As Lucian and Velzard were talking, something small and bouncy came rolling across the grass like an adorable blue bowling ball.
"Hey, Lucian! Velzie! Strange woman I don't recognize! What are you guys doing releasing so many magicules just outside the town? We almost thought someone was trying to attack Tempest!" Rimuru called out as she bounced to a stop and shifted into her humanoid form with a fwip.
Velzard tilted her head. "Oh, you got a humanoid form too… but you're much cuter as a slime."
"Excuse me?!" Rimuru puffed her cheeks. "I can be cute in any form if I try."
"Mm-hm," Velzard replied, utterly unconvinced.
Lucian stepped between them before a war of cuteness escalated. "Sorry about the magicule spike. This lady here was evolving. Eve—" He gestured. "And Rimuru."
"Hi! Nice to meet you!" Rimuru waved cheerfully.
Eve stared, nodded once, and went right back to being ominous.
"Anyway, Rimuru," Lucian said suddenly, "you've still got Veldora in your stomach, right?"
"Yup, still in there…reading some manga."
"Any chance you could give me access to the magicules leaking from him?"
"Oh, sure! I've got plenty." Rimuru casually opened a hole to her stomach—the sub-skill stomach, thankfully—and a surge of contained storm-energy swirled outward.
Lucian connected it directly to his newly evolved Unique Skill: Purgatory.
Velzard crossed her arms. "If you want magicules, I can give you some too. I usually dump excess on the Ice Continent."
She created a thick barrier with a flick of her wrist, then released a rush of freezing mana that Lucian immediately absorbed.
For the next few days, Lucian threw himself into experimenting with Purgatory. Eve joined him, using her own Unique Skill Purgatory Ruler and instinct ability Mother of Monsters.
To their shock, the magicules from Veldora and Velzard altered the very nature of the monsters created inside.
Lightning affinity.
Ice affinity.
Sometimes both.
It was like discovering a cheat code to monster breeding.
Lucian was in the middle of shoving yet another experimental creature into Purgatory when Velzard approached him quietly.
"So," she said, "about that world traveling… when are you taking me?"
Lucian blinked… and then cursed internally.
He had completely forgotten why he'd gone to the Supernatural verse earlier—looking for a Peerage member for Sona. And since Velzard also wanted to travel, this solved two problems at once.
"Right," he said. "Let's go."
They informed Rimuru they'd be gone for a bit, and with a ripple of distortion—vanished.
---
Beacon Hills, California — Forest Outside Town
A man and a woman appeared between the trees, one humming, the other leaking the concept of winter itself.
The moment Lucian arrived, his senses stretched through the woods like a sonar pulse.
He felt dozens of supernatural signatures—weak, twitchy, animalistic.
Most weren't even as strong as a Low-Class Devil.
Meanwhile, Velzard's presence…
Well.
It was like dropping a nuclear reactor into a kindergarten.
Even fully suppressing her aura, frost spread across the soil around her feet, trees whitening, air crackling.
"Could you not leak your aura?" Lucian muttered.
"I'm trying," Velzard hissed. "This world is flimsy. It's like the atmosphere is sucking my magicules out against my will."
"Ah, like heat transfer," Lucian said. "Object with less energy pulls energy from the one with more energy, since heat is an energy but in your case it's opposite but again, cold doesn't actually exist and is only the absence of heat so–"
Velzard turned slowly, eyes glowing blue.
"Say that again. Cold doesn't exist?"
And the entire forest instantly experienced the coldest June in its recorded history.
Lucian cleared his throat loudly. "OH, LOOK. Found her. The person I came for. Yup. Right here."
He rushed ahead toward a blue-eyed coyote half-buried in frost.
Lucian's eyes flashed orange as he released a wave of heat, neutralizing Velzard's accidental apocalypse.
Then he released a sliver of his Lord of Monsters aura.
The coyote shuddered—and transformed.
Her form stretched upward, fur retracting, bones reshaping—
And standing there was a naked, confused girl with striking features and dark hair: Malia Tate.
Lucian immediately looked away, and Velzard, amused, made clothes appear around Malia with a flick of ice mana.
It took some explaining—what she was, what had happened, the truth she had suppressed.
