(Remember people, this book is mostly for comedy. So if you don't like it, get the fuck outta here.)

(Also I do have a couple RWBY stories you guys should check out.)

The Dukedom of Ankaji

The party, with the Grimms in disguise still, arrives at the entrance of the Dukedom and Hajime slowly drives towards the city.

"Wow, this is quite impressive." Hajime smiles.

"Yes." Yue agrees. "This is a beautiful city."

Ruby, who is sitting in the passenger seat, looks out the window. "This would have been a nice vacation."

The car drives through the empty streets of the small city.

"But it feels sad." Myu states.

Ruby sniffs the air. "I smell a lot of sadness and despair." She licks her lips.

Bize then speaks up. "I would have loved to show you the dukedom in its most lively state, but there's no time. For now, we must go see my father..."

---

---

The Party and Bize stand at the entrance of a palace, where they meet Bize's father and a couple guards.

"Bize?! Did you get help...?" Bize's father asks, he notices his son's slightly rough state and how Kaori is helping him stand. "No, wait, did you get sick, too?!"

"F-Father..." Bize stutters.

Bize walks over to his father and explains the situation to him. Then Bize's father turns to Hajime and Ruby. "Really? Will you two save my nation and its people?"

"I guess." Hajime replies.

Ruby sighs. "I don't know why I agreed to it, but sure."

Shea, Kaori and Neo are brought into the palace and shown a room full of sick people. Neo has a small Grimm Beetle in her hand.

"So many..." Shea states.

Kaori looks at Neo and Shea. "Shea, Noe, let's start!"

"Mhm." Neo nods.

The rest of the party, including Bize's father along with a few other people, are in a large open area within the small Dukedom.

Yue holds a hand out. "Asura."

A large rectangular black hole appears on the ground and it destroys the ground below it, causing smoke to be blown up. The Hajime uses the hummer to cement the bottom of the large hole Yue created.

After that Yue holds her hands out towards the hole. "Tidal Wave."

Water starts to fill the large hole and she creates a large pool of drinkable water.

"How is this possible...?" Bize's father questions.

"That should last for a while." Hajime states.

"Man, I wish I could go swimming in that." Ruby states, while Blake gives her a weird look.

Yue sighs and takes a few steps back into Hajime. Hajime then holds her up and she sucks blood from his neck.

"Really in public?" Ruby asks and Hajime just glares at her. "Fuck you too."

Hajime and Yue then proceed to kiss. Tio covers Myu's eyes, but said little girl moves a couple of Tio's fingers and stares at Hajime and Yue. "I want to try that once!" Tue blushes.

"Me, too!" Myu smiles.

Ruby chokes and starts coughing. "NO!" THen she feels a tug on her cape and she looks back to see Blake with a blush on her face.

"Um, Mistress, may I ask for a kiss too?" Blake blushes.

Ruby sighs. "Fine."

"Huh-? MMH!" Ruby brings Blake into a kiss, which surprises the cat a little and her tail goes erect. 

Tio shouts in shock. "I ask for kisses and other stuff all the time! How come I don't get any?" Ruby gives her the middle finger and the dragon girl moans.

The Party then is brought to the Dukedom's water source. Ruby and Blake are holding hands, with said cat having a massive blush on her face.

Hajime hums as he looks down at the center of the water source.

"Hajime?" Yue calls out.

"I think my Demon Eye detected something..." Hajime then turns to Bize's father. "Duke, how far did the research team get in finding out what caused the pollution?"

"They've analyzed the water in the oasis and the rivers that flow out of it, and the ground-water veins." The Duke replies. "They haven't gotten around to diving to the bottom of the oasis itself."

"Is there an artifact of some sort inside the oasis?" Hajime asks.

"We do use certain artifacts for security and management, but those are placed outside the oasis."

Hajime turns around and walks to the waters edge. "Then I wonder what that is?" He smriks to himself. "Reuben, come here."

