Alice was pleased that I decided to go straight to the Forest of Spirits rather than taking on another job that she deemed a waste of time. I had promised her I would stop doing that unless I felt really strongly about a particular request. One of the consequences of a bunch of people seeing you go toe to toe with Granberia and not doing too badly is that they think they can send you on all sorts of missions that could better be classified as errands. After all, if I could come out of a fight with her mostly unscathed, what's the worst that could happen to me? I learned what could happen the hard way running an errand for Meia. This is how I learned about a little something called setting priorities.
We set up camp about three quarters of the way there, where Alice had me train and taught me a new technique: Death Sword Chaos Star. She explained that this was one of the techniques Granberia could have ended the fight with at any point in our two confrontations. As I practiced it, I could see what she meant. It was kind of like flailing around at random, except it wasn't random at all. Each attack linked with the next attack, but where the attacks were going was unpredictable and fast and thus very hard to defend against. Of course, I was pretty slow with it, relatively speaking. But knowing another move Granberia had in her arsenal could be useful for the next time she dropped in on me unannounced. Alice also told me that it could be a defensive move somehow, at least once mastered. The best defense to Death Sword Chaos Star was for the other warrior to use the same technique at the same time. To me, that just sounded like a great way of mutually carving each other up.
We arrived at the Forest of Spirits before noon the next day. Since Alice knew this forest I asked her what, if anything, I'd have to worry about. Elves and fairies didn't sound like bad monsters to me. Alice agreed as far as that went, but warned me that fairies could be… playful.
Oddly enough, Alice didn't enter the forest. After willingly walking into a haunted house, I was quite surprised at her reluctance. She informed me that the Monster Lord probably shouldn't go traipsing through that forest because it might alarm the fairies.
I didn't have to wait long before I encountered one. She was flying around singing while carrying a flower. When she saw me, she was startled at first, but then she became quite… friendly? "I'm going to play a prank on your penis. I'll put this flower on it and it'll suck all your white stuff out! Then the flower will be very happy!"
I completely misread her intent. I was afraid the flower would have needles and hurt me and then she'd have a big laugh. Turns out she was actually serious. She called the flower she was carrying a Succubus Flower, which I assumed had to be something she made up. Flowers don't suck penises! If they did, men would be growing them all over the world! I'd never read about these, nor heard of them.
I really didn't want to use force on a tiny fairy but I couldn't let her put that thing on me. I tried to tell her no but she thought the idea was far too amusing to let it drop. She flew over to me with the flower. With a wave of her hand my pants transformed into pixie dust, which slowly descended to the grass. I took a warning swing with my sword, not really intending to hit her, but she was small and quick and failed to heed the warning. Before I knew it, she had the flower on my penis, where it clamped shut. I jumped, fearing pain, but she'd actually been serious! The flower began to suckle on my dick! It had a lubricative substance that looked a little like honey inside it. It wasn't a monster. By now I could tell the difference between monster stimulation and ordinary stimulation. I considered letting it continue, as I was really enjoying yet another unique way to be pleasured and I really didn't want to fight the fairy.
Instead I pulled it off. Business before pleasure. It made an audible pop as I removed it. I feared that the fairy might be angry or disappointed, but I couldn't even see her. Now where did she go? I received an answer a split second later as she came out of nowhere and grabbed my penis, holding it to her body. "Got your penis! Ooh, it's squishy!"
I wasn't about to try to use my sword on her now. I jumped up and down. She held on stubbornly and then imitated my movements, bouncing up and down while holding my penis. Fairies, unlike flowers, were definitely monsters and this felt far more stimulating than the flower even though she didn't seem to be trying that hard.
Finally I was able to pry her off without hurting her, which let her get me much closer to an orgasm than I was comfortable with. I prefer my sexual partners to be at least this tall before riding. "Aw, I just wanted to play with it a little!"
She fluttered off into the forest. I heard voices, including the fairy's, chatting about something. Judging from the tone, it sounded like she was… snitching on me about something? Within seconds, an elf came out, armed with a bow. "A human here, attacking fairies? I won't have it!"
"I didn't attack her, she attacked me!" I protested.
