...
In an ancient era, just after the Great Monster Wars, a family known as the Vozius Clan was at its peak. They had been a cadre of human necromancers defined by their expertise in skeletal constructs. Their expertise in this line of magic was phenomenal compared to most aspiring necromancers, save for the Artistes, a monster family who spearheaded necromancy's development to begin with, and could perform far better with monsterkind's inherent magical ability and with the Monster Lord's own fortunes at their disposal. Yet in time, the two families would come together. For once in their histories, they pooled their resources into attaining a form of immortal life, despite never truly proving if lichdom was a feasible thing to achieve. The two families would routinely purge rival necromancers and obtain their knowledge, establishing a monopoly over the necromantic arts. That was, until relations between monsterkind and humanity began to worsen after the fall of the Six Great Ancestors. It was at this point the second Monster Lord, Saja, grew concerned, and opted to have the Artistes make the Vozius family swear loyalty to the Monster Lord's throne.
Asking a human to swear loyalty to the Monster Lord's throne, when held by Saja of all people, did not end very well, as the Vozius family refused, driving a wedge between the two families as they began to fight one another. This, along with both families regularly annihilating rival necromancers, led to a sharp decline in the number of practitioners of the necromantic arts.
Necromancy took a massive hit when Alipheese XV banned necromancy outright as an evil and vile magic, its practitioners being far and few around the world. The only surviving member of the Artiste family being Chrome Artiste, and the only surviving member of the Vozius family…
Was a man in green robes known as Akira, currently wandering through the forests. He was in search of a mansion, one that also served as an execution ground and a graveyard. To his knowledge, this place was abandoned, inhabited by a few wild monsters at most. He sought this mansion for the sole purpose of raiding its graveyard, knowing that countless dead lay buried beneath the soil. He could note what appeared to be a teenage, childish person standing behind a broken window, yet as fast as he saw her, she had vanished. Maybe an apparition. Maybe someone real. His curiosity peaked as he walked towards the front door of the mansion. The bodies could wait. He had to see what was inside the mansion first.
Entering the mansion, Akira was greeted with the stench of death permeating the air. While he expected abandoned execution grounds to smell of rotting corpses, this was too similar to the average zombie girl, the most common creation of most monsters aspiring to be necromancers... Well, at least, the whole dozen or so that could even try to raise undead after finding the right spells after the Fifteenth had performed a massive book burning on almost all necromantic grimoires and spellbooks.
I did not expect to find another necromancer, yet I suppose a place like this would be an enticing place for an aspiring necromancer to set up shop. Akira mused as he decided to scour the mansion in search of any grimoires, spellbooks, or even regular books that might still be left lying around this place. Knowledge was its own prize after all. But despite his thorough search, all he could find were what appeared to have been rotten books, filled with lice as the pages fell apart into moldy mush with the slightest touch. From the few intact paintings he could see as he wandered through the mansion, Akira noted that this had once been the property of a fairly wealthy family. Perhaps the daughter portrayed in those paintings had truly been a giant compared to her mother and father? Or maybe her parents were just short? He couldn't tell.
With that, he decided to head further in to investigate the figure he briefly saw earlier. Something told him that she was likely the one inhabiting this mansion, the necromancer who created the various zombie girls he saw wandering by. Perhaps she was just a child? She certainly could be mistaken for one, and these zombie girls… weren't exactly the brightest undead he had seen throughout his years. Even an alraune necromancer he had purged years ago had made better and more aggressive zombie girls than these.
In time though, he could see six hands starting to try and ensnare him as they gripped ever tighter on his shoulders, arms, and legs. Yet several skeletal hands would rise from the ground, gripping onto the hands and yanking them off of his body. It was a simple spell that any necromancer with an ounce of magical knowledge could replicate, yet became so exceedingly rare when spells and teachers to pass them on had long since passed.
Rare enough to the point that even a minor spell like this could terrify the ghost haunting him, making her know fear for the first time in her undeath as she fled into the shadows, afraid that this Necromancer could manipulate her existence as he might a normal zombie or spirit. Akira could respect that the ghost girl had known to flee, when others had foolishly persisted in their assaults, and forfeited their lives as naught but fuel for his experiments with spiritual energy. Yet now was not a time to get lost in his own thoughts. Now was the time to press on, and see his search for the necromancer who resided in this place answered.
Hours passed, and soon he saw a towering giant of a zombie girl now sitting on the main stairs in the foyer. She resembled the girl he had seen in those paintings, yet, she obviously had pieces of her taken out and replaced. Here and there, he could see bits of metal laced and crudely hammered into various parts of her body, giving her body unnatural support. Past the bandages just barely covering her face and decency, the giant zombie stared at him, yet made no move.
A cunning, yet apathetic intellect betrayed that dead-eyed stare. This wasn't just some ordinary zombie, this was something sentient with animalistic, feral cunning. Maybe there was a second necromancer at play here who lived with the child, and this second necromancer only played with a single creation and continuously enhanced it? Or maybe that child had simply lucked out somehow and got the lottery ticket when it came to dead bodies…
"You. Did your creator give you vocal cords? Or are you silent?" Akira questioned, his normally-monotone voice betrayed by hints of curiosity in his tone.
The giant tilted her head, before simply saying: "Yes."
"Tell me, how many necromancers reside in this mansion?" He noticed that she spoke simply, having a very raspy tone. He was able to conclude that this zombie was not made very efficiently. He could only hope that this was a necromancer who was inexperienced at modification. Those who were actually competent were always harder to purge.
"Two Necromancers, in Mansion," she said back. "You, and Mistress."
"And who is your mistress?" He'd ask, raising an eyebrow.
"Kuro–…"
"Frederika!" a voice shrieked from above, the same palish purple girl from before now standing near the top of the stairs. "What are you doing!? There is an intruder here, attack him! Why are you just talking to him instead?"
"He is, a necromancer. Who comes into contact, with soap and water," the giant, apparently named Frederika, spoke with a strained tone. "Unlike you."
The girl's eye twitched ever so slightly as she made a swiping motion with her hand, vile dark energies floating from her and into Frederika. "Idiot. I don't care, just do what I told you to do! What use is a guard if they don't GUARD my laboratory!?"
"She is wise not to attack me. The undead have an inherent fear of necromancers, even the mindless ones. For what little knowledge they possess, they know that one such as I can easily send them to the afterlife or control their bodies with but a simple spell." Akira chuckled.
"Well, I mean, thanks for telling me that, that's quite nice of you to warn me you could take over my undead. No wonder how you made it past all of my reject failures and wandered in my domain for so long…" the runty Necromancer remarked, snapping her fingers as a chain-covered, transparent sarcophagus briefly formed around Frederika, completely binding the giant to her will alone.
The Giant sighed as she rose to her feet, lumbering towards Akira. "As you wish, Mistress Artiste."
Akira raised an eyebrow, chuckling. "An Artiste? Here? You're surely joking. I was told the Artiste Clan was a mighty line of necromancers who were always at the top of their craft. Your zombie girls are literally falling apart because you did not correctly ensure they did not further decay. I don't even see proper ghosts or puppets either for that matter. Are you a so-called 'Zombie Specialist?'"
A vein bulged near Chrome's temple as she glared at Akira, "Shut up! Do you know how hard it is to find embalming fluid without traveling thousands of miles to Safina region or going into San Ilia? And I am an Artiste! I am Chrome Artiste! We were the entertainers and researchers within the court of the Monster Lords themselves! Until that vile excuse of a Queen executed most of us and banished what few remained…"
"You rely on purchasing embalming fluid? Come now, any necromancer who specializes in zombies should know how to create their own." Akira tittered. To see a rival necromancer, an Artiste no less, sitting in a random, rotting mansion with failures for zombies littered about was quite amusing to him.
"I prefer stealing my fluid and other resources. Or just digging it up while graverobbing. But enough. I refuse to be spoken down to by some random human who can perform a few parlor tricks!" she snapped, as Frederika finally stood up with some effort, advancing towards Akira.
