The Lady of the Lights
I do have to admit the harem is a little lovey dovey, probably me overcorrecting due to a dislike of tsunderes with too little dere. Catfights are a harem staple though, and some drama could do some good- the type of drama supplied by a haughty Empress, perhaps?
If you couldn't tell by the chapter title, we're doing the living breathing rave next. Thank you all so much for reviewing- it means a lot to me. I'd still keep on writing without reviews, but they really make my day.
Aqua was… clingy. Or maybe she just had no real definition of personal space? After she first woke up, she liked getting close to people- not necessarily Cyrus, but anyone at all. At first, Cyrus thought it was just chills or a general dislike of the cold, but even after Cyrus managed to get the girl a coat (he imagined it must be kind of awkward to gain human while wearing a swimsuit) she still liked being near people.
After a bit of talking, they got her to ask first, but she was just a touchy-feely sort of person who liked to be close to others. Cyrus couldn't fathom why she in particular had a fascination with touch, maybe it had something to do with the great swarms of sharks that accompanied her previous form? He didn't know.
Whatever the case was, she was quick to smile and looked pretty cute in the big overcoat that Cyrus managed to dig up for her. Lacrima would have her work cut for her, having to make an entirely new outfit for the girl so she didn't freeze, but she enjoyed tailoring.
After introductions with Aqua, everyone headed back home for a rest, but before Cyrus could rest his weary bones, he decided to open up Garrett's book. Something about the brisk salt air had cleared his head, and made him realize there was something up with the strange, brightly colored bug he had caught a little while ago. After turning through pages of Garret's excellent calligraphy and drawings he found what he was looking for: The Prismatic Lacewing.
There are few creatures more majestic than the Prismatic Lacewing- and fewer more insidious. With the appearance of unusually beautiful butterfly, the Lacewing charms just about every creature who looks upon it- and compels protective urges in them, warping their minds to protect the Lacewing above their own lives. It is difficult to even bring yourself to harm one, especially when you're transfixed by its beautiful glimmering. Killing one will enrage the most dangerous creatures of the Hallow- the tyrant of that strange land, which defends the lacewings with all its fury.
Cyrus was horrified to read that- there was something particularly scary about a creature that did no damage to the body, but instead warped and changed the mind. He suddenly felt an urge to get it out, get it away from himself and the people he cared about before it started to impact them, but getting rid of it would make... something terribly angry. Looking through the book didn't give him any idea of what killing the Lacewing might bring, but he was sure it would be bad.
Before going to bed, Cyrus made sure to cover up the bottle the Lacewing was in- it would be a shame to get caught up in the creature's charms and forget everything he just learned about it.
Breakfast was an interesting affair the next day, in large part due to Aqua, who decided to take a seat next to Andi and scoot uncomfortably close, at least for Andi's taste.
"Could you not?"
"Oh, I'm sorry." Aqua conceded and scooted towards Francisca, who looked more bemused than anything.
"What is up with you?"
"What do you mean?"
"You're so… cuddly."
"I like being close to people, simple as that. If it makes you uncomfortable, then I'll stay away from you, but… is what I like your business?"
Andi shrugged before turning her attention to someone else. "Aria, I've got ask, are you actually part plant? Like how did that happen?"
"I'm… plantlike, I suppose." She smoothed her dress, and Cyrus wondered if it was a nervous tic. "I still need to eat and drink like a normal person, but sunlight is good for me. As for how I got this way… well I don't know."
"What was it like being a plant?"
"What was it like being an eldritch monstrosity?"
"Touche. But at least my previous form had something like a brain. You were a giant flower."
Aria rolled her eyes. "And you're questioning me and not the giant eyeball?" Cthylla started to flush a little at that.
Andi chuckled. "Good point, but at least eyes are parts of animals. You're something completely different- practically alien."
Aria was still toying with her skirt, rubbing one of the pleats between her fingers. "I can't describe it easily. It wasn't quite like thinking- it was like responding to stimuli, just reacting to things."
"Reacting to things like Cyrus' leg?" He couldn't help but cringe a little at that. Yikes.
