"Nice village," Alice commented. "Do you think there's anything good to eat here?"
"Small villages don't tend to be too fancy," I answered. "But they do tend to have quality food. Just nothing adventerous that you haven't had before. I guess the first thing we'll do when we get currency is get some food to stock the pantry."
Midas Village was pretty nice. It reminded me of Ilias Village. Despite the presence of a gold mine nearby, it was apparent that they hadn't chosen to live the high life, preferring the simplicity of a close knit village. While the mine had been closed for some time, there still should have been evidence of opulence, but I saw none.
"It's good to see that this village tolerates monsters," Lime said. "But why are all the monsters slugs?"
Now that she mentioned it, there were an awful lot of slugs. Then again, Iliasville on this world had a lot of slimes. I mentioned this to Lime. Perhaps slugs just liked this particular village the way slimes liked Iliasville. She was not mollified.
"I think there are more slugs than humans here," the slime said, looking very uncomfortable.
"Are they dangerous?" I asked. "I don't see them attacking anyone."
"So many slugs," Lime said to no one in particular.
Sonya for once had chosen to stay in the pocket castle, fulfilling her role as a priest initiate by counseling and caring for the men who had been rescued from the mine. The goal was to return them to human society, but I knew from past experience that it would be a difficult road. At the very least, they seemed to have been talked out of returning to the ropers, medas, and spiders, although that may have had more to do with the fact that the castle also had monsters who couldn't get enough of them, and better food and accommodations to boot! Ilias said that she might also be able to help the men, even with her limited power. Apparently she felt safe in the pocket castle, at least if Alice was carrying it with her and I was with Alice. So she too, remained behind to aid the men.
That left me, Alice, and Lime to deliver the gold to Midas Village. Indeed, slugs were everywhere. We came upon a home that was surrounded by what must have been thirty of them. I asked one of them why they were standing outside that particular house.
"I need to mate," the slug answered. "There's a boy in there."
"Aren't there boys everywhere?" I asked.
Alice sniffed the air. "The boy in there smells even more delicious than you, Luka. No wonder he's attracted a crowd. As long as they don't force themselves on him I don't see the problem."
I did. Stalking may not have been a crime in Midas Village, but a young boy could not have been comfortable having thirty women standing outside his home ready to accost him whenever he left it. I may also have been a bit miffed that there was a man on this world who smelled more delicious than me. For the first time, there were monsters everywhere and none of them paid me any mind. I almost wanted to smell this guy myself and find out what all the fuss was.
We found a small shop that handled gold. The shopowner told us that he didn't get much business anymore, but he only needed a few customers a year to stay profitable. I found out why when he gave us his price. Twenty-five percent of the raw value of our take! Now you probably are thinking, okay, that's still seventy five percent of over one hundred thousand gold pieces. Note that I said raw value. He had to refine the gold, and our share was dependent on how much refined gold could be extracted from the ore. His estimate: seventy to eighty thousand. I hoped it would be enough. My first quest had been funded with only the money I'd saved, plus Alice's copy of a rare book. This quest was being run more as an enterprise.
"Any chance we can find a monster on our quest who specializes in accounting?" I asked Alice as we left the shop.
"Unlikely," Alice replied. "Money doesn't mean much to monsters. Maybe one of those men was an accountant? So what do we do for the next three days?"
Alice was asking because it turns out that unlike a video game, you can't just hand a shopowner one hundred pounds of gold and instantly get thousands of gold pieces worth of currency. He estimated three days to get it done.
"I know you wanted to teleport to Iliasburg," I replied. "But we're about a day's travel from Iliasburg and another day to get back. Which allows another day for something to go wrong."
"Do we at least still have enough money to get me some yummies?" Alice asked.
In fact, there was plenty. I had been proactive, learning from long experience not to wait until I was broke before I began worrying about money. We agreed to spend some time shopping. This time I remembered to buy pants. We experienced the odd sight of a slug girl wandering behind the counter, going through the shopowners things.
"Hey! Stop touching other people's shit!" the shopowner yelled. The slug girl apologized and quickly left. "Those slugs are everywhere. They don't knock or ask permission, they just enter people's houses and rummage though people's stuff."
"Slugs aren't stupid monsters," Alice noted. "I wonder why they wouldn't have learned basic etiquette when living in a human settlement?"
"Slugs don't normally live here in large numbers," the shopkeeper said. "They have a settlement of their own a couple hours away. But every once in awhile their population gets too high and they start spilling into this village. We haven't had this many slugs in town in at least fifty years!"
