This was why she hated fighting…

Solitär limped slowly through an unfamiliar stretch of forest, one arm limp at her side and the other desperately clutching the gaping wound in her side. If she hadn't reinforced that specific spot with mana, if she hadn't put up one last shield… Well… No sense ruminating about what would have been when she needed to focus on keeping herself alive. She could focus on the particulars later, she could focus on the why's and why nots somewhere down the line. Instead she focused on what she knew; her cover was completely destroyed, her place of refuge was a pile of scrap wood, and any competent magic user within miles would know that something had happened. Hell, anyone within a mile of the fight would know something had happened; she wasn't exactly subtle in trying to stay alive.

The world around her swayed, causing her to stumble and slump against a tree. This wasn't how she died, she was just a bit tired. But… She gripped her side tighter, ignoring the agony it caused her in doing so. It was no use; buckets of invaluable blood slipped by her fingers like water through a net. And despite her ability to copy humanity's spells the healing magic of the goddess was well and truly beyond her. But she still had some strength left in her, she knew she did. Lest her body would be disintegrating, and since that wasn't happening it meant she could go on.

Taking a few shallow and incredibly painful breaths she pushed herself off of the tree and continued onward, briefly stumbling when soft earth turned to harden dirt and stone. "A… road?" She whispered in a hoarse voice. There were dirt paths around the villages in her forest, sure, and one of the bigger villages had a large path that intersected with the road network, but nothing to this degree. How far had she flown? This was good and bad: A road meant help, but help meant humans… Her mana detection had disappeared with the last dregs of her mana, meaning she wouldn't be able to identify any potential threats. The next human she saw might be an adventurer or a simple farmer…

She shuddered as a ragged cough tore through her throat, and she didn't need to check with her hand to know she was coughing up blood. It was so intense that she dropped to her knees, and the next breath she took in was uncomfortably wet and scratchy. Copying that spell had saved her life, but the backlash was… considerable.

A light entered her vision, but everything was starting to go dark and blurry. Sound magic… She had never seen anything quite like it before! With this backlash though, practicing it would be incredibly difficult if not downright impossible. Although… Her body wasn't quite responding anymore… "So… that's it then…" Vaguely she thought she could make out two people frantically springing towards her. Someone with blue-ish hair, and a man with a ridiculous feathered hat. Losing the strength to maintain her balance she fell forward, landing with a soft groan.

"Terrifying…" Humans truly were… Terrifying…

Minutes Prior

Magic was like the human game of rock-paper-scissors; some matchups were completely unbalanced, and even an experienced mage could die to a rookie if their specialties didn't align. With adventurers though… it turned more into a game of chess. The blessings of the gods leveled the playing field, added new variables and new pieces. It was why she was especially wary of fighting them; a basic low level adventurer far surpassed a human from her old world. From what she was seeing though…

Solitär leaned backwards at an almost perfect ninety degree angle, letting an axe cross over her face, taking a few strands of hair with it. Without even thinking a golden blade appeared in her hand and with a wild twist the lightly armored adventurer fell around her in two uneven halves. Keeping the spin's momentum she flung the sword through the air, guiding it to a large source of mana before leaping into the air. The source; a magic user wearing dark robes, leapt with an inhuman grace to the side. Solitär grinned.

Defying the laws of physics the sword curved and followed the mage before piercing deep into their gut. It disappeared along with the mana source.

Using the earlier analogy of chess; Solitär fit the role of Queen.

"Rage, fires of hell!" The demon's gaze snapped to the left where a trio of two swordsmen stood in front of another mage. "Burn and whither, turn all to ash, scorched earth, ancient of all destruction, return the penitent to soot and cinder!" She watched in keen interest as three large gouts of flame barreled towards her, and knew instinctively that dodging would be useless. Instead a series of hexagonal glimmering plates formed a sphere around her just as the spell reached her. As the sphere was engulfed in flames she observed the drain of her man's to keep up the spell. It was impressive, but ultimately futile.

