The duo traveled quickly out of the main fray, albeit not unnoticed nor unscathed. Stupid as he had been to run off in search of any demon, let alone Tetsuda, in the middle of a battle of epic proportions, Hirokan had at least been smart enough to replace his red Suiyanic attire with the greys of the north. Granted, Tetsuda had still done a majority of the killing…

As they shouts and shots of the capital grew softer behind them, Tyrannus's trail grew more and more apparent. Puddles and splotches dotted the otherwise desolate earth, and half-rotten skulls acted almost as markers to measure distance.

Tetsuda's throat dried the further they ran, and not from exhaustion. It was hard to believe that this was all Tyrannus's doing; the same demon who'd spoken to him so tenderly in bed was now an animal, hungry for nothing but destruction and chaos. A beast of battle…

Something burst in the distance, followed by a screech that shattered their ears as well as the sky.

"What the fuck was that?" Tetsuda asked.

"They're fighting," Hirokan said. "They've been fighting. I can't tell which one that was, but...if I had to guess, it was Tyrannus."

Tetsuda's eye twitched, and his grip tightened on Erectus.

"You're sure you still want to go to him? I know you care for him, but—"

"We're going," he said. "Do you really want Tairo to be the King of Iyan?"

He stopped asking questions after that.

Further they ran, until finally they reached the edge of a cliff that overlooked the field of battle. Craters dotted the blackened ground, in some places still burning, and in places still level there stood stalagmites of obsidian.

Without hesitation, Tetsuda climbed his way down the face of the cliff, Hirokan following a short distance behind. The heat from the earth blistered his feet through his shoes, and upon looking down, Tetsuda found bits of lava bubbling in cracks in the ground.

"I will say, you've gotten better."

Tetsuda came to an immediate stop. The incubi crouched behind a boulder, high enough to provide cover but low enough to allow them sight of the battling kings.

Tairo stood with his back to them, his armor nonexistent and his green body full of deep gashes. Before him was Tyrannus, his head lowered, an obsidian spike impaling his stomach. From what they could tell, he wasn't breathing—then again, neither was Tetsuda.

"I haven't had to fight this hard in centuries," he said, the green coloration on his skin gradually fading. "And it's been even longer since I've had to slip into my pure Avaritia state. Perhaps I was wrong about you, Souku. Partially, anyway." He swiped his finger across Tyrannus's crotch, then looked at his hand with a grimace. "Even now, bleeding to death, you still come. Astounding. Disgusting."

"Tyrannus…" Tetsuda whispered. "Tyrannus!"

Tairo looked over his shoulder, and he snickered at the sight of Tetsuda. "So the dog came back to his master. How cute. Shameful how he won't be able to see you fall…"

Tetsuda was just about to leap over the boulder, but raspy, gurgled chuckles caught both his and Tairo's attention. Shakily, Tyrannus's arms lifted, and he placed his hands upon Tairo's shoulders.

"You're right, Tairo…it is astounding…it's so astounding…" Tyrannus's head lifted, revealing eyes of a wicked dark purple. "How foolish you are."

He dug his claws deep into Tairo's skin, and around them there grew a massive column of purple smoke and light. The smoke swirled in a cyclone of transparency, until finally it congealed into a figure vaguely resembling a demon. It towered far above the Ira and Avaritia, with eyes of bright yellow and a mouth of jagged teeth that roared in an even beastlier manner than Tyrannus had. Tairo's head whipped back, his mouth and eyes wide open, light pouring out of them and up to the face of the demon. All the while, Tyrannus grinned in an oddly hollow manner.

The demon's hands wrapped around Tairo's body, just as Tyrannus's had, and gradually it squeezed and squeezed until his body had erupted into a pure ball of light. The demon lifted his arms up above Tyrannus's head, and the light floated down in thin streams into Tyrannus's head. Once all had been depleted, the smoke demon dissipated, and Tyrannus was left standing alone.

The air hung still after that.

Tyrannus gazed around the battlefield, his expression blank. Gradually, however, a smile spread across his face, then a grin, then a stream of chuckles, then a torrent of cackling. "He's dead! That piece of shit is finally dead!"

Tetsuda leapt over the boulder. "Tyrannus! Tyrannus!"

He turned the incubus's way, his expression alight yet somehow still dark. "What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to be separated from me until after this ended?"

"Never mind that. Are you all right?"

Tyrannus looked over Tetsuda's shoulder, and he narrowed his eyes. "Never mind that. What the fuck is he doing there?"

"Don't attack him," Tetsuda said, stepping back beside Hirokan. "He defected from Tairo and is coming back with us. You can trust him, I promise. I knew him in the human realm."

Tyrannus sighed, then nodded. "All right. I'll let you come back with us. But if you pull any shit with me, I will string you up from the balustrade. Understand?"

Swallowing, Hirokan nodded. "Definitely."

"Good." He looked to Tetsuda with a smile. "Let's go home."