Zach looked through the pages and pages of reports and notes he’d been given, despite somehow understanding the words individually, it all still may as well have been gibberish to him.
“Seriously what’s an ‘Ikasan’ anyway, and why does it write in binary? This was supposed to be a fantasy world right?” Zach complained to himself as he pushed aside another day of notes he’d pretended to read. The past three days had been spent by Zach mostly procrastinating whatever tasks Lillithvin gave him and testing out his new magic, getting really sleepy then passing out.
“She’s such a sweet heart though, maybe I could get used to this. Though I should probably start doing some actual work before anyone notices.” Zach thought as he snapped his fingers, setting them on fire. He was still figuring out which spells tired him out more and why, which was important, probably.
“I HATE him, we don’t even need a contingency plan for that useless slob! He just sits around casting spells incorrectly!” Lillithvin screamed at the now fully assembled Devil Knights who all nodded to varying degrees before burying her face in her arms on the table. On the all seeing orb there was Zach accidentally setting the Demon Lord's paper work ablaze and quickly trying to snuff out the flame.
“I ain’t ever seen someone cast a fire ball spell at full power, so that’s interesting at least daru.” Onimaru shrugged as he fiddled with the containment box for the white sword that had started this whole mess.
“Is it wise to bring that contraption with you everywhere you go?” Drackura asked drearily. Onimaru let out a hearty laugh in response, the bright red Oni was rarely one to sweat small things like safety, Drackura frowning at the lack of response.
“That matter aside, we’ve been torturing the hero since we captured him and he hasn’t given us anything useful. God came down to him and granted him the sword, he doesn’t know why, or at least that’s what he’s saying.” Anuma announced, changing the view portal to that of the hero with each of his limbs locked into heavy chains, suspending him motionless in a cold dark dungeon somewhere in Helvetia.
“And his party?” Nuhades asked sternly.
“We’re keeping them as hostages for potential negotiations with Earthly Realm Nations, as were the Demon Lords' last orders to me before… the incident.” Anuma explained.
“Why split them up anyway? Wouldn’t it be easier to throw them all in the dungeons here?” Titania asked slightly bitterly, she’d been blasted in the face with holy magic one too many times while escorting the nun to her dungeon.
“New policy after the last time we had a hero’s party nearly escaped. Power of friendship or some nonsense.” Lillithvin explained, her voice muffled.
“Hmpth, very well.” Nuhades declared standing up.
“H-hey where are you going?!” Lillithvin asked incredulously as Nuhades left the room.
“Whatever talks you have to deal with that, I do not wish to be a part of them.” Nuhades explained, pointing back as the view portal changed to an image of Zach picking his nose and flicking it onto his bed.
“I must admit, my collection is in dire need of inspection.” Drackura announced, twirling his cape as he left with Nuhades, soon followed by Hitop and Onimaru going to research the sword, then the rest of the Devil Knights all wishing to attend to their other responsibilities over baby sitting Zach.
As was quickly becoming the pattern, Lillithvin was stuck with the idiot.
She remained motionless as her face was buried further into her arms. She took a deep breath, and let out a high pitched shriek that travelled several floors and across the entire castle which reached Zach’s ear as a quiet buzz, like a mosquito.
“I really need to start figuring a way back home, surely someone would know, think, think…” Zach pondered as he sat up, absent mindedly grabbing one of the stacks of papers he’d been putting off reading and lazily flicking through it.
He recognised the symbols were not English, but he could read them just as easily, an odd sensation but one which he could not complain about. Perhaps it was a quirk of reincarnation or whatever augmentations this demonic body had.
Eventually, one word stood out to him.
Hero.
“Of course! This is an Isekai, there’s always going to be a hero!”
Zach quickly got up and made his way to the portal hall, Lilithvin completely unaware that Zach was on the move.
From what Zach had gathered, the Demon Kingdom set up portals in all of their bases in the Demon Realm and the Earthly Realm, and the Demon Lord’s castle was the grand nexus point that was constantly flowing with traffic, troops, resources and anything else being moved across the various points of the empire, monsters of all sorts manning each station.
Naturally all paused and let Zach pass, a formality he felt weirded out by, but one he had to play along with, he didn’t want to be found out after all.
