“So, we’re really going to fight those serpent things,” Cassie asked nervously.

Everything was already completed; they had eaten breakfast, packed up the camp, and prepared their weapons and abilities, so there was nothing left to stall them from completing their contract. While Cassie had full faith in Selene to kill the majority of the beasts, there was no guarantee that she could handle them all without one slipping past like when she fought the wolves on their trip to Norvaria.

“Yup! Aren’t you super excited!? I’ve never seen a basilisk in real like, I’m so ready for it!” Rena was beyond excited. She had always wanted to fight a high-level monster, as opposed to the slimes and gremlins she usually fought. While she knew that Selene would probably end up doing most of the work, Rena was still excited to watch her fight such a monster on her own.

“Save that energy for the battle,” Selene said calmly. “The nest seems to be a few kilometers to the north-west, so we’ll need to fly to get closer without tiring ourselves out.”

A spade-tipped tail swirled around Selene’s leg as she was embraced from behind by a certain demon seductress. Lilith wasn’t bound by human modesty and social rules that discouraged public displays of physical affection, and she wasn’t shy about it either.

“Selene should be careful not to have too much fun,” Lilith’s words seemed to lustfully caress Selene’s ears as she spoke directly into them. “You might make me jealous.”

“Aww, you’re so sweet, Lilith. Don’t worry, I doubt they will want to be my friends like you did.”

Selene’s innocence, or perhaps her refusal to be swayed by Lilith’s sultry personality, was an amazing feat for Cassie and Rena to witness. It was obvious that Lilith wouldn’t act that way with anyone else, yet Selene seemed to think it was just friendly skinship. Perhaps it was, the way succubi expressed friendship was not well documented, but she certainly seemed to adore Selene.

“When you buy us a house with the reward for this contract, are you going to give Lilith her own room or will you be sharing,” Rena asked suggestively.

“Hmm… That would be up to her! I’m okay either way, but we shouldn’t be planning what to do with the money until we’ve actually completed the contract. Come on!”

Selene activated her Dragon Form ability and transformed once again into a majestic beast. The wind swirled around as she flapped her wings experimentally. When she asked to be the most powerful being on the planet, she really didn’t expect God to take her so literally. Becoming an immortal dragon was like using a cheat code in one of her video games.

The other three climbed onto her back, Cassie more hesitantly than the rest of them. Lilith made herself comfortable, happy to be given the opportunity to ride Selene again, while Rena impatiently shifted on her back. They were about to see their first basilisk, as well as experience their first fight of this level, yet each of them were thinking about entirely different things.

Selene took off and activated her Hell Eye skill, which highlighted enemies with red and friendly beings in blue. The highlands had steep cliffs and low valleys interspersed with grassy knolls and large plateaus. If they had traveled by foot, and didn’t have an ability to find their targets, it would have taken days to traverse the area.

After an hour of flying, Selene finally saw the large outlines of distant enemies. Her dragon vision allowed her to zoom into a target, making it possible for her to confirm that they were the basilisks they were searching for.

The ground shook from Selene’s impact, a strange reminder of just how powerful she was in that form. Her friends disembarked and she reverted back to her human form. Before Cassie could run off sick again, Selene used her healing ability to calm the girl’s stomach.

“Right, the basilisks are just up that plateau. From what I saw, there are five adults guarding their nest. We must be wary, if they’re protecting their eggs then they may attack even more ferociously.”

Selene had shifted back into her roleplay persona, taking charge and expressing an air of confidence. As a veteran gamer, she was often the leader of her parties, so she was accustomed to coordinating groups and maximizing her party member’s individual skills. Even if she was most likely going to be fighting on her own, she didn’t want her friends to be left unprepared.

“Lilith, I want you to provide ground support using your magic. Rena, use your slingshot to distract them if they overwhelm me. Cassie, we don’t know if your arrows will be able to pierce their skin, so try to stay back and shoot from a distance. Most importantly though, don’t take any risks. If any of you gets hurt, let me know immediately. They’re venomous and we can’t take any chances. It’s doubtful that they will go down easily, but I will try to make sure they focus their attacks on me. Any questions?”

“How will you deal with them,” Rena asked, suddenly acting serious after being excited for the entire trip.

“I’ll probably use an array of attacks. My sword will be effective against their skin, but it may be more difficult to get a good shot on them with it. My magical abilities should be more than enough to take them down, but I need to be careful not to hurt any of you accidentally. If things go south, I will use my Dragon Form and rip them to shreds.”