She was already nocking an arrow. She let it fly and it would have hit me right in the chest if I hadn't caught it right out of the air! How did I pull that off? I was so busy staring at the arrow in my hand that I failed to notice her nocking a second one, which she let fly and which did impact me near my sternum. Ouch!
I fell to the ground immediately, fearing I was going to die. I found that I couldn't move, not even a finger. Poison? The elf lowered her bow and slowly approached me. "Don't worry, human. My arrows don't kill, they only paralyze. I will render you unconscious and then remove you from this forest. How would you like me to put you out? Ah, you can't answer, so I think I'll just wring it out with my hand."
That didn't sound so bad. Except I needed to meet with Sylph! Alice wouldn't be too pleased if some elves and fairies unceremoniously dumped my smiling unconscious body in front of her. How strong was the agent she had used? Chrome's hadn't kept me down very long, maybe I'd shake off this paralysis quickly.
She bent down and grasped my penis in her hand. It was still erect from what the fairy had done to me. She wasn't going to take it slow either, licking her hand and then pumping me quickly. She must have known the agent wouldn't last that long. The speed and her soft, elven hand were driving me quickly to the edge. I jerked involuntarily. "You're a strong one, human. It appears I'll need to hurry this up."
She bent down and let my penis slip between her soft lips. She had a small mouth and couldn't get much more than the head in, but it was ultra soft and deliciously wet as she made smacking and slurping noises, trying to finish me as quickly as possible. I managed to gain control of my left hand and began feebly trying to move her head off of me while also squirming around.
"Stop moving!" she said, taking me out of her mouth. "Why are you making this difficult!?"
She deftly got on top of me in a full mount position, an arrow in her hand which I assumed had to have more of that paralyzing agent on it. As she attempted to drive it into my chest, my arm shot up and grabbed her wrist. We struggled like that for a minute or two, until I was able to turn her over. Now I was the one on top! I wrenched the arrow out of her hand and threw it away.
She lay there under me, breathing heavily. She didn't seem frightened. More like defiant. Her eyes seemed to dare me to do what I sorely wanted to do in this position. I was so close. What would it feel like to explode in a tight, elven pussy? My willpower was being tested way too often on this journey. My eyes met her challenge briefly, then I smiled at her and stood up. I offered her my hand. She took it and I helped her up.
"I don't mean any of the forest creatures here any harm," I said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. "I'm just here to see Sylph. The fairy just got playful and you know what that can do to a human."
She nodded. "I know all too well, I've done it to enough of them. I spoke truly when I said I would just leave you outside the forest. We do not harm men who wander into our forest."
"But if you leave them outside the forest helpless, doesn't that just give more vicious monsters an opportunity?"
She sighed. "Normally, there would be no risk of that. Our forest only contains peaceful monsters, mainly elves, fairies, and some docile plant monsters. Evil monsters dare not even approach."
"You said that as if that was no longer the case. Or did I misunderstand?" I asked.
"You did not," she said ruefully. "We've always had problems with human males, some here to sate their lust and others to slay monsters for Ilias. But lately we've been attacked by a monster as well."
"Really? I'm here to see Sylph and I've heard that I have to prove my worth and then she'll lend me her power. I wonder if dealing with this monster for you would impress her enough."
"Don't even joke," the elf responded. "That thing is terrifying. You are obviously a strong human, but no match for that… thing."
"Thing?" I asked. "What is it?"
"We don't know," she said. "It's some type of plant monster, but nothing like we've ever seen before. It's killed indiscriminately, both monsters and humans. If you're smart, you'll run if you see it."
I'd been meaning to run away from something ever since I encountered my first monster. I'd either failed or felt that I couldn't. This time didn't seem all that ripe for running either. These nice monsters needed help. I resolved that if I ran across this creature I would defeat it. Even if I didn't, after I got Sylph to lend me her power, assuming getting the monster wasn't what it took to get it, I would talk to Alice and tell her I intended to go looking for it. I was fairly confident that she would agree given that it was killing fairies and elves and apparently wasn't natural to this environment.
