Chapter 34: Melissa Gone

Mei Hatsume couldn't believe what she had heard.

One of her precious babies had been beaten and battered! Oh, and the entirety of the Collibus Hills was overtaken by some very bad people, and Yaoyorozu and her friends were now leading a resistance that might end up in their deaths if Mei didn't arrive soon.

But the baby part was more important!

That thing was a third-generation modified Halruaan skyship, preserved for both historical significance and reserve usage! The crystals keeping that thing afloat had the potential to lift an entire island into the sky for the next few thousand years! That baby was one of the last descendants of the astral ships, airships capable of leaving their world's atmosphere and venturing into the Astral Sea! You know, the place where the stars themselves resided!

AND SOME IDIOT ENDED UP SHOOTING IT DOWN?!

Deep breaths, Mei, deep breaths. The pink-haired elf calmed herself down, as she remembered all of the facts. If she was going to blame someone, it would be the angelic asshole that tried murdering Melissa, and destroyed all of those amazing flying machines the JSDF had with them (SHE WAS GONNA SKIN THAT MOTHERFUCKER ALIVE). Bakugou only did what he had to do in order to save his comrades, and the damage to the skyship was minimal, cosmetic, even. They would be able to repair it in no time. That is, if anyone was still alive to use it.

Yes, the elven queen cared for the skyship. It was a magical marvel from an era of lost knowledge long ago, and one of the only wooden ships left that wasn't torn apart in order to figure out how to reverse-engineer the process. It was, by all means, a relic, but one she gave Momo Yaoyorozu as a sign of good faith between the nations of Dryadalis and Japan.

But that didn't mean it was more valuable than peoples' lives. Good people that, as much as Mei may not be able to show it, she cared about. She knew that her personality was a bit… weird (Tenya had explained that to her), so she knew that she may come off to strangers as someone who only cares about progress, but the reason she does what she does was… well… to make sure all the people she cares about are able to live happy lives.

She created force fields around her cities and weapons to arm her soldiers to protect her people from their more dangerous neighbors. She invented printed news and radio to educate and inform them. She helped bring about the creation of moving pictures and ice cream to bring them joy. And she wanted to do all of that with Japan, as well.

Yes, the destruction of one of their last skyships would be devastating, but what would be the point of inventing and creating new things if there was no one around to use them?

That's why when Tokoyami informed her of what was going on, she assembled her fleet immediately. Her personal ship was designed for non-combative use, yes, but that didn't mean she couldn't bring with her as many soldiers, weapons, and supplies as possible.

The rest of her fleet had weapons, but they were also packed with a little more. While the earlier generation skyships were made of wood, the current weapons were either a mix of wood and metal, with the even newer generation mostly of metal. That included their flight methods, so now instead of solely relying on magic, they now included rockets to generate thrust.

Awase may have inspired her for that last part.

A few new features also included some of them no longer having the need for sail masts, and some of them even incorporating entire panes of glass on several different walls, instead of a small viewing window for the captain's quarters. However, both her personal ship and several in her army had a few common traits, such as sail-like wings on the side and on the backs of their ships to make them aerodynamic and allowing for easier maneuverability, and…

Oh, shit, she got distracted again, didn't she? What was she thinking of?

Oh, right! Yaoyorozu and her friends still needed her help!

Yeah, so, Mei brought her personal knights and bodyguards with her, along with several boatloads of soldiers that were armed to the teeth with bows, rifles, and an assortment of magical-based weapons, several of which were of her design. Hopefully they weren't too late…

Tokoyami pointed them towards the direction of the Collibus Hills, and Tenya, bless his soul, did his absolute best to keep Mei from getting distracted by all the crashed planes in the ground as they got closer and closer to their destination. And what they found was… a mess.