“Do I really need to do this,” Cassie asked nervously.

“You can wait here if you want, but you have nothing to worry about. I’ll protect all of you before all else. Anything else? Good. Then let’s get this started.”

“Wait,” Lilith called out to her, grabbing her hand firmly. “Even if you are immortal, be careful. Afterward, I shall reward you for your efforts.”

“…O-okay,” Selene squeaked. “L-let’s do this thing.”

“Just tell her you love her already,” Cassie mumbled as they began hiking up the side of the plateau.

“Who are you talking about; Lilith or Selene,” Rena whispered to Cassie.

“Yes.”

Before any more banter could be exchanged, they reached the top and hid behind a boulder, only meters away from the intimidating basilisks. They were pure black with yellow eyes; their fangs protracted from their mouths and dripped a slimy purple fluid. However, the most intimidating thing about them was their enormous size. When Rena suggested they were the size of the Mage Tower in Norvaria, Selene assumed it was an exaggeration. But now that she was in front of them, she no longer thought that. From head to tail, they were at least fifty meters long, and as thick as a castle spire.

Selene drew her sword and swirled it around a few times to get used to the weight. Her eyes narrowed onto the closest basilisk to them and activated her boots’ speed boost ability. A moment later and she was off, rushing at incredible speeds towards the gigantic creatures. The battle had officially begun.

Selene jumped, landing on the head of a sleeping basilisk, taking it by surprise thanks to her cloaks’ invisibility ability. Before any of them could act, she drove her sword straight down into the brain of the basilisk, swiftly ending the life of one of the basilisks. She knew that the rest weren’t going to be that easy, but she wasn’t going to spoil the chance to quickly take one down. Of course, she wasn’t going to go all out right away, that would spoil the fun of fighting enormous monsters.

Two of the remaining basilisks shot towards her, but they missed as she used her Leap ability. She twirled in the air, slicing the necks of both of the basilisks, enough to injure, but not kill them. Before she hit the ground, she activated her Shadow Step ability to move instantly behind the basilisk that was approaching her friends. She grabbed its tail and tossed it back towards the others like it was nothing but a twig.

“Cassie, Rena, aim for the neck wounds of those two! Lilith, cover them,” Selene instructed before Shadow Stepping to the center of the nest.

She punched the ground and activated her Glacier ability, freezing the basilisk that was about to swallow her from behind. Before it could break out of her icy grasp, she used her Immolate ability, tossing a fireball into its mouth. After a moment, the center of the basilisk exploded, severing it in two as it collapsed dead.

Sheesh, she is ridiculously good, Cassie thought to herself. I’ve been shooting at random for a while, but I don’t think I’m having any effect on them.

Just as Cassie notched another arrow, a stream of venom shot towards her at incredible speed. She froze, unable to move from the path of the deadly fluid. Right as it was about to hit her, she was pushed out of the way.

Cassie took a moment to get her bearings before she looked back at where she once stood. A gasp stuck in her throat as she saw who had saved her. She thought it was Selene, but the girl on the ground was the selfless succubus.

“Lilith,” Cassie yelled, hoping that she would be alright. After she made no movement, she called out to the only person that could save her. “Selene! You need to help Lilith!”

Selene’s focus snapped over to where the screaming was coming from, and her heart finally started to race. In an instant, she was next to Lilith. She picked her up and rushed behind a boulder. There was a faint heartbeat, but she didn’t know if Lilith was too close to death to save.

“No… Lilith… I’m so sorry.” Selene used her healing and antidote abilities, hoping for a miracle.

She didn’t have time to find out if it worked before she was snatched up by a bleeding basilisk.

Lilith… I can’t let my friends down, she thought to herself as she slid down the neck of the serpent. I’m going to finish this fight before I lose any more of my friends.

From the belly of the basilisk, she activated her Dragon Form ability, ripping the overgrown snake to shreds.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of two remaining basilisks advancing on Rena’s position. She hadn’t heard the commotion and was slinging stones at the beast in hopes of drawing its attention. Unfortunately, she was the only thing in its sight.

Selene launched towards the monster, biting its neck as they rolled away from her friend’s position. She got to her feet and devoured the head of the basilisk as it attempted to fight back.

One basilisk remained. It was bleeding from its neck and was enraged by the deaths of its siblings, but most of all, it felt the need to protect their eggs. It lunged at the dragon and clamped down on its left wing.

