Mahou Sensei Negima! Fan Fiction ❯ Disgaea: Gehenna's Holy Queen ❯ Chapter 3: "Overlord Priere" ( Chapter 3 )

Disgaea: Gehenna's Holy Queen

Chapter 3: Overlord Priere

 

“Mmmnn... Secchan...” The Gehenna Queen's quiet whispers sounded cute, sad, and disturbing all at once to one Satsuki Yotsuba. She was only here to wake Konoka for breakfast, and yet, here she was, deep within a dream. She looked so peaceful. Maybe she shouldn't bother her now. Quietly, the cook began to turn around and leave the room.

Konoka's sleeping face contorted into worry. “No... don't... stop...!”

Whatever peace there was to be had in slumber was no longer there. The quiet urgency in Konoka's voice struck Satsuki's heartstrings, and the cook immediately dashed to her side. She immediately tried to wake the girl. “Konoe-san. Konoe-san!”

“No... Secchan, I...” With an inhuman speed, the still sleeping Konoka ensnared Satsuki in a wicked embrace. “Don't...” To make matters worse, that white tail wrapped itself around Satsuki's leg, too, with the tip getting horribly close to her personal area...

“Ah, err...” So confused over this sudden change of events, Satsuki could only stutter at first, but she calmed down. If she could wake her... Calmly but firmly, she said once more. “Konoe-san.”

Konoka's eyes snapped open. Seeing Satsuki in front of her jolted the girl's senses. “Eh?” Her mouth hung open as wide as her eyes. “Wah!” She let go immediately. “I'm sorry! Did I scare you? Did my tail do anything?! I swear it thinks on its own!”

“I'm okay, Konoe-san. Please relax.” Satsuki murmured.

Konoka stared for a moment, then smiled in relief. “Okay!” The demoness rose and stretched. She regarded Satsuki once more. “By the way, did I say anything strange in my sleep?”

“...no.” Satsuki lied, or at least, it felt like lying. Wasn't it?

Konoka did not care. “Okay then,” She began to easily change out of her bedclothes and began to change into her usual short kimono. “By the way, the prinnies aren't bothering you with their paint job, are they? I wanted this place to be a little less... morbid.”

“...paint job?”

 

--

 

 

“What. Is. THIS?!” Lunzard Torque roared like a musical finale.

Spend a few days in the basement and when you finally come up for air, the whole castle is white?! Too much white EVERYWHERE! He'd go blind! He'd start spouting crappy lines about justice! “Whose harebrained scheme was this?!”

“Master Konoka gave us this directive while she was gone, dood!” The prinnies answered, spinning around from their victory of completing the task. “And we just managed to finish before she got back, dood! Oh, and I think she has some guests or something too, dood.”

“Geerrgh, I didn't tell that woman to bring guests! I said generics!” He threw up his arms. He hoped this spontaneity was not a constant feature of Konoka's decisions. “Who knows when some upstart demon lord might show up...”

“I don't think I like being referred to as generic...” A dimension portal ripped open right beside him. Emerging from it was a brute green demon with muscles and... a female body? Lunzard raised an eyebrow as the demon gave him a blank stare. “Supporting cast sounds much better.”

“That's right, punk!” Lunzard saw a boastful warrior type appear, waving his sword threateningly. “I, Turmeric of the Phoenix Clan, am not generic!”

“Wha...” Lunzard blinked. Since when did brute force demons manage dimensional travel? And why was this warrior such a showoff? Still, for Konoka to still be alive after bringing these people back here, guess he really couldn't complain. “So she's more observant than she looks,” He thought out loud. Finally addressing the green demon directly, he said, “So I take it you're our new dimensional guide? I suppose getting us wherever we wish in one piece is good enough, no point in choosing what you look like. What's your maximum range? Do you know?”

“My maximum range is whatever Konoka-ojou-sama wishes,” The demon answered simply.

“Mwah ha ha, bold words. But you don't look like the nonsense type,” Lunzard smirked. “Very well, make yourself at home, but be ready at a moment's notice.”

“Understood,” And T'ifr punched a hole in space and slinked back into the dimensional warp into quiet quarters unknown.

