“We want to go to the Demon Realm,” Lucille stated.

 

Vincent stared at them. “…what?”

 

Scytale turned to stare at her from his position on the floor. “We do?”

 

She looked down. “We do.”

 

“I… wait, wait.” Vincent raised his hands to pause her and pinched his nose bridge. “You want to go to the… Demon Realm of all places? Why there?”

 

“Stages,” she replied succinctly. “We completed them all at the end of last year, but I’d prefer to break it up a little this time. It’s draining to complete them all at once.”

 

“Oh… I see…” Vincent considered it and held his chin. “So you wouldn’t be leaving the confines of the Obelisk you teleported to and there isn’t any danger for you.”

 

Lucy shook her head. “We wouldn’t even leave the no-combat zone of the Obelisk.”

 

“Then… I suppose that’s fine…” He glanced at her. “Do you plan on leaving right now?”

 

“Well…” She thought about it. “Maybe in an hour. Just enough time to get our affairs in order and then we can go.”

 

Vincent looked down at her bond. “I noticed that you didn’t seem to be aware of Lucille’s plans. Do you plan on going too?”

 

Scytale closed his eyes as he thought about it, and then shuffled his wings in the approximation of a shrug. “Sure. Haven’t decided yet whether I want to complete my Stages with her, but I’ve been itching to let lose for a while now. Hargrave’s been busy so I haven’t gotten my energy out for a bit.”

 

“It’s more efficient for us to go to the Demon Realm at the same time, especially in case something goes wrong,” Lucy stated. “I plan to only complete the first three stages of the Demon Realm before returning. It will also give me the chance to accustom myself to my newer abilities while in there.”

 

Her aide nodded again. “Then I will leave you two to it. Take care while there.”

 

She smirked and waved a hand as she turned around. “Bye, Vincent.”

 

Once they had left the study, Scytale flew onto her shoulders. “You freaked me out for a second there! What were you doing, suddenly mentioning the Demon Realm like that?”

 

“There is only one reason why I’d mention the Demon Realm when it isn’t September or March,” Lucille replied. “The Stages. Although…” She tapped a finger against her chin as she thought about it. “I suppose in the future I might make an arrangement with a member of the demonic nobility clans and need to go there for other purposes…”

 

“Yeah, and I bet that’s what Vincent was having a panic attack about.” Scytale flapped his wings. “Anyway, let’s get a move on to the Obelisk so we can fight!”

…

 

Barely a second after they had appeared outside their chosen Obelisk, a nerve-wracking presence descended on them. Lucy froze on the spot as the dense waves of demonic power rolled over them. The attention of a certain individual could be felt studying them, looking for something. Then almost as quickly as it had come, the presence was gone.

 

Lucille shuddered as she released her pent-up breath while Scytale ran up to her in his human form.

 

“Lucy, what was that?!” he exclaimed, his face pale. “That- that didn’t even feel like a demon! It felt like… the whole realm was watching me or something!”

 

“…that would be my dearest friend and contractor,” she said with a dark smile and sarcasm dripping from her voice. “It seems the Demon Emperor was feeling very suspicious about our reasons for being here.”

 

Scytale stared at her as his face drained of colour, releasing just who had observed them. “…why is he gone now?”

 

Lucy straightened up and looked around. “Because he was told why we’re here, presumably.”

 

“Uh…” Scytale looked around as well. “You know, I’m kinda wondering that myself, actually. I can’t say I’ve been to the Demon Realm much, but…” He scratched his head. “Where are we?”

 

“Well, I could give you a uselessly long name that wouldn’t even be the right pronunciation because this place is so backwater that nobody has bothered to translate the name yet,” she replied casually, “But I don’t think that’s what you want.”

 

He glared at her. “Yeah nah, that’s not what I want.”

 

Lucille hummed and walked off in one direction. “We’re just in a very weak Stronghold and Dominion of the Demon Realm.”

 

“I can see that, but why?” he stressed, walking beside her.

 

Lucy raised an eyebrow at her snake bond. “Because we have two Quests to do before we can unlock Stages 11 to 13.”

 

“…Quests? Wait a second…” Scytale tapped on the Quest Log he had brought up and scanned it. His face screwed up. “Argh, I forgot about those! Slay a demon at intermediate rank or greater? This is going to be a pain.”

 

“Don’t worry, nothing could be more painful than you being my bond,” Lucy said with a smirk.

 

He ignored her and closed the Quest Log. “For Stages 16 to 20 we need to resist the demonic aura of a demon for half a minute or so, which is kinda dumb because killing an actual demon would be harder than that.”