“M-my lord! Y-you aren’t on the schedule.” The small imp exclaimed with a panicked laugh, she was a dark purple void with nothing but one large eye to make her face, floating fingerless gloves and boots to use as limbs as she stood by the portal controls.
“Ah yeah, a bit of a surprise meeting with the hero. If ya don’t mind could you take me to his dungeon with this portal thing?” Zach requested with a smile, one that read as highly unusual and sadistic to everyone else in the room since it was on the Demon Lord’s face.
The imp nodded and quickly punched in the coordinates for the Dungeon of Solitude in her stone tablet. Each portal was similarly laid out, a kind of terminal that was just a hole to place carved stone runes into that connected to a giant gate which opened like the aperture of a camera lens, the edge of the portal glowing in a red magical energy as it ripped through the Demon Realm all the way to the Earthly Realm.
“Neat, cheers.” Zach thanked as he walked through the portal, where the equally confused skeletons that were manning the other side of the portal stumbled to formation to salute their supreme commander.
“Chill chill, I’ll only be here for like a minute.” Zach dismissed annoyedly, the skeletons looked at each other as confused as monsters with only skeletons for faces could.
Once Zach left a lesser skeleton asked his superior a question as quietly as possible.
“Do we have any ice? It’s too hot to chill.”
The higher ranked skeleton punched his lesser in the head, causing him to collapse into a pile of bones as Zach wandered through the small dungeon. It was made out of some sort of dark concrete, dark seemed to be what everything the Demon Lord made was like. The Dungeon of Solitude was essentially just a portal, a prison and an exit, more of a place to stage attacks on the nearby Furinch Kingdom than to collect resources. It also had the ability to capture any high risk prisoners and keep them in total solitude.
God’s latest Hero was very much a high risk prisoner.
The three headed chimaera that stood by the entrance to the cell bowed in respect.
“My rord! Re reren’t expecting ru!” The wolf head of the chimera exclaimed in a deep and clearly panicked voice, opening the cell door for him. Zach shook his head and hand dismissively.
“Oh don’t worry, surprise visit for the hero you guys are doing great.”
“Probably”
“Sussschh an honour to sssssee you in perssson asss well.” The snake head hissed as Zach walked past them.
“He’s so cool…” The lion head mumbled under his breath as Zach walked through the massive empty room.
“Jesus christ, you alright mate?” Zach asked as he walked over to the bloodied body of the hero who looked up, his eyes barely still shining with life.
“What is this, is he taunting me?” The Hero thought bitterly, God had said so long as he stabbed the Demon Lord he would save the day, yet here the Demon Lord is, alive and well still.
“Hello? Oh fuck you’re probably half dead… Alright I think… aha yeah here it is.” Zach mumbled as he looked through his uniform's several pockets for the vials of healing potions that Lillithvin insisted he keep on him, she was always watching out for his health like that.
The Hero looked up, tried to muster the energy to spit but could only cough up a bit of blood.
“Fucking ay alright, down the hatch.” Zach exclaimed panicking, he didn’t particularly like seeing someone so gruesomely injured.
The hero began to scream as the liquid penetrated his body, life long wounds healing in a matter of seconds, his flesh forcefully reattaching itself and blood being squeezed out of his bones to replace everything that was staining the floor.
“U-undiliuted healing potions…” The hero panted as he felt his body drained of energy and on the verge of passing out, his muscles atrophying in real time as his body desperately tried to find the energy.
“Shit yeah she said something about that, hold on I think I have like, a magical energy bar potion thing in here…” Zach apologised as he grabbed a green vial and poured it down the hero’s mouth, he jolted like a million volts of electricity pierced his heart before settling down, he was stable now.
“What do you want?!” The hero shouted furiously, he’d had everything taken from him and spent a week being tortured for information he either didn’t have or refused to give up. He assumed this was it, the Demon Lord wanted him killed by his own two hands.
“Chill out man, I just wanna figure something out.” Zach explained, opening his inventory and finding some simple wooden chairs for the pair to sit on. The hero looked at the chairs with a look of sheer bafflement before falling to the ground on his knees.
His chains had been unlocked with a simple snap of his fingers from Zach.
