Chapter 3

The Succubus took me to the Beddhist church. Then, to Leona’s room.

“Lady Leona! We have successfully charmed the town chief!”

“Oh, really? Bring him in, then.” At this point, it was completely safe to assume that Leona was behind everything. Hard to say I didn’t expect that. Or that I hadn’t figured all that out the second I saw the church.

I entered the room and saw Leona lazily sitting on her bed.

“Hm...” Her red eyes peered into mine. The Light magic tool brightening her room made her eyes look like they were flashing red. “Well, he’s definitely sane. I’ve never seen someone less charmed in my life.” Dang, she saw through me in a second.

“No way! But I confirmed that he was charmed! Are you saying that groveling was all an act?!” Suilla fell into a panic. My impressive acting had fooled her completely.

“Suilla. This is an embarrassing failure. Get on the ground, all fours. You too, little one.”

“Ngh! Ah...!”

“S-Sister...!” Leona snapped her fingers. Immediately, Suilla and Michiru fell to the floor on all fours, as if pushed by an invisible force. Leona sat on Suilla’s back as if it were her natural right to do so. Then, she spoke to me like nothing had happened.

“My my, Keima! Staying up all night is a violation of Beddhist rules, what brings you here so late?” Her tone was bright, as if nothing really had happened. Despite where she was sitting.

“Yeah, drop the act. We both know these Succubi are your lackeys. Depending on what you say here—”

“My my my. Beddhism worships sleep above all else. It follows, then, that it should coexist with the demons of dreams, Succubi. After all, a Succubus is not much different from a normal person beyond their power to enter dreams and eat sexual energy. Or are you saying these living creature look like mere chairs to you? They shouldn’t be a problem then, either.”

“...Nnn, fwaah...!” Leona spoke while stroking Suilla’s ass. She then continued, with the Succubus’s moans as background music.

“Feel free to sit on that other chair beside you. It may be small, but I’m sure it will be comfortable,” said Leona while pointing at Michiru. I glared at her, still standing. “It seems that these poor Succubi are homeless. Shall we give them shelter in this church? You’re such a kind man, Sir Pope, that I have no doubt you will agree to watch over them. After all... You did the same for your Vampire High Priest and Silky cooks, no? I believe that was an Apprentice Witch at the counter as well, hm?” I felt a chill run down my spine. To think she had seen through me that far ahead.

“I see that you are a fine gentleman who extends your welcome hospitality beyond the borders of race. Mmm, truly splendid. Right?”

“Mind if I ask something?”

“And what might that be?” asked Leona, tilting her head cutely. But her eyes were not smiling.

“...Do you have an identification skill? I’m guessing that’s how you read the bible.” That was one of the things I had thought long and hard about. How had Leona known the contents of the bible I wrote? If she hadn’t spied on me writing in it, the next logical explanation was using an identification skill to see inside of it.

“My my! To not just identify a book but read its contents as well would require a legendary skill only held by Heroes, {Ultra Identification}, at level two or above to unlock the citation effect! Are you suggesting that I, a lowly nun, would have such a skill?”

“You could’ve saved us both time and just said yes, y’know.”

“Then yes, I do have an identification skill. Keima Masuda.” In other words, she had identified me as well. How much had she learned? I didn’t know what she meant by citation effect, but it must have let her further identify the initial identification results, if that made sense.

“Don’t look so grim, now. I can only see the truth, so you have nothing to fear, hm? Or shall we say I merely know what knowledge Beddhism guides me to?”

“Who are you? A Hero?”

“Aaah! There it is! I’m glad you asked. Mmm, you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for that question. Who am I, hm? Ahaha. I am no nun of Beddhism. My true name is Reona Shishidou. That’s right, I’m Japanese! Godswalker was just a cool fantasy name, and Leona just fits this place more than Reona!” Leona grinned and pointed at herself.

“...Your eyes are pretty red for a Japanese person.”

“Oh, are you saying Japanese people have to have black eyes? You would be right, if not for that fact that skills can change eye colors. Indeed, my Hero skill {Ultra Massage} has the {Piercing Eye} effect!” she said while emanating a pitch black aura so thick it was visible. If she was trying to prove she was a Hero, well, it kind of had the opposite effect. And what was that about {Ultra Massage}? They seriously have to stop putting Ultra in every Hero skill.

“...Wait, wasn’t your skill {Ultra Identification}?”

“Oh, didn’t you know? Heroes can get new skills by destroying Dungeon Cores. I thus have many different Hero skills.” Multiple hero skills. That meant that she might have a skill related to subterfuge, which would explain her 0/DP a day.

“To go a step further, I am also a Dungeon Master!”

...She’s also a Dungeon Master? A Hero and a Dungeon Master. One that had multiple Hero skills. Wait... Is she just a straight-up better version of me? It’s possible, but she lies so much I can’t take anything she says as true up-front.

“I suppose I’ll have to prove I’m Japanese first. Aaah, sushi, sukiyaki, tenpuraaaaa. Ask me anything you like and I’ll answer.”

“...What’s the tallest mountain in Japan?”

“What else but Mount Fuji?”

“What’s the surface area of Kyushu?”

“Now that’s asking for a bit much. I’m not a geography expert.” Incidentally, it was about 36,750 square kilometers. I figured that she wouldn’t be able to answer it on her own and was testing to see if she would use {Ultra Identification} to deduce the answer from an outside source somehow. How do I know the answer? I just remember reading about it somewhere.

To be honest, though, I didn’t care whether or not she was Japanese. The important thing here was her ownership of Hero skills. And hey, if she was answering any question, I might as well ask her about them.

“Tell me what skills you have.”

“That would take all night. If I keep it to just Hero skills, I have {Ultra Alchemy} level 9, {Ultra Identification} level 9, {Ultra Massage} level 8, {Ultra Subterfuge} level 7, {Ultra Chanting} level 9, {Ultra Awakening} level 3, {Ultra Strengthening} level 5, {Ultra Resistance} level 9... Hmmm, what else did I have? Sorry, remembering all of them is kind of a pain. If only this world had status windows. I could use identification on myself, but it’s the kind of skill that has limited usages per day, sooo.”

“Wait, wait, wait.”

“Yes?”

“...You’ve gotta be lying, right? That’s way too many skills.”

“It’s all true. Oh, are you not using a lie detecting Magic Skill? Not that it’d matter anyway, since {Ultra Subterfuge} can fool those all the way down at level 3,” said Leona with a smile. She’s gotta be lying. Please, tell me she’s lying. “Just think. If you went to a new world and there’s a fun skill system in place, one where you can gather all sorts of powerful high-level skills, wouldn’t you want to, mmm... collect them? I’m sure a Japanese person such as yourself would understand the appeal of collections, Keima.” I could understand that. She was making a point and I understood it in full. But according to her, her cumulative skill level was over fifty. How many Dungeon Cores had she destroyed?

“Next comes proof that I’m a Dungeon Master. Mmm, let me buy something from the Dungeon Point Catalog. Maybe a magic stone, or better yet, a Dummy Core! Here.” She must have bought it immediately, as a Dummy Core appeared in her hand from nowhere. It was a real Dummy Core, albeit one pulsating with a grotesque purple light. The Catalog’s usual magic circle had even appeared over her hand.

Incidentally, this might just be an unexplained feature, but Rei and the others couldn’t buy Dummy Cores despite having the power to use the Catalog. Only I as the Dungeon Master and Rokuko as the Core could.

“That was fairly easy to prove.” Indeed it was. In short, Leona was both a Hero, and a Dungeon Master.

“...By the way, how old were you when you came here?”

“Sixteen. I suppose that was about five hundred years ago. I became immortal when I turned seventeen and stopped counting the years after that. That answers your question, right? Oh, and I do drink alcohol. The legal age here is fifteen, so... Oh my, don’t make a lady talk about her age, Keima. Don’t you have any delicacy?” Yup, she just said five hundred years, hahaha. I wonder how old she is now.

“I’m not that interested in your age, don’t worry about it.”

“Okay, okay. I expected as much from a hardcore lolicon who only cares about real lolis. Oh wait, I suppose that was fake information meant to counter Succubi, given how you weren’t actually charmed. I’m impressed.” This world had fake information spread explicitly to counteract Succubus attacks, huh? Famous people here must have it rough.

...But really, five hundred years. That explains why she knows so much and has so many skills.

...Man, what am I gonna do about this? She’s clearly a superior version of me, and not by a small margin either. There’s no contest here. She knows a lot about everything thanks to her identification skill and she has an actual collection of friggin’ cheat skills. And she’s a Dungeon Master on top of that? Seriously? There’s strength in history, and she has a hell of a lot of history. Maybe... Maybe I should wag my tail and show her my stomach?

“By the way, wasn’t the warring states period five hundred years ago, or...?”

“Oh, that. It seems that regardless of this world’s time frame, all people summoned from Earth come from the same four to five year period. All from Japan, of course, but not everyone is Japanese. I’ve seen some Americans, for instance, like the founder of Wakoku.”

Honestly, this was getting to be so much information that I was having trouble parsing it all.

“...So, Leona. What faction do you belong to? Why did you come here?”

“Faction? I’m independent. I have many objectives, but hmm. Let’s just say I came here to scout you.”

“Scout?”

“That’s right. Or should I say, came here to scout you and Rokuko, the winners of the recent Dungeon Battle. Did you know that the Dark God contacted me? He told me this dungeon battle was won by Cores 89 and 695, and that their names would now be Haku and Rokuko. They would also be permitted to use the last name Labyrinthart.”

...Yeah, looks like Father really is a Dark God. The Dark God? Gaaah, this is too much information to handle. I guess this is what Ittetsu was talking about. Should be safe to say that Leona’s the Master of Core 4.

“Hey, mind if I leave for a bit? I need some time to process all this information.”

“What’s the need for that? You need only agree to become mine. Submission comes with a free chair, you know,” said Leona before giving Suilla’s ass a nice slap. Oh right, I had forgotten all about her. Leona’s been sitting on a Succubus this whole time.

“Why me?”

“At first it was due to sweet little Haku favoring you, but now that I’ve met you, I have a new reason. But putting that aside for now... {Call Succubus}.” Leona activated her magic skill. Magic circles appeared on either side of her. I looked around and saw one behind me as well. A Succubus appeared from each of the three circles.

“...No need for a chant. You can do the same, can’t you, Keima? I imagine you’ve noticed by now, but a chant is unnecessary if you understand the magic words. Especially the names of the spells.” Yeah, I’ve noticed. I do it all the time myself. I can use {Create Golem} without even saying the name now.