"Very well. Let's see how well Frederika fares against the Nightbringer." Akira drew his scythe as a summoning circle briefly appeared in front of him, out from the ground rising a giant skeleton clad in orichalcum armor, wielding a mighty longsword and spiked shield made from the reinforced bones of various monsters. Already knowing what its target was, the Nightbringer stepped forth towards Frederika.
The Zombie Giant stared at the Skeletal Giant curiously, before deciding to punch towards the skeleton's body. Nightbringer would step back, before quickly slicing diagonally at Frederika's fist. Lopping half of her hand off as it then pushed forth, impaling Frederika through the chest with its longsword.
Frederika stared on dumbfoundedly as Chrome pinched her nose in irritation. "Stupid, stupid, stupid zombie! Tackle him you idiot, you don't feel pain! You're bigger than him, take advantage of it!" Chrome shouted as Frederika obeyed, gripping onto Nightbringer by the rim of its chest armor and dragging it down into the ground, pinning the skeletal giant to the floor. The Nightbringer tried to push her off, but to no avail as it was forced to let go of its weapons.
"It appears my good creation is in quite the conundrum. I wonder how it'll escape such a thing." Akira chuckled, watching on as the Nightbringer was pinned to the ground. For all the feelings of superiority and dignity he felt constructing normal skeletons and zombies, he knew when to give credit to where it was due, a zombie girl capable of manhandling a giant skeleton with orichalcum armor was hardly an easy thing to create. Of course he wouldn't say this out loud however, they still had the rest of the "duel" to observe.
"Of course, did you really think your creation could outdo even the weakest Artiste…" Chrome began to trail off as Frederika used her intact hand to lift up Nightbringer's armor and tear off its leggings, only to find there wasn't a dick nor a vagina for the zombie giant to fondle and molest.
Chrome audibly facepalmed in disappointment as the zombie giant humped the skeletal giant uselessly, leaving a red handprint on her face. "Dark Goddess fucking damn it of course as soon as I open my mouth…"
This gave the Nightbringer enough time to regain its sword after several failed attempts to reach for it, before promptly slicing at Frederika's neck, and with a sore lack of armor to protect her, Frederika was easily decapitated, the zombie giant's body collapsing onto Nightbringer as Chrome's eye twitched very "slightly."
Chrome then let out a deep sigh, looking at Akira. "Well… I suppose your creation isn't that bad, though it only won because it got lucky! I never had to design Frederika to combat skeletons before, so that was just unfair to her!"
"Perhaps so. Yet one should be ready to combat anything. Especially when studying the necromantic arts." Akira said as the Nightbringer and its armor would vanish, leaving Chrome and Akira alone with the corpse of Frederika. "I still cannot believe an Artiste is this low. I thought I was at rock bottom, but seeing this certainly opened my eyes."
Chrome's fingers curled into a fist as he kept talking. "Maybe I am low in the world, but I was learning, and I still am. Rediscovering lost magic isn't easy, you know. And despite all that talk, if I had simply cheated and told her to slam her weight down, your skeleton would not have a pelvis anymore and she'd still win."
"Bold of you to assume I did not reinforce its weakest points. Yet your drive for knowledge is admirable. It is something that many magicians, human and monster, lack these days. They prefer to cower in fear and blindly cast away the necromantic arts, yet not knowing that such a thing could have brought about magical revolution." He smirked beneath his robes, seeing how her expression changed from annoyance to anger.
"Yes, yes, I do agree with that. I don't like how people just threw it away right as the Fifteenth decided it was no longer a good thing. It's an ancient art with its own merits and knowledge to learn from! Could you imagine what could be done if we mastered Death itself? If we could perfectly reanimate people to be self-aware and just as capable as they were in their youth? Age and disease wouldn't mean a thing anymore! Nor would we have to rely on some pompous goddess to dictate what happens to our spirits either!"
"Such a thing is exactly what my forefathers have pursued for generations, and what I will continue to pursue regardless of necromancy's legality worldwide," A hint of determination made its way into Akira's normally-monotone voice.
"Mhm… So, tell me again, why are you here?" she asked, seemingly having calmed down and appearing to take an interest in Akira after what he said.
"I simply wished to raid the graveyard for bodies and return to my crypt with my findings. I did not expect to encounter another necromancer, nor an Artiste at that."
"I see. Then go on, take some bodies, but do not destroy any more of my creations… What is your name, exactly?" she asked.
"I am known as Akira Vozius." He'd dematerialize his scythe. "I suppose I will get going now. Farewell, Chrome."
"Vozius?... As in, the Vozius family line of necromancers?" she asked, tilting her head. "And you're here… looting some backwater mansion while having your best creation almost get crippled by my retarded work-in-progress trying to rape it? What, did your family somehow get banished from a court too?" she snickered, starting to see why Akira was laughing at her when he learned of her family line. She couldn't help but laugh as well seeing a rival clan end up in an equally shitty condition as her.
He'd let out a deep sigh, annoyed yet taking it in stride. "It is because this mansion is backwater that I decided to loot it. Nobody would care if anything went missing. Furthermore, Nightbringer is, too, a retarded work in progress. He is only good at fighting, and not nearly enough of his body is reinforced."
Chrome had a smug look on her face as he sighed. "Riiight. Go on now, I'm sure I'll be seeing you again sometime soon Vozius."
"Farewell, once again." With that, he would turn to leave. Little of actual value was gained inside the mansion. Only the satisfaction of knowing that an Artiste child was the only person carrying on their family name, and that Nightbringer needed to learn how to attack opponents of equal size. Yet in terms of sustaining his experiments, the bodies were the only truly useful thing he would gain here.
Thus, Akira would leave, having gained a few more bodies to experiment on, and perhaps a potential ally…
...
A knight in green armor stepped near the entrance of a cavern.
Guess this is it, Selene's Treasure Cave… According to this dingy map I bought for a few coins anyways, the knight thought to himself, lighting a torch as he tossed it through the cave, before sighing in relief. No monsters waiting at the entrance to ambush him. He wasn't particularly eager to go into some random cave in the middle of nowhere, but he supposed this was his best bet if he was going to get "Poseidon's Bell" and finally navigate through the horrible storm separating Ilias Continent from Sentora.
Walking down, he picked the torch back up and began to walk through, resting his free hand on his sword. He couldn't help but almost instantly note the cave looked oddly square after the first couple of meters. Clearly manmade by the looks of it. Guess that captain didn't scam me after all. Either that or Monsters carved this place out to lure in treasure hunters…
He grunted, noting an absurd amount of cobweb was scattered around no matter where he turned in the cave's corridors. At least fire appeared to be useful for burning it away, he remembered hearing horror stories from his parents about how powerful arachnes could spin fire-resistant webs and would cook their victims slowly. If there was an arachne here, she sure as hell wasn't one of those powerful ones from Grangold.
By Ilias, how far does this stupid cave go? The Knight thought in growing irritation as mere minutes of exploration turned into hours of wandering the depths. He couldn't help but notice that traps had been disarmed though, judging from the broken steel spikes and mana traces left all around the place… as well as the occasional dirty dart that, despite wearing full plate armor, he made sure to step around very carefully.
You never know with these historic psycho women, he thought, kicking a rock around as he walked on. One moment they look like ordinary human women then bam! They're a fucking succubus trying to bite my dick off and choke on my balls. Doesn't help that Roza existed around that time period too, how else could some random human woman compete with a monster girl?...
He paused, almost getting stuck in what seemed like a giant nest made of webs. "The fuck?" Before he could think of anything, he heard the sounds of faint screaming. Someone else was here? Someone probably got stuck in the fucking web somehow. I don't know how that's possible given how it's all over the fucking place, anyone with basic eyesight or even a goddamn torch could avoid them.
He contemplated just leaving the voice to their fate, before sighing as he carefully navigated through the webs, using his torch to carefully burn away the web. Man I bet if I harvested this silk it'd be worth a lot… Maybe I could pull a fast one over those Ilias Kreuz fags and say I killed a fuck-lot of spiders to get this much silk. Ehhh… Too much effort, this shit's all dusty and crap…
Soon, he came to what he guessed was the source of the screaming as it got louder. "Hello?"
