Chapter 27: A Daring Rescue For This Adamant Crusader!
It had been a while since Darkness had been eaten by a monster. The giant toads that grew around Axle had been hibernating for months and her party hadn't fought anything big enough to fit her in its mouth. Well, other than Han, but he didn't count.
The point was, she had missed this.
"Oh, no!" The struggling Crusader squealed in delight as she tried climbing up the worm's tightening esophagus. "This beast is trying to swallow me! Whatever will I do?"
The answer to that question was, of course, to let herself get pushed down even further until she landed with a splash into a large pool of what could only be stomach acid. She could feel the acid start to burn her skin through her clothes, though it would be a while until it would start to eat through her skin, thanks to her immense durability.
It was almost like soaking in the hot springs back in Arcanletia. Except she was completely in the dark, the spring was trying to digest her, and she was alone with no Kazuma, Aqua, or any of her other friends there cracking jokes or complaining about the situation.
Darkness let out a sigh before taking in a deep breath and letting herself sink further into the worm juice so that it came up almost to her nose.
The last few months had been the best in her entire life. Going out on quests and adventures with a party of friends who accepted her, flaws and all, had been what she'd always dreamed. She couldn't have asked for more and now it was all crashing down around her.
When she'd finally gotten that delightfully disgusting deviant of a party leader to let her into his party of mishandled miscreants, she had been told upfront that their goal was to defeat the Devil King himself. She knew that he'd meant it as a deterrent but to Darkness, that was not only a challenge but an opportunity. It should have taken years of grueling quests together as they raised their levels and struggled to gain the power they would need for such an insurmountable goal, which would have finally led them to the ultimate showdown against an enemy that not even the king of Belzerg himself could hope to face alone. It seemed like everything she ever could have hoped for.
And now, a few months later, they'd already accomplished their task without ever having faced the Devil King or most of his generals and not even a scar to show for their accomplishments. Worse still, that meant, as Kazuma had said, that it was now time for their party to break up, the members of their team each going their separate ways.
It seemed that Kazuma and Aqua were content to settle down and retire from adventuring life. Knowing Kazuma, they'd probably coast off of their share of the bounty that they would be receiving soon as payment for their part in taking down the Devil King. Megumin would likely strike out on her own for a while to continue her pursuits of becoming the most powerful Arch Wizard in history despite only using the one spell. She was less sure about what Elsie, Yunyun or Keima would do but it was likely that they would also go their separate ways.
And for Darkness… this was the end. This party had been her last chance to be the woman she wanted to be, to live her life how she wanted. Once they'd officially disbanded, she would have to return him to her father to resume her duties as the future Duchess Lalatina Ford Dustiness. Instead of dungeon diving and fighting Giant Toads alongside her friends, her days would be spent meeting with potential suitors and assisting her father with their family's responsibilities.
"What's even the point?" Darkness shifted her weight to float on her back in the sea of acid. Not even the increasingly intense burning sensation lapping across her skin could do anything to help her sour mood. "My life's over. I might as well just let this thing eat me."
She eventually lost track of time, which wasn't hard given that there was no way to track it in the first place in the pitch black recesses of a giant worm's stomach. The gradually increasing irritation of the acid slowly eating through her skin did eventually provide her with a release from her spiraling depressive thoughts, though she still found herself feeling hollow, unable to fully give herself to her desires the way that she usually did without even thinking.
Eventually, though, she was pulled from her thoughts by a faint, muffled sound from outside the worm. Although she could barely make it out, it sounded like shouting. Snapping to attention, Darkness started swimming until she reached a solid wall and pressed her ear against the disgustingly (delightfully) slimy stomach lining.
Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!
It felt like forever but Kazuma and Aqua finally reached the end of the tunnel. Instead of a light like what people normally think of finding there, however, they found a massive armored worm coiled up into a spring. Kazuma was pretty sure it was asleep but he couldn't be sure.
"There it is!" Aqua blurted out the obvious.
"Yes, I can see that," he said dryly. "It's kind of hard to miss the big honking worm. Now, keep your voice down!"
"Hey, you're the one yelling!" she shouted back.
"You were yelling first!" Kazuma argued indignantly.
"Will you both shut up, you'll wake that thing up," a coarse whisper drew both of their attention to the thief who suddenly appeared behind them like some kind of reverse Batman.
"Chris?" Kazuma whipped around, silently cursing himself for not being able to detect her despite Lurk being one of his skills, too. But, he supposed, Detect Enemy only worked on, well, enemies. And while he wasn't on particularly good terms with the disguised goddess at the moment, she wouldn't qualify. "How did you get here?"
