Yunyun and Meimei are outside of the village to perform some more summoning spells. Apparently, Meimei wouldn't stop bragging about her achievement of summoning forth the great demon kingslayer, Kazuma Satou. Since Yunyun got tired of her daughter's growing hubris, she wanted her to perform the spell again. That won't backfire, right?

"Very well, if you manage to repeat something of a similar magnitude like your last summoning spell, you get to call yourself "The greatest summoner of the crimson demon village, she who made the return of the demon king slayer possible," don't you think that title is a bit… long?" Yunyun sighed as she looked over at her very smug daughter.

"Hmm, depending on what I summon, I intend to make the title longer," She confidently stated as she pulled out her wand.

(I just hope that this humbles her, even if just a little) Yunyun thought as she gave Meimei the sign to go ahead with the spell.

"Oh bright oceans of the universe, hear my words and bend to my will, I Meimei of the crimson demon clan order you to open the floodgates of fate that shall unite me with my new companions," Meimei declared while spinning around and waving her wand all over the place.

A portal appeared in front of them, and a frogged hopped out of it, not a giant frog, just a normal frog probably only weighing a pound. Meimei looked at the frog in both shock and disappointment. On the other hand her mother stepped up to her and was about to gently rub her daughter's shoulders.

"Wait, why hasn't that portal closed yet?" Yunyun asked rhetorically before a rumbling sound could be heard from it.

"{Barrier}" Yunyun managed to chant, bringing up a barrier around her and Meimei, right before a strong stream of water crashed into them.

"AH, Mommy!" little Meimei shrieked while clutching onto her mother for dear life, extremely frightened by the spectacle. Then Yunyun realized that her barrier could crack at any moment given the amount of water that was crashing down on them.

"{Portal}" Yunyun chanted bringing up a portal in front of them, then the barrier broke down the very next second. The rest of the water easily went into the portal, sparing Yunyun and her daughter from meeting a watery grave. Then the water stopped, and both portals collapsed.

Yunyun looked down at her daughter, gently patting her head as she observed all the wet ground around them. "We are safe now, and you can call yourself by your title, you have proven yourself worthy of that,"

"No, I never want to summon anything ever again, too scary," Meimei protested, burrowing her face deep into her mother's warm and comforting bosom.

"cough, cough," a weak voice rang out behind them, Yunyun spun on the spot, still holding her tightly around her daughter. She was prepared to fire another spell but was completely taken off guard when she saw two girls laying on the ground.

The one coughing was a little raccoon girl, and next to her lay a very still green-haired girl. Yunyun pulled Meimei up into a carrier with one arm, as she ran over to the girls. She quickly helped the raccoon girl into a recovery position with her one free arm, before she went downed and listened for the green-haired girl's breathing. When she couldn't hear anything, she brought her hand up to the girl's mouth.

She chanted "{Vacuum}" and water shot out of the girl's mouth and into her hand. The moment that water had left her mouth, she threw the water away and listened to if her breathing had returned. After confirming it hadn't, Yunyun put her hand to the girl's chest and chanted {Pressure}, cracking some of the girl's ribs, and then Yunyun moved her hand away letting her chest rise up again.

She then repeated this 29 more times, in a slow and steady rhythm. Before she closed the girl's nose with her thumb and index finger while pushing her mouth open with her three last fingers. {Wind breath} Yunyun chanted, letting a stream of air shoot out of her palm, and into the girl's mouth, causing her chest to rise, and she repeated it 4 more times before she went back to the magical chest compressions.

"Cough, cough" the green-haired girl started to cough, as she gasped for air. Yunyun quickly put her into a recovery position as she double-checked that both of them were breathing normally.

"Oh, thank Eris," Yunyun sighed in relief, finally getting time to sit down, now redirecting all of her attention back on Meimei.

"It's all ok, mommy is here for you," At Yunyun's words Meimei mumbled something incomprehensible into her mother's boobs.

"What did you say, sweetie?" She questioned, as her daughter freed her head from the two comfortable pillows belonging to her mother. Meeting her mother's gaze with her own shimmering crimson eyes.

"Love you, I love you, mommy," Meimei admitted in a shivering voice, before proceeding to re-plant her face into the lovely cushions of bouncing safety belonging to her mother.