"As for the reason for your being here," the elf said. "Delve deeper into the forest. Your exact direction doesn't matter. Sylph will meet with you if she chooses to. If she does not, you will never find her. As long as you don't seek to harm any of the peaceful denizens here, you should encounter no further trouble. With the possible exception of…. It."
I thanked her and turned to walk deeper into the forest. She put a hand on my arm. I turned to her questioningly and she cast her eyes down. Oh, crap, forgot my pants had been turned into fairy dust! I retrieved a pair from my pack. Wouldn't do to meet with a spirit half naked.
My walk in the forest waiting for Sylph to find me didn't go entirely without trouble. I accidentally stepped on a fairy. She wasn't hurt, thank goodness, but she scolded me about not stepping on flowers because fairies like to hide in flowers. I apologized sincerely and watched my step after that. It wasn't long after that I encountered a somewhat larger girl who sort of resembled a fairy but not quite. She certainly didn't look like a dangerous monster terrorizing the forest. Was this Sylph?
"What business does a human have this deep in the forest?" she asked.
"Are you Sylph, one of the four spirits?" I asked in return.
"Yes," she confirmed. "I am Sylph. Do you require something from me?"
"Um… yes," I hadn't planned in advance what I would say and now wasn't sure how to proceed. "I'm on a quest to… um…. Alice told me to come see you."
"What are you talking about?" Sylph asked, now looking at me like I was an idiot. "Since you're so poor at explaining, I'll ask the wind instead."
Sylph fell silent as a wind picked up around us. "Yes…" Sylph mumbled. "I see…. Hmmm…."
When she was finished, she turned to me once again. "You're a human who wishes for coexistence between man and monster and wants to gain power to defeat the Four Heavenly Knights?"
"Wow," I said. "That was pretty accurate."
"Yes, I see," she responded. "My power. You wouldn't use it for evil. But, the power of the Four Spirits cannot be given to a weak man. A weak man could never master the power. Therefore, I will check to see if you're worthy of it."
I had expected this. "What will the test be?" I asked.
"A match, of course!" she said, giggling. "All you have to do is land a single blow and I'll lend you my assistance."
"Just one?" I said. "Okay, I think I can do that. I hope so, anyway."
She giggled. "It might be impossible for you. Now… here we go!"
Another wind began to blow through the forest. We stood there looking at each other for a minute. She hadn't shifted into anything I could recognize as a combat stance. "Are you ready?" I asked.
"Of course, go ahead and attack me!" she said encouragingly.
I obliged, but an invisible barrier made it impossible for me to hit her. It appeared to be a barrier of wind. It didn't stop my sword entirely. With enough force I could have gotten my sword through it, but the wind would deflect my sword either to the left or the right, and if I wasn't careful, blow it out of my hands entirely.
Now I've talked about unique ways monsters have of pleasuring men before, but Sylph was on a different level of creativity. With a downward blast of wind my pants instantly went around my ankles, and a mini tornado formed around my penis. It wasn't overwhelming, but it was interesting and unexpected. It was more teasing than serious, so I chose to just let it go for now. I had no solution anyway. How do you get wind off you?
I stared at Sylph, trying to figure out how to proceed. "Have you figured out that it's impossible?" Sylph said. "Hurry up and give up and be my toy!"
I tried stepping around to try to get at her flank, but she simply turned, keeping the wind shield in front of me. She had dropped the penis tornado though. "Still trying? You can't hit me!" she sang.
I stopped and thought for a minute longer. "Hey, would you give up already?" she said, now seeming to be under some strain. Was maintaining the wind barrier taxing her this quickly?
I decided to just wait awhile longer. "Hey, what are you doing? Fight properly!" she yelled.
I continued to wait. "Hey! Hurry up and attack!" she insisted, now clearly tiring.
After a few more minutes Sylph was completely pooped and the wind shield dropped. I reached out with my finger and poked her in the belly. She let out a cute giggle and covered her navel.
"You cheated!" she protested. "But I like you. If I give you my power, do you promise to do your best? Mastering the power of the wind isn't easy."
"I will," I assured her.
"Okay, then!" she said happily. "Then we'll be together forever! When you're attacked I promise to lend you my power!"