“Man, I still don’t understand why spells like that are so tiring.” Zach yawned, chugging one of his dwindling supply of magic vials.
The hero clenched his fists and looked up at the Demon Lord, looking into his eyes and seeing that this was not the manifestation of pure evil he had fought the last time they’d met.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Zach, pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Zach grinned, offering his hand.
“Cedrick, Cedrick of House Yvonyson.” The hero, Cedrick, replied, taking Zach’s hand gingerly.
“Alright… You sure my name doesn’t sound like it’s from… somewhere else? Wink wink nudge nudge.” Zach asked cheekily as he sat down with Cedrick on the chairs.
Cedrick paused for a moment, was this some elaborate ploy to reveal he was really from the other world? They’d finished with physical torment and now they planned to use psychological torment against him?
Cedrick narrowed his eyes.
“Can I get some armour and weaponry first?” Cedrick asked cautiously, positioning his body so he could at least try and make a run for the exit.
“Pft yeah shit sorry man, hold on you can find it yourself in my inventory.” Zach said, opening his inventory and flipping the semi-transparent holographic screen towards Cedrick who audibly gasped.
“C-computer?” Cedrick asked incredulously, he hadn’t seen an interface like this since he died.
“HAH! Got you! Knew you were from Earth! Probably Japan too, right?!” Zach proclaimed victoriously. Cedrick quickly pivoted.
“It says computer, here.” Cedrick replied quickly, pointing to the top of the screen.
“Wha? Shit, it does. Whatever, hurry up and get some stuff on, keeping this open makes me…” Zach yawned before he could complete his sentence, Cedrick quickly found some armour and a sword from the shockingly extensive inventory of the Demon Lord, all the armour he selected had been enchanted to resize itself to the shape of his body and dress him themselves in a few seconds. As Cedrick was being dressed by the magical armour Zach chugged another Greater Magic Potion, he only had two left.
“Alright where were we again?”
Cedrick said nothing as he felt the weight of the sword in his hand, it was the most powerful blade in the collection he could find, Sword of The Supreme Dragons Emperors Flames, a purple blade with a core of pure dragon fire.
Cedrick went to strike, stopping just before it reached Zach’s neck. He rolled his eyes.
“Yeah mate look, I’m pretty sure I’m indestructible or something. I accidentally walked into a bomb the other day and didn’t even notice it.” Zach sighed annoyed as he stood up, towering over the Hero by over a meter.
Cedrick glared, he couldn’t bring himself to trust the face he’d been presented with.
“Come on this is clearly an Isekai world right? You’re the hero so surely to fuck you’re some hikineet loser from Japan yeah?” Zach asserted, frustration lining his voice.
The Hero felt his heart drop.
“I… You…” He couldn’t bring himself to say it but it was all true.
“HAH! Now come off it, what's your real name?”
“But wait, if you’re from the other side… What of the Devil Knights? How have they not found you out?!” The hero asked, suddenly panicking, the all seeing glass orb that was built into the top of his dungeon was surely being monitored.
“Bah, it was easy, they just take everything at my word, it's great!” Zach proclaimed, smiling stupidly.
The hero stared at Zach blankly.
“Did you… do anything about the cameras?”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“What cameras?” Zach asked, his grin faded slightly.
The wall behind him exploded as Lillithvin burst through with a red and blue spear in each hand, her glowing red spear set ablaze as she continued charging towards the hero’s head.
He noticed and side stepped all while Zach watched entirely befuddled.
“Congrats loser! I’m vetoing the vote to keep your stupid ass alive!” Lillithvin shouted as she quickly flipped over in the air, the blue spear steaming icy cold smoke as she attempted to stab Zach in the chest.
It froze his armour and managed to crack it before she was knocked back by the swing of the hero’s blade.
“You other worlder’s, always sticking together.” Lillithvin laughed as she slid across the cold dungeon floor, looking up with a manic look in her eye.
“Shit you just found out!” Zach proclaimed, causing Lilllithvin’s eyes to narrow as she felt her heart pump with pure rage.
“WE ALWAYS KNEW!” Lillithvin screamed as she stood up, combing her twin spears into one and charging at Zach while the confused chimera heads looked from the giant hole where the entrance used to be.
