-------

  "Well, that just happened," Seraphiel muttered to herself after the being had escaped. The Demons below seemed confused and without direction, which wasn't too odd considering she'd just taken weeks of their effort in seconds and used it for her own purposes. They clearly didn't know what to do next. So, she decided to give them a little push.

  “Now would be a very good time for you Demons to start jumping back into your portals and leaving. Unlike everyone else, I can kill you permanently even outside Twisting Nether. And you wouldn’t want that, now would you?” Her voice carried over a vast area, though she made damn sure none of her allies heard a peep.

  The Demons didn’t all take the hint, but some of them decided now was a very good time to be anywhere else, and the fun part about portals was that they went both ways. What started as a trickle soon turned into a flood. The more Demons escaped, the more of them decided that staying wasn’t a great idea. There was power in numbers, and those numbers were rapidly dwindling.

  She decided to make herself scarce and return to the ship.

  It took a couple of days for the Demons to complete a full retreat, and that was about the time her allies noticed something was wrong. They’d been fighting a constant stream of enemies before, and suddenly they were left alone. Even an idiot would get their hackles raised at that point. The combined army didn’t rush in right away, as the whole thing stunk of a trap. Instead, they sent in someone who could scout quietly, and Kaede could be really sneaky when she wanted to be. It didn’t take her long to figure out the Demons were done. So were all the prisoners the Demons had taken.

  Soon enough she was approached by both Yoruichi and Edirah, the two people that probably knew her better than anyone else present. “How goes the battle?” Seraphiel asked innocently while sipping on a fancy drink. She still hadn’t quite managed to replicate the one Lucifer always made her. Even with the right ingredients, she didn’t have her brother’s talent.

  "Funny you should ask," Edirah replied in an equally innocent tone. "The Demons are gone. Apparently, they all packed their bags and decided to bug off. A rather unique development when it comes to the Legion, as you well know."

  “Weeeell, I’m not sure if the Legion I knew and the one in this universe are completely the same.” She retorted carefully. “Though it certainly doesn’t sound like them.”

  "Yes, it's really odd. At one moment, they're attacking us like an endless flood, and we're making only very slow progress. The next moment they're gone." Yoruichi positioned herself beside Edirah and opposite Seraphiel. "Very strange behavior for any Demonic race.”

  “Sounds like a trap to me.” She pointed out.

  "Exactly what we thought as well," Edirah replied with a clearly faked pleased tone, as if the idea had just occurred to her. "So, imagine our surprise when the scouts came back confirming zero Demon presence. Not lessened presence with stragglers left behind for maximum damage, but zero Demons instead. Not even an Imp left behind to scout things."

  "And here's the best part. Once we pushed deep into the enemy territory, we started finding signs of a huge ritual. Someone went to a lot of trouble to gather a lot of power. We can only guess why, though assuming it was meant to be used against us is one guess. The local ley-lines also show clear signs of Fel taint, and there were traces of blood sacrifices all over the place." Yoruichi reported, her tone playful despite the grotesque description. She had been one of the scouts as well.

  “Sounds dreadful.” She replied lightly, taking another sip, before pouring drinks for the other two women.

  “It was indeed. Here’s the interesting part. We think the ritual was interrupted by something or someone.” Edirah looked directly at Seraphiel at this.

  "I know you wouldn't make assumptions like that without basis," Seraphiel suggested. "You're clearly assuming the Legion did not accomplish whatever they wanted to do with all that power. It occurs to me that they might have gotten what they wanted, and then left."

  “That’s not a completely unreasonable assumption. Except, there’s a problem. I’ve gotten some Skills of my own since I’ve been in this universe, one of which allows me to read the magic used in an area in the past. Really useful in investigations. And I found no traces of a ritual being completed.” Edirah argued.

  “Maybe they just wanted to gather the power and take it elsewhere for another purpose not available on this world.” Seraphiel played the devil’s advocate.

  “Again, a distinct possibility, but I did find traces of that power being used. Just not by a ritual. Yet, there’s no obvious effect. Instead, there are traces of some dark being having been briefly present, and then getting defeated.” Edirah leaned closer, playing with the drink in front of her. In fact, she was leaning close enough that their noses were almost touching.

  “Sounds intriguing.” Seraphiel smiled a bit. “I would suggest the Legion using the power to defeat this dark being, but that doesn’t really sound like them, does it?”

