Everyone gathered at the castle of Mismede, supposedly to celebrate that the fairies kidnapped by the Cult of Diabolos were freed, but no one dared to talk as they remembered what just happened.
Kagenou's devastating attack left a number on everyone. Especially Touya. He was the only one who truly understood what he did, thanks to the knowledge of his previous world.
"An atomic bomb... what is he thinking?"
Then he remembered what Kamisama had told him before. A terrible solution for a terrible world. And then, despite the fact that he was an apostle of the god of destruction, he didn't know it. But an atomic bomb? Seriously?
"Are you okay, Touya?" asked Yumina.
"I will be okay. Is just that, a nuclear explosion? What on earth is Kagenou thinking?"
"Touya, you are shocked, but try to calm down." said Elsie.
"How can I calm down if I just saw the magic equivalent of the most powerful weapon of my original world?! Which type of opponent is the Cult of Diabolos that God had no choice but sending someone like Kagenou in the first place?"
When he noticed how upset he really was, his wives hurried to hug him. But he was still shocked and trembling after seeing Kagenou's attack.
"You have to look at the bright side!" tried to cheer him on, Leen. "At least everyone is safe now!"
The others agreed, as she had a point.
Then, Eris approached Leen. "Leen-Sama, I just wanted to thank you that taking the time to rescue me."
"Oh no, Eris. This time, I was merely a humble spectator. I hate to admit it, but the one who did all the work was Shadow and his organization. You know, the people in black."
"Oh, right! The mysterious man in black!" said Eris dreamily. "I remember his brave figure, his calm voice, and how he beat that man without sweating a drop. Oh, and that power of his, I still shiver remembering that purple light!"
Touya and his family forced a smile. This reaction was unexpected, but this was something they would rather not deal with.
"Anyway, I am happy that everyone is safe!" said Touya, finally. "Shadow is a bit... a bit... a bit whatever. I'm just happy that you are safe.
Eris smiled. "Luckily, all they did to me was take a blood sample."
"But what about the time you were unconscious? Are you sure they didn't do anything to you?" asked Leen, worried for her friend.
"I am absolutely sure! Nothing to worry abou..."
Then she started to twist in pain as several bults started to grow all over her left arm, popping and suppurating pus, and the infection was extending around her body as she was rotting from the inside out.
"Eris!" cried Leen.
Before her eyes, Eris started to transform into a shapeless creature, just a bulk of rotten flesh, with her two eyes looking around. And she wasn't the only one, all of them were slowly getting reduced to that state.
"No, please no!" cried Leen.
Touya quickly started to use his magic to cure them.
"Cure Heal! Mega Heal!"
But nothing he did actually worked. He closed his eyes in frustration.
"No, why is nothing not working?"
But then he was pulled aside by Alpha, who placed her hand over the rotten flesh blob and channeled her magic, slowly restoring Eris to her former self, and she fainted.
"What the hell was that?"
"This is the 'demonic possession' I told you about. Is there nothing but magic overload that her body is unable to resist. We have a lot to do. Epsilon!"
The blue-haired elf nodded, and she began to help the other fairies along with Alpha. Beta and Delta were just sitting quietly, watching them do their magic.
"Why don't you help them?" asked Sakura, frowning.
Beta sighed. "I am sorry, but only Epsilon and Alpha-Sama have enough control over their magic to be able to cure possessed ones. And the Master, of course, but he isn't here, probably because he is doing more important things."
Touya rolled his eyes at this, but before he could complain, a purple light entered the room and surrounded all the possessed fairies. The soldiers prepared their weapons but didn't dare to move a muscle. They still remembered the devastation caused by this very same purple light.
But the possessed ones started to heal little by little, and when the last of the fairies got cured, the purple light vanished as quickly as it appeared.
"Great, where is he?" asked Touya, annoyed.
His answer came right away, as the Moonlight Sonata could be heard in the next room. Everyone rushed there, only to find Shadow playing the piano, surrounded by black feathers that were falling as they were following the music. Shadow finished playing and turned to the group.
"I wanted to personally thank the forces of Mismede who helped us in the first assault. It's a relief to have the authorities on our side."
"Indeed, it is a refreshing change, Shadow-Sama." agreed Beta.
"With your help, we will annihilate them sooner than later." finished Shadow.
The Beast King only shook his head, remembering protocol for guests of honor. Shadow made him very nervous after what he had done. But he has also helped them greatly.
"No, no, I should be the one who thanks you. Not only did you make us aware of the menace hiding right before our noses, but you also took care of them for us. I am ashamed that our forces weren't strong enough to keep up with you, I admit I underestimated the Cult of Diabolos."
Shadow nodded. "It's alright. Just keep an eye open from now on.
"Of course! You have my eternal thank you."
Then Shadow extended his hand, summoning his black slime sword. "So, I remember you wanted to challenge me to a duel."
The Beast King gulped and moved a step backwards. "You see, young man, I am very busy right now. Enjoy the party."
With that, he left, followed by his knights. Then, Shadow turned to Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Epsilon. "You hear him. Enjoy the party. This is only our first baby step in this world."
Delta cheered in excitement and ran to enjoy some food. There was a variety of monster meat, and she was drooling.
"So, you want something to drink, Shadow-Sama?" asked Epsilon. The Seven Shades took turns acting as Shadow's personal assistant, and today it was Espilon's turn.
"The finest wine you can get."
"Absolutely, my lord!"
Alpha smiled. "Back to our business, Shadow-Sama. The Cult now knows that we have found them despite their efforts to hide from us. It will be a matter of time before they take some measures that will give us the chance to destroy them on this side."