“Rho do re help?” The wolf head asked as Zach’s armour took another head on attack as he tried and failed to dodge.
“Our lord sssseemsss to be helping the hero.” The snake head replied nervously, the hero had struck the spear down to prevent it from piercing Zach’s skin.
“B-but Lady Lillithvin is our commanding officer? Are we not loyal to her?” The lion head asked anxiously as Lillithvin was put on the backfoot by the hero’s flurry of sword strikes and Zach doing literally nothing except gawking.
As the two trained fighters went at it, Zach realized he should try and do something, turning around he saw the now bickering chimera’s.
“LILLITHVIN’S GONE CRAZY! SHUT DOWN THE PORTAL IMMEDIATELY!” Zach shouted, getting the Chimera’s attention.
“I’M NOT CRAZY I’M JUST ANGRY!” Lillithvin screamed as she jumped above the hero and dived towards Zach, who successfully managed to block the attack with his gauntlets which were immediately exploded off of his arms once Lillithvin’s attack finished.
The chimera nodded and ran towards the Dungeon Portal as Lillithvin sent a psychic message to the rest of the Devil Knights.
“He’s working with the Hero now, eliminate the other worlder immediately.” Lillithvin telepathically messaged as she dodged the hero’s flurry of attacks while Zach rummaged around his inventory for a weapon.
“Bows, cross bows, cannons, seriously no guns? Not like I can fire a gun but surely I know that better than a fucking bow and arrow.” Zach thought to himself as he clicked through his inventory.
“JUST USE SOME MAGIC PLEASE!” The hero begged as he defended himself from Lillithvin's flurry of attacks, her eyes glowing red with rage as she attempted to get past the hero, slowly pushing him back to Zach.
“Oh fuck yeah alright.” Zach exclaimed as he quickly tried to think of any spell he could cast.
“I CAST, GREATER STOP ON YOU LIILITHVIN!” Zach proclaimed loudly, pointing his hand towards the screaming succubus.
“YOU WA-” Lillithvin screamed before ethereal chains appeared, locking her body in place as the colour completely faded.
She was completely frozen in time.
The hero let out a loud sigh as Zach collapsed to the ground, bleeding from the nose.
“What, what what?!” The hero panicked,
“He only cast one spell, how is he already suffering from mana sickness?” The hero thought as he scrambled to find another one of the potions, placing the green vial down his throat, immediately waking him back up.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have done the greater thing.” Zach laughed as he stood back up casually looking at his last magic potion as he sauntered out of the cell.
“W-what are you doing?” The hero asked in a hushed voice.
“Leaving, what did you wanna wait for that spell to wear off?” Zach asked, walking through the giant hole that Lillithvin had made in the prison cell.
The monsters of the Dungeon of Solitude looked from down the hall as they panicked, no idea what could be happening.
“M-My lord we shut off the dungeon portal! What’s ha-” The boss of the dungeon, a large reanimated ogre skeleton monster, attempted to ask Zach.
“Yeah look, no time to explain, you guys probably are gonna wanna run before she wakes up.” Zach explained as the hero ran out of the now unguarded dungeon exit.
“B-but the hero?”
“Uhhh, leave him to me! Bye!” Zach shouted as he ran after the hero, up the stairs of the dungeon and finally to get his first view of the Earthly Realm sky.
It was night time, the stars were burning bright in the sky and the moon was full, giving a faint blue glow to the grass flowing in the wind and the trees that surrounded this dungeon entrance.
He paused for a moment and looked around, admiring the night sky. It was different of course, but with his new eyes he could see further, the colours of the cosmos fully revealing themselves to him for the first time, though they weren’t his eyes, and it wasn’t his cosmos.
While caught up the majesty of it all, the hero placed his sword at Zach's stomach.
“Woah, dude, come on.” Zach remarked, annoyed. The hero looked up, glaring.
“How can I trust you? That this isn’t some elaborate ploy?” He asked seriously. Zach sighed.
“I dunno man, I’m not you.” Zach groaned defeatedly, pushing the hero’s sword down. The hero said nothing, turned around and started walking away.
