Ira blinked and frowned. The Hero seemed oddly pleased. Was he like his Host then? An idiot when it came to love?

At his side, his Host breathed heavily, completely exhausted but still radiating satisfaction. She cleared her throat several times before she was able to get out a sentence. "Alaric! I've come to prove our love! I've come to save you!"

This time, Ira didn't bother to hide his embarrassment and hid his face in his hands. When he peeked out between his fingers, he could see the stunned look on the Hero's face. Somehow, he was still unfairly handsome.

The Hero got over his surprise quickly and laughed. It echoed in the large room. "Are you serious?"

His Host scowled and stated, furiously, "Of course I am! I love you!"

The Hero just laughed some more and smirked. "I'm a demon, girl. You can't save me."

"Of course I can! The system said so. If I can prove that we truly love each other, you turn back into a human!" His Host stubbornly insisted while glaring at the Hero.

At that, the Hero laughed so hard that he doubled over on the throne. Ira continued hiding his face and hoping that he would escape notice. This was so embarrassing! To think that his Host could just come out and say stuff like that? Did she think she was being cool or something?

"And who is this system that lied to you?"

Immediately, his Host pointed at him and Ira sighed and brought his hands down. He had really hoped that she wouldn't reveal that. She informed them all, "He said that as long as our love is true, you'd be cured. And it wasn't a lie. The system can't lie to me. He works for me. Tell them, System. They just don't know. Tell them!"

"Actually..." Ira began. "I lied. There is no way to reverse the process. A demon can not become human again."

"Wh-what? But you said... you're my system. You can't lie to me." His Host whispered with a look of pure disbelief and denial on her face.

Ira rolled his eyes. "Yeah, no. I can lie to you. I don't know where you got the idea that I can't."

"So then, this whole time, what have I been doing?" she mumbled.

Ira promptly responded with, "Embarrassing yourself. And leading people to their deaths."

She shook her head wildly, causing her red hair to dance around her face. "No. No, I haven't led anyone to their death. You're lying now, System. This is my story. You brought me back from my death for this! So you have to be lying! I just need to prove my love! Then you'll see!"

Ira took several steps back as he saw the manic look in her eyes. Evidently, she wasn't taking the news well. Magic was gathering at her fingertips, ready to be released just from her strong emotions. Ira didn't think that she was even aware of it. A glow surrounded her, her powerful magic physically influencing the world.

She stalked forward towards the Hero sitting on his black throne. Ira watched, interested, for what she was going to do in her emotional state.

She yelled, "I did not do this for nothing! I came all this way, became this powerful, for a reason! You can't take this away from me, System! You're nothing but a tool for me to use!"

Walking ever closer to the Hero, his Host's eyes started glowing from her sheer amount of power. Just as she reached the last few steps and rose her hand to do something undoubtedly impressive but unnecessary, she fell over onto her face.

There were two arrows sticking out of her back.

Ira's eyebrows rose in surprise and he followed the line the arrows came from until his eyes met the door. There stood one of his Host's followers with the bow still raised. He was sweating and trembling, but he had a death grip on the bow and another arrow notched. Letting it sail, Ira watched as it joined the other two in his Host's unprotected back. A groan came from her before she fell silent again.

Ira could see, in his mind's eye, as her health bar rapidly depleted. She was dying.

Her follower lowered the bow when it became clear that she wasn't getting up again. He swallowed loudly. "I had to do it! She led my little brother to his death! I had to avenge him!"

As the man spoke, his Host's health bar reached zero and her soul left the possessed body. To his senses and eyes, it appeared as a sort of colorless mist that soon disappeared. It would return to the Waiting Room, where she would then be taken to another, much more unpleasant, room to be punished for her failure and then assigned a new mission and System. If she wasn't just fired and put back into the reincarnation cycle of her original world.

That was one epic failure.

Ira sighed and dragged his hand through his hair. On one of the screens in his mind were the blazing words Mission Failed. He hoped that they wouldn't cut his salary for this. It wasn't like it was his fault that his Host was so stubborn. There was nothing else to it, he supposed. Time to go back.

He began cutting the connection his soul had with this body.

A hand snagged his wrist just as he was about to cut the last ones. Ira frowned and looked up straight ahead where the Hero stood with a tight — painful — grip on his wrist. "What do you think you're doing?"

The Hero smirked in reply. "I would think that that's my question."

"She's dead. My mission is over. It's time to go home, write a bad report and collect my payment." Ira deadpanned.

"I don't think so." Grabbing his other hand, the Hero stepped closer, until they were almost touching. Ira had to look up to make eye-contact and for once, he cursed his average height. The male protagonists were always so damn tall!

