Ragnarök

by PuddleMan

YGGDRASIL was a dying game, a relic from the past, no longer at the apex of DMMO-RPGs as player numbers dwindled and the once constant flow of game content had long since ceased. However, in one last ditch attempt to revive the game, the Devs released one last expansion; Ragnarök.

13. Chapter 7 : Demon God of Destruction

AN: Hey hey gamers, I am back. Uh, I swear I didn't forget to upload this earlier, this was definitely the day I had completed the chapter and I am in no way a complete moron.

Anyway, this chapter is finally bloody written! It was a complete slog to write and I'm not really a fan of it but oh well, at least it's done.

Read it. Or don't, up to you.

---

Carne

In the ruined village of Carne, a very...unique sight was to be beheld to those few who could see it. A birdman clad in golden armor scraps, running around and around without end, ceaselessly chasing around what looked like some sort of red dog while a great, fat dragon waddled about the charred ruins, and a basis is made of nothing but metal happily gorged itself on a scant few scraps of meat on the floor. Not the usual sight, that's for sure.

Round and round the birdman went, running about the village chasing the dog while a massive ovoid of black void sat in the village square. Every so often, the head of a goat wearing a top hat would poke out from the void and scan around the surroundings before disappearing back into the blackness.

It'd taken far...far longer than Pero would have liked. That damned bug-dog thing, running about as if everything in the world was right, oblivious to the fact that it's creator, his friends, Abaddon's brother, and probably Abaddon itself was going to die at the hands of Touch.

The small dog-bug brushed it's scarlet fur against the feathers of Pero and yipped a half-bark half-hiss at the bird.

"Quiet you!" He ruffled the fur atop Abaddon's insectoid face, eliciting another horrific scratch from the creature.

A small smile spread across Pero's beak...er, somehow.

Man o' man...today sure is the day...never thought the old man would get taken out like that...Well, I never even imagined I'd get thrust into this damn world either but hey-ho. Man...I wish I didn't spend those nights studying for my damn doctorate and instead grind in YGGDRASIL instead...

Pero placed the stubby creature back onto the floor and opened up a [Gate.]

"You sit right there mister." He ordered while tickling the creature behind the antenna.

"K-k-k-kiiiiii…." Groaned the dog, mandibles clicking together much the same way that Touch often would do after flopping onto the floor like a normal creature.

"Eyup, Lacerta, 'urry up!" He shouted to the basilsk who was busy frollicing around the blood stained village with NTR the dragon.

"Same with you, fatso! [Return]" The overstuffed white drake did not need to physically return to Pero, the mount was summoned with a simple spell from Pero and the beast was back in his inventory once again.

The metallic basilisk sped over to the bird, tail wagging all the way like a very happy puppy.

With a great leap into the air and far too many summersaults, the dazzling white lizard landed directly in front of the birdman with a stylish pose.

"I am here o' honourable master that I am forced to serve! " He knelt down. "Has the time to depart from these blood sodden fields come at last!?"

Pero was taken aback by Lacerta's determination to show off his athleticism and by the slight jab made at Pero "Uh...y-yes?"

"Good." The lizard bluntly said, getting up from his respectful posture and casually walking towards the [Gate.]

Fwah~ His demeanor changed so fast!

"C'mon young man, we're heading out!" He nudged the snoring insect dog with his talons and ushed the beast towards the [Gate.]

"Kiiii~" Purred the red insect as the red feelers that had persisted around Carne wormed their way back into the body of their host.

What freak of nature.

His golden mask had just penetrated the [Gate] as his exit was interrupted by a very, very loud chuni voice.

"Oi, bird! You took your sweet ass time!" Shouted out the goat head that poked its way out from the other [Gate.] "Don't rape the kiddo we've got back home, alright!? Don't hurt Enri either when you sperg out or anything. She's mine for the time being, alright!?"

"Y-yeah...I know…you didn't have to wait all this time just to tell me, dumb dumb." He said, Abaddon in arm, before quintuple backflipping through the [Gate] like a "cool" guy would and he was in no way trying to one up Lacerta.

---

The bird's vision went black as the familiar setting of his surveillance room faded into view. It was comforting, a room drenched in your own scent and fluids, filled with warmth and all the poorly written smut one could ever dream of! He offered up a quick thanks to the courageous guild members who'd risked their accounts getting banned for writing smut in an ingame book, just as a joke to piss off Touch and the other members of the no fun police.

God bless you Bellriver, Warrior and LuciFer, you may all be shit at writing smut, but it's the best damn thing I've got in this shitty world. You're men of great taste, that's for sure.

But it was not the time to be engrossed in loli guro stories, now was the time to make sure the fort was in proper working order while Momonga and Ulbert did whatever they were doing over in E-Pespel. It sucked sure, but his job was to make sure Abaddon and the other NPCs were prepared for the incoming slaughter, and he needs to make sure the guests haven't been eaten or ripped to shreds by the...eccentric NPCs in the fort.

A great metallic bassalik followed Pero out the gate, mouth dripping with an assortment of fluids and staining the carpet below him.

Did he really just go back through the [Gate] to grab another bite to eat? This guy...

Ignoring just how the lizardman came to be behind Pero, Pero spoke with an unusual amount of confidence and clarity: "Lacerta, my man, can you take Abaddon to the rest of the chimera? I've got a couple o' young ladies waiting for me in Ulbert's room so I'm a lil' tight on time."

He was met with a face full of intestines as Lacerta flicked his claws around in his mouth, digging up the flesh of the demons he'd eaten.

Gee, thanks.

It took a far few seconds before Lacerta relaised that Pero was speaking ot him: "Ah!...but of course my lord! I understand the urges of a fellow predator afterall...it is a bit...eh, difficult to resist the allure of prey, yes?" He completely ignored what he'd just done though.

What? And Pero had already forgotten...

He handed the dog-like creature over to the ecstatic lizardman while he tried to piece together what the hell Lactera was getting at.

Does this guy like little girls that way as well? Noted.

Regardless of Lacerta's mental illness or lack thereof, it was difficult to shake the joy on the lizard's face, and so Pero enquired: "Uh, sure thing man. Uh...anyway, you're awfully happy even though your death is guaranteed in the fight. Are you really just happy or are you just putting on a front like good ol' Enj' to try an' look cool?"

The lizard's tail perked right up and he flashed Pero an incredibly toothy grin: "Of course I am ecstatic, milord! The moment where I can sink my teeth into the traitorous wretches approaches! Is it not natural that one would be excited to kill scum that dared to betray one's masters? I can always be rebirthed so my life is of little importance."

"Um...y'know HeroHero birthed you, right? You really just ok with killing him? He IS your father, in a sense so wouldn't your allegiance be with him rather than us?"

Lactera took a highly exaggerated step backwards and pretended to fall to the floor in shock while shouting: "NEVER! What child doesn't yearn for the day that they best their father in combat and then consume them - taking their power for their own?"

"Most….?"

His metal scales clinked together while the monsterman got up from the floor, "Ah, is that so? Mhm, no matter! Either way, the day where I can best my father approaches, and I shall become the greatest devourer known to all!"

This guy's a nutcase alright. Pero made several mental notes that avoiding Lacerta was probably best.

"Sure thing kiddo. You don't have a lot going on up there, do you?"

"Hm? Of course I do, milord! It's just most of my thoughts are centred around how I may capture prey better. Surely you can empathize, yes? I may be overstepping my boundaries here my lord, but I do believe we have a lot in common!"

"We like little girls...and that's about it."

"Exactly!" The basilisk dumbly smiled at his master. Apparently sharing a single trait makes

they have a lot in common by his logic.

But Lacerta was met with a simple "no" and silence soon followed.

Alright, leaving time!

The conversation dead, Pero made his way downstairs in search of Ulbert's room without so much of a goodbye to his servant. He did have two lovely young ladies he needed to speak to after all.

And just as he gripped the door handle to Ulbert's room, a thunderous crash came from upstairs followed by an "Uwaaah~ Doggy!" From what sounded like a particular robot girl and several screams from both Abaddon and Lacerta.

Poor Abaddon, he looks like a freak and has to deal with Shizu, just like Enji. That lil guy has my sympathy. Not Lacerta though. He ruined my nut the other day so fuck him. If it weren't for him, I woulda taken that girl's panties home!

Intent to finish up the day's work, he clocked out the sounds of gunfire from upstairs and Pero took in a deep breath before forcing the door open, just a little too hard. A great thunk came from the door being forced open, a spray chipped paint from the wall sprayed out from the door. The pink flakes scattered around on the floor before becoming immediately invisible among the carpet of Ulbert's room.

Oops.

Sheepishly skirting around the door that'd become completely stuck in the wall, Pero entered the room to see his prize.

There they were. The two guests of honor - Enri and Nemu. Or, from the small patch of hair poking out from behind Ulbert's bed, Pero assumed Nemu was present. Enri however, was definitely present, Pero knew such...because she was currently trying to open up the window and was screaming bloody murder at the top of her lungs. Subtle.

He'd already decided what he could do to the girls to make them feel welcomed in their new home. It was something Pero himself long fantasized about doing to a small girl such as Nemu, something no lolicon, no matter how chaste in their ways could ever pass up. Now was his chance.

Pero shook in place. His erratic jittering shook free a number of his feathers which gracefully descended to the floor in a light amber rain. But this involuntary shaking was not his normal NEET reaction to social interaction, no. This was an entirely different kind of shaking.

Pero took in a few deep breaths in preparation for what he was about to do. This was his first chance to experience this afterall. He was left alone in a room with two underaged(?) girls with no way for his friends to interrupt him, and no way in hell could some shitty police officer arrest him now. His dreams were coming true, two young girls who could do little to deny him what he wanted. And so, he took a moment to bask in his joy. Though he was still terrified of actually initiating his plans with the two girls, the overwhelming excitement he felt drowned out his fears. For the first time in his entire NEET life, Pero was confident in himself and he wasn't about to back down due to social anxiety.

Nemu was perfect. It was a shame that Enri was afflicted with the curse that is breasts which only served to make her look older than her true age. Even though Enri, by the old world's standards, would undoubtedly still be considered a child to most, it seems in this world people develop far faster than what Pero had known. Thankfully Nemu did not share her sister's affliction, even though only being a few years younger than her sister, Nemu was still fresh and childlike, much to Pero's pleasure. A young girl, free from the cumbersome chest tumours many women were afflicted with, free from the corrupting influence of adult activities and free from the stresses of adult life. Nemu was everything Pero could have wanted in a girl, and he could take what he wanted from her, whether she wanted it or not..

Finishing in his basking, Pero gently slid off his golden mask from his face, revealing the identical face beneath. This was his big moment so he thought it fit to look the girl in the eyes as he did as he wanted to her, such was only natural. No longer able to stall any longer, Pero strode towards the two girls who were still cowering in the room's corner with long and swift strides. A predatory grin blossomed on his face as he grew nearer and nearer to them, every step he took would only cause Nemu's cries to grow in volume.

Enri got up from her seat on the windowsill and stood over Nemu, spreading her arms wide to deny Pero access to the young girl behind her. Her muddy, tattered blouse and scraped skin along with her messy hair only made her look pathetic however. With a click of his tongue and a flick of his wrist, Enri was shunted away in an instant by Pero's far superior strength. The girl was sent crashing into a pile of assorted plushies, no doubt Shizu would not be too happy about her and Ulbert's display being destroyed, but the wrath of the two was a problem for the future Pero to deal with. With Enri in a daze, no one would get between him and his prize.

He crouched down to meet eyes with Nemu. The girl hadn't moved an inch since he'd entered the room, only clinging to the pink sheets of Ulbert's bed from the floor. She shut her eyes tight, not wanting to bear witness to her encroaching doom Grabbing the shaking shoulders of the much smaller girl, Pero brought her in close to him.

He held the girl tightly for a short while, breathing in her slightly sweaty stench and plopped himself firmly on the floor with Nemu sitting on his lap. He was in position to begin, and so, he draped all four of his plush wings around the girl in a warm embrace.

He reached out to her tiny head, his talons easily covered the entirety of the girl's head with room to spare. As gently as possible, he slowly rocked his talon back and forth on the girl's head, all but messing up her silky hair. Back and forth, back and forth, he did not relent in his storking of the girl's head.

Though his paternal instincts were at best nonexistent, and at worst boarding on straight up pedophilic, our NEET hero tried his best to calm the girl. He'd seen in many anime and h-game that whenever small girls became scared, the protagonist would always calm their nerves via a pat to the head. His hands clumsily wormed their way across the girl's almost velvety hair in a circular pattern. He had no clue what the hell he was doing. The closest thing he'd done to patting a girl on the head was stroking a rat he found in his room while he was wasted as he'd believed the fury creature to be a kitten. Needless to say, he was inexperienced. Despite that, the newfound silence of the room indicated that he was at least having an effect on the small girl, even though her shaking did not dissipate in the slightest.

Pero could emphasize with the girls, he too was terrified when he'd found himself in an alien place with no way of contacting his loved ones. He knew the pain of losing people. While he could effectively mask the effects of losing his sister from his friends, the weight of losing his sister, the only real person he ever felt comfortable talking to, was forever ripped away from him. Exposing a young girl to those horrors was just cruel.

But that wasn't the sole reason why he was caring for the girl. Simple compassion for his fellow(?) human could only quell his pedophilic tendencies so far. No, the far more prevalent reason for not claiming the girl on his lap was far more simple than mere compassion. He'd already picked out his prey. It was as simple as that. The blonde girl and the purple haired half-elf from the empire were his prey. Oh the things he'd do to them. Just imagining the blonde girl squirming beneath him as he defiled her or the face the half-elf would make when he'd force himself upon her sent shudders down his spine. He must preserve himself for those two. Though Nemu would quench his thirst for lolis, she was not his first love, she couldn't compare to the two girls Pero's "met" in Arwintar. Simply put, he was saving himself for his two brides to be. As soon as he'd secure the two of them, Nemu would definitely be up for grabs at that point but no sooner.

Though he could feel a certain...body part swelling to an unimpressive size, the headpats did not cease in the wake of lewd thoughts. He had promised himself to two others, he'd need to claim them before he'd force himself on the young girl and that was final. For now, this was all he could do.

And so, he kept on patting away 'till the girl atop his lap calmed.

Gradually, he slowed down his pace, his movements grew shorter and more subtle to mirror the girl's far slower breathing when compared to the gasping breaths she'd been taken but a short while earlier.

Slowly, the shaking of the girl on his lap began to fade. Each stroke of her hair ever so slightly decreased the intensity of tremors. Judging her fit enough to pay attention to him, Pero spoke to the girl in what he presumed to be a tender voice.

"There there...you've...been through a lot, and I know it's hard for you…" He offered up some basic comforts from what he could remember his sister used to tell him from when they were younger.

He was offered no reply but he continued anyway: "I know it's tough being sent to some alien place you have no idea about...and I know what's it like to lose people that care for...just hang in there, ok? This'll all be over real soon and you'll forget any of this ever happened."

Nothing but the faint wimpers of Nemu could be heard in the room for there wasn't anything else Pero could really say to her. So, he did not speak and neither did she. There was a very real chance he'd die in the battle against Touch, even with his autorevive rings, his chances were...not great to say the least. Being a long range fighter with abysmal defences and being the primary source of physical damage, he was a natural target in almost every battle. The only reason he bothered taking up the [Barrier Mage] class was to at least have some method of protecting himself from those that would inevitably hunt him down. The fact of the matter was, he'd be immediately targeted and taken out if the plan failed. And thus, he allowed himself to indulge in the pleasure of having a young girl atop his lap. It was of an acquired (pedophilic) taste but no one would blame him for it, right?

With his actions justified to none but himself, Pero grasped the small girl into a tight embrace, took out the [Mirror of Remote Viewing] from his inventory and continued his search for potential harem members.

Ah...hold on a moment! Rather than searching for harem members...couldn't I just make them?

His eyes fell onto the unconscious Enri. He did have a lot of free time after all so just a quick experiment couldn't help, right?

Well, everyone else has been conducting experiments of their own, so I think I should have a crack at this!

Making sure not to disturb the sleeping Nemu, Pero began channeling his magic in preparation for a spell - [True Polymorph]

Meanwhile in Re-Estize

It was an ordinary day in the city of Re-Estize. The heavy rainfall mercilessly beat into the mud sodden roads of the city, the people moped around while the city around them grew ever more filthy and the adventurers tended to their wounds in the litany of inns and taverns throughout the grime soak city while the nobles and privileged hid away in their ever deteriorating homes. The guards took their turns at being mauled by any demons that wandered out of the forests that attempted to re-enact the demonic siege on the city that happened so long ago while the craftsmen continued their efforts to supply enough material to repair crumbling fortress walls. In short, the ruined city was the same as ever - slowly dying off as the economy collapsed far too many times to even count at this point. However, amid the plentiful misery of Re-Estize, there were still isolated pockets of joy...so long as your definition of joy was gettin absolutely wasted in a tavern or wading through a sea of whores.

Indeed, in times of deep sorrow, those that offer a brief escape from the hellhole that is reality often flourish. The bars and whorehouses are the last bastions of enjoyment you can get when the very city you live in is crumbling to dust and soon to be overrun with demonkind. Facing such a fate, the only thing one can do is either outright ignore said fate and become delusional, or drown their sorrows out in a tide of booze and whores.

One such of these inns housed a rather cheery bunch of adventurers that stuck out amid the dreary crowds of such establishments. Sat at the table was a mismatch of classes; two ninja sisters, a massive she-hulk-like thing, and a small girl in scarlet robes and alabaster mask, and while the final member was not present, from the large, glassy greatsword and myriad of holy items, a holy priest was a part of the team. The adventurers couldn't have stuck out more if they tried.

The tables and chairs rumbled as a mannly roar bellowed out of the hulking woman, slamming her mug down atop their crowded table, causing a cascade of similar mugs to fall to the floor and alcohol to spill onto her bright red platemail.

"Barkeep! More!" Hollered the beast of a woman, swiping her blonde hair from her eyes with sticky fingers.

"Do you not think you've had enough? Gagaran, if you keep slamming your mugs down, we're going to run out funds to buy replacements. Our leader will not be pleased about that." A much smaller woman next to the hulk said, twirling some sort of dagger on her finger while doing her best to cut away at the drops of beer that sprayed near her yellow uniform.

"That and we don't want you to lose your balance mid way through a battle or pass out midfight, stupid." Quietly a masked girl who was even smaller than the knife wielder, not even bothering an attempt of preventing yet more alcohol to fall onto her stained cloak.

"Uuugh, fiiiinnnne…" Their enthusiasm drained, the hulk politely sat back into her seat and immediately set about being a further annoyance to her friends.

"Oi, Tia, you planning on diddling that kid?" Shouted the massive she-hulk to the other ninja girl who was sitting with her face firmly facing another table in front of the group.

The female ninja did not for a single second stop ogling the young boy a few seats away from her. In fact, she seemed even more engrossed in whatever thoughts were racing through her mind than before.

"Ahem, Tia, you...ok there?" Her red ribbon wearing sister made an attempt to grab the ninja's attention.

Like a hawk eyeing up it's prey, the ninja's gaze was completely unbroken on the boy.

Tutting, the small masked girl added: "She's a lost cause, leave her to her fantasies for now. You should know that by now Tina."

"All people like her are. No point in trying to change her at this point." Commented Tina, taking a swig of beer that an Elf servant handed to her before retching at the taste.

"Aye...she's a good eye for cherry boys but they're almost always too young for my tastes…Speaking of virgins, shouldn't Climb be back from E-Pespel by now? It's been a good few days already." Gagaran was quick to change the subject.

"You missing the runt?" Teased the mage.

"'Course not, I'm sure he's fine an' all but, I'm not quite sure about the Princess. We haven't seen her since Climb left with his old man. She seemed on edge all throughout our visit as well, not seeing Climb for a good fews days on top of whatever was worrying prolly ain't doin' her any good."

"Eh? Did she? I didn't really look at her to be honest."

"Yeah, you an' that kid were playing on the floor the entire damn time. What, you five or something?"

"Aaaahhh….don't mention that kid…." Tia groaned from behind her mug, no longer focusing on the young boy.

"I'm surprised you managed to hold off on ogling that Gin kid that's been training with Climb when he stopped by with him. Must take a hell of a lot of willpower to suppress yer urges."

"That wash the one time…" She muttered after taking a hefty gulp of alcohol.

Taking another swig, she continued: "The one time...I utilishe the shecret ninja artshs...hic...of libedo suppreshion...the one time I ushe thoshe techniquesh, I am faced with the object of my dreamshs…"

"Did you say...libedo...supression…?"

"Ah~ It's not faiiiiiir~….." The ninja cried out after finishing her drink and slamming the glass onto the table in a drunken haze.

"Uh uh...well I'm pretty sure it's a good thing you didn't pounce on that kid cause well, he'd probably give you hell for it. And...y'know, his sister and father are both freaks as well. Just lookin' at 'em gave me shivers."

"That ish of little conshequenshe. Love shall triumph! Nothing'll get be-...be-...between ush!"

"I don't think loving young boys is strictly legal though so I think getting arrested is a big consequence..." Evileye offered a sagely nod.

She corrected: "...Moshtly of...l-little conshe-...con-con-conshequensh…Hish dad looked loaded so he could jusht bail me out anyw-waaaaay...not that the guardsh…*hic* would even catch ush, of courshe."

"I can't even understand you at this point, stop drinking. Oi oi, boss is back." Gagaran signaled to a dripping wet woman who'd just entered the inn who had a scrap of equally dripping wet paper in her hands.

"Thank the Gods." Muttered Evileye.

"We've got a new quest." Said Lakyus, sliding the damp paper across the table for the rest of the roses to see.

"Uhuh, details?" Gagaran pointed to the dark ink splotches on the paper, nothing was legible. "You expect us to read ink splotches?"

The holy priest held the paper up to her face and dropped it to the floor shortly after.

"Well, it's adamantite of course. From what I was told, the job is located in the E-Pespel outer borders. Essentially, the inner forests and the border around the deepwoods. Pays really good for what the job entails though, I'd say it's a tad too high for my liking."

She was met with a scoff from Gagaran: "Pft, too high? What, you don't like money? Why'd we not take it 'cause of the pay being too high?"

"I didn't say that, fines for breaking mugs don't pay themselves. All I'm saying is that this pay is really high for a simple kill quest. Nothing else about the quest, no escorting to be done nor do we need to gather anything. Just to kill one demon and that's that. Wouldn't you say a few platinum coins is just a little bit high for one demon?"

Evileye answered: "That just means that whatever we're fighting is strong enough to warrant a high price. Isn't that obvious?"

"Yup, so, what're we smashing then? Some sort of strong [Imp?] Maybe a mutated scale?"

"Ah...well that's another thing about this quest that's off...I've never seen this kind of demon before." Lakyus fished a different piece of paper from her pocket and slapped it down on the table. Her finger traced over a large drawing of a three headed, white dog with a long serpentine tail.

"Any ideas as to what this thing is?" She asked everyone at the table.

Tina was the first to answer. "Never. I assume a monserfied dog?"

But she was shot down by Gagaran: "Nah, too demony. 't's got three heads and big ol' claws along with a snake tail, definitely a high tier demon. No clue what it is though."

"Nah, never seen a demon that looks like a mutt before. Could just be an [Imp] that's adapted to life in forest after a couple decades. There was a similar case in the Troll kingdom fifty years back when an [Imp] metamorphosed into [Fomorian] after it was taken as a oet by the Troll Kingdom's princess. Could that have happened here too?"

