Chapter 14a: Heroes' Welcome
Outskirts of Peraghon
Day Seven
As Adrian and Saralyn walked back to the mamono encampment, they took a look around them. The mamono realm had fully matured. It was mid-afternoon, but the sky made it look like it was midnight. Adrian had to admit, he didn't like the constant darkness of Lescatie. He liked feeling the sun on his face. He liked the blue skies. He had even discussed moving to Zipangu with Saralyn after they retired.
The sounds of intense fighting snapped him out of his daydreaming, as well as the smell of smoke and burning cloth. Adrian and Saralyn both began sprinting towards the encampment, Adrian drawing Ballista and Saralyn pulling out her guns.
Reaching the encampment, the entire camp had been set on fire. Thankfully, most of the mamono had left. However, a few stayed behind, mainly yuki and tsurara-onnas, attempting to put out the fires, to no avail. No matter how much ice magic they threw on the flames, they refused to go out. Adrian noticed that the fire almost glowed red, as opposed to the normal orange of regular fire.
"Adrian!"
Adrian turned around and saw Sinclair, Ava, Jordan and Naira all fighting mercenaries dressed similarly to the monster slayers he had fought mere minutes ago. To his fear, they were outnumbered greatly. Twenty to four. Looking on top of a large hill that the tents were originally placed near, a woman holding a tall wooden staff with a glowing orange tip stood firing on any mamono trying to leave, as well as their own allies.
Jordan and Naira flew above the invaders, diving down, grabbing them, and then dropping them from a nonlethal height. Enough to incapacitate, but not kill. The monster slayers dodged out of the way and attempted to slash at the wyvern and her rider while she was at their level. The swords mostly bounced off of Naira's scales, but Jordan was still vulnerable. Naira winced at every hit her husband took.
Sinclair bravely held off three monster slayers at once with her dual realm silver knives. Sweat ran down her forehead from the intense heat. Her lightweight armor was covered in scratches, dents and burn marks. Two more monster slayers ganged up on her from behind. Sinclair just barely managed to duck under their swords. Thankfully, Ava appeared at Sinclair's side from the shadows, having taken care of her own enemies. Sinclair nodded at Ava with an expression of extreme gratitude, the two of them standing against their enemies together. Meanwhile, Adrian and Saralyn quickly evaluated their targets.
"I'll help our allies. You take down the fire mage. We can't let him cause more destruction." Adrian offered. Saralyn nodded, and the two of them split off. Saralyn ran in the direction of the fire mage while Adrian ran to where the rest of the Peacekeepers were fighting.
The fire mage stopped shooting fire down at the Peacekeepers momentarily as she noticed the dhampir running towards her. She redirected her flame magic towards Saralyn, sending a wave of red fire in her direction. Saralyn just barely managed to slide under the mage's flames. The tips of her hair were singed slightly. Still on the ground, Saralyn fired several rounds at the mage.
The mage took cover near a large rock, and peeked out again to launch an enormous fireball at Saralyn. Saralyn lunged to the left to dodge it, but by some sick twist of fate, it exploded right next to Naira and Jordan, who had dived down to pick one of the monster slayers up again. The two of them were launched incredibly far away from the sheer force of the explosion. The fire mage looked on as well, her expression of shock and guilt at the accidental friendly fire.
Sinclair saw the two of them get launched, and attempted to disengage from her battle to help them. Her enemies blocked her way, refusing to let her help her allies. Ava kicked another slayer in the hip as their sword was about to go into Sinclair's back, making it miss by mere inches.
Saralyn and the fire mage looked back at each other and immediately resumed their fighting. Saralyn aimed her guns at the fire mage's head and fired, only to knock off the mage's hat. Irritated, the fire mage quickly took cover again and began chanting something. Saralyn began advancing towards her cover, only for the heat from the fires to grow tenfold.
A massive, serpentine-like dragon made of fire emerged from behind the rock and flew into the air. It reminded Saralyn of a Ryu, a type of dragon originating in Zipangu. The "dragon" looked towards Saralyn and hissed. It then charged at full speed towards Saralyn. She barely managed to roll out of the way, the dragon speeding past her. The dhampir grit her teeth in pain as she noticed her burnt clothing, as well as a nasty looking red spot on her skin.
The dragon rebounded and began flying towards Saralyn again, intent on incinerating her. Saralyn fired both of her guns into the dragon's head. The bullets simply disappeared into the mass of fire, the dragon barely flinching.
