Authors Notes: I decided to keep up with one tradition that was in all the games. Remember how each game had Chapters? Usually 1-10ish. I plan on having Eleven, of course it may get smaller or bigger depending on how things go. The amount of 'episodes' for each one, will vary, depending on all the things I need to cram in and each will deal with different arcs(Speaking of which, this one is almost done. Check my profile for chapter names). With that said, hopefully this doesn't end up doing me in. We'll, off we go. Its still Krich flash back scene from the the chapter before this one though, so don't be confused.
Nothing was worse then not knowing where you going, unless you didn't know what you were going to do when you got their, that is. The person he needed to see wasn't easy to find, in fact it was near impossible to seek them out normally.
But he forgot one of the first rules of the Netherworld: 'Normal' was a subjective thing.
King Krichevskoy's luck had been exceedingly well as of late; all things that had nothing to do with his search for answers that is. He found the so-called Reaper of Souls, but it went exactly as he had thought: he wouldn't say anything, unless he got an item in return for him. Who knew such beings would even be worried about those types of things?
His trading item was all the way back at the castle, after he had gone through all the trouble of locating the Reaper. It had been tempting to turn the thing into a pile of ash with an Over Lords Wraith technique, but he knew better, besides-it would have come back sooner or later they were pretty much immortal in that sense.
Sucking in his great irritation, he had gone back to the castle, sneaking in through the sewer..again much to his displeasure. If his hunch was right, he would need his old weapon again Longinus at least for a little while. All of his former vassals knew his identity, so he could move around some places without getting as much trouble. One of his old vassals, a ghost was busy trying to get everything he needed while he waited in a room, it being smarter and cost effective.
Then, he remembered how goofy his vassal was and almost wished he picked someone else.
"I found them, and I got Longinus to." A cheerful upbeat voice interrupted his train of thought.
Krich winced because he was being far too noisy, it was hard for his voice to go down when the ghost got overly excited. "Not so loud Gnoss." He made sure everything was in place, a plain brown box tucked under his arm and the large spear with an unhappy expression on its face. For once he remembered everything, part of that was due to being told multiple times but the end result was what mattered, right?
It felt strange to have Longinus in his hands again, almost awkward since it had literally been decades."I hope you're ready for another adventure old friend, but I have a feeling I'll need you."
"Always a pleasure to serve you. You may no longer be an official Over Lord, but you always be the true Over Lord to me."
He was a bit more touched then he would have admitted openly. "Thank you. Though, shouldn't Prince Laharl be your Over Lord instead of me, right now anyway?"
Longinus made a 'face' before saying anything, remembering how loud the young demon's voice rose in pitch when he was irritated, annoyed or angry, which was eighty percent of the time. "..He is..difficult at times. However, he is your son and I can say that thankfully he inherited some of you and your mates good personality traits. How well hidden those traits may be at times."
"Fair enough." The laughter in the King's voice would have annoyed the talking weapon normally, but this was an exception to the rule. It had been far to long since he had seen him, complaining could wait and if Krichevskoy was right; he would have a lot to complain about later.
The door opened and every one almost had a stroke, thinking one of Laharl's maids had come in to clean the room. Gnoss had looked nervous, wandering what excuse he would have to make up for 'Mid-Boss' presence being in the castle, since the young Prince couldn't stand him. Longinus looked calm, it was hard to tell with him anyway though.
The three gave a collective mental sigh of relief when the intruder turned out to be yet another one of former King's vassals. Moving in and closing the door behind him was the Gargoyle, Cargo. Just one of the very few ones that stayed loyal, even after his death. He did look completely taken back at seeing him though.
"Lord Krichevskoy, what brings you here?"
"Business. And I told you not to call me 'Lord' besides I'm no longer royalty anymore remember? Lock the door." Once that task was done Krich gave a short summary of what was going on and why he was their.
"I see. I wasn't the only one that noti-" Cargo was cut off.
"Did you talk with your wife again?"Gnoss questioned, his nosy nature showing. "You should have asked her-" He cut himself off seeing the angry irritated look on Longinus face, Cargo looked agitated as well.
"Their's a word called 'tact', you should learn it." The spear growled, a bit angry about pale vassals lack of grace.
Instead of being offended in any way, Krich simply shook his head. "It's all right. I did talk to her like I have recently but she seemed..troubled. I'm not sure the full extent of what is going on and she left before I could ask any more questions."
