Alice teleported me to a mountaintop overlooking Iliasport. It was a fantastic view, enabling us to surveille the entire army readying itself to invade Sentora. The army was huge. Iliasport didn't have nearly enough resources to feed an army of that size, nor did it have enough ships to transport them in a wave large enough to overcome what was likely to be waiting for it on the opposite shore. In this, whoever the heck this guy was, had chosen his soldiers well. They had power and strength beyond normal humans, but they had the skill and industriousness of ants, taking down the forests near Iliasport with incredible efficiency and using the wood to make passable boats for the crossing.
Tamamo and Ariana popped in a few moments later and joined us, gazing in awe at the sight far below and to the east. My own gaze turned towards the sea. From here, I couldn't make out the coast of Sentora or Port Natalia. It was over the horizon. But I began to envision what Alice must have had in mind. It was so obvious.
"You're going to do what Alma Elma did, aren't you?" I asked. "Create a storm!"
"You got it," Alice confirmed.
"You can do that?" Ariana asked. "You have that kind of power?"
"I do," Alice replied. "And so do you. You just haven't learned how yet. I had the best teachers growing up. Magic came easy to me at a young age. You've had to learn as you go along, but your potential is the same as mine. Making a storm just requires sufficient power, which I already know you have, and knowledge of how to use the element of wind. Have you learned how to use elements?"
"I'm afraid only Tamamo has really dedicated herself to tutoring me in elemental magic," Ariana said. "The other Ancestors served me loyally but I don't think they ever truly accepted me. So the only element I feel I have a really solid handle on is earth."
"Since you're a lot like me, I take it you don't like books very much," Alice said with a smirk.
"They don't taste good, so no," Ariana replied with a smirk of her own.
"Since you don't have tutors, you don't have a choice. The library should have plenty on elemental magic. Study it. You're smart enough to grasp it. Then, you'll be able to do this."
Alice gestured towards the skies. Clouds began forming on what had seconds ago been a lovely, sunny, almost windless day. The reaction of the soldiers down below was immediate. They had been preparing to begin the invasion within hours, but without any emotion or panic hurriedly secured the ships to prepare for the storm. Within minutes, the storm came, drenching the port town below and extending farther out to sea than my vision could take in.
"To think that I could be capable of this…" Ariana breathed. "When I was growing up on the streets of Sabasa, I would never have believed…."
"You've come pretty far without all of my advantages," Alice replied. "Don't sell yourself short. How old are you now, seventy-something? Not even middle aged yet. Hit those books and you'll be as good as me in no time. Probably better, since I'm not going down to that library."
"How long will that storm last?" I asked.
"Without me to keep stoking it, maybe two days, three at most," Alice replied. "If need be I can just come back here. That should buy us time to deal with that guy I refuse to call by any of his stupid monikers. Just one more loose end to tie up. Tamamo, would you be a dear and go into the cave at the bottom of this mountain and retrieve something for me?"
Tamamo bristled. "I don't take orders from you," she answered coldly.
"It wasn't an order," Alice said calmly. "It was a request. There might be a treasure horde in that cave that includes a powerful artifact that if found, would allow them to pass ships through the storm."
"Poseidon's Bell," I said. "Ariana, was there a Captain Selene in this world?"
"The legendary pirate?" Ariana asked. "Yes, she existed. I haven't heard of any Bell, though."
"We should probably go get it if it's in the cave," Alice said. "I asked Tamamo because she can safely trigger all the traps and get it safely. It would be tougher for any of us."
I doubted that the traps could do more than inconvenience Alice. The real reason she didn't want to go into that cave is because she had it in her head that there might be ghosts in there.
"C'mon, Tamamo," I said. "Why don't we go down there together? It's part of the mission to stop this guy."
"Okay," Tamamo sighed. "For you, I'll do it. Do you need me to teleport you down?"
"That would be best, yes," I said. In all these years I'd still only teleported a total of one time.
"That's a good idea, you two going down there together," Ariana said. "Besides, I'd love some alone time with my fellow Monster Lord here. I have so much to learn from her."
"I agree, counterpart," Alice said. "We'll wait up here and watch that army while you two go get the bell. And plan our next steps."
With some reluctance, Tamamo wrapped a few of her tails around me and we teleported out.
Finding the entrance of the cave required some walking around, but eventually we found it. Tamamo gestured for me to remain behind her as we entered. I recalled that we had to get some ways in before we would encounter any traps, so I decided to take full advantage of this time with her.
