Day 67 / When in Rome
The rank-and-file soldiers of The Order had very little to do the next morning. Ranger squads were swamped with work, constantly being sent out scouting or hunting for food, and their hero and Valkyrie were perpetually in meetings with the other officers. The wizards and priests were likewise occupied, having been gathered for some project by the senior members of their respective organizations, but soldiers and sorcerers had nothing. 'Standby and wait for instructions' was the order of the day, which the more proactive ones took as an excuse to squeeze a bit more training in. It was this situation that lead to Garret facing Annika in a fencing match.
"Come on, Garret! I know you're better than this! Hya!"
The crack of two branches (standing in for training swords) connecting pierced the morning mists as Garret barely managed to fend off her attack. Almost immediately, she followed it up with another series of blows, striking Garret in the leg, arm, and nearly his chest, but at the last moment he twisted out of the way.
"I'm a mage, not a swordsman, cut me some slack here!"
He retaliated with his own attack, which Annika easily parried, then struck him on the back as she moved past him.
"Hahaha, Not a chance!"
She grinned wolfishly, then circled around to position herself for another strike. Thankfully, she wasn't using all of her strength. She was not going easy on him at all, but at least she was considerate enough to not hit him with the full force of her attacks. Beside them, illuminated by the golden rays of the rising sun, Eric and Aisha spared as well. Much like Garret, Aisha was severely lacking in swordsmanship – something that Eric was trying to rectify. He didn't have any time to watch them, though. The minute he took his eyes off her, Annika stepped forward and lunged across the smooth, stone ground, aiming a thrust for his ribs. Garret deflected it at the last moment, then blocked her follow-up attack and stepped in for his own slash. His footwork was sloppy and his technique, still poor, but sometimes… sometimes, it worked in his favour. The way he had moved and attacked took Annika by surprise, and resulted in the two of them being nearly pressed together in an awkward position, their swords trapped. Garret was the first to seize this opportunity and hooked her leg with his own. Then he lunged forward, tackling her to the ground. In the ensuing scuffle, he somehow managed to get his 'sword' free first and and drew it across her neck.
"Hey, that's cheating!"
Now it was his turn to grin and gloat, savoring his only victory.
"All's fair in love and war."
"Oh, we'll see about that."
Garret detected a hint of bitterness in her voice, as she shoved him off of her, then began their fight anew. For the rest of the sparing session, her blows stung noticeably more.
"I think that's enough for now. Ya alright down there, Garret?"
Originally irritated by her loss, now that she had trounced him multiple times in the sword ring, Annika's cheerful mood was back, and she extended a hand to him. Sitting on the ground, battered and bruised, Garret accepted her help, and she hauled him upright. Unfortunately, her irritation had seemingly transferred to him.
"I know you hate losing, Annika, but you don't have to take it out on me. That really hurt."
Much to Garret's annoyance, she tried to brush it off.
"Oh come on, I didn't hit you that hard."
He rolled up his sleeve to reveal a set of colourful bruises stretching across his upper arm and shoulder.
"Yes. You did."
Once she realized what she'd done, her expression immediately shifted to a guilty looking one, and she began to apologize.
"Oh shit, sorry, Garret. I, uh… I guess didn't pay attention and got carried away. Are you alright? Can I do anything to help?"
He just scowled and shook his head.
"Pay more attention next time."
"Garret, I'm sorry."
"Yeah, that's…"
He took a breath to calm himself.
"Its fine. Let's go get some lunch."
It was amazing what a bite to eat could do for one's mood. Having had some time to cool down, as well as being able to shovel food into his growling stomach, Garret was in a much better state of mind. Annika apologized again, and he let her know he didn't harbor any ill will against her, though he reiterated his request for her to be more careful. Sitting on the improvised wood and stone benches, under the midday sun, the two ate in relative silence. Something was bothering Garret, though, as he looked to his left, out from the camp and over the forests and plains laid out before their plateau. Those groves in the distance… Did they always look so vibrant?
"What do you think, Annika?"
He mentioned the unusually colourful (even by demon realm standards) flora to her, and she squinted, trying to look, then shrugged her shoulders.
"Dunno. It doesn't look that different to me. Maybe it's the way the sun is hitting it?"
"Maybe…"
Disregarding it for now, he pushed that feeling of unease away. If it was something, whatever it was, was many miles away. They'd have plenty of warning before it showed up, especially with how actively their ranger teams were scouting.
The rest of the day passed relatively uneventfully. Garret took a couple hours to hike further up the mountain their plateau jutted out of, both for his own enjoyment, and to see if he could get a better look at their surroundings. Annika was more than happy to join him in this endeavor, but while the trek was pleasant, with beautiful views, it didn't reveal much that they hadn't seen before. At least it helped to keep his mind off the events of the previous weeks.
