Sleygal: Thank you! Since this is our first time creating a fantasy world, we weren't sure how to incorporate the different cultures of the different species into the story itself. It's great that this method works well!

WeebVirus: Thank you very much!

Psykoakuma: It's a different spirit, one that didn't know about the magician yet and was caught off guard as a result. As for Eli's costume…who knows? And thank you for educating us on Kitsune Udon. It sounds delicious, certainly something Rin would enjoy if it was available.

Collab with kaffinee.

We don't own Love Live.


An Alliance Forms

The devil and angel fluttered their large wings, rising gracefully into the sky. Their eyes swiftly darted around, observing their surroundings from their high point in the air.

"The magician is not in sight," Nico declared, "shall we move on?"

"Affirmative," Maki answered, eyes still scanning the horizon in case of unexpected events. "We must move quickly, however. The sun is already about to set; we spent quite a bit of time in the woodland."

Nico and Maki settled down to the ground and began heading away from the dim, murky forest. They paused in their steps when they felt a slight rumbling in the hard ground beneath their feet.

"… Do you sense it?" Nico asked.

"Affirmative."

"Stop saying that!" the devil huffed. Maki rolled her eyes.

The rumbling grew louder, developing distinctively into large, heavy footsteps that shook the entire forest.

The duo looked at each other in trepidation and slowly turned around.

"Watch out!" Nico cried out hastily. She dived at Maki, and they tumbled away just as a large, bouldery fist came swinging. With its momentum, it flew past the empty air where, just moments ago, Nico and Maki were standing, and smashed into a tree. The tree broke in half, and its bushy branches slowly tumbled down onto the earth, crashing with an impressive sound.

Maki stared, horrified at the large anthropomorphic being that was emerging from the shadows of the dark woods. Its enormous fist was back by its side; as long as a pole and as thick as a tree's stump. The angel turned toward Nico. "… Thank you for keeping me from harm." she said breathlessly.

The devil's cheeks turned rosy, but a sly smirk appeared on her face. "Of course! The great Nico Nico Nii is unbeatable! I'm the best!"

Maki rolled her eyes again. "I didn't say that."

Another shattering step stopped the banter. The two looked up.

"Gee, that's huge," Nico said, "It's a golem, correct?"

Maki nodded in confirmation: "An earth golem."

"How do you know that?"

"Because it's brown, and its body looks like it's formed out of rocks. Do you not know that much?"

Nico snarled and bared her teeth. "I know enough for me to make a living!" How else would she be able to acquire food and shelter for her siblings? With her skills, she was able to participate in Hell's combat arena. Sure, she may end up gravely injured one day, but the winner's rewards were more than worth it. However, she had never seen golems in the arena, and wouldn't know their weaknesses.

The golem reached the two girls, its footsteps as loud as thunder. It lifted its foot menacingly, threatening to crush the duo.

"Crap!" Nico and Maki jumped out of the way, flapping their enormous wings. They flew into the air in attempt to gain advantage over the grounded golem.

"Hiyaah!" Nico charged toward the golem, pulling out and brandishing her trident from where it was slung over her back. She stabbed the golem with all her might, using her body to attain more power.

"Aaah!" she cried out as she bounced off the hard, rocky form, clutching her prized weapon against her chest.

Maki hastily caught Nico in her arms, hugging the devil close to her body. "Idiot. Golems—especially earth golems—are incredibly solid because of how the elemental material of their body forms. This one was presumably sent by the magician, so it may be even more defensive and powerful than most golems."

Nico blushed and struggled out of the angel's grasp awkwardly. Yet she took heed of Maki's advice, slinging her trident back on her back and resorting to using her dark magic: "Shadowball!"

A dark sphere flew toward the golem. It struck, creating a hole in its body. The golem groaned, taking a large step back and falling to the soil on the ground with a loud thump.

"Yes! Mwahaha!" Nico said gleefully, pumping her fist in the air triumphantly.

"Wait, Nico-chan, look." Maki indicated toward the golem, looking astonished.

The hole was slowly but progressively closing up, and before long, the golem was as good as new. It got back up and stepped forward tauntingly.

"What?!" Nico demanded, gritting her teeth. She fired off an abundance of shadowballs, panting slightly from the amount of energy expended. They continued to make holes in the golem's shell, but the golem also continued to regenerate unfailingly.

The enemy grew impatient and swiped its large fist toward Nico. The devil didn't manage to react quickly enough due to her depleted energy, and the fist connected with a terrifying sound.

