Hotel Chaldea Ep. Nero & Tiamat

Halloween was a mood.

The festivities in certain parts of the world were quite extended, some people went the entire month celebrating the spooky season, and in a certain small town deep in the rural areas of a certain world power, it was a very important season indeed.

Had anyone there known who you were or why you were there, they would've definitely been extremely worried, but at a glance you immediately knew that no one around you was of your slightest concern, as you got off the bus and took your first few steps into the dusty town of Aguafria. You were a stranger to everyone there, and you had rolled in on one fine day, bright blue skies and a pleasantly fresh breeze as fall began to settle and took away the remnants of the summer heat.

As you looked, you hardly spoke to the folks around you, you really didn't have too much to say to any one of them.

As people turned to look at you, it was easy to tell no one dared to ask your business, but the eyes of the commonfolk moving about in costume, as was the custom and norm for the town, one that took the month of October as one to dress up, trailed you. No one dared to make a slip, as they said in these parts, especially when they caught sight of the weapon at your hip.

It was early in the morning when you rolled into the town.

You had come in from the south side, slowly looking all around. The town was designed around the big avenue that served as its main street, and though the buildings had not survived the passage of time, they had been repaired to retain the same style. The entire town of Aguafria lived off of tourist income, after all, so they made sure to keep things attractive.

Normally, you wouldn't really draw that much attention at first glance, but before the bus left, two more got off of it, and they certainly drew the eye. A blonde in a red dress, and a girl with pale blue hair wearing a blue dress, both of them wearing unusual accessories that would've been out of place anywhere else, but in a town full of people dressed like ghosts and ghouls and cowboys and all manner of other sorts, they fit right in, with the princess-like dress and crown the blonde wore, and the big-ass horns on the pale blue haired girl's head.

Sodom's Beast, Queen Draco, or Nero if you felt like bullying her a little, looked around with a face that spoke volumes of her mood. She clearly didn't find the town too impressive, but at least she found the more garish costumes acceptable, as her expression softened slightly when she looked upon them.

Meanwhile, Tiamat, she from whom life sprung, seemed much more upbeat and appreciative of the festivities, especially as she saw children walking around having fun playing pretend with their costumes. "Alright," she began, "we've arrived, what now?"

"First things first, we've gotta take care of the reason why I'm here," you explained. The townspeople around you almost certainly couldn't speak latin, especially by the faces of confusion they made, so it was a fine choice of language to communicate with the Roman Emperor and the ancient Sumerian goddess, neither of which was confined by the limits of human language. "Let's get moving."

"Right, right," Nero said, crossing her arms as she followed after you. "Keep an eye out, we might be done with this way earlier than expected."

You nodded, and the three of you walked towards the north, scanning around to see what you could find. With the fact that you spoke a foreign language nobody could understand and the general looks of your outfit, people were starting to speak in murmurs and whispers.

"He's an outlaw, loose 'n runnin'," came the accusing words, from more than one lip, "'n he's here to do some business with the big iron on his hip!"

Not... entirely incorrect. Technically you were outside the law, but that was more because you were technically only subject to UN directives, rules and ordinance, meaning you were not subject to the local law and indeed were outside it. And the big iron on your hip would certainly be part of your business, if you had to use it.

But fortunately for them, you were looking for a more proper, and more regular kind of, outlaw. Thanks to tireless efforts from Mana and some help from Koyanskaya, it became possible to trace sales of certain marked arms all the way to the town of Aguafria. In that town, there lived an outlaw by the name of Taxis Brett.

Many a man had tried to take him, and just as many were dead, agents of the tower and so much more. He was a magus, vicious and a killer, killed a hundred twenty four, and the tally of dead agents rose to one enforcer and nineteen more Magi. Getting to the center of the town didn't take long, the avenue came to a big crossroads that split the town in four, two smaller but still broad avenues going left to the west and right to the east, and you could see the end of the town by climbing up the small mound near the center of the town.

There was a plaque that remarked that it was the scene of a hundred and one duels, and that the last one was indeed the one that would finally make duels illegal in town as the winner would become the mayor that reformed Aguafria into a town of regular folks after the many outlaws were purged.

It was also, notably, the former site of the gallows that saw a lot of use during that mayor's short lived but very effective governance.

Also apparently an old west themed movie had been filmed there at some point, but you couldn't care less about that, what was more important was that people's own curiosity had actually led a large number of townsfolk, all in costume, to gather around you as you stood in the middle of what passed for the town's square.

