Since time wasn't an issue, we resumed going from place to place on foot. It had been nearly a month since I'd traveled that way. I needed it, both to spend more time with Alice, to think, and to try to master the power of fire. During the journey to the Garuda Shrine, there were a few minor monster encounters. Nothing difficult for me, but they did give me badly needed practice. Each time I tried to use the fire element, with slowly improving results. It was interesting to me that it didn't seem to increase Angel Halo's heat the way it did Granberia's sword. It did seem to increase the damage done slightly. So far, only slightly.
Alice, to my disappointment, seemed to be growing a bit distant. It wasn't a huge change. Quite subtle, in fact. I could tell something wasn't quite right with her. Was she tired of hoofing it from place to place? No, she assured me that she was enjoying the time to think. Was she mad about the Granberia thing? No, more amused by it than anything else, and besides, it wasn't my fault. I could only assume that she'd share when she was ready.
The shrine was located in a forest. Alice knew the way and guided us to it unerringly. I still didn't understand why she would choose to help me find the shrine so easily but had not wanted to provide direct assistance in finding the spirits. I'd long since given up trying to figure out her motivations. Maybe she wanted to just leave this continent. We'd seen just about all there was to see other than some small towns and villages. I tried to entice Alice with the promise of foods she hadn't tried yet, foods that only were made in these small towns. That perked her interest a little, but she decided it really was time to go. That worried me. Was she growing tired of traveling with me? Or perhaps she felt it was really time she got back to her day to day duties as Monster Lord?
The shrine wasn't guarded. Nor was there an egg. Alice didn't take that well. She began scurrying around the altar, searching. I helped her. It's an egg, it couldn't be hard to identify. Yet it wasn't there.
"Do you think it hatched?" I asked.
"No, that can't be," she answered. "It will never hatch without all six orbs."
Just then, Alice's face changed. She had turned human. I looked around. Was there someone here? Yes, I could feel it in the wind. I really did need to listen better. If I wasn't distracted, I tended to hear it just fine. But if my mind was occupied or I was paying attention to something else, I would still fail to notice at times.
A man approached us from behind a tree. "Ah, humans," he said with relief. "For a second there I thought you were monsters. I'm a member of Ilias Kreuz. I've slain hundreds of monsters."
Something inside me snapped. I lifted the man up by his neck and slammed him against a tree. He began to choke and squirm.
"Luka, stop! You're killing him!" Alice yelled. "This man hasn't killed anyone. He's just a braggart."
I released him. "Yes, it's true, I'm a liar," he admitted. "I can't kill monsters. I'm not strong enough."
"Luka here has killed many monsters," Alice said. What? I looked at her. Her look back unmistakably told me to play along.
"With strength like that I'm not surprised," the man said. "I'm Lupton. Are you a member of Ilias Kreuz?"
I looked to Alice. "Yes, we are," she said. "We were here like you, for the thing."
"Ah, yes, the thing," Lupton said. "It looks like we got here late. They already took it."
"Took it where?" I asked.
"Back to headquarters, of course," he replied. "At first we wanted to destroy it because it looked like a monster egg. But no matter how hard we hit it, we couldn't even dent it. So we were going to take it back to headquarters for safekeeping. It was heavy so I was going to get help, but I guess they found enough people to carry it."
Alice and I exchanged another look. I guess that explained that. Lupton hurried off. When he was out of earshot, I asked Alice if the egg could be destroyed.
"No, humans have no way of destroying that egg," she said. "But are you really going to march into Ilias Kreuz headquarters to retrieve it?"
"I don't know what else to do," I said. "There's no other way to get to Hellgondo."
"You going into that place makes me nervous," she said. "Let me go instead."
That was very unusual. "What exactly do you think will happen to me there?" I asked. "Those guys are just hoodlums. Even before I got the spirits I would have made short work of them."
"You really went off on that guy," she said. "That makes me uneasy. I've never seen you like that. I don't want you killing anyone."
"Alice, you know me better than that. I would never kill anyone unless I absolutely had to. Sorry, in my culture we tend to react badly to racist statements from people like us. Plus I hate stone cold killers. Knowing he was just puffing himself up calmed me down."
"Many of those people have killed monsters, Luka," she noted.
"I know, I just wasn't prepared for what he said. I'm used to humans and monsters saying bad things about each other, but bragging about killing hundreds was too much for me. I know what I'm walking into now. I won't react to them."
