Time: 06:00
The sun was only just rising, though Ivan and the others only knew that by the artificial sun inside the lair that was synced up. An hour prior everyone got up and began preparing for what could be the final battle.
And just like that they spent the few minutes they had after preparing to watch the fake sun rise.
"Honestly I think it looks better than the real deal, though there's not much of a horizon for it to crest over…"
"Yeah, but at least we could look at it without burning our eyes out~!"
"And yet there's a certain beauty in that fact as well, a beauty you could only witness for a few seconds before your eyes glisten with tears."
"Of course it would be the perverted dragon that says she likes it when the sun burns her eyes…"
"Ah, ah, this admonishment~! Y-Your eyes that stare at me perturbed. Fufufu~ Hah, ha— Eh, um… where are you all going…? Why must you all shuffle away from me with such haste? Don't leave me alone!"
Yes, they were entirely prepared to quite possibly die this day.
"Hm? Ah, Yue, where's that orb thing you had around your neck?" Ari circled the short blonde with curiosity gleaming in her eyes, one minute the petite girl would refuse to part with it and now here she was without it.
"I don't want to risk it breaking…" Yue responseded with the usual stoicism, her eyes staring back at the tanned beauty expressionlessly.
Ari was about to respond with how restoration magic would just put it together again but it was Yue's stare that made her stifle her words. She backed off with a wry smile before chalking it up to the fact that Yue may just be sentimental regarding the device.
"Everyone ready? How's the gear feelin'? It'll be too late to make adjustments out on the field so speak now or forever hold your peace~!"
Ivan broke up the tension with a few claps, aside from the usual attire silver bracelets adorned each wrist, their size about as thick as a penny. And looking at the girls' wrists each of them wore the same devices.
It was a simple combination of Metamorphosis Magic, Restoration Magic, and Spatial Magic, all tied neatly together by Creation Magic.
To put it simply they were just bracelets that projected a living barrier in front of the user that would eat whatever energy source collided with it. Theoretically they should be able to consume disintegration beams and repair themselves with restoration magic before exploding and dying.
Knowing that the barriers were alive put the girls a little on edge but after Ivan notified them that they were without a soul— well, it didn't exactly make them feel any better. But it at least eased their guilt by a little bit.
Ivan had debated transmuting the soul of a monster or an animal into the shield but the whole Living Necklace arc a year ago shut that idea down.
'Though things are a little different now… I have Spirit Magic after all…' He even messed with the idea of making that immortal spoon he thought of at the beginning of his journey.
A living immortal spoon sounded cool as well, but it seemed like torture for both parties. One for the person inserting the spoon in their mouth and two for the spoon going inside someone's mouth.
The only exception would probably be if the spoon spirit was formed into a soul that desires to fulfill the purpose it was assigned,
Ivan could already imagine the nascent toilets terrorizing the streets of Heiligh begging to be filled. It was horrifying to think of, and yet at the same time a situation so odd he wanted to see it at least once.
'I wonder if the demons have toilets…'
Considering how good looking Cattleya was, the demons seemed to care about hygiene as much as the average human. So the answer was—
"Of course they have toilets~!"
"Hm…?"
Ivan shuddered as a number of eyes landed on his body. What kind of excuse should he make in a situation like this, he had no idea, even with his dozens of thought processes.
"No, I was just asking if everyone made sure they didn't need to use the toilet before we left… I'll bring along the portable toilet just in case but I doubt Ehit would give us enough time to take potty breaks…"
The governess, the princess, the maid, and the dancer all looked at him with doubt.
"Ehem, anyways, now that we're all ready shall we make our way? I've set us a strict wake up schedule so we may arrive at a decent time! Not everyone could see in the night after all."
The others rolled their eyes as he made hurried steps toward the teleporter, he eyed the others awkwardly as they all took their places beside him.
"So long Oscar! You've been a real help to us for a large part of this journey, I'll make sure to make this place a memorial with gift shops and churro stands if I make it out of this encounter alive!"
And then he didn't allow anyone else to comment on his comment, wrapping everyone in his arms before taking a leap forward.
