Early in the morning for Daniel and Tommy, their minds were still set on the troubles from the day before. They worried that those men, or even more, would come again to attack. To ease the boy's understanding, Daniel told him everything he knew about the gang.

"So their leader is this Claude and they went away from Ashburg a few months ago?" Tommy asked, trying to confirm if he understood everything.

"Yes, if I remember right people said they moved down south, to Brimville." Daniel remembered.

The two of them were low on food and also didn't want to eat fish any more. Their plan was to travel to Shepham and see if they can find something to eat. They were aware that the recent trouble of the harbinger began in Shepham but the next nearby town would be Brimville, which they believed to be too small to have proper shops.

Their only problem was that they did not have a car. These vehicles stood everywhere in the town but they didn't have a key to start up the engine and neither one of them knew how to short circuit one. Thus they looked around in the streets for some bicycles, their chains were swiftly severed by the regalia and they hopped on. Bicycles were more physically exhausting than cars and certainly were slim on storage but they had some baskets on their steering shafts, enough to carry a few dozen cans. Another advantage was that it was much more silent than car engines and it did not require gas.

Since it was a lot slower than going by car it took them an hour to get to the town. On the way they engaged several stray demons, which were quickly dealt with by Daniel. As they fought, he tried to put his soul listening ability under a trial. Still, he had to be without about a meter of reach to listen to a voice, bothering him quite a bit. Whatever caused the sudden change, it is now on his mind.

"We are here," Tommy said as they entered, staying close to Daniel.

The last time he was there, they were pursued by a swarm of critters, leading to the death of four kind and courageous men. Jumping off their bicycles, they went into the Tesca store. The men didn't have enough space on the truck to store everything, leaving behind many more supplies for later, or now.

Running towards the store, just a little further in the distance, a loud bashing noise ran through the streets. Noises followed by tiny quakes and explosion sounds, it was like someone was fighting with tanks.

Right in front of them, at a street junction, two demons passed by. One of them was female and had large wings on its back, the other was male with a bone exoskeleton. Each of them carried a white sword with them, made out of bones.

"Rank two? Not good, Tommy you hide in here alright?" Daniel hurried the boy inside a small apartment next to the road.

"What are you gonna do Danny?" the child's eyes looking deep into the man's face, worried for what he was about to do.

"It will be fine, I will take care of things here alright? So you just stay here in shelter."

Patting the boy on the head, he ran out activating his regalia. The usual European sword, accompanied by three blades, appeared, glimmering in its white light.

"Back then, their mere existence was enough to make me senseless, chills running down my spine as I listened to the voices of its sacrifices. Now though, it is different. I can't hear their souls yet, let alone feel them, had I not seen them I would never have thought that there were two rank two demons here," he thought to himself, rushing in, engaging the enemy.

"Oh a human? How intriguing," the female one observed from high above.

"I see. Not only that but he also has a regalia!" the male demon hinted.

"Good, let us pluck his wings then!" she said, diving onto the man from above.

He parried her sword, redirecting her towards the ground but she caught her fall, swinging her wings to fly straight back up. Meanwhile the second one attacked from the ground. His heavy exoskeleton made it slow, but the sword strike had enough impact to forcefully throw Daniel back a few steps. Before he could even recover the winged one went for the next attack, the three blades formed a shield over his head to reflect her attack, while he used the slow speed of the armoured one to dodge his attack, striking back. The sword actually pierced the chest armour a little, leaving behind a thin scratch mark. He was now also close enough to hear the screams of the nearly hundred sacrificial souls.

Different from his fight with the first rank two, Skull, where he was unable to even keep up. Knocked around like a vegetable in a mixer, unable to defend himself, in the end he was lucky to be saved by a mysterious person who fought the demon for him. Back then his attempt to cut the rank two ended up with his blade bouncing straight off, almost flinging out of his hands. Their shouts clinging in his head, their suffering making him suffer with them. Now however it was a different story, he didn't know why but he was able to damage the armoured one, as well as stand his ground.

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The winged one came in for yet another skydive, this time the blades separated, the shield dissolved. She flew straight through but Daniel stepped back, the blades came shooting at her, piercing her bat-like wings before returning to his sword. He swiftly swung his sword, the blades, his fangs, flying at her to finish her but were parried by the armoured one's sword.

"Dalfin!" a voice to the right of Daniel shouted.

Two blue spherical objects shot towards the two demons with glowing strings attached to them. These objects took them by surprise, hit them and its impact shattered their bodies. Dissolving into ashes, the demons were beaten, the souls released. It was too many voices to understand each and every one, however their gratitude was received by Daniel, who still stood in awe by what had happened.

