The demons were now gathered in an empty barren field in hell. Vlad had decided to keep their numbers up and growing. He wanted a big army so that he could speed up his victory of the war and spend his days leisurely with Vanora.

To do so, he had no choice but to teleport the entire army back to hell with him because an army of the current size now would be very easily spotted even from far.

"This will be our last battle and it will be our victory!" Vlad said confidently to his army that has now grown to triple its size from before.

Everyone cheered noisily. They were happy about getting back the lives where they could work, eat, and play all they wanted whenever they wanted. However, only one person hid her worries from showing on her face. The last battle...

Despite looking calm as usual on the outside, Vlad noticed that she was a little more fidgety than usual. She also seemed a little distracted to him. His ability to tell how she felt was improving to the point that he did not need to rely on his aura perception.

While everyone else either got busy making preparations for the final battle or resting up for it, he gestured with a nod to ask her to follow him. She obediently followed him to a more secluded part of the forest, thinking that there was something he needed to do there. However, he suddenly stopped in a random spot then turned around to face her.

"What's troubling you?" His voice was soft and gentle.

Her eyes widened slightly in surprise as she was caught off-guard with his question. 

"Erm. Its nothing."

Nonetheless, Vlad tried to comfort her. "This may be our largest and fiercest battle as of yet, but don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you." Before she knew it, she found herself being embraced. 

As she felt familiar with him and his touch by now, she did not fight it and continued to let herself be hugged. She closed her eyes and listened to his steady heartbeat. Focusing entirely on his heart beat helped her to gradually relax her stiff body. Now that her guard was let down again, she let slip her concern in a soft whisper. "There's an angel that we shouldn't face, it won't turn out well..." 

"Who?" He gently probed.

Her eyes flew open as she realised what she just said. Her mind quickly searched for an excuse then she realised that she had one conveniently at hand all along. "I don't know. My instinct simply tells me that there's an angel who would end our lives and win the war."

His look turned serious as he thought about what she said. Could this be a prediction made with all the knowledge and information she unconsciously gained from all the angels she has fought before? "You should take your instincts seriously. Don't reject it then worry about it on your own. With that said... This seems serious... We may need to alter our plans a little..." 

He considered ditching the war and his role as the demon lord just to keep Vanora safe, after all, her safety was his priority, but he felt that she probably would not like this kind of cowardly behaviour.

The initial plan was for them to take part in the battle as they have always been. Vlad then got inspiration from the way he trained Vanora at the start and decisively changed the plan to a dungeon like progression with him and Vanora as the boss to be defeated. The underground maze could be full of traps created manually and supernaturally. This way, they could conserve their energy and face the strongest angels at their full strength while the angels would ideally be fatigued. 

Vanora thought about his plan and agreed to it since it sounded reasonable to her. She could only hope that facing Angela at her full strength was even enough to survive and run away. 

Vanora started planning the actions she could take. Once she reached the final development in the plot, it should not be an issue changing how things end as long as the change was not too drastic. Although her going missing instead of dying would hardly make any impact in the story, what mattered was that Vlad going missing during this battle could be masked as him dying. It would not do to have him disappear before he even faced off a worthy opponent. Anyone would find it fishy and the plot may force him to somehow encounter Michael and Angela again. She latched onto the hope that Vlad may not really have to die after all. After everything that he has done for her, she would like to repay him by saving his life at the very least.

BaoBao, when are you coming back? We're already nearing the big boss battle. Didn't you enjoy this sort of moments? Didn't you find it exciting? Come back soon then. I'm still waiting for you.

For the next few days, Vanora pretended to not be in the mood to go anywhere else except the underground maze that was being constructed and the castle. In reality, she did not want to take the chance of meeting Michael and Angela before the final battle. 

Eventually, the hell beings initiated battle with the angels. They split into the different groups and went in search for the remaining angels who were still up for a fight. A majority of the hell beings were successful in luring the angels towards the underground maze where the curse placed in the area takes away their power of flight before the ground would swallow them alive while they were distracted and preoccupied with getting back their ability. One of the ones who had the most trouble was the group that got spotted by a pair of angels. This pair was a male and female angel who shared great chemistry and teamwork, thus easily overpowering the hell beings. They were none other than Michael and Angela. 

Just as Angela ignored the loss of her ability to fly to pierce her sword through the last one who had been scrambling backwards on all fours to get away, the hell being grinned before he disintegrated into sparkles. At the same time that the hell being disintegrated, the pair found out the reason behind his grin. 

Somewhere near the center of the maze, in a space that had only one entrance, Vanora kept her eyes closed as she used her enhanced sense of hearing and smell to keep track of the ongoing battle. She had wondered if she could use this ability of hers to direct her flames through the ground and provide support, but the noise was too much to the point it gave her a jarring headache. With so much disruption and her feeling so overwhelmed, she gave up the idea of providing support for the ones fighting out there. However, she kept up her surveillance. 

