"You idiot!" you know who predictably said. "How did this happen!?"
"I don't know!" I exclaimed in return. "Maybe I just couldn't get my mind off the fact that we were face to face with Black Alice, just talking like we were old friends!"
"It could have also been my boobs," Alicetroemeria said helpfully. "Or my face. Men love every part of me, actually. I really leave an impression."
"Yeah, you could definitely say that you've left an impression on me," I retorted. "I made a mistake, but I'm correcting that mistake now!"
With a thought, I brought Alicetroemeria and I back to the alternate Succubus Village right where we had just been. Heinrich stared quizzically at us as we popped back into the motel room.
"Wow," Heinrich said. "Did you go for a stroll or something?"
"I did," Alicetroemeria replied. "It was fun!"
"And short," I said, warping instantly back to my friends, being sure to only will myself back this time.
"There, that should take care of that," I said proudly. My friends simply stared. I looked to my left. Alicetroemeria stood there, giggling.
"This is so much fun!" Black Alice laughed. "Okay, I'm done with the joke now. He didn't actually bring me over here. I'm just like... super good at magic and stuff, so I just attached a quick spell to his magical signature and tagged along for the ride. I'm afraid you're stuck with me. So this is the future. I expected it to be more….. future-y."
"You can't be here!" Alice protested. "We're already in enough trouble because of things not going the way they did in the correct history! Do you realize how dangerous it is for you to be here? You could mess up history not just in this world, but back in your world as well! You have to be there for the correct history there to take place!"
"Oh, are you referring to my death at the hands of the legendary hero Heinrich?" Black Alice laughed.
"How do you know about that?!" Ilias exclaimed.
"I didn't for sure until you confirmed it," Alicetroemeria laughed. "I'd been having strange dreams for awhile."
Ugh. I thought. Chaosization.
"What, so you think you'll avoid your fate by coming to an alternate world?" Sonya asked.
"Alipheese," Promestein said. "Listen to me. I'm a scientist. Let me assure you that there is no way for you to avoid your fate. Either you die at the hands of Heinrich or you die from chaosization. Your world is already threatened, just like ours."
"Wow, you're pretty dumb for a scientiat," Alicetroemeria laughed. "What makes you think I'd avoid my fate? I'm not here to avoid anything. This is just for my amusement. You guys are a lot more fun than Heinrich. Don't worry, I'll be sure to get back in time so that he can kill me."
"Not that we trust you in the slightest," Alice said. "But assuming you're telling us the truth, why would you do that? I would assume you to be willing to watch your world be destroyed and take everyone with you to the grave."
"Why would I fear my own death? What comes after is so much more interesting."
"Wait, you want to serve me?" Ilias asked in disbelief.
"Wait, what?" Alice asked, looking at Ilias.
"Oh, sorry, I may have misspoken," Ilias chuckled nervously. "I meant to say, you want to be my sworn enemy?"
"The little goddess lies as badly as I do," Alicetroemeria chuckled. "No, I'm not avoiding my fate because I saw that I get to be the heroine of the story. I want to meet my other self here and see what she's like. Ever since I saw myself as her in my dreams, I've wanted to see her for myself."
"You think Black Alice in this world is the heroine of the story?!" I asked. "You are completely insane!"
"So I've been told. Ufufufu. But you're stuck with me until I get bored. And it's not like you can kill me. Heinrich is supposed to kill me, not you."
I resigned myself to my own fate. I was already traveling with a goddess and a Monster Lord, and the goddess had once been my sworn enemy. Why not travel with another Monster Lord who had also been a sworn enemy? Maybe I could work a little of the old Luka magic on her?
"Okay, I can't stop you from traveling with us," I said. "But there are rules, and so help me if you break my rules, I will find a way, probably a violent way, to send you back and make sure you stay there."
Wait a minute. Was I going to be a good influence on her, or was she going to be a bad influence on me? Things were not off to a great start.
"I can already predict what your rules are," Alicetroemeria replied. "No killing, right? You true heroes are all the same. So predictable, so boring."
"Wait, Heinrich doesn't kill?" I asked. "I thought he was a hardened killer."
