The Red Hand

"S-Save? You wish to save the people of this world?!?" Elariel was thrown for a loop by the Demon's comment. She'd expected that Akagi felt nothing for Enoris' residents and would sooner kill them all than show them compassion.

"Well, 'save' as in, they become my subjects and are placed firmly under my boot." Akagi laughed. "They sure as hell won't be welcomed with open arms and happy smiles, and I'm thinking something along the lines of second-class citizens at best."

{At least for now, anyway.} (Akagi)

"I..." Elariel gripped the bridge of her nose in frustration. "And just when I think that I know what you're going to do, you pull the rug out from under me..."

{What's with this...} (Elariel)

"I tend to do that sometimes." Akagi snickered. "Though in this case, I thought it was obvious what my end goal was?" She turned to Halifax. "I'm sure you understood my intentions, right?"

{Right?} (Akagi)

"No..." Halifax sighed. "In fairness, my biggest concern was persuading you to not fucking obliterate this world. I was hoping to bring you around to an evacuation of Enoris' population, but it looks like I don't need to bother with that." She figured part one was far more important and time sensitive than part two.

{I suppose living life in her boot is better than being permanently destroyed... Though I can't say it would be my first choice...} (Halifax)

"Eh." Akagi shrugged. "I saw an opportunity to populate my little sandbox with all sorts of happy pieces, so I'm taking it. Having a nice little pet fantasy magic world that can create entertainment for me is a very nice find!" She laughed.

{I have Earth to make games and anime, and Omara to basically act as my Isekai backyard that I can use to play 4x Civilization builder! It's going to be so much fun playing around with all the new toys!} (Akagi)

"Just how much of Enoris' people are you thinking of saving anyway?" Silfana asked. "I'd like at least a few million subjects for my Empire." She said, looking inside the empty teapot. "An Empire without people to rule is no Empire at all, I'm sure you can understand that."

"Who knows." Akagi gave an overly dramatic shrug. "I don't have a quota, but I can almost guarantee it won't be everyone. I don't need nor want that many idiots." She figured that only a small portion of the population would even agree to submit to her, and even then, she had no intention of flooding tens of millions of people into the Spirits' pocket dimension.

"I have no doubt that Mizumi and the other Spirits are going to pitch a fit when they find out that you'll be saving the very people who helped slaughter them." Halifax said as she started boiling more water in the teapot with fire magic. “The last thing they want is to share a proverbial backyard with the people who slaughtered them.”

"If they have any issues with my decision, then they are more than welcome to put an objection into the complaint box." Akagi replied as she pulled a tray of cookies out from her inventory and set them on the table. “I'll make sure I get around to addressing all complaints in the order that they are filed.”

"Complaint box? Isn't that just a paper shredder?" Yumi giggled. "I remember when Kana wrote up a whole document about how you shouldn't pick on her as much and placed it inside. She was really mad when it turned into pulp..."

{The look on her face while it went BUZZ and mulched the whole thing was great though...} (Yumi)

"How could you say such things?!? I assure you that all complaints placed within the box are treated with the same degree of care that I give to all other useless things in the world!" Akagi smiled.

{Do I even want to know how you classify the average person?} (Elariel)

"Well, at least they'll survive." Elariel decided to wash her hands of the problem, seeing as Akagi was far outside of her ability to control. "And if your plan is to offer salvation in exchange for servitude... There may be those who take you up on that offer, especially if you can prove that Gale and the others are both unable to save Enoris and attempting to kill them all." She figured that self-preservation would beat out faith and loyalty for many.

"Shouldn't we just have Elariel tell people about the whole thing?" Yumi spoke up, asking something that it seemed Halifax wanted to. "As a Goddess her word would have to carry great weight, and it would be easy for her to out the Gods' plans." She figured that it would be easy to flip nations if Elariel directly got involved.

"That's not a bad idea, but it 's one that comes with issues." Akagi shook her head as the teapot whistled.

"The first, and arguably most important of which, is that I'd be very dead, very quick..." Elariel gave a wry smile. "The moment the other Gods find out that I've 'turned' on them, they'll march into my Domain and destroy me."

"Can't you just incarnate and leave?" Halifax asked as she poured a fresh cup of tea. "It's not like Gale can actually stop you from descending. He just authorizes it."

{At that point, caring about Gale and the other Gods isn't really something we need to worry about, so Elariel could just come down in her full 'Glory'.} (Halifax)

"Incarnation is possible, but it's fraught with the same problems that opening a portal has." Elariel shook her head as she took a cookie and bit into it. "Chances are that a God descending fully will destabilize the world far more than just sending people back and forth." Gods could naturally descend into the material world without the need for intricate teleportation. This meant that Reflia's cooperation wasn't required, but it was only possible to move the God back and forth and couldn't be used to transport Akagi or anyone else along with them. "It's also why I'm worried that if you push Gale and the others too far, they'd mass incarnate together and potentially plunge this world into chaos in an attempt to stop you."