"I'm sorry that your life has been so rough, Tamamo," I began. "Where I come from, Tamamo is a happy go lucky, cheerful person. She has a dark past as well, but she used to tell me that the advantage of being immortal is that your whole life is always in front of you."
"Why do you insist on liking me?" Tamamo snapped, turning on me. "What have I ever done that would make you want to be nice to me? Is it just because I look like your Tamamo? Believe me, I'm not her."
"You're as similar to her as Ariana is to Alice," I argued. "Your experiences are what make you different, not who you are as a person. You have a kind soul, Tamamo. You just need to have it brought out. All that guilt you carry around is evidence of who you really are. Did your sisters feel guilty about what they'd done?"
"I….. I don't know," she stammered. "I don't think so. They never talked about it. They definitely changed over the last fifty years. They served a kind master instead of a cruel one. I tried to talk to them about the things we'd done, but they'd always shut me down."
We continued walking slowly through the cave, Tamamo sniffing the air, occasionally feeling around the walls, either with her fingers or a tail. She seemed to pause. A trap, encountered earlier than I expected? No, she was thinking. After a long pause, she spoke.
"Tell me about your Tamamo," she said. "What made her change? Did you defeat her like you did me?"
"I did defeat her, and it did cause her to change, but she wasn't a terrible person at that point. In my world…. Wow, it's amazing how I think of it as my world now. I've spent more of my existence there than where I was born. But anyway, on my world there was something called the Great Monster Wars, where the Six Ancestors and the Dark God fought against Ilias and her host of angels."
"Gods on your world can directly intervene on the surface?" she asked, shocked.
"Well, yes…They can't here?"
"No," Tamamo answered. "I don't know whether it's something they just agree upon, or whether some fundamental law of nature prevents it. The Dark God and Ilias may only act through agents. For the Dark God, that was the Six Ancestors. Ilias only ever used prophets, like Justin."
Did Tamamo not know what Justin actually was? I decided not to tell her. Justin would have his reasons to keep that information from her. I was betting he was the reason Ilias and the Dark God could not set foot on the surface.
"In any case, Ilias and the Dark God aren't dire enemies here," Tamamo said. "I can commune directly with the Dark God, and she only cares about the welfare of her creation, the monsters. As long as humans don't oppress monsters, she's satisfied. But while Black Alice was in power, we monsters oppressed the humans. Ilias could not have been happy with that. I guess that's why she brought you here."
That probably wasn't quite how it happened. I wasn't even sure if Ilias had anything to do with this at all. Justin seemed to be pulling all the strings, at least on this world.
"Well, it was like that on my world," I continued. "The war started at a point where monsters completely dominated the humans. Ilias and all her angels attacked the earth, seeking a genocide of the monsters. The war nearly destroyed the earth. Ilias was willing to see the world burn and just start over. The Dark God was not. I used to think it was because the Dark God was a better person, but actually it's just that monsters can't live without humans, but humans can live without monsters. So in order to protect the future of her creation, she and the Six Ancestors sealed themselves in exchange for Ilias' promise to not seek the destruction of the monsters anymore. Tamamo evaded the seal at the Dark God's direction by assuming a childlike form. She was instructed to guide the Monster Lords and watch over them."
"So she was just like me, then she was all alone," Tamamo said. "Like I am now."
"Yes," I said. "She softened over the years. Even got herself a husband. His influence changed her further."
"Stop!" Tamamo ordered. "Don't move. Trap."
Moving forward slowly, step by step, looking up, Tamamo probed the ceiling with a tail stretched out as far as she could reach. When she found the point she was looking for, she stood on her tiptoes and slapped the ceiling with her tail. A giant boulder crashed down from the ceiling onto the ground, blocking the passageway.
"Stand back. Way back," Tamamo said. "Wouldn't hurt to summon your earthpower either. There's going to be a lot of shrapnel flying around."
I walked back as far as I could while still keeping Tamamo in sight. I saw her breathe in earthpower through her feet. She then punched the boulder as hard as she could, causing it to explode. Her advice to summon my own earth element was well taken. Several rocks struck me at high speed flying down the passageway. Tamamo herself was lost in a cloud of dust. She emerged, covered in it, with a satisfied smile.
"That was a good one," she said. "No human, and not many monsters, could get past that one. Only a mild inconvenience for me, however."
Once the dust had settled a few minutes later, she shook herself off violently, like a dog after a bath. It was as if she'd never had a speck of dust on her in the first place. She gestured for us to continue.
"So everything you told me is all well and good," she said. "But I still don't get you. How can you just…. Forgive me after what I did to you?"
