This chapter was hard to write for some reason, so I'm sorry if it seems lacking when compared to previous chapters. Luckily, its all up from here!

Trudging along, the high winds pelting us with snow, we followed behind Bronwyn as she led us up a large hill.

It’d been a few hours since we’d arrived there, and we’d been walking non-stop since then.

“So,” Greg started from behind me, “when you said ‘he’s close’ you didn’t mean right around the fucking corner, but on the other side of the world!”

Bronwyn just glanced back at him, her face hidden behind her scarf, “trust me, it could be worse.”

“Sure,” Greg mumbled unhappily, upset he couldn’t smoke due to the high winds taking every joint he tried to use.

I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself as I looked back, making sure my Ego was still attached to everyone. I was feeding them as much extra Ego as I could, since I now had more than I could ever use after killing Kelman Utop.

“We’re going to be too tired to fight when we find him at this point!” Reinhardt complained, the mostly uphill walking slowly taking its toll on her. On all of us.

Bronwyn held up a little bag, giving it a shake. “I have a solution for that, so don’t worry.”

“You better,” she replied, grumbling to herself.

“Someone is approaching,” Castor suddenly said from atop Greg’s head, causing all of us to stop and look around.

Then, out of nowhere, a large red blur slammed into the snow near us, sending debris everywhere.

We all turned and squared up with the attacker as they slowly stood, steam flying off of their body as snow was thrown into it by the winds.

“Shit,” Bronwyn muttered as she saw who it was. “This fight will cost us…”

The large creature stood up, flexing hard, sending a shock wave out from its body. The snow around it melted immediately.

“Is the one called ‘Greg’ among you?” the large red creature suddenly said, stepping out of the crater it made.

“Balgore?” Greg suddenly asked, finally getting a good look at him. “OH shit, man! I’ve been wondering if we’d see you again!”

The large creature smiled, “I was hoping you would be here, small friend.”

“What is going on?” Bronwyn asked, her sword slowly lowering in confusion.

“Greg got high with this guy, and now they’re friends, I guess,” Lance said, facehoofing.

“My boss, Lorenzo, sent me to kill a few of you,” Balgore said, causing everyone but Greg to tense up. “But, I don’t think I’ll be following that order.”

“Fuck yeah, bro!” Greg said as his horn flashed and a large blunt appeared before the demon. “Toke up, fucker!”

Balgore laughed as he took the oversized blunt and took a massive hit, seeming to exhaust the entire blunt in one breath.

“Yeah!” Greg cheered happily.

The demon let out a content sigh and tossed the used joint away. “If you all do not mind, I’d like to join you.”

“To fight, Lorenzo?” Bronwyn asked in an unsure voice.

He looked at her, smirking, “I thought that was you, Brownie. Long time no fight, huh?” At her annoyed grunt, he laughed, “Yes, to fight Lorenzo. I think it's about time I pay him back for the countless eons of mistreatment.”

“This makes no sense…” Bronwyn groaned, getting a reassuring bump from Lance.

“Power of friendship, and all that junk, ya know?” he said, rolling his eyes with a smile.

“Things are so much simpler when you just fight your problems,” she sighed. “Befriending them is… weird.”

“Welcome aboard, Balgore!” Greg yelled as he ran forward and the two grasped hand to hoof, shaking hard.

“I love this group,” Reinhardt chuckled, getting a nod of agreement from Remi.

“Lorenzo is very close,” Balgore announced, pointing to the top of the hill. “Right over this ridge and just a few miles away.”

“Perfect! That I can do,” Greg said as he and Balgore joined the group.

Bronwyn shook her head and began walking again, the rest of us following after her.

As we reached the top of the hill, Ayla appeared next to me, looking perplexed.

‘What is it?’ I thought to her.

“Do you not… hear that?” she asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

I listened hard, but could only hear the heavy winds around us.

‘No?’

She frowned, “It’s like… something or someone is whispering deep inside of us. But I can’t make out a word of it.”

