Chapter VIII

Greetings all! Yes, Demon Lord's Adventurers is what still has my attention at the moment, so it is what I am delivering to you yet again. At least until the "event" has passed, my upload speed should be vaguely similar to this. Once things get back to normal it will sadly be an extended period of time between chapters. Hopefully not more than three months, but no promises. That said, you lot acted fast with the reviews, I appreciate it. So far they are all positive, which is always nice. As usual, many thanks to Bakuto Masaki for his assistance. That said, on to the reviewer responses!

dfelfkselkr: First, did you make that username by slamming your head on the keyboard? Bravo regardless.

I'm glad you enjoyed the fights. Fight scenes are something I struggle with on occasion, so I like to try and do them well when I can, and it especially helps when it's the story I'm passionate about, like this one. I felt the little comical moments would add some levity to what could be seen as an overall gruesome showdown. And don't worry, Satan will get some punishment for sure.

snakelord13: Well here you go.

Miltoneunis: Now, now? Or then now? Maybe now then? Or now now?

Darkkon27: Not to toot my own horn, but I also think this is my best story out of all of them. Even then it has some minor aspects I would like to go back and fix, either because of learning of new information or characters, or just from improving as a writer.

Thanos69: I wouldn't go as far as saying blessed, but thanks.

Messiah of authors: Megumin is mad for a lot of reasons.

Lawoi: This story is what I will be working on for the foreseeable future, with one or two others at the side on occasion. Sadly, I have to say I don't know what you're referring to with "The Plague Arc". Think you could tell me what series it's from? I might have seen it or read through it already and it was simply given a different title.

ObsidianUnknown66: Well with the quarantine going all over the planet it's not like I have much else to do. I was hoping at least someone would recognize the Seven Mortal Sins series. Thank you, I felt that exchange was a good one. It does, though which ones I won't reveal yet. If you've seen the series you might be able to guess which ones. My favorite is Mammon.

METALHELLSPWN: That's the one.

Guest: Seven Mortal Sins, also known as Sin: Nanatsu no Taizai. You want to make sure to include the "Sin" if you look it up by the Japanese name, since NNT is also the name of a Shounen series.

15songoku: Sin: Nanatsu no Taizai. Love Mordred myself too.

It is completely intentional, I promise you. Not on Diablo's part but on mine.

They will.

I think I was pretty accurate with my depiction of Galluk. Buy was a piece of shit.

I do my best with making her entertaining. I'll spoil it, Wiz is stronger.

Well I'm glad you're enjoying my writing. I'm definitely enjoying making it.

Wow, that was a lot of reviews in such a short amount of time. Keep it up guys! It fuels my passion. Speaking of, on to the main event!

Satan snarled at Wiz before the area was suddenly filled with a flurry of lights that soon took the shape of several human forms. Before she had a chance to sort out what was happening, one of the shapes pointed at her as it was forming.

"Dark Bullet!"

She was suddenly hit by several shots of pitch-black energy that knocked her off her feet. "Who the hell are you!?" However, her eyes shot wider than ever as the light died down and revealed who it was. "L – Lord Momonga! L – Lady Tabula?" she wondered, looking at Diablo and Nanana in confusion.

As the light dissipated and he was able to see clearly, Diablo saw Satan standing before him and raised an eyebrow curiously. "Satan? What are you –?" he suddenly stopped cold as he saw the area around him, buildings shattered and his allies thrown all over, bloodied and battered. His curiosity turned to anger as he looked at the red-haired vixen. "… What the hell!?"

"M – My Lord?" Satan stuttered as she stumbled back from the rage in his voice.

"Did you do this?!" he demanded.

"P – Pardon?" she asked meekly.

Pointing to his friends around him, Diablo demanded, harsher, "Did you do this!?"

"I had no choice! They kept stopping from punishing the Crimson Eyesore for nearly killing all my kitties!"

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"C – Come again?"

"Explain yourself, dammit!"

"S – Sir!" she replied, confused and afraid. "I was keeping a bunch of stray kittens in the castle I was staying it when an explosion destroyed part of the castle and nearly killed them!"

Diablo stared at her silently in confusion. '… You've got to be kidding me.' "… Ha?"

"Th – That's the truth, Sir, I swear!"

Diablo folded his arms in thought. "So you went through all this… destroyed the city, injured my allies, and caused who knows what else, because of that?"

"Th – That about sums it up, Lord Mom –" she answered, only to be cut off.

"Diablo."

"S – Sir?"

"My name is Diablo now."

"Aw…" Shera pouted slightly, "I think Momonga's kinda cute."

Nanana frowned deeply as she looked at him. 'I've never seen Momo this angry before…'

Aqua finally pulled herself out of the window and flopped to the ground. "Ow…" Standing up shakily she then saw Diablo and sighed in relief. "Wait, Diablo!?"

Hearing his name so plainly, Satan turned to scold Aqua, only for Diablo to approach her in an instant and slam her head into the ground.

"No!" he commanded. "That's enough!" Turning to the ones who could still stand, Diablo gave his orders. "Aqua, Shera, Nanana, take these potions and begin healing the others." Pulling a large number of potions from his Inventory, he handed them out. "Start with Mordred, she's the most injured. Shera, find her arm."

"Right!" the busty elf answered with a salute before looking around the battlefield.

As the trio began their work, Diablo grabbed Satan by the horns and pulled her to her feet. "I have numerous questions, and I expect truthful answers."

"O – Of course," she began, coughing from the impact, "Lord Mo – Lord Diablo, I would never lie to you." She stopped herself from calling him his old name.

"Good. First, what were you doing in that castle to begin with?"

"Lady Sinoula and Lady Albedo were growing anxious about your absence and sent me to search the world for you," she answered hastily.

