Few days later the charmed elf still follows me around like a puppy with dependent personality disorder. She tells me in great details how meeting me during the summoning session changed her way of looking at life and how she longed to meet me and... I stopped listening. I'm not sure if the charm is making her interpret her past differently, or if she really had some kind of M-awakening. As for Celica, she's constantly trying to make me borrow the elf.

No wonder the imperial soldiers are looking at me bit funnily, even among a horde of demons I stand out with my damaged dress constantly slipping, a drooling elf grappling my right arm, and a whining succubus pulling my left arm. No, just no. I don't want this harem of idiots!

...Sigh, I should think how to make best of this instead of descending into denial. Her majesty Ais requires new clothes, so she has obligation to do something about that. But is there anything else the elf could do? Besides satisfying Celica's beastly desires, that is. Hmm...

"Hey, elf--"

"(Aaa-aaah! She noticed me!) YES?"

"Could you teach me magecraft, like the lightning bolt spell you used?"

"Wonderful idea mistress!!! Normally learning it would take a very long time... but a WONDERFUL person like mistress could ABSOLUTELY do it in less than a decade! (Which means... I'll teach her by day... and she'll teach me by night...!) Ahh! Haaa... HAAAA..."

"...Let's bury that idea."

As nice as magic would be, I think I'll be content with my demonic powers... Never mind the unreasonable difficulty curve, this elf is getting alarmingly excited about the prospect of a student-teacher relationship. I don't think what she is imagining has anything to do with magic anymore.

How do I unravel this mess with minimal collateral damage? I think I could order her to forget all about me and return to her usual life, but there haven't been good opportunities for that. I don't particularly want to re-enact the scene where I released a butterfly that was stuck inside a building, only for a bird to make a lunch of it seconds later - starring the elf and imperial archers.

To retain some of my sanity I take this time I have before the next battle to test my wings. I hadn't even tried to fly before now; I just couldn't believe these relatively small wings could produce enough lift. But whatever power makes demons stronger and faster than they ought to be within laws of physics also cheats gravity shamelessly. My training consisted of me jumping into air and realizing there's nothing left to learn. All those people who risked their lives building rickety proto-airplanes in quest to conquer the skies would absolutely hate me.

***

The next battle is for a fortress held by the elves. Its towers are lined with nasty looking siege weapons, and the walls look formidable. So, naturally the Empire sends demons forth once again. I'm beginning to think they have made some large scale deal with the demon lord, since no way is getting this many demons to fight for you this easy.

I leave the elf after instructing her to give me paw and stay, and fly towards the closest tower with Celica. I suggest we gain altitude first, and then, safely out of their sights, fly above the tower and descend upon them with high speed. Most of the fire is concentrated on the bigger demons anyway, and following my plan we get to the tower before they know what hit them.

Celica makes a toned down superhero landing, and immediately starts clawing at the stunned elves like an angry honey badger. With Celica getting their attention I land behind the disoriented group of them. I have less room to swing my swordstaff because of the tower parapets, so I make overhead chops that both crush and dismember them. Many of the elves, who were busy shooting demons below, fall at first few moments of the fight. The rest regroup and form a wall of spears and shields in the corner. I happily poke at them with my overtly long weapon while they can do nothing about it.

"Is it just me, or are these elves rather weak?"

"All~ mortals are when compared to us~. But big sis~ agrees these are pretty~ disappointing!"

Taunted, the prideful elves finally lose it and charge at us. But right then the tower is hit by a ball of magical fire, which explodes at corner near them, scorching the nearest completely and putting rest of them into even further disarray. I look below and the bunny elf is officially turning her coat now. I guess ditching her back with the elves is going to be that much harder now. The remaining elves don't have time to do anything as I chop at them with the large blade, literally cutting them into pieces.

With this tower cleared we move onto the next one, but this time they are ready. Elven crew aims at Celica with a ballista, and lets fly. It might have ended gorily, but with her being a small moving target the bolt only managed to hit her wing. She loses altitude immediately though, and drifts onto the walls below beset by other demons. I don't like the idea of a ballista looming at me, so I fly towards the hastily reloading war machine while making a cork screw pattern, then trash the wooden weapon with my swordstaff. Elves shout curses at me as I swoop down on the wall.

A demon with spider body and humanoid upper body is throwing webs all around, while Celica appears to have gone berserk. She's showing whole new side of her. I thought she was sort of ditz, but apparently her real self is all about sex and war. I note that I should never get into fight with her as I skewer pair of elves. Double kill.

