Rewind!

I waited in eager anticipation. This was going to be a very special night. Yes, I'd had many birthdays before. As a matter of fact, the bedroom I was in had long been used solely for that purpose. Every year, a few monsters who were close friends would come to this room and "thank" me for being me. I didn't do good deeds to get sex, of course. If you've read up to this point, you know that. But it sure was a nice fringe benefit.

Sometimes I'd pick my partners. Other times they'd be picked for me. This time was special, however. The person who would be joining me in this room was no monster. She was a Seraph, currently the goddess: Eden. Alice had approved the tryst surprisingly readily, even though the original rationale for allowing me to do this once a year didn't apply to angels. For some reason that troubled me. She'd increasingly taken to indulging any request I had, as if I was a dying man. I was getting old, certainly, but I was sure I had at least another fifteen to twenty ahead of me. I was in fine health and decent condition. Granberia had also recently taken to acting as if she was saying goodbye to me. Did they know something I didn't? Alice wouldn't keep anything from me, would she? No, if any of my medical checkups had turned up a serious problem, Tamamo would have told me. I could see Alice "protecting" me from that kind of information, but not Tamamo. That would have to be a conversation for later. I wasn't planning on dying tonight. Not before the goddess arrived.

I'm going to digress a little here before Eden arrives to address something that's probably been bothering you, the reader. If my home world was cut off from Alice's world, how is it that you are reading this book? That's what this last chapter is for. You see, I know this very well meaning but also very misguided angel, and she was about to do something very foolish and dangerous.

She entered the room in her usual spectacular way. I don't think I'd ever seen her use a door before. She never talked about it, but it was obvious that unlike monsters, she could teleport indoors with no worries. Suddenly, the room was lit up brightly, her holy aura announcing her presence. Gradually the aura faded, leaving in its place a very naked Eden.

"I decided to go with my old outfit for this night," Eden explained. "Do you like it?"

"I'm not sure I'd call that an outfit," I responded, once I could find words. "But yes, it's very…. You."

I tried to rise from the bed to greet her, but she forestalled me by crawling on top of me and began to slowly undo my robe.

"No need to get up, Luka," she said soothingly. "Tonight, just let me make you happy. It's your seventieth birthday, after all. A very special day."

As she undid the robe, she began kissing my chest. I had tons of experience with monsters by this point. In terms of pure intensity, there is no greater sexual experience in the world. A Seraph, on the other hand, is no monster. Eden was an angel, the most powerful of angels. Her magic wasn't geared towards sexuality. Instead, her magic directly targeted the emotions of those she was in close proximity to. And I hadn't had sex with her since that day in the volcano, when she had tried to take my power on Ilias' command. Whatever resistance to her charms I may have once had were gone once she began kissing me.

As before, she was in no hurry. She was my only partner tonight. Her movements were slow, but assured. She kissed me, touched me, and rubbed her body against mine, making sure to give me a taste of her enormous breasts at every opportunity. When she finally grasped my penis, she looked me right in the eyes and smiled.

"You've never had the opportunity to feel my mouth," she said lovingly. "I'm going to take my time. I've wanted to do this for you for so long."

With one last passionate kiss on the mouth to increase my anticipation, she moved down to it and began to softly suck it. To say that it felt divine would be trite, but accurate. Unlike a monster's mouth, which made you always feel as if you were on the verge of ejaculating whether you wanted to or not, her mouth gave me a warm, loving feeling that slowly spread all through my body.

There were no wild and crazy techniques designed to give me sensory overload and force an orgasm. Angels didn't crave semen. Getting me to come five times in five minutes was not her goal. She intended to make this last, to make it better and better the longer it went on. I had no idea how much time had passed. It must have been at least an hour of that soft, affectionate sucking. When she decided she'd loved me that way long enough, she slowly went down all the way and squeezed me gently with her mouth and throat. She stayed down as I came down her throat.

I was still hard when she put me inside her moments later. That, as with everything else she did to me, she did slowly, wanting me to savor every movement, every sensation, to bask in her love. She continued to kiss and touch me all over as she slowly rotated her hips. She must have done that for hours before I finally came a second time. Yes, it had been hours. The first wisps of light were beginning to show through the window. Eden lay beside me, so angelic that she hadn't even worked up a sweat.

