Finishing Off Douglas

Jonas couldn't help but feel bad for Elin. He understood her reasons for not wanting to be the one in front of Douglas when they confronted him. However, Jonas was very confident that Douglas didn't suspect Elin as a threat just yet. Nor should there be a reason for him to think that Elin wouldn't be alone.

Though, Jonas felt that they shouldn't meet with Sonya just yet, even though Elin wanted to check on her.

Jonas vetoed that idea simply because while they were visiting her, they'd likely lower their guards and if Douglas appeared in that time, then they'd have lost the element of surprise. Which would be essential to dealing with him. Since he could remove any memories that he felt like. As well as the fact that Jonas was very confident in Douglas being a collector. That he viewed Elin as part of his collection, even if she wasn't the main focus for him in regards to his collections.

Unless he viewed Elin as a potential bride, but that was another matter that Jonas had a feeling that Elin didn't need to know. As he was pretty sure that Elin would be even more hesitant to confronting Douglas with that in mind. Even though that merely added another layer of protection for her.

As such, since they were getting close to the area where Douglas had been posing as Grisha, Jonas started falling behind. Giving him and Elin distance so that when Elin encountered Douglas, Jonas would have enough time to enter the shadows and could then kill him before he even realized he was in danger. Before Elin even had a chance to implement any plan that she might have come up with. Which Jonas wasn't sure would actually be good or not, given her lack of skills with any kind of weapon.

He hoped Elin merely thought that her role would be to merely talk Grisha into leaving everything and everyone alone, but with how he knew Elin had been in the past, he doubted he'd be so lucky to have her go that.

Though the worst part was that they really had no idea where Grisha currently was. It was entirely possible that Jonas would be the one to encounter him, despite all their precautions. Which certainly would make things difficult. As Jonas was pretty sure that his existence was only a possibility to Douglas and that he wasn't even aware of him. He at least hoped that was true, since he didn't have any way to prove otherwise.

It was just merely his own suppositions and conjectures that he led him to believe that. Yet, since he didn't know how Douglas actually thought, it was possible that he'd merely taken the fact that Elin had been able to escape and realized that she wasn't by herself anymore. Or that he'd actually looked around the entire perimeter of his trap and found the tracks that both Elin and he had left after they left the barren rocky surface of that part of the mountain.

Every so often Elin would look around, and Jonas wished she'd stop. He was pretty sure that she was looking to see if she could either find Douglas or if she could find something to get it so she wouldn't have to be in that position. The main reason he wished she'd stop was because he worried that Douglas would get suspicious about if she was looking for someone who was otherwise keeping an eye on her.

"Greetings, contestants!" the announcer's voice echoed in Jonas' head, making him inwardly groan. This wasn't the time for this! "We haven't had a whole lot of progress on the current challenge, though we've had a few close calls, which our audience is really eating up, so we're happy that most of you haven't decided to abandon the contest. That you're still working hard to unravel our clue.

"However, we are still working at resolving some elements that we've just been made aware of that are potentially going to interfere with the contest. As a result, we may need to announce changes or warnings in the near future. We hope we won't have to, but these elements are rather painful for us to deal with because of how its affecting our contestants. Aside from that, we hope none of our contestants will die tonight, but with how we're getting near the final challenge, we realize that might get harder and harder to do.

"So, good luck to our remaining challengers. We hope you'll at least stay true to the contest!"

Jonas blinked as the voice subsided in his mind. It took him a moment to reorient himself with how the announcer, like always, started speaking without any warning whatsoever.

The next thing Jonas did was to relocate Elin. He hoped she hadn't moved far from where he'd last seen her, but it wasn't like she had any reason to stay. Not when she didn't know if Jonas was still right behind her or not.

However, when he located Elin, he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. She was just recovering from her own period of listening to the announcer when Douglas had appeared.

Jonas couldn't say if he'd been walking this way anyway or if he'd seen Elin and changed his direction, but it wasn't like they had planned. Although, they probably should have considered the possibility about the announcer starting up in the evening rather than going about like it was any other part of the day.

"My, it seems today has been fortuitous for me," he remarked, looking at Elin like she was a snack to eat at the same time he looked rather wary of what she might do. "Not only was I able to manage to deal with some annoyances, but now I've found you again."

Elin looked around her, clearly at a loss of what to do. Not that Jonas blamed her. He'd hoped that she'd be in a state ready to face him rather than just like she was now.

Elin didn't look like she knew how to respond, which Jonas was just fine with. So long as she didn't say anything to him to reveal that she'd gotten her memories back then he should be less wary of her. If he was aware, then he likely would start taking those memories again and Jonas couldn't say if that they could recover them again. Much like the memories of the rest of their combined group.

"So, I see you've chosen to wear the crystal," Douglas said, startling Jonas.

He'd been so focused on the plan and dealing with Douglas that he hadn't realized Kim had put the pendant on. Though, it was at least a place to put it that wouldn't be as likely to become lost. Not to mention that it wasn't like they had a list of people that they could trust to watch it and Jonas was pretty sure Elysia wouldn't care to 'crystal-sit' for them.

So, Jonas quickly melted into the shadows and moved forward. He was pretty sure that him moving along the shadows wouldn't alert Douglas to his presence, though he couldn't really hear what was being said anymore, despite being able to see a little of what was going on. Such as how Douglas lifted the crystal to look at it for a moment before dropping it again against Elin.

Jonas moved as quickly as he could, though the sunlight shining through the trees did slow him down more than he'd expected it to. Though, he still made quick progress. Even as Douglas took Elin's hand in his, like they were about to go for a walk, Jonas was able to clear the last part of the distance that had separated them.

So, Jonas pulled out his dagger and climbed up Douglas back to attempt a strike. An attempt to seer his spinal cord which should result in his death in moments.

Yet, as he tried striking, his blade flew out of his hand, like it had been shot out of it.

Douglas turned around, and looked around, as if he had expected to see who attacked him and Jonas wondered if maybe he'd get another attempt.

Yet, Douglas merely smirked, said a single word that Jonas couldn't hear and he felt himself getting pulled out of the shadows like he'd run out of MP. Painfully.

"I commend you for your effort. Using this girl as bait to lure me in and lower my guard," Douglas said, sounding more than self-absorbed, but rather like what he wanted determined what was right and wrong. "However, only magical attacks can harm me. Even if your blade was magical itself, it still has a physical component, so it couldn't do anything against me anyway."

Jonas could tell that he was about to talk some more, but it was at that moment that Elin called out, "Sacred Flare! Sacred Burst!"

Elin's spell then collided with Douglas before he or Jonas had a chance to react. Though Jonas would have suspected Douglas had some protection against magical spells, it didn't seem to do him any good if he did. With how Elin's spells just tore through him and consumed his body in minutes.