Lolisa regretted coming here. She knew of this place during her first life, and how weird Axis Cultists could be. More recently, their customers often complained about how absolutely fanatical the Axis Cult was. If someone came to investigate their business, their customers said that they wouldn't be able to buy off a believer of that Cult like with the Eris Cult.

She'd known they must be partially right, with how looney the woman who called herself Aqua was.

"Come here, Demon! I will vanquish you and your clothing in the name of the Goddess Aqua!" shouted a middle-aged man wearing Priestly robes. The others all shouted in agreement with him, and Lolisa continued to run through the streets.

Honestly, she'd been getting hungry without feeding on any lust. She'd booked a room at a run-down inn that gave off the vibes of somewhere people didn't spend much time sleeping in their beds and more time doing things Lolisa could feed off of. But she hadn't wanted to wait for the night to arrive, and now…

Unfortunately, the man she'd been trying to tail, who'd been giving off waves of Lust while sitting on a bench and seemingly just watching people pass him by, had noticed her, immediately picked up on her demonic aura, and called out to his companions hidden in the nearby river to aid him in chasing her down.

Despite the sizzling of their skin and swimming clothing, the men had joined their leader in chasing her down without a complaint, managing to grab her cloak and reveal her uniform, which had sent them into a frenzy.

She continued to run – she'd seen two of the people who'd jumped out of the river head for the rooftops, so flying wasn't a viable option – but running through the city wouldn't be an option for much long-

"Exorcism!"

She dodged out of the way, contorting her wings to just miss it-

And her bra fell off as she twisted through the air. She stared down, stunned-

"OHHH! Lord Zesta, you are truly magnificent!"

She bolted again – she had to leave, get out of town, before these people tried to do something unspeakable to her!

Of course, considering the physiology of demons, there wasn't a lot they could do, but these people seemed as creative as they were committed. She was sure they'd find something they could do to her.

Or, alternatively, they could exorcize her. That would be just as bad-

She dodged down another alleyway, taking as many turns as she could, trying to find anything-

Her eyes widened. There!

She ran out into the middle of the street, right past the man wearing white and purple. She didn't turn around to see the look on his face as he muttered something about her being a demon.

"Hey, it's an Eris Priest, out in broad daylight!"

She kept running, even when she heard the passersby behind her form a crowd around the man – she didn't know if he was a Priest, but he was wearing clothing similar to one, so she didn't really care. Even when she couldn't hear the riot forming, or the pounding of the feet of her pursuers.

Eventually, finally, she stopped, panting. She would go to that inn and stay there. Hopefully, they wouldn't be able to track her…

She looked down at herself and sighed. Where was she going to find another bra?

-OxOxO-

A long conversation with the first messenger had followed, of course, over whether he should be fired for disturbing them when the town clearly had the problem under control. Thankfully – for the first messenger – the new messenger had relayed that the battle had not been easy, with the thing only being stopped a few dozen yards outside of the walls of Axel.

Otherwise, she would have likely done something terrible to the first man who'd come and interrupted her afternoon with Viktoriya that would have involved peeling his broken body off of the ceiling.

As it was, they were going to continue with their journey, Viktoriya was sending the pair home with a request that Walter handle the aftermath of the Mobile Fortress Destroyer, and Aqua was not getting her alcohol. She hadn't broken down again, but she seemed very morose.

Kazuma, thankfully, explained Aqua's sadness on the way back to the hotel.

"She explained it in between sobbing," he said, gesturing to the woman with mostly blue hair. "Apparently, because this city has so many of her followers that believe so much in her, a small change to what they believe can also change her," Kazuma explained. He gestured to the trio of girls ahead of them. Aqua was snapping at Darkness angrily for something or other, not that the false goddess noticed Darkness was only taking pleasure from her acidic responses.

Tanya's eyebrows furrowed. "Really? How few followers can she have, then? There's a small branch in Axel, so I know she's got more followers than just this city," she said speculatively. Kazuma opened his mouth to tell her that Aqua had claimed to have millions, billions, and trillions from time to time-

"She got more," Lorelei interrupted. Kazuma jerked around, not having heard her sneak up behind them. Tanya turned around-

She blinked in surprise. She had been given more paper than even Megumin had been, with most of it being adhered to her winter coat with some kind of glue. "Wait, why aren't you getting the treatment Darkness is?" Kazuma asked.

Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "I'm not advertising my faith, just like you and the imp next to me-"

Twitch.

"Imp?"

"Wait… Degurechaff, your ahoge actually moves? That doesn't-"

"Anyway, I grew up around Ferit, northwest of the Capital. It's a lot drier than Axel, so half of the farmers there pray to Eris, hoping their crops will make it, and the other half prays to Aqua hoping for more rain. Other than farmers… I heard sailors pray to her? Not too sure about that one, though."

Kazuma turned to Tanya. "Whatever. Regardless, the reasons Aqua's been so much more mean and her hair is turning purple is because of her followers in this city. She wants to try to fix whatever's wrong with the hot springs."

Tanya shrugged. "Fine. I'm not getting involved, though," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. He glared at the offending limb and then sped up to talk with his friends.

Tanya glanced towards Lorelei. "…any reason they gave you so many?"

She shrugged. "I'm guessing they didn't get past the ears and assumed I was an easy mark," she said, somewhat sad.

Tanya shrugged. "Ignore them. If the worst comes to worst and people in our position would have to join the Demon King, I'm sure we'll be here to kill them all eventually."

Lorelei blinked rapidly. "…Come again?"

Tanya shrugged. "Well, if so many of Aqua's followers are in this city, and her personality and power can be altered by their beliefs… I wonder what would happen to her power if they all died?" she asked rhetorically, a maniacal grin stretched out across her face.

Sure, it might be a massive loss of life, but the idea that she could directly harm a deity through their followers? Could such a thing be applied to-

Plick!

Lorelei flicked Tanya's forehead. "Bad Tanya! No thoughts of mass murder!"

She looked at Lorelei incredulously. "Did you just-"

"You could get them to weaken their faith by making the hot springs stop, instead of, you know, murdering people," she pointed out.

Tanya let an eyebrow rise. "If you treat me like a dog, I'll start treating you like a rabbit," she threatened. She was seventeen! She had commanded thousands of men across the vast openness of the Russy Federation!

Lorelei couldn't just flick her in the forehead-

"Oh? And what would that entail, exactly?"