"Heeeeeelp! Let me go! I said let me go!" A voice shrieked, sounding like a female. He could faintly see what looked to be a cocoon in the distance with naught but a silver fox-like tail sticking out of the back, a pale arachne giggling to herself as she continued weaving the cocoon.
"Heehee… Why should I release prey that was stupid enough to get caught in my web on their own?" The arachne taunted, a sultry smile on her face as he could see her fangs glistening with digestive venoms.
That's some good logic to be honest. And in normal circumstances I'd just let that dumbass die. But these aren't normal circumstances where I'm likely to die being a "Hero."
The Knight then, with all of his might, threw the torch towards the cocoon, coincidentally hitting the tail in the process and completely missing the spider girl. Aw fuck I didn't get both of them in one shot.
The arachne hissed as she quickly let go of the cocoon, moving away before the fire spread to her. The fire meanwhile spread from the poor sod's tail, lighting the cocoon ablaze as the screaming intensified.
"Some hero you are!" The arachne snarked as she tightened her fists for a few seconds, before relaxing as she got in a ready stance. "But it truly is nice that another morsel arrived. I don't think that child would have truly sated my appetite."
"Ooooh I see, so you're a pedophile in addition to being a monster, all the more reason to kill you!" he said, before drawing his blade as he made sure to clear out the area around him of webs.
"Then come, I'll be sure to roast you alive for your miserable attempt at my life." She suddenly lurched forth, moving to grab onto him whilst lifting her front four legs, moving to slam them into him one after the other, trying to catch him in a never-ending pummel.
His eyes widened under his helmet as the Knight rapidly stepped back, just narrowly avoiding the spider girl's hand as her first leg kicked him onto the ground. Fucking hell this one hits hard! He thought in panic, before rolling as her other legs pummeled him, an idea slowly forming in his head as he held his sword to his body, letting the spider girl continue to kick him around.
"Is this all you have?! I thought you'd be the slightest bit interesting, and this is all you can muster?" She yelled in frustration, continuing to pummel him. "I was going to reward you for providing the slightest challenge, but I suppose all you're worthy of is being melted down. You'll feel nothing but bliss as I drink up what little remains of that body of yours." She laughed haughtily, seeing the knight as nothing more than a pathetic morsel to be consumed.
The Knight grunted, before he rolled with the momentum from one of her kicks, giving himself just enough distance to get into a crouching position as she caught up with him to pummel him once more. Yet this time, the knight quickly slashed upwards, severing the lower halves of the spider's front legs. She screamed out in a mix of pain and shock, stopping her assault as she took a moment to process what just happened. A moment that would be her last as the Knight leapt onto his feet, ramming his sword through her throat, before slashing to the side and almost completely decapitating her.
She stumbled about, making strained gurgling noises, before falling to the ground as her human half slumped over, her head barely hanging onto her torso by a thread. From the corner, he saw a burnt-looking face poke out from behind a wall. A silver-haired burnt-looking face with fox ears.
Thank fuck that Spider Girl is weak to decapitation, unlike dullahans. Good lord I'm gonna be aching tomorrow… I really should just kill that fucking kitsune just to be safe, buuuut… His thoughts trailed off into actual words as he said: "You wouldn't happen to know where Poseidon's Bell is, would you?"
The kitsune stepped out from the corner, nodding. "I know where it is! I can lead you there as thanks, mister knight!" She smiled innocently, a smile that betrayed her true nature as a monster.
Either this kitsune's retarded through and through or monster children are just fuckin' bred and sheltered to think rape and other bullshit is good. Whatever, as long as this damn child doesn't try to suck my dick then things should be fine… the Knight thought, before sheathing his sword. "Lead the way, kitsune."
The kitsune smiled, beginning to walk through the cave, limping as she navigated the maze-like caverns. He almost felt bad before remembering she likely would've tried to rape him too. Soon, she'd lead him to a hallway that was blocked by a greenish-yellow colored kitsune-taur thing, not wearing any sort of clothing whatsoever. "There you are Kit- BY THE FIRST WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?! DID YOU DO THIS?!" She yelled accusingly, looking straight at the knight as she began to concentrate magical energy.
"Wait, Nanabi stop! He saved me, he saved me! Don't hurt him!" The child begged, jumping up and down annoyingly.
Oh thank Goddess I chose not to murder the child. I might not know math very well but that's… One, two, three… Seven tails, that's probably a kitsune I ain't ready to take on just yet… Actually, is that even a kitsune or is it some other fox-type monster? Aren't kitsunes supposed to look mostly human? Damn thing looks like a centaur reject… the Knight idly thought, resting his hands in his pockets for a quick smokescreen just in case the bigger kitsune, "Nanabi," decided to ignore the runt.
Nanabi would calm down as she collected her thoughts, looking over at him as the magical energy dissipated, sighing in relief. "He, saved you?"
"Yeah! I got caught in a web because I was running away from a mimic. I was about to die but then he tried to throw a torch at the spider to get her off me! He missed… But he still saved me so I don't blame him! I'd rather be burnt than eaten…" The child shivered at the thought of her fate would have been if the knight wasn't there.
"I see. You have my thanks, human. Yet I am under orders from our mistress not to allow anyone through these gates." So said Nanabi, looking towards him sympathetically.
Ye-yeah, "saved," let's… Let's roll with that, sure, the Knight said, suddenly very grateful the runt was a stupid child and not a fully-grown adult. "I see. That's uh, a little annoying, since I was trying to visit… family, up in Sentora, and I heard there was some artifact here that could help me get past the unusual decade-long storm raging between this continent and Port Natalia. Yeah, family. But, you probably don't care about that. What's the big deal with those gates? Is there something dangerous behind them?"
"It's where all the treasure is stashed. Our mistress took interest in looking through the treasures to see what she could sell, and what artifacts she could keep for herself. You can wait here in the meantime, we are simply passing through. When she comes out, I'll see if my word is enough to persuade her to give you Poseidon's Bell." Nanabi said.
So much for making a fortune off this one trip… Oh well, at least I don't have to fight this kitsune-centaur freak to get what I actually need. Even though their fucking mistress will probably try to "reward" me for saving the runt and I'll have to fight her and probably die horribly, he sighed, before leaning against the wall. "I can wait, sure."
"Very well. I will ensure no harm befalls you." Nanabi affirmed, standing guard at the gate whilst keeping an eye on him.
Soon, the knight would observe a purple-haired boy walking up to Nanabi. "You, human." Nanabi turned towards the boy, narrowing her eyes. "Past this door is the treasury. I cannot let you pass, as per the orders of my mistress. As you can see, there is another human patiently waiting for her business to conclude. Should you wait alongside him, you will be able to access the treasury when we are done."
"But… But how will I know what I want is still there?..." Asked the boy, tilting his head.
"You don't." Nanabi said simply, the knight chuckling at the exchange.
"I need Poseidon's Bell…" The boy mumbled, before drawing an incredibly ugly-looking sword. "Then I'll advance, even if by force!"
"Understood. Then I'll show you the power of Tamamo's aide." Said Nanabi, getting in a fighting stance.
The Knight winced upon seeing the subsequent asskicking the random boy got as Nanabi promptly began to pulverize him, easily breaking through the boy's guard and defenses. No matter what the boy did… which, honestly wasn't much considering the Knight could tell the boy likely only started wielding a sword a few days ago. He almost felt compelled to interfere, as if some female voice was nagging him to backstab Nanabi in the head while her back was turned against him. But alas, he was not one to help people who dug their own graves as Nanabi began charging up…
… Seven Moons? So, if she has eight tails, would it be Eight Moons? The Knight thought to himself. Say, would that kitsune runt know a move called Two Moons if that's the case– Why the fuck is this boy assuming a normal defensive stance and allowing this… "Woman," TO FONDLE HIS COCK AND BALLS!?
He sighed audibly. This dumbass deserves to die, on the Goddess's name he deserves death. Fucking retard.
