Emma frowned and looked puzzled, and was grateful as Penny spoke up. Her gaze shifted to the slim demon, and her bewildered expression grew even more confused as Penny bounced over.

"The necklace? I bound Slayzer to it..." She answered, then fell silent, listening. Then she shook her head, feeling like she was going to explode. "Penny...." She grit out through her teeth. "Stop not mentioning things! Especially, since you saw me start to bind him to it! What exactly is a demon's rosary, and why in the world would my grandfather have had one, then? And what kind of positive effects?"

She folded her arms over her chest, trying to think back so she could answer Elise's question. "Wellll...My mother gave it to me, before she passed away...But, if I remember correctly, she got it from her mother. And she got it from my Great-Grandmother, whose husband gave it to her. I...have no clue how he got it. All I know is my mum said it was pretty important to them, a symbol of love and whatnot." She gave a shrug, and glanced at Slayzer. "It was pretty important to me, too, but it was the first thing I thought about, so voila..." Emma motioned to Slayzer. "Does it really matter where it came from? What was so special about it, other than it being important to me?"

Penny covered her head defensively at Emma growling, still grinning nervously, though she listened to what Elise said and asked of the girl. Even Penny was curious about that, she may have taken notice of what it was, but it never occurred to her to ask about it, or maybe asking about it might have raised too many questions and she didn't want to answer them, the small demoness simply put her arms behind her head and looked away, puffing out her cheeks,
"They're not so uncommon that some-one couldn't get it as a family heirloom, whenever a Demon ascends to the position of Demon Lord, they get one commissioned from a master craftsman and pay for a new one in mana power. Wearing one openly is like painting a target on your back and saying; I'm bigger and badder than you are, come and get me, if I had to guess; that's why Hadrien started taking notice of you and your abilities, but the latter is more important than the amulet."

"A Demon Rosary generally grants its wearer greater overall power. To confine a demon to one will increase their abilities by a great margin when compared to any normal object. There are other unique objects that have similar properties, but the basic idea here is you've just made a strong demon even stronger." Elise glared at Slayzer then frowned, "However.. Undeserving he might be." The healer turned to Penny a moment, but then raised her left hand and slapped the diminutive demoness across the top of the head, Penny jerking to the side a little from the blow,
"Owwwwww! Ow-ow-ow-ow-what was that for?!"
"She's too nice to do it, so I did it for her." Elise replied with a smirk, though Penny simply rubbed the top of her head and grumbled. The moment she looked away, however, Elise' face became one of slight concern again, but she didn't speak,
"So anyway yeah, new lesson for confining demons, when you put them in certain objects, the importance of the object or the properties of the object can be passed to them. So say if you had a magic fire ring and used them with a demon, they could get better fire resistance, or fire abilities. I just didn't expect you to use your family heirloom, let alone the fact that it's a rosary, it's precious to you which mena-" Penny froze still before she started to break into fits of snickering, "-which means-pfft-EH-HAH!-HE's precious to you now!"

"This amulet is one of the reasons the demon lord is after me, and you didn't think to tell me?" Emmas eyes flashed and she glanced back to Penny. "Seriously? Serious talk later!" The mage huffed, and stomped a foot, but glanced curiously to Slayzer. She wasn't thinking about the male, but of the amulet. Why in the world would that be in her family?

"So...Slayzer is stronger because of me? What if I ever released him? What would happen then?" Emma frowned, and glanced back to the group, "Hey! D-don't hit her!" Emma moved to Penny, peeking at her head. "I appreciate the gesture...but, just cause I'm upset with her doesn't mean I wanna hit her..." The look was caught by Emma, and she gave the healer a curious look, filing it away for yet more questions she had later.

Penny was talking again, and Emma started turning bright red once again. "He is not precious to me! Penny, stop that! Maybe the slap was deserved!" Emma rolled her eyes and kicked a nearby rock gently. "So what kind of new properties would the rosary give him?" Her violet eyes remained on the ground, refusing to look at any of the demons and sure her cheeks were still burning brightly.

"Theoretically speaking, if you let me off the chain, I'd start hunting Hadrien's men myself, beating the crap out of them, gaining in power until I could challenge him myself." Slayzer replied, cracking his knuckles and rolling his shoulders a moment later,
"Ah yes, just what we need, two power-hungry demons fighting over who gets to be the top dog on this world. The dragon you rode here on is probably a hundred times more powerful than Hadrien, but clearly she has no interest in ruling anything, let alone interefering." Elise stated in a rather matter-of-fact manner, it seemed to take the wind out of Slazyer but then she shrugged to himself and simply grinned,
"Then Tiamat wouldn't be a problem. If I dont bother her, she wont bother me, right?"

Elise shrugged to herself and turned to Emma again, Slayzer simply pulled a face and folded his arms again, Penny had once more taken refuge behind Elise, much to the surprise of the healer, however once Emma spoke again, Elise simply picked up Penny by her scruff and held her forward like a naughty kitten, she even curled up in the air, grinning broadly,
"Weeell, it's just a strengthening item, so really that combined with it having been a precious item.. It's like.. You took him and made him almost a quarter better than what he used to be? It's like adding a good sauce to meat and potatoes. Better in every way. Right?"

"You really still make comparisons in food..?" Elise sighed, dropping Penny on her backside before she folded her arms in front of herself, bridling her chest a little as she stared calmly at Emma,
"But yes, Rosaries were sought out for those who could confine, because you could create potentially powerful new demon soldiers with them. Of course, the more powerful a demon was, the more unthinkable it became to recreate them completely just because they could get a massive boost of power from a Rosary, after all, bonding a demon to a new item would cost so much mana power. You would have to do so knowing the cost to yourself would be extraordinarily high. If you tried to recreate a Demon Lord at your current level of power, you would erase your own existence. And more-than-likely fail in the process." The woman shrugged briefly, but then glanced at Emma again, "Recreating yourself would be easy because you would literally be taking all of your power and constructing a new body for yourself with it. No loss, a little gain if you happened to put yourself into a more powerful object. Do you understand?"

