“I’ll be watching, so if you need my help, just say so. Ah, the two of them are probably in shrine maidens, so you can use [Exorcism] to get them out.”

Even without looking at her, Lady Entropy’s volume and her proximity to my ear told me she had made herself invisible. Rather than an audible reply, I gave a subtle nod and cleared my throat.

Of course, that noise caught my entourage’s attention.

“I do not think there is any particular need to remind you,” I said, “but you should show the proper etiquette when meeting Lady Sylph and Lady Salamander.”

I sent some meaningful glances to Navillus, Davna and Asami.

None of them noticed me.

Davna stretched her legs a few times, looking particularly impatient. “Can we just go already?” she asked, looking only a little less excited than when I had asked her to spar.

“Tempest, I leave the children’s and Alpine’s transport to you,” I said, nodding loosely in her direction.

She nodded back and walked over to the idiot trio, before casting a spell I recognised as wind-attribute which I was not familiar with. I could only tell it was rather high-level.

“Then,” I said, and I unfurled my wings and took off.

Unlike last time, I stuck rather close to the ground as I flew forth, deftly dodging between the clouds of purple miasma. After all, this way, it was far simpler to chase after Davna.

She noticed me, and seemed to interpret it as a game—at least, that was the only explanation I could conceive for her sudden irregular sprinting patterns, the fact that she abandoned the concept of roads entirely and how close she was getting to the pools of miasma that would harm even her.

Although she was still vaguely going in the right direction, I had to warn her not to stray too far perhaps a few more times than I would have liked.

After perhaps half an hour of playing chase, I managed to grab her by the waist.

“Aw… You caught me…”

She sounded disproportionately distraught, so I sent her a questioning glance as I positioned her under my arm and kept flying.

“I was hoping that, if you’re stronger than me, I’d at least be faster than you, Master…” she explained, punctuated with a sigh.

“Hmm.”

She seemed seriously disheartened, which was of course unpleasant.

“There is no need to worry about that,” I said, “you are a Red Dragon. You would have the right to be depressed about your speed if you were a Blue Dragon or a Green Dragon, perhaps, but your strengths are size and power. Destructive force.”

“But you’re better in those, too!”

I was a little relieved she had regained enough energy to shout at me.

“I am two grades higher than you, and around four times your age. I am perhaps the worst person for you to compare yourself to.”

“... What does that mean?”

“Do not think too hard about it. In any case, Davna. A question.”

She canted her head to the side.

“What is your full, unabridged opinion of drakonids?”

“Unabri…”

“Scratch that. Just tell me everything you think about drakonids. Even if it is, say, related to an individual. —To one person.”

“Okay… Well, they’re always really nice to me, and they always give me gifts, and they always wanna spar! And they’re usually pretty good at it, so if there’s a bunch of them, it’s super fun. Of course, none of them are ever as fun as Master, but…”

“I see, I see… Anything else?”

“Anything else… I kind of feel like there was something? But, I dunno. Sorry!”

For someone who could not remember something that might be important to them, she seemed strangely upbeat—but then, she was always cheerful, after all. I decided not to pay it any mind, instead rather relieved.

“I see… If you do not remember, Davna, it is fine, I suppose. That will be all.”

“Was I helpful, Master? Was I, was I?”

“Yes, yes.”

I mussed her hair with my free hand, at which she let out bashful laughter.

“Incidentally, I am not carrying you like this the whole way.”

“Aww…”

A question arose as I returned to a height suitable for flying. After all, I was not very keen on the idea of manoeuvring around and through numerous trees, and the purple wasteland below had just started giving way for purple forest.

I quickly located Nexu and Asami, running in the sky alongside Alpine, a fair distance behind Charlotte and Tempest.

“This is amazing, mister demon king!” Asami said as I approached, “It’s like we’re walking on the ground, but we’re in the air!”

“Yes, I can see that.”

“Tempest said it was a spell called Wind Walk,” Nexu added.

“I see… Asami, Nexu. A question.”

They tilted their heads. This time, they did not collide.

I gestured to the purple forest below and the purple marshes we just came from.

“How in the world did you cross this land unassisted? It is perhaps not something I should be saying, as its king, but… My nation’s geography is not exactly hospitable to the races of mankind. One plunge into a pool of miasma, or even a whiff of the gas, and you would have been no more than corpses.”

“Our robes are enchanted to protect us against the miasma in the air,” Nexu said, and he moved to gesture to his clothing. He stopped mid-gesture, likely since he realised he was not currently wearing said robes.

“Do not worry,” I said, “Crowley produces enchanted clothing. Your uniforms have been enchanted with every standard-issue demon army enchantment, including miasma resistance. Then, what about the pools?”

I took what would, to most people, be a large amount of mana, and concentrated it in the palm of my hand. Soon, it coagulated into the goopy, sticky stuff I was talking about. It was not that much mana to me—likely because my race was already one that possessed large amounts of mana, and I further possessed a fragment of divinity.

“Just don’t fall in and it’s fine!” Asami said, putting a scary amount of trust in her words.

“That… Does not seem like a healthy mindset,” I said, shaking my head as I left the children with furrowed brows.

Incidentally, the miasma was harder to get off my glove than I had anticipated. I ended up just swapping it out for a clean one.

