I don't want to brag, but I'm good. There isn't a being on any world I know of who can teleport from another universe into an indoor space, without knowing exactly where that indoor space is. But I did it. All right, I actually sucked pretty badly at using my power given its potential, but considering that before this adventure started I wasn't comfortable teleporting at all, it's progress. I'd also beaten an Ancestor without being emotionally hyped up to the point where my power unconsciously turned me into a juggernaut. That was progress as well. Desperation is not a strategy.
Needless to say, my friends were thrilled and relieved to see me, and glad that Black Alice had been my keeper throughout my sojourn on Makai. I fully briefed our core group on what I'd seen. Alas, I had nothing on the asteroid I was supposed to check out. The obvious next step was going to be to travel to Angel World. Black Alice made it clear that I was on my own. She had no interest whatsoever in seeing such a place, much less traveling there with me as her only way to get home. Black Alice was positive that I'd do stupid things on their world and get myself killed, or at least run out of every town I visited. Alice, the Alice that was my wife, had similar misgivings, but knew better than to tell me to ignore injustice.
I could have teleported us to Esta and then entered Angel World immediately, but there was the minor inconvenicene of a dozen bullet wounds to deal with. Most of the bullets had only bruised me, but some had embedded themselves just under the skin. Even with Gnome, bullets could be deadly to me. All the magic in the world isn't very useful if someone just pulls out a Glock and shoots you in the face.
I spent my week of recuperation on what amounted to a second honeymoon with Alice. It was weird, because it's not as if the Alice I'd first met on this world was gone. Alice remembered everything we'd done together on this Paradox world, and those weren't false memories for her. It was as if my Alice had seamlessly joined with Paradox Alice and joined us as if she'd always been around. Which she had been, her personality and memories had just been suppressed by the limited, childlike brain of Alice being in a small form.
The difficult part for me was going from an Alice who was regularly pleasuring me, but just for food, all the while trying to keep her distance emotionally, to an Alice who was already my wife and was all in on our marriage. One of the reasons for Alice's previous emotional distance had been the necessity of me feeding the monster population of the castle. The addition of male volunteers had made that less necessary, but for morale purposes I had kept on feeding them whenever I had the opportunity. The return of my Alice didn't seem to bother the other monsters. In fact, they were thrilled with it, and had even stopped propositioning me.
"I need you to go talk to Spider Princess," Alice said out of nowhere while we were lying in bed after another bout of lovemaking.
"Oh? Why?" I asked.
"You know she wanted to marry you," Alice answered. "And my return has squashed that dream. Now don't worry too much about stomping on her heart, she's a strong, practical woman. But you know monsters…. She might want to give you a…. parting gift, if you get my meaning."
"And you're all right with that?"
"I'm the Monster Lord," Alice sighed. "Again, many years after my retirement. At least in this castle. In the real castle, my mother is still the Monster Lord, and I can't tell you how weird that feels. I also don't think I've thanked you enough for saving her life."
"Alice, when this is over…. Are you going to want to take the throne?"
"Why?" she asked. "Do you want to go back to living out in the countryside?"
"It was better for our marriage," I pointed out.
"Well, if my mother wants to keep the job, I see no reason to take the throne prematurely. That's just the thing. I'm a princess again. So we'd probably have to live in the castle and I'd have some duties. But look on the bright side. You could be my prince."
"Well, let's all survive this…. Thing that's going on. So how are you doing otherwise?"
"What do you mean?" Alice asked.
"I mean, your situation where every Alice that has lived and died is… you. I have only one other Luka in my head. You have countless Alices in yours. It was driving you insane before."
"Understanding what's happening to me has made it easier to process," Alice said. "But it's still very difficult. In fact, I dare say it's hampering my usefulness to you in the field. And…. I didn't want to bring this up, because when I'm with you, the Alice you married is most dominant. But when I'm not with you… it's a mess. We're all the same person, but with different upbringings and different environments, there are some outliers."
"Outliers?"
