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The city of Sapphire was exactly as cold as Ash remembered it being. 

As she and Kaori entered it, from the white bridge, Ash looked up at the violet sky, trying to make out the directions of each pyramid she\'d need to destroy. The three beams seemed to be in a triangle formation, with one ahead, maybe at the back of the city, and two at her sides, directly to her right and her left. Ash nodded to herself. 

The one to the right looks the closest, may as well start there.

"This way," Ash gestured and Kaori absent-mindedly nodded. 

Before, Sapphire had already seemed a little empty, but this... Right now, it seemed downright abandoned. There were no signs of any life, demonic or human.. The buildings seemed broken-down, almost like people had tried building a replica of what was the real Sapphire and gave up halfway through the job. Well, I guess that\'s better than running into a pack of demons,  Ash figured. 

Still, one thing she wasn\'t happy about was the silence stretching between herself and Kaori. As the two walked towards the beam to the right, passing by what appeared to be a small school of some sort, Ash felt like she\'d appreciate anything that Kaori had to say, but right now, the blonde appeared to be deep in thought, her eyes cast down on the stone under her feet as the two of them walked. 

"So," Ash started, trying to break the ice, "you remember anything about this place? Hasn\'t been too long since we left but it still feels like ages ago," Ash told her. 

Kaori appeared to have been surprised by Ash\'s question, mostly it seemed like she\'d forgotten that Ash was even there, and she paused for a moment to think about it. As she did, Ash felt her heart hurt a little at the sight of this depressed version of her friend. She\'d never seen her quite like this before. 

"The street lights," Kaori replied, looking at one pole just ahead of Ash. Ash did the same. The object was moldy and worn out, and the orb at the top was devoid of any light. "They\'re different to the ones in Onyx..." 

Okay, some small talk. Progress. 

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "These things kept the city a little warmer, didn\'t they?" 

"Mhm," Kaori replied. Then, for some reason, she looked back. To Ash, it looked like she was remembering something, and just like that, she was back in her own world. However, this time, Ash could guess what she was thinking about. 

This was, after all, the site of the second major battle the girls had been through. There were quite a lot of things to remember about this place. The death of Ren, Vermia\'s undead army, Keiko\'s sudden appearance after being separated from the group for a while. Ash couldn\'t blame her for doing some reminiscing here. 

Still, she did wonder what was going through the blonde\'s mind. However, she wouldn\'t be able to find out just yet, as before she even knew it, an hour had passed and the two of them were walking up to the first of the three pyramids. 

One thing unsettled Ash thought. 

She stopped in the middle of the street. The first pyramid was up ahead, between two broken-down carts. Kaori stopped behind Ash as the half-demon began looking around. Kaori noticed and raised a brow as Ash started searching.

"Ash?" 

The buildings were still empty. There were no sounds in the air. Ash even looked up to see if there were any Lust demons hovering over them.  What the hell is going on? Ash wondered. 

"Ash?" Kaori asked again. "What is it?" 

At that, Ash turned around and spread her arms, gesturing around them. 

"Where are they?" She asked. 

"Hm? What do you mean?" 

"The demons," Ash clarified. "Nightmares, a small squad, Niven himself, I mean," she turned again, "where is everything?" 

Aside from that group that had chased the two of them, and the small group they\'d fought at the bridge, the pair hadn\'t encountered any other demons. 

"Is... this not normal?" Kaori asked. 

"Nah," Ash shook her head. "There should be  something  here to defend these things. But, I don\'t get it, it feels like the entire place is just empty." 

"Maybe all of the demons are still out fighting?" Kaori asked. 

"... But,  all  of them? Niven wouldn\'t leave at least a couple to defend this place? I mean, did he just not see this coming or what? I... It feels weird," Ash said. "It just doesn\'t make sense." 

Kaori didn\'t offer another response, but Ash did take one thing she said to heart and that was that the demons could actually be outside, fighting still. Maybe the moment they returned, Niven would send them all to the both of them, but if that was to be the case, Ash wondered how long they had before that happened.  Better move fast, just in case. 

And, without any further hesitation, Ash walked up to the structure. 

"Stay back," she told Kaori. "This thing apparently radiates demonic energy or whatever." Kaori nodded and Ash lifted a leg up and broke the pyramid with a kick. The beam dissipated and now, there were only two left. 

With that, the two went on to the next, quickly. 

The longer they went, though, and the more empty buildings Ash passed, the more this feeling in her gut worsened.  Come on,  she thought.  Stop us. Do something. We\'re going to take this entire portal down, you really don\'t care?  She asked Niven in her thoughts. 

Still, the two of them were left alone all the way to the second pyramid. Like the last one, this one was in the middle of the street, unguarded. Ash looked around again, this time going as far as to open a few doors and look inside the buildings around her, trying to see if any demons were hiding, watching them. Nothing. 

Sighing, Ash nodded to herself.  Whatever. 

And so, she walked up and destroyed the next one with ease. 

That left one more to be handled. This one was deeper into Sapphire, as its direction was straight down from the bridge. It led them through a few places that Ash recognized, most notably the inn that had served as the witness of the grand battle that took place here, though its sign was so rotten that Ash couldn\'t see the name of the place. She could still remember most of this, which only made the absence of life all the more noticeable, compared to how cramped this area had felt back then. 

"So," Kaori said, "once we deal with the last one, then what?" 

"Then nothing," Ash muttered as she kept her eyes peeled for any enemies. "This world fades away and we wake up back outside the portal, where we came in." 

"Oh. Well, at least we won\'t have to walk all the way back." 

"Yeah..." Ash borderline ignored her as she continued looking, swearing that maybe a tongue would wrap around her legs soon or a bolt of lightning would be cast at her with the intent of making her head explode, but no such thing happened. 

Instead, as Kaori and Ash continued down the street, they eventually came up the area where Ash had seen Vermia kneel down and raise up her undead army, and it was in that exact spot where the final pyramid was. And, again, there was nothing around to protect it. 

Last time this happened,  Ash told herself,  it was because Niven wanted to talk to me, so he didn\'t throw any enemies at me. This time, he hasn\'t said a word, so what is this about? 

And, when a possibility finally came to her mind, Ash jogged up to the pyramid. 

"Shit, shit, shit," Ash muttered as Kaori followed behind her. 

"A-Ash? What is it?" Kaori asked as Ash lifted a foot up and smashed it onto the pyramid. 

And, in the blink of an eye, the two of them were out of Sapphire, and back in the nighttime scenery of Onyx\'s plains, just outside the city\'s walls. However, as Ash looked back at Onyx, she found that her suspicions had been confirmed. 

"W-Whoa, we\'re out," Kaori noted as she looked around, "Ash, what is...?" But, she stopped when she saw the same thing Ash was seeing. 

A wall of flames had been erected where the wall had been broken down, acting as a barrier of sorts, preventing Ash and Kaori from returning to the city the same way they\'d gone out of it.  What the fuck is this?  Ash asked herself, running up to it. She could hear the sounds of people fighting coming from inside. 

"... We got baited," Ash muttered as Kaori walked up to her. She sighed and shook her head. 

"What do you mean?" Kaori asked. 

"Niven was expecting that I\'d try to close one of the portals," Ash replied. "So he probably sent most of his army through the other ones." 

As Kaori heard that, her eyes widened. 

"B-But that means..." 

"It means Onyx is getting fucked, yeah."