In the L.F.T.O base...

Malagmus, Bromy and some of the skeleton lazed around the underground lab.

The portal was fixed pretty easily, the rock that was broken off needed to be placed back into the frame, they just held down the power button when booting it up.

"I knew you'd agree..." Malagmus said smugly.

"Shut up and make the skeleton a human again..." Bromy hissed with a cigarette in his mouth.

"I will absolutely regret agreeing to a deal like that..."

"I'lL ThInK oF sOmE rEwArD lAtEr!" Bromy thought about Malagmus' words.

"What if he demands money!? I'm broke!"

"If we wants livers I'm good... but kidneys..."

Bromy scratched his head nervously.

Malagmus sat down on the operation table and crossed his arms.

"Alright, I'm going to need some stuff, alcohol, a dagger some skin and flesh," he explained.

"I got just the thing!" Bromy exclaimed, walking over to the storage room located within the lab and returning with the entire skin of Foxly draped over his shoulder as well as a bucket filled with flesh.

"Cool," Malagmus said nonchalantly grabbing the skin and placing it on the table.

"You cut this skin very cleanly..." he remarked.

"Yeah, well - I've had some practice..." Bromy admitted.

Bromy tossed Malagmus a dagger, the blade impaled in his shoulder, with little to no reaction, Malagmus pulled it out.

Bromy looked at what he was going to do and froze as Malagmus grasped the dagger.

"What are you-?" Bromy began but was stopped when he saw Malagmus stabbing the skin all over with a dagger.

"What the fuck are you doing!? They're not going to let me get more skins!" Bromy argued.

Malagmus wiped the blood off his hands and on his coat.

"You'll see..." Malagmus assured Bromy as he grabbed the flesh from the bucket and began crushing it with his fists.

Bromy was confused, for better or for worse, he decided to trust Malagmus for now.

Malagmus then placed the skeleton pulp inside the skin and tossed in the meat mush.

"..." Bromy looked at Malagmus in shock.

"Are you fucking serious!?" Bromy demanded.

"I wanted it to be human, not a meaty jigsaw puzzle!" he added.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, you forget the fact this isn't a game anymore..." Malagmus said smugly as he placed a hand on the meat-sack and began healing it with druid magic.

At first, green lights flickered deep in the skeleton, bit by bit they branched out.

"Quick hand me the booze!" Malagmus exclaimed.

Swiftly, Bromy rummaged through his pocket pulling out a bottle of mead.

"Why would he need to disinfect an undead?" Bromy thought.

Malagmus grabbed the bottle and drank all the alcohol inside.

"..."

"..."

"You bastard..." Bromy sighed.

"What did you expect? They're undead, nothing to disinfect..." Malagmus laughed wiping his mouth with his bloody sleeve.

In what looked like a pretty painful procedure Malagmus continued healing the corpse as its arms slowly began to swell from the muscle growing inside.

After no less than five minutes of constant healing, small, red mush began to form on the inside of the now formed skull, after another five minutes they resembled eyes.

"Looks like the skelly passed out from the sudden development of nerves..." Malagmus said poking the exposed flesh with one hand.

"That's convenient," Bromy remarked.

"Hold on, is that why you mushed all the flesh and stabbed the skin?!" Bromy asked.

"Bingo! I didn't want the skeleton going after me as soon as he regenerates the bones..." Malagmus remarked.

"Still, I expected more pain tolerance from an undead..." Bromy sighed.

"Well, it lived without the concept of touch for a month, it'd probably pass out from a hard slap," Malagmus laughed.

After another ten minutes, malagmus stopped the healing and turned to Bromy.

He sliced open the arm, no blood flowed.

"Have a look!" Malagmus said smugly gesturing towards the tendons that attached to the bones.

"The two actually connected!" Bromy exclaimed.

He looked to Malagmus.

"But... what if it dies? Will it become a skeleton again?" he asked.

Malagmus crossed his arms.

"It depends on the skeleton..." Malagmus sighed,

"What do you mean?" Bromy asked.

"Like scars, what your body chooses to keep from before you die is up to you, think about it, would your muscles reset after death? You'd have to re-pierce your ears. If you accept a change, be it consciously or subconsciously, it'll stay," Malagmus explained.

"I see..." Bromy looked to the humanoid.

"Also..."

"Will he ever stop looking like Fre*dy Kr**ger?" Bromy asked forcing a smile as he looked at the human-sized skeleton wearing Foxly's skin, his face was stretched, he looked disturbingly thin, veins could be seen through the skin.

A permanent, toothy smile was plastered on the creature.

Malagmus looked at Bromy for a solid ten seconds before shrugging awkwardly.

Bromy pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Now it looks like the fucking Russian Sleep Expe**ment..." he thought.

"Whatever..." Bromy dragged the human-ish creature to one of the cells where John was held only days earlier, he chained it to the wall.

"Hopefully it's over-sensitive nerves will prevent it from exerting too much strength on these..." Bromy sighed.

He heard a chuckle from behind, he spun around and saw an overly smug Malagmus.