"I'll… hurl you to the moon," she said, struggling to come up with an appropriate insult. Lorelei raised an eyebrow in return at the odd barb, and they continued to squabble until they got into the hotel and went their separate ways, with Kazuma having taken advantage of Tanya's distraction to slip back to his party.

-OxOxO-

Zachary regretted coming here. He'd often heard that the Priests of the Eris Cult were never supposed to go to that 'accursed city,' that the Eris Cult's church in the city constantly had to be sent reinforcements – monetary and personnel – and that, as one of the larger towns relatively close to the city, Axel had a duty to 'keep the Axis flood from washing away the rest of the country.'

He had even confirmed some of those rumors had even been confirmed. Only the guild, the government, and the Eris Cult's church weren't entirely staffed by the Axis Cult. It was a wonder they hadn't been driven out of the city.

Of course, considering the reputation of the Cult outside of this city and its relative lack of power in the rest of Belzerg, there were restrictions the Eris Cult had been able to wring out so that relations stayed amiable.

Currently, the Eris Church was allowed to guard the source of the hot springs. Doing this ensured none of the individual hot springs could monopolize Aqua's sacred gift, ensuring the Eris Church's continued presence in the city. Though derisive of the Eris Cult, the Axis Cult appreciated their help with that, if nothing else.

He'd even been asked by the church to deliver some supplies to the guards who stood watch over the access point to the former hot spring. He'd done so and been strolling through the city on his own, for a time, until-

"Repent your worship of that Dark Goddess Eris! You'll find yourself in much better company if you convert!"

"I can sense your devotion… why follow such a scummy Goddess?"

Despite the rain of insults against him and his Goddess, kept running. While the spells increasing his endurance and speed were helping to ensure he wasn't caught, the mob chasing him – headed by a high ranking Axis Archpriest, if he wasn't mistaken – it was only just.

Every time he dodged down an alley, one jumped down from above, doing everything in their power to try and get him to start a fight so they could attack him in earnest. If he went down by the labyrinth of dirty, murky water, someone would jump out of the water, their clothes or skin sizzling and accusing him of trying to take water from the city despite not being from the Axis Cult.

And he'd been running from them for hours, now. He managed to lose them every once in a while, but his clothing was just too noticeable – the shade of purple he wore seemed to be almost absent from the people around him, and the amount that he wore kept catching people's eyes.

He paused, for a moment, to catch his breath. This had to end soon, or-

"I think I saw him go this way!"

He couldn't run. He'd managed to find himself at a dead end. There was nowhere to hide.

He couldn't fight them. He gulped, readying himself to take their blows, be they verbal or physical.

Zachary kneeled down and prayed to Eris to fortify himself for what was to come. "Please, Eris. Give me the Luck to avoid their sight… or give me the strength to resist their provocations. I beg you-"

They turned the corner, and he winced, awaiting a hail of words and allusions and attempts to cajole him into making the first move…

Only for nothing to happen. He blinked and looked up to find that a few Priests were staring straight through him.

They swore. "I can feel something lingering… but he isn't here. He must have tricked us!"

They left him, and Zachary breathed out as he felt… something leave him, a presence that subtly flitted about the edge of his clothes, a feeling that slipped out of his perception as he tried to grasp it-

His eyes widened and he looked down at his hands. "That… that was Lurk," he muttered to himself. He'd gone on his fair share of quests with various parties, and Thieves were a favorite, considering the best of them were obviously favored by Eris.

How could he have…

Shaken, he quickly took off the purple coat he had been wearing, shoving it into the nearby sewer grate next to him. He couldn't get rid of the pants…

He wiped some grime off of the sewer grate and wiped his pants down with them, hoping to hide the color somewhat. Anything to distance his looks from who the Axis Cultists were looking for.

Retracing his steps a few intersections down the alleyways he'd been hiding in, he looked around the entrance to the alleys and strolled out.

He didn't have much with him – he'd entrusted his staff to his number two in Axel and was carrying a weaker wand with him. Besides that, he had some money and his Card. Getting his pants clean would be a hassle…

He saw a fairly run down inn and went in and quickly bought a room. Sighing tiredly, he settled in for the night, his mind too caught up with the miracle that he had performed to care much about a small, familiar presence he felt in the building with him.

Was… what had happened in that alley specific to him? Lurk was not something a Priest should be able to perform, and his spells on his card hadn't changed in the slightest. Was it a sign that the Eris Cult he was attempting to create was correct?

He didn't know. Perhaps he would find an answer in his dreams?

-OxOxO-

Shizuka smiled as she indulged in some weak wine. Despite the hardship earlier in the day and the… unexpected destruction of the Governor's Mansion, the guild was just as wild as usual, if not more so. Everyone was enjoying the party, and it looked like Luna and the guild staff weren't even that upset about the mess everyone was causing tonight.

The raucous party being thrown had been delayed for a time – the interim mayor had been intent on starting salvage operations right away, especially regarding the more delicate machinery…

Not that she'd had anything to do with that stuff – she'd just been glad to have survived the ordeal. Probably why she wasn't in charge…

Well, most of the thing was going to be sold off. She'd heard from someone getting drinks from the Blonde Pixie that that much Adamantite, especially with its quality, would go for quite a lot of money in the capital.

Of course, most of the profits were being used to give aid to the smaller towns, farms, and everyone who'd had their land damaged while the Destroyer was on its way to Axel. She'd heard that the refugees were flowing into the city already.

Shizuka couldn't be happier, though. All the adventurers had gotten a big payout for helping in the defense of the city, despite the damage the Mobile Fortress Destroyer had caused.

Absentmindedly, she looked off to her left… only to snicker at Aya and Takashi betting a significant portion of their cut of the rewards on a game of Ett. She wondered how long it would take them to realize the feelings that had formed between them despite her aloofness and the memories in his head…

She shrugged again and looked across the guild. Everyone who'd participated was being celebrated, of course, but Wiz, Takashi, Mitsurugi, and the mysterious Mage were all the guests of honor for the important roles they had played.

The only slight hiccups were how Mitsurugi seemed to be brooding over something, while the guest of honor – the mysterious Mage who'd come to their rescue – hadn't been seen since she'd teleported out of the Mobile Fortress Destroyer.

Overall, though, people were happy, so she was content to enjoy things too.

Of course, that didn't last much longer.

"She's WHO!?"

Conversation in the guild slowly died down as heads turned to the source of the commotion. It appeared that Dust was staring at Luna, who was talking to Mitsurugi in a quiet corner of the guild. There weren't many people he could have been talking about, and everyone wanted to know the name of the woman they had to thank.