Slayzer continued to examine his own hands a moment then grinned to himself a little, it certainly would be interesting to see how much stronger he had gotten, but the point of this exercise was to get Emma stronger, perhaps get these soldiers in shape too. He rested his hands on his hips and stared to Emma once more,
"Well whatever, the point's been made, you're stronger now. Time to get back to it." The demon stated, glancing over at Emma's training partners, "Come on you guys, break time's over no more slacking off. If you dont keep up, she's gonna hand your sorry asses to you over and over again."
"Hmm.. Perhaps I'll go speak to that chef-fellow.. Nothing beats a good meal after a hard day's work." Elise stated, pressing her finger to her cheek, but then glanced at Penny, "Or rather, you should, go on dear, I have to stay here." For a moment, Penny's face lit up but just as soon, Elise was towering over the small demoness with that same threatening aura. If anything, among them all it felt like she was a giant, the energy radiating from her simply seethed through the air with sheer malice,
"And you dont get to taste test everything, you bottomless pit." She stated coldly. Penny puffed out her face once more before skulking off,
"Fiiiiine!"
With that, the menacing aura vanished and Elise smiled at Emma again, as sweet as ever, no malice at all,
"Are you ready to continue, dear?"

Emma bit her lip, and tilted her head. "Actually...he kinda has a point...he's really...really..." She glanced over, and away quickly, her eyes turning red. "Really strong, right? Why couldn't he help us fight? I wasn't sure if he'd be willing to before. But, if he got to the point that he could beat Hadrien...he's still bound...right? So, you'd be super happy cause you'd be all strong, but I wouldn't really let you, you know...so...couldn't that work?"

Her attention turned to the two females. "Alright...I can't contain it anymore. Still making comparisons? How do you two know each other, and why do you keep making faces like that?" The later question was directed at Elise, before Emma nodded. "I....I think so...let me think on it..."

Emma glanced at Slayzer when he spoke, and away quickly. This was horrible. Stupid Penny's teasings! She couldn't even look at the stupid boy now! Angry with herself, she nodded, and stomped towards the group of demons.

This time, she did much, much better. She could feel her new strength, and reveled in it. It was a long time, and finally she glanced to Slayzer. "I...gotta stop..." She stated between pants. "Food..."

"Oh yeah, that's great, a barking dog on a leash, that's exactly what I wanna be. You'll use me when it's convenient to stop the big bad guys, but other than that you'll just throttle me with a chain? Or did you think it sounded nicer in your head?" Slayzer questioned, staring at her rather darkly, "What exactly about this arrangement would make you different to Hadrien for me? You wont kill me, sure, but you'll let me off the chain when it's convenient for you. And then when you no longer need me, you just keep me bound? And you expect me to be friends with you? Well you've got another thing coming if that's how it's gonna be."

Elise folded her arms a moment, though when she was asked why she kept looking at Penny in a peculiar fashion, she simply bit her tongue and looked away, it wasn't her place to say anything, at least she didn't believe she had much she could say, except for maybe..
"Penelope is the one who created me, I was bound to her a long time ago." She admitted simply, shrugging her shoulders a little, "A long time ago, perhaps, but she let us all go when the various Netherworlds and planets were cut off from one another. After that, she just vanished, I'd assumed she would die, sooner or later, but then she found me and said she wanted me to help her new friend. The first friend she made after over a thousand years.." The Healer sighed, staring at Emma calmly, "I've only ever seen her this happy once before. But that is all I will say, any more you will have to ask her about yourself, it is not my place to discuss her circumstances."

Emma calmly found herself a place to sit again, folding her arms and watching as Emma returned to her training, needless to say; there was a remarkable difference. Even as she was exhausting her active mana, she was growing in power, little-by-little. Even the lackeys were getting stronger, to the point that Elise was noticeably having to expend more of the money given to her.

When Emma finally stopped, Slayzer simply proceeded over to Elise and picked up his coin pouch, though after looking in it he frowned,
"Well.. I guess it went towards some purpose.." He groaned a little, pocketing the remaining money and glancing towards one of the hallways as a large demon in a chef's uniform emerged. Frankly, he was huge, he barely fit just under the top of the doorwaway, clearly standing at least around eight feet or so, and though he had arotund belly, his arms were massive and muscled. A finely cut beard adorned his face and his hair was brushed back. He placed a hand tot he side of his mouth and hollered, or rather bellowed loudly, the words Emma was likely to appreciate at that moment in time;
"Time for dinner, come and get it!"

This alone motivated the entirety of the demons in the ruins, those with Emma and Slayzer, the ones working ont he ruins, all rushing towards the established banquet hall inside the building. While it lacked lavish furnishings, there were long stone tables and food being set out by many smaller almost maid-like females that were scuttling back and forth between the apparent kitchen area and the eating hall.
Elise stood too, though she looked at Emma with a smile,
"Right on cue dear. A warm meal will do you good." She offered, before turning towards the large demon herself. Hannah could be seen moving ahead of the pack, stretching her arms calmly and finding herself a place at the tables. Penny was naturally already there and scarfing as much food as the so-named bottomless pit of her stomach could handle.

As Slayzer moved away, and grumbled, Emma took that to mean the training was over, and glanced to the group of demons. "Thank you guys, very much!" She called, before the demon appeared and announced dinner. She felt like sighing with happiness.

Emma looked to Elise, answering her from earlier. "So, that's why you were protective of her. I was just curious. I've plenty to ask her, so I'll add it to the pile. Thank you, very much. For letting me know, and for your help with the training..."