"Maybe I liked what you did to me," I replied. That was a very simplistic way of putting things. My experience being raped countless times over the years had been a combination of terror, revulsion, but also intense desire. I hated it, fought against it, and yet…. Part of me enjoyed it. I still hadn't quite come to grips with those experiences.
"You're funny," Tamamo laughed ruefully. "When I rape a man, it goes one of two ways. Either he's traumatized or he falls in love with me. Since you didn't fall in love with me, it stands to reason that you were traumatized."
"You weren't the first monster to do that to me, you know," I pointed out. "I can't even count how many times that's happened to me. I can't very well fall in love with every monster who rapes me."
"Ohhhh," Tamamo said, as if realizing something. "So you're numb to it."
"No, not really," I replied. Well, she might have been partly right. But I didn't feel like an emotionally numb person. I didn't just accept it when it happened. "I'll admit, what you did to me, and especially what happened afterwards when all six of you broke me…. That was rough. But if I went around hating everyone who had ever hurt me, I'd have a pretty big chip on my shoulder. I'd be doing nothing but plotting vengeance day in and day out. That's no way to live. In fact, most of my best friends tried to rape me."
"Do you even realize how wrong that sounds?" Tamamo asked. "On some level I can understand forgiveness. It doesn't come easily to us monsters. The dark magic that created our souls cries out for vengeance when wronged. I know with you humans it's different. Your souls are made of holy magic. Your instincts are towards forgiveness. Of course, both monsters and humans can be different from their biological makeup. We have free will. So many humans are vengeful and cruel. In fact, many of the cruelest people I've known have been human."
"Yes," I agreed. "Man's cruelty to man is well documented."
"But how do you forgive what we did to you? How do you forgive all the things we've done?"
"If we don't, then the alternative is never ending war until one side is completely destroyed. I don't know much about what's gone on here in the fifty years since Black Alice died, but I'm guessing Ariana extended an olive branch to the human kingdoms and it was mostly accepted. If they'd slapped that hand away and waged war, what would this world be like today? At some point, someone has to decide that the wrongs done to them shouldn't be avenged, but forgiven, so that the world can have a better future. On an individual level, one has to forgive their enemies in order to move on with one's life. In my case, doing that resulted in the best relationships, the best friendships, I could ever have hoped for. I know I probably won't be here long, but I'd like to be your friend while I'm here."
Tamamo stopped and considered my words. When she met my gaze, her eyes seemed softer than before.
"You know what?" she said. "I'm going to stop fighting you. I can't say I completely understand why you are the way that you are. But if you want to be my friend, I can't think of a better person to be friends with. Now let's go find that Bell."
We continued on, Tamamo occasionally stopping me and disarming or triggering a trap. The going was slow. In my original journey through this cave, Tamamo and her kitsunes must have had a much greater head start on me than I had originally thought. It took us about two hours to reach the treasure room. I had never seen the inside before and was curious. Tamamo pried the door open with her incredible strength and gestured for me to follow her in. The room was less impressive than I imagined. I'd seen a dragon horde, and this was not even close. Still, she had amassed a pretty good quantity of interesting items.
"Don't touch anything," Tamamo instructed. "I sense cursed magic on some of the items. They will draw you to them, tempt you, and once you touch them you'll be cursed. Just stay where you are and look, but don't touch."
Tamamo, apparently unconcerned about any possible curses, started rummaging through the treasure, searching for the bell. For my part, I stood still and looked around, until I caught sight of a lovely, shiny gold bracelet that looked like it would make an amazing gift for Alice. Don't worry, I wasn't tempted very much. My will is strong. Still, I couldn't help but stare and imagine it on Alice's arm.
Tamamo yanked the Bell out of a pile of trinkets and gestured for me to back out of the narrow treasure room. When we exited, she closed the massive stone door.
"Nice job of avoiding temptation," she said, praising me. "I was keeping a tail at the ready to slap your hand If you tried to pick anything up. Anyway, I've got the bell now. I really must thank you for all you've done for me. So Luka, how would you like me to thank you?"
This was practically a replay of one of my earliest adventures. My answer was the same.
"You could give me the bell," I suggested.
"I was going to give you the bell anyway, silly," she giggled. "You're the only one carrying a backpack."
"You're not suggesting…"
"Sorry, I still don't understand how humans think. I don't know whether you want me to pleasure you more, or whether you don't want me to touch you. I just wanted to find out."
"Perhaps some tofu?" I asked.
"What's tofu?"
"Kitsunes here don't like tofu?"