Luna glared at Dust, more irate than she usually was when Dust got up to trouble. "You… it's supposed to be a secret-"

Everyone was now looking at her expectantly, and she sighed. Odd. She sounded quite sad about-

"It appears that the woman who appeared to help the guild fight against the Mobile Fortress Destroyer is… Wolbach, a Demon King General and a supposedly fallen Dark Goddess."

The party died then and there as a giant quest was pinned up, with her face front and center. The whole guild was muttering, and few doubted the entire city would be aware of the identity of their savior before dawn.

She heard more rumors starting to awaken as people wondered how Luna had found out, if they could fight such a foe, and when the Governess would be back.

Personally, Shizuka was more concerned with how angry Degurechaff would be when she got back. Sure, they'd saved the town, but her mansion was gone with only a few things surviving the explosion, and they had what might have been an even greater threat nearby.

-OxOxO-

Lorelei was currently enjoying a warm cup of tea. She did, of course, enjoy Viktoriya's coffee as much as everyone else with working taste buds, but if she wasn't going to be doing anything important in the morning, she preferred to avoid the caffeine. Too much of it messed with her-

"Are you all not going to take advantage of the hot springs?" Kazuma asked that morning.

Lorelei glowered at him scornfully. There went her morning – not that she was much of a morning person after being thrown out of a second-story window and straight into guard training.

"Too expensive," she muttered as she ate the glorious fluffy pancakes in front of them. Honestly, wasn't this kid supposed to be a NEET or something? Why was he up so early?

More importantly, had he been disappointed that the three of them hadn't been in the hot springs last night? She'd heard his friends screaming at him from down the hall from the giant baths that the luxury hotel had had access to.

She glanced to her right and saw Viktoriya marveling at the pancakes – "Why are they so thick? Is this why you always thought the one's in the Empire were too thin, Tanya?" – and grumbled under her breath.

He snapped his fingers. "Right, you guys don't have access to Aqua. She just purified everything for free, no need to pay," he said, clearly happy about his good luck. Lorelei just rolled her eyes. "Are you going to fix your Goddess today?"

Kazuma's gaze spun away from the food in front of him towards her, his eyes narrowed. "They talked about that with you around… hey, you aren't a…"

Lorelei scoffed. "No. Tanya's just told me a lot. More than your friends know, I guess," she said. That seemed to shut him up for the moment, and Lorelei could enjoy her food. She reached for a napkin to clean off the syrup-

She raised an eyebrow at the form printed on the napkin. This really was starting to get annoying… but she'd dealt with worse, so she'd continue to put up with it. As long as she didn't reveal how deep her loyalty to the Eris Cult was, she'd probably be fine.

Soon enough, their conversations all came together as everyone decided what they were doing for the day.

-OxOxO-

Kazuma was most definitely not a morning person, but Aqua had absolutely refused to let him sleep in while she was trying to 'restore her image' and fix her town.

And while he couldn't help but feel a little bit bad for her, he also didn't appreciate the early wake-up call. When Megumin had announced to the table that she would be heading out into the mountains around the city to 'find a target worthy of her explosion spell,' he'd volunteered immediately.

Aqua had whined, and they had bickered with each other, but he was here now, in one of the forests that sat atop the white cliffs around Alcanretia, keeping an eye on Megumin. It shouldn't have been too much of a hassle, considering how often he took her out back in Axel – Degurechaff wasn't paying him to keep her away from Axel for nothing.

Of course, speaking of Degurechaff…

"Hmm? I don't understand what you mean. Why do you have to do all that… math?"

"You… I already told you, think of it like an incantation, except even more important. It not only allows for the usage of the spell, but also the aiming, intensity, and-"

"Bah! As a Crimson Demon, if such a thing were important for a spell, I would know! If you don't wish to discuss your arcane secrets, just speak your mind!"

"You're the one who asked about how I perform my magic!"

Yes, he'd been stuck with the other loli as well. Not that she'd wanted to come – she'd tried to go back to her room, but her rabbit friend forced her and Serebryakov to leave and not stay all cooped up, even if the city was full of crazies.

Lorelei had also wanted Serebryakov to come with her, without Degurechaff. Neither had been happy with that, but she hadn't backed down. She'd decided, between the duos of Aqua and Darkness and Kazuma and Megumin, to come with them.

"So when will you fight me in a battle of explosions?"

"I don't want to. When will you take no for an answer?"

"Ha! According to the wisdom of the Crimson Demon Village, 'if at first they refuse, they're simply playing hard to get!'"

"I'm going to burn down your village."

Desperately trying to ignore the two of them, he cast his gaze around. The view of the city from up on the cliffs probably would have been better if it looked even half as good as Aqua had first promised, but it was impressive, if nothing else.

The sky was clear, and it didn't look like it would be snowing anytime soon. Considering Alcanretia was farther north than Axel, he didn't know how that actually worked, but he sure wasn't complaining.

The trees were all dead… and not just in the way that trees normally looked in the middle of winter. Was it all that poison?

Trying to block out the sound of the two girls behind him, he tried to listen for… anything. Birds, monsters, insects. He didn't expect much because of the season, but he didn't hear anything but the sound of boots trekking across the cold dirt.

"Hey," he said, interrupting the two of them. Megumin seemed annoyed, but Tanya looked thankful. "Does everything seem… dead, to you two?" he asked, gesturing around them.

Pulled out of their conversation, they also cast their gaze around them, looking for anything alive as they continued to move forward. It was eerie. Now that he noticed it, it was hard to ignore just how… quiet it was around them.

"Hmm. It must be the poison, yes? I can't imagine anything else that could have done this," Tanya said, gesturing around them. Kazuma might have felt inclined to agree with her, but something felt… off.

Over the next ten minutes, they would spot a few animals, but all of them were dead. The trees around the pieces of bone they could find also seemed particularly devastated.

The silence dragged on for another minute after they found half of a Rookie Killer's corpse. Instead of seeing some kind of wound from being cut in half, the insides of the giant beast seemed to have been liquified.

He was definitely regretting how much he'd eaten right now.

Degurechaff, of course, didn't seem overly concerned by the gory sight in front of her. "What in the world could have caused this? There's no blood on the ground either…"

CRACK!

All three of them spun around, searching for the branch or tree that had been broken…

But nothing was there.

"I vote we go back."

"But I haven't found anything to-"

"Then use it where that sound came from!"