“As for you, my dear Phoenix clan hero, you ought to push that passion of yours and get our dear Overlord interested in investing in some weaponry.” Lunzard was unaware of how accurate his use of “passion” really was.

“I can't say I enjoy being bossed around within five seconds of showing up here, but you sound like you know what you're saying, so perhaps I'll follow! Turmeric of the Phoenix clan, SIGNING OFF!” And the brazen warrior dashed off deeper into the castle, leaving Lunzard to shake his head.

The moody demon mechanic continued to look at the horrifyingly white paint job. Why did this white have to be so... clean? It was almost as if this princess was trying to whitewash her history or something, or intentionally freak out every demon from here to Veldime... wait a minute.

He did say “Establish yourself as someone not to be messed with.” And she said she'd do it in her own fashion.

The cunning bitch.

He had to hold back the smile that threatened to form on his face—he could no longer say that she wasn't interesting, at least. So wrapped up in these thoughts as he walked by the entrance to the castle that he nearly missed the strange person traipsing about. Unlike the other familiar generics, this one looked like... an angel? Wait what?

Lunzard immediately launched his verbal interrogation. “I don't remember seeing you around here! Who are you?!”

The strange and apparently fallen angel turned around, her face flush with confusion for all of five seconds before she gave a warm smile. “I'm an assassin! An assassin for love~!”

“WHAT”

The demon mechanic couldn't even compute someone being an assassin for love, let alone his own proper punctuation. The fallen angel giggled. “Even though I've fallen, I still believe that the power of love will make the Netherworld grow closer! I, Fallen Angel Flonne, on behalf of Lord Laharl, I will spread the message of love~!”

“Who have you come to assassinate?” Lunzard dodged her silly talk and got straight to the point.

“The overlord~” This Flonne character giggled. “Juuuuust kidding~”

“Make sense, you damned cupid reject!” Lunzard was pretty close to tearing out his hair in frustration and summoning one of his brutal machines on the spot... you know what, he might as well just do that right now. This angel seemed like really, really bad news for a reason he couldn't quite put his finger on. “Or I'll beat it out of you!” He pressed a button, and from the ground, a hulking yellow machine burst out from the ground. Its design resembled something of a monkey imitating a tank. “As this castle's overlord, I will not tolerate random people invading my castle!”

“You're the overlord of this castle?!” Flonne blinked in surprise. “But I thought another Fallen was here? Oh no, I was already lost for a while, what if I got the wrong castle again?!” The girl sashayed in worry, almost failing to notice the demon mechanic step back beside the monkey-like tank. It charged its gun and shot at Flonne, and a mighty explosion ensued.

“That's right!” Lunzard boasted, taking the time to gloat. “I—”

“I'll have to call bullshit on that one, good sir!” A voice rang out.

Lunzard blinked and saw that, as the smoke cleared, his attack had been negated. A fiery wall of sorts had halted the attack from frying that angel, and judging by her confused face it wasn't her counter attack. “Geh!” Lunzard snorted just as that wall of flames snuffed out.

“That's right!” A rather uptight voice added. A very tall purple-suited ninja appeared beside Flonne. “This castle's Overlord doesn't work with mechanical devices. That was a job for her number two!”

A demon samurai woman whirled on the other side of Flonne. “As expected of My Lady! Her genius and kindness to all are matched by none!”

The Lady in question landed in front of the fallen angel, with two feet and one hand on the ground. The other hand held a massive old book. As she stood up, she turned to Flonne. “'Sup Flonne! Long time, no see! Ready to show our power as badasses?” Raspberyl grinned.

Recognition finally setting in, the fallen angel nodded. “Of course!” Flonne wasted no time in pulling out an ornate bow after that, taking aim at the giant robot before her. “We'll show you, fake overlord!”

“Tch! Let's just get to the part where I blast you to smithereens!” Lunzard hissed. “Torque Sasquatch, ANNIHILATE THEM!”

The robot monkey answered his call by firing a single shell. It landed in the hall and exploded with devastating effect...

...except nobody actually got hurt, seeing as everyone had already split from ground zero. Lunzard looked up to see a a flurry of holy arrows (and a few ninja stars) sailing in his direction. “Get back!”

