It was 7:15 in the morning when Ryan woke up to the sound of music playing outside the tent.

Alex was listening to the song “A Gondola Ride In Paris” from the Messenger sitting down depressingly skipping rocks into a stream.

Ryan who came walking toward her picks up on her being depressed and sits down next to her.

“Having a good morning?” Ryan asks while stretching.

“Not Really” Alex said while launching another pebble into the water.

“Why?” Ryan asks while yawning and covering his mouth.

“I…Don’t- want to talk about it” Alex says felling upset.

Ryan feeling groggy at this point then gets up and proceeds to take down the tent while Alex remined in place listening to the song.

When Ryan was finished, he then puts on his backpack and walks over to her.

“You ready to go?” Ryan asks in a good mood while handing her bag to her.

Alex looks into his eyes and notices he doesn’t seem haunted by last night.

She picks up her sword and her bag and puts it on appearing slightly irritated. Ryan doesn’t pick up on this or even attempts to figure out what was making her upset. This further angers her as they start heading north through the forest.

The two of them walk for a couple of hours while listening to more “Emo” genre songs Alex selectively handpicked to help heal herself from that painful embarrassment and rejection last night while Ryan marched on pretending like nothing happened. As they cross a certain part of this forest Alex was very familiar with, Ryan keeps leading on without a care in the world.

“I should tell him we are in Death Bear Territory, but I’m too upset at him for me to care” Alex thinks to herself as she slows down and observes the swaying trees in the distance.

She then puts her hand up into the air to feel the wind and notices there was no wind at all this morning. She watches Ryan keep walking forward without her; Alex who really wants to tell him some vital information right now, still feels destroyed by his words last night and his current “Let’s forget about this ever happened” attitude decides to keep remaining silent.

As she pushes thick brush out of her way and starts to head down and around a steep hill Five 800 pound 7-foot-tall death bears who had small horns, and medium red colored scythe-like metal teeth charge out of the brush without any warning and one knocks Ryan down and sends him tumbling down the embankment.

Alex who saw this slowly pulls out her sword and at a walking pace casts [Taunt] on one of the bears in the pack and makes it start charging toward her. Ryan on the other hand who just stopped rolling down the small hill sees the bear that just ambushed him getting ready to close in and go for the kill, and fires [Detonate] at it. The attack does heavy damage to it, but it keeps its course and bites him on his arm.

Ryan screams in pain and with his other hand grabs a sword and stabs it in the eye of this bear and then notices 3 more bears behind it coming toward him while Alex casually attacks it while intentionally keeping her arm in its mouth. Ryan then enchants his weapon and plunges it through the chest of this animal. As the beast lets out a fatal cry, he then quickly casts [Ball Lightning] in Electric mode and stuns them in their tracks. As he tries to run away, he then notices this dying bear had its red metal teeth clamped onto his arm. As he tries to pull it out and run away before the stun effect wears off and the bears move again, he realizes he can’t. As the critically injured bear finally dies, it collapses to the ground the sheer weight of the beast takes Ryan to the ground with it with its jaws still fully attached to him.

“Alex! Help me!” Ryan screams at her scared for his life.

Alex who just took the animal down then casually walks down the hill. Ryan then notices that she was a little angry at him and she was taking her sweet precious time. She then Casts [Taunt] again on another Bear as the stun effect dissipated, and it turns around and heads toward her. The other 2 bears get enraged and run toward Ryan and start attacking his legs. With one hand available Ryan then casts [Detonate] on one of the bears Eyes and blows off half its face. This sends it fleeing in agony while Alex then slowly casts [Taunt] on the other one and pulls it toward her. He then watches her angrily thrust her sword into the bears mouth and through the back of its throat killing it instantly.

Alex then takes off one of his swords from his hip and uses the hilt of one of his spellblades as a hammer and starts slowly dislodging the metal like teeth from the dead animal’s mouth that was clamped down on Ryan’s Arm. She easily knocks a few teeth out and he is able to pull his arm free.

Ryan at this point who puts all of what happened together then confronts Alex right then and there.

“Okay, Time the fuck out” Ryan screams in anger as he grabs his bleeding arm.

“I wanted to pretend that kiss last night never happened today, but obviously you can’t let it go and it is affecting your fucking ability to protect me!” Ryan screams at her.