"Hmmm….." Alice said.
We also bought some food from a nice little shop that had an excellent selection of fruits and dairy products. I smiled thinking about how much Ratty would love all of the cheeses I bought. Satisfied with our haul, we began heading back to where we could safely open the pocket castle.
"Shouldn't we do something?" Lime asked.
"About what?" I asked.
"About all these slugs. So many slugs."
"Why is that a problem?" I asked. "They are committing some mischief, but nothing serious."
"Lime may be right, Luka," Alice interjected. "I'm a little concerned at how many there are. If they are reproducing this quickly, that implies men helping them. Which wouldn't be bad in and of itself, but normal human/monster relationships shouldn't be producing this many slugs. Slugs are prolific, but still…."
"So what do you want me to do? You understand this better than I do."
"The gold won't be ready for three days. Maybe we should take a stroll over to the slug settlement and have a look around."
That sounded fine to me. "Right now? Should we bring Ilias and Sonya with us? Or others?"
Alice shook her head. "No, slugs aren't overly aggressive. You and me should be enough. Lime, would you be a dear and go back into to the castle to let everyone know where we're headed? We'll be back by tonight."
If Alice deemed it relatively safe, it probably was. Besides, I'd missed traveling with her alone. The two hour stroll was pleasant, and it gave us time to talk.
"So the man in there smelled better than me?" I asked, half jokingly.
"Yep," Alice replied, smiling. "Probably better looking, too."
"Oh, is that so?"
"Maybe if we get back to the village early enough, I'll introduce myself to this boy."
If she was trying to bait me, it wasn't working. I wasn't the jealous type, nor did I feel I had a right to be given that Alice was letting me have sexy time with basically the entire castle's denizens.
"So what do you expect to find where these slugs are?" I asked.
"Aside from even more slugs? There are a few possibilities. Whether or not we act will depend on what exactly is going on."
I wasn't sure what I expected, as I had never been asked to do any diplomacy with slugs before. I'd met plenty of them over the years, but they'd always come to me. What Alice and I arrived at looked like a compound of some sort. Had the slugs built it? I had to conclude that they had. The building looked like nothing a human would design. Entering the compound, the first thing I noticed was the lack of flooring. The building had been constructed to protect its denizens from the elements, but not from nature. The ground was grassy, although poorly maintained.
Alice huffed at the quality of workmanship on display. "They can do better than this," she said. "They must be so busy reproducing that they don't have time for basic maintenance of the grounds. I've never seen it this bad before."
"You've been here before?" I asked.
"Not to this specific lair, no. There are probably a few more in the region, as well as a few scattered on Sentora and Hellgondo. Wherever its humid and grassy, slugs will live. They are weak monsters, so build these compounds for protection against human and monster alike."
We walked around the compound, passing quite a few slug girls as we explored. The girls stared at us, but said nothing and moved on.
"Just as in the village, they don't seem to be aggressive," I noted.
"I know," Alice said, worry in her voice. "That's a bad sign."
"How is not attacking us a bad sign?"
"Normally a human entering their lair uninvited would be met with an immediate response. This is another example of the mating urges overriding their normal behaviors."
"Mating urges? If their mating urges are so extreme, why aren't they trying to mate with me? They aren't attacking, they aren't even asking."
"That's what concerns me most of all," Alice replied. "That strongly implies that there is a queen. Any man in the compound belongs to the queen. If you tried to leave, they might attempt to capture you for her. Since you are already delivering yourself, they will simply allow you to present yourself to the queen."
"Is it bad for slugs to have a queen?"
"Normally, no. But she's overproducing, which is irresponsible. That's why most of the slugs are in Midas village. They can't have mates in this compound, because any men in the compound are for the queen only. So the slugs head to the nearest town to find mates."
"So we have to convince her to stop having so many babies," I said.
"That's the idea."
"Well, at least we aren't being attacked. I like that."
"Hmmmm, now that you mention it, get some salt out," Alice ordered. "Queens are tough and you're out of practice. But no matter how tough a queen slug is, she's still vulnerable to salt like any other slug."
"You want me to use salt on a slug? Really?"
"What's so strange about that?" Alice asked.
"I used salt to defeat a slug that attacked me a long time ago."
"Brilliant strategy. I assume it worked?"
I began to sputter. "B-Brilliant strategy? You made fun of me for it! For two hundred years, you were guaranteed to bring up that I threw salt at a slug at least once a year!"
"That wasn't me, Luka, remember? And how strange of her to do that. Salt would have been the first thing I would have suggested. So get out some salt."
