Luka was waiting outside Grangold's castle, sitting on the stairs under the moon when he saw a few monsters respectfully pull away a small casket under the guidance of Tamamo. Seeing Alice dead like that had made something snap in him. His memories about his past adventures were fuzzy, but he did remember not seeing his companion nor his rival die. Something like that was just inconceivable.

Then again, neither did either left him to found her own little nation. The feeling of being inadequate was only filling him more and more, and it wasn't helped by the empty streets of Grangold. Every single one of the city's housing had been broken in. Every single inhabitant had been brought to the palace to be killed by the ant girls.

He remembered the actions of the Lilith Sisters. They were horrible, but also apparently a necessary evil, and they always tried to stick to the true history. Was the destruction of the city by ant girls a possible outcome?

The only things that were sure were that Alice's death was not part of true history, and that it had created a powerful, localized chaosization effect. Fortunately, Nuruko managed once again to calm down the phenomenon, but a small voice told him in his head that it wasn't the last he would see of it…

In any case, Luka felt bile rising through him each time the memory of the small Monster Lord's broken body came to his mind. Did they do this after learning of Tamamo's betrayal to spite her? Did the Monster Lord found something new that required her to be silenced once and for all? Was in a series of falling dominoes that had led to this precise tragedy? And those twins, with that damn White Rabbit… Where were they when they were needed?

Discovering the truth would not undo the damage, but Luka felt that he would be unable to sleep until he knew the answer. For now, the hero only had his rage and his confusion to hold him company. Rage toward those invaders from another world that had taken one of his dearest friends. Confusion toward their actions.

He had restarted his adventure because he wanted to know more about the Angel World. Learning about the one ruled by monsters had sickened him. Even if he hadn't expected a world full of sugar and rainbows, he hoped for better than for a barely civilized jungle… And then the angels hadn't disappointed him either. They attacked him for the crimes of being allied with monsters, were dogmatic in their love of Ilias, and were just as prone to commit atrocities. Both worlds deserved each other.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized those two factions were not the only source of damages to this world. Those twins, while helpful, they were more than annoying and had brought their own lot of issues. The Chaos Goddess also came from another world. He himself got Sonya killed when he travelled to another world. And ultimately, wasn't chaosization brought up by people who interfered with a world not their own? All his thoughts condensed themselves in a simple, self imposed directive.

We should stop travelling between worlds. We should stop everyone attempting to do it. We should get rid of them once and for all. For this world. For Sonya. For Alice.

He surreptitiously looked at the group. Tamamo was still tearing up sporadically, getting consoled by one of her servant or by Micaela. Based on the words the winds carried over, they were going to bury Alice near the kitsune village, where she spent a large part of her childhood, raised by the nine tailed kitsune.

He barely noticed the small flapping noise as Lucifina-chan sat near him. She had a sad smile that reminded him more of his mother than the psycho she usually acted as. Wordlessly, she gently hugged him, reminding him of simpler, happier times.

"Do you want to talk to mommy about it?"

"I'd just wish those bad people from out there would leave this world alone…"

Lucifina-chan pulled herself from their hug with a nastier smile. "Do you want me to do something about it?"

Luka shrugged. "I don't know what can be done."

"Just you wait…" The small seraph flew away. Great, now he also had to hope that she wouldn't do anything reckless or dangerous.

He remained immobile for hours, indifferent to the sun rising and to the streets emptying. The silence was only disturbed by a few small birds occasionally chirping in front of the new dawn, indifferent to the tragedy around them. Luka could feel a hand on his shoulder before Micaela sat right next to him. His aunt looked as exhausted as him after this night.

"I never thought I'd end up being a shoulder to cry on for Tamamo, of all people…"

The hero kept silent for a small time. "It's because you're like an old friend to everyone…"

Micaela drily chuckled. "Never tell her that. In the past I had killed more than a few of her daughters... But at the time, she merely saw them as tools or as pawns. Since then, she softened a great deal, and took her duty of taking care of the Monster Lord very seriously. And then, she was forced to adopt a very young Sixteenth when her mother decided to go check the Tartarus. Alice's death is both the death of one of her daughter and a failure in her mission given by the Dark Goddess. It's bound to weigh heavily on her small shoulders."