"I'll work on paying you back when I get some money." Emma grumbled, moving next to the demon. She walked next to him, and glowered. "You've made it clear that you don't want to be friends, so fine! You got your wish! I don't know what the future will be like, and it doesn't mean I won't ever release you or anything! I just meant I'm not gonna let you hurt people! It's not like I can really force you to fight for us, anyway! I don't care if you do the whole demon lord shtick, as long as people are safe! You make so many assumptions!" She huffed, and stormed away, glancing over her shoulder, "I don't even see what Penny gets out of teasing me about you! You are just...infuriating!" The demon most likely didn't wish to sit with the girls, and Emma wasn't going to drag him around with her, so she left the demon to his own devices.

With that, Emma moved through the crowd, flopping next to Hannah, and flopping down. "I just don't get him!" She started, and shook her head. "The only nice thing he's done is help with the training, and spend his own money, but I am starting to think he only did it so he could yell and people and because he was getting bored!"

Her rant ended quickly, and Emma piled her plate high, stuffing her mouth with as much enthusiasm as Penny. "You have a good day?" She questioned Hannah, between bites.

For a brief moment, Elise stared at Emma, the healer's face saddening once more, it was a pained appearance, but she simply shook her head and carried on walking towards the dining area,
"You do not understand.. But you will." She stated, remaining as enigmatic about it as before, she sauntered along gently, arms crossed gently before her whilst she observed Emma and Slayzer, or rather Emma finally having a go at the latter, it was certainly a sight, but she supposed it wouldn't be long before the demon finally got under the girl's skin.

Slayzer would have been taken aback by Emma's sudden retorts, but he kept his mouth shut, simply staring at the diminutive figure that was yelling at him. Once she was finally done and stormed off, he rested his hands on his hips, glancing sideways as Elise passed him, a smirk on her face,
"You shouldn't give her such a hard time. She's not your enemy," Elise advised, the man pulled a face and turned away, "There's only so long you can keep isolating yourself before you realize how lonely it is."
"I'll do whatever I damn well please," He responded, making his way into the hall. Elise simply smiled and followed suit.

Hannah stared aside at Emma a moment, the tall female watched as Emma started gobbling as much as she could, not unlike Penny, though the tall woman remained silent briefly, she eventually smiled and patted Emma on the head,
"You are angry, but only at his behavior, he has lived his life with unfriendly demons, so to survive; he has had to be unfriendly too. He is doing the right things," She stated, glancing int he direciton of the male dmeon as he entered the hall. He grabbed food but he seemed to flicker out of sight. Her gaze went up to the top of an outcropping, a piece of the ruin stylized to hang out above the floor below. She remembered what it was like to be lonely, but spending time with Emma and Penny had changed that, it probably wouldn't be so easy with him,
"I'm fine, though. It seems you've been getting stronger. If I hadn't seen you walking in here, I might not have recognized your energy."

"Yeah. Is it that noticeable?...Slayzer made me kill him..." Emma followed Hannah's gaze to the male demon and scoffed. "I'm not going to try and make him be friends." Was her only response to the various things Hannah said, though she stiffened as well. It seemed like Slayzer liked being friendless. So what if he'd had to act like that! She had tried, especially the first few days (She ignored that she'd tied him to a chair for those days.) to show they weren't going to attack him.

She even felt bad for yelling at him. Hannah was right, and he was probably lonely. But hadn't Emma done enough? She'd bound the demon when he didn't want it. She didn't want him to feel like a beast on a chain, so maybe she should just stop, leave him alone from now on, and let him choose what he wanted to do. She would just grind for her training, with Penny and Hannah's help, instead of his. She sighed, following Hannah's gaze to the outcropping. She'd just release him if he was really that unhappy, bit if he went back to Hadrien, at this point he knew far too much about their plans. Maybe after the battle she'd release him. It was worth thinking about, and Emma filed it away for later.

"He's really strong. Like really. And apparently, because he was bound to my amulet, he's stronger. I don't get it all, but I suppose most of it will become clearer later, when we've had our talk..."

Emma cleared her plate, enjoying the new food, and sat back with a sigh, patting her stomach. Nothing that needed to be said required privacy, as far as Emma was concerned, so she began now. "I think we should start now...Penny...why were you hiding so much from me? Is there anything else I need to know? Friends aren't supposed to act like this...I've been an open book with you...Why haven't you done the same with me? And what's up with you and Elise? She said you created her?"

Hannah raised her brow a moment when Emma admitted what Slazyer had allowed her to do, to think he'd be willing to let her kill him like that, just to increase her power. Especially given the way he had been treating them all, or at least the way he had been insulting them so often and half-yelling. To willingly do something like that, it seemed so out-of-character,
"He is stronger because of your amulet..?" Hannah wondered aloud, "I don't think I know what you mean.. But.." She cut herself off and stared at Penny too, though glanced at Emma again, she seemed rather serious about this now.

Penny on the other hand looked like a deer caught unawares.. With food hanging from her mouth.. She still had a roll of bread stuffed into her face. She quickly chewed through it and swallowed hard before pulling a nervous look once more, she lifted her hands, gently pressing her index fingers together,
"Well.. I didn't.. I mean.. It's.. But theres..!" She stumbled over her words and whined a little, wincing as she did so, she looked just like a child trying to explain why she did something bad, even though she knew it was bad, after a moment she stood up, a haughty look coming across her as she held her hands to her sides and puffed out her cheeks a moment, "You know, I'm over a thousand years old, I have so many secrets that my secrets have secrets, I was there when the angels and demons were fighting and I-" She froze in place as if something had slapped her in the face but then she corrected herself, "I got stuck here after the worlds and Netherworlds were cut off, like every other demon and Angel. And I've had to do all sorts of things. I once even did things that would turn your hair as white as spiky up there!!" She thrust her hand up in Slayzer's direction, the entire hall had practically fallen silent as Penny ranted, the girl's face had grown indignant, even angry, a feat that neither Emma or Hannah had ever seen, "How was I supposed to know all this should happen? I'm not a psychic, my only psychic friend wasn't even on this world when we got cut off!" She sniffled a little then sat down and folded her arms, the anger was gone almost as soon as it had appeared, instead her face dropped, "It's not like I kept stuff from you just to make you mad, I told you stuff that mattered to me at the time, none of this stuff did."

