Alice worriedly looked over Luka's sleeping form. It had been almost a month since they have defeated Ilias, and Luka remained unconscious ever since that day. Each and every one of the Four Heavenly Knights and her took turns on treating the boy, wishing that he'll wake up soon.
All of the feasts and celebrations were put on hold, as the hero himself hasn't even woken up. Tamamo confirmed that he was just resting and is not in any form of danger, so at least they weren't troubled that much. Though she noticed something strange inside Luka, she decided to keep it to herself. It was nothing big, really, and she wouldn't want to worry the others even more.
This day, it's the nine-tailed fox's turn.
"Now then," Tamamo stood beside the boy while looking down at him. "Why do I still feel the Elemental Spirits inside you? The contracts should have been finished with the defeat of Ilias already."
She put her palm above the boy's chest and closed her eyes. She would like to check his soul for a minute, see it if there's something big behind these and all that. Of course, she hopes there isn't.
"… They really are still inside him." Tamamo scrunched up her eyebrows as she pulled back. "But Sylph's and Undine's energy seem to be a bit weaker than normal.
'Looks like I don't have a choice.' The nine-tailed fox sighed. 'I'll have to check inside myself. I'll try to ask the spirits what's wrong.'
Telepathy won't cut it since they're somehow inaccessible to call from outside, so she needs to enter her consciousness itself inside. 'If there's something wrong, I'll have to tell the others then…' Hopefully she's the one who's wrong…
But as if Luka knew what she was going to do, he woke up, albeit groggily. "Nggh… Tamamo? Where's everyone…?"
Tamamo's frown quickly turned into a big smile. "Good morning Luka. Aren't you a sleepyhead? Sleeping for a whole month… Lots of people were worried about you."
"O-One month?!" The boy's eyes shot wide. "Wow…"
"Come, we need to tell the others that you're awake now." Tamamo grabbed his hand, which he reflexively pulled away. "… Luka?"
"E-Ehehe. I can stand myself." He sheepishly smiled while clutching his hand. "Let's go."
"…" Tamamo internally raised an eyebrow. What was that about?
"A lot happened when you were sleeping." Tamamo started a conversation as they walked the silent corridors of the Monster Lord's palace. "The angels that surrendered were given a chance to live here in the surface, and they actually did. Not only humans and monsters, but also angels are coexisting with everybody now." Her nine fluffy tails were swishing back and forth behind her.
"That's great." The hero sighed in relief, smiling. "We couldn't have done this without everyone. We've finally found peace."
"You can stop being humble now, Luka." Tamamo shook her head. "Everything was possible because of you. You're the one who started this, remember?"
"Ah… that's…" He blushed while looking away.
"Ahaha. Good to know you're still the Luka we all know." Tamamo hugged the boy's right hand, purring.
"T-Tamamo!" As he tried to push her away, they both stopped in front of a huge double door.
"Coming in~." Without waiting for an answer, Tamamo barged in inside the conference room, where several familiar people were sitting.
"Tamamo, when will you start acting your age—…" Erubetie started rambling, but stopped when she saw Luka. "Luka!"
Alice's ears perked up upon hearing that, and quickly slithered near to see if the boy really were here. The monster lord's smile grew bigger and bigger, then shot herself towards the surprise boy.
Luka found himself being crushed in a hug. It didn't help that Tamamo was still hugging his arm. Granberia and Alma Elma chuckled at this sight, being the more composed ones out of the group.
"A-Alice, you're suffocating me…" The boy barely wheezed out.
"O-Oh! My bad." Recomposing herself, the lamia gave Luka some space. Just when Luka was about to sigh in relief, A blue blur blasted right towards him. Luka found himself drowning inside Erubetie's chest, courtesy of the woman hugging him.
"Ngggrrhhh! Mrrrrr!"
"Erubetie, Luka can't breathe." Tamamo spoke behind the girl.
The Slime Queen blinked for a second, the jumped back away in embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry. I was just… umm…"
"I-It's okay." Luka held his hand up, smiling.