Saralyn looked towards where the fire mage was hiding, only for five more jets of flame to shoot towards her. She managed to sidestep four of them, but the fifth one hit her coat. The fire clung to the clothing, slowly eating away at it. Saralyn quickly threw the ruined coat aside.
She was mad now. When she had woken up on some mountain in Dragonia with her memory erased, she was wearing that coat. And it had stuck with her up until now.
The dragon turned around again and began charging towards Saralyn once more. But instead of dodging, she instead dashed towards the fire mage. Panic filled her eyes as she tried to dispel her spell. She succeeded, and the fire dragon disappeared. But in the time she had taken to get rid of her spell, Saralyn had drawn her gun on her, firing. A realm-silver bullet went straight into the fire mage's forehead, knocking her unconscious immediately.
Saralyn collapsed to the ground, exhausted. Sweat stained her red shirt and brown pants. She had to get up and help her allies, but they were too far away for her. She shakily got to her feet and grabbed her guns. Maybe she could help her allies from afar…
Naira slowly opened her eyes. She pushed herself up and began looking around. The tents around her had completely burned to the ground, unlike a minute ago when they had been completely ablaze. The sounds of fighting reached her ears. Straining her eyes, she could see Adrian, Ava and Sinclair fighting against impossible odds: fifteen monster slayers, three monsters. Whatever monster slayer clan from Zipangu the Order had hired was more like a private army. A couple meters away, Jordan laid unconscious, slumped against the remains of a charred tree. Instinctively, the wyvern began crawling towards her husband, intent on seeing if he was okay.
Suddenly, she felt something sharp in her back, followed by pain. Two more swords embedded themselves in her upper and lower torso. Naira tried to turn around, but she couldn't. She saw a monster slayer walking towards her unconscious husband, sword in hand.
"No… NO!" She yelled as loud as she could. The robed man didn't listen, instead moving closer to Jordan.
Naira wracked her mind trying to think of a way out of her situation. Her mind came to a single conclusion. Something dragons and wyverns often strayed away from doing in this day and age, lest they terrify everyone around them. Closing her eyes, she put all her mental strength into imagining herself as a wyvern, before they were turned into monster girls.
As the monster slayers behind her prepared to finish her off, her body began glowing. In a flash of white light, Naira had returned to a more primal state. Any trace of human features from her body were completely gone. Her body had grown to almost twice the size it was originally. She roared in anger at the monster slayer who was near Jordan. The man looked up at the transformed wyvern in terror and began backing up.
Enraged, the wyvern tore the swords out of her body, grabbed the man by the legs, and tossed him as far away from Jordan as she could. The three slayers behind her attempted to stab her in the back, but a quick tail whip made short work of them. Naira picked one of them up and tossed them towards a group of harpies that were escaping the burning encampment, the bird-women eagerly taking their new prize away. The two remaining slayers dropped their swords, and ran off in terror.
Naira turned to Jordan, who had woken up and was staring at her with an expression of amazement and fear. Naira, shocked, attempted to calm him down.
"Please don't be afraid. It's me, Naira." She spoke to Jordan, her voice unnaturally deep.
"Naira? What happened to you?"
"I changed back to my old age form. I had to. Don't worry, I'm still in control of myself." She patted her back with one of her claws.
"Get on, we need to help the others."
Jordan reluctantly got on the massive wyvern's back. Immediately, Naira felt reinvigorated. Wyverns and their riders shared their energy, so the two of them together were stronger than they were alone. Together, they flew off towards where their friends were fighting.
It took them mere seconds to get back to their allies. Adrian, Ava and Sinclair were completely surrounded. More backup for the monster slayers had arrived and were closing in on them fast. Naira suddenly felt some sort of primal fury at the monster slayers threatening her friends. It felt foreign. Her friends had been in plenty of danger before, but she never felt this enraged when it happened.
Roaring in anger, the transformed wyvern circled the monster slayers and unleashed a torrent of flame from her mouth, incinerating them, but being careful enough to not harm her friends. Adrian looked up with a surprised yet relieved expression, while Ava and Sinclair stared up at Naira with an expression of horror. Mamono hated death, and the dark elf and kunoichi were no different.
"Naira! What have you done?!" Jordan exclaimed, with a similar look of horror on the wyvern rider's face.
"I'm protecting my friends." Naira said, seemingly unconcerned.