Hannah watched the scene a little wide-eyed at first before she stood up, sighing a little and glancing at them both before she reached over the table to pick up Penny in the same catlike fashion, before doing the same with Emma and staring at them both before walking out of the hall,
"This isn't the right place, Emma," she stated calmly, she wouldn't hear anything of it as she carried the two of them away from the dining hall. Penny certainly wasn't fighting. Eventually Hannah let them go when they'd found a more secluded area to talk. Though she was staring at Penny a little more,
"There's something else you aren't telling us.. I've been noticing it more every day. I thought nothing of it at first." She stopped as Penny glared back up but then the small girl lowered her head again, her body seeming to sag, "It's catching up to you.. After a thousand years.. How powerful were you back then?"

Penny looked up again, that same sad look was on her face, her eyes blurred by tears, though she reached up with her sleeves to wipe them away,
"I created Elise," She sniffled briefly, "When I was.. An Overlord.." The girl sniffled again. Hannah barely reacted, it was almost as if she expected it, she couldn't say she was surprised, "I was cut off from my Netherworld.. As-as it stands I-I'm-" Hannah cut her off, holding up her hand and glancing calmly at Emma,
"She's dying."

Emma glanced at Hannah. She hadn't known? "Apparently it was a Demon Lord's or something...and it was important to me, so it gave Slayzer positive effects. So, yeah..."

Emma's focus turned to Penny when she started to speak, and when the demon stood, she did as well, growing angry. Penny had lied by keeping these secrets! "You didn't tell me a million things that could have been important when all of this hit the fan, Penny! Now I've got some Demon Lord coming after me, and I'm not even halfway prepared! And it's not like you did a bang up job of helping so far!"

Emma's anger didn't abate like Penny's did, and she remained standing, leaning over the table. "Penny, I am human! I only have so many years to live, and I wanted to live them in peace, just helping other people and studying magic! That was all! When all of this started to happen, you still didn't tell me a ton! Why did you wait to tell me about the Binding? That was something you could have helped with!"

Her rant finished, Emma folded her arms over her chest, glaring at Penny. Her expression changed at Hannah lifted them and brought them out of the hall. She remained sulking, not trying to get away, though she cast a worried look to the balcony. Hopefully he wouldn't do anything stupid.

Emma continued her silence when Hannah set them down, and listened to the girls quietly, turning her back on them and kicking a pebble. When Penny mentioned being an overlord, she twisted around and pointed at the female. "See, you didn't think that was importa-dying?"

"You...you aren't dying..." Emma wanted to deny it, but the look on Penny's face backed up what Hannah had stated. This was Penny...a ball of energy, making people laugh and bouncing around. Emma might be mad, but she would never wish this on her friend. And surely Penny didn't want to die. "You can't die! You...You're...You're Penny..."

"Your Netherworld...because you're an Overlord..." Emma nodded, and moved to a larger piece of rubble, flopping unto it as she tried to digest all of the new information. "Okay. So...we need to connect the worlds again." Would that be detrimental? Emma had no clue. "They were separated...so there must be a way to reconnect, even if the connection isn't the same. We can do this. If you were reconnected to your netherworld...you'd be okay, right? Right?" Emma gave the women a panicked glance. How could Penny keep this secret to herself, and be so calm about it?

Penny stared sadly towards her friend, Emma, and after a moment, the small demoness got up, walking softly over to the other and sitting quietly next to her a moment as she began to come up with ideas to try the connect the worlds, though Penny just smiled at her, though it was more of a brave face than anything. She shuffled a bit closer and leaned her shoulder against Emma's arm,
"It's a nice idea.. But if I knew how, I would have done it a long time ago.. And even then.. I dont know if it would ever be a good idea. The Angels might want start that war all over again. Or the demons would.. Who knows what the other worlds are like now..?" She pondered the last part a little offhandedly, staring up at the ruins a moment then smiling again, "Although.. If there was a way, I think getting the chance to see my old friends would be more important than living.. I was fortunate so many were here on this world. Also if you think about it, it took the power of an Overlord to do it. That Hadrien bum couldn't hold a candle to the kind of power it took to cut off the mana pathways of the entire cosmos."

Hannah wandered over to the two, staring down at them for a moment before sitting on Emma's other side as she rested her arms on her knees and glanced aside to them both again, again she had fallen silent whilst these two spoke. Much like Emma, Hannah was actually rather ignorant to a lot of aspects of demons and the uses of Mana, for as long as she'd lived, she'd avoided demons except when it came to fighting them. Penny however looked up at Emma again,
"Anyway.. Even if you are human.. You're probably going to live twice over the age of a normal one at this point.. Mana is life energy," she started to explain, "The reason I'm dying is because of how mana works.. You were born on this world.. It's not something even we demons have been able to explain. Um.. Well there's a lot of variables and other things but basically; you get linked to your birth-world with an invisible link, the world is a cradle for the life of all things that were born there. The more energy you gather, the more it enriches you and you it in return.."

Penny paused, seeming lost for a second as she waggled her fingers in the air before pressing her fist into her palm,
"Oh right, yes. Uhm anyway, because you have so much mana power, you're gaining life energy. I've met humans who were near the level of Overlords and had lived a thousand years. They were rare and extremely capable. In fact; you're far stronger than I was at your age." Penny smiled, grinning at Emma, "I always felt you'd also learn the powers of confining faster than me.. I learned it by myself, no-one taught me or anything, but I was never all that bright,"

Penny swung her legs for a moment, tilting her head either way,
"I'm sorry if I made you angry, Emma. You're the first friends I made for hundreds of years, I was just happy to be with some-one good. I felt I could die a little happier this way, I don't really.. Know how long I have left.. As time goes by, my mana disappears on its own.. Once it all vanishes I'll just.. I don't know.. Stop..?" She made a momentary mockery of freezing still in place but then giggled, "I hope I don't pull a weird face."