"It's worth considering at least. What about you Tia? Got an idea?"

"Nooooo..." The blue ninja wasn't really in a condition to be talking.

"So it's not just me then, huh? I've never heard of or seen this creature and no one at the guild could tell me anything about it either. I couldn't even get a name out of anyone."

"So, we're doing another demon slaying quest then? I mean do we have to do another? Haven't we done enough of those already? We've smashed a good few hundred [Imps] at this point so it's gettin' pretty repetitive." Groaned Gagaran.

Her complaints were reinforced by Tina: "Indeed, it's not very thrilling if we're just stabbing weak enemies all of the time."

"So...we're not gonna take the quest then? We're just gonna walk?" Gagaran kicked up her feet onto the table and gulped down yet more beer, not waiting for a reply from Lakyus.

"No, we can't leave a single adamantite request unfulfilled. I don't think any of the other adamantite groups would bother with this kind of quest so it's up to us to protect the people of E-Pespel from whatever that demon is. If the quest is good enough for the guild to publish and mark as adamantite then I say that there's nothing we can do but accept it. If we let such a demon like a [Cerberus] roam around the countryside then who knows how many people will die? We do not know the strength of this creature either other than it is at least adamantite level, so preemptively eliminating it is the best course of action. It's our duty of adamantite adventurers to protect as many people as we can."

"Yeah, good plan, leader." Though Gagaran did not take her feet off the table as she continued: "Sooo, what're we actually gonna do though? This is a demon no one had ever heard of so coming up with some sort of plan is par for the course, no? So, uh, what're gonna do? Seeing as how it's just one monster we could just swarm it and beat the living shit out of it, good plan, right?"

A small lump of crystal thumped the giant woman on her head and Evileye chastised her comrade: "No, meathead. I doubt we'd get off that easy if only one of these things is adamantite rank. We should have the twins focus on disabling strikes while I provide support from afar, Gagaran acts as a decoy and I should both keep an eye out for other demons as well as chipping away at this thing. It's a simple plan but it's all we can come up with when we have zero information about this thing."

"So it's just the same as always, aye? I swear, with all the new demons cropping up everywhere you'd think the Demon Lord has finally decided to do something major, you know?"

"Ah, Gagaran, you….Well, we can just hope that he hasn't decided on anything yet. Though with the way the world is, what with these new demons cropping up around the place and the sudden disappearance of the Kingdom's frontier villages, who knows?"

"Aye, that uh...Carne place was the last to go, right? I remember reading something about that in one o' yer sources report thingys."

Lakyus nodded. "Indeed, I've received confirmation of the village disappearances by the sources offered by Tia and Tina. It seems only the outermost villages started being wiped out around a week or so ago up until a day or two ago."

"So even with the Warrior Captain still out there, the demons have gotten yet another foothold on the kingdom, aye?"

"It does seem to be that way. Although pinning this entirely on the demons may be a tad naive. At least the sources could confirm that Carne had been totally annihilated; some alchemist boy was found half dead and screaming about demons near E-Rantel by some guards but that's all the information I could get out of the sources about the villages. Ah, now that I think about it, the sources said he was shouting about a...Ariel, I think it was?"

"H-huh!?" Evileye all but leapt out of seat upon hearing that name. "Wha-...what name?"

"I'm fairly certain it was Ariel. Do you know of this person?"

"I-...uh...n-nevermind. It's nothing." She tightened her robes and offered up no elaboration.

Lakyus continued: "If you're sure then. From how the report put it, Carne was the only one utterly destroyed, the other villages were left untouched as far as the sources knew."

"And why's that? What, you think the theocracy are back up to their old tricks? I wouldn't put it past the bastards to go runnin' about and attacking villages."

But Gagaran was shot down by Lakyus: "Well, according to the sources, none of the villages are currently being occupied by demons or soldiers at all, that's all they know. The villages were just wiped out and that was that. Nothing stolen, nothing broken and certainly not burned down. Only the people in the villages are missing."

"Say wha? Then, what's the damn point of stormin' a village if you don't intend to burn the place down? Innit what the demons usually do? It's gotta be the Theocracy, right? They've prolly gone back to their tribal ways or whatever and started the human sacrificing back up."

Evileye tutted at Gagarn's deduction. "The demons are a tricky bunch, do not be so simple minded, meathead. Just because their methods have changed doesn't mean that the demons haven't done this. Besides, the Theocracy is in an even worse state than the Kingdom is. I'm pretty sure that their soldiers are far too busy harassing the fleeing elves and picking fights with the South to bother the Northern countries."

"Indeed, however Gagaran has a point nevertheless. The outermost villages just completely went silent while Carne was wrecked and torn to shreds, according to the report. Perhaps there's multiple factions at work? Or maybe the Demon Lord just wanted to go for a change of pace and decided to end us in a swift strike?"

"Heh, you think some old geezer in a castle can just wipe us all out like that? Sure he's probably stronger than most but since he hasn't even come out of that place for...however long so surely he ain't all that strong, right? If he was, he'd just smash us to bits and be done with it in a similar fashion to two hundred years ago."

"I certainly hope he doesn't do that. It's not like things have been completely silent though. Just a few years ago, the goblin adventurer guy did battle with one of the demon generals and won. He's probably hiding away in his hole cause he's scared of the little green skin."

"I doubt that demons are ones to fear much, especially a goblin who barely beat a single general. The demons in the stories of the thirteen heroes never once feared death, even when the heroes had started using their legendary weapons and cut down the hordes, not once did the demons fear them. Nor did the hordes fear the forces of the Demon Lord at all. According to some of the older tomes that recorded the exploits of the heroes, the Demon Lord himself did battle with the hordes and never once did the hordes back down."

Gagaran's mouth hung open like a wonderstruck child: "Eeeeh? Really? The Demon Lord just decided to beat up his own kind? Wouldn't you think he'd work together with the Demon Gods to kill us all?"

"Like I've said, demons are complex creatures, just like people. Some deviated from the norm entirely - finding no pleasure in death and war, the Cursed Knight was a perfect example of such. The records stated him as a furious warrior like most demons yet found no thrill in battle, always marching into the fray with nothing but a blank stare on his face. Though it is stated that this was actually a great boon to the knight, as when in battle, instead of getting drunk on death like the lesser demons, he was calm and calculating and able to make swift decisions. And it's not like he lacked any demonic traits, he still had an immunity from fear and resistance to mental attacks. He just kept fighting, even when his friends were slaughtered in the beginning of their adventures, he kept swinging his blades no matter what. Hell, he even ate the lesser demons and grew in power as a result! If the Cursed Knight was able to overcome his demonic heritage, then I'm sure an even stronger demon can do the same. It would be foolish to think of the Demon Lord as a simple minded brute."

"Alright, point taken, I didn't need a lecture on demonology. You really are a know it all about those stories about the heroes and demons, aren't you, shorty?"

"Of course I am! Those stories are an important piece of the world's history after all. It'd be a shame if such figures were forgotten to time."

"Yeah...I don't think knowing the favourite foods of each of the heroes is important history but sure thing, shorty...neither is there any point in knowing each member's bathing schedule, among other things."

"All of history must be acknowledged and remembered, no matter how trivial!"

"Alright then you little know it all, why'd the Cursed Knight bother making friends with the weaker heroes? Surely he coulda just eaten them and gotten even stronger?"

Evileye sighed and repeated: "As I said: the demons are a tricky bunch, do not be so simple minded, meathead. Friendship isn't a human construct nor is it solely employed by humans. Heteromorphs can make friends too."

"Oh? Alright then. Since you're an expert about demons, why doesn't the Demon Lord just hand command over to his commander then? Surely he's gettin' old at this point, no?"

"Wha? How on earth would I know!? Don't just ask me random questions!"

Lakyus added: "Hmph, you're forgetting that the Demon Lord is a demon after all, not just some old man. Well, even old men seem to be incredibly powerful nowadays what with Tatchi Mi being a forerunner for such."

"Hm? That old man has been on your mind, eh? You two seemed to hit it off pretty well back in the palace and you're both pretty good at making those weird voices. You two're like a match made in heaven, aye?"

Gagaran's teasing was brushed off: "It'd be hard to forget someone that strong. It's not everyday you come across an old man walking around the place in full platemail who could outmatch you in almost every way."

"Yeah...I wouldn't say outmatch in every way, sure he looked pretty strong and all but...we're kinda adamantite adventurers, y'know? I think we'd have heard of some old guy who could slap us around like it was nothing."

"I wouldn't say for certain. There have been rumors of an extraordinarily powerful adventurer just showing up in E-Rantel one day, wiping out an entire army of undead, dealing with a newly birthed [lich] and even wiping out a demon that was of the same race of those commanding the Demon Lord's forces."

"...and you believe that? A guy just walks up to a lich...and kills it. Those things are hard as shit to kill, no way some no name can just smack one around and be all hunky dory afterwards. Even with a full party of adamantites, those things are near impossible to kill. And a demon of the same race of the Demon generals? Not having it. If the greenskin needed assistance to kill only one of those things, a no name ain't even getting within a few steps of that thing. Just some story they made up so they can cheat the rank system."

"Yeah, fair point. It's still worth keeping in consideration though. Heroes have a tendency to pop up out of nowhere. You need to remember that the greenskin just popped up one day as well."

"Well yeah but he at least didn't jump out of the gate killing demon generals now did he? Hmph, I still remember the day he was begging fer us to teach 'im how to fight, just like Climb and only a scant few years later he kicked all our asses at once!"

"Indeed, it seems we attract the tenacious sort of people."

"Aye, uh, shorty? You alright there?" Gagaran booped the she-mage on the head with her giant hand, getting the smaller girl's attention instantly.

"Hmmm...it's just...that armor he was wearing…y'know, the old guy that Climb had teaching him?"

"What about it? It looked pretty fancy and had some cool dragon face on it but that was really it."

"Well...I wouldn't say that. It just looked kinda familiar to me is all."

"Yeah, people do tend to wear full plate I guess. Most veteran paladins from the Holy Kingdom wear that stuff so it's not too uncommon. Dragon face and all, you're probably thinking of their kind of armour, right?"

"Yeah but none wear armor like that. The oceanic paladin's armour are always some variant of blue - not silvery white, dummy. It's just that I coulda sworn I've seen similar armour before..."

"Museum." Quietly added Tina as she gently pat her slumped over sister on the back.

"Ah! That's right, the Museum of Folk Heroes back over in E-Libera. The armour of...uh, "Oddy-sea-us"? The guy who killed the cyclops tribe!"

"Eh, kinda looks similar I guess. For a history buff, it sure did take you a while to remember though."

"Hmph...there's a lot of history to remember…" Evileye grumbled.

With the painful creeks of the table below here, Gagaran pulled herself up to a standing position and clapped her meaty hands together.

"Right then shortly, you gonna teleport us over to E-Pespel? You've got one of those...whatevers over there, right? I don't really feel like walking or wasting money on a ride over, y'know?"

"I'm not a tack-shi service! I can't just zap everyone over there in an instant, it takes an hour, at least to charge up for the full party."

"Then charge yer magic or something! We'll go have a wander about the city while you do your magic thing.

"Fiiiine….but I'm going to be out of commission once we get there for at least a day! As soon as we get there I'm flopping onto the nearest bed and you can't stop me." Moan the little mage as she began preparing her spell.

….

While waiting for Evileye's spell to charge up, Lakyus had ventured out to the market. Lining the streets was various stalls, each was manned by a shouting shopkeep, eager to draw in adventurers and their coin.

She methodically browsed each stall, meticulously testing each piece of equipment that caught her eye and asking every single detail about the various weapons and armours, much to the dismay of the shopkeepers. On and and she'd ask about just how "heroic" the equipment was, who it "served under" and other, pointless questions.

Eventually, the market had expunged it's stores of helpless shopkeepers and Lakyus had arrived at one of the many squares in the city and, much like always, the square she'd arrived at was one of the only places that was filled with people.

She didn't exactly have a reason to stay in the square so Lakyus just turned to leave, when a loud outcry stopped her in her tracks.

"Aye, death! Death I say! The end nears ever closer at the hands of the Lord of the Ocean! Do you not see it!? Do you not see the signs!? Your country burns with demon fire and the economy is all but dead! You have embraced a false pantheon of demons and so our Lord delivers his justice unto you and your kinsmen! This country shall be swallowed in the shadow of the Wingless Dragon for you sins!" Came what sounded like a crazed old man, but his obviously holy robes made him out as a priest of some kind.

"Oh lord...another nutcase got through the guards. This'll be fun while it lasts though!" Boomed Gagaran from besides Lakyus, causing the latter to jump up high in surprise and wonder how the hell such a massive and loudmouthed woman could sneak up on her.

The two made their way closer to the crazed speaker and from atop his position on a wooden stand, he addressed the small crowd that had gathered around him and his guards: "You who have banished our Lord to the great abyss have only angered him! His lust for revenge swells each day you deny him his divinity! The signs of his anger are clear, and yet you ignorant worshipers of false Gods carry on and desecrate the promised realm of our Lord! Are you so blind to your foolishness that you carry on in ignorance or have your hearts been seduced by evil at the hands of the Demon Lord and his kind!?"

The preacher was met with a tide of jeers and curses from the crowd though none made an effort to actually shut him up, what with three guards dressed in a oceanic blue set of platemail and each wielding a myriad of enchanted weapons.

Gagaran softly nugged Lakyus' side and asked: "Should we...go? I mean, this is pretty funny but...we've kinda got demons to kill, y'know? I'm sure shorty is waiting for us back at the inn."

Lakyus tore her eyes away from the odd man and nodded: "Agreed, leave the preachers for the guards to deal with."

Yet more jeers from the crowd exploded forth in response to the old man's ramblings: "It is not too late for your sins to be forgiven by our Lord! For he is all forgiving, all loving and all knowing! Mercy shall be granted to those who abandon their false Gods and embrace the one true Lord! Your lands will be spared the purging floods and rivers of venom if you all but accept your true Master!"

Just as the group had passed by the crazy old coot, Lakyus' arm was seized by one of the armoured guards.

"You there! Worshipper of the water God!" Shouted the old man directly at Lakyus, pointing to the necklace of the Water God on her neck.

"Great..." She muttered under her breath.

"Are you so hubristic as to deny the Lord of the God you worship? Our very own Lord is spoken of at length in your holy texts as a great beast of infinite strength, surpassing even your own Lord's! The Gods you worship cower in fear at the sight of our Lord and yet you insist of their superiority!"

"The monster you worship was defeated by the Gods and cast out into the ocean. There is nothing divine about an overgrown worm. Good day." She may have been done speaking but the old man latched onto her shoulder once more, his eyes ablaze in anger.

"Nothing divi-...Tell me, do your Gods answer your prayers!? Do they heed the calls of the faithful? Nay! The twilight of your "Gods" has come and passed - they are nought but dead! Yet our Lord lingers in the depths as he always has, forever keeping a watchful eye on his flock. He heeds our prayers with tangible rewards! When we pray for fish and offer him his due respect, we are rewarded with fish! Do your own Gods give such rewards? NAY! Where are your Gods!? Your country crumbles from the demonic influence and yet our lands prosper! Your Gods care not for you."

The priest was flung back and Gagaran moved in front of Lakyus. "Oi, leader, leave it. This moron'll keep arguing night an' day. No point in talking to him."

"Agreed, let the old fool worship a snake if he so pleases, it doesn't affect us." Came yet another voice besides Lakyus, causing the war maiden to once again leap into the air with fright at Tina's sudden appearance.

"Y-you're right…" She managed, recovering from her fright.

And so the group of adventurers left the band of crazy cultists to spread their message until the guards tell them to pack it in. There was far more important thing to do than argue with a gaggle of lunatics, especially since Evileye's spell should be finishing up any minute now.

---

Meanwhile in E-Rantel

Momonga and Ulbert had found themselves out on the outer perimeter of E-Pespel, perched on a cliff face overlooking the entire fortress city. E-Pespel, like E-Rantel, bore extensive protection in the form of three massive stone walls erected around various districts. Unlike E-Rantel, E-Pespel was divided into sections based upon the jobs of the inhabitants. City guards would of course be stationed on the outermost wall and their quarters would be in the first segment of the city. Labourers such as miners and adventurers were located directly in the second district as their large population demanded the largest of districts. The smallest district was reserved for non-labourers such as the shopworkers or bankers and the like. The triplet walls of E-Pespel, juxtaposing the vast majority of the kingdom's architecture, was in rather good condition. The walls all still bore the common place claw and scorch marks of all the kingdom's cities from a war long since battled. Patches of wood and white stone dotted all across the three walls, the repairs of the denizens were near immaculate in their construction and each wall was outfitted with four entrances/exits. It was clear that those living within E-Pespel had long since adapted to constant assault, their repairs were masterful and carefully constructed, unlike those found in E-Rantel and even Re-Estize. A clear plan of escape was already established in case demons or invaders made their way into the city as the four exits of each wall meant that escape was easily accessed. Even the faintest of enchantments of [Turn Undead] could be detected on a few of the guard posts that were stationed outside of the city, deterring those lost souls that wandered from the graveyard away from the living. Even through the shroud of night, the guard posts and the majority of the outer wall was bathed in the glow of [Continual Light] to provide ample vision over a wide spread of land. All in all, E-Pespel was far better suited to be called a fortress city than E-Rantel.

The rain beat down upon their frames and soaked into Ulbert's fur. His suit was completely soaked as well, sticking to him almost as tight as Shizu and clearly outlined his various (useless) demonic body parts. The small demon tail he possessed poked out from the tight fabric and his tiny wings beat from under their prison of cloth. His top hat's small clock had long since broken due to the downpour of rain, rendering the novelty of having a clock on your hat completely dead. He didn't seem to mind however, he just idly looked at the fortress city with not so much of a word to his partner, his face was blank though a small quivering was observable on his bottom lip. Small amber puffs of flame escaped from his hooves that repeatedly touched the ground, soaking his hooves in the brown of mud and his knees were shaking which forced him to fidget around. Similarly, his larger pair of arms shook violently as well.

The water cascaded down Momonga's skeletal frame and left an aqua spiderweb all across his body. The grass swayed gently in the wind as the two stood in silence, appreciating the land they were about to destroy. E-Pespel, one of the greatest economical cities of the Re-Estize Kingdom, the city that stood between former Demon Lord and former Dragon Lord territory, the city that persevered through the economic crisis of the kingdom, the city that solely kept the kingdom stable during the crisis was about to meet its end. The rolling fields of grass, the hills erected from discarded terrain from the excavation of once prosperous metal deposits, the wartorn former battlegrounds that stretched for many a mile, and the bustling farmlands and meadows, all was about to put under the control of the new Demon Lord - the unholy usurper - Ulbert Alain Odle and eradicated for good.

Finally, after a minute of taking in the surroundings, Ulbert was the first to speak up. His tone was unusually somber and was far less forced than what his usual voice sounded like. "So...today's the day, eh? Today we cross over the line into true villainy and wipe out an entire city..."

Momonga furrowed his non-existent brow at this before responding: "I'm pretty sure we've already crossed that line with what happened to Carne, but I understand. This is the very first open declaration of our intentions for the world and our first true invasion of someone else's territory."

"Yeah…" He didn't seem the slightest bit enthusiastic and just kept his eyes fixed on the city in the distance, a quick flash of lightning illuminated the grand walls of the city further, showing off the numerous battle scars of the mighty wall.

Picking up on the lack of enthusiasm on his friend's face, Momonga pushed further:"Hm? Isn't this everything you wanted though? I thought you'd be ecstatic about this. You get your chance to do some evil stuff and we even have a motive to do so, isn't this what you've been fantasizing about?"

Upon hearing his friend's concern, Ulbert's dim mood was immediately replaced as he flailed his arms around for...for some reason. "Nonononono! Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm fuckin' pumped for this...It's just…" He trailed off.

"Just?" The [Overlord] pressed further.

"Just...that a lot of people are gonna die but…" He squeezed his eyes shut in frustration and his needlessly long fangs gnashed together. "I'm not taking any pleasure in this. Like, sure I'm excited to be the villain but...I dunno. I thought that since I'm a demon or whatever, killing this many people would feel great but I just kinda feel indifferent to all this. My dream is coming true and I feel nothing other than indifference..."

His massive claws balled into fists, straining against his own strength and forcing a small squirt of water to be ejected from his palms.

Sitting in quiet solace for a few seconds, Momonga sagely nodded in agreeance to his friend's grievance: "Umu, it was the same for me when I killed those knights back at Carne; I didn't feel anything at all when I massacred them, even as they fled. I felt completely indifferent to it all. I suppose it's just proof that we've become our avatars. Maybe once we begin all this then you'd find enjoyment from it? I know my lack of feeling isn't exactly comparable to yours but I too experienced a lack of feeling when ending the lives of others."

"Yeah…" His expression did not change. The somber goat starred ahead of him in a near mesmerized trance.

Eventually, he broke from his hypnosis and sighed. "Whatever, no point in crying about it when the city is still standing, yeah? So, are you all set for this? We can't really go back once we do this so make sure you're ready for this shit, alright?"

Such was a needless question to ask, the plan was already established, and for once Momonga actually knew what his role was. Even so, Momonga went with the changing of the subject so as to not make his friend dwell on his fleeting sense of joy.

"Of course, everything is all but in place. The only thing I've yet to do is to revive the adventurers and to motivate Ninya to seek you out. Clem also needs to accept a couple more quests and that's it. I took the time to accept the special quest you issued out to adventurers as well so now Momon has a good reason to be around the E-Pespel area come tomorrow. I'm basically all done and I've gone about setting a few traps around the battlefield. OH yeah, Touches summons were all gone so...yeah?"

Ulbert nodded to himself in satisfaction. "Alright, set up is basically done. We've got the whole Momon vs Ariel thing to do and then we can get to setting up near Touch for the actual fight, pretty much and that's it. Greed's summons are running about the countryside and looking for any signs of, uh, not us, I guess? Either way, they'll slaughter anything they find out there to sell the whole, demon invasion thing which gives Momon a reason to rush on out there along with any other strong people. Shame that Depiction is nearly depleted though, the lizards really did a number on our minion surplus so it ain't gonna last much longer, but the demons that were left in there are set to roam around the countryside in a lil while. If everything goes to plan, the Demon Lord's forces will do battle with our own and be eradicated from the forests. Or, his shittier demons will be, I've got no clue about his actual minions though."

"May I ask about the demons that are out there? Greed has access to some pretty strong summons as well as that clone ability so isn't sending out a bunch of strong ones excessive? Greed is still our major source of currency so risking him just to kill fodder doesn't sound smart. Especially because you've specialized into fire based minions, wouldn't that pose a threat to the forest and the rest of your summons? I'm pretty sure everything, no matter how strong, will die of asphyxiation. That and scorched earth is hardly useful to us after all and if the Demon Lord only has [Imp] class demons roaming the forests, isn't this overkill?"

"Nah, it'll be fine, er, hopefully. The lesser demons are way more numerous so they'll find everything. The stronger demons are mainly just for killing stuff that can make their way through the fodder so they won't really have to use their spells or abilities much...that's the hope anyway. If anything goes massively wrong you can just use [Creation] to make the land usable for whatever we need."

...

"It's strange though, you'd expect that a Demon Lord would use way stronger minions than a bunch of shitty [Imps], right? The [Imps] and other trash are pretty much the hardest stuff adventurers fight in this world yet I've seen the damages dealt to Re-Estize, no fucking [Imp] trash could do that to a city. There was some gate outside of the palace, over level 100 and yet it was torn to shreds! What kind of trash [Imp] can do that? None! So why the hell aren't there any stronger demons? Surely something at least halfway strong would be out and about in the forest, right?"

