Caeldaemos sat in a chair next to the bed Liara was sleeping. He had been watching her for a few hours, casting Panacea on her here and there in hopes it would wake her sooner.

“Mm.” Liara stirred.

“Lia!”

“Huh?” She opened her eyes and turned to him. “Cael.”

He cupped her cheek, happy she was awake. She smiled and nuzzled into his hand.

“What happened?” Liara tried to sit up, and he helped her.

Caeldaemos explained the situation to her.

“I see.”

“Do you remember anything?” He asked.

“Um… I remember…” She began.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Liara stepped out of the inn where they were staying with a bit of spring in her step. They had thoroughly engrained in Lily’s mind that she was never to do something so reckless again. She stepped into a pub and sat at the bar.

“You again? Same drink as before?” The barkeep asked.

“Hmm, something a bit lighter, please.” She asked.

The barkeep told her the cost and began making the drink.

“So, I heard what the Demon-Lord said. What do you think about it?” She asked the barkeep.

“Huh? That? Weird, I tell you. But can we really trust that? I mean, it’s a Demon-Lord. Their purpose is to destroy everything.” The barkeep replied.

“You are talking about what happened?” A woman asked.

“Yeah. I agree with the barkeep that it is weird, but what if it’s true?” Liara asked.

“It would be nice if it were true, but how can we trust it?” Another patron asked.

“That is true. Demon-Lords do have a bad history. It would be nice if this one was nice.” Liara commented.

“Heh, an optimist?” The barkeep placed her drink down.

“Thank you.” She handed over the Tress for the drink.

Liara chatted with the patrons a bit more before moving on to another location. She moved from place to place, asking similar questions and probing people’s minds and opinions.

She was on her way back when she noticed a woman running down an alley and being chased by a group of men.

“Silver Bloods?” She rushed over to the location to help the woman.

“Please! I’m sorry! I’ll give all the money back!” The woman cried.

“You messed up big time, running away from his grace and taking what wasn’t yours.” The leader stated.

“Please! Have mercy!” She begged.

“Hmph. His grace should be here soon.” His words drained the blood from the woman’s face.

“Then I should make this quick.” Liara dashed out and kicked the leader in the head, knocking him out.

“What!?”

Before any of the men could pull their blades, she defeated them all.

“You alright?” Liara asked.

“Yes! Thank you!” The woman rushed up to her.

“Let’s get out of here befor-.”

“Before what?” A man called out from behind her.

Liara spun around to see Gabriel with a wicked smile.

Liara tried to go for her sword, but the woman grabbed her from behind.

“What are you!?”

“All for his grace!” The woman gave Liara a mad grin.

Liara turned back toward Gabriel, he opened his left eye wide, and she was paralyzed.

“What? Did you do?” Liara demanded to know.

“Heh, heh, heh. This power is great. Too bad it doesn’t work on everyone, only the opposite sex. But I am fine with that.” He smiled arrogantly as he approached.

He gripped her chin. His touch made her skin crawl. “I saw you asking all over the place about the thoughts on the Demon-Lord. You are talented and quite beautiful.”

Gabriel eyed her body lustfully.

“Disgusting, bastard.” Liara strained to say.

“Hah! Well, you will soon love this ‘disgusting bastard.’”

“Like hell I will!” Liara yelled.

Gabriel brought his face close to hers, and his left eye lit up.

She wanted to look away, but it prevented her from doing so. Liara grimaced as it felt like something was crawling within her mind, weakening the barriers of her own thoughts before her mind went blank.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I… only remember a bit more than that,” Liara stated, feeling violated.

Caeldaemos hugged her. “It’s okay. We got you back, and you will be fine.”

Rana and the others arrived in the room after he had messaged them.

“Did he make you tell him anything?” Rana asked.

“Just what I did for a living and if I was married. I think he believed I would return to him shortly after telling me to leave Cael.” She hugged her husband more tightly.

“That eye sounds like trouble, but it also seems to have limitations.” Listamati pointed out.

Caeldaemos stood and pulled his armor out of storage.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Cael! What are you doing?” Liara asked.

“Putting a quick end to that ability.” He replied.

Listamati and Lily went and helped him don his armor.

Liara got out of bed and picked up his helmet.

He knelt.

She kissed his forehead. “Come back to us alive. You understand?”

“I promise.”

“Cael, if you can, hold off on using True Demon-Lord’s Call? Better to keep such a trump card hidden until we are more established.” Listamati advised.

Each of them placed a kiss on his helmet before he stood.

