This chapter contains events that make little to no sense with the first chapter, so please do not think too much about it (like me) and just continue reading. I will probably go back and rewrite the first chapter if you didn't read the A/N at the end. Thank you for your time.

Remember how I said the stuff with Salt never happened? I meant the stuff that Elf did to Salt never happened, so Salt still awakened his mana after Alba messed up his demonstration. However, it won't be mentioned in this chapter because this is going a lot slower than I originally planned...


Chapter 3: Maou, Resolve.

Footsteps echoed in the spacious halls of the empty castle with crunches disturbing their rhythmic pattern every few moments. Juli popped another chip into his mouth munching it as he thought. Being left behind totally sucked; he didn't get any action. Even at the time Dezember was giving orders all Juli did was sit at base reading whatever all day. He understood that Noin needed to go so that he could get more puppets and Dezember had a weird change of heart that caused him to act like the 4th was the 1st. What a weird guy.

Still, he wanted to go with them. All that was at the castle was long hallways and silence. Juli walked onto the castle balcony just to see another older blond laughing suspiciously. Oh, there was Juni, too, but no one liked him… barely anyone knew who he was anyway. Not wanting to be around the creepy older blond, Juli silently crept back the way he came. When he was out of earshot, he took another chip and munched on it. It was bad enough that they left him out of the fun, but they just had to leave Juni with him.

For some reason, after they kicked out the 2nd, the old geezer came to the castle laughing about how he was the new Demon Lord. One look at Maou shut him up fast. He wondered why the guy was still at the castle and why Maou let him stay. If it were him, he'd send the old bastard flying or maybe rip him to shreds. The latter sounded more appealing. But, he could be of some use.

What can he do in a castle all by himself? He supposed he could go exploring. It was a big castle, but it was surprisingly easy to navigate through. As he walked down another hallway, a loud bang sounded from somewhere close. Juli opened the door he thought the sound came from. Instead of a big room, there was a staircase leading down covered in shadows so that the end was unclear. It felt like one of those horror movie scenes where you're screaming at the characters to not go down but they do it anyway.

Juli made a face, now that was a stupid thought; he wasn't one of those dumb human idiots. Pretending he wasn't even mildly scared, he strode down the steps with his head held high.

"Oi, Crea. Don't go making a mess."

"Aww, you're no fun, Shii-tan."

"You already broke a vial and now it smells bad. Can't you stay still for 2 minutes?"

"The smell is practically gone now…. Fine, I'll be quiet."

Juli peeked from the side of the wall. He grinned; it would seem that they had intruders. Maybe he could have some fun after all. He transformed his arm and shot it at the two in the room below crushing a table and sending bottles and paper flying. He propelled himself across the room landing in the middle and shot them a malevolent grin, "What do you guys think you're doing here?"

A black blur popped out and stood in front of him, "Creashion-san! Do what you need to do; I'll take care of him."

"Hm? What are you doing back here? Maou-sama kicked you out."

Rchimedes II bent his body ready to attack, "I may have been scared at the time, but not anymore."

Juli brought both his mutant arms up in an intimidation attempt, "You guys are nothing to Maou-sama. So what if he isn't here, I'm more than enough to take you guys on." His arms crashed down destroying the room even more. Given the small spacing, a few more attacks like that and the room would be annihilated. "Rchimedes! Take the fight elsewhere! We can't let him destroy the room!"

"Understood!" Juli jumped at him with his arms behind him. If Rchimedes II was going to get him somewhere else, it would be now or never. He opened a gate and, with Juli's arms behind him, he went through without a problem. Just as Rchimedes II readied himself to follow, Crea stopped him, "You sure you can handle him?"

Rchimedes II gave him a thumbs up, "Leave it to me!" To Crea, this looked really cool; to Ross, he couldn't understand why the guy was even trying to be cool.

Juli looked around. He couldn't believe he fell for something that simple. He wasn't sent anywhere far; the castle was just a few meters away. Did the 2nd miscalculate? Speaking of that guy, Juli gave him exactly 0.5 seconds to dodge his incoming attack when Rchimedes II came out the gate.

