Luka, Micaela, Tamamo and Alma Elma looked at the new infiltration plan for Grangold once again. The lack of additional, outside allies wasn't a real issue, as the succubus queen could still help clean Gold Fort of its human population in a non-lethal way, the golems were no longer huge threats thanks to the training everyone got since then, and should Nero be a no-show, Tamamo could also craft a talisman to pierce the local teleportation-blocking barrier. Of course, the kitsune was really hoping to finally be able to talk with at least one of the twins.

Just like last time, the Grand Noah queen planned a diversion so that most of Grangold's monstruous army would be away. This time, however, the troops would be reinforced by a few of Luka's own allies to minimize casualties. Their enemy took the bait, and a few hours later, the fight between Grangold's and Grand Noah's armies started once more. The first issue appeared when the group reached the Gold Fort.

"Weren't there supposed to be human guards everywhere?" Micaela shooted in a small doll that had tried to grind its oversized breasts against one of her leg.

"Yes. There were between fifty and sixty soldiers. Just where are they…"

Alma Elma emitted a small sad moan. "I got deprived of my fun…" She licked her lips while looking at the hero. "You better make up for it."

"Keep your energy… You're going to need it for once we're outside."

The succubus queen nodded, her expression becoming more serious. The Lilith Sisters could still be around, readying their ambush...

However, their concern proved wrong as they left the place and crossed most of the countryside without trouble. New issues only arose when they arrived in sight of Goddard, the only village between Gold Fort and Grangold itself.

The place was eerily silent with its completely empty streets. There wasn't a single soul in sight, and the seduction aura spread by Tamamo No Mae from the capital only reinforced the gloomy atmosphere. In this surreal ambiance, the group directly went to the inn and couldn't see anyone. As they checked the building, they could see some traces of struggling upstairs: The bed was a mess, chairs were scattered, and the table was broken.

"This is where we met Nero last time… there had been a minor incident with the guy we were supposed to meet, and he was the one who helped us instead."

Tamamo carefully moved around, sniffing the place. "There's been a scuffle, but it smells like one guy got dragged by… ant girls. If it was that Nero, the place would have been torn apart."

"Can you find to where they dragged him?"

The kitsune continued sniffing around, eventually ending with her nose on the ground. She suddenly stopped when she realized she looked like a dog, and glared at the party.

"No comment please."

"We won't."

"For now."

"I HEARD THAT YOU SLUUUUUUUT!"

Still, Tamamo carefully tracked the trail with her nose, followed by the group. Eventually, they reached the door of one of the numerous houses in the village. Nothing made the place distinct from the others.

"It's locked."

Alma Elma destroyed it in a flurry of punches. "No it's… not…"

The group found itself swarmed by small flies. Micaela and Tamamo surrounded themselves with burning auras, toasting most of the insects in the process. In a powerful flap of her wings, Alma Elma eliminated the remaining annoyances. The first seraph took a look inside and pinched her nose in disgust.

"Oh for the love of… Don't tell me they did that."

"They did. You might want to stand back."

Everybody moved away from the house. Once she judged everybody was far enough, she threw a large fireball in the house that had been transformed into a mass grave. The place proceeded to explode because of the gas formed by the decompositions of the bodies stacked there, to the disgust of everyone present.

As debris fell, Micaela, Alma Elma and Tamamo stared at the place they just wrecked. The first seraph looked at the small kitsune flanking her.

"Hey."

"What?"

"Did something as bad happen during the Great War, or are we looking at the setting of a new standard?"

"I…" Tamamo stopped herself, as she tried remembering how far her and her sisters took her debauchery, and how many humans were slaughtered by angels. "Can't tell. At least we made sure they were happy as they died and we took care of them until even their body was used."

Micaela stared at the house. "Was it better than that?"

Tamamo shrugged, still slightly shocked. "I don't know, but this is why we fight against them now. We no longer want anything like that. No more."

