Combat Maids

As the guards of the Miao family noticed a group of eight women approaching them, they immediately went onto high alert as several dozen of them pointed their firearms at the women, ready to fire them at a single moment.

"GET BACK, OR WE'LL SHOOT!" The man in charge of the Miao family's estate security declared, fully intending to slaughter even a group of maids if they dared present a threat to the young master. The woman at the head of the maids, a mature beauty with emerald green hair, stepped forward and firmly stated in response to the man's earlier order,

"We simply have some business with your young master, so please let us pass to avoid unnecessary bloodshed." The man however was unmoved by her friendly seeming request, and shouted,

"THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING, BACK OFF!!!" As if to show how serious he was, one of the men suddenly let off a shot directed at Venri's feet, making her frown slightly as dirt was scattered all over her shoes from the bullet. She then looked back at the men with a vicious gleam momentarily showing in her eyes, before she stated,

"Nyx, open the door for us." The goddess of darkness and night smiled as she was finally given the chance to do something more than mopping and cleaning, and started floating in the air as she slowly raised herself up above the mortals that dare stand in her way.

"FIRE!!!" The head of security shouted as every single one of the dozens of firearms trained themselves onto Nyx's figure, before the silence of the night erupted with the noise of several dozen automatic weapons going off, and the darkness was filled with the light of the muzzle flash. The head of security then noticed Venri smirking from where she stood, and raised a pistol as he decided to wipe the smirk from her face; as he shot however, he was dumbfounded by what he witnessed, as Venri's hand blurred before appearing right in front of her face covered in green scales as she effortlessly caught the fired bullet. As the head was trying to figure out what she was and how she did that, another voice stated from above them as the men's ammo ran out,

"Such pitiful creatures you are. I remember when humans cowered in fear of me and my powers, when they huddled in their caves and clutched their wooden spears in fear of what lay outside them. Then that fool Prometheus gave them fire, giving them the courage needed to venture out into the darkness as they set out to conquer it. Many things have changed since then, I was granted this form from the prayers of my few followers, and humans have made one innovation after another in their quest for dominance, until they eventually learned how to even harness light itself; however one thing remains the same, the instinctual fear they feel when I creep up behind them, the fact that no matter where they go, what they do, I will always be there waiting patiently and silently to reclaim them once more."

As she spoke Nyx became surrounded by darkness itself as it converged onto her and spread to their surroundings, snuffing out any and every light it came across as it crept slowly towards the Miao family gate, striking fear into the guards as they tried to fire their weapons into the darkness, but, as before when they shot at Nyx, the darkness simply absorbed the bullets silently as it continued its slow trek onward. As it finally came within mere feet of the gate, making the guards sweat as terror started overtaking them, it finally stopped as Nyx continued her earlier speech, "Let this be a lesson, no matter what you do to fight it, no mater how brave you think you are, you will always and forever, FEAR THE DARK!"

As she finished her declaration the darkness suddenly surged forward into the air as it bore down towards the gate and the walls surrounding it, engulfing the guards instantly as it slammed into the barrier surrounding the entire Miao estate, before consuming and destroying it as well and continuing its endless surge forward. After several seconds Venri stated to her fellow maid,

"That's enough Nyx, hold the line for us while we make our way forward." Though she wanted to continue, Nyx snorted before she did as the dragon commanded and pulled back her darkness before setting it to surround the entire Miao family estate to prevent anyone from trying to escape. Normally doing magic of this scale without extensive preparation would easily exhaust or even potentially kill the caster in this world, however, as a goddess of the night while it was currently the middle of the night, Nyx's magic was currently unparalleled among those that came form this world, even with her powers still sealed. With her setting the bar, the rest of the maids eagerly entered the Miao family estate to test their training while their lord watched over them. Meanwhile a massive silver magic circle bearing the crest of Lucifuge suddenly appeared overhead, covering the entire Miao estate with Spirit magic to capture the souls of those who were being killed, so that they were present for when they used Regeneration magic to restore the Miao estate and revive those who were killed.