"Well...maybe the stronger demons are all dead? Either that or...maybe these stronger demons were the cause of mind controlling Touch? It's troubling to know that both a powerful magical item is just lying around the place and that there are or were entities capable of damaging such an item."

"Right? I don't think any strong demons are running around though. Touch's shitty summons were all in pretty good shape. Only a few even had their HP lowered and there wasn't any kind of indication of stronger demons being present. The demons we encountered at Carne and that [Abyss Demon] you fought were the only halfway strong things we've personally seen. Either this Demon Lord is actually dead, really lazy or is just weak, those are the only things I can come up with. What moron wouldn't just spam their strongest summons, especially when dealing with Touch or whatever?"

"Well, it'd be far safer to just presume whoever they are, they're stronger than us until we're proven wrong. We do not know their motivations nor way of thinking so presuming they're weak will only be a detriment to us."

"You're right...Anyway, back on track - my demons. Nothing'll go wrong. It's not like the Greed clone and it's summons will burn down half the country over some copper rank trash or anything. They're semi-permanent summons cause I used my [Diabolist] mastery skill to make them like the maids and other [Evil Lords.]"

"If you say so. Speaking of the lords, what about the other [Evil Lords?] You've got a few more that you can use, right?"

"Yup but I'd rather have them at the fort with the bird rather than being out and about. They're mostly just for sparring with the lizards to make sure they're ready for a battle. I've also sent out a Wrath and a Lust to act as support while their clones hang back at the fort and prepare to move into E-Pespel. Y'know, I'm kinda regretting using the debuffs on the depiction demons we've got, if they were just normal demons then we'd have an army of hundreds who could actually obey an order rather than eat everything in sight. All they're good for now would be clearing out places or as fodder for the lizards or slimy."

"Umu, it would be nice to have a near infinite source of fodder to do the work for us but, we must make do with what we have for now. I'll be able to make a good few undead with any bodies from E-Pespel that you can muster up. Even body parts will be useful so long as the main body is dead I can make an undead minion."

The blank expression on Ulbert's voice turned into a surprised smile. "Eh? Just body parts? Sure thing, I can just mutilate any intact corpses and have you convert the limbs to undead while I make use of the rest of the bodies..." Ulbert trailed off and his expression once again reset into another grim state.

"Hm? Is something wrong?"

"Well... honestly I'm fucking terrified. Touch could wipe the floor with all of us, even if we do prepare we'd get slaughtered by him in a direct fight. Remember what happened at the end of YGGDRASIL?"

Momonga recalled that free for all the group held the very end of YGGDRASIL"s life. Though initially the battle was just that - a free for all, soon after the battle began everyone of them all teamed up on Touch. Momonga, Ulbert, Pero, HeroHero, Shalltear, Solution, Shizu and Lupusregina all focused their efforts solely on the paladin and in the end, could only deal 40~% of Touch's HP by the time their twenty minute battle concluded. 40% of Touch's HP, without him buffing himself, or using healing spells or any of his trump cards, was all they could muster in twenty entire minutes of hellish combat. Hell, the group barely had any info on Touch's actual abilities as the man would never disclose much about his build, opting to solo grind at the start of the Ragnarok event and upgrading his gear in secret. Everyone just had to guess what abilities he had based upon his personality or the way he acted in certain situations. Every now and then, Touch would just use some super rare or super powerful skill or spells out of nowhere and utterly turn the tides of whatever battle he was in and act as if it was perfectly normal. He'd always have something up his sleeve. He always had one trump card to rely on to get him out of almost any situation. An endless bag of trump cards - that was Touch summed up in a sentence. Of course, the fact that such a person could be defeated was also downright terrifying. Not only was Touch beaten, HeroHero and Shalltear were also beaten by the assailants.

"Umu...we got destroyed by him."

"Right? These traps and schemes we've come up with...they feel hollow, you know? Like we're grasping at straws and that we're going to lose regardless. I...look, I don't want to die, ok? I really don't want to do this shit. As soon as we step onto that battlefield, we're dead. Sure Shalltear and HeroHero will die pretty quickly, but that old man...that old gorilla bastard will tear us to shreds. Even in his normal body he's still too much for us, what happens when he decides to turn into that bug thing!? He nuked a [World Champion] who specialises in defences in less than a minute during the raid! Non of us could have beat the [World Champion] of Mus, and yet Touch mopped the fucking floor with him! We're dead!"

"Ulbert...the only thing we can do is-"

"Is what!? He's going to fucking kill us! Look, I entertained the whole trap and planning idea but come on, man! Do you really think we can win against him? Answer me, honestly."

"Well...I'd say we've got a 30% or defeating him."

"..." Ulbert looked disgusted by Momonga's honest reply.

"U-um..? Ulbert I-"

"Pft, if that's what you think. Look, I'm just gonna warn you right now, okay? As soon as I feel like Touch is gonna fight us seriously, I'm out of there. No fucking way am I risking my life to save the old man. If you want him back, it'll be your problem."

"Ulber-"

"Nuh uh, we're done. We've got shit to do. Hurry up and bugger off to E-Rantel, I'll sit here and prepare this place for our little spat."

"Very well then."

The plan set, Ulbert leapt down from the cliff face in a blur of chun filled goat fur, leaving Momonga alone to ponder as to why the goat had leapt from a cliff despite having paper thin defences and not having access to the [Fly] spell. Some things will forever remain a mystery when Ulbert is involved.

Ulbert's booming "Demon Lord" voice shattered through the noisy rainfall: "As I bid it, the entryway of hell shall open itself up! Ye of mortal flesh shall quake in fear at the site of the Valley of Hinnom. O' Kings of Judah, condemned for the burning of their spawn, I offer ye the souls of these poor fools. May they eternally burn in the [Flames of Gehenna!]

Colossal walls of greenish fire erected themselves outside of E-Pespel, completely surrounding the quaint city in their fiery glow.

Naturally, Ulbert wasn't content with just one speech: "Come o' hordes of the underworld! My abyssal servants, the time for you to dine on the flesh of man has come at last! [Armaggeddon Evil!]"

A pair of demonic goat statues materialized into Ulbert's hands and each of the gems held in the statue's six arm's lit up in a brilliant radiance. Instantly, demons of all sorts began materializing all around Ulbert and began charging towards the [Flames of Gehenna.]

After his grandiose speeches, Ulbert plopped himself down on the floor and shouted out to Momonga: "Hurry up will you? You've got three hours before the flames die out, I'll use up some mana restoring items but they won't last too long! Oh yeah, before you go, hand me that mask! There's a bunch of creatures in the city so maybe I can get a few new fodder bodies!"

"Umu!" The skeleton shouted back, throwing the [World Item] at the goat.

"[Gate]" Momonga walked through his [Gate] and set off to revive The Swords of Darkness.

---

The fort

Momonga waddled out from the [Gate] and stepped out into his room with a loud squelch.

God damn it… He mentally sighed as he peered down to see his mud slathered robes.

He shook his dragonhide boots, spraying the furniture of his room in a thick layer of muddy residue. All the gear he'd methodically laid out on the floor and all the items he's managed to steal from the treasury that once belonged to his friends was covered in a grim layer of brown.

I...hate mud.

God, I wish there was a drying spell...that'd be so useful…and a cleaning spell while we're at it...

He upturned his boots and beat their soles, water poured out onto the carpet and Momonga's nonexistent face only dropped further.

Momonga let the weighty robes drop from his skeletal form, landing with a loud thump and only further wetting his legs and feet. His robes were thrown atop the bed he'd moved to the corner of the room and so was the rest of his equipment. Now Momonga's sheer white bones were out in the open for all to see, how shameful.

And then, Momonga just stood there as he came to a rather grim revelation.

We don't have any towels.

Tis true. Having towels in one's inventory was completely useless outside of the summer events, so Momonga was stuck with a sopping wet body of bones for now.

A quick few thumps and heavy sighs came from outside Momonga's room and so he poked his head out from the doorway to investigate.

Right next to the door to Ulbert's room was a maid, her curly blonde hair bouncing unnaturally as she sweeped heavy mounds of dust from the floor.

What on earth happened out there?

He peered closer, tracing all over the door frame to Ulbert's room to see several black holes in the wall. Bullet holes. And lots of them.

How the hell does that even happen?

Reflexively, Momonga's body shivered as a water droplet slithered down his spine, reminding him of just how wet his bones still were.

Just as he was about to resign himself to the fate of having wet bones, an excellent idea popped into his mind just as his eyes moved back onto the maid whose slimy body had started filling in the bullet holes. Ah, Solution! She'll have to do! She's a slime so she can get me dry!...Probably?

Not skipping a beat, Momonga yelled out to the maid who was dutifully cleaning: "Solution, come here!" before retreating back into his lair.

Ever the loyal servant, the blonde maid wordlessly ceased her cleaning and made her way over and into her master's room.

Alright...how do I actually get her to dry me off without making things...weird?

His contemplations were already cut short, Solution had entered his room far faster than he'd anticipated.

"What do you require of me Momonga-sa-...maaa~" Solution took an eager step towards her master, making sure she emphasized her impressive chest. Even with her maid uniform and face covered in dust, her beauty could not be ignored.

Eh? What's with that sultry ~ bit at the end? And why is she-...oh.

But a split second after seeing the slime's face light up into a red smeer, Momonga realised his mistake. He was still completely naked.

Fwaaaah~ This isn't good! I've just shown HeroHero's daughter my naked body! Wouldn't this constitute sexual harassment!? Ah~ HeroHero, I'm sorry!

He hadn't even noticed it but sometime during his contemplations of how to rectify the situation, the slime maid had pushed the light skeleton to the ground. No matter how high your level is, a skeleton is still just a skeleton afterall. Hell, a child could probably lift Momonga with ease without his gear on.

OK, BIG MISUNDERSTANDING GOING ON HERE! THIS WAS PART OF THE PLAN!

Admittedly, it felt kinda nice to have a plush body pressed against him, but the undead body was incapable of arousal and thus, Momonga could think with clarity. There really wasn't the time to be indulging in such activities.

Alright, that did NOT go the way I wanted! Now I just have to reject her in a way that is respectful and will not escalate things further.

So...ah, how to put it…

"I require the services of your body." Said Momonga, mentally committing sucide just a split second later.

Solution's face broke out into a grotesque smile, tinged with the redness of embarrassment and her body moved to further envelop Momonga's.

You idiot! Now's not the time for this!

"A-ah, uh, S-Solution, actually...I- uh-" But he could not get his words out….literally, his mouth was stuffed with slime.

There was only one way out of this situation...well not really but just go with it - "[Message]"

"Solution, if you had let me finish, I would have said that I require the services of your body to dry myself - not do whatever the hell this is." Momonga said through the [Message]

*click*

He was offered no apology however. Solution's mouth was already little more than a mass of blue slime though her two pleading eyes and rapid nods acted as a substitute.

The slime woman's form dripped as teal droplets of slime splattered to Momonga's feet and began to claw up his bones.

This is gonna be...an experience…

Momonga could only allow the blue slime to envelope the entirety of his body and he was absolutely correct...it sure was an experience. Not many people can say that they're benn engulfed in the body of slime and even fewer people could say that the slime was getting off on tenderly sucking the bones of the bones of the person they've eaten...well, Momonga assumed she was deriving some pleasure from this as the slime around his body pulsed and quivered vulgar with each tender suck(?).

Minutes went by and still the slime clung to his body. Peering down through the ooze, it was painfully apparent that all traces of mud and grime had long since been purged from his body. And yet the slime kept on doing it's thing. Dutifully wrapping it's form all along each and every bone.

A-alright...this is...t-taking too long!

Momonga grabbed onto Solution's body and forcefully wrenched the slime wench off his bones with a satisfying pop, leaving the still writhing slime to slowly retake the shape of a woman.

We're never doing that ever again.

"U-umu, thank you for...that, Solution." He said as he hurriedly equipped his Momon armour and rushed down the hall to find Clem's room.

Now free from the constant drippings of muddy water, Momonga was squeaky clean after Solution's rather enthusiastic cleaning of his body.

Now, we just need to get Clem and Lupusregina and then it's time to revive those adventurers I met.

"Ah, this is Clem's room then."

Momonga knocked on the door.

Nothing.

Already sensing that knocking on people's doors would only ever waste time, Momonga braced himself for the most bold thing a turbo virgin like him can do - barge into a girl's room.

With a flick of his wrist, the door to Clementine's room imploded into the room and sprayed chunks of wood all across the insides of the room.

Ah, maybe I put just a little too much force into that…

He stepped into the room and…

In the center of the room, tied to what bore a resemblance to a bed was a fleshy lump of red meat. Upon closer inspection, the beaten thing seemed to be the body of an [Imp] who'd had the worst possible day imaginable.

A faint gurgling from the creature indicated that somehow, despite its body being literally torn to blood pieces hung on like a champ.

The maids have it cut out for themselves it seems. Momonga made a mental note to have Solution teach a couple trash undead how to clean. Only having three actual maids tend to an entire mansion was obviously not going to work out in the long term, no matter how many demons were forced to wield a mop.

While Momonga could not see exactly who was torturing the poor demon, from the poorly made, white cat hat and flowing crimson braids, it was fairly obvious that Lupusregina was busy at work.

Off in the corner was another woman, who was scribbling something down on a sheet of paper from her seat in the corner. The soft twinkling from beneath her cloak and the soft jingle of metal on metal also made it obvious who it was - Clementine.

Lupusregina, who was busy pointing to various parts of the creature and meticulously explaining something Momonga blocked out from his hearing to Clementine who was furiously jotting down notes.

Every so often Lupusregina would gesture to the [Evil Lord Lust] who stood on the opposite side of the bed to her and the Evil Lord would in turn, further mutilate the poor creature.

It seems that the trio were so engrossed in...whatever the hell they're that Momonga's attempts at knocking and smashing down the door were ineffective in grabbing their attention.

Um...should I…? Well we do need to get going so I guess I'm going to have to ruin...this...thing.

Momonga announced himself in the form of an "ahem."

…

Again, he was ignored. The lecture continued and Clementine scribbled down more notes.

Fwah~ They're really ignoring me! That's it, time to go all out!

He pressed his arm to the wall and cast his most attention grabbing spell: "[Nuclear Blast]"

Momonga's own feet were jolted from beneath him and a cavalcade of debris smashed into everything in the room and a thunderous roar of the explosion shook the walls.

"Blagh…" Momonga spat out a mouthful of dust from his mouth...maybe using [Nuclear Blast] wasn't the smartest of ideas?

"Ah! Momonga-sama!...~su" Yelled Lupusregina, immediately prostrating before her dusty lord.

I'd just gotten clean as well...He mentally grumbled to himself.

"Jeez, what, you tryin' to get your chrome dome smashed in!?" Shouted a voice from beneath a mountain of rubble...yeah, definitely wasn't the best idea after all.

The face of Clem poked right out of the mountain and she shouted at Momonga: "Tryn' to give me a damn heart attack!?"

"U-umu...I did try to get your attention before, you were just engrossed in...whatever you were doing. Regardless, we have things to do in E-Rantel. There's only a couple of hours of time left before I do battle with Touch so I'd like things to be fully in order before Touch comes back. "

"Touch? Touch what? You wanna Toooouch meee?" Clem said, a smirk upon her face as she made several crude gestures to her own body.

Your jokes suck, shut up. Momonga wanted to say aloud, but with Lupusregina and another minion present, things may turn ugly if they misconstrued his insult.

"How very funny, we don't have the time to all laugh at your joke however. We're leaving, now."

"Haaaah~ Fiiine, just tell me what I'm gonna be doing thennnn…" she moaned like a child.

"I need you to go into the adventurer's guild and accept as many jobs as you can. If you have time, perhaps kidnapping a few beggars or vagabonds would be nice too - we need as many underlings as we can get our hands on. Lupusregina, you are to do the same, as well as make sure no one suspicious is wandering around. I don't particularly want anyone else getting mind controlled. As for myself, I'm planning on resurrecting the adventurers Clementine slain. I trust you can both fulfil your duties?"

"Aye! Su~" Lupsregina did a perfect copy of HeroHero and Pero's salute with a childish enthusiasm.

"Oh~ Fine, fine. I'll just slaaaave away running around E-Rantel while you visit your dead friends. Such a crrrruel master I serve~" Clementine also made an attempt at a salute though hers was far more mocking.

Momonga completely dismissed Clem's attempts at...something. "If you have nothing of value to add, we shall leave immediately [Gate.]"

Donning the Momon armor and making sure Lupusregina and Clem had donned their adventuring clothes, as well as necklaces that allowed them to move in stopped time, the trio went through the [Gate] and stepped out onto the cold streets of E-Rantel.

---

E-Rantel

Without a word, the duo girls ran out into the streets of E-Rantel, leaving Momonga to just kinda stand there with no real direction. He had planned on asking Clementine where exactly the morgue is but it seems that that plan was out of the window.

Alright, where the hell do these people keep the bodies?

Momonga, rather than looking like a bumbling idiot, decided that the best alternative was to just directly ask a guard where the morgue was.

Fortunately, it didn't take all too long to locate one such guard. One of the few perks of being near the Demon Lord's territory was that guards were in abundance.

He tapped the dreary guard on the shoulder to get his attention before asking: "Excuse me, could you tell me the locations of where dead bodies are held? I wish to pay my respects to the fallen adventurers who were victims of the graveyard incident."

The guard's dreary face lit up upon locking eyes(?) with Momonga. "Ah, Momon-sama! You'd want to head over to the morgue just outside of the graveyard if you're wanting to pay respects. May I escort you to the morgue? It'd be an honour to escort such an adventurer.

"Umu, no need, you have an important duty to guard this city, I'm more than capable of locating the morgue, thank you for the offer nevertheless."

"I see." The guard bowed and returned to his station outside a rather fancy (at least by E-Rantel's standards) looking home.

Yeah, I really should have guessed that.

For once, Momonga actually knew where something was, and so, he set off in the direction of the graveyard. There was just one problem however. It was absolutely pissing it down with rain.

Why is it always raining in this damn place? I'm pretty sure the only day it wasn't hammering it down was the graveyard incident…

It sucked. That was the only way it could be said. It just sucked. Everything was sopping wet, his boots were already so full, each movement caused a waterfall of water to spill from their brims, his polymorphed hair only acted to spray the rest of his face in water, each movement of his joints let out unpleasant squelches, etc. It sucked. Rain sucked, mud sucked, the Kingdom sucked, it all sucked.

During the time Momonga was mentally complaining to himself, he had arrived at the place he assumed to be the morgue, right next to the entrance to the graveyard where he'd incinerated hundreds of undead.

So...do I just wander on in?

Gently, he knocked on the steel door to the mud-caked brick walls of the morgue that was partially merged with the walls of the graveyard.

With a painful scream, the steel door opened by itself as a result of Momonga's knocks.

God, I can't wait to be dry again.

He hurriedly entered the entranceway of the morgue, his pathway being illuminated by a dim orange glow.

Entering the Morgue, Momon'a nostrils were assaulted with the pungent scent one might expect from a morgue - death.

Fantastic.

As he made his way out from the damp entranceway, a small wooden desk came into vision with a small woman shuffling around some papers.

"Ahem." He coughed to get the woman's attention once he reached the desk.

A flurry of paper shot up into the air and the woman let out a quiet "eep!"

A shaky hand reached up onto the desk and the receptionist slowly rose from the floor and she locked eyes with Momonga.

"Ah...er, Momon-san, I a-assume? What do you need?" She shakily asked once she'd regained her position on the wooden chair behind the desk, staring in awe at his armour.

"I'm here to pay my respects to an adventuring team I travelled with. May you tell me where I can find them?"

"Sure thing!" She eagerly spun around and pulled out a massive black book from the filing cabinets behind her and dumped into the desk with a crash.

That's a lot of dead adventurers. Momonga commented in his mind.

Flipping open the weighty book, she queried: "Do you know how recent their deaths were? Any dates?"

Not even knowing the dating system of the Kingdom, Momonga gave a technically correct answer: "The day of the graveyard incident?"

"Ah, only a little while ago then. Let's see…"The receptionist moved the large book to the side and rummaged through several draws on her desk, eventually procuring a much smaller book. On the front page of the book was "Recent" (not that Momonga could actually read it) and was filled with tabs that seemed to resemble the letters of the alphabet in whatever language the Kingdom uses.

That's just the recent deaths? Where the hell do these adventurers go that ends up with so many dead? The wilds are nearly empty from what I've seen. Hm, maybe the deepwoods are more dangerous than I thought seeing as how even Touch got caught there but...you'd figure people would avoid the deepwoods as Ninya said. What's happening to all these adventurers that ends up with their deaths?

"And do you know the name of these adventurers or their team name?" She adjusted her glasses while waiting for a response.

"I believe that their team was named the Swords of Darkness and their leader was named Peter Mawk."

"P...Pe…Pet..." She flipped over to the marked page with some sort of demented version of a P on it and traced her finger down the page.

"Ah, Peter Mawk, here we are. Yes, Peter's the leader of the adventurering team called the Swords of Darkness, along with one Dyne, Lukrut and a Ninya, I believe. Alright, sign this document here and I can let you into the morgue proper. Nothing too complex, just your name, signature, who you're here to see, and your relation to them." She slid a form over to Momonga and handed him a quill and patiently waited for him to comply.

Eh? Sign...it? Can they not just let me in or anything? I've got an identification tag on my neck so isn't that good enough?

"F-forgive me but, I'm in possession of an adventuring plate, is that not sufficient documentation? It contains my name after all so does it not count as identification? Must I sign the paper?" He really needed a way to get out of this situation.

She pushed the paper even further towards Momonga. "Unfortunately, we need to make an official record of everyone who enters this place. It's also needed to verify someone's identity, you know, magic casters can just assume the appearance of anyone they want so getting a signature from people is a good method of verifying identities. I'm not saying you're a fake or anything, it's all for the record. Things have really gotten strict as a result of the graveyard incident so security has been pretty damn insistent about all this."

Crap, I don't even know how to write "Momon" in the Kingdom's script! How the hell am I going to write an entire sentence and come up with a reproducible signature that I'll remember!? I don't even have the translating items cause Touch still has them! Shit, shit, shit! If I turn away now then it'll be really suspicious, but if I comply and fail then it'll look even worse! Ah, why didn't I take Clem with me?

"U-umu...I under...s-stand..." Shakily, Momonga picked up the quill pen and readied the provided paper to write on it. His hand spasming in the air, Momonga had absolutely no clue how to write even a single letter in the Kingdom's script, let alone spell an entire name and make it look legible to natives. It was an impossible task. Thus, accepting his own limitations, Momonga took the easy way out of the situation.

I can't do this! I'll just get Clem to write it for me!

"[Time Stop]" He quietly muttered after momentarily shedding his full plate.

As soon as time was stopped, Momonga sprinted out of the morgue and headed for the direction of wherever the hell Clem had run off to.

He bolted from the morgue, nearly ripping the door from its hinges in his bid to locate his teammate.

He dug his heel in the slickened cobble of the streets, trying his best not to fall over as a result of the rain.

"[Summon Lesser Undead - Bone Vulture]" From the mud caked street, a small, hideous vulture came to life and flapped its wings up into the air, spreading small flecks of carrion to the floor.

