Yulong, once a powerful country, has fallen after the invasion of the extra dimensional life form known as Phrase. All nations knew what happened that fateful day and how the Great Duke of Brunhild saved the world. But the survivors of Yulong, especially the last of Yulong's nobility, blamed the Duke for what happened. And then there was another group who blamed him, and those were the members of Qulau, the ancient order of assassins at the service of the Imperial Family.
In the narrative they have created, Touya has used a strange magic to summon the beasts known as the Phrase and destroy their country. Or, well, it may be true that Touya wasn't the one who provoked the disaster, but if he had handled his giant soldiers when the Emperor demanded it, the monsters would have never destroyed Yulong.
And as time passed, Qulau was the last remnant of what Yulong used to be. Reduced to a group of soldiers of fortune who sold their services to several nations to do their dirty work. And only because they wanted to get resources to be able to get revenge on Brunhild and Touya. But it was a dream far from becoming a reality.
And then they came. A group of people in black robes started to attack their hideout with overwhelming power.
"Were you sent by those dogs from Brunhild?! Well, they can try to destroy us, but we'll raise from the ashes as many times we need until we get our revenge!"
The leader of the men in black robes put his sword away. "No need to worry. We just wanted to test your abilities. Making sure you live up to your reputation."
The leader of Qulau put away his own sword. "All this mess because you're clients testing our strength?"
"And also showing ours so you understand what would happen to you if you dare to go against us."
With that, the leader of Qulau laughed. "I can't say I don't understand that. So, we passed? Are you going to hire us?"
The man nodded. "Yes. Mochizuki Touya stuck his nose where he shouldn't. He will regret the day he joined forces with Shadow Garden."
"Oh, please! We have been trying to put Touya in his place for a while now. Do you think we would have destroyed him by now if we could? He is too powerful. No matter how many agents we send to Brunhild, they are all destroyed without mercy. He is an opponent too dangerous to face now."
The men checked inside their robes and offered them a flask of red pills. "Use this. This is the power of Diabolos, and it will give you a temporary boost."
The members of Qulau took the flasks. "So, we use this to exterminate Touya."
"No, even with the power of our Cult, that wouldn't be a good idea. We want two of his wives. If you create a distraction for us to capture them, Touya would think twice before keeping supporting Shadow and his followers."
"I see! The princess of Regulus, or Belfast?"
"We want the fairy and the demonkin. If you can capture any of the others for yourselves, be my guess. But give us our prayers, and you'll get your payment. We can include a few more Tears of Diabolos as a bonus."
The leader of Qualau thought about it for a few minutes and nodded. "So, you are giving us this, which will give us more power, and you'll also be paying us to make Touya pay. You have a deal."
They both shared a handshake.
"We'll go right away."
"No, no. We have to create a distraction before you make your next move. We need to lure Shadow away first, even if we have to sacrifice another facility."
"Who is Shadow?"
"He is our problem. You take care of your missing, and we'll take care of our own."
***
"My lord, we have news about the Cult of Diabolos." said Tsubaki, after a week without hearing from them.
"Where?" asked Touya. "Did they finally make their move?"
"As a matter of fact, it seems that their activities never stopped, and they got more active after Kagenou-Sama destroyed their last hideout. It seems that most of their activities are taking place in the former territory of Yulong."
Touya frowned. "I see, the perfect way to hide suspicious activity in plain sight. Quickly, let Kagenou know immed..."
Touya stopped when he turned to a window, where someone had put a thick curtain with a golden chair with red velvet, and a luxurious lamp that gave the whole scene a mysterious dim light.
"So, they decided to hide in plain sight in a lawless land, where suspicious activity is the norm. I applaud their efforts, but in the end, they are only delaying the inevitable."
Touya sighed in exasperation. "Kagen... I mean, Shadow, do you know about Yulong?"
"A bleak valley that used to be a powerful civilization, destroyed by a race of crystal monsters who were visitors from another world."
"You did some research!" said Touya, impressed.
Cid gave him a smile. A dark and mysterious smile that made him look cool. Or that was what he thought. "Yeah, I was getting bored, so I thought I could go to Yulong to see if it was as fun as the Lawless City in my world."
Touya sighed but decided to ignore what he just heard. "Tsubaki, can you please give the information to Kagenou and his friends?"