Chris wordlessly pointed up to an opening near the ceiling above a climbable rock wall, which led outside. It seemed there was a light at the end of the tunnel after all, which Kazuma hadn't noticed thanks to his Dark Vision skill and also being distracted by the giant worm.
"Okay, so we're all here," Kazuma tried to get back on track. "Now, we better kill this thing quickly, before it has a chance to digest Darkness. The good news is that it's sleeping, which should buy us some time. Hopefully, we're not already too late, though."
"With Darkness' high Defense, we should still have plenty of time before we need to start worrying about that," Chris said. "The main problem will be figuring out how to kill this thing and get her out. We can't just use Steal to get the Laevateinn without crushing Darkness when the Titannalid shrinks back to its regular size."
"Right…" Kazuma trailed off while examining the giant worm, thinking of a plan. "Wait, but wouldn't the worm shrink around Darkness just kill the worm, not her? This is Darkness we're talking about, after all."
"Possible, but I don't want to risk it," Chris said.
While the two arguably intelligent people debated how to move forward, Aqua was of the mind that actions spoke louder than words. Before Kazuma or Chris had a chance to notice that she'd taken off running, it was already too late.
"Let go of my friend!" Aqua charged the slumbering beast, pulling her fist back before it began to radiate intense, burning flames that flared with draconic might. "Dragon Blow!"
The flames erupted into a pair of mighty, fanged jaws that clamped down into the worm's armored hide before exploding. It would have been impressive if she had managed to accomplish anything other than waking the monster up.
"Damn it, Aqua!" Kazuma shouted as he and Chris rushed forward, preparing for a fight they weren't ready for.
The Titannalid reared its head up and let out a ferocious roar, signaling that the battle had begun.
Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!
Darkness could barely hear anything from outside the worm's stomach but she could still recognize the unmistakable sounds of combat. It seemed that her friends must have come to rescue her and she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she just floated around doing nothing while they risked their lives for her. She was the one who was supposed to do that.
Unfortunately, she'd dropped her sword when getting swallowed by the Titannalid and wasn't sure where it had ended up. She couldn't see anything around her in the darkness, either, but was sure that it must have been somewhere in the stomach with her. Reasoning that her sword was heavy enough that it likely would have sunk to the bottom, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and swam down into the pool of acid tickling her skin.
Feeling around in the dark, she didn't find anything on the first dive or the second. The third time she went down, however, her fingers finally brushed against something hard and slender, which she gripped tightly and pulled up with her as she swam back to the surface. Hefting up what she'd grabbed, she could tell that it wasn't her sword. But it was still probably a sword, which was all she really needed at the moment.
Fumbling around in her namesake, Darkness found the wall of the worm's stomach and began hacking at it with the weapon. The monster's outer hide may have been armored but the same could not be said of its insides and she could hear it roar in pain as she continued to cut through the stomach wall.
It still felt weird for her to actually be able to hit anything.
Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!
"Rising Dragon Fist!"
Kazuma hopped back as Aqua literally Shoryuken'd the giant worm in what approximated for a jaw, rising up into the air engulfed in a dragon-like flame bursting out from her skyward fist. The worm, naturally, didn't care much for getting uppercutted in the mouth like that and rocked back from the blow. Which was good because neither his katana nor Chris' daggers seemed to do much against its chitinous hide. What was up with that, anyway? Worms didn't have armored plating.
"I'm getting so tired of boss monsters," Kazuma muttered as he looked for an opening to attack. Maybe if he managed to wedge his blade in the gap between armored plates? No, he'd probably just end up breaking his sword if he did that. It seemed that it was time to break out his limited magic instead. He did finally have some Intermediate spells, thanks to his recent influx in skill points, after all.
Before he could cast Fireball, however, the overgrown bug started to roar and twitch violently. Unsure of what was going on, Kazuma took a cautious step back. Chris did the same but Aqua, of course, remained oblivious to their opponent's change in behavior and kept wailing at it with various punches and kicks. If it were anyone other than Aqua, he would expect her to know better than to keep attacking a boss when it was entering a new combat phase, at least until you learned its new moveset.
"Aqua, get back here!" he called out to her and was almost relieved when the former goddess turned and, after taking a moment to give him a confused look, complied.
"What's up?" she asked.
"This." Kazuma gestured to the worm, which was completely freaking out and starting to smash itself against the rock wall behind it. "What's going on with this thing?"