Pieces of memory began sliding back into place.
Her face twisted.
Her breath caught.
Her hands shook.
"Please… just leave me here," Malia whispered. "If I go out there, I'll kill everyone again—"
"You didn't kill anyone," Lucian said gently, placing a steady hand on her shoulder. "You were a kid. And someone else caused what happened."
A tremor ran through her body.
He exhaled. "Let me show you."
Her memories cracked open, falling into place one by one—and she saw her, a woman killing her parents. Saw the truth. Saw her entire life twist.
A roar built in her chest, half-transformation ripping through her as her eyes glowed, claws forming.
Lucian let her scream it out.
Then he said, "How about this? I'll help you get revenge. After that, you can live with a friend of mine, join her family if you want. Your choice. A real life. A safe one."
Before she could answer—
"Ah, come on," Velzard muttered. "Don't manipulate the girl. Devil Peerage aren't family. Last one I saw was a meat shield."
Lucian sighed. "The one I'm talking about actually treats her Peerage like family. And I'm not forcing Malia into anything. She can stay for a bit. If she hates it, no one will make her a devil."
He meant it.
Sona would never hurt a child like this.
Malia licked her lips nervously. "Devils? Are you going to sell my soul? Because honestly… if it means getting revenge, I don't really care."
Lucian opened his mouth to explain—
But he suddenly sensed multiple supernatural beings closing in.
Wolves. Werecreatures. Hunters.
Roaring filled the forest.
Malia flinched, fear fluttering through her body.
Velzard did not take kindly to the idea of creatures threatening her personal space.
She shifted—only partially—but it was enough.
A Dragonoid silhouette of pure frost loomed behind her as she inhaled—
—then roared.
The world froze.
Not the forest. Not the people.
Reality.
There was no damage. No malice. No broken trees.
But every supernatural creature in world felt it:
Absolute terror.
The kind of fear that bypassed logic and struck the soul.
The knowledge that they were prey—and something above the food chain had just announced itself.
Velzard lowered her chin, satisfied.
"Hmm…" she said telepathically. "So even a fraction of my power is devastating here. Are all Otherworlds you visit like this?"
Lucian answered telepathically too.
"Oh, hell no. There are worlds far stronger than yours and this one. Plenty of beings stronger than you."
Velzard perked up, almost excited. "Really?"
"Yep. There's even another reptile" looking at the Dragnoid "called SCP-682. Hard-to-Destroy Reptile. Definitely harder to kill than True Dragons."
Velzard smiled sweetly with reptilian eyes.
"Did you know some reptiles like to eat humans? Prefer them, actually. Maybe I should indulge and eat you."
Lucian opened his mouth—
And Malia suddenly blurted, "Why are you two staring at each other so intensely?!"
Right. She couldn't hear telepathy.
Also, she had been protected from Velzard's roar—Velzard had instinctively shielded her.
"Come on," Velzard said, brushing off imaginary dust. "Let's kill the woman who murdered this girl's parents and leave. This place is suffocating."
Malia looked between them, conflicted.
"Can I… do it myself?"
Lucian nodded. "If that's what you want, yes. I can weaken her. Bring her to her last breath. But for you to finish her yourself, you'll need to get stronger."
Malia swallowed. "Can I become stronger? Will this… family you mentioned even accept a coyote? Can I become like her?" She pointed at Velzard.
Velzard preened.
Lucian chuckled softly. "You'll be stronger than her in no time. Strong enough to face her. Strong enough to win."
It wasn't a lie.
A reincarnated devil would grow exponentially.
Malia tightened her fists.
"I'll do it."
Lucian nodded.
Without further delay—he teleported them to the Cardinal World.
And the forest of Beacon Hills was silent once more.
A/n: I'm sure people will be upset about Malia becoming Sona's Peerage member but I don't really care, I thought of many more people, anyone I could add in her Peerage but didn't find anyone intersting enough. And like the hate towards Peerage over-all is kinda high so I guess that's that...
Thought if anyone's interested in something similar or like maybe getting certain Character in Sona or Rias's Peerage, please do tell me, I really wanna make their Peerage a bit stronger and diverse.