{The world would probably fall apart soon after, but I suspect they'd calculate that they'd have enough time to fight and then escape.} (Elariel)

"Too bad I can't just piggyback ride on you and go back the other way." Akagi sighed. She'd already asked Elariel about this and wasn't surprised when she was told that it wouldn't work. "But yeah, I'd like to keep the Goddess alive, at least for now." She snickered.

"I'm afraid to even ask what you intend to do with me..." Elariel said, looking at Halifax for answers.

"I gave her some ideas, but so far we've got nothing concrete planned." Halifax laughed. "Akagi's basically given me free rein on this, so you can rest assured that, while it won't be pleasant, the punishment given to you will be far nicer than whatever the evil kitty would've chosen."

{REVENGE!} (Halifax)

"I fail to see how being my personal kitty servant is a bad fate." Akagi chuckled. "Being forced to pet me as much as I desire seems like a good deal to me."

{NO! DON'T MAKE MORE COMPETITION FOR SNUGGLES! MIJI AND THE GIRLS ARE ALREADY ENOUGH! I REFUSE TO CEDE MORE KITTY TIME!} (Yumi)

"I will vote for forcing her into one of those embarrassing outfits that you placed me in." Silfana said as she sipped her tea. “I think she could pull it off.”

"Ah, yes! The Onsie of doom!" Akagi cackled as she imagined Elariel's face in such an embarrassing outfit. "We shall force the Goddess into one and require her to entertain the children!"

"Please don't give Miji more cute things to obsess over..." Yumi groaned.

{Though, that would give me more kitty time... So maybe...} (Yumi)

"I'm still leaning toward stripping Elariel of her Divinity. Perhaps then she'll understand how the rest of us feel after being knocked off that high horse." Halifax's face showed a smile, but Akagi could tell that it was just masking her true feelings.

{She's keeping things civil between her and the Goddess, but I can tell that Halifax wants to rip her throat out.} (Akagi)

"I'd like to say that you can't do that, but I'm sure you'd just prove me wrong..." Elariel sighed. The idea of becoming mortal genuinely terrified the Goddess, and her stomach was already in knots at the thought.

{I... Being mortal... I don't...} (Elariel)

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Akagi waved her hand lazily, dismissing the conversation. "We'll get there when we get there, but right now, we've got more pressing things to deal with." She reached into her inventory and pulled out a small tablet, flicking it with her finger until a list of names appeared. "And now that the ninja have finished their intel gathering..." She tapped on one of the names, bringing up a profile. "I can move on to my favorite part of this whole thing." Her lips curved into a nasty smile as she looked at the image of her target that was displayed on the screen.

{Nobles are always my favorite jobs.} (Akagi)

_____________________________________________________________________________

<Kanato POV>

*WOOSH* *ZAP* *SWOOSH*

"Oh, man..." Kanato fell out of a flash of light, tumbling against the squishy and green floor of the forest. "Why is teleportation magic always..." He burped as he struggled not to puke.

{I should've known that fairy magic wouldn't be as nice and easy as they made it out to be. I'm an idiot for believing them...} (Kanato)

"Sick?" The female fairy asked as she landed on the ground in front of him.

"Not good?" One of the male fairies asked.

"Soup?" The other male fairy was more interested in food than Kanato's well-being.

"I would've appreciated a heads up about the teleporting..." Kanato complained as he struggled to get to his feet. "Where are we anyway?"

"Forest!" The two male fairies said with massive smiles.

"I can see that, but what forest?" Kanato sighed. They'd told him that it would be faster to use their teleportation network to get across the continent, but they'd neglected to inform the Hero of where they'd come out afterward.

"Ummmm..." The two male fairies looked confused.

"Elf forest." The female fairy finally answered after the two male faires looked to her for help. "Fairy home close. Not far."

"Ah. Then that must mean that we're in the Whistlewoods." Kanato pulled out a map as he allowed his head to stop spinning. "Well, if that's really where you took us, then it shouldn't be that much longer until we get to the Holy City." He ran his finger up the map and placed it on their destination. It would likely take around a week or less to reach the Holy City on foot. The problem was that the only viable paths from the Whistlewoods to the City were either to cross Lamara Bay, where ferries only ran occasionally or to take the windy and treacherous Belora Path through the Tindal Mountains.

"So, what do you guys want to do?" Kanato looked up from his map. "You wanna try the boat or try and cross the mountains?" He figured asking the fairies for their input would be best.

"Mountains cold!" The three fairies visibly shivered.

{Ok, so that's out.} (Kanato)

"Boat bad too..." The female fairy pouted. "But mountains... very bad..." Kanato could tell that she'd had some kind of negative experience with the mountains and decided not to press further.

"Alright, ferry it is." Kanato laughed as he pat the female fairy on the head, which caused her to tilt her head in confusion. "Let's get going! We've got a mystery to solve, gang!" He laughed as the confused fairies flew up and sat on his shoulders.

{I need to get to the bottom of things. I need... I need to know the truth about the reason we were summoned. Nileine, Rehael, Linea... I'm sorry that it's taking me so long to get back home... But please forgive me this one time... I... I can't let this go. If... If what the person who defeated us said was true... Then we're anything BUT Heroes...} (Kanato)