"Mmmmm, so good," Alice said with satisfaction, giving my penis one last kiss before getting out of bed.
"Mburgebl," I replied. That's Critical Ecstasese for "You're Welcome."
"I know I wasn't due, but I stress eat," Alice continued. "So thank you so much for that. Sorry if I was a little enthusiastic."
"Enthusiasm is good in this context," I said, recovering my ability to speak, but still struggling to stay conscious. Succubi may get all the glory for their sexual prowess, but there is no better orgasm than a lamia's slightly rough tongue swirling around your shaft while you empty everything you have deep into her mouth. Alice had settled on that method as the most efficient and delicious for feeding. I was not complaining, although I was wondering when we'd actually have sex. In my first adventure, Gold had been the region where we'd first done it. I imagined it had to do with the differing circumstances.
"Then I'll be sure to be even more enthusiastic next time," she replied sweetly. "Oh, dammit, I'm small again. You really should work on holding onto the spell longer."
I'd lost control of the spell after my first orgasm. The idea was that the energy from my semen enabled Alice to maintain her larger form herself. She was probably just teasing me. Alice always liked to call me weak because I came early, often, and a lot with her. As if she would have it any other way. I couldn't imagine Alice having the patience to work on me for forty minutes just to get one meal. If she wanted that much work, she would have learned how to cook.
Alice removed her clothes and changed into her night gown. We'd had to buy a whole wardrobe for her smaller form, and she couldn't change while she was adult sized. That clothing was an artificial creation of mine, just like her larger form.
"What you are stressed about?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing you don't already know about," Alice answered. "We've got urgent matters to attend to, some of which we don't yet have the ability to do much about. My mother being foremost on that list. We have the Beelzebubs running around loose, which can end civilization as we know it as well as chaosization can. What really pisses me off is that there's some strange ship on the Northern Seas murdering monsters and it's actually a low priority! In normal times, that would be something I would deal with personally and not rest until it was dealt with."
"You did put Cindy and Meia on it," I noted. "And Alma Elma is trying to track down the Beelzebubs."
"Yes, we have allies," Alice acknowledged. "It definitely helps when there's so much on our plate. Speaking of which, Lady's Village is next on our agenda. So before you pass out, give me a quick rundown on what happened to you in Lady's Village," Alice ordered, lying next to me. "Cassandra is very dangerous. I'd like to get an idea of what to expect."
I'd tried to forget what happened in Lady's Village. I'd seen a cold side of Alice that I hadn't liked that day. Talk about your red flags! That coldness had once been turned against me when I'd crossed her. Another bad memory.
"I was a lot weaker then," I answered. "No match for Cassandra at all. You sent me into Lady's Village as bait, following me, using your best invisibility spell, one that even Cassandra wouldn't be able to detect."
"Ah, I love it when you tell me stories about how powerful I used to be," Alice said blissfully. "Why did I send you in as bait?"
"The purpose of us going to Lady's Village was to find out if Cassandra had summoned me to your world. I was supposed to make her think I was there alone, just to ask questions. Her answers, even if she wasn't completely forthcoming, would tell you all you needed to know."
"But we know now that that world's Ilias brought you," Alice pointed out. "So obviously Cassandra knew nothing. I'm also assuming Cassandra wouldn't be the type to just let you be on your way. Unless she detected your power and decided to be cautious?"
"She did detect my power, but didn't respect it. With good reason. I couldn't use it except under very limited circumstances back then, circumstances beyond my conscious control. So she sought to keep me prisoner, to study me and presumably use me to settle old scores. With the threat of me being eaten as my inducement to behave."
"As well as the promise of insane pleasure if you cooperated," Alice added. "Say what you will about us monsters, but enslavement to us has its rewards."
"So once you heard all you needed to know, you showed yourself, there was a confrontation, and you killed Cassandra."
"I killed her?" Alice asked. "I can see myself being driven to that, but I need more information than that. What provoked me?"
"She has an ability where she can turn a room into her stomach, thus digesting everyone in the room."
"Really? Good to know. That's powerful magic. I'm guesing I simply teleported out of the house, then smashed my way back in and beat her to death?"
"No, nothing like that," I replied. "You couldn't teleport in that situation. First, you were wrapped up in…. something. It was as if she'd wrapped stomach and intestinal tissue around you. From what I understand, you can't teleport while bound."
"I can, but like teleporting indoors, it's risky."
"You also didn't want to teleport me at the time because Ilias had done something to my mind that you felt made it unsafe. So to get to the point, you simply cast a quick eye spell that caused her individual cells to stop responding to her. Since she's basically made up of those cells, and could no longer control them, she essentially digested herself."
"Ooh," Alice winced. "That's a nasty way to go. I assume it was at least intensely pleasurable? Death by digestion from a monster is said to be the most amazing feeling a person can experience. It's too bad a person can only experience it once."
