Alina

I silently touched down on the roof of my target’s house. Dismissing my white angelic wings with a thought, I triple checked that I was still invisible to anyone around me. It was probably unnecessary since I hadn’t heard anyone reacting to a woman wearing white-gold and silver armour and with large white wings swooping in from the sky. Which was a very good thing. After all the times that McKenna and I had come to walk among my Goddess’s people as ourselves, I was fairly recognisable as McKenna’s wife.

It still amused me to no end that people hadn’t changed. I’d been alive for a very, very long time, and there were still those who refused to see me as anything but her second-in-command – the leader of her angelic host. It never amused McKenna, though. She was always far more upset that I wasn’t given my due among those who prayed for her favour.

McKenna had always been the sort to see the world how she wanted to see it, not how it really was. It was one of the many things that I loved about her. In the fifteen thousand years that we had spent together, that time never got old. Having Quinn as our other wife probably never hurt either. She was such a sweetheart. I couldn’t help but smile as I thought of our little kitten. There had barely been anything written about her, except among the nekokin, which was hardly surprising since she was rarely seen outside of the home we shared.

Laying on my front, I put my head down over the roof, spying my target through the open window, I immediately blushed. Her husband was passionately kissing her, the woman I had come to give a miracle to. I sighed in relief as the man – Emeret, from the information I received just by looking at him – stood his wife up, gave her one more gentle kiss, and started preparing their meal. Liliana Terrence blushed as she walked over to the table and started setting it.

From just that interaction alone, I was convinced these two deserved the miracle I had come down to bless them with. Just as I was about to access my Goddess given abilities. A blue notification screen popped up on my UI.

[World Notification]

The title of [Demon Lord] is awarded to the fairy known as Azalea.

I frowned as I read the blue letters, my eyes opening wide in surprise. It wasn’t every day that a new Demon Lord was created, after all. I couldn’t help but let out a puzzled hum. That name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t remember exactly where I had heard it before. You’d think I’d remember someone with a name like that. It wasn’t like a Harry or a John. Dismissing the blue notice, I read the second one.

[World Notification]

From this day forward, any and all class and racial spells and effects can no longer be applied to any Celestial Object.

Well… that was a surprise. It’d been a long time since Adam had had to patch out an exploit in the system. It would seem that the newest Demon Lord was a clever little thing. Or extremely lucky.

Hearing a shout in the house I was observing, I dismissed the second notification and saw the husband and wife talking in hushed voices, seemingly afraid of being overheard. I couldn’t say what, or whom they feared as whatever occurred to make those world notifications was a long way from here. Something like that would’ve probably been heard and seen for kilometres.

Shaking my head, I dismissed these thoughts for now, I’d talk to McKenna when I got home. Targeting Liliana, I activated my [Divine Magic] skill, and selected the correct miracle. My body glowed a bright golden-white light briefly, and I watched as Liliana flinched and became flushed, as if she had just ran a marathon. My job done, I stood up on the roof and summoned my wings. With a mighty flap, I lifted up off the roof and flew high in the sky. After that particular miracle, there would be a mini Terrence running around in roughly nine months time.

I flew through the fold in space that provided entrance to our home, marvelling once again at the beautiful mansion. It overlooked a waterfall that fed into a peaceful, sandy inlet, the water casually flowing out into an endless expanse. Green forests behind the house went on until the base of a massive mountain. The sight never failed to relax me. It was dawn in our little realm, a golden light shimmering across the inlet and forming a rainbow in the waterfall.

Flying up through the falling water, my outstretched hand skimmed along, the water parting around my fingers and a fine mist spray hitting my face. With a powerful beat of my wings, I twirled, bursting through the top layer of water. After decades of practice, I had perfected this move as the momentum of my final flap pushed me up and over, before my superhero landing on the balcony we had set aside for landings and take-offs. My wings were spread wide as droplets of water fell off me. Standing up, I dismissed my wings and instantly dried myself with [Divine Magic].

The door slid open on its own, and as I stepped through I spotted McKenna sitting on our lounge reading and gently running her hands through our wife’s hair as Quinn cuddled into her side asleep. The nekokin was purring softly but besides an ear twitch, didn’t react as I walked up to them.

“Hey, love,” I whispered, bending down and kissing the side of McKenna’s dark curls.

McKenna turned to look at me, a fond smile curling her lips as she put her book down on her lap. “Hey, beautiful. You’re home early.”