"Mages of this era are disappointing, all they do is sit at the back…" As the fire dissipated she took a selfish amount of glee in seeing the shock and nervousness of the mage. She must have been powerful then. Dropping the defensive spell she raised her hand.

"Vollzanbel," she said aloud. A jet of black, purple, and crimson hellfire leapt from her hand with a demonic roar. It didn't matter if she couldn't see past the flame or the waves of heat; all three sources of mana disappeared within moments. When she canceled the spell nothing remained. That made seven, two she had killed with Reelseiden before the third had gotten close with the axe. None so far had been especially threatening, at least… none that had attacked her…

So they're sending the pawns in first. Are they trying to tire me? Or are they simply gathering information and gauging my abilities? If so then it'd be best to keep some cards close to my chest. As the heat dispersed she observed the area around her. There were three more mana signatures, one of which sent chills down her spine just from the sheer amount she was exuding. It wasn't hard to see who it was; at the edge of the clearing behind two robed mages.

She wore a very detailed and complicated black dress that faded to a soft green skirt. Her sleeves were detached, and much of her upper chest was exposed. A flowing waterfall of silver hair fell around soft features while a green and gray orb regarded her coolly. The broach over her chest held a green gem that radiated mana. Enchanted then. She was undoubtedly the leader of this attack, and was easily the most powerful human she had encountered since coming here.

Dangerous… Her instincts screamed at her. Their eyes met even from here. Both were analyzing each other. The human wasn't afraid, but she wasn't arrogant either. She knew that the demon in front of her was powerful, she could probably feel the mana the same way she could. Solitär floated back to the ground before landing with her arms crossed behind her back.

She smiled brightly, acting like her face and dress weren't stained with the blood of at least three separate people. "I apologize, I've been a rather poor host. If I had put some tea on perhaps we could've gotten along better. If we introduce ourselves I'm still sure we could still be friends!" Vollzanbel, Reelseiden, my blades, and defensive magic. I shouldn't use anything more than that for now.

The woman blinked before stepping forward. "You're a monster," she stated. It wasn't a question, but it wasn't a descriptor either. It was a statement of fact; one that intrigued Solitär and made her wary in equal measure. Her voice was as smooth as fine silk, but more interestingly was that each and every syllable out of the woman's mouth was laced with mana. Was her voice the source of her magic? Or was it simply a byproduct of the spells she had gained through her blessing?

"Will that affect our friendship going forwards?" Solitär tilted her head to the side. Continuing the fight would be troublesome, but what truly worried her was the reason behind all of this. Humans had attacked her before, it had happened countless times and would continue to happen for the rest of her existence. Rarely though did those humans not send their strongest fighters out against her.

"Those adventurers were all Level 3, and the mage you just killed was Level 4. You're strong, far too strong to have been born on the surface." Levels? Ah, was it that strange classification system that the gods developed?

"Actually I was born in a cave if I remember correctly, most of my early years were spent there."

"How did you escape the Dungeon then?" The woman asked with a hard edge to her tone.

"Dungeon?" Solitär made a show of looking up while tapping a finger against her chin. "No, I wasn't born in a dungeon. I would have remembered that at the very least. My memory is excellent for my age, though even I forget things here and there." She rubbed the back of her head with an embarrassed smile. That wasn't true in the slightest though, Solitär had an eidetic memory.

The woman narrowed her eyes, the single bit of emotion she'd shown other than minute changes in her voice. "And how old are you then?"

"I've been wandering this land for over one thousand years." A truth within a lie. She was over a thousand years old, but she had only been in this world for barely a fraction of that time. The result was instantaneous; the remaining humans gasped and whispered and even the woman's eyes were wide. So they knew she was powerful and that she was a monster, but they didn't know how old she was. That meant that they probably didn't know she was a demon, or even what a demon was.

"That's impossible!" One of the mages yelled.

"Be quiet…"

"If something like you has been out here for a millennia then the gods would have known! There would've been a fourth quest!"

"Silence…" The woman spoke, power emanating from her voice.

