His entrance into the cathedral made Haseo look around himself curiously, seeing a spiral staircase to his immediate right.

"Well that's strange." He thought out loud in his native tongue, a hand finding his hip as he looked around himself, one other door being in front of him. "Where the hell am I supposed to go?"

Amidst his voice echoing lightly in the empty halls, Haseo looked towards the sound of footsteps coming down the steps, his eyes relaxing slightly when he saw that it was Decadus.

"Hello. I wasn't expecting you to be here." Decadus said, his tone measured greatly.

"Neither did I frankly," Haseo replied after a moment of thought, "Gabriella invited me to stay here."

"Did she now?" Four's voice came behind Decadus, and Haseo looked to see that she was accompanied with another girl.

She looked to be about the same height as Four, her having blonde hair and claret red eyes, her donning white colored clothes that had black linings at the rim.

"She did." Haseo affirmed, hands on his hips.

"Even after I told her about the danger you could be to One, she still..." Four glared in Haseo's direction, though her words implied that her mind was elsewhere, voice tinged in disbelief.

"A part of me wants to apologize for hurting you," Haseo lifted his hands up from his waist and shrugged, not giving her the satisfaction of intimidation, "But you're not doing much to make me follow through."

"You're the one who attacked Four?" The blonde asked, narrowing her red eyes inquistively.

Her voice carried a mysterious edge to it, almost as though she was thinking even as she spoke.

"Yes." Haseo said simply.

"I see. Are you an Intoner, by any chance?"

"I'd be able to answer that question, if I only knew what that was." Haseo crossed his arms.

"You don't know of the Intoners?" Decadus asked, eyes wide in surprise.

"I don't. Maybe it's common knowledge here, but it's like Gabriella said," he shrugged his shoulders again, "I'm just a foreigner."

"What did you use to fight Gabriella with?" The blonde girl asked.

"I can't tell you that," he looked over at Four as he answered her question, "She wanted to attack me too. Since I don't get the feeling that she'll be forgiving me any time soon, I'm keeping that information to myself for now."

This was a half-truth, given the fact that he didn't speak of his Avatar out of principal for never telling to outsiders of G.U.

The blonde followed his gaze to Four nonetheless, then looked back at him, "I can understand that." Her tone became less inquisitive then. "If Gabriella said you could stay here, then I'll take her word for it. However, you all will need to wait for me for one moment."

She walked down the remaining steps, Haseo watching as she passed by him, reaching the doors to the Cathedral and pushing the giant double doors open.

As One walked out of the Cathedral, the doors slamming shut behind her, she quickly found Gabriella staying close to the entrance, laying down on the ground, almost lazily gazing at the Cathedral City.

"Gabriella." She called, and the dragon turned her head to the Intoner as she closed the distance between them at a walking pace.

"Yes One?" Gabriella lifted her head to look at One fully.

"Are you badly hurt right now?" One asked the dragon immediately, eyes scanning her body for any signs of injury even as she asked.

"No." Gabriella gave a gaze to One's soul. "But I take it Four and Decadus told you about that kid?"

"The boy who said you invited him to stay in the Cathedral?"

"Yes, him." Gabriella nodded. "Of course, if you object to him staying here, I'm fine with getting him out."

"No. I accept your judgement. If you think it should be fine for him to stay here, I won't object to it."

Granted, the idea of Gabriella getting someone out of the Cathedral gave rise to the mental image of the building getting ultimately destroyed in the process.

"Good. I didn't want him going around this place when he doesn't even know where he is."

One quirked an eyebrow ever so slightly at this.

"Didn't he interfere with your mission in the Land of Sands, involving the Elf Pirates?"

"Yes. And I'm glad that he did." For the first time, One saw Gabriella shudder.

It was a little unnerving to see, with her scales sticking up and billowing like high grass in the wind, but One didn't comment on the unprecedented sight.

Instead, she gave a simple response.

"Oh?"

"You know about how bad dragons can be around elf blood, right One?"

"Yes. I had hoped that you wouldn't be affected by it." One bowed her head ever so slightly, as though in guilt, before raising it back up so quickly that anyone could see her and think they'd imagined the way she moved her head, "Your attacking them didn't cause a problem for you, did it?"

"It caused a problem for how sane I think your second youngest sister is." Gabriella snorted. "Those elves were screaming for mercy, and she wouldn't give it to them."

"What does one have anything to do with the other?"

"I never thought I'd see the day where she'd be so happy about something. It was unnerving. Imagine a little girl frolicking through a field of flowers. Now replace every flower with children dying in a burst of flame as they scream for their suffering to stop, all because of the still smiling little girl that caused their suffering doing it for something they stole." Gabriella paused for emphasis. "That doesn't even BEGIN to describe how awful that situation was."

