Chapter Nine: Reunion and Tragedy

Maritsu Netherworld, above Evil Academy ruin, Earth Royal Yacht, 2 hours after first attack

Mao stepped on board the ship as the door closed, it was the epitome of luxury; the room looked more like it belonged in a mansion or palace than a ship. Still, he was unable to tear his eyes away from what he was seeing. Raspberyl was shocked too, for who had rescued them was dead. They had attended his funeral, this was impossibility, yet there he was.

More importantly, there they were. They had escaped from that creature, at least physically; the image of those mad eyes had been stamped on little Umeka's mind. The horror of it all had her bury her face in her Mother and clutch her tight, as if trying not to lose her. Nevertheless, she was now safe, for the time being at least.

Mao gazed at the one he called fake hero back in the day. He was also overflowing with joy to see his old and dear friend again, but his Honour Student profile and his pride (not to mention stubbornness) prevented him from showing it. Yet, he could not stop the happy tears dripping from his eyes. He was glad to see Almaz once more before…

"Mao?" Almaz said, noticing the tears

The overlord managed to shake it off. "Yeah? Nothings up, I was just sweating through my eyes." He retorted awkwardly.

Beryl rolled her eyes at her husband's unwillingness to show the emotion that he was obviously feeling. Almaz seemed confused at why Mao was so emotional; that wasn't like him at all.

Just then Umeka turned to look the man who had saved them with puzzlement. She looked at Cubelle, who seemed equally bewildered; their parents clearly knew this man, yet neither of them had seen him before.

"How?" Mao finally asked. "How can you be here, Almaz? We heard that you'd died."

"D, died?" Almaz responded in shock and confusion. "We were only gone four weeks"

"Stupid Fake Hero!" Mao exclaimed "It's been over 2,000 years you idiot!"

Beryl put her hand on her hip "Yeah, if it was only four weeks, then how come Mao and I look older then the last time you saw us?"

Almaz chuckled and scratched his head nervously. "Yeah, I guess I should have noticed that". He then noticed the young girl in Raspberyl's arms, who was eyeing him suspiciously. "So, Ms Beryl, if this is so far in the future... that kid you're holding..."

"Yup, she's my daughter, Umeka" Beryl replied. "Umeka, Cubelle, this is Almaz, he's a friend of ours"

Almaz smiled "Well, congrats" he said excitedly; "Hi there, little one!" The girl's suspicious eyes grew less so. After all, if her Mother trusted him, he couldn't be all bad. Though, admittedly, she still thought he was a dweeb.

"Yeah, yeah, very nice, but, in case anyone's forgotten, I'm still in freaking pain here" said Cubelle angrily, unable to stand due to her fractured ankle.

"Oh God, Cubelle!" Beryl exclaimed "I had no idea you'd hurt yourself that badly!"

She turned to Mao; "Don't just stand there all dewy-eyed, nut brain, do something!"

Mao snapped out of his trance "Oh right, yeah, I'm coming" and he rushed over to treat Cubelle's injury.

Almaz looked down at the floor; "Wow; 2000 years on and I'm still an afterthought" he whined. "I guess some things never change"

Almaz then felt a little hand hold his, "don't worry, Mister…" chirped Umeka "I notice you, even if you are a wuss!"

"Thanks, I guess" whimpered the Human pathetically.

After Almaz had helped them get Cubelle's ankle bandaged up, Sapphire came rushing into the room. Mao and Beryl turned to her, seeing her again was equally pleasantly shocking as seeing Almaz. Like him, she looked no older than when they'd previously seen them, all those years ago.

Raspberyl was about to embrace her when she noticed that she, looked deadly serious, which worried them. From what they remembered, if something was serious enough to make her look that severe, it did not bode well with what was about to happen.

"Don't get chummy yet" she said intensely. "We have a big problem"

Almaz grew worried "What is it?"

