Yume Wa Owaranai

by Laharl The Overlord

It is a story, of another world, where someone who can do nothing but watch, can now do something more than watch. However, in the end, even if they are able to do something... will they regret being brought into this world anew? Dhaos/Cless, Arche/Chester, ensemble

Once upon a time, there was someone who was neither dead nor alive. They were filled with such sadness because of their own actions and regrets, even if goal was achieved... it was truly such a lonely existence. In one of their thoughts, they wished for something.

I wish... even if it was for a short time, to experience the happiness in life once more. Even if it may be so foolish and naive to do so.

They laughed to themselves at the idea and cast away the thought soon after, not realizing that in some manner, that even a dream like that doesn't have to end before it begins. Even if it was a dream that will last shortly.

...

It hadn't been too long after the defeat of Dhaos, the Demon King. There had been celebrations, and there had been rebuilding, especially for the time that happened to be the future as well as the past. But Cless himself knew that he got to return to life as he knew it and he had to live like all was said and done - because for him as well as his friends it was. He certainly thought that at the end when he learned of the man's intentions, however, it surely did sober their victory. He wasn't going to pretend that Dhaos had been completely innocent, but he wasn't easily so evil either.

Although he didn't dwell too hard on it like maybe one or two of his companions would because he knew that he had to move forward. The village had been completely destroyed and needed some repairing even if it wouldn't exactly bring the lives of innocents slew by Mars; underlings back to life. Eventually, within the two years or so, as well as with the hardwork of his two best friends, Mint and Chester, the village was being restored to its former glory.

Occasionally, a certain old friend of theirs visited from time to time once they had met up with them...

The blond-haired male worked pretty hard and was glad to see the fruits of his labor, settling down one evening to rest after tending to the fields himself. He was thinking about heading out further into town to collect some supplies today but he had been informed by his two friends he needed some rest. God forbid he cut his life short by working himself to death, and he wouldn't wish such a thing on anyone.

He had finished up cooking a small meal for himself and eating it before settling it aside. He went to bed soon after and that was where all the weirdness started.

The locale he was in suddenly was embroiled by the most heated of flames that would burn the skin of anyone certainly normal off without a single second to spare. There were a multitude of rocks and of course rocky walls and a ceiling. In the midst of the room happened to be something like a cross and someone hanging from it, their limbs forcibly chained to the thing. He couldn't get a good handle on who it was or who it looked like, but he did remember one thing. That this one was a male... with striking azure eyes that seemed to withhold a myriad of feelings - betrayed, anger, but last not least there was a whole bunch of sadness.

Cless knew he had to do something. He runs up to the figure, and quickly tries to disentangle him from the multitude of chains around him. The blond finds it's a difficult task, and he hears the words, "It's no use. You must leave, now."

The swordsman narrowed his eyes. "It's never hopeless! I'm not going to give up!"

When the male speaks again, something about it sounds familiar, "...You...You're still a fool."

Cless just looks up and asks managing to get one of the chains off from the mysterious man's right arm, "Huh?"

In that moment he also hears something and turns his head rapidly - just in time to see the claw that grasps his face and rips it clean off his shoulders.

Cless sits up in his bed immediately with a gasp, sweat dotting his forehead and feeling his clothes cling to his body. Thank god he still has his head he thinks and then slips out of his bed with a sigh. That was a weird nightmare, but all he can remember is that the one captive had blue eyes and just for a moment, those eyes appear in his mind.

He shakes the picture from his head and goes to put on some real clothes, especially when he hears knocking downstairs.

The swordsman manages to make his way downstairs soon enough, hurrying across the kitchen before opening the door, revealing Chester himself who was smiling at him. "So I see the sleepyhead's finally out of bed. I simply knew you'd sleep in more if you went at the pace you were going yesterday."

The blond rolls his eyes as he shrugs pass his friend before smiling at him, closing his door. "You're just saying that because this is your chance to get on my case about not getting up earlier than you do like I usually do."

The blue-haired archer snorted and said, "Yeah right. Let's just get going before we wind up arriving at dusk instead of around noon-time."

And at that, the both of them went, meeting up with Mint along the way. Instead of their quaint little town they had to venture a little farther out to get what they needed. Cless himself had remembered along their route when monsters had become far and few between. However, recently they had began to increase outside in the woods and elsewhere humans didn't dwell. It was a concern but there weren't any monster attacks on any towns or villages yet. So maybe it would wind up alright.

Mint wiped her brow after she powered up a healing spell and smiled at the rest, asking, "Is everyone alright?"

Chester nodded. "Yeah, but... the way these monsters are appearing is a concern. I hope it doesn't mean anything."

The female replied, "Well even if it is I have faith we will be able to handle it."

Cless nodded. "Yeah, let's keep moving."

...

It became later than it was expected. The three accidentally spending much more time in the town even though they had implied that they were going to be in and out. It was subsequently nightfall now and a place to rest was in the back of the floors upstairs in a bar. The owner had it set up as a place to eat and one to sleep for travellers, much to the three's relief.

Cless told his other friends he'd be up in a minute or so, he was just finishing up his food. The other two nodded and prepared to head to bed as he allowed himself to sink into his thoughts, the nineteen-year old couldn't believe it was just two years ago when the world was in peril. He wondered what else he was going to do now and a small voice in his head told him he hadn't had the time he wanted to cultivate a romance with a certain someone. Maybe he should take the chance now.

At the thought and after he's had a couple glasses of a drink, he's noticed some men have shifted to be standing around him, causing the blond to blink and furrow his eyebrows. He asks, "What's going on here?"

The men grin and before he knows it he's fallen to the ground of the tavern, completely made to pass out. The last thing he remembers is the way they grab at him before darkness overtakes him and brings him once again somewhere far away.

Swordsman.

Swordsman, you need to free me. Before it's too late.

He hears a voice and the flames come before him briefly, but then just as shortly the image and voice dissipates.

...

Cless really doesn't know how his life had been turned so upside-down in just one night, but surely it has. He had all of his weapons confiscated, armor, and everything that he could use as protection. He had been forced into rags and spent the majority of his time working and slaving around belonging to some kind of corrupt noble. He resisted naturally, but even his spirit was wearing thin. He was bruised and beaten regularly for his defiance and he began to look forward to his sleep than anything else.

He just hoped Mint and Chester were okay. At the thought, he hears his cell open and he's been lying there until he's being kicked. "Time to make yourself useful in another way. I'm bored and the wenches can't ever hope to satisfy me."

The swordsman immediately gets to his feet, feeling his legs wobble almost in protest but he manages anyway. He comes at one of his so-called captors with a punch, yelling before his fist is caught and forced behind his back. He feels his feet kicked out from underneath him and lands on the ground. Soon he feels the hot breath of the older male on his ear and struggles violently. "What do you want with me?!"

The male whispers hauntingly into his ear, "Well that should be obvious,"

At that moment Cless' eyes widened as big as saucers as he renews his struggles after freezing for a moment. He can't breathe and feel like he's going to finally break. Until he hears a faint word.

Sleep.

He falls limp and unconscious.

He is back in the room with the flame once more, and he finds himself making tired steps towards the one on the cross and pulling carelessly hard on the chains. Somewhere in his mind he becomes aware of who it is but he doesn't care. He hurts himself on the chains, realizing they're sharp as well like spiked chains instead of just cold metal, and he hears growling of monsters. He feels a hand against his back, the arm he's freed from last time wrapping protectively around him.

He feels himself weakening however, even though he knows he's almost there...

"I...I can't..."

"Yes you can."

Cless' eyes snap open at the sound of his voice, but moreso at the fact that lips are now covering his own since he's loosened the chains enough that he can move even more. The blond melts into the kiss, the long blond hair making him think of Mint while simultaneously renewing his struggles before the chains go slack and fall.

Then he comes to a full realization who it is.

"Dhao-"

The evil captor had all but tired of the blond-haired boy falling unconscious and decided that it was no fun playing with him as well as that he had outlived his usefulness. He raised a blade over Cless' head... until he found himself being grabbed by his neck and lifted ten feet into the air, making a choking sound, before being thrown into a wall.

"Y...you...monster-"

The last words of the unruly male before the much taller blond finished him off, in no clean fashion as he made sure that he was a bloody mess before it was over. Turning around, the former so-called Demon King approached the unconscious body of Cless Alvein, the boy who was instrumental in slaying him as well as saving him. This time, however, he had no plans of doing harm obviously... quite the opposite. Something about them seemed as if they were drawn together - why else was he able to connect to the boy who freed him from the shackles of hell? Well at this age... it seems like he was finally a man.

Perhaps it was by the grace of Martel or the goddess from Derris Kharlan he was even here - that Cless was able to do such a thing. Either way... the young man felt frail in the ex-King's arms and as lightless as a feather. In that vein it didn't take much for him to take off, find his clothes, and his weapon, while killing anyone in the way and setting a large explosion to this foolish human's castle by his own powers.

Dhaos moved quickly, knowing that still... time run short.

...

Everything was murky, his surroundings especially so, as he found himself in the warm embrace of someone who had long blond hair and blue irises... who certainly looked like an angel that made his heart skip a beat. He felt those strong hands soon caressing him and like he was protected, and those soft lips pressing against his sent an electric thrill throughout his entire body including to down below his stomach.

Cless' eyes snapped open, with him quickly sitting up in the soft bed he was with a gasp. Sweat dotted his brow and he saw that he was back in his regular wear. The thought comes to him: Was it all... one screwed up dream?

The thought escaped him immediately when it was dashed with the sudden appearance of the blond-haired 'angel' in his room... which he quickly concluded was a 'demon' instead. He narrowed his eyes and threw the covers off of him. "DHAOS! What did you do to me?!"

The blond swordsmans scurried to try to slide out of the bed, screaming, "DHAAAAOOOOOOOSS!"

Thud.

Cless groaned, rubbing the back of his head because his legs had unexpectedly given out underneath him and propelled himself to the ground. His head had hit it first, unluckily, and Dhaos just moved closer to help him up, into his arms. This made Cless start angrily, "Don't you dare-"

The blond's words died in his throat when he was gently placed back onto the bed, and Dhaos had raised a hand. Due to his experience he remembers whenever someone had raised their hand while he was in that 'place', his eyes widen and he clenches his teeth as his hands ball into fists. He was at his enemy's mercy and it made him strike out. "I won't let you do what you want with me!"

Dhaos easily catches the fist within his hand, before forcing the fist to intertwine with his fingers, making Cless turn red as he sputtered and the taller male smirked. "Have you had enough of your own brand of foolishness now, human?"

The blond felt his words slip from his lips quickly, "Just- let go! Ugh, you're just so..."

Dhaos raised an eyebrow and asked, "I'm just what?"

Cless' eyes narrowed at him as he tried to pull his hand away from the taller and subsequently bigger male. "You know what you are!"

The long-haired blond sighed but then decided to play a prank on him and as Cless gave one persistently hard tug, Dhaos did not let go but simply allowed his body to go with the momentum as if he were a rag doll. "W-wait what are you do-grahhh!"

Now Dhaos was lying somewhere across him so that part of him was covering his chest to his stomach with his head lying on the sheets, but still on top of him. He waited until Cless sighed loudly and said, "Fine. I give up."

The former Demon King let go of Cless' hand before rising to his feet with another smirk. "Good and do not despair. For everyone, too, eventually sees it my way."

The blond-haired swordsman only huffed and crossed his arms, deciding to refuse to speak to this insufferable male any longer. Honestly maybe he shouldn't have been so hostile considering that he rescued him and technically they should have no real reason to fight anymore, but he was distrustful. Who knew if this wasn't some trick- if this was even the same Demon King but another who was less merciful even moreso than the last? What kind of madness had wrought his appearance and possibly created another time split?

It was in this moment he received a tap to the noggin, alerting him of his surroundings once more thanks to Dhaos, who said, "You weren't listening. I was attempting to explain to you the situation. However, now that I have your attention you shall listen closely, otherwise I will put you out to the unknown with no way to find your friends so easily."

