Stepping through the darkened and shallow corridors of Grimmora, Lisbeth quickly found herself nearer the tops of the lengthy stretches of formations above.

With some blood flowing down from the open wounds on her hand, they paved the way towards her closed eyes to finally open, facing the sight.

With palms clung to the sharp railings, she focused. No other sound was present except for something dripping in the distance. Dripping, as in, it could've been the water from the bucket in the well not far from here, or the trail of blood she tugged along the way up the stairs.

Either way, something disturbed it the second she closed her eyes and stuck another ear out.

"Did you do it?" Leiru asked, his eyes shrunken.

"Did what?"

"I thought it was obvious." Leiru backed away. "Because I certainly did."

Lisbeth put her hands on the railing again, glancing at the hushed scenery, before uttering a few more words. "Where is everybody?"

"Right where you expected them to be. You paved quite the way, demoness." Leiru chuckled. "...and frankly, I'm tired of always holding back."

Lisbeth gulped. "I'm not going to do anything against Shi Hon's will."

"Not anymore?" he asked. "Even though, back then, you were so keen on showing this world the righteous justice. Why give up on it?"

"I can't."

Leiru sighed, with one final glimpse with his three squinted eyes. Lisbeth clenched her fist, before promptly letting go. The other figure trod the stairs, before disappearing into the darkness.

Lisbeth took a step forward.

***

"Bingo!" A voice echoed through the dense trees of Orawood.

Two halted breaths away, and Rowan's eyes shrunk at the gaping hole in the Mirillian's palm.

Atomu immediately turned his head, glancing around nervously, while Chyuuichi groaned in pain, staring at his destroyed hand.

"Chyuuichi!" Rowan raised their voice, speedily waddling over as the Mirillian collapsed onto their bent knee.

They ground their teeth, putting his bloodied arm in theirs and closely examining the wound.

"No," they muttered, swiftly glimpsing up. "Don't just stand there, Atomu!" they raised their voice. "Chase the enemies!"

Atomu hesitated for a moment, before bending down, putting his weapon into his hands and sliding off the orange hill into the forests they trod, now engulfed in gloom that generously limited his vision.

The path seemed unfamiliar. There were too many leaves, barks and grass growing where Atomu swore the stepped-out road appeared. His ears picked up the sound of the river's stream flowing somewhere to his left, followed by a howling wind in the distance that eventually blew in his face, denying the traces of any enemies taking their shots.

He looked up, spotting the mountains stretching above the sky, some even close to the moon.

Then, a quick scour from a nearby bush. Alerted, the Paladian put his weapon in both hands, raising it ever so slightly. "Who goes there?!" he raised his voice.

"One try!" A voice echoed in the distance. Although now, it was closer to whispers than an actual exclamation of joy. Atomu furrowed his brows and ran forward, tumbling on a few roots growing around the big oaks and willows, blindly choosing a direction.

"One try!" it happened again, and Atomu leapt forward, as sure as rain about his theories. The only thing he found on the other side of the red foliage was a stash of daisies freely growing out of the dried grass. He rolled on the ground with an annoyed groan, before steadily brushing off whatever landed on his face earlier.

A couple of twigs, a few yellow leaves and a cut-off finger, although a little greenish. Atomu quickly shook it off his hand in mild panic, before turning to his right again, hearing as the scouring moved elsewhere and turned into running. The mentioned noise was accompanied by screams as if the ones who shot at Chyuuichi were gleeful about their successful escape. A drop of sweat rolled down his face.

Atomu raised his voice in anger, chasing through the forest, and holding the weapon at his side.

However, with each step, Knrhum's Blade felt heavier.

The laughs faded away.

"One try, and a great success!" a feminine voice announced again, all while Atomu huffed. "Dad will be so proud!"

His own Guardian Demon grew unbearable to handle. From holding it up above his head to his side to sliding it across the ground, it didn't feel like a weapon, but yet another burden to carry. He breathed out, then sighed, hearing nothing.