"Sinoula?" he asked. 'So she's here too? That means Sinoula and Tabula are both here. I wonder how many others are…'

"Y – Yes, sir. I made my base in this area that castle since it was unoccupied."

"And?" he prodded.

"And…?" she answered, confused.

"And where do the cats get involved."

"O – Oh…" she trailed off, embarrassed to answer. One swift glare from Diablo forced it out of her. "I… I simply began finding them while I was searching… And they were so alone and scared… I couldn't just leave them out there without anyone watching over them… They might have starved, o – or been eaten predators, or worse, been found and mistreated by humans…"

"And so, because of Megumin's Explosion, your cats were endangered and you came here to exact revenge?" he answered, dropping her back down.

"Precisely, my Lord," she answered as she shakily stood up.

"Then you went after the wrong target."

"But she cast the spell!"

"Under my instruction."

She stopped immediately as she heard his words. "… Wh – What…?"

"She is a novice at casting spells and required a target to practice that spell of hers. I suggested the old castle we stumbled upon. She may have fired the spell, but it was I who gave her the idea."

Satan merely sat silently, staring at him.

"So, if you wish to exact your revenge on anyone, it would be me."

Her silence merely continued.

"That being said, you acted foolishly and attacked my servants and my slaves without thinking."

She gulped deeply, expecting the worst.

He noticed her silence, confused. "Um… Satan?" Looking at her, he noticed the tears beginning to form in her eyes. Sighing, irritated, he asked bluntly, "What?"

"Why are you trying to take blame for trying to kill my kittens…?" she asked through soaked eyes.

"Because it was I who gave the order. And," he paused, looking around at Shera and the others healing the girls, "you could have killed people important to me."

"Wh – What?" Satan asked, confused.

'Crap, is that sounding a little too sappy…?'

"Diablo…?" Rem asked as she finished healing and walked up to him. "You made it…" she muttered before stumbling forward, Diablo catching her with a hand to her shoulder.

Turning his attention back to Satan, he added, "… After all, they belong to me." Sending an intense stare at Satan, he added coldly, "And if you damage my property, you'd better have a damn good reason."

"Diablo…" Rem mumbled, looking up at him in awe.

'Uh-oh… was that too far in the other direction…?'

Rem merely smiled before hugging gently onto his arm. "Diablo…"

'Wait, that makes her happy!?'

Shera, seeing this, pouted and ran up to him. "Hey, Rem! That's no fair!" she argued before wrapping herself around Diablo's free arm. Looking at Rem she taunted, "Besides, if you hug him, all he'll feel is your ribs!"

'So soft…'

Rem puffed her cheeks and hugged tighter, embarrassed. "What?! That's not true!"

Diablo could only gulp. 'Except it is, but it's kind of nice in its own way…'

Satan looked over the situation in thought and then saw the collars on the girls' necks. "… So these are your sex slaves…?"

Diablo's voice caught in his throat at the accusation.

"E – Eh!?" Rem stammered, Shera was just confused, Nanana and the others just looked at her.

"What?" Satan asked, just looking at everyone.

Diablo sighed and pushed the two away gently. "I'll answer that later, we need to heal the others. I'll deal with you then."

Nearby, Mordred stumbled around deliriously. "Hello, Mother, is that wine for me…?"

"… Shera, go lie her down."

Later, Mordred slowly came to in a bed, her mind still catching up. "What…?"

"Don't move too much, I'm almost done reattaching it," Diablo urged.

"Oh…"

"Had to remove most of your armor to do it. It's pretty much a wreck."

"Oh… wait, wh – what?!" she shouted, her face flushing red.

"If you don't stop moving I'm going to knock you out again," he warned. "And I don't want to add head trauma to your list of injuries."

Lying back down, but still blushing madly, she asked weakly, "Y – You didn't see anything… did you…?"

"No, your clothing under your armor wasn't in the way." Gulping slightly, he looked her over, realizing her body was significantly more curvaceous and endowed than her armor had initially portrayed. If the thin strip of fabric holding her chest in place had not been as strong as it was, he would have had many other issues to deal with. 'Just how did she stuff such things in there…?'

'Focus, we don't need you attaching her arm backwards,' Nanana chided.

'I won't, I won't.'

As she watched him deftly sew Mordred's arm back together before using a healing spell, she asked, 'Hey, how come you need to focus on something else to basic stuff like making potions or forging, but you don't with this?'

'Because sewing is something I was able to do in real life. Well, I don't mean I sewed things quite like this, but still. My second wife had absolutely no skill in such things, so I had to do it most of the time.'

That revelation threw her for a loop. 'You were married?! Twice!?'

'Four times, actually.'

'Haaa!?'

'They didn't really give me an option.'

'They? What do you mean? Like, you married them all at once?'

'Pretty much,' he answered plainly as he began applying healing magic to the wound after finishing the sewing.

'So you've just always had a harem!? What are you!?'

'A man with weird luck and very forward wives. Hell, my second wife was a Pandora.'

Nanana's jaw nearly hit the floor. 'Seriously!?' After taking a moment to collect herself, she added, 'I'm starting to think you were a Demon Lord the whole time…'

Mordred, growing impatient, looked at Diablo. "Is it done yet?"

"Yes, it is," he answered as he moved away from her.

Sitting up and flexing her arm, she winced in discomfort.

"Take it easy for a little bit. You might want to avoid questing for a few days."

"Just great…" she snarled. "Well, at least Mother isn't going to hear about this. Or my cousin…"

"I see."

Sighing, Mordred then noticed Darkness, not injured in the slightest, happily talking with the others. Frowning in thought, she turned her attention to Diablo as he stood up and left. "Sir Diablo, may I ask you a question?"

"Make it quick, I need to punish that fool."

