When the door closed, Alice melted into me, kissing my face again and again. When I kissed her back, her tongue nearly choked me.
"Sorry about that," she giggled. "You know I don't kiss often. I never really got good at it."
I could count on my fingers the number of times Alice had really kissed me. Kissing wasn't a thing in monster culture to begin with. Neither was foreplay. Not that I was complaining, but every once in awhile….
What was important was that her flat, distant manner had evaporated in an instant, replaced by passion and ardor. I had wondered how Sonya could look into my eyes and know when her Luka was in charge. Looking into Alice's eyes, I knew right away that it was my wife.
"Alice, how is it that you're here?" I asked. "You died hundreds of years ago!"
"That long, huh? It's weird. It feels like no time passed. You were at my side. I'd grown old, you…. You hadn't changed a bit. Even though I was dying, it was you I felt sorry for. You weren't supposed to outlive me. And yet, even though from my perspective no time passed, it feels like an eternity separated us."
"So am I talking only to my Alice?" I asked.
"For the moment, yes. Eventually my personalities will merge completely. It's confusing having all of them in my head at once, but I guess it's not as hard as what Erubetie deals with. They're all me. We were all one person originally. The differences between us are pretty subtle, except for a few outliers."
"Outliers?"
"Since I lost my mother in every reality, my upbringing was vastly different in some worlds," Alice explained. "Where I was the Monster Lord, Tamamo usually took care of me. Since that's the bulk of my personalities, that part of the merger should be pretty smooth. But where I wasn't the Monster Lord… it depends. In many of those worlds, I had to survive however I could. I'm not proud of some of the things I did. Those personalities will be harder to integrate. But right now, it's just me. Just me, and my husband. Nothing else matters. All of those other personalities are in the background."
"I love you, Alice," I said, with all my heart. "I've missed you so much. When I first saw your counterpart when I arrived on this world…"
"You saw me," Alice corrected. "She is me as well. And I know. I remember that look. It must have been so hard. At least there was Tamamo to take care of you and keep you out of trouble."
"Not a single real adventure. We succeeded beyond our wildest dreams, Alice. We made the world a very boring place."
"Well, boring isn't going to be in your vocabulary tonight," Alice said, biting her lower lip. "So maybe my memory is confused, but am I to understand we haven't made love since you arrived on this world?"
"Well, you've fed….. a lot. Very enjoyably I might add."
"That I remember well," Alice laughed. "You always were delicious. While we were married I think I fed on you ten times for every one time we truly made love. You never complained. But tonight is different. We don't know what the future holds, but tomorrow can wait. Tonight is just for us."
Alice kissed me passionately again, this time using only an inch of her tongue rather than trying to stuff the entire eleven inches into my mouth. She began fumbling at my clothes. Normally she was extremely efficient at it. Too efficient, even. No matter how much I was wearing, she could get me out of them faster than Superman changing in a phone booth. But she'd never tried to do it while kissing me before.
Always a top, Alice tried to lift me and deposit me onto the bed. I countered her and threw her onto the bed, causing her to giggle maniacally. I quickly pinned her arms. Reading her sexual magic, I mimicked it. She felt the change immediately. Her magic was so powerful that just me holding her arms was pleasureable to her.
"Oh, I remember this…." Alice purred. "So you've defeated me, hero. That means you can do whatever you want with me."
I nibbled on Alice's neck, causing her to arch her back and squirm against me. Never one to be completely passive, I felt the tip of her tail tickle my balls. If I let her, she'd turn me right over and have her way with me. I knew that trying to stop that was like trying to keep the sun from rising, but I wanted to have my own way as long as I could.
I moved down to her soft breasts, kneading one with my hand and suckling on the other. The great thing about using Alice's own magic against her was that I didn't have to be good. Despite all my sexual experiences, I had never become a skilled lover. Monsters generally don't give you the chance to learn. Not that a human was likely to compete in any case. But my unique ability to "borrow" a monster's natural magic at least gave me a chance.
Alice was moaning and squirming as if I was the greatest lover on Earth. The end of her tail wrapped around my penis and began lightly stroking.
"Put it in!" she gasped. "You know how much I love to feel it with the magic!"
Her tail unwrapped itself from around my penis and instead coiled around my torso, trying to push me into her very ready vagina. The wonderful thing about having a woman with no legs is that there's no awkward positioning. It was as easy as poking a belly button, for those of you into that. I won't talk about the times I missed in the dark.
