"Now, let's talk some bargain, shall we?"

Hearing those words, Ren raises his brow, though he keeps his awareness sharp- his ears attentive and his head lowered slightly.

For the passing moment, he keeps his mouth shut, to the Manticore's dismay.

"Oh, don't be too tense now, dear boy. I'm just looking forward to make a simple deal with you, that's all," He nonchalantly affirms as he approaches.

Still, Ren keeps his guard. No response is said from his mouth.

"Still not convinced, huh?" He glances to the chains keeping the fox in place before with a quick slash of his tail, he whips it off, causing the connected silver to scatter around the room as rhythms of clanks echo, "Hopefully, that'll ease the tension."

Despite that, Ren immediately jumps back, having one foot standing on the bed's headboard as his tail puffs up.

"My... Am I that terrifying?" He palms his eyes as he chuckles, his wide smile showing his human teeth, "Don't test me, boy," His sinisterly gentle tone is gone, replaced by his unfiltered demeanor, "Just like you. My patience has limits," He spread his fingers that still sticks to his face, revealing behind it a cold, ruthless eye.

A shudder causes Ren to swallow his spit, his ears laying back as he lowers his gaze, "Then..." He rises his head back at the man, "Tell me what my gain is first."

The Manticore puts his hand back behind his waist, his eyes now smiling back, "Oh, simple really. Freedom, of course," His tone softens back into a gentle facade as his smile turns smaller, "But not just to get away from this place. You'll be free to do whatever you want. To be wherever you want. To be with whoever you want. Even with my daughter. I'll grant you my blessing, son."

To those last words, Ren briefly widens his eyes, though they return focused again.

"Now to get all that, I need you to..." He pauses, grabbing his chin as he stares at the floor, "Make a simple oath. With a certain... something."

One of Ren's ears quivers as he raises an eyebrow, "And... That something is?"

"Just wait till you see it."

-----

Clacking of the man's shoes reverbs againts the marble floor as he leads the fox onwards. Passing through doors labelled with numbers, they went on through the long hallway of the apparent fancy hotel, accompanied by the warm orange of the hall's lighting.

Ren could only furrow his brow at his surroundings. It seems what Yuu told him is true. He really is in a hotel. But why though? Why a hotel out of all places?

But... If this is in fact, the central base for The Wings Of Freedom... Then, pretty spot on for them to use the 'hidden in plain sight' tactic.

"Where are you taking me?" Ren asks, in the midst of their steps.

"The answer to your question," The Manticore answers without glancing back.

"Why can't you just tell me?"

"I'm afraid you'll be intimidated into saying no."

Ren purses his lips and sighs, "I won't. So just tell me now."

"Too late for that, boy."

"What? Why?"

"Because either way, you have no choice but to follow me."

"Then, what was the point of your offer?"

"Because I'm not a brute. I have my own ways of doing things. And it wouldn't be nice to force things onto my potential son-in-law, correct?"

"How are you so sure that I won't just run away from here, then?"

"Well, Hotel Couffinia is quite popular amongst tourists, so there's a lot of innocent civilians here. You wouldn't want to disturb their morning now would you?"

Ren is now out of questions. It is true what the man said. He just saw a family with a couple of children packing their luggage into a room a few steps back. The question is, If he tries to run here and now, would the Manticore uses them as hostages? But even then, that would uncover the truth about this hotel to the general public. But he couldn't be too sure, there's a reason why the Knights hasn't found out about this place yet. Perhaps some connections here and there, a foul play at best.

With that, Ren can't risk it. All he can do now is follow the Manticore, wherever he'll take him.

And then, they arrive in front of the elevator. The Manticore presses its call button and stand beside Ren, staring at its sign as its number changes from one to two, then higher and higher. Finally, at seven, the elevator opens. The man steps in, waving his tail to keep Ren following.

With a gulp, he enters, then the door closes with a smooth clank.

"I know you're worried about the people here. But don't worry, this is just a hotel for them. Nothing more," The man reassures as he moves towards the elevator's button pad, hovering his palm over it, "As for where we're going..." A crimson glyphs appearn in between his palm and the elevator's pad as it circles its pattern around, "It's nowhere near anyone."

The smooth jazz plays along as the faint whoosh of the elevator clanks in the background. For a few moments, those sound continues like normal, till suddenly, the light starts to flicker. Darkness then light, rinse and repeat, the cycle continues.

As the light dims on and off, Ren shoots his eyes around. On the elevator's sign, glows a continuous ominous red emitted by intricate runes, replacing the supposedly displayed floor number. Those runes changes with every blink of the light, carving in a pattern of witchcraftian spell.

Then, the blinking stops and a second after, "BAM!" A loud crash causes Ren to stumble to his back, while the Manticore stands unaffected.

"W-Wha-" Ren huffs as the elevator dings and open.

The Manticore sighs and smiles before his stinger tugs onto Ren's collar and pulls him up to his feet, "No time to waste now, boy," He says before stepping forward out of the elevator.