She flashed brilliantly and then vanished. Suddenly I felt different, as if my body had become a part of the air around me. No, the wind was IN me? Was Sylph inside of me? Is that what gaining the power of the spirits entailed? I felt more aware of my surroundings. What a useful ability! I'd been snuck up on or failed to notice danger right next to me several times already. With Sylph's help, that would never happen again!
I exited the forest, excited at my new acquisition. Alice was still waiting outside the forest, looking quite bored.
"It looks like you got Sylph's power," she noted. "I can see you carrying yourself differently with your new power."
"You can tell?" I asked. "I'm not surprised. Can't you see magic?"
"I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that before," she replied. "But it was your demeanor that tipped me off."
"Thank you, Alice," I said sincerely. "Telling me about this was a wonderful thing to do for me."
"Shut up!" she protested. "I'm not really helping you! Just… making you less offensively weak. I'm enjoying all these foods and if you got eaten you wouldn't be able to buy me tasty things."
I could tell by the look on her face and by our previous talks that there was a lot more to it than that. But change comes hard for most people. She was in her default pretending not to care mode. I'd wear her down, I was sure of it.
"So, have you mastered the power yet?" she asked.
"I'm not even totally sure what it does," I said uncertainly. "I can hear and detect things I couldn't before, which is really useful because that was a weakness of mine before. But I'm not sure if it has combat uses yet. You know, those sword techniques you taught me have names, if I can use wind powers, shouldn't I have names for those? How does Wind of Justice sound? Wind of Friendship?"
"Idiot."
Remember that creature terrorizing the forest that the elf told me about? I hadn't forgotten, I was going to bring it up to Alice because I did feel it was something that had to be dealt with. I couldn't just take Sylph out of there and leave the denizens of the Forest of Spirits even more defenseless than before. It turns out that I didn't have to bring it up with Alice. I sensed panic among nearby creatures just as I was about to mention it, and then shortly after I got a "whiff" of the creature itself. It's hard to explain what it felt like. It's not quite a smell, it's not quite a sound, it's almost a sixth sense. But it was wrong. It was corrupt.
Alice sensed it as well. "I sense a monster…. No, that's not quite right…."
"I sense it too," I said. "What do you think it is?"
It was definitely coming closer. By now I could hear rustling in the forest. Before too long, it broke through the trees. It was nightmarish. It had a partially human body, combined with various plant species and even tentacles. Unlike the sleek beauty of most monsters, whose forms seemed natural even when they appeared chimeric, this thing looked like it was patched together. Another big difference from monsters was that the human part of it didn't even appear to be alive. It's eyes were empty, its face expressionless.
"What the hell?" I breathed. "Alice, please tell me you know what that is."
"I don't," she said, her voice colder than I'd ever heard it. She wasn't disappearing, either. Her expression was dead serious, battle ready even. "I've never seen this before. A monster unknown to the Monster Lord shouldn't exist in this world."
While we stood there gaping at it, it approached more closely and shot out numerous ivies, vines, and flowers at us. I flinched, narrowly avoiding a vine that attempted to grab me. Alice waved off the attack with ease, either with her bare hand or a magical shield of some type I wasn't sure.
"What is the meaning of this!?" she demanded. "Attacking me? Do you know what it means to attack the Monster Lord?!"
Alice gestured and a huge storm of fire lanced towards the creature, charring it. And yet it came on, still with that expressionless look. Alice started in surprise. "It… It didn't even flinch!" she said in disbelief.
However, I could see that she had done quite a bit of damage. And right about then, I forgot my promise to myself to stand aside while she fought her own battles. I don't remember whether I was enraged that she had been attacked or just thrilled that for the first time we were fighting side by side. Or at least we would have been fighting side by side, had I not charged the creature.
"You idiot!" Alice shouted. "You're in the way! Get out of the way!"
My poor judgment should have gotten me killed. I directly engaged the creature, slashing away at it again and again. It was indeed powerful. I wasn't used to having to hit something so many times in order drain sufficient energy to seal it. Hitting it was no problem, it didn't even try to avoid my blows. But it could take everything I hit it with and it was all I could do to not get overwhelmed by the various weapons it had at its disposal. I was constantly on the verge of getting into serious trouble. Vines would wrap around my neck and my sword arm. The numerous flowers were doing pleasure attacks on me. Given how intense the sensations were, this thing had to be part monster, because it had the magic.
