"An apple?" Saba scoffed, "Well, I can't say this isn't a downgrade from last time but-"
"Saba, we can't afford to be picky." Elly frowned.
"I know, I know." Saba sighed, "It's still going to be a week or two until we see any real results from the plants that crazy lady gave us. Alright, we're not so well off that we'll turn away any scrap of help we can get. Hand it here."
"Ah, if you would be so kind to test the apples for me. I would appreciate that." The woman said as she handed the basket and apple in her hand over to Saba, "I'm afraid they might have been left there for a long time. I don't know how fresh they are exactly. They shouldn't be rotten but I'd like if you would check it for me."
"Seriously lady?" Saba sighed, "You're just pawning off your old fruits on us?"
"So sorry! I promise I'll provide much better support next time!" the lady bowed deeply in apology.
"This is a refugee camp, lady, not a trash heap." Saba sighed again, more frustrated this time, as if he was swallowing his pride first before attempting to actually eat the apple.
But right before he could bite into it, a large shadow landed not far from him, kicking up an immense amount of dust and debris that forced everyone to quickly cover their eyes. And from among the smoke came a blast of water. A pinpoint bullet that splashed right onto the apple in Saba's hand and immediately, the apple warped in Saba's own hands into a writhing monster of flesh. Crying out in shock, the refugee leader dropped the apple turned monster and stomped on it like it was some sort of roach, an attack that didn't seem to do much as it slowly died to the salt in that water.
"What the-"
Elly's wide, shocked eyes turned from Saba to the clearing dust where to her surprise, she witnessed a very attractive looking demon.
"Morgan." Olivia scowled, folding her wings back as she growled at the lady that had handed Saba the fruits, "Explain yourself."
"...I thought you'd have shown yourself sooner."
The lady stood up as she let horns appear from her skull and her legs turned into those of a goat.
"Hello, Olivia." Morgan curtsied almost mockingly as the humans all screamed and ran off at the sight of demons, "I take it you've figured out the secrets?"
"Yes and no." Roko replied as he emerged from Olivia's shadow again, "That's probably the best way to put it I suppose."
"Shut it, Roko." Olivia growled.
"Fine, I'll talk to Saba then." Roko rolled his eyes, "Saba! Dunk that basket into a pool of saltwater! You have one lying around don't you? If not, you should have plenty of salt now anyways."
"Tch. There goes our drinking water for the day." Saba scowled as he ran off with the bucket.
"Morgan, I asked you to explain yourself." Olivia demanded.
"Explain what exactly?" Morgan said, doing her best to look innocent, "You're going to have to be more specific."
"Why are you here giving out parasites disguised as apples?"
"Hmm...I had no idea." Morgan replied without a hint of genuine innocence in her eyes or tone, "The apples were monsters? They fooled me quite well."
"...Are you sure?" Olivia asked.
"Olivia, please." Roko sighed.
"What?!" Olivia yelped, "It's plausible!"
"Morgan, what are you doing here?" Roko asked, addressing the suspect directly.
"Me? I heard a camp of refugees had set up not far from town so I decided to come over and lend my support."
"You're a demon. Why would you do that?"
"Hey, come on, Morgan is a nice girl." Olivia frowned.
"Define 'good' because by demon standards, it could mean gas-lighting your co-worker into thinking he's in an actual relationship with you."
"C-Can you stop mentioning that?!" Olivia cried, "Morgan doesn't even know what you're talking about!"
"Drazdel right?" Morgan giggled.
"HOW'D YOU KNOW?!" Olivia yelped.
"It was kind of obvious." Morgan chuckled.
"I just showed up a few days ago and even I could tell." Roko scoffed.
"I'm going to go dig a hole for me to lie in." Olivia said, sinking into Roko's shadow in shame.
"Cool, I'll fill it in later." Roko replied, "Meanwhile, why don't you cut the act, Morgan?"
"Act? What act?" Morgan asked, continuing to pretend to be clueless.
"The only reasons demons show up here is for one reason." Roko crossed his arms, "To make a contract. This the last place where humans can be safe from the monsters after all, so if a demon wants to make an exploitative contract, they'd be looking here. I don't know what that looks like exactly but they wouldn't be here peddling wares, whether they knew their wares were monsters or not."
"Oh? And why's that?"
"Because contracts are broken when the human dies, including when they get taken over by monsters. So you coming here with monsters proves that you're not here on any business meant for demons."
"Like I said, there's no proof that I knew those apples were monsters."
"Lucky for me, I did scan those apples before we shot it out of Saba's hands. And now I can compare the spell composition to the illusion that you were using when we arrived. And you won't guess what kind of result I found."
"..."
"...So would you like to confess now?" Roko asked.
"Sorry, I was trying to figure out what the hell you were talking about." Morgan blinked, "Scanned? Spell composition? What are you talking about?"