"[Undead Slave Sight]" Momonga took manual control of his summon and set about finding Clementine

The skeletal construct beat its wings and rose into the sky and headed to the direction of the adventurer's guild. Finding one of two moving targets in a world of stopped time wasn't exactly the hardest thing to do so it only took a little over thirty seconds for the woman to be located.

Momonga rushed over to her location as fast as possible, trying his best not to slip on the mud.

As he ran through the streets, his eye caught a small flash of orange light upon one of the houses. A tiny pinprick sized speck of orange briefly flashed on the doorway of what looked like the home of a rather battered guard barrack. But the flashing light wasn't exactly what he was looking for, and there was no time to investigate so he pressed on while making a mental note to check the orange thing out in the future.

Just as he turned the corner to where the adventurer's guild was, he was met with the dripping wet body Clem.

Time seemed to stop for Momonga...well, it was already stopped but...y'know, just go with it. There he was. About to slide straight first into the welcoming bosom of Clementine. Sure she's a murderous psycho but...she's pretty hot after all.

Ah~ This is right out of one of those doujinshis me and Katsuki used to read! Fanservice hooo!

Though he did not get his fanservice moment. The slick mud beneath his feet gave way to Momonga's feet and he was set sprawling onto the muddy floor before he could make contact with Clementine's supple flesh.

"GACK!" He cried out with each tumble he took.

"Oh, heeeya bones-sama~" Clem said with a mocking smile once Momnga tumbling had ceased.

"Whad'ya need?" She questioned with her an identical copy of Ulbert's sneer.

"Clementine, I require your services." He said, clambering back up to his feet.

"Hm? Whatcha need o' Momon-saaaama? Lookin' to feel me up some...or d'ya need someone deeeead~?"

"Neither...Tell me, are you literate?"

She scrunched her face, halfway between annoyance and stifling a laugh. "Of course, idio-...ahem, duh. Why, can't write your name or something~?"

She hit the nail on the head.

"I-indeed, I am unfamiliar with the Kingdom's script and I have therefore sought it fit to ask you to sign a document for me."

"Mhm, show me , show me."

"Haaaaah? Just a name and signature?! Y'knooow, for an ancient undead, you're pretty dumb, aintcha~?"

"Umu, I didn't ask for your opinion, please can you just sign the document?"

"Fiiiiine~" She scribbled down what Mmoonga could only hope to be "Momon" on the paper and what he really prayed to whatever Gods exist in this world that what Clem wrote was actually relevant information on the sheet.

"Doooone~ Now hurry up and reward me." She extended her hand in a "gimme" kind of motion.

"..." He walked away.

"Heeeeey you just gonna use me like that and leave poor ol' me without any compensation~?"

"Indeed." He walked back to the morgue.

With time resuming it's flow, the receptionist came back to life and made to speak yet Momonga shoved the document into her hands.

"Is this all?"

"Ah, just let me check…" She read over "Momon's" handwriting, her face shifting slightly as she read...and reread the single line over and over again, her face shifting into a more embarrassed one as time went on.

"Ah...um...forgive me Momon-san but...I do believe that you...misspelled your name." She said sheepishly.

"Hm? What is the problem?"

"I-it's nothing much but...you simply spelt your name as "Mooman", not 'Momon" is all." She pointed down to a string of letters that apparently spelt "Mooman."

Are you kidding me? That woman had to write a few lines of text for me and she writes "Mooman?" Is she twelve?

"Anyway, is that all?" He hurriedly said, trying to just get things other with at this point.

"O-of course, Mooma-Momon-san!" The receptionist guided Momonga other to the gate and unlocked it, ushering him deeper into the morgue.

In he went, greatswords agonizing across the walls and helmet screeching at the low ceiling with each step. Nearing seven foot tall plus bulky armour and wielding two massive chunks of steel on his back probably wasn't the smartest of ideas when entering such a confined space.

From the corner of his eyes, a faint glint of orange flashed briefly before dying out, peeking Momonga's interest, if only for a fleeting moment. There wasn't a whole lot to do in a morgue after all.

A strange feeling permeated the hall where Momonga was standing. A faint pulsing sensation perpetuated his body, and then immediately fizzled out.

Magic? Must be a pretty fancy place if they can afford to have enchantment architecture.

But another flash of orange distracted him from his thoughts. Now he was close enough to spot the source of the strange feeling in the room - a tiny, barely visible magic sigil carved onto the name plates atop a bunkstyled coffin that were each covered with a metallic seal. From the looks of it, these weren't meant to be a permanent resting place, more of a temporary holding place while a gravestone could be commissioned.

Looking closer at the sigils, Momonga read the name plates attached to the steel lids. The name plates read: "The Swords of Darkness. Members: 4. Ninya Veyron, Dyne Wonderwood, Lukrut Volve, and Peter Mawk". Even Momonga with his enhanced senses could only barely make out the tiny orange specks on the metal coverings of each metal seal.

How strange, another orange thing. No human could have marked that there..probably at least. If I can barely see it then I highly doubt a human could. Then...who placed these marks here and why was there one at the barracks? It would have most likely been either an undead or a heteromorph as both tend to have far greater vision and other senses than humans do but I can't actually say for sure...

Hmmm, no matter for now at least. There are far more important things to be done than investigate some orange stuff on coffins and doors.

(Not so) gracefully, Momonag ripped each of the metal coverings off of their hinges and revealed the rotting bodies of the adventurers one by one. It was pointless being overly careful since the morgue was likely to be in ruins later on.

Each of the bodies was wrapped in a cheap looking cloth that did little to preserve whatever dignity the adventurers still had. The thin sheet did little to disguise the horrific wounds inflicted upon them, multiple gash wounds and stabs were entirely visible and the cloth itself was dyed in the dried fluids of the adventurers.

Now then, what spell do I use?

Well, I could just use a lower tier spell but would it be worth it? The level reduction would take a while to recover from and they'd probably be in a pretty bad mental state knowing that they just died. Hm, I should probably opt for [True Resurrection] to offset the level loss and they'll just have to get used to the fact that they've died once before. I don't exactly want to spend my time fixing their trauma and it may prove useful to motivate them to kill Ulbert.

Coming to the decision that higher tier spells would save the most time and effort, Momonga opted for his most potent revival spell: "[True resurrection]"

The bodies of The Swords of Darkness were blanketed in a shimmering light that lit up the small room they were being housed in. The immense amount of light produced from the resurrection stretched far into the morgue, almost the entire stretch of hallway that the Swords of Darkness were housed in to be bathed in an iridescent glow.

Umu, how stealthy...

"U-u-um...S-sir…?" A shaky voice came from behind Momonga, causing him to jump. The voice was almost hollow, despite only speaking a single word, whoever spoke said word must have struggled greatly to speak, numerous voice breaks plagued their many more attempts to continue speaking yet no other words escaped their mouth.

Momonga spun around, his cape whipped whoever was behind him in the face, covering their form completely in the scarlet folds of the [Necroplasmic Cowl,] revealing a boy no more than seventeen.

"Ah, my apologies." He removed the cape from whoever was still struggling to get their words out. Momonga hadn't noticed anyone enter the hallways he was in, he was absolutely sure of it. Most likely because of his noisy armour though...

Oh dear.

"Ah yes, hello!" Was the only thing Momonga could really think of in this situation...well, other than just murdering this person outright.

The boy did not seem put at ease with Momonga's greetings.

Not even giving the boy the chance to think of retreating, Momonga gripped the young man's shoulders in a vice-grip and pulled him closer.

Welp, it sucks but...there isn't enough time to use mental magic so...yeah, this guy's gotta die. It's a free [Soul] after all! And hey, a free undead minion can be useful to trash this place!

[Souls] in YGGDRASIL were obviously NOT the actual souls of those slain by a [Reaper,] nor anything really all too special for that matter. Simply put, they were a class exclusive resource gained form slaying humanoids or specific undead that were at least half your own level. Being the primary gimmick of two of the least popular undead classes in YGGDRASIL, the [Soul] resource never saw much real application in the game, even at sub level 100 using the [Reaper] line of gimmicks was entirely worthless as consuming the [Souls] to activate their effects was a far worse and far more inefficient way of buffing oneself or healing oneself, hence why the playerbase and the Devs never really bothered working on making the [Reaper's] gimmicks usable in anyway. The only halfway useful ability of [Soul] consumption was, by burning the maximum of five [Souls] a player could carry, one could completely heal oneself, great right? ...no because upon consuming all five [Souls], the player would be afflicted with the [Marked for Death] status and take 1.75x damage as long as their HP was above 25% and all buffs would be dispelled on the caster and the caster would be inflicted with the [Rejection] status in which the caster would take 5% of their total HP in damage every two seconds...garbage.

Regardless, if Momonga even wanted to dream of beating Touch, using such garbage skills was all but a must as a free full heal may be useful. And hey, he'd just found the perfect opportunity to harvest a free [Soul] so he may as well relieve the boy of his [Soul] and the boy's body could just be used to create a [Death Knight] or something else to cover Momonga's tracks with, it's a win-win...for Momonga!

"[Create Low Tier Undead - Death Knight]" To make sure the created undead would make for a good training party, Momonga dispelled his Momon armour and donned his regular equipment and black ooze seeped from Momonga's hands and splattered onto the body.

Man, it'd be great to have some anti-scrying stuff right now.

The puddle of black ooze slowly rose up from ground, form undulating rapidly as it rapidly took the form of a humanoid. Great black sheets of armor sprouted from the form and from them sprouted piercing spikes. A massive sword materialized in the monster's grotesque hand and in the other, a great tower shield formed from nothingness. Two burning eyes hovered within the skull's void-like eye sockets and traced around Momonga while the rest of its bodyeased into the shape of a man.

Why is it taking so long? Normally the summon animation lasts for a few seconds at most. Hmph, most likely it was those orange sigils but what's the point of them then? I'll have to look into that later.

The [Death Knight] clambered to its feet, wobbling as it did so. For the most part, the ooze had fully formed the body, the patches of liquidy skin showed it was yet to fully form. The hulking frame of the undead paired with the restrictive interior of the morgue lent no credence to the beast.

I wish I took an anti-scrying scroll from Touch before he left...or saved some for myself...or bought more from the cash shop….or anything really...

Ignoring the struggling undead behind him, Momonga fixed his attention to the adventurers once more to see...no progress on their revival...at all...until-

Gradually, the bodies of the adventurers began to correct the horrendous damage dealt to them by Clementine. The sullied, rotten skin of the group mended itself into a healthy pinkish glow, the myriad cuts, stabs and broken bones all squirmed around and slowly healed as a result of the spell. After a short while, only one of them eyes flickered open and darted around the area. The one who'd successfully been resurrected was a small girl though it was ahrd to determine her sex as her face and body held a mix of masculine and feminine features. Even looking at her body which was lazily draped in a small layer of fabric didn't give clues to her sex, her body completley lacked the usual traits found in males and females. Of course, Momonga could just peel away the fabric to find the answer, but while he may be undead, Momonga isn't a necrophile...probably, he didn't really want the answer to that question either.

It didn't take long for the girl to awaken from her death. Well, sort of. Her eyelids flickered and her lips trembled along with the vast majority of her body. Her newly resurrected form was readjusting to the sensations of life, getting familiar with all the reflexes that being alive carries. Of course, Momonga had no clue what she was actually doing and thought she was having a seizure though he still did nothing either way. After a brief few seconds of seizing, Ninya went limp before her eyes opened, her chest rose and fell in an even rhythm, her deathly pale skin regained it's colouration as her heart once again took up it's job. She was alive though she hadn't noticed Momonga at all.

Slowly, Ninya eased herself from the pseudo-bed that kept her once dead form in place, her hands explored the strange half bedding she led upon and her back tensed as she heaved herself up into a sitting position.

Is she blind or something? I'm standing right next to you! Why can't people notice me!?

After standing right next to her in an awkward silence, Momonga was spotted by Ninya. A meek whimper escaped from Ninya's lips as her eyes fell onto Momonga's undead body and momentarily froze in place.

Oh...when did my [Polymorph] get dispelled? Oh well… He thought to himself upon noticing his skull face was out in the open.

May as well roll with it.

"H-huh...wha…?" Was all she could muster as her brains struggled to process what she was looking at.

And then she froze, head stuck in the direction of the [Death Knight] before she fell to the floor in a panic.

She was scrambling around on the floor and trying to get away from him yet, due to the strain put onto the body by resurrection, her arms and legs just flailed around uselessly.

Disregarding the terror in the girl's face, Momonga decided to just wing it from here and so he spoke in his best "ancient undead" voice: "Ah, you've got some energy in you that's...that's good?"

He paused for dramatic effect...actually, he just needed a moment to come up with something to say but Ninya didn't have to know that.

With a basic idea of how to proceed, he began speaking once more: "Ahem...don't mind him, he's probably harmless."

He patted the still forming undead on the back. His [Death Knight] gurgled a demented purring sound and offered a thumbs up and an attetmp at a smile.

He continued: "So then, Ninya, I believe? I bid you welcome back to the land of the living once more. You suffered a fair few wounds so the resurrection process wasn't instant but everything seems to be in working order, yes?"

"Y-y-you…" She stammered out, not letting her eyes leave the massive undead body behind her.

"Umu, you probably think of me as some specter of death, correct?" Such was a natural assumption.

She dumbly nodded, her mouth was moving as if she were speaking yet no audible sounds came.

"Well, you're not entirely wrong. I am a [Grim Reaper,] but...how should I put this…"

Ah...I can't believe that I'm about to do this! Ok Suzuki, super roleplaying mode, go! Ulbert's happiness is riding on whether or not you can secure a hero - make this convincing!

Momonga stood up straight and activated a passive aura effect which let out a black halo of pure void to appear behind the hood of his robes. He thrust his chest out and held his head high as well as putting on his best guess at what an ancient undead would act like.

"I am not the mere carrier of death, no. I am not a mere harbinger of doom, not at all. Nor am I the reaper himself. No, I am greater than all those things. You see, young one, I am the great life devouring [Eclipse.] I am the death of all things, not just beings that hold life, no. I grant death to everything. Whether that be the very air you breathe or the ground you walk upon, all are subject to my influence and thus, all die before me."

Well...for being rusty I'd say that wasn't too bad but...Fwah, it's embarrassing to act like this in real life! How does Ulbert and the old man do this all the time?

"I-I...see…" Ninya stared blankly at Momonga as if everything he'd said flew right over her head.

Don't look so unimpressed, I just revived you and just told you I'm the very personification of death! Be afraid damn it!

"Is there a problem? You cast doubt on my claim?" Though his voice did not waver, the quagmire of emotions surging in Momonga's mind raged on even more violently at the prospect of just making a fool of himself.

Luck must have been on the undead's side; Ninya seemed to digest the information she was presented and stuttered out an apology: "A-ah! Not at...all! It's just...it doesn't s-seem real...that such a being would see fit to revive me."

Just as Momnga was congratulating himself on a job well done, his hopes were dashed and the surge of emotions returned once more. Not even his undead emotion suppression could fully regulate the tide of anxiety that hit him as Ninya opened her mouth to ask him a question.

"May I ask why me of all people? I'm nobody important so...suddenly being resurrected is a bit...odd? I don't understand your reasoning here."

E-eh? Why? You should be happy that I revived you and leave it at that! Oh shoot...I didn't think she'd actually want an explanation! I didn't even bother coming up with a cover story!

And so, faced with either looking like a bumbling idiot or lying through his teeth, Momonga opted for the latter option and said the first thing that came to mind: "I...saw potential...in your talent and thus I saw fit to resurrect you. You see, I come with an offer."

He did in fact, not come with an offer. He was planning on just kidnapping her and turning her into a hero to kill Ulbert using his own mental magic, but now that plan was ruined...kind of. He'd already drawn attention to himself by waltzing in as Momon and getting caught so outright stealing Ninya and her friends would be incredibly suspicious to say the least.

"An...offer?" The girl inquired, a hint of hope in her voice.

Momonga scrambled for any usable excuse he could, his mind was going a mile a minute. Scenario after scenario after scenario was envisioned and promptly thrown out, he couldn't come up with anything that'd even hint to a satisfactory answer, let alone a fully believable one. So, bullshit was the best option. The only way he could get out of this was to say something vague and let her draw her own conclusions from what he says.

With few alternatives other than to bluff his way through this, Momonga took a few deep breaths and prepared to vomit out his words.

I hope I can keep track of all the lies I'll inevitably have to tell the longer I stay in this world.

He cleared his nonexistent throat and Ninya perked up at the oddly human display from the undead. Though he was literally incapable of clearing his throat, the process still calmed him, it was the same with deep breathing, it was some form of catharsis.

"Indeed, I can offer you a second chance at life - a chance to grow stronger and avenge your death and...uh...It'll...give you a way to protect others from….uh...the same fate you have suffered…? Should you refuse, I will simply return you back to you slumber and leave it at that."

Well...she'd prove as good practice for my own mental magic but...if I mess that up then who knows what'll happen to her?

"I-I see...a chance to...protect people?" She sat in quiet contemplation for a short while before continuing: "I'd like to but...I've heard of the way of demons before. I...sell my soul to you or something similar, don't I? That's how these pacts work, right?"

Mission successful! She believed it!

Do I look like a demon to you? Just accept things already and I can leave and do things that actually matter!

For once Momonga actually knew the answer to this question! "Umu, for demons, yes of course you'd bargain with your soul. However, the undead are different. You see, I have a task I need you to complete - I require you to slay a demon. Well, simply calling him a demon is an understatement…"

Once more he paused for dramatic effect.

"He is the king of demons if you will, or the true Demon Lord as he calls himself...and a Demon God, I think."

All the colour from the girl's face drained, becoming even paler than it once was. Unsure of whether or not he was actually telling the truth, she quickly composed herself and asked: "Surely not, right? I-I mean-"

Her hopes were dashed. Momonga immediately answered: "I am entirely serious."

"H-huh!? But...I can't beat the Demon Lord! I'm barely a match for an [Imp!]"

Stop shouting, you'll attract the guards!

"Hm? I don't need you to kill the Demon Lord, no, the demon I need you to kill is probably more powerful than him. Fear not, for I'm not so merciless as to just throw you into battle before you're strong enough to handle yourself. That's the goal for the future, it may take a good few years or so before you're ready so please, do not worry about the end goal for now. I assure you that I will provide support for you though I cannot always accompany you, I shall regularly visit you to ascertain your growth and how to further support you. Think of me as your undead sponsor if it makes it easier to understand. Simply put, I'll guide your growth and watch over you as you grow in power."

Ah~ Responsibility! Well, that was good enough, right? It ropes her into fighting Ulbert and I can keep an eye on her so it worked out for now! Only thing left to do is to introduce her to Climb and any other heroes we find and we'll have the party assembled and ready for action! Well, then we actually have to make sure they're all strong as well...Looks like I'm in charge of Ninya for now. So, Touch had Climb, I have Ninya, Ulbert has Nfirea, that leaves Pero and HeroHero to find a suitable hero and the party will be complete!

Ninya's face relaxed as she took in the information. Why you'd be relieved to have a supreme undead stalking you was a complete mystery to Momonga so he figured not to question his good fortune and ignored her.

However, Ninya took the initiative and asked: "You mean...like in the stories…?"

"E-eh?" Was all Momonga let out like a moron, his mouth hanging open upon realising his blunder.

Stories? What stories? Has someone else just gone around and revived some rando peasant to defeat the Demon Lord or something? How the hell has this happened before?

"Yeah, like...the thirteen hereos! When I was younger my mother would often tell me that upon initially falling to the combined might of the Lighting Demon God and the Insect Demon God, the heroes' final resting place was visited by a mysterious magic caster and brought back to life. After their revival, each was granted a special magical item that could assist them in their battle against the Demon Gods!"

What...so...this has already happened!? Damn it, we're just copying stuff that's already happened! Well...we're already this far so the only thing to do is continue on...

But...Come on, what kind of story is that? Some rando mage just decides to resurrect these people and just so happens to have thirteen magical items that just so happen can kill the two Demon Gords?

Good grief, that sounds like some Greek myth where everything just so happens to work out in the protagonist's favour!

Well, may as well wing it. At least it gives me a chance to give her something to keep her from dying.

"I-indeed...just like...them."

Ninya's face lit up. The groggy and lifeless skin that clung to her bones lit up with a fiery enthusiasm.

However, Ninya did have a single grievance with Momonga's proposal: "A sponsor...Hmm, I see...May I ask, why do you not deal with this True Demon Lord? Why am I the one who must deal with him? Surely there are better choices for this task, why not the adamantite adventurers for instance?"

This question stumped Momonga. He's genuinely not bothered to come up with an excuse for this, simply betting on the chance that Ninya would be overwhelmed by A) being revived, and B) starting an [Overlord] in the face...things weren't working out for Momonga.

He sat stock still, contemplating how on earth he'd get out of this situation. This girl - Ninya - was really trying to ruin Momonga's day.

Please stop asking me things! Crap, I can't just make something up off the top of my head...AHA! I have a trump card! I can just use that.

"Ahem...You see...um….I cannot deal with him because…[Control Amnesia]"

The small frame of the girl went completely limp and she fell over onto the floor with a thunk. Mental magic, despite Momonga's gross inexperience of using it and the many possible drawbacks of messing up the delicate procedure, was the only thing Momonga could come up with to get himself out of this mess.

Phew! Alright, I've got twentyish seconds to do this so, let's go!

A small keyboard appeared in front of Momonga, his alabaster fingers turned into a white blur as he typed out a ludicrous scenario in which he was somehow prevented from directly attacking Ulbert's persona. Thanks to his superhuman speed, he typed out a good few paragraphs by the time the spell finished. The end product was a short story that, while not making any sense at all to a rational human, detailed each and every reason Momonga could think of to motivate Ninya to pursue slaying Ulbert. She was filled with the most irrational, ludicrous reasons to hate Ulbert in a fashion similar to Nfirea's motivation except with Ninya, this irrational hatred would linger long into the future rather than disspicapting over time. Ninya was permanently changed into the most zealous demon slayer in the world (probably), even though her reasons for hating Ulbert and his kin made zero sense at all. He wasn't a master writer, especially when it comes to making stuff up on the fly but, Momonga held his head high, he'd done it. Unlike his friends, Momonga succeeded in actually doing something and not having a massive repercussion occur or make himself look stupid. First Ulbert chose the most lame demon name possible, then Touch and HeroHero got mind controlled and finally Pero vomited a bunch of nonsense words over Enri and Nfirea and made himself look like a moron. Momonga was the only one who'd done something not dumb, and boy oh boy it felt great! Apart from the fact that his joy was nullified by his emotion regulator which sucked.

"Ahem, so, uh, do you agree to my proposition?"

"I-ah...Yes, I don't have much of a choice but I shall do my best! Though, may I ask but one thing of you my...lord?"

"Umu, you may ask but I cannot assure you that I'll be able to give a satisfactory reply."

"May you...resurrect my teammates? You've got access to healing magic so...maybe you could use it to revive them as well? I-I know that I'm in no position to ask this of you but traveling with them would definitely help me out in growing stronger. I-I think so at least."

Eh? Oh! Wait...they're still dead? Did they reject the revival or something? Well...they were undead so maybe I'd have to use a necromantic spell on them? Oh, that's a good plan, let's go with that!

"Denied. I will not return them to life." He bluntly responded.

"O-oh...I see." Ninya deflated at this.

"They've either rejected my resurrection or are incapable of accepting. In either case, I will simply force them to consent to resurrection though you may not like the results and neither will they."

He briefly stopped speaking, judging whether or not Ninya was keen on the idea of roaming around with undead companions. She made no observable objections so he continued on.