"Was it everything you imagined it to be?" Eden asked.

"All that and more," I replied. "You took my breath away without even making me breathe hard."

"I love you, Luka," she said, then stayed silent for a few minutes, idly caressing me as she thought.

"What's on your mind?" I asked her.

"Luka," she began. "Have you given any thought to…. I don't know how else to put this, so pardon me if I'm blunt. Have you given any thought to your mortality?"

"Are you asking me if I'm afraid to die?" I asked. "If so, the answer is no. I've lived an incredible life. I couldn't ask for more."

"But what if you didn't have to die?" she asked. "You once had the power to give yourself eternal life. You gave it up to save us all. That doesn't seem fair to me."

"Why should I have eternal life? I wasn't created to be an eternal being like you. If I don't die, how is that fair? I'd just live to watch all those I loved die."

"Okay, maybe not eternal," she said. "but at least long enough so that you don't leave Alice alone?"

"That is something that I think about," I admitted. "A lot. Monster Lords don't get to have true love. She probably would never remarry. I guess she has little Alice's father, who she'd probably claim as a lover once I was gone."

"Oh, Luka, you love that man more than Alice does," Eden scolded. "That's why the world needs you. You are a very rare person, Luka. I cannot allow you to just pass from it. Especially not when the goddess will take her throne back in a few decades."

"That sounds suspiciously like a lack of faith in your goddess," I teased.

"It's not…." she said lamely. "I just think that a world with Luka in it is better for all of us than a world without Luka. That's all. She says she's not mad at you anymore."

"That's what you told me last time," I said. "She's not always honest with you."

"I also told you that day that I was not negotiating," she said pointedly.

"Eden….. what are you thinking of doing?"

"Ilias showed me something," she replied. "I'm going to help you. I know you'll say no, so I am not asking. Just accept the gift that I give you. I know you. It will be difficult, but you will make the most of it, even if you hate it. In time, I truly believe that you will come to appreciate what I am about to do."

"Eden, whatever you're planning…"

"It is already done," she replied, kissing me. "Goodbye, Luka. And hello."

Just like that, I wasn't in the room with Eden anymore. I was outside. Where? I felt my hand being held by another. I looked to my left. Granberia! She was dressed in an outfit that I hadn't seen her wear in decades. It was her jet black graphene armor, her two katanas in sheathes strapped to her back. I looked around. This was Yamatai! What in the world?

Granberia, sensing my uneasiness, looked at me and mouthed, "I believe in you." She had done that when….! I looked all around me. Alma Elma was off to my right. Eden, what did you do?! Tamamo stood in front of us, getting ready to give some kind of signal. At that point I knew exactly where I was, or more accurately, when. We were about to go into battle against the Dark God! The battle that had killed Alma Elma, and led to me being cut off from this world. Was this supposed to be some kind of favor? How was forcing me to relive this a favor?

Tamamo was about to give the go signal. "Wait!" I shouted.

Tamamo looked at me. Everyone was looking at me. "Luka, what's wrong?"

"Luka," Granberia said, squeezing my hand. "If you are frightened, do not be ashamed. I am with you. With you and me at each other's sides, there is no enemy we cannot defeat."

"It's not that," I said. "Call off the attack! I have a better idea!"

"You have a better idea now?!" Alice asked, quite exasperated.

"Yes!" I yelled. "It's hard to explain, but there's something I can do where nobody has to die!"

"Luka, Alice," Tamamo ordered. "A moment. The rest of you wait here."

Tamamo took Alice and I aside. Both of them looked at me expectantly, demanding explanations. Alice said, "Do you realize how quickly we had to telepathically tell the harpies and elves to stand down? What if they'd teleported in with no support? Luka, you nearly got my cute little subordinates killed!"

"Look, the castle's not going anywhere and only Saja and Alipheese are still in play," I argued. "We can take the castle back anytime! It won't hurt for me to try something first that won't require a big battle!"

"And you just thought of this now?" Tamamo asked skeptically. "You couldn't have brought this up at yesterday's meeting, or even woken me up to talk about it?"

"Like I said, it's hard to explain. You have to trust me."