“I’ll be back.” Caeldaemos vanished, teleporting to Hyuden.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Caeldaemos stood before the five heroes, but his eyes were locked on Gabriel.

“Dammit! What you are doing! Activate Hero’s Call!” Gabriel shouted in a panic.

All five heroes activated their ability.

Caeldaemos could feel it, his power rapidly reduced, but checking all of their statuses, he could clearly see he was still stronger than each one of them. The only one who was close was the big one, Greggory.

“I have no qualms with the rest of you. Only that garbage hero.” Caeldaemos spoke.

“Why?!” Hana demanded to know, falling back and readying her staff.

“Why are you asking!? It’s the Demon-Lord!” Gabriel shouted, taking a position next to Greggory.

“Dammit…” Hana looked troubled. “Form up! We will be defeating the Demon-Lord! But try not to kill him!”

Greggory dashed forward, his lance leading the way. Caeldaemos received it with his shield and redirected it away from him.

Hana launched a volley of balls of ice at him in hopes it may slow him down. Lindsey created protective magic barriers for all of them.

“Troublesome. Decahedron Barrier.” A solid barrier formed over Caeldaemos’ body.

Gabriel charged forward only to be blasted back by a strike from Caeldaemos’ jager mace.

“Damn! How is it still so strong!?” Gabriel complained.

Haley used several opportunities while Caeldaemos was fighting with the powerhouse Greggory to strike at Caeldaemos, but thankfully both his barrier and armor were holding up such attacks.

“Greggory! Back!” Hana yelled.

Greggory fell back as she unleashed a powerful stream of water to beat Caeldaemos down.

“Mana Eater.” Caeldaemos activated his shield’s circuit, pretending it was a skill.

The water that rushed toward him focused on the shield that hungrily gobbled it up. He designed the shield as a counter to spells. The mana would be stored in the twelve refined mana stones embedded in the back of the shield.

“What the hell was that!? Dammit! Greggory, let’s get him!” Gabriel abandoned the formation to attack.

“Fool!” Greggory rushed forward with Gabriel to not let the idiot die.

“Holy Smite!” Lindsey unleashed one of her few attack spells.

Caeldaemos activated his shield circuit once more and absorbed the spell. Nearly half of the stones were full. He notes to make improvements later.

Greggory closed in faster than Gabriel and attacked. Caeldaemos parried the attack, purposively opening his side for Gabriel.

When the arrogant hero charged in, Caeldaemos’ wing expanded and batted the hero away, slamming him into a wall.

Hana unleashed a stone attack against Caeldaemos. He could not have his shield absorb it as she was pulling from the ground itself and throwing it at him.

Greggory and Caeldaemos exchanged more blows as Haley changed her tactics to try to tie up Caeldaemos’ movements.

When things got complicated, he used Lord of Darkness and transferred to another shadow behind Lindsey.

“Lindsey!” Hana cried.

Caeldaemos used a sleeping curse on her that would last thirty minutes and made sure to lay her down gently before transferring away again.

“Damn, you!” Greggory became angry and attacked Caeldaemos with fury.

“She’ll wake up in thirty minutes,” Caeldaemos told the enraged Dragon Knight, but Greggory didn’t believe him.

Hana checked on Lindsey and shouted that she looked unharmed before continuing her attack on Caeldaemos.

Caeldaemos was getting tired. Having reduced power was really bad for him, and he couldn’t let the fight drag out any longer. Using the earth element, Caeldaemos opened a pit beneath the two large men, but unlike Caeldaemos, Greggory couldn’t fly and fell in.

Caeldaemos turned and faced Gabriel.

“Damn, you! Stay away!” Gabriel cried.

“Your Evil Eye of Entrapment. Either you remove it yourself, or I do it.” Caeldaemos ordered.

“W-What are you talking about?!” Gabriel tried to feign ignorance.

“I saw what you did to those women. Corrupting their minds.” Caeldaemos landed in front of the pathetic hero. Towering over Gabriel, fury burned in his eyes.

“P-Please.”

“I will not allow such evil to exist.” Caeldaemos grabbed the hero by his head.

“NO! STOP!”

Caeldaemos surrounded the eye with a domain and ripped it from its socket.

“AHHHHHHHHHHH!” Gabriel screamed.

As an extra measure, seeing as Gabriel was able to remove the curse of impotence, Caeldaemos layered a curse with a domain and made it so that his eye could not be restored.

Gabriel lost consciousness.

Just as Caeldaemos was about to throw the man away, Greggory pierced him from behind with his lance, shattering through his weakened barrier.

Caeldaemos quickly expanded his wings, blasting the Dragon Knight back.