Rchimedes II managed to dodge the brunt of the attack, but one of Juli's claws scratched just under his eye. He wiped away the blood running down his pale cheek. He's never seen the blond before, so he doesn't know his capabilities, but he landed a hit, so he must be somewhat strong. It looked like his magic was transforming his body parts to those of a monster's increasing strength and speed with it. If that was all, Rchimedes II could easily defeat him with the gate. No, he couldn't underestimate the enemy, underestimating the enemy meant you were no better than a slime.

Somewhere far, far away from the battle, Seia sat up. He looked up at the sky and just stared, "Somewhere...I feel like I have just been insulted." A knock to the head sent him back to dream world.

We come back to the fearsome battle. It's Rchimedes II vs. Juli…no, seriously, it's intense.

The surrounding land was cracked and crushed. It was a wonder how the castle wasn't caught up in the mass destruction. Juli's full-body transformation wreaked havoc on the already broken earth trying to catch the slippery Rchimedes II. Where Juli's full transformation gave him power and size, it lacked the speed it had when it was only partial transformation. He was thinking, since all his attacks weren't doing anything if they weren't hitting him, maybe he should revert back to the partial transformation.

On the ground, Rchimedes II was thinking about what he should do about the situation. As it was now, he was only running. He could try to put in a counter attack but… He ducked into another gate to avoid a huge green claw. He popped his head out to take a quick scan of the area. That big green monster wasn't just for show. In truth, he didn't think he could stand up to that gigantic behemoth even with his enormous physical strength, besides… he was scared. Well, at least he was keeping him occupied for Ross to do whatever it was he was doing.

Rchimedes II dodged another claw, but the very tip was cut off when he closed the gate. It dropped to the ground with a slight thump. It wasn't very large, the clean cut side maybe the size of his palm (still quite large actually), but it was definitely sharp. If he couldn't hurt Juli with punches, maybe using something sharp would work.

He opened another gate, this one targeted to reopen right behind his opponent. Readying the claw, Rchimedes II jumped into the gate and lunged at the monster's back. Juli, noticing the presence behind him, turned to see the 2nd charging at him. Juli howled as pain coursed through his side.

Holding the cut with one arm, he slammed the other onto Rchimedes II who stood still in surprise that his plan actually worked. As a result, Juli's hand was free to pound him into the ground. Thinking it was over, Juli reverted to his original form, but kept the hand that was crushing Rchimedes II as it was. His eyes widened when he felt a force pushing on his hand. Rchimedes II lifted the morphed hand surprised that it wasn't as tough as he originally thought it was. Huh, so he was scared for nothing…this was embarrassing.

He threw the hand off him, Juli stopping his magic as he backed up. The 2nd was strong, he always knew that, but he never knew just how strong until now. The gash in his side made a painful reminder to him that it was still there and gushing out blood. He yanked the broken claw out, but only succeeded in increasing the amount of blood that was flowing out from the wound. He needed to get away; there was no way he could fight the 2nd, the difference in power was too great and the wound would only hinder him.

The castle only looked to be a few meters away. How long would it take him to get there? With the 2nd and his annoying gate following him there would be no way of escaping. Was this it? Was this really the end? Was he really that weak?

Juli gritted his teeth. He hated to admit it, in fact he never would nor would he ever. He wasn't weak, but compared to this guy… He glanced at Rchimedes II who hadn't moved aside from getting out of the crater he was once in. Juli looked down pondering. Should he give up? That seemed like the most logical course of action, but there was no guarantee he'd be spared.

No, there was no way he'd give up. Maou left him in charge of the castle and he wasn't going to disappoint him. He whipped his head up, surprising Rchimedes II with his determined glare before dashing toward the castle. Before long, a black hole opened in front of him. Juli quickly maneuvered around it as the 2nd's head popped out.

Another gate appeared, but Juli jumped over it. Unfortunately, a hand shot out before he was completely over. He struggled in the 2nd's grip, height difference being his main enemy at the moment. No, he wouldn't allow it; he would get back to the castle and contact Maou. Where the hell was Juni? How could he not notice anything that was going on?

