Angelica was back from her business trip. She called Olivia over first, which was fine by Leon as it gave him more time to question his parents.

"I will admit that it would've been nice to know in advance that I was being thrown into the middle of a war defending a dysfunctional Kingdom." Leon was pacing in front of his family in the bar, his now returned parents, his younger siblings Colin and Finley who were eating cookies and milk, his older siblings Jenna and Nicks and Rodin who was operating the bar. "Of course in that scenario I probably would've just flown over to the Principality and preemptively wiped them out without ever having to step foot in the academy. But then I would've never met Angelica and Olivia would I? And that was your real goal wasn't it?"

Leon always did have a problem with self restraint. Whenever they are sent out to fight Leon is the one who incurs the highest casualties, if it was just a matter of Leon being too powerful then it would be one thing. As it stands, as a rule Leon isn't that concerned with caring about what is in his surroundings. And yet this same Leon came to the defence of the Kingdom of Holfort, a place that by all accounts he should despise as a 'dysfunctional Kingdom doomed to fail' full of people that have been making him suffer, and saved it. Cereza's beliefs have always been rather Spardan in nature, 'learn to care about others before you care about yourself.'

"Are you going to complain?" Cereza herself had a smug look on her features as she looked at Leon knowingly, who could only sit down in defeat. "You are a candidate as the next Bearer of the Left Eye of Darkness, responsible for maintaining one half of the balance that oversees this world." Cereza accepted a Martini that had been prepared for her by Rodin. "Need I remind you what happened the last time a person lacking empathy got their hands on that power?"

"The Apocalypse." Leon reluctantly admitted with a sigh.

"Good. Now that that is finished shall we discuss your plans for the future?" Cereza stated leaning back in her chair.

"More of this dating sim non-sense?"

"In part, but I wouldn't call your little girlfriends nonsense, it might hurt their feelings a little." Jeanne stated as she shrugged her shoulders in amusement. "You have told them what being with you is going to require correct?"

"...they've met Lea." Leon stated and the two older women winced. "Angelica should've just gotten back from going to see Aunt Chiyo."

"She did." Rodin put a familiar suitcase on the bar.

"Then by now they should have an idea of what they need to do." Jeanne steered the conversation back on track. "Do you know what you're going to do?"

Leon was the heir apparent to the Clan, one of three remaining yes but still, he always had to think about the future, which was really unfortunate for him because the future was going to be a bloody long time.

"You two do realise that I'm less than 20 years old right?" Leon asked glaring suspiciously at his parents.

"And in a different Era this would be a point of concern. Here it is not." Cereza stated in simple terms. "Unlike us who have the luxury of living Lackadaisically it's normal for people in this country to be married before they hit twenty." People drop like flies in this world. Monster attacks, Wars, or simply falling off the sides of the Islands into the bottomless abyss below. People who take their time to pass on their legacy often lose the luxury of doing so. "And among them there are people that have a strong sense of responsibility to do so as soon as possible and minimise the lost that would be had from losing their lives." Angelica and Olivia were many things to Leon, but 'irresponsible' was not something that came to mind with them. "Can you stand the thought of someone else being the one to take them in that event?"

At that moment something had changed inside of Leon. More than just on a psychological level something had changed within him spiritually as well, in time perhaps it could become the seed of new power, but for now it was irrelevant to the situation.

"Yes yes your plan to make me man up and accept responsibility has worked." Leon gave the two women a slow clap by way of response. "You must be very proud of yourselves, can I go and find those two now?"

"Go go." Cereza stated waving her son off who in turn left the room behind.

"So we're not going to tell him about Alzer?" Rodin asked as he took the Martini glass that Cereza had finished off back.

"Do you think he'd go anywhere near Alzer if he knew?" Jeanne replied bluntly.

"To be fair Alzer seems to have rediscovered bone marrow transplants." Cereza stated bluntly. "Odds are in our favour that Leon would be a good match for him, with the added benefit of getting Celene's brocon to stop chasing him." So the group decided on their next course of Action to convince Leon.


