Jessica took a deep breath, taking in all the scents from the surroundings.

“Aaah, yes. The warmth of fresh summer air!” She chuckled.

Cody looked around to see charred plains, jagged rocks, and pools of dubious liquids surrounding them.

“I’m pretty sure that’s just the lava…” he murmured.

“Hey, why are we out here? It’s just a dead wasteland!” another minion quipped up. “And it’s like way too hot out here!”

“Training, my loyal minion! Training! This is gonna be our regular extreme endurance training!” Jessica crossed her arms. “Also, while the demon realm outside the castle might be a hostile environment… It’s rich in resources!”

A round of murmurs went through the gathered minions.

“Me and my buddy here–” She tapped Cody’s shoulder. “-- have done some exploration of this place the other day. And wouldn’t you know it? Behind all those charred valleys of death and lakes of lava, there’s treasure!”

She pulled out a shiny diamond-shaped blue gem and showed it to everyone. “This right here is a Tempest Sapphire. It’s one of the gems used to make specialized magical items.” She smirked. “You know… items like the demon general’s weapons. Salem’s staff, Forneus’ gauntlets, Hecate’s sword…”

A round of ooh’s followed. Some minions were clearly excited, while some were as bored as ever. Seriously, why were the latter ones even here? They were ruining the atmosphere.

Jessica put on a cheeky grin, unfortunately not visible to the minions due to the mask. “There’s no rule saying a minion can’t help themselves to some magic tools, you know? I’m pretty sure nobody else goes out here, which means that with this, we will be the strongest minion squad in the army!” She laughed out loud.

“Hell yeah!”

“Nice!”

“Awesome!”

Once again, some of the minions' eyes were sparkling, while others were bored like students listening to a long lecture. 

“Well, there’s a catch, though!” Jessica raised two fingers. “They are quite rare and hard to find! And then, even if you do find them, they are in the most dangerous spots you can think of!” She pointed at a random lava lake. “Like at the bottom of this!” She laughed. “In other words, you’ll probably die trying to get just one of these shiny babies!”

Silence followed. Even those who were enthusiastic just a second ago were merely staring at their leader as if she was mad.

“What? You didn’t think a power-up like this would be free, now would you? Why do you think no other minions came out here to gather the gems?” she said in a mocking tone. Then let out a spine-chilling chuckle. “Well then, it’s a competition! Those who can find a gem can go back to the castle! Those who can’t, I’ll just leave here to fend for themselves!”

“What?!”

“You demon!”

“W-we got tricked!”

“Nah, just kidding!” She chuckled again, this time, in a much friendlier manner. “I wouldn’t do something like that to my precious minions!” 

The minions mostly relaxed, although many were still on guard.

“Not yet, at least,” she murmured, making some minions tense up again. She ignored it and clapped her hands before continuing. ”Now! Let’s go over the real rules of the competition! Find one of those gems! Very simple! For the first three to find one of those magic gems and bring it here I’ll help build whatever tool you want with it!”

A round of oooh’s went through the more enthusiastic minions. Everyone knew Jessica’s control of magic was immaculate, so having her help directly would be a great boon.

Jessica raised her hand up high. “Ready?! Set! Go!” she yelled before swinging her arm downward.

Some minions were quick to scatter, searching for the gems, others, as expected, just grumbled and slowly walked in a random direction. Cody stayed with Jessica and they both began slowly walking.

“So… any luck on the weapon so far?” he asked.

Jessica frowned with a hum. “Not quite. I think I’m missing something. There’s more to a general weapon than a few gems and a bit of magic I guess,” she said.

According to their research, one of the unwritten rules was that to be chosen as a demon general, one had to somehow get their own specialized magic weapon. It showed one’s capabilities and also made it so the demon lord didn’t need to keep making new weapons for the new generals.

Lazy bastard.

“Not gonna lie… I’m still a bit iffy on the whole… you know, becoming a demon general thing. Think you could handle that without being found out?”

“Hey, have some faith in me! I know how to act the villain!” Jessica said whilst jumping off a small ledge. Cody followed her.

“Well… sure,” Cody said in the end. “Anyway, what was the secret project you were talking about?”

“Secret project…Well…” Jessica paused for a second. “So, here’s the thing. The end goal is to defeat the demon lord, right?”

“Yeah?”

“How?”

Cody frowned. “Punch him in the face?”

“Yup!” Jessica gave him a thumbs up. “The problem is, he never goes to Earth, does he?”

“Yeah, that’s true… I bet he’s waiting to have an advantage over them before revealing himself or something.”

“Exactly! He’s never going to just go and let himself be punched at this rate! That means that the magical girls need to take the fight to him!” She punched her open palm. “Now… how are they ever gonna get into the demon realm to do the punching? The gateway to the human world is too secure. It would never let the magical girls through.”

Cody put a hand on his chin and frowned. “Right… huh… that is a problem… So what are you… wait. Are you planning on building your own custom portal to Earth out here or something?”

“Oh, that would be cool… But no, it should be much simpler than that. Just make something to mask their magic and let them through the main gate as if they were demons.”

“Hmm… can you really make something like that?”

Jessica grinned at him. “You tell me! I know you’ve been dabbling with camouflage magic lately, haven’t you?”

Cody hummed again. “I think it might be possible? I would need to take a good look at their magic though.”

“Right… well, next time we are on a mission–” Jessica stopped mid-sentence and looked to the side. A minion was running to them, a sparkling gem in their hands.

“I did it, leader! I found one!” he said, full of enthusiasm.

“Oh, already? That was quick! Great job! You’re the first one!” Jessica said with a genuine smile.

This was one of the more enthusiastic minions. He was also quite talented with magic so Jessica already knew he had some potential. Ironic. This minion was still a kid, even his voice sounded a tad feminine. And yet, he was one of the best under her leadership.

“Really? But then…” the minion looked at Cody.

“Hmm? Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m not competing. Just helping our leader with her evil plans and stuff.”

“Oh, ok.”

“Weeell then,” Jessica rubbed her hands. “Since you’re the first, as promised, I’ll help you make it into any tool you want. Do you have an idea of what you want yet?”

“Umm… Well… I do…But…” the minion suddenly got flustered for some reason.

Jessica and Cody exchanged a glance. Was it something embarrassing?

“Ooh, I get it. It’s something kinky, isn’t it?” Jessica teased.

“W-what?! No!” the minion recoiled. “It’s just… umm, is something like a voice modulator possible?”

“A… voice modulator?” Jessica thought about it for a second. “Hmmm… I think it should be doable. What do you even need it for, though?”

“Nothing too much… Just… as an experiment,” the minion said. His eyes shifting from side to side were visible even through the mask.

“Aah, I see. You’re planning to prank someone, right?”

“Uh… no?”

“Oh, it’s fine! As long as you don’t try to prank me or my buddy here,” Jessica said whilst slapping Cody’s shoulder.

“I would never!”

“Alright, alright. Well, let’s get started right away, shall we?”

Jessica didn’t think about it too much. If a guy wanted to prank someone, who was she to stop him? After all, she was cooking up many a prank for the near future.

Wasn’t Salem planning another attack soon? Well, she still needed to discreetly hand over the secret message to the magical girls, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have fun with it!