"I always have to do the cleaning, why can't the other vassals clean up after themselves?" The voice came from outside the door, it was female obviously one of the maids. The sound of the door slowly being unlocked made the four(not counting Longinus) sweat bullets.
The whole group mentally had one word in mind: crap. Others of course had stronger words of choice. Cargo quickly went to the bed, picking up a random book and sitting. Gnoss just stood like he had no clue of what to do, which he did. Not seeing any other way; Krich stood perfectly still in a pose looking like a statue.
"What are you two doing in here? And why is Longinus here? And why is a statue of Mid-boss in the room?" The maid raised an eyebrow when she went to go dust the dusty book collection, the collected air-borne dirt particles made Gnoss sneeze slightly but he was ignored by everyone in the room. It was odd seeing Gnoss and Cargo in the same presence, the Gargoyle couldn't stand the ghost half the time and usually it ended up with him smacking the ghost upside the head for something he deemed 'stupid.'
"I was.." Cargo strained his brain for something, anything. Demons were supposed to be good at lying but he technically wasn't one anyway. "I was reading this book, I just wanted to get away from distractions. Gnoss is here to clean up my things, also he's a huge fan of Mid-Boss, he wouldn't come unless he brought the statue along, he brought Longinus along for company. Isn't that right?"
"I am?" The slower vassal replied, before a light bulb turned on so to speak. "Oh! I am. Yes, I am a big fan that I am."
"...Ok." She decided not to ask anymore questions. "That statue is so real, its almost creepy. Though its not as good-looking as the real Mid-Boss." The maid claspsed her hands together and little stars appeared in her eyes. "In person he's so handsome! This statue is ugly, though."
Ugly?! A vein appeared on Krich's forhead when he heard the comment, and he suddenly had an urge to say something back in return. Instead he could only lightly gnash his teeth together in annoyance, it drew the maids attention to him.
"Funny, I thought that thing moved.." Shrugging the maid continued cleaning, moving things while Cargo stood nervously, Gnoss was standing still clearly not the least bit worried.
"I'm done, do yo-" Not able to finish her sentence, Cargo quickly pushed the maid towards the exit.
"Thanks for the cleaning, now bye." He almost slammed the down after she was out, not wanting to take any chances. Only when the sound of her retreating steps were heard did the three, not counting Gnoss relaxed.
"That was far to close." Longinus said at length. "Thankfully your good at acting or we might have been in some trouble. I'm slightly surprised she fell for it though, despite how good you are at this sort of thing when you need to be How did you get the nick name Mid-boss anyway?"
"Long story." The change in his tone was a clear sign he didn't want to dig into the subject at all. Grabbing the sentient weapon, he turned to his now silent vassals. They weren't perfect and they were all quirky in their own ways, but they were always around when he needed them, even when they no longer had a true obligation to help him. He couldn't have asked for better friends.
"I'm going to go. Will you two continue to keep an eye on Laharl for me?" It was more of a request then anything, they didn't have if they didn't want to.
"Of course." Cargo hesitated, not wanting to offend him with his next question. "Why don't reveal yourself to your son? Wouldn't that make things easier?"
Suddenly, the room felt a lot less comfortable to be in.
No explosion of anger or anything else he had expected, instead he took a deep breath closing his eyes. "I can't. I want to but I can't." All three, even Longinus pondered on why he couldn't or wouldn't see Laharl, each forming their own conclusions. None of them were going to press it though, not even Gnoss. When the King didn't want to talk, he wasn't going to talk, stubbornness was another personality trait.
The strange silence in the room was deafening, so he decided to move things along. "It's been nice seeing you two. Take care of yourselves. If anyone ask, just say one of the metal shop workers borrowed it. Most people won't notice." Walking to the book case, he removed one of them, causing it to reveal a hidden passage. It closed after him as soon as he entered leaving the two alone.
"I'm lucky I never died." Gnoss said at last.
"Funny, I always thought you were a ghost." Cargo replied half in his own world at the time thinking.
"Oh. Wait your right. I guess I did kinda die huh? Can't remember how. I guess if I die again."
Cargo smacked his friends in the back of the head causing a knot.