The Torque Sasquatch ambled backwards and lifted its right hand to guard against the onslaught. Unfortunately it was only partially effective, seeing as the arrows still pierced the arm and its armor.

“Ha ha!” Beryl reappeared, dashing towards the giant robot ape before flicking her free hand towards it. A flare of explosive fire power rocked its face. “See ya!”

“Gah!” Lunzard and the Sasquatch stumbled backwards. Steadying their footing, Lunzard found that the damage was far from putting him out of commission. Grinning savagely, he pressed a button. Immediately, compartments on the ape robot opened, and a salvo of missiles fired at the smaller demon. “Always carry emergency missiles! WHOOO HOO HOO HOO!”

Raspberyl stepped back, but a shadow leapt over her and landed in front, sword drawn. “Asuka!”

Her loyal demon samurai warrior nodded before sweeping her sword in one grand, elegant slash, stopping the missile massacre right in its tracks. “We'll keep him at bay My Lady! Get rid of that cannon!” She charged forward, slashing at the Sasquatch. The ninja Kyoko, too, pressed an attack.

“Gotcha!” Raspberyl also landed a jump on top of the Sasquatch, her book flaring to life.

“Oh, no you don't!” Lunzard roared. The Sasquatch gave a mechanical roar, and began smashing the ground furiously. All three Nether Institute graduates struggled to keep the robo-beast from overwhelming them.

“Oh no you don't!” Flonne retaliated, seeing as her friends were now having difficulty with the monstrous robot. She didn't even bother with her weapons and began attacking Lunzard directly, trying her hardest to smack him with her staff and even a few weak physical blows.

“Dammit, cut it out!” Lunzard complained as Flonne's hands reached out for him in fury. This went on until...

“Hold it right there!” A familiar voice rang out.

The fighting stopped. There was a giant cannon way to damn close for Beryl's comfort, Flonne had apparently figured out the meaning of handlebar mustache and both of Beryl's underlings were trying their damnedest to not become monkey paste. All eyes fell upon the stern gaze of the true overlord of the castle, her wings stiffening with one final flap. “What's the meaning of this, and why are you all fighting?” Konoka asked.

“They started it!” Lunzard pointed furiously at the other girls like a little kid.

“Does it matter who started it? I'm finishing this,” Konoka coolly responded with a smile.

“You're the overlord?” Flonne stopped harassing Lunzard and immediately jumped up to inspect this new face. “I think I finally found you! Yay~!”

“Hot damn, really?!” Beryl carefully edged away from the monkey of death before gunning straight beside Flonne.

Konoka blinked and pointed at herself, that clueless smile on her face. “Me?”

 

--

 

There was lots of tea, and it was good.

The kindly overlord and her several guests sat around the plush living room. Despite the large glass pane window making the room feel absurdly tall, the white lighting made the room feel far more comfortable. After Satsuki had finished preparing and serving the tea, Konoka bade her to sit down with the rest of the group.

Introductions were exchanged.

“I'm Konoka Konoe, former human spreading peace and kindness to Gehenna!”

“Tehe! I'm Flonne, the assassin of love~”

“NO! I, Lunzard Torque, will not tolerate assassins of love! That's an oxymoron!”

“Well~, since you insist, actually I'm a fallen angel, who still believes in love and justice!”

“Riiiight,” Lunzard muttered. Konoka giggled.

“My name's Raspberyl... just call me Beryl! Me and my friends Asuka and Kyoko are the most badass delinquents this side of the Netherworld!”

“Uh-huh.”

“We agree!”

“I'm... Satsuki Yotsuba, the presiding cook...”

Once settled, Lunzard spoke up, “Didn't I tell you to hunt for generics? No evil overlord can succeed in staying on top without having a variety of minions at his or her beck and call!”

“But I did get generics!” Konoka half-whined in her defense. Then she sheepishly added, “Even though I kinda stole them from someone else who was recruiting...”

“Heh, that's all good and well, but just because you have the protagonist modifier doesn't mean they can't be stolen right back!” The demon mechanic argued. “You better give them a good reason to stay loyal.”

“Okay, I understand,” Konoka took a sip of her tea. “It's about respect, right?”

“And don't you forget it!”

