Volume 1 Extra 1: Heroes
---D-Day+32, Glenic 3rd---
"Maki-san! Watch the left!"
The loud Japanese girl standing on a now dead demon is upset. Her favorite outfit is torn and she has several wounds. This was supposed to be easy. Her reconnaissance said it would be.
An outpost with just a goblin garrison. The only demon fort left south of the Arsinus River. Half abandoned already since their defeat at Clemeni. Instead? It was a trap. A hundred demon knights springing out of hidden rooms across the base.
Hitomi's gift from the gods was 'Shadow Mistress.' Letting her become like the shinobi in the manga she adored. Mysterious and lethal. She loved it. Deadly on and off the battlefield. Which she proved when some nobles decided the Hero should 'share' his exotic women. Poor Umeka.
Kojiro and Maki had killed the ones who took her. Hitomi had killed the rest. Including the emperor. So Aquecia got a new emperor and no one messed with the heroes again. Things had gone pretty smoothly after that. At least politically. Militarily it was one hard battle after another. Demons are tough and smart.
On the relationship side Hitomi and Maki let Umeka monopolize Kojiro. She had always been fragile. After their summoning, her terrible gift, and then abduction? She needed him more. Of course Kojiro didn't abandon Umeka's rivals. They just couldn't get him alone anymore. And had to use spermicides and contraceptives.
Umeka's 'first' pregnancy was now on its third month. No one talks about the one she aborted.
*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*
Maki the Witch's elementals rip through the demon knights' left flank while her favorite fireball spell blasts holes in the enemy formations.
*SPHING* *SKROOM* *SPHING* *SKROOM*
Every swing of Kojiro the Hero's holy blade launches a scythe of divine retribution into the demon's ranks. While his troops, the eunuch 'Companion Guard,' keep the demons from flanking him and Umeka, who never leaves his side.
Wherever Umeka the Saint's staff points? An ally is healed and demon magic dispelled. Her spells can make a eunuch as strong and fast as a demon. Or turn even the most lethal injury into a minor inconvenience.
Hitomi the Shadow feels her wounds heal. And senses Umeka's jealous eyes. The shinobi girl understands. After all, Kojiro had been her's first. They had even been each other's 'first.' Childhood friends who started dating in junior high.
Then came senior high and first Ide Maki, second Morioka Umeka. Both set their sights on the reliable, brave, and brilliant, Tsutsumi Kojiro.
Kojiro was overwhelmed. Too kind to reject anyone. So the three sided war for his time, and touch, began. The childhood friend couldn't compete with Maki's westerner looks or Umeka's lewd body. But she did share his interests and knew all his chuuni weaknesses.
Hostilities between the three girls went on even after the four disappeared from the roof of their school during lunch, reappearing in front of the Aquecian Emperor's throne. Continued until Umeka was kidnapped and turned into a plaything. Shattering Kojiro and Hitomi's isekai delusions.
"[Retribution]"
The priest heroine's trump card is finally used. Her gift made the Saint a powerful, but toothless, healer. After her rescue, Umeka swore to never be helpless again. Developing an arsenal of lethal spells. The biggest, and hardest to cast, spell was particularly dangerous to demons.
*VOOOZM*
Golden light rippling across the battlefield, and the demons' screams, signals the end of this battle.
Around a map table inside a large crimson tent. The heroes are, yelling at each other.
"Hito-chan, what the hell happened?!"
Kojiro was mad. If Umeka had been just a second slower reacting? The demon ambush could have cost her life. They've been aiming more and more for the Saint lately. Perhaps understanding how important her magic is.
"I messed up! Please, I'm sorry Koji-kun!"
They knew Kojiro would never abandon any of them. Ever. Somehow? That made failing him hurt even more. Made Hitomi's tears sting even more.
"Stop it Kojiro-sama!" Maki was sensitive to any strife in the harem. Any discord, especially public, might be exploited to divide and conquer them again. "We were all sloppy! Clemeni made us overconfident. We are lucky this lesson only cost us a couple dozen neuters and spays."
Umeka is unconsciously rubbing her belly again. A nervous tic.
"This is the last one, right Kojiro-kun? Isn't that what you promised? Please?" Her never leaving his side, even for the bathroom, bothered Hitomi and Maki but they accepted it as another sacrifice to keep them all safe.
The hero gives his best smile. "Yes Ume-tan. This is the last mission." He puts his hand on Ukema's belly. "We'll go home and get plenty of rest for the baby."
'Home' is now an isolated resort town on the west coast. The new emperor gave the heroes a beachfront estate. Its pleasant weather, ocean views, stunning sunsets, sandy beaches, palm trees, and privacy, made it a favorite destination for the heroes.
