Anzu stared at Diablo as he assessed the situation.

“You sure startled me.” Chuckled Anzu while Diablo gazed around at me and Anthony who were lying on the floor.

“Another annoyance it seems. I guess you can live a few more minutes Shay.” Said Anzu as he strolled towards Diablo.

“You did good, Anthony.” Announced Diablo. “If not for you making all that noise, I wouldn’t have made it in time. If you can call this in time that is.”

Anthony lay on the floor seemingly paralyzed, I watched on as Anzu continued to stroll towards Diablo, smiling viciously.

“I’m fed up with people interrupting my business. You’ve put me in a bad mood, are you ready to perish?” Exclaimed Anzu.

Diablo glared at Anzu before blitzing past him instantly in a blue flash. Stopping instantly as he stood in front of me and kneeled down.

“Sorry I wasn’t faster, Shay.” Said Diablo as he passed me a vase with a red liquid inside it.

“Drink this, it will numb the pain and heal your wounds a little bit quicker.” He said as he turned to face a stunned Anzu.

Anzu gripped his knife and glared viciously at Diablo.

“So, all talk, are we?” Said Diablo staring at a bewildered Anzu.

“If that was your attempt to scare me then too bad. I know you just used up all your stamina with that move.” Exclaimed Anzu.

Diablo continued to stare at Anzu. “If that’s your theory then why don’t you come test it out.”

Anzu chuckled cockily and leapt forward at Diablo, swinging his knife down at him only for Diablo to suddenly disappear. Anzu gasped as he flew straight through where Diablo had just been standing moments ago.

Anzu’s eyes darted around, scanning the area for Diablo, who was no where to be seen. Anzu suddenly disappeared too and was replaced by a stone pillar which was standing idly not too far away. Just then, Diablo reappeared after 3 seconds and instantly shot out a plasma blast which collided with the pillar and created a small explosion.

“How did that get there in 3 seconds.” Muttered Diablo as he gazed off at Anzu who was sitting on some large stone bricks not too far away.

Anzu returned Diablo’s vicious gaze as tensions grew. Then with a small grin he advanced towards Diablo once again, holding his knife tight in his right hand.

Diablo readied himself this time and took a stance, resting his hand on his sword at his hip. Anzu rapidly approached Diablo and swung his knife at him only for Diablo to glow a dark blue colour and swiftly step back out of the way, dodging Anzu with ease. As he moved, he left blue after images which were different shades, some dark blue, some a lighter blue. Diablo danced around Anzu’s attacks with immense speed as Anzu shot a look of caution at Diablo, watching him intently, trying to predict his movements as he knew he couldn’t keep up.

Diablo dodged to the right, away from Anzu’s attack only to instantly push his weight in the other direction and move to his left, almost circling Anzu as he unsheathed his sword and swung it round at Anzu’s torso who once again suddenly disappeared and was replaced with one of the surrounding pillars.

Diablo smashed through it instantly and turned his attention to Anzu who was standing a small distance away watching us with a smile plastered upon his face.

“You’re interesting.” Muttered Anzu to Diablo who returned to normal as his blue aura evaporated instantly.

“Your ability is to swap places with an inanimate object in similar size to yourself that’s close by.” Exclaimed Diablo in an apathetic tone.

Anzu just smiled at Diablo as if to say, you got me.

“It’s a shame our meeting was disturbed, Shay. I’ll be seeing you then.” Said Anzu as he jumped back and fled the scene.

“You must have scared him, Sir Diablo. He took off the instant he realised he couldn’t keep up with you.” I muttered while quietly laughing to myself.

Diablo just looked down at me as I struggled to get to my feet.

“What exactly happened?” Asked Diablo.

“That man, he called himself Anzu. He attacked us out of no where after spouting all this nonsense about how everything was corrupt or something.” I explained as I put my hand on my head.

“You can explain everything in detail later, you don’t look like you’re in anyplace to talk never mind walk back. Sit down, I’ll go check on Anthony.” Said Diablo as he turned to walk over to Anthony who was lying in rubble across from me.

Even after drinking the liquid Diablo gave me, I still felt dizzy, I felt myself slowly fading to black as I watched Diablo’s shining white overcoat flutter in the wind as he walked away from me.