“So, what if it is? What are you going to do Ryan? I’m really upset right now” Alex screams back at him. While angrily moving her hair out of her eye.

“I’m not going to do anything; I just want to put this little mistake behind us” Ryan screams at her while making a hand gesture pointing behind him.

“It’s not that Simple! I Can’t simply sweep this under the rug. I had an extremely frustrating day yesterday with you. Then I got to know you and I had a fire burning in my heart for you. I danced to that All Time Low song and felt so happy. Then that kiss happened and-, Look I have Feelings for you, and you destroyed me by rejecting me like that” Alex explains to him appearing all emotional.

Ryan freezes in place.

“Alex, look for real look I’m sorry. I don’t like you like that. I have someone already and I’m really trying hard to repair it with them” Ryan says while inching closer to her.

“But you cheated on her, you don’t seem that into her” Alex said while kneeling down on the ground sad.

“Look her and I have a weird connection that’s hard to explain to you” Ryan says to her.

Alex then gets up and turns toward him.

“You are just going to cheat on her again. Why waste the effort? Just be with me. You are a very rare person I can connect to who is from earth. I need you more than her” Alex says to him.

“No Alex, for one you are not old enough in my book for me, and two I still don’t know everything about you” Ryan says with an irritated tone.

“And this is coming for a guy who slept with a Vampire the first chance he got” Alex said with sarcastic retaliation.

“Hey, that’s exactly why I just want to keep this at a platonic level. When I fall for people or if They fall for me, it attracts bad things like a fucking curse. Just like those damn bears” Ryan shouts still angry at that.

“Well, I knew about this being death bear territory. But you pissed me off, so I didn’t say anything” Alex replies while crossing her arms.

“Yes, and this is why we are having this conversation. Let’s not let a love life or unchecked feelings ruin the potential fun we can have. I need you to protect me, and on the flip side I will protect you. Look I’m sorry with how I went around with how I handled that awkward kiss. Please let’s just stay friends. If it really makes you feel better, I feel just the same as you when it comes to finally meeting someone who shares my music tastes and interests” Ryan says with an understandable tone Alex could relate to.

“But I’m very hurt right now” Alex said while stomping her leg down in anger.

“Alex please just let it go. I’ve been through enough damage and chaos with relationships. I don’t want to complicate the one I have with you” Ryan said as they hear something rustle through the woods. Ryan and Alex then quickly grab their swords and scan the surroundings and get ready for another bear attack.

Alex grabs Ryan’s arms and pulls him to her as they move out of the thick brush and onto a walking path.

“Let’s get the hell out of here and make it to the road” Alex whispers in a still pissed off tone.

As she and him push through some thorns and thick brush they break on through onto the small clearing of a road.

“You knew there was a road here the whole time?” Ryan says while balling up his fists at Alex.

“Yep” Alex said with a spiteful smirk.

“Uggh Your so lucky I’m trying to keep repair this” Ryan said while prancing around in a semi-circle while trying to keep his anger under control.

“Ryan to be honest, look Yes I am mad at you. But HOW you said: “Let’s pretend this just never happened” really hurt me.” Alex said to him while uncrossing her arms.

“Well look I’m really sorry about that. Now we both know what’s on each other’s minds. Let’s just hug and make up for this.” Ryan told her.

“No, how about we hug and kiss me on the cheek and say “You will always be my best friend” Alex said while grabbing both his arms.

“Ha-ha That works to” Ryan said while hugging her and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.

“I will Always be your best friend if you do your job as my tank” Ryan told her.

“Deal. But you know This doesn’t make up for the fact you upset me; I need another demand to be met” Alex tells him.

“And that is…” Ryan says.

“I still want to pick the songs” Alex said while hugging him again.

“Sure, why not? It’s not I’m going to say no” Ryan tells her.

Alex takes his phone from him and puts on the Song “Latina Heat” By The messenger and they both take on walking down the road holding hands and ready for another bear attack.

When they leave the Death bear zone, they are then forced to walk though more dense woods. They both walk for 20 minutes and then hear something rustling through the brush in front of them. Suddenly They hear 2 people talking ahead of them and they go to check it out.

“The best part of all she didn’t even have to summon me” A mysterious woman was heard saying.

“That’s good and all, but were still going the wrong way, I still want my town back” a mysterious man said in the distance.