"Mamono aren't supposed to kill humans! We could be exiled for this! What would Meryl think of us?!"
Naira had a brief moment of clarity at the mention of Meryl. She flapped her wings, landing on the ground. Imagining herself as a normal, modern age wyvern, her old age form dissipated. Immediately, the gravity of what she did hit her. She stared at the burnt corpses surrounding her friends. Those were once humans. Not even necromancy could bring them back now.
She laid on the ground, having lost the energy to move. She understood why dragons and wyverns didn't use their old age forms during battle now. She began crying into Jordan's shoulder, her husband comforting her. Adrian, Saralyn, Ava, and Sinclair all ran over to her.
"Naira… Why?" Saralyn asked, horrified. She seemed the most hurt; Dhampirs were especially sensitive to the pain of humans. Ava looked at the corpses, a similar expression of horror clearly shown on her face despite her mask. Even still, she stayed silent.
"I had to protect all of you… I'm sorry!"
"Why did you need to immolate them, huh?! You could've just roared at them to scare them off!" Sinclair yelled, uncharacteristically angry. Jordan held a hand up, trying to calm Sinclair down. The dark elf stopped yelling, sensing that Naira was regretful of what she did.
"For now. We need to figure out what to tell Meryl. Killing humans is a massive taboo amongst mamono soldiers." Jordan told the group.
As if on cue, the group saw a pair of Lescatian war horses galloping towards them, Meryl and Lilian atop one each. They saw Naira, laying on the ground sobbing, and immediately dismounted and ran up to her.
"What's wrong?" Meryl asked, the dullahan clearly concerned for her subordinate's wellbeing.
Sinclair pointed at the ring of still burning corpses, not saying anything. Both Meryl and Lilian looked towards the fires, and immediately ran over to them. Lilian cast a water spell on the ring of corpses, showering them with cool water, extinguishing all of the flames. Lilian examined the corpses while Meryl turned back to the group, pain evident on her face.
"Naira. What led you to do this?" The dullahan asked.
"My life was in danger, and so was Jordan's. I… transformed, and when I saw my friend's lives in danger, I lost control of myself." The sobbing wyvern explained the best she could.
"I see." Meryl said, seemingly understanding.
"She had a choice!" Sinclair exclaimed.
"Sinclair, don't be hard on her. Like she said, her life was in danger. And so were all of yours." Meryl reasoned. Lilian joined the group, the succubus having a relieved yet at the same time pained expression on her face.
"The corpses are in an acceptable state. Any skilled lich should be able to bring back the female slayers as zombies or wights. As for the males, we could either bring them back as skeletons or we could spend the time and energy to bring them back as undead incubi." The succubus explained. She turned towards Naira. "You're lucky we arrived before the fire could damage the corpses even more." The wyvern nodded silently in response.
"At any rate, we're done here. The mamono back at Peraghon managed to fend off the monster slayers. Let's go home. Jordan, make sure to give Naira some love when we get back, okay?"
"Yes, ma'am." Jordan nodded his head, Naira perking up slightly at the implication of sex.
"Good. Let's get out of here. Everyone, pick a horse." Saralyn and Adrian climbed atop Meryl's horse, while Sinclair and Ava mounted Lilian's horse. Naira and Jordan flew off in the direction of the hideout that they had arrived at, the rest of the group following closely behind.
Two days later
Lescatie
Adrian, Saralyn, Ava, Sinclair, and Meryl all stood side by side on a large stage, dressed formally for the occasion. Sinclair had been right; Azurith really was a popular public figure amongst the Lescatians. So important, that Druella herself had organized a ceremony congratulating the rescue of her childhood friend and the people responsible.
"We are gathered here to honor the actions of a select few individuals. Despite her failure to capture Monoghon at first, Azurith is still a beloved member of Lescatie. About a week ago now, Azurith was captured and used as a bargaining chip to blackmail Lescatie. We must give our thanks to these five individuals for saving her, alongside two others that cannot join us today." A demon spoke cheerfully on a podium nearby the group. Naira had opted not to join in on the awards ceremony, still recovering from what she did, and Jordan had stayed back to comfort her.
The crowd of mamono and their husbands cheered for all of them, showing their gratitude for the Peacekeepers. Azurith came out from behind the stage, holding five medals made of mamono realm gold. Mamono soldiers usually didn't care for trophies, but the Peacekeepers were an exception.
"Thank you. All of you." Azurith said, smiling. She put the medals on each of the Peacekeeper's necks, everyone clapping once she was done. She handed two other medals to Meryl.