"You really are an idiot. you runt." Slayzer's voice suddenly came up from the shadows as the white-haired demon appeared from behind a pillar, glancing over at the three for a moment,
"All we have to do is find out how to do it, right? Who says we have to restore every pathway at once? Cant you just figure out a way to restore yours first?" He questioned. Penny raised her hand, pointing at him a moment, her mouth gaped at first before she folded her arms and frowned,
".. You know.. I didn't think about it like that.." Penny grinned sheepishly, scratching the side of her head, "Still.. Figuring out how to do it would be pretty hard.."
"You could always ask Fortune Teller Syl. Well.. if you survive the upcoming battle anyway." He glanced at Emma, "Or you could always just sit there and do nothing.. So what're you gonna do?"

Emma leaned her head down, resting it on Penny's. "Aren't you afraid?" She questioned, before chewing her bottom lip. She was so calm, and was acting like there was no way in the world she could get around it. The mage couldn't accept that. Penny was a demon! There had to be some way to save her friend.

She was silent the rest of the time that Penny spoke, and attempted to smile when Penny mimed stopping, and mention making a weird face. In all honesty, she felt very far from smiling. But, if Penny could be this strong, then Emma would try for her friend. "Friends upset each other. It's a part of friendship. The important thing is it didn't break us apart-Slayzer?!" Emma tensed, and her head jerked around, staring at the white haired demon.

She couldn't help but smile once he finished, and Emma glanced at Penny. "We at least have two points to start with. There's this fortune teller, but there's also the mana inside of you. It would be really hard, but there has to be a way to track it between worlds. There's gotta be a way to find where the rest of the mana is located, if it ties you so closely to this world, right? So...that's what I will work on during down time, okay?"

"He's right..." Emma wiggled out from the two females, and stood in front of them. "How long do you think you have, Penny? I can't imagine us trying to do this with the upcoming fight...Will you be okay until the fight is over, so we can finish preparing? Once Hadrien is taken care of..." She cast a glance to Slayzer. "And if we survive...we can figure this out. Good plan?"

"Well I'd say I'm not scared, but I'd be lying my face off," Penny grinned, albeit nervously as she shifted a little in place, looking between Slayzer and Emma a moment but she didn't comment this time, it seemed Emma was starting to understand the other demon, in spite of how he said things. He was challenging her to get up and go, even if he wasn't throwing his full support behind them. His attitude certainly hadn't improved too much, but he was still suggesting things. They were offerings of help, whether he recognized it himself or not.

Penny glanced at Ema again as she evaluated what she would do next, though the small demoness put a finger to her lips in thought before frowning a little,
"Well yeah.. But you cant trace it since the worlds have been cut off. If there's another way, that'd be interesting to know.." She pondered, though then she placed her hands behind her head and shrugged a little, "At my current power, I still have time, I suppose. It all depends. If I fight too heavily; I have to expend mana power. If I die; I lose a lot more." Slayzer glanced up at this a moment but then looked aside. That was probably why Elise was so adamant about standing in his way. She was quite protective of the runt after all, "At my current level I'd say I have two-hundred years worth of life, and that's being generous, but those other factors could reduce it rapidly. I can only temporarily gain mana from this world if I defeat opponents, but even that will fade. Basically it's a choice between killing others to save myself, or dying, because that's not my style."

"Well hey, if it works out and you live, go for broke, make whatever plans you like." Slayzer shrugged towards Emma in response to her attempt at confirming with him. He turned away from the three and proceeded down the hall by himself, hands rested in his pockets,
"Emma, there's one other thing, never use confining in a battle again. It isn't a battle-worthy skill. We caught Slayzer by surprise, but strong demons will fight it off and it weakened you gravely when you tried it with him. It's a powerful talent, but you need to come up with a new ability or two of your own. You're a mage too, I'm sure you'll manage just fine. Improvising is fine, but the more solidly you train a technique, the stronger you can make it." Penny warned, raising her finger and waving it at her softly in warning. At the same time she glanced at Hannah,
"You know, you're powerful enough too, but so far you just hit things really hard. You could focus that power into skills or talents of your own and increase the destructive power of your attacks tremendously. It's like the tip of a sword. The reason it penetrates so well is that all the force of the blade being thrust forward is focused on to the tip of that sword."

Hannah stared at Penny for a while before looking at her own fists. It was true that Hannah had never really displayed any exceptional combat skills, only he fact that she was strong and able-bodied. Perhaps she could come up with a way to focus that power. Her head turned towards Slayzer, the man walking off out of sight. Perhaps he knew something..? She wasn't even sure if she wanted to ask..

Emma glanced at Penny after her admission, and down quickly. She needed to take a page out of Penny's book. The demon was scared, but it wasn't stopping her from living life and focusing on what she had to do. She'd do whatever she could to help her friend.

"Penny...if that's the case, when we do fight, I don't want you involved, okay? I know it's a lot to ask, but if you would lose, you'd lose a lot of mana as well. I won't argue if you pick off people to at least gain some mana, but the major fighting...please...don't get involved..."

The mage fell silent as Penny admonished her for using the confining in battle, and agreed with a nod. The new ability comment, however, made her head spin with idea. She glanced at the retreating white haired demon, chewing her bottom lip, and glanced upwards slowly. "I'll work on some new skills...I...I think I can figure something out. Especially with creating circles with my mind...I could try for area attacks using them. The same concept as binding, but with damage instead of confining."

She remained staring upwards while Penny spoke to Hannah. It was true. The large woman had never focused on magic, though Emma had assumed it was simply a lack of it. Obviously, being a demon, Hannah had some, but Emma had assumed she didn't have much, and had no need for it. If mana provided a demon's life force and power, however, it must hold true that the strong demon had quite a bit of mana.

