The man dashed at the beast. He didn't appear to be more than twenty years old and wore short, soft, black hair. His clothing consisted of patchwork fur and yet held a subtle fineness to it as if it were crafted in earnest rather than to be a cheap product. I watched him enter range of the creature and immediately engage it in combat. He wore a bold smile across his face while he narrowly dodged and subtly deflected every strike. The shadow creature morphed its limbs in rapid succession sharpening, extending, shortening, and expanding while mixing it in with strikes. The boy quickly maneuvered to the side of each strike lightly and dealt rapid counters against the strikes he couldn't dodge.

My body felt weak and the pain pulsing in my foot brought me near blackout repeatedly, but I expended what effort I had left to watch the sight before me. I wasn't entirely sure when he arrived, but the young man continued his fight with a fierce smile plastered across his face. Though engrossed in their fight, I couldn't allow myself to stay still. I was no useless maiden. Dragging myself along the stone a short distance, I used the wall to struggle to my feet. With the damage to the surroundings, I'm sure the pole near me wouldn't be missed, and so I grabbed it and used it as a brace. During my entire predicament, the shrill screeches of steel on steel racked my ears.

By the time I returned my attention to the young man's fight, it had already ended. The shadow creature was laying on the ground in variously sized chunks that were slowly dissipating. The man moved gracefully towards me with a handsome smile on his face, yet I couldn't feel any arrogance from him. Now that he was nearly right in front of me, I was able to properly see him in detail. His outfit of fur appeared a little strange, but it appeared like care was put into its creation. The fur extended over most of his body and extra padding near his joins suggesting it was duel purposed as an armor of sorts. His shoes could only be described as rudimentary at best and I was able to make out a faint cloth that appeared to extend over his entire body underneath the small gaps in the armor that did exist.

"Are you okay?", he gently asked me.

The slight smile of concern graced his face and his features were subtly contorted to show a face of worry. His defined face appeared chiseled from stone and his black eyes reflected his emotions without taint. The man raised his hand and pressed it against my forehead. His hand was cool despite the battle he just went through.

"Are you okay?... Hello?"

"Huh...?"

"Are you... okay? Your incredibly flushed. I think you're running a fever as well."

He tilted his head and concern warped his features further. The sight pulled on something inside me, but I managed to regain some control over myself.

"S-S-Sorry! Thank you for your help!", I practically screamed it at him...

Expecting him to recoil in disgust or anger, the man just continued his smile and moved to my side. I saw a troublemakers smile cross his face bringing me entirely back from whatever stunned me originally. Unable to react to his motions, he knocked me sideways off the brace I was using and caught me in his arms. He reseated me with his arms behind my knees and back while clearly enjoying my flustered reactions.

"W-w-w-w-w-what are you do-Ahhh?! What is this!?"

"Stay still. I'm taking you with me."

"Eh-aaaaaahhhh!!!!!??"

I quickly released a scream when his immediate acceleration hit me. I barely had time to register his words before the scene around me started darting by faster than I could focus. The blurring of the buildings around me emphasized his speed further and the adrenaline that had finally started to dissipate was suddenly back in full force. As I couldn't focus on the buildings passing me by rapidly to my side, I focused instead on the far destination we were headed in. The plaza in the distance was were I first encountered the shadow creature...

[Impossible!! How are we here already?!...]

I glanced again at the fearless smile plastered on the mans face. I could feel my heart pounding in its cavity but returned my sights to the plaza's far side. The man had yet to slow down and a local shop positioned on the far side was a clear obstacle he seemed to be ignoring. I watched wide eyed as the building quickly grew from a small square in the distance to nearly filling my entire vision. I squealed and tightly closed my eyes. Clenching my muscles, I prepared myself for the collision, but a weightless feeling followed quickly after drawing another squeal from me.

The man started laughing at my state drawing me out. I opened an eye cautiously before yanking the other one open with it. Before me, I saw the entirety of Profectus below me as if I was a bird. The weightlessness feeling grew stronger and I saw the horizon quickly rising... Wait...

"Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!"

"Ahahahahahahaha!"

Between my scream and the man's laughing, we descended to the ground landing on top of a building. He seemed unfazed at the entire ordeal and maintained his speed. I could feel a darkness encroaching on my vision but held it back as strongly as I could. Now would probably be the worst time to pass out. In the distance, I finally noticed our destination. A group of men were standing around for the most part, but she recognized the garb of a familiar old man. He was directing the other men having them take defensive positions along the edge of the only entrance left in the first bulwark.

[Did they reclaim it?]

