As Yuno left Lass behind to take his rest, Lass kept going on with his training. Almost reaching the point of insanity, he repeated the same move shown to him by Yuno again and again, not stopping for a single moment. His entire body was now imbued with the power he held back on for so long, his tiredness coated by the constant influx of adrenaline pulsing through his veins, keeping him wide awake. The illusions kept coming like a swarm, and him being able to barely defeat all of them as they piled on and on, managing a victory in the end. And as the last few illusions were defeated and the moon gave in to the first rays of sunlight, Lass let out one final cry before defeating a last-standing illusion in the training area, heard loud and clear throughout the forest.

"Gods...what the hell is all this noise about?" Yuno woke up from the noise outside.

Morning struck soon, as Yuno hastily trained Lass into the wonders of his powers, showing him a single but effective move to start slowly. But little did he know that Lass had but stuck on the training grounds for the entire night, till the break of dawn. He got up and headed outside, trying to locate the source of the noise that led to his annoyance.

"I don't think I...can create any more." Lass panted.

"What the hell? You stayed up all night long?" Yuno gazed at Lass.

Yuno was then greeted with a sight most admirable. Broken training dummies, defeated, running illusions and even partially gone landscape was all that was left after Lass's long night of training. The training grounds fell silent as the last remaining illusions crumbled and faded away. Lass then caught on to the fact that Yuno was giving him the looks, still left in awe by his actions.

"What? This is how we typically did it with Dad, back when he trained me with more than just the products we made." he took a deep breath.

"This is what you call 'typical'?", Yuno folded his arms.

"It's how it went the few times I had the chance to train. What of it?"

"How the hell did you even manage to create illusions to fight with, you are clearly a starter when it comes to your Obsulyte usage."

"When you were leaving I saw that the illusions were getting progressively less, and their strength deteriorated. I just did it as you taught me, I focused on a certain area and guided my powers to fuel the area where the illusions came out of, managing to hold on to them up until now."

"My god, your-I mean our- powers are that severely strong? Even I didn't know. That clearly stems from the fact that even without proper training, you can pull off something like this. I never had the chance to see another person using the same Obsulyte as me in such a way, which is very interesting, to say the least."

"You call them strong? Please, this is no time to joke around. I wouldn't call this nearly enough for what we are about to face now, and later on ahead. I already got my ass handed to me by Magi, a Sentinel I was 'supposed' to defeat. We were abundantly lucky that she was a half--drunk, good-willed person instead of how she was described, otherwise, I'd be dead. Never mind the miracle works against others in the arena. I have to keep going. Can you create more targets? I ran out.", Lass eagerly said.

"Your skills with weapons, melee and long range are good.", he emphasized, "There's no doubt about that. Your skills with your weapons and the Obsulyte they are supposed to conduct is what's severely lacking. Trust me, if you weren't trained to some extent, I wouldn't even bother teaching you the basics of Obbsulyte use right now.

"Then go ahead. Create more and let me at them."

"Are you dead serious about this? You are seriously that naïve? Look around you! You clearly overworked yourself, and you want to go further ahead? There's a defining line between what is considered healthy and unhealthy training. And by all means, you have stepped into the second half! A friendly reminder as I've very, very well cued you and hinted at by what I said, your powers can kill you. The more your emotional state gets spiked, under any emotion, your body reacts accordingly. The adrenaline rush, for Obsulyte users, is the Obsulyte rush on top. Blowing up might have been me over-exaggerating, considering I didn't have live examples yet, but your body literally can't take it. Look at me and how I was faced by the entire village, the colour black on my scales isn't for shits and giggles, it actively shows that I can be a threat if I don't control myself properly. Want to listen to some wise words from a half-sized dragon that's literally linked to your age? Something you also constantly plague and ask yourself with? You were born with your powers. You haven't earned them. As such, control yourself before pulling stupid, 'heroic' stunts like this. Whether half-assed with your abilities or a literal god killer, you're worth ten times more alive than dead in any situation." Yuno yelled at Lass.

