"Hina?! Where the hell did you go?!" Aurelia shouted as she bounced ahead of Emily. If Hina had been a guy, her succubus side would have had no problem finding her, but as she wasn't... "Hina!!!"
Where could she have gone? Chessie was around somewhere, searching as well, and Emily was hot on Aurelia's heels, as well as Nao. "I'm going to take to the air, alright?" The Succupixie wasn't really asking, though, and beat her opaque wings, sailing quickly into the air and beginning to look from above. Up here, above the trees, everything below was a swaying, rippling mess... but there, over there, things looked a bit different, more... erratic.
"This way!" Aurelia screamed downward, and once the girls below looked up at her, she herself zipped in the right direction, plunging under the trees and weaving through and around them until she flew straight through... a fight? Catching herself as she sailed through a clearing and alighting on a tree across the way, Aurelia peered downward... Hina was there, wielding Tanuki's Claw with uncanny and unrecognizable grace, facing off against two... angels?
One was a girl with short, choppy blonde hair who carried a lance, ducking and twirling and slashing out with a beautiful grace. The other was... Aerendyl? It was Aerendyl, wearing boots, pants and nothing on his torso, a shield of light on one arm and a blade of the same on the other. The two were pressing at Hina, and somehow, the Summoned Hero was holding her own, albeit not as herself; for clearly, this wasn't Hina. This badger girl was somehow wrong; a savage snarl on her face, discoloration to her usually pale skin... it was as though she was becoming a polar opposite to these angels. Though, she was, wasn't she? Hadn't Aerendyl said they just needed to make it to the Capitol? Aurelia didn't mind if she was one of the ones to die, she'd never had all that much of a purpose in life... but Hina had great things to do, and it wasn't time for her to die. If only they could get to the Capitol faster...
"Damnit!" Aerendyl staggered, the golden blood of angels splashing across the dirt. Without making a noise, Hina chased after him, but the female angel was there, pressing Hina back.
"Like Hell you're taking my brother. Believe it or not, we're trying to help you!" Hina answered by swathing her blade in lightning and hacking at the girl's lance... there was a creaking noise, both women shoving hard... and then they broke apart, staring each other down, both parties panting hard and sweating.
"Help us." Aerendyl's voice reached her, whispering into Aurelia's mind like a trained seductress. "All you have to do is knock the weapon out of her hands or restrain her. Go wild, because we can heal her wounds, but if we don't help her before she finishes turning, your Hina is dead." For a split second, Aurelia's vision clouded over... and then she leapt down from the tree. If all she had to do was hurt Hina to save her life...
Even the female angel seemed surprised as Aurelia twisted in midair and rammed her heel into Hina's head, sending the badger girl flying back. Did it hurt Aurelia, to hit her lover like that? No. She didn't have time for it to hurt. Hina snarled and turned her blade toward Aurelia as if the Succupixie were a particularly nasty spider, but the attacked one pivoted, ducking and flipping backward, dodging blow after slash. As she flipped, Aerendyl sailed underneath her, hacking and staggering Hina... but there was something Aurelia could do that he and his sister couldn't. Landing, Aurelia channeled her magic through her legs and into the ground... spending so much energy she likely wouldn't be able to fly for quite a while, Aurelia quite literally grew a small tree, trapping Hina in a sort of oaken coffin. It wouldn't hold long, but it was enough; Aerendyl and the other angel rammed their hands into the tiny bough, and a white glow spread from their hands into it... a moment later, everything went still, and Aurelia collapsed to her knees in the dirt, panting softly. She'd used to much, growing an entire tree... the angels were ripping the bark open, now, and Hina fell out in a heap, panting raggedly and looking very confused.
"Aurelia... Aurelia what's going on, help, I-I..." Hina's soulful green eyes looked lost, and her skin was pale, again... too pale, and clammy.
"Hey, sweetheart," Aerendyl muttered, just as everybody else crashed through the trees, carriage men included... but not Chessie. Where was the cat girl?
"Hina!" Emily was there first, kneeling beside the badger girl and pushing her white locks back.
"I-I'm okay, but I feel sick..." Hina, usually so cool and cute, looked half feverish... it made Aurelia's heart burn, a bit, but what could she do? Really, damnit, what could she do! Why couldn't she actually manage to help?! She needed to do something, no matter how small, but...!
"Hina, you're turning faster and faster." Aerendyl spoke. Aurelia glanced around; the female angel had vanished, but the young-looking man continued, nursing a gash on his shoulder and chest. "We've slowed it down again, but there's not much more we can do. There is a cure... but it's in the Mirian Capitol's church. There's a spring, there, a holy bath of sorts that can cure this sickness..."
