"It would appear that it is beginning." Juzual seems to zoom into existence right before me, just as I'm melding a bunch of gold nuggets into a crudely shaped dagger on the top of my palm. I can neither get the shape nor the edge right, but her sudden appearance causes my manipulation to go haywire and turn into a spiked monstrosity.

"What started?" I ask and drop my messed up work without a care in the world. Gold is such a beautiful material and surely worth a lot, but when you hold it in your hands every single day for a month straight, you will begin to dream about it. I don't want to start hating it, since Aurelia is literally made out of it, so I'm trying to not treat it like it's something special or expensive. Then again, it's no longer expensive when it can be created out of rocks lying about...

"The battle for the future of the human world." As mysterious as ever - and as pointlessly vague, too.

"I assume there's a war starting, but you'll have to be more specific so I know between whom it's waged." At this point I'm happy for any interruptions to my mindlessly mind-numbing mental training, even if it's as tiring a conversation as speaking with someone who just can't seem to say certain things straight.

"The humans and the self-proclaimed gods are about to attack the demon queen." Juzual states with her eyes fully open, staring at the half blue marble of a planet before the backdrop of a starry sky. Wow, that wasn't too difficult now, was it?

Wait, what?

"They're attacking my mother?!"

"Indeed." The Witch of the End simply confirms.

"Bring me down there right now!" I point at said planet and shout at her in my mind.

"Very well."

"Now look, I don't- wait, really?" I expected her to say something like "you are not ready" or "I am afraid I cannot do that", so I already began to argue against her judgment, but her agreeing so easily takes me aback.

"You are not ready, yet. But even I understand that bonds between a child with its mother. What about you, queen from the empire?" Juzual responds without showing what she thinks of this. She then turns to Aurelia and gazes into her eyes with her black holes. Oh, I doubt she wants to stay on the moon all alone, so she'll have to come along.

"I will go as well." She responds curtly. I like how concise the conversation is right now, considering the time constraints we must be working under. The witch closes her eyes with a hint of resignation and seems to sigh.

"Then I shall transport you." With that, she points her hand at us, and in the next instant, we seem to zoom away from the moon's surface and find ourselves in space again. None of us actually moved and are still in our relative positions from where we stood earlier. Then, once more, the moon zooms away. I turn to look at the blue planet, which has come closer by a lot. If this was transportation magic, the distances we just put behind us would have taken hours being surrounded by a stream of light. In other words, it's something else entirely. Several more times, and I find my vision completely filled by the planet underneath me. I can clearly see the collection of continents that I remember from the map.

"This is where I have to leave you. I cannot enter his domain." With this, Juzual zooms away from us before I can even react - or rather, we zoom away from her and directly into a cloud. For a moment, I completely lose any sense of direction, but then gravity takes hold of me and I can feel that I'm entering freefall. However, since we're inside a cloud, I don't know how close we are to the ground.

"Aurelia?" I shout, since I lost sight of her, but the whipping winds are too loud for my voice to carry anywhere. I'll wait until I'm out of this cloud and then-

I hit the ground and lose my form completely, splattering across a wide area. So, rather than a cloud, it was simply very dense mist - what a bad joke. Luckily, it wasn't from as high up as I thought it was, and I'm viscous enough to quickly consolidate myself again. Damn you, Juzual, for not giving me a warning, just like that time on the moon. I just hope Aurelia is alright.

"Ventus!" I don't have the time to search for Aurelia normally, so I just blow away all the mist surrounding us.

"Hmmm?" A roaring voice booms across the area like a foghorn. "Whaaat iiis thiiis?" The reverb is so loud that I press my ears shut, but it still vibrates inside my entire body.

A moment later, I feel myself getting lifted by tendrils of fog and flung through the air. Soon after, I'm outside the mist, and thrown into a tree, although this time I had the presence of mind to cover myself in the armor plates of a dragon. Breaking the trunk behind me from the impact, I come out unscathed, and quickly right myself. Next to me, Aurelia suffers a similar fate, but her body allows her to shrug off the impact without trouble, too.

"What was that...?" I ask her, but she looks just as confused as I am.

I look around and find that we have come to a familiar place; the trees are very old and their bark is almost black, with gnarled roots growing above ground which can become tripping hazards when you need to run away from certain wolf-like creatures featuring acid saliva. The mist extends upwards into a pillar of clouds, which appears to be moving against the direction of the wind. Yes, I remember this forest, and I sure as hell won't forget this cloud thing.

This is the Dark Continent.