The wind picked up again, creating gusts, forcing some of his hair to split into two ends. He heard the river again, looking down. His foot stepped into the shallow waters, and his weapon landed elsewhere, with a strange red tinge to its sharpest ends. It caught his attention, but when he tried to take a closer look, something else stopped him.

Rowan's scream moved from above the various crowns and carried itself to the Paladian's ears. Atomu gulped, turning on his foot. Leaving the weapon behind in a hurry, he ran up the hill where they parted a while ago.

Not even two minutes had passed, and Chyuuichi's skin changed from a light complexion to complete paleness. His breaths were heavy and inconsistent, and his eyes, half-closed.

Atomu took a step back. "What happened?!"

"Did you catch those bastards?" Rowan asked.

"N-No, they ran away already!" Atomu shook his head.

"Ugh." Rowan fixed their glasses. "We're screwed, then."

Chyuuichi breathed in and out, slowly. One eye was closed, and the other wearily observed the Paladian.

Atomu reached his hand out, but Rowan quickly slapped his palm.

"Don't touch it! It might spread." The Tributal informed, hand landing in their medicinal bag, searching for bandages.

"It? Poison?" Atomu opened his mouth.

"Not even regular poison. It's like a disease, eating away at every cell in his body." Rowan clenched their jaw, pouring a strange substance over the open wound before connecting two plasters, creating a thick layer of cloth above his palm. "He's going to die in a few days."

"Die?!" Atomu exclaimed, his eyes shrinking in fear. "N-No! Chyuuichi can't die!"

"Then don't focus on the possibility and look at what you can do, Paladian," Rowan uttered, a tinge of seriousness hidden among their stern words. Focusing on his face, the two's eyes met for a solid second. "Search for the cure!"

Atomu moved away. "H-How?"

"The enemies are the antidote!" they bellowed. "I'll explain later, but you need to get a grip and find them before something like this happens again! Take that damned bow and arrow from their hands!"

Atomu groaned unsurely, sliding along the ground, pushing one hand into the grass and standing up, trembling. Rowan's gaze, once again, full of expectations seemed even overwhelming at the moment. He saw it, after all, how they ran away while laughing. He felt how heavy the Knrhum's Blade grew for no apparent reason.

Was he going to have to witness someone he cared for die?

Again?

Chyuuichi's eyes landed on Atomu's face.

"Don't give up." A voice echoed in Atomu's head.

After all, the simple Paladian mind would always suggest taking the most logical routes. Keep chasing until you find your prize, keep running for your life.

Much like Norbert Kris himself, all those years ago. He too, ran for humanity.

Atomu headed down the slope, as something zoomed through the air, cutting his shoulder.

"Atomu!" Rowan raised their voice, standing up, quickly taking their Sunglow out of a sheath.

Atomu's hand quickly landed on his own body, sharp nails, growing out of his fingers following a heap of pain. He glanced down, feeling an open wound spurt out blood that dripped down from his hand and onto curly grass.

One arrow landed next to Atomu's leg, and when he finally breathed in, the Paladian saw something resembling a vine burning away.

Rowan moved forward, ready to strike, right as a plethora of such creep revealed itself in the nearby distance, climbing down from the trees and onto the ground, sliding around like Malikan snakes, moving around various pits and valleys of the country. The Tributal drew their bow again, but when they wanted to shoot, the greenery disappeared.

They quickly sprinted downhill and Atomu followed. A silhouette moved through the darkness, but whenever his hand pushed forward, nothing was there. The gloom shaped itself into a slightly lesser fog, with a blue hue opposing the red leaves from above. A few fell on their heads, and Atomu took a heavy step to the right, seeing as the roots he trod by seemed familiar.

Roots turned into small twigs, twigs into destroyed branches and branches into dry grass, where a thick outline of something that once laid in the yellow tufts was gone. Among the silhouettes, the shape of an open eye was visible. Atomu's pupils grew smaller.

