Both Liohime Kitagami and Jolene Aurora strutted along, side-by side, as they ventured deeper and deeper into the Lost Forest.

Liohime, with his face finally rid of all of the nasty blood and extra stuff, had finally relaxed, while Jolene silently kept her senses alert as they walked on.

For the next hour, things were actually surprisingly quiet for the duo in terms of dangerous encounters. In fact, they had only found one other rogue magical beast, which Liohime had distracted while Jolene killed it with a sneak attack.

"Not bad, Jolene. Good job."

"Hey, when the fuck are you gonna stand up for yourself and actually fight?"

"Well, I actually was planning to," Liohime responded, "but then I realized just how much lighter you're making the work be, so I'm kinda content with this for now."

"Ooooh, I see. You're enjoying the woman doing all the work, huh?"

"H-Hey, don't take this differently!"

"I know what kind of man you are."

"Did you hear what I just fucking said!?"

Jolen scoffed and moved on, continuing, "The next time we run into any trouble, I'm using you as bait and I'm not backing you up."

"I'm not meant to be beast food."

"Then chop chop. You better get to protecting…..wait, quiet."

She suddenly lowered her voice, and Liohime followed suit.

"What is it?"

"Do you hear that?"

Liohime paused and listened as his heartbeat began to race, not sure what to expect.

However, what he heard was something out of the ordinary.

Something similar to a hissing sound mixed with a faint rumble was what his ears were picking up right now.

And, it came from a specific direction.

"What the fuck? It sounds like some kind of-"

"Lio."

"W-What?"

He exchanged glances with her, but he could see excitement and anxiety building in her expression. Confused, he raised an eyebrow, but then he froze.

He slowly turned to the direction, as if he had realized something.

A rumble with a hissing sound, something that sounded like…

Sounded like…

"Water, crashing."

He covered his mouth with shock.

There's no way that this is real.

Jolene inhaled and exhaled deeply, completely unable to speak, as she too looked in the direction of that sound.

Instantly, she pulled him along as she broke out into a sprint.

"Jolene, do you think…do you really think…!?"

"It has to be it! It has to be!"

Every step that they took caused the sound to get louder and louder, while they drew closer to the mysterious destination.

And then, with a glorious light beaming through with only a few more feet left, both Liohime and Jolene burst forward with all their might, and then came to a complete stop a few seconds later.

"Holy shit, Jolene," Liohime muttered, shaking his head as he failed to comprehend if what he was seeing was a daydream of some sort. "I think….we made it."

"We…did."

Ahead of them was an opening in the earth, from which powerful floods of water exited from, falling straight into a misty fog that hid any other sight of deeper land.

The Waterfall of Hell, which descended into the Paradisus Legion's third layer was right in front of them, and Jolene couldn't believe her eyes.

"How the fuck…did we manage to be so lucky!? W-We just decided to pick a direction and head straight! And we did it without much conflict!"

Her body almost fell forward all of a sudden, but Liohime caught her in time.

"W-Woah, you okay?"

"Yeah….everything's fine," she replied with a weak smile. "I'm just so…happy and excited that…I think that my legs got weak or something. A-Anyway…"

She pulled herself away from Liohime's grasp but pulled him along.

"Let's head there immediately, Lio. We're probably so far ahead from the others. We can't afford to miss this opportunity-"

"You're wobbling."

"Huh?"

Jolene gazed downwards, looking at her lower body which trembled slowly, and she bit her lip in frustration before forcing a grin.

"I told you, I'm fine. Everything's fine."

"Hey….you haven't slept since the night before we were transported to the first layer's border, have you?" Liohime interrogated, making Jolene grimace.

"That's way over a full day of no rest," he continued. "I know that you are trying to push yourself, but you have to-"

"I don't have time for this."

"W-Wait!"

Liohime grabbed onto Jolene's jacket sleeve just as she was about to take another step forward, but the latter turned and shot a death glare at him.

"-hk, the fatigue…it's getting to you, making you more annoyed and restless, Jolene. I can see it so clearly."

"Normally, you would be right on board with this, dammit," she scolded him. "The real Lio would tell me, 'Let's keep pushing! We're nearly there! Just one last hurdle!' Now one of the greatest, most defining moments of our lives is just ahead of us, and you want to take a break!? Where? Why? And how, when we're so, soooo close to our goal?

Liohime averted his eyes and sighed.

"You're right. In the past, I would have neglected my own body's health just so that I could get so many things done, and most of the time, it worked out well."

"Right, so-"

"Still," he interjected, "someone reminded me that if I push myself too hard, I won't be able to do my absolute best, and know that you won't too, not when it's something as important as this. Both of us need to be at our absolute best."

"....Where the hell would we even rest? I haven't told you this, but I'm being hunted, you know."

"Eh, seriously? Anyway, the same goes for me, but like you said, it's time for me to step up. So…"

Liohime walked over and motioned to a bed of flowers hidden well by tall bushes surrounding it.

"You get some rest, and I'll keep watch. Sleep, even if it's just for a few hours, and I promise that I'll sacrifice my own sleep to go along with you to the third layer, because, frankly…You will definitely be more capable than I am when it comes to retrieving this thing."

Jolene sighed, and then nodded.

"Alright. I'll rest, but only for a few hours. After that, we conquer the final layer. Together.

"Fine by me."

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