I turned my gaze to the crest of the hill, but saw nothing there. I couldn't tell if we had won or if there was a lull in the combat. We neared the first wall and the man carrying me quickly leaped over it as well. The weightless feeling hit me once again, but I was at least somewhat prepared for it this time and rather than close my eyes, I used the opportunity to gage the terrain and where men were being positioned.

[Monitoring?]

As if to answer my thoughts, the man moved his face near my ears to whisper.

"They seem to have beaten the remaining shadows. I imagine they're taking up defensive positions now and ensuring the front line is protected."

I felt the heat rise to my face once again and I'm sure I became flushed once more, but held back my nervousness. We landed on the ground and the young man slowed our pace as we neared Mr. Redmon. The elderly man noticed us and looked towards me. Curiously, he held a weird smirk across his face. As we neared him, that smirk only deepened until we finally arrived in front of him.

"My, oh my. Little Sugimoto sure grows up fast. Hundreds of foolish men tossin themselves at ya when all it took was a outsider boy?"

I could feel my face burning but denied the accusation.

"I-I-I don't know what you're talking about!"

I gestured for the man to place me down, but he appeared to ignore it completely. Instead he looked at me with an edge of concern.

"Will your leg be fine?"

"Oh..."

In the adrenaline rush from the quick footed travel, it had completely numbed the pain I had been feeling. I tried to nod my head, but he appeared to dismiss my opinion entirely...

"I'll hold you for now. Once Lapis returns, you should be fine. Hey geezer, how are things going here?"

I struggled in his arms but to no avail. He completely ignored my desires and I was forced to watch the grin grow even larger on Mr. Redmon's face. He held his smile even while responding.

"That Demon friend of yours did the job. We killed the last few shadows. I got me men takin defensive positions. We are gonna push the line and take back the front bulwark entirely. Well..."

He glanced away from us and faced the smoldering hill in the distance.

"I want ta help the lass... but we ain't got the people to fight that thing."

The young man scoffed slightly at his concern.

"That's fine. That woman can't be defeated by something as weak as that."

I looked up to his face and saw the absolute confidence reflected in it. The degree of trust he held in this 'Lapis' woman was painfully obvious. Something in my chest clenched slightly at the thought. A rumble tore through the ground shaking us lightly. In the distance, beyond the hill, a massive column of fire was rising towards the sky.

***

Lapis and General Zannon were continuing their game of tag across the side of the mountain. General Zannon's strength had been dropping since he lost his arm and the blood loss only served to speed the deterioration up. He was attacking less and defending more but the loss of his strength was slowly becoming more apparent. Lapis quickly closed the distance between them and used a bundle of compressed mana to launch him straight into a cliff face. They terrain had already been altered from their fight, but little of it was General Zannon's power. Reflected in his eyes was a sense of fear he had only felt towards the Great Demon Lord, his master.

As she pushed him, Lapis saw the arrogance and ego rapidly fade from his eyes. Her thoughts revolving around making him a messenger which she previously cut off slowly returned. His weakened body embedded itself into the cliff face with her attack and she saw he was struggling to even remain standing. The cold light the was still streaking across her eyes strengthened on her next words.

"Do you wish to die?"

The Demon appeared to struggle against his own pride, but the fear of death was clearly overwhelming him. He hastily yanked himself from the stone embedding and fell to his knees in front of her. His gasping breaths and shaking body only served to destroy his pride and ego further. No one who knew this General would believe what they were seeing. In between his gasps, he struggled to speak but the damage to his rib caged forced him to speak in slow, grappling bursts.

"I... do... not... Spare... me..."

Between his words, Lapis could make out splatters of coagulated blood leaking from his mouth. The occasional choke and cough served further to show the state the man was in. Honestly speaking, Lapis wasn't even sure how the man was still alive, much less attempting to fight her. She kneaded mana while he was kneeling and invoked a subtle healing magic across him. It would be enough to prevent his death if he was lucky, but she needed him to return with the memories of the fight ingrained into him so she only provided the most minimal of help. She allowed the silence to continue for a bit, strangling the man with his own imagination before wielding a political smile once more. She knelt to his height and ensured he was eye level with her. Before speaking, she ensured his full attention was locked onto her.

"I will allow you to live this one time. Answer my questions honestly and I will allow you to return alive. If I feel you lie even once to me, I will slowly tear you into pieces and utilize your corpse in my research."

The man limply nodded in understanding, his voice and breath paralyzed from the cold gaze and cruel smile directed at him.

"What is your name?"

"Z-Zannon... Aggar..."

"What is your occupation?"

"... Occupation...?"

Her eyes squinted slightly driving fear through him once again, but the man seemed genuinely confused.

"Your role. Your job. The over arching motivator that directs your actions."

"Demon... General..."

"How important is that position relative to your peers?"

"I... rank fourth... in... strength."