"Luka!" I heard a voice in my own head. "Are you forgetting about me? Use my power!"
Sylph! "How?" I thought in my head.
"Just call me! You can make a wind shield that will stop the stupid plant attacks!"
Breaking free from another strangulation attempt by the creature, I backed up a few steps and called Sylph. "Sylph! Lend me your power!"
"Yay!" she exclaimed. I saw her briefly dancing across my vision and suddenly wind started to whirl around me. It wasn't as strong as the wind shield Sylph herself had put up, but it should be enough to misdirect those vines, I thought. I was right. Every time the creature extended a flower or vine at me, the wind blew it aside!
Could I still attack? I thrust forward with my sword. It impacted solidly. Amazing! The wind was keeping attacks out but I could still attack outside it!
The fight was very one-sided after that. Powerful the creature may have been, but it had no way of penetrating my wind shield and lacked the intelligence to think of anything else. It took some time, but eventually it was sealed. The threat to the Forest of Spirits had been removed.
Alice arrived at my side. "The part of that thing that was a woman…. It was human."
"Human?! How?" I just couldn't understand any of this.
"It used to be human," Alice said. "But not anymore. It was transformed into something else. I'm not even sure the human part of her had any life in it. It was badly corroded, almost as if it was undead. If that's the case, be happy. You freed her like you did the woman in the mansion. I see you used Sylph's power. I can almost forgive you for being stupid and getting in my way."
"Oh!" I smacked myself in the head. "My one chance to fight side by side with you and I blew it!"
"Why is that even important to you?" she asked. "Anyway, you need to master that power. Putting up a little wind may be useful against plant creatures and such but it won't help you at all against a Heavenly Knight. Not only that, if you don't know what you're doing you can hurt yourself. I was half expecting you to blow yourself clear out of the area. At least then I could have finished that thing off without your interference."
"I guess I did get over eager," I admitted.
"Just make sure you practice," she said. "Each of those elemental spirits is extremely powerful. But they are only as powerful as your knowledge of how to wield their power. It doesn't take a genius, but you do have to pay attention, feel around for it, try to shape it to your needs."
"Kinda like magic?" I asked.
"It's a similar idea," she nodded. "But they aren't really the same. Most magic is based on the elements, but it's like taking a basic element like earth and building a castle with it. You need to have a wide range of knowledge to build a castle. That's how magic works. It's science and it's very complicated. Using elements directly is a lot simpler. It's more about your insight than your intelligence, if that makes sense."
"It only sorta does," I replied.
Alice looked like she was about to say something rude again, but was interrupted by a fairy flitting around us, trying to get our attention. "Did you beat that scary thing?" she asked.
Soon, other fairies came out as well to see if the danger had passed. "He did beat it!" one of them squeaked. Soon we were being swarmed by happy fairies. I made sure to point out that Alice had done most of the damage and they thanked her as well.
I'd come to get one of the four elemental spirits to help me, but in the end I got to do another good thing. I could get used to this. Assuming I survived.
Our next destination was the Safina region, specifically Sabasa castle. This was by far our longest walk yet. Two weeks of nothing but hiking and camping. Normally I'd enjoy it, but this region was hot. In Safina would be found the spirit of Earth, Gnome, who was located in a big desert in the region. But first we had to trudge through rain forests. Hot, humid, rain forests.
Alice complained about the heat, even though she wasn't wearing a whole lot. I was fully clothed and thus far more uncomfortable. She snarkily suggested I remove my clothes to make things easier on the monsters attacking me. As if my pants had proven an impediment to any of them. I was starting to wonder if I should preemptively remove them before charging into battle just to preserve them.
Speaking of battles, there were a few. Thanks to Alice's training and my new best friend Sylph, wandering monsters weren't much of a threat. It was getting to the point where Alice would disappear, reappear a few minutes later, and resume our conversations as if nothing had happened.