‘Hey there are two people over there” Ryan whispers while he points toward the direction of the voices.

Alex then nods at him and takes the lead.

“Hello! Is there anyone over there? We are just two people passing through! Don’t be alarmed please” Alex shouts over the thick brush.

Ryan then grabs Alex’s hand and rebukes her. “What the hell! Don’t do that to strangers in the woods, I don’t want to end up a Hansel and Gretel tale!” Ryan whispers angrily at her.

“Oh, we’re not worried honey! Come on over!” The mysterious woman shouted back to them.

Alex then pushes through a palm leaf to the other side and push through a bush.

Alex waves at them and then suddenly Ryan trembles in fear.

Before him and Alex stood Ponce and Lilith standing over a dead female’s body.

Ponce then taps on the tree by him and stares at Ryan.

“Oh that soul was delicious, Oh what a nice pleasure meeting you again” Ponce says gracefully to Ryan.

Lilith then balls up her fist at Ryan and spreads her wings back.

“You took the words right out of my mouth Ponce” Lilith said getting ready to charge forward.

Ryan then pulls out on of his swords as she charges forward at him. She grabs his arm he was holding his sword in and knocks him down to the ground. She then morphs into her “Victoria” form.

“It’s been a while honey, nice to see you” Lilith said while giving Ryan a kiss on the lips.

“Alex get her off of me!” Ryan screams.

Alex then charges at this girl and grabs her by her sides and throws her off of him. As Lilith hits the ground she groans in shock and morphs back into her full succubus form while Alex quickly pulls Ryan onto to his feet.

“Hey what the hell bitch!” Lilith screams at her. “Let me and my ex-boyfriend settle a score we have” Lilith yells.

“I don’t know who the hell you are or what you are talking about, but you leave him alone!” Alex yelled with a firm tone at her.

“Ponce, you know what you take the female soul, me and my ex have unfinished busines” Lilith tells him.

“With pleasure M’lady” Ponce said while channeling a beam into Alex’s chest. Alex freezes in her tracks and then cries out with excoriating pain. As Alex screams, Ryan fires [Detonate] at Ponce blasts him off his feet and interrupts the spell.

Lilith then takes off flying right at Ryan and he quickly blasts [Detonate] at her and moves out of her path. This causes her to collide right into a tree behind him and Ryan goes and grabs Alex.

“We need to go NOW!” Ryan screams at Alex.

“What the fuck did that guy who looks like Jose From the Anime “Fairytale” cast on me!” Alex said with a panic.

“That’s Not Jose from Fairytale! That’s Johannes Eckerström! We need to get out of here now!” Ryan shouts as grabs her hand.

“Wait the Avatar lead singer?” Alex says seeming perplexed.

“Yes, the very same one!” Ryan replies.

Alex then looks over at him while he gets to his feet and examines him some more. She then giggles a little bit.

“I’m sorry, but he looks just like Jose from fairytale” She says while laugh a little bit.

“Alex this is no laughing matter! This Warlock is not to be messed with.” Ryan screams at her while he pulls out his cellphone.

“I look like what now?” Ponce asks while getting up to his feet and adjusting his hat. “Let me see” He said while he pulls Ryan’s phone out of his hand. Ponce then quickly types in “Jose from Fairytale” into the internet search app and looks at the pictures that pulled up.

“What the hell? I do not look like- wait hang on. Hey fuck you kid!” Ponce yells at Alex upon realizing she was right.

At that moment Lilith picks herself up from the ground and charges back at Ryan through the air. Alex pulls out her sword and gets in front of him and blocks her flightpath toward him with her sword. She runs into Alex’s sword and Alex quickly grabs Lilith by her thigh and arm and slams her down to the ground hard.

Ryan and Alex then step away from her.

“Bitch I said this is between Me and him!” Lilith screamed in frustration.

“Wait is that Succubus Taylor Mommsen?... Wait hold up did you dated her?” Alex Asked seeming extremely confused.

“Yes, I dated her, and that’s not your ordinary succubus, That’s Lilith. Queen of the Succubi. She’s the girl I killed myself over in my past life. She’s also the very same one who killed Ronnie” Ryan said in anger

“Aww, are you still sad I took your hero away from you? Oh boo-hoo cry emo kid” Lilith said while picking herself up again.