 

Lucille shook her head. “For those without points in SPRT, they’d have a lot of trouble remaining unaffect-”

 

[General Quest: COMPLETED]

Resist the demonic aura of a demon without being affected by mental influences for 30 seconds or longer.

[Rewards: Stages 16-20 Unlocked, Demon Resistor Title]

 

They stared at the notification that they had both received in sync. Scytale turned to her. “…was that because of the Demon Emperor? Wait, no, that’s not it.” He narrowed his eyes at the screen. “Only you’re immune to mental influences, not me. I still felt like I was going to go crazy when I felt his presence.”

 

Lucy gained a strange expression. “I think, Scytale, that because we have SPRT and our experiences from the last timeline… we’ve just ignored all the presences of every demon in this Stronghold and so we completed the Quest.”

 

They both considered it. Eventually, Scytale threw his hands up and walked off. “Let’s just take the freebie and get on with the second Queeeeee…” His words trailed off and he spun around to face her. “You lied to Vincent. You planned on fighting a demon from the start, so we have to leave the no-combat zone.”

 

Lucy smiled sweetly at her bond. “Yes. And Scytale… you know what will happen if you tell him, don’t you?” She slowly drew a line across her neck.

 

He shivered and whirled back around. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. Time to go find some random cockroach demon bug and squash it to get this Quest over and done with.”

 

“Cockroach demon bugs would only be lesser level,” Lucille pointed out.

 

Scytale groaned. “You know what I meant!”

 

…

 

“Great, so the Stronghold you picked just had to be next to a swamp,” a silvery winged snake complained.

 

“Stop whining, would you?” Lucy said with irritation. “If this is about your feathers again I’m going to smack you one.”

 

They were in, as Scytale stated, a swamp. A mangrove swamp, if only one that had determined that fuchsia and khaki suited the trunk, roots and leaves of plants better than plain green. Lucille sensed a twisted root snaking its way towards her submerged right foot and she swiftly sliced it off with Apophis’s longsword form.

 

“But they're marvellous! Look! I swear they glow!” He flapped them proudly.

 

Lucy rolled her eyes. “Isn’t it interesting that you went from bragging about your scales to bragging about your wings in this timeline,” she retorted. A vine-covered floating log with suspiciously active moss on its surface floated in front of her and she carefully nudged it away with Ouroboros.

 

“You’re just salty that you don’t have wings to brag about.”

 

She let out a resigned sigh and moved her feet through the murky grey-green water to climb up the slope in front of them. Scytale, who had been swimming using his tail, flew himself onto the land which was barely higher than the water level. He shook his wings to get the water and bits of parasitic demonic moss out of them.

 

Lucy planted her hands on her hips and looked around. “Alright. Intermediate demon. No point killing anything stronger if we don’t have to.”

 

Scytale sent across his impression of a clicked tongue. “Come on, don’t be a chicken! Go outside the box, do something more! Make something of your life and take risks!”

 

Lucy didn’t look at him as she inspected the vine clinging to her boot. “And congratulations, the honour of the first sacrificial offering to the Ancient Daemon abomination of the demonic marsh goes to Scytale.”

 

“Bah. Alright, you win. Intermediate it is. Not that I thought we should kill an advanced demon beast for real.” He raised himself higher to look around. “Where be our pitiful target?”

 

“Right about…” Lucy pointed up. “There.”

 

Scytale looked up at the giant raven-like bird with solid red eyes and squinted. “Okay… and how do we get it down here, where we can fight it?”

 

“You don’t have to worry about that,” she replied in a low voice, Apophis and Ouroboros held in each hand. “Because it’s heading straight towards us.”

 

Scytale’s eyes widened and he flew away just as the demonic bird screeched and dive-bombed towards them. Lucy dived to the side and sprung back up to see the bird chasing after her bond.

 

“Bird! Bird! There’s a bird! It’s after me!” he yelled. “Get away! Shoo, shoo! Do I need to attach zip ties to my head feathers or something?!”

 

“…zip ties?” Lucy said questioningly.

 

The snake ignored her as he flew across the swamp, dodging the mangrove roots that shot out of the sludge in an attempt to grab him. “Be gone, filthy bird! Go find another poor demonic creature for sustenance, because I’m not a demon beast!”

 

“I would like to remind you that you are also part ‘filthy bird’,” Lucille remarked with amusement.

 

“Are you just going to stand there and watch or are you going to help me?!”