They started to bicker, though Degurechaff seemed content to stay silent, her gun now held at the ready.

While he had to shoot down a number of ideas – they couldn't use the spell on the lake below them, above the city, or above the tunnel into this valley, no matter how cool it would look – she eventually decided to stretch how far she could fire it off in the direction away from the city.

One chant and an explosion later, and he was carrying her. "With how annoying Alcanretia is, I almost want to stay out here…"

He nodded in agreement with the blonde girl. "I know, right? I wonder where they learned how to be this scummy…"

He felt Megumin shift around for a moment. "Uhh… I bet it's their Goddess," she said.

Degurechaff agreed with her, but the way Megumin had blamed Aqua sounded… odd. He opened his mouth to question her-

"Anyway!" Megumin shouted, making his ears ring for a moment, "tell me how you are able to fly. It should be impossible!"

Kazuma groaned. "No! I'm not carrying you around if you're going to yell in my ear!" he dropped her on the ground, ignoring her shout.

"H- Hey! Pick me back up, you good-for-nothing Adventurer!"

His eyes narrowed… and then he turned to his left. "Hey, Degurechaff. As a good-for-nothing adventurer, do you think we should leave her behind?"

Megumin's continuing complaining ceased.

"Hmm. Well, considering you're their commander, far be it from me to interfere in how you punish your subordinates," she said, flicking up the collar of her jacket as Megumin cried out. They turned away from each other and started walking back down the path they came.

"You- pick me up! Kazuma! If you don't, I'll…"

"Wait, you aren't going to leave me out here, where it's creepy and quiet, right? Come on! Kazuma! Please!"

They didn't leave her alone for much longer than that. He gave her some of his mana using Drain Touch, and they were walking back down. She had sworn vengeance against him until he'd threatened to take his mana right back from her. He'd basked in the sweet silence.

For five minutes. Then he had to start blocking out their chattering again.

"How does it work?"

"Would you learn one of my spells if I told you?"

"Of course not! Your magic might offer me insights into how to create better explosion magic, however."

"With that in mind, why do you think that my explanations are fictitious, then?"

"Because continuous magic like you have demonstrated is exceedingly difficult, of course!"

Tanya merely raised an eyebrow, and Megumin sighed as if put upon by a child.

She grit her teeth again. Perhaps the information she might obtain wouldn't be worth the price of having to try and talk to this Chuunibyou?

Still, the Crimson Demon – finally – began to explain.

"Take my Explosion magic! I finish the chant and the spell unleashed upon the world to bring destruction upon my foes! Most spells are similar to the Explosion spell, in that you perform the chant and cast the spell," she began, waving her arms and staff around for emphasis.

"Only basic magic, like this HikiNEET's spells, and enchantments are truly continuous. While Basic magic doesn't have any chanting and will use any mana you give them, Advanced and Intermediate magic are simply more efficient! Furthermore, enchantments either require tons of Skill Points or a ridiculous amount of power."

She turned, leveling a finger at Tanya. "THAT is why I know you're lying! Your claim that flying doesn't take much mana is ludicrous!"

Tanya opened her mouth to explain… but then she thought better of it.

Megumin was partially right. The only reason Tanya or any other mage could fly with anything approaching combat effectiveness was using a Computation Orb in order to shift most of the complex mathematical calculations into a device designed for the job.

Tanya's own attempts to fly without an Orb, during the time before Viktoriya's arrival, while successful, were only possible by making the flight spells as simple as possible and unsuitable for the kind of combat she had participated in.

If she explained that it was complex calculations and her Type 97 that allowed those spells to function, she might convince Megumin.

Tanya shrugged. "Well, I already told you that I'm not lying. You'll just have to accept that," she said, turning away from the girl.

"Wow. That actually sounded smart. If I didn't know you could only use one spell, I'd believe that you were an actual Archmage, Megumin," Kazuma commented.

And while the girl rounded on Kazuma and began to bicker, Tanya resolved not to let Megumin know just how advanced magic in her world had become.

If Megumin's Explosion spell was enhanced by the Type 97, would she be able to cast it several times a day? If Megumin were allowed to turn her spell into a mathematical calculation to increase its efficiency, how much bigger could she make it?

Tanya's own spells had an upper limit to how much mana they could take in, and bypassing those limits quickly added up to either damage to herself or her Type 97. Her Explosion spell did not seem to have any such limitations, if she could use all of her mana at once.

Offering insights that might help Megumin with her magic, as the girl had put it, would be a bad idea in all but the most dire of circumstances. She shook her head to hide a shiver that went down her spine. No, that was a can of worms best left unopened… and if Tanya ever needed the spell herself for some unlikely reason, she'd just learn it from the girl.

-OxOxO-

Darkness suppressed the urge to moan as they were chased out of yet another hot-spring-turned-poison-dispensary. She hadn't thought an investigation like this could be so… rewarding.

Of course she'd agreed to help Aqua with her investigations – no matter how independent Alcanretia was from the rest of Belzerg, it was still a part of the nation, and as one of the Grand Nobles, she had a duty to help protect the Kingdom.

So they had been going around the city, talking to the various businesses that had once been hot springs. If Aqua's status as an Archpriest was not enough to convince them to tell their stories, then Darkness would reluctantly roll out her pedigree to loosen their tongues.

At every establishment, they found similar stories, from the owners to the workers to the customers.

A few months ago, the water had started to burn, and not in the way one usually expected from a hot spring. Over time, things had only gotten worse, with the hot springs becoming unbearable for anyone who tried to use them. The timings differed between the different hot springs, but none of them could stop the flow of poison.

While most of the town did live by the Axis Cult's teachings that one should 'relax and live without care' instead of 'stiffly suppressing oneself,' it was hard to live without care when money began to dry up.

All of the hot springs had also been going out of business. The town had begun to feel that, perhaps, they must be doing something incorrectly? The manager of the source of the hot springs had claimed everything was fine, so what could have caused this?

And just when two of the managers had apparently been considering converting, the highest authority of the Axis Cult, the Archpriest Zesta, had claimed to have received a vision from Aqua of an undead manticore.

While every single person they interviewed had admitted to at least thinking that Zesta had simply been fantasizing about having his way with such a monster, if they hadn't proudly declared that they had spread rumors of such, he had claimed it meant they were supposed to act as such a creature would.

That like the Manticore, they should utilize the poison they were provided with to succeed in life. That like an undead, they should rise from what many would consider the ultimate defeat.

