Sorry, sorry for the delay! Life's been hectic so I'm afraid the updating schedule is going to continue to be weird.

Tear rolled around in Erebus’ bed while crying softly to herself. “Master,” she sobbed, “I miss you so much!”

The door to the bedroom creaked open and Lilian poked her head throw. “Tear, would you please sign off on these documents?” She stepped inside and worked on detangling Tear from Erebus’ bedsheets.

“No! Lord Erebus was stolen away from me, I don’t understand how you can be so cold...”

Lilian sighed and pushed up her glasses. “I am upset by the recent turn of the events, too. But that doesn’t mean that we can allow our master’s home fall into ruin.”

Tear looked up, her blue eyes rimmed with red and her vision blurry. “I know but... I miss him,” she cried out. “These sheets don’t smell like him anymore!”

“Tear,” Dark Mist input as he walked into the room. “He hasn’t even been gone for a day.”

The woman whipped her head towards him and glared. “Shut up, ignorant buffoon! My love for Lord Erebus is boundless and my heart aches when he is gone from me!”

“Xaltiq needs your help with something, too, Tear. Please do not forget that you are the Overseer,” Lilith told her monotonously. “Please get yourself together and get to work.”

Tear heaved out a sigh. “Fine... Lilian, bring them here.” She gestured tiredly to Lilian as she pulled herself upright. Lilian did as so and Tear quickly signed off on her papers. “What did Xaltiq need?” she inquired.

“I don’t know,” Dark Mist and Lilian said at the same time.

“He didn’t inform me,” Lilian spoke.

“It seemed pretty urgent.” Dark Mist nodded his head. “That’s why you should hurry up and deal with it.”

“Shut up, filler character,” Tear snapped as she detached herself from Erebus’ bed. “Where was he?” she directed her questions towards Lilian.

“He’s with Amber entertaining our guests still... Since we threatened them and said that they couldn’t leave until Lord Erebus gave permission, they haven’t been in the greatest mood.

Tear blinked, remembering the words that Vyne had told the Four Princes, “If you leave, our master will surely hunt you past the ends of the world.”

And since it wasn’t a baseless threat, they stayed.

“Here I go,” Tear sighed. The weight of her soul could be heard in those words.

...

Xaltiq swallowed and started shrinking back into himself. Certainly, he had met a great number of amazing people here... but he was still only human! Being faced with the Four Princes of Hell and being expected to deal with them was way too much of a burden.

And their hostility was being directed towards him, too... They definitely wanted to leave. And they could, Mae (Triton had left) was the only one strong enough to contend with them and she couldn’t handle all four at once.

But the threat of Erebus’ hunting them down hung over their heads, so they were reluctant guests?

Well, Satan was the most laidback about it. He seemed like the type of person that Erebus would get along with, Xaltiq thought.

Honestly, he wasn’t even sure how he had gotten stuck in this situation in the first place. The struggles of being strong, he supposed?

“Hello,” a musical voice said and Tear, accompanied by Lilian and Vyne (he had been picked up along the way), entered the room. For a moment, Xaltiq felt as if an angel descended before he remembered her twisted personality. “I hear that our esteemed guests had some questions?”

Leviathan piped up, “Hell yeah we do! If you don’t hurry up and let us out, I’ll kill you.”

Tear blinked slowly. “Well,” the pristine smile on Tear’s face disappeared, “deal with it. You’re not the only one suffering, you know? I miss Erebus, so, so much. I don’t want to hear your mouths.” She stopped bothering to maintain her proper form and slouched while jutting out her bottom lip. “Honestly, he left me here to deal with you unsavory men!” She stamped her feet on the ground. “Shut up! I don’t care about your problems!”

Leviathan stood up. “Why yo--”

“Nya, don’t do it!” Mae came running to the rescue (she had been a “fly” on the wall until now) and threw her arms around Leviathan. “I’m wholly against violence!”

“Damn pest,” Leviathan muttered, struggling to push Mae off of him. He was fed up. He had been forced to fight a fight he didn’t even want to be involved in, with a dragon, no less. He was at his wit’s ends.

Xaltiq pulled away from the commotion but as he made his slow retreat his body hit a solid chest. Behind him was a man who only seemed to be in his mid-thirties, but had the aged look of someone who was always under too much stress. He had a stern face with jagged edges and his hair was grayed and fell around his face, only adding to the intimidating effect.

“Erebus, do you usually allow this ruckus in your castle?” he questioned in a deep, rumbling voice.

“Basing my conjecture off of his personality: yes,” a beautiful man with silvery blue hair answered the other man’s question. He looked up a smile in his eyes. “Four Princes, we meet again.”

Satan leaned over to Lucifer and whispered, “Who are they?” He was promptly elbowed in the stomach by Lucifer. If they were referring to Erebus like that, then they must have been on at least equal footing as him.

Erebus stepped through the entrance with Weryn latched onto his back. “Ah, I forgot to introduce them didn’t I? Mmm... well, I’m no good at introductions so do it yourselves?” He pried Weryn off his back and threw the child into the arms of Mae. “Toodles, I’m busy.”

The crimson-eyed man with the stern gaze spoke first, “My name is Rolut. I am the first dragon.”

“Well, I’ve met a few of you before, but I’m Frize, the second dragon. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”

The faces of everyone, excluding a few, paled. Didn’t some extremely important people just introduce themselves? Weren’t they, technically, in a higher position than Erebus? Erebus was already dizzying... these two made Xaltiq want to cry.

He shared the sentiment of the Four Princes: he wanted to go home.

