Change and Time

[Animajunki123]

Chapter 1!

Spoiler: show

Chapter one: our Intro

“*sigh* … what a boring day…”

And indeed it was.

It was a simple purple dawned day in the demon realm. The black grass was wafting in the corrupted wind, the haze of the dimly lit red sun hummed out across the darkened landscape of the land of corruption. It would be beautiful to those who inhabited it, and the little girl who looked out her tall stained glass window normally would find it as such.

But today, it just looked… boring.

Reaching up with her small furry paw/hands, she ruffled her own hair in an attempt to move the long bangs out of the way, revealing her child like gray eyes. They would look quite innocent, if they didn't have the semblance of lustful taint in them.

She gazed out for a little bit longer before another long sigh escaped from her mouth, causing her loose hair to flutter slightly. She leaned down and placed her forehead against her oak desk and against the pages of paper strewn across its surface, rolling her head back and forth in an attempt that it might slack her boredom.

However, even after several minutes of doing this, her mood had not improved.

As a matter of fact, it had gone from bored, to extremely bored.

The little girl sat up straight, the dull haze of the light filtering through the stained glass casting a crimson glow against her set of horns. She looked down at the rolls of paper on her desk, picking a few up with her paws and reading over them before the energy necessary for her to work dried up.

She dropped them on the ground and pushed her chair, causing it to slide across the floor a few inches and giving her enough room to slump down in her chair like a pouty child with her legs and lower half dangling off the much to-large-chair.

“Why is it so damned boring… B-O-R-E-D, B-O-R-E-D, B-O-R-E-D… and bored so bored are we…”

She hopped off of her chair, the clopping of her hooves as they came in contact with the stone floor echoing out in the large office. She walked over to the large cabinet that had been off to her right, pulling a few drawers out until she found the one she wanted.

“Maybe some of this will help me out…” She reached into the reddish drawer and pulled out a small pawful of candy, taking a small golden on with her free hand and ripped it open with her teeth.

Butterscotch had always been her absolute favorite, and the moment she put it in her mouth the familiar zing of sugar surged forth.

Now, where she would normally enjoy the flavor, and suck on it for as long as possible until it dissolved in her mouth, She simply moved it across her tongue a few times before she simply crushed it between her teeth in frustration.

“Urgh…”

She dropped the large handful of sweets back in the drawer and slammed it shut, stomping over to her seat and throwing herself into it, causing it to slide several feet back from the force.

The moment it did stop, she quickly raised her furry mits to the air and started to flail her four limbs wildly in obvious frustration

“This is so STUPID!!! Ever since That day, it’s been so boring! No Heroes! No Armies! No Grand battles! No Nothing!!!”

“forgive me Milady, But ‘No Nothing’ is a double negative, and you know how much I hate grammatical problems”

The little Girl quickly rounded on her seat, glancing back behind her and to the empty room that was not so empty right now. Standing some feet away, looking proper and hardcore Business lady despite the obvious physical age of a 12 year old, was another little girl.

She had light blue hair, obviously from the magical enhancements she did to herself that was tied up into a simple braided ponytail.

Her face, though childish in appearance, was serious and cold looking, the fiery red of her eyes the only thing that didn't look cold on her.

The girl let out a sigh before she shifted for a moment, allowing herself some slight amount of time to gather the paper in her arms up accordingly and coming over

“Goodness… How a Great Baphomet can simply act so bratty despite being the General and chief of the Magical Corps of the Demon Lords armies can be beyond even me at times… you really should try to act a little more dignified Taima…”

The Baphomet rolled her eyes at the girl and her nagging, “No Thanks… Never been one to try to act high and mighty… and it’s not General and Chief anymore, it’s…ugh…”

Taima rolled her eyes as the words spilled from her mouth like bile in her throat, “ ‘Chief executive of magical research’ What kinda title is that anyway? I don’t Do anything anymore!! It’s just a fancy way of sayin ‘we can’t have military anymore, so we have to put you on something that sounds harmless.’ It’s degrading Louis! Degrading I say!”

The Bluish haired girl could only shake her head at her commanders woes, “I know… I was there remember?”

The little Baphomet cringed at the deadpan tone.

“Sorry… I guess I’m not the only one it effected… you guys have had it rough too…”

The both of them went silent for a moment, the only noises in the room the ones of the ticking of a clock on the desk.

Finally, Taima let out another sigh as she slumped in her chair again,

“It’s just not fair… No more hero’s means no more people coming into the Demon realm…and no more people coming into the Demon Realm means no more men coming… and no more men means no more Viable Candidates I can Call ‘Big Brother!!’ I mean, almost everybody in the Sabbath has a big bro except for me!! The leader! Do you know how many sleepless nights I’ve had wanting to cuddle up to a big bro!? the cuddling and the head pats!? The enjoyment I’m missing out on!?”

Louis had heard it all before, nearly 60 times to date. But she wasn't going to tell her that, it was the only way for her to cope with the lack of a Big Bro.

The little girl stomped to her feet and raised her little furry fists in the air in anger, shouting to the stone ceiling,

“DAMN YOU ORDER!! DAMN YOU TO HELL AND BACK! That way I smack each of you around until your begging me to stop… he he… then I would be all like ‘never! If you want me to stop, then you’re going to need to please me! And the only way to please me is to get down on your knees and… he he he he he he…”

Louis knew that Laugh, it was the one that Tiama would do when it was either time for mass, or when she was having one of her fantasies.

Louise snapped her fingers a few times to get the girl out of it, “Uh-hum… as interesting as it would be to see you start to go down that road today, I actually came to ask you if your done with all the forms? Many of the apprentices are wanting to get started on their projects… this week if at all possible”

The Horned devil blinked a few times before she registered that she wasn't going down lusty dream lane,

“Huh? Oh… yeah, they’re done…”

Louise nodded her head before she picked up all the paper on the desk, glancing over at her superior.

The girl looked absolutely dejected at this point. She let out a pitying sigh before she spoke up again,

“Listen… if you need some fun times or something, perhaps you could go down and see if any of the new male members need a little sex?”

The girl simply shook her head as she stared out the window again, “Nah… already tried yesterday… a few of them actually… and sure it felt nice, but it was kinda hallow…”

Louise simply nodded her head before she picked up the stack of papers and walked out the room, leaving her leader to her thoughts.

Tiama looked at the door for a moment before she dropped her head on the table with a loud *thunk*, and then repeating the process several more times for emphasis.

She then lifted her head and rested her chin on the cool wood, her eyes lackluster as she started to speak again “I just wish something interesting would happen…”

Chapter 2!

Spoiler: show

Chapter two: solution

Louis closed the door behind her, the sounds of her superior obviously smashing something against hard wood. From the fleshy sound, she could guess it was her forehead.

Thankfully the desk that Taima owned was magically enhanced to not break at the slightest provocation from a raging Baphomet, especially one that had a temper.

Desks where hard to come by, especially since that day.


Louis simply shook her head once, muttering ‘damned order’ under her breath as she strode down the hall.

The Expressionless Witch continued on down the hall in silence, her thoughts her own as she would occasionally stop and shift the forms around in her hands to better ease the load. She eventually did make it to the required door that was necessary, and it had only been several halls down from her starting point.

However, unlike every other door she had passed on her way here, this one had a massive Seal drawn on the door in order to keep out those who didn’t belong in there.

Namely the apprentices and their Big Brothers.

Louis put most of the load in the crook of her one arm, freeing up her right and allowing free movement.

She then chanted under her breath, waving her hand in several circles and then into zigzagging lines, eventually finishing in a Grand arch that went over her head. The sigil on the door glowed bright for a moment before it vanished, taking the door with it.

Of course, where Louis was expecting a room with several eager working witches, she was instead greeted with the smell of musk and the sounds of heavy moans and slapping flesh.

The four Witches in the room, in there obvious impatience, had apparently summoned their Brothers to the chamber, something that was strictly not allowed, and had proceeded to engage in one big orgy anywhere they could find a surface.

The two witches on her right where busy making out with each other while one of the males sat underneath them both and drove his manhood into one of them while the other male was driving his own little john into the others Backdoor.

The one in front of her had apparently decided to get a taste of her own Big Brothers Stick, as he had her pinned down and was quite literally face fucking her.

The last witch, who had apparently cast magic, was getting pelted from Below as she sat in her Brother lap, bobbing up and down like a metronome.

However, Louise could see the effects of the magic cast, namely in the lower region of the males dick, as it had grown to Equine proportions and could be seen sliding in and out of the witches Slit, her stomach bulging every time it entered and shrinking when it left.

Now most of the time, she didn’t mind it when the Members of the Sabbath engaged in sexual Congress, even if it was in the middle of one of her speeches or during the usual supper. But when it was time to work, it was not time for Play, and she made it a point that if you had a task, you had better damn well get it done before you got into it.

Walking past all of them, as they were too busy taking in pleasure to notice anything outside there little sex bubbles, Louis set the stack of papers on one of the few desks that wasn’t covered in baby batter and then turned her full attention to the sweating, pleasure induced highs of the witches.

She could have simply called out loudly getting each of their attention and scolding them with a serious work ethic lecture, But then it would have simply been in words, and that wouldn’t have gotten her point across.

So Instead, she opted to use plan B. And in her Opinion, Plan B was much more fun.

Louise raised her hands to the crowd, drawing small circles in the air around each of the males in the room, and several smaller ones in them as well. Eventually stopping when she felt comfortable with her work,

“Not to many or I might actually hurt them…”

She then moved each of the circles into one large around in front of her and then smiled coyly,

“Since you all seem to be enjoying this… how about… I enhance the feeling”

She then tapped each of the circles in quick succession, causing each of the men to slightly jolt. Louis’s smile widened as she started to tap each of the circles quickly and with rhythm, the men’s bodies jolting into faster thrusts as she did.

“I always did enjoy music… especially when I can play on the Organ.”

She started to type out in frenzied glee, the moans in the room starting to turn to shouts of pure pleasure. Each of the witches where squealing out in ecstasy as their Holes where violently thrust into with the savage eagerness of rabid dogs.

Louis was simply smiling as she continued, eventually casting another spell under her breath, this time, to increase the Cum rate the men could make.

“And now, for the Crescendo…”

She then tapped each of them lightly, to prepare, and then she pressed into the circles at the men’s waists.

Hard.

Louis laughed to herself when she got done playing the male Prostates like an Expert Pianist and watched as the men could only cum in pure shock and pleasure.

Louis nodded her head once when she saw the surprise on the witches faces when the amount of Spirit energy being pumped into them was starting to gather in the gallons in there little bodies.

And it wasn’t stopping either.

Each of the witches felt there little bodies filling up to the brim with Cum, a great deal of overflow in the ones who had their little wombs plugged up.

The other two however, had different results.

The one who had been deepthroated not but 20 seconds earlier had her stomach bulge with the amount being poured into her tummy.

The other one with her back door bricked up was also experiencing much of the same thing.

And after another 30 seconds of continued and forced Ejaculation, the little orgy finally died down, the afterglow of each of them almost so strong that Louis was almost sure the room was a little brighter.

It would have been funny if it wasn’t for the large pool of Smeg that was accumulating on the floor, something that the second in command could only click her tongue at.

She did Like for the labs to be clean after all.

She looked up at the rest of the group and noticed for the first time that the males had apparently lost consciousness. That came as no surprise however, she had pushed their bodies into producing about ten days’ worth of cum in under 30 seconds.

That would leave any man drained, even the strongest of hero’s. But that also meant that they certainly wouldn’t be able to enjoy alone time for 2 days minimum. Sad loss for her subordinates, but maybe that would teach them not to mess around when work needed to be done.

Louise, feeling that she had been silent for long enough, cleared her throat loudly,

“*ahem* are you four quite done yet?”

The witches in the room quickly stood to attention, extracting their older brothers dicks from there violated orifices and gathered in front of her, cum still dripping out of their bodies and onto the floor.

“H-H-H-Hello lady Louise!! Ba-back so soon?”

The Senior witch only rolled her eyes at them. She had been gone a good 2 hours. They had obviously been going at it for a while,

“Yes, I am. And I dearly hope that each of you completed your assigned tasks for the day. As I had instructed?”

There was now ice in her voice, causing the four witches in the group to flinch. The 10 seconds of silence that followed told her everything she needed, causing her to chill the air around her,

“So… Instead of doing your assigned tasks, as was per my orders, you instead decided to ignore given orders, engage in coatis in the labs and instead simply let these projects end up being delayed… You know what that means right?”

The four witches stared at Louise in pure dread, “Y-You’re not…”

“Please milady! Not that! anything but-!!”

Whatever words they were going to say died in their throats when she lifted her hand. Louise snapped her fingers and uttered out a fierce command,

“Seal!”

Four small beams of light erupted from her fingers, striking at each of the witches in the lower abdomen. It took all of two seconds, not even leaving the four to protest at the idea. Each one blinked from the sudden blast of light, but looked down at their naked bodies and saw glowing sigils on their lower pelvic region.

It took them a few moments, but the horror finally hit when the revelation came on them in a cold wave,

“NO!!”

“How could you be so cruel milady!!”

Louise could only laugh a little under her breath darkly, “Oh, I can be much much crueler if given the choice, but your actions didn’t warrant for complete removal of all feeling down in the lower regions. For now, your sensitivity is just turned way down. You might not think this bad, but since your older brothers probably won’t be able to handle sex for a minimum of 2 days, I’d say three days without sex will do your work ethic some good.”

The looks on their faces told her she got her point across very well. Why, a few of them looked ready to break down and cry on the spot. But they still had a job to do, so she wouldn’t allow it,

“Now since that’s done, get back to your work, and clean this place up while you’re at it.”

Not even waiting to see their reactions or even if they got to work, The Head witch made her way out the door, magically pulling the four males out the door with her and dumping them in a heap in the hallway.

When she got done with that, Louise made her way back down the hall, taking a few turns here and there until she found what she was looking for; one of the large scale magical circles that allowed instant travel to anywhere in the Large facility.

Placing herself in one of the smaller circles, she uttered a few words, causing the large dais to light up with a pinkish glow, only getting brighter as the moments passed by.
Eventually, the circle suddenly flared up, taking Louise’s small frame with the disappearing light. To her, it was a pretty normal feeling, being warped from one end of the facility to the other, but it always left her with a tingle in her skin, like she had just been filled to the brim with electricity.

Louis counted out the doors as she passed, each one looking close to the same as she did until she eventually stopped.

“Finally…”

The head witch placed her hand on the brass knob and muttered a few words under her breath, causing several snapping noise’s to resound in the cavernous stone hallway. She then turned the knob and gently pushed the door open, the sight of a large room and several nicely furnished desks and chairs greeting her.

However, her attention was on the large king size bed off in the corner.

She quickly scampered to it and threw herself on the soft and fluffy mattress, burying her face in the silken sheets. Louise let out a content sigh as she felt the pillowy goodness comfort her troubles and annoyances.

However, even the soft cushy feeling of Weresheep fur stuffed pillows could only belay her frustrations for so long, and she eventually turned on her back and looked up at her ceiling.

Unlike most of the rest of the facility, Louise much preferred to look out into the open sky when she was resting rather than a cold stone ceiling, so she had enchanted the stone above her room to allow the night sky to always show, giving her a view of the Demonic night sky.

It was deep Ebony today, an indicator that she probably wouldn’t get to see any of the pale yellow stars until later. Louise shifted a little bit, focusing her eyes until she was sure she saw no glow.

There was silence for a second more before the witch sat up and flicked her finger in the direction of an empty corner of her room, sending a projectile of air into it.

“ACK!!! Hey!”

The corner seemed to fade for a moment before air shimmered for a second and color started to fall away like water on glass.

Now in the place of air was a tall youth looking to be in his early twenties with short blond hair slicked back. His eyes, though squinted from blocking the blast of air, didn’t open at all.

Louise didn’t mind that though, he always had his eyes squinted, only really opening them when things would get serious.

His body was thin, but not in an unhealthy manner, and his limbs where long as well. His arms were held up in an X shape and still smoking from the blast.

The blond man dropped both is arms and shook them to remove the sting, his white over coat looking slightly torn at the cuffs, “Ouch… I take it you’re either in a bad mood, or I’m just getting rusty when it comes to a Scuto…”

Louise chuckled to herself before she draped one of her legs over the other and placed her chin on her fist in amusement,

“No, your shield was perfect, I just ended up using more power than usual in our usual greeting. Plus, your illusion spell was also draining you, so that’s a small factor in it as well. But it was good none the less Michal”

The blond crossed his shoulders while smirking at her, “Then how did you know I was here?”

Louise lifted her chin and waved her hand a few times, as if to remove a bad stench, “That ridiculous Lavender perfume of yours. It always stinks to high heaven to me, Why you bother to keep wearing the stuff despite my protest to it is beyond me sometimes”

Michal actually looked somewhat offended by her remark, “Perfume?! It a specialized cologne! There is a huge difference! And besides, it adds to my aura.”

Michal ran his fingers through his hair, striking a pose as he did. This would have left most woman swooning at his charm, but Louis was unaffected, having already seen it multiple times already.

“Enough with your showing off. Come and sit with me, I could use you right now”

“You make me sound like I’m some kind of blanket to be put on at one’s convenience…”

Despite the barking order, Michal did as he was told and sat next to Louise, the little ice queen showing a much softer side of her by leaning up against his arm and resting her head on his shoulder.

Michal smiled a little to himself and huddled closer to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder, her head moving to his chest to lay next,

“So… what’s wrong? You normally save the cuddling for after you have berated me like a dog”

The senior witch let out a sigh, the days troubles becoming fresh in her mind, “It’s just everything in general… The witches are bored out of their minds, simply degrading themselves to having sex all the time. The once bustling halls of the Sabbath are empty as can be anymore… and Taima… the poor thing is just about ready to explode from lack of a Big Brother… she used to be so hard working…”

Where there was once a dejected look, anger started to bubble on her face, turning her mouth downward in a scowl and her eyes narrowing in fury, “All because of the damned Order… crazed Zelots that they are, I still find it hard to believe that such pest’s managed to back us into such a corner… The greatest army in all of Eden, halted in one day…”

Michal reached up with his hand and ran his fingers through her hair delicately, undoing the braids in her ponytail as he did,

“well… it’s not all bad. Compared to what they could have done, I find the Black-White concordant an agreeable medium.”

“But still! It’s driving all Mamono crazy! Those without Husbands are having the hardest time of it… No men are ever willing to step into the demon world, and only the most vile of the vile are sent over…”

Michal reached down and placed his hand on her small waist, pulling her into an embrace,

“Well…I’m just happy that I managed to find you before it all happened. God’s below what would have happened if I had Not”

The little witch blushed to herself, lightly punching him in the chest, “Stop saying such warm and fuzzy things… they make me feel all tingly inside…”

Michal let a fox smile cross his face, reaching even further down with his hand and lightly skimmed the place where her flesh was just barely covered up by white cloth, “Oh? Which ‘Inside’? is it inside, or is it ‘inside’?”

Louise lightly gasped when she felt his fingers start to work their way past the cloth and closer to her little sex. The moment Michal touched it however, he blinked a few times in surprise “wait… Your already wet! Oh My! And just what have you been thinking about Louis, to get you so ready and willing?”

The little girl turned her head away from him in mild embarrassment, “W-well… Just before I came back, I had to drop off a few papers for the more senior witches… and when I went into the lab, the whole group had descended into an a rowdy little orgy… I scolded them in my own way, but… I kinda…”

“You got horny watching them? Wanted to jump right in and feel the pounding of my cock right in your slit?”