And so, the hot springs had begun bottling their poison, and the rest was, apparently, history.

Of course, Aqua eventually got enraged after hearing enough of these stories. She would claim that the Demon King was at fault for the poison, that they were all sinning by believing such a thing about their Goddess, and then she would purify all of their poison.

The first two times it had happened, they had been chased off. When Darkness had let slip that she was an Eris Cultist the third time, they'd been attacked!

She shuddered again. "What's wrong, Darkness?" Aqua asked, apparently finally finished with her despondency over the state of 'her' city.

Darkness shrugs. "Oh, I just don't get how you can get away with calling yourself Aqua and claiming to be her and keep your power is all," she said, hiding a guilty smile.

Darkness was curious about that, but the more important part of that statement was not its words but what would inevitably come after. Whenever any of them implied that Aqua was not, in fact, a Goddess, she would whale on them.

Aqua, eye twitched, wound back her fist, and Darkness shrank away, anticipating the blow…

That never came. She looked up and found Aqua scowling. "One of the many holy precepts of the Axis Cult is that, 'When you have to make a choice, no matter which path you decide to take, you will definitely regret it later. Therefore, choose something that makes you happiest right now,'" she said, scoffing at the end.

"It makes me happy to call myself Aqua right now, so no matter if it causes something bad to happen later, I'll do it anyway!"

When Darkness opened her mouth to try and articulate her thoughts, Aqua rushed off, heading for the next poison dispensary. Shaking her head, Darkness chased after her. She had to… protect Aqua from retribution, after all.

-OxOxO-

"Lorelei, will you tell me why you split me off from Tanya?"

Lorelei rolled her eyes. "Look, I know it's sacrilegious to split you two up, but you can wrestle with your tongues and do the horizontal tango all you want after we finish in the Crimson Demon Village. You are getting her some gifts!"

Viktoriya's beet-red blush began to fade slightly. "I- I am?"

Lorelei nodded. "Sure! She's getting you that ring, ain't she? Aren't you going to reciprocate?"

"She said I-"

"And you listened to that drivel? How do you think she'll feel if you pull out a gift when she gives you her's?" she said, still scanning the storefronts that they walked past. Thankfully, it seemed that there weren't as many Cultists trying to convert people in the more mercantile part of the city.

"Alright, then what do you propose? Did you talk to Aya and the others?"

Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "No. But we can come up with something. Uh… considering how functional her gift is supposed to be, how about giving her some poison? This stuff must really be strong if it can kill the trees around the city, and I doubt you'll find anything half as good as cheaply anywhere but here."

Lorelei had thought her suggestion a sensible one… until she looked at Viktoriya's ashen face. She tried to backpedal, but Viktroiya simply shook her head.

"No, it's… just…" she takes in a shaky breath.

"We did… a lot of things in that war. There isn't someone like the Lich who ensured that civilians wouldn't be targeted. Tanya even came up with a way to skirt by what international laws did exist to allow the targeting of innocents." Her voice began to grow quiet.

Lorelei winced and tried to backtrack, but shook her head and wandered towards an alley. Taking another deep breath, Viktoriya continued.

"Do you remember, when Tanya and Megumin were competing with that Friendship crystal, how one of the scenes involved a… Chemical Conversion Spell? Do… are there any spells that can turn the air into poison?"

Lorelei's eyebrows furrowed. "I have no clue. Spells aren't my forte."

Viktoriya just shook her head. "Well, war spurs innovation, and innovation begets horrors. A spell was made that could turn the air into poison. We…"

She sighed tiredly. "We tried to use it against enemy troops, but they adapted quickly and devised countermeasures so even when we were able to utilize it, the spell never did much… so we were ordered to turn on those who weren't provided for. We wiped out dozens of villages, leaving only a few alive so they could crawl back to our enemies and terrify them into submission."

Her statement hung in the air for a few moments. Lorelei cast her gaze around, but the only thing listening to their conversation were the piles of trash.

Still, she shivered. "By Eris…" Lorelei muttered. "Why… why didn't you disob-"

Viktoriya's gaze snapped to her, burning a hole through Lorelei's head. "We wanted to! I wanted to! Dammit, even Tanya wanted to, and she wrote th-"

Viktoriya stopped as her voice cracked. She took yet another deep breath. "We wouldn't have been shot for refusing the order. The 203rd was far too valuable. But they would have found others, who would not have let anyone survive, who would have reveled at the chance to kill innocents. Resources should be allocated efficiently, and we would have wasted resources by bickering over who pulled the trigger."

Again, the words hung in the air, swaying to and fro, seemingly ignorant of the air of contentment outside their alley. They stood there in silence, for a moment, mulling over Viktoriya's words. Lorelei thought, in a quiet part of her mind, of pointing out how they shouldn't have done it anyway…

Of course, the war in Belzerg…

Well, it certainly hadn't been clean. Not always.

The Lich who brokered the deal had only done so five years ago, after all, and while she had just formalized what was common practice, things hadn't always been so…

Lorelei felt her lips purse. While the war had been going on since before she was born some twenty-one years ago, her parents had spoken sometimes of how brutal some of the fighting had been after her birth.

She found it hard to picture her friends…

She spun away from Viktoriya, heading towards the entrance of the alley. "Bah! Let's put all this talk of war behind us! We've got to find some gifts, so start giving me some ideas!" Lorelei said, turning around and looking at Viktoriya with a raised eyebrow. Slowly, the woman nodded, her trouble features melting away.

Both would ignore their lingering questions to focus on happier things.

-OxOxO-

"You do this to yourself," she said.

The stupid blonde loli trying to get her dick back so she could bone her hot friend didn't even sound smug when she said it, as if she knew that having a frank tone would be more annoying to him than a mocking one.

He ignored the small voice in his head telling him she was right and instead blamed the people causing the trouble.

"People of Alcanretia! I, as an Archpriest of the Axis Cult, bring grave tidings to you! Our fair city has been attacked by the Demon King! The hot springs have been corrupted by the forces of Hell and he who seeks to destroy the world!"

Aqua was standing in front of a large crowd of people, while Darkness stood to the side, looking like the perfect image of a crusader.

If it weren't for the slight blush on her face, Kazuma could have believed she was actually a crusader instead of a masochist masquerading as one and hoping the crowd would get violent.

The crowd didn't look entirely violent. At least part of it seemed to agree with her. If he just ignored that most of it seemed rather upset about something, he could even pretend that he didn't have any problems!