  "No, it doesn't." Yoruichi moved behind Seraphiel leaning close as well. "However, I do happen to know someone who could be bored and curious enough to fly into the Demon-controlled area. She also happens to be powerful enough to suddenly take over the ritual and use the power for whatever she deems fit."

  “Interesting theory. Sounds like a nice person.” Seraphiel joked.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “She does. I really would’ve wanted to thank her, as that kind of power could’ve been very dangerous to everyone.” Edirah whispered. Suddenly both Edirah and Yoruichi moved away and started walking towards the door of the ship’s bar. “Too bad she doesn’t want to come forward and we have no idea who it was. Oh well. Maybe if we ever find out the truth.” And they were gone.

  Seraphiel chuckled a bit. “Those two minxes. How very mean.” She finished her drink.

  The sacrifices she had to make…

  --------

  “They look a lot like the Zerg, don’t they?” Seraphiel pointed out while looking at the holographic images of the Locust race occupying one of the continents on the other side of the planet.

  “Kind of, I suppose. A lot more insectoid-looking. They also don’t seem as organized or efficient.” Naidam, their resident Zerg specialist replied. “From what I understand, while they have a hivemind of sorts, they don’t quite have the unified intelligence that guides the Zerg or the Tyranids. They’re more like an actual hive of insects in that sense. Every hive is separate, and while they do work together, they don’t move as a single unified force. Makes them a lot less dangerous.”

  "They're also a lot more similar to actual locusts in that they just appear randomly to wreak havoc, seemingly without an overriding plan," Chachamaru added. "It's not entirely clear how and why they appear where they do. They're fierce opponents, but as Naidam said, they're less dangerous than the Zerg and Tyranid in that sense. They’re good at what they do, their average fighter likely capable of defeating the average Zerg or Tyranid, but they’re very one-dimensional, and they lack the rapid evolution ability of the others.”

  “They seem to breed just as fast as the other similar races, but they have less of the tiny and almost useless critters, most of their number being bred for war, but they lack the high-quality individual creatures of the Tyranid Carnifexes and Hive Tyrants, or Zerg Ultralisks and Corruptors.” Tatsumiya analyzed.

  “Do the Angels and Draenei have an actual battle plan?” Seraphiel asked curiously. “I’m guessing the ‘just grind it out’ plan that you were trying with the Legion is less useful here.” Her words were directed towards Edirah.

  “Well, at first there were voices calling for leaving the enemy alone. There’s a rather large ocean separating us, and the enemy is on the other side of the world.” Edirah grimaced. “They weren’t really all that affected by the argument that it might be an ecological disaster if the Locusts nommed the entire continent. I’m afraid that what finally got them turned around was pure greed.”

  Seraphiel smirked. “They finally noticed the positive side of the recent attacks, didn’t they?”

  “They did.” Edirah shook her head in both disappointment and disapproval.

  “What positive side?” Naidam asked, clearly not seeing it.

  Wrex grunted and decided to explain. “With the other nations on this world fucked by the three enemy forces, and even the surviving rival kingdoms severely weakened, there’s nothing stopping the Draenei and the Angels from taking over the entire world.”

  “With the joined architecture being very vertical in nature, it’s not always immediately obvious, but the population density of the nation controlled by the two races is extremely high," Chachamaru added her analysis. "And it's not like Draenei in particular have trouble procreating. The Angels are less fertile, but their low numbers have mostly been the result of wanting to keep a low profile and avoid the ire of the other races in the universe who remember their times at the top of the food chain. It's going to take time for the two races to populate enough to properly utilize the whole world, but the prospects are there."

  Edirah nodded. "Exactly. And why not conquer that continent while at it? The resources found there are different anyway, and would help immensely. Anyway, they've decided on a strategy of surgical magical strikes. The magical defenses of these Locusts are mediocre, and if we can eliminate their queens, then the rest die off rather quickly.”

  Seraphiel tapped her chin in thought. "Huh, not a bad plan in itself. The hives likely have much more powerful defenses than their armies on the field, but a big enough surge of concentrated power would punch through."

  "And I did mention surgical. We don't have to destroy the entire hive, just kill the queens. We might not have been able to pierce the veil over the Legion, but our divination spells can pinpoint the queens at least. Even if one of them somehow managed to hide and survives, killing the other queens will still cut off their ability to produce more of their warriors. After that, we can just attrition them to death from range." Edirah outlined the chosen plan.