Louise turned away from him, not wanting to say any of it out loud.

Michal, however, didn’t need to hear words to know her feelings, and quickly made his point.

That point being sticking his middle finger right into her body.

She gasped loudly, her left hand gripping his shirt tightly in arousal. Michal got to work massaging her insides, sliding his finger back and forth, back and forth, gently and smoothly, feeling her pussy tighten around his finger when he would slide it in.

Louise however, wasn’t one to stay passive. She turned around and gripped his shirt tightly, forcing his face down to her level and forcing a deep kiss on him.

Michal, though a little surprised, could only reply with equal parts force and lust. The both of them continued to kiss, Michal starting to jam his finger in her body harder and with more pent up heat while Louise forced her mouth onto his with an equal dominance of the situation.

However she eventually lost out due to the aided masturbation and pulled back when Her Lover pinched her clitoris.

Michal smiled innocently while starting to play with it, “Oops, hope that wasn’t too hard, wouldn’t want you to go down before we really got started.”

Where he was expecting a witty retort from the cold witch, he instead heard a small gasp of shock. Michal looked down at her, and expecting to see lustful eyes, saw shock and shame on her face and her eyes directed at something behind him.

Michal, though confused, turned his attention around and blinked a few times before he saw what she was staring at.

Peeking around from the door frame, a voyeuristic look on her face, was Taima, her face set in annoyance. Louise was the first to recover, pushing Michal away so hard that he fell to the floor in a heap, “T-T-T-Taima!! What are you!? I mean… how did you?!-”

“I’m the master of this place Louise, no door is locked to me. As for the reason why I’m here, you forgot one of the papers. I went to the labs and the other’s told me you had left, so I came to your room to let you know. But Don’t mind me, just keep on going, I’ll just leave it right here on the desk… really, don’t mind me. Not like I’m going to care much if you get hammer with a nice big cock. Not that I care if you start screaming out Michal’s name in pure ecstasy while he blows the 8th load in your little womb. Yup, forget about the Brotherless Baphomet who went by the name of Taima or cindy or whatever the hell her name was… ha ha ha…”

On her way out, she bumped into the desk, then the chair, then the door frame before she turned around one more time and stared at them. She then let out a heavy sigh and closed the door behind her.

The Witch and Brother couple waited a few more seconds before a massive Boom echoed out in the hallway, causing nearly everything to shake for a moment. The both of them ran to the door and peered out, noticing the huge crater in the wall that wasn’t there when they entered the room.

Michal turned to Louise and grinned sheepishly, “Guess she’s in a bad mood too huh…”

Louise shook her head, a guilty look on her face, “More then you know…”

Since the mood for lovemaking had been utterly destroyed, the both of them closed the door behind them and sat on a single chair together, Michal First, Then Louise to sit on his lap.

The both of them simply sat that way for a good while, each one thinking their own thoughts.

Finally, after nearly an hour of Silence, Louise broke it, “Do you think that-”

“Nope. Won’t work. Unless she gets that one guy that she want’s, none of the other guys here are going to satisfy that itch she has.”

Louise let out a sigh. She knew the answer, but she had to see if she was wrong about her thinking anyway. She hardly ever was, but she could hope.

Michal started to run his fingers through her blue locks again, occasionally bringing a small strand to his mouth and giving them a kiss,

“It may sound a little cruel to many of the men here, But she won’t fall for a weakling. She wants a Hero. Someone who will inspire Awe, Respect, Fear, and Adoration… a man who can hold his own on the field of combat in both spell and sword.”

“But there aren’t any Hero’s left Michal! Not since twenty years ago!”

“I Know, I know… but… perhaps… you shouldn’t worry about finding one?”

Louise craned her head curiously. She knew that tone of voice; she knew when The gears in Michal’s brain where turning, “If we can’t find one, where do you suppose one will come from?”

Michal smiled.

It was a thin smile, one full of intelligence and cunning, “Right here”

Louise flinched at his words, “You mean… you?”

The blond blanched, “Oh God’s no! No offence to your friend, but I couldn’t handle her if I wanted to! Besides, My heart belongs only to you…”

He scooped up her hair again and planted another kiss on the locks, causing the witch to blush.

Louise regained her composure before she continued, “Then what are you suggesting?”

Michal picked her up in his arms, his smile growing more devious by the second, “if there are none to be had, then one must be created. If there are no Hero’s to sing of, then we will craft our own Ballads! If the Hero is Dead, then we revive him! If he cannot be found, then we make him!”

Louise went wide eyed at his proposal, “are you suggesting…”

“Yes! We shall train our own hero! Make him into a legend fitting of even the Demon Lord herself!! Make his songs sung the Highest from the lips of the commons! Makes his deeds the greatest!! And then! Only then will Taima have a Husband she can droll over!”

Louise was shocked. Her eyes could only blink in response before he mouth turned upward in a grin,

“Ha… ha ha… ha ha ha!! Brilliant!! Marvelous!! What an Idea! A Hero trained by monsters! Such a thing will be sung of for ages! Yes! This is the best plan! This will shake the very foundations of the world! However…one thing.”

Michal stopped grinning for a moment and looked up at the girl in his arms, “yes?”

“Where are you going to get a Man to train? Most Heroes are trained from a young age. And I doubt any sane man of a decent caliber will just come right in to get training from us.”

Michal, however, tapped her on the nose,

“You leave that part to me. For now, I need you to get the training program set up. But I also think you should look in the artifacts section of the vault”

“The artifacts? Why?”

“Find something there that we can use to help our future Hero. For this to work, we are going to need to bypass a few steps and give him a few shortcuts.”

Louise nodded her head in understanding, “I see… very well, I shall do what I can. But I want to size up the man you bring, alright?”

Michal bowed his head once, “Very well, I shall bend to your will on that. Now, we must hurry, the faster we get this in motion, the faster we can find a Brother for Tiama.”
Louise nodded her head and jumped from Michal’s grasp, hovering to the floor before she touched down on the ground and ran out the door.

Michal watched her go until she left the door. He stood in the room for a moment before he nodded to himself, “Now… to find that man of caliber…”

Chapter 3!

Spoiler: show

The Meet

Michal flipped the page of the book over several times, making sure what he was seeing was as accurate as possible. The last thing he needed was to screw up a sigil when he cast the spell.

The last Incubized male to mess up on a seal was still nursing his mutated arm.

Not to say that a permanent tentacle arm wasn’t good for certain situations, but it could be a little creepy when an eye would open on it randomly.

It had been 2 days since his discussion with Louise, 2 days since they started their Hero plan, and after all that time, he finally had prepared enough for the trek to get this soon-to-be hero.

Michal nodded his head once to no in particular, the page having been memorized and thoroughly studied. He placed the book on the small podium in front of him and looked out past it to examine his work, his work being a large octagon in the middle of a large empty room filled with patterns, ruins, and other such arcane symbols that meant little to nothing to those who didn’t study magic.

The blond male scratched his chin for a moment, taking a second to admire his handiwork. Even if he was amongst the strongest of Incubi in the building right now, he felt a little puff of pride after observing.

‘not to say that this wasn’t hard… but I still haven’t even started using the spell yet… and then we’ll see if I got it right.’

Michal took several deep breaths to steady himself and to sharpen his mind. What he was about to attempt had only been done 4 times in the history of the demon world with the first 2 being failures and the second to last having summoned an arcane horror from God’s only know where.

Only the last attempt had been successful, but even then, it had only worked for a short period of time.

Michal thought the process over a few times in his head and the history of the spell itself, smiling to himself as he did.

‘The only thing different about that situation and this one is the advancement we have made in the study of the field in 200 years. But it still won’t hurt to be prepared.’

Michal looked over at the 8 large crystals he had placed at the corners of the diagram and looked up at the large circle on the ceiling.

“That should stop any nasty little surprises that might try to pop up in the middle of this…”

Michal looked back down at the octagon, staring at it for a minute longer before he took one hesitant step forward. The Incubus stopped for a moment ‘did I just hesitate? Me? The strongest of the Sabbaths males? The terror of Kaliwas? Ha! It really has been to long…’

Michal took another step forward, only this time, with far more confidence then he had a mere second ago.

Eventually he made his way to the middle of the circle and stood ram rod straight in preparation.

“Alright… better now than later they say…”

Michal lifted his hands in front of him, taking a deep breath to help him concentrate better. He stood that way for a solid minute before he twitched his fingers, ‘grasp the flow of energy… reel it in… tug on it until you have its attention…’

Michal moved each of his fingers in a clasping motion, as if he was grasping and ungrasping something.

However, where his body was making little movements, his mind was far more active.

In the first few second of starting, he had let his spirit and mind flow out, allowing his full consciousness to feel the ebb and flow of magic around him.

But he was searching for something much deeper than the magic on the surface. He had then found the strongest string of magic in the room and pushed his mind there, using his own demon tainted spirit energy to push.

He was only using a little though, for what he would need to do next would require a great deal of power, and he didn’t have the luxury of using up all his energy on a simple lure.

For his mind, it felt like an eternity of pushing, but when one enters the realm of magic, time and space tend to get skewed, so he had only been at it for a minute tops.

It was then that he felt it, small at first, but growing as he pushed harder. Something in the stream had grown curious at his constant poking and decided to investigate.

Michal felt it get closer and closer, an alien mind not of any world. It was truly incomprehensible to him, but that wasn’t important right now, right now, his focus was on what it would do next.

The moment the entity had made it to just below the surface of magic, he reached out with his mind and shouted in the language of the arcane,
‘Spiritus invoco deos, qui dormiunt in terræ rimis. Laudet te rogo audi viribus regimen in oras aetheris. Da mihi ductu invenire Heros de aliis saeculis! Expergiscere!’(translation: I call on the gods and spirits that sleep in the cracks of the world. Hear me sing to you as I ask for strength and guidance into the realms of the ether. Give me the guidance to find a Hero of other ages! Awaken!)

It was a strong shout, one filled to the brim with his magic.

However, this was the Hard part.

Weather the creature would accept the call, or run away was entirely up to it. Thankfully, the creature was very curious, and had not fled.

Unfortunately, it had yet to do anything, which was causing Michal to break out in a cold sweat.

‘Come on… what’s it waiting for?’

He didn’t need to wait any longer. The moment he had thought that was the moment that the creature had, for lack of a better term, bit into his magical energy and hauled
him through the confines of space and time.

There had been no warning of the action, the first moment, he was waiting impatiently, the next he was being pulled like a small child in the grasp of a Wurm.

However, where he was only expecting his mental body to be pulled along, instead, he felt everything about him get sucked in, mind, body, and soul.

Now, where he had been prepared for such a thing, for it to actually happen caused him to momentarily panic; forcing him to lash out with his energy at the being.

That went as well as one would expect it to.

The moment his magical energy struck out, the thing let go in fright and quickly fled from him.

This left him in a bad situation, the moment it had let go, he felt a tremendous pressure grow around him, like stone walls coming around him and try to crush him from every angle, both internal and external.

This continued on for an unknown amount of time, his body sending him all kinds of mixed signal’s while his mind tried to sort itself out in the confusion of magic pushing on him.

What he didn’t notice, however, was that the pressure was letting up on him from several places and that his entirety was being pushed out of whatever strange land he was in.

In the next instant, he felt the pressure release him and his mind fall back under control. The next thing he felt was a feeling of weightlessness.

Unknown to him, he had closed his eyes and quickly proceeded opened them. In his line of sight was a dull grayish color plastered with small pockets of black. The next thing he noticed was that his weightlessness was quickly starting to grow weight, which normally meant that gravity was starting to work it’s magic.

Michal quickly turned in midair to look at the ground below him, and oddly enough, it wasn’t very far, only 8 feet to be precise.

It was what was in-between the space of his position and the floor that was going to pose as a problem.

Right below him, spread out in what he could only assume was a small room, was about thirty or so people sitting at small desks of some sort.

Most of them had their eyes forward, looking at some kind of greenish black board with white lines crossed all over it and some older gentleman who had his back turned to them and writing on said green thing.

He also noticed that there were two sets of eyes on him, both sets belonging to guys from what he could see.

Anymore thoughts after that where quickly banished from his mind as Michal felt the decent from the air to the floor begin.

‘Not a lot of time, best I can hope for is to land on my knees… this might hurt.’

However, when he did flip in midair, gaining enough of a body curve to do so, he instead felt the grabbing of two hands around his middle, abruptly stopping his descent to what would have been an otherwise loud landing.

He quickly felt the tug of being hoisted over something and the sudden tap tapping of someone running and the feeling of his body bouncing with each quick step.

He could have sworn he heard someone behind him say “Sorry teach! We’ll be back in a moment! Job related stuff!” But he wasn’t sure.

Michal noticed the hard stone floor beneath him pass by in a blur and the pounding of something in his middle, indicating to him that he was slung over somebodies shoulder.

He then quickly noticed the back of said individual that he was draped across.

They were wearing what looked to be deep blue pants of some sort along with a Blazer or over coat that was of the same color.

Other than that however, and he couldn’t move enough to see anything else. However, the moment that thought died was when he felt his current ride stop and, none to gently, toss him to the floor.

Feeling momentarily dazed from the sudden treatment to his physical body, he shook his head to remove both the effects of the slight jarring and the disorientation that he had been feeling from the magical pull he had gone through.

When he did recover enough to feel straight on his feet, he finally looked up and was somewhat surprised to see two people standing over him, one of them holding a metallic device in his hands and aimed straight for in between his eyes.

He suddenly recognized them both as the fellows that had seen him appear out of the air.

He observed them for a moment, the males themselves not saying anything and only looking at him with something akin to… worry? Anticipation? He couldn’t tell.

He looked them over yet again, this time taking there features into account.

The fellow on his right, the one who was breathing loudly and wearing the clothing he had seen. This one had obviously been the one who had carried him.

Now that he got a look at his front, he could see that he was indeed a young man, somewhere in his later teens, perhaps early twenties.

He had muddy brown eyes tinged with what looked to be some slight green.

Though his face was busy working air into his lungs, he could tell that this fellow didn’t tend to show a lot of expression due to the rigidity of his face. His hair, though somewhat long, was pulled back into a salt and pepper like pony tail.

Michal then brought his attention to the other fellow, the one holding the object that was pointed at his face.

This man also looked to be in the same age range, perhaps a little older. He was wearing some pretty loose fitting clothing, a red shirt with some skull emblem on it and loose fitting pants that where brown in color.

His face was set in anticipation, ready for anything that might happen in the next second. His Blue eyes would look him up and down once or twice, but other than that, they were set like a hawk on prey.

His Hair was short and spiked upward into golden like points, somewhat like blonde stalagmites.

Michal examined the both of them thoroughly before he decided to say anything, the other two obviously waiting for him to talk first.

“Um… hello there. My name is Michal Vanugard. May I have the pleasure of knowing your names as well?”

The two young men, instead of replying in kind, turned to each other with some knowing glances.

“English?”

The blond one titled his head, “Perhaps, it was pretty thick however, so I’m guessing a translation spell of some sorts, incomplete though.”

Michal blinked in surprise about two things. First was the fact that they knew he had a translation spell on.

He normally kept it up and on in case he ran into any of the residents from the far eastern countries of Zipangu, and he had left it on for such a long period of time, that sometimes he would forget he even had it on.

The next thing was the fact that they had not replied to him when he had been the first to talk, which slightly irked him.

He kept his temper in check though, “ah… yes, you would be correct in the translation spell. But forgive me, I don’t believe I’ve caught your names…”

He left it hanging, once again expecting them to follow courtesy. But once again, they didn’t reply to him, even going so far as to start talking to each other,

“Mage then? Or do you suppose demon?”

The black and white haired one only shook his head,

“Not sure. We’ll need both Margret and Giha here to tell if it’s one or the other… I’ll give them a call so you-”

Michal, now having been thoroughly ruffled, cleared his voice loudly, getting both of their attention.

“*AHEM!* Excuse me, but do you mind explaining to me why neither of you have introduced yourself,as per courtesy? And why are you pointing that… whatever it is at me? It’s very rude, so if you would kindly remove it…”

However, The blond one simply pushed it closer to his face,

“Just keep your mouth shut and we’ll have it all figured out in a jif. So for now, shut up and stay still else I’ll have to do what I normally do. And I don’t like cleaning up blood.”

Michal was now very angry. He had no idea what a bullet was, but this young man had just threatened him with violence, that much could be seen from the hostility in his voice and pose.

Michal was about to get up before the other guy interjected, “Thomas, reign it in. Your violent persona is coming out again and we don’t need him to cause problems.”

The boy named Thomas blinked a few times before he shook his head, the hard edge of violence quickly starting to dissipate and the item in his hand being pulled further away from Michal’s face, though it was still trained on him.

“Right… sorry Andrew… I hate it when it does that”

The other one, who apparently went by the name of Andrew, turned his attention back to Michal, nodding his head once in apology,

“I’m sorry about that. But you see, we really don’t have a lot of patience when it comes to strange things like what you just did. I mean, you just warped right in the middle of the lecture, we really didn’t have a lot of time to pick and choose our methods. So, allow me the courtesy of giving you our names…Mine is Andrew Homwilder. This is Thomas. I won’t give you his last name since he keeps that a secret from everyone.”

The Blond nodded his head once and gave Michal a small smile,

“Right-o. and sorry about the threat, though I do mean it, you do try something funny and I’ll be forced to put a bullet in a squishy part of you. But don’t and you stay hole free. Hell, keep up good behavior and I might give you a reward.”

Michal, despite the late intro, nodded his head.

“Pleasure is mine, and do forgive me for the sudden entrance. The circumstances leading up to it got… out of hand”

Andrew nodded his head once before he pulled out a strange device. Michal looked it over once, his curiosity having been piqued.

Andrew, however, didn’t notice.

“… Ah. Hello there Margret. Are you available right now? Of course you are, that was a rhetorical question… I don’t care if you’re in the middle of classes, Get Giha and yourself over to the ‘ghost’ room. Yes, something has happened. No it’s not another dimension hopper, thank god for that... Alright, meet you there”

Andrew closed the device and stashed it in his pocket, or he was about to before he Noticed the Blonde’s curious gaze.

“what?”

Michal blinked a few times before he realized that he had been staring. “Oh… Um… Nothing… it’s just, that’s a very strange device you have on you. What’s it called?”

“A cell phone. It’s for long distance communication on a near instantaneous scale. But ask your questions later, for now we need to go ahead and get moving”

Michal was about to stand on his feet, But Andrew quickly nabbed him by the arm and hauled him up.

“Forgive the abruptness, but I’m going to need to keep you in front of me at all times. Just go where I direct and don’t try anything funny and I’ll have no reason to harm you.”

Michal raised his eyebrow in some slight annoyance at his words. “My, awfully cautious aren’t you?”

Thomas laughed a little under his breath, getting on his friend’s right and tactically hiding the gun between the two of them.

“Ha! Trust me, you aren’t the first random schmuck to fall out of thin air! Only difference between now and then is mostly reaction”

Michal, despite the discomfort he was feeling, looked back at him.

“How so?”

“Well, you’re awfully calm. Most of the time it’s either ‘holy crap where the afterlife am I ?!’ or ‘I’ll kill you all mortals!! Fear and tremble at the might of so and so destroyer of inflatable balloons and cute teddy bears’ or some such idiocy. Granted, those last guys didn’t last too long when I put a bullet in their skulls.”

Michal, not really sure what some of that even meant, could only nod his head once and let the two young men guide him along in silence.

Both men kept Michal in the front, gently guiding him along with small indicators for him to turn this way or that.

Michal, for his part, couldn’t help but observe some of the stuff that passed him by.