In some places in the Netherworld areas existed that not even demons went to, only the crazy or exceptionally strong ones even bothered to go. Halkren. It was a little-known area that Reapers used to help guide Prinnies when it was their time to Reincarnate. But it was also the least stable place around, the lines that separated this realm from others became hazy, at times it was hard to tell what was real and what wasn't.
Krich hated this place. Few things made him uneasy but this was one of them, some of the things here just got under his skin. He had to be careful to watch his step, the path he was on was a natural bridge made of solid stone, down below was a strange green liquid. He didn't know what it was exactly but he rather not take his chances. Other parts of the area were surrounded by mountain of all kinds, the only vegetation was the forest that lead to this place.
Another interesting characteristic of this place was the sky, it was exotic red color almost. Why this was he wanted to know but didn't have the time, even if he did he wouldn't want to spend to much time in this anyway. He could hear sloppy shuffle of feet as zombies moaned, obviously seeking prey of some kind. They were different from the zombies capable of thought, they only wanted to stop their hunger. An task that would never be completed. In some ways, zombies were very much more depressing then Prinnies. At least they had a chance to begin anew, the others were just suffering souls stuck in rotting flesh.
It was one of the reasons he had made a law to ban true zombies from being kept around. Of course, their were others that wanted the real thing. Necromancers that had complained their creations wouldn't be as powerful unless they used the real thing. That was fine, as long as majority obeyed but their were things that went under his nose..
"King Krichevskoy." Longinus tried for the second time trying to break him out of his reverie.
"Hmm? Sorry..I was just thinking. It's funny what things make you think about the past." Shaking his head he banished any more thoughts on the subject. "Never mind. Let's continue."
Respectfully, the spear didn't pry and he wasn't curious either way, he liked being in one piece. This place seemed that something horrible would happen if they stayed long enough here. It felt..unnatural somehow. Maybe that's why they were both anxious to leave. They didn't belong here at all and the sooner they did their business here, the better.
Silence covered them both. Talking was a thing they were both good at but neither talked to long of a period to each other unless something came up. Even so, they weren't quite where they needed to be and some side conversation couldn't hurt. "I'm slightly curious about one thing, how did you find out about this place? I don't recall it anywhere."
"My wife. When I talked to her some weeks before this one, she mentioned it. I figured if I was going to find a Reaper, I would find them here. After all, what better place then an area hardly anyone goes to that Prinnies get reincarnated as?" He smirked slightly, which vanished. "Do you know why they call it Halkren? It's because in an old language it means, 'In Between'. I also managed to pick up a book on it after. Their used to be people living here, not humans or demons but something else."
Longinus was a sucker for information so he had to ask, "Do you know what happened to these people and who were they?"
"The book didn't say.." Krichevskoy looked thoughtful trying to remember. "I can answer the other question though. From what I gathered, they were notoriously violent, greedy, arrogant and ignorant. Just think of what the average person what a stereotype of a demon is and times it by ten. They worshiped a Goddess of Death named Ilzarith. It turns out she wasn't pleased about how they were acting, and when they ignored her warnings, they eventually destroyed themselves. As punishment, some members of their race repent by guiding souls to their next life, the Prinnies and such. That's one of the legends of how Reapers came to be. There is more but I can't recall right now."
"Interesting. But I suppose that no one has any sources if that was true or not. It's still very fascinating all the same." Longinus didn't finish what ever it was he was about to say, another thing had caught his interest. "Is this the person you need to meet?"
In front of them was a silent foreboding figure, completely covered in a cloak with a hood. They seemed to float one inch above the ground, and none of them had legs. It's back was turned to them, it slowly turned towards them it seemed to have no face. The hood did a good job of covering them, they weren't sure if they wanted to see what the face looked like.
"You've come.." The Reaper drawled, its voice wasn't pleasant to hear. Similar to a light whisper with a echo to it. Or nails on a chalk board with an echo. "Did you bring it?"
Being around the things presence was uncomfortable to put it lightly, but being this way around this being wasn't anything new. He wordlessly gave the brown box, the Reaper was all to eager to take it off his hands, a bony arm took it from him. Inspecting the box and making sure everything was in their the creature backed off a few feet. "My master will be pleased to have these. Are you certain you want to continue?"
"I'd like a bit more information before I go through." It was best to play it safe, neither Krichevskoy nor Longinus really trusted the thing but they had little else to go on right now. The king's interest was lightly perked when he heard it had a master, he wondered
"As expected.." It hissed in that horrible whisper-like voice. "I will take you the Twilight Realm, a place that exist between the living and dead-it is neither. If you die their, your soul will cease to exist and true death would over come you. You may find the answers you seek their, or not. It matters little to me."
