A/N: Fshing back to a time when Raythe was alive and Oren didn't know how much of a bastard he truly was.

  -x-X-x-

  "Where are we even going, Raythe?"

  "I already said it was a surprise! C'mon man, don't you trust me?"

  Oren chuckles as Raythe feigns a hurt tone over his questioning. Leaning over, he bumps his shoulder into the other man's and rolls his eyes.

  "Course I trust you man. Just curious is all. Are we almost there at least?"

  "Yep! Just through that door up ahead!"

  Spying the door in question, Oren has to restrain himself from picking up the pace and power walking to get there all the faster. Instead, he stays at Raythe's side and they reach the door together. Though even before Raythe reaches out and pulls it open, Oren feels a strange sensation radiating from the room beyond…

  It's only once the door is open that Oren realizes the sensation is heat. A bst of hot air exits the room, buffeting the both of them as they step inside.

  "Whoa… what is this pce?"

  But even as he asks, Oren looks around and has a pretty good idea where they are. Raythe still answers him though, grinning like a mad man as he spreads his arms wide and gestures around them.

  "This? This is our secret little forge. If the Demon King knew this pce existed, he would stop at nothing to destroy it. Not least of which because of just who it houses."

  Oren furrows his brow at that. WHO it houses? But before he can question Raythe's choice of words, his best friend steps forward and clears his throat.

  "Oi! Time to work, get the fuck out here!"

  For a moment, Oren is taken aback by Raythe's tone and the way he's speaking. He's not used to his friend, trainer, and constant companion being so… abrasive.

  "Raythe what the hell? That seemed a little much…"

  But far from being chagrined, the other man just grins at Oren and shakes his head.

  "You'll see."

  After a moment, Oren does indeed see. Shambling out from a darkened corner is… well, there's no other way of putting it. Out from a darkened corner comes a true monster, a demon straight out of Oren's worst nightmares. Complete with dark red skin, yellow eyes, big demonic horns, and a gangly body that's cd in only a loincloth.

  However, along with the demon comes the sound of cnking chains. The creature is shackled at the wrists and ankles. Not enough to completely restrict his movement, but certainly enough to prevent him from leaving this room. He's also muzzled, a piece of metal crudely beaten into the shape of his jaw and covering the entirety of his face below the nose so he can't speak.

  "Now you see why I'm not bothering to py nice."

  Yeah, Oren gets it now. At the same time, he doesn't.

  "… Why is there a demon down here? How did you guys even capture one?"

  Raythe snorts as the demon looks between the two of them, just standing there in silence.

  "I'll answer those questions in reverse order. We captured him the same way we brought you to this world… with difficulty and through great sacrifice. As for why he's here… that should be rather obvious, don't you think? Look around you Oren… do you think we would stick just any demon in a forge like this? This is the Demon King's personal bcksmith."

  Oren's eyes can only widen in shock at that reveal. He finds himself looking at the shackled, muzzled monster in an entirely new light.

  "It's not enough to just train you up and send you after the Demon King, Oren. Without the proper equipment, you'd die long before you even made it to his throne room. That's where this bastard comes in. He can create the armaments that you'll need to y waste to the Demon King's Castle."

  With that said, Raythe snaps his fingers at the demon.

  "Well? You demanded to see the Hero before you would craft his armor. Here he is. Get to it."

  Oren watches the demon bcksmith slowly slide his gaze from Raythe over to him. Honestly, if he didn't know any better, he'd say those eyes of his were almost… mournful.

  Finally, the demon begins to shuffle forward towards Oren, only for Raythe to stop him.

  "Whoa, what the fuck do you think you're doing? Stay back."

  Heh, his best friend really is too protective sometimes. Then again, Oren could readily admit that he'd never actually come face to face with a demon before today. He didn't know for sure what they were capable of.

  The demon pauses but then pantomimes with his hands. From the look of things, it's like he's… measuring something? Raythe seems to get the same impression even as he crosses his arms over his chest.

  "What, you need to measure him? Tch… fine but make it fast."

  Oren had never heard of this before. He knew back on Earth that tailors had to measure their clients for certain high quality articles of clothing of course, but bcksmiths measuring people for armor? Was that a thing? Well, Raythe seemed to think it was fine so Oren lets it happen, even if he's maybe a little on edge the entire time that the demon bcksmith is practically on top of him.

  Coming up to Oren, the shackled monster runs trembling fingers across Oren's body. It… seems like he's being measured, certainly. Oren holds up his arms to provide the bcksmith with better access, even as the creature circles around him. At the same time, he can't help but ask a rather burning question of Raythe.

  "How do we know he won't sabotage the equipment?"

  Raythe smirks, eyeing the demon carefully as he circles around Oren, his chains dragging along the ground behind him.

  "He won't. Demons aren't like us Oren. They all have a calling you see, and they physically can't ignore it. This one's calling is obviously smithing and forging. We've stuck him in this forge but starved him of anything beyond materials for crafting nails for months now while you were training. He's desperate for a bigger project. He'll do whatever we want just so he can forge something worth his time again."

  Huh. That was interesting. Certainly more than Oren had known before when it came to demons. However, before he can ask Raythe more questions about how this calling stuff works… he feels the demon bcksmith at the nape of his neck. And despite the iron muzzle, he hears a whisper reach his ears.

  "The Demon King will rend you limb from limb, Hero. There is no hope for you."

  Startling, Oren curses and yanks himself away from the bcksmith, whipping around to get the demon back in his sights as he hops over the chains. Raythe jolts at the reaction, eyes narrowing as he looks between Oren and the bcksmith.

  "What? What is it? Did he say something to you? What did he say?"