He could almost swear he heard a female voice vocalizing very shrill words of disagreement, but he chalked it up to the musty cavern air finally getting to him as he saw Nanabi finally opt to put the boy to sleep.
Then the boy somehow started sleep-fighting and winning against Nanabi, striking with speed and probably strength beyond the knight's comprehension as Nanabi was now getting her ass beat.
What the actual fuck!? Was the only thought the Knight could think up as this happened.
Then the boy attacked with some sort of Nine-fold Attack, employing some absurdly bright power to counter Nanabi's own Seven Moons as the fight devolved into what the Knight could roughly liken to a fever dream or, something called "plot armor," if he remembered the words of his old childhood """friend""" right.
"Impossible…" Nanabi stared on in genuine shock, before her body started to evaporate into particles, sealed into a seven-tailed fox. The child kitsune looked on in shock.
"W-What just happened?" Asked the silver-haired kitsune.
Maybe I should just slit that boy's throat before he ends up sending some stupid-ass star flying into my face… the Knight contemplated, before wincing as the female voice became much louder and bitchier. He swore that voice was hurling countless slurs at him too. Fine, fine, god I'll stop, good lord this cavern air's making me go schizophrenic.
Then the female voice agreed that it was indeed a God. The Knight couldn't help but wonder if that Spider Girl somehow bit him or applied poison to her legs during their fight, shaking his head in disbelief.
The boy, meanwhile, yawned as he woke up. "Aaaah, that was a nice nap… Wait, those weird eyes made me fall asleep!" His gaze then settled on the sealed Nanabi, looking confused as the burnt kitsune child bravely stepped in front of the fox, getting in a really shaky defensive stance.
"D-Don't hurt us, please! I'm sorry Nanabi actually listened to the orders that were given to her please don't throw more stars at us!" The burnt kitsune said in a trembling tone.
"Oioi, I'm not gonna hurt you… I just, I just needed Poseidon's Bell so I could get to Sentora, and she wouldn't let me through."
The Knight just stared at the boy in even more disbelief, seriously wondering if this was his last visions or dreams before he snapped back to reality to the Spider Girl eating or raping him. He almost kind of wished that was happening over this at this point. Almost.
"...You don't remember?" Asked a purple-skinned lamia who spontaneously appeared out of nowhere, slithering up to the boy. "It looks like you really were completely asleep. You're significantly stronger when asleep, but I don't know why…"
WHAT THE FUCK WHERE DID YOU COME FROM!? The Knight made no visible indicator he was even paying attention, yet couldn't help but wonder why the hell this cave had so many abnormally powerful monsters on fucking Ilias Continent.
"You should only fight while sleeping from now on." Said the lamia. "If you do that, it will be an easy trip."
"No way…" Said the boy, not wanting to be unconscious all the time. "Well, let's continue on! That Tamamo monster or whatever must be in there!"
"It seems like you were too late…" Said the lamia. The boy looked on in confusion, before the gate slowly slid open as the kitsune runt bolted off to hide behind the Knight, much to his ever-so-"slight" irritation.
Emerging from the gate was what looked to be another runt of a kitsune, with golden-blond hair and a fancy kimono. Yet what really drew the knight's eye were her irresistibly soft-looking tails. Yet it was not the softness he was worried about. WHY DOES THE CHILD HAVE NINE FUCKING TAILS ARE ALL GODDAMN POWERFUL MONSTERS HORRIFIC FREAKS OR FUCKING CHILDREN?
He heard a very quiet "Yes" from the (probably cavern air-induced) female voice in his head.
"One, two, three… Nine?!" The Boy exclaimed in shock. "But it's only two more than Nanabi…"
The lamia briefly glanced at the knight, as if sharing in the mutual thought that this child was fucking retarded, before looking back at the boy. "...Idiot. Seven tails isn't even comparable to nine. She's one of the Four Heavenly Knights: Tamamo. One of the top monsters, like Granberia."
WHY THE FUCK IS A FUCKING HEAVENLY KNIGHT ON GODDAMN ILIAS CONTINENT STEALING MORE SHIT FOR HERSELF CAN'T A FUCKING RANDO JUST HAVE ONE GOOD THING IN HIS LIFE!? The Knight almost immediately thought, wondering if he was just better off running the fuck away at this point. AND WHY DOES A HEAVENLY KNIGHT LOOK LIKE A FUCKING CHIIIILLLDDDD!?
"Sorry, Nanabi. I spent a considerable amount of energy breaking the seal on this door, so I will need more time to gather the energy to unseal you. I will have to do it later." Tamamo said, the sealed Nanabi bowing before her feet. Tamamo then walked up to the boy, leaning forward as she sniffed him, the boy stepping back with an uncomfortable look on his face. "So cute. You'd be a good mate~!" She said an almost sing-songy tone.
… Is, is it pedophilia if they're both children? Then again that kitsune is probably a lot older than she looks… What do you think, o schizophrenic voice in my head?
The Knight heard a quiet "Yes in both cases," in response to his idle question.
"No way!" Shouted the boy in response to Tamamo, stepping back.
"Fufu… You're a good guy. I want to play with someone cute like you on my bed…" Tamamo smiled teasingly.
Finally having enough of the absurd child predation he had the displeasure of witnessing today, the Knight decided to blueball Tamamo by simply asking: "I sure bet a Heavenly Knight has a lot of board games at their disposal. I'm sure you could play a mean game of chess. Or checkers, if your brain's a bit too childish for chess."
"Hmm, chess sounds fun! I think I'd have to play solitaire though if the boy wants to actually be able to keep up." Tamamo giggled, the boy looking insulted.
The Knight coughed, wheezing as he tried to catch his breath after seeing the boy's face.
Finally getting over what Tamamo said, the boy looked at her hands. "Is that…"
"Mhm! This is the Poseidon's Bell. Crossing over to Sentora is so annoying, so I'm taking this. It honestly doesn't really matter to me, but Alma Elma is so annoying…"
"Can… Can we share a boat? I'm trying to get to Sentora too here…" the Knight awkwardly said, unsure of how to approach talking to a monster noble. Usually he would've preferred to gut everyone here and run off with the Bell, but seeing how almost everyone could probably kill him in a split-second, he tried being nice and reasonable.
"We could, but I don't think Nanabi would really want to share a boat with someone who sealed her for simply following orders."
The boy winced, before speaking up. "Alma Elma…?"
"She's one of the Four Heavenly Knights as well." The lamia spoke up. "She's causing a storm that blocks ships from crossing between Ilias Continent and Sentora."
"Do the Four Heavenly Knights have a reason to block the route…?" The boy asked curiously.
"... Hey, isn't that by definition an act of war?" the Knight said aloud, much to the sudden, absolute fucking glee of the female voice in his head. "Like, disrupting trade between two foreign nations and continents is… Very much a hostile action taken by an official representing the Monster Lord's… 'nation,' I guess? Kingdom? Empire? I don't fucking know how monster society works, don't quote me on jackshit here."
The immediate silence in the room was palpable, the lamia looking incredibly concerned while Tamamo paled, before quickly changing the subject. "Mov-moving on from that... If the boy wants this bell, what's he going to do?"
"Uhm… Defeat you and take it, I guess?" Said the boy, caught off-guard by the question and uncertain of how to answer. As he moved his hand to unsheathe his sword, the lamia grabbed his wrist.
"... Stop. She isn't someone you can face right now." Said the lamia.
"But… But another Heavenly Knight did an act of war. Wouldn't that mean the Four Heavenly Knights are trying to incite a war against humanity?" Asked the boy, the knight clearly able to see the gears spinning in his head.
The Knight swore he could feel that one female voice somehow dancing as the Boy went on, and honestly he couldn't help but agree with the boy on that one. "Personally I'd ask the runt and Nanabi to put in their words for me and ask for it politely, but I mean, if a boy wants to die horribly, I ain't gonna stop him!"
"Luka, this isn't someone you can face right now." Said the lamia in an incredibly strained tone, the boy's idiocy paired with the sudden amounts of stress from the knight's words bringing her near her limit.