Ruby groans and walks forward, letting go of Blake's hand, much to the cat girl's displeasure. "What is it, Hajime?" She says in an unhappy tone.

Hajime suddenly picks up the slightly shorter girl and holds her up.

"HEY, PUT ME DOWN!" Ruby yells.

"Go find out what it is!" 

"What-?" Hajime throws Ruby into the lake and she disappears below the water.

"Mistress?!" Blake yells in shock. 

"Mr. Hajime!" The Duke yells in shock.

"Was that necessary?" Yue asks.

Hajime just chuckles.

Bubbles appear on the surface of the water and it rapidly moves. Then a few pillars of water shoot up, before slamming back down into the water.

They hear some muffled yelling as a couple flame spirals shout out from below the water. Then something bursts out of the water.

"HAJIME!" Ruby screams in anger as she's being thrown about by a tentacle from a large blob of purple slime.

"IT'S TOUCHING ME IN WEIRD PLACES!" Ruby shouts in anger, she swings Crescent Rose wildly around.

"What is that monster?" The Duke questions. "Is it a bachulum?"

"No! Don't touch me there! I'm BEING VIOLATED! KILL THIS DAMN THING!" Ruby opens her mouth and flames spew from it and down onto the smile.

Blake starts to panic.

"I don't care what it is." Hajime states. "It's got to be the cause of the pollution. It probably has some sort of poisonous special magic."

"Someone help me!" Ruby is being roughly thrown around. "I feel like I'm going to puke!"

"That's a fair assumption." The Duke says. "But can you take it down?"

Hajime holds up a revolver. "Yeah, no problem." Hajime aims at the core moving around inside the smile monster and he fires, hitting the core and destroying it.

The slime falls apart and Ruby yelps as she falls back into the water.

"Is it over?" The Duke asks as he takes a few steps forward.

"I don't detect any more mana in the oasis." Hajime informs. "I don't know if eliminating the source immediately removed the pollution, though."

Ruby is washed ashore as a researcher gets a vial of the oasis water. A purple hue washes across Ruby's face as she glares at Hajime from the ground.

"I'm gonna kill you the next time you do that." Ruby states as Tio helps her up, and dries her off using some fire magic.

"How is it?" The Duke asks the researcher.

"It's still polluted." The researcher informs.

Ruby holds her hand slightly out, with her palm up, and a grimm beetle forms in her hand. She then sticks it into her mouth and swallows, then shivers.

"Don't be so down." Tio says. "Fresh water flows out abundantly. The oasis will return to its former glory soon enough."

"Yes, Tio is right." Yue says.

"But what was that monster?" The duke asks. "Did a new species stumble in from the groundwater veins?"

"My guess is, the Demons did it." Ruby states as she lets out a cough.

"The Demons?!" The Duke turns to the Grimm in disguise. "I'm assuming you have some reason to believe this?" 

Ruby nods. "Of course."

"We are doing our own research as well, but... we never thought they could control monsters like that. We underestimated them. I thank you two, as a representative of my nation and my people." The Duke and his people bow. "You two are the saviors of our nation."

"Yes, do be very thankful." Hajime smiles. "Don't you ever forget what a giant debt you owe us."

Ruby rubs her chin. "I wonder if this comes with free stuff." She groans slightly in pain. "Beetle, can you not be so rough?" She whispers.

Back inside the palace, Neo is kneeling down to a sick person and she opens their mouth and holds her hand out. The Grimm beetle flies out of the person's mouth and onto Neo's hand.

Shea runs by carrying crates of stuff. "Here we go! Here we go!"

"How are you doing Neo?" Kaori calls out.

"Hmm." Neo gives her a thumbs up.

Shea runs by again carrying more stuff. Neo stands up and goes over to the next sick person.

"Listen up, everyone!" The Duke yells as the Party and him enter. 

"Hajime-kun!" Kaori smiles.

Neo runs over and makes a worried noise as she notices the purple hue across Ruby's face.