 

She smirked but pointed a gloved finger at the bird. She could only use her internal mana due to the lack of mana in the realm, but as she was only using elemental manipulation… the more she compressed her mana, the more powerful it would be.

 

She activated her Prodigious Archmage’s First Steps skill as she stated the name of her new spell: “Explosive Compression Shot.”

 

The bullet-sized heavily condensed orb of fire mana shot away, aiming right for the raven’s left eye, and piercing it. Scytale yelped and twisted out of the way when the demon beast burst into glowing embers, sizzling as they landed in the water.

 

A single stray speck of hot ash landed on one of his wings and he let out a shriek as he dived into the water. “Hot! Hot hot hot hot hot hot hot-” He resurfaced and spat out a mouthful of swamp muck. “Blergh. Alright, I’m good now.” Scytale turned his head from side to side. “But where’s my notification of the Quest completion?”

 

Lucy gave him a disdainful look. “Why would the snake who ran away with his tail between his legs be considered by the System as having contributed to the death of the demonic bird?”

 

Scytale hesitated. “Snakes… don’t have legs.”

 

She paused to consider it and raised a finger. “Right. Because you’re Scytale: a flying tail.”

 

Her bond groaned and flapped his wings to fly out of the swamp and back to Lucy. “Fine, whatever. You got the notification though, right?”

 

Lucy paused to glance at the message.

 

[General Quest: COMPLETED]

In the Demon Realm, slay a demon at Intermediate or greater strength, and return to Obelisk alive 48 hours after its defeat.

[Rewards: Stages 11-15 Unlocked, 3000 xp, Crystalline Token +1]

 

[+3000 xp]

[Level Up! x10]

[+10 levels]

[+50 Free stat points]

 

[User has reached Level 72]

[Xp: 32/416]

 

She frowned at the notification. “Another fifty useless stat points to add to my ever-growing collection.”

 

“Hey! No way are you going to complain about levelling up from the Quest completion when I didn’t get my Quest completed!” Scytale exclaimed.

 

“Ha,” Lucy stated flatly. She rolled her eyes and walked off. “Come on, this way if you want to get this Quest over and done with.”

 

“Wait, there’s another creature in this place?” He looked from side to side. “How come I don’t see it?”

 

“Because…” She placed a boot against the trunk of the nearest mangrove tree and plunged Apophis into the damp wood. The demonic blade cut away at the tree to reveal a deep green, pulsating, slightly luminescent beating heart in its centre. “It’s hidden in plain sight.”

 

Scytale eyed the heart with suspicion. “Evil demonic beast plant thing… why didn’t you just kill one of these earlier?”

 

She looked to the side. He switched his suspicion to her. “Lucy…?”

 

“The demonic bird was a threat and… it’s not important right now,” Lucille replied, dismissing the question with a wave of her hand. “Come on, kill it.”

 

He eyed her warily for a bit longer but turned back to the heart. Scytale summoned a spike of light mana and plunged it into the heart. The ground shuddered as the roots of the mangrove below them shrivelled up and died with an ear-piercing scream. The tree wilted, making them back away as it fell into the water with a splash.

 

“That was dramatic,” Scytale said. He turned to his bond. “So, time to head to…”

 

It was only when he had turned away fully did he realise that Lucy was making a break for the exit of the swamp with her AGI enhanced as high as possible. His golden eyes widened as the ground rumbled and mangrove roots shot through the muddy bottom layer of the swamp to attempt to grab him.

 

Scytale flapped his wings as hard as he possibly could to chase after his bond. “Hey! You set me up! You knew that the other trees would retaliate when it was killed!”

 

“You have wings, not me, so you’re the best bait, Mr. Sanctity Caladrius hybrid!” she shouted back.

 

“Don’t bring my stupid dad’s family into this!” Scytale flew up to get out of the attack range of the mangroves. “Grrr, fine! I’ll be your bait and fly back to the Stronghold! You owe me after this!”

 

As he zoomed off Lucy shook her head. “What I owe him can’t hold a candle to everything he owes me, whether financial or otherwise.”

 

…

 

Lucy returned to the Obelisk to find her bond lying face down on the pavement in his human form, breathing heavily. Even the demons seemed to be eyeing him strangely and avoiding him. She walked up to him and he wearily looked up when her appearance cast a shadow over him.

 

Lucille tilted her head. “I find it hard to believe that the short trip back from the swamp was that strenuous.”

 

“I… got chased… by a flock of demonic ravens…” he said, panting.