"What if we don't find what were looking for, how would we return?" The demon pressed. "How do we even know your telling the truth?" Years of politics at the Dark Assembly had taught him many things, but one important lesson was how to smell a rat. And more importantly when someone was lying among other things.
"You really are King Krichevskoy.." A strange sound for a chuckle, or it seemed like it came from the Reaper. "Soul's cant lie. You may have a new body but your soul is the same, Reapers cannot lie. We can only with hold information. If you want to leave from that realm.." Unconsciously the two tensed when it came closer but instead of attacking, it just held out a hand with an item, an meager pendant. "You may use this to leave. Any other way you must learn on your own. Do you still want to continue?" It questioned again, all this time it never lost its patience at all.
Reluctantly the pendant was taken and placed in inside his pockets for later retrieval if the need arose. On the plus side, he could find out the answers behind the whole ordeal and put an end to it at last. On the other half of it, he might not find what he was looking for, things could go wrong and he'd end up stuck..
It was to tempting, he wasn't getting any younger why not another journey? It would have been almost like old times if Lamington was around. Krichevskoy glanced at his spear, the face gave away nothing but he knew his response: he would go where ever the he went.
"We decided. Take us to this Twilight Realm."
"...Very well." While the hooded Reapers voice never changed much in diction or sound, they both could have sworn it sounded annoyed. Holding out a single hand, it made a circle slowly, a blue outline appeared, like it was drawing on air. Once the circle was completed; it bursted in a flash making a portal. Having made up their minds, Krich only hesitated for a moment before going through. It closed behind them afterwards.
The Reaper's Mistress would no doubt be pleased at her gift. It furthered their goals, but the complete nature of them was unknown to even itself. If the creature had more curiosity, it would have questioned. But it didn't he was a lowly vassal to be used and discarded, he still hadn't cleansed all of his sins. He would continue to go along with it until his eternal debt was repaid some day.
Standing their for what seemed like an eternity, the unnamed figure sat completely still watching where the two had exited by using the portal. "It will all..end..with..them." Making sure it's prize was firmly in it's grasp, it turned and began floating away. It's body became and more and more transparent, until it to disappeared.
Angelique was late. It was her fault for being late she knew, but she couldn't have just ignored people that needed help. The two older gentlemen and lady who took her in when she winded up in this strange place had been far to kind to her, and she felt guilty for not being able to repay them back somehow. She would make it up to them somehow someday, even if it took years with the meager about money she made selling flowers.
Moving through the over crowded city, she noticed how sick some of the people were. It hurt a small part of her heart, but she couldn't save everyone, as much as it pained her to admit that fact. Knowing that little truth didn't make her feel any better but even she was starting to know what her limits were. After healing a dozen or so people, she was simply far to tired do be able to summon the energy to heal. The best she could do, was come back later when she was rested up and do all she could. Right now she had to get back to her home. Not technically her home she supposed but it was for now until she could afford a place of her own.
As of late, that was the least of the young healers worries. People were getting sick, a strange illness that caused their bodies to become transparent, eventually it would get worse until the point they vanished like they never were their. The worse part was that people would slowly forget about them, even the closes family and friends, like bits and pieces of memories were slowly being extracted from their head. If it wasn't that, it was the fact that the local orphanage was going to be taken down, the people in charge of it couldn't pay, so it would be taken down soon by the local crime organization.
No one stood up to them out of fear, but they had been keeping a tight grip of most of the this small city in it's grip for a long time, from what she could remember. Angelique was also trying to donate some money to prevent this from happening, but it wasn't close to being enough. She was still late and if she stopped by the orphanage for one final time, they would get worried.
But they would understand if she explained it to them. She hoped so anyway.
Their was really no way to tell time, this realm lacked a visible sun or moon, but it was similar enough to what she was used to, at least the skies were blue. It was still disheartening not to see the moon or some of the other things she had grown accustomed to in her life. Even so, she made up her own way to tell the time. The sky seemed to change color depending around what time it was for a brief period of time. If it was morning, it would appear yellow, grey for afternoon, and orange before night. It had turned orange not to long ago, which meant night was approaching, she would have to hurry before they got to worried.
