Meanwhile, outside of the gym walls stood Knuckles. His body leaned against the nearby tree, his head tilted back as his violet eyes watched the clouds slowly flow. He skillfully moved the straw in his mouth to the other side. He inhaled, closing his eyes.

"Boo!"

Knuckles' eyes burst open, and he coughed the straw out. His body jerked in the opposite direction as his eyebrows settled into his usual frown.

"Sonic!" he barked.

The youngster giggled, sparks in his eyes danced.

"Yo!" He lifted his hand in a friendly gesture.

"Yo, my butt!" The echidna snapped. "What's the idea?"

He wasn't angry for the joke, but on himself for letting this kid sneak upon him.

"You looked so dreamy I couldn't resist," Sonic answered and came from behind the tree.

"Full of energy I see." A small smirk appeared on Knuckles' face. "How about burning it a bit?" He clashed his fists to strengthen his point

"No problem!" Sonic grinned. "Mr. Nigel just ordered me to stay before he will have all reports ready for me to deliver." He swung on his heels as he put his hands behind his head. "I'm so bored."

"Then it's good we got a new punching bag!" Knuckles hooked his friend around the neck. "I still haven't got my knuckles on it."

"Sweet!" Sonic looked at the other with a mischievous smile. "So tell me, Cap," he whispered, "how it goes with your sweetheart?"

Knuckles' face turned purple and his hold loosed. "W-What?" he stuttered. He wanted to grab the youngster, but Sonic was sitting on the tree in a sec.

"Little birds whispered me you are all dreamy as of late." Sonic again snickered.

"That's nonsense!" Knuckles put his arms akimbo as he stomped. "And I suppose some people have too much free time."

"Come on!" The blue hedgehog threw his hands in the air. "There is nothing wrong with having a girlfriend!"

"She isn't a girlfriend!"

Sonic dashed down, hooking his friend this time. "So there is a girl you have a crush on."

The red echidna too late realized his mistake. His eyes trailed the ground, and his lips pouted slightly. Her image flashed in his mind before he abruptly threw Sonic over his shoulder. The young hedgehog let out a loud pant.

"You let your guard down." The echidna smirked.

"I know this cute flower shop," Sonic replied.

Knuckles turned redder than usual, but he couldn't hate him. The blue blur had a habit to tease his friends. The echidna was about to say something when a strong and sharp sound vibrated the air.

Both their heads snapped toward the gym, in the next second, they exchanged silent looks and rushed inside. They flew into the main gym, and the door burst open as they pushed it. They held their breaths as not many people could deliver such strong punches.

"Silver?" called Knuckles when he saw the psychic pummeling the poor punching bag.

Each hit lifted the heavy bag to the ceiling. The chain clattered as it moved up and down. The heavy load landed in Silver's palms, and it managed to push him a few inches back. His head snapped back, a scowl firmly on his face.

"What do you want?" he growled.

"Cool punches!" shouted Sonic with a big smile. "I never knew you can do that." He paced toward the other hedgehog.

The psychic merely snorted. "Strong mind is useless without the support of one's body."

"Is this the new bag?" Sonic curiously checked it. "Feels like you gave it run for its money."

Only now Silver examined the equipment he chose. He picked it without a second thought. It seemed it could provide him the needed target to release his frustration. Suddenly, the bag lost its value.

"Knuckles!" he snapped, startling the other a bit, "Let's spare!"

The echidna frowned, carefully watching Silver.

Sonic's eyes went back and forth between them. The tension in the room obtained an almost physical form, until Sonic shouted, "Looser buys me a chili-dog!"

"Forget it!" Silver barked and headed to the boxing ring in the corner.

"What are the rules?" asked Knuckles who now walked side-by-side him.

"The first down." He adjusted his tape.

"Want gloves?"

"I'm good."

Silver grabbed the middle rope and swung into the ring. Knuckles crawled inside under them. Both took their position in one corner. Sonic jumped into the middle and spread his arms.

"In the red corner we have Cap Knuckles and his punching canons!" he announced like this was a big match watched by thousands of people.

Silver rolled his eyes, and Knuckles managed to put on an awkward smile. The boy's enthusiasm broke the tension with one sentence.

"In the blue corner, we have Brooding Silver; the mastermind behind the taunts!"

Silver couldn't stop his confident smirk from appearing. The mastermind had a nice ring to it.

"I want a clear game--"

"Get on with it!" the psychic rebuked him, and the boy chuckled before putting his hand between them.

Both fighters took fighting stances.

