Third Trial Interlude

Back in the training area, a simple golden portal opened up, and two familiar figures stumbled on through. Both of them soon revealed themselves to be two exhausted looking boys: Casitel and Nico. Both of them were now in their human forms, their Armours having deactivated, with Castiel no longer having Clarent or any of his boosts. In Nico's case, he simply had no longer had Rebellion or any of his Devil/Archdevil Arms (Ouranos still feeling a bit salty at not being used not even for his Boons) on his person. Not to mention that his Kagune had receded inside of him the moment the enemy had been finished. One could say that Castiel looked to be the more exhausted of the two, since he had used Clarent a consecutive amount of times that battle. They'd be right on the money, the guy felt like he had ran a million times through the Sahara Desert whilst being chased by some of Bon Clay's 'fans'. #shudder#

Once the two had existed the portal, the two collapsed onto the ground face first, groans escaping their lips as they commenced spreading themselves across the cold, hard floor. Though, the fact that they were able to FEEL cold right now felt SO good right now. "N-Never. Again. I, NEVER want to go in there again." Castiel remarked, sighing in relief while hugging the ground. If he had any less dignity, he'd freaking kiss it right now. When he got back, he'd be having cold showers for months on end! "I never really noticed this before, but the ground is just sooooo gooood, it is so fresh and no flames."

"Yeah... true that..." Was all Nico said as he too was sprayed on the ground, enjoying the cold ground instead of that hell from the latest trial. If he were honest, those words felt like a DRASTIC understatement of how much he REALLY appreciated the cool feeling the ground gave off right now. If he had the chance, Nico would take one HELL of a cold shower. Perhaps he could make one in his Inner World sometime, that would be quite interesting. It was absurd, the temperature there was simply absurd to the final degree as the final trial almost made the two understand how a piece of barbecue meat feels.

And, of course, Zelretch just HAD to be there to receive them...

With an ice cream of coffee flavor in hand.

Both teens looked at the cold and delicious treat as if it was the promised treasure judging by how starry eyed they looked, but before they could try to snatch it Zelretch smiled and threw the whole thing down his throat.

...

...

...

... You hear that? That was the sound of shattered spirits, two of them right there.

Looking at the two's dejected and furious appearance, Zelretch just released a... not so small chuckle of amusement which would not look too bad on a sadist. He practically drank in their torment in a white cup labelled 'salt' (not joking, he really had a cup called that), as he cheerfully commented. "What, you wanted some? Sorry, but there is no more ice cream here, I made a buffet of all flavors imaginable with only the best ingredients but you guys took too long so I ate it all myself." The old bastard explained, reveling in the hatred and indignation directed at him as if it was the most delicious treat there was. "BUT, I am not some heartless monster despite what many think. I did get something else for you two to eat after all that heat of the last trial."

He then snapped his fingers and a sudden kaleidoscopic light surged on the ground in front of the two something that made both teens twitch their eyes.

A barbecue. A FUCKING barbecue, after all of that.

Seeing their expressions, the guy had the 'decency' to shrug his shoulders. "Hey, I am gonna let you two here to enjoy your meat now. Sorry if the AC is broken, I kind of forgot to fix it but if it helps the AC of my private room is still working as well as my minifridge with all the best drinks out there. Enjoy your barbecue and don't forget to claim your reward later."

And, with that, he was gone in a flash of light he was gone.

"..."

"... Fuck you, uncle." Castiel said, breaking the silence. The answer was a smiley face emoji made out of energy that appeared in front of him.

Again, Zelretch is kind of a dick.

After that, the two simply went to look for what they could get out of this whole thing. Nico decided to take a small rest and sit down, almost moaning once he did so since the tension left his legs. 'Ahhhhh... this feels JUST right...' the male thought to himself, putting one hand on the ground behind him and leaning on it. He pulled one leg up so that it arched whilst the other just laid there on the ground, sprawled out with no regard for manners or decorum. 'Jesus... feels like I haven't had a rest in forever... much like mom's or Biko's training...' the male couldn't help but think, knowing that Biko would be able to hear him.

The male just KNEW that he'd be in for it during their next training session, but right now he felt too exhausted to care.