"Haha, that's surprising… The human caught your eye, Monster Lord Alice?" Tamamo said, Luka looking shocked.
The Knight blinked, before simply thinking: what.
"...Did you finally realize it, you idiot? I am the Monster Lord, Alipheese Fateburn the Sixteenth. I didn't even try to hide it." The lamia, Alice apparently, said, showing genuine disbelief that Luka didn't pick up on it.
"Whoops, was I not supposed to say that? I spoke out of place… Anyway, I'll be taking the bell," said Tamamo.
"Hey, wait, Tamamo, I really need the bell to get to Sentora! Could, could you please give it to us?" Asked Luka, almost begging.
"Hmmm… Okay, sure!" Said Tamamo, about to toss the bell to Luka, before looking as the burnt kitsune's face poked out from behind the knight's legs.
"Hey, wait, we already promised mister knight we'd give him the bell!" Said the silver-haired runt, running up to Tamamo.
"Kitsu?! What the hell happened to you!?" Tamamo asked with a tone of fear and concern, already casting healing spells on her as the burn marks began to fade.
"I got caught in a spider web while I was running away from a hungry mimic, and the spider almost ate me! But then mister knight threw a torch at the spider girl to try to get her off of me, but she dodged and it landed on the cocoon I was in! But it was burnt open before it burnt me alive so I was able to get out! If it wasn't for mister knight man I would be soup!" The runt, Kitsu, explained as she was soon completely healed, all burn marks and signs of injury fading.
"Okay? So why is he just, sitting there?" Tamamo said, clearly confused.
"Well he wanted Poseidon's Bell so I brought him to the gate as thanks, but Nanabi was guarding it. Unlike purple guy though, he decided to wait until we were done here so he could see if the bell was left behind! Nanabi was gonna put in a good word for him to try and convince you to give him the bell, but then purple guy threw stars at her and she got sealed!"
Tamamo had a facial expression that simply read: What? "I, I see?…" She sighed, not knowing how to process this, since she could gather that throwing a torch at the web that Kitsu was trapped in was in fact not an effort to save her.
"Uuuuh, yea, I just kind of stumbled across the whole thing, and I wanted to throw something at the spider girl since she was about to eat a child, so like, I just threw what I had on-hand. Which was a torch. It was uh, my bad, but I had to do something you know?" the Knight said, lying out of his ass.
"Hmmm… Nanabi, is it true that you were going to speak on the knight's behalf?" The sealed fox nodded. "Okay then!" Tamamo smiled, giggling as she moved the bell away from Luka and tossed it at the knight. "Here you go~!"
"Bu-Bu-Bu-Wha?" Luka seemed to be genuinely stunned as the knight caught the bell, swiftly pocketing it to ensure that he wouldn't drop it.
"Soooorrrrrry Luka. Maybe if you didn't assault Nanabi for just following the orders I gave her, I would've given you the bell over the guy who saved one of my students." Tamamo giggled sarcastically.
The Knight snickered, just barely holding back his laughter as he began to walk off, making a mocking salute to Luka. "Seeya chump. Better luck next time!" he laughed, moving to saunter away from the group…
"Hey, before you go, what's your name?" Asked Tamamo, tilting her head quizzically.
At the same time, Luka perked up. "Hey wait! Can we, like, share a boat like you suggested first? I gotta get to Sentora too!"
"Uh, how 'bout you pay me the stupid tax first Luka? Then we'll talk about sharing a fuckin' boat for several days. As for my name?... It's Uriel. Uriel Anvari."
"Uhhm, I'll let you have whatever's left of the treasure!" Luka tried to bargain.
"Hmm, I wasn't going to take anything other than the bell. So all the treasure's on the table." Said Tamamo.
You know, I really should just stab this annoying dumbass and take the treasure anyways but… Fucking hell, asshole's got the goddamn Monster Lord as a companion… What do you think, magic schizo voice in my head?
All Uriel heard in response was "Look inside your bag."
He didn't know what the hell that was supposed to mean, until seeing his bag had somehow become a portal to hammerspace as countless mounds of treasure floated through it, along with all the other random shit he had been previously carrying. He then glanced past Tamamo only to see the treasure room was somehow completely empty. He guessed it was meant to imply that he should just tolerate Luka for the time being. "... You know, that's overpaying the stupid tax, but I'm moooore than happy to take that offer up!"
Luka smiled happily, internally glad that he wasn't stranded on the Ilias continent, even if it meant bunking with this asshole knight for a few days.
"Also, Uriel, are you sure you don't want another reward? Perhaps thin fried tofu? Maybe even touching my fluffy tails?" Asked Tamamo, her trademark teasing smile plastered onto her face.
"I'll just take the tofu as a roadside snack," Uriel responded on the spot, not even giving it a second thought as Tamamo tossed him a small little wooden box that seemed to have some sort of preservation enchantment applied to it.
"There you go! It'll never ever expire as long as it's inside the box. You could even put other food there too if it fits." Tamamo giggled. "Well, now what are you going to do Luka? Are you going to try to defeat me?" Tamamo asked, her aura flaring up slightly.
As Luka opened his mouth to speak, Uriel interrupted him. "Well, y'know you're free to get your ass handed to you Luka, but I personally don't know how long it's gonna take you to get off your ass. Probably longer than it'll take me to hitch a boat ride and get off this continent!"
"...There's no reason to fight. I'll only fight those who try to stop monsters and humans from coexisting." Luka said.
"Aaah, an admirable endeavor. But we will have to fight eventually, as I am one of the Monster Lord's Four Heavenly Knights." Tamamo said.
"...If it happens, it'll happen." Luka sighed, somewhat resigned.
"I mean you two are going to fight eventually I guess, since, you know, the whole act of war thing happened. Against the entire Ilias Continent and San Ilia. With other human nations likely to get very butthurt about it. And it was a Heavenly Knight who committed said act of war. Just thought I'd remind you two!" Uriel chuckled.
"Ye-yeah, obviously... Well then, I must be going right now, farewell." Tamamo and the other two kitsunes vanished.
"Right, that's wonderful, I'm quite a happy man right now. What'd make me even happier is getting back to Ilias Port before dusk and getting on that boat. So let's get moving you two!" Uriel laughed, walking off with Luka and Alice following him…
...
A group of misfits, rugged-looked men and women gathered up, a sleazy man with greasy black hair standing at the forefront. This man was Lazarus, the leader of Ilias Kreuz, a terrorist organization dedicated to the eradication of monsterkind. Among these misfits was a man in black robes, a monster hunter who joined with Ilias Kreuz. He was Alvrenger Thalkan. The descendant of a line of relatively unknown monster hunters. While others who sought to kill monsters hunted for the sake of Ilias, Alvrenger was a man who hunted for profit. A bouquet made of an alraune's flowers sold for much more than a regular bouquet. A harpy's feathers were irresistibly soft, selling for incredibly high prices compared to the feathers of an ordinary bird.
It was because Ilias Kreuz supplied a steady stream of monsters that he stuck with them. Yet tonight, they had been called here for more than just a single monster. This was a raid. A raid he knew little about, but a raid he was sure Lazarus would explain.
"Right boys and girls. We're here to just test the waters. I've heard rumors that Lady's Village is home to some old monster who was a contender for the Monster Lord's Throne during the time of the Fifteenth or whatever. What I'm thinking is, if we can kill this old hag and not get completely obliterated, then surely we could do much bigger things, yeah? But obviously we don't know how strong this monster is. We don't even know how strong the other monsters near her are. But considering the rep's this place has… Probably best if we don't fuck with it too hard and piss off the mayor before we know what she's capable of. Everyone got that?" Lazarus spoke up, having an extremely relaxed, resigned tone to his voice. Alvrenger rose an eyebrow, able to tell that Lazarus expected things to go badly.
He got a chorus of "Aye!" in return, though most sounded uncertain. Alvrenger was one of these uncertain people. Yet he supposed that if this person lost to the Fifteenth, who was slain by just Lazarus and three other humans, perhaps they'd have a chance in raiding the village.