That was and still is, one of the happiest moments of Yunyun's life. However, it would be cut short by a little raccoon girl tapping her on the shoulder.

"Who are you, where are we, and where is Master Naofumi?" She asked with a determined look in her red-tea eyes, only now Yunyun noticed that the clothes and equipment on her were too big for her tiny stature.

"Ehm, who are you, if you don't mind me asking?" Yunyun said as she pulled Meimei a bit away from the little raccoon girl.

"I am Raphtalia, the shield hero, no Naofumi Iwatani's slave, I am currently unaware of my surroundings and I would like your help in locating my Master, you seem very trustworthy given you just saved Rishia's life, I thank you for that," She said, trying to take a step forward and present her hand for a handshake, but instead Raphtalia's foot got caught in her now very baggy clothes as she fell forward and got caught by Yunyun's right arm.

"Huh, did I shrink, why am I back to level 1?" Raphtalia muttered in confusion as she compared her own hand to Yunyun's.

"I'll do my best to help you little Raphtalia, my name is Yunyun, and this is my daughter Meimei," Yunyun said, as she pointed to her daughter.

Yunyun then carried both of the girls in each of her arms, though only Meimei got the privilege of having such a comfortable headrest. Yunyun then placed her foot on top of Rishia and proceeded to chant {Teleport: Crimson demon village}.

Meanwhile, with the rest of the water

A portal opens over the thick forest near Belzberg's capital. The moment it opens, a massive stream of water rushes out of the opening, and since the portal is aimed downwards. The water pressure breaks off all the branches in the stream's way and pushes enough earth away to dig a meter deep hole, that has a 10-meter diameter. With Naofumi's head barely bopping above the water.

"Cough, cough, huh, where am I?" Naofumi groggily awoke in a puddle of crystal clear water a few hours later. His armor was badly bruised, while the rest of the clothes were torn in various places. However, he didn't have a single scratch on him.

(It would seem I am in a forest, but what kind of forest?)

(The water I am sitting in is warm, interesting, even though I can feel the chilly morning air hitting my face. I better take a sample of this water)

Holy water. Purity level: 100%. Special effects: Healing, purifying, warming.

"LEVEL ONE!" Naofumi exclaimed in shock as he saw his level had been reset.

(What has happened to me, why am I level 1 now? Wait, this also happened to Iris and Darkness when they came to Raphtalia's world, Wait, where is Raphtalia, and Filo!?) He brought up his shield to check the status of his slaves.

Raphtalia: Out of range. Status unknown.

Filo: Out of range. Status unknown.

"Ok, one last thing to check, show yourself Revalon!" Naofumi commanded as he stared at the shield on his arm, doing his best to enforce his will on it, but nothing happened.

"Just my luck, at the very least I should gather as much of this holy water that I can bottle up," He accessed his inventory retrieving some empty bottles, while at the same time going over what he still had on him. Naofumi was somewhat reassured to see that he still had everything from the last time he checked his inventory.

After 30 minutes of draining the puddle, and putting the potion bottles back into his inventory, Naofumi took a more in-depth view of the forest he was in.

(Still very similar trees to what I have seen in Raphtalia's world, so I am still not back in Japan. Could I have been transported back to my earth, just that I am now in a European country?) He pondered to himself.

Suddenly a bush rattled behind him, causing Naofumi to turn on the spot to come face to face with a one-horned rabbit. The typical enemy marker didn't appear above it, but he was still suspicious of it, so he placed the shield in front of his chest.

(Well, it would seem that I am still in a fantasy world of some sort, best to avoid any form of fighting if possible, at least until I have linked back up with the others. Hmm, I remember carnivores rabbits outside of Melromarc, but this one has a horn, so maybe it is…)

CLANG!

"FUCK! Of course, it wouldn't be that easy," he loudly swore as the horned-rabbit retreated back into the vegetation, its quick movements causing all the bushes around Naofumi to rustle violently. Thereby giving him absolutely no indication of where the rabbit was, or where it would strike from next.

"{Shield prison}" Naofumi chanted, in an attempt to surround himself with a protective barrier to get some time to think on how to get rid of this threat. However, nothing happened, instead, a message appeared in his vision.

Skill ERROR, action ERROR

The next second he could feel his left leg being pierced by the rabbit's horn, forcing him to his knees. Before he was able to even try to look at the rabbit, it had retreated back into the bushes, restarting its rustling, which was majorly annoying to him.