They all looked forward to having idle days, for a while. The last five months had been very busy.
"Heroes, Legatus Aquillia requests an audience!" Is announced by the guards outside.
"She may enter!" Kojiro answers.
Legatus Aquillia Gerhardt strides into the heroes' tent. Superb discipline and competence visible in every step. Another rescue from the demons' slave pens. The former gladiator has worked her way up the ranks to become the leader of the Companion Guard.
Like a number of the spays, she 'satisfies' Kojiro's needs whenever the heroines are exhausted or indisposed.
Her smart salute is as crisp as always before she drops to one knee.
"Heroes, the fort has been secured and no other hidden rooms have been found."
Hitomi turns away and flinches at the reminder of her failure.
"We also have the latest reports from shades in Tourin regarding the hero summoning and demons' withdrawal."
Shade was the name used for intelligence agents Hitomi had recruited and dispatched across Aquecia and beyond. Using various means, magical and otherwise, to quickly send any information of interest back to the heroes. Another step taken to protect themselves.
Kojiro is skeptical. "Their oracle really did it? Ume-tan, didn't you say the gods were against it?"
"Yes Kojiro-kun. Very against it. How did she manage it Aquillia-san?"
It was the heroes who let the ancient summoning texts be stolen. Umeka's pregnancy and the first campaign meant the heroes couldn't help Tourin right now. But they didn't want the nation to fall either. Maki's compromise was to let the kingdom's 'theft' succeed.
Even so. Umeka's strange link to the gods of the mandate made it clear that none of them would support it. But the kind Kojiro couldn't stand doing nothing. So they gambled that the obsessed oracle would find a way
The legatus lifts her head and locks onto her master's, not his mistress's, beautiful eyes.
"She did not, Lady Morioka. The demons did."
""What?""
Hitomi and Maki reply in sync.
The gods of destruction intervening was the worst case scenario. If the demons have their own hero? The war would get a lot harder. It was always a risk but the gods of destruction were hiding from the divine pantheon.
Feeding a ritual that big would paint a huge target on their back. Couldn't imagine them taking the risk. Did the heroes make another mistake?
"The demons attacked the ritual site. Killed most of the expedition. Defiled the survivors. And completed the ritual."
"No..." Umeka suddenly looks very pale.
Kojiro needs answers. "Then why did the demons retreat?"
Previous reports told of the demon's retreat. If the demons recruited, captured, or killed the hero? The last thing they would do is retreat.
"Because the ritual did not bring a hero."
"Then? ... What did it bring?!"
Kojiro starts getting annoyed when one of his lovers is clearly trying to drag out a conversation. Just so they can spend a little more time near him.
"The Beast."
Umeka recovers instantly. "What did you say?"
"The Beast, Lady Morioka. Tourin used the easiest version of the ritual and the demons succeeded in summoning a spirit to possess the sacrifice."
The devoted spay hesitates.
"Please continue Aquillia-san. This is important."
Umeka talking to a native directly? Is a rare event since the incident. The shoulders of the devoted legatus, shudder.
"This is what the shades heard from slaves." The woman pauses for a breath.
"'Instead of a son. A savior made of light. A father came. Bringing judgement and wrath. A god of rage, covered in fire and blood. A dealer in thunder and death. The herald of change whose touch gives salvation and damnation. Bringer of the end of days. Master of the million warriors. Scourge of god. The-'"
"Stop!" The Witch feels a headache coming on. "What was all that?"
"The Beast is being worshiped as a god by some slaves in Tourin. And its faith is spreading."
"Okay." Maki sighs. "That still does not answer why the demons fled."
The legatus bows her head. "I apologize Lady Ide. The Beast slaughtered all of the demons present at the summoning. Which included the demon lord leading the Tourin invasion."
Hitomi notices her mouth is hanging open. Everyone is suddenly very quiet so the shinobi girl finally manages.
"Slaughtered?"
"Yes. The Beast ripped one of the demon-ogre lord's arms off and beat it to death."
Maki's headache is getting worse. "Killing a demon-ogre lord with his bare hands? And right after being summoned? That's. That's..."
Kojiro looks at Maki and nods.
"Impossible."
Castinus, Herzig, Titus I (male, human, aquecian)
Chigusa, Hitomi (female, human, japanese, thief)
Gerhardt, Aquillia (female, human, aquecian)
Ide, Maki (female, human, japanese)
Morioka, Umeka (female, human, japanese)
Tsutsumi, Kojiro (male, human, japanese)