[FFnut]

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Palis, The Year 699 Ishia, The Road From Falgon

Magus cast a wary eye at Belial before leaning in towards Malice. "Hey," his voice rasped, "what do you think Belial's going to do now?"

Malice raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Magus shook his head. "You don't remember? When Belial joined us, he said he needed us to kill the sleeper. Now that Zera-Shaal's dead, what's going to stop him from killing us and leaving?"

Belial had been eavesdropping on their conversation and quickly strolled up next to them. "How about my word?"

Magus stopped and looked at Belial. The Earthim's red eyes met the demon's silver ones. "The word of a demon?" Magus almost laughed, then paused to reconsider his past. A grin spread across his lips. "I've had some luck with promises from things other people consider evil. I guess I can trust you, if only for a little while."

Belial grinned as well, his devilish teeth glinting. Lowering his voice so only the two of them could hear, he continued. "Plus, that girl over there took out Zera-Shaal by accident. Imagine if I tried to double-cross you. She'd be able to vaporize me in an instant."

Magus glanced at Titania, who was walking a little bit behind the group. "Another good reason to bring her along."

Malice looked at him. "You're not sure if we can trust Belial, but you think we can trust her? She's not even from Palis."

Magus smiled. "Neither am I."

He stepped back to talk with the girl.

"So what kind of world are you from?" he asked her.

She looked at him awkwardly. "What do you mean?" she inquired.

"You're obviously not from Palis... and I'm not either, to be honest. Where were you from before you came here?"

She glanced up at the sky. "I'm from a place called Gaia. My village was attacked and..." she trailed off, not wanting to reveal more.

Magus nodded. "Don't want to reveal your past, huh? It's alright, neither do I. These guys know next to nothing about Earth, where I'm from." He shouted to Masuto, who was leading the group. "Where're we off to now?"

Masuto turned around and kept walking down the road, backwards. "The town of Adinem. Don't know what to expect there, so keep an eye out." He turned back around and kept walking, everyone else behind him.