hell-bound ; my inner demons

3 ; anew

"We must go back to our roots and start anew."

I also apologise in advance for the disgusting image above, but I just wanted to do a quick sketch and show what I think Dew would look like. He's basically like a more yellow Noi. Kind of. Ah, I'll fix him but right now, I'm lazy. Don't worry, I'll draw an actual better piece later on. But I'm just showing this cause it's been a week already since I last wrote a chapter and I need to organise myself and my schedule.

We seriously didn't know what to do with Dew. After his grand entrance, he simply let Leif go, before slumping back into a room, labelled Dew's Den and didn't come out after that. Weirdo. He probably was exhausted, and didn't want to confront us afterwards. Of course, I did attempt to go find him.

"hEllo?" I asked, pounding on his door.

"What do you want, human?" He asked, opening the door.

He looked a little messy, with his hair facing all different directions and heavy bags under his eyes. He wasn't wearing any of those yellow rings of his, and he generally looked like a normal human for a second.

"Look, I'm trying to figure out some things, so leave me alone." He said, shutting the door in my face.

Rude.

"Hey, Princess." Leif called, jumping onto me from behind.

"Leif, get off me. My back's going to break." I said, hunching over in an attempt to get him to slide off.

"Dew's probably confused about the situation and pondering on whether he should help us or if he should bring us in. Usually when he's thinking, he locks himself in and refuses to come out until he's made a decision. I've already told Rhys to set up a spell in case he does try to kill us." Leif said.

"I doubt he's going to kill us. He's in bad condition right now. He's been losing sleep, judging from the dark circles under his eyes." I analysed.

"I guess..." Leif sighed, placing his chin on my shoulder, and kissing me on the cheek.

His lips were warm, and it sent shivers through my body. I pushed his head back, blushing. He smirked, laughing cheekily.

"You're adorable." He said.

"Ahem."

I looked back, to see Rhys standing there, running a hair through his hair, giving Leif a look. Leif gave him a look too, and I looked at the two of them. What a bunch of weirdos. Well, including me, of course.

"The two of you are needed outside. Tell Dew to come as well. We're going to be having a meeting." He said, grabbing my hand and pulling me into the next room with him.

His hands clamped around mine, and he squeezed it lightly. My eyes met his for he tiniest millisecond, and I suddenly was aware of his every motion. His thumb was swiping against my knuckle every so slightly, and he was looking my way every two seconds. It made me a little uncomfortable, in a way. It made me want to look away and turn beet red.

Soon, he'd taken me to the main room, where the other daemos were seated. There was a circular wooden table, and the daemos had pulled up chairs to the table, and were sitting around, like some medieval business meeting was about to take place.

He gestured to a chair, and I sat down in it, smiling at him gratefully. He smiled back as he sat beside me, waiting for Leif and Dew to arrive. Soon, they came too. Dew still looked half dead, with Leif dragging him in. They sat onto their respective chairs as the meeting began.

"Alright, then. We need to make a plan for what we're going to be doing next. We can't just camp down here forever. We need to think about Ava's safety as well as Y/n's." Rhys said, clutching my hand tightly in his underneath the table.

Leif scowled, saying, "Well what do you expect we do? We have no options right now. We have no leads, and it's way too dangerous to go back to the castle."

"I think we should go back to the castle as soon as possible. We haven't been getting any messages from Lady Grandma, so we don't know if she's been compromised." Rhys said.

"Wow. You only care about your mentor,after all this talk about caring for Y/n and Ava." Leif said, crossing his arms.

"Well, it's not like you're trying to suggest anything useful to us, either." Rhys snarled.

"Well at least I'm not being a humongous prick." Leif smirked, sticking his tongue out at Rhys.

"I have had enough of your atrocious behaviour." Rhys shouted, raising his staff, readying to fire at the white haired daemos.

Leif sprung into action as well, holding his scythes and jumping onto the table in a squat. He licked his sharp, shark-like teeth before giving me a wink. I sighed in disbelief.

"I'm going to the castle alone."

I turned towards the voice, stunned.

"But it's way too dangerous!" Noi shouted, placing a hand on the table.

"I'm going anyway."

"It is unwise." Pierce said flatly, a hint of worry in his tone.

"I am your superior, and you are my knights. You listen to my commands, and you are loyal to me. I haven't spoken up during this journey to daemos, and I am now going to go to the castle on my own and get out. You will listen to me and stay here." Asch ordered, walking out of the room.

In that moment, time slowed down, as he was walking away. He seemed more regal and more powerful than ever. Maybe it was just the situations, and what was going on. I don't know what it was. But he seemed different.

He finally seemed like a real prince.