A fourth quest? Something important enough that there were three of them. She knew of quests in general, but not the ones they were talking about. "Perhaps there wasn't because I'm not a threat to you." She opened her arms wide. "Truly I just want to live a peaceful life. If you were attacking me because I was threatening then I do apologize, but I had no intention of attacking anyone. I know!" Solitär folded her hands in front of her. "How about we put all of this behind us and start over? I'm deeply sorry for killing your friends, but I was acting in self-defence. If you're willing to put it behind you then I will be more than willing to relocate. How does that sound?"

"Everything that you've said aside, despite whether it was true or not, means nothing. We didn't come here to stop a threat." Solitär tilted her head in confusion. "We came here to create one. The One Eyed Black Dragon has proven that the caliber of adventurers in Orario is far below what is needed. Something needs to change, and if presented with a big enough threat, that change might be brought about faster."

Solitär's eyes lit up. "Artificial Selection and Forced Evolution! You want to introduce external stimuli to Orario to foster growth. The weak will die while the strong will grow ever stronger. Left with no choice, the only option is to adapt and grow. To bring it about on such a scale though… you're rather ambitious… Hah, we still haven't introduced ourselves have we?"

"Our names are irrelevant, our mission here is the only thing that matters. You will be the unifying force that causes Orario to grow stronger. Whether by choice or force is entirely up to you…" And it all came together. After all, the most dangerous monster of all was the one that looked just like humans. Demons…

"That's an excellent idea! However… I have no interest in being a part of it." She shrugged. "I'm afraid to admit that I'm rather cowardly, and the idea of making humanity even stronger than they already are is… Well, it's rather frightening!"

"How unfortunate…" she sighed, closing her eyes. When they opened again the woman moved. Solitär didn't need to be a demon to know that refusing would lead to an attack, but the sheer speed was unexpected. It was through centuries of experience that saw the demon leaping away from a punch that shattered the wood she had been standing in front of. With a nonverbal command Solitär formed a glyph in her hand. The mage was overextended—

The woman looked at her. "Gospel." And the glyph reflexively turned into a barrier spell. Sound magic, Solitär thought. As soon as the spell impacted she flew upwards as fast as possible. She knew the barrier wouldn't hold, and merely a moment later the barrier shattered. Extreme force and speed, but fire-and-forget. The trajectory can't be changed once fired. Dodgeable. She'd have to play a new card then, none of the spells she had used so far would be able to pin her down.

"Judradjim." Faster than the eye could blink a bolt of purple lightning leapt from Solitär's hand. It crossed the distance between the two fighters in an instant, and somehow the woman crossed her arms in front of her in time to block the spell.

"Ataraxia." The lightning struck and pushed her back with a boom, but the most damage dealt was a sizzle and some steam as an iridescent sheen covered the woman from head to toe. Magic negation? Reelseiden just became useless. If that spell protected against Judradjim it must be incredibly powerful. I can't imagine cutting through it with Reelseiden. Zoltraak and my swords then. Just then a barrier appeared around her in the shape of a sphere as a number of magical arrows reached her. Right, it wasn't just the woman. What was worse was that there might be more people that she couldn't sense, and taking the time to do so would draw her attention away from the fight.

A golden light enveloped the area above her as she spread her arms. Five golden swords formed in an arc around her, and a multitude of smaller ones formed all over the battlefield. With an exhale the smaller blades began to fall to the earth, exploding into sharp pieces on impact. She could hear cries come from the forest as the shrapnel found its mark. There were reinforcements. Were they warriors then who didn't have any mana? Or had someone taught them how to conceal their mana? All she knew was that ignoring the Falna for as long as she had was proving to be a deadly mistake. While the mages and reinforcements were distracted by her saturation attack she flew straight for the woman, grabbing two of the swords floating next to her.