"..." Roko let out a heavy sigh, "If illusion spells are an art then your artwork was all over that apple."
"...So you traced it back to me."
"I would've done so earlier but you just had too good of a childhood friend."
"...She always was an idiot." Morgan sighed.
"You don't even know the half of it." Roko sighed.
"Oh? Do spill the tea, Mr. Detective."
"Let's not have any tea right now." Olivia scowled, emerging from her shadow hole with an angry scowl, "And are you happy now, Mr. Detective? You've solved the case."
"Not quite yet." Roko replied, "Morgan, where's the grimoire?"
"How do you know there's a grimoire?" Morgan smiled mysteriously.
"Because with a nest this big there's no way there isn't one in play." Roko crossed his arms, "And in case you forgot, it was you demons' job to look for a grimoire."
"True. But the fact that we haven't found one surely suggests there in fact isn't one, right?"
"I dunno. You're gonna have to reveal your sources for me to make that determination." Roko replied.
"Hahahaha." Morgan laughed softly to herself, "Well done, you devilish little man."
"Morgan...why..." Olivia's eyes glared sadly across the field to her oldest friend.
"...You've never heard their voices have you?" Morgan said, her eyes growing distant with imaginations swirling around her head, "The power they offer you. The dreams they claim will make true."
"What kind of dreams?" Olivia frowned.
"...You should know, Olivia."
"Huh?" Olivia blinked, "I don't think I do though?"
"What a good friend you've been, Olivia." Roko shook his head.
"Shut it!" Olivia scowled, "You two have been acting pretty chummy but lest I remind you, I'm still her best friend!"
"Then get her to give us the grimoire." Roko scoffed.
"Don't you get it?" Olivia smirked, "Morgan's a demon like us! If she had the grimoire then she would've handed it over to our boss and we would've left a long time ago!"
Roko stared at her with a disappointed stare. Morgan simply shook her head and sighed.
"What?!" Olivia yelped, their silence disturbing the statement she had made so confidently, "It's true! Right, Morgan?!"
"...Olivia..." Morgan sighed, "Why do you follow that man?"
"Huh? You mean..."
"If you had the guts to rebel or commit then I wouldn't have had to do any of this. Do you know how annoying it is to look at the eyes of your old friend and only see a kicked puppy all the time?"
"What..." Olivia floated backwards, her body shaking with shock from a reaction to something only she would understand, "I...I..."
"Roko..." Morgan glared at the human in front of him, "What does Olivia mean to you?"
"She is the silliest person I've ever met." Roko replied immediately.
"What?!" Olivia cried.
"She really is, isn't she?" Morgan said, slyly covering her wide grin, "Makes you wonder how she's survived up til now."
"Thanks for that, by the way."
"Oh you're very welcome." Morgan said with a bright smile.
"She's not my mom!" Olivia cried before turning to Morgan, "You're not my mom!"
"Certainly feels that way." Morgan shrugged.
"Okay, can we...can we talk about anything else?" Olivia covered her face, "Like the grimoire! Where's the grimoire?!"
"Gee, I dunno, underwater maybe?" Morgan shrugged.
"Can Olivia swim by chance?" Roko asked.
"Oh, you won't believe this, this one time, she-"
"Alright, if you won't give us a straight answer, I'll beat it out of you!"
Olivia screamed mostly in confusion as she charged at Morgan in order to distract her. Morgan sighed and jumped, leaping over Olivia to land in front of Roko who calmly stared at the demon in front of him.
"You're right about one thing." Morgan smirked, her face inches from Roko's own, "I am behind everything. So let me ask you. How are you going to stop me?"
"Killing you is an option I'm considering." Roko replied, "But if you hand over the grimoire peacefully, that'd be nice."
"Ooo, scary." Morgan sneered, "But still half-hearted. You're still trying too hard to save everybody. Including me."
"Got a problem with that?"
"...If Olivia had half the conviction you did, perhaps I wouldn't have fallen quite as far as I did." Morgan sighed as she stood up again, "But if you really think you can take everything on yourself like this, I'll just have to remind you of what exactly you're up against."
And with that Morgan snapped her fingers. And nothing happened.
"W...what was that?" Olivia asked cautiously, "Did something happen?"
"Perhaps you should check on your friends." Morgan said, patting Roko on the head, "In the meantime, I'll freshen up and meet you in the middle of the chaos for our real final battle."
"Wait!" Olivia cried as she ran up to Morgan only for her to jump away through the air.
"Hm. Wonder what could that mean." Roko said, watching the skies where Morgan had escaped to.
"I'm back!" Saba cried as he arrived back on the scene with a rusty sword, "I'm here to help kill that dubious wench!"
"Dubious wrench left already." Roko called, "Also, this is why you're single."
"No, I had to kill my wife, that's why I'm single." Saba frowned, "And what are you doing here?"
