The man stopped walking, and looked. He was carrying a large sack on his shoulder. He took off running, the Chaos Heart Entity taking pursuit. Olly grabbed its tail again.
"Dimentio, Fawful! Stop him!"
"Right!" They both hurried after him.
"Mimi! Cut him off from the front!"
"I understand." She turned to her spider form and climbed on top of a building next to them.
"Father! Hold the Chaos Heart Entity back please! It's going to tear off my arms!"
"Right." He summoned a shield around the centaur, and Olly let go.
"Thank you..."
It dug its claws into the shield and began pushing it apart.
"Hold it back the best you can!" Olly went off ahead.
Dimentio had apparently tackled him to the ground, and was currently fighting to keep him down. Fawful and Mimi were slowly coming up behind the two with a potato sack.
Dimentio got off and they tackled the man with the potato sack. He began wrestling with them too. Olly grabbed a plank of wood nearby and wacked the man upside the head with it.
When he opened his eyes, it was still very dark. The looked around, panicked. The cover was torn from his head. Before him stood a jester and a centaur demon who was roughly three feet taller than the other. The centaur looked unstable, and was drooling and not breaking eye contact from him; which included the lack of blinking.
He found himself tied to his own chair. "Who are you? Why did you capture me? Why is this the chair from my house?"
"I am the only one asking questions here," the jester said. "I will be nice to you, this once. But step out of line and I am sure that my friend here would not mind murdering you."
"We are not friends, Dimentio...We still want your soul..." The centaur began shaking lightly.
"So, you're called Dimentio?" He asked.
"Yes, that is a name given to me by a good friend of mine. But enough about us. Tell me what your name is."
"My name? I don't trust you, so why would I do th-"
Dimentio snapped and pointed towards his face. The centaur stood to it full height and leaned over the table towards him.
"Another pure soul for our collection...!" Its breath was cold, and he could feel his face getting frosty from its speaking alone.
"Okay! Fine! I'll tell you! Just keep your supposedly possessed friend away from me..."
"We told you, we are friends with nobody..."
"Sit," Dimentio ordered.
It sat back down.
"Well? Who are you? What were you doing, prowling the streets with this?" Dimentio held up the bag.
"I need that!" He tried to grab it, but remembered his arms were tied to the arm rests.
"Then talk, mister."
"My name is Davidonell."
Dimentio's smile faded and he dropped the bag. "What?"
"Davidonell Midnite. And if you're here to turn me in to Darethend, just know that I can and will put up a fight."
Dimentio scoffed at him. "You know what? I changed my mind. Chaos Heart Entity, you can maul him now."
The centaur stood again. "Finally...I have been waiting to feast on a pure soul like yours for years...!"
"Wait!" Davidonell cried. "Who are you?! Just tell me before you kill me, so I die satisfied. Please."
"You don't recognize me? Did the missing limbs not ring any bells?"
"But..."
He rolled up his sleeve. "Remember me now; or do you need more proof? Here, I'll cut you the slack and just show you my face. That might help you remember!" His voice became a little shaky, and he sounded insane.
The Chaos Heart Entity watched in joy as Dimentio took off his mask. Davidonell recognized the hooked nose shape.
"D-Dimitri?"
He slammed his hands on the table. "Don't call me that! I hate you both! You ruined my life!"
"Dimi-Dimentio," he quickly corrected, "I didn't know Sandrahara actually did it...I-I'm so happy you survived. When the doctor told me you weren't supposed to live past two weeks I-"
"I know the story! Do you two have any other dialogue, or do you only know how to repeat my trauma to me like a broken record?!"
"Listen to me!"
Dimentio fell silent. Nobody's yelled at him like that before. The Chaos Heart Entity was pleased about the interaction, as there was plenty of negative energy for it to feed off of.
"I couldn't do anything to help you! I wanted to keep you, even if you did die! Sandrahara had fully custody over you, because I had to help the Organization for Peace and Freedom and I missed ten minutes of the meeting to see you after you were born! I didn't want to let you go! I know I should have fought her harder about her decision, but I never expected her to actually do it! Did you...did you meet Sandra?"
"I talked to her spirit, twice. I forgave her, but I would never accept her as a parent..."
"And it's fine if you want to do the same to me. I probably deserve it, anyhow. How long has it been?"
"Thirty six years."
"Heh...I can tell you're my son. You kind of look like me when I was younger. I see you've died your hair?"
Dimentio shoved his bangs into his hat and put his mask back on. "I'm...going through some things. You took this a lot better than Sandra did, that's for certain."
The Chaos Heart Entity's smile faded.
Dimentio sighed. "You're a lot nicer, too."
"I'm actually glad she took you off-world, even if I was against her action at first."
"Wh-why? Didn't you just say-"
"Darethend. He wants you and your power."
"Darethend?"
"The King. After your mother was killed sneaking you off-world, he's been trying to track you down. He even sent his highest advisor to retrieve you. Her name is Fyre Magiconia. She calls herself Magic for short."
"Advisor? But she was pretty against Darethend's plans. She even said her sister was being held captive."
