Chapter 52 - From a River, Two Stars
"Well that was about the most disappointing thing I've ever seen," the general said with a frown as she looked at the three assembled bodies.
"General?" her assistant answered.
"Get my witch, I want her to look at something."
Moments later the short girl was dragged before the general.
With angry indignation, the witch stood up as tall as her tiny form would allow and spoke, "I have better things to do than an autopsy on a human and two long-dead!"
Projecting a killing intent that reminded all of the other nearby soldiers that they had other places to be, the general asked in a murderously quiet tone, "What did you just say?"
"I...uh, I have other things I should-" the witch began.
"Because all I hear is 'Hilde, I miss my pitiful, maggot bait, shit-stain of a dead master. Please tear out my fucking heart so I can see her again!'"
Biting back on overwhelming rage at hearing the general speak of her dead mistress Hekate, the witch managed to hide the pools of simmering hatred that were her eyes and answered, "I was conducting aggressive interrogation on the harpy as you requested, general."
"Caeth, go kill the damn harpy," the general said to her assistant without even turning, adding,
"And now we're back to me stomping that flat chest even flatter if the next words out of your mouth aren't 'Whatever you wish, general.'"
Her emotions back in check, the witch looked up and answered, "Whatever you wish, general."
"See? Easy as breaking a baphomet's horns. You know enough necromancy to speak to dead humans, yes?"
"With some difficulty, yes."
"You're really pissing me off here. I don't care if you have to cut off a fucking leg to do it. Pour the sand out of that Kioko finger-trap you call a twat and find out what this dead man knows."
Well aware that any further displeasure on the general's part would probably see the army short one witch due to "suicide", the witch quickly moved to the body of the fallen man. As the elder witch approached, she felt the touch of something powerful-something forbidden.
"General!" the witch shouted as she ran back towards the imposing orcish commander.
"Either that was really fast or you came to deliver some more red paint for my boots," the general said as she brought her massive war axe to rest on her shoulder.
Extending her staff towards the general, the two of them were suddenly surrounded in a glowing orb within a sea of utter blackness.
Trying to look unimpressed, the general picked at one of her floppy ears before saying, "You'd better start talking fast."
"General, this is-was a dream spark. I don't have enough time to explain fully, but it's forbidden magic on a titanic scale...in a few moments we'll cease to exist and-"
"I don't care about the specifics, that's why I keep you around. What does it mean?" the general said, her voice staying calm.
"It means somebody gave that man a way to see potential futures and now that future is-" the witch began.
"Undone," the witch said, her voice seeming to come from eight other exact copies, each of them also standing with a very annoyed orcish general.
Looking at each other in the otherwise emptiness of the void in which they floated, the identical witches nodded to each other as all of them vanished but one, the other copies of Hilde vanishing as well.
"This is all I can do, General. The only blessing that could accomplish such a feat should have given him ten opportunities to glimpse potential futures. There was only nine of us, so that means he didn't die in one potential future...or, if he did, it was in a way so different that the army was not present to examine his body."
That was something the general understood. She smiled as she answered, "So you're saying he did something on the tenth attempt to stop nine hundred of the most hardened soldiers this land has ever seen-he did something to stop me?!"
"He could have simply given up or-"
"No...he didn't. You don't get scars like those by taking the smart or easy way out," the general said as she threw off her armor to show over a dozen different sets of similarly permanent scars as she added, "But what's the point of telling me if we're about to vanish like a fart down a sylph's throat?"
"I will make certain that you...'remember' these possibilities that will never come to pass. Like sending a message from the future."
Shuddering slightly in what appeared to be orgasmic bliss, the Kaori general Hilde beamed with a wide, toothy smile.
"Ooooh, you deliver on that and I'll give you my personal recommendation for Kaori's elite."
"I need no such honors," the witch said as she began to trace arcane symbols in the air, "I wish only to know if-was...my mistress Hekate...strong?"
"I figured if anyone was coming back from that hole, it was going to be her. Fighting her was the only real fun I've had in sixty years," Hilde answered.
"Fun?"
"Oh yeah...but not as much fun as this is going to be," the general whispered into the void.
Snapping awake as though she had been daydreaming, Hilde strode from her quarters towards the barracks of the soldiers under her command.
Unable to resist the urge to laugh, she said out loud, to nobody in particular, "Let's see what you've got, little man."
With a shudder, I took one final breath and whispered one last statement as the life finally left me.
"To unsee the future, and upend the cascading sand, heed my call from oblivion. Miranda..."
My perceptions shifted. It was impossible to explain how or in what way, but I was...somewhere else. Surrounded by blackness and aware of little more than my own consciousness, I was reminded of when I'd been robbed of all my senses.
"There you are!" a voice shot through the darkness, the sound so overwhelming and all-encompassing to my senses that I felt I could hear, taste, and even touch the words.
"Where...am I?" I asked, wondering why the afterlife was full of nothing but annoying bitch voice.
"I reserve the right to refuse to answer moronic questions. Unless you want to put it on your tab…?" the voice asked suggestively.
"Wait, I recognize your voice. You're-"
"Don't you even dare. I might let you whisper my name into my ear as my fingernails carve the marks of my pleasure across your back, but that will come later. For now, don't you have something more important you need to do?"
"Something more important…" the second voice said, echoing in the blackness.
"Come on, you filthy slut. Even if you don't, I have more important things to do."
"Who are you trying to fool? You're probably sitting somewhere jilling yourself off on your staff!"
"That's going to cost you," the first voice hissed into the darkness, adding, "Well? Are you ready?"
"I am."
-
"You are mentally deficient-you must be. There is no other explanation. You've already failed nine times and you can't imagine the sort of pain that it causes me every single time," the witch's voice called out in the blackness.
"Yeah? Well this is like threading a needle while wearing fucking mittens, and it hurts me at least as much as it hurts you...believe me," I answered back.
"Why don't you just give up?" she asked honestly.
"Remember who's in charge here," I answered.
"In charge?! That's a laugh. If I see you in the street without your little 'friends', we'll see exactly who's 'in charge', you insect!"
"So you're just going to let yourself die then? Because you seem to be under the mistaken impression that any number of failures is going to stop me from trying," I said with a calm certainty.
"Fine, I'd rather be free of this curse anyway, but I don't know what you expect me to do. If either of us dies then this is all for nothing," she answered as her determination to spite me seemed to wane.
"I know the missing piece...or at least I know where it is," I said, willing my voice into the blackness, "and is it just me or do you actually...care what happens to me?"
"I'm having trouble deciding if you're the stupidest person alive, or just the stupidest that I've ever seen. It's not going to work. The first idea, maybe. For the second, you'd need an almost unimaginable level of energy. It would kill you-if you're lucky," the witch answered directly.
"I've got most of the steps down now. This would be a lot easier if you'd be willing to actually help," I offered in frustrated tone.
"Have I not told you that I utterly despise you? I enjoy seeing you fail."
"Bullshit, I can hear the expectant frustration in your voice now every time I do. You want me to succeed."
"By the Lords, you're arrogant. Though, I suppose it hasn't been as...satisfying to watch you fail as I had originally imagined."
"Then-"
"I can't directly interfere. All I will say is that you should forget being noble. It's not as if you can just turn back time, now...is it?"
"Turn back time…" I said as the answer came to me all at once.
"No, I...uh...I was serious. You can't just turn back time," she said, possibly regretting her choice of words.
"You sure? I heard about this other blessing that-"
"You shut your whore mouth!" she began angrily, "Dreams and fantasy aren't going to save you, so I'd forget you ever even heard that ridiculous rumor about time magic. You're only ever going to get one more blessing from me, and I doubt you're going to like it."
"I highly doubt that, but that's not what I was getting at. It wouldn't work on a born wight, but one that sprung from a zombie…" I trailed off as I tried to remember the formula.
"If you're talking about necromancy then keep it to yourself. I only work with real magic."
"And that's why you never understood why you couldn't hit me in the face that time," I answered, realizing that at some point I must had developed a liking for necromancy...or maybe it was just a certain practitioner of it.
"Where did everything go so wrong?" I wondered aloud, ignoring her.
"How many times are you going to ask that same ridiculous question?! It went wrong when you arrived in this world, or when you turned down my affections, or maybe when you were born."
"I know what I have to do," I answered with an air of finality, ignoring the angry witch.
"Let's hope so. This will be your last chance," she said as my lack of vision began to fade to something more familiar.
"You going to miss me?" I asked somewhat playfully.
"Don't you worry. I get the feeling that I'll be seeing you oh-so-soon. You can look forward to giving me a nice deep taste of you then."
-
I snapped awake in a cold sweat, greeted immediately by Del's eyes looking at me in concern.
"I...had a troubling dream," I offered to the unasked question.
"So it seems, my love," Del whispered back at me as she lovingly brushed the sweat-matted hair from my brow, "Do you wish to speak about it?"
I leaned up a bit and kissed the top of her head, "It was just a dream, I'll be fine."
I quickly closed my eyes, more in an attempt to hide from the still-knowing innocence of my lover's violet stare than in an attempt to go back to sleep.
"Understood."
"But…" I spoke up, opening my eyes again, "if keeping an important promise meant that you had to break another...What would you do?"
"That question cannot be answered within a vacuum, Joe. Some promises are unequal...some things are too precious to abandon or forsake, even in the face of an ironclad vow."
"Let me ask another way...Is there anything you can think of for which you would forsake any oath?"
Her eyes narrowed only slightly to emphasize her point, the words cutting through me like a scythe through a wheat harvest, "You, my love."
"I...But-"
With a yawn, Risa cut in, "Just because she sounds more serious when she says it doesn't mean I wouldn't do the exact same thing," adding as she snuggled a bit more closely, "If it meant I could be with you for even one more moment, even if you had to break every single other promise you've ever made, I'd prefer that to losing you."
"As is often the case of late, Risa and I are in perfect agreement."
"Okay," I said simply, not able to come up with a response worthy of what I'd just heard as I slowly lapsed back into a fitful slumber, comforted by what I imagined were gentle nudges of encouragement from the tiny limbs of my unborn children.
