“Teachers don't dress like that for real!!!” She shouted in protest, noticing the succubus had even put on a purposely short skirt to 'complete' the look. When she glanced at the other two, Irisyla swayed absentmindedly in her seat while Euryale had her face buried in her hands to hide her embarrassment.
Lilith eagerly scurried over to the whiteboard and grabbed one of the markers, using her below-average drawing skills to illustrate while speaking. “'Kay so, to explain this stuff, you basically gotta take everything you've learned about Earth, Hell, and Heaven, then throw it in the garbage cuz it's mostly wrong.”
She nodded slowly, trying to keep herself focused on what was being said while ignoring Lilith's flaunting attire. “O...kay, I think I can do that.” she answered quietly. This was actually easier said than done, in her case.
“To make things simpler too, I'm gonna just call the human world Earth, and keep the explanation on that planet. It's way more complicated and kinda over my head to explain stuff on a universal scale,” she told her. She then drew three straight lines on the whiteboard.
“If things are going over her head and getting complicated, why is she the one explaining this to me?!” Elizabeth screamed internally.
“This middle line here is Earth, that's where you're from.” She explained and drew a happy face next to that line. “The bottom line is the world where demons come from, it's called Tartarus. Demon clans of different sizes are in a constant struggle here for power.” She said before drawing another happy face next to that line, then added fangs to it. “And the top line is where seraphs come from, they call it Elysium.” For that one she explained no further, then put a frowning face next to the line.
She raised her hand and looked at the last one curiously. “Not to get too sidetracked, since this is you teaching me about you all. What are seraphs, and why are they represented by a... frowny face?”
“They're kinda like the equivalent to what humans think angels are. Seraphs make themselves look like that type of creature, when they aren't like that at all. Basically take the stereotypical evil attitude that humans think demons have, then make that ten times worse, then give them the twisted trait that they pretend to be angelic people... and that's a seraph. We demons are closer to humans, in that a person being bad or good is case by case.”
Euryale shot a scowl at Lilith from her seat. “I wouldn't generalize seraphs as all being evil, unless you want you-know-who to find out.” She scolded her with a 'watch what you say' attitude.
The 'teacher' paused for a moment, biting her lip nervously, thinking hard about what she would say before speaking again. “So they aren't all terrible, but most of them are.”
Realizing that Lilith seemed to have made some sort of awkward statement, Elizabeth tried to move the subject away from seraphs for the time being. “Is your- I mean, is our home in Tartarus then?”
Almost squealing in delight at the correction, the perverted succubus nodded furiously and tapped her marker against the lower line. “Yeah! If you take a step outside without using the mark to activate the special door, then you'd basically get to check out 'Hell'!”
Elizabeth was too nervous about that idea right now, so she decided to postpone that field trip for when she had a bit more courage to do it. Although it did make another thought cross her mind that she hadn't given much attention until now. “Why doesn't the mansion have any windows to show what’s outside?”
“No prying eyes allowed!~” She responded coyly as she drew a heart on the whiteboard. It wasn’t much of an explanation, but it seemed to align with her thought process.
Euryale stood up and interjected with Lilith's explanations, snatching the marker out of her hand and wagging it at her. “Enough of this silliness! If you want to teach her things, at least be more serious about it!” she scolded her.
“But I was having fuuuuun!” Lilith whined to her like a child throwing a tantrum.
Elizabeth watched the two go back and forth as a thought floated through her mind. “Why is she the leader again? Yu acts way more responsible...”
After a little more back and forth, Euryale bonked their leader on the head with the tip of the marker before placing it on the whiteboard. “We've also wasted a lot of time! I have grocery shopping to do for lunch and dinner, and I don't think you were planning to cook all those meals were you?”
Before Lilith could respond with words, her stomach responded for her with a very audible growl. Slightly embarrassed, she shook her head and answered. “N-no ma'am...”
She dusted off her gloved hands on each other then pointed towards the kitchen. “Then I'd like you to do some prep work for me, while I do the shopping.”
Although the 'teacher' wanted to protest, her stomach growled again to remind her that food would come quicker if the prep work was done by the time she got back. “'Kay I'll do it for you...”
She smiled and clapped her hands together. “Perfect! Iris, can you come along with me and help carry the groceries back home?”
Irisyla nodded eagerly and jumped onto her feet. “I got ya! I was getting antsy with all this teaching stuff going on anyway!”
“Can I come along and help too?” Elizabeth twiddled her thumbs and uttered the question bashfully. Although she still had to unpack her belongings, she wanted to help them out if she could.
Lilith looked betrayed by the sudden turn of events, giving her new human companion the puppy dog eyes. “You don't wanna help me at all?!”
Euryale giggled at the jealous succubus and motioned the girls out of the lounge. “I don't know if we can trust you to be alone with her anyway.”