Ruby pats the ice cream girl's head. "I'm fine, I got a beetle eating it out of my system." Neo smiles as she's being head patted, Blake looks on with a jealous look, even Tio has one.

"The source of the pollution of the oasis has been removed!" The Duke informs everyone. "It will take some time, but our oasis is coming back! In addition, we have a supply of water! It is enough to last us until help arrives!"

The Duke's people gasp.

The Duke then motions to the party. "Also, these gold-ranked adventurers have accepted the quest of going to the Grand Gruen Volcano to mine Stillstone! It'll only be a few more days! Raise your spirits, let us overcome this hardship together!"

The Duke's people cheer.

Ruby sighs and rubs her temples. "I need a vacation after this."

.

.

.

The party is at the entrance of the palace, with Neo, Kaori and Myu standing across from them. Neo has the Grimm Beetle on top of her hat. The purple hue across Ruby's face as faded a little.

"Neo and I will stay behind and look after the patients." Kaori says. "Please find the Stillstone. Sorry for all the trouble."

"Well, it's along the way." Hajime says.

"And I've always wanted to go to a volcano." Ruby says with excitement. 

"I'll look after Myu-chan." Kaori looks down to the merfolk girl. 

"Thanks, I'm counting on you." Hajime says, Kaori looks at him with a slightly worried look. "What is it?"

"I'll do my best, so please come back safely. I'll be waiting for you."

"Y-Yeah." Hajime freaks out a little as he notices Yue's stare.

"Papa." Myu calls out. "Are you going to kiss Big Sister Kaori, like you kissed Big Sister Yue?"

Kaori's eyes widen and she gasps.

"You did?" Shea questions.

"Oh, you saw?" Tio asks Myu.

"I want to kiss Papa, too!" Myu states.

"Myu, you'll have to wait until you grow up a little."

"Why?"

"This is getting really weird." Ruby mutters.

"What about you Auntie Ruby?" Myu asks and Ruby starts to sweat a little. "Are you going to kiss Big Sister Neo, like you did Bis Sister Blake."

Neo glares at Blake, while Blake has a smug smile on her face. Ruby facepalms.

Kaori forcefully grabs Hajime's tie and pulls him close.

"What is this? Hmm?" Kaori asks. "You wnt to work, right? Why would you be kissing Yue?" She gains a scary look. "How did that happen? How was that important?

Kaori continues. "Were you having fun? Did you forget about me?"

Yue smugly smiles and licks her lips. "It was delicious."

Kaori laughs and Ruby takes a few steps away from the situation.

"M-Myu, I'm leaving." Hajime informs. "Be a good girl."

"Yes!" Myu replies.

Ruby looks at Neo, as she pouts and looks up to her leader. The the mute girl points to her lips.

"Everyone just wants kisses today, don't they." Ruby mutters and she grabs Neo and pulls the ice cream girl into a kiss.

.

.

.

The Party, minus Neo, Kaori and Myu, are traveling through the desert. The purple hue across Ruby's face is gone. The two Grimm are back in their normal forms.

A large group of sandworms block their path and Hajime activates the Hummer's weapon systems. Swiftly killing all the sandworms in their way.

They then drive towards a large tornado that twists in place. They drive through it and come to the Grand Gruen Volcano.

Hajime drives towards the Volcano and they stop at the base of it and everyone gets out. Ruby's face suddenly turns green and she runs over behind some rocks and proceeds to puke.

Blake walks over and pats Ruby on the back. After a few seconds Ruby stands up and wipes her mouth as the Grimm Beetle flies onto one of her hands.

"Thank you." Ruby says to the beetle and absorbs it back into her skin. "On ward!" Ruby points up to the Volcano.

The party travels up the side of the volcano. "So hot." Hajime mutters.

Ruby fans herself as some sweat falls from her brow. Blake's ears droop as she lets out a couple pants.

