The door opened and in came a 5-foot, 5 guy with long dark green hair that stopped at his shoulders. He wore the same white and gold uniform as Diablo but instead of one sword at his waist he carried two, one at either side.

As he walked in Diablo looked up from his book and walked over to greet him. “Zepar, glad you could make it on time.” He said while holding his hand to shake it.

“Good to see you Diablo.” Replied Zepar, he didn’t sound or look much older than us, in fact he looked younger if anything, almost like a kid.

“Alright.” Said Diablo in a loud commanding voice turning around to face us. “Everyone is here now, let’s set out.” And with that, we all stood up as the sound of screeching chairs and footsteps echoed around the room.

“You three.” Said Diablo calling over Anthony, Zane and me.

“Before we head out, I have something for you.” Said Diablo pulling out 3 swords from a bag he had laid next to the sofa.

“I got some swords from the capital while I was there, we will be heading into a tough battle, so I want you to have some decent equipment.”

We each thanked him as he passed us each a sword. They shone a platinum colour and were extremely light weight. It felt like a feather in my hand, even lighter than my throwing knives despite the sword being triple its size.

After thanking Diablo again, we made our way downstairs and out of the village, beginning our journey to the enemies base Vince had pointed out for us.

As we walked, I got a closer look at Zepar, the new Rose that had joined us. Both his swords were in a green scabbard. Compared to Diablos which were white. And I hadn’t noticed earlier but both Diablo’s and Zepar’s swords were shaped like roses at the end of the handle. Zepar’s a green rose and Diablos a white rose. Their swords must be made specially for them.

Zepar seemed to be spaced out most of the walk, staring off into the distance at sheep or cows in the fields next to us. Not really paying any attention, he was the polar opposite of Diablo who was staring straight ahead keeping a keen watch on what was coming towards us.

We continued our walk for 1 or 2 hours until we came across forest. After walking through it on a normal main path for another hour or so Diablo stopped us at two stone pillars that sat off to the side of the road. They looked like they would lead you off to another path but they just lead straight to bushes.

“Is this it Liam? Can you tell anything?” Asked Diablo. Liam stepped forward and stared at the two pillars for a moment before nodding and looking up at Diablo.

Diablo turned to face Zepar who was standing there with a box of chocolates in his hand and what looked like another 12 boxes down his throat.

“Zepar, help me break open the seal on these pillars. Stand at the left one and pour your Magicka into it, I’ll take the right one.” Said Diablo as Zepar swallowed the chocolates and placed the remaining box on the ground. I looked behind us to see Zepar had been littering the empty boxes on the ground. I sighed and directed my attention back to the two Roses who were simultaneously placing the palms of their hands against the pillars and releasing Magicka into them.

“You’d have to have a lot of Magicka to break these.” Muttered Anthony from behind me.

“What are they?” Asked Zane.

“Pillars like these usually mean high level barriers were placed here to keep out anyone who didn’t match a specific type of Magicka. You’d have to completely override it with Magicka before it broke, but I’m sure these two can handle it. After all Diablo has infinite Magicka and I’m sure Zepar over there isn’t too far off either if he is a Rose.” Muttered Anthony.

Just then a white light suddenly flashed and between the pillars was a massive field with a walled mansion sitting at the back of it. The endless array of trees seemingly disappeared into what looked like a portal to another dimension; although in actuality it was the trees that were fake.

“Alright, I’ll go in first followed by Zepar then the rest of you follow once we know it’s safe.” Said Diablo who slowly stepped past the pillars and into the opening. Zepar waltzed in behind him then so did the rest of us.

“Liam, check for people in this area.” Asked Diablo. Liam closed his eyes for a few seconds and squished his brow until opening them again suddenly with a scared expression on his face.

“There are 4 extremely powerful people up ahead. Only four projecting powerful auras, but I sense a fifth unconscious somewhere within the castle.” Muttered Liam.

“That fifth must be Paul then.” Said Diablo. “Alright, first division you stay here at the exit, stop anyone who tries to leave. Shay, Zane, Anthony, Zepar, Liam and Jace follow me, we’re going to siege the mansion.

“Diablo?” I asked as the giant man pointed his head down to face me. “You put an entire squadron back there instead of taking them with us and what if there is another exit somewhere else. Don’t you think it would be better to maybe spread them out or bring a few with us?”