"That Crusader seems about equal to me in strength, so why was she able to withstand that Demon Lord's attacks so well?"

Diablo could only shrug. "Because of who she is. And likely because she's in my Familia."

"… I – I see…" she answered somberly.

"If there's nothing else, I need to handle this," he asserted before leaving.

"R – Right…"

Nanana frowned in worry as he left.

Heading down the hall, Diablo walked into a secluded room where Satan sat silently on a bed.

She glanced up as he entered before looking back down at her feet. "Are you going to kill me?"

"No," he answered plainly.

"Abandon me?"

"No."

"Lock me up?"

"No," he answered once more.

She looked at him, annoyed and confused. "Well then what are you going to do?"

He sighed before answering. "Did you honestly think that justification was enough to warrant your actions?"

"If someone hurt that kitty cat of yours, would you just let them go?"

"I can't say I would," he answered plainly.

Satan only nodded. "Someone has to make sure no one can hurt them. They are so small that they can't protect themselves…"

Folding his arms, he argued, "You should have been able to sense the girls had my brand on them, and yet you did not stop. Why?"

"Well… because…" she floundered for an answer.

"To send a message?"

"… Basically."

Motioning behind him to the front of the building, he warned, "The only message you've achieved so far is making this entire town, and possibly the surrounding area, aware of your presence."

"So?" she asked, unaware of the issue.

"I'm attempting to establish a foothold here. And if they find out I'm associated with a brash, impudent, impulsive Demon Lord with a short fuse, all of that work will go to waste."

Satan sat silently before dropping her shoulders.

"I apologize for the cats and hope that none of them are injured. But storming a town because you think someone from there might be responsible for their peril is foolish at best, suicidal at worst."

Satan just folded her arms under her bust defiantly. "You think I'm afraid of some humans."

"And what if I hadn't immediately recognized you before killing you?!" Diablo asked, his temper boiling over.

"Then Lady Sinoula would have revived me at the Tomb."

He swiftly realized he was not going to get through to her. "Moving on, what are you plans now?"

"To send a message to Lady Sinoula and then stay here with you and my kittens."

"In that case, you need to do two things before I will allow it."

"Like what?"

"First, you need to apologize to the others, especially Megumin and Mordred."

"Now the Eyesore the I can understand, but the knight got herself involved!"

"She's an Adventurer and a guardian of this town. It's her job to get involved with danger."

Standing with her arms at her sides, Satan argued vehemently, "I only had one target! If she had let me have that Crimson Eyesore none of that would have occurred!"

"I would hope even you can see how stupid that sounds."

Satan sat back down with a pout. Rubbing her head in frustration she finally gave in from his silent gaze. "… Ach, fine…! What's the other thing?"

Nodding in acceptance, he continued. "To stay low until Wiz and I can alter the people's memories enough that they think it was someone else that caused all that damage."

That caught the woman's attention. "Wiz? Wait, Lady Wiz is here?"

"She's the one who beat the stuffing out of you."

"… The one I couldn't see…?"

"Probably," he shrugged. "If you'll do both of those I'll talk with the others and see if they can forgive you."

Satan just clicked her tongue in annoyance. "… Fine… But if I see that Crimson Eyesore with her staff around my kittens, I am ending her."

Diablo narrowed his eyes at her. "I will deal with Megumin so that she isn't a problem for your cats again. You are not to harm any of them for any reason, understood?"

"But –" she argued only to be coldly interrupted.

"Am. I. Clear?"

Gulping, she relented with a heavy sigh. "… Fine…"

"Good. Include this in your message to Sinoula. I am busy where I am and won't be going to Nazarick for the time being."

Satan frowned in disappointment but nodded in agreement. "… Right…"

"Good. Before you do that, however. Apologize to the others."

The redhead's eyebrows twitched furiously before accepting her fate. "… Understood…"

Mordred and Megumin stood silently with a mixture of dumbstruck and anger as Satan kneeled before them for forgiveness.

"Uuhh…" Megumin intoned, not sure how to take what she was seeing.

"I… I would…" Satan mumbled, trying to force the words out, "I would like to…"

Mordred suddenly stood up and put out her arms. "Oh for goddess' sake, just stop already. You're making me feel guilty."

Satan lifted her head to look at the blonde in confusion. "H – Huh?"

"Look, if you work for Diablo, I'm guessing you're probably not completely evil. But that doesn't excuse what you did, which was very, very stupid."

Satan twitched an eyebrow in annoyance at the blonde.

Folding her arms, Mordred continued, "However, nobody died and the biggest trouble you wound up causing was damage to the city."

Satan furrowed her brow in bewilderment at the blonde. "… I… I see… And…?"

Motioning to Megumin, Mordred added, "I don't know about Little Red, but I'm willing to forgive you on two conditions."

'More conditions…' Satan grumbled in her mind. "And those are…?"

"Don't ever attack innocent people again unless they are actively putting someone else in danger; though I guess at that point they aren't innocent. Mou, whatever!" Mordred groaned, knocking her train of thought off the rails on her own.

Satan flattened her brow at the strange woman's behavior. "And the second…?"

With an excited grin, Mordred pointed at Satan and urged, "You give me a rematch sometime."

"… Are you masochistic?"

Mordred's grin remained in place. "No, that's the other blonde knight. I'm going to be getting a lot stronger soon. Besides, if I can't take down one Demon Lord, I'm no good as a Knight Princess."

"Oh?" Satan asked, intrigued by her thought process.

Mordred then nudged Megumin on the shoulder. "How about you, Little Red?"

Megumin sat silently for a moment before standing up and staring down at Satan. "… You hurt my friends."

Satan hissed and began to retort, only to be cut off by Megumin.

