First Demonic Dragon

"Demon Lord, we've come to do battle!"

On the hundredth floor of a dark cathedral, a group of humans burst through a pair of doors in heroic fashion.

Adorned in resplendent armor and fine robes, the party of adventurers were clearly very high-ranking.

In front, a blonde-haired man who was clearly the party's main damage-dealer pointed a shining gold sword at a throne across the room.

"Your tyranny ends today, Demon Lord Merk! Humanity will no longer suffer underneath your kind's threat when this battle is done!"

Finally, the man across the room rose from his seat.

He revealed a traditional bad-guy esque appearance. Long raven hair, burning red eyes and dark demonic horns curling out of his head.

Naturally he was quite handsome, so much so that the party's priestess and cleric blushed at the sight of him.

Maybe being captured here wouldn't have been quite so bad after all...

"So... The hero and his party have come into the great jaws of the beast of their own accord... You've spared me the trouble of having to find you myself."

"Of course we did. We're generous like that." The hero quipped.

The Demon Lord began floating off the ground as dark feathery wings burst from his back.

"Hear me, one chosen by the beyond. Being the bastard son of the god of severance will not save you today."

"Ha! Mentioning that old deadbeat is a low blow, Merk! But what else should I expect from a demon? Let's do this!"

The flaring auras of the individuals inside produced a larger reaction than expected.

For some reason, the entire ceiling suddenly came down.

With dust billowing in the air, the hero's mages erected a barrier to protect them all from surprise attacks.

But they were slightly surprised when no attack at all came from their enemy.

When the dust finally started to settle, the humans were finally able to see the reason why the ceiling had collapsed.

A new player had joined into the fray.

One that left both the hero's party, and the demon lord, stunned.

The woman was indescribably captivating, even before one saw her face.

Pale white skin like freshly fallen snow; and long hair that fell past her large butt to match.

Her only clothing was something the inhabitants of this world were unable to recognize as a sports bra and dark leggings.

She possessed a body that looked like it was chiseled from marble; bearing a set of the most perfect abs and toned arms one could possibly lay eyes on. And yet, her body oozed with femininity and gracefulness.

When she lifted her head, she revealed an expression so angelic, so pure, so incomparably beautiful that the men in the room felt their knees wobble.

Her glowing eyes were distinctly bright and vibrant, almost like two red lightbulbs.

Did it make any sense for one person to be this attractive or magnetic?

To look at her was to want her. From the depths of ones bones to the follicles of hair on their heads.

She finally parted her full pink lips to speak and graced their ears with her soft and serene voice. They barely noticed the twinge of sadness fraying at the ends of her words.

"I've come for the strongest among you. None else draw my interest on this day…"

The mysterious goddess who caught everyone's attention seemed not to be talking to anyone in particular.

This gave the golden-clad hero a chance to hopefully strike up a conversation with the beauty.

"Well, if you're looking for the strongest then I can certainly-"

A wet explosive sound filled the air as the hero burst into a bloody mist.

Six more popping noises followed in quick succession as the rest of the hero's party were eliminated except for one.

The only hero who she had left alive was the one standing all the way in the back, and appeared to be of the thief or assassin class.

"W-What is this.. H-How did you-"

"No point in hiding among them … I'm neither naive nor blind."

The human couldn't believe it.

How was this woman able to discern that he was the one in the group blessed with a super-unfair system from the gods and a boatload of cheat treasures and protagonist tricks?!

He was keeping those close to his chest so as to not attract too much attention! (He was an edgy bastard with a chuunibyou complex and an untreated addiction to women.)

"Who are you, goddess? Where do you come from…?"

The Demon Lord finally spoke, clearly intrigued by the power of this individual who made his job of killing the heroes so much easier.

Her lifeless, anguished red eyes fell upon him, and he nearly felt himself be suffocated by the weight of her gaze.

"Those things are of no concern to you. All that you need know is through victory my chains are broken. I will be unburdened."

'Free? So she is a prisoner to someone? Or servant? None of the legends speak about this.' The demon lord was still at a loss for words.

This situation was not only highly unprecedented, but it was also extremely difficult to navigate.

What was to be gained from fighting this woman?

If he could, he would instead like to know more about where she came from and who exactly held her captive.

As well as knowing if perhaps her reigns could change hands…

"Seras."

As if the day weren't already strange enough, a new woman appeared in the destroyed throne room.

She wore a radiant white dress and a veil to match. The only parts of her skin that were exposed were her hands, and those seemed to be a delicate pale blue color.

'Who is this now?!' The hero cried internally.

'The holder of her chains perhaps..?' The Demon Lord wondered.

The woman who she referred to as Seras seemed undisturbed by her arrival.

"… Go home, Asherah. Nothing that you say will change what I have to do today."

A new hole was created in the room as the demon lord was sent crashing through the wall.