-
Taking one of the few chances I had to get out of the house since knocking up my wife, I waited until Risa had gone shopping for dinner and quickly made my way to Genevieve's home in an attempt to ask her for the assistance I needed to turn my one increasingly desperate failure of a plan into a real chance.
Knocking at the gate brought an imp dressed in the adorably fetching maid outfit.
"Yes?" the maid imp asked as she peeked out through the crack offered by the slightly opened door.
"I'm here to see the lady of the house, please. My name is Joseph...I don't believe she is expecting me," I offered politely.
"Please step inside. The mistress is entertaining a few guests, but I will inform her of your arrival."
The almost disturbingly reserved imp led me into a modest sitting room with several comfortable chairs, offering me a cup of tea while I waited. Not willing to brave the potential ingredients in said tea, I politely declined and simply stared out the window as I waited.
I had to wonder why Genevieve had so many imps around her. The ones I'd encountered in that church could have been hundreds of years old or more but still acted like perpetual children. Maybe that was why I couldn't hate them entirely, even after the way they treated me. I mean...from a very simple point of view, a man releasing his "white stuff" (as it was so eloquently put by one of them) is an indication that, regardless of what his mind and mouth were trying to say, his body certainly wasn't complaining.
If they thought like children and their bodies were like other monsters then, to them, they seriously thought they were just playing a game.
Coming back into the room with far more color on her face to accompany what looked like marks from a whip or riding crop, the imp gave a small bow as she breathed heavily, "Hah...the mistress will be with you s-shortly."
"Uh...thanks," I said, pushing the distracting thought of imps from my mind.
After another few minutes, Genevieve stepped into the room, heading to the bar on the far wall. Just as I'd suspected, she reeked of sex on a level that was more than a little distracting. Even though it felt like I'd been in this exact situation before, I had no idea that her…"scent" would be so overpowering.
"T-thank you for seeing me," I said quietly, reasonably certain she'd heard me anyway.
As I took a breath to speak again, hoping that might prompt her to start talking, she finally spoke up with her back still facing me, "So you are the interim chairman of the prostitute's union."
"I suppose that's technically-"
Cutting in again as though she hadn't heard or wasn't listening to me, she continued, "I had hoped it might be some other man with the same name, given the substantial pain your reforms have caused me."
Unable to read any kind of emotion in her voice, but undeterred in getting to the real reason I was here, I waited only a few seconds before trying to speak again, "I assure you that I wasn't-"
Interrupting me yet again, she finally turned around with an unreadably fake smile, "But you are here for another reason entirely, Joseph. Congratulations are also in order, no? Does your visit have something to do with your growing family?"
The brightness of her smile was dazzling enough to remind me that I'd have to find some way to pay her back with something worthwhile if she agreed to help me. Even if it was all an act, she was pretty damn good at it and, forgetting that rather painful rape, she didn't seem otherwise interested in getting at my naughty bits.
I answered with a half-smile of my own, "Yes. I...wanted to speak with you about something."
Now actually looking interested, Genevieve leaned back against the bar and stared straight through me as she answered, "You should have brought your charming wife Karisa, Joseph. She knows how to not look desperate when she's about to make an unreasonable request."
Did I still look desperate? Hell, I probably looked worse than the first time I imagined this scenario.
"I am desperate, and you are the only person that can help. There isn't much that I can even imagine I could offer you, but this is...important. More important than I can really say."
Maybe I should have just said: "Sister, can you spare a dime?"
"You'll have to do far better than that. Why don't you at least tell me what it is you want," she said as she looked away.
Releasing an almost pained sigh, I quietly answered, "I need to learn the final rune you used to create the Blacksky channeling focus with Del."
"Why?" she asked simply.
"Knowledge is it's own-"
"I spoke with Delilah not two days past and I'm certain she tried that same tired line for some reason or another."
I came to my feet, the gravity of this moment no longer enough to hold me in the chair, "I haven't seen her in two days. She's frantically digging through those books you gave her for an answer that she simply isn't going to find."
"Some things will always remain beyond our grasp, Joseph."
Stepping towards her, I answered directly, "Not this. Why do you still blame her for Gil-"
"Joseph," she interrupted, her smile vanishing, "I know that I wrought a grievous crime upon you, undoing part of who I was in the process, and you saw my grief as a result. Measure your words carefully or you will also see what several thousand years of torment looks like as well as the consequences of drawing forth those memories."
"I see that torment every single time I look at my wife. Were Del and I just tools to you? You said that you truly cared about Del...so are you a liar or just venomously spiteful?"
Stepping towards me in two bounding steps, Genevieve's presence alone pushed me back into the chair as she yelled down at me, "Just as she's always said-we must face the consequences of our actions! I never lie and I swore thousands of years ago that I would never teach her that rune for what she did. I won't let you unmake another piece of who I am!"
I threw my arms down hard at the arms of the chair and screamed back at her, "Whatever she did, or whoever she was doesn't matter anymore! I didn't make you rape me when you could have just asked for my help! And you aren't teaching her the rune-you're teaching ME!"
"I already-"
This time I cut her off as I stood back up, coming face to face with her, "Maybe you don't understand or don't remember how this feels, but there is nothing-NOTHING that is beneath me to learn that rune! I can swear to you right now that the 'consequence' of trying to send me out that door empty-handed is that you will be a murderer-for killing me here or for sending me into Lorelei's arms without the one chance I have to succeed!"
I met her gaze without flinching, knowing that she could hear the truth in my voice.
"But you can't even-"
Cutting in again, I placed my hands on her shoulders, "Anything. Ask me and I'll do anything. I'll lay down for you right here, promise you any amount of gold you can even imagine, or I'd-"
She silenced me by pulling me tight into her arms.
"That's enough, Joseph. I understand."
"But-" I attempted, as I felt my strength starting to leave me.
"Shhh...you need not say anything more," she cooed as she began to stroke my hair, "You are such an impossibly foolish man. Knowing the rune is to have it inscribed upon your mind...the demonic energy would build within you until it destroys what you are, and you have no way to channel that energy…"
I began to weep as I felt my last hope slipping away, my arms falling limply to my sides.
"The reason that others of my kind tend to look upon me with such a wary eye is that I am not what a succubus should be. I still enjoy seeing unabashed lust pass between lovers, but I live to see unrepentant love. I had forgotten how such a love can consume all reason, just as it can crush any obstacle. The love I see before me demands an honest answer for the right reasons. I will inscribe the rune upon you as you wish, with two conditions."
I had heard Del's last words nine times, or at least experienced them in horribly lifelike dreams from which I couldn't escape. Every single time I heard those words, the pain grew more unbearable. The weight of my own helplessness, my own weakness, and my own mountain of failures nearly demanded that I give up. Finally, however...something had changed.
My desperation had turned from a weakness into a strength. This was the first time I had managed to sway Genevieve.
I could only nod my assent as I spent my keening sadness upon the shoulder of the lithe succubus, my tears running down her alabaster skin.
"The first condition is that there will be a cost for this. It will not be a small thing, and I haven't yet thought of anything appropriate, but you will know when it has been paid."
"O-okay. Agreed." I stammered out.
"For the second condition, you must consider this course of action for another three months. I will place the mark within a barrier of your own spiritual energy that will dissolve after that time has passed. Your life as you know it will be undone within two days of the barrier's dissolution unless I or Delilah removes the rune."
I nodded again, trying to steady my breath as I answered, "Agreed. So then...I'll pay the cost now?"
"No, Joseph. Now you will sleep so that I can burn this rune into your mind. When you awaken, it will be in the arms of the two that drove you to make this choice. You cannot understand how much it means to me to be reminded of the hope and joy that are born from love. Thank you for showing it to me...or perhaps just giving me a clearer picture of something I already dared to believe about you."
She then tied a string around my wrist, whispering to me as the magical sleep overtook me, "So you know that this wasn't a dream."
-
A month had passed since Genevieve had delivered those books for Del. I already knew that she would not find the answers she needed within those pages. Just like every dreamlike failure before, this was when Del started to get more and more distant.
It still broke my heart to see Risa's happiness so painfully contrasted with Del's growing despair. As I tried to think of a different approach-something more I could do to guarantee that this would go the way I felt it had to, the ever-so-gentle nudging at my side was all the urging I needed to remember what I was fighting for.
"Del, I-"
"Give me your hand, Joe," Delilah said, the beautifully haunting smile upon her lips.
As I did so, I let myself fall into the warmth of that moment. Tears rushed unbidden to my eyes as I now imagined a pair of beautiful girls, reaching up in tandem in an attempt to grab my hand. How could anything be more important than making sure that the first man these girls saw was their foolish, prideful father?
"You're shaking, love," I heard Risa's soft voice intone into the gentle night.
"I'm so afraid right now. Every time I close my eyes I see a world without me in it. The times when I can see myself, I've lost one of you. Is it so wrong to be selfish?" I said, my voice shaking in as much frustration as actual sadness.
Pulling herself closer to me and drawing my head gently to her chest, Risa answered, "It's okay to be selfish, love. Haven't we already taken the first steps down this road we chose together?"
"I just…" I trailed off, knowing that explaining the actual reason for my anguish could cause any number of other problems.
"Joe, whatever is truly causing you to worry," Del began, her eyes seeming to draw me into their depths as she continued, "Do not forget that you are not alone. You can be far too timid when asking for something you want."
"I got the two of you just by asking-"
"And don't forget a daughter on the way that's either trying to be a dancer or a martial artist with how active she is…"
"Why not both?" I wondered with a smile, keeping that secret to myself as well.
"I'll try to stop worrying...it sure won't do either of you any good. You're right though, I'm not alone. I wish I'd realized that a bit sooner," I said as I thought on my options.
My new plan would absolutely work, and would be infinitely safer than trying to disable Lorelei as I had tried so many times, always resulting in a very slow, painful end for me. With the missing piece of the mechanism Genevieve used to channel demonic energy, I would cause a massive energy reversal within the wight. That inversion would set off a chain reaction that would cause Lorelei to revert back to a zombie state.