"It looks like it's in pain," Chris pointed out. "I think Darkness might be fighting it from the inside."
"Ouch," Aqua muttered, clutching at her stomach. "That's got to hurt."
"It's not enough, though," Kazuma pointed out, staring down at his free hand when an idea finally came to him. "Wait, I've got a plan. Cover me!"
Kazuma ran up to the giant worm, violating his own common sense while attempting to strafe the beast. Aqua followed close behind while Chris stood back. It didn't take long to reach the massive earthworm and Kazuma slapped his hand hard against its hide. A bit too hard, actually, but he didn't have time to think about the pain and wouldn't need to in a moment, anyway.
"Drain Touch!" Kazuma felt himself grow reinvigorated as he drew out the worm's health and vitality, all of it flowing straight into himself as his skill took effect. It wasn't quite as effective on an opponent that size but he was able to drain the worm enough for what he needed. Its movements grew steadily more sluggish as the worm found itself too fatigued to keep thrashing around wildly. Soon, the worm just sat there, heaving.
Then the worm threw up. Directly on Kazuma and Aqua.
"Yuck, gross!" Aqua whined as she pulled herself out of the massive pile of sickly goo that had been the contents of the giant worm's stomach just a moment ago.
"Ow," Kazuma muttered, trying to crawl out of the muck but finding himself pinned to the ground. "What hit me, a train?"
"Oh, sorry!" Darkness apologized before quickly getting off of him and… wait, Darkness?
"Darkness!" Aqua cheered, all thoughts of being covered in worm vomit seemingly lost as she practically tackled their rescued Crusader into a hug. "You're okay! I was so worried! I thought we'd lost you!"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you," Darkness said sheepishly. "But I suppose thanks are in order, now."
"Save it for after we kill this thing," Kazuma groaned, pointing his katana up at the giant monster that was still dry-heaving and looked fatigued. "What's up with this thing, anyway? Drain Touch doesn't normally have that effect on things."
"The Titannalid's actions are likely because I was able to tear a hole through the side of its stomach with this," Darkness explained, holding up a rusty old sword with a broken blade. "I doubt there are many creatures that wouldn't react badly to that. In fact, I wonder what it would be like to-"
"Steal!" Chris shouted from behind them, cutting off Darkness before she could start to rant about wanting a hole in her stomach or something insane like that.
In a flash, the giant sword sticking out of the oversized worm's head vanished and appeared in Chris' hand. The weapon, which could have made a Final Fantasy character jealous with just how ludicrously oversized it was, looked rather comical in the petite girl's grip. Less so as she began to grow, however.
As Chris slowly grew to around ten times her normal size, the worm did the opposite. It was still massive, easily much larger than the other worms they had fought earlier, but still only a fraction of its former size. And if the worm looked ragged before, it was only more so now. It flailed around weakly across the cold, hard ground before giving one last twitch and then stopped moving altogether. Kazuma wasn't sure why the monster just suddenly up and died like that until the blade of Darkness' usual sword suddenly shot out from the worm's side right before it finally finished shrinking.
"Oh, there's my sword," Darkness mused before running over to retrieve her weapon. "It must have gotten lodged in the monster's throat.
Kazuma could only think about what a horrible way to die that was as he unconsciously reached for his neck. He knew from personal experience how unpleasant decapitation could be, flashing back to the view of his own body he'd seen in the split second before his death at the hands of the Winter Shogun.
"Wow, Eris! You're huge!" Aqua whistled from beside him, completely changing the subject.
"Too bad she isn't wearing a skirt," Kazuma mused.
"Is that all you ever think about?" Chris asked sarcastically before pulling out her bag of holding and she dropped the giant sword into it. As quickly as she'd become a giant, she shrank back down to her usual size now that she no longer held the divine blade. "Another one in the bag. Literally."
"What are you even going to do with that thing, anyway?" Kazuma asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"I go around collecting the cheat items of fallen reincarnated heroes," Chris explained, flashing Aqua the old stink eye. "Having powerful artifacts like these just lying around causes more trouble than they're worth, as you've seen. Then I take them back up to heaven and have them dismantled back into magical energy."
"So you don't just have a massive armory of powerful magical weapons that could be used against threats like the Devil King?" Kazuma couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.
"Even if I did, I wouldn't let anyone use them," Chris replied. "They're all far too dangerous to let back into this world."
"Hey, not all of my divine relics are dangerous!" Aqua suddenly chimed up, looking like she'd just remembered something. "What about that hammer that makes money?"
