A few days passed and Rin slowly became restless.
He didn't know what was going on outside of his little hideout.
He thought about calling Mephisto but he didn't dare to contact him after he made clear that nobody was supposed to know that they worked together.
What if the exorcists were already onto the King of Time? Rin certainly wouldn't know. Iblis also hadn't come yet which made him a bit nervous.
But what even could he do now?
Until he had more support his hands were bound.
So he waited, and waited, and waited…

Rin was laying on the roof of his little hut when the earth started to rumble.
He almost fell down but managed to hold on.
Frantically looking around, he noticed that the usually dead water of the lake nearby started bubbling and creating large waves.
The young demon immediately sprung up to go and investigate what was happening when a voice started droning in his head, seemingly originating from the lake.
"This is a message to every demon residing in Assiah and also to every human whose eyes aren't blinded towards Gehenna."
Of course he recognized the voice.
"This is Egyn, the Demon King of Water and I would advise you to listen closely to my request to bring me my brother the demon Rin."
Rin scoffed. A request could be refused and something told him that his brother wouldn't accept a no.
"Exorcists who are close to the ocean have probably noticed that the water is retreating. It would be a shame if every coast on earth was hit by a massive tidal wave. In case you lowly creatures don't understand, if you don't bring me my brother I'm going to make sure to flood your whole world. Just bring him to any larger body of water, I will know when you are there."
Rin couldn't believe what he heard. "What? That bastard!"
Everyone was already looking for him and now he wanted to make sure that it didn't matter who found him.
Mephisto said that he would be safe as long as he didn't draw attention but he couldn't just let Egyn flood everything.
Rin would have liked to say that he carefully thought about what to do next but that simply wasn't the case.
Immediately after Egyn ended his message, Rin stormed towards the lake.
"Hey, bastard! Don't pull them into this! If you want to find me, do it yourself!"
Standing at the lake's shore, he stared angrily at the still bubbling water.
"You really are quite the fool." A cool voice behind him mentioned suddenly.
Rin whipped around.
"Thanks for coming here yourself. I doubt those humans would have found you and this made it a lot easier and faster to find you." The King of Water continued.
There he stood, his long, pale blue hair tied back in a strict ponytail. His face didn't show any emotion, he seemed as calm as the lake right next to them.
"What do you want from me, Egyn?"
"Isn't that obvious? Father wants you back in Gehenna. So, will you come quietly or do I have to use force?"
"Don't act like you don't already know my answer!"
The King of Water let out a long sigh.
"Of course. Why did I expect you to not make any trouble for once in your life?"
Some of the lake water gathered around Egyn's hand and with a slight flick of his wrist it formed into a lance made of pure ice.
Rin reached for his daggers.
He knew he was at a huge disadvantage, not only had his weapon a much shorter range but he wasn't sure how much Egyn's water based attacks would affect his flames.
The brothers slowly started circling each other, Rin took his first step to the left, maybe he could separate Egyn from the lake.
Egyn took a step to the right, away from the water.
It wasn't like he could prevent a fight against his older brother at this point, so he got ready to charge at him.
Before he could take his first step towards the King of Water, he already saw the lance flying in his direction.
He avoided it easily with another step to the left that was answered with Egyn making another step to the right.
The lance was splashing in the water behind Rin.
"Don't think I don't know what you are trying to do, little brother. Do you really think that if you can get me far enough away from that lake you can win against me? A little information for you: Water is almost everywhere."
The grass around Egyn's feet started to dry out as another lance formed in his hand.
This time, Egyn didn't throw it but charged directly at Rin, who instinctively took a step back to avoid him, but Egyn stopped before he could even hit him.
"Idiot."
Rin didn't get the chance to react to his foot getting wet, his dodge had landed him right at the edge of the lake.
In a matter of seconds water had completely encased him in a large sphere.
Rin tried to summon his flames which only made the water sizzle slightly.
"Let me out of here!" That is at least what he wanted to yell, but the sensation of water filling his lungs was too constricting.
While he didn't need to breathe, it made him more than uncomfortable.
"That was easier than expected. You are not a tactician, dear, don't even try to outsmart me."
The sphere slowly floated over the lake.
"Now then, we have kept father waiting long enough"
The lake under him started bubbling from the Gehenna Gate being summoned in it. Ice cold panic took hold of the Prince. There was no way out, how could he have already failed? Egyn casually walked over to the sphere, his steps not even breaking the water surface beneath him. The King of Water reached out one hand to guide the sphere through the gate. At least, he would have if a burst of radiant golden flames hadn't hit him square into the back, making him stumble forward. The tension holding the sphere together broke and Rin was dumped into the lake where the bubbles also had subsided.

The Prince could feel the heat clashing with Egyn's coldness but at the moment he was too preoccupied to struggle to get back on land to actually see what was going on.

