevenly formed pot which housed very cold water, covering a stash of rotting food.

However, those 'humble abodes' set in stone soon disappeared upon reaching another stream, with the same-coloured formations falling into the black water and freezing once touching the surface. He trod by the round edges, pressed his hands against clumps of rocks and pushed through.

He reached spiralling roads, that went up and avoided stalactites, before turning into a short, but wide cave, which forced him to crouch his way through the oval entrances, sometimes falling onto one another. After a while, the water reached his knees, but he easily trod through the crystal-clear liquid, without a path to follow.

He swore for a moment, that he saw something hiding in the darkness, and extended his arm to illuminate more of the area, but nothing and no one responded to his calls or yells. He attempted to find more evidence of someone entering or living in the caves, but it appeared that their activities ceased around this point.

Jyuzou felt even uneasier than earlier, now with a growing feeling that something lurked in the shadows to catch him off guard. He hoped it would reveal itself and give him a reason to run or panic.

Things started to resemble the past more and more, and Jyuzou didn't like that feeling.

It felt like the gleam that shone the moment everything came flashing to him started fading into obscurity, yet he kept pushing on.