-- Druid point of view --

I touch the blade of my sickle in anticipation. Passed down from high druid to high druid since days of yore, its glassy dark stone gives me a strong sense of being part of continuity. The heritage tells it was created with heavenly fire long before any demons, magic, or metal-working existed, and so it shall continue to exist long after my mortal coil has returned to earth.

"Begin the summoning."

Arthorius signals the beginning of the contentious move that deeply troubles me - summoning of demons.

When Arthorius, the youngest of our council, claimed that the Great Hunt has been infiltrated by demons, many of us couldn't believe it. Demons? In our Great Hunt? Impossible!

But now that the two reformed mages - whom my brethren brought here in order to use their dark spells one more time - have finished their castings, to my dismay the victors of the Hunt appear before us in the two summoning circles. It was true after all! Both of them have outwards appearances of a human, and if I hadn't seen the summoning process with my own eyes, I'd still be uncertain.

"You were right...!"

"So demons have infiltrated the games. This is ill omen."

It was far too easy to fall to the trap of thinking he was merely being paranoid, especially when we all know about his great troubles with demons just earlier this year. For our shame we ignored it along with several signs of demonic influence until this late hour.

For demons of lust, as Arthorius named them, they are quite - almost disappointingly so - normal. Most demons I have confronted have been beastial and foul creatures, after all. Although... the icy-blue eyed one's rack is pleasantly bountiful-- Agh! I almost fell for it! Clearly this is her foul demonic influence at work. Even disguised it is truly frightful thing.

My shameful wavering is interrupted as Arthorius, whose moment this is, speaks to the demon ilk.

"We know what you are, demons. Shed your disguises, for you cannot fool us any longer."

The other demon, one further away from me who has been smirking incessantly, speaks in a strangely compelling sing-song voice.

"Tehe~. Not too old~ for a strip show~, greybeards~?"

A demon of lust indeed. The other one silently sneers at her taunt, though it seems like it was something completely different she found amusing.

"Stop with the games and dispel the effect that hides your true nature."

The demon who had spoken just shrugs and pops off a ring, while the icy-eyed one looks at us with blank face and makes a show of raising her middle-finger and slowly sliding her ring off. What that gesture means, I cannot say.

With their demonic glamor clear to see now, it is easy to believe they are powerful enough to have corrupted those three clan warriors who lost themselves to passion and ended up murdering each other.

"We must take no chances with them."

-- Ais' point of view --

Besides the druids, who were supposed to be out targets, I spot two summoners who currently hold us trapped in circles. Such awful misuse of demon summoning. I hope whoever invented these damn summoning circle got their head ripped off by a demon...

If magic could go through a summoning circle, they would have done so already. Therefore their plan is probably to prepare some nasty demon-slaying spell and cast it right after signaling the mages to release the circles. Two of them stay on guard while the rest begin to chant together, and whatever it's going to be, it seems to take a while to finish.

Since I can't leave the magical circle, I might as well take a closer look around the chamber. This cave hall is huge, with long stalactites like jaws of deep sea fish lining its central space. The druids have built a small henge inside here, its standing stones surrounding my and Celica's summoning circles. Fighting in this space would favor a winged succubus. If I weren't, you know, trapped.

But, that may change... I notice a rat skirting the cave walls, sneakily approaching the mages. Excellent, it's up to you now, Azara! ... Wait, don't just stop to eat a random piece of trash! ...I'm beginning to suspect it's a normal rat.

Looking around some more, I spot another suspicious thing approaching... A box. Are you Solid Snake!? I guess she couldn't either turn into non-suspicious form, or didn't have the clothes to go with one. The box creeps closer and closer to the target - too close, actually. She could already use hellfire to take the mages out, so why's she still sneaking closer? Goddammit that Azara, she just wants to stab them that much!

Not being complete idiots, the druid closest to the mages casts banishing spell on Azara, who never saw it coming, what with being inside a box. Or maybe she had turned into the box? Whatever the case, there goes the one chance to escape. There's still bit time, since the druids haven't finished their casting.

Celica seems to be acting like this doesn't concern her, but I won't just stand here and let them kill me. I feel I will lose more than time if I have to reform. After all, if I would reform normally, I would remember going through it.

Time to test just how invulnerable this circle is.

-- Celica's point of view --

We're in a pickle, up to our necks in vinegar~. Ah, now I'm hungry~.

Was it a mistake to push Ais into another confrontation with the druids, here and now? I thought she'd be ready to face the druids, unlike the last time when one of their groups managed to slip past me and Ais went to the edge to defeat them. 'Twas too early, she knew too little, and this incarnation almost lost cohesion. Sigh. That the high druids actually all agreed to use summoning... that was really~ unfair of them.

...Better focus~, I mustn't miss the show. Ais is already losing her patience with this, and agitated Ais is the best kind of Ais~. Tehe~. I bet she's gonna do something to make those wizardly wimps lose nerve and mess up the circles~--

"Fuck this...!"

No no no~! Don't brute-force it, silly~! She tries to break through the circle, first with her weird spear, which she insist is a swordstaff, then with blasts of hellrime. Of course that has no effect. Sigh~...

The druid with a very pullable long beard watches her flail too.

"You cannot break it with your power, demon. Circles, while misused by demon-summoners, were originally meant to hold in evil."

"Is. That. So."

She's not deterred, and instead puts it up to eleven. Hoo~. The circle turns into a opaque white half-globe as she hits it again and again with her cold cold power. The druid is spooked and steps back, though the circle holds even after Ais has emptied all her essence.

Welp~, at least you tried~.

'Tis too bad, but I don't see her getting out of this one. As fun as it is seeing what kind of weirdo~ she copies next, it could be another thousand years before another as receptive one appears. She really picks all sorts.

Like that previous one. She just went on and on about humans and their society... her latest was something about 'abolishing classes' and revolution. Boring~. Really liked color red though. Got to see lots of it when the human nobles hired all the possible demon hunters and heroes to slay her~.

I missed the one before that, and before that she just started screaming and jumped into lava soon after I came to say hello. Talk about rude~. And that one who called herself Erzsebet... too demonic! Even the demon lord is still a cowardly wimp after what she did to him.

There were some funny ones too, like the first one I met, Nesephet or whatever it was. Elves really loved her... for a long time they worshipped her as goddess of love. She even got them to build her a giant pile of stone blocks - dunno if even she herself knew what for~. 'Tis still considered a wonder~ of this world by the way. Too bad I didn't realize what a delightful creature she was back then, or I'd have kept a closer watch. I was so surprised when she came back completely different!

But Ais really is the best~. First meeting wasn't promising though~: she just stared at me with dead eyes, asked weird stuff, and then stole my summoning spot~! I thought this one's gonna be a drag~. But she began to lighten up, slowly but surely. Always weird, sure, with those 'references' of hers and getting stuck on all pointless stuff. But she figured out a lot all by herself, and was pretty chill.

Really, 'tis a shame it's over already--

"Gasp!"

Whoa~! I almost missed this... she just pushed her hand through the circle! Leave it to Ais~ to make quick choices: she jettisoned her demonic essence to escape the circle. I dunno how it actually works, but I guess Ais is just weird enough to ignore little things like that~.

"She's breaking through!"

"How is that possible!?"

The mages and two druids standing on guard freak out as the rest of her follows, covered in frost and smoldering. ...Smoldering? Did I forget to tell her that a demon without demonic essence disintegrates?

Tehe~... Oops.