-UuuwHa-

I muttered as I shot up from bed. Panting excessively. I peered around the room and realised that I was in the inn we were in earlier. This meant we were back at Rien village. I glanced over to one of the beds next to me to see Anthony passed out facing the ceiling. Diablo must have carried both of us back.

I got up out of bed and made my way out of the room and down into the VIP lounge of the inn where I saw Diablo sitting down on the sofa reading a book in front of the fireplace.

I made my way over to him, as I got close, he looked up and seemed semi surprised to see me.

“What are you doing out of bed?” Asked Diablo apathetically. “It’s only been a few hours since I carried you back here.”

I sat down on the 3-person sofa in the adjacent corner to Diablo. “I’ve just always healed pretty quickly.” I replied, and I’m sure that potion you gave me done a lot of the work.

“That potion was only a minor thing; it would only heal small cuts and scratches and numb any pain for 30 minutes or so.” Explained Diablo. “I guess you just heal quickly since the potions healing effects would have worn off 2 hours ago.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, I just heal quick.” I laughed in response to Diablo as he shot me a questioning glance.

“Anyway, I wanted to ask.” I begun as Diablo averted his attention from his book to me. “Did you find Paul?”

Diablo exhaled which told me everything I needed to know.

“I’m sorry, Shay.” Said Diablo. “I checked everywhere but they must have taken him somewhere else. Anzu must have been a distraction.”

I felt a feeling of weakness devour me as my heart sank and I felt my breath becoming heavier.

“Damn it.” I muttered as Diablo watched me attempt to bottle up my feelings.

“I’ll be going to collect some more troops from the city tomorrow night.” Said Diablo trying to take my mind off things.

“I will bring a group of detectives and they’ll search their base for any clues on other bases. We’ll get Paul back. Don’t worry.” Exclaimed Diablo assuring me that he wasn’t lost yet.

I felt myself lighten up as I took a long breath of fresh air and leaned back into the sofa. I smiled gently as hope flew through me. I felt myself coming back together and thought for the best.

“Ah, that reminds me. I wanted to ask you another thing.” I said turning my attention to Diablo.

“I thought your ability was to skip through time, so what was that blue aura you were emitting in the fight earlier.”

“Oh that.” Replied Diablo. “That wasn’t an ability. It was the Enkavma technique. It’s a technique that lets you burn through all your Magicka rapidly to boost your strength, speed and senses. It’s a very powerful technique and only a select few are permitted to learn it.”

“Wow, where did you learn it?” I asked Diablo.

“I travelled to an ancient temple when I was 17 to learn. They only permit people with great accomplishments or their own kin to learn.”

“What was your accomplishment?” I asked fascinated by the idea of a sacred technique.

Diablo fell silent for a second as his eyes darted away to the ground.

“Well?” I asked not taking the hint.

“It’s nothing special. I killed a powerful demon, that’s all.” Replied Diablo. “Anyway, I’ll be going to my room. You should too, it’s getting late.”

Diablo stood up and made his way out of the VIP lounge towards his room on the opposite side of the inn.

In the short time I’d known Diablo this was the first time I had seen him have any reaction to anything. I sighed and sank into the sofa, staring into the blazing red and yellow flames thinking about the past few days.

I knew I had to get stronger. I didn’t even hit Anzu once, but Diablo came in and made him run away with his tail in between his legs. But not just then either, Diablo killed the demonic man Zane was fighting without breaking a sweat. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t even figure out Anzu’s ability after watching him use it multiple times. But Diablo done it instantly. I’m so stupid and weak, why does Diablo even keep me around. He could have come here on his own and beaten all of them, it doesn’t make any sense.

I found myself pondering and pouting in the VIP room for almost a full hour as I finally glanced over to the clock and saw it was 1 AM.

I stood up with newfound courage and decided that somehow, I needed to get stronger and made my way back to my room.

I opened the door to my room and was met with Zane standing in the middle of my room facing my bed.

“Oh, there you are. I just came in here looking for you. What timing.” Said Zane.

“Zane, uh how are you feeling?” I muttered surprised to see him walking around.

