"They can't do that!" exclaimed Xander. "Immediate transfer of mana between two individuals is not possible!"

"It literally just happened. Stop complaining it isn't possible and start thinking of countermeasures," demanded Dreobeth.

"How can we think of effective countermeasures when they keep doing things that make no sense?! Walking through that cloud of midnight moth dust without protection was bad enough. The ability of the white one to convert miasma to pure mana is worse, but at least we knew about it beforehand. We have no idea what happened to the kraken, though. Just tell me, what sort of countermeasures do you think we can take?"

"Enough," spoke the third and final surviving arch-demon, his head lulling backward, staring up at the sky. "We have no more resources. We have no more time. Whether the white one is depleted or not, we move now."

"We will die!" cried Dreobeth.

"Then we will die in the service of the master."

Dreobeth glared at Xander, expecting him to argue, but the skeletal demon remained silent.

"Fine," sighed the evil fairy. "Let's see if this nonsensical party can deal with multiple arch-demons. Everyone, order your monsters to strike. All of them."

---

"They're desperate," stated Rrillandral, dodging a flurry of strikes from a trio of orcs. Vines burst from the ground behind them, piercing through their torsos, then whipping around, lifting the orcs from the ground and launching them as projectiles at the other monsters in the swarm.

"You think?!" exclaimed Rose sarcastically, somersaulting over the head of a cyclops, driving a sword through its eye as she passed.

"This attack definitely lacks any sort of coherence," agreed Hayedalf, punching a warg in the face. It went flying backwards, impacting a couple of others of its pack with a bone-shattering crunch. "It's as if they've just thrown out everything they had left."

"Not everything," pointed out Rrillandral. "We are yet to meet those that did the throwing."

"Why did I get stuck with the giant worm?!" complained Grace, dodging the grotesque monster as it erupted from the ground, then kicking it hard in the midsection. It folded over and went sliding into a tree.

Grace put her foot back down, where it went squelch.

"Eww. My leg is covered in mucus!"

"Heart shield!" shouted Kellela, throwing up a large, spherical shield which enclosed a few wyverns. Then she shrunk it, and they went crunch. She released the shield and lumps of malformed flesh fell from the air, dripping blood, pieces of broken bone sticking out at odd angles. "Didn't use to be able to do that to wyverns," she commented. "I wonder how much is due to level, [Transformation Sequence], or shouting out the technique name?"

"Calculate that sort of thing later!"

For all the variety of monsters, they didn't have a crushing weight of numbers, with only a few of each type. Of the monsters the demons had kept under control despite the will of the demon lord to empty the forest, most had died in the first capture of the magical girls. The heaviest hitters, including the dragons, had died to the [Meteor Storm]. More had died in the prison. The forces were largely made up of everything that had spawned since and that the demons were able to grab at short notice.

"Okay, it's nice the girls can keep level heads in tough situations, but surely there are limits?" thought Mystery, watching the fight and throwing out an occasional [Lightning Bolt]. "They've been in several life and death situations, but the banter just keeps on coming."

She thought for a while longer, tossing out a [Fireball] into the mouth of a rot horror as it prepared to spit, resulting in the payload of corrosive gasses detonating within its throat. The resulting explosion took out a small pack of goblins that had been standing too close.

ding
For finally using a [Fireball] correctly, it advances to level 8.

"Is it the fault of [Magical Girl Transformation]? Did [Skit] teach them to keep talking? Magical girls do have a habit of bantering in the middle of fights... Wait... What's that?"

Tendrils of miasma threaded between the trees, suggesting the passage of a demon. A powerful demon, judging from the putrid colouring. Yet there was no demon in sight, nor did the wisps of miasma have the same blended appearance that came from Lilith's stealth.

ding
For noticing the tiny details, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 44.

No, there was a demon. A familiar one. It was simply very small.

"... Demon...! Small...! Powerful...!"

"Dreobeth!" shouted Rrillandral, immediately jumping to the correct conclusion. "Show yourself!"

"No, I think I would rather not," came a reply. "I don't suppose you'd accept my surrender?"

"Your what?!" exclaimed Rrillandral. Of all the stunts the demons had pulled, of all their plotting and teamwork, none of their actions stunned her as badly as that single question. Demons did not surrender. Run away, yes, but not surrender.

She wanted to call him out on it. To point out that she knew it was a lie. A plot to get her to lower her guard. But... what if it wasn't?

