Breath in Alya.

Breath out.

Deep breath in.

And slow release…

Why am I so angry?

Is it because somebody else came in to change my plans? Is it because another demon came along and indirectly altered the course of our lives? Or is it cause scum like Vedran exist?

Either way, I was feeling very murderous.

But I’ll have to save that for another day.

This was Nina and Luka’s fight to which they had no choice but to agree to. If I had interfered in that conversation, it would have ruined whatever trust or respect that we had built towards one another over these last couple of months.

Something that I had come to value oddly enough.

“Why do you have to do this?” cried Helia.

Nina held her tight and said, “We’d get our farm and things taken away from us. It’s easier to go along with them now than it is to continue to refuse them.”

“Unfortunately, that's just the way things are right now…,” Lukas added.

Once Vedran and the others had left, the three of us went down the stairs to discuss what would happen next. The couple had managed to tell us about meeting up with the other adventurer’s at the main gate in two hours before Helia had burst into tears.

“Why not just let Mom go take care of the demon?!”

“I suppose if I left right now, it’d be done and over by the time the group got there,” I mused.

“Well technically that would be fine but we had gotten Vedran to agree not to pull us back in if we did this one last mission for them. We’d probably get pulled into another one after this one if the demon just disappeared,” Lukas explained.

“That’s not right,” said Tania.

“Right or not, that’s what’s going to happen. Let’s just hope this one won’t be too bad.”

“I promise Helia, we’ll be back,” Nina said.

That’s something called a red flag...right?

Having managed to comfort Helia, Lukas and Nina went on to prep their gear, which they hadn’t used in years. For Lukas it was an enchanted mythril blade and some light mythril armor; according to him, speed and agility was more important than the ability to take a hit. Nina on the other hand carried a staff and wore similar armor to Lukas. While most humans had a low mana capacity and poor aptitude for using it, some humans had enough talent to make use of it on the battlefield.

A new addition to their usual gear though was a mana-pistol for each of them. In a tight situation, they could easily pull it out and blast whatever was in front of them.

And then it was time to go.

We stood at the door, seeing them off. Helia of course gave each of them a long hug and Tania did something similar albeit much shorter. I just stood there awkwardly wishing them luck.

“We’ll be back in a day or so. Take care of things for us in the meantime alright?” Lukas called out.

“Ok! See you soon!” Helia shouted back.

Only a moment later, the two disappeared in the distance.

Coincidentally, not too long after they had left, we had a visitor.

“What took you so long?” I teased.

“Is that how you greet a long-time friend Queen?” Ziden laughed.

We were at the door when Helia came running up.

“Mom, who’s this?”

I gave Ziden a smirk and asked her if she didn’t remember who it was.

“No, I’ve had so much information crammed into me, I have no idea.”

“I’ve already been forgotten about and it's not even been that long…,” Ziden muttered with his head down. Looking back up, he said, “Helia, I’m Ziden. I was here a couple of months ago. Can’t believe that you're as tall as your mother now. It’s nice to see that you grew up just as beautiful as her.”

I’m pretty sure both of us got slightly red in the face at that comment…let’s not dwell on it.

Changing topics, I asked him if he had done what I had asked of him.

“Yea. May we go inside? I’ll tell you all about it.”

Sitting down, I called out to Tania to bring over some refreshments and then he started to answer my question.

“Tania, your sister is currently at the Royal Palace in the upper tier. As a mixed demihuman, it looks like they’ve taken a liking to her looks. Unfortunately, it took me that long just to find out this much. Beyond that she’s currently there, I don’t know anything else.”

“Some help you were,” I said with arms crossed.

“Hey, you didn’t know where she was at all. You probably would have literally turned this place upside down just cause you were impatient. It seriously took that much time just to figure out that much. You know how many people live in Chamont?”

“I’m just teasing you, ya know? Thanks for finding that out.”

“Thank you very much,” Tania added with her head bowed.

“So what do you all plan to do now?”

“We’ll have to get her out somehow but I’m still unsure about how I want to go about doing that. Tania, do you even know what you want to do once we get her?”

“Uhhh, you’re giving me a choice?”

“Helia’s no longer in diapers and I’ve never needed a servant. You want me to keep babysitting you?”