While time trickled by, beads of sweat began to form on her forehead. If BaoBao was here, knowing about the happenings beyond these walls would be a piece of cake...

Vlad started looking concerned about her. The whole point of staying in the place that Vanora felt was safest was so that she could conserve her energy. Just as he thought to ask her to take a break, Vanora's eyes flew open. 

She finally heard the sound that she has been waiting for. A voice she would never forget. "The angel you have to defeat is in tunnel A4." She immediately told Raven who was waiting on standby by the entrance to the space they were in.

Raven disappeared without a sound but Vlad and Vanora knew that she has went to pursue the supposed strongest angel. Vlad trusted that Raven would at least put the angel on his or her last leg since this kind of complete darkness that enveloped the entire underground maze could be labelled as her play ground. Whereas Vanora dared not relax. She has experienced enough failures to be complacent or over confident at the most important juncture. 

Michael's and Angela's eyes took awhile to adjust to the sudden and complete darkness of their surroundings. They could only hear the sounds of battle all around them and occasional flashes of light.

"What happened? Where are we?" Angela asked warily.

"We've fallen into their trap. This was probably their plan all along." Michael kept his calm on the other hand.

When another flash of light lit up the tunnel, it lit up the profile of a cold beauty in front of Michael's face. His heart finally did a flip as he dodged the blow she would have finished him off with otherwise.

"Angela!"

"I saw her!" She quickly used all the light powers she had and that granted them occasional light that revealed Raven's position. Although Raven was behaving and appearing unpredictably, the two of them had great reflexes that allowed them to escape her attacks by the skin of their teeth each time. 

After a long drawn out fight, successive attacks by Michael and Angela that came from randomly swinging their swords in the dark resulted in an incidental chain combo that gave Raven nowhere to run to. Raven was forced to back off and disappear into nothingness. As the pair saw Raven back off, they took this chance to keep up their attacks and ended up busting through the wall. They refused to be the rats in their maze. 

The entire place rumbled dangerously while they charged straight through the hole they blasted in the wall. Having more angels chaining their attacks together would give them the light they needed to see in the dark. So that was their plan as they tried their hardest to gather up with the other angels.

As a result, Raven lost the cover of the darkness and could only rely on hiding in shadows and her physical prowess. However, try as hard as she might, she did not seem to be able to get closer in defeating them. This greatly unsettled her as the angels were getting increasingly closer to Vlad and Vanora. 

Meanwhile back in the room, Vanora was getting a queasy feeling. She was still paying attention to the sounds of battle, so she knew that Angela and Michael had not been defeated yet. She knew that it was unlikely that Vlad and she would be so lucky for Michael and Angela to die at Raven's hands. It still did not feel nice though.

Suddenly, she looked to her right in an alarmed state then held firmly onto Vlad's arm to pull him backwards together with her. 

At the same time the wall to their right got blasted down, Vanora created a hole in the top part of the wall of the dead end she threw Vlad and herself at. It created a temporary platform to silently observe from above. This was how they witnessed the end of Raven. In her haste that resulted from the loss of her cool, she got careless and lost her life in a short exchange of blows. Raven's decapitated head and headless body disintegrated into white sparkles.

Michael and Angela had not noticed Vlad and Vanora at all and intended to head back out through the hole they blasted in the wall, until a pair of bright golden lights in the corner of their eyes caught their attention.

While the brief fight between Raven and the angel couple went down, Vlad could tell from Vanora's rugged breathing that she seemed slightly emotionally unstable. What he did not know was that Vanora felt like the intense hateful emotions wrecking her body were not hers. It was so intense that she could barely hold on to her sanity. Without knowing, she dug her nails into Vlad's arms so hard that it drew blood. 

Are you thinking thinking of letting her go? Of running away? A deep voice suddenly resounded clearly in her head. 

Vanora paled in shock.

The voice cackled in the same way it did when it first communicated with Vanora.

Surprised? Demons don't have a weak thing like trust. See what would have happened if I trusted you?! I told you that it was conditional! Since you aren't taking your revenge for us, I'll do it! The voice was now full of rage. 

In the next moment, her eyes glowed golden and she dashed towards Angela within a split second. 

The emotions of the demon that was now in control of her body was far more intense and unhinged than Vanora's, so her strength was now greater as well. He engaged Angela in a close combat fight and recklessly kept it that way at the expense of her body. With every swing and use, her muscles were strained beyond their limits. With every hit, her bones got fractured. New cuts gradually covered her body and blood started to flow freely. He was exhilarated at the flexibility and speed her much smaller and nimble body offered him as compared to his old body when he was alive, so he completely let himself loose.