"I didn't mean to-"
"Sure, you didn't, but that doesn't mean Cyrus' leg is any less gone, is it?" The sudden vitriol was surprising; sure, she liked to stir shit and cause trouble, but she didn't go for the throat like this.
Aria stood up and stormed off, green skirt swaying wildly, and Cyrus decided to follow behind her. After a few moments of silence, Andi gulped. "Woops."
"Aria! Aria!" Cyrus had chased her down to a little out of the way hall that she was fond of, probably due to the massive windows Cyrus decided to install.
She turned to look at him, and Cyrus could see tears on her cheeks. "Cyrus. Do… do you blame me for your leg?"
"Of course I don't. I can't blame you for what your previous form did." Cyrus reached out for her, to take her hand and give her some sort of comfort.
Aria backed up, avoiding him like he was on fire. "But I tore off your leg!"
"The Aria I know now isn't the monster who injured me."
She sniffled. "If I wasn't here, you'd still have your leg!"
His eyes widened, but he managed to grab her hand. "Do you think my leg is worth more than you? More than anyone? Hell, I'd lose the other one for any one of you girls!"
"You should value yourself more, Cyrus. What have I ever done for you? You lost your leg so I could… what, grow you some plants? Give you the key to some jungle deathtrap?"
"You don't need to justify your existence to me, Aria. I've never blamed you for my leg, and I will never will. I don't want you to think you're somehow in debt to me."
She stepped back from him, tears glimmering on her cheeks. "You… really don't hold your leg against me?"
"Of course not."
"Well, if you say so, I guess I have to believe you… but if you ever need anything at all, I'm your girl." She embraced him, and Cyrus could see tears running down the smooth surface of his armor.
"Now can you lift your left arm?" Lacrima was using a measuring tape in order to get Aqua's dimensions- after all, she had to make an entirely new set of clothes for her. Of course, she had taken measures like this before, although Aqua was unusually chipper during the whole process.
"Alright!"
"So, if it's alright to ask, is there some deeper reason behind… well you know."
"Mmm hmm." Aqua didn't continue.
After a few moments of silence, Lacrima sighed. "Can you tell me?"
"Well, ahh…" she started to scratch her chin before Lacrima pushed her arm back into place, to properly measure it. "It's pretty simple, I'm just afraid of being alone."
"As simple as that?"
"Maybe that doesn't really cover how intense that fear is. The idea of being alone… of never having anyone to talk to, anyone to truly know me… It sounds a little silly when I say it aloud, but I clamp on because I don't want people to leave."
"Well it's not exactly the same, but I understand the fear of being alone- you know Francisca?"
"The lass with the four arms?"
"Yeah. She's a little lacking in social nuance sometimes and I've grown to appreciate her… but sometimes she upsets me a little. Imagine meeting a person who was practically purpose built to be a better version of you. I suppose I'm just as afraid of abandonment as you are."
"But we're here with each other now."
Lacrima grinned. "I suppose we are. Now I need you to relax your arms…"
"Say Aqua, when I defeated your previous form, there was this bag… and I didn't want to touch it without your permission."
She looked at the bag for a few seconds, squinting, before shrugging. "I don't think it's mine, but I'd like to see what's inside."
Cyrus carefully undid the knot holding the bag closed… only to find one single item inside, a long flail with the Fishron's visage serving as its head.
Aqua took one look inside the bag and grew pale. "Okay, yikes. That's pretty macabre. You can definitely keep it, just keep it far away from me."
Cyrus had to agree- it would be like carrying around a weapon made from a human skull or something- the aesthetics detracted from any effectiveness the weapon might have. It wasn't quite as bad for Cyrus, but it had an understandable impact on Aqua.
Cyrus had found somewhere appropriately isolated in the Hallow, the Lacewing's bottle carefully stowed away in a bag. Deciding not to risk another run in with the creature's strange mental powers, Cyrus took the bag and swung towards the ground, breaking the bottle with a shattering noise- and then the earth seemed to tremble.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a flash of brilliant light, and turned to see his foe- and was surprised by how human she looked. And it was definitely a she- a very beautiful woman, although there was an unearthly air around her, something inherently supernatural. Perhaps the term was fae? Although she certainly wasn't some tiny fairy, considering how she towered above him.
