The silver lining to being so rudely awakened in the middle of the night was that we could go find Sylph in the desert while it was still cool outside. The other silver lining was that we didn't have to search the entire desert a second time. We knew to go to the ruins to find Sylph. Oh, and of course one more silver lining, the fact that in a desert it's hard to hide. The angel guarding Sylph was easily visible from the air. This particular angel had wings that doubled as legs and she appeared to have spinnarets on her body. When we landed, she introduced herself.
"I am Virtue Silkiel, the angel in charge of the threads of life. It's my role to wrap those who have passed on through this life in my cocoon, and offer up their soul to the heavens. I do not normally do it to flesh and blood humans like you, but Ilias ordered me to handle your life."
"I hate to disappoint you," I responded. "But I'm not dead, nor is my soul even of this world. You'll have to discuss it with whatever god rules my world first."
"Hmmmm, that would be disappointing. Ilias really wants your soul. It would be a shame if it was out of her reach. Such theological questions are not for me to determine, however. I have been given my assignment and I shall carry it out."
"Above your pay grade, eh?" I snorted, drawing my sword.
I summoned Gnome since her primary weapon appeared to be her silk and I would need the extra power to break out of it. Then I blundered. Since I had Gnome, I decided to try an Earth Rumbling Decapitation. The problem with that is I was jumping from sand. I leaped only a few inches off the ground and went down into the sand face first. I was pulled out of the sand by the angel, her spinnarets already working to bind me. Within seconds she had me covered in her silk up to my knees, binding my legs together. My sword had been left in the sand. I noticed Alice picking it up. She was going to have to bail me out yet again.
"Hmmm, what shall I do with you now?" she mused, entirely ignoring Alice. "I've been told you like blowjobs. Perhaps I will suck on you until you can no longer resist. Or maybe… There's something I've always wanted to try."
She lowered me and then shoved my penis into one of her spinnarets. The sensation that attacked me was yet another completely new experience. Not only did I feel flesh and silk, but it started rapidly spinning. That started me frantically struggling, or perhaps frantically writhing in pleasure, it's hard to remember which. What I do know is that Alice chose that moment to act, attempting to drive her sword into the angel's chest.
Inexplicably, she made the same blunder I did. Alice, being very short at the moment, needed to jump to reach anything but the angel's wings that were anchoring her to the ground. Trying to jump on sand went about as well for her as it had for me. How could she make the same mistake she'd just watched me make? She made up for it by reaching for my leg and pulling me. My penis came out of the spinnaret with an audible pop.
I fell to the ground in a heap on top of Alice. Silk rained down on both of us as Silkiel attempted to cocoon us both.
"Hehe," the angel laughed. "How fitting for you to be clutching each other in death! This was an opportunity I had not anticipated! Ilias will be pleased!"
"Luka," Alice warned. "This might hurt. I ask thee eternal time, reveal my body, yoked in twilight. Return my true body to me!"
It didn't hurt that much, but it was certainly uncomfortable as she burst out of the cocoon in her true body, picking up Angel Halo and thrusting it deep into the spinnaret of Silkiel. With a cry of anguish the angel was sealed into the sword. Alice, back to her child body, helped me up and handed my sword back to me.
"That was a pretty dumb stunt, idiot," Alice said. "trying to jump in sand like that."
"You did it too!" I shot back.
"Did not! I was… doing something else! I'm just not used to this body. That would have worked perfectly had I been in my real body."
"A little help, guys!"
Sylph! She was nearer than I had anticipated. She was buried up to her neck in sand! Gnome didn't even wait for permission, causing the sand to cough Sylph up.
"Yay!" Sylph said. "You came to rescue me! Thanks, Gnomey! You're a great friend! Oh, but I'm so weak!"
"You know what you have to do, Luka," Alice said. "Hurry up. I'll just go… pound sand or something."