"You see, death is my domain, therefore, so is the undeath of all life. I can use my necromantic magic on them to revive them as undead versions of themselves if you so wish. While they will be far stronger than they were in life, they'd be subject to the usual traits that undeadth brings; They're bodies will be cold to the touch, their emotions will be limited, depending on which undead they turn into they may be weaker to bludgeoning based damage, they'll be weak to fire and holy elements and they'll also lose the ability to derive any kind of effects from the ingestion of items. Though, undeath comes with it's boons; your friends will be vastly stronger than they once were, they'll never tire, never age, never deteriorate mentally (probably), they'll automatically have their magical abilities awakened in the form of rudimentary necromantic, memory manipulation magic (depending on the variant they resurrect as), the ability to manipulate their souls, among other boons. If I were to tell you everything then I fear we'd be here for a long while so I shall stop here. I cannot guarantee what forms they may take but I shall try to tailor their new bodies to suit their strengths but I cannot make them anything more than a middle-high tier undead as their bodies are far too weak to sustain a powerful form." Most of what he said was true, The whole soul manipulation thing was a complete lie. No basic bitch undead could just walk around and do what they want with people's souls or their own soul. He'd only told her that because it just sounded cool.

Well that was a lie but I don't want to use my race changing items on them so they'll have to make do with being pumped full of negative energy instead. Fwah, that lichwannabe should be around here, right? Maybe I can fulfill his dream while I'm here? I may as well try to find him.

"So then, Ninya, do you wish to see your friends once more? Are you willing to remain friends with them after their metamorphosis?"

"Un...dead…?"

"Umu, I did say that, yes."

"And they'll...be the same as they were, right?"

"Not entirely, no. While they will retain their memories up to a certain point in time and will have full access to their normal cognitive functions required to...well, function, they'll wholly lack an attachment to humanity and will thus find it far harder to empathize with others. Whatsmore is that their emotions will be regulated and are thus immune to sustained rage or sadness or even happiness. They'll live lives entirely in emotional purgatory if you will. They will still have sentimental attachments to people or activities though, the drive to preserve one's individuality would still be present and they'd be able to live out normal human lives for the most part."

"O-oh…so they'll be like people but...uncaring?"

"In a way yes, though that is not to say that they can't emulate emotion or even work to overcome their emotion regulation."

"And what of their bodies? Will they be...rotten corpses or something? Or skeletons? Or undead beasts?"

"Ah, that I cannot say for sure unfortunately. From what I've seen they should retain their humanoid forms but other than that I do not know for sure. They could grow wings, extra arms, tails or anything."

Fwah~ I really should have done more experiments on the effects of a forced transformation! The only useful reference I have is that lich wannabe and even then he had that orb item to catalyze his transformation. Ah, speaking of which, I should use that item! Time to stop time and have a quick analysis of the itemand to check what the hell it actually does.

Momonga pulled out a very bumpy, ugly ball from his inventory. The object pulsed rhythmically and emitted a faint violet hue from within. As soon as the object was pulled from Momonga's inventory, a voice resounded through his mind:

"Greetings o' overlord of death, what can this one do for you on this most hallowed of eves?"

Oh...it talks like a chun alright.

"Orb, I need to ask you something, if that is alright with you?"

"Of course my lord, it is this one's purpose to serve the overlord of death."

"Umu, can you tell me about the ritual that the lichwannabe was performing? How did you turn him into an undead and make sure he stayed in a humanoid form? I would have assumed that the negative energy would simply convert him into some random undead variant yet he retained both his humanoid body plan and had remnants of emotions. How does such a transformation work?"

"The lichwanna-ah! My former wielder, correct? Forgive me my lord, while this one was bestowed the capability to think and learn, my creator did not specify such mechanisms of my design. The only thing I can share with you is that I can capable of negative energy amplification and redirection which allows me to channel the negative energy into a specific subject."

"Negative energy amplification? So that's how the lick guy managed to rise in levels so rapidly?"

"Indeed, it is as you say my lord. This one can amplify negative energy by 2.5x it's normal potency for the usage of summoning or altering a being. This one can also increase the healing/damaging properties of the energy to a degree of 1.25x times. When this one was birthed from the womb of blackness, a strange enchantment was branded unto my soul which I believe allows me to amplify negative energy however I cannot be certain."

"So you were enchanted with some sort of spell then? Hm, from what you're describing I'd say that you're enchanted with [Tenebris Influunt] from a...hm, at least by a level 140 magic caster judging by the amplification modifier. Though, chances are their level is far lower seeing as how the damage increase is incredibly low so...maybe a level 110 caster using some sort of item to buff their magic to a certain degree. Hm, we'll need to look into this in more detail once Touch has been dealt with. Tell me orb, do you have any information about your creator?"

"Once again this one must apologize to you, my lord! This one is ignorant of my creator in all ways except their respective school of magic. From what little this one knows of the necromantic arts, it can be deduced that this one's creator was a [Necromancer] and possessed a rudimentary knowledge of a variation of soul manipulation magic as I have been granted a form of sentiance. This one is ignorant of what branch of soul magic was used in this one's creation however. Forgive this one but that is all this one knows about the creator of the orbs."

"You brethren? There's more like you then? Do you know how many?"

"Hm...This one knows of five others, but there could be more lurking in the shadows of the higher undead of this world. We're naturally predisposed to serving powerful [Necromancers] and undead so locating such undead would assuredly lead you to my brethren. Fools, they are ignorant of the master of death who descended upon this world! They flock to the false Gods of undeath in-"

"Umu, enough of that please. Thank you for your answers. Now then, I require you to convert these bodies on the floor into some form of undead creature. It doesn't matter what kind, so long as they're not a draconic being or skeletal/zombified undead, any other undead being would be fine."

"Very well, this one shall begin to corrupt their forms into a more pleasant visage - one of true undeath! This one requires a portion of negative energy to successfully enact the resurrection so, if my lord were to be so generous to donate but a portion of your negative energy to this one, it'll be possible to revive them immediately. But, do forgive me my lord but this one is yet to perform a necromantic resurrection so the produced results may be undesirable. If such a cases were to occur then I plea-"

"It's fine, please just do it."

"Of course."

Time resumed it's flow and Momonga hoisted the orb into the air and funneled as much negative energy as his passive effect would allow him into the orb.

"Ah~, yeees~, my lord, this one must thank you for such a rich stream of negative energy."

Is...this thing getting off on this?

"E-excuse me...what is that item?"

"Ah, this item will allow me to resurrect your friends into an undead form. I could simply use my necromancy on them but they'd be husks of their former selves, you see , a necromantic resurrection would be near impossible for anyone to do alone, thus indeed this item. Sadly, this item will limit the strength that your friends will possess upon revival as it's necromancy is poor."

"I see. So even you are incapable of some things?"

"Hm? Of course, nothing exists that is truly perfect. Everything needs the assistance of something to live or function. There isn't a God nor mortal that is free from the vices of existence."

Fwah that doesn't really make any sense! I knew I wasn't good at roleplay but...this is just sad! I'm not even sounding cool cause I'm saying words I hope she doesn't understand!

"My lord, this one has acquired a suitable surplus of negative energy. We may begin the resurrection if you so please.

"Then let us begin."

A condensed funnel of negative energy poured from the orb and engulfed the dead adventurers in a blanket of undeath. Slowly, their skin began peeling away, the sheen of dull bone burst through the rotten flesh of the Swords of Darkness. In the midst of their bodily contortions their skeletons began to refine themselves, bone thickened and lengthened, the cartilage that made up their joints fizzled away and a faint flash of magic replaced them before disappearing entirely. The hollow chambers that once housed eyeballs were now lit up by a piercing red flame. Only a single one of the adventurers rose from the ground. The skeleton that had clambered up from the floor was incredibly slowly growing some sort of pale skin and muscles. The still lying skeletons were replicating their standing compatriot, they too were being slowly overtaken by the growth of taut muscle and ghostly flesh.

The first to stand had finally fully formed it's new form and let out a few gasping wheezes from it's negative energy ravaged lungs. Their partially mummified flesh covered the twisted skeleton, the hands ended up in deadly claws, and teeth were sharp and jagged like needles. They were devoid of any clothing so the warped bones of their skeleton could be seen poking through the semi transparent sheet of skin wrapped around it. Their chest heaved with laboured breaths and it's stomach was fervently calling out for food. Atop their head was a short mop of messy, light blond hair. In their eye sockets was an unusual eye for the undead, it was that of a still living being. The socket housed a perfectly normal, non-rotting eye of a human. The only noticeable undead trait among the eyes was an incredibly faint amber hue behind the bright blue iris.

Hmmm, an undead in the need of food? How odd, I guess this means that this thing is still living? Maybe between living and undead? How interesting.

Making a mental note of the strange undead before him, Momonga waited for his creation to make the first move.

"P-...P-P-Peter?"

The pseudo-undead - Peter didn't react at all, it's eyes were firmly trained on Momonga.

Did he not retain his consciousness? Is he just another drone undead like a [Death Knight?] Let's see [Discern Enemy].

Peter Mawk, level 29? Jeez...that's bad!

Well, I guess it's better than nothing but when compared to the lich guy, this is a pretty poor showing. I guess splitting the negative energy among three low levels diminishes the potency of their conversion.

He continued reading Peter's summary to determine just what kind of undead he'd been made into.

Oooh~ He's a [Wight?] Well he doesn't look like the YGGDRASIL [Wights] I've seen, maybe he's a new variant that's limited to just this world?

"Nnnnnn…" Peter's throat let out a groggy moan.

Oh~ His first word? Come on, I don't need more drone undead, please at least be sentient!

"Nnnnninyaaaa…" The words came out in a garbled mess as his new vocal cords adjusted themselves in place, evidenced by the slight squirming in his throat as he spoke. Contrary to most other undead like [Liches], Peter's voice was almost identical to his living one, albeit his voice was slightly deeper and more hollow sounding.

He's done it! We've got a non-sycophant undead - he thinks of others before he bows to me! So...uh, what am I actually going to do with this guy then? Sure I could just let him wander around with Ninya but that's so boring! Wait...he's half undead or something, right? That means he might still retain more of his humanity other than his sentience and hunger. Therefore, can this guy breed? Ninya's a girl and they're already in the same team so it's worth a shot, right? Well, it may also rot her womb from the inside out but...eh, worth a shot! It's decided, this guy will go around with Ninya until we need all our heroes to be in the same party.

"Nnnn...Ninyaaa…" Peter shakily stretched his hand out to Ninya who was still sat down on the floor yet Peter's eyes still did not leave Momonga.

"P-peter, it's alright, he's-"

"RUN!" In a surprising burst of speed, Peter grabbed onto Ninya's neck and flung her from the room before lurching at Momonga.

Oh,..we're fighting, alright then.

Momonga waited until Peter's outstretched claws made contact with him before casting a spell:

"[Time Stop]"

Spamming this spell is most definitely gonna bite me in the ass later on.

Peter's newfound claws dragged across Momonga's skull, dealing absolutely no damage to the overlord at all and leaving Peter in shock. The undead claws of Peter shredded the air though, leaving a faint trail of negative energy in the air.

"You're quick to take action, aren't you? That's the mark of a good leader, I can respect that."

"Yoooou…" Once again, Peter's vocal cords struggled to produce anything more than a single word.

Guessing what the newly born undead was thinking, Momonga began: "You're wondering why I revived you, yes? Perhaps what I am as well? Fear not, my intentions were purely good, despite what you may believe about our kind." Momonga put heavy emphasis on "our", much to the continued shock of Peter.

"Ourrrrr…?"

"Indeed, I have revived you in a superior form. However, before you accuse me of anything, I'd like for you to know that this was the only possible way or reviving you at all. You see, you were murdered and turned into an undead by some sort of undead worshiping cult and so, I could only revive you by making you a superior undead being. That goes for your other friends, save Ninya who was spared an undead conversion."

Peter made to move yet was cut off by Momonga's bony finger pressing against his lips.

"Silence, I do not have the time to waste by conversing with base undead such as yourself. Now, I shall end my spell, do not do anything you'd regret, is that clear?"

With no options other than compliance, Peter nodded.

With a snap of his fingers, Momonga ended the [Time Stop.]

Maybe I should lay off on the heavy usage of [Time Stop,] must be pretty annoying for the people who're immune to its effects in this world.

The next to stand was a burly looking mass of flesh that slowly shifted into the form of a nearhuman Dyne. He looked essentially the same as his former self, the only actual difference being an incredibly slight paling and rotting of the skin and a faint glow to his eyes like with Peter. Other than that, he was the spitting image of his once living self.

Oh~ We've got another one! Let's see [Discern Enemy.]

He's a level 21 [Deathlock?] Well his level is incredibly low but since he's a death variant he should be around Peter's level in terms of strength. Hm, being a [Warlock] isn't a very good fit for him but oh well, the undead are naturally poor druids so he'd have to abandon that walk of life anyway.

Following the newly revived Dyne, Lukrut's body began to rise. Unfortunately for Lukrut, he missed out on having a humanoid body despite the promises of the orb.

And the final corpse rose forth. It was near identical to it's once living self, same proportions, same skin colour, same height, etc. But there was one difference between Lukrut's new body and his prior one - a roiling mass of pinkish tendrils that wiggled around in Lukrut's still wound ridden body.

"Wha-wha-wha-what the!? Lu-lukrut!" Shouted Ninya, fighting off what looked like a mouthful of vomit. Momonga had to admit, the smell of death wasn't very pleasant.

"Grrrraaagh…" A solid mass of pink flesh wiggled it's way out of Lukrut's mouth, giving Momonga a good look at what kind of undead Lukrut had been converted into.

Is that...looks like a parasite monster and since it's undead...ah, a [Bleakborn Wriggler] most likely...great...

A [Bleakborn Wriggler] was similar to HeroHero and [True Vampires,] wherein their build was designed to be a momentum based fighter - getting more powerful the longer they fought or the more they consumed. The only difference between the three was that [Bleakborn Wriggler] were far, far weaker in their initial levels and before gaining any buffs from consuming others than their fellows. Rather than having a solid baseline to work off of, the wrigglers could be considered more of a parasitic build than an active build - using defeated player's and NPC's bodies as a host to act from. The general gameplan of the parasitic builds was to steadily acquire stronger and stronger bodies, but much like the [Demon Hunter] class, if one wished to level up, they must defeat progressively stronger foes...hence why no one played the class. But such was the balancing of YGGDRASIL, stuff was just added because the Devs thought they were cool and rarely ever changed or balanced properly.

Oh great, he's a failure. We don't need more momentum fighters who'll just drain us even more of our resources. And of course he just had to roll the weakest of the physical undeads! Jeez, this guy is gonna be useless then. He's not even human enough to blend in with Ninya and Peter, I thought the orb said it was gonna make them all humanoid!

"Oh dear, that wasn't supposed to happen.." He pointed at the seizing Lukrut who paid no heed to the Overlord."

Maybe this is for the best? Since Ninya doesn't have a full party, it'd incentivize her to seek out other adventurers, perhaps Nfirea may join up with them? He's needing a party afterall and the sooner we can set up the Ulbert killing gang set up, the better. I'll take Dyne for myself as well then, a party of two means that they have to party up with more people and I guess I can use Dyne as an agent or spy. There are still quite a few places in this world we don't know of so sending people out should be on the agenda as well as getting Ulbert's persona killed. Hmph, I should probably just let Dyne and Lukrut wander around with Ninya and Peter for a while though, only until they get accustomed to their new bodies.

"Umu, now that you're all acquainted with your new bodies, I believe it's time that you all departed this place. Ninya and Peter are the most human looking so you two should spearhead any and all interactions and actions you wish to take. I shall bestow upon you some items to aid in blending in and to allow your journey to begin without problem." He tossed a necklace and a few other items such as rings and a sword to Peter.

"That necklace will generate an illusionary face based upon your once living face. Think of it as a mix between a polymorph and an illusion spell. The rings will sate your hunger though I recommend consuming food every so often as the magic in the ring is weak and may become depleted as time wears on. Finally the blade is a simple magic item with enhanced slashing, stabbing, etc. It's nothing fancy"

Peter's eyes lit up as soon as the blade entered his grapes and he let out a few stunned moans.

God, I hope he learns to speak fluently, it'll ruin everything he just moans at everything.

Next he threw some more items out of his inventory. This time Ninya was swallowed by a wave of garbage.

"Put these items on once you've adjusted to returning to life. Like with Peter's sword, the items are nothing special and are weak, yet they should last you long enough until you can purchase superior equipment. Just a few simple enchantments such as reduced spell cost and whatnot."

"Also, take these." He also threw a handful of thin paper scrolls at Ninya. "Use them should anyone become suspicious of your friends. The scrolls will negate undead detection spells and will reduce the amount of damage they'll take from [Turn Undead] and other such spells."

Ninya sheepishly placed the scrolls within a pouch on her new half armoured robes and like Peter, let out a few stunned grunts of amazement.

Alright, no point in giving the other two equipment since they'll be with me in a few days...apart from the basic illusion necklace things.

The missions completed, Momonga turned to leave the cramped room to once more act under the persona of Momon before reuniting with Ulbert.

"W-wait! H-how're we going to explain just suddenly being revived to everyone? Everyone in the city thinks we're dead and just coming back to life would raise some eyebrows!"

"O-oh yeah…" Momonga really hadn't thought this through. And then Momonga remembered, he did think this through! He had a [Death Knight] afterall and one of Ulbert's demons on standby within the city! Huzzah, he didn't fuck things up!

"...Aha!" He exclaimed like a complete bumbling moron.

Well, I should probably knock these guys out to make it look at least a little bit believable.

"[Aura of Despair 1]" The bodies of the Swords of Darkness went completely limp as soon as the spell was cast.

That was easy.

"[Message]"

"Ulbert, I'm in a bit of pinch. Can you just command your demons to go on a rampage within E-Rantel? I need an explanation as to why the adventurers came back to life."

"Uh...s-sure? How exactly is that an explanation though? Demons don't really do necromancy."

"I've got a [Death Knight] with me so I was going to say that the demons brought it to the morgue to gather up bodies for...demon reasons."

"...Y'know...no one will believe you, right? That's the worst explanation for people coming back to life I've ever heard."

"Ah...but it's better than nothing."

"True...All right, fine. The [Shadow Demons'll] go an' find you then they'll tear the place up as well as taking the bodies in the morgue. Don't be surprised if they're a bit slow, it takes a while for orders to be issued at long ranges."

"Thank you, I'll be done in a little while."

"Mhm...oh one more thing to the person listening in on this little conversation…I'm coming for you."

*click*

Umu, time to get things moving forward!

"[Death Knight,] convert as many bodies as you can into undead before the [Shadow Demons] show up. Once they do, you are to battle me before running away, is that clear."

"Grrruuuuhhhh…." Was the [Death Knight's] answer.

The hulkish undead charged further down the corridor, letting off grunts and moans as it's legs were still partly coated in the waxy slime it was birthed from.

Are my necromancy spells inhibited by the sigils? Were they meant to stop people from just doing what I'm doing? It'd make sense but...aren't they a little too powerful to just be put on some nobody adventurer's coffins? Strange. Well, may as well dee what's what with the sigils since I've got nothing to do except wait for the signal.

Momonga experimentally tapped on the blinking pinpoint of orange with his boney finger. The glow was entirely covered by his thin finger.

"[Appraise Item]"

Eh? Nothing?

Monoga cast the spell again, as well as it's superior version.

Still nothing? How odd...

Oh well, no point on dwelling on it for now. There'll be plenty of time after Touch's brought back.

The [Death Knight] tore through the walls of the morgue, slicing and bashing the walls with eager howls of glee, methodically working it's way all through the morgue and circling back to where Momonga was.

Shortly thereafter, Momonga found himself being tackled by the [Shadow Demon] that was sent by Ulbert to survey E-Rantel just as his Momon armour rematerialized onto him.

Everything in Momonga's vision flashes white and a cracking sound echoed throughout the halls. He only caught a glimpse of a flamaberge before he was sent flying away.

Even in it's half-formed state, the strength of the beast was actually rather impressive. It'd managed to fling Momonga back a good few meters and slam him into the damp bricks of the morgue with a hefty crash.

Ouch...I expected no less from one of my creations, even with the poor stats of my armour, that was a pretty good attack. This is a good chance to actually learn how to use these weapons!

He'd prepared his blades to meet the swing of the charging undead, but Momonga's arm was jerked backwards before his blade could make contact with teh [Death Knight's.] Quickly looking back, he saw his greatsword, firmly embedded in the walls of the morgue, not budging a bit.

Oh dear.

The flamberge collided with Momonga's chest and sent the Overlord sprawling all the way to the entrance of the morgue. Sure, he was relatively undamaged, but a skeleton doesn't exactly weigh that much, even with armor on.

He smashed through the gate with ease before coming to a halt right next to the entrance.

Good to know that I can be sent flying pretty easily. I'll have to consider that in the future.

Noticing that the receptionist was literally right next to him, Momonga tried his best at acting: "U-umu...It's just as I feared! This morgue has been used by demons for...uh...purposes - demon purposes! Uh...please leave."

Though she did not have to evacuate. The [Death Knight] came barreling down the hall with even more zeal than before. The thundering footsteps all but drowned at the majority of Momonga's poor acting and the girl was left looking at him in silence, mouth moving though no sound could be heard. A flamberge flew through the air, slicing into Momonga's armor before the receptionist's torso even landed onto the floor. Her already zombified lower half aimlessly shambled around the room.

A great roar interrupted Momonga's thoughts and the massive undead was already on top of him.

Umu, I should probably try fighting now. [Perfect Warrior] is out the window as it gives me subconscious knowledge how to use my weapons so I should at least try to learn the basics first.

He raised his greatsword but before he could react, Momonga's entire body was swamped in a wave of black ooze even thicker than the body of HeroHero.

The horned helmet of the [Death Knight] hit Momonga's helmet with a soft thunk before flecks of ooze splattered onto his eyes.

What on earth? He metnally questioned as he struggled to make sense of what happened.

Getting up from his position on the floor, Momonga inspected what remained of the [Death Knight] amid the black ooze. Only armour remained.

The [Death Knight] had melted back into the ooze that had formed it.

That's troubling, now I won't get any practice till I fight Ulbert. If I had to guess, those orange things are probably responsible.

He sighed in exasperation.

Can things just please go smoothly for once?

"[Create Low-tier Undead - Death Knight]" He resummoned a [Death Knight,] fortunately this undead formed itself in no time at all and was completely free of all manner of ooze.

"[For the duration of your summon, trash this place but spare the adventurers that I resurrected]" He ordered.

Alright, my patience is gone, let's just head back to E-Pespel and pick up Climb, the summon I put inside him should at least make that a simple ordeal.

He mentally focused on the [Wisp] he'd forced to possess Climb's body.

Yep, still in the forest and...Climb's dead...and moving?

What, how?

He doubly checked the position of Climb and made sure he read the status bar correctly.

It read: "Climb - Status: Deceased. Reclaim summon Y/N?"

...Why doesn't anything go according to plan?

A moving dead guy. That's definitely what I had planned for.

Now he had a new goal - get back Climb. So, he did just that, Momonga left the destruction of the morgue to his summon and reunited with his party members before heading out to E-Pespel.