"Yes, because nothing can go wrong with a magical item that can introduce a potentially unlimited amount of new money into an economy." Chris rolled her eyes and folded her arms with a huff. "You ever hear about inflation?"
"Yeah," Aqua nodded. "A lot of my old followers had that fetish. Bit of a weird one, now that I think about it, but there are worse."
Kazuma and Chris both gave the oblivious goddess disgusted looks. Darkness also gave her a look but Kazuma would describe it more as curious and very much hoped that she wasn't about to start getting ideas.
"Ugh, never mind," Chris said, shaking her head. "The point is that someone needs to get rid of all of these old 'sacred relics' before they can cause too much trouble and that someone ended up having to be me. Honestly, I don't even know why you give people those stupid cheats in the first place. It's not like any of your summoned heroes were ever actually expected to beat the Devil King, after all!"
Kazuma's brain started to fizzle out for a moment.
"Wait, what was that?" he turned his focus entirely to the fake thief.
"What was what?" she responded innocently in a manner that reminded him too much of Aqua when she was trying to hide something.
"You said something important just now," he pointed out.
"No, I didn't," Chris insisted.
"Yes, you did!" Kazuma could feel his temper flare. It felt almost like he was dealing with Aqua at her worst, which was not something that he ever expected to see from the seemingly perfect angelic goddess he previously thought Eris to be. "You just said that we weren't meant to take down the Devil King! What the hell are you talking about? Isn't that the whole reason you guys send guys like me here?"
Chris' eyes darted nervously to the side before glancing down at the back of her wrist.
"Oh, look at the time!" she said quickly. "Looks like I've got to get going! Sorry I couldn't stay and chat but you know me! I've got important goddess stuff to do!"
Before Kazuma or anyone else had a chance to react, Chris suddenly took off running like an old cartoon character 'exiting stage left' and practically jumped up the huge pile of rocks leading up to the cavern exit. There was no way that climbing speed was natural.
"Did she just ditch us?!" Kazuma shouted angrily. "The nerve of that bitch!"
"I'm sure that the goddess has her reasons," Darkness argued, though both looked and sounded completely unsure of herself. "Whatever they may be."
Dismissing that, Kazuma rounded on Aqua, who grew visibly nervous as he stormed up to her and grabbed her by the shoulders.
"What the hell was she talking about!" Kazuma started shaking the distressed blueberry.
Aqua just shouted incoherently until he finally slowed down long enough to let her speak.
"It's not like we didn't want you to defeat the Devil King," she said apologetically, unable to meet the boy's gaze. "But, you know, hardly any reincarnated heroes ever actually manage it. You see, the real main reason we came up with the isekei system was to help with the population crisis."
"The what?" Kazuma asked, finally letting go of her.
"Well, I think I mentioned this when I gave you the pitch for coming here, but people from places like Belzerg usually choose to move on to heaven when they die instead of having their souls reincarnate back into a world oppressed by the Devil King or similar threats. Introducing new bloodlines by bringing in people from other worlds, like yours or Keima's, helps speed up the process of creating new souls to repopulate and replace the old ones."
Kazuma's grip went slack as his arms fell to his sides, his eyes staring off into the distance at something far beyond the physical plain.
"So…" Kazuma said slowly. "What you're saying is that… you bring people here to get laid."
"Pretty much," Aqua admitted.
"Why don't you lead with that!?"
"Huh?"
"Most of the guys you send here are just a bunch of horny idiots!" Kazuma pointed out. "Case in point, me! So what's all this nonsense about going out on dangerous adventures and fighting the Devil King and all that crap? Just tell us what you really want us here for and I'm sure that you'll have every virgin loser in Japan signing up for this in a heartbeat!"
"It actually works better to include it as part of a larger package deal," Aqua admitted. "Plus, just sending worthless NEETs like you used to be here and expecting people to want to sleep with them is crazy. Having them try to become heroes out of an anime or light novel is what lets them grow into the kind of men that Belzerg women would actually want to have kids with. Do you think the old you would have been able to land a girl?"
"I got you, didn't I?" Kazuma argued.
"I'm literally your cheat item, which I am just now realizing how bad it sounds when you say that out loud," Aqua pointed out. "If it wasn't for the current system, we barely would have met. Not to mention that we only got together after defeating both the Devil King and the Destroyer. If I didn't give you that goal, I still wouldn't even like you, let alone have fallen in love with you!"
Kazuma took a step back, unable to withstand what she'd just said. Did she really just throw the L Word out there so casually?
"I, um…" Kazuma muttered dumbly. "Yeah, sure. I see your point."