"If you say so," she said. "I'm going with you, though."
I hadn't thought about how to get into the headquarters without forcing my way in. Alice suggested that I ask around and get someone's name and then say I had business with them. Most people in Gold Port were reluctant to talk, but a coin to one particularly shifty fellow got me a name, and a good one: Lazarus, the apparent leader of Ilias Kreuz.
"I have some business with Lazarus," I said at the door to the HQ.
"Who the hell are you?" one of the guards said. "You smell like a cop!"
Alice had suspected it would take more than that to get me in. She gave me a look. I turned away. Her eyes flashed. The men's jaws went slack. She waved her hand at one of them. "You will get Lazarus and tell him his children are out here."
"I will get Lazarus and tell him his children are out here," the guard repeated.
"And you," she waved her hand at the other guard, a younger man who looked even younger than me. "You want to go home and rethink your life."
"I want to go home and rethink my life," he said, and walked away from his post.
"Alice, did you just…"
"Jedi mind trick," she said sweetly. "just to be clear, I didn't need to do that hand thing."
I smiled. That had just made my tension dissolve. I'm sure that's what she intended by pandering to me with something she'd judged to be stupid.
The guard came back, "Go down into the basement, Lazarus will see you there."
My suspicions flared back up. A basement is a great place to dispose of people. Our cover story had been plausible. A leader of a shady organization seemed like the kind of guy who would drop kids all over the place, but if he wasn't that type, he'd know what he was dealing with and probably try to kill us. I wasn't worried, of course. I had the spirits and Alice was the Monster Lord. The place was a dump. I knew little of Ilias Kreuz. The terrorist organization didn't operate much on Ilias Continent because the people didn't care for monsters there. They tended to reserve their anger for places where monsters were tolerated, or at least insufficiently hated, in Ilias Kreuz's judgment. I had heard that at one time they were a lot more dangerous, but now they were regarded as more pathetic than anything else. Although in Gold Port the people seemed to genuinely fear them.
The basement was surprisingly large. The egg was down there, right in the middle of the room. Judging by the size of it, no wonder it had taken so many people to lug it there. Standing next to the egg was a dangerous looking man that I had to assume was Lazarus.
"Don't think for a second that I was fooled by that cockamamie story of yours," he said. "I just didn't want to see two perfectly serviceable guards put in the hospital. Lupton told me all about you. So… do you know how to destroy this egg? Someone as strong as you, maybe you could pull it off. I can't put a damn crack in it. So anyway, why are you here? Revenge?"
"Revenge?" I asked. "Why would I be here for revenge?"
"Not you, dumbass," he said. "Her."
Alice looked as confused as I was. Her eyes narrowed. "Do I know you?"
"You should," he said jauntily. "I'm the sonofabitch who put a knife through your mother's throat."
Alice froze. I could feel a great weight in the room. She was gathering up her power! And she had been worried about what I would do!
"You didn't think I would recognize you in that stupid disguise?" Lazarus said, tauntingly. "You might be all grown up, but I'll never forget your face as long as I live. I was the only survivor that day. Your temper tantrum took that old wizard's head off. Poor bastard put up a shield, but all it did was protect his body. He never did get it high enough before you hit him with that dark magic of yours. The other two were disintegrated. Gone as if they had never existed. But me. I hit the deck. Played dead. Your little fox friend hustled me out of the castle after she restrained you. You didn't know I'd survived, oh great Monster Lord? She never told you?"
Did it happen for real just like it did in my dream? I'd thought that dream might be a vision of some sort. Who would have sent it to me? Ilias? But why?
Trying to stave off the explosion I knew was coming from Alice, who was standing their shaking with rage, I addressed Lazarus.
"But you were all going to go and make things right! What changed?"
That got Alice's attention. She looked at me in disbelief. I knew an explanation was going to be demanded under penalty of extreme pain and suffering once we left here.
"What changed?" Lazarus sneered. "My three dead friends is what changed! Whatever the Monster Lord we waxed wanted, her little shit hellspawn wasn't down with it! Hell, I wasn't either! Maybe that kid's mother was a good person, I don't know. Here's what I do know: no matter what some humans or monsters might want, we'll never be able to get along because monsters are just too powerful! As long as they exist, humans will always live in fear, because every human knows that all they have to do is get caught alone in the wrong place and BAM!! Raped or eaten by some abomination! They even do it to the females sometimes! What is that even about! No monster needs to eat a lady! Face it kid, humans and monsters will never get along! The Goddess Ilias knows what she's talking about. We need to kill them all! But I guess my days of doing that are over. She's here to finish what she started all those years ago."
