'Torrent... Torrent, how much longer do you believe you can fight me? You know I'm getting stronger inside you ever since Sana cut off your sister's wings. Submit to me, it'll make the transition so much easier.'

Cye squeezed his eyes shut as he clutched his head. 'No! I'll never submit to someone like you! Never!'

'Come now, don't try to fight it. You're not strong enough alone. I can make you stronger. Don't you want to have more power? Why don't you give in like Sana and her assassins?'

'You're trying to turn me evil! I won't do it. You hear me! You won't turn me as you did them!'

'Sana did what I needed.'

'What are you saying? Because Sana cut off Kaye's wings. She helped you become stronger? I don't understand why you're targeting us.'

'Because of the Nephilim. She can fight against my influence. She, you can say, provides a balance. Furthermore, she'll be able to keep my presence at bay as long as she knows I'm present. So, it is why I had Sana deal with her. Unfortunately, she failed with Hardrock. She couldn't get him to turn against your sister because of their love and bond with one another. So Sana did the next best thing.'

'Now it makes sense. Everything with Kento, the marriage to Sana, all of it, you are the one behind it! But, why are you confessing this to me?'

'My reasons are for me to know Torrent. But if you must understand, it's because there is nothing you can do about it. The longer she is without being at full strength, and me inside you, the more powerful I become.'

'I can tell them! I can warn my friends about your presence in me!'

'Seriously, come now, Torrent, what do you think your friends will say when you tell them you have an evil powerful being growing inside you? Plus, if you tell your sister. Do you think you could put all the pressure on her shoulders about getting her wings back? I'll let you know something else. The Nephilim, Talia, the one who offered to regenerate your sister's wings, she and the council put a memory blocker in her head. It's the reason why your sister can't remember her past. But if you don't believe me. Get the talisman and summon Talia, and ask her yourself.'

'Stop it! You're telling me nothing but lies!'

'Why would I lie? I would have nothing to gain by doing so. Summon Talia, see what happens for yourself.'

Cye's eyes snapped open as he no longer felt the evil presence within him. But for sure, he had one heck of a pounding headache. He winced from the pain as he tried to will his pounding head to stop or at least not pound so hard. Cye lowered his hands from his head. They shook when he was staring at them. He frowned a bit when he felt something warm and sticky trickling down his face. He wiped the back of his hand and pulled it away as his eyes went wide when he saw blood. Cye raced to the bathroom and cleaned himself of the blood. When he finished, Cye rested his hands on the counter and stared at himself in the mirror.

Cye was still trying to get himself together. His head still pounding, he opened the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of aspirin. When he closed it, Cye looked in the mirror and saw his eyes gleaming red along with a faded image of a female demon's face looking back at him. He yelled as he dropped the aspirin.

A knock on the bathroom door made him turn his attention towards it. "Cye, is everything ok? I heard you yell."

"I'm fine, Rowen. I hit my foot on the vanity," Cye answered as he glanced back at the mirror and saw he was back to normal.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, thanks, Rowen. I'm going to see about getting some sleep when I come out of the bathroom."

"Alright, see you in the morning. I'm heading off myself. Night," Rowen called back as he left Cye alone.

'Bloody hell! Is she the demon inside me? It must be.' Cye thought to himself as he picked up the aspirin and took what he needed. Cye put it away and left. He was about to go to his room, but he stopped at the top of the stairs. The conversation he had with the female demon played back in his head. He sighed and went downstairs. Cye continued walking until he made it to where Rowen left the talisman by the computer. He picked up the amulet and went outside towards the lake. Cye glanced back at the manor and hoped he was far enough away, so the others wouldn't see the light from Talia's summoning.

Cye stared at the talisman and closed his eyes as he called out for her. "Talia, I need to speak with you."

It took a few minutes, but the Nephilim appeared. She studied him, "I wasn't expecting you to call upon me. But, it's alright. You seemed troubled."

Cye nodded, "I have a big problem. I have this female demon inside me. We talked, and she said if I needed proof of what she said to be true was to summon you to confirm our conversation."

Talia frowned, "What's her name?"

Cye shook his head, "She didn't say, but I can describe what her face looks like if it helps." He told her about the reflection he saw in the mirror. By her reaction, he could see she knew about this demon. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Damiana. She is an extremely dangerous and powerful demon queen. It explains the influence she had over Sana and her assassins from the Jade Thorns."

"She made contact with me tonight. Damiana told me everything regarding what happened with the Jade Thorns, Kento, my sister, and the rest of us."

"I was afraid of this," Talia started to say, "What else did she tell you?"

"She said you and the council put some mental blocker in Kaye's head. Is this true?"

Talia nodded, "We did. At the time, we thought it was for the best."

Cye narrowed his eyes at her, "What do you mean? Why did you even do such a thing to her? Does Kaye know?"

"Earlier, I visited Kaye in her dreams. It is when she found out about the blocker. Needless to say. She wasn't thrilled about the news."

"So what Damiana said about Kaye being in full Nephilim form to keep Damiana at bay is to have you restore Kaye's wings?"

Talia nodded, "Yes, which is why I'm pushing for her to allow me to restore her wings to save you."

Cye frowned, "What about the mental blocker? What happens if you remove it?"

"One of two things. One would be Kaye's memories will all flood back and overwhelm her. If all of her memories come flooding back at once, then it could be possible she'll lose her mind."