"I see... You will deliver a message for me. Tell the person who you report to that 'Empress Lapis Lazuli Fardom has placed Profectus City under her domain.'"

The Demon nodded with exhaustion and then collapsed on the spot. The fear kept his drive to move and survive alive, but knowing his survival was guaranteed, the released stole his consciousness with it. Feeling somewhat responsible and fearing he might die after relaxing to such an extent, Lapis invoked another heal across him to restore the basic functions of his system. She couldn't be sure how effective it was, but the blood that was pooling along the edge of his mouth halted, so she figured his internals were restored to a good enough shape to recover naturally.

Raising herself up to her feet, she lightly stretched her arms and reviewed the fight. Her power output was restricted and she felt she remained within the range the Elf woman predicted a Fairy should be at. Her mistake against the wolves earlier served a valuable lesson and she managed to hold back quite a bit. She gazed at the Demon laying flat on the ground and tried to extrapolate his strength to the rest of the creatures she met so far. In truth, he was of an entirely different class when referring to the ability to store mana, but he appeared to specialize in utility magics. The creatures she fought along the way didn't appear to be Demons from her perspective, but instead natural beasts.

Lapis expressed her dismay at her lack of information with a fluid exhale before turning her back and launching herself into the air with a powerful down stroke of her wings. As she rose into the sky, she noticed a segment of land that appeared to be sectioned off from the rest of the landmass. It was sunken into the ground nearly 50 meters and surrounded by cliffs on nearly all sides as if it were a crater. The thin gap she managed to see from her perspective was where a cliff face seemed to have collapsed from erosion. She dropped to the ground near the entrance and took a closer look around.

Landing just outside the entrance, she glanced up along the opening carefully observing the material and its composition. It appeared to be mostly granite as a core with lose soil and moss covering the outside. The fine pebbles and polished rubble piling along the ground of the entrance let her to believe this section of the surrounding terrain was simply too thin to withstand the assault of time and weather. She walked up the slight mound from the collapsed section and peered inside at the massive crater. It held a large lake in the center with short weeds surrounding the border. The wind was still the moment she crossed through the entrance and there were few signs of life beyond the weeds.

Lapis stepped down from the mound and walked to the border of the lake before kneading mana. She knelt down, touching the water and overlaying it with her imagination. She injected mana to activate the magic on the lake in front of her and various colors started to ripple beneath the calm surface. Within her mind, Lapis received the feedback from the mana and slowly mapped out the depth of the lake as well as its dimensions. Strangely, the land didn't appear to have a bottom, at least not in the sense of the water being trapped. Rather, the lake seemed to exit out into the nearby ocean through underwater tunnels. She raised herself and used the map she just built to estimate the dimensions of the lake and the crater itself to be nearly 350 meters diameter by 60 meters deep. The lake was centered nearly perfectly and ran at about 250 meters diameter and about 450 meters deep if measured to the most extreme location. On average though, the lake only appeared to be 3 to 9 meters deep at any particular location.

Bringing her finger to her mouth, Lapis licked the surface of her finger concentrating on the taste. From the minerals in the water, she concluded the crater was once an active volcano in the distant past. The tunnels she detected must have been lava tubes and the abnormal distribution of depth along the lake suggested it cooled unevenly with portions collapsing into lower tunnels.

The discovery brought a smile to her face and she took off once more from the site while keeping it noted in the back of her mind. She stroked her wings and accelerated towards Profectus City. As she neared, she no longer sense any of the shadow creatures. The humanoids she saw earlier seemed to gather near the entrance of the first bulwark, but the massive wall of ice covering the structure seemed to be hindering their scouting capabilities. She quickly dropped to the ground near the entrance surprising those who were defending the position. As if to ignore them, she didn't even bother listening and walked forward until she was next to a section of the ice.

"Lapis! Welcome back, how'd it go?"

Lapis raised her hand to the ice wall and began to study the remnants of magic keeping it solid as she replied to the young man approaching her.

"I won the fight. The Demon will deliver a message for me."

"Oh? I expected you to kill him considering the blasts I felt."

She knocked the back of her knuckles on the ice itself with a look of awe. Continuing her examination of the wall, she invoked a few smaller magics to analyze the magic she had never seen before.

"I was going to kill it, but it seemed to learn its place and knelt to me. I guess even Demons can be disciplined if you try hard enough."

"Oh... Damn. I bet that hurt its pride. Well, hey. Think you can heal some of the defenders? A few of them lost some limbs but can be saved if you help out. I was hoping you could heal this girl's leg as well."