This picked up the interest of the other two prominent visitors. “So you really are new at being an Overlord, huh?” Flonne asked.

“Guess I am!” Konoka smiled, her tail waving. Her wings fluttered a bit as well, catching the fallen angel's attention.

“Angel wings...” Flonne gazed at Konoka's appendages with something that looked like nostalgia. “...can't say I've seen too many in a long time,” Flonne remarked as she examined Konoka's wings. “I lost mine quite a few years ago when I became a fallen angel.”

“Fallen?” Konoka asked. “That sounds sad... though I think I've been a demon the whole time. I dunno why I have angel wings.”

“Ah, you shouldn't worry about that. When I came to the Netherworld, I didn't exactly have wholesome reasons, though at the time I didn't understand that, and I'm happier here.” Flonne waved off Konoka's worry.

Satisfied with that, Konoka turned to the smaller Raspberyl. “So where do you come from?”

“Me? I hail from the Nether Institute! As do my friends!” The plucky small demon answered. “We graduated this past year, but because a good friend of ours now runs the school, we help him out.

“Nether Institute?” Satsuki tilted her head in confusion. “Where is that?”

“Couple of worlds down, right nearby the Ruins of Pappillon. Can't miss it.”

“Errmm...” Konoka and Satsuki nervously chorused. “We... have no clue what you mean.”

“Oh, I see!” Flonne said, banging her fist into an open palm. “You've only been to the human world up until recently, right?”

The girls nodded.

“Then let me put it this way: the Netherworld is actually a whole system of worlds! Thanks to dimension guides, we can journey between these worlds with ease. It might be more accurate to call it a Netherplane.”

“Guess that's one way of putting it,” Beryl shrugged. “I know that the human plane rests of top of this one, and the Celestia plane on top of that. Traveling planes ain't as nearly as easy. There are only certain rare places where the planes are close enough to merge.”

"Huh..." Konoka pondered these facts. In concept, instant transportation in the Netherworld was easy, but the human world it was almost nigh impossible. It would explain how she came here in the first place... but how did that come to be? Could she get back home the same way? “But... now that I think about it, there were a few legends on earth that said Gehenna was something closer to purgatory than hell... would that make this place the closest to the human world?”

“Of course it is!” Lunzard bellowed. “How else did you think Ze—”

There was a banging—faint compared to the size of the castle, but for some reason Konoka could hear it like a cannon being launched up close. “W-what was that?” She asked suddenly standing at alert.

“It could be something going on in my lab, but that sounds like something going on upstairs...” Lunzard postured. Realizing something, he shook his head. “Dammit, all those robots I build and I still don't even have decent security?! I guess I was too confident in the rumors of Zegnant scaring everyone away...”

“Zegnant?” Flonne blinked.

“This castle's previous overlord,” Konoka clarified. “But we won't be speaking of him right now. He's gone, and his evil with him. But enough of that, let's go check out that spooky noise~”

“Yes, let's!” Flonne agreed. “If it's a thief, we can smash him with the power of justice!” And both of them happily twirled like lunatic prinnies before dashing off upstairs, tittering like teenage girls hyped on pixie sticks.

“They get along well,” Satsuki observed.

“My GOD, it's like there's two of them!” Lunzard reeled back in horror, seeing how alike they were. “Screw that, I'm going back downstairs and making some security robots!” And he stomped off in the opposite direction.

With Lunzard gone, Beryl scratched her head. “Huh... to be honest this place kinda creeps me out...” She looked around. “But that doesn't make it any less awesome,” She sneered before facing Satsuki. “Hey, Satsuki, was it? You should come along.”

“Me?” Satsuki blinked. “But I can't fight. All I can do is cook, and even that...” She trailed off. However, she did try and shake off that morose feeling. She'd never improve at that rate!

Beryl saw this and simply crowed, “Don't worry about it! If you watch enough, you'll be able to hang with the big boys! You just gotta find some good special moves and stuff you're good with! Now come on, I bet there's some epic boss fight or something that's gonna happen upstairs! Kyoko! Asuka! Let's rock!”