It was then that you started talking, it was time to make it plain to the folks around. "I'm an UN Peacekeeper, I won't be too long in town," you began, projecting your voice as much as possible so everyone could hear, speaking to them in their native tongue, "I came here to hunt an outlaw - I'll take him alive, or maybe dead," you called, "it really doesn't matter, I'm here for Taxis Brett! If anyone has seen him, or knows of his whereabouts, I'll be staying at the Montgomery Tavern & Inn," you spoke, before getting off the only raised surface of the area, and then starting to walk towards said inn.

"Hey," Nero called, "are we seriously just going to wait?" she asked.

"Yes, we're going to wait," you replied, "we don't have a picture of him."

"Hm... then, perhaps we may start on our other mission?" Tiamat asked.

Well, that sounded efficient. "Let's do it," you agreed. First things first?

Test people's sensitivity. Retreating to the inn, which was hardly luxurious but a decent place to stay, the two companions who came with you changed their outfits into some that were rather scandalous. In fact, it would be fair to consider those outfits to be more akin to underwear. Nero, as she was wont to do, changed into an extremely skimpy red bikini, and let some of her more monstrous features come out, scales protruding from her skin, her feet turning into draconic claws and her legs becoming armored by red and gold scales up to mid thigh, and her entire right arm becoming a monstrous red dragon arm.

At the same time, Tiamat had changed into a skintight version of her previous outfit, with white semi-transparent stockings that hid basically nothing, and a short micro-dress that seemed painted on, blinking and changing the regular human pupils of her disguise for cross shaped ones that were quite distracting.

Both of them also let their ears become more pointed and longer, looking quite sharp indeed.

"Alright," Nero spoke, grinning evilly, her fangs becoming pronounced as she did, "it's time..."

"Yes, I believe so!" Tiamat agreed. "Come on now," she called, raising a hand covered by her extremely long sleeve to you.

You took it.

Nero did the same with her human hand.

And then the three of you came out of your room in the inn holding hands and immediately the sights and stares intensified thousandfold. People looked at the girls like they were aliens, not really realizing they were looking at monsters the likes of which could put all of humanity out of commission. They didn't know that you were walking along hand in hand with the evils of man made manifest.

Something seemed to click, though...

The towns people seemed to just sort of become used to it. These two had been specifically chosen because of their extremely obvious monstrous features, and at the same time, because they could somewhat pass as young children, two things which should in theory cause people to start looking at them weirdly, especially in the outfits that they seemed to think were appropriate for everyday wear.

Nero was quite noticeably annoyed, even though she was trying to pretend she was above it. Right, when she was in her small form, she didn't allow herself to be the bombastic attention whore that she truly was at her heart, instead consumed by depression and self loathing. As an adult, she might've looked pitiful, but with her temporarily small stature and petite features, she looked positively adorable.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, her voice sounding annoyed.

"I was thinking about how you're not actually that much shorter than in your regular state," you said, idly.

"H-hey!!" she blushed so bright that it was visible even with the cheek markings on her face.

"Please don't tease the idiot child," Tiamat said.

"Who are you calling an idiot child?!" Nero replied scandalized. "At least I don't lose all my brain cells when I grow into my proper form!" she accused.

"You, I'm calling you an idiot child," Tiamat said. "You are just proving my point if you can't even tell..."

"I'm sensing some unresolved tension between you two," you spoke, idly, as you walked, pulling the two along as they stopped to glare at one another.

"She's jealous that I'm taller than her," Nero accused.

"If I wanted to become taller than you all I'd need to do was grow!" countered Tiamat, "and unlike you, I don't have to lie about my height!"

"Why you little-"

Nero jumped at Tiamat with her dragon hand extended, but you moved swifter, getting in the way by taking a step forward and body blocking her. "Oi, look alive, we've got company."

It seemed you had underestimated the info network of Chaldea once again. Indeed... the reason why the two beside you had been chosen to accompany you on this mission was their own, secondary mission.

For you see, both Tiamat and Nero had something of a specific advantage, being adult women who could assume a childlike form. That made everyone a lot more comfortable in doing a specific kind of hunting. After all, the town was famous for being a tourist destination, and for its love of the spooky season, publicly, but Chaldea had access to a certain other kind of information.

And the town was host to a particular brand of criminal, one that had even some of the biggest sticklers for the law stepping off and allowing Chaldea free rein.

And the man in a wizard hat that approached you was the in on your second target. Thankfully, Nero had... ways to get the information you needed, and once you had a location, you moved into the small residential area and towards one of the old-timey tavern looking buildings, one that seemed designed not to attract too much attention but at the same time not be so unattractive that it drew attention because of that.

The door at the front was closed, and you rapped your knuckle on the hard wood surface, once, twice, and a third time, before finally a raspy voice came from within. "We're closed."