Grumbling, I did as Alice asked. She asked me to give her some as well. I grumbled some more and did so. Really, it was unfair of me. She was right. She hadn't actually made fun of me, my Alice had.
Finding the queen wasn't very difficult. The compound wasn't large, and the main chamber was towards the back. The sight that greeted us upon entering was….. sticky. Three slugs were wrapped around a young man lying on the ground, who appeared to be well into critical ecstasy. The way they writhed and moved around his body caused an erection to grow in my own pants. I wasn't terribly worried about the boy's safety. Slugs were generally not powerful enough to kill with their sexual magic. That may have been an evolutionary response. If they could mate with a man over and over without killing him, they could reproduce very quickly indeed. And with only one man!
"Excuse me?" Alice said, announcing her presence. "Would you mind detaching yourselves from that boy long enough to speak with your lord?"
Three heads turned to face us. They seemed quite annoyed at having been interrupted. So was the young man.
"Hey! Why'd you stop?!"
"In a moment, Craig," one of the slugs said as she uncoiled. The other two followed suit, one by one.
"That explains why there are so many slugs," Alice observed. "Not one queen, but three. Are you sisters?"
"We are," one of the slugs said coolly. "And you are? You look like a slug, but you aren't very slimy."
"I'm a cute little lamia, and you are my subjects. Now I understand your urges to reproduce, but-"
"It's very rude to interrupt queens in the middle of perpetuating their species," one of the slugs interrupted angrily. "Now run along, little girl. If you came for semen, you may take it from the boy you brought here. Is he yours? He smells delicious. Perhaps you wouldn't mind letting us borrow him for a few days?"
"Run along?" Alice asked, starting to simmer. "Run along? You dare speak to your Monster Lord that way?"
"You are not the Monster Lord," another one of the slugs responded. "Stop pretending, we're not in the mood, child. Don't make us steal your boyfriend. Once he tastes our stickiness, your relatively dry body will never do."
"You… . DARE?!"
I could see that Alice was getting worked up, as she often did when her authority was questioned. Usually she calmed down right away and decided not to care, especially if the insubordinate subject in question was only hurting herself by disobeying Alice. But that wasn't the case here. She wasn't being disobeyed because the slugs thought she was wrong. That was what usually justified the Heavenly Knights disregarding her orders. In this case, Alice was just being blown off. She did not seem to be taking it well.
"Alice," I said gently. "You don't look like yourself and you're not carrying identification around. Just stand back and let me deal with them. I'll try to reason with them, and if I can't, I'll beat them and then they'll do what I say."
Alice's demeanor changed immediately. "You're right, Luka. Monsters should obey their Monster Lord, but it's understandable that they might not recognize me. But all monsters submit once beaten. It's our way."
"Guys," I said, turning to the slug queens. "Your progeny are overrunning the nearby village. There are just too many of you. So why don't you let this guy go that you're holding prisoner and we can be on our way."
"We do not take orders from humans, either," one of them responded.
"Luka," Alice said, entirely too much sweetness in her voice. "Would you mind waiting outside?"
"Alice-"
"Please wait outside. You shouldn't have to see this."
"But Alice-"
"Get. Out," she said in a low, angry voice. I hurriedly left the chamber.
Now I don't have very good hearing. I'm only human, and centuries of listening to heavy metal at high volume on my headphones might have contributed to making my hearing even worse. So I couldn't make out the conversation that was taking place. Harder to miss were the sounds of violence that ensued seconds later. A great deal of banging, screaming, cursing, and a final loud crash. Less than a minute after the sounds of violence began, it was over. Alice calmly slithered out of the chamber, a satisfied smile on her face.
"Alice, are you okay? Where's the boy?"
"Oh, Craig?" Alice said. "Don't worry about him, he comes here voluntarily every day. He wasn't kidnapped."
"So what happened in there? I heard what sounded like a fight!"
"It was…. A negotiation. A very successful one. The slug sisters have agreed to stop reproducing for awhile. They will only use Craig, and other boys who come to the compound, for recreation and feeding purposes. It turns out that not only were they reproducing so quickly because there are three of them, but because many of the boys in Midas Village were showing up at their doorstep looking for a good time."
"And you're okay? You look a little…."
"Slimy?"
"A little, yes."
We returned to the Pocket Castle for the day. We would set off for Iliasburg with Cynthia in the morning. No one was pleased at the idea of delay, but we wouldn't have access to our money for two more days, so we all agreed that we might as well escort the young lady to a more hospitable future home. So she got along best with animals and monsters? No problem. I knew just the monsters to befriend her.