"But… I know if someone hurt my little sister, even if just by accident, I'd want to set off an explosion in their face."

The red-haired demon stared at her silently, befuddled to her train of thought.

"So… if it makes us even," Megumin continued with a small bow, "I'm sorry if I hurt your kitties."

The scantily clad woman furrowed her brow for a moment before standing up with a sigh. "… Apology accepted."

Megumin smiled slightly in relief.

Turning her attention back to the Mordred, Satan asked with embarrassed curiosity, "Is your… arm better?"

Mordred grinned and flexed her arm. "Almost back to new." Lifting and twisting it, she added with a sense of surprise, "Diablo's pretty good at reattaching limbs."

Satan responded folding her arms proudly. "Of course he is, he's one of the Supreme Beings after all."

"Supreme Beings?" Megumin question. "What's that?"

Parting her lips to speak, Satan was interrupted by Diablo's voice through the door.

"Shouldn't you go check on your cats?"

Satan's entire body tensed and stiffened before she swiftly grabbed her ax and disappeared out the door in the blink of an eye.

Megumin stared at the spot Satan had been just a fraction of a second ago and felt her jaw drop slightly. "… She's… so fast."

"Ya think," Mordred deadpanned. After a moment of quiet she spoke out to the horned man around the corner.

"… Yes?" he asked, coming in front of the doorway.

"I…" Mordred began, stammering, her face reddening slightly. "I want… to ask you something."

Diablo kept his expression placid but felt a twinge of irritation in the back of his mind. '… I have a bad feeling about this.'

Mordred looked at him uncertainly, as if waiting for him to move the conversation onward.

Relenting with a sigh, he returned, "What is it?"

"M – May I… join your Familia?"

'How did I guess…?' he grumbled in his mind. "Why?"

Sighing in frustration, she answered simply. "I want to become stronger."

"Why?" he asked again, with no explanation.

Mordred could only raise an eyebrow at his questioning. "Isn't it obvious? Because it's better to be stronger."

"Not what I meant," he rebuffed as he shook his head. "Why do you want to become stronger?"

"Because it's better than being weak," Mordred answered bluntly, becoming somewhat irritated by his line of questions.

"You're not listening to my question," Diablo added with emphasis. "Why do you want to become stronger? For power? Fame? Riches?"

Mordred's eyes widened slightly as she realized where he was going with his questions. "Why would I need any of those?"

"Then what is your reason?" he asked pointedly, motioning to her directly.

Nodding, she answered, "To protect people. It's my job as a knight and princess."

Diablo narrowed his eyes curiously. "So you're only doing it because you feel you're supposed to?"

Nanana, in another room but still connected to him and listening, chimed in with amusement, 'You're becoming more like a god every day, fufu.'

Diablo huffed in rebuttal. 'Shush. I just realized after this mess I can't just try and keep up the Demon Lord act this whole time now that I've got people relying on me.'

Mordred continued, "That and to make a name for myself. One that won't make people see me as my mother's daughter. It's the reason I left Lautreamont after all."

"Oh?" Diablo rejoined with interest.

Mordred flinched subtly as she realized the situation she put herself in but eventually decided lying was not a suitable option. "My full name is Mordred Pendragon Lautreamont."

Diablo's brain stopped working for a moment. "… Eh?"

Reaching into her nearby, heavily damaged armor, she pulled an intricate medallion bearing the head of a lion on its front and displayed it. "If you don't believe me, this is the royal emblem of the Lautreamont Knight Kingdom. My mother, Arturia, is its queen and ruler."

"… Ah."

Megumin, confused, asked a simple question. "I thought Lautreamont had three rulers."

"It does. My mother sits at the top, as the overall ruler and head of the military. The other two handle political and diplomatic endeavors, with my mother getting involved when needed, and incidents relating to magic."

Megumin tilted her head in further confusion. "Um… wouldn't the political one be the ruler?"

"No. She is the ruler of Lautreamont because the Dragon Gear chose her. The same as Lautreamont's seven War Maidens, or Vanadis."

"Ah…"

Diablo raised an eyebrow in thought. 'Vanadis? I'll need to look into that later.' "I trust your answer. But that still leaves why you have chosen my Familia over any other."

Shrugging with a weak smirk, Mordred rebuffed, "I don't know of any other deity that managed to defeat one Demon Lord, let alone multiple. And that Crusader… we should be around the same Level, but she managed to actually push Satan back."

"I see," he replied before folding his arms in thought. "Very well. But before I solidify your membership, I wish to test your skills."

Mordred frowned slightly in frustration. "Fighting Satan wasn't enough?"

'I would think it is,' Nanana replied.

Diablo argued, "Combat isn't all a Familia focuses on. I want to personally see your teamwork abilities. After that I will offer you my seal."

"Right!" Mordred replied with vigor before wincing as she remembered something and looked at her armor. "Although… I'm going to need some new armor first."

"Do you mind if I use your old armor as a base?"

Mordred just shrugged. "It's just scrap metal at this point, so go ahead."

"Good. Any preference in color or design? Material?"

Mordred folded her arms under her significant bust in thought. "As close as you to can my original armor would be preferred."

"Understood."

Nanana snickered mischievously. 'She is so getting bikini armor.'

'Shut it,' Diablo snapped back.

In the back of the building, with the remains of Mordred's armor laid out on a table, Diablo sighed as he scratched his head looking it over.

"Well?" Nanana questioned.

"Hm… there's not much here that I can actually salvage. The helmet and torso are completely wrecked. I might be able to salvage the arms and legs if I use pieces from the other two."

"So bikini armor then?"

Twitching an eyebrow, Diablo pointed to it and argued, "If I enchant it, then it will offer full body protection.

"Like the one Lilietta wore?" Rem asked, standing next to them.