Both of her cronies locked arms with Satsuki and followed their diminutive leader up the stairs, smiling all the way. “Don't worry, Miss Satsuki!” Samurai Asuka said. “The Lady is much stronger than she looks, she can probably protect you AND your overlord.”

“That's... not what I'm worried about right now,” Satsuki giggled nervously.

 

--

 

If Lunzard saw that even the attic-like North Wing was painted in white, he would go into conniptions. But even that purifying color could not hide the quietly disturbing dungeon-like feel of the room Flonne and Konoka stepped into. “I think the noise we heard is probably close to here...” Konoka murmured.

“Wow, even the dungeons look all pretty and clean~!” Flonne marveled. “I really like your style!”

“Thank you!” Konoka giggled, and both unholy girls giggled together.

When the giggles died down, Flonne looked up. Somebody, with wings like a giant bat, hung upside down on a support bar near the ceiling. “Say... you know you have bats up there, right? Or really big bat people?”

“Bats?” Konoka blinked, then looked up. Yeah, she saw that same person there too. And the hole in the roof. “Hey wait...”

She felt a sinister, unholy smile, and frightening power. This scary person pushed off the bar and landed with a powerful -THUMP- on the ground. As the person rose, Konoka could see it wasn't a bat at all.

This unholy person before dressed much like a corrupted demon nun, with the normally conservative black(or in this case, dark purple) robe shredded down to just hiding her chest and abdomen, with her sleeves unattached. She wore no habit—the sharp horns curling from her red hair would probably mess that up real quick. Her body was shapely and looked to be extremely powerful. But perhaps the most disconcerting of all was that dangerous holy aura that surrounded her.

This strange new person flapped her wings, perhaps to give them a stretch or to just look really intimidating. Either way, Konoka did not understand what this woman was up to. “Hmm? Who are you? Were you here the whole time?”

Flonne's eyes widened in recognition. “Hey wait, that's...!”

The woman pulled out a baton, a mostly black thing with silver rungs and a holy cross design at its end. She twirled it expertly, stepped forward, and...

Before Konoka could even register what had happened, the woman rushed her, slamming that baton straight into her gut. Konoka sailed into the wall, much to Flonne's shock.

Konoka clutched her stomach, the pain threatening to dull her senses. She could hardly follow Flonne's tiny shriek before noticing a slew of holy arrows launched in her attacker's direction. Unfortunately, said attacker wasted no time in chasing Flonne down as well, the baton easily swatting away Flonne's arrows. One clonk to the head later, and Flonne went down.

The poor fallen angel, seeing stars, only muttered, “Overlord Priere... again...?”

“Oh no! Flonne-han!” Konoka cried. Once again, however, that unholy former nun had her eyes locked on the Gehenna Queen. “What do you want?!” Konoka shouted.

This unholy nun, now known as Overlord Priere, stepped towards her, and spoke for the first time. “So you're the person who bears holy power like me... and that fallen angel? Huh, not much of a challenge, despite all that power you got.” She flared her wings open and jumped into a fierce kick. Despite her blocking the move, Konoka was still sent flying.

Luckily this time Konoka did not have to make a wall crater, so she recovered faster when this fallen nun struck again with yet another airborne kick. Konoka twirled to the side and narrowly evaded, watching with horrified fascination as the kick made as large as a crater as it would have if she were still in it. The deviled maiden snarled and twirled her baton again, and rushed her once more. “Aiyah!” Konoka flipped onto her hands and let her white tail do the talking. The savage white appendage clashed with the baton, with the fallen nun and former Konoe princess striking with increasing ferocity.

“Oh ho? Not bad!” Priere crowed. “I want to see more!” Just as Konoka's tail slithered to attack, the other demon simply fell back...

...and grabbed it.

Konoka knew she was screwed the moment she felt a hand on her tail. The demon girl screamed as the unholy nun slammed her to the ground, again, again, and again... “Da ha ha ha ha! It's such a shame that you don't have a clue on just how strong you can be!” Konoka grabbed the ground with her nails, and Priere stopped her slamming. “Giving up? I'd thought another holy power would be more resilient than this. That fallen angel over there was a greater challenge.”