When the Warlock had asked around the compound about where Angelica and Olivia was he learned that they were apparently inside of one of Nick's workshops, where the magic amplifier was located.

"For Sheba's sake man leave a light on." Leon went to where he knew the main switch for the lights was located and flipped it. To no effect. "Nick your fuse box is broken again!" The man has a bad habit of over estimating how much juice his crazy ideas need and frying the fuses as a consequence. And now it was Leon who would be suffering for it, because Angelica and Olivia were alone in this place and he had to track them down. Thus Leon walked deeper into the warehouse

"It's time to measure our contestants feelings for each other!" An unfamiliar voice echoed out of the warehouse building like a cheap game show announcer. At the same time various lights lit up in heart shaped, both underneath Leon's feet and to his side. Across from him the vague figure of a familiar blonde could be made out from the darkness, Olivia. "120 and 120! Congrrraaatulations!" Olivia jumped through the air and made Leon catch her, planting her lips on his face as she entered a keep kiss with him. As Leon was about to question what was going on Olivia suddenly jumped off the platform. "It's time to measure our contestants feelings for each other!" The heck? Indeed another familiar silhouette was soon highlighted by the heart lights. "120 and 120! Congrrraaatulations!" The Lights turned on at that, various Shadows were cheering and clapping for the happy Thruple as Olivia and Angelica both moved in to hug and kiss Leon.

"Did you two have fun making fun of me!?" Leon spoke in a voice that made it clear he was struggling to keep his temper.

"A little yes." Angelica stated with a giggle.

"You're so reserved with us it's a little hard to tell how you feel about us sometimes." Olivia had no problem admitting their guilt in their little prank.

"Shall we go and pick out Rings?" Angelica stepped up her previous proposition. "Or would you think that Matching Pocket watches would be better?"

"Huu. So you know about that too?" Leon let out a Sigh. Of course they knew that Lea had told them about the Umbran watches already, how they can trade Angels lives for an increase in life span. What he didn't talk about at the time was how the watch links the wielder to their contracted demons and symbolises their bond. Indeed in a particularly famous case there was a Witch who married the demon lord she was contracted with, their watch acting in lieu of their wedding rings. "Fine Fine. But first." As the three of them started to walk away Leon abruptly took out his gun and fired off three rounds into the love meter platform utterly destroying it in the process. "Now I feel much better."


Even if Angelica and Olivia had found the resolve to join the clan in the first place, it wasn't like they could just jump off the deep end with no formal training. So Jeanne agreed to act as their teacher. A process that for all intents and purposes would take time, as it stands there already was the perfect opportunity to do so, and she came to her of her own volition.

"Thank you for seeing me." Mylene was drinking coffee, prepared for her by Rodin inside of his bar, the Blackmore Siblings had left already, leaving Mylene alone with the three leaders in charge of the clan. "I envy you, more than you can possibly imagine." They could tell as much, a particularly nasty seed of Envy had formed inside of her soul. "For all of the disagreements I might have with them, your sons are not idiots." Mylene let out a sigh at that. "My son is an idiot." Saying that Mylene put a note on the table, a missive sent by one of her intelligence agents.


Mylene, it's Edward from the Temple. You need to come pick up your son and his friends. The temple apparently didn't take kindly to the Little Girl's refusal to ever step foot near the Saint's relics again, as such an attempt to poison her occurred. None of the Heirs took kindly to the attempt and the Five Fools went on a rampage in the middle of the temple and they're threatening to execute the bastards. We just avoided one war, we don't need a civil war.

A note left by a cleric underneath a bench in the Church's confessional


Mylene slammed her face into the table, she wanted to cry and demand the heavens tell her what she did to turn her son into an idiot.

"Honestly, if we ask Leon to deal with it he might just kill the idiots." Rodin pointed out the obvious, though Mylene only felt even worse about the situation. "We only barely manage to teach him empathy after all."