As if shot through the heart by a bullet, Lilith collapsed onto her knees dramatically and muttered. “Why do you think I'm some kinda sexual predator?!” In response to this however, she received a 'do you want me to answer that' look from Euryale on her way out.
Elizabeth did feel a little bad about leaving her on her own, so before she left with the other two she knelt down next to her with a shy smile. “I can hang out with you after lunch if you want...?”
The succubus grasped her hands with gratitude, her eyes sparkling with joy as she nodded. “Absolutelyyy!!! I shall await your return, princess!~” she chimed with glee. With that out of the way, she pranced off to the kitchen and blew her a kiss as she disappeared from sight.
Elizabeth exhaled in relief as she walked towards the entrance hall. She didn't want to make Lilith feel bad or unwanted, in fact it was quite the opposite for her. She felt a special connection with her, since she was the first person in so many years to take interest in her. She didn't necessarily dislike the over-the-top flirting, but it was such an alien feeling that her heart could barely handle it everytime.
After meeting up with the succubi in the entrance hall, the trio took the magic door back to Earth, emerging from the 'luxurious' shed on the other side. While wandering out of campus, Elizabeth had a thought come to mind. “When I met Lilith, she seemed to be enrolled at the university. So I could see how she would get away with wandering around on campus. But what about you two?”
Euryale nodded and smiled as they walked out the main gate. “To keep up appearances while we searched for the Umbral Queen, we all enrolled here except for Raksha. I'm actually mainly taking a childcare course, because of my job.”
She shot her a genuinely surprised look. “You actually have a job on Earth?”
“I do! I work at a daycare a few days each week, and I absolutely love it,” she told her with a nod. She held her head up high in pride when it came to her occupation.
Elizabeth was taken aback by that bit of news. She found it to be quite admirable, especially considering Euryale was balancing what she did for the clan as well. She looked over at Irisyla and tilted her head. “Iris, what about you?”
She grinned eagerly and shrugged. “I'm kinda like Lilith, I don't really take any specific classes! I just do it to blend in and stuff.” She paused for a moment, jumping as they walked along when she remembered something else. “I'm not big on the school thing, but I looove human sports!!!” she declared passionately.
“Oh really? What sort of sports do you like to play?” she asked.
The succubus took a great big breath before listing off her absurdly long list of sports to the poor girl. “Basketball, soccer, football, baseball, tennis, volleyball, badminton...” She rambled off her list for the next couple of minutes, listing pretty much every possible sport that an average person could actually have access to. “Oh I also really love skateboarding!”
Elizabeth realized during the listing just how suitable Irisyla was for a lot of sports. Although it would provide issues in some activities, she would have a huge advantage in many of them due to how tall she was. With that in mind, she hadn't even considered the strength factor that she was quite familiar with at this point.
As they continued their casual stroll through the city towards the nearest grocery store, they chatted about mundane things. She wanted to ask the succubi more details about how they ended up in the clan, or what demon life was like, but she wasn't sure if those things were appropriate to ask about yet. Sticking with casual topics was suitable for the time being, it gave her a comforting feeling inside.
That feeling was immediately yanked away when Elizabeth took her next step forward. She felt a jolt of nausea course through her entire body. The feeling was exactly the same as when she found herself in the horrific looking version of the gymnasium that started it all. She stopped dead in her tracks, pressing her fingers against her temple and closing her eyes briefly. Upon reopening them, she uttered a hard gasp in fear and took a step back.
Within that instant of closing her eyes, the entire world around her had morphed into the horrific mess she remembered all too well from before. The sky had become a disturbing red, with the dying sun flickering in the distance. The buildings of the downtown area were either replaced by disgusting, organic replicas or appeared to be falling apart at the seams.
She panicked a little, but found some momentary relief when she realized Euryale and Irisyla were still present, only a few feet ahead. “Is... this Tartarus? This is the same thing as before!”
Euryale and Irisyla looked back at her, then at each other. The former clenched her hand tightly into a fist, her furrowed brow and focused eyes showing the seriousness of the situation as clear as day. “No, this isn't Tartarus... The place where you were before, and now, is called the Nether Mirror.” She looked around cautiously, taking careful steps backwards so that she was closer to Elizabeth. She slowly slid her gloves off her hands and put them into her pockets. “This place is like a limbo between the human and demon worlds. It's a hellish reflection of Earth.”
Irisyla looked around curiously and tilted her head. “Why’d we get dragged here? You didn't mean for us to come here, right Yu?”
She shook her head while scanning the area carefully again. “I did not... which means that something –or someone– else did.” While inspecting the area her eyes finally managed to notice something out of the ordinary. Faint creature-like footprints appearing in the red, grainy dirt moving in a line towards Elizabeth. She gasped as she watched the footprints appear faster and faster, her eyes flared with a bright blue aura before she jumped to her side
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