Disclaimer: Black Clover is owned by Yūki Tabata, Studio Pierrot, and Shonen Jump.

Saga 17: Welcome To The Jungle Part 3

Agartha's Ruins, Mimo Amazon, Neutral Territory, Midnight

"Honey!" greeted Mammon/Morris, "I'M HOME!"

"Fuck. Off," growled Angra, who was already sick of dealing with her so-called "partner-in-crime." "So, what took you this long?"

"Lack of activity, really," shrugged the monster, "less bugs than usual. But enough of that. How are Laplace (Order) and Maxwell (Chaos) faring?"

The surly young woman then pointed her thumb towards the pair of tanks behind her. Each contained a mold of flesh and vials floating in their preservative soups. The one labeled "Maxwell (Chaos)" was developing into a vague shape akin to an uneven-looking hybrid creature of a cat, a coyote and a spider. The one labeled "Laplace (Order)" was becoming more akin to an overly-symmetrical fusion creature resembling a dog, an owl and an ant.

"And may I ask again, what the fuck are these cadavers are supposed to be used for?" asked Angra.

"Take the brunt of the strain caused by the temporal rift that I will eventually open," answered the monster, "every unstable source of energy requires an appropriate counterbalance so that it doesn't explode onto our collective faces. If it did, well... use your imagination."

"Yeah..." she then looked back at the amalgam creatures, "... but they look like they're meant to cut a bitch rather than act as walking shock balancers."

"Oh I assure you, they can, albeit as a last resort," answered the Devil/Human hybrid, "after all, even seeds have methods of self-preservation. It wouldn't make any sense to create something that can't fight back to some degree, no?"

Angra rolled her eyes as she walked towards another tank, where the hands of Morris's parents were being kept at. "You know, I'm starting to think that all of this is becoming rather stupid in hindsight," she pointed out. "All of this business with magic and we're the ones stealing from the collective till... I mean, I don't want to say that I want all this to happen, but I guess my life was at such a dead end that I wanted hope solely for myself, even if it came at the expense of my own family."

"Being selfish is good," Mammon said bluntly, "there's a saying that goes: 'Look out for the number one."

"... 'Number one?" she raised an eyebrow, unfamiliar with that phrase.

"Happiness doesn't come from self-sacrifice, compromises, nor service. It comes from your own wants and desires," encouraged the monster, "my parents wanted to cut me open for the sake of knowledge? That's fine, I had the same desire as them, and mine came out on top first because I willed it. I wanted the Diamond Kingdom's youth to have two attributes like the Dwarves of old? Well, who am I to turn down the King's generous blank check and his legal approval? So what if a few of them die and the rest are left scarred for life? I got what I wanted, and even after I was taken hostage by the same Demon of Death that had destroyed my workplace and all of its supplies? I still held onto my hope. Hope that I can start over from scratch, because even if the world around me goes to Hell, as long I, in your case, 'you,' are still alive, and you still want something out of your existence, all you have to do, is simply, want, more."

"... Want... more?" Angra muttered to herself.

"You don't what you want just yet? That's fine too," said Mammon, "you have all the time that you have until your inevitable/mortal death. But take your time. Expand your horizons. Stop thinking just within the boundaries of 'good' and try 'evil' for once! I won't say that the latter is more rewarding than the former, but life is all about trying new things and asking for more! So with that, try anything! Jump off a cliff with an elastic rope tied to your ankles! Eat a dead body! Go nude under the rain! Find a cure for cancer! Life is best lived when your mind is open to everything! You're no longer a peasant from some backwater village nor you are a broom mechanic working 9-5 shifts with mediocre pay. You are Angra Swing, the blank slate and the artist!"

"Try anything." Those words spoken to her had broken something inside her mind. All this time, she only thought like an ex-peasant. Rather, she was going about the wrong way.

"I... want more," she spoke, her eyes now opening to the bigger world. "... I want more."

The awakened desire has now begun to resonate with her own contracted Demon, Mainyu. His [Ambition] reignited by the girl's reawakened primal desire for more for her own sake.

"There you go," both Mammon and Mainyu spoke in unison, their once-unholy voices now sounding calming and reassuring. "That wasn't so hard, wasn't it?"

New ideas began sprouting inside her mind like weeds. Then said weeds grew to become tall as trees.

"... I was afraid, because I was weak," she spoke, "the nobility and the Magic Knights lording their strength over me, forcing my family and their fellow villagers to trust them to protect them! ... In reality, the only one who can save me... is MYSELF!"

Mainyu's own [Word Magic] takes her "MYSELF" and feeds her once-starved ego.

"This world... wasn't meant for me..." she continued, the growing ego turning into her own power. "SO I'LL MAKE IT MINE!"

"MINE" has planted itself into Mainyu's garden of the "self", the fire inside Angra growing bigger and brighter.

"Those ones who never believed in me... and those who wished only the best for me... those who kept me weak..." her eyes began to burn with pure malice and primal desire, "... THEY CAN ALL BURN IN HELL!"