Right then, I thought I heard a males voice speak deep within me. But like she said, I couldn’t make out anything it said.

“I don’t like it,” she grimaced.

I felt something stir deep within me, causing me to gasp out loud.

“Scamp?” Mallogory asked, hearing me over the winds.

“I’m good,” I replied, sweat starting to form all over my body despite the chill. “Just… tired.”

She definitely did not buy that as she narrowed her eyes at me, but she didn’t push it further. Just kept her eyes on me as we trudged along.

“This feels ominous…” Ayla mumbled, the feeling within me only increasing, causing me to grimace in pain.

‘I should say something, this… hurts,’ I think to her, the pain spreading and building.

But just as I was about to say something, it all came to a halt, and relief washed over me.

What the fuck was all that about?

Deciding not to worry anyone, I pushed on, leaning against Mallogory a bit for comfort.

“We’re here,” Balgore announced as we stepped up to a rocky wall.

“Bro, this is a rock,” Greg snickered. “Think the weed is messing with you.”

Not responding to him, Balgore reached out and placed a hand on the wall, causing a door to appear before them, right against the rocky wall.

“Ah, I take that back,” Greg says, nodding in approval.

“He told me he had an ace up his sleeve to handle you all, but he didn’t say what that meant. But,” Balgore said as he pushed the door open, “I do know it's just him and his pet in there.”

“His pet?” I asked, starting to shake a bit as I thought of Leem. Mallogory, noticing my reaction, placed a hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah, one of them at least. Belle, his little soul worker. She’s able to manipulate any soul that allows her to do so. She’s not a threat to any of you, as long as you do not allow her to access your soul. Without permission, she can’t touch you.”

“Sounds like a useless ability,” Reinhardt comments.

Balgore only nodded, “It is, he just uses her to make changes to his soul, or to any of us when he wants something changed.”

“Such a great guy,” Jero growled, twirling his blade.

“Shall we?” Balgore asked as he stepped in, taking the lead. “I’ll go first. My body is an Ego weapon, so I can’t be damaged that easily.”

“Sweet!” Greg said as he followed him in.

Slowly, we all filed in behind him, finding ourselves in a long hallway leading straight down.

As we walked down the hall, Bronwyn opened her bag and handed out some kind of little dough balls. “Eat these now, it’ll restore all of your stamina and make you feel refreshed.”

Plopping mine into my mouth, I bit down into it. It tasted absolutely terrible, but I pushed through. A pulse suddenly shot through my body, removing all the pain and fatigue I had been feeling. My eyes went wide as I felt like I’d just woken up from a refreshing nap.

“Oh this is amazing!” Reinhardt said loudly, flexing hard with a laugh.

“You all can remove those heavy clothes now,” Balgore announced. “This place has its own regulated temperature.”

“Finally,” I groaned as I stripped out of the heavy clothing, happy to not be restricted anymore.

Everyone else did the same, returning to their normal attire.

“Now,” he said, looking a bit solemn, “when we step through that door at the end of the hallway, we’ll be in the main room. He’ll be there.”

“Mallogory and Scamp,” Bronwyn said, looking at us. “This would be the best time to fuse.”

“On it,” I say, winking at Mallogory.

I pour my Ego into her as we begin our dance, swirling and spinning around each other, finishing with a kiss. A bright flash fills the hallways.

As the light receded, I stood above the party, now the tallest member. Only Balgore stood close to my height.

“I wonder if Pinkie and I could do that…” Greg said in awe, looking up at us.

I just chuckled, but before I could respond, Bronwyn interjected.

“Are you two in control? Or just one of you?”

“Both of us are in control right now,” I responded, smiling. “As long as we’re not in conflict with one another, we’re able to act as one and maintain this form.”

“Interesting,” she mouthed, rubbing her chin. Then she stood up straight, “I think we’re ready.”

I smirk, “oh, we’re ready alright.”

We all slowly made our way over to the door, letting Balgore take the lead again. He pushed the door open and stepped through, followed by everyone else.