The only problem with this new plan is that it would unleash nearly all of the demonic energy stored within her body, and being in such close proximity to that release would be very dangerous. That issue, however, could be circumvented in a few possible ways...one of which I already had available.
This was going to be my last chance, and I needed to iron out a lot of the details, but the time for failure and hesitation was over. Even if they had only been painful potential fantasies, my family had suffered enough and this time, everyone was going to come out of that hole alive.
I had almost exactly two months to get everything together. My two amazing women had reminded me that I wasn't alone. I just needed to make sure that after this was all over, I'd remind them of the same thing. As soon as I got my ass out of bed, I'd put my real plan into motion.
-
First among the things that remained to be dealt with was that damn cult. They weren't exactly blameless in all this, but their beliefs had grown around a mote of truth. If that head priestess was to be believed, then succeeding in my plan meant damning them to a life of further torment.
I made my first stop of the early morning at an art dealer. It would have been easier to just cough up the gold for my purchase, but I got a strange sense of amusement to know that being the subject of such a popular work of art afforded me a small degree of celebrity. As such, obtaining the canvas and oil equivalent to photographic evidence of my shame was as easy as spending an hour signing a few of the prints.
With my prize in hand, I made my way to Genevieve's home once again.
"Yes?" the still-cute maid imp said as she answered my knock.
"I have a gift for the lady of the house, may I see her?" I asked.
"Please come inside, I will fetch her."
As the imp ran off, I chuckled a bit as I took in just how overdone her outfit truly was. I had to wonder if this was to Genevieve's tastes or the guests that she might entertain. The finishing blow was the large pink bow tied around the imp's tail.
"Have you come to your senses, Joseph? Are you here to have that mark removed?" I heard Genevieve's voice almost sing at me as she descended the nearby stairs.
"Far from it, young miss," I said with a bow.
Her unimpressed frown overcome with a smile at my cheesy response, she continued down the stairs as she spoke in response, "My maid tells me you have a gift for me?"
Presenting the wrapped canvas to her, I replied, "Indeed. I heard this painting is drawing a lot of notice around the city so I thought I'd get you a signed reproduction."
Her expression was unreadable as she looked it over before bringing her gaze to bear upon me once again, her look seeming to be more appraising of me than it had been of the painting.
Blushing slightly in embarrassment, I spoke broke the silence, "I uh...really just needed an excuse to come see you."
"You are always welcome to visit, Joseph. I would hope that, in the future, your visits are simply to enjoy good company or conversation and not simply when you have something to beg of me."
Done beating around the bush, I just came out with my question, "Would you be able to deliver a message to Ahmose?"
"I would. What message do you feel is important enough to merit her attention?"
"There is a group of at least a hundred monsters...maybe even a handful of men, that are not going to have anywhere to go once I finish what I need to do. I just wanted to make sure that they would be welcome-"
"All are welcome under the Black Sky," she interrupted, sounding like a travel slogan.
"Some of them are pretty messed up...and I doubt just physically," I said as I turned away slightly.
Stepping around to put herself back in my field of vision, she turned to me with a composed grin, "That is why you are so concerned?"
I nodded.
Pulling me into a small hug, she stepped back before happily replying, "Then you have brought two gifts today. Yes, all are welcome...or will be. Ahmose has chosen the location Del suggested at the northwestern edge of the great mountain where the lands of Kioko and Charisse meet."
"Okay, I'm pretty sure they'll have a clear path out of Kaori. I'll tell them where to go."
"A clear path you say? And so confidently," Genevieve said as she threw a harsh look my way before adding, "I'll send some imps to guide them."
"Be gentle with them...they've been through a lot," I said as I gave a small bow and headed for the door.
"Joseph." she called out as I stepped back into the street.
"Mmm?" I answered as I looked back.
"You're going to need Delilah to craft a focusing crystal, and you don't have enough time for one of sufficient complexity," she said with her arms crossed.
"So that was your plan? To force me to spill my entire plan to Del?"
"That is a part of it," she said simply.
"One that could bend that much demonic power would take years to craft," I said as I turned back toward the street, adding, "I appreciate your concern, I really do...but I'm certain the pure diamond heart of Blacksky should suffice."
"Please be careful, Joseph," she said in a tone that was as pleading as it was demanding.
Giving one last look back, I looked the ancient succubus over. Despite her power, beauty, and thousands of years of accumulated knowledge and experience, she looked at that moment like the terrified girl I had seen in Del's dream.
"Don't worry, Ish. You gave me everything I need to make sure this ends in happiness."
With a final wave I made my way back toward home. I wasn't actually going home but to a fairly close neighbor, and for some reason I had a feeling that this visit wasn't going to be nearly as...civil as my last one.
Despite discussions on vulpine sexual matters reaching a stalemate, I was going to have to account for this debt eventually. If I was lucky I could get something else kicked in as a bonus at the same time.
Taking a deep breath to steel myself for what would probably be a long rest of the day, I stepped up to the entrance of Meryl's home and extended a hand to knock, the door flying open before my hand could even touch its heavy wooden construction.
"Hey there, neighbor! You here to borrow a cup of sugar? I was just about to head over to your place!" Meryl said, her tail far too animated to be trustworthy.
"Oh yeah?" I asked dryly, "What for?"
"I'm making a pie and I need to borrow a bucket of frosting," she said...somehow with a straight face.
"What the hell kind of pie do you make with frosting? If you're going to make a bad sex joke at least try to keep your euphemisms straight."
"Shows what you know!" she said with her smile returning, "There's banana cream, chocolate cream, coconut cream…"
"You mind if I come in-"
"-side? You'd better or it's not going to count," she finished as she dragged me into the opulent home.
I took that to mean Meryl was in the mood to redeem her free ride coupon.
Sometimes I wonder about me. If I wasn't already so tired of hearing myself say it, I'd have been asking: "Where did everything go so wrong?"
"Don't give me that 'woe is me' look, Joe. While you've been having your little council about me getting to be a special exception to your dumb relationship rules, did it ever cross your minds how I might feel about trying to live as someone else entirely now?" she asked, her expression darkening slightly as she stopped her purposeful stride.
Damn it, damn it, damn it. Even if I consider that she had to have been spying on us to hear about any of that, the thought had crossed my mind that Meryl had gotten over her distress of finding out she was an entirely different species of mamono than she believed rather easily. To an outsider like me with a monster girl fetish, I often saw the inhuman traits before anything else so I figured it was something that only mattered to me.
I took a hard look at Meryl, ignoring those traits for a moment to see the girl that actually mattered underneath.
"You look like the same girl to me. Aren't you supposed to be the strong older sister?" I asked, trying to cheer her up.
"I don't always want to be strong. You know that fucking spirit was nothing more than a buzzing insect in my ear. I let her keep up that illusion, I tried to let myself be passive about it...I think on some level I even knew that Ajora was still playing me. And somehow, a guy like you has to fall in love with Karisa when she was still crazier than a holstaurus on matango spore at a red-painted kiosk that only sells red paint."
This was taking a turn away from what I expected to something that could end up being a lot more painful.
"Meryl, look-"
"You don't need to say it! I already know. It's just...if you'd met me first...could you have fallen for...someone like me?" she asked, far more timidly than I'd ever heard her.
"If I'd met you first, I doubt I'd even be the same person I am today. But why does that matter? It's not a reflection on you that I fell in love with your sister. You're an amazing woman with a talent for pissing me off beyond just about anyone I've ever met."
"They say hate is the closest emotion to love!" she replied, suddenly pulled out of her depression, "I've just been...thinking about it more recently. Did I tell you that I was cursed?"
"I don't think you're cursed. I mean...just look at this place. Not to mention you have a caring family and about as much time as you can imagine to find the right person."
"No, I mean I really am cursed. I really pissed off this witch a few months ago and she said I'd be cursed to desire the one thing I could never have...and something about clumsiness. Fucking bitch," she finished as she almost spit the last words from her mouth.
"No way. You? Pissing someone off? Seriously though, don't think that way. I mean...you uh...nevermind. Maybe you should head outside of Alnor? I mean, the ratio of women to men here is really not working in your favor, and you live too far from the gate to accidentally stumble onto many unclaimed men, you know?" I offered cautiously.
"I think you just made me feel worse. I've always been afraid to leave the city, you know? I can't even use glamour magic. That stupid spirit was basically dancing to my tune every time I 'used' it since every danuki can use it to some degree. But...maybe after Risa finally gives birth I'll think about it. Might be nice to find an innocent boy of my own and run him down until he breaks."
"Yeah...you make it sound so romantic," I said with a sigh.
"It does make a girl feel special that you'd have tried to bring down the entire market just to get away from me," she answered with far more joy than she should have had at that thought.
"Well, I was already in love. Once you find a guy that isn't...you can pull out all the stops to break the guy without feeling guilty, right?"
"You just say the sweetest things," Meryl said with a gentle push and a light blush.
I was feeling a lot better about having come to see Meryl now. If it hadn't been just the two of us, I doubt she'd have ever been so open. It also seemed like it would probably be a blessing that she'd be leaving the city after the girls were born. We were getting along a lot better now, but damn...this girl seemed to have an intuitive sense on exactly how to push my fucking buttons. I felt a shiver of genuine sympathy for whatever poor bastard she found to chase.
"Oh, but look at me being a terrible host!" she began lightly, as she turned back to me with a devious grin.
Great. Here we go.
"It's no trouble. I can get out of your hair if-"
"Oh, Joe...I don't mind if it gets in my hair! May as well cash in my free ride now if I'll be leaving the city after my niece is born," she declared as she grabbed my hand again, her fluffier (and damn it...adorable) fox tail excitedly swishing back and forth behind her.
"Yeah...may as well," I answered robotically, knowing there was no way to talk her out of it now, "Before that...I wanted to ask you about the rights to that painting you had-"
"Not a fucking chance, Joe!" she interrupted with a disturbingly bright smile, "You're lucky I don't have the artist here now to capture what I'm about to do to you."
Thank God for small miracles, right?