"Not yet he isn't," Alicetromeria chuckled. "But he's…. evolving."
Oh no. Apparently Black Alice was my polar opposite. Someone who could turn people bad the way I turned them good. I was getting the feeling that I was about to have my most epic battle yet, and it would be a battle of wills, not of swords or sorcery.
Reluctantly, we let Black Alice into the Pocket Castle. Alice and Ilias both agreed that while we couldn't trust her in the slightest, it was better to have her with us rather than running around making trouble. There was already one Black Alice doing that as it was. The downside is that life in the Pocket Castle no longer felt relaxing, like a break from our quest. Alice had already warned me that there were dangers in the castle, mainly due to lackadaisical recruiting practices. I was pretty sure that we didn't have any monsters as bad as Black Alice herself, making the odd Silkworm or Mantis girl a minor problem in comparison. We also had the Beelzebubs with us, although those three seemed to have been tamed for the moment.
On the good side, Alma Elma was back, and she was by far our most powerful true ally, and Tamamo was on our side even if she wasn't present. Black Alice seemed to be willing to play along with me as she had with Heinrich, minus the deception, for her own personal amusement. As amusing as it was to fool Heinrich, tagging along with me when I actually knew who she was seemed to provide her with far greater entertainment.
Since we'd accomplished all we needed to accomplish in the Gold region, it was time to discuss next steps. Alice loved meetings, so we had one. And since Tamamo also loved meetings she showed up for it. As did Ilias, Sonya, Alma Elma, and…. Black Alice.
"What in the fudge berries!?" Tamamo exclaimed, staring at Black Alice.
"Hello, Tamamo!" Black Alice replied. "Ufufufu…"
"You do know who that is, don't you, Luka?" Tamamo asked, looking at me accusingly.
"I do," I said, slumping in my chair. As if I didn't have enough complications in my life.
"How did you let this happen?!"
"In fairness to Luka, she tagged along using a spell," Alice explained. "We found her in an alternate universe set five hundred years in the past. We can't actually get rid of her."
"What in the name of burnt waffles does that have to do with anything?!" Tamamo yelled. "Let's kill her now!"
"You're welcome to try," Black Alice giggled. "Maybe you'd even succeed. But that would be quite the historical deviation, me dying at your hands, Tamamo."
Tamamo realized our predicament at that moment and also slumped in her chair.
"She really does have us by the short hairs," Ilias observed. "Believe me, she's only here because we can neither get rid of her nor tell her what to do."
"But she has agreed to play by our rules, at least for as long as it amuses her to do so," I pointed out. "And she is powerful. Maybe she'll be of some use."
"Tamamo, how do you know Black Alice, anyway?" Alice asked. "I thought you started getting involved with Monster Lords only after her death."
"Oh, we've met," Tamamo said. "Our discussions were… intense. But inconclusive."
"I'm always up for another… chat," Black Alice replied.
"As weird as it feels to say this," Tamamo said. "You're not our biggest problem at the moment. Alipheese the Fifteenth, the current Monster Lord, is. We have to put a stop to her plans. If it suits you to help us do that, then I'll accept you as an ally for this one quest. Do you think you can behave yourself for a short time?"
"Behave?" Black Alice laughed. "Never! But if you're asking if I'll play along long enough to defeat my descendant, sure, I can do that. Besides, isn't the Black Alice of this world also trying to defeat her? So by helping you, I'm helping my future self."
"She's not technically your future self," I pointed out. "She's a possible future for you. You can change your path."
"Maybe I will. But first I have to see exactly where it is I'm going. What a rare opportunity!"
"Tamamo, is it true that my mother intends to martyr herself?" Alice asked, getting to the point that concerned her most.
Tamamo seemed to sag even further in her chair. "I believe she is," Tamamo said softly. "The Succubus Sisters have filled her head with this correct history crap and so she believes its her destiny to die. She hasn't said that to me directly, but I can assure you she's not brainwashed so much as persuaded. She wants to leave a better world for her daughter and believes that this is the only way."
"That's really fucking stupid," Alma Elma said. "None of this saves us! It just delays the inevitable, causing a lot of pain in the process! We should be trying to solve the problem, not simply delay the end! We could be working on a solution, but instead we're forced to deal with HER!"
