“Mine!” Addai rushed to Mine and slowly lifted him, supporting his head. “Hey, wake up!” he patted Mine’s cheeks.

Mine’s closed eyes twitched and he groaned. “Ugh… what…?” he grumbled.

“WE WERE SO WORRIED!” Lydia beamed and hugged Mine tightly. “Thank God you’re fine!” She exhaled, not minding Addai joining the collective hug.

Mine blinked twice and looked at the two people hugging him tightly. “I’m fine,” he chuckled, the tips of his hair turning yellow and pink. Both Lydia and Addai loosened their hug and looked at Mine. “Some weird things happened back then and… well, here I am,” he smiled.

“Ah… you’ll sure give me a heart attack someday…” Addai exhaled, rubbing his nose bridge.

“Me too!” Lydia protested.

The Seraph’s Tear petal flew upwards along a single petal from Mine’s Satan’s Will flower. Their waltz was beautiful, their colors contrasted but also matched, as well as a faint sweet and acidic scent that filled the room, easing them and cleaning whatever leftover energy.

Suddenly, a small, chubby something fell on the floor.

It rolled, rolled, and rolled until reaching a box.

The three of them looked at the thing with their eyes wide open. Lydia and Mine hid behind Addai, who held a piece of cardboard box in his hands.

The thing rose, but then fell again, giggling joyfully.

“I’m going nuts,” Lydia voiced, and the thing’s eyes glowed in the dim space it was. “It’s… is it…?” she slowly took two steps further.

“What, Lydia?” Mine voiced, worried.

“It’s a very rare occurrence with those two flowers… it summoned an entity!” Lydia pointed to a summoning circle on the wall.

“Ohuu...” the being cooed, looking at them.

IT COOS? The three of them thought together.

Life is full of surprises, but no one expects a random summoning just like that.

In the shadows, a mysterious entity that cooed clapped their hands together while giggling. The entity’s appearance was still unclear, but their sounds were a mixture of cuteness and warning.

Mine tried to move a few steps back with Lydia. It was going smoothly and quietly, but Lydia’s shoes accidentally tapped one cardboard box on the floor. When the box was moved, the others above it soundly fell.

The entity’s attention turned to the trio after a brief gasp of surprise.

“Buh?” the entity babbled and locked its eyes on the trio.

They were crimson and there was still no way to distinguish their expressions or looks – not even a glimpse of it. The only clear thing for the trio was the huge shadow that creature had and their oppressive presence.

Everybody in that room became still.

The entity looked at the trio with curious eyes, while the group looked back with bulging eyes and smooth steps. But their steps froze when the entity clapped their hands together after a faint giggle.

They were glued to the floor!

“Shit! The hell is this?” Mine fretted, trying to set his feet free from that spell. “Oi, Lydia! What is that thing?!”

“I-I just know the premises. I don’t know who the entity is! But don’t attack it!” Lydia fretted back, also trying to set herself free from the spell.

“As it seems, it’s having fun with us,” Addai scoffed, his hands tense and clenched.

“Bah!” the entity squealed and playfully slapped the piles of boxes nearby.

When the boxes were scattered on the floor, the entity decided it was time to move – well, crawl – in the group’s direction. It giggled and gurgled while crawling and, curiously, their shadow gradually reduced the size.

Mine frowned, confused, and lit a mana orb to light up the way to the creature’s. The warm orb traveled in the air like a feather, swirling around the boxes on the floor until landing next to the creature’s hands. The entity then sat and took the orb with their hands.

“THE ENTITY IS A BABY?!” Lydia gasped hard.

The one holding the warm orb with their little, chubby hands was actually a baby! Well, a demon baby, but their cuteness was still overflowing. The baby had dark hair with a small strand of light pink on their bangs and their smooth and cute cheeks were so round Lydia could chomp and never let go of their cuteness. The entity wore a purple jumper that had a little hat attached with purple ears.

“LOOK AT ME, SWEETIE!!” Lydia waved her hands almost frenetically, trying to take the baby’s attention. Her hands itched to take the little, adorable being in her arms – she even forgot her feet were stuck in an unknown spell.

It seemed Lydia’s desperate attempts failed because the baby’s eyes locked on Addai’s, whose defense stance fell dramatically. Addai could say it was the hardest match he had ever faced, and the worst was the baby’s toothless smile. But the warrior had to remember that despite being cute, it was far from being a human or anything like that, because if it had a summoning circle... it was certainly a demon.