"What is it...? What the hell happened to me, exactly? God damnit, I'm tired of sitting around just waiting to go savage and hurt someone, kill somebody I care for, and I don't even know what's going on, really... just that I have to make it to the Capitol, and oh, by the way~ two of us have to die, in some way..." Hina muttered weakly.
"I suspect a Lich; really, that's what all us angels think," Aerendyl sighed. "You see, you're a Non-Human hero, you and Nao. If you're killed by Starria just for what you are, you'd be a symbol of their savagery, and people for thousands of miles around would rally in your names. But, what if he could paint you out as a bad element? An awful being that nobody could think of in a good light. Get it?"
"No," Hina shook her head, but Aurelia thought that she herself did.
"I guess you wouldn't, being new in town, so to speak..." Aerendyl sighed. "There's a type of being called a Phylactery Lich, they're like queens of the undead. They carry around this box, which absorbs all their excess hatred, Mana, and even part of their victim's souls. It is possible for a Phylactery Lich to unleash all of that negativity at once, injecting it into a victim... we, the angels, think that's what happened to you, so that you'll cause as many problems as you can before you inevitably get put down... but if you get to that church, Hina, and get to the underground spring, all of your problems will vanish. I'm just sorry that I can't do more for you."
"I think I have a solution, then," Chessie had appeared at some point, and her voice commanded the attention of everyone there. "I can open up... something like a portal. Time and space are warped, in my home, so a day's travel there would be a week's worth here. We could get to the Capitol by tomorrow night... through Underland." There was silence for a moment, at these words, and then Emily spoke.
"Let's do it; we'll get to the Capitol, get to that damned church, and I'll throw Hina's ass into the spring myself," she uttered with a laugh, perhaps detecting the irony in her own statement. "But..." she paused, looking at the young man and his father who owned the carriage.
"Oh, it's fine!" The younger of the men smiled, and for only a moment, bright Mana sprang from his arms. "I'll be able to defend us from here on, we're out of the big bandit hunting grounds! You girls go, don't worry about us."
"Mi- Hina, do you think you can walk?" Chessie asked softly, kneeling beside the badger girl's head. Hina was breathing a bit raggedly, and still pale as can be... Aurelia felt her heart twinge with worry.
"I can walk," she answered raggedly, slowly forcing herself to her feet. "Hn... Aerendyl?" Looking around, drawing Aurelia's attention to the fact that now, both of the angels had vanished. With a sigh and a brewing headache, the Succupixie girl wished that she knew what lay at the end of this journey, for any of them.
"Hina, don't worry about him. What, Chessie, do you open a portal here?"
"They're everywhere," Charlotte explained calmly. "Only somebody with ties to Wonderland can find them, but really, we've long been poised to slaughter anyone we need to with only a week's notice." Aurelia ignored the chilling tone of these words, realizing that Hina, Emily and the silent Nao were too distracted to take the lead just now.
"Show us the way then, Charlotte."
~~~
Hina sighed softly, following Lottie through the mess of undergrowth. A Phylactery Lich? She thought she understood what was going on, but really, how could she be sure...? How much of it was true, how much was genuinely known and understood? Aurelia was leading the way, and Hina just wanted to kiss the girl... she wasn't a leader, but she was trying so hard, and the Summoned Hero knew that it was for her sake, at least in part.
"Hina... what's going on, it's got to be rough on your body. Are you in pain? I could use magic to relax you, it'd be a bit like drugs..." Emily offered in sweet, worrisome tones. "We're worried about you, you know?"
"You guys could leave me, and not deal with this, you know..." Hina giggled softly, not quite sure why her mind was going in this direction. Before she could take it any further, though, Aurelia cut her off, speaking awfully strongly for a girl who didn't even reach 145 centimetres.
"Hina, shut your mouth. We're here because we love you, and we're going to get through of us. If two of us are doomed to die no matter what, then what good would it do to leave? We're going to see you through to the end."
"I'll be honest with you. I hate humans after everything they've done to me, and you, badger ears or no, are a human. Even so, I can't help but say I'm madly in love with you, and there's no way in Hell that I'm going to abandon you."
"Hina... I haven't known you quite as long as Aurelia and Emily, but it seems like you haven't been here long in the first place. I do know that when you felt this coming on, you ran as far away as you could before it happened, and obviously that was an attempt to keep us safe... and while a lot of jerky guys can get a harem in a day, Emily and Aurelia aren't like that. I see what they see in you, and a waste of time isn't on the list."
