I made Alice's mom the dozen grilled cheese sandwiches, which she scarfed down a sandwich at a time, barely chewing. She wasn't kidding when she said she only swallowed. She wasn't big on chewing either. This was a woman who would probably never miss her teeth if she lost them. I also hadn't known how much of a cut up she was. At one point she pretended to be choking on her food. Until I realized that it wasn't physically possible for a lamia to choke on anything smaller than a Volkswagen.
I found that I liked her a great deal. I'd expected a very formal woman due to her position and her manner of speaking. You've probably noticed that some monsters speak in a very vernacular style(Alice, Tamamo), while others speak in a very formal style(Granberia, Erubetie). These affections always seemed to be by choice, not upbringing. I'd always associated the stiffer, more archaic speaking style with being a more inhibited, humorless person, but Alice's mom broke that mold. She laughed easily, and if she was worried about the risk of her impending death, she didn't show it. She laughed in death's face. It didn't hurt that she was even hotter than her daughter. She wasn't wrong that I wanted to have more sex with her, and she must have known that I felt that way. There had to be SOME restraints on my behavior, though, or else I'd lose myself. Alice's mother would only ever eat my semen in life or death situations. But that wouldn't stop her from being an incorrigible flirt.
I went to bed, alone that night. Despite my reunion with my Alice, our sleep schedules were so different that she just found it more efficient to sleep separately from me unless she wanted to feed or make love. That way she could rise before dawn without disturbing me. She promised me that once this was all over, we'd spend eight hours a night in bed together, holding each other, every night.
I woke up around noon and made my way to the meeting room. At that point there was almost constant activity in our "situation room". Tamamo usually held court in there, at least when she was awake. Even in a crisis, Tamamo slept at least twelve ours a day. But if she was up, she was probably planning or watching Raphaela.
Speaking of Raphaela, Tamamo reported that the archangel had regained her divinity and departed the prison at some point during the night. She'd done so peacefully and no one had tried to stop her. Presumably she had returned to San Ilia.
"As you all know, there's been little fighting in the last few days," Tamamo said, standing over an old style situation map with figurines of angels, monsters and humans on it. "But it looks like that's about to change. An ant army is gathering in the Gold region, led by the Monster World's version of Queen Ant. Our own Queen Ant has contacted us to ask for instructions."
"So the monsters want to take the Gold region away from Sariela?" I asked.
"Absolutely," Tamamo replied. "If Gold is taken, that leaves the angels with nothing but San Ilia and Ilias continent. The monsters would control Hellgondo and Gold, with the humans holding Noah and Safina. Alipheese has not accepted our truce proposal. But the decision to invade Gold tells me that she might want to create the conditions for a truce if she considers it advantageous to do so in the future. Controlling that region would put the human kingdoms in a position of being a buffer between the angel and monster armies."
"So she's hoping cooler heads will prevail?" I asked. "Then maybe we should ally with her to take Gold?"
Even though the room contained mostly monsters, everyone looked at me as if I was an idiot.
"I don't think you understood what Tamamo was actually saying," Alice said. "The Dark God, like all gods, has layers to her plans. She still wants conquest. But IF circumstances changed and a truce was required to deal with Black Alice, controlling Hellgondo and Gold would put the monsters in a commanding position strategically. They'd be negotiating from a position of strength. But if we were to help her take Gold, and it went smoothly, she probably wouldn't stop there. She'd move straight on through the deserts of Safina and dare us to contest her passage, with the intent of getting at San Ilia."
"Alipheese is more pragmatic than I was," Iilas said. "But make no mistake. Given the chance, she'll destroy every angel on the planet and turn all the humans into semen slaves."
"That's simplistic," Tamamo said defensively. "But not far off the mark. I won't live in a world like that again. So I say we do one better. We take Gold for ourselves."
"How?" Sonya asked. "We can't match up against either their big shots or their armies."
"We have the armies," Tamamo said. "In Gold, we have the Queen Ant's army. It's battle hardened from the war Alice's mother provoked. The Monster World version is disciplined but green. We also have the King of Grangold's army, and if you'll remember he's become something…. Else. I don't know the limits of his power, but I bet he can match up with some pretty significant enemies if he has to. But the final wild cards are the prisoners. Sariela isn't running a military camp. She's running a prison. I bet if we get another, bigger prison break going, that in the chaos she'll be unable to mount effective resistance. And since you have experience fighting her, Luka, I think you should do the honors of facing her."