Cless began to sputter in indignation and surprise, with a surprising little touch of hurt he tried to hide. "W-what?! Well it's not like I couldn't fend for my own! Whatever... I don't need you. I didn't want to stay here with you anyway."

Dhaos' eyebrows furrowed. Why did no one ever listen? "You fool, I'm not going to literally throw you out. I was trying to get you to just shut up and listen!"

This wasn't going too well- perhaps he was being too harsh and he tries to backpedal as the blond-haired alien feels a little guilty. "I'm just trying to remind you that there is malicious intent meant behind my words. You can stay however long you want... you do still need to recuperate, seeing as you're weak from being on such a poor diet."

Before Cless could say another word, Dhaos snapped his fingers and food appeared already prepared by the other blonde's side. This caused him to become distracted, eyes widening as he noticed the food and looked back at Dhaos. Cless just continued to marvel to himself how the heck this was a thing and then figured that this was some other version of Dhaos' Castle. Hopefully minus the million stairs.

Another shock came to him when he noticed Dhaos was staring at him intensely, but his eyes seemed to look a bit more softer. "...Are you going to eat? I hear humans perish if they don't."

Cless managed to only say, "Dhaos... you're looking at me weirdly. How can I eat if you're looking at me like that?"

The taller male said nothing, his eyes widening briefly and he quickly averted his gaze, before then with a flourish was out of the room. Cless wondered if he had imagined it but... it looked like Dhaos' cheeks had turned a faint pink.

...

Dhaos put a hand over his chest, hand shaking and confused at his own self. His heart was racing. What was that just back there? I couldn't help but look at him as if he were... and it almost became like last time.

Like when he kissed the human, for reasons unknown to himself. He shakes off these troubling thoughts and tries moreso for those 'feelings'. He doesn't have time for this. Once he's cooled down he re-enters the room, and spots that Cless has consumed his food. "Good, once you're well-rested and nursed to full health we can find your friends."

"...Why?"

Dhaos raised an eyebrow and asked, "What do you mean by asking 'why'? I thought you-"

Cless' eyes were looking everywhere but the king as he interrupted him with, "I mean... why are you helping me?"

At that the blond can only stand there in silence for a heartbeat before answering, "You saved me and now before I had lived elsewhere before being thrown into the shackles of hell by some malicious party. But I was told you would be the one to free me, by a female's voice. And so you did. My world is also saved thanks to you."

Dhaos looked a little sad for a moment as he uttered the last sentence, or maybe that was something Cless was imagining. Either way he felt bad on his end for acting so badly so he decided to smile and hold out his hand, making the other blond's eyes widen. "I think we got off to another bad start with our reunion. I mean, I really wasn't thinking straight but maybe that was no ex-"

The tall blond interrupted, "It wasn't your fault. I don't blame you, especially after I found you in that situation. Who knows what they did to you...?"

Dhaos saw Cless stiffen when he gave his rhetorical question, and become a little more pale, causing the taller male's eyebrows to crease. "Did I speak out of turn?"

The younger blond snapped back into reality and his hands clenched into fists. "No. No, you didn't. If you weren't there, I might've been a goner for sure, and suffered something worse. I just hate being in a position like that. Wouldn't you?"

The former king sighed to himself. Then thought it best to change the subject and thus he said, "Good night."

Dhaos moved to leave. "Wait!"

Except for Cless to quickly get out of the bed, and once again fall flat on his face. Dhaos smirked and turned his head after looking at the fallen boy. "You're hopeless, especially for a human."

"Shut up! I only said 'wait' because I just thought it was so sudden. For you to leave and hardly explain anything else...!"

Dhaos shook his head as his left hand grasped the doorknob. "All will be revealed eventually. In time."

The door shut with a click and Cless' eyebrows furrowed. Sometimes he still pissed him off! He had such a big ego, and the other guy had to act so damn superior on top of that. He didn't need...

Cless paused in thought. He was doing it again. He probably could resolve this when Dhaos feels like speaking again, instead of getting angry like some young teenager, and with that the swordsman sighed and moved to rest on the bed again.

It wasn't a dreamless sleep. In fact, there were certainly dreams that assaulted him once more. He found himself within a throne room filled with flames and a very ugly creature at that sitting on top of a throne. He roared at the human boy and screeched. "You ruined my plan!"

He felt himself surrounded in flames and tried to shrug it off. He reached for his sword, but found it not present. Where was the Eternal Blade?! He cursed, this was the worst type of nightmare. However, the flames wind up dispersing and he is grabbed suddenly by his face. He hears the monstrous laughter. "This isn't a dream, boy. You're in my world now."

He struggled as those fingers eventually begin to put pressure on his head and he kicks and punches- anything he can try to get the demon off of him. Damnit!

No... he won't let himself become defeated here! He can't! All his friends are waiting for him. All of them are counting on him.

His eyes snap open and in a flourish of bright white light in his hands the sword appears and he attacks a wide blind slash, yelling, "Haaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Cless hears the monster scream. "I won't forget this!"

The blond awakens with a gasp and flinches, reaching up with his hand to touch his forehead. He can feel a trickle of blood and at that his eyes widen. What the hell is going on here?!

Moments later, the tall blond appears, and soon after that he is cleaning up the wound on his forehead, asking, "How did you receive all those wounds?"

Cless sighed and said, "That would be your fault for leaving something out! It was some weird monster and insisted that I ruined his plans or whatever."

"For your information, I did not leave something like that out, for I do not even know what you speak of."

Dhaos' expression remained blank and the blond began to wonder if the male's expressions were either blank a majority of time or just 'looks cocky and egomaniacal'. He then asks, "What did this monster look like?"

There was a pause in the air because when the swordsman attempted to recall he's...already forgotten and that makes him feel embarrassed. "I dunno."

He hears a scoff and he glares at Dhaos who turns his head away from him after he's done making amends to his wounds. "Alright, that's it. I'm not sitting in bed for another day of this! We need to go now!"

Cless immediately stands to his feet and Dhaos pushes him back with just a finger, making him land back on the bed due to surprising him as well as making him get off balance. Oh just screw him!

"It seems you're far from perfect condition to go into battle. However, we are short on time, and therefore I will allow it. Follow me."

The blond-haired swordsman didn't want to listen to him out of sheer stubbornness but he knew he needed to and quickly rose to his feet. His anger dissipated when he realized how silly he was being. He should really try to be friendly with the guy and get along... as well as try to make forward with that resolution he had in mind before going to bed. Dhaos did go to so much trouble to save him and all, as well as trying to help him.

Then it hit him. Dhaos had taken cared of him and saved him. It made Cless feel warm and smile slightly. "Hey...Dhaos? Thank you."

As he was walking, the other male had seemed to stop for a moment, for he hadn't really expected a 'thank you' from the so-called 'Hero of Space-Time' he had once fought. But then he continued walking. "..."

Cless had expected to hear something but had found that the other blond was actually more or less...relatively quiet. Which should come as no surprise but it was even more noticeable when it was just the two of them and they weren't coming to blows. "...Very talkative, aren't you?"

"Hn."

The swordsman smiled a bit at Dhaos' response and said, "Well, that's fine with me. As long as I know you're a good person, you don't have to say much."

Dhaos wasn't very used to hearing compliments, especially given his track record, and so it was all he could do to keep himself from making a noise of surprise or some other. He feels himself become a bit warm, and his cheeks were undoubtedly a bit pink now. He could feel it, which makes him relieved his back was facing the other male. He began to wonder why he allowed this male's words affect him so... and reasoned to himself that kiss back there was simply nothing more of a move he had felt convinced would motivate Cless. The reasoning in his head making him now feel more comfortable he had done the act.

And as they neared the kitchen when his thoughts began to linger on the matter, he thought of the sudden pang in his heart he felt. The beautiful woman he had been honored to before... Karion. Wasn't he betraying her love and dishonoring her death by having these feelings if that is what they truly were? He mutters, "Human, there is food on the table for you to consume before we depart. Call for me when you have finished."

Cless turned his head from the kitchen as Dhaos began to stalk away and reached out to grab his hand. He received a glare for his trouble. "Wait! Aren't you going to eat anything?"

Dhaos paused and thought of a good excuse and through his own irritance he managed, "... Nn. Not hungry."

The blond haired swordsman pursed his lips. "That's not good enough. I bet you're the type who 'works hard but forgets to eat' right?!"

For some reason Cless' childish insinuation snapped Dhaos almost completely out of his funk and he was rendered wordless for a moment, just staring as well as blinking at him. "That's... not it. I informed you. I'm simply not hungry. I haven't consumed anything earlier, including all of yesterday, for the same reason."

As Dhaos is still quite used to doing things his own way he has forgotten about the concerns humans would have over something as simple as consumption of food. Therefore his response only incurred a surprised and horrified look from Cless. "...Did I say something wrong?"

Apparently so since Cless started to drag him into the kitchen until Dhaos forcibly ripped his arm from him with a glare. "You are acting foolish. You have nothing to worry about and I doubt you could understand, since you're just a human."

With that coldness, Dhaos had effectively vanished into thin air. Literally.

The swordsman sighed to himself, figuring that he had said something erroneous this time. Maybe he had gone a bit far. He still didn't know the man very well, after all. With that, he began to sulkily attempt to eat. Maybe... it was because Dhaos was from another planet and had been dead. If he had thought of that instead of just being reckless in assuming the other was going to wind up sick or something this could've been avoided.

Cless suddenly didn't feel up to eating. He wished he could fix things. He wished he could see his friends again.

Before the blond swordsman realizes it, he hears Dhaos re-enter in about an hour and the seraph moves to places himself behind the other. Said tall male moves a hand to cup the other's hand that was grasping the fork with an intense expression. "..."

Cless sighed and began to find it within himself to continue eating. "You know... if you wanted to say something, you can."

Dhaos drew his hand away when Cless resumed eating. "Hm."

This made the younger of the two laugh a bit, causing the elder to furrow his eyebrows some more. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing!"

"...You lie. Hmph, typical human."

Cless looked up at Dhaos to give him a cheeky grin. "Sounds like you're pouting to me!"

The blond's eyes widened. "...!" Then he narrowed his eyes at him. "I am not. Cease your trifling."

The blond-haired swordsman laughed and continued to eat the rest until he was done, despite irritating the former Demon King. However, once that was done, Dhaos beckoned him to follow him once more and they headed towards a particular room... one in which contained Cless' items, including his weapon. The blond eagerly collects all his items, and throws a smile towards his newfound companion whose eyes simply look to the side. "Let's go, human."

Dhaos can't help but think, His smile is too bright...

He thinks of Karion again, when her life was still with her, and his eyes darken as his gut twists in the worst way. Because along that thought process he also thinks of his people, which he knows are faring better, but. There are ones people can never forget, no matter how long the passage of time has come along and to be quite honest.

And he wishes that he was the one to save them. He wishes he could've done a better job.

He teleports them out of the mansion that he erected on his own and apparently Cless has been trying to get his attention for awhile now and decided the second best thing when calling his name didn't work was to suddenly yell, "DEMON FANG!"

This worked because it made Dhaos whip his head around, snapping him out of his thoughts. His surprise turned into a little annoyance when he saw it was just Cless grinning with his arms crossed. "... why must you persist in these useless antics?"

Cless walked up to stand by his side and replied, "Because you seemed too quiet and you got a weird look in your eyes. I thought it might lighten the mood a little."

"How naive."

The short-haired blond blinked. "Huh?"

"I said... how naive- and yet..."

The meaning of Dhaos' words didn't seem to reach his voice as his eyes began to get that strange look to them as he gazed at Cless. The look he was giving him felt like he was gazing into his heart or something like that. Just when Cless was about to bring it up, Dhaos turned slightly, away and asked, "Where were your friends last?"

Cless immediately snapped out of his trance. "Oh, well, we were in Venezia last..."