-
With little else to prepare, I heeded the desire to spend as much time with Del and Risa as possible for the remaining month before I tried to carry out my plan. Even if Del seemed increasingly lost in a pit of dark thoughts, I had to believe that once I took care of what I needed, she'd be able to smile again for her own sake.
As I imagined us all smiling just like before, I absentmindedly continued to rub Risa's sore feet on the day I planned to go retrieve Lorelei. Even if all those attempts at bringing her back felt like vivid dreams, I wanted to make sure to leave as much of my actions unaltered as possible. That meant leaving at the same time and taking the same road.
"Have you seen Del lately?" Risa asked with a note of concern, even as she let out a sigh to indicate that she was greatly enjoying the feeling of my hands working the stress out of her.
"Not for about three days. Actually, Risa…" I began with hesitation, "I think I have a way to cheer her up and...I wanted to tell you because I didn't want you to worry."
Sitting up slightly, Risa sent a frown my way as she countered, "Joe, I love you...but sometimes you are just one of the dumbest people I've ever met. You really don't know why Del is upset?"
"Isn't it-" I attempted before being quickly silenced.
Pulling me down into a quick kiss, Risa glared back at me as she answered, "You know damn well you talk in your sleep, so she already knows what you want to do. She's been keeping her distance, hoping you'll come to your stupid senses. She's probably been trying to think of some way to help."
"So you mean…I'm the reason she's upset?" I asked, upset in already knowing the answer.
Placing her hands gently on either side of my face, Risa spoke softly, "Joe, listen to me. Del and I aren't the only people that need you anymore. Not to mention, did you ever consider that Del just wanted you to understand and accept her even after you learned about her daughter?"
"Are you telling me to give up on this?" I asked, my heart sinking.
With a deep sigh, Risa replied, "No, Joe. I want you to choose to give up on this yourself. As much as I want to tie your ass up in the basement until you realize how stupid this is...you wouldn't be the man I love if you were completely sane."
"But this time I-" I attempted before she again cut me off with a kiss assault.
"I don't want to know. I'll just worry more if I do. Don't make me a promise you can't keep, but I don't want to live without my husband, and I don't want our daughter to grow up without a father. So you think about that, okay?"
Leaning forward to rest my forehead against hers, I smiled, "Barring an absolute catastrophe, I already know how this will play out. I'll be back alive, and I don't care what I have to do to make that happen."
Closing her eyes a moment as she digested my words, she opened them once more with an angrier glint, "So, Joe...I heard you stopped by to see Meryl without telling me."
"Yeah...I was going to try to negotiate for...uh…"
"Keep going, I want to hear this," Risa said with a smile somewhere between playful and murderous.
"One thing led to another and-That reminds me! She said that she's going to leave Alnor," I said, trying to change the subject.
"Is that right? I think she mentioned something like that while she was telling me that you settled up that debt with her."
Taking up a more serious tone, I replied, "You know...I think she's been spying on us. She was actually rather upset about your fox rule."
I then took up a concerted effort to distract my loving wife by strengthening the intensity of her foot massage. Her resistance lasted only a few moments before she leaned back onto the large cushion with a dramatic "harumph" of resignation.
"You still should have told me, but I'll let it go as long as you don't stop...mmm...rubbing my feet. Thinking about it is also making me want something else massaged...if you even still find me attractive like this," she said in a distant voice, lost in my attentions.
"Risa...every single day I see you-every single day since the first time I saw you, you're more beautiful than the day before."
With a contented smile, Risa slowly passed into sleep rather than push her request for a more...thorough massage. I took advantage of the situation and laid myself down behind her on the large couch and simply held her close, my hand gently running over her gravid middle as I tried to make sure my little ones stayed calm while their gorgeous mother tried to catch up on some much-needed sleep.
Once I was sure she had finally fallen asleep, I carefully extricated myself from Risa's embrace and leaned in as close to her swollen belly as possible and pressed my ear gently against the wall of my unborn children's temporary home, feeling a shiver of joy as I could make out the tiny heartbeats within.
"If something goes wrong-it shouldn't-but...if it does, I'll need you to take care of your mother, okay? Even if we never meet, I just needed you to know-or at least just to say it-that I will always love you."
Rising to leave, I felt Risa's hand around my wrist, her grip refusing to let me go even as she slept. As I looked on helpless, tears spilled from the seams of her closed eyes as she desperately held on to me.
"I won't be gone long, Risa," I gently whispered as I felt her grip reluctantly ease.
With a final kiss upon her forehead, I headed out. Leaving my letter for Del on her pillow, I headed out toward the market.
-
"What have you been eating?" the centaur Clara asked as we made our way through the broken Kaori landscape.
After a painful swallow, I shook my head, "You don't want to know...and I don't want to talk about it."
"Are those-wait...those aren't-"
"I really don't want to talk about it," I interrupted, worried that the mere thought of it would have me vomiting within seconds.
"Fine, so what is it you wanted to tell me?" she asked.
"When we get caught...if they're wearing robes, don't try to run."
"I thought these potions were supposed to keep us invisible," she said with an edge of anger starting to peek through in her voice."
"They are, but someone knows I'm coming. They're trying to hide from the slave hunters, among other things, and you'll die if you try to escape."
"Where does that leave me after you get yourself killed?" she asked, sounding curious at my sincerity.
"Someone should be coming to get me, and as far as I know...there's nothing that'll stop her."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Nothing has yet."
-
Three large slaver camps, two mines, and one military outpost had been wiped off the map in two days, all of them falling under a straight black line on the map that started at the Kaori border.
"It isn't anything local, and Amarante's troops would sooner piss themselves than cross the border," the general's assistant said.
"I know-it's a lich," the general Hilde answered as she stared down at the map.
"Well...whatever it is, it looks like it's heading straight for Zarom."
"She ain't going to Zarom, she's heading into that hole. Tell the rest of the slave hunters to pull back."
"They said they've already lost close to a hundred-"
"Scout, get this message to one of the leaders of the hunters," the general said as she handed off a piece of parchment to a nearby harpy.
"General, we can't begin staging anywhere near that-"
Interrupting her assistant, the general continued to bark orders, "We can and we will. If that lich is coming, it means the man somehow completely slipped by our scouts. They had the same collar."
"Man? General, I don't-"
"Get my girls ready to move. I want that man in my hands-alive-the moment he brings down that wight."
"Uh...yes, general," her assistant said with no small amount of confusion as she ran off.
-
"Are you okay?" the priestess asked me as I braced myself against the cave wall.
Unlike whatever had happened the last time, this sensation was the almost perfect timing of realizing the grand demonic rune in my mind as the seal came apart all at once. Thinking about the design was physically painful and threatened to pull the strength from me even as I was so close to unleashing it.
The realization of it was enough to know that it would work.
I once again offered the priestess the promise of a peaceful life within the walls of the new Blacksky. This time, I also offered a warning that "the mother" would be here before long and that it wouldn't be wise to stop her from coming down here.
"We would not hinder the Mother in her quest to reunite with the Red Hand. Your kindness is born of ignorance, but I shall look forward to becoming one with you within the Red Hand. That kind heart of yours will benefit all those that have already joined with her, and will hopefully be a blessed reprieve from the sorrow she must consume in us."
"Then I guess I'll see you when I see you," I said with a smile.
"Indeed, it won't be long."
-
As I made my way towards Lorelei's chamber, I gave a silent nod of gratitude to the fallen heroes of the past that made this possible. At the thought, however, my iron stomach could no longer fight the thoughts of what I'd eaten.
Throwing up at least two dozen of the oblong objects before I covered my mouth in an attempt to trap the rest of them in the roiling rejection of my stomach, I swallowed my own bile as I looked at the mess before me.
I contemplated moving on without the cargo that I'd lost, but as much as I hated the thought with every sane fiber of my being, I wouldn't risk letting myself die to the massive surge of demonic energy when this plan finally went off.
The hardest thing I'd ever had to do was walk away from Risa as she slept only a few days ago. The task before me was a close second. All it took to force down my disgust, however, was the thought of coming home and feeling the the touch of my wife and our daughters.
Hitting myself in the face a few times as a distraction, I began the horrific task of consuming the remaining hero testicles that I'd just thrown up.
-
Even knowing what she looked like after so many trips through this exact scenario, I had never been able to resist a gasp each time I saw her open her eyes.
As soon as I came into view she started walking towards me.
"Stop," I said loudly as I began my mental count, "I've come to take you back to your mother."
"That will not happen, you cannot stop me," she said without any trace of emotion.
At that I began a necromantic chant. Without being able to channel demonic energy, it wouldn't actually do anything, but the primary goal was to get her to charge at me to stop it, her existence so full of danger that she wouldn't risk falling victim to the first "male necromancer."
She dashed forward as I expected, my body already moving inside her guard. I stepped across where her balance line would be and threw a quick chop followed by an elbow, both of them catching her in the throat. Her attempt to reverse her momentum nearly bent her spine backwards over my knee as I threw a solid punch to her solar plexus.
Not able to see the reaction but knowing what it would be, I ducked as her arm passed through my hair, just barely missing my skull as the air shuddered in the likely sonic boom that was created with the sheer speed of her passing hand.
Grabbing her wrist before the arc of her punch had fully extended, I brought her arm down as I lunged upwards, breaking her arm at the elbow with my skull as the fulcrum of this bloody lever.
I ticked the seconds off in my mind as she withdrew a moment. On the second tick I jumped slightly, bringing my knees up toward my chest, and reared my head back. I began hurling myself forward as if to go into a forward roll, my descending foot landing on her thigh with my hands on her shoulders as her dash had carried her forward so quickly that she was nearly beneath me.
As she made to throw a skull-crushing punch at me, my face was already descending towards hers as fast as humanly possible. After so many attempts at this exact scenario, I was able to avoid the broken eye socket completely this time, as my forehead connected at full force with her nose.
As her mouth opened in pain or surprise-the goal I had been trying to achieve-I spit the Blacksky focusing gem down her throat as I hit the ground and shifted my feet in a circle, making two small steps forward and a small hop back as though I was taunting her.
