In the morning, Alice, Ilias, and I teleported to Iliasville for the relatively quick journey to the Lost Woods. Since I expected to encounter elves who might at first be hostile, I asked Lime to come along. She agreed happily and grabbed her boomerang. The imps insisted on coming along as well, noting that elves were weak to pleasure attacks. I wouldn't know, given that I'd never considered pleasure attacks as an effective way to combat monsters. But this world apparently had different rules, so it was a useful thing to take into account. I was worried about the imps' safety, however. Back in the castle foyer, Alice put my worries to rest.
"Elves aren't killers," Alice reminded me. "They may try to drive us out, but they won't seriously harm anyone."
"I agree," Ilias added. "Micaela just wants to keep that village secret. Their primary worries are angels who haven't betrayed me and humans. I doubt they'd harm their fellow abominations."
"As for you, they'd probably rough you up a little, rape you, and deposit you just outside the forest," Alice said. "But maybe since you're traveling with monsters, they might not give us trouble."
Sonya arrived in the foyer, dressed for battle and ready to go. "Are we set? I'm really eager to get going."
"You're in an awfully chipper mood," Alice noted suspiciously.
"Aren't I always?" Sonya asked innocently.
"Hi, Luka!" Rami said cheerfully, arriving with Lime and her two buddies. "Did you ever find anyone to eat you last night?"
"Um…. Yeah, someone did," I replied, as usual failing to lie.
"Oh really?" Alice asked. "I was sure all the monsters were sated. Who got greedy?"
"Um…. It was dark in my room. I couldn't see clearly who it was."
That was the truth, technically.
"Uh huh," Alice said, looking at me and then giving the stink eye to Sonya. Sonya continued to look innocent.
The hike to the Lost Woods was only two hours. We had no idea where in the Lost Woods Enrika could be found. I had a rough estimate of its location, as Enrika on my world had been in a wooded region of Ilias Continent, but the woods had not been forbidden. It didn't have to be. Human travelers had tended to avoid wandering in the woods, because the woods were teeming with monsters. Humans on Ilias Continent had stuck to the roads for the most part. I also knew from conversations with Micaela that any traveler who managed to slip past the elven guards and found Enrika would be treated politely, then given a mind wipe from Micaela herself. The traveler would then exit the woods having no memory of ever having found a village.
"How much do you know about Micaela, Luka?" Ilias asked as we got close to the woods. "And how do you know so much about my Seraphs?"
"There's a lot I don't feel comfortable talking about with any of you," I said. "But over the course of my adventures I got to know a lot of very powerful people. Micaela was one of the more mysterious. I actually know Eden much better. Micaela I encountered in Enrika on my first adventure and we talked for a time. She told me about your history. The real history, Ilias. After that I'd drop in on her once in awhile, or she'd drop in on me. We were never close."
"In this world she's your aunt," Ilias noted. "So she's probably going to take a keener interest in you. So since you knew her, how much did she hate me?"
"I don't think she ever hated you, Ilias. She was a dissenter, to be sure, but as much as that seems like a betrayal in your mind, she never stopped loving you."
"You said that your Ilias became a better person. Did she ever reconcile with Micaela?"
"Not completely, no. Micaela had fully embraced living on the surface. She also told me that it was better for Eden if she kept her distance from you. Eden likes being your only Seraph."
"Eden always was insecure," Ilias mused. "So you think Micaela won't try to kill me?"
"Very unlikely," I assured her. "She'll have to get through me to do it if she tries. Which unfortunately won't be that difficult, but I think I know her well enough to know that she wouldn't kill a human to get to you."
"I can't believe we're going to meet a Seraph," Alice wondered. "I've gotten used to being around Ilias, but in sealed form she's not that impressive. Micaela will be at her full strength. The amount of power she must give off….."
"So you said you knew Eden well," Ilias said. "Was she the angel you were closest to?"
"Definitely," I answered, not willing to elaborate.
"Were you close to many of my angels?"
"Not really. The best I can say is that over time they became less hostile. But never truly friendly."
"And how about Promestein? You sure seemed happy to see her."
"Promestein has a gigantic brain," I chuckled. "I was thrilled because we needed her so badly."
"It seemed like more than that, Luka," Ilias said suspiciously. "But we'll talk later, in private. You may not want to tell me everything, but I'm going to get answers from you on a few things, I promise you."