"I get that! I do. But like I said. Mediocre and far below adequate for what the task at hand requires. I can't be constantly afraid that I'm not up to the level of my enemies to let everyone down. Screw Rafgo and Kalimo, those two were your average morons in some piss-poor tournament inside the city. Where it really mattered the most, during the monster raid and against Magi, I failed twice, in situations where defeat was not an option and 'victory', as it was portrayed, was nothing more than an overstatement. Now, are you going to do as I said?" Lass insisted.

"No, I'm not. You will now sit down and relax. You went on an entire night without a single moment of rest, so that will severely affect your performance in actual combat, regardless of your proficiency with Obsulyte or regular combat anyway. Eat something first, or even sleep for god's sake! After that, with a healthy body and a...averagely healthy mind, you can resume. Hell, I'm surprised that all this adrenaline rush hasn't knocked your head on the cold ground by now."

"Hah. Fine." Lass slammed his sword through the ground, "We'll have it your way."

"'We will do it my way, he says. I'm literally trying to help him from himself here. You ass-urgh!" Yuno mumbled, "Screw it. Just follow me."

Yuno brought Lass up to the entrance of the temple. Giant wooden doors similar to that of the house Weis was in were standing tall before the two, engraved with what looked to be different drawings made by hand encrypted all over them. Despite the age and the tale described it, the temple's doors did not look anything other than brand new, as if they were just finished mere days ago. Yuno then opened the doors and invited Lass inside. To his utter surprise, a scenery completely out of the realm of imagination Lass had in his mind was revealed before him. A cosy, modern and small-looking apartment was unfolding beyond the entrance. It leads directly to a small living room area consisting of a few pieces of furniture, a medium-sized book cabinet, a large flat-screen TV and a few games and consoles spread all around the furniture and the light grey, woollen couch. On his left, there was a surprisingly modern kitchen, separated from the small hallway at the door by a medium-sized bar area. Both the kitchen bar and the rest of the kitchen itself were built with glossy, smooth and somewhat reflective oak wood, giving a warm feel to the eye. Some of the furniture inside the apartment looking are were smaller than the average size, placed either alongside the larger furniture or in entirely new and quirky positions, signalling what it was really built to house. Needless to say, Lass was left standing at the door while gazing around.

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"I guess this is not what you had in mind, huh?"

"You wouldn't be guessing wrong. Over what I thought it'd be caved-in shelves at some rocks, I'll take this."

"It's nothing glorious, but it does its job. It was built to house both normal or demi-humans and Hyrusas, given our obviously smaller size. Built according to the elder's instructions way too many years ago, but since I now practically own the place, I modernized it completely. Starting with the Wi-Fi. And yet despite that, I still can't get a full match of 60 pings at anything."

"I still don't understand how you're having issues while I'm perfectly fine here, with some of the highest connections ever."

"Yeah, whatever. The guest room with a normal-sized bed for you is down the hall on the right of the kitchen, two doors down. You can close your eyes for a bit if you want."

"I'm not tired."

"Then grab something to eat real quickly? Anything you find in the kitchen goes, we actually have fresh and local produce."

"I'm not hungry."

"Oh shut it already! I get it your friends were taken away and you're worried...doesn't mean you'll have to punish yourself for it! There's a very defining line between proper training and overtraining, and by now, you've completely stepped on the second half of that line! Do I need to constantly remind you that Obsulyte, especially at the power level you and I have is dangerous? Why do you think that normal people feared Obsulyte users up until recently, where they are now instead rapidly requesting that they become military or paramilitary personnel? It's like a rush of adrenaline, the best way I can describe it. Use too much of it and you're dead."

"Punishment? Do you have any idea of what proper training is supposed to be? I always used to go above and beyond it with Dad. My training never just stood with the weapons from my gigs. He always wanted me to train with him, not because he wanted me to just jump into a gunfight holding whatever available knife, but to just...I don't know, practice with my powers and get used to them. I've given up on training like that for a long time, and I don't want my lazy ass to be the sole reason why two people I dragged with me to this stupid shit end up getting killed! Can you not understand me on this? It's not that I want to become some bullshit hero on some grand task, it's that I just want to do what's right dammit. What would the right thing be for you, just treat this like everyday life, building up slowly when we clearly don't have time. I wonder how you train on this curse we call powers."