Lorelei had already leaped back and grabbed at her throat, possibly wondering what the thumbnail-sized object could have possibly been as she threw a look of utter disbelief at me.
Spitting black blood onto the ground as she tried to clear her eyes of her own blood, she calmly spoke, "I do not understand. How is a human able to move as you do?"
Drawing a few more lines in the dirt, I answered with a smirk, "Would you understand if I told you I was cheating?"
I kept the count.
One, two. She takes a step forward. Seven, Eight. The ground begins to rumble as Del's nearby assault seems to shake the entire nation of Kaori.
"You know that you will die here, and yet there is hope and even joy within you. Are you a hero acting as the vanguard of the approaching army?"
I kept the count for two more beats as I stood up straight and spoke before I knew she would begin her final dash.
"I'm no hero, even though I may have the essence of thirty heroes within me just at the moment. And that's your mother, Lorelei. I'm done cheating so come and get it."
I had no more answers for her supernatural speed, but this time...I didn't need any.
Far faster than my eye could follow at this point, she moved forward...and right into the runic circle I had drawn in the dirt of the cave floor.
Despite my near certainty that this would stop her, I opened the eyes that I had reflexively closed to see her knife-like hand only centimeters from where it would have torn off my arm, her entire body frozen in a column of coruscating light in violet hues.
She could only manage a whimper as the might of Del and Genevieve's greatest creation tore the energy from her body, the massive discharge collecting in a ball of light above her. As I watched her inhuman beauty fall from her, the skin drew away from its perfect pearlescence to a sickly green, her hair fell from her in large silvery clumps, and her many scars started to look more and more fitting.
The essence of so many fallen monsters drew ever inward until the diaphanous energy took on a liquid texture, finally seeming to turn completely solid as tiny cracks began to show in the perfect black sphere.
A sound like a piece of glass shattering was the only warning I had as the gem within Lorelei reached critical mass and broke under the strain of so much energy. I shielded my eyes in a fearful expectation of what would follow as the black sphere finally exploded in a violent expulsion of demonic power.
As the energy ripped through me, I felt an even more powerful churning in my stomach as the vast quantity of energy did everything it could to electrify me. The feeling that assaulted my mind was to lust what a dragon is to a gekko. It came in waves for several minutes as the energy was released, the intensity slowing dying off.
No longer able to hold my sickening "meal" down, I began to vomit up the foul testicles, each one now looking completely black as my body became desperate to force them out. For another several minutes as the energy continued to pulse from the dying focal point about my circle, I involuntarily purged myself of the defense mechanism I had devised.
Miraculously, the energy release stopped as I came to rest on my side, my stomach blessedly empty. Looking at my quarry, I saw that she had completely reverted to a zombie state. As I looked myself over, I didn't feel particularly good but it didn't seem like I was going to die from what was left of the demonic energy in the air.
I frowned, however, as I saw the very hungry zombie of Del's daughter advancing towards me. She wasn't moving very fast, thankfully, so I was able to keep my distance as I smiled.
"I don't have anything against zombies, but I'd like to hold off on the incest if you don't mind," I said as I made to lead her up the tunnel where I knew Del would find me.
I wanted to jump with joy as I realized that, if Del had managed to get to me before, she should have no problem getting us both out of here. As I skipped my way down the tunnel, I was suddenly hit with something in the back of the head.
Turning to see if Lorelei had somehow caught up to me, I saw a masked figure covered in a sheen of sweat as my vision went shaky, then blurry, then dark. The last thing of which I was cognizant was that Lorelei and I were being tied up and carried somewhere.
"That was a show worth watching, but I'm already getting bored," I heard an unfamiliar voice shout to my right as I came awake.
"Release the two of them and you will come to no harm," I heard Del's voice respond.
As my sight cleared, I saw a sea of (in)humanity around me that stretched on further than I could completely perceive. Directly beside me was Lorelei, bound as I was, with her arms behind her back.
This was the absolute catastrophe I was trying to avoid.
Wait...how long had I been out? As my mind wandered to that thought, I felt the omnipresence of the rune that had been burned in to my mind starting to consume my reason.
"Del! Don't worry about me!" I screamed, worried that I'd completely lose any grip I had on my sanity as the insidious magic ripped through my consciousness like a tornado through a library, my thoughts scattering in the tumult like unshelved books.
"I am not leaving without you," Del said plainly, but forcefully.
"Well then I guess you have a choice, lich. Taking hostages is the coward's way out, but even if I take credit for cleaning out this hole, Kaori is still going to want to know who the fuck brought down three slaver camps and a military outpost."
"I warned them but they refused to move," Del replied.
"So that leaves us in this little pickle," the orcish general said as she drew a jagged-edged sword and held it to my neck, "I'm going to make one offer, and only one offer before I cut this maggot's throat and watch you both die."
I saw Del's eyes going over countless possibilities as she looked around frantically, her eyes settling back on the general a few moments later.
"Make your offer."
With a victorious smile, the general pulled the sword back slightly, "What is your name, lich?"
"Delilah," my wife answered without hesitation.
"Well, Delilah...I'm Hilde, and I'm going to give you one chance. Unweave the magic of your phylactery and kill yourself in front of me and I'll let your man go."
The throbbing in my head was getting more and more unbearable, but there was no fucking way I was going to let that happen.
As I tried to speak I was kicked in the stomach, the wind easily forced from me as I coughed at the onset of a new pain to go with the one that was already slowly driving me insane.
"You open your mouth again, boy, and I'll pull your tongue out through your throat," Hilde said as she glared down at my squirming form.
"If you harm him again, death will seem a pleasant distraction from the horrors that I will unleash upon you," Del said as the sclera of her eyes went utterly black.
"Oh, yeah? That sounds like a lot more fun anyway," Hilde said as she stepped behind me and drove her jagged blade through me, apparently missing anything immediately vital, leaving the weapon within me. As she pulled a massive axe from nearby, she uttered one last word, "Attack."
-
"You're almost through this, sweetie," Lareina said in an assured voice, "Just give me one last push!"
"You said that four fucking pushes ago!" Risa screamed as she bit down against the pain.
"It's a lot easier when you stop acting lazy," Meryl offered, offering comfort in the familiar.
"Don't even start with me you…Hah," Risa began before screaming again in pain, finishing her statement afterwards without missing a beat, "...you miserable bitch!"
Smiling to see the fight in her sister rather than being upset, Meryl replied, "If I could trade places with you right now, I would. So use that anger and push, you little pansy!"
"This one wants to hit the ground running," Lareina said as she caught the first infant danuki, "Now just give me one more big push for her sister."
"Sister?!" Meryl and Risa screamed in unison, the latter shedding tears as the heady emotional cocktail mixed with the pain.
Risa's mother gave a wry smile, remaining calm for her daughter's benefit as she spoke again, "She didn't tell you? Oh, that Delilah is some piece of work. You're so close now, Risa...aaaand, push!"
-
I didn't actually feel much pain from the blade as the unbound demonic energy continued to rampage through my mind and body. Even if Del could survive this, I still might not make it through this in one piece if she didn't hurry.
What followed, however, was like something from a nightmare.
I could hear the general giving orders as the first wave of enemies advanced on Del like an unorganized mob, the more ordered soldiers getting into position to advance afterwards.
Del gave one last look at me and smiled apologetically as the explosion of her power left her standing in a small crater, even across the increasingly cacophonous battlefield, I heard her pleadingly whisper, "Please don't be afraid, my love. Please don't be afraid...of me."
"Ashia," I heard Del's voice echo ethereally as the ground before her opened up into that behemoth's maw, crushing three enemies in a matter of seconds.
The enemies quickly moved to encircle Del as I heard her voice call out other names, each accompanied by a dark rune that traced itself in the air.
"Rena, Midnight, Tanis, Hrist, Annika," Delilah said in succession as several more grotesque undead constructs of prodigious size leapt forth from the ground to tear in the attacking horde, the screams becoming a symphony of pain as the wall of soldiers began to split and fracture while they tried to fight off the onslaught of these new beasts.
"She's a necromancer! Take her down and they'll go down too! Ipsthranis!"
As the general called out the name a large woman took flight above the rabble, her draconic heritage as clear as the haughty grin on her face.
"Crush the bitch!" Hilde called out, with a look of sick joy on her face.
With her smile twisting and her jaw extending, it was clear that the dragon was transforming. As the dragon assumed her terrifying true form, the sight became so horrible to behold that even her allies hesitated to see it.
Far more horrifying to her enemies, however, was the chill that had filled the air. After the bright flash that had called forth her other monstrous undead constructs, Del now wore a mask shaped like a golden skull, her skin turning darker and darker until she appeared as nothing more than a shadow with a skeletal golden face, her piercing violet eyes throwing an almost sickly pallor over all who gazed upon them.
Taking a step towards me, Del threw her nearly spectral hands wide to the gasps of nearly all that could see as jagged, hooked, golden chains shot from the void of her body. At first seeming to hit nothing, sticking in the air as if to things unseen.
As the rabble continued to look on in an almost instant abject terror, the screams began, not of the living, but of the souls of the dead that had thought to seek rest after putting themselves between Delilah and her beloved.
The dead spirits screamed much as they might have in life, but in an unending peal that was no longer constrained by the need to breathe. Desperately clinging to their own dead bodies for the few seconds that they could resist the pull, they were all torn free, the screams escalating as though they'd just experienced slowly losing a limb.
Pausing in her transformation, the dragon looked down as her face twisted into a mask of rage. Caring little for the fate of the other soldiers, the powerful woman looked down as this creature-this tiny creature ignored her? The look on her shifting face told the story-she believed she would teach Del to fear her, just as she had done with every other enemy that she had ever faced.
With Del's eyes looking up at the dragon, her shadowy arm reached out to the closest spirit that had been drawn in by her chains as the space below her mask unhinged only barely reminiscent of an opening jaw, revealing what looked like blackness at first glance. This was not a blackness, however, but a void that defied form or concept. Far more empty than just the absence of color, this was an abyss from which there could be no escape.
