The assault began as soon as the sun was completely down. It was a moonless night, so we had a big advantage, since most of our opposition weren't true monsters and had difficulty seeing in the dark. My own forces, however, consisted mostly of monsters, most of whom in turn had excellent night vision. Further adding to our advantage was the inexperience of the enemy combatants. The women had received more than sufficient power to deal with the men who were oppressing them, nearly all of whom were nothing more than bullies.
I had ordered no killing. The opposing force were victims of an injustice who had done what they'd had to do to end their oppression. My issue with them was that they wanted to spread dangerous magic all over the world. In fact, I had hoped that it wouldn't come down to an assault. I'd wanted to deal with Lily that day. Alas, Lily had banished me from her mansion with magic and then alerted the women in the village to expect an attack.
I had also chosen not to involve Lucia's faction. This was a peacekeeping mission, despite our use of force. If Lucia truly only wanted to prevent the spread of tentacle magic, then she should be satisfied and her forces would be disbanded as soon as we dealt with Lily. Lucia would receive no glory tonight.
The attack on the village went about as smoothly and cleanly as could be expected. There was only scattered resistance, quickly overwhelmed by my allies, who may have been inferior in number but were of much higher quality. There were no casualties, unless you consider a few dozen women lying on the ground, moaning in ecstasy, to be casualties. A few men even joined in the resistance, although Alice said sourly that they'd obviously come to the womens' aid so that they could get what the women were getting. Damn perverts.
That gave me a virtual waltz to Lily's mansion, which I chose to attack myself. I had my reasons for doing so, which will hopefully be obvious later. Two can be revealed right away. First, I was not skilled at pleasure attacks. I had no desire to cause these women pain by striking them with Angel Halo. They had suffered more than enough. Second, I remembered that the first time I'd done this, Alice had urged me to kill Lily. I hadn't killed Lily, despite her crimes, but in the end she had died anyway, at the hands of that world's Lucia. I wanted a better ending this time. What good was all of my experience if I couldn't do things better the second time around?
I kicked open the front door to Lily's mansion. Even though I hadn't consciously called up my power, it still reacted with the ward on the door, causing the door to shatter when I kicked it in. Surveying the entranceway of the mansion, I saw no sign of any opposition. Deeper into the mansion, however, were the horrors that I'd encountered the first time. Suck vores, failed experiments with tentacle magic while Lily had gone through the learning process, attacked me at various intervals. I hated using my sword on them, but Angel Halo's sealing power was the only way I knew of to cure them. It only took one strike, each suck vore transforming into an unconscious child once hit.
I reached the door to what I knew to be Lily's laboratory. It was blocked by an iron maiden. Another of Lily's experiments, this one not a failure but an intentional creation. Turning innocent women into torture devices with barely any sentience. My anger rose up again as I remembered my horror so many years ago when I'd first encountered Lily. I fought the anger down lest I unleash my power. Two quick slashes sealed the iron maiden, who returned to the form of a young woman, also unconscious.
Lily awaited me in the laboratory. The first time I'd faced Lily she had seemed every bit the confident villain, even taking the time to give a villainous speech to what she had assumed was her next victim. She had underestimated me and overestimated her own abilities. This time, however, Lily was frightened. She understood quite well what she was up against and had no confidence that she could prevail. Nevertheless, she believed in her cause and was prepared to fight until the end. Tentacles exploded out of her body and lashed out at me. None ever touched me. Summoning Sylph, I easily dodged among the clumsy tentacles and got in close, placing my blade against Lily's neck. From the time our assault began until I had rendered Lily helpless only fifteen minutes had passed.
"Finish it!" Lily said angrily, tears in her eyes but trying to be brave. "I beg of you, though, do not force these women to be slaves to men again!"
I withdrew my sword from her neck and backed away. Lily's tentacles disappeared.
"No one has died today and no one needs to die," I said firmly. "I only did what I had to do to end your insane crusade and the bloodshed in this village."
"Oh?" Lily asked. "Has Lucia agreed to stop attacking us?"
"Lucia has made no such assurances, but she has no reason to attack the village anymore. Should she try, she'll get the same treatment. My power allows me to return here at any time with but a thought. I will be checking back here frequently, and I will act if the fighting starts again. I'm hoping this demonstration is sufficient to insure that doesn't happen."
"Then I have no alternative but to end my research," Lily sighed. "The cries of the oppressed will go unanswered. I cannot stand against you. But do not think that you have done a good deed here today. Women all over the world will continue to be mistreated because you stopped me."
