The sun was already high in the sky when Luka's party started moving out. The innkeeper informed them that the daughter of one of the town's merchants had gone missing after she left to gather some crafting materials in Saloon Hills. Everybody agreed with saving her before furthering their progress. They easily found her, and she returned unharmed to her thankful family. Ilias expressed surprise to see that no monsters had exploited the girl's weakness for nefarious purpose with Micaela reminding her that elves made an important part of the population of Enrika, and yet all of them were as civilized as humans.

Their second goal was the cleaning of the Crytal Mine, where a group of lizard girls who were calling themselves the Scale Bandits had settled down. While they didn't actively threaten the town of Saloon and its inhabitants, they prevented anyone from reaching the famous crystal material, which transformation made the wealth of the town.

As soon as the group entered the mine, the sentry posted there ran deep into the mine and kept shouting in a panic. Luka shrugged in front of this unexpected development, but decided to push forward as usual. Not a single monster came to slow down the group's progression as they explored the place, until they reached the bottom of the Crystal Mine.

When Luka stepped in the deepest room, he was greeted by the sound of several swords being drawn at the same time. The room was filled with every lizard bandits who was living in the mine. They were looking both angry and terrified at the group who just stepped in. At the center of the crowd, a taller one with long, brown hair was sitting on a decrepit throne. She was the only one to have two swords, but those were still lying by the side of her throne. She looked extremely calm compared to the nervous bandits that were surrounding the party, but as soon as she started talking, her tone revealed that she was as terrified as her soldiers while she nervously scratched her neck.

"So, you came here to dislodge us on the demand of those villagers… Do you really think you stand a chance against us?"

The different party members looked at each others, slightly surprised. After a silent deliberation, Luka pointed his sword toward the lizard boss. "You're the one who doesn't and you know it. Give up and you can join us on an adventure to save the world."

The bandit boss exploded in laughter. "That's a good one!" She calmed down gradually, before waving toward the group. "Capture the hero, he'll make a nice toy. Get rid of the others."

"Oh, you want to play like that?" Just as the lizard girls started stepping toward the hero's group, Micaela slowly stepped forward, without her sword in her hand. She was surrounded by a pinkish aura, making Ilias recoil slightly away from her first lieutenant.

"Garden of Earthly Delights!"

All of the bandits collapsed in blissful twitchy heaps. Micaela looked at her handiwork, trying to conceal a grin of satisfaction. "Don't dish what you can't take. Sorry Luka, but I couldn't resist handling out some karmic punishment. I'd wish there was a way to make it effective against succubi. That would be a good way to get those of their high horses." Not a single answer came. "Luka?" She turned around and grimaced briefly in surprise.

The hero and the remainder of the group were lying down on the ground, in the same state as the bandits. Luka, in particular, had an unnerving smile covering his face as he was unconscious, while a damp spot was forming between his legs. She started massaging her forehead as she tried to find out a solution to the problem she just accidentally created.

"I'm too used to fighting alone… I hope nobody saw that."

Eventually, she bundled the other members over her shoulder and started carrying them out of the mine. This was definitively something that was better to keep out of Heaven's history books.

Luka awakened in the beginning of the evening to see himself in Saloon's inn. Ilias and Sonya had already recovered, and the former had a dissatisfied expression, as she was torn between the desire to scold her lieutenant and the fear that the latter could change her mind about keeping her alive. Micaela was leaning over Luka, her hands glowing with white magic. She herself was keeping a neutral expression, but her face was slightly flushed over the situation.

"Again, I apologize. It has been too long since I last fought with the support of allies."

Ilias scoffed. "Typical. I should have brought Eden. At least, she would have been careful to not to hurt me."

The first seraph sighed. "Aren't you the one who kept telling me that exterminating monsters justify the end?"

"You didn't quite exterminate them. And it doesn't apply when I am one of the victim!"

"The problem has been dealt with anyway." Micaela then looked at Luka straight in the eyes. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, yes, thank you… What time is it?"

"We're only in the middle of the afternoon. You've been out for less than one hour."

"We still have the time to deal with Tartarus today then." Luka stretched. His body still felt heavy from the past critical ecstasy he endured, but it was gradually wearing off. "I want to deal with this one as fast as possible."

"Are you sure? You look like you could use some rest."