Lapis twitched slightly at hearing about the girl. For the first time, she glanced away from the wall and directed her attention to Hiiro. Within his arms, he was carrying a small blond in a princess style hold whose eyes were wide with disbelief. Her sights were stuck on Lapis making her somewhat uncomfortable. Perhaps sensing her state, Hiiro shifted the woman slightly knocking her out of her stupor. The quick blinks and floating eyes were enough for Lapis to guess what happened.

"You are quite the player."

"Oi. Keep the accusations low. Can ya help them or not?"

"I'd like ta ask ya to help out the Little Lady too miss. She gonna need them legs to help sort this mess out later."

Mr. Redmon approached the group while signaling the people, who were stuck staring at Lapis, to continue their work. The male Fairies in the area refused his order and remained kneeling towards the Fairy drawing a curious thought from him. Lapis knew the elderly man before her was a high ranking officer the City and so focused her gaze once again at the woman being carried. She turned her body and with a graceful bow, introduced herself formally for the first time.

"I am Empress Lapis Lazuli Fardom. It is a pleasure to meet you. Who might you be?"

Surprised at the sudden formality, Countess Aria quickly tapped Hiiro to let her down. After hearing the title carried by Lapis, she knew anything but the strictest formalities would be disrespectful to the Fairy and so she suppressed the pain striking through her leg and took a formal bow. As the bead of sweat rolled down her cheek, she returned the greeting.

"Please pardon my appearance on such an occasion. I am Countess Aria Sugimoto, Profectus City Mayor and Defense City Council President. I apologize for the lack of greetings and courtesies. I'm willing to accept whatever punishment you deem fit, however I hope you will defer the enactment until after the emergency curfew is lifted."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Although they were in the middle of battle, Aria knew Royals wouldn't typically forgive a transgression that assaulted their pride as a Noble. She knew in particular that the Fairies held their pride in status and titles far stronger than any of the other intelligence races. The pain in her leg throbbed sending further beads down her bowing face. Her obvious shaking wasn't only from the pain though, she felt true fear of the woman in front of her. If she angered the being capable of defeating a Demon general, there was no way anyone here would survive. Her eyes were swimming slightly waiting for a response.

"Please raise your head Countess Sugimoto. I never sent a notice ahead of time and I am something of an anomaly to this world at the moment. You are perhaps the only one to even recognize my title as Empress so far. As such, I thank you."

As she righted herself, the pain in her leg shot straight through her nerves striking her mind directly. Her vision blacked out for a moment and when she was able to see again, she was leaning against the Fairy she was just apologizing to. Transfixed by her azure eyes that seemed deeper than the ocean, Aria could hardly understand her situation. The Fairy slowly sat her down on the ground and glanced around the scene. Following her sight, Aria saw many adventurers, mercenaries and criminals shifting in pain on the ground. They were brought into a central location after Hiiro requested it and it was only now that Aria's heart pained at their injuries.

The Fairy released Aria from her arms and stood back up. She estimated the degree of injuries amongst the crowd and enveloped the scene in her imagination. The average damage of each injury varied wildly and some limbs were completely ripped off damaging the socket it was connected to while others were sliced cleanly leaving little damage to the surrounding tissues. Her analysis magic reached out to each member and tailored her magic construct to suit each one individually. Once she was sure she had covered everyone on the site, she consumed a massive degree of mana in their surroundings to fuel the magic. The dense mana rolled off her body sinking to the floor. Filling in the vacuum of mana, winds ripped through the flatlands converging on the Fairy. Members who were originally off guard quickly took a defensive stand as the Fairy invoked a massive magic. A rotating circle twisted out from her as the center encompassing nearly the entire courtyard.

The circle rapidly grew brighter as the dense mana rolling off Lapis drifted to the ground and soaked into it. Some of the adventurers near her drew their weapons but were halted instantly by Mr. Redmon's glare. The elderly man seemed to understand the situation impressing Hiiro who returned his hand from the hilt of the Katana. As the circle glowed further, Lapis invoked the final component of the construct and men laying on their backs quickly started screaming. They gripped their limbs and gashes, some tearing the bandages off and reopening the wounds in the process. Those with limbs missing and had the wounds cauterized bled tears from the pain as their charred skin melted off the wound. In place of the fresh wounds, tendrils of nerves, bone, skin and muscle reached out as if they were moving with their own consciousness. The limbs spurted blood and shook as each nonexistent nerve reattached itself and established communications back to its host's nervous system. The skin grafted itself and crawled along the surface of each wound sealing it without scar or remnants of any sort.

As the limbs finished regenerating, the cries of the men slowly died down. Each member was clearly pale and drenched in sweat, but their limbs were clearly restored. The Fairies who were knelt down nearby held eyes of worship for the Fairy in front of them.