Ira smiled, a bland emotionless thing, and asked, "And what makes you think you have a say?"

"What makes you think I don't?"

Ira frowned and repeated. "She's dead. I have no reason to stay in this world."

The Hero smiled. "You could stay with me and we could rule this world together."

"Are you sick?" Ira asked, fully serious.

At this, the Hero frowned but answered with, "I'm not sick. I'm perfectly serious. Stay here with me. I'll make sure that you won't get bored."

"As lovely as that offer sounds," Ira began and backed away as much as possible while the Hero kept his tight grip on his wrists. "I'm afraid that I have to decline. I have other business to be doing. Just because she died doesn't mean my job is finished. Rather, I will be even busier now."

A blatant lie, obviously. The only thing that Ira would be doing when he got home was take a sick-leave, citing emotional trauma from his Host, and spend his days lazying about. There was no urgent business he needed to get to. He had recorded this entire mission, from start to failure. That would be enough as far as reports went.

Another perk of being so high up in rank.

The Hero followed after him, bringing them closer together again. "I want to spend the rest of eternity with you. You can't leave."

"Are you an idiot? Who says that to someone they don't even know?" Ira demanded.

"I know you. It feels like I've known you forever." The Hero said and frowned. "You were the first person I saw when I became a demon. You were beautiful. You are beautiful. I want to spend my life with you. I want to give you anything you desire. I want to give you everything."

Ira didn't quite manage to keep his distaste from showing in his expression. "You're insane. You know nothing about me. Quit talking like this is a bad romance novel. You're just making a fool of yourself."

A hard glint appeared in the Hero's eyes. "I will not allow you to leave me."

"Then it's a shame you can't stop me," Ira said and smirked in satisfaction. It would only take a few seconds to cut the remaining ties to this body. The only reason that he was sticking around was that he was curious. It was a particularly troublesome trait of his.

"I am the Demon Lord. I can most certainly stop you, Ira." The Hero murmured to him. They were so close he had no problem hearing it.

Ira furrowed his brow and asked, "You remember my name?"

The Hero let go of one of his hands to bring his hand up to Ira's face. Touching it gently, the Hero leaned even closer and said, "Of course, I remember it. You are my beloved. I could never forget you."

Ira stared into the Hero's eyes, watching them for any sign of deceit. When he found nothing but desperation and honesty in them, he swallowed deeply and whispered to the Hero, "It doesn't change anything though. You are just delusional, a side-effect of becoming a demon. You can say whatever pretty words you like, but until I have proof that you mean them, I'll never believe you."

"If it's proof that you want, I'll give it to you." The Hero stated and changed the position of his hand from Ira's face to the back of his head. "I'll prove to you that I will always love you, no matter where you go or what you do. I'll prove that you are the one thing I shall never forget, no matter what happens. Wherever you go, I will follow."

Scoffing, Ira leaned back as far as the man would allow him. "You can't promise me that. Nobody can promise anyone that. They're just empty words."

"Words are only empty when you don't mean them. I'm the most powerful demon this world has ever seen. There is nothing I can not do." The Hero smiled and let go of his other wrist to curve his arm around Ira's waist. "Just trust me."

"Trust is an overrated quality." Ira offered. The Hero just smiled mysteriously in answer.

Ira wasn't sure why, but somehow the kiss was still sudden.

It was slow and gentle and at first, he wasn't even sure it was really happening. He hadn't really done a lot of kissing in his life. The last one was on a mission some Hosts ago when he possessed a man already married. But this kiss wasn't like those had been.

Ira brought his hands up to the Hero's shoulders and gripped them tight. He tilted his head to make it easier and allowed himself to lean his weight on the demon. It wasn't like he was feeling weak in the knees, he wasn't some fairytale character, but the man had kissed him, so he might as well use him as support to keep standing. He hadn't, after all, made it through the mountain undamaged.

The kiss deepened and Ira thought that maybe this was quite nice, after all. He didn't really know if it was something he wanted to do again though.

Ira didn't know when exactly he'd closed his eyes, but when he opened them again, the man was leaning back and smirking at him with pleasure and victory shining in his eyes. "See?" The Hero whispered. "You belong with me."

Involuntarily, Ira felt a shiver run down his back. He supposed that he could sort of understand why humans seemed so enchanted with the act of kissing and physical intimacy. In small quantities, it could be... pleasant. Still though, if he was weak enough that a kiss was all it took to affect him, he wouldn't be as high up in the ranking as he was.

So, Ira smiled and said, "I don't think so."

With nothing but a thought, the last of the ties keeping his soul connected with this body severed, and Ira left a dead body behind as he left this world, quite satisfied with his entertainment.

It had been fun.