"… Kind of."

"Right."

After a short moment, Diablo turned to Rem in surprise. "What are you doing in here?"

"I wanted to help with Mordred's armor."

Diablo stared silently at her as her tail swished slowly behind her. "Ah…"

"She helped us out, and I wanted to return the favor."

Sighing after a moment he just shrugged. "Very well. I could use an assistant."

Rem nodded with a small smile.

Some hours later, Mordred finished putting on her armor and looked at herself in the mirror with thought. In addition to the red sash wrapped around her ample bust, black briefs that hugged her form tightly, red and gold cloth skirt that covered her front and extended down to her shins, and thigh-high black stockings with red bands, the armor that was left were two large, pointed pauldrons, two long, spiked gauntlets, two large shields hung at her waist, and knee-high armored boots.

Diablo frowned slightly at her reaction to the revealing uniform as she tested her movements. "That was all I could salvage."

Mordred turned to him with a grin. "It's perfect! If it's anything like what that girl was wearing, it should provide me full protection, but it's so much easier to move in than my armor!" she exclaimed as she threw a few punches and kicks in practice. "To be honest, I'm not that fond of the kind of clothing I have to wear in the palace. This kinda stuff that lets me breathe and move better is much more my style."

Diablo just stared silently at her, not sure how to respond. "… Ah."

Nanana, meanwhile, snickered slyly nearby.

'Shut it…'

'Told ya it's what you're going to be making.'

'Please shut up…' Diablo tried to redirect the conversation before matters got too out of hand. "We'll go on a quest tomorrow. It's far too late for one now."

Mordred nodded as she left the store. "Right. Meet you at the Guild hall."

Diablo frowned slightly as she left. '… If anyone from Lautreamont sees that outfit and learns I made it… I am so dead…'

'Or your business will start booming.'

He just groaned at the impending chaos.

Diablo sighed as he sat on the edge of the bed in the room he had claimed as his own.

In front of him, Nanana, Shera, and a few of the other girls were having a heated argument.

"Hey, that's no fair! Why can't I stay here!?" Shera demanded to know.

Pointing at the horned man sitting silently on the sidelines, Nanana retorted, "Because, we don't need you and Diablo doing anything in the night. You'll share a room with Rem and deal with it."

Shera trembled before tears began welling up in her eyes.

'Look, I don't think it's that big of a –' Diablo began to argue, only to get cut off midsentence.

'Of course you don't think it's a problem with her boobs smushed up against you all night!'

Diablo frowned slightly in consideration. 'Are you… jealous?'

Nanana winced as her entire face lit up. 'Y – You can't be serious!'

'Holy shit you are!'

Nanana looked at him with a growing temper before she suddenly went quiet and reached a hand out to Megumin. "… Megumin, can I have your staff?" she asked, eerily calm.

Megumin, too disturbed to argue, just nodded. "Um… sure?"

In the back room downstairs, Lilietta looked over the vast array of outfits Wiz had in a large closet.

"All of your clothes are so pretty… Did you make them yourself?"

Wiz responded with a shake of her head. "No, I actually had help from some friends."

"Really?"

"Yeah, the –"

The conversation was interrupted and cut off by the sound of a loud crash from upstairs.

"Wh – What was that…?" Lilietta stammered in worry.

Wiz could only must a weak sigh. "I would advise you to ignore it."

Upstairs, Nanana slammed the door to Diablo's room shut. "There, now the bed issue is solved." She then handed Megumin back her staff, the girl's face locked in a permanent expression of awe. "That thing is surprisingly sturdy."

"Y – Yeah…" was the best the Crimson Mage could muster.

Smiling pleasantly, Nanana made her way back to her room. "Now, we've got a long day ahead of us, so let's get some rest."

The others merely watched her leave in silent disbelief.

The next morning, Shera took a deep yawn as she sat at the table with everyone else. "I didn't get any sleep last night…"

An annoyed Rem rebuffed, "Maybe if you didn't roll around so much that wouldn't happen…"

"Well I can't get comfortable if I'm not holding on to Diablo…"

Diablo just glowered at his food. 'Would be nice if I had a bed to sleep in… Too bad I don't…'

Nanana sat beside him eating her grilled fish without a worry.

"So what kind of quest are we going to do?" Megumin question.

Diablo gave it some thought while stretching out the kinks in his shoulder. "Probably an exploration or gather quest."

"Oh…" the girl mumbled in disappointment.

Leaning back in his chair, Diablo explained, "I heard from everyone what Mordred can do in battle. I want to see what she can do otherwise before letting her join."

The little wizard tilted her head in thought. "How come?"

"With Nanana and Darkness we already have the strength and defense for the party. You provide long range magic support, Shera can attack from distance, and Rem is the fastest. We have several other roles that need filling."

Aqua sat silently shooting him an irritated glare.

"Including a healer."

Aqua's glare was joined by a twitching eyebrow.

Aqua finally slammed her hands on the table angrily and stood up. "Are you trying to piss me off?!"

Diablo turned her in mild surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"You are!"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You keep saying we need a healer!"

"We do."

Aqua's temper was reaching its limit. "Me! I can use healing magic!"

Nanana dryly commented, "The only thing you can heal is a dry throat and even that's debatable."

Aqua growled gutturally at the purple-haired woman, Diablo remarked during their feud, "When you're all done playing around, we need to get to the Guild."

Darkness nodded slowly in agreement.

Mordred stood against a wall next to the Guild hall's main door with her arms crossed and an annoyed frown on her face.

"Hi Mordred," Megumin greeted as she ran up to her. "You look… angrier than normal."

Mordred hummed as she heard them and tried to soften her expression. "It's nothing. Just these pests around here."

"Pests?" Shera asked innocently as she looked around.