As was perhaps natural, the northern border fort did not bother us as we passed over it. I could not quite tell, but it did not seem like the Living Armours manning it were terribly troubled by Davna and Navillus passing through, either.

Directly outside the fortress, the trees were even more miasma-addled than in the forests we had been above before, but soon enough, they made way for regular, green-leaved trees.

And then, after perhaps another hour, more types of trees began to join those green-leaved trees. That is, every once in a while, I spotted a tree with golden or silver leaves.

And then—

An arrow whizzed past my face.

Naturally, this did not make me very happy. When it was followed by another, I used the spell [Earth-Attribute Magic: Rock Shaping] to catch it out of the air.

Since I stopped in midair, my entourage, too, stopped.

“An arrow, M’lord…?” Charlotte asked, able to identify it even despite the dozen metres of distance between us.

“You were shot at, mister demon king?!” Asami exclaimed, far more shocked than was by any stretch of the imagination reasonable.

“Is it that surprising? I am an ‘evil’ ruler of a country of monsters.”

She seemed a little befuddled at my question, causing me to snicker.

“Well,” I said, a grin warping my face, “all we will have to do…”

I spread my arms to the side.

“... Is return this warm welcome with some pleasant, demonic kindness of our own.”

The group of filth that had shot an arrow at me not once, but twice was about what I expected them to be. A group of elves, bows at the ready, glaring at me as I descended to the ground.

“Identify yourself!” one of them shouted, apparently too blind to notice the crown on my head.

The shouting elf was wearing a slightly more decorated outfit than the rest—it seemed they were the leader of the group. As with many elves, I had trouble discerning their gender, though I did not really care, either.

“What business have you in your country, you-”

I interrupted them by throwing an arrow at them, with about the force of one of their bows. They somehow managed to catch it, but still seemed considerably shocked.

“I cannot imagine your foreign relations will get very far if you shoot anyone who enters,” I said, narrowing my eyes into a scowl. “Which of you lowlifes tried to shoot an envoy of the one who rules darkness, Lady Entropy?”

One of the elves walked up to the elf in charge and meekly whispered something into one of their ears while another dashed off into the forest at high speeds.

“Charlotte.”

“Und’rstood, M’lord.”

She faded into the shadows.

“What do you mean, they won’t respond?!” the person in charge yelled at the other elf, likely in response to whatever information the whisper contained.

“I mean what I said, sir!” the other elf responded, having given up on silent communication. “The earth spirits refuse to comply with any request that could harm the demon!”

“Ggh… Even though there’s so many of them around…”

“Maybe it would be a good idea to actually look at the person you are facing,” I said, no doubt staring blankly. “I can come up with one reason earth spirits would not want to hurt me.”

“Gnome’s symbol?!” the messenger elf shouted out, their expression rather amusing.

The man in charge seemed far less perturbed.

“Then use something else! Wind, water, anything!”

“Uhm… Sir, have your eyes gone bad?”

“Excuse me?”

“Apart from our contracted spirits and the earth spirits, there’s none around. And the contracted spirits are terrified and refuse to act.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I wish I were, commander. Just look…”

Only now did the man in charge actually remove his eyes from me, and he was apparently forced to admit his subordinate’s correctness. Not that I knew, I was unable to see the things.

“By Lady Sylph, you’re right…”

I was growing tired of this drivel, so I clapped my hands to get his attention.

“Answer my question, plebeian. Now.”

“As if I know! It’s not like there’s a name on the arrow!”

“Hmm… Then I suppose I have no choice but to return your kindness to every one of you…”

“Hold it right there, you son of a bitch!” a voice I did not recognise interrupted.

I looked, and found it belonged to a drakonid.

“If your little spirits can’t do anything, then we’ll just handle your monsters for you!”

There seemed to be more drakonids behind him, all flaring their wings and generally trying to be intimidating. He cracked his knuckles, intent, perhaps, on ‘tearing me a new one’, or other such bravado-filled nonsense.

I contemplated my options for perhaps three seconds, and then spoke a name.

“Davna.”

She emerged from her hiding place behind a tree.

“Dragon-?!”

The drakonid cut himself off by pushing his own face into the dirt in a magnificent kowtow. It seemed he recognised a dragon just by seeing her humanised form. I had to give him a little credit, even just for humouring my precious underling.

I rather enjoyed the elf commander’s expression as he realised he was facing many, not just one, and his allies had just submitted to the enemy.

“Master,” Tempest said in a rare moment of reason, “while shooting without reason is definitely very rude, I don’t believe you have to antagonise a whole country…”

“I am not antagonising Ethalia, I am antagonising this thing that calls itself an elf.”

“Be that as it may, it is currently acting as a representative…”

“... Well, true enough. Hey, you, piece of garbage over there.”

I pointed at the commander. He flinched.

“Lady Sylph and Lady Salamander are in your country right now. I am here to meet them on Lady Entropy’s behalf. Let me through.”

“... Can you prove that?” he asked, tugging his collar.

I was about to open my mouth, but soon found that action unnecessary as I was approached by a pair I did not recognise, per se, but who carried a familiar presence.

“Mmh… Lord Astaroth…”

“Yo! If it isn’t Lord Astaroth! Long time no see. Could ya, y’know, stop that?”

An elf and a young drakonid, with eyes blazing with colour, emerged from the forest and called out my name.

Indeed, that familiar presence was the presence of the divine.