Luka chuckled. "Thank you, but don't worry, I suffered worse treatments at the hands of succubi." His face reddened slightly when he remembered he was talking to his aunt.

"And whose fault was it anyway? If I didn't know better, I'd say it was a deliberate attempt to kill me as I'm the weakest-"

Ilias recoiled nervously when Micaela stepped up, but the seraph only turned toward the door with a firm step.

"In that case, let us be on the way."

The group followed the seraph silently. Luka noted that Sonya was still wearing a troubled expression on her face and was breathing erratically, as if she was about to panic. "What's the matter?"

The priestess of Ilias loudly gulped.

"This isn't the first time we explored Tartarus, and not even the first time we explored this one. But even then… I have a really bad feeling about this."

Luka reassuringly took the priestess hand in his own. "We've gone through this. You said it. We'll be just fine."

The group was slowly treking throught the wastelands east of Saloon, where the Tartarus was seen. Micaela and Luka were leading them, and the hero couldn't resist asking the seraph more questions.

"Sooo… You told me about heroes falling to temptation…"

"This is certainly not the time to be talking about it! Actually we have no reason to mention it ever again!" Ilias exclaimed herself.

"Why not? That would be a good cautionary tale." Micaela looked at Ilias, who haughtily turned away. "I do not need to answer to you anyway." She breathed in, and then started her story.

"You might have guessed by now, but not every hero baptized by Ilias was successful. In fact, if we consider that the goal of a hero is to kill the Monster Lord, it would make it one of the least effective professions on this planet." She looked at the diminished goddess, as if challenging her to contradict what she was saying. "A lot of heroes fall on their adventure. I would like to say that most of them die heroically fighting powerful monsters and defending villages, but that couldn't be further of the truth. For each Heinrich, there was a Kolan."

"I remember the Grand Noah queen saying this name. Apparently he had a tendency to borrow more than he needed."

"That's an understatement. He was a church sanctioned bully. He was skilled enough to take on yomas from Hellgondo, but instead prefered to remain in Grand Noah and boss everyone around. Until a day, when he heard about Succubus Village. There, he met an end that could never be mentioned in children's books. But I was actually more or less thinking about Arban." For a reason, Micaela looked at the sky. "He was a pretty nice man from San Ilia. He received a strict but faire religious education, and when he came of age, he did a pilgrimage to Ilias temple and received the baptism."

Ilias sneered. "If I knew how he'd turn out, I would have smitten him on the spot."

"You didn't, and nobody could have guessed what would happen next. Anyway, he started travelling the world with a cleric and a ranger who had the same mindset. Sooner than later, they reached Yamatai. He had difficulties accepting the idea of monsters living with humans, and started underoing an existential crisis there. But there was a six tailed kitsune kunoichi -Sekushua if I remember correctly- who was determined to show him it was possible. Before the end of their stay, they ended up romantically involved. Even after so much time, I still don't know if she was manipulating him all along or if there was some genuine love from her. Still, she ended up joining their team, which was badly perceived by the other party members, and he worsened the situation as he kept breaking Ilias's first commandment on a daily basis. Eventually, it became a point of conflict, and it was clear that he was infatuated with the kitsune, something that the other party member wanted not to deal with. They ended up splitting, and the remainder of the party mysteriously fell into an ambush later. The man and the kitsune later broke up because he had become addicted to pleasure, and he became a hedonist through and thorough. He basically went on a world tour to discover every possible pleasure monsters could give. He died in an experiment in Remina." Micaela slowly exhaled. "The kind that would make Promestein question science."

"That's not the only tale I have of a situation like that. There are too many to be comfortable with, and that's not even talking about what happened during the Great Monster War where… Actually I really don't want to talk about it right now." She shivered. "There are some things even I wish to forget."

"Don't worry, big sis Sonya will make sure that Luka doesn't end up like that!" She smiled confidently before deflating. "Probably because he's already overtaken that phase a long time ago…"

Micaela chuckled gently at the priestess's acerb remark. Luka's face reddened, but he didn't react any further.

The hero nodded and decided to not prod in this direction for the moment. Furthermore, the toxic marsh that surrounded the next Tartarus was now in sight, which means they would reach their target soon. Still, what did those monsters do that the simple idea to remember them made her react in fear like that? He would definitively need an answer about that sooner or later.