Mordred motioned to a few men that walked by, their faces contorted perversely at her. "Men like them all day. Constantly approaching me like drunken fools, or asking me how much I cost."

Diablo stiffened and felt a cold chill down his spine.

Mordred put her hands behind her head with a huff. "What do they take me for? Some lowly sell-sword?"

Diablo stared at her in wonderment.

'That's adorable…' Nanana cooed with amusement.

'And concerning…'

"So what job are we taking?" Mordred asked as she stepped away from the wall.

"I will decide after looking at the request board."

Mordred nodded with anticipation. "Right. Hope it's something I can really go all out on."

Inside the Guild hall, Diablo made his way toward the request when he noticed Sylvie looking around frantically before seeing him and sprinting over. "Something wrong Sylvie?"

"Sort of," she answered grimly. "I got a request from the main Guild office to give to someone here in town."

"Oh? What is it?"

Sylvie looked around the crowded building in suspicion and leaned close to him. "It's best if we discuss this in my office."

"Okay?" he responded, confused and concerned.

Sitting in her high-backed chair behind her desk, Sylvie posited, "I'm sure you remember the attempted Fallen incursion?"

Diablo and the others, sitting on the sofas in front of her desk, nodded.

"Of course," the horned man answered plainly.

"Well it didn't come completely out of nowhere."

"Oh?" Diablo responded, intrigued.

"There's a reason Faltra tends to be safe from monster attacks."

"Celes' barrier?" Rem asked matter-of-factly.

"Not exactly."

"Barrier?" Aqua asked, befuddled.

Rem explained the question. "Celes uses her magic to maintain a powerful barrier around the city that prevents monsters from getting in under normal circumstances."

Sylvie nodded in agreement. "Indeed. But that's only a precaution, not the secret to Faltra's relative safety. A final failsafe incase the true deterrent went missing."

"Missing?" Shera asked, completely befuddled, as were others in the room.

Sylvie nodded grimly. "Yes. There's a mountain near the city, inside the mountain is a cave, and deep inside that cave, an immensely powerful dragon known as Veldora is sealed inside, and has been for the past three hundred years. Or used to…"

Diablo raised an eyebrow in thought. "Used to?"

"About two weeks ago, Veldora's presence vanished from the area. As a result, much stronger monsters than normal have begun appearing around Faltra. The head of the Guild's main branch wants a team of Adventurers sent to investigate the cave he used to live in and figure out the truth. And whoever we send needs to be careful. Veldora was a subordinate to the Fell Dragon Grima. That's why I'm requesting your aid."

"Understood. The requirements of the quest?" he asked as he looked over the paper.

"Investigate Veldora's cave, see if it's actually true that he's gone, and try to find out what happened."

"Right. Sounds simple enough for my Familia and me. Should be a good test quest for Mordred as well."

"Just be careful. Even though few powerful monsters appeared because of Veldora, there are some that took shelter in his cave that aren't pushovers."

Mordred grinned with excitement and slammed her fists together. "Perfect. Let's get going!"

With that, the group made their way out of the city and towards the cave to the northeast.

As they traveled, Diablo noticed Mordred occasionally glancing at him curiously. Eventually he was unable to handle the awkward glances any further and asked. "Is something the matter?"

"Not exactly. I've never heard of a god going on any quests with their Followers."

"I'm not lazy," he replied bluntly.

"Ah. I'd heard most of the gods came to Gekkai out of sheer boredom."

"I did not. I'm also not a god."

'Finally accepted your role?' Nanana asked with a smirk. Deciding to just go with it, she addressed Mordred. "He's not just a god really. But a Demon Lord as well."

"Really?" the blonde wondered as she looked him over before shrugging. "I suppose he is a little short for a Draph."

"Oy!" he snapped back, only getting a laugh from the woman.

With a sly grin, Nanana added, "I have it on good authority he makes up for it."

Mordred nodded with a smile. "Indeed, he does seem rather powerful."

Nanana stared at her in mild disbelief before grinning deviously. '… Oh this is going to be so much fun.'

'Don't taint her, we don't need the royal family giving us trouble,' Diablo warned.

After several more hours of the walking, the group reached the dense forest around the cave.

As they walked through it, Diablo noticed Rem constantly looking around, her ears practically swiveling all the way around. "What are you doing?"

"This area of the forest is said to be home to a large group of Goblins," she answered as she kept looking.

Diablo just raised an eyebrow in further confusion. "That will be useful later. Though, why are you so concerned?"

"Are Goblins really that big a deal?" Nanana asked with a shrug, resulting in Rem, Darkness, and Megumin giving her a deadpan stare of disbelief. "… What?"

Darkness answered with a hint of her usual excitement, "They're some of the most twisted, vile, and despicable creatures around."

Diablo almost could not believe his ears. "… Goblins are?"

"As in… the little green weaklings with clubs?" Nanana replied, motioning with her hands only a meter off the ground.

Rem explained, "Alone, Goblins aren't an issue. Even encountering two or three isn't a problem. It's when you run into large groups that their true power is seen."

"I still do not see the problem you are complaining about. Besides, what you're describing sound like Imps."

"There's a difference?" Mordred rebuffed with a hint of disgust.

Diablo nodded. "Imps are vile and cruel, and attack in groups and at any opportunity. Goblins are mostly docile and only attack when provoked. Imps also live in caves, whilst Goblins stick to forests to hide better. Provided we don't startle any of them, any Goblins in this forest will likely leave us alone. So no explosions."

Megumin pouted at the very pointed comment.

Soon the group reached the edge of the large mountain and what appeared to be the entrance of the cave, marked by a massive metal door.

Shera tilted her head back to look up at the top of the large structure. "… That's a big door…"

"Indeed…" Mordred noted in awed agreement.

