After Minato managed to secure his headphones again, he put them back on and gave Magilou a nasty glare. The blonde witch just stuck her tongue out in response. The blue-haired boy turned his head around and looked away. While doing so, he was pressing the volume button on his MP3 for so long until the volume was at the maximum. Indeed it was so loud that the rest of the group could hear the bass coming out of the headphones.

"What kind of music is that?" Rokurou asked with blinking eyes.

"Dunno, it sounds different from when I had that thing on," Magilou observed.

"I wonder when and where he came in possession of such an artifact," Seres wondered aloud. "I have never seen such a thing in my life, let alone heard about it."

"For someone who doesn't speak much, he certainly is an interesting person. First his sword, then his powers and now this. I wonder how many more surprises he has in store for us," the witch mused.

"Who knows? Though I gotta admit, I'm especially curious about that sword of his," Rokurou voiced his thoughts. "I can tell that the blade itself has been created with exceptional craftsmanship. But at the same time, I'm not too sure why it glows blue whenever Minato uses it."

"The obvious explanation would be that the sword itself is enchanted," Magilou said immediately.

"I agree," Seres nodded. "You might not know this, but enchanted weapons are not uncommon nowadays. The Abbey uses the artes of Malakhim to make conventional weapons at least somewhat effective against daemons. That way, even normal soldiers can help the exorcists to fight daemons."

"Huh? That's a new one to me," Magilou stated.

"So even normal humans can become dangerous to us daemons now?" Rokuro inquired.

"Not really. The arte to enhance a weapon has yet to be perfected. Against a weaker daemon a human might stand a chance, but in my personal opinion, I think the most you will have to worry about is getting overwhelmed by regular humans."

Rokurou was somewhat disappointed at the last tidbit. The group interrupted their conversation when they arrived at a narrow pathway. At the entrance of said pathway they saw three pink chests with cat ears lined up and in front of the said chest was a pink cat that stood on its hind legs. The tip of the tail was white, and it appeared to be wearing a red collar. Curiously Minato took off his headphones and was very surprised when he heard the cat-thing talk.

"Oh no, I'm in so much trouble, so much trouble…" The voice was high pitched but definitely male. "Won't somebody paw-lease help a kitty out, meow?"

Looking over to his companions, Minato noticed that Rokurou was the only other person surprised to see a talking cat.

"Oh look, another weirdo," Velvet said in a deadpan voice. She stopped in her tracks and put a hand on her hips. The rest stopped too.

"That thing talks?!" Rokurou exclaimed. "What if it's a cat daemon?!"

Simmer down, big man!" Magilou held her hands up in peace while standing on one leg. "She's just a Katz!" And there went Minato's theory of this creature being male. "Haven't seen one in a good long while."

"Katz…?" Rokurou repeated. "Is that different from a regular cat somehow?"

"No one but the Katz know for sure. They are similar to us Malakhim but at the same time very different." Seres shook her head at her explanation. "I apologize for the confusion. Katz are mysterious creatures, and not much is known about them."

"Works for me," Rokurou shrugged. "I understand that they're hard to understand at least."

It was at that moment that the Katz noticed the group of travelers behind her. She turned around and revealed to have a somewhat human-like face with cat features. In all honesty, Minato found himself reminded of a little girl's cartoon when he looked at the creature.

"Hey!" She waved with her paw. "I don't suppose you happen to be carrying any Katz spirit on you?" she asked. "They look like this." With a wave of her paw, two white glowing orbs appeared in front of the Katz. Minato looked a little closer, as he was sure he had seen those things somewhere before.

"That's just like what I found at Titania."

The others, minus Seres, were slightly taken aback when Velvet produced one of those orbs out of her pockets. Speaking of pockets, Minato wondered just where the hell Velvet had pockets on her skimpy clothing.

"Purrfect!" The others sweatdropped at the cat pun. "You could say they're kinda like our souls to us!"

"Katz spirits, huh…" Velvet mused.

"Sometimes we call 'em "kitten caboodles," too!"

"That's just foolish," Velvet commented.

"Really? Then how about kitty clumps?"

Rokurou snorted at the last one.

"Katz and their puns…" Seres silently mused with a smile.

"Anyway," the Katz went on, "one night we were having a feast, so meowvelous our souls flew right out of our bodies!"

"How does that work?" Minato couldn't help himself. He had seen a lot of weird things, but this one was just too ridiculous. And he was Japanese!

"That's why I need your help to find the Katz spirits and use them to emeowcipate my friends!"

"Emeowcipate? Really?" the daemon samurai asked no longer amused.

