"Or you getting a fist implanted in yours," Matt said, like he was talking about taking out the trash. Kidding, of course.

Alasea sighed. Some things never changed.

"Before we leave, do you feel anything else, Ileyna?" she asked, looking back at the younger girl.

She shook her head. "I haven't sensed anything since I took Dmitrii's Essence," she said. "I think we're safe now."

"Good," Hugo said. "Can we all teleport together, Soma?"

"I think so," Soma said. "Demons also used these rooms to move around the castle. It would be inefficent if only one could teleport at a time."

"Three groups," the Mettaur replied, hopping up the platform to Soma's side. "Just to be safe."

When the others stepped back, Soma closed his eyes. Blue light rushed from the ring and through the platform, crawling through the lines in the walls and lighting them up like a blue Christmas. Magic electricity surged around the statues and they fired simultaneously at the ring, forming a pillar of light around Soma and Hugo. As they floated up in the air by the magic's power, they vanished into nothingness.

"Ladies first," Matt said, gesturing towards the fading pillar.

Alasea, Helena, and Ileyna all filed onto the ring, with Alasea placing her hands on the child's shoulders to reassure her.

"See you guys soon," she said, as Ileyna waved at them. The ring activated, soon they floated into the air and disappeared.

With both him and Matt alone, R.D. finally removed his helmet, pulling it off of his head entirely so he could get a better look at it.

"No wonder Hugo was so upset," he commented, noting the faceplate and its vague similarity to Dragon Drive FINAL's visage. It only served to make it look more disturbing.

"It does look pretty fuckin' mean," Matt said. "Good thing only us and Hugo saw what went down."

"... let's hope it stays that way," R.D. said softly. "Just what happened we fought, Matt? I know that it weakened Magister's prison, but... you heard what the Principality said. 'The Multiverse can't suffer that kind of damage again.' Just what in the hell did we do?"

Matt spread his hands. "Well, I WAS briefly a god of ultimate destruction. I was in there. I could tell that FINAL could pretty much rip apart dimensions with it pinkies, if it felt like it. Even when it was walking around, it was like the Multiverse was struggling to keep it up."

"Hell, it just raised its hands and the Eternal Sanctuary was torn apart," R.D. recollected, and shuddered. "I'm almost afraid to ask the Chronomancer about what your Avatar did."

After a moment, R.D. slid the helmet back over his head, shrouding his eyes in darkness once more. "Do you think we'll need its power again?" he asked. "I've seen the claws you produce when you use Hell and Heaven. So we both know you still have its power."

Matt frowned, his lips pruning. "I reaaaaally hope we don't need it anymore. It's bad enough I can still fire Hell and Heaven. I'd rather not know what else I've still got from FINAL." He slashed the air with a wave. "In fact, get rid of that armor. I don't need any more reminders."

R.D. nodded after a moment and relaxed, causing particles of light to flit off of his form, and soon enough, the armor disappeared from his body. "Let's get going. The girls are probably wondering what's taking us so long."

After teleporting and meeting up with the others, the group left the chambers and re-entered the snowy village surrounding the castle. A fresh coat of snow sprinkled down in fat white particles, dusting their shoulders and capping the roofs of houses anew. No wandering demon patrols stopped them from reaching Yoko's house safely.

"Glad you made it back!" Hammer said, stepping aside and allowing everyone to file into the little house and feel the warmth of the fireplace. "I was gettin' worried. But I worry all the time. Not becomin' of a soldier, I suppose, but that's how I am, no use cryin' over it."

"We're fine," R.D. said, waving the man off. "You have one less candidate to worry about now. Maybe."

"Hammer, is Yoko around?" Alasea asked. "I need to speak to her about something concerning Soma."

"She's in the back," Hammer said, pointing at the hallway leading off to the back room, this one with a dark oak door. "Why? What happened?"

Matt fell onto the recliner with a whump, the chair's puffy texture outlining him. "We think Dmitrii might be kind of dead."

"What?" Hammer shouted. "Did ya kill him?"

Matt grimaced. "No! I hit him a lot, but not enough to finish him off."

"Apparently he fell dead of his own accord after that," R.D. explained. "He didn't look like much of a fighter anyway. Dario was more dangerous than him."

"Come on, Soma," Alasea said, motioning for him to follow her as she made her way to Yoko's chambers. She knocked on the door briefly. "You're not getting out of this. Yoko! Need to talk to you for a moment!"

Yoko opened the door - over her shoulder, Alasea could see a table cluttered with thick and yellowed books, some splayed open across others. "Oh, you're back!" She noticed Soma walking up behind Alasea. "Hello, Soma. Did you find Julius?"