Dhaos reached out to swing an arm around his shoulder and bring him close so quickly that the blond didn't have time to react. Except try to hold on and close his eyes as he felt that this was maybe too close for comfort. Although the thought Cless had in his head before their teleport was that he wondered if he listened close enough he could hear the other's heartbeat...

...Okay no, that was a weird thought. Even for him.

When Cless opened his eyes he saw that they were on the outskirts and just to himself he is kinda thankful it's nighttime. He then moves along some and hurries into the city. He endeavors to look, with the help of his companion, for his other ones, but alas, he isn't successful. He figures that they might've gone back to their homeland and looks at Dhaos. "Let's go to my village, I think they might have returned..."

For some reason he thought that the blond might've complained but the blond's lips twitch upwards for a second before he takes this chance to pull him into a one-armed embrace and teleport the both of them once more. "Careful Dhaos, I'm starting to think you're enjoying this or something."

He suddenly found when they arrived in the night that Dhaos pushed him so he'd fall face-first into the dirt and he heard the male chuckle. He got up and glared at the taller male. "Yeah. Haha, very funny."

Dhaos asked, "In which house would your friends reside?"

"Well, they're probably asleep now... so let's visit them in the morning. In the meanwhile you can stay over mine."

The tall blond followed Cress as he opened his door and the taller male had to duck under to come straight in. Dhaos said, "I'll be fine, you can go and rest."

Cless gave him a look. "You better get some rest too."

Dhaos didn't dignify that with a response leading Cless to sigh and head upstairs before he closed his door and went to sleep.

Not a few minutes after Cless had fallen asleep, his door had opened and slowly a figure approached his bed. Hands reached out to grasp a hold of his neck, causing the blond's eyes to snap open and gasp for breath. "S-Stop...!"

"Fufu...silence, Cless Alvein, and accept your death."

It was...Dhaos?!

His smile was wide and his eyes full of malice... so evil that even to Cless it was unnatural. He struggled as much as he could. "D-Dhaos...why?!"

The taller male picks up Cless by his throat and throws him to the floor like a rag doll and before he can get up, steps on his stomach, effectively pinning him down with his weight. And boy, he certainly can weigh a ton. The smaller blond swore in his head but was simultaneously confused, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Yes, that's right... it is I, Demon King Dhaos, who will make your last moments a living hell. You are much too easy to fool and you will regret releasing me... I assure you. Obviously I'm acting against you in revenge. What else could it be?"

The swordsman groaned and said, "But, if you were, why would you allow me my blade back or nurse me back to health?"

Dhaos' red eyes narrowed with malevolent glee. "Simply to make the betrayal more worth it. Cless, let it be known that your friends have perished and that is that."

For a moment, the younger blond despaired, his eyes closing tight as he felt a tight pain in his chest. Yet...when he opened them and observed Dhaos closer, he knew that something was off. Wait a minute...red eyes, calling him by his name...

Cless' eyes narrowed. "You're not Dhaos."

Just then a blast tore through the fake one, making him scream and disperse. The real one stood in his room with a frown, before his hands fall to his side. "You are more hopeless than I realized, human. I shall keep watch over you as you sleep."

The smaller blonde sighed and gave the other a weary smile. "Thanks, I guess."

"Hn."

Dhaos watched the other male climb back into bed and then fall asleep soon enough, causing the seraph to come closer. He watched him as he slept and while he did he wondered who exactly was causing this mess. But at the same time with every attack it was pointing towards a cause: the demons.

At the thought he frowns to himself as he continues to keep watch over the sleeping male. He reaches over to brush a strand of hair a bit from Cless' face. He doesn't know why he does, but he figures it's not really hurting anyone.

Dhaos catches the thought and wonders if there was something else that happened between the two when Cless made the action to free him from that hell. Perhaps, it caused some sort of abnormal 'bond' between the both of them. He finds it unsettling but at the same time he figures he will try to keep it on the downlow. The last thing either of them need is a distraction and something so inconvenient happening so fast could mean that these so-called feelings he is sharing aren't truly real anyhow. At least the ones that make him gaze longingly at Cless.

And that's the majority of what he thinks about for the whole entire night...making him actually doze off at some point so when Cless opens his eyes in a few hours he finds himself staring at the form of Dhaos half-sprawled on the edge of his bed. His head rested on the sheet, and his golden curls obscured some of his face, but the image of him looking so vulnerable reminds him of Mint, and somehow this makes Cless become more drawn to him.

Not to mention he looked like quite a beautiful angel.

The swordsman hears his heart beating ridiculously fast, before he snaps out of it, and sighing a little to himself and smiling a little to himself. I think I might be in some trouble at this rate...

Cless doesn't make any subtle movements for awhile, waiting for the other to wake up instead. When Dhaos does it's about an hour or so later and his eyes slowly open, revealing soft blue orbs that look so pretty when sleepy-eyed. Cless convinces himself that the traitorous thought would be something a girl would think. Definitely. "Morning, sleepyhead."

Dhaos looked slightly affronted, but then again other than that his expressions looks as usual a cross between blank or grumpy. "...Silence."

Then the taller male rose, ignoring Cless' snickering. "We should start looking."

Cless nodded. "Sure, after breakfast."

...

It was day and Cless expected some of the new residents of the newly built village to be milling about but he found that this was not to be. For this reason he felt himself on edge, but apparently, he wasn't alone in sharing this feeling. "Dhaos... is this just me or-"

"-Someone seems to have cast a spell on the village while we slept."

With a majestic movement of his right arm, he seems to focus his energy into breaking the spell, and it's fairly successful. Dhaos added, "They shouldn't be slumbering any longer."

With a nod, Cless begins to walk towards the house Mint lived in and knocked on the door. He waited for about a minute or so before coming in, and finding it odd the door was unlocked. The uneasiness gathers in his stomach once more, and it's the reason he doesn't tell Dhaos to wait outside while he checks, even though he wants to. The older blond follows him and after he does a full search not a hair of her in sight was discovered.

Grimacing, and moving out of the home and towards Chester's, he said jokingly, "Maybe Mint had a slumberparty with Chester. In that case I'm insulted I wasn't invited."

Dhaos just arches an eyebrow.

Cless sighed to himself, before he reached the house and found soon thereafter it was the same case as the last. This lead him to punch a wall in frustration. "Damnit! This is really frustrating...someone must have kidnapped them!

Dhaos shifted closer to him and said, "Then we continued to look elsewhere for them, but before we do we should ask the villagers if they've seen them go anywhere."

For some reason the swordsman felt himself blush from embarrassment. "Well... yeah. I was going to suggest that. Totally."

Cless rubbed the back of his head sheepishly until he caught sight of the quick and short-lived smirk that had come across Dhaos' lips. "...And I saw that!"

Deciding to play a little Dhaos intentionally schooled his features so he looked like he usually did. It wasn't very hard to say the last. "Saw that? Oh and it appears one of the villagers are emerging from one of their homes."

In any other situation the shorter blond would've called him out on it but right now he missed his friends to much to care about that and dropped it, quickly heading over to the awake villager.. He proceeded to ask questions soon after, many of which he got a 'no' to besides him knowing that his two friends had been escorted away to a 'castle in the sky'. At that, Cless scrunched up his nose and looked at Dhaos, asking, "How are we supposed to even get up there? Jeez..."

Dhaos, as practically always, seemed unfettered and then decided to answer Cless' question after his moment of pause. He wrapped his arms around Cless, before hiding him close. "Don't let go and fall, human."

Cless looked up at the blond, insulted. "Who do you think I am?! There's no WAY I'd allow that to happen! I'm ready!"

Sometimes the former Demon King wonders if the other male made an effort to be this funny, or maybe that's how he was from time to time. "Just hang on. There's no need to freak out."

Before Cless could complain any further, Dhaos instantly shot up into the air with the blond-haired swordsman held tight to him. Cless would deny he felt faint when the seraph had lifted them into the air and even higher. The two of them soon breached the clouds, until the taller male stopped to allow them to float a little, and when he did, Cless actually overcame his anxiety for a moment to feel amazed at the wonderful sight before him. They were high enough in the sky and during this pause Cless felt himself become warm.

It was just the two of them...woah woah back up there. Cless shakes his head frantically and then spots the castle, right after Dhaos, seeing as he teleports them soon after. The blond-haired time master approaches the gates and rips them off after setting Cless down, and says, "We've arrived. Be prepared, human."

Cless then sighed and put his hands on his hips. "It isn't too hard to call me by name, is it?"

"Hrn."

At this the blond-haired swordsman gave Dhaos the evil-eye and the taller male seemed unaffected, beginning to continue on. Cless just sighed in defeat.

It was dark and thankfully from what Cless remembered, shorter than Dhaos' castle. It seemed to have about only three or four floors compared to the gajillion the other had. At the thought, he snorted, getting a raised eyebrow from Dhaos but nothing more. The two went further on and it was rather quiet, suspiciously enough.

The seraph became impatient and began to cast a spell, causing Cless' head to whip around to face him. "Hey what're you-?!"

"Explode!"

Dhaos had the target be a wall at the end of one of the hallways, and thereby incinerated that area in a giant, fiery explosion of death. He looked moderately satisfied when there came growls and demons pouring out as well as literally trying to assault them. "You fools, do you forget who commands you?"

Cless was about to run into battle before Dhaos grabbed him by the cape, making him comically run in place before he realized he was getting nowhere. He turned his head at his companion and glared. "Dhaos what're you doing?!"

The demons halt in their stupidity, confused from the words of the taller blond, until Dhaos takes advantage of their vulnerability to blast them all dead with a energy-powered laser. Then he moves on, saying, "I surmise we've eliminated a good portion of the enemy's forces, if not driven them into a panic by taking this course of action."

Cless murmurs under his breath, "More like 'you'..."

Dhaos gives him an unimpressed glance, making the smaller blond grin sheepishly.

...

"Tiger Blade!" "Void Tempest!"

A few artes here or there as Cless cut through a group of five demons who had been guarding the innermost depths of the castle. Aka... the dungeon. He hears Dhaos remark casually with a smirk, "Do you feel better now?"

Cless' eyebrows furrow and he turns his head to ask, "What do you mean by that?"

"..."

He stops walking and faces Dhaos completely. "You've been acting weird ever since we have gotten here. Is there an issue with me or what? Just...spit it out already!"

The taller blond looked slightly taken aback, and said, "...I intended my words to be in jest."

There was a bit of awkward silence between the both of them until Cless walked over to him and said, "Later on I'm going to teach you how to do a better joke."

"Was there something wrong with mine...?"

Cless sighed, deciding to end the topic right then and there. At least this seemed to be coming to a close, this weird 'adventure' of theirs.

When they round the corner, he finds that right across from them happen to be both Mint and Chester in a cell... unconscious but surely alive. Without thinking he runs forward, shouting, "MINT! CHESTER!"

Strangely the two don't even so much as budge and Dhaos is moving in a split second, has pulled him back entirely by his cape with just force, making Cless stumble back into the other blond. Then he pulls him away. "You fool! It's obviously a trap! We need to-"

Cless growls and yells at him, without thinking, "What do you know?! You probably never saved any of your friends!"

Dhaos stilled, and tried to school his expression, but it was too late. His eyes had widened and his blue irises appeared unable to hide how hurt he was by that comment. It was true... he'd never saved any of his friends. After the Mana Cannon had been shot, his close confidants had died for him to be transported to Aselia, and even Karion...he couldn't save them. In the end, he wasn't even-

"Sorry. I think I went too far-oof!"

The seraph pushed Cless harshly off of him and decided to test the theory about there being a trap of some sort, hurling just a Fireball towards the cell. Dhaos watched it disappear completely and what appeared was some blinding light instead.

Cless opened his eyes right after, rubbing his head, and sighed, thinking that he did deserve that one. He saw Dhaos begin to fall over and caught him, struggling to keep him from falling on his face with how bigger he was than him. Cless managed to lay down the man gently, but saw the male's blue eyes were wide and he didn't even seem to struggle or make any further movement besides the twitch of his right hand.

