Shopping

"...What the hell am I looking at?" Raynare voiced her question out loud, staring at the absurd scene before her.

"It's a cute one, I'll give it that." Zieg smiled, petting the heads of the hydra. Despite being licked by it like a dog and it's owner. The Primeval Sorcerer didn't liquify from contact with it's bodily fluids.

"It's a hydra." Raynare stated. Waiting for her comment would sink in, unfortunately she was dealing with Zieg.

"And it's a cute one at that. Aren't you guys just cute! Oh wait, this one's a girl." Zieg noted how a couple of the heads were female, while the rest were male.

"How do you even know the difference?"

"Magic." Zieg spoke in a sing-song voice with jazz hands.

"Right... So I guess you're bringing it home?" She raised a brow, expecting it to be a done deal.

"Nah they don't want to leave the forest, besides they don't fit my criteria for a familiar anyway." He stated. He had already talked to it and it liked living here. He wouldn't take it away from it's place of comfort.

"How does it not fit!? It's literally a hydra! Do you know how strong these things are?!" Raynare practically shouted in disbelief.

"Come on shoo, I'll visit you some time in the future to play again." Zieg pushed the heads back until they reluctantly slithered off into the forest.

"Strength is secondary for what I need. Strength can always be gained with time." He said, turning his attention back to the fallen.

"Then what are you even looking for?"

" Well my general rules are pretty simple." He hummed, taking out a list.

1. Must be capable of a humanoid appearance for convenience.

2. Must be capable of flight.

3. Must be willing to peacefully join me. Unless it's a battle maniac that respects strength, in which case I can understand and a fight would ensue.

He closed the list. "And that's pretty much it. There are many methods of familiar binding. I don't care about their strength, since my method allows them to develop strength pretty easily with time." Zieg actually had a method for allowing the familiars to get stronger through leveling like a game. The limit though is 3 familiars at max. He extorted this from his alternate Gold Aversis after punching him. He didn't feel bad, fucking traitor deserved it.

"Well we've been here all night. Can we go home now? I'm losing beauty sleep here."

"I suppose. Shame I was hoping to meet Tiamat to see if she would accept. But I feel like she's avoiding me for some reason."

'That's probably because of us.' Draig decided to chime in

'Years ago we landed in her territory and made a mess of it. She still hasn't forgiven us.' Albion clarified. Tiamat probably didn't want to meet them again to avoid any headaches.

"Ahh!!!" Raynare's scream caused Zieg to break out of his internal thoughts.

"Huh, a slime." Zieg blinked at the scene of Raynare's clothes slowly disappearing from her body.

"Get off me! Do you have any idea how much this outfit costs!?" Raynare practically shrieked as her clothes continued to dissolve into nothingness, revealing her slender body and large bust.

"Hoh, Nice!" Zieg gave a thumbs up as he appreciated the scene before him. He was silently cheering for the little slime.

"Stop fucking around and get it off me!" She cried out

"Why don't you like, stab it with light or something?" He raised a brow and asked.

"It's hard to focus with this thing all over me!!" Her voice actually cracked as a bit of pleasure slipped out.

"Hoh, so it messes with your focus enough for you to be incapable of fighting back. Fascinating." Zieg seemed to be content with taking some notes at the moment for some reason as he pulled out a small notebook.

"Gaaahh!" Raynare finally ripped off enough of the slime with pure strength and began to maliciously fry it with light.

"Are you... are you crying?" Zieg actually noted some tears at the corner of her eyes as she continued to stomp the ground despite the slime not being there anymore.

"No! Why would I cry!? It's not like I'd cry over losing an expensive outfit after being cut off from my salary from my old position!" Her face seemed to be puffed out as she held back the tears.

"Don't you have more clothes at home?" He raised a brow

"Of course not! Why would I have brought any of my old clothes on a mission!? Now I've lost it all and that was a 600$ Jacket!" In hindsight, now that he thought about it. She didn't exactly have a large wardrobe in the basement when he took it over.

On one hand, he felt like this was a bad idea. But he did say that he takes care of his own people. "...If you want, I can take you shopping for new clothes?" Zieg hesitantly offered raising a hand. To which he found his hand grabbed as the depressed fallen's eyes practically lit up.

"Really!? Then let's go right now!" The girl began to drag him away with her wings flapping in the air.

Zieg felt like he should have kept his mouth shut.

∞

Emiya was watching the place as he set up his own kitchen. Though he was mainly proficient in tracing swords, that didn't mean he couldn't create other items.

Like everything needed for a proper kitchen. He could even trace a pizza oven!

He enjoyed the moment of peace that was had. There weren't any immediate threats that he had to worry about. He left that to Zieg, for now he would relax and enjoy himself.

That was until he felt a presence enter the perimeter of the bounded field.

Strange, it didn't feel like anyone he had met before. The golems weren't reacting, which meant that the person didn't come with any hostile intent.

It was strange, the intruder wasn't making any sudden moves. They were simply content with casually making their way towards the manor.