“No, none of that would work.” Replied Diablo. “Within barriers like these that protect a set area there can only be one entrance and exit. That is the only downside to having a hidden structure like this. As for why I don’t take some with me they are a specialised squadron who are adept at teamwork. Splitting them up would only give them a quarter of the fighting power they would normally possess.”

“And I’m sure you’re wondering why I took your group over them if they are so much better at teamwork. It’s because they have too much firepower and they can’t limit themselves to not destroying the mansion while fighting. I took them here with the intent to have them guard the exit from the beginning since I got all the information, I needed from the hypnotist you captured.”

“Oh, I see.” I replied as we approached the menacing structure before us.

Finally arriving at the large wooden gate, we leaned against the stone walls as Diablo pushed the gate open gently, revealing a pebble covered courtyard leading up to the large wooden mansion.

Diablo took a few seconds surveying the area before pushing the gate open fully and slowly stepping into the courtyard on his own first like he usually orders before waving us in after he had taken a few steps revealing it wasn’t a trap.

We each followed after him, Zepar jumping up from the ground, being the only one who wasn’t leaning against the wall for cover but sitting on the grass still eating chocolates. After all of had entered the courtyard we heard the fluttering of clothes moving quickly from behind us as a figure dashed through the air, immediately unleashing a blitzing strike at Diablo who skipped time with milliseconds to spare, before I could even realise it, my worst fears arose as Anzu leapt past me, Zane, Anthony and Liam towards Zepar who was too busy picking out his favourite chocolates to realise what was going on.

* * *

‘Jump down from the wall and attack Diablo first who will use his ability to save himself, that give me 3 seconds to move freely. Shay and Anthony will hesitate to do anything after our first encounter, so this is the perfect opportunity to take out the other fighter at Diablos capability.’ Thought Anzu as he executed his plan perfectly and bounced forward towards Zepar who was paying no mind to his surroundings.

* * *

I stood frozen in utter shock as I watched Anzu easily slip through us and slash his sword through Zepar’s torso, his blood splattered out and across the pebbled ground as chocolates exploded into the air and Zepar fell back against the wall. Zepar didn’t even react, he died instantly as his lifeless body now lay stagnant on the ground.

All our eyes widened, and Liam screamed in fear as Anzu turned swiftly to face us, holding up his sword as he prepared to swing it down onto Anthony who was standing petrified in place at the sudden sight of Anzu. Just as Anzu swung down 3 seconds had passed and Diablo appeared in his Enkavma form and intercepted Anzu’s blade centimetres before it pierced through Anthony’s skull.

Anzu simply smiled before switching places with a nearby stone statue. Diablo released his transformation and turned to face Anzu who was sitting cross legged upon the stone pedestal where the statue once remained.

* * *

‘Had I been a second millisecond late at realising where Anzu was I would have been in trouble there.’ Thought Diablo. ‘If not for the Enkavma technique I wouldn’t have had time to realise where he was, that was complete luck I managed to spot him in time.’ Diablo sighed quietly as he walked forward towards Anzu.

* * *

“Its poetic isn’t it?” Said Anzu still sitting confidently on the pedestal with his legs hanging down rocking back and forwards. “The man who wants nothing more than to save other people, is gifted with the ability to only save himself.”

~ “Why do you think that is?” ~

Diablos face turned from its usual calm state to a demonic glare of absolute anger as his steps became stomps. Still with his hands in his pockets Diablo marched forward towards Anzu.

Anzu smiled as the statue reappeared on its pedestal and I heard the sounds of something setting down on the pebbles behind me. Diablo’s face exploded in shock for the first time as he turned and reached out his hand with his widened eyes in an attempt to sprint to my rescue, but it was too late. Before I even realised it, Anzu had swapped back with the statue and was now behind me. I felt time slow down as I saw his blade shimmering in the sun’s reflection from the corner of my eye.

Just like that, two of us would be taken out by Anzu alone…

Is what I thought before Anzu was sent flying into the air and tumbling through the pebbles and mud before coming to an abrupt halt as he hit the stone wall on the other side of the courtyard.

Zepar stood behind me with his brow sunk all the way down, his glare stabbing through the air as his unimpressed face stared at Anzu lying in the dirt and dust a few meters away.

I was in complete awe as Zepar stood as if he were completely unharmed.

“You took your time getting up there.” Snared Diablo as he kicked the statue into pieces.