“I don’t understand,” Tear spoke up, casting a confused stare at Rolut. “What exactly is going on? What is Lord Erebus doing?”

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Rolut looked around at the children surrounding him, his eyes landing on the Four Princes before continuing their survey. He sighed and sat down at the head of the table with Frize standing by his side.

“It’s all right to tell them, isn’t it?” Frize remarked. “Their loyalty to Erebus is astounding and,” he tossed a glance at the Four Princes, “well, they know their place.”

The eldest dragon sighed once more, this time, the gravity of the situation seemed to accompany it. “It’s a long story and it’s one that will never leave this room, understood?”

Everyone nodded their head, exchanging glances amongst themselves.

Rolut rubbed his chin. “Where to start... I wonder?” He rummaged through his memories, trying to find the best place for him to beginning. “Do you know of the Guardians? The ones who protect segments of the 「Godly Stone 」.”

Vyne spoke up, “Yes, we’ve met one before.”

“I see, that makes this easier for me then. Fate was a Guardian, the first one to appear, actually. She is the reason why Erebus is busy.”

Everyone bore an expression that meant “go on”.

Rolut exhaled, he seemed to be full of sighs. “There was something about Fate... something that none of us had predicted.” His eyes grew distant as if he was back in the past. “Our only purpose as dragons is to protect the world, from anything and everyone... Fate was our only failure. We had failed to see her for what she really was,” regret lined his voice as he spoke. “Fate is not of this world, you see.

“Where she came from is a mystery, but her existence hurts our world. When mana enters her body, it changes into a substance that is harmful to those who inhabit this planet.” He stopped for a moment. “Us original dragons have a certain amount of immunity to it, but after too much exposure, even we will be affected. And the effects are... not pleasant. I believe that is telling of what it would do to those much weaker than us.

“When we found out, we managed to restrain Fate before she could spread her corruption but... the beast that awoke within her won’t be stopped with just that, after all.”

“Excuse me for interrupting,” Lucifer cut in, “but what do you mean ‘awoke’? In the first place, it doesn’t make sense for you to have never have noticed someone so dangerous.”

Rolut cut his eyes in Lucifer’s direction, causing the demon to scoot back a little.

“Apologies.”

“No, it’s fine,” Rolut excused Lucifer. “To answer your question, Fate wasn’t always like this. As I mentioned, she used to be a Guardian... one with a sense of justice, at that. That Fate loved this planet more than anything; however, she was not the ‘real’ Fate so to speak. Honestly, I don’t know too much about it either, Erebus would be better at explaining... but I’ll give it a shot.

“As I said, Fate came to this world from another thousands of years ago, but she was very weak at that time. She wasn’t strong enough to corrupt the existing mana in the world with her own, that’s why she trapped her soul in a mana stone weak enough to change and placed it inside of her body.

“She began a doll, more or less, and the soul that was meant to guard the 「Godly Stone 」entered her body.” Rolut held up his hand before anyone could ask questions. “Don’t ask about the Guardian, that isn’t the point of what I’m telling you.”

All the questions that had bubbled up in their throats remained there.

“Fate became the Guardian, a false one. She had the proper soul but... she was not of this world so she could never truly protect it. Nonetheless, that fake Fate lived for quite a while before she and Erebus were doing... whatever and catastrophe struck: the mana stone that contained Fate’s soul broke and she took hold of her body once more. The rest you should understand.”

Just as he finished Erebus entered the room with an uncharacteristic gloom hanging over him. “What? You’re telling them about her?”

Lilian broke her silence that hung after his question, “Yes. Though, if I may ask, why does Fate aim to hurt this planet? It’s not as if she’ll gain anything by bringing about the end of the world.”

Frize stepped up to the plate. “Well... because of the words of a certain someone, the Fate heard and became inspired?”

Erebus cleared his throat.

“So, Lord Erebus is the cause of Fate escaping?” Satan asked, leaning back in his seat.

“More or less, yes.” Rolut nodded his head. “Yeah, that sounds about right?”

Erebus gasped in shock. “I did not--”

“If you desperately try to defend yourself, it just makes you look like the culprit,” Frize input.

“What was it that he said? Do what you want to do?” Rolut scratched his chin. “He probably said that with that haughty attitude of his.”

“I thought it was the entire world was a playground... I heard that one a few times.”

Frize and Rolut conversed amongst themselves, creating a pleasant atmosphere around them as they spoke of Erebus.

The others inside the room were silent. It certainly sounded like something Erebus would tell someone. Or rather, it was more surprising that only one person had been influenced by Erebus’ personality... well, it wasn’t just one.

“Erebus,” Weryn began. “Could it be that you’re the ultimate Dark Overlord? Everyone touched by you becomes tainted... Look at Mae for example.”

“Nya? Did I do something wrong, nya?” Mae cried out, cupping her face and shaking her head. “Calling me tainted, how sin-ful, nya!”

Weryn looked at Mae, obvious distaste coating his face.

Dark Mist added in, “No matter how you look at it, all of his subordinates are like him, though? They even kidnapped me from my home and forced me to stay here without even thinking about what kind of situation it put me in.”

“Actually, now that I think about it... People with Erebus’ mindset are far too abundant! The Dragon Council forced me onto Erebus because they didn’t know what to do with m--”

“Enough with that,” Rolut said hurriedly and turned to Erebus. “Did you find where she went?”

“That? Ah, yeah, there’s a problem. She’s jamming me so I can’t find her, nya?” Erebus added in an “nya” to lessen the blow of his words.

It didn’t work.