I never let her tail get tight around me. I skillfully extricated myself, moved down, and buried my face in her welcoming pussy. Her tail began flailing wildly and she began screaming. She rarely let me do that because she didn't like the loss of control that resulted when I did it with the magic. She came in less than thirty seconds, grasping my head and forcing it down hard. I eagerly licked every part of her that I could get to, regretting that I didn't have a lamia tongue. Before I'd learned my little magic trick, Alice had made fun of how quickly and easily I came. She stopped making fun of me once she got a taste of her own medicine.
"Oh shit," Alice said. "Critical ecstasy. That's different. It's one of THOSE worlds. Forgot."
"Then I guess you truly are at my mercy now," I said evilly.
"Dream on," Alice said, wrapping her tail around me, although so feebly that a child could have broken out. She grunted with the effort of bringing me forward before slamming me into her vagina with as much force as she could muster. Whatever ideas of resistance she had melted away as her already overtaxed tail muscles went limp.
It was a rare occasion where I was driving. I set the pace, pushing slowly in and out of her, savoring how she felt, exploring her depths. Her normally powerful vaginal muscles tried to force me in deeper and hold me there, where she would use all manner of devilish techniques that she had learned from the queen succubus. But in critical ecstasy she had no coordination. Her muscles wouldn't obey her. I didn't speed up, but I began to thrust deeper, pausing while she held me as tightly as she could.
"I won't lose!" Alice said with determination, grabbing my wrist and shoving my fingers into her mouth. Her own magic made that far more pleasureable than one would think, each of my fingers almost feeling like penises being sucked by her incredible mouth. I chuckled at how poorly she controlled her mouth. She was usually a technician, but in the state she was in she had very little control, randomly slurping and lapping at my fingers, and actually making quite a mess of things.
It did the trick, however. I hadn't noticed that I had been unconsciously picking up the pace. Alice moved with me as best she could to help me along. Inside her amazing lamia pussy, I didn't need much help. I screamed in ecstasy as my semen erupted into her. I collapsed on top of her, breathing heavily.
After awhile, Alice laughed. "What?" I asked. "Was I that bad?"
"Far from it, darling. I just wonder how we're ever going to have sex for more than two minutes if we're going to both endure critical ecstasy."
"I guess we'll just have to take it slow," I suggested.
"I have a better idea," Alice giggled. Her powerful tail wrapped around me again and flipped me over onto my back.
"What the-?" I started. How did she get her strength back so fast?
"Surprised?" she asked, giving my chest a long lick from navel to neck. "Your semen is potent. Got my energy right back. Now it's you who is at my mercy, darling. But since this is a special occasion, I'll take it slow. For you."
She gently lowered herself and I entered her once again. She went to my favorite technique: Fold Hell. The sensation of being llicked by a dozen small tongues inside her was only enhanced by the look on her face. It was a look of pure love. She maintained that eye contact while she pleasured me with her body, never breaking it as I came inside her again and again. She took her time, going through all of her techniques. Occasionally she'd weaken briefly, as she experienced her own orgasms, but her critical ecstasy was always ended by an injection of my miracle cure.
To make the night even more special, she fell asleep in my arms while I was still awake, tucking her head into the nook of my arm and snoring softly into my chest. I had experienced the greatest miracle of a life filled with miracles. My long dead Alice had returned to me.
I was used to the diverse assemblage, but it felt different given the fact that many of the monsters in attendance at the meeting were not accustomed to it at all. The Goddess Ilias drew the most stares, but Eden drew her share as well. Eden was dressed in the same white robes as Ilias, rather than being completely nude or in her superhero outfit. Her two younger sisters, who were not at the meeting, were busy frolicking around the castle in those selfsame outfits, causing various monsters to dive out of the way as they flew through the corridors.
By contrast, Sonya and I drew only scant notice. Humans in the castle weren't unusual. Humans free to roam wherever they pleased were. The first thing Alice's mother had done upon the return of her daughter, and in deference to Sonya and I, was free the human slaves. As had happened in my world, none wanted to leave, so they were simply added to our own male volunteers and given vastly improved quarters so that they could live in comfort while being food for the monsters.
Before the meeting, I'd made breakfast for the entire castle. Alice believed that the marked improvement in the quality of the food served would dispose the monsters favorably towards me, just as it had in the Pocket Castle. Left unresolved was the chain of command. The monsters were not open minded enough to take orders from me, and her mother was still the Monster Lord. Yet Alice herself seemed to be making major decisions, unofficially, just as she had when I was supposedly in charge back at the Pocket Castle. So I guess the chain of command was always murky.