"Go!" Sonic shouted as he lifted his arm and jumped to safety.

Both fighters shouted in unison as they charged at each other.

Meanwhile, far away in the Hell, Steelar walked through a corridor. Its stone was colored red and gray, many places stabbing her feet, but she didn't mind. The pain they inflicted couldn't compare to what she lived through.

For the past minutes, she was biting her cheek from inside. She spoke with her fellow demons, and the information she got was bad news. Almost everyone knew somebody who disappeared and half of them glimpsed a big monster lurking in their temporary territory.

She didn't tell anybody about Black Arms killing them, she only urged to be careful. Some shooed her away as she was one of the weakest demons, but a small group took her seriously. There was no doubt uneasiness would slowly spread through the whole Hell.

There was one more demon she wanted to talk about this. Steelar was sure he would know something, but she was scared to approach him. She couldn't come up with a reason he would listen to her.

'I have to try it!'

Reminding herself what was at stake, and what it could lead to help her to find resolve, but it was going away with each step she approached the library. However, he was her best bet.

Her yellow eyes trailed the door. They weren't huge or carved with pictures of hideous acts, yet they always make her feel small.

The library behind them was old as Hell itself, and she heard many stories about demons who rebelled and entered the archives. Nobody ever heard about them. Only Sirius was capable of navigating inside.

She gulped, rubbing her sweaty palms against her hips. The space in corridors was warm or hot depending on how one was close to lava rivers at the bottom levels. Despite this place was somewhere in the middle, coldness licked her back but her limbs were burning.

The last steps toward the metal door lasted a whole eternity. Her lungs refused to use their full capacity, pushing the air out before it filled them. She bit her tongue when she touched the surface. It burned her, but the next attempt filled her body with shivers.

'What a weird place,' ran through her mind as she slowly pushed the door open. Her head peeked inside, quickly searching for traces of danger. Nothing bad ever happened to her, yet she couldn't stop thinking something powerful was locked inside.

As Steelar couldn't find the librarian, she strained inside, closing the door without a squeak. The darkness didn't touch the main corridor regardless of the lack of lights. She didn't stop searching for a potential threat, moving forward with silent steps.

The regales full of books never stopped amaze her. How could anybody remember everything? Did Mister Sirius write them all? All she knew this strange demon was able to read, write, and even understand mortal's language in all its forms.

After all, he personally taught her centuries ago. It was useful for obtaining information.

She stopped in the middle of her movement.

'But who taught him?'

She never thought about it as she disliked the lessons and was happy to finish them with so-so results. Only the real world forced her to deepen her knowledge on her own.

Her body suddenly pivoted, reacting to quick movement on her left side. Clattering sounds resonated around her as a small pile of books collapsed and a flying cloth headed her way. Goosebumps popped out on her back, she spread her claws ready to strike.

The flying creature jerked in the air back and forth, the cloth fell down and a strong sneeze flew into her face.

"Bleh!" she snapped, crossing her arms to protect herself.

More sneezes followed.

Steelar narrowed her eyes, watching the small, blocky creature. It looked weak, and tears poured from its tree eyes. The biggest sneeze so far pushed out snot from its flat nose. The demoness stepped a bit back. She had no desire to get something yucky on her skin.

She picked the cloth and offered it to the flying creature. It's short, thin legs grabbed it and blew out the whole load.

Steelar's stomach made a somersault. For whatever reason, she hated gory and gooey stuff. She let the cloth fall down and patted the creature.

It reacted with purring and rubbing its body against her chest.

"Aren't you a cute one?" She scratched it under its muzzle, and it let its tongue hang out. "I suppose you aren't the big, scary monster demons speak about, right?" she jokingly added.

It responded with musical sound. She couldn't exactly describe it but it reminded her of a tone from a flute.

"Blurk!" a sharp voice called the creature.

Steelar straightened herself, realizing who arrived. The fuzzy feeling in her stomach turned into dead weight. She hid her hands behind her to mask her nervousness.

To her surprise, Blurk flew toward the librarian with a big grin and circled him.

"I told you to be careful when you organize the piles," Sirius reminded his small helper. His voice was calm and soft without a hint of anger.

Blurk answered, and Steelar was now sure he spoke in musical tones.

"There are only as many books you can handle at once. Go ask your siblings for help."

The blocky helper nodded which looked like a small jump in the air and flew away.

A small smile spread on Steelar's face. She never thought the all the time strict librarian would act this way. However, her thoughts frozen when he looked at her.