An awkward silence filled the cave after that, which was only interrupted when Chris made an unexpected return, tossing something down from the exit she had left through earlier.
"Oh, by the way, here's some camping supplies!" she shouted down to them. "You're going to need it since the caravan moved on without you. Plus some clothes and healing salve for Darkness. Okay, bye!"
Kazuma had gotten so wrapped up in his argument with Aqua that he'd actually managed to forget that Darkness was there with them and suddenly became very embarrassed that she had just witnessed that little outburst. Also, he'd somehow failed to notice that she was now almost completely naked apart from her armor, her new dress having been digested by the worm. Her skin had also grown red like she had the world's nastiest sunburn and only grew redder as the Crusader herself finally noticed what had happened to her clothes.
"Well, I suppose we should probably get going," Kazuma coughed uncomfortably. "It's going to be a long walk back to Axle."
Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!
Aqua wasn't sure that her feet had ever been so sore. After checking the supplies that Eris had left them, packing up a load of worm meat for the trip and finally climbing out of that stupid cave, they'd ended up spending the entire rest of the day walking through the barren landscape. Thankfully, they had a map and compass so that they knew they were going in the right direction. Or at least Kazuma and Darkness did, anyway. Aqua couldn't make heads or tails of it.
They made camp at sunset, Kazuma setting up the tents while Darkness got a fire going and started roasting worm meat, and Aqua used her Nature's Beauty to refill their water supplies. It wasn't nearly as efficient as Create Water but at least the small streams released by the party trick were potable. Then, after they'd eaten the unfortunately not-very-tasty meal while trying not to think about the fact that they were eating a monster that had eaten Darkness, despite Darkness herself seeming to like the idea, they'd sent Kazuma to bed early so that Aqua could help Darkness apply the salve that Eris had given them on her burns.
"How are you feeling?" Aqua asked as she rubbed the green-tinted slime across Darkness' back. It was hard to tell now that they only had the light of the stars and their dying campfire to see by but it looked as if Darkness had almost completely healed.
"I'll be fine," Darkness replied, though Aqua could tell from her tone and the way she was slumped forward that it was a lie.
"Is something wrong?" Aqua grabbed a rag to clean her hands off before taking a seat next to her friend.
"No, it's just-" Darkness spared her a glance before gazing back at the dimming embers of the fire. "No, nothing's wrong."
"You don't sound very convincing," Aqua said, giving her a teasing nudge. "Come on, what is it? You know you can tell me anything, right?"
Darkness let out a sigh, biting her lip for a moment while giving Aqua a very guilty look. Eventually, she relaxed her shoulders and slumped forward again.
"It's just…" she started. "Ugh, I don't even know how to say this."
"It's fine, take your time." Aqua started rubbing her back comfortingly, growing increasingly curious as to what her friend was struggling with.
"I think I'm in love with Kazuma!" Darkness finally blurted out a bit louder than she had meant to, causing Aqua to freeze.
What?
"What?"
"I'm sorry." Darkness shook her head. "I know you two are together now and I'm happy for you, I really am, but… I just can't hide this any longer. I've been interested in Kazuma practically from the moment I met him and no matter how much I've tried to push those feelings aside, they just keep growing stronger."
"Oh," was all that Aqua could think to say. How was she even supposed to respond to that? But, now that she thought about it, she could see it. Darkness had never been very good at hiding her tastes and a scumbag like what Kazuma normally acted like would certainly fit what she seemed to be into. And the more she thought about their past interactions, the more she remembered subtle little signs. Then she thought about everything that had happened over the last few days, particularly the incident when Darkness had found them in her room. "Oh."
Darkness buried her face in her hands, screaming into her palms out of embarrassment. Aqua knew that she liked to be embarrassed in front of people but probably not like this.
"I-I'm sorry," Aqua said. "I didn't even realize-"
"No, you have nothing to apologize for," Darkness cut her off, looking up again to look the fallen goddess in the eyes. "I waited too long and missed my chance. Besides, I'm just happy to see that the two of you are happy together. While a part of me may be jealous of your relationship, I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that."
It was Aqua's turn to stare into the fire. How had she been so stupid as to not notice this before? She really needed to start putting points in Wisdom now that her stats could grow. But for now, she could only try and figure things out on her own. She loved Kazuma. She was more sure of that with every passing day now that she'd finally opened herself up to those kinds of feelings. But Darkness did too and she couldn't just dismiss those feelings for the sake of her own. She cared too much about her for that and knew that Darkness also deserved to be happy with the person she chose.
