Hug Your Destiny [NSFW] - Explicit / Kink (Trans Protag)

[The_Letter_K]

She stood up, walking towards me.

"It's… well, it's not nice to meet you, but…"

My eyes widened, and I put my hand behind my head, embarrassed.

"Ehehehe… Yeah, poor phrasing, sorry."

Elsie hadn't shaken my hand, but I'd put it out more by reflex than anything. Standing up and walking towards me was more than enough.

"So," she said, "How do we do this?"

I have no idea!

"Well," I said instead, "The difference between a Demon and a Succubus is… sort of a fervent belief in the rightness of being a Mamono. So… I think we should look at it like that? Like a prayer to the Demon Lord to not just wash over the sculpture of your soul, sanding bits away, but to flow intelligently, to refine, and add definition. If we do that, and the changes are ones you're earnest about accepting, I think we can do it."

"That sounds a lot like a guess," she said, suspiciously.

"Well, this is my first time, but Magenta said I need to do this on my own, and I don't think you want me to involve her anyway, right?"

She shuddered.

"It's fine, though, really. I have Demonic instincts! They'll guide me."

Probably!

She looked less than convinced, but she didn't go back to cowering in the corner, which was a kind of success. I noted again just how pretty she was. Not like my wives, not like Jack, a kind of beauty that was entirely separate. Instinctual in the same way as my attraction to Jack, but tied up in the fact that I was big into the ladies, much like my attraction to my wives.

"Well!" I said, "first, the easy stuff. You're a huge magic nerd, like Sally is, right?"

"I don't know your Sally, and I resent being called a huge nerd, but yes, I guess so."

I nodded. "Well, you can expect your command over magic to increase. Before I Alped, I had absolutely no magic talent, but now, I can do this!"

I lashed out a hand, and a blank contract burst into being, flash and fire heralding its arrival.

"A Demonic contract?" She asked, "Do we need one?"

"It's for your benefit, actually." I said, "most Demons bind others with their contracts, sure, but they're equally as binding on the Demon involved."

I cleared my throat.

"I, Lilac von Frankenstein Nightcap of the Forest," I began.

I got a weird look from her, but it felt right to include the last names of my wives. Beeps didn't have one, and Amy had left her family behind, but the rest would be represented.

"do hereby swear to provide the undersigned with the following service; to do all I can to help her become the best Mamono she can be as she perceives it, and assist as she crosses into the Demon Lord's embrace, and in return, the undersigned promises to be honest with me about her desires, that we can come to the best accord we can achieve under these terms. The terms of this contract ends when the undersigned has become a Mamono herself."

I couldn't help it. I wiggled a little as the words etched into the paper, burning their way into reality.

"Deal?" I asked, with baited breath.

She paused, looking a little sick. "Do I have to?"

"I… no, you don't have to. But… this protects you from me losing control of myself and jumping you. It makes it much more realistic that we can work together, and if you have to be honest about what you want, there won't be any regrets later, right?"

She nodded, reluctantly, but nothing happened.

"I need you to say it."

I need it.

She gulped, gathering herself. She was shaking.

"Hey…" I said, gently, "It's okay. I know this is scary, but you're about to gain things you can't even imagine."

She looked at me, tears in her eyes.

"That's what I'm afraid of, stupid."

"Ah, right," I paused, "well, focus on the things you can imagine, then! More magic, sure, but there's lots of other benefits too, I never finished listing them. Free food, free water, free housing, plenty of free time, freedom from injury, from age, from the repressive regime you already admitted put so much pressure on you, and, I can't emphasize this enough, freedom from fear, not just your own, but from the fear of your neighbors. Everyone here will be happy to know you, you can find people happy to share in the things you hold dear, whether it's the study of magic or baking the best damn apple pie the planet's ever seen."

I paused, shaking my head.

"That's been the biggest change, really. I don't have to be afraid of these people. I'm accepted here, and whatever I want to do or try, there's someone here to share in the joy of it with without suspicion or restriction or guilt."

Her eyes were wide, when I looked back to her. "Free?"

"Yeah, it's so weird. The only real trade here is luxury for luxury. Everything you need, everything anyone needs, it's all here in such abundance there's not even a way to restrict it if we wanted to, and why should we? We can make all the space we want. Our magic is exponential; we earn more than we can spend summoning food or water faster than we could eat or drink it."

"I can study whatever I want?"

I nodded. "My wife could tell you more about that, but… there's like, a consortium of nerds who'd be happy to catch you up, or to explore the frontiers with you. Why shouldn't they? They have all the time in the world, and more big brain folks means more friends to study with and things to learn."

She let out a sound halfway between a moan, and a growl, and it was hungry.

She flushed as I looked at her, embarrassed. She looked confused, but the kind of confused you get when someone gives you a hug from behind, or you find something you'd lost hidden in a pocket of your winterwear.

"I-I have to… I… How could I not…? I… I agree." Even as the words left her lips, she looked bewildered, but I felt the contract as it slipped into place.

I fought it, but I couldn't quite contain the moan.

She gave me a look like she'd just touched filth, and not in the sexy way.

"What was that noise?" She asked, bristling.

"S-sorry. Contracting feels… good." I muttered. "It's like… I have a purpose and I'm fulfilling it? A real certainty that I'm doing what I should be doing. It's a bit… exciting."

She narrowed her eyes. "I don't wanna sound like that. It's embarrassing."

"Yeah…" I let my shoulders fall. "I still feel kind of ashamed about it myself. Although, it's growing on me. Being a Demon is harder than being a Slime in a lot of ways."

