“Sister!? what are you going on about?”

  “I guess half-sister would be the correct term, we have different mothers after all”

  And here I thought I was unique, I guess it seems kinda obvious now that I have the full context, still, not only do I discover that the ‘demon lord of legends’ it’s still alive, I also have more family than I thought, whatever, I really couldn’t give a damn about them!

  “Well, if you only came to present yourself, you did so already, now perish if you could!”

  I dashed to try and punch the woman, but the man stopped my punch, covering each other’s weakness as always and holding my fist in his clenched hand.

  I expected as much, so within the inside of my punch, there’s a little surprise. I prepared an explosion beforehand and blew up both of our hands. It took him by surprise which was the point, with my other hand I was about to slice his throat with a spell. The dy noticed it however and tried to stop my magic, as she always did, so the moment I felt her move, I stopped the spell but the motion continued!

  I managed to get the man’s throat, it’s pretty obvious he’s the brawn, and the woman the spellcaster, but she can’t stop magic happening within my body, so if I blow my other hand while holding his neck, it would be over for him.

  “STOP!”

  The woman tried to attack me with a sword, but at that moment, I regrew my exploded arm, and stopped the bde with it, holding it in my grasp, I’m rather done with these two, and my anger has definitely reached a boiling point, I don’t even feel pain, all I want is for these two to leave us alone!

  “Wha!?”

  I put all my strength on the hand holding the bde, twisting it sideways as blood drips from my hand, I manage to crack the bde, holding a chunk of the edge in my hand, at the same time, I explode the man’s throat, and I use the broken sword bde to stab the woman’s chest!

  “Cowards!”

  They jumped back, I managed to injure them but their wounds healed rather quickly, as did my hand.

  “If you continue fighting us, it won’t end well for you princess!”

  “Are you threatening me? I don’t negotiate with you people!”

  As I was gonna jump back to attack them, the woman shot a spell towards Celestial, I had to stop and intercept it, hitting the fireball with my hand as it nded on the wall of the ruins.

  “Think about it! Finishing Celestial would be easy for us, so cease this stupid behavior at once!”

  “Tch!”

  I need to think of a way to get Celestial out of the way, so I start walking backwards. If I can touch her, I can teleport her away, and focus on the fight, just one touch is all that I need.

  “Look, think what you want, but our lord, or should I say father, asked us to bring you with him, it’s an invitation, that’s all!”

  While they mumbled, Celestial extended her hand towards me, does she know? It matters little, the moment my palm touched hers, she was out of this pce, much to the surprise of the pair.

  “Now where were we?”

  I need to get rid of these two, and my ‘father’ is next, they’ve been getting in the way constantly, and they’re not weak like the piggy, I can’t afford to py around!

  “If you kill us, his majesty will probably come personally next time, is that what you want?”

  “Hmm...”

  True, someone that can hurt Celestial to such a degree is not someone I wish to have nearby of the town, maybe the right move would be to go to his pce to kill him there but, I’m not stupid, I can’t beat Celestial in a fight, if I just attack him it would be suicide, I pnned on asking Celestial more info and investigate a way to kill him before engaging in a fight, but now I’m kinda stuck.

  “What does my so-called deadbeat dad want from me anyways?”

  “Milord just wishes to speak, as for what exactly, that is something we don’t need to know, so he never told us”

  “Hmm, only speak, you say?”

  Yeah no, it’s a trap obviously, the two are not lying however but that makes sense, if Maldi knows about me and what I can do, then it’s obvious he wouldn’t divulge information that would be dangerous for me to have.

  Killing the messenger is a rather pointless endeavor as I learned these past days.

  “There’s no hurry, his majesty told us to wait for whenever you’re ready, but don’t keep him waiting too long”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “It means we don’t have to go right away, I say a week could be more than enough right? So take your time and we will wait for you in these ruins, what do you say?”

  “I say ‘how magnanimous of him’, we haven’t met but I hate his guts already, whatever, give me a couple of hours, then we go”

  “As you wish princess, we will wait here regardless, those are our orders after all”

  “You two are! you know what whatever, eat dirt, I’ll be back ter”

  ...

  ...

  I teleported to the pace, the same pce I sent Celestial to, there’s a lot of people here in the courtyard, Heather, Rushka, Adele, Lassie, Az and even Elizabeth are here, what is she even doing here to begin with!?

  “M-marisa! What happened!?”

  Heather asked me with a concerned voice.

  “I will get to the details ter, Celestial, how are you feeling?”

  “I’m fine, I said... so before...”

  “A-allow me!”

  Mentioned Az, approaching Celestial, the wounds are apparent even in her human form, I was gonna stop her but she simply casted a healing spell, and it started closing at a rather amazing speed...