"HELL" has now become the prefix for Angra's innate [Fire Magic].

"And with that..." spoke the Demon, "... [Integrate]."

The word "Hell" has now attached itself in front of Angra's own [Fire Magic].

The skin around her forearms then burst itself out of control, the orange flames burning hotter and and hotter until they began changing color in tandem with her own skin melting off of her flesh.

It was fine. She didn't feel a thing. In fact, she can't feel anything but pure joy at her new powers that were hidden behind the locks that were inside her mind, and the denizens of Hell have helped bust the locks open.

"[Hellfire Magic]..." Angra then tested her new powers, "... [Dead Enfer]!"

The azure blue blames arced across the hidden laboratory, striking the stone wall at one end of the room until both the wall and the floor beneath the arc melted into slag.

"Hmm... a little sloppy, but output's well and good," noted Morris as he looked at Angra's now-skinless arms cooked well-done. "Guess I know what I'm researching next..."

As the monster walked away, leaving Angra to laugh like a loon at the high of her newfound powers, and within the dark halls, he gleamed a wicked smile from his incisors.

"... The removal of natural human limiters on magic. Why didn't I think of that sooner during Project H.O.L.O.N.?" he said to himself.

All good things come after the old options are exhausted, spoke the other, you're not in the fault for not realizing it sooner. Just be grateful that it came sooner rather han later.

"Perhaps," shrugged the scientist. "... So do you think leaving loose a power-high septic tank of a mage in a lab a good idea?"

You're the genius, reassured the Demon, so clearly, your creations can take a licking.

"Now, I know what you're thinking, but you may think that me creating a potential rival for our scheme of ruling over all magic as a united god-like entity is self-destructive..." Morris pointed out, "... but I need someone to keep me on my A-game. Someone that gives me an incentive to watch my back and make me grow and adapt my methods. I'm a madman, but I consider myself a scientist. And in order to reach perfection, I have to test all variables, including undesirable ones."

So that's why you bothered with Subject Apollo's girlfriend even after she was at death's door all those years ago? Mammon pointed out.

"Guess you can say I found my substitute pet goldfish," cackled the mad scientist as he and his Demon phased through the sealed doors leading towards the open ruins of Agartha.

Back at the lab left behind by Morris and Mammon, it was now caked in blue flames burning on the masonry, melting the stone and steel infrastructures alike. Heaving, Angra looks around the lab, only to find both the tanks containing Laplace (Order) and Maxwell (Chaos) along with the hands perfectly intact. Rather than feeling disappointed, she feels genuine relief for the first time in her life after letting all of her bottled-up resentment out with one gigantic catharsis.

"Goddamn..." she then collapsed onto the half-melted floor, the skin around Angra's arms now completely charred to their flesh and exposed bone, "... if you could make my [Fire Magic] into [Hellfire Magic] with your [Word Magic], why didn't you do it sooner?"

"I could've," Mainyu answered, "but I needed you to will it first. I can't do all the heavy lifting alone. I need my Contractor to work with me in order to draw out the full power of our pact."

"Really now?" smirked Angra, "and I wasn't willing it hard enough before?"

"You had some... prior attachments that held you back," he pointed out the mental hangups that his host had prior to her current state, "and be honest, you weren't thinking of what you were going to do beyond Illuminati if it came to it, right?"

"Thinking was never my family's strong suit," she replied, recalling the Swing family being a bunch of hotheads like that certain delinquent Magic Knight, "being better at it compared to the rest of my folks doesn't make me a forward thinker. Honestly, this was the first time in my fucking life that ever thought of things this far."

"It ain't enough, right?" the Demon spoke. "Now that you've finally completely unburdened yourself, do you find your current emptiness satisfactory?"

"Fuck no," she answered. "Morris becoming a god of magic? Why can't I? No. Why shouldn't I become the goddess of magic in his place? Like, what is stopping me now?"

"Timing?" said Mainyu. "[Ambition] isn't always about initiative you know. Recede and watch from the sidelines. Take notes of what the others do and figure out what you can do better. And above all else, wait for the perfect eleventh hour to pull the rug underneath his feet before you claim it all to yourself. Hunger and patience. Both are hard to master, but once properly tamed and trained, you will be able to get what you want in one fell swoop!"

"... So now that I figured out how to think ahead, I just need to get better at it," she pointed out. "That seems legit."

"Number one?" Mainyu remarked.

Angra smiles with her newfound [Ambition].

"Number fucking one."

Heart Kingdom, Morning

"Good morning everyone!" greeted Mosin, "ready for another bout of ass-kicking?"

Everyone groans in response due about 60% of them not being classified as "morning people."

"Oh come now, you should be getting use to waking up this early," said the High Inquisitor. "Not your first time, after all."

"The only reason why I haven't cut a bitch right now is that I'm too tired for this kind of shit," growled Jack.

"What he's saying is to keep it down this early in the morning," Fuegoleon translated, being one of the few who are one of the "morning people." "Crude wording aside, he has a point. The Demons might be alerted by your voice."