Every single combatant jolted as the sound began. Having climbed several octaves beyond a scream, the spirit tore at its bonds in a last futile attempt to escape oblivion. The enemy's nearly unshakable morale of moments earlier was eroding faster than a sand castle in the face of a rising tide.
Whatever their opinions on war, death, or the afterlife, the lich left no question or possibility as she devoured the souls of the dead, her form growing slightly larger with each sickening ectoplasmic snap before each ghostly voice was silenced forever. The chill began to intensify as Delilah began an unintelligible whispering chant, the voice touching the ears of the assembled monsters more like a breath of frozen air than as sound, only a moment before the dragon had finished assuming its ancient form, letting forth a blast of heat that melted even the broken rocks of the ground below.
As the massive amount of dust and smoke began to clear, it became clear that she had whispered another name.
"Ixi."
Another massive draconic form had manifested, it's great wing having been used to shield Del from the white-hot fire that had tried to destroy her. This was not a living dragon, however, the once-great red scales that covered her massive body having been replaced with the gleaming dwarven steel plates, solving the mystery as to the use she had found for them.
The beast let forth a roar that shuddered, cracked, and gurgled as though carried across torn and blood-soaked vocal cords. The undead dragon looked to the sky above and almost seemed to smile as its massive body shot upwards with a titanic thrashing of its wings. Colliding in midair, the two dragons hit with such force that I, as well as many of the combatants, were forced to the ground from the resulting shockwave.
While the beasts may have been closely matched in strength, the living dragon quickly learned that she had no hope of beating Del's creation.
Wheeling free of Ixi's steel talons, the enemy dragon made a quick snap of its jaws, digging deeply into the undead creature's throat. Satisfied that she had delivered a killing blow, she was unprepared when Ixi used her enemy's jaws as leverage and pulled her hind legs up to rake the softer dragon's underside, cutting through the membrane of a wing in the process.
The writhing mass of draconic rage came crashing down into a group of soldiers that were being held in reserve, nearly a dozen of them crushed instantly as the thrashing beasts struggled for dominance.
Panic began to spread through the ranks of the assembled soldiers as the general screamed herself hoarse in an attempt to regain control. Finally deciding to lead by example, she grabbed her massive axe and leapt to deal with Ixi before the rampaging beast could do any more damage.
Ixi's restless animated bones continued to unleash even more devastation, however, as she ignored a spine-shattering bite from her opponent to bring her steel-barbed tail into the face of the enemy, shattering the other dragon's eyes as she did so.
At Del's command, Ixi left the blinded enemy and charged toward the general, her broken spine pulling back together with necromantic thread, much like what Del had used to put me back together so long ago.
The enemy dragon became an ally in that moment as it began to flail around in a blind attempt to take vengeance against the mockery of draconic pride that had shattered her eyes. Dozens of enemy combatants were broken or crushed by the writhing dragon in her fury, her actual enemy already across the battlefield engaging the general.
I remembered chief Sunslayer telling me she had subdued a dragon in her true form, but I didn't completely believe it until I saw the orcish general stand to face Ixi wielding nothing more than a massive battleaxe.
Leaping the massive tail swipe that aimed to end the fight quickly, the orc leapt forward and brought her axe down near the base of the tail, severing it outright, before kicking the piece too far away for Del's magic to reattach it.
"Come on! Is that all you've got?!" the general screamed in defiance of the massive creature that stood before her.
While the general engaged Ixi in single combat, the area around Del had become little more than a pile of broken bodies. As I watched in a growing fear of my lover, one of Del's eyes seemed to vanish as the other began growing to dominate the sight of all arrayed around her. Her body fell away completely to become nothing more than the embodiment of an absolute abyss, a single spiteful violet eye at its center.
The murderous purplish light threw a sick shadow across everything as the many spirits became visible to everyone, their terrifying gestures now even more obvious as they tried in vain to claw at the ground, their own bodies, and even other spirits to avoid being unmade by that hateful darkness.
Archers and magically-minded combatants flung spells and arrows at the vortex with no apparent effect, the dark energy growing ever larger and more ravenous with each soul that was torn to pieces within it.
Above the din, my love's voice cut across my ears like an icy gale, "Flee now or be torn to nothing."
From the center of the vortex, more and more golden chains began to streak to dozens, then hundreds of places, each one dragging another dead spirit towards oblivion. The sound of screams had grown to smother nearly every other sound as scattered enemies had started to flee, now more afraid of Delilah's wrath than that of their general.
As the battlefield became a hellish wonderland beyond what I thought my imagination could truly encompass, my eyes were drawn to the struggle between the orc Hilde and the draconic beast that was once Ixi. I doubted that any of Ixi's powerful spirit remained in the animated corpse, but I found it strange that, in all of the horrible things that I saw anywhere else I looked, it was as if both the fallen dragon and the cruel general were smiling.
After a short disengage, during which the general caught her breath, she let loose a squealing howl to the heavens that made her more a picture of a wild boar than the more pig-like appearance her orcish traits otherwise suggested.
After her shrill cry of exultation, the general lunged at the undead monstrosity, rolling under a bone-shattering snap of the great jaws, her axe answering in an uppercut that shattered a half-dozen teeth.
The great skull recoiling from the thunderous impact, a murderous steel claw cut across from the orcs left side. Rather than try to avoid the blow, the general leapt into it with her axe brandished in front of her, catching it before it could pick up enough speed to do any damage, but still knocking the orc back onto her heels.
Turning her body, she allowed the momentum to carrying her into a spinning swing, after which she released the axe in an earth-splitting heave that cut the mighty dragon skeleton into halves, but not completely disabling it. With a laugh of triumph the general then jumped up to the reeling neck of the bony beast and latched her powerful hands at the hinge of the jaw and then dug her legs in hard.
Screaming in exertion and pulling for all she was worth for what felt for several minutes, the general finally tore the massive dragon skull from where it connected to the spine and heaved it at least a hundred meters, the rest of the body falling to pieces as she did so.
With an ungraceful but effective tumble, the orc came to her feet and scanned the battlefield, screaming, "Who's next?!"
Before the sound could even reach the remaining combatants, Ashia's massive fist came down on the shoulders of the orc, sending her to a knee for a moment before Hilde reached around and caught the second descending fist in her arms. Using the heavy appendage as a focus, she then spun into a massive kick that broke the rotting hulk's arm off at the shoulder.
As I wondered if there was anything Del could conjure that would stop the rampaging orc, I looked around to see the battlefield all but deserted, the vast number of remaining soldiers having fled to points unknown.
Looking back at Hilde, she was now surrounded by three of the immortal undead fiends and an already reconstructing Ixi as the souls of the countless dead that had died at Lorelei's hands became fuel for a rage that Del had never unleashed, let alone felt.
Rather than concede defeat, the orc continued to try and fight before a wild swing from Ashia snapped her leg at the knee, the following series of blows knocking her unconscious moments later.
I looked at Del...seeing the massive spot of emptiness that had become her body still dominated by the violet eye. None of my words would come out, as I tried to call to her. As I tried to get back to my feet, I saw a shape in the sky and forgot that it should have been part of my plan.
Coming to rest right beside me, one of a pair of harpies with a large basket asked, "You ordered an urgent...uh...wheat pickup?"
"Just a moment…" I forced out, the confusing pain in my head masking any other pain I might have felt.
(This was the song in my head for the following scene: watch?v=g1S6GRWFZGo )
As I looked back to Del, she had assumed her familiar form again but looked to be hesitating in coming closer, the nervousness written plainly on her face, even from nearly a hundred meters.
"The sword hit no vital organs, but we will need to get you to a doctor as soon as we return to Alnor," she said as she came closer.
"Del…" I attempted to say with weakening breath.
Coming closer, she spoke quietly, "You were afraid...you are still afraid, Joe."
I closed my eyes and responded, "No...or not for the reasons you might think," I began before I took a large breath and attempted to clear my head, "It scares me that anyone would go to those lengths...for me."
"My love, I told you that there is nothing more important to me than you. Why could you not just trust me? We had an eternity to get my daughter, and watching you do all of this for my sake has been...painful."
Trying to force myself up, I managed to slip free of my bonds as my mind seemed to clear completely.
"I'm sorry, Del. Even after all I've been through, I never felt like I deserved this life. Even after we had a chance to settle down and actually live...I had to find another insane project to feel like I mattered. I got your daughter, Del...just...hug her or something so I won't feel like I destroyed everything to satisfy my ego."
Moving quietly but with a quickness to her step, Del came upon the struggling zombie girl and simply held her, Lorelei's struggling seeming to stop as her mostly blank expression seemed to smooth into one of a long-awaited calm.
"Joe...for whatever your reasons, this is...thank you," Delilah murmured as she shared an embrace for which she had been waiting thousands of years.
I started to waver on my feet. There was something I had wanted to say but it was getting so hard to remember anything.
"Joe! What's wrong?!" I heard Del shout as I turned, realizing I had started to wander away.
"I...took your gem and got the rune from Genevieve...but it's not supposed to stay in my head...I think," I answered, my own voice feeling far away.
It would be okay if I could just feel Del touch me one more time-to hold my children even if it was only just once...to make sure that, even if I was forgotten, my family would never forget that they were loved.
Del stood and dashed toward me as she realized what I meant, her arms reaching out to catch me as I started to fall forward…
...as she passed straight through me like a cloud of vapor, my body no longer solid. Her small feet caught on the loose stone as she fell to her knees behind me.
"No, Joe...not like this…" Del wailed as she turned back to me.
"It's...okay, I had your phylactery moved...you'll be okay this time," I said as my words got harder and harder to form into sound.
"This is no better...your children need you, Risa needs you…I need you. I do not want to imagine a world without you! You cannot die here! You need to focus your thoughts!"
Focus my thoughts?
Demonic energy is simply the energy of desire...I knew I learned that somewhere, but what could I do now? What was left of me had already been devoured.
"I...love you Del. You and Risa are my heart and...being with you has been the most-the only thing that has mattered. Even-even if I had to do it all over again, knowing that I would die right here, right now...I wouldn't hesitate."