“Well shit, I’ve been found out by those crazies, they are 100% gonna want me dead if they see me. This guy is definitely from the real world but hates me just because of this dumb body. All of this just because I wanted to see if he knew how to get back home…” Zach thought as he looked between the dungeon, the forest and the disappearing hero.
With a groan he ran towards the hero.
“Why are you following me?” The hero spat.
“Look, your party is missing right? I can help you with that, and then, you guys can help me get home. Sounds fair right?” Zach explained desperately as the pair entered the forest properly.
“Go home?” The hero asked brusquely, cutting down overgrown bushes blocking their path as the pair walked through the forest.
“Well yeah, I dunno about you mate because you keep fuckin’ refusing to answer shit, but I actually liked my life back home.” Zach explained frustratedly.
“Taro.”
“What?”
“My name is Taro. Nishimura Taro.” The hero, Taro, explained, the mask of Cedrick finally fully dropping for the first time in front of Zach.
“I fucking knew it! Otaku too, right?”
Taro laughed.
“Yeah, yeah. You seem familiar with my situation somehow.”
“Well no shit sherlock, let me guess, you were a hikikamori loser in Japan, got hit by a truck, badda bing badda boom you end up in this fantasy world and get some OP skill from God yeah?” Zach excitedly asked.
“Yes… yes that is… exactly what happened to me.” Taro replied, concerned at the accuracy, and rudeness, of Zach’s comments.
“It’s the bog standard isekai plot! Fuckin’ absolute bog standard.”
“In… what?”
“Anime and manga and shit. Actually wait, what year did you die?” Zach asked casually as the pair left the forest and began walking through a field, a road in the distance.
“2011.” Taro replied with a slight smile, holstering his sword as he relaxed slightly. This was not the Demon Lord, despite having his body, magic, and power.
“Fuckin aye, 2025 for me, so wait hold on, why don’t you look uh… y’know.” Zach mumbled awkwardly. Taro laughed.
“You know how you said I could ask God for something? I asked to blend in. Fit in, be normal.”
“Huh, fuckin wish I got to get a wish.”
“You didn’t see God when you came here?”
“Fuck no, I got like, void or some shit. Or maybe I dreamt that part? It’s hard to remember I basically just woke up like this!”
“Interesting…” Taro muttered as the pair reached the pathway.
“You got a clue where we are by the way?” Zach asked as they wandered in a vaguely eastern direction.
“Vaguely. This is definitely Helvetia, so we’ll end up in a town sooner rather than later following any road like this.”
“Huh, neat.” Zach replied, nodding.
The pair continued to walk, chatting about this, that and the other. The conversation was primarily steered towards the goings on of Earth, world events was a topic, one Zach was woefully uneducated on but did his best with. Fortunately, Taro mostly wanted to get updates on various manga and anime popular in 2011 Japan, something Zach was significantly more familiar with.
It was a good walk, it lasted until the sun rose.
…
Nuhades looked at the frozen Lillithvin silently while the monsters of the Dungeon of Solitude looked on fearfully, entirely confused on the nature of the situation.
“You have 10 seconds.”
“U-until what?” The Boss Skeleton asked nervously.
“Death.”
The monsters of the Dungeon of Solitude looked at each other for the briefest of moments until Nuhades began his countdown before running.
Most made it outside of the dungeon by the end of the countdown, they were slain the quickest.
Some to the edge of the forest clearing, they were given fatal wounds which quickly took their lives.
A few fast creatures made it into the forest, they won the grand prize of a slow and painful death.
Once the weaklings had been dealt with, Nuhades returned to one of his few equals in this world who was still frozen in place.
He let out a low growl before grabbing the succubus in one arm and returning to the castle.
He had now been given a platter of problems he wished he wasn’t made to deal with.
The top of the list was locating the one who’d stolen their lord's body.
…
Every Devil Knight was here, but the head of the table was painfully absent.
“WE DIDN’T HAVE TO LET THE LITTLE FREAK ROAM AROUND EVEN KEEPING HIM ALIVE!” Lillithvin screamed for the fifth time this meeting.
“We were supposed to keep him on a short leash and use his power for our lord’s benefit in his absence…” Anuma muttered anxiously.
“AND YOU ALL KEPT MAKING ME THE ONE IN CHARGE OF WATCHING THAT OATH!” Lillithvin screamed, knocking aside the pile of papers to her side.