"Oh they were," she answered with a smile as she tugged on the metallic threads connected from her [Glephnir] rings, pulling back several cut-up Thanatophages from the surrounding jungle. "They're dead, as you can tell."

"Showoff," grumbled Jack as everyone then dispersed for breakfast.

During their morning bash, no one spoke while they ate, the oppressive atmosphere of repetitive battle after battle of holding the line against the endless siege. There wasn't anything new to talk about. No barbs, no new developments, nothing. Just keep the line solid enough to make sure there is another day to fight in.

"... Captain?" asked Vanessa, "how did you cope with war?"

"Can't say," shrugged Yami. "You just learn how to do it. The fact that we didn't lose anyone for this long since our arrival is nothing short of a miracle."

"Keh," scoffed Jack, "luck's got nothing to do with it! Those shits were too weak! That's why they died!"

"Captain, Sekke, Randall and the other knights died because Caligula caught them off guard back then," of all people, En pointed out the fact in front of his face, "strength had to do nothing with it. It's how predators hunt. They ambush rather than overpower. As a son of a hunter, you should know that the best, right?"

"Don't get snippy with me, Ringard," he growled. "The only reason why I don't shit on you as often is that you're not worth the trouble."

"Just like war," Yami grimaced, "just one mistake will get you killed. Hell, not even the current Wizard King was safe from being stabbed in the back from a guy playing dead."

"Really?" Meroleona remarked in surprise, "him of all people almost died during the war?"

"Grey Deers were the front line fodder, including me, William and Julius," said Yami, recalling his past experiences during the Clover-Diamond Kingdom War 15 years prior, including all of the times where they almost died from enemy ambushes (later after-action reports confirmed usage of prototype mana cloaking devices), traps (crude physical pits lined with wooden stakes and snares; normally nonlethal to any mage that can fly with ambient mana, but the distraction that it triggers were amply paired with the aforementioned enemy ambushes) and sabotage (Yami and William were constantly sent back into friendly territories to weed out defecting Magic Knights that were bribed to turncoat and dispose them personally). "Those that made it out alive either were set for life as certified badasses, or as broken messes who never casted a single spell as long as they lived. Compared to that, this shit's nothing. At least I know that nature's bugspray works to drive them out of their hives."

"So what?" Jack snapped, throwing his food at Yami, with the latter nonchalantly dodging the thrown projectile, "human, Demon, they all bleed the same!"

"You never fought in a war until now, Jack," Fugeoleon pointed out.

"Yeah, but so haven't you!" Jack shot back.

"I know," he agreed, "and that's why I keep my expectations low. I don't revel in bloodlust for that reason, for I will be no different from that of a child if I choose to kill for fun rather than face the grim reality."

But before Jack can come up towards Fuegoleon, the former was then forcibly held back by several threads from Mosin's [Glephnir]. "Just how in the hell that mudak ever a Captain of his own unit?!"

"Believe it or not, Jack is the only one who can keep the Green Mantis Knights in line," said Yami, "the last one I ran through with my katana sold out to the enemy for a measly pay raise. The guys that came before either underperformed or quit within a month of their induction."

Mosin looked at Jack and utterly fails to comprehend on how this volatile powder cake of a human being was the better option. For her, the man was so bloodthirsty that he would prosper better in Ulster's bloodsoaked glades than in a civil commune.

"... Don't look at me," said En, "we only put up with him because he's the only one who actually leads us commoners and metes out legitimate results. Out of all of us, he's the only one who's willing to whip us into fighting shape. He's an asshole, but he's the only asshole that people listen to. Mostly out of fear."

"He's a scary bastard, but the kind that we can't help but respect," Nix pointed out.

"Captain Jack's the only one that we unite under because he can kill us when we step out of line and does it," Willy acknowledged, "in fact, among the commoners and forsaken, Jack's kind of a local hero for how much he's willing to talk shit to anyone regardless of who they are."

Jack then grins at her as she looked back at him. "... Admit it," he taunted, "you're the same."

Mosin sighs as she lets him go. "... You're right, Avalon isn't any different of how they run things," she confessed, "fear is the only thing that is holding our nation together. Everyone there are assigned permanent jobs as either laborers or Thaumaturges, the government running the place aren't exactly better off either, and around us is nothing but snow and the walking dead. Many of the Thaumaturges that make it out of the walls of Avalon either die or go join the Lost Legion that attacks anyone not from Avalon indiscriminately. Basically bandits."

Yami's eyes widen at her words. "Holy shit, how that kingdom of yours didn't collapse upon itself?!" he asked. "For real, you guys are like the Diamond Kingdom, but... civil?"

"And you blame me for having some screws loose," Jack flipped the bird towards the High Inquisitor.