“You...” Konoka breathed. She wasn't even sure what she was thinking anymore—her body ached all over, someone was taunting her again, making her suffer... it had to stop, and it had to stop now. She was still feeling weak, and even the white paint couldn't keep her mind from slowly blanking out...

Overlord Priere gazed at her opponent—something was off. She was hardly moving, save for the tiny shakes that seemed to be like one standing over the precipice of insanity. Her hand was stroking one of her feathery wings... Priere tensed.

That paid off, since in the blink of an eye, Konoka drew one of her feathers and sliced across like a sword. Had Priere reacted with her baton just a moment later, her abdomen would've been cleanly cleaved in two.

The clash was loud enough to snap Flonne out of her daze. Shaking all that fuzziness out of her head, the fallen angel looked to see the battle tide had changed dramatically.

Now Priere understood—Konoka had used one of her feathers like a focusing point, creating it into a thin sword of light. Her eyes shaded and teeth bared, her new worthy opponent seemed to have undergone a complete personality change. With that, she knew that the younger demon before her finally meant business. Sneering silently, Priere pushed herself back to space herself. She twirled her baton again and threw it like a lightning quick boomerang, but Konoka easily deflected it with one broad sweep.

The possessed Gehenna Queen lunged, and Priere caught her baton back just in time to guard against a whirl of quick slashes. Both overlords began a furious dance of swordplay, or rather light-sword-and-baton play. For a fleeting moment, Priere found it odd that she was having to resort to finesse and grace rather than just brute force alone, an art nearly forgotten to her since her human days (not that she used it that much as a human, anyways).

But she had enough. It was entertaining, exciting, but this girl was still... lacking in something.

Luckily, she knew what it was. “I applaud you for fighting me for this long, but in the end...” Priere suddenly jumped back, nearly causing Konoka to trip. It was all she needed—the unholy nun smashed Konoka with one kick to the gut, sending her airborne.

“...you can't beat me.”

Priere stomped Konoka into the ground, knocking her out cold.

Not noticing fallen angel's shock grow into anger, let alone the fallen angel herself, Priere continued to taunt the defeated Konoka. “And you want to know why you can't beat me?”

“Experience. Obviously,” A voice pierced her monologue.

Priere felt that strong sensation of five pairs of eyes open up right behind her. To her surprise, a magnificently gigantic black cobra circled around her. It should be mentioned that this cobra had five heads, and each head had its jaws ready to tear the fallen nun in two. Not even a second later, the fallen angel she so carelessly knocked out was now back in her face, ignoring the cobra and keeping a holy arrow aimed straight at her eyes. She also noticed the sensation of a sword and a kunai aimed at her neck as well.

Priere remembered these three—Raspberyl and her two groupies Asuka and Kyoko ran around that Nether Institute... meeting them here was something unexpected.

However, the voice that spoke wasn't from any of those familiar faces. An ordinary human girl walked into her vision... she looked way too ordinary, aside from being somewhat tall and maybe somewhat broad, like a person who was in the process of slimming down. And unlike the others she stepped wearily around the huge snake and all the powerful demons. But despite being a mere human, there was a ferocity in those eyes, even if her face looked all soft and kindly and weak. “Konoe-san has been a demon for all of three years, but I bet she's been an awake demon for all of three days. She didn't fight as a human, so naturally she is not used to her powers as a demon. Thus, you would win in your battle of strength. But what exactly are you trying to prove by invading someone's house just to beat them up?”

“Beating up people is Priere's modus operandi,” Beryl answered, not keeping her eyes off of the fallen nun. “She's basically a wandering overlord who's killed countless demons, even when she was human, so naturally she's really dangerous. (By the way, modus operandi is such a cool phrase!)”

“Strong, weak, it doesn't matter. All I want is the next fight,” Priere calmly added.

“The weak are not there for you to assert your strength over,” Satsuki countered.

“Such bold words for a mere human.” Priere gazed at Satsuki. “But you should be relieved, I don't waste my power on those who don't challenge me to a fight.”

“So why did you hurt Konoe-san?” Satsuki asked.

“She has... great potential,” Priere grinned. Satsuki was reminded of those devilish grins she swore she saw on Evangeline some days. “I fought her despite her weakness and lack of invitation because deep down inside, in her... I see me.”