"We're going to see the White Rabbit again soon. If she appears, that is. She's a fickle beast."

They finally arrived in sight of the encampment, and could notice some animation as the guards were discussing loudly about an issue. Said matter was probably related to the huge pile of dirt blocking the only access to Tartarus. As the group got closer, Gnome wordlessly materialized herself, scattered the pile around, received a headpat from Luka, and left without saying a single word to the grateful group. Ilias, however, was slightly angry.

"Still, I maintain that we could have done without going to the Safaru Ruins. Gnome would have been able to do just fine even without re recruiting her here."

"Actually, I had to do some synchronizing and work with Reaper to get sure that Gnome would only be able to do so when she fused with the one from this world. That trick would have indeed failed if you skipped the ruins."

Surprised, the party turned around to see the White Rabbit. "Tee-hee. You expected me there as you should, and I expected almost all of you." She turned toward Micaela, still smiling. "Almost. Relaaaax, if anything, your survival is inherent to the true story and more than compensate the fact that you joined Luka, so I'm not going to try to remove you. You can sheathe back your weapons now. All of you!"

The party members awkwardly looked at each other like kids that got caught with a hand in the cookie jar. They were so tense that they didn't notice they all prepared for combat.

Micaela hilted back her sword. "So you're the White Rabbit Luka keeps talking about… Tell me. What is your endgame in all of this?"

"Ooooh, as expected, a sharp and direct blow from the first seraph… Who told you I even have one?" Several sheets of papers fell from her numerous zippers. "Disregard that."

Luka tried taking one, but there was nothing on it, save for a doodle that looked like a bunny's head. Another one was covered with games of tic tac toe. Sonya grabbed another one, and violently crushed it in her hand, her face flushed as she was glaring at the White Rabbit.

Micaela remained serious in front of the strange monster. "Nobody would deploy that much effort if they didn't have an interest in the situation. You keep helping Luka, and yet…"

"Well look who's talking!" The White Rabbit placed both of her hand on her hip, badly pretending to be outraged. "You spent an eternity working yourself to death for no real reason!"

"It was different. I was following the orders from Ilias at that time."

"We're not so different then… I mean, save for Ilias and the ordering, it's the same for me. Toodles!" She disappeared into the ground.

Her arms crossed and trembling, Micaela opened and balled her fist repeatedly.

"I had to deal with Lucifina's antics during my whole life. I got endlessly teased by each of the Six Ancestors and their spawns on the battlefield during the Great War. Then there was Ilias ordering me and Black Alice being impertinent for around five hundred years, and yet, I have never, never ever felt. So. Angry."

Apoptosis, beware, angry seraph coming through…

Without another world, she jumped down the hole, surprising the scholars in the encampment. Luka could hear sounds of battle from where he was standing. The seraph was screaming like a banshee, and from time to time, some apoptosis body parts were flying out of the gaping mound, impressing the scholars who were still standing there. When the noise calmed down, Luka finally started going down the hole.

Down the rabbit hole. Down down down the rabbit hole we go…

Micaela was waiting for them, standing indifferent to the slaughter she was responsible of, even as she was covered in gunk and other fluid that were impossible to identify.

"So, this is Tartarus. It's as ugly as when I first saw it. And this…" She pointed at the place where reality had ceased existing, where there was only a black, formless void. "Is not a good sign of things to come."

The group progressed through Tartarus, unimpeded by random encounters. Not a single apoptosis was remaining around the initial area. They eventually reached the door leading to the other dimension, and Luka opened it in front of Micaela. The seraph looked warily at the now open space.

"I heard that what I'm going to see there is what would happen if you fail. It's that bad?"

Luka nodded. "It's best if you see for yourself. There cannot be a single stronger reason in the world to want to fight. And... I don't think describing it would do it justice."

Micaela stepped forward, soon followed by Luka and Ilias, and a very reluctant Sonya. The door closed in a cacophony as the entrance leading to the other dimension swallowed them.

"Aaand they're now on their way to another world."