When he finally reached the shore and had coughed up all the water in his lungs, a steady hand patted him on the back.
"You okay, little brother?" Iblis asked the soaked and shivering Prince.
"Y-yes I think so. You came back!" Rin realized.
"Well, yeah. You know, the whole thing with executing Kagura left a bad taste in my mouth and since dad's not the only wielder of blue flames anymore, I'd say it's time for a change of leadership. If you turn out to be shit at this, I can still kick your ass and get dad back." The King of Fire shrugged slightly.
After finally getting back on his feet, Rin could finally take a look around in search for Egyn.
A path of burned trees that hadn't been there before reached far into the forest.
It looked like a meteor had flown through the forest.
"What did you-" Rin started, but he was interrupted by a frustrated yell coming from the burning woods.
"Iblis! HOW. DARE. YOU." The King of Water crawled out under some fallen trees that hadn't completely turned to ash yet, his usually flawless exterior utterly ruined. Dirty and with part of his long hair singed, he stood up trying to regain his composure.
Iblis maintained his calm and carefree attitude, "I couldn't just let you kill our little brother. Didn't you hear? He's starting a little revolution and I'm going to help him. I wouldn't want it to be over too soon. Hey, maybe we even succeed in overthrowing dad."
"Are you insane?!"
The King of Fire shrugged, "I don't know. What I do know is that I won't let you beat up our baby brother."
The air around Iblis started to heat up while the ground around Egyn froze.
Rin didn't really understand what happened next.
A torrent shot up in the lake, shooting towards him and Iblis.
When Rin tried to brace himself for the impact, Iblis just calmly raised his hand and the heat seemed to explode around him.
He was sure that if he wasn't a fire demon, he would have burned to a crisp next to his brother, similar to how he burned that cake one time.
The torrent never hit the two of them.
"What happened?" Rin asked, looking towards where Egyn had been standing.
His form was now obscured by steam.
"Were you scared your flame would be drowned by the water?" Iblis grinned proudly, "Remember, if you fuel your fire right and put your whole heart behind it, no amount of water can put it out."
"What?" Rin didn't really know what that meant. As far as he knew, he always put 100% behind his flames.
Before Iblis could say another thing, the vague form of Egyn started to move again behind the fog, "Are you done talking?! I have had enough of you! Over 2 millenia I had to respect your position as a fellow Demon King. But now, finally, I finally have a reason to serve your head on a platter to Father! You may be my twin but I think I have never hated anyone more than you! Honestly, you betraying Father was a shock at first but now it's actually a nice little turn of events. I am going to end both of you."
Egyn had never lost himself like that, at least in Rin's knowledge.
When the steam cleared a little, he could see that Egyn was just looking rough.
It was hard to believe that he was the usually calm and collected King of Water.
His eyes stared at the two fire demons manically, he was clenching his fists while summoning every last ounce of his power. His clothes were tattered, dirty and exposing more skin than the demon had ever shown to anyone.
"Well, your turn. Show him how hot the Blue Flames are." Iblis calmly gave Rin a slight push towards the manic demon.
"WHAT?!" The Prince stumbled forward.

Before he could actually protest, Egyn grabbed Rin's leg with a hand made of water and threw him towards the lake again.
Learning from his past mistake of getting too close to the body of water, Rin rammed his dagger into the ground to hold himself in place.
Releasing his flames, he tried to evaporate the water grabbing his leg like Iblis had done before.
It started to boil a little but it kept its hold. In a split decision, he pulled his dagger out of the ground and threw it towards his attacker.
When the King of Water defended the grip on Rin's leg weakened and he could pull it out.

My flames need to be hotter.

Rin charged at his brother, picking up the dagger he had thrown before and that had been deflected by Egyn as he ran. He coated it in flames and used them to elongate the short blade into a full sword.
Egyn tried to keep his distance by throwing ice spears at the charging fire demon but to no avail.
Rin dodged every last spear, noticing that Egyn's attacks were slower than before.
The damage Iblis had done took a toll on the King of Water.
Getting a little too overly confident, Rin raised his sword when he reached Egyn, ready to strike him.
He failed to notice the grass and trees around them shriveling up, having their water drained from them.
A moment later he was encapsulated into another ball of water.
"Even like that, you have no chance against me. Just give up," Egyn sneered.
Rin looked behind him, this time Iblis didn't seem to make an effort to help him.
He had to do this on his own.
Trying to summon his flames again seemed futile.
The water surrounding him was freezing cold, drawing out the warmth out of Rin's body.
Egyn stepped closer to the sphere.
"It's honestly kind of pathetic looking at you." Egyn's voice wasn't calm like before. He seemed out of breath. There was a slightly deranged look in his eyes.
"Once I get you back to Gehenna, Father will finally be able to conquer this disgusting dimension."
This spurred Rin's anger. He would yell at Egyn, attack him again, if he was able to, but the water was limiting his movement and his ability to speak.
An angry glare was all the young demon could throw at the King of Fire.
He had to get out. He couldn't let his father conquer Assiah and kill all the innocent people inhabiting it.

Shiemi, Yukio…, fuck, even Mephisto wouldn't be able to escape Father's wrath… I have to save them.

Caught up in his own thoughts, Rin didn't even notice at first that he started to feel warmer.

I can't let this happen. Even the Paladin was so nice to me, I can't let him die either! And Shiemi's friends, the young exorcists!

Rin didn't consciously let the water around him boil.

"I CAN'T LET YOU KILL THEM!"

An explosion.