"Once you get back to Naira and Jordan, give these to them. Regardless of what they did, they also played a part in saving my life." Azurith requested. Meryl nodded.
The rest of the Peacekeepers smiled back at the crowd, waving. The five of them walked off of the stage, and back towards their base. Like many events in mamono history, the audience started a massive orgy once they left as a celebration. Meryl and the rest of the Peacekeepers smirked and shook their heads at the sounds.
"Finally, that's over." Adrian said, relieved. His legs were sore from standing that long.
"Mamono being formal isn't exactly something you see everyday, Adrian." Meryl replied, slapping him on the back. Saralyn walked over, glaring slightly at Meryl.
"Sorry. I didn't know you were so defensive, Sara." Saralyn wore an expression of surprise at Meryl's usage of her nickname.
Meryl, not noticing, pointed them towards the Loumède Cafe. "Hey, everyone! Remember how we first met? In that cafe? Well, how about we go there to celebrate our first big victory?" Meryl shouted, obviously proud of herself. The dullahan didn't even wait for her subordinates to respond, sprinting towards the cafe. The rest of the Peacekeepers shook their heads and smiled.
"Meryl always gets so hyper after a victory. It's almost cute." Sinclair remarked.
"Really? Are you sure she's not just excited about this being our first big win?" Saralyn asked.
"Nope. She's like this everytime, no matter how minor the victory is."
"An optimistic leader is better than a pessimistic leader." Adrian responded, as everyone followed after Meryl.
"ANOTHER ONE!" Meryl yelled drunkenly to the satyros bartender, startling the poor goat. It had only been five minutes yet there were four empty glasses surrounding the dullahan. Meryl had taken the group on a bar hopping spree after eating an unhealthy amount of pastries at the cafe she had recruited them at, and she was clearly enjoying it.
"Yeah! MORE!" Sinclair also shouted, three empty glasses of her own on her part of the table. Adrian, Saralyn and Ava had barely managed to get through one glass in the time that it took Sinclair and Meryl to finish three, with Ava only having finished half of her drink.
"Damn, lady. Were you a satyros in your past life?" The bartender teased Meryl.
"I was born a human!" Meryl responded unnaturally clearly. Several feet away, Adrian and Saralyn heard this and were rather surprised.
"Now that's interesting. I never knew that Meryl was a human before." Adrian remarked.
"It's clear if you look for signs. Monsterized human women tend to hold on to human mannerisms even after they're monsterized." Saralyn responded.
"It's true. I talked to her." Ava spoke for the first time since coming back from Monoghon.
"Really?"
A loud crashing noise interrupted their conversation. Meryl had accidently knocked over some of the empty glasses while waving her hands around. The satryos bartender rolled her eyes and came around to sweep up the glass.
"Shiiiiiiiittttt…. Where's my ring?" Meryl slurred as she looked at her left hand.
That's right… Meryl is a widowed mamono. Necromancy usually prevents that. How sad… Adrian suddenly remembered their conversation when they had first joined. Meryl had been quick to shoo them out of the room when Adrian had brought it up. He thought of asking her about it, but quickly decided not to. The last thing he wanted to do was pry.
Meryl exclaimed happily as she found her ring under her barstool, putting it back on her right hand. Sinclair, equally drunk as her, high-fived her.
Yeah. No use in ruining their celebration.
Later that night, Adrian and Saralyn laid down together in their spacious bed, hugging each other. The stress of the past few days had taken a toll on them, and it was cathartic for them to finally have some time where they didn't have to worry about being attacked, or be anxious about an assault where they may or not die.
"Hey Adrian… I've been worrying about something lately…"
Damn it. Adrian said, in his head. But the two of them promised they would tackle their problems together as a couple when they had first met.
"Do you think we'll ever get our memories back?" Saralyn asked, conflicted.
"I don't know. Lescatie's best magicians promised us that they would try and find a solution for our missing memories, but it's been almost four months since then. Remember what the demon said to us, right after we accidently burned our house down?"
"She wanted us to start a new life." Saralyn responded.
"Exactly. We don't need to know our pasts to be happy together. All we need is each other, and we'll be fine."
"How cliche of you…" Saralyn said back in a teasing tone.
"You don't deny my statement's truth, do you?"
"No. Not at all." The two of them hugged each other.