"Some of them hate you, Luka," Alice said tearfully. "We were mistreated by the humans. Others see you as not a husband, but prey. One even hates you personally, for abandoning her when she was lying in that ditch. We don't literally have arguments in my head. We're all fully merged, so it's not the same as how you talk to the other Luka in your head. Instead, it manifests itself as urges. Urges to eat you, or rape you, or even run away before you hurt me. The vast majority of my other lives were happy being with you. It does seem that our destiny is to be together, so long as one of us is alive and we get the chance to meet. But there are those few times when it didn't work out that way. Or it ended disastrously. Don't worry, it seems that majority rules in my head. And as I said, when I'm with you, I'm clearly the dominant personality. But there's just so much turmoil, so much confusion. So many competing memories and I'm not always sure which are actually you and which are other versions of you. While you're on Angel World I'm going to spend a lot of time with Erubetie. She's an expert on this sort of thing. And you know whose been surprisingly supportive, someone I can talk to? Ilias!"
"Oh, Alice, I'm so sorry!" I said. "I'll understand if you need to be sealed again. Ilias should know the spell if we can't get White Rabbit to do it."
"That's a last resort. I have to learn to live with the reality of having lived hundreds of lives. What's complicating things is that as other worlds die, the souls of those Alices merge with me and immediately try to establish dominance."
"I wish I knew how to make that stop. Not just your difficulties merging with your other selves, but also those worlds dying."
"Hopefully it's as simple as destroying the Goddess of Chaos," Alice murmered.
"Oh, is that all I have to do?" I chuckled. "Well, I won't accomplish anything laying in bed with you, as much as we deserve to lay in this bed for the next month. I'd better get ready to go."
"Oh, before you leave for that damned Angel World…. Go see Mephisto. You've been neglecting your training. You need to be able to use shields that stop physical matter. Don't you dare come back to me all shot up again!"
"Alice, if I did decide to join with the angels…. Would you go along with that? Do you think the other monsters would?"
"It will be tough," Alice admitted. "You'd have to really make a good argument for why we're siding with people who want us dead. Of course, you would have had to make the same case to Ilias, Victoria, and those three Seraphs if you side with Makai. But I think we both know you're not siding with either of them. Both sides are diametrically opposed to so much of what you believe in. What WE believe in. But as for me…. Whatever you choose, I trust you."
I was so glad to have her back. You, the reader, never got to really see how far she'd come as a person in the decades since she'd tried to eat me. She'd even stopped calling me an idiot! The old Alice would have decided for us which side we were joining. This more mature Alice had come to treat me as her equal, not just in power, but intellectually as well. Although I wasn't fooling myself. There were so many things Alice understood about the world that I still didn't, even with the advantage of centuries more experience. I would need to rely on her in the coming weeks, assuming we lived that long.
I met Mephisto in the gym. To be honest, I had been avoiding her because she was pretty hostile and seemed to have a chip on her shoulder. It was immature of me, I know. The universe needs saving, and I didn't want to be taught by one of the foremost wizards in the world because I thought she didn't like me. At least she wasn't shooting bullets at me. Slightly mean teacher beats bullets any day. Especially when the mean teacher is going to teach you how NOT to get shot.
"Now that we are definitely on the same side, you trust me a little more?" Mephisto asked.
"I admit it does help," I replied.
"For my part, it helps that you saved the Monster Lord from certain death. She is a good Monster Lord. It would have been a shame to see her reign cut so violently short. Now, let us figure out how to keep you from getting killed by ridiculously simple spells. The standard spell we monsters use to stop projectiles is a simple crystal shield. Like so."
Mephisto conjured up a crystal shield, very similar to one I'd seen Alice use from time to time.
"May I?" I asked, wanting to touch it.
"Of course," Mephisto replied. "This shield Is made of topaz. It will not stop everything, but it will stop small caliber bullets and most low to mid-level spells. Against more powerful magic, it will shatter."
