"I would like to say, first and foremost-" Noah grunted as he was thrown into the wall, barely managing to brace himself so as to not have all the wind knocked out of him. The fact that he wasn't thrown through the wall and that he fell down onto the room's bed meant that at least, she wasn't yet trying to kill him. It still cut off whatever he was saying as the breath got knocked out of his lungs.
As he slowly went to pull himself up, he was yanked back up by her tails, this time holding him much more firmly, with one per limb and another two wrapped around his neck and waist.
"Hmmm. Sturdy disguise. So, what did you come to do in this village?" she asked.
He breathed hard, panic beginning to take hold. However, he couldn't afford it right now. "I-I got stranded on Gold, and until about two days ago, I didn't even know the ship-"
"I did not ask for your entire life story." she cut in, a deep frown on her face as her tail slowly tightened around his hand.
"I didn't even know you were here, I was just going back to Port Natalia via boat!"
"Hmmm. That doesn't sound likely. Let's try that again."
Pressure began increasing on Noah's leg. After a moment, there was a sickening crunch, and it felt as though just about every bone in his leg snapped. The pain was immediate, and intense, and Noah's mind failed to handle it for more than a brief second. The last thing he saw was a surprised expression on Tamamo's face.
For some reason, his unconscious mind felt the need to compare it to the time you managed to die to Toriel in Undertale.
It was almost as though she didn't mean it.
As he woke up, the moment was still extremely fresh inside his mind. However, he felt no pain in his leg despite the splitting headache trying to convince him otherwise, as though he'd imagined it. He was tucked into bed, with a cushion under his head, covers on him, and he was in some pajamas. The trouble was that nothing about the room, clothes or bed he was in was familiar to him- though the room looked like the one at the inn he'd been dragged in.
In his mind's eye, Salamander manifested at the end of the bed, sitting down and staring at him despite not physically being there. The fire spirit sat there, arms crossed. "You're awake."
"...did I get drunk or something? I've just had the most vivid hallucination of my leg being crushed to a pulp…" he shuddered, but Salamander's serious stare did not vacillate. After a moment, he breathed. "That really happened, didn't it?"
"Unfortunately. When you fainted, I managed to possess your body enough to put in a good word with the Heavenly Knight. Or is it the Ancestor?" she asked blithely, and his breath caught. He… hadn't thought about this.
"That-"
"Or how about the fact that apparently, you know the precise location of where the rest of the Four Spirits are right now despite not having read the damn book about it?"
As his thoughts stilled, he felt his shaking intensify for a moment, before the cold, hostile clarity he felt towards monsterkind swept over his brain. She may be a companion, but they weren't friends.
To be honest, he still had his reservations about her. She'd threatened to rape him. He knew that she would seriously go for it too. And despite their relationship being... quite literally warmer than the one he'd previously held with Promestein, he didn't feel like he could honestly trust her.
She couldn't dig for his memories, at least. Just sense surface thoughts.
"I don't trust you, Salamander." Eventually, Noah shrugged. "Not with my heart. Not even with my mind, to be completely honest, but I had to settle for it because I know the power that comes from such a bond and the fact that this way, you can teach me while still inside of Gold Volcano. You threatened to rape me. Would have done so, too, if I had proven disappointing. Taken away my freedom, doomed me to be a slave. That's not something I can go over lightly."
"And yet, you accepted my guidance, sought it out even," Salamander replied evenly.
"I've had to re-evaluate my moral compass a lot the past few days. If I had to be outraged at every monster that raped a human ever, I'd go on a murder spree that would only end in my death." he snorted darkly. "Ilias would probably like that."
Salamander began to flicker and stare, musing over his words for a moment. "If you were capable of doing so, you would be a legend among all the races. Even when you met your inevitable demise. Although I can tell you find the thought laughable... So why don't you explain to me why you believe I am wrong?" Salamander offered. "Clearly there's some disconnect between how you feel and how I do."
Noah glanced at her. "You mean explain to you why raping someone and imprisoning them for life to be your slave is wrong?"
"Yes." Salamander replied, no change of expression.
...despite what he said earlier, he could feel his anger and hatred begin to stir at the back of his mind, especially recalling that she wasn't his only potential ally who would unashamedly do so. Any sympathy he could feel for Alice was rapidly withering again.
He took a deep breath. "Life is sacred. Freedom is sacred. The moment you steal either of those away from someone, you're nothing short of a monster- the horrible individual kind, not the creature type kind."
Salamander stewed on this for a few moments, temperature lowering and eyes closed. "I see."
"Do you?" Noah huffed sarcastically.
