It's been 5 days since we've come to Neith's region. Training has been going well so far.

My mana capacity has increased, I'm still not at my 200000 goal, but I'm working my way there. And I'm also making progress on the other fronts as well.

I've been practicing my magic and hand-to-hand combat with Miyabi, Reina and Ruki's help. Neith has also offered to join, but Lizel-senpai says she'd still be too much for me.

The only part I can really complain about is the sword training. I still can't quite get Tenka Fubu to obey me, so that's the part I'm lagging behind on. Still, every day, I try to get some practice in.

That's what I'm doing right now. Of course, ever since that first incident, I have to make sure I'm far away from the girls when I take out Tenka Fubu.

But still, she's being quite obedient today. Granted, all I'm doing is taking some practice swings at the air, but so far so good. Maybe this is a sign Tenka Fubu is starting to recognize me as her master.

{I sense a girl in danger!}

So much for that, I guess. Just like before, Tenka Fubu took control of my body.

Hey, wait, someone's in danger? Is it Lizel-senpai and the others? Rather, since when can you sense danger?!

{Having a sense for when a girl's in danger so you can swoop in and save her, thus making your way into her panties, is a basic ability. Now let's go, it's time to add to the harem!}

That doesn't explain anything! Wait, you're taking us to Gaol Mountain. Neith said to not go there. We can get lost and never make it out.

{Where there are girls in danger, I shall be. Let's go! Are you a man or a rat?}

I'm telling you, you don't have any danger sense or anything like that. You're just going to get us lost. Oi!

Completely disregarding everything I said, Tenka Fubu simply continued heading for Gaol Mountain until we entered its domain. The thick vegetation and fog made it hard to see far ahead. Even without the Disaster, I could already see myself getting lost in this place. I just hope we can get back afterwards.

[Analysis. It seems it's impossible to leave this Disaster once inside it, however, teleportation magic can be used to escape.]

Then we're not going to be lost here forever at least. How long until Tenka Fubu realizes she's just daydreaming?

As we continued making our way up Gaol Mountain, I heard the sound of a twig breaking behind me. Without turning my head too much, I used my peripheral vision to check what was behind me.

What I saw could only be called a monster. It looked like a wolf, but it had 2 heads and it was about as big as an adult in all fours. This is clearly no creature that exists in the Human World, so it ought to be a monster from here.

Oi, Tenka Fubu, you saw that, right? There's a monster nearby, so we have to be careful to-

{Monster? Where? Ooh, I wanna fight it!}

Idiot! Don't start looking around, you'll make it attack!

True enough, the 2-headed wolf came rushing towards us. Tenka Fubu held Tenka… that's going to get confusing, so let me try to say it a different way.

"I" held up the wooden sword, Tenka Fubu, to defend "myself" against the wolf's attack. Once "I" absorbed the blow, "I" pushed back the wolf. I thought that was a chance for "me" to attack, but "I" just stood there like a dumbass.

Oh wait, "I" just held out my arm towards the 2-headed wolf. Am "I" going to use a spell? … Nothing's happening.

What's wrong?

{I just… thought it would be cool to finish it off with magic, but then I remembered I don't know how to use it.}

Give me back my body!

The wolf attacked again. While Tenka Fubu could defend us just fine, it seems she was unable to cut through the wolf's hide. Why though? You seem much weaker than on the day you harassed everyone.

{That's because you're useless! Don't you know sentient Devil Swords gain power when their will and their owner's will syncs?!}

That would imply that, on that day, I also wanted to grope everyone. While the thought is entertaining, it's a false accusation.

[Yuuto, Tenka Fubu is telling the truth.]

To think you'd stoop so low as to take control of Sein just to accuse me.

{I didn't do anything. Though I'd love to get to know her better!}

[… Please focus, you two.]

Right, anyway, just give me my body back and I'll deal with the wolf.

{Fine.}

Tenka Fubu defended against another one of the wolf's attacks and then swiped it away. Now it was my turn.

"Finally. Detonate!"

Once I got my body back, I aimed a Detonate right between the wolf's 2 heads. The scene wasn't pretty, but I killed it alright.

"Now that that's done, let's go back."

{No way! There's still a pretty girl in danger!}

Shit! I should have stored Tenka Fubu when I had the chance. She took back her control over my body. We continued making our way through Gaol Mountain.

Hey, isn't this enough? I'd rather we go back before we get hurt.

{You'll see soon enough.}

Tenka Fubu just wouldn't give up, so I had no choice but to follow along. And, after about 10 minutes…

"Grrr."

"Poran won't let you hurt anyone woof!"