“How and the hell did you two get back into this world? I killed both of you!” Ryan demands while holding his spellblades in a defensive stance.

Lilith then reaches up and pulls some of her blonde hair out of her face and smiles at him. She then brings her index finger up to her mouth.

“Shhhh. It’s a secret” She said with a flirtatious tone.

“Lilith, I grow tired of this malarkey. I want my town back, and I want to kick his ass for killing me” Ponce says.

“Wait if you are here, where is Dahvie at?” Ryan demanded

“Oh, I left him in the deepest darkest part of hell. He was annoying” Ponce said while scanning through Ryan’s songs.

“Hey what did I say about touching my phone asshole!” Ryan yells after realizing he was holding it.

“Come get it kid!” Ponce said with a death growl while he turns on the song “Let It Burn” By Avatar.

Lilith then charges right toward Ryan and Ponce then casts his drain soul spell on Alex.

The spell connects and Alex starts screaming.

Lilith knocks Ryan down to the ground again and tries to pin him and kiss him. She kisses his lips as she starts to suck out his soul and Ryan quickly grabs one of his swords and enchants it with [Black Plasma]. He then stabs her in the side and stops her. He then kicks her off of him and sees Alex is in trouble. He fires up [Void Blast] and lets it go at Ponce and detonates the spell less than 1 foot from his face. The shockwave knocks him over and Ryan quickly casts [Soul Shield] on her.

Alex catches her breath and Ryan fires [Ball Lighting] in flame mode at him.

As the spell leaves his hands Lilith tries to attack Ryan again but Alex gets in her way and slams her down to the ground and stabs her in the chest with her sword. With the Sword through her she then puts all her weight up on her sword and sidekicks Lilith with both feet at the same time and slams her down into the ground.

Ponce gets back up and with an angry look on his face casts a Shadow bolt at Ryan that hits him.

“Oh, you want to play that game? Fine!” Ryan screams as he casts [Black Rain] on Ponce.

Ponce starts Screaming and fights through the pain and casts Soul Needle on Ryan and connects. This causes Ryan to freeze and start screaming.

“You got some pretty interesting spells since the last time I fought you. But I will not be killed by you again kid!” Ponce yells.

Alex then jumps in front of the beam and blocks the spell. Her shield Ryan casted on her slowly starts to crack and fade away but she charges right on at Ponce and knocks him down to the ground with a shoulder bash.

Lilith comes charging at Ryan once more and in anger he takes his blade in his Right hand and stabs her and injects [Detonate] inside her. This blows a hole out the back of her body and critically wounds her.

Ryan gets up and rushes on over to Alex and touches his blade up with hers and the enchantment transfers on over to her blade. Alex takes a big swing at him, but he catches her sword between the palms of his hands. As the flaming hot enchantment sears his hands, he takes his hand and places it upon Alex’s neck and casts a quick spell on her. A black spot appears on her neck quickly starts to spread all around her body. He then pushes her aside.

Ponce then casts a spell on Ryan that traps in him a black shadowy prison cell. The spell he just casted on Alex quickly starts to entomb her in a Shadowy Ember prison. After she was fully encased in that spell, He then snaps his fingers and that Tomb explodes from the inside with shadow magic that critically damages Alex. The blast throws her 10 feet into the air and she falls to the ground unconscious. Ponce immediately casts his soul needle spell on her and Ryan can see her soul being ripped out of her body. He takes his swords and slices a hole through magic cage and hops out of it. He then sacrifices 12% of his health and casts [Chaos Blast] at Ponce. The spell hits him and detonates on impact. The violent explosion blasts Ryan back into the trees and also sends Alex’s body rolling like a ragdoll.

When the dust was settled Ryan sees light emitting from Ponce’s ashes. All the souls he has sucked out of his victims start to escape from him. Ryan then looks behind him and sees a terrified Lilith crawling away from him. As he sees her in her vulnerable state, he walks toward her with his Spell blades in and she takes off flying in a hurry. Ryan looks at her in anger and casts [Detonate] on one of her damaged wings and knocks her out of the sky.

His mother who was watching him from a view screen in her Respawn room watches him walk over to her and flip her over. She quickly turns into an innocent looking “Victoria” and Ryan looks dead into her eyes.

