Disclaimer: I do not own Ragnarok Online. This story, however, is completely mine and may not be redistributed or used without my approval.

Chapter 18

As soon as we stepped through the portal, it was like how we teleported to Umbala. The melting of your body and blackness.

When we arrived, I thought I hadn't woken up yet...instead I thought I was in some kind of nightmare. The houses in this place...all tattered and looked as if they were staring you with evil eyes. Bats flew overhead and lead my eyes to Raisu. I knew then I wasn't dreaming.

"Shit man..." Crono muttered behind me. "This place is giving me goose bumps..."

"No kidding..." I looked around the place. Everything was dead and I could hear faint moaning. Without any warning, I felt the Spirit of Anger acting up again. "S-shit, what the hell?" I held my head and tried to stable myself.

"Raisu!" Crono called for our leader. "Hikaru's having problems with that spirit again!"

"Tempest!" Raisu immediately turned to Tempest who in turn cast 'Cure' on me. It wouldn't really cure my condition, but I was relieved from it for now.

"We have to move quickly." Tempest said. "Skipp and Miroku went ahead to search for the trail with some soldiers. We'll press on as soon as they come back." I took a deep breath and nodded.

We all sat down in a large group and rested ourselves.

"You alright?" Tempest turned to me with a bottle of water. "It seems the evil energy is triggering the Spirit of Anger."

"Not surprisingly...I didn't count on this to happen." I replied, taking the bottle of water.

"That's holy water." Tempest said with a smile. "I enchanted it myself back in Payon, it'll help you control that spirit...hopefully long enough for us to get to the tree." I thanked him and we all went back to just sitting around and waiting. However, it was no more than half an hour later till the couple arrived along with the soldiers, a few wounded. "Miroku! Skipp! What happened?"

"What do you expect?" Skipp said, panting. He pointed in the direction of the woods. "Monsters...lots of them."

"I think these were the 'demons from hell' we were taught in training." Miroku stated. "They're just hard to kill. None of them have a lot of strength to hurt us much."

"Except Loli Ruri." Skipp added.

"Except Loli Ruri."

"Get the wounded into the cart." Dante mounted his grand Peco as priests helped move the two wounded into their cart. "We won't let mere monsters get in the way. Let's move." With that said, he rode head first into the woods. Upgrade followed as did the rest of us.

"It's not too late to turn back..." I rode up to Dante and suggested. "I'll go on alone."

"Don't be stupid, stupid." Dante said. "We're in this together...all of us." He smiled confidently at me. "Believe it or not, all of these people behind us...they all volunteered to come." I smiled back and remained silent for the one short, monster less time we would have in Niffleheim.