Inugami Gyobu downed her third glass with renewed vigour. She reopened the crumpled-up letter hastily. "Tamamo… I knew you couldn't be trusted!" She slammed the glass back down, creating cracks all along its base. "Black Tanuki… Stay strong! We're coming to save you!"

A couple of newcomers came in, all of them fairly small. Gyobu had already had a few, so she couldn't quite make out their respective races, except for the one attempting to speak to her now. That is definitely a boy. And a cute one at that.

She lunged forward, her hand landing firmly on his shoulder. "Hey, kid, what'd'ya say we get out of here?"

"She's drunk," Ilias said, pointing out the obvious. She grabbed the ball of paper in Gyobu's hand and unfurled it. "This letter is the exact same as the one we saw before. This settles it, Black Alice is definitely the one behind this. She must've written both letters and then taken Tamamo and Black Tanuki herself to start a war."

Shouts and rummaging outside could be clearly heard. "Looks like the locals are already preparing to march. Gyobu! You're Black Tanuki's second-in-command, right? Tell them to call off the attack!"

Gyobu waved her hand lazily. "No way! Those foxes have taken our leader, we won't stand here and do nothing! Go my fellow Tanukis! Attack!"

"It's too late," Luka said, pulling Gyobu's hand off of him. "We better try to catch up to them."

Alice was tired of slithering. "Back to Kitsune Village it is, then..."


Sonya had been listening to Zion brag about how great Angel World was for the last hour and a half, and she was beyond done with it. And now I'll have to fight alongside her. Of course Ilias just keeps egging her on...

"—They have to pray at least three times in the morning, then three more times at noon, again in the evening, and another three just before they sleep. Twelve prayers a day is the bare minimum, mind you. We regularly send out angels to spy on random humans to check if they're praying enough. If not..."

Ilias could only imagine. "Twelve times a day..." I was lucky to get three a week! This other Ilias is one-upping me in every way...

She just got lucky! I bet Alipheese did something stupid and that's how she won the war. Nothing but luck...

Sonya was ever thankful to see the Forgotten Tower in the distance, shrouded in a thick fog. Galda sat down just outside, barely finding the space between all the jagged rocks. "Kyeh!" She roared upon setting down. Sonya petted her one last time before entering the lonely tower, telling her to stay put.

"Erubetie is somewhere around here," Ilias warned. "We've already seen how powerful she was back at Undine's Spring. Without Luka here, we might not be able to beat her on our own."

"Alice is gone too," Sonya reminded her. "But yeah, I'd say we should avoid a fight."

Zion couldn't believe what she was hearing. "To think the great Ilias herself would cower before a monster..."

Ilias looked shocked. "How dare you speak to me like that! As long as you're our ally, you will recognise my authority as your goddess! And I am not "cowering", I'm being strategic! I don't have all of my power back yet, so we shouldn't take unnecessary risks."

The Third Seraph frowned a little. "...Sorry," She muttered. "I understand, my goddess."

Sonya shushed them harshly. "There's something up ahead," She put her back to a pillar. "Something... slimy..."

Ilias poked around the corner, careful to stay out of sight. The slimy figure was definitely Erubetie. Her blue, barely transparent slimy was shining in the moonlight. It had gotten dark faster than the goddess thought. "G-Get away from me!" A monster beside her shouted, fearful. It was a cockroach girl, one of the more disgusting monster girls.

"You won't feel any pain," Erubetie said, approaching. Her slime latched onto the roach-like tentacles, pulling her close. "Become one with me..."

The roach screamed in pleasure, not pain, as she was assimilated by the Heavenly Knight of Water. "A-Ahhh..."

After a few moments, Erubetie sighed. Her eyes met Ilias' for a fraction of a second, but it was enough. She knows, she knows, she knows!

Ilias grabbed Sonya's garb fiercely. "S-She's coming, run!"

Zion flew out from behind the pillar. "Face me, Heavenly Knight! I'll show you what a seraph can do!"

Erubetie tilted her head. "You are not the one I was sent here to destroy. Stay out of my way, angel."

Ilias and Sonya stayed behind Zion. "Y-Yeah, you better run!" Ilias said. "Good job, Zion. I can see why the other Ilias made you a seraph."

The asymmetrical angel smiled. "She's gone," She said, referring to Erubetie, who was nowhere to be seen. "She said she was sent her to take someone down... It must be the Queen Cockroach. But why...?"

"Weren't you listening when Tamamo was explaining it? Their queen rebelled against the throne after the Monster Lord was slain. That one was probably just a clone," Ilias reasoned. "That's why she didn't want to fight us. The real one must be further up."

Getting through the tower was no easy task. Each level was filled with more split-offs of Erubetie, each one just as strong as the last. Not to mention the roaches, all of which mistook them for more enemies attempting to stop their foolish rebellion. Halfway through, Zion was barely fending off some of the more powerful roaches.