Alma Elma approached the boy. "We should announce to everybody your awakening. I'm sure the whole world would be very happy with this news."
"You're right." Alice coughed a single time, clearing her throat. "Tamamo, if you will?"
"Well, I was going to ask Luka something actually, but I suppose it could wait…" Tamamo looked one last time to the laughing boy, and walked outside.
Luka stopped smiling for a moment, his fake happy eyes following Tamamo's figure until she vanished.
Before Tamamo starts jumping all over the world, she wanted to check something one last time somewhere. A certain something she noticed when she was inside Luka's room.
Her fox ears twitched, staring at a small indent on the wall beside Luka's bed. It was really tiny, only enough to insert a finger, for instance. A tiny finger, like Luka's…
She also remembered how Luka pulled his hand back when she wanted to hold him. She did catch him off guard later when they were walking, and managed to touch his arms and hand.
She felt runic magic circling Luka's finger.
Runic magic isn't an offensive type of magic. It's more of a utility spell, acting like a magical key, lock and such. Tamamo knew that the invisible rune in Luka's finger was the 'key', and if her hunch was right…
Tamamo pushed her own index finger inside it, the one that touched Luka's 'key'. Copying it was surprisingly hard, even for the veteran kitsune. If she'll have to guess, that particular rune was made by a master rune magician, or a being as powerful as her, one of the original monsters.
The indent shone a dark light, and a black magic circle appeared across the floor. It was a big one too, even taking up the whole of Luka's huge room. Now Tamamo is definitely suspicious.
"This is… a transportation circle." Tamamo muttered to herself after reading the markings of the circle. "What is this thing doing in Luka's room?"
Where could it lead to? Only one way to find out. Tamamo poured a little bit of her magic into the circle, activating it. Her figure was enveloped in a sea of dark light, then nothingness.
Tamamo blinked her eyes. It looks like the circle teleported her to a forest of some kind, with a half-destroyed cabin near her. She could barely spot someone inside the wooden house, shaking. It almost look it's… struggling.
"Damn you! I can feel you! I'll never submit to you, you trash!" Tamamo heard someone yell from inside. Apparently it's a girl, but she sounded pissed to whoever she thought Tamamo was. "No matter… how many times you…" The girl quieted down.
Tamamo raised an eyebrow. It dangerously sounded somebody she knows. Walking towards the sound, she went inside by the broken wall of the cabin, and peered inside.
"You'll never break m—…" Ilias' body froze after seeing Tamamo. But the fox-girl was even more shocked to see the bounded and prone figure of the former Goddess.
"Ilias?!" Tamamo blinked rapidly, jumping back. Tamamo couldn't even stop her instinct to start up an offensive magic in case of a sudden attack.
"Tamamo, nine tales of the kitsunes…" Ilias' voice lowered seeing that she wasn't who she was expecting.
"How are you still alive?" Tamamo eyed the goddess' held up arms, and the chains binding them to the ceiling. Illias' dress was also torn here and there, with signs of dried blood and light bruises. "And why are you, like that…?"
"That… monster did this to me." She looked down at the floor. "He's insane… you need to kill him, before, before…"
"A monster did this to you?" Tamamo narrowed her eyes. "Don't fool me. There isn't a single monster stronger than you right now."
"But Luka did defeat me, right?" Tamamo confusingly looked at Illias' hollow smile. "Alice, you and the other Heavenly Knights were just an extra. He killed me, period."
Tamamo didn't agree with that. Sure, Luka did get incredibly strong, but she doesn't think Luka could have defeated Ilias all by himself. Not with her base form, let alone her monster form. And Luka is hardly a 'monster' anyway.
"When we were fighting, I thought it was just my hallucination." The chained goddess started again. "Each of his blows… felt like it could seriously hurt me if he put more force in it. And he never exerted such effort, not even on his Quad Giga. I know this well, since I was the one taking his hits. I'm sure his previous enemies noticed this too."