Enters the hues of futuristic blues into Ren's eyes. Out of the elevator in front of him is a long hallway of metallic tunnel. Its flooring, roof and walls made up of white plates separated by lines of blue energy. A lab of some sort? Perhaps a centre for The Wing's 'scientific' experiments?

Either way, Ren steps forward, following the Manticore. As they pass by the hallway's first intersection, he closes his eyes before activating his aura vision. Yet, as he opens his eyes to see what's awaiting in front, a wave of sudden blinding light burns through his corneas.

"Gah!" He immediately covers his eyes before jumping back as if the light he saw just pushes him itself.

Those lights are god-like rays, brighter than the color white or the sun. Slowly, Ren removes his hands from his face and opens his eyes. His eyes are shaking, irises reduced to their most miniscule size. Everything is blurry, tainted with the spectrum of light. His huffs doesn't help either as he lies on the metallic floor, still trying to regain his vision.

"I'd recommend you to not do that again. Don't spoil yourself the fun now," He hear the Manticore says, both mocking and warning.

"But, I'd say this is convenient," His footsteps approaches closer.

Ren is still focused to the light's after effect, too distracted to do anything else. But a sudden firm hold to his cheeks makes him stares up. He sees the outline of the Manticore's silhouette, all blurred up and distorted by the haze.

"Nothing you can do to run now," Even through the distortion of Ren's sight, he still could see the Manticore's sinister smile, mocking him through the blur.

He then take a hold onto a lock of Ren's snow-white hair, causing him to grunt. Before roughly dragging him forward across the floor.

Ren tries to punch off the Manticore's hand, but it won't budge. A channel of his electricity is next, but only tiny sparks could manifest from his palms.

"Heheh, that tickles. Do it again," The first genuine laugh of his. Yet still, it sounds as jeering as ever.

No matter how many effort Ren puts to his strength or his magic, futility and exhaustion is what awaits him. Thus, from the rough pain of his hair being tugged and from the constant scraping of his body with the metal flooring, his retaliation slows. As his vision starts to fade back into the light that blinded him. He sees a shadow, a silhouette of a fox sitting on the farthest horizon of the blinding light, glaring right at him.

-----

The ticking clock keeps the eyes awake as rounds of snores coming from a certain pink-haired unicorn entertains the ears. With the room now desolate, empty and quiet, the first branch's party has come to an end. Though its members are obliged to clean up the entire mess afflicted to the room.

With precise yet ingenuous movement, Azayaka sweeps the floor, gathering tiny bits of sparkling confetti and disturbing amount of hair, "Didn't expect to do this as a knight. Ya'll too poor to afford a janitor or something?" Azayaka complains, sighing at the sight of that pink haired woman who's just snoring on the sofa without helping with anything.

"Hah, of course not. It's just... It helps with developing our responsibility y'know. Cleanliness is apart of our faith right?" The new Chief, Elianna spews as she gathers the party cups scattered across the room.

"What the hell are you on about?" Sion could only grumbles, annoyed by his given assignment of scrubbing off alcohol stains from the floor.

"Oh, y'know... I'm sure Udin or even Samuel'll understands, heh," Eliana giggles, the tower of cups that are stacked on her palm suddenly crumbling to thin air.

"I'm an atheist," From behind her, Samuel's dark, wispy voice echoes. His sister, Anastasia walks past her, carrying the ink-like demon as a makeshift mop.

"No one cares, Samuel. Anyways, since it's getting late, tomorrow I'll devise us a plan to end that pesky crime syndicate with the help of our newest member. A former assassin of the mentioned crime syndicate," She waves and points towards Azayaka at the end of her sentences as if she's the main star in a play, causing all eyes to point at her. Which she responds with a nervous sigh.

"Ah yes, I forgot that bitch's here," Suddenly, a female voice enters the fray. It coming from someone who just wake up from a hungover.

From her seat at the middle of the room, Amura glances behind to meet the dark fae's eyes. Both of their's are sharp and glaring, but the former has a smooth smirk, while the other keeps her pursed lips.

"How can we even trust her anyways? It's not like she's obligated to tell us anything right? Maybe we should have Samuel enter her again to double check?"

At her mention of that demon possessing her for the second time, a shudder shoots through Azayaka, spreading all throughout her body.

"See? From your reaction, we can conclude that there is something you're hiding. Why else would you shiver like that, huh?" Amura crosses her arms and legs at her newfound geniuses. It seems like her demon boyfriend, Kai who's standing tall beside her with a huge garbage bag hanging from his shoulder, understands that. As seen by his blank stare at the unicorn's magentas.

"Darling~ so how was it, huh? I am a pretty smart at deductions right? Right!?" Amura's search for a light in her boyfriend's eyes keeps her distracted. Thus, she furrows her brow as she tilts her head, "Hey, can you atleast give me some compliments. Not even good ones are fine. Maybe like- Eeep!"