Before the meeting, there was the usual milling about the conference room. The real castle's conference room was cavernous, easily able to accommodate two hundred people. There weren't nearly that many present, as the more people at a meeting, the less that tended to get done. Alice may have loved meetings, but she didn't like them to meander and end with no real decisions made.
I decided to see if I could talk to Granberia. I was still hurt that there seemed to be zero chemistry between us, in contrast to my original adventure, when a spark had been lit between us in our very first encounter. It had only grown with each successive meeting. This time around it seemed that we'd gotten off on the wrong foot, and that our relationship had only deteriorated since then.
She shook my hand firmly. There was awkward silence between us for a few moments. Finally, Granberia broke the ice the best way she knew how: by talking about combat.
"I had not expected such a fierce challenge from the Spider Princess," Granberia said. "You must inspire great devotion for a former enemy to battle with such determination. Even though it was hopeless, and she barely even scratched me, the fight went on a long time. I was quite impressed. Her style is… unusual. I had to concentrate on defense more than I am used to."
"You embarrass me," I said with a broad smile, trying to be disarming. "But yes. I have been good at… making friends for some reason."
"You are a superb fighter yourself. I haven't faced a challenge like you in a long time."
"So you don't remember anything about me? About us?" I asked.
"Tamamo and Alma Elma asked me the same question. It seems a silly question, yet others report having memories of lives they did not live. There is a strong implication in your words that our relationship went beyond that of adversaries. If we are to be allies, when there is time, I would like to learn more about…. Us. I also wouldn't mind having someone explain in simple words just what in the name of rusty blades is going on here."
"I'd like to know that as well," Sonya interjected. "What's this I hear about you and Alice being married all of a sudden?"
"Oh, Sonya, I'm so sorry! It turns out that my Alice was always in there, just like your Luka always was inside me!" I explained hastily. "And since we were already married…"
"I'm not mad. I'm actually happy for you two. I can relate to reuniting with someone you thought was lost. Remember what I said about how I didn't think I could have a relationship with my Luka anymore after meeting you? I was totally full of shit, haha! That night…. You weren't watching, were you?!"
"Um…. I don't know how to retreat into my own subconscious the way he does, so…. I kinda saw and… felt… everything?"
"Pervert. Anyway, just remember there's another personality inside of you, and that other personality has a girlfriend!"
With that, Sonya stalked off. Granberia looked even more perplexed than before.
"Luka, please do me a favor," Granberia pleaded. "Until I understand ANY of this, just point at whoever I need to stab."
I was more concerned that Sonya thought Luka was her boyfriend. I was pretty sure that hadn't been discussed. As if my life needed more compilcations. And what would happen if my other wife's soul merged with this world's Tamamo? As much as I loved Tamamo, I was thankful that she was immortal, and hoped that the fact that I hadn't encountered her meant that my adopted world was still fine.
Alice called the meeting to order and everyone took a seat around the huge conference table. Present were her mother, the Four Heavenly Knights, Ilias and Eden, myself and Sonya, and many close advisors to the Monster Lord, most of whom I didn't recognize. One of those advisors was Mephisto, who had taken her place at the Monster Lord's side once again. I guess she wasn't really with us anymore, although I assumed we were still allies. Alicetroemeria also tagged along, not so much because she was invited, but because no one had told her no. She was a Monster Lord, after all, and powerful.
"We're here to discuss our next steps," Alice announced. "With the war between monsters and humans mostly ended, except for some Black Alice loyalists, and the end of the world barely averted, we're at a bit of a lull."
"This is a good opportunity to take the initiative," Granberia said, speaking about a subject she understood well.
"Exactly," Alice agreed. "It's not that simple, however. We now know the nature of the threat: Black Alice, the new Goddess of Chaos. But we have nowhere near enough power to take her on yet. Ilias, how would you rate yourself as you are now?"
"Maybe Heavenly Knight class?" Ilias shrugged. "Nowhere near a Goddess. And even at my full strength, she'd be as far above me as I am above Sonya."
"Why are you picking on me?" Sonya whined.
"I'm not, just illustrating how strong Black Alice is now. Then again, you're pretty strong yourself, Sonya. In that other form. You took on a lot of powerful opponents at once. If you learn how to use what you've got, you might currently be the most powerful member of our party."
That perked Sonya up significantly, although she seemed clearly uncomfortable with the responsibility and risks of great power.