He also didn't care what other people thought, staying for so long in that place felt more taxing than anything he had ever been in before. Nico may have a lot of stamina, he could go for hours in combat after all (a lot of his fights against stronger Abnormals tended to be that way after all), but fighting in a place like that for as long as they did drained him quite quickly. One good thing though, would be that he had managed to at least clear another trial, not to mention amp up his stamina from the experience. Only 2 more trials were left though, and then he'd be back in his own world at last. Once he did though, the first thing he would do would likely be to spend some time with the Party he was with, cause things had been way too hectic recently with all the Demons and the Mundus incident. He wanted to at least take some time to himself before he went off on his next trip.

To be frank, combined with the Lexicanum having given him a whole hell lot of information he hadn't even BEGUN to look through as of yet and how many books he had been buying between trials, Nico felt like he had a LOT of research to look forward to once he got back. There were just so many things that he had yet to learn about, things that came from both those books as well as what Castiel had informed him about. Part of him wanted to figure out a way to repay the guy for the charity he had shown him, even though there wasn't much in it for himself. But, how the heck could he do that? He'd only known the guy for a couple days, so he wasn't exactly sure about how he would return the favor just yet.

Then there was the situation with Yvoire and THAT can of worms, but he won't go into that right now, he didn't want to think about ANYTHING related to politics just yet.

Nico then looked to the barbecue, his eyes narrowing at the dick move Zelretch pulled. Just when he thought he had been used to Zelretch's behavior, he went and pulled the rug out from under him like he just did. He began to understand just how much Castiel had to have gone through with an uncle like that guy around, if only a little. The teen mentally winced with sympathy, though he wouldn't say that to the Heir's face. From what little he DID know about the guy, Nico felt like the guy held himself in a high standard, a huge form of pride. In essence, he figured Castiel to be very prideful of himself, yet with the level of strength he has the guy had enough bite to go with his bark. Therefore, if he showed him sympathy, Nico felt like he might take it as an insult. Not to mention that beside that sympathy, there lay this begrudging level of respect which was slowly growing in him the more he got to fight by the Heir's side.

Whilst he thought about this, Nico released 2 Rinkaku Tentacles, visible to the naked eye since there was no need to hide them for what he wanted them to do. With his willpower and imagination, he had them reform their tips from their default pointy forms to a series of hands, before he had them go towards the Barbecue. What? He was hungry and exhausted, plus if the first trial was anything to go by, Zelretch had probably added in something for him so he could eat the food without barfing. The Tentacles took a plate, cutlery and began putting some of the food on the plate. Afterwards, the they brought it back to Nico before they began feeding it to him. The moment that the food entered his mouth, all of Nico's fears of being unable to feed got doused, and a moan of delight escaped his lips. 'Ahhhhhh... it'll be a shame when I leave here, i'll never be able to eat food like this again... or any kind of human food really.' he thought to himself, mentally sighing as he enjoyed this temporary pleasure. Not like he would be able to ever again after this.

He would look at his possible rewards later, right now he just wanted to rest for once. He could feel the agreement from his Ghoul and Demon Personas as well... especially when the rest of his Rinkaku came out and shook like a dog wagging its tail.


Castiel decided to first spend every point he got from this challenge in more jewels. Unfortunately, there wasn't much in the way of points as most of the rewards were actual rewards during the trial so the number of points they both got was meager at best. Though, Nico DID get some points from his trials, not like Castiel would know this. Still, seeing as how Nico had become indisposed for the time being, the blonde Heir decided to take the first plunge on the reward front. "I guess I will go first." Castiel said as he started browsing for anything that might be a good reward for that shit show.

He saw some Spirit Bones, rare herbs, incredible items, but nothing like what he wanted. He desired above all else was something that might help him with his situation with the fragments of the corrupted grail. That was something he had to take care off, he knew that keeping those fragments as they were could bring a disaster in the future since he could not fully control and rule over them that way. However, just as he was about to lose hope in finding anything that might help he saw one thing that might actually help.

"Evil Typha Seed, a seed from an evil tree that took all evil energy around it and had immense destructive powers. The seed as it is can work as a center of collection to all evil related energies, it had its ability to further grow fully destroyed but the seed still had the function to reunite evil energy so planting it in an cursed land will take away all the evil inside and make it a land of prosperity where no taint is left." The male muttered, looking over the image of the seed, black just like the evil he commanded yet pulsating like a beating heart. Well, ain't that convenient. It was nothing much for most, to be fair it was quite useless compared to basically all other rewards, but for Castiel it was a godsend. It was a way to make sure the fragments of the corrupted grail inside him were fused properly, and if he was lucky enough he may even be sure to not get any leftover consciousness that might be hidden there as the corrupter energy would all be taken away.

