She looked up, spotting the volcano's peak above the countless buildings.

It was dormant, completely calm, yet her situation suggested otherwise. They weren't the Wakon she told Jyuzou about, rather, another tribe that freely roamed the streets of Omer Narrows, seemingly in and out of sight.

One would usually spot them, nodding with a light grin, holding hands together and presenting themselves as peaceful. Albeit, this attitude stemmed from an interior motive.

Koyote couldn't necessarily put her hand and tell the truth to anyone, simply because she had no answer herself. The only thing she went off were speculations about sacrifice and a vague memory.

It was a secret she wasn't to learn as easily.

Upon the song fading out, footsteps were heard, both light and heavy. Koyote waited as they fully disappeared within the next seconds. The chant sounded elsewhere, but farther from the paths she was to tread.

Her hand landed in the pocket again, and her eyes gazed at the silver watch. "Two minutes and thirteen seconds," she whispered. Her eyes widened.

On the other end, stood one of the white-robed, frowning distastefully.

"Two minutes, ten seconds," she muttered, putting the watch back into her pocket and her other hand on the object covered with the brown cloth. "Yeah, I can do this."

***

"I can't do it!" Morio yelled out, continuously struggling, with the water now at knee-level. Genni looked pale, while Jyuzou, despite the stress, focused on thinking.

"Stop it, I-Ingo!" Genni turned to him. "You're hurting yourself!"

"I'll escape!" Ingo triumphantly announced, pulling harder, with blood coming out from his wrists and splattering near his legs.

Jyuzou breathed out, heavily. Both hands and legs entangled, there was no book to put over his head to make this process of gathering notions a little easier. Even if, there was no way he'd put a book anywhere near the mentioned liquid.

Through his calamity of ideas, one managed to stay, despite the stress. As a Demonear, what kind of power was he to use to solve this problem?

Genni finally turned to the Morian, as if demanding answers, and Morio did as well, grinding his teeth. "I d-don't know!" Jyuzou raised his voice. "I'm trying to figure it out but I can't!"

The worst thing to do in such a situation is panic. But, how can you not? Shouldn't a Demonear's strength save you? Then again, there was no Guardian Demon to guard them.

A vein popped out on Ingo's bicep, as he sunk his fists further into the handcuffs. Genni swallowed saliva, breathing out shakily and unsteadily.

"Nothing." Morio bit his lip, muttering the word again. "Nothing! Make something out of nothing!"

Does power come from nowhere?

"What kind of c-conlusion is that, Morio?! Think!" Jyuzou raised his shaky voice.

"That's what I'm doing you dumbass!" Morio opened his mouth, almost growling. "What else is there to think if you keep telling me to stop struggling for my Shin-damned life!"

"M-Make something out of nothing?" Genni asked, turning her head. "Do you mean magic?"

"Magic!" Morio stated, gulping.

"We don't have our Guardian Demons with us!" Jyuzou announced. "Even if we did, we wouldn't have been able to reach them!"

"What other thing is there to do other than believe?" Morio asked.

"YOU NEED TO THINK, LOGICALLY!" Jyuzou screamed. "WE'RE GOING TO DIE, MORIO! DIE!"

"I'M NOT STRONG IN THE BRAIN!" What Morio meant was 'smart'.

Genni gulped, staring down. The water was now at stomach level, and Ingo didn't listen to any of their words. "H-How do you cast a spell?"

"Genni, please!" Jyuzou gasped. "This is not the solution!"

"Believe, Genni! It's a simple thought!" Morio uttered, forcing a grin. "Believe that it comes to your pounding heart!"

"B-Believe," Genni repeated, closing her eyes.

***

What did the Swannes believe in?

One wouldn't know the answer at first glance, but following surface-level conversations, and words here and there, a conclusion was drawn. Split apart demons from humans, as in, there's nothing in a human that makes them a demon.

Simply put, you don't need to lend a devil's power to prove your strength. A human is perfect, or at least should be.

Koyote stared forward, taking a massive wooden cross from under its cloth and spinning it around in both hands. Without further hesitation, the cloaked ran, hands swinging back and forth. With a growl, they leapt in her direction, only to be met with...

...absolutely nothing.

They tumbled to the ground, rolling for a few meters, before sounding a cough. "What?" they whispered, glancing around, slowly standing up, before meeting an incredibly sharp pain in their cheek, further spiralling into their teeth and the low ends of their tongue. A hit so hard and precise that a part of their jaw slightly snapped into two.

A pain that didn't come from a late reaction, but rather, an unpredictable movement. Through a thousand possibilities, none could have predicted Koyote's next move.

Striking from above, she sank her pointy shoe tip into their cheek, right until a single blood drop appeared on her footwear. She jumped back, lifted her weight off, and put the wooden cross over her shoulder.

They moved back in shock, blood falling out to the ground. With a halted cough, their covered eyes seemed to meet her silhouette, standing still.