She had skin like gold and long tresses of pink hair that shone brightly in the light she seemed to naturally emit, and her hair matched a long sort of billowing skirt that was open in the front, exposing a pair of long legs that were clad in a pair of bright blue boots. Her gauntlets were the same bright color and were spiky like crystal, sending little slivers of light all over the place. She had a distinctive crown, although it was nothing special compared to her wings: there were four of them, tremendous in size but shaped just like a butterfly's, with a beautiful rainbow sheen- pinks, yellows, greens, and blues, if Cyrus could think of a color he could spot it in her wings, which glowed brightly.
As she few closer, it was like going from night to day- she was so bright it was like a miniature sun, and Cyrus realized he might have trouble aiming, the glare was so intense. He flew backwards on his ice wings, noting the strange patterns of reflected light from this Queen, no, Empress of the Hallow.
Cyrus looked back and was scared to see the Empress glowering at him- the bosses he fought before seemed angry, certainly, but seeing an expression of pure fury etched onto that massive, superhuman face was chilling. She lifted her hand almost lazily, and the air around her was filled with light.
She fired a series of bright bolts at Cyrus, and he darted out of the way, before diving to the ground to avoid an aggressive charge from the Empress. Before he could turn and strike at her with his flail, he felt something tear through his armor and cut into his shoulder. He lunged to the side, only to feel whatever it was continue to tear through his armor before he managed to dart out of the way.
Looking back, Cyrus saw a series of brilliant lights orbiting around the Empress- they were like sun rays, although they cut through everything with terrible efficiency- the ground, trees, and unfortunately, his shoulder. Once he got out of range, he struck wildly with his flail, sending flows of bubbles into the air.
Apparently, the bubbles provoked her, and she charged again as he ducked out of the way, avoiding the rays of light that still circled her, cutting through the earth like plows. She made a strange sort of flicking gesture with her hand, and several beams of light started pointing at Cyrus' chest. They didn't hurt, but he moved out the way just in time to avoid a series of shining swords, which tore through the air, following the paths of the beams, and one of them scratched his armor, sending a fragment of turtle shell flying through the air. If he hadn't dodged, the overlapping blades could have torn him in half.
Cyrus continued to use his flail, and even if he didn't manage to hit her, the flail generated lots of bubbles which automatically chased the Empress. Of course, the bubbles seemed a lot less impressive when they just popped against the Empress' golden skin, but it was something.
The Empress wasn't completely unpredictable- there was a sort of pattern to her attacks, like repeated steps in a dance, and there was a sort of grace to the Empress' movements, although Cyrus suspected that normal ballroom dancing didn't involve laser swords. She summoned endless barrages effortlessly, with a simple wave of the hand, and sometimes he would see a cruel smile on the Empress' face, as if she took a sadistic joy in tearing up everything and everyone in front of her.
He could tell something was up when the Empress drew a circle in the air with one of her gloved hands, and he jumped back in surprised as the gleaming circle of light burst into 13 gleaming balls of light, which spiraled out and left glowing trails in the air which Cyrus made sure to avoid.
Her attacks grew more and more complex as the fight continued, the swords tracing complex curving paths in the air, beautiful curves in every color Cyrus could imagine, and several he hadn't ever seen before. Cyrus was surprised to see her using the beams of light almost defensively- they hemmed him in and even popped the bubbles that made up the majority of his damage. She wove gleaming cages from burning pillars of light and lunged with gleaming claws.
It was frustrating to fight her at range, but he knew that getting too close would give him almost no time to react to her attacks, which only seemed to grow more vicious over time. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to be doing any visual damage to the empress, although her growing fury seemed to indicate he was doing something right (or she was just getting real tired of wasting time on him).
Cyrus could feel blood seeping from his injuries, a series of incredibly clean cuts from the Empress' light attacks, which cut through his armor as easily as his skin and muscles. He was also physically exhausted: even with the help of many potions, Cyrus hadn't slept for hours, and he could see hints of twilight on the horizon.