The rest of us were frozen still as our clogs turned to try make sense of the situation. Zepar had somehow completely healed himself in an instant. That level of healing capability was unheard of, he was dead, I was sure of it.

Before I could think anymore, Zepar dropped to his knees and hunched over.

“Uh, are you okay?!” Muttered Zane who was equally as shocked as me.

Zepar continued to hunch over, maybe he could only heal for a short amount of time or had an ability similar to Anthony.

“That bastard.” Muttered Zepar furiously. “He seriously went and fucked my last box of chocolates.”

We all shot him looks of uncertainty as he picked up the empty box filled with dirt and dust which lay under the pebbles that had been disturbed.

“Zepar, take the rest of them and enter the mansion, continue the raid and look for Paul, Liam can help you find him with his ability to sense other’s. There are 3 others’ inside so watch out.” Said Diablo sternly. His atmosphere was different than usual. His cool and calm demeaner was gone and all that lingered in the air around him was complete animosity. A demon lay dormant within him and Anzu had pestered it.

“Come on then, lets go clear out the mansion.” Said Zepar in a dull voice snapping me back to reality.

The 5 of us entered the mansion letting Diablo handle Anzu alone.

As we opened the large wooden door we were greeted with a grand foyer with a red carpet and a double staircase leading up to a hallway in the middle of the room on the second floor. The walls were a half dark green and half a polished dark oak colour. Being a mix of wood and paint. The floorboards accompanied the dark oak colour which complimented the red carpet.

“Hmm, this sure is fancy.” Said Zepar taking out a notebook from his inside pocket and writing something down as he glanced around the large open room.

Averting my attention from inside the mansion I noticed all the windows were fogged making it impossible to see outside, almost like the windows in a church except colourless, each window depicted something on it though I didn’t have time to see what as we were all alerted to the footsteps of someone emerging from the upper level hallway.

“Hey.” He said with a chuckle as he leaned against the banister and stared down at us. He opened his mouth to continue to speak but before he could Zepar fired a plasma energy blast up at the banister, as it exploded upon impact dust scattered through the air as Ark vanished completely into smithereens.

“Okay, that’s one. Let’s continue.” Said Zepar now skipping away over to the staircase humming a song that must have been stuck in his head.

We all stood frozen watching him with faces that sunk down to our toes, Zepar had completely thrown us off twice now.

-Hm?-

“Why aren’t you coming?” Said Zepar before another energy blast emerged from the slowly fading smoke colliding directly with Zepar as he was flung against the wall from the explosion, his leg had been blown clean off as Zepar lay against the wall we all turned to see Ark had somehow dodged Zepar’s initial strike.

“Heh, nice try. Had that been anyone else in this mansion and you would have actually killed one of us. It’s a shame I was able to end a Rose so easily though, I heard you guys were supposed to be tough.” Chuckled Ark as he leaped over the dilapidated banister and onto the red carpet below.

He smiled maliciously as he unsheathed his sword and began slowly walking over to us.

Ark let out one final ‘heh’ before charging up to us, swinging his sword directly at me. I ducked under it and out the way as I unsheathed my own in preparation to attack, Liam fell back in fear as Ark swung his sword down at him, Jace quickly intercepted him and blocked his attack which gave me time to slash my sword at him from behind. I would have had him had Liam not fled away straight into me which gave Ark enough time to back away and remove himself from our pincer attack.

As Ark stood back Zane suddenly appeared behind him and swung down at Ark who noticed last second and evaded a lethal blow by inches as Zane’s sword slid across Arks left arm, merely slashing him.

Ark quickly retaliated but Zane managed to escape easily by teleporting back close to us. Ark let out a quick sigh and smiled. “Sorry pal, but a teleporting ability is no issue for me.” As Ark said this, a flash appeared like last time, now that my vision wasn’t blurry, I could clearly see an outline of Zane slowly attacking Ark just like with Jace last time. Before anyone could act, Ark swung his sword up along Zane’s back.

As he did, Zane screamed behind us and fell to his knees as a pool of blood formed beneath him. I looked back to see Ark smiling at us.

“You bastard what did you do!?” Yelled Anthony at Ark who just chuckled lightly in initial response.

“Sorry, but anyone who can teleport and uses their ability like that instantly loses to me. I’ve trained my senses to be hyper aware to fast changes in colour within my peripheral vision for the sole purpose of dodging people with highspeed attacks or teleportation abilities. I hate to break it to you but If I dodge your first strike, you lose. It’s as simple as that.” Said Ark clearly having a blast.

