Hello :)

I am currently obsessed with this Light Novel series guys, obsessed. So, here the plot bunny comes. I've been thinking about writing for this fandom for a long time, but nothing truly refreshing had popped into mind until now. I'm not committing myself to it a 100% to this yet, but I am thrumming with ideas I want to develop.

Emilia's blood-splattered path did not begin when she was taken off her father's land. It started later with the dusk of her father's life and the burning of her home. She was ready for the long, arduous battle of retaking each of the conquered continents. She'd tried to take the East First, which she would, later on, categorize as a mistake.

Things between Alciel and herself end with a draw, unfortunately. In the end, it's a battle of attrition, and Alciel's almost impenetrable defense allows him to remain standing against all the odds. Emilia could keep fighting, she could, but then it's in jeopardy whether she'll live another day. Trump cards cannot be wasted. So, back to the training camp, it is. Almost a year later, when Emilia takes to her homeland of the West, she faces a different demon, the Great Demon General Lucifer of the Fallen. It might be how thirsty she is for justice, how much her heart burns from her previous failure. Her strength is enough this time, and tore open by her holy sword, Lucifer spirals at blurring speed towards the ground.

Emilia, her father's last promise crystal clear in her mind despite being a decade old, follows for the finishing blow. She's glad for the helmet she wears because she doubts her expression is very heroic at the moment.

"Hero Emilia," a voice calls out. It's a short, long-haired woman wearing the clergy's diplomatic robes, and Emilia stops on top of Lucifer's fallen form.

"Who are you?" In the distance, she can see her companions hurrying towards them, the demons run around in confusion and fear, unsure now that their leader has fallen.

"My name is Crestia Bell, Hero, from the Inquisition," she bows briefly, "I must keep you from injuring the demon any further."

"Excuse me?" Emilia asks incredulously. What happened to no mercy for the demonic invaders, creatures of heresy and blasphemy poisoning Ente Isla?

"You'll see in a moment," the Inquisitor's eyes remain glued to the heavens, waiting for something. Emilia's patience runs thin. Demonic healing has proven astounding; any minute now, the fallen General could return to his senses, and Emilia, tired now, will have to face him all over again. She looks over at her companions, her posture betraying her disagreement. Emerada's stare is calculating, while Albert only shrugs. Olba, though, smiles benignly and supports Crestia Bell.

"If the inquisition's plan works," Olba tells her, "this war will finally come to an end."

It works.

In moments, the sky darkens, swift like the suddenness of summer rain. The air grows stiff, and if all present did not wield some level of holy magic, surely they'd be struggling for breath from the sheer malice that clogs their lungs like poison. The Devil King Satan himself manifests, and it is the first time that Emilia sets her eyes on her nemesis, the evil she's been working tirelessly towards for ten years. He's tall and dark-haired, the golden horns framing his head are distinctive, as well as the ebony fur and hooves that he has for legs. Indeed, a creature borne out of and for misery.

He barely raises a hand when the magic circle, previously orchestrated, Emilia realizes, snaps into action, and then another and another and another. Twenty-six magic casters in total, she will be informed later, all of them wielding the highest levels of holy magic humans have been able to master. She doesn't realize how out of character it is until she gets to know Crestia Bell better, but Emilia will never forget the complete devotion in her whispered pleas as she begs her god to please, please let it work.

As the circles come alive, burning and blinding even faraway demons, the Devil King Satan howls in rage and pain. Emilia, even a distance away, can see pieces of skin flake off, purified from the spells' strength being cast. She feels cheated that someone else will be killing the Devil King, but that is not the church's intentions. In moments, the Devil King seems to recapture some composure, and beside her, both Crestia Bell and Olba stiffen. Even Emilia, barely understanding the plan in motion, recognizes that the demon is probably holding on longer than expected. His palm raises trembling into the air, and a gate appears below him. The rest of his form, chained from the manifestations of the spells, lays stiff and motionless.

"Until I return, your orders are to retreat and tend the wounded." His voice is deep and angry, unshakeable even as he orders his army to flee. Emilia catches on to the buzzing protests rising from the demons, who've regained order through their King. "Silence!" He demands, looking visibly weighted by the spell and maintaining the Gate open. Emilia feels like they should do something, but in the face of the demon hoards and the Devil King's unpredictable objective, she doesn't dare move. "I gave you an order."

Emilia realizes that she's been used as bait.

From below the church's force, Lucifer's tired voice reverberates through the valley.

"You heard the King," he intones gravely, rising through the air as another demon keeps his arm slung over his shoulder. The fallen angel is in terrible shape, one of his wings mangled, and his entire front bathed in blood. He's pale, but his expression is thunderous. The demon carrying him is lightning fast as he shoots for the Gate and -sheep that they are- the rest of the monsters are quick to follow. In naught but a few minutes, the Gate shuts behind the last of the army that tormented the Western Continent. The human soldiers, most of them on the ground save for Emilia's group and the sorcerer's subjugating the King, hold their breath. Emilia readies Better Half, but it's unnecessary. As soon as the Gate closes, the regal form of the Devil King sags, his contour is darkened where it contrasts briefly with the setting sun, and then, he plummets from the sky.

"Emilia, grab him!" Olba yells, and it's sheer instinct that drives the Hero. She wonders at the development on her day as she flashes fast enough to grab onto the silver-lined robes of the Devil King. She's careful, this could be a trap, but the demon is wrapped tightly in glowing white chains that bite into his flesh, exuding the repulsive smell of burning flesh. Scripture is climbing through his neck, inky black as it roots itself in his magic, spells so cruelly crafted that Emilia suppresses a flinch.

The church was not rooting for the Devil King's death, but his capture. They knew he would come when his General fell and prepared a trap. Emilia was probably not meant to ever defeat him at all.

"Good job, Hero Emilia," Crestia Bell's voice reaches her ears, "we will take him from here."

No.

It cannot end like this.

Inside her, Emilia's anger and thirst for vengeance lay unanswered. She has struck Lucifer down, the persecutor of her father's fields, but thanks to the Devil King and the church's interference, he now roams free once more. Someone needs to pay for what happened to her and everything she's lost.

"I am the Hero. The Devil King, according to the church who took me in, reiterated that he is my responsibility." She bites out in her most diplomatic tone, which admittedly, is pretty rude anyways. "I'm not letting him out of my sight for a second." It's not a request because the truth is they cannot stop her. Olba steps in before the Inquisitor has the chance to.

"Very well, the church has prepared a cell for him in the Central Continent," the Archbishop states, "Emerada if you could? We must complete the seals; those chains won't last forever." Emilia tightens her grip on the robes, spares the Devil King a glance. He's at least twice her size, and even now, the pressure from his demonic energy is nauseating as the scripture roams over his body, suppressing his power. (Emilia's ashamed, but she is a little relieved, maybe, that she won't face him in battle. At the same time, there's nothing she'd rather do than decapitate him on the spot.)

Disgruntled, Crestia Bell follows Emilia through the Gate, as they lead the Devil King to his new abode. She's never laid eyes on it, but she hardly thinks it'll be anything like the castle the Devil King calls home.

So, what did you think so far?