A/N: Hi guys! Here's chapter 28, there's some revelations in this chapter as well as the battle with Botis. I'm not too good at fight scenes so that's why its a bit vague but I still hope you all enjoy ?!

—

Yami, Hikari, and Charlotte stared wide eyed at Botis. A devil was behind all of this? When they thought about it, it wasn't that surprising. But after the battle with the Dark Triad, the Magic Knights had gone after any devils that remained in Clover and they believed that they had gotten them all.

But that didn't seem to be the case.

" What? Cat got your tongues or something?" Botis asked lazily as he watched the three, Yamu shook his head.

" Not really. I just decided that you're not worth wasting my breath on." Yami said casually, Botis gave a small chuckle.

" I see. You said the same thing before when we met for the first time." Botis said before giving a small smirk. " And those words just so happened to be your last."

Yami glanced at Charlotte and Hikari out of the corner of his eye, he could tell it was taking everything they had not to fall for his provocations. But he just shrugged it off, as William had said before, they were all going to die at some point. But this time he was for damn sure he wasn't going to die at the hands of this low life. Suddenly the devil turned his attention towards Charlotte.

" And you, well, you didn't really say much. You just cried and wailed like a child as I took your husband and children away." He told the woman as his smirk widened, Charlotte was shaking from anger at his words. She glanced over at Yami, he was giving her the 'calm down' look, but she was reaching her limit.

The two noticed Botis wasn't looking at or mentioning Hikari, which caused them to turn and their eyes widened.

The white viper that had been beside the devil, was now wrapping itself around the dark haired girl. It then moved its head up towards her ear.

" And meanwhile you," the snake spoke. " Well, you just left them here to die, didn't you? You abandoned them in order to save yourself, to go off with your friends." The snake provoked, Hikari slowly shook her head, her eyes full of tears.

" No…No I didn't…" She trailed off, her voice soft, Yami and Charlotte began to shout at the girl. Telling her to ignore it, that what it was saying wasn't true, but it was as though she were in a trance.

When the viper began to speak again, its voice had changed.

" Big sis," the Viper said, causing Hikari's eyes to widen. It was Hana's voice. " why did you leave me? You should have taken me and Einar with you, but instead you left me behind and to save yourself. Why did you do that big sis?" The viper asked, Hikari was almost sobbing now.

" I didn't! I didn't abandon you to save myself Hana, I wanted to bring you with me but there wasn't any time!" Hikari cried, not realizing the viper was taunting her.

" But you did do that Hikari," the vipers' voice changed again, this time to Yami's. " you left your siblings and us. I didn't think you were that selfish, I'm disappointed in you."

" B-But you told me to leave…" Hikari trailed off, not realizing the viper was tightening its grip around her.

" I never thought you would be like this Hikari," The voice changed again to Charlotte's. " but it's alright now. I'll take care of it now." The viper then pulled it's head back and showed its fangs, and just as it was about to lean down and bite her, a whip of roses and thorns wrapped around its mouth.

Charlotte immediately used both of her hands and pulled the vipers head back enough to get it away from Hikari. Yami ran up behind it and, using his katana, sliced through its neck. The viper then disappeared in a cloud of dark mana.

Yami stood in front of Hikari as she fell to her knees, Charlotte ran over to her and kneeled down.

" Are you alright?" She asked as she looked her 'daughter' over, she didn't seem injured physically, but she was still shaken. Hikari nodded and slowly stood up, she shook her head.

" I'm fine, I shouldn't have let my guard down." She muttered, her eyes full of anger. She was angry not only at Botis and his tricks, but also at herself for falling for them.

" Watch it. This snake bastard's craftier than some of the other devils we've faced." Yami said as he tried to watch for Botis's Ki, the devil just chuckled.

" I'll take that as a compliment." Botis said as more and more vipers appeared. " At least this time you seem to be more of a challenge, so try not to disappoint me."

—

Alistar and William followed behind Kya as they walked down the halls, they still hadn't seen a single person. It seemed that Captain Sukehiro was right, they were being ordered to stay away. But for what reason?

Kya suddenly stopped and looked around nervously which caused William and Alistar to as well.

" What's wrong?" William asked, Kya frowned slightly and suddenly walked over to one of the windows.

" Oh, the noise is coming from out here." Kya said softly, Alistar and William looked at each other before slowly making their way to the window.

What they saw was terrifying.

Down in the courtyard, and for as far as the eye could see, were people. But more like shadows of people. They could see nothing but darkness. The people that were down there, screaming, shouting, and fighting amongst each other were all Magic Knights and Nobles, and they all looked like the ones in Miku's memories of when Spade was invaded.

" What is this?" William asked, his eyes wide in surprise.

" This is the devil's army." Kya muttered as she stared out, Alistar frowned.

" 'The devil's army'?" He asked, Kya nodded.

" Inside the throne room is a devil called Botis, he's the one who did this." She explained softly. " he has a form of memory magic, if any of his vipers are able to bite you, then you lose all your memories." She added, William and Alistar both froze at her words, their memories would be erased?