  Oren, his heart hammering in his chest from the experience, has no reason to lie to his friend.

  "He said… he said the Demon King would rend me limb from limb and that there was no hope for me."

  Raythe rexes and then after a moment ughs. Stepping over to the still bcksmith, he grabs hold of the demon's chains and Oren watches a surge of holy light go through them, causing the demon no small amount of pain.

  "You wouldn't be trying to sow such doubts in the Hero's ear if you weren't afraid for your old master, bastard. Tch… better get to work now."

  Tossing the chains and the bcksmith with them towards the nearest anvil, Raythe jerks his head to the door.

  "Come on Oren, let's get out of here. Leave the miserable creature to his work. You can trust he'll do a good job because he knows if he doesn't, it'll be the st smithing we ever let him do."

  Swallowing hard, Oren nods and moves to follow Raythe out of the room.

  "Right…"

  But he can't help looking back one more time as he goes. He sees the demon looking at him again for a split second before the door closes… his yellow eyes seemingly even more mournful than previously.

  -x-X-x-

  Back in the present, as Oren finishes recounting this meeting to Sophia, he can't help but shake his head, feeling like a damn idiot. Raythe had him completely fooled, didn't he? The God of Lies and Deception had had Oren wrapped around his finger by that point in time.

  So much so that Oren didn't even question all that bullshit Raythe had spouted about demons having specific callings. In hindsight, it was obvious that the disguised god had merely taken domains and twisted them to suit his purposes. At the time though, Oren had barely thought about it.

  As for the demon himself…

  "If he showed up to you as a demon, then that had to be a God of the Heavens right? And the only missing God of the Heavens that I know of was the God of Forges. Specifically, the God of Forges and Smithing."

  Oren can only nod to Sophia's words.

  "I'm such an idiot. He even tried to warn me at the time too. I don't know… I wonder what he was trying to say."

  After all, he knew from his fighting in the Heavens and his battle with Law that the illusion the Void Gods put him under twisted the words of anyone who might have tried to reason with or help him.

  At the time, Oren hadn't thought much of it… but now looking back, he had to admit that Raythe had been rather pressed after he realized the bcksmith spoke to him. He'd been very, very concerned about exactly what had been said. Or rather, what exactly Oren had heard.

  Because whatever was actually said had clearly been lost in transtion. There was no such things as a Demon King or a Hero, so whatever the illusioned God of Forges was trying to say couldn't have been about that. He'd probably been trying to tell Oren the truth, only for the illusion to twist his words.

  Groaning, Oren covers his face with his palm.

  "Fuuuck… he probably didn't even need my measurements for the armor. Didn't Tyranos say that the armor and bde were made for him originally anyways? The God of Forges must have risked everything to get a face-to-face meeting with me so he could try to warn me without the Void Gods knowing. Instead of listening to him though, I immediately called him out and alerted Raythe to what he'd tried to do."

  As if Oren didn't already have enough reasons to feel like a piece of shit. Now he knew there'd been a moment where he might have nipped this all in the bud before it all started… and he'd completely missed it.

  Suddenly, Sophia has his other hand in her own, holding it and stroking it with her thumb.

  "Hey… it's not your fault Oren. You literally couldn't hear what he was saying. All you saw was a monster and then that monster told you that you were going to die a painful death. Of course you weren't going to listen to him. You didn't do anything wrong… this is on Raythe and Tyranos and all the others for maniputing and using you."

  It's nice of her to say… and some rational part of Oren is forced to admit she's correct too. But at the same time, he can't help feeling like it's still at least partially his fault.

  "The important thing is, we know he was alive the st time you saw him. Getting to him, getting enough Celestial Metal for him to work… we might have a chance after all."

  Oren begins to nod before stopping and frowning.

  "Getting to him might be the hard part. He was in the Void the st time I saw him. He's either still there or he's been moved to the Heavens… or he's already dead."

  After all, it would be foolhardy for Tyranos to leave the God of Forges alive at this point. Sure, maybe the King of the Void had kept the God of Forges around after the God Killer's armor and bde went missing just in case… but now that he'd retrieved them, killing off the only deity capable of forging gear even close to that level seemed like the first thing anyone with any wisdom would do.

  Then again… if Sophia's theory was correct, Tyranos HAD been fighting the Ancient Gods of the Mortal Pne for some time now. It was possible he hadn't had a chance to tie up all the loose ends yet.

  "Yes. And I don't know how to get to the Void or even how to get us back to Heavens at the moment. But I do know we're already on the right track. Skycastle is where we'll find enough Celestial Metal for another set of armor and a weapon, right? Because it's the birthpce of the God Hunters."

  Oren slowly nods at that.

  "Right."

  Sophia bites her lower lip, looking as uncertain as she sounds about this next bit.

  "Well… if its where the God Hunters originated… and the Void Gods have been behind the God Hunters all along…"

  Oren's eyes widen as he comes to the same conclusion she has and finishes her sentence for her.

  "Then maybe there's a way to reach the Void located in Skycastle."

  Sophia nods slowly.

  "Maybe. It feels like a long shot to be honest."

  Oren chuckles and squeezes her hand back, giving her a wry grin.

  "Yeah, well… everything we've been doing has been a long shot since we left your refuge. It's worth a try."

  Seriously. Getting Sophia to the first hideaway safely had been well within Oren's wheelhouse. Everything since then… well, they'd been so far out of their depths they hadn't even been able to tell just how far out of their depths they really were.

  Either way, long shots seemed to be all they had left at this point. So fuck it… might as well.

  -x-X-x-

  A/N: 'Fuck it we ball' is certainly one route to take.

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