"Joe, please don't leave us alone! It was my fault...I'll forgive you for every broken promise, every painful choice you made for my sake. Let me touch you again...please, you don't have to-"
There was nothing I wanted more than to touch her. The look in her eyes was one of absolute desperation but it was so hard to focus. I reached out to her and my hand passed through her, coming away with only thin strands of energy.
My last thoughts as I faded completely were that I would do anything, pay any price, or honor any boon if I could stay. I forced the last vestiges of my will into that desire, focusing every thought that I had left on that singular wish.
-
I felt...funny. It seemed strange to think of it in a term so simple, but there really wasn't anything else that seemed to fit. Funny. I'm certain that I was dreaming, but I could say for how long...or what about.
All at once I remembered what I wanted, what I had fought for, and what I would still give up anything to have.
Delilah…
Karisa…
Aurielle…
Arianwyn…
Lorelei…?
That's right. Those are the names of the things I want.
Would you really sacrifice everything to have them? Even who you are?"
Who I am is a bad husband and an even worse father. If I had another chance to be there for my family...I'd never leave them alone again.
"Good," I heard my own voice say, "Because there is a way...we just need to focus."
Focus…
"I've got it."
-
I shot awake as I sucked in the largest breath I felt I'd ever taken, feeling like I'd just been hit with an adrenaline spike in the chest. My skin was still slightly cool to the touch and my heart slowly began to pick up its pace, acting like a car starting on a frigid morning back home. For several moments I just sat there, taking deep breaths as I savored the taste of the air, the scent of the sun as it spilled across our otherwise empty bed.
Going over to my dresser, I found that my clothes had all been taken again.
"Fuck it...I'm hungry. Whatever happens, happens," I mumbled to myself as I lethargically made my way from the room and down the stairs.
Somehow I'd knocked two pictures off the wall and tripped over my own feet twice just trying to get downstairs. Giving up any pretense of style, I simply draped myself over the railing and slowly slid myself down into the foyer.
I could smell something that reminded me of breakfast cooking so I snuck my way to the dining room and managed to pour myself into my chair, letting myself slide even further down in the seat as I felt hungry enough to eat a horse.
A whole horse, yeah. I was naked and didn't have any pockets in which to keep any fucks to give, as long as it filled the void.
"Joe?" I heard Risa say from behind me followed by the sound of a large dish shattering on the floor.
"Mmm? What's for breakfast? It is breakfast time, isn't-"
I didn't finish my statement as Risa literally tackled me out of my chair and held me pinned to the floor, her hands on either side of my face as she cried harder than I'd ever seen.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" I asked as I reached up to stroke her cheek, realizing that I must have been out a while to have lost so much weight.
Nearly hysterical, she began kissing my face anywhere she could find find purchase with her lips, "Where have you been?!" she screamed as she nearly threw herself against me.
"I...don't know, I guess. Wasn't I just unconscious?" I answered quietly, pulling her in tightly and rubbing her back to try and calm her down.
"You've been gone for weeks...I wouldn't believe you were gone for good. You promised you'd come back...and now you're here…" she sobbed, tiny hiccups interrupting her attempts to speak clearly.
She pulled away again to look down at me again, her tears falling on my face as she kept trying to rub her eyes with the sleeves of her loose travelling outfit.
"I don't know exactly what happened...just that I felt like I passed out...or maybe faded out. I wanted to be here and then I woke up here," I said with a weak smile as I reached up and rubbed one of her soft ears, her reaction being all I needed to remind me that this was home, and nothing was going to drag me away from it again.
Looking around, I gasped as I remembered the rest of why I wanted to be here, "Where's Del and...um…"
"She took the girls to see Eme-I mean Lareina outside the city. We need to go see her!" Risa said suddenly as she stood and pulled me to my feet.
"My clothes?"
"Selvirin is still fixing the holes in your normal travelling outfit but your other clothes are still hanging up to dry...just a sec," she said as she ran off with a bounce in her step that I hadn't seen since we'd first set out for Elysian Valley.
As I stood in the dining room waiting for Risa to return, I picked the chair back up and headed back towards the foyer, knocking the chair over again as I passed.
"Cripes, it's like I'm drunk," I mumbled to myself as I set the chair back up and slowly backed away, keeping a close eye on it this time.
As I backed into the foyer, I heard Risa call out softly from the top of the stairs, "Joe...we should talk really quick before we go."
That was not at all what I wanted to hear, as my heart fell from worry about what else could possibly be wrong. Maybe it was just the thought that I might have been dead, but there was definitely something else in Risa's voice that was worrying me.
As I walked into our room, Risa was laying back on the bed. She looked up and gave me a poor attempt at a smile and patted the bed next to her, beckoning me over to join her.
Laying back down, I looked over at her in an attempt to figure out what was on her mind with no luck.
Thankfully she didn't keep me in suspense as she simply asked, "Do you still...want me?"
"What kind of...of course! I'm a little-scratch that-I'm really tired but if you want me I'm yours," I answered as I reached over to her.
"Okay, that's all I needed to know. You've been through a lot and I wanted to know that it was still you in there," she answered with a large smile of relief as she sat back up and helped me get dressed in a loose toga and a hat, adding, "Until we get some real food in you, it's probably better if you don't get too much sun."
The trip outside the city didn't take long at all. Lareina had set up a small trading post not far from the gate to buy things that were banned inside the city and while she probably carried out other questionable dealings, but I certainly didn't have a leg on which to stand as far as questionable deals were concerned.
As the small outpost came into view, I lost my composure entirely as I saw Lareina holding the two girls that had to be mine. Risa pulled me in a bit more tightly as we drew closer.
Catching Lareina's glance, I was treated to a wry smile and a raised eyebrow as she gave a nod in the direction of her small home while she continued to gently rock the two girls.
"Let's talk to Del first so she uh...let's just talk to her first," Risa said as she led me through the open door into the tiny shop in which Lareina currently lived.
Before I could say anything, I felt a cooly soft embrace from a set of unfamiliar arms. As I turned to look, I saw the zombie form of Lorelei as she hugged me, her face still emotionless as she made a cooing moan that I could only imagine was her attempt at a greeting.
"Dear, you need not hug her every time she comes through the door. Lareina, you are out of holstaurus milk. I could fetch some from-" she began, stopping as she turned to see me, "...Joe?" she added softly.
Too embarrassed to meet her gaze as my mind rolled over the last words I'd heard her say, I simply nodded.
Looking away from me, she spoke in a hushed voice, "You are...not wearing your collar."
"We can get another one, can't we?" I offered, tears still in my voice as I tried to process this odd homecoming.
"You are...certain you still wish to be with us?" she asked, her gaze still focused on something behind her.
"What is it with you two today?" I said jokingly to lighten the mood before adding in a much more serious tone, "Whatever happened to me-wherever I've been dreaming-I came back for this family. Risa, Del...I came back for the two of you, for our daughters. I told you before, but I'll love you for the rest of my life."
Finally turning to me with an expression more overcome with loving emotion than I'd ever seen on my undead lover, she took several quick steps forward and buried herself in my arms.
"I'm so sorry, both of you...I promise I'll never do anything so stupid again."
"Yes you will, Joe. It is in your nature, but as long as you never forget your home, we will always be waiting with open arms to have you back," Del said through powerful bouts of tears.
As I held my wives again, my zombie stepdaughter made another little unintelligible moan and also hugged the three of us.
"She's become rather...affectionate," I said with a smile.
"I am simply giving her the love she has always deserved. She is a bit more...intense with her clinging than I would prefer, but I have removed all of my modifications upon her mind so that she will develop naturally. But…" she said as she dried her eyes, "it is time to meet your daughters."
"Uuuuuh," Lorelei said(?).
"He does not speak zombie, my dear," Del answered.
"Uuuuuh," the zombie girl moaned again, the sound seeming identical to the one before.
"She would like to apologize for causing you so much trouble, to thank you for saving her, and to know if she can consider you her father as well," Del translated, stretching credibility somewhat.
In response, I reached over and gave the zombie a hug, tousling her hair as I answered, "If that's what you want. I wouldn't have gone to so much trouble for you if I didn't care. I might need some time, but as long as you don't try anything...uh...incestuous, then we'll be just fine."
"Uuuuuh," she moaned as she looked back to Del.
"Yes, well...you heard him. Those are the rules," my undead wife replied as she seemed to roll her eyes.
"Uuuuuh," Lorelei finished as she shuffled across the room to start moving some boxes.
"Do not take such a tone with your...mother. This will be an adjustment for all of us," Del said in answer before pulling me back outside.
"Come here, Joseph," Lareina said in a soft but stern voice, adding as I moved closer, "We may need to have a little chat about your poor treatment of my daughter on one of the most important days of her life."
"Sure, okay. Can...can I hold them?" I asked as I was nearly overwhelmed with the pair of perfectly angelic sleeping faces before me.
"Let us try one at a time, this is Arianwyn," she said as she gently passed the sleeping infant danuki to me.
She felt warm in my embrace, far warmer than the actual heat being generated by her tiny body. Fussing for only a moment as she was placed in my arms, she calmed back down almost immediately, opening her eyes to gaze up at me with a curious look.
"Hey there cutie," I said as I reached up with my free hand to rub the tiny fuzzy ears atop her head, earning a heart melting coo that made my knees weak.
Unlike my partial heterochromia, the younger of my beautiful daughters had two completely different colored eyes, one that was the same enchanting viridian that had helped me fall so helplessly for her mother, the other looking like my own grey-blue.
"Arianwyn's right eye is blue, but they are otherwise very difficult to distinguish," Del said as she extended a finger towards the girl in my arms, the infant almost immediately grasping it with both hands and pulling it into her mouth.
"Okay, love...I need to say hi to your sister, okay?" I said, asking permission.
In response, the little girl crossed her arms and turned her nose up.
"Uh…" I began, not sure I could believe what I was seeing.
"Ah, many mamono are more capable at birth than human infants and also develop more quickly. I know they can already understand us, though they are not yet willing or able to speak," Del offered helpfully as Risa took Ari from me.