Mephisto frowned. Like most party members, she hated when Luka was travelling in another world, as he was neither able to call on the Pocket Castle there nor he was able to use most of the items that allowed him to escape in an emergency. The hero was quite beloved by the castle's inhabitants, as the more they lived with him, the more they liked his ideals. Even Morrigan had started to grow attached to Luka, although she apparently didn't fully enjoy the idea that he was becoming more assertive as she liked to tease him a little too much to Mephisto's taste. The yoma still had doubt about how genuine the succubus was, but the latter had grown more and more helpful those past weeks, and was very diligent when she worked in the intelligence network Mephisto had developed with the help of Amira.

With the multitude of minor issues that kept popping up during the intelligence gathering, she felt that she started to forget some important things. She had decided to take a break on Morrigan's suggestion to avoid ending up insane from overworking. They had entered the bar and started watching the transmission-long-vision makina when the group was in the mine. People had been eager to see a fight play out between the party and the Scale Bandits, but the scene ended anticlimactically thanks to the intervention of Micaela, resulting in everyone laughing at her expense from afar. Of course, everybody came up with their own little salacious joke on the situation, and Morrigan certainly wasn't an exception.

"Wow! I still can't believe angels prefer doing it with their family. I mean, look at how fast she pushed him over the edge! But still, I don't think it's the best way to build a bond between an aunt and her nephew, is it? Oh, wait, I shouldn't be one to talk."

Mephisto pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned. "There are so, so many things wrong with what you just said… Did you have to keep pushing for it?" She sighed and started tapping rhythmically on the table. "Although technically, I'm not sure they're directly related by blood since seraphim were created through rituals. But still, it's disturbing that the first Seraph, of all people, made her nephew have an incident."

"Still, some people would have killed to be in his place. And those same people would probably wish that it happened in a more intimate situation."

"Who would be crazy enough to try bedding a seraph?" Mephisto checked her interlocutor. "Oh, right…"

"Hey, she's quite a looker, and as far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't have minded screwing her senseless if there wasn't the not negligible chance that she decided to behead me. I mean, back home, we already-" Morrigan stopped abruptly, before falling in a coughing fit and taking a sip of her drink. "Sorry about that. Frog in the throat."

Mephisto smirked. "Are you sure it's only a frog? I'm surprised a succubus would choke on something so small."

"Oooh, nice one! See! You can do a double entendre just fine!" The succubus smiled devilishly at Mephisto who was covering her face with her hat, ashamed to have fallen for the bait that easily.

"What you were saying about Micaela back home?"

"Well, we did beat her! That's all I wanted to say! That's it!"

Mephisto suspiciously eyed Morrigan, but decided to give up. There was no reason to push further in that direction for now since it was unlikely to concern them. After all, she needed to take a break from the tension she accepted to shoulder, it being the result of her work in an army that may very well be destined to save the world.

The yoma took some time to think about what she just heard. She herself had been involved in a few debates about which Monster Lords were killed by heroes, and how many times did the hero give in to temptation. It was hard to find how many glorified killers that had been blessed by the church were actually successful and how many failed miserably. One of the scholar noted that Ilias used to descend from Heaven once a year and could baptize several heroes at the same time. In practice, it could mean that up to several hundred heroes left on adventures to slay a Monster Lord, and yet, only the Eighth, the Eleventh and the Twelfth were confirmed hero kills. The Sixth had suffered from a rare form of debilitation after passing her power to her successor, and the Fourth apparently died from overexertion when she indulged herself excessively in a city. Even today, the real reason of her death was a heated debate between scholars.

More recently, when she travelled in the world that was in the middle of the war against Black Alice, she learned that a lot of heroes gave up when they were close to the Monster Lord's castle. Initially, almost no monster scholar considered that a hero would just give up on his quest on his own, but personally seeing this happen changed Mephisto's perspective on the matter. A part of her now wanted to interview Morrigan to know if she was responsible for corrupting a few adventurers. After all, the Lilith Sisters were infamous for a reason.

While Mephisto internally debated what she knew, the youngest of the Lilith Sister was leaning back on her chair, happily smiling and singing a small rhythm to herself. Gradually, however, her expression turned sour, and after a while, she started grimacing as an important memory came back to her.

"Fuuuuck…I just remembered why I joined Luka." She started spitting louder. "Fuck, fuck, FUUUUCK!"

"Is it important right now?"

"Sonya…"

Mephisto's eyes widened. She violently got up of her chair, making it fall loudly and surprising everyone in the pub.

"We have to get a strike team ready NOW!"