The results were still unpredictable, but it was worth a shot so he chose that one. As he selected it a shining light appeared and in the middle of it a seed was resting there. Looked just like it did in the picture, honestly. It was completely black, pulsating like a living heart with many weird runes all over it that made Castiel lose himself looking it over, his eyes shining with contemplation as he memorized all those tightly packed runes and tried to understand their secrets.

Almost instinctively Castiel activated his Pendant and entered the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, it was the last thought he had before fully focussing on the seed in his hand. The more he examined it the more he came to realize that this alone was already proving an immensely valuable experience, just those runes by themselves already had many things that made him learn about not only evil and darkness energies but also runecraft in a whole new perspective that differed from the one he was more used to. Those were runes generated naturally, they were not nearly as intricate as those made by magus like himself but they still were extremely mysterious and the more he studied those runes the deeper his knowledge over runecraft and evil grew.


After about two full days analyzing the seed, or a bit over two hours to those outside the field, Castiel finally learned all he could. It was time for him to take the seed.

He decided to do something that even at the best of days might have been considered an absurd and stupid, he made the seed conceptually fuse with him. It is hard to explain, but in simpler terms, he fused the seed directly into his soul. It was a risky bet, but he followed it through anyway.

As the seed entered his body it did nothing much for a while, but as it entered in contact with the dark energy inside him it started reacting to it, a suction power emerged and from it all the fragments that were spread out and slowly tainting Castiel's soul were sucked into the void as well as the taint there. It was a weird feeling as even though the fragments of the grail were supposedly impossible to remove the taint they still were slowly but surely cleansed of the influence of Angra Mainyuu.

The fragments were still a bit spread out at first, but as they no longer were under the influence of any evil energy they were slowly being disintegrated and fused with Castiel's own magic core. It was, after all, a ritual object made out of pure energy so it happening was not impossible, but the most surprising thing is that as the fragments fused with Castiel's magic core the core started changing in nature slightly.

It was not much, far from it actually, but the difference was there. It was like it was 'granting the core's wish' so to say, not that the core had a consciousness but it was undeniable that a body so 'human' as Castiel's was not quite perfect for an angelic energy so it started changing some of the core's powers to make his angelic powers more fitting for his human heritage. In the end, his core grew to about twenty percent its original size and he now had a pseudo core for his evil energy.

It could not be said that Castiel's powers grew, far from it actually, but it was undeniable that his powers now were finally as they should have been if not for all the problems he suffered growing up. His magic circuits were as good as when he was born, his magic core was working at 120% efficiency, and his evil energy was fully under his control.

Castiel never felt anywhere near as powerful as he did right now, and it was then that an interesting idea sprang in his mind.

'Is it possible for me to use True Form?'

True Form is an ability that Devils had, it was hard to obtain since the devil had to have full control over his own energy or it would backfire since it would make all the energy inside and outside of the user's body be saturated with the devil's energy. Normally only some Leader-class warriors could use it as usually only them had such control, but Castiel just might be an exception to the rule.

As he grew up practicing control over all else his basic control was superb, to say the least and considering how now he finally had everything about him under control and in balance, it should theoretically be possible. The power boost if he managed to achieve such form would be immense, but he had to go VERY slow since he did not know how well it would go. At least the theory he had down, but the practical aspects were still a mystery for him. The only reason he even imagined himself doing it was due to a sudden instinct, a sensation that he might succeed. And, for him this was more than enough.


Back with the resident redhead Spec Ops Agent, Nico had finished up his resting period, having taken a moment to rest and recover his energy. All three types by the way, his SP, Demonic Energy and his RC Cells. At this point, the male felt ready to take on the entire world, though in the back of his mind the redhead figured this to be just the high from resting. He had a lot to do right now to make up for lost time, especially since he had spent the last few days resting his body and refocusing on prepping himself for the next Trial in his Inner World. So far, he had only learned how to use his various Gene Seed abilities, made halfway progress in advancing to the next stage of the Star God's Broken Shadow, whilst nothing had been done for the Great Way of the Buddha. Even so, Nico still didn't feel like his progress had been halted, since he had been able to also look up some of the books inside the Library within his head. A lot of them were about subjects Castiel had already informed him about, among others that he hadn't even conceived the idea of before. That just HAD to mean that a LOT of the things in this world, had to have counterparts in his own, which meant that if he found some of them, he could potentially help his comrades get as strong as he was, perhaps stronger.