"I'm becoming a cooked rabbit!" Shea whines.

"I like my fish steamed, not me." Blake whines.

"Hmm, this is actually comfortable for me." Tio states. "It's too bad that I can't writhe in the heat."

"How about I throw you in some lava then?!" Ruby grumbles as she wipes some sweat off her head.

The party reaches the top of the volcano and comes to the entrance of the mining area. 

Hajime looks back at everyone. "Let's go."

Yue nods.

Shea smiles and pumps her arms. "Yes!"

"Right!" Tio smiles.

"We are going somewhere cool after this." Ruby states and Blake nods.

The party enters the Volcano and walks down a corridor with a few lava flows and some steam coming our of vents.

"What is this place?" Hajime questions and he looks up to see a small reddish stone in the wall. "Hmm? Is that Stillstone?"

"Yes, it certainly is, Hajime." Tio says.

"It's tiny." Yue states.

Ruby coughs. "That'swhatshesaid." Hajime elbows her and she growls at the white haired man.

"Just pebbles, unfortunately." Shea looks around.

"I do hope there are bigger ones." Blake says.

"I guess this area has been mined out already." Hajime states. "We'll have to go deeper than anyone has ever been to mine a lot of this."

The party continues heading deeper and deeper. They head down multiple pairs of stairs, then Hajime stops the group

"This is the farthest anyone has gone and survived." Hajime informs. "Stay sharp."

A loud roar is heard and they nearly get blown back. Suddenly a fireball travels towards the group, and Yue holds her hand out. "Spatial Severance."

A large black sphere appears and absorbs the attack. Then the Sphere disappears. 

The group looks ahead to see a bull made of molten lava, with red sparks traveling around it.

Hajime aims up his revolver. "You want some?"

The bull growls and Shea brings out her hammer and walks forward. "Hajime-san, let me handle this."

"Oh, you want to try the new thing?" Hajime asks and Shea nods.

Hajime lowers his gun and Shea runs forward. "Here I go!" The bull charges towards her. "I'm coming to get you!"

Shea jumps up and starts spinning her hammer around, and a blue glow appears as she slams it down onto the bull, stopping it in its tracks.

The Bull blows up as Shea jumps back. Shea looks at her hammer, then back at Hajime. "Hajime-san, this new feature is actually so powerful that it scares me."

"Seems so." Hajime shouts to her. "The conversion of mana into kinetic energy... I was wondering how effective that would be, but yeah."

.

.

.

The party comes to an area covered in Stillstone.

"Wow..." Ruby mutters. "I'm liking this color."

"Who would have imagined such a place." Tio says.

"I don't think anyone has seen this much Stillstone in one area before." Blake says in awe.

"With this much Stillstone, the people of Ankaji can be saved!" Shea smiles.

"Yeah..." Hajime agrees. "Now we just have to conquer this great labyrinth."

.

.

.

The party travels deeper into the volcano.

"It's so hot..." Shea whines.

Ruby uses her cape to wipe sweat off her face. "So hot..."

Blake's head is hung low and she sluggishly moves. "My sweat is sweating." She groans.

"Shea, it's only hot because you think it is." Yue informs. "That's all just water flowing around." Yue's hallucinating now. "Look, so cool..."

"Hajime!" Tio calls out. Yue is losing it!"

"Good for you, you seem fine." Hajime states. "I guess we should take a break..." A bead of sweat falls from his cheek.

Hajime uses transmute to build a cave for the group, then seals it off. The party sits on stone chairs, with Ruby sitting between Blake and Tio.

"Yue, make a block of ice." Hajime says. "This heat is breaking our brains."

"Got it." Yue holds a hand up and a large block of ice appears.

Tio then holds up a hand and creates a little wind gust that blows cold air around the little cave.

Shea gasps in pleasure. "Oh, that's cool. I feel alive again."

Hajime uses his magic to create a towel in his hand. "You can go ahead and relax, but don't forget to wipe off your sweat. If you get too cold it could affect your movement."

