The heavy doors shut with a hollow thud.

Akane's tail flicked once in irritation before she sighed and slumped against the wall.

"That's that, I guess," she muttered. "Better than him being with you." Akane scratched her cheek. "Maybe I should get in there as well-"

"Sure." Levia nodded. "We can both get in-"

The moment that the High Priestess' hand came into contact with the door, Akane swatted it away. "Back off." She said. "The three of us have been through a lot together. You don't get to intrude."

Levia crossed her arms, her pale cheeks puffing in frustration. "I'm definitely going inside if you are. Plus, why should-"

"Then I'm not going inside," Akane interrupted, dropping cross-legged to the ground. "I'm sleeping right here, and I'm not letting you get it, no matter how late it is. You've been trying to crawl into his bed since we got here. I know your creepy ass wants to stare at him while he sleeps or something."

"That's not true!" Levia snapped, her cheeks flushing suddenly. "I only wanted to make sure that we're all safe. The Heart could react with something while he's asleep!"

"Sure." Akane rolled her eyes.

Levia froze, eyes wide, then crossed her arms again, chin lifting defensively. "I'd trust you with him if you had even an ounce of control over magic. You can barely control your own, so…."

"Nice excuse." Akane said as she stuck out her tongue.

"It's true." Levia shrugged, her back slowly sliding down the wall until her butt reached the ground.

Rika and Rita exchanged glances.

'Does this mean we can leave now…?'

Akane and Levia glared at each other for a long moment.

Minutes passed in silence. The heat of the argument faded into the steady rhythm of breathing. Akane leaned back against the wall, staring at the flickering light above. Levia kept her arms crossed, grumbling under her breath. They were seated on opposite sides of the doors.

The hallway was cold. Neither of them spoke for a while.

Levia's head tilted, eyelids growing heavy. "I'm not sleeping," she whispered. "The moment that you are… I'll…"

"Good," Akane murmured from the other side, her voice faint. "Do Demons… Even need sleep…"

But within minutes, both were asleep.

"I think we can leave." Rita whispered.

"Are you sure?" Rika sighed. "Are we going to have to sleep with the handcuffs?"

"Guess so." Rita shrugged.

The two walked away, each choosing a room for herself.

***

Inside the room, candlelight danced softly against the walls. Syl sat at the edge of the bed, spear propped against the nearby chair, her posture straight but her eyes wandering. Amon had pulled the curtains aside just slightly, enough for a trickle of moonlight to filter through.

"So," she said at last, voice quiet but firm, "you really trust her?"

Amon glanced back, his face half-shadowed. "I don't trust her," he said simply. "But I think she can be trusted."

Syl's lips pressed together. "That's cold."

"You asked." He shrugged

Amon moved closer to the bed and,

"What are you doing?!" Syl asked as she suddenly looked away, embarrassed.

"Taking my clothes off, why?"

"Why…? No, why are you taking your clothes off?"

"The bed is clean, while we've been outside in the dirt." He shrugged. "Just makes sense to me."

"..."

"Or…" He momentarily stopped pulling on his clothes. "Are you uncomfortable with me taking off my clothes?"

Syl gulped.

"Of course not." She answered confidently. "In fact, I should probably take mine off as well. It's true, the bed is clean." Syl immediately stood up and started undressing.

It didn't take long for both of them to stand completely naked from head to toe. At first, Syl wasn't sure how much she would take off. She stole glances at him, matching his nakedness each time that he took something off.

It was important for her not to appear embarrassed, not to appear weak. Now more than ever.

They stood with their clothes in their hands, using balls of clothes to hide their privates.

Eventually, Amon slipped under the bed sheets, and so did Syl. Their clothes fell to the ground, discarded as they hopped into bed.

For a while, neither spoke.

Syl's eyebrow twitched.

"You're taking way more than your half, don't you think?"

While she had remained at the edge of the bed, Amon was resting at its center with her hands crossed below his head.