---

The forests of E-Pespel

The dim forests of E-Pespel were much the same as all the over forests that the Demon Lord used to house his troops. The wood of the trees was an off purplish colour and the bark peeled away as the corruption worked upon the plants. The grand was similarly corrupt - plush and soft to the touch like flesh. in a way that soil had no right to be. However, there was one ever so slight difference between the E-Pespel forest when compared to the other forests, barring the massive crater created by Touch. The trees had red splotches on them. Not just small splotches. Large, fleshy growths that clung to the corrupt wood or pooled at the feet of the dying plants.

"What in Goddamn?"A massive woman spoke as she and her party approached one such growth on a tree. Not even checking the surroundings of any kind of trap or ambush, she brazenly approached the strange decoration that was pinned to the tree.

"Don't just run up to it, moron! It could be trapped!" Cried a short magic caster, shaking a few purple leaves from her scarlet robe.

"Nah, it's all good, the twins woulda said something by now if it was gonna kill me." The hulkish woman replied.

"Mhm." Two girls dressed in bright yellow ninja gi nodded along with the giant.

"Just please be careful, I don't wanna get caught in another tentacle trap. I don't even have enough mana left to teleport so we're double screwed if that happens again!" The small mage insisted.

"Relax~ There's no goblins here so the chances of running into one of their shaman's traps is low."

The mage shifted around beneath her robes and shivered slightly and forcefully grabbed onto the hulk, pulling the much larger woman away from the mound of liquid that was leaking from the tree.

"Gagaran, you damn meathead, It can still be a trap though!"

"Just cast [Continual Light] on it then we can see properly. If it really is a trap then we can just dismantle it with the help of your light."

The mage took out a small copper coin from her coin-pouch and cast the spell [Continual Light] on the coin. A faint purplish glow emitted from the coin and served to light up a small portion of the surrounding area though the darkness swallowed up much of the light yet.

Gagaran traced her meaty fingers all around what seemed like a lump of melted leather and fur put together.

"Yuck." Commented the short vampire as she ushered the behemoth of a woman to continue on.

"Kinda looks like...flesh, right? Like when it gets burned and starts to melt?"

"Oi meathead, don't poke it! Her meaty finger was swatted away by the smaller woman.

And then Gagaran noticed something just beneath her massive foot. A hand.

A small, clawed hand, almost primate-like in appearance.

"It's an [Imp!]" She concluded, still poking the melted flesh.

"Ok ok, great. Can we please keep going? I know you like poking that thing but c'mon, hurry up." The rest of her party had already moved on from the strange sight.

"Right!" The she-hulk finished her poking and the adventurers began to trek further into the forest.

The adventurers kept pressing onwards into the forest. Every couple of metres, the residue of slain demons grew larger and larger. Charred horns, discarded jaws, torn out spines, everything one might expect to be inside a body was thrust off for the world to see.

"Gods, there's just no end to it, is there?"

"We must be getting close."

Eventually, the group was brought to a small cliff face that overlooked a near endless expanse of gnarled trees. The deepwoods were near.

"Yo leader, is it a good idea to head in? We haven't prepared for any kind of exploration at all. I don't think just walking on into the deepwoods is a good idea." Asked Gagaran to the leader of the group.

The holy priest ignored her friend's concerns and pressed on: "It is not ideal but we must press long as we stay away from the heart of the forest, it shouldn't be too dangerous. Just don't let your guard down."

"'Course." The massive woman brandished her large warpick, giving it a few test swings.

After another hour of the gruelling trek, the bodies began ramping up in quantity even more. Halfeaten [Imp Broodlords] and [Imp Marauders] littered the dying forest's floors. Their vile blood only further contributed to the dying forest's decline, sinking into the filth and spreading corruption all throughout the land.

"Gods...I'm getting real sick of looking at dead [Imps]" Pouted the shot mage girl.

"Just deal with it a lil' longer, we're probably close to whoever's responsible for the corpses."

And right on que, the adventurer's conversation was cut short.

"SKRAAAAAGH!" Came a vile shriek from the pile of demonic bodies and a flash of red fur flew through the air.

Gagaran grabbed onto her warpick in preparation to defend herself just as the ground beneath her became nothing but a sea of red.

"Wha-" She was cut off by the earth's painful shrieks as a sea of fire erupted from the floor beneath her. Evileye's hood was forcibly pulled down as another flash or red whizzed right over her head. Thanks to her slightly enhanced vampiric senses, she caught a brief glimpse of lazily assembled armour that covered what looked like a hulking [Imp.]

"Oh crud, [Imp Warlord!] Watch out for the trees!" Shouted Evileye, alerting the rest of her comrades to the strength of their foe.

"[Floating Swords]" Cried Lakyus, her six magical blades manifesting behind her and flying into the trees to prevent the [Imp] from terrorizing the party with it's vastly superior speed.

Another flash of red fur whizzed by the adventurer's heads and this time, Tia was the one to shriek in pain. Everything left of the adventure was nothing but a massive crackling fire that quickly worked upon the dried leaves of the forest. The six blades that slashed and stabbed the trees did little to disway the demon from continuing it's attack.

And then another flash, and another, another and another. The [Imp] was relentless in it's zipping around, taking the odd swipe at the adventurers as it did.

"Lakyus, do you wanna get on healing everyone up?" Hollered Evileye, never letting the [Imp] stray too far from her vision.

"Right! [Mass Heavy Cure Wounds]" The entire party was enveloped in an emerald glow,and by the crashing sound produced by Gagaran, the healing was successful. Unfortunately, in the split second Evileye's attention had shifted to her team-member, the flashing of red fur had disappeared.

"Tia, wait for it to get close and use your adamantite wall thingy! Meathead, smash it's face in when it gets caught!"

"Right!" Bellowed the she-hulk, scanning around the tree tops in waiting for the demon.

Seconds ticked by...and then minutes...and then more minutes, and yet the demon did not come out of hiding. There was nothing other than the soft crackles of fire.

And then...a thump.

"[Crystal Lance]" The small mage had instinctively let loose a spell into the foliage in response to yet another thump.

As if nothing had happened, the thumps continued. Louder and faster. The thumps broke out into a desperate run and the trees nearest to Tia shook with violent tremors.

"Heads up, something big is coming!" Moving to cover her teammate, Gagaran preemptively shielded the twins from the danger.

There it was. The source of those thunderous steps was in full view. It's alabaster fur contrasted the dim darkwoods. Sixtuplet yellow dots were embedded within a forest of white fur and stared directly into the souls of the adventurers.

"What the hell is that thing!?" Exclaimed Gagaran, ushering the twins further away from the approaching monster.

There was no time to regain their bearings. Evileye's leg buckled as something incredibly hard and fast collided with her tiny body, sending her a few meters backwards.

"There goes shorty." Commented Gagaran.

"*cough* *cough* Uuugh…" Groaned the small mage, shoving whatever was thrown at her off of her.

"Oh no." She stammered out as she beholds the form of the projectile that was thrown at her. A few shattered sheets of primitive armour that covered up thick, red fur and an eyeless gaze. It was the [Imp Warlord] from before.

"Oi leader, think that's it? Looks like what was in the drawing, right?" Gagaran asked her comrades, pointing to the large creature that was bounding towards them.

"Indeed, that beast bears a resemblance to that on the quest sheet. It must be far more powerful than that [Imp] before, be on your guards everyone!" Shouted Lakyus who hoisted her greatsword into the air.

Gagaran and the twins fell back to Evileye's side, protecting the mage from any other projectiles that may be thrown.

"Yo, demonexpert-san, wanna tell me why a demon is usin' it's kind as projectiles?" Said Gagaran as she picked the mage from the floor.

" Demons...aren't simpleminded, meathead. I've heard sometimes the runts'll get eaten by the big'ns but uh...I'd say that the two demons didn't belong to the same master. I'd say this one's the cause of all those other dead [Imps] further back."

"Wha? Aren't demons meant to be rooting for the same team?"Questioned the baffled hulk.

"Normally yes, but you're forgetting your history, meathead. The demons, back during the era of the thirteen heroes, were not united under the banner of the Demon Lord. If you recall, the Demon Lord himself engaged in battles with the Demon Gods alongside the heroes. Not all demons work together so I guess that's what's happening here. This [Cerberus] thing likely is not affiliated with the master of the [Imps] and so slaughtered the lot of them in the name of it's master."

Lakyus offered up a horrified look and questioned further: "Then what does this mean? The two demons having differing masters would imply there being two roughly equally powerful demons to act as their masters. The Demon Lord's power is cemented throughout history and is widely feared, it'd take an equally or more so powerful entity to exist for anything to rebel against the current Demon Lord."

But even just thinking about it was horrific enough. Having one Demon Lord being present had caused centuries of torutre for the citizens of Re-Estize, having another was just another whole can of worms.

"Talking time is over." Quipped Tina and Tia at the same time, knives slashing through a bed of crimson fire fired off by the beast and protecting their clueless teammates.

"Here it comes!" Gagaran let out a war cry and tightly gripped her warpick.

"Leader." Said one of the twins as they both apple some sort of foul smelling chemical to Lakyus' ethereal swords.

"[Floating Swords]" All six of the floating swords became animated at the behest of Lakyus and shot at the slumbering demon, aiming for both exposed legs and the eyes. Such was a basic yet critical procedure when battling any powerful foe. With the poison from the twins working in tandem with her sword's cursed wounds any demon hit by the attack would find themselves on the brink of death or completely disabled. The more crippled the foe, the easier the battle would be, rushing into a battle with any monster above gold rank would be tantamount to suicide for most adventurers, even at the rank of adamantite, blindly rushing any demon without a plan could potentially lead to the death of said adventuer as the sheer gap in power between humans and demons was simply too vast. The only limiting factor of the demons found roaming the outer woods and plains was their apparent lack of intelligence, making them easy prey for adventurers.

Each of the six blades hit their mark, slicing through the flesh of the demon and killing it instantly and thus concluding the day's work in a timely fashion...is how it was supposed to go.

Rather than penetrating the hide of the beast and severely wounding it, the pearly white hound reared back before the swords even touched it's fur and smacked them away with it's serpentine tail.

The coiling tail hissed at the group, whipping around to the front of the body and smacking the three other heads, perhaps some sort of punishment for making it do all the work.

"Heads up, we're fighting this thing head on!" Bellowed Gagaran who'd already decided that charging the monster they knew nothing about and had just deflected their preemptive attack was a great idea.

"[Shadow Clone]" Both of the twins activated their cloning abilities. Two mirror images of the pair sprung from their shadows and immediately leapt into action. The clones were a great distraction while battling single targets, though the individual strength of the clones were only 35% of the caster, they were great to outnumber and overwhelm the target.

Flanking the sides of Gagaran who acted as the primary tank and damage dealer, each of the clones drew their blades leapt for the exposed sides of the demon while Gagaran swung her hammer down on the triplet necks of the beast, pinning it to the floor.

"[Flame Pillar]" Cried Tia.

"[Ice Pillar]" Cried Tina.

The twin elemental pillars slammed directly into each other, the conflicting elements immediately engaged in a war for dominance as to which would earn the prize of the demon's hide. Nearly as soon as the war began, the ice sheet evaporated just as the conjoined projectile reached the demon and the fire blazed even hotter. Did the attack fail? No, of course not, this was totally planned out by the twins and was in no way them just showing off how cool their techniques looked. Of course it worked.

The melted ice lingered in the air, the water droplets still clung to the fiery body of the projectile and siphoned off heat from the spell. Instantly, the freezing water bubbled and steam rose into the air as the water reached its boiling point and clashed with the demon in a wave of skin scorching broth.

"Secret Ninja Art: [Boiling Pillar]" Quickly added the twins in unison once their totally planned combo attack landed on the beast.

Streams of steaming water slithered around the beats face, pooling around the pores and eyes of the many heads, forcing the creature to cry out in pain for the time. Even if the pained shriek was more of a grunt of discomfort, the triplet heads of the creature greatly amplified the cry and thus made the damage seem far worse than what it actually was. Not relenting for a second, the adventurers continued their assault on the demon.

"[Floating Swords]"

"[Maximize Magic - Dragon Earth]"

The floating swords of Lakyus were trailed by a stream of dragonoid stalagmites. All the projectiles snaked around Gagaran, Tia's clone and Tina's clone and struck the overwhelmed beast. Like last time, the floating swords were deflected by a smack from the tail and the spell harmlessly bounced off the fur of the beast.

The great white beast lunged for Evileye, breaking right through the vanguard of Gagaran, Tia, Tina and their clones were sent hurtling into the trees as the beast rammed right through them. In seconds, the beast had closed the gap and flexed it's tail to parry the blow that Lakyus attempted to perform. Her jet black blade was thrust back from the violent parry and sent Lakyus to the floor.

Though the vanguard was all but dismantled, Evileye was calm. She was the most powerful of the group after all and was still confident that such a creature could do little to harm her. Sure her first spell may have failed but if offensive spells didn't work, utility and misc spells could prove just as effective against a foe as their combat based alternatives if used in the correct way. The beast had no observable aura nor did it emit any kind of pressure as was customary for powerful foes. It may possess a strong defense and a powerful melee strike but Evileye could not sense any sort of magic coming from the beast. Most likely the fire breath the monster had displayed was a natural attack that the creature was born with like the breath weapons of dragons rather than a truly magical attack. Whatever this demon was, it was weaker than Evileye, she was sure of it.

"[Molten Plate]" Evileye cast the first spell of her two spell combination attack. Thick sheets of earth began stripping themselves from the confines of the floor,and latched onto the sprinting demon, small streams of lava seeped out from the magically charged earth and acted as a sort of makeshift glue to keep the plates fixed onto the demon, encasing it in a burgundy outer shell and doing little to halt it's advance.

[Molten Plate,] normally a support type spell used to buff the target's defense with molten plates of earth would usually never be used against a foe unless one had a particularly strong deathwish. However, Evileye had a plan and the molten plates were already having their desired effects.

The demon had slowed. It's joints were burdened by the constant gnawing of the perpetually leaking molten rock and the heavy sheets or rock weighted down the beast to a slight extent. Though the effectiveness of the rocks acting as weights were dubious. There was a specific reason as to why Evileye used this spell.

The demon rammed right into a nearby tree, shattering it in an instant and spraying Evileye with charred wood.

The demon was blind.

She couldn't help but stifle a girlish giggle. It was a pretty goofy sight to behold. A monstrously strong demon that shrugged off almost every attack an entire group of adamantite adventurers made was helplessly bumbling about with no clue as to where it was, bumping into trees and the like.

But now was not the time to be laughing at the creature. She'd need to hurry and finish off the beast before any more of the forest burnt down.

"[Molten Plate]" she repeated her spell, renewing the pre-existing plates and adding more to the mass of brown earth and sizzling lava.

"Damn shorty...that's impressive!" Shouted out Gagaran who was leaning on a thoroughly destroyed tree, wobbling as he tried to compose her breathing.

"Focus on getting the leader back up on her feet and go find the twins, leave the dog to me!" The she-mage shouted back in [Message] form as she approached the ever increasingly foolish beast, completely silencing her advance with a rudimentary stealth spell as to not give her position away...not that it would do much. The beast likely couldn't even hear anything with all the rocks and lava pouring into its ears.

It was just...slightly discouraging though. Seeing the monster utterly ignoring her attempts at immobilization was a little harrowing to say the least. Even with Evileye continuing to sustain the spell, not once did the demon even slightly seem in discomfort. It just kept bumping into trees and tracing its tail around the area.

Finally, after what felt like the thousandth time casting [Molten Plate] on the demon, each time the beast's paws lifted themselves up, they'd be dropped down to the floor and send a spray of debris outwards, only for the subsequent lifting to be slightly slower. The demon was beginning to become immobilized, stuck facing Evileye. And then it moved again. Taking a large step forward, the demon snarled through the obstructing layers of earth.

"Wha-..." She couldn't even express her confusion as the beast resumed its earlier sprint towards, no less burdened by the multiple layers of earth than a pro-athlete would be by their clothing.

While it was bumping into stuff...it was mapping out the surroundings in it's head! That's why it wasn't thrashing around or trying to hit me, it was trying to find where I was by using the trees as a reference point and comparing its current location to when it lost its vision!

Being so close to the demon meant Evileye could do little to evade the charging beast. She may be a vampire, but abstaining from partaking in human blood left her only slightly above a human in terms of physical prowess. And so, the monster lunged forward at her, the stone around it's mouth splintering and moaning in agony.

Just as she had thought to use a spell, her vision went completely black for a split second before a familiar scene faded into view.

No longer was she in a forest and battling a monster. The great twisted trees of the forests were all but invisible, instead, great pillars of stone extended far above her. Her feet tapped gently the mangled cobble stone beneath her. She was back in Re-Estize.

From the corner of vision, a faint amber blur fluttered passed her, turning her attention to the sheer black void of the alleyway. Then she turned to her left to see a familiar face. Two beady eyes lit up the alleyway and more golden embers fluttered up to her face from what looked like golden hooves.

She didn't even notice it but she was not on the floor, legs made of jelly.

And the demon was gone. The buildings of Re-Estize was gone. The nightmare was over...until her vision snapped back to reality and she was faced with a very real nightmare - the [Cerberus] was still lunging for her.

"[M-maximize Magic - R-reverse Gravity]" She was forced to deploy the second portion of her combo prematurely. She'd planned on getting as close as possible to the demon before casting the second spell as to maximize the effects of the spell but she was out of options. At maximum strength [Reverse Gravity] was more than capable of lifting up a large dog, even if that large dog had sheets of earth glued to it. In fact, the added weight was the crux of the combo as dispelling the sheets as the beast began to fall back to earth would tremendously increase the damage it would take from the fall. That combined with the burns of the lava, anything hit by the combo would at the very least be stunned.

But the demon was not affected by Evileye's spell at all, being too far out of [Reverse Gravity's] optimal range. Rather than being lifted into the air and being rendered helpless, the beats slashed with it's lave laced claws and ripped through Evileye's chest. Rapidly after getting slashed, Evileye's [Molten Plate] spell was forcefully dispelled, her mind too focused on the searing pain to focus on maintaining the numerous instances of the spell. Wickedly hooked claws embedded themselves within her torso, spilling her undead blood over the grass, causing the emerald blades to wither as a result of the corrupting influence of negative energy. With it's claws firmly planted within her torso, the demon tossed the small girl aside, sending her careening into the underbrush with little effort.

"Shorty!" The hulk that was Gagaran had, accompanied by the battered bodies of Tia and Tina emerged from behind a cluster of burning trees just as Evileye was sent flying. Dropping the twins to their shaky feet, Gagaran rushed to where her friend had been lobbed yet the beast was hot on her heels and the hound had leapt to shred.

The demon beast tore through Gagaran like she was nothing. It's blazing teeth shredded her armor to bits and she let out a howl of pain while the searing flames worked upon her flesh. Two more mouths bit into her flesh while the snake-headed tail gleefully lashed like the tail of a very happy puppy.

Another of the beast's heads belched a fiery tide, grazing past Tia and igniting her sister in an inferno. Though Tia was merely singed by the flame, the demonic fire crawled up her flesh like an infection and ate away at her skin. The ignited sister lit up in a smoldering blaze, killing her almost instantly and roasting her flesh.

...

Evileye flew through the air, her body scraped and torn by stray branches and even seared by the virulent fires that had quickly spread through the forest like an infection.

The blow was almost like nothing she'd faced before. That single blow from the beast was almost enough to kill her outright, only a handful of other demons were even close to that kind of strength and in all her years of life, only around six or so more demons possibly surpassed that beast. She'd gotten cocky and suffered the consequences for her hubris.

She bounced from tree to tree, each time she impacted the sturdy wood, she was denied a moment of brevity as the raw strength of the beast made sure that each time she slammed into the trees, she'd bounce right off and continue on her merry way to whether she was zooming off to.

Finally she came to halt, back slamming into a tree and leaving her to fall to the ground at last.

Try as she might, her legs could no longer support her own weight, and the trauma from having her head smashed into the trees greatly limited her motor skills further. Her entire world faded to black, just as a jetblack greave landed right next to her head

...

Though heavily injured, Gagaran tackled the beast, wrapping both hands around the large demon and lifted the great beast up into the air. Though it's level and stats were far, far superior to the adventurers, it's weight was only that of an overly large dog. Therefore, the monstrous strength of Gagaran allowed the she-hulk to nigh-effortlessly lift the beast into the air while the monster insisted on belching yet more fire.

Resting on her greatsword, Lakyus took the opportunity to reverse the grievous wounds the party had suffered: "[Mass Heavy Cure Wounds]"

A green light enveloped Gagaran and Lakyus herself, both twins reamined as life as ever however.

"Yo, leader, heads up!" Shouted Gagaran, after she'd already sent the white beast hurtling towards Lakyus.

In the split second the beast was vulnerable to attack, Lakyus gripped her blade in both hands and prepared to hopefully finish off the beast.

Teal vapour poured from the glassy blade as it swelled up in size, just slightly larger than Lakyus. She lined up her swing the incoming beast and prepared to swing down upon the triplet white heads.

"[Dark Blade Mega Impact]" Lakyus roared, her blade swelled in size and power as she drained her magic into the cursed sword. She brought down the mighty blade upon one of the writhing necks of the hound, expecting her legendary weapon to cut through yet her sword. And yet, one of the legendary blades wielded by the Cursed Knight of the Thirteen Heroes did not even penetrate the beast's fur nor even make a dent in the plush depths of hair. A hairline fracture wormed its way up the umbral blade from the impact and a small glassy shard broke off from the legendary weapon.

"I-impossible!" She managed to let out a defiant scream before the snake headed tail of the monster whipped around and grasped her neck. The beast was back on all fours.

Dropping her blade, the leader of the roses clawed at the scaly hide of the snake tail and flailed her legs as the appendage hoisted her off the ground and choked the life out of her. Three more jets of flames burst from the hound's mouths, though she could not see, from the manly bellows, it was clear at least Gagaran was engulfed in the fires. Was this really how it was going to end? Just dying at the hands of a lowly demon? Similar thoughts raced through Lakyus' mind though they were quickly cut short by an unholy shriek.

Before she could even open her eyes, the coils around her snake loosened and she was jerked upwards while the howls continued on in earnest.

While she was flailing around in the air, Lakyus caught a glimpse of a massive greatsword jutting out from one the demon's heads before she crash landed into the charred skeleton of a bush.

The thrown greatsword made quick work of the howling beast. The greatsword firmly embedded itself halfway through the demon's torso, letting a torrent of corrupted blood to spill from the wound.

"GRRROOOWWWW…." Cried all four heads of the beast.

Laykus heaved and spluttered as the serpentine tail released from it's grasp. The triplet heads of the beast entirely turned their attention towards wherever the sword had come from and began launching off fireballs and gouts of flames, igniting the forest as a consequence. But, as she thought she was saved, the twisting serpentine tail had coiled itself right back around her neck, stretching impossibly long just to reach her.

Another greatsword sliced through the foliage and try as the beast might, the hurled object was far too fast for the beast to dodge. Letting out another howl of pain from all three of its heads, the demon thrashed around, trying to dislodge the blade from its shoulder blade to little effect.

In a far too calm fashion, an adventurer sprinted out from the underbrush and ripped the greatsword from the demon's heads and slashed downwards in an admittedly clumsy swing. Despite the clear lack of skill that the warrior possessed with the blade, the massive sword cut through the demon hound and ended it's life there and then.

"Wh-what in the-" But as she spoke, another weapon came from the exact opposite direction that the greatswords came from - a spear.

Like the greatsword, the spear easily bypassed the hide of the beast and impaled yet another head, this time the serpent head was gored on the thin pike, lightly poking Lakyus' thigh.

"Tch, a lil' too late…" Was barely audible coming from the direction that the spear came from.