"You're wrong," Alice said quietly. "No…. not completely wrong. Monsters are stronger than humans, and many of them do terrible things. It's natural that humans would fear monsters, given that difference in power. That doesn't mean that strife between us is inevitable. Luka and I have been to many villages and towns on the way here. In many of those places, humans and monsters do get along. There are many more humans willing to accept them than you think. That's why you do violence in those towns. Not because monsters are hurting humans, but because they are getting along with them!"
"So what about me? What about my friends? Do you even remember them?!"
"I haven't forgotten," Alice replied. "I think about them every day. The feeling as my magical power destroyed them. The feeling of ending human lives…."
Lazarus' anger subsided. He looked down, his expression sad. "Do you know what her last words were? 'For coexistence'. Just before she died, she whispered that to me. I was a different man back then. So full of my own shit. You know, I didn't really hate all monsters then. I joined up for the glory, figured if we got rid of the evil Monster Lord that maybe things would get better. I was just a kid when the Slaughter happened. I had big dreams about going to the Monster Lord's castle, slaying her, and then everything being all right again. Then a kid… A kid monster! Just annihilates us as if we were vermin!"
I saw a tear start to form in Alice's eye. Had I ever seen that before? Yes, tears of fright when she saw ghosts. This was different. This was a tear of regret. I could feel her power levels subsiding. The threatened explosion was averted. Or maybe not? Her face went cold again.
"I can't deny the truth," she said. "But I do believe in coexistence as my predecessor did."
"Are you shittin' me?!" Lazarus exploded. "The one who killed my friends is spewing crap like that!?"
"She's right though!" I shouted. "You know as well as anyone that humans and monsters are getting along. You're the one ordering attacks in those places!"
"I'm just saving them from their own stupidity!" he yelled. "They'll realize it soon enough! The monsters will turn on them just like they did at Remina! We can never live in peace with those bastards! Why am I even arguing with you?! You're just the Monster Lord's little flunkie! Is she going to have you kill me because she doesn't want to do it herself? Well c'mon then! Do it!"
"I see you're looking for a place to die," Alice said. "But I won't let you become a martyr."
She looked at me and shifted her eyes to the left. She wanted me to look away. I didn't want to comply, but I had to trust her. He'd killed her mother. She said that she didn't intend to martyr him. I turned away. Her eyes flashed. Lazarus turned to stone.
"You can still hear me, Lazarus," she said. "I can turn you back whenever I want. When the world has changed, I'll give you a chance to live in it. I want to prove you wrong. I want you to see that you're wrong. When that day comes, I'll be back. In the meantime, think about all that you've done."
I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Two men emerged into the basement. "Lazarus, about tomorrow's plans… Holy crap! What happened here?"
"What happened is that Ilias Kreuz is dissolved," I said.
"Monsters are here! Let's get the hell out of here!"
"Now that we're alone again," I said. "Shall we revive the Garuda? Do we need to get this egg back to the shrine?"
"No," she said. "the shrine is just the place where it's kept. We can hold the ceremony anywhere."
"So do I just pull out the orbs, and…."
"Wait, Luka," she said. "You owe me an explanation."
"About how I knew about your mother?"
"Did Tamamo tell you?" she asked. "I know she also had that conversation you weren't supposed to be having."
"No, she didn't tell me about your mother, other than that she died when you were young. I had a dream. I saw the whole thing. Your mother locking you in a cell. The four heroes, your mother, Tamamo being put to sleep, her telling them what had happened, you coming in… "
"How?!" she said in disbelief. "How could you see that in a dream?! And why didn't you tell me!?"
"Because I didn't know that it wasn't just a dream!" I yelled. "I don't know where it came from."
"When did you have the dream?" she demanded.
"It was while I was out cold after the last Granberia fight."
"Are there any Ilias dreams that you haven't told me about?"
"Just one," I said. "She didn't say anything new though, just the usual. That was a long time ago. She hasn't spoken to me since."
"I bet she spoke to you with that dream about my mother," she said. "I just can't figure out why she'd want you to know that. What in the world is that girl up to?"