"Were they fighting back?"

Gabriella spoke in fragmented sentences then.

"Yes. After we provoked them. They died without dignity. I'm not sure how many more would be dead if that kid didn't show up."

"If you were so against it, why didn't you disobey Four of your own accord?"

"She said she was doing it for your sake and the world's. I wanted to let you know so that fact would have the strongest possible emphasis behind it for the implicit lesson you need to learn."

"Is it that you don't want to help Four again?" One questioned, her knowing Gabriella enough to half-expect the answer.

"Exactly. If she ever wants to go on a meaningless massacre again, count me out."

Just as One thought she'd word it, the second eldest Intoner thought to herself.

"I see." She said evenly, red eyes calm.

"Thankfully, that kid interfering with me gave me an excuse to disobey. I never would've expected something like that to happen, unless he was an Intoner commanding a daemon or something, but a plausible excuse is a plausible excuse."

"How powerful was it? The being that fought against you." One added for clarification.

"Its powers were weaker than mine, but it was still powerful nonetheless." Gabriella looked down in thought. "I thought that he must've been an Intoner or something, but I don't know for sure, since he doesn't seem to know what they are at all." She looked at One again. "Do you think Zero might have something to do with him?"

"I doubt it." One responded instantly. "She wouldn't accept help unless she knew for sure they'd side with her."

Though this didn't answer her question, Gabriella understood what One meant.

"I suppose that makes sense. That dumb dragon she was with would be the only help she'd really need."

Her tone implied that Gabriella wasn't surprised by One's deduction, and that she'd only confirmed her own thoughts on the matter.

"Yes." One looked up into the sky, the many stars there shining brightly above her.

For a moment, she wondered where Zero, as well as the white dragon, Michael, were.

Could they be preparing themselves to defeat the Intoners, and by extension, Gabriella?

Could Zero be on another killing spree, in a bout to try keeping herself fed?

What could they have been doing then, she wondered?

The answer to One's thoughts could be found in the form of a wildly burning forest.

In the middle of the chaotic inferno stood Michael, the member of the dragon race said to be the most powerful of them all (usually by his own claim, though he had the necessary power to back such a boast), roaring a roar that could instill fear into any normal person's heart.

He was fighting a battle within the forest, a struggle he had suffered for much of his age-old life, and in the face of his mortal enemy, the assurance for victory was not greatly present, even for a dragon with powers as great as his.

The only one who could help him with his affliction was a woman with silver-blonde hair, her pinkish-red eyes narrowed into a deep scowl as she heard Michael's roars of anger and agony.

After experiencing the sound for over five minutes, Zero could only give one verbal response to her ally's distress.

"Hey dumbass, you planning on hitting the BEES instead of EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE FUCKING FOREST?!"

Just when she'd finally found a nice place to sleep, Michael managed to fuck it up in a few hours' time by hitting a beehive with the ax-shaped end of his tail, in an effort to find something worth fighting to keep himself preoccupied as she rested.

Zero had initially been sleeping well, yet when she heard Michael's roaring, her only response had been to roll over and attempt to ignore him.

She would soon be forced awake by the toxic fumes of the unnatural forest fire, the poisons carried within the smoke making her gag too much to not wake up.

When she came to, in an extremely short time due to her anger at being forcibly woken up, she would look around herself to hear monstrous roars from Michael, the entire forest they inhabited bathed in flames, with the cause being, from what Zero quickly realized, bees.

Thus, her response had been moderately calm.

By her standards at least.

Michael was too preoccupied with his age-old adversary to respond.

"Damn you, you cursed puppets! I'll burn you insects to ash - Ah!"

His threat was cut short by a sting from a bee.

Zero sighed heavily, bringing her hand to her forehead and closing her eyes, agitation clear on her face.

Then she roared with all her might, eyes snapping open and her hand whipping towards the ground, fists clenched.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU STUPID DRAGON!"

A type of shockwave blew through the forest with her powerful voice, and Michael was blown onto his side, the flaming trees that surrounded them being put out, some standing tall despite their burns, while other, much weaker, trees were snapped off their trunks.

Amidst his surprise, Michael was too disoriented to respond appropiately before Zero began to snarl at him, "UNLIKE DUMBASSES LIKE YOU, I ACTUALLY NEED TO SLEEP TO FIGHT WORTH A DAMN!"

As Zero would say this, One would sigh.

"You alright there One?" Gabriella asked, and One nodded.

