We left the tower and rendezvoused with the rest of my team. We then made the journey back to Soren's fort (which took about an hour.) where we proceeded to split up into smaller groups to look for Isaac. Evelyn stayed at the fort with Tanis and Grigori. I left the fort with Soren and Luna while Dorrian, Ana, and Simon formed a group. Ben, Nova, and Sasha formed a team while Stanford, Gwyn, and Stefan teamed up.

"We're kind of breaking one of your rules." I remarked as we walked through the forest, hopping over exposed roots and avoiding vibrantly colored flowers that gave off a foul scent, "Everyone's in groups of three, not four."

Soren sighed, "No matter. Finding Isaac is more important than following my rules. Besides, we'll be fine."

I grinned, "Then let's get busy."

An hour of searching passed...nothing.

I groaned, kicking an exposed root, "Damn, we have to keep looking."

"Be careful Helix." Soren cautioned. "Not only is it easy to get lost in this damned forest, it's also easy to get hurt in this hellscape of poison and thorns."

I huffed, "Alright, fair point."

Well, we kept finding various other demons, but not the one we were looking for. Hell, we even found a surprised orc as he was casually taking a whiz on an unfortunate tree.

"Sorry, sorry." I began hurriedly, backing away from the being, "We'll be on our way."

The orc began to charge at us, only to be violently incinerated.

Soren chuckled as he lowered his hand, "You can't reason with an orc. It's better to just torch them while you still have the chance."

I loosed a nervous titter. "Okay then. Moving on..."

Just when I thought we had run out of luck, I heard heavy breathing, then the sound of fleeting footsteps.

Luna flinched, "The aura of the person that just ran away was extremely erratic. It's him."

We started to run after the fleeing demon.

I heard deep laughter in my mind: "I wouldn't do that if I were you." A strange voice cautioned me.

I ignored...whoever that was. Instead, I focused my attention on following the sporadic pulses of energy that created a jagged trail before me.

"You're making a grave mistake." The voice persisted, causing me to scowl.

I looked at Soren as he ran beside me, "You hearing this?"

"Huh?" He replied in confusion.

I took a deep breath, then dodged out of the way of a low-hanging branch, "Something's trying to tell me that following Isaac is a grave mistake."

"Damn it." Soren breathed, "It's Thaleous. Ignore him. We don't have time to deal with that asshole-Not now."

More deep laughter, "Are you really going to listen to him?"

I groaned, "Luna? Help me please."

She nodded, then grinned, "Done. He shouldn't be able to bother you anymore."

The voice disappeared, and I breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank you so much."

Luna beamed at me, then ducked under a low-hanging branch with a yelp.

We continued running through the forest. Gradually, we began to see drops of blood ahead of us as we continued to pursue Isaac.

"He's injured." I warned Luna and Soren, "Proceed with caution."

They nodded, and we heard ragged panting as we continued along.

"Stop." I ordered them, "Wait here."

Taking off my helmet, I began to approach the source of the ragged panting.

"Helix! Wait!" Luna whispered as she appeared beside me, "I can patch him up after you cleanse his mind."

I nodded, then caught sight of the being known as Isaac. He looked fairly human...except for the dark red iris', light gray skin that looked more like clay than actual skin, and a lone horn that poked out of his head above his left eye. He also had a broken pair of hand cuffs on his wrists-The shackles were attached to the right cuff, and they clanked together as he pushed himself to his feet and glared at me. He wore a tattered dark gray tunic and a torn pair of pants. The poor guy was also barefoot, which made me cringe.

He looked at me with a mixture of fear and pure hatred. "W-Who are you? Why did you follow me-what do you want?"

I held my hands up in a sign of peace, "I'm here to help you, Isaac." I saw a nasty laceration on his stomach and cringed, "Please, let me help you."

He looked at me in confusion before his facial features were clouded with animalistic fear, "No...No!"

He staggered away from me, then screamed as his right arm morphed into a black, jagged blade. Red, vein-like markings on the blade seemed to pulse in time with Isaac's frantic aura.

Isaac shook his head violently, causing his dark gray hair to go wild, "Get away from me!" He screamed. He charged at me, but blood loss won over him. He staggered again and fell down, landing on his face. Almost as soon as it had shifted, his arm returned to its original form.

I edged slowly toward him, then placed my hands on his back. Using the purification spell Virrius taught me, I was able to clear the madness that was clouding the poor guy's mind. I noticed Luna as she knelt beside me and began to heal the bloody wounds that covered Isaac's body.