The reason for this was because Alex was aware that the Miao family head actually wanted to honor the alliance with the Huang family that was created by his father, however he was unable to do so because of the existence of the original founder of the Miao family. Since he most likely felt he had no choice but to attack them, Alex intended to use this chance as a demonstration to both families of what those who followed him were capable of, and what it meant to to attack him. As for the original founder of the Miao family, Alex was already intending to deal with him eventually so his response was inconsequential. Standing atop the giant magic circle thinking of this was none other than the caster herself, Grayfia, as she turned her gaze downwards and watched her fellow maids alongside the thirteen former apostles, who were awaiting orders to join the fight in any of the other maids started struggling.

From the entrance the seven maids split up as they tried to cover more ground while Nyx covered the rear, with Venri marching slowly and confidently straight towards the tower where the head of the Miao family, Xia-Long, waited for them. Tracy and Francesca headed to the left towards what was ultimately the kitchens and the armory, while Ishigami and Mako paired off and went to the right towards the residential area, and Eri took off by herself. It didn't take long before the entire Miao family rushed to meet them, as, as if planning for Routier's failure, Xia-Long had called for all of the Miao family's forces and allies to meet and prepare within the family's estate, meaning the girls had a small army waiting for their arrival.

When she saw several dozen men waiting for her with rifles pointed at her, Tracy smiled fearlessly as she held out her hand and summoned the weapon that had become one of her most prided and cherished possessions, a giant anime style sword that was nearly as long as she was tall. Without even a warning, all of her opponents started firing their weapons without any hesitation whatsoever, forcing Tracy to bring her sword up and use it as a shield to block oncoming hailstorm of bullets as she hid behind it, the sound of metal colliding ringing out like a symphony. Her fearless smile never faltering, she then started to slowly walk towards the line of gunmen as they continued trying to shoot through her sword, which was reflecting the bullets without even acquiring a single dent thanks to Hajime's master craftsmanship.

This continued until the tell-tale sound of the guns 'click' echoed out, meaning that the shooters had run out of ammunition. As Grayfia had included knowledge of firearms in their training, especially after what happened at Rising Star Entertainment, Tracy didn't let this chance go and swiftly swung her sword in a wide arc while shouting, "Heavens Mighty Strike!" Immediately following her attack, everything caught within the line of her blade was suddenly destroyed as her attack's energy tore through bodies and buildings alike, leaving nothing but death and destruction in its wake. While she watched the bodies break and the blood spray, Tracy smiled as she felt the rush of true battle for the first time in what felt like forever, as the only real opponents she'd had so far after joining Alex had been monsters, and any people she faced were her 'sisters'. Continuing her path of destruction and carnage, Tracy eventually tore her way into the kitchens where she found a single man waiting for her, an expression of anger on his face even as he calmly asked,

"Tell me, what did we do to deserve this butchery?" Despite her bloodlust Tracy smirked as she answered,

"I don't know, and I don't care. All I know is that our madam was given orders by our master to attack you, and that is all I need!" The man frowned at her words, but didn't say anything else as he sighed and stood, grabbing something from behind the counter next to him while saying,

"Then let us see which of us is more loyal to our masters then." Tracy's smile widened as she saw him pull out two kitchen knives from behind the counter, one in each hand, except they were both greater in size than even her own sword. The two swordsmen stared at each other for a single beat, before they suddenly rushed at each other and their weapons rang with the melody of battle. Meanwhile overhead, Grayfia took out a clipboard and wrote down, 'needs to work on self control during battle.' She then turned her attention towards the brown skinned woman with Crimson hair, who was softly chanting while she practically glided across the rooftops of the estate, a storm of dangerous looking clouds gathering above her. As the swarm of Miao family soldiers rushed to and fro beneath her as they rushed towards the sounds of combat that was Tracy, Francesca's voice suddenly rose to a shout, as she decreed to finish her spell,

