The summoned hero, Nobuyuki Sora, stood quietly beside the saintess, Isabel. She was shaken, just like everyone else who had watched the Murican video. But Sora's expression was different—tight, anxious, knots forming in his stomach.
What is happening…?
Why are demons using Earth technology?
No—why are the demons not being the bad guys here?
Will this make me not needed as a hero anymore?
Will I become useless?
…Fuck.
Before the spiral could continue—
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
"SILENCE! SILENCE!"
Cardinal Corvus slammed his staff on the marble floor. The hall fell quiet. No one dared disrespect the man whose authority often eclipsed the emperor's.
His white-and-blue robes gleamed under torchlight. Rows of Holy Knights stood behind him like statues.
"I understand this… 'visual record' is unprecedented," Corvus began. "But do not forget—this was presented to us by demons themselves. Do not be swayed so easily by their lies."
A court official cautiously raised his voice. "B-But Cardinal, our spies did report events similar to what the video showed. The events match."
Another murmur washed over the court.
THUMP.
"SILENCE!" Corvus roared. "Yes, there may be some truth mixed in. That is what makes a lie powerful. The demons—spawn of deception—know this well. I trust His Majesty shares my concern."
The emperor nervously nodded. "Y-Yes… we must not simply trust the demons."
Corvus turned, eyes sharp as blades.
"And what is your opinion, O otherworlder hero?"
Sora straightened, caught off guard, but oddly relieved someone voiced doubt about the demons.
"I don't know about demons in this world," Sora said firmly, "but where I come from, demons twist the truth to serve their evil desires."
Corvus smiled thinly.
"And so our hero has spoken. And our king agrees. That is enough."
He snapped his fingers. A Holy Knight approached, lifted the iPod from its pedestal, and walked out—without waiting for approval from either court officials or the emperor.
"I will bring this demonic tool to the basilica for containment," Corvus declared. "We do not know what corruptive effect it may have."
He turned to leave, but paused before Sora.
"And hero… remember: demons have now tasted human blood. They will crave more. Raise your strength, and quickly."
---
Vandoria Capital, City of Vans
"Eewwww! They drank the blood and ate the flesh raw? Gross! Bleekh."
"I know, right? This is why I would never date any of those grunts."
Two succubi lay prone inside a church tower overlooking the city square. Megan—short hair, binoculars—scanned her targets. Janet—long hair, MK22 sniper rifle—kept watch.
Below, the capital of Vandoria spread out like a 19th‑century Paris remake: ornate buildings, lavish fashion, and aristocrats with far too much lipstick. Today, though, a sea of citizens crowded the city square, gathered around freshly built gallows and guillotines.
"My friend said the CDC was in an uproar. He had to work overtime these past weeks because of that outbreak," Megan yawned. "Ugh, I missed home. I can't wait until this assignment is over."
"Don't worry, Megan," Janet said, glancing through her scope. "After today we're going back home, and no more dudes wearing more makeup than we do."
Megan suddenly stiffened. "Oh, Janet! Here they come!"
Across from the gallows, a scaffold had been built for the royal family. King Alphonse and Queen Colette took their seats, followed by Crown Prince Beau and the noble faction leader Duke Louis.
"Where are Prince Adrien and Prince Alan?" the king asked.
The butler bowed apologetically. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty, the second prince and the third prince have still not arrived."
"Tch, I bet they partied too hard again last night," the crown prince muttered.
After the royalty were seated, the announcer and the death row prisoners walked toward the gallows. It was a line of a woman, a young man, and a young boy.
"GOOD CITIZENS OF VANDORIA, BY THE ORDER OF THE KING, THESE CRIMINALS WERE THE FAMILY OF DUKE PIERRE," the announcer yelled. "WHO WAS GUILTY OF RECKLESSLY AND, WITHOUT THE KING'S PERMISSION, ABUSING HIS POWER TO ILLEGALLY ATTACK A NEIGHBORING COUNTRY IN ORDER TO PLUNDER! AMASS WEALTH! FOR HIMSELF AND HIS FAMILY! AND SATISFY HIS FAMILY'S GREED!"
The crowd erupted in boos.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Duke Pierre's family tried to deny the accusations, but their voices were swallowed by the citizens' jeers.
