Trying to Save my Favorite Character from His Tragic Fate

<Demon continent>

Inside a forest of relatively young trees, screams fill the open air. Sounds of flesh getting ripped echo from the path most traveled by. Surrounded by a mob of demons, Ian and Imogen flash through the crowd while swinging their swords without mercy. Demons who are struck by the sword only become aware of death when they catch the after images of daunting stares that leave a trail of light.

Seeing their comrades getting slain in vain, the demons begin to put more distance from their targets. They have underestimated their opponent due to their number.

Irzin, a demon with lilac skin, small horns protruding from his forehead close to the hairline, narrows his eyes while looking at the man with raven hair. Irzin studies the tattoos covering that man's neck slowly fading away. He is sure that these two humans are the rumored individuals that have cleared the fourth gate in one month. 

Irzin had entered the second gate when it randomly appeared in the demon continent. Since the fallen saintess and fallen paladin have entered the second gate, the gate has drawn a lot of attention amongst the demons. Back then, the demons ignore these two existences that entered the gate, forgetting once they become occupied with survival. 

The human duo only has shown themselves in front of the demons to close the second gate. They have appeared at the last moment when the demons are getting swamped by humans claiming to be from another world. The duo uses them to block the stampede and boldly take the high-grade relic that holds the Phantasm. Then, they leave without looking back.

Irzin remembers that he barely survived the ordeal of collapsing space and the stampede. Cold chills run through his body, just thinking about the nightmare. Now, in front of those two humans, Irzin curses at his bird brain, forgetting how those two individuals looked.

He grinds his teeth, resenting those demon puppets that gave him the information. Although they have given these two's locations, Irzin is now aware that these two are not hiding. He has fallen into the trap of thinking that they are easy targets without sending someone first to verify who they are. He is blinded by his desire to possess more relics and stupidly thought that these two were weak. 

Since the fallen saintess solves the third gate, Irzin has forgotten about them. Now that he is facing death, he is sure that the fallen saintess has decided to throw him away. He is now being used as an obstacle to slow these two down from reaching the next gate.

A pigeon with a stone on its forehead lands on that man's arm. Irzin furrows his brows while looking at the peculiar messenger bird. Then, the pigeon shines in white light, turning into an orb and entering the pendant on that man's neck.

Ian looks at the capsule that the pigeon brought instead of the roll-up letters that he would usually get. He closes an eye to look at the transparent capsule inside and sees two letters floating. Applying some pressure to the capsule, Ian breaks it, and the two letters come out.

The pressure on the demons lightens once the human duo sees the pigeon. The demons look at one another, confused.

"That cockroach always comes up with these weird creations," Imogen comments while taking the letter addressed to her. 

She breathes in between her teeth while looking at the awkwardly bulky envelope. 

'What did Laurel have to say to write her such a long letter?'

Imogen looks over to Ian, who also has the same-sized envelope. They open the envelope and start reading. 

Irzin becomes speechless while looking at those two randomly, pausing the battle as if there is such a thing as a timeout. He takes a step forward, but he quickly steps back when zaps of electricity crackled violently on the ground.

"Pft!" Ian covers his mouth as he trembles when he sees the size of the letter. 

His heart warms up while flipping through the pages filled with handwriting. Now, he is not that worried about reading the letters too often that he starts memorizing them.

In a better mood, Ian flips to the first page to read. He lifts his head quickly after reading a couple of sentences and turns to Imogen to see if she is close enough to see his letter. He breathes out, relieved. Imogen has walked away for her letter too. He exhales breathy laughs in shock about what he is reading.

'He must be really drunk to write this kind of thing…'

His face starts to warm up as he reads over the letter about Kyrie's demand for compensation for his physical and mental distress. 

Ian presses his lips together to hold a smile from appearing, but he fails. He chuckles incredulously, and sometimes, he would need pauses before he continues to read the letter. He can feel the secondhand embarrassment curling his fingers.

Shameless.

Ian's expression darkens. He is too far away to punish the man that dares to turn on his switch. Unable to see Kyrie has already been hard, but these letters are just complete torture.

'A year is quite a long time…'

Ian bites his lower lip while his thoughts walk through forbidden lands. His gaze moves up from the letter to the demons who flinch after meeting Ian's predatory stare. 

The demons stand awkwardly in front of those two seemingly psychopaths. They are shaking due to the duo's mood fluctuations.  At first, those faces seem to be carved on stone, yet their expressions start to change when reading… letters? The blood and carnage of their dead comrades make them feel much worse. The pressure exerting from those humans' bodies is starting to increase to a level that those demons are frozen to where they stand. They cannot even escape! They pale as the aura around those two starts to form and become visible to the naked eye. 

The tattoos that are remnants of the relic Ian and Imogen have absorbed into their bodies start to appear on their skin. For Ian, his tattoos are more obvious because he does not cover his neck.

The ground cracks under pressure making all the demons jolt. 

A sound similar to a sword's vibrating blade echoes through the area, and Ian looks up to see that the gate is going to close. Usually, that sound indicates that there is an hour left. He folds his letter and looks at Imogen's gloomy expression. Ian lets out a huff because there are not a lot of things that could bother Imogen. The letter seems to be one that could draw emotions to this saintess. He wonders what Laurel has written to Imogen to make her expression so dark.

Those two at home decide that it is good to agitate their hardworking partners when they are far apart. 

Imogen lets out an eerie smirk and murmurs, "Seems like we have to finish this gate as fast as we can… I hope my girl doesn't think that I will forget her drunken demands..."

She places the letter into the dimension pouch. She has yet to finish reading half the letter, but her insides are burning through her skin. They both turn to the demons, who are already on their knees with their foreheads to the ground, shivering. 

"Please forgive us!" Irzin yells, "The fallen saintess used us as a temporary blockade, and we are not really willing to die like this…"

The demons that came with him are starting to bawl, but they soon press their lips together when they feel Imogen's irritation increase. 

"We are willing to do anything! So, please don't kill us!" says Irzin, and all the demons nod in agreement.