"No, that's what made it so horrible. She wanted you to experience agony as you died."
"And so she received the fate she intended for me," Alice finished. "She's as cruel as I remember. I'm worried, though. I can't do that kind of spell as I am now. So this time if it comes to that it will be you protecting me."
"I'm ready for that," I said with certainty.
"Well, hopefully the situation is different," Alice said, snuggling into the crook of my arm. "She's locked inside her mansion and not coming out. She's been ruling that village for many years and she loves to be in public. Cassandra craves power, but I've always thought that she craved attention even more. If she's isolated herself, something is definitely wrong with her."
"Maybe if we help her with whatever problem she has, she'll change," I said hopefully.
"Dream on," Alice replied. "Not everyone responds to your lollipops and rainbows approach. I'm not saying we won't help her if she needs us, but don't think it will make her a better person."
"Don't monsters always have extreme gratitude when you help them, though? It seems to be how I've made a lot of monsters see things differently."
"Cassandra will pay her debts to you, of that you can be sure. But she sees the world in strict survival of the fittest terms. Once she believes the scales are balanced between you and her, she'll eat you at the first opportunity. So a word of advice: if you have a grateful Cassandra on your hands, put off her attempts to thank you for as long as possible."
That was a sobering thought.
The next morning we were already at Lady's village, since at Alice's speed it was only a couple of hours away. That was another reason I never complained about Alice draining me. She did the traveling for me when I was out cold. Fully energized from the evening before, she took only two hours to speed towards the outskirts of Lady's Village, where she returned to the Pocket Castle and crawled back into bed with me. I hadn't even noticed that she'd been gone, being knocked out and all.
"This is a pretty high class place," Sonya observed as we entered Lady's Village. "It has an air of celebrity about it."
"Don't be fooled," Ilias cautioned. "Every one of these women is a monster in disguise. Men who come here never return."
"They keep them?" Sonya asked.
"They eat them," Alice answered. "This is a village of carnivorous monsters."
"But why are there so many men here?" Sonya wondered. "Are they going to eat them later?"
"Possibly, but that's not how it usually goes. Interesting. Sonya, would you be a dear and do your femme fatale thing? But stay within our sight. Carnivorous monsters won't hesitate to eat any human regardless of gender."
The presence of many men was interesting. When I'd first come to the village, there were only women. The survival time of any man entering Lady's Village could usually be measured in minutes. But after Cassandra died and Emily was put in charge, killing was outlawed and men flocked from everywhere to live in the village, making it a sort of sister city to Succubus Village. Succubi are amazing, but brazen and impersonal. Lady's Village had cultivated a more refined reputation, a place where men could receive pleasures beyond their imagining, but in a more classy way, behind closed doors, and often in very unusual ways.
So what was the story with this world's Lady's Village? Was it a mortal danger to any man who wandered in, or was it more like the post-Cassandra Lady's Village? Or was it in a transitionary state? Sonya was good at her job, coming back quickly to relay what she had learned.
"After Cassandra was beaten soundly by Neris, Neris forced her to order the villagers to stop eating men," Sonya reported. "That was the last anyone saw of her except for her daughter and her maid. Everyone suspects she's too humiliated to face her subjects."
"She always was a prideful one," Alice observed. "Maybe this will be easy. If all that's going on is that she's embarrassed to show her face, I can just gloat and leave."
"You should also know that some monsters disagreed with her orders," Sonya added. "They went back to the hills to prey on travelers."
"I don't like it, but not a high enough priority to concern us. We can fix that once I have my throne back and the world isn't disintegrating into nothingness. Anything else?"
"I think that's about it. The monsters who stayed like the new ways. They can't devour men whole, but they get more semen than before."
"All monsters need semen, but no monster needs to eat humans," Alice said. "They do it because they evolved from carnivorous species that were indiscriminate in their eating habits. In the wild, most of their animal forbears had only one rule: You can eat anything that doesn't try to eat you first."
Since there was little risk of an attack given that all the bad monsters had left the village in a huff, we proceeded directly to the mansion. Cassandra's maid stood outside, guarding the door.
"What business do you have here?" the maid demanded.
"We're here to see Lord Cassandra," Alice responded, diplomatically using Cassandra's preferred title. Really, Cassandra was the mayor, but that wasn't pompous enough for her.
"Lord Cassandra is seeing no one. You will leave now."
"It's okay, Ran," a voice said from inside. "Unlike the useless visitors you normally turn away, these people might be able to assist us."
"Assist?" Alice asked, then said to be quietly. "Don't agree to anything, Luka! I'll decide if this is worth doing."
"Way to respect Luka as the leader," Ilias muttered. "Luka, are you going to take that?"