"It means to use Katz spirits to free Katz who are locked away in Katz boxes like these here, meow," the pink Katz explained. As soon as he was finished, the first orb flew towards the left chest. When both things came into contact, the chest burst open, and a daemon of all things jumped out. Minato and Velvet immediately drew their weapons, but Seres stopped them from attacking, by holding an arm in front of them.

"Watch," the redhead quietly said.

"Here you say apecipate." The pun here was that the daemon had a great resemblance to a monkey. The second orb flew towards the middle box, and it opened. A dog jumped out of it.

"This would be edogcipate."

Minato and Velvet relaxed in their stances somewhat.

"And finally…" the orb Velvet had been holding flew towards the last chest.

"Whew!" A new, brown Katz jumped out of the right, pink chest. "I'm free meow!"

"See! Emeowcipate!" The empty chests, daemon and the dog disappeared in clouds of smoke, after the final declaration.

"By that logic, shouldn't it be ekatzipate?" Velvet asked, causing Seres to almost laughed out loud. The Malak had to hold a hand in front of her mouth.

"Wow, you're way more clever than you look! Fur real!" If Velvet was offended by the comment of the pink Katz, she didn't show it. "I totally underestimated you! Please! Our Katz spirits got scattered fur and wide and so many Katz are trapped without them!"

Minato still didn't understand the logic of someone losing his or her soul and then somehow ending up trapped in colorful chests. And from the looks of things, the others didn't have an explanation either.

"Seek out the Katz and rescue our poor clawst brothers and sisters, meow!" the second Katz pleaded.

"And why should I?" Velvet asked, apparently not interested in wasting any more time.

"Please, think of the Katz!"

"You know, like Seres said, Katz do have weird and mysterious powers," Magilou crossed her arms while gaining a thinking expression. "There's a good chance we might benefit by having them in our debt."

"We'll make it worth your while, I purr-romise!" the second Katz exclaimed and held her paws out. In a white cloud of smoke, a cowboy hat appeared in her paws. "See?" The hat flew over to Minato, who caught the accessory with a dumbfounded expression.

"A hat?" the black haired daemon asked. "And this should make it worth our while?"

"Well, if we snub them, they might put a curse on us," Magilou added to her explanation.

"That has been known to happen, meow."

Rokurou suddenly laughed. It looked like he found the whole situation funny. "If we're doing all this traveling anyway, why not help them on the side?"

"It wouldn't hurt," Seres agreed and looked at Velvet. "And who knows? Someday they might give us more than just a simple hat."

Velvet sighed but conceded. She appeared as if she just wanted to go on with the journey. "As long as it is on the side…"

"Thank you!" both Katz said simultaneously before they too disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Minato looked at the hat for a couple of more seconds, before he decided to stuff it away into his backpack for the time being.

"Well that just happened," Rokurou chuckled. "Looks like things can only get more interesting from here on out."

"And more dangerous," Seres warned. "We're almost in Hellawes. It's behind this pass."

The Malakhim led the way, and the others followed her. It got a little rocky, but luckily there were no daemon ambushes because, in such a small space, fighting would have been severe. Now that no mountains were in the way, the city wall finally came into view. However, it turned out to be too early to celebrate, as there were exorcists stationed outside the city walls. Also, there was a line of people, sometimes with pack mules, who were inspected by the exorcists.

"Exorcists," Velvet simply stated. The group hid behind a small rock formation and watched the ongoing proceedings.

"Well, that's just inconsiderate!" Magilou shouted. "Word of the prison break couldn't have traveled so quickly."

"I somehow doubt they'll just let us in, looking the way we do," the daemon swordsman stated the obvious.

"Something must have happened," Seres said in a serious tone. "Exorcists are usually not deployed for simple guard duty. No, they're looking for a daemon." Seres turned her head to the others. "The question is, whether they're looking for us or somebody else."

"I-I…" A young male voice suddenly caught everyone's attention. Turning their heads, they were surprised to find the blonde Malakhim from earlier just standing a couple of feet away from them. Seres gasped in shock.

"It's you!" Much to the surprise of the others, Seres stood up and walked over to the younger looking Malakhim. The male Malak in return looked up towards his senior.

"Seres?" Velvet asked, but was ignored.

"What are you doing here?" Seres asked, worry clearly being present in her voice.

"I-I… I sneaked out," the younger Malak answered with a monotone voice. "I wanted to apologize. I didn't mean to steal this." The blonde Malak reached into his bag and took out a golden compass. The others approached the boy, seeing that he was holding out the compass to Seres. However, for some reason, the female Malak just stared at the boy in front of her. Minato decided to take the compass in Seres' stead.