"In any of the Axis Cult's holy precepts, is there mention of poison? Is there any mention of the Goddess Aqua being a Goddess who likes poison? No! She is a Goddess of Water!"

He started to get hopeful. It seemed like she might actually be convincing some of them.

"As the Goddess Aqua, I would-"

And he tuned out the rest, rushing forward before the crowd digested her words. The faster he got to her, the sooner they could run for-

"You BITCH!" he hears someone shout. The crowd turned on her, roiling and moving and starting to approach her. He could see Darkness standing in front of Aqua, who had dropped her Voice-Amp item.

A rock hit her, and she immediately dropped. Kazuma swore. How the hell-

"Back away!" he hears someone shout from behind him. He casts his gaze back for a moment to see Degurechaff.

He felt the bottom of his stomach sink and end up somewhere in his shoes. The world around him seemed to fade away, his breath caught, he broke out in a sweat that had nothing to do with the crowd around him; this…

He gulped, shivering, and turned back towards Aqua while the rest of the crowd stood rooted in place. Goddam, that killing intent was terrifying!

As he finally made his way to the front, he resolved, once again, never to get on her bad side if she had the ability to harm him.

Of course, the crowd eventually got over their fright as well, and…

Uh oh. Kazuma was now in front. Aqua looked a little guilty, but she mostly seemed upset at the crowd of her followers.

Darkness looked jealous… or as jealous as someone with a bleeding cut on their head could when they were knocked out and sprawled on the ground.

Kazuma smiles. "Uh… can't we all just go home?"

The stern, murderous looks he was getting told him he couldn't.

Wasting no time, he brought up a hand. "Create Water!" he shouted, sending a small wave of water at the crowd. They cursed at him, and he happily ignored it as he sent a Freeze out at their wet legs, freezing them to the ground for the moment.

"Create Earth!"

A pile of dirt began to form in his hand, and he let it fall to the floor. The crowd started to break out of the thin layer of ice he'd managed to trap them in.

He breathed in deeply, preparing for his next spell. "Wind Breath!"

The pile of earth went flying, creating a cloud of confusion around the cultists. "Kazuma, you…"

"Get over here, you stupid Archpriest! I need your goddam energy! Or better yet, carry me back!" he shouted from the ground. He did not have the mana to do shit like that often.

While he could hear her getting ready to blow a gasket, he felt someone else pick him up instead. He blinked.

"You're okay?"

Darkness smiled. "My, concerned about me?"

"Of course not. Don't act like you didn't enjoy getting clocked with that rock. Did Aqua heal you?"

He could feel her blush as she threw him over her shoulder and they sped off. And though she stammered and made excuses, he could see the truth:

He was getting a leash- no, three leashes! Child leashes had existed in his old world, right? If he put these three on them, he'd never have to worry about their bullshit again!

-OxOxO-

After taking the long way back while under his and Degurechaff's Lurk skill – in case there had been people watching the riot from the roofs, the paranoid loli explained – they met up in the lobby of the hotel to discuss their next move.

"All of the hot springs we visited were poisoned at once, and we determined they didn't have any suspicious customers who came regularly," Darkness began, relaying what she and Aqua had learned.

Darkness shrugged. "I think either a coordinated attack was carried out at once for the initial poisoning… or someone has tampered with the source of the hot springs."

"It's the Demon King!" Aqua said. Kazuma thought that that was a bit obvious, but Degurechaff added, "that isn't the problem. The problem is how to fix the hot springs… though, considering one of the Demon King's Generals is a Deadly Poison Slime-"

"Ha! Proof! That good for nothing Demon King… the Axis Cult will redouble its efforts to tarnish his despicable name. Kazuma, insult Darkness to give me ideas! I'll spread rumors about him and Eris!"

Viktoriya ignored Aqua and raised an eyebrow at Tanya. "Are… you sure? Lorelei and I heard tell that the hot springs were once 'poisoned' with tokoroten slime once. The Demon King doesn't have anyone like that working for him, does he?"

Kazuma and Tanya shared a look for a moment – was tokoroten slime a kind of slime, or was it that dish from their homeland? – but he shook his head.

"No, it must be the slime. When we were out in the forest, we saw…"

"A few animals and monsters were partially dissolved," Tanya said, picking up the sentence when Kazuma blanched. "I don't know of any monsters which partially dissolve their prey besides slimes-"

"Then it's settled! I'll check all of the hot springs again tomorrow, and if they're poisoned-"

"No you're not! You're gonna get lynched if you try that shit again!"

"You can't stop me, you-"

Tanya shook her head again as they started to fight. "The hot springs are only the symptoms of the problem. There's probably something wrong with the source."

"How do you figure that?" asked Lorelei. Tanya shrugged as Darkness involved herself in the brewing argument.

"If the poisoning of the hot springs was done by the Demon King and it isn't just an accident of nature, then he must have done so for a reason. If this city is apparently the lifeblood of the Axis Cult, undermining the Axis Cult was likely the purpose," she lectured.

"Considering the city is financially stable thanks to the sale of the poison, a group of people working for the Demon King and poisoning the individual hot springs would be wasting massive amounts of money to help prop up the city at this point. If we're lucky, the Demon King's General poisoned the source and left."

Darkness dipped out of Kazuma and Aqua's argument – which had managed to pull in both Megumin, Lorelei, and one of the hotel's workers – to butt in. "That's unlikely. The Eris Cult has Knights protecting the hot springs. They'd know the face of a Demon King General."

Tanya opened her mouth to argue further, but Viktoriya silenced everyone with a shrill whistle. They all stared at her.

She let out a short huff and turned to Kazuma's group. "We can check the sources in the morning. If everything is poisoned again, and it happened around the same time, then we can go check on the source."

Aqua beamed. "And we leave Aqua behind so she doesn't get killed." Aqua deflated.

Although one problem still remained – how to get past the guards – Tanya wasn't willing to stick around any longer before one of the hotel's staff members noticed that Aqua was the one who had incited a riot.

She turned to Viktoriya. "Hey, what did you and Lorelei get?"

"Oh, you don't need to know yet."

As they went into their room, Tanya wasn't sure if she was comfortable with just how… conniving Viktoriya sounded.

-OxOxO-

Lolisa peered down the lengthy hallway of the motel once more. She'd managed to get clothing that was hanging out to dry this morning, and she'd been lying low ever since. She didn't want anything to do with this town if she couldn't help it.

Unfortunately, she couldn't help it.

