Hey guys sorry about not posting in quite a while. School had a larger workload than I was expecting and that took too much time away from my writings. I will try to write more often as this semester I am off however I want to write more in my Indie Series than this one. I will do my best to keep up with this one and try to get enough in for a once a month, depending how fast I get through my indie series. Once again, sorry for the delay and hope you continue to enjoy this fanfic.

Fight within the Forest:

Maximus was still hovering in the air above them with his arms crossed and his wings spread out. Although it was midday the sky became dark by the presence of his aura expanding overhead like a vast disk. Within the dark saucer a pulsating wave resonated every few seconds from him and stretched to the edge causing it to expand a little more each time it touched the ring's end.

The air became heavy and both Aqua and Eris were beginning to have a hard time keeping focus. It was though the very air was losing its potency. Aqua quickly had an idea come to mind and raised her right hand.

"This is a long shot, but it will greatly increase our chances of surviving this. Besides, what Maximus taught me about his powers the few times we talked about them, he said there is a chance his powers are not fully developed as many took centuries to fully develop them. He said he did not feel too much difference when he first started this journey to where he was before coming here." Aqua paused her thoughts and pulled out a sapphire pendant Maximus had given her long ago. "I can use this gemstone to seal his power away from him should he ever turn on me or anyone else. I can use my sealing spell to amplify its affects, unfortunately," She stopped as she squeezed down on the jewel. "I don't remember what the incantation he told me to activate it!" She yelled aloud.

Eris was wondering what Aqua was complaining about but kept her eyes on Maximus. "I cannot take my sight off of him at this moment. I may not be much of a fighter; however, I can sense his power is nowhere near the level his ancestors were. There is still a strong chance I could use my powers to contain him." She said to herself.

The next moment Eris quickly raised both of her hands stretched out and at the same time Maximus appeared before her. His towering frame standing before her caused her to hesitate in fear. His bright crimson eyes had their soulless gaze upon her. His aura vibrantly pulsing out of him, causing her to quiver ever more. He raised his arm in the air having his hand open to chop down upon her.

"Create Water!" Aqua shouted.

The moment before he moved the small body of water splashed upon him and quickly began to burn his armored skin. Maximus roared out in pain from the intense stinging sensation.

"Yes, hitting him with holy water seems to work. I was afraid it would not since he is a descendant of the Nephilim race with angelic blood running through his veins." She said out loud and fired another stream of holy water upon him. "Then again, he is in his Demonic Form which is vulnerable to holy properties. If I can weaken him down a bit, I will be able to help him in some way, just please forgive me for doing this." She said to herself.

Eris created a half-sphered barrier around Maximus to keep the holy water splashing upon him. She stepped over towards Kazuma and with her right hand used her powers to wake him up.

"Kazuma, I need you to listen closely." Eris shouted towards him as he stood up and was about to freak out again at Maximus' Demonic Form. "We need you to run into the forest behind us and find out what is causing our senses to go haywire. I am sensing something off in the distance, but you will have to go at it alone." She instructed him.

"Wait, what about you two and who are you supposed to be anyway?" Kazuma inquired pointing at her.

"Never mind that right now, we have to contain him and you are the only person who cannot aid the two of us right this moment. You can continue to find out what is causing the problems with us. Maybe if you do that, Maximus can be turned back to his ordinary self." She said.

The next moment Maximus roared painfully and a dark crimson wave spread throughout the area. The demonic power began to cause the grass on the ground to turn brown, withering away and die. Eris kept it from getting close to them by casting a Godly Barrier before them. For a brief moment Maximus seemed to be distracted by something. Eris decided not to waste time and grabbed Kazuma and Aqua to take them away from him, teleporting off into the distance.

Maximus looked around growling, looking for what was gaining his attention. After a few moments of searching, he soon opened his mouth and silver flames spewed out, incinerating everything in its path. He turned his head round about and the fires engulfed everything within twenty-five yards of him. The ground and earth were nothing but giant flames spreading through the forest with such haste. Maximus roared once more and the others could her him miles away as they rested near a structure they happened to find while escaping.

The structure was covered with vines and had a hole in the ceiling as though it imitated something which had fallen apart. Inside was a prominent sized room with two doorways opposite of the entrance. The cobblestone floor had vines and weeds that had long slithered through and spread throughout the room.

"It was with great luck we found this structure nearby to seek shelter in. I fear had it not been for this we would have been running for our lives until he caught up with us or he would run out of magic. That is assuming his transformed state runs on it." Kazuma said catching his breath.