 

She raised an eyebrow. “I see? Well, time to get up so we can complete the first three stages of the Demon Realm.”

 

He groaned as he picked himself up and trudged after her. Lucy hummed. “Have you decided whether you want to complete the Stages alongside me?”

 

“…yeah, I guess I’m interested to see what it would be like with two of us.” He stretched his arms above his head. “We’ve both already done the Stages in the past, so mixing it up a little this time might make it more fun.” Scytale shot her an odd look. “But why are you so willing to do them with me? I would’ve thought that I would mess up all your plans or whatever.”

 

She turned to give her bond a serious look. “I think our events with the Beast Realm’s Stages have shown us that we might be facing unknown circumstances this time in the stages. In which case, I’d rather do them alongside you.”

 

Scytale considered it and nodded. “Makes sense.”

 

They came to the Obelisk and looked up at the towering black glossy structure. Lucille tugged on the wrists of her gloves to pull them on tighter. “Time to enter the unknown and dangerous world of the Demon Realm.”

 

“Do you have to be so dramatic?” Scytale complained before she could step in. “And we’re also already in the Demon Realm.”

 

She shot her bond a nasty look.

 

…

 

[Do you want to begin the Stages in Team Mode or Solo Mode?]

[Team Mode/Solo Mode]

 

“Huh, never saw that notification before,” Scytale said with surprise.

 

“If you entered into an Obelisk while alone, then of course you were never given this option,” Lucy replied. “You can’t form a team of only one.”

 

“Okay, okay. Sure.” Scytale raised an eyebrow. “What’s the deal with this whole ‘Team’ vs. ‘Solo Mode’ anyway? Are there changes?”

 

“Some, but not many.” Lucille tapped on [Yes] and they were brought to the System limbo space anyone goes to before the stages begin. “We’ll still have one Main Objective that we must collaborate to achieve together, but our Sub-Objectives will be individualised. We can’t complete the other’s Sub-objective for them.”

 

“What, so we get completely different Sub-Objectives from each other each time?” he asked, confused.

 

She shook her head. “Not always. Sometimes we’ll have the same objectives. They just have to be completed twice, once for each person. Because of this, we don’t have to be paired for all the following stages too.” She looked at him. “Are you ready?”

 

Scytale cracked his knuckles. “Time to get this show underway.”

 

Lucy smirked and brought out the stage selection screen.

 

[Welcome to the S.T.A.G.E.S!]

Available S.T.A.G.E.S (Demon Realm):

Completion Rate: 0%

Stage 11: The Escape from Cressilin Stronghold (UNLOCKED)

Stage 12: LOCKED

Stage 13: LOCKED

Stage 14: LOCKED

Stage 15: LOCKED

Stage 16: LOCKED

Stage 17: LOCKED

Stage 18: LOCKED

Stage 19: LOCKED

Stage 20: LOCKED

[Please complete Stage 11 to proceed to the next stage]

 

With no hesitation, she pressed on Stage 11, and they were transported into a dark echoing corridor with only torchlights in each of their hands to see by. Lucille spread her perception, making sure to keep it muted so no demons would detect her, while Scytale studied their location. The metal grates barring each sectioned-off zone of the cool hallway showed they were in a traditional imprisonment dungeon.

 

[S.T.A.G.E.S | Stage 11: The Escape from Cressilin Stronghold]

A pair of lost individuals who fell for a demon’s trickery and were captured by Demon Viscount Cressilin when reverse-summoned to this realm, you share a secret. That this capture and kidnapping to the Demon Realm was all planned by the human Marquess you are loyal to and are determined to give Cressilin’s most valuable treasure to.

The Marquess shares a demonic pact with Demon Count Valdin, in the Stronghold two weeks travel through the demonic woods west of here. There you will be able to use the dimensional channel left by the Count’s semi-permanent summoning pentagram to return to the human world.

Survive the pursuit of Viscount Cressilin’s forces and bring back the treasure to Count Valdin’s Stronghold, and prove your capability to your lord.

[Collapse]

Main Quest (Rank-2: Demon Realm) Overall Objective:

• Last two weeks while being pursued by forces so that the stolen treasure you carry can be placed on the summoning ritual along with yourselves.

Sub-Objectives – Stage 11:

Compulsory:

• Escape Viscount Cressilin’s Stronghold and enter the woods without alerting any guards.

Optional:

• Locate a weapon.
• Stock up on supplies.