  “Not a bad general idea. What about containment?” Seraphiel asked.

  “Containment?” Edirah asked.

  "Yes. When the Queens die, you’re assuming the rest will just lie down and die. What if they decide to all scatter and attack anything they can reach instead?" Seraphiel pointed out. "What if they're curbing their current aggression to protect the queens, and killing those queens will remove all restraints?"

  Edirah stared at her in shock for a few moments before suddenly casting a teleportation spell before vanishing.

  “She was in a bit of a hurry.” Wrex joked. “Have I mentioned how much I love the way you think lately?” The old Krogan chuckled.

  “Not for a while no, but it’s always nice to get compliments.” Seraphiel smiled at her old friend.

  "I'm not sure that can be counted as a compliment," Naidam muttered.

  ------

  As it turned out, the containment became quite necessary. At first, when the first queens died, the other creatures just went under another queen. However, once the last queen perished, the Locusts all went berserk. Most of them started attacking anything close by, but some retained enough clarity to try and attack the other continents. They had no coordination though, so they were easy prey while trying to cross the oceans. The Seraphim and the flying fortresses of the Draenei roamed the oceans hunting down any targets they could catch, and seers kept watch for any that managed to make landfall. When they did, the Locusts always found an attack squad waiting.

  Seraphiel was rather gratified to note that the two races could handle this threat without her assistance. Her friends had been hired to take down one hive, and they’d simply used the ship’s main cannons to remove the entire hive. While the Draenei and Angels were busy securing their new territory, they were still in a celebratory mood and a large festival had been planned for when the aftermath had been taken care of. They'd survived a triple threat from three separate Locust races with minimal losses, so naturally, everyone wanted to blow off steam.

  “Incidentally, the attacks on the other Core Worlds have intensified. Some of them have not fared as well as us.” Chachamaru reported, having been keeping up with the situation at large.

  “I heard the Soul Society got hired to help on several worlds as well. And not just Souls Society East either.” Yoruichi added. “North also got involved. It was a bit weird when the two got hired for the same job, but it didn’t come to blows. The North remembers the last time we fought, and it didn’t go so well for them. I did hear they have a new king now.”

  “Oh?” Seraphiel got mildly interested. “How did that happen? Did one of the Dukes finally get the courage to challenge the old man?”

  "No. Apparently, a spirit from this universe qualified to become a Shinigami in the Soul Society North and didn't like how things were handled. Led a rebellion and reorganized the whole thing." Yoruichi laughed.

  “Understandable. North’s methods really were a bit…dated.” Seraphiel shook her head. “Who’s the lucky new winner?”

  “Someone called Artoria. Apparently used to be King of Britain, and became a Heroic Spirit.” Yoruichi. “Who knows how someone like that became a Shinigami.”

  “Wait. Artoria Pendragon? King Arthur? Hah! She was one of the spirits involved in the Grand Grail War I participated in! She was on our team as well. I wonder if I’ll run into any more of my teammates from that war…” She speculated.

  “Anyone in particular you’d like to meet?” Yoruichi asked teasingly.

  “Well, I wouldn’t mind meeting Arjuna again. Achilles wasn’t too bad either.” She’d likely get summoned again relatively soon, even if she didn’t have to accept it anymore. She wouldn’t necessarily mind participating. Entertainment was entertainment, and it wasn’t like she had too much to do. She just hadn’t liked the idea of being forced to participate.

  "Funny you should mention that…" Edirah suddenly interjected, having returned only a moment before.

  Seraphiel lifted an eyebrow. “What? You’re participating?”

  "Not me personally, but the Draenei got invited. It seems several races from the old world did. It would be a more non-traditional one in that sense." Edirah explained. "Naturally, Velen's first thought was to try and summon you. I mean the you from before when we all still assumed you were dead."

  “When is this supposed to be happening?” She asked, frowning a bit. After all, it would be a nice opportunity for another attack with her gone.

  “Oh, it's not supposed to be for a few months, and I can only assume the recent mess has delayed things further," Edirah reassured her.

  “So, what I’m hearing is that there’s plenty of time for something else to go wrong before that.” Yoruichi teased. Those two had started getting along worryingly well.

  “At least we have time to enjoy the celebration.” Edirah shrugged. “Let’s hope trouble can wait at least that long.”