Knowing at least some of the areas and places by heart at this point, she took the shortest amount of time getting to the orphanage in the least amount of grief, via short cuts. The back alleys were dangerous but they were also the most time effective. She was a bit disturbed when she came upon the orphanage, to see it surrounded by rough-looking men. An middle-aged woman in her thirties in clothes someone would wear in the common church was arguing with one of them. She instantly recognized her as Janna.
"You can't just take it down, where will they go?"
"It's not my problem lady. Take it with the boss."
"You..." The woman started about to use stronger language but noticed Angelique coming closer and instantly turned her attention towards her. "Angelique! Their going to take it down. They said it's not making enough money so their replacing it with something else."
"What? You can't do that to them. It won't hurt to let it stay, please don't take it down." Angelique protested but the look on the man's face gave away nothing, he wasn't budging at all on the subject.
"Look..." The man said irritated and took a deep breath as if explaining something to children. "I'm a simple messenger, I don't have any power on what the boss does. If he wanted to paint half the town rainbow its his business. I'm sure as hell ain't getting in his way. If you gotta problem, then you take it up with him. I Could tell him but he doesn't listen to non-influential nobodies."
That comment made the oldest of the three lose her temper. "Nobodies?! Why you dead beat roughneck! Why do you always have to ruin other peoples chances at normal lives?"
"Hey chill lady. Your lucky this face is even talking to you."A rogue grin appeared on the messengers face. "Course, I bet you had plenty of fun before you became apart of the church eh? Why believe in gods? Sure they exist but they forgot about us and let us rot here while they live in their own little paradise. Can't even strike up the nerve to say sorry." He spat, his face turning upwards in complete loathing.
"You don't know what your talking about." She looked completely appalled by the comments.
Angelique was thinking, tuning out the arguments. She really only saw one way to resolve this and that was to give away her money she had been saving for herself."Wait, if I had the money, would you keep it up?"
"We'll, yeah. From what I know anyway, can't promise anything." He then nodded. "If you got the money I'd tell the boss."
"No, not your money you've been keeping for yourself." Janna shook her head. "Keep it. That money is something you need."
"You worry to much, I'll be fine. It's just money I can earn more." Angelique said with a smile, though inwardly she knew it would set her back all the way back to her savings amount when she first got here: nothing. She handed a small envelope to him and backed off. "Is that enough?"
"Almost. If you got more around it would be official." He shrugged his shoulders. "I'll wait here for you just come back later. But this is enough for the Boss to at least hold back from bringing the place completely down."
Janna didn't want the place brought down either, of course. But she didn't want Angelique giving away her hard earned savings for it, how she got the money she would ask her later. She just wished the girl would put herself first instead of others, some times it was better that way.
"I do. I won't take long." Just before Angelique was about to hurry off, the man stopped her again.
"Hey, change of plans." He went up to her and handed a plain worn piece of paper. "These are directions to the place we'll meet and do the exchange."
"Why can't you do it here?" Janna scowled not trusting him as far as she could throw him which wasn't to far.
A careless shrug was her answer."He has a lot of enemies, you don't want your precious orphanage ruined, right? It's for both our benefit, besides I'm not forcing her its her choice."
"I'll go with you then." She started but Angelique shook her head.
"No, I'll go. Your needed here, don't worry so much I know what I'm doing. I'll be back soon." No one got another word in before she took off.
Janna mentally sighed. For your sake child, I hope so. I hope so..
By the time Angelique had gathered all of what was left of her savings, it had become slightly dark outside. She hadn't stayed home to long, and luckily the two people who took her in were out like they were usually, they never stayed inside for to long. So she had got all her things and a meager coat and left quickly with out a word.
It was a darker place at night, and not just in the literal sense. Their were disturbing things that resided in this realm, most never went to the city, they had a horrible fear of lights of any kind and they kept away from the city. But in other less civilized areas, the people lived in constant fear of being attacked by nightmarish creatures. It was something she thought about ever time she traveled at night, she didn't fear getting attacked by common cut throats and muggers.
She feared something else, something darker.
Hurrying a bit quicker, she unconsciously went faster trying not to let her imagination wander to much. She wasn't able to see in the dark so she had memorized the place before hand, even if their was still some light out. The directions lead her to almost abandoned part of the city, but she could have sworn she had been to this place before. What stood out the most was a large ugly black tower, it was a 'business' building that the crime organization ran.