"Propaganda solely against all things related to Hell that effectively makes my people brainwashed for the greater good, a revolutionary indoor farming system developed by one of the Three Sages, Merlin, that allows us to export excess food to avoid wastage, and the fact that most of Avalon's population are born inside test tubes to prevent any delivery-related deaths, both in regards to the mother and child. Point being, Avalon doesn't take any chances when it comes to their well-being of their populace, even if it's at the cost of their rights to privacy or prosperity," Mosin pointed out. "You're right, we are no differnt from the Diamond Kingdom, but I guess there is little difference between hot and cold when looked at a bigger picture, right?"

Vanessa and Meroleona then look at her engagement band and if they wonder if Nagant III was also a test-tube baby.

"And no, you two," said Mosin as she looked at her bath-mates from last night, "my son was born naturally. In fact, it's the fact that I survived giving birth to him is why I was pushed into service at the age of 17. They saw my conviction and survival as 'valuable assets' for the Order of the Spade Cross's crusade."

Everyone fell dead silent when they realized that none of them held the high ground when it came to dealing with each others's moral hangups.

"I... don't know what to say," confessed Fuegoleon. "... It appears that I am still naive to how the world at large works."

"Guess everyone from the Spade Kingdom are varying degrees of wacko," sneered Jack.

"That's war for you," smirked Yami as he fetched himself a second helping of breakfast, "the phrase 'just shut up and take it' is the only constant. Oh and 'try not to die' paired with 'watch your freaking backs."

"But wait," said Magna, "that Dama lady said that Charmy's almost done finishing that crazy-powerful spell that would turn the tides, right?!"

"Yeah, if it works," Yami stated. "There's no guarantee that it might completely work. Even if it does, expect some pockets of resistance to fight like an army of 100 men each."

But before anyone can digest this instance of reality slapping their collective faces, Scheherazade walks in on their circle.

"... Am I... interrupting something?" she asked as she readied her scroll-staff, "should I wait a few minutes before I say something?"

"No, we actually need to hear something else to distract us from what we've just shared," Fuegoleon stated. "Carry on as you were planning."

"Oh yes, of course," said the envoy as she composed herself. "Good news, [Alf-Layla-wa-Layla] has now reached completion!"

"Good!" Jack remarked, "then fire up that sucker already!"

"... Bad news," she winced, "... spell is still there, but it's not firing. But before you panic, there's already a solution that is within the reach of possibility that will amend this current issue."

"Better be," sighed Meroleona. "So how many do we punch?"

"We need a live Thanatophage," she answered, deflating about 75% of the Magic Knights's antcipation for combat, "specifically, we need to drag back a live 'Commander' variant into the array. Mostly alive, preferably."

"... You mean like the ones that talk," Yami pointed out, to which she nodded. "... Welp, never expected things to go our way. When did you find this tidbit out?"

"Right now, actually," answered the envoy, "this morning, we tried to activate the [Ultimate Compound Sealing Magic] with this Kingdom's Relic, the [Shofar], as a catalyst. But the spell didn't fire because it doesn't have a basis for what kind of brainwaves to target and fire its sealing properties on."

"And you thought something that blind would work?!" Jack snapped.

"I thought brute-forcing it would be enough," she sheepishly remarked. "... In hindsight, I should've read up more on how this Kingdom's magic works, since in Dama, our spells just run wild when unleashed and tend to act on their own accord until they choose to listen to us rather than this continent's opposite approach. I'm one of the fortunate few from my nation that has high natural attuning rate, so at least they listen to me first rather than run off on their own."

"Well, at least we have a clear way towards an endgame," Meroleona pointed out, "... granted, it's the hardest one we've done so far, given that now we have to trap one and drag it back alive."

"Hence, that's why I shall come with you," Scheherazade then summons the same three gloved cats standing on their hind legs from last night. "We need to divvy our strengths properly to both isolate and secure the commander Thanatophage while the others deal with the swarm. The [Three Enigmas], [Solomon], [Sheba], and [Samson] will act as a part of the main capture team for the plan."

"And how are those three munchkins are supposed to help us capture a big bad bug?" Jack looked down at the trio of cats. "I mean look at them! They're not that scary looking-"

Before anyone could react, [Samson] uppercuts Jack with its massive mittened punch all the way up towards the troposphere before the Captain came back down, crashing into the same patch of dirt where he took off from a nanosecond ago, leaving behind a deep imprint of himself upon the return impact.

Everyone then looked down at the hole that Jack had dug for himself. "... He's fine," shrugged Yami, "guy cuts down mountains as a hobby. He can walk it off."

"I'll bring the Spirit Guardians in case if he has some broken bones that need mending," said Mosin as everyone else began formulating their next phase for their plan.

"By the way, I want to mention in case we forget," said Finral, "... but is Charmy up? And did the Queen found out anything about her in the meantime?"

"... No," answered the Daman envoy, "on both fronts."

At the Launch Site of [Alf-Layla-wa-Layla]...

"ARGH!" Lolopechka cried out as she was again expelled from her inherited knowledge bank.

"Are you okay?" asked Undine as she caught her host within her watery hands.

"The whole 'Caucus of Earthen Heart Faith' book keeps blowing up at my face again and again!" she groaned in frustration, shaking off the soot that caked her face and now-afro.