"But what about helping him, we cannot leave him in that state, who knows what would happen to him?" Aqua began to protest.

"Hey, if you want to run out there and get burnt to a crisp, be my guest!" He shot back.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest, Maximus had walked out of the flames towards the direction where the others had run off to. Staring into the distance, he appeared to be sensing something else that was close to them. He began to sniff the fresh air, detecting the various scents everyone gave off. After a few seconds of sniffing, his nose caught the scent that was belonged to something that smelled like an ape. He growled a little before taking flight and zapped across the trees at high speeds.

The next moment Maximus landed before the structure and began to sniff with his nose to find where the ape was.

Aqua, Eris, and Kazuma saw his form once more and they could not help but quake.

His chest had a large oval crimson diamond over where his heart is. He saw round gold diamonds had formed over his elbows, knees, and each of his knuckles. Maximus' crimson was visible through the open areas of his joints. The armor upon his entire body had features of a dragon as his feet had three distinct toes with scales stretching up to his knees, one over the other.

The black armor had the scaly appearance making it appear impenetrable. Thick talons, two inches long, extended from Maximus' fingernails. Two large horns formed out the side of his head curving upwards and several smaller horns formed beside them. His face began to shape a chin blade, and his teeth formed like spears with four sharp fangs that grew longer than the rest of his teeth.

Upon his back wings formed liken to a bat's wings, but with scales upon them with the thumb forming razor-sharp bladed spikes and a bladed tail extended from his lower back. His hair on his head turned silver. His eyes were a solid crimson, soulless feel, and an evil gaze within them almost animalistic.

They quickly hid around the corner of the entrance as he sniffed a little more.

"What is he doing?" Kazuma inquired as he whispered to the others trying not to be too loud.

"It almost seems as though he is hunting in this form. There must be something near us that is causing him to act this way." Eris replied keeping her gaze upon him incase she needed to act at the next moment.

After a few seconds he roared angrily and began to walk towards the structure they were within.

"Oh crap, he is coming this way." Kazuma spun away from the edge of the opening, pressing his back against the wall and began to panic.

Aqua quickly darted out the entrance and stood before Maximus.

"Maximus, I know you are still in that lost mind of yours. Please, recognize that I am right in front of you! Please wake up from this state!" She shouted at him on the verge of crying.

Maximus stood there looking around as though ignoring her.

"Why do you not answer me?" She whispered.

The next moment Maximus shot his gaze right at her and she was beginning to think he was recognizing her.

Before she could muster a word, Maximus charged after her and roared a loud.

"Aqua!" Both Eris and Kazuma shouted, worried for her safety.

Before they could react further, Maximus stretched forth his right fist that barely went by her and slammed upon something. The next moment the shockwave of the impact upheaved the ground and trees behind it. The cracking loud bangs of bones colliding upon one another echoed through the area. Following the cracking sounds a loud cry of an animal sounded off, one of a painful sound.

The next moment Aqua noticed she was wrapped in one of Maximus' arms and saw a giant white ape that stood nearly Maximus' height. The mammal had appeared out of thin air and landed on its back. The snow-white hair was long and unkept with small portions of it being scorched. The nails upon the fingers and toes were incredibly long, longer than normal for an ape. The skin was a light purple with small visible blisters which had recently formed from the silver flames Maximus had spat out and its teeth yellowed and sharp with pointed ends. Its long arms and legs began to wiggle around before it quickly stood up and pounded the ground violently followed by a long angry roar.

"That's what he was aiming for, I didn't even see it before, where did that thing come from, and why is it so tall?" Kazuma shouted in disbelief knowing there was no ape he knew off that stood this tall.

"Aq…ua," Maximus struggled to speak as though the condition upon him had lifted a little and let her go with her hands still holding his right arm. "Run."

The white ape slammed its fist upon the ground in front of it followed by another short roar. Maximus charged after the mammal with a roar of his own. The ape then batted its chest a couple times and rushed after him with short growl.

The moment they were within striking distance Maximus landed the first blow of the new exchange, slamming his right fist forward upon the jaw of the animal. Momentarily after and before he could land the follow up, the ape shot his right hand upon the top of Maximus' head. The force of their blows caused a quick shockwave to ruffle the blades of grass and the leaves within the trees. The two took several steps back as their vision was moving side to side at an angle from the top left corner to the bottom right corner.