Seeing the wounded recover, Lapis destroyed the constructed circle with a wave of her hand canceling the magic. The gusting wind died into a light breeze and the site dropped into a dead silence.

"Good job Lapis. Wish I could do that."

Hiiro walked up to her side placing his hand on her shoulder. He made sure his actions were clearly observed by the fervent Fairies surrounding them. He felt daggers of hatred piercing him and smiled fearlessly back at them. A few of the gazes held blood lust in them and so he sent his own straight back at them. Hiiro may not be as strong as Lapis, but he was far more familiar with the dirty looks directed at her. He knew the action she just performed would cause trouble later, so he changed their target to him. Moving his hand to her waist, he directed her towards the Countess and Elderly man while maintaining his directed aura at the scheming gazes he knew were mixed into the crowd. The Countess lifted herself off the ground astounded at both the injured men's and her own recovery. She took a serious look at the Fairy approaching her and prepared herself internally.

"Countess Sugimoto. I would like to stay here for a while. You need not take any particular measures for me. Please focus on restoring Profectus City to normal operations."

Aria quickly took another bow even deeper than her previous.

"I thank you, Empress Fardom. If I may be so rude to ask, will you spare time to visit the Mayoral Hall so we may talk?"

"Raise your head. You are in charge of this City. I will follow your advice. I cannot appear today as I have plans, but how about in three days from now?"

"Friday then? I understand. I thank you for your cooperation."

***

Time passed and Lapis separated from the defenders with Hiiro. They were walking leisurely around town examining the various store fronts and learning the layout of the town. Although Hiiro breezed through the City earlier, he chose to act clueless and allow Lapis the chance to discover the various parts of the city herself. Although many of the store front had signs out front, Hiiro suspected that most of them brought their signs in when they closed as they couldn't find the emblem or name of many shops situated along the main shopping road. As they walked, Lapis smiled lightly enjoying herself. Although he didn't want to ruin her sight seeing, Hiiro decided the matter was important enough to bring up.

"Lapis, do you remember when you talked about your plans for the future with me?"

"I remember."

"Then I assume you also remember my promise to you?"

"Yes."

"Can you feel the presences trailing us?"

"Yes, they are terrible at hiding themselves."

"They are the Fairies that saw you earlier. Something is wrong with them. They felt almost crazy in how they looked at you. Fanatic even."

"I noticed as well. It sent shivers up my spine. Should we kill them? I am sure Zirco is hanging out in the shadows nearby somewhere."

"No. I want you to leave this to me. I promised you I'd handle these things. Anyhow, killing anyone in your path is a quick way to discard your dream."

Lapis smiled gently at his response and edged slightly closer. In reality, the sights of an abandoned city wore off quickly and she was just enjoying her time wandering with Hiiro. Feeling she was ready to move on, her hand reached for Hiiro's and gripped it tightly.

"I have a surprise for you."

The widely smiling Lapis stroked her wings down blasting air across the ground and launching them into the air. Behind them, Hiiro could feel the panicked movement of the presences that were trailing them. He smiled lightly at her prank and started admiring the view of the City from the air. He caught a glimpse entirely by accident of Zirco trailing behind them by leaping from cover to cover. He certainly took her order of, 'get out of my sight', serious.

Below him, Profectus City moved into the distance and the remnants of the smoldering hill slowly passed beneath him. At this point, Hiiro was in completely unknown territory and observed the terrain carefully committing it to memory. Lapis started dropping her altitude. He noticed they were gliding into a crater of sorts with a still lake at the center.

***

I watched the Queen candidate walk into the city and motioned to my team. We couldn't lose sight of her, our races' existence might depend on it. I kept my distance and stayed outside of normal perception range. They appeared to be simply walking around... Is she on a date with that Human? I fear the degree of control the Human has over her. The blood lust infused into the aura he sent us at the main gate was staggering. I never thought it was possible for such a young Human to exude such a dangerous aura.

I jumped from shadow to shadow and kept them in my sights. They stopped in front of various stores and houses, but I wasn't close enough to hear their conversation. Judging from the smiles exchanged between the two though, I worry for her future. That Human doesn't deserve such a smile directed at him. They took a turn onto the main shopping lane and I signaled my team to continue their pursuit. I needed to adjust my position or I'll be noticed.

Vowing to myself to keep her within my sights and safe, I Nyx Shadowmoon continued taking mental notes on the threats surrounding her.

After I caught up through a round about path, I noticed the air about the two changed subtly. I fear we were noticed. The Queen grasped the Human's hand with a smile driving my anger for him further into my soul. Without a moments notice, the Queen took to the air bringing the Human with her. My team and I panicked and attempted to pursue, but her speed and height made it impossible for us to continue following her. In my frustrations, I noted their general direction and assigned a scout to keep eyes on the direction and wait for her return.