Chapter 14b: Nemesis
Lescatie
Druella laid in bed, relieved that Azurith was okay but still upset. Anger was an emotion that Druella wasn't used to feeling. But when a wyvern rider and their husband had reported to her saying that an angel from Aperia had attempted to assassinate her childhood friend, she was absolutely livid. Raniel, the valkyrie had been called. Supposedly, she was part of an elite team of assassins under Ophelia's command.
Azurith and Druella had been together through thick and thin. Azurith, along with her parents, had been the ones to teach her that humans needed their love and guidance. It was her that inspired her to be proactive in spreading the Mamono Lord's love to humanity. When she had been captured, she would lie awake at night, stressing over her safety. Only her husband, Lucas, was able to calm her down. Speaking of which…
"Druella?" Her husband asked, his voice muffled from his head being pressed up against Druella's chest. It was a common position for mamono husbands.
"Yes, dear?" Lucas lifted his head off of the lilim's chest. He looked at her with an expression of fear and concern.
"Truth be told… I don't want you to confront Ophelia."
That's right… I'm going to go confront Ophelia about what she tried to do to my best friend. Druella sighed, conflicted. Ophelia had no interest in tangling with the extremists up until now. She didn't know why she suddenly tried to kill a high ranking extremist. Maybe there's more to her than we think…
"I have to. She didn't just send an assassin after Azurith for nothing."
"But what if she tries to kill you? She's openly expressed her hatred for you, and she's one of the very few beings in this world that can harm you right now."
"I'll be okay, alright? I can fight."
"Druella… She's a seraph. Seraphs have been known to be incredibly dangerous when they came out of heaven." Lucas informed her.
Druella recalled a story her mother had told her when she was growing up. In the age of the former mamono lords, a seraph had been banished from heaven. Enraged, she had taken out her anger by razing a not-insignificant portion of Royal Makai to the ground, murdering at least several thousand monsters. The mamono lord at the time had come out of his castle to confront the enraged angel, and the two of them fought to the death. By the time the smoke had cleared, both of them were dead. Druella didn't know Ophelia well but she couldn't be far behind in terms of power.
"I know, Lucas. I'll teleport away if things get messy, alright?"
"Okay. Just… promise me you won't piss her off."
"I'll try my best, husband."
Several hours later, Druella was ready. She had bathed herself, had a servant wash her clothing, and was as presentable as she could be, although Ophelia would probably still despise her nonetheless.
The lilim thought about her goal. What would she do if she did find out Ophelia tried to kill Azurith? Fight her? Lucas was right, she wouldn't be able to beat a seraph. She could put up a damn good fight, but winning would most likely be out of the question.
Suddenly, she had an idea. She telepathically reached out to one of her old friends.
"Sasha Fullmoon? When you talk to the Fallen God again, tell her to watch Ophelia closely. I'll have a couple more churches constructed in her name if she helps me out here."
Walking out of Lescatie's castle, she spread her wings out and began to fly to Aperia. Aperia was far, far away from Lescatie, so it took her several hours of intense flying to get there. During her flight, she had taken the opportunity to disguise herself and rest in some of the small villages and towns in Aperia's territory. She saw mamono and humans holding hands in the street, which cheered Druella up slightly. Ophelia may hate extremists and the Fallen God, but she didn't hate mamono as a whole.
Something did catch her eye, however. A group of dark priests had gathered outside the town despite Aperia's hatred towards the Fallen God's doctrine. Druella noticed that the single ones seemed just as dedicated to spreading the word of the Fallen God as they were trying to find a husband, the married ones even more dedicated. Cassiel was a name that was mentioned often amongst the dark priests. A dark angel attempting to spread the Fallen God's love no matter the cost.
"Interesting. She might come in handy as a spy." Druella mused as she flew off towards Aperia's main city.
Aperia
Finally, she had arrived. Landing outside of the walls, ten valkyries immediately surrounded the lilim.
"What business does the white-haired freak of nature have in Aperia, huh?" A spear-toting valkyrie spat towards Druella.
"Try anything and we will kill you." Another valkyrie said.
"I want to talk to Ophelia." Druella requested in an even tone.
"And why would you want to do that? I'm sure she has better things to do than speak with the despoiler of Lescatie." The valkyries began slowly advancing closer and closer, seemingly unintimidated by the lilim.
"Weapons down." A cold voice from above said to the valkyries. The angels looked up. Ophelia was hovering above them, staring at Druella with an expression absolutely laden with contempt and disgust.