  “What!? You’re good with that Az! Let me help as well!”

  “I used to work as a medic for war frontlines, not to brag but my healing spells are second to none!”

  That’s something new, I won’t compin however, adding my help, Celestial was completely healed in a matter of seconds.

  “Hah!”

  “Whoa! Careful, you two!”

  Both Az and Celestial colpsed to the ground for some reason, Celestial I understand, but Az?

  “What happened!?”

  “I healed all her wounds, but energy and mana is something a spell can’t recover, Celestial will be fine, she just needs to rest!”

  “O-ok, and you!?”

  “Tired, I used too much mana and Celestial is pretty dense to heal... how can you even stand!?”

  Is recovery magic mana expensive? I feel teleportation is worse, well, it matters little, for now I gestured to Rushka, Adele, and Lassie to help me prepare to take them to the infirmary, they need to rest after all!

  We carried them along the halls, although Az was capable of walking again after a minute or two, so it was just Celestial.

  “Ok, a bed finally”

  “Marisa, what happened to those two demons?...”

  “Don’t worry about that Celestial, you just rest, I’m simply going to have to leave for a moment, is all”

  “M-Marisa! You’re not thinking of going to meet Maldi in person!”

  To Celestial’s words, everyone went completely silent, it wasn’t until Adele broke the silence with a rather shaken voice under her hood.

  “Y-you don’t mean Marisa’s father right!? is he still alive!?”

  “Unfortunately, it seems so”

  I answered, it is a fact apparently, Celestial is just grinding her teeth in anger at the prospect.

  “T-then the one who attacked Celestial was...”

  “Yes, the demon lord Maldi still lives...”

  “H-hold on, and why are you gonna go see him Marisa!?”

  Rushka answered with worry in her voice, Elizabeth and Lassie are just completely out of the loop.

  “His little minions came and told me he wishes to meet me, whatever, I pnned on killing him for what he did to Celestial, this just accelerates the process”

  “Marisa, I’m sorry but... you have no chance of winning!”

  “Y-yeah! Listen to Celestial, it’s suicide!”

  “Why would you do something like that!?”

  I simply inhaled deeply, and tried to calm them down. Their worries are clearly pretty big, more so after they saw the critical state that Celestial was in moments ago.

  “It is either I go to him, or he comes to me, conflict is unavoidable at this point, the only thing left is for me to try and fix things”

  “Y-you can’t be serious!”

  “I’m not going without a pn however, Celestial, do you know of a way to kill Maldi?”

  “I don’t... only Hestia knew for some reason! And it seems even that didn’t work, sorry...”

  “It’s ok, I thought as much, I will come up with something, don’t worry about it”

  The silence is also uncomfortable once again, no one bothered to say a word, it’s like someone died or something.

  “I’m coming with you Marisa”

  The silence was finally broken by Heather this time, who volunteered to accompany me for some reason, that’s-

  “M-me too! I will go as well!”

  Now it was Rushka, her voice was shaky and filled with fear, but she decided to accompany.

  “You’d need someone who can fight, allow me to go with you as well”

  Adele’s voice is as inexpressive as always, but she wants to help as well, as did Lassie, who wrote in her notebook that ‘I might not be of much help, but I will do my best as well’.

  “I-I can help as a healer! Plus I know what a war frontline looks like, let me help you this time!”

  “I... I will go as well...”

  Celestial was next, but I couldn’t help but bite my lips, I...

  “No, I’m going on my own, and that’s final”

  “““““Marisa!”””””

  They all excimed in unison, I don’t know what to say, they all think that going is a guaranteed death, and they might be right. But even thinking this, they would bet their life on me, in the off chance they can help me. It breaks my heart, more so because I wish the same, were it not for their safety, I would never think of going to such a dangerous pce to begin with.

  “You girls would just get in the way...”

  Yeah, even if they look at me with that face, think rationally, what will you girls do in a fight like that, die immediately? The only exception is Adele and Celestial, and the tter is not in shape to fight right now!

  “That doesn’t mean I won’t need your help however”

  They all turned to look at me, there’s things that they can do, and they can help in that, which means it is my turn to ask favors of them, I hate doing this, but if I’m to be gone for a long period of time, the town cannot go unattended!

  “It will be difficult to manage without me, Heather, you’re in charge of making decisions while I’m gone”

  “D-don’t say things like that! It sounds like you’re pnning on dying!”

  “No Heather. I’m coming back, but what about the town? Fuck them while I’m gone and let anarchy rule? I need you all to help me keep this pce in check”

  “Marisa...”