In contrast to how it was in the morning, when they returned to the camp around dinner time, Garret and Annika found it to be much more active. While most were eating, the soldiers that weren't were being organized into small groups. They were then divided by gender and marched, twenty at a time, into one of several zones at the camp's edges that had been hastily walled off by hung fabric, preventing people from looking in. Was something important happening? By a stroke of luck, they stumbled upon a very disheveled looking Eric and Aisha, who were blushing slightly as they walked hand-in-hand, back towards their tent.
"Eric! Aisha! What's going on? What's everyone organizing for?"
When they heard his call and stopped to look for where it had come from, Garret could have sworn he saw a look of annoyance flicker across Aisha's face. When Eric spotted him, he raised a hand in greeting.
"Ah, Garret! You're just in time. I think the Northreach soldiers are up soon."
"You'd better hurry. Being late will seal your fate.~"
Well that was nice to know, but it wasn't an explanation
"Ok, but up for what?"
"Preparations for entering the demon realm."
"You mean like wards or something?"
Eric grinned, looked at Aisha, then nodded.
"Yeah, something like that."
Now Garret was getting irritated by their curtness. It seemed like his friends were deliberately trying to blow him off.
"Come on, tell me. What, exactly, is happening?"
Aisha looked increasingly annoyed by his persistent questioning, but Eric was a bit more understanding.
"Oh, you really don't know, do you? You've never been on a mission into enemy territory before?"
He shook his head.
"Annika? What about you?"
Garret's partner, who had been suspiciously silent throughout this, just smiled knowingly.
"Ah, right. You joined The Order first."
"Innocent boy.~" Aisha smirked at him.
"They'll explain it to you when you get there. Get some food quickly, you won't have time for it later, then report to your sergeant."
The fact he still wasn't getting an explanation annoyed him, but he didn't have time to protest. Aisha immediately began to try to drag Eric away.
"There. Now you know what to do, so shoo. Shoo!"
Eric held firm just long enough to slap Garret on the shoulder and wink.
"Enjoy yourself, Garret. This is the best part of being a crusader."
Then he was gone, dragged off by his impatient partner, leaving them alone, with Garret shaking his head.
"Well that was useful… Annika? Do you know what they were talking about?"
As before, Annika just smiled.
The dinner prepared for the troops that night was smaller than usual, similar to what would be given if they expected an imminent battle or forced march. Though he missed the usual portion sizes, at least this meant they were able to chow down quickly. Between bites, he and Annika chatted about various topics, but whenever he tried to shift the conversation towards the current 'preparations', she held her ground, remaining silent. There was something different about her expression, though. When she smiled, were her eyes lighting up because she enjoyed teasing him? Or from anticipation?
"Nice of you to join us, Fax. Nyman. You're late."
Despite their rush, it took time to locate the rest of their countrymen and, unfortunately, they had only managed to find them after their formation had been organized.
"Sorry, sir. We were, uh…"
Garret faltered in his apology. Technically, they weren't supposed to have left the camp and gone hiking. That wasn't what 'standby' meant. Thankfully, though, their sergeant didn't seem to care. He waved away their apology and was more concerned about getting them into formation. Once they (the last to arrive) had taken up their positions, he walked between their ranks assigning everyone a group, then had them reorganize themselves into a new formation, splitting them by gender. He dismissed the occasional homosexual couple, sending them back to their tents, then strode back in front of them to deliver his instructions.
"Alright, group one, you're going to the furthest set of dividers. Men, go to the one on the left, women to the right. Once inside, form up and do what the priests tell you to. Understood?"
The group responded with a collection of 'Yes Sir's, and when a priest stepped out from each of the cloth-shrouded zones to wave for the next set of soldiers, their sergeant sent them on their way.
"Step lively, lads, we've got a schedule to keep."
The males tended to be… Blessed? Warded? Processed? Whatever they were, a bit faster than the females, so while Garret and Annika had both been assigned to group three, the men of their number ended up marching to their spot before the women got their turn. When Garret ducked under the makeshift, fabric 'doorway' being held open for them, he spotted numerous other wizards and priests (all male), standing ready at the 'wall' on their right. As per their sergeant's, they fell into a loose formation and stood at attention.
Once everyone was inside, the priest at the door (apparently a higher ranking one, judging by the marks on his robes) let the cloth he was holding fall to 'close' it, then stepped in front of them and set them at ease.
"Good evening, everyone. Before we begin, give me a show of hands. Who's been sent on missions into a demon realm before?"
Northreach's war with the mamono had been mostly defensive, so only a few men raised their hands as the priest looked them over, making a mental tally.
"Not many… Then I'll go over what we're about to do, since most of you don't know."