Although we lost her this time, we mustn't next time. Queen Dazzlevine is going to near the end of her life within the next 300 years. Without a replacement Queen, our race might go extinct. Unlike what the uninformed species think, Fairies themselves do not copulate in the standard fashion other creatures do. Similar to Elementals, we reproduce by mixing our mana with a partner and giving it a consciousness. The 'child' produced is a merger of the two partner personalities and talents. The uncertainty of the gathered mana introduces talents and randomly adjusts certain traits acting like mutations allowing our species essentially to have a reproductive process that avoids clones. The only problem was the gender. The gender of us Fairies are male 100% of the time. That begs the question 'how do you create a female fairy?' The current answer from our research on ourselves is that you simply don't. Female fairies are generated naturally from mana. They only occur when bundles of mana coincidently obtain consciousness. The random assortment gives rise to the female fairy. Elementals share this trait, however Elementals are not known to have genders to start with, so the mystery is also, why are there even male and female fairies? Even to our own species, the mysteries are still deep. The deepest of all is why the lack of a Queen obstructs our ability to construct children. We don't yet have an answer to that mystery and it makes this discovery so much more important. I left the scout to his devices and gathered the remaining members of Team Regal together in our hotel room. We patiently wrote a letter to Queen Dazzlevine with all the information we collected so far.

We quickly entered the Adventurer Guild and waited for the first moment of operations to resume so we could send out an emergency letter.

***

"A female Fairy, huh... How do you think this is going to affect us?"

"Azmodius will move, without a doubt. Them Fairies are fanatics over their own."

"But how could one suddenly appear here of all places?"

"Little Sugimoto... You should just thank em and thank them Gods for our fortune. We would have lost that battle without her."

Countess Sugimoto and Mr. Redmon had long returned from the front line. They were sitting in the main council room discussing the day's events while they waited for their messenger to return. They sent out a message to all evacuation areas notifying them it was clear to return. Luckily, the fight lasted less than a full day, so the sites should be fine on food and water.

"Lapis said she was going to stay here..."

"Aye, that lass did..."

"She called herself an Empress..."

"Yeah... Yeah she did..."

The two of them exhaled strongly. They could predict the future somewhat based of what they knew and none of it looked good for Profectus. The fact that Fairy nation, Azmodius, is going to get involved is terrifying in and of itself, but considering Lapis declared her intent to stay and the power she wielded was abnormally strong, it meant most likely the other nations wouldn't stay still either. They both projected months out and could only see the corrupted Nobles vying for power amongst each other. Each nation would obviously start with bribing officials for information, then slowly move to control the city from the shadows. Aria alone wouldn't be able to stop the nations from getting involved. Technically, she had no right to as Profectus City was still technically managed by each of the seven nations officially. Regardless of her title as Mayor, her rank as Countess limits her control of the Nobles higher rank than her in the city.

Mr. Redmon wasn't fairing much better. He knew the nations were going to move as well, but what concerned him more was accidentally angering the young Fairy. He knew from conversing with her that she was young, even in Human terms. One of his greatest fears was that the woman gets slighted by one of the many rogue elements wandering the City and declares war against it. Frankly, he didn't believe they could contain her even if they sacrificed every man, woman and child in the City.

The two exhaled deeply once more, burdened with the City's future.

"Do you think she will work with us?" Aria questioned no one in particular.

"That young lad might..." replied Axel Redmon to no one in particular.

The two abruptly came to their senses and glanced at each other. They had both put the young boy Hiiro Sakamoto in the back of their mind thinking he was the Empress' guard but after thinking about it once more, the two suddenly questioned that.

"Did that man ever say his rank or position?"

"Na, not to this old man anyhow. Did he introduce himself to ya after savin ya like a maiden?"

Aria flushed a deep crimson at the memory she held closer to her heart than even she expected. Though her blood was rushing, she remained cognizant of their topic due to its importance.

"No. I never even caught his name after the whole thing ended... How in the world..."

"We was both exhausted from battle. It just didn't stand out. The boy couldn't possibly top the title of Empress nor the rarity of a female Fairy. We just overlooked the boy... Damn..."

The two fell back against their seats once again exhaling deeply. Feeling her problems stacking further, Aria aired her biggest concern.

"Hey Mr. Redmon... Do you have an ideas what to do about the Council? I don't think I can hide this..."

"I'm sure them corrupted silver tongues already know she exists. I take it the side mission fell through?"

"Yeah... The men I was going to use for investigation were forced to the front line after the assault intensified. Last thing I wanted was for deaths to pile up just because of round up attempt that banked on chance. Once Roxanne gets back, I'm going to have to start from scratch on a plan... I'm running out of time as well."