"The correct thing to do is to send them out of the country." Jeanne stated bluntly. "You have an exchange student program with Alzer Correct?" The part that Jeanne didn't need to mention was that it might be best to leave the idiots over there if they can't clean up their act given a year. "We were planning on sending Leon over there for a while anyway." Cereza stated bluntly and Mylene opened her mouth to protest. Leon was a national hero, even if he did want to kill her, to send him out of the country now when they're in the midst of trying to rebuild and reinforce... "This isn't open for debate." The Black haired witch replied. "One of Leon's cousins is dying. And right now Leon is one of four people who might be able to save his life."

"Then send the other three!" Mylene snapped as if it was obvious. "One of those three is an unhinged lunatic who wants to turn your capital into rubble." Mylene was taken aback by that statement. "You might've heard about him: ripped the souls of your countries founders out of their bodies and locked them in his basement so that he could torture them for all eternity." Mylene gulped at that. "Oh yes, we're quite familiar with the tools of diplomacy you understand." Cereza stated making it clear the legitimacy of the founding families and how little of it there actually was.

"I Can confirm what they have to say." Luxion of course picked that time to make his presence known. "It seems that their time manipulating magic includes methods to extend their own life spans." Of course they did. "These two are veterans of the old war, I've matched their faces to my files. And if we believe what they have to say they're considerably older than that."

"There are two things you never ask a woman drone, her weight-" Cereza flicked Luxion away sending the drone careening off the island. "-and her age."

Why all that Mylene was bitching and whining about how stupid the men in her life were she did actually come here with a purpose.

"Steering this conversation back on track." Sure immortal demon summoning witches, why not? Clearly Mylene's life was destined to be filled with hoards of improbable to the point of impossible events that would dictate her life choices for her. "There is a matter I came to ask the two of you about. I'm given to understand that you were the ones to teach your son about your clan's various techniques and fighting skills." Mylene already knew where this was going, Atlee was going to kill her. "The Academy's magic instructor officially retired after the recent crisis, something about loss of limb. You understand why it would be best for the Kingdom to recruit the same people who trained the Hero Marquis Blackmore." Mylene had prepared suitcases full of platinum in order to blatantly bribe at least one of the two women in front of her to-

"Sure." Jeanne piped up prompting a look of shock from Mylene. "I'd love to." For one thing Jeanne has worked as a school teacher, and was training the clan's current generation of recruits. One of the reasons why she and Cereza were able to take their impromptu sabbatical to Repard was precisely because she had already finished with clan responsibilities for the time being.

"My apologies but when I had made a similar request to your son he... requested a rather sizable payment." Which they were working to get back via shipping taxes from his product going all over Holfort.

"Most likely he just didn't want to do it and ask for more money than he assumed you'd want to pay him to get out of it." Now the next time someone asks him to do something he doesn't want to do he'll just tell them no. "I on the other hand do enjoy teaching and am more than willing to settle for what you were paying your previous instructor." Jeanne explained, however she did have conditions. "In lieu for the pay raise that our respective gap in experience grants-" Mylene knew there was a catch. "I would like to restructure the curriculum for the entire school."

"That might be difficult." Mylene let out a sigh. "It's not like you can be in multiple places at once."

"I can actually." As Jeanne explained that she stood up, and with a twirl she seemed to go in multiple directions at the same time. "Sergey's Lover, an accessory created by a member of the clan that allows one to do exactly as you have described."

"So he can be in more than one place at a time now." Mylene just let out a sigh. "Miss Blackmore tell me, is there a reason why you insist on stacking horror upon horror when it comes to your clan?"


While his parents were discussing matters with Mylene Leon was leading his two fiances to his parents for the purpose of introducing them to them.

"I intend to have a proper marriage ceremony after we've graduated from the Academy." Leon didn't even know what people were planning on doing for the rest of the school year, there were talks along the lines of 'everyone who participated in the battle will pass their year with full marks' and Angie was already talking about her post graduation plans. "I have been dreaming of a perfect wedding for over a decade, and I will not be denied!" Leon could see how that was a sore spot for Angie.