Visions of Alice's shield being blown apart by Ilias' attacks when Ilias was at her full strength the first time we'd fought her danced through my head. It had been a frightening scene. The holy bolts that had gotten through had shattered Alice's bones on contact and seared her skin. I tapped the shield. It seemed pretty solid.
"Since your magic works differently, I'm not sure how you would approach creating a physical shield," Mephisto said. "But you can do mimickry. Simply try to match what I've done."
Okay, I can do that, I thought. I concentrated on Mephisto's shield and wished up one of my own. Success! It looked exactly the same!
Mephisto tapped my shield. It shattered.
"Try again!" she ordered.
I must have summoned nearly one hundred shields during that lesson. The quality got better, but they still wouldn't stop more than a thrown pebble. Mephisto and I were both getting frustrated, until she took it out on me with a spell that should have sent me straight to Ilias or Sonya for healing and another week of recovery. Mephisto aimed a massive ball of ice right at me.
Instinctively my shield went up. The ball of ice shattered against it. Despite the fact that the ice ball must have weighed at least three hundred pounds, I wasn't even knocked back. The shield had absorbed one hundred percent of the force of Mephisto's attack.
"Oh my," Mephisto said. "That was… most impressive. May I see that shield you've created?"
I looked at the shield itself and was dumbfounded. A quick vision, a memory, had passed through my mind. A wish, perhaps. Just before Mephisto's surprise attack, I'd been thinking of a material that only existed in fiction. Had I just created something that wasn't even real? I guess that's magic, so why fight it?
Mephisto handled the shield and turned it over to look at the front.
"What is the meaning of the star in the middle?" she asked. "And why the red, white, and blue color scheme?"
"That's…. hard to explain," I said, not wanting to get into the story of a comic book superhero with one as humorless as Mephisto. "But I can tell you what it's made out of. It's a metal called vibranium."
"Vibranium? This shield is extraordinary. I don't think even a goddess could get anything past it. Where can this metal be found? I would like to study it so that I could devise my own spells using it."
"It can't be found," I said. "It's imaginary. It doesn't exist. Someone made it up."
"If only you could make this permanent," Mephisto said wistfully. "Promestein and I would probably fight to be able to perform tests on this."
"I suppose I can conjure up another one and just stay in the room while you two study it," I suggested.
"Yes…. That would be excellent," Mephisto said, holding the shield up properly and testing its balance. "It's very light. This could be used for offense as well as defense. Perhaps you could even throw it."
"You don't say?"
Since it was close to the room I now shared with Alice, I stopped to have a chat with Spider Princess. As usual, the Beelzebubs were in the room with her as her attendants. It was very strange to me to see them behaving so. I'd always assumed them to be anti-authority, anarchists if you will, dedicated only to spreading their numbers around the world. I guessed I'd misjudged them. Maybe all they needed was someone similar to them to look up to.
"Luka, I'm so glad you have returned!" Spider Princess exclaimed.
"And I'm glad to see that you've recovered from your injuries. Taking on Granberia to buy us time was a very brave thing to do," I said.
"What good is love if one isn't willing to brave death to defend it?"
"Yeah, about that…."
"You don't have to say anything, Luka," Spider Princess said gently. "I was foolish for making assumptions about you. I had no idea that you were once married. That's what I get for not paying attention to the castle gossip. Besides, our relationship is much deeper than a mere marriage, now."
"I don't follow."
"Why you're practically my child, now!" Spider Princess exclaimed. "After all, I carried you in my womb and then gave birth to you."
"That was… your womb?" I asked. "I thought it was your stomach?!"
"That organ can serve either purpose. We monsters are far more flexibile anatomically than you humans!"
"So you're trying to tell me…. That I'm your… son?!"
"Not really, of course! But it feels that way. My love for you is undiminished by the news of your wife's return. Since I cannot marry you, considering you my precious little boy is the next best thing."
"Well good," I said with relief. "I'm perfectly happy to have that kind of relationship. Truth be told, I never knew my mother. So if you want me to call you mommy, that's fine by me."