As the rising sun painted the horizon orange, her lights got brighter as her attacks grew more powerful: scything blades tearing through tree trunks and brilliant lights that promised almost instant death.
Finally, Cyrus managed to catch the Empress, tying up her arm with the chain of the flail and limiting her ability to attack. With one tremendous tug, the Empress finally fell, her massive body dissolving into sweet smelling smoke- leaving a very similar looking woman behind.
Her new human form wasn't too different from her previous one, with beautiful pink hair and variegated butterfly wings- much closer to Bea's bee wings as opposed to Cyrus' or Regina's more birdlike wings. She had the same pink skirt as her previous form, although it wrapped all the way around her body, falling down to her ankles. Her strange crystalline gauntlets were turned into a pair of blue opera gloves, and she still had a tiara on her head, a beautiful thing made of gold and sapphires. She was ghostly pale, with skin like milkglass, and when Cyrus picked her up he noticed she was extremely light. There was something off about her Cyrus couldn't put his finger on, something that told him she wasn't quite human, and it wasn't the wings, some deep uncanniness he couldn't quite put into words. Maybe it had something to do with the long, pointed ears?
He fished out his mirror and warped the two of them home, trying to ignore the droplets of blood staining the smooth glass surface.
"What the hell happened this time?" Abigail was looking at one of his wounds- a smooth cut through both this shoulder and the pauldron that covered it.
"It was some sort of laser… thing."
"That really helps, Cyrus." Abigail sighed as she worked on cleaning and closing the wound.
After a few moments of silence, Cyrus turned to look at their new guest- the fairy woman. "Say. Do you think that there's something… of about her?"
"What do you mean, off? Other than the ears and wings, she isn't that different from you and me. I think it's pretty rich for you to go judging people considering the company you keep."
Cyrus shrugged. "I can't explain it, but something in my gut says that's she's… different. Not necessarily bad-different, just that she isn't quite human."
"Well I suppose I'll keep an eye on her, then."
Just as Cyrus was reaching for the knob to open the door to the sickroom, the door suddenly swung open and he jumped back in surprise as Aria stepped in.
"I'm sorr- Oh, Cyrus! It's nice to see you." She gave him a sweet smile before turning to Abigail. "And Abigail, there was something I wanted to ask- could you teach me a bit about medicine and healing? It seems like such a useful skill to have, and I'm sure you must be tired of doing all the nursing all by yourself."
Abigail sighed. "Well I suppose that I can start showing you the ropes, but only when I'm not busy. I won't have you getting in the way of my practice, is that clear?"
Aria gave an enthusiastic nod as Cyrus took his leave, leaving the two alone to tend after the strange fairy girl.
"Say, Annelida, what's it like having a tail? I can't imagine what moving around is like." Cyrus was laying back, fittingly enough, on Annelida's tail as she rested her head in his lap.
"You think it's weird to slither around on a tail, but it's all I've ever known. If I had a pair of legs instead of my tail, I'd be stumbling all over myself."
"I mean, is it useful?"
She shrugged. "I mean I use it to move so of course it's useful, but I'm not sure if there's anything special about a big tail like this. Maybe you could do something with a prehensile tail, but… I suppose the best thing about the tail is that there's a lot more of me to go around."
Before Cyrus could respond, the door opened to the sound of metal sliding over wood, and Ditra slithered in. Admittedly, Cyrus hadn't seen much of her since they first met- he got the impression that she didn't get along with Annelida, but didn't gather more than that. Hopefully, this meeting would let both of them know her a little better, and maybe they could put this rivalry behind them.
"Ditra."
"Annelida." Well that was a wonderful start.
Cyrus didn't really have a good grip on what Ditra was like as a person, but he was going to try. "So, Ditra… what have you been up to recently? We haven't had many chances to talk recently." Cyrus swore he could hear Annelida muttering "thank goodness" under her breath.
She shrugged. "I spent some time with the twins, talked mechanics with Meredith and Judith. My tail is a pain to maintain."
Annelida scoffed. "What do you need to do, apply oil?"
"Yes, actually. I assume you go through an awful lot of soap, cleaning that… thing."