"Is there anything else you should tell me, Penny?" Emma questioned finally, standing and brushing herself off. "I'm going to do everything I can to ensure you don't die yet...I know it probably doesn't count for a lot, but I think we can do this. Otherwise...if anything comes up...tell me, okay? I don't care if you just need to talk or something, okay?" She was tired, but still didn't feel ready for the upcoming battle. She wanted to train some more, although she wouldn't ask for help from either friend, or Slayzer. It was just a matter of grinding, so it shouldn't be too difficult. Elise would be needed, though, and Emma didn't have much money. She'd offer what she had, and hopefully it would be enough for tonight at least. For now, she would focus on the battle, just like Penny had been doing. Focusing on what was needed.

Penny had been afraid she would say that, of course it was true if she lost, she would lose a great deal of her power and dramatically cut her life span down, but the little demoness wasn't exactly fond of sitting around and doing nothing. In the end, she was a Demon Overlord once, and she had pride to uphold,
"Oh come on now," Penny grinned, "I still have more battle experience than everyone here, I know when I'm licked, but I've beaten tougher opponents than myself with my smarts as much as I have with my power." She replied confidently, thumping at her chest as she did so.

"But you know, it's not the end of the world if I die." The childlike creature smiled at Emma, "If it happens, don't blame yourself, there's certainly some-one at fault for my situation, but it's kinda hard to blame them," the girl chuckled. She was referring to Overlord Varnus, of course, the whom had destroyed the pathways between worlds in the first place, but if anything it seemed to be in jest.
The alternative could have been far worse, Emma may not even have existed at all, perhaps not even Hannah. Thinking on it now, those were things Penny certainly didn't want now, having met with these two. Life with them had been great. And, in spite of what was happening, it still was.

"I can say this much, I don't know if it's a good idea or not to start reopening mana pathways. It could cause complete chaos. But it's also a doorway to unlimited adventure for those who are strong enough. And the most important thing to remember is that there is always some-one stronger. Hadrien is a small fry. At my full power; he wouldn't even have been much more than a mild nuisance nipping at my ankles. But right now he's towering above us all. No matter what happens; sooner or later you're going to have to beat him. How you do it and what you do to him will be up to you, though." Penny advised, standing up and stretching.

Hannah stood tall as well, staring down at Penny a moment, but then turning her gaze towards Emma, her arms folded. The woman seemed to be in heavy contemplation, in fact, she had been since Penny mentioned her coming up with techniques. In much the same way as day to day magic that cost the smaller reservoir of refillable mana, even close-range brawlers like Hannah could use that reservoir of power to increase the potential of their attacks, often adding special effects to the attack or increased power or speed to those attacks.
For this reason mana was often referred to as the Energy of Dreams, for one with enough Mana power could be said to rule the cosmos if they were strong enough. A far cry from Hannah's own desires, , but certainly the priority of demons like Hadrien.

Peny seemed to perk up curiously, as if she could hear something, of course it would soon be felt by Hannah and Emma,
"Oooh, that's Slayzer's energy, I wonder what he's doing?" She grinned broadly, after all, his power could be felt rising as before, the same feeling spread through the ruins. He was definitely strong, but he hadn't pledged to help them fight, in fact he'd never said such a thing, even though he'd helped so far, Penny wondered about it,
"I wonder if he'll actually join in the fighting.. It's not like you can physically command him.. Eh-ha! Who am I kidding? He'll either sit there and do nothing, or he'll get so antsy to test his strength out on real opponents that he'll join in just because it looked fun at the time! Y'know he's actually a lot like me when I was that young.." After saying this, of course, Penny pulled a miserable face, "Oh poo! I feel so old again...!"

Emma glanced over, shaking her head. "No one is saying that." She had been afraid Penny would object. "Look...I know it's hard, to just sit on the sidelines when others are fighting...and call me greedy or selfish, or whatever, but...I don't want you to die, Penny. You are my friend...so...please...I'm using the friend card and asking...no...begging you to stay on the sidelines, please?"

As the demon continued, and mentioned Hadrien, Emma glanced away and scuffed her toe on the bottom of the rock she sat on. "I know I'll have to fight him...but...I really have no idea how I'll even stand a chance. He might have been a small fry to you...but to me...he's...well...Slayzer could easily kill me. And Hadrien ruled over him. I'm really at a loss...even with training and getting stronger...I still feel like it's too slow, and I'll be no match fo-what is he DOING!" Emma jerked to her feet as she felt Slayzer energy.

She glanced at Penny, deciding to tease the woman, especially after Penny had mercilessly teased Emma about Slayzer. "Of course you feel old. You're an old maid...you should grab your cane and come with me to find out!" She stuck her tongue out and giggled, before growing serious again. "I don't know. I wouldn't even try to make him fight for us. I'm just worried he will try and turn around and fight our side. He's been helpful...but he's still a demon. You guys get bored, and just do something for it. It's not a bad thing!" She hurried to add, before continuing. "But, that and the fact that he doesn't even seem like he wants to be friends at all...well, it just makes me wonder what he would do if we start to lose."

She sighed, before starting towards Slayzer's energy. "I'd better see what he's up to before I start working again..." Emma turned away, setting out for the white haired man.

Penny groaned a little, practically writhing on the spot,
"Uuuugh.. That's not fair..! No friend cards!" She argued at first but them squirmed again, "Okaaay okay, I'll try to hold back if I can, but no guarantees! I'm still tough enough to make a nuisance of myself!" She stated stubbornly, folding her arms and huffing a little, her taunting made Penny wince further, her face soured, but Hannah simply pushed her along, following after the two as they went to investigate Slayzer's sudden upsurge of energy.

Something like this was typically a sign of battle, or at leas tthat a demon was preparing to unleash a great amount of power towards a certain purpose. Slayzer himself hadn't gotten too far, he'd found another part of the ruins that looked largely abandoned, bits of rubble and pillar, fallen walls and corner stones dotted the area. They certainly couldn't repair this much damage any time soon.
The white haired demon stood at the center of the small storm that was his growing power. However the cloud of power seemed to dissipate, then Penny took a breath, watching intently, it was the momentary calm before he attacked, she recognized that quite easily.