Sapphire looked at each of them apologetically; "When we rescued you guys, that damn thing that was chasing you must have got a shot in on our engines." She said angrily. "They're only good for another few hours; after that, we'll either have to land, or fall out of the sky."

"But the monster will get us!" Umeka screamed fearfully.

"I had to ask..." Almaz whimpered.

...

Gehenna Netherworld, Forest of the Damned

Having cut herself free from the grip of the Treants, Etonne had been dominating her 'captors'. She quickly disposed of the treants by ramming her diamond sword into the ground, causing crystal spikes to come up from the ground, skewering the wooden freaks.

Jana jumped back in shock; she was not expecting the little princess to be this tough. She quickly regained her composure, however. "Well, I'll be a Zombies Mother-in-Law, ain't y'all the zesty one, sugar"

Etonne met her with an icy stare, "I have literally no idea what you just said, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm gonna kill you" she remarked in her bratty teen monotone "Looks like you won't be making out with cows, or whatever it is you rural trash do"

The pink haired redneck drew her knife, "Oh, you are going way down now, sugar!" Jana replied, her initial rage turning to a perverse look on her face "Now I was gonna treat y'all like all nice. Now I'm gonna hog-tie ya, take pictures of ya, and sell 'em to shady websites."

"Oh yeah" Xander drooled perversely.

Etonne looked up "You still here, Xander?"

Her ex became infuriated "How dare you look down on me, bitch!" he screamed "Well, once I overthrow your Dad, no one will look down on me." He then burst into maniacal laughter and jumped down to take Jana's side.

"Oh wow" Etonne said sarcastically "it's the redneck and the failure against a Krichevskoy, I wonder who will win."

Then, just as the teens were about to clash, a lightning bolt struck the ground between them, causing them all to retreat.

"What in the name of corn-fed chicken is goin on here?" Jana asked.

The air then rung with an unmistakable cackle "HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Oh great…" Etonne mumbled.

When the smoke cleared, there stood Overlord Laharl, in all his glory, flanked by his 'trusted' lieutenant Etna.

Laharl drew his sword from his scarf "Your attempt to intimidate me failed, now I shall show you no mercy"

Xander was sweating bullets; he remembered the beating he had gotten from Laharl earlier that evening. He could only imagine what he had in store for him now that he'd tried to kidnap his daughter.

He turned to run, but as he did, a massive wall of crystal rose from the ground in front of him. "Hey, Xandy…" he heard behind him in a familiar voice. He turned around fearfully.

"…Nobody makes a fool out the Princess of the Netherworld" Etonne continued. And like that, the wall toppled and fell right on top of the pathetic demon.

Meanwhile, Laharl had lunged at Jana with the definite intention of cutting her in two. She blocked with the knife, but she could feel the weight pushing down. For the first time that the Bounty Hunter could remember, she was terrified.

She then became aware of the Overlord's vassal poking a spear in her back. "Give it up, cowgirl" the voice came from behind her.

Almost instantly, Jana started begging for mercy. Laharl took his sword away and Etna disarmed her with a quick kick. Jana fell to her knees in crocodile tears "No fair, y'all, all I wanted was to get some money to go somewhere hot"

Etna leaned towards the sobbing demon and put on her most patronising voice "Aw, you poor thing." She straightened up and blew a whistle that she produced from inside her chest plate.

Within seconds, an uncountable number of Prinnies flooded in from out of nowhere. "Prinny Squad!" Etna yelled, "Take this pathetic little thing away"

"Where to Dood?" one of the Prinnies enquired.

Etna thought for a second "Well, she said she wanted to go somewhere hot, so take her to the slave mines at the lava sea of Gehenna"

In a second, the Prinnies were away, carrying the now genuinely crying Jana.

Etonne cupped her hands around her mouth for maximum volume "Enjoy your stay in your own personal living hell, you redneck bitch."

Her laughter only stopped when she turned to see her Father's angry glare.

She sighed "Here we go again"

The journey back to the castle was a turbulent one.

"How many times?" yelled Laharl "How many goddamn times have we had this discussion!"