"So... about that favour..." he grinned.

"Oh no..." A chill ran down Bromy's spine.

Meanwhile, upstairs...

JohnWillStab, Alex and Jordan stood in the dining room that functioned as a living room.

Alex, the Thief and Revenberry were just done re-decorating it, though they were pretty limited since they're in the middle of the desert.

In the room stood Llime, the rabbit-frog that served as a messenger for the jGuardians.

"It took a few hours, but the base is back to normal..." Llime explained.

"A FEW HOURS!?" thought John trying his best to keep a straight face.

"Yes, of course..."

"And the ring?" John asked.

"The one with the demon-king ring is still silent... we haven't been able to make him talk or remove the ring..." she explained.

They were talking about Felix, after the one-sided "fight" between him and Thal, Felix hasn't moved or spoken, he hasn't even blinked.

"Maybe I went a little overboard..." Thal thought.

"Ya think!?" Alex thought back.

Llime let out a sigh.

"We tried severing the fingers, but the ring would sprout on another, upon removing every digit the ring would seemingly disappear until a finger was healed."

"At least we found the demon-king that controls the flow of souls in and out of this world... with any luck..." Jordan thought.

He looked up and saw John looking at him.

"I'll go see what's up with the ring... maybe the tentacles will be able to communicate with the demon king..." John thought.

"I'll tag along..." Alex sighed.

John looked back at Alex.

"Are you sure?"

"I heard they got along pretty well before they figured out Felix was the killer... I'd imagine the situation would be pretty awkward..." John thought.

Alex nodded.

Jordan stood up.

"I guess I'll come along too..." said Jordan with a smile.

"Hey, it'll be just like the good old times!" Alex laughed.

John cracked a smile.

"Yeah, guess you're right!" he laughed.

Thal let out a sigh, "I wish I could tell you something more about the demon kings, but even in this form my memory is missing..." Thal explained.

"Yeah, about that... why is that?" Alex asked.

"...I just haven't gotten around to digging through all of the past yet..." Thal replied uncertainly.

His voice carried a hint of concerns, while Jordan and John didn't want to press Thal, Alex did.

"Why? You should do it! Maybe we'll be able to get Jordan's Brother into this world faster!" Alex exclaimed.

"...I doubt it..." Thal protested.

"Remember who I am... it might be for the best that I forget some things..." Thal said coldly.

The room went silent as Alex caught on to what Thal was saying.

"Are you saying you might... turn evil?" Alex asked.

"..."

"..."

"Of course not! As if I, a demon king would succumb to past errors!" he laughed, though Alex could feel the forced nature of his laugh.

Meanwhile... in the garden...

Crown was observing the different flowers in the garden, she wasn't all that into flowers, but some greenery was a welcome respite from the sand and rock making up the rest of the zone.

"..."

She was playing a game of "What kind of flower would x member of the L.F.T.O be?" except she didn't expect the flowers to be planted with that exact goal in mind.

"John is the edgy one..." she thought...

"Bonifacius would be the blue one... or maybe the white one?... no, blue... definitely blue..."

"..."

Crown looked around and saw the Thief chatting to Revenberry.

"They seem pretty happy..."

Her eyes wandered over to Foxly who was digging a hole in the ground.

"What... is he doing?" she thought.

In an attempt to get her mind of the whole... everything, Crown wandered over to Foxly.

"What the hell are you doing?" she asked nonchalantly seeing Foxly covered in dirt and sweat standing in a hole no deeper than a meter.

"You'll see!" he exclaimed as he continued digging the same hole, this time making it wider.

"..."

"..."

Crown sat down near the hole, dangling her feet down and watched Foxly dig the hole, making little to no progress in twenty minutes.

Foxly was gasping for breath.

"Why... are you... just staring at me?!" he demanded.

"Watching you waste your time brings me immense joy..." she joked.

"So you're the abridged Ki*ito of this story..." Foxly sighed.

"What does that even mean?" Crown asked uncertainly, seeing Foxly grab the shovel and keep digging.

She watched him dig for another few minutes before letting out a sigh.

"Need a hand?" she asked.

"..." Foxly looked to her with a look of utter shock.

"WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DID YOU DO TO OUR CROWN!?" he demanded.

Her expression immediately sank into a frown.

"Fine, dig our own fucking hole..." she said bitterly.

"IT WAS JUST A JOKE! PLEASE HELP ME!" he cried.

Crown let out a sigh and jumped down into the hole, taking Foxly's shovel while he took a rest and went to get another one.

When he returned he explained his plan.

"I'm digging a five-by-five meter hole, about one and a half meters deep," he explained.

"How many people are you burying?!" she demanded sarcastically.

Foxly grinned.

"I'm not burying anyone! I am making a pool!" he cheered!

"..."

"..."

"We're right by the beach..." Crown remarked.

Foxly crossed his arms.

"Correction, we're fifteen minutes from the beach, that's thirty minutes both ways, travelling through the blisteringly hot desert!" Foxly explained.

With a sigh, Crown continued digging.