"Which raises the question of how we do that," Alice added. "We can't teleport anyone to Hellgondo, there's a counterspell preventing that."
"How about flying?" I asked. "On my world, succubi used to fly over those mountains all the time, although it was very difficult."
"Not on this world, Luka-boy," Alma Elma said. "The Great Disaster pushed those mountains up even higher than they were before. No normal monster can fly over those mountains anymore. It's either teleport or nothing. And with Hellgondo locked down by a near god-level spell…"
"Almost certainly my other self's doing," Tamamo grumbled.
"There's nothing we can do," Alma Elma finished.
"Maybe we could get a ship over there and I could take the spell down with my own power?" I wondered.
"It's not that kind of barrier," Ilias explained. "It only activates to block a certain action, teleportation. It's not a general purpose barrier that you can just blast out of existence. There might be some machine or artifact keeping it powered."
"I'm certain there is," Tamamo agreed. "Even at my peak, I wouldn't have been able to maintain something like that myself. I can think of a few magical items or machines that could maintain it, however. That does us no good, though, because we'd still have to get to the machine. A key to unlock a door doesn't help you if the key is behind the door you need to unlock."
"That leaves the Garuda Girl," Alice said with resignation. "And that's not going to be a short quest."
"No it isn't," I thought. "We have to gather three of the orbs."
"Do you at least know where they are?" Alice asked.
"I think so. Sphinx has one. We should be able to talk her into giving it to us. Kraken had another. We can revive her fully or go back to the Southern Seas Temple and look for it. But that leaves one whose location I can't even guess at."
"Where did you find it on your first quest?" Alice asked.
"I didn't. It was just randomly given to me by one of those child bandits. She'd picked it up after some rich travelers dropped it in their haste to get away from her. Where it would be on this world, I have no idea."
"Well, we need to get on that," Tamamo said. "We have to preempt her before she can gather forces to mount an attack on- Oh for the love of semen!"
"What?!" Alice asked. "Did you get a telepathic message just now?"
"I did! From Mephisto! The attack has begun! We need to get moving!"
"Where is the attack?" I asked.
"All the major capitols!" Tamamo replied after listening further. "Luka, you've been gathering an army. It's time to use it."
Since I could teleport anywhere I'd already been, and I'd been to all four Sentoran capitols, it was simply a matter of deciding which one to go to first. I decided on Grand Noah basically at random. Arriving in Grand Noah with my small army at my back, I saw chaos. If I'm being honest, it may have been as chaotic as any battle I've ever seen, but it was a lot less bloody. My first war experience, with masses of chimeras and angels slaughtering innocents, had been much more horrifying. What was transpiring in Grand Noah looked more like a typical monster raid, just on a larger scale. I saw no one dead, just a lot of soldiers exhausted from being raped, and a lot of other soldiers and civilians fighting to not end up like the soldiers who had already fallen. Although some were fighting harder than others.
The perpetrators of the raid were mainly elves. Sonya attended to a fallen soldier, but pronounced him beyond help. Not because he was dead, but because he wasn't actually injured. Critical ecstasy is hard to reverse and that was not in Sonya's skillset. But she did acquire some useful information from his babbling. Fairies were also present. I nodded. Elf Queen and Fairy Queen were probably working together in this world as well. Strange that they were attacking Grand Noah rather than Sabasa.
I gave my forces their last minute instructions. Since the combat appeared to be nonlethal, it was their duty to also refrain from killing. With loud battle cries, ranging from roars to squeaks to shouts, my allies set upon the enemy elves and fairies. Despite our lack of numbers, it turned the tide of battle quickly. The elves and fairies had expected human opposition, mostly male, and were dealing with that opposition in the manner typical of monsters. The succubi dropped elves as quickly as the elves dropped humans, overwhelming them with pleasure in seconds. Alma Elma asked a fallen soldier if he wouldn't mind another orgasm so that she could get some energy. He weakly nodded his head, and a few seconds later Alma Elma was charged enough to cast a mass climax spell that brought everyone within one hundred yards to an immediate orgasm, human and monster alike. That ended all fighting at the entrance of the city, so we advanced to the center of the city as quickly as possible.
