Fire and pain burned throughout the area in which he sat. Every now and then, the fires sweeping another victim into the depths of a cavern to torture him and then spitting him out again.

Hell.

Now covered with burns and scars, he sat, his eyes under the visor that hid his whole face extremely wide and his breathing labored.

Boomerang had already been the victim of the fires five times in the past two hours, and his blue wolf Lucied, the Guardian of Desire, had not been even touched. Lucied whimpered and licked her master's bleeding arm. Even through his orange, black, and gold armor, the fires could still hurt him.

Boomerang had thought that he had gotten used to the torture of the fires of Hell over the past three days, until the fifth time the fires swept him up. Oh, how he longed to return to Filgaia. To have a second chance at his harsh, pain-ridden life. The fires of Hell had already let their guard down once, and because of that, Boomerang had gotten a chance to return to Filgaia and become a fighter in the Ancient Arena.

However, the Dream Chasers that he had already fought three times, showed up and killed him again. Now the fires were punishing him. That was why they focused on him mainly. Boomerang had never known such pain before.

Boomerang looked over the fiery, lava-filled horizon to see his old 'boss' be swept up by the fires. The warrior could not help but grin under his visor as Ziekfried screamed in rage and pain from within the cavern. Boomerang had always thought that Ziekfried was a coward, he could not stand the pain that the fires inflicted. Neither could Boomerang, but he cried on the inside. He never let anyone know of the pain he felt.

"Lucied, if only we could escape again," Boomerang spoke, rubbing behind the blue wolf's ears, "I swear I would start over. I would maybe become a soldier or a knight. Not a killer-" He was cut off as three stone gargoyles screamed and took to the air, their shadows seen perfectly on the fiery red sky. "Someone's trying to escape!" Boomerang leapt to his feet despite the fact that two of his ribs were broken. He knew that someone was trying to escape, for he had had to outrun the gargoyles when he and Lucied had returned to Filgaia the first time.

Lucied barked as if to say, "This is our chance!" Boomerang smiled greatly. He looked around, desperately trying to find whoever was fleeing. Then, he saw him.

It was that idiot Alhazad.

"That bastard'll never outrun the gargoyles!" Boomerang growled. Lucied barked again. Boomerang knelt down, waiting for the fiery red sky to open up when Alhazad got close enough to it. The white-robed demon took to the air, rocketing toward the sky.

The sky started to open up.

"Now!" Boomerang commanded Lucied. Then, they took off running, Boomerang moving incredibly fast despite his broken ribs, but not fast enough. His injuries were slowing him down and Lucied was at least three meters ahead of him. The blue wolf leaped into the air as did the warrior.

They flew past Alhazad. The gargoyles had stopped chasing Alhazad and now simply hovered in midair, wondering who they should catch first, Boomerang and Lucied, or Alhazad. Two of the gargoyles screamed and skyrocketed toward Boomerang and Lucied.

One of the gargoyles was about to grab Boomerang's ankle when Lucied suddenly howled, zapping the gargoyle with her spell the Purple Electric. Boomerang squeezed his eyes shut, preparing for the pain that came from crossing deminsions.

Then, as they exploded through Hell's atmosphere, Boomerang let loose a cry, partly from pain, but mostly from joy, a feeling he had never felt before. He was triumphant, again, and nothing, nothing, could stand in his way this time.

Jack yawned. It was almost night and he, Rudy, and Cecilia had been walking for days. They were now full-time, Dream Chasers, and now devoted all of their time to exploring, finding treasure, and visiting old friends. "Ugh!" Cecilia grunted, brushing her now waist-length, blonde hair out of her face, "How much longer till we find a village?"

Rudy answered, "We're almost there. We're headed for Saint Centour." Rudy, the artificial human, sounded and looked just exactly like a true human. He could eat, sleep, cry, bleed, and breathe. He had every human emotion and feeling, including pain, much to his dismay.

Cecilia's face brightened. "Saint Centour?! Alright! I've been wondering how Zed and that blind girl are doing." It was not long before they reached the gates of the abandoned village. Grunts and groans filled their hearing as the Dream Chasers entered the large gate with the blue diamond overhead.

Jack asked as they looked around, "Zed?" Then, they saw him. The former demon was clearing away the remains of what had been the church. "What happened?!" Jack demanded as he and the other two Dream Chasers ran over to him.

Zed, dressed in his usual blue, green, and orange outfit looked at them, as if noticing them for the first time. His blue face was soaked in sweat and his green hair was matted. His red bandanna, which was tied around his forehead, flaped in the breeze. Zed smiled and spoke, "Oh! Hi, guys! Been awhile." He then focused his attention on a large portion of what had been the wall of the church, pressed his shoulder against it, and growled, "Move, you freakin' ROCK!!"

"What happened?" Jack repeated.

Zed stood straight and answered, wiping the sweat from his forehead, "An entire flock of harpies divebombed the place last night. I got rid of most of 'em, but a few wound up being crushed under the rubble. Scared the livin' hell outta Alicia."

"Alicia?" Rudy wanted to know.

"The blind girl." As if on cue, the blind girl appeared from behind the house that she usually stayed in. Alicia donned a pair of sunglasses and a long stick which she used to see if anything was in front of her. She tapped it back and forth on the ground as she walked slowly over to them.

She spoke in her soft voice, "Those voices. Rudy? Jack? Cecilia? It's been a long time since you came here last."

Cecilia smiled and asked cheerfully, "Where'd you get the sunglasses?"

Alicia replied with a smile, "Zed gave them to me."

"I found them in a barrel at the inn," the former demon explained. (no, there aren't any sunglasses in the barrels. I just made that up.) He then asked, "I thought you were taking a nap."

Alicia's smile faded as she said, "I was. Until I had a dream."

"Uh oh..." Zed muttered. Rudy, Jack, and Cecilia looked at him. "Alicia's dreams seem to have a bad habit about coming true. I only had a split second to prepare for the harpy attack."

Alicia conveyed, "I saw fire, and someone trying to escape. A man and a dog. Then I saw water. An island with a girl. Then you four, plus the man, girl, and the dog. The seven of you were running from something. Behind you I could barely see a large woman. But she wasn't completely human. Her body from the waist down looked like a slug or something. Next there was a scream, but not from any of you. A warrior jumped onto the thing chasing you, and that's when I woke up."

Jack whispered to Rudy, Zed, and Cecilia, "I've got a bad feeling about this...."

He exploded through the water, gasping for air, Lucied appearing just beside him. Boomerang treaded water for a few minutes, trying to see where he was. After he had exitted Hell's atmosphere, Boomerang had found himself spiralling through water. He and Lucied had then swam as fast as they could to the surface, their lungs completely without air.

The warrior cursed as he noticed that they were in the middle of the ocean, no land in sight. Wait. There was land! An island just about a mile and a half from their location. "C'mon, Lucied!" Boomerang encouraged. Lucied barked. Then, they swam toward the island, despite their protesting limbs and muscles.

It was about fifteen minutes later when Boomerang crawled onto the beach. When he and Lucied were a little way away from the tide, Boomerang collapsed, his muscles refusing to move anymore. His sides clawed at him, reminding him of his broken ribs. Damn the fires, he thought as he tried to move up the beach some more, If it weren't for them, I'd have plenty of strength to spare. Boomerang tried to sit up, but he moved a muscle the wrong way, causing pain to shoot up from his ribs and into his back. The warrior barely had time to cry out in pain before his vision clouded over and he passed out.