There had been many doors, and clear glass windows to look into the rooms that kept them sealed.

Michal found that the people in the rooms looked to be in some sort of confinement or torture judging by the agonized faces of some of the younger individuals.

However, the two men behind him would draw his attention away from the rooms and direct him forward.

This went on for a few more minutes until Thomas grabbed him by his shirt.

“Stop, we’re here.”

Michal let out an annoyed sigh. The fact they were manhandling him irritated him, but he could live with it. He needed information, and striking out at people wouldn’t help with that.

Andrew went forward and opened the door, revealing a large room with many of the wooden desks gather to one side of the room and stacked so as to provide as much room as possible.

However, there was one piece of furniture that sat on the clear side, ominously placed in the middle of what appeared to be a circle drawn on the floor.

Thomas pointed his free hand at the chair and waved his weapon a few times to indicate for him to sit in it,

“Go.”

Michal however, had a bad feeling that he really didn’t want to sit in it and hesitantly took a step back, actually contemplating taking them both down and getting the hell out of there.

Andrew, however, roughly pushed him forward into the room and closed the door, “Don’t even try to run. You do and we consider you hostile, meaning we use lethal force to get rid of you.”

Michal, now thoroughly angered at his treatment, stood straight up and glared at the two of them.

“I will take that chance if you intend to do me harm anyway.”

Thomas stepped forward, lowering his weapon and giving Michal a smile “Relax buddy. We won’t hurt you if you don’t try to hurt us first. We just want you to sit in the chair. Nothing will happen to you”

Michal turned his lip up in protest.

“Bullshit. I’m not sure what you have planned, but I can see the circle on the floor and I’ll be damned before I allow you to confine me”

Andrew and Thomas looked to each other before they let out a sigh together.

“alright… Fine. You don’t have to sit if you don’t want to”

Andrew then looked over at the Incubus and simply shook his head.

“We won’t force you to sit in it… but if you would simply be so kind as to not try to leave the room, then we won’t have any problems with you just standing.”

The way he said that alerted Michals suspicion, but for some odd reason, they were being somewhat courteous.

However, they still weren’t going to let him leave, not with the one holding the strange metal item in his hands and guarding the door like a dog.

Michal observed the both of them for a minute, finding an empty chair across the room and sitting there rather than in the one placed oddly in the room.

The one called Andrew had pulled something out of his pocket, a small box with a large array of colors on it and had started to twist it around.

He then glanced over at the One called Thomas.

He was watching him carefully, his eyes hardly moving away from him for more than a second.

A few minutes went by with nothing really happening before Michal grew impatient.

“what are we waiting for exactly?”

Andrew glanced up from his current project only for a moment, as if to register that Michal had just said something and went back to working the small box.

“For two more of our number to show up. They are the ones who will determine how thing’s proceed from here.”

“You mean this Margret and Giha character you mentioned.”

Thomas smiled again, spinning the metal object around on his finger a few times before he pointed it right back at Michal.

“Right-o. Just hold your horses while Witch Bitch and Queen Berserker make their way here”

Michal raised his brow in some curiosity of the colorful nicknames.

Andrew glanced over at his friend and let out a half laugh/sigh.

“You know Margret hates that nickname…”

“Hey. She’s a witch, and she’s a bitch. Name fits perfectly if you ask me.”

“Well nobody was asking you now where they you persona rip off”

Michal jolted from the sudden sound of a cold and alluring voice appearing out of nowhere. The voice was quickly followed with the feeling of magic buzzing in the air and then a quick flash of light close to the door.

Andrew stopped what he was doing and put the box away while Thomas ground his teeth in anger at the voices remark,

“Persona rip off!? Bitch you better watch your words!”

From what Michal could see, where there was once empty air their now stood two young women.

The first one standing at an average height and looked to be at the same age range of the other two, Her face cold looking; Though it had an icy beauty to it.

Her hair was long, to her kneecap’s long and was deep black.

She pushed up a pair of glasses on her nose, drawing attention to her yellow eyes.

The second woman who had obviously appeared next to her could only be the exact opposite of her. She was a giant of a woman, standing what had to have been 7 feet tall.

Where the other girl was pale skinned and cold to look at, This one was deep tan and looked to be full of life.

Her hair was short, only to the nape of her neck, but it was a blazing red color, as if it had the flames of a forge in them.

The tall girl noticed his staring at her and smiled at him followed by a wink.

Andrew walked over to the two new arrivals and nodded.

“Bout time Margret. What took you?”

The cold one glared at him.

“If you must know, Giha simply had to have her snacks, so I had to stop and pick some up for her.”

Everybody in the room turned toward the tall woman, who simply shrugged her shoulders at the stares.

“El infierno que quieres de mí? Cuando tengo hambre, tengo hambre. Suficiente acerca de mí, esta el chico nuevo? {The hell you want from me? When I get hungry, I get hungry. Enough about me, this the new guy?}”

Most everybody in the room only shook their heads at the girl.

Everybody not including Michal.

He had been totally lost when the first word spilled from her mouth.

Andrew looked back over and nodded his head once.

“Yes, that’s the new guy. So if you both would get to work so we can figure out what to do with him…”

Margret rolled her eyes at the youth’s hanging statement and looked Michal up and down several times.

“Why is he not sitting in the chair?”

Thomas shrugged his shoulders at her question.

“He didn’t want to and made it clear he would fight if we forced him to”

Margret rolled her eyes at the two men. “And we care about this why? He should have been sitting on that seal the moment I warped into the room. It’ll take that much longer to determine if he is a threat or not”

The girl quickly brought her focus on the newcomer and gave him a cold look. “Sit in the seal now if you would please”

Thomas blinked a few times at her rough order before he shook his head once at her.

“I don’t want to sound rude or anything, But I would rather not. Not until I know what it does anyway.”

“That is not for you to know. I explain any detail, you could attempt to work your way around my wards and trick the seal into doing something else. I won’t risk that. Now
sit. In. The. Seal. I will not ask a third time.”

In perhaps the 10 minutes he had been here, Michal had been rudely handled and brow bashed. Minus The Andrew fellow, everybody had lacked any sort of courtesy that would normally be expected when asking or making a request of another person.

He had grown fed up with it.

Michal stood up, but he didn’t walk over to the seal.

“I will not comply with this request until you either tell me what you plan to do, or can at least assure me that you have no Ill intentions.”

Margret, however, had grown very agitated at this point. Other than Thomas or Andrew, she wasn’t used to people ignoring her orders.

“If you will not comply then I will simply determine you a Hostile force. Giha, Make him comply or rip him apart”

Michal reached for his hidden weapon, this woman obviously intent on doing him harm.

The Giha girl grinned widely, her coal dark eyes starting to smolder with power. “Lo tienes jefa{ you got it boss lady}”

“WOAH WOAH WOAH!!! Everyone hold the fucking phone!”

Everybody in the room turned to Andrew, who had his hands up and had come between Michal and the two women.

“Giha! Reign it in! You’ll trip the wards! Margret, cool it! Don’t get your pants in a bunch because someone didn’t listen on the double! And you stranger!”

Andrew rounded on Michal, pointing toward his hand’s general location.

“Holster your weapon! I do not want a fight in the middle of school hours. Too many people are around and could lead to injury or trouble with the local authority!”

Margret looked a little angry at him, but didn’t say anything.

Giha’s face went from grinning to pouty and crossed her arms like a child having been stopped from having fun “Awwwwwww ... siempre dejar las cosas antes de que lleguen diversion { Awwwwwww... you always stop things before they get fun}”

Michal stared at Andrew for a moment before he slowly removed his hand from his dagger, his eyes still wary of the rest of the group.

Andrew took several glances between everyone to make sure they had stopped and let out a sigh when he confirmed it.

“Good lord… Listen stranger. I know that what we are doing may seem hostile and perhaps even like we are trying to capture you, but trust me. That seal over their? It will only confirm a few things about you like if your dangerous to use or not or if you have any dangerous substances or otherworldly disease. It won’t hurt you or do anything to you that will kill you. I know that it might seem like you’re going out on a limb, but trust us. We won’t hurt you.”

“Well not unless you try to hurt us first”

Andrew glared over at Thomas, who quickly shut his trap.

Michal looked between the four of them, trying to see if any of them where trying to hide anything.

As far as he could tell, they were telling the truth to him.

Michal thought about it for a moment longer before he also let out a sigh.

“very well… I will take your word for it. However, if this does harm me in some way, I will instantly come after all of you.”

Andrew nodded his head at the threat.

“Fair enough. Now please… if you would sit before my friend over here blows a gasket…”

Margret glared at Andrew, but remained silent.

Michal glanced at the group of people before him and then to the chair in the middle of the room, letting out a sigh before he hesitantly walked over to the circle.

He wasn’t one to give his enemy a chance to attack him, but that Andrew fellow, though stern, seemed like a trustworthy sort.

Michal turned to look at them one more time before he did sit down, his body ready to bolt out at the first hint of danger.

However, it never came.

The moment he did sit down, the circle around him started to hum lightly, a bright luminescent glow coming from the sigils on the floor and only growing in intensity as seconds passed by.

After a few more moments, Margret stepped forward, taking her glasses off and watching the circle with a keen and calculated gaze.

“Good… no problem’s so far… Be warned stranger. Attempt to alter anything about yourself in the next few minutes and I will instantly know about it, so don’t try it.”

Michal took the words to heart, not really feeling anything adverse or otherwise harmful to himself.

Instead, the light around him felt somewhat pleasurable and relaxing, actually causing him to lean back into the chair and watch the glow of the circle around him.

This was a fact that was quickly noticed by the tallest of the group, the dark skinned Giha

“Échale un vistazo! Parece que el extranjero está disfrutando esto!{Check it out! Looks like the stranger is enjoying this!}”

Margret quickly looked back at the dark skinned woman and then to Michal, noticing his lax posture and content face.

“Well… that’s interesting… tell me stranger, do you feel any different?”

Michal looked over at her and then to the light around.

“Not… really. I feel more relaxed if that’s what you’re asking. Why? Is something wrong?”

The Dark haired woman only shook her head.

“Not at all. I don’t make mistakes when it comes to magic. However, most people don’t feel anything when they are put under my examinations, and no one has ever looked as relaxed as you do. Tell me, are you a fay of some sort?”

Michal could only tilt his eyebrow in confusion at her question. However, before he could answer, Margret shook her head and turned her attention back to the light.

“No matter, I will know in a minute.”

Michal glanced over at the two males, starting to come to terms with the fact that these people where just rude and noticed that they weren’t paying any attention to what their friends where doing; Andrew back to playing with that strange cube while Thomas was cleaning his strange metallic object.

However, his attention was brought back to his current situation when the light slowly started to dim and eventually died out.

Margret however was busy scratching her chin as she looked him up and down.

“Interesting… very interesting…”

Andrew stepped up next to her, his toy put away and his eyes wandering across the stranger and his friend.

“Well? What’s interesting about him? And is he dangerous to us?”

Margret pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, nodding her head once before she answered in kind.

“What’s interesting is that this ‘man’ is not so much a human as he is some magical… thing. He’s been altered down to his most fundamental parts, but even with all the alteration to his body, he can still be called… well, Human”

Thomas blinked a few times before he put his gun away.

“Sooooooo… what does that mean? Will he explode if he eats cheeseburgers or just pop if he comes into contact with bunnies? Spit it out woman, your vagueness isn’t helping figure this out”

Margret looked back over at the Blond, her eyes narrow slits of anger.

“I’m getting to it you ignoramus… Well, he can be a danger. He has access to magic for starters. To what degree, I am unsure; but I can also tell you he has some training in magical weaponry. However, the fact that he hasn’t used any of it tells me that he doesn’t seem bent on killing or maiming us in any way. But, on the whole, he is a magician of some sort and he can be dangerous.”

The four looked to each other and then to Michal, who was starting to feel a little nervous.

“I take it that’s a bad thing?”

Andrew shook his head before waving his hand at the last member of the group.

“Maybe, maybe not. This last test should tell us the rest of the info we need. Giha if you would work your magic please.”

The tall woman tilted her head before cracking her knuckles.

“Lo tengo jefe. Sólo recuerde que darme bocados más tarde ¿de acuerdo?{Got it boss. Just remember to give me snacks later on alright?}”

Though Michal had been utterly confused at what she said, he noticed Andrew gave her a look.

“Don’t call me boss.”

The dark skinned girl simply shrugged her shoulders before she walked forward.

“Word to the wise stranger. Don’t struggle no matter what she does. I don’t want to see you snapped in half and explaining your corpse to the local authorities would be rather troublesome.”

Michal glanced over at Andrew and then to the towering woman in front of him, suddenly feeling like a small animal.

He wasn’t sure, but if she could snap a man in half, she had to be as strong as a Wurm.

Giha reached down and grabbed him by the front of his tunic, the girl effortlessly pulling him up off his feet.

“Quédate quieto amigo, si no, no estoy seguro de lo que podría hacer si usted decide luchar.{Hold still buddy, else I’m not sure what I might do to you if you decided to struggle.}”

Michal, still not understanding a single word coming from her mouth, simply nodded his head. In the next moment, he quickly came to be very surprised by her actions. The girl had buried her face in his Blond hair and actually started to smell him like some dog or cat.

It was mildly discontenting for him, and the fact that she just kept on moving lower every time she inhaled gave him an uncomfortable feeling.

By the time she started to go down his chest, he had been thoroughly embarrassed. Only Louise was allowed to do such things to him, and he now felt the need to stop here, whatever she would do being the least of his worries.

However, just as he lifted his hands, Giha forced him back down to eye level with her, her eyes now no longer Coal black and instead smoldering with barely restrained power.

“Oh Oh! vas a luchar? Por favor, di que vas a luchar! Esto hará que un heck de mucho más interesante si lo hace! { Oh Oh! are you going to struggle? Please say you’re going to struggle! This will get a heck of a lot more interesting if you do!}”

Michal had no idea what she just said, but her exited tone of voice made him think twice about doing anything in that moment.

And thankfully he didn’t need to.

Margret had quickly walked up behind the tan female and sharply rapped her knuckles against the tall woman’s back.

“Control yourself Giha else I will have to forcefully put your bloodlust under check!”

The Inhuman girl curled her upper lip into something of a half snarl half pout, looking over her shoulder at her friends icy stare with her own pitiful look.

Michal noticed the two males faces, Thomas giggling to himself while Andrew was sighing

“Um… what exactly is she saying?”

“*Sigh* she’s trying very hard to get you to do something while she’s checking you over, something we have told her repeatedly not to do”

The Blond twirled his metallic object around his finger once before he pointed it directly at the Tall woman’s back in a non-threatening manner.

“She’s just itching for a fight is all. It’s why we call her the Berserker Queen. She just loves to go wild in the middle of fights, so she normally tries to start them. Can’t blame her though, been dying to get in one some action myself recently”

“Thomas, we should be happy things are so peaceful. We don’t need you Jinxing our week long peace streak with your stupid words of war”

The Blond simply shrugged his shoulders before he went back to polishing his weapon.

Giha had finally relented under Margret’s gaze, letting go of Michal and placing him back on the ground.

“Bien. De todos modos, si el hecho mirando a mí, he terminado. {Fine. Anyway, if you’re done glaring at me, I'm done}”

Margret nodded once, “Good, so what did you find out about him?”

The tall tan tilted her head a few times before she shrugged her shoulders.

"De lo que puedo oler su poder, sigue siendo algo humano, pero al mismo tiempo, su cuerpo parece estar experimentando algunos cambios en uno de mi raza. Un demonio de algún tipo. Supongo que un íncubo de algunos tipo. tampoco tiene el olor de la hostilidad de él tampoco. " {"From what I can smell of his power, he is still somewhat human, but at the same time, his body seems to be undergoing some changes into one of my race. A demon of some sort. I'm guessing an incubus of some kind. He also doesn't have the smell of hostility about him either."}

The other three raised there eyebrows in some mild curiosity before turning their attention to Michal, who still had no idea what language she was using.

Andrew took a step forward, his hand on his chin and his eyes scanning the Slit eyed man.

“Interesting… Our friend here says you’re a partial Demon of a sort. An Incubus to be exact. Care to elaborate?”

Michal blinked a few times before the implication of their words sunk in.

“Ah… I wasn’t hiding it actually, where I come from, most people are of a similar state as myself. It somewhat slipped my mind”

Margret stepped up and spoke.

“So are you one willingly or are you one who became as such against his will?”

It took Michal a second to even understand that question, the wording and implications behind it sounding so foreign to him that it was almost like listening to this Giha girl talk.

However, he did remember that not all people become incubi of their own will like he did.

“Ah… yes, I willingly became what I am today. I do not regret it if that’s what you’re asking. If she had asked, I would have become hers in a heartbeat faster…”

Michal noticed everybody start to smile at him mischievously, even the somewhat dour looking Andrew growing a grin on his face

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… so you became a demon for a lady friend… that’s pretty hardcore. Gotta admire that kind of love…”

Michal felt a little lost on what he was talking about. Most anybody who had a mamono wife would be willing to go through hellfire and beyond for her love.

However, his thoughts where quickly interrupted when the four got into a huddle and started to discuss quietly amongst themselves.

Michal slowly got to his feet, but quickly sat back down when Giha and Margret gave him a vicious look and simply observed the four of them conversing amongst themselves for some period of time.

Eventually, they did indeed break, the four of them nodding their heads in unison.

Andrew quickly turned around and walked forward until he came to a halt.

“alright. Here’s the verdict. We have deemed you non-hostile as of the moment, so you have earned yourself some small semblance of freedom with us around. However, you show any non-provoked aggression, we will immediately confine and subdue you. Is this clear with you?”

Michal nodded his head in understanding, the man’s words making sense.

“Yes. I can understand that.”

“Very good… and sorry about all of the hard collar treatment. Like I said, we can’t be too careful with all the people we end up meeting.”

Andrew then pulled up a chair, much to Michal’s confusion, and quickly sat down, leaning back into the chair and causing it to prop up on two legs.

“Sooooooooo… since you aren’t here to kill all of mankind as we know it and you don’t appear to be a demon come to initiate war… what are you doing here exactly?”
Michal stared blankly at the four of them a moment before he understood it wasn’t an interrogation they were putting him through.

However, it was a loaded question as far as he could tell.

Thankfully, the truth was all he would be willing to share.

“Alright… since you seem to be so curious. I am here in hopes of finding a Hero”

Chapter 4 up and ready!

Spoiler: show

Chapter 3: the time taken

Andrew rolled over in his bed. His alarm hadn’t gone off yet, but he still always managed to wake up several minutes before it did, something he was always interested about, but had never really invested time in to finding out about. It was helpful sometimes, but most of the time, he didn’t really care.

Andrew looked over at his alarm clock, the green letters reading out at 7:40 A.M. Thankfully, he didn’t need to go to class today, unlike Thomas or Margret, who were stupid enough to get classes on all five work days of the week. Andrew reached over and turned the alarm off, seeing no point in keeping it on if he didn’t need it.

He then looked up at his ceiling, the fan spinning lazily along in order to keep his room cool. He then got up and started to get dressed, normally not bothering when he was alone in the house. However, he wasn’t alone in the house today. Thankfully his Uncle was about on a business trip, so the other resident was free to stay in any one of the empty rooms in the home. Unfortunately, that meant he would have to make breakfast for two this morning.

Oh Joy.

Andrew got the last of his casual wear on and quickly made his way to the bathroom, getting himself prepped and ready for the day ahead of him. After the twenty or so minutes in the bathroom, Andrew finally was ready.