“Er, no I guess. I haven’t put any thought into it to be honest.”

“Well start thinking about it. Helia and I are probably going to attract a lot of danger or unwanted attention; we just haven’t yet with what we’ve been doing. That’s probably going to change very soon.”

“Tania’s not going to be with us anymore?!” Helia protested.

“Maybe. Maybe not. Tania has parents too, you know.”

“Oh….yea…”

“I thought you would just kill me if you didn’t need me anymore…,” blurted Tania.

“Well you can thank the gods or whoever you believe in that I’m not quite the same cold hearted bitch that I was before.”

Raising his hand, Ziden said, “I’m not so sure about that Queen.”

“Shut it Ziden, you want me to change how I’m feeling?”

“No, I just wanted to voice my opinion.”

I growled at him for a moment before forcing myself to lighten up a bit and turned my attention back to Tania.

“Just think about it alright. I’ve learned a little bit about what it means to be a parent so either way, we’ll go see your parents at some point or another.”

“That would make me happy.”

“So I guess in terms of future plans, we’ll wait for Nina and Lukas to come back, somehow get Luiza back, let your parents know everythings well, and then we’ll figure out where Helia originally came from.”

“And then…?” goaded Ziden.

“And then…?” I said while tilting my head.

“Go back to lazing around in your dungeon? Start another genocide? Become the queen of demons? World domination?”

“I don’t normally think that far ahead. World domination sounds like too much responsibility. Does wiping out the dragons sound like a good idea to start?”

“Oof. That one’s on me. I started setting the bar too high…”

“We’ll think about it. After all, I’m not quite by myself anymore,” I said while giving a smile to Helia.

“Well, on that note. I’m going to be taking my leave now,” he said while getting up.

“You got things to do?”

“I have a handful of responsibilities that I need to take care of. Unfortunately, while I was glad to be of help, I need to get back to it.”

“This is the first I’m hearing about this.”

“You’ve never asked. Once you’re done with all this, I’ll show you some time.”

“I’ll hold you to it then,” I replied while grinning.

At that point Ziden left and we floated some ideas about rescuing Luiza. Helia and Tania weren’t too happy about my idea of holding a large percentage of the population hostage in exchange for her release but I wasn’t going to completely rule it out.

Later that afternoon, I was prepping what would be our meal that night and Helia was practicing her ability with restoration magic. Basically she was having fun breaking things and putting them back together. The same magic could be used to heal people as well.

I had originally suggested that Tania and Helia could fight for real so that Helia could practice healing but that idea was rejected by Tania, Lukas, and Nina. Shrug.

Anyways, both Nina and I had taught her the theory behind restoration magic despite being unable to use it ourselves. Even though I had no use for it in the past, I was still a little jealous of Helia.

Apparently, I was not quite on par with a god. Sadness.

Meanwhile, Tania was taking care of some stuff outside and we were listening to Helia’s favorite radio station again. Even though there were other types of music, Helia always defaulted to classical. I was fine with that; there was a lot of trash music out there.

“Once again, we apologize for interrupting your evening music with this emergency news. The government has issued a region-wide state of emergency affecting the metropolitan areas of Chamont, Loxgow, Alennin, and Viersier. The Rank A demon that was spotted near the village of Plailon has been upgraded to a Rank SS demon after having wiped out the coalition of Rank S adventurer teams sent to take it out. We repeat, a Rank SS demon is now present in the village of Plailon, closest to the Chamont metropolitan area. The Loxgow, Alennin, and Viersier areas may become affected. Special military forces led by Prince Tiarnán of the Royal Family are being dispatched to handle the threat. This message will repeat until the situation changes. *Static*

Once again, we apologize for interrupting your evening music-”

The radio suddenly shattered into pieces, falling to the floor below. The table likewise didn’t survive the strength of my fist having been slammed down into it.

“No...they said they were coming back…,” Helia whimpered as tears started to fall from her eyes.

Walking over to where Helia was, I held her tightly like we used to when she was scared. The door then suddenly opened as Tania walked in.

“I heard the sound of...well what used to be the radio and table breaking over there. What happened?” she asked.

“It seems that Lukas and Nina have been killed by that demon that they were forced to go after…”

“...No way…”

I had no idea but I was actually expecting them to come back in one piece. Even looked forward to doing a little more with them.