"I don't like that," Alice responded. "She has experience fighting him. I'm sure she's got surprises in store for him if he returns there."
"It's a bad matchup for her," Tamamo noted. "Physically she's not much. Magic-wise, she relies mainly on energy attacks, something Luka is very good at countering. Now she could, and probably will, try some creative hexes and some sexual attacks he might not be prepared for. That's why I'm going to be in the vicinity to make sure he doesn't get into too much trouble."
"What about me?" Alice asked.
"You're the princess now, Alice. It's your job to lead the Monster Lord's armies. Remember, we don't just have our little castle shock force anymore. Some monster races from the Paradox world have pledged their loyalty to your mother. The minotaurs for one. The harpies for another. The kitsunes were pretty mad about being deceived by bitch Tamamo, so they've pledged their loyalty as well. You'll be leading the harpy force, Alice. Alicetroemeria will lead the kitsunes. Granberia will lead the minotaurs."
"Is Granberia even ready for that?" I asked.
"To fight, not really. To lead, certainly. Of course, we all know she'll fight. As long as she doesn't face archangel level opposition she should be fine."
"So are we doing this before the Dark God moves?" Sonya asked.
"If all goes well, yes," Tamamo replied. "I've formulated this plan in consultation with the Monster Lord. She approves of it completely. If we act before the Dark God, we can present it to her as a fait accompli. Then we'll have total separation between the monsters and angels, and maybe then we can get real about ending the fighting."
"But why use Luka?" Alice asked. "Why not have Sonya face Sariela?"
"Oh, Sonya's going to raise some hell out there, no question," Tamamo chuckled. "But it's Luka both sides fear. If he's on the battlefield, it sends a message."
Tamamo's message sending was a lot more dramatic than I had anticipated. That afternoon, she teleported me to a mountaintop in the Grangold area. We looked down upon a huge ant army.
"Kanon's also here, I can sense her," Tamamo said. "Given her injuries she probably won't do any real fighting, but she'll be very useful to us."
"In what way?" I asked.
"So if you look down there, the ants are in a valley. Normally it would be a great place for an ambush, and that's what they want you to think. In reality, they can scale these mountains quickly to get at any aggressors. There are probably some close to us now. They might even be watching. I like that."
"What exactly is the plan here, Tamamo?"
"Like I said, I want to send a message to Alipheese. The best part, is you're going to do it without harming a soul."
"I like that part."
"Good. I made you an index card. Stand up and read it as loud as you can. They'll hear you, they have incredible hearing."
"Then what?"
"Then destroy this mountain. The debris will block their invasion route."
"That sounds really dangerous," I said.
"I have it all under control! Just touch the ground, pour your power out as much as you can, and the mountain will crumble. Using my earth powers I can control the implosion. In my true form I could have done the destruction and the control of the avalanche. In my diminished form I can only do one or the other. Why, do you want to do the avalanche control?"
"Um… no, that's all right. I can blow stuff up real good, but I don't think I can control how a mountain falls down."
"Good! Now get out in the open and look intimidating! Oh, summon Gnome first. They might shoot at you."
Thrilling. Taking the index card, I stepped out from behind the outcropping of rock Tamamo and I had concealed ourselves behind. None of the ants gave any sign that they noticed me. Of course, I was pretty far away, about a mile above them, and they were about a mile distant even if I was on the ground.
"May I have your attention please?" I shouted at the top of my lungs.
The ant encampment heard me. The ant girls stopped their work and looked up. At first they didn't react beyond that. I realized that none of them would know what I looked like. As far as they could tell, I was just some crazy human standing on a mountaintop. Then I saw a figure emerge from a tent that was definitely not an ant: Kanon. I couldn't hear her, having merely human hearing. Even on the wind, using Sylph's passive power, I couldn't make out actual speech. But I got the gist. She was giving orders and the ant girls were responding.
I looked at the index card. Oh, my. Tamamo cannot be serious, I thought. This is so not something I would ever say. But if there was one person I always trusted to know what to do, it was Tamamo. I sighed and began to read.
"I am the Child of Judgment! I have seen your preparations for war in this region! I have seen because I see all! But the Gold region is not yours to take! It is mine! This world shall be mine! You will all….. serve in my harem? Seriously, Tamamo?"
"Just keep reading!" Tamamo hissed.
"Let the gods themselves tremble at my might! Behold!"
I stood there to see their reaction. They looked a little bemused, rather than intimidated. Kanon looked pissed.
"Luka!" Tamamo hissed. "Do it! Use your power!"