"Good. Remember. We ain't going for the kill on this one, not unless we can see they're actually weak as fuck. Plan is to poke 'em a bit then bolt back to base, don't go too deep into the village," Lazarus warned, before drawing his sword. "Let's go! We attack now!"
Alvrenger drew his sword, the moonlight gently shining on the weapons of his comrades, just barely illuminating them in the cold of the night. The Ilias Kreuz group carefully descended towards the village. They could see what appeared to refined noble women roaming around the town, others calmly resting or tending to their own personal hobbies within their houses. Some of these were definitely monsters. But only Ilias knew if all of them were.
A ranger aimed his crossbow, before firing a bolt at one of the women. Yet she caught it between her fingers, looking towards the forest and smiling lewdly. "Oh? What do we have here? A bunch of tasty-smelling men~? Come out, come out, we promise to play nice~..." The lady drawled as the women's bodies began to distort and transform.
Abominations. Alvrenger thought coldly as he saw some of them resembling more masses of tentacles and limbs than actual monsters. Freaks of nature begging to be put down.
Lazarus grunted, sparks flicking off his sword as he channeled what little he could of fire magic. "Fight cautiously. I'm guessing we're gonna have to run a lot sooner than expected…"
Contrary to what Lazarus said, a whole bunch of them rose their swords to the sky. "Chaaarge! In the name of Ilias!" Almost all of them charged forth towards the monsters, attempting to slice and stab through them whilst the rangers fired crossbolts and arrows.
"Fucking morons…" Alvrenger muttered as he moved to enter the fray. If this was just a hunting party, he'd trust that his comrades could handle themselves. Yet here, it didn't feel right leaving his comrades to die pathetically.
One woman slowly twisted into the shape of a scylla, her entire body turning into a mass of tentacles as she twisted limbs from bodies, leaving only the heads alone so her victims died painfully and slowly. Slow enough to savor when she was done with the rest of these fighters. Another woman looked almost beetlelike, stampeding and crushing men under her pincers and legs. One particularly vile witch was casting magic, causing the female attackers to fall over in heaps of ecstasy as she drained their life.
Looking between them, Alvrenger would charge towards the scylla-like creature, reaching into one of the pockets in his robes as he got closer.
The Scylla Abomination smiled as Alvrenger drew near, her face veiled under the forest of tentacles that surrounded the fleshy core of her body, before four tentacles lashed out towards him in an attempt to rip off his limbs, just as she had done to all the prior victims who tried to attack her. Yet with skill unexpected from an Ilias Kreuz member, he promptly rolled beneath her tentacles, before pulling his hand out from his pocket and tossing a handful of a gray, metallic powder-like substance at her.
She paused in confusion, before the dust made contact with her face and the rest of her massive body, causing the scylla to shriek in agony as she began to lash out chaotically, screaming in misery as she felt as if the very mana in her veins was burning away, her flesh becoming less tensile and durable as even lowly Kreuz members could cut a few tentacles off. Yet, many would not get the chance as she began to spin and stagger around blindly, her tentacles even slapping and accidentally knocking over her own fellow monsters to the ground.
As Alvrenger would dodge and weave through the tentacles, he'd notice that she wasn't paying attention to where her tentacles were actually landing. Throwing more of the metallic dust onto her body, he waited until she'd soon end up wrapping up and entangling herself with her own tendrils, immobilizing her as she screamed in agony. Alvrenger rushed forth and swung at her neck, severing her head from her body as she went limp, her screams fading as her futile writhing ceased.
The Beetle Lady and Witch both turned as they screeched, letting out brief pulses of magic to force the Ilias Kreuz members away from them as they focused on Alvrenger. As the beetle began to charge at him, the Witch began to chant, casting several lightning bolts towards Alvrenger that ended up frying several other men by accident. Yet her chanting was soon stopped as Lazarus appeared, managing to get the drop on her as he wildly swung the blunt end of his blade into the back of her head, knocking the witch clean out.
Lazarus looked at the havoc going on, before seeing a Woman in a Crimson Dress starting to descend down the steps of her manor. He felt cold sweat dripping from his neck from simply looking at her, before he wildly lashed his sword towards the skies, towards the hills that the raiders had come from. "Fall back! It's time to get the fuck out everyone!"
The Lord of Lady's Village softly giggled. "Ilias Kreuz, Ilias Kreuz… Never did I think your group would develop the balls to actually attack someone out of your remarkably tiny weight class. Allow me to castrate you all and remind the rest of your group why you think bombing mermaid schools is the best thing to do…"
Alvrenger sheathed his sword, and unslung his auto-crossbow from his back, aiming it towards Cassandra as he lined up six shots, five of the crossbolts having a small pouch attached to the tip of the arrow. He decided to only fire one shot first, firing a normal bolt towards Cassandra's head.
Cassandra caught the bolt rather easily, inspecting it. "Come now, did you all really think that dramatic trick would work on me when it didn't work on my subjects?"
Before she could gloat any further, he squeezed the trigger, firing off a volley of tipped arrows at various points on her body, knowing that Cassandra was some weird flesh monster, and thus seeing it prudent to coat her entire body in the metallic dust.
Her eyes dilated ever so slightly as one arrow dug into her cheek, revealing teeth and muscle. The rest dug into her shoulder, hands, and thigh as they exploded, covering her in dust as she began to cough, for a few moments genuinely surprised before shaking it off as her body naturally expunged the arrows, save for the bolt stuck in her face that she simply opted to take out like a toothpick.
"Cold Iron?..." she mused aloud, "I thought such a thing was wiped out by the Fifteenth… Fascinating…"
For a moment, Lazarus panicked seeing her apparently unharmed, before mistakenly assuming Cassandra was genuinely lost in thought or somehow stunned by the dust. "GET THE FUCK OUT NOW GO GO GO!"
With that, Alvrenger would sling his crossbow back onto his back, before moving to get the hell out of dodge, joining his fellow Kreuz in retreat.
Later, the surviving raiders would reconvene in their base at Gold Port. Most opted to pass out or get treatment for their wounds, yet Lazarus instead opted to pull Alvrenger off to the side of the run-down church, staring him in the eyes.
"Boy, I don't know what the fuck you did, but you have my thanks for making sure that show wasn't a complete shitfest. But you gotta tell me… what the hell was that thing you used on the scylla and Cassandra?"
"Come." Alvrenger said, standing up as he beckoned for Lazarus to follow. "I'll do you one better than simply explaining. I'll show you where to get the stuff I used for that little stunt."
"Alright… If you say so, then by all means, lead the way," Lazarus said eagerly as the two departed once more…
...
A small boat rowed towards the shores of the island where the Vampire Citadel was located. A pale, feminine man with white hair covering one of his red eyes stepped out of the boat, leaning on a cane with a steel skull tip. Just below said skull appeared to be a handle.
Well, here I am… This can either go dramatically wrong or extremely swimmingly for me. Only one way to find out how this coinflip goes, he thought, walking towards the gates of the citadel. The gates seemed scarcely guarded, only two unarmored vampires standing outside. Seeing him, one of them began to walk towards him.
"My my, a human? All the way out here? How did you get here?" Asked the purple-skinned vampire, appearing to be barely clothed as bloodstains soaked her almost completely nude body.
"I bought a boat and rowed my way here," the man said with an almost carefree tone. "If I were a guessing man, this is the Vampire Citadel, isn't it? It's quite a bit more intimidating and oppressive up close."
"It is indeed the Vampire Citadel! It was designed to strike fear into invaders, while also catering to the niche style that is vampire fashion. Anyways, I'm going to have to bring you to the Queen. Surely you wouldn't mind having a little bit of fun first, would you?" She asked rhetorically, stepping closer and closer to him as she smiled lavisciously, showing off her bloody fangs, glistening with saliva.