She sent a flurry of slashes towards the woman who dodged by a hair's width every time, there wasn't one pattern or flow she was using lest the woman pick up on it and counter her. She dodged under a punch and thrusted forward with her arm while two floating swords came down in an X. The woman leapt backwards, whispering while she disengaged. Reflexively, having seen the mana gather around her mouth, Solitär sacrificed a floating blade, watching it cut the attack in half before shattering into motes of mana. The spell flew by her in two halves, whipping her hair behind her and flinging the cover off of her head. Somewhere behind her were two nearly instantaneous explosions.

Something had to change, and for the first time since the fight had started luck turned her way. For barely a moment, the woman's brow furrowed in frustration, her eyes glaring at the demon with a sudden intensity. It was familiar. Suddenly a bright grin appeared on Solitär's face.

"Are you a mother, miss?" The question was so out of the blue that the woman faltered as she moved to take a step forward.

"What?" She asked, completely taken off guard. Solitär wouldn't attack though, not when she could turn the fortune of battle her way. So far the woman had been the epitome of calm, her facial features hadn't changed since their fight began. If she could make her angry then she'd be even more dangerous, but more likely to make mistakes.

"A mother. You see, I didn't notice at first, but the way you furrow your brow is quite familiar. It's quite remarkable how small the world is!" She could see the confusion in the woman's eyes, but also a sense of worry.

The woman shook her head. "You're far too noisy." Taking a step forward she inhaled—

"Bell Cranel!"

Before immediately stopping, face turning to one of shock and horror.

Solitär's grin widened, eyes taking a dangerous gleam. "You see, not too long ago I found this little rabbit wandering the forest at night. He had these beautiful red eyes and a head of the softest white hair." She chuckled, acting like she was reminiscing, "It was adorable how scared he was at first, but that didn't last long~"

"What have you done to him…" The woman whispered, arms hanging useless at her sides.

"Nothing~ I led him back to his paltry village and gave him a warning not to come looking for me again, but you know how children are~ The way his eyes lit up in wonder when we talked about magic!"

"Shut up…" She was shocked, but her reflexes were inhuman. If she attacked now she'd lose everything she was building up to.

"You know~" Despite how cheery her smile was, the only way she could describe it was downright menacing. "When I'm done here I might just pay him a visit~" She saw the exact moment the woman's demeanor changed. It had started when her grin changed, but when she finished speaking those mismatched eyes burned with hatred. All hints of composure were gone. With a roar the mage leapt at her.

"GOSPEL!" It took the rest of her floating swords to break the attack, and she still had to fly to avoid the follow up attack. "If you so much as lay a finger on him!" She growled, focusing entirely on attacking.

"I think the original threat was that I would, what was it? I believe I threatened to 'gobble him up!'" The only answer she got was a roar and a punch that shattered a freshly formed barrier.

"Blessing of the root of evil, curse of birth." The woman began chanting. "My original sin that devoured half of my body. Not hard. There is no purification." The demon grabbed a newly formed sword and swung horizontally, leaping as the woman ducked and tried to kick Solitär's feet from under her. "There is no salvation. The resonance of this heavenly sound is my sin. The trumpet of gods, the lyre of spirits!" A massive amount of mana began building around the woman. The demon stopped focusing on the fight for a moment to watch in fascination. That moment cost her as a punch connected, draining a significant amount of her own magical barrier and sending her flying through a beam of charred wood. Solitär rolled to her hands and knees, watching with a closed eye as the woman walked towards her. As she tried pushing herself up her arm screamed in pain before going limp. "Melody of light, the seal of the sin. Loved by the miniature garden, my destiny is shattered…" The mana coalesced into a silver bell that began a dull resonance. "I hate you. The compensation is here. Destroy everything with a proof of my sin." The woman reached her, and Solitär feigned weakness as the woman grabbed her by the front of her dress.

Despite it all Solitär smiled, making the woman even angrier. "Cry! Holy—"

"Zoltraak…" With a whisper of her own a glyph formed between them, and Solitär threw a substantial amount of mana into it. As close as she was, blinded by her anger, the woman wasn't able to dodge the shimmering dark beam of mana as it flew towards her. The spell hit her stomach, and pierced her defensive spell before continuing its path through her body and into the forest before dissipating entirely. There was a moment as the woman stopped her spell, looking down as her dress stained red, before her body responded to the shock and she dropped the demon.