“When making translation magic, magic words were more of a struggle than anything else. They more than any others conflicted with normal words, but... I suppose that doesn’t matter right now.” I didn’t know that. More new information... Gah, it feels like my head’s gonna explode.

“Incidentally, these cuties are the latest Succubi I’ve formed contracts with. They were expelled from their homes and went on a journey to find a new place to live.” More useless information. What was Leona trying to pull here...?

“Yeah, I don’t care about all that. It doesn’t matter. What I want to know is why you want to scou—”

“It does matter!” Leona stood up while giving a hearty slap to a nearby Succubus’s ass. The Succubus let out a “Hykyaah?!” Leona then grabbed my shoulders tightly. “You’re the only one I can talk about these things to. Who else could I talk to? Heroes? Dungeon Cores? They’re both my enemies! Or would you have me talk to mob commoners and monsters? Don’t be ridiculous, that’s like talking to animals. You and I are like bats, strange creatures foreign from the world, and even after five hundred years we will remain foreign. There are borders between our languages, our species, our ideals, and our worlds! Aaah, I’ve finally found another ally, another person like me! You are my one and only comrade in this entire world, Keima!” She squeezed her fingers so tightly it felt like my bones were going to crack. Ouch.

“Oh, forgive me. I didn’t mean to squeeze so hard.” Leona released her hands. At the same time, light fluttered down and healed my pain. She could use Restoration magic without a word.

“...Well, that’s how it is, Keima. Would you come conquer the world with me? I’ll give you half once we’re done, aha.” Leona invited me to conquer the world like she was inviting me for a walk. Which helped me finally understand what she was doing here.

“Haha, yeah, that’s the kinda offer that’ll put me at level one if I agree. Sorry, but world conquest sounds like a huge pain. I just want to relax and take naps.”

“Aaah, I’m so glad you can understand my references. But that’s a no, isn’t it?” Leona glanced at a Succubus. Riiight. I’m surrounded.

“(You sure didn’t think ahead there, huh, Master?)”

“(I’m kinda overwhelmed right now. There’s too much information here.)” I talked with Kosaki. Even if she knocked me out and Succubi attacked me in my dreams, I could escape being charmed by having Kosaki take my place. I got the feeling that if I used {Sleep Resistance} to avoid passing out, they would probably end up beating me to death by accident. Though beyond all that, we were safely within dungeon territory, so Rokuko could withdraw me into the Master Room at any point.

“...You look like you have a plan to escape. What if I do this, then? {Call Slave}.” Leona chanted a magic spell and a new magic circle appeared in front of her. And then... Niku, who should have been waiting in the Master Room, appeared.

“Why heeello, Toi. Have you been doing well? It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other, I was worried about you.”

“Ah...?! Wh-Why...” Leona clung to Niku, who stiffened up.

“Hey! What’re you doing with Niku?!”

“My, what a splendid name. But let me tell you something interesting, Keima. This girl is my doll. Or perhaps I should say granddaughter, since I made her from my daughter’s womb. I know every inch of this girl’s body. I’ve had plenty of fun playing with her already.” Leona’s hands caressed Niku’s body all over. Daughter? Granddaughter? What did she mean, she had her fun already?

“There was a time when I tried to mingle with the world too, you know. I had my children then, but she didn’t become the comrade I sought. So I tried making them instead. Using the power of a Hero and a Dungeon Master, I created this doll. But not even a Hero’s granddaughter, a clone, a being born of a Dungeon Core became my true ally. It is a little difficult for my body to bear children, but I made them anyway and experimented on them with {Ultra Alchemy}. I tried fusing them with Dungeon Cores, rare ores, monsters, and babies. That became quite fun for me at some point. Over time my objective shifted to creating the ultimate life form... and the result of that was Toi. I seem to recall those experiments continuing on until just recently.”

...That was horrific research that desecrated the dignity of life. Science that bordered on blasphemy. I didn’t know everything she had done, but in short, Niku was born from those experiments.

“What are... you saying...?”

“To put it simply, I created you, Toi. Doesn’t it make sense? It’s harder for you to get tired and pain is not that severe for you, but I suppose that’s hard to understand without a frame of reference. You’re stronger than an average adventurer, react faster, are more adaptable... Your lack of hesitation toward killing is a part of it, even.” That all sounded familiar to me. And it seemed it was familiar to Niku as well.

“...I’m not... a real... person...?” choked out Niku, her voice trembling.

“No, no, I used common stones turned into Philosopher’s Stones with {Ultra Alchemy} quite liberally, so you are as close to a person as can be. You can be crushed, sliced, and cut into steak just like any person. I can guarantee that you are very real. Though as evidenced by the lack of a barcode on the back of your neck, you are a failure and I got rid of you. Really, I’m impressed you survived the process. Normally I melt the bodies of my children to reuse them later. I must have thrown you into the trash can rather than the body pile by mistake. Whoops!” Leona giggled. In contrast, the life drained out of Niku.

“...You’re fucked up.”

“Oh? But we Japanese people do the same thing in elementary school, don’t we? Competency is rigorously selected and weak garbage is thrown out.”

“That’s just video games! Don’t mistake games for real life!” I shouted, causing Leona to tilt her head.

“My, what kind of peaceful bubble did you shut yourself into? There are endless such cases in reality, such as the back rooms of pet shops being breeding facilities. Don’t you know that racing horses are intentionally inbred to strengthen the seed if possible, despite the failures it results in? Life is so wonderfully immoral. Ahahaha, it’s silly that humans think they are any different,” said Leona while rubbing Niku’s restrained thighs and chest sensually and licking her cheek. “I just believe in equality. This world has legal slavery, did you forget? It’s fine to treat humans like animals here. You pretend to have adjusted to this world, but you’re still hopelessly Japanese.” Not that I dislike that, Leona added silently with a wink. Her eyes were warm, like a proud adult praising their child.

“Not to mention, we’re Dungeon Masters. Humans, monsters, and even Heroes are our prey. The only meaningful difference between them is whether they’re feral or domesticated.” I could understand what she was saying. It was impossible not to. After all, I was killing people in my dungeon on a regular basis, and I was even using a Hero as a living DP tank. Plus, since I was a Hero, Dungeon Cores were my prey as well.

Predators and prey. If looking at the world through a lens of nature, she and I were enemies of all living creatures.

“I get what you’re saying, but that doesn’t make it okay to touch my dakimakura. Give Niku back.” I said firmly, making Leona click her tongue. Had she been plotting something? Brainwashing or something of the sort. It wouldn’t be odd for her to have a skill like that.

“Listen, Keima. I’m willing to trade a successful creation for this failure.”

“Quit joking around! Niku is my... my dakimakura!”

“Master...!” Niku trembled. Light returned to her eyes.

“Oh, have you grown fond of each other? I’m afraid my artistic nature won’t allow me to let an incomplete failure such as Toi keep running around... ah! Then I need only complete her! Ah, that would fix everything!” I got a really bad feeling about that. “Meanwhile, you can use these Succubi in her place. As you would expect, they are a much better lay than this girl. Incomparably soft and all that. They might even be better than Toi when completed, to be honest.”

“No. Niku’s mine, don’t touch her.”

“Master... Master...!” Niku reached out to me with Leona still hugging her.

“...Very well. Shall we play a game, then?” Game? “A game where I am the DM, if you will. I will give this girl back if you win. Aaah, and don’t worry. This isn’t a game that puts your life at risk, as long as you follow the rules properly. I’ll give you about one hour to prepare. See you then. {Teleport}.” said Leona before disappearing along with Niku and the Succubi.

“Gr... Where’d they go? Outside of the dungeon! Crap! Niku...!” I punched the wall. I could have potentially saved Niku if I had charged Leona down. And yet I... just stood there and let her go.

“Um, er, town chief. What should I do?”

“What?” I turned around and saw the pink haired loli Succubus, Michiru. Uh... Why was she still here?

“Oh! She’ll be contacting us in one hour! I’ll wait with you!”

“Er, alright...” Anyway... Guess I’ll talk to Rokuko about this.

＊ ＊ ＊

“Welcome back, Keima. What’s that you have there?”

“Something Leona forgot.” In any case, I returned to the chief residence. With some unnecessary baggage.

“Ummm. What should I be doing right now?” asked the unnecessary baggage, Michiru, with a regretful tone. But I had no answer to give.

“Kinue, it looks like our guest is tired. Take her to the onsen and give her a sandwich or something afterward.” I snapped my fingers and Kinue appeared from nowhere.

“As you wish, Master. Come with me, Michiru, if you would.”

“Wha, K-Kinue? Okay, but where?”

“To the onsen. The warm waters will soothe your exhaustion.”

“Oh right, someone may come to contact her, so bring her back within the hour.”

“Understood. I will bring her back not a second later,” said Kinue before leaving with Michiru. Okay, now I can relax and have a proper meeting.

“Okay, Rokuko. I figure you saw all that in the Master Room. Whaddaya think?”

“...A magic circle swallowed up Niku out of nowhere and before I knew it, she was in Leona’s arms.”

“I see...” According to Rokuko, Niku had been kidnapped by a magic circle right out of the Master Room. If not even the Master Room could protect her, then I might end up having to put her into {Storage}. Though I didn’t know what would happen if a living being were to be put into {Storage}. It would probably work since seeds and stuff went in fine, but I was a little too scared to experiment.

Well, either way, it was safer to assume that Leona’s magic couldn’t be avoided. Which meant that our only choice was to get Leona to willingly give Niku back. Or in other words...

“...Guess we’ve gotta play along with Leona’s game.”

“Seems so.” Leona said that Niku’s life wouldn’t be at risk if we followed the rules she set. Judging from what I knew of her personality, that was likely true. “Well, at least we don’t have to worry about her killing Niku.”

“Wait, Keima. How can you be so sure of that?”

“Huh? I mean, judging from what I know about her personality...”

“Why, judging from her personality, are you so sure of that?”

“Why? Come on, I mean...” I mean... Uh... What? Now that she mentions it, why was I so confident?

“As far as I can tell, she doesn’t seem like someone who cares too much about whether others live or die. She lied about being a nun and lied about pretty much everything else too. So why would you think everything she said there was true? Why would you be so sure that she would keep her promise?” Rokuko was completely right.

“...Sorry, I wasn’t thinking straight. Got caught up in Leona’s pace a little there.”

“Kosaki, is Keima really okay?”

“Ummm, w-well, probably, maybe, I think! I mean, Leona’s so much infinitely stronger than me in every way I can’t be totally suuuure, buuut, ahaha...” The ring gave a wavering reply. C’mon, seriously. This game may not be life-threatening, but I doubt any game Leona has in mind won’t involve some psychological attacks.

