Jevin came to. He noticed that his arm was still leaking, and redistributed his skin to patch the hole. He felt kinda stretched, but it was better than nothing. He began to look around, but then he heard footsteps approach. It's hard to imagine slime tensing up, but he did. He sighed heavily as this tension made his wound reopen.

The silhouette of the person who has attacked him came into the cave where Jevin was being kept. The amount of positive emotion exuding from this person made Jevin queasy. Was this what being a negative empath was like all the time? Jevin, as much as his empathic starts would allow, hated the feeling.

He saw the figure kneel down to his level, taking Jevin's chin in his hand. Jevin pushed away, making his slime more acidic just in case. Even in the dark, Jevin could tell the person was smirking.

"Feisty, are we? Don't worry. A little bit of excruciating pain will fix that." Jevin shuddered. This person was sick and twisted. Jevin tried to put as much distance between the two of them.

The person chuckled darkly, as if Jevin's movements were futile. And, in fact, they were, as Jevin soon found that he'd been stabbed again, this time in the other arm.

But he didn't scream. He knew that's what the person wanted. He bit his lip, bit back the pain. And, no matter how much pain he was in, he didn't scream, he didn't cry. He took it, trying to plan a daring escape or something heroic like that. Of course he did. It wasn't like he physically could be a pessimist.

Meanwhile, with our intrepid 'heroes'...

Grian, Taurtis and Python made their way up the hill in what, in an ideal world, would've been the fantasy district. The demons' castle loomed at them from over the river. It sent shivers down all three of their spines, as if the castle itself knew all their crimes, and was coming to punish. It scared Grian, who had seen how much worse the interior was. It scared Taurtis, who didn't know who it was owned by. It scared Python, who probably wasn't high on the target list.

But seeing this sight only strengthened what resolve each had, and they made their way to it, not caring if they got splashed while fording the river or scratched by errant branches while crossing the forest. They each had a goal, and they fought towards it.

Shortly after they arrived at the castle, Sam appeared, with Jevin blindfolded and tied up. Jevin was bandaged in places and bleeding in more. Any fight he'd had had been squeezed out of him almost as fast as the slime that dripped from his open wounds.

Needless to say, Python didn't enjoy seeing his friend in such a sorry state. He looked at the wounds, and hated the one who had inflicted them. Sam. Python looked Sam dead in the eye. He felt a fury rise up in his chest, almost primal. He hissed, and lunged at Sam, fangs bared, venom ready.

But in this rage, he was, in a way, weakened. Sure, he got a few good hits in on Sam, but he wasn't really tracking the fight. So when Sam drew his knife, slashed at Python's face, he wasn't ready. The knife went right through his burn scar too; he didn't stand a chance. He fell to the floor, hissing as if he were a literal snake that had just been wounded.

Grian rushed forward to confront Sam, his first hit making the rabbit mutant drop his knife. They fought for a good minute, Sam giving Grian a black eye, before Grian managed to slam Sam against the wall.

"You don't get to hurt my friends." Grian hissed in Sam's ear, before someone slammed into him, knocking him off of Sam.

Taurtis.

Grian turned to Taurtis with a look of pure betrayal on his face. Taurtis forced a sad smile, before slamming Grian to the ground and pinning him with a foot. Sam went for his knife, only to find a rope that looked as if it had been bitten in two where it had fallen. Python looked up at Sam with a smirk.

Before anyone had time to notice or react, the point of a blade came through Sam from behind. He fell to his knees, bleeding, revealing Jevin, untied and with his blindfold fallen around his neck. The slime looked down at what he'd just done, and spoke.

"That... Is for hurting my friend."

And then he let go of the sword, shaking, and Sam fell face-first onto the ground and didn't get back up again.

Taurtis suddenly took a sharp gasp in, putting his hands to his ears as he began to hyperventilate. He fell to his knees, the onslaught of emotion overwhelming him. He lowered one shaking hand to his headphones, bringing them up to cover his ears. He staggered to his feet, gasping. Seeing this, Grian put two and two together. He knew why Taurtis had betrayed them.

Grian took a deep breath, put his hand on Taurtis' shoulder, and spoke.

"Look. I get why you did what you did, but there were a multitude of other ways to escape that situation. But, I'm willing to give you another chance. Because you were my friend.

X will decide if you can stay. If you do, you're welcome to hang out any time when we're not in a life-or-death scenario.

Please, don't betray me again."

And that's that sub-arc complete!
The next is called "Nothing But My Eyes".
I think you can guess the rough plot.
And yes, I'm back. And only partially a dragon.
OdalRune, signing off from the past!