"I trust you Luka," Alice said. "But you have to trust us too. If you want us to call this off, you need to explain why."

"I…." I just shrugged helplessly. What could I possibly say that would be believable?

Alice's eyes flashed. I zonked and shook my head. "Why did you do that?" I asked indignantly.

"I know it doesn't work on you," she explained. "But I wanted to demonstrate how serious I am about wanting an explanation. I know it's got to be something absolutely insane. Out with it."

"Okay," I sighed. "Ilias showed Eden how to send me back in time because she wants me to do things in a way that they'll turn out better than they did the first time."

Alice and Tamamo paused to process all that. I was sure they'd have a thousand questions. Ilias was dead, how could she possibly show Eden how to send me back in time?

"Okay!" Tamamo declared. "I'm going to tell the other Knights that the attack is off for the time being. We'll have another meeting in ten minutes to talk about your new plan."

"All you had to do was come out with it," Alice admonished after Tamamo left. "It's not like it's the weirdest thing that's ever happened to you."

"I'm pretty sure it is," I responded.

"You were literally fucked into another universe by a goddess," Alice retorted. "Time travel is not weirder than that. Your world has a million books on time travel, only one about traveling to other dimensions through a goddess' vagina."

"I lose another argument," I replied.

We gathered again, this time in Tamamo's shrine. The Four Heavenly Knights, Alice, and Promestein were present. Tamamo ordered me to brief the room on what had happened to me. Promestein had questions.

"Wait, so the time travel thing, that I can accept," Promestein said. "But why is Ilias alive? Who was the idiot who brought her back."

"That would have been me," I said sheepishly.

"I'm sure you had a good reason," Alice said.

"I did," I said. "We needed her to save the world. It's a long story, but what we do here today causes problems later. Maybe Eden sent me back to break that cycle."

"So did we lose?" Alice asked.

"No, we won," I replied. "But it cost us a lot and created more problems."

"So how do we avoid these… problems?" Erubetie asked.

"There are five rings of power, called the Rings of Brocia, that would enable me to defeat the Dark God singlehandedly."

"Really?" Promestein asked. "Is this really the time to be pranking me?"

"No," Tamamo said. "He's right. Those rings would give him that power, and he's strong enough to use them without consequences."

"We have artifacts like that and you didn't think to give them to him?" Alice asked. "You're in charge of the artifacts for a reason. Did you just forget that we had something that could end this conflict?"

"No, I didn't forget," Tamamo said icily. "We just don't have them."

"What?!" Alice shouted. "Who has that kind of power?! There's a reason that collecting all the powerful magic items in the world has been a priority since Alice the Ninth!"

"The Rings of Brocia weren't a priority because no one has them all assembled," Tamamo replied. "Legend has it that they were dispersed a very long time ago. Which brings me to the big flaw in this plan. We don't know where any of the rings are. I assume you do, Luka?"

"I think I do," I said. "My quest to retrieve those rings takes place thirty years from now. Given their locations, I have good reason to believe they haven't moved in a long time. One is in a dragon's hoard, the sphinx has another. A third is in an underground cave in the possession of a blowfish girl. That one is the most likely to be somewhere else, but probably not, since the blowfish in question said that it had been given to her by her mother."

"Okay, two questions," Alice said. "Thirty years! Just how old are you now! Second, that still leaves two rings."

"I'm seventy," I answered. "Eden was upset that I was going to die soon, which is why she sent me back."

"And one of those rings grants immortality," Tamamo finished for me. "But if you found that ring, why would she be afraid that you'd die?"

"The rings were destroyed when I saved the world," I explained.

"Wait a minute, now I'm confused," Alice said. "So you saved the world. What happened next?"

"We lived happily ever after," I answered. "The world was a wonderful place where monsters and humans got along, even better than they do today. Succubi are even monogamous!"

Alma Elma fainted.

"At least some of them," I finished, as Granberia checked on the scandalized queen succubus.

"So if everything was great, why would she send you back?" Alice asked. "Oh no… Please don't tell me she did this just to give you a shot at immortality."

"I think she did," I said. "I had my happy ending, but she just wasn't satisfied. She wanted to 'help' me by giving me a shot at an even happier ending, I guess."