Unfortunately for the beast, it didn’t think about the others and exposed its injured neck, making it an easy target. The basilisk went limp and fell to the ground in a loud crash. It never saw the heart-seeking arrow that entered its neck. The battle was finished.

Selene returned to her human form and used her Shadow Step ability to rush back to Lilith’s side.

“Lilith, please wake up,” Selene pleaded tearfully.

“…Once again, you save me,” Lilith croaked as she sat up to embrace her favorite human.

“I thought I told you not to take risks, you silly succubus.”

“Cassie was in danger, and I know how much you want to protect her. Demons can withstand a lot, and most humans would not care if we were to die, but Selene is different.”

“You’re not just a demon, you’re my friend, of course I care about you. Come on, we should check on the other two.” Selene helped Lilith to her feet and then grabbed her hand before walking over to where Cassie was talking to Rena.

“Oh, thank goodness Lilith’s okay,” Cassie exclaimed. “I can’t believe she saved me.”

“Selene would have been sad if I had not,” Lilith said as she attempted to hide her blushing cheeks.

“Figures. She’s always thinking of Selene. You two got close quickly,” Rena added, totally unaffected by the events that had taken place.

“I think you can say the same thing about all of us,” Cassie interjected with a smirk.

“Okay, can we save the emotional chit-chat for when we aren’t standing next to the corpses of five basilisks.” Selene reminded them all of where they were, throwing cold water on the sweet moment.

“Oh. Right… That was freaking awesome! You were so freaking cool, Selene! When you got eaten and transformed into a dragon from the inside of the basilisk, that was so epic! Oh! And how you tossed one like it was nothing; that was the best!”

Rena was practically fangirling over her friend. While she hadn’t done much to help, she was stoked that she got the chance to see something so amazing.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on, let’s check out the nest.” Selene wasn’t comfortable with Rena’s fawning praise and was eager to return to the task at hand.

The party walked past the corpses of the giant serpents, gawking at their immense size. It was almost unbelievable to think that the majority of them were cut down by one person. If it wasn’t evident before, it was an absolute certainty that Selene was the most powerful being in the world.

“You guys check out the nest, I’m going to harvest the fangs and get some of their skin for Briggs.”

Selene released Lilith’s hand and quickly sped around the plateau, tearing the teeth from the beasts and skinning them with ease. After she gathered as much of the beasts that she deemed useful or valuable, she joined her friends in the nest.

“What do we do about these eggs,” Cassie wondered out loud.

“It would be best to destroy them. We can’t risk one of them hatching once we return to Norvaria,” Rena responded.

“Do you think the people at the Mage Tower would be interested in one of these? Like, do you think they could study it,” Selene inquired.

“Maybe…”

“Then I’ll be careful and take one. Destroy the rest.” Selene put one of the eggs into her inventory, where it would be safe but wouldn’t hatch.

While the others worked on breaking the eggs, Selene scoured the area in search of another gift from God. It was possible that God hid her gifts in difficult areas, and what was more difficult than a nest of basilisks?

As she explored one of the snake pits, she found an offshoot that was too small to have been made by the creatures. She headed down the offshoot until it opened up to a large cavern with a waterfall that flowed into an underground lake. It was unlike anything she had ever seen in real life.

The water seemed to sparkle in the strange blue light that illuminated the area. The waterfall was peaceful, flowing evenly as it slid down the smooth rocks. The floor was a soothing blue-gray color and the underground plants glowed in the darkness.

She walked to the of the lake and stared into its depths. The water seemed to speak to her as it trickled into the pool, whispering in some unknown language. The urge to feel the glistening lake was only matched by her urge to preserve its stillness.

Suddenly, her reflection began to morph, swirling and twisting despite the water remaining calm. When it finally calmed down, the face staring back at her was hers, but not her current face. Her black hair was up in a messy bun, the large-framed glasses sat low on the bridge of her nose, and her lips were downturned in a permanent expression of malaise.

The water changed again, this time showing her a scene of the memorial park where her family grave was located. She saw an urn on the grave with her former name on it. There were no flowers, no candles, no mourners, and no obvious signs that anyone had ever visited her resting place. Not a single person cared that she was gone.

The image disappeared as ripples spread across the water. Her tears had disturbed the vision, but she didn’t care. There was nothing about her past life that would make her happy to see it again. Why did God make such a place? Was she just trying to remind her of how miserable her past life was? This wasn’t a gift that she ever wanted.

Just as she was about to walk away, a pedestal rose up from the water. On the pedestal sat a ring, the band of which was in the shape of a Sakura branch.