We just looked at each other for a few moments. The anger on her face subsided. She grabbed my hand. "Come on," she said.
"Where are we going?" I asked. "The egg…"
"It will still be here when we get back," she assured me. "I cast a spell on it. Even if someone tries to move it they won't be able to. This is important. Neither of us are in any frame of mind to bother with the Garuda right now. We need a quiet place to talk. Not this basement."
She led me to a hill overlooking Gold Port. I sat and looked at the view. I could see the entire city from that hill. Night was beginning to fall. Alice sat down next to me, still in human form.
"You know, you were right," I said to Alice.
"About what?" she asked.
"About me being an idiot. I set out thinking that if I just put a new pair of eyes on all the problems humans and monsters were having, that I could think of something. I wasn't so delusional as to think that I could do it all myself, of course. But I did think that whatever the problem, there was an answer. What Lazarus said… it rings true on my world as well. Humans fear those who are stronger than them. They fear what is different. Can there ever really be true understanding between humans and monsters?"
"That's what I set out to learn, just like you," she said. "You know, these humans have all their heroes, but you're more of a hero than any of them. Of course, you're also an idiot, naïve, and rush into things without thought. Do you know why you do all this?"
"Do what?"
"Be a hero," she said. "When we started out you said you weren't a hero, you just wanted to travel and learn. But almost immediately you got caught up in people's problems, without regard to whether they were humans or monsters. Even before I met you, you had rushed out into the woods alone to confront a monster attacking your village. The soldiers there couldn't get their act together well enough to defend the village, so you took it upon yourself to do so."
"I was just scouting, actually," I said. "I hadn't intended it to turn into a fight. She snuck up on me."
"Seems like life sneaks up on you," she chuckled. "You do the things you do because you have a good heart. I have to admit, if I hadn't met you, if I'd traveled alone and only encountered the natives of this world, I wouldn't have held out much hope for coexistence. Sure, many of them are nice, but most of the nice ones are weak. If there's one thing Cassandra was right about, it's that the strong rule over the weak. Unless someone strong seeks to defend the weak. That's what you do. It's what Granberia does. It's what I want to do. But if I'd only seen hateful people and weaklings I just would have assumed humanity to be hopeless. You've given me hope. But you're also still a mystery to me."
"How so?"
"I don't really understand what motivates you," she replied. "If I knew your background maybe I could figure out why you're the way you are, but even you don't remember enough. Why was your mind wiped? Why did Ilias choose someone so decent? Maybe she believes her own crap so much that she thought getting a good guy to go after the Monster Lord would work? I can't imagine she's that much of a fool."
"I have to confess I don't really get you either," I said. "I can never predict what you'll do in any situation. Sometimes you help, sometimes you don't. Sometimes you hang on me like glue, other times you send me on my way and wait for me. I misjudge your intentions a lot, like with the Maia situation. Why did you leave me alone to see the king, anyway?"
"That time it was exactly like the Maia situation. I understand what's going on between you and Sara. I know it's not love, it's not even lust. Maybe I just want you to do something that will be good for you, like marrying a princess. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if you got roped into that. As much as you've gone around being manipulated and roped into things, why not get roped into becoming a prince? It's certainly better than any likely fate that awaits you where you're going."
"My path is fixed," I said. "I'm too close to back down now."
"Well, I guess I haven't made it too obvious why I do the things I do, but I think we do understand each other in the ways that matter."
"I think we do," I agreed. "I know I've said it before, but you falling out of the sky and into my life is the best thing that ever happened to me."
She looked at me for a moment, then looked away. "You know, my mother really believed in coexistence. She was getting more and more troubled about the increasing strife. She decided to end the fighting with her own life. She thought if she was defeated by a hero, that the humans would be satisfied. She put me in a jail. She even augmented it with magic. She succeeded. They understood. But… then I broke the seal and rushed to my mother's side. She had underestimated my power. When I saw her lifeless body, I couldn't contain myself. Tamamo pulled me out of the room, but not before I was sure I'd killed all of them. I guess she had hope that the one survivor could fulfill my mother's dream. But you saw how it is. She sacrificed her life for that dream and I trampled on it."
"It wasn't your fault, Alice," I insisted. "You were just a kid."
"A kid who murdered Lazarus' friends. I ruined everything. Because of me, my mother died for nothing."