“Game over bitch” Ryan says as he gives her a quick death kiss on the lips and plunges his sword into her again. He then casts [Ball Lightning] into her and her demonic form explodes and pieces. After she was dead Ryan quickly runs over to Alex recalls his phone into his hand. He scans her body and sees she was at 2% health. He acts quickly and starts channeling [Transfer Soul] into her. He brings her up 30% health, but she was still unconscious.

Suddenly Arcadia comes walking out of the woods and looks over at Ryan. Without saying a word, she casts a healing spell on Ryan that heals him up to 100% health and she runs over to a spot on the ground and appears to touch something that Ryan couldn’t see.

“I hope you are okay! I was watching over you two from my Room. Alex’s souls has been damaged. I need to heal it” Arcadia said while gentling patting something on the ground Ryan couldn’t see.

From Arcadia’s point of view she was healing up wounds from Alex’s Severed soul that Ryan could not see anymore. Arcadia being a Goddess could see clearly all the wounds on her soul. Ryan didn’t know this but part of her soul was damaged by his Chaos Blast. She heals her soul and then carefully grabs her levitating soul and guides it over to her body. She matches the soul perfectly over her body like a puzzle piece and her soul re-enters her body. Alex then wakes up gasping for air. Arcadia smiles at both of them and walks off into the woods without saying a word.

Ryan’s Mother on the other hand who was watching Arcadia’s actions from a View screen rolls her eyes.

“You Okay?” Ryan said while rubbing her hand.

“Yes I am. Thanks for carrying me” Alex said while laying her head back on the ground.

“So that was your Ex-girlfriend. Wow she’s a pretty little pain in the ass” Alex said while rolling over onto her stomach.

“Yes, she is part of the reason why I don’t want a relationship right now, even though at times I feel alone here” Ryan explains.

“I’m Sorry” Alex said while giving him a quick hug.

“She isn’t supposed to be back in this world. I killed her and Ponce already. How the hell are they even back here?” Ryan says while appearing troubled by this matter.

“I don’t know” Alex says while pushing herself up off the ground.

“I’m glad you were here with me when she struck. She has no effect over Human Woman whatsoever, but Ponce is a different story. He grows more powerful the more souls he takes. He was a lot weaker this time around when I fought him. I’m just glad he wasn’t “Fed” this time around” Ryan said while he picks up his spell blades and sheaths them.

“Well Not just that, you are like a much higher level then you were when you first fought him” Alex says as she walks into the bushes, she saw Arcadia walk into before she disappeared. Alex then finds a faint glowing portal that was quickly fading, two Monster Energy drinks for both of them plus 2 mangos and a whole Pineapple she left for them.

Alex looks over at Ryan and then smiles.

She throws the fruit into her bag and then looks Ryan in the eyes and sends him a happy look. She then throws him a Monster.

“Oh, I really love Arcadia. She knows what we want” Ryan said while he pops open the tab of the can.

“She sure does!” Alex said while walking over to him and taping her can against his.

“Wait hang on, I hope Arcadia reviving me doesn’t void our agreement we had with Simon” Alex says with worry.

“I honestly think those two were just random encounters and not affiliated with our quest. I don’t think they were guarding any dragon of any kind. So we should be fine” Ryan says to Alex.

Alex sits down in front of him and removes the pineapple from her bag, Ryan then walks over to a small little pond and dips both of his swords in there and washes them off. He then tosses Alex one of his blades and she starts cutting up the piece of fruit for both of them. Both of them eat this quick snack and pack up and keep walking forward.

Upon walking forward, Ryan stops in his tracks and turns toward Alex.

“Alex, thank you for what you did back there. Thank you for protecting me. Without you I honestly wouldn’t have been able to take on both of them” Ryan tells her.

“Your welcome Ryan. I really enjoy your company and I don’t want anything bad to happen to you on my watch. I promise to not let what happened to you in the “Death bear” zone happen to you again. I’ll save my bitch side for the battlefield” She tells Ryan as she walks up to him and swoops her hand underneath his.

“Now let’s go find that Dragon!” Alex says with a supercharged-cheery tone.

“Alright! That sounds like a plan” Ryan said with a smile.

“So tell me more about that complicated and awkward story of that succubus we fought. Did you actually date her on earth? If you did how the hell is she here?” Alex asks while she puts on the song “I Alone” From Escape The Fate on a low level. While they walk south down this woodsy Faterra main road that leads toward Ala-Ash.