The journey to Iliasburg went off without a hitch. Not only did we drop off Cynthia, into the care of Vanilla, the little vampire girl, who got her a job at one of the local shops, but two of the men decided to stay in Iliasburg as well. One of them, Harry, had been a soldier and then an adventurer. He'd been trying to get some easy gold in the mines when he'd been captured. Deciding that he wasn't all that good at adventuring, he decided to become a soldier again. Another, a former shopkeeper himself, got a job at the local weapons shop.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck at the Sutherland Inn that day.
"No Ama Ama Dangos? Still? WAHHHHH!!!!!"
That was Alice. I was becoming concerned that the longer she remained in that child's body, the more she would digress. Adult Alice would respond to the lack of Ama Ama Dangos with "how disappointing." Child Alice bawled as if she'd lost the love of her life.
"I'm sorry, but we still aren't getting our full shipments of Happiness Honey, dearie," the owner said apologetically. "Customers were so eager for them that they sold out very quickly."
Tina saved the day. "You can have mine," the little lamia offered, approaching Alice with an Ama Ama Dango in her tiny hands. "It's the least I can do after you saved us from a life of crime."
Alice eagerly devoured the pastry while Tina watched and laughed. "How is it?" Tina asked.
"So sweet! The flavors are perfectly balanced! Tina, for this I declare you a duchess!"
"A duchesss? Does that mean I get a duchy?"
"Monsters don't have duchies," Alice replied. "It's simply a title. But it is a title you've earned."
It sounded to me like she'd gotten it through bribery, but who was I to question how monster politics worked?
We arrived back in Midas Village towards the end of the following day. Although the money we received was less than I had expected, it was still more gold than I'd ever seen. I had been rich on my old world, but those had been numbers in a bank account. All I knew is that if I wanted something, I could have it, and didn't really need to worry about the numbers on a screen, just so long as they only increased rather than decreased. Since I couldn't very well carry fifty thousand gold pieces in my money pouch, Alice simply kept the money in her bottomless bag, giving me five hundred to refill my pouch.
As a group, we'd been pretty carefree over the last couple of days. Knowing that we were heading to the second Tartarus rift sobered us up. The first one had been something out of our nightmares. What horrors might the second one show us?
"Do I really have to do this?" I whined.
"You are out of practice, by your own admission!" Flappy argued.
"And getting plenty of practice because I get attacked every couple of days!"
"it hasn't been nearly that often. And those battles have been too short to be of value. By sparring with me, you will get reacquainted with your weapon in a low stakes environment. Do you think warriors don't practice before battles?"
"To be honest, I don't know what warriors do," I responded. "I never wanted to be a warrior. But it's true that when I was learning to become one, Alice made me practice fairly often. And I'm not sure this is low stakes. Didn't you say that you and Flippy were going to gang rape me if I lost?"
"Ah, but if you win," Flappy said with a lascivious smile. "Then you get to make us do whatever you want."
"I'm pretty sure that's not how it works. Once we start fighting, I can make a request, right?"
"In real combat, yes," Flippy interjected. "That is our way. And you may only make a request if you are surrendering. Once you are defeated, you are in no position to make a request. We do that to encourage a man to surrender. Pleasure attacks alone can often defeat a man by provoking an orgasm, but their purpose is primarily to induce him to surrender. That's why most monsters don't use just one pleasure attack. They try different methods until one of them breaks down the man's resistance and he begs for more."
"The fact that you do not understand the rules speaks well of you," Flappy said. "It means you have rarely been defeated, and when you have been, you have fought to the bitter end!"
It was funny that Flappy said that, because I'd only ever made a request twice, and those were during sparring sessions, not real battles.
It was my day to feed Flappy and Flippy anyway, so I gave in. At least if I beat Flappy I could request whatever I wanted, and if I lost but fought well, they would go easy on me. I raised my sword and beckoned Flappy to bring it.
Flappy did, but I wasn't impressed. I easily parried her first two blows and connected on the very first thrust I attempted. It wasn't even a cursed sword technique. Flappy's technique seemed sound to me, but I'd sparred nearly daily with Granberia for many years. It may have been awhile, but apparently my reflexes were undiminished. I was using a training sword, as sealing Flappy with no one powerful enough to restore her would have been inconvenient. She was our best fight next to me.
Flappy attacked once again, this time elevating herself off the ground. The "high ground" advantage didn't help her any more than attacking me with her feet on the ground. She was tagged three more times with quick strikes for her troubles. She backed off and looked at me in astonishment.
