Following a brief meeting with the emperor, Haruki was sent off to Dominion's territory to retain the land after it had been abandoned by the war general. Standing in front of Deus and Inferno, his eyes turned to Michael as he would be the one to relay the message.
"You've shed plenty of blood on this land it seems," not too happy about the bloodied scene, Michael wore a deep frown as he talked to the two. "Taking advantage of the general's absence I assume?"
"So what?" Inferno questioned with a mocking smile.
Shifting a glance between the two, he planted the empire's flag into the ground before continuing on with the message.
"Well…On the emperor's command, I have a new general to offer so you best take your bloodied tracks back to where you came from," looking over his shoulder, Michael jerked his head forward to make Haruki step in front. "A demon lord to fight other demon lords, fitting isn't it?"
Walking up forward, Haruki looked at the two with an unsure expression. He wasn't sure whether to treat them as allies or enemies, especially since they had no clue about his deal with Asmodia and thus were bound to mistake Haruki's compliance for a sort of betrayal towards demon kind.
"Just take your armies back, I don't want there to be more blood flowing through these lands," Haruki warned the two.
In his mind, he wanted to go against the emperor that very moment but with Michael standing behind him, and his communication abilities, as well as tormentous dungeon blocked by the emperor, he had no choice but to keep pretending to be compliant.
"What if I don't back away?" Enraged by Haruki's behavior, Inferno grabbed him by the collar of his cloak.
"Inferno stop!" Grabbing Inferno by the arm, Deus tried to pull him off of Haruki.
A bit more understanding of the situation, he knew that Haruki was being obviously manipulated, thus by escalating the matter things were bound to take a turn for the worse.
"Get off me!" Jerking Deus's hand off of himself, Inferno glared Haruki down seemingly ready to tear him this instant.
Michael, however, couldn't let it happen, and thus raising his hand to the sky, he summoned the angelic eye in the skies. Tearing through the cloud, the eye of the angel slowly opened up and illuminated the land with beaming golden light.
"I suppose you forgot I'm here as well," Warning the demon lord, Michael crossed his arms in wait for Inferno to let go of Haruki.
Although reluctant, Inferno pushed Haruki back and turned to look at Michael with deep scorn. Even though he would've loved to take him on all by himself, right now so soon after Asmodia's death, he didn't want to push the emperor's nerves too far. After all, even if Michael was defeated, if the emperor decided to take Inferno out, there would be even fewer people left to fight against Atlas once he was gone.
"You're not the only one with heavenly guides," Inferno muttered, stomping his feet on the ground.
Crawling away to the side of his feet, a crack in the ground ventured far from the group before it began to collapse on itself. Crumbling inward, a crater with lava jumping out from the falling debris appeared before them. In through the very space, a giant burning hand clawed itself into the side of the crater.
"GAAAHHHH!" A sudden screech from the creature still hiding in the ground shook the ground as if it was about to implode on itself.
"Trying to scare me with an infernal mutt?" Despite the threatening presence of the infernal hound, the dragonslayer was not in the least intimidated. Instead, he was looking forward to the warm-up the creature could provide before having to clash with a demon lord clad in flames.
"Inferno," trying to de-escalate the situation, Haruki jumped into the confrontation. "Just take your army back, and surrender this land back to the emperor, a piece of land is not worth risking your life over!"
"Oh fuck off, you bastard," Inferno replied before turning away from the messengers of the emperor. "I'll be here until you can reclaim this land by your strength, but until then I'm its lord, and I suggest you fuck right out of here!"
Walking back towards the underground facility, Inferno left the place before he couldn't control his anger anymore. Once he was gone, Deus too began making his way back, but not before sharing an affirming nod with Haruki after having given him a dubious glare.
'There must be a reason he's acting the way he is, no way sis choose a guy who would give up so easily to someone's commands.' Disappearing into the facility as well, Deus was on his way to meet up with Fay again.
In the meantime, Haruki and Michael had to back away from the ground since staying there without an army when the enemy did have one, could turn potentially lethal at any moment. Jolting in through the sky, Michael flew away with Haruki following him soon after with his wings and a hint of time magic to keep up with the dragon's bane.
Possessing an affinity for time, Michael was still baffled by Haruki's masterful use of time magic. In comparison, he felt lacking but didn't let it get to his head.
'He's a demon, possibly the last person you should compare yourself to.' Reasoning through his envy, he jolted even faster through the sky to report back to the emperor. His worries, not just limited to Haruki, Michael had a lot going on in his mind, especially how Dominion had abandoned his post and was nowhere to be found. 'I thought Razor was trouble, but ever since the emperor showed signs of weakness, Dominion had gotten progressively worse, and now…'
Looking down at the blood-painted land, Michael felt deep sorrow for the soldier who'd been abandoned and left without orders by their general. The army which once conquered many lands which had turned into the empire as it stands now had been smashed under the feet of ghastly monsters.
"Michael," all of a sudden as Haruki called out to him, Michael's eyes blinked in surprise before he could gather his thoughts and turn to look at him.
Stopped in mid-air with his arm in Haruki's clutches, he had no clue what was happening. Jerking his hand off of his grip, Michael jolted slightly backward while floating through the use of wind magic.
"Don't you dare touch me," he muttered.
Haruki simply pressed his lips shut and looked down so Michael would follow his gaze. And as he did, Michael noticed that they were both floating right above the obsidian castle of the emperor. In his train of thought, Michael never realized just how much time had actually passed. A bit troubled by his carelessness, he shook his head left to right before descending down to get back on his feet.
"I'll report to the emperor," not wasting any time, Michael made his way to the emperor's throne room.
Confounded by Michael's urgency, Haruki watched him from the back until he disappeared into the castle. Left behind in the training grounds, he could feel plenty of eyes drilling holes into his back, but after he turned around to face the soldiers he'd beaten up before, their attention quickly turned back to their training.
'What to do now?' With little to no clue about how to advance his plans, Haruki started walking into the castle as well. Right as he entered he noticed Selena the royal guard standing beside the open gates, staring at him from the shadows. As he turned around to confront her, she started walking closer to him and only stopped when he was only a sword's length away.
"If you're gonna follow me, you need to do better," Haruki said, utterly unimpressed by her attempt.
"I'm learning, there's going to be plenty of time for me to figure out how to spy on a demon lord," visibly determined, Selena didn't seem like one to easily give up.
"Fine," fanning his hand at her, Haruki turned around to make his way up the stairs. "If you're gonna follow me, then at least help me pass some time."
After moving to the staircase, he stopped once again to look at her for a moment.
"Help with what?" She asked, her hand elusively roaming around her hips by the sword handle.
"With the book, I wanna pass some time by reading," Haruki replied, although with false reasoning.
'There's bound to be something in the library here that can help me find a path to the land of fairies.' From his experience at countless libraries in the three kingdoms he once ruled, Haruki knew well enough that they all contained the historical literature about the land, the city, and the duchies. And if the emperor's domain was where the emperor's conquest began, then deep within that library Haruki was sure he could find texts of deep interest.
"So? Are you going to help me or not?" Haruki asked, still looking at Selena.
"Uhm…" Baffled by a demon's interest in academics, it took a moment for Selena to reply coherently. "Sure, I-I guess?"
The moment she agreed, Haruki grabbed her hand and started leading her to the library, the path to which Nabe had already shown him.
'What the?' Even more confused by Haruki's enthusiasm for books, Selena had no clue what was happening.
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