Luka once again stood silent for a few minutes before talking again. "Do you think she'll manage to get over it?"

"I hope so. I really hope so because we need her as much as she needs us. She's our best hope to rally more monsters and the other Heavenly Knights."

The duo remained silent for a moment, only appreciating each other's company after being grimly reminded that their lives could end just like that. As Micaela looked at the rising sun, she suddenly felt uncomfortable and looked at her nephew.

"Are you alright Luka?"

"Yes, why?" The hero raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry, there's something that seems different about you right now, but I can't tell what..."

Luka answered assertively. "I feel more determined about protecting this world from others."

"No... I mean maybe but that's not quite it... It's rather like something is now missing..."

Their conversation got interrupted by someone clearing her throat. The duo turned to see the Grand Noah Queen respectfully bowing.

"I apologize, but it appears we have an intruder in the castle."

Micaela pulled her hair back as she got up. "This better be who I think it is…"

Micaela sighed in relief when she recognized Yao's large orange tails when she entered the council room. Even if the kitsune's expression was grim, she brought news of the Monster Lord's castle, and they now officially had the support of every important members of the kitsune race.

The eight tailed kitsune barely glanced at Micaela and Luka when the duo entered the room, as she was too busy cleaning herself of strings. Apparently, the spiders had caught her in their webs, which had resulted in a small skirmish into the castle when several kitsunes came to help their mentor. The situation was threatening to blow when the human lords stepped in the middle and Yao surrendered.

"Greetings, I take that news from the Monster Lord's castle aren't good?"

"The Monster Lord is dead after she broke the alliance with the Lilith Sisters."

Micaela blinked twice. "Do you mean the Fiteenth or-"

"Yes." Yao carefully grabbed her cup of tea with one of her oversized paw, blew on it and took a sip. "She apparently learned about her daughter's death from the White Rabbit. Then she kicked out the Lilith Sisters of the castle as the Sixteenth's continued life was a condition to keep the alliance going. And barely an hour later, a hero stepped in from nowhere and killed the Monster Lord in the blink of an eye." She sniffed the air and looked at Luka.

"Father…" His words were barely a whisper. "That's way earlier than before!"

"We suspect that he waited for a moment where the Lilith Sisters would be unable to help her." She stood silent for a moment before announcing solemnly. "The bloodline of the first Monster Lord is officially dead and over."

"Ilias would enjoy this moment… If it wasn't for the fact that she's currently preventing the world from being destroyed because of the chaosization." Micaela sighed. "I don't know how I really feel about it… Are there any other information about the Lilith Sisters?"

"About their current situation? No. About their plan? Well, let's get to the point…" Yao proceeded to produce a huge, barely bound filing of papers from somewhere, filled with small notes, and put it in front of Micaela who proceeded to browse through it as an extremely impressive speed. "I took it from the Monster Lord's room. I think that was used by the succubi as guideline as to what they could and should do."

"Who's leading the castle right now?" Micaela distractedly asked the question as she was flipping pages.

Yao grimaced, showing her extremely sharp teeth. "Technically… That would be me."

Micaela blinked in rapid succession as she stared at the fox in disbelief. "You are far behind in the chain of command, behind the Sixteenth who's dead, Tamamo who's been pushed away, Mephisto who's…" Her sentence trailed off. "The situation is that desperate…"

"I told everyone to stick to the Monster Lord's latest orders, which include defending Hellgondo against all threats, and adding the Lilith Sisters to that list."

Luka sighed as he covered his face with his hands. "Couldn't we just chase them and exterminate them once and for all? Where is Morrigan by the way?"

I can seeLucifina back in Luka again. I will really need to talk to Tamamo about that…

"We have the utmost difficulty keeping control over monsters roaming in Hellgondo. We might have the resources to chase the Lilith Sisters, but securing the continent is a more immediate problem to deal with right now."

