Shido, Maya, Miku and Nia returned to the Neighboring World after Ashufiriya came undone.

"... Wha-"

Shido couldn't help but let out such a voice. After all, the scene he saw before his eyes was completely different from what he expected to see.

The Spirit Team girls were all defeated. There were still some Nibelcoles around, but there were also two new women.

One had long blue hair, though the tips seemed to have lost their color, she wore a mostly black dress and had nothing to cover her feet. The other was a woman with long green hair, which about half had lost its color, and she was wearing something that resembled a witch's costume.

Even without them saying anything, Shido had a feeling for who they were. They were Demon Kings.

"Oh, there's Beelzebub and some other people. We'll continue this at some other opportunity, alright?"

The green haired witch seemed to have been talking to Natsumi, who was completely frozen, as if in shock.

"Beelzebub, come here."

"... Eh? Me?"

The witch pointed to Nia, who only seemed confused. It seems that her memories as Nia and her memories as Beelzebub are separate, or at least it'll take a while for them to become unified.

Regardless, the witch noticed something was wrong, and she seemed less than happy.

"... Astaroth, go grab Beelzebub."

Following the witch's orders, the blue haired woman quickly approached Nia and reached her hand to grab her.

Needless to say, this couldn't be good, so Shido reacted.

"! Sandalphon!"

Shido didn't have much time to think, so he simply summoned an Angel and tried to do anything to stop Astaroth.

However, things didn't go as planned.

Astaroth was fast in her reaction. She grabbed Shido's sword and forced it down, making it strike the ground instead of her.

Then, she put her feet on top of it. The sword began to freeze both on the ground and on Shido's hand, locking him in place.

Once he was dealt with, Astaroth quickly picked up Nia and returned to the witch.

"W-woah! H-hey, let me go!"

Miku and Maya looked at each other, and Maya shook her head to the side. Even if they wanted to, there was no way they could fight the remaining Nibelcoles and the two new Demon Kings and recover Nia.

All they could do was grit their teeth in frustration as they watched.

"Hm, did something happen to you? Well, I guess that's for him to figure out. Nibelcoles, while you're asking about the Binah girl, ask about the boy as well. It doesn't look like he has a Sephira, but he can clearly use Angels."

"Father said to take Beelzebub to him. And about the Binah girl…"

"Since it's so rare to find someone like her, it's best to not give her a Qlipha because it'll kill her eventually."

"As for the boy… he said to not worry about him."

The Nibelcoles made their report. Considering they hadn't gone anywhere, it seemed fair to assume that they could somehow communicate through their minds.

"I see. Very well then. … Wait, I just got an idea. Ask him if I can take a sample of the Binah girl."

"... As long as it's not a serious or permanent damage."

"Perfect."

The green haired witch approached the fallen Kurumi. She stepped with her heels near Kurumi's face, cutting her cheek. Then, she bent over and collected some blood.

"Well then, it's been a pleasure. I look forward to crushing you all if you ever have the courage to show up again. Ahahaha!"

And with that, the two Demon Kings and the Nibelcoles took Nia and went off.

The Beelzebub rescue mission had failed.

/

A while later, in the center of the Neighboring World.

The witch and Astaroth, still carrying Nia, approached the tree where the corpse laid.

"Y-you're…!"

Nia was obviously surprised to see the corpse, but it seems like a bit of her memory had returned. She recognized him.

However, she was ignored and the corpse began to speak.

"You did a good job, Astaroth, Baal."

The roots of the trees moved and took Nia from Astaroth. Much like Tenka before, Nia was also soon swallowed up by the ground and her consciousness left her.

"... She seemed weird, like her memory from before came back."

"It's because it did. That boy you saw, he is the reason for this."

"Then shouldn't I have killed him? Or at least brought him to you?"

"No. I still don't understand properly, so I don't want to make any precipitated moves. He can't be the same one from 30 years ago. Who is he and how is he related to her? Until I know the answer to these questions, I can't act carelessly."

The corpse spoke, mostly to himself rather than to Baal or Astaroth.

After a few seconds, he directed his attention to Baal.

"Today was nothing more than an experiment for me. Except for Yesod and Tipheret, all the Sephiras are accounted for. It's fair to assume that that woman gave them to those girls, and there's also the boy's ability. It was quite fruitful. So, why did you want the Binah girl's blood, Baal?"

Yes. The Nibelcoles have been keeping an eye on the Spirit Team all this time. The only reason why this operation was even allowed to begin was because the corpse wanted to confirm a few hypotheses.

After he asked her, the green haired witch smiled a devious smile.

"Well, you said that it's rare to find someone who is compatible with the Satariel Qlipha, right? So I thought why not make someone be compatible? Using someone who is compatible with Binah as a base, I'm pretty sure I can transform their bodies to force that compatibility."

"... Interesting. Then, let's add more layers to your experiment. Asmodeus will die soon, see if your experiment can make her be useful for a while longer."

"Understood. Let's go, Astaroth."

Baal left, taking Astaroth with her.

The corpse was once again left with just the Nibelcoles and his thoughts.

/

After Baal and Astaroth and the Nibelcoles left, Miku and Maya tried waking everyone up. After that, they helped free Shido from the ice.

The ice didn't melt even a little, so they had to get Kotori on the case. Although the burning hurt a bit, Shido was soon freed.

After that, they talked to each other to try and understand what had happened, and then made their way back to Earth and then to the NWET headquarters, and then to Mio.

"Good job on making it back. Maria and Marina already gave us the report. It was bad luck this time, but don't let that get you down."

Mio offered some comforting words since everyone was feeling pretty down. The feeling of having gotten so close, but losing at the very end, was not something good.

After getting everyone a quick checkup, Mio dismissed them for the day, saying that they should rest and give their report tomorrow.

Mio had a car take them back to the Spirit Mansion. After a while, during the ride, Shido suddenly began to speak.

"We'll get it next time."

Those words caught the girls' attention, who focused on him.

"It really was bad luck this time, but we also learned a lot. My ability does work on the Demon Kings and we can bring their memories back. I don't know when we'll have another chance, or if it'll be with Tenka, Nia, or someone else, but next time, we won't fail."

It wasn't exactly the best speech, nor was it really that much different from what Mio had said. However, maybe because he had gone through everything with them, the girls felt that Shido's words carried more weight.

Some said "yeah," some just silently nodded, but everyone generally agreed. Next time, they would be better and stronger, and they wouldn't let something like this happen again.

Although their spirits weren't exactly lifted, they headed home with their heads held higher than when they left the headquarters.