There's got to be a way out, there just has to. Juli tensed his body, willing for something he wasn't quite sure of to come out, but anything would have worked at that point. Rchimedes II's grip suddenly disappeared and the feeling of wind blowing against him kept his eyes closed.

He carefully cracked an eye open, staring in awe at the sight before him. He was in the sky looking down at the quickly passing ground beneath. He looked behind his shoulder, mouth gaping, seeing two green scaled wings protruding from his shoulder blades. He didn't have much time to marvel before a gate opened in front of him again.

He didn't even need to dodge the arm that came out because once he figured out he had new wings, he dropped halfway toward the earth before regaining altitude. It happened again and again with moments of going too high mixed into it. Needless to say, the 2nd's gates didn't have much effect if he didn't know where his target would go. He was amazed at Juli's control with those seemingly haphazard movements. He nodded to himself, truly impressed.

In actuality, Juli's movements were legitimately out of his control. When he tried to turn, he ended up doing backflips and what not that made him want to hurl. When he tried to fly up, he'd go too high and wouldn't know how to go back down unless he was plummeting another three stories. Somehow, his involuntary flying was successfully evading the 2nd's attempts at grabbing him. But at this rate, he didn't know when he would make it to the castle.

As he was whirling through the air, a thought occurred to him. Why was he so dependent on Maou? Sure the guy was cool and ridiculously powerful, but why was Juli even following these people? Juli screamed at the sudden sight of a wall no less than a foot away from his face. Flailing in desperation, he flapped his wings and crash landed onto the castle balcony above.

Blood splattered onto the floor as he tumbled. He clutched at the gaping wound forcing new pain to try and hide the underlying pain. He glared at the shell-shocked Juni, "Don't just stand there! Get me in contact with Maou-sama!" Even if he didn't understand why he was following Dezember and his bunch, the only one that could help him at the moment was Maou.

"Uh…no…I'd rather not talk to that guy…." Avoiding eye contact, Juni sneaked toward the door, though it wasn't sneaking if it was obvious. "Now!" Juli screeched as his wings flared out. His wings may not be for flight just yet, but Juli was glad they had some intimidation use at least.

Juni got into position, a very lame-looking one at that, as Juli yelled in his face, "Maou-sama! There's a problem at the castle! You need to come back now!"

The booming voice sent shockwaves through the air. No doubt the others in the basement heard it as well. In less than a minute, a black gate formed next to them. Juli jumped to the other side before falling onto a knee due to irritating his side. His sight was starting to get blurry, a sure sign that he was losing too much blood. He willed himself to stay conscious at least until he saw who came out the gate.

A black boot came out first followed by the jingle of metal against metal accompanied by a black cape trailing behind. Maou stepped out onto the balcony. Juli's relieved face turned into petrified horror. Red eyes bore into Juli's own filled with an unquenchable rage. That rage only intensified when those eyes saw Juli's injured state, "Who did this to you?"

Maou's eyes stayed fixed on Juli's injured side. The blond found his mouth dry, making it hard to form a proper answer. All he could manage was "Basem-ment…." His cringed as pain shot through his body causing him to fall forward in a pool of blood. Black boots rippled the crimson liquid as Maou stared down at Juli's battered body. Without a word, he picked the boy up and walked away.

"You." Juni jumped, stiffly turning his neck away from the bloody mess, "Y-yes, s-sir?" Maou's glare didn't falter at Juni's pathetic look. He handed Juli over to him, "Get him treatment."

Juni just went with a quick salute before Maou disappeared. He stayed like that even after he left, thinking, 'I have no idea what to do.'

20 feet under, Crea was shaking Ross in a panic, "We have to go! If that guy finds us here who knows what would happen!" Like everyone else in the two worlds, Crea and Ross heard the notice as well. Ross pushed him away, "Go panic somewhere else."

"But, Shii-tan! We're gonna die!"

"Don't worry. We always have 'Farewell, Crea' for a back up."

"But, Shii-tan! I'm gonna die!"

Ross ignored Crea's rambling. It's not like the warning didn't concern him, oh no, he was freaking out inside. He had been so close to being done, so close, but a tremor occurred and shook his work table. Bottles shattered, liquids went flying and everything was just a giant mess. He ended up adding the Lepard's Tear before it was ready and now he didn't have time to make another. He dropped the unactivated maker into a plastic container hoping this trip wasn't a complete waste.