Cyrus sighed. Of course, he wasn't expecting them to get along immediately, but this vitriol was unfortunate- Cyrus figured that if the two girls could agree on anything, it would be their tails. Cyrus decided to try to redirect the conversation. "I can't imagine looking after your tail takes up all your time, Ditra. Have you picked up a hobby or anything? Lacrima sews, Bea cooks, Francisca terrorizes the wildlife, you know."
Ditra's eyebrows rose a that last one. "She what?"
"Francisca likes to go out and use her weapons, keep her skills sharp. Normally, this means dispatching monsters, but I swear I've seen her chasing squirrels."
She chuckled a little at that. "Well I certainly don't have weapons installed, but I can move surprisingly quickly with the tail if I really try. I do have these though." She reached down to one of her tail segments and fiddled with it for a few seconds before something popped out- a drone like the ones that accompanied her previous form, a sphere of metal with a glowing red circle which might serve as an eye.
"Do they fire lasers?"
"Oh good grief, no. Apparently I lost that functionality when I became human. All they can really do right now is serve as cameras." She made a gesture with her hand and the drone hovered around the room with surprisingly speed for a literal ball of metal.
"Can you see from them?"
"Like eyes, yeah." Cyrus had to admit that was another strange similarity between Annelida and Ditra- the similar previous forms, the long tails which replaced legs, and now he knew both tails basically had eyes in them- the similarities were honestly incredible.
Annelida huffed and muttered something about "overgrown children's toys", and Cyrus decided to change the subject again. "I'm thinking of heading down into the temple in the jungle soon. Aria gave me a key which she said would unlock the door."
Both girls cocked their heads, although Annelida spoke up first. "The jungle temple, huh? Have any idea what it's like?"
"It's this massive structure made from dark brown brick, bricks which are practically indestructible, and I genuinely don't think I could have managed to get in without a key."
"Be careful, alright? It might have been locked for a good reason." Cyrus nodded.
Ditra was stroking her chin, deep in contemplation, before she spoke up. "Say, I might be able to help you with that." She rapped her knuckles against the metal of her tail. "My cameras have night vision and can move pretty far on their own, so I could probably map the entire place if you brought me along and unlocked the door."
"Sounds good. It's good to have someone watching my back, considering how brutal some of these enemies are." Cyrus embraced Annelida before standing up. "Now I think I'm going to check out the hospital wing, see how our new guest is doing."
Eventually, Cyrus meandered back to the sickroom and took a seat to wait for their new guest to wake up. Abigail was waiting too, and they passed the time in amicable silence.
When the girl opened her eyes, Cyrus was momentarily stunned. He had never seen eyes like this girl's, a brilliant kaleidoscope of color that seemed to changed depending on where you looked from: on the right, you might see a vibrant shade of sky blue and on the left you could see irises like amber. Her eyes seemed to be constantly shifting, never staying one color for long, and while it should have been nauseating or at least confusing Cyrus found himself transfixed.
"Ahem. Who are you?" She had a melodic voice that Cyrus could honestly listen to for hours, although she seemed rather irate.
"I'm Cyrus. Could you tell me what your name is?"
She rolled her eyes, her irises shifting through a rainbow of colors. "My name is Titania. The Empress of Light."
"Empress?"
She turned up her nose at him. "Of course. I am ruler of all the hallow, defender of all its creatures."
"So why did you only get angry about the butterfly and not the pixies or unicorns?"
"I could barely tolerate you defending yourself from creatures who actively meant you harm, but killing that poor Lacewing- it never meant you any harm, you brute!"
"So why not get all pissy at me for cutting down one of those trees? Sounds like you fell for the Lacewing's tricks, just like everyone else." Cyrus usually got along fairly well with people, but something about her ego just rubbed him the wrong way. Sure, Visca had a few issues with arrogance when she first showed up, but she wasn't completely assured that the reason she fought with Cyrus was justified. For some reason, traits Cyrus found endearing in Visca, he found incredibly annoying in Titania.
"You're insufferable."
"The feeling's mutual, your majesty."