Even without any previous frame of reference, Mei could tell that this looked like something straight out of a warzone. She could see that the sky was still gray from smoke, probably meaning that whatever fires happened were only put out recently. The buildings were a wreck, though, it was good to see there were some people starting to work on rebuilding. Despite the fact that everyone looked like ants from up above, Mei could at least make out what some of them were doing. Several of them seemed to be leaving the ruins of the city…

Mei honestly couldn't blame them.

Ordering Kaina to find them a place to land nearby, Mei's personal skyship began to descend towards the empty plains next to the destroyed town. Exiting from her ship, Mei could hear the panicked shouts of people, probably thinking they were being attacked again.

"Wait, wait!" she called out to them. "We're here to help…"

It had been a week since Melissa disappeared.

One second, she was there, having just woken up, saving Momo's life from Imasuji and healing Pony, and then the next, this mass of shadows just showed up, grabbing her, and essentially making her disappear off the face of the world. And she couldn't even go save her.

There was still a lot of work to be done repairing this place. With all of Imasuji's mercenaries either dead or detained, Aizawa was able to establish contact back with Japan, and the rebuilding had begun. The higher-ups were trying to make sure that the true scale of what happened here didn't become public knowledge. In Momo's opinion, it should be public knowledge, not because she believed the JSDF was incompetent for allowing these monsters in, but to have the world be angry at those bastards, and find out who was responsible.

There was no way in hell Imasuji and his crew did this for kicks. No, they were hired to attack this place, but the question was, from who? It had to be someone who paid them well enough to walk in one of the most heavily-guarded places in Japan, while also running the risk of being trapped in the Special Region once everyone found out what had happened, and the standstill began. So, someone with both money and power, that could pull the strings unseen.

That didn't exactly narrow it down. Momo was a Yaoyorozu, she grew up learning about all the slimy shit rich people were up to. And politicians weren't exactly better; ones that actually cared about helping the citizens they were supposed to represent were few and far between, with the rest of them seeing their political offices as a chance to line their pockets.

There were too many people who were able to pull off a stunt like this, and right now, Momo couldn't really think about it. There were whispers that the Diet was thinking about removing General Aizawa from command of the Special Region, under the pretense of incompetence. Naturally, this pissed off several people, including Momo's squad and the few survivors of the Collibus Hills, who knew Aizawa did the best he could during an unexpected catastrophe.

A few Japanese government officials even showed up to take a look at what had happened, to get reports on all of it, and to see whether or not Aizawa, and by proxy, Kayama and Yamada, were actually fit to be running this operation. There were several unofficial testimonies and investigations into multiple people, but so far, no official decision had been made yet.

Momo was pretty sure that some people asked her opinion about this, but she honestly couldn't remember. The rebuilding efforts were hard enough on their own, as was the newly strained relationship with the government, but what was on the top of her mind… were the dead.

Over one hundred Japanese soldiers and Special Region locals were massacred by these mercenaries. Originally, they were planning on burying them all, not in a mass grave, but in their own individual grave, all of them next to each other, like how Amercians buried their soldiers. However, Kodai interjected, saying that she could resurrect all of them.

After that, there was a debate between General Aizawa and the newcomer Japanese officials on the ethical implications that came with that revelation. Setting aside the massive religious implications that meant for their world, the debate discussed two key points: One, who would be revived, and, two, if this was done, what would this mean for the rest of the world? Because, people were bound to find out about Kodai's abilities, and there was a chance that entire nations and influential people would demand her presence to bring back their loved ones, and there was even a greater chance of her being condemned by others for what she did. There was also the issue that those who died never consented to being revived, unlike the SREU.

Aizawa ended up pointing out that those who died also never consented to being shot, and that reviving them was the right thing to do, legal and social norms be damned. The general ended up telling Kodai to bring back however many she was comfortable with, regardless of who they were, preferably if the mercs who actually did this ended up getting revived last.