“In any case, it all depends on what kind of game Leona’s talking about. Is it going to be one I have to tackle alone, or will I be able bring all of you along? Who knows, maybe it’ll be a game where I sit things out and you do everything, Rokuko.” We lacked too much information to say anything for sure.

“Rokuko. Do you know where Niku and Leona are right now?”

“Umm... They’re not in our dungeon territory, at least. Should we send the rats to scout the forest?” Oh, right. With all the rat races I forgot that we sent some rats to the forest too. We were sending them regular food deliveries, but still, the rats of this world sure had long lifespans. Maybe being born from the dungeon had something to do with that?

“Yeah, have them scout for any suspicious looking places.” There was the distinct possibility that they were nowhere close to us, but still, that was better than doing nothing.

...One hour, huh? That was far too short of a time to do much of anything, but considering Niku’s safety, it sure felt like a long time. If I had known something like this would have happened, I would have had put Niku under the control of the dungeon... though I wasn’t sure if that was possible for beastkin, or any non-monster for that matter.

In the end, we searched for an hour and found nothing.

“Fwaaah, that was amazing... Here I have found paradise itself.” Despite our unease, Michiru returned with a blissful expression on her face. She was holding hands with Kinue.

“Hm? Hey, Michiru, what are you holding there? A letter?”

“Bwuh? Oh, this. I didn’t even notice... Oh, it says ‘To Keima’ on it.”

“Give it to me.” I stole the letter from Michiru and opened it. As expected, it was from Leona and it read as follows:

Dear Keima Masuda. I’ve actually forgotten how to write proper Japanese letters by now, but anyway, my subterfuge skill is set to deactivate once you open this letter so come pay a visit to my impromptu dungeon if you would. I’m waiting with a delightful variety of athletic games. Laters.

“Keima! The succubus Leona was using as a chair just popped up on the map.” I took a look and found her in the forest. She was right in the clearing where we had first met. I looked through the monitor and saw a staircase where there had been nothing before. Her subterfuge or whatever had likely deactivated, as the letter suggested.

“...Looks like there’s a bit more to the letter. ‘P.S., there may be three participants only. I do not guarantee the safety of any further invaders.’ Let’s get this settled fast.”

“I wonder what she means by athletic games. Do you have any idea, Keima?”

“...Yeah. They probably won’t be life-threatening games. Just a bunch of stamina sucking carnival games.”

“Stamina sucking... Like drain spells?”

“Nah. Just simple exercise. Which means a lot of moving around... Normally that’d mean bringing Niku along for sure, which makes this hard.” First of all, I would have to go. My knowledge would probably be necessary for getting past her tricks. I could use my Wearable Golem to compensate for the stamina suck. Rokuko was out of the question. Which left... through the process of elimination, Ichika and Rei. They were just about the physically strongest of our team, so to speak.

“Hate to do this so late, but wake ’em up for me.”

“I already woke them up when Niku got kidnapped. Well... It makes sense that I wouldn’t go along with you.”

“I’ll bring Phenny with me, you can watch through him. He won’t be a player so she may try to pull something on him, but he’s a Phoenix. Should be safe.” We needed to get ready and leave as soon as possible.

“Um, what about me...?” asked Michiru timidly. Oh whoops, forgot about her again.

“You probably won’t be too safe as the fourth person, but you can come along anyway if you want.”

“I’ll stay here!” I could leave Michiru to Kinue.

I grabbed my completely unused adventurer stuff and my trusty blade Siesta before heading off to Leona’s dungeon. Although we supposedly wouldn’t be at risk, it was best to be prepared when entering a dungeon. Though I had never used Siesta in an actual fight yet.

“Okay, you two ready?” I asked Ichika and Rei as we stood in front of the dungeon entrance, a square staircase like you would often see in a certain RPG series.

“Really dude, that’s what I wanna ask you. Maybe you shoulda brought a normal weapon?”

“I also must question whether I was the best choice for this. Need I remind you that my attack is zero?”

I had a normal Golem Blade with me too, and Rei could do some damage with her Golem Bowgun, so it should be fine. As an aside, Phenny was standing at the ready on Rei’s shoulder.

“Alright, looks like we’re all good. Let’s go.” I went down the staircase with the two of them. Or to be more precise, Ichika took the lead and Rei guarded our rear. Did I consider myself a failure of a man for that? No. Absolutely not. They both had quick reflexes—Ichika was a slave, and Rei was a dungeon monster. Them protecting me just made sense.

Upon reaching the bottom of the floor, we found an ornately decorated set of doors. They honestly looked like the doors to a school gym.

In front of them stood Leona. Beside her was a cage, wherein Niku was chained and wearing a lustrous red dress.

“Niku!” I called out to her, but she did not answer. She was unconscious. “What did you do to her, Leona?!”

“I merely knocked her unconscious. Oh, and changed her clothes. Here is her old outfit.” A succubus brought out Niku’s neatly folded maid outfit, her knee socks, and finally her underwear. Ichika took them. Look like Niku doesn’t have her Golem Maid Outfit’s assistance anymore.

“Her panties tasted quite nice, I appreciated the mana flavor!”

“What the absolute fuck?” Her panties did have mana since I turned them into a Golem, but still. The flavor? Did Leona lick them or something? Jesus. I came here all tense for some serious psychological trials, but this is just... I dunno.

“Yooo, Leona, I never woulda thought you’d betray Master like this.”

“Indeed. I had thought that we could be friends, Leona.”

“Why hello, Ichika, Rei. You didn’t expect this the moment you saw me?” Oh yeah, I forgot all three of them worked as Beddhist nuns together.

“Okay, you got me dawg, I totally did. And I only joined the church ’cause Niku got knocked out, so yeah, I’m totes just joking about being torn up here.”

“...Regardless, I sincerely respected your skills as master masseuse.”

Ichika was pretty indifferent and Rei looked sincerely regretful.

“Don’t worry! I don’t care about either of you at all!”

“Oof, I can tell you mean that, dude. Talk about harsh. We even ate from the same pot of soup, that’s the kinda bond that should last a lifetime. Not that I care. Hard to say how many times I ended up fighting my adventurer bros back in those days.”

“Ngh! Am I the only one who finds fighting with a former friend tragic?!” Hm... I wonder if Rei got infected by Leona during all that time they spent together. Nah, I’ll just roll with Rei being that pure of heart. She’s a good girl.

Leona clapped her hands together.

“Now then, let us begin our game! Your goal is to save the captured princess! Aim for 99 points! Fight, fight, ooooh!” declared Leona with a smile.

“Hold up. I wanna be sure about something first. You’ll give Niku back safe and sound if we beat this game, right?”

“Of course. I’ll even set it in stone with an oath skill. Which is a good idea, now that I think about it. Let’s set the rules of this game in stone with a skill. That should assuage your fears, no?” Making an oath with a skill, huh? You can do that kind of thing? “Are you familiar with the skill {Treaty}? It’s a ritual skill that enforces vows and oaths. It ensures that promises between two parties are kept, in a way. An oath made through {Treaty} cannot be broken by anyone other than the creator god. Reason being, this is a skill enforced by the creator god himself.” I recognized that name. It was the skill the Holy Kingdom’s High Priestess used.

At the time, judging by what I had heard the priestess say and what had happened afterward, it sealed our dungeon functions for seventy-two hours and, upon failure, prevented her from entering the dungeon for some time. Though according to Haku, its effects differed depending on who used it.

“Why was the Holy Kingdom’s High Priestess capable of using it?”

“The Holy Kingdom... Ah, the Church of Light? It was likely a limited time enforcement effect. The Dark God and Light God have exchanged multiple oaths between one another already, so I imagine she enforced one of those.” Alright, I see how it works... But wait, since I’m part of the Dark God faction, I’m subject to oaths he made before I even came here? And I don’t get any say in it? Oh man, what a pain.

“You know, feel free to use {Treaty} here yourself, Keima. Give me a second, I’ll make a scroll for you. Since I imagine you haven’t learned it yet,” said Leona before picking up a small stone on the ground. “{Ultra Alchemy}, {Ultra Alchemy}, {Create Scroll: Five Star Wildcard}. Okay, done.” The stone became a red stone, then a scroll, which then had an extremely elaborate magic circle drawn onto it. Everything only took a few seconds.

“I imagine you can read its contents, given your nature.”

“...God-Rank Contract Magic. Oath, Vow Binding... Looks like it’s real.” I looked over the scroll and didn’t see any oddities in the magic circle. Though I had never seen a real [Treaty Scroll] before, so who knows.

“Go ahead and use it.” At Leona’s urging, I used the scroll. The magic circle spread out, snapped, and flowed into me. Soon, I knew how to use {Treaty}. It had indeed been a real scroll. And just as she had said, it was a skill related to oaths.

“Seems like the rules will be locked in place if we use this. Alright, let’s do it. Let’s decide on the rules and conditions of this game. There’s gonna be a discussion here.” Since I was using the skill, she wouldn’t be able to slip in any sneaky rules or anything.

“I’ll go first with my own rules.” Leona suggested four rules:

1) Points are earned for each room of the dungeon conquered.

2) Upon earning enough points, Toi (Niku Kuroinu) will be returned.

3) The participants are Keima, Ichika, and Rei.

4) As long as the rules of each room are obeyed, the participants will not be harmed.

“Each room has different rules?”

“Indeed, as each game has different rules. If in one room you play poker and in another you play blackjack, how could the rules not be different?”

“...Alright. Here are my rules.” I requested five rules:

1) No games can be impossible to beat.

2) As long as the participants do not give up in the process of clearing rooms, it must not be impossible to save Niku Kuroinu.

3) Do not hide any rules.

4) The Game Master’s team cannot interfere with the participants beyond explaining the rules.

5) If the Game Master breaks the rules, Niku Kuroinu must be returned safely.

“Mhm, those are fine with me. Go ahead and use {Treaty}, if you would.”

“Yeah.” Incidentally, she forced me to add “as long as the participants do not give up” to the second category. That was a shame, since we could have given up and demanded that she still be saveable despite our surrender. Too bad.

With both of us agreeing to the terms, I activated {Treaty}. I spoke the rules one by one and Leona agreed to them.

“...And thus is the agreed upon oath. I swear upon the Creator God Oht that this oath shall be enforced — {Treaty}.” A magic path formed between Leona and I with a loud snap. The skill worked, which meant that the rules were finally in place and the game was ready.

“Okay, now we can actually begin. Have fun in the next room, everyone!” Leona left it at that and disappeared into a magic circle with both Niku and her cage. Teleportation, huh?