"I can't pretend to care for you like the others do." It was Charlotte who spoke last. "However, I can honestly tell you that I don't want to see you die, and that you're one of very few people I know who I would consider a worthy master... not to mention you're interesting. Now. I've found a portal, just here." She was nudging at the dirt between a massive pair of tree roots, and after a moment, the dirt suddenly fell away, revealing a hole... Hina expected it to stretch on for miles, but it seemed like there was a floor only five or six meters down.
"This leads to the Hall of Exits," Charlotte explained in response to Hina's confused expression. "It's a hallway that connects all of our portals, both into and out of Wonderland. It wasn't quite accurate, when I said that we'd be travelling through Wonderland... think of this as the entrance hall to my home, but we'll be going in one door and out the other without exploring the rest of the so-called manor."
"Understood," Hina answered softly, and lowered herself, preparing to drop into this figurative manor. In a moment, her boots met the black and white, checkered marble floor of the hallway, and she looked around, expecting doors but seeing much more than that. There were screens, cliched portals, walls of what looked like sand in varying colors, and even more than that. Hina, after a moment, just sighed and waited for the others. One by one, they dropped down, surrounding Hina.
"I'll lead the way," Lottie spoke quietly. "We can get halfway there, and camp for the night."
~~~
That night, the group camped out at a small river bank, grassy and in the shadow of an irregularly massive maple tree. Things went well, and Chessie killed rabbits, roasting them over the fire for everyone... Hina ate well, and bathed in the river, and just as she was headed to bed... Aurelia softly gripped her sleeve, pulling gently.
"Hina? Can I... talk to you, for a few minutes, alone, please?" Somehow, she looked like a timid schoolgirl about to confess her love... much like Aika, when she'd first confessed to Hinata. Hina felt a pang... but Aika probably already had another boyfriend, by now. She had no reason not to be fine, and Hina didn't need to feel guilty.
"Are you okay, Aurelia?" Something was wrong, here; her eyes were a bit puffy and red, the clothes that she wore were rumpled... had the Succupixie been crying?
"Please, Hina, follow me?" She turned, her shimmery wings fluttering a bit as a nervous girl might rub her arm.
"Alright, I will," Hina agreed, glancing back to where Emily, Charlotte and Nao were settling down to sleep as she followed Aurelia into the forest's outskirts. Aurelia kept walking for a while, her steps slow and deliberate... something was on her mind, and it was starting to concern Hina more than just a bit. Aurelia led her further and further, walking for about fifteen minutes in relative silence before finally stopping and turning to face Hina.
"Aurelia, wha-...?" Hina began, only to falter as she watched the tears sliding down Aurelia's cheeks, watch the slight quiver to her bottom lip. Slowly, Aurelia pulled Hina close, hugging their frames together and pushing the top of her head into Hina's chin, the way a cat might.
"Hina..." Aurelia's voice was low and soft, heartbroken.
"Aurelia, talk to me..." Hina returned the hug with one arm, and tipped Aurelia's face up with the other, meeting her mismatched eyes. Blue on the right, green on the left to Hina, reverse for Aurelia... but those ares were losing tears, and the Succupixie still looked deeply shaken.
"How are the others doing it?" She whispered weakly. "How... Emily and Charlotte and Nao are so confident that we aren't going to die, but how? The angels, the damn angels... they said that two of us are doomed, so how can we actually hope for anything different? How can any of us h-have any kind of confidence at all when..." She shuddered, visibly, and returned to burying her face in Hina's chest. After a long moment of silence, she continued.
"Hina, I love you so much... I can't stand to see anything happen to you..." Emotion pouring strongly into her voice, she spoke. "If I were obliterated and forced to reincarnate, start my life over, even in another world, I would cross the stars to be with you, Hina. I can't resist the urge to hold you and cling tight, no matter what... I've only been with you three weeks, and already, I think that without you, I would be lost in life, far more than I ever was living alone in the forest without any goals." She turned her eyes up again, her eyes demanding an answer of Hina. "How do you do it? I can't... I want you, Hina, and I'm okay with sharing with the others, but I just..." She sighed, slowly, and spoke in a voice so soft, so lost, that it nearly broke Hina's heart.
"Hina... I love you more than anything in all this world and the next... I can't let anything happen to you, and seeing you struggling like you have been... seeing you use magic to sleep through the night without hurting anyone... I want to HELP, and I just feel so, utterly useless..." Again, she shuddered, burying herself further into Hina, who, for her part, felt like her heart was cracking and melting at once.