"Truly you are a warrior born!" Flappy exclaimed. "I have never faced anyone with such skill!"
"It's not skill," I replied. "I'm just used to Granberia's unreal speed and power. You're good, I can tell, but nobody's in Granberia's class. And I sparred with her almost daily."
"Which gave you great skill!" Flappy insisted. "I shall enjoy the taste of your semen as a consolation prize! But I am not beaten yet!"
Flappy renewed her attack, this time swinging recklessly, trying to overpower me. It wasn't a terrible strategy. I was probably stronger than most harpies, but not Flappy. She was the most chiseled harpy I'd ever seen. Even Granberia hadn't been as ripped as Flappy, although as a dragonkin she didn't have to be. Her strength already exceeded that of almost any opponent.
I was driven back by Flappy's attack, although I wasn't having any problems parrying or avoiding her relatively slow swings and thrusts. I admired her spirit, however. She had that thin smile on her face as she attacked that reminded me so much of Granberia. Flappy didn't have to win to be happy. She just wanted to be in a good fight.
Finally she hit me, scoring on my side after a good feint that resulted in me being caught off balance by her followup strike. "Hah!" she gloated, then went for what would have been a decapitation if she had been using a real sword.
The only one decapitated, however, was her. In the time it took her to execute her finishing blow, I had recovered my balance and performed Demon Decapitation. Flappy winced as she rubbed her neck, knowing that if I'd been using Angel Halo, she'd be spending the next few weeks as a small bird.
"It looks like you've won, hero!" Flippy exclaimed, smiling and hugging me. "I have never been privileged to witness a human fight so well."
"Indeed," Flappy agreed. "I assumed that you were too out of practice to defeat me. If you are this good now, how good were you when sparring with the legendary Granberia every day?"
"If I end up having to fight Granberia for real in the coming days, I guess I'll find out. Thank you for this, Flappy. I actually didn't know I was still this good. I'd assumed that I was rusty, but once you attacked my instincts took over."
"It has been a pleasure," Flappy said. "And speaking of pleasure, what is yours?"
I thought for a moment. I really enjoyed blowjobs, and the harpies had promised me that if I wanted it. But they'd also said they were inexperienced. I remembered fondly how amazing harpy pussy was, but I also knew that many harpies disliked doing that to anyone but their husbands, or if they REALLY wanted to thank you. Then I remembered something.
"Flappy, Granberia had really soft hands despite the fact she was a hardened warrior. I'd love to find out how your hands feel."
Flappy looked a little uncomfortable. Had I unintentionally insulted her? Were her hands rough and calloused, making her ashamed of them? I began to apologize, but Flippy's finger went to my lips.
"Flappy is a warrior," Flippy explained as she undid my pants. "She has sacrificed much of her natural softness in order to defend her people. I don't know how a warrior such as Granberia manages to keep her hands so delicate. Perhaps magic?"
"Very generous use of moisterizing products," I laughed. "She liked to use her hand on defeated enemies. It gave her a lot of satisfaction to see them going crazy with pleasure just from that."
"Well, hero, my hands remain soft," Flippy said seductively, wrapping a warm hand around my penis. "But surely this is a waste, having two lovely harpies pleasure you this way. Flappy, would you mind executing maneuver 4C?"
Flappy smiled and got behind me, removing my shirt and stretching out her wings to completely cover my upper body in a tight, but incredibly soft embrace. I could feel her breasts against my back. Flippy began to slowly stroke me while Flappy rubbed me all over with her feathers. I could feel Flappy's hot breath on the back of my neck as she grew excited at the prospect of a feeding. Or perhaps like Granberia, the battle had made her hot.
Flippy's fingers switched to dancing around my shaft, lightly caressing me expertly, finding the spots that made me squirm, sometimes passing her own feathers over my penis. I recognized this technique. It was a variation on what the battle fucker had done to me, trying to make me extra sensitive so that she could execute a finishing move.
Without warning, Flippy's palm tightened around me and began to stroke vigorously. My cry of joy was cut off by her tongue in my mouth as she kissed me passionately while continuing to stroke. Then, just before I was about to go over the edge, she stopped.
"Wha-?" I got out, not understanding. Didn't they want to eat? Flappy seemed to have the same reaction.
"Why did you stop? He was just about to spill his delicious manjuice!" Flappy exclaimed, aggrieved.
"He has defeated us," Flippy giggled. "Surely an ordinary handjob isn't sufficient reward. I must make it extraordinary."