"I assume you have plans laid out somewhere detailing these then?" Leon asked looking at Angelica with suspicion. "Nothing that will contradict your clan's traditions in the traditional Holfortian wedding I hope?" Angie asked looking at Leon suspiciously.

"I need to find out what that entails before I can say." Leon stated by way of reply.

"An exchange of information later then." Angelica stated while shrugging her shoulders.

"I'd like to get married in some of these ruins." Olivia was looking around her, at the various ancient buildings of civilisations gone by that Leon's family had collected.

"We might wanna discuss that with my parents. Some of these places can attract the wrong kind of attention." Leon entered the bar where his parents were located, along with an unexpected guest, but he chose to ignore her. "Angie, Livia I'd like to introduce you to Cereza and Jeanne Blackmore of the Umbran Clan."

"A pleasure to meet you." Angelica gave a curtsy as Olivia quickly followed suit. "I'm sorry that we haven't had the opportunity to meet until now."

"You have nothing to apologise for." Cereza snapped as if she was speaking a absolute truth. "The reason why we haven't been here to meet with you until now is entirely our own doing."

"Nice to meet you!" Olivia of course didn't forget to make her own introductions as well. "A pleasure to meet you too!" Jeanne reached over and gave Olivia a pinch on her cheek.

"I see I am imposing if you'll-" Mylene of course attempted to escape the notice of someone who has already attempted to take a shot at her. However-

"Leon, Mrs. and Mrs. Blackmore, I understand you are already acquainted with one another but allow me the pleasure of introducing my God Mother, Mylene Rapha Holfort." Angelica put both of her hands on Mylene's shoulders. Part of the Umbra wedding rituals was that the Bride and Groom introduce each other to the people in their lives that were important to them. "She is something like a second mother to me, and whatever differences I have with the men of her family she is someone who is very important to me."

'So please don't kill her Leon' is what Angelica was saying to Leon, aware to some extent of the contents of their argument from earlier.

"If the pleasantries are out of the way." Rodin took a file out from underneath the counter. "There is a matter of reparations and payment from Fanoss that needs to be discussed." Rodin slapped the file on the table between the two witches, Jeanne taking it and reading it aloud.


The 'Bloody Island' is a nickname that the people of Fanoss has given to a rather peculiar stretch of land in their territory. For all intents and purposes, it is a large stretch of territory roughly the size of a city, one that seems to resist all attempts to plant on it, and any attempt to break it down for Float Stone. Every time anyone attempts to do anything with the island the rock itself seems to take offence, bubbling out a pool of blood and releasing a monster of some kind from within.

The exact kind of monster varies from day to day. A Violent humanoid wolf. A winged humanoid figure wielding sword and shield. A living brazier resembling a small dragon.

These and other horrors have emerged from within the bubbling pools of blood to fight only to disappear once their work was done, usually dragging along whatever victims they have captured from the attacking forces. In most cases none of these creatures have possessed the capacity for reason, with one exception.

During one of the many attempts to seize control of the island in lieu of the countless horrors known to be under its control the blood opted for a short fat man as its defender. The man proved as harmless as his moniker, the Toy Maker, and in exchange for being protected from the entity within the island he offered his services.

Clearly the Toy Maker had a rather bizarre idea of what a toy was. He outlined the method to manufacture an engine capable of generating and drawing mana from the air as a spell caster would, that he dubbed 'the Clockwork Heart' and implant that contraption inside of an Armour.

Following his instructions we deployed our demonic forces to the surface of the ocean to retrieve a Shadow Orca, a mere animal warped by the sheer mass of mana below the surface into a terror few have seen, and using his creation upgraded a stock armour into the greatest weapon that we have, the Black Knight's armour.

Sadly our dreams of an army of invincible knights were soon dashed. One day in the middle of the Night violent screaming emerged from the Toy Maker's workshop, his notes and tools destroyed alongside the building itself, leaving behind only a bloody puddle in the process.

