Kurama walked down an endless stretch of tunnels for almost an hour. His arms burned after carrying Viola everywhere through the Demon's Hell. As he rounded a curve, he found a hollow spot along the inner part of the wall. It was deep enough and blended together well that Kurama knew he could hide there and rest for a bit. After readjusting His hold on Viola, he carried her into the hollow spot and then collapsed within it.
He didn't know what was going to happen. The place was huge, stretching in all directions for eternity. How was he going to find Viola's crystal in this place. Especially with Viola being in a vegetative state that she was. He looked over at her, slumped against the wall. She hadn't changed at all since he carried her out of the prison, still muttering that it was gone. And he knew it was only a matter of time before it was discovered that she was no longer in the prison the demons had.
As he lay there, worrying over the problem, he felt the ground tremble. It grew louder and louder, starting and stopping like something was walking down the tunnel. He quickly went over to Viola and flattened themselves out of sight. He placed his hand over her mouth to muffle her muttering. His breathing became very light as the footsteps approached. He could hear low grunting sounds of voices approaching. Then a deeper, more sinister voice was heard in the group.
"My decision is my own. And if any grunt wants to question it further, they will find themselves suddenly nonexistent."
Suddenly, the largest of the footsteps stopped. The other footsteps carried on for a little bit before they all stopped to. Kurama was completely alarmed now. The demons had all stopped just outside of where they were hiding. A demon called back questioningly back to the largest Demon. Kurama, bent forward a bit to see two curved horns with a floating fire crown nestled between them. He instantly understood that this had to be the Demon King. Faintly, he thought he heard the Demon King sniff the air for a few seconds. Then the Demon King spoke out again, his voice sounding slightly amused.
"It has come to my attention that some of the demons may want to look at the trophy crystal I took from the paladin. I want everyone to understand that that crystal is off limits to everyone. Spread the word that my throne room is only to be entered if something calls for my attention, since thats where my trophy will remain. For the new demons formed, tell them that this hall will eventually lead to my throne room, so it would be best that they avoid walking down this tunnel entirely."
The demon's all mutter incoherent bouts of confusion to each other, before the Demon King yelled at them.
"Get going, you imps!"
The demons all hurried away, back down where they had just came, leaving the Demon King alone in the hallway. Or almost alone. Kurama was listening intently as the Demon King stood there breathing for a few seconds. Then, it turned and continued down the tunnel, away from him. Kurama breathed a sigh of relief, but then his thoughts started to analyze what just happened. Why did the Demon King just tell the other demons where his throne room was. Surely they would've all known where it was on there own. Did the Demon King know he was there...
Kurama just sat there for a moment, thinking over everything. Why did the Demon King lead the other demons away? Was he wanting to deal with Kurama himself? Kurama now suspected that the throne room had now been turned into a trap. But he had to go to it. If Viola's crystal really was there, he had to go to try and retrieve it. He looked down at her laying on the ground. He would have to take her with him. He couldn't leave her by herself in her current state.
After carefully picking her up, he made his way down the tunnel. After a few minutes, the tunnel lead to two giant stone doors with intricate carvings. He knew at once that this had to be the throne room. Several other tunnels connected to the tunnel he just came from and he wondered if the Demon King went off down one of those instead. But instantly, his common sense told him no, that the Demon King was probably waiting for him in the throne room.
He took a deep breath, dreading what might happen behind those doors. He took a couple steps forward and pushed on the door. After some effort, it slowly and quietly started to swing open a crack. Kurama peaked inside, and after seeing nothing, continued to push the door open wider. He looked around the Demon King's throne room, seeing many pillars and what looked like two balconies on either side of the room. A large stone chair sat on an elevated platform on the other side of the room facing him. As he studied the chair, he saw a faint glowing light of purple emanating from one of the arm rests.
Hope spread through him as he quickly realized it was Viola's sword with the crystal still inside. He took three hurried steps toward it, before he was suddenly knocked aside by something large and powerful. He was flown sideways into one of the pillars and slid down to the ground. Viola tumbled off on her own, only to stop near the sidewall. Kurama, quickly gathered himself together and looked up. He saw the gigantic form of the Demon King slowly emerge from behind one of the large pillars. His fangs gleamed as he smiled at Kurama.
"Just as I thought. You paladins are so incredibly stupid. That was one of the first things I learned about from Grim."
His eyes trail over to Viola laying on the floor a ways off.
"Ah! And I see you were implementing a jail break as well. Excellent."
The glowing red eyes turned back to Kurama as he stood up all the way, drawing his sword from its sheath.
"So paladin, what do they call you?"
Kurama glared at the Demon King with malice in his eyes. His crystal glows brighter in reaction to the powerful emotions he was feeling.
"I'm Kurama! Now give Viola back her crystal, demon!"
The Demon King chuckled.
"How touching. You paladins must really care about each other to risk your lives in such a way. And please, call me Mangosta when you're refering to me informally."
Mangosta steps over so that he is right between Kurama and the large stone chair. His wings flexed with anticipation.
"So Kurama, you can defeat two elite classed demons by yourself can you? Then lets play a little game. A wager if you will."
He gestures to the chair behind him.
"Behind me is your dear Viola's crystal. You can have it of course, if you can get past me."
He brought up a large clawed hand in a challenging manner.
"Lets see what you're made of, paladin. Can you defeat me where your Viola failed? Lets find out, shall we?"