“Quick, let's get behind the stables. That big demon and Mistress are burning with anger. I can feel the sparks flying between them.” Alex led the other maid-uniform-wearing humans to cover behind the stables.

  “What are we going to do? Do you think the mistress will win?” Trudy looked at the edge of panic.

  “I don’t know. If I could get some dolls maybe I could do something but I’m not good at fighting against groups.” Alex fretted, clenching and unclenching her hands.

  “Wait, I thought you had a non-combat css like we do.” Zeke paled. “You don’t have a combat css right? You know those are illegal. Mistress will make you forsake your css and then you’ll be cssless for a year at least.”

  “What? She can make you forsake a css? I didn’t think anyone could do that.” Alex gave Zeke a shocked look.

  “No one can do it for you if that is what you are asking. But they can bring you before the noble and say do it or we’ll have you executed.” Zeke answered seriously. “Please tell me you don’t have a combat css. I was sure you didn’t, cooking and cleaning are css skills for you. I thought you seemed better at it than people that didn’t have those skills.”

  “I don’t think this is really the time for this.” Alex gave Zeke a stern look.

  One of the fire cultivators shot a firebolt that came dangerously close to the carriage.

  Zeke held Alex back when it became apparent she wanted to bolt towards the carriage. “Don’t go. They are just starting to fling things back and forth. You don’t want to get caught in the crossfire.”

  Butler imps swarmed the yard grabbing all kinds of small martial weapons, trying to force the unwelcome visitors back through the main gates.

  “But my friend is in that carriage.” Alex struggled, not thinking logically.

  “Alice, you just told us to hide behind the stable. Now you want to run out and try to grab the prize the two are fighting through? I know that is your carriage but it is still just a thing.” Trudy sounded fbbergasted. “Please, don’t throw your life away.”

  “I can’t just sit here and watch. She’s in trouble.” Alex struggled to get free. She watched stray firebolts strike the carriage. It was only a matter of time before something caught the wood on fire.

  The battle kept intensifying. The mistress’s imps armed themselves with simple martial weapons. The bck-skinned butler-outfit-wearing group tried to drive them out but couldn’t. They shot arrows, they charged the intruders but with the bigger demon using fire attacks to disrupt any that came close, more and more red-skinned fire-cultivator imps streamed into the yard.

  While the red imps fire power showed obviously with burning punches and fiery kicks, the bck imps’ powers fought with more subtle powers. A red imp would look dazed for a moment and a bck imp would take that moment for a devastating strike. But the big fire demon’s contribution outweighed Lady Yvne’s.

  Alex couldn’t help to wonder if her having to use her power repeatedly to control the unruly maids had something to do with that.

  “You are weak.” The big fire demon taunted.

  “You are foolish and short sighted.” Yvne sneered down from the balcony. “This town will turn into a wastend without a noble to keep the nd fertile.”

  “Good, the humans will suffer. We are fulfilling our contract.” The demon cackled and spewed more fire on the ndscaping. The buildings were stone with cy-tiled roofs but many pnts in the area caught fire.

  “You are so stupid, burning everything to the ground is not sustainable. We’ve got to milk this contract for all it is worth. There are already more demons than humans in this kingdom. We’ll all get sent back if they go extinct.” Lady Yvne shrieked then dodged another firebolt.

  “Anything to tier up cultivation. It is our way.” The red-skinned tier 2 demon shot another firebolt that struck the carriage this time, leaving a bckened, smoking mark. “You are soft. The fire cn didn’t take much convincing to get to rise up against you.”

  “The only reason they are here is because the humans keep the pyres burning.” She sounded exasperated. “Your timing is terrible. I am busy preparing servants for the high nobility. What do you think will happen if you anger the greater demons controlling this kingdom?”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time one of our kind has had to flee after snatching a great prize. If anyone ever came back with that 100 year old ginger posted on the quest board they would be mobbed. And who said we wanted anything to do with your human farm?” The demon immoted a bck imp.

  The fighting made it to the carriage. A bck imp jumped up on top of the carriage and shot arrows at the red imps.

  Firebolts from the fire cn peppered the wooden walls of the carriage. Little plumes of smoke and bcked boards painted the carriage in wake of being used as makeshift cover.

  The door flung open and a wooden-fmingo-shaped clockwork doll ran out.

  “Oh look at the magic coming off of that doll. I wonder how well it will burn.” The bigger red demon fired a firebolt at Fufi.

  The attack struck her, and the fmes stuck, igniting the frills that were decorating the outfit. Fufi kept fleeing towards Alex though.

  The bck imp on top of the carriage got swarmed after that. They ran into the seating area and lit it on fire. They pulled off the panels and started ransacking everything. Stuffed animals, dolls, bolts of cloth were thrown down into a pile. Rose, Edelweiss and Lily were tossed aside like garbage. Her outfits as well were tossed into the pile.

  Another firebolt struck Fufi’s clockwork armor. She stumbled and fell. The fmes grew and the armor became a bze.

  “Eject!” Alex screamed, worried that Fufi’s panic would keep the familiar from escaping the death trap.

  Fufi ejected. She unched out of the clockwork armor and up into the air. The pink bird soared away and nded behind the carriage.

  The sight of seeing a fmingo caused everyone to pause in their fighting.

  “Shit.” The red-demon cursed and looked genuinely shaken.

  “Look at what you did! You are going to bring down the wraith of a demi-god on us!” Yvne pointed at the red demon group.