He heard laughter and he narrowed his eyes. "Who's there!? What did you do to Dhaos?! Come out and face me!"

Cless hears the voice, which he slightly recognizes even, say, "No, and it is too funny to watch. Something that was meant for you to fall into and the Demon King himself just waltzes right into it? Now I'm really going to be recognized for doing such a good deed."

The blond started, shouting, "You...! Let him out now!"

The voice replied, "No can do. I have to make my escape, but... don't you have friends to save?"

With that the voice went silent and he looked over to the jail cell to spot both Mint and Chester still within but waking up slowly; the jail bars had been melted by the fireball spell. Cless judged that Dhaos would be fine enough for him to check up on his two friends relatively quickly. He asked them, "Are you two okay?!"

Mint nodded her head, and said, "It seems we were just knocked out when we went back hoping to find you at the village instead..."

Chester sighed and rubbed his head, before moving to gather his bow, frowning once he saw the prone form of Dhaos lying down. Cless turned around, beginning to head over to his fallen companion, saying, "We need to help him. It's a long story, but his planet has what it needs and he doesn't have a reason to be our enemy anymore."

The blue-haired male reached out to grab a hold of Cless' shoulder and asked, "How do you know if he doesn't have some new agenda that involves the destruction of mankind as we know it? It's his fault that so many innocent people died. I say we nip the problem in the bud once more and finish him."

Mint shook her head. "...Excuse me, but I find that unacceptable. We need more allies given our lack of ones right now, due to a new enemy still unknown to us."

Chester paused, and then waited, in which Cless assumed it was to be convinced so he added, "And I believe he may have some knowledge of the enemy, unknowingly or not. So we need him."

The blue-haired male sighed and then said, "Alright, alright. But if he tries anything...we don't give him anymore chances."

With that the blond knelt beside the taller male, who was motionless except his eyes staring out into nothing, which seemed to be wide and his eyebrows furrowed as if he were concentrating on something. Cless takes Dhaos' right hand and asks, "Dhaos...can you hear me? It's me, Cless. Come on, you need to wake up, we need you..."

Chester scoffed at the latter half, unable to keep from feeling more than slightly unreasonably jealous.

They had no idea what was going on in the blond's mind, although Cless heard Dhaos utter a choked, "K-Karion..."

Darkness came upon the seraph and Dhaos presumed that it was part of some spell he was being put under. It would be simple for himself to break free. He lifted his hand, beginning to chant, when the scenario changed to Derris-Kharlan, and when he was called the 'King of Elysium'. But it changed soon enough when all were counting on him to do his duty, and he saw in the throne room of his castle, the dead bodies of people he once knew.

His subjects, his close confidants... and Karion. They all began to rise, with sad, hollow expressions on their faces. It was enough to make Dhaos lose concentration, especially when Karion reached to grab onto his cape and asked, "Why...Why did you kill so many people Lord Dhaos? Wasn't it enough we died for your sake... no, for the sake Derris-Kharlan? It wasn't even because of you this planet was saved."

Dhaos swallowed and felt anger. How dare they impersonate her? He moves to shove her to the ground and she lets out a yell. "You've changed. You're nothing but a monster! A demon... A demon king! I can't believe I fell in love with you."

It looks like her too much for him to try to say something harshly or do something untoward to her. He just can't. "Karion-no you're not, you're not her-"

The others began to chant 'demon' in the background and the castle lights on fire. The noise is grating on his nerves and he snaps. "SILENCE! CYCLONE!"

A powerful gust cuts through the so-called fake imitations of people he once knew, but he purposely avoided directing it upon Karion. They screamed in pain and blood seeped onto the tiles and carpet, making him feel sick to his stomach with guilt. He tried to convince himself that it was an illusion, but he was going to snap by virtue of knowing this was fake and they were being made to wear the faces of people he once knew.

Karion got out a sword and screamed, "I knew you were no good! You were just biding your time and waiting until you could kill indiscriminately again!"

Dhaos countered, face growing hot with anger and frustration, "I was not! You know nothing you wretched apparition!"

Karion ran at him and swung with her blade. He forced her back with another shove, he was starting to feel like he was going to be nauseous. "Just stop it already. This illusion has failed!"

"In the end, you have only disappointed Dhaos. No one even knows who you are or likes you anymore. All you are good for is your power!"

The woman came at him again so fast he froze when he was stabbed in the side. She pulled the blade out and his hands were shaking. He was trapped, he couldn't get out. Just like when he was in the sarcophagus. "H-hhgh...stop... stop it...!"

The others began to come at him, and he screamed, "STOP STOP STOP! JUST STOP ALL OF THIS...AH...AUUUGRAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

He unleashed a laser on the whole room until there was nothing left, leaving him to cover his face with his hands.

"You're an unrepentant killer, not a king."

"No wonder they betrayed you. You were so easy."

Dhaos whipped around at the second, yelling, "SILENCE, YOU FOOL! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ME!"

Then, Reisen appeared in front of him with a smirk. "I know enough to take all the credit for finding out you were an enemy to mankind. And poor Winoa, losing her arm... all for the glory of my actions to be recognized. Oh wait, you killed her too, didn't you? This is the perfect arte, seeing your painful memories all laid out in front of me."

That made Dhaos snap with a wordless incoherent scream, hurling a laser at Reisen as well, and holding his head when the other male laughed as the attack phased through him. Dhaos proclaimed, "I'll kill you! I'll kill you all!"

In the real world, Dhaos' blue irises turned an ominous red and Cless knew he had to do something. It was just then he felt his blade resonate and then pulled the Eternal Sword out to look at it. Chester asked, "Going to end it before it gets ugly? Wise idea."

For a moment, Cless felt as if he were drawn into the sword and just wound up collapsing face-first into the fallen former Demon King's shoulder. The blade falls to the ground beside them uselessly. Chester face-palmed.

Mint said, "I think...Cless figured out a way to help him. So we should try to support him and watch to see what happens."

Cless looked around to spot darkness all around him, and just the other blond-haired male standing in the midst of it, his back turned to him. Cless runs over to Dhaos, and shouts, "Dhaos! Are you alright?"

The blond-haired seraph turns to face him with a frown, seeming to have calmed down some, although his hands were still shaking. "I've been better, human."

Dhaos then paused, thinking it was another trick to let his guard down, and his lips turned up into an unhinged smile. Then he began to laugh to himself. "So this is another illusion. I tire of this! Well, it can't be helped."

Cless' eyes widened when the other began to chant a spell. "Dhaos, what're you-"

"Be gone, Tidal Wave!"

The blond was hit by a tidal wave and coughed as he rose to his feet, surprised.

Reisen smirked to himself and left, knowing that his job was finished. If the boy was finished then he'd never wake up, while Dhaos would go on a rampage when he woke up soon after... all was going according to plan.

Cless on the other hand wasn't going to give up. He knew Dhaos was being tricked and so approached the blond, holding out his hands with a determined expression. "I know you're not going to listen to me, but...it really is me, Cless Alvein! And I don't want to fight you again. Not when we don't need to."

Dhaos shook his head. "Then you're nothing but a fool. It's useless... I'll end you and continue my-"

Cless suddenly reached out to embrace the taller male, causing him to stumble back in surprise. "H-human, what-"

The swordsman felt himself become nervous but he decided to go through with it, nuzzling his head against him. "I won't let us have a repeat of last time. You need to wake up. Understand? This is just to make you fall into the enemy's hands and I can't have that. Because... you're already in m-our hands and to let anyone just take you away to do wrong wouldn't be right!"

In that moment, Dhaos' hands fell to his sides, as he struggles to come to his senses, and for some inane reason can't resist wrapping his arms around Cless. His eyes closed and he gritted his teeth, as he said, "You're a fool. I could have easily ended you right then and there. Besides, why would you bother with me? Like you said, I have saved none of my friends."

A light came over the both of them as Cless said, "You saved me."

Cless opened his eyes and so did the one he was still resting on top of. The other two of his friends rejoiced, until when one of Dhaos' hands grabbed at the swordsman's rear end when trying to get a grip on something. There was a heavy awkward silence as the two blonds blushed, Cless' more red and Dhaos' a faint pink.

"...That was an accident."

Chester had a vein pop on his forehead as his hand clenched into a fist. "You really are a Demon King..."

Mint said, smiling sheepishly, "I'm sure it was just an accident, please calm down."

...

The group had restocked their items easily enough, after being teleported by Dhaos down back into the village. They hadn't found anything of use in the castle and the blond wasn't really surprised that one of their group eyed him with less than trust. He waited until the three had gathered back into the middle of the village, ready. "I believe our enemy this time is someone I have known by the name of Reisen. He's a half-elf and therefore exceedingly dan-"

Dhaos' sentence was left interrupted by the entrance of a certain half elf. "Hey! You better not be bad-mouthing them too, if I'm already going to be around. You already do that enough about humans."

Chester turned his head to spot the pink-haired witch... or rather half-elf he had once come to known when she was about a hundred years younger. She looked almost exactly the same. Except the pink-haired girl's hair seemed longer and her clothes happened to change to a black jacket, with a white shirt on the inside, a pink band around her neck and magenta bell-bottoms. Shoes were the same and she still had her broom.

The girl passed the blue-haired boy a grin and then a not-so-subtle wink, making the male sputter and turn his head in an act of embarrassment of his own. With that done she turned her attention back on Dhaos, pointing a finger at him, "And... what's going on with this guy? Anyone going to explain or do I have to assume some timey-wimey stuff happened and he's pulling some ultimate mind control thing on you guys?"

Cless smiled lightly, "It's good to have you back, Arche. But it appears we have an enemy on our hands and that's why Dhaos has been brought back, I think. He's helping us track them down."

Dhaos had already begun walking which caused Cless to turn his head and shout, "W-wait! We're going to listen so just wait a second okay...?!"

The seraph sighed and stopped walking away.

Arche huffed and smiled as she put her hands on her hips. "Looks like no matter who the man is they can't handle me... although maybe one can, if their name is Chester. And that's a big maybe! Hehehe!"

Chester pinched the bridge of his nose, saying, "Some things never change."

Mint smiled and said, "I'm glad everyone seems to be getting along nicely. Perhaps once we figure this out and take care of this problem, we can all go out to celebrate a reunion."

Cless smiled brightly and nodded. "Sounds great! Would we celebrate it at the village or go somewhere else? Like in town?"

Arche tapped her lip. "Maybe we'd do it all at some place with a great view. A nice picnic up in the mountains, but not too high..."

Chester snorted and then said, "Don't get ahead of yourself. I bet without your broom you'd wind up falling off the mountain."

The two wound up getting into an argument, causing Mint to turn her head to face Dhaos with a smile, asking, "Where do you think would be the perfect location for all of us?"

Dhaos closed his eyes and replied, "Surely, you are not counting me in your infernal escapades."

The blond-haired woman blinked at him, looking a little surprised. "Why, Dhaos, you don't expect us to just leave you out when you've been aiding us, have you?"

The blond-haired seraph sighed and started to say something, "I-"

He paused as his eyes opened and when he noticed everyone had stopped speaking to each other (aka the other four) to stare at him expectantly, causing his voice to suddenly leave him in surprise. Then, the tallest member in the party regained his voice. "...Why are you all staring at me like that?"

Arche shook her head and asked, "What's the point of going to a reunion party without one of the people who've returned isn't coming?"

Dhaos' eyebrows furrowed, and he averted his gaze from them. "But I haven't done anything to deserve such a thing and neither can I atte-"

Cless walked up to Dhaos and smiled at him, saying, "Dhaos, remember. You're not alone anymore. You have us with you."

Chester seemed more or less amused at the blond's predicament, and said, "Looks like you're coming, if you want to or not."