"Wrath of the Heavens, descend and SMITE MY ENEMIES!" As her last word rang out a loud rumble filled the air, before it sounded as if the sky itself was falling as lightning tore through the air in a seemingly endless storm that rained down death upon the masses of the Miao family. Even as she controlled the storm using the magic taught to her by Rosswiese, a revolutionary combination of the magic used in Tortus and in Rossweise's home world, Francesca's thoughts turned towards her master and she wondered if he'd be proud of her actions. She then started thinking of the various ways he'd possibly reward her and the different positions they'd try, from doing this to doing that, and maybe even a bit of THAT stuff too.

Francesca's face then started turning as red as her hair despite her dark skin tone, and she let out a cute maidenly "kyaa!" that didn't fit the current atmosphere, wether it be the masses of people being attacked by her high tier lightning spells, or the fact that she was imagining the various ways she wanted Alex to roughly fuck her later. Grayfia's brow twitched as she saw Francesca's actions, as if she could read what was going through the horny princess's mind, and she added a note to her clipboard about addressing the demon girl's tendency to daydream during battle. She then looked towards her newest recruits, Ishigami and Mako, who were carving their own path of destruction through the Miao family estate despite having less training than the other girls.

It wasn't just the two of them however, as Mako had used her needle/whiplike fingers to turn several members of the Miao family into her puppets, while any of them that had gotten too close to Ishigami were bitten by her snakelike dreadlocks, and turned to stone. As the duo seemed to casually make their way through the estate, Mako couldn't help but remark, "it might not be so bad being a maid if we get to rampage like this occasionally." Ishigami however didn't seem to register her comrades words, as she instead climbed to the roof of a nearby building to take in the scenery and spread her arms wide, before declaring,

"THIS, THIS IS TRUE ART! Is there anything purer than raw destruction? Is there anything more beautiful and primal?" Mako shook her head as she heard Ishigami's declarations, while Grayfia made a couple notes about the twos progress before turning her attention to the solitary petite girl that entered a particularly large courtyard, only to find a small army of soldiers and even monsters waiting for her there. Eri looked around and was surprised to find minotaurs, large Cobras, insects, lizards, and several other monsters glaring at her along with some more human looking opponents, before muttering to herself,

"I think I saw a hentai like this one time..." At her words there was a massive round of facepalms from Grayfia and the apostles, and even Alex and those watching the attack with him, while even some of her opponents were facepalming and felt a little awkward being there now. One man ignored it and stepped forward before declaring,

"You're severely outnumbered, give up!" As she heard his declaration, Eri sneered even as several more monsters closed in behind her as if to box her in, before she taunted with an insane smile,

"I don't how I'm outnumbered though?" Before he man to respond to her taunt, his eyes shot open from shock as monster after monster started appearing around Eri from seemingly nowhere, and each and every single one being something he had never seen before. The most menacing one however was a massive hydra with each head being a different color, that then proceeded to allow Eri to climb on top of one of its heads before she turned back towards man and taunted further,

"You were saying?" As the man and his comrades stared dumbfoundedly at the army that had literally appeared from nowhere, Eri continued with a sneer, "You should never assume a necromancer is alone you know~tee hee." It was then that they noticed that, despite the lack of blood and various injuries, each of the monsters had glossy whitish eyes while a smell similar to that of old corpses permeated through the air. Eri giggled mischievously from atop her seat on the hydra's head, as she debated which of her army of monsters to also call out. Ever since the time when everyone in her class returned home from Tortus, Eri had been given the corpses of any monsters that had been killed in the labyrinths, or Tortus itself, before they had Regeneration magic used on them to restore their bodies to pristine condition. She herself had even been allowed to challenge some of the labyrinths as acknowledgement of her loyalty, allowing her to acquire Regeneration and Spirit magic to improve her necromancy further. She had then even been allowed to take one of the floating islands for herself to work on her corpses in private, which she promptly turned into a large cemetery with a mausoleum in the center where she kept her workshop. With thousands of monster corpses having been delivered to her, and a Spatial storage ring to store them in, Eri had quite literally become a one woman army that was limited only by the amount of corpses she could control, a number that only increased due to her tireless efforts.