Eris stepped to the side of Aqua and tapped her shoulder to get her attention.

"Aqua, we need to get out of here before this gets out of hand!" She said with fear in her eyes and voice.

"Yeah, seriously, we need to run away from here as fast as our feet can carry us!" Kazuma shouted back as he had already turned around to sprint away.

"No, I will not leave him, I will stay here until it is over." Aqua said in defiance.

The two beasts regained their composure after shaking their heads to the side a few times. The next moment the two of them charged after each other once more, colliding and wrestling upon the ground like two animals. Maximus' mind was still too far out of reach for him to take back control yet felt a little return the longer he fought against the ape. With every punch, kick, knee but, and forearm slamming upon his foe his mind felt as though the red vision was fading away, clearing up at the center and widening.

"I see, the more I can keep him from concentrating on disrupting my mind, I can regain my composure. This creature may be responsible for everyone losing their senses. At least I hope this is the case." He said within his mind.

"Come on, we need to leave immediately or this whole area, including us, will wither away and die!" Kazuma shouted, begging her to come.

"No, nothing like that will happen because that particular aura is not extending from him. Besides, I refuse to leave him behind." She said keeping her gaze upon the two that were clashing before them.

Before Eris and Kazuma could pull Aqua away, Maximus and the white ape charged after each other once more. The two of them aimed low to attempt to tackle the other in order to gain the upper hand.

At the moment they were about to slam into each other, Maximus jumped up into the air, catching the primate off guard. With near lightning speed he dug his claws into the back of the ape and squeezed down on a handful of its hair and flesh. The talons on his feet also dug into the lower back and waist. Pulling back on it, the ape was forced to stand up. Nearly within the same instant, Maximus shot his tail into and through his enemy's back, piercing through and out the abdomen.

The white ape roared out in pain and before it could go on, Maximus pressed his free hand upon its head, slamming it to the ground. He then bit down on the neck of the beast violently like a predator finishing off its prey. Wriggling his head side to side, blood squirted out the deeper his teeth sunk. A moment later he lifted his head up, the tearing and ripping sounds of flesh echoed throughout the area. The others shivered a little as though they could feel their skin being ripped off.

Maximus stood towering over the headless ape, opening his mouth a little as the head of his opponent fell to the ground. Momentarily after he roared long and as loud as he possibly could. Soon his body began to fall from exhaustion and the crimson circle once again appeared before and passed over him. Wearing his usual blue trench coat with white and gold edges and linings. His black button shirt and pants and was without his tie this day.

Before he could fall completely to the ground, Aqua quickly caught him and gently held his head. His eyes closed and his body lie still, unable to move from the intense fatigue he went through, more so than before.

"Oh, thank goodness, you are back, don't you scare me like that again." She said while squeezing his head against her chest with a little tears flowing down her cheeks.

"Is that Aqua's cries and tears? I want to move to embrace her, but I feel too tired to do anything, could this condition be because that ape did more to me than make my mind go numb?" He wondered as he continued to fall asleep.

Meanwhile the echoing sounds of Maximus' triumphant roar stretched across the forest and towards the castle in the far distance. Standing on one of the balconies of the structure, Maxwell looked towards the direction with a little shiver crawling up his back.

"Perhaps this was a good idea to come into this magical trap after all. They have made it further than anticipated." He said to himself and began to think of what else he could employ at the grounds as well as within the castle.

Back where the others were and several hours had passed, Aqua was gently caressing Maximus' long golden hair along with careful strokes down his cheeks, Maximus slowly opened his eyes from his slumber. He noticed his head was resting upon Aqua's lap and registered her hand moving across his head.

Before he could say anything, Aqua noticed his eyes were opening and quickly embraced him within her arms.

"Maximus, you are finally awake!" She shouted with joy. "Don't you ever do that to me again!" She said with a little hint of anger.

"I am relieved to see you are safe, however, I have to ask, what happened?" He inquired and at the same time his memory flashed the previous events before his eyes. "Wait, no need to answer as I remember everything now." He answered his question before she could.

He was about to move but Aqua pressed down on his forehead.

"Wait, I think it would be best if you stay still for a while longer. There is no need to rush even with the other two going on ahead, I believe it is okay for you to rest and recover your strength." She ordered him in a gentle way.

Maximus smirked and placed his right hand upon her left cheek. She took hold of it with her left and closed her eyes a little. She began to lean down and pressed her forehead upon his. The two of them sat there and waited as his recovery was underway.