Alistar immediately turned to run back, he had to warn the others! If they were to lose all their memories and become like those in Miku's memories, he shook his head, he didn't even want to think about it!

Suddenly he felt something hit his back and wrap around his middle, he turned slightly and saw it was Kya.

" No! You can't go," she cried. " I don't want to be left alone again!"

Alistar felt his heart suddenly be torn in two, on the one hand he wanted to stay with Kya and keep her safe, but on the other he needed to go help Hikari and her family! He looked at William, he needed him to tell Alistar what to do, but William looked just as torn.

" This…is what we've been training for," William muttered hesitantly as he looked down the hall. " Yami, Charlotte, and Hikari are all strong in their own right and can take care of themselves. If they need us we have the communication devices, but for now, we should focus on rescuing Kito, and we'll go that way once we've found him." William added, Alistar could easily tell he didn't want to do that anymore then Alistar did, but they were left with little choice. It was too dangerous for Kya to go there and they couldn't leave her alone.

" Alright," Alistar muttered hesitantly as he turned around and looked at William and Kya. " we'll focus on rescuing Kito, and once we've done that, we'll circle back for the others." Kya and William nodded and the three hesitantly walked back down the hall.

After the three walked on for a few minutes Alistar began to notice certain things, when she had been talking about the devil she didn't appear frightened or nervous, instead she was rather calm, and her clothes were clean and undamaged. Too clean and undamaged. For someone who had been running and hiding for days or weeks that didn't make sense, and for her not to have a single injury just made it more odd. But what really stood out was:

How did she and Kito get from Spade to Clover?

Alistar was pulled out of his thoughts as he noticed they nearly passed by the Wizard Kings office. Alistar stopped in his tracks which caused William and Kya to do the same.

" I wonder if we'll find out more about what happened here." He muttered to himself as he opened the office door, William and Kya followed behind him.

The office was dark save for the moonlight shining through the window. There were books and papers strewn all about on the floor and desk, Alistar silently wondered if the Wizard King had made it out safely, or if he became one of those monsters outside. Then, his mind began to wander, did everyone turn into those things? His father, Hikari's parents, Ezio's parents? He suddenly jumped when William placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

" Are you alright?" He asked, Alistar nodded and William walked towards the desk as Kya hung around the door.

The two began searching through the papers and books, hoping to find something that would hint at what happened to Spade and Clover. But so far they found nothing.

" Either the documents are hidden, they were taken, or they were destroyed." William said with a defeated sigh, he had hoped there would be something especially since at one of the previous meetings Alistar had said he was briefed on this before, along with the other Magic Knight Captains.

As William looked up he noticed Alistar was holding a book, and was standing deadly still. He began to walk towards him and frowned when he suddenly felt himself walking on something soft.

William looked down and saw he was surrounded by spider lilies, as he tried to move vines wrapped around his ankles and kept him in place. When he looked up he watched Alistar snap the book in his hands closed and turned slightly to face William.

" I'm sorry, father." Was the last words William heard before his eyes began to droop and he fell unconscious on the floor.

—

On the other side of the castle

Yami let out a grunt as he blocked another of the vipers attacks, no matter how many he, Hikari, and Charlotte cut down, they just kept coming back. As he blocked yet another attack, another viper came and swiped him with its tail, causing him to fly across the room.

" Crap. They just keep coming!" Hikari said slightly out of breath as she was knocked back along with Charlotte.

" We can get through them." Yami said determinedly as he caught his breath. " What we need to do is draw him out from his throne."

" But the question is 'how'? How do we get him to come down from there?" Charlotte asked as she caught her breath as well, Yami tilted his head.

" Hikari, you're pretty fast right?" Yami asked curiously, Hikari and Charlotte both frowned.

" I am. Why?" She asked, Yami smirked down at her.

" Charlotte and I will cover for you, you just try to go up there and land a hit." Yami said, it was all the could do, maybe they could catch him off guard with a direct attack.

" Are you sure?" Charlotte asked, when she saw Yami nod she looked at Hikari and sighed. " Can you do it?"

" Yeah. I'd rather try that than do nothing at all." Hikari said with a firm nod, Charlotte and Yami both shared a look. Hikari had seemed to inherit both of their confidence levels.

Soon, Hikari took off as quickly as she could towards Botis. Charlotte used her magic to wrap her roses around the vipers, some were destroyed and others were flung across the room, she just had to get them away from Hikari and Yami.

Yami was able to keep up with Hikari for the most part, he would use his Dark Magic to slash and hack at any Viper that got too close. He even was able to push a few away if he wasn't able to destroy them, and the ones he may have missed Charlotte took care of.

Soon, Hikari ran up towards Botis and, as she jumped in the air to land a blow with her Dark Spatial magic, she was suddenly hit by something and was knocked straight into Yami. When the three looked they noticed Botis was smirking at them, and his body had begun to transform more into a snake.

" I'm bored with just watching," He said as he suddenly called his vipers back towards him. " So now I think it's time that I gave you three a real challenge, don't you?"