We all glared at him as adrenaline pumped through our veins at a rapid pace. Ark smiled once again and dashed forward, I reacted slower than before but dodged nevertheless, jumping out the way and landing on the soft carpet below as I watched Jace intercept Ark like before. The two clashed swords while Anthony darted around Jace to attack from the side. Ark lay back and let Jace’s blade slide off his, knocking him off balance for a second giving himself enough time to spin around and wallop Anthony in the stomach with a devastatingly powerful kick, sending him up into the air for a second before landing on his back against the hard wooden floor; unluckily missing the carpet by a few centimetres.

Ark ducked under Jace’s sword as he swung it desperately trying to hit Ark while he was rebounding from his kick, but it was a bad angle for Jace after not having enough time to prepare himself for a proper swing.

Ark jumped back and put some space between the two of them. As he smiled once again a figure emerged from the ground quickly behind him and pelted him in the back with a kick, sending him flying all the way up to the second floor after smashing through what was remaining of the banister.

-Fhew-

“That really hurt you know.” Said Zepar standing up on both legs doing arm stretches.

“eh.” I muttered pointing at the dead man walking like an idiot.

Before I could even ask how he was walking an energy blast was fired from the second floor at Zepar however, this time it landed a little in front of Zepar closer to the staircase than him.

“Hmm, I could have sworn I saw you block my attack last second just now with your shoe, but I guess it didn’t matter since you can’t aim for shit now.” Laughed Zepar. “Okay, enough of that, it’s not funny anymore.” Said Zepar completely halting his laugh instantly as his face turned to normal.

I raised an eyebrow to Zepar but before I could even begin questioning him Ark stood up. He had a few scratches on him but was mostly covered in dust. His boast earlier about his reflexes was no bluff, he managed to block Zepar’s attack and stop himself from being badly injured upon impact with the second floor by smashing through the banister first to slow himself down.

As we watched him get up on the second floor Zane spoke up. “I was watching him; his ability is probably to attack something in the past. There is no other way to explain an outline of myself where I was standing earlier.”

“How can you know for sure.” Asked Anthony in a grainy voice, still hurting from being flung across the room.

“Well, being injured means all I have to do is sit here and watch, so my thoughts aren’t clouded up like yours who are thinking of what move to make next. It makes perfect sense that his ability is to choose one thing and attack its past by 5 or 6 seconds. I know it isn’t more than that since he would have just waited for us to continue on into another room then attack our pasts in here and we wouldn’t have been the wiser. But he attacks head on, which means he is limited to how far back in time he can push.” Replied Zane.

“Yeah you’re right, that would make sense when you take my previous fight with him into account.” Responded Jace in agreement.

I thought he was right too but there was something that was still off for me, a weakness staring me straight in the face. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

Ark charged up another energy blast and fired it down at us, it collided with the floor in front of us, missing Anthony by a few inches. I covered my face with my arm in recoil to block any debris that came flying out of the explosion.

As I moved my arm, Ark came flying through the smoke as he swung his sword at me, once again I dodged swiftly as his sword scraped across the fabric on my guard uniform, Ark spun around as a green light flashed in front of me and I was suddenly staring myself in the face.

I quickly realised what was happening and leaped forward to defend myself from Arks attack. Ark swung his sword down at my skull and I barely made it in time to block him from slicing through me. I held my sword up with one hand on each end as Ark continued to push down on my blade, letting out an unrelenting scream and putting all his power behind this strike. I continued to push back but Ark suddenly began kicking my shins as he realised his time was running out. I counted the seconds in my head.

‘4…’

‘5…’

Until finally after 5 seconds the shimmering green outline of myself disappeared and Ark jumped back and scoffed. Turning and making a dash for the stairs. Before I could yell for the others, I stopped to catch my breath for a second before running out of the smoke after him.

Ark was busy trying to evade Jace’s attacks, merely dodging with millimetres to spare as he wobbled away from Jace. Slowly but surely, he was being pushed back towards Zepar who was standing waving Jace over with both his hands in a repeated up and down motion.

Ark peered over his shoulder to glance at Zepar quickly before tripping on a floorboard that was sticking up thanks to his miss earlier. Ark fell down onto his back and total shock danced on his face as Jace swung down his sword at the stunned Ark.