The six winged angel landed between the valkyries and Druella. With a wave of her hand, she ordered the valkyries to leave. They all followed her command without a single word. Soon, the lilim and the seraph were alone together.
"What brings you here, Druella?" Ophelia somehow managed to make a neutral sounding greeting sound hostile.
"Recently, one of my best friends was nearly assassinated after being captured by the Order." Druella began.
"So? What does that have to do with me?" Ophelia asked.
"And rumor has it, one of YOUR angels was the assassin."
"Might I ask, where did this happen?" Ophelia folded her arms.
"Monoghon. Sound familiar?"
"An Order city. You left your friend in an Order-controlled city, with thousands of people that absolutely loathe you and your friend, and you somehow come to the conclusion that WE are the ones responsible for trying to kill your friend."
"One of my most trusted soldiers said it was a valkyrie by the name of Raniel. Does that name sound familiar to you?" Druella retorted.
"I have thousands upon thousands of angels I have to deal with every day. I don't remember every single name. And besides, as much as I despise you, you aren't my enemy right now. The Order is." Ophelia said back.
"Let me ask you something, Ophelia. The Order was keeping Azurith alive for the purpose of blackmailing Lescatie. Pray tell, why would they try to kill her?" Druella asked, upset.
"Pfft. You think Monoghon's angels were happy with keeping a demon alive? A valkyrie probably just went against orders and tried to kill Azurith because the Chief God told them to. You know how those lapdogs act."
"So. If you truly weren't responsible for Azurith's assassination, you wouldn't mind me taking a look into your head, right Ophelia?" Druella asked, with a look of smug self satisfaction on her face.
"..." Ophelia went blank for a second, before returning to her usual glaring look.
"Is this some sort of attempt at corrupting me?" Ophelia's voice had changed from uninterested to annoyed, angry even.
"Looking into your mind doesn't corrupt you. I assume a high-ranking angel such as you would know that, right?" Druella said, attempting to get under the seraph's skin.
"I know what you're trying to do. You're going to try and find my deepest desires. Then you're going to use my desires to manipulate me and try to corrupt me. I know you don't like me or what I've been doing, and want to turn Aperia into a mamono realm. So no, you can't look into my mind." Ophelia spat back. "And besides, I wouldn't want you coming near me anyways."
"Are you hiding something?"
"I am not hiding anything." Ophelia returned to her normal, even tone. Druella decided that prying any further wouldn't be beneficial. They were going around in circles. Ophelia would never admit to trying to assassinate Azurith even if she was responsible.
"Well, then. I'll be leaving now. I apologize for wasting your time." Druella faked a kind goodbye to Ophelia.
"Good riddance. And don't think of coming back."
Druella spread her wings and flew off. As she flew away, she began trying her best to reach out to a certain dark angel in Aperia.
Kovalt stretched his arms and legs. After a couple days of resting, he felt ready to take on anything again. Serrano, the priest who had nursed him back to health had left some food on the table for him. Kovalt eagerly devoured his breakfast, before going outside to get some fresh air.
He walked towards the small training grounds his rescuers had set up. He pulled out his sword, and started practicing his swings on a training mannequin. After a couple swings, he had completely torn apart the figure. Grinning at his handiwork, he decided to find a new one and practice some more.
"We're going to run out of those if you keep that up." Kovalt turned around. Serrano was there, tapping his feet on the ground. Kovalt put his sword back in its sheath.
"Sorry. Those are cheap to make, right?"
"I guess they are. Still, save some for the soldiers though. They're going to get grumpy if you destroy every single training dummy we have." Serrano said as he began gathering up the pieces of the broken mannequin. Kovalt chuckled.
The two of them had quickly become friends over the past few days. The priest was always willing to sit with him and talk for however long he wanted, and while bleak, the two of them shared similar traumas over their monsterized wives. Kovalt's good mood was soured slightly thinking of Catalina and Kari. The two of them hadn't shown themselves for the past few days, so Kovalt hoped that they had just given up on him.
The two of you better stay away… For your sake and mine…
"Thinking about something?" Serrano asked. Kovalt realized he had been spacing out.
"I can't stop thinking about Catalina. And Kari."
Serrano put a hand on Kovalt's shoulder. "It's fine. Mourning is completely natural. But don't be thinking about them during battle. That's going to screw you over."
"I know." Kovalt realized that that was probably the reason he had lost his battle with the werewolves.
