Chapter 25: Cities Long Forgotten

Narvas was of the opinion that getting up in the morning was becoming an increasingly unattractive proposition, if nights like the last one were any indication.

After all, he had two incredibly exotic and sensual girls currently burrowed into his side, small bodies providing a pleasant warmth which was all the more appreciated since he was operating without a blanket.

…

Just as well, the smell in their room was definitely one that—while not as bad as it probably should have been—had a messy tinge to it. And even then that was mostly his fault, not the girls. Zhua barely had any scent to her to begin with other than a mildly detectable trace of metal and snow while Sylphy was just...well suffice to say that at one point he had begun eagerly licking every trace of sweat and ejaculate from her body that he could, the liquid so aromatic and delicious that he was pretty sure he'd actually gotten kinda drunk off of it.

The Fairy hadn't minded, either squealing or giggling uncontrollably during the process.

"God that woman is fucking hot."

As if such a thought was the cue for her to awake a cute moan escaped Sylphy's throat as she lazily sat upright, wings spreading wide as she released a pleased hum, stretching arms high overhead while lovely blue hair flowed over slim and delicate shoulders, pert breasts standing rigid while a ray of morning sunshine streamed through the window and set her leggings alight with a pleasing hue.

Narvas couldn't help but marvel at the fact that he, somehow, was still able to get hard at the sight.

"Mmm...good morning, Narvas."

"And a good morning to you too, gorgeous."

"Heh heh~…"

Stealing a kiss on the lips that left him blinking the Fairy went about dressing herself, cheerily stating, "That Enslaver form of yours is really something else, I think I want to do that more often."

"Can't help but wonder if you'd eventually wear me down to a nub, especially if Varsha and Hala come back to join in on the fun-GUH?!"

Stiffening where he lay on the bed his unusual yellow eyes locked onto the sight of none other than Zhua enthusiastically pumping his shaft, sinfully soft hand wrapped tightly around the meat as she bluntly stated, "You are still hard, master. That needs to be remedied, does it not?"

Unsure whether he should laugh or moan the Vassal hero eventually replied, "It'll go down by itself, Zhua. For now let's get started on the day we have ahead of us, it's going to be a busy one."

Seeming momentarily disappointed the Vassal manifestation nonetheless listened to his request, wordlessly disappearing back into the gem located atop his right arm as Sylphy giggled, playfully remarking, "Aren't you quite the stud, Narvas? Was filling me up not enough last night~?"

"Please no dirty talk, Sylphy. Not only is it going to get me going again but it really clashes with your beautiful and innocent looks."

A few flaps of her glittering wings brought the woman straight into Narvas' waiting embrace, the Fairy affectionately kissing his nose.

"And I know you like it~."

"Guilty as charged. C'mon, let's meet up with everyone else...hopefully your muting technique held."

Sylphy paused as she settled herself onto his back, hesitantly saying, "I...might not have checked to see if it was up after a certain point last night?"

"Why did that sound like a question?"

The Vassal hero resisted the urge to smile as he could practically feel the Fairy puff out a cheek in indignation.

"It's not my fault! You were balls deep inside of me and I was pumped full of enough aphrodisiac to kill a horse!"

Chuckling to himself Narvas gave a playful smack on her tiny but tight ass.

"Alright, alright...c'mon, let's see the damage."

True to the Claw hero's words there were a variety of expressions greeting them as they exited the room. Hala and Lenia seemed amused, Varsha was blushing and hiding her face while Nephinae and Kayla had looks that suggested they hadn't gotten much sleep last night.

"...Whoops."

The young man couldn't help but amusedly reflect that his life was certainly an interesting one these days, routinely getting laid by monster girls with almost no friction found between them...aside from the pleasurable kind, of course.

"Well, if I don't fuck up in the future I'll have all the time in the world to keep this gravy train going. Fingers crossed."

"Isn't this is quite the interesting bit of architecture...Come in for a landing about a kilometer north of here, Varsha."

An affirmative huff left the Dragon as she did as requested, wings tucking in slightly as Narvas eyed the ruins Xephina's messengers had suggested he check out, now feeling immeasurably more confident in his party's chances of survival if they went in. Especially because they were now packing an overleveled Elf in the vanguard.

He hopped off of Varsha's back before giving the area a more careful look, verdant forest surrounded by a towering mountain range while a kilometer's wide sinkhole lead deep into some shadowed and indistinct area.

"Nothing ominous about that."

"Master...something about that place seems...wrong."

Giving the Dragon's comment as she strode up beside him in her humanoid form due consideration the male inquired, "Can you glean anything specific from that feeling?"

Wilting somewhat at his question the pink-haired dragoness mumbled, "Sorry, master. I can't tell you anything specific, I shouldn't have brought it up."

Rolling his eyes he gave the base of one of her horns a good scratch, reassuring Varsha with, "Relax, some warning is better than no warning. If it makes you feel better let's make it a standing order to inform me of any and all undefinable feelings you have."

Blushing at the suggestion while her tail lashed about the dragoness settled for a nod, the Vassal hero chuckling as he teased, "To think my tough and terrifying Dragon was the baby of the group."

