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Some days after Anubis's unpleasant contact with the fourth dimension entity, Rhynsa started to ask the current population of the city. It took only two hours for his trusted secretaries to put in the census, which made the bat-hound sighed.

Arbal had considerably grown into a city for the past 6 months, and more refugees kept coming to that city. While some had been diverted to other freed settlements, it was not enough. Arbal was a walled town and a border between Tragoria and Adaline. It was normally a small place, but after the hellish invasion, the place was abandoned and left in ruins for at least a year before residents started coming back. From then, refugees started to come to the town, mostly because of the help of some soldiers mobilized by the Tanah region's tree city. But with the bizarre otherworldly incidents happening everywhere, refugees started to flow in faster, causing problems with the limited rations. Worse, with the big influx of refugees who started to build houses and repair ruined buildings, the woods around the town became sparse, making hunting difficult, as said by Lilac. The supply lines were often late because of highway raids and detours. No carriages wanted to risk going to Tragoria, being the start of the hellish invasion.

The whole problem was escalated after Anubis told the whole group about what he found out about the source of the problem. With the revelation that the myth of the deep hell was real and was the start of every tragedy that befell everyone involved made Rhynsa overwhelmed with mixed emotions. Just like Anubis, who suddenly dropped his jovial and humorous nature into a serious character, Rhynsa felt himself like someone who had made poor choices throughout his life. Even after permanently bound to a wheelchair, he felt this was also another one of his bad choices.

In the second week since that first encounter, Mitchel was brought to the tower to try summoning the entity for them again. While it was difficult, given how he had exorcised a lot of the ghosts around the tower (the fact that Arbal was full of happy and content resident, despite of the supply shortage, was contributed to Mitchel), he finally found some ghosts. Anubis then heard what the entity had to say, and Rhynsa could see that the Death Jackal looked so serious that it did not look like him at all. The group had known him as a good-natured blind hellhound, but right now, he was not.

"The entity told me about 'Chosen Champions' under Ensalder Winsel," said Anubis to them. "We have known two of those as Ensalder himself and Artios. The rest are vague at best, at least for us."

"How many of these 'Chosen Champions'?"

"Well, given how we are not currently in a story about a tyrannical ruler and his minions of doom, I'd say there is no determination on how many of them," replied Anubis, trying to make a dry joke. "It's just what he said so it became dramatic. Just see anyone who wanted to kill us as Champions."

"Isn't that a bit too general."

"We are fighting something unknown, after all. We cannot expect to try to find any notoriety, right? After all, those demons are no longer demons, but crazed demons serving the master of trickery and fuck-what. Oh, don't forget fuck-the-whole-family kind of asshole."

Anubis was trying to be funny, but his expression and the tone of his delivery made it a sarcasm. Rhynsa knew that the Death Jackal, being someone who liked to joke himself, would feel insulted if a joke, especially a prank, caused a big mess. This, of course, made his two best friends, Eshdar and Ifrit, to feel so uncomfortable with his sarcastic remarks. The three of them had suffered to a certain degree, with each of them trying to find a distraction so as to not make the trauma worse. Ifrit found one in the form of Lilac, Eshdar with rage, and Anubis with jokes. But now that even a calm hellhound like Anubis would make sarcastic remarks everywhere, all of them knew that it was serious.

The session ended with a decision to try and contact everyone who had taken part in the battle of Arbal. There was an assumption that Thotha and Azgal was travelling together, while Albreich could not be contacted. With the advent of wired communication like telegrams and telephones, it was easy to contact each other, but it caused a problem. Azgal was revealed to have separated with Thotha, not because they were breaking up (Thotha and Azgal were having a relationship together), but because the goat demon did not want to endanger Thotha. The Lycan agreed to meet with them in Arbal, as it was only two days from his position. The rest of the group were in the tree city. Nergora and Hans were together, to Lilac's relief, but he could not go there because he needed to guard the city.

With all of things set, it came to the private talk amongst friends. That night, as some residents were watching a drama by some hellhounds and humans, Ifrit approached Anubis, who was just looking at the pale full moon.