"But why would Luka…"
"And during his last attack with the Quad Giga…" Ilias interjected her. "He said he added his holy energy, but he didn't. If he did, I would have died, but, as you can see…"
Tamamo stood straight, no longer standing on alert. "You can't expect me to believe you."
"Just hear this one thing. Luka… isn't a hero. No, he's a monster… a real monster." Ilias trembled unknowingly in fear again. "He was never kind. He's a liar. He's lying to everyone… k-kill… need, to kill… him…" The goddess suddenly fell silent.
Tamamo slowly approached her, and checked for her pulse. She's still alive, and is just sleeping in exhaustion.
"Luka's lying?" Tamamo narrowed her eyes at Ilias. "That's impossible… I want to think it's impossible, but…"
If he does, numerous things would fall into place.
First would be Promestein's AI, Laplace, disappearance. After Luka fought the artificial intelligence, he just let the whole laboratory blow up, and remained silent about it.
Second would be Black Alice's cryptic message to her in the midst of their attack in heaven.
=-…-=
'Tamamo…' A hoarse voice entered Tamamo's mind, startling her. She's already making her way to the gate of heaven after defeating the roid made from her DNA, when this familiar voice spoke inside her mind.
"Black Alice? How can you—"
'There isn't enough time… you… need to… stop, him…" Sounds of coughing entered the nine-tails' hearing. "I failed… Alipheese…'
"You what?" Tamamo, at that time, couldn't understand her.
=-…-=
Third but definitely not the least, was that slight pulse of killing intent she felt when Luka met Heinrich on his prison. While Heinrich was showing off his prowess in front of Luka, Luka's amazed look flickered into something terrifying for a second in Tamamo's eyes.
Those were the eyes of someone ready to kill something.
'I can't decide this all by myself. I need to discuss this with everyone… except Luka.' Tamamo concluded, starting to turn her back and towards to the magic circle. Ilias' scent entered her nostrils, reminding her of the goddess' presence.
'Should I bring her?' She contemplated inside her. Tamamo glanced at the beaten form of the leader of the angels. '… I should at least end her suffering on this place.'
Tamamo raised a glowing yellow ball on her hand, glaring daggers at the sleeping Ilias. "Thank you for the information, Ilias. You can die for real now."
Tamamo threw the condensed energy of light at Ilias… but something made her stop on her movements.
Droplet of tears rolled down Ilias' white cheeks. She's sleeping, yet she's also crying. For whatever reason, Tamamo couldn't tell. But seeing Ilias' tears for the first time made her freeze in shock.
"Ilias is actually crying?..." Tamamo can't believe it. This woman had lived from practically the start of time, waged war innumerable times in the past, and slaughtered an unbelievable amount of life without a shred of guilt. Yet she's here, bounded, weakened, crying.
"… Gah! I'm going to regret this later, I swear!" Tamamo yelled to herself as she tried to deconstruct the complicated rune locks on her shackles… only to realize that they were just normal chains.
"W-What? He used normal chains to restrain Ilias?" Then why hadn't Ilias escaped yet? This flimsy thing should be nothing to her!
That's when she touched her for the first time. She was warm, like a lit candle on the middle of the night. Yes, she was warm… but angels shouldn't have temperatures on their body in the first place. Then her lack of holy energy smacked Tamamo on the face in realization.
She thought Ilias was just hiding her wings and halo. Turns out it really is gone.
"I-Ilias…" A bead of sweat dribbled down her forehead. "You're… a human now?"
Luka stood motionlessly by the door of his room. His cold eyes gazed at the activated magic circle on the middle of his room.
"… I knew it. Foxes really are annoying." Luka frowned. "That curiosity will be the death of you someday."
He slowly grabbed Angel Halo behind him, and grasped it with a vice-like grip.
"I was going to start with Erubetie first… but since you willingly threw yourself at me… he he he…" A terrifying smile appeared on his former innocent face. He slowly walked into the circle, and activated it. There was a quick flash on his vision, but it settled after a short amount of time.
"…" Luka stared at the unknown beach around him. "… She tampered with the circle…" His figure trembled in unbridled anger, when he suddenly turned to the sky and yelled.