I grimaced, running a hand through my blonde hair in agitation. “Yeah… I saw those world notifications. I thought I recognised the name. Isn’t Azalea Adam’s En–”

McKenna quickly put a hand over my mouth. “Shh! Don’t say His name, or that either. Not if we don’t want to draw his attention.”

“What are we going to do? I assume you have a plan?” I said, sitting down heavily and sighing. Quinn’s purring momentarily halted, but started up again as soon as I ran my hands through her hair. It never ceased to amaze me how much she could sleep through.

My divine wife sighed as well, closing her eyes and grimacing slightly. “I honestly don’t know. We can’t move too openly against him. If we do, the others will either move against us, or back us up, and no one needs a war amongst the gods. Especially right now.” She opened her eyes and looked at me suddenly, a thoughtful look on her face. “Maybe you should call a meeting of the Demon Lords. Make sure to contact Sarah first.”

I frowned. “What would that accomplish?”

“An invitation to our newest Demon Lord that she couldn’t possibly ignore. It’ll be the perfect time to meet her, and if necessary… remove her from becoming a problem.”

A chill ran down my spine at the tone in McKenna’s voice, reminding me of why she was the Goddess out of the three of us. I sure wouldn’t want to be Azalea right about now…

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Pox

I couldn’t help but squeak in terror as I heard the racket from within his rooms. My King was having another bad day. Ever since we had received the world notifications he had been furious. To make matters worse, the scouting team he had sent to track the undead had failed to report in almost a week.

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Just as I fluttered down to organise lunch for the King, a knock sounded on the door. Sighing, I made my way to the door in question. Being the king's secretary wasn’t all that fun. Worse when he was in one of his moods, like now.

“Yes! I’m coming, damnit,” I shouted as a louder knock boomed on the door. Opening the door just enough to stick my head through, I looked out. “Yes? What is it?”

A clearly exhausted scout was staring desperately at me from the other side. Their outfit was dirty, dust and dried blood covering them almost from head to toe, multiple pieces of their armour torn. The scout herself physically didn’t look any better, with one of her arms dangling at her side, clearly broken. Behind her I saw two soldiers standing guard, having clearly escorted her.

The young Daemon gulped, breathing hard and swaying slightly from exhaustion. “I-I n-need to see the king, it’s urgent!”

I looked at the girl, giving her the most regal look I could muster. “You should’ve thought of that before barging in here looking like you are now. Your King is busy. Get tidied up, then come back.”

“Pox! Who is at the blasted door?” The voice of the King reverberated through the room, setting every Daemon in the vicinity shuddering, their wings fluttering nervously.

The daemon scout pushed past me before I could answer. “It’s Junior Scout Clover, Sire! I’m here to make my report.”

There was a moment of pause, before the king replied, his voice somehow both hot and cold with barely suppressed rage. “Present yourself, Junior Scout.”

I gave the girl a sympathetic grimace as she shuddered and let out a little squeak. I quickly opened the door to his room and slipped inside, gesturing for the daemon to enter.

Giving the king a deep bow, I backed away into the corner of the room, closing the door behind Clover. This close to the king the aura of his power was an almost physical presence in the air, making it hard to breathe.

Clover prostrated herself before the king, doing a superb job of holding in her whimpers of pain from her broken arm.

“Arise, and Report.” As the king spoke, his command was felt just as much as heard. Even though it wasn’t directed at me, it made me want to spill every little secret and thought I’d ever had. The only thing that stopped me was knowing that my life would be ended if I did.

Quickly getting off the floor, Junior Scout Clover saluted and gave her report in a succinct and clear way. Outlining the moment they made contact with and began to herd the undead horde, all the way until she witnessed its destruction by the hands of a single fairy.

I gasped as I heard the report. There was no sense in denying what the scout had seen. We had all received the notifications, after all.

The king waited a moment longer after Clover had stopped speaking. “Was there anything else? Did you get a good look at this fairy, Azalea? Do you have anything to report about her?” The barely contained rage was unmistakable in his voice.

The young daemon nodded eagerly. “Yes, sire! She was travelling with friends, and from what I could see, she’s found a mate among the humans.”

“UNACCEPTABLE!”

Crying out in pain from a sudden surge of his aura like a physical blow, I cowered as I watched the king lift a finger, a bolt of black-purple energy flashing out and striking Clover. Her brief squeal of pain seemed to echo through the room long after the blue-light particles from her death vanished.

The king looked at me with a hard glint in his eyes. “Pox. Organise my elite scouts. Send them to investigate this fairy. Tell them to get her to come to me, by any means necessary. Do you understand?”