The younger blond saw the conflicted, shocked look on the older blond's face, and then soon silence before Dhaos said quickly, a little flustered, "This has nothing to do with our objective. We must focus and make sure we're strong enough to fight our enemy. As I was saying about Reisen, he's dangerous and irrational. He likely has some form of base nearby here and luckily, I am able to track where he went, since he left such an obvious trail. Or at least, obvious to myself. As an addition, he likely has backup, similar to what I utilized but perhaps on a lesser scale."

Chester said, "We can even do a little bit of training to prepare. This guy probably won't act too quick for us to do that."

Dhaos nodded and then Cless said, "Let's get some training in and... Dhaos, I meant what I said earlier. So don't forget it."

The taller blond paused when he noticed Cless smiling warmly at him, and his brown irises looking into his. Dhaos felt his heart start to race, and his cheeks colored pink. Quickly, the seraph turned away, leaving the rest of the party confused, minus Cless and Arche, who thought it was actually a little adorable.

Arche approached him soon enough with a grin, saying, "Hey big guy! Maybe the older people should have a one-to-one chat. No one else's invited, of course."

The pink-haired girl gave him a once over and whistled. I never really noticed before but he's really, REALLY pretty AND chiseled. Talk about a hot date! Too bad I'm with Chester already, hehe...

Dhaos felt a little uncomfortable under the scrutiny, feeling embarrassed even, but didn't say anything, and tried to hide how he felt about it. "..."

Arche pouted, and put her hands on her hips as she asked, "Oh come on, you don't have anything to say?"

"...Nn."

The pink-haired half-elf rolled her eyes, not sure if Dhaos was just saying that to get her goat or being actually serious. Mint laughed a bit as she came over to them, saying, "He's not very talkative. But I'm sure he likes us well enough. Isn't that right, Dhaos?"

The tall blond looked at Mint, and said, "The company is...alright. I do not mind it too much."

Arche huffed. "Oh come on! You say something to her, but not to me?!"

She paused and looked at Dhaos' face, waiting and searching for an answer. Which soon revealed itself in the blond seraph's knowing smirk. "...Why you...!"

"...Arche, correct?" Dhaos asked, looking intensely at her, and strangely this woman reminded him of someone, but the name escaped him. The pink-haired half-elf looked taken aback at his expression, and grinned while striking a pose as she replied, "Yes it's me! The one and only."

...

Arche stretched for a bit after Dhaos had gone off and they had spoken little, before turning to face Cless. She asked, "So...how'd you do it? Did you give him the irresistible friendship hug of destiny? Or did you give him a..."

The short-haired blond tilted his head until she whispered, "...a kiss?!"

Cless turned his head away from Arche at that moment to say to Mint, "So, after that whole adventure in the castle, you're feeling fine?"

"Hey, don't ignore me! I want the juicy details!"

...

Dhaos was sitting at the far edge of the village, next to the Forest of the Spirits, and he heard someone approach, making him turn his head. He was surprised inwardly to see it was Chester, who appeared like he was sweating. Perhaps a result of him firing his arrows so diligently to keep himself up with the rest.

The seraph figured the blue-haired archer had business to discuss with him, but to be quite honest, he never really liked to start conversation first unless he had to. So he would wait until Chester would speak his mind, and after a few minutes of staring off at the same forest Dhaos had, the bluenette eventually did. "So... what was that back there?"

The blond arched an eyebrow. "I have no clue of what you speak of."

Chester neared Dhaos, and the latter stood up so he could step back, like he always does to keep distance unless it's concerning Cless. Which confirmed his suspicions...that the other wants something from his best friend. "I want to make it clear: I'm still keeping my eye on you, and if you want something from Cless you're going to probably want to say it straight to his face or he won't act on it."

The blond felt it was unnecessary to drive this conversation further so he said nothing, which made Chester wait a little until he realized Dhaos didn't want to speak, and sighed. "I'm going back to training. It's no use-"

Dhaos shifts "-Hn. You should probably take a break before you break that bow of yours."

When Chester had blinked, annoyance settling into him, the blond was already gone.

...

Dhaos had already went to look for Cless, who was relatively easy to find because of their 'bond' and the younger male's unique mana signature. He was speaking to Arche and Mint. In a flash he grabbed the male by the arm and before the two women could say another word, they were off in a flash of light.

Cless himself was more or less shocked before being indignant himself, when the two of them re-appeared in the forest, and he turned to open his mouth, facing Dhaos. A finger place itself against his lips, effectively silencing him and surprising him. The finger drew away, and the taller blond shifted closer, as he furrowed his eyebrows, looking down at Cless. "Human, the time drawing for my end is nigh. After the last battle, if I survive it or not, it will simply not matter - I will eventually disappear. With that in mind, I wanted us... to spend some time together."

Now the swordsman looked upset. "But why? You're here... and if we win, you shouldn't just disappear. It doesn't make any sense! It's unfair. We're all finally working together and-"

Dhaos interrupted, "-It's fine."

The blond-haired seraph sighed as he saw the upset look on the smaller blond and continued with,"You can't change fate."

Cless replied, "We've done it before, we can do it again."

Dhaos raised an eyebrow, looking nonplussed, but his eyes showing with emotion. "Don't grow conceited. It will only land you in trouble in the end, human."

Then, it was as if someone decided that it was all that was needed to make the rain suddenly come down in a pour in that moment. Dhaos irrationally felt like someone had something against him, and somehow it wasn't humans or some deranged half-elf this time but perhaps someone else. Who could make it rain like this, at least.

At the same time, it was rather fortunate, because the blond had felt the urge to shed tears and the cover of rain could assist in making it an unknown.

But somehow, Cless noticed and stepped closer, reaching up to the taller blond. In the blink of an eye, Dhaos had his arms wrapped around him, pulling him close, and his lips had pressed softly against Cless'. The swordsman felt himself a shock that coursed through his entire body, but didn't resist, and maybe it had to do with the way the man was always so relatable. If not that then perhaps (to Cless) he looked like too much of an angel for him to consider it was abnormal to have feelings for him.

Cless distantly thought that he tasted like some sort of sweet, but not sure what, when he returned the kiss. It wasn't too long, and shortly after it, Dhaos made sure to keep him within the embrace, before murmuring, "It appears our alone time has been cut short."

"You could always have us stand out here a little longer, if you want." Cless started, but after receiving a disapproving look from the seraph, he revised his words. "Or maybe you could just come into my house..."

Dhaos nodded. "I wouldn't want you to get sick."

...

The two blonds had long since switched out of their wet clothing into something more dry. For Dhaos, it was an old outfit of sorts...one he had worn when he had first came upon Aselia, and it had a black shirt no sleeves, and easily shown off his muscles. The rest of the outfit consisted of casual pants and shoes. His hair was even pinned up in a ponytail so his wet hair would be out of the way. Said blond-haired man was still drying out his hair as Cless, clad in just PJs, kept taking sneak peeks. "...Human, if you have something to say, you should say it."

Cless jumped a bit and felt his cheeks redden. "Well-I was trying to think of what to say besides 'you look nice' in your new change of clothes."

Dhaos seemed to enter a moment of silence before his lips turned up into a smirk and he converged on Cless, who was just sitting on his bed. The small blond felt the shivers that went down his spine at the evil look on his once-enemy's face. "Perhaps, you were thinking of 'beautiful', instead?"

"Uh," Says Cless intelligently as the blond-haired angel kissed his lips again, rather shortly, before moving to kiss his neck as he leaned over, hands moving to become placed at the swordsman's sides. Who in particular gasped as well as shivered, before deciding to move his hands over Dhaos' skin-tight clothing, and making the taller man give a quiet, content sigh before he murmured a barely audible, "You don't have to be..."

This time, the shorter blond moved a finger to press against Dhaos' lips, shocking the other. "But I want to. I don't want you to think you're alone anymore, Dhaos. Besides...I can't stand the thought of losing you now."

Then, Cless just encircled his arms around the taller blond, and said blond began to stroke the smaller male's hair, making sure to pull the swordsman closer to him. To be honest, Dhaos didn't mind it if they just held each other for a while.

Chester stood there with his bow out and had an arrow pointed at him. "Get off of him. Now."

Dhaos passed the blue-haired male a glare, but then he appears to vanish straight after, flustered as well as simmering with too much anger to respond.

Cless' face was beet red but he frowned and asked, "W-wha-?! Chester, why would you come barging into my room in my house at this time of night?!"

The blue-haired archer crossed his arms and said, "Because I knew he'd try coming in here to seduce you."

The shorter blond-haired male countered, still flustered, "I-he- we weren't-! Y-you know, we're on the eve of a final battle and you're thinking he's going to betray us because of us...just cuddling? Where do you even get the idea?!"

Chester gives Cless a look that says 'I know you were doing more than cuddling', making the swordsman want to die in a hole from embarrassment. Then Chester replied, "Because I just know he'd pull something like that. I feel like he's leaving something out of the story anyway, of his revival."

Cless continues to flush in embarrassment as he said, "He told us all that we need to know. Something about the spirit of Martel having a hand in me being able to bring him back-"

"That's bullshit and you know it! That can't be everything! He's going to stab us in the back when we get there, I swear it and I'm just trying to tell you to be careful. A man like him..."

"Chester that's enough! It's not going to help us to argue about him. Even if he did betray us, I'd handle it. So, it's going to be fine."

Chester looked at Cless with a rueful smile as he said, "Like your word would count. Because of this guy, Ami is dead, and really...getting into something like this with a Demon King? What would Mint say? Weren't you planning on dating her sometime? I mean I guess it's okay that you don't like girls or like both, but it's weird."

Cless didn't say anything, because he did feel a little guilty. "Chester, I... look, sometimes things happen for a reason. He's trying to make amends and we need his help. Otherwise on our own it'll take longer to reach the enemy and who knows how many more he would have prepared in the longer trek?"

Chester is about to say some more and Dhaos reveals himself in the room, back in his usual clothing, cloak billowing behind him as he strolls up to behind the blue-haired archer. The seraph was furious at these insinuations, but tried to restrain his anger as he calmly said, "-Human, if you're not going to listen to your friend, then I shall take it upon myself to tell you, since you're much too foolish to listen to him. Like he has said Martel had a hand in making sure I return, and like you suspect, there is another party involved with likely more sinister intentions. I was trapped in what I presume to be the netherworld or otherwise, in a room full of hellfire, and upon a cross fixture. I was unable to access my powers while chained to it, until your human friend came to rescue myself while he was unconscious.

Not by his own power, but by the power of a great spirit. Now, I do not know who this other party is, besides Reisen's own involvement, but I believe they're a separate entity from the foolish half-elf we're facing. They may be a spirit themselves- but at this point that's all conjecture. Now-"

The blue-haired male stared as Cless listened but deciding to try to interrupting, saying, "Why didn't you say this-"

Pure rage settled onto Dhaos' expression, his eyes even glowing red, made the blue-haired male's words die in his throat as he shouted, the interruption making him ire, "SILENCE! I am still speaking! Your foolish insinuations that I am going to betray your pathetic little group are nothing but. I could easily destroy you without anyone even knowing I was here, let alone in just under a minute. You humans never change, you never listen and I'm tired of you blathering your wretched words because you're afraid. You fear anything that's different from you and don't even tell me I'm wrong because I know I'm right. I''ll have you know I'm staying in the same house as your human friend so I can hear you talking away about your little insecurities until you turn blue in your pretty human face.

And don't you dare say 'this was what I was talking about' because you wrought this verbal altercation on yourself! You're so full of it, when you are the only one in the group I have seen in battle who can hardly do anything special. In that castle you took longer to take down any stray monsters, who happened to wander nearby before we left, than anyone else!"

Dhaos only paused so he can smile and it was rather sinister as he said as his irises seem to become further tinted with malevolent glee, "I can feel your pain."

Naturally... he amplified the feeling of self-loathing, guilt, and inadequacy Chester was feeling. It was a simple arte for someone like him. The blue-haired male held his head. "Look at your human friend, you're hurting his feelings, because you can't deal with the idea that he's stronger and happier than you are. You're pathetic! They only have you here because they pity you, a weakling!"