Since Alice knew Cassandra better than I did, the answer was definitely yes. Cassandra was crafty and dangerous. I fully intended to follow Alice's lead.
Ran led us into the mansion. Cassandra's voice projected throughout the home.
"Oh, who is the little angel with you? Is that you, Ilias? You're much smaller than I remember. Careful, little angel. A bad monster might eat you."
"At least let me have half of her," Emily's voice chimed in.
"The nerve!" Ilias muttered.
"The great thing about having you around is that I'm only the second most hated person in this mansion," Alice giggled.
We were led to the same sitting room in which I'd met Cassandra the first time. I hadn't been back since, but the place was seared into my memory due to the traumatic events that had occurred there. Would history repeat? Did history have to repeat? Wasn't Cassandra's death the correct history? There had to be a better way.
In one respect, it was most definitely not the correct history. Cassandra and Emily were in sealed forms, which for Cassandra was an amoeba-like being, albeit the largest amoeba you'd ever seen. Emily was distinguished from Cassandra by her coloring and her Scylla lineage. I had no idea how that worked, given that Cassandra was not a Scylla. Was Emily an adopted daughter?
"I'm sure you've already heard how I was defeated by Alipheese the Seventeenth," Cassandra said to us. Apparently taunting Ilias had been her idea of small talk.
"Those rumors have certainly made their way around," Ilias replied. "So your pitiful condition is the result of losing to her?"
"Not exactly," Cassandra answered. "I only suffered heavy damage thanks to her. She did, however, force me to recuperate here in my mansion. Gah! Just thinking about it makes me seethe with rage!"
"According to your own worldview, what you should really be mad about is being alive," I retorted. "Alipheese was stronger than you, but chose not to kill you."
"It gets worse," Emily said. "While mother was weakened, the second strongest monster living in the village staged a revolt. She didn't agree with not being able to eat humans and she was not defeated by Alipheese, so she wasn't held to mother's promises."
"Who is this monster?" Alice asked.
"Candy, the Queen of Sweets."
"There's a Queen of Sweets?" I asked. "So in this world there are cake monsters and donut monsters and cookie monsters?"
"Don't be an idiot, Luka," Alice admonished. "That's a self-proclaimed title. She's even more gluttonous than I am. Sweets, semen, sweets, human meat, more sweets. What I don't get is why she would be in this village."
"In the last few decades, the world had changed," Cassandra explained. "This village became a sanctuary for monsters who wanted to live the traditional way."
"You mean by eating humans," Ilias said accusingly. "I should slay you right here, Cassandra!"
"If I was in my true form, you would have no chance against me!" Cassandra shot back.
"And if I was in my true fucking form….!"
"Oh my goodness, you are both idiots!" Alice exclaimed. "Neither of you are in your true forms! It's a moot point! Cassandra, did Candy do this to you? How? I don't remember her having that kind of power."
"Damn her!" Cassandra raged. "She converted our energy into sweets and gobbled it up! Then a large number of my people left the village with her! Argh!"
"Mother, you're getting worked up," Emily said gently.
"That's awfully innovative," Ilias noted. "She basically invented a way to seal opponents using her innate abilities. You could learn from that, Luka."
"Nice," I said. "I'll just turn our opponents into candy and you and Alice can eat them."
"That's a great plan," Alice replied.
"After Candy stole our power," Emily continued. "she set up a base in the mountains nearby. With so many of the monsters from this village obeying her, she's styling herself as the queen of the mountain or something."
"She's an idiot," Alice said. "There's no way she figured out how to seal people using some kind of candy power on her own."
"Will you retrieve our power from Candy?" Cassandra asked. "Of course, we'll make it worth your while."
"I'm not interested in your local power struggles," Alice retorted. "Secondly, what kind of reward could you possibly give us that anyone other than the man here would be interested in?"
"But the pleasure I can give is unmat-" Cassandra started.
"Yeah yeah," Ilias interrupted. "That's fine for him, but he's not facing Candy alone, so why should any of us ladies be interested?"
"Funny, I would think you'd be totally into Cassandra giving you her unique kind of pleasure," Alice snarked.
"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about," Ilias said, nose in the air.
"You were probably right that Candy would never have learned such magic on her own," Emily interjected. "Rumor has it that Candy is receiving support from Black Alice. Leaving her alone might come back to bite you guys in the ass."
"Not to mention, she and her followers are eating humans," Cassandra added.
Alice sighed. "Fine," she said. "We'll deal with Candy. But I'm making no promises about restoring you."
"I'll help you get your full strength back," I volunteered.
"Luka!" Alice scolded me. "What did I say?"
"It doesn't matter what you said!" I shot back. "I'm the boss! And I say that we help her, on one condition."
"What is your condition, human?" Cassandra asked.