"Disgusting!" She said as she sliced at the creature. "There's a reason why there's none of you left in my world!"

The roach was blown back into the stone-brick wall, twitching. Zion moved to finish her off, but Ilias stopped her. "She's incapacitated already," She said. "Leave her alone."

The hero has made her go soft, Zion though, and Ilias knew it. But she wanted to please Luka, and there was no doubt that Sonya would tell the hero if Ilias was condoning the killing of monsters. Even if said monsters would do the same to me, if not worse.

"Hmph." Zion turned to the next set of stairs. "We're nearly at the top now," She hoped mistakenly.

Ilias was close to collapsing by the time they actually got to the top. They had to go through another six levels before getting there, and had to fight at least thirty roaches and a dozen clones before that. "F-Finally..."

The goddess' eyes landed on her current worst fear—Erubetie, the real one. She could tell the difference after battling so many clones. The Heavenly Knight paid them no mind.

"You are weaker than I expected," Erubetie admitted, much to the queen's annoyance. Her body was massive. Ilias judged she'd barely be able to fit on her own throne, which had been torn to pieces in the battle.

"Shut it, you pawn! You and your tyrannical Monster Lord... To think you'd come here to kill off my entire clan... Not even Black Alice would do something so terrible!"

Erubetie showed no emotion. Zion was tired of waiting. "I can't believe I'm going to defend a monster..." The Third Seraph flew towards Erubetie, kicking her face in half. The slime instantly rejoined, as if nothing had ever happened.

Erubetie's gaze landed on Ilias and Sonya. "The hero's group... I was warned you might appear. Tamamo must've informed you of this..."

Sonya bore her club, ready to battle. But every strike only sunk deeper into Erubetie's endless slime. It was impossible to pierce with such a blunt weapon, so the priestess decided to focus on supporting her allies instead, which was her speciality.

Ilias blasted concentrated shots of divine power into the slime, disintegrating it instantly. Zion attacked as well, slicing Erubetie into pieces with her clawed left hand. The Heavenly Knight recoiled, splitting into multiple clones as she pieced herself back together.

Ilias had to fight two Erubeties at once, but at least she had Sonya's support. Zion wasn't so lucky. She twirled her bannered spear just before thrusting it directly into the clone's core. The real Erubetie lunged at her, covering her with sticky slime. Encumbered, the seraph was unable to dodge the following waves of slime. Before long she was covered from head to toe, tingling all over from the painfully pleasurable slime.

"A-ahh..." Zion's muffled moans could barely be heard. "R-Release me, slime!"

"Go help her, Sonya!" Ilias flew around one of the clone's attacks. "I can handle them. Give her the power she needs to break free!"

The priestess did as asked. She cast one of her favourite spells—Omni-blessing, giving the recipient a huge boost in strength for a fairly long time. It wasn't too difficult to cast either. Sonya concentrated for a moment, built up her mana, and released the spell.

The effect was as clear as day. Zion burst out of her slimy prison, slicing and dicing all the clones around her into cubes. She finished them off with waves of holy energy, leaving only the real Erubetie left standing. Sonya helped Ilias finish off her attackers, freeing her up to help Zion.

"H-Help me," The Queen Roach muttered, barely still standing. While they had been fighting, the queen had become surrounded by a dozen clones, failing to defeat them all. Erubetie did not look pleased as she started assimilating the monster queen.

The trio moved in on the Heavenly Knight in an instant, aiming to stop her. Sonya broke off to try and free the queen while Zion and Ilias fought the real Erubetie. "I am proud to fight alongside you," Zion shouted. "My goddess!"

That's more like it, Ilias thought as she attacked Erubetie again and again. Together their divine power was overwhelming, even proving too much for the Heavenly Knight to bear. Using her affinity with water, she attempted to protect herself, but each barrier was shattered in an instant.

"Run away," Sonya pulled the queen free. "Get out of here while you still can!"

The Queen Roach barely got back on her feet, limping away from her throne room as fast as she could. Sonya prevented any of the clones from giving chase, noticing that they had rapidly started to become weaker than before. Erubetie must be running out of steam.

Zion kicked the slime into pieces. "Ha! You Heavenly Knights are weaker than I thought!"

Ilias shook her head. No... She's weaker than she should be... Is her heart still conflicted?

That's an advantage for us! "Erubetie," Ilias called out, signalling Zion to stop attacking. "Why are you here? You're doing more than just trying to stop this rebellion—To me, at least, it looks like you're just trying to kill everyone here, not make them surrender."

"You would be right," Erubetie said. "I must assimilate everything... Not only in this tower but in the world. It is the only way..."

Ilias' eyes widened. Only Kanade would say something like that... "Erubetie... did you absorb Kanade's cells?"

Erubetie frowned. "I will follow the Dark Goddess' plans to their end."

"Her plan is to kill everything and everyone!" Sonya shouted. "You can't seriously think that's okay!"