{Told you.}

Holy shit, Tenka Fubu was right!

A pack of wolves like the one we defeated were attacking a group of children. But some of these wolves had only 1 head, some had 2 like before, and others even had 3. Then there was the big boss, with 5 heads, and about twice or triple the size of the one we defeated.

Then there were… I think about 10 children. All of them looked human, but had some animal characteristics. So they were mixed-blood devils. Then there was the older one, a girl about Reina's age I'd say, she had dog-like ears and tail. She reminded me of a Mame Shiba, even down to the red-brown hair/fur color. She's the one that called herself Poran just now.

Poran was facing the 5-headed boss wolf, but the other wolves were surrounding the other children. Her legs were trembling and she looked really skinny, so I'm not even sure she could put up a 1-on-1 fight. Her and the children were wearing rags, I couldn't even call them clothes, and looked like they were on the verge of starvation, yet it seems they're the ones on the menu.

{So, was I right or was I right?}

Yeah yeah, I'll admit it, you were right. Let's go save them before the wolves attack.

{Right on!}

Surprisingly, Tenka Fubu returned control over my body. Time to get busy then.

With a howl of the leader wolf, all the wolves began their attack. Even with Stride, I don't think I can make it in time. But even so, I have to get there as quickly as possible.

So I activated Stride and… I actually made it. I moved so fast I surprised myself. The wolves haven't even reacted yet. Shouldn't their senses be sharper?

{We broke the sound barrier, so obviously they couldn't hear us coming. Now get on with it, kill them before they notice you.}

I broke the sound barrier?! You mean I'm going faster than sound?! I thought that was something I'd only ever see in fiction. Then again, magic and devils and stuff. Even God's added to the mix now.

Anyway, like Tenka Fubu said, I have to take this chance. Since I saw like 3 wolves lined up in front of me, I decided I'd just impale them. Putting some strength on my leg with Maximize, I shot myself like an arrow, and impaled the 3 wolves.

There was a loud boom. The only thing that stopped me was a tree I happened to hit after the wolves. Despite looking like a wooden sword, Tenka Fubu cuts about as well as any other sword.

Of course, both the wolves and kids turned to look at me. The 5-headed boss wolf was keeping his eyes on me. It looked like he gave some orders, since the other wolves started gathering around him.

"You all get behind me."

Since that was the case, I figured it was better if I positioned myself between the wolves and the children. Of course, they didn't react immediately, but after the first child started moving, it was only a matter of time before everyone was behind me.

"*sniff* *sniff* A human?"

"Yeah, but it's a bit complicated. For now, just know that I'm here to save you all."

After Poran literally sniffed me out as a human, the other mixed-blood devil children also started checking me in their own ways. I imagine it must be quite confusing for them. Humans are rarely seen in the Devil World, and I'm much stronger than you'd expect any human to be.

But none of that matters right now. I'd be nice if the boss wolf decided to retreat, but it wasn't looking like that would be the case.

The remaining 2-headed wolves were coming at me, while the 3-headed ones and the boss stayed back. It wasn't hard to guess this was a trap, so for now I think I'll keep a few tricks up my sleeve and only use Tenka Fubu.

The 2-headed wolves came at me. But because both Tenka Fubu and I wanted the same thing, that is to save the kids, we were able to exhibit considerable power. Yeah, the wolves outnumbered me, but that didn't matter if they couldn't hit me.

While I was busy with some of them, the wolves with just 1 head tried sneaking around me. But I noticed that. Once I got an opening, I switched targets and attacked the wolves that were sneaking around.

I was just deflecting the ones that came at me from the front, but these ones I didn't forgive. I killed each one with a single slash. I hope that sends a clear message.

"You should just go home already."

I didn't want to kill more than was necessary, maybe these wolves are important to the mountain's ecosystem. If they turn tail now, that'll be the end of this. But if they don't want to stop, then I'll kill all these wolves if I have to.

The boss wolf howled. Then the other wolves did the same. This didn't look like a retreat. Actually, I'm pretty sure I can feel them gathering mana… in their mouths?

The 5-headed wolf shot out mana from all 5 mouths, while the 3-headed ones just shot mana from their middle head's mouth. I guess the 2-headed ones couldn't do this.

In any case, this was bad. If it was just me I'd dodge out of the way, but with the children behind me I have to defend.

"Barricade!"

I defended myself and the children. The barrier held up well, but the wolves kept attacking, which forced me to keep feeding mana to the barrier. Looks like this is going to become a contest of who has more mana. Worst case scenario though, I'll break out Infinite Lovers, so the wolves aren't winning this.