Chester clutched his head, sinking to the ground on his knees. "I...I..."

Then Cless cuts in with a sharp, "DHAOS! That's enough."

Dhaos turned his attention away from Chester, dispelling the arte, as his gaze rest upon the swordsman. "And tell me, swordsman, when will it be enough? When will it keep humans or half-elves from their lust for power and destruction? Or if not that, overreacting in complete fear that winds up with those innocent placed the blame on as guilty and hurt in place of those truly evil."

Cless replies, as he moves to help Chester up off the ground, "What about your own actions? Not everything is black and white, as we both know, right? We both tried our best before but not everything went perfectly! It's the same for humans, or any other being, really. There can be a lot of good people, but then one person is able to make it bad enough that it's impossible to see the good. But I have faith that while we're here we can try our best and stop the ones trying to make our lives miserable. The thing is we have to work together. We can't let the past keep ourselves from moving on, right?"

"..."

Dhaos' eyes flickered to look at the floor, and the swordsman saw his anger dissipate into thin air, only for it to be replaced with a vague expression of sadness. Cless sighed to himself. Now both Chester and Dhaos looked so similar. He decided to quickly take both of their hands, and pass the surprised men a smile. "Let's try to get along, alright? It's not like I'm asking either of you to forget. I'm asking you both to overcome your differences."

Cless wasn't really expecting anything, but then he heard the taller male speak up, his gaze upon Chester who was gathering up his wounded pride. Dhaos said, "... I became angered by your words, because they were untrue. Yet, I suppose near the end I may have gone too far."

The blue-haired man had been looking at the floor as well until hearing those words, which made him surprised, before he sighed, finally seeming to relax a bit. "... I went too far, it'd be unfair for me to say I didn't. So for once I'm giving this to you, Dhaos - I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel bad either, Cless."

Cless nodded, and gave a relieved sigh. "Dhaos, I'm going to help him back, he seems a little ... out of it. It won't take long, though."

The blond-haired tall man looked like he wanted to say something, but instead, his gaze landed elsewhere. Anywhere but the other two. "..."

...

It really didn't take too long, considering Chester's residence was in the same small town, after all. He sighed to himself and said, "I probably caused some trouble, didn't I?"

Cless opened the door and at this point he didn't even need help - it was more or less just the concern that kept him nearby his friend. At the question, the swordsman replied with a slight smile, "Well you were trying to act in my best interests and as bad as it could've went, it didn't, so... it's fine. I think also because of it I may have learned a few more things. Dhaos has...quite a way with explaining things and sometimes he leaves things out even if he doesn't intend to."

Chester snorted as he went to stand by his stairs, asking, "You sure it isn't on purpose?"

The blond swordsman frowned in disapproval, making the archer sigh, and say, "Alright, alright, it probably wasn't. This time at least."

Cless put his hands on his sides and said, "We're all working hard together and this is probably going to be a big battle. He doesn't look like it but he has a lot on his mind, alright? It's really actually easy to set him off, so try to get along with him at least for a little while longer."

Chester laughs a little, causing the blond to look confused and ask, "What? Is there something stuck on my face?"

"No. It's just... I haven't noticed but you have changed. It's more clear to me now. You're less hardheaded."

Cless grinned and replied, "Yeah, now you're the only hot head."

For the blond's words he got a thwack on the head, and he made a small 'ow' while rubbing his head. Chester crossed his arms and huffed. "I stand corrected. You still are a hardhead. Otherwise your head would have cracked just then."

The blond-haired swordsman felt a vein pop on his forehead. "That's insulting!"

Chester laughed and moved towards the stairs, before turning around to face him. "Well, regardless, I think we need to be all prepared. Anything can happen tomorrow or in the few coming days... however long it takes us to reach the enemy base."

...

Cless finally returned to his place and expected to see the blond-haired male waiting... just not asleep on his own bed. At the scene, he smiled and then moved closer to lie close to him. The man was honestly really pretty while he slept (although still pretty when awake), and he wondered if it was okay being attracted to him this way while harboring feelings for Mint. At the thought, he figures it should be fine, since he is choosing only one. And with that he leans in to gently kiss the sleeping blond on his lips.

It is through this, Cless hears from the sleeping Dhaos' lips, "...Swordsman..."

He reached over to brush the locks from the blond-haired male's face, before closing his eyes and falling asleep.

The next time Cless opens his eyes, it's morning as he finds arms wrapped tightly around him and the blond still asleep. He laughs to himself and says, "Rise and shine! It's time to get up."

Dhaos is still sleeping soundly until Cless starts to say his name, louder and louder with each second that passes...until:

"DHAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS!"

Crash.

...

Dhaos refused to speak to Cless all throughout the morning to even past noon after he had rolled off of the bed by accident because of the shock of his name being shouted and subsequently made a fool out of himself. He didn't like to talk anyways and the party engaged in fighting off monsters from time to time so that provided a good distraction as well. When the fighting died down, however, Cless was stomping towards him and this made the seraph turn away from him. "Are you still mad over earlier?"

Dhaos looked like he was more or less bored. "..."

Cless sighed and then shouted, "Dhaos! Talk to me!"

"Hmph."

A vein popped on the shorter man's head. He won't be ignored. Then he got an idea and smirked at the taller male. "If you ignore me, Dhaos, I will make you regret it..."

Chester sighed and walked up to Cless, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Cless, this is one of those times where I say even your determination won't crack this one."

Said blonde turns to look at the blue-haired archer as he says, "It will! Just you watch!"

...And so began for about a few hours in between the fights would be Cless' attempts to make the older blonde speak properly to him. Little did the swordsman know that at this point Dhaos was merely teasing him, as he did get some enjoyment out of the antics. At least for a little bit it did.

Arche looked on at the on-goings between the two, which soon included Mint quickly enough, and snickered. "Looks like our lover boy's getting all the attention!"

Chester made a look. He knew it'd be a few days before they reached Arlee, but dealing with this was going to be a trial in of itself. "I hope you don't mean Dhaos."

Arche rolled her eyes. "No, you big dumb-dumb I mean Cless! Duh!"

The blue-haired archer looked vaguely even more annoyed before sighing. "I'll pretend you didn't just throw an idiotic insult my way, because I'm kind like that."

The pink-haired girl stuck out her tongue. "Bleh! You, kind? That's like Klarth showing that he's secretly been all muscley all along!"

"Why, you...!"

Cless had tried to ignore Dhaos in return but that didn't work since the male wasn't fighting himself, and didn't need to talk to the other blonde. So that attempt failed, and then soon after he had tried acting really close with the others, figuring it wouldn't work either. But he was hinging on the thought that Dhaos might have felt lonely or jealous that he wasn't focusing on him. But he found that the blond-haired male wasn't saying anything or reacting... which steadily was getting him to become more worried than not. He sighed as his sword sliced through another monster, darkness was coming upon them, and the group called it a day.

Then the blond had a fabulous idea. He tried to sneak up on the seraph, who was leaning against a tree. He shouted, "If you don't talk to me... I'll 'douse' you, Dhaos!"

Dhaos just slowly turned his head to stare blankly at Cless, and the rest of the group that happened to be chatting away had gone into complete as well as utter silence. "...Hn."

Cless suddenly had the pleasant sensation of water being splashed all over him and he sputtered as everyone snickered. Chester said, "Looks like you were the one who was 'doused'."

Arche said, "Or 'defeated'."

The swordsman's face turned red. "SHUT UP! DHAOS I'LL-"

When he turned his head back, Dhaos was missing. "...! COWARD!"

...

After drying off his hair, Cless sighed, and began to think about his adventure. It was really coming far at this point, and his thoughts began to drift...

Someone was speaking to him, beginning to shake him out of his thoughts - more importantly it was Mint. She asked, "Isn't it nice to have all of us on an adventure again? Even though it's because we have to, it feels kind of nostalgic, doesn't it?"

The blond-haired cleric passed the swordsman a smile, as she sat herself down by his side, and he said, "Well, yeah, it does. Although missing one old geezer."

Both of them laughed right after and then Mint said, "Be nice. He's dead in our time, remember? You don't know if he'd be offended in spirit..."

Cless grinned sheepishly. "Well, you're right. It'd be even worse if he was reincarnated as a spirit and heard us. While simultaneously being able to remember everything, that is."

He was the only one in their party they'd never see again. While that made him a little sad from time to time, he was sure it would all wind up okay in the end. He stretched a bit, and looked up at the sky. "Well, at least we have a great view tonight."

Mint agreed, albeit sleepily, and soon she was caught amongst the dredges of the unconscious well enough. At this point, Cless moved carefully, because her head had been lying against his shoulder and went to put a blanket over her. Then, he moved to stand to his feet, before looking around. Everyone here was asleep... except for him and Dhaos.

The latter of which was missing.

Cless went to scour the area just to make sure that the blond was still nearby, and found him standing nearby some pond of some sort. He approached the man and went to tug on his cape, asking, "Hey, will you speak to me now?"

"..."

The seraph was quiet, although he seemed to be for another reason: lost in his thoughts. The only reason Cless could tell the other wasn't deliberately ignoring him, was because he hardly seemed to move, let alone breathe, and his blue irises seemed to hold an ocean of sadness to them. "...Dhaos, are you thinking about the past again?"

The blond-haired male shifted, his head turning to look over at Cless. He was feeling a lot of emotions at this point and was sorely tempted to tell him off, but it would all but confirm he was. Plus, he didn't really want the other to go away, in this instance, when earlier he was alright with being by himself and watching the others do their thing. He even began to become a little sad when he was left out for a bit on a subconscious level, but had ignored himself as his thoughts did begin to slip into the past. But, not only that... in this case it was the future as well. "..."

Which would be sometime relatively soon.

Cless' eyes looked into his and he smiled a little at him. "I know it's hard for you to let go. But once you become used to traveling with us, it'll become easier."

"Hm."

The swordsman laughed a bit. Looks like he's working on getting him to converse again. He moved to sit by Dhaos, and the other male moved to sit down himself, surprising the smaller blond. "You know, when it's this time of night, the stars look awfully nice. Especially when you're gazing at them with someone else."

Dhaos felt his cheeks warm, and his eyes gazed upward. "...Perhaps, like a star ocean."

Cless felt a hand rest upon his, which surprised him enough to tear his gaze from the night time sky, and look over at Dhaos. "That sounds kind of poetic."

"Does it? Hmm...thank you."

For some reason him saying that makes his face slightly red and the swordsman feels a little bit silly. It was like he could suddenly embarrassed by anything right now. However, Dhaos' voice shook him from his thoughts. "...Swordsman,"he began slowly, eyes on Cless now, "Why did you seek me out?"

Cless looked proud and said, as he made his fingers intertwine with Dhaos', "Well because I wanted to know where you were! And... well, I was a little worried, I guess."

Dhaos peered curiously at him, and his blue eyes seem to shimmer a little with something even Cless couldn't identify. The taller male asked softly, his cheeks turning a more prominent pinkish hue, "Worried? About...me?"

To Cless right now, the blond looked so... cute, that he couldn't say a word for a moment. Before realizing he was staring, his face turned beet red and he said quickly, "Uh- yeah! I was. I mean, a lot of stuff's going on and...er."

He didn't know what else to say but felt Dhaos' free hand caress his face, specifically his right cheek, making him stop his future blabbering. "How honest of you, swordsman. Even though I am leagues more powerful, capable, and competent than your human friends, including yourself, you're worried about my well being."

This time, Cless was stunned into being unable to say anything to that for a moment for an entirely different reason. He felt insulted, complimented, and exasperated at the same time. A sweat drop happened down his face. The way he worded that... is seriously problematic!

The swordsman sighed and said, "Dhaos... I know you intended well by that statement, the thing is that I wouldn't be worried about your battle capabilities, it's just- the matters of your heart and mind."