In front of him, a magical barrier was trying to stave off a large red spear that had been hurled at his chest.

'I-I didn't even see her throw it..! What kind of weapon is this?!'

Try as he might've, he couldn't seem to fully stop the spear from passing through his barrier.

Whatever this thing was made out of, it was certainly a material capable of ignoring magical defenses.

But something like that shouldn't even have existed in this world.

In a flash, the otherworldly jade beauty reappeared in front of Lord Merk.

She grabbed the end of her spear with both hands and forced her weapon past the barrier; piercing his chest.

The demon lord felt the first of his six hearts explode within his body.

To make this scene even more absurd, the same woman in a veil from earlier had finally reappeared behind her.

"How much longer are you going to continue this distraction of yours, Seras..? You need to go home."

"I can't go back to him like this, Asherah! You wouldn't understand!"

Seras drove her adversary through a building that was already on fire.

The arrival of the hero's party in the demon realm had been quite catastrophic for it's inhabitants, so most of the surrounding area was already ruined before the fight began.

The demon lord's body came crashing through the ground on the other side and rolled to a stop.

He had only just started to pick himself up when the entire building fell onto his body and buried him under a mound of rubble.

Seras landed on the ground to fish him out, but Asherah stopped her from taking another step forward.

"It's been four days already, Seras. How many realities have you visited? How many of those world's chosen heroes have died by Gungnir? When will it be enough?"

"I-I can't answer that, Asherah. I'll know it's enough when the time comes, now please just let me-"

"You need to go back to them. To him."

"Stop! Talking! I-I'm doing this because of them! Because I need to be better for them!!"

"Have they ever asked you to be better? Have they ever made you feel like who you were was not enough for them?"

"I SAID STOP!"

Seras' unrestrained roar may have only been enough to cause minor damage to her bedroom, but for any lands outside of Tehom, it was powerful enough to reduce the surroundings to grains of sand.

Asherah was the only thing that seemed not to have suffered in the slightest.

Though she did seem a bit sadder than before.

"Is this where we've come now..? After the history our family has shared?"

Seras realized the gravity of what she'd done and the shame on her face was immense.

"I-I'm sorry, I just… I can't leave yet."

Asherah crossed the distance between the two of them and placed her hands on her cheeks like a reassuring mother.

"They are worried sick about you, dear. Can't you feel it..? Their desire to see you at home and whole?"

Because of Asherah's coaxing, Seras accidentally let herself slip into a habit that she had been trying to avoid.

She let herself feel them.

The sensation was worse than the first time she tried this.

Immediately, it was as if the echoes of their hands along her body came rushing back into the forefront of her being.

It felt so much better after going without it for so long; so much so that her legs gave out from underneath her and her breathing became heavier.

But she could also feel how her actions had affected them.

And her husband was the worst of all.

She felt just for a moment the amount of anguish she caused him, and her body involuntarily let out a terrible scream.

Even after she pulled herself back, she was still drowning in guilt, her mind threatening to fracture once again.

As tears fell from her eyes, she reached for her head.

Seras broke off one of her own horns as easy as if it were a piece of styrofoam.

But her madness didn't subside until she drug the sharp end of her horn down her face and over her eye.

Her panting and heavy breathing slowly began to subside, making room for her clarity to return in it's place.

"Can you see why I can't go home now..?" She asked hoarsely. "I can't let them see me like this. They won't see me the same anymore… everything about our relationship will change."

Asherah kneeled in front of Seras and took her face into her hands.

The wound she had given herself was already healing. However the blood she spilled remained.

"I need you to honestly ask yourself something, Seras. Is this easier than telling the people you share your life with what is really going on with you?"

Seras shook her head, already knowing the answer.

"It isn't. In fact it's the hardest thing I've ever done. I want nothing more than to run home to them and apologize for everything I've done and be bathed in their affection..

But I also don't want them to see this ugliness inside of me. I want them to know me as the woman, warrior, wife, and mother who I've turned myself into being. Not the helpless child who still can't…"

"Can't what, Seras..?" Asherah gently pushed. "You need to say it out loud."

Much to her credit, Seras did open her mouth to try and get the words out, but she inevitably choked up and faltered in the end.

"I can't… please just give me more time and tell them nothing of what you have seen this day… I beg you." Seras prostrated in front of Asherah in a full bow.

Underneath her veil, the mother goddess was making the most troubled expression that she had since they started trying to reincarnate Tathamet.

She knew that the black dragon held a lot of faith in her.

If he learned that Asherah knew of Seras' condition and did not tell him, their relationship might suffer irreparable damage.

Seras was placing her in a very unfair position.

"…72 Hours, Seras. If you overstay your excursion any longer than that I must tell your family what I know."

"I understand... Thank you for-"

"Spare me your thanks, child. You may yet take them back."

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