(This is nothing like the orange balloons in Melromarc, this thing can actually kill me, also given its superior speed I have little to no chance of hitting it directly, and even if I hit it I don't think I will be able to kill it in my current reset condition, and it doesn't exactly help that my shield is glitching out right now) Naofumi frantically thought.

The cold morning wind hit him from my behind, as the rabbit continued to rattle the bushes to obscure its next attack.

"I am not going to die here to a fucking rabbit, after all, I have been through!" Naofumi roared in defiance, before taking another blow to his lower back, forcing him to roll towards what was left of the puddle.

The holy water that still was left quickly closed his leg wound, as he took out a potion bottle filled with holy water took a sip and then poured the rest of it on the wound to his lower back.

"Ok, I am healed, but-" Naofumi staggered over as the horned-rabbit jabbed its horn into his side. This time he quickly pulled out another vial of holy water and drank it, which healed his newly acquired wound nearly instantaneously.

Then he tried spinning around, very accurately predicting that the rabbit would try to hit him in the back. Unfortunately, his aim was a little off, and the horn hit him in the shoulder. He then drank another vial of holy water, healing him fully.

(I might not win a battle to the death with my attacks stats, but I sure as hell won't-) Naofumi thought as he got jabbed in the butt, and repeated his drinking strategy.

"Lose a battle of endurance!" he yelled while deflecting another deadly hit aimed at his head.

1 hour later

"Hah, hah, it would seem… you finally got tired of me," Naofumi said triumphantly as the unicorn-rabbit tried to limp away, clearly exhausted after its final attack.

"But I am not going to let you just leave, after all, you just put me through," He said as he rose up from his little fox hole and jumped on top of the exhausted animal, where it then perished under the young man's weight.

Al-Miraj defeated: Level 5 reached.

"Really that only got me to level 5, what a sc-" Naofumi stopped his complaining as he heard the bushes start to shake again, so he grabbed ahold of his kill and jumped back into his fox hole.

(If it's another one of those Al… whatever, I am probably stuck here for another hour if it spots me) He thought as he tried to sink in as deep as he could, now only his hair and green eyes reaching over the edge.

That's when a middle-aged man with pitch-black hair emerged. He was wearing what seemed to be a dress covered in various gems and precious metals. When Naofumi suddenly made eye contact with the man, he could see that the man's curious and hopeful smile transformed to an elated one. Then the man casually walked over to Naofumi.

"Sniff, sniff," He then took to sniffing over the hole Naofumi was in, now in clear view of each other.

"It is an honor to meet you, son of the great shell cleaner, I'm the black shell turtle," He introduced himself, but when he saw the confused look on Naofumi's face he sat down.

"Oh, I see, I should probably introduce myself by the name most here associate with me, I'm the Treasure Island, or Treasure Turtle if you will,"

"You don't exactly look like a turtle," Naofumi pointed out, making the man chuckle.

"Yeah, well I have a reason for that,"

"Which is?" Naofumi urged him to continue.

"This is merely a projection of my heart, what you see before you know is my soul's manifestation of what I think I would look like, if I were to be human," He happily explained.

"Yeah, that sounds believable," Naofumi said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Ok, you don't believe me, well how about I just raise my head from the ground so you can see," The moment those words left his mouth, the ground started to shake and split open, forcing Naofumi to run over to the safer ground, as a giant turtlehead, the size of his house emerged from the dirt.

"Son of the great shell cleaner, meet… my head," the man spoke, as Naofumi looked between the man and the giant turtle head.

"I can see you have the same smile, so there might actually be some truth to what you are telling me, but I still don't know if I can trust you," Naofumi pointed out, as he got into a defensive stance.

"No need to worry, son of shell cleaner, I would never hurt you or any of her other children, I owe the great shell cleaner a lot for making my black shell emerge so proudly as the time I was a young newborn house-sized turtle," The man happily reminisced, and his genuine attitude reminded him that of Van Reichnott, this made Naofumi lower his shield a little bit.

"How was your shell cleaned?" Naofumi questioned, still a little suspicious.

"It was cleaned through the mighty art of an unrivaled explosion spell I had never heard or seen before, it was a completely encompassing feeling… hmm how to explain it, ah yes, you humans could compare it to taking a hot bath that cleans you from days of dirt and grime," He explained while hugging himself in great satisfaction of getting to relive the memory.