“Wah!” The baby grinned toothlessly at Addai, clapping their chubby hands together.

Instantly, the spell binding the group’s feet on the floor was lifted. But none of them dared to approach the cute baby grinning at them.

“Hey, little one~ who are you?” Mine asked, and the baby looked at him. A shy smile formed on their face before he hid it behind their chubby hands. A super effective move that tore his heart into pieces from too much cuteness. “Gosh that’s unfair…” he felt his knees fail.

Then, the baby looked at Addai again, widening their toothless smile. “Ah! Ah!” the entity extended their arms at him, waiting for Addai to pick them up.

“NO!! EXTEND YOUR ARMS AT ME!” Lydia whined, feeling her world crumble because the baby preferred Addai to her.

Addai was a stone statue, but his face couldn’t hide how much he struggled to not fall for the cuteness right in front of him. His cardboard shield was also in shambles, forgotten on the floor like trash.

Mine tugged Addai’s sleeves and tried not to be hit by another super-effective move from the baby. “Go check it… it seems the entity liked you so… go,” he whispered, feeling his heart tighten at the baby’s expectant gaze, waiting for someone to take them from the floor.

“… Okay,” Addai hesitated, his voice faltering from the cuteness upon him.

When Addai took one step forward, the baby giggled happily and extended their arms even higher. Addai took one more step. The baby giggled loudly. Addai kneeled and reached for the baby's hand. The baby grabbed Addai's finger with its whole hand and smiled.

Oh, my poor heart. Addai whined in his mind.

Addai had never held a baby before. So, he held it as he always did with Umbra.

Lydia saw that as a heresy, as something unforgivable at how she frowned her brows and nose while Mine held his laughter. Still, the baby seemed to have fun with that and babbled joyfully.

Not knowing where to hold first, Addai took the baby closer to his chest and kind of held it right. The baby looked at him with bright and lovely eyes and rested its face on Addai's chest, nuzzling on him a bit as it cooed.

Oh no, that one was a super effective move. [Double damage]

Still nuzzling, the baby grabbed Addai's shirt with a spare hand, making itself much more comfortable. [Triple damage]

"Wow… this summoning circle is sure… distinct," Mine approached it, ignoring the passed-out Lydia on the floor. “Where do I find the entity’s name?”

"Read only the inner details," Addai informed as the baby cooed. He turned to look at the baby, who paid attention to him. "You are giving us a hard time. Did you know that?" he couldn’t help but chuckle at the baby, who smiled then hid its face on Addai's chest.

"Hm… it shows that the entity is a male demon named… Tieran? Huh? I have never heard this name before," Mine scratched his head.

“Hm, Tieran is a good name,” Addai said, looking at the baby in his arms. Tieran cooed and smiled, so he couldn’t help but chuckle and pinch the baby’s soft cheeks.

“Buh buh,” Tieran mimicked a smooch, smiling as he did so.

“Oh… this one was a sin,” Addai whined, feeling his legs falter at such cuteness.

Mine supported his body by holding onto Addai’s shoulders, that attack was effective on him too. As for Lydia… she was drooling rainbows.

“There’s something I don’t understand…” Mine recovered from the attack, looking at Tieran. “Summoned entities come when they have a mission, but Tieran is too young to bear a mission of his own.”

Addai frowned his nose, pondering hard. “That’s true… hey, Lydia!” he shouted at the drooling Lydia on the floor, her conscience quickly came back. “Check his summoning circle while Mine and I distract him.”

“Yes Mister…” Lydia grumbled and stood up, wiping the rainbow drool from her lips.

She approached the wall where the summoning circle was still glowing and tapped one of the outer rings with two fingers. The touch made some of the glyphs shiver and pulse. Two main symbols floated off the summoning circle and projected a mana screen.

It was a thin, translucent screen of crimson mana, emitting a faint beeping sound as if rebooting its system. When the main beeps ceased, many notifications popped on the screen.

[RECOVERING DATA…]

[83% OF THE DATA RECOVERED]

[17% OF THE ARCHIVES WERE CORRUPTED. REASON: UNKNOWN]

[PROCEED ANYWAY? (  ) YES (  ) NO]

Lydia scratched her head, messing up her short blond hair. She touched the “yes” and the screen went blank.

“I think I broke this shit,” Lydia cursed and looked at Addai. “What do I do now? Are they always this fancy?”