Mr. Redmon frowned at her complaint. Practically everyone in Profectus knew of the up coming marriage between the Marquess Tabor and Countess Sugimoto. They knew in particular that this round up might have been her best chance to cancel or delay the marriage as well. The organization 'Future Sight' supported the Countess behind the scenes with the Guild Leader as their president, but the decree from the King froze most of their actions. If something were to happen to the Marquess at this stage, the following investigation would target the Countess directly. If any of her plans to bring the Marquess down for corruption came to light, the other Nobles would surely frame her for the deed to remove her from power. That was the last thing 'Future Sight' wanted to have happen.

"The only thing we can do is try and restrain them fools. If we're lucky, they piss the great Lady off and she takes care of em for us... If we're unlucky, they piss the great Lady off and she takes care of us... Haha...ha... I be retiring soon probably, Lady Sugimoto..."

"You and I both..."

The two deeply exhaled a final time and gazed out the window at the declining sunlight. Their minds raced for a solution, but with so many variables outside their control, the solutions they found were too weak to withstand any pressure. While the two were in a daze, a shadow near the entrance unveiled itself and silently walked into the room. The dead gazes of the two City leaders didn't realize the existence of the new Guest and continued to frankly discuss the situation.

"Could I accuse Marquess Tabor on false charges and find supplemental evidence after ransacking his place...? That should buy us time to remove him from power."

"I doubt you'd find anything at da villains estate. He wipes them hands well. Think you could bend his cohort to you side?"

"His control over the Council is nearly absolute... They rely on each other cover up each other's crimes. If not for the reports, I never would have even caught on to them..."

"How about we just find some evidence of the crimes?"

"Huh? We've been trying that... Why bring it back up, Mr. Redmon..."

"..."

"Mr. Redmo...n? Oh no..."

Aria refocused onto Mr. Redmon to jokingly chastise him about his idea when she realized the voice was smoother than she expected. She saw his face paling in front of her and slowly traced his eyes across the room to a young man sitting in a chair. The man was kicked back with his legs propped up and his fur coverings dangled from his torso. He held a smile across his face and his black hair blended into the shaded room. From his eyes a gleam of light flickered back and forth as he alternated his sights between the two individuals. Seeing the young man sitting so calmly and positioned as if he'd been there for a while, the two both clamored to their feet knocking over their chairs in the process.

"Y-y-y-y-y-y-you! H-h-h-h-how long have you been listening?!?!"

The flustered Aria instantly shaded red at the realization.

"I'm Hiiro Sakamoto, by the way... Let's just say I heard enough to get the gist of the situation. I'm willing to work with you and knock those corrupted Nobles from power."

Countess Sugimoto and Mr. Redmon locked onto each other having a full conversation between their eyes. The silence in the room continued for minutes as they pressured and questioned each other with eyebrow movements and small gestures. In the end, the two returned their gazes to the intruder.

"Are you serious about that suggestion?", Aria questioned him through the silence.

"I am."

The two confirmed one last time with each other before recovering their chairs and seating themselves in front of the young man.

"Could you answer our questions first?"

"I'll answer whatever doesn't harm our position."

"Fair enough. You called yourself Hiiro Sakamoto, but you never gave your title. What are you in relation to Empress Fardom?"

"I'm her friend. Nothing more, nothing less."

The Countess' face reflected one of disbelief though she believed the man's title was the last of her worries at this stage.

"If someone angered the Empress, what kind of fallout would we be looking at?"

"Her temperament is to punish those responsible only. You don't have to worry about Profectus City suddenly disappearing."

"Can... Can you guarantee that?"

"I'm the best evidence. If she wasn't that way, I'd be long dead."

Although her face showed some doubt, something about the confident replies of the man put her at ease enough to push through to the meat of the matter.

"Do you have a plan, or would you like to use ours?"

"Tell me what you have in mind. I'll speak for Lapis. If you need her help, I promise you have it."

"Understood... Speaking of, where is the Empress at the moment anyhow?"

"Ah... She found a good spot to build a home at... I left her there while she was distracted..."

Aria noticed the man glance away while replying. She felt suspicious...

"Don't tell me... you didn't tell her you came here?"

"Well... She'll be fine. She gets lost in thought during times like this."

"Oh my God... You left one of the most valuable and rare species alone in Demon territory without telling her anything?!?!? Oh my head..."

The Countess held her head through the tears as she felt a migraine slowly start. From her side, Mr. Redmon held a bright smile as he felt he and the boy would get along better than initially thought. He took hold of the conversation and jumped straight into their strategy.