  As if waiting for the perfect moment, an eclipse happened. The sun became red and darkness spread over the nd.

  A red-skinned imp came out of the carriage holding the now-armored hero doll. The string had been pulled and it began retracking.

  That was when the doom music started. And all hell broke loose.

  “Rip and tear.”

  The doll bsted the soundtrack and lunged for the rger imp’s head. Bck shadows danced around it emanating an aura of unbridled rage Though the imp was twice the size of the armor-cd doll he grabbed the head with one small hand and punched into the chest of the other. With a yank the head came off. It made a bone cracking noise and a pop. The two pieces of the imp fell to the ground, lifeless.

  The fight between the two sides was forgotten. The demons all charged the small doll.

  What happened next could only be described as a blood bath.

  Electrical guitar and distorted bass guitar bsted through the darkened area. Demons were bisected, limps were used as beating sticks, hearts were pulled out of their chests. Demons, both bck and red flew up into the air, struck by impossible strikes. They came down as dead bodies, spraying bck blood all over the area.

  The doll’s small hand grabbed the heel of a bck imp, used the leverage to flip it into the ground, then reversed and spped the demon back in the opposite way with a sickening crunch. Wordlessly, he flung the rger demon up into the balcony and it spttered against the wall, guts slipping out down the wall.

  “Shit, the grudge is the worst I’ve ever seen. And I thought the revenant was bad.” Yvne ran back into the mansion, giving up on even standing a chance against the doll.

  The tier 2 demon also fled back towards the gates. “Get out of here. There is no way we can handle that thing. I don’t know if even a tier 3 cultivator could tackle that cursed doll.”

  The demons scattered in all directions.

  Sadly, the next target was the biggest demon and he didn’t flee fast enough.

  The doll charged through the imps like a bullet, severing all the demon’s limb that happened to be the way.

  The tier 2 demon whirled and sprayed a stream of fme at the doll.

  The doll didn’t care. He just charged right through it. Now a fming doll attacked the fleeing demon. Hero’s doll tched onto the heel of the demon.

  The demon tried to kick him off, repeatedly smashing him into the ground and kicking him with his other hoofed foot.

  The armor was bck now with fmes consuming it but the doll didn’t stop. With a crunch, the demon’s leg broke.

  “Gyhaaa!” The demon cried out in pain.

  But the doll showed no mercy. The head of the demon was on a pike and the doll held it up in victory.

  “Rip and tear.” The song continued. “Until it is done.”

  The doll chased the demons out of the gate. It would suffer no survivors.

  Zeke and Trudy just stared, mouths agape.

  Fufi nded next to Alex. “That doll has anger management issues.”

  “Apparently.” Alex blinked in disbelief. “Fufi are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m a little burnt.” She looked up at the sky. “Uh oh. Um, Alex, do you remember what I told you about magical girl Cosmos?”

  “Yeah, she stepped back because of some accord.” Alex dusted off the soot and ash clinging to the fmingo. “Some of your feathers are burnt.”

  “Cosmos’s greatest regret was when she failed to protect her familiar. So, I believe this attack gives her the right to extract a price. Because how the kingdom deals with not having to dance around avoiding familiars is just using nobility skills to keep them off their nd.” Fufi looked around. “But, because your clockwork doll armor was so cute we were able to bypass the skill that would have kept me out.”

  The fighting continued and no demons were left alive in the manor’s yard. The noise became more apparent when the doll left the yard and the music became less bsting.

  Alex’s phone was making a lot of annoying noise. “What in the world?” Alex pulled out her phone.

  [1 monster defeated]

  The numbers kept counting up.

  [25 monsters defeated]

  [100 monsters defeated]

  [Level up x2]

  Alex gained two levels off of that. She dismissed the prompt, now was not the time.

  “Alice, what are you doing with that pink bird? Everyone knows that you can’t deal with them because they steal people’s souls.” Trudy looked worried.

  “Fufi, do you steal people’s souls?” Alex looked at a worried Trudy and Zeke then went back to Fufi.

  “No, that is just lies the demons have spread to prevent people from becoming magical girls.” Fufi looked offended.

  “What do we do about Lady Yvne?” Alex looked around at the carnage. “She went back inside with the maids.”

  “The first thing you have to do is get out of those clothes. They aren't cute at all!” Fufi fpped her wings and craned her head.

  “How? They are cursed.” Alex frowned.

  “Like something so uncute could stop you.” Fufi walked toward the carriage. It was still burning.

  “Hmm, let me try something.” Alex reached for a not-burning part of the carried and willed it back into card form. It worked, now a card with a burning carriage rested in Alex’s hand. Alex searched through the pile and found some tailoring tools. Alex snipped at the fabric of the maid outfit with scissors and to her surprise they cut right through them like normal fabric. “How?” Alex looked at Fufi.

  “Through the power of cuteness!” Fufi sang.

  “That doesn’t make sense. I can’t take them off but I can cut them up?” Alex furrowed her brows.

  “It is a loophole. The curse prevents things from being removed. But you are tailoring and all of your magic is based on cuteness. The cuteness thing will prevail!” Fufi kept that sing-song voice.

  Alex cut Zeke and Trudy out of their maid outfits and put the scraps into one of the fires. In a few minutes she was dressed in her magical girl outfit and Zeke and Trudy were dressed in some of her spare clothing. Oddly, the counter for defeated monsters kept going up. Was the doll going to clear out the entire town?