"(Hey, they are waiting for you down there, bro)," said Ifrit, trying to make Anubis felt comfortable. It was partially successful.

"(Nah, it's not my gig. Besides, I don't feel like I need some laughs right now. Ironic, isn't it. I am the source of comic in our group, but in the end I'm the one who talks with sarcasm)."

"(Whatever that entity told you, Ani, don't try to make it hard upon yourself. Look, we are in this together, so we can talk about it by the fireplace. Come on, I'll make you some hot chocolate)."

"(Thanks, but I prefer that we are out here. It's fine if you want to go. I need my alone time, that's all)."

"(Nah, I don't really feel like it)," said Ifrit while sitting beside Anubis. While playing with his long tail, he said, "(Being a full moon tonight, Lilac felt she wanted to hunt in her feral form. Basic Lycan instinct, she said. How about you? Where's Miza?)"

"(Helping Rhynsa out)," said Anubis short.

Ifrit turned towards the night sky. He could see the stars and the moon blended together in a clear night sky.

"(Before we met you...and before I fell into coma, we would always watch the stars and the moon together. She explained to me about constellations, but I don't get most of it. Like you, that was a distraction. Back then, when Al revealed himself to be a former demon hunter, as a hellhound, I was agitated. I felt the irony creeping in. I was suspected by Lilac the moment she realized I was a hellhound, then Al and me had a relatively strained friendship. Luckily, we all became good friends again)."

"(I don't think I will ever forget that, Ifrit, especially how you told us this story so many times by the campfire)."

Ifrit laughed. "(Well, that's the only thing that's interesting in my surface life)."

He then stood up and leaned at the balcony's railing, doing exactly what Anubis was doing.

"(Are you wondering...about what the night sky looks like?)"

"(I have some sort of picture of the descriptions. Anyway, what's the night sky now?)"

"(There's a big pale moon at the sky, with stars spread out on the whole sky. Ah, there comes a shooting star!)"

"(I wonder what it looks like. I just feel some sort of tranquility when I look at this direction, so I don't know any way to explain it. Hmm?)"

Anubis suddenly made a battle stance and pulled out his Khopesh. Ifrit also materialize his spectral blade, but that was because of following Anubis's movements.

"(Where are they?)"

"(It's just one. It's one of the lust demons)."

"(Do you know where the demon is)?"

"I'm here, doggies."

Anubis looked down and saw a female figure with a peculiar spirit pattern. Ifrit could see her and, recognizing who she was, said, "Felina!"

The dark blue-furred catsith was watching them from below the balcony, purring as she smiled to them. With her feline reflexes and agility, she climbed towards them with ease, easily finding places to jump to. She finally reached the two of them and stood on the railing.

"Miss me?"

"This is kind of unexpected. We haven't met since Arbal was being attacked."

Anubis could see Felina's soul, but he could not have expected the catsith suddenly pouncing him and pinning him to the ground. She made a grin towards Anubis, who clearly could not see her expression, then suddenly, without warning, kissed him. Of course, both hellhounds were surprised, with Anubis struggling to get away. This of course made Ifrit out of words. Felina was always this sultry? He thought.

As if a sudden bad timing, Mizarka came out of the door upstairs and saw what happened. She quickly said, "Oi, that's my hound!"

"Oh, Mizarka," said Felina, turning towards her. "You look well."

"(You know, if this is a situation comedy, I bet there will be a laugh somewhere)," commented Ifrit with a sigh. He quietly asked Felina to move away from Anubis and let him help the hellhound stand. After some explaining from the group, Felina sighed and said, "This is why you hellhounds have such a boring life."

Felina sat on the bench near the wall, flicking her tail around. She said, "I'm just here to talk about the war. You dogs seems to do things just well, and I think you have done yourself a favor for winning."

"We are not technically winning, Felina," replied Ifrit, looking at Anubis.

Felina saw Ifrit's reluctance to say something. She became more serious and said, "Let me guess. We have a new enemy."

"No, same enemy, but new problem," said Anubis. "Don't take me as speculating or making up stories, but there is another player in this whole mess. A goddamn trickster/manipulator is the source of this whole mess."