"And we will be your aunties!" Media said excitedly.
"Okay, thank you, Aunt Media, Aunt Striga, and Aunt Barbarella! You know, this is so great! I've always wanted to have a positive, loving, platonic relationship with monsters!"
"Platonic?" Spider Princess asked, confused. "Who said anything about platonic?"
"But you said you're my…."
"It's not as if we are LITERALLY your relatives!" Striga laughed. "So sex is okay!"
"But I'm married now, and…."
"The Monster Lord has given us permission to demonstrate our love for you one time," Barbarella said.
"We've been waiting so long!" Media exclaimed, almost pleading.
"We've put the time to good use," Spider Princess said. "The Beelzebubs have asked the other monsters who have pleasured you what you like. I think that you will be most pleased."
"Wait, we're doing this now?!" I asked.
"Hmmm…. Let me pull out my schedule," Spider Princess said, pulling out a clipboard. "Hmmm, I'm booked tomorrow. And the next day. Hmmm, the day after that I have a workout with Granberia. No, I'll be too beaten up to pleasure you properly."
"She'll have a headache," Striga chuckled.
"And a backache, and abdominal pains, and…." Barbarella added.
"I think we all get the point!" Spider Princess snarled. "Luka, I'm afraid my schedule will not allow for doing this any other time but now. Beelzebubs, if you would…."
"Wahhh!" I yelled, as Barbarella shot her tail full of enormous breasts at me, wrapping them around me.
I sighed in contentment as my body was surrounded by soft, warm, pillowy happiness. Barbarella shifted and flattened out her tail breasts, so that they functioned as a bed for me to lie on. She supported my head with her chest breasts.
Striga and Media flew over to me, Striga licking and sucking my nipples while Media began gently sucking my penis. Yes, these ladies did know what I liked. I closed my eyes and sighed in contentment. This was so much more comfortable than the usual "throw him to the floor and take him" method that most monsters preferred.
Well, it may not have been platonic, but it was wonderfully gentle. The sisters were patient and loving, although I could have done without Barbarella whispering creepy things in my ear, such as "Do you like it when your aunties suck you?"
Their mouths felt a little strange. There was a lot of vibration for reasons unknown to me. The deeper Media took me the greater the vibrations became, so the source must have been her voice box. The Beelzebubs did have an odd tone to their voices, I had just never placed it before. Clearly it was those vibrating larynxes. I commented on how unique it felt, which caused Striga to get a mischevious look in her eye.
"You heard the boy, Media!" Striga yelled. "He likes the vibrations. Go deeper!"
Without waiting for Media to comply, Striga forced her head down all the way on my penis, amping up the vibrations threefold as well as causing Media to gag. The combined stimulation sent me over the edge, causing me to ejaculate down Media's throat. When I was finished, Media came up, gasping for air, and glared at Striga.
"I wanted to taste that!" Media raged.
"Fear not," Spider Princess said. "You shall. Allow me."
Spider Princess shot some soft silk at my penis and began stroking it with her hand. The soft silk and Spider Princess' surprisingly soft and tender hand made it extraordinary, so that Media soon got her wish, as Spider Princess pointed me straight up so that Striga and Media could drink from my fountain.
"Now if you two are satisfied," Spider Princess said. "It is time for Luka to learn about the best part of a spider."
Given how amazing her hand and mouth and second womb/mouth/stomach was, I wondered how anything could be better. I soon found out, as she lowered the tip of her abdomen, sucking in my penis to the root. It felt like her vagina. But hadn't I already been inside a spider's vagina?
"This is my spinneret," Spider Princess explained. "It could also be considered a vagina, although not my primary reproductive organ. But semen shot into this organ can be used for food or reproduction. As I said, our anatomy is flexible that way."
The movements inside her spinneret were unbelievable, providing incredible, silky stimulation in unpredictable ways. Spider Princess watched me carefully, attempting to determine which techniques I liked best. The spinneret movements became less unpredictable and more rhythmic, thrusting downward and twisting at the same time. When I came, she knew exactly how to maximize the pleasure without it being too intense.