"Now to get some tasty energy from Luka!" Sylph yelled, leaping into my arms. Catching her small form shouldn't have been a challenge, but she increased her body size to equal mine, which was both an ability I didn't know she had, and a great way to catch me off balance. I went down into the sand, Sylph straddling me.
"I know you really love Alice, so I'll try not to make this too much fun for you," Sylph whispered conspiratorially.
She put my penis inside her and began bouncing up and down happily. "Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing!" she sang. A couple of dozen "boings" later, I emptied a load inside her. She was right. There's no such thing as bad sex, or at least if there was I'd never experienced it, but that had been pretty perfunctory. She must have changed her mind, however.
"That was quick!" she said joyfully. "I know I said I wasn't going to make it too much fun for you, but now that I've got some energy I want to show you something only I can do!"
With me still inside her, she shrunk to the size she had been when I first met her. This of course increased the tightness even more. "Fun, huh? But that's not the trick! THIS is the trick!"
I felt her draw wind into herself. Then she began to bounce again, but at an insane speed. "Boingboingboingboingboingboingboingboing" she sang happily. Let's just say the orgasm was crazy intense about 30 seconds later. I didn't even notice that Sylph had reentered me shortly afterwards.
Since Sylph had been a lot less gentle on me than Gnome had, I had to just lay there for awhile. Alice must have gotten impatient, because a few minutes later she was standing over me, arms folded.
"It looks like you're done, idiot."
"Sorry!" Sylph said, poking her head out of my chest. "I got a little carried away with your lover! Won't happen again!"
"He's not my lover, idiot!"
"Riiiiight," Sylph replied, and sunk back into me. That had been a very weird feeling.
My mission to regain Sylph's power complete, we hopped on Galda's back and headed for Grand Noah.
The situation in Grand Noah looked bad. San Ilia level bad. There was no front line. Chimera beasts roamed freely through the city. I had hoped for better given the monster population there. As I considered whether it might be better to go straight to Undine's spring to presumably get Salamander, Alice pointed out something odd. The coliseum was filled with people! Was there a contest going on? How? There were two combatants on the arena floor, but they were waiting for something. I directed Galda to land and hopped off of her back. Alice did not follow.
"Luka, I think I know what this is," she said. "I'm going to go help the people of the city."
Galda took off, leaving me alone with the two combatants and the packed coliseum. I didn't understand what she was talking about, but one of the combatants stepped forward to welcome me.
"Greetings, hero!" one of them said. The one who addressed me looked less like a chimera and more like one of the next dolls. It had more metal parts than flesh. A cyborg? Mech? It carried a huge spear. The other one also appeared to be a mech or cyborg. I recognized its form immediately. It had lamia parts. Instead of its whole lower body being a tail, it had a mechanical leg, and its tail was actually where the other leg should have been. Both of its arms were mechanical, although I couldn't identify what, if any, weapons it carried.
"What's happening here?" I asked, dreading the answer. Gathering people into coliseums to execute them was something that had happened in my world many times.
"The forces of heaven have tried many ways to kill you," the cyborg with the weapon explained. "Arc-En-Ciel, my master, believes that they've tried everything but what they should have attempted in the first place: drawing you into honorable combat."
"Arc-En-Ciel?" I asked. "Is that the Next Doll that beat up Granberia?"
"She is indeed," it replied. "I am known as Knightroid. I share the DNA of an elf and an echidna in addition to my mechanical enhancements. I was created for combat. My companion here is known as lamiaroid. She was created for pleasure. If you can defeat us both, the city is yours. Should you fail… everyone in this coliseum dies."
Screams erupted from the stands. I took a closer look. The stands were filled with all women, each and every one handcuffed to their seats.
"While I respect that you wish to challenge me to honorable combat," I said. "Two on one isn't that honorable, nor is hostage taking. How can I trust that you'll keep your word?"