"What's a kitsune?"
We teleported back to the top of the mountain. Alice and Ariana were conversing like sisters. Given that they were basically the same person, that wasn't surprising.
"So, we have some bad news," Alice reported. "We have no way of gaining any further intelligence on the guy behind all this, and there's really nothing else we can do about his armies, so…."
"We're going to just have to face him directly, and soon," Ariana finished.
"There is one thing we haven't tried," Alice said. "Have you tried contacting Justin?"
"Justin?" Ariana asked, confused. "Justin hasn't been heard from in fifty years. Legend has it that Ilias took him straight to heaven when his mission was completed."
"Wait, you don't know who Justin really is?" Alice asked in disbelief.
"He's a man, a prophet," Ariana answered. "Why, have you heard from him?"
"Not really," I said. "But there's a lot more to Justin than you think. I'm not going to betray his confidence if he didn't reveal that to you. I imagine if he wanted to help us with information he'd be doing that."
"Then this is what it's come to," Alice sighed. "It's been a long day. We should go back to the castle, get some rest, and then teleport in front of Megatron, or Darth Vader, or Gargamel's fortress and rush in."
"I'm afraid that's impossible," Ariana said. "After I sent the Ancestors to do precisely that, he got really paranoid and set wards all over the area. And when I say 'all over the era' I mean forty miles in every direction from Iliasburg. We can't teleport anywhere within that area without alerting him. We have to hoof it on foot."
"Oh, so it'll be like old times, Luka," Alice said, smiling at me. "Okay, so let's teleport down and make camp under cover of the forest a few miles southwest of here. And then us powerful magic users can enjoy a fifty mile stroll to Iiasburg. Do you have food for us, Luka?"
"Always," I said, patting my backpack. I'd made sure to pay John for some supplies just in case.
The late afternoon walk was short but pleasant. Only small showers from the larger storm Alice had created reached us. I complimented her on her improving control. I'd feared she might sweep Iliasport and Port Natalia away. She harrumphed that it was a pretty wide area and she'd been careful to make the storm only strong enough to deter shipping.
We found a comfortable spot in the woods to camp and started setting up. The fire and the pots came out first, and while the other three worked I cooked. It was done by the time they finished. The reviews, as always, were fantastic.
"Incredible as always, Luka," Alice said. The others agreed.
"Now if only I could fill my other stomach," Ariana said out of nowhere.
"Why, do you want to feed on my husband?" Alice said teasingly.
"Could I?" Ariana asked, suddenly getting serious.
"What?!" Alice reacted I surprise. "I mean… I'm surprised you don't have a traveling lunch with you if you're always hungry that way as I am."
"I used to have a traveling lunch," Ariana replied listlessly. "But he passed a few years ago."
"Oh?" Alice asked. "You had a lover?"
"I had a husband," Ariana answered with a sad smile.
"What was his name?" I asked, feeling terrible for her. So much loss in her life, from her mother, to the most valued servants, to her husband.
"His name was Luka," Ariana replied softly.
"I…. I don't understand," I stammered.
"When you left, from your perspective you probably had just vanished, returned to your world," Ariana said. "But from mine, I was holding in my arms a very confused, out of sorts Luka who had been through hell. Physically he was unharmed, but emotionally, mentally… it was a lot. You'd been driving his body around for a few days and it had been a tough experience."
My God! I'd always wondered what happened to my counterparts in the later worlds where I appeared and seemed to drop into a life where people already knew me. All that I'd been through on that last jump, he'd been through as well! Except he wasn't in control!
"Did he remember… everything?" I asked with trepidation.
"In time, yes," Ariana confirmed. "Don't feel guilty, Luka. In every way that was important, he was just like you. He would have gladly endured all of that voluntarily to save his adopted world. He actually loves you, because for a few days you made him feel powerful, like he could change the world as he'd dreamed of ever since he'd arrived from a world similar to your own."
"But if a Luka was already here," Alice wondered. "Why was my Luka needed? Wouldn't your Luka have just saved this world anyway? Why else was he here?"
"No, he wouldn't have," Ariana said. "I noticed when your Luka was gone immediately. The Luka of this world didn't have that power. Not an ounce of it. In every way, he was a normal human. He could not have defeated Black Alice."
"Then…. Why was he here?"Alice asked. "Luka, are you just destined to end up on a world like this somehow no matter what? Just like I seem to be destined to always lose my mother at a young age?"