Etonne just looked away and rolled her eyes. She was already stressed, what with the attempted kidnapping and everything. She was certainly not in the mood to have an argument with her Father.

Laharl was enraged yet further; "What the hell? I hike all the way out here to save your ass from these bastards and I get the cold shoulder? Some freaking gratitude!"

She felt a need to voice an opinion on that one "You didn't need to come out here, I'm more than capable of looking after myself" she retorted in a bratty anger "Besides, it's not as if it's surprising for me to be seeing boys in secret. Hell, Etna does it"

"Hey, don't use me as a meat shield here!" Etna snapped.

Laharl blatantly ignored the point; "You do realise that their only after one thing, right?"

"Well, yeah" Etonne retorted in a 'duh' kind of way, "how exactly are you surprised by that?"

The Overlord looked at his daughter, a true demon she was. The fact that he was, in actuality, referring to his throne as the 'one thing.' Nevertheless, he realised that she was, despite what the humans might think, a demon, which were very dissimilar to humans. Both she and Ryouta reminded him of his past self.

Words that had buzzed in his head for weeks now about these new 'expectations' for the 'human-and-angel-friendly' demons. They could not, and should not change a Demon's nature, or their heart.

A vile taste came into his mouth as he quoted Overlord Mao. Laharl held his fellow Overlord in high contempt, if not just for the fact that he was just such a freaking nerd, then for the belief that Laharl had that, whatever the white-haired freak was doing at that moment, Laharl was sure that Mao was having more fun than he was right now.

Etonne's mental ranting was then interrupted when she turned to see her Father on his knees, his hands clasped over his ears.

"You alright?" Etna asked him as she crouched next to him.

"The ringing…" he hissed "…ringing, louder than before… deafening"

Etonne couldn't care less about her father's predicament, not after all the crap a few minutes ago. "Whateves, if you guys need me I'll be in my room watching horror movies."

A true demon indeed.

However, she did not get far before that bad night turned into a full-blown nightmare.

Etna helped Laharl to his feet and, still in agony; he followed his daughter back to the castle.

The ringing grew louder with each step.

They eventually caught up with Etonne, who was just standing, staring at an orange glow, mesmerised.

"What are you looking at?" Etna asked her.

They soon found out. They too were speechless and terrified by the sight that the beheld.

There was the Overlord's castle, unrecognisable. Where once it stood in grandeur, it now stood in burning ruin.

…

Veldime, Night Club district

A crowd had gathered, half drunken demons chanting "Fight, Fight, Fight!" The twins' dispute over Sarah's inferior feeling had slowly but surely escalated to a common bar brawl.

Strangers cheered them on, friends struggled to get to them to pull them apart, Tink collected bets. In short, all hell broke loose.

After a few minutes of Shane ranting at Sarah about her belief that she was the inferior twin in their parents' eyes being "all in her head." Sarah finally snapped and punched Shane in the face.

Bleeding from the lip Shane returned the favour, only to be taken down into an arm-lock. "Let's see you beat those 'horrible beasts' with one arm, you asshole" he heard her growl.

Knowing that his arm may break at any second; he grabbed her hair.

Shane tugged back and pulled her off of him. He needed to get away from this fight, he didn't want to harm his Sister any more than what was necessary. He was all too aware that she couldn't help it, and it was him that had provoked her anyway.

Just as Sarah was standing up to come back on the attack, their cousin Shu, son of their Aunt Hanako, broke them up.

He was a little younger than they were; nevertheless he had the maturity of someone twice his age. "C'mon guys..." he said supportively "... if you maim each other tonight then that's your dreams of becoming famous fighters out the window."

"His dream!" Sarah yelled in anger.

Shu put his hands on her shoulders "Calm down, Sarah" he said softly. She turned away, shaking with rage, her eyes starting to water.

Shu sat her down with her friends and ordered her some water to help her chill. As Shane looked on at his Sister, he got the overwhelming urge to leave. He figured she needed some space.

