L found herself once again in a seemingly endless void. She wondered if she was dying or dead again, but somehow this felt different. She was more confused, she could not quite tell where she was, or if she was here at all. L was unsure from what perspective she was even seeing her surroundings. After a few moments she heard a voice. Her voice. "It's a dream. Or something very close." A vision of herself appeared, but she had violet horns and wings, and her eyes burned with purple fire. L called out "A dream? But I thought..." The demon L smiled, "Not you, we. We thought we could not sleep right? We are the same person after all." L tried to focus her thoughts as the demon version of herself continued speaking. "I believe I am something akin to your subconscious, however I originate from your demonic body. In truth, I believe you are only perceiving me separately from yourself because you are dreaming. I am a body created not just for you but as you. As a demonic body, it is probable that I was created as the perfect reflection of you. I have no will, as your will is the only will between us. I have no desire as your desire is the only desire between us." Rather than surprise, L listened with interest. She had already wondered why her demonic form, if they were beings without souls, would not have its own... will or personality. "However, now that you have awakened the demonic part of yourself, I suspect I function as a... second instinct, or a second subconsciousness. Forcefully activating the demonic parts of yourself has awoken something that can never be put back to sleep." The demonic version of herself smiled at her surroundings. "On the subject, we... or rather I, as we are I... are not a simple demon. I can smell it on us, my other half, the reason we... I... originally slipped into the in-between. The rules of the world are looser for me now. Under the correct circumstances, I might slip the bonds of the God's rules. Who decided I was immune to sleep? It wasn't me." As the demonic L spoke, L's perspective started to shift to hers. Seeing from her eyes, moving her hands. L continued to speak with her mouth.
"We have to be careful; my soul and my body are not compatible. Every time you tap into me, your demonic power and instinct, we risk damaging ourselves. At some point I will not survive. However, the more natural it seems to us, the safer it becomes. For example, I felt only pain, deprived of sleep and peace. So, we could find no peace in sleep. Then our master arrived, and despite the turmoil and troubling thoughts he caused, I found a sense of peace with his presence. Because peace is closer to sleep then pain, I was able to achieve that which we desired." L nodded to herself as she listened to the words pouring out of her mouth. "I do not know what awaits us when you awake. I also do not know if your body will one day develop its own will and desires. Trust our demonic instincts, they are much more powerful than the original mortal one’s you posses." The Demon L, or rather perhaps simply L, continued to speak however L could no longer hear it as she had awoken suddenly.
"You should have told me that in the first place." V was speaking to Luna, who was wagging her fox tail excitedly. "Well, I just remembered it! I was more concerned about the instructions! I only remembered while Eika was yelling at me about going outside the barrier." Eika made a sour face at the bold-faced admission that Luna was not listening to her, but was thinking about other things. "So we ran over right away to tell you!" V was still setting next to L as he massaged his temple. "You are sure there was nothing else? He said he gave you this green sludge stuff because he wanted to thank me for killing the Champion of Violence." Luna nodded, her tail swishing back and forth, angling her head toward V, clearly under the belief she should be praised for her actions. V hesitated, she really deserved to be chided rather than praised, but it's not like yelling at her would accomplish anything. V patted Luna's head reluctantly. "Oh right. He also said that some lady called U would be coming to kill you since you killed the Champion of Combat." V had to keep himself from grabbing Luna's head out of anger.
V stood up as Eika attempted to lecture Luna again. "I’m going for a walk." V needed to do something to burn off his frustration. The gods themselves could have come down and spoken to Luna, telling her all the secrets of the world and the girl would have forgotten to tell him. He wondered if T, assuming it was T, knew how stupid and unreliable the girl was, or if he just got unlucky. V considered the abilities T displayed previously. It was probable he at-least knew Luna was an airhead, it’s likely how he knew he could lure her out of the barrier with just a few "pssts." V wandered near the barrier again, perhaps he would see T and be able to clear the situation up. V rolled his eyes to himself. As if he would get that lucky. The constant pain and weakness was making him irritable. As he wandered, nothing outside the barrier caught his eye for quite a long time. Exhausted he turned to return to his bed. A strange pattering noise made V furrow his brown and he strained to listen.