Her expression turned to a half-lidded glare at him. "I'm trying to empathize, you runt. What I see," she said, daring him to interrupt. He didn't. "is that you come from a culture that values kindness and compassion to perfect strangers above all else. Baffling to conceive of such a place, but I do not see it as inherently wrong. Just ripe for abuse."
"I'm sensing a but."
She smacked his leg. Despite her appearance in the room being just a construct of his mind, he felt the phantom pain shoot through him. "But you delude yourself into believing this place is your fantastical home. Almost anywhere on both Sentora and Hellgondo, strength is valued above all else. It's why Monster Lord is a title obtained through a tournament of the strongest monsters, why a lot of monster marriage laws involve defeating your partner or showing your strength as a sign of love, and why we spirits perform trials by combat for our allegiance. This is the core belief of all monsters and our only means of existence."
"Your core belief is rooted in malicious selfishness. Justifying the flawed means for the sake of a repugnant end." Noah released a scoff at her flowery explanation of her culture. With enough eloquence, one could make nazism sound virtuous; that didn't mean that it was.
"So you still do not see... very well." Salamander stretched and shifted her jaw. "Of all things you must keep in mind. There are no male monsters. As many humans are either followers of Ilias or at least live out her teachings, who else do we have? Many monsters seek comfort among each other, but that still does not eliminate the drive for those of us who still need the company of your male sex. And how could we convince them? Everything the human goddess says is to slay us no matter the cost. We at least disapprove of those who would slay and eat humans for sport. Humans would seek any reason to ensure our homes are emptied and every monster race is scoured from the face of the earth.
"And even among those of us who seek humans for conception, the only choice is to either slay or keep the humans for ourselves. What would happen if the human returned to his settlement? In many cases, they would tell the church and they would immediately hunt down the mother when she is at her weakest." Salamander leveled a finger toward him. "You must accept this. A monster's life is solely determined by strength. Our bonds are won by strength and our very lives and futures are sustained by strength. As idyllic as your home sounds, you would find it hard-pressed to achieve such a state here without becoming the strongest being of all the lands."
The fire spirit flared for a moment and glanced away. "And even in such a case, you'll find such an attempt to be… fickle."
"...that doesn't have to be the case. Port Natalia, mermaids live there peacefully. Grand Noa, they have a peace agreement with monsters. Just because it's the way things are, doesn't mean that it's right."
At that, Salamander rolled her eyes. "And how is that peace upheld? My daughter tells me of the place. It exists under the thumb of the Succubus Queen, left unscathed because it amuses her so. The reason monsters don't attack humans en-masse, instead settling for travelers because it's what they can get away with under the orders of the Monster Lord.
"Do not forget, this is relevant to your situation as well. You challenged me to an honorable duel. The life of the loser is forfeited to the winner, as dictated by the draconic laws. You won, and now I am here for your use."
The momentum of anger that was building up in Noah's mind came to a screeching halt at the last sentence. "I what?"
"You won. My daughter, someone who I own accountability for, interrupted our duel. That makes you the victor by forfeit."
"...is that why you've agreed to teach me? To settle some asinine debt over that?" Noah asked eventually.
The fire spirit stilled for a moment, temperature briefly flaring before continuing with her calm speech."As difficult as it is for me to conceive of your homeland, I did not insult your culture, human. I ask that you do the same with mine." Salamander huffed a short breath of fire to the side. "And no. I offered to teach you because I could not impose a right of the victor I did not possess. But if I had defeated you, I would've taught you anyway. Your potential amongst humans is unmatched. As mine, you would have become a human fit enough to be among monsters."
"Ah yes... the legendary monster slayer thing. You would also have raped me." Noah glared at the spirit, trying to make her see his point through sheer will.
"You seem weirdly hung up on that." Salamander closed her eyes again, steam curling from her nostrils. "I would've understood as much if you were a follower of Ilias, but given that you are not, as you said yourself, I'm missing some context here."
"...before I start screaming in anger, what exactly does rape represent for you?" Noah said, feeling himself on the edge of a breakdown.
Salamander shrugged. "It depends on the context. It can be an act of domination. A way of formally representing the defeat of my opponent. A meal of lifeforce. An expression of love. A means of stress relief. A chance to bear a child."
Noah breathed in and out a few times. "For me, that's unthinkable. Rape is... an act of violence, one of the worst things you can commit against another being. A traumatizing assault that violates the sanctity of body and mind."
Salamander blinked. "That's... intense." After a moment, she tilted her head. "But... hmmm. It explains something about you."
"What?" he replied irritably.
"You were extremely aggravated when in the brief scuffle with that mermaid, which I understood because she attacked you. But there was only fear, no lust. When held in the tails of the Ancestor herself, one of the most beautiful women in the world, you felt fear only at her touch, with no pleasure. Even when you think of the Monster Lord herself, it's in irritation and anger before arousal."