Aqua scrunched up her face, thinking back on the many followers that she'd tried to help through similar situations in the past. One solution came to mind but she wasn't sure if it was the right one. But it was the only thing she could think of, so she just had to go for it. So, she steeled her resolve and suddenly lurched forward.
"A-Aqua?" Darkness pulled back as soon as their lips met, managing to fall flat onto her back before picking herself up again. "What are you doing?"
"All love is good in the sight of the Axis Order," Aqua pointed out. "If we both love Kazuma, then it wouldn't be fair for either of us to have him to ourselves! So, it's only natural that the three of us get together!"
"Buh? Buh? Huh? Whuh?" Darkness sputtered incoherently, unable to form complete words for a moment. "But I can't- I'm a noble! I can't just-"
Aqua pulled out the signed form that Darkness had given her back when they'd started their journey back to Axel, which marked her as a member of the Axis Order.
"I only signed that as a show of solidarity," Darkness objected. "The Axis Order itself is being disbanded even as we speak. It would still be completely improper for me to-"
Darkness quickly shut up as Aqua grabbed her by the hands and pulled her in for another kiss, her higher brain functions shutting off as she started thinking with something other than her head.
"Oh, we should get started right now!" Aqua said excitedly as they pulled away from each other, her earlier trepidation melting away as she also stopped thinking with what little of a brain she had. "You wouldn't believe how good it can make you feel. Come on, let's go grab Kazuma!"
Aqua started dragging Darkness away to the tents while the bashful blonde started babbling again.
"Wait, shouldn't we ask Kazuma about this first?" she raised a token objection, though in truth, her mind was already flooding with fantasies.
"This is Scumzuma we're talking about," Aqua pointed out. "Do you really think he'd turn down the chance for a threesome with the two hottest women in Belzerg?"
"I suppose not." Darkness blushed at the compliment. "But I'm still not sure if we should-"
"Too late, we're here."
Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!
Kazuma woke up from the most wonderful dream, the contents of which cannot be described in polite company. His good mood was somewhat dampened by just how tired and sore he felt, like he was back at his old construction job and had been working all day and night, but was soon lifted right back up as his fingers brushed against Aqua's bare back and he realized that his head was resting snuggly between heaven's virtues. Smiling, Kazuma turned over without opening his eyes and stuck out his tongue, hearing a quiet moan as he-
Wait, those were way too big to be Aqua's. And he had his arm around her to his side then who was he…
Kazuma snapped to alertness and shot up, looking down to see not one but two naked party members slowly stirring awake on top of his sleeping bag. What followed was several minutes of incoherent screams as Kazuma, Darkness and Aqua each realized in turn that last night hadn't been a dream, after all.
Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!
In the next exciting chapter of God's Blessing, God Knows: One Last Morning In This Ruined Village!
"There's no use dwelling on the past. We can only move forward." She caressed one gentle hand over her slightly bulging belly, which was just beginning to tighten her formerly loose dress. "My friend and family may have fallen at the hands of that vile demon but the Crimson Demons will live on through our bloodline. I just wish that you could stay with me to raise our child."
"Where did you get that snake?" Keima grumbled, referring to the large reptile coiled around Elsie's shoulders and arms. The snake in question was clearly some kind of constrictor, the scales on its head a dark, almost charcoal-like color that gave way to a brilliant red running the length of its back and a deep tan over its belly. Keima could swear that he'd seen a very similar color scheme on a serpentine being not too long ago. "Please tell me that isn't General Sylvia."
"Ah, there you are," Hiropon turned on his heels, holding his right hand out with his fingers spread while bringing his left hand up next to his face with the palm out and fingers pointing in roughly the direction of his chin. "My family's mortal nemesis, come for another round!"
Author's Notes: Man, I'm getting so sick of these big fight scenes. It feels like it's just been one battle after another recently and I'm really getting tired of them. I don't care for writing them and I doubt they're that interesting to read. Thankfully, the Titannalid is the last notable combat encounter that I have planned for quite a while, though. Soon we'll be back to general hijinx over in Axel, which will be followed by shenanigans in the capital.
But of course, that miniboss probably isn't what you're focused on right now, so let's move on to the mammoth in the room. I'm surprised (but not really) how few love triangles have the characters involved try to, um… 'compromise'. It seems like an interesting source of drama that never really gets delved into. In this case, we have someone whose grasp on relationships is primarily informed by the country's biggest deviants enabling two horny idiots because she doesn't want to let either of them down. This can only end badly.