Sophie teleported back to the outsider mansion with Lone, and immediately, Lone's expression cracked as he looked at the state of his friends who were lying around haphazardly in the courtyard.

Everyone was covered in cuts and bruises, especially Eolande. For some reason, she seemed to be in a far more precarious situation than everyone else was.

"Sophie?" Lone looked at the small girl next to him with a scolding gaze in his eyes.

Sophie whistled like it had nothing to do with her and she then grabbed a few of Lone's fluffy tails and immersed herself in the warm sensation of them coiling around her arms.

Lone sighed heavily. Everyone was looking at Sophie fearfully, even Swind, who usually struggled to express himself regardless of the situation.

"Just what did you do to them?" Lone asked.

"Training," was Sophie's very short reply.

Eolande, who was wriggling about on the floor in pain like a worm, scrunched her bloody face up at Sophie's cute attitude and attempts to act innocent. "You're not a Human! You're a Devil in Human skin! That's what you are!"

Sophie stuck her tongue out playfully at the Elder Tylwyth Teg. "Lone told me to train you guys, so I did as I was told."

Rachel was hugging her knees as she sat next to Swind. "That wasn't training... It was hell... You can grope me all you want if it means that you can spare me from ever doing that again..."

"Soph, I told you to train them, not traumatise them," Lone said as he held his forehead and frowned.

"I-It was effective! B-Besides... I don't know how to train people, so it's your fault! Stupid Lone..." Sophie was, as always, adorably immature.

"It was effective?" Lone didn't miss Sophie saying this, so he took a moment to use Clicker's power on everyone. This was far faster than physically sensing their new strength.

"Swind became an F-ranker, Breena an A-ranker, Fep a B-ranker, and the Demon Princess is close to breaking through to being an S-ranker. I can feel it from her soul... Amazing. Maybe this kind of intensive spartan training isn't such a bad idea after all?" Lone muttered just loud enough for everyone to hear him.

The Demon Princess' body shook, and despite her injuries, she got down on her knees and placed her head to the ground as she begged, "Please Lo-, No, Sir Immortus! Anything but her training again! I'd rather fight a tribe of Orcs in nothing but my underwear! At the very least, let me train under your aura instead of under that Demon's methods!"

'You're actually the Demon here though, aren't you?' Lone thought.

"I-It wasn't that bad!" At Sophie hurt voice, everyone except for Lone flinched and glared at the tiny Cosmos-ranked being like she was a villain trying to play the victim.

"Okay, enough dodging it." Lone looked right into Sophie emerald-green eyes. "Tell me, Soph, what exactly did you do to them?"

"Em... Um... Remember what I did to Falin during our keeper tests? I might have done that... over... and over..." Sophie twirled her feet into the grass and looked down, avoiding Lone's eyes at all cost.

"So you cut them to pieces and flayed them alive? How? Why aren't they more injured?" Lone asked.

Even if Sophie had done as she said, Lone was the only healer in their little group of outsiders, so he was confused about how everyone only had a few cuts and bruises, ignoring Eolande, of course. It didn't line up.

"I healed them. Nehehehe," Letty claimed as she floated down from a tree. "Sophie has a really interesting training method. I approve of it."

"The fat witch..." Eolande grumbled. "It was because of her that Sophie could keep going..."

"Ah, you possess healing magic strong enough to fix attacks dealt by Soph's Barrier Magic? I'm impressed," Lone said.

"Nehehe," Letty giggled before she returned to her tree and laid down again.

Lone looked around one final time before he made a decision. "Okay, Soph, you're banned from training from now on."

Sophie was embarrassed and a bit ashamed, while everyone else, they all jumped for joy. Lone seemed like a god in this very moment to everyone, even the usually obstinate Demon Princess.

It was easy for them to forget that Lone was the one that had instructed Sophie to train them in his absence today since he was now the person freeing them from their eternal torment.

Of course, no one really resented Sophie. Every person had made progress towards their next rank or directly ranked-up, so while they were a bit shaken and were stirring up a fuss, they all actually appreciated Sophie's efforts, even if they never wanted to experience her training ever again.

Lone spent a few minutes healing everyone of their remaining wounds, and he then left the wooden box with Eolande. "I need you to disenchant this for me, please. There's something powerful inside."

Eolande was still bitter, but she was always happy to be useful to Lone and raise his opinion of her whenever possible.

She spent a few seconds inspecting the box before she said, "Wow. I can't detect anything inside it, but this thing has about three-thousand enchantments on it. Someone really didn't want whatever's inside falling into someone else's hands."

"Can you remove them? It's very important to me," Lone asked sincerely.

Eolande grinned mischievously as she glanced at Sophie. "Sure, but I want two things in return."

"Anything within reason," Lone replied.

"I want to hug you for thirty seconds." Eolande made a surprisingly humble request.

Sophie could get jealous all she wanted, but she knew that at least this much was tolerable if it meant that she'd do what Lone wanted. Sophie could justify it if she imagined Lone was crushing the vixen of a woman with a bearhug.

"That's fine." Noticing Sophie's subtle nod, Lone wrapped his arms around Eolande gently and embraced her.

The Tylwyth Teg savoured the feeling and felt herself getting sucked into a blissful heaven. 'So this is what it's like to receive his affection... Even if he's only doing it so I open this box... It feels... warm.'