"As to where Morrigan is…" The Grand Noah queen cleaned a small medal. "She left the castle in the middle of the night for shopping and snacking as she presented it. Is it safe to assume that we will not see her again?"

"We've got another issue at hand." Micaela pushed back the heap of papers on the middle of the table. "This… work here is a recap of the true story and its possible branchings. The key problem here is that there is only one case case in which the Sixteenth's death didn't result in the destruction of the world, and that's if the hero kills her and is then brought to Heaven by Ilias. Needless to say, this is not going to happen: Heaven's wrecked, we have to kill one of the Goddess of Light, and the other hate our guts right now."

Yao shook her head negatively. "Quite a conundrum."

The Grand Noah queen closed her eyes. "Should we at least secure back the Ilias that accompanied us? If the only case where the world isn't destroyed should the Sixteenth die includes the survival of Ilias while we have to kill one, we have to get sure the other survives, don't we?"

"I don't know if she'll listen, let's ask our contact…" Micaela brought a hand to one of her ear. "…Who's currently not responding."

"Could they be under attack?"

"Our interferers seem informed of the problem at hand. I don't think any of them would risk killing her right now."

Luka realized that indeed, some of those interferers would. He started fuming. Some people had shown a clear lack of awareness that had been dangerous and problematic, even if they were helpful. It was time to put his new directives into action…

Micaela looked worrily at her nephew. "Luka?"

When the hero answered, his tone was dripping with a cold fury. "Get everyone to Mt. Amos. Now."

"Nothing abnormal for now. There's some angelic activity, but no signs of troubles."

Lucretia, the queen of the harpies, had deployed her kin around the area to scout the top of the mountain with the order to just pass by and leave. She considered that the angels would be suspicious if a harpy remained stationary while observing them from afar, but that they wouldn't mind if one or two monster just passed by.

Luka was nervously biting one of his phalanges. A part of him hoped he was wrong, but secretly, he wanted to have a face to face with those well meaning idiots of twins to share his thought on their actions. Preferably with his sword in their annoying faces.

He decided to start climbing the mountain rapidly: If the latest disasters had taught him one thing, it was that time could make the difference between life and death. When he reached the top, he was surprised to see a small village worth of wooden buildings scattered around. It looked like indeed Ilias and the angels that followed her idea and had decided to stand on their own in this world. Only Micaela was standing by his side, while Yao was discreetly following them. Even with his masteries over the element and his naturally more alert senses, Luka had the utmost difficulties keeping track of the kitsune.

Luka slowly progressed through the streets, attracting the attention of every angels around him. While some of them looked warily at him, he couldn't feel any hostility emanating from them, only confusion as to why the hero was here, accompanied by the first seraph. There was a mix of fear, relief and curiosity coming from everyone that made the ambiance unbearably heavy.

Unless a miracle happen, we'll never manage to convince them to join us back for their protection.

Eventually, the trio noticed Eden and the small version of Ilias glaring at them from the entrance of the tallest building. While Eden didn't look any different than the last time, and still had that expression of contempt and hatred, Ilias looked utterly exhausted, and her expression made him think that she was about to explode in a multitude of different attitudes. He half expected her to blow up on them, before profusely apologizing or trying to kill them, or maybe even welcome them like old friends as if nothing bad ever happened between them. He remained at a distance, and nodded toward Micaela, deciding that the First Seraph was less likely to commit a faux pas than him.

"Keep them busy, I'll find a nice spot to keep an eye on the surroundings." Yao completely disappeared from the hero's senses.

Micaela closed her eyes for a second, when she opened them back, her expression had turned into a mask of compassion that would make anyone cry for themselves.

"Can we talk for a moment?" Her voice sounded extremely sad but Luka noticed a sense of emergency. If it didn't move the duo, nothing would.

Eden and Ilias looked at each other and silently invited the duo in their housing. The insides looked curiously devoid of representations of the Goddess, and were more sober than what Micaela had come to expect. In fact, it reminded her of her own house in Enrika. The party sat around the table, uncomfortably silent before Micaela started talking.

"So how are you doing now?"