[]

 

[Completion Rate: 0%]

 

“I remember this now,” Scytale said with a grin. “Man, that was fun, messing up all the demon guards here and running away. Brings back memories of simpler times, like when my bond hadn’t formed a contract with one of the most dangerous Paragon Anomalies in the Tower!”

 

Lucy sighed. “Well, we can’t use that strategy this time. My compulsory objective is to enter the woods without alerting any guards.”

 

“Huh… that’s different.” Scytale looked at his Stage objectives. “Our Main Objectives are the same, but my compulsory objective is just to find a weapon.” He gained a strange expression. “Me? A weapon? I’m a snake. What snake uses a weapon?”

 

She thought about it as they continued to carefully make their way down the dungeon hallway. “Maybe something like highly flammable oil or something would apply in this context. One of my optional objectives is to find a weapon, so at least that matches up.”

 

“Oh, wait.” Scytale squinted at his screen and then gave her a sheepish grin. “Sorry, my compulsory objective is to steal a bunch of gold from this place. Locating a weapon is an optional objective.”

 

Lucille rolled her eyes. “I see.” She shook her head and gestured to him to follow. “Time to get a move on then, if we want to gather this gold before they find out we’re ‘no longer’ in our cells. Not that we were in there to begin with.” She looked around. “Ordinarily, this would be the time spent searching for the secret tunnels to escape the Stronghold but as I already know where to find that, let’s complete the optional objectives first.” Lucy looked at her bond. “Split up?”

 

He nodded, and with that, they dispersed. Lucy went to collect the supplies such as satchels with water and food from various locations such as the guardrooms, where a quick sleep spell knocked out most of them. Her completion rate had already ticked up by 1% and when she met up with her bond again, the completion rate was 2%.

 

“Here. Catch,” he said.

 

Lucille caught the two dagger sheaths and raised an eyebrow as she strapped them on. Apophis and Ouroboros floated out of the sheaths to circle her. “So these are the ‘weapons’ the System wants me to find?”

 

[Sub-Objective Complete:

Locate a weapon.]

[Completion Rate: +1%]

 

[New! Completion Rate: 3%]

 

“I guess.” Scytale shrugged and pulled out what looked to be a small vial and darts. “Found these in a room. These demon guards sure were demented, playing darts with their captives and poisoning the ends.”

 

She glanced at the completion rate again. “Did you have one or two optional objectives?”

 

He shook his head. “Just one.”

 

“Good. That means we only need to find some more gold and then get out of here.” Lucy scanned her perception for where some money could be found. “This will be unconventional, but…” She looked at her bond. “Have you ever played a game of spoons before?”

 

“…no?” he replied questioningly.

 

Lucy smirked and gestured for him to follow. “Then maybe if I can find a deck of cards, we can busy ourselves during the two weeks playing that game with all the cutlery we’re going to be carrying with us.”

 

…

 

Lucy slowly removed a brick from the wall and stepped aside to let her bond peer in. Scytale was in his serpent form and resting on her hands, which left him up to the hole. Inside was the kitchen of the Stronghold, with the gold and silver cutlery being arranged on plates and dishes to be taken out to tables.

 

He turned to look at her. “So I… what, hang from the roof like I’m in some sort of spy movie and grab a golden spoon in my mouth?”

 

“Yup,” she replied brightly.

 

He stared at her for a couple more second and then shuffled his wings in a shrug. “Sounds fun. Help me up.”

 

With Scytale still in her hands, she put her hands through the hole and helped him up onto the rafters of the kitchen. His scales slid soundlessly across the wood and when he was positioned just above the dishes and cutlery, he wound his tail around the rafter and slowly slithered off of it to hang down. Scytale chose the opportune moment to pick one up in his mouth and climb back up. When he was on the rafters, he flapped his wings boisterously and sent her a mental message.

 

‘Muhaha, I did it! First try! Future special agent Scytale in the making right here!’

 

Lucy’s eyes widened when the rafters began to creak and all of a sudden Scytale came crashing to the ground, landing on top of the dishes and cutlery. Smashed plates and ringing metal sounded out, causing all the demonic servants to turn around and stare at him.

 

Scytale froze up. “Uh oh…”

 

Lucille facepalmed as the servants and chefs all ran out of the building to alert the guards outside. With the failure of her compulsory objective, the System limbo came back into view around them, evidence that the stage had reset. She turned to stare at the culprit.

 

“Um… take two?” he asked innocently.

 

Lucy felt her expression twitch as she realised just how trying completing the stages alongside her irresponsible serpent bond would be.