And so the three of us finally started our invasion of Leona’s dungeon.

The first floor contained a sudden slope. It was pretty steep and water was rushing down it. At the top I could see a door connecting to the next room. That, and a Succubus standing at the ready with a microphone.

...Yep. They look even hotter from below.

“...Keima?” Oh crap, Rokuko just contacted me and she sounds frosty. Let’s focus on the game.

“Now then, your first challenge is... The Slope! Will our challengers be able to reach the top of the slope and the door to the next room?!” It seemed that the microphone was a sound amplifying magic tool. Her loud voice echoed throughout the room.

“You couldn’t think of a better name than that?”

“We were rushed to make this in a single hour, so... We are accepting suggestions for better names, if you have any ideas!” Well, can’t blame her if she had to rush and finish all this in an hour.

“Okay, whatevs, it’s a slope. What kinda challenge is this?”

“Oh, right. Here are the rules of this room.” Ichika went ahead and asked for clarification. The Succubus looked down to the notepad she was holding.

“I will now read a letter from Lady Leona. Ahem. ‘As you can see, this slope is very slippery. Sorry to all you armchair philosophers out there, but this slope is very! Very! Slippery!’”

“Yeah, I guess an armchair philosopher would be intimidated by this...”

“Um, Master, might I ask what philosophy has to do with slopes? I do not see the connection,” asked Rei, tilting her head. The words themselves had been conveyed, but it seemed like the concept of “slippery slopes” was new here.

“Where we’re from, a slippery slope is the name for a common logical fallacy.”

“I see, so it’s a pun from the world you came from!” Rei nodded, looking sincerely impressed.

“Ahem. ‘And the bottom of this slope is a pitfall! Oh man, rest in peace, armchair philosophers! You get an immediate game over if you fall. Which means a punishment game!’”

“A’ight, I get it. If I’m following you, that ‘pitfall’ is probably another philosophy joke! A double pun!” Ichika crossed her arms, similarly impressed.

...There was nothing in the world less funny than a joke that had to be explained. Yeah, there’s still a kinda rough language barrier here. I can understand how Leona feels.

“Ahem, ahem. ‘Do your best to avoid the pitfall and climb the slippery slope for the sake of all armchair philosophers across the world! Also, a punishment game does not prevent you from advancing to the next room! It will not put you in real danger, so fear not.’ And that’s that.”

“By the way, what kind of punishment game is that?”

“Sorry, it’s not written down.” Doesn’t that break the rules about not hiding rules...? Actually, I guess not. The type of punishment game doesn’t affect the rules of this room. Since it wouldn’t put us in “real danger,” it probably won’t interfere with our progress too much.

“Alright. Let’s get started, then.” I took one step onto the slope... and slipped, hard.

“Wha?! Huh?!” This isn’t water, it’s lotion! I flailed around, but the goo covered my body. The slope itself was soft like foam.

Woah, woah, woah! This is just way too slippery, this is impossible— Gaaaah, the pitfall, GAAAAAH! The bottom of the pitfall was made of a soft material, so despite falling I wasn’t injured.

“Two challengers cleared the stage, which means 4 points. Your goal is 99 points. That means 95 points left. You may proceed to the next room.”

Incidentally, the punishment “game” was getting hit on the butt with a foam bat. C’mon... I just didn’t think that it was lotion and not water.

“Are you okay, Master?”

“Ahaha! Classic Master. You gotta apologize to all those armchair philosophers now!” Yeah, Ichika may have been my slave, but she showed no mercy at all. Not that I minded.

“Anyway, how’d you even beat that so fast, Ichika?”

“You already pulled the same trap, dude. Not like I’m gonna get owned by a trap I’ve already seen.” Oh man. I had no idea Ichika was this competent.

“I merely copied what Ichika did.” Rei managed to clear it too, so... I used {Purification} to clean the lotion off us... me... and moved to the next room. There was no time to rest!

＊ ＊ ＊

The next challenges were Tarzan rope swinging, rock climbing, and one of those bits where a wall with a posed silhouette marches forward and you have to pose to get through it. But we passed all of those easily. I stumbled on the first one, sure, but with Golem Assistance by my side I could mimic what Ichika did to win! As an aside, I realized I could order my Wearable Golem to mimic Ichika only after needing to pose for the wall. Man, my butt hurts. {Healing}.

And so, once again we faced a new bizarre challenge.

“...A steaming hot bath, really?” Indeed, within a clear container was water so hot it was steaming. A literally steaming hot bath. We needed to get inside of it for thirty seconds to pass. Thankfully, our host was gracious enough to have a mountain of ice stacked up nearby.

“That is quite a lot of steam. I can only imagine how hot the water is.”

“Hey, let’s just be glad it’s not boiling.”

“Ummm, ‘Now then, enjoy this steaming hot bath to your heart’s content!’ That’s the whole letter. This time, we will demonstrate,” said the Succubus, after which Suilla appeared in a bikini as the representative of the Succubi. Alright... This is just some fanservice for those watching at home. Can’t say I’d expect anything else from a variety TV show.

“Nnn, why must I suffer through this...”

“Please bear it, Suilla. This is all for the sake of the Succubus race.” Suilla was probably a fairly important figure in Succubus society, though it was hard to imagine that given what I had seen earlier. She timidly stood at the edge of the transparent bathtub.

“I don’t like this... But I’ll do it. Hyah!” She steeled her resolve and jumped into the tub.

“Gaaaah! Hot, too hot! I-I can’t take iiit!” She tried to jump back out in a matter of seconds, but the microphone-holding Succubus held her down.

“Mmm, please be careful, it doesn’t count unless your shoulders are submerged all the way.”

“Gah! So hot! Stop, gaaaah! Do you have a grudge against me?!”

“No, I am not jealous at all that you get to keep Michiru all to yourself.”

“ALRIGHT, YOU DEFINITELY AAAARE!”

After flailing in the water for fifteen agonizing seconds, the Succubus let go of Suilla and she charged right into the ice.

“...And that is how this game works. I hope the demonstration was helpful.”

“Yeah, very.” Incidentally, Rokuko pecked me with Phenny each time I tried looking at her feet. Thanks to that I managed to keep a cool head.

“Aaah, guess I’m gonna have to change clothes... Master, got any swimsuits?”

“We have prepared a change of clothes ahead of time. Please use them. Incidentally, certain swimsuits will earn more points.” With a flourish, she pulled in a tall cart from which various types of swimsuits hung. There were some string bikinis that looked like actual pieces of strings, a swimsuit with the head of a proud swan protruding from its crotch, and... Well, you get the idea. There were some swimsuits for men, too.

“Alright, I’m gonna go with this.” Ichika grabbed the swan head swimsuit without a moment’s hesitation. Impressive.

“...I wonder which I should pick. Perhaps the same kind I wore at the beach not too long ago?”

“Nah, hold on. Let’s try to aim for points here. I’m guessing the ones worth the most points are the one Ichika picked and this one.” I pointed at a school swimsuit (white).

“This is the swimsuit that Misha wore, was it not?”

“It’s the same design, yeah. The points are probably assigned based on Leona’s tastes. And her tastes should value this one highly, probably.”

“...In terms of lewdness, wouldn’t this string bikini be worth more?”

“She’s gotta be used to seeing Succubi wearing those.”

“I see,” Rei nodded, convinced. That’s just what my gut tells me, though.

“What’re you gonna pick, dude?”

“It’s gotta be this one.” I grabbed a white fundoshi, known to many as a sumo strap. I couldn’t imagine anything else being worth more points in a game like this. Well... I’ve never worn one of these before, gotta make sure it doesn’t slip off.

Incidentally, I forgot that “Don’t push me, definitely don’t push me” was for some reason translated as “Please push me,” so I got knocked straight into the tub. Leona laughed pretty hard and gave us ten points, so it all worked out in the end, I guess.

＊ ＊ ＊

“Hyaaah! Did that just move?! Bro, it definitely moved! C’mon, what’s in this thing?! It’s gotta be alive!”

“Aaah, sorry, the rules say we can’t tell you anything. Good luck, Ichika!”

“We can’t even give hints? Ngggh, Ichika! I believe in you!” said Rei as Ichika flailed with her arm stuck inside a box she couldn’t see the contents of. One side of the box was made of crystals such that Rei and I, sitting on the opposite end from Ichika, could see inside. This room’s game was guessing the contents of various boxes.

Incidentally, her box had a pear inside. It didn’t move, it just rolled around, which happened a lot.

“It’s a lizard! No, a frog! Gotta be a frog!”

“I’m sorry, but that is incorrect! It’s actually a pear!”

“Guuuh, you gotta be kidding! It friggin’ moved! Back me up here, Master!”

“It’s time for the punishment game. Bend over.” A Succubus walked into room wearing a needlessly tight black body suit. She looked pretty sexy since it showed off all her curves, but the large foam bat in her hand stole the show. She stood next to Ichika, then swung the bat hard. “C’mon! Gaaah!” The bat hit Ichika’s butt hard, sending a resounding “thwap” through the room. But for all the noise, it didn’t actually cause that much damage. The Succubus left immediately, her job completed. “Ouch, ouch... M-Master, that was kinda hot. I think I mighta just awoken to something here...”

“Okay, next challenger please.”

“Ah! I’ll go next, Master.” Once Rei was in place, they swapped out the contents of the box. This time it had an orange.

Rei patted it. She must have judged from Ichika’s attempt that hesitation would bring only failure. A calm investigation was naturally more fruitful, so she made the right call.

“I have it. This is an orange.”

“And we have a winner! The prize is points, and the orange. Feel free to eat it.”

“Right out of the box?! Ichika, please peel this for me.”

“Do me a solid and gimme half. Oh, guess it’s Master’s turn now.” Rei got the answer right without anything funny happening. Which meant that indeed it was my turn. I stood in front of the box and waited for the contents to be switched. But once they were, I didn’t stick my hands in the box.

“If I can guess what’s inside without touching it... How about we get 50 points?” As it stood, we had 53 points. At this rate, the sun would rise and we would collapse from exhaustion. Thus, I decided to gamble.

“What?! Don’t be silly, that’s clearly in violation of the rules.”

“Leona’s watching this from somewhere. This is a suggestion, a request for an additional rule. That’s not breaking the rules. So, how about it?”

“But regardless, how could you answer without knowing anything about the... Oh? Ah. Understood. She said she’ll accept that rule. But if you lose, y-you will be... Th-Thai Kicked, I believe she said?” Ngh, figures. But I’ll have to risk it. I’m running out of brainpower here. Let’s just think of it as a wake up call if I lose.