I so wasn't cut out for this, even with all of my experience. Lily was right. I had stopped what I felt to be a bigger crime, but in the process was allowing a system of oppression to continue. In my youth, I would have simply concentrated on the problem in front of me and not worried about the big picture. But the years had taught me that just because you don't think about the big picture, that doesn't mean that your actions don't have consequences. I'd learned that the hard way many times. I knew I wasn't smart enough to figure it all out on my own. I needed help. Alice and Ilias were a huge help in so many ways, but neither could properly appreciate what it meant to be a victim of oppression. They were royalty, and powerful. I had told Lily that I didn't need another set of tentacles on my team. But Lily did give me something that I needed, and I had only realized it shortly after leaving her mansion earlier in the day.
"You will end your research," I agreed. "But the cries of the oppressed are not going to go unanswered. I want you to join me, Lily. Maybe together we can find some answers. Answers that don't involve wholesale slaughter. I need someone with me who understands what it's like to be treated unfairly. Someone who can identify with victims, and help them. In constructive ways, not destructive ways."
"You… want me to join you?" Lily asked in disbelief. "But all I know is the magic I've studied all these years. It was the only certain way to empower the women of this village to fight back."
"I've been fighting evil for centuries," I said. "Sometimes with my sword, but for most of my life, by trying to make the world a better place. Come with me, Lily. I need your perspective. Let's see if we can make things better together."
"Are we really recruiting again?" Alice asked, entering the room, along with Ilias, Sara, and Sonya.
"We need her," I said. "She wasn't wrong about the world being full of oppressed people. She can be a big help."
"At least you don't have to feed her," Sonya said. "Lily, you really should come with us. I don't think this town is big enough for you and Lucia anyway."
I knew that well. If Lily stayed, I considered it highly likely that Lucia would attempt to murder her. I believed Lucia was sincere about not wanting tentacle magic to spread, but I had no faith in her benevolence in any other respect. Removing Lily from Magistea would probably result in Lucia taking power. That was fine, as long as she wasn't committing the crimes Lily was. I knew I'd be checking back at Magistea frequently.
"Fine," Lily said reluctantly. "I will accompany you, despite the fact that you chose to unleash your forces on me instead of on Lucia. I will hold you to your word, however. We must fight oppression wherever we encounter it."
"Luka has never been able to ignore injustice," Sonya said proudly. "You'll have no worries on that count."
I was a lot more satisfied with that ending than I had been with my first adventure in Witch Hunt Village. It was still morally complicated. Lily had committed great crimes, but I saw the value in redirecting her wrath rather than trying to simply beat her down or remove her from the scene by killing her. I had too many friends who had done what Lily had done or worse to pass judgment on her. I had lived a long time, but I still had never quite reconciled my hatred of injustice with my forgiving nature. Was reforming an evil person enough if they never faced justice for the things they had done? If I hadn't figured out the answer to that question in a thousand years of life, I assumed that it must be away above my pay grade.
Lily addressed the villagers that very night, telling them of her resignation as lord of the village. Lucia's forces agreed to stop fighting, although Lucia did take over as lord as I'd feared. However, she pledged that there would be no further magical experiments. Lucia considered the work complete. I still didn't trust her, but I could see no better solution. Sara felt the same way, and promised that the eyes of the Sabasan government would be on Magistea Village.
The late dinner was celebratory. For the monsters in the castle, the raid had been a bit of a lark. No one had been hurt, and none but our core group had needed to worry about the politics of the situation. The monsters had become intensely loyal to me. I had asked them to fight and they had done so without hesitation. It was a heavy responsibility. I had been in battles, but had never ordered anyone into battle before. The first had been easy. Future battles might not be so easy. I feared that I might have to ask people to risk death for me. I wasn't sure I could do that. Had our own internal politics not been so fraught, I would have preferred Alice to lead us.
In one respect, Alice did lead the way. It was her night to feed, and she was ravenous. Despite her hunger, she sensed my unease as we lay in bed in each other's arms.
"I take it you weren't completely satisfied with the outcome of our raid?" Alice asked, running her fingers down my bare chest.
"At least it went better than the first time," I replied. "I just don't know about having Lily with us. I only did it because it seemed the least bad option."
"Sometimes as a leader, all you have are bad options."
"I guess that's why I've never wanted to be the guy who had to make those decisions."
"Well, you have people to help you this time," Alice said. "Sara and I talked. Lily isn't avoiding justice. She will face trial in Sabasa for her crimes when this is all over. What Lily does while she's with us will have a big impact on how merciful the judge is."