"What's the other?"

"The other possibility, her memories will come back at a regular rate or a little at a time. It's hard to know for sure until it happens. If, of course, the council agrees to lift the mental blocker."

"Does the mental blocker need to be removed for you to restore Kaye's wings?"

Talia shook her head, "No, it can stay in place. But Cye, if Kaye doesn't give me the consent to restore her wings, Damiana will take you over completely. Have you told anyone?"

Cye shook his head, "Not yet. I do know something happened when Kento and I talked. His reaction didn't make sense at the time. But now, it does. I don't know what to do. I don't want Damiana to take control of me. But I don't want my sister to suffer anymore either. She's suffered enough."

Talia looked at him in concern, "I'm sorry, Cye. I can only imagine the difficulty with this decision. I'm also sorry I can't help you decide what to do either. My time grows short, and I must leave. I wish you luck."

Cye watched Talia vanish and then sighed as he walked back to the manor and climbed into bed.

Kento frowned in his sleep when he felt Kaye being restless. He opened his eyes and looked at her. He could see she was in the process of a bad dream, "Kaye, hey, wake up, angel."

Kaye heard Kento coaxing her. She opened her eyes. Tears trickled down from the corners as she looked up towards him.

He looked at her with soft eyes, "Hey, you're safe. I'm right here. What's the matter?"

"Kento..." She replied and then told him what happened in her dream. Kaye finished and could see he wasn't too thrilled about the news.

Kento started to calm himself, and then he tried to calm her in return. "It's the middle of the night. Try and go back to sleep, and we'll let the others know in the morning."

Kaye nodded and then readjusted herself as she fell back to sleep.

Kento watched her sleep for a while. His mind whirled with uncertainty. Why was whoever behind everything trying to break his angel? How much could she take before she does possibly snap? He couldn't allow it to happen. Kento vowed to himself he will be with Kaye no matter what. He owed her this much, at least.

Then he remembered what happened when he and Cye talked. Kento didn't understand why Cye's eyes turned red, and he threatened him. Cye wasn't the type to intimidate people. He was a peaceful person. There had to be some other reason for Cye to behave as he did. Sure, he was angry because of everything. He would have been too, but to go as far as to make their life a living hell? It didn't make sense.

With everything, they all dealt with to their armors or anything mystical. There had to be some explanation in there somewhere. Kento was missing something important. But at the moment, he was too tired to try and figure it out. Kento figured sleep would be the best option at this point. He sighed and then looked down at the angel he held in his arms and gave a small smile. It felt good to have her back in his life. He would do whatever he could to keep them together. Kento knew Kaye felt the same way towards him. She did take him back after the situation with Sana, after all. Kento felt exhaustion hit him with full force and closed his eyes as he let sleep claim him.

By the time morning came around, most of them were downstairs relaxing in the kitchen. There were a few stragglers still upstairs.

"Think we should get the two love birds up yet," Sage asked as he drank his tea.

Ryo shook his head, "Let them sleep a bit longer. Besides, then Cye will be able to finish making breakfast without Kento trying to eat everything in the process."

Sage glanced towards him, "You're pretty quiet this morning, Cye. Is everything ok?"

Cye kept his concentration on the task at hand, "I didn't get much sleep last night, is all. Maybe I'll catch a nap later or something."

"Might not be a bad idea. We're going to need a day or two to figure things out anyway. So it'll be the best time to rest before we decide what we're going to do next." Ryo answered with a nod.

Rowen stumbled into the kitchen and leaned up against the wall, "Coffee, I must have coffee."

Ryo almost fell out of his seat when Rowen stumbled in, "Geeze, you look like crap. Did you pull an all-nighter again?"

The blue-haired archer glowered at him, "No, I didn't do an all-nighter Ryo." He made his way to the coffee machine and started to brew. Rowen closed his eyes and took a long inhale of the magical mix. He smiled as he began to wake up a bit more. "I had a lot on my mind, and I got to sleep later than I wanted."

Cye glanced across the way at him. He wondered if Rowen saw him summoning Talia last night and was pretending he didn't.

"Find anything before you went to bed last night then," Sage inquired as he set his tea on the table.

Rowen took his full cup of coffee and sipped before he answered. "I didn't find much. But then again, I wasn't entirely sure where to start looking for the answers either. I haven't seen the amulet before. I looked everywhere online and didn't come across anything even close to what Talia gave us to summon her."

Ryo leaned back in his seat and thought over what he said. "Well, maybe we should summon Talia later and ask her directly. We don't know what we're dealing with at the moment. So maybe getting answers straight from the source might clear some things up for us."

Sage nodded, "Couldn't hurt. But right now, breakfast is more of a pressing matter," He saw Cye finished cooking the food and got himself a plate. Sage rose to his feet and plated as he sat down after he got his food.

Ryo and Rowen took their turns after Cye and Sage, "So, are we going to wake them or wait until after we eat?"

Cye raised a brow at him, "Seriously? I'm not getting them right now. I'd rather be enjoying my breakfast instead of trying to fend Kento off from eating off my plate. But if you want to..."

Ryo chuckled as he shook his head, "Good point, I'll get them after we're all done eating. We'll be safer."

Laughter broke out around the table as they continued to enjoy their breakfast.