As soon as Fay had cradled Stella to sleep again, a march of approaching footsteps could be heard from the corridors. Presuming it as a threat, the demons heightened up their senses and all turned to face the room's open door.
"Who is it!" Fay demanded in a threatening voice.
But the moment they saw Margarette and the rest of their group coming out from the corner, all of them quickly relaxed their guards. Huffing out sighs of relief, a light chuckle resonated throughout the room.
"What happened?" Athena asked, slowly moving inside the bedroom.
Following behind her, the rest of them got inside as well. Just as confused as the arriving group, Haruki and the rest had no idea how they got here, and what led them to abandon their position in Lamenia and travel here.
"I guess we all have a lot of questions for each other," glancing at both groups, Haruki decided to mediate the conversation so everyone was on the same page of understanding the situation. "You guys should settle down, so I can explain our side, and then you can do the same for yours."
Nodding to the suggestion, the arriving group crammed up the small bed after sitting down on it. As the night went on, both sides exchanged their stories about what had happened to them so far. It left them all baffled, and quite honestly, never wanting to split up like this ever again.
By the time the explanations were done, they all found themselves dozing off on each other's shoulders. And before long, their bodies piled up on each other as they flopped onto the mattress.
"I…should sleep too…" Tired to the bone and burdened with the bodies of numerous beauties laying on top of his, Haruki slipped into slumber, unaware of the horrors that were waiting for him.
Pulled into the darkness, he found himself stranded on an island of dark. All around him, only the ever-stretching abyss was present with nothing else in sight. This wasn't his first time being her, despite that something still felt off. As if the crushing presence of someone monstrous was lingering over his head.
Peering up to confirm his suspicion, he saw a violet eye looking down on him from the stretch of darkness in the sky. Like a river under the moonlight, its eyes shimmered as the stars reflected on the surface of the water.
"Does this creature remind you of something?" A pair of bright pink lips appearing by Haruki's ears whispered right into them. "Does it?"
No stranger to the voice, Haruki knew exactly who it was.
"Michael's angel, that's what it reminds me of, except the iris of that creature was golden, not violet," satisfied with his anger, Asmodia appeared beside him with a bright smile.
However, as Haruki tried to turn and get a look at her physical form, he felt a pair of invisible hands forcefully turning his head back towards the eye.
"What the hell are you doing?" He asked, gritting his teeth in anger.
"Saving you…" Resting her hand over his chest, she let it wander over his body. "You've grown strong, but you're still so naive, did you really think they'd leave you alone just because you can hide from them for a while?"
Feeling her hand slipping down his stomach, Haruki's heart began to pump blood like a piston. Trying to get her off of him, he tried to move her by his hands, but getting bound together by some invisible force, they raised up high as if held by a pair of chains.
"Save no mercy, I think you've come to that conclusion yourself by now, but why then would you not act on it?" Sinking her nails right above his groin, she drew out blood that eventually trailed down his genitals.
"What the fuck do you want Asmodia?!" Tired of her crap, Haruki couldn't keep his rage confined anymore.
"I wanna see you be a monster!" She replied screaming right into his ears. "Because he already is one! So you must be! For my sake! For the sake of this crumbling world! For the sake of…the death of many who are left begging for it."
Hearing her voice go from being hysteric to empathic, Haruki was greatly confused as to what exactly she wanted from him.
"I'm trying, okay?! I can't just go around killing people or else, I'd find myself back under the blade of an axe!" Expunging mana out from his body, Haruki forced Asmodia to stumble back and even take back her command on his body through the invisible force.
Astounded by the ordeal, her eyes were fixed on her servant as he slowly turned to finally get a look at her. As beautiful as she was cunning, her skin was as fair petals of roses, and her eyes as entrapping as the shimmering night sky. Crowned by a pair of horns protruding out of her long dark hair, her small and slender frame appeared to be that of an angel.
"Is this an illusion again or is this your real body?" Moving closer, Haruki couldn't help but ask.
"Shut up!" She cried, her fists clenched tight in anger.
Unfazed, he stood towering over her frame slightly smaller than his own. Peering at each other, they both felt drawn to bind themselves into an everlasting kiss. But even when Haruki tried to touch her, a zap of lightning made him jerk back.
"Don't you dare…" She growled.
"What's your problem?" Completely lost as to what she wanted from this interaction, Haruki just wanted to complain his heart out. "I'm doing your bindings by gathering that army already, what else do you want?"
"For you to stay alive!" Raising his hand towards him, she sprang forth a ball of concentrated darkness ready to be shot at his body. "Aris Magna!"
Fearing for his life, Haruki squinted his eyes shut and braced for whatever the attack was that she'd unleashed onto him. However, when nothing hit him at all even after a second, he opened his eyes back up and followed Asmodia's gaze.
Standing behind him was the tall frame of a devil girl whose face had melted into the shape of an eclipsed moon. Staring at the gruesome sight, Haruki noticed the deformed girl putting up a smile on her face before promptly falling down to the ground.
"That won't kill the girl in real life, but she won't be able to follow you for a while," hearing Asmodia's warning, Haruki quickly turned his attention back to her. "You've been careless, if it weren't for me that girl would've killed you and your small group of companions while you were all sleeping."
"That girl…" Remembering the devil girl who was sharing the hut inn with his companions, Haruki felt moronic for having forgotten about her.
"I gave you a warning with Ophilia, but even then, you failed to listen. That is exactly why I've pulled you into this dream warrior!" Moving closer to the confused demon, Asmodia kept a stern look appeared on her face. "You have a month until she rises back up, before then I want you to wise up and find a way to kill her, because if you can't do it, then I'll find a way to kill you myself even if our contract doesn't allow me to."
With those words, the giant eyes in the dark sky turned to look right at Haruki. It was a clear threat from Asmodia, and he had no choice but to abide by her demands.
"I'm done looking out for you every time you're in mortal danger," her crazed eyes were enough proof of the sincerity of her threat.
All of a sudden, Haruki felt her push out of the dream, and he woke up in his bed with the rest of his companions still laying on top of him. But his companions weren't the only thing laying on top, along with them was a bound book, with a title directly engraved into the leather. It read…
"Records of the worlds?" It was the very book he'd been looking to find in the Library of Heroes. And as fate would have it, he found a copy with a small note from Asmodia. "Stop chasing ghosts, and be the savior you were meant to be."
That brief note from her was perhaps even more confusing than anything that had happened last night.
R𝑒ad latest chapt𝒆rs at freew𝒆(b)novel.c(o)m Only