"YOU DAMN FOX! I'M GOING TO BREAK YOU FIRST WHEN I COME BACK! MARK MY WORDS!"
Tamamo let out a sigh of relief. She rested ilias on Luka's former bed, and destroyed the circle by simply punching it. She went back to the goddess and carried her bridal style again.
"Someone used the magic circle while I was gone… I wrote a note in ancient monster language in the circle to not use it, so other monsters couldn't have been the one to activate it." Tamamo started walking back to the conference room, a grim look present on her face. "And there's currently only one non-monster here in the Monster Lord's Castle."
The picture of Tamamo carrying Ilias would have been a very laughable view, if not for the gravity of the news Tamamo have for them. She was glad that she upped Luka by one move, or else she would have been in a similar situation as Ilias not long before. Tamamo stared at the closed double door in front of her, and kicked in open. Suffice to say, it went flying to the other side of the room, and almost to a surprised Alma Elma. Luckily she ducked down on time.
"Tamamo?! What was that… for…" Alma Elma blinked, staring at the woman Tamamo is carrying.
"Ilias?!" Everyone inside jumped in alert, not unlike when Tamamo first saw her. Alice in particular was even shaking in rage, and a slight amount of fear. After all, they gave it their all in the last fight. Seeing her still alive is nothing short of a nightmare, be it an unconscious Ilias or not.
"She's sleeping." Tamamo sat the former goddess onto her designated seat amongst the Heavenly Knights. "And trust me, she can't harm any of us anymore."
"How can you be so sure?" Erubetie spoke in a sharp voice.
"Forget about her. We have a bigger problem in our hands right now…" Tamamo's expression darkened.
At the fox's calmed pose, each of them straightened their stance one by one. Alice was the last one to calm down, albeit still wary. "And who could be even more dangerous than a mad goddess bent on world destruction?"
"A monster bent on world domination, that's what." Tamamo replied back, serious.
"A monster?" Granberia raised an eyebrow. "Is there such a creature even stronger than Ilias?"
"Tell me, Granberia." Tamamo stared at her. "Who defeated Ilias?"
Everyone gasped at that. Alice frowned at the smaller but older girl. "You can't possibly mean…"
"Yes." Tamamo smirked at the waking figure of Ilias. Looks like her healing fox fire worked like wonders on the now human Ilias. "Great timing, Ilias. Please, explain it to them."
Ilias stared at her, blinking. She turned to the other occupants of the room, and smiled sheepishly. "It's you people…"
Tamamo looked at their narrowed eyes directed at Ilias. This is going to be a long talk.
"Where'd that loli-granny send me?" Luka grumbled to himself while strolling at the beach. He knows it's somewhat familiar, so he must have been here already before. Maybe when he was 'adventuring' with Alice?
"… I remember now. This is where I taught that fairy and elf queen a lesson…" Luka smirked at the memory. Taking royalties down a peg was always golden, especially when they start breaking.
"Come to think of it, this is where Laplace is, too." He blinked. Luka started walking towards the secret entrance of the laboratory, where 'everything' exploded after Laplace self-destructed. He opened it to see… a completely normal and fine-looking laboratory. Not a spot of scorch mark or bent metals. It's almost even sparkling in cleanliness.
"… Laplace, I'm here." Luka jumped down inside, landing on the hard metal with a loud thud. He stood like nothing happened, and started walking around. "Answer me."
"… Lu… ka…" A faint female voice echoed through the speakers of the hallway. "Luk… a…"
"Yes, it's me." Luka sheathed Angel Halo behind him. "What's with the slow talking?"
"Still… not used…" Luka rounded around a corner, and into Laplace's main room. "to… a…" Luka smiled widely at Laplace who's sitting on a swivel chair. "… human's… vocal c-chords…"
The girl turned the chair so that's she's facing the hero. Her oversized scientist robe flapped with the chair's movements, with her head slightly tilting from the force at the end.
Her cerulean eyes blinked at Luka, followed by her lips forming a small smile. "Welcome… back… Luka."