When Shane woke up, he looked to his right and saw outside the window.

  The sky outside still grew crimson. The sky outside the demon world remained the same all day long because lava was the only light source outside. With areas that wouldn’t be lit up by lava, old street lamps would light up the area.

  Well, at least this isn’t the same city that was in my nightmare. It looks similar, but this is not it. So there are three other cities we have to pass through to reach Demon King Ciro. And when we find him, I have to find out if he knew my father.

  As Shane looked out his window, he noticed someone across the street watching him. From what Shane could see, he could only assume that it was a man hiding his face with a hood. The only noticeable feature on his face that Shane could see is a scar on his right cheek.

  Who is that? Why is he staring at my room? Is he someone from the general army checking on people who have come by?

  When the man watching Shane's room realised he had been caught, he ran away into an alley so Shane couldn’t see where he was going.

  Why was that man staring at my room? I have to find him later if I have time.

  Knock, knock, knock.

  As Shane was brought back to reality, he heard a knock at his door. Not knowing who it was, Shane picked up his dagger, expecting it to be someone who came to attack him.

  “Shane, are you awake. I was wondering if you wanted to go get some breakfast somewhere.”

  As Shane heard the voice from the other side of the door, he instantly calmed down. The voice that Shane heard came from Elena. When Shane heard Elena's voice, he sheathed his dagger again.

  “Shane, are you in there?”

  “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “Ok, so, um, do you want to go get some breakfast?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be glad to get breakfast with you. Just give me five minutes to get ready.”

  “Alright, I’ll be in the lobby when you're ready.”

  As Shane heard her footstep disappear in the distance, he went to put on his belt. The moment his belt was secured, he put Mika on the left and Enyo on the right. After he put them on, he tugged on both Enyo and Mika to make sure that they wouldn’t move around too much when walking around.

  After making sure he had everything right, he put on his shoes and jacket so no one would see Mika and Enyo.

  After he picked up his key, he opened his door and walked out. Before heading toward the lobby to meet with Elena, he locked his room so that no one could check his room.

  After making sure everything was in order, he walked toward the lobby to meet with Elena.

  As Shane reached the lobby, he noticed someone trying to talk to Elena. When Shane took a closer look, he saw Elena was uncomfortable.

  “Hey, so why don’t you spend time with me. I’m sure I can…”

  As soon as Shane put his arm on the man who was annoying Elena, the man stopped speaking altogether, as he looked shocked that someone put their hand on him.

  “Hey, I think you should leave. She is not interested in talking to you. So, fuck off.”

  “And who do you think you are?” the man said as he stepped away.

  “I’m her older brother, so stop talking to her. She is not interested in you in the slightest.”

  “Alright, man, calm down. I was only talking. But you’ll regret this later,” the man said as he looked at Shane, trying to intimidate him.

  “I’d like to see you try. You probably couldn’t even hurt a small animal,” Shane said as he looked at the man's eyes, trying to intimidate him.

  As the man walked out, he looked back and said, “You’ll regret disrespecting me. I’ll make sure you’ll suffer later.”

  As Shane watched, the man walked out. He sighed in relief that Elena wasn’t hurt from whatever that man wanted.

  Shane looked to his side to see if Elena was there, but when he looked at the sofa, she was nowhere to be seen.

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  As Shane began to wonder where Elena could be, he felt someone tap his left shoulder.

  “Boo.”

  “Ah.”

  “He, he. Did I scare you?” Elena asked as she teased Shane.

  “No. What was that for?”

  “Just wanted to make sure that you were the same Shane I know.”

  “What made you think I was someone different?” Shane asked, looking at Elena.

  “Well, I never saw that side of you, so I was wondering if you may have been an imposter.”

  “Well, I wasn’t going to let him hurt someone I care about, and you seemed very uncomfortable when he kept trying to hit on you.”

  “Alright, then, should we head out to get some breakfast?”

  Before they were able to leave the inn, they heard a voice behind them.

  “Hey, be careful out there, you two. That man is dangerous, so make sure you're on your guard.”

  The person who told them was Randy, the innkeeper.

  “Thanks for the warning, we’ll make sure to be safe. Have a good day, Randy,” Shane said as he and Elena walked out of the inn.