  “Heather, no, everyone, maybe with the exception of Elizabeth, I need you to be strong, now more than ever, and to make you girls feel sure, I promise to come back alive, can you trust my words?”

  “...”

  “...girls... I... I ask you as a favor, I cannot leave in peace without knowing that you’ll be fine without me. So I will ask again, can I trust you?”

  “Yes! we will do our best”

  Answered Heather, I know she’s shaken, but she has that determination in her eyes that I have always admire of her.

  “We will wait for your return, so don’t leave us waiting”

  “That’s the spirit! I won’t, and now that we get the sappy things out of the way, there’s things to be done”

  ...

  ...

  “Ok, back on topic, Heather, you’re in charge of decision making while I’m gone, Rushka you’re gonna continue with your work at the ‘b’ and keep helping Heather with paperwork, in a sense you two won’t change a lot in terms of work”

  “Understood!”

  “Yes honey”

  “Adele, I’m going to need you to stop the research for now, or at least scale it down”

  “O-ok?”

  “Sorry, I need you in the pace, you and Celestial whenever they feel better, you two are gonna be in charge of protecting the town in my absence, without me here, the empire might attempt to attack us, or even the neighbor towns, you two are our firepower, so stay around the castle if possible please”

  “Ah! I see, will do! And Gwen?”

  “Bring her to the pace in the meantime, she can work as a maid or something, you can continue digging through books or even ask Rushka help with research topics, but the priority is to keep the town afloat”

  “Ok, I shall move in ter today”

  “We will arrange you a room Adele”

  Cool, they seem to be cooperating.

  “Ok, Lassie, your job is the most dangerous one I think, and it involves Elizabeth”

  “M-me!?”

  “Yep, what are you doing in the pace by the way?”

  “W-well, you didn’t drop by my shop and, I just wanted to give you a cake courtesy of the house this time, since you buy from us so much...”

  “Aww, that’s so sweet, but I will not leave you to your luck, Heather, getting rid of the criminal organization is the next project for our town, work towards that if possible”

  “Yes midy!”

  “Cool, and Lassie, you know the town better than anyone, and more so the not so fortunate parts, I want you to use your skills and investigate whatever you can, and report to Heather anything suspicious you find, understood?”

  Lassie nodded, she can go full invisible, so she’s the best choice to leave this task with.

  “It’s not a priority, so the orphanages and things like that can distract you if needed, oh and sorry we couldn’t continue our umm, moment together”

  She simply blushed, this means we’re almost all set, this only leaves us with the two extras.

  “Az, you report to Lassie and Heather, you’re essentially their sve, so work in what they see fit, and in case someone needs healing, that’s the priority, got it?”

  “Yes Ma’am!”

  “Coolio, and finally Elizabeth, I’m sorry for requesting your help out of the blue, I know I said until we sort things out with the loan sharks but, can you give Heather and Rushka a hand with budgeting and or paperwork? We will pay you umm, whatever you can scrounge up of money?”

  I looked at Heather, but she simply shrugged, yeah, we do be pretty broke...

  “Don’t worry Marisa, I will help, it’s a promise”

  “Thank you dear, and with that, everyone has something to work towards, again I... I don’t know what I would do without you girls...”

  “No honey, we’re the ones grateful to you, we wouldn’t be here together were it not for you, so don’t make that face, we have each other right?”

  “Right... thank you everyone”

  And so we all had a groupal hug. It was a bit sappy, but it needed to be done. The time was nearly here for me to depart, as the sun was just about to set on this hectic day.

  I took my backpack with my clothes and belongings, and prepared to leave. I can teleport so I’m not that scared in the grand scheme of things, technically I can just come back whenever, although, for some reason it feels like I won’t be able to see them in a while...

  “Feeling scared?”

  “Celestial? Is it ok to be out of bed so soon?”

  “I will survive, the reality is that I came to stop you but, I realize it would be pointless”

  “Haha, are you worried about me Celestial?”

  “I am, you have no idea what you’re getting into...”

  “Well, I can be pretty unlucky sometimes. But that’s just how things go, no point in crying over spilt milk. Is there anything you want to talk to me about before leaving?”

  “No, I think you will understand as soon as you see your father, I... Marisa, please be careful”

  “Don’t jinx me Celestial, I will take care of myself. Plus, I don’t want to kick the bucket yet! Believe it or not, my life is the top priority~”

  If I’m gone, what will happen to everyone else after all.

  “I-”

  I couldn’t even finish my sentence, and I felt Celestial hugging me from behind as I was checking the things on my backpack.

  “Marisa... it feels like yesterday when we first met and... you’ve grown so much, I’m sure your mother would be proud...”

  “Thanks?”

  I felt Celestial shaking her head, and I could swear a tear fell from her cheek.