"Still the whole 'DIE' being spelt out over and over again?" the Queen nodded to the Water Spirit's question.

"And I thought the archive of knowledge was supposed to be one of the most secure information strongholds ever made!" she pointed out. "Undine, how can knowledge itself be tainted like this?"

"... I have two guesses," she pointed out as she looked at the still-sleeping Charmy, who's now dreaming of her going on an adventure in another world full of anthropomorphized foodstuff, "first is that just like that horrid Devil, someone else must've planted a curse that managed to be potent enough to breach through this generational spell. Or second and even worse, said knowledge was tainted beforehand, and none of your predecessors took notice of it until you cracked the book open."

"But why?" Lolopechka asked as she looked at Charmy still floating in the lake, "why would they bury this kind of knowledge through such insidious methods?"

"For some people, there are some things that are better left forgotten," said Undine, "my first host was the exception, for she believed that no knowledge should ever be excluded from the pages of history. To hide of scrub our past mistakes is to repeat them. Those who hate knowledge have their reasons. Hatred, shame, spite, or ignorance. Knowledge and truth are swords that cut down everyone indiscriminately, and those afraid of them are the ones who have the incentive to do..." she remembered the time where she and the First Queen had to fend off invaders from all directions simply because the latter knew too much, "... something like this."

Lolopechka lets out a sigh as she musses her afro back to her straight hair flowing down to her waist. "Yeah, I guess," she smacked her lips in apprehension. "... So with that in mind, I wonder... what kind of people were the Dwarves from your experience, Undine?"

"They were a pious lot, giving their worship to [Gnome, the Earth Spirit]," she answered, "but one day, a giant inferno devoured their lands, leaving behind nothing but a barren wasteland and resentful people who were left to fight over what little land was left."

It wasn't hard at all for Lolopechka to put the two and two together. "Undine," she spoke, "you know back when I said when we're in deep doo-doo?"

Both then look at Charmy at the middle of the pool with floating arrays.

"Call me a conspiracy theorist..." she continued as several dark implications began popping into her mind, "but I think we need to look at what really happened at the Diamond Kingdom's history."

"Perhaps," Undine nodded, "that kingdom is known to oppress its people like if it was a competitive sport, so censorship seemed fitting of their unscrupulous nature."

"Also, I want to ask one more thing," said Lolopechka, "why is the Diamond Kingdom called the 'Bandit Kingdom' in the first place? Aside from the fact that they make regular raids across their border neighbors to plunder and loot their resources, which for the latter I understand given that where they live is an inhospitable wasteland?"

The Water Spirit sighs before giving an answer. "Their first and only king was a bandit that once went by the name Sisyphus, the man who outran death."

"How did he 'outrun' death?" asked the young Queen. "And why haven't I heard about him sooner?"

"Every imaginable method possible," said the Water Spirit, "Contracts with Hell's denizens to extend his lifespan, jumping into younger bodies once his current body got too old, forbidden magic that siphoned surrounding quintessence into his own, and even went as far as to confront the Witch Queen herself. In fact, he's the reason why she's such a misandrist. He stole a piece of her immortality formula. In fact, right after that heist, he went through extra lengths to ensure that he was legally dead and the name 'Sisyphus' was scrubbed from history sans yours truly, and I don't know what happened to him afterwards."

All of those facts did line up to make some degree of sense. Except for ONE.

"Why would the Witch Queen create or have an immortality formula in the first place?!" Lolopechka asked, mentally balking at the inventional wisdom of having an immortality formula in the first place.

"All I know is that she's not using for selfish gains, but rather as a means to an end," answered Undine, "... something about resurrecting a great mage... I'm a little muddy on the details."

The young Queen then plops onto her beanbag chair to stave off the mental exhaustion that she'd inflicted onto herself. "... More questions than actual answers... oi vey," the glasses then slid off of her face when she turned her head towards the still sleeping Charmy at the center of the spell. "... Undine, did my predecessors go through the same thing as I did when they sought out answers to the world's most complicated questions?"

"That's why I am here for," she reassured, "as the guardian spirit of this nation, I must be the guiding hand that protects both the land and its people."

Lolopechka stares up at the ceiling of the launch site. "At first, I thought my life would've turned around for the better after I had that death curse lifted on its own from me, but then suddenly, another Demon shows up and paints a literal target on my back and prevents me from going outside," she chuckled to herself in contemplation. "But if this is the universe's way of humbling me further, then it's sort of working. Still, at least I know what to do after my kingdom's pest problem is dealt with."

"What's that, Lolo?" she asked, ready to support her in any endeavor that her brave girl would undertake in the future.

Lolopechka then adjusts her glasses back onto the rim of her nose. "I am going to have two curses beaten under my belt, and then start up an anti-curse consultation services for anyone else who is suffering like I am," she revealed her new path forward. "The residents of Hell profit off of suffering and fear. It's about time I figured out a way to choke their tap."

Undine smiles with pride at girl growing up to become a fine Queen. "Such noble aspirations is why I will be steadfast at your side, Lolopechka."