Possibilities were opening up to him right now...

All thanks to this venture.

He'd have to make sure to figure out a way to repay MAGES. for bringing him to Zelretch someday (even if he was a big fat dick).

'Ahhh, that was refreshing...' the male thought, standing up as he did some stretches, groaning in pleasure when he felt the tension in his body leave him. Now that he was back in the real world after spending so long prepping/reading up in his Inner World, Nico felt ready to choose the reward for the last trial. Though, if he were honest, then Nico already had an idea of what he'd would like, though if it wasn't there he wouldn't be too fussed about it. Judging by the last few trials, the redhead teen figured that any treasure here could be useful when applied the right way. Just had to know how.

Thus, he opened up the reward screen to see what he could find. Once he did, Nico found many things on there: Spirit Bones, Spirit Rings (spiritual items like the Spirit Bones), dozens of divine and demonic-looking treasures, so many to choose from. Shame he could only choose one right now though, but... just as he scrolled through the items, one of them in particular caught his eye:

The Golden Crow's Record of the Burning World... complete with a vial of its bloodline.

'Holy... is this what I think it is...?' Nico could only think as shock filled his system faster than time could record it. He almost didn't think he was awake right now, still in his inner world or at least resting and in dreamland. However, his senses confirmed that this was reality due to how he could sense that... thing that Castiel had nearby. In addition to that, this place was definitely the training ground, NOT his Inner World. Thus, what he was seeing right now could only be considered to be real as fuck too. That... honestly felt harder to grasp than it should have. 'I did say to Emiya that I would like to have the flames of the Golden Crow since, like it or not my move set is evolving to be more destructive... but still...! Is it really ok for me to have this?'

Somehow, Nico couldn't help but wonder if he should really have gotten something as rare and important as this so easily. It just seemed like something one would put as a reward at the end of a game or something similar, but here he was, getting it for practically free. Though, to be fair, Nico DID sort of earn it with that fire trial, but still. The complex feelings in his gut wouldn't really settle down regardless.

'Think of it this way, Nico. Bloodlines like this are always going to be rare to come by, no matter where you get them. In this world that Zelretch created, this is going to be the place where you could easily obtain treasures like these. If you don't choose them now, they'll likely be much harder to find later on. I can safely say that this opportunity we have... we should take as much advantage of it as we can. If we don't find certain treasures here then perhaps we can at least learn about them. Then we can put the effort in to help the others grow stronger as well.'

'YA NOT GETTING MUCH OUTTA ME YOU DON'T ALREADY KNOW, KING. JUST FOLLOW YOUR INSTINCTS, ITS WHAT YOU DO BEST, AFTER ALL.'

'I... guess...' Nico remained unconvinced despite the help of his two Aspects, but ultimately chose to toss his hesitation aside. They did have points there, even his Ghoul Persona (Nico swore he heard a curse from his Ghoul Persona just then, but it sounded muffled so he just ignored it), in that he shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth like this. If he were to obtain the Bloodline of the Golden Crow like this, then he would do it. He recalled what Castiel had told him about how he achieved his Bloodlines, the four divine beasts. Before, he wouldn't have a CLUE about how powerful those things were, even with Castiel's demonstration of the White Tiger. However, after looking up the books he had, Nico honestly couldn't help but consider himself a freaking idiot when he first came here. He didn't really want to consider what would have happened if he HADN'T gotten access to this information in the past.

Still, it made him think back to what Castiel explained about how to acquire a bloodline and what hehad to do beforehand. All the while, the male pressed on the screen to receive the vile and Tome, before in front of them they appeared. The vial appeared first, looking to be the length of his hand's height. It looked to be filled with blood, and if Nico had not gotten ANY of the fire resistance he had when he went into that fire trial, he did NOT doubt his hand would have been burned the millisecond this vial touched it. Seriously, it made the flames of ifrit look like a joke, and he wasn't going to be laughing about that any time soon. Second, the tome appeared before him, looking to be quite old, yet still in pristine reading condition. It had a brown cover with golden outlines, including the corners. Lastly, there was a symbol shaped like a crow in front of the tome, showcasing that this tome belonged to the Golden Crow.