"So you betray us after all," came a voice right behind Grace as Xander stepped out of a portal, red lightning already sparking from the bony digits of his hands.

Taking advantage of the demon helpfully announcing his presence instead of simply blasting Grace from behind, Kellela inserted a barrier between the two. The red lightning splashed off it harmlessly.

"How?!" snarled Xander, unable to comprehend how the barrier had blocked his magic. The strike had been far stronger than some of the physical blows he'd seen smash them.

In lieu of an answer, Grace blasted him with a purification wave.

Alas, the arch-demon was far more resilient than his weaker brethren. His bones charred and blackened, and he emitted a sharp hiss, but it didn't stop him launching a few fireballs at the magical girls before jumping back through another portal. Most splashed against more hastily summoned barriers—which indeed seemed far stronger against magical attacks than physical—and the rest were dodged. One sailed through Hayedalf's previous position, straight into the face of a spear spider, which exploded. A few black marbles—formerly its eyes—rolled across the forest floor.

"So, Xander is here too," laughed Rrillandral. "Well? Blumshtik? If those two are here, you must be skulking around somewhere. What rock are you hiding under?"

"Who?" thought Mystery, using [Multi-focal] to scan her full surroundings, but she didn't see a third demon anywhere. She did spot a burst of miasma in the distance that looked suspiciously like a mirror of what the robed skeleton had produced from his portal, strongly suggesting he'd fled in that direction. Cursing herself for missing his first teleportation and putting Grace in danger, she resolved to keep her eye out for the pattern forming again.

"That thing is probably waiting for us to get killed before he makes his own move," answered Dreobeth. "Now, if you would allow me to..."

The voice froze, choked off by an abrupt gasp, before he started shouting at seemingly nothing. "No! No! Don't... Don't make me! Argg! Foolish girl! You woke that back up."

The tiny demon rounded a tree, buzzing towards Kellela at speed, his face pulled into a furious snarl.

An angry roar sounded from behind the group, followed by the crashes of uprooted trees.

"Not another dragon... Not another dragon..." chanted Rose as if it was some sort of mantra, aiming a sword rain at Dreobeth, but with his small size, he weaved between the bladed projectiles with ease. Not that he looked at all happy about that fact.

"He's not in control of his own actions..." realised Mystery. "When people kept mentioning how demons are enslaved to the demon lord, I didn't realise it was so literal. Are we close enough to the egg that it felt Grace's purification wave? And now it's forcing the surviving demons to make a desperate last stand?"

The trees behind the group splintered, another demon bursting through. A three metre mound of grey flesh, a mockery of a humanoid. About the most that could be said of him was that he possessed the correct number of limbs. His head flopped forward uncontrolled as he slowed, chin slapping into the rolls of fat that hung from his neck.

"I see you still haven't grown a spine," laughed Rrillandral. And it really was a laugh.

"That must be Blumshtik?" assumed Mystery. "Do those two have history? I've never seen Rrillandral so amused about anything."

The demon ignored the provocation—or perhaps was forced to ignore it—not sparing Rrillandral a single glance. Instead, his bulging stomach split open horizontally, revealing a sharply fanged maw, roaring incomprehensibly and blowing a cloud of putrid gasses towards Kellela.

Grace responded as per usual when she saw anything particularly disgusting, by firing off a reflexive purification wave.

It seemed to just make Blumshtik angrier, but it hit Dreobeth a lot harder. The fairy screamed and veered away from Kellela, crashing into the ground.

"... Grace... behind...!" warned Mystery, spotting another of Xander's portals. It had spun into existence immediately as her purification wave passed, the demon presumably forced into attacking but maintaining sufficient control to aim for a cool-down period.

Grace didn't have a cool-down period.

The second wave—launched while the first was still in flight—blasted into Xander, tearing his still-open miasma-powered portal to shreds.

He stumbled, the blackened areas of bone spreading, but remained upright, red lighting once again crawling over his bones.

"These are the last of the arch-demons," shouted Rrillandral. "Grace, use up everything! Blast them!"

Xander emoted an impressive amount of alarm, given his static face, but even after the blast, he wasn't looking at Grace, nor trying to portal away. Like the other two, he was fixated on Kellela, and Grace's magic had done nothing to disrupt his lightning. Alas, Kellela was already distracted by the other two arch-demons that were obviously aiming for her life.

Red lightning briefly arced from him to Kellela, before another blast from Grace disrupted his aim.

Kellela screamed. So did Mystery, the hostile magic ravaging her real body.