"Of course, I know what proper training is like! I've been doing so my entire life! This is just beyond extreme. Look, I get it. Do you think I'm not all rushed about this? For all I know, Lilith could be with these monsters too. But can you trust me on this, even though we just met? You are worth more in this world, your friends and everything or everyone else are ten times more alive than completely overpowered and broken. We can push our limits, yes, but only a little at a time. You need to also first know what your limits are when to step over them and when you even reach them. Had it not been for Lilith and her absurd powers that rival even mines, I'd be dead. I did the same stupid shit once when I had a bad day and all I did was push myself during training which...ended badly, to say the least. But I'm still here, and I can do something more to fix this, thanks to not turning into dust, specifically thanks to her."

"I, obviously, am fine. No need to tell me all that just to make me quit it.", he sighed, "But...I guess I'll take it. Let's go by your standards, just so that you can also relax and get off my case. What's in for breakfast?" Lass looked around.

"Anything you can eat, so long as we have it and you like it. There's always the local market if you want anything else. We may have cut contact with the outside world a little bit, but thanks to some boring stuff you won't like to hear, we still have everything we need to be up to speed with the rest of said world."

"I guess...thanks." Lass let his guard down and took a seat.

Finally sitting down Yuno could not help but shift his focus on both Lass and the training grounds behind him. He was amazed that despite it all, he had maintained enough focus to be able to train for an entire night.

"So...let's try to break the ice a bit shall we?"

"I don't like idle chit-chat. Or anything of this sort." Lass looked away.

"Ok listen, I get it. We got off on the wrong foot, but we're supposed to be together for life. So let's at least try to act nice to each other." Yuno shrugged.

"I do not particularly...dislike you. I do have to admit that the way we met was...undesirable. And as such I was quick to make up fast conclusions." Lass relaxed further, "And...I'm sorry for worrying you. I know I'm anxious almost all the time but...don't take much of what I say when I'm like this personally."

"It's fine, and honestly, I can feel you on that one. Done one too many things I'd like to take back when I was like that as well. Glad we got that cleared."

The atmosphere at the moment seemed to ease between the two, as genuine words were thrown around for the first time, without the heat of battle or stress of the rush. The two seemed to start to get along, as they sat by each other and took their breakfast.

"This is the point where you say, 'I'm also sorry for being a half-baked smartass, and playing boss with you'."

"Uh not so much."

"You little bastard." Lass looks at Yuno with a straight face.

"Alright sorry. Just a joke? Do you know? Yu-no?" Yuno smiled.

"He did not just make a pun out of his name, right? I feel like my face shifted to me eating a barrel of lemons." Mellistar echoed.

"Please don't tell me you're the 'pun guy'. Nobody likes the 'pun guy'."

"Bet, I can tell you do. Listen, I for a fact know there were days when you at least popped a fraction of a smile. So why all this? Is it because of-"

"So? One moment is enough to change everything. It's like a battle. Bullets can fly, and steel can clash. But it will take one shot or a single slash to end it all. Let's not kid ourselves here, the world is colourful but with everything I hear and now experience, it feels like the world is ending. And not just in one way. If it's not war, its monsters, if not monsters, it's cash, if not cash then something else. I can fight, and I am fighting, but I don't know what for anymore. I'm just soft-locked on to that Thaddeus kings task for now, because I literally don't see much else I can do. Plus, I'm pretty sure Gardard has another king in Victoria, which will be fun to explain as to why Thaddeus is 'the last king' or whatever that is."

"Not liking idle chit-chat, huh?" Yuno made a cheeky comment.

"Piss off then, this ain't chit-chat, dumbass. I hate nothing more than talking about some random shit like the weather when you can actually go ahead and say meaningful stuff. Not that a forest-secluded midget would know.