As he started to walk back from the coliseum, he cursed himself for pressing her buttons so casually. He knew about her condition, yet he rarely made any attempt to account for it when he spoke.

He wondered whether Sarah would want him to. He remembered a time when they were kids when he had to comfort her when she was crying about people treating her differently. She could have been right, or it could have been one of her paranoid delusions, he was never entirely sure.

Meanwhile, Sarah sat at a table among friends, including Shu, and her boyfriend, Taka. They talked, the others desperately trying to dodge the subject of what had just happened or anything related to it.

Sarah realised this, she wondered if they were afraid of her, her own friends. Eventually, she managed to excuse herself by saying that she was tired.

Not five minutes after she left, attention was drawn from their conversation to a purple light that randomly appeared outside.

...

Gehenna Netherworld, Ruins of Overlord's Castle

Laharl looked down at his burning castle, his home, in flames and smashed beyond recognition.

As heart wrenching as this sight was, it paled in comparison to the fear and worry that he felt for his Wife and Son. It was so cruel, he had left them there so that they would not come to harm. The only place in the Netherworld, or anywhere, where he felt safe, where he felt his family was safe, was now a hellish inferno.

He immediately flew into the rubble, calling the names of his loved ones whose fate he knew not.

Etna was equally crushed. That castle represented happiness for her; from when Laharl's Father had taken her in from the ghetto when she was but a lonely child to the close bond she shared with the Overlord and his family. She shed a tear for the only home she had ever known, and for the friends who had been inside.

Princess Etonne was waiting to wake up. But this was no dream; it was a nightmare, though, sadly, only metaphorically. She tried to tell herself that this didn't matter, as she did with most things, but she simply didn't believe herself. For the first time for as long as she could remember, she felt. She hated it.

Meanwhile, her Father blasted rubble away in search for Flonne and Ryouta. He yelled their names again.

Then someone responded to his calling, rising out of the rubble was a reptilian looking creature, armour glowing in the orange light of the fire, eyes staring unemotionally in his direction.

The Overlord became enraged "Are you the one that did this?" he asked the unknown. It continued to stare at him, its eyes unchanged.

"ANSWER ME!" he roared.

Etna and Etonne were broken from their self pity by this yell; they were too far away to see what had warranted Laharl's anger. They then saw a group of orange spheres rise above the wreckage. This was unmistakably his Overlord's wrath spell.

Etonne suddenly reverted to her monotone, uninterested manner, though now it was merely an illusion. "If my Dad's fighting whatever did this…" she said "then I'd better get there before it's too late to exact my revenge."

"Right behind you" Etna growled, angrier and more focused than Etonne had ever seen her. They beat their wings and swiftly flew down to their former home.

Laharl brought the spell down on the creature with all of his might and hatred. The creature was obscured by the explosion and smoke. He turned to continue his search when he heard rustling debris behind him.

He turned to the sight of a shape walking out of the smoke; to his surprise and horror it was the creature, looking just as it had done when he first saw it. Overlord's Wrath had done nothing.

The creature walked slowly toward him, its fingers twitched and lips muttered. Laharl's rage was joined by a small amount of fear; he wondered if this thing was beatable.

Nevertheless, he flew, screaming in fury, directly at the beast. It suddenly became active, jumping forward to meet him. The next thing he knew he was lying, dazed on the ground.

He got to one knee; still groggy from what he could only assume was a hard blow the head from his opponent. He looked up to see its hand mere inches from his face.

Laharl kicked off from the ground, somersaulting back, out of the creature's reach. "Where the hell are Flonne and Ryouta? What have you done to them?" he barked at the invader, which cocked its head in response.

"Prince!" Etna yelled from above.

She and Etonne landed next to him, weapons drawn, ready to slaughter this…

"What is that thing?" Etonne asked

"No idea, all I know is it just shrugged off my Overlord's Wrath like it was rainwater"

"Great…"

The creature was making its way toward them, hands outstretched like some kind of Zombie.