"Maybe you should turn him back and tell him what you told me," I suggested.
"Do you really think that would make things better? That an apology would make him feel better about his friends? I tried reasoning with him briefly, but he's too bitter. I did him a favor. He needs me to be the cold, cruel Monster Lord. It gives his life meaning. I have so many regrets. If I hadn't done that, maybe the world would already be at peace."
"You can't hold yourself responsible for something you did when you were that young," I said. I put my arms around her and held her close.
"That's why I have to atone," she said. "For destroying my mother's dream."
Not knowing what to say to that, I brought us back to something else she'd talked about. "So when you decided to travel the world, did you have any expectations? Were you surprised to find that there were good humans? Didn't you tell me before that you thought humans were barbaric?"
"Yes," she said. "I was motivated by guilt, so I wanted to see if there was a way to make my mother's dream a reality. But a part of me wanted to expiate the guilt by seeing humanity as evil. Honestly, it's what I expected to find. Especially once I found out I was near Ilias Village. I expected to find terrible people. Of course, I ran into you first. I even thought you might be a terrible person. You'd fought that slime girl. I was ready to make the first human I saw on my journey a meal. My first impression of you was that you were cowardly. That was probably unfair. I'm pretty intimidating, after all."
"Yes you are," I agreed. "I was pretty scared."
"And yet you saw a powerful monster unconscious, and your first thought was to come to her aid. I'd been looking for a reason to not feel guilty. Part of me hoped that humans would be evil, irredeemable, and then I'd have every justification to exterminate the strong ones and enslave the weak ones. You may have done more for human and monster relations just by being in the right place at the right time than anything else you've done on this journey."
"I don't believe you were ever capable of being that kind of Monster Lord," I said. "I may not understand you as much as I would like, but I think I know you well enough to know that you couldn't do that."
"Perhaps not," she said. "So…. Where we're going… it's going to be pretty dangerous. No more inns, not even a peaceful, pleasant place like this to just sit and relax. You could die at any time. Are you sure you're not a virgin?"
"What? What does that have to do with anything?"
"You just shouldn't take a chance on dying while you're still a virgin," she said. "Since you've never been with a woman in this world and you don't specifically remember being with one in yours, I think that sorta makes you a virgin, don't you?"
"It's weird. I know I haven't had sex here, but I've been made to come so many times it seems like having intercourse would be anticlimactic at this point."
"Maybe with a human woman," she said. "But not with me. The things I can do to you with my pussy are even more amazing than my mouth. Would you like to find out? Unless you're frightened of my snake vagina. I understand if you are. I can have sex with you in human form if you want. It won't be as amazing but if it makes you more comfortable…"
"No," I said gently. "I want you as you are. Your true self. But aren't we leaving tomorrow? Should you really be doing that to me?"
"We'll wait until you're fully recovered at the inn," she said. "We have plenty of money and Hellgondo isn't going anywhere. I don't think it'll take you more than a day at this point. You really are getting stronger. Still a bit too quick on the trigger. I doubt you'll last ten seconds the first time you get inside me. I'm still concerned about that. The monsters on Hellgondo know some crazy sexual techniques. I need to do this for you. You'll need every edge you can get."
"All right," I said. "But if we're going to do that, what about you? All those other times you were just feeding. I didn't really worry if you were getting pleasure beyond that. But this feels different to me. Is there anything you want me to do for you?"
"Just lay there, that's enough for now. I'll take care of everything. If we get the chance to do this again maybe I'll teach you something. It's hard for a human to please a monster. Humans get overwhelmed so easily by the sensations that it becomes hard to do anything but endure them. If I keep training you, maybe you'll get to a point where you can do something for me. In the meantime, don't worry. I can get plenty of pleasure from you on my own."
She placed herself on top of me, grabbing my already hard dick and placing it at the entrance to her vagina. "This is going to be a lot for you to take. Knowing you, you'll orgasm as soon as your penis touches it. So let's just plunge it all the way in right from the start."
She pushed her pussy down hard on me, taking me completely inside immediately. She was right. The feeling was overwhelming, more than anything I'd ever felt. I know I've said that a lot in this book, but that just tells you how much things kept escalating. I exploded right away, deep inside her.
"Horahora, I knew that would happen," she chuckled. "But I know you're strong. I'm going to drain you dry today. I think you can take it. Now let's begin the real techniques. That was just insertion."