Cyrus did decide to give her the tour- it was practically tradition by this point- but their conversation varied between long gaps of silence and vitriolic barbs. He almost sagged with relief when he saw Visca and Regina rounding the corner. Hopefully, they would get through to Titania better than he could due to their royal titles.
"Regina, Visca, this is Titania." The woman in question cleared her throat, clearly urging Cyrus to carry on. "The… Empress of Light."
Cyrus wasn't entirely sure how this entire title system worked exactly, and he had to wonder how Titania would view the girls. On a technical level, Cyrus thought that an Emperss was on a higher rank than a king or queen, but at the same time being Empress of Light was very different from being King or Queen of the slimes…
Regina and Visca's eyes both widened when they heard the title Empress of Light, so Cyrus had to assume it meant something to them. Regina stepped forward first, her usual bounciness being replaced with a calm and collected royal attitude. "Greetings. I am Regina, Queen of the Slimes, and my companion Visca is the King of the Slimes."
Titania looked at them with those strange eyes of her, which shifted through a dozen shades of red in a few seconds. "Hmmph. A pretender Queen who paraded around my domain like she owned the place and a jumped up common slime that thinks too highly of itself."
Both of the girls took offense to that, for rather obvious reasons, and Cyrus could see both of them flushing with anger, with Regina turning a particularly deep purple shade, like a particularly vivid bruise. Before either party could start exchanging actual bruises, Cyrus stepped between them.
"Maybe you should be a little less caustic, Titania. As far as we know, you're stuck like this. You shouldn't be burning bridges."
Titania was silent for a few seconds. "How many others are there like us? Have you tested if people can return back to their previous forms?"
"No, we haven't, but we have more than a dozen girls who've stayed completely human for weeks. As far as we know, you're human for good."
She gave herself a careful once-over, analyzing her limbs and experimentally twitching her wings before replying to Cyrus. "I suppose I haven't changed too much in comparison to my previous form, other than my size. However, that doesn't mean I'm human, or that I'll stay with your little band of fools, Cyrus."
"Band of fools?"
"Any intelligent monster would have finished you off before you could defeat them, but the real question I have is why none of them left. You certainly aren't going to stop me, are you?"
"You're… leaving?"
"I have no interest in becoming a satellite orbiting around you, Cyrus. I'm going home." With that, she walked outside and flew away, towards the Hallow.
Regina crossed her arms and sighed. "Well that was certainly a surprise. Are you going to follow along Cyrus? Make sure she doesn't get herself killed?"
Cyrus nodded. "I'll try, but I should probably keep my distance. I'm sure she'll be furious if she finds out I chased after her to make sure she wouldn't get herself hurt." After a few moments of waiting, Cyrus took flight, flying behind Titania while trying to make sure he wouldn't be spotted.
Unfortunately, he found Titania almost immediately. She was in the middle of a herd of unicorns, and from the way they huffed and scuffed their hooves against the ground it seemed like they weren't taking too kindly to her presence. Cyrus wondered if Titania was actually part fairy- it would explain a lot about her- but if she was, the unicorns didn't seem to care.
Eventually, one of the unicorns charged, dipping its head so its horn would strike Titania right in the chest, and Cyrus was just about to leap to her defense when she lifted her hand in the shape of a finger gun, and shot at the creature with a lance of gleaming yellow light, sending it tumbling to the ground.
Maybe she could handle the wilderness on her own, Cyrus mused, but her killing of one unicorn drove the others into a panicked frenzy, and it looked like the entire group was about to charge her. To her credit, she almost got them all, cutting through them in seconds with brilliant bursts of light, but one slipped through her defenses and charged at her back, its razor sharp horn gleaming….
Before Cyrus speared the creature through, bring its charge to a halt as Titania turned in a panic. She nearly hit Cyrus with one of her laser attacks, but he narrowly dodged out of the way as she was distracted by the dead unicorn which nearly got her.
"You… saved me."
Cyrus scratched the back of his head. "You did wonderfully. I certainly couldn't have handled unicorns as well my first time."
"You saved my life."
"Yeah, so?"
Titania glared at him, her face turning a deep crimson only matched by her eyes. "SO? I can't believe you're treating saving my life like no big deal!"
