As he finally stood right between them, completely forcing them to put a stop to their mindless bickering, Lass reflected briefly on the situation, realizing much more than he thought he would be, momentarily replacing Yuno with himself in that situation. However, that feeling not lasting long, this wasn't the playful kind of nagging he remembered, something that Anya was used to doing in order to gain someone's attention or briefly have fun. This time, she really was angry, for a reason so unimportant, that Lass was actually baffled as much as the others did when he came to realize it. Her behavior erratic and her words more akin to the harshness of Lass's without including nearly as much context or reason they would if being told by him, it was getting more and more obvious that she was, indeed, unwell.

"Hmph. Unfair." Anya angrily said.

"Could you please deal with your own problems first, before becoming everyone else's?" Yuno still went off at her.

"What?" Terna gasped at the sheer harshness of Yuno's words.

"Hey, shut up! She had her little outburst, it's over. Both of you shut the hell up and move on. And don't ever say some stupid shit like that again, ok, Yuno?' Lass almost immediately shut Yuno down, as he almost instantly regretted his words.

Anya seemed to lower herself down, not as they used to see her, high up and with a chest pumped full of air. Yuno, realizing his mistake very quickly, could not but be stunned at his own manners, dishing out words that would stab sharper than any knife, without even uttering a single ounce of profanity.

"I-I'm sorry. Just...let's calm down." Yuno apologized as much as he could, unable to fully do so under the pressure he felt.

"My bad..." Anya softly said.

"God, so unpredictable and meaningless. Do we seriously have to mingle with the peasant's affairs? Let them be already. First this, then that, come on already, give it up and let them solve it on their own." Mellistar echoed.

"How about you giving it up and backing off before I start a fight with you instead? Because I still have a bone to pick with you, a serious one, for leaving me at the hands of mercy yesterday, with all the Obsulyte overload that you instead faded out from and leaving me to fend against her!" Lass angrily whispered back.

Just then, Ikarisa silently emerged and watched them through the bushes, no one realizing her presence from the commotion. To her surprise, while she didn't see it all but the most important part of what went down, her realizing that things were much more serious than what they looked like in the surface. Still, she could somewhat see through what was going on, and the actions that followed after the fight, right then and there coming to a realization of something she never thought she would get to understand. Even if for thousand years of doing the same, it was only now that she began to know the nature of what it meant to be, not allies, but friends.

"Hmm...No. They need to get hurt. And when that goes away, they'll stop getting hurt again. I was wrong for thinking of putting them in a bubble...that could only make it worse in the long run." she came to a subtle, short-term conclusion for her own words and actions.

Lass breathed out, "Alright. Let's not let this one drag us down or something. Said some things, and exchanged a few swears, but we're good, right?" he looked around.

"Yeah. We are." Yuno agreed.

"Hmm.", Anya nodded as she calmed down, "My fault anyways. Nevertheless, you just got saved from a massive loss, as I was always sure to come out on top anyways." she apologized in her own way.

Dusting off his hands and turning around, Lass faced the pot on the makeshift burner, confirming that the food was ready, before opening it and preparing to serve. As bad as Ikarisa's food was to taste, Lass's was the polar opposite, having the smell it was supposed to, salty and with the smell of strong condiments, instead of a sweet, flowery feel to it. A vegetable soup from yesterday's sauce leftovers was all he could provide, as he used the tomato juices to his advantage, barely turning it into a consumable food item.

"So, anyone want to start with the food?" Lass approached the pot, "Not much with what I had, but thankfully enough to go by for everyone's breakfast.

"I'll go first! Lass, it smells amazing!" Terna happily approached.

"I'd rather have 'smells as it should' because I honestly can't imagine not using flowers or some nectar from them in it and actually having it smell that way."

"Y-Yeah. That too." Terna briefly looked at Ikarisa.

"Hmm?" Ikarisa didn't quite hear them, "Yeah, Lass's cooking is great, actually! You should see what he's able to do with actual ingredients at one point!"

"Honestly eager to try it out myself. Memories revolving around cooking are complicated, so I didn't even bother and instead waited for him to make something for me to try instead. Let's go with the ingredient-butchered version as a demo and move on to the real thing after." Yuno approached the pot as well.

"Alright, here. Enough for everyone of course, but one plate each. I can cook, but only with ingredients, not air. After this, we will need a supply run. And to be honest, we can only live off of carbs and somewhat on vegetables and fruits. I don't want to get anywhere near dairy or meat products that weren't refrigerated properly. Bad memories." Lass began to serve one place for everyone.

Everyone gathered around like vultures, surprising Lass as they each grabbed a plate quicker than lighting, showing that it wasn't just Ikarisa who struggled with hunger. Quickly getting the pot completely empty, Lass sat down briefly and cleaned the equipment off before joining the others, who were almost half done at that point already, not speaking much as they lost themselves in their plates, escaping the memories that were their food last night.