"Yes. I was just wondering if we could enlist the boy's help. If he could control something that could fight on even terms with a dragon, then he'd a powerful ally." One said with a nod.

"He may be powerful," Gabriella mused, "but he doesn't seem much of the "killing someone without a hitch" type."

"I see. Very well." One turned around.

"It won't hurt to ask if he'd be fine helping though. Especially with who you're trying to deal with."

"I'm aware."

Without another word, One walked back to the Cathedral, pushing open its grand doors again.

Upon reentering, One found that there was a tense silence in the room, Four and the albino newcomer looking at one another warily.

They turned to One as she entered, and she questioned her younger sister immediately, "Four, you still haven't tended to your wound?"

Four's tense expression softened at this question, but Decadus spoke before her.

"Lady Four wasn't sure whether it would be safe to proceed to the dungeons without being sure it'd be safe to leave this young man here."

Upon closer inspection, as One walked towards them, she noticed that the boy looked very much annoyed as he crossed his arms, but said nothing as he glared off to the side.

"Gabriella trusts him enough for him to stay. There's no need for you to be so wary Four." Despite her words, her gaze snagged to the boy again. "However, I'll need to bring him down to the dungeons with us. I need to speak with him."

Four looked to her eldest sister at this, but sighed after a moment of silence, nodding in defeat before walking towards the entrance leading to the dungeons, Decadus in tow.

Seeing this, Haseo looked over to One, who nodded towards the door, and he gave a sigh similar to Four, walking forward and watching as Four's form disappeared out of sight with the stairs leading downwards after Decadus held the door open for the brunette.

Walking past the blonde man, Haseo gave a small nod in acknowledgement as he went, the torch-lit dungeon looking rather ominous to him.

As he walked, staring at the back of Four's head, Haseo wondered if he'd feel anything like a medieval prisoner being taken to his cell, had it not been for Four being injured.

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs however, Haseo's eyes widened.

"How big is this place?" He asked without thinking.

Needless to say, the dungeon was several times more expansive than Haseo expected it to be, it being more comparable to an underground ball room than a dungeon.

His question was muttered in his native language however, and Four turned to look back at him from the floor of the basement, "What?"

"It's nothing." Haseo said, with a course look around himself after thinking of how to speak English correctly. "I'm just surprised at just how big this place is."

"It's the center of the Cathedral City." Decadus said behind him, and looking back at the blonde, Haseo saw that he had his arms crossed as he looked into the recesses of the dungeon. "Since this city acts as Midgard's capital, the Cathedral acts as much as a commercial center as it does a place of worship."

As Decadus uncrossed his arms and spread his hands to Haseo, the white haired boy looked behind himself, to the dungeon, as the elder of the two kept speaking, "This dungeon functions as a holding place for crops and raw materials as a result of being the center of the capital. Merchants are much more likely to find this place this way."

"I get it. No wonder it's so big then." Haseo looked around himself, looking down at the sound of a man's voice.

"It also acts as a relief center in times of famine, among other things." Decadus added as an afterthought, and though Haseo wanted to respond, he was distracted by another comment below him.

"Oh, Lady Four, welcome back to the Cathedral. I didn't know we would be expecting you back so soon." An old man's voice said, the source of the sound standing before Four, it being an short man wearing stilts.

Even from a glance, it was obvious to Haseo that the man was wizened; as if his white beard and hair weren't enough indication of his age, there were strands of white hair coming out of his nose that were somehow long enough to reach down to his waist, though he was so short his height probably stood to make his nosehairs look longer than they really were.

"The assignments One sent me on weren't the easiest tasks in the world, but they were managable." Four replied evenly, though Haseo could see a bit of discomfort in her body language. "Do you know if Three has a potion of any kind that could heal this?"

Her bloodied gauntlet moved away from her wound, and seeing it, the old man gave a look of brief surprise before nodding, turning around, "Yes, she has been trying to find ways to remedy wounds recently. Please come with me, Lady Four."

With this, the old man walked away, Four following suit.

Seeing her Intoner walking away, Decadus only gave a simple nod to Haseo before walking behind the two, and the albino looked back to One, the white-clad Intoner stopping in front of him.

"What is it you wanted to talk about?" He asked, crossing his arms again.

"It's something that I would like to ask you, now that I've heard about you from Gabriella." One replied, and Haseo's eyes tensed slightly, One elaborating on her words as he listened respectfully.

A/N: Sorry that this chapter was so much shorter than the last one.

And for the fact that I haven't updated this in half a year... DX

I hope I stayed true to everyone's characters enough for anyone reading this to enjoy it though.

Hopefully I'll be able to update again soon...