"Hmm, do you think the demons would be satisfied with this?" the king whispered to Duke Louis.
"Well, we could only try," the duke replied. "They said they were a diplomatic nation, so we would give them no choice other than being diplomatic and giving us the time we needed to strengthen our military… and recover our reputation."
"Tch… I still couldn't believe other countries could say that we were the bad guys. We were fighting demons! And now I had to abdicate my throne for it?" the king growled.
"That's… really was an unforeseen event, my king."
"Don't worry, Father," Beau said proudly. "I would continue building a greater army to enslave the Ravendawns and the demons."
"You better be, son… you better be…" the king said.
Duke Pierre's family was then being pushed to kneel at the guillotine by the executioner. Meanwhile, on the church tower, the succubi were recording the events with a camera.
"Overwatch, we're sending you visuals. Do you receive? Copy?"
"This is Overwatch. The visual is clear. Proceed with the mission, over," replied the comm.
"Copy that, Overwatch."
Janet adjusted her rifle. "Hey, so what did you do with the third prince last night?"
"Well, just some old-school succubus wet dream combined with a dose of Rohypnol, kekeke," Megan smirked. "No waking up anytime soon for him, you?"
"Me? No wet dream for the second prince. I only spiked his drink in a bar last night."
THWAAACK
YEAAAAAAAAAHHHHH
The guillotine dropped. The crowd roared.
"Oh, it's about to start," Megan said. "Standby."
Janet cocked her rifle. "Got it."
The crown prince then raised himself from his seat and bowed to the king.
"Well, Father, I'm going to announce the succession now."
"Yeah yeah, whatever," the king replied while shooing the crown prince.
The crown prince walked toward the scaffolding where the citizens could see him clearly.
"Here comes…" Megan whispered.
"CITIZENS OF VANDORIA! TODAY I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE!" the crown prince shouted to gather the attention of the people in the square.
He paused to make sure the crowds were paying attention, but suddenly a commotion could be heard nearby.
"STOP HIM!"
A cloaked beastman sprinted toward the royal stage. He managed to pass the line of guards, but then another guard on stage intercepted him.
PSSSHT
Until a silenced bullet pierced the guard's skull.
The beastman didn't understand what happened to the guard, but he didn't hesitate to run over his dead body.
Reaching the stage, he flung open his robe, revealing hundreds of magical scrolls strapped to his body, neck to toes.
"DEATH TO TYRANTS!! FREEDOM TO OSPELIA!"
BOOOOOOMMMM
A colossal explosion engulfed the city square. Instantly vaporizing the Vandorian royal family, guards, and some unlucky civilians.
Shockwaves sent the rest of the civilians flying and shattered surrounding windows—including those in the church tower. Megan and Janet shielded their faces.
"Holy shit!" Janet coughed. "I didn't expect it to be that big."
"Well duh, we never tested that many fire scrolls." Megan shrugged.
The two succubi rushedly packed up their stuff, leaving no traces behind.
"Overwatch, mission complete. Heading to the evac point now."
"Copy that. Sir Asmodeus sends his thanks. Overwatch out."
The two succubi transformed into human nuns and walked down the church tower, leaving the capital without being noticed.
Later investigations found that the assassin was from Ospelia, one of Vandoria's colonies, and also found secret correspondence between the assassin and his collaborator, an unidentified Vandorian prince.
---
Ravendawn, City of Dawn
Ravendawn banners were now being hoisted on the city wall. Soldiers and civilians worked side by side to clean the mess from the fights between the Ravendawn and the Vandorian city guard.
It was a quick fight, since the Dawn citizens helped fight the guards and open the gate for the Ravendawn forces.
Liberated citizens cheered as a royal carriage entered the streets.
"It seems the people here still love you, your highness," Levi noted.
"… I have abandoned them before," the king murmured. "I don't think I deserve their love anymore."
"Don't be too hard on yourself. After this, they need someone to lead them to rebuild."
"But it won't be me; it's for the best… Mr. Minister, what makes you believe that the Vandorians won't rebuild their forces and come back here?"
"Let's just say… they are too busy with family matters," Levi smiled knowingly. "Oh, look at that, Prince Luxius has been waiting for you."