"Trick or treat," you called in.

"Fuck off, it's not time yet," the raspy voice on the other side replied.

"Did you hear that girls? I think he said trick," you called. "So are we tp'ing the house?"

"I think I have a better trick in mind," Nero replied, her voice vicious, rearing back the red dragon arm and then punching the door so hard it blew off its hinges and landed all the way on the wall directly opposite the entrance, a large bang resounding.

You grabbed the fake weapon dangling from your hip and activated its effects, casting a bounded field around you that would keep everything that happened within from reaching mundane ears.

Tiamat walked into the building first as Nero stretched her human arm and clenched and unclenched the dragon claw at the end of her scale covered arm. Inside there were a handful of men, some of them were counting money, and there were packets of some sort of white powder in the middle of one of the tables. There were also very incriminating pictures set up on another one of the tavern's tables.

"Wow, so bold as to do your business right here where anyone can see it?" you spoke, almost impressed with their foolishness.

"Who the fuck are you!? What the fuck is happening!?"

Six men all in all, plus a seventh hiding behind the bar likely grabbing a weapon.

"Nero, Tiamat?" you called.

"Ready!"

Tiamat moved swiftly. Despite the massively bulky and heavy horns sitting on top of her head, she almost glided along the air, she was a being of such immense power that the world could not exert its will on her as she moved. And even less so when she was emboldened by a different kind of fury than her usual. She was Tiamat, mother of all, and who was feeling incensed that the most vulnerable of her children were preyed upon by the worst that humanity had to offer.

Once upon a time she saw every single human as an enemy to be destroyed, annihilated and obliterated.

These days?

She still saw some of them as unforgivable enemies.

And as for Nero... she leaped towards the guy behind the bar and took the shotgun he pulled from under the bar from his hand with her human hand, then thrust her dragon arm forward and pushed the man from the neck onto the shelves behind him, knocking dozens of liquor bottles off and shattering them.

She then took him down, as he landed on the ground, some of the shards of glass stabbing into his back.

At the same time, Tiamat was making short work of the humans surrounding her as she landed on the table with the drugs and money, rapidly demonstrating the sheer difference between humans and servants, let alone a super high tier servant like her, by taking them down in mere moments.

In fact, it took less time for her to knock them all out than it did for Nero to land on top of the man she had knocked down.

She grinned down maliciously at him. "You've got information I want, and I'm going to extract it out of you..." she spoke, licking her lips. "Rejoice, human," she said, "for you'll get to enjoy the reward for all your depraved excess," she spoke, "I do so happen to utterly despise and abhor it so!"

Nero, in her Beast form, was a creature of odd dichotomy. She was a creature of vice and excess, of lavish depravity and of sin, but perhaps because of the self loathing that consumed her, she hated nothing more than those who would indulge in such things as herself.

It had taken quite a bit of therapy, and not a small amount of love from those she loved in turn, but at least this version of Nero had Hakuno and Ritsuka to heal her heart and redirect her self loathing and hatred to a more healthy pursuit, to help her find joy in at least some kinds of depraved merrymaking and come to terms with both Sodom's Beast and Nero Claudius.

As she began delivering her own twisted brand of justice, no more merciful or safe to describe than what Tiamat was doing to the others, you decided that you'd definitely demand for greater compensation from Ritsuka and Hakuno for taking Nero and Tiamat out on this errand.

Later that day, as the three of you returned to the inn to wait for Taxis Brett to finally come out of hiding and confront you, you relaxed on your bed, while the servants, who didn't need to sleep, remained on guard duty.

"You know, I half expected this to end like it usually does," Nero commented, idly.

"Yes - myself as well," Tiamat confessed. "I was looking forward to it."

You chuckled. "Your grown up forms are too flashy and if this Taxis Brett is even half as dangerous as he's described, there's no way he won't notice," you explained.

"And?" taunted Nero, looking over the manga she was reading directly at you.

"Hm. I understand," Tiamat said.

Nero huffed. "Fine," she said, rolling her eyes. "I'll wait until the guy is captured."

Their childlike forms were cute, sure, but there was something to be said for the bewitching beauty of the beasts that spelled mankind's doom.

"I'll satisfy myself some more with the prisoners, then," Nero said, licking her lips. "I'll make certain there isn't a single drop of information they haven't given us..."

You shuddered.

Tiamat put a hand on your shoulder. "I'll protect you," she said.

That wasn't reassuring. "You're just as scary, you know?" you joked.

"Yes, yes I do," she said, with a bright smile, which only made her more terrifying.

You did not envy nor pity the monsters that were facing the justice of a bigger, meaner monster...