He quickly let out a sigh as he put his indoor sandals on. “Guess I should wake the stranger up to…”

Andrew then opened his door and began his trip down the hallway. He didn’t really mind waking the stranger up, not at all. It’s the fact that he had asked to be put in the one guest room that was halfway across the house. That’s what really bugged him. But what was done was done. As the Male walked down the long hallway, he sparingly gave the decorations a momentary glance. They were all to his uncles tastes of course, Highly valued, made of expensive material, and gaudy as could be. Of course, the rich tend to have odd tastes in art, not being held back by the constraints of poverty, most in a state of wealth could afford to express their odd tastes in items.

As much as Andrew found his uncle a bit of an odd duck, he could never really find him distasteful. Andrew continued onward until he noticed a particular piece. Not of his uncles collection, but his own. An Old claymore hung up on the wall. Andrew stopped to admire it for a moment, this piece said to have belonged to a Hero in the War of roses. He was a lesser man, his name not even being brought into the light of History, But Andrew found such underdogs to be the real hero’s in wars.

The men nobody knew existed but where still important.

“The weapon of a Hero…” The word and the Item got him thinking about the Stranger, and with it, his odd reason for being here…

Xx yesterday afternoon xX

“Alright, since you seem to be so curious… I am here in hopes of finding a Hero.”

Andrew, and as far as he knew everybody else, felt their eyebrow rise in some mild confusion. “A… hero? As in a ‘Hero’ hero? From story books and legends?”

Michal nodded his head in answer. “yes, men who are sung the highest praises from the common people and revered for their deeds of good and self-sacrifice.”

Andrew turned to his companions, Margret simply shrugging her shoulders, not really sure what to think. Giha was smiling at him, her thoughts obviously outside of Andrews understanding at the moment. Thomas had a look that said ‘is this guy for real?’

Andrew turned back to the Stranger while slowly shaking his head. “So… you hopped from… wherever it is you come from. Perhaps a dimension over, in search of a Hero… I… don’t want to sound rude. But that’s rather stupid in my opinion. What’s wrong with the Hero’s from your world?”

Michal blinked a few times before he cleared his throat. “Yes… I will admit, it does sound like a stupid plan at first. However, where I come from most Heroes are on a decline, in both number and in actual strength. Many of them now and days are so pitiful that I fear for the sake of the (demon) world residents.”

Margret came forward, adjusting her glasses for a moment before she started. “That still doesn’t explain why you came to this dimension to find one.”

Michal looked over at the pile of chairs for a moment, a nervous grin on his face as he started to laugh sheepishly. “eh he he he… I’ll… be honest with you. I wasn’t actually trying to go anywhere you see.”

The witch raised her eyebrow, her curiosity at his nervousness evident.

“How do you mean?”

“Well… The spell I cast was to show me a hero to my specifications. Weather he be close to home or worlds away, I was willing to go that distance. However, the being I summoned to draw my spirit mind into the folds of the Veil must have mistaken my intentions, and instead of taking my spirit across the veil, grabbed my entire being and forcefully pulled me across.”

There was a moment of silence before a dumbfound Margret proceeded to palm her face. “Are you a noob at this magic thing or are you just that stupid!? You called a being from the Veil of all things?! I’m surprised your even ALIVE! reaching into the Veil for the catalyst of a spell is the makings of apocalyptic ruin or destruction of the caster themselves! You have no idea what eldritch abomination you’ll pull out of there!”

The girl was absolutely fuming at him at this point, Forcing the narrow eyed man to hold his hands up in defense. “Well… On the bright side, I managed to save myself from whatever horror you’re talking about by attacking it, forcing it to let me go.”

Instead of a relived sigh, like he was expecting, Margret’s jaw fell to the floor while her glasses somehow dipped to the tip of her nose despite being forced up onto her eyes. “You ATTACKED it!?! You must be suicidal!! No! Your just crazy is what you are! Do you have any idea what it could have done to you!? It might have possibly ripped your very soul asunder and cast the tiny insignificant particles of your being into the void of the world! Forever to be lost in Limbo and to neither know the comforts of death nor the agony of living!”

Andrew came up beside the girl, placing a hand on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. “Margret, take a deep breath. You’re going to bust a blood vessel if you keep this up.”

Margret grit her teeth, many more choice words wanting to let themselves known, however, she did indeed take a few deep breaths and took a step back, muttering under her breath all the while.

Andrew gave the girl a half grin before turning his attention back to Michal. “Alright, so you didn’t come to this world by choice then… guess that’s a good start…”

There was a long period of silence between everyone, Michal not quite sure what all the nervous air was about before Thomas spoke up. “Soooooooooo… do we help him or not?”

Andrew looked over at his friend, mulling the thought over in his mind before he decided to say anything. “Well… that depends on him. Do you need us to help you stranger?”

Michal looked over at the Black and white haired youth, the question sounding a little odd.

“I’m… sorry?”

“Do you want us to help you? Find a Hero I mean. It doesn’t sound very hard and… truth be told, you’ve kinda found yourself in a very fortuitous situation…”

However, before he could continue talking, Margret spoke up. “Andrew, are you sure that’s wise? We normally don’t tell anyone about the nature of this place, even our friends and family.”

Andrew looked back at his friend and shrugged his shoulders. “I Know we normally keep it a secret for everybody’s convenience… but, this just seems a little too much for it to be a random mishap. I mean, he’s looking for a Hero of all things and he lands here?”

“Granted. But like I said, we don’t know what he can or can’t do, which is why I say we should exercise the most extreme of caution.”

Michal looked back and forth between the two, not entirely sure what was going on. However, he quickly turned his attention to the other blond in the room who had spoken up.

“Seriously, do we need to keep debating it or what. I gotta get started on finding the records for this guy if he wants our help.”

“Um… Pardon, but what in the world are you all talking about?”

All four of them turned to the stranger, his obvious confusion of the situation evident on his face.

“Right… sorry.”

Andrew stroked his chin a few times, Michal seeing his internal debate on his troubled face.

“Alright, keep this a secret if you would please since hardly anyone is privy to it except for the parties involved…”

Andrew took a deep breath before he started to talk. “Alright, you remember what Thomas and I said earlier about you not being the first poor sap to have fallen into this realm of existence? Oddly enough, it’s not always evil Overlords, Demon Spawn, and the occasional cranky Magician. Sometimes, we get more benign individuals… Hero’s in other words. I don’t know why and I don’t know how, but this section of the world seems to have the weakest spot when it comes to dimensional stability. It’s kinda like a leaky pipe that someone tried to fix with duct tape and a lot of the time, a few drops will get out. Now, most of the time, We try to send these Hero’s back to their own dimension, only having come here by accident when they fought masters of evil who sent them hurtling through time and space. However, Sometimes they just end up getting lost and are retired Heroes who want to stay. If they do Indeed want to stay, Then that’s where we come in. Me and my friends are unofficially re-locators for these Hero’s getting them a nice place to live and sealing there power up so as not to cause havoc and destruction by accident.”

Michal blinked a few times before he started to understand what they were on about “soo…your saying that… this town is-”

“-A city of hero’s. Yes. This is why I found it odd that you were looking for one.”

“I… can see the point of you asking that question then.”

“Yes, so, did you want us to help you find a Hero? Granted, you would need to get the individuals permission first before they would go anywhere, but I’m sure that there are many here who would be willing to help.”

Andrew watched the man think it over for a moment, something turning in his mind at the sound of this. Eventually, he did indeed look back up, a smile on his face.

“Very well. I will gladly accept your help on this matter.”


Xx Now xX


Andrew let out a sigh. After that, they had needed to put Michal somewhere, and since Giha had work later that day and Margret had to look into a spell to send him back home that was going to take a whole week to find, she said that she didn’t want distractions.

Thomas couldn’t take him in since he lived in a tiny little apartment with an Evil land lady who looked like a Genderbent Jabba the hut, so that had left Andrew to take him.

This wasn’t the first time it had happened, however, he was getting sick of the other three always pawning the heavy stuff off to him since he had the most money. He wasn’t made of money Dammit! His uncle was the one with the big bucks, he had to earn a lot of his finances the same as everyone else.

However, he had a pretty nice Job at his uncles place that paid very well, so he was fairly alright in expenses, but that wasn’t the point. Andrew let his thoughts brew for a moment before he looked down at his digital watch. The letters read that it was 8:02. He had wasted enough time with internal monologue and quickly made his way to the guest rooms.

Eventually he had made his way to the room that Michal was staying in and stopped. Andrew then raised his hand and knocked on the door loudly, making sure his knuckles where loud and sharp.

“Hey! You awake stranger? We have a lot to get done today and I don’t want to leave you alone while I go do it!”

His only answer was a loud groan on the other side of the door. “Well… that’s just as much an OK as actually saying it I guess…”

Andrew pulled out a small ring of keys and quickly pulled out one with a number 23 on it. He then stuck it in the lock and opened the door, his eyebrows turning upward in curiosity and a great deal of confusion when he saw the interior. Where he was expecting Michal to be sleeping on the bed, instead, he was sleeping on the floor, only using one of the sheets to cover his body.

What was even more odd was the fact that Michal had moved the desk and chairs around where he was currently sleeping in a sort of Wall. However, he brought his attention to the Blond man and saw him sitting up, the simple white muscle shirt he loaned him revealing his strong looking arms and his willowy chest.

Michal turned his groggy attention to the sound coming from the door, his hair looking a mess.

“Oh… Good Morning Sir Andrew…”

“Same to you. How did you sleep last night?”

Michal looked around himself for a moment, as if to contemplate the question before he spoke up. “Well… it was odd.”

“How so?”

“The bed… it wasn’t bad. It was very comfortable. Too much so actually. I wasn’t really used to such a springy and soft feeling. It was also a little too spacious for my tastes. I’m used to sharing you see.”

Andrew nodded his head in some mild understanding. “I get it. A pity your Lady friend wasn’t here to share. I’ll see about finding you another bed to sleep in tonight, but for now, get dressed. I’ll go on ahead and make breakfast down stairs. You know how to get to the kitchen right?”

Michal stretched his arms before he nodded his head. “Yes, I still remember how.”

“Good, I left a few pairs of clothes for you to wear today from my stuff. The stuff you came in is currently being washed.”

Michal nodded his head in understanding before he watched Andrew leave the room and close the door behind him. Michal sat like that for a few minutes before he removed the sheet and got to his feet. Michal then walked over to the large dresser in the room, opening the first drawer and pulled out the set of clothes given to him. It was a simple white shirt, nothing to note, nothing amazing. However, to him, it was perhaps one of the oddest things he had ever felt. The stitches, unlike what he was used to, where on the inside of the shirt. Not only that, but it didn’t feel as if it was made from rough cotton. In fact, it felt extraordinarily soft, like he was touching arachne silk.

Michal ran his hands over the fabric a few times, still curious about the material it was made from. However, he remembered that he was expected in a few minutes and quickly got dressed in the shirt and shorts given to him. Michal then gave the room his was in a last look before he walked over to the door and turned out the light like Andrew had shown him. He then made his way down the hall, his bare feet padding softly across the wooden floor. Michal gave the items he passed momentary glances, his thoughts about the place being that the owner must be very wealthy and must either be a lord or a Merchant.

Of course, that was simply his thoughts on the subject, he could be vastly wrong on that account. Before he realized it, he had quickly come onto the stair way and was just about to make his way below before he noticed something down the hall. It had simply been a glance, but it was still enough to draw his attention to his side. Michal turned his head a little more and quickly noticed that the rest of the hall looked a little darker in comparison to the rest of the corridor.

He was half tempted to walk down that way to see what the problem was, but to wander in the house of one’s host was a very bad idea and very rude on top of that. Giving the dark hallway one last glance, Michal made his way downstairs and eventually got to the bottom.

He then passed the main hallway and made his way to the sounds of cooking and clattering dishes. He hadn’t been in the kitchen before, but the sounds and smells made it very easy to tell where it was located. Eventually Michal found his way to the kitchen door, the smells the heaviest in this location.

However, he hadn’t been in this part of this house and was a little surprised to see the two items hanging on either side of the door. On both sides of the door where mounted animal heads, one of a chicken and the other of a moose. It was odd to say the least.

The moose was understandable, however, the fact that it had a monocle in one eye and had a top hat placed between its horns made Michal raise his eyebrow in a great deal of confusion. The fact that someone even mounted a chicken head was equally surprising.

Michal could only shrug his shoulders. “The eccentricities of rich people I suppose…” As he was making his way into the door, he quickly made notice of the chicken head and stopped. For a moment, he thought it had blinked. But that would be ridiculous, severed chicken heads don’t blink, they’re too full of modeling agents to even consider being able to move.

However, before Michal could even continue his line of thought, the supposed immovable Chicken head twitched. Michal stopped what he was doing and blinked a few times in surprise. The chicken did the same. Before Michal could say or even do anything, the head turned to him in one quick fluid motion.

“BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!”

“AHHHHHHHH!!!”

Michal stumbled back in surprise, nearly taking an expensive tapestry down with him. He quickly got to his feet, only to be surprised even further when he looked back at the head. It was moving. And then it locked eyes with him.

“DO YOU LIKE EEEEEEEEEGGGGGGGS???”

Michal blinked a few times in shock and bafflement. Never in his life had he seen a talking chicken head, much less one that looked psychotic by nature. But the question still hung in the air, much like the wattle under its beak.

“Not anymore I don’t…”

The chicken tilted it’s head like a normal chicken would, and quickly followed it up by talking again. “BUT THEY ARE GOOOOOOD FOR YOU! FULL OF PROTEIN AND TASTEY YELLOW GOODNESS!”

Michal was about to simply walk by and ignore the crazy chicken head when the sound of a heavy and dignified voice cleared itself. Michal looked to the other side of the door and now saw the Moose head moving.



“Cluck, my goodly psychotic and slightly schizophrenic fowl friend, do be a chap and stop harassing Lord Andrew’s guest. I believe him to be in the process of breaking his night long fast and does so wish to tarry no longer in the consumption of morning breakfast followed with tea… *sigh* A good Cup of Earl gray sounds good right about now…”

Michal simply stared at the two oddities, reaching up and pinching his cheeks just to make sure that he wasn’t still perhaps dreaming. The pinching of cheek flesh told him that that was a no. Michal simply shook his head and continued to walk on by, doing his damndest to ignore the two talking animal heads. He eventually did indeed manage to get past them and into the kitchen and was relieved to see Andrew currently holding a frying pan and cooking up some eggs.

The sound of a closing door told Andrew that his guest had arrived, and without even turning around spoke up. “Take a seat at the table, breakfast will be ready in about 5 more minutes.”

Michal noticed the long bar table and sat there, letting out a sigh as he did. Andrew slightly turned his head and noticed Michal’s weary look.

“You alright? Didn’t get lost or anything coming this way did you?”

“No… just… the two things outside the door…”

Andrew nodded his head and smiled a little. “ahhhh… Cluck and Herbert. Yes…I tell them both to shut up when I have guests, but Cluck always forgets and Herbert makes it a point to try to keep the law in this part of the house. Sorry if they bugged you, I should have told you about them so that you wouldn’t get caught off guard.”

Michal smiled at Andrew. “It’s alright. I’m just not used to such odd things… tell me, what Kind of enchantment do you have on them to talk and move like that?”

Andrew moved his spatula around a little on the pan, causing the now frying sausages to sizzle loudly as the undercooked meat hit heat. “I didn’t put any enchantments on them. They used to belong to Margret, So I’m not sure what she did to make them like that. I simply took them off her hands when she needed room in her house. Of course, my house isn’t her personal storage shed, so she needs to come pick this shit up sooner or later.”

Andrew went back to cooking, a slight grumble under his breath as he stirred the eggs and seared the last of the sausage. Michal simply sat and waited for Breakfast to be served, taking the occasional glance around the kitchen and finding one or two odd things to do before it was ready. Andrew made two plates of food, heaping large servings on Michal’s plate and placing it right in front of him.

“There ya go. Breakfast is served. Feel free to pick and choose what to eat on that plate. You may look Human stranger, but that doesn’t mean you have the appetite of one.”

Michal nodded his head once before glancing down at his food. It wasn’t the prettiest in the world, but from a taste test, he could tell that a lot of care had gone into making the flavor stand out. It wasn’t outstanding, but it was still a good meal. Michal didn’t have a very large appetite right now, so he only ate about a ¼ of what was present and pushed the plate to the side.

“Sorry if I wasted food, I’m just not very hungry right now.”

Andrew, who had only eaten half of his own serving, simply shrugged his shoulders. “s’alright. Someone will be coming along shortly to take care of it. But now for the day plan.”

Michal watched as Andrew pulled out a large paper and start to read through it, occasionally pulling out a small sharp device and cutting through the paper itself in small squares.

“Sale on beef today… might need some of that for later…”

Michal watched Andrew for a little while longer, the oddity of what he was doing driving him into a great deal of curiosity. Eventually, Michal felt that he had to ask the question on his mind.

“Andrew… what are we doing?”

Andrew didn’t bother looking up, instead still cutting out more little squares every time he saw something on the page.

“We’re waiting for the help to get here.”

Michael tilted his eyebrow upward curiously. “Well… I Guess that’s understandable… but what are you doing yourself exactly?”

At that, Andrew did look up from what he was doing. He then placed the small cutting object on the table and started to flip through the pages of the paper he had. “I’m currently looking for Coupons in the paper. Several convenience stores around here are having a sale, and I just so happen to have found some coupons that would help.”

Michal was a little confused. “Coupons?”

“It would take too long to try to explain to you the way we barter around here, so let me put it in a way you can understand. These little things of paper-” Andrew held one up and waved it for a second “- Act like vouchers in a limited amount of funding. Instead of paying for the object of choice, they instead reduce the cost, allowing one to save more of their own currency. Make sense?”

Michal nodded his head, the idea intriguing him. “I Get it. But… how does that work? Are they limited to people like you, or are they for everyone?”

Andrew put his paper down, a light sigh coming from his mouth “They can be used by anybody who has them. One can get them in the usual paper, or from the general store that they originated from. I’d rather not try to explain this when I could just show you later. If the damn help would just show-”

“HELLO!!! ANYBODY HOME?”

Andrew glanced over at the doorway, the voice having echoed down the hall loudly. “Bout time she showed up… IN THE KITCHEN JO!”

Michal glanced over at Andrew, a little confusion on his face. “Jo? Isn’t that a Male name?”

Andrew rolled his paper up and stuffed the small paper clippings in his pocket, his eyes glancing over at the Blond. “It’s short for Joseline. She hates the long version though, so she shortened it to Jo. Everybody calls her that anymore.”

Michal was about to ask why before the sounds of… flopping and squeaking resounded outside the hallway, which caused him to turn his head to the doorway. Eventually, the sound of the hanging chicken head told him that the stranger was just outside the door. However, unlike himself, the stranger didn’t scream out in shock or fear.

“BWAAAAAAAAAAAK! DO YOU LIKE EEEEEEEEEGS?”

“BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAK! Hello to you to Cluck! Yes! I still Love eggs!! But you want to know what I love even more? Where they come from! Deep fried chicken! Yum! I could go for some KFC right about now, Do you like fried Chicken Cluck? Oh! Right! You’re a chicken! Of course you won’t like being a cannibal! Of course, if chickens ate chickens, do you think there insides would taste like chicken? Cause I know that if a person ate a person, they would probably still taste like chicken! Imagine that! Course, I’ve never had person before, But I heard that it tastes like chicken! But then again, everything tastes like chicken when it’s bad, so do you think-”

Michal was pretty blown away right about now, the girl on the other side of the door didn’t even sound like she had taken a single breath since she started talking. Michal glanced over at Andrew and saw him tapping his finger on the countertop impatiently. Finally, after a few more minutes of talking, Andrew Spoke up loudly.