Before beginning, he took a swig from the waterskin at his waist to wet his throat. Apparently, he'd had to give this speech multiple times before.
"The demon realm is full of demonic energy, that much should be obvious. With enough exposure over time, this ambient energy is capable of corrupting a human, but as men, you are lucky. Your natural rate of generating spiritual energy is quite high, meaning the ambient demonic energy will never be able to snuff it out and change you internally. Instead, it has to corrupt you from the outside-in, which takes weeks, and can be stopped by regular purification. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for your partners. A woman's energy production is much weaker and can be overwhelmed by the demonic energy in the air around them. Once it does, they will begin to rapidly change into a monster and assault the men surrounding them."
The priest paused for another drink, and some impatient whispers floated around the formation. For anyone with the slightest bit of education about magical energies, this was all old news.
"If a woman is continually provided with additional spiritual energy, however, she can resist it just as well as a man can. This is one of the reasons you'd been working with a partner of the opposite gender, and why The Order tried to match you as best as we could. A man's semen contains vast amounts of surplus spiritual energy. Normally monsters feed on this, but if a human woman were to be… administered it, they would absorb it as well. I trust you all understand what I'm getting at?"
At this point, a few of the younger, more innocent members of the group were staring at the floor, blushing. Apparently, most of the soldiers understood, Garret included, but that didn't stop one of the slower men from raising their hand and, when called on, blurting out "You want us to fuck them?".
"Yes."
More questions came.
"What about pregnancies?"
"That's what the enchantments we'll cast on you are for. They'll render you temporarily sterile and will feed off your own energy to sustain themselves, until we remove them."
Another soldier raised his hand and was called out by the priest.
"A girl I know has another woman as her partner. What's going to happen to them?"
The priest nodded with a smile, approving of the man's concern for his friends.
"The limited number of lesbian couples in our crusade means the priests can purify them daily without straining our resources. We can't do everyone, though, so you must take responsibility for your own partner."
Finally, one of the more religiously inclined soldiers asked if the Chief God approved of this, citing how she forbad sex outside of marriage, for purposes other than procreation. The priest quickly corrected his assertation – It wasn't forbidden, just strongly discouraged due to the possibility of things like pregnancy.
"Additionally, the Chief God makes exceptions to some of her rules during crusades. For example, if we maintained her command of 'Thou shalt not kill', we wouldn't be able to fight corrupted humans. If you feel you must follow that command's spirit, you can stretch your… administrations to once a week instead of every couple days, and if you still have doubts, please come talk to me tomorrow morning. We can discuss it further then. Does anyone else have questions?"
None came.
"Good. Everyone, please undress yourselves."
Apparently, the priests and wizards who worked their enchantments needed to see, directly, what they would be casting their spells on. This led to no shortage of awkwardness, but Garret just gritted his teeth and focused on the cloth wall ahead of him, doing his best to ignore it. He'd already lived the army life of communal bathing before. If he could deal with that, he could deal with this.
As one of the wizards began 'working' on Garret, the head priest made a final comment about the nature of their enchantments.
"These spells have a noticeable, temporary side effect. It'll subside after a few hours, so don't be shocked, but we consider it to be beneficial. We won't let anyone shirk their duties out of shyness."
Before Garret could ponder the meaning of his words, the wizard finished up, and he got to experience the 'side effect' firsthand. Upon the spell's completion, he felt a tingle of energy run through his cock and was assaulted by a raging fire of lust. It took an enormous amount of will power to remain standing in place, waiting for the other men to be enchanted. A single thought seized his mind, blocking out all others: He had to fuck Annika.
After what seemed like an eternity, the priests and wizards finally finished, and the head priest dismissed them.
"Your partners are going to be in a similar state, so I think you know what to do. You'll have no more duties assigned this evening. Get dressed and return to your tents. Dismissed."
Garret and the rest of the men scrambled to put on their clothes, not caring if buttons were mismatched or buckles left undone, then headed out the 'door', opposite to the one they entered, with great haste. The initial shock had subsided by now, but Garret was still having trouble thinking of anything other than his current 'mission'. Aisha's annoyance at being stopped, and Eric's curtness suddenly made a lot more sense.
Back at the tent, Garret cursed the relative slowness with which the women were being enchanted. He was the first to arrive, and as such, had to play the waiting game yet again. Trying to at least do something to make time creep by, he set about arranging their bedding, clearing room, and pushing their two bedrolls together to get more space. He had the feeling they'd be using all of it. He had just sat down and pulled off his boots when he heard footsteps outside. Annika pulled back the tent flap, then dove forward, pushing him onto the ground as she moved in for a passionate kiss.