Knrhum's Blade was gone.

Rowan threw their Guardian Demon to the ground, stressfully staring down. They couldn't risk it again, leaving Chyuuichi and Bancho behind to chase after something that may not even exist.

They turned to Atomu, quickly grabbing him by his clothes and essentially dragging him up the small hill.

***

Chyuuichi lay still, perhaps asleep, or fainted from the pain. With a heap of stress passing through Atomu and a sense of redundancy bearing a hold on the Tributal's feelings, they started wrapping his body in a similar cloth that adorned Bancho.

Rowan looked up, seeing Atomu's shaky hands, and his eyes, teary and confused.

"Ancient weapons." Rowan finally broke the strange silence, and Atomu glanced at them with a quiet sniff. "The bow is the only one which had its arrow dipped in the soils of Exeter. The holy spoils, the ground where the city meets One's domain."

Atomu brushed something off his cheek.

"The Tributals left in the Mainland barely resemble what they created in that city. Something greatly lost to time, and when that itself doesn't abide by rules it simply means it's dead."

"Will Chyuuichi die?" Atomu muttered.

"Not if my theories are correct. If we can't find the same arrow to stab his hand with to negate the disease, the only thing we can count on is a miracle." Rowan's eyes turned to Atomu's, peaking out from their eyebrows. "What do you know about Orawood?"

Atomu moved back. "Stories. Not much more though... except for the few, my family or friends w-weren't necessarily fond of the forests."

"Plants and wildlife, Atomu." Rowan signalled with their hand. "Is there something that grows or lives here which can potentially cure a cold or something along those lines? Anything."

"D-Devil's Leaf."

"I already have that here and frankly, I don't expect to stuff herbs into his closed mouth."

Devil's Leaf grew on the first days of Dear under the blackwan trees in Malikan. When added to water, it creates destressing fumes, and when consumed, it lets out a strange odour but cures the more common diseases.

Atomu put his hand on his forehead. "The Red Willow Sap?"

"Red Willows grow in Harabara and they share their sap with Whites. They're only a pathway for a fever to eliminate those infected cells, but if there are no cells then-"

Rowan halted their words.

"Algae." they finally uttered, and Atomu turned.

"Purple Algae Lakes?" Atomu quickly added, and Rowan raised their brows, followed by a quiet gulp.

"A-Algae itself kills any life left in those bodies of water. Poison fights poison, but poison kills." Rowan clenched their fist, sinking it into the ground.

"Do you know where it is?" Atomu continued.

"Nowhere close." Rowan huffed, shaking his head. "But we could make it if we run."

Atomu stared up.

With a shaky breath, Rowan stood up, stomping on the various logs that made the campfire. "I'll take Bancho's body. You carry Chyuuichi!"

Preventing death and curing diseases were topics that circled back to the corpse they were carrying to Orania. After all, it was Bancho who singlehandedly cured the Paladian sickness.

It first appeared amongst Royals in Saphrith, locking away half of the Filhemon family in one castle, as they observed it spreading among its people and moving into Eldham. That itself was quickly carried by the wind and into the few travellers hiking towards Prope Portam, and the rest was history.

Season-long fevers, constant thirst and hunger, bloody coughs and runny noses were only half of the symptoms commonly experienced, and most of the time that led to death only after two weeks of struggling. If, by some miracle, you lived through that period, that pain would never truly fade if it wasn't cured, leaving you bedridden for the rest of your days.

Why push on then? Because a cure was promised. Carrying the Clavis Crystal found in a stash of Lapuna Flowers, Bancho started from the source. The first infected created a form of anti-disease, and then onwards, most of the survivors were successfully cured.

Now, with the item rolling around in Atomu's pocket, he was torn. If it held so much power, couldn't he bring back Elton? It could've been Bancho as well, or the Mirillian fading away with each second.

When was the right moment?

He ground his teeth, as he continued running. His legs weren't going to give out.