  “It’s nothing, it’s better that you know nothing”

  “Are you hiding things from me again!? I swear I’m gonna-”

  “It’s only folklore dear, don’t let it bother you. I’m sure you will find out on your own one day, but what about this? I will tell you all I know of you, and your family whenever you come back. How does that sound?”

  “You already promised to tell me stuff beforehand, don’t think I don’t realize what you’re doing”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re refraining to do so right now, only for me to have something to return to. It’s pointless, I already have plenty to come back to even without your cryptic words”

  “Ha! you... yeah, the only reason I could power through and survive was the promise I made with Hestia, I thought I would do the same with you...”

  “But I already promised, and I promise it to you a second time, I WILL come back home”

  “I know you will, I seem to have lost the pendants you gave me but, I want you to have this”

  Celestial then showed me the ring in the palm of her hand, it’s one of the 12 rings, like the ones I gave Heather and Rushka.

  “I can’t take it, was this not an important gift from my ‘mother’?”

  “I’m not giving it away, I want you to take care of it for me, can you do that?”

  “...How dare you use my own tactics against me!”

  Celestial simply gave me a warm smile, whatever, I will take care of the stupid ring, I’m gonna make you pay me for taking care of it once I come back! Probably in a lewd way! mark my words!

  Also was it just me, or did the ring glittered just now that I touched it? Maybe like the other ones but this one isn’t rusty so the effect wasn’t as apparent, who knows.

  ...

  ...

  Everyone gathered at the main entrance of the pace to send me off, it’s a bit heart wrenching and yet, somehow endearing! I bid farewell to my friends, Heather, Rushka and Lassie all got a goodbye kiss in the lips, the other ones, well, not there yet, maybe one day, who knows?

  I waved goodbye as I walked away, I could teleport, but I kinda want to have a moment for myself before heading back to the ruins.

  ‘Do you think that guy has the intention to kill us?’

  Other me? Nah, I doubt it, think about it rationally, if he needed me off this mortal pne, he would’ve come for my neck already, not only that but he knew where we were sealed for millenia, if his pn was to kill us, he had plenty of opportunities to do so with ease.

  ‘Hmm, I guess you’re right, then why want to see us so suddenly? Perhaps he just wants to meet us?’

  Nope, if that were the case, he would’ve undone the seal when we were babies, why bother to wait over 5000 years for it, thinking rationally, even Celestial’s aggression was out of pce, why wait so long to attack her? It’s not that he didn’t kill her because he couldn’t do it or that Celestial fled, he simply didn’t want to do it.

  ‘Then what is he pnning?’

  My guess is that he needs us for something, of what I’m not sure, but there must be something in his mind, something that he realized not long ago, for all we know, everything could have been going as he pnned, and we would be none the wiser, information is the name of the game, we need to probe as much as we can, if we’re to survive whatever is in store for us.

  ‘It should be fine right! It’s a dream after all, the good guys always beat the bad guys in the end!’

  I wouldn’t call us the ‘good guys’ to be honest, but you’re right, let us fix things as we have done so far, what’s the worst that could happen!

  ‘Since we’re being positive, we should’ve fucked Heather, Rushka and Lassie before we left!’

  Haha, horny as always other me, it’s gonna be just the two of us for a bit, but when we come back let all four of us have that kind of fun! And also, maybe have more people join, after today, I’m convinced we can woe more of them in~

  ‘Oh! That sounds fun!’

  It’s a deal, that’s the promise of me to myself, now everyone can be happy!

  ‘The only problem left is dealing with the old geezer that says to be our dad, do you have any ideas other me? I’ve been racking my head nonstop’

  Maybe, what if we pulled his soul out like we did with the piggy, how can a soul survive without a body, it’s the only thing I can think of.

  ‘Oh that might work!’

  It might, but we would need to A: be able to touch him directly for a significant amount of time, and B: pray he doesn’t realize and or knows of what we’re doing.

  ‘It’s better than no pn, it’s the only thing we have really’

  Yep, let’s do our best, for the sake of everyone! Besides, think about it, with Maldi out of the way, and Celestial pacified, we can start moving more freely, it could even benefit us in the end!

  Truly, my genius knows no bounds!

  ...

  ...

  “Ready to go princess?”

  “Unfortunately, let’s make this quick, so that I can take both of your lives as well once I’m done”

  “Well. we’ll see about that~ we didn’t introduce ourselves, I’m Hope”

  “And I’m Aaron, pleased to make your acquaintance formally”

  “Yeah yeah, I will put you guys head on a pike ter, let’s go”

  Hope then created a portal, simir to the ones Celestial tends to use, the time has come to finally meet the man in person.

  Joanne_carper