"And might I say that this 'trickster/manipulator' is a deep hell demon?"

This surprised the three hellhounds. "How do you know?" asked Anubis.

"Well, I'm not living under the rock, so of course I've heard rumors from other catsiths. The myth of the deep hell demons is scary enough, but if it is real, then we have no chance of winning at all."

"I don't want to make this too public. If the demons knew what is going on it will be chaos," said Anubis. "Seriously, a trouble a lifetime is enough for one lifetime."

"Fortunately for you, this problem is not too widespread. Apparently it only happened in concentrated areas, but it only happened with the rebels. Most of your supporters are safe. My first thought is that you have upped your game, so I came here. Apparently it is not the case for you, too."

"They attacked us, too, so we cannot consider that something we can trust. If I were you, I wouldn't trust something like that."

"No one is trusting something like that, Anubis!" Felina cleared her throat. "Anyway, I have some other disturbing rumor regarding Anarim Winsel."

"Somethin' wrong with my granddaddy?"

"It seems lately, despite of many opportunities to wipe out rebel camps, he tried to discourage his peers. At first, it seemed strategically sound, but months after that Anarim's manner of speech became more and more, shall I say, cryptic."

"Cryptic? What do you mean, cryptic? He's clearly someone who's to the point, despite how calm-looking he is."

"I met him when I went to the tree city. He started blabbering weird things like 'I seem to forgot something' and then 'It's in the near future, but why?'. Then when he wanted to contact Arbal, he hesitated then got out of the comm room dazed. His wisdom also became more and more out of place and not consistent at all. He is distracted by something, Eshdar, and we feared that he had been..."

"No, of course he ain't gonna get zonked!" exclaimed Eshdar. "Granddaddy has a powerful demonic fire magic, just like me! His magical resistance is also strong!"

"How about sex, then, hmm?"

Hearing that made Eshdar shivered. He had not forgotten what Felina did to him some months ago. While her intention was pure, it was a nightmare to the red-furred hellhound, especially how pleasure could become torture if it was too much.

"I know a lot about you, Eshdar," said Felina with a sultry expression. "You want me to prove it again?"

"Uh...no thanks."

Felina sighed towards him, and said, "Anarim may be an old wise hellhound, but sometimes even the old and the wise is none the wiser than the newer generations. I'm just saying, not trying to imply something. I merely give you the status report there, voluntarily. It's a mutual problem now."

She quickly excused herself to go away, but Ifrit stopped her by saying, "Wait, Felina."

The catsith turned towards Ifrit.

"I know your reasons of helping us is because of a mutual problem, but you haven't told us anything about why a catsith is helping us."

"I am the only reason that matter, dog," replied Felina. "Besides, you need all the help you can get from circle demons, so you are not at a disadvantage. Lust demons, despite their names, can fight if they want to. And Eshdar, I suggest you contact Anarim as soon as possible. You are his grandson, after all."

Felina disappeared as quickly as she appeared, running silently under the moonlight. The four hellhounds did not talk with each other for the night, with Ifrit and Eshdar leaving Anubis with Mizarka to talk private matters.

Despite of what Felina said, Eshdar refused to say that it was true that his grandfather was being controlled. He knew him since he was a kid, and he grew up believing that Anarim was his father, at least that's what he thought. They were alike, so it was easy to be so close with Anarim. Yet, Felina's doubts were also Eshdar's doubt. As long as he could remember, Anarim never told him about his past. When asked, he claimed to had forgotten, being old and all.

The next day, while Ifrit and the rest of the gang were walking around the town/city for a downtime, they received a summon from the tower, where Rhynsa, sitting in front of a table, said, "(We've received summon from the tree city. It seems that they need everyone)."

"(Everyone who can still fight?)"

"(Everyone who was once in the list)," said Rhynsa grim. "(That includes me)."

This surprised Ifrit and the others. By that point they thought Rhynsa had told them his condition, which, of course, was not fit for another battle or even a suicide mission. The black hellhound said, "(Did they know?)"

"(About this? Of course they knew)," said Ifrit. "(But I doubt they wanted me to fight)."