"Isn't Luka, at least potentially, even more powerful than the Goddess of Chaos?" the Monster Lord asked.
"We just don't know," Alice answered. "Luka, didn't you say that you've had trouble finding your power around beings of chaos?"
"Not the weaker apoptosis, but around Adramelech and Sonya, definitely. And when I tried to save the world just yesterday when chaos was consuming it, I got slapped down like a gnat."
"We may need to find other ways of dealing with Black Alice," Tamamo said. "Alicetroemeria, can you offer any insights?"
"Anything I tell you would just be speculation," Alicetroemeria replied. "The Black Alice that is the Goddess of Chaos is five hundred years ahead of me. I can't really say what makes her tick. I do see a lot of myself in her. I know that she likes to play games and have parties. Assuming she saw what happened, she was probably very amused by Luka's solution."
"I'd been wondering about that myself," Tamamo said. "A being that powerful should be able to end existence whenever she chooses."
"But no existence would be boring," Alicetroemeria noted. "It depends on what she considers 'winning'. From what little I know about chaos magic, a Goddess of Chaos can't create a universe, she can only destroy it. Then, assuming she still existed herself, there would be an eons long wait for a new universe to form, and then she could play a new game, hold new tea parties. So it would make sense that she'd want this party to be the party to end all parties."
"I can't believe that's her only goal, though," I argued. "Sure, when you know you'll win, you might want to drag things out a little, keep the game going if you're having fun. But even that gets boring pretty quickly. And there's always the risk of losing, no matter how powerful you are."
"Maybe she wants your power," Ilias mused. "With your power, she could create new universes and do whatever she wanted with them."
"The party would never have to end," Alicetroemeria chuckled.
"But how would she do that?" I wondered. "I used to think my power could be stolen, and because I thought it could be, that was reality. But Promestein back on my world discovered that I WAS my power. That it wasn't just some gift I'd acquired. It can't be taken from me without my consent, or at least acquiescence."
"That still leaves a wide variety of ways that it could be taken," Tamamo cautioned. "it just means an adversary would have to be creative. They could keep you unconscious, or sealed."
"Or even take your power without you being aware of it, although that would only work with small amounts," Ilias added.
"Ah, so that's the odd magic I'm seeing in you," Eden said.
"Shhhh…." Ilias put her finger to her lips.
"Let's focus on what we should do next," Alice said, getting the meeting back on track.
"There are still two unexplored Tartarus rifts," Ilias noted. "But if White Rabbit has already shown us all that we needed to be shown, is there any benefit to exploring them?"
"The one here on Hellgondo is definitely Makai," Tamamo said. "I've done extensive analysis of that one. You're not going to like what I have to tell you."
"Why do I get the feeling we're going to have a lot more things to do?" Sonya groused.
"The Monster World has built a soul bridge," Tamamo began. "What that does is cause any beings that die in this world, to transfer to Makai, assuming they have a counterpart there. That alone wouldn't be undue cause for alarm. It's basically an evacuation of this world."
"Such altruists, those monsters," Ilias muttered.
"I share your concerns, Ilias," Tamamo said, much to Ilias' surprise. "Mostly. I know this might seem hard to believe, but we monsters do care about humans. We can't live without them, after all. And bringing the ones who live here to their world doesn't add a single new semen factory to their world's resources. So there is an element of altruism to it. But it's also in their own interests to dominate this world. Somehow claiming souls helps them do that. The angels are doing the same thing, but since they lack that kind of technology, they are being more selective, going for what they see as quality over quantity."
"We should figure out why the two worlds are in a competition to collect souls," Alice said. "I suppose we can simply ask Morrigan since she's on our team now. For the angel side, we'll have to find and get one of those Seraphs to talk to us."
"There's more," Tamamo said. "The monsters are working on a superweapon."
"A superweapon?" Alice asked. "You can see that far into their world?"
"I can't see anything on their world," Tamamo answered. "I can only see the world itself…. And the superweapon, which is a world unto itself. It's an asteroid, converted into a weapon."
"What, like… the Death Star?" I asked.
Alice patted my hand. "Yes, darling, totally like the Death Star."
"I don't know what that is," Tamamo replied.
"What Luka is trying to ask is in his weird way is whether this asteroid is a weapon designed to destroy worlds," Alice clarified.
"It sure looks like it," Tamamo said. "I'd be interested in knowing how that fits into their plans."
"Maybe it's a weapon against Black Alice?" I wondered.
"Impossible to know for sure, but my gut says no. I don't think anyone knows Black Alice is the Goddess of Chaos except for us."