“... So, you lost him then?” Onimaru finally said, breaking his intense silence.
Lillithvin summoned a spear and stabbed it through Onimaru’s shoulder before responding, the blade piercing all the way to Rumuna who slithered out of the way of the tip of the weapon.
“I DIDN’T LOSE HIM! He escaped, because SOME of you thought even keeping him alive was a good idea!” Lillithvin screeched, smashing her fist into the table. Onimaru silently removed the weapon and chugged a healing potion.
“We should’ve done more to placate this man, as I said in my report he was a clear human sympathiser.” Hitop reminded everyone, with his usual smile plastered across his dark body looking extremely distressed.
Lillithvin shot the imp a dirty look before biting her tongue, he was right and Lillithvin did have the authority to spend more resources on monitoring Zach.
She ultimately was the one who underestimated him and gave him this window to escape.
“ARUGH, We’re gonna get in SO much trouble for this!” She screamed into her hands, slamming her head into the table.
“That’s assuming our lord is able to return. Hitop, Onimaru, what have you found in regards to our new toy?” Drackura asked, his cloak acting as a hand and coming up to his chin to twirl the white puff of beard hair he had.
Hitop and Onimaru looked at each other, Onimaru could only sigh as Hitop jumped up onto the table.
“I suspect our lord will not be returning.” Hitop snickered as he paced around the long table.
Snapping his fingers he produced a magical slide that appeared within the All Seeing Orb.
It was an overwhelmingly complex magical diagram and series of tests, most concerningly was that despite how much information was on the circuit were the large areas that Hitop and Onimaru had still been unable to decipher after all this time.
The Holy Sword of Reincarnation, it was a broad sword made with glistening white metal and engraved with pulsing cyan energy that formed several interconnected runes, which was currently being stored unceremoniously in the corner of the war room inside a Mythril and Adamance alloy box Onimaru had made.
The rest of the Devil Knights looked at the diagrams, until the words finally hit Lillithvin.
“What?! What do you mean he won’t return?!” Lillithvin shouted angrily. Hitop shrugged.
“Daru, I’ve run the numbers…” Onimaru said grimly as he opened his inventory, a replica of Zach’s file system appeared instead of the usual void. He grabbed a series of papers with his various analyses on them and threw them on the table for easier viewing than Hitop’s info blast.
Anuma grabbed one, she was well versed in measuring magical output in animals due to her job as monster breeder.
“We don’t have strong enough equipment to measure it properly…” Anuma muttered, biting her lip as she considered what this meant.
“I’m afraid I must ask, what does this peculiarity mean exactly? Aside from our dear demon’s equipment being lacking in this task of course.” Drackura asked with an unamused scoff as one of the documents hovered in front of his face.
“These are the machines we use to measure our portals Drack! Y’know, the things that rip holes between the Demon Realm and Earthly Realm and cost 9/10th’s of our mana budget!?” Titania explained exasperatedly pouring through the documents, she might’ve been a goblin but she was also an accomplished geomancer. These were numbers she’d never seen before, especially not from something as small as a human sized sword.
“Only some days…” Lillithvin muttered defensively as she poured over the documents, they were off the charts in nearly every type of energy they had measured.
“Most days!” Titania snapped back. The pair of monstrous women glared at each other, an argument about to start before Nuhades stood up, slamming his palms onto the table.
“Silence, we don’t have time for your bickering. Hitop, what’s stopping you from using the sword to reverse the effect?” Nuhades asked calmly, he was not a mage but he knew that any sword that sliced one way could always slice the other.
“Despite all of that, it’s not actually producing a single drop of mana itself unless you stab someone. So we still have no idea.” Hitop shrugged, the dark gaseous shadow of Leeper floating over to him.
“What if you used my connection to the infinite?” Leeper asked, his voice airy and deep as his form shifted with every word.
“The sword could store it daru, but it sure as hell won’t want to use it! I’m still trying to decipher the encryption for my own rune tech but everything is pointing towards God making it so you specifically couldn’t touch it!” Onimaru explained with a hearty laugh.
“Of course…” Leeper scowled, like a child being told he couldn’t have cookies before dinner.