"So we're going to do things totally differently," Tamamo said. "at the risk of completely messing things up, just so that Eden doesn't have to lose her favorite human?"

"That's pretty much it, yes."

"That idiot!" Alice raged. "That misguided, overpowered moron! Does she even realize how serious this is?! People that died are now going to live, people that lived are probably going to die! She's playing God!"

"Ummm…."

"Yes, yes, I know, she's the goddess now, but just an acting goddess! And even acting goddesses shouldn't play around with forces like time!"

"What's done is done," Tamamo said. "At this point it would be worse to reverse things, not that we could. Luka, this is your show. Use us however you need to get those rings."

"Once you have them," Granberia asked, helping Alma Elma up. "What will you do?"

"I'll go take the castle back myself," I said. "once I have those rings, no one can hurt me. I'll be able to depower the Dark God without killing her or sending her offworld."

"Why are either of those outcomes bad?" Alice asked.

"Well, I don't want to kill her simply because it can be avoided," I said. "As for sending her off world, that's what caused the problem that required me to revive Ilias. It seemed like the most elegant solution at the time, but it had consequences. So what I want to do instead is drain her of the stupendous amount of dark energy she has, which would make her too weak to threaten anyone."

"Hmmmm…" Tamamo thought. "That probably would work. Okay, so where are the other two rings?"

"The first is in heaven, and I don't think Eden will have any problem giving it to me. The second… oh, crap."

"Oh crap?" Alice asked. "C'mon, out with it!"

"The last ring is on Saja's finger," I said. "Which means that I'm not powerful enough until I get it off of her."

"Then we must attack as planned!" Granberia said. "I suggest we do it as soon as he has the first four rings! If he knows their locations and there are no complications, we could attack as soon as tomorrow!"

"No!" I yelled. "We can never attack! If we do, a lot of monsters will die! Including Alma Elma!"

Alma Elma fainted again.

"I'm assuming you have a plan to get that ring, Luka," Tamamo prodded.

"I do," I said, sincerely hoping that it was a good one.

The first part was obvious, and easy: get the easily accessible rings. It was even easier than the first time I did it. Tiffany's lair was deserted, since she was posted near the castle to support the Dark God. Of course, no dragon simply leaves their treasure unprotected, so I had to get through a barrier. That proved to be no problem, since like most barriers on this world, they weren't very good at keeping me out. Granberia had teleported me to Tiffany's cave and waited outside while I retrieved the ring. That took a little time, since Tiffany had a large hoard, but I did eventually find it. One down, four to go.

Getting the second from the sphinx was little trouble. Alice came along with me. Sara was given the job of organizing the city's defenses against a possible attack by dragons, which was a much more effective way to keep her Sabasa than forbidding her to leave. Alice and I marched into the pyramid, already a tourist attraction, and were given the ring after answering three relatively simple riddles.

The third took me the rest of the day, because I not only had to journey to the bottom of the sea, I also had to find Blowie's cave, not quite remembering exactly where it had been. Alice accompanied me on this trip, which "spared" me having to pay for the ring the er… usual way. Apparently, a promise from the Monster Lord to return the ring was more than enough to convince Blowie.

The fourth was the easiest yet. We arrived back at Yamatai and I simply called for her. I should have done that the first time and spared myself an arrow in the rear end. She was surprised at my request, as it had not been the first unusual request I'd made of her on that particular adventure, but she saw the need and brought the ring to me. All I had to do was defeat Saja for the last one. But that would be a battle to wage tomorrow. It had been an exhausting day, and I technically had not slept in almost two days. Alice and I settled into the little floor bed at Tamamo's house.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Alice asked me as I settled in for some sleep.

"About what?"

"About the fifty years that you lived that never happened," she replied.

"They were mostly good," I said. "There was tragedy, to be sure. We lost Alma Elma in that battle we didn't wage. I was separated from you for many years because I took the Dark God to my world and severed the link between our worlds so that she couldn't make it back."

"But that would mean you couldn't get back either!" she said, horrified.

"That's what I thought had happened. I thought I'd lost you forever. But a few years later she came to me with an offer, which I accepted, and I got back here by jumping from world to world, all of them parallel universes where you existed, but were different. Someday I'll tell you about all of them."

