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Nodding at her assistants, Medusa brought her attention back to the vial before placing it in a holding case. Hearing the march away, she raised her head to look around the newly constructed establishment inside one of Haruki\'s dungeon portals. Fortunately, Hawthorn was capable of teleporting everything in and out of the altered space, thus keeping the existence of the trapped demi-god a secret from the rest of the world.

But what interested Medusa more was the expansive scope of the labs, and just how many new people were working on the experimentation part of things. Teeming with life, the dungeon room went high enough to reach the skies with its floors. To further Medusa\'s bemusement, every floor, every staircase, and even every room appeared to have numerous monsters and demons walking all over or in and out of them.

\'We\'re capturing new monsters, and experimenting on them to expand our army, not to forget the species control rings will be in the hands of the elite soldiers soon enough as the gremlins finish working on them.\' With the scope of their progress continuously expanding, a subtle hint of angst had taken hold of Medusa\'s heart. \'The more people we have here, the less my children\'s contribution will be visible…Dammit!\'

Afraid of being turned into just another cog in the wheel and not someone Haruki could directly rely on, the queen of Lamias was growing increasingly fretful.

"Medusa!" Pulled out of her chain of thoughts by someone calling out to her, Medusa shook her head and turned in the direction of the voice.

"Fay? And…" While seeing Fay surprised the queen, noticing Stella walking behind her mother replaced that confusion with a smile.

Slithering closer to the approaching duo, Medusa flung her arms open and pulled Stella into a hug with the help of her tail pulling her closer.

"Eeek!" Almost crushed under the force of the queen\'s grasp, Stella phased back out by turning her body into slime. Taking a few steps back and looking at Medusa, she noticed a confused look riding on the queen\'s face. "Uh…Sorry, Mother and I were putting stuff in our new lab so I\'m really sweaty right now."

"Oh, I didn\'t know, but that\'s okay," shaking her head again, Medusa decided to ask something far more important. "What are you two doing here anyways? I thought your lab was still at the Larian house under-"

Realizing she was about to mention Moriyana\'s mansion, Medusa stopped herself as her eyes locked with Stella. Lifting her gaze back to Fay, she received a sharp squinted gaze that let her know not to mention Moriyana\'s name in front of Stella.

\'I almost forgot, Stella was heartbroken when that happened, wasn\'t she?\' Clenching her teeth over the realization, Medusa kept her mouth shut for the moment. Thankfully, Fay decided to take control of the situation before things turned awkward.

"Haruki said we should keep our distance from Klian since he\'s been kind of moody recently," although her words appeared harmless on the surface, they were truly a warning conveyed to Medusa. "I\'d suggest you keep your distance too. After all, controlling a raging dragon, especially a secretive one, would be nothing short of a nightmare."

\'She\'s talking about their disappearance for a while after the war with Dominion, isn\'t she?\' Catching onto exactly what Fay was subtly hinting at, Medusa nodded in response and let them continue on their way. Watching the two wander off, she failed to notice someone else creeping up behind her. However, as a whisper trailed into her ears, her body stiffened up in terror.

"Hey…" The voice spoke.

Hesitant, Medusa slowly turned around to the sight of Merciella standing behind her with a crescent smile. Looking her up and down, Medusa was caught off guard by her uncharacteristically casual dress. At first, she couldn\'t even tell who it was in the short frilly skirt and the unusually scanty top with a deep v-cut.

"Did I scare you?" She asked, waving her hand before Medusa\'s eyes.

"What the…" Still unsure if she was seeing things right, the queen lightly poked Merciella\'s nose. "Oh lord, it\'s really you!"

Realizing that she was talking to a demon lord, her eyes widened in shock and she even moved slightly away from the mistress of greed.

"How did you come in here?!" Asked Medusa, having no clue about Merciella\'s dragon scale ring.

Moving her hands over each other, Merciella politely hid the ring so her secret wouldn\'t be revealed. To the queen\'s mind off of it further, she quickly changed the topic as well.

"Forget that, I heard you talking about the extraction from Dominion being tainted, can I help?" Making the ring disappear under her other hand, Merciella grabbed Medusa by the sides before giving her a genuine smile. "I\'m sure as a demon lord I can be of great help to your experiment!"