Momo had a sneaking suspicion that Kodai would have brought back everyone regardless of what the final verdict was, but despite that, she had Aizawa's approval to get started. She began with the civilians, families with children, before working her way to soldiers. Unfortunately, due to the fact that they were now one holy woman short with Melissa gone, Kodai ended up feeling responsible for all of their lives, so she ended up reviving and reviving, all day, every day, for the last week, with little to no breaks for food or drink. She ended up having to be ordered to go to and get some mandatory sleep, so as to not collapse from exhaustion.

To those who had recently come back, the knowledge of them and their loved ones having been dead for a while was a bit hard for them to come to terms with. General Kayama was offering mental health services and talks to anyone who was willing, but those were few and far between. The majority of people simply packed up and left. Honestly, Momo couldn't blame them; they were offered a better chance at life here, and what they got was a bullet to the back.

Once Kodai finished up with the civilians, she moved on to the soldiers. The majority of them were freaking out over what they saw on the other side, and several of them outright quit the JSDF right then and there. They turned in their weapons, and just walked through the gate. A few of them stuck around for questions, but most of them just up and left.

One of the more depressing topics was how the bodies of the deceased were treated. Momo saw the corpse mountain the first time around, but what she didn't know was that, while the mercenaries were carrying them to one place, they also raided the pockets of the dead, and even took some of their clothes, probably thinking that what they were carrying was valuable. Yeah, no, that was a blatant war crime, even if you removed the fact that these soldiers for hire were killing unarmed civilians along with soldiers. It also meant that the recently revived would have to look for their property, while others came back essentially naked.

And yet somehow, they were the lucky ones. According to Aizawa, several of the buildings were bombed in the initial attacks, meaning that several of the deceased were nothing more than smithereens. Kodai said she'd be able to revive them, too, but the bigger problem was the issue that they couldn't properly identify the bodies. Some of them were burned beyond recognition, while the only thing that remained for others would sometimes just be a disembodied hand.

There was a pretty good chance that several people were blown into so many pieces that Kodai wouldn't be able to find a piece of them to start the resurrection process. Momo, along with several others, seriously hoped that maybe those people just escaped the carnage, and were simply declared as missing. Speaking of those who were missing… Kota.

Momo remembered Kota. He was the teenager she met during the Musutafu Incident, the one who lost his parents. The same one she saw at the small memorial made at the side of the gate, where he and Colonel Sosaki, along with so many others grieved for their loved ones.

Momo felt so stupid. She had seen Sosaki before the Collibus Hills, she was Kota's aunt! And she brought her nephew here during the meeting for all the high-ranking officers.

"I'm not too sure what the relationship between the two of you is; maybe you babysat her kid one time… but whatever it is, I know the two of you are related somehow. I just know."

Imasuji was right. Momo was connected to Sosaki somehow, and that somehow was Kota. From what Sosaki told her after the fight, the teen looked up to her, said he was a huge fan of Momo's. All that did was make the black-haired woman feel even worse. She wasn't able to keep his parents safe, and now, the poor kid was probably out in the woods, afraid.

Or, as her intrusive thoughts would like her to know, maybe eaten by a bear.

Momo sighed. She hadn't even done any actual hard work today, and she was tired. And she hated herself for being tired, all while everyone else was working their asses off.

With the mass exodus now happening from the Collibus Hills, the few remaining soldiers had their hands busy with not only safely escorting those leaving out of the Collibus Hills, but also with the rebuilding efforts and orienting the newest batch of soldiers from Japan to how things are done around here. All while Momo just sat in her room, staring at the ceiling.

After the initial shock of Melissa being swallowed up by a physical embodiment of darkness wore off, Momo tried to get some answers from Pony, who kept muttering the phrase "Demon Lord." Eventually, after snapping her out of it, she asked both her, Shoto, and a few others about what had happened, and the general consensus was that Melissa had been abducted by a servant of the Demon King, specifically, the shadow demon known as Kurogiri.

KNOCK-KNOCK!