A karate chop lands onto her head, Kai's big, lean hand being the source, "Stop. Being. An. Asshole," Each of his word has an interlude of karate chop directed to her head.

In the midst of the couple's quarrel, Azayaka approaches Eliana who's now tidying up the bookcases on the edges of the room.

"Hey," Azayaka greets.

"Hmm? What is it?" She replies with a smile.

"Am I allowed to... Leave this premise?"

"Well, according to the guidelines the Overseers gave me, you're supposed to be in the cell twenty four seven. So you're not even supposed to be here. But well, they won't do anything less I actually notify them. So as long as someone from this branch accompanies you then... I'll allow it," Pushing her hands behind her back, the woman leans forward as she stares nonchalantly at the dark fae, "You do remember what I said to you, right?"

"Keep your eyes open while I'm here."

"You'll never be alone."

Azayaka twitch her eyes to that sudden memory, but she shrugs them away with a small smile. She then walks away from the woman but a few steps away, Sion grabs her shoulder, stopping her in her track.

"Hey, do you wanna go somewhere? I can give you company."

"No... It's just. I just don't like that cell. Its too small," She grabs her arms as she averts her eyes elsewhere.

"Oh, then... Do you wanna stay at my place?"

"I don't think I'm allowed to stay anywhere else. Go to? Sure. But not stay."

"I'll allow it!" From a distance, Elianna answers for Azayaka.

"Well, there you go," He says, giving her a little, awkward chuckle.

She stays silent for a moment before responding, "So... Do you live alone?"

That question struck him hard, as a faint blush could be seen forming as he scratches his neck "W-Well, I-I don't mean anything like that, obviously. And I have another freeloader already living in my apartment, s-so don't worry about it."

"Okay. I'll stay with you for awhile then, Sion," She ends her words with a small smile. Which deepens the scorpion's blush.

"My, my, my. Sion getting handy with his words eh? Lemme tell you this, girlie, he's really easy to fluster back. Just like what you did there, heh," Suddenly, the new demonic member from Mor', Veli appears beside Azayaka in a puff of black smoke, giving Sion a wide smirk.

Azayaka raises an eyebrow at the dark-skinned demon, while Sion only narrows his eyes at him.

"Let's go, Aza. I'm sure these people are not rushing to plan out the plan until tomorrow anyways," Sion turns around toward the door, and Azayaka follows without question.

"Haah... What a no fun vibe-killer. Welp, that's Sion for you."

The demon's last words cause Sion to stop. Keeping his gaze low, he turns around and backtrack towards his ex.

As soon as he arrives in front of him, he grabs one of the demon's wrist, keeping his hand in place. Veli widens his eyes and pulls his head back, but then Sion pinches his chin, forcing the demon to look directly at him.

Sion's eyes are neither happy or sad. Just blank. And Velion couldn't read any emotions aside from curiosity.

"My, trying to awaken old memories eh?" He grins, raising a brow.

Sion keeps his sullen stare as he traces his chitinous fingers along the demon's jaw, letting him be mesmerized by the sight of his six, turquoise eyes.

Then, without a warning, he knees the demon's crotch.

"Akh-" Veli jitters, before falling to his knees, holding his underside in pain, "R-Right in the nuts..."

"Let's go now," The scorpion heartlessly leaves him that way, continuing on with Azayaka.

"Huh. I never knew you were such a charmer, Sion," She teases, to his dismay.

"Oh, shut it."

-----

Floating, full of life, yet empty of mind. She cradles herself, hugged by a tank of gentle liquid, surrounded with a cloak of serene blue lights.

There is only her, asleep within a chamber surrounded by darkness. The only source of light is her prison. And the only life there is her.

Silence is her only friend. The darkness is her only guardian.

That is, until rhythms of clacks echoes from the dark beyond, approaching closer and closer, second by second.

Then, those clacking stops and there he is, a purple-eyed man in a fur-lined coat staring at her softly. His wings are closed, and his scorpion tail calm. Gently, he puts a palm onto her chamber's smooth glass, caressing it with the utmost care and tenderness. As if he's touching her. As if the glass is never there.

In his eyes, there are hope. In his smile, there are genuine love. And in his voice, his truth are spoken;

"Don't worry, my dear..."

"Soon, we'll be family again."

Those words echoes endlessly in the dark. So does the slight hiss of his palm seperating from the chamber.

Keeping his grin, he glances behind towards the big, glass window. But as his vision pierce through it, his grin decays into a sinister one. As the sight behind that glass window surpass any that exist in this world.

A cage made out of four Torii gate, keeping in a giant sakura tree glowing with lines of bright purple corruption that spreads across its logs. Those corruptions form a symbol in the middle of the tree's stem. A Kitsune mask with nine, petal-like tail.

"I'll keep my promise this time..."

"My dear daughter."

-----

Bonus short comic:

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