“I’m not fully healed but I can walk, I know its late but want to go grab a drink? There is a café nearby.” He asked.

“A café? Zane it’s 1 AM in the morning. It’s going to be closed.” I said laughing at him.

“Actually, this village is known for its 24-hour café’s, it’s a weird tourist attraction. This village has slowly been growing and becoming a trading hub, so they created a place for travelling traders to stop in and rest at all hours of the day.” He replied.

“Isn’t that what inns are for though?” I muttered back still not believing him.

“You would think but most travelling traders are on a tight schedule and don’t want to pay all night for a room and the inns won’t let people just sit in the lobby without paying for a room nor will they let them come in and purchase anything. So, they made a café where travelling merchants can come in and get something to eat and drink in the middle of the night for a few hours.” Explained Zane.

Huh, that actually makes sense I thought to myself.

“Its cheaper for them and they don’t have to pay to take shelter. So, you coming?” Asked Zane.

“Sure, why not.” I said as we made our way to the café.

We made our way down the foggy dark streets as streetlamps let off a dim glow that barley lit up the road. We continued to walk down the street as I breathed in the refreshing midnight ice air which chilled my lungs with each breath.

“What did Diablo have to say?” Asked Zane.

“Oh, um nothing much really. He is going to collect back up tomorrow and search the whole base with a group of detectives.” I explained.

“Ah I see” Replied Zane. “That’s good then, I was going to ask him to do that tomorrow anyway.”

Just as Zane finished talking, we turned a corner and saw the lit-up windows of Westbrooks 24-hour café. It had large front windows which let us see into the café, it was almost entirely filled up with tired looking men with large bags on them. From where we were standing, we could see behind the café down an alleyway. Behind the café was carriage after carriage presumably filled with the trader’s goods.

We made our way into the café and it surprisingly smelt good, two teenagers were working behind the counter, serving people coffee and tea.

“What do you want?” Asked Zane. “I’ll order for you, go grab us a seat somewhere.”

“Oh sure.” I replied. “Just get me whatever you’re going to have, I don’t know the menu here.”

“Sure.” He said and made his way off to wait in line at the counter.

I’m not really picky unless Roosevelt is the one making me a drink. I peered around the place to see most of the seats were this private room type of thing, they were circular in shape with a wooden table in the middle and curtains that you could pull across to give yourself privacy.

I suppose it’s useful for all the travellers. There was an empty one in the far corner, so I went over to sit in it. I turned over the occupied sign on the front then sat down and waited for Zane. He came after a minute or so with a hot chocolate for both of us.

It had white velvety cream swirled all over the top with chocolate shavings splattered on it and a chocolate flake in the corner sticking out of the thick cream. I looked on in awe as Zane placed it in front of me.

“Don’t drink it for a minute.” Said Zane. I looked up at him confused as he smiled at me.

“I requested they put marshmallows under the cream, they’ll melt and form a sweet layering under the cream if we give it a minute.” Explained Zane.

I couldn’t contain my excitement as I peered at Zane’s smug face. Sorry Roosevelt, I think I found my new favourite drink I thought as I gulped it down after waiting for the marshmallows to melt.

Aaaaaaand… It tasted like shit, who the fuck made this I said spitting it out onto the round wooden table in front of us.

Zane done the same as he put down his hot chocolate.

“Did they even sweeten the cocoa powder?!” Exclaimed Zane spitting out a room temperature marshmallow.

“This is what you get when you take teenagers and give them the night shift.” I muttered. “This shit isn’t even warmed up properly. The marshmallows didn’t even fucking melt. We’ve been scammed.”

“I’ll go get a refund.” Announced Zane as he walked over to the frail chump standing at the counter who looked like he was about to fall over if someone as little as breathed on him.

As Zane argued with the kid I went outside and watched through the window as Zane force fed him the bitter, room temperature chocolate beverage then storm out with his money back.

“He said they didn’t do refunds. So, I fed him the shit and just took my money while he was bent over in recoil.”

I laughed as we made our way back to the inn.

I said my goodbyes to Zane as he made his way to his room, apparently, he asked to be moved to a private room while he recovered. I walked into my room and passed Anthony who was still passed out on the bed. I lay down in bed and done my best to get some sleep.