"In the end, they'll become nothing but a sidenote in the Shadow-Sama's chronicles," said Beta.
They both bowed before Shadow and joined the party as he commanded. Finally, Cid transformed his Shadow outfit back to his uniform from Midgar Academy.
"You have very interesting friends, Touya. Who would say that a ruler with responsibilities takes the time to go hunt bandits with us, and pretend they are members of this fake cult. I guess that even rulers need time to forget about everything and roleplay to relax."
Touya gave Kagenou a cold glance and clenched his fists. "Kagenou, I'm not in the mood. Why don't you go enjoy the party as Shadow, or whatever?"
"Fine, fine. But you should relax too, maybe join the game with us. You'll find it pretty entertaining."
Cid's outfit turned back into Shadow's just in time for Epsilon to enter with two glasses of wine, and she offered him one.
"Here you go, My Lord."
Shadow accepted it as the two of them left the room, leaving Touya and his nine wives alone.
Hilde and Lu started to rub his back. "Touya, you are holding back.
It was true. Touya could barely control his anger.
"You better let it all go, you better." said Yae.
Touya nodded and used his null-spell 'Prisson' around the room to soundproof it.
"What the hell is Kagenou thinking by using that devastating attack?! I understand that Kamisama says that his world is doomed, and he needs someone to take those extreme measures! But you heard him, didn't you? Everything is a game for him!! In his own private world, all he does is a stupid roleplay, and his assistants and us just play along. But even if he is playing, he doesn't care that his attacks may have killed an innocent bystander! He doesn't care that his attack destroyed more than half of the Spirit Forest! Today we were lucky, Kamisama warned me on time to evacuate everyone, but hundreds of thousands could be killed with his 'I am atomic'. He knows it, but he doesn't care. All he cares about is living his little fantasy!"
Finally, he took a deep breath, but it seemed like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
"I had to use all of my self-control not to punch him!"
"I can understand you." said Yumina.
"He is an unpleasant man, he is." said Yae.
"We just have to tolerate him until they get rid of those monsters of the Cult of Diabolos." said Leen. "They'll pay for what they did to my people."
"It's true! He is the least of two evils!" added Elsie.
"Is true. Those girls rescued Eris and the fairies. Not to mention they were cured of their 'possession' by Kagenou."
Touya nodded. "You are right! I knew that dealing with him was going to be difficult, but I never expected it would be this stressful."
Lu smiled at him. "We understand Touya, and what about this? You don't have to deal with him, you do a lot of things for us, so let us take care of you this time. We are together for eternity, right?"
"Lu is right!" said Yumina. "The last thing we want is that Kagenou and Touya fight, so we deal with him, and you can ignore them until they leave."
"Girls, I cannot ask you to do that!" said Touya.
"Touya, until death tears us apart!" reminded him of Lu showing her ring to her.
The others did the same, showing their rings to Touya.
Touya smiled, and she finally felt much better. He removed the 'prison', and he and his family joined the festivities.
****
In one of the Cult of Diabolo's secret underground labs, a group of men dressed in back robes have got together to discuss the last details.
"I have some bad news for you guys. Shadow Garden has found us, and Shadow himself is with them."
"Of course he is! I would recognize that devastating attack anywhere! I do not know what type of artifact he is using, but that was definitely Shadow's signature attack." I added another cult member.
"We cannot keep wasting resources fighting the damn Shadow Garden!"
"Shadow seems to be one step ahead all the time!"
The members went silent, when a new individual dressed in a black robe joined the room. -
"You better have good news."
"I'm afraid not. Remember that problematic nation, the Duchy of Brunhild?"
Everyone nodded.
"According to my intelligence officers, they have confirmed that Brunhild and the Word Alliance have joined forces with Shadow Garden. Right now, all of those countries are against us."
Everyone started to talk among themselves, making everyone nervous.
"Is this information a hundred percent accurate?"
"I'm afraid so. Our Cult is public enemy number one. We have to get out of here?"
"Are you crazy? After the fall of the Merchants Association, the destruction of Lindworm Sanctuary, and the loss of Oriana Kingdom, we cannot afford to keep losing resources at the hands of Shadow Garden.
The leader raised a hand, demanding silence.
"Just answer me one thing. According to our sources, the Great Duke, Mochizuki Touya, is a do-gooder, a hero who helps everyone who asks. Why would something like that join forces with Shadow?"
"According to the report, he and Shadow... Sorry, this seems hard to believe."
"Just go to the point!"
"They are old acquaintances, even friends. Touya received Shadow and Shadow Garden with open arms, organized a reunion with the world alliance, and convinced them to join Shadow Garden's cause. Officially, we have a target painted on our backs."
"No, impossible! How is that those two are friends?!"
"Yeah, aren't they two polar opposites?"
The leader sighed. "It is not that hard to imagine if you think about it. The two of them came out of nowhere, showing great power. One of them creates a new nation, and the other is a secret organization that rivals ours. Both handle immense power. They are more alike than we like to admit."
"Then what shall we do?"
"We'll focus on Touya. The moment a man forms a family, he is no longer free. His family is his weakness. We have to target his wives. As a matter of fact, isn't he married to the most powerful fairy in more than five hundred years, and the only daughter of the Overlord of Xerneas? They sound like excellent test subjects."
"But we may act carefully. Remember that Touya can be as dangerous as Shadow.
"No worries, no matter what it takes, we will make sure the Great Duke repents of ever crossing with our Cult."