“Alright. That’s fine with me.”

“Now, give your answer!”

“...A head. If I’m right about this, Leona’s head is inside this box!”

“Ah!” The Succubus gasped.

“Alright, spit it out. Do I get 50 points or do I get Thai Kicked?”

“...That’s, the... Your answer, is...”

“Correct! You never fail to impress, Keima!!” said Leona from within the box. “Heh. I have to say, I really didn’t expect you to get it right... Open the box.”

“O-Okay,” said the announcer Succubus, who opened the box to reveal Leona’s head within.

“These kinds of games always have to end with a human head! Keima, I’m so glad you understand me here!”

“...How are you even talking?” There was nothing else in the box, not even a hole in its bottom. It was slightly... extremely horrific.

“My my my. Don’t look at my cross section, if you would. You’d have nightmares. Ahaha.” The Succubus picked up Leona’s decapitated head. Yeaaah, she’s basically not even human anymore.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t actually cut my head off. I’m just teleporting my head elsewhere using a [Magic Ring], okay? I promise. Would you understand if I compared it to the kind of gate the Dark God uses?” Oh, whew. There’s a trick to it. That’s good to know, for my mental health.

“Incidentally, I can do the same thing with walls, such that only my upper or lower half is protruding from them.”

“N-Neat. Good to know.” But why? Why would you do that, Leona?

“Okay! Sure, it’s a common gag, but as a reward for having the guts to make that gamble I’ll give you 100 points, just this once!” A hundred points?! I did not expect that. Our goal is just 99 points total, so I guess that’s enough to win.

“So you’re gonna give us Niku back, right?”

“Nope, first you gotta reach the second milestone. 255 points,” said Leona casually.

“What is the meaning of this, Leona? Did you not say that you would return Niku after we earned enough points? I believe we have a contract.”

“Goodness, Rei, do you have 0 INT as well? Nobody said that the initial point goal was the final goal for me giving her back,” declared Leona without a trace of shame.

“...Doesn’t that break the rules?”

“The rules say I have to give her back after you store enough points, but I don’t recall either of us stating how many points that would be.”

“That breaks the rule I introduced about not hiding rules.”

“Rude, I wasn’t hiding this, I simply forgot to make a decision. That doesn’t make the challenge impossible, either. I intend to give her back after you gather enough points, and you can keep gathering more points as long as you don’t give up,” elaborated Leona. Uh... Isn’t that still practically impossible?

“Decide on a final point goal now, then. How many do we need before you give Niku back?”

“Mmm, let’s see. Maybe 9,999? No, no. I say 100,000! That sounds good to me! No argument here, right?” Leona casually decided on 100,000 points.

“Hold it right there, buster! Don’t think we’re gonn—”

“Shut it, Ichika! That’s fine. 100,000 points.” I stopped Ichika. We couldn’t turn down her suggestion. If we did, that would be considered giving up. A clear point goal had been defined and with enough time, we could gather that many points. It was fully possible.

“...A-Ah, I totes didn’t think about that. Sorry dude.”

“Don’t sweat it. I should’ve seen this coming.”

...Crap. I forgot to consider how long the game might last. Should have defined the point goal back when setting up the rules. At this rate, it’ll take months to clear this game. We’ll need to earn these 100 points a thousand times over. In theory, we could take on bonus challenges with special rules like I had just done to score major points, but...

“I can raise the difficulty and rewards if you want. But higher difficulty means losing points sometimes too. How’s that sound?” It was at that moment I realized something. The point rewards were based entirely on Leona’s whims. It wouldn’t be against the rules for her to award us a tenth of a point for things. In which case, we were at her mercy! She could make the game take months, no, years!

“You can give up at any time, remember?” whispered Leona, having returned to her full body at some point.

“...You won’t give Niku back if we give up, right?”

“Well, I’ll give back a completed version of her, and I’ll throw in some bonuses too. Giving up will net you one piece of that Divine Bedding set floating around. This one’s revered as the treasure of the Succubus race and if you give up, it’s yours,” said Leona while digging through her {Storage}.

Divine Bedding. Is Leona saying that she owns a piece of bedding on the same level as Rokuko’s Divine Comforter?!

“Behold, the real Divine Comforter!”

“Yeah, give Niku back.” Leona took out a familiar looking, but well used comforter with a divine aura. Idiot. I’ve already got one of those. Well, Rokuko does, but still.

“So cold! Ahaha, I see you’ve grown a little too fond of that fake copy.” Sure, let’s put it that way. I’m a little past being shaken by Divine Bedding. And anyway, didn’t Leona see the Divine Comforter we already have? Wait, that’s what she’s calling a fake. That’s possible. She did call her own copy the “real” version, after all.

“Well, regardless. I’ll let you check up on Toi as a reward for reaching 99 points.” Leona snapped her fingers and a halfway transparent monitor appeared in the air. On screen was Niku in chains. But she was surrounded by a bunch of basketball sized pink balls... Slimes.

“Ahaha, do you recognize what these Slimes are?”

“What’re you planning to do to Niku?”

“Don’t look so worried, I’m just going to use her as a guinea pig in an experiment. One involving these slimes, of course...” Leona cackled with amusement.

“I made these children with my alchemy skill. They are the ultimate life form, sought by scientists for ages... Slimes that melt only clothing!”

“...Try and think of some better jokes.”

“Well, they still sometimes melt the wearer of the clothes too by accident, but they’re like ninety-nine percent complete. A little melted skin never hurt anyone! Too badly, I mean... Look. She’ll be fixed up when you get her back, so don’t worry about it. Anyway, how about we get back to our games? The next room is a hot potato challenge! Better hurry or your princess is gonna be in a sticky situation! That was a pun!” said Leona before disappearing along with the monitor showing Niku.

“So, what’s the plan, Master?”

“We’re taking a break. I need to think for a bit.” I sat onto the ground. It was unlikely that Leona would ever give Niku back no matter how many challenges we beat. Or rather, she would give Niku back, but who knew how many years that would take. For better or worse, as long as we didn’t break the rules, our lives weren’t at risk.

“...I suppose that at this rate, we may be unable to save Niku.”

“Yeah.” We couldn’t deny the possibility that she returned Niku unharmed, but dead from starvation. All she had to say was “I didn’t do anything to her, and I didn’t feed her either!” Our situation was about as bad as it could possibly be. I should’ve made her agree to more rules biased in our favor.

“Keima. What are you doing? You better not be giving up.” Rokuko contacted me. Naturally, I had no intention of giving up whatsoever. Which is why I was thinking.

“...Rokuko, if you’ve noticed something, I’m all ears. Got anything?”

“Hm? Well... It looks like this is actually working like a Dungeon Battle, so I can see all the rooms you’ve gone through on my map. Can you see them too?” Dungeon Battle? Now that she mentioned it, I could see that being true. It could be a modified ruleset where one team focuses purely on invading the other team’s dungeon, like our battle with Ittetsu. That wasn’t unheard of.

I opened the menu. Yep, I could see the map. “Plus, Keima... You three have been circling through the same four rooms in a loop. Does that help at all?” I checked my map and indeed saw that there were only four rooms. We were playing games while looping through them. Thinking back, the passageways forward had all felt like they were bent to the left.

“So basically, Leona doesn’t have a straight shot of games planned out, she’s just reusing the same four rooms. But I’m not really seeing how that’ll hel—” ...No, wait. I can use this.

I started thinking up a plan.

# Leona’s Perspective

Within the dungeon there was a room. A room with Leona and a chained up Niku. One of the pink slimes was getting close to Niku, so Leona grabbed it and casually tossed it aside.

“I’m bad. Whewee, Keima’s just the best, messing with him is tons of fun... Don’t you agree, Toi?”

“.........”

“I know you’re awake. You may be a failure, but not even you are that weak.” said Leona, to which Niku replied in a quiet, defeated voice.

“...I’m, Niku... not... Toi...”

“So stubborn. But either way, it doesn’t matter. You’re just bait to make Keima do his best.” Leona was holding several clear red gems in her hands. “Eat them. Don’t worry, I have a contract with Keima. They aren’t poison.” She ate one with Niku watching. “If you don’t want to eat them with your mouth, I can just use another hole. It’s all the same to me.”

“.........” Niku opened her mouth a little. Leona replied, “Good girl,” and stuck a gem into her mouth like putting coins into a piggybank. It was sweet like sugar candy and melted in moments.

“Ngh!” Niku’s body shook like it was being electrocuted. But not out of pain—it felt more good than bad. Which in turn made Niku feel unbearably disgusted. She wanted to spit the gems out, but they had already melted.

“Don’t worry, there’s plenty more where that came from.”

“What, did you... make... mgggh!” This time, she shoved several into her mouth at once. The gems that didn’t fit inside fell to the ground. They melted as soon as they touched Niku’s mouth, filling it with the candy flavor. Leona held her hand over Niku’s mouth so the liquid could seep into her body without leaking out.

“Ngggh!” Niku flailed and even managed to bite Leona’s hand, but not even drawing blood with her sharp canine teeth was enough for Leona’s smile to falter.

“Do they taste good? Of course they do. It’s food I made myself, after all. They’re [Philosopher’s Stones] with a high rate of purity, though admittedly I made them from some rocks lying around. Oh, maybe I should have made them from wet garbage instead? They would be more meaty that way, like a garbage bread roll.”

The philosopher’s stone. Regarded by many as the pinnacle of alchemy, the philosopher’s stone was fruitlessly sought by alchemists for centuries. Leona could make multiple of them through various substances using her {Ultra Alchemy} skill. The most fundamental use of {Ultra Alchemy} was creating philosopher’s stones, which were then used to create other substances. She was using the most valued treasure of alchemy like water, a mere means to an end.

At some point, she realized that philosopher’s stones taste quite good. And since {Ultra Alchemy} has no daily limit unlike Keima’s {Ultra Transformation}, she can make as many as she wants. Which led to her treating philosopher’s stones like red candy gems she could make on the spot.

“Okay, I’ve got it. I’ll make them out of your waste next time. That’ll kill two birds with one stone since I don’t have to find rocks to use. Feel free to pee yourself as much as you like.” Leona let go of Niku’s mouth after confirming that all the gems in her mouth had melted. She licked her hand where Niku had bitten her and the wounds were already gone.

“...Mmm, tasty,” said Leona while groping Niku. Niku felt disgusted at how nice it felt and tensed up to hide how she was feeling.

“Feel free to moan if you want. I know how good my massages feel.”

“This is just... the, worst...”