As the insane girl started her rampage, Grayfia frowned slightly as Eri's monsters started toying with those they were fighting with for several minutes, before finally killing them. She then shook her head while also making a note stating that Eri needed to work on her self control and her sadistic tendencies as, even if he didn't mind necromancy, Grayfia knew Alex wouldn't care for Eri tormenting all of those she fought simply for her own amusement; even if he himself would occasionally get overly sadistic and torture his opponents, Alex only did so when they had pissed him off too much or to make a point, not for fun. As she took her gaze off of Eri, someone else was focusing onto her through the lens of their scope as they aimed their rifle at her head, intending to take out the entire undead army of monsters out with a single shot. Before he could though, something came flying seemingly out of nowhere and imbedded itself into the back of his head, throwing his consciousness into darkness almost instantly while his killer, an elven beauty, aimed her bow into the next person as she continued sniping them one after another.

As the arrows flew across the battlefield and found their targets, Altina couldn't help the smile on her face as she felt like jumping for joy at the fact that she was finally useful. Like every other 'demihuman' that had lived in Tortus before her, Altina was unable to use magic and was ostracized for it along with the rest of her people, until Alex came along and gave her the chance she never thought possible. Using Spirit magic, Alex and Kuroka had reworked the channels of energy within her body until she was able to use a similar form of magic as Shia, which was physical reinforcement. Rather than reinforce her body to increase her raw strength and other physical capabilities though, Altina instead increased her senses and awareness while also slightly increasing her reflexes, allowing her to see farther and to be more aware of her surroundings. With her newfound capabilities Alex's first action had been to put a bow in her hands, something that had confused her at first until she tested it out. Obviously she wasn't too skilled of an archer at first as a beginner, however she sunk hours upon hours into her training whenever she had free time, even going so far as to stay within the space-time orb for weeks in real time to up how much she was able to train. Then, before anyone knew it, she was sinking arrow after arrow into the bullseye of every target she had, before splitting those arrows with yet another one before splitting even those.

When she finally moved onto training against actual targets, the monsters that now called the various other space-time orbs home, Altina was give her first real weapon, a metallic bow with a matching quiver, and arrows that automatically returned to the quiver sixty seconds after they were shot by the bow. Though this might seem like a relatively plain set up for one of Grayfia's combat maids, there were also plans to add a variety of arrows with various magic formations on them in order to give Altina more variety in her ammunition, as well as more fire power, while Hajime was also making other various plans as side projects. As she thought about her potential for the future, Altina couldn't help but want to jump with joy at the thought of being useful to her master, making her also brush the collar that adorned her neck lovingly.

Despite Alex's intentions to keep Altina from developing similar interests as her original self, her duties as a maid started her gradual descent into discovering her massive M tendencies, leading to Alex eventually officially referring to her as one of his sex slaves while also giving her a collar. Unlike Akeno's, which was made of black leather and had a tag with a lightning bolt emblem, Altina's was made of green vines and had a tag with the emblem of a leaf on it; while Tio didn't have a collar as to her the slave brand was more than enough, especially since neither Akeno or Altina could have one as well due to their 'real' masters being Rias and Grayfia respectively. The silver haired maid in question couldn't help but twitch her brows when she saw Altina squirming similarly to Francesca, before her hands even started creeping towards her rear, and the plug that was currently lodged in her rectum. With a deadpan look on her face, Grayfia used her communicator to tell the perverted elven Princess,

"Altina, you do realize that there are several people watching you, right?" As if a bolt of lightning ran through her, the elf practically jumped as Grayfia's words shocked her out of her reverie before she embarrassedly aimed wth her bow once again, except now she couldn't help but imagine her master 'punishing' her as a crowd of people watched. With the new fantasies obviously effecting her aim, Grayfia shook her head in exasperation as she made a note on her clipboard regarding Altina's future training. She then turned her attention towards the final maid that was taking part of, and somewhat leading, the attack, Venri. The mature dragon maid tore her way though the estate with ease as she used her people's specialty of fire and wind attribute magics, until she was finally in the courtyard directly under the tower that their target was within, except she now had at least a hundred of the Miao family soldiers surrounding her with various weapons, from regular firearms to even rocket launchers and grenades, and even some that had turned into their true form.