"Spare us your sympathy." Ilias spat those words. "We are doing fine on our own. You wouldn't be here without a good reason, like needing our help."

"The Monster Lord and her daughter are dead." Luka looked at Ilias. "And if you die too, the world will be destroyed by chaosization."

Several emotions succeeded one after another on Ilias's face. A large, ecstatic smile, followed by a frown of dissatisfaction, which itself got soon replaced by eyes of pure fear before she reassumed an all too familiar haughty smile, the latest being too uncanny to be really sincere.

"So? It's not like someone will come to attack me. I am the Goddess of Light, I am loved by everyone. And besides, I have angels to protect me."

"The Lilith Sisters are no longer held back by the Fifteenth. We can only imagine what they would do to you should they get their hand on you."

Micaela continued as Eden's and Ilias's eyes widened.

"It's… a cold way to put it, but not entirely incorrect. There are also several other factions who are not so regarding as to whom they're killing. The forces from the Angel World did attack us in Esta, and Black Alice is also on the move. There's no guarantee that nobody will come to attack you."

Luka leaned slightly closer. "You'll be only safe with us. We will protect you. I will protect you."

Ilias recognized a light of determination that she hadn't seen in the hero's eye before. Maybe she could get something back in exchange for joining him again.

"Well." She shrugged indifferently, but the mix of fear and confusion she was currently undergoing made her stomach churn. "How about you show that you really want me back in your castle?"

"Morrigan's already been removed to prepare for your return." Luka knew that the truth was different as the succubus left on her own, but there was no harm in buttering the goddess, was there?

"That's a good start. But…Why else should I join you? You're still supporting monsters. Living with monsters. Crossing with monsters. I can smell their scent all over you. So tell me what can you really bring to me."

Luka and Micaela both managed to see through the goddess's plan. She didn't see them as friends who wanted to bring her back (not that her pride would allow her to), but as partners for an alliance. At least, that's what she wanted them to see on the surface.

"A large number of supporters and a large panel of skills. Most angels are limiting themselves to holy and lightning. Also, we're around ten times as numerous back at the castle."

"True... But most of your allies are monsters. They're selfish, only think of desecrating my creations, and will turn on you at the first occasion."

"It won't happen." Luka took a break. "It never did."

Ilias scoffed. "Do you really think that will be enough to sway me? What else?"

Yao's voice suddenly echoed through Micaela's mind. "There's a strange comet flying aimed straight at the top of Mt Amos. It's going to destroy the highest building."

The First Seraph frowned. "That's strange. Who would cast a random spell like that aimed here? That makes no sense."

"It's actually a life form displacing."

"Sun Wukong."

"That'd be her. Impact in twenty- wait, no, thirty seconds. I can use a spell to reduce her speed to a crawl to limit the damages."

"That's convenient. Way too convenient. Do it."

"I swear on my mistress's head that we didn't plan any of it."

"I think I know who did."

Micaela closed her eyes and sighed, inwardly both thanking and blaming the White Rabbit for the new threat at hand. "Please, come outside, there's something you must see."

Eden warily looked at the First Seraph as the latter got up, but she followed her nonetheless, soon followed by Ilias and Luka.

When they reached outside, Micaela gestured at the place around her. "You keep repeating that monsters are the bane of this world and that they must be eliminated. I agree that there are quite a lot of them that are horrible… well… monsters…"

Angels started running and panicking as they noticed the comet. Luka could hear shouting and cries as they realized that everything they worked to build was going to be destroyed.

"But I want to tell you that, even when a monster is attacking you..."

A huge fist rose from the ground at an impressive speed and punched the comet, stopping it dead in its track. The rock shattered and scattered in a thousand of small, harmless pebbles.

"You can count on their help when they think you deserve it."

Yao showed up from the top of the building, wielding a ninja sword in one hand and a fan in the other. In the meantime, Sun Wukong unwrapped and shook some debris from her.

"Oww. That's rude ya know!"

Luka looked at the Monkey Queen. The first thing he noticed was the holy protection ring on her finger.

Of course… This one. Is. DEAD.

Luka drew his sword at the ready, a raging fire burning in his heart.