On the castle steps, Prince Luxius waited, eyes bright. As his father stepped down from the carriage, tears glistened.
"Oh, my son."
"My King, I present to you the castle of Dawn. By this day, the Ravendawn Kingdom is whole once more."
"This castle… the place where you were born. I never thought I would see it again…" the king whispered. "I gratefully accept your gift, my son."
"It's my honor, my King," Luxius replied with a smile.
"This beautiful castle… this beautiful city… I remember your late mother always loved to see the sunset while holding you in her arms," said the king with a sincere smile. "But son, I met Duke Pierre when we were passing the city gate. Can you please get rid of him? I think we have had enough of having his presence dirtying this beautiful city."
"Yes, Father, I will order my men to remove his head from the pike right away."
"Thank you. Now shall we go inside?" said the king to Prince Luxius and Levi. "We still have so much to discuss about this new era… a democratic era."
Levi smiled. "After you, Your Majesty, Your Highness."
---
Somewhere near the Ravendawn-Vandoria Border
A long, miserable line of Vandorian refugees trudged toward their homeland—soldiers, merchants, and their slaves. Ravendawn let them pass to escape the wrath of the citizens looking for payback… but confiscated their ships.
A joint Ravendawn-Murica patrol oversaw the crossing.
"Why aren't we rescuing the slaves?" a Ravendawn captain asked.
Captain Irving of Murica's Rangers lit a cigarette and passed one over.
"Too many of them, feeding that many people would collapse your economy. Better for them to be Vandoria's problem than ours."
The Ravendawn captain puffed the cigarette, impressed. "More practical than pipe. And… tasty."
"Don't worry, soon you'll be able to buy it in your city. Real trades are coming between our countries."
He had warmed to the demon soldiers. The cultural exchange between the militaries had been lively: Ravendawn shared fresh meat and vegetables, the Muricans shared cigarettes, beer, and entertainment.
"Ehm, although…" the captain coughed, embarrassed. "I must complain about my men being too occupied with those entertainment stuff called… adult magazines…"
"Ah… sorry about that… That is also considered contraband in our military. But you just can't stop the boys from sneaking it," Irving said—while being the one who sold them for his pocket money.
Nearby, PFC Bella and Ivy sat by a mobile camera station. A ranger panned over the refugees, screening them one by one while Ivy kept watch on the monitor.
Bella handed her a cup. "Here, coffee with no sugar."
She sipped it. "Thanks."
"Are you sure you don't want to try the sweet drinks like Coke? Or hot chocolate?"
"No, thank you. I was raised not allowed to have expensive things like sugar, so I'm not used to it."
Bella nodded sympathetically.
"Hmmm… I still don't understand why you humans like to enslave each other." She sipped her chocolate. "They taught me in school that it's horribly inefficient to employ so many people who are not motivated with their jobs."
"Heheh, we have so many differences in our education then."
"You're rare though. A slave as educated as you. Totally different from the other slaves that I saw back in the DMZ Village."
"My mother taught me. She wasn't a slave… not until the Vandorians came."
Bella's expression softened. "Do you think she's still alive?"
"…not likely," Ivy frowned.
"Oh! Did I make you sad? I'm sorry, I'm still learning about human emotions like empathy and other stuff. Sorry…"
"Heheh, no worries. It's funny, though, to see that the demons are trying hard to understand other races."
"Yeah… our government decided that it was better for every Murican to learn about other races after we opened our borders. Not every demon is born with innate abilities to understand emotions like the succubi, you know. I mean, I'm a vampire, and we are the second best at detecting emotions, but it's just that I'm kind of different from the rest of the vampires. That's why I totally failed the test for the intelligence bureau and joined the rangers instead, and you know what—"
Ivy smiled faintly, letting Bella ramble—her chatter strangely comforting these past few days.
Then Ivy froze. Something on the monitor caught her attention.
"Uh, excuse me, can you show me the carriage from before?" Ivy said to the camera operator, cutting Bella's blabber short.
The camera panned to a luxurious carriage bearing a family crest carved on its door.
"That crest… I'll never forget that crest."
Bella stood up, weapon ready. "Is that the one—"
"Yes."
Bella whistled sharply. The patrol teams snapped to attention.
Target acquired.