Luka and his party left the village surrounded by a grim ambiance. Only Luka seemed as indifferent as ever, which worried more and more some of his partners. The group made a detour through the poisonous marshes east of the town, but the only things they met were poisonous slimes, and zombie like ghouls who attacked them in desperation. Once it was clear there was nobody there, they made their way to the hills that would lead them to the city of Grangold itself.

The first obstacle they met in the mountains separating the village with the capital took the form of a large pack of monstruous golems. The man-made monsters were all exactly seven meters high, and Luka couldn't notice a single difference between each of them from afar. In the blink of an eye, Alma Elma had already punched off the head of the first artificially crafted monster. The remainder locked their sights toward the succubus, their heads orienting themselves like so many turrets, but before they could do anything, they were systematically torn apart by the three other party members. The curb stomp lasted barely a few minutes, and barely registered as a walk in the park for the hero and his allies.

"I can't believe we used to have difficulties beating a single one of those." Luka sheathed his sword back.

"That…" Tamamo pulled out her fan. "Is the result of training."

Micaela smirked before turning toward the darkened entrance leading through the mountains. From here, it was clear that the path was more akin to a natural phenomenon that was barely navigable than a way terraced to be used by anyone. Crossing the narrow path took the better part of the day, and they only found themselves greeted by the sun slowly setting over Grangold.

"I maintain that would have been simpler to just fly over the broken bridge." Alma Elma dusted her blue coat off.

"That would have been less subtle than going through the hills… is what I would have said if we hadn't destroyed a dozen golems there." Micaela sighed. "Seriously, how could nobody notice that?" She then glanced at Tamamo. "I don't remember you being that bad with detection spells."

The kitsune shrugged. "Try keeping a detection spell active when people keep coming in and out of a place, and throw in a bunch of sex crazed succubi that sometimes even bring in their flings for one last night for good measures. Call me if you manage that."

"Good point." The first seraph looked at the night sky. "Should we take a break now? I don't like the idea of this aura lasting in Grangold more than you do, but if we're not rested, I'm not sure we'll be able to deal with the other Tamamo No Mae should the Lilith Sisters decide to join the party."

Luka simply shrugged. "Sure."

The group set up a camp amongst the hills, slightly concealed by the uneven ground. While Luka told them that he never had issues camping outside, Micaela and Tamamo both felt slightly uncomfortable at the idea to be possibly exposed should the Lilith Sisters happen to fly by. Tamamo used a talisman to conceal the encampment while Luka started to cook.

"Should we talk to him this evening?"

"Mmh. I don't know. I'm afraid it will disturb him this night and you said it, we better be well rested tomorrow."

"Let him be sulky for now. Luka-boy performs badly when there's pressure on him. This small issue can wait, after all…"

Tamamo and Alma Elma trained against each other, which from afar looked like a brawl between two drunken idiots. However, Micaela's trained eye detected that their movements were both flowing naturally, and, most of all, that they were wary of each other's tails. After all, Tamamo could imbue them with the power of the earth and turn them into cannonballs, while Alma Elma could use it in several unpleasant ways, up to eating her whole opponent alive.

"The meal's ready."

Micaela was pulled out of her reverie by Luka's announcement. She felt that something was wrong when she joined Luka. It wasn't until the hero served her that she noticed: There was no delicious, titillating smell announcing a delicious meal. Instead, there had been nothing and an incredibly bland looking meal in front of her. It wasn't bad by any mean, but it was a far cry of the usual gourmet meals prepared by the son of the Daystar. She looked up to see that both Tamamo and Alma Elma were also looking disappointed.

"It can't. This small issue definitively can't wait."

"What?" Luka looked up. Both his tones and his eyes reminded once again Micaela too clearly of herself, in an era of mindlessly following the flow of the orders given by Ilias without the smallest feeling getting in the way. It had taken Lucifina's betrayal to get her to start thinking for herself and to pull out an actual emotion from her, and for several years, said emotions were limited to anger and confusion. It took her several hundred years more to experience passion and actual happiness.

