Lucy walked up the endless stairs of her temple; each step felt heavier than the last, but soon she reached the top without much trouble. Her angels and maidens were there to greet her, but she wasn’t interested in them. The one she wanted to see was her little sister sitting on the shrine table behind them.

"Obelisk, the devils heard that Gojo defeated Blue Ice and sealed her, so they thought he was strong enough to defeat Cania. Those devils stole his jewel to draw power from it and went to hell." She walked past the endless rows of maidens and sat on the chair beside Obelisk.

Obelisk looked at her for a second, then stood. "Want me to go to hell and find it?" She spoke in a calm, aloof voice. Her glowing red eyes sparked with dark magic as she glared down at Lucy.

"No, go help Yuwaku. You and she should be able to find the location of the gate the devils used. It’ll take decades for us to search all of hell." Lucy leaned back on her chair with a frown. "I want Gojo back as soon as possible, so we should be smart about what we do."

"Got it." Obelisk disappeared without a sound, leaving the hall looking empty.

Lucy looked around, then located one of the maidens. "Get me a bath ready, a massage, and a funny show to laugh a bit. I’ve seen some nasty shit and like to cleanse my mind." She smiled, "Of course, a lot of food to stuff myself would help as well."

As the maidens rushed out, Lucy looked at the angels. "How are those people doing?"

"Relatively well, we’ll heal and feed them, even make sure they get a soft bed to sleep in." The angel frowned, "But most of them can’t sleep, not after what has been done to them."

Lucy sighed. "Now that’s troublesome. Time will tell; make sure they stay alive until the day they feel better."

Another angel approached and bowed. "But, what shall we do with the others. The sinners."

Lucy frowned, her eyes opening wide as she leaned forward. "Want the answer appropriate for a goddess or a little girl who had seen what they did?" She growled, her voice strangely deep.

The angels didn’t reply, so she growled once more. "Rip their flesh apart, tear their fingers, skin them alive, crush their balls, pluck their eyes and teeth out, then sell their writhing bodies to the Arad’s vampires to feed on. The money would all be distributed among the victims to start a new life."

She stood and approached the angels, "I do not need to spell out the details to you all. Get it done, and make sure none of them get a free pass to hell before the victims recover."

****

Far away, across the frozen sea and at the edge of an endless forest of frozen trees, a little boy sneezed loud enough to shatter the icicles on the weak branches.

"Damn it, why is this place so damn cold?" Agnar growled, his arms shivering as he hugged himself. Beside him, Ignis approached and wrapped her right wing around his legs, heating them.

He looked at her with a smile.

"Thank you, Ignis. I should’ve learned some fire magic before coming here." He pulled his necklace and looked at it with a frown. "Cold resistance, my ass, this thing is utterly useless."

Yuwaku, who looked absolutely fine behind him, smiled, unshaken by the cold. "Mine works fine."

"Master’s work is perfect. You must be using it wrong." Obelisk walked beside him and touched the necklace. For a second, she didn’t move. She then immediately kicked Agnar, sending him rolling in the snow.

"Ignorant brat, pour more mana into it."

"I’m doing it!" Agnar burst out of the snow with a raging red face.

"You’re not pouring enough. The necklace’s cold resistance gets stronger the more mana you pour into it." Obelisk explained how the necklaces that Gojo made work.

"I’m telling you! I’m doing just that, but it isn’t working." He growled, then stood, patting the snow off his shoulders.

"Don’t bother with him, Obelisk. He either can’t push enough mana into it, or is doing it on purpose." Yuwaku approached Agnar and looked at him with a grin. "Which one is it?"

Agnar took a few steps away from her. "I’m pushing as much mana as I can in it. I’m not doing it on purpose."

She giggled. "He is telling the truth." She then looked at Ignis, "Stay close to him while we’re moving."

The group of Yuwaku, Agnar, Ignis, and Obelisk moved forward, cutting through the dense snow of the endless forest of ice. Their goal was at its center.

"Are you sure it’s here?" Agnar asked, barely containing a sneeze.

Obelisk glared at him for a second before shifting her red eyes toward the depths of the forest.

"That’s what Lucy says." She frowned. "But I understand what you mean. Even I can’t sense anything around here, not a single trace of devils."

From the information Lucy learned, the gate to hell should be inside this forest, but such a powerful object should leave a trace. Granted, regular wizards won’t sense it, but a monster slime as powerful as Obelisk should be able to feel something.

Yuwaku smiled. "Of course, we won’t sense anything. If those devils stole that thing, then they must’ve made sure to hide from Lucy and Gojo’s eyes. We are nowhere near as powerful as they are."

Agnar frowned. "Damn it, don’t remind me." At first, when Agnar saw Lucy, he expected her to be a weak goddess who knew how to eat and get fat. She is the goddess of gluttony after all.

But after seeing the aftershock of her battle in space, that massive maw, he is starting to hate how the horrors of this world masquerade themselves as harmless beings. First was Kali, and now her.

"Don’t judge a book by its cover." Yuwaku looked at him with a grin. "Look at us. Who could tell that I’m a Nymph and that you’re a black Jaguar?"

Agnar growled at her. "Damn it! Books have covers for a reason. Do you expect me to read every book before judging it? I’ll look at the cover all I want."

She giggled. "So what do you see looking at me?"

Agnar looked at her for a few seconds, "Big... Nothing. Just get out of my face!" He pushed her back and rushed forward on his own.

"You fool! Don’t go on your own!" Obelisk shouted at him, but Agnar didn’t stop. She sighed.

"I’m not one to talk, but why did we bring a brat with us? He’s pretty much useless."

TAP! A hand landed on her head. "Don’t insult my Agnar, otherwise, Gojo won’t recognize your corpse."

Obelisk pushed Yuwaku’s hand away from her head. "Huh, damned Nymph." She then pointed at the forest. "What if he dies?"

Yuwaku chuckled and looked at the forest. "Do you know? I can decide who can see me and who can’t?"

"Yeah, if someone saw your true form, they’ll be blinded and die." She glared at her and frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"We’ll, my Agnar here..."

"ROAR! MAHARAJA!" A thunderous explosion burst in the middle of the forest, shaking the entire area.