"Yup, that sounds like mom," Naofumi accepted his answer, as he lowered his shield.

"Wonderful, since you trust me I am now willing to divulge my reason for seeking you out,"

"Trust is a… strong word, I still barely know you, but how about this, you help me get to a nearby town, and then I will hear out what you want from me,"

"Oh, of course, I will help with such a simple task, but I fear we will have to walk, so I hope you aren't too exhausted from your… battle," The treasure turtle said as he looked over Naofumi's torn clothes.

"I should be fine," He responded as he brushed his hands over his clothes.

"In that case please let my heart guide you to Belzberg's Capital," He said before walking off with Naofumi following behind, scouring their surroundings with his eyes.

Meanwhile in heaven

Eris stands next to a sleeping Aqua. In her right hand, she is holding a ring with a gem that keeps blinking red. She brought her other hand up to her cut hair, now the same length as the hair on her avatar. Then an angel appeared beside her.

"Lady Eris, I looked into this {Cain's Mark} as you requested,"

"And what did you find?" She asked without taking her eyes off of the sleeping Aqua.

"I found nothing on it, which means-"

"That it isn't a spell any of the other gods have ever heard or read about," Eris Interrupted.

"Would you like to log in what the spell does?" The angel asked in a cheerful manner.

"Sure, from what I observed, the spell or curse rather, is placed on a mortal, the mark depicts, a man tethered to the earth, as he is denied access to both heaven and hell when the curse is activated, the victim turns to dust after seemingly being burned from the inside," Eris slowly relayed, making sure to say every word carefully.

"Do you know who the victim was, and or how powerful he was, so we know who can be affected by the curse?" The angel asked excitedly while diligently writing down every detail.

"The victim was…" Eris stopped talking, not able to utter the necessary words, instead, a long silence followed after the angel had written down the last information.

"The victim my Lady, who was the victim?" The angel pressed.

"It was a demon kingslayer, does that give you enough information to gauge the danger of this new spell?" Eris was staring onto Aqua with a focused look, not even giving the angle as much as a glance.

"The only alive demon king slayer that has ever been in this world is Kazuma Satou/Iwatani if I am correct?"

"Y-" Eris stopped to swallow the clump-forming in her throat, "Yes," she continued resolutely.

"I don't get how that is possible, since his soul never appeared here in heaven for any judgment,"

"Wait, what do you mean he hasn't yet appeared? I saw him get turned to dust, his wife's ring linked to his heart went black, he has to be here!" Eris finally took her eyes off the sleeping Aqua as she looked through the list of souls that had recently gotten to heaven.

"If you are certain that Kazuma Satou's/Iwatani's soul should have been here, then I have no other choice but to declare him as a "lost soul""

"This is worse than just killing him, she stole his soul to do who knows what with it, I must go, watch over Lady Aqua and alert me if she wakes up," Eris ordered before she disappeared in a flash of silvery light.

"Goddesses and their human dildos, tsk, tsk, tsk," The angel remarked with scorn, very present in his tone. "But you lady Aqua would never sink to that level, you are perfect," It complimented as it brushed away some strands of blue hair from her face.

Back in the crimson demon village

Meimei instantly detached herself from her mother the moment they arrived inside the house and helped Raphtalia carry Rishia to the bed. Then they went to Meimei's room to find some clothes that fit Raphtalia.

"Aren't all of these just the same clothes?" The puzzled Raphtalia said as she looked at Meimei's black and red clothing that came in slightly different shades.

"No, they are not!" Meimei almost shouted back, clearly offended.

"Ok, sorry, I think I will just use these then," Raphtalia said picking up a cloak as black as the night, and a blood-red border.

"You can't have that one, but you can take this one," Meimei said as she handed Raphtalia an almost identical cloak, just one shade lighter in color.

"Ok,"

5 minutes later

"So we will just put the oversized clothes that don't fit on you in this chest," Meimei said as she dragged out a chest from her locker room.

"That seems fine with me, but I'll still hold onto my weapons,"

She strapped on her sword and magic sword before they wandered over to check on Rishia, that was now being treated by Yunyun.

"Will she be okay?"

"Yeah, she just seems a little tired from almost drowning, she'll probably wake up in an hour or two,"

"Good, then will you help me find my master, Naofumi?"

