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A great battle was raging within the demon dragon's lair.
Evil Dragon Sansas truly hadn't expected the goddess and her Hero Team to arrive so quickly, and there was also the golden sword in Hero Gangze's hand — just a glance at it made the dragon tremble uncontrollably.
Roars of fury, howls, and cries of agony intertwined in the air, while far from the battlefield, a slight, slender figure was quietly searching through the corpses of the minions.
"This one's wrong."
"This one's too ugly."
"This one will do, barely. I'll take some blood."
Gothic young girl Miya had completed her sword-delivery mission, but the return teleport still hadn't come.
If Lord Matthew had been watching the whole time, Miya wouldn't have dared act up even if she'd had a hundred times the courage.
But right before the mission, Lord Matthew had been busy chasing after some manga from the Human Realm, and hadn't had time to pay attention here.
Also, time flowed quickly in the Water Blue World, more than enough for Miya to send word back to Lord Balu's Demon King's Castle.
At this moment, she was gathering the main material for a long-distance communication ritual — dragon blood.
There was no way Miya could obtain Black Dragon Sansas's blood without anyone noticing, so she decided to win through sheer quantity, taking blood from Sansas's dragon children and grandchildren instead.
Deep within the lair.
The howls grew heavier and heavier.
Miya lifted her skirt hem with one hand and quickened her pace.
Ten more minutes passed, and then the demon dragon's lair shook with a great earthquake!
Goddess of War Ares, barefoot, led her Hero Team charging out.
Right after, Sansas's massive body, along with the jewels and crystals it had hoarded, was buried beneath boulders and earth.
The battle was over.
Justice had triumphed over evil once again.
In the safe zone, a priest girl bandaged Hero Gangze's wounds.
Gangze, his face utterly pale, smiled and said, "Lord Ares, it's all thanks to the Dragon Slaying Holy Sword. This divine artifact doesn't just deal extra damage to Sansas, it also suppresses its strength. Otherwise, we would've had a hard time defeating it."
Outside of battle, Ares's voice had returned to its gentle tone.
"Enough talk, Gangze. Our medical resources are limited right now, we need to hurry back to the city to recover."
And once again, from within the shadows, Miya watched them leave.
The young girl glanced at the ruins of the dragon's lair, then looked down at the vial of blood in her hand, shaking her head as she murmured, "Lord Balu, I've done everything I can. Time is limited, so please, you must believe me."
The ritual required a more secluded place to begin, so Miya chose pure darkness.
She traced the magic array and poured in the dragon blood — and through it, though she remained in the Water Blue World, she managed to reach Red Dragon Demon King Balu, far away in the Demon King's Castle in the Demon Realm.
"Lord Balu, Lord Balu, it's me, Miya!"
"Lord Balu, Lord Balu! ……"
In the depths of a dim palace, atop a throne formed of congealed magma, a bare-chested man with red horns stirred awake.
"Miya?"
The man's fiery brows furrowed. "Miya… who's that?"
"I'm Miya, the one you sent to investigate the Goddess World."
At those words, the man's hand moved, slowly. "Ah, I remember now. I did send someone, but that was many years ago. So you're all still alive."
Miya: (⊙_⊙)？
She didn't quite know how to respond.
There was indeed a time difference between the Demon Realm and the Goddess World, but it definitely wasn't "many years" worth. And why had Lord Balu said "you're all"?
Then the man asked, "You've completed your mission, haven't you?"
Miya clenched her fists and said, "Yes, Lord Balu."
"What did you find?"
Miya told the truth. "Reporting, my lord — I found that the strongest being in the Goddess World isn't the Mother Goddess within the Divine Tree, nor is it any of the three great SS-rank goddesses — the Goddess of Void, the Moon Goddess, or the Goddess of Radiance. It's God Matthew."
The dragon blood ran dry.
The communication cut off.
In the darkness, the gothic girl sank into despair.