Almost like these two were intrinsically linked or something... if that was the case, Nico wouldn't be surprised.

His eyes narrowed as Nico gripped the Tome and Vial firmly. Talking with Castiel had taught him a few rituals which could help him absorb the Golden Crow's Bloodline, and whilst he could copy him exactly, Nico did know of a ritual which would be perfect for this situation.

If he had to guess, Nico doubted he'd have much time to do this, but hey, that was what his Inner World was meant for. Thus, he sat down and closed his eyes, jumping into said Inner World and feeling both his new items following him for the ride. Kind of like two children curiously following their parents to their destination.

He just hoped it worked.


By the time Castiel returned to where his companion was after exiting the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal and absorbing the seed, the young Heir found himself greeted with a rather... interesting sight.

There, sitting in a meditative stance, was Nico. The redhead male had his eyes closed, a calm, serene look on his features as flames, not the orangish ones that signified his Hellfire, but GOLDEN flames, spiraled around the ground around him, forming a circle. The way those flames moved right now, with such swiftness and control, honestly made Castiel feel like he was at a theater watching a dance show. Castiel could sense powerful heat rolling off him in waves too, way more powerful than his Hellfire ever felt in his human form... even so, it still just clung to him like a second skin, like it was trying to wrap itself around him. In contrast to his serene demeanor however... One could say that the surrounding ground looked like it had been boiled to death by lava, it had become so black that it actually looked more like a volcano's shell than anything.

He could guess JUST what had happened here.

"So..." Castiel began, and as if by magic Nico opened his eyes and looked towards me, taking a deep breath to 'inhale' the flames back into him. Although it looked like it took a moment of effort to do so. Nico then stood up to face him, putting his hands in his Trench Coat Pockets before walking over to him. "You got your reward?" To be frank, Castiel already had an idea as to what reward Nico had chosen, he just wanted to hear it from the guy himself.

Something which got confirmed seconds later when Nico nodded, a... rather childish light slowly creeping into his as he responded to his words. "You bet! Remember the talk about Bloodlines we had before? Well, one of the rewards I found just now was a Vial of blood from the Golden Crow..." he said, before holding a hand out and a tome that Castiel DEFINITELY recognized appeared in his hand. "Along with this baby. Though, it took some time to get the Bloodline adjusted to my body, longer than I expected. Though, my being a DPU probably didn't help much."

"How long did you spend trying to integrate the flames?

"Over 5 hours... I think."

Now THAT made Castiel look at him like he was an idiot again, although this time the redhead male felt too good about himself to notice. "Okay, I'mma have to call bullshit there." he said. "I mean, it took me a while to integrate the flames of the Vermilion Bird and the White Tiger into me too, but 5 hours? A, that sounds cheap as fuck, and B: pretty sure that if you're telling the truth, that time frame just feels wrong." Not trying to demean the guy or anything, but Castiel honestly doubted that Nico could have pulled off integrating the flames as well as he seemed to have. Not even sensing the calming flow of the golden fire within him convinced the Heir.

"Ah, that's probably cause I have something similar to your Time Dilation field Generator." Nico replied after a moment of confusion before he realized what had Castiel so confused just now. In all honesty, he couldn't exactly blame the guy, as he didn't know about his Inner World. But since he had shown Nico respect by explaining things to him, not to mention that for now his Ghoul side didn't seem to regard him as something that needed to be taken down (likely due to the energy that Castiel gave off, both the holy and the evil sides of it. Holy because, well , its holy energy what else do you expect, and the latter because it reminded him of the Edict of Death... although right now the Edict far surpassed Castiel's powers even now), Nico decided to explain to him. Perhaps it could help him get used to the idea of explaining everything to the girls, as in everything he now knew and the things he kept to himself. After all, he never got much of a chance since he had been so preoccupied before coming here. "Its something that all DPUs have, called an 'Inner World'. Basically its a world that forms within our souls which has a powerful time dilation effect, in addition to being controlled by our desires. One hour in there is actually a second out here, and I merely transitioned the Bloodline into me in there."

"First, cool BS power you got there, but you shouldn't be overly dependant on it since actual testing in the real world can help much more since the internal world and external may be different. Also, from what you said you did a shity ass job in integrating with this bloodline and probably didn't realy integrated even half the power of the Divine Blood otherwise you would have a certain aura of the Golden Crow about you, something that you do not have. If I were to guess your process failed in integrating the whole thing and as such you wasted a divine material." Castiel said analyzing the whole thing Nico said, earning a glare for an answer as Nico REALLY didn't like when people pointed out his mistakes.