"Do you think it's locked?" Megumin questioned.

"Only one way to find out!" Aqua cheered before rushing at the door, only for Diablo to grab her by the shoulder. "Eh?"

Diablo pulled her back and stepped up to the door, placing his hand against and focusing.

After several silent seconds, Aqua quirked an eyebrow in confusion. "What's he doing?"

"Checking it for traps," Nanana warned.

The blue-haired goddess flinched in realization. "… Oh…"

Looking away from the door and at the others, he explained, "There are no traps, however there is a Sixth Tier seal holding the door shut. Will be effortless to remove." Placing his hand directly on the door, he began flowing mana into it to remove the seal.

The door began sparking and glowing, the light growing brighter and brighter, until eventually a large, ornate pentagram appeared on its surface before shattering into pieces and vanishing.

'Just as I thought…'

'What do you mean?'

'That seal is identical to one of the spells in my arsenal.'

'Ah…'

After waiting a moment for any possible side effects Diablo pushed the door open, resulting in a gust of wind from the door having been sealed for centuries.

"Pah!" Shera suddenly gasped.

"SherAAA?!" Diablo exclaimed as he saw her dress blown up over head exposing her bright white panties.

Rem growled quietly.

Megumin handed him a small cloth.

"What's this for?"

"Your nose is bleeding."

"… Ah," he muttered as he took it and wiped his nose.

As the group headed inside, Diablo glanced to the side as something caught his attention. "Hm… odd…"

"Hey, Diablo, we need to get moving," Aqua urged.

"Right, right."

As he walked away, a small face popped up over the edge of a boulder.

As they walked through the large caverns, Aqua looked around at the high ceiling and huge walls. "This cave is huge…"

"Yeah…" Nanana muttered as she looked around.

Shera stopped and looked to the side, cooing in awe.

"Shera?" Diablo wondered, trying to see what she was looking at.

"Sparkly…"

Diablo peered over her shoulder and saw a small collection of iridescent, multicolored metallic stones.

Nanana and Diablo both stared at it in shock, Nanana questioning what she saw. "… Is that what I think it is?"

"Magic Ore…" Diablo confirmed, in equal shock.

"Magivore?" Shera questioned.

"I didn't think it was real…" Rem mumbled in awe.

Diablo explained, "Very rare and powerful ore for making weapons and armor capable of self-repair. The weapons they make are also nearly immune to heat, with a melting point almost three times of normal steel, are excessively durable, and have the potential to damage the mana of a creature directly. Don't bother trying to memorize the effects of mixing it with other ores."

"If it's that great, let's take it!" Aqua urged.

Diablo sighed and grabbed her shoulder, again. "It isn't that simple."

"Really?"

"For one, this ore forms when regular steel is exposed to high amounts of extremely dense mana for extended periods of time. So at the very least this confirms Veldora was here."

"And…?" Aqua prodded, not seeing his point.

"Due to its unique properties, you need special tools to extract it. A normal pickaxe or just pulling it out of the ground won't work."

"Ah…" the blue-haired goddess lamented.

"It's so pretty…" Shera cooed as she looked at one of the chunks of ore before grabbing hold of it and pulling, causing it to come right out of the ground. "Lookie!"

Nanana almost face-faulted at the sight. 'Did… Did she just…?'

Diablo nodded slowly, as if he did not even believe it himself. '… She did.'

Shera giddily proceeded to pluck more and more chunks of the ore straight out of the dirt.

Rem stood in disbelief with her ears twitching. "Just… how… why…?"

Standing up with an armful of the brightly colored rocks, Shera then noticed the group's puzzled and shocked expressions, looking at them in confusion of her own. "Huh? What's wrong? Do I have something on my face?"

"How are you just picking it up so casually?!"

Shera blinked a few times, thinking about her question. Setting down the chunks she held, she reached down and plucked another chunk of ore from the ground. "Like that?" she responded, not sure what she was supposed to answer.

The others merely stared in wonderment.

Aqua decided to try her luck and went for a long piece of magic ore and gripped it firmly and began to pull. Jamming her feet on the ground she pulled as hard as she could but was unable to make the stone even budge. Eventually she lost her grip and went tumbling back against a large boulder.

"Saw that coming," Nanana deadpanned.

Aqua quickly got to her feet with a vehement snarl, pointing at Shera in dismay. "How come she can pull that stuff right out of the ground but it won't even budge for me!?"

"No clue."

"It's not fair!" she huffed before kicking a small rock in a tantrum that fell down a nearby chasm, bouncing off the ground several times before landing with a thud that did not sound remotely like stone.

Mordred tensed as she reached for her blade.

Diablo waved a hand as he incanted, "Candlelight," resulting in a large ball of light forming in the air that showed what the stone had hit. A large, bipedal, crimson dinosaur with two large black horns that, from a rough estimate, was nearly eight meters tall. "… Aqua, don't turn around…"

Aqua blinked in confusion. "Why not…?"

"Just don't, and come toward me."

Aqua gulped and, despite the warnings, turned around and saw the massive beast, resulting in a panicked scream.

Her shrieking inadvertently awakened the beast, growling and snarling as it stood up.

'Dammit!' Diablo cursed in his mind.

"Way to go, Useless!" Nanana chastised as Aqua scrambled towards the group.

"How else am I supposed to react to seeing something like that!?"

"He told you not to look!"

"That's basically begging me to look!"

"What are you, five?!"

"Both of you shut up and get ready to fight!" Diablo ordered.

"Okay, get to work monster bait!"

The beast reared back its head and released a deafening howl that echoed all the harsher in the caves.

Rem covered her ears in pain. "So… loud…!"

"Yeah," Nanana groaned in discomfort as well.