“No need to act tough. Your body’s honest.” Leona pinched Niku and her body reflexively jerked. It felt as if her body wasn’t hers anymore and it was honestly a little scary.

“Here, take a look at this. Keima’s taking a break. Maybe he doesn’t want to save you?” Leona called up the monitor, which showed Keima sitting down.

“Master...”

“Still, what a waste. The next room is a hot potato challenge. At this rate they’re all going to cool down,” said Leona, looking completely unperturbed by that. In fact, she actually seemed amused by it.

Suddenly, Keima stood up.

“There he goes. I wonder what he has in store for us?”

“{Summon Gargoyle}.” Keima cast the spell without a chant and summoned one Gargoyle. However, he didn’t stop there.

“{Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}...” A gargoyle appeared for each time he said the words.

“Wait, wh-what’s he doing? What’s his goal here?” Leona, confused, watched Keima continue his chanting.

“{Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}...” He summoned a full room of Gargoyles. “Alright! Here we go!” Keima and his team burst off running in one direction while the Gargoyles ran in the opposite direction.

“...Ah! No way! He’s going to destroy the game rooms?!” It was at that moment she realized something. She had only built four rooms. Instead of making new ones, she was just reusing the old ones. But with Gargoyles in the rooms, that is, with invaders in the rooms, she couldn’t make changes. Dungeon rooms could not be modified at the cost of DP with invaders inside of them. It was possible that he planned to destroy the existing games and prevent new ones from being made.

“I suppose his plan is to destroy the games and then claim I broke the rules by presenting an impossible challenge. That’s no fair... Wait, that isn’t against the rules!” Although Gargoyles were merely as strong as Stone Golems but with magic, there were so many of them that the Succubi alone would be overwhelmed.

Leona hurried out of the room to deal with the Gargoyles. As Niku watched her go, she gave a smug grin, proud of her Master.

# Keima’s Perspective

“{Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}... Bwahaha! The most basic Dungeon Battle strategy is power through numbers! {Summon Gargoyle}, and a {Summon Gargoyle}, and one more {Summon Gargoyle} for the road!” I filled the room with Gargoyles. Alright!

“And now, charge!! Stay here, Phenny! Everyone else, we’re going to the next room as fast as possible!”

“Kay, let’s do this thang!”

“Understood, Master!” We quickly reached the next room.

“Welcome, ladies and gentleman, to the hot potato chal—”

“Go, Ichika!”

“You got it! Urryyaaaaah, so hot! B-But this is nothing! Nom, nom! A-All done! Ghahaaah!” We finished the potato challenge before the Succubus could even explain the rules. I knew what it would be before it started.

“Good job! {Healing}!”

“What?! Um,” stammered the Succubus, “You finished eating it which is worth 9 points.”

“To the next room!” We ignored the Succubus and charged to the next room.

“Th-This challenge is jumping across crumbly stepping stones over water.”

“I’ll take the punishment game!” I interrupted her explanation and declared that I would take the punishment game. That meant I could go to the next room. Reason being, Leona had accepted an additional rule for all rooms that we could proceed after taking the punishment game.

“What?! U-Um, okay... U-Ummm...”

“Hurry! Or can we move on without the punishment game? Don’t tell me you’re breaking the rule about not interfering outside of the game’s rules!” Using the rules as a shield, I forced the Succubus to raise a trembling hand.

“N-Ngggh! Hyah!”

“Thank you?! {Healing}! Alright, next room!” I took the slap on my face with a grin and headed to the room. Whereupon I found...

“...My my, Keima. I didn’t expect to see you here so soon.” There stood Leona, in the process of removing the Gargoyle corpses. There was nothing around her. In other words, this was an empty room with no game prepared within it.

“Alright, Leona. What challenge does this room have?”

“...Sorry, it’s under construction. Please wait for a bit.”

“That’s not happening. It’s against the rules, even. Stalling like this is pretty much objectively interfering with us outside of the game’s rules.”

“Well, that’s fair. I suppose I don’t have any choice in the matter... But may I ask where your companions are?”

“Ichika’s waiting two rooms behind me and Rei in the one directly behind me. What of it?” Indeed. I had left Ichika in the potato room and Rei in the room we ignored with a punishment game. Reason being, there was no rule that said we couldn’t stay in a room after completing its challenge. And I was in this room, while Phenny the immortal Phoenix was in the final room.

“My, my. That’s a problem.” We had put invaders in every single one of the four rooms. Which meant that Leona could no longer use dungeon functions to make games. Or in other words, there were no games possible to play and win, which meant Leona was breaking the rule that she had to prepare games that could be completed. We were on the verge of beating her.

“I’m afraid you didn’t think this through, however. Let’s see... This room’s challenge is playing rock paper scissors with me. But it has an extra rule that three challengers must be present.”

“...Figures.” But naturally, Leona had some countermeasures. First of all, she could just make up a game that didn’t require much preparation. She could also make rules requiring multiple challenges, such that one room would be opened up.

“Not to mention, the room past this one has an invader that’s not a challenger, so eliminating them won’t be against the rules.” That was the second problem. Phenny, despite being capable of infinite revival, was not a challenger and thus could be removed. She could just capture him and lock him up wherever Niku is.

“So, Keima. What will you do?” My answer was obvious.

“I quit. Which means we win.”

“...What?”

“Don’t understand? Alright, let me explain for you. I quit. Which means there are only two challengers. With only two challengers, it’s impossible to gather all three challengers. So, essentially...” She broke the rule that she couldn’t prepare games that were impossible to complete.

Leona heard my explanation and agreed.

“Okay, then I change the rule to all challengers rather than three challengers.”

“Hey now, it’s too late for that. You already made a game that can’t be completed.” I said, setting up the rest of my plan.

“It’s not too late. This was just a simple mistake.”

“Nope, it’s too late. You broke rules. We win. It’s that simple. Now, give Niku back.”

“.........” Leona fell into thought, attempting to figure out if continuing the games here would violate the {Treaty} contract. Perfect, here’s my chance.

“Fine, fine. Let’s make a compromise. I’ll suggest a game, and if we win, we get 100,000 points. Then you can lose fair and square before giving Niku back. Sound good?”

“Oh, you would do that?”

“Sure. I’ll rejoin as a challenger, too.”

“But of course.” ...Alright, it’s working! Naturally, if Leona felt that she had lost unfairly, then she could just try to kidnap Niku later. The best plan here was to beat her in a way she would accept. If she had accepted her defeat with a smile, I would have taken Niku back, but otherwise it would be too risky. I needed to beat her solidly in a way that couldn’t be questioned. Which is why I guided the conversation toward one final game settling everything. Thus sums up my plan.

...Though in the end I barely managed to position everyone in the four rooms in time, and I ultimately just barely caught her in a technicality. Whew, that was close. I would have had to think up a Plan B if this failed.

“So, Keima, what kind of game are you going to suggest? Naturally, it will need to be a game worthy of 100,000 points. I won’t accept any old boring game.”

“...Alright. How about this: I put a paper balloon on your head. If it gets crushed or popped, we win. Sound good?”

“That’s fine with me. It’s very worth 100,000 points.” Oh crap, maybe I should have thought harder about the game. Starting low with simple ones and working my way up might have been the better call.

“Now then, I’ll go prepare a somewhat larger room for this. A door leading to it will appear in one of the other rooms.”

“Alright. I’ll go get ready for it.” I’m gonna need to go in fully prepared.

＊ ＊ ＊

The challengers were me, Ichika, and Rei. Also Phenny.

“Which brings us to here. We need to crush or rip the paper balloon on Leona’s head.”

“Huh... Something tells me that’s not gonna happen, dude.”

“It’s gonna be hard, but we’ve gotta do it. Better than fighting her up front at least.” We just had to pray that she held back and made some mistakes. In the meantime, we needed to prepare some long ranged attacks. Leona should be fine with us shooting some arrows at her.

“Um, will my attacks be meaningful here?”

“You can provide some long range support with your bowgun.” Rei didn’t stand much of a chance breaking the balloon with her zero attack power, but her bowgun could do some work, and it wouldn’t take much to pop a paper balloon.

“I want to help too. Can I control Phenny?” asked Rokuko through dungeon chat.

“Sure, that shouldn’t be a problem. We can consider Phenny as my weapon, since I’m technically a Tamer.” That should work.

“Also, Kosaki. Can you put her on just in case, Ichika?” I removed Kosaki the Succubus ring and handed her to Ichika.

“Dude, are you telling me to be a Succubus?”

“We might need Succubus powers and I’m not gonna be the one taking that fall. Rei doesn’t have much affinity for them. Which leaves you, Ichika. You probably won’t need to transform, though, since I doubt charms will work on Leona.” Anyway... Let’s go.

We headed to the inner room Leona had prepared. Leona was waiting inside with the paper balloon on her head.

“Welcome, welcome.”

“Can you prove that balloon on your head can be popped?”

“Only if that won’t count as me losing.”

“...I’d rather we use a paper balloon I make myself.”

“Then I’ll be at a disadvantage if you put gunpowder or something inside of it. Hmm... How about this. You win as long as you can touch the balloon.” Yeah, there’s pretty much zero chance that balloon’s poppable.

“I was thinking of popping it with arrows, magic, and so on. Do those count as touching it?”

“Okay, attacks will count as touching it. Even if those attacks don’t do any damage,” she said, looking at Rei. Alright. She knows Rei has zero attack power. Good to know. Rei sighed in relief.

“Oh, and have a gift from me. I’ll let one more challenger join the fray.” Leona snapped her fingers. Out of nowhere, Niku appeared wearing a dress.

“...Master!” She ran in my direction, unchained.

“You sure about that?”

“I’ll take her back if you lose, of course. In that case I’ll have plenty, pleeenty of fun with you while you slowly build up 100,000 points,” said Leona with a broad smile.

“Alright, let’s double check the rules. All the universal rules from before apply. Within this room, you can attack at will. This continues until we give up.”

“Oh, I can attack?”

“Yep. That way, you can’t complain when you lose.”

“That’s certainly true. The rules we defined with {Treaty} will apply here as well, yes?” Yeah... I should have mentioned those first. Whoops.

“Yep. Okay, now that Niku’s with us again, I want to hold another strategy meeting. That cool with you?”

“Of course. Feel free to leave and have one heck of a strategy meeting. You can even go get some weapons and equipment if you want. But waiting will get pretty boring, so take thirty minutes at best. Any longer than that and I’ll consider it you giving up.” Well, guess we can’t just run away then. “Anyway, I’ll be waiting here. The game will begin the second you step in this room again.”