"Give it up, even if you're resistant to regular firearms you can't possibly withstand so many combined with explosive weapons!" As she looked at all of those surrounding her, Venri couldn't help but smile disarmingly before saying,

"If you do not wish this fight, then bring your young master down here so that I can escort him back to my master as he wishes." At this the many members of the Miao family started shouting obscenities at her while others were praising their young master and talking smack about Alex, stating that he was a coward who hid behind the skirts of women while they did his fighting for him. When she heard that Venri's smile slowly faded before it turned into a scowl, making the one who spoke previously pale as he suddenly shouted,

"FIRE NOW!!!"

Though they had been shouting and cursing at her just seconds before, none of the Miao family soldiers missed a beat as they immediately started firing their weapons while those who had changed to their true form waited for the chance to attack as well. They weren't the only ones ready to move however, the moment she heard the man say 'fire' a forest green cloud of smoke appeared and wrapped around Venri before it rapidly expanded even as it suffered a hailstorm of bullets, rockets, and grenades. Before they could even run out their current clip of ammunition, a dark green tail escaped the smoke and lashed out at the group of soldiers behind her, taking out an entire squad while simultaneously destroying part of the building that they had been trying to use as a shelter. Though the rest of their comrades would normally have been furious at their death, they were instead focused on the full body of the being before them as the smoke cleared, and revealed a furious dark green dragon that glared down at them with murderous intentions.

"BRING IT DO-" Even before he could finish his orders, the man that had spoken with Venri suddenly found himself at the business end of her tail before he was unceremoniously sent flying like a baseball. As Venri then ran her eyes across the gathering of soldiers, she released a mighty roar that signaled their end as, despite their best efforts, she one sidedly slaughtered the helpless men using her tail, claws, teeth, and fire breath, while the man who had started the insults regarding Alex found himself staring at a row of razor sharp and blood red teeth. Naturally the men didn't take Venri's assault one sidedly, as they used their firearms, explosive ammunition, and even called upon a tank to help take down the rampaging dragon; however even their armor piercing rounds and explosive ammo, as well as the claws, teeth, and strength of those who were using their true form, were unable to even scuff Venri's flawless and resilient green scales.

At the top of the eastern style tower above the rampaging dragon, Xia-Long stared down at the carnage and destruction below him while his hands gripped the sill of the window tightly, his knuckles whitening under the force of his grip. Even though part of him was feeling enraged at the wonton destruction of his family's ancestral home and men, a much larger part of him only felt resignation and defeat as he came to the conclusion that there was no choice but destruction for the Miao family. If Xia-Long had just ignored the appearance of the impossibly powerful person at the Huang family estate, then there was a great chance his fathers killer would return and serve punishment to him for not acting against a potential threat. On the other hand, by acting he had effectively sentenced the Miao family to its death, and had handed complete control of China's underground to the Huang family. As this thought went through his head Xia-Long recalled the time he met the next head of the Huang family, a bratty boy who was unable to properly use even the most basic spells of Youjutsu, a small smile spread on his lips as he muttered,