Dhaos suddenly shifted to let go of Cless' hand, which made the latter of the two curse in his head. Then the taller male shifted, and grabbed at Cless, pulling him into a tight embrace, shocking the swordsman. "Dhaos...?"

The seraph's didn't say anything, as his blue eyes stared down into Cless', looking as if he were about to be extremely upset, and the swordsman replied, "...it's fine. I understand."

The blue-eyed male blinked, staring at Cless, before he his lips spread into a rare, warm smile. "...One of the greatest things about you is your honesty, swordsman, and your kindness. You are a rather funny human as well, which is why I like you so much."

Cless blushed furiously and said, "Hey, what about me is funny anyway!? I thought you'd say I'm more smooth than that."

To the brown-eyed male's surprise, Dhaos' smile widened, which turned into a slightly mischievous one as he raised one eyebrow, purposely not saying anything, "..."

The swordsman proceeded to pretend to roll his eyes."Your confidence in me being smooth is simply astounding."

"But I didn't say anything."

"You didn't need to! It was written all over your face and the fact you didn't say anything, really..."

Soon after that Cless, fell asleep against Dhaos, and the latter fell asleep with the blond still in his arms.

...

"Lord Dhaos... I will always love you."

Dhaos woke up with a gasp, shaking and his eyesight blurry at the wetness coming from them. It was about dawn, or nearing it, luckily for him. Or perhaps unlucky, he thought to himself, because he just had to see all of them die in front of him but it had felt like it was real, in that dream of his. In a twisted form of relief he was certainly glad that no one saw him like this; he wouldn't know how to deal with it.

At the thought, he carefully pulled away from Cless and thought on the matter some, quickly moving closer to the pond as finally tears came down his face. Now that he wasn't numbing himself to what he had been doing back then, whenever it became quiet like this, his thoughts would once again inevitably go back to what he'd done or the people he's missing. He suddenly thinks of Cless, and the thought that maybe it's a good thing he's really moving on or rather, trying to. He can't help but quietly laugh to himself at one memory of the swordsman, who had walked out of the room of an inn with underwear on his head...somehow.

The best part was that he hadn't even noticed until Arche had pointed it out and a smile appears on his lips. He hears, "What's so funny, Demon King?"

Dhaos quickly turns around and spots Reisen holding Cless with a knife to his neck, the boy still blissfully asleep. The former Demon King found his eyes widening and he feel like this was going to make him seriously lose it. He shouts, "No...NO! Reisen- don't do this!"

Reisen smiled as he brought the knife closer to the young man's neck. "Dhaos, you'll thank me later...once your hate has consumed you once more and you've turned into the Demon King that the demons want. I will take away every precious thing you have in order to make it happen if I must."

Not again... he was helpless to protect someone important to him... again. Again.

When Reisen was done, red blood easily slid down from the fatal wound due to slitting the blond-haired swordsman's throat. Dhaos felt an overwhelming, crushing amount of despair mixed with rage, but in this iteration couldn't keep himself from finally succumbing to sobbing first.

...

Dhaos sat up quickly, and looked to his side, seeing Cless, as he panted, tears having already made streaks down his cheeks. He made sure to move the swordsman closer to him protectively, and decided it'd be much too risky to fall back asleep. But it seems he wouldn't have had a choice, seeing as Cless stirred and looked up. "Good morning...wait, are those-"

The former King didn't say anything as the swordsman's words died in his throat, and said young blond against him moved to reach up to stroke Dhaos' cheek. Cless barely hears, "I dreamed that you died right in front of me. I was powerless to prevent it."

...

After that it was only a day or so more when they finally reached the snowy land, and at the thought Cless couldn't help but smile at the slightly nostalgic thoughts in this dark city. He made sure to have everyone rest in an inn, before they set out to attack the enemy's stronghold...which Dhaos had mentioned to be near the Cave of Darkness. He was walking around late at night, when he heard Dhaos' voice, along with someone else, and it was nearby a window. Against his better interests, Cless found himself hiding by leaning against the wall that happened to obscure anyone from the other blond's angle and hear the blond say angrily, "...send yourself away from me at once or suffer the consequences. I will not participate in you foolish campaign. This world belongs to neither of us."

The being speaking to him laughed. It sounded like Reisen, and thus that's what Cless concluded he was. "It's funny you say that after you pulled all of that back as your stint as the Demon King."

Silence was heard from Dhaos until he shouted, "Don't touch me, scum!"

Then a crash was heard, and when Cless ran around the corner, all that he saw was that there was Dhaos shaking with anger, and the wall having an indent on it where he had punched Reisen into. But Reisen had disappeared all on his own, and quickly Cless went to console the pissed off seraph, which calmed him down considerably.

...

Long white-blue hair dangled on over a certain tan-skinned male's shoulders and back as he lay down on a stone tablet. Strange symbols lay all over his body, as if in the likeness of something from that of old. His eyes were closed and he gritted his teeth, as he was held there by powerful magical artes. Above him was the blue-haired half-elf, eyes boring at the half-naked male, as he said, "You will become one of my army, or I will torture you until you agree to do so. I didn't waste those monsters and their mana for no reason in order to bring you to this time."

The man glared up at him. "Never! You'd have to kill me first."

Reisen smirked as he moved to move a hand upon the other male's forehead. "So if I just blasted an arte through your head to make it explode you wouldn't have any regrets... Klarth F. Lester? And it's not like you can use your artes, since I have placed a difficult arteseal on you. When I'm done, everyone will be praising me as their king and half-elves will finally have a place in the world!"

Klarth glared at the blue-haired male, and if he were much younger as well as foolish he would've spat in the half-elf's face. But he had more decorum than that, clearly, and soon after that closed his eyes as he said, "You're an absolute idiot if you think you're going to get away with this. Heh, I don't even have a single bit of confidence you'll succeed-urghhhh!"

Three slices across his chest was made with a sword that Reisen had on hand and he smirked as he inspected the blood easily coming to the surface, before moving to leave the room. "Oh and if I do get enough power, I can just always bring your wife to the present as well to kill her in front of you. But I think if you can't be useful to me I might be just gracious enough to let you die in here."

"Y-you...bastard...hrk."

...

Arche stretched a bit before looking around. She rubbed the back of her head as they happened near the Cave of Darkness. She felt shivers down her spine, and said, "I just got some sort of terrible feeling all of a sudden."

Dhaos raised his hand and with a few complicated hand movements, a hole had opened itself from what seemed to be out of nowhere, and filled with the power of darkness. He walked straight in, silently, making Arche just stare. "...We're supposed to go into that?! Jeez, talk about giving us a warning next time."

Chester shrugged and then began to walk straight in. "Well it's not like he's planning to kill us as we walk into ... whatever this is."

Cless followed suit, and soon after him, was Mint. Arche sighed to herself. "Why do we have to always do stuff like this?!"

She followed them straight after, and saw that they were all in some big room, with a great few machines (re: magitechnology) here or there. The sight of which was surely enough to cast Dhaos into a rage, if he was just by his own. Cless was confused and furrowed his eyebrows, asking, "What is this...?"

Dhaos in the meanwhile was grumbling something low and undoubtedly murderous underneath his breath, condemning the technology.

Chester replied with, with severity, "What do you think it is?"

The blond-haired swordsman huffed and said, "That's why I asked you! I didn't know what it is!"

Dhaos stared, so did Arche, and Mint just smiled sheepishly as she said, "Cless, I think this is magictech, by the looks of it..."

The hero paused before he started to blush in embarrassment and rub the back of his head, thinking of something to say because it seems he was misunderstood. "... Oh! Well, I uh, er- I mainly meant 'what is this' in terms of 'wow why is this here'?!"

Chester sighed and said, "You don't need to cover it up, it's fine."

"It's true!"

Dhaos sighed, and looked around for the anything, like a door, while the humans got into a petty squabble. He found one, as if the maker had tried to blend it in within the wall itself to deter anyone who'd come here. He raised an eyebrow at the notion and simply opened the door, which lead into a larger room. "This way."

It looked fancier than the last, and like the entrance into a mansion, with even a chandelier hanging from above, and two staircases, one on the right, as well as one on the left. The floor was an immaculate marble with intricate designs that some prose-crazy author would go to crazy lengths to describe. Reisen was standing at the top of the staircase, in front of the only other door leading deeper into the place. Monsters suddenly also appeared to give him back-up as he smirked.

Dhaos' eyes narrowed as he began charging up a spell. "Reisen... I doubt you'd listen now, but your madness needs to stop!"

Chester got out his arrows and started to attack, firing them off, one after the other in complete successful successions, before he prepared a specific attack."Reisen, I hope you die in hell! HELL PYRE!"

Mint began to get out the status buffs and whichever to keep everyone in top form and Arche was firing off spells of her own. "Everyone, be careful!"

Then, Cless unsheathed his blade of unrivaled making and charged forward, shouting, "Reisen when we're done with you you'll be nothing but a raisin!"

Dhaos snorted, while Chester snickered, and Arche as well as Mint giggled.

Reisen's eyes narrowed. "Are you making fun of me?! How dare you?!"

The four were just enough to handle the monsters, as Dhaos smirked and unleashed a spell at the blue-haired male, taking the half-elf for his opponent, naturally. "Dhaos Laser!"

A laser came from his hands, demolishing part of the what Reisen was standing on as he jumped off it before he was hit with a smile of his own. "Fool! Like I would stand around for th-"

Dhaos turned around and shot a blast straight at him, surprising the half-elf. "-what but that was too fa-!"

It collided with the blunette, sending him into a wall, with Dhaos coming after him, fist pulled back. "Tetra Assault!"

"Graaaahhh!"

The blond grinned maliciously as he continued to beat the half-elf to a pulp. Finally, he would have his revenge and oh did it taste so sweet. He charged up a spell and flung a Flare Tornado at the blue-haired half-elf, but saw he had managed to slip out at the last minute. He clicked his tongue and went after the retreating male.

Cless sliced through another of the monsters but they kept reappearing. Looks like this was going to keep them busy for awhile. Chester, on the other hand turned and fired an arrow at the half-elf, successfully getting him in the shoulder, only to be slammed to the wall by a golem-like creature. Before being squeezed against it. "Argh!"

Arche swooped in with a, "Hey, leave him alone! Ray!"

The monstrous creature more than let up, it was defeated by the rays of light decimating it and therefore letting go of the harmed archer. The blue-haired male stood up and grabbed his bow, as Mint tossed a healing spell at him. He muttered, "Damn, almost became one with the rocks there...I wouldn't want someone saying 'Chester is now G(no)me more'..."

Arche tried not to laugh her ass off because she was trying to focus her energy into a spell.

Dhaos chased Reisen into the next room, which he spotted a certain Summoner lying on a stone slab, all bloodied up. He hesitated, remembering that it was one of Cless' friends, but... he could have revenge if he caught Reisen in time. What would he do?

Deciding he'd have time to do both, he rushed over to the male's side and broke the restraints with his bare hands before handing the guy a miracle gel as well as a panacea bottle (he only carried two of this crap around now since Cless all but shoved some into his hands one evening). Klarth coughed a bit and looked a little pale but Dhaos decided he'd live and look up to see Reisen predictably not in the same room.

The summoner shouts, "Behind you!"

Dhaos turned around quickly, putting his shield up, eyes narrowing as he saw Reisen tried to stab him from behind with a blade, running with an electricity arte. "Fool, you cannot get the best of me."

"I have once."

The blond's eyes widened and then narrowed as he held in a snarl, throwing an almost-instant laser from his hands in anger, while a certain summoner began to chant, "Come forth spirit of light...ASKA!"

Reisen cried out as he was blown back onto the floor, and stumbled to his feet. He was engulfed in a sphere of darkness and disappeared before Dhaos could pound him into submission. The blond scoffed and turned his head, hearing the sound of the others rushing into the room. While the others were having a quick reunion he immediately moved on, going to the other door leading further into this rocky location. He ignored Cless calling his name, for he could feel Reisen within the next room.