From the two's mutually shared happiness, Charmy in her dreams began to dream of those two in her dreams with a cherubic smile.

Rotten Elysia, Neutral Territory, Afternoon

"GET THE LEAD OUT, YOU MAGGOTS!" Caligula barked over the sounds of explosions taking out his workers. "I SAW PARAPLEGIC PEOPLE RUN FASTER THAN YOU SORRY SONS OF BITCHES!"

In theory, Caligula expects that the dead bodies of worker Thanatophages would gradually pile up enough to form a buffer between them and the saturated mana-induced explosions being triggered around the Dragon's skeleton. In execution, all of the dead bugs simply disintegrated from the blasts that the process of the proposed former was being frequently reset.

Anyone who talked shit about his so-called plan was then immediately thrown into the pyre that was popping like popcorn.

"At least the maggots fully mature in less than a few weeks..." he grimaced as one unfortunate, burnt-out mole cricket Demon flew over his head. "... But at this point, I am going to run out of worker drones."

After letting a few more bugs pop, Caligula lets out a frustrated groan as he then begins to descend towards ground to reassess the situation. Adjusting his eyes into compound eyes, the hexagonal lenses began tracing where the mana was about to explode in the next intervals.

"Wow, for a dead guy, this fucker can punch down a mountain without moving a single finger," smirked the fly Demon as it took out more of his own workers with the dig site's ambient mana acting as an endlessly replenishing minefield. "... I could watch this all day... but that would ruin the fun for me much later on."

He then took matters into his own hands, flying through the explosions first by turning his own exoskeleton into composite reactive armor that protected him from the endless cavalcade of explosions happening across the dig site. Then upon purging his used up armor, he then opts to dodge the incoming explosions, vibrating his membrane wings as fast as he could flap them, performing daring vertical and uneven maneuvers to bob and weave around the blasts that would instantly char a human mage into ash in an instant.

Fucker is persistent for a dead guy! Caligula grinned as the blasts glowed past him in his flight towards the Dragon's skeleton, ... got no time to dawdle. Gotta pick and choose a piece to take back with me!

Every single lenses within his compound eyes locked onto the tooth that lined more loosely within its row of fangs. Upon deciding on what to smash and grab before retreating, Caligula speeds up his flight towards the Dragon, grows a third arm from his back as he compacted his silhouette to prevent from getting scorched by the bombs going off around him.

Edging closer and closer after taking several irregular flight paths from the dead Elderbeast's own irregular blast patterns, the Demon knew that he only had one chance or else he will get pinballed by the blasts and NOT come out unscathed. Which would totally suck.

"YOU'RE MINE!" the Demon's third arm then reaches out towards the loose Dragon's tooth before forcibly extracting it from its stump with one fell swoop. After successfully grabbing the Dragon's fang, he immediately retracted the sample into his body to protect it, but in the process, the fang's residual mana swelled up inside of his body, threatening him to turn him into a bomb if he doesn't let go of it.

In a moment of haste, Caligula throws the retrieved fang out of his body and out of the crater, the resulting repositioning of his body and the coming blast sending both him and the cargo out of the excavation site with most of Caligula's back taking the brunt of the blast.

With his wings burnt out and his ass charred well-done, the Demon crawls back to his personal quarters with the Dragon's fang in tow. Despite being in complete agony and throughly humiliated by his own self-judged lackluster performance, Caligula only felt sheer elation at the power that he'd just extracted with his hands.

Those worker drones that died trying to retrieve this source of great power were just part of the fun. Even being half-mangled from the dead Dragon's residual mana exploding all over him was worth the pain.

"... Worth it," he cackled to himself as he entered into his secret lab where his own personal projects where being held at. Grabbing the nearest jumper cables that he'd improvised from the underground settlement's old power grid, he then connects the Dragon's fang to the tanks, transferring the raw, primal mana into his own elite Thanatophage drones-

"No," he stopped his line of thought, "... calling them mere 'drones' is extremely reductive. Their names need the awe that matches their budding power."

Caligula knew that he was no longer making mere commander drones. No, these new creations were strong. Strong that they were only truly strong when acting on their own.

With the raw materials made from elves and humans, the delicate touch of Demon ingenuity and the raw power from a long-dead Dragon, Caligula knew that when they came out fully realized, the world was fucked.

And he would watching from the best seats in the house, laughing at the carnage all the while.

"Speaking of..." he then remembered a certain unpleasant thought, "... where are the rest of the soldier drones I sent today? Surely they can't die that quickly, right?"

Western Jungle, Heart Kingdom, Afternoon

"(Weak)," Akane planted her [Murasame] into the downed bug's head.

"Ane-sama," Mari walked towards Akane, "(it seems that there are no end to these insects)."

"(They're flying without direction)," Akane pointed out, "(mere chaos seems to be their objective)."

"(Whoever is leading them is a poor tactician)," Mari agreed, "(or just holds that much contempt to his own soldiers to simply let them blindly march to their deaths)."

