The moment the sun rose, Ceselea was already away from the castle gate with the help of Serashael. “I am going for a walk.” the pink-haired demoness said as she casually strolled out, all while the princess hid inside her coat. Clinging to the other girl’s body, her heart beat faster as she did not sleep even for a second… Ceselea eventually let out a sigh of relief the moment they were outside. 

“I am fine here, thank you so much for your help.” Ceselea looked up at Sera as she was already prepared to part ways.

“I’ll accompany you a bit more. Perhaps to the border. They will suspect me if I come back too early, after all.” Serashael said with a chuckle, as deep down she was still worried about the blonde princess. Even during the day, the forest was still filled with wild beasts, and the fairy’s magical potential would be attracting them.

“You don’t have to. I don’t want to trouble you furth-” Before finishing her sentence, Ceselea glanced around to notice that a pack of wolves was already peeking from afar, The beasts did not go closer, for now, but Ceselea knew that she would be in trouble if she walked on her own. The border of the kingdom was still a distance away.

“‘I’ll be in your care, Sera.” The blonde princess blushed as she changed her mind immediately. 

On their way to the border, Ceselea detected more monsters along the way. The princess was so grateful that the pink-haired girl is with her, as her demoness aura was so strong it repelled those wild beasts to get closer. At this rate, she would reach the Fairy Nation in no time, as the border was just an hour away from where they were now. To think that Ceselea needed almost the whole night when she was with the adventurer! 

It should have been a breeze, but then Ceselea could feel an ominous aura coming from an abandoned mine. Pretty sure nothing weird happened when she passed it on her way back then, but now it was strong enough to make Serashael be on her guard. The shadow came closer as it attacked them immediately, its claw clashing with the demoness’ barrier. 

From a closer look, the beast was apparently an Abyss Shade. A creature not affiliated with the living or the dead, almost like it arrived from another world entirely. Ceselea had heard horror stories about it from the Guild as it was said to be responsible for the disappearances of many adventurers; although some people attributed it to the work of the demons.  In addition, with its madness enhancement, the Shade was pretty reckless. It would indiscriminately attack anyone in front of him, human or demon alike. 

“It must have been attracted to the magical power of the two of us. This is troublesome.” Serashael sighed as she tried to knock the monster away. It just kept rushing forward towards them, its thoughtlessness made Sera think that even if it was the demon lord, this monster would still try to attack him. 

The best option against an Abyss Shade was to escape since the further it got from the cursed lair, the weaker its strength was. However, running away recklessly would attract more monsters who wanted to capitalise on the situation, and Serashael knew that she could not protect the fairy if they attacked all at once. This was where things got complicated: The safest place for the two of them was returning back to the demon castle because Sera had an army to repel the monster, but getting Ceselea home was their main objective in the first place. 

Meanwhile, going towards the Human-Fairy Kingdom with the Shade after them might result in the casualties of the innocents before they repelled it. The pink-haired girl had no choice but to fend it off, then.

The Abyss Shade was weak to Fire Magic, which Serashael was pretty good at. However, attacking the monster with her dark flame in the middle of the forest would definitely spark a forest fire, causing irreparable damage to the surroundings. Ceselea was confused at first about why Sera focused more on physical attacks when it was clearly ineffective. Granted, it still dealt more damage than her dark magic which the Shade would be totally immune to, but still…

It was when the princess noticed the critters of the woods running away because of the fight that she realised that Sera did not use fire magic because she cared about nature. To think that they called demons as someone who thrived on death and destruction… Perhaps they were not really that different from fairies after all; the blonde had seen way worse humans (including the adventurer) than Serashael after all based on a few days of her stay. 

As the battle raged on, the two girls were getting close to the border, with the castle gates already visible. Serashael seemed to have done it on purpose, the main objective was to return Ceselea to her kingdom after all. Yet without using the fire magic, the fighting was quite tough as she did not manage to deal any considerable damage to the Shade. 

"I will hold him off. You quickly cross the border! I am sure the humans or other fairies will retrieve you the moment they notice their Fairy Princess."  Sera said amidst the fight as once the blonde left the premises she could just return to the demon castle and finish the Abyss Shade off. 

Ceselea nodded and attempted to run away but the Shade was not letting her go. It seemed like its main target was the fairy princess, possibly due to the amount of magic she possessed. It even ignored Serashael and charged at the blonde. 

"As if I'll let you!" The pink-haired demoness stood in its way to guard against the lunge. Just a little bit more and Ceselea would be safe… "So persistent!" Sera grunted as she cast a large barrier to prevent the shade from getting closer to the fairy behind her.  The barrier would last long enough for Ceselea to reach the gate safely. 

The blonde princess could just have left towards the entrance but seeing how Sera did everything to protect her… 

‘If I just leave like this, I will never see her again. I haven’t even said my goodbyes!’ Ceselea turned around to face Serashael instead and start to cast a spell towards her. She did not know whether it would be possible to target the demon race with the spell or not, but she had no choice now.

“Divine Weapon!” White light immediately covered Serashael’s body as her next attacks were imbued with holy magic, to the demoness’ surprise. The pink-haired girl knew that holy magic was super effective against the demon race, so the fact that she was using one was unprecedented. As she did not feel any side effect (as long as she did not hit herself with her weapon, perhaps), Sera attacked the Abyss Shade with her ‘holy’ demoness sword, and the creature of darkness perish in a single thrust. 

“You sure are something else, you know. What if it backfires on me?” Sera could not help but chuckle as she turn around to find Ceselea running over to her and give a congratulatory hug.

“If that’s the case, I’ll just run away to the gate before you punish me again.” The fairy managed to crack a joke on Sera, to think that she was so nervous and scared of the Demon Lord’s aide before. 

“All’s well that ends well, I suppose. So this is farewell, then.” Sera smiled as she waved towards Ceselea. A couple more steps and the fairy would reach the gate of the border in which they might never meet again. Until the fairy carelessly attacked the demon lord’s castle again, perhaps.

Before Ceselea could say her goodbye, a magical projectile flew towards the demoness, knocking her backwards. The dust in the area settled as the fairy princes noticed that the magic came from the adventurer… and her father…?