Or, maybe she could? It had honestly been a long time since she'd ever truly had to go hungry. So, maybe she could survive a few days without snacking on any emotions. The only problem was how long she would be staying in the city.

She had to make sure that she wasn't left behind by Degurechaff and Viktoriya, which meant keeping a close eye on them. Why they hadn't already left, she had no idea, but for as long as they stayed in the city, she had to stay too.

If they got to doing… things early, she wasn't fucking missing out!

And if they left suddenly and they were stuck in the wilderness without any way for her to get emotions besides the group of people she was trying to trail, then she might starve for real or be forced to try and feed on Degurechaff and her friends.

Considering they had that bizarre Archpriest with them, she didn't rate her chances of pulling that off highly.

So, she was slinking around her motel, hoping the people from yesterday hadn't and wouldn't find her while she did her thing.

In all honesty, she'd already had a few good meals already. She licked her lips, satisfied, and she sighed

Not a demon would claim that Axis Cultists weren't lustful, despite their – many – faults. Considering why many of them joined the cult in the first place, she supposed it would be a surprise if they weren't.

The pleasant feeling of lust pervading her being made her wish she could venture out from the motel and have a real feast, but she knew the protections the Axis Cult had set up throughout the city would ensure she didn't have a snowball's chance in Hell at doing so undetected.

She shrugged and stood facing yet another door. Still…

Lolisa's eyebrows furrowed. Not a speck of lust to be found.

Her inquisitive expression quickly shifted to a concentrated one. At this hour, they were probably asleep. She didn't know if they had already had their fun at the nearby and very exotic brothel, if they had drunk too much and were incapable of dreaming, or if they were a naive soul who was unaware of the true nature of a motel like this, the likes of which had been driven out of business in Axel by Succubi.

She grinned. Well, if they were asleep and hadn't had too much alcohol, she could try her hand at weaving a few dreams to see what more she could scrounge up.

And, if they were still awake at this hour, then that begged the question of just what they were doing. Lolisa was a curious being, so…

Hmm, actually…

She drew her hand back from touching the doorknob. On second thought, considering the last time she had tried to intrude on someone who hadn't paid for her services, perhaps it would be a better idea not to test her luck?

Sitting down outside someone's room and pretending to be some drunken lout while she listened to two – or more – people get it on was one thing, but trying to break in was another.

She began to draw her hand away. Yes, she didn't want a repeat of 'Johanna of Berun.'

But just as she began to draw her hand away, the door flew open, her wrist was grabbed, and she was pulled into the darkness beyond the reach of the motel's limited lighting.

Eyes widening, she began to chant a short mantra as she was dragged inside the room. Even her eyes needed time to adapt to the darkness.

"SLEEP!" she shouted, her spell flying from her fingers. But the figure now forming in the darkness simply adjusted his grip on her arm and pushed away, sending her spell away. Cursing, she took to the air-

"Exorcism."

PAIN.

The world went dark, for a moment, and when it brightened again, Lolisa found herself sprawled on the ground, in the middle of a room that looked similar to her own, with the lights on and feeling entirely too bright.

She shielded her eyes from the light. Or, she tried, but her arms and legs and wings were twitching too much.

Still, after a few more moments, she managed to rise to a sitting position…

Only to feel the brush of some very long clothing. Looking down at herself-

She shrieked, casting her gaze around the room until she found-

"H- How dare you! You- I can't believe you'd make me wear such a thing!"

"Hmm. I was always skeptical of the idea that dressing a Succubus in religious clothing would render them unable to use their powers, but I suppose you are proof… unless you aren't a Succubus?"

Lolisa blinked at the man towering over her giving off killing intent. This…

Wasn't he an Eris Cultist back in Axel? And a pretty infamous one at that?

Why was he here?

She blinked again. Wait…

Getting a better look at her clothes, she looked between them and the Priest. "H- Hey, why'd you dress me in an Axis Cutlist's clothes?"

The man shrugged. "The motel provided them for me. Considering some of the other treatment I've received here, I wasn't going to complain. It seems it was a blessing from Eris in disguise," he mused.

Lolisa's eyes widened. "Then, you wouldn't happen to be…" she trailed off.

He let her see a small grin. "I am."

Lolisa hung her head.

She was dead.

The green-haired man towering over her as she sat on the ground – and, considering his height, there wasn't any other way he would tower over her – was the one she'd dumped the Axis Cultists pursuing her onto.

This was the end of the line. Not even her last minute attempt to not enter the man's room had saved her.

But… she wasn't gone yet. She looked up, unable to hide just how uncomfortable this damned clothing made her feel, and found a lot of what she was expecting from a Priest with a freshly caught demon at their mercy.

Scorn. Repulsion.

She also found something she hadn't expected.

Hesitation.

She opened her mouth, but he quashed it down. "Listen well, demon. I… shall give you a chance to come to terms with your existence and Heaven before I exorcize you. Make your peace."

Despite the feeling of embarrassment at wearing the cloth draping her body, despite how long her odds looked, she knew there was at least one person in this city who'd come up against longer odds and won.

Taking heart in that knowledge – and inaudibly muttering a mantra of praise towards all seven Dukes of Hell – she thought up a plan to try and capitalize on that hesitation.

Lolisa managed to shift her body – still wracked with the pain of that initial Exorcism spell – so that she was resting on her shins. Suppressing the urge to vomit, she bent her head down and clasped her hands in front of her.

The embarrassment was killing her, literally, but she didn't care. "I- I left my home in order to gain relief from the cold, and to help my friends if they required help. I just want to experience life!"

"Then what were you doing in this hotel?" he questioned, his pink eyes boring into her top her of head.

"Uh… I rented a room?"

"Oh, is that all?"

Lolisa licked her lips again. In that way quite a number of Priests could, the way he said that spoke of knowing what she had really been doing, but also being perfectly willing to accept her explanation for her own benefit if she didn't wish to tell the truth.

"It's not like I have a choice. If I don't feed I'll die," she muttered. She added a heaping helping of bitterness to that statement that she didn't really feel all that strongly about – it would be nice to be able to subsist entirely off of normal food, but lust tasted and felt way too good for her to be as bitter as she was trying to sound.

Still, she wasn't dead yet. She hadn't gotten a good look at the room, so hopefully the window on the wall was there and she could jump through it. She couldn't fight in the clothing she was wearing and she certainly couldn't try and rush past the Priest – he might not have been tall, but he had easily manhandled her when he pulled her in.