But Luka's situation wasn't exactly the same. Sure, he was mindlessly following the flow, but it wasn't because he was obeying someone. It was because he was forced to obey an abstract force that railroaded his adventure while some of his actions had resulted in drastic changes to a world he used to be familiar with, where manipulations and large scale wars were more effective than heroics where he shined. Maybe he was shutting himself off because he felt left behind? Micaela started to feel her frustration grow in front of Luka's condition while her fear of not helping him adequately dug inside her.

Furthermore, Luka was looking at her with eyes that might have been empty, but were looking accusing in her perspective. Was it herself projecting her own feelings on the hero?

As the mix of feelings started to grip her heart, she heard Tamamo mentally talking to her.

"You really need me on that one, don't you?"

"Please. I hate it but please. Make sure my nephew doesn't end like me when I was younger."

"Consider this one free of charge. I'll start once we're done eating." Her past arch enemy's serious tone reassured her. She didn't even think something like that was possible earlier that day.

The group finished eating silently. Right afterwards, Tamamo offered to give Luka some additional training. Micaela felt tempted to follow the duo to keep eyes on the sly fox, but refrained and instead decided to take some time to meditate.

She could feel Alma Elma's presence. The energy possessed by the succubus was impressive, even for a queen class monster of her specie. It was no wonder she turned to martial arts: You would need a town worth of people a week to keep a succubus with so much stamina fed. She could even feel the monster's creativity, asking to be unleashed in arts, no matter how noble oe depraved it was, and anything could be used as a canvas. The seraph refrained from chuckling when she wondered for a single moment how succubi would be known as should the fiends not be focused so much on sex. She heard a giggle.

"Liking what you see?"

"My eyes are still closed."

"Not all of them."

"You can tell?"

A smell of lavender filled her nose, startling the seraph who reflexively opened her eyes and backed slightly. She was greeted by the sight of Alma Elma's generous, barely contained forms.

She looked up at the succubus, annoyed by her childish behavior. "Really?"

"I'm only training you for tomorrow." Her voice became more serious. "Don't forget that Lilith will likely be there too. And she would want nothing more than to turn you into a snack for her and her sisters."

"Thanks for reminding me, but I came prepared." Micaela frowned, showing the finger she was still carrying since Yamatai. "And yes, I remember that Lilith has always proved troublesome."

"Oooh, don't worry, One-saaan will make you feeeel goooood." Alma Elma squirmed while pretending to hug an invisible boy half her size.

Micaela ground her teeth and shivered. "Too much on the spot, and the resemblance doesn't help either."

Alma Elma was smiling at the seraph discomfort. "Isn't her big sister act annoying?"

"Maybe. But by the end of the day, the reason she acts like that is because there are a lot of people who'd instantly fall for a reassuring cuddly big sister."

Luka slowly breathed in as he was holding his sword high. His body started accumulated energy. Light started wrapping around him as the hero prepared to surround himself with a shield of fire. A curtain of light started surrounding him…

…before fizzling out in an anticlimactic puff of smoke. The hero groaned in frustration.

"Mmmh. Strange. With your power level and your pact with Salamander, you should have no problem doing something like that."

"Does it really matter?"

"Yes it does. Mastering this skill will allow you to use it even if you're pinned. Very useful if you… say, get waken up by a succubus trying to have her way with you while you're not in the mood." She smirked.

Luka slowly sighed. "I always did without. I don't know why I would need it now."

"Because the Lilith Sisters will more than ever want you personally for them, and angels don't mind getting really close and personnal succubus-style, no matter how much they deny it."

Luka sat down on the floor, looking down. "Maybe. But what's the point? If everything goes wrong, I just have to go get Ilias killed and restart everything."

Tamamo sat on the side of the young man. She had brought him right where she wanted, now it was time to strike.

"And then what?"

Luka raised an eyebrow in front of the curious question. "I'll just retry again, and repeat until I finally succeed."