She was a member of the Demon Race, and she knew full well that Matthew could kill her ten thousand times over with just his little finger — and yet she'd still sought out a chance to send this crucial intelligence back.
She hadn't wanted Lord Balu to lead their clansmen to the Goddess World only to die.
But as it turned out, in the eyes of her honored Lord Balu — even in the eyes of her own clansmen — she wasn't nearly as important as she'd imagined.
"You're all… so that means Lord Balu sent many spies like me to infiltrate the Goddess World and gather intelligence. Perhaps he already knew of Lord Matthew's existence."
"Everything I risked my life to do meant nothing to Lord Balu. Ha… Miya, you're a demon, aren't you? How naive of you."
The highest law of the Demon Race was survival of the fittest.
Kill the Demon King, and a New King is born — if anyone could kill the current Demon Lord, they would naturally ascend to the throne of the next generation's Demon Lord.
In charm, Miya couldn't match a succubus. In assassination skill, she couldn't match a shadow demon.
To put it kindly, she'd inherited the strengths of two races. To put it bluntly, she was simply weak.
And so, Miya was well-suited to a mission like "gather intelligence in the Goddess World" — one that was clearly little more than cannon fodder work.
Perhaps it was precisely because of her weakness that she'd stayed cautious and careful throughout the mission, and had managed to survive.
Her progress had been agonizingly slow, but she had finally, successfully completed her mission of investigating intelligence on the 120 goddesses who held authority.
At this moment, she should have been overjoyed.
And yet, she wasn't.
She felt so sad, she wanted to cry her heart out. She wanted to go back to God Matthew's little cabin, so full of warmth and human feeling.
Then, the young girl Miya cried out, sobbing, "Lord Matthew, when are you going to come get me?!"
With a "whoosh," "ow" — Miya landed bottom-first, dropped right into the Male God's Cabin.
……
The Dragon Race wasn't a hardworking one.
Quite the opposite — they were rather lazy.
Red Demon Dragon Balu was no exception. Out of one year in the Demon Realm, he'd spend at least half of it asleep.
Many years ago — exactly how many, he'd long since forgotten — he'd received a rare compliment, given directly by His Majesty the Demon Lord.
After that, Balu had gotten carried away with himself, and set his sights on a plan to rise to the rank of S-class Demon King.
Expanding territory and conquering different worlds on His Majesty's behalf was the most ordinary path to promotion there was.
Unfortunately, that was too slow, and the overconfident Balu couldn't wait that long.
So he sent out a group of spies to investigate news of the Goddess World.
The idea of an A-class Demon King conquering the Goddess World was, of course, pure nonsense.
His real goal was to strike while the God Realm was undefended, causing some destruction and dragging a few of its residents back as captives.
Such a feat, while nowhere near as impressive as conquering seven or eight different worlds, would still be more than enough to bump him up a rank.
And besides, Balu figured that even though he was only A-class, there were still 30 or 40 percent of the S-class Demon Kings he could beat.
But then… Balu had taken a nap, his excitement had faded, and he'd conveniently chosen to forget the whole thing.
The communication cut off.
Balu, seated on his magma throne, knocked on his own skull, trying to recall. "Who was it that talked me into attacking the Goddess World in the first place?"
"It was Jonaz. S-class Demon King Jonaz!"
"The strongest being in the Goddess World isn't one of the three great SS-ranks, but some male god no one's ever even heard of?"
Balu wasn't entirely convinced.
Still, that little fellow claiming to be his subordinate didn't seem to have any reason to lie to him.
So, Balu started up the ritual as well, addressing his communication to the Demon God Palace.
Soon, a woman's voice, carrying little emotion, reached his ears. "What is it, Balu? If you want to go into battle, come here and take a number and wait in line like everyone else."
To the other demons, Balu was an evil dragon with a gloomy appearance and an extremely violent temper.
But faced with this voice, he didn't dare act out of line — there was even a hint of flattery in his tone.
"Honored Lord Meli, fighting for His Majesty the Demon Lord is my duty, but today I wanted to ask you about something first."
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