"Our current plan is to show them weakness in policy and direction that lets em take advantage of the situation. We have men in place to gather evidence of them taking advantage of these loop holes. Once taken advantage of, the plan deviates depending on the culprit. In the case of Marquess Tabor, he is in control the Knights internal to Profectus City."

"Knights? I didn't see any of them fighting during battle."

"Yeah... Them Knights are a bunch of pansies... They kidnap women and children off the streets like their candy and sell the poor things to slavers. The women got it worse since I've yet to hear anything about pure women being sold to the slavers."

"How about the kids?"

"Like I said boy. None of the women sold are pure..."

Aria and Mr. Redmon felt a slight blood lust escape from the young man in front of them. The density of the blood lust in the air was nearly palpable, but rather than scare them, it only served to increase their confidence in the boy.

"Then we focus on the Marquess Tabor first."

***

Lapis was quietly humming a tune as she slowly constructed her future home inside her mine. She looked across the lake and chose to create it directly in the center. The depth of the water at that spot was only around 6 meters and the floor was made of solid extrusive igneous rocks. Her mental blueprint started small with a disposable building first. She needed a base of operations where she could later expand upon. With that in mind, she laid out a rough floor that stood atop large pillars that reached into the earth.

In order to reach the house, she envisioned six long bridges spiraling into the center. If someone were to ask her what purpose they served, she could only respond they're aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The bridges that spiraled in all remained hardly 10cm above the surface of the water. She wanted the sight to appear like a mirror reflecting the sky with hovering platforms and a small home in the center. Along the edge of the lake, she imagined it smoothing out and turning the rough circle into a smooth outline. That circular border will be raised from the water slightly creating a thick path that surrounded the lake. The path itself will be made from polished igneous rock that was abundant in the area.

Each of the platforms and bridges would be covered in a thin layer of polished obsidian enhancing the reflective qualities further. The house itself she decided to build from the granite along the edge of the cliff. Her mental construct slowly finalized itself in her mind and she saw the sun was slowly descending. With limited time and no other tasks on her list, she prepared to start construction.

"Zirco."

"This one answers, my Liege."

The Demon dropped from the sky beside her on command with his features stoic and his body movements practiced. She glanced at him without hiding any disgust.

"Prepare some food for Hiiro and I. I will permit you to travel North only for hunting."

"This one understands."

As quickly as he appeared, the Demon quickly left her side flying towards the North to hunt. She watched him fly with clenched fists but returned to her task. While talking to herself, she kneaded mana to activate a refining magic.

"Without Hiiro by my side, I want to crush that fool..."

The wind gusted, spiraling around her as she focused her eyes to the sky. The crescent bright moon shared the sky with a descending sun becoming brighter by the minute. The dense mana rolled off her body as it normally did for magics of such large scale. Her desire to not tap into her reserves appeared to be more habitual than anything else. As she glanced down, her imaginative construct slowly fused itself across her vision and she could clearly see the details of her planned architecture. She gathered a bit more mana before invoking it and used the time to fine tune some of the bedroom layouts in the house.

Holding out her hand, the mana running off her body slowed in defiance of gravity and started flowing towards her outstretched palm. As the mana compressed itself, she took a knee and used her other hand to seed the magic. She tapped the ground infusing a small amount of mana and from that source, characters and geometric shapes slowly etched themselves into the ground. The etchings rapidly spread out around her forming concentric rings radiating from her as the source. As though she were looking at something solid, Lapis looked at the scene across the lake. The construct overlaid on her vision started glowing in segments as the magic circle continued to etch itself into the ground. The circle itself already expanded large enough to where its outer most ring started encroaching on the wall of a nearby cliff face.

The glowing circle started to slow its spread after reaching nearly 80 meters wide and instead began glowing brighter. Lapis smiled gently after seeing her construct rapidly complete itself over her vision. Upon completion, she invoked the magic. She moved the concentrated mana in her palm over the center of the circle where she seeded it earlier and tipped her hand. The ball of mana dropped onto the circle and started spinning rapidly as it dug into the ground. It buried itself halfway into the ground before the circle started glowing brightly. She continued smiling as she stood up and moved away from the circle. Unlike normal magic, the circle continued to execute despite removing herself from the system.

With a proud look, she watched over the site as the ground vibrated lightly. If one looked carefully, they'd see ripples in the water originating from a spiral pattern and the ground along the border of the lake slowly reshaping itself. Lapis nodded slightly at her efforts and snapped a finger creating a crystalline chair to kick back in near a temporary camp site. Zirco had already started the fire and so she went to relax. Sitting back in the chair, she listened to the cackling of the fire and watched the moon slowly take control of the sky. Her thoughts drifted to Hiiro and what he was currently doing. When he left earlier, she noticed he had a pensive expression.

"Does he not trust me?"