"And why do you want to?"

"Because I want this world to be saved. Why do you even ask me?"

Tamamo gave a sad smile. "You sound even less sincere than Lilith right now."

Luka's mouth was agap in shock.

Is she serious? I mean I already told her I want to defend the world! I do not want injustice to reign! I feel so angry, so...

"I…" Luka looked down as feelings mixed inside his heart. A part of him wanted to insult Tamamo for comparing him to a careless succubus. He did keep trying again and again to save the world, and this power had forced upon him the ultimate responsibility.

"You…" But a part of him admitted she was right. Before Sonya died, he was ready to do anything, willing to stand on his own against any threat. Since that fateful day, he was going through the motion.

"Do you remember how many times you went through this?" There was a light of sympathy in Tamamo's eyes, as she delicately took the hero's hands.

"I can't tell." Luka started dry heaving. "I actually can't remember. The only thing I can tell is that I horribly failed this time. This is the first time I remember losing friends and allies just like that…"

"And they will come back if you succeed?"

"I… I don't know. But I'll be able to recruit them again next time. Maybe. If I'm careful."

Tamamo looked in Luka's eyes. While he was panicking, she had managed to get a reaction out of him with her questions. But it was no wonder why he did shut himself like that: The boy had been turned into a cosmic plaything, and had started seeing his friends die left and right while simultaneously being incidentally relegated to the background. Now she really wanted to meet the White Rabbit or the Reaper to ask them for how long did they intend to toy with the poor man. This was on the level of what she did herself in her prime.

"Luka…" She looked at him with gentle eyes. "I won't try to pretend I know the pain you went through, but I know how hard the loss of a loved one is. Of course, you must carry on and fight for the sake of the world, but you must also keep on living. And by that I mean more than just mechanically eating, sleeping, fighting and screwing. I mean appreciating each moment for what they are. A problem I noticed in heroes and warriors is that they have difficulties living in more peaceful times, because they feel they no longer have a place in the world, and lose all passion. But in your case, you might end up not reaching this point, because you're already losing the passion that makes the heart of a hero.

"But I am passionate! I want to save the world and fight injustice! I want to protect everyone!"

"This is your end goal, but goals so broad and so hard to reach can only carry you so far before you realize they're unattainable and you crash midway." She shook her head. "The apparent lack of success is destroying your confidence and your passion better than critical ecstasy ever would."

"Then what do you suggest I do?"

"This isn't a wound that can be healed just like that. First, I suggest you take a moment to remember why you actually want to defend the world. Whether this reason is selfish or altruist doesn't matter, but you must find a reason less abstract than just wanting to protect everyone. This isn't as easy as it sounds, because it must come from your heart, not from your head. Then…"

Tamamo got interrupted by the ground suddenly quaking, making the duo lose balance and fall. The kitsune looked at the ground, slightly shocked.

"This wasn't a natural earthquake."

"That was a chaos ripple." Micaela was moving toward the duo. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, thank you auntie." Luka dusted himself as he got up. "I felt the vibration coming from Grangold."

Micaela shouted her frustration. "What the FUCK did those world-breaking idiots do?!"

Everybody looked at Micaela in surprise. Tamamo pointed her fan. "I don't think I ever heard you be vulgar before."

"Sorry, but the two last times I felt this kind of tremor, Heaven fell down and I nearly died, so I don't really care about keeping that act up."

"I do." Luka moved toward his tent. "If it makes you panic like that, it means it's time to move up now." His tone was hurried. "We're not that tired, everybody in the Pocket Castle is going to be on high alert, and several of the greatest sources of disaster in the world are currently in this city, so help me pack up and clean…"

"Already dooone, Luka-boy."

The hero blinked and could see his camping back perfectly tidied up. The surprise made him chuckle. "Thanks Alma."

"You're welcome."

"Everybody's ready?" The trio nodded. "In that case… Sylph!"

The group started running at full speed toward Grangold, prepared for the worst.