The shinobi bowed before Touya and proceeded to give her intelligence report to Shadow, who opened it with a blank expression and snapped his fingers.
Four women in black materialized behind him. "You heard that, right? We have located them. Touya, do you mind?"
"Yes, yes!" said Touya, extending his hand and activating his null-spell. "Gate!"
He opened the portal to Yulong, and the five of them went through the portal. Once they were far from Brunhild, Touya sighed and started to dismantle Kagenou's montage.
Then, after finishing his office work, he went looking for his wives to have a picnic.
"You seem more relaxed, Touya. You seem!" said Yae as she happily ate her lunch.
"With Kagenou and his friends away, I can finally relax!" said Touya.
"They are not that bad," said Lindsay. "Beta is nice. A bookworm buddy, if only she hadn't had this obsession with Kagenou, she would be perfect."
Elsie agreed with her twin. "And Delta is also cool. A great sparring partner, if not a bit too enthusiastic. Sensei Takeru really appreciates her."
"I can imagine," said Touya as he watched Delta train with Elsie and Ende. "That girl puts her heart into the battle."
"Epsilon is a nice girl too, a talented artist," mumbled Sakura.
"Yes, Epsilon is an interesting girl. And despite the slime she likes to carry anywhere, I like her." said Leen, placing a hand on her chest.
"Hey, Leen, can I ask you something?" asked Sue. "Have your breasts grown larger lately?"
Leen gave her a self-sufficient smile as she stroked her chest. "Oh, who knows, ohohohoho!"
Yumina stared at her with her mystic eyes. Jiiiiiiii.
"Yumina?" asked Leen.
"What are you hiding, Leen?" asked Yumina.
"What are you talking about, ehehe? I am not hiding anything!" Leen said nervously.
Yumina was about to keep insisting, when they all jumped when they felt a presence. Four figures in black came out of nowhere, and charged against them.
"Qulau's assassins? Would they ever learn?" complained Touya, preparing his weapon. The gun-sword, Brunhild.
He shot multiple times, but the skilled assassins of Qalau dodged the bullets and charged one wife each.
Yae, who never separated from her katana, charged back against them. Overwhelmed by the samurai's speed, they were pushed back, and before they could recover, Hilde finished them off with her Lestian sword attack. Once they were defeated, Touya pulled out a piece of rope from 'storage' and tied them up, but not before he removed their masks.
"Are you ever going to give up? Don't you understand that Yulong doesn't exist anymore? All your attempts are nothing but a waste of time!"
Yulong's assassins stared at Touya.
"Maybe. And our attempts are nothing but a desperate attempt to recover what's ours, but unlike the last time, now we have something we didn't have before."
Touya rolled his eyes. "Blah, blah, blah... is always the same with you guys. Why don't you save your monologue for someone who cares?"
Touya charged his weapon with bullets enchanted with the spell 'Paralyze' so he could shut them up, but then they said something that Touya couldn't ignore.
"Now we have, THE POWER OF DIABOLOS!"
At the sign of his leader, the four assassins swallowed the red pill they have hidden on a secret compartment in their teeth, as it was a cyanide pill. A huge amount of magic power started to emerge from their bodies as they shouted freeing themselves from their ties and resumed their attack.
Yae, Hilde and Elsie hurried to block their attack with their swords and gauntlet respectively. But the assassins' attacks sent them flying violently.
"This power isn't normal!"
Touya shot again, but Yulong assassins were able to dodge the attack with speed and charged directly at Touya. That made the Great Duke smile, they got a power boost but there weren't any strategies or anything. All brawl no brains.
"Slip!" said Touya, using one of his signature attacks.
The assassins fell over their butts as they slipped.
"I don't know where you heard the name Diabolos, but this ends now. What was the big idea?"
The leader smiled. "Hey, we made you look, didn't we?"
A new presence appeared in the middle of the battlefield, dressed in a black robe with a hood, jumping over Leen and Sakura.
"Sakura-Dono! Leen-Dono!" Yae said,, running to save her friends.
But the man pulled out a strange artifact from his hood and vanished into the air, leaving a small, flat stone behind.
"Nooooo!" shouted Touya, running to the stone, ready to save his two wives.
But a hand grabbed him by the wrist. "Are you sure you have time for this?"