His eyes pierced her like they were searching for her core. Her heart pushed loudly the blood into her veins.

'So cold...' she clenched her jaws and tried not to think about the stories regarding ripping core from living demons. It was their equivalent of the mortal's soul. No form could define it, but losing it meant eternal darkness.

"What do you want?" Sirius asked her.

Steelar's mouth went agape, but she wasn't able to produce a word. She dug her claws into elbows and gulped.

Now or never.

"I have a question," she whispered in a soft voice, her fear stopped her from talking louder.

"What it is?" he snapped back.

"I... I saw weird..."

Her words were drowned by the arrival of a small group of demons bringing in the collected energy. Steelar quickly moved from their way as this bunch was hardly friendly.

The demoness didn't dare to interrupt. Sirius took note of all hourglasses. There was no way to read his mind, his expression hardly left the neutral zone, and the slight frown above his eyes was most of the time the only indicator of change.

She held her breath. The group quickly obtained new hourglasses from Sirius. She never understood where he had them stored, they just appeared above his palm. It pained her a bit Sirius was looked down on by many peers. For many, the only thing that mattered was raw strength.

There was truth in that, but Sirius taught her the real battle was fought in minds. Calculating your opponent's next move could decide the ultimate outcome.

Her eyes peeled to the ground where the magic circle appeared. Yet another fascinating ability he possessed; transportation. Only Sirius was able to send demons to the world above. How he was able to find the cracks in the ancient seal was behind her, but only thanks to him they ever had a chance to conquer the world of mortals.

Amy's face flashed in her mind. She bit her lip, shooing it away. 'I wonder... if we could be friends... like she said.'

Once the seal would be broken the whole army from Hell would invade many kingdoms to wreak havoc and spread darkness.

Sharp flashes of light told her all the demons were gradually moved to their new destination. All of them were in a fighting condition unlike her. Sirius refused to send her back immediately upon the collecting and ordered her to stay.

The present demons laughed at her that time, but she didn't mind. It gave her time to gather some information from demons like her.

It took her a few moments to realize Sirius finished sending all the demons and was now standing in front of her. Huge hourglasses were shoved into her arms.

"This will do for now," Sirius said without a hint of emotions.

A circle started to glow under her feet. Hotness filled her from toes to the top of her horns.

"W-Wait--!" she shouted, but her words were gone in the light.

Her body stretched and condensed in a periodic manner. The traveling through the cracks always made her uneasy. There were times Steelar thought she might be stripped of skin and flesh any moment.

The only good thing was her traveling was a short one, and she soon landed at her destination. Her trained eyes quickly observed the area around her.

The evening in the forest darkened the grass under her legs. Leaves rustled, masking insect's sounds and the presence of small animals. Far from her, she noticed a stream of small size, it was hardly audible even to demon's ears.

She grabbed her new hourglasses. There was nothing she could do now. Sirius always sent her to Las Casino City even without asking her or letting her choose her destination.

"But why," she muttered without expecting an answer.

He knew she worked in a group, and she didn't bring the last hourglasses, yet Sirius never questioned its absence.

She clenched the wood pole enclosing the glass. It burned her as her brain created an unlikely theory she refused to believe in.

"Could Mister Sirius..." Her voice spoke without her realizing it. "Be working with Black Arms?"

A stream of questions entered her mind, but she shook her head and tightly closed her eyes. It was sickening the person she looked up to was in cohorts with those monsters!

A dozen tears had to fall down for Steelar to notice them. She quickly wiped her face.

'I don't have time to dwell on this!' She put the hourglass over her shoulder. 'I can only move forward!'

And so she walked forward without a goal. There was no city or town to be seen, and she didn't smell any cluster of emotions. She hoped to find some big city to avoid killing.

The less attention she would drag to herself the better for more than just her monthly quota. She traveled through the forest at a steady pace, but it still took her hours to find anybody.

She left her hourglass next to a tree before she looked over the cliff. There was a woman next to the caravan making some tea. The woman in thin clothes was calm, and if Steelar's nose wasn't making fun of her, mostly in a light gray area. In other words, hunting her would waste her time and efforts. There was only much dark energy she could get.

However, she had to start somewhere, and turning picky could endanger her missions. She leaned over the edge. It wasn't her usual hunting method, but a clean-cut in the woman's throat would end this quickly. There would be almost no pain and a lot of blood.

Steelar winced. The images of her old home dancing in front of her. She clenched her head. She hated this about herself. Why she couldn't draw blood like anybody else? Why she was so weird? There wasn't a fight she would walk out without bruises or something broken. Healing her wounds took her days to weeks.