"That you make the policy to not eat humans anymore permanent. No more survival of the fittest. Lady's Village will join the rest of the world in coexistence."
"Done," Cassandra said quickly.
"Idiot," Alice muttered. "She already agreed to not eat humans when the Seventeenth beat her up."
"Well, now she's doubly committed," I argued.
"Idiot."
So the mission seemed pretty straightforward. Go to the place called Scenic Hill, beat up this Candy, and then make her give Cassandra and Emily their power back. Sometimes I enjoyed the simplicity of this world. It was a twisted world, often a brutal world, and in truth, it had its share of complexities. But if there was one thing that was simple, it was that if you defeated a monster in battle, they would do what you said.
Getting to Scenic Hill wasn't difficult. It was only an hour away, so we simply strolled on over. No one bothered us on the way there, although some wild harpies flew over us almost like vultures, perhaps waiting for us to show signs of exhaustion. They probably had been told by their friends from my previous encounter to be cautious around me. I would have hoped they'd be told to not attack humans, but since I hadn't beaten up the harpy leader of this area, the promises made by the three harpies I did defeat only applied to them alone. That was where things got annoyingly complex. Sometimes I could actually get monsters to genuinely change. Other times they just obeyed because I had beaten them up. Since I didn't like beating anyone up, I definitely preferred persuasion and changing hearts and minds.
This area of the Gold Region was one of the prettier ones, albeit a bit dry and hot. We went through a lot of water. I proposed going back to the castle to get more, since we were running low, but Ilias and Alice decided that would be a good opportunity to teach me a new trick.
"Just conjure us some water," Alice suggested.
"I don't know how to do that," I replied, quite reasonably, I thought.
"Luka, it's two hydrogen atoms, one oxygen atom!" Ilias said. "It's not like conjuring a filet mignon. Just hold your canteen, imagine it being full of water, and then it will be. Water's about the simplest thing possible to conjure."
"Doesn't that mean either of you should be able to do it, then?" I asked.
"At this point, both of us can," Alice said. "But you need to learn how to better use your magic. So give it a try."
Holding my empty canteen, I imagined it was full. Nothing.
"Ugh," Alice said. "Your power is governed by your will and your imagination, which is really idiotic design, because it makes your abilities hard to reliably learn. If you could learn actual spells, it would just be a matter of knowing the spell and casting the spell. Look, try this. Put your canteen down."
I set the canteen down on the ground.
"Now pick it up again, but expect it to be full. Isn't it normal that when you reach for your canteen, there's water in it?"
That sounded almost reasonable, so I picked the canteen up again with the expectation that it should have water. After all, it's a canteen! Why would I carry around an empty canteen? To my surprise, it worked! Not only was it full of water, but the water was cold, refreshing, and pure. I drank deeply and then filled my companions' canteens the same way, although it was inconsistent. Sometimes it took several tries. It was almost as if a part of my brain had to 'forget' that the canteen was empty, while another part expected it to be full. Sonya had the insightful idea to put all the canteens on the ground side by side, some full, some empty. That way I wouldn't know which ones were which, and if I expected to pick up a full canteen, I would. That worked the first time, earning Sonya a verbal pat on the back from Alice and Ilias.
"But doesn't the water just disappear once I forget about it?" I asked.
"It does," Ilias answered. "But it doesn't matter. Just reach for your canteen expecting it to have water, and it will."
Thus well hydrated, we reached Scenic Hill, helpfully marked with a sign calling it "Scenic Hill", and began the climb up the winding path. Alice cautioned me to be on guard. If all of the most barbaric carnivores were here, it was a certainty that I'd be attacked. For that matter, Sonya would as well. While carnivorous monsters preferred to get some semen as an appetizer, a woman was not a terrible consolation prize. It just meant that the monster got to enjoy the main course sooner. Some monsters would even eat other monsters, or angels, which meant that Alice and Ilias were in danger as well. While the mission was simple, it was no milk run.
The first monster we encountered was a refined looking woman with an umbrella. I tried to jog my memory to remember what kind of monster she was, but Alice called her out for what she was, causing her to drop her disguise and transform into one of the most hideous, scary things I'd ever seen. Obviously a type of Scylla, a monster race that I was not the biggest fan of.
She was fearsome, but not very formidable. Her tentacles enabled her to take all of us on at once, but for the first time we showed decent teamwork. This was purely by accident, I assure you. We hadn't practiced our tactics. Well, Sonya did, but not with us. That was probably the reason attacks by our castle friends went so smoothly. They actually practiced and discussed tactics. We, on the other hand, had simply grown used to fighting together. Sonya, Alice, and Ilias tied up as many tentacle as possible while I gave Madame Umbrella precisely what she wanted: me. The problem for her was that my sword came with the package, which enabled me to search through the flow to find a weak spot and seal her.