Slowly a group of figures emerged from the forest. One the side of the greatsword was a man in sheer black platemail, Evileye in his arms and two more women. And on the side of the spear was a lone person, dressed in some strange, leathery bodysuit made from a purple material Lakyus couldn't recognize, and on his back was a blond boy clad in what looked like some kind of yellow armour.

The man who'd thrown the spear was...rather odd looking. With skin that both sagged down like a wrinkle yet tightly clung to his face like the skin of a child and milky white eyes, the person looked wholly unnatural. If anything their skin looked like lazily applied paint that was left to dry.

They blew what looked like wirey, dead hair from their equally grin eyes with a weak huff and spoke to Lakyus: "Finished gawking? I'm know I'm a looker but c'mon, 'ave some tact, yeah?"

She weakly scoffed at the stranger's poor attempt of a joke - she couldn't really do much else in the state she was in.

Each of the men met in the middle of the beast and made to withdraw their weapons from the carcass.

"Nice aim." Commented the saggy skinned man, eye twitching for some unknown reason.

The man in black did not respond.

"Tch, bit rude, aye? I went through all the trouble of gettin' this young man and you ya thank me like this?"

The silence between the two men was crushing. The man with saggy skin bored his eyes into the man in black who, though his eyes could not be seen, seemed to return the glare. Were they suspicious of each other? Who knows? Lakyus didn't know and nor did she care, she was safe and so were her friends...oh...maybe not.

The saggy skinned stranger's face reset itself into a polite smile and his voice entirely changed: "Yeah fair play, I'd be pretty suspicious of me as well if I was in your shoes."

"Here's your man." He continued after dumping a hopefully unconscious Climb onto the [Cerberus'] body.

As each weapon was withdrawn from the beast, a strange sight came from the dead demon. Dust and rocks.

"Eh?" The black armoured person tilted his head at seeing the strange outburst of rock from the beast.

Again, the other man's demeanour shifted entirely and he lunged for the gauntleted hand that was just about to make contact with the demon's neck, shouting: "Idiot!"

"Trust me buckero, you don't wanna touch that stuff for the next couple hundred years. Lest you've got a thing for petrification that is." Said the stranger with a proud smile on his face...and a small trail of spittle trailed down their shaking lips.

"P-petrification?" Cried out Lakyrus from beneath the serpent tail, clawing at the scales in what looked like an effort to escape from the threat.

"Yup, tis a special potion made by yours truly!" Beamed the newcomer. "No way in hell am I just gonna waste gold buying some shitty alchemist's brew when I can make my own. Same with the spear as well. All my design."

"In all seriousness, don't touch it." He warned. "It's a petrication potion that specifically targets fluids - turning them to stone. Hence why I use this spear here." He flicked the end of the spear and a thin trickle of ooze came out of a small hole in the weapon.

"You inject it into the target's blood stream and that causes petrification of their blood vessels, correct? The spear acts as a syringe of sorts." Asked the man in black armour though his voice did in no way assert a semblance of friendliness. It was more of him thinking allowed than a real question.

"Aye, captain~" Purred the stranger and entered some sort of salute, clearly mocking the man in black.

As soon as the purple stranger did that, Lakyus could have sworn she saw them stifle a mocking laugh.

Yet another heavy silence fell upon the pair. Only causing the saluting man's mocking smile to grow wider and wider.

"Anyway, as much as I'd love to boast about my stellar achievements, I've got business elsewhere. You were lookin' for this kid, right? Here." The man led Climb across the demon and set to move out.

"Hmmmm. I do not recall telling anyone I was looking for this boy." Commented the man in black, hand not once leaving the handles of his greatswords.

"That right? Oh well, guess I'm a psychic then. Best not to look a gift horse in the mouth, yeah? Trojan war an' all that if, I remeber correctly." The stranger kept walking away.

"Who are you?" The man in black pushed.

"Who, lil' ol' me? The disposition of the stranger immediately shifted.

Suddenly, a crushing pressure exploded from the stranger that squeezed the air out of Lakyus' lungs. At the exact same time, the man in black and everyone else unconsciously took a step backwards.

"I'm the Demon Lord." Calmly said the stranger, a look of complete seriousness on their face which was vastly juxtaposed by their spazming arms. What on earth is wrong with that man's body? Lakyus thought ot herself.

Just as the man in black began to speak, the stranger's face lit up and he bellowed a hearty laugh. "HAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, no. I ain't some sort a scum sucking demon, don't you worry yourself none kid. I was just passing by, found a dying kid on the floor and headed in the direction of the sounds of fighting. That's all. Just got lucky." He finished with a coy smile.

The man in black sheathed his greatsword and gave the other man a nod of acknowledgement though Lakyus could tell he was not convinced in the slighest.

"What, you think the actual Demon Lord is just gonna be walking about some random forest? Pah! Moron." Even though absolutely nothing of what he had said was even in the slightest bit funny, they began an uproarious laughter as they disappeared into the burning forest.

And so, Lakyus and the man in black armour were entirely alone in the burning forest.

"Hmmm...so much not burning down the forest…" Muttered the man in black with an exasperated sigh as he noticed the fires all around him.

"Eh? What was that?" Asked Lakyus.

"Eh?"

"Eh?"

Both dumbly stared at each other.

"Did yo-"

"AHEM! Um...I do believe we should focus more on evacuating this area, no? Your friends likely wouldn't appreciate being dead for an extended period of time.

"A-ah! You're right, we may discuss things at a later date, for now we should get everyone back to E-Pespel."

"Umu." Muttered the man in black, tacking Climb in his other arm as well as both twins with ease. Of course Lakyus was left with the hardest member to carry…

---

Hours letter - E-Pespel

What felt like the next day, Evileye awoke in a cold sweat from her demon dog induced coma to a strange sight. Unfortunately, the mind tends to wander to some scary places amidst the mind numbing boredom of comas. The only good thing that would come from not sleeping is the lack of nightmares...or so Evileye would have liked, her mind would always wander over to one specific memory every time she was caught in a day dream...or more recently, being knocked unconscious. That memory was of course: Ariel Ialdabaoth. The monster that forever stalked Evileye in the prison of her own mind, the beast that seeped it's way into every idle thought of her's. His cruel visage was cemented within her mind, his complete control over time and unbridled hatred had been seared within her. There wasn't a day where the demon didn't torment her from her own mind.

Even so, there was a far more pressing issue at hand. While she couldn't see all too much from her position on the bed and the small windows of the inn, it wasn't very hard to miss the blazing red colouration and dancing shadows that burst through the glass of the window.

On shaky legs, she climbed her way out of her bed and stumbled her way over to the window, peering out from the cold glass.

"Wha-" She instinctively fell backwards, ripping the curtains right off the wall.

Everything was red. The streets were ablaze in towering infernos or hellfire, the corpses of townspeople littered the streets, each and everyone of them was torn to shreds and many had parts of their bodies completely removed and replaced by monstrous variants. The streets themselves were covered in a thick, red plague of grasping tendrils that bore a resemblance to tree roots. The crimson parasites were crawling their way through E-Pepsel and blanketed the town in a fiery glow. It was just like her nightmares.

"What...no...no, no, no, NO! H-h-he's here, it's him!" Evileye collapsed to the floor just as she had regained her footing.

"He's found me. He's found me. He's found me. He's found me. He's found me." Over and over again Evileye repeated this, the demon from before, the one who'd prowled the streets of Re-Estize and had found her during the stopped time, he'd found her once more. That must be why time was halting so frequently - he was looking for her, and he'd found her once again.

There were no sounds at all in the room nor from outside. There were no screams for mercy, no crackling of fire, no sounds from the locust, nor the stomping feet of fleeing civilians. Evileye was left alone in a thick silence that hung in the air, the only sound that emanated from her was a soft weeping. And then, the sounds of her weeping was interrupted by the shattering of the wall in front of her. The sudden outburst of sound hit Evileye all at once in an unbearable turbulence of screams, insect wings beating, the crackling of fire and a faint footfall. The object that had been thrown through her window was a man clad in intricately made black full plate-mail who landed right besides her.

"Ah, that wasn't supposed to happen." The man casually stood up from the floor and looked at Evileye.

"Are you unharmed?" He spoke in a booming baritone.

"I-I...uh, y-yes!" She had managed to stammer out.

"Umu, that is a relief. I'd rather not involve any unnecessary combatants so, for your own safety, you should stay here. Can you do that for me?"

Before Evileye could respond to the stranger, a fiery ball was launched into the room from the streets. With a flourish of his greatsword, the black armoured man deflected the fireball with relative ease.

"Do excuse me." He rushed out of the room and bounded for a nearby destroyed building, all the way the red tendrils on the floor gripped and coiled around his greaves, only for their grips to be rendered void by his footsteps.

"W-wait!" But he did not heed her calls.

I-I can't just leave him! I'm adamantite so I can help him! But...Lakyus and everyone else are...No, I need to fight as well, the others are probably fighting as well!

But...what if...he really is...NO! She smacked herself on the head a few times. Don't think about, don't think about it, don't think about it!

With her resolve regained, Evileye rushed out from the inn.

Like the clamour of sounds, the stench of the streets hit her all at once, her stomach lurched and heaved at the sudden overwhelming outburst of vile smog that lingered in the air. There was no describing the horrific odor that permeated the streets, in all her two-hundred years of life never once had she ever smelled something even half as disgusting as the streets of E-Pespel. She collapsed to the floor, clutching her stomach. The man who'd burst through her window was fighting in this?

How on earth do you fight in this stench?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a large explosion emanating from the streets in front of her, buildings collapsed and sent out huge splinters of wood and stone into the air.

That's where he went, I need to hurry!

Determined to at least try to help out in the fight, Evileye cast [Fly] and rose into the air to avoid the tentacles on the floor that clawed her legs. The air wasn't much better than the floor however, the massive towers of smoke and the destroyed buildings only reduced her visibility, if anything her visibility was worse now that she was in the air as the entire ground just blended into a mess of red weed.

Great, I can't see anyth-

The cloud of black smog in front of her suddenly burst open, a figure had flown through the cloud and was heading straight for her. The figure in front of her could have easily been mistaken for a rather attractive young man, just a young man that had bat-like wings on his back and wickedly curled horns coming from his temples. He was wearing full plate-mail that exposed his chest, boarding on some sort of armoured fetishwear. Guarding the upper portion of his face was a black visor with six red eye-holes on it, though Evileye could not see his eyes directly, the crimson points of light radiated an unknowable hunger. In his hands was a large war-scythe.

A look of disgust blossomed on his face as he spoke: "You there, girl, were you not told to stay within the inn? Leave this place, we have no interest in your death so begone."

Eh? Told? Is this guy stupid?

"Begone? It is my duty as an Adamantite adventurer to protect these people! I cannot allow you to harm these people any longer!"

His anger flourished onto his face and he screamed out in annoyance: "Tch, you dare spit upon the supreme one's mercy!? You-"

"Greed, silence." A booming voice came from within the city. It reverberated all over the place, the sound didn't emanate from a fixed location but it was as if it came from the entire surroundings.

"Th-that v-voice…" She could feel it. Her undead body's heat drained entirely as she heard that voice.

Greed stuttered for a second and bowed to no one in particular midair. "My lord, I app-"

Agains, the voice came from all angles: "Greed, it matters not, let her join the fray! We shall plunge her into the depths of despair one more time, if she so desires it!"

It's him! It's him! It's him!

There was no doubting it. That voice was the exact same demonic voice that had been imprinted in Evileye's mind.

A toothy grin flashed through the smoke as Greed chuckled to himself: "Heh, you heard the supreme one! Come, come, you are allowed to participate in his bloodsport! Be proud mortal, you're only one of three people the supreme one has given permission to do battle with him!"

The demon was met with silence, Evileye's mind was far too focused on the creature's master to respond. But, she did not need to offer a reply, in a flash, Greed was already right in front of her and made the choice for her.

"Hurry!" Greed flew behind her and smacked her down to the earth. The pain was unimaginable, her entire left side was caught in an inferno of searing pain, tears welled in her eyes from the single blow...at least the pain cleared her mind somewhat. She skimmed the floor, bouncing off of the grasping tentacles as she tumbled around.

She just kept tumbling and tumbling around, she was scarred by wooden planks from the destroyed buildings, the glass from the windows stabbed at her body and the shattered stone of the streets cut deeply into her body. And then, just as she thought it would never end, she impacted something incredibly soft.

"E-eh?" She tentatively looked around at whatever had caught her, as she turned her head left, her entire vision was engulfed in black and red.

"Umu, I do believe staying in the inn was a far better alternative than coming out here." It was the black armored man from before and he was cradling Evileye in his arms, some sort of pillowy object was draped around her body and his arms.

"...E-eh…?...EH!?" She burst from his arms and scrambled around the floor in an embarrassed flury.

"Ah, it seems you are well enough to stand, that is a relief. Do you require healing of any sort?"

"I-I….N-no, please do not trouble yourself!"

"Umu, very well then." He hoisted his greatswords from the ground and nodded to her.

"Ah, the brat joins the fray! How are you today, my dear? It's been a good while since I've last seen you after all!" A hash voice came from behind Evileye and her saviour, it was a voice that had ingrained itself in Evileye's mind. It was the voice of the devil, the being whose dominion dominated the very concept of time itself. The black armored man simply turned to face the devil behind him, not shaken at all by the pressure that radiated off of the demon. He was leaning against a destroyed wall, the wall itself seemed to weep and run away from him as evidenced by how the stone was melting away by its contact with the demon. Small bolts of crackling red lightning wiggled around his frame and sent ripples through the air - negative energy. Even the parasitic weed on the floor recoiled away from his presence, a pathway was carved through the vile scarlet feelers that lead up to where he was leaning.

Eviley's mouth went dry. There he was, the self-proclaimed Demon God of Destruction- Ariel Ialdaboath in the flesh and he was staring right into her soul.

"No greeting nor reply? Ah, that isn't a way to greet an acquaintance is it? How very rude~"

"You…"

"Hmph, it matters not, come, let us resume our battle, dear Momon-kuuun~" He pushed off of the wall, causing it to crumble into a half melted paste that the red plague happily ate up.

"Umu." The black armoured man - Momon nodded and prepared his weapons.

"W-wait! Y-you're just going to fight him!?"

"Indeed I am. So long as there is life left in me I shall protect the people of this city." Ina burst of speed, Momon kicked off of the ground and swung his greatsword at Ariel, mid swing his sword was coated in umbral smog.

Dodging the swing, Ariel shouted: "Greed, deal with the blond fool back at the square! I'll have my fun with the girl after this fool here is dead!"

In response to the given order, the red haired demon - Greed flapped his leathery wings and soared through the air in the direction of the town square.

"Do not be mistaken, I shall not let you do that!" Momon gripped Ariel's arm and wrenched him into the air before bringing one of his greatswords down upon him.

"Yer not meant to do that…" Cam a faint voice beneath Momon's greatsword.

In an instant, Momon had launched one of his greatswords and had impaled Greed right through the stomach with it, pinning the demon to a half destroyed guild-hall wall.

Ariel had freed himself from the pinning weight of the swords and casually dusted himself off while he scolded Momon: "Hey, the fuck are you doing!? Greed's are expensi-...ahem...uh...As expected of Momon-kun~ being able to incapacitate Greed is no easy task but, shouldn't you leave things to the others within this city? You've got me to deal with after all so wearing your resources thin is a bit of a bad idea, don't you think?"

A scornful smirk blossomed on Ariel's face, his eyes twitched with annoyance and his ears flopped around. The latter action seemed just a little too goofy for a Demon God to perform.

"U-umu that is...true." Momon seemed a little bit flustered for whatever reason, he was acting like a child who'd just been scolded by their teacher.

"Then, let us continue!" The demon raked his claws across Momon's armor but was met with a swift knee to gut, sending him sprawling onto the ground.

Ariel recovered from the blow and responded with a spell: "[Cremation]"

A stream of blue hellfire tore through the air towards Momon, the space around the blue flames boiled away and the ground charred with the flames' passage. Ariel's arm was thrown back in recoil as the flames left his arm.

Momon rolled to the side, avoiding the jet of flames but he was met with Ariel's claws. Evileye could hardly even track Ariel's movements as he slashed the exposed parts of Momon's armor. From the tips of the demon's claws came the same bluish fire that he'd fired off. The raking claws struck Momon and cleaved through the fabric of his under-armor and streaks of blood flew through the air, the demon's claws had easily punctured into Momon's skin. Immediately following the spraying of blood, the thick crimson fluid evaporates into steam from the intense heat of the flames on the demon's claws.

"Wh-what, you imbued your claws?"

Another smug grin spread across the demon's face. "Ah~ Not entirely! I just merely prepared the spell for casting and attacked while it was coming out so as to lace my claws in fire as well as used one my racial skills. I simply dispelled my attack before it could come out to save myself some mana and to power up my skill, rather ingenious don't you think?"

"So you're abusing a poorly defined aspect of the magic system then? Hmph, just like you….AH! N-not like I know you or anything but...I'd assume based on the fact that you're a demon and all that..."

Evileye could almost hear a "Fwah~ That was close!" Coming from Momon.

"Uh...Uhuh, ahem, let us engage in the dance of death once more!"

Another fire wreathed claw ripped through the air though this time it was dodged by Momon, the blazing streaks in the air lingered by a brief moment. Though he dodged the swing, one of the lower arms of the demon swiped his legs, causing his knees to buckle and more blood to ooze from the armor.

Not faltering for a second, Momon ignored his wounds and continued swinging at the Demon Lord, though, each of his attacks were parried or caught by the four armed demon. The twin greatswords of Momon had found their way into the clutches of the infernal scarlet claws of the demon and firmly planted the hero in place. Using his smaller arms, the demon thrust his fire laced claws under the chest armor of Momon and gouged his innards.

An even cockier sneer blossomed on the demon's face as the crimson flow from Momon's chest intensified once his claws were removed. Pulling Momon closer, the demon whispered into his ear: "Hoho~ You're out of your league, adventurer, don't think I'm some helpless mage who can't fight up close, like yo-*cough* ahem, anyway..."

Retracting his burning claws from the warrior, the demon huffed and turned to Evileye with a predatory grin on his face.

Momon fell to the floor, the red tendrils immediately began working on his armor and started to consume the fallen hero.

He...he was d-defeated…?

Now it was solely up to Evileye to defeat the Demon God she alone would have to face this being from hell. If only she had that item or one of her old comrades was here, the Demon God, while far, far stronger than Evileye was no God. Powerful, yes but not anything like those things from the past. Those beings that layed waste to the land were more powerful than what this so called Demon God had shown so far. Even still, without her item or her old comrades, there was no way in hell Evileye could hope of even damaging this creature. She immediately cast a myriad of buff spells to herself in preparation to face the demon.

"[Crystal Dagger]" A small dagger-like projectile shot from Evileye's hand. While not a particularly strong spell, [Crystal Dagger] possessed innate resistance piercing properties so it was a good first attack to probe her opponent's magical defences.

Just as she expected, the spell didn't even make contact with the demon's body, it merely faded away mid-flight in a fizzle of particles.

"Aw, too bad, better luck next time~" Said the demon in the most sickeningly condescending tone she'd ever heard.

"[Maximize Magic - Crystal [Warpick]" This spell was far better suited for a direct offence. Boasting both resistance piering attributes and possessing a high damage output, this spell was far more preferable yet more mana expensive than [Crystal Dagger.]

"Just give up, trash spells like that won't work on me." He crushed the crystal weapon in his palms with ease.

"H-how!? Th-that's not fair! You demons...why!? Why do you keep doing this!? J-just leave humanity alone!"

The demon took several long, deep breaths before beginning a massive tirade: "What's that? Not fair? You sit at the peak of adventuring might, constantly breezing your way through quests, slaughtering my kin with ease and you have the gall to speak about things being unfair? You're rich, powerful, have friends, a place to live and are blessed with immortality from you vampiric blood. You stand at the zenith of humanity, berate others for being your lessors, terrorize my kin with a childish glee as they other up mere token resistance and you seriously think you have it bad? This is why I despise you lesser life forms - as soon as something doesn't go your way the entire world is working against you. Suddenly when you fight someone stronger than you, that's when you complain about a power disparity and never once do you question it when you dominate those less powerful than you. When you have your friends ripped away from you, that's when you preach about the need to eradicate monsters. Yet you care not for the friends and families you wipe out simply because of their demonic heritage. When someone else takes a quest you were going to take, you despise them for stealing money from your pockets yet you have no issue doing the same to them. You see no issue with eradicating the settlements of my kin for a poultry sum of money yet as soon as your settlements are laid waste to, that's when you suddenly care! The settlements of my kin have been raided, pillaged and destroyed by humans simply for the fact that they're not of human origin! You adventurers go out into our territory, our homes and you kill us! You seek to eradicate us simply because we are trying to survive! You attack us and so we attack you!" Flecks of spit splattered onto the pulsing floor with each snarl the demon gave.

"T-trying to survive!? You invade kingdoms, destroy land and render farmlands unusable! You demons torture the inhabitants of these lands for fun! How's that just trying to survive?"

"And you believe that we are the only ones who do that? Humans and demihumans also do such things - we're not unique in our evils nor are we the worst perpetrators of them either. For instance, the annual war between the Kingdom and Empire, it is a meaningless loss of life that fuels the production of undead that lay waste to frontier villages, ruins crops and slaughters civilians. Those lands are barren and have had their fertility ripped from them by the mass slaughterings that occur there, those lands are permanently unusable now. Those lives that have been lost can no longer be reclaimed from the grasp of death via resurrection magic as their souls have been sullied by the corruptions of negative energy. The Kingdom and Empire, as well as all of humanity are strangling the life from these lands over petty squabbles! Tell me, would you call the Kingdom or Empire evil for doing such? Well, would you?" Another cocky grin flashed over his face as if he'd just won the argument there and then.

What is this guy talking about? That's just how war works! If the...no, nevermind.

"Well...n-no? B-ecause...that's because that's how war is! It-"

"So why do you find trouble with me and my kin doing the same on a lesser scale then? I have granted the civilians of this city a swift death that was free from starvation, fear and abuse that so often plagues war ravaged areas. I did not squeeze every last morsel of enjoyment I could from them like the nobility of society do, I did not torment them, I did not treat them as playthings that could be disposed of at all. These people died before they could even experience what true misery is, I moved swiftly to this location and left the frontiers unharmed, unlike the Kingdom and Empire do. I plan to use these lands for the betterment of this world, I will not simply gorge myself on the efforts of others while the lands dwindle in usability. No, I will make an effort to actually build a brighter future, all that needs to happen for my goal to come into fruition is the eradication of humanity."

"Th-that's insane! Human-"

"Silence, I need not your rebuttal. You are a failure of a heteromorph if you insist on the perpetuation of humankind. Back to the topic of listing the evils of the Empire and Kingdom, both the Kingdom and Empire sanction the selling of fellow intelligent beings, are they not evil for doing that? Are they not evil for denying basic rights to people simply due to their heritage? Why must I spare a race who persecutes others and seeks the eradication of all nonhuman beings? Do you wish for me to allow all nonhumans to be wiped from this world? Do you want your own kin to be eradicated in a mass genocide?"

"B-but…"

"Prey tell, what is the issue here? Why do you find grievance in me purging the wouldbe conquerors of the world - the butchers of demihumans and heteromorphs alike? Is it because I do not act like them? Would you prefer me to obliterate the farmlands? Would you rather me to torture the population of the Kingdom for entertainment? Do you wish for me to enslave people and use them as a springboard to construct a nation for myself like humanity is oh so fond of doing? I can start doing all these things if you so wish!" He spread his arms out wide like he was offering a hug to her.