'I don't have time for this!'

She shook her head. There was more in play than some woman's life. The balance of the whole world could be at stake. She doubted that could be the case, but Black Arms possessed serious threat.

Her lungs inhaled, taking the cool air inside, reading her body to jump. In the blink of an eye, her body yanked back. Her brain was unable to process the information as her neck was squeezed by a mighty hand.

She dug her claws into the thick arm, leaving nothing but hardly visible scratches. Her body thrashed around, but no amount of hits could free her. She knew that too well as he had fallen prey to the strongest demon of the last generation; Crestia.

Steelar's body landed on the grass, and she hungrily swallowed the air. Her yellow eyes slowly traveled from bulky legs to Crestia's chest. There she stopped, afraid to look higher.

"What you want here?" the big demoness asked.

"I'm sorry!" Steelar bowed, pressing her body against the grass. "I had no idea I landed in your territory!"

If one thing allowed her to escape, it was turning into a begging mess most demons didn't bother to kick. "I'll immediately leave."

She slowly backed down not standing on her feet. Her long tail wrapped around the hourglass, lifting it. She needed to move fast and far from Crestia. While she was her idol in terms of raw strength, she was known for her short temper and hatred towards weaklings.

The luck was on her side as the other demon didn't try to turn her into a cripple.

"Can...?" Steelar bit her tongue to stop the question from escaping, but it was too late.

"What?"

There was no backing up now. Steelar gulped, just Crestia's presence was crushing her small frame.

"Can I have a question?" She made her voice as small as she could.

"Then stand up."

It wasn't a refusal, but the request jerked with her whole body. Was she asked to look into Crestia's face? She witnessed only a few of Crestia's battles, but none of the opponents was allowed to but glanced at her once she crushed them.

Any delay in her response could result in serious consequences, and so she gradually lifted her body. She made sure to lift her head like last, using the hourglass as support. Her breathing refused to calm down, but at least her body wasn't covered by sweat.

Her eyes manage to avoid Crestie's for a short while, but they inevitably locked. A strange wave washed over Steelar's heart. She recognized the build and the voice so well, yet it felt this wasn't Crestia she knew and heard so much about.

There was no doubt it was her, but something was off at the same time. And then it hit her. Crestia's eyes weren't filled with anger but a strange calmness.

"So?" Her voice interrupted Steelar's thoughts. "What's the big question?"

The smaller demoness gulped.

"I..." The different atmosphere around one of the most feared demons wasn't helping her to formulate her question the most polite way she wanted. "I only wondered if you saw any Black Arms?"

Crestia tilted her head. "Come again?"

Steelar winced. "Some weird creatures that don't scream, talk, or smell. They are creepy and kill-" She quickly bit her tongue. She was blurting it out too fast.

"Continue," the other one encouraged her.

"... they kill other demons too," she finished her sentence.

Crestia would be fine. There was no doubt she would be able to kill those monsters.

"They are black with a bit of red on them. They have scaly skin and some can fly and shoot thunders. But there are also some weak blobs with a big eye." She again turned silent for a short time.

Since Crestia didn't react, she added, "I wanted for you to be careful."

If she was scared, now she was terrified. Her honest remark could only mean one thing; she saw Crestia as weak.

The opposite was the truth, but her body froze, unable to react or defend.

She was so dead.

Crestia came closer and smelled around her. Steelar had no doubt it was to elevate her fear. Tears formed in her eyes. She wondered if looking pitiful and pathetic would convince Crestia she was a too small target to waste her energy on.

What seemed like endless torture ended in a matter of a few seconds.

"Head to north-east," Crestia said once she stepped away.

Steelar was unable to respond.

"There is a place where you can gather what you need."

The small demoness nodded and turned away to go. With each step, she expected to be assaulted. However, nothing happened.

"You too be careful, kid."

Steelar's body pivoted, almost snapping her in the half. Crestia was nowhere to be seen.

'Did she?'

The mere thoughts of her being worried turned her brain into one big mess, she slowly walked in the advised direction. Nothing good could come from pushing one's luck.

Meanwhile, under the cliff, Crestia climbed down in a hardly silent way. It wasn't like she was clumsy, but stealth was at the end of the list of her excellent abilities, with muscles taking the top five positions.

Her clawed feet stomped the grass beneath, and she gradually approached the now sitting woman. The woman sipped her tea like there wasn't a grave danger behind her.