They angrily bellowed out, launching three dull brown knives from a pocket inside their cloak.

Koyote squinted her eyes, focusing as they soared through the air.

With another blink of the Swannes, she swang the cross forward, and with a deep, loud, bassy noise escaping from the tip of the weapon, she found herself facing the opponent once again. Although now, much closer.

She looked at their face, but instead of attacking, she struck down.

The cross was now stuck inside the ground. Koyote flew off, touching one of its ends, and twisting it.

They yelled out, for a second, raising their fist, ready to attack.

***

The Morians felt the water rising, climbing into their already-soaked clothes as if carving a path for blood to arise. There were no steps to be taken, however.

Jyuzou wanted to cover both eyes since it seemed no one was to listen to his pleas. The struggling Ingo, the hearty Morio and Genni who he thought to be the only sane in this group.

The only thing his eyes could truly focus on at the moment, through all the stress and nervousness, was another school of fish, calmly floating through the waters. They didn't seem to think about the hurdles they faced. Water to them was life itself. Water was like air.

"Believe." Morio chanted.

Water, after all, in most cases, quenched their desperate thirst. Jyuzou wanted to remind himself of how good this liquid felt in Morta when there was nothing to drink. Was he meant to sink in what saved him back then?

"Believe!" Genni added.

"Believe!" Morio yelled

Ingo struggled.

Water's a double-edged sword, then. It can cure the deepest of wounds as well as create them. Rain, which is also water, brings sustenance to flowers and plants.

Likewise, it also does wrong. Water conducts electricity, and it was certainly something Jyuzou knew, but Morio, who, despite having magic that relied on injecting a ton of electricity into an object, didn't.

What other object, besides the damp air, did his hand touch?

"BZBZBZBZBZBZBZB."

A lightning bolt travelled through Morio's body, zapping him. His hair puffed up, turning a yellowish shade. Genni screamed out in shock, Jyuzou ground his teeth.

"MORIO!" Jyuzou huffed, in anger, all while the Morian fell forward and into the water. "YOU ABSOLUTE BUFFOON!"

Genni stopped, her expression softening into curiosity.

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU FROM THE BEGINNING?" Jyuzou announced.

"Jyuzou, Jyuzou!" Genni raised her voice.

"What?!"

"He's escaped the chains!" Genni uttered.

Jyuzou glanced at her for a second, then back at Morio who got back to his feet, putting a hand on his head.

Morio coughed out. "Huh!" he made a strange noise. "I escaped the cuffs!" he jumped up, landing in the water again.

"See?" Genni asked. "You just have to believe!"

"Morio." Jyuzou gulped. "Do that again."

"Hell no! That hurt!" Morio crossed his arms.

"DO YOU WANT US TO DIE?!" Jyuzou let a demon out of his throat that no one knew was there.

Morio breathed out, before clenching his fists again.

Standing in the pool, the water reached his shoulders, and he had to stick both pulsating hands out. He chanted once more. "Believe... b-believe!" he raised his voice.

The pressure pushed onto his head, as well as his entire body. Jyuzou's nervous and Genni's hopeful glances collided and thrashed with his closed eyes.

"Believe!" he yelled out.

Gloria grinned, tightly squeezing the rock and whispering murmurs under her breath. "Believe, believe..."

"BELIEVE!" Morio screamed his heart out, as he opened his palm, revealing a tiny ball filled with electricity flying out of his grasp. With a quick snap, his hand landed in the water.

An extremely loud sound followed, resembling something crashing combined with thousands of zaps storming in like ants. The entire glass room shook, and the four bodies inside were filled with an impulse of energy.

"What the hell?" Olala asked, looking down. "Should I do something?"

The chains let go of Jyuzou's and Genni's bodies, and with a halted gasp, the glass below broke.

Morio tripped, falling into the stream that formed around the chamber. He grabbed onto Jyuzou's clothes, and Jyuzou grabbed onto Genni's shirt.

While Genni tried grabbing Ingo, the latter never escaped from his shackles.

Genni tried screaming but was sucked into the current.

Ingo never changed his stance. Focused, he kept pushing, even though the room started sinking and breaking into thousands of pieces, some seldom cutting through his skin.

He ground his teeth, trying to yell out in vigour, through all the water climbing into his throat.

That force sent his veins pumping. Leaving bloody marks on the cuffs, he found enough strength to penetrate through their steel embrace and snap them in half. With the velvet juice almost creating a trail, he too, followed the others.

***

"One minute, fourteen seconds."

The Swannes member's fist landed on the wall, creating a dent in its stone exterior. With blood pouring down from their crashed fingers, their eyes shrunk at the realisation.

Koyote was never there.

But... the wall wasn't present either. Did they get teleported somewhere else? Who would possibly possess such a menacing power?

