Hey, what's up? I hope you're ready for the next chapter! :D It took me a while to release the latest chapter due to my laptop having technical difficulties and that I had to go and put it into repair for a while. Thank you for waiting C:

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The next few days simply went by quietly, everyone was hard at work in the camp. They all knew the stakes and what would happen if they couldn't match Berthe's strength, Ciel knew this all too well. He would always place a calm and confident expression on his face when he was around Lento or Allegro or even his own master, but deep down that wasn't what he felt like at all. The paranoid feeling when he thought about not being strong enough for Lu was slowly biting away at him. He only prayed that Lento didn't notice this change whenever he was training with him, he didn't wish for the others to feel the same way he was. Ciel heaves a heavy sigh and cracks his knuckles tiredly after sheathing his Gunblades behind his back, he strides over to the large, green tent in the middle of the camp. These training sessions with Lento was taking a toll on the assassin, he truly needed a break. He raises his hands and pulls the entrance to the tent open, only to see his master sitting on a wooden chair with a book about alchemy in her small hands. Ciel lets out another short sigh as he wanders over to Lu and pulls a wooden chair towards him to sit on.

"I did not know that you were interested in alchemy. You've been in the tent for a while, is that what you have been reading this whole time?" Ciel questions Lu as he finally gets to sit down, the master waves her right hand to her servant dismissively as she doesn't take her eyes of the book.

"Shhh! Give me a second, I want to finish this page."

Ciel shakes his head and slowly places his left hand on the book and pushes it down, Lu looks at her servant and rolls her eyes.

"Don't just ignore me, Lu. That hurts." The assassin whimpers sarcastically to his master, causing her to let out a little giggle. She puts the brown, thick book onto the table beside her and smiles at Ciel.

"Hehe, I guess I got a little too absorbed into that book. It's just that I've never heard of this…'alchemy' before. No one ever spoke of that kind of power back in my realm. It seems like a strong energy source with quite a bit of potential, too bad only humans can use it…" Ciel raises his right eyebrow as her words surprise him slightly.

"Oh? It can only be used by humans? I didn't know that. Perhaps that's why demons don't really talk about it…" The assassin mutters, he raises his head and looks at Lu dead in the eyes for a split-second before they both quickly turn their heads away. Ciel scratches the back of his head and sighs.

"I can tell from that look in your eyes, Ciel. You have something important you want to say." Lu whispers softly as she slowly begins to look at her servant again, he gives a short chuckle and smiles at Lu.

"You caught me, but I see the same thing in your eyes too."

Lu huffs and folds her arms at Ciel while giving him her irritated yet adorable expression, she glares at Ciel angrily.

"You first," She commands, Ciel stares at Lu for a few seconds before simply shrugging his shoulders and nodding.

"Very well. I just have one question for you…are you okay with what we are doing?"

"…What do you mean by that?"

"Are you…okay with killing all these demons? As I said before, I will follow your command no matter what it might be. If you…if you want us to stop fighting the demons, I shall not question your authority." Lu gives an unemotional stare to the assassin for a few seconds before putting on her cheeky grin and winking.

"Is that what's been bothering you all this time? You could have asked sooner, you know! Well, anyway. I'm absolutely fine with our path, in fact…I'm pretty glad!"

"Why is that? You do not care about killing your own kind?"

"Would you mind killing another human if they were in your way…?"

Ciel's eyes widen slightly as he realizes the answer is exactly what Lu expects, the assassin smiles weakly and nods his head at his master.

"I wouldn't hesitate. Not if they were stopping me from reaching my goal."

"Exactly! They might be my race, but I'll crush as many as I have to if I want to regain what was taken from me!" She giggles happily, Ciel leans back comfortably in his chair and tilts his head to the side while looking at Lu.

"So? What's been on your mind that you want to talk about?"

"…It's not that important…"

"Lu, please. If you have something you want to let out, share with me."

Lu begins to blush at the incredibly sweet and supportive words of her servant, she stares at Ciel for a few more seconds before refusing by shaking her head.

"I can't. Seriously, forget about it."

"But-"

"That's an order!" Lu suddenly shouts at Ciel, the assassin stays quiet and looks at his master. He knew that Lu wasn't about to say what was on her mind, whatever it was…it seemed to pain her quite a bit. Ciel nods slowly and doesn't say anything while telling himself to remember to try to ask her again later. The tent quickly opens up again as Lento rushes in with an irritated expression on his face. He wanders over to the table in the centre of the tent and chucks a white envelope on it before folding his arms and staring at it. Lu and Ciel both turn to look at the livid Knight.

"Something wrong, Lento?" Ciel asks calmly as Lento backs away from the table and stares at the floor, he looks at the assassin and shakes his head anxiously.