"How long did it take you to get back to me?"

"Seven years my time, thirty in yours," I answered.

"Oh, Luka, I'm so sorry you have to go through that! And losing Alma Elma, too! Maybe it's good that you get another chance. I just worry about what Ilias is getting out of all this. Eden may have done the act, but if Ilias showed her how to do it, she must have had an agenda."

"Maybe she did, but I have reason to hope that she was just being misguided as well. In that future, Ilias is sealed in a childlike form, and she's best friends with your daughter, Alice."

"Our daughter Alice? Luka, did we….?"

"I'm afraid not," I said. "You had to find a man from this world to give you an heir."

"But our children…"

"They are lovely children," I said. "But human. Mostly, anyway."

"Oh," she said listlessly. "Maybe this time you can watch them grow up."

"I think I'd like that," I said.

"Luka, if you get that immortality ring, what will you do?"

"I guess I'll wear it for as long as you live, since that's what I was sent here for."

"I hope you do," she said. "It's hard not to think about you dying before I'm even middle aged. So you can use it this time without destroying it?"

"I think so," I said."What I had to do before took so much power that it not only destroyed the rings, it also permanently drained me of my own. What I plan to do this time shouldn't require that much."

"Luka, I don't like your plan," she said. "Not your plan to keep the ring, that part I like. It's your plan to attack the castle tomorrow. Even with a fireproof ring. There's a lot more than fire in front of that castle to worry about."

"Trust me," I said. "I'm a lot more powerful than I was yesterday. As long as I move fast and don't make any dumb mistakes, they don't stand a chance of stopping me. Besides, Granberia will be with me."

"As if you could have kept her away!" Alice scoffed. "She owes Saja. There was no way she was going to let you deny her a chance to face her again!"

Indeed, I knew that Granberia would be unpersuadable on that point. I had to admit, as much as I admired the older, calmer Granberia, the hotheaded Granberia was the one I'd fallen in love with. Going into battle with her like old times felt nostalgic. In any case, it was good that I had her. She could telepathically call for help if I got into trouble, bringing in not just the Knights, but the harpies and elves as well, who stood ready to teleport in at a moment's notice. I hoped it wouldn't come to that. If this went well, no one would die today.

As planned, Granberia teleported us right to the front of the castle. We were immediately surrounded by dragons, who had been lying in wait, expecting this very thing, albeit with a lot more of us, as had happened the first time I'd lived this. Being dragons, they naturally breathed fire on us as soon as we teleported in. The fire had no effect on me and little on Granberia. A variation on the marble trick dropped every dragon within fifty feet of us, allowing us time to enter the castle.

Give Alipheese credit for being able to adapt, because once we got in it was nothing like it had been the last time. When I first lived this day, her entire army was tied up outside battling the Knights, harpies, and elves. Since there was no opposition outside, we were pursued by echidnas, with several behemoths close behind. No problem.

I directed Granberia to continue to the great hall. I would take care of the pursuit. For this, I wasn't going to use my power in such a crude way. The echidnas were Alice's kin. Their rebellion against her was inexcusable. She'd taught them quite a lesson almost singlehandedly the first time around. This time, that responsibility would fall to me.

As the echidnas, numbering about a dozen, slithered down a long hallway towards me, weapons drawn, I summoned up all four spirits and my fake Angel Halo. I really should stop calling it fake, because my magic version was better than the real thing. Using the real Angel Halo, I would have had to hit each echidna several times to seal them. My version of it sealed instantly upon contact. When I was satisfied that I had them where I wanted them, I dashed down the hall, faster than their eyes could see, sealing them as easily as if I was playing a game of tag. They never saw me. They only saw the slashes on each other's chests as they turned into harmless little snakes. When I was through here, the only one who would be unsealing them would be Alice. I expected that some might prefer to remain snakes.

When the slower behemoths saw me standing in the hall, surrounded by slithering, helpless snakes, they decided that maybe the Dark God hadn't been the right horse to bet on. Pity. I'd been interested in seeing what behemoths looked like in their sealed forms.

I entered the great hall in time to see Granberia unsheathing her swords, facing off against Saja.

"Are you here to battle me as well?" Saja asked. "I will not stop you if you wish to move on to face the Dark God. She awaits you in the throne room."