After a few moments of tense silence, Isaac stirred. His eyes opened, and they seemed to be clearer. Even though he still looked the same, I could tell he had regained his grip on reality.

"Who are you?" He asked, every fiber in his being displaying just how nervous he was.

"My name's Helix, and this is my friend Luna." I replied as she smiled kindly at him, "We're not here to hurt you, Isaac."

"W-Well, what do you want then?" He breathed, quickly looking between me and Luna: "You must want something if you're trying to help me."

I sighed, "I need help. Can you show me where the stronghold you and sister escaped is-?"

"Sister-Evelyn!" He cut in, "Where is she? I have to tell her I'm sorry-."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." I cut him off, "Calm down friend. Evelyn is at Soren's fortress. She's safe and sound there."

Isaac's face went pale-which is saying a lot, "Soren? Where is he?"

"Right here." He chimed in as he approached us.

Isaac flinched, "Oh, hey Soren...I, um, I'm sorry if you're still mad at me for what happened. I wasn't in the right state of mind..."

I looked at Soren, "What happened?"

"Isaac struck down a group of people I had sent to search for the stronghold we're currently looking for now. I didn't know he was the one that had killed them at the time, though."

Isaac bowed his head deeply.

Soren shrugged, "No matter. That was a year or two ago. Don't worry about it Isaac. Let's get you to my fort so you can get cleaned up."

I sent out an all-call to let everyone know that we had found Isaac: "Everyone can head back to the fort now. We found our guy."

Luna and I had to help Isaac walk, but we were still able to move at a decent pace. Suddenly, I heard the strange voice one last time before it faded into deep laughter: "Don't say I didn't warn you. Prepare yourself: A storm is coming."

I shivered, then pushed that obvious threat out of the way. I had more important things to worry about at the current moment.

It took us about thirty minutes to retrace our footsteps back to the fort. When we finally walked through the main gate, Evelyn popped up and embraced her brother.

After she finished worrying over him, I asked Isaac again about the Stronghold.

He hesitated.

I nodded, "Forgive me for bothering you about this. I understand if this makes you uncomfortable."

Isaac shook his head, "No, it's fine. It's just..." He shivered, "The stronghold is really hard to locate. I'll lead you there so you won't get lost trying to find it."

Soren rose an eyebrow, "Are you sure?"

Isaac nodded, "Yes, I am. Considering I was put through hell when I was locked up in that stronghold, I want to see it burn to the ground. So yes, I'll gladly lead you all there."

I heard my stomach grumble, "Can I make lunch before we break into this stronghold?"

Soren chuckled, "Sure, why not? Lunch sounds good to me."

So I got cracking on making a kickass lunch: Soren had bought a few more chickens from Vastiin yesterday, so I got creative with spices and vegetables. My cooking didn't disappoint: everyone got seconds and completely emptied the cooking pot.

I whistled, "Geez. Well, I can tell you guys weren't hungry at all."

Nova chuckled, "Oi, this is some bloody good cooking. No doubt about it."

That earned positive responses from everyone else.

I laughed, "Thanks. I'm glad you all appreciate my cooking."

Sasha snorted. She then glanced at her husband and laughed.

Stefan shook his head, "was that necessary Sasha?"

"Yes, yes it was. Hey, this is the fun part, so screw off." she shot back.

Soren sighed, "Don't worry about it Stefan. You get used to this after a while."

Everyone laughed again.

After I cleaned the cooking pot, everyone gathered around Soren.

"Alright," He began, pointing at me, Luna, Simon, Sasha, Tanis, Stefan, Nova, Dorrian, and Analise: "You'll all come with me. Everyone else will stay here and make sure the fort is protected."

Soren beckoned for the people he pointed out to follow him. Isaac quickly hugged Evelyn before he joined us.

"I'll be back," He assured her.

Evelyn smiled, "Please do be careful Isaac."

"I will." He assured her.

I know, it seems strange that we're instantly going into this on what appears to be a whim, but it's wiser to make a move now, not later. Just the fact that Thaleous can get into my mind and talk shit tells me enough: this guy means business, and he's definitely not the type of person you'd want to invite over for a cup of tea. Obviously, we're working with speculation and not solid facts. However, Heather's already told me that she and her people have been working in the dark, so we can only do so much. I haven't seen Thaleous' handiwork yet, and I'm not sure I want to.