"M-master?!"

Laughing at her indignation he raised up Zhua's gem, asking, "Anything on your end, Zhua?"

Manifesting in a brief burst of light the Vassal Claw cocked her head, staring down into the midnight depths of the olden city now turned into a desiccated ruin.

"I...am not sure, master. I detect odd emanations from those structures as well as from further in, but beyond that I cannot tell. It feels...familiar."

Narvas frowned, staring at the few wrecks his eyes could pick out from the lightless depths. They seemed to mimic old gothic architecture with a little bit of medieval style thrown in for good measure, stone and wood mixed in with sharp and angled metal.

"Hmm...do you think you're sensing emanations from another Vassal weapon, Zhua? Xephina's representative did say that it was destroyed during one of the later Waves and the make of the city isn't all that similar to the bog standard variety around the rest of the world. Maybe one of the older heroes laid down roots here or something?"

"Perhaps, master. But as stated previously, I cannot say for certain."

"Alright, something to bear in mind then."

Putting that thought aside for the moment—as well as the ugly implications of a Vassal wielder or rogue Vassal weapon hanging around—Narvas instead laid down a teleportation point, going through the process of bringing the rest of his party with him to their next dungeon clearing quest.

"This...is quite different from the forest."

"How so? Everything certainly has the height to resemble it, just replace wood with stone and metal."

The Claw hero's glib reply to Nephinae's observation went largely unappreciated, the Elf's ears on a constant swivel much like a cat's as Kayla and Lenia reciprocated the action, trying to get a feel for the sounds and sights of the new environment they were in.

"Yes, Narvas. Everything would be exactly the same were it not for that one tiny and irrelevant detail."

"Sheesh, sorry I said anything at all."

Far more amused at the dry wit shown by the Elf than he was upset he turned to the pair of demihumans, asking, "Anything worth reporting?"

"Not yet, master. And as strange as this sounds I don't detect any sings of local wildlife or monsters. It's quiet as a tomb in here."

Kayla grimly nodded at Lenia's words, grumbling, "This place is a tomb, in case anyone hasn't noticed. Master, may we next time go to a pleasant beachfront territory or some such? Enclosed spaces such as this grow old fairly fast."

"Aren't you a fox? They like burrows and the such, right?"

A deadpan stare was sent his way by the demihuman, her voice lacking in any kind of emotion whatsoever as she replied, "But of course, master. Why did I not think of such a simple solution?"

Chuckling at his companion's dry wit he instead continued to observe their surroundings as they continued to descend deeper into the vast pit that was their destination, some of his cheer disappearing as they went further into the depths.

In all honesty it was fairly disquieting, the young man fairly certain that he was only handling things so well because he had his party backing him up...this whole ruin gave off some seriously nasty vibes, to somewhat understate things. And where were all the bodies? Not to be overly morbid about it but he would have imagined that at least somebody would have stayed behind even if the city had been evacuated...not that that made overmuch sense since the Guardian Beasts would have ignored this place if it were empty, rather than sink it into the damn ground.

"Questions questions…"

"Okay, now this is different from what I was expecting."

"And just what were you expecting, master?"

"Honestly? Not entirely sure. It just wasn't this."

Having descended onto more level ground after almost an hour of careful travel deep into the remains of the city the party had come to a stop before a large and imposing series of statues, each standing as tall as ten men and built of compacted stone. But that wasn't the part that had Narvas furrowing his brow...it was the fact that he recognized many of the effigies.

Greek, Roman, Arturian...all figures or monsters of myth and legend, stern features or monstrous bodies imposing in their majesty as the Claw hero further clarified with, "All of these are individuals or creatures from my world, or at least ones like it. I'd say it's a fair bet that whatever hero was a part of this place drew from quite a few sources of inspiration. Although…"

He narrowed his eyes at the monolithic structures.

"Can't help but wonder what the hell they were thinking, making such a ludicrously massive and ostentatious monument to legends that don't exist in this world."

"A rather serious case of megalomania?"

He grunted at Kayla's mused words.

"Unfortunately, I don't think you're wrong. Alright, we need to figure out a-"

"Something is coming our way."

Nephinae's words caused Hala and Varsha to immediately begin moving their heads back and forth, antenna and forked tongue alike tasting the air...and Varsha pointedly glared towards a small cliff overlooking the area they were in, growling low in her throat.

"Everybody be on guard, I don't think the locals are going to appreciate us being up and about in their business."

The sound of running feet and tramping boots filled the area, Narvas narrowing his eyes as he ordered, "Nephinae, hang back and be ready to intervene the moment something looks like it's about to go bad, you're our safety net."

"Understood."

The Elf wordlessly slipped behind their cordon, he and Varsha standing side-by-side as he equipped the Bulwark Shoulder, reflecting that he was really going to have to find a Claw to replace it soon. While the effect to return a portion of damage dealt would be handy for some time to come its equip bonuses in terms of base stats were quickly becoming mediocre, if not outright detrimental. And until he found a good chance to actually sit down and begin crafting decent sets of armor, weapon enhancements and other crap like that equip bonuses were going to be pretty crucial for supplementing his fairly even spread of stats.