Further up the hill, we ran into another woman, this one with a parasol. Alice called out her disguise as well, but this monster, an insect of some sort, feigned shock. Then she thought she would be cute.
"Young man, why don't you come a little closer?" Madame Insect suggested. "We get so few male visitors. Why don't you introduce yourself to a lady?"
"Luka already has more than enough ladies, but thanks," Sonya retorted.
"Yes, but you three are just children!" Madame Insect countered. "Don't you want to experience the talent of an experienced, mature woman?"
"I'm no kid!" Sonya yelled.
"And neither are they," I said mildly, restoring Ilias and Alice to their adult forms.
Madame Insect may have been barbaric, but she was educated. She recognized who she was looking at immediately and scurried off in her true form, which was faster.
"How come a lot of monsters recognize you two, and a lot don't?" Sonya wondered.
"In my case," Alice explained. "I'm an echidna, and I'm far from my natural habitat. That's a big clue right there. They can also tell by my natural birthmarks."
"That pattern that looks like a tattoo?" Sonya asked.
"Yes. Most of it's natural, although some ink has been used to make it look cleaner. You'll see these patterns on a lot of powerful monsters. For some reason unknown to magic science, they tend to be a sign of great magical potential."
"The genes for birthmarks like that are the same as the genes for magic potential," Ilias added. "So there's a definite correlation. If a monster sees another monster with those tattoo-like patterns, they know to be real polite. As for me, few monsters have seen me and lived. But my paintings are everywhere and really, my beauty is so unparalleled, how could I be confused for someone else?"
"As for why monsters might not recognize us," Alice said. "Monster Lords, like Goddesses, don't appear in public often. So many monsters, especially those who live in the wild, don't know that an echidna is even Monster Lord, nor have they ever seen a monster with the birthmark patterns that would denote a powerful monster. They just see a blue lamia and think she's just like any other lamia."
"And sometimes ignorant monsters just see an angel," Ilias said. "Especially in my diminished form."
"More trouble coming," Alice noted, sniffing the air.
Instead of a glamorous woman, this time we encountered a very large woman who had to be at least seven feet tall, with a pair of the largest breasts I'd ever seen, huge even for her size. She had long, dark hair and wore a funny looking hat that resembled something a pirate like Bonnie might wear, but since I was no hat expert I was probably misidentifying the fashion.
"Good day, travelers!" the woman said. Alice folded her arms and looked at her skeptically. "I wonder if I might travel with you! You seem to be on a dangerous mission! To confront Candy, I presume! I am a renowned wizard by the name of Aradia! Perhaps we can help each other. I too, am on a mission to eradicate the foul beast!"
"You can cut the act," Alice said sourly. "I know what you are."
"If you're here to fight Candy, then by all mean come with us!" I urged.
"Bad move, Luka," Ilias warned.
"She just wants to drain you," Alice agreed.
"I admit, I am hungry," Aradia conceded. "But it will only be friendly draining, and only after we complete our mission!"
"See, that's the standard contract!" I said.
"Oh, it's a standard contract now?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. "Help Luka, suck Luka? Which are you more interested in at this point?"
"Look," I argued. "Candy's powerful, right? Sure, I'm more powerful, but I'm not going to kill her, which means a close quarters fight with my sword against an opponent I'm not familiar with."
"Oh, you never fought Candy on your world?" Ilias asked.
"No, never met her before in my life."
"That world had less magic," Alice noted. "Candy is a weird case, possible only after the Great Disaster increased the amount of magic in the world. Okay, fair enough. Given our reduced magical abilities, we could use the support. Getting in close with Candy is a great way to get devoured, even if you're strong. If we can beat her from a distance, that would be preferable."
"So may I join you?" Aradia asked. "Worst case, I can protect Luka with my body. I'm too big for even Candy to swallow."
"Assuming she can be trusted," Ilias said. "These witches, you never know what side they are on."
"Not to mention, if we let her stay in the castle, she'll be exactly what I've been talking about when I say that you're not safe, even there," Alice said.
"Okay, I hear your warnings, and I'll be cautious," I said. "Aradia, it's great to have you on the team. But we will be wary of you until you prove yourself."
"I understand, and would not expect anything less from sophisticated adventurers such as yourselves," Aradia said, bowing. "Now come, I know exactly where to find Candy."
One advantage to letting her help us was that it shaved at least an hour off of our search. She also prevented us from being seen by Candy before we were ready to attack. Aradia stopped us several hundred feet away from where Candy was sitting near the top of the hill, happily eating various treats. She had a lollipop in one hand that was the size of my torso, which she would lick while stuffing cake into her face with the other hand. But that wasn't all. Her hair had four mouths at the end of it which were also consuming plates of cookies. Not only was she gluttonous, she was huge. I wasn't so sure that she couldn't swallow the seven foot Aradia. Candy had to be almost twice her height, and three times her width. While she wasn't obese, she was still massive.
