Outside the lava, Mia was pacing back and forth in anxiousness, knowing not the state of her master worried her dearly, there were also her first two blood kin down there who might or might not make it back

'I hope whatever they found is manageable'

The witness was manageable for sure, what worried her was the lava suddenly turning over like an actual body of water, followed by its temperature reaching extreme degrees that were barely withstandable even with the smeared stuff, and that was outside it!

Buk bukbuk buk

Bubbles started to form on the surface indicating something coming out, and quickly at that, causing the lava to explode as the being made its exit

There was no need to question whether the new arrival was friend or foe, it's presence was more than hostile enough to provide a clear answer

The emerged figure was gray all over, a wrathful eye gazing at her from within the open maw as well as the many eyes which bore the same grudging look

"Master!!!"

Upon sighting what one of the tentacles held her pupils constricted, calling upon her bat form to fly at the dangling charred figure, with every intent of sacrificing her life to save him

The Witness threw it toward her without a fight, something she didn't suspect but had no time to think about, clutching the blackened YuJu with her claws, and taking him away from this place

'Gotta get Master to Subrina! She has to have something to help tide over this'

Her thoughts were over optimistic however, it wasn't as if the Witness would just let her go, following her wherever she went, at a speed just barely shy of catching her, as if it was playing with its food

Already panicked Mia couldn't careless about the difference in their power, laying her master on the ground turning to face the monster who did this to him

"Come at me you beast!"

She tried to enter stealth and run toward it for a fatal strike but its eyes were stuck to her, meaning her skill was useless before it, thus she could only rely on brute force to strike

Unsurprisingly her attacks didn't cause as much as a scratch to it, only melting her claws with every repeated attack

Ignoring her futile struggle the Witness moved toward YuJu, promoting her to transform back into her human form and stand before it, with no way to escape, no way to fight back, only the choice to die trying to protect him

"M..Mia…"

A hoarse voice whispered, making her eyes go wide as she turned to YuJu, bending to hold him who seemed at his last breath

"I..i…."

"Yes Master?"

Tears streamed down her face, wanting to hear his last words before they both turned to ashes

"Cough cough!"

What greeted her instead was a plum of black smoke coughed right into her face, turning it to smoot

"It's on our side, stop with all the drama"

Now that his throat was finally cleared he could finally reprimand her for all this running and tears, wasn't it obvious that the Witness didn't want to hurt them? Well, grudge bearing as it may be

"Umm, your okay Master?"

"Well, apart from thirty one broken bones, all my skin turning to charcoal, and suffering from heavy shock to my head, yes, pretty okay"

"Haah, thankfully"

Such injured can easily be mended given his vampire like body, and Subrina's constant provision of blood essence

Now that his safety was insured she started to feel like she forgot something, something left back in the lava?

"Zero and Ika!"

"Don't fret, Zero survived and is probably floating somewhere on the lava, Ika...well she had the genius idea of absorbing the flames before the Witness could, not that it even intended to do so from the beginning"

"Oh…."

Where should she start? What happened to Ika or why is the Witness on their side now?

Speaking of the many eyed monster it was still gazing at them in anger, or at YuJu precisely,

"Why the harsh face? You do realize we are bound from now on don't you?"

His words came packaged in a smile, one not too handsome coming from a burnt face, they were more than enough for Mia to make out what happened down there

"So Master made it his Soul-Slave?"

"Well, what other choice did I have? It was either that or going up in smoke"

Honestly, he wasn't happy with this decision, the amount of Soul-Slaves he could have was limited, though the number increased with the addition of the noble title opening up more slots in the form of Soul-Maids and Soul-Guards he was still limited in what he could recruit

'This happened with the Orelic too, I had no choice but to take it as my Soul-Guard then'

Knowing the many races out there made him feel down every time he recalled wasting one of his slots on an Orelic, a creature not too special, not too simple to be proud of rasing to the top like Ianus either, just so-so in all aspects

'Actually, a little worse'

Gazing at the menacing eyes he felt even more down, a Witness might be strong, the current one outclassing any other creature in the human world even, but that would quickly change in a few years, or mere months even, for their kind grew with time, long periods of time, counted in centuries, at which point the human race would either have reached the apex, or got buried under the tempestuous winds of change

'Well, at least it will be useful in the upcoming war, with it and those minions around the threat of the Haunting Mist can be considered as good as gone'

Trying to forgo his feeling of loss YuJu stood with the help of Mia, well, got carried to be exact, all the way back to the lava where the battle occurred

Looking around the bubbling heat they saw a familiar figure floating silently like a dead fish, if this wasn't lava they might have even mistaken her for one

YuJu had the Witness fish her out with one of its tentacles and drop her before the two

"Mia, CPR?"

"Hmm, wouldn't Master like to give it a try?"

SHe joked, already bending down to breathe air into her first blood kin's lungs

"Cough cough!"

Soot, once more, filled her face as Zero cleared her lungs before she even had to check her pulse much less apply medical treatment

Bieng greated with two black faces confused Zero who was opening her eyes slowly, only until she recognized them to be her mother and Master did she close them back, whether to rest or avoid a reprimand from Mia was unknown

"That just leaves Ika, would she be alright Master?"

"I've no idea, a fire born from a fire seed is not normal, not in the least, but the one we saw forming seamed peculiar"

"How so?"

To her question he motioned toward the Witness peering into the lava with slight intrigue

"Do you feel any semblance of world ending flames or something of that level?"

"Umm...it just feels like it has a presence similar to Ellis"

"That's the aura it held before acquiring the flame's ability, other than that?"

She shook her head indicating the absence of anything of such extreme magnitude

"See, that's the point, witnessing the birth of the flames should have given it similar, if not identical, powers to that very flame, all I could feel from it however is nothing, as if the flame never came to be"

"Hmm, doesn't that mean Ika would also not benefit from it?"

"How could that be? I said it wasn't apparent, never said it actually didn't exist or hold some sort of power, on the contrary, me not feeling the presence of its power only means it is even more special"

If he, who had outstanding senses, couldn't make heads or tale of what the creature held within then for sure it was some great ability it came to acquire, perhaps extending the Witness's use beyond the wraith's raid

'Right, I could check its status to know'

For some reason the thought had slipped his mind, all he could think of was why he couldn't feel anything from his new servant, trying to make out its power with his own capability

Puff!

A crackle of flames came to everyone's ears and got extinguished a moment later, grabbing his attention away from thoughts of checking the status, looking toward the lava instead

"?"

"Master, I believe something came out from there"

"Yes, but…."

He couldn't see nor sense it, putting a frown over his eyes

'There!'

Feeling a pair of eyes resting on him he followed it and met the empty air with his own focused pupils, scaring Ika, who was shrouded in gray flames, to come out of hiding

"Apologies my Lord, I had merely wanted to test my new skill before informing you of it"

She stepped out of the haze made using the flames, smiling nervously, what made her believe she could hide from an existence as scary as him? Just look at the Witness standing docile by the side, if even it couldn't escape his clutch then she definitely couldn't either

Contrary to her thoughts YuJu was close to breaking out a sweat

'Actually couldn't sense her if not for her directly looking at me...that's some scary flame right there'

It might not contain the pure destruction of others but it certainly was intimidating in its own right, how would one fight what he can't see?

'Really, glad I roped this thing before it escaped, Id never sleep well knowing it could be lurking anywhere it willed'

A slot might have been wasted on it, but it was worth steering off this hidden danger, after all, if you can't beat them, force them to join you!