"May you be a better leader than I ever was..." Even though he had mocked such a boy and called him worthless, Xia-Long had realized he was the truly worthless leader as he was nothing more than a figurehead. As this though went through his head, Xia-Long noticed several figures making their way towards the tower as they left the evidence of their battles behind them. The dragon below him on the other hand turned its gaze upwards and stared at him, before it placed a claw on the base of the tower and started to slowly climb up it towards him; while the giant hydra, that was remodeling the landscape with various elemental spells that shouldn't possibly exist, suddenly disappeared and was instead replaced with an impossibly giant bird that created severe gusts as it flapped its wings. With several of the intruders entering the tower, a dragon climbing up it, and a monstrous bird circling him, Xia-Long decided that if he was going to go out then he'd do so fighting, and grabbed his top hat and cane. As he tapped the butt of the cane against the floor, Xia-Long cried out,

"Answer my call and aid me, Guns and Roses!" With a flash of brilliant light, several thorny vines suddenly appeared on the ceiling of the room below him, and started spreading out as they moved towards the windows and creeped down the tower. As Venri climbed the tower she found herself being able to perfectly see into one of the windows, where a giant rose was waiting for her. Before she could register what it was, the rose suddenly opened up to reveal a mini gun hiding within its petals, that then aimed at her head and started firing at her, causing the dragon to groan as she closed her eyes against the annoying stinging that assaulted her face.

Meanwhile Mako and Ishigami were forced to jump out of one of the windows, and Tracy and Francesca were both forced to hide behind the formers anime style sword from the hailstorm of bullets. Even Eri was being targeted, as the giant roc that carried her was suddenly assaulted by the storm of bullets from within one of the towers windows, however all they did was annoy her as one of her toys was suddenly filled with holes that she'd have to fix later. Xia-Long had a grim look on his face as, while some of them held his attackers at bay, the rest of his Guns and Roses aimed at the walls of the tower itself with the intention of weakening them so that the tower fell down on top of them all.

He then raised his staff once more to try and summon another creature to help his Guns and Roses, but, as the skull-shaped jewel atop it started to glow, an arrow came out of nowhere and hit it, shattering the jewel and canceling both the summon he was attempting as well as returning the Guns and Roses. Xia-Long stared at the tip of his cane with dumbfoundment before a smile of self mockery formed on his lips, as he was now unable to even attempt to even take his attackers wth him to his grave. As he sat back into the chair at his desk in defeat, the tower started shuddering again as Venri continued her climb before eventually reaching the top floor, her large emerald eyes staring at him through the window before Tracy and Francesca arrived, with a soakin wet Ishigami and Mako following behind them from the pond they jumped in. With them surrounding him and Eri circling his tower, while there was also the sounds of a battle nearby as Nyx singlehandedly held back the late arrivals to the Miao family's cry for assistance, Xia-Long muttered with a self deprecating tone,

"I guess this is checkmate, huh?" Instead of answering him though, the maids simply cleared some space before a magic circle appeared, and a beautiful mature woman appeared with long silver hair that was tied back into several braids. She then stared at Xia-Long expressionlessly before saying,

"Calling it 'checkmate' implies you had a chance for victory to begin with, your defeat was inevitable with the only variation being the method my lord used to ensure it. You're lucky he decided to test out our combat maids capabilities, as otherwise you would have never even known how you died if he decided to come himself, and there would most likely be a simple crater left where the Miao family used to be." Xia-Long paled when he heard her claims as, as impossible as they sounded, after the display the maids showed and the surge of power he had felt earlier, he had no problems believing such a powerful being existed. Instead he focused on one specific thing, and asked,

"So why am I alive?" As he stared at the maid as if looking for an answer written on her face, Grayfia simply blinked before saying,

"My lord simply wishes to speak with you personally, and so we will now escort you there ourselves." As she finished speaking Grayfia activated a magic circle that teleported them all away before Xia-Long even had time to blink, taking everyone in the room and even Venri while Nyx teleported away with Altina and Eri; and the former apostles then activated the massive magic circle she left behind, causing time to essentially rewind throughout the Miao family estate as pieces of buildings and people alike started moving as if in reverse before being repaired seamlessly.