"I don't remember us agreeing to share the bed down the middle." He smirked. "In the first place, let me be. I'm in heaven right now."

Syl momentarily glanced at him while keeping the sheets she was holding with both hands over her entire body and up to her nose.

"Yeah…" She whispered. "I guess it is comfortable. The walls certainly make us safer."

While this was certainly true, it wasn't exactly what made Amon feel like he was in heaven.

Sure. The walls, bed, and pillows were nice. But being next to a beautiful woman made those things a hundred times better.

It could have been Levia that lay next to him, but he couldn't completely trust her just yet. Plus, just because touching and kissing her only slightly and slowly drained his Endurance did not mean that going further wouldn't cause him harm.

Still, this wasn't much of a problem. By growing stronger and Evolving further, Levia's draining ability would slowly lose all efficacy, and he would be able to go as far as he wants with her without risking anything.

Amon slowly turned his head to glance at the female Hobgoblin who was holding the sheets over her body and over half her face.

They weren't just sharing a roof. They were sharing a bed.

'It wasn't so long ago that I offered to share a roof with her.' He smiled, reminiscing. 'Even offered to bring another bed in the hut, but she refused…'

Indeed, Syl had refused to share a roof with him as a Goblin. Now, she hadn't simply agreed to share a roof with him, she had actively made it happen AND went as far as to share a bed with him, both completely naked.

"What are you staring at?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing." Amon mused. "You're just really beautiful under the candlelight."

Syl looked away, directing her gaze towards the ceiling, while Amon's gaze studied her for a bit longer. Under the thin and white sheets, he could clearly see the outline of her breasts, as well as her perky nipples pushing against those sheets.

"What happens now?" Syl asked, still staring at the ceiling.

"We'll see where the night takes us." Amon teased.

"Huh?" She turned towards him. "I meant from here. I joined you and Akane, but we haven't talked about where we're going or what we're trying to do. We need to figure that out so we can plan ahead."

"Oh…" He sighed, turning towards the ceiling. "Maybe we can just take it easy."

"Take it easy?"

"Yeah, why do we need a plan? Can't we just live day to day?"

"..." Syl frowned.

"We'll fight when we need to, keep each other safe, and figure out what we want to do as we go."

She remained silent for a bit.

"I guess…" The female Hobgoblin whispered.

She was immensely annoyed by the idea. Leaving things up to chance, figuring things out as they went, meant relying solely on one's immediate strength.

'Right now, I'm the weakest of the group.' Syl turned to lie on her side with her back away from the edge of the bed and towards Amon. 'Akane and the Demons are much stronger than me. Leaving things up to chance and figuring things out as we go will put me at the bottom of the group. Tsk… When it was just the three of us, it could work but now…' She clenched her teeth, staring at the ground below the edge of the bed. 'I can't be useful this way. Previously, I was a source of intel for Amon. I was useful that way, and went as far as to divulge something that could make Akane go against me… But with these Demons having joined, my intel is now useless. It'll never match the intel that a Demon with dozens of Humans under her can bring…'

Without realizing it, Syl had brought a hand to her face. She bit on her thumb as her mind raced.

'I'm outmatched in strength completely, and my intel is no good. I can't bring knowledge or strength… That Rika even has muscles as developed as mine while being way stronger… There's just nothing that makes me stand out right now… Akane is stronger than me while being thin and slim, what kind of bullshit is that? If we don't plan ahead, I can't be useful through my ideas either…'

Amon slowly turned towards Syl.

'If I can't be useful to them, then what's the point of having me with them? If I can't be useful, I'll be abandoned… I need to find a way, a different way to be useful. There must be something that I can do-'

His hand suddenly came into contact with her back, sending shivers running all over her body.

"Are you alright?" Amon asked.

Only then did Syl realize that she had been hyperventilating, panicking as her mind raced.

"I…" She muttered, looking away. "I don't know."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.