＊ ＊ ＊

We returned to the empty room to think up a plan. Though to be honest, it’s not like we had formed any special plans last time. Just a couple of combination attacks.

“Forgive me for being caught, Master.”

“It’s fine. That girl’s a monster, you couldn’t do anything.” Niku avoided Leona as much as possible but got summoned right next to her. You can’t get much more unfair than that. I patted Niku’s head, but she remained depressed.

“Anyway, we don’t have much time here. You can do hit and run tactics on her while we fight.”

“Understood, Master. Leave it to me.” Niku gave a firm nod. I didn’t include her in any combination attacks because I honestly had no idea if she would be able to fight Leona properly. She was fine now, but I remembered how scared she had been. Who knew what she’d end up like in a fight. She’d be the strongest out of all of us if she kept a grip on herself, though.

I took out Niku’s Golem Maid Outfit from my {Storage} and gave it to her. She started changing clothes without any hesitation. I quickly turned around and waited for her to finish. Actually, is she wearing underwear right now? I didn’t get a good look, but I don’t think she was.

“How are you feeling?”

“Fine. Better than usual, maybe.”

“Alright. Don’t push yourself, okay? And... That’s it. Let’s go.” I handed a Golem Blade to Niku.

＊ ＊ ＊

And thus, we returned from our strategy meeting. Not much had changed. Mainly just Niku getting the ring instead and her joining us on the offensive. Also, I had gulped down some mana potions to boost my mana back up. Everything was ready. We were going to put our all into this challenge.

“Alright. Let’s go.” After checking to make sure Leona was still in the room, I took a single step inside. She immediately charged in my direction with the paper balloon still on her head.

“Not even waiting a second?!” The few tactics I had thought up were mainly useless now. The only one that remained was basically just thinking on our feet and reacting to what happened. Gotta give it our best shot and hope something hits by chance.

“Ahahaha, the best defense is a good offense! By the way, I cast {Protect} on this paper balloon, so it won’t pop just from me running! But don’t worry, I weakened the spell enough that an arrow will still pop it!” explained Leona while running, the balloon on her head not even shaking from the impact of each step. It was possible that had we not changed the rules to touching it, she would have strengthened the protection so much that not even a head on war hammer blow could break it. Or at least, it would have taken two or three hits, just to keep things interesting.

Screech! The sound of metal hitting metal filled the air.

“Mmm, not bad.”

“.........” Niku had blocked Leona’s blow with her Golem Blade. I had been worried that Niku would be too afraid of her to do anything, but... Wait. Why is her foam bat making metal sounds? Is there a metal rod inside of it?

“I think I might have made this a bit too hard. But if it were too soft, it’d just get sliced up. I gu— Back off.”

“Guh!”

“Oof!”

Rei and Ichika tried touching the paper balloon and Leona punched them both hard, sending them flying. Christ on a bike, that got them down in one hit. They better not have died from that.

“Ahaha, that was a nice attempt at a combination strike. Is it your turn now, Keima?”

“I’m basically a mage, so I usually stick behind, but... If you wanna get close to me, I’ve got this.” I drew my beloved sword Siesta from its sheath on my hip.

“You think that will work on me? I have {Ultra Resistance}, you know.”

“Ngh, I forgot about that...” I said while swinging the blade normally. I had my Wearable Golem helping me out.

“Oh...? That certainly is some trained movement for one who knows no sword combat skills.” Leona leaned back while standing in place to dodge the side swipe, in what was known as a sway in boxing. I left control of my body to the Golem while beginning to chant.

“{Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}!” Three Gargoyles appeared as I kept swinging. “These came from my magic so they count too! Go on, get her!”

“They count, but no number of weak peons will help you,” said Leona, and within a single second crushed all three of the Gargoyles’ heads. Their bodies collapsed to the ground with a thunk. Uhhhhhh. Is it just me, or is Leona a bit overpowered?

“Only the safety of the participants is guaranteed, so I can kill them as I like.”

“How about this?” Niku threw a chunk of Gargoyle at her.

“Weak.” Leona dodged with an exaggerated backstep. Naturally, the corpses of the Gargoyles I had summoned counted as well. Which means my next move was to—

“Nope!”

“Guh?!” Leona slammed her bat against my butt. I crouched to the ground, holding my rear end. “If you get so close to the ground like that, I might just step on you.”

“Ngh?!” Leona shot a kick toward me. Not even the Golem assistance would get me out of the way in time. I was hit and flung away faster than a roller coaster. Pain shot through my side and I saw a wall speeding toward me. If I hit it, I would die. But just as my life flashed before my eyes, a clear green wall gently enveloped me and slowed me down.

Still, I slammed into the wall and dug a ways into it. I took less damage than I thought, but... I had some broken bones. Especially the ribs she kicked.

...However, light rained down upon me and made the pain vanish.

“I went ahead and cast {Protect} and {Healing} on you.”

“...Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I don’t want to break the rules about killing challengers, so.” Leona had cast the Restoration spell on me herself. At least she follows the rules... Ah, crap, my Wearable Golem died.

“Don’t... touch... Master!”

“You’re up next, Toi. And I mean up!” Niku charged forward to save me and got kicked straight to the ceiling. That saved me from a follow up attack, but now she was getting air juggled with a flurry of kicks.

...Which bought me the time I needed. I cast my next spell. This time without a single word. I wasn’t used to silent casting, usually saying the name of the spell, but I remembered what Leona said. Magic was all about your internal image of the spell. In which case altered magic should work even without a chant. I would surprise her with a chantless spell she never saw coming. I knew the Water elemental spell {Water}. I only had to change it a little!

“(O Water, become small droplets and rain down... {Water})!” I felt mana leaving my body. Immediately, rain fell from the ceiling.

“Alright, that should do it!”

“Do what, I wonder?”

I blinked and saw that the paper balloon on Leona’s head was completely dry. It was a wind barrier. Not a single droplet of water had gotten past the wind to land on the balloon.

“{Air Barricade}. Not even a shot arrow can get past it. Naturally, nor will {Mist} type spells.” Leona kicked the now unconscious Niku toward a wall and smiled.

“...Isn’t that kinda unfair?”

“It’s a reasonable precaution. But a chantless {Rain}, hm? That’s clever, I’m impressed. Hyah!”

“Nguuuh!” Leona poked my forehead. Her finger hit me like a hammer and my head shot back in pain. For a second I thought I had been decapitated, but it was still attached. Thank Christ, that was cl—

“Hyah, and a healing poke!” She poked me again. This time my entire body was knocked back. It felt as if an entire log had been slammed into me. But I felt only the impact and no pain. She must have healed me as she hit me.

“But does Keima know {Rain}? I don’t believe I saw that in his list of skills... Ah, maybe he learned it before coming here.” My head was spinning so much that Leona’s words went in one ear and out the other.

“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter. I wonder how many times I’ll have to hit him before his spirit breaks?” Ah, crap. This is gonna be one of those “beat the crap out of someone while healing them to keep going” moments. Guess I’m gonna have to pull out all the stops.

“LEONAAAA!” shouted Ichika. “I’M OVER HEE— Guh!”

“If you want to surprise someone, try not to shout about what you’re doing. Follow Rei’s example. Aha.”

“Ah, ngh!”

Ichika distracting Leona while Rei attacked from the opposite direction was one of the combo strats we had thought up. But seeing through that was like child’s play for Leona. She kicked Ichika away and flicked back the arrow Rei shot, which flew right into her leg.

“Sorry, but keep buying time for me! {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}, {Summon Gargoyle}...!” I climbed onto one of the Gargoyles I summoned and flew into the air. I then continued to summon more Gargoyles.

“Toi, well, you’re doing the best out of them.”

“Ngh... ngaah!” Niku, having woken up, launched another attack with Ichika. Leona casually grabbed her by the throat and held her in the air, squeezing tightly.

“Of course, you are just a decoy. Obviously.” Phenny charged at the paper balloon and got poked into oblivion. Oof... It’ll take a full minute for him to revive from a death that thorough.

...But everyone buying time was starting to show its benefits. A throng of Gargoyles covered the ceiling. They were everywhere. Leona probably couldn’t even see me anymore.

“Impressive. Destroying all of these at once might lead to a stray block hitting the balloon.”

The situation was a bit special, but this was still the same thing as a Dungeon Battle. Which meant there was power in numbers, to a degree. Sending waves of troops to their deaths was an effective strategy at times. The map was already so filled with Gargoyles that you couldn’t distinguish anyone on it. But I had no doubt that Leona could easily defeat all of these Gargoyles without a scratch being laid on her balloon.

...I didn’t want to have to do this, but I had no choice. I took two Record Golems, put them on a Gargoyle, and sent them on their way. One of them chanted {Summon Gargoyle} while it disappeared into the crowd. I silently chanted at the same rate to keep things balanced.

Once there were more than enough Gargoyles, I sent the signal.

“HERE I COME, LEONA!” said the other Record Golem. I silently used {Ultra Transformation} to turn into... a Gargoyle. My already dead Wearable Golem ripped to shreds and fell down. That meant I was naked in a stone body, but that was just the price I had to pay. It would be far too easy to distinguish me from the other Golems if I was wearing clothes. Which would ruin the entire point of this plan.

My last-ditch plan was simple: Trick Leona into killing me while I was transformed, and thereby make her break the rule about guaranteeing the safety of the challengers.

# Leona’s Perspective

“...I suppose I might have played around too much. This is a little gross to see.” Leona looked at the throng of Gargoyles, not only covering the ceiling but now steadily filling up the entire room. It would be impossible to physically destroy so many of them up close without their corpses hitting the paper balloon. She would have to kill them all at once with a decisive blow.

Leona had wondered what strategy Keima was cooking up as he bought time, but to think he would ultimately just try to use numbers to force a win. There was indeed an impressive number of Gargoyles, but she had fought them countless times before.

“HERE I COME, LEONA!” yelled Keima. Leona turned her back to where the voice came from and built up mana within her, planning to hit everywhere but there. She concentrated so much mana inside of her that it hummed before she released it all with a chant.

“...Consume all, {Dragon Breath}!” Dragon Breath was a Fire spell that had strength rivaling a Red Dragon’s own fire. Leona knew even more powerful spells than that, but had determined that they would run the risk of hitting Keima by mistake. She was holding back.

Fire shot out from her like a flame thrower, but infinitely more hot. The Gargoyles evaporated where they were. That alone was enough to heat up the room, but Leona silently cast ice spells to keep the challengers from dying. She only had to kill the majority of them. She would stop her {Dragon Breath} once most of them were gone.

