Despite it being Lei-Lei's own spell that caused the winter-like conditions, it was clear she was most affected by it. Her face had become snow-white, and her body sweltered within while she slowly froze outside.

Suzaku carried her on her back, careful not to further injure the poor girl. Her flames that healed Lei-Lei wrapped thickly around her body like a blanket, reducing the excruciating pain while repairing her. She reached a part of the forest that hadn’t been touched by the ice and carefully sat her down against a tree.

“Save your breath,” she said as she amplified her healing flames. The young Jiuli gasped for air in a daze. “Everything will be fine.”

Lei-Lei's chest heaved. “Where did the demon go? Please, tell me Suzaku...”

“My wielder has chased after it,” she said. “You must rest now, otherwise you will not recover properly.”

“Is Fei fine?”

“She is. Dolorma has taken her, remember? My greatness firmly believes no other beast, should they value their life, would take on such a terrifying Silverwolf.”

“Is it okay for me to put my faith in Yushia...? That he will slay that demon...?”

“My greatness believes in him. You should too. He nearly took his life to save yours now, so you must put your trust in his efforts.”

A faint smile, one unforced, stretched on Lei-Lei's face. “That must be why you call him an idiot.”

Her words made Suzaku snicker. “That’s just how he is. In all my years of protecting the Land of the South, I have never once met a boy like him before.”

Blood coughed up on Lei-Lei's special clothing. “Oh no...”

Suzaku took the hem of her own white skirt and wiped the blood dripping down the edges of Lei-Lei's mouth. “It is time you rest now, really, Lei-Lei. My greatness would find pleasure in talking to you more, but she is more worried that you will not make it through the night with injuries like these.”

“I’m sorry,” Lei-Lei mumbled. She closed her eyes and did her best to grow comfortable with the soothing flames.

As the night carried on, the two girls quietly waited for the return of an idiot, and though they had high hopes, the possibility of failure lingered in the air. Just as their nerves began to calm, a rustling rightward of them sprung them back to full alert. A skinny girl rose from the bushes. Her green hair became disheveled and she stood awkwardly with trembling legs.

Suzaku squinted her eyes at the distant figure. “Fei?”

She’s here? Lei-Lei gently released her ether field to touch Suzaku and sensed the panic in her thumping heart. Something was wrong. She extended her ether field more.

Fei stumbled forward. “Is my sister with you?”

Suzaku activated her Ghost Mansion in her right arm. “Where is Dolorma? Why is the Silverwolf not with you?”

“I lost her,” Fei replied, her tone attempting an innocent and cute tone that ultimately failed.

With her unbroken arm, Lei-Lei pulled on Suzaku’s top. Her jaw hung open, taking heavy breaths as she shook her head side-to-side. She mouthed, “demon...”

The girl continued approaching the two.

Suzaku pointed her blade at the possessed Fei. “Stay back!”

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“Why?” she said as she stopped. “I want to see my sister.” She began walking again and rubbed her stomach. “I feel like I ate something poisonous. I need help from Lei-Lei.”

Suzaku’s blade burst into flames as she shouted again with unmatched ferocity. “Must my greatness repeat herself? Stay where you are!”

“But, oh, I’m so terribly sick,” Fei groaned. Her eyes rolled back as she tripped and landed her face in the ground. Clutching the mud, she tried gathering ether. “Trufagetou...!”

Why now!? Suzaku deactivated her Ghost Mansion and bent down to lift Lei-Lei into her arms. She was in no condition to fight, and running was the only option she had to ensure Lei-Lei's survival.

A loud thud came from the ground as Fei smashed her head repeatedly against the hard dirt. “Come out, Trufagetou! Why won’t you come out? I am your master, you must obey me! They’re right in front of us, so why won’t you come out?! Useless garbage! Useless, useless, useless!”

Suzaku covered Lei-Lei's ears, wishing she would not have to listen to her demon-possessed sister.

Fei sat on her knees and stared into the sky. She gazed at the moon and clawed the skin below her eyes. They bled as her eyes silver eyes bulged outward. “Trufagetou! Trufagetou! Why won’t you help your master when he’s so sick!?”

A circular shadow formed below Fei as she whined and smashed the ground with her small fists like a child throwing a tantrum. The shadow below her grew, and within that shadow, a hand emerged and gripped its edge. Another hand emerged and pulled its body up, revealing a figure cloaked in a bright-blue smoke, growling as it flashed its teeth.

Yushia...? Suzaku paced backward.

Crawling out of the shadow, Yushia twitched, eagerly scratching at his neck as he looked around. His veins pulsated and bulged throughout his arms and legs, glowing brighter than the smoke around him. He turned around and focused his bright burning eyes on the small girl. His yellow pupils contracted. There was no more Fei. Only a demon.

He crawled toward it and grabbed the sides of its face to meet it in its eyes.

“You...” the demon said. “Was it you who took Trufagetou from—”

Before Merew could finish, the Cerulean’s jaw opened wide, taking a bite out of his skull. The Cerulean’s teeth fractured bone as he pulled away, spitting out hair, meat, and skull. He lowered his head again, taking another larger bite out of the demon’s scalp.

Lei-Lei burst into tears as she reached her hand out at Yushia, mustering all the ether she could into her freehand. She coughed blood but persisted. “Voice of Wind: Wyvern’s Gust!”

Suzaku fell back from the blast of wind, accidentally dropping Lei-Lei.

The blast of wind hit Yushia and set him flying through the forest and away from Fei. Somehow, she had barely survived, but she was lying on her stomach with a quarter of her head missing and her brain visible. She bled down her face and moaned out. “Help... Sister...”

Lei-Lei dragged herself along the floor with one arm, sobbing. “Fei!”

Yushia’s glowing body exhausted more smoke as he sprinted on all fours, jumping on top of Fei’s body as he pinned her squirming body down. She cried wildly, begging for her sister's help. She was silenced when ten nine fingers grasped her shoulder blades before piercing through her flesh, releasing a fountain of blood that splashed on Yushia’s face. He squeezed, ripping the flesh off the demon’s back, skinning it alive. The insides were a mess. Everything from her muscles to her fat was already rotting, and the only thing still fresh was her spinal cord wrapped in black liquid.

Suzaku ran past Lei-Lei and kicked her wielder off of Fei’s body. “What do you think you are doing!?” she straddled her wielder and held him down. “You have gone too far! It is still Lei-Lei's sister’s body you are desecrating!”

Yushia grunted and kicked Suzaku off of him before crawling back. The demon had unattached itself from Fei’s spinal cord, now reduced to a tiny gelatinous mass that tried sliding away, wishing for escape. It didn’t get far as Yushia picked it off the ground with his fingertips. He opened his mouth and hung the demon above his saliva pit before dropping it inside, chewing its tough remains. The taste was horrible, so he spat it out before his feet. He roared and slammed his fists again and again into the demon, relentless as he wailed. He hadn’t realized it, but a Shijin Orb appeared on Fei’s open back.

Lei-Lei stopped crawling. The atrocities done to her sister made her puke.

A final scream ripped from Yushia’s throat as the demon fought back, wrapping itself around his fist. He gnawed at his arm before biting it off completely. Somehow, it grew back with an unnatural swiftness, and with it, he began pummeling the demon into the ground nonstop.

Suzaku stared wide-eyed at Lei-Lei who puked with no signs of stopping, and then at Fei who was brutally torn apart. She then turned her head to her wielder, watching as he reduced it into atoms.

Yushia’s body shook violently as the smoke around him dissipated. The demon had been killed. His veins no longer glowed as he fell unconscious on his side.

Suzaku continued staring at her wielder in disbelief. This is your child, Inanis?