Her vagina squeezed down on me hard. "I can control my pussy at will, even change its shape. I've mastered many techniques that can bring a man to tears. I won't judge you if you cry. You have nothing to prove to me."
I was gasping in pleasure at the tightness. "Oh, do you think this is tight?" she said. "That wasn't even a real technique. Any skilled human woman can do that. It just takes a little exercise and practice. But this…"
Her pussy tightened ever further, so hard I'm sure it would have hurt if not for her magic. But as always, even things that hurt felt amazing when a monster did it. Especially the Monster Lord.
"That skill is called Serpent Choking," she explained. "Only a lamia has the strength to do it."
I came again, surprised that anything could even come out as tight as she was squeezing me. "Already, again? I haven't even moved yet and you've come twice! It doesn't matter though, you've got lots more to go and I have lots of techniques. Let's see if I can drain you without ever having to repeat any."
Her pussy released the pressure. I wasn't given time to catch my breath, assaulted anew by an entirely new sensation. It felt like her vagina was chewing on me. I'd never imagined such a sensation could be so amazing. Without teeth, being chewed on was incredible!
"This technique is called the Sea Slug Wave," she explained. "I won't trouble you with its origin, might ruin the mood. It feels incredible though, doesn't it?"
I blinked enthusiastically while making incoherent sounds. It wasn't as intense but the pleasure was divine. This one took a little more time to finish me. Two minutes. It was two minutes of the best feeling sex I had ever had. At least until the next technique, I assumed.
My prediction was correct. Her pussy began to make a sucking motion somehow, as if she was sucking my dick with her pussy. Actually, that's exactly what she was doing. I was getting a blowjob, with a vagina!
"This skill is called Leech Suck," she said, rhythmically sucking, her walls drawing me deeper, or at least trying to, given that I was already in as far as I could go. I lasted three minutes.
"Again so quick?" she said. "I'm going to have to train you harder. You have to be able to last long enough to defeat your enemies. I need to make it so that their boring techniques don't distract you at all. This one is the best yet. I'm the only monster who isn't a succubus who can do this in the entire world."
Continuing with the blowjob theme, the folds of her vagina started to move around independently of each other, almost like individual tongues licking me.
"This is called Fold Hell,' she said. "I can move each and every fold as I desire."
I arched my back and moaned in pleasure. I don't know how she could tell, given that I was reacting enthusiastically to everything, but she somehow sensed that I was really appreciating this.
"Oh, you like that, do you?" she said. "I was going to focus on your most sensitive part to finish you quickly, but since you like it so much I'll let you enjoy it awhile. Which still won't be very long, hehe.."
The feeling of tongues running up and down my shaft continued. I must have been getting stronger, because I was sure this would have caused me to literally go insane, possibly die, just a month ago. It's no wonder she had to slowly escalate her techniques over the course of this journey! Despite how difficult the technique seemed, she showed no signs of tiring while performing it. I lasted a full five minutes. She never got impatient or slowed. She just kept up the incredible sensations until I enjoyed my best orgasm yet, all the while the tongue-like folds licking my entire shaft.
"This one might surprise you," she warned. "But you've endured scarier-seeming techniques from me before. I admire your bravery. So get ready."
She released the pressure on my penis once again, focusing solely on the head. It felt like individual small tentacles had emerged from her cervix to tease my glans and frenulum. 'This is called Playful Sea Anenome. I have a second mouth that you haven't seen that has these little tentacles. I can use that mouth to devour prey. But I can also use it to give pleasure."
I actually wasn't enjoying this as much, although it was still quite wonderful because it was a new sensation. She could also sense this, so switched things up a bit, removing the small tentacles from my head and wrapping them just under it. She then began to rotate them.
"This one is a new variation," she explained. "It doesn't have a name yet. It's inspired by your favorite of my oral techniques. Maybe I'll call it the Luka Slayer."
As she said that, I came again. I'd lost count of how many times it had been. I had a thought that this was probably doing nothing for my amnesia. I was pretty sure I was about to forget my own name, the only thing I'd entered this world with in the first place.
"You seem to be drying up now," she said. "One more special technique. I think this will be your favorite."
The walls of her pussy started to squeeze me gently and move side to side, like a pencil held between two fingers. I gasped at the new sensation and came within seconds.