"I'll do what I can, if you have something from him I could make a tracking spell for you," Yunyun informed as she summoned forth a chest of ingredients.

"I should have… oh I seem to have lost it, but my slave crest should be connected to him, maybe you can use that as a tracker," Raphtalia suggested.

"Hmm, I could, but I would rather we go to a very skilled mage I know. otherwise, we might get unreliable results,"

"We must leave at once then!" Raphtalia demanded without a second of hesitation.

"O-ok, we will-"

"FLY THERE!" Meimei excitedly shouted as she dragged two brooms with her.

"Fine, we will fly, but since it is urgent we will take the family broom," Yunyun said as she got a broom with one side brush of the main handle.

"Ugh, but I want to learn on my own," Meimei complained.

"Sweetie, you are not coming with us, you have to watch over her while she is sleeping," Yunyun informed her daughter.

"WHAT! This is unfair, now I don't even get to fly,"

"We can have flying lessons when I get back, but until then please be a good girl and watch over our guest,"

"Very well, but I will demand your full attention when you get back," Meimei said while scowling at her mother.

"Deal, now hop on the side here Raphtalia, and we will be off,"

Raphtalia cautiously got on top of where Yunyun had been pointing, and when she had gotten a good grip the window opened and they were off. After just a few minutes they landed in front of a rather big house. Where they proceeded to knock on the door. They were quickly met by a woman that looked to be in her forties, with long jet-black hair.

"Hello Yunyun, how can I help you?" Yuiyui asked as her eyes drifted to the little Raphtalia standing next to her.

"It is more the case of needing help to find little Raphtalia's master, what was his name again?"

"Naofumi, my master's name is Naofumi Iwatani,"

BANG, klirr. Was the sound that followed as Yuiyui dropped the pot she was holding, and grabbed ahold of Raphtalia's right hand.

"You come with me right now!" Yuiyui commanded as she dragged Raphtalia inside.

"Wait!" Raphtalia shouted as she tried to pull free from the iron grip, but it was futile with the huge level difference in place.

Hyoizaburoo came out into the hallway from all the ruckus, and before he uttered a single word, Yuiyui had hoisted Raphtalia up face to face with him.

"This is little Raphtalia!" Yuiyui excitedly said, as if she was presenting him with a newborn puppy.

"Huh, oh, ah, So you're one of the little girls our grandson adopted," Raphtalia stopped struggling at those words.

"What did you just say?" She inquired as she shot glances in-between both of them.

(Jet-black hair, crimson red eyes that glow, flat chest) "Are you Megumin's parents?"

"Oh look at that, she is really bright, yes we are indeed Megumin's parents," Both of them confirmed in unison as Hyoizaburoo started to pose in weird ways.

"Yeah, that confirms it," Raphtalia noted before Yuiyui put her down and joined her husband in the awkward posing.

"Yunyun, is this the norm around here?" She asked, looking over at Yunyun still standing in the doorway.

"Only in the village, it gets better the moment we get out of the village," She answered with a somewhat awkward tone.

"So can you help me find Master Naofumi now?"

"Of course, do you have anything to link yourself with him?" Yuiyui asked, and at that Raphtalia dragged down her shirt to reveal the slave crest on her chest.

"This is the slave crest that Master gave to me, it should be linked to him,"

Yuiyui whipped out her wand and touched the slave crest with the tip, causing the crest to pulse once. She then brought out a compass and placed the wand of the tip onto it. Suddenly the arrow spun around before finally settling in a direction.

"Unfortunately we can't teleport because I don't know how long we have to travel in this direction, but we can take a family broom," Yuiyui said as she whipped out two brooms, one normal-looking one, and one similar to Yunyun's broom.

"Let's leave at once!" Raphtalia said as she started to walk outside, compass now in hand.

"I like that you focus on your goals," Yuiyui noted before both she and Hyoizaburoo walked outside with a broom in hand.

The next minute they were up in the air flying, with Yunyun just standing there a little flabbergasted by everything.

"I guess that went over well, let me just close this," She muttered to herself as she closed the door and went back home to her daughter.

Well, it has been quite some time since the last chapter, but I hope this little chapter for the new year of 2022 will be acceptable. Happy new year people and this story will live on, the heart just beats slowly.