As the sun basked the land in its soothing gaze, a soothing choir from the ambient river sang through the forest filling the otherwise silent and still landscape with much-needed life. The river ran through the forest before arriving at a pond with an even smaller island at the centre of it filled with a mini meadow of cyan achillea ptarmica. Crouched by the border of the mini meadow and wearing gardening attire, Chroniana placed a bundle of cyan achillea ptarmica inside a flowerpot-shaped dirt into the hole in the ground. Chroniana picked up the garden trowel beside her before carefully using it to move the dirt to the flowers and patting the dirt to flatten it.

(Chroniana is a super short humanoid female supreme seraph[a humanoid with translucent bodies, pointy ears]; she has glowing light grey spikey hair with faint non-glowing blue clock hands coloured spots at the end of her hair, a pale lime left eye and a teal right eye, thick tighs, lightly tanned skin with tan lines, and a slightly translucent body)

Chroniana contently exhaled and rubbed her forehead before she shivered as she felt the cold dirt on her sleeve brush against her skin. She poutfully sighed and struggled to rub the mud off her forehead with her clean sleeve as a pink flash of light appeared behind her. 

"Now your exterior matches your personality," Zalrotho stated in a sternly cheeky way while he walked across the pond's surface.

(Zalrotho is a super tall adult male ultimate kitsune[a humanoid with kitsune tails and ears]; he has dark silver hair with glowing pale cyan and glowing black tips, constantly closed eyes, pale white skin to the point it's faintly cyan, a countless number changing long [triple his height in length] dark silver tails with glowing pale cyan and glowing black tips, and kitsune dark silver ears [left ear has glowing pale cyan and right glowing black])

"Yeah-yeah, why don't you call me a perv while you're at it," Chroniana said with a snicker. Zalroth tilted his head at Chroniana's response.

"What else would I mean when I called you dirty-minded?" Zalroth asked neutrally, making Chroniana blush slightly before slowly turning her head to face Zalrotho.

"Oh come on, I told you someone switched those signs in that... wait... what are you wearing?" Chroniana playfully said before her tone turned perplexed as she set her eyes upon Zalrotho's outfit; a Hawaiian-styled ink-splotted shirt, bright red beach shorts, sandals, and sunglasses with flower frames.

"I was just in Hajimetaka," Zalrotho stated, making Chroniana flinch in shocked amusement.

"And here I thought you'd be more reserved with your newfound keither abilities," Chroniana said smugly.

"You wouldn't be saying that if I had brought you with me," Zalrotho said unamusedly. Chronia amusedly rolled her eyes.

"True but I'd rather do botany than whatever you had to do in Hajimetaka.". Zalrotho sighed and crossed his arms as he pondered something.

"On the matter of those keither abilities, were you lot really okay with me keeping them-". Zalrotho was interrupted by suddenly being flicked on the nose by a floating Chroniana as she giggled at him.

"It's nice to know you don't see those keither abilities as your own... I'm glad," Chroniana said as a small content smile formed on her face.

"Why's that?" Zalrotho asked. Chroniana placed her hands behind her hips and swayed her body from side to side in a shy manner.

"That's... because... It sorta means you'd see it as me being a part of you, you know," Chroniana stated meekly before she adverted her gaze as she turned slightly red from embarrassment at her own words.

"That has gotta be the second most cheesy thing you've said to me to date," Zalrotho remarked as he raised a hand to Chroniana before gently flicking her on the nose and making her slowly spin backwards through the air, giggling to herself as she saw the brief millisecond Zalrotho blushed.

"Guess you didn't mind my accidental invasion of the men's bathhouse after all," Chroniana remarked cheekily as she slowly tumbled over the space above the mini meadow, disturbing their stillness as she brushed against them.

"..." Zalrotho remained silent before he simply turned away and began walking away, creating ripples in the pond as he walked atop its surface. Chroniana halted her spinning and swiftly hovered over to him while carrying her garden tools.

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"If you spent as much time on the restoration mission as you do on teasing Zalrotho, The Demon King of Corrosion's corruption would've been completely wiped out ages ago," a smug booming female voice remarked from above as a large shadow loomed over the area. Chroniana angrily huffed at the female's words, making Zalrotho snicker which only added to Chroniana's fury.

"Oi, Edgy Mc Hedgy," Chroniana murmured before she tossed something small at Zalrotho. He didn't bother turning around as he moved to the side and caught the metal chip.

"And this is?" Zalrotho asked.

