Interlude III: Research

Hellgondo Continent, to the north of the world's main land, Sentora Continent, across the ocean and the steep mountains, was the habitat of the high class monsters; it was the place where the strongest land creatures roam freely.

On the northern part of the continent stood a magnificent castle, where the beings on the very top of all monsters had lived in for generations.

Demon Lord Castle was currently ruled by Demon Lord Alisfiez XVI, said to be the most powerful since the first.

Each strand of her hair shone as if it was knitted from silver; the curve of her jawline, the shapes and positions of her eyes, cheekbones, nose, and lips, all constructed into a flawless visage. The long, slender arms and fingers in pitch-black long gloves; the body that was both plump and thin in the right places; the spotless, light-blue skin with a glow unseen on humans; long, pointy pair of ears; golden, slit irises that glows in the dark, contained in sharp pair of eyes: all together formed an unearthly beautiful visage. It can be said that this Demon Lord Alisfiez was a true 'flower on high cliff', unreachable by common men.

While the upper body was a symbol of alluring beauty, the bottom half represented terrifying power. Blood red scales lined up the backside under the waist down to the tip of the tail, while the underbelly was ripped with light pink muscles. The tail's length allowed it to easily coil around an adult human and completely cover their body from shoulders to knees; its width, when squeezed together, was as big as a full grown ox. The sight was more than enough of a warning to any who would dare to cross her, that under such power, their bones were no different from dried up twigs.

Beauty, power, combined with refined demeanor and voice filled with authority, Alisfiez Faitlbern XVI was everything an ideal Demon Lord should be.

Said Alisfiez was gnashing her teeth, with her fists clenched and pressed on a dining table, as she glared inside the crystal ball; one which reflected the figure of a plain-looking boy leaning on a ship's fence while a pink-haired girl leaned on his shoulder, both sleeping soundly.

"Your Majesty, please get to your duty. An envoy from Fairy Island has arrived long ago."

"Tamamo! Just look at them! So shameless!"

"Who do you mean by that? Luka or the lass?"

"Both of them!"

"I knew it. Look, Your Majesty, my technique is not for peeping on people."

"That's not just 'people'; that's my husband!"

"Is being able to call him with that name out loud the only progress you have made these four years? Your Majesty, you have been observing their interactions for some time, you should know; Luka has shown no sign of being under any kind of spell thus far, has he? And the Lass is not a monster; there is no inherent reason for her to want to claim him."

"I already know that."

The possibility that Luka might be the one to approach the girl first, for any reason at all, was completely ignored.

"But that guy is a pushover when it comes to these matters. If a woman push him to the ground he would just freeze on the spot!"

"That's kind of true...But the people on the other side are all humans, and none of them look to be a researcher. Since they should have no need for semen, Luka would not be a target."

"It's true that guy has one of, if not the best semen in the world. Thanks to that, my taste bud wouldn't even accept one from other sources any more. If we are to put it crudely it could even be said that, to any normal monster that doesn't know him personally, his entire existence is seventy percent semen, twenty percent The World Savior, and ten percent the rest.

'What a nasty way to put it.' Tamamo deadpanned mentally.

However, for Alisfiez XVI who put food second only to her family and world peace, that might be a praise of the highest order. How the receiver would feel about it was another matter entirely.

On an unrelated note, the possibility that Luka would have other aspects appealing to women was also ignored entirely.

Since the view in the crystal ball showed no signs of changing any time soon, at least until the flying ship reaches its destination, Alice finally managed to pulled her eyes from it. Tamamo picked up the crystal ball which had ceased its function.

"Ever since we managed to put a lock on Luka's location, you've been watching every day, Your Majesty. Luka looks like he's safe and sound; you don't have to watch over him every single minute."

Alice crossed her arms, put on an almost invisible pout, and went quiet. It was a behavior shown when she knew another, though limited only to close friends, was right but did not want to admit it.

'We definitely can't show this to people.' Tamamo thought to herself that there were so many aspects of the current Demon Lord that the public had yet to know, and was better off not knowing.

"...How is the search going?"

"As well as expected; which is to say: no meaningful results." Tamamo knew it was an attempt to change the subject and gladly obliged.

"...So Luka really is in another world, isn't he?"

"There's no other likely explanation."

"If another world really exist, why haven't I heard of it before?"

"Among the philosophers and scholars there have been ideas about parallel worlds and another dimension similar to our own, but they're all hypotheses that no one could prove. The Evil God once directly spoke to me that there's a possibility other worlds exist."

"A possibility?" Alice raised her eyebrows.

