Fate stood in a hallway filled with corpses of the nobles and staff of this house. They stood no chance as Grismald's chains tore through their bodies, killing everyone. Lecter approached him cautiously.
"So, what now, Biford?"
The shade of Grismald and his chains disappeared, and Fate turns to face his partners. Even this Wargman showed hesitation around him, but that would all change soon. Fate gave the partner a friendly smile and motioned for him to follow as Fate approached a door with the number five on it.
"Are you ready to cast aside your petty emotions? Mars, are you coming?"
"Ey, Sir Biford," the Tarjoki, Mars, said as he turned, and his paper-thin bod was visible.
"Then let us begin. My name is not Biford. I am the god Fate. I have chosen you two to become partner gods with me when I win, but I need your help.
This revelation neither acted surprised about his identity, but after Grismald and this slaughter. Not much more could surprise them. Or that's what they thought until five doors of the hall opened, and black mist poured out of each entry.
"Come and join with my brothers and me and let us take back this tiny world and destroy everything."
Mars and Lecter let out howls of agony as two demons entered each. The last massive mist came to Fate, and he drank it in. No pain wracked his body, and he turned to look at the Lecter and Mars, who were now getting back up.
"How do you feel?"
"Power! More!"
——————————————
The girls had dragged me into the bedroom after the bath. Both of them exhausted me to my fullest, and after our passion charged lovemaking session, both of them lay in my arms. Under the covers, their naked bodies pressed into mine, surrounding me with warmth and softness.
"You should be able to remember us now!" Victoria spoke as she kissed my cheek and then bit my ear playfully, rubbing her nipple up to my side.
"I will remember this for more than just the week we are apart,�� Lavender ran her finger down my chest and below the blanket.
Suddenly, I felt my eighth wind coming on as her hand sunk deeper, and Victoria started to bite my neck. The door banged open, and Tilly and Iona burst into the room. All of us from in our act, staring at the girls as they stared back at us. Finally, Iona snapped out of it first.
"There is big trouble! You all need to get dressed now!"
"What happened?"
But they were already leaving the room and shutting the door. I sat up and looked from Lavender to Victoria. Both shrugged, but we all got up and got our things back on. As I did, I watched the girls with longing as they pulled the clothes back onto their beautiful bodies.
Soon, we dressed and left the room where Tilly and Iona were waiting. Neither would look at me, and I knew I deserved it, but this was all too complicated, to begin with, and by the sounds of it, not the time to be discussing it.
"That guy from the market, Biford Styles, do you remember him?" Tilly asked me while starting to walk to the stairs to go down the stairs.
"Yeah, what happened?"
"He and two others murdered an entire noble family and staff. Then they took the demons," Iona explained as a maid opened the doors to the sitting room as we walked down the stairs.
Inside was Miss Grace, The Duke, and two people I didn't know.
"Dave, This man with the interesting hair cut is Reginold Styles, and the women beside him is Olivia Styles. These are the parents of the boy who is possessed by Grismald. He murdered an entire noble house and took the demons. It's only a matter of time now," Miss Grace explained, pointing to each.
The man, Reginold, stood up and pointed at me. The top of his head had a cut impossibly flat like a long razor blade did one pass. The man was clearly angry about way too many things, and as he screamed at me, spittle flew from his mouth.
"Our child was fine until he met you! Then you let the demon out, and now my son is no longer there!"
"Your son was gone before I met him because when I did, I already knew him! There was something in there before the demon. You can't tell me you didn't see the difference!" I yelled back, standing up in challenge.
"ENOUGH!" The Duke's rapport made us both sit down and shut up.
"None of it matters now. We have to deal with this before it tears the city apart! Some of us put him in there! I want to apologize to you, Grace, about my husband and the wrongful imprisonment that I was not informed about!"
Olivia overhand slapped Reginold's head from a sitting position. She almost knocked it off his shoulders, but then she continued as he moaned in pain. "Grace, I and fourteen others sealed Grismald, but he killed all of the party but us to do it. We need to do something now before he gets back to full strength."
"He just absorbed Kosha, The boar king demon. He will need at least five more greater demons, but now he is recruiting and infecting others with the demons. Our soldiers are nothing against these things, and we have very few high levels left," The Duke explained.
"What everyone is stepping around trying to say is we need you to do something that might end up getting you all killed or extremely powerful," Miss Grace cut the other two off.
"What do you need us to do? Girls? Are you with me on this? This whole thing is technically my mess."
"Pft, Dave, We are always with you through fire and flame."
"Really? See, I told you all not to worry. Dave is always gung ho to go! OK, we plan on sending you up to the twentieth floor and the dungeon on that level, The Arena. Each of you will have to fight a solo fight and win to move on to the team rounds. There are seven rounds in total."
"That doesn't sound that difficult? What the catch?" Iona asked with a puzzled look on her face.
"Besides dying?" Reginold breathed as he straightened himself on the couch a little farther away from his wife. "If one of you lose the first round, you all lose. After that, the enemies get ridiculously hard, but just from the first round, you should jump 10-12 levels, If you survive. Everyone one of you will be matched with something far stronger than you. That's the catch."
All of us sat in silence, and the color had drained from most of our faces. This whole thing was intense. We were supposed to have more time to train and get ready, not just thrown into the fray. Damn Fate!.
I stood up and turned to face the girls. Each one was deep in thought, so I cleared my throat, and they all looked up at me with a puzzled expression. I turned a bit so I could see Miss Grace and the Duke as well.
"First, will we be fighting at the same time?"
"No."
"Second, can we use magical Items?"
"Yes."
"OK, so there are six of us…"
"No, sorry, Dave. I have to stay and help here," Trinity piped up.
"Really, well then that changes things."
I turned back to the girls and looked at each of them and their fingers. I touched the center of my large black ring, and the four rings on the girl's hands lit. Each glowed their respective powers.
Red surrounded Lavender, Tilly's aura was brown, then blue for Iona and Yellow for Victoria. Each of them realized what this meant at the same time and began to smile.
"Oh? What is this?" Miss Grace asked me.
"These were in the box Grismald was in, ELEMENTAL FORCE BINDING RINGS."
"Wow, and you girls just put them on? Do you know what those rings do, besides trading power?" Miss Grace asked with an amused look on her face.
"No idea."
"Hm, well now you four girls are bonded to Dave and must obey his every command, and if you disobey, is punished with extreme pleasure! Hehehe," Miss Grace giggled.
Iona's face went hot red, and then I remembered the scene when she first put on the ring and then hit me. After the connection, Iona collapsed in what I thought was pain as she was moaning and writhing on the floor. Then when I picked her up and she stopped chest heaving. Ouch!
Iona had kicked my shin and brought me back to reality, and now her face was practically on fire. I coughed into my hand and turned to The Duke.
"When do we start?"