Though what used to hold me back when I first arrived here, no longer existed. So I decided that I didn’t quite need to hide anymore.

Thanks random double S demon.

I’m not gonna be kind enough to send you to hell.

Night had fallen.

We were outside with Helia and I getting ready to go to Plailon while Tania protested my decision not to take her with us.

“Tania, if anything were to happen to you after what’s already happened, how do you think Helia would feel?”

“I know I know...still doesn’t get rid of my desire to go ya know?”

“Would you feel comfortable fighting me?”

“Of course not!”

“Well apparently this demon is just a step below me…”

“Alright, alright. You’ve made your point. I’ll stay here and try to be happy about it. You two come back safe okay?”

“We will!” Helia exclaimed while hugging Tania.

“Are you doubting what I’m capable of?”

“N-no, not at all. But I can still say it right?”

“Yea why not? Once we get back, we’ll just get your sister out of here and we’ll just be on our way. I’m done dealing with humans for a while.”

I stood there in my full demon form, amethyst color and all. No more hiding who I was. It was time to go take out some trash.

...I just had more clothes on than I had in the past.

“Helia, are you ready to go?”

“I’m a little scared to be honest.”

“I’ll make sure nothing happens to you. If you mess up, there’s going to be a 2nd chance. Just use this as an opportunity to use what you learned.”

“I’ll try.”

“You got this Helia,” Tania encouraged.

The plan was simple. Fly to Plailon. Locate the demon. Make em pay.

And do it as mother and daughter.

Ok. That last part sounded a little weird but that's what life was like now.

“Let's go.”

Unfurling my wings fully, I took off with Helia following close behind. The moon was full and it provided the perfect backdrop for us as we headed south from the city. Truthfully, I had no idea where Plailon was. Neither did Tania nor Helia.

But I knew that 10 kilometers wasn’t that far. I wasn’t rushing either way; if I had to stop and ask for directions, so be it. I just hope if it came to that, we wouldn’t give the poor sod a heart attack.

You help me, I try not to kill you. I wasn’t an ingrate ok?

Flying over the forest, there was a road that I had decided to roughly follow. Luckily, there were periodic signs with the number 11 written on them. If I remembered right, the radio had said to avoid routes 11 and 12 so hopefully that meant we were going the right direction.

Not too long into our flight, I sensed a cloud of flying monsters burst out from the forest canopy below.

Ceopirs. A bat-like creature that liked to come out at night.

Sorry. Not tonight.

I wasn’t having it.

Unleashing a powerful blast of electricity, the no longer recognizable Ceopirs fell back into the forest below.

“Remind me not to make you truly angry Mom”

“If someone like Ziden can survive being near me all these years, you’ll be perfectly fine.”

Nothing else came to attack us as we neared where I thought the village with the demon would be. If the demon was in the forest somewhere, I had planned to get information out of the villagers about where it might have been. Politely of course.

But it turns out the villagers probably wouldn’t be able to help us.

In the distance, the blue flashes of managun fire lit up an area where the forest gave way to an opening that looked like the village. Even from this distance, I was able to make out figures that looked like villagers engaged in combat against soldiers clad in amber yellow armor.

As we got closer, a loud cracking sound rang out and a red light flew up into the sky, bathing the entire area in a soft red light without dying out.

What the hell is going on here?

The village was of a decent size with what looked like a church building in the center. A main road went past it, which connected it to the route we had been following earlier. Smaller roads branched out from the main one leading to residences and other buildings. Like Chamont, the village was laid out in a circle.

Everywhere in the village, pockets of amber yellow soldiers, supported by a few levitating tanks and walkers, fought desperately against what appeared to be a mix of villagers, adventurers, and soldiers in camouflage. While the amber soldiers used a mix of managuns and swords, most of their opponents weren’t wielding any sort of weapons. They fought ferociously, throwing punches and kicks that knocked the soldiers to the ground.

Once on the ground, none of the soldiers got back up.

Only the ones that looked like adventurers and soldiers used weapons against the amber soldiers. Even though they were powerful, their effectiveness with their weapons were far sloppier than what should have been normal.

Obviously something strange was going on. I had no doubts that it had to do with the demon that had shown up near here. The question was where were they at…?