Not sure how to respond to the offer, Medusa\'s eyes jittered about nervously. Bringing her attention back to the mistress, however, she looked into her hysteric eyes, but couldn\'t bring herself to deny her wishes.

\'I don\'t wanna be minced meat, besides Haruki trusts these people, right? That\'s why he\'s allowing them to stay in the elven village?\' Her interactions with Haruki being too limited in recent days, Medusa didn\'t know how Haruki truly felt about the demon lord.

"O-okay, but why do you wanna help here? Why not help master on the expedition to Feral lands?" Medusa asked, genuinely curious as to why Merciella wanted to help.

Shifting his gaze upwards, Merciella continued to smile as if she was on the verge of laughing. Quickly composing herself, she looked back down at Medusa and finally replied.

"Haruki doesn\'t like Asmodia, the one he\'s closest to, do you really think he\'d appreciate me tagging along as well?" Merciella pointed out, her eyebrows raised high. "Also, I\'ve been sitting on my butt for a while doing nothing, but now I feel like I should contribute somehow."

"And that\'s why you wanna help me?" Still a bit suspicious, Medusa stared at her with squinted eyes.

Only nodding in response, Merciella settled the conversation that instant. Getting no verbal response, Medusa had nothing to stretch the conversation over.

"I guess you can help…" She replied, doubting judgment still.

"Great! Where do we begin?" Merciella asked, jumping enthusiastically.

\'Why do I feel like I\'ve messed up already?\' Thought Medusa, trying her hardest not to cringe.

  ***

"She should wake up anytime soon now," Serena muttered, shifting her glance from Azalea to Deus.

Hurdled up inside a small infirmary, the two were checking up on Azalea along with the rest of the soldiers who had managed to escape back here. The wounds from the assault by Dominion\'s army were laced with anti-healing magic, but with Serena\'s help, things appeared to be looking up for now.

"Thanks," Deus replied, his eyes fixed on his lover.

Placing a hand over his back, Serena lightly rubbed him for comfort before turning around to leave the cramped space. 

"Take good care of her, I\'m sure she\'ll appreciate it once she wakes up," having been through the same thing herself, Serena knew just how much it means to be looked after by the people you love even though you can\'t remember any of it at all.

On her way out, she turned to take one last glance at the two and caught Dues planting a gentle kiss on the back of Azalea\'s hand.

\'May the god-\' Stopping herself at that word, Serena shut her eyes and paraphrased her sentence. \'May the world be kind to you two.\'

Blessing the duo, she headed right out. Stationed outside, her acolytes were lined up on both sides, creating a straight path for her to walk to the very front so they could follow behind her. Taking light steps forward, she conjured her staff of truth along with her servant dolls. Taking hold of the long hem of Serena\'s dark down, the dolls moved behind her carrying the excess of her dress.

"The queen?" Serena muttered, seeing the goblin queen standing at the end of the line. Moving closer, she could feel something was wrong from her heavy-rested face. "Is something the matter?"

"Not really, I just-" Taking a pause, the goblin queen\'s eyes began flickering between red and green for a moment. But then squeezing her eyes shut, she managed to control the sudden anomaly. "I was about to leave, so take care of the village while I\'m gone."

Thrown off by her strange behavior, Serena didn\'t say anything and simply watched the queen disappear with a bright light. This wasn\'t the first time the goblin queen had requested Serena to take care of the village, but the troubled look on her face paired with the sudden fluttering of eye color was anything but normal.

\'Something\'s wrong, I need to inform Haruki.\' Although she had no clue what was happening, Serena wasn\'t willing to chalk things up to coincidence.

"Hawthorn, can you teleport me to Haruki?" Serena asked the omnipresent dragon.

\'No, you can\'t leave the village, not unless the queen gets back.\' His mental reply was more than a little bit frustrating to Serena at the moment.

\'Should I tell him or not?\' Contemplating wanting to relay the message through him, Serena couldn\'t be certain if the dragon was in on some ploy as well, given the recent suspect behavior from Rose and Klian. \'Ughhh! This is frustrating!\'

In the end, she was forced to keep her doubts to herself.