“M-My, King, it will be done.” My voice quivered as I bowed deeply to my monarch, before rushing out of the room, supremely thankful that I wasn’t the fairy who had decided to annoy King Nyx.

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

Major Jardoc McLaggen

I sighed as I sipped my brandy. With boots up on the little work desk in my tent, I leaned back in the chair and sighed again. If I had to be here in the frontlines, at least I got my own private tent. Most soldiers had to share with half a dozen others. I shuddered. Ghastly, truly ghastly. As the second son to a powerful and rich family back in Skarra, it was expected of me to enlist – as an officer, of course. I briefly wondered about what my little brother was doing, living the life of a vagrant adventurer. Little twerp was free to live the life he wanted simply because he was the youngest.

I was just glad that as a McLaggen, I was afforded better privilege – we had to have standards, unlike the peasants. The same ones that the king had ordered to the frontlines to keep up the appearance of helping the war efforts.

All these doomsayers, crying about how if the dragons kept up the pressure for much longer, the entire defensive formation wouldn’t last. Bah! Bunch of yellow bellied craven fools if you asked me. Unfortunately, none of them had. Even though I had excellent advice. I’d been on the front, fighting by directing my men to the best location for years now, and none of the Alliance Command came to me. It was ridiculous. True, I lost more men than any other unit, but that’s because I got untrained peasants that I didn’t have time to whip into shape. So I just whipped them into position instead.

Speaking of peasants. I had just finished the last sip of my expensive brandy when a knock sounded out on a tent peg outside, I could just partially see one of my soldiers waiting. With one last regretful look at my empty bottle, I stood up and made myself presentable. “This better be good. Now is my time off. Well, what is it? Enter!” I commanded impatiently.

One of my soldiers, a fresh faced recruit judging by the lack of facial hair, pushed open the flap and entered with a quick salute. “Sir! We have reports of major enemy activity on the frontlines.”

I snorted. “Well of course there’s enemy activity on the frontlines. It’s a bloody war!”

The soldier flushed pink. “Yes, sir. But this is major enemy activity. The scouts reported a Dragon Lord on the move. Lieutenant Durral requested that we pull every soldier that we have available back into duty. Regardless of whether they’ve got time off or not.”

A sigh accompanied me pinching the bridge of my nose. “We haven’t seen any activity from any Dragon Lords since the beginning of the war. We don’t need to panic and mobilise everyone, only to embarrass ourselves in front of the alliance.”

A terrifyingly loud roar blasted through the tent entrance, sending bone chilling terror down my spine and drowning out whatever the soldier had started to say in reply.

I rushed outside, just in time to see a massive green-brown dragon, with more spikes than a porcupine, roar and breathe blue-white flame over the closest barricades. The soldiers manning the defences vanished in moments as the flame washed over them. The barricade exploded inwards as the thagomizer on the end of the dragon's tail pulverised it with seemingly no effort.

Arrows, spells, and rocks all smashed harmlessly off of the thick spike riddled scales of the dragon as it went on a rampage through our lines, destroying everything it touched. Countless Dragonkin – smaller humanoid dragons in various stages of evolving into true dragons – rushed through the gaps that their monstrous cousin had left in its wake.

“Arouse everyone!” I commanded – breaking out of my shock, only to find the entire battalion had dissolved into panic and bedlam. Soldiers were running around heedless of any command given to them by their superiors.

I watched as the civilians that had followed the army in order to provide services were cut down, screaming in terror, by dragonkin now running freely through the camp. Realising that all had been lost in this section, I fled the slaughter. After all, I was a McLaggen, I was far more valuable than all of these people put together. I was too busy looking behind me and didn’t notice the small dragonkin hiding amongst the tents until it was too late.

With a hiss, the lizard-like creature pounced on my back, sending me careening head first into a tent, instantly collapsing it around us. I screamed as I felt the creature bite deep into my shoulder, slashing into my side with its claws. My HUD was already flashing red dangerously as I tried to cast a fireball at my assailant, only to scream in agony as the beast clamped its jaws around my casting arm. A loud crack echoed in my ears as my arm snapped.

With my vision rapidly fading, I watched as the Dragon Lord turned around and flew back to the dragon’s side of the frontlines, roaring its bloody victory for everyone to hear.

“Stupid, dumb lizard,” I giggled as even the pain I was in, finally, blissfully vanished as the dragonkin’s jaws rushed towards me one final time.