"Aurelia..." Hina whispered slowly, leaning down and pushing the demon's two-toned hair back, away from her damp eyes and cheeks. "I'm going to be alright, and we don't know that-"
"We do know!" Aurelia cut in, full of angst. "Angels aren't wrong, whether they choose to tell us or not!"
"Aurelia, it's like we said in the carriage. It could be a half truth... it could even be a lie meant to steer us in the right direction, or test our resolve, or any number of things... plus, we have Charlotte, now, and she's one of those arches. She can help me to make sure that... that you don't get hurt, Aurelia." Hina almost said 'the three of you', but that wasn't what her Succupixie companion needed to hear right now. Aurelia answered by swallowing and blinking slowly, holding Hina tighter... and sliding her hand up, pulling Badger Girl down and into a kiss. Hina moaned softly, hugging Aurelia ever tighter... and Aurelia started to pour her recovered mana into Hina.
"Au-Aurelia...? Feel funny..."
"You used to be a guy, right? C-Can I give you back something you've been missing, just for a bit? I want you, Hina, but I don't want you to turn into anyone else for the sake of a tail..." Her voice was uneven and more emotional, but in a different way. Hina swallowed nervously, but she nodded, whispering; "Alright Aurelia... I want to stay myself this time anyway..."
"Exactly~" Aurelia poured her mana into Hina faster, smiling as something started to press into her waist. Hina, for her part, moaned lowly, feeling a familiar sensation that she hadn't for weeks; she was still very much a young woman, but between her legs, well, she was a bit like her old self again.
"A-Aurelia~" Hina shuddered as the Succupixie ground her hips forward gently, teasing her Summoned Hero partner.
"Don't forget that I'm half Succubus, Hina~" She purred, and it seemed as though she were about to try and get dominant, but Hina smiled and pushed Aurelia back against the tree, watching color flood the Succupixie's cheeks more than before. Taking the half Succubus into her arms, Hina lowered her to the soft, grassy ground, lying Aurelia out slowly. She tried to say something, but immediately forgot it as Aurelia gripped her top and yanked, hugging Hina down to her front and roughly, deeply kissing her temporary top.
"Aur... Aurelia..." Hina panted quietly, drawing her hips back. After weeks without that, it felt weird to have it back... but Aurelia only smiled and left a soft, slow trail of kisses down the side of Hina's neck. She was grinding her hips up, slowly and forcefully, teasing Hina into half a frenzy. The badger girl reached between them, reaching to the side of Aurelia's skirt, unzipping it, practically ripping the thing off.
"P-Please Hina~ don't be gentle with me~" the mischievous, loving Succupixie pulled Hina into another kiss, moaning into it as Hina tried to work Aurelia's panties off, only to get frustrated and snap them off, ruining the fabric. Panting unevenly, Aurelia undid Hina's own shorts, pushing them down... Hina, working Aurelia's shirt and small bra off... Aurelia, pulling Hina's bikini top off, pushing the open shirt off her shoulders...
"All the way~" Aurelia insisted, obviously miles beyond aroused as she pushed Hina's shorts and panties completely off. As soon as the fabric was on the ground instead of Hina, Aurelia pulled her companion into another kiss, more heated and needy than before- which was really saying something, to be quite frank. Rotating her hips, Hina meshed her body with Aurelia's and rammed into her girlfriend, her lover, her admirer.
"H-Hina~!" Aurelia moaned sharply, bucking her hips up. Miss Badger couldn't help but to start moving, overtaken by the pleasure... it seemed almost to throw Aurelia into a frenzy, and the Succupixie rolled her hips, one hand sinking to claw the dirt while the other's nails dug into Hina's back. That hand slid up, though, and dragged Hina into a rough, inanely sweet kiss as the girl on top moved faster, faster...
"Hina...! Hina...! Hina!!" It was the only word that Aurelia seemed to know.
It was a long and sweaty night, and neither Hina nor Aurelia would get any sleep until early in the morning after many times going at each other and two baths. Sometimes, Hina was on top, and sometimes Aurelia was feeling excitable- some would even call her bouncy. In the end, Hina and Aurelia quietly returned to the camp in only clean undergarments, curling up together... and even as they drifted off to sleep, Hina completely a girl again- Somewhat to Aurelia's disappointment- the Succupixie couldn't seem to stop kissing Hina, warm and slow.
Where was Hina, in this entirely new world? She was halfway to Mir's Capitol... but more than that, she was with her friends, and she was safe. Tomorrow, for better or worse, this episode came to a close.