I knelt down and put my hands on the ground. I wondered if I had the raw power to do this. But if Tamamo said this would work… I concentrated and emptied it all into the ground. I expected a huge explosion. What I got was a loud rumbling. And then the ground fell out from beneath me.
Several tails wrapped around me and I was teleported to a neighboring mountain. The camp was now right below us. It was in a sheer panic. I turned to Tamamo. She was concentrating hard, trying to direct the mountain's collapse away from the army below. The entire process took one minute. The passage through the mountain range was completely blocked. As far as I could tell, the army below was unharmed.
"Piece of cake!" Tamamo said, panting heavily. "It will take them days to turn back and go around. And then they'll have to fight on open ground. Ants hate that. By then, Grangold should be ours!"
With an assist from Ilias, I recharged my power back at the castle and working as a team, we gathered up our armies. The logistics of moving three battle groups of hundreds of individuals each across a continent were complicated, but far less so than they would be in a world without magic. I needed to be teleported to each region, since I hadn't been to any of them on this new world. Alma Elma and Tamamo took care of that. Then I had to teleport the hundreds of individuals to just outside Grangold. I was mighty impressed with myself. Even Micaela would have found my mass teleport skills impressive. I'd come a long way in that regard since the beginning of my journey here, when I didn't even have confidence to teleport myself. Now I was moving armies over long distances. It did require power though, and I still hadn't figured out how to recharge. Ilias took care of that, leeching some of my power by hand and pouring it back into me tenfold. I couldn't help but notice that she always kept a little bit of it. I wondered why it didn't turn her mortal. It was probably one of the benefits of Nero's spell that had once limited my access to my power, while at the same time, allowing Ilias and Alice some use of it, as long as we all used it together. I also realized that Ilias already WAS mortal, essentially. Maybe that was why she could carry it around without diminishing what holy power she did still have.
So by the time I stood outside the walls of Grangold, I felt strong, healthy, and confident. At my back were one thousand monsters, harpies, kitsunes, and minotaurs. We had speed, tactical genius, and power. In front of us was a prison complex. They had a lot of angels in there, and even the weakest angels were nothing to be taken lightly. But Sariela was no military leader and she wasn't controlling an army. We were.
"Why are we outside the gates again?" I asked. "Why not just teleport everyone inside so it's not a frontal attack?"
"Frontal attacks are normally a bad idea," Granberia agreed. "But there are risks to boldly teleporting into a crowded city. We'd lose some people and innocents would be harmed as well. We don't understand enough how your magic works. A frontal attack is a sure thing. We have superior forces."
"Booorrrring…" Alicetroemeria griped. "I must prefer a flashier plan."
"I prefer plans that work," Alice said. "Besides, with any luck, Sariela might abandon the city instead of fighting. Immortals don't like to make useless stands."
As if Alice had summoned her, Sariela appeared, standing on the wall, holding her black staff, in full battle gear. She sure didn't look like she was about to surrender Grangold.
"Leave it to you, Luka, to want to break into a prison instead of out of one," Sariela addressed me. "You just couldn't get enough of this body, could you? Tell you what, child. If you surrender now, I'll give you privileges in my prison. You can even have my body now and then, the way you like it. No pain, only pleasure."
"He's not interested!" Alice yelled. I wasn't? No, of course I wasn't. "Unless you're hiding a real army in there, you can't win! How about we avoid unnecessary bloodshed? We won't try to stop you from leaving. Just abandon the city, leave the prisoners in our care, and no one gets hurt! We are not your enemy, Sariela!"
"I don't need an army," Sariela laughed. "I have something better than an army. Be right back."
"What the hell do you think she's talking about?" Alice asked no one in particular. Granberia shrugged. Alicetroemeria began to smile. Did she know something?
"I think she's going to do what I would do in her situation," Alicetroemeria said cryptically. "She's going to test your determination here."
Sariela reappeared, holding an older man in a headlock. Taguchi! I was aware that he hadn't gotten away in the jailbreak. Ilias had ordered Sariela to let all the Yamatai "heathens" go, but that only applied to those who had actually tried to break out. Taguchi had been asleep, knocked out cold by Undine's affections the night before.
"Oh no!" Undine exclaimed. "This is all my fault!"
Sariela smiled wickedly and licked Taguchi's face. He screamed in agony. Apparently she'd "fixed" her sexual magic.
"It's a pretty big drop from this wall, disgraced hero!" Sariela yelled. "I think you should go."
"The attack's off," I said. "She has a hostage."