"She's worse than you, Ilias!" Alice whispered, demonstrating a complete lack of self awareness.
"She doesn't have very good hearing," Aradia informed us. "You don't have to whisper at this distance. Just stay out of sight."
"How does something like that even evolve?" I asked in wonder. "She's not a monster. She's a landmark!"
"Don't you know what a yoma is, Luka?" Alice asked.
"It's a demon, right?"
"That's the very simplistic version. What makes a yoma different from other monsters is that usually they aren't born, they're made. So you are familiar with succubi, some succubi are born, but most were once human women. The ambient magic in the world can interact with a person's soul and change them to look like what they truly are. In a world of perverts, succubi are common. Candy is a glutton. She was probably a human, although she could have been a monster already, who loved sweets so much that she changed into… that."
"There but for the grace of Ilias go you," Ilias muttered, finally getting her comeback. That made me giggle, In my mind, I could definitely see Alice transforming into a Candy, although the way Candy was attacking plates of food while we talked, I knew that Alice had nothing on her. Alice only ate with one mouth, even though she could have conceivably used her lower mouth as well to eat normal food. If anything, Candy didn't have enough mouths. It seemed as if she could barely stuff her mouths quickly enough. I almost feared that she'd starve if we interrupted her by fighting her.
Running out of cookies and cake, Candy grabbed another lollipop and began busily alternating, licking each one in turn.
"How did she even get up here?" Sonya wondered.
"Don't be fooled," Alice warned. "She's big, but she's not very fat. Don't think she won't be a mobile opponent."
"She's not fast," Aradia said. "At least not on her feet. But those mouths can perform some of the quickest combat swallows I've ever seen."
"Combat swallows?" I asked.
"You know how most monsters have to weaken you to eat you?" Alice explained. "I'm guessing she doesn't even have to do that. One of those mouths just grabs you, and before you know it…."
"Shlurp," Ilias finished.
"Okay, so we keep our distance," I said. "Aradia, you take the lead. If you want to prove yourself, stay in front of us, we'll support you from behind."
"I agree to your terms, tasty," Aradia said with a wink. We began our advance.
We made it about halfway to Candy before she spotted us. She must not have had any magical ability, because she took no action, other than to keep licking her lollipops, but with her eyes on us, her hair mouths moving threateningly, but also hungrily.
"She's got your scent," Aradia warned. "You want proof you can trust me? If you get eaten, I get nothing from you."
"That doesn't make you sound trustworthy at all!" Sonya exclaimed.
"If you stay true to us, you can take him to your breast world and drain him to your heart's content, short of killing him," Alice said. "But that's conditional on none of us getting eaten, you got that?"
"What?!" Sonya exclaimed. "You're treating him like a piece of meat, to be passed around and chewed on!"
"Better by Aradia than Candy," Ilias said. "At least Aradia will leave a body for you to bury."
"Not comforting!" Sonya yelled.
When we got close enough to be heard, I called out to Candy.
"All we want is for you to give Cassandra and Emily their power back!" I shouted. "There doesn't need to be a fight!"
"Their power was tasty," Candy giggled. "You're even tastier. If you want their power back, you know how to get it. If you can beat me, I'll be forced to do what you say. But if you lose, I get to eat you."
"He's not taking you on one on one!" Alice yelled back. "We have enough magical power here to take you down before you even get close to us."
"We do, don't we?" I asked Aradia, who shrugged in response. Great.
"I'm super strong now thanks to eating Cassandra's power!" Candy yelled gleefully. "Throw whatever you want at me! I can consume it all and be even stronger!"
"I sure hope that's not true," Ilias said. "That's another use of her abilities that she shouldn't have. That fucking Black Alice!"
"Only one way to find out," Aradia said, as the clouds formed and sleet and snow rained down on Candy.
"Wow, she is powerful," Alice breathed. "That's Heavenly Knight level magic."
Powerful it may have been, but it didn't get the job done.
"I love ice slushies!" Candy giggled, sticking her tongue out and catching icicles on it, which changed into various flavors and colors when they got close to her.
"She doesn't have offensive magic," Aradia noted. "But she can counter most magic by turning it into sweets."
"I heard that!" Candy laughed. "I used to have no offensive magic. But now I can do this!"
Candy gestured. I got a shield up around us, but I saw no beams of energy lancing out at us, seeking to incinerate us. Had her spell fizzled?
"Oh, this is so ridiculous!" Ilias shouted.
I turned to face her. She was no longer Ilias, but a cake sculpture of Ilias, although she could move. Her body was cake, and her hair and clothing frosting. Alice took her finger and stole a dab of Ilias' "hair", sucking it off her finger.
"Wow, you're delicious, Ilias!" Alice laughed.