"Well, she's not wrong. She did leave out the part of being the King's advisor at first though. But without Sandra's abilities, he can't get off-world. I'm glad you've been safe this whole time. I was worried you were captured by him years ago."
"Wait...Magic stole my powers, then drank it. I'm powerless now. So he's just going on a wild goose chase now."
"Do you have Fyre with you?"
He nodded. "She agreed to come with us."
"So if he finds out about her betrayal, he'll kill her and her sister. We can't let that happen. We need to stop him."
"Here, let me untie you-"
The Chaos Heart Entity stopped him. "You promised us a soul if we behaved...Where's our soul, Dimentio...?"
"Deal's off. I won't let you kill him."
"Then we'll just take the rest of yours..." They grabbed his wrist.
Dimentio shifted his stance. Thank goodness Olly told him how to fight without magic. He tossed the Chaos Heart Entity aside and began untying Davidonell.
"Persistent, aren't you...?"
"No time!" Dimentio picked up the chair, with Davidonell in it, and rushed out the building.
The Chaos Heart Entity tore off the wall, growling. "You made us a promise!"
"Oh? Since when has a being of entropy been keen on promises?"
It growled again, but calmed down.
Dimentio was working on untying Davidonell again. Magic, who was standing nearby, started helping him. Davidonell flicked his wrists a few times when he was freed.
"Thank you. May I have that bag back please?"
"Why?" Magic asked. "What's important about a bag?"
"It's supplies. We're planning on storming the castle, but we're not entirely ready yet. I was scavenging for supplies in order to help them. I'm the leader and I have to do what I can to help my team."
"Leader?" Dimentio asked. "Oh, we have one too. Why don't you meet him? They're nearby."
Fawful was trying to start a fire since it was starting to get dark. The rest of them were huddled around Fawful's attempt. Olly had offered to help, but Fawful claimed he had in under control.
"Um...Hello." Davidonell said hesitantly.
"Oh?" Olly looked up at him. "Based off the fact you're still alive, I'm assuming that the interrogation went well? I hope Dimentio wasn't too hard on you. He's a nice man, but you have to get through his barriers first."
Dimentio started helping Fawful with the fire. Magic sat down next to Olivia. The Chaos Heart Entity scoffed at Davidonell before laying down in the dirt in a shady corner.
"That centaur demon," Davidonell started, "why does it look like that? It's robotic, almost. Cold, and dead."
Olly looked at it, then back to Davidonell. "It's my friend, Olive. The Chaos Heart took over him a little while back and turned him into that creature. Right now, we're trying to help Olive take back control before the Chaos Heart Entity steals his soul." Olly pat the seat next to him, on the other side. "Sit."
Davidonell sat next to him, being taken a little off-guard from Olly's short height. "My name is Davidonell Midnite. Apparently, Dimentio over there is my son?"
Olly nodded. "My name is Olly Kami Shokunin, but Olly's fine. Sandrahara mentioned you once in the book that brought us here."
"You know Sandra?"
Olly held up the book. "See for yourself. All of our leads pointed us here. Plus, we needed to go here for something else anyways, so I guess we're here for a few different reasons. You're so calm about all of this. Sorry about knocking you out earlier. You were fighting us pretty hard, and I just wanted to talk. You're the first person we've seen since coming here."
"You look familiar to me."
"I get that a lot. Does the name Sandi ring any bells?"
"I think I might have heard that before?"
"I thought so. The book was possibly donated by Sandi using a pen name. I was thinking that since she had it, she would know you and Sandra. Do you mind if I just call you David for short?"
"Sure."
Fawful couldn't get the fire going, so he pulled out his blaster and lit the fire by shooting the sticks instead. "Fawful got it! Fawful needed none of the helping!"
"You gave up and used your gun," Dimentio said. "But I suppose that if it works, it works."
Mimi was watching David from the corner of her eye until Dimentio sat down next to her and started whispering something to her.
"Who's that?" David asked, motioning towards Mimi.
"That's Mimi. She's a shapeshifter. Apparently, she's also a Spider Demon. But she's not from here, I don't think. Her home is in the Mushroom Kingdom."
"Has Dimentio seemed...off to you in any sort of way?"
"Huh?"
"He said he was thirty six, but he still looks human. Once the demons or half bloods hit a certain age..."
"They aren't human anymore?"
"Well, no. They're still human-like, but most demon types have certain features that put them apart from others. Like Mimi there. I know she's a Spider Demon now, so the thin limbs show me that further. Even if she chooses to take a human form, she still has an attribute of her true form. The lanky black limbs are on her true form, no?"
Olly nodded. "But Dimentio isn't a demon, right? Even if so, did the Classic Demons have anything to show for it? I mean, Sandra didn't make it sound like that."
"True, but I have a feeling he's something more. But that might just be me."
"But I'm glad you're nice. It's always good to have somebody who knows their way around to help us. Magic hasn't been in this place before so she hasn't been the most help."
"And I'm glad to help others who want to take down that tyrant of a ruler."