"Anyways. We're breaking camp soon. We're going to be heading to Venshir."
"Venshir? You mean the strongest Order nation?"
"Yep. Have you heard of The Faithful? That's where they're set up." Serrano asked Kovalt.
"Yeah, I've heard of them. Venshir is pretty damn far from here, and we have to pass through several mamono realms to get there. How long do you think it's going to take to get there?"
Serrano pulled out a rolled up map from his pocket. "About three weeks or so. It's going to be worth it, though."
"We should get going, then."
The hero and the priest both returned to their tents, and began packing up what little belongings they had after they had been forced to flee Monoghon. Soon after, the entire campsite had been removed, and the small company of survivors began their travel.
Three weeks had been an inaccurate guess, putting it nicely. The trip had gone smoothly until they reached the first stretch of mamono realm. None of the soldiers wanted to sleep in an environment that would make them horny, especially the female soldiers. They only had two options: Go around, or go through. Going around would take too long, and going through would be dangerous.
Kovalt suggested that Serrano give everyone swiftness spells so that they could travel faster through the realm, which had been a great help to them. The female soldiers would be outfitted with seals that repelled the corruptive energies. Despite everything, they still lost almost twenty percent of their group going through the first mamono realm.
The group sighed in relief as they finally reached the edge of the mamono realm, the black soil giving way to green grass. The group was absolutely exhausted, so having no choice, they set up camp outside of the mamono realm.
Kovalt awakened in the middle of the night to noises of twigs snapping a couple yards away from his tent. He quickly put on his clothes, grabbed his sword and went outside to investigate. He forced himself to focus, straining his ears and eyes.
"Kovalt." A distant voice said from behind a bush. Kovalt's heart dropped. He knew exactly who it was. He would recognize that voice anywhere.
"Catalina. I know it's you. Come out." Kovalt sighed. He had no energy to yell at her.
"Honey, I know you've lived under the Order your entire life. I know you don't have the best opinions towards mamono. But they're deceiving you, can't you see? They lie about what we really are! Do you really want to continue fighting for a side that constantly lies to its people?" The dark furred werewolf came out from behind the bush she was hiding in.
"I do."
"Why?!" Catalina exclaimed, frustrated and shocked.
"Take elves, for example. All they want in life is to be left alone. And yet, monsters just can't resist corrupting them when they come across them. Their species is suffering from endangerment, and yet monsters don't care." Kovalt explained.
"Your point being?" Catalina raised an eyebrow, confused at the tangent Kovalt was going on.
"We can apply that logic to humans as well. Some of them just want to be left alone, but mamono don't respect their wishes. That's the problem with monsters. They don't respect autonomy."
"But those same people want love, do they not? Monsters are willing to give them that!" The werewolf retorted.
"By force, rape, and drugging. Ends don't justify the means."
"We don't always…" Catalina trailed off.
"Go home, Catalina. Take care of Kari. If you love me, you'll take care of her."
"I can't just leave you here! You're my husband! I still love you, I swear to it!" Catalina wailed, beginning to cry. "I spent three weeks following you, and I didn't attack you because I was afraid you would hate me for it!"
"Just go. Live your life without me."
"No…I don't want to…" Catalina sobbed.
"JUST GO!" Kovalt had had enough. He drew his sword and charged forward.
Catalina leapt out of the way, but unlike their last confrontation, she didn't attempt to counterattack. She was alone, and a single werewolf couldn't compare to a veteran hero. So she did what Kovalt wanted her to do. She turned heel, and began sprinting away on all fours. Turning back, she saw Kovalt staring at her.
Kovalt sheathed his sword, watching her leave. He sighed in relief, and in sadness. His mind was a whirlwind of emotions.
Where would we be in life, had I been able to protect you from those werewolves five years ago? Kovalt pondered, as he walked back to his tent.
Meanwhile, Catalina finally stopped to rest after three full minutes of sprinting. She sat down, and wept. Why do you hate me so much, husband? Catalina thought to herself, sobbing. She tried to think of something, anything to get Kovalt to love and trust her again.
Something hit her. She had been trying to get Kovalt over to her side alone. She needed help, real help, unlike the idiots she had brought with her when they had fought for the first time. Someone she could actually rely on.
The Church of Eros… Catalina's eyes lit up slightly at the possibility. They would be able to help her. They specialized in solving this type of problem. Catalina stood up with renewed determination.
The three of them would be happy together, no matter how long it took.