But before she could, she saw a Gargoyle trying to run into the flames. It clearly wasn’t flying. Almost as if it couldn’t fly. Leona quickly activated her {Ultra Identification}. It was level nine, but its level was also the limit to how many times she could use it per day. She couldn’t use it recklessly, but in this case it was good that she did.

Identification Results: Gargoyle (Keima Masuda)

A monster made of stone. Can cast magic, has high defense. But not enough defense to matter at a high level. (The result of Keima Masuda using his Hero skill {Ultra Transformation: Level 3}. Has limited uses.)

Weak points: Head, chest.

Status: Normal. ({Ultra Transformation}.)

Threat Level: B.

Stats: Attack D, Defense C, Speed D, Intelligence S, Wisdom A, Luck D.

Skills: {Stone Body}, {Gliding}, {Fireball}, {Stone}, {Water}, {Blind}, {Light}, {Wall—

“What?!” She didn’t have time to read it all, but she did see “Keima Masuda.” She immediately guessed Keima’s plan after thinking about how the Gargoyle was moving.

Indeed. Keima’s goal was to be hit by the area of effect magic she had cast to clean up the Gargoyles. Leona had researched {Ultra Transformation} in the past. Level 3 and above meant that he could revive after death once per day when transformed, but Leona knew she couldn’t let that happen. It would be hard to say that she had kept the participants safe after killing one.

Leona canceled the spell, but the fire would keep going for at least a second. She immediately shifted the direction the fire was shooting in.

All of this happened in a fifth of a second. Which is why she didn’t notice a key fact. It slipped by her that Rei, who had fled to the corner of the room to remove an arrow from her leg, was the product of illusion magic. She did not realize that the real Rei had slipped into the horde of Gargoyles to wait for a good chance to touch the paper balloon, right where Leona was redirecting the fire.

It all happened in the next tenth of a second. The fire consumed all and evaporated everything it touched.

“Ah...! Well, I’ve really done it now.” Out of respect for the fellow nun she had worked alongside in the Beddhist Church, Leona took out her holy symbol necklace and made a divine circle gesture in the air.

# Keima’s Perspective

The raging fire Leona shot out just barely didn’t reach me. That left me only one choice. I had hoped that she would kill me in an instant before realizing anything, but at this point I had no choice but to charge forward an—

“What?!”

The moment after I steeled my resolve and charged forward, the fire suddenly changed direction. And then disappeared.

“Crap, it didn’t work.” We were screwed. Well, there was still the chance that I could send all the remaining Gargoyles at her together with me mixed into them. She might kill me by accident, or maybe one of the gargoyle corpses will hit the balloon.

“I lose,” said Leona out of seemingly nowhere. Come again? I suddenly got a very bad feeling. I hadn’t died. The paper balloon was untouched. And yet, I knew we had won, thanks to the effects of {Treaty}.

I ended my {Ultra Transformation}. I changed into the clothes I had put into my {Storage} ahead of time and Ichika dashed over to protect me.

“What’s up, Master?”

“Looks like we won somehow.”

“Wha?”

I didn’t know why, but we had won. And for some reason, I couldn’t feel happy or celebratory at all.

“Where’s Niku and Rei?”

“Niku’s knocked out by Leona. Rei... Should be using her illusion magic to hide somewhere.”

“Then she should be fine coming out now. Hey, Rei! Where are you? Rei?” I called my summoned Gargoyles back. But Rei was nowhere to be seen. She must have been using her illusion magic still.

“Rokuko! You can hear me, right? Where’s Rei?!”

“...Keima. Rei’s... not on the map. She disappeared.” She disappeared from the map? Does that mean she teleported away?

“Haaah... Sorry, but I killed poor little Rei. That’s against the rules, no doubt about it. I lose,” said Leona with a casual shrug as she walked over.

“...Wait, really...? Rokuko, she’s joking, right? She must have just teleported.”

“I was watching through Rei’s eyes until Phenny came back. So... I saw the whole thing. I saw the fire hitting her.” My throat dried.

“That can’t be true. Rei, dead...? If that’s a joke, it’s not funny.”

“It’s true. That girl has a weird curse on her, right? Zero attack power? I couldn’t sense that she was there since I didn’t feel any danger. Check your menu if you don’t believe me. If a monster’s Named, their name on the Named Monsters list should gray out after death,” she said, reminding me that the Named Monsters list existed. Last time I saw it, Gobsuke’s name had been grayed out at the top.

...I hesistantly opened the menu. There, on the Named Monsters list... I saw Rei’s name, grayed out just like Gobsuke’s.

“Leona! You killed Rei!” I tried to punch her, but she easily avoided the blow.

“What’s the big deal, she was just a monster. You don’t care about me killing all those Gargoyles, do you? If you’re going to use monsters, you gotta be ready for this kind of thing,” she said, flatly. There was no room for argument.

I fell to my knees weakly. It was true. Gargoyles were monsters under my command too, and although Rei was a Named Monster, that didn’t mean it was okay to kill Gargoyles and not her. Did it...?

“But you worked with Rei!”

“We spent time together, but in the end, she’s just a monster. Wait, whoa, why are you crying? Um, ah, what’s wrong?!” I touched my cheek. It was wet.

“Aaah, don’t cry! Want some candy? I have candy!” Leona, panicking, held out a red gem toward me. But I just swiped it away. There was a hole in my heart and I found myself just crying, too sad to do anything else. The sense of loss was so great it felt as if I had regained the humanity I lost after becoming a Dungeon Master. The death of a friend felt... much, much worse than I had ever expected.

“And anyway, since she’s a Named Monster, you can just revive her!”

...What?

“Oh, finally, you stopped crying. Why do you look so surprised? Don’t tell me you didn’t know that.”

“...You can revive Named Monsters?”

“Yep. I’ll even pay the DP cost to show how sorry I am... Mmm, judging from my {Ultra Identification} logs... She’s worth 80,000 DP. So it’ll cost 800,000 DP to revive her. Here, hold out your hand.”

“Wait, what? Whoa! H-Hold on, whoa!” Leona took my hand and I felt an electric current run through me, like a gentle massage. It was about eighty shocks in half a second. I checked my menu and saw that I indeed had 800,000 more DP. Didn’t know I could exchange DP like that too.

“Just double tap the grayed out Named Monster name.” I also didn’t know that you could double tap. I did as she said and a message popped up: “Revive Named Monster Rei: 800,000 DP.” I pressed “Yes” without any hesitation and a sparkling, golden magic circle appeared. Rei then popped out of it.

“That’s Rei! It worked, Keima!” She really came back...?

“...Wha?! I died?! Wait... Is this the afterlife, then? I didn’t expect there to be an afterlife for Vampires. Maybe it’s because I joined Beddhism. Oh, but I was technically part of an evil organization, so perhaps this is Hell where I must sleep in a small room where the neighbors hit the wall three times per hour... Plus one that feels musky in the summer, chilly in the winter, and bugs from the King of Devils Moskito fly around with no Holy Blade Bugspray to kill them! Ngh, what a horrible fate!” Oh right, I forgot that I had spread that if you did evil acts while alive then you would go to Beddhist Hell.

“R-Rei. Are you the real thing? Do you have a pulse?”

“Wha, Master?! Why are you here?! Did Leona kill you as well?!”

“The opposite. I revived you.”

“Goodness! That must mean this isn’t Hell! This is a world where I can sleep in nice beds, then?! Oyasuminasai!” Uh. When did Rei get so infected with Beddhist teachings?

“...She actually revived, right? She’s not just a very similar copy, right?”

“I-I’m, I’m the real thing, definitely!” stammered Rei. That’s kinda suspicious.

“...Say something that only you and I know.”

“U-Ummm... I’m wearing red underwear today!”

“I didn’t know that, so it doesn’t really mean anything... Why did you think I knew that?”

“Just look!”

“That won’t change anything! Stop!”

“W-Wait, Rei?!” interjected Rokuko. “I’m glad you’re alive, but what are you doing?!” Rei was taking off her clothes to show the red bondage suit beneath. That doesn’t count as underwear! And why are you wearing it anyway?! It’s perverted!

“...Ahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Leona suddenly burst into laughter, holding her stomach. “Don’t worry, her {Ultra Identification} page is the same. Just with ‘Times Revived: 1’ added onto it. But seriously, I’m pretty sure it’s common knowledge that you can revive Named Monsters. At the very least, there’s not a single Core from the first batch that doesn’t know. One to one hundred. You didn’t know even though you’re buddy-buddy with Core 89, sweet little Haku?”

“...Well, Rokuko?”

“N-Now that she mentions it, I think I remember hearing about reviving monsters in one of the Core meetings...” Uh. Rokuko?

Leona crouched to the ground in laughter. She shouldn’t have been able to hear what Rokuko said, but she must have guessed what we were talking about from my expression.

“Ahahaha! Are you trying to distract me so you can touch the balloon? Or are you trying to kill me with laughter? Pfffh, ahaha... This is just hilarious. I’m satisfied now. You can have Toi back, I don’t need her for anything now.” A magic circle appeared around Leona. It was probably teleporation magic. “This was tons of fun! This is the kind of thing I can only do with a Japanese person, just like I thought. People of this world just don’t understand what I’m talking about, and only a Dungeon Master like you can really understand me. Aaah, this was just great. I’m sure we’ll meet again someday.”

I never wanted to see her again, but Leona left with a pleased smile on her face. Leaving behind both the dungeon... aaaand her Succubi.

“Um, what should we do now...?”

“...Didn’t she tell us we belonged to this game dungeon now?”

“Right, and I think she mentioned that this dungeon would become part of theirs after she was done. Which means...”

The left behind Succubi scooted up close to me with apologetic looks in their eyes.

“What are you going to do with them, Keima?” asked Rokuko.

“I dunno. What do you think, Rokuko?”

“I say we just leave them here. Not like they’re working for Leona anymore.” Yeaaah, Succubi are pretty expensive to buy with DP, no point in wasting them. Not to mention that since they’re apparently not dungeon monsters, they give stable DP income by existing here. They weren’t literally under the control of the branch dungeon Leona made here.

“...Alright. If you listen to what I say, I won’t force you or anyone under the dungeon’s control and I’ll see to it that you’re all taken care of.”

“Okay! Should we strip?”

“Is it time for sex?”

“How many babies?”

No, not now, and none.

“...Rei, look over them in the church. Succubi work pretty well with Beddhism all things considered. Just consider them as normal nuns or whatever.”

“Understood, Master!” And so, I now had five Succubi to take care of, including the loli Succubus not present.

...Succubus nuns, huh? That sounds like something you’d find in a porn game... Eh, whatever.