"Ugh," Momo groaned. "Shoto, I appreciate you trying to comfort me, but I…"

"Hate to break it to you, but I'm not your boyfriend, Lieutenant."

Momo let you a small yelp of surprise, as she saw General Aizawa behind her now-open door. Quickly jumping out of bed, she quickly cleaned herself up, and stood at attention.

"At ease, Lieutenant," Aizawa said. "Anyways, how are you feeling?"

"Freely speaking, sir? Like shit."

"I know that feeling all too well," the older man said. "Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the JSDF is in need of your services once more. Your distress call was received. Think that you're up for it?"

Oh, right, Hatsume, Momo thought to herself. "Yeah… I think I'm up for it."

Walking towards one of the bigger warehouses with General Aizawa, Momo noticed that several members of infamous Dungeon Crawlers were also heading in the same direction. Hell, even Kodai was following. Which either meant that she had finally finished reviving every decent soul that kicked the bucket here, or that Hatsume was just that important of a visitor.

Nah, who was she kidding? It was definitely the former. If Kodai refused to eat and drink while working, there was no way in hell that she would stop her work just because Queen Hatsume showed up. She must have just finished with the soldiers, and figured that all the dead mercs deserved a few extra hours in Hell before deciding whether to even bring them back.

Momo, along with the few other soldiers that were following her, walked through the warehouse doors. These actually used to be the hangars of the F-15s, but since they were all destroyed now, it was being used as a replacement base of operations until the actual base was restored.

In the center of the massive hangar was a table, with one side hosting not just Hatsume, but also her personal entourage and Tokoyami, who seemed to be staring at a bunch of golden coins in his hands. Huh, guess Hatsume must have paid him for his services…

She was actually kind of glad to see that. Between the combined efforts of delivering Bakugou and Kirishima back to the Collibus Hills, participating in an impromptu battle against an angel, having to escape a bunch of evil mercenaries and then going straight to the Dryadalis Kingdom to ask for help, it was good to see that someone was getting their money's worth.

Hopefully, Dark Shadow was also compensated with a large bucket of birdseed, or something like that. Momo wasn't a bird expert, she'd have to ask Rin what giant ravens ate later.

"Lieutenant Yaoyorozu!" Hatsume waved at her. "Glad to see you're not dead!"

That's one way to start a conversation. "And I'm glad to see you, too."

Momo looked around to see that Shoto, Ashido, and a few other Special Region locals like Tsunotori and Mineta were also a part of this meeting. She wasn't sure if Hatsume and her elves were aware of who Shoto was and what he was doing here, so she decided to stay silent.

Shoto, on the other hand, decided to do some small talk while he waited.

"So, you're the Queen of the Elves," the peppermint-haired man said. "As a prince of the Todoroki Empire, I would like to apologize for everything my father did while in power."

"Huh? You're a Todoroki brat?" the pink-haired elf asked, completely oblivious to how she phrased her question. "I didn't know you guys teamed up with Japan."

"My siblings and I worked together with them to overthrow my father," Shoto said. "My sister is now the ruler, and I came back here to live out the rest of my days with my girlfriend."

"Your girlfriend…?" Hatsume looked at both Shoto and Momo, before she ended up connecting the dots. "Oh, congratulations! Glad to hear a positive in this sea of recent tragedy!"

"Yeah, yeah, we're all happy about that one silver lining," Aizawa said, as he looked around to see everyone in attendance. "So, just to summarize for everyone present: Yes, the Collibus Hills was attacked by a bunch of mercenaries from our world. Yes, we did indeed call for help from the Kingdom of Dryadalis, and thank you for responding. However, while you were preparing to head out, we managed to take back our bases and homes, and are now in the process of rebuilding. I'm not trying to blame anyone, I'm simply stating the official facts."