"Yeah," Soma said. "We got into some trouble, but he helped us out."

"We managed to take the Essence from the two candidates, but now we've got bigger problems," Alasea explained. "During our fight with Dmitrii, the man up and died on us, but he did something to Soma as he did, and I think I'll need your help figuring out if its going to give him trouble in the long run."

Concern slid down Yoko's face. "What's wrong, Soma?"

"It's nothing," Soma said. "I'm fine."

"Don't hide anything from me," Yoko said, taking Soma by the shoulder and guiding him into the room full of books. "You know we're here to help."

Soma sighed as Yoko pushed him down onto a small sofa - Yoko's bed, judging by the pillow leaning against the armrest. "I can handle it, Yoko. I know my powers better than anyone, anyway."

"You're fine now," Alasea pointed out. "You might not be later. You don't need whatever Dmitrii did to you messing with your powers.

"Just let me and Yoko make sure whatever he did won't trigger later on," the girl asked. "Then you can get back to your quest and stop Celia."

Soma rolled his eyes. "Fine."

Yoko nodded at Alasea. "Can you scan a person's spirit like I can? If you can, be careful - all of the different souls Soma has gathered can be overwhelming for someone without experience."

Alasea nodded. "I've been taught how, I just wasn't sure what to expect with him," she explained as she gathered her magic. "That's why I figured I should get another mage's help."

"All right." Yoko held out her hands, palms flat, and levelled them at Soma. "Try to match my energies. And don't be afraid to stop if it's too much."

When Yoko closed her eyes, they began. Scanning Soma proved to be challenging - there were tons of different powers swirling within him, like someone had spilled different paint colors into one mass and each color fought to stay seperate from each other. A stronger force weighed down the powers and prevented them from escaping, but it was bottled chaos, all the same.

They spent many minutes sifting through the unholy mess of souls hidden within Soma, combing through in search of the anomaly that Alasea had witnessed enter Soma at Dmitrii's death.

"How can we find anything in this mess?" she commented with a hint of frustration. "I'm not sensing it anywhere now, but I know its in here!"

"What exactly did Dmitrii do to Soma?" Yoko asked.

"When he died, a gray mass of energy of some sort bonded itself to him," she said, her shoulders slumping. She looked back up to Soma. "Didn't you say it was like you gained dominance over his soul or something?"

"It FELT like I did," Soma said. He looked uncomfortable. "But that's never happened before."

"Soma, why didn't you tell me when you first entered?" Yoko said. "This is serious!" She fled over to the table and picked up one of the fat, dark green books lying on the corner. "I need to tell the church, do some research-"

Soma sighed again. More of an annoyed huff. "Calm down. If I did absorb a human soul, I doubt the souls I have already will keep it intact."

"But you DON'T know, Soma!" Yoko pried open the book. It looked like a journal, brown scraggly lines written on old paper. "You can't assume everything. I know I've got no experience using your powers, but that's no excuse to stand by while you bring yourself into danger!"

"You need to remember you didn't just absorb any human soul, Soma," Alasea pointed out, sitting back on the other edge of the sofa. "Dmitrii's one of the candidates to the Dark Lord's throne, like Graham and Dario. I think the last thing you need is for something to abscond with your position as the dark lord's heir, because none of them are nearly as nice as you are."

Soma humphed and folded his hands, leaning forward.

"Hey, Alasea!" Matt's voice called from outside. "Come out here for a moment!"

"I could've done that myself!" came Hugo's reply.

Alasea sighed. "I'll be right back. Hopefully Matt hasn't lit the town on fire or something," she remarked as she stood.

"What is it?" she asked upon opening the door.

"We're thinking about heading out," Matt said. He was sitting limply in the recliner, Hugo next to his feet. Alasea could hear Hammer and Helena talking in the adjacent room. Sounded like a conversation about what kind of meat goes best on a cold sandwich. "But I wanted to make sure Soma was okay first."

Alasea stepped out of the room and shut the door gently behind her. "I don't know. Me and Yoko couldn't find that anomaly within the mess of souls that Soma has dominance over," she explained. "But that doesn't mean its not there. If that was Dmitrii's soul, well... he's not a normal human. He's a candidate, just like Graham and Dario and Soma. Leaving it like that doesn't sit well with me."

She frowned as she looked off to the side. "It doesn't help that he's as stubborn as you and R.D.. Soma's convinced he'll be okay."

R.D. raised an eyebrow at that.

"Don't give me that look, R.D., you're the worst out of all of us when it comes to being stubborn," she scolded, arching an eyebrow back at him.