Akane lets out a grunt before the two made their way though the jungle. Through their traversal, all they heard were the faint buzzes of more Demons flying about randomly or the streams flowing down as rivers across the environment.

Despite being full of life, the jungle itself felt lifeless. It felt full of death, akin to walking into the belly of a beast.

"(Demons everywhere we look)," growled Akane as she then used her [Poison Magic] to rot an entire hive nested above their heads with a single swipe of her poisoned blade. "(The sooner we get out of this bedlam of a continent, the better)."

Mari looks down. "... (Right)," she quietly agreed, "(I want to go home)."

"(Mari)," asked Akane as she cut down a Mantis Demon with an offhand sideswipe, "(as soon as we go back home, what do you want to do first)?"

Mari tries to think of what she wants to do, but all she can think of is her time at Libratium and all the people that she'd met. For matters related to Hanafuda, all she could remember was bloodshed and darkness.

... It was probably nothing.

"... (I think I'll figure out once we get back)," she vaguely answered, "(but for now, we got a traitor to hunt down and behead)."

"(Focused as always)," Akane nodded in approval. "(I promise, we're going back home. No matter what)."

The two continued their march through the jungle with a shared resolution build on uncertainty.

Governmental Building, Central District, Libratium, Spade Kingdom, Evening

"What do you mean that we can't get our messages through?!" Charlemagne asked.

"There's something blocking our signal!" said the operator working on the improvised communication hub scraped together from the wrecked remains of the communication room. "We can't reach Clover Kingdom or Heart Kingdom with any available methods of [Communication Magic]!"

"WE LOST THE SINGAL OF THE COFFEE GUY AND HER CONVOY!" the other operator pointed out, "RADAR'S AIN'T PICKING UP ON EM!"

"Trace the origins of these interferences!" ordered the Premier, "we need to reestablish communications to get the AWOL notices out STAT!"

"CALABRATING!" said the operator as the grid map was shown on the projected screen. Across from Libratium pointing from South and East, there were two large irregular mana signatures that were causing a massive interference due to their sheer output of mana acting as a counterforce to any incoming long-distance spells.

"Identify the signature!" ordered Charlemagne as the operators began to discern what is going on in those directions.

"SOUTHERN INTERFERENCE ID CONFIRMED!" said one operator, "IT'S SIGNATURE HAS A 99.8% MATCH OF THAT OF A DRAGON'S MANA!"

"A Dragon?!" Charlemagne's heart leaped in both surprise and hope, "... there's one more alive outside of Libratium?! That we haven't seen up until now?!"

"EASTERN SIGNATURE UNKNOWN!" said the other operator, "WAVELENGTHS MATCH CONFIRM IT BEING SIMLAR TO THE LAND OF ULSTER ITSELF! IT'S SIMILAR TO ANOTHER GRAND MAGIC ZONE'S FLAREUP, ONLY ACTING AS A MOBILE SINGULARITY AND IT'S OUTPUT IS INCREASING WITH EACH PASSING SECOND!"

"ETA FOR WHEN THE SIGNATURE IS GOING REACH CRITICAL MASS?!" said Charlemagne.

"UNKNOWN!" the operator replied, "SENDING VARIABLES TO ALL AVAILABLE INTEL PERSONNEL!"

"What the actual Hell is going on here?!" Charlemagne remarked as he looked at the situation going FUBAR again. "WHY NOW, OF ALL TIMES?! ESPECIALLY FOR OUR ALLIES WHO DOESN'T NEED THIS TO HAPPEN?!"

"Sir, permission to speak freely," said one operator.

"Shoot," the Premier replied.

"We need to send our Paladins to survey the situation," he suggested. "The Order of the White Lily and the Order of the Black Thorns Chevaliers can defend the home turf while our strongest can resolve the incoming situation and if we're lucky enough, we can find the twins who went AWOL."

"We already have one Dragon that is currently out on her own wild goose chase," said the other operator, "the least we can do is establish our own measures to ensure that she doesn't cause unwarranted damage from someone talking shit to her."

With that valid point made, Charlemagne then makes his choice.

"Any available Paladins?" asked the Premier.

"Astolfo, Bradamante, Roland, Rinaldo and Ruggiero has just returned from his 6-month Dungeon sprawl," confirmed the operator. "Oliver, Turpin, Angelica, and Logistilla are still at their own assignments."

"We'll have to make do," growled Charlemagne, "deploy Astolfo, Bradamante, and Ruggiero to the south and send Roland and Rinaldo to link up with the caravan heading east!"

"Order is being passed down, sir," said the operator.

"Time is of the essence," said the young Premier, clutching onto where his heart was beating under, "I will not allow our newfound alliance to fall into jeopardy!"

To Be Continued...

Author's Notes: Writing during a family vacation is harder than it is. Especially when traveling and crappy wifi is involved.

Anyhoo, more questions after some answers. Thankfully, I've learned my lesson from "Screaming for Vengeance" arc and will divvy up the Heart Kingdom saga into 2-3 smaller arcs just to manage the pacing a bit better.