"We were here to confront Morgan." Olivia answered, "And now that she's gone we need to go after her! Come on, Roko!"
"Now hold on." Roko replied, already long been in his thinking pose since Morgan left.
"What is it now?!" Olivia cried, "She ran off in the direction of Driftwood you know! Your friends could be in danger!"
"They'll be fine. They can fend for themselves. Besides, defeating her now would only end half our problems." Roko replied, "Without getting the grimoire we can't ensure this ends properly."
"So what, do you know where the grimoire is now?" Olivia rolled her eyes.
"...Why would she say underwater?" Roko frowned, "Saba was there a book in the basket?"
"Didn't really check the damn thing in case it started attacking me." Saba scratched his head, "But the only thing left afterwards was a bunch of shrunken skin. Nothing book like in there."
"I didn't think so." Roko nodded, "In that case..."
"Roko, what about Morgan?!" Olivia cried.
"A minute ago, you weren't ready to admit she was responsible. Are you really ready to fight your childhood friend?"
"..."
"Water..." Roko continued thinking, "This place IS known as Seawood...but there isn't any water around actually...but then why would it be called Seawood? There's the legend of the river that was gifted but taken...but...wait...river water is...and the monsters...where are they actually coming from?"
"Roko?" Olivia frowned, "I think I see smoke coming from Seawood's direction."
"Olivia." Roko said, "We need to hurry."
"Finally. If we use a haste spell then we can reach Seawood in a few-"
"We're not going to Seawood."
"We're not?!"
"No."
"But...people are in trouble!"
"I know. They can hold out for a while but I don't know if we have enough time."
"Exactly. ...So..."
"...Olivia, have you tried using amp yet?"
"Amp? No. It's...really awkward. I get the principle behind it but actually using it? It stretches moments into minutes. The only thing that speeds up is our thoughts, not our bodies. It makes spell crafting easier but that's about it."
"Then we just have to use it with other spells that do make it easier for us to move."
"Reinforcement during amp time?" Olivia frowned, "Like, that makes sense but...I don't think your or even my body could handle that."
"Why not? Amp was basically half of haste chopped off and amplified. Any damage could be weathered by protect."
"That's external protection. Internally, overclocking your physical abilities would rip your arms from your body."
"Is that not part of haste?"
"It is but the limits of haste was always our ability to perceive during that movement. Chopping out the perception enhancement into it's own spell is fine without the movement but trying to do both is pushing it."
"...So we need to solve for a way to move during amp time." Roko sighed.
"Roko do we really have time for this?!" Olivia cried, "Why are you trying solve for a problem YOU created?! We need to do something now!"
"Right." Roko nodded, "Guess we'll just have to split the work for now."
"Huh?"
"Olivia. Do you trust me?"
"..."
"I'm going to need you to head off in a completely different direction from Seawood with haste. Meanwhile, I'll be hiding in your shadows, using amp to try and figure out where the grimoire is. Where we go will be up to you."
"..."
"Alright, I'll be gone for now. Go where ever you want."
And with that, Roko patted Olivia on the shoulder before disappearing into her shadow.
"...It's so unfair..." Olivia muttered, "You're just going to ask me to trust you and then just leave it to me just like that?"
"Hey." Saba spoke up, "I dunno what the situation is but you're friends with that guy then that means you're friends with those princesses...right?"
"...Sure, let's go with that." Olivia sighed, "And? What's your point? We don't really have the time to talk for much longer."
"I'll just say, if you want to get rid of the monsters then we are your allies as well." Saba nodded, "If there's trouble brewing in Seawood, then that's our home. And we will rise back up to defend it. We'll handle Seawood. So I'm going to trust you to take care of these monsters once and for all. Got it missy?"
"...You think you lot can really save Seawood?" Olivia said with a soft scorn in her tone.
"No we can't." Saba replied readily, "In all honesty, Seawood is already dead. Even if all of us, together, succeeds the Seawood we love will never return. We may be holding onto a memory of a corpse but that's only because that corpse is being puppeted around by forces we cannot comprehend. We are not here to save anything. We are here to make sure that corpse can finally lay in peace. We will fight til the light leaves our eyes so that happens. So go do your job, demon. Before the hell in Seawood starts spilling out to the rest of the world."
"...Unfair..." Olivia scowled, "How could I not save you all that speech?"
"Huh?"
Saba tried to turn back to Olivia but she had already spread her wings and took off. Straight up into the sky until she was but a speck in the sky. For a half second that black speck stayed there before rocketing off in the opposite direction of Seawood.
"...Atta girl." Saba smirked. Then he turned to the curious folks of Driftwood who had gathered around to meekly observe the conflict that had started in their midst. Addressing them, he shouted, "Look lively, gentlemen and women! It's time to finally return home and fight to end this nightmare!"