Excerpt from 'The Bloody Rock and The Toy Maker' a Top Secret Fanossian Document


"My my my." Jeanne explained as she read through the contents of the document. "It would appear that we've stumbled upon one of our targets."

"The Toy Maker's 'Clockwork Heart?' Do you know of it already?" Angelica asked looking curious. It would explain why Leon's armour seems to be such an absolute terror.

"Not that 'the Bloody Island.'" Jeanne explained as she put the file away. "You didn't think that we acquired all these buildings as a hobby now did you?" Well Maybe a little.

"Smells like Castle Bernhard to me." Rodin explained as he finished collecting the file from his secret cabinet.

"'Castle Bernhard?'" Angelica asked, the smell of adventure in the air.

"A rather particularly nasty demon." Leon explained already feeling a headache coming on.

"The Castle is a demon?" Olivia looked pale at the news.

"Why are you acting surprised?" Leon asked cocking a brow. "Umbra is a clock tower."

"Yes, because that renders the idea that an entire building is a massive malicious organism less terrifying." Olivia countered narrowing a glare by way of response. "What do we know about this place?"


Castle Bernhard: An ancient fortress containing a powerful demon.

After the downfall of the Umbran Clock Tower the witches were scattered to the winds. One of them married into the prestigious Bernhard Family of Walachia and taught them the secrets of the dark arts, including how to summon and bind a demon to the foundations of their castle.

Over the Years the Castle has had many owners, and has been a beacon for creatures of darkness from the world over. The castle continuously fed off its residents, the people who came to slay them, and their victims growing stronger and stronger as time wears on.

The Castle has been destroyed on numerous occasions however at all times it has been able to grow back it's walls, or adapt and integrate any new buildings built on it's foundations, always leading back to it's counter part in Inferno where a infinite array of horrors await to spill forth, all under the command of a worthy master.

Excerpt from Lemegeton's Guidebook of Demons


"Was this 'Toy Maker' one of the castle's residents?" Mylene asked looking visibly concerned with the information that she just received.

"Most likely but hard to say for certain." Rodin stated as he began looking through more information. "Of the thousands of individuals who entered the castle in its 500 years of activity few ever made it out alive, fewer that weren't part of the Castle's army of horrors. Their main enemies, the Brotherhood of Light, made countless attempts to enter the castle and gather information on it but none have succeeded in leaving with that information."

"The castle itself was destroyed right?" Mylene asked looking at the Fanossian document again. "This file makes no mention of anything on the island other than this blood."

"On this side of reality? Yes the castle was destroyed." Cereza however gave a follow up explanation. "But in Inferno? All of the horrible things that ever happened in that castle are all happening at once, all the time. If I had to think of a reason why it hasn't rebuilt itself by now, I would say that it's because the castle is without a master."

"Which means that someone can claim it." That gave Angelica all kinds of ideas. "What if Leon makes a contract with it? Or one of you?" Angelica recalled the explanation as to why the Chimera that had taken Yumeria's body hostage was listening to Leon, if he, heir to the bloodline of the Clan's chieftain, or the chieftain herself were to bring that creature under their control then the secrets it holds will be there's for the taking.

"Well Leon is going to be short on Demons for a While." The Chimera and the Hounds are going to be struck in their food coma while they recover their injuries, Viper was in the process of being separated from Yumeria, The twins were recovering from their injuries, and Umbra was returned to their original contractor Jeanne. The Only Devil Arm that Leon had access to right now was the Four Horseman, that is to say he was his only contracted Demon he could call upon.

"How does that even work anyway?" Angelica asked turning to Leon in confusion.

"Complicated." Leon sighed as he scratched the back of his head. "It's weird, like being in two places at once or having two bodies at the same time. Hopefully things calm down here long enough to figure that out."

"Speaking of which we have some clan business that we need to take care of." Cereza stated as she looked at Mylene knowingly.

"Of course." Mylene took the none too subtle clue to leave while Leon took her place.

"We need a moment to talk about Alzer." Jeanne started the conversation off, more serious than usual.

"I'd rather not." Leon stated bluntly. "I'd really rather not."