Dhaos quickly put up a shield seeing as the room was designed to set up some sort of trap in which it'd electrocute whomever came into the front of it. "Good try, but you have to try better than..."

He didn't know how, but he supposed Reisen had been casting in preparation before he even had gotten into the room, because he's hit with a freight train of holy lightning that he's so caught up in it the shield goes down and the room all but proceeds to electrocute him.

It succeeds and he's screaming. He blacks out, before the heroes step in. Chester shoots an arrow at the accursed magitech device, all but nearly obscured except for a keen eye, Arche casts another strong spell, and the blue-haired half-elf falls over, unmoving. There's probably more, but Dhaos is too busy getting his bearings after being nearly electrified to death, and of course such an element would happen to be his one weakness. He feels hands cupping his cheeks as he's kneeling on the ground with one knee, and it's Cless.

Dhaos' vision comes more into focus, as the rest of the group is standing around Reisen's fallen body, and he allows himself to lean forward just a little, Cless moving to try to keep him from leaning too far over. "It's over, Dhaos. We did it."

The seraph smiled slightly and closed his eyes, before moving to stand up. Everyone else moves to turn around, chattering with each other. It was at that moment, Cless turned back around to face Dhaos, and was about to say something but he changed his mind instantly to push him with every bit of force he had. It easily caught the tall blond off-guard and he fell back.

Dhaos watched the male in front of him become impaled on a sword in his place, likely thrown by the severely injured half-elf as more and more monsters appeared to rush in. He says Cless' name almost silently.

The last thought coherent thought he remembers is:

If he desires the Demon King so wantonly, then so shall he have a Demon King.

There was screaming, calls of anger, and whathaveyou. Then, words.

"Why isn't it working?! Fire Storm!"

"If only these monsters hadn't gotten in the way... goddamn it. GODDAMN IT ALL!"

"I...If only I were stronger - I healed his wounds b-but..."

"I'm going to hazard a guess he's stopped breathing."

...

Dhaos could tell everyone had been as upset as he had been. In fact, if it hadn't been for that blue-haired human he'd have gone on a complete rampage, even after literally blitzing through a few of the monsters. And of course literally, physically tearing Reisen apart limb by limb influenced by demons or not. He had even briefly turned on them, possessed by anger too much to even differentiate who was friend or foe. He wound up punching out Chester before regaining his senses and deliberately went out of his way to stay away from the group. He did make sure to give the archer his apology but he still felt bad.

Even worse still, he had let Cless just-

He heard a cheerful female voice call out to him. "Hey, Dhaos! I have great news."

Dhaos turned his head, and to Arche he looked even more mopier than usual. So she said with a grin, "It's a miracle! Cless is out from his short coma-"

He was gone the next moment and she grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head.

...

Cless blinked blearily, finding that his room was occupied by his friends, smiling at him and then plus two more. Dhaos knelt down beside the bed, his eyes on him, before he just pulled him into a wordless tight hug, no longer caring if it was public to the eyes of others or not. Although this was also a special occasion.

The swordsman laughed lightly, and gave everyone a slight smile. "Well, at least you'd know I'm too short to be six feet under ... since I'm just shy of being an 3 inches."

Everyone gave him a look and Cless grinned, saying, "...Just kidding!"

Chester groaned. "That doesn't make the joke any better."

...

Dhaos was listening to the rest of the group talk, lips turned into a frown, and wearing a bathrobe while everyone else seemed to be perfectly fine with just dressing in a towel. He was about to enter the guy's side of the hotsprings and pondered as to how and why he allowed himself to be dragged into this. It was inane and much too personal... 'group bathing' that is and yet here he was, standing here annoyed. It was at this time he heard his name mentioned and turned his head, listening to the conversation beyond the cloth.

Chester's voice was heard. "...no offense Cless, but your boyfriend doesn't really have much you know. Look, maybe I'm biased but with a girl there's at least a little more there. Not that I pay much attention to that sort of thing."

He heard Cless say, "W-Why're you talking about him like that?! If he hears you, I bet he's going to sock you in the face again. And well, for me, I don't really care I guess... as long as the person I'm interested is a good person."

He heard the archer reply, "You had to bring that up. It took me six hours to wake up from that, you know. Six hours, even after Mint healed me. I'm telling you, that guy is bad news. And really, knowing him, he probably blew this place because from the look on his face the whole entire time you dragged him here he didn't seem pretty happy."

Cless tosses Chester a glare and splashes a bit of water at him.

Water sloshing around occurs, and he hears Klarth say, "Well, he's not so bad, I guess, but seeing as I'm already all set where that's concerned I can say for sure that he's probably not someone I want to piss off. That said, being the only resident responsible adult here, I have to keep an eye on you guys, until tomorrow that is."

Cless and Chester said, "We're adults too you know!"

Dhaos smirked to himself and muttered underneath his breath, "Hmph, what idiots..."

Klarth then said, "Well, I'd count Dhaos, but I feel like he's sort of..."

Chester cut in saying, "Yeah I know what you mean, he's really irresponsible."

Cless sighed and said, "Give him a break already!"

The three of them heard cracking of knuckles, and turned to see Dhaos smile pleasantly. "...How exactly am I irresponsible now?"

Klarth coughed into his hand discreetly. "I wasn't implying that you were. That was all Chester."

THWACK.

The Summoner had a bump on his head after Dhaos hit him and now leaned on the edge of the pool because he hits hard. "As usual, a human's deception is truly despicable..."

Then Dhaos crossed his arms.

Chester breathed a relieved sigh before Dhaos leaned over to shove him so he fell completely into the water. "-Hey! Dhaos, you bastard!"

Cless smiled a little and then gave Dhaos a quick once over. It was a light blue bathrobe with a white belt, and he wore typically no shorts or pants underneath since it was pretty hot. His skin seemed so immaculate and he could see a bit of his chest. He, like the other two, was barefoot as well. His blond hair was pinned up into a pony tail like it was that one night, and he caught Cless staring. "What is it?"

The blond then blushed a little and said as he gave a sheepish grin, "You look handsome. I think I'm a little jealous..."

Dhaos stepped towards him with a smirk. "...What do you have to be jealous for? You are the only one who can be just as handsome as I."

Chester, snorted and said, "Careful Cless, you're going to make him a vain pretty boy at this rate."

Cless tossed him a complete look of disapproval. "Stop it, you're embarrassing me!"

Said 'pretty boy' frowned and turned to face the archer, about to say something, when his foot slipped on an errant bar of soap, and he fell forwards. Chester was prepared to laugh and then the former Demon King stopped himself a hair from hitting the ground as well as part of the water thanks to him being able to levitate. "...Oh come on, there goes the comedy element. Well since you're here, and I'm Cless' best friend..."

Klarth sighed and said, "Just a warning, the guy hits pretty hard, just in case you forgot."

Chester paused as Dhaos righted himself. "Maybe I'll just save it for later."

THWACK.

The blue haired archer yelled 'ow', as he was now nursing a sizeable lump on top of his head, and he gave Dhaos a heated glare. "Hey, what the hell was THAT for?!"

"What the heck was what?"

A vein popped on Chester's forehead, "That's it! I won't take any more abuse from you any longer...Hell Pyre!"

"Oh? Is that how you want to play, human? Tetra Assault!"

Klarth snapped his fingers and a wall of ice formed in between of them, cancelling out their attacks, courtesy of Udine. "What're you guys, five? Calm down and enjoy the hot springs like a couple of normal people."

Cless just decided it was a better idea to splash water at the two who were fighting. Besides the fact that it also assisted in diffusing the fight, he thought Dhaos looked nice soaked and wet.

...

It was morning time, with everyone hustling and bustling in Cless' hometown, except for a few who were just out standing around his house, talking. Klarth had already said his goodbyes, and was sent along his way.

"Swordsman- I'm not sure how you figure this looks 'perfect' on me but I'm going to disagree."

Said blond in question stood with his arms crossed in a light blue yukata with red butterflies on it. It was one of the things Suzu had given them a long while ago, but had wound up being too big for Cless to wear so he gave it to the taller blond instead. Cless saw that the other blond didn't really have an issue with wearing it - he just pretended he did. At the thought, Cless moved closer to Dhaos, who looked to the side, cheeks turning a faint pink.

He knew it and smiled to himself. "Dhaos, it's okay to say you like it. No one's going to make fun of you for doing so."

Dhaos' blush actually grew and he sent a glare at him. "Silence."

Chester walked in, smiling as well in his casual wear. "He's right, you now."

"..."

The others laughed, and Dhaos scoffed before reaching out to forcibly grab Cless by the hand to tug him along. The smaller blonde stumbled as he dragged him towards a place that was less sparsely populated, and more or less towards flora. There were more trees as well and even a small pond. He stops here and moves to sit down, making sure Cless sat down with him. Then they sit in silence together for awhile, until Cless asks, "Do you want to lie down?"

"...Perhaps."

Dhaos shifted so his head was lying down in Cless' lap and he ignored the swordsman sputtering as well as getting flustered as he closed his eyes. A nice breeze happened to blow, and it felt so nice that he believed that he could go to sleep now without any regrets whatsoever. He released a content sigh, feeling the fingers of his partner go through his hair. "Did I remember to tell you everything?"

Cless replied, "Yes, you did, even about-"

The former Demon King held up a hand as if to silence him for about a moment before bringing it down. "Hm. Then, what did you think about Reisen's last words?"

The swordsman frowned to himself and replied, "About you becoming a true Demon King because they managed to bring you back as a demon? That... that's what's going to happen when you...? I just thought it was a lie."

Dhaos opened his eyes. "That could be the case, however...I realized there was some truth to his words. They brought myself back into a physical form and infused the mana of some demon into myself in doing so. It was only due to yourself and Martel, for whatever reason, intervening and bringing me from their grasp. Remember when that night, I-"

Cless interrupted, "That wasn't you."

"But, I-"

"-shut up."

The seraph's eyes narrowed. "How dare you sp-mmph!"

Dhaos found himself quiet as the swordsman had moved so he could bend down to kiss him, and then said blond moved so he was above the taller male, elongating the kiss enough so his tongue could run along the other's lips. Dhaos allowed him to kiss him deeper, opening his lips some, before he pulled away, licking his lips, and breathing heavily.

The two of them laid there for awhile, before Dhaos said, after a laugh, "You're a foolish human, but you're right. There is no Demon King, there is only what you see here. And soon, I do need to perish here in order to return to Derris-Kharlan."

"...Stay here, a little longer."

Dhaos looked at the desperate expression on Cless' face, and once again the wish to prolong his stay returns. He raised a hand to caress his cheek. "Cless, I will not tell you to smile for me. However, I will inform you that you shouldn't despair when I pass."

"But-"

The blond-haired seraph smiled. "Continue on as you are now and perhaps we shall meet again. If not in this lifetime, then surely, the next."

Then the male underneath him shone brightly until he dispersed into nothing but beads of light that sore straight high into the sky. Cless closed his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth. He couldn't help but feel cheated out of something as the tears trickled down his face.

I will love you...always.

...

A few years pass, and the town is filled with a good amount of people once more. Cless stares out his window, and everything has been going well. At first, after the man had disappeared, the swordsman had holed himself up in his room for a few days, but after that appeared to be back to his normal, cheery self. Mint had finally asked for his hand in marriage and he was thinking of accepting it, as well as in fact about to do so. She was his first love, after all, but he didn't want to immediately have it done.

It felt like it would be insulting otherwise, although Cless knew not why he thought that. He sighed to himself and closed his eyes.

Just as he decided to give up waiting, he thought he saw someone in the crowd... with blond long hair and in that mysterious cape, and without a single delay he rushed downstairs from his room, to out the door of his house. He was panting, looking around, and saw no trace of the being he thought he saw.

Somehow... it felt like the ending of a dream. But he knew deep down he'd never give up waiting, even if he did move on.

End