“That's not how potential works!” Flonne objected.

“That's right, potential is only the science of how much bigger her tracts of land would get!” Kyoko added. Odd stares from everyone else in the room was her only reward. “...I'm not as intelligent on my feet as My Lady is...”

Satsuki figured if this is the usual politics of the demon world, she would have to get serious... quick. There would be no end to the tension if this kept up, awkward jokes or no. She cradled the fallen Konoka and simply said, “We should get back downstairs and wait for Konoe-san to awaken again. No need rushing into something we would all regret.”

All agreed, but nobody let down their weapons until Priere sighed and shut off her dangerous powers.

 

--

 

Konoka stirred once more to the gentle sounds of “Konoe-san... Konoe-san...” The weary queen opened her eyes.

“Satsuki...chan?” Konoka blinked. Then she remembered. The woman in the north wing, she knocked out Flonne, she was slamming her, and—! “Oh no!” She sat up, looking around the living room in panic. Was that woman still here?! Was Flonne okay?! Why is she in the living room?!

“Battle's over, girlie. I win. You lose.” Konoka dreaded that voice, but nevertheless she turned to the source. That former nun was sitting on a couch opposite of her, a snide grin all over her face. “Though I do admit that swordplay from your feather was a nice unexpected touch.”

“Swordplay...?” That unexpected note froze Konoka out of her fears, and into that vague curiosity. She remembered someone who was an expert at the swords, but only vaguely. Trying to piece it together, however, just kept failing. Damn that mental block and her own revulsion! “I blanked out when you started slamming me on the ground!”

“Oh so now you're gonna claim you have Multiple Personality Disorder,” Priere didn't change expressions at all, though she looked like she was holding back laughter. “Nevertheless, because you're so interesting, for the first time ever, I want to take a victory prize from you.”

“What?! No way!” Raspberyl knew something really bad could go down if this blood knight (or nun) was actually asking for a prize other than another fight. “The hell are you plotting?!”

“You're already an overlord!” Flonne objected. “The titles don't stack!”

“What's a title?” Satsuki blinked, complete with oblivious smile(tm).

“It's an introduction so random demons don't mess with you... for the most part," Beryl answered. “For instance, Konoka is 'Gehenna's Infant Overlord'."

Satsuki blinked, having no clue on how she read that or even how the hell she could read her own. “So why am I... 'Cheerily Angsty Cook'?”

“Character development affects your title too.”

“Oh. Right.” There was a moment of silence. “...wait, I'm angsting right now?”

“Not interested in titles,” Priere waved off the accusation. “Couldn't even take it even if I wanted to. She'd have to die before that happened. Well if she wants to die I can always arrange that...” (To which Konoka immediately replied “No thank you!”)

“So wait, if you don't want to strip her of her title, does this mean you want this castle?” Flonne asked, still slightly edgy.

“Nope.”

“Do you want this furniture?” Asuka asked.

“No.”

“Are you going to try and take her virginity?! Two women is... not right!” Kyoko exclaimed. She once again earned every awkward stare in the room. She lamented. “...why do I get all the awful lines? I have shamed myself as a ninja...”

“That'd be... an interesting experiment, but nope.” Priere crossed her legs. “As I said before, I'm interested in this potential. So therefore, I'm staying here, free room and board. That will be my prize.”

There was an epic stunned silence. Then... “Fair enough...” All eyes fell on Konoka. The Gehenna queen looked somewhat smaller, twiddling her thumbs and curling her tail close to her. “You did win, so I guess you can stay. But...” Konoka's sheepishness disappeared in a blink of an eye. “Should you threaten my mini—no, my children, I will make your life hell, no matter how many times I lose!”

Priere smiled. Somehow, that grin was a shade less predatory than the others.

“Hell no!” Beryl stood up, despite the fact that only her minions could tell the difference. Leering hard at the fallen nun, she bellowed. “I won't let you do as you please! We're staying here too!” To show their shock and appreciation for their boss, both Asuka and Kyoko pulled off a perfect fountain spittake.

“My Lady, you can't be serious!” Asuka exclaimed.

“This is justice we're talking about!” Beryl shouted back. “I can't let that wacko nun bully Konoka! As the top delinquents of Nether Institute, it's our mission to protect fellow badasses!”