At the city center, things were looking somewhat more violent. You know how in fantasy books and movies, elves are smaller than humans, and slender? Well, most elves are, but there are big ones as well. Two kinds of big elves specifically: more common are the six foot tall, extremely wide and muscular elves that are the shock troops of the elven forces. Sonya, unafraid and wanting to hit something, went after one of them with her club. The second variety of large elf is much more remarkable. Known as Gigantic Girls, they are what their name implies. They are giants, standing between twelve and fifteen feet tall. One of them was stomping around, knocking anyone who challenged her aside. Once down, the more typical smaller elves would jump on their prone forms and rape them.
But there was a second Gigantic Girl, even larger, who stood a full thirty feet tall. Fortunately, she wasn't rampaging. Instead, she was raping men in her own unique way. She had one man in between her breasts, and two more, one in each hand, who she alternatively licked and sucked like lollipops. I decided to focus on her since no one else had a way to fight her.
"Hey!" I shouted up to her. "Put those men down! I'll be your opponent!"
She looked down at me, absent mindedly licking a man in one of her hands. The man moaned and bucked as he came on her huge tongue. She gently set him and the other man down so that her hands would be free, but kept the man in between her breasts. Great. That meant I couldn't safely use my power on her. I'd have to try a different approach.
What kills size? Oh yeah, I thought. Speed. I summoned Sylph and began chopping at her legs with my sword. The Gigantic Girl roared in frustration, her clumsy big hands failing to catch me as I struck her again and again. I wasn't hitting anything vital, but with Angel Halo I didn't have to. Her energy could drain from her legs as easily as any other part of her body. It took some time, during which the battle moved past me as my forces and the rallying humans continued to advance into the city, but she was soon sealed, oddly enough into the form of a fairly normal looking elf. The man who had been between her breasts was now caught in her top, lying on top of her. I helped him up, but he couldn't stand on his own. During the battle, her movements, while not intending to do so, had made him come several times. He was lucky to even be conscious.
I ran deeper into the city, searching for opponents. Closer to the colosseum, local monsters were defending the city as well, much to the surprise of the elves and fairies, who must have assumed the monster population would side with them out of racial solidarity. I saw a ridiculous sight, a huge minotaur girl swatting at fairies who swarmed around her. Not seeing any useful way for me to help, I kept going.
I caught up to Ilias, who had been on a bit of a losing streak in recent battles, really taking it to one of the larger elven warriors, but clearly she was physically overmatched. I gave her a boost by making her big, which turned the tide of that particular fight, enabling Ilias to drop her opponent with one final punch. Ilias turned to me and gave me a thumbs up. A tooth was missing. I assumed Sonya could heal that for her later.
A fairy made the mistake of challenging me. She may have been quick, but entering the flow enabled me to track and predict her movements as if she was six feet tall and slow as molasses. One blow sealed her into the form of a butterfly.
I found Alicetroemeria joyfully grinding against an elf who was thrashing helplessly on the ground. Both seemed to be having a lot of fun. As long as Black Alice wasn't murdering anyone today, I had to consider it a good day. I was sure someone of her power and skill had better ways of taking down multiple opponents, but with the battle clearly going our way, she had apparently decided that raping an elf was more fun.
As for my Alice, despite her proficiency in pleasure attacks, she seemed to prefer violence. I was able to track her mainly by following the trail of beaten, bruised, and unconscious enemies she left in her wake. Between her fists of fury and her tail, along with a solid helping of low power elemental and dark magic attacks, she was taking out more enemies than anyone else on the battlefield.
I briefly joined a few major scrums near the center of the city, helping to turn stalemates into victories for the defenders of Grand Noah, but what I really wanted was to find the leader or leaders. I suspected that Queen Fairy and Queen Elf were directly managing the battle. One of the neat things about the world I was in was that if you took down the leaders, the opposing force usually withered away. It wasn't always that cut and dried back on Earth.