"You know, this is actually amazing for what you had to work with. Impressive stuff. If only you knew how to use your powers this way." Yuno complemented Lass, "That being said, did we really have to give me the smaller portion?"

"You like half our size. Compared to how much we need to run on per day, this is nothing too." Lass explained.

"Sometimes, I wish I could just feed off Obsulyte like the other Guardians or Links were said to do...for convenience's sake, and avoiding the kid-sized potion." Yuno finished up.

Anya finished up as well, quite refreshing as well. Had the whole watery tomato thing going on."

Yeah, this is actually quite good Lass!" Terna dug in.

"Yeah, Lass’s cooking is the best, but unfortunately we will stop at one this time." Ikarisa somewhat sadly said.

"Stop at one?" Yuno asked.

"Oh, back in Reingard, she had almost the entire pot eaten by herself alone. Risa is quite the eater, you'll see for yourself if you look a bit back in my memories." Lass answered.

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Ikarisa blushed, "L-Lass! Not that many details!"

"Really? And you don't quite look like it, Risa! Maybe after the supply run, we can have an eating contest. I warn you though, I may just eat more than I drink, should be fun though!" Anya laughed.

"That being said, we should probably put guns or something on our list as well." Lass thought.

"Do any of us, besides Terna who was trained for it, know how to use guns to begin with? Hell, does it really matter? We brought sticks and knives to a gunfight and won without it even being close." Anya placed her plate on the side.

"We were lucky enough that they didn't use anti-Obsulyte user weapons, more than anything. Better have a backup." Lass said.

"Fine, but I guess only you and me can have a go at it. Unless someone else has a gun license, besides the guy with the weapon gigs and the girl that sells them around." Anya agreed.

"Make them more our size as well, specifically for Anya, since the few we got probably won't fit in your hands, unless that Omni of yours barges in. But the question is where. Gardard is way too far to consider it for a day's trip, but we can probably reach it by tomorrow if we take the road straight ahead." Lass got up to check his phone's map as he took his thinking pose.

"Hmm...No. Considering how overrun everything is in the entirety of Victoria, that's way too dangerous. Monsters are attacking left and right and without everyone being up to speed with equipment, one attack can be an issue." Anya said.

"That's why I saw that article about the rapid draft that took place for those who completed their mandatory service in Victoria?" Ikarisa worryingly said.

"Most likely, yes. Especially around the suburban areas, and villages around Gardard. They may have moved their capitals closer to their borders, in a triangle formation, but it still doesn't change the fact that their plans are different. Victoria specifically is very agricultural, having farms nearly occupy 40% of its total land in square kilometers, and those drafters are usually stationed out there because of the increased cases of attacks."

"So if we do choose the continuous route right for Gardard, we have a high chance of getting attacked and ambushed. Not going to say we are quite to the emergency state of absolutely needing maintenance and stuff yet, but we both don't want to get to that stage or have ourselves getting hurt." Terna thought.

"With the way we are decked out, at least for now, Enmities or Shadowers deciding to attack us will just be humiliated and destroyed, no doubt." Yuno placed his plate on Anya's.

"Keep in mind that it's Obsulyte versus Obsulyte so they're still very much capable of harming us if we get too cocky like you're about to do here, especially if they just decide to stockpile themselves on and on, like with what they did to Kaci. Hell, I can swing a sword around, but I ain't got the endurance and stamina of a professional athlete, so I was barely able to keep up with my fatigue gradually taking over back there." Lass pointed out.

"True, but what if I use my healing for it? And don't forget that my abilities are somewhat compatible with Terna's, maybe we can pull through like we did in Delpha by having me heal it off and her empowering us?", Ikarisa suggested.

"Uh...unnecessary pain to be honest. As Lass said, we still don't know the power or the extent that these monsters can work on, so unless we can avoid all lethal blows...it could get bad." Terna said.

After a brief moment of thinking, everyone cleaned up the kitchen wares and placed everything back in the trunk, full of weapon maintenance equipment, but without basic necessities, they briefly loafed around as they tried to come up with a way out of their difficult situation. Yuno was the first to do so, hesitant to reveal his idea, but eventually managing to put it out for everyone to hear.

"There, is a way. You guys ain't gonna like it though." Yuno said through his teeth.

"I'm open to any suggestions right now." Lass looked at Yuno.

"Demon capital of Corosta is around these hills. The road from Insinia to Victoria passes through Sandaco, and besides the capital rearrangement after the Great War, they weren't so afraid of demon demi-humans after they attempted their genocide." Yuno pointed out.

"Absolutely no way," Anya answered.