"That's not how it works, Luka!" Alice said angrily. "There is a lot more at stake here than one old man's life."
I began walking towards the wall. "Is this your idea of justice, Sariela? Executing an old man?"
"This man has already been judged!" Sariela yelled back. "He's a pagan! He even had carnal relations with his own god! Who does that?!"
"Do you even know your own goddess?" I asked.
"That's different!" Sariela said defensively. "Don't come any closer! Unless you want to see me really hurt your friend!"
His pants came off, exposing him to everyone. I was annoyed to hear giggles from behind me. Ah, soldiers. I stopped. Angels rose over the wall, pointing bows at me. Dozens of them. I wasn't sure I could stop them all if they all fired at me at once.
One of my own trump cards rose into the air in response. Sonya, in full chaos form, leveled all of her weapons at the angels. Some of the bows redirected to point at her instead of me. The harpies were beginning to flutter their wings. The angels looked very nervous. Things were about to happen whether we ordered them to or not.
"What'll it be, Luka!" Sariela shouted. "Is taking this prison worth your friend's life? And I won't stop there! There are hundreds of angels inside this city, ready to execute prisoners!"
"She's taking advantage of you, Luka," Alicetroemeria said. "Don't let her. Your enemies will always know how to defeat you. Kill him yourself to show you mean business."
The decision was taken out of my hands. An angel fired at me. Sonya responded immediately, blasting her with an energy weapon. I caught the arrow out of the air. The harpies took to the air with their own bows. Sariela pushed Taguchi off the wall.
Well, if there's one thing I can do these days, it's teleport, so…. I sent Taguchi to the foyer of the Pocket Castle. He'd land hard, but he'd only fallen a few feet when I'd teleported him. Sariela and myself I teleported directly into her office. She stared at me in shock.
"Well if you wanted me that bad, all you had to do was ask," she said with a sadistic smile once the shock wore off.
She leaped at me, my clothes disappearing in an instant. Pain shot through my body as her mouth and vagina made contact with me, her mouth sucking on my neck and her vagina rubbing against my leg. I quickly reversed her magic to stop the pain. She was "broken" again.
Her sexual attack was only a feint. She swung her staff at me, nearly cracking my jaw. Power exploded from the staff as it made contact. Without Gnome, that would have been a killing blow. I retaliated with Angel Halo, the real one, which Alice had given back to me. I guess I should have used my shadow sword, but I was leery of any possibility that the angels might have found a way to nullify my power. Angel Halo had never been countered as far as I knew.
At first we had a pretty fierce melee going in a confined space. We were ruining her office with our battle. A blow from her staff shattered the desk, while my sword ripped through some books on a shelf. She was using some kind of spell to make it hurt me every time my sword made contact with her staff. She really liked using pain in her magic. It was easy to see why Ilias wanted her in charge of a prison.
I heard explosions outside. The battle must have begun at the gates. The harpies were probably throwing volleys of fire arrows at key targets behind the walls. I knew that the minotaurs would penetrate the walls quickly through brute strength. It would probably be awhile before I got real help. We were deep inside the city and no one would know where I'd gone.
A kick to my midsection sent me through the door out into the waiting room. There was a prisoner there. He got up in a panic and ran out the door. Probably about to be punished before our army had showed up. That made me angry. With a little more room to work with, I blasted her back into the office with my power. I began to walk back in, until I saw her pick up the remains of her desk. I ran. The desk came crashing through the ruined doorway and the walls. I teleported into the dining room.
Inside the dining room was pure panic. We must have arrived around dinner time. Prisoners were running everywhere. There were some bodies on the ground. I inspected one. Shank wound. Some of the prisoners were taking the opportunity to settle old scores. Dammit. I remembered that not all prisoners were innocent political prisoners here.
I went into the main housing section and blasted a hole in the wall so that the prisoners could make a run for it. I spotted two people I knew from my time in Grangold prison and teleported them to the castle as well. I couldn't think of a safer place for them.
I found more bodies. These had clearly been slain by angels. The wounds were laced with holy magic. They'd been sliced open by angel swords. Now I was really mad. I teleported back to the ruins of Sariela's office. She wasn't there anymore.
I warped to the gates. The battle had already moved well into the city. The walls were ruined, crumbled to the ground like the walls of Jericho. Alice was in the air over the city, directing the harpies' fire and dishing out some pain of her own. The harpies' aim was precise. They were only hitting angels, allowing prisoners to escape, climbing over the remains of the wall to get the hell out of Grangold. The downside was that they couldn't use their devastating unit tactics as long as humans were mixed in with the angels. Harpies began to fall, one by one, cut down by the equally as accurate angels. Sonya laid down withering fire against any angels dumb enough to try to mass. That resulted in airborne duels over the city between angel and harpy.