"Seres!" Velvet's voice snapped the redhead back to reality. "You know this Malak?" the daemon asked.

"Y-yes," Seres stuttered and cleared her throat. "He is… he is a Malak that got assigned to an exorcist, just before I left for Titania." Seres looked over to Hellawes. "Judging where we are, I guess you were assigned to Teresa, correct?"

"Yes, that is correct," the male Malak confirmed in his monotone voice.

"Wait a second. You said you sneaked out?" Magilou asked, to which the Malak nodded. "Well, what do we have here? It looks like Seres isn't the only disobeying Malakhim."

"That's certainly strange," Rokurou said with a thoughtful expression.

Seres held back a snappy comment and instead focused on the Malak in front of her. "You said you sneaked out, that means you somehow managed to get past the guards without them noticing. Show us how. That's an order."

Everyone, even Velvet or maybe especially Velvet, was surprised at the sudden harshness of the tone Seres' voice had suddenly taken. The daemon woman looked at the female Malak suspiciously. As for the male one, he nodded with an empty expression and said: "Follow me."

"Did… did she just give another Malakhim an order?" Rokurou asked.

"Looks like it. Interesting…" Magilou put a hand under chin, thinking.

Minato for his part didn't get what the big deal was. Sure the "that's an order" thing came out of nowhere, but the others looked like Seres had just turned into a dragon in front of their very eyes. The blue-haired boy sure hoped Hellawes had a library, where he could study up on things he was as of yet unaware of.

The young child led the group of prison escapees towards a nearby cliff, away from the commotion in front of the town entrance. The path was a bit slippery, but an adjacent wall assured no one accidentally fell into the ocean. Soon enough the trail became wider again, the group found themselves at a lower level than the city itself. A cave came into view and the boy walked inside. Everyone in the group noticed that the cave was conveniently placed underneath where the city walls began. The cave itself was not very big. They found the boy standing in front of a ladder of all things, waiting for them to arrive.

"A ladder? Here?" Velvet voiced everyone's thought.

"I wonder where it leads?" Rokurou asked.

"Only one way to find out," Velvet replied and started climbing. One after another the rest followed her upside. First Rokurou, then Magilou, then Seres, Minato and finally the young Malak who showed them the secret entrance, to begin with. What awaited them at the end turned out to be a storehouse, as Velvet obviously stated. Minato, being the last who climbed up, closed the trap door behind him and took a look around.

The storehouse was cramped with all kinds of things, making it hard for the group to stay in one place. Everyone spread around the storehouse a little bit to get at least some open space. Minato noted that the storehouse had a lot of crates and barrels filled with some black stones, reminding him of coal. For some reason, there were also weapons stored here, along with sacks filled with probably more of those stones. A few bottles of something else were also placed on small shelves.

The high school student found himself brought out of his inspection of the area, by Magilou, who was sniffing the air. "That smell… flamestone!" she exclaimed.

"Flamestone?" Rokurou asked.

"Also known as melchionite," the witch explained. "A rare mineral only found in Northgand. Mix it with sulfur and you get explosives!" Everyone noted the sadistic grin on her face. "Mix it with oil and you get fuel!"

"Sounds dangerous… If it's true," Velvet spoke with honest doubt.

"It is true," Seres confirmed. "Flamestone is the main export resource of Hellawes and also the reason the city has seen an economic boom. We should be careful, while in here. One accidental spark is enough and we might burn down the entire city."

"So, what do we do with him?" Rokurou pointed towards the Malak who showed them the way in. As for the boy, he just stared with empty eyes into the air. Minato was seriously getting worried at the behavior the boy was showing.

"Don't worry about him," Seres assured. "He won't mention us to anyone."

"And what makes you so sure?" Velvet asked, activating her daemonic arm. Everybody took a step backward at this. "If I just eat him, then there will be no witness left."

"Wait!" The female Malak exclaimed, clearly panicking. "There's no need for this. We can simply command him not to mention us to anyone and we will be in the clear. Besides, if he were to disappear, then the exorcists will only get more agitated than they already are. We will risk being discovered."

For a couple of moments, no one dared to say anything. Seres was standing protectively in front the young boy, while Velvet stood in front of the redhead with her claw out, seemingly relaxed. In truth, the daemon was mentally going over what Seres had said and she could see the logic behind it. Velvet deactivated her daemon arm and Seres let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

"Fine. Malak," Velvet raised her voice. The blonde Malak appeared from behind Seres and stood at attention. "Return to your master and don't tell anyone that you have seen us."

"Is that an order?" the boy asked.

"It is," Velvet confirmed.