“*AHEM* Jo, still waiting here”

“- and when I finally did find my… Oh! Sorry Andrew! Talk to you later Cluck! I’ll tell you how I found my Ovaries later! Stay tasty!”

A moment later, the door flew open, slamming into the wall behind it with a loud crash followed by an abnormally loud, “HELLO!”

Michal slightly jolted from her loud entrance, but he was even more shocked when he saw the person who had opened the door. Short, lightly tanned and looked like she was having the time of her life right now. Her hair was short and spiky with red tips on each of the points. Her eyes where bright and shining, the deep Crimson color looking both savage, yet full of bright fantasy. However, much to both the males surprise, the girls attire was the most extraordinary thing on her.

She was wearing a long sleeved sweat shirt grey in color that went to her waist, and from there down it was very short jeans that looked a few sizes too tight with leggings that where just below the crotch area. Her choice of foot wear was just about as chaotic as the rest of her ensemble. On one foot was a sandal, and the other a sneaker with a single ankle sock peeking just past the lip of the shoe.

Michal was too flabbergasted at the girl to say anything, but Andrew simply let out a weary sigh.

“*Sigh* howdy Jo… let me guess, had some trouble finding all your clothes again?”

The girl quickly scampered to the bar counter and grabbed Andrew’s plate from under him, taking a seat next to the tall male and digging into his food. “Yeah! And I had everything planned out for me to wear today to! But personally, I like this look! Perhaps I should wear it more often… of course, it might have helped if I had the other sneaker this morning, I mean, I had both sandal’s, But I swore to myself that I was going to wear my real shoes today, but when I couldn’t find it, I was all like ‘oh noz! Andrews gonna kill me if I don’t wear the sneakers!’ but then I remembered that your my bestest buddy in the world and realized how stupid that was, so I just went with wearing a combination of the two. But even then, that still doesn’t explain where all my other clothes got to! I mean seriously! One minute I have all my stuff-”

At this point, Andrew looked like he had simply started to drown her out with something else, his head bobbing occasionally at some of her words while he would reply with the occasional ‘Cool’ or ‘alright.’

Michal, on the other hand, was seriously wondering if the girl was even human. Apparently, the girl had combined the arts of eating, talking, and breathing into one seeing as she had been wolfing food into her mouth since she sat down and started her little story.

Apparently, he had done something to catch her attention, because in the next moment she stopped and looked at Michal with a massive amount of curiosity. Michal could only blink at her staring, and eventually raised his hand in greeting.

“Um… hello?”

“Holy Crap!! I didn’t even see you there dude! You just kinda like… Poof! Appeared in my line of vision! Are you a ghost or something? or maybe another one of those dimension hopper dudes! Oh, that would be so cool! So how’d you do it? Huh? Huh!?”

Michal stared at the girl, not sure how to answer her question. “I’ve… been sitting here the whole time… Kinda funny considering you stole my plate of food right from under me.”

The last part had been in a whisper. But if she heard, she didn’t say anything about it. Instead, she turned to Andrew and started to pester him.

“Hey! Andrew! Who is this guy?”

The male looked down at her and lightly shook his head. “Ya know Jo… he’s sitting right there. How about you just ask his name?”

“Oh! Right!”

Jo quickly rounded on Michal and leaned over the counter to get a better look at his face, something he found just a little invasive.

“So what’s your name? You look like a Saint Able to me, is that your name? Cause it would be so cool if that was your name, I would be like ‘holy crap, I got it right on the first go!’ and then you’d be like ‘Oh that’s so freaky! How did you do that!’ and then I would be all like ‘nah bro! I don’t read minds! Though it would be cool if I did!”

“Jo”

The girl quickly stopped and turned to face the commanding voice with a smile. “yeah Andrew?”

“Shut up for about two seconds, and let him talk.” The hyperactive girl was about to say something, but the look the older male gave her shut her up right quick.

“Right… sorry…”

Michal felt a little sorry for her since she looked like she was a puppy that just got scolded, But Michal was happy to finally get a word in edgewise. “ah… yes. My name is Michal Vanugard. Pleasure to make your acquaintance Miss Jo.”

Jo stared at him all starry eyed, her thoughts almost visible in her eyes. “Vanugard? Are you some kind of knight? Like of the round table? Or maybe more like the table of the Nth number… infinite possibilities!”

Andrew rolled his eyes at the spiky top and glanced over at Michal. “Sorry about her. She just can’t keep her mouth shut most of the time and her mind works in several different directions at once.”

Michal shook his head at the other males rebuttal and smiled. “No, it’s alright. I just wasn’t used to her speed is all. But in answer to your question Miss Jo, It’s rather funny you see, I used to be a Knight. We did have round tables in the dining hall, if that is what your referring to, but I’m afraid I don’t know what an Nth number is.”

Michal noticed Andrews slight curiosity at his words, but was quickly cut off before he had the ability to inquire further.

“That’s so cool!!! Do you have like, a code of arms or something? Maybe a weapon or something with awesome powers or something like that?!”

Michal was about to respond before Andrew pushed the girls face down into her remaining scrambled eggs.

“Alright, that’s enough questions out of you Jo. Michal and myself have some stuff we need to do today, and like always, you have to keep an eye on the house for me.”

Andrew removed his hand from the back of her head, allowing her to sit up straight in a flash. Bits of egg where clinging to her face, but she didn’t seem bothered by it at all. “Okay Andrew! I’ll watch the house like always! Catch you later!”

The girl quickly got up and was about to run out the door before Andrew caught her by the collar of her large sweat shirt.

“Hold it. Before you go, repeat to me the rules I have in place.”

The girl quickly about faced, pulling her shirt out of his grasp and standing ramrod straight. Her face took on a serious tone as she started to speak. “RULE NUMBER 1! DO NOT ENTER YOUR STUDY OR YOUR UNCELS STUDY!”

Michal was surprised to hear her shouting, but he noticed that Andrew wasn’t perturbed by it at all. Michal quickly was brought back to attention when she started up again.

“RULE NUMBER 2! DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING OF GREAT VALUE OR IMPORTANCE! RULE 3! MAKE SURE TO CLEAN UP AFTER MYSELF BEFORE I LEAVE! AND RULE 4! UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE AM I ALLOWED TO ENTER THE ARMORY! Did I get them all?”

Andrew nodded his head at her before he got up. “Yup. Also, here’s the Key to the game room. Keep those rules in mind and you’re free to do as you please in the house.”

Jo’s eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store and quickly swiped the key from Andrews’ outstretched hand. She then lunged forward, knocking the wind out of the older male and gave him a big hug, cuddling her face in his chest and nuzzling there for a second before she let go and gave them both a thumbs up.

“Don’t worry Big Guy! Everything will be just as you left it! Well… except maybe the fridge, I might clean it out if I get hungry, but everything else should be fine!... well no… maybe not the game systems… but that’s all I’ll do! I swear!... Ok maybe I’ll-”

“Just go already Jo.”

The girl flinched a moment before she gave him a salute. “Roger sir!” And with that, the girl was out the door in a flash.

Michal stared at the space she stood at for a moment before he turned his attention to the other male in the room. Just as he was about to open his mouth to ask a question, Andrew let out a sigh and waved his hand.

“Yes, she is somewhat crazy, infuriatingly so. Her mind is just that way though, 180 miles per hour with no brakes. It’s not bad by itself… but coupled with her ability…”

“Ability?”

Andrew let out a sigh as he remembered her power. “her Imagination Breaker ability.”

Michal could only blink in curiosity and thought. “Imagination… Breaker?”

“It’s what she likes to call it. I honestly don’t know where she came up with the name, but it’s a very apt description of what it does…”

Michal waited a second for the Man to answer, but when Andrew didn’t respond after a few seconds, Michal cleared his throat. “And that would be...?”

“Oh, right. Her ability is to create things from her mind.”

Michal blinked once, then twice, then three times before his eyes widened in shock. “Create things… from her mind? Then… this girl… is she not virtually a God?!”

Andrew looked over at Michal and snorted at his surprise. “A God? Ha! If she’s a God, then I’m a Primordial Being that goes beyond even them. No, stranger, she isn’t a god of any kind.”

“But-!”

before Michal could continue, Andrew held up his hand. “Perhaps I should have been a little more specific. Yes, she can make things from her mind, but only for a short period of time, and the things she makes are just as unpredictable as she is. She couldn’t make beings of untold power or Demons of the highest order if she wanted to. She just ends up making random and miscellaneous things that only make sense to her. However, it is a strong power for her to have and is treated with a great deal of caution. That’s why she comes to watch my house, that way if things get loose or she makes something she can’t handle, there are things here that can take care of it.”

Michal stared at Andrew for a moment before he slowly spoke out several words. “Things she can’t handle?”

Michal followed Andrew out the door and in the long hallway, keeping pace while listening to Andrews recount of the tale.

“Yeah. One time, she managed to make a giant vanilla Ice Cream golem and it ended up covering the whole town in Vanilla. We were cleaning for days. And ya wanna know why she did it? Because it was Sunday. all that shit for a stupid joke…”

Michal was not entirely sure what in the world he was on about, but the fact that she had caused damage for irresponsible reasons told him enough about her. Eventually the both of them made it the location of choice. A Place that as far as Michal was concerned, was called a ‘garage’ by the denizens of this world, and death trap to him.

The moment Andrew opened the door, his memories of yesterday came rushing back and sent chills up his spine. “Oh get over it you baby. Just because everybody said my driving was bad doesn’t mean you need to over dramatize it. Now come on.”

Andrew walked down the steps and into the large area, pulling out a set of keys and unlocking a truck some distance away. Michal, however, stayed at the top of the steps. “Not to be rude or anything, but the last time I got in that horseless carriage with you my life flashed before my eyes.”

Andrew rolled his eyes while sighing. “First off, it’s not a horseless carriage. It’s called an automobile. But that means nothing to you I suppose, so feel free to call it whatever you want.”

The first thing that ran through Michal’s mind was ‘devil carriage’ However, he felt that that might have been rude, so he didn’t say it out loud and let Andrew continue.

“And second of all, just relax and get over here. It won’t be as bad as it was yesterday. I promise.”

The otherworlder wasn’t so sure of that, but seeing as he should probably give his host the benefit of the doubt, he decided against his better judgment and walked over to where Andrew was standing and got in the truck.

Xx 15 minutes later xX

Next time, Michal was going to tell his trust to go jump off a cliff. He was currently pushed as far back into the comfortable seat as he possibly could with his feet pushing against the floor and his hands latched to the thing that Andrew had called a dashboard.

He was wide eyed, or as wide as one could get withy squinty eyes, and terrified at the most recent escaped through what had been called ‘traffic.’ He had ordained to calling it rafting down a river with no paddle and the water lined with jagged rocks.

Andrew glanced over at his passenger and rolled his eyes, “You know we’re parked now right? You can let go of the dashboard.”

“Give me a moment to collect myself and maybe I will…”

The exasperated youth let out another sigh before he leaned back into his chair and pulled out the cube he had from yesterday and started to shift it around.

Michal, after managing to calm his furious heart, managed to pry his fingers off the plastic and turned his eyes at Andrew, more specifically, the cube in his hands. “What is that?”

Andrew stopped what he was doing and glanced over at the blond with a smirk. “It’s called a rubix cube. It’s a mental puzzle for guys like me. Have to keep my mind sharp at all times and this thing tends to help with that.”

Michal watched him turn it in his hands, watching him try to flip it this way and that, redoing several turns and watching the colors just seem to mix. However, he stopped watching when Andrew put it back in his pocket and turned to him.

“So, we’re here at the store. Stay in the car please, I’ll leave it on so that you don’t fry, but don’t get out alright? I’ll only be a few minutes.”

Michal nodded his head in understanding, not really wanting to test his patron’s patience. He then watched him get out of the car and then head to the large building in front of them both. He still found it hard to believe that a person could get all of their goods in one location such as this ‘supermarket’ but he wasn’t exactly home right now, so his logic didn’t apply. He looked out the window in the direction that he had seen Andrew walking and was surprised to see that he had stopped in front of the door and was conversing with a couple.

A Young man and woman of what appeared to be equal age. The young man looked perhaps 16 years of age, at least 6 years younger than Andrew was, though he was somewhat tall. He had auburn colored hair that looked incredibly short, but looked to be rather messy. He had somewhat of an easy going face, which was currently laughing and smiling at the older youth.

However, Michal’s attention was drawn to the girl. For some inexplicable reason to him, despite the fact that she looked maybe a year older, he felt as if she was ancient. She stood about as tall as the young man, but had a much more prominent bearing, as if she was used to standing proudly before others. She had light blonde hair, much like his own, which she had tied into a braided pony-tail that looped around a bun in her hair. An odd hairstyle choice, but it seemed fitting of her.

He could tell they were a couple due to the fact that they had their hands clasped together, which brought a smile to his face. He wasn’t sure what the group was talking about, but he quickly found out when he saw Andrew point to the truck and directly at him, causing the young couple to look directly at him. Michal was stunned for a moment, but not wanting to be rude, he waved at them both. The young man waved back with a smile while the girl gave a polite nod in his direction before the both of them turned back to Andrew.

Their conversation went on for a few more minutes before the girl got her friends attention and said something. The both of them talked for a second before they gave a polite bow and bade Andrew farewell. Andrew went in the store while the couple walked along the sidewalk, but not before giving him another wave in his direction. Michal smiled at them again and watched them walk away until they eventually crossed the street and out of sight.

His time went by slowly for a few more minutes, his eyes looking around and watching people come and go. Michal was interested in many of the clothes that he saw people wearing, even recounting if he got home to have some arachne seamstress’s to make some of them. However, his attention was brought back to Andrew when he saw him leave the store with a small bag in his hands. He eventually made his way back to the Truck and got back in, throwing the bag into the seat before he got in and leaned back into the truck.

“Geez… medicine is getting so expensive these days…”

Michal glanced at him and then to the bag between them, curious as to what medicine he could have obtained. However, before he could ask, Andrew nabbed the bag and placed it in a compartment in the door. Andrew then brought his attention to the Blonde and gave him a smile.

“Thanks for staying in the car like I asked. Normally, most people try to escape when they get the first opportunity. Glad to see you’re not one of the ship jumpers.”

Michal glanced at him and then to the door at his side. “Um... thanks? What would have happened if I had run?”

Andrew smiled at him darkly. “The door would have electrocuted you.”

Michal glanced at the door at his side and promptly scooted closer to the middle seat. “Thanks for the vote of confidence…”

“I don’t give my trust easily Michal, you’ve managed to earn some of it today though. Good job on that.”

The both of them we’re silent for a moment before Michal remembered the conversation earlier. “Oh yes… that couple you were talking with earlier… who were they?”

Andrew didn’t answer immediately, instead opting to reach over and flipping something on the dashboard and causing cool air to start blowing into their face’s. “Those two are much like you are. Strangers from another world. The guy’s name is Shirou Emiya while the girls name is simply Saber.”

“Saber?”

“Her class, if that makes any sense. Don’t worry about it. She has a real name, but I won’t tell you due to her wanting to keep it secret.”

Despite his curiosity, he didn’t prompt it further. “Alright… But they are like me?”

Andrew smiled at him before he buckled up and motioned for Michal to do the same. “Yeah. However, unlike you, their entry into our world wasn’t quite so subtle… That was a tough fight mind you…”

“Fight? You had to fight them? They look so friendly though.”

“Ha! don’t let the appearance fool you. Saber is a top class swordsman! Or is that swordswoman? Whatever… she was tough enough on her own, but throw in Shirou? Whooo doggy…That was one of the hairiest 2 on 1 fights I’d ever had the enjoyment of fighting. I actually was close to losing before Giha and the others managed to step in. Thankfully, they were very kind people and willing to listen to reason. Since then, they’ve lived here in the city with Shirou getting a job as a mechanic and Saber doing odd jobs. They’ve been around for about 4 years now.”

Michal glanced at Andrew and then to the street where he had watched the couple vanish. “They’ve been here for that long?”

Andrew snorted as he pulled out of the parking lot, abiding by the rules of the road this time around since he didn’t have anywhere he needed to be just yet. It was also his turn to patrol around town for disturbances of any kind. “I wouldn’t be too surprised by a four year span Michal, we have some Hero’s and Supernatural’s that have been living here since before I was even born.”

“Really? How long has this been going on?”

Andrew reached over and switched the Radio off, not being able to drive, listen to music and answer questions all at the same time. “If we’re to believe the official records, since about the start of the 1300’s. To be more precise, when the Knights Templar lost several holy and very powerful artifacts in a fire.”

Andrew turned to see the expected reaction from Michal’s face. Confusion. Andrew turned back to the road with a knowing smile on his face.

“Let me pose to you a question.”

Michal, though still confused simply nodded his head in acknowledgement. “Do you know where magic came from in your world?”

Michal blanched for a moment at the very oddity of the question. “Magic? Magic has been in the inner workings of my world since the dawn of its creation when the Chief God made it.”

“Yes, but how did it get there?”

“How did it… well, it’s just… been there. I would assume that the Chief god put magic in the world…”

“I see… you guys obviously haven’t thought too much about it. You’re using it, but don’t understand it… Alright, let me give you some lessons that Margret taught me about the subject.”

Instead of explaining immediately, Like Michal was expecting, He watched as Andrew continued driving onward until the youth driving pulled off and parked. From the looks of it, it was a large field with many implements across it that he was only vaguely familiar with. He noticed the sand box, and a strange horse shaped thing that was on a spiral. However, his attention was brought back into the car when Andrew spoke up.

“What if I told you that Magic was here? in this world? How do you think it got here?”

Michal was just a dash confused at the question. “Well… I would think that the chief God put it there.”

“Ha! I’ve never even heard of your Chief God Michal, and as Far as I know, Margret has never felt your signature before in her life. So tell me this. If the chief God put magic in the entire Multiverse, then how come we know nothing of each other from dimension’s away?”

Michal thought about that, though, he had no answer for it. However, he was also starting to feel somewhat uncomfortable, though for what reason, he was unsure. A few minutes of silence pass them by before Andrew spoke up.

“The truth is Michal, your god didn’t make magic. Hell, all gods that I have encountered have been byproducts of true magic. Yours is also included in that category.” Andrew glanced over and saw that Michal just couldn’t seem to process that bit of information. With a sigh, he simply shook his head and glanced out the window.

“Don’t think about it. Point is, Magic exists everywhere, and it isn’t controlled by just one being. In fact, you could say that all magic is in of itself, its own entity. The creatures that pass through the Veil, the Great barrier of magic, are probably the closest things that magic has to sentience. Which brings me to why this all started in the first place. Like I said, Magic is everywhere in all of creation. However, places like earth here have somewhat atrophied to it in the course of millennium. Magic started coming back when those artifacts were burned in the fire 600+ years ago, forcing some of those old forgotten relics to lose some of that magic still housed in them. It’s been slow going, like water through a clogged pipe, but magic is making a return to this world. However, it’s currently in a transition phase. It’s trying to sort itself out and causing problems with that process. Not that it’s all bad mind you. Magic has started to help out many people recently. However…”

Michal watched Andrew open the Door, and much to his surprise, a blast of cold air came rushing in, and that was quite odd since it had been quite hot earlier when they left the house.