Her tongue twirled within his mouth, as she clung to him, eagerly pressing her body closer, and Garret's heart pounded as he returned her affections. One arm at a time, he let go to slip out of his robe, eventually tossing the garment aside like a discarded toy. With a quick gasp for air, Annika released him for just long enough to rip her own shirt off. Her pert, freckled breasts, now free from the garment that bound them, hung tantalizingly before Garret, who was more than happy to squeeze and grope them with one hand while the other fumbled with his belt. Annika lifted herself off of him for a moment, to pull down her own pants, but rather than let her return to straddling him, Garret lunged at her, driven by a lust rivaling that of a mamono. Now completely naked, the two entered into an embrace closer than they ever been before. He felt her hot breath on his neck, panting with anticipation. Her smooth skin and soft breasts pressed against his chest, her toned arms and legs wrapped around him tightly, and her gentle warmth enveloped him. She shuddered against him as he planted a quick kiss on her lips, then reached down with his hand to spread her lower ones and slid his manhood in. Slowly at first, then with increasing frequency, he rocked his hips back and forth as Annika locked her legs and arms around him, holding him tight, as if promising that she'd never let him go. Slowly, he felt a pressure within him begin to build, and he had to try harder and harder to stop from coming. Annika seemed to sense that he was nearing his limit, but was not at all helpful towards his goal of lasting longer. When he slowed, she clenched down on him, and intensified the movement of her own hips, forcing him to continue his climb up the mountain. Eventually, he could hold back no longer. His mind went blank with pleasure as he exploded deep within her, pouring out his energy and sperm in great bursts.
When he came back to his senses, panting and sweating, he leaned forward for another kiss. Annika was likewise frazzled, having had her own orgasm either at the same time or shortly after. He brushed his lips against hers and, still inside her, gently wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.
"You were looking forward to this, weren't you, Annika?"
She smiled as her green eyes gazed into his, and she wiped a wayward strand of red hair out of the way.
"Oh, heavens no. Finally having a chance to be with my lover after months of battle, side-by-side? How could I possibly be looking forward to that?" Came her coy reply.
He smiled and planted another tender kiss on her lips, as they lay together. The passionate heat from their enchantment's 'side-effect' had momentarily abated, but slowly it began to build again. Garret's grin widened as he predicted how the rest of the night was going to go. It was almost like they'd been turned into monsters, such was their lust. Well, they were camped right next to the demon realm, so he supposed this made sense. After all, when in Rome…
"Ready for round two, Annika?"
She grinned a wolfish grin, then pushed him off and rolled on top of him, declaring "I think I'm gonna take charge this time.".
A challenge. She was challenging him in the sexiest way possible. Seeing this, Garret's own competitive spirit flared as the fire within him roared back to full strength.
"You can try."
Needless to say, neither of them left the tent that evening.
Author's Notes: Alright, so according to World Guide 1, monsterization happens to a woman when demonic energy invades their body, completely replacing their spiritual energy, and snuffing out their ability to produce more. The most common method of transmission for this energy, intercourse with monsters, shows that women (and men) are able to absorb foreign energies through their genitalia (as well as the rest of their body, but given the nature of the setting, I think it's likely to be more efficiently absorbed by these parts). Now, with that in mind, consider the main food for many monsters – men's spiritual energy, gained through ejaculation. Combine point one with point two, and the logical implication is that a human man can replenish a human woman's spiritual energy through intercourse, since he'll be shooting it directly into her.
Also in the world guide, they mentioned how the energy in the air of a demon realm corrodes a person's spiritual energy at such a rate that in recent history, only two people have actually made it to the Demon Lord without being transformed by the ambient energy alone (though she quickly rectified that). This poses an interesting problem for The Order. We know that they make large scale crusades into demon realms, but since I have removed the plot-induced stupidity from the organization, they aren't just going to send thousands of men and woman to be corrupted, with nothing to show for it. Therefore, they must have some tactical, magical, or religious doctrine to make crusades into demon realms possible. Since we know that women are more susceptible to demonic energy, said doctrine would likely focus on them.
Point one, plus point two, over point three equals: Fuck your girlfriend for the glory of mankind! This, I thought, was the most logical way for The Order to solve the problem, hence why I've had its soldiers working in pairs from the start, as well as the other reasons I've mentioned before.
Of course, the world guide also mentions things like how demonic energy can never be purified and once you get a tiny bit in you, it's only a matter of time until you turn, but that's bullshit. Everything has a counter. To say that something worldly is unbeatable or unstoppable effectively regresses the setting to grade-school play-fighting levels of believability. "Nuhuh! I have an everything-proof shield!" *eyeroll*
Ok, that's enough soapboxing for now. Sorry about the short chapter, I've been so busy that I haven't had much time to write.
In other news, I hope y'all are staying healthy and safe.
Until next time, Sayonara!