“My Lady!” Both of her cronies sobbed tears of happiness.

“I couldn't call myself the fallen angel of justice if I ignored that speech!” Flonne added, beaming like she just donated a wad of cash to charity. “In the name of love, I will stay here too and quell these tensions!”

“Yay~!” Apparently Konoka liked this recent development and hugged Flonne in appreciation. “In that case, I'll make rooms for you all!”

Turning her loss into a victory went just as planned.

“That means I have to make dinner for everyone,” Satsuki had to force herself to not get caught up in the excitement. “But please don't beat each other up. Fighting will not get you fed in my kitchen.” She specifically locked eyes with Priere, who wasn't even fazed by that subtle threat from that puny human. But still...

Something inside her whispered about her humanity.

Unseen to her rivals, she shivered. Damn, she hates memories.

 

--

 

The Demon Dean of Evil Academy thumbed through a comic book as he sat on top of his now completed (and thank goodness not problem riddled) Dual Death Laser. “Hrrmm... I think I need to be able to summon these things from hammerspace if I even want to think about using it as an offensive move! Dah...”

He was faintly aware of the door opening to his lab, but didn't react until he heard a voice. “Hello, good sir!”

It was that swan again. “Whaddya want?” Mao peeked over his comic book.

“I got some mail of yours. Mr. Champloo said you'd be interested in reading it,” Cygnus grinned, waving a small envelope. With a flick of the wrist, the dark swan chucked the note in Mao's direction. The dean easily caught it without looking. Casually, he tore open the letter with the finesse of a samurai before reading its contents.

 

Dear Mao,

Sup! Finally got here to Gehenna after having to navigate a bunch of places. How's things back at home?

Konoka, yeah, that's the new Overlord's name, is pretty badass person. Even though she's got wings like an angel, she really is a pure demon. The whole tail thing and the epic canines help, too! She's also really nice (Mao forced himself to twist his face in disgust by pure habit upon seeing the word 'nice') and she has holy powers up the wazoo! And the completely white castle? I'm totally digging it!

...even if it's a little creepy for a demon to be doing.

Listen, though. Some jerk of an overlord has moved in, and I'm not talking about Laharl. She's that Overlord Priere chick who we ran into that one time, and she's even stronger than before. She beat up Konoka, but refuses to leave because she sees some sort of massive power. For the time being I'm staying here and making sure things don't go south. Hope ya don't miss me~

 

Raspberyl ~<3

P.S Stay outta trouble, that's my job!

 

“Welp, she's taking care of herself...” Mao muttered. “Though it sucks for that nooblet that she got her face rearranged first week on the job,” He failed to hold back a round of snickering. But wait a damn second... wasn't he supposed to have new info about this Konoka woman before Beryl wrote back? “Hey you! Swan boy!” Mao shouted down to the boy. “Weren't you supposed to have some more info for me?”

“What? I know you've got good reason to doubt me, but think about how fast you got that letter,” Cygnus answered. “Letters take anywhere from two days to two years to cross worlds.”

Mao checked the date... she wrote this yesterday. Not bad, but... “Did you like, disguise yourself as a mailman? And how many dimensional guides did you hijack to pull this off?”

“Actually... yes to the first question,” Cygnus simpered. “As for the second—wh-what?!” The swan boy stopped as some sort of massive magical circle flared under Mao. “Sir...?!”

“Huh...?” Mao blinked, seeing the magic circle swirl and activate. He tried to step down off of his perch. “I... I can't move?!” He looked down. Those patterns... he's seen them somewhere before! “Hey wait, I've seen those magic circles in a comic book! The super wicked cult was gonna summon a massive demon on top of the maiden, and... hey wait a damn second! I'M BEING SUMMONED—?!” The magic circle flared to life, and Mao disappeared.

“Sir?! Sir?! Aw hell,” Cygnus snarled.

The magic circle was still there. “Hmm... all is not lost, though. I can tail his signature...” He twisted his hands until they were pointing opposite of each other, then touched his palms together. “Gloria en obscurum...”

His shadow began to distort, and the power of darkness began to grow beneath his feet...