***

Before he knew it, Xia-Long suddenly found himself in the middle of the Huang family stronghold staring up at a figure that radiated and aura of power and authority that was paired well with the layers of muscle that covered his body, even with his insane hairstyle. Behind the glowering figure was the entirety of the Huang family, Fei-Hong, Ten-Ten, Ling-Ling, Fang-Fang, and even Touhou Fuhai; as Xia-Long's gaze met his rival's, Fang-Fang's, he looked away quickly from shame at going against their childhood promise to maintain peace between their families. Though there was several other people gathered in the room with them, Xia-Long didn't get a chance to examine all of them before the man before him spoke.

"Tell me head of the Miao family, do you know who I am?" Xia-Long looked him in the eye for a few seconds, before shaking his head and answering,

"No, all I knew was that you were powerful, and that you appeared to be allied with the Huang family." The man nodded before stating,

"My name is Alex, and I am officially referred to as the Dragon Emperor. Now the assassins you sent after me, was their target me alone or anyone associated with me?" Xia-Long hesitated for a second as he tried to contemplate if this was a trick question, but since he assumed he'd be dying soon anyways he stated,

"I never gave specific instructions on who else to eliminate, only the one who released the torrent of power earlier and those directly associated with them if they'd be a problem." Alex nodded before asking him one final question,

"And did you not think that I would be able to repel your assassins and retaliate?" Xia-Long released a long sigh at this question, and said with a tired tone,

"I had no choice in the matter, it was either move to attack the powerful being that was potentially allied with the Huang family, or ignore it and risk suffering the wrath of the true leader of the Miao family." Though the Huang family looked confused at the second half of Xia-Long's statement, Alex nodded and stated,

"The Masked King, right?" Xia-Long started to nod in agreement before he suddenly caught himself, and slowly looked up towards Alex with a slightly pale expression on his face, more so than when he was pondering what Alex might do to him. Seeing his reaction, Alex smirked and stated,

"Oh yes, I know all about him. If I hadn't known that you weren't the true leader of the Miao family I wouldn't have bothered having you brought to me, instead I would have simply destroyed the entire Miao estate and you with it for the crime of potentially endangering my daughters. No, I had you brought here because I intend to give you a single chance to prove to me that I shouldn't just remove you now." Though he had heard everything Alex had said, Xia-Long's mind had blanked when he heard that Alex knew about the man who referred to himself as the Masked King, and it was only worse when he heard the last part of Alex's statement, that he didn't yet intend to kill him. As his mind raced with this new information, and the Huang family's gazes sharpened when they heard there was someone so dangerous moving in the background, Xia-Long couldn't help but hesitantly ask,

"If you know about him then you must know how dangerous he is, can you really do anything against him?" Though Alex hadn't said anything about going against the Masked King, Xia-Long couldn't hep but assume that he intended to fight against the mysterious founder of the Miao family. Alex however frowned at Xia-Long's question, not from him assuming that he'd fight against the Masked King, but from how he doubted Alex's chances of fighting against him. Instead of answering right away, Alex gestured for Venri to bring someone forward from their captives, a shady looking man who declared the moment he saw Xia-Long,

"Young master! Don't listen to anything these demons say! No matter what they offer, remember your pride as the leader of the Miao family!" As he saw one of his chief advisers however, Xia-Long muttered confusedly,

"Shin-Wu?" Before he could ask what was going on, Alex turned towards the newcomer and demanded,

"Tell me, who do you serve?" The man, Shin-Wu, looked confused for a moment before stating clearly,

"I serve only the Miao family and the young master! I don't know what tricks you're trying to pull demon, but it'll never work!" Alex snorted and looked as if he was about to say something else, but instead his hand shot forward and seized the man around his face before he started gripping it tightly, making the man groan before he started to scream from having his head crushed.

"W-wait, what are you doing to Shin-Wu?!" Xia-Long demanded, his first thought being that Alex was doing a similar demonstration as the Masked King when he presented him with his fathers folded up corpse.