"Gonna squeeze it out of him, Ilias?" Alice chuckled. "Going to be pretty hard to do that in your current form."
"Dammit!" Ilias swore.
We reached the Lost Woods and entered with little hesitation. Sonya was the only one who was a bit reluctant, having been indoctrinated from youth never to go in there. Any hopes we had of slipping into the village unnoticed were dashed as we were challenged not one hundred yards into the forest.
"These woods are forbidden to humans!" the leader of the group of elves who challenged us announced.
Crap, I thought. Dark elves. Don't let the name fool you. Dark elves aren't really evil. They have simply given into corruption. Apparently, when an elf is oversexed, they become dark elves. I wasn't sure why that only happened to elves. Promestein had once theorized that elves were a fundamentally different type of monster, perhaps not descended from the ancestors at all. Alice had added to my knowledge, explaining that elves sometimes were born from monster/human couplings when the man's DNA was particularly dominant. Since elves were the only monsters that might be in part made of holy magic, perhaps that magic could be corrupted by… well, acting too much like a monster.
The real danger from Dark Elves was that their sexual magic was nearly succubus level, and their corruption contagious like an STD. Any man who was forced to ejaculate by a dark elf was said to become hopelessly addicted. Alice had instructed me to never have sex with an elf of any kind, dark or otherwise. The downside to that was that I had no sense of how resistant I'd be to their magic.
"This human means Enrika no harm!" Alice countered. "I am the Monster Lord. I can vouch for him."
"And the girl?" the dark elf asked.
"Yes, her too," Alice hastily added.
"We need to see Micaela," I said, hoping that dropping her name would make things better and not worse.
The dark elves conferred with one another, whispering. I nudged Alice and asked if what she could hear, because I knew she could hear them, was good or bad. She shrugged, unsure. In a few moments, the leader of the small band of elves addressed me.
"Human, Micaela hasn't been in Enrika for some time. Therefore, you have no reason to be here in our woods."
"Pardon us if we'd prefer to find out if that's true for ourselves," Ilias said. "Dark elves are known for their dishonesty."
"You question my honesty?!" the leader said, insulted. "Granted, we will lie and deceive to corrupt men. But not one who knows Micaela. If we had desired to corrupt him, we would have offered to escort him to Enrika ourselves. After giving us his semen, of course."
"She's right," Alice agreed. "She has no reason to lie about Micaela not being in Enrika. Do you happen to have any idea where she went?"
The elves conferred again. The leader, once finished, turned to me and addressed me once again.
"Are you named Luka, by any chance?" the elf asked.
"I am," I responded.
"Pardon me, but we need to be sure. We were told that Luka would be no ordinary man. We were told that he could best any of us. If you are who you say you are, I'm sure you won't mind facing me in single combat. Should you prove your identity, I will escort you to our village to speak with Micaela's assistant."
"I can do that," I replied. I'd long since gotten used to having to prove myself to monsters who didn't know me, and even many who did. With no power and no spirits, a dark elf wouldn't be a sure thing for me, but I was pretty confident at that point in my combat skills. The main worry with an elf would be her quickness, along with that succubus level sexual magic, although from what I'd heard, dark elves' magic wasn't matched by succubus level sexual prowess.
"I'm sorry, but I must be clear," the elf continued. "Should you lose to me, it would mean that you are not who you say you are. I would have no guilt about corrupting you and bringing you back to Enrika to serve me for as long as you live. Micaela has long forbade us to treat innocent travelers that way. However, she would have no sympathy for a liar."
"I understand. Sonya, no matter what happens, you can't interfere."
"What?!" Sonya yelped. "Why am I the only one who needs to be told that?!"
"It's because you're human," Alice explained. "Monsters understand single combat as a matter of honor. Since Luka has agreed, should he lose, the elf has the right to do whatever she wants with him. We'd have to carry on with our quest without Luka."
"So if he loses, she can rape him, kill him, eat him, or sell him?!"
"I prefer the term 'corruption'," the elf interjected.
"Figures that you'd be proud of corrupting a human!" Ilias spat.
"Don't worry, guys," I said, winking at Sonya and Ilias. "I've got this."
I wasn't gaslighting them. I was pretty confident, but I still respected my opponent. She had two ways to beat me. Her quickness could be more than I could handle, or she'd use pleasure attacks on me.