“All this stresssss is going to give me wrinklessss…” Rumuna hissed as she sank lower into her chair, long serpentine body managing to touch everyone's feet at once under the table.
“It’s an incredible piece of craftsmanship daru, but the Imp thinks we can do something with it.” Onimaru nodded.
“This is a remarkable piece of equipment, but all this magical encryption, playing with inter-dimensional portal technology? This seems far beyond our knowledge...” Anuma sighed, throwing the reports onto the table, the small creature on her shoulder extending a tendril to adjust her hair for her.
“So what?! Our Lord is stuck on the other side?! I won’t accept it! Hitop what are you planning?!” Lillithvin screamed incredulously.
“My my, emotions really are running high.” Hitop grinned, the plans for his World Canon appearing in the all seeing orb.
It was an intense machine, with dramatically more resources and research required than any other singular project in the Demon Army’s history.
“Approved. You two start immediately, you have full access to any and all Demon Army resources.” Lillithvin declared as she quickly wrote up an approval form and handed it to Onimaru. Onimaru and Hitop grinned maniacally as they quickly started writing down their respective shopping lists.
“Hmpth, but what use is our lord's mind in a mortal's body? Now let’s discuss the more pressing issue.” Nuhades exclaimed as he walked to the map of the earthly realm, placing a flag atop the Solitude Dungeon.
“Last known location of our lord's body and the hero. Currently unknown whether they are working together or not, however Ikasan’s drones have been scouting the area since last night.” Nuhades explained, as Ikasan’s vision was projected onto the all seeing orb.
“Why can’t he just track his mana again?” Killophobe asked, confused, suddenly pulling himself back together.
“You really think our Lord would be that easy to track?” Onimaru sighed as he patted Ikasan who hovered by his shoulder, looking dismayed at his inability to track their target. Onimaru used one of his 6 arms to pat the sad robot.
“But the hero?” Killophobe asked hopefully.
“Our lord’s presence blocks all tracking. You should know that.” Nuhades scowled as he carefully observed the drone footage.
“So what?! You have nothing?” Lillithvin screeched angrily, she was used to the Demon Lord’s hypercompetence.
“I suspect I know where they’re going.” Nuhades replied cooly, planting 5 flags across the map. The 5 dungeons they had locked the hero’s respective party members in.
“And how do you know that huh?” Lillithvin asked brattily.
“Warrior instinct.” Nuhades replied bluntly. Lillithvin sighed and planted her face into the table once again.
“Literally, whatever. Hitop will make his stupid cannon and get our lord back from that other world. I want at least 1 of you guarding those useless humans for the time being at all times. Keep within reach of a Dungeon Portal in case Hitop or anyone else needs you. We're not letting this idiot get away again.” Lillithvin groaned as she wrote up the official orders while still having her face firmly planted into the table.
“Do not underestimate this man again, he has played us for fools once but no more. Even if this man is even a fraction as cunning and ruthless as our lord he will prove a truly formidable foe.” Nuhades declared, raising his sword in the air in defiance of this new foe.
"Bahwah! I'm looking forward to working on something big daru!" Onimaru declared, raising a hammer up in anticipation of creation.
"We're gonna learn so much from this new world." Hitop cackled, raising his pen up in excitement for this new frontier of knowledge.
"I must say, the oncoming tragedy is quite appealing to me." Drackura chuckled, using his cape to grab his wine glass and raise it up in cheers.
"Gosh just think of all those new minerals!" Titania grinned as she raised her hand up, letting the light shine through the gemstones on her rings.
"A Rockssssseth branch family could use a whole new world. Rumuna hissed as she used her long tail to join in with the other Devil Knights.
"New armies to face is very exciting." Killophobe smirked as he morphed his arm into a sword to raise up.
"Blelepelbelepblep." Ikasan beeped, raising a tentacle up.
"I couldn't have said it better myself Ikasan." Anuma smiled as she had her mini-dithlebax raise her hairbrush up.
Leeper remained deadly quiet, simply disappearing into the ether. Everyone looked towards Lillithvin who simply rolled her eyes.
“Yeah yeah… Now all of you get to work already!” Lillithvin shouted, smashing through the table with her fist.
Who's Your Fave Devil Knight So Far?
