I accidentally misnamed the chapter last time. My apologies...
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        He woke up to fur, and for a moment, he felt like he was back in the desert with nothing but his survival instincts, growing power, and Zhu to keep him from losing his mind. "You shouldn't linger on such memories. Those days are over," Zhu said in his mind. (Y/n) remained still but looked to find Zhu seemingly asleep. The fox was protectively curled around him just as he would have done before he left. "It hasn't been that long since then. You can't just expect me to act as if I never knew you. It hasn't even been a full month yet," (y/n) spoke knowing Zhu could hear him.

         The fox opened one of his eyes and glared at him. The familiar emerald color took away from the threatening intention of Zhu's glare. "Get off of me," Zhu growled. (Y/n) didn't budge. Sure, he hated Zhu for what he did, but after spending a little more than a year as close friends, (y/n) couldn't take his threats or agression seriously. He was still tired from the fight he had been forced into at the temple and a faint remnant of his pain reminded him of the lethal power his mother was now capable of.

        "Where is everyone?" (y/n) asked as he sat up, but he instantly regretted doing so as a sharp pain shot through him. "Hey, don't move. Do you want to die after escaping death so many times?" Zhu snapped. The fox was on his feet and sat near him so that (y/n) cloud lean against him. "What happened to me? What did you do?" (y/n) asked as he held a hand over his heart to ease his pain. "Quiet. You two are too loud. I'm not in the mood for noise right now," Ykuei's familiar voice said but the hybrid child was nowhere to be seen. What bothered (y/n) more was that he didn't sound like the innocent scared child he was before (y/n) last saw him.

        "Ykuei...? Where are you?" (y/n) asked as he looked around. "Look up," he heard Ykuei mutter. As he did, he realized Ykuei was floating above him as if he was sleeping on the ceiling. "Thanks to your former friend there, my cover is blown, and I'm locked in here with you. It was nice being able to act like a kid again. Most people don't treat me like one despite the fact that I technically am," Ykuei spoke as he stared at the wall.

        (Y/n) was quite confused about what was going on. His mother told him something cryptic, a goddess claimed to be on his side but was not to be trusted, Zhu showed up again, and now Ykuei was a liar even though Illipia had spoken opposite. He couldn't handle the randomness of it all. Did everyone involved honestly think he'd believe everything he heard? Before (y/n) could start asking more questions, a knock was heard at the door, startling him. Usually he would have sensed someone long before they got even remotely close to him.

        "It's just me and Elsword," Ara spoke before unlocking something on the outside of his door and pushing the door open. (Y/n)'s bad mood got a little better knowing that those two had come to visit him and maybe even explain things to him. Ara walked in first and Elsword peeked around the door frame. When he spotted (y/n), the red head grinned like an idiot once again making himself seem a bit childish despite his status as leader.

        "Good to see you again. I heard about what happened. You okay?" Elsword spoke as he entered the room after Ara and sat on the floor in front of (y/n). He seemed entirely unphased by the treacherous fox sitting nearby unlike Ara who had given the fox a glare before sitting near (y/n). "Yeah, I'm all good," (y/n) answered. It felt wrong speaking such a lie nd Elsword must have sensed that. "Are you sure? You aren't in the best of situations right now and Zhu told us that you won't be able to use your power correctly for a while. I didn't believe him at first, but you didn't heal right away when he bit you. You also didn't wake up either. We were getting worried you know," Elsword said with a sad smile.

        (Y/n) could tell that he felt responsible for what had happened since he wasn't there. "It's not your fault. You can't blame that on yourself. I knew it was a bad idea to begin with, but I left anyway. Chung, Aisha, and Add are all okay, right?" (y/n) said as he hit Zhu for biting him. The fox shot him a glare but nothing more. Zhu had read his thoughts and knew why he had been hit. "They're okay but, that isn't the point..." Elsword muttered. He truly felt terrible and that somehow made (y/n) feel better as strange as that sounded.

         "People got hurt and someone went missing while you were away. He doesn't want to tell you," Zhu muttered. Elsword looked at Zhu as if he had experienced (y/n)'s betrayal before lowering his head. "Zhu, shut up. You aren't helping," (y/n) thought in annoyance. He shot a glare at the fox who returned it. "He isn't wrong. I didn't want to tell you just yet. It isn't your fault though so don't listen to them if they mention it. I'll take care of things," Elsword said as he stood up and quickly turned to leave. (Y/n) caught glimpse of his tears and chose not to mention them although he did stop him.