I drew Angel Halo and adopted a fighting stance. The Dark Elf grinned and brandished a scary looking short sword. When I was certain that she was ready, I attacked first. Her quickness was everything I'd feared, as she easily dodged my attack and quickly countered with a short stab to my side, which I parried fairly easily. I was still very fast on defense, due to my insane reflexes. It was offense that worried me. I wasn't sure that I could hit her unless she made a mistake.
I decided to try a different approach, waiting for her to attack. As I expected, she attempted a quick thrust, assuming that no ordinary human could possibly avoid it. I simply stepped to the side and caught her sword arm, then in one smooth motion I turned around, twisted her wrist, and forced her to drop it. Elves are one of the few monster races who stronger humans can best in a battle of pure power. I'm pretty proud to say that only ten seconds into the battle, I'd neutralized her greatest strength, her quickness.
What I hadn't neutralized was her secondary attack, or for all I knew, her primary attack. She countered by grabbing my sword arm with both hands while my back was to her, and after some struggle, she disarmed me as well. And just like that it had become a grappling contest. She tripped my leg and we both went down, me on my stomach, with the elf on top of me.
Despite how dangerous her pleasure attacks were, I liked this combat better. I had longer experience with it, I was stronger, I was confident that I had better technique, and what's more, I was still fully clothed and she had no sharp objects or natural weapons to quickly disrobe me with.
I turned around to face her, preparing to turn her light body over and gain a mount position. As soon as I turned, however, she kissed me deeply, causing my head to swim. I felt her hand reach into my pants. It was my first experience with dark elf sexual magic. Just the feel of her hand touching my dick inside my pants, combined with her kiss, was enough to make me pause my struggles for a moment. But only for a moment. It seemed like just yesterday that I'd been regularly having sex with an Ancestor. This was nothing. Well, not nothing, but no reason for my will to be lacking. Sonya yelling at me to get into the fight didn't hurt my motivation either.
Sexual magic can affect a man in subtle ways, aside from the obvious. The Dark Elf wasn't getting me to surrender to her, but she had succeeded in making me a little careless. Rather than break the kiss, turn her, and force her to surrender lest she be choked out or pummeled, something I hated doing to women(even stronger women), I put my hand on the back of her head and returned the kiss with equal passion as I turned her. I wasn't sure how honorable what I was about to do was to an elf, but imagined that a Dark Elf had little to complain about when it came to tactics.
As we kissed each other deeply, I felt her hands fumble for my clothes. My shirt came off first, then my pants were unbuttoned. I ripped her top, exposing her perky breasts, and fondled one of them with one hand, while reaching for my sword with the other. She moaned appreciatively and her tongue explored my mouth with renewed intensity.
Just as I felt my penis rubbing against her bare thigh, I broke off the kiss and put my sword to her neck. It wasn't a bad plan. The problem is that she had the same plan, so I found her short sword pressed against my neck as well.
"It seems that we have a standoff," the dark elf said, smiling. "Or should I say, a layoff?"
I felt my dick enter her, even though neither of us had moved. Had she used some kind of magic? I'd heard about elven vaginas, though never experienced one due to Alice's prohibition. I could immediately see how men could become addicted. Fortunately, neither of us were moving.
"Surrender and I'll send you to heaven, human," the dark elf said. "I can either cut your throat or make you come. I know what any sane man would choose."
"In case you didn't notice, my sword is at your throat as well," I noted. "So how about you surrender and then take me to Enrika?"
"Liv, he's already proven himself!" one of the other elves yelled. "Just call it a draw! Micaela wouldn't be happy with you at all if you killed or corrupted Luka!"
"Hmmmm," the elf I now knew to be Liv seemed to consider. While she was considering, her pussy squeezed me.
"You're doing that on purpose," I said confidently. "I've been pleasured by the best. A little squeezing, even with Dark Elf magic, isn't going to get it done."
Liv tossed her sword away. "That sounds like another challenge," she said lasciviously, and squeezed me even harder. It felt incredible, but I maintained my confident smile, although I knew that if she did do that long enough, I'd be in trouble. Nevertheless, since she had tossed her sword away, I followed suit, tossing Angel Halo back towards my friends.
"Luka, what are you doing?!" Sonya yelled.
"He's being corrupted," Ilias said with disgust.
"You are, aren't you?" Liv asked, her smile also confident, licking her lips. "Once you were inside me, you never had a chance."
"Correction," I replied. "Once I was on top of you, you never had a chance."
"Big talk. Do you still feel I have no chance if I do… this?"