“I’ve never seen a mana screen this technological,” Addai mused, letting the baby pull his cheek.

When Lydia was about to slam the screen – treating it as an old computer – a loud warning sound echoed from it, and she shouted in fright. Mine shivered and so did Addai, but Tieran only giggled, clapping his hands together.

[MISSION CHART]

[DEMON ASSIGNED: LORD TIERAN M.]

[OBJECTIVE: RESCUE MISSION]

Lydia, ignoring her hands trembling after the fright, looked closer and dusted the petitioner’s gap. It was glitching so badly the screen turned off and on again.

[PETITIONER: BLANCHE HILSTON]

“What is Blanche’s name doing here?!” Lydia gasped, looking at Mine and Addai.

“What?! Lemme see it,” Mine approached Lydia.

When Mine touched the screen, a small orb was ejected from the summoning circle. It glitched and stabilized, showing a chronometer.

Lydia gasped and took the orb with her bare hands. “His time here is limited…”

“We need to hurry and fulfill his mission,” Mine decided. “But how do we start?”

“Don’t look at me,” Lydia avoided eye contact. “I’m the person least suited to this type of job.”

While Mine and Lydia were using their "Sherlocke Holmes skin", plotting difficult plots and stories, probabilities and possibilities, entities, and so on, Addai looked at the happy baby playing with his necklace. Maybe if he talked to him like he did to Umbra… it might work.

“Tieran,” Addai called the baby, who stopped munching the necklace’s jade gem. “Can you show us why you’re here?” he asked, risking cuddling the baby’s thin, dark hair.

Tieran’s eyes glowed in happiness when Addai said that. “Ahu!” he nodded and extended his arms to the floor.

Chubby, reddish hands reached the floor, and Tieran summoned a glowing circle beneath him. He looked up at Addai, who was kneeling nearby and smiling warmly.

Tieran cooed at the smile and then made the circle bigger... and bigger... and bigger.

Soon, the glowing pattern expanded to cover the entire floor of the room. It glowed in crimson and yellow, especially the center and borders. It was full of details and scriptures Addai had never seen before.

Tieran's eyes glowed – and so did the mark on his round little belly, clearly visible even under his adorable purple jumper. Two small, curved horns sprouted on his forehead, and a fluffy tail popped out, slipping neatly through a specially made opening in the jumper’s backside.

He turned to Addai again, eyes wide and bright. Addai smiled and reached out, brushing his cheek with a gentle finger. Tieran cooed once more, clearly pleased. Not far from them, Sherlocke Mine and Lydia were completely baffled, looking at Addai and Tieran.

“Uh,” Tieran raised his arms to Addai, who took him from the floor.

As Tieran stepped out of the circle where he’d been sitting, a bright light began to form in the air. It expanded quickly, growing larger and more intense until it coalesced into a shimmering portal – like a door. The doorknob was made of silver, and the door was made of sturdy wood.

“Let’s go,” Addai called the dazing duo, Tieran smiling in his arms.

Both Lydia and Mine looked at the portal and wrinkled their nose. It looked very fishy, but Tieran was so happy looking at it that it seemed right. However, even if the door was right there, no one dared to touch the doorknob.

“You two are such cowards!" Lydia took a step forward, her legs trembling. “I swear that if I die… I’ll haunt you two!” She pinched both Mine and Addai’s noses, making Tieran giggle.

Turning the doorknob, she opened the door and…

… nothing?

“Wow! That scared me as hell, hahaha!” Lydia laughed out loud, blowing away her fright, but when she reached for the doorknob again, her hand got stuck. “Wha-”

Lydia was sucked into the room past the door!!

Addai and Mine barely had time to run, and both were sucked into the room as well as the giggling Tieran.

𓆰𓆪 𓂃𓈒𓏸

They landed on the floor of a room with weird shapes and a vast void.

Despite the darkness and the void, a path was perfectly visible for them to walk. Tieran clapped his hands while they walked, even wriggling his fluffy tail around. At some point, their surroundings became denser in miasma and Mine had to give each of them a protection talisman.

From that point on, it was dark and somehow misty. A cold wind passed on Addai's right side, and he dodged it as instinct, but what he didn't expect was to witness a sharp something that shone amidst the dark place they were walking.

He looked at Mine and Lydia, and two sharp somethings were on their aim. Addai tensed and so did Tieran.

“Lydia, Mine, go behind me. NOW!” Addai urged and held Tieran tighter.