“Not all things magic are good things. Human Belief helps to give it shape, to form and to quicken the process for magic to emulate itself into the world. However, Not all human thoughts are good ones, and when bad things start popping out from the minds of humans, then all kinds of problems happen…”

Michal watched Andrew leave the truck, looking back around as he walked that way and surprisingly for him, opened the back and what he had at first thought was a solid back, turned out to be hallow, and full of weapons like the ones that Thomas had been using yesterday, only some were larger and longer, other’s very round and hallow looking. However, there was also some other types of weapons, ones he was very familiar with, likes swords, shields, ax’s, long poles, spears, and even a set of chakram’s.

Andrew pulled out one of the smaller of the metal weapons, clicking something on it and a small rectangle like thing fell out of the bottom. Andrew then held it with his left hand and ran his thumb and index finger across the length of it, muttering something as he did. When he was done, Michal watched the thing light up with a deep azure light, flecked with small electrical gold streaks of power running along the length of it. He then moved his jacket to the side and holstered it, reaching back into the back of the truck and then pulling out a sword and shield, the sword itself sheathed in the middle of the shield.

The shield itself looked rather normal, like any he had ever seen, though it looked more like a buckler then a massive shield. More for blocking lesser strikes. After he looked like he had done what he needed, Andrew came up next to the truck and opened the door for Michal.

“Alright, get out, and come pick a weapon. I took the liberty of keeping the guns to one side since I know you’ll more than likely shoot yourself in the foot if I gave you one.”

“A… weapon? What for?”

Andrew rolled his eyes at him. “For a fight. What else would I want you to grab a weapon for? I thought you were smart.”

Michal felt a tad bit of indignation at the words he just said, but opted to not say anything about it. “A fight? What fight? I don’t see anything to fight out here.”

Andrew shook his head at him, almost as if he was dealing with some intern who only had the most basic grasp of his job. “You don’t need to see it. I know you can feel it. This unnatural cold… what we have to fight is around here alright. Now hurry it up, we have other things to do today.”

Michal was a little surprised at his abrupt nature, but could not deny that there was indeed an unnatural cold around here, almost evilly so. He hadn’t felt anything like this before in his life. Michal got out of the truck and looked at the back, shaking his head at Andrew.

“I thank you for supplying me with weapons, but at the same time, I won’t need them. I carry my own personal weapon at all times.”

“aight, whatever floats your boat. Just remember. I ain’t comin to save your ass if you need it, so make sure you either stay low, or kick ass.”

With that, Andrew went to the back of the truck and slammed the lid down before he did the same with the driver side door. Michal quickly got out of the truck and closed his own door and reached behind himself, pulling out a Kunai knife and twirling it on his index finger a few times before he grasped it tightly. However, before he took another step, he noticed Andrews expression, which was one eyebrow cocked upward skeptically.

“…Really?”

“Yes, really. This dagger has seen me through many a fight, and I wouldn’t count it out based on its size just yet.”

Andrew simply shrugged his shoulders before he turned around and started to look around the park. “Alright, your ass, not mine.”

With that little exchange sorted out, Andrew and Michal headed in the direction of the park itself. It didn’t take very long for the two of them to traverse the parking lot to the child’s playground, but the closer they got, the more the temperature seemed to drop with each step taken.

Andrew gazed this way and that, noticing that the temperature was so low that he had started to notice that there was hoarfrost on the grass and on even the rides. That didn’t bode well for anybody here.

“Hum… This can only be…”

Michal, hearing the other man talk to himself, noticed Andrews pointed gaze at the area around them and at the ice and frost that had formed on everything. However, his gaze was brought higher when he noticed something odd about the area around them. Somewhere off in the distance and hanging out on the long lines that had connected to many of the tall poles that he had come to see in the area where ravens. Not a small amount either, going even beyond the usual conspiracy of Ravens.

He examined the birds curiously before noticing that it seemed as if every line in the area was littered with the black feathered avian’s, not a single one making a noise and all of them simply keeping their small eyes focused in on the both of them. It sent a shiver up his spine, plain and simple.

“Andrew.”

The youth glanced over at the noise of Michal’s voice and noticed that he looked slightly perturbed. “What’s up?”

“I know I’m not necessarily a resident of this world, but… do all your ravens… act like that?”

Michal made his point when he pointed out at the birds simply sitting on the powerlines, Andrew drawing his attention in the same direction and narrowing his eyes.

“No. No they don’t. Not under normal circumstances.”

“And… what would be considered ‘abnormal’ for them to do so?”

Andrew glanced his way across all the lines and saw that not a single spot was open anywhere, filled with nothing but black.

“Well… I can think of, oh, three things… The first being that they were summoned.”

Michal gripped his kunai tighter as he started to nervously move his feet to the side. “And what could summon them?”

“Oh… a lot of things really. None of them good I might add… but… if they weren’t summoned, then they would be here expecting to feed.”

Michal felt his stomach start to clench tightly in a cold and slow realization, as if the air around him had started to take a secondary element of pure fear to it. “I know I’m going to regret asking this… but what on?”

Andrew reached into his jacket and pulled out the gun he had put away and cocked it. “Well… since ravens are considered Omnivores, damn near anything. But with this number and the lacking amount of food in this general area that I can see… I’m guessing that they are here waiting to feast on something that is more than likely going to turn up dead.”

“But… all I see…”

“Is us… yeah. I think they’re waiting for us to get killed.”

“By what?”

Andrew didn’t bother answering when they felt a presence start to form behind them, a soul sucking terror that reminded one of coming death and misery, reeking of pestilence.

The both of them turned around, and weren’t exactly surprised to see something behind them that hadn’t been there before. Hunched over and shivering as if the cold affected it, was a human like shape, covered in patchwork rags that could barely even be called clothes, barely held together with haphazard stitching and leather bands, looking rusted red and mottled greens, as if the individual underneath had been bleeding or oozing some disease. One might have had pity for the thing, if not for the long twin Kukri blades in its hands, rusted with age and just as sickly green as the vestments of their owner.

The both of them flinched when it stopped shaking and stood up with a gangly speed, it’s hooded head turning quickly to stare at them both.

Of course, for Michal, ‘stare’ wasn’t exactly the right word to use for something that lacked eyes, or anything resembling a face for that matter. Inside the hood was nothing but emptiness, black nothing that looked as cold and pitiless as a bottomless hole.

Michal sucked in his breath as that terror he felt squeezed his heart like an iron rope. Never, not once, had he ever faced anything like this before in his life. Men, Mamono, even a Demi-god, but not one, not a one had filled him with terror like this before. The sound of clothe rustling forced Michal to look to his side and saw Andrew staring at the thing down the sight of the gun.

“In answer to your question Michal, probably that Revenant sitting right there.”

well, that took longer then I thought, but here we go!

Spoiler: show

Mishaps

Xx Demon Realm, Previous Magical military research branch, Sabbath base #12.xX

Sitting in her room, pulling her hair this way and that as she ran her comb through the locks of hair, sat the great Baphomet Taima currently trying to get a particular cowlick out of her light brown hair.

“Why. Won’t. You. Go. Down!” she furiously punctuated each word with another swift stroke to the upturned hair before she finally stopped and glared menacingly into her mirror and at the evil little lick.

“Use a comb they said… should help you bring out your inner beauty they said… Next time those other Branch leaders call me up with stupid tips, I’mma blast em with a fist full of lightning…”

The Sabbath leader put the brush down on the counter and started to brush her furry paws through her hair. Only instead of the strands simply falling away like one would expect, small sparkles of magic started to form along where her fingers ran, and any and all things that didn’t sit right where instantly corrected by her will of thought. However, when she pulled her paws away, she titled her head curiously before a thought caused her to smirk. She quickly stood up and held both her paws up above her head, palms up and started to chant something under her breath.

In about 10 seconds, her hands started to glow with a gray colored light, the luminance starting to grow larger in her hand by the second. After another few seconds, she clapped her paws together and the light instantly popped in her hands, small sparkles raining down on her body in a light shower. Taima closed her eyes as she felt her magic rain down on her like small rays of warm sunlight, However, it did more than simply warm her body. Each time a spark touched her, something changed. Her hair changed from its usual light brown, to a sleek black. Her hair, only having gone to her shoulder blades originally, now extended well to below her taut butt. Even the fur of her calves and paws was changed from the short brown to a longer black color.

After a few more seconds of this, the sprinkles of light had finally dissipated, and Tiama opened her grey eyes to look at herself in the mirror. What she saw there was an altered form of herself, and she couldn’t help but giggle with glee at her new look. In all her 230 years of life, she had yet to change her appearance. Why she had opted to change it now could only be chalked up to a whim, but at the same time, she liked the new look. It offered something new in the almost stagnant day to day anymore.

The Baphomet twirled on her hooves a few times just to watch her long hair flow around behind her and found herself once again giggling like the little girl she so represented. “Glade to see one of us is having fun right now.” Taima lurched forward at the sound of a familiar voice and stumbled right into her makeup cabinet, quickly reaching out and stopping it from tipping over due to her abrupt spill. The Baphomet quickly turned around to see that her second in command Louis was staring at her with her crimson eyes, her face neutral, but her eyes telling her that the witch was enjoying the spectacle.

“Louis! I swear! One of these days I will be doing something dangerous and when you sneak up on me, cause I know you will, it will explode when you surprise me and we will both die!”

The blue haired witch smirked to herself, something that was rare in of itself before she strode forward and made the Baphomet sit back down in her chair. “Well, good thing I don’t plan on doing that when you’re doing something dangerous. But enough about that, what are you up to?”

Taima looked over her shoulder to look at the witch curiously. “How do you mean?”

“I mean why are you changing yourself all of a sudden? I almost didn’t recognize you when I walked into the room.”

Taima simply looked back in front of her and directly at the mirror; Louis reached down, picked up the brush and started to run it through her leaders hair. “I don’t really know, I just felt I needed a change right now, gods know I have nothing better to do…”

“I see… Well, hopefully, that will change very soon…” Louis smiled knowingly at her friend through the mirror, the Baphomet only tilting her head curiously.

“Are you planning something behind my back again?”

“Hum… maybe, maybe not.” Was the reply she got out of her.

“I see… might explain why I haven’t seen much of Michal for the past week. Been running all around the Sabbath Library and old magical divisions from what I’ve seen of him… By the way, where’s he been anyway? I haven’t seen him since yesterday, and he’s normally either in the building, or close to you.”

Louis stopped for a second, a somewhat troubled look on her face before she quickly shook her head and went back to brushing the baphomet’s hair. “He’s… away at the moment. I’m not really sure when he’ll be back, said something about how he was going to be gone in an old tome or something.”

“Huh… Okay. Hopefully he brings back something interesting if he left.” Louis nodded her head at her friend before she started to think to herself. Truth be told, she wasn’t sure what had happened. One of the other witches had informed her that something had happened in one of the unused rooms and that Michal was the last one to be seen in it. Louis had used any and all methods at her disposal to figure out what had happened. But the only thing she had found out was that he had apparently summoned something, and that’s it. After that, he had just vanished without a trace.

Louis was worried about him, but not so worried that she didn’t know that he couldn’t’ take care of himself. He was an apt magical student, and quite a cunning sort. Her only fear for him was if he could find a way home. Now, she wasn’t one for un-logical and silly notions, but… she couldn’t help but feel that he would be back soon, and she could only trust in that feeling. Because if she didn’t, the other gripping, more dark emotion of panic and fear would be there to take its place.

“He’ll be back soon… and he’ll have that silly perfume on like always…”

Xx earth xX

“In answer to your question Michal.” Andrew placed his finger on the trigger and lined the sight up right in the middle of the face of the thing across from him with cold clarity.

“Probably that Revenant sitting right there.”

Without a second thought, he pulled the trigger. The click of the trigger was followed with the sound of power building in his hand and by a flash of light from the barrel a second later. The beam of electricity hit dead on and an explosion of dirt and debris flew into the air with an ear deafening boom.

Michal threw his hands up to cover his face from the backlash of air that hit him before quickly stopping himself. First rule of combat, never take your eye off the target. And good thing he stopped himself, because in the next second, a black cloud formed from the dirt and the creature… the Revenant as Andrew had called it, materialized from the black smoke, running at the both of them with the twin Kukri held behind it.

Michal didn’t have time to think when he heard the click of the gun yet again followed by another shot of lightning.

“Hold.” Click. “Fucking.” Click. “Still!!!” Click.

Each word was punctuated by another shot, a total of three rounds fired at the Revenant. But each time, the thing would vanish just before it was hit in a cloud of black smoke and reappear on the other side of the destruction, and each time closer to them.

The next shot Andrew fired was less than 15 feet away from the both of them, and the force of the explosion caused Michel to throw his arms up to defend his face from flying rocks. The familiar sound of metal sliding made him turn to his right, and he saw Andrew had put the gun into his shield hand and had drawn his sword from the shield itself. A long Gladius from what he could see, and in the next instant, he heard it whistle through the air as it resounded out on impact with another blade.

The revenant had struck from above with one of its blades, but the other was quickly descending to meet Andrew on his unprotected side. With a twist, he followed through with his swing and forced the thing to miss his shoulder and instead impact with his shield. It pulled back, but Andrew stabbed forward with a lunge.

The Revenant barely dodged and jumped back with a hiss from its hood. But it didn’t get to stay away for long as Andrew brought his shield up and fired with the gun, another shot of power causing the thing to vanish into thin air yet again. Michal was about to start looking for it, but quickly abandoned that thought when he felt a cold terror grip him from his left.

Michal spun to his side and just barely avoided being eviscerated from top to bottom. Taking a chance, he turned his spin into a twirling strike and aimed for the things temple. He almost hit, but it vanished in another cloud of acidic black smoke and he had to dodge back. The sound of electricity lanced through the air and struck at the creature, sending it flying back as Michal just barely missed being shot.

He was going to say something about his partners aim, but didn’t have the chance when a flurry of blows started to strike him from the left. Forced to back pedal, Michal felt the hiss of air each time one of those blades come inches away from biting him. He threw his dagger up to deflect a particularly savage blow to his face, but had to twirl to his side when the other sword came up to meet him in the leg.

The blows had no rhythm, no set pattern to them. The revenant was swinging wildly, but it’s speed made up for the impracticality for purely chaotic blows. Michal had never fought something like this before, something of such speed or wildness to its movements. Each blow he avoided just seemed to come closer to his skin, and he felt his skin crawl with each narrow miss. The Vile green ooze on those swords was some poison or disease, and he could feel the unclean liquid each time the sword tried to connect. It made him want to vomit, but he had no chance to think upon it.


If the poison on those swords got to him, he had no idea what would become of him, but he had no intention of being hit with them in the first place. However, at the rate this fight was going, he was bound to slip sooner or later, and from the feel of his already burning legs, that was going to happen much sooner then he would like. However, he could only act, not allowed to think in half second time splits and just barely keeping up with his foes random blade strikes.

The revenant could also feel this and started to take bigger swings and much bolder movements. And it was with that boldness that Michal found himself an opening. After a few more strikes, The revenant made a mistake. It had twirled around do deliver a powerful duel strike, but there in made it’s mistake.

Michal found his opening and took it. He jumped back, just enough for the blades to pass him by, and then lunged forward with his Kunai. The revenant couldn’t dodge out of the way mid-swing, And even though Michal was expecting the thing to vanish in a puff of smoke like it normally did, he was pleasantly surprised when he felt his dagger dig into cloth and hit something tangible on the revenants left arm.

The thing let out a horrifying hiss, something that sounded demonic in nature, before it elbowed him in the arm and tried to swing at him again. However, the click of a familiar noise alerted Michal to jump away, and was relieved when another bolt of lightning missed him, and directly hit the horror in the side and launched it straight into the park jungle gym, the crumpling of metal making an oddly satisfying noise.

Michal turned and saw that Andrew had run up next to him, his gun still trained down where the Revenant had flown.

“You Okay?”

“A Little winded… but otherwise unharmed. However, forgive me for being somewhat crude, what in the bloody was that thing?”

Andrew spared a glance toward Michal before he smiled a little to himself, but it wasn’t filled with mirth, more like a mock attempt at a joke.

“That, my good sir, is what a Tuesday morning looks like without tea.”

“Can you be serious about this? That thing nearly tried to kill me you know.” Andrew let out a sigh before he started to inch a little closer to where the dirt and dust was starting to settle.

“Right, sorry. Do lighten up though, it puts a damper on the mood.”

Michal simply glared at him, unamused at his attempts at humor. “Alright, alright… That is what we call around these parts, a Revenant. A messenger of disaster, weather man-made or natural, and an embodiment of death, pestilence, and misery. These things are conceived from the minds of evil and birthed in the womb of the darkest human emotions. These disgusting little fucks have been instrumental in the spread of plague and death and normally go where the worst is about to hit. Given, around here, that’s almost a monthly occurrence since we have things that like to try to slip through, and not all of them are as good looking or as nice as you are my good sir.”

Andrew gave him a smile, one in which Michal returned. “Thank you for the kind words.”

Andrew inched even closer, his eyes darting to and fro all over the metal of the crumpled jungle gym, trying to see where the thing was in that pile, however, he went ahead and started to explain again.

“A revenant is a pain in the ass to deal with all the time. Tough to kill, speedy as fuck, capable of vanishing in a puff of smoke, they are tough to keep track of and even harder to kill, able to come back from even the smallest scrap of cloth if left alone. Very deadly too. There blades range from simple knives to curving scimitars, and they are always, I repeat always Coated in a film of poison or disease. They are normally associated with things of darkness and death, able to take the shape of these things that resemble them.”

“And what would those be?”

Andrew tilted his head a little and flinched at the pile of empty scrap metal. He then started to move his eyes around, trying as hard as he could to find the thing. “Oh you know… Ravens, rats, spiders… and something else, I don’t remember what though…”

Michal noticed his quick darting gaze and started to keep an eye out as well, feeling that this fight had yet to be over. However, his mind started to run over a few things about what his partner just said. Things associated with death?

“Hum… Ravens… Rats… spiders… what about worms? Do those count?”

Andrew blinked a few times at the creature choice before his eyes widened in realization and his mouth dropped in sudden horror. “Oh… Right… Forgot about that… DODGE!”

That one quick instant of realization caused the both of them to leap madly to the side just in time as a rumbling noise was heard beneath them and the revenant came flying out of a hole in the ground it had just created. Both Michal and Andrew scrambled to their feet and got ready, however, they were a little happy to see that the nightmare itself wasn’t looking to well.

Michal’s own knife wound had cut deep from what they could see, and a black ichor was dripping down it’s arm and all over the ground. It’s clothes looked ripped and charred, effects from the lightning bolt from earlier. One of the things that made Andrew smile the widest though was the piece of jungle-gym sticking out of its lower leg. However, that itself was quickly starting to rust from the wound outward. However, despite these damages, Andrew knew that they were simply superficial for the natural horror, and would do little to slow it down.

“Welp…” Andrew cricked his neck a few times before he lifted his gun and pointed the barrel at his target. “I think the warm up is nice and over now.”

Michal glanced over at Andrew with a look that stated his confusion of that statement. “Say what?”

His question was answered when the creature threw it’s body back and literally screamed out in the most unholy of noises that he had ever had the misfortune of hearing.

Standing somewhere in the middle of a woman’s shrike of terror mixed in with less than subtle demonic overtones, Michal had to throw his hands over his ears for fear of that scream rupturing his ear drums. Andrew had to do the same thing for his own ears, but he took note of what had just happened.

The instant that shriek was uttered, every raven in the area took flight and started to circle around it’s unholy source in a rapidly building whirlpool of black feathers and inky smoke.

“Oh boy… here comes the big party.”