She began slowly moving her hips under me. I wrapped my arms around her and clutched her tightly, enjoying her incredible vagina. As the intensity of the sensations increased, I held her even tighter.
"You're making it hard for me to breathe," she began gasping.
"It's because you're so incredible," I said, tightening my hold even more. Classic bear hug. Between my weight on top of her and squeezing her so tightly, it was hard for her chest to expand enough to draw in sufficient air.
"I know… what you're doing," she barely got out, and began moving her hips with more determination. "But you don't…. have to come… to be corrupted. Men are usually mine… long before then."
"Ordinary men," I said, tightening my grip one last time, as if I was a lamia squeezing her prey. "You wanted me to prove I wasn't ordinary. I think I've proved the point."
She tapped my shoulder, signaling surrender. I let her go and rolled off of her. Easy win, actually, but I'd made it harder than it had to be. Looking back, I'd like to believe that I had chosen my tactics based on what was most likely to get me to victory. But upon further reflection, I think I wanted her to do as much as she could to me, short of me being defeated.
I received more congratulations from the dark elves than I did from my own side. As the elves began leading us to Enrika, Sonya passed me, gave me a dirty look, and said, "Pervert!" Ilias did the same. Alice stared daggers at me and added, "What they said."
"Cut me some slack, ladies!" I objected. "I won, didn't I?"
We were led into the village of Enrika. I'd expected elves, dark and normal alike, even some fallen angels. What I hadn't expected were angels who hadn't fallen. How can you tell if an angel is fallen? Simple. They don't have that constant glow. If a fallen angel covers her wings, she can pass for human.
"Why are there so many angels here?" Ilias asked. "You there! Why can't I remember what your name is?"
The angel she addressed turned and looked at her, a confused expression on her face. "I'm G-"
"I don't care," Ilias interrupted. "Why are you here and not in heaven?"
"You haven't heard?" the angel answered. "No one has heard from heaven in thirty years. Only those of us who were on missions on the surface escaped whatever happened."
"Do you know what happened?" Ilias asked.
"I do not," the angel replied. "A Tartarus opened at the Navel of the World and then heaven was gone."
"So a Tartarus DID swallow up heaven!" Ilias breathed.
I put my hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Ilias. I don't believe that Heaven is gone. We'll get to the bottom of this and make everything right, I promise."
Ilias said nothing in response, seeming overwhelmed by the confirmation that her home was indeed gone. Liv led us to a small home that I immediately recognized as Micaela's. I wondered if it was too much to hope for that Liv hadn't been honest about Micaela's absence.
Liv saluted a non-corrupted elf, reported to her that I was Luka and had been brought to her as instructed, and left our rather large group alone with the small elf.
"Oh, I'd so hoped that you'd never come," the elf said. "But I must carry out Micaela's final instructions."
"Final instructions?" I asked. "Micaela isn't-?"
"Perhaps I should explain," the elf said. "It was about two weeks ago. Micaela, who led this village, said this to me: 'I'll be leaving this village for awhile. There are some people out there I need to stop, no matter what.' Then she said that if a boy named Luka came looking for her, it meant she had fallen."
"How could Micaela know that?!" Ilias asked.
"I don't know. All I know is that she left the village two weeks ago with those instructions and hasn't returned. And now you're here."
The elf started to sob. I tried to comfort her. "I know that prophecy sounds bad, but that doesn't mean it came true."
"I hope you're right," the elf replied. "Considering what's at stake, I can't accept that she's gone. I have to believe she's still alive. She also told me that you are her nephew and that I should do everything in my power to assist you."
"So what do we do now?" I asked the group. "Micaela was our obvious next step, but now…."
"That just leaves finding out what happened to heaven as our top priority," Ilias argued. "We've already explored the Tartarus Rifts on this continent. We need to go to Sentora to explore more of them."
"Be careful, Luka!" the elf urged. "That continent is on the verge of a major war."
"A war?" I asked, not remembering the human kingdoms ever going to war with one another. It's hard to believe, given that Earth is always at war, but with so many other threats to worry about in a world with monsters and angels, humans had never really found a reason for major conflict.
"Yeah," Sonya said, apparently having known about this all along. "the four major countries there are at war. I've heard news of it at the temple."
"That's not even the biggest problem," the elf said. "Humans might not be aware of it, but there's a power struggle among monsters as well."
"Monster power struggle?" Alice asked. "I don't understand. I am the Monster Lord."
