Due the unimaginable months and years that generations of her ancestors had spent training day in and day out in that field, its ground was always blanketed in a white haze of mana.
Mana with a texture, however, was a novel experience.
She breathed deeply in a further effort to calm her feelings. With each breath, a sensation like vegetable gelatin made even softer ran down her windpipe. She grimaced.
The next thing she sensed was a sickly-sweet odor. A number of different sweet scents, like fruits boiled down into concentrates, came wafting to her. She remembered an orchard in the southern region of the continent, which she had come to when she had only just fled the Amanomiya, and did not yet know her way about.
After that, sound. It sounded like a chorus, rising ever higher and higher. After a few steps, Koyoi was able to make out the particulars. It was women's voices. Deep inside, in the same place that the smells emanated from, the voices of several women overlapped.
Koyoi advanced, one stepped at a time so as to make sure of the floor, talismans at the ready. As she closed the distance to the inner chamber, a black silhouette rose up in her vision, which had been a uniform field of violet.
She did not know what it was at first. It formed complicated angles, swaying forward and back, or possibly right and left. When she managed to discern color in what had seemed a mass of black, she finally realized what she was seeing.
It was several monsters and one human, naked and intertwined.
The human man was seated, stark naked, on the tall-backed, gold and jewel-encrusted throne, where once only the king had been permitted to sit. A number of monster girls were wrapped around him, freely exposing bodies so flawless that they might have escaped the world of a painting.
One of them was straddling his hips, vigorously shaking her own up and down. Her face was turned skyward, her mouth gaped open, and her pants were practically shouts. Her hair was purple and formed distinctive vertical rolls.
Her Highness...!
Koyoi recognized her. She was one of the members of the royal family who had been listed as targets for rescue and protection at the meeting the night before storming the city. Francisca Mistel Lescatié.
Another woman was kissing the man's lips. Sitting in the gap between him and the princess, she had her arms wrapped around his head, and was wholeheartedly sucking on his mouth. She had pink hair, and appeared far too young to have any sexual knowledge at all.
Two more monsters had their mouths close to his ears, one on each side. A gray haired, strong willed-looking monster with an eye patch was at his right ear. Her lower body was that of a snake, rather than a human, and was knotted tightly about the man's torso, the throne, and her own body. The other was a woman with long, blue-green hair. In stark contrast to the monster across from her, her features gave a gentle impression. Both of their faces were as rapt as could be as they stuck their tongues into the man's ears, sucking and clinging to them. From time to time they withdrew their tongues, whispered something, and narrowed their eyes in ecstasy.
There were four monsters beside the throne.
Two of them were girls even younger than the monster exchanging kisses with the man. They alternated between squabbling to lick the white fluid that spattered their bodies off each other, and twining their tongues together to gulp it down.
One was a girl with short, blue hair lying senseless on the floor. Little spasms ran through her whole body. Her feet were facing Koyoi, displaying her lightly-furred sex to Koyoi's view. A large volume of white goo burbled out from between its clean lines with each breath she took. Koyoi could not see her whole face, but she was able to note her lips, parted in a joyful grin.
The last was kneeling and staring at Koyoi. She looked bored. Her arms and legs, like Tasogare's, ended in animal fur and claws. Her green hair was gathered on either side of her head. She was staring straight ahead with her chin resting on her right hand, which in turn rested on her raised right knee. While the other monsters were besotted with intercourse, she alone watched Koyoi with a clear head. The animal ears that sprouted from her head were twitching up and down.
This is bad!
The talisman Koyoi hurled shone, and in the same instant a sinister, black arrow flew from the bow that the monster had readied faster than the eye could follow. Koyoi focused the explosive magical energy that was her specialty into a single point and stopped the speeding shaft just in front of her. There was a roar like thunder, the monster's arrow went flying over Koyoi's right shoulder, and struck the floor with a dry clatter.
Koyoi speedily flexed her right elbow, and a talisman flew from her sleeve. She caught it between her fingers. Talismans were disposable, ceasing to burn after a single spell, so she had to keep fresh ones to hand at all times.
At the same time, the monster was materializing an arrow from her right palm and pulling her bowstring taut.
Silence flowed between the two. The previous exchange had taught both of them that they employed similar methods of attack. Once they fired one shot, they would need time to prepare another. Even if that only took an instant, it would create an opening.
Whoever makes the first move, loses, they both thought.
"That's quite enough of that."
A voice broke the tension. Its tone — cheerful, although it coiled stickily about the eardrums — sounded awfully out of place.
Koyoi's mental strain dissolved. Her body, in contrast, went rigid. The owner of the voice had embraced her tightly from behind.
"Lady Druella..."