He scanned the room trying to find anything he could salvage from the wreck, but it didn't seem possible. Suddenly, something black and yellow shot through the wall and into the next. Crea screamed, "Rchimedes-san!" The blond staggered to his feet, "Creashion-san, we must leave immediately."

A shadow loomed over the three. There was a black figure of someone standing on the rubble of the new opening blocking the incoming light. The notable features they could make out were the long flowing cape, cat ears, and piercing red eyes. He took something off the wall, but that was when Rchimedes II grabbed Crea and Ross. Without a word, he jumped through a gate as fast as he could and ducked when they landed, a good thing too. The metal head of a spear shot past them.

Rchimedes II sighed and got up, "That was close. I think I'd be best if we don't go anywhere near there for a while." Crea nodded furiously. Ross stared at the spearhead unbelievingly. He couldn't believe Alba would actually try to kill them. What was going on in his soul? And what was with the ears? How much time did he have left...or was it already too late? Was it already too late to save his friend?

"Shii-tan… Shii-tan~ it's time to go~" Ross blinked. Even if it was too late, he would keep searching for a way; this he vowed. Lake and Salt greeted them when they returned and bombarded them with questions:

"What happened?"

"Are you alright?"

"Did you see Alba-san?"

"What did you do?"

"Did you save him?"

"What's that thing?"

"Demon Lord-san, why are you all bloody?"

Rchimedes II patted their heads, "Calm down. I'm just tired."

"Looks like you got your butt kicked." He sweatdropped at Lake's bluntness, but was too tired to do much else. Crea dragged them away from the weary blond. Rchimedes II sent him a grateful glance before going into the temporary house the neighborhood association gave him.

Lake pounced on the plastic container Ross was holding, but Ross held it too high for him to reach. "Ne, ne, what is that?"

"Nothing you need to-" Ross stopped himself. He lifted the container to look at the floating maker, and then at Lake and back again. Maybe he could be of some use after all. He tossed the container to Lake, "Here. Do what you want with it, but don't lose it."

Lake turned the container this way and that while Ross walked off. He turned to Salt, "Hey, you wanna help me figure out what this is?" Salt hummed, "How do we do that?"

Lake grinned, "Adventure time!" Ross opened the door to Lake's house quickly sidestepping to allow Cecily to run out and then proceeded to close the door behind him planning to take a nap.

Cecily charged toward Lake, but Salt intercepted her path. She grabbed at the air, "I won't let my Lake-chan leave me again!" Salt did his best to hold her back, but he was slowly losing, "Run, Lake! I'll catch up to you!"

Lake didn't move. He processed the scene in his head. Salt was holding off an enemy far stronger than him to allow Lake the opportunity to get away with the treasure. In Lake's head, this came to one conclusion, 'Our first Boss Battle!'

He dropped the container, getting Salt's attention, and ran into his house. "W-what are you doing?!" He came out a minute later holding up a sword, a replication of Alba's sword made from cardboard, "I won't run from my first Boss Battle!"

"Are you an idiot?! If she catches you you'll never be able to leave your house ever again!"

"But-"

"Get out of here!" Lake pouted. Crea pushed the container into his hands, "You better get going. I'm sure Shii-tan wouldn't like it if his mom got a hold of it." Lake looked between Crea, Salt, and the container. He took one last look at Crea, who gave him a thumbs up, and started running.


At the royal castle with the king, a guard kneeled in front of the throne, "Your Highness, there are three children outside that request a meeting with you. They say it is urgent."

"Kids? Maybe they want to see the 'Legendary King' himself! I am pretty famous, you know." The king nudged the minister beside him and laughed heartedly.

"I'm afraid they said no such thing." The guard kept his head down, "They said demons were attacking the Hero School and wished for us to do something."

The king just laughed, "This is nothing for the 'Legendary King.' Go tell them to find some other lowly king to help them with their lowly problems."