Solitär watched with her ever-present smile as the woman backtracked a few steps, collapsing to her knees as her strength left her. "That's good to know. So Zoltraak pierces defensive spells and armor here as well!" With a sigh she crouched down in front of the dying woman. "If it's any consolation, I'm still not sure if I'm going to go see Bell or not. He's a bad influence on me after all!" The woman looked past her and gave a bloody smile of her own.

"You're… late…" Solitär frowned. Her eyes went wide as every hair stood on end. Acting on pure instinct she reinforced her side with mana and put up a barrier—

SHICK!

A large sword stabbed through her back before piercing the ground in front of her. The shield shattered instantly, but it along with the reinforcement magic had offset the blade, missing her spine by inches.

She hadn't sensed anything! There was no one other than the injured mages! How had—

"You should know better than to get emotional in the middle of a fight Alfia… Leopold, get over here!" A large man in black armor walked out from behind her, leaving the sword embedded in the dirt. A man in a black robe ran up and began chanting, causing a golden light to surround the woman—now named Alfia. In mere moments the result of her gambit was reversed entirely. There was still a hole in her dress, but Alfia wouldn't even have a scar. How typical…

"Zald, she knows about Bell, she spoke with him. Threatened him…" Alfia spat, standing on shaky legs. "Forget the mission, I want her dead!"

"We can't kill her right now. She's the best candidate we have, she's something Orario's never seen before." It almost got through, and the knight named Zald sighed. "After we get what we need from her you can do whatever you want with her."

Solitär tuned the rest of their conversation as she focused on the sword. Unfortunately for her it was far more durable than anything she'd seen before. She couldn't imagine that Reelseiden would cut this, let alone her own swords. Still though, she had one last trick up her sleeve. Unfortunately she only ever used it when she was sure there would be no survivors. Right now she'd have to use it to escape, and she'd lose the advantage forever. But… if she wanted to live…

"Ella, you're up." Zald ordered. Another adventurer approached her extremely warily, her appearance didn't register, but the thing she was holding did. It was a collar, and it reeked of mana. She couldn't tell its purpose but she could guess it well enough. In order to sell this performance, she'd have to play extremely risky. So she feigned defeat, doing nothing as the nervous woman got within feet of her. She did nothing as she knelt down, and did nothing as shaky hands closed the collar around her neck. Before anyone could utter an order though she opened her mouth.

"Gospel!"

A wave of pressure blew the woman backwards and into Alfia and Zald. It wasn't nearly as powerful as the original user's, but it was enough to catch them off guard and send them flying. Unfortunately she wasn't built to use such a spell, and immediately her throat burned as blood flooded her mouth. No more spoken spells then unless she wanted further injury. Slamming her good hand to the ground she channeled mana into the earth, erecting a spire of earth as far into the sky as she could. The fight and the unfamiliar spell had drained her of nearly everything, she had one more good spell before she was out of everything but flight.

She saw the adventures recover and winced. Nothing else would work. She focused on the sword. "G-G…" she choked. Inhaling as much air as possible she tried again. "G-Gos…pel!" It was even weaker than before, but it was strong enough to shatter the blade of the sword. The side effect was that her throat was even worse than it was previously. The earthen spire shook dangerously and began cracking as something hit it. Using more of her precious mana she pushed the remaining section of sword out of her side. Gathering what little mana she had left she flew off into the night just as the spire collapsed from another sound spell. She didn't bother picking any one direction, she just flew…

Name: Solitär (Solitaire)

Alias: The Nameless Greater Demon

Race: Demon

Estimated Level: 6 to 7

Strength: D-555

Endurance: E-470

Dexterity: C-665

Agility: B-735

Magic: SS-1,150

Assumed Developmental Abilities:

Mage: A

Concentration: B

Abnormal Resistance: E

Magical Resistance: C

Mind Up: B

Assumed Skills:

Demon (Passive): The Ultimate evolution of monsters. Being in the presence of such a creature is enough to cause unease in beings with higher senses 1-2 levels below, and fear in any levels 3 and below. Weak monsters feel abject terror in the presence of an apex predator.