Just as Jace was about to make contact, a green light flash behind him as his previous self from 5 seconds ago appeared in the middle of the foyer. Jace was distracted by it for a second as he glanced for a second at why Ark would make such a random decision like this.

Just as Jace’s blade stood centimetre’s away from Arks face, something came flying out of the lower hallway which ran parallel to the one above.

“Jace look out!” Yelled Zane as a stray plasma blast collided, luckily, with Jace’s sword as it absorbed most of the damage, however, as the glowing green outline disappeared we notice Jace’s sword had shattered and Ark had stabbed Jace in the stomach with a knife he had concealed in his pocket.

“S-shit.” Muttered Jace as he took a step back.

“Move away from the hallway!” Yelled Zane at Jace barely dodged a second energy blast that came firing out of the hallway the second Zane warned him.

In that moment, Ark somehow managed to escape our grasp and retreated back into the mansion.

“We got too caught up fighting Ark to remember that there are still 3 people inside we are yet to fight.” I mentioned as I looked around to see Zane and Jace Injured.

Anthony noticed me looking at the two injured. “I should be able to heal Jace enough so that he can fight, although I don’t know about Zane.”

“What about Zepar.” Asked Jace. Zepar looking up in confusion from what looked like a nap as he lay on the floor. “What about me?”

Jace hesitated for a second due to Zepar’s relax nature. “W- well you are healing yourself, if you could also heal us…”

“Sorry, I think there is a misunderstanding here. I’m not exactly just healing myself.” Chuckled Zepar.

“My ability was named ‘Requiem’ by the old prophet. It allows me to steal the souls of people I’ve killed and swap their souls in place of mine which in turn completely heals my physical body as well as adding the remaining lifespan of that soul onto mine. Souls usually last 8-9 more years without a host.” Zepar explained.

“I’ve killed 478 people so far and I’ve used up…” He paused for a moment thinking about what he would say next. “329, which means I have 149 souls I can swap for my mine. Meaning I have 149 lives left.”

“Wow, what a powerful ability.” Muttered Anthony.

“Yup.” Continued Zepar. “Not only do I gain an extra life after absorbing a humans soul, I also gain whatever Magicka they had, although I can’t recover Magicka like you can by resting, I have a set amount I’ve gained from killing people but I’d say it’s a fair trade off.”

We stood in silence in total awe at his ability and how incredible it was. Even more incredible than Diablos.

"Wait, I have a question." Asked Jace, Zepar looking over to him to motion he went and asked. "What would happen if you killed someone like Diablo who has the ability to have infinite magicka. Would you then gain all his Magicka and basically steal his ability?"

Zepar paused for a moment before answering. "No, I don't think so. Since infinite magicka is an ability not his actual amount of magicka I would only get whatever set amount he had, that also means Diablo can only output whatever his original amount of magicka was, meaning he can't just fire one beam of energy endlessly, he can't control that much output. The only upside to having infinite magicka is that he wont run out long term.

"I see, I didn't know that, thanks for the insight there." Replied Jace, shocked by how intelligent Zepar sounded in contrast to his previous actions.

Part of me too was surprised with how informative Zepar was but he was a Rose after all. Although one thing he didn't touch on was why Diablo has two abilities, I've never heard of such a thing...

“So if you can't die…” Muttered Anthony pulling me out of my day dream as I turned to him in intrigue. “How old are you?”

Zepar stopped and all went silent for a second before he pulled out his notebook from earlier and flipped through the pages before stopping at a page in the middle of the book.

“I’m 78.” He said as he put his hand back into his pocket and pulled out his pen.

“What!” We all shouted unanimously. He honestly looks younger than me, what an insane ability, this guy is completely immortal…

No wonder he acts like he doesn’t care…

“Huh, what’re you writing now?” Asked Zane, standing up and leaning back against the wall.

“Well I have to keep track of how many lives I have, If I lose count, I don’t think I’d be able to live with myself.” Replied Zepar.

“What are you scared you’ll run out of lives?” Asked Anthony chuckling, I guess even you are scared of true death.

“No, not at all. It’s because it means I’d have failed basic math.” Replied Zepar turning away and walking off up the stairs.

We stood and shot concerned glances at each other that screamed ‘is this guy serious’ before continuing to follow him up the stairs towards the ominous hallway in front of us.

Who else awaited us in this demon’s play pen?