Turning my attention back to the battle at hand, I watched a particular group of amber soldiers get overrun. The walker that was supporting that group fired powerful mana blasts down on the villagers but despite receiving what should have been fatal injuries, they kept on attacking. I was relieved that the ones that were blown to bits didn’t regenerate or anything. That would have been quite the nightmare.

Switching from their managuns to swords, the soldiers tried to fight off their foes but they were fighting against an enemy that appeared to feel no pain nor had caution for their own lives. I then saw one of the soldiers decapitate one of the villagers and the body fell to the ground. Fortunately, it didn’t get back up

Unfortunately, the body emitted some sort of black vapor from where it’s head used to be.

I actually hadn’t seen anything quite like that before and to be honest, it creeped me out a little.

So either this was a different type of undead or some form of...corruption? Sorry, I'm guessing here. Either way, the smaller groups of amber soldiers were having major problems.

Of the group I had been observing, only the walker remained but the strange enemies started to climb it. It kept firing on the villagers below but the ones that had gotten on it finally made it to the top, ripping open the hatch, and made it inside. The vehicle started to move very erratically like it was drunk, finally toppling over on a nearby building and collapsing it with a loud crash.

Things were pretty much the same for the smaller pockets of soldiers but a handful of them looked like they would be able to put up a decent fight for a while. Except once the smaller groups got eliminated, the remaining enemies would refocus on a different cluster of amber soldiers.

Well that’s enough entertainment for now...oh wait Helia doesn’t look well.

“Helia, what’s wrong?”

“I-its just not what I’m used to I guess…,” she stammered.

Well I forgot that not everyone was used to this sort of thing.

“Sorry Helia, I wasn’t expecting this. Do you want to go back?”

“...No I don’t think so. I’ll have to get used to it,” she smiled very weakly.

“Well don’t push yourself.”

In that brief span of time, most of the smaller groups of amber soldiers were eliminated. The larger groups appeared to have recovered a little from the onslaught and were managing to hold some ground though they would not win if it came down to attrition. A few buildings had either caught on fire or had collapsed due to the fighting.

But we weren’t here to deal with this…

Let’s see. Where would that demon be? They weren’t currently on the battlefield but they were definitely involved in this hot mess. So if I were them...I would be nearby to watch the show unless they’re objective was to leave behind this chaos and go somewhere else.

Then again...demons don’t have to make sense. I’m raising a daughter after all.

So let’s start off by…

Over the middle of the village, a transparent red dome started to form and gradually came to encompass all of the village as well as a good distance beyond it in all directions. Previously, it had been pretty dark as the red light from the beginning had long since faded but the red dome bathed the entire area in an ominous glow.

Had to set the mood obviously.

The combatants below froze for a moment but their attention soon turned back towards fighting one another.

“What’s the dome for?” Helia asked.

“I’m thinking the demon has to be around here somewhere. We’re not letting anything in or out pretty much. So without further ado…”

Extending my hand, I had an energy spell prepped to interrupt the chaos below. It wasn’t the most powerful spell in my arsenal but it was enough to remove the distraction below and force the demon to come out if it didn’t perish from it. If it had perished from the spell, it wasn’t going to be worth my time anyway.

It has been a little while since I’ve done anything like this...how refreshing.

“Mom! Wait!”

“What?!” I barked as my thoughts were interrupted.

“S-sorry but look down there. Isn’t that that one adventurer we saw earlier today?”

“Which one Helia...you’re gonna need to specify…?”

“The woman with the big sword, right down there!” she said as she pointed down to a fight that was occurring between two larger groups.

Lowering my hand, I looked where Helia pointed and saw the female adventurer that came by with Vedran, swinging her sword in a feral manner. She took a couple of hits from the amber soldiers but none were able to stop her completely. The amber soldiers pulled back for a moment to let one of the levitating tanks pull forward and it started blasting at the corrupted citizens. The woman jumped back, disappearing in the mix as the mob swarmed the tank.

So if that woman is still around, does that mean...and if they were, could they be saved?

“Helia, you think that Lukas and Nina might still be alive?”

She looked unsure at first but then she said, “Maybe. There’s a chance and I think...I may be able to use my restoration abilities to bring them back to normal.”

