"Come on, Luka, we both knew it was bound to happen. It's hard for me too, but we'll have to move on. Don't let her death be for nothing!"

"…"

Luka was wallowed on a table, accompanied by Lazarus. Several empty bottles of wine, sake and cocktails were lying around. The don of the mafia was trying to comfort his nephew, even if himself was having difficulties dealing with the death of his protégée. But he was a hardened criminal who already had dealt with close calls more often than one would be comfortable with, and Luka was… a hero who also suffered a lot of close calls and had the fate of the world on his shoulders.

However, the hero also never had considered that someone could disappear from his group just like that. Everyone he ever recruited on his adventures helped him as much as he could, and kept following him no matter what happened. Sure, there had been a few conflicts here and there, but none of them ever had long lasting impacts. Everybody fought for him, and in exchange, he made sure they always lived. And he failed to do that, with the first victim being his childhood friend Sonya. And then Ilias had decided that he was actually unable to protect her and left with a large number of angels. If Sonya's death had been a hard blow to his moral, the angels leaving him completely broke his self confidence.

"Hey." Lazarus gently checked Luka's arm. "Don't let yourself die. You still have people who count on you." He smirked. "Why don't you go see them? I'm sure they'll be happy to have a talk with you. And maybe more if you catch my drift, heheheee…"

The Don saw Barbun grimacing at his not so subtle subtext. The man cleared his throat and stood up. "You're not the only one that misses her. Come see me at the casino if you need anything. I just want to help you." He then left his drinking partner alone.

Time passed by, with the hero only raising his head to take another swig from his current drink or to ask for another one from a maid who obliged. The last time he really moved for another reason than because of a physical need was to see if Reaper could do anything about his fallen partner. Unfortunately, the dark hooded figure had made it clear that the only reason she could bring him back was because he had the blessing of a goddess to work with.

He felt someone else approach his table. He could recognize the newcomer's signature amongst the denizens of the castle, and fell deeper into his miserable state as she definitively was one of the last being he wanted to deal with right now. He heard her taking the seat across the table.

"Sooo, how is our little hero doing?"

Luka flipped the bird toward his interlocutor. That childish singsong voice was already grating his nerves.

"Ruuuude. Can't you at least talk?"

The hero chose to remain silent. This didn't deter his interlocutor who was currently browsing through her repertory of "How to tease a hero" to try to get a reaction from the young man in front of her. Possibly harmful techniques were out of the question, which limited a little too much her options to her taste. Shock awakening techniques such as splashing him with various liquids had already been tried without success, low power spells had yielded no results either, and he didn't react to any proposition, no matter how obscene those were. So instead she finally accepted to follow the agreed upon plan.

She called upon her partner in crime who pulled Luka's chair away from the table, and in one swift motion, rose the hero's head so that he could face them. Luka's tired expression didn't change in the slightest, even as Morrigan's grin and Alma Elma's devilish smile filled his field of vision. The queen of the succubus swiped him by his feet while the youngest of the Lilith Sisters was carrying him by his arms.

"There's someone who wants to see you right now!" Luka answered with an unruly belch. "Also please wait at least a little to throw up."

The hero didn't react as the two succubi were carrying him through the castle. They brought him onto a bed, and had him turn to the other side. He saw Micaela lying sensually on her side, only covered with her ribbon, her head rested on a hand and a small smirk on her face.

"Luka..." Her voice was a sensual whisper. "You've been a naughty boy, keeping secret from your family and your goddess just like that. That makes you a sinner. She put her free hand on Luka's cheek. "And as an angel, it is your aunt's duty to punish you appropriately…"

Luka remained indifferent for a moment, his brain having difficulty computing what was happening because of the alcohol he ingurgitated. Then his eyes suddenly opened wide, and, in the blink of an eye, he got up, left the room through the door, ran through the whole floor, entered in his room and slammed the door, leaving the company stumped as to how fast he ran away.