Quick-Cast (Passive): The magic system of another land, spells require naught but a word if unfamiliar, and can be cast with but a thought if they are familiar enough. Does not apply to spells learned through Copycat.

Mana Sense (Passive/Active)

Passive: All beings exhibit mana to some degree. The user is able to sense beings around them based on mana amount. Diminishes with range.

Active: The user can search for a specific target at the expense of the omni-directional range.

Flight: A spell conceived millennia ago, all Demons can fly as if it were as easy as breathing.

Copycat: The user has keen senses, and upon witnessing a spell they are able to copy it to a lesser degree. Requires a significant amount of focus, and if the user is interrupted they must witness the spell from the beginning again.

Known Spells:

Zoltraak: A concentrated blast of mana, the intensity and number of which is controlled by the user. Incredibly effective against living beings and ignores most magic-resistant armor and defenses.

Reelseiden: Allows the user to cut through anything as long as the user can imagine themselves cutting through it. Tracking the spell requires much higher than average senses or battle sense.

Judradjim: Blasts of lightning, the intensity and number of which can be controlled by the user.

Vollzanbel: A large continuous blast of fire.

Sorganeil: Completely restrains a target and their ability to use mana. Requires the target to be within eyesight and unobstructed from view.

Klingenmagie: Solitär's signature spell. Summons double-bladed swords made of mana, the durability of which depends on the amount of mana expended. Can summon one or multiple, and can be controlled telekinetically by the user or physically. Summoned swords cannot be summoned unless destroyed, and thus can be physically controlled by people other than the user.

Unnamed Defensive Magic: Creates physical barriers of mana that defend against magical attacks and certain physical strikes. Its purer form allows the user to reinforce their body with mana, converting most incoming magical damage into mana damage.

Zuivermaide: Strikes the target with a blast of pure mana; a simple but devastating offensive spell.

Satanas Verion: Incredibly short chant magic that hits enemies with blocks of sound. Difficult to track, and the trajectory cannot be changed once fired. (Due to the unfamiliarity this spell causes backlash against this user)

Incantation: "Gospel."

(Not Final. Will adjust or change depending on feedback or more research.)

Due to the feedback and a rush of inspiration I decided to give you guys this chapter early! Mainly from comments on AO3, but because of the time period this story takes place I actually came up with an adjustment to the plot. Alfia was never supposed to show up until MUCH later, but this actually fits better with the first major Arc of the story. Balancing and leveling will be issues I will consistently deal with until I iron them out so constructive feedback is welcome and please have patience! However I felt like this chapter did a good job of establishing Solitär's power level.

Zoltraak is one bit of controversy but I will lay this to bed. Zoltraak is ultimately a spell designed to pierce magical and physical defense, and that will carry over to Danmachi. In order to break through Alfia's Silentium Eden though; it was far more charged than it normally would have been. A normally powered Zoltraak, in this story, will not be able to pierce through extreme magical defense without overcharging it. Note as well that this is the original version of the spell, denoted by its dark color. Again, this is subjective to change but this is how I'm balancing things for the moment. Feedback is welcome : )

Now for reviews!

Morgan Lover: For the foreseeable future Solitär will remain as she's shown in Frieren. I hope that using Bell as a way to compromise Alfia shows that! Will she grow? Yes, but not into a goody-two-shoes : )

Heheheheh: When I get to more monster scenes I'll try to add some consistency. Thanks for the info!

FallenSage: Zeus shows up soon : )

Meticulous: I'm glad you enjoyed it! As of posting this the issue should be fixed. Thanks for the nitpick!

Cassnova5424: I'm glad you enjoyed!

Thanks for reading and I'll see you all soon!