"Luka!" Ilias shouted.
I changed Ilias back to her true form. Whew. At least I could do that well.
"Good counter," Aradia said.
"There's a hunk of my hair missing!" Ilias yelled in alarm, inspecting the place where Alice had eaten while she was in cake form.
"I'll restore that when we get back," I said. "We may have to do this the hard way."
"First let's see how she handles this!" Ilias said, nocking an arrow and letting fly. Candy simply caught the arrow out of the sky and transformed it into another lollipop, which she began joyfully licking.
"Ilias, you're pretty accurate with that bow," I said. "And Candy's a huge target. Aradia and I will get in close and battle her directly. Alice, bring the dark magic thunder to keep her distracted. Ilias, if she can't concentrate on changing your arrows, maybe some will get through."
Alice gave me a quick kiss. "Please don't get eaten in a place like this," she said.
"This is Scenic Hill," I noted. "Is there a place you'd rather I be eaten?"
"How about my room?"
I wasn't sure whether to be turned on or terrified. I guess it depends on which mouth she used. Putting the thought out of my mind, I yelled a lame battle cry and charged up the hill at Candy, with Aradia abreast of me, drawing her own sword. Alice and Ilias began firing away. Sonya, who had been given no instructions, decided to follow Aradia and I further back, ready to provide support if needed.
Despite the large size of my new companion, Candy's focus was entirely on me. I was the tastier one, so it was only natural. I quickly assessed the threat. She could change me into sweets, but I could change myself back. She was huge, so presumably even if she wasn't good at combat, she'd do a lot of damage if she hit me. But the main threat were those mouths at the ends of her hair. They were practically watering in anticipation of my arrival, as if I was feeding myself to Candy.
I summoned all three elements and went into the flow, ready to dodge among those mouths and strike at her torso to seal her in as few blows as possible. She sensed me summoning the elements immediately, and before I could even properly enter the flow, I was suddenly jerked out.
"Ah!" Sylph yelled. "I'm a cookie! Actually, being a cookie is kinda fun!"
"I'm jello!" Undine complained.
"I'm an atomic fireball!" Salamander said angrily. For those who don't know, that's a very hot ball of hard candy.
Gnome had nothing to say, but I could tell that she'd been turned into a brownie. I quickly changed the spirits back to their proper forms, but recognized that Candy had a counter to the spirits. Not good. Could she even change my power to sweets? I experimentally raised my finger as I charged and hit her with a small bolt. She reacted in surprise when it hit her in the shoulder, wounding her. Then her face changed. I'd made her mad. At least I had a fallback if nothing else worked.
I leaped at her, sword ready, aiming for her ample bosom. Aradia tried to cover me by throwing bolts of dark energy at her. The bolts hit, making Candy even angrier, but she maintained her focus on me, even as Alice's dark bolts and Ilias' arrows punctured her skin, although they were so small compared to her body that they were a painful annoyance more than a threat.
With one massive hand, Candy swatted me out of the air. Without elements, I couldn't avoid it, and without Gnome to soften the blow, I was stunned, hitting the ground hard on my back. Aradia to her credit, engaged Candy directly, locking arms with her and grappling with the giant yoma. Even at Aradia's size, it was like an adult wrestling a child. Aradia could only hold on for dear life while I struggled to regain my senses.
I still had my sword in my hand, so I tried to get up, but before I could use my other arm to prop me up, one of candy's hair mouths swallowed my arm. She got a good taste of me, too, her mouth greedily sucking on my arm, trying to pull me in further. With a loud pop, I pulled my arm out while striking her hair with my sword, knowing that it would paralyze the mouth if I hit it solidly. Angel Halo got the desired results, as one of her hair mouths went limp, the tongue lolling out as if the mouth was on novocaine.
By that point, Candy had tossed Aradia aside, although she was still taking hits from Alice and Ilias like Godzilla being pelted by tiny little toy tanks. Since hits did damage anywhere when using Angel Halo, I decided to put the kibosh on valiant stunts and simply go for her lower body. That's when her skirt lifted aside of its own volition to reveal her genitals.
Whatever magic had transformed Candy into what she was hadn't gone halfway. Her genitals were no longer female parts, but instead another mouth, the biggest one of all, more than capable of swallowing Aradia, much less me. The mouth snapped at me and I rolled to the side, smoothly leaping up to slash at her tender thigh. She really didn't like that, as her mouth twisted around with ridiculous flexibility to seek me and swallow me. I ducked behind her leg and stayed low. Apparently her genital mouth couldn't reach the ground. That was fine, she would simply pick me up and insert me into that mouth. Her hand ponderously reached down to grab me. Just then, Sonya decided to take a direct hand in things, slamming her club down on Candy's other foot. Candy's hand pulled back from me and her genital mouth went straight for Sonya. I prepared to power up and obliterate that mouth if I had to to protect my childhood friend. My childhood friend? I shook my head and concentrated on the task at hand.