Morrigan was grinning like a cat. "Wow. Just wow." She leaned toward Micaela, humming a creepy laugh as she thought about how to start her relentless assault. "So in privacy, angels are actually just like succubi, but more oriented toward their family? I thought that what had happened in Crystal Mines was just a small incident but daaamn, didn't you just debunk that!" The succubus stepped back slightly. "But you know, putting a lid on that is not good, you'll just let the pressure accumulate until it blows up like… well, like your nephew in bed. Although I gotta admit, a single look at your outfit gives away the fact that you're actually a pervert. It really reminds me of my family."

"Well, you know…" Micaela looked straight into Morrigan's eyes with a devious smirk. "They didn't call me the Sword of Heaven for nothing." She spoke in a flirty tone. "I had to punish sinners, and of course, some of them were female. You could get over here to taste my skills… or you could go ask your mother about it. She copied my fashion for a reason, after all."

The blue haired succubus had her jaw open agap, dumbfounded by the seraph's repartee. She left silently, followed by Alma Elma who gave the seraph a thumb up before leaving.

Micaela sat up on her bed, thinking about what she'd just done. Well, it WAS an original, thoroughly calculated plan. Just not a very good one. But Sara might be able to cash on Luka's reaction, and she also managed to counter Morrigan's teasing. The succubus had felt outclassed in her sexuality for a single moment, which would guarantee that she'd shut up for at least a few days. At least, the seraph had a small victory to relish in for now…

However, someone interrupted that precious moment by knocking on the door. Before she could say anything, Mephisto's head was poking through the doorway with an apologetic expression on her face and another holy resistance ring in her hand.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but can you craft a concealment ring for another angel? Someone's on a sugar rush, aaaand she wishes for nothing more than to accompany the hero, soooo..."

Micaela instantely decomposed. There was only one other person who would require a tool like that…

A few minutes later, Sara knocked on Luka's door while wearing her royal attire. She refrained from grimacing when the hero's pungent, alcohol-ladden smell reached her nostrils as soon as he opened the door. He looked sickly, but in her eyes it was still a step up from his past depressed state.

"May I come in?"

Luka silently opened the door wider, and the princess made her way to a chair that was conveniently placed in a corner of the room. Luka sat awkwardly in fetal position on his bed while looking down to the floor. The sabasan princess repositioned herself on the chair and started emitting a friendly aura.

"Do you wish to talk about something?"

"My aunt. Tried. To seduce. Me."

"We know. We apologize, but it was the only way we managed to get a reaction out of you. We all wondered what happened when you came back catatonic from Tartarus, and you've been drinking yourself to death for the past two days."

"Sonya died. She died because I failed to protect her."

"I know. Ilias told us what happened." Sara remained silent for a second while looking down. "I miss her too." Another silent passed. "But you must not blame yourself for what happened. She wouldn't have wanted you to mope over."

Luka rose his head, and Sara could see his red, dry eyes.

"She was my childhood friend! How can I pretend I can save the world when I couldn't even defend one of my closest companion?! I made mistakes upon mistakes, and she died! And then Micaela almost died! I only pull people out of the frying pan to toss them into the fire." He looked at his feet, ashamed. "People shouldn't look up to me after all I did."

Sara chuckled without an ounce of humor. "In that regard, you're no different than me…" Luka looked up at her with an eyebrow raised. Sara slowly sighed. "When I was under the influence of the Lilith Sisters, I sucked dry men after men, no matter how well I knew them or how important they were for the kingdom. I even remember killing my tutor, who also acted as the health minister and was a second father figure to me. And yet… Even when I officially abdicated to leave all my power to the parliament, people kept giving me their support. In fact, they gave me so much that I'm still considered the queen today."

"You were influenced by the Lilith Sisters. Those mistakes are my own."

"Even if you ignore the fact that we were all on Sonya's secret… No. It's not your mistake. Nobody could have predicted that Adramelech would trigger her apoptosis mode during that critical moments."

"Even then… She died alone between dimensions, from one strike in the back, and all that for ultimately nothing… Who will remember her?"

"All of us. Because we're the only one we can." Sara looked at Luka with a newfound determination. "This is also why we fight. Because we're the only one who can stand against the dogma of Heaven, the whims of the Darkness, and the oblivion that travels between dimensions. She died to defend a world from invaders from other dimensions." Sara took a break to inhale. "And we all accepted that we can end up dead if not worse when we go in."