"Understood." Shea replies.

Ruby sighs and smiles as she closes her eyes. Tio stops using her magic. "Master, you seem relaxed."

"Yeah, but you seem to be more than me." Ruby says.

"This heat is really bad." Hajime says. "I should have prepared some air conditioning artifacts."

"Man, I miss those." Ruby mutters.

Tio brings a hand to her chin. "Hmm, if this has an effect on you, Master, perhaps it's the concept of this labyrinth."

Ruby opens an eye. "Concept?"

"Yes. The Great Labyrinths are designed to test those who seek to fight God, correct? Then I thought, perhaps they all have a testing concept. For example, the Great Orcus Labyrinth is designed to make you fight various monsters and gain experience."

Ruby gets a flashback to her time in the Great Orcus Labyrinth and she grips the edges of her dress.

Tio continues. "The Great Reisen Labyrinth tested your ability to respond to all types of attacks without the help of mana, a great power." Blake uses a towel to wipe herself down. "The Grand Gruen Volcano might be a test to see if you can maintain focus in this heat, and respond to ambushes and surprise attacks."

Ruby blinks a few times. "Huh. I never thought of that, who would've thought these Liberators are teaching us these thing."

Ruby then looks to her right and notices Tio's chest right in her face, she gains a blush and looks to the side to see Blake with her kimono partially taken off, so it's down to her chest.

Blake blushes a little. "Mistress, are you going to take me here now?" She blushes and let's her tongue out. "Oh, I'm ready!"

Ruby's face turns bright red. "Filth!"

.

.

.

The party is now in a stone boat, embedded with magic, and they are sailing down a river of lava.

"This reminds me of an amusement park ride..." Hajime states.

"That's what I was thinking." Ruby agrees.

Tio, Shea and Blake look at each other in confusion. Ahead a new tunnel appears.

"Hajime-san, another tunnel." Shea informs.

"Altitude-wise, we're right around the base." Tio informs. "There could be something here."

"Yeah..." Hajime agrees.

The boat keeps moving and Ruby's eyes widen. "It do go down!"

"Hold on!" Hajime shouts.

The Party sails over a lavafall and down into a large lake of lava below, without the boat tipping over. They then go down a larger lavafall.

"Updraft!" Yue casts and a gust of wind blows the boat up, then gently sets it on the top of the lava. 

After a few seconds everyone gains their barrings.

Ahead of the party is a large domed structure.

"Looks like gems are embedded in the walls." Hajime observes. "Counting the ones I can't see from here, looks like... a hundred gems total?"

"Is that the Liberator's hideout?" Yue questions.

"I hope so..." Blake mutters as she fans herself.

"Given the depth, that sounds reasonable." Hajime says. "But in that case..."

"The final guardian should be here, right?" Tio asks.

"We went down the lava river as a shortcut." Shea says. "Could we have skipped past the guardian, maybe?"

Hajime suddenly looks up as a fireball travels towards them.

"I've got this!" Tio swipes her hand and another fireball shoots out from the lava, and collides with the first one. Nullifying each other.

A large number of fireballs travel towards the party. Ruby smiles. "Now this is getting fun!"

Everyone jumps out of the boat and onto separate stone pillars. Several fireballs travel towards Ruby and she smiles as opens her mouth and fires off her own fire balls.

Blake shoots down a couple traveling towards her.

"Ruby, let's go check out that island!" Hajime shouts.

"On it!" Ruby shouts. 'heh, finally using my new name now?'

Ruby uses Petal Burst to fly over to Hajime and she lands next to him on his air platform. Hajime studies the structure ahead of them. 

 Suddenly a large molten snake shoots out of the lava, with its mouth open, and flies towards the two.

Ruby swiftly changes her Grimm scythe into Crescent Rose and shoots the snake, blowing it up. Ruby then changes her scythe into its rifle form and loads a new round into its chamber.

