15- Going back. and a 'Gift'

In the midst of a battlefield

The sound of the breath of two exhausted figures was heard...

The High-Class devil managed to go past Mudrock and flee, while the rest were either purified, burned or blasted with the rocks from Mudrock...

Jalter never thought that something like rocks and simple dirt would be so lethal...

The rocks launched when her hammer did upward swing...

Who would have thought that flying rocks could be so hard and deadly, She even saw some rocks go through multiple devils...

Barriers, Spells or even their bodies, the rocks just went through like a hot knife through butter...

The worst is the dust... seeing a devil grabbing his chest thanks to the amount of dust blocking their lungs...

And the same happened with their ears, nose and even eyes...

All of that combined with her speed, strength and defense makes Mudrock a walking fortress...

It seems that her magic is being powered by the earth itself... Her barrier takes dozens of spells without even showing a sign of being damaged just like the 'Box' made of earth that she summoned at the start...

Even when the Devil broke it ¡the wall just repaired itself in no less than a couple seconds!

No doubts that her barrier is capable of doing the same

Just then...

They saw the night become as bright as in the day...

In the distance a giant tornado made of fire illuminates the entire forest

Jalter couldn't help but worry.. even if it's a fake body, even if there is nothing saying that he will lose...

She turned her head towards the other two

One at her 'sister' face is enough to know she is as worried as her...

As for Mudrock, her armor prevents anyone from reading her body language... but as someone who uses negative emotions to cast her spells, it is easy to tell how worried she also is.

"That idiot won't lose that easily, why are you worried? "

"My friends... they can't reach... is too dangerous for them to get close... "

"Is what you said before about Ahm true? " after telling Jeanne about the state of Ahm when He came here... she must be feeling bad about not realizing something was wrong with him...

The feeling is worse when we can't contact him through telepathy...

"... I hope not... He should be fine... let's go there... we are not fast enough to catch that devil anyway..."

...

...

After reaching the place

All there was left is... disaster

Ashes flying all around the place, burned trees and some were still burning

Cracks, holes, water, trees and rocks everywhere

With the feeling brough by the mana and demonic energy adding to the scene...

A disaster is the first thing one can say about the state of this place...

It didn't took them too long to find Ahn

Their connection works both ways, making it even easier...

But what they found surprised all of them

A fainted Devil was being held in the hand of a giant black arm, not much is visible from his body... but the blood all around shows the amount of damage he was inflicted with...

Ahn was sitting on a rock with his eyes closed...

Even before we could process the scene before of eyes

One of us already made her way towards him catching him with a hug from his back

The amount of negative emotions around him were palpable in the air...

Not just Jalter who has a natural affinity towards them.

Even Mudrock and her friends could feel it

Jeanne didn't even need to think before jumping straight at him while casting various healing spells

"Ahm? Are you okay? "

"Wh-"

... ...

¿WHO?

I was about to respond with a Who...

And then I realized whose voice it was...

"When did you... come? To this place... Sorry. It seems that... I went to the past for a moment..."

If the crying Jeanne was not enough... the worried face in Jalter made it clear that...

...

" I lost myself and then my mind went to a zone where I feel 'Safe'

...

Back to the hospital bed... Thanks. Jeanne, Jalter, come here... You too Mudrock"

We spent a couple of minutes there... in a hug while doing nothing else...

To think that I still have something left from that place...

Again... what I felt is... fear

The fear of losing all I have here... there fear of losing... them

...

...

Sadly we can't stay like this...

"As much as I want to keep doing this... we need to take care of.. him"

Jeanne was the first to react, trying to do something to cheer me up

"Ahm. Let me show you! I upgraded my [Sacred ground], now the healing is not longer a holy spell, I can heal a devil!. Look"

The spell worked like last time, a barrier in the form of a dome that heals everyone inside...now with a Healing that is not Holy based to not hurt the devil...

but...

"AHH! "

"... " Jeanne just can't understand why...

"... " (Mudrock)

"Pft. Hahaha" Jalter just broke into laughter after looking at the face Jeanne is making

"... *chuckle* Jeanne... The spell has the sacred part in its name for a reason... "

"I'm sorry! " Cried Jeanne after realizing how deadly a holy spell even if it's a healing one, could be for a devil

"Haha. What an amazing torture spell, He is being burned and Healed at the same time. Hahaha "

Well... I should return the favor and cheer her up.

"But the spell is great. You would heal him If he had some Demonic energy left to resist the holy part of the spell. Good job, you worked hard "

"You think? Thanks... "

"You also did something amazing, Ahm. You didn't realize but for a moment there you became like me, a... avenger. No, no, An actual avenger class. You were transforming your anger into power just like I do"

"I... don't remember... but this is something worth looking at... "

Maybe our connection is bigger than what I thought?...

I got up from their embrace... even if somewhere inside.. I wanted to stay like that...

"Eh... and here I thought you were going to keep enjoying it for a while... not everyday you get hugged by three beauties like us"

"Well... I did enjoy it. But we have to go... home. Something is coming, and fast..."

Someone I don't want to deal with... for now...

But she does deserve a gift...

well...

Maybe it is somehow a punishment at the same time... for not preventing these idiots from getting in her territory...

 Well, something is for sure... She wont have much free time left in the next couple months... Maybe years...

I didn't want to involve myself with this world until much later but...

It is useless if troubles are coming my way...

so... let's mess with the world a little bit... I think those cat girls won't be mad at me

We stopped possessing the bodies, and soon after they returned into their previous state

There is not much [Ink] left, but enough to speak with her

...

All left was a black humanoid mass whose voice or gender one couldn't tell...

Without having to wait that much for a group of devils to appear...

"Identify yourself, you are trespassing the territory of Serafall Leviathan, one of th-"

"Stop. They already left the place... Can I ask what you are doing here? And what happened..."

I have to admit a much serious Serafall is something I didn't expect. Usually she is the cheerful one I saw in the anime, especially if I present her with a manga that has something to do with magical girls...Seems like she cares about this place...

"Well... intruder? I lived here even before you became the ruler... but that's not important. For what I can guess... some dumb devils without power trying to gain a higher standing in the devil race, they choose this place since someone made it her territory out of nowhere... Maybe they thought that this person found something in here? Expected of such a warmonger race"

"War mongers?... I don't know what you've heard of us devils.. but i'm in charge of the Foreign Affair of the devil race, I'm the one preventing such thing from happening "

She knows that the devils have a bad reputation... but it's been a long time since someone said it so straight into her face. Especially since she is the one who changed that way of thinking in the first place...

"This makes me think... are you playing dumb? or you really don't know what your own race is doing? Something that could destroy your relationship with the Yokai faction if known. The same faction you depend on... "

"... "

No deception, enmity or anger... no lies... then it is... true?

Demonic power and therefore Devils have a great affinity towards negative emotions, this gives Devils a natural sense towards danger, hate and of course deception...

As someone who is trusted to talk and negotiate with people who see Devils in a bad light, she can easily tell 'It' is not lying... her senses towards what others think or intend are far greater than any other devil could ever dream of... and one of the reasons she obtained her position in the first place...

Since whatever is behind doesn't seem to be her enemy and is not lying...

*Crack*

The sound came from the figure in front of her 

"I don't have much time left... come closer since I don't want others to hear...

...

...

Well this is my gift...

...

Experiment, Nekomatas, Naberius, creating super devils "

Were the last things she heard before the figure broke and disappeared...