Andrew threw up his shield as the birds started to launch outward into a flurry of activity, screaming and cawing away as they tried to get to exposed flesh. Michal was hardly doing any better on that front as hundreds of ravens came flying at him with a single minded intention of ripping him apart. Michal threw his hands up into the air and yelled out a verbal command with his dagger pointed directly at the coming storm.

“Scuto!” A barrier appeared before him just in time for the slaughter of ravens to start pounding away at the invisible wall of air with lethal force. Michal could feel each impact, and with each strike, another bird fell to the ground dead on impact.

“Andrew! What the hell do we do now!?”

Andrew, for his part, didn’t have the effect of a magical shield, and could only rely on the large buckler to keep the worst of the sharp talons and beaks from killing him. He could hardly hear Michal over the raucous din of cawing and bloody impact’s but he could still hear him.

“Well! Two choices! We both turn around and run away. Or we run straight into that mess and try to kill the revenant!”

“Neither sounds like a good idea to me!”

“I didn’t say they were good ideas! We just need to get him out of there is all! But I didn’t bring anything that could help with that, and I need some time to pull off anything that can! And sadly, I’m a little under fire right now!”

Michal perked up at the idea when he heard it.

“We need him out of there?”

“It would dispel the AOE (Area of effect) that it’s got set up. But like I said, I can’t do anything about it right this second!”

Michal grinned to himself as he turned his attention back to the maelstrom of darkness in front of him.

“Leave that to me.”

He said it quietly, so Andrew didn’t hear him at first, but when he glanced over, he could see that he was smiling to himself. Clearly he had something planned, so he opted to stay ready for whatever it was he needed to do.

Michal, for his part, took a deep breath, and let out an equally large sigh. In the next instant, he released his barrier, and in the split second before he found himself pounded with an unrelenting force of an avian wall, he threw his arm with his dagger behind him and then yanked back with all of his might.

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

In the next second, Andrew witnessed something that he was not expecting, and that was the Revenant being yanked out of the barrier of darkness with a long line of energy attaching it’s arm to the end of Michal’s Kunai.

Despite the oddity of it, Andrew wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth and took the chance he saw presented before him. His shield, despite its simplicity, had a rather broken function to it. And that was to take the kinetic energy of things that hit it and store that energy to be used later.

He had currently been standing there for about 45 seconds, taking full body impacts of ravens during that time with his shield.

“Tally-ho you sonuvabitch.” Andrew pulled his shield back a little bit before he smacked the next incoming raven. Instead of a simple impact, like one would expect, an explosion of pure force exploded from his shield in a massive wave and blew back everything coming at him, leaving him with a clear path to the Revenant, of which was desperately trying to hack at the thread of energy keeping it’s arm looked in place and in the open. Andrew charged forward with his shield raised.

The moment the revenant heard him coming, it turned its attention to him and struck out with its blade, the kukri blade glancing harmlessly off the surface of the shield and allowing Andrew a clear shot straight at the things chest.

The sound of a blade sinking deep into flesh left a gratifying feeling for Michal and Andrew both as the revenant thrashed violently for a second, the gladius sticking out of its back before Andrew twisted the blade and swiped outward, cutting a massive gash into the things side. It was with one final twitch that the undead fell to the ground with a thump, it’s body starting to smoke at the outer tatters of its clothes and wounds. Andrew looked down at the thing for a second before he took a few steps back and sheathed his sword back into its sheath and holstered his gun with a relived sigh.

“Well… glad to see that round one went off without a hitch.”

Michal, who had put his own weapon away and walked up next to him, turned his head quickly at him when he heard his choice of words.

“Round one? What do you mean? You just killed it!”

“What? Killed? Ha! Funny! You don’t kill something like this outlander. Sure I stabbed it, but all that really did was disperse its energy in the air and back into the spirit world. No stranger, I’ll give him about 6 hours tops before he comes right back, right as a corpse can be and fully intact.”

Michal glanced down at the Revenant and then to Andrew, pulling his dagger out and pointing it at the things smoking corpse. “Then can’t we just destroy the body? That way it can’t come back?”

“That would do nothing. As you can see, it’s essence is already leaking out, further mutilating the body would do nothing to stop it later on seeing as this one will just up and vanish in about another 10 seconds. No, the only way to kill something like this is to either capture it in a field of energy and wipe it out in one go, something that neither of us could do, or to cut its link to the natural world. And the only way to do that is to divert the tragedy that is fixing to happen. Personally, the first option is the easier of the two, cause a tragedy or natural disaster is much harder to stop then this thing.”

Michal glanced back down at the corpse, and saw that Andrew was telling the truth. The revenants corpse was already half gone as is, the clothes sinking in around where a body was laying and those clothes also up and vanishing.

“So… I guess we’ll have to track it down and kill it again…”

“Oh god no.”

Noticing Michal’s confused face, Andrew shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the corpse, as if doing so might make a point.

“Thankfully, most people around here can detect energy of many kinds, so word is bound to get out to everybody in town, so hopefully, we won’t have to fight it again, and a team of people who can get rid of it will form quickly. So everybody is on high alert now. *sigh* now for a break… that sure killed my shoulders… It didn’t happen to hurt you did it? Best double check yourself just to be sure, I have some miracle cure-all in my truck if you did, but your gonna need to check quick, those things poison can kill in minutes.”

Michal, hearing the quickness of such a poison, quickly started to check himself over for any cuts or scratches. Thankfully, he found none, and Andrew also looked like he hadn’t been hurt. However, Andrew had gone back to the truck and had called up a few people. The park was a mess what with the craters and hundreds of dead birds scattered all over the place.

However, he quickly noticed something coming their way and cut his call short. Michal had come back over to stand next to him, and they both went around to the other side to get a better look at it. It was coming from the air, and it looked to be made out of paper as far as they could tell. But they were in the shape of paper cranes, getting a smirk out of Andrew and a confused glanced from Michal.

He didn’t say anything until they started to descend, and when they stopped right above them, he heard some shuffling before a few people leaped off the paper and directly in the parking lot in front of them. Andrew smiled to himself before he started to lean up against the truck door with his arms crossed.

“Well, look who we have here. Could have used you guys about 7 minutes ago to kill that Revenant. You Kasuga family are getting later on the uptake each time.”

Michal glanced from Andrew to the newest four arrivals. Not a one of them was male, and all where decked out in something that he wasn’t expecting to see. And that was in the garb of the traditional Shrine maiden, or Miko as far as he remembered. However, though the clothes where the same, each of the four was different in their own aspect.

The first two people that he took notice of was the younger twin sisters. Both where identical in almost every way save for the different colored ribbons that they wore on their hair tubes, one wearing blue while the other wore deep purple.

They both looked to be about 13 years old and had long hair that went to the middle of their backs while there front bangs looked somewhat messy and only allowed their eyes to peek through, oddly enough even there eye color was the same, a deep gold.

They both where looking at the playground with a somewhat annoyed look on their faces. Perhaps because it was a place they played often? He wasn’t sure.

The next person he saw was an older girl, who looked to be about 17 years old and also had many of the same features of the younger girls, golden eyes, dark hair, hair tubes with ribbons, though hers where yellow. However, her hair went well down to her ankles, and was tied into a single point by a larger ribbon like the one’s next to her face while the bangs where an even cut across her eyebrows. She also wore the traditional garb of a Miko, however, it could do nothing to stop that size DD-cup from spilling out over her chest like a target for male eyes. She had a small smile on her face as she was gazing at the both of them.

However, the last of the three looked to be the oldest, somewhere in her late teens or early 20’s. She looked almost nothing like the other three, her hair being cut short and silver in color, though she shared the same golden eye color as the other three, while she stood a head taller than the middle girl. Her outfit had no sleeves on it and her chest, though looking to be single D-cup, was no less full with her Haori open at the front and allowing a cleavage window for anybody to see her wrapped breasts, her arms where crossed under her chest and also wrapped. Her eyes where carefully looking everywhere she could before they fell on him, a carefully calculated gaze being forced on him.

The middle child walked forward toward them both with the other three following close behind.

“We do apologize for our lateness Andrew-dono. We came as soon as we saw the massive flock of birds flying over the park.”

Andrew nodded his head once before he looked up at the flaying paper cranes they had used for transportation. “I see… But next time Maori, you might want to be a little bit faster. Your exorcism abilities could have killed the revenant rather than me having to go the ol weaken it and wait for it to show up again route. Thankfully, everybody is well aware of it by now, but we have no idea where it will show up, so hopefully it doesn’t show up in a densely populated area.”

The girl called Maori lightly bit her lower lip before she bowed a little to him. “I… I apologize for that. I’ll endeavor to make haste next time.”

Michal felt just a little hurt at the fact that Andrew was admonishing the girl for such a delay, but at the same time, could do little to refute his claims since they were indeed true.

However, the little girls started to glare at Andrew and stood in front of their older sister protectively, the both of them even going so far as to stick their tongues out at him.

“*Blegh!* what do you know! We’ve been getting weird signals from everywhere all day, so we didn’t even know this was a dangerous spot until we saw all the birds caw-cawing around the place!”

Andrew glared right back at the siblings with a real intent of harm, sending the both of them scurrying back behind their sister with teary eyes.

“Eep! Maori! He’s glaring at us!”

“He’s gonna eat us!”

Maori placed her hand on their heads and started to rub them affectionately. “There there Koito, Kouta… he won’t bite. He’s very friendly… most of the time.”

The taller of the siblings, the silver haired one, smiled down at them both before she glanced over at Andrew.

“One Kasuga Tsuzuna would be most appreciative if you would stop glaring at my sisters Homwilder-dono.”

Andrew looked to her and then back to the youngest sisters before he let out a sigh and simply smiled at the both of them.

“Alright… fine, I’m willing to accept the reason why.”

Tsuzuna bowed her head at him while putting her fists together. “This Tsuzuna is most appreciative.”

Andrew waved her comment aside before he got back up and started to head toward the field. “Alright then, since you Kasuga’s are here already, may as well as have you get to work.”

The two older sisters nodded their head in understanding while the twins simply stuck there tongues out at him again behind his back. Michal followed behind the sisters before he saw that Andrew was standing in the place where they had first seen the revenant. Curious, he decided to go ahead and stand next to Andrew while he watched the four sister get into four points around the spot he indicated.

“I need you four to divine for me what the Revenant was doing here and if you can find out what calamity it’s waiting for. That would be most helpful.”

Maori nodded her head at him in answer. “I’ll see what I can do.”

And with that, she and her sisters gathered around the spot. Each one, Michal noticed, taking a cardinal direction. The four of them held their hands out and started to recite what sounded to him like a low tone mantra, one in which he couldn’t make out. However, the four started to glow a little, with the air between them starting to shimmer as if like a mirage.

Andrew, for his part, had his arms crossed while he watched the four of them start to work. Michal, however, glanced over to his benefactor with a question forming on his lips.

“Andrew… what are they doing?”

“Fixing to give me some answers… but in answer to the question, they’re pulling on the spirits of the area and trying to find out what has transpired over the course of time that the Revenant has been here… and hopefully they can pull some other things up from them as well considering that Maori is channeling Ohtsuchi for her power. I mean, she’s using a friggen land god for her power, I’d laugh at her if she didn’t get some results.”

“Land… God?”

Andrew glanced over at Michal, who was currently looking very wide eyed right now.

“Seriously man, don’t get surprised over every little thing we come across today or else you’ll never pick your jaw up off the floor. I’ve got living gods walking around on the face of this town, and one by the name of Belldandy, bless her soul, serves the best cup of tea you will find on this side of the planet. I dare you to find someone better. So again, don’t really get surprised over every little thing. It’s commonplace around here.”

Michal blinked a few times while doing a good impression of a goldfish for a few seconds before he realized how he must look and corrected himself.

“I…I see. I’ll… keep that in mind.”

“Yes, please do, I would hate for you to have to start gibbering insanely about how improbable this all seems. Your one of the nicer of the guys to have come here. And, as much as I am one to not admit it, I kinda like you already. So keep your head on your shoulders.”

And with that, Andrew turned his attention back to the four girls in front of him. Michal, for his part, also turned his attention back to the Kasuga family, though his mind was far elsewhere at the time.

Eventually, the four Miko’s stopped there incantation and Andrew took that as his sign to pick up the silence with a question.

“So? What did you manage to find out?”

Maori was the first to speak up. “Well… I managed to pick up a few things. None of them good news.”

“I’m already aware that anything you tell me right now isn’t going to be good news. Go ahead anyway.”

“Very well… From the feel of it, the Revenant was hanging around here because this is where the Calamity is going to occur, no questions asked, also from the feel of it… Something magical in nature is happening here. Remember what Koito and Kouta where talking about a minute ago?”

Andrew glanced at the twins once before he nodded his head. “Yeah, something about how you guys where late because something with the spirits is out of alignment and you were trying to figure it out.”

“Exactly. Whatever it is, this is its apex. The source of it. Whatever it is, is going to happen here, and given from the amount of build-up, less than 5 days remain before it happens.”

Andrew started to stroke his chin in thought before he glanced around the area, as if to search for some hidden clue.

“So you’re sure of that? it’s going to happen here in a few days’ time?”

The twins spoke up and started to glare at Andrew again.

“Yeah!”

“She just got done explaining this! We’re 100% certain that it’s going to happen here!”

“Call the cavalry! Arm the soldiers!”

“Call the navy! Get those missiles primed!”

Andrew smiled at them both as his eyebrow’s lifted in amusement at the twins reaction. “I don’t think we’ll need to go quite that far for this… But in truth, this is actually better news then what I was expecting.”

Michal glanced over at his companion with a bemused expression. “Good news? How is this good news? You just learned that something of epic proportions is about to hit you in less than 5 days’ time. I Fail to see how this can be taken as good news.”

“I said it was better than I was expecting, I didn’t say that it was good in any way. However, we have a location and a time frame for when it happens, so we are well prepared for it.”

“So… you’re now going to do all in your power to get ready for it?”

Andrew nodded his head. “Yup… give me about 20 seconds here…”

Andrew reached into his pocket again and pulled out his cell phone, hitting up every person on his contact list and started typing up a message. “Lemme see here… ‘get ready. BFA (Big friggin apocalypse) on the way. Five or less days. Stay frosty. Over and out.’… and done.”

Andrew hit the send button on his phone and nodded his head in a most satisfied manner.

Michal, however, cocked his eyebrow upward in some confusion.

“… And?”

Andrew noticed his look and returned it in equal measure.

“And… what?”

“Is that it?”

Andrew glanced this way and that in mock thought, as if to somewhat think on it for a moment before he nodded his head in answer to the question.

“Yup. That’s it. Now who wants to go out and eat? I’m feeling pretty generous, and since it’s still kinda early, there won’t be much traffic for most anywhere right now.”

Three of the four Kasuga’s raised their hands, while Maori gave her siblings a displeased look before turning back to Andrew.

“Um… You don’t have to… really… And I would really hate to impose on you…”

Andrew shrugged his shoulders at her with a smile. “Aight, if you don’t want to. Tsuzuna, Koito, Kouta, looks like it’s just you three coming.”

“I call shotgun!”

“No fair sis!”

Both twins quickly tried to make a nab for the front seat while the eldest chuckled to herself amusedly.

Maori, however blinked a few times in some slight confusion before she realized that she was being excluded.

“Ah… wait… I didn’t exactly say that I wasn’t coming along you know…”

Andrew knowingly glanced at her with a smile on his face. “Alright then, go ahead and get in the truck then. I have enough room for everybody here… hope you all don’t mind a tight squeeze though.”

Both sisters nodded their heads in thanks and followed behind the twins, both of which were already trying to push the other out of the front seat.

“Hey you two, neither of you are old enough for the front, you both get the back.” Andrew called out with some mild annoyance.

The twins didn’t seem to hear him at first, but Tsuzuna made sure to mention it again in the form of picking them both up and taking them to the back seat with her. With that out of the way, Andrew nodded his head before turning to Michal and giving him a small smile.

“I hope you don’t mind being scrunched up next to me on the way. Maori hates the middle seat, so I normally give her the window seat if I drive her around.”

Michal blinked at Andrew a few times before he turned toward Maori and gave her an astonished look.

“How can you possibly ride in the same space as him?”

“Oh… he’s not that bad, not for me anyway. And the twins never complain about him either when he picks them up from school for me.”

Andrew, now seated in the truck and already starting the engine, glanced out at the two amusedly.

“Hey, I thought that was a secret between us. I pick up your sisters, you don’t tell anybody about it?”

Maori flinched at the words. “Oh… sorry Andrew.”

“Eh… doesn’t really matter… now hurry up and hop on in you two. I think we’ll make a stop at the pub to eat. I have a few things to do there anyway.”

Tsuzuna peeked over the driver’s seat and gave him a curious look. “The Hero’s pub?”

“The very one. Now hurry it up.”

Both Maori and Michal hastily got in the truck, and with a quick reminder from the driver to buckle up, they were quickly underway. A few minutes into the drive, which Michal found a lot more smooth and a lot less crazy then before, found he had to ask a question that was somewhat bugging him.

“So… this pub you’re talking about… you called it the Hero’s pub? What is it?”

Oddly enough, Maori was the one who was going to answer his question. “The Hero’s Pub is a place where… well… actually, before I get to explaining it, can we perhaps get to know you a little better stranger? I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced yet.”

“Oh, sorry. Rather rude of me, my name is Michal Vanugard, recent addition to this world, and hopefully not a full time resident.”

Maori bowed her head lightly before she spoke up with a smile. “A pleasure to meet you. My name is Maori Kasuga. Middle child and head of the Kasuga shrine… back in my own world anyway. I still live in a shrine mind you, but it’s more… communal for others in my profession…”

Before Michal could ask about that, Andrew, making a right turn, spoke up. “She means that she and many other shrine maidens from other worlds also live there. There are many epicenters in that place, so anybody could go in and pray to the god of their choosing. Needless to say, some of those supposed gods aren’t happy sharing space.”

“I see… so how-”

“They deal with it, that or they disappear from existence, and given the latter choice, a little space sharing isn’t something worth worrying about.”

Michal nodded his head at his companions answer, though most of it was still somewhat outside of his area of comprehension, he could say that Andrew and this city itself had a system that worked.

Maori nodded her head at Andrews response. “It’s true… but anyway. I’ve introduced myself, but the rest of us have yet to do so… Koito, Kouta?”

“Yes sister!”

“On it!”

Both girls pulled themselves up from their seats and leaned over the edge of their sister’s headrest.

“My name is Kasuga Koito!”

“And my name is Kasuga Kouta!”

“Pleasure to meet you!” the both of them said.

Though they were hard to tell apart, Michal did notice that Koito wore Light blue ribbons while her twin wore light purple ones.

Michal nodded his head kindly at the both of them. “A pleasure the both of you.”

Andrew However, looked over and glared at them. “Hey, sit back down and buckle up, I won’t have you flying through the windshield if I happen to hit some giant Mecha again.”

“Giant Mecha… Again?”

Andrew simply shook his head at him and waved away his concern. “Don’t worry about it… stupid Gurren Lagann…”

Maori started to giggle to herself as Andrew was fuming, but quickly got Michals attention again.

“Anyway… Tsuzuna?”

The elder of the Kasugas nodded her head at her younger sibling before she spoke up, making Michal turn around to look at her.

“Thine name is Kasuga Tsuzuna. I am the eldest daughter of the Kasuga Family, though I more or less act as Maori’s aid in both her work as a priestess and in combat.”

“Combat you say?”

Maori nodded her head at Michal. “Yes, about 80% of the people in town can fight, we just so happen to be one of the teams that consist of just family. It’s a rarity, but not so rare as to be just uncommon.”

