We must have been running for hours by the time the enormous castle finally came into view. Our pace had been significantly hampered by the unconscious Sunao and the exhaustion of our party. But we had no time to stop. Hana and her Spartans were likely already under attack, and nothing short of a swift end to this war would prevent their defences from eventually succumbing.

“Hey sleepyhead, you had a good nap back there?”

Despite the severity of the situation, Saki decided to tease Nao the moment she woke up. As we slowly approached the castle from the side of the gargantuan mountain we had just climbed, Nao stirred on Saki’s back, her consciousness slowly returning to her.

“Sa…ki?” Upon awakening, the mixture of exhaustion and the strange circumstances seemed to confuse her immensely, until eventually the situation seemed to sink in her mind. “Saki?! You’re alive?!” She called hoarsely from the girl’s back.

“Thanks to you, I am. I don’t know how you did it, but you brought me back from death even after my soul passed on. You literally revived me from the dead, Nao.”

“I-I-I-I-I what?!”

“I don’t really get it either, but I felt you do something, then suddenly I was back in my mortal body and you were out cold next to me.” Saki then caught Nao up to date on everything that had happened since she fell asleep, making sure to emphasise multiple times that she owed her life to Nao.

“Revival from the dead…” Nao at first seemed less than convinced, but after focusing in silence for a moment she seemed to call something to mind. “Yes… I think it’s called 「Second Wind」… my power to cheat death.”

”I always said you were my little guardian Angel, but this takes the cake. I owe everything to you, Nao.”

“S-stop, you don’t owe me a thing… the only reason I manifested my new power… it was… I couldn’t imagine living without you… such a world would just be too cruel…”

Mai and I silently watched the pair talk, glad to finally hear them be completely candid about their feelings, even if the circumstances were… less than ideal. If the awful cloud of this war has any silver lining, it’s that I might now really get to see Saki and Nao get married. One little drop of happiness in all the despair of war.

But happiness would have to wait it’s turn, as despair was playing yet another card from it’s deck.

We had finally reached the end of the drawbridge for the monstrous black castle before our eyes. The “moat” of molten metal beneath our feet was wide enough to be an entire river. The entire building was bathed in an uncomfortable orange glow that gave the impression of a haunted house more than the home of the Lord of the underworld.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

And across that rotted bridge, there stood a figure in a white cloak, watching every move we dared to make.

Against our better judgement, the seven of us decided to cross the wooden bridge across the molten moat, and addressed the figure head on.

“We’ve been summoned to parlay with Baal Zebul. Might you guide us along to the place we may find him? It is a matter of utmost importance,” said Saki, in the formal manner of speech she only spoke when it came time for serious business.

“An invitation was extended to four, yet seven there are. Who among thee be those granted His Majesty’s audience?”

“Can we not all come in?” Saki asked

“None but those invited may enter the premises. The rest of thy party may remain with me until thy trials end. No harm shall come to them while under my protection.”

It was a tough situation, but one look around the group told me that we were all in agreement: we had come to far to turn back now.

“Kyouma. Twins. We’ll be back as soon as possible. Sit tight while we’re gone.”

“We entrust this duty to thee, Saki. Return to us posthaste,” said Kyouma.

“Do us proud in there, guys. I believe in you,” said Hikari.

“Don’t screw it up,” said Suzume.

Eager not to waste any more time, the four of us said our parting words to our comrades and followed the cloaked figures’ directions. The castle seemed even larger on the inside than the outside, though the dingy lighting and unpainted stone walls made it feel more like a dungeon than a castle. The hallway to the room we would be received in was long, which allowed time for the gravity of the situation to sink in.

“Three challenges… I wonder what they have in store for us,” wondered Saki aloud.

“Whatever it is, it’s likely more than we’ve ever faced until this point. You guys ready?” I asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be, I think,” replied Mai, “though I doubt our Nao here can say the same.” Mai jabbed her thumb towards our silent fourth member, who had only recently woken up from her exhausted slumber. Considering Kyouma took the better part of a day to recover from magic exhaustion, it was likely that we wouldn’t be able to rely on Nao’s power much here.

“I-I think I’ll be okay. But I don’t have much magic… Everyone please be careful, okay?”

“You brought me back from the grave once today already. I’m not gonna spit on that by dying again,” said Saki, in a somewhat teasing tone. It concerned me a tad that she was already joking about a severely traumatic event just hours after it happened, but it was on brand for her in a weird way.

The conversation lulled, and we found ourselves in front of a pair of enormous double doors, made of a black wood and visibly too heavy for any normal human being to open.

“Ready?” asked Saki.

“””Ready.””” we replied in unison.

Saki stepped ahead of us and opened the doors with a push. Together, we stepped into the huge hall on the other side, only to be greeted by the sight of two familiar demons.

“You’ve arrived, heroes of humanity. We trusted that you would.” The words came from the horrifying face of Laplace, stood one stride apart from Maxwell.

I felt my heart drop. Our first challengers would be the two demons who so easily overwhelmed us before.

I dreaded this sign of things to come.