The minister whispered into his ear, "Your Highness, there are no other kings." The king froze for only a moment before laughing, "I guess my legendary-ness must have scared them off!"

"Your Majesty, why not just call for Hero Alba to take the job?" The guard suggested. The king nodded, "Alright, fine. Minister! Get me Hero Alba!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that. You see, Hero Alba is gone."

At this time, Rudolf was strolling through the castle and just so happened to be walking by the throne room when he heard a scream. "WHAT?!" The old man peered into the room, letting curiosity take over. The king yelled at the minister, "What do you mean he's gone?!"

"Just as it sounds, Sire. Hero Alba is not in his cave."

"Then find him!"

"There's no need. Dezember already informed me of the situation."

"Dezember? But he betrayed us."

"He never betrayed me. And I would suggest you not get in his way and stay away from the Hero School."

"Minister, you..."

"Ah, I never mentioned it, did I? I'm Dezember's subordinate sent to gain your trust for the first plan, but since that failed and the Demon Lord passed away, a new Demon Lord took his place. This new Demon Lord is unlike all the rest, so I suggest you stay out of it. As your most trusted minister, I recommend listening to me."

Rudolf backed away from the door. It would seem he just listened in on something he wasn't supposed to hear. New Demon Lord? And Alba has gone missing? He needed to inform the others. Hime-chan, Alles, and Foyfoy were all at the Hero Academy which was currently being attacked from what he heard. As strong as they were, Rudolf didn't think they could hold off for very long without back up and the students there were just trainees so they couldn't be counted on. The only one at the castle was Mi-chan. He would get the mutated cat first, and then find Janua and Samejima.


Back in the Demon World, Maou watched the stick he threw clatter to the floor. He walked away from the scene knowing there was no use in chasing. He scanned the area. To his right was the decimated earth from Juli's battle, while to his left was the castle town in lockdown relatively unharmed. Something wet landed on his cheek. He swiped it with his thumb and found a thick red liquid soaking into his glove. His eyes went wide as he tilted his head up. He was just under the balcony where he left Juli. He stepped into a gate to get there quicker, but froze at the sight he was met with.

A lump of black and yellow was drowning in blood. Juli's hair splayed out, freed from the red clip that always held it, soaking up the crimson liquid around him and slowing becoming red while his clothes were already heavy with blood. His wings were gone, leaving rips and tears in his clothes. Maou slipped his hands under the limp body and gently lifted it into his arms. The blood dripped onto his clothes and touched his skin, but he didn't care. He looked over the city once again as a strong wind flew by. He glared at the small signs of life the city showed as it gradually came out of lockdown and clicked his tongue, "How disgusting."

He turned away from the balcony taking extra care to not make any unnecessary movements. He never understood why he as powerful as he was, why there seemed to be two different people in his head, or even what his goal was. Elf dubbed him the Demon Lord and Dezember named their enemies the human heroes. Okay, that's fine and dandy, keeping with your own kind and hating the other, but what were they trying to accomplish exactly?

The answer always eluded him until now. The humans raided the Demon Lord's castle with a demon helping them out. The rest of the demons in the town didn't bother helping out either side. Maou thought being the Demon Lord meant protecting your fellow demons and having fun, but if they were going to help the enemy, what was the point? What was the purpose of having two different species anyway? It only caused trouble and pain.

The wind howled as clouds blocked the sun, almost as if the higher beings of their world were agreeing or protesting profusely to Maou's resolution. His resolution: Destroy both worlds and create it all anew.


I wanted to make this longer, but I realized I hadn't updated in over a month and I wanted to keep the updates at least once a month. I've got the next 2-3 chapters planned out (mostly because I end the chapters earlier than planned, like, the plans are an entire page of notes and I end the chapter halfway through either because it was getting too long or I needed to update), it's only a matter of writing them….

The next chapter will be about Lake and Salt, sort of a filler and not really necessary to keep the story going, but I feel like leaving a giant chunk of what happened to the failed maker would get confusing, esp. if you're one of those people who skip the A/N's. Sometimes they have really important stuff and are not just rambling on and on about the problems of the author's life.

Still debating whether I should put RossxAlba in this. Feel free to give me your opinions ^^