Andrew nodded as well before he smiled to himself. “Yup, which is why we are also heading to the Hero’s pub. You’ll be able to meet many other people who also happen to be hero’s from other worlds. You’ll also be able to look up many others at the pubs blackboards and computers.”

“I see… that’s most covenant.”

“By the by Michal… What’s your impression of the Kasuga Family here? They also happen to be a good squad of fighters, and I would personally vouch for them to help with your own hero problem. Tsuzuna packs a mean punch…”

“Are you speaking from firsthand experience?”

“Stranger, I’m speaking from first, second, third, and fourth hand experience. I’ve felt what those punches do to a guy, I’ve seen what those punches do to a guy, I’ve heard what those punches do to a guy, and I know what those punches do to a guy. And that’s not even counting what the other three can do to ya. Like I said stranger, I can personally vouch for this team to solve most of your problems.”

Michal nodded his head in admiration before turning to look at the rest of the girls. Each of which was sporting varying grins ranging from embarrassed to happy.

“I am most honored to be in the presence of such capable talent… but… truth be told, I’m not really looking for one of such… feminine quality. I’m actually looking for a male hero… I hope I don’t offend with that statement.”

Maori shook her head at him, her smile showing him that she took no offence.

“It’s alright.”

Andrew, however, was far less docile in his own response and simply smiled deviously as he drove on.

“Ah, that’s okay, now we just know you’re a sexist.”

“Ah… what? A what now?”

“A sexist my good sir, one whom would discriminate against the sex’s, especially against the role of woman. One whom would promote stereotyping of the opposite sex.”

Michal blinked a few times, some of those words going over his head, but he understood the gist of it.

“What? No! that’s not what I was-”

Koito and Kouta both started to chant in a sing song voice at his plight. “Sex-ist! sex-ist! Someone here’s a sexist!”

“Rapin woman and keeping em in the kitchens!”

“The sexist!”

“Tell em’ to spread their legs and make the kids!”

“The sexist!”

“No! that’s not what I was saying at all!” Michal was starting to feel somewhat flushed and highly embarrassed right now. Andrew was making the words up while the twins would keep repeating ‘the sexist’ each time he was done. Kinda like a song really.

However, Maori, though somewhat embarrassed about her siblings participation, firmly put her foot down on the teasing, metaphysically anyway seeing as she was in the front seat.

“Alright you three, that’s enough of that. You two, Koito, Kouta, I will need to have a talk with later on. And Andrew, you need to be more kind hearted.”

All three gave her look before they simply nodded their heads in agreement. “Alright then.”

“Sorry sis…”

Maori nodded her head in some small triumph, afterwards, Andrew looked back over at Michal and smiled at him.

“Sorry about that Michal. Have to get my entertainment where I can find it…”

“No… It’s… it’s alright. I thought you were being serious though.”

“Oh no, not at all. Sometimes, some roles can only be fulfilled by guys, while others can only be fulfilled by girls. It’s simply a statement of fact. But anyway, as long as I know your choice, then I can help to narrow down the choice of the appropriate hero you need. So you need a guy then eh? Alright then… that at least narrows it down by 50%.”

And with that, the rest of the trip proceeded in a comfortable silence until they got to their destination.

Michal, however, was confused at what he saw. As of yesterday, he was still getting used to such large buildings in such narrow places, but what he saw here was something even he was confused about.

Andrew had parked in front of a small and narrow stairway that seemed to be crammed in between two larger and newer looking buildings that towered some 50 or so feet into the air. He at first was going to ask if it was either one of those buildings, but he saw a small plaque on the railing that read in bright gold letters, “The Hero’s pub.”

“Um… Andrew?”

However, his question went ignored as Andrew followed behind the Kasuga sisters as they all started to descend the stone steps, only turning back when he didn’t count an appropriate amount of people.

“What’s taking you man? Come on.”

Michal could only stare on at him for a few more seconds before he simply shrugged his shoulders and complied with the request, following behind Andrew as they descended the steps. Michal followed along until they got to the bottom, only having at most two flights. However, something that he wasn’t expecting to see made him blink in surprise. At the bottom was a solid stone door, golden lettering in a language he couldn’t understand etched all across the edges and down the middle both vertical and horizontally. He saw no way to open it, and he was confused when he didn’t see the Kasuga girls down in the small 6 by 6 area.

“Um… where-”

“Don’t finish that question. I’ll just show you where they got to.”

Andrew then reached into his jean pocket and fished around for a second before he pulled out a small golden spiral and held it up to the door.

“Andrew Homwilder and one guest known as Michal Vanugard. We ask to fill our bellies with drink and food for this hour.”

The moment he got done, the golden lettering on the door shone for a second, and the stone melted away another moment later reveling a brightly lit interior.

Andrew walked forward with a stunned Michal in tow, having been here thousands of times before. However, he could understand Michal’s shock at the place. Massive twining roots of what looked to be a tree of solid gold everywhere, much of it looking as if the Hero’s pub had been placed in the very earth itself under a tree of mammoth proportions. There were no lights to be seen, only a hanging moss that glowed a molten gold color and what looked to be silver mushrooms giving off a low silver light.

Much of the furniture seemed to be made from the same stuff as the walls and ceiling, and what a number there was. Hundreds of chairs and tables around, most empty, and a few occupied with some people he no recollection of ever seeing.

The area itself was massive, in Andrews eyes, it was about the size of a football stadium. To Michal it looked to be about the size of a coliseum. Andrew turned around to face the otherworlder and smiled wide as he held up his hand like an attendant.

“Let me present to you the Hero’s Pub. Outfitted with a state of the art kitchen and magically enhanced appliances, this place could cook anything that you need. Capable of seating nearly over 10,000 people easily and comfortably, this is the go to place for others of beyond the earth origins. Whether it be for planning, relaxing, or for dates, the Hero’s pub is a place for anybody to go to. Not only that, but it is a place for one to gather intel for much of anything they might need, the request board-”

Andrew pointed out toward the Bar and then to a massive golden bough that had a large board hanging from it with sheets of paper strewn all across its surface.

“- is a place for one to place any kind of service they might need done or if they wish to complete one of their own for profit. Not all these problems originate here on earth, some taking you to different planes of existence, so ask for details before hand if you wish to accept a request. The method of travel is something I will get to at a later date. For now, we came here to dine, and I had a few things that needed doing in the first place. The Kasugas happen to be over there-”

Andrew drew Michal’s attention to one of the larger tables and saw the family of shrine maidens already seated and looking over at the both of them.

“-so feel free to go and join them if you want. My business won’t take more than a few minutes.”

“If it’s alright with you, I’d rather keep with you for the time being. Nothing against them or anything, but I’m not sure how well I would do in a conversation with them.”

Andrew simply nodded his head at him. “Fair enough. Follow me then.”

Michal did as he asked and followed Andrew to the Bar. To Michal, it was an impressive bar, looking as if it could seat well over 30 people with the counter itself looking to be a furnished log running across the whole thing. Andrew and Michal looked up and down the long bar, Andrew more focused on finding someone while Michal looked at all the bottles lining the wall behind the counter, they went well to the top of the ceiling, with at least 3 bottles per-opening. It was a massive amount of wine’s and liquors, and he felt the need to want to test them all, but the sound of Andrew rapping his knuckle’s on the counter once made him stop his thought.

“Hello? Anybody here?”

The sound of something clattering in the back made them both lean over before the sound of a panicked voice echoed out from what Michal assumed was the kitchen.

“Sorry! I’ll be there in a second!”

It had been a female voice, full of youthful vigor and sweetly enticing to the ears. Andrew smiled with a knowing nod before he sat down at one of the bar stools.

“ah-ha… so she was on duty today…”

“She? Who’s she?”

Instead of answering with words, Andrew used his middle and pointer finger to point to the doorway and to the young lady who had just come out the door hurriedly. She quickly came over to the bar, a dash disheveled, but looking quite friendly and very well kept.

Michal took notice of everything about her. She was a slim young woman of below average height with long white hair that curled at the tips with a set of bangs that framed her face and ended at her ample chest. She had a most distinctive hairstyle with a short upward pony-tail above her forehead. She had a pair of smiling blue eyes with a very beautiful and voluptuous body that was framed out by a sleeveless ankle high maroon dress. She had both her hands clasped tighter in the front and smiled at the two patrons in front of her.

“Greetings and welcome to the Hero’s Pub! How can I take your order to… Oh! Andrew! Nice to see you again!”

Andrew waved back at her with a warm smile. “Hello there Mirajane. I didn’t know you were working today. I actually expected to see old master Moses taking the bar this early in the day, though needless to say, seeing a beautiful young lady taking the bar today has set me in a better mood.”

The young woman smiled at him while waving her hand dismissively at his comment. “Oh you… So who is this young man with you today? He wouldn’t happen to be the newest resident would he?”

Andrew nudged Michal on the side, as if to tell him to go ahead and introduce himself. Michal felt a little ashamed that he had been caught for words, but quickly went about fixing that situation.

“Sorry… My name is Michal Vanugard. I actually came here by accident, so I’m not looking to stay permanently. Though it is a pleasure to meet you Miss Mirajane.”

“The feeling is mutual Michal. So how can I go about helping you all today?”

Andrew turned on his stool and waved a hand at the Kasuga’s at one of the tables. “Here for dining today actually for the most part. I’ll be paying for them all. However, I also was hoping to see Moses today. You happen to know when he’ll be in?”

Mirajane held her finger to her lower lip in thought as she started to stare at the ceiling in thought. “Um… I believe he told me that he would be back fairly soon. He never gave any indication as to when however. Of course, that was several hours ago, so who knows?”

Andrew let out a sigh as he got back up. “Probably right at the most surprising of-”

“Which would be right now.”

Michal jolted out of his seat from the sound of a thick voice behind him while Mirajane flinched at the sudden sound. Andrew had also done the same, but he only turned around to look at the newest arrival. “On one hand, you managed to scare me with the sudden surprise. But on the other, I was somewhat expecting it. Hello there Moses.”

Standing behind Andrew was a man of about average height and build, wearing loose kakis and a long green overcoat that had several dozens of pockets everywhere one could see. He had a long oaken staff, gnarly and ridged with both bark and arcane runes on it. However, what was most interesting to Michal was that this man didn’t have the normal white skin color he was used to seeing. No, this man had dark skin, like those he had only heard of in the far off nation of Gigafka. His hair was rolled well into several dozens of dreads and all tied together into one large ponytail. The man had several piercings along his ears and his eyebrows, and he had deep green eyes, as if one was looking into the untamable depths of a jungle. Mirajane smiled at the old man as he placed his hand on the counter and vaulted himself over to the other side with little effort.

Andrew sighed when the old man finally managed to get himself comfortable. “So, Master Moses. Where have you been this fine morning?”

The older man looked over at Andrew before he nodded his head at one of the shelves, and much to Michals surprise, something lit up on it. A mirror of sorts, and from what Michal could see of it, a scrying mirror reflecting the park he and the rest had just been finished up. “I’ve been tailing that revenant for several days now. I was hoping to gather info and catch it at the very least, and I would have been successful if you hadn’t come along and got rid of it.”

Andrew waved his hand at the old man before he jerked his thumb back at the Kasuga family, who were still going over the menu they had. “Relax. I managed to get some info out of this. It’s why I was looking for you in the first place. All that arcane ice in the park, did you set that up?”

Michal felt the need to interrupt a little confused about something. “What? All that hoarfrost wasn’t caused by the revenant?”

However, it was Moses who answered the question for him. “Of course not boy. A Revenant isn’t capable of doing so. Only Imitating the cause of plague. Making Ice is well outside such a creatures ability to do. No, I had set up an Eldritch trap yesterday due to the influx of energies I had been feeling in that area, and it obviously sprung.”

Andrew nodded his head in affirmation before he leaned back. “And that answers my question. I had noticed that trap there when we got there, I was just curious as to who had set it up. Now I know.”

“And? You obviously managed to get something out of the encounter Andrew. What did you find out?”

Andrew gave the older man a look, as if to say ‘really?’ “Old man, I sent a text to everyone on my contact list, you are on my contact list. You should have gotten a message.”

Moses blinked for a second before he reached into one of the many pockets he had and pulled out a cellphone. He flipped it open and scrolled down a little bit before he found what he was looking for. “Ah… there we are… Blasted machinery… what happened to the days when a mage would receive messages via pigeon, or crystal.”

“Long gone good sir. Rare is it to find a guy who still does that… though I will admit, receiving messages by crystal or some other arcane method is way cheaper than when I have to pay 45 bucks a month for a service plan…”

Moses nodded his head in agreement with Andrews statement. “Very true… But other than that, did you need something?”

“Nope, other than getting my food, I’m all done here. Come along Michal.”

And with that, Andrew and Michal started to make their way back to the table. However, Michal took notice of something. A Patron. He was sitting quite close, and despite the fact that he could only see his back, he noticed that the man’s foot was jumping up and down and his body language seem to tell him that the man was trying not to be noticed. A person who was obviously nervous about something. “Hey… Andrew.”

At the sound of his name, the youth turned around to look at the guy behind him. “What’s up?”

“Not trying to pry or anything… but… that one guy over there… doesn’t he seem a bit… agitated?”

“And we care because?” Andrew said with a raised eyebrow.

“Well… I just thought I would make a note of it. If one acts like that in a bar, it normally means that individual has something to hide or is incredibly nervous about something.”

“Point taken. However it really doesn’t seem to me as if it would be any of our business. However… since you pointed it out anyway, I’m already curious enough about it as is. Which one is it?”

Michal pointed him out. “The one closest to us.”

Andrew followed the finger and found himself looking at the back of a person wearing a red vest, pointy silver hair, and black Hakama if he was looking at the pants right. “The guy in red?”

“The very one.”

Andrew started to stroke his chin in some thought as he examined the guy from the back. “Why does that look familiar…” Without a word, Andrew stopped what he was doing and silently walked up to the guy, Michal quickly following behind. When Andrew got closer, recognition suddenly set it and he started to grin to himself. “Oh boy… this should be fun… keep quite Michal, I’m going to introduce you to another would-be hero…” Curious, the half-incubus did as he was told and kept his mouth shut.

When they both got closer, they started to hear mumbling that sounded like “dine-and-dash? No… Moses is here… would kill me before I even got to the door… ask for a hand out? From who… Ganondorf over yonder would just punch me…”

Andrew managed to get up right behind the stranger before he cleared his throat. “Well hello there Ragna! Fancy meeting you here.”

“Wagh!!!” the man jumped out of his seat… literally. He had gotten to his feet so fast that the chair he had been sitting in had toppled over in a clatter. Now that Michal could see him, he looked to be a man of about his mid- to late twenties. However, an odd thing he noticed was that the man had heterochromia. One red eye and one green eye. The man shifted on his feet, sudden realization coming over his face followed by a nervous expression. “Ha ha… h-Hey Andrew… Fancy meeting you here. Didn’t see ya come in.”

“Oh, that’s probably on an account of you not paying attention to your surroundings. Something I find odd since you’re not one to be caught unaware most of the time… Unless your somewhat… distracted by something.”

Michal could see a large grin on Andrews face, feeling deep down that Andrew knew far more than he was letting on, and he could see that the Ragna fellow also knew it, his body clenching up and his face starting to break out into a sweat. “Ahhh… I… Might be a little distracted by something…”

“Ah-ha… By the by, that’s a lot of food you have their Ragna the Bloodedge. I find that somewhat odd since the last time I saw you, you were still dirt poor and unemployed. And some of that stuff looks mighty expensive.”

"Urgh… uh… ah… I uh… may… or… may not have been able to pay…”

Andrew slowly shook his head as he continued to smile at him. “You haven’t got a single dollar on you do you Ragna?”

The man attempted to keep up some sort of charade of defence of his face, but it fell quickly along with Ragna, who sat back down in his chair. “yeah… dirt poor… Before I knew it, I was ordering food and eating like no tomorrow… it’s been so long since I had a decent meal…”

“And that’s why you were contemplating running out the
door like a man on fire?”

“Was I that obvious?”

“Yeah. Pretty much.”

Ragna hung his head down in defeat, and Michal couldn’t help but feel just a dash sorry for this defeated man. Andrew was still grinning, but it was more filled with warmth then with any kind of knowing intent. “Um…Andrew… who is this?”

Andrew looked over at Michal before he nodded his head. “Sorry, this sorry man sitting before you is known as Ragna the bloodedge. A powerful fighter and a man whom I would recommend for demolition work if you didn’t care much for property damage… and one of the most infamous dine-and-dashers in all the city.”

“Hey. I’m not that bad. Just when I run out of money.”

“That would be the entire time good sir.” Andrew retorted with a smirk. Ragna glared at him before he simply hung his head again, unable to come back with anything.

Andrew shook his head at him before he let out a sigh. “Tell ya what Ragna. You do something for me and I’ll go ahead and pay for your food. Hell, you might even be able to make some money if you do. But ya got to do it quick alright?”

The Bloodedge’s head shot up like a bullet and he looked over at Andrew, disbelief in his eyes. “Really?”

“Yes. I want you to take over my patrol route today. You know the one right?”

The silver haired man nodded in answer. “Good. You do that, and I’ll pay you what I was going to make for that patrol. Also, if you manage to find and kill the revenant that got away from me, I’ll add in a bonus. I’ll even put it up as an official request on the board over there in a minute.”

Michal watched as Ragna lit up in delight and hopped to his feet. “That’s it?! Alright! I’ll get it done no prob! Hell yeah! Finally a job!” without another word, Ragna jumped from his chair and bolted toward the door and making his exit.

Michal blinked a few times in some confusion before he turned to Andrew. “Um… a rather interesting fellow that one…”

“Ha, that man has the worst luck when it comes to money. He tends to act like that quite o
ften when it comes to finances… speaking of which… how much was his order…” Andrew walked over to the table and picked up the receipt. After looking it over, Andrew rolled his eyes at the amount. “Good lord… 68 bucks? Man eats like a Gula class demon…” However, Andrew put it in his pocket and waved over at the bar, catching Moses’s attention. “Hey, put Ragna’s bill on mine. I’m paying for him.”

Michal watched as the old man simply nodded his head before he went back to doing what he was originally. And with that little bit out of the way, Michal followed Andrew back to the table with the Kasuga’s.

Tsuzuna was the first to look up from her menu. “May this Tsuzuna be so bold as to ask what all that was about?”

Andrew waved his hand at her, as if to dispel her question. “Don’t worry about it. Just Ragna and his money problems. You all ready to order?” Andrew was quickly met with several Yes’s and nodded his head at them.

“Alright then. Michal, take your pick of what you want… if you can’t decide, let me know, I’ll make a choice for you.” And with that, the rest of the group started to fall into silence, the thought of eating overcoming other things.

Any and all things that do not belong to me in this story belong to there respective owners and copyright holders, My own personal usage of them coming from some deeply inate ability to want to make everything cooler then what it is.

Also, a Big thank you to Nemo for helping me with the latest chapter! go read his stuff as well! It's great!

[[BRindustries]]

Haha, looks like Michal is suffering from some minor culture shock.
Anyway, i like the story so far, well written with an occasional dash of comedy, good fun.

[Animajunki123]

Lol, kinda the point I was trying to make since being brought out of the Middle ages and into the Future tends to do that to one.

[Animajunki123]

Yo! New chapter up! just took me forever!

[[BRindustries]]

I can see why it took a while to write, that's one hell of a chapter.
Anyway, it got a good chuckle out of me with all the references going on, nicely done.