"At least she apparently never killed anyone this time. At least not directly."
"That's going to be up to a jury to decide," Alice noted. "Lily gave those women that power knowing that they'd use it to kill. We don't yet know to what extent she encouraged that level of brutality, but I'm sure we'll find out once they start calling witnesses."
"I won't be here for that anyway," I sighed. "Which is a kind of blessing, I guess."
"I guess…." Alice said, trailing off. "You're awfully depressing tonight."
"I'm sorry, Alice. There's a lot on my mind."
"I understand. Let me see if I can take your mind off things for awhile."
Alice moved down between my legs. I expected to feel her wonderful breasts again, but gasped when I felt her mouth. It had been so long. I'd been expecting to have to wait for Grangold for that, since that was when she'd done that for me on our first journey.
"Ah, I see that got your attention," Alice chuckled. "If the pleasure doesn't cheer you up, pleasant dreams will. I'm going to suck you dry tonight. Don't worry about the trip to the Safar Ruins. Regina and I will do the walking. You can just sleep off what's going to happen to you tonight all day. Believe me, you'll need it."
She sucked me in deep, tongue coiling around my shaft inside her mouth. She truly was ravenous. I stayed conscious through seven orgasms, each one greedily swallowed without Alice even letting up. By the time I woke up the next day, we were already near the Safar Ruins.
One good thing about doing this the second time around, it was definitely more luxurious. While Alice and Regina had been hauling ass carrying the pocket castle, I'd been asleep inside for most of the day. By the time they'd reached the ruins, having moved at much faster speed than they would have had I been with them, it was early evening. It was already starting to get cooler. Since no serious threats were anticipated, Alice and Regina chose to get some rest themselves and await my return for dinner. Sonya volunteered to come with me into the ruins.
The ruins were mostly as I had remembered them, although my memory could have been faulty. I hadn't visited the ruins in over one thousand years. There was just no reason to ever go back, since the area was uninhabited. Gnome had never returned to the ruins in my world, choosing to hang out in Sabasa. Sylph had told me that I'd restored her faith in humanity, which really made me feel good about all I'd been through with the spirits. I was glad this wasn't just a time travel situation. I wasn't doing it all over again, so much as I was doing it for a different world. Not that this world needed my help much in that respect. Due to Ilias' disappearance, monsters and humans were already halfway to coexistence. This world's problem was more direct, and apparently a problem that only I could solve.
But first I had to get the spirits, because I needed to recreate history, and apparently getting the spirits was the most important part of that history. Secondly, I'd forgotten how to call my shadow spirits, so needed to get used to how they felt inside me again. Of course, while they were with me, I had no reason to call my own.
"I read that this place was once as sacred to the pagans as San Ilia is to us," Sonya said as we wandered around looking for Gnome.
"Unfortunately, the history is very spotty from that time period," I replied. I'd become a student of the history of my adopted world myself. I had been terrible at learning the technicalities of magic, but I'd devoured the history books in the library and could regurgitate more historical facts than even Alice knew within a few years.
"So how does this work?" Sonya asked. "Is it going to go the same way it did in the forest of spirits?"
"Something like that," I replied. "You don't find Gnome or Sylph, they find you. If they don't want to be found, they just don't get found. But Gnome will know I have Sylph with me. That will make her curious. It did last time."
"Gnomey's close, Luka!" Sylph piped up inside my heart. "She wants to play, but she's scared of you."
I chuckled. Gnome, like me, had a lot more power than she knew how to use. Against three of the four spirits, I'd been tested. Gnome had meant to test me, but in the end she'd nearly buried herself alive. Me pulling her out of her own trap had convinced her that I was worthy. But I knew that in her full glory, Gnome was a match for almost anyone short of a Heavenly Knight. The problem was that Gnome and Sylph preferred play to practicing their skills.
I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. One of Gnome's mud dolls scurried away. I could have summoned Sylph and overtaken it easily, but didn't want to leave Sonya behind and unprotected. Desert monsters were dangerous and often carnivores, and they would be as happy to eat a woman as a man.
I urged Sonya to run with me after the doll. Sonya hadn't seen it, but followed along without complaint. Unfortunately, we lost the mud doll. No problem, I thought. There will be another.
"Luka, are you really happy right now?" Sonya asked as we wandered aimlessly, waiting for another one of the mud dolls or Gnome herself.
"That's a complicated question," I responded. "In what way do you mean?"
"Having sex with all those monsters, does that make you happy?"