Thankfully, I didn't have to go that far. Maybe the wolves ran out of mana, or maybe the boss wolf noticed he wasn't winning this, but the attacks stopped.

But that didn't mean it ended. The boss wolf finally got directly involved. He rushed towards me and tried to slash me, but I used Transite to dodge. I was above it now, and tried to cut off his head, or rather one of them, with a downward swing.

"It doesn't cut?!"

Maybe the boss was tougher than I gave it credit for. I couldn't defeat him using only Tenka Fubu. I fell back to ground level and had to dodge its attacks for a little while.

If a sword doesn't work, I'll fall back to trusty old magic. I've learned some new spells anyway, might as well break them out.

"Thundergia."

My new Advanced Magic, Thundergia. Ruki has been teaching me a lot about thunder magic, since it seems she likes to use it more than other elements. The boss wolf was tough, but even it was paralyzed by it. But it still didn't look like it was going to go down.

No biggie though, I have a few more tricks up my sleeve.

Taking advantage of its paralyzed state, I used Fidezenon and Freeziar, the Advanced Magic of fire and ice respectively. Though as it is, I'm sure it can't just take extreme heat and cold at the same time and keep fighting.

Even so, it still wasn't done. I could barely see it due to all the fire and ice, but I felt it gathering mana in its mouth. One last shot, heh.

But I'm not letting you do this. Time to break out another Advanced Magic I learned recently.

"Destrucshear."

I aimed for the open mouth, and blew up that head. And I was still keeping up my other spells. With a wound like that, there was no way it was going to survive. Should have gone away before.

Once the boss wolf was dead, the other wolves scattered. I figure they must be afraid, they just saw their strongest get killed. I feel a little bad for them, but I couldn't just leave the kids to their luck.

"Now that that's done…"

"Hiii!"

Oh, I guess I must have scared the children as well. Sorry, didn't mean to do that.

"W-what do you want woof? Poran won't let you hurt anyone woof."

"No, I don't mean to hurt anyone. I'm Yuuto, a human like you guessed before. I just happened to be passing when I saw you all, so I figured I'd help."

Poran stood in front of the other children, as if trying to defend them from me. She didn't seem like much of a threat, but I'm sure she'd fight me if she thought I'd try to hurt them.

So I put my hands up and sat down on the ground. It would be hard to do much of anything like this. But I guess it wasn't convincing, since Poran was still on her guard. Maybe she was considering my use of magic before, but my mana is really spent, so I couldn't pull that off again. Not without Infinite Lovers at least.

"Mind telling me how you all got here? Maybe you don't know, but supposedly it's very hard to get off this mountain."

"So that's why woof… Poran and everyone are mixed-blood devils woof. We used to live far away from here, but then the lord kicked us out woof. We were chased out again and again for a lot of years woof. Everyone kept dying, and then we made our way to this mountain, but we couldn't leave woof. Now it's just us woof."

I see, so they went to Gaol Mountain because they had no other choice. But once you got in you couldn't leave, and they continued dying out until only this many were left. They would have probably all died if I didn't happen to come here.

{You didn't happen to come here, my harem senses were tingling.}

Yeah, whatever. But I have to say you did really well, Tenka Fubu. We really could make a great team if only you don't take over my body.

{I'm not building a harem for you, I'm doing it for me! Now gimme your body!}

Yeah, I figured it would go something like that. Sorry, but you're not getting me this time.

{W-wait!}

I stored Tenka Fubu away before she could take over my body. Now that that's done, I should make my way back. And I might as well take Poran and the others with me.

"Say, I'm going to get off this mountain now. You all want to come along? While we're at it, I can also ask my friend, who is this region's lord, to let you all stay so you don't have to keep wandering around."

"What woof? But isn't Yuuto just a human woof? Can you get a region's lord to listen to you woof?"

"It's true I'm a human, but I'm also a Devil King Candidate. But, beside all that, Neith, my friend, is really kind. I'm sure she'll take care of all of you."

Poran seemed a bit troubled, but then she looked at the kids. Staying on the mountain would mean death, but the same could be said if they continued to just roam about. Their best hope would be something like what I said, getting a region's lord to accept their stay.

In the end, they decided to trust me. I asked everyone to gather around and hold each other's hands, forming a big ring. I've never teleported this many people before, but it should be fine. But I'll need Infinite Lovers' mana for just a bit.

"W-woah."

"So strong!"

"… Amazing woof."

A-ah, I guess it must have been a little shocking for everyone. But it is making me feel really cool.

Then, we teleported out of Gaol Mountain. Guess I have a lot of introductions to make now.