"Sorry there man, I thought you might need a hand or two. Could've taken you a while you know?"

A young man, a little older than an average teenager walked towards Daniel. In his hands were the spherical objects, their strings attached to his ring finger. His brown hair was styled back, enabling Daniel to see his eyes. White and colourless. He wore a yellow hoody and sports trousers with fitting yellow and white sports shoes.

Daniel waved his hand at him, no response, "Hi... Thank you for your help."

"Nothing man, and you can stop waving your hand. I can tell thanks to by buddy here," the spheres turned into a blue shimmer, becoming a large dolphin which freely swam around behind him.

"I may be blind, but thanks to him I can know about everything around me. This is Dalfin by the way," he says first pointing to the right of his with his left hand, until he probably noticed that the dolphin was to the left of him, before swiftly swapping the hands.

Daniel did not know what to say. Should he say sorry or should he say something like 'great', he simply didn't know how to react in this situation. Instead he chose to switch the topic, "An angel, right?"

"Yeah man, you hit the nail on the head. Dalfin is an angel, my personal guardian. The cool thing is that he shapes into a yo-yo." The dolphin shapes back into the spherical object, which upon hindsight does remind of a yo-yo. Especially the string which is attached to his finger gives it away.

"I see, never expected to see that kind of regalia," he said, overwhelmed by the idea that regalia could apparently be anything.

"Indeed, but you got a mighty fine one there too. A sword right? Why don't you release your regalia too?" he said, as he released the dolphin again.

Dan called back the sword, however no angel appeared, "Sorry, it's difficult to explain."

Dalfin swam over to him, spiralling around him, and took a look at his arm, covered by the shirt.

"May I?" a female, clear voice rang through their heads.

"Of course," he said, lifting his sleeve to reveal the pale white arm with the paw print on his shoulder.

"I see now, you have my condolences. Finnian, that man does not have an angel, not any more at least."

"What do you mean?"

"He sacrificed himself for me, and left with me his regalia. He deceased only a few days ago," Daniel hoarsely explained, his head tilted downwards.

"I am sorry, I shouldn't have asked," the teen said, saddened.

"I suppose you lost your arm in a fight and he restored it for you before ceasing?" Dalfin asked, Dan replied with a slow nod. "You should keep this a secret, other angels might actually want to shun you for this. You can imagine how an angel, a holy being must feel when a human, seen as filthy, possess their powers now."

"I can imagine, sadly I can't change it back. I would much rather have Wulf than my arm," he indecisively said, holding his arm.

"You seem to be a decent human being, maybe it is a good thing. Maybe angels will throw away their low opinion of humans if they see you."

"Low opinion?" both of them asked almost simultaneously.

"Angels have been guarding your kind for a long, long time. If you paid attention to your history class, then you know just how your kind has behaved. Most of us have come to ignore you, hence why many more problems have arrived for humans. Truly a shame."

"What about you? Do you think the same?" Daniel wondered.

"Let me say, I like you mortals. Not everyone but enough," she giggled.

"Well I guess 'enough' sounds about right," the man joined the giggle.

Eventually Tommy came out of hiding, noticing that the fighting has ended. With long steps he ran over to them, first blind to the dolphin before they reassured it that the boy was friendly.

"Oh wow! A floating dolphin!" Tommy jumped, clapping his hands.

"Name's Dalfin, nice to meet you little one," she said, swimming around him.

"I am not that little! I am eleven," he felt insulted.

After their greeting, the two boys wanted to go to the store but were quickly told by Finnian that the store was destroyed by the fight earlier, or rather even before the fight. Their faces sunk deep, their expectations low to find some refreshments.

"Well that's just great, what do we do now?" Daniel asked Tommy.

"I guess we will just have to go home and get to fishing again," the child sobbed.

Finnian was scratching his chin, thinking strongly about something.

"What exactly do you mean by home?" he wondered.

They looked into their eyes, wondering if they should tell but came to a decision. Without much more hesitation they told him about the church in the town and how they lived there, including the safety radius.

"That... That sounds awesome! Much better than a wet little shack," he laughed. "How about a deal? You come with me to our shack to pick up my friend and then we will share our supplies with you. In return," he lifted his right index finger with a grin. "In return you let us stay at your church."

Daniel was unsure how to respond, he barely knew the boy. Something chugged at his shirt, the small cold hands of Tommy, "I don't think that it is such a bad idea. The more the merrier right? Besides, doesn't his angel confirm that we can trust him?"

Unable to refuse his puppy eyes, he accepted the deal, "Before that, you should probably ask your friend if he agrees too."

"Sure thing!"