Kayla and Sylphy prepped themselves to fire off a bevy of spells, Hala and Lenia crouched behind the Dragon and hero in preparation to strike...and with a loud grinding noise and banging of metal on stone they got their first look at the guardians of this area, a fitting band of hoplite warriors and winging Harpies rushing them down as Narvas narrowed his eyes, not reassured in the slightest by the levels each of the things were sporting, a rough spread of 50's that had him bracing himself for a fight.

The first spartan-wannabe rushed close, thrusting its spear directly towards his face as the Claw hero smoothly placed his arm directly in the path of the blow, Zhua's gem prepped to absorb the strike-

-and a perfect parry still rocked him on his heels, the hero grunting as his shoulder ached something fierce while Varsha also unleashed a rumble as her scales still sported glowing lacerations from where spears had sparked against her hide. Lenia and Hala sped around them to capitalize on the blunted assault but had to pull back once the stone warriors locked shields with each other, forming a wall that might not be so easily cracked. Not to mention the Harpies had also elected to join the fray, keeping Hala on the defensive as she ran aerial duty while Kayla took aim at the shielded band of warriors.

"Hit em'!"

"Zweit, Flare Impact!"

A compressed ball of flame launched from Kayla's fingers towards the huddled soldiers, a sharp CRACK echoing across the vast area from impact as smoke and embers were scattered in every direction, Narvas smirking before gesturing Varsha to ascend to the skies and aid the Lucent Empress in handling the flyers overhead.

"Erm, master? I fear these enemies may be rather resistant to magic."

Lenia's observation proved prophetic, the debris settling and revealing three still very much alive stone hoplites, only one of their shields cracked and chipped from the blow and surface barely heated.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance, ordering, "Kayla, follow up any fire spells with water spells immediately afterwards, or just don't bother and try something else! Lenia, with me. Sylphy, got our backs?"

The Fairy resolutely nodded while the rabbit demihuman leapt to his side, both of them hefting their weapons of choice as the three stone warriors yet again charged, Nephinae carefully observing the battle all the while.

"Jesus, these things are tough…"

Yanking a shard of gravel from his scalp that had gotten rather intimate with his skin—being liberally covered with a smattering of dried blood for its trouble—Narvas rolled his shoulder to loosen it up, the limb still aching quite pointedly after the repeated walloping it had undergone by the hoplite and Harpy creatures.

"Are you all right, Narvas?"

Sylphy's concerned question snapped the hero out of his ruminations, the male replying, "Yeah, I'm good. Check on everyone else, I need to figure out if there's anything worthwhile from these things."

The fairy wordlessly went to check on Hala and Varsha, the moth monster sporting a shallow but nasty-looking laceration on her side from the Harpy's talons while Lenia and Kayla kept a wary eye on their surroundings, since it seemed like the things had popped out of literally nowhere. Nephinae contented herself with jogging to the Vassal hero's side, watching as he began to sift through the crumbled and beaten remains of the monsters with a discerning eye.

"You've no doubt heard this before...but your party is quite the eclectic one."

"And you're a part of it now, how does that feel?"

"Bewildering."

The Elf's dry response caused the Claw hero's lips to quirk, hand grabbing a chunk of stone and feeding it into Zhua-

-only for the hero to blink as it registered as nothing more than plain rock, being converted into a piss poor amount of spare energy since he'd already mastered the associated claw.

"What the hell?"

"Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, these things aren't unlocking any kind of new claw, just old shitty ones. Like, they're literal stone, not stone monsters."

Just to be sure he grabbed a few other ones and was met with similar results, scratching his head in confusion—accidentally opening up the head scab once more—before he glanced at the Vassal weapon attached to his arm, asking, "What do you make of this, Zhua?"

[We received experience from the battle, master. This suggests that whatever was used to animate the stone constructs still counts as a powerful entity.]

"Great. So some god awful abomination was able to cause a bunch of inanimate statues to turn into level 50 grunts and it clearly doesn't like us very much? Awesome, can't wait to meet it in person."

Shaking his head in resignation he turned to Nephinae, stating, "We'll likely be relying on you to do some heavy lifting for us in the later stages of this place, something powerful is out there, active or dormant I can't tell."

Blinking at the sudden words the Elf nonetheless nodded, the rest of the party forming up in short order as Narvas stared at the inky depths of the collapsed city, feeling an unpleasant sinking sensation in his gut.

"Not to jinx us or anything...but I've got a bad feeling about this."

For so long this has been our tomb, our eternal rest...the prison made of grief and betrayal long past.

A sadistic and callous goddess, who spat on our love and devotion. An uncaring and implacable world, concerned only for its own survival. The cries and laments of people that had been a glorious example of our strength and vision…

…

We should have never come to this world. This stinking, corrupting world that saw all that we built and raised from the dirt sent into the depths of the earth and forgotten by all, only hollow rock and statues to mark its passing.

And yet, after all this time, one approaches...another SLAVE of the caustic woman styling herself as a god, an instrument of her will.

...Revenge will be all the sweeter after it has aged like a fine wine.