Flippy closed her eyes and concentrated. Flappy ahhhed in recognition and held onto me tightly. I wondered what was about to happen that Flappy was worried about me falling down. I found out a second later when I felt a gust of wind, followed by Flippy moving so fast that it almost seemed she was teleporting back to me. Her hand gripped me and began stroking at incredible speed. Was she enhancing her handjob with wind power?!
As the orgasm rose, it continued to intensify under her assault, amping up the pleasure more and more until I wondered if I would ever actually release. But release I did, a few seconds later, my ejaculate impacting her belly and chest. The incredibly intense orgasm seemed to go on forever. I lost all strength in my legs, but Flappy held me up, those soft wings continuing to massage my body.
When my orgasm ended, Flappy gently lowered me to the ground. I was breathing incredibly fast, much faster than I had while sparring. Flippy licked the semen off of her hands, her face lighting up with pleasure.
"Oh wow, this is good!" Flippy exulted. "Flappy, you have to taste this!"
Flippy used her finger to remove some of my semen from her chest and held it out for Flappy to taste. Flappy did and agreed that it was indeed delicious.
"That is the best I've ever tasted!" Flappy said. "I had only intended to get one shot out of him, but I'm sure he has a lot more."
"Yes!" Flippy agreed. "Let's taste him more directly this time."
I screamed in delight as I felt two tongues on my penis. I don't remember much after that. The insane windpowered handjob had already come close to rendering me unconscious. I dimly remembered coming two more times, but couldn't tell for sure what they'd done to cause it.
The eastern mountains of Ilias Continent towered above us. Supposedly there was a city called Rostrum on the other side. Rostrum did not exist on my version of the continent, and apparently this Rostrum no longer existed either, probably because it was so near the Tartarus rift. According to the Ilias Temple, this particular Tartarus had not been explored. It was inaccessible to humans due to the mountains being impassable except for a series of tunnels and passes through the range that were infested by wild monsters. Finding the tunnel wasn't difficult. Navigating wouldn't be so simple.
Another issue was deciding who to bring with us. Normally we didn't worry about that much, as Alice just carried the Pocket Castle with her. Since we were entering another rift, that wasn't going to be the case. Alice left the Pocket Castle a short distance away from the tunnel entrance, as it was the last safe place she could leave it where our weaker friends could safely leave if we never returned.
As with the previous rift, we decided to stick to the core group: Alice, Ilias, myself, and Sonya. All of the monsters took no issue with that plan other than Flippy and Flappy, who considered it their duty to represent the harpy nation, whatever the dangers. It took quite a bit of diplomacy for Alice to convince them to stay behind. It was too risky, and if all the best warriors disappeared into the rifts, who would be left to save the world?
Although I enjoyed traveling with a larger group, especially when on long walks in the wilderness, where they deterred monster attacks fairly well, I too preferred to keep the group small for exploring these rifts. The last one had been horribly frightening and dangerous and I was sure we'd have taken casualties if everyone had been along.
The four of us entered the tunnel and began the long journey through the mountain range to Rostrum. The straight line distance was short. If it had been simple plains, it would have been a one hour walk. If Ilias had the strength to go there and back three times, it would have taken about two hours. But walking through the tunnels and along the outdoor paths was expected to take all day, and it did.
Sparring with Flappy had been good for my confidence. I hadn't been sure how much I'd lost as a swordsman. It was good to find out that I was still really, really good, although I'd have to clash with Granberia to get a true test of my abilities. But Flappy was no slouch, which led me to be sure enough of my skills to take point. Which as the leader of this little group, was my prerogative.
The journey took all day, but the opposition was minimal. In the caves we encountered a couple of medas, a spider, and a monster I'd never even heard of before, a candle girl. The medas were sealed easily, as their heavily armored bodies were no protection from a sword that didn't do physical damage. Only enchanted armor could provide some measure of protection from Angel Halo's effects. The spider had caught me by surprise and started wrapping me up in webbing, but Alice and Ilias put a stop to that with a fairly gentle barrage of dark and holy magic that made her decide to wait for easier prey. The candle girl, on the other hand, was a different proposition. At first I was just confused. She simply appeared ahead of us and politely waited for us to approach.
"Excuse me, sir? Would you be so kind as to give me some of your semen?" she asked.
"I'm afraid I'm on a vital mission right now, ma'am," I said apologetically.
"But you see, kind sir, I'm not asking because I'm merely hungry. I use the energy from semen to rebuild my body. As you can see, it's half melted. I don't have much time left. If you don't give me semen, I'll die."