"Nico-chan!" Maki screamed in horror. She rushed to the falling female, catching and pulling her close again. She fluttered her large white wings and gently landed both of them onto the ground.

The loud footsteps of the impending golem sounded as the two females huddled together, the angel desperately healing the devil as quickly as she could. It was a good thing Nico didn't receive any broken bones yet, since Maki doubted that she would have the time to set them in this dangerous situation.

One could almost see the smirk on the golem's stony face as it raised its humongous foot in melodramatic anticipation of crushing the duo.

Suddenly, as the foot came down, a long, thin, but durable green vine wrapped itself around the torso of the golem, pulling it backward roughly before any damage could be done to the girls. The golem was hurled back into a crowd of trees, breaking the trunks in half with a snap. The golem was then abruptly turned to ice, along with the soil underneath it as it lied on the ground, dazed.

Nico sluggishly woke up, and Maki stared at the fairy and spirit standing together across the forest field. The angel was gaping: "… That was so badass."

"I'm badass too, right?" Nico groaned. Maki ignored her.

"Thank you!" the fairy said cheerfully, skipping over to Nico and Maki. The snow spirit followed along. "I'm Kotori, and this is Nozomi-san! It's nice to meet you!"

"I-I'm Maki, and this is my girl—my friend, Nico-chan the reckless idiot..." the angel said, bewildered by the fairy's energetic aura.

"Hey," grumbled the devil, slowly getting up.

A roar suddenly interrupted their introductions. Nozomi swore viciously as the golem moved, breaking out of the ice. "We need to keep it stationary by means other than ice," she realized. "My magic is too easy to escape from."

"On it!" Kotori threw out a hand, and multiple vines grew swiftly out of the ground, wrapping themselves securely around the golem, who was rendered unable to break free.

Nozomi clenched her fists, and the golem and soil froze up again into a hefty block of ice at once. Then she threw a single tarot card, which embedded itself deeply into the bulky silhouette. Little by little, cracks formed in the ice. Soon it completely shattered, and the golem crumbled to the ground, revealing a glowing blue sphere that floated in the air where the golem once stood.

Nico shakily got up while Maki worriedly watched her. The devil limped to the sphere, wincing slightly at times when she moved her sensitive body.

"Watch out," the angel whispered cautiously. She clasped her hands together nervously and prayed. She had read of golem hearts—of how, given enough time, it would draw up its element to reform the body. She did not know how long, but that was enough to make her worried for the safety of her devil partner.

"Don't worry," Nozomi said serenely, "this is her obligation. The heavenly bodies will keep her safe."

The devil grabbed her trident, brought it up into the air, and stabbed the blue sphere with all her might.

A low moan faded into the darkening sky as the sphere cracked, and then shattered into thousands of miniscule pieces with a burst of blue light. Kotori applauded.


"I don't get it, though." Nico said as the quartet settled down around a bonfire. Its magnificent flames rose up into the twilight sky stunningly, as if trying to combat the glittering beauty of the stars overhead. "Why did the golem keep getting rejuvenated when I hit it with my shadowballs?"

"It was standing on soil," Nozomi explained from where she sat, far away from the bonfire. Even if she had been trained to withstand high temperatures for a short while, feeling like she was going to melt was not fun. "Earth golems renovate their health and energy from soil. As you may recall, I froze the ground, in addition to the golem, so it remained crumbly when the ice shattered. I was taught this during my training. I'm glad studying hard came of use, and I'm sure my instructors will be pleased that I applied this knowledge in a real-life situation. Do well in school, kids!"

"She also used spiritual power to guide her," Kotori added.

"What?" the angel and devil asked in unison.

"Don't worry about it," Nozomi assured, smiling cheerfully.

"Anyway, let's form an alliance," Maki suggested, "You two are tracking down the magician as well, correct?"

"Yep!" Kotori confirmed. "But I don't want us to just be allies."

"Eh?" Maki said in surprise. What else would the fairy want them to be?

"I want us to be friends!"

"Oh my Satan, that was so corny," Nico said. Maki smacked her. "Ow! Okay, we would love to be friends and travel the country and beat people up together."

"Not like that," Maki hissed. Nico stuck her tongue out immaturely at the angel.

Kotori grinned, choosing not to question the behavior of her new comrades, and clapped her hands together. "Yay!"

And so, two groups of two became one group of four.


Nico and Maki have a nice relationship going on here.

Golems don't actually have faces, but you can imagine a smirk on anything if you try hard enough.