He quickly began using Panacea, but it was slow to heal because of the weakening effect.

Greggory was getting back up as Haley grabbed Gabriel to get him away from Caeldaemos.

Caeldaemos looked at a frozen Hana. It was not what she wanted. She didn’t want him dead, only the truth.

“Hopefully, next time will be more cordial,” Caeldaemos said to her before teleporting away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All of the girls rushed to Caeldaemos as he appeared in the temple.

“He’s injured!” Rana cried.

Liara, Sophia, and Orelia rushed to heal the wound.

“Dammit, you idiot! Next time you are not going alone. Do you understand us? What happened?” Liara demanded.

“The other heroes were there.” He answered.

“Why the hell would you take them all on at once?!” Liara screamed.

Caeldaemos felt his strength return, and the wound instantly healed from his regeneration.

“That Hero’s Call is rough,” Caeldaemos commented as they helped him remove his armor.

“Why didn’t you use your call?” Rana asked.

“I knew I was stronger than them even without it. I got hurt because I let down my guard. That Greggory was no joke.”

“What were the other heroes like?” Lily asked.

“Haley was clever as an operator. Her attacks couldn’t break my defenses, so she switched to trying to entrap me. It almost worked if I didn’t have Lord of Darkness. Lindsey and Hana launching attacks at me together were pressing me too much while I fought Greggory, so I put the Saintess asleep. But that ended up being a mistake.”

“Why?” Liara asked.

“Seems like there is something between Greggory and Lindsey. I regret going for her, but I’m sure he will forgive me when she wakes up fine.”

“Well then, for now, get some rest,” Liara said as they helped him up to his feet.

“Yeah. Rest sounds good.” Caeldaemos headed to the bedroom in the temple to sleep. Though the battle was short, he was exhausted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lindsey sat beside the cot that Gabriel was unconscious in, trying to heal his missing eye.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Greggory asked her.

Lindsey lightly laughed. “Yes, Greggory, I am alright. I already checked my status, and I don’t have anything unusual. I’m fine.”

“What about him?” He asked.

“I can’t restore his eye.” She stopped using her mana and sat back in her chair. “It’s like something is preventing it.”

“The Demon-Lord did cast something on it. Did anyone check it?” Haley asked.

“We can’t see each other’s status, so we don’t know yet. We have to wait until he wakes up.” Lindsey replied.

“Why not try a remove curse? He used a curse on him before.” Haley pointed out.

Lindsey shrugged, pulled out a mana crystal, and placed it just over Gabriel’s missing eye.

“Remove Curse.” Lindsey felt the magic activate and pull at something before failing.

“Huh…” She tried again, feeling the same pull and failure.

“Anything?” Haley asked.

“There is definitely a curse, but I can’t remove it. I guess the Demon-Lord really didn’t want his eye restored.” Lindsey put the mana stone away.

“Everyone.” Hana stepped up to them, looking downtrodden. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry,” Greggory replied. “You didn’t want the Demon-Lord killed, but I almost tried to. When he attacked Lindsey, I just….”

Lindsey smiled and hugged his arm.

“No, that is not your fault.” Hana looked down at Gabriel. “I shouldn’t have let my fear and his words drive us to battle. The Demon-Lord. He seemed like he might have been willing to talk it out.”

“I agree. The only ones who even got injured were Greggory and Gabriel. And Greggory’s was from when he tried to impale the Demon-Lord. He probably went after Lindsey to lighten the pressure on himself.” Haley said.

“It was surprising that he could still fight against us so well while reduced by half. I am rank 28, so I technically should have been stronger than him.” Greggory mentioned.

“That is true. Perhaps it was his equipment. Did anyone check his status?” Lindsey asked.

“I did, and I couldn’t see anything more than just ‘Reverent True Demon-Lord.’” Hana replied.

“He has a way of blocking our skill?” Lindsey was surprised.

The other two heroes confirmed that all they saw was a title.

“Next time, if the Demon-Lord seems willing to talk, we should try to speak to him. Who knows, maybe he is different?” Hana commented.

The other three agreed.

Word would spread throughout the world of Owtrelus of the battle between the Heroes and the Demon-Lord. The rulers would be confused about his actions as they received the whole story. As information is disseminated amongst the populace, the story would take on a life of its own, taking several paths of truth. Some thought the Demon-Lord lost and the Heroes won, or vice versa. Others would believe that the Demon-Lord was sending a message of fear, while others felt hope for a less bleak future. One thing was for sure amongst all their minds, this Demon-Lord was unlike any of the past.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End of Volume Two~~~~~~~~~~~~~~