"One of the many metal chips I've hidden across the world, and if you're not a cheap winner I hope you'll find the others without your red keither," Chroniana stated as her voice became airy and wobbly.

"And what makes you think I'll waste my time partaking in your idiotic gacha game?" Zalrotho remarked.

As the sun fizzled away and was replaced by multiple moons, the light on the area shifted into the night as Chroniana faded away and Zalrotho's attire phased into one befitting of a demon king. Zalrotho lowered his head and contently hummed. He shook his head as he turned around and walked towards the pristine life-sized statue of Chroniana in the middle of the mini meadow.

Zalrotho remained silent as he raised his hand and dropped a metal chip into the vase held by the Chroniana statue. The chip landed on top of the chip pile inside the vase before it shone bright like a beacon as the chips within it melted into a molten liquid. The molten metal swirled around the vase like a whirlpool as its pigmentation shifted into a rainbow hue.

"A rainbow only at the very last pull, you really are a despicable person," Zalrotho uttered amusedly. The molten rainbow liquid rose out of the vase, shimmering in the moonlight as the liquid cooled into a rainbow glass sphere containing an obscured object. Zalrotho raised a hand to the glass sphere and gently flicked it before it cracked and exploded into dust, leaving the object held within to drop into Zalrotho's hand.

As he gazed at the object, a ticked-off smirk formed on Zalrotho's face as he raised the object to one of the moons to get a better light on it; the object was a lime-coloured hourglass it had a dark green two-pillared frame with glowing teal stripes and white sand in the hourglass. On top of the hourglass frame, it has a sun engraving and three crescent moon engravings on the bottom.

"Cheeky brat," Zalrotho uttered as he placed the hourglass into one of his many kitsune tails, "Why did it have to be The Cradle of Fate?". Zalrotho shook his head to shake the smile off his face before he coated himself in pink keither(dense particle-looking energy). In a flash of light, Zalrotho appeared at the throne of a dark royal throne room and he swiftly took a seat at the throne before the door to the throne room was kicked open by a trio of heroes(Ethel, Kou, and Natzuki).

"Guess who's back~," Natzuki proclaimed as she pointed her darksteel claymore at Zalrotho.

(Natzuki is an average-height Japanese human teen; she has long grey hair with blonde hair tips, and two hair buns on the side of her head, a ruby red left eye, a sapphire blue right eye, and lightly tanned skin with shoulder strap-shaped tan lines on her shoulder)

(Kou is a tall Japanese human teen; he has spikey black hair with large silver hair tips, silver eyes, and fair skin)

(Ethel is a short Japanese half-human/half-vampire kid; she has long dark royal blue hair with the end tied into the shape of a pickaxe, emerald eyes, pale white skin, small fangs, and six small black hip wings)

"...". Zalrotho remained silent as he stared at the trio, leading the trio to also be quiet in turn. The hero trio glanced at each other before slowly lowering their weapons.

"No... speech this time?" Ethel muttered to Natzuki, who shrugged in confusion. Natzuki turned back to Zalrotho, who had an emotionless glare on his face so jaded it could kill.

"Did we come at a bad time?" Natzuki uttered worriedly. Zalrotho passionlessly but heavily sighed making the trio flinch, and they flinched again as Zalrotho rose to his feet.

"Tell me... do you enjoy this whole being heroes thing?" Zalrotho asked as he suddenly appeared right before the trio, eliciting an eep from Ethel. Natzuki amusedly rubbed the back of her head and nervously giggled at Zalrotho's question.

"Although I can't speak for the others, I'd say it's pretty fun especially since there's no downside given you're the guy who's the Dark Lord," Natzuki replied cheerfully while Zalrotho nodded as he listened.

"And if you didn't have the option of travelling between this world and your home one, which would you choose?" Zalrotho asked sternly. The trio perplexedly blinked at Zalrotho's second question.

"Isn't it obvious?" Kou remarked with a hint of cheekiness in his voice, causing Ethel to lightly kick him in the leg for being rude.

"How so?" Zalrotho asked.

"I mean, all our family are back home so... you know," Natzuki explained.

"Ethel would miss mother and father," Ethel stated objectly.

"I see," Zalrotho uttered, "Shall we get started then?". Natzuki put on an unamused expression as she stared at Zalrotho.

"Could you go back to your throne first?" Natzuki grumbled, with her friends sharing the same sentiment. Zalrotho snickered mentally before he turned on his heel and walked towards his throne.