"Dragon Emperor, is this really necessary?!" Touhou Fuhai cried out, as he himself felt slightly revolted from the scene playing out as Alex slowly crushed the mans head, especially as he even started bleeding from every one of the orifices in his face. Alex however ignored both of them and continued to crush the mans skull despite their protests and the mans screaming, until eventually there was a sickening pop as blood, bone, and grey matter exploded in front of Alex, with some of it even landing on Xia-long. With the mans screaming having come to an end, Alex turned towards Xia-Long and asked,

"So, did the Masked King promise some kind of gruesome death to gain your submission?" Xia-long could only nod slowly as he stared at the pulpy mess that belonged to one of the people he had known for his whole life, to which Alex nodded before continuing, "I could say the same thing, that you'll suffer a long time before finally dying, but I don't think of death as a punishment, it's a release." To prove his point, Alex created a magic circle above the man, making everyone think he was going to do something to his corpse, but what actually happened only stupefied them further. As if he had hit rewind on a recording, the bone, flesh, and brain matter started moving back towards the headless corpse before it started to rejoin itself and form a whole head once again, until after nearly a minute Shin-Wu was sitting there as if nothing happened, the only indicator that he had just died being his unnaturally pale expression. As everyone that wasn't part of his entourage looked at the revived man with stupefied expressions, Alex said,

"As I said, death is a release from the torment that others would inflict on you. The Masked King could only promise death? I could promise an eternity of suffering that would make the tale of Prometheus look tame in comparison. Now tell me former adviser of the Miao family, who is it you serve?" Realizing Alex was now talking to him, Shin-Wu paled even further as he vividly recalled the experience of having his head crushed until it exploded, and the feeling of weightlessness afterwards as his soul had tried to pass on, before it was cruelly yanked back into the world of the living. His earlier bravado completely gone, he could only look down as he shakily answered,

"I-I serve the one true leader of the Miao family, the Masked King. I was the one who informed him of the previous heads decision to make peace with our long time rivals of the Huang family despite his intentions for war, and I tried to inform him of the attack at the Miao family estate before I was captured." Xia-Long was dumbfounded when he learned that someone who he had trusted his entire life had betrayed himself and his father, leading to his fathers gruesome death. Alex on the other hand nodded, as he had already heard from Grayfia that the way they discovered Shin-Wu was him trying to send out a message to the Masked King after they had already placed a magical net to prevent such things. He then stepped forward and lightly grabbed the mans chin, before saying,

"For your honesty, I will make it painless and will allow you to stay dead." There was a look of relief on Shin-Wu's face that he wouldn't have to face the same pain as he had before, before Alex suddenly twisted his hand and snapped his neck, leaving the look of relief on his face even as Alex set the body alight to turn it to ash. Alex then turned back towards Xia-Long, who was still staring at the pile of ash as he tried to process everything that was happening, before saying,

"In the world I came from we were Devils that hailed from the underworld, who would go forth and form contracts with people to grant wishes in exchange for payment from our contractors. Now tell me Xia-Long, do you still doubt my capabilities compared to the Masked King, and would you like to make a contract?" As Xia-Long's gaze turned back towards him Alex could tell that the resignation that had been present earlier had disappeared, and was instead replaced by fear, and a drive for revenge. He didn't harbor any delusions that he'd get the better end of whatever deal Alex was suggesting, but as long as he avenged his father and was able to rebuild the Miao family then he'd be satisfied.

"Ensure the Masked King dies, and I'll swear to devote my life and the entirety of the remaining assets of the Miao family to you, as well as our power once I have the chance to rebuild!" A smile tugged at the corners of Alex mouth at the offer, but there was one problem as he had Grayfia project a live image of the Miao family estate while asking,

"What needs to be rebuilt exactly?"

(A.N. Regarding the long time between chapters, there has been a lot going on in my personal life, and I have also been even busier with work since whenever someone either catches covid or might have it, their work gets pushed onto the rest of us while they're sent home for two weeks. Once again thank you for the understanding)