        "Elsword, you're a good leader. Just keep doing what you know to do and I'm sure things will be fine. You're the person everyone expects to keep their head up all the time," he said. Elsword stood there for a moment before wiping his eyes. "Thanks. That means a lot coming from someone as resilient as you are," Elsword said before leaving. The silence Elsword left behind remained until (y/n) looked over to Ara who hadn't said a word since her arrival.

        "Are you okay?" (y/n) asked. She may have been speaking to Eun but he wasn't sure. "No....none of us are," Ara muttered. Her expression went from neutral to depressed within seconds. "We might actually fail this time. According to Ignia, Scar is the demon behind all of this and he has the earth priestess' power. Not only that but he kidnapped the sun and moon priestesses and got a hold of everything he needed to start the ritual to revive Sult. Everything except Ykuei..." Ara explained.

        (Y/n) looked up at the hybrid who certainly noticed that he had been mentioned. Ykuei glanced down at them before frowning and disappearing from sight. "That's not all. Scar himself attacked Lanox while you were at the temple. He's pretty powerful even by himself and from what I heard, your mother is too and she isn't fighting on our side. We tried to fight him off but our efforts were useless. Eve, Lu, Ciel, and Rena took the most damage. They're in critical condition. Elesis is missing. She chased after Scar after he attempted to kidnap Elsword for some unknown reason. I should have gone after her sooner..." Ara continued.

        "How badly is Lanox damaged?" (y/n) asked. Ara was hesitant to answer. "A majority of the citezens are okay thanks to our efforts but if Ignia fails to keep that volcano under control, we're going to be in more trouble. That lava is already strangely enchanted. Elsword's fever still hasn't gone away. He could pass out at any moment, yet he refuses to sit still. I tried talking some sense into him, but it didn't work. And then there's you..." Are spoke. She stared at him with increasing worry.

        "You nearly died. Whatever your mother kept hitting you with was cutting of your life energy from whatever power you were using. She was harming your very essence. It'll be a couple more days before you completely recover from that. Not to mention the strain that Zhu put you under," Ara said. She glared at Zhu knowing that he hasn't entirely cared about (y/n)'s limits. "Good to know you're worried although it's best that you not. You'll case unneeded stress. I'm going to be okay. Things always turn out going well, right," (y/n) reassured.

        "You're doing that thing again. Don't do that. You only make it worse when you lie to yourself," Ara muttered as she got closer to him and leaned onto him. (Y/n) was not familiar with this world saving thing, but he was pretty sure it didn't go this way. "Ykuei still hasn't told us what he knows and Scar gave us a deadline of three days. He told us where he was hidden and he told us when he would start his plan with or without Ykuei there to stabilize things."

        Ara left his side, getting up from the floor to leave. "I have to go help take care of the others. You be careful in here with this backstabbing traitor. I wish we coyld kick him out, but we can't," Ara said. She was about to leave but stopped herself. She sat next to (y/n) again kissing his cheek before standing once more. "I'll be back once the rest of the team stops quarreling among one another. This whole situation is such a mess," Ara spoke with a sigh although she remained quite flustered from her own actions.

        "We've got the rest of the day ahead of us right? We'll figure something out. Zhu's here so I might as well use him while I can," (y/n) said. "Bold of you to assume I'd be the one being used," Zhu said once Are had gone away. "I'm sure you realize that you're already being used even now," thought refering Zhu currently being used as support. "I can have you die on me yet. That has nothing to do with being used," Zhu growled. "Say what you want. I'll just be waiting for you extensive apology for everything you've done," (y/n) thought.

        Zhu laughed at him. "When are you going to wake up and see that this world can't be changed to fit your preferred ending?" the fox sneered. Preferred ending? It was the most absurd thing he'd heard from the fox that day. "Shut up and let me relax a bit. You did almost kill me so just shut up for a bit," (y/n) muttered. He kmew his peace would not last. Zhu was still his enemy and the El Search Party was falling apart. Their mission in Lanox was in danger of failure.
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The only reason I didn't get rid of these bold occurances is because I've already done half the book like this. No point in stopping now. Until next time you remarkable readers!