"Thank you," Spider Princess said, kissing me on the lips. "If that is the only time we ever get to do that, I will always treasure the memory. Now say, 'Thank you, mommy."
"I'm not saying that," I replied. "But I will say, thank you, Spider Princess."
"A first name basis with your mother?!" Spider Princess exclaimed in mock horror. Barbarella, please punish him."
"Wait, what do you mean, punish?!"
I found out, as Barbarella flipped me like a pancake on her bed of breasts, turning me the other way. She began spanking me.
"Ow!" I yelled. Monsters were too strong to be doing that!
"You will show your mother and aunties respect!" Barbarella laughed. "Now, thrust in between my breasts until you let out all of your semen! Your auntie Barbarella is hungry too! Go on!"
Lying face down on her bed of breasts, I did as she said, thrusting between her breasts. She didn't let me stop until I'd expelled every last drop I had remaining all over them. I fell asleep on those same breasts.
The next morning, it was finally time to set out for Angel World. But first, I'd been summoned by the Monster Lord. Alice told me to teleport directly into her throne room to make an impression, because Alice felt that she knew what her mother would want to talk about.
"Thank you for your… prompt appearance," the Monster Lord addressed me.
I looked up at the throne. Standing next to Alice's mother was the succubus Morrigan. Uh oh.
"I have concerns about your decision to visit the Angel World," the Monster Lord said. "Is there a reason that you haven't decided to ally with Makai?"
"I have a lot of reasons," I answered. "The one that most pertains to you is that they didn't even bother to tell you that you were destined to die."
"Would you like to be told the time and manner of your death, hero?!" Morrigan shot back. The Monster Lord gestured for her to be silent.
"I still consider myself an ally of Makai," the Monster Lord said. "But I do not simply do things because they ask it of me anymore. The reappearance of my daughter, along with…. You, who is apparently her husband, has changed things. I am also mindful that you saved my life, a debt which I can never repay, for obvious reasons."
"Yes," I said with relief. "You are my mother-in-law, after all."
"Indeed. Although I have subordinates. Morrigan, if you would take care of the hero at your earliest convenience…"
"No, it's… it's fine," I said hurriedly. "Just hero's work, you know how it is."
"I have no idea how it is," Alice's mother said coldly. "I'm used to the idea of heroes killing monsters, not battling fellow humans to save them. Or marrying my daughter. I'm still unclear on how that happened."
"Different universe, your majesty," Morrigan said. "Since it turns out that your daughter wasn't just hearing voices in her head, she's lived hundreds of lives. Many of which resulted in her marriage to Luka."
"Now my head is beginning to hurt. Never mind that. I accept it, and further, I approve.That is not why I've called you here. I am concerned about your visit to Angel World. What do you hope to gain from such a visit?"
"The root cause of all this seems to be Black Alice, who has now become some kind of Goddess of Chaos," I said. "We're going to need allies. To be frank, I doubt I'll ally myself with Angel World. What I've already seen was a big problem for me. But I really should hear what they have to say, and see what I can see. I'm also guessing that they aren't just going to sit on their hands and wait for me to make a decision. Makai seems to have contingency plans in case I don't choose them. Morrigan, any chance you'd like to share what those plans are?"
"They don't tell me squat!" Morrigan shrugged. "All I knew was that I was supposed to kill people and try to help you stay on the correct history. And kill you too if you diverted too much, since your death was an acceptable possible future."
"So I've been told," I said grimly. "I'm afraid I didn't learn what the monsters have planned. Maybe I'll have better luck with the angels, or maybe they'll be more open than me. I hope I'm not insulting you by pointing out that monsters tend to be more duplicitous and stealthy than angels."
"I am mildly insulted," the Monster Lord said. "As angels can be even more dishonest when it suits them. But your argument has some merit. A world in which angels have total control and there is no threat to their power might have caused them to be lax in their security. You could be very useful as a spy."