I ran into the city, firing bolts of my own magic at any angels nearby, hitting some, missing most. Since I was using Sylph to run almost faster than the eye could see, no angels could draw a bead on me, although some tried. Sonya seemed to be my guardian angel up there, blasting any angel that so much as looked at me with malicious intent.
I needed to find Sariela again if I wanted to end this. I cursed my stupidity. I shouldn't have teleported out just to avoid a desk being thrown at me.
I found Alicetroemeria directing a fight for one of the prison armories. Samurai kitsune were engaged in sword battles with the stronger, larger ground fighters among the angels. Kitsunes who could wield magic were doing things I couldn't recognize, chanting incantations behind the battle lines.
"What are they doing?" I asked Alicetroemeria.
"Who!?" she yelled impatiently.
"The two and three tails kitsunes behind the line! What kind of magic are they using?"
"Oh, they're just buffing the samurais! They wouldn't be strong enough to go one on one with angels otherwise!"
That made sense. For her part, Alicetroemeria was using dark magic, which the angels were weak to, to take them out of the fight. I was grateful that she wasn't just consuming angels left and right. She seemed to really be taking seriously my admonition to avoid killing where possible.
"Hey, you're a powerful wizard! Can you get a fix on Sariela for me?"
"Yeah, she's over that way, about a mile from here!" Alicetroemeria said, pointing to the northwest. "Careful though, there's another powerful presence with her!"
"Got it!" I said. Great. Probably another archangel. Well, this is what I signed up for. I resummoned Sylph and dashed through the city, hoping I'd find Sariela and her new friend before they found me.
About a mile to the northwest, I saw right away where she must be. Loud explosions were coming from an alleyway to my left. I ran towards it, only to get myself tangled up in vines. Now that was odd. Grangold didn't have much plant life.
I heard the sounds of sceaming and grunting, along with more explosions. I started to cut my way through the vines. That proved to be foolish. At first the vines just fell away as I cut them, but as I got deeper into the tangle they began to resist me. And then they grabbed me, tangling me up, and began to probe my body.
I was already naked since Sariela had magically removed my clothing. The vines explored my body blindly as I struggled, breaking one vine with the help of Gnome only to be grabbed by two more. Finally a vine found my penis. The vine withdrew and a flower took its place, latching onto my dick and sucking like a vacuum. It had to be Kanon. The flower was like nothing I'd ever felt before, and I'd felt some over the years. The petals were ultra soft and slimy. The smell was intoxicating and would have caused me to cease all resistance in my younger years. Not that resistance did me much good. The flower continued to suck violently as my semen splashed into it. It didn't let up after I finished. My struggles grew feeble.
As if that wasn't bad enough, slime began to envelope me. Kanade! Fortunately, she wasn't feeling sadistic this time. Instead of pain, a soft, comforting pleasure spread through my body as Kanade flowed over me, covering my entire body. And then her slime covered my face, denying me breath.
"Relax, hero," Kanade said soothingly. "Don't struggle. Just concentrate on the pleasure. You won't even feel the need for oxygen."
"I think you'd better late me go now," I warned. "I can still use my power while in critical ecstasy."
Kanade seemed to hesitate. I could breathe again as her slime uncovered my face. Still holding me in her slime, Kanade began advancing through the foliage, which parted to let us through. In the alleyway, lying prone and unmoving on the ground, was Sariela.
"Your welcome, hero," Kanon said by way of greeting. "Now you can give me my region back. The Dark God will look upon you very kindly for your assistance in this manner."
"That's not how it works," I said. "This region is ours. Or perhaps you didn't hear me up on the mountain."
"Oh yes, I heard your words," Kanon laughed. "But were they really your words? I don't know you, granted, but from what I've heard, that's not you. So you say it doesn't work that way? That I can't have my region back? What if I say… please?"
Another flower sucked in my penis. It even had a tongue of sorts. I was so shocked and overwhelmed by how good it felt that I said nothing for awhile.
"I think he likes your special flower, Kanon," Kanade chuckled.
"Men are so weak," Kanon agreed. "No matter how formidable the man, he can always be subdued with a little sugar. Want more?"
The flower sucked me in deeper. The tongue began to move in waves.