I found Sonya involved in another big mess to the east, with Matis, Victoria, and Lime by her side. The elves were normally disciplined, but the Grand Noah monster defenders were not, which caused the battle to quickly break down into a melee that the elves and fairies were ill equipped to fight. As I said, they had not expected the monsters to rise up in defense of the city.
I briefly stopped to aid a fallen kitsune who I quickly identified as Kitsu. I checked her for injuries. There were none.
"Fairies," Kitsu said weakly. "Those tickling wings. So good."
I found Ayisha nearby, similarly brought down by fairies. At least in that respect the elves and fairies were using sound tactics. Opponents too large for the elves to fight could be swarmed by the tiny fairies until they succumbed to pleasure. In part, it was my fault. Kitsu and Ayisha would have been reluctant to slap at the fairies, lest they squash them. I'd have to thank them later for taking one for the team, as well as any other monsters that became casualties because they were obeying my no kill order.
I did run into Kyona, and she was still very much in the fight, her ridiculously long tongue wrapping up elves and turning them into quivering masses of horny jelly within seconds. And she had told me she wasn't a fighter! Her tongue was so agile that she was also able to catch fairies and do the same to them.
I decided to head towards the castle in case the Queen was in danger, assuming that monsters thought much as humans did about eliminating the leader to break the resistance. I ran into another big fray that was impossible to get past. Saki was there as well.
"Saki, you doing okay?" I asked.
"It's a battle of pleasure attacks for the most part," Saki shrugged. "It's tailor made for my talents, even if I'm not as proficient in the sexual arts as most succubi. How are you?"
"Um…. Fine," I responded, wondering why I was having a conversation with Saki as if we were discussing a volleyball game. "There's a big crowd here on the main path to the castle. Any chance you could fly me over? You think you're strong enough?"
"I suppose I could, but the Queen Fairy might stop me if I tried."
"Queen Fairy? She's here?!"
"Right over there," Saki said, pointed at a fairy that was somewhat larger than the others. At a full foot tall, the Queen Fairy stood head and shoulders above other fairies. How could I have missed her enormous form in the distance? I'm joking. I probably haven't mentioned this yet, but my eyesight is only fair. There was no way I'd ever pick the Queen Fairy out from a crowd such as the one in front of me.
As if to help me out, the Queen Fairy projected her voice to the combatants.
"This is the dawn of our conquest!" the Queen Fairy shouted, hovering above the fray. "Today we make this land our new domain! Forward!"
I was starting to get concerned. Given my description of the battle up until now, you probably think that the big fray in front of me was an orgy. And it was, partly. But elves are skilled with swords, and in close quarters with masses of soldiers were using them, to potentially deadly effect. I could tell they were trying not to kill their opponents, but they were going to reach Grand Noah Castle come hell or high water, and if a few humans died in the process, they regarded that as a price worth paying. At least they were giving quarter, as I saw a man beg for his life and he was spared, knocked out by the pommel of an elven sword.
I smacked myself in the head. Why was I asking Saki to fly me over the crowd? I had Sylph! I could fly! I flew straight at the Queen Fairy and confronted her. I probably should have just attacked.
"Why are you doing this?!" I asked her, hovering over the battle, watching for any elves who might try to shoot at me.
"Who might you be?" the Queen Fairy asked. "A flying human? How unusual. As for why I am doing this, the Monster Lord ordered me to. Do I need another reason?"
"I'm sure you have other reasons," I said. "You have your own beefs with the humans. I have the true Monster Lord here with me. We can resolve this if you call off your forces. Do it now before someone gets seriously hurt!"
"Talking has garnered us nothing, and in any case I don't have time for even a flying human. Challenge me or get out of the way!"
"Then I'm your opponent!" I said.
"You should pick on someone your own size," the Queen Fairy said, enlarging to match my size. No wait, I was shrunken!
I was sure I could make myself big again, but decided that it would seem cowardly, and also probably put me at a disadvantage. Bigger targets were much easier to hit, after all. My small size would also make it tougher for the elves below to shoot at me. Summoning all four elements, I attacked. It turns out the Queen Fairy was proficient in all of the elements as well, using a variety of elemental attacks in an attempt to weaken me. I responded with small doses of my power, knowing that as a queen she could probably take it. She could, and she hit me back and then some.
