“What happened!?” Ricky came rushing into the tent when he heard the news. He looked at Becky, covered in blood with ice wrapping around her shoulder, and then at the Demon Queen of Lust who was passed out on the ground. 

“We took a risk.” Desaray began. “The Demon Queen of Darkness, Death, and Lust were all in the same place away from their armies. In order to take out the biggest threat to us on the front lines, Juna brought us into their mansion. As you can see, our mission was a success, but The Demon Queen of Darkness’s dark rain had some kind of strange properties to it that did not allow wounds to heal. Thus why Becky has ice on her shoulder. I am stopping her blood flow.”

“Why would you do something so stupid!?” Ricky yelled out. Ricky did not care about Desaray’s position as a ruler. He only cared about his daughter’s and her friends well being.

“Dad, it was a necessary risk. I will not allow my people to be forced to fight their loved ones due to the Demon Queen of Lust’s abilities. You might be worried that we could have died, but it is a risk we had to take. This world is not like it was before. There is no one there to help protect us from the battles ahead. Each of us will be walking the battlefield. Some of us might even die. But Dad…. That is our reality.” Desaray wanted to drive this point home. She could see her father’s concern but she had no choice but to do this. They did not come this far to turn back now.

“I know….” Ricky held his head. “I’m sorry, it’s just that when I think about losing you or the kids I can’t help but react this way. I promised myself I would protect you all…” 

“Have faith in us, Dad. We are much stronger than you think. Even Becky took that hit like a champ.” Desaray joked.

“That is only because before this, you were beating me up. Your punches hurt much more than a stab through the shoulder. You never held back…” Becky complained. She was glad she got the training she did because it allowed her to understand how to fight in her mixed form more but Desaray never held back. She was quite ruthless, to. But Becky knew the training was necessary since she was key to the entire fight. Desaray put her through a real-world scenario of what it means to be on the battlefield and face down the final boss.

“At any rate…” Desaray wanted to change the subject before she began getting the third degree from her father. “We accomplished our mission with only a single injury. This will hamper The Demon Queen of Darkness’s original plans by a lot. And make her want to fight us head-on. What she doesn’t know, though, is that we have Yi Ling, who is just as powerful as Cinder is. This gives us an edge. The Demon Queen of Darkness will probably not stand on the front lines right away, so we have some time. As long as we can hold them off a while, we can get Becky healed.” 

“How sure are you that you can heal her wounds?” Ricky asked. He knew Becky was the key to victory. If she was hurt, it would be difficult for her to fight when she needed to. 

“It shouldn’t be a problem.” A short, petite girl answered Ricky’s question. She wore a white coat and had a monocle adorning her left eye. “It seems that The Demon Queen of Darkness’s power now comes with a curse. After growing so strong her powers have actually evolved. The curse, however, is something that is well known and only stops the wound from healing, making it bleed out. It’s called Slow Death. We dwarves have run into it a few times while mining. It’s a curse from the old era in the old world. Sometimes, we would dig to the point of finding old ruins. In these ruins, we would find traps that would spit out arrows or spikes that would hit our people. These objects would be cursed, and the wounds of those hit would not heal.”

“Then what needs to be done to heal it?” Desaray asked. She was now glad that she was able to get the mountain dwarves on their side.

“Juna, please accompany her and send her where she needs to go.” Desaray did not hesitate. She did not wish for Becky to be stuck with ice covering her shoulder, not just because of the battle ahead but because she was her best friend, someone who was like a sister to her.

“As you command, Your Holiness!” Juna bowed her head and took the dwarf doctor’s hand before consuming them both in roots and drilling into the ground. 

“While they are doing that, Oinktera, Dad, please watch over Becky and protect her. I will be going to build a few more lines of defense.”