For the segment involving the Illuminati, I kinda wanted to explore a subject that Black Clover tried to do, but failed. Mainly, what happens if a commoner or a peasant goes power-mad. The anime-original "Devil Banishers" arc was on the right track and did portray a "Full-Circle Revolution" somewhat accurately with their lemming-like mentality, but upon the whole twist of the Devil Banishers cult revealing themselves to be the Devil Believers and tried to make Asta their idol, it was at that point that I lost all respect for the attempted nuance, and the whole ending of the cult being a beard for an implied lesbian relationship between the co-founders (resentful ex-fiancee and a local apothecary) just made me die a little inside.

The only good thing that came out of it was that it showed even the dogmatic Damnatio Kira has SOME standards and at least knows how to prioritize (too bad that even he's not exempt from the noble class's inherent bias clashing against Ulster's entire populace of Free Riders/lawbreakers or people who try and cheat the system). When he shows up next time (with an ice pack at the ready), he'll at least be a bit more tempered in his prejudices.

Enter, Angra and Mainyu. Former is basically my view on Gen-Z dead-end gig workers who are beyond burnt out and the latter is the spark of [Ambition] that can either accomplish great things or burn everything down. Once rediscovering their "will," they now have a reason to finally work together for each others' benefits that has to do with gaining more power. I had to learn IRL that not all suffering creates empathy, and more often than not, suffering breeds resentment and a whole lot of incentive to not be a better person. Morris/Mammon is the millennial who's trying to help but with malicious intent ala Svengali. In the end, both are now rivals, but it's because of this rekindling of purpose is what both will enrich them as people while at the same time, set up for their inevitable and mutual downfall.

When will that happen, only Project A.L.E.P.H. can judge.

Regarding the Heart Kingdom part, I decided to make Jack the "Ripper" a decon-recon switch example of the "Jerkass has a Point"-trope. On one hand, Mosin has a point that a person like him has no business of leading a squadron of Magic Knights due to his volatile nature and often-demoralizingly confrontational personality. On the other hand, he's an example of "negative reinforcement" that somewhat works, and the reason why no one in his Squad (at least, explicitly) has gone the way of Private Pyle. He at least give the commoners a chance and while he has a serrated tongue, he spares no one, commoner or noble, of that edge, both to his benefit (as a no-nonsense aspiring übermensch that inspires others to do better) and detriment (he's one bad day away from hitting the "0% Approval Rating"-trope, he's only human, after all). Simply put, I think Jack is a savant when it comes to whipping others into shape like Sgt. Slaughter from G.I. Joe, but he lacks the experience to consider a gentler/carrot approach.

And more infodump from Lolopechka and Undine's investigations. And about the King of the Diamond Kingdom dying completely forgotten due to Yama's [Death Magic] effectively erasing him, the reason why the name "Sisyphus" still remains in Undine's head is that the King abandoned that name and all associations with it to fake his legal death, so ironically, his method of self-preservation only saved him after he got erased. Regardless, this mystery surrounding Charmy and her origins is something out of Ace Attorney's late game cases in terms of sheer scale. Particularly the one from Spirit of Justice, where Apollo has to go through an adventure and a half just to prevent an entire country from falling into a fascistic bloodbath. Here though, they're just trying to figure out who Charmy is, but if they want such thing, they're going to have to decipher a whole Da Vinci's Code's worth of lost history.

Caligula now has gained access to a Dragon's mana. Panic is now advised.

Also, the Mitsurugi Twins are still on the prowl, but one of them is actually having doubts of things being better back home than they are right now. Realistically, they spent 15 years going native, so "becoming the mask" is still a possibility. While that's happening, Charlemagne is now engaged in Cold War-levels of political clusterfuck that is about to happen if he doesn't put a stop to the impending crisis.

Anyhoo, next part will be the last part for "Welcome to the Jungle" arc. After that, the counterattack will finally begin.

References:

- Angra's new [Hellfire Magic] is based off Dabi's [Bluefire] (I prefer the fan translation [Cremation]) Quirk from My Hero Academia, right down to the lack of "Required Secondary Superpowers" (both get burned by their own Hellfire).

- The [Shofar] Relic belonging to the Heart Kingdom is named after the same Jewish musical horn that was used several times throughout the Old Testament, just as breaking down the Walls of Jericho.

- The [Three Enigmas] spell is based off the Queen of Sheba's Noble Phantasm of the same name. Their individual names are based off King Solomon (magic-focused), Queen of Sheba (speed-focused), and Samson the Judge (power-focused).

- Charmy's now dreaming of the mobile gatcha RPG game (that I used to play before I quit because PvP there is a bitch), Food Fantasy.

- Undine's classification of the King of the Diamond Kingdom is named after the king, Sisyphus, who was punished by the gods for cheating death twice, and sentenced to roll up a boulder up a hill for the rest of eternity.

And as usual, please leave a comment or a review, for I'd love to know what my readers think!