"Oh my!" she said. "You did like that one! I didn't even get a chance to tell you what it was. I think you've only got one more left in you. But now it's time for me to really enjoy myself. The good news is that it will go easier for you now. You said you've had sex before. Then you should be familiar with this."
She started moving up and down on my penis, riding me, rubbing herself against me with each down thrust. This was familiar, and I was enjoying it for that familiarity. I surprised her by reaching up and grabbing her sides, pushing her relatively light upper half up and down on me. She started to scream in pleasure herself, until she rested her head on my chest while she continued to pump. I orgasmed one final time, proud that I'd managed to last at least a full ten minutes. She was close too, because after my final orgasm she began pumping even more furiously, until at least she shuddered and collapsed on top of me, breathing heavily. For a few minutes she just lay there on my chest, catching her breath. I wasn't sure how much of that was me and how much of it was her, but I was proud that she got pleasure from me beyond the mere joy of filling her belly. I also loved that she was holding me, her hair splayed all over my torso. I enjoyed it even more than what she had done to me. It ended all too soon. With a happy sigh, she rolled off of me and began getting dressed.
"You did good, Luka," she said. "I drained you dry and you're still conscious. You still come way too easily, but even after a few times you still had enough energy left to make it fun for me. That was really great for a first time."
"My first time?" I asked.
"No, idiot, mine!" she said. "That was my first time having sex. I was a maiden."
I had heard a lot of surprising revelations on this journey but that one had me utterly gobsmacked. How? She was the Monster Lord! Didn't she have dozens of human slaves to feed off of?
"Alice…." I said. "I don't know what to say. Why me?"
"I don't know," she said. "I like you. You're here. You needed this. Lots of reasons."
I wasn't satisfied by that at all, but decided not to ruin this moment by making her uncomfortable.
"But how did you feed before you met me? You just didn't have intercourse?"
"Ever since I was young," she explained. "I was prohibited from coming into contact with humans. The only semen I drank was stuff already squeezed out before."
"But how did you learn to be so amazing?" I asked. "All those techniques you know!"
"I was taught, of course. We monsters aren't as squeamish about sex as you humans are. Once I became a teenager I was taught the most amazing techniques for milking a man. Catered to my unique biology of course."
"Tamamo taught you all that?" I asked.
"Tamamo?!" Alice replied. "Don't be absurd! Tamamo is good, but a lamia doesn't go to a kitsune for advice on sexual techniques. We're too different."
"Then who taught you?"
"Who do you think taught me?" she replied. "Of all the monsters you've met, who would I be most likely to learn insane sexual techniques from?"
"Oh! Duh! Alma Elma!"
"That's right, Alma Elma," she confirmed. "Only a succubus is so skilled that she can teach a lamia. None are more skilled than Alma Elma. And what was that you said? Duh?"
"It's a way of expressing that I should have known something because it was obvious," I replied. "Duh-uh, why didn't I see it?"
"Duh…" she said, trying it out.
"You can stretch it out if it's something really stupid. Duhhhhhhhhhh!!!!"
"Duhhhhhhh!!!!!" she said, mimicking me.
"Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" I said, making a stupid face.
"DUHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" she responded, making an even sillier face and laughing.
Oh man, did I love this woman! What's more, I was becoming increasingly convinced that she wanted me to not just defeat the Heavenly Knights, but prove my strength over her as well. I was convinced that she loved me as much as I loved her. Why else would she give her virginity to me? I considered telling her I loved her then and there, but decided to wait. If she had wanted me to go there, she would have been more forthcoming about why she had decided to have sex with me. Her answer had clearly been evasive. I thought I knew why. She wanted me to be her husband, but couldn't say it while I was still weaker than she was. The Monster Lord's husband had to be stronger than the Monster Lord. Well, I was going to get stronger! I was going to master the power of fire, as well as finish mastering all the other elements! I was going to defeat the Knights and then prove my strength to her as I'd proven it to the spirits! Then we would be married and live happily ever after. Maybe I'd even get to show her my world. Just a short time ago I had been unsure about going to Hellgondo. My mind wasn't in the right place. Now everything made sense. I knew exactly what I was going to do and was confident that I'd be able to do it. I was sure this was my destiny. Alice and I would be married and together we'd bring peace to this world. It's why I was brought here. Maybe it wasn't what the goddess of this world intended for me. But maybe there was a force in the multiverse even bigger than Ilias. I had to believe that.