"Oh, I intend to face the Dark God," I said. "But first I need something from you. I'll be happy to take it from you when Granberia defeats you."

"Then you shall be disappointed," Saja growled, and the battle between the two began.

It went exactly the same as it did when I wrote about it, except this time we didn't bother to seal Saja. Once she was trapped against the wall, impaled by one of Granberia's swords, Granberia held one arm while I grabbed the other and pried the ring off. The collection was complete. Saja started in horror at my hand. She knew exactly what I had.

"Don't worry, Saja," I said. "I have no intention of killing her. Just showing her that she doesn't rule this world just because Ilias is gone."

Granberia, in a helpful mood, yanked her sword out of Saja's shoulder. Saja's eyes rolled back and she collapsed onto the ground. "Good luck, Luka," Granberia said. "Do not make me angry by leaving me a second time."

I walked down the long hallway to the throne room. Inside, Alipheese awaited as before. Did she know?

"Wow, kid," she said. "The Five Rings of Brocia. How in the hell did you find all of them?"

"It's a long story, one that I'd like to tell you," I said. "When you're better behaved."

"You're lecturing me on my behavior?" she scoffed. "I don't care how much power you have. You don't know how to use it well enough."

"That just shows that you're not as omniscient as you think."

I charged at her with Angel Halo. She tried to do her smoke trick as before. I knew this one, however, and I was a lot faster than I'd been the first time she'd frustrated me this way. Using the steps to the throne as a launching point, I leaped, almost flew, into the smoke, my improved Angel Halo slashing about. When the smoke reformed in the middle of the throne room, she was prone on the ground, gasping. She had only avoided sealing by being in that smoke form. She was already too weak to even resist me anymore. I approached her and kneeled down before her.

"You've lost, Alipheese," I said calmly.

"You gonna kill me, kid? I woulda done it to you. I imagine you can even do it so that I don't come back."

"I can, but I don't like killing. I've got something else in mind."

Wielding the rings, I began to leech out her dark energy. The process was not painful for her, but she still cried out in anguish over what I was doing, knowing that I was taking away what made her powerful. I didn't stop just because she'd grown weak. I continued to take her essence inside me until she was gone.

Then I went to work gathering holy energy. Since I already could feel how much of Alipheese was within me, it was easy to grab an equal amount of holy energy. I then parceled out an equal amount of my own. I wasn't completely sure if this would work. It was something that I dimly understood from my short time being omniscient.

In two short bursts, I let out half of the energy at a time. I used the rings to further compress the two blobs, until they were approximately human sized. Granberia entered the throne room just as the two blobs formed into beings.

I had not told her of this part of my plan. I wasn't just trying to win this battle. I wanted to make sure I would never have to fight another. Since the amount of energy I needed to recreate the two goddesses was far less than I had used to heal the world, it was well within both the tolerances of the rings and my own magic's capabilities. I smiled with satisfaction at my work.

Standing before me were Alipheese and Ilias. They looked different, but still recognizable.

"What have you done to me?" Alipheese asked, touching herself, seeing if everything was in place.

"What he's done," Ilias said with a grin of satisfaction. "is what I'd planned from the very beginning. We are no longer goddesses of dark and light. We are both darkness, light, and Luka's energy."

"Wait a minute," I said. "How come you're not all confused and stuff?"

"Oh, Luka," Ilias said, approaching me. "Why do you think I had Eden send you back in time? I wanted you to recreate me as the being I'd always wanted to be."

"Were you faking?"

"Of course I was faking!" Ilias laughed. "But don't worry. I have no interest in causing any more trouble. You taught me a lot, Luka. It's time for the three of us to make this world what it was really meant to be."

Ilias left me to approach Alipheese, who still had not fully processed what had just happened. Alipheese started in shock when Ilias took her hands in hers.

"Alipheese, look!" Ilias said. "We can interact now! We're not what we were! We are entirely new beings."

"I understand," Alipheese said shakily. "I am near omniscient just like you, and yet what I know…. I can barely believe it. What does this mean?"

"It means that neither of you have to be lonely anymore," I said. "Even gods can change. Even gods can start new lives. I'm afraid that I still don't fully trust either of you, though. So I used the minimum amount of energy necessary to recreate each of you. And to make sure you can't just gather more…."