"If so, then you would be the fourth."
"Fourth!?" Alice exclaimed. "Who dares challenge me?!"
"There are three Monster Lords vying for power right now," the elf explained. "four, if we include you. Since you disappeared, Alipheese the 16th, the leader of the Monster Lord's army is the previous Monster Lord, Alipheese the 15th."
I almost blurted out, "she's still alive?!" but controlled myself. That was a story I felt no need to share with Alice if it was not part of her history on this world.
"That's impossible!" Alice yelled. "She is obviously an imposter!"
"The Monster Lord's army would have many of the 15th's former subordinates," the elf replied calmly. "Do you think they'd really be fooled by an imposter? In any case, your forces were taken over by the 15th Monster Lord, who claims to be the rightful successor to the throne."
"So my mother is back," Alice breathed. "But why? And who are the other two?"
"One of the two remaining Monster Lords is a petite yoma who calls herself Black Alice," the elf replied.
"Black Alice," I breathed. Oh no. How many times was I going to have to fight her? Of all my opponents, she had been the only one with significant power who had seemed irredeemable. She was either evil or insane, or both.
"So Black Alice is finally making her move," Ilias said angrily. "She must intend to seize this opportunity to further her ambitions."
"And I can imagine what her power base is," Alice said disgustedly. "Assuming she's the real deal, and apparently you know something, Ilias, so I'm going to assume that she is, she would attract all of the opponents of my coexistence policies. Which I assume you knew about, Luka."
"I did," I said. "I also know this Black Alice. I've defeated her twice. So on this world, was she immortal, or did Heinrich defeat her only for Ilias to bring her back from the dead?"
"Ilias did what?!" Sonya asked. "Ilias, tell me that's not true!"
"I had my reasons," Ilias said, folding her arms. "But she betrayed me."
"Wow, who could have forseen that?" Alice said sarcastically. "So who is the last one?"
"The third is a girl calling herself Alipheese the 17th," the elf replied.
"Well that I know is an imposter," Alice scoffed. "I have no heir, and my mother didn't have any other children."
The only Alipheese the 17th I knew was Little Alice. Of course, when she was Alipheese the 17th, she was no longer little. In fact, she was the longest reining, most powerful, and greatest Monster Lord in history. I'd seen Nero. Could Little Alice be here as well? If so, that was a good thing, right? Little Alice was one of the kindest people I'd ever known. A trait she had obviously inherited from her father.
"What forces does she lead?" Ilias asked.
"She has no subordinates and leads no one," the elf replied. "She claims to be Monster Lord all by herself."
"Oh," Alice said, sighing in relief. "So she's just a delusional self proclaimed Monster Lord with no following. Probably too weak for Black Alice or my mother to concern themselves with at the moment."
"On the contrary. They fear her the most. Even though she had no followers, her power is unbelievable. In Lady's Village, Alipheese the 17th fought off the Nereneid Family's head Cassandra. That got everyone's attention. Immediately after that, she appeared in Plansect Village and defeated everyone in there by herself. She forced both the insects and plants to surrender, then took control of the area."
"She defeated everyone?!" Alice asked, astonished.
"It's not that big a deal," I said, miffed. "I did it once."
"That wasn't all," the elf continued. "Next she appeared in a small village in northern Sentora. It was occupied by Arachne forces, but they were immediately crushed. She drove them out of the village and into a remote cave."
"The spiders never did respect me, or my mother," Alice said. "I'd considered dealing with them a few times, but they are formidable warriors. I would have had to use all four Heavenly Knights to get it done."
"After that, she appeared in many other places, as if to demonstrate her strength against various powerful monsters. She killed none of them. She simply required them to remain in their narrow territories and not resist her or join one of the other factions."
"How strange," Alice mused. "Defeating them would give her the right to force them to join her. Yet she simply demanded their neutrality. What is she up to?"
"After that, she picked a fight with the Swordswoman Granberia. Five hours later, they were still evenly matched as they repeatedly attacked and defended themselves, neither able to secure the upper hand."
"Equal to Granberia?!" Alice yelped.
"I've beaten Granberia too," I whined. Although I'd never had a five hour battle with her before.
"She probably would have defeated Granberia had she not been so tired," the elf continued.
"Tired?" I asked. "Are you referring to the five hour battle? Who wouldn't be tired after that?"