"Need to stop the electrical skeleton..." thought Mystery desperately, after confirming with [Sense Vitality] that Kellela wasn't in danger. "How can I stop the skeleton?"

Rose and Hayedalf were occupied with the dregs of the monster army. Rrillandral was doing her best to hold back Blumshtik, with limited success. None of them could spare time for Xander.

Mystery stared at the hollow skull, its eyes still fixed on Kellela, the red lightning starting to build once more.

... The soulless hollow skull.

Mystery could fly through Kellela, but only because she belonged inside. Anyone else was impermeable, her soul being blocked by their own. Demons did not have souls. In the past, she had accidentally flown straight into Fylith. Then, didn't that mean...?

Mystery dived, pouring all of her mana into a single [Fireball] as she did.

ding
You have poured more mana into a spell than it would normally require, upgrading [Fireball] with [Overcharge]. Level cap of [Fireball] increased by 10.
For discovering a new aspect of the spell, [Fireball] advances to level 9.

A fiery red light flashed from the holes in Xander's skull, and thick streams of smoke rose from his eye sockets. The skull cracked, and the light of his eyes faded, but the skeleton remained standing. Despite coming from the [Hero], the power boosted by [Demon Slayer III] and the Vale's Finger, the spell was still low-level, and Xander was an arch-demon. It wasn't enough to shatter him completely.

Grace's next wave, on the other hand, was.

It tore into the fractured skull, the white magic seeping into the cracks Mystery had opened and corroding it from the inside. The skull decomposed to ash and the rest of the skeleton collapsed into a pile of bones, no longer magically held together. The red robe fluttered down on top of them.

Mystery floated back up, movement difficult after using up too much mana. Even her vision was blurred. Her soul screamed at her to return to her foetus, but she ignored it, sucking on the Vale's Finger to replenish her mana instead.

ding
For being incredibly foolish, albeit admittedly very filial, [Robust] advances to level 31.

She was thus well placed to watch as Kellela evaded Blumshtik's uncoordinated attack, dodging blows and using her new ability to ignore the presumably poisonous gasses the demon was spewing out. Hayedalf and Rose had finished cleaning up the remaining monsters in the time, and the demon—forced to attack against his better judgement—was rendered unable to retreat as all five magical girls bestowed him with their full attention.

Exploding stones were thrown into his gaping second mouth. Raining swords pierced into mounds of fat. Waves of purifying light tore into him. Yet he shrugged it all off. None of the attacks seemed to deal significant damage.

"For goodness' sake, fall already!" yelled Grace, squeezing out one last purification wave before her mana gave out, and she fell to her knees, panting.

"He's just too fat!" shouted Rose. "My swords can't reach anything important."

"I'm not convinced that extra mouth of his respects conventional geometry. There's more space in there than should be possible," complained Hayedalf, realising trying to blow the demon up from the inside wasn't working.

"I'm not going to be able to slow him down much longer," added Rrillandral, still trying to tangle the demon up in vines.

Kellela had little to add, her abilities being entirely defensive in nature.

"So, what, we just keep up this stalemate until everyone runs out of mana?" asked Grace. "He seems slow. Let's just ignore him and make a break for the egg."

Rose paused, then dismissed the sword she was carrying. It broke apart into motes of light, but they didn't dissipate or float away. Rather, they grew, joined by countless hundreds more.

"No. That will not be necessary," she stated, calmly walking towards the demon. "I won't offer you my pity, for you deserve none, even the puppet that you are. You never sought to cast off your strings, or to escape your puppeteer. A creature of hate, incapable of comprehension of what makes us 'us'. Return to the darkness that birthed you."

The motes of light condensed once more, but not into a sword. Instead, an axe formed in Rose's hand. Styled similarly to those used by her father, but far, far larger. The thing was twice the length of Rose, and the simple way she held it without toppling over forward seemed to defy physics. Even more so when she effortlessly raised it overhead.

"Executioner's axe," she intoned, and brought the oversized weapon down. It didn't even slow when it hit the demon, cleaving him perfectly in two.

The other girls spent a few seconds in silence.

"Impressive," admitted Hayedalf.

Grace just continued to stare, eyes sparkling.

"Yes, that was an opportune moment to gain a new ability, yet there is something else we must deal with immediately," said Rrillandral, turning to stare at the unconscious Dreobeth, the dark fairy horribly burnt from the repeated purification waves, yet still clinging to life.