The Half Demon, The Scientist, and The Paladin
As Spirit Force flew the lanes between they came across a world that had a blue moon shining over it as Luna felt a strong connection to her power there.
"What is it, Luna?" Ace asked.
"I don't know but...when I look at that blue moon, I feel a strong connection to it." Luna said as she shook a bit.
"I see, we may be able to find some answers there. Anna, can you bring us down?" Ace asked.
"Of course. I'll land in the pier there." Anna said as she set down the Spirit Celsius down on a body of water near a dock. "Let's be careful everyone, I'm getting strong readings of demonic energy coming from here, let's be on your guard."
"Alright, thanks Anna." Ace said as everyone exited the ship.
"This is weird, where are the townsfolk?" Lin asked as the group saw there wasn't a single soul in sight.
"Lin's right, what could have happened here to cause the townsfolk to disappear?" Rutee asked.
"People no longer live in this ruined city, now it is just a dwelling for the fiends." A deep female voice said as the group turned to see a light blue haired woman in a blue regal like outfit with a black mask over her right eye as she levitated off the ground and towards the group.
"Fiends?" Ace asked.
"Ah, X and Zero. It's been a while since that incident with Dragon." the girl said in a cheery tone. "And who are your new friends?"
"Christophorus? What are you doing here?" X asked.
"You know her, X?" Ryu asked.
"Yes. She was called here by the Color Gods during the Ultron Sigma incident when Dragon snagged the Infinity Stones for himself." X said.
"That is correct~. I would like to welcome you to my world, but we should get straight to business. Do you remember Arnice?" Christophorus asked.
"That half-demon girl that was with you, right?" Zero asked.
"Yes, after we returned here, Arnice lost control of her demon half and has been rampaging across the world as a pure-blood demon. She has also lost her emotions and memories." Christophorus explained. "And I must say, you and Zero have changed in appearance since our last encounter." She said in a cheerful voice.
"I see, is there anything we can do to help?" X asked.
"Not at the moment, no. But for right now, you should look for Aluche and Camilla, two people I met while wandering through this city. Until then...farewell~." Christophorus said before she disappeared.
"She was certainly...interesting." Kohaku said.
"You'll get used to her after a while. For now we should look for these people she mentioned." X said.
"Right. Though I don't think that's gonna be easy." Lin said as everyone saw two girls fighting off shadow like creatures, one had blood red hair and heterochromic eyes, and the other had dark green hair and a monocle over her left eye..
"Those must be the fiends Christophorus mentioned, we must help them!" Philia said as the group ran over to assist.
"People? And there are Nephilims among them? Interesting." The green haired woman muttered to herself as she shot at the creatures with an assault rifle in her hand. "Aluche!"
"Right!" The red haired girl said as she slashed through more of the creatures at great speed.
"Not bad. I'm impressed." Leon said as he used dragon swarm on another group.
"Although she could at least wear more clothing to cover her chest a bit." Rutee said as she used Ice Tornado on another group.
"We're wearing swimsuits and you don't seem to be complaining!" Aya retorted as she threw a couple of throwing knives at more of the monsters.
"Touche." Rutee said as she used Tidal Wave on the rest of the monsters as the group walked over to the mysterious duo.
"Thanks for your help, my name is Aluche Anatori, a Holy Knight of Curia." Aluche said as she introduced herself.
"And I am Camilla Alucard, a researcher who studies fiends and demons." Camilla said.
"Fiends… Are they what those creatures we just fought were?" Philia asked.
"You are correct, priestess. That is the form a human or animal takes when they touch the blue blood." Camilla said as everyone had a confused look on their faces. "I can see you are confused by this, allow me to give you the full story. 800 years ago, the world was threatened by the Eternal Night which was caused by the Nightlord the most powerful demon that ever existed on this world, but he was eventually defeated by the first saint, Ludegert, defeated him. But as she dealt the final, his essence, the blue blood rained down onto the world and anyone whether it be from inanimate objects to living beings, they would be turned into ruthless creatures that would prey upon humanity. 800 years after, the Nightlord returned but was defeated by the legendary half-demon Arnice, but it seems the Eternal Night has returned once more. That blue moon is a sign of the Eternal Night's return." She said as she pointed to the sky and the group looked up to see half of a blue moon.
"Wow, I didn't think the demons of this world would be so ruthless." Emil said.
"Indeed, now come. I know of a place where you can all rest for the time being." Camilla said as Aluche and the group followed her to a huge hotel. "This hotel was once used by Curia, it is Hotel Eterna. They left me in charge of this place, so I propose we use it as our base of operations. Oh my, looks like we have a guest." She said as the group saw a blonde haired woman in armor standing in front of it.
"Rue!" Aluche called out as the blonde haired woman turned to the group and Aluche ran up to her.
"Is that really you, Al…? I thought you were dead…" Rue said in disbelief.
"I'm alive and well! But why are you here, Rue?" Aluche asked.
"I leaked info that you'd be here, of course." Camilla said as she and the group walked up.
"Is she a friend of yours, Aluche?" Ace asked.
"Yup. Everyone, this is my friend, Ruenheid Ariarhod." Aluche said.
"It is an honor to meet you all, but please...call me Rue." Ruenheid said before turning to Aluche. "Also, you big dummy! Just how worried do you think I've been?! If you were okay, you should have told me!"
"Eh?! When would I have the time to.." Aluche started.
"J-Just shut up! I'm...I'm just so glad you're okay, Al.." Ruenheid said as she crossed her arms and looked away while Aluche scratched the back of her head. "..So, where's Lilia?!"
"You don't know either…? I have no idea, to be honest. Where could she have gotten to?" Aluche asked.
"If your other friend is missing, we can help you look for her." Anna said.
"Really? Thank you so much!" Aluche said.
"But first we should all head inside and take a breather, please come in." Carmilla said as the group entered the building as Emil and Marta stayed behind as Ace tried to patch through the comm to Lloyd.
"Lloyd, are you there?" Ace asked.
"Yeah, though I'd appreciate keeping it down. We don't want the workers here to hear us." Lloyd said.
"Lloyd? Is that you?" Emil asked in a low voice.
"Emil? So Hope was right. You really are back." Lloyd said.
"I'm here as well." Marta said. "We heard from Ace that you guys have been traveling across different worlds. How's that been?"
"Very well. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff we've seen." Lloyd said.
"We can kinda relate to that a bit. We saw a whole bunch of crazy stuff on a different world where we first met Ace and the others." Emil said.
"Yeah, when you and the others disappeared, we traveled all over Aselia to look for you, but we were unable to find you. We're just glad you and everyone else are alright." Marta said.
"We're glad to see you're doing well on your end, too." Lloyd said. "So, Emil. If you're there, does that mean…"
"Not quite. Richter volunteered to stay behind and hold the door to the demonic realm." Emil said.
"That's good to hear. He may have been an enemy, but he's a good guy at heart. I guess you would know that better than anyone." Lloyd said.
"I guess so. Tell everyone we said hi, and be careful." Emil said.
"We will. See you guys around." Lloyd said.
"Well, it was nice to hear from him again, huh?" Marta asked.
"Yeah, thanks for patching us through to him, Ace." Emil said.
"It's no problem, let's head inside and take a break for a bit." Ace said as the three walked into the hotel.