When the silence stretched on for a moment longer, and she tensed as she prepared to bolt for the window, the killing intent faded.

Honestly shocked, she hesitantly glanced upwards.

A storm was brewing on the man's face. His mouth opened wide for a moment, but he just sighed, got out from in front of the door, and gestured. "Leave."

Lolisa stood, quickly getting rid of the Axis Priest clothing. She didn't need to be told twice…

But her curiosity was getting the better of her again. After taking off the headdress – and scowling when the Priest didn't take notice of how enticing her clothing was – putting her cloak back on, and standing in front of the door, she looked over her shoulder at the man.

She opened her mouth to ask him what kind of Eris Cult Priest didn't smite undead and demons, but he beat her to the punch.

"I have… ideas for what the Eris Cult should be. Could be. I want it to change. But…"

He sighed. "I don't know how far that change should go. I… think Eris agrees with me. But she hasn't given me any advice on the matter. I… I don't think she wishes to become a Dark Goddess, but… considering the Luck she doles out can be both good and bad…"

As he muttered under his breath about getting some more esoteric skills, she held off saying anything that might make him change his mind about her fate, including her opinion that even a Goddess as relatively minor as Eris in the grand pantheon of all the deities didn't have time to look into the lives of every single one of her faithful.

He shook his head. "Whatever. If you don't hurt anyone, I'll try to ignore you… unless I get some clarity on the matter."

She breathed a sigh of relief… and before he could change his mind, she flung the door open. "I'll get you a gift when you get back to Axel for letting me go!" she promised.

And though she could hear some sputtering from behind her, she took off down the corridor. She'd go hang out in the lobby for a while in case he just wanted to know which room was her's, but his emotions, even as muted as they felt behind his piety, seemed genuine.

She settled down into a seat in the corner of the lobby. She was getting strange looks, but-

"HAHA! You demonic beast! I've found you!"

"KYAAAAA!"

-OxOxO-

Though he was tired, Zesta couldn't be feeling more invigorated!

Sure, at least half of the feeling was thanks to the buffs he layered over himself. But chasing a Succubus through the streets of Alcanretia late at night, blasting away her clothing again, and only losing her because the light of the dawn had blinded them?

It was exhilarating!

Although, he was suspicious of his flock. Why did they want a whole meeting over it? Did he have to teach them a lesson to lay claim to the Succubi?

He shook his head and began the meeting with a clap of his hands. "I call this meeting of the Axis Cult's Priests together. A Demon is once again plaguing Alcanretia, and I will not let it remain – without getting a shot at it," he added at the end, whispering under his breath.

The rest of his fellow Aqua followers politely pretended not to hear the last part as he fantasized what he would do with her. As an Archpriest, of course he was aware that he would have no luck attempting to do anything too sexual with the demon.

On the other hand, he would very much like to further figure out just where exactly the limits were. The Succubus would obviously not have any bits that could be considered naughty, but could she do something with her hands? Could he-

He was rudely awoken from his daydreams by confused muttering. He listened to their talking and quickly found out this meeting was not, in fact, called to deal with the demon.

"What's this about some Archpriest claiming to be Aqua?" he asked.

He was quickly informed about someone claiming to be an Archpriest and Aqua. A few Priests who had been left to watch over the church claimed she had come to the city because of the poison. They said she seemed incredibly unhappy due to the poison.

She had dyed her hair – though not well, considering the purple streak – and had even obtained a hagoromo to try and sell the image. Obviously, no one was too keen on her, especially since she had repeatedly purified the poison dispensaries of the city.

Zesta's eyebrows furrowed. Could he pull that off? That was a lot of poison to try and clear up. The Church had even discussed attempting to purify the hot springs when their initial transformation had occurred, but it had been determined that it would take several Archpriests months of continuous work to pull something like that off.

The fact of the matter was that the Axis Cult did not have that many Archpriests, those few that did exist were spread out across the Kingdom of Belzerg and the neighboring countries, and all had some responsibilities.

Plus, what kind of follower of Aqua would just sit in one spot casting magic over and over for months at a time? Zesta sure as hell wouldn't… unless Aqua ordered him to.

But she wouldn't do that. Probably.

He shook his head. Did this really matter? He had a Demon to catch!

…Of course, he didn't want to get removed from his position like when that little girl had visited two months ago and helped them by instructing them on how to gain followers.

His position was especially tenuous with the poison situation. He'd almost been thrown out again, and it went without saying that all the people who had relied on the hot springs who couldn't shift over to the new way of doing things were pissed at him.

Still, he should be fine as long as the man watching over the hot springs continued his plan.

He shook his head and addressed the more immediate problem.

"Not to worry, fellow clergy! I'll simply put out a command that she be arrested for blasphemy and impersonating a member of the church tomorrow!"

There, that should mollify them. Now, he could talk about-

"I heard something even more scandalous!" he heard someone in the crowd say. They turned to her and she began to explain.

"I heard from a friend of mine that some tourist who was friends with an Eris Cultist knew someone who not only didn't believe in Aqua, but who thought she wasn't a Goddess at all!"

Stunned silence followed, and Zesta fought to wrap his mind around the idea. He clashed with the Eris Cultists, of course – perhaps the Aqua lookalike was some form of revenge they'd cooked up? – but even they still acknowledged Aqua as a Goddess, even if they thought she was somehow vastly inferior to Eris.

But to think that Aqua wasn't a Goddess?

"That ridiculous!" he heard someone else say, and he found himself nodding. But the woman who'd spoken up spoke again.

"It's true! I was in the confessional, and I told the waitress the same, but she showed off her Lapis Lazuli earrings as proof, and they hadn't given off any magic when he was talking."

There was more muttering, and Zesta felt one of his eyes twitch. They needed to get that demon!

"No one like that would come to Alcanretia," he assured them.

"But what if she did?"

"Yeah! I don't want a lunatic like that around my kids!"

"What should we do?"

He let out another sigh as they turned to him again. "If someone like that was in the city, we'd simply run them out of town, of course."

The other Priests nodded along and agreed with him, and Zesta sighed happily.

Finally, they could get back to what really mattered: how to trap that Succubus!

-OxOxO-

A/N 1: If you'd like to donate to support me monetarily, gain access to the monthly poll, and gain access to my (very long) summary of the KonoSuba Light Novels, search for Sugarcane Soldier on the website of the Patrons.

A/N 2: Many thanks to Afforess and Twin for being Super Patrons,

And a big thank you to lekille and WarmasterOku for being Ultra Patrons.