"...it's hard to think of a rapist threatening to kill me as sexy," he muttered in reply. Salamander ignored it.
"Typically, the dark magic that we monsters naturally produce eases the process of seduction both on the body and the mind. One of the few benefits our kind has been gifted towards wooing humans. but you... you are shielded from it. That must be why you feel so violated."
"So you're saying that just because other people find it more enjoyable, it's suddenly okay?" he grumbled.
"Noah." Salamander sighed. "Stop being a petulant child and try and treat me with respect." As he glared at her, eventually he ran things through his mind for a few moments. Still didn't see her point. "I'm not saying that the monsters that go out there and hunt people down and make them their slaves, kill them or eat them are right. I would have offered no protest if you decided to kill the mermaid, and still wouldn't.
"But thinking of those who are just looking for a quick meal to sustain themselves, look to make love or just win an agreed-upon fight against their opponent and get to decide their fate? That's just life. Everyone wins in such a scenario." She closed her eyes. "Everyone save for you, I suppose, because your bizarre subspecies of human doesn't work properly."
"...randomly making love with someone unwilling still isn't something particularly good, even if it were to feel nice."
She tilted her head, before snorting. "What a prudish society you must come from. But if you truly believe such a thing, rules are enforced by the strong. Become strong. Defeat your naysayers. Change things. And I will be here to watch you do it."
Noah still felt his stomach twist at the notion. Not a single part of him liked what Salamander described throughout their whole argument. But... he understood, ever so slightly more. Even if he didn't agree with it, at least it was a somewhat logical process.
And he was touched by her loyalty, even if their morals didn't align.
"...what happened with Tamamo?" he breathed out, his anger dimming to a simmering heat. He wondered how much the Fire Spirit's presence was influencing him, that he could physically feel his anger threaten to boil over again pretty literally.
"Trying to deflect your way out of my question?" she raised an eyebrow.
"There is nothing to say. I know things most people do not know, and that knowledge comes from my "fantastical homeland"." he made air quotes. "I live a hop, skip and a teleport spell away from home, so now I'm trying to figure out how to get back there because I was never meant to be here."
"…" Salamander didn't seem satisfied, but Noah had, in his own opinion, held up the relevant part of a bargain he hadn't agreed with.
"So, what happened with Tamamo?" he sighed out loud.
'That was not the real Tamamo. I doubt that the one who managed to defeat my daughter in single combat as though it was nothing would make so crass a mistake as to confuse you for an angel."
"Not the real-" Noah mouthed to himself.
"I believe I may shed some clarity, animist." Suddenly, something rolled out from under the bed. It was a balled-up version of the Heavenly Knight. Immediately, Noah's heart quickened, and he could feel himself shaking as the ball somehow turned into a young-looking girl. That same girl who would haunt his nightmares- that once upon a time feasted on human souls for the fun of it. Tamamo no Mae. "Though, admittedly, you should not be remembering anything of what happened."
"…" Numbness was spreading through Noah like frost over a winter lake. He couldn't manage to get any words out. He'd already been deathly afraid of monsters… and he was staring face-to-face with the strongest monster free to roam the world.
Briefly, he wondered about biting his own tongue off to drown in his own blood before noting that if his leg was fine, she probably knew Eye of Recovery. Oh God, he wasn't even allowed to die-
Suddenly, a tail fell in his lap. He flinched but gazed at the source. "Pet it, it's soft!" Noah's eyes widened at the ridiculousness of it, but right now, he wasn't really going to not take an order from the Heavenly Knight.
Grabbing a fistful of tail, he stared at it for a moment, burying his fingers in the softness. After a few moments, he turned to stare at its owner, who had sat on the bed. "Animist?"
"That is the name we give to humans who consort with nature spirits," Tamamo informed him. "And you're doing that with the Spirit of Fire itself, no less."
After a moment of grounding himself, he gently shoved the tail off of himself. "You crushed my leg."
"That… was an unfortunate incident perpetrated by my underling who was posing as me while I was away. Rest assured that she is being disciplined this very moment."
He opened his mouth, the beginnings of a protest that sounded like something along the lines of "That doesn't uncrush my leg", but slammed it shut. Right. She had.
He was nothing but an insect right now. Of course, the mental damage still remained, but he doubted that the monster would offer him a therapist. "I now see who the Monster Lords get their hands-off approach to ruling from," he muttered despondently.
Her gaze darkened. "If we're talking about that, I have my own questions."
Noah shrugged helplessly. "I'm your prisoner. Not much point asking for my opinion at this stage, is there?" he felt his previously uncertain opinion of the ancestor slowly decline back to the rank of "yet another monster", even as her lips pulled down into a frown.