"Perfectly understandable," the younger of the Iida brothers, Tenya, said. "While we do apologize for our delay, we have come bearing supplies and tools that can assist in your reconstruction efforts, along with weapons and magic that can prevent a repeat of such a tragedy. While what you went through was indeed a horrible event, we can hope that this aid and partnership will strengthen the bond between Dryadalis and Japan."

"We're grateful for your help," General Kayama said, slightly bowing.

"At the very least, I'm glad to see that all my friends are still in one piece," Hatsume said, as she looked over Momo and her crew. "Hey, where's Shield? Is she busy doing something?"

Everyone was silent for a few seconds, before Momo decided to bite the bullet. "During the end of our resistance campaign… something showed up, and took her away. Tsunotori, err, the minotaur on my left here, was also there. Pony, you called it a… Demon Lord?"

"He," the blonde minotaur corrected her. "Kurogiri, from all the stories I heard, is a he. And yes, I'm pretty sure it was him. Crazy mass of shadows, featureless eyes, deep voice. It matched all of the stories I heard about him from my village. But… none of us ever saw him. We just knew him from the stories; a Demon Lord that had been around for a century or two, quite a while."

"More than enough time for people to make stories about him," Bakugou surmised.

"Maybe you could tell us something?" Momo asked. "Anything would help."

Hatsume was silent for a moment. Even her entourage, from the Iida brothers, to Kaina and Beros, they all looked around as if Momo had just uttered some sort of taboo.

Eventually, Hatsume spoke up. "Alright, we'll tell you what we know for certain. But I have to warn you, aside from a spotty history, the subject matter is a bit… grim. Still up for it?"

That wasn't even a question for Momo. "Anything to get our friend back."

The elven queen nodded, as she began her tale. "To put it in the simplest terms, your friend has been abducted by one of the highest-ranking members of the Demon King's army. I'm sure that at some point Shield explained this to you, but that man's inner circle of that man's court consists of some of the most fearsome warriors, cunning strategists, and secretive infiltrators."

"Sounds dangerous," Monoma said. "And the Demon King himself?"

"Hard to say," Hatsume said. "Over the past decade he has ruled, he has been given many titles: The Green Demon of the West, Scourge of the Howling Coast, the Emerald King, the Symbol of Evil, stuff like that. But he's nothing compared to his predecessor."

"I'm sorry, what?" Kaibara blinked. "The current big bad had a daddy?"

"A crude way of phrasing it, but yes, he had a daddy," the pink-haired elf said. "I think a history lesson would help give some context here… There are multiple races that inhabit this world that originally never came from here. Satyrs, devils, even elves originally started out elsewhere… and demons were no exception. Millennia ago, maybe even longer than that, a portal from their world opened up at the very end of this continent, on the west. They were native to an ever-evolving engine of infinite depths, which had them act as an instrument of oblivion."

"The Abyss," Bakugou murmured, as all eyes looked at him. "What?"

"How did you know about that?" Beros asked.

"Uhh… read it in a book," the explosive blond calmly said. Momo swore to God, if Bakugou was referring to his Monster Manual, she was gonna lose it. Like, seriously, how the hell was that thing so damn accurate? Was Gary Gygax some sort of psychic, Jesus Christ!

Hatsume and the others seemed to accept that. It didn't seem like anyone was gonna ask what sort of book Bakugou was referring to, so hopefully, no one would find out that a guidebook for a tabletop game was, at the moment, the best source of knowledge for the JSDF. Small mercies.

But what Hatsume said piqued Momo's curiosity. Several of the races of this world originally started off from elsewhere. It was already pretty well-established that the Special Region was most likely not located in the same universe as Earth (or if it was, most likely on the other end of the universe), but despite that, there were humans living here. In fact, there were multiple races here that, until four months ago, were considered to be nothing more than fictional.

Additionally, several of them came from human mythologies. Minotaurs and medusas came from the Greek mythos, angels came from the Abrahamic religions, and while Momo hadn't seen any real ones yet, dragons here seemed to follow the evolutionary bodybuild of how they were depicted during the High Middle Ages. But… all of these were human creations, right?