"Luka! Toss me the sword!" I heard Ilias yell from above. Ilias had seen how the battle was unfolding and apparently had an idea. I threw my sword up to her. Candy's hand tried to intercept it, but she was too slow. Ilias caught Angel Halo and drove it directly into Candy's chest, sealing her.
Ilias cried out and dropped the sword. Her hands were badly burned. I hadn't even considered how much it would hurt her to touch that weapon! Sonya rushed to Ilias to heal her burns. Ilias sighed in relief, her face covered in tears. Ilias was still new to pain. I marveled at her bravery, doing something that she knew would hurt her terribly. Was she truly changing?
I looked over to where Candy had once stood. In her place was the largest cake I'd ever seen. Really? I thought.Her sealed form is…. Cake?
"Wow, that looks good," Alice said eagerly.
"We're not eating her!" Sonya yelled. "Even though she tried to eat us, we're the good guys! We don't eat our enemies."
"Speak for yourself," Alice said. "We'd only be doing to her what she would have done to us."
"There's no need," I said. "We beat her. That means she'll behave, right?"
"Sort of?" Alice said uncertainly. "it's not a hard and fast rule, you know. It certainly applies in the moment, but not all monsters keep their promises over the long term."
"Let's just get what we came for," I said. With a thought, I restored Candy to her true form.
"Wow, you can unseal people with jut a thought, but not seal them," Ilias said. "You just find all sorts of ways to be less than useful sometimes."
Candy looked pretty out of sorts. First she'd been unexpectedly sealed, then she was unsealed again by the same people who had sealed her in the first place. Monsters were not used to such mercies. She seemed confused.
"As I said before, all we want is Cassandra and Emily's power back," I said. "Give it to us, along with your promise not to eat anyone anymore, and we'll be on our way."
"You beat me, so you can do whatever you want to me," Candy said sadly. "I guess since you didn't eat me, the least I can do is not eat others. So it's a diet for me."
Candy reached for some more cookies and sadly nibbled on them with multiple mouths.
"Cassandra's power?" I prompted.
"Oh, sorry, I already forgot," Candy said apologetically.
Candy reached for an empty plate and concentrated for a moment. A piece of cake appeared on the plate.
"That's Cassandra and Emily's power," Candy told us. "Just have them eat it and they should be back to normal."
"Thank you," I said. "Oh, one more thing. You don't work for Black Alice anymore."
"Who do I work for then? Can I work for you? Will you feed me if I work for you?"
"You'd come with us?" I asked. Candy had been pretty formidable. She could nullify a lot of magic and was formidable in hand to hand combat due to her sheer size. "All right then, I'd be happy to have you on our team. But I have rules. If you swallow an opponent, you have to spit them out. No eating people!"
"But I can still taste them?" Candy said eagerly.
"Yes, tasting is fine," I said. I immediately regretted it as her genital mouth gave my whole body a huge lick. Candy giggled.
"You're delicious!"
We directed Candy and Aradia to the pocket castle, then traveled back to Lady's Village to restore Cassandra and Emily.
"You do realize that both of them are going to eat all our food, right?" Alice asked.
"How is that any different from what you and Ilias do?!" Sonya exclaimed.
"Clearly I'm going to have to go to the local sweets shop and buy basically everything," I said. "Does Candy actually HAVE to eat as much as she does?"
"She'll be fine," Alice whined. "Just give her an extra helping of desert, maybe throw some semen at her… it doesn't have to be yours! And she should be basically satisfied. Hopefully."
Arriving at Cassandra's house, Ran hurried us in and we served them the cake, which unfortunately seemed to have been snacked on a little on the way over. I looked suspiciously at Alice, then at Ilias. Neither copped to it. That meant that while Emily was fully restored, Cassandra was not. Perhaps that had been intentional on the part of whoever ate part of the cake. She wasn't a child, as Alice and Ilias were, but she looked to be about the same age as her daughter Emily, an older teen. If I'm being truthful, Cassandra was pretty hot, but then most powerful monsters were. I just hadn't appreciated her mature form, since she was evil and all.
"Hmmm…." Cassandra said, looking at herself in the mirror. "It's actually nice to be young again. This gives me an idea. Emily, remember that thing you wanted to do?"
"The magical girl competition?!" Emily said eagerly.
"The what?" I asked.
"Come, we must go at once!" Cassandra said, grabbing Emily by the hand and rushing her out of the mansion.
"What was that about?" Sonya asked.
"Nothing good, I assure you," Alice said sourly. "And probably something else for us to do. I'll explain later. For now, let's get some rest. Luka, tomorrow you're teleporting us back to Goddard."