"How…. How does a monster become a candle? I understand insect monsters, beast monsters, reptile monsters, even plant monsters. But…. A candle monster?"
"She's an undead monster," Alice said. "And don't believe her. She can't die. If she doesn't get your semen, what will happen to her is what happens when you seal someone. She'll remain in a diminished form until she can get enough energy to restore herself."
The candle girl began to weep, which only caused her to melt further. I knew it was at least partially an act, but I felt pity for her anyway.
"Look, don't cry," I urged. "I'll tell you what, if you follow these caves to the outside, back the way we came, you'll find what looks like a small model castle. There's a button at the base. Push it and you'll be able to go inside. That's all right, isn't it Alice?"
"All monsters are welcome," Alice sighed. "You'll also find men in there willing to feed you, assuming they aren't already drained by the other monsters staying there."
"if they are, I'll feed you when I get back, okay?" I said.
"You're so kind, sir!" the candle girl said appreciatively. "You'll love the feel of my wax."
We all stared as the candle girl began making her way back down the tunnel.
"Is there no end to your depravity, Luka?" Ilias asked.
"Says the goddess who tried to make an unconscious roper pleasure her again," Alice scoffed.
"Okay, I admit, I wasn't at my best. But that creature is extra abominable! She's undead! She should be dead dead! There's no good reason to indulge her!"
"She has feelings," I said. "And remember, you're talking to someone who is dead. How am I not supposed to relate?"
"Well when you leave this world, please take her and all her kind with you!" Ilias retorted.
We walked on for a few moments, when Sonya suddenly had an epiphany.
"Oh my Goddess!" Sonya yelled out of nowhere. "That's how you know that my Luka is coming back! You're not even alive! So when you leave his body, he'll come back!"
"You sound awfully happy about Luka being dead," Alice said sourly.
"I'm sorry! He never told me! I'm not mad or anything, I realize he's got a lot of things to tell us and he can't tell us everything. I guess I just wasn't present for that conversation. But I've been worried sick about my Luka! You do understand, right… um…. Other Luka?"
"I understand completely, Sonya," I assured her. "And believe me, I wouldn't want to displace my counterpart."
The whole conversation seemed to bother Alice a great deal, however. It wasn't hard to figure out why.
We made it to Rostrum after a few more easy fights. Well, mostly easy. We encountered a bear. Not a bear girl. An actual bear. He was not at all happy to encounter people traipsing through the area of tunnel he had claimed as his territory. Far stronger than me, the animal attacked and knocked me down. I rolled away, got up, and prepared to strike with my sword. That's when a panicked barrage of magic from Ilias and Alice struck both the bear and myself. They weren't holding back, either. He had to weigh about six hundred pounds. Even using their full power, all they did was convince him that we could have his lair if we wanted it that badly. I, on the other hand, was in serious discomfort, mainly from Alice's dark magic.
Sonya and Ilias rushed to me and immediately began applying their healing magic. Alice's attacks caused far more pain, but were less damaging. Ilias' power had burned me in multiple places. When their work was done, I was still feeling banged up and like I'd spent way too much time in the sun. I was able to continue, but knew that I'd need a long rest in Rostrum before we entered the Tartarus.
"Well, there was a bright side to that," Alice said.
"Yep," I agreed. "We're alive."
"Aside from that, it was good exercise for our magic. We'd been holding back in our last couple of encounters. That time we really cut loose. It wasn't much. At my full power I could have killed that bear instantly."
"We need more encounters like that," ilias agreed. "We'll only get stronger if we really flex our magical muscles."
"I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunity soon enough," Sonya said. "I'm betting we'll encounter more of those scary creatures in the Tartarus."
That caused the group to fall silent. I decided to lighten the mood a little with a change of subject.
"So Alice, how in the world does a candle girl happen?" I asked.
"You don't have undead monsters where you come from?"
"We did, but zombie girls, mainly. That I get. A dead human body gets animated by dark magic released by dead monsters nearby under the right circumstances. How does a candle girl get created? Does someone have sex with a candle?"
"That would almost make sense, if there was other magic involved, but that's not it," Alice answered. "As with most undead monsters, the dark energy from a recently deceased monster has to be released nearby. If a dead human body is nearby, it might possess the dead body, thus creating an undead monster."
"Didn't you just describe a zombie girl?"