Upon entering the room, I took note of just how large it was. Like a football field, with a high ceiling.

“Balgore,” a voice called out from the other side of the room, “You swapping sides now?”

Balgore growled as he flashed a bright smile, “Aye! Decided to make things interesting!”

“That you have,” Lorenzo laughed loudly, standing tall with a small woman next to him, who was sitting on the ground looking distracted as she messed with the dirt.

Bronwyn and I stepped up on either side of the large demon, staring across the room at the man.

“Ah, Bron, and… you are new,” he said, looking at me.

I flashed a toothy smile his way, “Good to finally meet you, Lorenzo.”

He returned my smile, looking a bit crazed, “Scamp. I should have known. What is this thing? A combination of you and another creature?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied, my Ego blades coating my teeth and claws, my wings also slowly began to become coated in my Ego blades.

“Hmm,” he smirked slyly. “So, you all turned one of my own against me? Well, have I got a surprise for you then!”

He reached down and yanked the woman up by her hair, shoving her towards us. “Do it.”

The woman, head pointed down, began to emit Ego out of her body.

“One of your very own has betrayed you,” he said, pulling his face mask up and tilting his tricorn hat down.

“Not one of us would do that!” I yelled to him, causing him to laugh in response.

I turned and looked at my friends, all of them looking just as taken back by what he said.

Who would betray us?!

Looking back, I saw the woman was slowly raising into the air, her Ego growing around her.

It suddenly shot towards me like a wall of darkness.

Trying to block it did nothing as it just passed right through my Ego blades and slammed into me, but nothing happened.

I blinked, rubbing my claws over myself.

(What just happened? Are we good?)

<I think so… yeah we’re->

My eyes went wide as an intense pain shot through me, like something was clawing its way out of me. Then, with an audibly loud bang and flash of dark light, I exploded backwards, slamming into the group and sending them flying in all directions.

Even Balgore and Bronwyn were sent flying from the explosion that had happened.

After regaining my composure, I looked at my friends, glad to see they all seemed to be okay, just shaken up from the sudden explosion.

Looking to myself, I was happy to see I was fine, still fused and no damage to be seen whatsoever.

Then what just happened?

“Finally,” a familiar voice said from the middle of the room, causing my eyes to go wide as I snapped my head in the direction of the voice.

There, looking very pleased and happy, stood Scayla.

“I’m free from that prison,” she said, looking herself over. Then she looked at me as I slowly stood up. “Hello, Scamp and Scamp’s whore, pleasure to meet you on the outside.”

I narrowed my eyes, clenching my fist. “What is this?!”

She laughed, looking back to Lorenzo and the woman, who was now crawling back to his side. “He made me a deal. He’d free me, if I agreed to kill you two myself. And, how could I say no to that? It’s not like you were on my side or cared about me.”

Gulping loudly, I stepped forward, squaring up with her, “Scayla, you are me. How could you side with this… man?!”

She rolled her eyes, “I am not you. All I ever wanted was to be appreciated and allowed out from time to time, but you constantly put me down and threw negative emotions at me. Tell me why I’d consider you anything but a warden with how you’ve been treating me since the moment I was born?!”

I frowned, as what she said was true, I had been neglecting her.

“You only allowed me out when it was convenient for you! When you needed me to do something only I could do! And then you’d lock me away the moment I did what you wanted!” she screamed, sounding like an upset teenager.

“Scayla,” I said in a low voice, “I am sorry. You deserved better than-”

“Shut up,” she growled, her Ego flaring, the dark tendrils rising above her.

Glancing back at the others, I close my eyes. This was not going to end well.

“Scayla,” I finally said, turning back to her. “Let’s do this.”

She smiled widely as she reared up, “I’m going to make you pay for what you’ve put me through!”

“Yeah,” I exhaled as I lowered into a fighting stance, “you can try.”

With a roar, she slammed her hooves down, sending her Ego tendrils flying towards me.