Several more lava snakes fly up towards them. Ruby back flips away and lands safely on a stone pillar.

"How many of them are there?" Hajime questions. "What a bother."

Blake lands on a nearby stone pillar. "You okay, Mistress?"

"Yeah, you could say I'm feeling a little excited!" Ruby smiles.

Everyone regroups onto a large stone pillar and looks at the army of molten snakes in their way.

"It seems like that island is the goal." Tio observes. "It's like they're saying 'defeat us if you want to get through.'"

"But didn't they just regenerate?" Shea asks. "Can we take them down?"

"I think it's like that bachulum-type monster we fought in Ankaji." Hajime says.

"More like you throw me at as bait." Ruby grumbles.

"There should be a core, a mana crystal, somewhere in their body that's shaping the lava." Yue states.

"There's too much lava in the way, not even my demon eye can pinpoint the location." Hajime says and he reloads his revolver. "We have to destroy it."

The lava snakes roar and shoot fireballs from their mouths, at the party. Everyone jumps away.

"This one isn't just some normal bullet." Hajime aims up a revolver and fires off a couple rounds, blowing up the lava snake in front of him.

Ruby laughs as she lands on a pillar and aims up her weapon. "My bullets pack a punch no mater which kind I use! 20mm kills anything!" She fires off a round, blowing off the head of a lava snake, and she sees the mana crystal it had. "Heh."

Ruby swiftly re-chambers a round and fires, blowing up the mana crystal.

Everyone participates in destroying the snakes and their mana crystals. But no matter how many they kill, more keep replacing the ones they've killed.

Everyone regroups.

"What's going on?" Tio questions.

"I've confirmed that the mana crystals were shattered." Hajime responds. "Isn't defeating those ten snakes the goal?"

"Hajime-san!" Shea calls out from a nearby stone pillar and points to the domed structure the snakes are guarding. "Aren't those gems over there broken?"

Ruby narrows her eyes at the island and notices a few gems are missing from it. Hajime kills another snake and destroys its mana crystal, and another crystal from the building shatters and falls apart. 

"That makes eleven broken gems." Yue informs.

"The same as the number of snakes we destroyed." Blake says.

"I see." Hajime starts. "So, we have to beat a hundred snakes... Equal to the number of gems on the wall. Killing a hundred of those things, in this heat. Fits the concept of this labyrinth. In that case, there's only one thing we have to do!"

Ruby smiles and adds a new mag into her gun. "Let's do this!" She laughs and everyone begins to engage the snakes.

Ruby fires off a couple rounds and kills a snake and it's mana core.

"Looks like I have the lead!" Tio yells from behind Ruby as the dragon girl kills three snakes. "Master, if I get the most kills, I desire a reward!"

"I won't let you win then Tio!" Blake adds a special magazine to her pistol and begins to fire off rounds, they blow up as they slam into the snakes. "If I win, I want a special night, you and me Mistress!"

Ruby lands on a pillar. "Fine, fine! Just get killing." She ducks under a fire ball and lets out a couple of her own.

After a while of killing snakes and destroying their mana core, Ruby and Hajime lands on the same stone pillar and go back to back. Seven molten snakes surround the party.

"There aren't any more appearing, seems like these seven are the last ones." Hajime informs.

"I'll take two!" Tio shouts.

Shea holds up her hammer. "Grand Gruen Volcano, conquest complete!"

Blake swiftly jumps past her snake as it tries to bite it, and she fires onto it, blowing it and its mana core up. Tio, Shea and Yue deal with their snakes.

"The end!" Hajime shouts as he and Ruby blow up their snakes and destroy the mana cores

Ruby smirks, but then frowns as she looks up, her eyes widen. Suddenly a massive pillar of blue magic slams down onto Hajime and Ruby

Everyone gasps in shock and they're eyes widen.

"MISTRESS!" Blake shouts as a couple tears fall from her eyes.

---

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05-19-2023

4478 words