"I don't like you, but I'm certainly not leaving you to die."
She huffed. "That may be your reason, but now I owe you. I would dishonor myself I didn't repay you eventually, and the only way I can do that is by saving your life."
Cyrus cringed. "Are you sure I can't like, waive that?"
That was not the correct response. She stormed up to him, her thunderous expression matching the fury in those crimson eyes. "Waive it? You want me to just forget that you saved my life? You might wave it off, but I refuse to forget. Regrettably, I'm stuck with you until I can save your life."
His first thought was to see if he could stage some scenario in which she could safe his life- all it would take was finding the nearest monster and letting it charge him. Surprisingly, Cyrus didn't doubt the possibility of her saving him, but as annoying as this whole life debt thing was, it was an excuse to keep her around until she had a better reason to say. Honestly, with a bit more caution she'd probably be fine in the wilderness, but Cyrus certainly didn't want the poor girl wandering alone without any company. It would be miserable.
Cyrus pulled out his magic mirror from his pocket and showed it to her. "This is a magic mirror, and it'll teleport us back to the village. Grab onto me."
"Grab onto you?" Her distaste was evident, although Cyrus probably could have phrased it better.
"It requires physical contact, unless you want to fly back home?" She sighed before grabbing onto his forearm, and then the two of them disappeared.
Dramatis Personae:
Cyrus: the player character, harem protagonist
Cthylla: ex-Eye of Cthulhu, in relationship with Cyrus
Annelida: ex-Eater of Worlds, in relationship with Cyrus
Medulla: ex-Brain of Cthulhu, in relationship with Cyrus
Visca: still insists on being called King of the Slimes, in relationship with Cyrus
Bea: ex-Queen Bee
Lacrima: ex-Skeletron, clothier replacement, in relationship with Cyrus
Andrea/Andi: ex-Wall of Flesh
Asta: ex-Spazmatism
Tina: ex-Retinazer
Francisca: ex-Skeleton Prime
Regina: ex-Queen Slime
Ditra- ex-Destroyer
Aria: ex-Plantera
Picea: ex-Everscream
Nicola: ex-Santa-NK1
Crista: ex-Ice Queen
Aqua: ex-Duke Fishron
Nissa: the Dryad
Veronica: the Zoologist
Meredith: the Mechanic
Abigail: the Nurse
Judith: the Steampunker
Roxanne: the Stylist
I've always had a soft spot for wallflowers/people who feel lonely. I'm not a very clingy person, but hugs still feel great, so I just see Aqua as an extension of someone who's afraid of being alone. I think there's something kind of sweet about girls in harems being friends, like Charlotte and Laura from Infinite Stratos for example.
Speaking of harem tropes, how I plan on ending this thing: I figure there are 3 ways harems can go. Marry/date 'em all, don't date any, or settling for one. Polyamory falls closer to the first, I guess, but as of yet it doesn't include all members. The end goal is everybody or near everybody, but we'll see how it goes. Of course, a lot of harem media doesn't really go for dating- it's endless pining/obsession which fulfills the self indulgence.
I suppose I'll put an explanation for why Cyrus is missing a leg here, about four chapters late (you can skip this paragraph if you want, it's just me explaining my thoughts). Part of it was escalation- I can't kill Cyrus for obvious reasons, but I wanted to give fights more urgency and impact than injures that sound bad but get patched up by the Nurse in one chapter. However, I didn't want to cheapen something as lasting as amputation by making it a between chapter cliffhanger that got resolved easily. It also forces Cyrus to take his fighting into the air, which should hopefully make battles more interesting. Can't remember for sure, but I might have taken a bit of inspiration from Johnny Joestar from Jojo- a man crippled from the legs down who can fight, but has to work around his disability instead of getting a magic cure.
The name Titania comes from Midsummer Night's Dream, the queen of the fairies, although Cyrus certainly doesn't have the head of an ass. I took a bit of inspiration from changeling stories- a fairy replacing a human, although usually a baby and not a full grown adult.
Titania is a lot more tsun than any of the previous girls, and it's not going to wear off nearly as soon, I think. Tell me what you think!