His lips still pressed against Astra's, breathing his air into her lungs and emptying his own at the same time, Seth found himself unable to enjoy the sensation of this moment. Although it was purely practical, some might have seen it as a sign as something more, and he would have trouble denying it.

But perhaps it was the immanent risk of drowning, or the fact that the kiss didn't have much of a 'spark' as it did a full-on electrocution, but something about it made it hard to enjoy, even if he wanted to.

With their impending doom by watery grave still impending, and with no desire to sleep with the fishes, Seth set to work. The spear tore itself from the charred corpse of the former Legendary monster, freeing itself from its grip before it dragged them down as it sunk to the Lakes floor.

The spear quickly spun before shooting upwards, tearing through the water like a torpedo. The steel threads of the [Weaver's Curse] snapped taut behind it, dragging Seth and Astra along behind the skyward bound torpedo.

Being dragged through the water, Seth was forced to break the kiss of life, and of confusing feelings, as his lungs were starting to burn. They felt withered and devoid of any air, his mind putting forth the image of vacuum packing bags.

Yet as the spear approached the glimmering, god ray filled surface of the water, Seth's vision began to wain and darken. The spear slowed in its ascension, his mind becoming blurred and foggy.

But even still, he tightened his grasp around Astra despite the fact she was still electrifying everything around her, including himself.

As the spear finally breached the water's surface, Seth found himself teetering on the edge of consciousness. He was about to tie the [Weaver's Curse] to Astra and transfer his soul to the spear, therefore abandoning his body to a tranquil tomb beneath the waves. However before he could put the plan into action, a miraculous scene unfolded.

His slowing ascent was rapidly increased, some unknown force dragging him out of the water by the threads of the [Weaver's Curse] rather than the spear they were attached to. When he was just about to breach the water's surface himself, his addled mind showed him a wondrous sight.

A woman floating above the waves, suspended in the air on wide wings, as she extended a helping hand outwards towards him, plunging it beneath the water to pull him free of its freezing and wet embrace. An Angel had arrived to save him in his final moments.

Oh how wrong he was.

The hand that grasped onto him was not the delicate, soft and pale skinned hand one would expect from a pure Angel. Instead it was a black gauntlet adorned with intricate rings, tipped with long claws on the end of each finger.

When he was pulled free of the water and could gulp down lungfuls of sweet, fresh air once again, he was brought face to face not with a beautiful angel but a demon that he had hoped not to see again for a long time.

Held aloft on leathery wings, not feathered, was a woman with ink black hair adorning herself in a resplendent set of black scale mail armour, and whom had a single, nasty looking scar carved across one of her emerald eyes.

Eyes that glowed with an eery light, with a vertically slitted pupil and which were currently glaring at him as if she had pulled a rotten fish out of the lake instead of the prize catch she had been fishing for.

"Oh... It's you..."

"Tch."

She clicked her tongue in irritation at his weak comment that was still dripping with sarcasm and utterly devoid of any emotion, especially gratitude.

With a flap of her wings, she shot across the waters surface, appearing where the rest of the group were gathered their expressions stuck in a mixture of confusion and awe as they watched on helplessly.

With a flick of her wrist, she whipped the threads towards the ground and tossed the pair of waterboarded warriors to the ground, before touching down gently herself. Her wings folded together, before dissolving into shadows that quickly reforged themselves into a long, flowing cloak that attached to the collar of her scaled armour.

Seth, however, paid no attention to her spectacle and was instead focused on Astra as she coughed and heaved, water splattering from her lips and splashing against the rocks beneath them.

He gently brushed her soaking wet, two toned hair from her face and gave her a warm smile as her eyelids fluttered open and focused on him.

She frowned softly when she saw him above her, licking her lips slightly which only caused her frown to deepen.

"Did you..."

"Yeah, sorry. It was either that or let you drown. If you want, I can jump back in and drown myself, so you can save me back. You know, to make it fair."

She punched his arm weakly, causing him to chuckle softly. Soft smiles danced upon each of their lips, their eyes examining each other as if they were looking into each other's souls for the answer to an unspoken question.

A black gauntlet hooked its fingers under the collar of Seth's plate armour. His eyes were dragged away from Astra, as was his body, as he was lifted into the air and held aloft like he was some kind of doll.

"You think you can just ignore me Worm? You think I come here on a whim, to save your worthless lives and be ignored instead of worshipped like I am due?"

Her eyes glowed with a brighter intensity, a black aura leaking out of her body added to her menacing visage, but it was more than just an aesthetic choice. It was an aura of pure death, as if they were looking at the grim reaper themselves.

Despite that aura of impending death, however, the tip of a spear trembled softly as it was raised into the air, pointing directly at the gothic dragon warriors throat.

Standing on shaking legs, Astra held Seth's steel spear in her grip, her knuckles whitening with how tight she was gripping so that it didn't fall from her weak and water soaked grip. A determined expression on her face as she stared down the draconic woman through strands of her soggy hair which clung to her face.

"Put. Him. Down."

The dragon glanced down at the spear tip, before returning her gaze to Astra and scoffing in amusement, as if she was looking at a child threatening her with an imaginary sword. The next second, before she could let out a sarcastic comment, another blade was pressed against her throat, causing her to frown.

The blade in question belonged to the enigmatic Fox, who was holding his sword out with a much steadier hand. Behind him, Cynthia had manifested a multitude of blades and held them in the extra arms she had grown, giving her the appearance of a weaponized octopus, while Alexandra had grown to double her already impressive height and was covered in a thick armour of stone.

The suddenness of it mainly left Juniper feeling baffled, as well as a little left out. But there wasn't much she could do without her masters permission. Plus, maybe she would get spared when it inevitably killed the humans, that was her thought process at least.

Taking in the sight of the defiant little humans standing up to the big bad monster, despite the fact that she was clearly out of their league it was simply... adorable. It was as if they expected to take her down with the power of friendship.

She could crush them as easily as breathing. Literally, all it would take is a single acidic breath to reduce them to sizzling piles of molten viscera on the ground. Maybe the slime would take extra effort, but that was like saying grinding your heel instead of simply stepping on an insect was extra effort. It was negligible.

The air was palpably tense, no one daring to move an inch other than Astra, who was still trembling and looking like she was ready to collapse at any moment.

The tension was thoroughly shattered when sprinting over the hill came Alfie, shouting at the top of his lungs as he scrambled desperately, nearly falling over his own feet a few times.

"Guys, You have to come quickly. We found this weird cave with a gate thing but we got attacked and... and its Seth! Seth is trapped with that thing and... And he's here... being strangled by a spooky goth woman..."

His frantic rambling veered of course when he finally processed the scene playing out before him, all eyes turning to him as he trailed off and fully lost steam.

"So, you did find the gate. Did you do it? Is he free? Did you do what you were told worm?!"

All eyes moved to Seth, a variety of emotions plastered across the different faces surrounding him, as he still dangled helplessly from the dragons powerful arm.

"Ah well... We kind of ran into an issue with that part."

Ignoring the blades completely, she pulled him closer, until her forehead was pressed against his. Her eyes staring directly into his own, his face even slightly illuminated by the powerful and eery glow of those slitted eyes.

Her voice was seething and overflowing with venom, a low rumbling growl definitely not suited for a human emanating from her throat as she hissed out her words.

"What Issue?"