At times the fight got physical, and I was impressed with her right hook. She also threw in some midair martial arts kicks. I found that I, on the other hand, was not good at combat while flying. I'd thought myself at an advantage, since she couldn't rely on the forest to assist her as she had in our first battle so many centuries ago. But she was smart, and I was not. She's lured me into an air battle that I couldn't win. I thought that I should probably make myself big again and go to the ground. At full size, she'd be tough to hit with Angel Halo, but at least I'd only have to hit her once.
While I was locked up with the Queen and considering my options, I heard the approach of something large in the wind. Both I and the Queen turned to look, too late to avoid an open-mouthed Saki coming at us like a Boeing 747. As we were in a grapple at the time, we both went right into the succubus' mouth. The Queen Fairy hadn't just shrunk me. She had shrunk both of us! We couldn't have been more than two inches long given how easily we both fit into Saki's maw.
Saki began to toss us both around in her mouth with her tongue, careful not to bite down. Saki was in danger herself, as either one of us could have panicked and made ourselves big. But we both recognized Saki's intent and tried to fight what was happening using nonlethal methods rather than just bursting her skull.
"Stop rubbing against me, you pervert!" the Queen Fairy shouted as we were tossed about and often squeezed together. She was mostly naked, I was completely naked by then(wrestling a monster will tend to end that way). Saki's saliva was causing the Queen and I to rub lewdly against each other constantly.
"I'm not doing it on purpose!" I protested.
Saki sucked in her cheeks, forcing the Queen and I together. "That's it!" the Queen yelled in my face. "I'm going to do it!"
"Don't you dare!" I said, clutching her to me. Then I did something I thought I would never do because I'd always thought of it as rape and thus immoral, even if monsters didn't quite think of it that way. I mimicked Saki's magic, since it was all around me, and inserted into the Queen. My penis plus a succubus' sexual magic was too much for her. She dug her fingernails into my back as she climaxed. Not wanting to prolong this morally questionable act any longer than I had to, I withdrew from her, apologizing the entire time.
Saki must have known that she had orgasmed, because she spit both of us into her hand, soaked from head to toe. She flew us to a park, away from the intense fighting. I quickly reenlarged myself. Whew. It worked! Wasn't sure I could do it to myself.
"Um… Thank you for the very strange assist, Saki," I said.
"Toldja I'd give you a good time if you played your cards right," she laughed. "But you didn't finish. We'll have to discuss that back in the castle."
With a wink and a flirtatious grin, she flew off to find someone else to suck. I gently picked up the fallen Queen Fairy.
"I'm so sorry," I said sincerely. "I only did that because it was the only way I could think of to prevent you from killing my friend."
"What are you apologizing for?!" the Queen Fairy retorted, unsteadily flapping her wings to take to hover in front of me again, now back to her full size of one whole foot. "Did you not notice that this entire battle has been mostly a mass rape? Why would I expect you to refrain? Do you not know that you are in a war?"
"It's just not my way of doing things," I said. "So I still apologize."
"Think nothing of it," she insisted. "Besides, you stopped me from doing something I would have regretted. I do really despise killing. I was talking myself into thinking that at my full size she wouldn't be badly hurt. I am only a foot tall, you know. I'm sure she's taken more than that in her mouth."
"Saki?" I laughed. "Probably not."
"Oh, one of those," the queen huffed. "I shouldn't have even been thinking it. It would have injured her badly for certain, and possibly killed her. You stopped me, and for that you should be proud, not apologetic. Anyway, I'm defeated, so you can do whatever you want with me. That is our way."
"I don't want to do anything to you other than have you call off your forces," I said.
"Very well. We are losing anyway, ever since your forces arrived. But we are just the vanguard. There is a far larger army being gathered."
"Wait, don't you have to do what I say?"
"I gave my sacred word to fight alongside Queen Elf," Queen Fairy replied. "If you want us to halt our war entirely, you must convince her as well."
Great. That meant I had to travel to Fairy's Island. But first there were other places to aid. At least Grand Noah would be safe for the moment.