"You may have noticed that we are the only two here who are not dumb beasts," Lamiaroid replied. "Without us, they are useless. Defeat us, you save the city. The bulk of the army that took this city is marching on Grangold. While heaven's forces enjoyed destroying San Ilia, it did not achieve the objective of neutralizing you. Assassination failed as well. So Arc-En-Ciel decided to try this. I would say that the objective of getting you here has been achieved."
"All right," I said. "I'll fight."
Smatters of cheers could be heard from the crowd, as well as shouts of encouragement. As twisted as I'd thought the tournaments to be, this was another level of absurd. Yet it was an opportunity to save Grand Noah. I had no choice. I wasn't worried about Knightroid. As formidable as she looked, I was never intimidated by anything that faced me with a weapon. Lamiaroid was a bigger problem. I had been especially susceptible to pleasure attacks from lamias, who I decided were second only to succubi in skill and attractiveness. And yet I could not concentrate on her despite the greater threat she posed. No matter how much more dangerous pleasure attacks were to me than attacks with weapons, it would never do to ignore the sharp object coming my way to avoid a pleasure attack.
"You can do it, hero!" "Go Luka!"
The crowd's hope seemed to be rising as I prepared to face my opponents. Despite the fact that I had Sylph and Gnome back, I elected to use my serene state. Fighting two opponents would require me to see and feel the flow, even if my ability to use it was limited without Undine. I concentrated and dimly perceived it. Knightroid made the first attack, a simple thrust to feel me out. I'm sure I would have avoided it or parried it even without the flow, but letting the flow guide me did make it easier. It helped a great deal to avoid Lamiaroid's attempt to grab me with her tail, since I might not have reacted to it quickly enough without the aid of the flow. My counterattack was directed at Lamiaroid, striking one of her mechanical arms. Sparks flew from it and it went limp. Through the flow I could see that I had disabled it completely. One less thing to worry about already.
Knightroid followed up with a trickier, faster strike at my upper body with that spear. That one caught me and opened up the worst cut I'd suffered since my journey began. I don't count Granberia's because those didn't bleed or threaten my life. This one bled. A lot. Which took me out of my serene state, as hard blows often did. I really needed to work on that. Since serene state was no longer an option, I summoned Gnome and decided to take one of them out as quickly as possible. An earth rumbling decapitation knocked Knightroid completely out, although it did not seal her.
With me no longer able to use the flow, Lamiaroid wrapped me in her tail and we both tumbled to the ground. "I've been told you love a lamia's mouth," she said, her head poised over my groin. With her hands, she tore my pants off and began to coil her tongue around my dick. I struggled, but even with Gnome I was unable to free myself. The seal was making Gnome's power less effective than it should have been.
What was also less effective than it should have been was her pleasure attack. While her technique was quite proficient and pleasurable, the magic behind it was weak. It must have been a tradeoff of being more metal than flesh. Perhaps the magic could only reside in the flesh? Such concepts were beyond my understanding but what I did comprehend was the fact that I wasn't in as much danger as I initially feared. I made a decision to let her fellate me while I patiently worked my way out of her tail. Did she know her monster magic was weak? It seemed a strange thing to overlook when designing a pleasure weapon.
I squirmed, subtly checking for weaknesses in her bind. She interpreted my squirming as appreciation, stopping briefly to brag about her technique. It was good, that part of her programming or training had been up to snuff for certain. The crowd was getting restless with worry. The shouts of encouragement continued. I took brief satisfaction in knowing that for the first time they weren't enjoying seeing a man raped in the arena.
Sensing that I was getting too close for comfort, but still not confident I could break out, I made one big push. It almost worked. I felt her struggling to keep me constrained as she bore down harder, sucking me deeper and faster. She won that particular battle, however. With a gasp I came in her mouth. The crowd gasped as well. Some of the women started to scream, others to cry.
With a victory yell, Lamiaroid released me. "Now, hero, do you know how a lamia finishes their prey? By swallowing them whole! I'm going to start with your legs so that you can watch yourself be swallowed!"