"No, tired from her day. Everything I told you happened in one day, from her defeat of Cassandra to her draw with Granberia."
"She did all that in one day?!" Alice exclaimed. "Who is this monster?!"
"There's more. When she abandoned the fight with Granberia, she said that she could still not afford to show her true power. Now you understand why she's more feared than the others. Even alone, she's beyond your mother or Black Alice."
"It looks like we all have quests now," Alice said. "Beyond getting our true bodies back. We need to find out where Luka's father went and why, we need to find out what happened to heaven, and now we need to get me my throne back!"
"As well as figure out what's causing this spreading darkness that threatens our world," Sonya added. "The stuff we have to do just keeps piling up. I'm not even sure where to begin!"
"As much as I enjoy seeing monsters fight among themselves, I can't ignore a war that could engulf the human kingdoms as well," Ilias said. "Monster Lord, as much as I hate you, you're a known quantity to me. I'll help you get your throne back."
"Wow, Ilias, I'm touched," Alice responded sardonically. "Our next step is obvious, then. We need to get on a boat to Sentora. And I desperately need my body back. There's no way that I can fight those usurpers to my throne as I am now."
"Okay, so I guess it's time to head back to the pocket castle," I said.
"I've got a better idea," Alice said. "Since we can teleport to anywhere we've already been, how about we stay at the Sutherland tonight? It's the closest place to Iliasport that we've been so far."
"And they have Ama Ama Dangos," I noted, smiling. "Or at least they should by now."
"Oh?" Alice said innocently. "I hadn't given it any thought."
"Um, Luka?" a small voice said, tugging at my shirt. I looked down to see Remi.
"What is it, Remi?" I asked.
"If you write a book about this adventure, would you please make sure to mention that we were with you today, even though we didn't do anything?"
Back at the Pocket Castle, we ate a quiet dinner. I wasn't made of money, despite finding gold, so I prevailed upon Alice to let me make dinner for the group and then we'd go to the Sutherland for the night. There was a lot on everyone's minds. I didn't know precisely what we were up against, and I still didn't know the full details, but I'd gathered enough information to know that we were facing powerful adversaries. I also had to think about my loyalties. Black Alice posed no moral dilemmas. She was evil and unfit to rule. I'd defeat her again without hesitation. Alice's mother was a good person from what I'd heard, but I'd trust Alice's judgment when it came to her. If Alice felt that she should rule and not her mother, I would back Alice. A tougher dilemma was this unknown Alice. What if she was Little Alice? Little Alice had been such a remarkable ruler that my Alice couldn't wait to step down and retire to the countryside with me. I couldn't imagine fighting Little Alice. And how to explain to Alice who she was, if it did turn out to be her?
We checked into the Sutherland. Alice was the only one interested in staying at the hotel. The castle was more than palatial enough for everyone else. Alice just wanted Ama Ama Dangos. Alas, to her dismay, there were again none. She brightened considerably, however, when she was informed that by morning there would be a freshly backed batch of them ready. Mollified, as her belly was already full of my savory helpings(from the kitchen, get your mind out of the gutter!), she invited me to her room to talk. It wasn't hard to figure out why.
"I just don't understand why my mother would do this!" she sobbed. "Does she lack confidence in me?"
I decided to be diplomatic. I'll always argue that Alice was a fine Monster Lord. I'll die on that hill. But I was also aware that she had her deficiencies and that just as I could never have been the hero I was without Alice, she could never have been a successful Monster Lord without me. I rounded her hard edges, and commanded respect among many monsters who hadn't respected her. Not to mention, she had disastrously poor judgment at times. Worst of all, her bad judgments tended to be the ones she felt most strongly about, making it hard to dissuade her when she was on a bad path.
"She doesn't know you, Alice," I said soothingly. "Weren't you a child when you last saw her? What happened to her, anyway?"
Alice wiped a tear away. "Like your father, she went to go investigate a Tartarus rift near Remina. Also like your father, she was never seen again. After a few years, Tamamo decided that she was dead and started raising me to succeed her."
"Okay, that's similar to what happened where I came from."
"Where had my mother gone in your world?"
"Where I came from, your mother never returned," I said, feeling bad that I was deceiving her. I didn't want to open that can of worms yet. Now I knew what it felt like to be in Alice's position during our first journey. She had withheld information from me on many occasions, believing that I couldn't handle it yet. That a little bit of knowledge would be more dangerous to me than pure ignorance.