Luka's eyes widened in shock. Sara continued, conscious of the effect her words had on the hero. "And yet, even after so many adventures, only one person died because of exceptional coincidences. You brought humans, monsters and angels alike under you, and made all of us work together. Even if today some… people got dissatisfied, most of us are ready to follow you to the end. We rely on you because you're the best thing that happened to this world. And I think I speak for everybody when I say we want you to be able to count on us."

She then looked toward the entrance of the room. "However, right now, a lot of people could use your help in the Noah region. They're waiting for a savior, and I'm ashamed to say that the ones who will save them are not us, the lords of the human kingdoms, but the hero Luka, whose legend is bound to overtake the one of Heinrich. There is still a world to defend out there, and people willing to support you to this end."

She stepped up. "Please, take as much time as you need. Don't hesitate to come to us if you want an ear to listen to your troubles or for an even more personal request. Just remember that Théo world is waiting to be saved.

Luka remained unmoving for a few minutes as thoughts kept spinning in his mind. Sonya's death was heavily affecting him, but Sara was right: Sonya wouldn't have wanted him to let himself die because of her. There were a lot of other people out there who also needed his help. He couldn't afford to let everyone fall because of one person.

With a grim resolve, he took his equipment and stepped out of the room.

"Man, it's good to see you back like that."

Lazarus smiled when he saw Luka stepping in the bar. The hero didn't look particularly cheerful himself, but he looked ready for a fight. Several monsters and lords were also around, glad to see the hero Luka standing once again.

Luka nodded. "Yes, I've come to realize I can't do anything if I keep wallowing in self pity. That's not what Sonya would have wanted."

"Yeah…" Lazarus sounded a bit melancholic too. "Anyway, who do you want to accompany you on your adventure?"

The hero turned toward Micaela. For a spare second, the picture of her trying to seduce him came back to his mind.

Stay. Focused.

"Do you want to get back on the road auntie?"

"Actually, I'll stay here a bit longer if you don't mind." Micaela gave a small, tired smile. "I still need to recover a little, and I'd prefer to rest there and be sure I'm ready for Yamatai. Besides…" She pointed at the pile of books that was near her. The same that she had him bring back from the other dimension. "I have some catching up to do, I wouldn't want your effort to go to waste."

"Oooh, sure, it's not because oOOOF!"

"Ooops, sorry, I bumped into her."

Alma Elma appeared behind Morrigan as the latter crumpled to the ground, gasping for air.

Luka shrugged. "Well, Freya wanted to see the colosseum, so she'll come with me. She's friend with the fairy queen, who could also accompany us and support us with her magic. And as a fourth member…"

"I WANT TO COOOME!"

Lucifina-chan rushed into the room half jumping, half flying around. She kept running from table to table in circle while repeating herself again and again.

"Pick me! Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!"

Everyone tried to catch her before she could hurt herself or damage the castle too much, but she proved has evasive as quicksilver.

"Did someone give her a full cup of sugar?"

"No, she's naturally like that when she's in a good mood." Micaela nonchalantly dodged her hyper energetic little sister. "Don't be anywhere around when she's in a bad one. That's a life or death advice."

She eventually stopped herself in front of Luka, and put on her best puppy eyes to convince the hero. In front of her expression, Luka accepted.

"Sure, you can come with me."

"YAAAAAY!"

She hugged Luka tightly and lifted him like a ball of cotton, almost crushing the hero's bones with her superhuman strength.

What have I gotten myself into?

"We're going on a family adventure! I will be Luka's mom, Freya his wife, Airy his child…"

"Hey!"

"Mommy will take good care of you! I will make sure that you eat good, and make sure that you always fight good, and make sure that you always feel good..."

"Morrigan was right."

"…And make sure that monsters who attack you end up beaten to a pulp, cut apart, crushed dead!"

She stopped and looked into Luka's eyes. The hero could see a bit of madness born from bloodlust, and wondered for a second how her mother really was before becoming that tender figure he always knew. And most of all what had made her change that much.

Well, they couldn't make anything worse anyway...

Right?