"Luna, remember how the first thing Eika taught you was about secrets?" Luna nodded happily as Eika continued. "Secrets are very very important, but the opposite is also very very important. When you are told to give someone a message, it can be just as -" Eika's words caught in her throat as a multitude of the golden spirits materialized. One stood over top each wounded individual. They held all manner of weapons and shields. Eika had never seen them armed before, something bad must have happened. The sky shimmered above them, and a legion of shimmering golden spirits materialized in the air, their appearance was that of beautiful winged women, the spirits of the ground all appeared male. The beings in the air also held weapons. "Oh well this is very pretty isn't it? Look at all the golden people!" Luna was looking all around, wide eyed. Eika on the other hand was in absolute damage control mode. She prepared her sling and metallic balls. A shuffling noise at her feet attracted her attention. L was desperately struggling to get up, but her body simply was unable to muster the strength to obey her will. "V.... Blessing.... Lady... Protector. Something...... wrong." L's words where sloppy, as if she was speaking with a mouth full of cotton, but Eika understood. Something happened to V! "Luna, you have to stay here with L! I am going to find V!" Luna nodded and patted L on the head. "I will watch her!" Luna said seriously. Eika started off, following the path that V had taken when he wandered away.
V blinked through the pain and disorientation. He had not even known what happened before he was thrown forward with great force, crashing into a few boxes of supplies that had been several feet in front of him. Looking up, he saw a small individual, perhaps the same size as Luna. It was a small girl... woman? With mouse like ears and whiskers she was shaking her head, which by the look of things, she had slammed through the barrier. "How dare enter this place of peace?" A voice that V could only describe as "Thundering" roared out from above. Crashing downward, directly between him and the mouse girl, Alice... or... something very like Alice slammed into the cobblestone, shattering the street. Fire and heat accompanied her landing. Her golden hair was floating, as if she was under water. From her back massive, multi-tiered feathered wings had erupted. What V could only describe as a cloak of golden fire adorned her right side, covering her shoulder. In one hand she held her mace, in the other Alice held her broadsword. Up and down the broadsword sparks of golden light jumped, and the head of the mace wavered, as if V was looking at it through a body of water. The mouse girl smiled widely. "This should be fun! The Fire Champion was right!”
Luna watched as green fire erupted off in the distance. As she watched the flames rise, they reflected in her eyes. She watched them for a few moments before looking at L. "Hey hey! Let's go over that way! I know it’s hard but you should try to crawl till you run into the guy with no face. His whole head is bandages." Luna skipped off in that direction. L struggled, she could barely move, but she had to try and follow the girl. Luna had shown a certain proclivity for avoiding danger in the past. L slowly dragged herself forward. Checking the faces of those she passed. The Golden spirits paid her no mind, but roughly half of the ones filling the sky had flown off toward the green fire.
An explosion of rocks and wood emanated from a building fifty or so yards away from Luna as O crashed through it. As O's body flew through the building, the golden spirits standing over the injured deflected her body enough that she, somehow, landed without injuring anyone. As O began to stand up, another fifteen spirits poured out of the house that O had been flung from, crashing into her in a wild flailing of bodies and weapons. Luna giggled at the silly spirits as she found the pincushion man, she thought she remembered him begin called the Crafting Man or something. But to her, he would always be the pincushion man! He had so many weapons in him when he first arrived. Luna waved in front of his face "Hey there! Are you awake? I am going to be rolling you around. Just think about it like a fun ride! That is what I did when I fell off that roof the one time when I was chasing that pigeon that stole my food." O was once again thrown, passing right behind Luna as the spirits chased her. "Hup!" Luna made effort noises as she rolled the Champion of the Hearth off of his bed. "Hay Mr. Spirit thing, I’m going to take care of this guy. Could you find the missing arm lady and bring her over to the missing face guy?" The golden spirit looked her for a few moments. The purity of Luna's soul could not be questioned, and he no longer needed to guard the wounded man, as this girl had taken over the duty. It slowly nodded, and walked off toward the Champion who had a missing arm and eye. "Thanks mister pretty golden man!" Luna called as she struggled to continue rolling pincushion man. She should have got Eika to help her, this was hard work!