"It's Hamel. They've refused our request for backup as well,"

"Backup? You've been asking other places to send people to help us?" Lu questions with surprise in her voice while raising her eyebrow, Lento glares at her for a while before nodding.

"Indeed. Just yesterday Allegro told me that the traces he found from Berthe, thanks to you, implying that this creature has powers that even the Red Knights have yet to witness. Whatever that being is…it's almost like a god in our world. I couldn't just stand by and wait for that beast to come down here and destroy this camp, so I sent as many requests to as many places as I could. Alas…pretty much every place has their own problems and turned down my plea. Hamel was our last hope…however, even they cannot spare a single Knight ever since the great White Colossus turned against them. This isn't good at all,"

"Did you try everywhere?" Ciel questions Lento, the Knight lowers has head and considers the question for a while. He reaches for and pulls out a small map from his right pocket and begins to quickly read it. He puts the paper back where it came from and lets out a small sigh.

"Everywhere…except for Ruben and…Altera?" Lento mutters quietly in deep thought, Ciel stands up from his seat and stretches both of his long arms tiredly and yawns before staring at the thinking Knight. He folds his arms and nods at Lento.

"Try sending a request for help to those places as well then. Having some skilled fighters back us up would be quite helpful."

"I'm not so sure, those are very small places with very little fighters. It's highly unlikely that they will be able to send anyone to assist us. Are you sure?"

Ciel simply shrugs both of his shoulders carelessly at Lento before nodding.

"You might as well. There's no harm in trying, right?"

Lento stares at the assassin and slowly nods back, he walks over to the envelope before shrugging the same way as Ciel did.

"I suppose not. I'll go send one now." The Knight sighs before picking up the envelope and quickly striding out of the tent. Ciel chuckles quietly before turning back to look at Lu. A mad, extremely-annoyed expression greets the assassin as he turns to his master. He lifts his right hand and scratches the back of his head.

"What's wrong? You're giving me that look for a reason."

"We. Don't. Need. Help." Lu hisses as Ciel as she gets up from her chair and pokes his stomach with her tiny index finger. Ciel immediately shakes his head in disagreement to Lu, much to the latter's annoyance.

"We do. Just because the contract between us has strengthen doesn't mean we can both recklessly run into a fight against such a powerful demon."

"We can handle it! I'm the most powerful demon out there, don't question my strength and authority!" Lu huffs at Ciel, the assassin chuckles once again before leaning over to his master and patting her soft, small head with his strong hand. Lu starts to strangely blush as she lifts up her head and her eyes directly meet her servant's.

"Lu, trust me. I would never question you. I just want to make sure you reach your goal while keeping you safe. No matter what happens, I'll always be your loyal servant."

Lu senses her face feel slightly warmer, she uses her small, delicate hands to take Ciel's hand off her head and backs away angrily.

"Whatever," She hisses as she turns her face away, Ciel readies himself to let out another chuckle to his master before a sound of an explosion erupts from outside the tent, Ciel and Lu both hear the violent sounds of weapons being used and multplie demons' howls. The assassin quickly and instinctively unsheathes his Gunblades and rushes outside of the tent while Lu immediately follows behind him while summoning her demonic claws. Lu's eyes widen as she notices the several demon corpses surrounding the camp, Lento stands calmly and sheathes his sword to his back before turning around and staring at the Duo.

"No need to panic. Just another small wave of demons."

"How did you take them all down that quickly?" Ciel quickly asks back, Lento shrugs and points his finger at a young girl with a sharp-looking spear with her [Little Hsien Attire] standing on top of some of the bodies of demons. She slowly wanders over to the Lento and the Duo, her kind and gentle smile immediately calms everyone down. She takes a small and polite bow to the three before speaking.

"I hope you are all alright?"

"Yes, thanks to you. That was some amazing moves you used to kill those demons, what's your name?" Lento replies kindly, the martial arts fighter gives another soft smile.

"Ah, my name is Ara. I'm from the Haan family, it's nice to meet you! I've been stuck here fighting these demons all day, it's good to finally see a camp."

"Haan family…? I've never heard anything like that before…what do you think, Ciel?" Lu slowly whispers to her servant, she becomes slightly surprised when Ciel doesn't reply. She raises her head and looks at the empty yet absolutely horrified look on his face. He quickly turns away and straightens his jacket…and as he does that…he swears that he could have heard a distant chuckle…the one chuckle that had been haunting him ever since...that day. Ciel had denied it to himself as many times as possible that what he saw wasn't real…and the man was simply trying to torture him. But know he knew for sure…this girl was one of people he was shown…

…in the vision of the future that the masked man gave him.