With elven lines of defense breached, imperial soldiers pour through and finish quickly capturing the fortress. After the battle the fortress looks like charnel house, with mauled and dismembered elven bodies everywhere and only few demon bodies here and there. I somehow managed to get through it unharmed, but Celica has multitude of lesser cuts all over her. She's not bothered by it though.

"Now that's~ what I call a battle~!"

A few days later cease fire is called. Apparently both Empire and elves had lost more than they bargained for - elves got badly beaten in battles involving demons, and Empire had a column annihilated in a forest somewhere. Not that it matters, all I needed to know is I can now do whatever I want in mortal realm now: the empire doesn't seem to be interested in forcing remaining demons back to hell and just lets us to disperse into the countryside. I, the charmed elf, and Celica, who is ecstatic since most of her visits have been short, choose to make our way to the closest imperial city.

***

We reach outskirts of the imperial city nearest to the border with no specific plans. However, I need to decide what to do with the elf. She has devolved into drooling mess that only pays attention things related to me. I might have put too much force on the charm... Surely it's not supposed to devolve people mentally to level of sea cucumber?

"Nooooooo! I don't want to leeeeeave!"

She isn't happy at all that I want to release her. It's not like I dislike this elf. It's just that she causes this feeling of unease in me. Sort of like seeing your neighbor's retarded pet dog whom you dropped head first onto pavement as a puppy.

"Listen to me--"

What was her name? I've completely forgotten. Never mind. I hit her with charm again and give a command.

"I need you to completely forget about me and events related to me. Oh, but remember that you are considered a traitor to your own kind, so returning won't be an option."

She looks blank for a moment, and then is momentarily confused as to why she's here. Then she begins looking for something, presumably to start new life outside elven lands, and disappears into the crowd. This is for the best... I think.

I'm alone now for first time in days, and have time to take a closer look around. This town is less dirty than the one with druids. Streets are all paved and houses are made of stones neatly fitting together with minimal mortar. The people's clothings incorporate metal parts a lot, not as functional armoring but as ornaments. The cloth part itself is often fairly simple though, so I'm not too out of place in the white tunic the elf got me as replacement for one she ruined. Overall I can't quite think of any culture which would match the Empire. Not that any of those have the same kind of passion for demon summoning.

Both the more recent looking buildings are dominated by triangle patterns. Coincidentally the demon summoning circle had quite similar shapes in it. Apparently this nation used to be much lesser power, but when they recently adopted large scale demon summoning, it has flourished. I ponder the long term consequences of this strategy, but conclude that whatever happens, demons will probably be the winners.

"Ready to have good time~?"

Celica is back. I purposefully separated from her to release my thrall - she might have raped the poor elf otherwise...

"Your horns are showing."

"Ack! Silly me~!"

She fixes her pale auburn hair into balls around her small horns. It looks bit silly, but does the job of disguising her as a human. This is an imperial town we are in. I doubt they are as hostile to demons as the druidic town was, but nevertheless, I don't want to risk it. Celica looks around, searching.

"Where's the elf~ at?"

"Gone."

"You... You ate her~!?"

"... What do you think, idiot."

"Elf flesh tastes like piglet by the way~."

Did she bite them in the battle? Anyway, neither I nor Celica have any objectives here, so we merely walk around aimlessly. Based on us having been here for fifteen minutes, and already almost being exposed, Celica will probably screw up and force us to leave sooner or later. We are getting bit too much attention already, though her comment about taste of elf flesh was suitable to make many back off.

Celica drives away bunch of young men by creeping them out with her suspiciously overt eagerness. Celica, succubi are supposed to use lust for their gain, not be lost in it. Not that I can lecture about that though. I don't think I want to use the charm spell ever again after what happened with that elf.

"Lookf~! I'm a cacodemfon~!"

Celica is using two meat sticks to pretend to be... I don't know what it is. Cacodemon? Never seen one. She's remarkably childish though, considering that not a long ago she was knee deep in elf blood. Wait, did she buy the sticks or just grab them? Well never mind, if there had been trouble, it would have happened by now.

As we continue walking around the town, Celica comes bouncing at me with a flier.

"Let's~ join this!"

"What is it now?"

"Arena~! Battles~! BLOOD 'N GUTS~!"

"No. And calm your tits."

In the end she kept yapping about the arena until I caved in... I seem to be vulnerable to annoyance attacks like that. Well, I'm technically immortal, so how bad can one tournament be?

"It'll be fine~, almost nobody dies in these games~! And you got big sis~ to protect you~!"

...Was that a quadruple death flag?