"Understood." With that being said, the Malakhim left the building through the front entrance. Seres looked after him for a couple of moments, not noticing that Velvet was approaching her.

"We'll talk later," the daemon whispered to the Malak, before addressing the whole group. "Well, we're in the city now."

"Well, then let's scout for the maritime guild," Rokurou suggested. "Whoever's in charge of all these storehouses must have their hands in the shipping trade and shipbuilding," the male daemon reasoned.

"And we could use a true sailor if we can find one," the female daemon thought aloud.

"Can we really just hire one? Won't they asked questions?" Minato found himself opening his mouth again because sadly it was necessary.

"No, any ships leaving the harbor are registered by the Abbey," Seres explained. "You need to ask for permission to leave at least two weeks beforehand. Also, every crew member must be registered and inspections of the cargo can always happen too. The Abbey is very strict when it comes to who goes where and there aren't many people ready to disagree with the exorcists. Our best bet is still to repair our own ship."

"I guess the plan is set and I can totally endorse it! We dodged the sea's murderous grasp this time, but who's to say our luck will hold?" Magilou exclaimed in a dramatic fashion.

There was a small silence.

"We should look for some weapons, too, if I'm to be any use in a fight," the daemon samurai argued.

"You're… still wearing one," his fellow daemon pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope. Not an option."

Minato began to speculate that this was some kind of samurai code he was unaware of. On the way out, the group grabbed some stuff they deemed useful and packed it into Minato's back. Outside, they found themselves in the middle of a surprisingly empty harbor. Oh, there were a lot of ships docked there and a couple of people were wandering around too, but not as much as one would expect from a town that relied on its harbor so much.

As the group walked around, they listened in to the various conversations people were having. Minato purposefully turned the volume on his mp3 down, in order to hear what the people were saying. They listened to some interesting things, like for example it took a week by ship to reach the capital and that as of late the Abbey inspected every vessel because of an incident of some kind.

A group of children was talking about how they wanted to become exorcists when they grew up. There was an unusually mature one around them, who said being an exorcist meant you had to protect everyone. For some reason, Seres let out a dark chuckle when she heard that.

By asking one of the guards, Rokurou found out that the shipping guild had its headquarters inside the central city and not at the harbor. The group had to go through a big pair of double doors, in order to get to the inner city. Once there, the streets became cramped really fast. Despite the cold weather a lot of people were walking around on the main road and listening in to conversations became impossible. The escapees had a hard time staying together in the first place and as a measure to not get lost, they walked on the right side of the road. Luckily for them, Hellawes was relatively small, at least to Minato's standards. The city only had one main road, along with some side alleys. He really had expected Hellawes to be bigger, but then again, these people had yet to develop as far technology wise as the people from his home.

Another thing that quickly came to light was just how the prisoners stood out. Everyone was staring at them in some fashion, especially Velvet, since she was showing so much skin. People wondered how she hadn't become an ice block as of yet. The rest of the group gathered almost as much attention, due to the clothing they wore. They did their best to ignore everyone, but it wasn't easy.

"While I'm normally fond of attention, this is getting too much, even for me," Magilou whispered.

"It can't be helped," Seres whispered back. "Just act normal for now, at least until we find a store where we can buy new clothes."

"Easy for you to say. At least you have clothes that keep you warm," the self-proclaimed witch shivered.

After some more walking, the group arrived at a street corner with a massive building on the side. Velvet spotted a group of sailors in front of the building. She asked whether this was the shipping guild or not, but received no answer, as Rokurou spotted something that interested him more.

"Oh hey, that weapon shop looks promising! Good luck with the shipwright search." He said and was gone further down the road, heading for the blacksmith.

"Boys… Poor creatures just can't be separated from their favorite toys, can they?" Magilou sighed, to which Minato opted not to comment. Velvet mumbled something to herself, before approaching one of the sailors. Seres walked close to her, whilst Magilou and Minato kept themselves in the background.

"Is this a shipping guild?" Velvet asked one of the sailors. Instead of answering, the sailor kept conversing with his colleague.

"Damn that Dyle! What does he think he's doing by trying to resist?"

The other sailor nodded. "We wouldn't be in this mess if he were dead."

"Excuse us," Seres spoke up, getting the attention of the two sailors "We need a ship repaired."

The man looked particularly annoyed. "Sorry, but we can't help."

"What makes you say that?" the daemon lady asked.

"Guild business is currently suspended." A new authoritarian, female voice made itself known. Everyone turned around and found a blonde haired woman with green eyes and in an exorcist dress approaching the scene. She was accompanied by two boys, who one the escapees recognized as the young child that helped them out.