"Think I overdid that." Koyote's voice uttered from nowhere, and then again, the same sound from earlier could be heard. Something slid along the ground, piercing through wood and steel.

With a blink and a halted gasp, the member opened their eyes to... the canal.

"Those knives that you threw. Did you ever wonder where they went?" she asked, and before the white-cloaked could fully turn, Koyote jumped from above, kicking the three objects down. Two stabbed both shoulders, and the last one pierced the palm that tried covering their chest.

"Checkmate," Koyote uttered, sliding along the ground. "Fifty-two seconds," she muttered to herself.

The member opened their mouth, trying to scream out, but the only thing their body managed to accomplish was sending enough energy to their feet, a final warning that they should just run.

Koyote, swung the cross one last time as if to even deny that. Nothing strange and unusual happened, however.

Its simple blunt force sent the Swannes into the floating stream. A few seconds passed, and their fainted body floated atop the blue-ish surface. "They'll rescue you if they care. I'd never kill another human, but I'd hurt them."

The woman breathed out, putting the superbread over the wooden cross, brushing sweat off her covered forehead. "On all of the days in Gorro, you just had to have picked out the worst one to strike. But I guess." she put the cross over her shoulder. "You eat food while it's still hot." she stuffed a piece of the pastry inside her mouth.

Koyote closed her eyes, feeling the air invading her lungs. Then, she peered at her expression in the water, calm and collected.

Calm, if it wasn't for all the sounds coming from beneath the surfaces. Bubbles of air quickly appeared, distorting her face, she raised one brow. Stuffing the cross back on her back and covering it with a cloth, she used her other hand to search and feel around the liquid.

Soon enough, she lifted Morio out, then Jyuzou and Genni, finally finishing up with Ingo.

The Four Morians searched around for any oxygen. Morio flopped around like a fish for a couple of seconds, while the others were more normal.

After something else finally invaded his weary lungs, he turned to the others, coughing out.

"Should've predicted that." Koyote rubbed her chin.

"P-Predicted what?" Genni asked, putting her glasses back on, still shaking a bit.

"That you'd float down. There was no way you'd scour to the exit to float up to the fortress. Poor Olala's probably ripping her hair out of stress right now." Koyote concluded. "No, probably not."

"What the hell was that about?!" Jyuzou quickly ran up to Koyote. "W-We could've died!" he complained, sticking his finger out.

"But you didn't." she shrugged. "Seems you're good enough, then."

"Just like that?" Jyuzou shook his head.

Koyote raised both hands and he bit his lip, before turning around.

"Don't worry!" Morio put a hand on his shoulder, his words stopped by a cough that led to a fish jumping out of his throat. Morio gulped for a moment, in pure worry. Either way. "We still did it, Jyuzou!"

"This was inhumane!" Jyuzou shook his head.

"Inhumane? That's the closest you'll get to pure human strength. Water itself isn't a demon, and you fighting it further proves my point." Koyote scratched her elbow.

Pure human strength, splitting that far away from the demons. Koyote glanced back at the body that the others didn't see.

"Good job, Demonears."

Morio looked around momentarily, before a light smile tucked on the corner of his lips. Genni glanced, meeting Jyuzou's fury, and couldn't necessarily deny a similar feeling as well. On the one hand, she agreed. On the other, this entire fiasco proved that magic itself doesn't come from a Guardian Demon, but rather, your mind. Morio isn't as stupid if that theory checks out.

But did that mean her mind wasn't strong enough? She and Ingo were never taught magic in the first place. Thinking about the latter, she turned to the tallest Morian, who slowly strutted further from the others. His fists were clenched, and his walk, brimming with anger.

Genni took a step forward, reaching her hand out.

"Stop!" Ingo screamed, turning around instantly. "I don't wanna hear it!"

"Don't want to hear what?" Koyote asked.

"I'm not weak!" Ingo ground his teeth.

"I'm not saying anything." she shook her head.

"Pure human strength," Ingo muttered to himself. "Does this mean simple spells tower over everything that I did? It's nonsense!"

Koyote turned to Morio, who desperately brushed his fuzzy hair back into place. "Magic itself is still widely misunderstood, Ingo. I don't even know why they use such a whimsical word for something that stems from-"

"Bullshit." Ingo burged in. "Strength doesn't mean strength. Power doesn't mean power. What do any of these words mean to you? Just tell me! Am I strong, or just like any other weakling?!" Ingo's lip shook.

She didn't answer.

"See? Bullshit!" he stomped further away, hands swinging back and forth, while the Morians, as well as Koyote, all followed them with their eyes.

Koyote blinked, glancing at Morio and Jyuzou, then at Genni who started running in Ingo's direction. "Genni, don't," she uttered, and Genni halted, breathing in.

Jyuzou furrowed his eyebrows, turning towards the street leading back to Roses Alley, and Morio stared at the ground for a few seconds.

"He'll learn." Koyote continued.

Jyuzou fixed his glasses.