"Not kill... They will become one with me," Erubetie explained, but she didn't sound overly happy with the idea. "Once it is done, I will self-destruct, bringing us all back to the Dark Goddess' world."

"So her plan is just as batshit insane as we thought," Zion waved her spear's banner. "For the Goddess Ilias, you will not be allowed to go through with it!"

Ilias didn't buy it. "You plan to kill your own beloved slimes?"

Erubetie's face remained as stoic as ever, only having the slightest hint of a frown left as she attempted to composure herself, even as the millions of voices inside her shouted out. "...It is the only way to save them... Enough of this! I must defeat the Queen Roach and absorb her..."

Ilias was conflicted. She has Kanade's cells inside her... She must've been holding back against us—Otherwise, she could've easily beaten us. What do we do...?


Kitsune and Tanuki fought tail to tail all over the village, and had been for a long while by the time Luka arrived. "Damn it," Alice said. "Now they're going to war over a misunderstanding! We need to fix this, and quick! We need to find whatever Tanuki is in charge here and Yao and get them to stop all this fighting!"

"Hey, before you go do all of that, you should probably know that I can sense Tamamo around here somewhere," Morrigan interrupted. "She doesn't seem to be fighting anyone though."

"So she was here this whole time... Then Black Tanuki is probably around here somewhere too. If we can find them, they can stop the fighting themselves. Morrigan, you break up all the fights around here as much as you can. Luka, you and I will look for Tamamo."

Morrigan couldn't miss out on the opportunity to drain a few kitsunes—She had always held a grudge against them ever since she met Tamamo No Mae, and Alice didn't feel bad at all when loosing Morrigan against them. The Monster Lord slithered around the village, using her keen nose to search for Tamamo's scent.

"I don't think she's out in the open," Alice reasoned. "She might be in that cave, over there."

Luka followed her in. Alice suddenly coiled back. "Ugh, yeah, she's definitely here... and has been for a while. The smell of thin-fried tofu is crazy thick..."

"Oh, it's just you guys."

The hero already had his sword drawn by the time he recognised Nero's voice. "Huh? What are you doing here?"

Nero's hair was unusually messy. "...I've been looking for Mast—I mean, for Tamamo. A few of those Tanuki have been chasing after me, so I was hiding."

"Well, did you get any hints?" Alice asked. "Any idea where she is?"

Nero nodded. "A Tanuki saw a human-sized woman stuffing a fluffy ball into a pot in the village. Since there are no human women around here, reason stands that it was probably one of Black Alice's goons."

"Then we'll have to check every pot in the village..." Luka wasn't looking forward to it. "Might as well check on Morrigan while we're at it."

"Good luck, you two!" Nero said as he returned to his hiding spot. As he watched the Monster Lord and the Hero leave, he got hit with a strong feeling of nostalgia, and an even stronger sense of homesickness.

Morrigan laughed as the Tanuki beneath her came. It only took a few moments, but that was far from her record. Unlike her sisters, she didn't much prefer taking her time with her food.

"Morrigan!" Luka shouted, running over. "Tamamo is supposed to be in one of the pots around here. Help us look."

"Hmph. I'm good, thanks. I'll just keep playing with these Tanuki instead." Morrigan flew off before Luka could say anything else.

Alice wasn't impressed, but she wasn't surprised either. "She didn't listen to her sisters much either, according to Tamamo, so I doubt she'd follow your every command. For now, we'll just have to deal with it. But she won't do anything too out-of-line, she wants you on their side after all."

Luka picked up one of the pots and turned it upside down. "Not in here... There are at least a dozen of these around here. How long is this going to take...?"

"Give me a second..." Alice focused, using her magic to sense the flow of everything around her. "That pot over there, it's giving off a small amount of dark energy."

The hero reached inside, pulling out a large ball of golden fluff. "That's her," Alice said. "Tamamo! Can you hear us? It's Alice."

The ball of fluff said something, even without a mouth. "Oh, you found me. Great! I knew you'd save me eventually."

"How did this happen?" Luka asked. "We only saw you a few hours ago."

"I teleported back here and meditated alone in that cave. Someone jumped me and put this seal on me. I was really tired from all those missions, and I didn't want to use Words of Dispel since we might need that power in the battles to come." Tamamo explained, her voice surprisingly clear.

"Then we better show you to Yao and get her to stop all this fighting. Speaking of, where even is she...?"

"Tired..." One of the Tanuki muttered. "Everyone, retreat! We have to fall back!"

Suddenly Morrigan flew by them, cackling as she picked the Tanuki up and flew off with her. "They are running away!" Luka pointed out. "But the Kitsune are giving chase... Are they also scared of Morrigan?"

Alice had already done more than enough slithering for one day, but it seemed like she'd have to do even more. Adventuring around almost the entire world was good practice, at least. "Then we better follow them too. Take Tamamo with us. We need to find Black Tanuki and get her to stop all this fighting."