Just then, what seemed like a random gust of wind blew up a cloud of ash. The image of the monster was enveloped in a black fog.

"Your highness!" a voice came from behind them. Behind them was a green mage's head poking out of what looked like some kind of trap door.

The trio didn't ask questions, they scrambled toward and into it. When they were all in, the mage shut the trap-door.

Laharl was still a little dizzy. Though he hid it well.

They were approached by one of the Krichevskoy family's longest standing servants; Dratti the Red Dragon. "King Laharl, it fills my heart with joy to see that you, Princess Etonne and the Lady Etna are safe."

"Hardly!" Etonne retorted obnoxiously, "That thing's probably right on top of us"

Dratti gazed at the demon girl "I don't think so" she started to explain "we are not really under the castle, that door is a dimensional gate. What's more, to make it an ideal hiding place, the door is not fixed; it changes position whenever it closes"

This information was currently irrelevant to Laharl, "Dratti, where are the Queen and Prince?"

The old dragon tilted her head down and closed her eyes "I'm afraid, they did not survive"

Laharl ceased to exist. The whole world ceased to exist as far as he was concerned. Nothing mattered.

Etna started sobbing loudly. Her best friends were gone, her home was gone. For the first time since her childhood, she wished she was dead.

Etonne just stood there. She literally felt nothing at all. She so wanted to feel something, she was desperate to feel something. She had forgotten what it was like to feel, since her experience as a child. She was disappointed that not even a tragedy of this magnitude could make her feel something.

The Overlord stood in his own personal void. He was awoken by someone kissing him. He opened his eyes; Flonne was there in front of him.

"Oh, Laharl, I'm so glad you're safe!" she wailed happily.

Laharl growled, "This isn't real, is it?"

He then felt a blunt pain in his shin. "Ow!" he hollered.

"Real enough for ya, Pops?" Ryouta asked loudly and annoyingly.

Dratti started laughing at the King who was now hopping around on one leg.

"Will someone explain to me what's going on here!" Laharl bellowed

Etna looked up through her tears to see the friends she thought she lost

Dratti was still laughing "The look on your faces! Priceless!"

"DAMN IT DRATTI! THAT WAS NOT FUNNY!"

…

Veldime, Coliseum, Bar

Adell's cell phone rung; he took it out of his pocket and looked at it, the call was from Shu, his nephew.

He sighed; he knew that Shu was with Shane and Sarah, which probably meant that this call was to involve the word drunk. He answered.

"Hey Shu, what's up"

"Un, Uncle Adell?" the terrified voice came from the other side.

Adell stood up, immediately concerned.

"Shu? What is it?"

Rozalin, Axel and Kat's attention was caught by the serious tone to Adell's voice. Rozalin was not only worried for her niece, but also all too aware that Shu was with her eldest children. Whatever danger he was in, they were also in.

Shu continued in a frightened whisper; "Uncle Adell, you have to get away from here, to another world, they're heading in your direction."

"Who is Shu?"

"I… I have no idea. They were killing us."

"Are Shane and Sarah okay?"

"They left before these things showed up… please leave this world, they're invi… oh God NO!"

"Shu? What is it? Where are they?"

"AH! ARGHHHHHHHHH!"

Well, sir Shu didn't last long did he?

Wowzers, I actually uploaded two chapters within a month of each other, WHAT IS THIS?

When will the next chapter be uploaded? Hard to say, exams and work conspire against me, so it may take a while.

Having said that, we're now getting into the part of the story I was looking forward to. That's right peeps, after two freaking years of introductory chapters, WE HAVE FOUND THE PLOT!"

Still, any advice and/or criticism is welcome, just be civil, okay?

Also, This is the longest chapter yet, d'ya think I should split it in two?

Hope you guys are enjoying this, if so, it only gets better from here in on (then again, I would think that, wouldn't I?)

Happy 2012, readers! Hope it's a good one.