Momo figured, with the new information Hatsume gave them, that she could come up with a few theories on what is going on: One, as crazy as it sounded, maybe at some point in time, all of these fantastical creatures were on Earth, and arrived here thanks to one of these aforementioned portals, before disappearing. Unlikely, given that there would be at least some more physical evidence of their existence outside of just ancient drawings.

Yes, humans hunted lots of things to extinction, but they usually kept some kind of evidence of their kills. If they did indeed hunt the visiting creatures down, there would at least be a stuffed dragon head or preserved angel wings hanging around in some museum. Additionally, Momo seriously doubted a bunch of humans from the medieval period would be able to kill something as powerful as a dragon. Yes, humanity was pretty well-known for their ability to kill, but that was mostly due to their modern weapons. She seriously doubted a bunch of peasants armed with spears would be able to do much damage against an angel, much less an entire group.

So, that leaves her with theory number two, humans simply made up all of these creatures and, coincidentally, the portals that brought everything to the Special Region just happened to choose the most well-known and modern interpretations of these creatures. That sounded pretty lame compared to her last theory, but there was at least some evidence to back up her claim.

First, the fact that humans existed here. Rin had made it pretty clear during their first outing into the Special Region that multiple creatures feasibly couldn't exist out here naturally, especially when their environments were taken into account. His current theory was that something in this world (maybe magic) was able to accelerate mutation in these creatures, so fast and in so many diverse ways, that new species were evolving at an exponential rate. It was like how Hollywood interpreted what happens to an animal that gets too close to nuclear radiation: It becomes monstrous, rather than the more realistic option of it getting cancer and dying.

Momo agreed to the theory, but now she was adding something else to it: The humans in the Special Region did indeed receive mutations from whatever is in their world (Shoto was a perfect example, with his unnatural hair and eye colorations, and arguably, his ability to use magic), but they didn't naturally evolve here; they came here from Earth. Or, at the very least, a parallel version of Earth. She would argue that, due to their architecture and names, along with the fact that everyone here speaks Latin, the Todoroki Empire seemed to be inspired by both Roman and Japanese culture, but she was pretty sure someone in the annals of history would make a note about a massive portion of the population disappearing, sooo… yeah.

Momo's verison of Earth or a parallel Earth aside, the humans in this world originated from a version of Earth. The most concrete evidence they had was the fact that Tsunotori, along with her tribe, mythologized a Texan man with an M4 carbine assault rifle, spawning the legend of the Arms of Fire into this world, along with Hatsume's desire to reverse-engineer that tech.

Speaking of reverse-engineering, whatever wizard created the Collibus Hills Gate was probably doing the same thing: They were trying to create their own version of the portals that randomly brought in various races from across the multiverse. And while a controlled version of their experiment failed, they managed to make the basic principle work, given that the gate became well-known for randomly spewing out who-knows-what from wherever it connected to.

Okay, so, this world was a mish-mash of various other worlds, which supercharged the local wildlife down their own unique evolutionary timeline, with some people mythologizing the process, and others trying to recreate it. Cool. The only question now was how everything managed to get here in the first place. Portals into other universes didn't occur naturally…

A small part of Momo thought that maybe it was the gods that Melissa used to serve that might have been responsible for it, but she brushed it off. Yes, several deities in several mythologies weren't all-benevolent, and given their status it was possible that they would be capable of doing such a thing. However, Momo wasn't entirely sure if Melissa didn't have anything to do with this. Sure, she was banished from the heavens because she fell in love with a Special Region local, but that implied that, if her gods were responsible for this, then she didn't call them out on this huge violation of ethics, either because she didn't know it was a bad thing, or because it didn't matter much to her, as say, making kissy faces with some random dude.

Defying your boss for the sake of love was one thing, but doing that while ignoring (or being unaware of) a bunch of major bad things they were doing prior to your little defiance not only shows a new layer of your true self, but it also made your true self look problematic.

