The pair had finally managed to drag Zach up and out of the dungeon though he was snoring so loudly that neither felt particularly bad about the loud thunks his head made as it banged against each step of the stairs.

  The trio emerged from the Golem Dungeon, Yin and Taro both took a deep breath.

  Yin looked at Taro as tears welled up in her eyes.

  “I WAS SO SCAREDDD!” Yin cried as she hugged the ever stoic Taro.

  Taro let out a sigh, expecting a snide comment from Thorn to punctuate the moment, or Valykerina to declare how many monsters she’d massacred, or Kiko to make a macabre comment, or just a grunt of despair from Noon.

  Though, none of them came. Taro felt a pang of anxiety in his chest as he wondered how the rest of his party was.

  Yin noticed the silence, stifled her sobs and wiped her face with her oversized robe.

  “So, you rescued me first?” Yin asked hesitantly.

  “Yeah, I was in a dungeon in Furinch, about a week's travel away by horse. I’ve got the locations of everyone from a Soothsayer in Porus.” Taro explained as he hauled Zach to their horse and wagon. Yin let out a sigh of relief and put on her serious face.

  “It’s been about three weeks, what happened?” Yin asked, having mostly cleared her face of the earlier tears.

  “I was tortured for a week until this idiot bumbled his way into saving me, nearly got us both killed though. We were about a 2 day walk from Porus, spent another 3 days there finding the Soothsayer and the money to pay him. Then we came straight here since you were by far the closest.” Taro grumbled as he chucked Zach into the back of the wagon.

  “Right… Who’s next and where are they?” Yin inquired as she hopped into the wagon with the cold, but still clearly breathing, body of Zach.

  “Thorn, she’s in the Gole Desert.” Taro explained as he untethered the horses.

  “Gosh, I’m guessing there’s someone in Xiaoyu, Vespucia and Seraphs then?” Yin pondered, 5 party members on each of the 5 continents made sense to her.

  “Close, but I don’t think the Demon Army has a single dungeon in Seraphs. Two of them are in Vespucia, opposite ends of the continent though.” Taro scowled as he jumped up onto the horse. Yin sighed, before suddenly realizing something.

  “WAIT! Did it work?!” Yin exclaimed suddenly, she remembered Titania telling her that someone from the other world had replaced the Demon Lord and all the stress that was causing Lillithvin. Taro looked back for a moment before remembering The Holy Sword of Reincarnation.

  “Ah… yeah. Yeah it worked. I’ll let Zach tell you about how well it worked when he wakes up.” Taro said, gesturing vaguely towards Zach.

  “Right, the Demon who doesn’t know how to use Demon Magic…” Yin pouted, looking at the strange blue man with silver hands.

  “He’s friendly. Just be careful if we meet any Adamonic Church guys. Their stuff rusts when they get near him.” Taro added casually.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “They what?”

  “Yeah… yeah it’s a long story.”

  “Well we have a long time don’t we?”

  “I’d rather he explained it…” Taro sighed defeatedly.

  “Why?!”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “WE HAVE A LONG JOURNEY!”

  “I’m very hungry and would like to focus on getting to the next village please.”

  “Fine…” Yin huffed, suddenly, she let out a small laugh. Taro’s scowl turned into a slight smirk.

  “Just like nothing's changed at all.” The pair thought in unison.

  …

  “Damnit! Nothing’s changing daru!” Onimaru shouted, throwing the Holy Sword of Reincarnation into the nearby wall of his forge.

  The sword wedged itself in deeply, one of Onimaru’s lesser demon apprentices tentatively went to grab it, approaching however turned him into ash instantly.

  “Tsk tsk, that children is why we wear protection!” Onimaru shouted at all of his quivering apprentices. Wearing a glove densely woven with protective magic and holding a very long pair of tongs, Onimaru ripped the sword out of the wall and placed it back in its protective chamber, though the constant need for repairs was starting to take a toll on the master craftsmen and his apprentices.

  “ONIMARU! I need good news, right now.” Lillithvin screamed telepathically into Onimaru’s brain.

  “Urgh, it’s no use. There’s too much energy and all of it is completely unusable by all of our magical infrastructure. I’m going through multiple apprentices a day just to keep this thing from going nuclear!” Onimaru replied telepathically, pacing around his forge as his apprentices carried on with their assigned tasks.

  “You’re budget for new apprentices already factored in losing a few a day. I can’t keep wasting resources on just keeping this stupid sword from radiating holy energy. Figure something out and fast, Hitop and Anuma are working on something to amplify that energy.” Lillithvin chastised as Onimaru frowned, opening up his vaguely PC-like inventory to find a new set of blue prints.

  “I gotta catch up to whatever that Imp is doing! We’re gonna make the omega sword!” Onimaru declared.

  “B-B-But… that runs off of demonic energy…”

  “We’ll make it run off of holy energy!”

  “But will it be able to ha-”

  “Blah blah blah, nothing a few redesigns couldn’t fix!” Onimaru grinned as he started using his 6 arms in tandem, 2 being used to draw the changes to the blueprint, 2 being used to build a prototype adaptor, 1 being used to scratch his beard and his final arm being used to drink coffee.

  …

  “... And she came how often for tea?” Taro asked incredulously as Yin finished giving Zach a small spirit wand to help him recover his MP faster.

  “Well she didn’t do anything for the first week I think, hard to tell time in there but after that she came every day I think. She loved gossiping with me apparently.” Yin with a slightly smug grin as she stood up and walked away from the still passed out Zach, now with a glowing stick in his mouth. The pair left Zach in a field near enough to the village so he wouldn’t get lost. Carrying anything that wasn’t clearly Human into a small town in Rurono was a recipe for disaster.

  “Yeah… yeah that makes sense.” Taro sighed, realizing that would’ve been when Zach went rogue and saved him.

  “Do you know something?!” Yin exclaimed annoyedly.

  “Yes… But I do not have the energy to explain it. Let’s get some food from that inn.” Taro deflected, he didn’t have the mental or emotional bandwidth to explain that they’d been working with the very same idiot Titania had spoken of quite extensively to Yin.

  And as far as Taro could tell, she spoke quite accurately of him as well.