Monster Girl Ranching in Another World

The moment that Nushi defeated Time, Calabria underwent a dramatic change.

[View of Mex and Calabro, Moments Before Time's Defeat]

"You have taken everything from me!" Calabro screamed as he was somehow expertly able to weave through the tower's traps to chase Mex.

"I have done nothing of the sort! You have done this all to yourself! Whatever is wrong with you was wrong long before you met me!" Mex yelled down as he dodged spikes that were shooting up from the platform he was running across.

Time was forcing Calabro into an almost trance-like psychosis that was distorting reality as the Manticore saw it. This was causing him to see Mex as a monster while being assaulted by auditory hallucinations telling him that Mex was the cause for every problem in his life.

Because Time's influence was so strong, Calabro could no longer tell right from wrong or enemy from friend. Mex had no clue of any of this, nor did any of the few that knew him.

Everyone from the keep had just assumed that the Manticore was mentally unstable, which wasn't wrong. The problem was that it was an illness that forced him to be used as a toy to prevent Zack from completing this first world.

'You must kill him and the rest of them before they kill you! I have told you that they would trick you, and I was right. Kill the Demon Lord, and then kill all of his family! If you do this, you will have Candace back, and these creatures will never bother you-!' Time tried to scream in Calabro's mind but was cut off.

This was the moment that Nushi attacked, and Calabro was climbing onto the next platform that Mex had just finished. As he pulled himself up, the Manticore-man's mind snapped back into complete clarity.

Mex watched him with interest, noticing the change in the creature's movement right away. Calabro now looked confused, and as he stood up on the starting block for the platform, Mex had just crossed.

"Who are you, and what is going on? How did I get here, and why do I have a body similar to… whatever you are?" Calabro asked Mex, baffling him.

"What? Did you just completely snap now?" Mex asked as he watched the Manticore stare back at him in confusion.

"Snap… what? … wait… that voice… you are… Mex?" Calabro asked with actual confusion in his voice.

Mex lifted an eyebrow at Calabro but then was distracted by one of the guardians appearing with his massive sword.

"Duck!" Mex shouted, and Calabro listened without hesitation, barely avoiding the slice that would have cut him in half.

Something had clearly changed with Calabro, and Mex made a split-second decision to try to help him. Mex wasn't scared of dying, so if he was betrayed, he would just make the psychopathic creature pay when he revived.

"Come to me, but listen for the clicks! They are the spikes in the floor, and you will get impaled if you stand near one after it clicks!" Mex shouted as fast as possible, but Calabro started moving right away.

Mex knew that it was safe to stand on the end platform of each challenge. If you stood on the first section for too long, one of Noel's Guardians would appear to try and kill you.

The point of all of this was to train the mind to think faster and on the move. Sometimes you didn't get time to think over a choice before making it, and fighters needed to learn how to quickly adapt to any situation.

Calabro was nearly impaled on the first spike that shot up and barely evaded it. With Mex's instructions, he was able to make it across with only one deep gash.

Mex stood back and made room for the panting red-skinned winged man with a scorpion tail as he jumped to the cube that he was standing on. The Demon Lord watched Calabro as he caught his breath, watching the creature intently, waiting for him to make some sort of attack, but nothing came.

Calabro looked up, and the two men locked eyes, but the crazed look was gone from his eyes. Mex was still unsure of what was going on and decided to wait for Calabro to speak.

"I feel like I just woke up from a nightmare that has lasted for longer than I could remember. Is this what we both really look like?" Calabro asked in a calm and level voice, making Mex's eyes grow huge in surprise.

Then Mex started to laugh as he screamed in his mind.

Calabro watched the Demon Lord for a moment, unsure why he was laughing. After a short moment, Calabro joined the laughter with Mex, and the two laughed for a good five minutes straight.

Finally, after the two had almost been brought to tears, their laughter subsided. The two smiled at each other, but then Calabro asked, "What is so funny?"

This made Mex laugh again, but this time it was short-lived as he noticed the apparent confusion on the Manticore man's face. Mex settled down and then smiled at Calabro.

"I have known you for many years, but this is the first time that you have ever made any sense! This is what I look like most of the time unless you make me angry. You, on the other hand, are not normally like this, but we are inside of a tower built for training," Mex explained, and Calabro nodded thoughtfully.

"So, I guess that we are supposed to work together to get out of this place, right?" Calabro asked, but that caused Mex to start laughing again.

Mex was not one to hold on to any grudges. In fact, there were only two people that Mex truly held contempt for, and the psychopathic Manticore was not one of them.

Together, the two of them started up to the next platform. Since the two men had known each other, they worked together as friends for the first time.