'He is just like a kid, refusing to listen most of the time while prefering to talk with his imaginary friends. Seriously, he needs a therapist or some good medicine to try and stop those interanl halucinations. His internal 'aspects' are just figments of his soul that he let take control over his powers to limit himself, it is just a proof of weakness as far as I can see' Castiel thought while looking at Nico. This may not necessarily be the exact truth, but it was undeniable that those other 'personalities' could be seen as just repressed memories and his way of interpreting himself, as if he was not the one controling his instincts and he was also not the one that was connected to his demonic aspects.

If anything Castiel felt pity for Nico as he was limitating himself by thinking this way. Letting himself be limited while complaining about powerlessness is something so stupid for Castiel that he did not even had the energy to complain anymore.

Nico sighed as he glanced to the left when he sensed a build-up of energy. "In any case, looks like we have a new trial ready for us." he stated, gesturing to the portal. 'Hey guys, you got anything on what we may be facing next?' the redhead questioned, frowning as he smelled hydrogen coming from the portal. Did that mean they would be going somewhere with water? Was water the next trial they had? After the last one, he honestly felt like he could appreciate some water in his life right better than being scorched to death fire resistance be damned, heck it could be possible to develop extra resistance or even absolute immunity to water or ice-based attacks.

'Our thoughts align with your suspicions, Nico. I addition, I request that you start using Ebony and Ivory for this one. They have been getting restless from their lack of usage.'

All Nico responded with was a nod. Though, he did agree with his Demon Persona in that he hadn't been using Ebony and Ivory for a while. Hell, he hadn't been using their special abilities ever since he got them when he went to that Cave with Vert, getting the Red Ring of Rage as a result.

Looking towards it, Castiel also gave a nod, though obviously for different reasons, as he proceeded to head towards it. Already his mind raced with calculations in regards to what the trial could be by process of elimination, plus his mind worked on deciding which weapons to actually draw on based off those theories. He glanced towards his companion to see him summoning Rebellion and his dual Handguns, strapping them to his waist before deploying his Armour. "Not much, but if I were to guess I'd probably say its water. Just from the last trials, I've summarized that these are based off the five elements, so going by that logic, I'm willing to go with water. After all these trials are following the order of the five elements connection: Earth that leads to metal that leads to the fire that leads to water that leads to wood and finally goes back to earth, it is the basis of quite a few magic theories so you must have heard about it for now." Castiel said, before smashing himself in the head. "Sorry, I almost forgot that you are mostly a warrior so you probably never bothered studying something as 'boring' as magic theories to at least know how to deal with enemies using them. It must be nice, living in a place like yours."

"Fuck no, our world lives under the threat of all sorts of monsters and there are now demons invading too!" Nico said in rebuttal.

"And you chose a flame that is known for being extra destructive instead of a Phoenix Flame that is great to face impure energy like demonic type powers, or maybe the blueprints for all sorts of machines that may help your people fight of this threat, or perhaps seeds that can grow quickly regardless of ambient to make food supplies to those who need more available, or perhaps one Billion Bird that can probably save everyone in your world from starvation? I mean, if you are so worried about the world you really are not showing with thinking about personal power again and again." Castiel said, making Nico feel weird as if he had done the wrong choice.

Not only had he done the ritual wrong making the blood not be fully assimilated by trying to get a shortcut he also was only now seeing how selfish he acted just now.

He knew that increasing his powers was important, but he also had the responsability as someone who knew what was happening on the world to try and help it. There were more people suffering and dying of starvation and diseases than from actual demons, but he only thought of the right now again.

'A leader must keep his eyes on not only the present, but also on the future.' Yvoire's words rang again on his head, making he again see how unfit for this whole thing he was. Just looking at how from the three rewards until now all three for Nico were for himself and only one was for himself in the case of Castiel made him see again the difference between the two.

"Let's just go already." Nico said while ignoring both aspects of himself that were trying to convince him that he was right about everything and that he was not mistaken in trying to increase his strength, but despite that he kept remembering the people in the back alleys of most cities, people dying in starvation and disease that he mostly ignored while he went to rescue other people from danger.

It was another shock for Nico, one that he would rather do without.

Both boys then headed into the portal, wondering what they would get thrown at them this time.