"While I can tell pretty easily that you're human, you still came here reeking of mermaid blood and angel enough to fool my double," she stated, though the underlying question was clear...
"Mermaid blood… after an incident on our boat deafened about three-quarters of the crew, I was asked to repair their eardrums. With no monster blood in me, I had to take the energy from the mermaid on the ship." For a moment, he thought to add "with consent", but since when had that been a prerequisite in this world? "As for angel, I have no idea. The last one I met was a little over a week ago and I've had time to wash since." He felt like he was forgetting something, but right now, it was hard to think straight and it had nothing to do with the experience.
With a frown, Tamamo leaned in and began sniffling away at him. He was steadily beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable. After a moment, she shook her head. "No, it's definitely you. But considering you bleed rather than bursting into light… it's more likely that you have a blessing on you."
'…did you know anything of this, Salamander?' he turned his attention inward, thinking.
"It's hard to detect much of anything, currently. I am attuned to your senses because I have bonded with you, but my ability to project my essence outside of you is scarce. Something is creating an interference."
"...alright. I don't really know anything about it, and neither does Salamander," he replied, still staring at the fox, waiting for judgment.
"Still, why are you here? This place isn't exactly what I'd consider a tourist destination for heroes." Tamamo repeated the earlier question. After a moment's hesitation, Noah shrugged again.
"Accident. Got dumped into the Gold Volcano for a… very literal trial by fire." Tamamo's eyes glinted at that proclamation, but he didn't know what to make of that. "And now, I was making my way back home by getting by with Captain Whatshername."
He heard a snort from the fiery sprite. "Gloria."
"Yeah, that." After a moment's bemused expression from Tamamo, he remembered only he was privy to Salamander's words. "Captain Gloria."
"So you truly are not here to start anything? No 'heroic' duties, no quarrels with the citizens of Yamatai, no attempts to slay the Heavenly Knight? You clearly know who I am." Tamamo waved herself with her fan with a grimace.
A peal of hysterical laughter left Noah's lips. "I'd have better luck picking a fight with the mountains."
"...you're not wrong." Both Salamander and Tamamo said at the same time, the former light and unbothered, while the other speaking gravely. "But how would a human know that prior to coming here?"
At that, his laugh stopped abruptly. After a moment, his reply was soft. "I would rather not say." He breathed in deeply. "And I do understand that is my only defense here. I am at your mercy, in your home, and without anything that could prevent you from forcibly extracting that information.
"Nothing about any interaction we could possibly have is decided by me. So," he glanced at the shuttered window, wondering whether it was barred. Honestly, only now it came to mind that the door possibly wasn't even locked. But it wasn't like that mattered. "I would rather not say. And I guess that if that bothers you more than the idea of spitting on the dream of the past and current Monster Lord in order to torture or magic that information out of me…" Tamamo's eyes widened at that. He just shrugged.
After a moment, Tamamo snorted. She didn't look happy… but neither did she look murderous. He'd take it. "Granberia was right. You do have an air about you that pisses people off. You carry yourself with the impudence of a king and the pride of a worm."
He just stared at her, and after a moment, she stepped away from him, walking out the door. "Your belongings are in the closet, clean of blood. Have a pleasant stay."
After she left the room, he just stared for several minutes at the door she'd left by, eyes eventually trailing over to a key left on the cabinet. With a shudder, he stood up, and grabbed the key.
"After that entire debacle, I didn't think you'd trust a lock with your life." Salamander commented. She seemed sad, her flames dim.
"I don't, but I never did even before. Locks are to keep honest people out," he said. His hands were shaking, and more than a few times, he missed the lock entirely, until the warm, phantom sensation of guiding hands steadied his own. "...thanks. It doesn't make me feel safer to have the lock there… but they'll have to get their hands dirty to open it."
After that, he managed to guide himself into bed, idly brushing away the fur left behind on the bed. Somehow, he was reminded of his cats, leaving a wake of fur wherever they went.
His cats couldn't break every bone in his leg on accident.
"You know, this is why I don't really like Ilias. I'm so fucking tired of having to deal with gods."
"She is not-"
"From my point of view, she very well might be. It's not like Ilias is not just a jumped-up light elemental," he muttered back. He'd long since given up on the assumption of divine providence watching him after meeting with Promestein, so who cared about not being blasphemous? "She casually remade my leg." he shuddered. The next several minutes were spent simply touching around the various points on it, trying to refamiliarize himself with the limb. By all means, it was the same as before, but he couldn't shake the feeling of wrongness. Such profound damage shouldn't heal up like that.
"I think this might leave a scar," he muttered. This time, Salamander remained quiet.
They both knew he wasn't talking about the leg, this time.
Yao fucked up.
How many monsters will pay for this, I wonder?
:)
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