No! Melissa was her friend! She wasn't gonna start suspecting her of anything bad now! Especially when she has just been kidnapped by a pawn of the literal Demon King!

"Momo?" Shoto shook her shoulder. "You've been spacing out."

"Huh?" Momo snapped back to the present. "What did I miss?"

"Tsutsumi-san ended up asking a few more questions about the book Bakugou had, and Tsuburaba ended up spilling that it was a guidebook belonging to a roleplaying game."

WHAT?! Momo was in her head for two minutes, at most! Looking around, she could see that the elves looked kinda pissed, Bakugou was yelling, and Hatsume looked distraught.

"...IF IT WORKS, IT WORKS!" the explosive blond shouted.

"Our entire cosmology was reduced to a marketable game for socially awkward adolescents…" Hatsume said, her face making it look like her soul had long departed her body.

When this meeting was over, she was gonna strangle Tsuburaba. But right now, Momo needed everyone to get back on track. "Uh, Hatsume? You were talking about the old Demon King?"

"Huh? Oh, right, right." Hatsume snapped out of her depressive state, as she continued, "Anyways, as I was saying, in the Abyss, the longer a demon lived there, the more powerful it became, with the really older demons beginning to boss around the smaller ones, calling themselves Demon Lords. At some point, they found a way into our world, through summonings, or possession of mortal bodies, before eventually just opening a portal themselves, and taking over the western front. By the time our ancestors managed to take care of the situation, a number of demons had now made Mundus their home, and one of them, Hisashi Shigaraki, crowned himself as the absolute Demon King of their new world."

"I'm assuming he wasn't a nice person whatsoever," Kendo deadpanned.

"You'd be assuming correctly," Hatsume said. "However, instead of plunging the rest of our world into darkness, he was stopped, as someone had opposed him. A man by the name of Yoichi, pure of heart and soul, forged a sword capable of slaying the old Demon King. Though he was killed in combat, he managed to pass his sword, and his power, down to his successor. This tradition carried on for eight generations, until the most recent Hero, a human by the name of Toshinori Yagi, aided by his party, was able to slay Hisashi Shigaraki eleven years ago."

Momo nodded along. "Okay, so, from what I'm understanding, the big bad Demon King was killed over a decade ago, and his successor… is the one who sent Kurogiri to abduct Melissa?"

"It would make sense," Hatsume said. "While everyone else was scrambling thanks to the Todoroki Empire's antics, Shigaraki's son has spent the last decade or so rebuilding his father's broken kingdom in the background, so the demons are bound for a comeback now."

"So, why would he need Shield?" Bakugou asked. "Some kind of evil ritual?"

"Ritual, power theft, or straight-up eating her, whatever he's planning, we can assume it's bad," Momo said. "But I'm not gonna sit around and let him do it. We're gonna go save her."

"Uhh, how?" Awase asked. "Our airship is in the body shop, remember?"

"Actually…" Hatsume spoke up. "We might be able to help with that."

"Whoa," Uraraka said. "What are we even looking at?"

Momo had to agree with her astronomer on that one. What even was this?

Hatsume and the elves brought them out to a field where four vehicles were now parked. They were small, the main body of each one rightly the size of a minivan, in the body shape of something that looked like the mix of a boat and a small plane. Momo was leaning more towards the plane option, given the fact that above the main body, there was a massive set of wings, like those of a plane, and at the tail end, there was a smaller, secondary wingset.

But the weirder part was that this thing was made of plants.

No, she wasn't joking. The outside of the entire plane-thing was composed of green leaves, with only the smallest hint of metal keeping everything together. A closer inspection also revealed that the inside of the ship was composed of wood, including, but not limited to, the steering wheel, dashboard, gear lever, and even half of the seats, with the other half being velvet.