"The dark energy from a dead monster is its life force. Now that's not the same as the soul, but the life force does contain some of the monster's memories. In addition, the animated body will also have some of the human memories remaining. A candle monster is particularly interesting and rare because it requires both the human and the monster to have been young when they died. They remember that their lives were short and burned out quickly. Thus they become the metaphor of their lives."
"Wow, that's so interesting!" Sonya said. "So if I was to talk to this candle girl when we get back to the castle, she'd be able to tell me all about her life?"
"Two lives, technically," Alice explained. "But her memories would be unreliable. You see, the souls of the monster and the human would have already passed into the afterlife. The memories an undead monster has, she didn't actually live. The memories are second hand. They are also difficult to distinguish. She might not know if a memory is the human or the monster's. It's a difficult duality to adjust to."
"Boring," ilias sighed petulantly. "There's no soul there, so why you care about her feelings, Luka, is beyond me."
"Don't you lack a soul, Ilias?" I countered.
"That's different! I am the spirit of holy energy! I have a consciousness."
"And that candle girl didn't?"
"I don't know, actually," Ilias conceded. "I don't remember for sure, but since they aren't truly living, I may not have been able to know them the way I know beings with souls."
A few hours later, we reached Rostrum. The village was in ruins, as we expected. Something had happened to utterly devastate the place. But there were no bodies or even remnants of bodies.
"Animals, maybe?" I asked tentatively.
"No," Ilias said. "There isn't much living here. Even the microorganisms are sparse. Bodies wouldn't even decay quickly in this environment, much less be completely consumed."
"We're not even at Tartarus yet and it's already so creepy," Sonya lamented.
"Well, we have to rest here," Alice said. "Let's find an inn with intact beds. With no monsters or animals around, there isn't a high likelihood of there being any real danger here."
"Nothing but… ghosts in this place," Sonya said. Uh oh.
"What did you say?!" Alice cried. "Don't ever say that word! Ghosts aren't real!"
"I-I know that!" Sonya said defensively. "Just a figure of speech! Like Luka does all the time!"
"Yes, of course," Alice said, taking a few deep breaths and calming down. "Nevertheless, we should stay in the same room. Just because I can't see or smell danger doesn't mean there isn't any. Each of us in our own rooms tonight would be unnecessarily tempting fate."
"I agree," Ilias said. "So let's find this inn. Hopefully they have a decent kitchen so Luka can make us a little something nice before bed."
"Oh yes, now you're singing a song I can dance to!" Alice said with a big smile.
"See, that's a figure of speech," I laughed, happy that Ilias and Alice could always agree on food. "And yes, I'm going to cook for you all. You could say that you'll like the smell of what I'm cooking."
"Yes," Alice said happily. "We always like the smell of what you're cooking."
"No, you don't get it, that's another figure of speech."
"But you're literally cooking tonight."
"I… Oh yeah, you're right."
Dinner wasn't my best, as there was no electricity or gas. Still, Alice managed to get a fire going in the stove, although it took stretching her magical abilities to the limit just to get that small amount of fire. So much sweat poured from her forehead from the effort that I only half jokingly gave her credit for doing all the work of getting dinner ready.
The inn we found was mostly intact, if you count giant holes in most of the walls intact. We managed to find a room that was structurally sound, with a window merely cracked rather than shattered. The room had two queen sized beds.
"So how do we do this if we're all in the same room?" I asked.
"Obviously, I shall sleep with you, Luka," Alice replied. "And Sonya and Ilias will take the other bed."
"How is that obvious?" Ilias argued. "Why do you get to sleep with Luka?"
"Um… Maybe she's right, Alice," I said, remembering that Ilias didn't know about us. "How about if Sonya sleeps with me tonight. I mean, it's no big deal, we're all in the room together."
"Oh no!" Ilias and Alice both said.
"No way am I cuddling up with…. A monster!" Ilias yelled. "You sleep with ME, Luka!"
"So you want me cuddled up with a monster?" Sonya asked. "Not that I have a problem with monsters, Alice, it's just that sleeping in the same bed with one is a sin. So I really must insist that I sleep with Luka."
"I've got a better idea," I said. "As your leader, I've decided that all three of you can sleep in the same bed with me. The beds are big enough. I'm skinny, Sonya's skinny, and you two are little. I think that's the best compromise."
Feeling pretty proud of myself, I slipped under the covers and waited for the ladies to join me. All three simply stared at me lying on the bed.
"Does… this not work for you?" I asked, noticing glares on the faces of all three.
"Pig!" Sonya yelled, and flipped the mattress over, dumping me onto the floor.
I slept on the floor that night.