"I hate to call it spying," I said. "But I guess that's part of what I'm doing. On Makai, Saja acted as my keeper, making sure I didn't do anything too disruptive to their plans, although according to her I already did more than enough."
"From the reports I received, you sided with an angel over one of the Ancestors. Luka, I must stress that I trust you completely. I only wanted to express my concerns. I do still hope that you choose the monster side. But should you make a different decision, know that I will support you."
"I, unfortunately, will not be able to," Morrigan said. "I understand that the Monster Lord is indebted to you, but I'm not. If you make yourself an enemy of Makai, I will have to put an end to you."
"You can try," I said. "Better succubi than you have tried. One of them was your master."
"You defeated Minagi?! You're lying! You have no endurance and you're a pervert!"
"Maybe so, but here's a little secret about your master," I said conspiratorially. "She can dish it out, but she can't take it."
The Monster Lord smiled at that. "Luka, be on your way, with my blessings. I am confident that it will be a most miserable journey. Please try to stay alive. I have no doubt that you'll find all sorts of ways to stir up trouble there. And if you do…." Alice's mother smiled broadly. "Please tell me all about it, in detail."
Alice, Ilias, Sonya, and Tamamo(the sealed nice one, of course) waited just outside of Esta with me. The assumption was that Angel World would be aware of our presence so near the entrance to their world and come pick me up. Unlike Monster World, I knew that I could enter Esta myself and be transported to Angel World, and failing that, I could teleport there from memory. I decided it was better to be invited, however. The invitation was not long in coming. Angel World Eden materialized in front of us.
"How was your experience in the Monster World, Child of Judgment?" Eden asked.
"It was…. Interesting," I said noncommittally. "Are you here to invite me to your world, or prevent me?"
"Ilias is insulted that you didn't choose to join her, even after you have seen the abomination known as Makai, as well as her paradise. But she is a patient and merciful goddess," Eden ignored Tamamo's snort. "And has invited you for a more lengthy stay. Simply enter Esta as you did before and Raphaela will meet you on the other side. She will also do something she knows the Dark God would not. She will grant you a personal audience once you have seen what you wish to see."
"I wish you were my guide, since I know you and I don't know Raphaela," I told Eden. "But I understand that it's difficult for you to travel between the worlds. I could take you with me. We could teleport in together…."
"Ilias wishes you to use the door, so to speak," Eden said. "Not sneak in through a window. Besides, I am needed here to counter the plans of the Lilith Sisters."
"Eden, before I enter your world, there's something I need to tell you. On Makai, your counterpart still lives.'
"Eden still exists?! On that world?! Why did you not bring her back with you?!"
"She didn't want to come. She is fighting for her own world, just as you would. The good news is that she's no longer in danger. I forced a peace between her and the dominant monsters. I just thought you should know that she's safe."
"I am fascinated by my other selves," Eden admitted. "I hope to meet her one day. To carry on the fight as long as she must have, it does us honor."
I nodded. Even if Makai Eden hated me, I still loved and respected her. I hoped that feeling would one day be mutual.
"You should get going," Alice said. "Luka, please don't-"
"I know, I know," I laughed.
"No, but especially there. On Makai, at least I know you would have died tasting the most exquisite pleasures. Sometimes angels kill with pleasure, sometimes they don't. And their self-righteousness sometimes leads them to justify inflicting the most horrible tortures on those they call sinners. I've seen it. It's a trauma that as your wife I never had to witness, but my other lives…. I can't even describe some of the things I've seen. Some of them done to me or those I loved."
"Oh, Alice! Seriously, if you need sealing again…."
"No, no. I have to learn to process all of this. Erubetie will be here shortly. I'm going to need lots of therapy, but I'll make it through."
"I know you will, Alice. You're strong."
"Until we meet again, my hero," Alice said tearfully, kissing me goodbye.
Waving goodbye to her and my other companions, I walked into the abandoned town of Esta.