"These…" Hatsume spoke, as she waved her hands towards the vehicles. "Are the newest generation of skyships! I was talking about them back before you left my kingdom, but they're finally done and ready! Spirit-empowered flight, smaller designs with longer wingspans for faster travel, and best of all, thanks to Awase… THE NOW HAVE ROCKET BOOSTERS!"

The mechanic gawked. "Wait, seriously?! You figured out how to make them?!"

"INDEED I DID!" the pink-haired elf exclaimed. "Well, kinda. I may have cut some corners using magic, but hey, it's more environmentally-friendly that way! Anyways, by my calculations, I think you should make it to the capital of Daemonium by the end of the week, if you leave now!"

They packed up and prepared to leave in under thirty minutes.

There were four of these new souped-up skyships, and each one of them was capable of holding four people. Meaning that, minus the extra seat Melissa was gonna take on the way back, there was an extra place for one more party member. It was a choice between Ashido and Shoto, but in the end, Shoto was chosen due to his bigger arsenal in magic.

"Please, come back to me alive," Ashido said, hugging Kirishima.

Kirishim held her close. "Don't worry, babe. Of course I will."

Momo watched the scene with a soft smile, as she climbed into her skyship. Sure, they were going armed to the teeth, but they were still gonna go up against the Demon King. She really did hope that they would make it out alive, but a part of her was also thinking realistically.

"Hatsume, please take care of everyone here. We're counting on you."

The elven queen nodded, while General Aizawa gave Momo a salute of respect. Giving him one back, Momo looked over to Awase, as she said, "Corporal, you may start the engine."

Awase nodded, as he pulled the lever, the engine began to blared to life, and the green skyship took to the air. The other three followed behind her, as the magic of the spirits trialed off their wings, and the Collibus Hills got ever so smaller and smaller.

"Hold on Melissa," Momo whispered. "We're coming to save you!"

The blonde angel collapsed on her side of the massive bed, her breathing laborious and sweat rolling down her body, as a result of what she and her beloved had done together.

"Hah… hah…" Melissa panted heavily. "Izuku…?"

The green-haired demon looked over to the fallen angel. "Yes…?"

His breath left him, as she grabbed her beloved and climbed on top of him.

"Again."

"Yes, ma'am."

Those two would be at it for quite a long time.

Author's Note: My apologies for the last-minute smut, but I needed something to pad the page length, and I couldn't help myself after I imagined Momo fearing what sort of horrors Melissa was in, only to have the jump-cut of her banging the Demon King.

So, now you know some more lore about this world. I always wondered how, evolutionary speaking, there were always multiple races in these sorts of fantasy worlds. For this story, I decided to go with Gate's version stating that every race originally came from another world, and that they just adapted to this one, while adding the multiple planes thing from Dungeons and Dragons. I also tried to add some more background lore to it to make it seem more plausible than just random teleportations and portals. I'll talk more about the lore at another time, right now, we've got a couple of comments to see!

MostOfYouNeedTherapy: Ironically enough, I wrote this chapter back during the summer, so your prediction of Kodai needing to resurrect basically everybody on her own was completely spot-on, since I didn't just add this out of the blue as a last minute thing. I don't know whether I should be impressed by your skills, or somewhat disappointed in myself for coming up with something that predictable. Eh, I'm gonna go with the former.

valkrus: …Crud. Well, you got me on that one. Well played.

Anyways, back to the regular old shilling…

I'm pretty sure as you all know now, I have also made a Twitter account to post my art, so if anyone is interested in checking it out, /ErnaloreProf is the link.

If you want more content, visit my Discord, the link is /3PFYSt8Dqz. You can chat with others, post memes, fanfic recommendations and prompts, role play, fan art, and we even have a writer's corner now! I'll also drop by with announcements and chat with you all every now and then! Also, if you want to add me as a friend, my username is Ernalore#8663! Just please make sure to follow the rules.

Thanks for reading, and once again, see you next time!

- Ernalore