"By the order of Exorcist Teresa of the Abbey," the woman introduced herself.

Seres cursed under her breath, as she had hoped not to meet the Praetor in the crowded city. Luckily, she had thought of a contingency plan, knowing the chances were high the two would run into each other. Of course, Teresa herself noticed Seres almost immediately.

"Seres? What are you doing here?" the Praetor asked with authority.

"Lady Teresa." Seres walked in front of Velvet, hoping to drag the attention away from the black haired daemon. At the same time, she changed the tone in her voice, as to not arouse any suspicion from the Praetor.

"I am here on orders from Lord Artorius," Seres explained herself. As soon as Artorius' name fell, the slowly gathering crowd began whispering among themselves.

"Lord Artorius?" Teresa appeared to be slightly shocked. "And what are those orders?"

"He wished for this woman to be brought to the capital," Seres gestured at Velvet, who narrowed her eyes at the Malak's words. Teresa eyed Velvet from top to bottom and looked less than impressed.

"Why does Lord Artorius want to meet this woman? More importantly, aren't you cold dressed like that?"

"I've just arrived from the south," Velvet quickly explained. "I wasn't aware Northgan was so cold." The daemon faked a sneeze pretty pathetically in Magilou's opinion.

"The south?" Teresa raised an eyebrow. "Then what are you doing here, when you were summoned to the capital?"

"Our ship was caught up in a storm." Seres quickly took over, before Velvet accidentally messed up even more. "Most of the crew are dead. Only a couple of passengers, those two along," Seres gestured at Magilou and Minato "survived the trip. Our ship crashed into a reef on the other side of the island and is in need of repair."

"I see." Teresa put a hand under her chin, thinking hard. In the background, the sailors had hopeful expressions on their faces, which didn't go past Teresa's cold piercing gaze. "The guild is not allowed to do any business, due to a smuggler they had in their midst. Until he is caught, guild business will keep being suspended. However, since you have orders from Lord Artorius himself, I suppose an exception must be made."

Seres did her best not to smile.

"Tell those men exactly where your ship is. And you" she addressed the sailors "see this as your chance to repent for the oversight your guild made. Do a good job and the Abbey might consider allowing your guild to do business again."

"At once Lady Teresa!" The lead sailor bowed. "Thank you for giving us this chance."

With a "Hmph," Teresa walked away towards the church, the two children following her obediently.

"My, my, aren't you lucky boys?" Magilou walked towards the group with a big grin on her face. "It sure is your lucky day."

"Lucky day?" one of the sailors asked. "I feel like I have just found the lost treasure of Davy Jones himself! Haha! Tell us where your ship is! We'll repair it in no time, you'll see!"

Minato dropped his bag to the ground and quickly searched for the map and handed the map over to Seres. The Malak pointed at the point where the ship shipwrecked. "It's right here."

"Alright. Depending on the damage your ship took, the repairs might take some time. You might wanna stay at the Inn at least overnight. We need to assert the damage first."

"Do you know where we can find a good navigator?" Velvet asked.

"Ask around the docks," one of the sailors shrugged. "There's always someone looking to make some quick money."

"Of course, Dyle used to be our navigator…" another sailor mumbled.

"What exactly happened?" Minato asked as he put the map away. "And why would the Abbey punish the entire guild for something one member did?"

The lead sailor sighed. "It's just how things are, kid. Dyle used to work for us, acted as our navigator. However, it turned out he was smuggling flamestone in our cargo and sold it to some shady guys overseas. The Abbey was the one who found out and they weren't too happy. The worst part is, when they were about to arrest him, he suddenly turned into a daemon and killed everyone in his way."

Everyone who was currently listening in had their eyes widened.

"The Abbey closed us down until they manage to capture Dyle. But with you here, we might have a chance to get back to business."

"I see…" Minato nodded. "And what happened to this Dyle?"

"He's hiding somewhere on the island. A little hint kid, keep away from the small village outside the city. That's where he was born and there's a good chance he still lurks around there."

"I see, thank you."

"Hah, we ought to thank you all. Come on, men! Enough dilly, dally. We got a ship to repair!"

"Aye!" Came the chorus response from the rest of the guild, as they made their way out of the city. The group of escapees watched them go.

"That was close. Let's hope they will be done before word of your escape reaches Teresa," Seres addressed the rest of the group.

"Maybe you should have stayed outside?" Velvet suggested.

"Maybe. But otherwise, we would be stuck on this island."

"I wonder what darling Rokurou's got up in the meantime?" Magilou spoke up.

"Let's check in on him at the weapon shop," Velvet stated and walked ahead.