Thirty seconds quickly came and went, so Lone asked, "Your second request?"

"This," Eolande coyly said as she leaned up and kissed Lone on the cheek softly.

"Ah!" Sophie flew into a rage. "I knew you were up to something, you... you... you Succubus!"

"Hehehe, I'm gonna go and work on these enchantments now, so toodles~" Eolande hummed happily as she hovered away and disappeared into the mansion.

"Grrr!" Sophie growled like a feral beast.

Lone just sighed before he cuddled Sophie to placate her. He looked up at the tree with the sleeping Fairy in it and spoke. "So, where's Lipsilk?"

As if on instinct, Letty's finger pointed towards the main lobby of the outsider mansion. Her arm quickly returned to rest on her fat belly a second later.

Sophie continued to cling to lone possessively as they entered the lobby and found Great Elder Lipsilk.

"It's good to see you, Lone. My younger sister mentioned that you wished to talk to me?" Lipsilk seemed to be in a hurry and wanted to leave as soon as possible.

This didn't escape Lone's notice. "You can stop putting on an act, Lipsilk. I know about your corruption. Show me where it's at its worst. I want to try and heal it."

"You..." Lipsilk saw the seriousness in Lone's eyes so he chuckled. "You really don't show any respect for others, do you?"

The small Fairy lifted his shirt up and revealed a large mass of deep-purple flesh centred around his heart.

'Can you fix him, Darkness?' Lone communicated mentally.

One of the three Primal Essences within Lone's body stirred. 'Interesting... With this much Darkness energy, anyone should have died within a year or two, even an XXX-ranker. This man has an incredible amount of willpower.'

'I don't care about his mental strength. Can you heal him?' Lone liked Lipsilk, so regardless of the fact that he needed him for the coming battle, he wanted to save him since the Fairy had treated Lone as an equal ever since they first met four months ago.

'I can do more than that. You truly are a Foxkin at heart, are you not? Just how many plans did you have to reach S-rank, Lone? I count two. This, and your little training plan with the King.' Darkness was truly impressed at how far ahead Lone been thinking ever since his encounter with Elestia.

'Oh, you knew about what I wanted from Ele'hunda? I guess it wasn't that hard to figure out. I actually had five plans. Breena and Swind really opened my mind when it comes to ranking up. I'm glad I don't need to use the others though since this one will work. Some of them were quite risky,' Lone said.

'I can only think of twelve ways to rank up in a pinch. It shouldn't be long before Master has half of my mental capabilities, hmm?' Darkness teased.

Lone frowned. 'Shut up. I just lack knowledge. If I knew what you knew, I bet I'd be able to think of at least twenty ways to rank up right now. Anyway, stop chit-chatting and heal Lipsilk.'

'Yes, yes. As immature as always, Master. Talking to you never ceases to be a treat,' Darkness chuckled before he assumed Lone's body.

"Well, this is new," Lipsilk noted sarcastically at Lone's purple hair, fur and eyes.

Darkness smiled coyly. "Isn't it just?"

He then approached Lipsilk who was panting lightly while he was suppressing Ythmagobla's corruption with all of his might.

Darkness traced his fingers across the Fairy's chest and giggled. "Won't this allow Master to shoot all the way up to the mid-S-rank? Really, his luck is astounding."

Darkness then looked at Sophie who was eying him dangerously, as always. Sophie never did like the beings living inside of Lone, especially Darkness who constantly tried to sexually harass and tempt her lover.

"Perhaps he's borrowing some of yours, hmm?" Darkness closed his eyes into crescents.

Lipsilk was somewhat confused. "Lone?"

"Yes, yes. Removing the corruption, healing the Fairy, yadda, yadda, blah, blah. I never get to have any fun in this body," Darkness sighed.

Lipsilk turned to Sophie for an explanation, but she just shook her head as if to say that he was better off not knowing.

Suddenly, the Great Elder felt like his entire soul was being ripped apart, and a violent purple light filled the room. He immediately clamped at the chair he was on with his hands and bit his lower lip hard enough for it to bleed.

"Oho? I'm truly impressed that you didn't panic when I began. This tree's fate must be fairly good to possess a person such as you. Strong mental fortitude is sometimes more valuable than raw power," Darkness nonchalantly noted as he tugged and pulled at Ythmagobla's curse that filled Lipsilk's body.

The Fairy's face cramped up and his eyes were bloodshot. He could feel his very existence shaking. This was the first time in his incredibly long life that he'd felt so... in danger. Even Ythmagobla didn't fill him with such a feeling of dread.

"You're... not... Lone... Who... no... what... are... you?" Lipsilk asked through the pain.

"Little old me?" Darkness cocked his head to the side. "I'm just a faithful servant, nothing more, everything less."

He smiled mischievously. "By the way, this is going to hurt. It's going to hurt a lot. I'd suggest biting something or screaming really loudly. It's not healthy to hold back the suffering. Doctor's orders, okay?"

Eolande was in her room removing enchantment after enchantment on the tiny box that Lone had given to her before she suddenly heard a guttural and soul-shaking scream.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Turning her head towards its direction, Eolande looked perplexed. "Is Sophie training someone again? Well, at least it's not me."