"Wow," I breathed. "To be honest, I haven't given it much thought. They like me and it seems to increase their bond with me, which in turn leads to them fighting well when I need them. That assault on the village went incredibly smoothly."
"But does it make you happy?"
"I…. I really don't know. I'm not going to lie to you, I do enjoy it. What monsters can do to man… it's beyond comprehension. But sometimes I just wish I could have a normal friendship with a monster. It was one thing I couldn't solve in all the time I worked for coexistence. Monsters have appetites that can't be denied, and their culture revolves around sating hose appetites. You know how things get weird between a man and a woman when they have sex outside of a loving relationship?"
"I think I know the feeling well," Sonya chuckled.
"Well with monsters, it's when you DON'T have sex with them that it gets weird, at least if they feel that they should be having sex with you, which is most of the time."
"So it's more a duty for you, letting the monsters in the castle just do whatever they want with you?"
"It's a fun duty, but yeah, it's definitely a duty."
"Was it like that in your old life?" Sonya asked. "Were you just having sex with various monsters all the time?"
"There were…. Situations, but no, nothing like it is right now."
"So after this is over, you could maybe… be interested in monogamy?"
"I've always been interested in monogamy," I chuckled.
"Were you married back on your world?"
Hoo boy. I realized that I'd told Sonya less than I'd told Alice or Ilias.
"Yes, I was. To Alice."
"It shows," Sonya sighed. "The way you act around her. Thank you for not lying to me."
"Sonya, you know that when this is over, you get your Luka back. We've been over this."
"That doesn't mean I don't care about you, too," Sonya retorted angrily. "I don't expect you to be into me, but I don't want to see you doing things that will make you unhappy while you're here. Doll!"
Sonya pointed to my left. I saw the doll staring at us before it too, ran off. Sonya and I gave chase. We didn't lose the doll the second time. It led us straight to Gnome, who stood in front of a nearly intact wall of what was once a temple to the earth spirit.
"Gnomey!" Sylph yelled happily. "Come possess this guy with me!"
Did Sylph have to put it that way? I guess it was a possession, albeit one in which I was usually in control. The spirits had an ethic of not taking direct control of those they possessed without their permission. The most any had ever done to me was take partial control, such as when Sylph had boosted my speed dramatically of her own volition during my final serious battle with Alma Elma. Still, calling it "possession" was creepy.
Gnome just stood there staring.
"Gnomey says she doesn't know you," Sylph explained. "You'll have to pass her test."
"That's how it usually goes," I said. "Very well, Gnome, what kind of test do you have in mind?"
Gnome simply held out her hand. "Ooh, interesting!" Sylph said. "She knows something!"
I took Gnome's hand without hesitation. Earth power immediately flowed into me, although Gnome remained outside of me, connected to me only by touch. But there was more. I was being psychically probed. I'd never had a spirit do that to me before. In fact,due to the block on my mind that I'd had before, it would have been impossible. It felt weird for my mind to be open to all sorts of influences, but I wasn't fighting it. Gnome wanted to know who I was. This wasn't just about a test of my strength. It was a test of my soul.
Suddenly, I wasn't in the desert anymore. I was back in my world. Not my adopted world, but my birth world, in my favorite place. The mall. Gnome was looking around in wonder. Then she dashed off into the toy store, heading straight for the doll section. I followed her into the store to see what had caught her interest. I found her staring at the Bratz dolls. She pointed at one in particular, a purple haired girl with a glittery outfit. I took it off the shelf and handed it to her. She held the box close.
"I'll have to pay for that," I said. "Let me see if I have my wallet."
I reached into my jeans pocket and pulled out my wallet. Inside were several twenty dollar bills. I smiled in satisfaction.
"Do you want me to buy that, for you?" I asked her.
She nodded eagerly. We went up to the cashier and I handed the lady at the register a twenty for the doll. We walked out of the store, sat on a bench, and Gnome tore open the box.
"Is this real?" I asked. "I'm pretty sure you don't control time or hop across dimensions."
"Nope, not real," Gnome replied to my surprise. "What? You didn't know I could talk?"
"I knew you could talk," I said. "I've only ever heard you speak one time, though."
"That means we must have been close. Another universe? Another life?"
"You're perceptive," I replied. "Exactly that."
"I'm not surprised. Your aura is different from the other humans. You obviously aren't from here. I told Sylph that I didn't know you, but I felt as if I should."
"Alice said that to me as well," I said, surprised. "But I've met a lot of people on this world that I knew in another life and they didn't recognize me at all."