"Dammit, stupid witch! You brought us to the wrong place!" I shout into the sky, but I know that she can't hear me from up there - or wherever she is now. Our mental link may still be established, but she's not responding, so I have to assume that we're actually no longer connected. She did say that she can't enter this domain, so I guess it means her powers don't work here, either.

But this is great! Real great! We're in the middle of the Dark Continent, I have no map and it's around noon, so I can't tell directions from the position of the sun. Even if I could, I don't think it'd be accurate enough to find the Demon Continent, let alone the castle. And Juzual made it sound like a battle was already beginning, so we can't just wait until the sun moves to a position where it's easier to determine where east and west are.

"Can you tell where east is?" As far as I can remember, the Dark Continent is an island to the west of the Demon Continent, and is large enough so that you can't miss it, as long as you go anywhere remotely east. The issue will only be to find a populated place from where they can point me to the capital city, then.

"I am bad with directions, so I do not." The golden girl states as if it's the most natural thing; there's not a hint of shame at admitting this. I feel like bopping her over the head, but this isn't the time for stuff that. What should I do now? Maybe fly up until I can see the outlines of the continents again?

Oh right, judging by the map in my mind, this should be about as close to the empire as the Khurut Sultanate. In other words, there's one other possibility that I could try out.

"Senka!" I've had quite a bit of training in speaking with the mind recently, so I somewhat know how to put my thoughts into trying to contact the stitched girl.

"Makoto?" Senka's voice immediately responds, as if she has been waiting for me. I can't help but imagine a mini version of her sitting in her mind and waiting next to the figurative telephone which I just rang. It would make me chuckle, if not for her words that follow. "They're attacking the demon castle! Asoko is there right now! Where are you?"

"I'm on the Dark Continent. I have no idea which way the Demon Continent is." I quickly and concisely explain my situation.

"How did you-... nevermind. Here, let me help you." She appears before me and immediately spots Aurelia. "She's still alive? Didn't you go to space?"

"Yes, I even ended up on the moon. And Aurelia's kinda immortal, too." Now that she's in front of me, I feel compelled to actually speak out loud, since it's a strange feeling to talk to someone's face with one's mouth closed. At my words, the golden girl stares at me questioningly, but I don't have time to explain it to her what's going on right now.

"On the mo-" Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Senka sighs. "Anyway, you have to hurry. Kamii is at the castle, too."

"Kamii?" So that's where she has been teleported to. Then there was no need for me to go to the academy back then... There's no point to cry over spilled milk, what's done has been done, I need to do my best to stop the next tragedy from occurring. "Come here, Aurelia." I wave her over and she looks at me with a skeptical expression. Yes, she has reason enough to be alarmed, considering what I'm planning on doing, but she still does as she's told. Good girl.

Without warning I pull her inside my body. The instant she vanishes inside me, I spread Hestia's wings and take off into the sky with the aid of a wind spell. I quickly gain altitude, so that I have enough room to take on a more efficient form for fast travel. Looking at the massive cloud being, which is slowly distancing itself from us, I keep it within my field of vision just in case it decides to become hostile.

"Just follow my directions." Senka says and turns away from me. After a moment of contemplation, she points somewhere around two o'clock in front of me. Not wasting any time, I cover every inch of my body in dragon armor plates, angle my wings and turn my entire shape aerodynamic, before silently activating the incredibly strong burst of air under the funnel-like skirt I create, causing me to leap forward at an incredible speed.

Only moments later, I feel a shockwave run through my body, and as if heavy shackles have been taken off of me, I gain another burst of speed. Was that the sound barrier? Then it's finally time...

Megasonic Chaos Warhead, sortieing!

Within what must be mere minutes, I see the ocean under me. This is incredible! I'm sure I can go even faster, but for that I'd need to learn a stronger wind spell with similar properties to the one I'm using to propel myself right now. If only I understood the principles of combustion engines, I'd be able to even go to space and come back - now that I know how to cast magic without speaking.

Not long after I already see a landmass approaching in the distance. A dark cloud is looming over it in its entirety, as if to reflect the dark machinations that are in progress over there. I just hope I'll be in time, even though I have to wonder whether maou-mama even needs my help or she can just defeat the sorcerers on her own.

Senka is floating in front of me and correcting my course from time to time, like a humanoid navigation system. Since she isn't physically here, she doesn't need to angle her body to match my flight or something like that. Like a three-dimensional heads-up display figure, she is standing on nothing and pointing forward.