With that, Lareina handed me my older (by a few moments) daughter Aurielle. Perhaps as a test of my future sanity, she had the same color eyes, thankfully reversed in their placement.
"Well at least I'll never be put on the spot about which one of you is cuter," I said to the adorable girl with a smile.
Coming over towards me, Risa leaned in to give me a kiss on the cheek, smiling as she said, "We sure do make 'em good, don't we?"
Noticing that Auri seemed to really like me rubbing her back, I held her in a gentle hug with her tiny chin resting on my shoulder as I did exactly that, pleased beyond words at the small giggles she set free as I did so. All at once, however, I heard what sounded like a hiccup from her, followed by a slight gurgling as she threw up her breakfast down my back.
With a smile, I took the accident in stride, "It's my first day and I'm already taking fire," I said as I heard my daughter's voice start to hesitate.
Bringing her around to face me I could see she looked like she was going to cry.
"It's okay, love," I said as I gently touched her on the nose, "I didn't like this toga anyway."
"We should still get your cleaned up," Del said with a slight creasing of her brow.
"I'll take her," Lareina offered.
I placed a small kiss on the forehead of my daughters and let Del lead me to a small shed behind the house that contained a wash basin. As Del looked me over to appraise the damage, she came back around to look at me with a curious look on her face.
"Would you prefer the good news or the bad news first, Joe?"
"Uh...the good news?" I said, not sure what could be all that bad or good about this situation.
"The good news is that she missed your clothes."
"Oh! Wait...then what's the bad news?"
"She got it all over your wings," Del said, not breaking her stare.
Wait.
I started to hyperventilate as I stumbled back against the wall, the unseen and unfamiliar limbs knocking over everything around me.
"Joe, be still," Del commanded as I tried to cover my face.
"No...but I…"
"I did not remove the rune quickly enough, my love. So I am afraid that I have...some more bad news."
I already knew what she was going to say. Genevieve never really told me that it would kill me...just that my life as I knew it would be undone. That meant that I…
"This was likely another side effect of the artifact. Some part of you felt and understood what it was to be...me. When your will manifested over the mass of demonic energy, that part of you must have desired this."
My hands shot to my own head, feeling the ridged horns sweeping forward from the top of my head. This was like a bad dream from which I wanted to escape...this couldn't be real, could it?
"If you would remain still, I would like to confirm something."
"Wait, Del...no. This can't be right, I was-"
"Joe. Did Risa or I push you away?"
"No, but-"
"Were you being truthful when you said that you still desire to remain with us?"
I could only nod in response as I struggled to breathe.
"Then your other concerns are...relatively minor. Now be still," she said with authority as she lifted my toga to see what was hidden beneath.
"Oh fuck Del...how bad is it?" I asked knowing that absolutely any answer would not be the answer I wanted to hear.
Looking up at me now with an almost playful grin, she answered, "It all appears to be fully functional. And to ease your amusingly troubled mind, you are somewhat better...equipped than a typical woman," she drove the point home by grasping what felt like a familiar piece of anatomy, making me shiver as she ran her finger along the one that was...unfamiliar.
Not sure why it mattered as I knew that futanari monsters were sterile as males, I still breathed a sigh of relief in the knowledge that my entire sexual identity hadn't been destroyed.
As I stood in silence for several minutes to allow Del to clean off my wings, still trying and failing to process this catastrophe, she finally stood back before me with a frown.
"There are three other things I must tell you, none of which you are going to like."
"This isn't enough? Fine...let's get it over with," I replied despondently, still afraid of what she might tell me.
"The first is that those two beautiful children are the only two that Risa will ever have by you."
I nodded somberly, already having realized that unfortunate fact.
"The second is that you no longer have what some might refer to as a 'soul'. From your perspective there will be no difference as you simply exist as a projection of your own will. Because of that blessing that was placed upon you, your soul may yet exist somewhere, but that is a worry for another day."
"Okay," I answered, not feeling any different mentally even with the surprisingly palatable knowledge that I had no soul.
"The final thing is that, however much you may hate it, you will have to...feed. Like me, your body has become one that must taking in spiritual energy to survive. Before you go completely insane over this, I know that Risa and I would be willing to help you."
"Del...I don't..know if I can handle this," I said, feeling ill.
I knew I was hungry and, despite myself, I knew exactly what I needed to slake this slowly growing thirst. As my mind started down the spiral of depression, I looked up to see Risa smiling at the two of us as she passed by, my two beautiful daughters taking their fill of her milk. The flutter in my stomach reminded me how much this family meant to me. That reminder couldn't have come at a better time.
"You know what?" I asked before adding, "I told myself that I'd be able to handle anything if it was to stay with my family. So fuck it...nothing I ever do will be as disgusting as swallowing five dozen hero testicles so...bring it on, or whatever."
"I have never had the opportunity to experiment on a living Alp, my love. This is rather exciting," Del said with far too much happiness in her voice.
"Awesome, thanks for giving me something to look forward to, Del."
"Indeed, now let us fetch Risa and then find you something to eat."
So, just like that, the great worry I had of my wives outliving me by thousands of years was replaced with an entirely different series of problems. Some part of me still had to wonder what might have happened to my soul, but as I looked out at the road leading into the city, I saw Lorelei hugging random passersby and resigned myself to simply being happy with the amazingly unique family that had been entrusted to me.
When I really thought on it, not only had I never been more happy, but I was also hopeful for the future. I could imagine a lot of other ways that this could have turned out far worse, all things considered.
While Del and Risa discussed where they were going to find me some...food, I got to take a short nap. So there I was, sleeping again as though it were my one true talent, but this time I got to experience the unsurpassable joy of two other beautiful girls holding tight to either side of me.
As I passed into the calming slumber of a midday nap, I decided definitively that no outcome could have been better than this.
And so my story truly came to a close...for now.
Survival Status: Failed.
*Bonus*
Chapter ? - Pieces Left Behind
"You fucking bitch...why would you make me watch that?!" I screamed at Miranda.
"I can understand your anger, but it's your own fault for failing to remember that you'd paid me the 40,000 gold for another glimpse of a potential future," she replied smugly.
"Then I can just go through it again, right? And...stay alive this time…" I muttered, know that it was going to be a hopeless crapshoot at best.
Every step of my plan near the end had to be executed perfectly to guarantee that I'd be able to stop Lorelei. Altering any step meant that it was simply a suicide run with little to no hope of survival.
How did that fucking psychotic general even find out my plan in the first place? I suppose it didn't really matter.
"Wait...what happens now? I can't just stay here in this void with you forever," I offered as my frustration nearly overwhelmed me.
"Well, Joseph...perhaps there is something else I could offer you. A special type of...freedom," Miranda began, the tone of her voice making me already regret asking.
"Just out with it for fuck's sake," I spat in anger.
"The energy of the blessing is vast, but rather than use that energy to unsee this future, I can simply place you back in this world-the reality you've just seen."
"Damn it...I mean, I guess it wouldn't be so horrible to live as an Alp as long as I can be with-"
Interrupting me with a laugh, she cut in, "Oh no, Joseph. That beautiful futa is a true demon now, your soul would simply end up broken if I tried to put you in that body."
"So...even better, you send me back to a world where I can't even be with the family I've been fighting so hard for in the first fucking place?!"
"You saw the images I showed you, Joseph. Your family is healthy and happy. They have enough gold to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. Would you even wish to destroy that, knowing how much you sacrificed to achieve it in the first place?"
I knew I was being played, but I didn't have any other options. I just needed to hear her angle to determine if it was something I could accept.
"Are you taking the long way around this on purpose? Just tell me what you're proposing. I don't have a lot of choice in this because...you're right. Accepting that fact is one of the hardest things I can even imagine, but there it is."
I blinked and found myself standing at the moment before I jumped to what should have been my death. As I looked around, the silence of the road suggested that I was still in some sort of dream.
Was I really being given the choice to go through this entire ordeal again?
I heard Miranda's voice echo in the darkness, "You have grown on me somewhat so I will make you this offer: I will take the memories of the women you love and keep them with me. You will remember only that you willingly gave up the memories of your family to guarantee their happiness, and that you gave them to me. If you agree...make your choice."
I'd told myself before that if I ever found myself in this position, I wouldn't have wasted a second on doubting hesitation.
I didn't disappoint as I flung myself over the railing and into the air.
As I fell through the sky, I saw Miranda smiling at me as though she was upside-down.
"You wouldn't have really gone back to your world and I cannot truly rewind time, this was just symbolic of your desire to honor our bargain."
"I don't have a choice...the only way I can let them be happy is to forget and try to find a different happiness. Please hurry, Miranda...I won't be able to bear the thought of losing the only true loves I've ever known for much longer."
"As you wish, Joseph. But I must warn you. One day, you will come to me to get these memories back, and I will demand a very high price for them. When that day arrives, be sure you do not arrive empty-handed."
I saw each memory as it was taken from me, starting from the end and moving forward to the beginning. The beauty of the world started to come into a much clearer focus.
I lost the memory of fading away, then of numerous deaths as I tried to carry out a foolish plan, then of my wife, swollen with the proof of our love and the blessing of the Lord Amarante.
I forgot the bureaucratic trials to meet the lord, the incomparable light of Ahmose and the journey through Blacksky, and I no longer remembered the mind bending house of mirrors that was the wedding and its illusion-packed fallout.
No more thoughts remained in me of the quest to bring peace between Sunslayer's goblins and Harpy Rock, the death of the mighty Ixi, or the stumbling steps of my journey to cure my blindness.
Gone were the memories of my fall into the senseless dark, my first plan to upend the Alnor market, and the laughable zombie "horde" that plagued the Elysian Valley.
Finally falling from my mind, with every sorrowful tear within me, were the memories of a beautiful ancient lich, the fiery passions of a traveling danuki merchant, and the cart into which I'd fallen that started it all.
All I remembered was that I had been happy beyond words, that I had made a sacrifice to guarantee an everlasting happiness for the few that I had come to love, and that I had willingly given my memories to the witch Miranda.
Finally, as I hit the ground on my back, stark naked and surrounded by trees...I think I remembered...that I needed to run.