"Do you know who Alipheese the 17th Is, Luka?"
"I might," I said. "But not for sure. I… I can't tell you who she is just yet. She might not be who we think she is. The Alipheese the 17th I knew wasn't nearly that powerful."
Actually, that may or may not have been true. Little Alice had been a voracious reader and a fine magical student. Gabriela pronounced her the best student she had ever had. Granberia had trained her in combat and said that she was the best student Granberia had ever had as well. So I believed that there was a possibiiity. Especially since she wouldn't be MY Little Alice in all likelihood. The version of Nero I kept encountering was far more powerful than my Nero. So I recognized that Little Alice could be similarly overpowered.
"I can put two and two together Luka, I'm not an idiot," Alice said. "But you're right. Thinking we might know and acting on that information is risky. Tamamo taught me that. If at all possible, one shouldn't act without all of the information needed to make a wise decision. It changes nothing, however. Whether she's a powerful stranger, or someone related to me, like mother, it changes nothing. It's not her time. It's mine."
"So Alice, are we okay?" I asked. "You seemed a little upset about Sonya and then the dark elf."
"Don't mind me," Alice said, chuckling. "I told you before, you have no obligations towards me. We're not together. After giving it some thought, I actually admire what you did with Liv. You had so many easy ways to beat her that would have involved brutality. You could have sealed her. You could have beaten her to within an inch of her life. You could have broken a bone or choked her out. Instead, you defeated her as nonviolently as possible. I can't be mad that you love monsters so much, Luka. It's the best thing about you. It's easy to see why so many monsters fall for you."
"Only one fell for me that matters," I said. "Well, two. Maybe three."
"Stop digging, Luka," Alice said. "And please don't remind me that you married a kitsune."
"Sorry," I said, chuckling.
"As sad as I am going to be to see you go when this is all over, knowing that you're going to be reunited with that other version of me… it makes me happy. That is what happens when you die, right? Please tell me that's what happens."
"That's what I've been told by people who should know. I don't know, though. I thought I was ready to pass on, to be in paradise forever, to never cry, or be afraid, or worry again. But what's happening here has reminded me how great it is to have a purpose. One of the funny things about saving a world is that when you save it you kinda want to stay."
"Don't you think your Alice misses you, though?"
"I don't know. I mean… probably, but isn't the whole point of paradise that you don't have such worries? That it's just eternal bliss? Maybe she can see us from where she is."
"If she can, she's really pissed off and jealous, I can assure you," Alice laughed.
"Or maybe she's happy for me, the same as you," I countered.
We stared at each other for a long moment. I thought she might try to kiss me. She looked away and then laughed.
"Okay, I have to know!" she exclaimed. "Who was your third love? You were only married twice, right? Was she a mistress? Did you cheat on Tamamo?"
"No, except for a few… incidents over the next several hundred years, none of which were my fault and some of which I was ordered to do-"
"Never mind that! Who was it?!" she yelled, shaking me playfully.
"It was Granberia."
"Really?" she asked, her mouth making cute o-shape. "I guess it's not surprising. If you fought her and beat her, she probably would have fallen in love with you. She must have been upset when you married Tamamo."
"Not at all. In fact, she pushed for it."
"What?! The Granberia I know would never do that!"
"It turned out that she liked being my friend," I said, shrugging.
"Granberia friend zoned you?! That's awesome!"
"It was a little more complicated than that, but I guess that's one way of putting it."
One reason that I decided not to mention was that Granberia had seen how difficult my marriage to Alice had often been and decided that I needed less drama in my life. Granberia's primary way of expressing affection was violence, followed by rough sex. Granberia was right that after Alice, I needed a gentler soul. That hadn't stopped Granberia from continuing to express her affection violently, of course.
"Well, we have a long day tomorrow," Alice said. "And the days are only going to get longer. You should go get some sleep."
"You don't want me to stay?" I asked.
"It's best if you don't. I'm starting to get hungry. It's best if you're not in my bed when I'm like this. Unless you've made a decision…."
I hadn't yet. It had only been a few days and Alice only HAD to eat once a week. Still…
"Tell you what," I said. "I'll let you know in two more days. You only have to eat once a week, right?"
"I guess," she pouted.
"Would ten Ama Ama Dangos for breakfast tide you over?"
"Twenty might. Even though it's a different stomach. Still, it will help."
"Okay, then. Good night, Alice."
"Good night, Luka," she said softly.