"What exactly happened to you while you were in Alzer?" Angelica asked looking at Leon like he had grown a second head.


Of the Five Black Sisters, Celine by far has the worst relationship with the others. During the course of the Shattering War Celine and Cereza came to blows with one another concerning the death of her world's version of Rosa.

Unlike the case with the rest of the sisters, her world's version of Rosa was still alive during the Shattering War, right up until Singularity infected her with one of his Homunculi and Cereza was forced to kill her.

Of course Rosa was returned to the land of the living after Singularity was destroyed but few hold a grudge like a witch.

Celine and her Rosa travelled the world during the period of time after the Witch Wars, doing their best to try and gather back together the various relics and other objects that were scattered alongside the clan under the pretence of travelling performers.

Currently Celine is the owner of a large museum used to discretely gather and contain Umbran artefacts collected from various dungeons the world over, as well as wife to the current ruler of Alzer Albergue Sera Rault.

Biography of Celine Sera Rault Nee Black by Rodin


"Ten years ago, Celine's son fell into a coma, her husband got it into his head to try and 'adopt' me into his part of the family because I look like him and he had no male heir to inherit." Leon stated bluntly. Personally he would've just made another one, that would make Louise infinitely easier to deal with on top of that. "Then his daughter turned out to be a barely functioning Bro-con and latched onto me as hard as possible." After that the family had to exile themselves from Alzer, and had been living in the gap between countries until they re-entered Holfort. "We had to get out of there as fast as possible last time. Why are we going to Alzer?" Leon was not looking forward to any part of that plan.

"Because they've rediscovered bone marrow transplants." Cereza stated bluntly. "And you should be a match for Leos."

As Angelica was about to ask.

"Another of my cousins." Leon replied bluntly. "He's not like Lea is he?" Olivia asked looking scared. "No in fact he's extremely frail, but we never learned about the reason why." Leon explained as he continued. "He even fell into a coma when he was a child, and you think some healthy cell transplants will help to fix him?"

"Celine does." Cereza answered by way of response. "And she's even willing to call a truce over it." This was serious. "You aren't off to Alzer immediately mind you. We'd like you to increase your number of allies before we send you over." Thus the talk about Castle Bernhard. "At the very least we're no longer tasking Umbra as your minder." Which also meant no more airship. "We also know that there's more than just Bernhard on that island." Like the Toy Maker.

"So even if I don't contract the Castle, I can acquire several other contracts in the process." Leon concluded from the conversation.

"We should also check in on Fanoss on the way over." The screaming stopped a little while back. "They might be in a state where they can listen to reason." Which means that Angelica would have to begin the process of extracting concessions from the Fanossian government.

"Leave that to your worthless royal family." Rodin stated bluntly.

"This is a good time for you two to begin learning the Umbran Arts." Because of course what was practicing combat arts without live targets.

"Wait a second?" Angelica suddenly cut into the conversation, trembling slightly. "You mean that we get to go into a dungeon that no one has every been able to explore before?" Rodin, Cereza and Jeanne all looked at each other briefly before turning back to face Angelica.

"""Yeah?"""

"AAAIIIEEE!" Angelica grabbed hold of Olivia and started to squeal in girlish excitement.

"I hope you like exploring dungeons." Rodin bluntly informed Leon who Could only nod in agreement.


Review Section:

RedRat8: Yeah, That's mostly my fault. I have a few ideas about that.

RonaldM40196867: We're getting close, we have documented evidence of how the flow of time can be manipulated through extreme speeds. Magic would have to f-up pretty badly to exceed a nuke, or if we're talking about increments then it would still have to mess up pretty badly to get worse than global warming.

Guest: No none of the 'love interests' are dead, unfortunately, what I recounted was the fates suffered by the 'Marie' route versions of them, otherwise known as 'Leon was being a pussy foot and let the psychotic revenge seeking Saintess to body jack Olivia and use her to murder the five heirs.'

M6102032: I have to pay for it? Well there goes that option right out the window.