"Ah, how very charming you are. But, I would think you'd be more attractive if you wore more clothes, for mystery's just as excellent a quality as bodily beauty. And while I'd be more than happy to lay down with you in a coffin on any day of the week, I think I'd much rather just meet the Queen, for that sounds far, far exciting for a traveler like myself compared to railing what I could assume are 'Used Goods' judging by your clothing. Ah, how I sorely wish vampire clothing fashion was as good as their buildings!" he said with a taunting smile, an increasingly mischievous glint shining in his eye.
"That's okay, you're human, you don't really understand that the raw body is something quite beautiful. You all wear clothes for some reason that isn't just style. It's kind of weird, but I won't judge you for having trash taste. Anyways, I can't really take you to the Queen without you being incapacitated or otherwise pacified so that you're not a threat, so unless you want to try to fight me you're going to have to go elsewhere, or simply relax and let me have my fun." Said the vampire, giggling.
"My, 'apologies,' but I prefer to top," he dryly responded, waving his hand as a powerful wind spell blew across the bridge with the might of a tornado into the Vampire guard.
"WHAT THE FU–!" The vampire was sent careening into the ocean, the other guard quickly retreating into the castle, likely to warn its inhabitants of his presence.
The man giggled, waving childishly as the vampire flew away, before walking into the Citadel confidently, blowing the gates open with another wind spell, and freezing them in place as he blasted icy winds from his hands. "Now this shall be fun~!" he laughed, taking his time to take in his surroundings.
He could see the red velvet carpets lying all around, and the obsidian-black blocks made to build up the castle's walls and ceiling. He could see the gargoyles, so carefully sculpted as to resemble living beings, and many art pieces hung around the castle, such as a magnificent portrait depicting the former Vampire Queen Kurobara, the Black Rose. He could also see that almost all of these art pieces had a small tag after the art piece's name saying: "... The Original Art Piece. Graciously loaned by Elizabeth Bathory for display on the Castle Walls."
Walking along, the Wind Mage would come to a massive library that he briefly paused to take in, noting that the massive bookshelves went up for nearly 5 stories, with railings on each floor. He briefly contemplated taking a brief detour to study in this place, before shaking his head. He had other things to do as he promptly leapt onto the side of a bookshelf, rapidly climbing to the top of the library before vaulting over the railings, landing on the fifth floor. Proceeding onwards, he continued to wander aimlessly, wishing there were some directions or a map for this place, yet in time he found himself what he assumed to be a kitchen.
Clear, crystalline shells filled with blood lined the area, with vampiric chefs chopping up bloody meat from livestock and humans alike. Yet the Mage only looked to be vaguely interested in the "sauce" that these vampires were making on the side, idly dipping his finger into it and sampling the condiment.
"Mhm… Needs garlic…" he mumbled aloud, before blinking as he glanced at the clearly insulted chefs who all paused to just stare at him with irritation. "O-oh, uhm… Ignore what I said!" he said panickedly, rushing out of the kitchen before he could get swarmed by angry chefs, until he came to a stop, seeing a regiment of vampiric guards cutting him off from every direction. "Oh dear, this certainly isn't good at all…"
"There he is, get him!" One of them shouted as the vampiric guards began to rapidly close in on him, weapons drawn and fangs bared.
He innocently raised his hands to the air, before smiling wickedly, his body and clothes rapidly dissolving into a blue mist that spread throughout the area, the mist quickly moving past the guards. They'd panic as they quickly began to fan out the castle, barking orders in an attempt to locate the eccentric man. Yet for all their attempts to locate and detain him, the mists of the Wind Mage would soon slip past them entirely, reconvening and congealing at the gates to what he assumed was the Vampire Queen's throne room.
Right, now or never, let's hope I don't fumble over my speech while talking to the Queen… he thought, before blasting the doors open with a wind spell as he walked into the throne room of the Vampire Queen.
He saw a red carpet leading up to the throne, ending right before the Vampire Queen's blackened throne. She looked down at him from the elevated throne, looking over the human. "So you're the human who sent this place into an uproar." She stated in a semi-curious tone. "State your name, human, and why you sought to come here."
The Sorcerer took a steep bow, smiling from ear to ear. "I am Vaal, the Wind Mage. Or Frost Mage, if you'd prefer that. I have come seeking… allies, so to speak."
"Vaal… Hm, are you perhaps shortening your actual name? I cannot see a parent genuinely naming their child Vaal." The Vampire Queen said, a hint of amusement in her voice.
"Mhmhmhm, some might find it stupid, but I like to think that nickname is much more stylish and memorable than my actual name, I will say that much Vampire Queen."
"I see. To seek an alliance with one such as myself, who makes her views on humans like you so abundantly clear… You have some nerve, I can tell that much. Yet what are you looking for an alliance for? To make some monster girl harem? To create an era of peace and harmony?" She asked in a mocking tone.
"Hardly. Yet for someone so, so very outspoken– perhaps second only to Spider Princess –you do hardly try to make any genuine attempts at fulfilling what you threaten and promise to do to the Safina Region. For someone who prides themselves for their competent monsters and military might, it surely helped so very much to stop this human mage from getting here, right?" he dryly said, smirking from ear to ear. "For someone so very hellbent on expanding her dominion and helping her people flourish, it sure doesn't seem like the Monster Lords in recent generations have shared in your beliefs at all…"
"It is precisely because of that reason. The moment we do anything, the Sixteenth will be at our throats, siccing her dogs, the Four Heavenly Knights, upon us. For all the might I possess, even I know that I alone cannot hope to best them. Such is the fate we all know awaits us Queens if we try anything that would anger Alipheese. Hence why nobody truly expands, yet. For the moment one of us, one who believes monsterkind should return to its roots, is crushed, a pathway is opened. A pathway for the Sixteenth to investigate and purge everyone in her court who disagrees with her, claiming to do so in the name of coexistence and peace, yet doing nothing to stop a random monster from attacking a random traveler. Yet instead of pressing on, the Sixteenth maintains this stalemate. For what reason, I do not know. Perhaps she's blinded by her pacifism. Perhaps she knows of our plight and relishes in seeing us waste away. Yet she maintains this stalemate all the same," The Vampire Queen explained as her voice took on a more serious tone, losing any trace of amusement or curiosity it once had.
Vaal closed his eyes as she talked, hearing it with perfect clarity. "Yet, she fails to do anything about Ilias Kreuz. The group so obviously based in Grangold, right there on the port just across from Hellgondo! Right there. So obvious. So easy to deal with. But never willing to do what must be done. And because of her indecisiveness, the rest of you, and by extension, humanity, is locked into this, stalemate as nothing changes. No progress. No new 'stories' other than the same repeats of Heinrich's tale, a tale that already barely happens as is, for humanity is not willing to grow of their own accord, clinging to tradition and begging. Not unlike how the Queens are stuck clinging to the Monster Lord for protection against Ilias and the 'Dark Goddess,' clinging to legacy and begging for changes that will never come."
His eyes opened, as he began to pace around the throne room. "But what if that doesn't has to be the case forever? What if… People were willing to be free? The Heavenly Knights are stronger than normal queens, right? Perhaps they could take out one so, so very easily… But two at once? Three? Four? More? What then? What happens when the Heavenly Knights have to back off of something, and look weak for a change? Or, alternatively, what happens if the Monster Lord and her Knights suffer unfortunate 'accidents?'" he asked, tilting his head. "What happens when reliance upon the Dark Goddess' descendant is no longer optimal for monsterkind's survival? Sure, Ilias Kreuz is a nonthreat… but what stops them from getting stronger while Alipheese wastes her time, doing god knows what? What happens when they decide bombing simple schools isn't sending a strong enough message? Oooh, I know, what happens when Ilias finally decides to use San Ilia for something and purges the monsters happily living in her dominion? Where's the almighty Monster Lord then, when her people need her most?"
The Vampire Queen chuckled. "You suggest that multiple queens work together? I'll believe that when I see such a thing occur. For generations monsterkind has fought itself, and I doubt such a thing will change simply because of a few words. No, it is might that decides all. It is might that will decide the fate of monsterkind. And you, what, seek to lead this gathering of queens? You think you can simply use monster nobility for your own gain? Truly, you would not wish to unleash us upon humanity, with nothing restraining us."