  As they were outside the inn, they noticed that the street was much more crowded than it had been the day before. As they walked, people did not avoid them as they had the day before.

  “Well, it seems like people are no longer scared of us like they were yesterday,” Elena said as she walked beside Shane.

  “Yeah, it doesn’t feel that different from how it does at home. The only thing I don’t like is having to wear these masks.”

  “Yeah, it's pretty annoying to wear, but our bodies will take time to adapt.”

  “By the way. How are you going to pay for food?”

  “Oh. Mr Ravenscroft gave me some money this morning before he left.”

  “Where did he go?”

  “He said he wanted to look around the city to see if he could find anyone who could help us take down the general. He also wanted to find out information on the army size here and where the general currently is.”

  “So, when did he say we were going to meet up?”

  “He said he would find us in the afternoon, so we have some time to explore this city until then.”

  “Alright, so how much money did he give you?”

  “He gave me 500 irios. So I think we’re fine on money for now.”

  “Alright, then let's go find a place that serves a good breakfast.”

  As they walked around the city, they couldn’t tell the difference between the demon world and their world. The only difference they could notice was that the people here seemed more depressed.

  They could only assume that they were depressed from the fact that they had to spend their entire life in Eilos and couldn’t travel to other cities.

  As they learned the day before, Eilos has been abandoned by the royal family because the entrance here was deemed useless. So they knew the people here were most likely oppressed by the local elite.

  After five minutes of walking, they found a small pub. The pub looked old-fashioned, and it wasn’t too populated.

  Inside the pub, they saw a couple of drunken fools around the bar. And it smelled like alcohol everywhere.

  “This place seems like it serves decent food,” Shane said as he looked around the pub.

  “Well, it does have its own culture,” Elena said as she saw people lying down on the table pass out.

  “Let’s go see what they have for breakfast.”

  After a few minutes, they got their food. They both got something that looked like an egg, though they didn’t know where it came from. Along with their food, they also brought water that supposedly came from some kind of water reserve.

  “Have you heard about what Phylo did yesterday?”

  As Shane and Elena were eating, they began an interesting conversation. They thought that this conversation could lead them to find an ally.

  “What did he do this time?”

  “Apparently, he killed a couple of the general's men last night.”

  “Again. How has he been able to avoid being caught all this time? I know he's doing this for all of us, but he has to know when to quit?”

  “Yeah, he's been going at this for about a year now, and he hasn’t even made a dent in the general’s army.”

  “I still wonder why he’s doing this? A couple of years. ago, he was one of the 40 Demon Queen Generals. What is the real reason behind him doing this? No one has even talked to him since he became the number 1 criminal in this city, so who knows.”

  “Who knows, maybe he's just gone mad.”

  As Shane and Elena heard the conversation happening beside them, they wondered if they could meet this Phylo. They asked if he could be their ally. Having a formal general of the demon king could bring them a significant advantage in defeating the general here.

  “Shane, you heard that right. This Phylo is a powerful person. Do you think we could find him?” Elena asked, trying to keep it quiet so that no one would hear them.

  “Yeah, I heard that. He is powerful, but how are we going to find him if no one else can? We don’t even know if he will join us if we tell him what we’re planning,” Shane whispered so that no one could eavesdrop on their conversation.

  “It’s risky, but we have to try. We need someone who can motivate these people. We also need someone who knows the in and out of this world.”

  “I guess you’re right, but how would we even find him. We can’t ask anyone because we don’t know if they’ll tell the truth or not, and they said that no one has talked to Phylo in a year.”

  “We have time before we meet up with Mr Ravenscroft, so we can look around the city for clues. Plus, you said that Mr Ravenscroft was a former angel general, so he might know what Phylo looks like. We can ask him if we don’t find any clues.”

  As Shane heard Elena’s words, he began to wonder if it was safe. He didn’t know if Phylo would try to attack them. So he began to think of other options, but he knew that, with their limited time, this was their only path.

  “Alright, after we finish eating, let’s look around.”

  They didn’t know what Phylo looked like or how he even acted, but they knew that if he joined them, they would have a greater chance of flipping this world upside down.