A white light consumed them all and in a matter of seconds the rowdy underground lair became silent again.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What would we do without this compass~? Thank you liberators for taking ten steps ahead when preparing for the future!"
Ivan fumbled the compass in his hands for a bit before staring out the front windshield of the newly repaired Falcon, the name of his dragon-like airship. He of course noticed the irony in its name.
Thankfully Tio didn't find it disrespectful, or it's more accurate to say she found it so disrespectful that she approved of it immediately.
Any other name that was suggested ended up being too long or hard to say, like Steel Soaring Dragon or Xyrestia.
The first sounded like some move a hot headed protagonist would yell out in a shonen manga and the latter sounded like a name that would bring upon a Greek god's wrath.
Ivan sat up in his chair from his slumped position as he squinted his eyes to somewhere along the horizon.
Red as far as the eye could see, a cloudless red sky and darkish red brown ground that seemed to be this area's equivalent of green grass. Even the occasional pond, river, and sea on the horizon was just pure red.
"How much more cliche could this shit get…? Might as well put a giant sign in the air saying 'bad guys over here'. I guess the gods of this world really liked their stereotypes huh… As expected of bastards that would do anything for entertainment's sake."
The land of the demon's was almost a one-to-one idea of what humans on Earth thought of as hell, but without the excess fire and tortured souls. If anything the red was just a bit harsh on the eyes.
"I'm surprised there isn't a red tint to light here, then again I guess I have the cloudless sky to thank for that."
Muttering such pointless things Ivan held the compass higher into the air, for now the goal he infused in it was to bring him to Ehit. And not so coincidentally it seemed to take him straight toward where the demon kingdom laid.
Not a surprise to the group at all, considering Freid's behavior before he met his end. Screaming this and that about his god.
"Activating cloaking, prepare to descend. I'll use a scope to observe the situation from afar, we'll want to sneak in without arousing suspicion. Our goal, the ominous looking castle looming over the city."
The iron-dragon named Falcon shimmered with blue light before the panels on its underside transformed to show the sky above them, completely concealing the underside of the aircraft.
A hatch opened beneath it and every member of the group descended, each without a parachute.
"Superhero landing!"
Ivan yelled as he followed suit, the Falcon disappearing into his Treasure Trove. Yue latched onto his back and hung onto him as if she were a backpack, all the while Ivan made it a point to land on one knee.
THUD
"M-Master, oh, I'm so glad I managed to put my body beneath yours in time… hehehe, who knows what sort of injuries you may have succumbed to~!"
That same one knee fell down from the Falcon and onto the back of Tio, who writhed with pleasure as she made up some excuse as to why she threw herself under him.
"U-Um, the impact master… the impact would create a loud noise and kick up dirt that would attract all too much attention to our position…"
"...."
Ivan sighed disappointedly.
Pulling a scope from his ring, he stretched it out and looked out into the horizon, one eye peeking through.
"They're literally the same as humans in almost every way."
Sure they had swarthy skin, sure they were born with stronger physical bodies and had a better innate potential for magic, and sure they prayed to a different god, but at the end of the day they were people.
Not the monsters that the Holy Church had tried to instill into their minds the moment they were summoned.
Ivan saw it all from his telescope. Children laughing, families merrily shopping through the streets, old men quibbling over insignificant matters, and drunken men making noise.
'That's propaganda for ya'.'
He shook his head before monitoring the streets closest to the castle. Cattleya herself was happily engaged, such an aspect made it clear to the students that demons weren't monsters, the same aspect that made Kouki hesitate when he could have dealt the killing blow in Oscar's Labyrinth.
Time: 09:00
"It's time."
Approaching at night was comparatively a bad strategy, more guards, likely on higher alert than in the day, each irritated by the fact that they were spending their night outside.
People rarely expect crimes to happen in broad daylight, and because of that they often have their guards down. Especially in a time of peace.
And while the current era could be described as a time of war between Demons and Humans, the guards who were too comfortable because there've never been an instance of humans breaking in slacked off on their jobs.
Ivan took the opportunity to tunnel as closely to the castle as he could while the guards were occupied socializing with each other or with the locals.
'We're in…"
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