"You bring the other half?" Startled, Angelique almost bolted until some recognition of the man's face came to her. But she didn't recognize any of the other men or the one completely cloaked standing in the middle, it made her anxious and not in a good way. She soundlessly handed over the envelope, waiting.
It was handed to the cloaked man or woman who looked at it for a long time.
Then, it turned into blue flames in his hands before turning to ash.
"I'm afraid we can't do that. I need that pitiful orphanage removed for my own means, its doing nothing but getting in the way." The cloaked man chuckled, it was unmistakably male at this point. "I am slightly surprised some riff raff such as yourself was able to acquire so much money, but no matter." He took a slow step forward, and Angelique took a step back. "I am Talenarath, the Demon Lord. Carry that name to the grave with you."
This was the reason she didn't want Janna to come with her, it was a bit suspicious. She didn't know if it was a trap or not and she didn't want to take chances. Angelique thought of fleeing, but even if she ran he could easily catch her, she knew that much.
"Demon Lord? Surely you must be joking, theirs children more powerful then you." A stranger with pointed ears slowly began walking towards them, a spear in his hand. "But all this time with out others to challenge you must have made your perception of reality diluted. Leave the young lady be."
"Fool, watch your tongue and mind your business." Talenarath growled. "You have no idea of who your speak to. I single handedly slain thousands of demons and other creatures before I came here."
"Really?" The stranger echoed amused. "My son can do that and he's only a child."
"ENOUGH!" He roared, agitated no longer sounding human at all, not that he sounded to much like one from the start. His lackey's backed up knowing their leader was angry and Angelique did the same knowing better then to get in the way, even if she didn't want anyone fighting. Talenarath charged his opponent with faster then normal speeds...
..Only to have his foe simply side step and almost lazily hold his foot out. It almost caused him to trip before he regained his balance. "Point for me."
Infuriated, the Demon Lord's body glowed before a large blue fire ball erupted from his hands and instead of dodging his enemy smacked it away with that strange spear of his.
"I truly wish you wouldn't do that."
Almost everyone paused a second on hearing the new voice but no one saw anything, but it seemed to come from the spear. This to, more then anything made Talenarath angry no weapon could speak, he was trying to make a mockery out of him.
"Are you trying to make a fool out of me?" The Demon Lord's patience had just ran out.
"I would, but nature beat me to it."
That wise crack pushed him over the edge, a vein appeared on his forehead."Arghhh! Shut up and die!" He blindly charged him in a furious rage only to be stopped by one hand, casually.
"It's been fun, but its over." The strangers tone lost its mocking quality and turned serious, he simply lifted him up and tossed him skywards, until he turned into a shining star in the distance. All the thugs were shocked and completely baffled as how their leader could lose so easily.
"Don't leave us here!" Making a mad dash away from the area, they followed the general direction of where their master was thrown.
Angelique's savior snorted to himself, she was about to go over when she heard the uncertified voice again.
"Wasn't that over kill?"
"Hmm? Non sense. I did it to prisoners who were getting their act together, it builds character and it doesn't kill them."
"Excuse me sir."
Stopping in mid conversation, the stranger turned around. "I forgot my manners, I'm..." He started then trailed off thinking. "I'm Krichevskoy, Krich for short. This is my friend Longinus, the voice you heard."
"It's nice to meet you." This time their was no mistaking it, the spear actually talked.
"My name is Angelique. Can I get you anything? You did save my life after all."
"If you can point us in the direction of a place to stay we would be grateful." Longinus said quickly before the King could say anything that would set them back. He admired him but some times he could be far to impulsive and not think things through for the long run.
"I'll take you to the mansion then, its not that far and they won't mind." Angelique already began walking but made sure they were behind.
"I'm curious, what was in that box that the Reapers master wanted?" Longinus couldn't help but say, keeping his voice down.
"Twinkies." Krich replied with out miss a beat, like it was nothing wrong.
"..Forget I asked."
Authors Notes: Slightly more light-hearted then other chapters, but the quirky off beat sense of humor is why people like Disgaea, so I had to put at least a few moments of it. Not to worry though, the fic will largely remain serious, this was just more of a break. Next chapter is back with Prier and Adell parts of the story. Eventually all the characters will meet together of course, but this makes it easier on me to do it this way for now.