"The Evil God was the manifestation of one of the primal forces that gave birth to the world. Her understanding of matters on bigger scales far exceeded mortals such as us. Even so, it was only limited to this world. When it came to things outside of it, the Evil God could only guess."

"Only guess...So the Evil God had never been to this other world?"

"She had not, and could not. The Evil God's great power was only limited to this world."

"Are you saying that whatever dragged Luka away was more powerful than the Evil God?!" Alice raised her voice, not wanting to believe such a claim.

"I can't say. When it's something relating to a dimension no one has knowledge of, anything is possible."

"I can't believe it..." Alice lowered her gaze.

"...What about the angels? Is there a chance this could be their doing?"

"Very slim to none. Dimension crossing was also out of Ilias's power. Angels, the pieces of Ilias's holy energy, wouldn't be able to do it either."

"Naturally. There's no way that hag would be able to do what the Evil God cannot." Alice said indignantly. Although years had passed, the long standing hatred toward the Holy Goddess had yet to completely disappeared.

The irritation quickly passed, and gave way to silence.

"...So, if even the power of the Evil God was insufficient, then there is no way to bring Luka back, is that what you are saying?"

Tamamo met Alice's eyes, picking her words carefully.

"In truth, there is one type of energy that could potentially be able to pierce through the dimensions."

"Energy? Potentially?" Alice's look was that of equal hope and trepidation.

"No one is certain, because it's something that no one can control; no one really knows the extent of what it can do. It's the type of energy that only emerged when the Holy and Dark energy fused together."

"Holy and Dark? Don't those two react to each other magnets of the same pole? Repelling each other away?"

"That's the general concept. However, Holy and Dark elements: the Light and Darkness were originally split from the primordial force when the universe was first created. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that unimaginable amount of energy was what separated the two, and still keeping them separated even now. By combining them back into their primordial form, that energy will be released along with the emergence of the original force present back when the universe was empty: no land or water, no stars and no moon, no hot and no cold, only disorder. The Evil God call the primordial state of the universe 'Disorder' or Chaos."

"Chaos..."

"I'm simply rehearsing what I heard from the Evil God."

Tamamo cleared her throat once, having been speaking continuously.

"Speaking about something unknown would be of no help to us. Right now people all over the world are working diligently to find a way to bring the Hero back. Whether this will be relevant or not, we can only wait and see."

Alice breathed in and out, appearing to have calmed down.

"For now, Your Majesty ought to go meet the envoy from Fairy Island. I know how hard Luka's absent is to you, but there are many matters that would also be dampened by your absent."

"...Haa. All right. I'll go."

Tamamo was tempted to tell Alice not to show that expression to the envoy, but held it in since she knew the other was aware of that.

Alice was out of the room. Tamamo was back to watching the crystal ball, which now reflected only the distorted image of the room it is in.

'...It really was strange, no matter how much I think about it. The dimensional barrier not even the Evil God can interfere: my power alone should not be able to cross it.'

The first time Tamamo's power reached the other world and showed Luka's whereabouts, it was a night of full moon. Tamamo in her awakened form had used the technique for seeing faraway places with Angel Halo as the medium.

'Was it a special property of 'enjeru hairou'? That couldn't be it. The sword itself was created by a 'serafu' class angel, then further bathed in Holy energy; it was a weapon of pure Holy property, and my technique didn't draw out that power for use.'

Tamamo jumped—though 'bounced' would be closer to the picture—up to sit on a chair; her short legs crossed together, her expression deep in thought.

'That leaves only...the person that was sent there himself. Is it because the target was beyond the dimensional barrier and my power was guided there? Was it because the old passage Luka was carried through was still opened? Or...'

Thoughts swirled in Tamamo's head without an answer.

PBW: "One side is on an adventure; another is solving a world's mystery. A good balanced is struck there, probably."

Ilias: "Hmph, those monsters, they are saying whatever they want now that I was gone."

PBW: "Had they ever held back even when you were not gone though?"

Ilias: "Now that I think about it, the Evil God and the Six Ancestors are still there. This is injustice. Why are they alive and well when I was erased from existence?"

PBW: "Being sealed for a thousand years shouldn't count as being 'well'. And you made enemies of the entire world."

Ilias: "I have spent hundreds of millions of years spurring along the evolution of the world's creatures; without me the humans would not be here today. Do you know how many extinction crises I had to maneuver the entire human race around? If I had not crashed the meteor when those dumb lizards were getting too numerous; If I had not fixed the inefficiency in the ancient humans' physiology that granted them stupid power and even more stupidly low birth-rate, they would—"

PBW: "Please, no history lesson here. And that's almost a spoiler for Paradox dammit."