I removed three of the rings, all save the one for immortality and the one belonging to Blowie, and threw them up in the air. Good ol' marble trick. I destroyed each gem before they even hit the ground.

"Neither of you are much more powerful than I am," I said. "That still makes you by far the most powerful beings in the universe, but not so powerful that you can dominate us."

"Alipheese," Ilias said. "I'm willing to give Luka's way of doing things a chance if you are. We've got all of eternity to fight if it doesn't work out. For now, what do you say that we give his moron a chance to prove that monsters and humans really can live in peace?"

Alipheese nodded and, still holding Ilias' hand, walked up to me. "Kid, you are full of surprises. All right, we'll do this your way. You could have ended me forever and you didn't. I can't forget that. I promise that as long as you live, I'll follow your lead. If Ilias will, that is."

"It was always my plan, right from the beginning," Ilias said smugly.

"I don't think anyone believes that," I scoffed. "But I do admit to being extremely confused. You're good, you're evil, you're confused, you're good again… I'm sure there was an easier way to do all of this if it was really your plan."

"I guess you'll just have to live out your days wondering," Ilias replied.

With Alipheese's army sent back to their homes and lairs, the Heavenly Knights reentered the castle in triumph. The very first thing I did was hug Alma Elma. The war was over, and she was still here. I decided that however misguided Eden was, Alma Elma's survival made it worth it.

Tamamo hugged me as well, then asked to check my hand. When she saw the two rings that I still had on, she froze in horror.

"Luka, where's the immortality ring?!"

"It's that one," I said, pointing at my index finger. "I made sure to keep Blowie's since Alice promised to give it back, and the immortality ring."

"That's the fireproof ring!" she gasped. "You destroyed the immortality ring!"

"What? No! I could have sworn it was the aquamarine ring!"

"Haha, I'm just messin' with you!" Tamamo laughed. "You should see your face!"

So that's how it actually ended. The connection to my world had not been severed, so that's why you're holding this book in your hand. If you're one of those people who still reads physical books, that is. The Six Ancestors were quickly unsealed and were ordered by Alipheese to follow my orders. Alipheese and Ilias were going to take a long vacation. Together, in my world. Turns out that they both really loved cookies, and Alipheese was eager to try the real thing. I told Alipheese about the monsters being held prisoner in Japan. One of my biggest worries about Eden sending me back in time was that if certain things didn't happen, people who didn't deserve to suffer, whose lives I had made better because of my ordeal, would be punished while I benefitted. That didn't seem fair. Alipheese rescued her children, in the process using Ilias as a decoy instead of me. After some strong words, they made up over drinks back in the USA. They still laugh about it to this day.

I got to raise my children, continue spending time with Granberia and Alma Elma every day, and my nights with Alice. Since our two worlds were still connected, I was able to continue developing Alice's world, now with Promestein as a very helpful aid. Actually, I'm boosting myself a bit much. Promestein enabled us to improve our efforts by leaps and bounds.

Ilias and Alipheese keep a low profile. Eden still serves as the goddess, and due to Ilias' reduced power, is her equal anyway. Ilias decided that if she couldn't be the most powerful being in heaven that someone else should have to do all the work. Eden, ever the loyal servant, was thrilled. In any case, Eden had higher approval ratings among the populace. Turns out that people like a religion that's about love more than they do one that's about hate. The Eden temples are packed every week for services.

"So darling," Alice said, lying in our bed one morning, several years later. "What are your plans today?"

"There's just one piece of unfinished business that I have to take care of," I said. "One more adventure."

"Oh?" she asked. "What adventure could you possibly have on this world?"

"It's not on this world," I said. "Since I was brought back and a lot of things never happened that did the first time, there's one more loose end to tie up."

"Another world? Your world?"

"No," I replied. "it's a parallel world just like this one. Except there, you're not the Monster Lord. I need to go to that world and help out a friend who doesn't know she's my friend. I won't be gone long, Alice. She taught me everything I know about how to use my power. The evildoers there don't stand a chance."

"Who is this friend?" Alice asked.

"A wonderful blue lamia named Ariana."