"I'm agreeing with the mutt. No way." Lass said.

"Why though? Lass, it doesn't mean because they're demons that they will act like monsters! It's a different deal!" Terna pointed out, "They're still like you and me, alive and thinking complicated thoughts. Honestly, the world made them look so bad since I've been there before when I was very, very little. We actually had our farm set close to Victoria and Sandaco's borders, so when I was in the city, it looked just fine to me!"

"I trust your intuition on the species, but given how we had to use tactics revolving around demon Obsulyte Signatures to bypass the camp defenses in Kaci, it seriously makes me believe that this can be more trouble than what's worth. Plus, even demon demis had laws, despite their aggression and war-hungry manners. You experienced it as a child, so you must have obviously been cared for by everyone, but from the perspective of your parents, we have no idea how it faired." Lass said.

"Also, Corosta, as you can see from the name, isn't like Reingard, Gardard and Vardard. They kept their city's name pure, unchanged because they never cared to sign the Global Ceasefire Treaty or even the Trifecta Pact after the Great War. So instead of sharing basic stuff like the laws, trading and all that, it's essentially a different planet. It can be way too unpredictable as well, given...well the demons' innate destructive nature. You can write home about genocide and everything all you want, you're never sure if you got every single one of them, none excluded. What worries me is that, if there really are a couple or even a single demon demi-human left, very, very rightfully so, they'd be pissed beyond reason. Imagine having everyone you ever knew and loved suddenly slaughtered after not agreeing to sign off some papers. That'd be a good reason to want to cut the world into pieces and then burn those pieces too." Anya said.

"But we really need supplies right now and it's not like demons are bad. I've met many before and even though they of course had their destructive nature, they were fine! Plus, it's not like the Global Ceasefire Treaty is a must. Galatea, Larussia and Terra are all pretty big countries with respectable roles and haven't signed the treaty!" Terna tried to convince them yet again.

"Again, it's not the damn country, it's the people. Corosta as a capital, hell, most of northern Sandaco is finished, no more county left. Even its grounds are infertile with all the wars they've done and stuff. If we don't find demon demis, we are guaranteed to find Enmities and Shadowers, these grounds have always seeped with way more Obsulyte than others, hence both why demons were as strong, everyone feared mining out the energy from them and why they were so heavily militarized to not only expand territory but fend off the monsters!", Anya pointed out again.

"Depending on how we see it, we exchange one problem for the other here. But if we go on carefully both ways, there's a difference between being on guard to expect a possible ambush and being on guard for a guaranteed one." Ikarisa thought.

"This is a plain headache. The reason I agreed to this mission is because I thought we would be playing on familiar grounds. This treaty was only signed by the three major forces that contributed to the war, sure, but need I remind you Corosta still played a major part, and I don't have any sort of mood to start a fight with some meaningless demon's rampage. But, right is right so...voting. I vote no.", Lass took his vote, "Let's do this off quickly. Corosta is like half an hour, Gardard well over 10. The closest resting point to recover supplies is around 8 hours since no one placed any between Insinian, Victorian and Sandaco's boarders. But whatever we do decide to do, will most likely not, lead to yet another fight, surprise, surprise, where this world has gotten. Facts on the table, your go now, guys.

"I'm with the big guy as well. Don't wanna go through another prison camp full of monsters." Anya supported Lass, thinking back at Kaci.

"Lass, I'm sorry, but with our situation right now...we need to. Yes. I'm more than willing to get to the front or the back if I need to as well, depending on what we need."

"With Risa. And it's not like the Shadowers were confirmed to be a subbranch of demons. We simply don't know, even with your situation at that forest, so it does look a bit irrational to do so until proven." Terna sighed.

"Alright. That's two on two. Yuno, your go. The last vote will determine our next move." Lass looked at Yuno.

Yuno sighed, "Ha...I was going to say no. Our supplies are low, however, and the way Terna and Ikarisa presented their points sounds...well, more valid. I'm afraid I'll have to say yes, despite me not wanting to. I know first-hand what can happen, but even though I witnessed what I did at Kaci and had to fight for it, it...really doesn't make Shadowers confirmed volatile demons. There can be some huge merit in going for Corosta as well. Despite possibly finding nothing, maybe not even proper supplies in their bunkers, we could come across some stuff even more powerful than what we currently have, given how decked out for war they were."

Lass nodded, "That settles that then. Despite me not wanting to, a vote's a vote. We will be heading into Corosta for supplies, so I want everyone on high alert. Hopefully this sidetrack from our original path, again but this time with more logic to it, won't bite back."

And so, boarding the car with Terna in the driver's seat this time, nerves and stress about what they might see now peaking once again, they started to make their way for the demon capital of Sandaco, unsure of what they were to face once they had arrived.