He seemed to take a step forward and thrust his fist towards a piece of rubble, however, three more pieces surrounding him exploded as if they had all been struck at the same time. For an instance in time it almost would have looked like there were four of him. The dust cleared and he was still holding the punching pose,
"Oooh, he can split himself.." Penny whispered excitedly, "It's like making a bunch of extra yous to do what a single you cant alone. They don't usually last very long unless you plan to make them long lasting clones and train to keep them out as long as you want." Penny explained.
Slayzer shifted position and struck at the rubble again. Penny practically bounced on the spot excitedly,
"That was three strikes..! That's so clever! He punches but splits his arm and has the extra arms make the same motion all at once to increase the power of his strikes, I almost didn't catch it! He doesn't have to bulk up if he can just strike with three times the force."

Hannah watched with some interest herself, however she didn't think this kind of fighting suited her style. She lifted her fist a moment and stared at it, but then watched Slayzer again. Either way, he was really strong, if anything he really did seem stronger than last time. if he'd been this powerful, would she even have managed to hit him as hard as she did?
Slayzer shifted again, but he seemed to step in two directions, at least, it looked that way, until two parts of him split, forming two copies. The two stared at one another before they began to exchange blows, punching and kicking in what seemed like a wild flurry, but the two halves kept just out of reach, dodging and ducking, leaping and rolling whilst throwing thunderous strikes that seemed to shake the entire area whenever the two ever blocked or intercepted attacks,
"Split techniques have a lot of applications. Great for loners who don't get along with other people but still want to train against another fighter. There is no grater opponent than yourself." Elise' voice came from behind the three girls, Penny practically squealed with surprise, falling flat on her face. Hannah simply glanced back at first but then carried on watching the spectacle,
"Eliiiise! Dont do that..!" Penny whined, but the woman only smiled, kneeling down and pulling the small demoness to her feet, brushing her off, then standing again as she glanced towards Emma,
"Are you full up and ready, dear?"

Emma didn't respond to Penny following behind her. The demoness had consented to try and stay out, and Emma believed her. That was as good as Emma was going to get, so the human needed to be content with what she had been given.

Besides, the amount of Slayzer's power she felt was rather frightening, and Emma was wondering if the first attack had come already, and if there were demons in the ruins, although she wasn't sure if Slayzer would have taken it upon himself to fight them.

She hurried to him, and let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. She didn't see any enemies, just the male, and glanced at Penny when she started speaking, clearly puzzled. Once it was explained, however, Emma nodded, and glanced at her hands. It was doubtful she could develop any skill like that. "He doesn't get any mana from that, does he? Just...skill?"

Elise appeared, and as Penny fell, Emma jumped and made a rather horrible karate pose, letting out a yell. She realized a moment later it was the healer, and sighed. She glanced back to Slayzer, and nodded. "I can't split myself, though. I'll need to find more lesser demons...and...uhm...here..." Emma buried her hand into her robe, and tugged out a tiny bag. She held it out to Elise, trying to keep the red down in her cheeks. The bag had a few coins, but was woefully empty. "Will it be enough for training?" She questioned, rocking on her heels.

"Nope, no mana gain, all he's doing is training his abilities. The more used to doing something you are; the stronger you get at it. Pretty basic really, like using your muscles, or studying a bunch. Learning to use a split form isn't so hard, but you have to be really strong for it to be any good in a fight. You kinda thin out your strength among your copies. I could do it too.. But.. Well.." Penny grinned, rubbing the back of her head a little as she did so, chuckling nervously, "Splitting my mana apart isn't really a good idea right now.. I wouldn't recommend focusing on that anyway. You're a mage, right? So it's better to focus all your power into single, powerful spells for now."

Elise stared at Emma a moment as the girl offered her money, but then the woman smiled swwetly once more, beaming on Emma with that same gentle aura she always seemed to exude. Penny seemed enamored by the look, smiling up at Elise too, arms behind her back in an almost shy fashion. The healer took the pouch and held it alft in her palm a moment, she didn't even count, instead she lowered her hand and held it gently in her right's fingers, whilst her left hand rounded behind Emma softly, palm rested gently on the young woman's back and softly urging her forward,
"Come, my dear, there's a little something more before you begin training. Although if you are going to train your skills, you could do that without opponents. The keys to restoring your everyday mana is a good meal and rest. Even a man like your white-haired friend there will exhaust his power over time if he were to practice powerful skills." The woman started to explain but then rolled her eyes a little, "Oh I'm getting ahead of myself, let us save troubling details for a little later, this is more important, come."

Penny bounced alongside them a moment before pausing mid-step and almost falling over,
"Ooh! Is it what I think it is? It is! Isn't it?" Penny grinned broadly, still as amused as ever. However Hannah had not been following them, if anything, she remained stock still, watching as Slayzer fought with his double, Penny looked back a moment, folding her arms behind her head then looked forward again,
"You know, I've been wondering.. I don't really know what class of demon Hannah actually is. Almost any Demon can fight with their fists. Sure she's physically tougher than average, I mean okay that makes her a fighting type of some kind, she's no mage, again that isn't a prerequisite, but we generally aren't as physically robust. She doesn't have any inclinations, she certainly wasn't raised demon. If anything I'd have sworn she was human."
Elise glanced over at Penny a moment, wondering about it herself, but then smiled,
"Perhaps she doesn't want to reveal her true self.. Whether it is for good reasons.. Or terrible reasons.. I'm sure I know some-one like that," Elise verbally prodded Penny, the girl quivered in place as she walked before wincing,
"Oh, come on! Could we change the subject away from me?"
Elise made no reply, instead she simply winked at Emma, she was simply teasing Penny herself, likely to Emma's own amusement, or so she hoped.