Mordred flipped her sword into a reverse grip and then threw it like a spear, causing it to embed itself deep in the roof of the beast's mouth, causing it to shriek in pain.

Nanana watched in disbelief. "… Well that happened…"

However, the monster managed to slam its jaw shut with enough force that the blade snapped off the hilt.

"Oh come on!" Mordred hollered.

Suddenly, the red-skinned creature reared its head back and took a deep breath.

Rem's eyes shot wide as she realized what was going on. "It's going to spit ash!"

Diablo hissed in frustration as he thought of ways to handle the situation. 'We can't get to cover at this distance quick enough… any defense spells would take one second too long to cast…'

'Then go on the attack!' Nanana urged desperately.

Mordred suddenly exclaimed, "Fire! Someone use fire magic!"

Diablo clicked his tongue in frustration before aiming the palm of his hand at the beast. 'I don't like the risk of doing this, but I don't have time to cast!' He envisioned pure flame in his mind, concentrated as much mana as he could at his palm, and almost instantly a jet of fire shot from his hand at the monster as it released a cloud of black smoke.

The two attacks met and resulted in a massive conflagration that lit up the entire cavern and blinded everyone inside for several seconds. However, when the light died down and the smoke cleared, the titanic beast stood motionless with only a burnt, smoldering stump where its head used to be.

Megumin stared at the headless monster which collapsed moments later. "Whoa… was that even a spell?"

"N – No… a – ahem, no," Diablo stuttered before clearing his throat and trying to save face, "It was pure magic."

Megumin looked at him in wonder. "No spell at all?! Not even a name!?"

"No," he responded with a proud smirk. "Such is the power of raw mana. Now, we need to find Veldora's lair deeper in the cave."

Nanana shot him an amused smirk. 'You say that and yet you weren't even sure it would work.'

'Well I needed to try something or we were all going to become its food.'

"Right!" Shera answered with an emphatic nod.

Diablo looked at her for a moment as he realized she was still holding on to the chunks of Magic Ore. "… Shera, give those to me."

Tilting her head, Shera nodded and approached him before a small portal opened up that he dropped the ores into.

"Now, let's go."

The group spent quite a long time traveling through the cave, following the twists and turns trying to get to the center of the cavern where Veldora's seal was meant to be, when Nanana pointed out something the others had noticed.

"Aside from that Bloodsaurus at the entrance, there's been nothing in here."

"Indeed…" Diablo responded with suspicion. However, as he walked, he noticed a forlorn expression on Mordred's face. "Is something the matter?"

Mordred held up the smashed remains of her sword. "My blade is trashed."

"Forging you a new one won't be difficult," he responded confidently.

"Even so…" she answered, as though there was more to the blade.

Sighing, Diablo urged, "Let us just see to the dragon's seal. We will handle the sword later."

After a few more silent minutes, Aqua wondered aloud, "… Hey, do you think the stories are true?"

"Which ones?" Megumin asked.

"That dragons hoard mountains of treasure?"

Diablo argued, "Even if they were, this dragon was not here by choice, so he likely had none."

Nanana nodded to herself. "Yeah, you're a greed goddess."

"Am not!" Aqua argued desperately.

"The first thing you thought about with a dragon chamber was treasure."

Aqua flinched back with a huff.

Rem added, "She has a point."

Diablo glanced back over his shoulder and watched them argue. 'Good grief…'

"I'm not a greed goddess…" Aqua pouted.

"Yes you are," Nanana jabbed.

"Enough," Diablo interjected, annoyed. "I don't care what kind of goddess you are so long as you make yourself useful. Now let us go and confirm the fate of the dragon."

After several hours of searching, the group finally reached a massive open area in the cavern next to a lake, at the edge of which sat a deep, perfectly round hole in the ground.

"Well… this isn't good…" Nanana thought aloud.

"Shera, what do you see?" Diablo questioned, Rem and the others looking at him confused.

"There's mana everywhere, and it's really thick…" the elf noted in slight worry. "And there's little globs of something all over the place…" Narrowing her eyes, her ears twitched curiously. "Slime?"

"Hold on, ignoring that," Rem interjected in disbelief, "you can see mana?"

"Um… yeah? Can't everybody?"

"No!" Rem, Aqua, Darkness, and Megumin all shouted in unison.

"Weird…" Confused, she turned to Diablo. "Can you?"

"No, that's why I asked for what you see."

Shera blinked a few times in thought before her eyes lit up. "So I'm more useful than Rem!"

Rem twitched an eyebrow as her tail puffed up, Mordred raising an eyebrow in confusion at the whole scene.

"Something the matter?" Diablo questioned, seeing Mordred's puzzled expression.

"It's really that rare of a talent?"

"No," he replied simply.

"Ah, that –" she began, only to be interrupted as Diablo had not finished speaking.

"That implies it's something a percentage of the population can have, when, as far as I can tell, it is something unique to Shera that I have never witnessed before."

Mordred's lips curled in bewilderment at his answer.

"So what now?" Aqua wondered.

"We return to Sylvie and report our findings," Diablo explained.

FIN. Thus ends the eighth chapter. I hope you all enjoyed this one just as much, if not more, than the previous chapter. As usual, if you did, reviews are greatly appreciated. If you were confused, unsure, or simply had questions on anything, do let me know and I will do what I can to address them in the next reviewer response section. If your query is on the source of various characters, I would suggest a review to that end, as making a list of each character at the end is rather time consuming. If you did not enjoy the chapter, a review is fine, though I would appreciate you having some grasp of the English language, as well as a point. Regardless, that is all I have to say for now, so until next time, bye-bye!

Oh, and also, since a lot of people might have questions, I am not using the standard version of Mordred, I am using the Lancer Prince Mordred because she is busty.