She reached out and grabbed it, opening up an item description.

“…Blessing of the Sakura; when activated, unlocks a spell that places an ever-blooming Sakura tree wherever the wearer casts.”

Another box opened next to the other, this one being a message from God.

When you’re feeling homesick, allow this ring to bring you comfort.

- God

“How was this supposed to make me feel better,” Selene asked herself as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

“Selene?”

Cassie stepped into the cavern in search of Selene and was taken aback by the sight of her crying. The last time she saw Selene that sad was their first night after being reincarnated.

“This place is really pretty, but why are you crying?”

“Don’t look into the lake, it will only makes you miserable,” Selene warned.

Cassie crouched next to her comrade to try to learn what happened while she was away.

“Can you tell me what happened?”

“…I saw my reflection, not of my current body though, of my old one. Then, the imaged changed to show my urn… I was right, no one cared I was dead. There weren’t even flowers.”

“………Selene, I’m so sorry.” Cassie embraced her tightly, unsure what to say; because there was nothing she could say that would change reality.

“No, I’m alright. Dying allowed me to come here and make amazing friends in just a few days. Here, people would care if I died, so I’m happy this is the world I came to.”

“Yeah… I feel like I wouldn’t be able to handle seeing how people reacted to my death… Let’s go. She might not say it, but Lilith misses you.”

“Yeah… I really like that girl. We’ve only known each other for a couple days, but I already feel attached to her.”

“Well, she is a seductress,” Cassie joked as they walked back to rejoin their friends.

“There you are! Where did you disappear to,” Rena asked with a sigh of relief.

“There was just something I had to check out, you’ll see what I found when we get back. Did you find anything?”

“Just their mana gems that we need to prove that we’ve completed the contract, which we can sell for a good price. Oh! Also, this was in one of the eggs!”

Rena handed Selene a small box that she instantly recognized. When she opened up the description, her intuition was confirmed. It was another ‘users’ choice’ weapon, presumably left by God for her to find.

“I’m not really sure what it is, and I couldn’t access its description. Do you know how to use it?”

“Hmm…,” Selene hummed as she thought. “Yup! If things go right, this will be for you!”

She scrolled through the list of possible weapons that could be created by the magical item. The temptation to dual-wield longswords was strong, but she couldn’t forget the promise she made to Rena. She tapped the option she never expected to find, and the box transformed into a Y-shaped weapon that only Rena knew how to use.

“Here you go, a new slingshot! Now you’ll be able to take down stronger enemies!”

Rena excitedly took the magical weapon and stared in awe at the description. “Woah… Shooting Star; projectiles become miniature stars and fly at incredible speed! This is super strong! Let’s try it out!”

Rena excitedly loaded a stone into the pouch, pulled back the sling, and let it fly. Just as the description said, the stone turned into a white-hot star that passed through the basilisk remains with ease. Since it didn’t say anything of it being instant death on hit, it wasn’t OP, but it was significantly more effective than her old one.

“Holy crap, that thing is ridiculous,” Cassie exclaimed in surprise. “You may actually be useful now.”

“What did you say, brat!?”

“Who you calling a brat, shorty!?”

 “You’ve become such good friends,” Selene chuckled at the two of them.

“”We are not!”” They replied in unison.

“Shall we return, Selene? I fear that if we wait any longer, those two will engage in physical acts,” Lilith added in an attempt to fluster the two bickering girls.

“We would never do that! We aren’t like you, succubus!”

Rena crossed her arms in annoyance at Cassie’s rejection. “Why exactly is that so repulsive to you? You got a problem with elves?”

“No, I have a problem with annoying little girls who insult me every other sentence!”

“I’m a hundred years older than you, don’t treat me like a child!”

“I’ll treat you however I like! If you act like a child, I will treat you like one… Wait, a hundred years!? How old long do elves even live!?”

“The elders from my village were over a thousand years old, so you’re stuck with me forever!”

“Huh, that’s a good question,” Selene mumbled. “Hey, Lilith, how long do succubi live?”

“Until we are killed. I’ve been alive longer than I can remember, so it’s not like we can die of old age. And you? You are immortal, but will you die of old age?”

“Nope! I’m a true demigod; unageing and immortal! Which is why I told you that we can be together for however long you would like.”

“…Cute moment aside, can we leave? Those corpses are starting to smell,” Rena brought the two immortals back to reality after a short moment of shared interest.

“Oh yeah! Hop on!”

Selene transformed back into a dragon, and they were on their way back to Norvaria.