I was a little skeptical but no one was going anywhere. Just had to be a little more patient.

“Change of plans then.”

Looking over the battlefield quickly, I didn’t see any signs of Lukas or Nina. Even with the few people with red hair, none em looked like Nina. Could they be somewhere else?

Between finding them or killing the demon first, killing the demon had to be a priority. I wasn’t naive enough to think that killing the demon would get rid of whatever was affecting these humans but maybe getting rid of it could weaken the strength of its hold on them.

The other thing was, the demon itself was an unknown factor. Since they hadn’t shown their face yet, I wasn’t sure what else they were capable of. They could just cut the strings of these humans like puppets...but would that also happen if the demon dies? Too many ifs.

Enough thinking. Whatever happens, happens.

“Helia follow me”

Diving down to where I had observed the initial group of soldiers get overrun, I first tried raising the corpses of the corrupted but that had no effect.

Interesting. A corpse technically could be revived multiple times in the form of an undead by a powerful caster but even I had no effect on it. Grrrrrrrrrr.

Holding out my arm, ten out of the twelve amber armor soldiers slowly got back up.

“Your orders mistress?” one of them asked, devoid of emotion.

“Hold on.”

Changing the color of their armor from blood stained amber to a deep purple color only took a second. I swear it wasn’t cause I wanted to clean it up a little. Didn’t need anyone getting confused right now…

“Go capture a couple of the corrupted but if it's too much trouble just keep them away for now.”

“By your command.”

The ten paired off and sprinted in different directions. So that leaves two here...still alive somehow.

“Helia, wanna practice your healing? I may have a use for these guys.”

“Okay!”

I heard the managun fire from my purple undead strike the flesh of enemies but some of them still made it through. As Helia focused on her healing, which still took her time since she was new to it, I turned around and sent my claws through a villager’s head. With my claws still in the body, I unleashed a barrage of feathers that pinned two corrupted adventurer’s to the wall of a nearby building. The bodies fell back to the ground as the feathers disappeared from existence.

Checking around, I made sure Helia was clear.

“Helia, how much longer?” I asked as I cleaned my hands of blood.

“All done.”

Stooping down to the still prone soldiers, I took note that both of them had a colored pauldron on their shoulders; one was maroon and the other, forest green. As their helmets covered their entire face, I was unable to tell anything else about them. Getting closer, I could hear the crackly sound of a radio emitting from the inside of their helmets.

“This is a gigantic mess, has anyone heard from the 1st Sergeant?”

“This is 1st Lieutenant Grant. Our position’s about to be overrun. Can anyone-?”

“Lieutenant Grant? Lieutenant Grant?!”

“It’s no use. We’re losing too many men. Is there any way we can break out?”

“2nd Platoon, B Squad has reached the edge of the dome but we are unable to break through. I repeat we are unable to...gah!”

That’s enough of that for now.

“Hey you awake yet?”

“Ugh. My head...what’s going on...huh?” the one with the red pauldron asked.

“Another demon?!” the other shouted.

“Can you boys do me a favor and ask where the demon is at? I don’t want to spend time looking for it ya know?” I said softly.

The soldier with the green pauldron started to back away while yelling, “This is Lieutenant Hayes, we’ve got another-.”

“Lieutenant what the hell are you-”

Neither of them managed to finish their sentence as I sent the tips of my wings through the Lieutenant’s heart.

What’s the point of armor if it can get cut through like butter? Maybe I’m the wrong person to be asking that question though.

Turning to the other with the maroon pauldron with a faint smile on my face, I said “Well he wasn’t very helpful now was he. Will you help me?”

I could hear him take a deep breath before saying into his helmet, “This is 1st Sergeant Hunter. Have we located the demon yet?”

“1st Sergeant, where have you been? Where’s the rest of your unit? What happened to Lieutenant Hayes”

“Sir, I was knocked out and the rest are dead. Would you answer my question? I’ve got someone here that really wants to know where that demon is.”

“Who the hell is asking, 1st Sergeant?!”

He looked at me, as if unsure as to how to respond.

“1st Sergeant! Who the hell are you talking to?”

“A demon you people like to call Amethyst is asking,” I replied calmly, using the helmet I took off of the dead Lieutenant.