"(But this is Karkos we are talking about. He may be a strategist better than you are, but he has no place for two strategists, especially one that could not fight effectively!)"

"(They may be talking about the entity's problems and the rebels' sudden erratic actions)," said Anubis to the group. "(Karkos simply needed the best of the best)."

"(But did he know that we only have half of our original group? I know Miza and Mitchel is here, but how about Al and the others? They all went to separate ways)."

"(Don't worry about that, Ifrit. We have a lot of backup. Eshdar and Anubis were not in the list, and Lilac and Hans were not in it either. We have two dragons allied with us, and I think we can say they might consider everything)."

Ifrit wasn't sure if those in Tanah actually had thought about what happened with Rhynsa for the past 6 months. He and the others found Angelus and the otherworld creatures barely a month ago. With communication being limited around Tragoria due to the demonic occupation, 6 months was the best they could get for a direct communication link (they did not use any sort of wireless communication, except when they were so close to Arbal). Also, Rhynsa chose not to tell them about it so as to not to make them worry and change their plans, given how crucial it was to find two dragons that were clearly their allies deep in enemy territory.

The day became night again, and the group still had no decision to leave Arbal. There was another direct communication from the tree city calling all who was once on the list, without even heeding the fact that Rhynsa was paraplegic. This annoyed Ifrit to the point that he opened another direct link and demanded to talk with whoever in charge. He found Nergora's voice.

"(What the hell are you thinking, brother? Rhynsa is clearly wheelchair-bound! I know it's important, but not all of us is the same anymore)."

"(Of course we know of his problem, Ifrit, but we need everyone here. This is a matter that cannot be talk about in the communication relay. We might get jacked!)"

"(I know...but...)"

"(Neri...you don't need to include me in your small talk)."

This surprised everyone in the room, in which Rhynsa noticed and said, "(Guys, I know this is important, given how I am supposed to be one of your best fighters. But I know my fighting days are over ever since I am stuck on this wheelchair. I might be able to fight, but not in a grand scale anymore, and especially not in a suicide mission)."

"(Come on, why are you still saying that mission as a suicide mission?)" "(While it had the best fighters you can get, that whole group is a suicide squad. Did you forget about Jo? You might argue that it was just her who died, but she is also one of us)."

"(I disagree with you, Rhynsa)," said Karkos's voice. "(That was supposed to be a mission that could be successful, if not for an augmented hellhound crashing the party)."

"(It's still on me, Karkos. Artios was my responsibility, but even by putting a bullet through his heart caused sacrifice, in this case, my mobility. I don't need to fight anymore. I have seen others that you could include in your group, and they are equally reliable)."

"(I can't see how a deserter and a rebel wrath demon could be 'reliable', especially how this is Tyrall Bhane we are talking about here)."

"(Kghron and Tyrall are not going to be in your small group)." After hearing confused reaction from the others, he said, "(What? Am I supposed to be the only guardian of this town? Well, that's one fucked up shit, isn't it?)"

"(We don't have anyone to represent aside from the three of us, Angelus, and Lilac!)" exclaimed Ifrit. "(We don't even know if the others can even return there!)."

"(Of course you have one particular kitty cat as a representation. We need diversity, right?)"

"I'm not a kitty cat, bat boy. I'm a catsith."

They all turned towards the voice and found Felina standing by the door. She walked in, swinging her tail occasionally. As she stood near the radio, she said, "I'm reliable enough. Count me in."

There was a silence from the other end of the line, but then Karkos said, "Then you are in. We need you here as soon as possible. Do you have a portal there?"

"It's three days' trip from here," said Felina to the radio. "We can travel right now."

"Right now? We need to prepare too, you know."

"We are using a portal, not carriage travel. I'll be waiting at the gate. Take what you must take."

Then the cat left them again, leaving them wondering if the whole travel was a good idea.

But at least, in Ifrit's and Anubis's case, they would not be separated with their loved one for too long, given how both of them were in that list. The two hellhounds then started packing up necessary things, and set off to the gate, with Felina waiting for their travel to the tree city.

Whatever happened next, however, would not be a pleasant thing....