"I have my own reasons for seeking this path, but I suppose two of the biggest drives are simply… What would happen? I want to be free to do what I want. People want to be free as well. What would occur if such a thing happened in this world? Would Ilias be able to do anything? Would we succeed in killing Alipheese? Such questions have plagued my mind for years, and I do intend to find out," Vaal spoke, looking at the skull-handle of his cane. "Yet if words will not move you, then I suppose simple might will do. A duel is in short order to settle our debate, no?"
"Hmhmhm… I like how you think. Very well, you should know how to convince me to even consider entertaining your desires." She'd step down from her throne, their surroundings shifting into that of an arena. "Should you manage to best me, I will entertain your ideas. Should you fail, I will hand you over to Carmilla to toy with until you expire." She'd materialize her weapons. A blade of searing-hot fire in one hand, and a blade of sub-zero ice. "I, the Vampire Queen Fatima, shall be your opponent!"
Vaal laughed, not daunted in the slightest as deathly mist leaking from his body, clouding the arena in fog. Flourishing his cape, he immediately opened up by casting several gigantic ice spikes towards the Vampire Queen. Yet she was quick on her feet, melting the ice spikes in a massive blaze of fire, cackling as she gleefully charged in, swinging her fiery blade towards his shoulder whilst keeping her icy blade at her side.
The Wind Mage grunted, swinging his cane upwards to block Fatima's sword, swiftly stepping off to her side as a brilliant glow radiated from his off hand, a storm of hail crackling down onto her, yet he didn't appear to be affected by his own spells. She would leap back, forced to tank some of the hail with how it was casted at point-blank. Yet this did not terrible faze her as she pointed her icy sword towards him, a burst of blindingly-bright lightning striking towards him, momentarily stunning Vaal as she charged towards him, swinging her flaming sword towards his cane-arm whilst swinging her icy blade towards his right leg.
Both attacks found their marks, fire spreading across Vaal's sleeve and melting the flesh on his upper left arm, whilst his right leg became more stiff as rigor mortis set in rapidly on the flesh cut by Fatima's frozen blade. Yet on the same note, he tossed his cane to his right arm as he delivered a brutal uppercut into Fatima's ribcage, sending her back a few feet with an audible crack.
Mage and Vampire warily eyed each other for a few moments, before Fatima's eyes began to glint in the fog. Vaal in turn replied by whipping his right arm upwards, creating a cold draft of wind that obstructed both of their visions; better that he couldn't see her rather than risk a possible instant death. Pressing onto his advantage, the winds began to howl around the Mage as wind blades cut through the fog. Sometimes he could "feel" the satisfaction of one hitting its mark and cutting through Fatima's flesh as she circled around him. Other times, he was not as lucky, seeing only faint glimpses of her rapidly blurring around him in the cold.
Yet soon the Vampire Queen made her own move, lunging out from the cold mists as Vaal saw both of her blades were coated in midnight-black darkness. He only had a few seconds to process and throw himself out of the way as she unleashed World-Ending Slashes, creating gigantic scars in the arena as most of Vaal's right side had been caught and nearly vaporized by the sheer darkness.
She could only shake her head in contempt at a seemingly easy final victory, before raising her blade to finish off the interloper who had broken into her citadel. Yet upon slashing towards his head, Vaal had dissipated into mist and smoke, causing the Vampire Queen to instinctively leap back as the Mage's laughter echoed throughout the arena.
"Most interesting Vaal, I must say I am impressed with how resilient you are! None have managed to last this long against me during my entire reign. Even the best heroes that have fought against Elizabeth and Carmilla alone have lasted but a single minute…" she spoke, constantly turning as she felt the Mage's presence all around her.
"Fafafafa… I do think myself a cut above the average human!" Vaal's voice echoed from… above her? The Vampire Queen looked up, before narrowly avoiding a crushing blow from Vaal's cane that created a sizable crater in the arena. By now, it looked as if Vaal had entirely recovered from the few brief moments he had been in the mists, smiling smugly as he raised several walls of ice between them.
Fatima simply opted to let mana surge through her body as she pointed towards Vaal, unleashing a giant Lambda Spark that melted through his walls of ice, flooding the floor of the arena with a small pool of water. Just as she thought, the Mage vanished into mist once more as she could see the fog around them being shifted as Vaal made his way behind her.
Now gripping onto the "handle" part of his cane just below the steel skull, Vaal reformed as he unsheathed a hidden blade within the cane, almost cutting into Fatima as she narrowly blocked with her frozen blade. Yet, despite being caught in a bladelock for a few seconds, it was almost instantly obvious who would win in that bladelock as Fatima shoved Vaal back with brute force and raised her other blade, almost slashing him in half once more as he rolled out of the way.
Reveling in the fight as it kept on raging, Fatima cackled as she ignited her frozen blade and froze her burning sword, Black Lightning surging down the pair of frozen, burning swords. Gradually, she could begin to predict exactly where Vaal would attempt to manifest to assault her, sometimes managing to hack into him. Yet other times, he simply opted to manifest away from her, creating sparks with his magic as he electrified the pool of water they were standing on or created freezing blizzards, causing some severe burns and damage to the Vampire Queen.
Eventually, Fatima could notice Vaal forming what appeared to be a frozen flower in his hand, before crushing it. Assuming he was about to perform some dramatic skill, the Vampire Queen grinned as she took her chance and knocked him into the wall, impaling her swords into the wall like scissors, so all she had to do was simply pull both aside and slash Vaal's head off.
Vaal coughed up blood, weakly laughing along with Fatima as he held onto one of her blades. Presumably a futile attempt to pry them off, she guessed. Who knows, maybe he'd prove a good mate to one of her aides if anything, he had proven quite fascinating in the time they had duelled.
She paused, snapping out of her brief musings as the Wind Mage held up his other fist, before unclasping it as she could see what appeared to be pure white dust. The Vampire Queen tilted her head in clear confusion, before Vaal blew the dust into her face, causing the crushed ice shrapnel to almost instantly bore through her eyes and flesh. Screaming in pain, Fatima let go of her swords, clutching at her eyes and face as the Mage laughed, vanishing into mist as he escaped the borderline vicegrip her swords had trapped him in.
He smirked silently, simply choosing to sheathe his sword as he leaned onto his cane, opting to passively melt the ice shrapnel out of Fatima's flesh as the fogs dissipated. "I believe, I won that fair and square. Yet I will admit, I doubt I could rely on the same tricks to beat you again in the future."
Fatima took a few seconds to slowly recuperate as she casted healing magic, soon gruesomely regenerating her eyes and broken ribs as she looked at herself. "Hah… This is hardly a look a noble such as I should have… Very well. You've proven your strength to me firsthand, Vaal. I haven't enjoyed a fight like that from someone who wasn't another Monster Queen in a long time, and never from a human."
Vaal beamed brightly, "Ah, thank you! I will admit, I did not expect Monster Queens to be so insanely durable… Most monsters who have my Frozen Flower blown into their face tend to lack heads afterwards. It is clear that I still have much to learn and practice in, if I'm to even consider trying to get the attention of someone like the Spider Princess, much less their loyalty…"
"Indeed… Now then," Fatima said, waving her hand as the arena slowly vanished back into the throne room they had started in. "Let us talk more about this… Ah, my apologies. What would you even call this 'alliance' that you proposed to me? I don't believe you gave me a name."
"Ah, a name?... I like to think of the alliance as being called The Pale Hand."
...
Author's Notes
I am Alpharius and you are not.
That is an L.
Read this fic to change that.
100th Monster Girl Quest Fanfiction let's go! We did not expect to actually be able to say we wrote the 100th MGQ fic. We do not know if this is something to be proud of or be ashamed of. Despite that, we do know one thing.
We are Alpharius.
Anyways, if you liked the story please leave a review telling us what you liked about it, and if you have any criticisms, post those in the reviews as well. Feel free to PM us for whatever you so desire.