"I can't speak for Alice, but since the Tartarus Rifts have a great effect on the earth, I feel the perturbations more than anyone else. Other universes are bleeding into this one. I'm having false memories of things I didn't experience. Memories of you. They are fragmented, but it seems that we did great things together."
"We did," I confirmed. "We saved the world."
"Then I guess now we have to save all of them, don't we?" Gnome asked, playing with her new doll's hair.
"We do. I hope you're down for it."
"Maybe if I help you save the multiverse, you can take me to the world that has so many wonderful dolls."
"On that world I'm pretty rich," I chuckled. "If it's possible, I'll take you there and get you all the dolls."
That seemed to satisfy Gnome, who put the doll back in the box and hugged me close. The dream, such as it was, ended, and I found myself back in the ruins with Sonya. Gnome was no longer in sight. She had entered my heart.
"Gnomey! Yay!" Sylph exulted. "we can play again!"
Gnome was so moved she slapped Sylph.
"Success?" Sonya asked. "you kinda went away for a minute. Not physically, but you were unresponsive. Just standing there being weird."
"Oh, that was Gnome's test," I said. "It was more of an interview. I guess I passed. Let's head back."
I'd been back in time to make dinner, which always made everyone happy. Alice was particularly happy that I'd acquired the services of a second spirit. Next came the scary part. The third Tartarus. We'd have to discuss who was coming on that expedition. But for the time being, there was still a sense of euphoria in the castle. We'd done well the past few days. We'd rescused a queen, prevented a succubus from inadvertently taking over a city, and stopped the spread of dangerous magic.
The celebratory mood continued into the night as Saki gave a performance to our small group in the bar. Watching her performance in a more intimate setting fully drove home how special her power was. She reminded me a little of Dazzler from the X-men, with her ability to add lights to her show. But there was more to it than that. She could add sound, needing no background music. She brought her own, and the sounds she could make were sounds that couldn't even be matched by the modern instruments on Earth. Everyone was enraptured.
I also noticed the effect she had on me as a male. Although I was resistant to the charm effect ofher music and didn't feel the need to start dancing, she did make me pretty horny. She had sex appeal and knew how to use it as part of her performance. And yet it never came off as lewd, despite the fact she was a succubus. If anything, she oozed wholesomeness, which made her even more desirable. I was beginning to understand her strategy, how she marketed herself. She was a succubus, so there was no way around her need to feed off of men after shows. But if they never remembered what had happened, even the people who had experienced that heavenly looking body could suspend their disbelief long enough during her shows to think she was unattainable, a true idol, almost virginal despite her blazing hot performances.
When the show was over, another succubus pulled me aside: Sara. Thankfully, she was in human form.
"She's really something, isn't she?" Sara asked as we walked down the hallway towards our respective quarters.
"Best I've ever seen," I agreed. "I heard she acquitted herself well in combat yesterday."
"She was superb, actually. I would expect nothing less from a succubus, of course. Subduing people with pleasure is what they do. I wasn't ready for that. I was knocking people out. I'm still not entirely comfortable with my monster side."
"Thank you for joining me, Sara," I said. "It feels like I'm getting a second chance to spend time with you."
"Why don't you come to my room and tell me all about us?" Sara asked, a mischeveious smile on her face.
"Are we just going to talk?" I asked. If I'm being honest with myself, I wanted to do a lot more than talk with Sara. And yet Sonya's conversation with me had started me thinking that maybe what I was doing wasn't healthy. It had seemed to be expedient, and fun, to let all the monsters pleasure me. But something about it didn't feel right. As much as it was improving my relationships with the monsters we'd recruited, it seemed to be pushing away my closest companions. Sonya was the only one who was blunt about it. Alice and Ilias were clearly bothered by it but tended to keep it to themselves. Alice, because she believed it was necessary for me to feed our companions, and Ilias, because she had decided it was futile to try to talk me out of doing lewd things with monsters.
"I am hungry," Sara said. "But I'll give you a chance to talk. How about I stay in human form to play with you? I get the impression you like me better in this form."
"I do," I said. "You're beautiful, Sara."
Sara blushed and smiled at me sweetly. Taking me by the hand, she led me to her room. For the next few hours, she gently made love to me, never so intense that we couldn't talk about everything we had meant to each other in that past life. It reminded me of what I'd been missing the whole time. This was true companionship. It felt right. I knew I needed more of that, and less of the impersonal feeding. I had to find a balance, for my own mental stability and for the sake of our group.