She stood up and picked me up by my legs with her one working arm. Her jaw unhinged to make space for my body. My feet went into her mouth. I felt her body convulse as her throat muscles tried to pull me in. I went in up to my knees. I picked up my sword, still laying next to me. She was so engrossed in swallowing me that she didn't notice. Another constriction of her throat muscles and I was in almost to my waist. I chopped at her working arm. Sparks flew from it and it hung uselessly. She wasn't giving up, however. She raised her head upwards and tried to get me to slide the rest of the way in. With all the strength Gnome could lend me I drove Angel Halo into her skull, trying hard to avoid my own body. That did the trick. More machine than living thing, she fell to the ground, dead or deactivated I would never be sure. The fall knocked the wind out of me. I lay there, still halfway down her throat, until I could move again. The crowd was silent, not sure whether to hope or despair. When I finally pulled my body from her mouth, covered in slimy gunk, a loud cheer went up from the audience. The cheer abruptly cut off. Uh oh.
I looked behind me just in time to see Knightroid, apparently now functioning again, seeking to impale me on her spear. I avoided it with a fraction of an inch to spare. I felt fine, at least I thought I did. The orgasm had produced the weakest critical ecstasy I'd ever felt, and I had already been getting to the point where I could at least stand up straight after one orgasm. Knightroid turned and prepared to attack again. Knightroid seemed to be critical herself. She was sparking and looked unsteady. With Gnome tired, I switched to Sylph. If I was indeed in semi-critical ecstasy, the speed boost might compensate somewhat.
It did more than that. Sylph was angry. Due to the seal, her power wasn't what it had been when I'd battled in the Monster Lord's castle, but it was greater than anything she'd given me before then. I simply wasn't there when Knightroid struck again. Before she could attempt a third strike, she was hit several times, falling to the ground, sparking and twitching.
Now the fans cheered with unreserved enthusiasm. They cheered even louder when their cuffs automatically opened, freeing them. Whatever spell had controlled the restraints had been broken with the defeat of the… roids? Many of the women wanted out of the coliseum as soon as possible. Others milled around on the coliseum floor. Through the crowd, the queen emerged and approached me.
"Hero Luka," she addressed me. "Due to your actions, you have saved me and my people. As the queen, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You dashed into the coliseum and saved us all. You are truly a hero of legend. If I was a princess, I would marry you right here."
I was into older women, so that actually sounded a little tempting, or would have been if I hadn't already been in love. Speaking of whom, Alice seemed to have a radar for this sort of thing, because she chose that moment to return on Galda's back. One of the advantages of her being in her child form was that apparently she couldn't just vanish while still keeping an eye on me.
Alice reported that she had mopped up most of the beasts randomly running around the city. The news was not good. Most of the males had been either killed or carried off. Alice speculated that many probably would have escaped as well. The women, those unable or unwilling to run, had been nearly all herded into the coliseum as bait for the hero. As I gazed among the crowd milling about, I noticed that a large number of the women were monsters. Many of them, both human and monster were approaching me to hug and kiss me. Alice's tail began to threateningly coil around my leg. Even I was starting to get a little annoyed at Alice. If she was going to be like this, couldn't she at least tell me how she felt about me? I recognized that making formal commitments to me was out of the question, but I thought that she could at least make me feel that she felt about me the same way I felt about her.
My thoughts were interrupted by Alice grabbing my arm and pulling me away from my admiring public back towards Galda. "We have to go! Right now!" she yelled, almost pushing me onto Galda's back. Okay, this was going too far! I began to object, but she stopped me in my tracks.
"I received a message from Tamamo! Yamatai Village is being attacked by monsters! We need to get there as quickly as we can!"
"What? How did you find out about this?"
"The Heavenly Knights and I can communicate in a rudimentary way through telepathy! Galda, to Yamatai Village!"
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