One night by the campfire we had an interesting talk about… well, something I'm generally too embarrassed to talk about, but my curiosity was getting the best of me. I'd made another fine meal, which always seemed to serve the purpose of loosening Alice up.
"You sure are useful to have around, Luka," she said approvingly. "You keep both of my stomachs full."
"Both stomachs?" I asked.
"We monsters have one for regular food and another for semen," she explained.
"Oh…." I said, still not quite used to how candidly monsters spoke. I would have just referred to it as "the other stomach for that other thing" but I'm human and squeamish.
"Speaking of which," I added. "How often do you need to… uh…. fill…. That other one?"
She laughed. "Why, do you want to fill it?"
I sputtered and blushed. "No, just curious. I want to learn everything I can about monsters."
"Once a week is ideal," she replied. "Although it's hard to overdo, it so if a monster has a reliable source of food she'll eat every day. I try not to feed off of you too much because you need to be at full strength. It's also so damn hot out here. You don't smell very appetizing lately. But you can expect me to want some as soon as we can stay at an inn."
That answered a question I hadn't had the nerve to ask. Apparently I was her reliable food source now. That made journeying with her much more fun than I had anticipated.
"Do monsters have sex for pleasure at all?" I asked.
"Of course! But we approach it differently when it's for that purpose."
"How so?"
"Well," Alice explained. "When we want to feed, we want a man to just be still and let us milk him. We're trying to maximize his pleasure so that we get as much semen as possible as quickly as possible. Not that we won't go slow sometimes to reward him or just because we're having fun. Having that kind of power over a male is pretty enjoyable. But when we're doing it for our own pleasure we'll want more participation. Maybe even allow the male to be dominant. Although not all monsters are comfortable with that. You don't see that very often unless the monster really trusts, or even loves, a man."
"Alice," I asked, thinking back to what seemed ages ago. "When we first met, I asked you if you were going to violate me and what you'd do with me afterwards. Do you remember what you told me?"
"Of course," she said teasingly. "I said that was for me to know, and you to find out."
"Well, knowing what kind of person you are now, can I assume you wouldn't have eaten me or carried me off?"
"I wouldn't have done either of those things," she confirmed. "But I would have made sure to give you extra humiliation for being a pervert."
"So what were you thinking about while you were holding me prisoner?" I asked.
"I'm sure you can guess," she said. "I didn't expect the first human I encountered near a place like Ilias Village to be tolerant of monsters. You said you were going to be traveling, so I was thinking about whether I should travel with you."
That was what I thought. See? I'm not completely dense.
The rain forest transitioned into desert, which caused Alice to complain that it was too dry, whereas before she had complained that it was too humid. It was even getting to the point where she was annoyed at having to disappear when monsters attacked me. One fight in particular was interesting, because it was the first monster since Granberia to fight mainly with a weapon. A big, muscular minotaur girl. She had a giant ax that could have finished me with one blow had it hit, but she wasn't too fast nor even that skilled. Just very, very strong. I'd never seen a woman that muscular before and if I'm being honest I kinda liked it. If only she hadn't been so violent and rapey.
After making short work of her, I asked Alice if she thought I was getting better at this. All the monster battles I'd had on this leg of our journey had been quick and efficient. I'd even had the opportunity to try out Death Sword Chaos Star in combat. She allowed that I was indeed getting better, but still had a long way to go. All I could do with Sylph was make that wind shield. Alice said that when I truly mastered her power, I'd be able to move like the wind.
Oh, did I say it was a two week walk? I meant to say three weeks. You see, in theory it should have been two weeks, but being inexperienced at traveling in deserts I didn't realize how easy it was to get lost in them. I had run out of food. Fortunately during one of my short battles, Alice caught some scorpions. That may not sound appetizing, but when you run out of food, it's not bad. Especially since I figured out how to cook them properly.
In the end, I never found the castle. Alice did. She got fed up with wandering the hot desert, disappeared for a bit, and then came back saying with disgust that she'd guide us to the castle. Not one of my finer moments, getting us hopelessly lost in the desert. If it already wasn't clear before, it was clear at that point that my journey would have ended in my death had I been traveling alone. I owed Alice my life yet again. I was starting to feel guilty for being mad at her earlier.