"Good grief, I didn't expect to play the role of a greeter today." Emiya stood up before making his way out to greet the unknown.

He exited the manor and unhurriedly headed towards the unknown person. They had stopped moving, it looked like they were admiring one of the golems.

The Counter Guardian had located the intruder and decided to observe them for a moment.

It was a man with long black hair and red eyes. He noted the way his ears were pointed. His robes were also black with detailed accessories and purple shoulder pads with gold streaks on the side.

The man turned to face Emiya, noticing his presence. Finding no reason to continue hiding, Emiya jumped down in clear view.

"Oh? I can't tell, are you a human or a spirit?" The man gazed over to him with his red eyes.

"What I am doesn't matter. What matters is that you are trespassing right now." Emiya stated with crossed arms.

"Odd, I could have sworn I was invited. At least that's what the stars told me." The man spoke, looking up at the false sky of the underworld before shaking his head.

Emiya narrowed his eyes at the words. They were cryptically similar to the way Zieg spoke at times.

"I see... you must be the Cadre, Kokabiel." He deduced to which the man's smile widened.

"Indeed, I am Kokabiel. It seems I've come at a bad time. It doesn't feel like anyone else is here." Kokabiel noted, gazing past Emiya towards the manor. "May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?"

"Archer." was his response.

"A fitting title, judging from the way you carry yourself. A shame I couldn't have seen you in your prime, before your light had dimmed and rusted." Kokabiel spoke with a slight hum. Emiya didn't respond, silently waiting. "Since the one who called for me isn't here. Take this, he'll know what to do with it." Kokabiel threw something at him, which he caught.

Emiya opened his hand to see a single black feather. When he looked back up, Kokabiel had already disappeared.

∞

In the middle of a mock battle between Gremory and Phenex.

It looked like they had indeed moved the marriage sooner than Rias had expected. While Zieg was off doing his own thing in the underworld, Slane had decided to assist the girl with the battle.

Riser was breathing heavily, standing before him was an armored bipedal lizard with glasses. No matter what he did, he wasn't able to put a scratch on the lizard man. However Riser still wasn't deterred, he was immortal. But the mocking gleam in the blue lizard's eyes kept the Phenex heir from remaining calm.

"Rahhh!!" Riser roared, charging straight at Slane with his burning fist cocked back.

The blazing fist pounded on Slane's chest. Riser growled when he realized that the lizard had allowed him that attack. Flames erupted from his other hand as he began a barrage of punches in the same spot.

Slane stood there, taking the burning fists without a care in the world. After Riser's assault ended, he brushed off the front of his chest and readjusted his glasses.

Once again Riser roared, beginning another onslaught of fists. Only for it to be ineffective.

"Grrr, why won't you die!?" Riser roared out, shaking off his hands that were currently in pain.

"Heh." Slane chuckled, removing his chest armor and revealing a crystalline pattern in front of his chest. "Crystalline dragon scales son. They harden in response to physical and magical trauma!" He ran his claw over his chest as it shined in response to the touch.

"You can't hurt me, Riser!" Slane smirked. It was an odd sight, to see a lizard smirking.

It seemed Riser had met his match.

∞

"Hm, so this is how it feels." Zieg noted oddly as he held multiple bags filled with clothes in his arms. Though what he was talking about, only he knew the answer to.

They had finally returned home after spending the entire day, moving from mall to mall. Zieg felt like he may have inflated the economy with his traced currency.

"What's with that look? You spent the day with a beautiful woman and you got to see me in all those clothes." She frowned at him since he didn't look that happy.

"Raynare, you do realize your regular Fallen outfit doesn't leave much to the imagination right?" He raised a brow, remembering how her regular Fallen uniform is basically fetish clothes.

"That's different. Work clothes are part of the job."

"Are you sure about that?" He raised a brow, trying to remember the clothing of other fallen, but then he realized they also looked pretty slutty.

"Why are you acting like that. Didn't you say you'd take care of me?"

"I did say that." He just didn't realize it involved reminding him of how poor he was. "And I stand by what I said." he sighed

"Hmph." She grabbed all the bags from him to bring to her room.

To Zieg's surprise, she turned around and gave him a deep kiss. "Thanks boss!" She shouted before flying off to her room.

"Huh." Zieg blinked. "Neat." Was all he commented before turning his attention to Emiya who stood there with his arms crossed.

"What's the situation?" Zieg asked seriously as Emiya didn't bother commenting on their return.

"We had a visitor." He stated

"Oh? What kind of visitor?"

"One that liked to speak as cryptically as you." He passed over a feather before leaving.

Zieg stood there with the black feather in hand. His primeval sight examining it.

He reappeared within the human world and looked up to the sky with his starry eyes.

"The stars of this world... are stagnant." Zieg noted with narrowed eyes.

"Well looks like I have another reason to meet with you. One who's name translates to Star of God." His eyes moved to another star. One that seemed to shine in response.