"That flower is unique," Kanon explained. "It doesn't exist in the wild. It only exists as a part of yours truly. Only the men I favor most ever get to taste it. I'll let you come into it as many times as you want if you give me the city."
"You know I won't do that," I said with more conviction than I had.
"Oh, really?" Kanade asked, her slime starting to stimulate other erogenous zones.
"I'd give you anything for you two to keep doing that," I panted. "But Grangold isn't mine to give."
"Oh, didn't you say the world was yours?" Kanon asked. "I guess those were someone else's words. Tamamo's, perhaps?"
With a loud slurp, her flower moved in a motion that caused me to ejaculate suddenly. The pleasure as it continued to suck and lick me nearly drove me insane. Kanade's assistance wasn't helping.
"So you wanted what now?" I asked as soon as I could speak again.
"Don't play dumb. I know you're stronger than that," Kanon warned.
"I must be really strong. Otherwise why are you asking me to give you the city? You two are alone, aren't you? You thought you'd take out Sariela and then… what? Get me to hand over the city to you for a little flower job?"
"We are two ancestors. We could take on your army once we've taken you out," Kanade said.
"You can't take me out. As soon as I feel that slime start to dissolve me…. Boom."
"Oh, fine!" Kanon said, roughly pulling her flower from me. The disappointment was crushing. I never wanted it to end.
"This isn't over, hero," Kanade warned. "That was a very clever trick, blocking Kanon's army from the city just before she planned to take it. Do you really think you can hold this region? This region is very important to our plans. We will commit whatever we have to to take it."
"How about we just be friends and take on the real enemy?" I asked hopefully.
"If it makes you feel better, Saja and Minagi both advised that very thing," Kanon replied. "The Dark God isn't interested in working with you anymore. She doesn't believe you can be trusted to do what is necessary. If you were truly strong, you'd kill us both right here and now. Oh, you have power. But you're weak where it counts. You'll let this world die rather than make the sacrifices necessary to save it. The Dark God won't. The war continues. And when we win, we will deal with this Black Alice character, just like we dealt with her when she made trouble on Makai. She was always ambitious to the point of delusion."
"It's not a delusion this time!" I protested. "She's stronger than all of us! Only by working together do we have a chance!"
"That can never happen!" Kanade said angrily. "The angels would let most of us die in the fighting and then take advantage of our weakness afterwards! If we take on Black Alice with the angels at our backs, we die. If we take her on before defeating the angels, we die! You are a naïve fool! The only reason I let you live is because you're too powerful to kill as long as you have access to that power of yours."
"So enjoy Grangold while you can control it," Kanon said. "We will return. And we'll be bringing your best friend, Tamamo. Come and play with us if you dare."
Laughing, Kanade released me. I tumbled weakly to the ground. Sariela was still unconscious beside me.
My heart was crushed by the carnage. The toll: eighteen minotaurs, twelve harpies, five kitsunes, forty-seven angels. The wounded were twice as numerous. Granberia and Alice were among them. Granberia had gotten involved in the fighting, as everyone had assumed. Although individual angels were no match for her at peak performance, Granberia was not at her peak. She'd suffered an injured shoulder from a particularly brawny angel with a warhammer. Alice had taken an arrow in the back. Her wound was relatively minor, but she did not enjoy having a minotaur pull out the arrow for her.
Sariela was allowed to leave, since we had no way of holding an archangel and I woudn't kill her. Tamamo seemed untroubled about the Ancestors' warning.
"Did you expect us to just take the region and both sides would say 'oh shucks, we lost'?" Tamamo asked. "This is war, Luka. It doesn't end until one of the three sides wins or Black Alice just ends us all."
"I'm already getting tired of it," I said angrily.
"You're telling me?!" Tamamo laughed derisively. "I've fought thousands of battles. I'm exhausted. I hate all the killing, all the unnecessary destruction. This city will take months to rebuild, and long before that I expect it will be attacked again."
"This is bullshit!" I raged. "Why are they so stupid?!"
"They aren't stupid, Luka," Tamamo scolded. "They've explained why they are doing what they are doing. They aren't wrong. Both of them have committed genocide. They'll do it again. Black Alice or no Black Alice, they have to be stopped. I'm sorry, Luka. I wish I could wave a magic wand and end the war in a day for you."
"Actually…." Ilias said, approaching us. "Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. What if we could end the war in a day?"
"I'm all furry ears!" Tamamo laughed.
"Not here," Ilias said. "Both goddesses can hear us out here.We need to discuss this in the Pocket Castle. It's in a subdimension so we can't be heard there."