Heinrich steadied himself against his opponent. Why, from all the residents of the Pocket Castle, he had to face one of the few that wanted to violate him on his first fight. He held his guard high as San was walking around him like a cat toying with its prey. She was still grinning evilly and licking her lips from time to time.
Several thoughts crossed Heinrich's mind as he kept his eyes on the amazoness. Was this encounter the result of bad luck? Did she ask to face him? Was it the result of someone's manipulation?
Noticing that her opponent was losing his concentration, San attacked with a high sweep from her war staff. Heinrich barely had the time to react and to counter the attack. Had it connected, he would have been knocked out instantly with minimal hope of recovering. She directly chained her assault with a low sweep, which Heinrich narrowly dodged by jumping. She then proceeded to throw herself at him, with the clear intent to pin him. As he saw the attack coming, the hero stepped backward and used the elf's momentum to throw her further away. The amazoness rolled and got up in one smooth motion, ready to attack once more. Eventually Heinrich jumped high to slice his opponent. San prepared an attack to take him on as he was falling, but he suddenly summoned the earth mid way to strengthen his impact. The amazoness refrained from attacking and nearly lost her footing because of the shockwave Heinrich made as he landed.
Heinrich exploited this opportunity to imbue his sword with fire and launched several attack in hope of taking down the amazoness before she fully recovered. However, she managed to parry or dodge all of his attacks and tried to put some distance between her and Heinrich to exploit her longer reach. As soon as she managed to break away from him, she forced the hero to get back on the defensive. After a few more blows exchanged. Heinrich stepped back. His opponent taunted him.
"Giving up already?"
"No."
Heinrich thrust with his sword at a lightning speed, getting behind the surprised amazoness guard and slashing at her arms. She screamed in pain and dropped herself on top of him once again. As they fell down, Heinrich hit her in the stomach with the hilt of his sword, cutting her breath for a few seconds. He finally brought his hid on her head once more, knocking her out cold.
As Heinrich was catching his breath, the announcer's voice boomed through the arena.
"And the winner is Heinrich! What a magnificent opening fight! Stay here for more, the next one will start in 15 minutes!"
The ancient hero made his way back to where he came from as healers were already starting their work on the elf.
A few hours later, Heinrich was drinking with several of his fans. Even if it was only his first fight, a lot of people were celebrating with the hero. He was surprised to see how many monsters there were amongst his fans. He found himself disenchanted fast when he realized most had the intention to seduce him with the support of an alarming amount of liquid courage. He still accepted any drink that was offered to him, but not before having slipped a poison guard around his neck, just in case.
As he looked around, he could not see Alicetromeria. A part of him wondered where she was. Maybe she went back to their original world to check on it...
He suddenly felt lost and alone. He realized how much he was actually missing her. His head started to wander, as he was thinking about the world he left behind. Was it alright for him to have fun at this moment? To abandon his world to Black Alice's cruelty?
After several hours, he finally excused himself and left his fans. Most were now too taken up in their own drinking games or busy enjoying the attention of monsters anyway to notice.
The night had already fallen as he stepped out in the city. Even then, the streets were still far from empty, as some people were still partying. He started to wander, lost in thoughts, while avoiding the most crowded places. After an undetermined amount of time, he found himself in a street that was almost empty, save for a few passed out drunkards.
As he was midway, he heard a voice coming from behind.
"Heinrich."
He turned around and saw Salamander. The fire spirit had her arms crossed and had quite a grave look.
"Greetings Salamander, how did your match go?"
"I've beaten up Eva without a sweat. Do you have a minute for me?"
Heinrich smiled, tired. "Sure, as long as it is not about having sex with a monster. That's becoming annoying."
Salamander looked at Heinrich surprised, and carefully started thinking her next words. She tried to remember how the hero was before he beat down Black Alice and turned on Ilias. She also did not want to let anything slip about his future.
"We're just getting worried about you. How do you feel in this world?"
The hero looked down.
"To be honest, I miss the more chaotic times. Every moment I don't have to fight for my life, I start thinking about what's happening back there, about what led to the world turning out like that."
Salamander smiled, trying to reassure him. "It's normal. You're a hero. You can't feel at ease when you know some people may be suffering, you're just like Luka in that case. Besides, you've always been on the road, training to fight against the Monster Lord." She shook her head. "You really have to learn how to enjoy the small moments of tranquility as they come. They will make for most of your life once you have beaten the Monster Lord. And if you can't enjoy what's coming afterward, what's the point of beating her?"
"Because it is the will of Ilias, but…"
The spirit looked at him expectantly. "But?"
Heinrich looked straight into Salamander's eyes. "I've read the books in San Ilia's library. I shouldn't have, but I couldn't help it. I wanted to know how my legend ended. I did beat Black Alice and was elevated to Heaven by Ilias herself. But… I can't say why… something feels just plain wrong about it."
Salamander suddenly was at loss for words. Telling that Heinrich went berserk and started a genocide against heaven was out of the question for now. She eventually found an exit.
"Because you're the only hero that was recorded as being elevated maybe? I mean, nobody does remember what happened during the Great War, and since then, your situation was the most exceptional."
"Except I have dealt enough with Ilias to know there would be something else." Heinrich smiled sadly. "She's good guidance as a whole, but she has a tendency to get very… personnal."