The man took a flask from his pocket, revealing more red pills, that he swallowed at once.
His subordinates followed his lead, turning into horrible, deformed creatures with enormous arms and black eyes with bright red pupils. They roared and punched Touya, sending him flying against a tree. So hard that it spanned in pieces.
"Touya!"
"Touya-san!"
The wives shouted in fear, but Touya was seeing red. "Leen... Sakura..."
He shot more magic bullets, this time enchanted with 'explosion'. The assassins from Qalau exploded into a million pieces.
"Die, die!! How dare you put a hand in my family?! Die already!"
He kept shooting, covering the monsters with holes, but then, much to everyone's surprise, they regenerated. Yae and Hilde jumped over them with their swords and cut their creatures' arms. But they regenerated new ones.
"What the hell? How do you stop these things?"
Four figures in black crossed the air and aimed their black swords toward the creatures, moving them at great speed, reducing the monsters to nothing. By the time Shadow Garden landed, the monsters were long gone.
Alpha then turned to Touya. "You have to keep cutting until you get to the core, where their real body is, and destroy it. If you don't, they'll keep regenerating."
"Is everything okay?" asked Beta.
No one dared to respond. Touya was on his knees, in shock, and trembling.
"Leen... Sakura..."
"What happened here? We didn't arrive on time?" asked Epsilon.
"The monsters were a distraction; they arrived and kidnapped two of our friends," explained Yumina, making a huge effort to force her words as she fought the shock and sadness.
Saying it just made it feel more real. Everyone just let escape a small tear, or clenched their fists. How could something like this happened? Brunhild was their sanctuary, it was enemy-proof. How did Yulong and the Cult of Diabolos could trespass its defenses?
"Shadow-Sama said he will clear the area so we could go first." said Alpha. "I should have known that this was a plot to keep Shadow distracted so he couldn't intervene when they targeted his childhood friend. If we hadn't waste time questioning him. I cannot apologize enough!"
He just looked at the flat stone the man in the black hood left behind. Feeling magic power coming from it, he touched it.
The stone glowed and project ted the image of the same hooded man, in a warehouse, where his two beloved wives were tied up with magic-proof chains. Both have signs that their faces were punched over and over.
"It's an honor, Great Duke of Brunhild. I would introduce myself, but I see that Shadow Garden is right beside you, so you already know who we are."
Touya grinded his teeth. "Cult of Diabolos."
The man in the black hood nodded.
"Yes. Honestly, Great Duke, if someone is at fault for what happened today, it's you. Not only are you a problematic person, but you are also the type the Cult would have crushed a long time ago, before they became a real threat. In our world, a nation like Brunhild would have never existed."
Touya walked toward the projection. "So all this because you couldn't control me or Brunhild?"
"Not exactly. In normal circumstances, we would just have continued acting without calling your attention. But you decided to join forces with Shadow Garden, making us the most wanted in all the nations you are close to. Do you have any idea of what you've done? Not only do we have lots of resources thanks to Shadow Garden, but now all the resources we invested in your little world will go to waste as well!" The man started what could only be described as an adult temper tantrum.
Leen, still in chains, couldn't help but chuckle. "You are nothing but an overgrown child! Not a rival for my darling."
That made the man mad, and he only slapped her right in front of Touya.
"DON'T DARE YOU PUT YOUR FILTY HANDS OVER MY WIVES!"
The man regained composure. "Ehem, that's up to you, Great Duke. If you don't want us to give you back some blobs of rotten flesh..."
Touya shivered at the memory of the possessed ones that Kagenou healed.
"Then you and your little nation will have to submit to us. You will have to supply us with prime matters for our investigations, and, of course, test subjects. Beastkins, and Demonkins will do, oh, and also, use your influence in other nations to make sure they welcome us with open arms. You have twelve hours to decide, Great Duke. See you around!"
The projection ended, and Touya fell on his knees, powerless, as his other wives tried to comfort him, but they were as shocked as he was.
Then, they heard the calm and careless steps of Kagenou, who was walking toward the group.
"Hey! What did I miss?"
With that, all of Touya's anger built up. He charged toward Kagenou in blade-mode. Ready to make him pay.
"KAGENOUUUUUU!"
Cid blinked in surprise, but he turned his knight's academy uniform into Shadow's outfit, and charged to Touya with his crowbar in hand.