"I don't know the answers to those questions," Ariana said. "But I do know that Luka's… my Luka's presence here mattered. I let him convalesce in the castle. I visited him frequently. I found that he was just like your Luka except for that crazy power. Despite all that happened to him he wasn't bitter, he didn't hate anyone."
"He never did trust any of us, though," Tamamo said sadly. "He never stopped being nervous around me or the other Ancestors. But he fell in love hard with Ariana."
"It was okay for you to marry such a weak man?" Alice asked. "In my world, Tamamo made rules that the Monster Lord could only marry someone stronger than her."
"We don't have any stupid rules like that," Ariana said. "But even if we did, he was stronger than me. I was completely unprepared to be the Monster Lord. Tamamo educated me on the technical aspects of the job. But Luka… he was my spiritual guide. I was a street kid. I wanted a better world but I had no idea how to achieve it. My first instinct was to kill a problem rather than try to reason with it. Luka taught me how to forgive. I'd been assuming I would have to use force to bring the monsters who had been loyal to Black Alice into line. I'd been a member of the resistance, I wasn't sure they'd accept me. Not to mention I was an Ilias follower."
"I am never going to get used to hearing that," Alice said.
"But Luka taught me how to reach out a hand in friendship, even to those I'd fought in battle with before. Without an ounce of power, or the ability to wield a sword like your Luka, he was the biggest factor in changing the world. I couldn't have done as much as I did without him."
"So he died?" I asked. "He couldn't have been that old. His sixties?"
"He wasn't the physical specimen you are," Ariana said with a soft laugh. "He lived a pretty sedentary life. He got a little overweight, and one day his heart gave out. It was sudden, but he didn't suffer."
"Well after that story, how can I possibly say no to you?" Alice said. "By all means, if you're hungry, my husband is your husband. Literally."
Personally, I wasn't sure how that story led to "have sex with my husband" but Alices are gluttons and really good at rationalizing their gluttony. Ariana was on me in a second, pushing me down gently into a laying position, and undoing my pants. She began sucking without any further ado.
"Seems rude to give her a taste and leave you out, Tamamo," Alice said. "If you want some and it's okay with Luka, go ahead."
"No thanks," Tamamo said. "I'm even hungrier than Ariana, but I'm not touching Luka."
"Good, I didn't want you to anyway. But if you've been without for that long, you really should feed before going into battle with this maniac."
"I'll be sure to grab a bite in Iliasburg," Tamamo said. "Quick and dirty in an alley. Not many refuse this face."
"Wow," Alice laughed. "I guess you get it where you can. I fed off Luka only a few days ago, so I'm good. I will not feed on a filthy man. I'm royalty after all. And…. Hey! What are you doing? What is that?!"
Ariana stopped sucking on me and looked up at Alice. "I'm…. doing what you said I could do. Do you object to this method? It's the most efficient way next to intercourse, and I assume you'd rather that be just for your marriage."
"I don't object to you blowing him," Alice said. "But what's with that lame technique? Do you plan to be sucking on him all night?"
"I'll make him come three times in fifteen minutes, no problem," Ariana said. "I don't understand what the problem is."
"It's going to take you at least thirty minutes doing it that way. I know you have more techniques than that."
"I do, but Ilias forbids-"
"Oh for crying out loud!" Alice yelled. "I forgot about that idiocy! It's to prevent monsters from having an unfair advantage over human women, right? That man is the husband of the Monster Lord. Every other night he's subjected to the most intense sexual techniques any man has ever experienced in the context of a marriage. You are not competition, unless you were educated in your technique by the queen succubus. Were you educated by a queen succubus?"
"No," Ariana replied.
"And did you subject your own husband to such lackluster blowjobs?"
"Well…. Mostly," Ariana conceded. "But sometimes I cheated. I can't help myself. I get really hungry or lustful from time to time."
"Please don't subject my husband to such mediocrity. Stick your tongue out. There you go, wrap it around…. Wow that's clumsy, but it's better than what you were doing before."
Tamamo, despite her determination to be depressed most of the time, was starting to stifle laughter. I was sure I'd been pleasured in front of an audience a few times, but that audience had never been my own wife. This was very awkward. Any thoughts of awkwardness faded away, however, once Ariana got serious. Her technique may not have been as skilled as Alice's, but it was still pretty amazing. In some ways it was even more erotic, because her clumsiness meant I didn't know what was going to happen next. In the end, I slept really well after she swallowed three of my loads in ten minutes. This was another night that I knew could be my last, that at worst, I could lose people close to me. At least I'd established a friendship with this world's Tamamo. It wouldn't have been a total waste if I failed.
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