"But could we use that weapon against her?" I pressed.
"Again, who knows? But we need you to go check it out."
"You mean, WE need to go check it out," Alice corrected.
"No, I mean Luka," Tamamo repeated. "There's no way into that Tartarus. They've closed it off. Only Luka can get past their barrier."
"It was that way with the Angel World as well," I said. "I'll do it. I should be fairly safe. They want to recruit me, not kill me."
"Don't be so sure of that," Tamamo cautioned. "My counterpart was eager to end you. You're a pretty valuable piece in this game, but whether to destroy you or try to take you will depend on the circumstances at the time. Be cautious, and don't trust anyone. Gather intelligence, report back to us."
"Piece of cake," I said. "I can warp out at any time."
"I really hate it when you call anything a piece of cake," Alice said. "And I'm not keen on you going someplace like that without me when I only just got you back."
"Alice, if there was anyone else who could do it…." Tamamo's voice trailed off.
"All right!" Alice conceded. "It's right here on this continent, so we'll travel there and wait for him. In the meantime, we can try to find ways to get in there ourselves in case we have to rescue him from whatever idiotic situation he's gotten tangled up in. So do we know anything about ther last rift?"
"The last Tartarus is in the middle of the Southern Sea," Tamamo said. "It's the largest rift of all. We have no idea where it leads. On the bright side, it's not locked down like the rifts to Angel or Monster World. It's just hard to access."
Alice sighed. "We still have more questions than answers, despite learning so much these past few days. All right, I hate this, but it's decided. We'll form a party and go to the Hellgondo rift. Luka will enter it, have a look around, ascertain what that weapon is, and see if maybe he can learn something about the Ancestors' goals."
"I should probably do the same with the Angel World," I said. "I got a glance, but I didn't learn much. It was mainly a lecture from an Archangel and an Ancestor, saying that I would have to choose soon."
"I've been told that much," the Monster Lord said. "They want you on their side very badly. But perhaps your actions yesterday have put off that difficult decision for a time. Speaking personally, I would very much like to know why they 'hung me out to dry', as you put it."
"I don't think they desired your death, your Majesty," Tamamo said. "They simply knew that it was part of the true history, and so put a piece on the board that would fulfill its purpose regardless of the outcome. They may have also been hoping that the day of your death would come only after you'd sent countless souls to Makai. I think they've been caught off guard by what actually happened. You still live, and the war of extermination never really got started."
"And what of my attacker? He was Luka's father?"
"That's where it gets complicated," Alice answered. "Marcellus is this world's Luka's father, but not our Luka's father, if that makes sense. But what we do know is that Marcellus, in his own way, is trying to save everyone, just like Luka."
"Everyone except me, apparently," Alice's mother said sourly. "I think I like the son better than the father."
"Shouldn't we be worried about this Marcellus making a second attempt?" Granberia asked.
"I think I can answer that best, given what I know of how time and fate work," Ilias volunteered. "Luka satisfied the true history by killing Alice. Marcellus is willing to kill to save the world, but he's not going to just slay the Monster Lord if her continued existence doesn't promote chaosization. That being said, she should be kept out of danger as much as possible. Something about the threads of her fate seem to always lead to her untimely demise."
"So in other words, I should avoid putting anyone in my mouth that I might choke on," Alice's mother said slyly, looking directly at me.
"Cute joke, but that's basically correct. You're living past your allotted time. The Reaper may get very creative in trying to claim you."
"Is the Reaper a real being?" I asked.
"She most definitely is," Ilias answered. "Want to meet her? She's cute. You'd like her."
"Just so we're clear, though, my continued existence no longer increases the rate of chaosization?" Alice's mother asked.
"I don't believe there are any further consequences in that regard, no," Ilias said. "But I don't have a real realationship with the Reaper. She may be peeved that you haven't met your appointed date with her. She doesn't approve of tardiness."
"At least that is only my problem. I shall be careful and remain in the castle. There is much to be done here anyway."
"This is very unsatisfying," Alice sighed. "I was hoping we'd be able to develop a plan of action today beyond, 'Hey Luka, go running into danger and tell us how it worked out for you!'"
"At least we're stronger now," Alma Elma offered helpfully. "We have all Four Heavenly Knights, the Godess and her Seraphs, even if they are less than they should be, three Monster Lords, all at full power, Sonya is now…. Something else. I honestly think we have a chance."
"Just tell me who to stab," Granberia pledged.