Salamander nodded. It was the most polite way to say she was a petty bitch.
"And… if Black Alice did actually hurt her, we would have known."
Salamander felt tense as she tried to reassure Heinrich. She felt bad about lying so hard to him, but in this situation, she felt it was the best thing to do. She chuckled darkly. She hated trickery and deception, and it was now the best way she had to not ruin his life.
"Or maybe there's another reason why and it wasn't recorded." Heinrich was still looking unconvinced. "I mean, those books may not be fully reliable. And besides, now that you know you will win, you should have fun sometime and-"
Salamander suddenly glared aggressively at something behind Heinrich. As he tried to follow her gaze, the hero couldn't see anything. She softened as she looked at Heinrich again.
"Just… try enjoying the situation as you can and don't do anything rash. You never know what will happen next."
"I'll remember it, thanks Salamander!"
The fire spirit smiled warmly. "Let's get some rest at the Pocket Castle, every inn is full, and even then it would be hard to sleep there with all the noise everybody is making."
Heinrich sighed upon hearing this. It was tiring to keep hearing about how humans and monsters kept looking for occasions to have sex in this era. Even if everybody was not loyally following the commandments of the Goddess of Light, they could at least be careful to not give in to every monster's temptation, no?
As they made their way through the town toward the exit, Salamander was periodically looking over her shoulder, as if she was afraid that someone was following them. Eventually, Heinrich started to wonder.
"Salamander?"
"Yes?" She was distracted by something behind them.
"Is there a problem?"
A loud crashing sound could be heard on a roof, followed by childish laughters and a string of profanities that was aimed against the fairies. Heinrich tried to identify the feminine voice as he was sure he already heard it before, but he couldn't remember when and from whom. Salamander laughed.
"Don't worry, it's just someone who got pranked by fairies. Let's get home."
In the most luxurious inn suite one could afford, Lilith was drawing another rune on her sister's bed. She took a break as soon as she finished it and smiled as she looked at the result: The next man who would lie there would enjoy an additional boost in endurance. The two sisters had infiltrated Grand Noah, hoping to see more of the prowess from the hero and his friends, and, so far, they were not disappointed. However, coming directly also proved problematic, as getting noticed could mean getting ganged up and beaten down. They could have taken on the residents a few months ago, but after they all trained for the tournament, it was nearly impossible. Furthermore, even if they intended to remain as stealthy as possible, their nature as succubi ended up resurfacing, and not before long a few visitors disappeared. They initially refrained from going after more public figures, but upon seeing Heinrich, Luka, and a few other men from the Pocket Castle they decided any consequences would be worth the catch.
As she heard a knock on the door, she put on her concealment cloak. While she enchanted the room to prevent their signature from spreading (as well as to prevent any noise from escaping when they were having their way with their latest preys), she and her sister still had to be careful to not get spotted once out there. Luckily, they managed to find several magic cloaks and discretion talismans when they searched Tamamo's room. As the heavenly knight/ex-ancestor was now on the run, they didn't hesitate to keep everything they found for themselves.
As soon as she opened the door, she was hit by a putrid smell coming from a mix of rotten eggs and other unidentifiable substances that caked the coat of the newcomer. She could see her sister's eyes glowing under the hood, seething with hatred.
"Not. A. Word."
She stepped in the room silently. Lilith closed the door and checked the seal again before removing her cloak. Astaroth threw her own cloth into a corner and launched a fireball at it while she made her way to the bathroom. Luckily, the material was resistant to elements, and only the trash that covered it was destroyed.
After she was done cleaning herself, she threw herself face first onto one of the bed, sighing heavily.
"No hero for tonight?"
Astaroth nodded negatively, and answered with a voice laced with poison.
"I consider adding fairies to the menu. That would be making this world a favor. And maybe roast them on Salamander's flames while we're at it."
Lilith raised an eyebrow. "It would be better to wait for the end of the tournament anyway, fewer people would notice. And Morrigan?"
The red haired succubus answered with her voices still muffled by a pillow. "She's not in danger. Mephisto is re-educating her in her academy right outside the city, with the idea to make her more reasonable in mind." She rose her head up. "This is going as well as you'd expect. Should we break her out before she does something even more reckless than usual?"
Lilith tapped her chin with a finger. "No, if she betters herself in the hero's eyes, it will serve our interests more in the long run. We should rather take a minute to contact her to tell her to play along."
Astaroth nodded as she got up. "Great, I'll tell her tomorrow directly, it will be nice to see her once again." She rubbed her gloved hands together, smiling. "Did you get us anything for tonight?"
Lilith opened a cabinet's doors and gestured toward the content the same way a steward would present a menu. "One lost young man for me, and one gladiator who was angry at not being able to enter the competition for you." Both men were bound and gagged by a dark aura.
Astaroth shivered. "Oooh, my favorite! Thank you for the attention!" She seductively licked her lips as the man looked more angry than afraid. His bindings did prevent him from trying anything for now, but the succubus had no doubt they would prove unneeded in a few minutes. She grabbed him to carry him to her bed and noticed Lilith's work. "And you even decorated the table! How nice of you!"
Lilith smiled as she moved the terrified young man to her own bed. "The pleasure is all mine. Bon appétit!"