"I-...bu-...you…"

"Hmph, lost for words are you? Were you so naive as to think you were the only heteromorph capable of mercy? You honestly thought yourself to be special, did you not?"

"N-no…"

A wry smile crept onto the demon's face. "Tell you what, I shall retreat for now, I'll leave this place and never return as I have had my share of the fun and this city has already fallen so a prolonged encounter here may lead to unnecessary damages. As long as you come with me, that is. Come with me and I will leave, a rather appealing deal, no?"

"..."

"I do not have all day, you know?"

"...F-fine then..."

The demon's face immediately scrunched up and he paused for a long while, face somewhere between shock and elation.

"PFT! Hahahaha! Y-you-...PFT! Oh God, you believed that?! A-are you really that dumb!? I don't give a shit about you and no way in hell am I just going to leave because you agreed to come with me! You honestly believe that a Demon God would do the mercy of granting such filthy creatures a swift death? No! I made sure my minions dined upon their flesh, I've ruined the surrounding area, dismantled all the hard work these creatures put into creating this place! The farmlands burn and the water is polluted! We have no need for mercy! We have no need for petty schemes to bring about a bright future! Such is the way of the demons! We are not merciful, we are not caring or compassionate! Our very nature is to sow turmoil in the lives of man, what good would compassion do for us? We are devices of chaos, not heroes!"

"So, y-you...were lying this whole time!?"

"PFFFT! HAHAHA! Of course I was! I just wanted to see you begin to doubt your beliefs when faced with something that simultaneously fell into your predisposed notions about demons as well as contradicted such! You're a fool to say the least. Things have been rather drab for me lately so I figured some humour would elevate my mood! Congratulations, you're the best jester I've seen!"

"You…[Maximize Magic - Crystal Lance]" A great crystalline lance was thrust from Evileye's open palm and sped towards Ariel who was still trying to suppress his laughter.

Like the [Crystal Dagger], the [Crystal Lance] faded into nothingness before it could impact Ariel's body though the demon's mood immediately shifted back into seriousness and his grin dissipated.

"Hmph, you truly believe such a spell would penetrate my defences? Don't make me laugh, such a pitiful attack wouldn't even damage me if it made it through my barrier anyway. Anyway, I've had my fun for today so I guess this is time for you to die."

"Eh?...EH!?" A fountain of thick blood gushed from the demon's side and the aura of negative energy around him was sliced in half. The demon turned in the direction where Momon had fallen, the adventurer was gone from his spot on the floor. Instead of being face down on the floor and bleeding out, Momon was right behind Ariel, a greatsword dyed in the colour of the demon's blood and the other prepared for another swing. His wounds seemed to have healed - the holes in his under-armour revealed only a ghostly white skin.

"What the hell!?" Screamed the devil.

Ariel swung with his claws and Momon responded by piercing the palm of the demon's lower claw with his greatsword. The blade dug into the ground and Ariel's arm was pinned to the floor. Another slash from the larger of Ariel's claws immediately followed though, this arm too was incapacited - Momon cleaved the limb in half with his spare greatsword, eliciting a howl of pain from the demon.

"GAH! F-fuckin' hell...This...really hurts, y'know!?" The voice of the demon shifted into that of a more normal voice, akin to that of a child when compared to the voice he'd been using up until now. Though Evileye wasn't well versed in the facial expression of heteromorphs nor demihumans, it was plain to see that the demon was scrunching up his face to avoid another outburst from the pain. His eyes were slickened with a built up tide of tears that could burst at any moment. It was a pitiful sight to behold.

"Y-you were...su-supposed to go down!" The demon had practically shrieked at the adventurer in front of him, his refined and calm register were fully abandoned. He was like a child who couldn't get his way.

"Oh? You think that I, Momon, would just allow you to run rampant through this city? I promised these people my protection, I won't simply give up once I've taken minimal damage. The people of this city need me in their time of need, so I plan on keeping my word until the very end."

The demon tentatively gripped the severed limb that had fallen to the floor and lifted it up to the squirming stump that was his lower left claw.

"The fuck are you…[C-cure Wounds]"

The limb gradually reattached itself to the demon's stump after the green light produced by the spell faded away.

"Jesus….nearly ruined everything..." Ariel dived towards Momon with all four of his claws ablaze. Though the distance between the two was slim, Momon's slightly superior speed allowed him to sidestep the demon's clumsy attack with only his pauldrons being scorched by the blazing claws.

"Tch." Momon slammed his greave into the demon's side while he dodged the attack. However, another cocky grin blossomed on the demon's face and his lower arms wrapped around Momon's leg.

"Uh-oh~ Looks like our hero got cocky~" Ariel's arms twisted and coiled around Momon's armored leg, they kept squeezing the adventurer until finally, the armor around his leg shattered and a vile cracking sound and a howl of pain echoed throughout the ruined city.

"[Flame Buckshot]" A spray of burning particles shot from the demon's hand and bathed the adventurer in an amber hue.

"[Crystal Wall]" Evileye tried to protect Momon from the spell and a large crystalline wall was erected in front of Momon. However, just like her previous spells, the [Crystal Wall] was obliterated by the demon and the flames burst through her wall in an instant.

"GRAAGH" Six small pillars of smoke wiggled their way into the air from the brand new holes in Momon's armor as he let out a painful scream.

A flash of steel glinted in Evileye's vision and a tremendous roar of metal on metal shook the earth, she didn't even see what happened but before she knew it, Ariel's claws were winding all along Momon's twin blades.

"Nonononono, dummy~ Do ya think imma just let you wave those sticks of yours around? Get a better weapon kiddo." Jeered the demon.

"Get ready~" Purred the sneering goat.

[Shard Buckshot] Six earthen projectiles soared towards Ariel.

"For God's sake woman, can you stop that!?" The demon shouted in response to her attack.

"Now...er...where was I…?"

…

"Ah yes, Time to die o' heroic...hero…?"

"[Immolation]" The pair were engulfed in a raging inferno near instantly as the demon cast the spell. A towering blaze surged high into the sky and Evileye had to avert her eyes from the sweltering heat coming off the blaze.

"Well, I'm done here! I've had my fun for now, I will make my retreat for now. Momon, you'd do well to sear my visage into your mind and forever...uh…" It would seem that Ariel hadn't thought of what to say, he released Momon's foot from his grasp and pondered for a moment.

"Ahem, I will depart from this mortal plane once more, but know this, hero: this world shall be wiped clean of filth! I shall bring salvation to these lands and purge the infernal curse that is humankind! Salvation through annihilation is the only future for humanity. While I may be gone from this city, my kin will remain so...don't come anywhere near this place for at least a few more days...or more! 'Cause….uh...yeah, demons!"

"You think we'll just let-"

"Very well, leave this place, demon. Know that we too will be preparing! We shall vacate this area for at least a few days." Momon sheathed his greatswords and crossed his arms.

"Huh? But why? He's-"

"Hmph, it seems our friend is yet to realise something incredibly important: Demon Gods have minions...like, a lot. I trust you understand the implications, yes? At any given moment my hordes can be unleashed upon this country and dismantle your pathetic society. Do you truly think that killing me will cease my hordes? I'm only one facet of the problem, girl." He spread his arms wide as if he was offering a hug.

The demon interrupted Momon, apparently coming up with even more things to say.

"Rejoice for the Gods of fortune have smiled upon you, girl, I was only here to test out the abilities of my children and a few other things. The next time we meet, I shall raise hell and reset this world back to a more pure form, humanity and their corruption will be consumed in my flames and the Gods of old shall retake what was once theirs! The twilight of man is fast approaching, this is my promise to you." Concluding his speech, the Demon God bowed to both Evileye and Momon and an oval of black void appeared behind him.

"Until fate wills us to meet again, farwell." He walked through the void and disappeared from sight.

"M-Momon-sama...was it truly a good idea to let him run?"

"Of course it was, you heard him didn't you? I will not risk the lives of more people simply because I wished to continue our battle. We must strive to preserve as many lives as we can...Also, I hate to admit it but if he were to actually get serious then I cannot ensure your own survival, nor the survival of the others within this city...or even my own for that matter. That is a risk I will not take nor allow others to take."

"A-ah, that is true." Momon's rebuttal made complete sense, Evileye hadn't really thought about it in much detail. In her mind, so long as the big bad was vanquished then all would be right in the world but once more she was proven naive in her thinking. The last time she was faced with such danger, two-hundred years ago was the same, she was tunnel visioned on solely defeating the big bad that she ignored the fact that the demon was only one part of a larger threat.

Th-that means that...he's protecting me! No but he's just protecting everyone in the city!

Wait no, he specified me first! That means protecting me is his priority above all else! In other words, I'm more important to him than everyone else, even himself! Th-th-that means...h-he…

"Ahem, Evileye, is it? I need you to focus please." Momon's voice cut through her thoughts and he flicked her forehead with his gauntlet.

"O-of course!"

"Good, then let us depart from this place, I've already sent my companions out to search for survivors though I doubt any will turn up. For now we should retreat to Re-Estize and prepare ourselves for another brush with him."

"W-wait! Before we go, m-my team members, do you know where my team members are? I'm a part of the adamantite adventuring team - Blue Rose and I haven't seen my teammates at all."

"Team...members…? Ah, they must be the adventurers in the square along with...Climb, I believe his name was? Umu, the plan was to reunite with them and leave anyway. Come, let us return to your comrades."

The man in black armour took Evileye by the hand and led her through several winding streets, each filled with the bodies of civilians until they were brought to the nearest city square. But she was not afraid of the sight, no. Not while she was protected by Momon...and the fact she's a dead body as well so seeing other dead bodies isn't really an issue either.

The square was much the same as the rest of E-Pespel, the virulent red plague blanket the floor and the charred remains of civilians were strewn about the place. A broken fountain of water spewed clear liquid all over the sticky red weed that slowly clambered it's way up the walls of each building. Intermittently strewn across the field of red were several shiny metallic plates, each varying in rarity though each sparkled against the dull red of the weed. Curious as to what these strange decorations were, Evileye squatted down and gave a few pokes to the golden plate. And then Evileye's eyes were drawn to a small inscription on the plate, it was a name. The plates that spread all across the square, the hundreds of sparkling plates amid the red of the weed were adventurer plates. Hundreds of plates, gold, silver, copper and platinum plates were all entangled within the squirming feelers.

"Wha-what is….this…"

Every footstep would inevitably cause a soft crunching sound as the plates were pressed up together in the red folds of flesh.

"M-Momon…-sama, what's all the red stuff on the ground?"

"A demon." He replied bluntly. "More specifically, a servant of that demon we used fought - Appolyon. It means "the destroyer" in the language of the demons."

"The...the floor...is a demon?"

"Indeed, from what I know, the demon's body is nothing more than a mass of tentacles"

"O-oh…"

"Well, we shall not dwell on that matter. There is still the issue of the other left within the city. I do not know how many other demons are located within these walls nor how many survivors are still here."

He turned to her. "You're a magic caster, correct? Then that means you should have access to either flight magic or basic teleportation skills. Use them to evacuate everyone in the square while me and my party search the city for survivors."

"B-but, what if that demon comes back!? Would it not be safer to just make it out of here alive? There isn't a need to risk your life!"

"Umu, while that may be true…" Momon paused for a little while. "...er, I could not forgive myself for abandoning those in this city.

Before Evileye could respond, Momon leapt up onto a building, extinguishing the flames beneath his heel before jumping farther into the city.

"Oh…"

The only thing left for Evileye to do was to evacuate the few still alive in the square and just hope she wasn't picked off by the demons.

---

A few hours later.

The fires of E-Pespel had ceased, no longer were the great spires of jet-black smoke being replenished by hellfire. The crumbling buildings glowed with pale embers as the last wisps of smoke tapered off into the sky with the beating rain displacing the wisps. Even the locusts had ceased their incessant buzz and ceaseless consumption.

A lone man in black armour trudged his way through the fields of pulsing tentacles, making his way through the destroyed city. Each and every step echoed throughout the city, the only accompanying sound was that of the thunderous rain, bouncing off his armour and wettening the feelers on the floor.

Appearing from under a set of rubble, was the Demon God of Destruction himself - Ulbert. Why was he hiding under rubble? Stealth, that's why. Who was he higing from? Who knows?

"Alright, nice work out there, cunt." Said the goat as soon as Momonga got within earshot, flashing him a slight sneer as he did.

"Eh?" Replied the confused skeleton.

"That hurt like a bitch back there! You were meant to go easy on me." Grumbled the goat, flicking his ears all over the place and pointing to barely visible scars on his larger arms.

"Ah well, I thought that it's make good practice if you were fighting a melee fighter who possessed at least some threat to you, you know? Touch probably won't go easy on you afterall."

"Yeah, I guess." He clapped all four hands together. "So, how did it go out there in the forests? You didn't run into any of the Demon Lord's minions or anything?"

"Not at all. But.."

"But…?"

"Umu...how do I put this…"

Momnga detailed his encounter with the Blue Roses and the mysterious saggy skinned stranger who'd somehow gotten his hands on Climb's body.

"Well, that's a wee bit disconcertin'." Said Ulbert as he stroked a few wisps of fur on his chin.

"Indeed. What's more is that the saggy man instantly wiped out your [Cerberus.] Even if it was weakened by my throw, he'd have to be pretty powerful to annihilate a high level demon with a single strike."

"Yeah...Oh well. We don't have the time to seek them out nor to keep tabs on them. The best thing we can do is just be more mindful for the future and that's it. So, anything else?"

"Ah...about that...you know how you said that the forest wouldn't burn down?"

"Yes, I did say that." Ulbert clicked his tongue at the needless question.

"Umu...well, y'know...it did."

"Come again?" He asked, craning his neck and cupping his ear.

"It burned down. Well, the area I was in at least was on fire and I assume it's like that in other places."

"Burned down…?"

"Umu, you did send in demons that have fire magic after all, and all [Imps] use fire as their main source of damage. It was inevitable if you ask me."

"Yer shitting me."

"I am not."

"...Fuck me…" Groaned Ulbert, dejectedly slumping to the floor.

"Whatever…, it's no big deal I guess. Just...go and get the bird, alright? We can worry about this later."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? Fire does tend to spread after all...especially when there's trees around."

"It's the only thing we can do, right? It's not like you're gonna spam [Creation] to fix it, right?"

"Well, it's worth considering though, right? But...umu, the fight shouldn't take too long after all so it should be fine to leave the fires for a few more hours."

"Alright, I'll finish up here and meet you at the battlefield."

"Umu." Momonga cast [Gate] and headed back to the fort, leaving Ulbert alone in the dead city.

That was a fucking disaster back there. I get my ass handed to me by Momonga who can't even swing a sword properly and now my summons fuck up the plan of leaving the forests intact…This day ain't goin' good at all, is it?

"Tch." He booted a nearby rock straight through a half broken window and sighed.

Come on man...you're really not making yerself look like a formidable Demon God or anything...

*sigh*...No point dwelling on it at this point. Or...Hmph, actually, I know just the way I can cheer myself up.

The massive lower claws of Ulbert clashed together and let out a resounding clap as she shouted to his minions: "Bring me a human, I require satisfaction!"

Shoulda been a bit more specific about that, I don't want a repeat of the Solution situation.

Leaping over a still blazing home came a canine demon - an [Orthrus,] which is essentially a two headed version of a [Cerberus] - with a bundle of rags within one of it's maws.

That didn't take too long.

Taking the small girl in his hands, he dismissed the the demon.

Ulbert looked down upon the shaking girl and tenderly brushed her short blonde hair covering her eyes. He didn't even realize it but...he was smiling. A small trembling girl, just like that girl in Re-Estize that Touch had saved. His claws hovered in the air, mere inches away from the girl's throat. He stared into her eyes and saw the exact same helplessness he saw in Tsaure's eyes. It was just...wrong in a way.

Come on, the hell are you waiting for? The hell are you developing morals for!? You're a demon for God's sake, demons don't have morals!

He couldn't do it. His body just refused to listen to him. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how much he screamed at himself to end the girl's life, his claws did not move one bit.

For fuck's sake you're pathetic. He insulted himself in his mind a few more times. Morals have no place in a demon's psyche.

"Tch!" He sent the girl flying further up the street with a light kick and he shouted out to his minions: "Another!"

From a nearby store, a small [Imp] cam scurrying out, the screams of an old man followed the beast along with the soft clinking of chains. Shortly after the [Imp] reached Ulbert, an old man - presumably the shopkeeper - was dragged out of his shop, spluttering all the way and desperately clawing at the thick metal around his neck.

"Go get another." Ulbert ordered, taking hold of the old man's chains and bringing him to the floor.

Come on, do it coward!

It was far easier this time around. With practiced ease, all four of Ulbert's claws sunk into the old man's flesh and excruciatingly slowly pulled the skin apart.

As expected, the old man let out many manly bellows of pain and did in no way sound like a little girl who got gifted a new doll. Nope, not at all.

"Tch." Ulbert clicked his tongue and continued with his torture, slightly igniting his claws to worsen the pain.

Ulbert didn't even notice when the man went silent. His claws just continued to dig and pull and tear at the old man's flesh with no increase to zeal or anything.

The mutilated body dropped to the floor as the tendons gave way his limbs gave way and the old man slipped off Ulbert's claws to the floor.

Was...was that it? Was that really it?

His claws poked the corpse on the floor curiously to make sure the man was actually dead. Sure enough, there was no response.

Are you fucking kidding me?

The floor beneath Ulbert slowly dyed itself red as the blood from his claws trickled down to his hooves. That really was it. Just like that, he tortured someone to death. That was all that happened.

A loud cracking sound cut through the drab silence of E-Pespel, Ulbert's claws bawled together painfully.

Are you….fucking kidding?! Was that it!? That's fucking pathetic! What the hell even was that!?

Gently, he brought a claw to his own face, lightly stroking around his mouth just to make sure he wasn't smiling so hard his mouth had gone numb or anything. But his face obviously wasn't numb but he just had to make sure. His claw tip explored each and every damn fold of his lips and mouth and sure enough, his face was stuck in a blank expression.

...This...no, the [Imp] is here with another already. It...it;s probably because it ended so suddenly...before I could get any enjoyment out of it! That must be it. I just gotta be more methodical about it.

He took the chain into his hands that was offered by the [Imp,] pulling on the metal and dragging another victim into his grasps.

His next victim - a middle aged woman - was sent crashing into his hooves and met Ulbert's stare with a hard look.

A defiant one? I'm sure breaking her spirit will just be what I need!

The cycle repeated itself. Ulbert dug his claws into his victim and painfully tore them apart, making sure it was as excruciating as possible but unlike the first time, it lasted far, far longer. The streets of E-Pespel were alive with the screams of pain and begs of mercy for minutes on end.

Another victim down and yet more stains upon Ulbert's fur. And as if it couldn't already get worse, Ulbert's fears were actualised.

He still felt nothing. Just...nothing as his claws tore the woman's body to pieces. Absolutely nothing. His face was as unchanged as it was prior - a blank slate with a slight hint of boredom on it.

He just stood there, watching the thick scarlet of blood stream down his claws and dig into his fur. It was just nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing...nothing…expect for boredom.

All at once Ulbert's emotions were unleashed in the form of a hellish scream: "GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!"

"ANOTHER! BRING ME ANOTHER!" He ordered, and so his demons brought Ulbert another human after a brief pause.

Just like with the prior victims, Ulbert's claws shredded their body with little effort and their screams resounded throughout the dead city.

And just like with before, there was still nothing other than boredom as he did so.

"ANOTHER!" He ordered again.

And another human was brought out from their home only to be shredded to pieces.

"ANOTHER!" Again and again, the humans brought out by Ulbert's minions were slaughtered by the fledgling Demon Lord and each time, his boredom only grew. By the end of his torture session, Ulbert's view of the buildings further down the street was completly obsquired by a mounain of bloody tatters.

And he stood there. Ulbert Alain Odle, otherwise known as the Demon God Ariel and self proclaimed future Demon Lord was stood in front of a mountain of bodies with nothing but

For fuck's sake! What the fuck is wrong with you!? You're a Goddamn demon, why aren't you enjoying this!? He screamed to himself in his mind.

Once! Just once can things go the damn way I want it to!? Why!? The suffering of others is meant to bring joy to the heart of a demon so why the hell is this so damn boring? What am I doing wrong!?

A massive spray of stone erupted from ground as Ulbert's hoof stomped into the floor.

What the hell is wrong with me!? Why do I care about killing some random little girl? Why do I care about harming that Tsaure girl? And why the fuck do my plans not go the way I want them to!?

He took a few heavy breaths to calm his nerves.

Calm down you moron...just calm the hell down.

You're just...stressed 'cause of the fight.

Yeah, that's it, it's the old man's fault that you're acting like this! If it wasn't for his dumbass gettin' mind controlled, you wouldn't be this stressed.

Just kill the old man, Enji. Just kill Touch and everything will go back to normal and you can enjoy this stuff...there's….nothing wrong with you, it's all Touch's fault...all his fault…

The mantra of "his fault" repeated itself again and again in Ulbert's mind. It wasn't his own fault he wasn't enjoying this afterall, so it's only natural it would be Touch who was the cause of his distress.

He offered up once last glance to the pile of bodies in the street and clicked his tongue in disappointment.

Whatta waste of my fuckin' time. Tch, Suz-Momonga c'n just zap 'em with negative energy and make 'em undead.

"Tch...fuck it, better just head over to the battlefield, everyone else is probably waiting for me and finalising the traps."

Banishing any sense of self-inadequacy from his mind, Ulbert brought out a [Gate] scroll from his inventory and used the item, summoning a massive portal to the location that the battle would take place.

Just get rid of the old man and everything will go back to normal. Once our heavy hitters are back, everything will be fine.

Now there was no escaping it. There was no more delaying or setting up traps or anything else really. Ulbert, Momonga, Pero and a few NPCs were going to battle the strongest slime player in the JP servers of YGGDRASIL, the third strongest player worldwide, and Nazarick's second strongest NPC.

And so, Ulbert stepped through the [Gate] and into the wasteland created by Touch.

---

AN: Hello again gamers and welcome to the second author's note. I dunno why I keep putting in two of these things but hey ho. It's something I do now, I guess?

Yeah, that was the chapter. It exists. I'm gonna rewrite it pretty heavily when the times comes. Don't hate me too much for making you read it.

Fun fact: the chapter was gonna include a little scene about Climb bumbling about the forest and meeting the saggy man but it kinda just sucked and I felt like the chapter was a little all over the place so I decided against including it.

So, uh, the big ol' fight is getting pretty close now. I'm planning on having a short intermission with the dragon lords after this chapter before we actually get into the fight. But the fight itself isn't gonna just be one massive cluster fuck though. It's gonna be split into three separate fights with each fight having a brief intermission being released afterwards, just so I don't get burned out on writing fights.

I've got a good idea about what the intermissions are gonna be about so they should be pretty easy to write. One of them is even gonna be solely about the demon lord so oooooh you finally get a glimpse of one of the big bads ooooh how exciting.

Bonus fun fact: I'd written the final E-Pespel scene all the way back in october! It was meant to just be practice but I decided that it kinda fit in here so I just dumped it in at the last second, hope it doesn't stand out too much :/

Alright, I'm done for now. The intermission will be out...? I dunno, it'll be easy to write but I have school and all I'm not gonna make any promises.

Kk bye bye. Cya in the next part - Puddle