Elise lead Emma on, back towards the banquet hall again, and upon entering, the hall erupted in a cheer. The various soldiers, the ones she had been training with, even the handful of workers, the zombies and other creatures of varying shapes and sizes greeted Emma with smiles all-round (at least for anything with a face). The cook himself stood off to the side, a large cloth hanging over his shoulder, arms folded,
"They decided they had fun being beaten up by you, well, the ones who were training with you, and were sharing their tales of battle with the others. It seems they've taken a liking to you and, as is customary since you are strong and have strong vassals, such as Slayzer, Penny and Hannah, you are naturally their leader."

The demons that had been training with Emma were the first ones to come up to her, still all smiles and grins as they fished into their pockets and pulled out pouches of their own,
"Also, those pledged to you often hand their earnings to their Lord, or Lady in this case. Dont worry about the logistics, I'll make sure they are evenly paid afterwards, but this, too, is our own custom." Elise explained, Penny managed to find a sack for them to start piling their coins into, "Normally Demon Lords are selfish and unreasonable and will only pay necessities, but this is where you differ, I think." Elise added, pouring Emma's coins into the sack as well, along with a pouch of her own,
"They are at ease with you as their Lady, and they feel like they can enjoy themselves. They have their ambitions, too, but under you they feel confident they can chase those ambitions." Elise folded her arms and looked up at the far back of the hall where a pair of specter-like demons were unrolling a large tapestry behind a recently restored through,
"And they have a name for you," She added, smiling as she held her hand out to the tapestry, woven into the rather fine looking material was an emblem of a large flower, it seemed emblazoned in place, almost glowing in the lights of the hall,
"Flower of Sylvas!!" The demons chanted loudly, almost perfectly timed with one another before bursting out loud with laughter and cheer once more.

"Single powerful spells..." Emma repeated. Her eyes were still on Slayzer, but she had listened intently to Penny. Other than binding, she really wasn't anything special. She had no special magical abilities that she was aware of. She had no idea what skills to hone. She kept all of this to herself though. Penny certainly had enough to worry about, and Hannah seemed fascinated by Slayzer.

She turned around, glancing from Penny to Elise, then grinning. Did Penny have a crush on the demon she'd created? She'd never seen her look shy before... She nodded in response to Elise, though she looked puzzled. What was more important than training right now?

Words brought her out of her thoughts, and she followed Elise along. "Why? What's going on?" Her tone of voice was alarmed, and Emma feared the worst, although neither of the other women seemed alarmed.

"Does it matter? Maybe she just hasn't found out what she wants to do, or what she would be good at yet. And maybe Hannah has some human in her. It's possible...Either way, she'll tell us what she's thinking when she's done sorting it out. And we will be here to help." Elise received a giggle and a shake of the head at Elise's wink, and she glanced at Penny with a smile.

They entered the hall again, and Emma jumped as voices rose. She stepped back, closer to Penny, and glanced around wide-eyed.

She seemed to have trouble digesting it, and only seemed to register one thing. "Y-yes...just split it up fairly...uhm...as long as there is some for training...right?" She gave Penny a questioning look, unsure. "Lady? Ambitions? Name?" Her voice was slowly becoming more highpitched. Emma watched the tapestry being unrolled, and gazed at it curiously. It was rather beautiful, and she wondered who had created it. Even if it was magic-made, it was very, very well done.

Then they were calling 'Flower of Sylvas', and Emma glanced around. Her. They had named her? And they were turning their earning to her? They had chosen...her? As their leader? She couldn't be a leader! Didn't they realize that! So much pressure on her!

But if she turned away and refused to lead them, would they stay and help fight? Emma couldn't face Hadrien alone. It would be letting down all of her friends, even these new ones, and it would be letting down all of the humans that Hadrien had terrorized.

Emma didn't have much of a choice but to step up. It was the furthest thing in the world that she wanted. She wasn't a leader. She wanted a quiet life. But, her options were slim. Emma smiled, and waved at the group gathered. "Thank you...all...." The human called out, and glanced towards Penny with a worried expression. "Do...am I supposed to give a speech or something?"

"Well that's not the point, when demons are born, they're born with a purpose, a design, an understanding of their own abilities that others would have to learn, same for when they get reincarnated into a different class of demon, Angels even follow a similar principle. Like Elise here, I turned her into a Healer, she's always innately known how to be a healer, all she needed to do was get better at it. Humans don't often get an advantage like that, knowing exactly what they are and how to do what they do, but they're flexible, which is an advantage in itself, Hannah is a demon but I dont know what kind." Penny tried to explain, Elise nodded softly at the time, though she restrained her own curiosity on the matter,
"Oh don't worry about expenses dear, I'm very precise, focus on what you need to do, if anything comes up; I will notify you." Elise offered simply when Emma asked about the money, it wasn't something she should let her mind stray to when she had more important concerns to deal with.

Penny gave a little chuckle at Emma's reaction, the poor girl looked overwhelmed, which was about as much as she could expect,
"Pft, nah, they're demons, you either need to be super charismatic, or well, just be like them, do whatever you wanna do. Point is; they wanna work with you, enough said, right? They'd respond just as well to an ass-kicking as they would to a speech. If you hadn't noticed yet; subtlety ain't exactly our thing." She thought about it briefly, remembering Hannah then shrugged a little "Sort of.. There are demons trained to be ninja too.. But their subtlety goes out the window when they get into a fight, so yeah.."

Elise smiled at the two and gently patted Emma's back,
"Dont stress so much, dear, I can cure anything but nerves and natural sickness. If you worry yourself to death; I cant do anything about that. Anyway, as I was saying, if you intend to train your skills, then do like your friend back there, just practice your magic, if you spend your magic, the cook can give you a good meal to restore your energy, but a good bit of sleep also does the trick." The healer advised, folding her arms softly.

Penny stretched a little, crossing her arms behind her head and grinning up at Emma,
"Your face is so red, perhaps they should have called you the tomato of Sylvas," Penny teased, sticking her tongue out at Emma, "Don't just stand there, we got stuff to do!"