"I'll be there soon." I say in my mind; I removed all my facial features and covered it in armor plates to become more aerodynamic, after all. "Can you tell me what's going on there?"

"The humans have appeared in the middle of the capital and are slaughtering every demon they can get their hands on. A barrier has been erected around the castle so nobody can enter or exit right now." Senka explains. "I don't have all the information, only what Asoko can see."

"Can you patch me through to her?" I'm assuming her mental powers work like Juzuals.

"I can't do that. All I can do is talk to people I'm connected with, but they can't communicate through me." The stitched girl responds, a hint of annoyance on her face. It's the usual Senka and I smile in my mind - since I can't do so physically right now.

"Where's my mother?"

"She's being confined inside the barrier, too. No matter what she tries, she can't break through it. It must be the work of a god."

That's their plan? Slaughter all of demonkind while sealing maou-mama inside a barrier in her own castle forever? But that doesn't sound like what the sorcerers have planned for her, considering she disrespected them so deeply. I'm sure this is just another part of their scheme to bring her down. I mean, they could launch her into space like the principal did with me, but then they would neither have confirmation of her death nor the satisfaction of delivering the final blow. This must be a setup for something grander.

"Tell Asoko to be care-"

The instant I reach the shore of the Demon Continent, I feel a powerful blow run through my entire body and I tumble through the sky, losing control of myself. All my muscles contract violently and painfully, and my eyes seem to have gone blind as all I can see is whiteness. In fact, I can't even seem to transform to take a more defensive shape in the knowledge that I'm about to crash. A moment later, I impact a dune on the beach and feel pieces of my body breaking off, before I skip across the sand like on the surface of water.

After several more skips and tumbles, I finally come to a stop with my face down in the grassy plains beyond the beach. The paralysis slowly wears off, and I begin to transform, taking on a humanoid shape while lifting myself off the ground sluggishly. My funnel skirt and wings have been torn off completely and must have been scattered across the area. Luckily I have the habit to concentrate all my mass in my core, so the broken exterior was practically just a shell; I learned from the first time I was teleported to the Dark Continent, where I lost half my mass because all of it was evenly distributed throughout my body.

I have no idea what hit me, but it was strong enough to stop a Crawling Chaos' transformation abilities temporarily. Don't tell me the gods put a barrier around the entire Demon Continent?

"What happened, Makoto?! Are you alright?" Senka shouts at me in worry, as the muscles in my arms and legs are still shaky from the initial hit and the high velocity impact with the ground. Shifting their mass inside and exchanging them with fresh ones, I quickly regain full control over my body. Opening and closing my hand, I ascertain myself of the fact that the shaking has stopped.

"Something hit me." I speak in my mind and look around silently. I'm alone on the plains and there's nobody in the vicinity who could have been the origin of this attack. I look at my hand once again and notice static electricity rising up from my fingertips and towards the sky. Oh shi-

A lightning bolt hits me and the same powerful blow as before runs through my body, causing every single muscle to contract. Once again, I'm blinded by the electric current and lose sight of Senka and my surroundings. Dropping to the ground, I can smell burnt flesh and realize that my human form must have been scorched by the lightning - it didn't happen before because I was covered in dragon armor plates, which are resistant to fire. I regain control over my body again pretty quickly, but I stay on the ground unmoving, my eyes unblinking, and play dead.

The fact that lightning hit me twice in a matter of less than a minute makes it clear that this isn't a natural occurrence. In other words, I'm under attack by an unseen assailant. Making them think that I'm dead will lower their guard and cause them to come out of hiding to confirm the kill - or so I hope.

Thus, I lie there unmoving for what feels like an eternity, all my senses trained on my surroundings. Just in case, I'm slowly and carefully burrowing my core into the ground, ready to detach it and leave behind a decoy above ground. That case being that my assailant has a stronger and more destructive power at their disposal - in other words, that the attacker is one of the sorcerers.

The thunderclouds above me cackle with lightning and a single bolt flashes across the clouds. As it fades away, a lone figure is floating in midair, wearing a white leather mantle that seems anachronistically modern for the setting of this world. Long silver hair frame his well-shaped face, in which two arrogant violet eyes glint as they look past his sharp but straight nose, right down on me. He slowly descends and comes to a stop right above me.

From Juzuals descriptions, I know exactly who this is. Judging by his appearance and the natural arrogance, he can't be anyone else but Zenlith, Lord of the Sky. According to the witch, he is arguably the most powerful one among the already godlike sorcerers. In other words, the final boss.

What is with this rapid development?!