"Uh, yeah… what's that all about, anyway?" She asked, cautiously. "Dark Slimes aren't usually also Demons."

"Not a Dark Slime," I said. "Shoggoth, actually."

I debated opening some eyes, but reconsidered.

"Oh."

"Yeah, there was a Wonderlander involved, and I sort of… well… it's hard to remember exactly, but it's special circumstances."

"Not just any Wonderlander, my love." Akubra said.

I jumped three feet in the air.

Elsie quickly backed up against the wall, startled by my sudden movement.

I looked around but didn't see her.

"Do you hear that?" I asked Elsie.

She shook her head, looking quite spooked as I spoke to, apparently, no one.

"Yes I do, Lilac, my love." Akubra replied.

I looked around again, this time more suspiciously.

"Akubra?" I asked, cautiously, as I smoothed myself out, fright leaving my body reluctantly. "Was that you?"

"Yes, it was me. Do you really not recall?" She asked.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"Is that really the question you want to be asking?" She responded, lightly. "Wouldn't it be more appropriate to ask; 'where are you?'"

"I did!" I said, frustrated. "Unless… you meant, 'where are you' as in, 'where am I?' In which case I'm right here!"

"Yes," she replied, "you are, and so am I. It's quite romantic, isn't it?"

I nodded. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I wouldn't deny my wife romance simply because I didn't understand it at the time. Maybe I'd figure it out later and it could be romantic in retrospect.

"Say 'hello and welcome to the club' to Elsie for me, would you, Lilac? I'm always delighted when someone joins the ranks."

"Uh…" I paused. "I'm not sure that's something she'd like, Akubra. I don't want to make her mad, and I don't think she's interested in your club."

"Oh, she must be," she said, "or I wouldn't have come here."

Uh… huh.

"Akubra says 'Hi', Elsie."

She squinted at me. "Who?"

"That isn't what I said, Lilac."

I shook my head, frustrated. "My wife, one of them anyway. Sorry about this, she doesn't make sense. Which, if anything, is more comforting than it isn't. Rather, she says; 'hello and welcome to the club.' She runs a nightclub here in town, but we aren't there right now."

"Yes we are," Akubra replied, dreamily.

I closed my eyes, breathing deeply.

"Of course, honey, whatever you say."

She smiled, although I don't know how I could tell.

"I'll talk to you later, sweetheart," she said.

"Okay," I said. I turned my focus back to Elsie, and away from the voices in my head. "Sorry about that. I'm not clear on what just happened but I guess she's being neighborly?"

"Well…" Elsie said, "Tell her thanks, I guess."

I nodded.

"In the meantime, though," I said, more firmly, now that I was back on less confusing ground. "let's talk details, I want to make sure I understand exactly what you want out of this. I can't promise it will help, but I don't see how it could hurt."

 

[The_Letter_K]

Elsie ran me through it. It was a little embarrassing actually. She let out things that, from the expression on her face, she'd never intended to tell anyone, and maybe even a few things that surprised her about herself. She was compelled to be honest, though, and I was compelled in turn to take that honesty and make something of it.

The broad strokes, though, were not surprising. It turns out that once she couldn't lie to me, she did in fact have a sex drive and sexual fantasies. I was shocked. Shocked!

Well, not that shocked. As a Demon, or maybe as a Shoggoth, I was able to sort of… sense… desire. I was sort of perpetually unsurprised about the things she revealed, as though rather than being a puzzle I was putting together from scratch, I'd had it completed in front of me all along, and was picking out individual pieces to examine more closely before putting them back.

I sort of intuitively understood how her desires fit into her as a person, like she was a tapestry of interlinking wants and needs, and I was counting threads.

What it came down to was a picture that was a little difficult to paint as a lecherous conqueror, though.

I rubbed my hands through my hair, in consternation, the two merging and breaking apart in a way that was much more thorough than I'd been able to manage most of my life.

"Well," I said, "I… have to say it's not the most Demonly collection of desires I've ever seen."

She looked at me crossly, both in face and in arms. She'd become more confident as we talked and I failed to leap at her. It was heartening, I really wanted this to work for her, and it was more likely the more she took charge of her fears.

"I'm not going to be sorry I'm not horny enough, you know." She said.

"Well, no, I mean," I replied slowly, "this is some pretty kinky stuff, that's not what I'm worried about."

She blushed. She'd been unable to hold back a few details I rather suspected she was embarrassed by. I didn't know you could get harnesses for humans, but I bet Blackberry would like some to go with her saddle.

"It's just," I said, "I don't know any Demons who 'want to stay in their rooms all the time reading books and cuddling somebody who's all tied up like a robbery', or who think 'people should just be calmer and quieter, just shush up once in a while'."

It sounded more like Faust than Magenta or myself, but I couldn't exactly leave to go get her.

"Well…" I mused… "It's more Demonish than it is Succubish, I guess, which is what matters. Maybe you can be like, a Demon Librarian or something."

Although I didn't think librarians did a lot of robbery.

Except Sally I guess, she'd technically been a librarian, sort of. If like four separate books counted as a library, anyway. But I think her robberies were more incidental that they were encouraged by her role.

I took a breath. She looked nervous.

"Are you ready?" I asked.

She closed her eyes tightly, and after a moment, nodded. She was tense, and I didn't really know how to help. While she was more confident, she was by no means relaxed, and I could understand why.

All I could do was remind her what we were fighting for.

"Remember," I said, slowly spreading out, climbing myself up the walls and across the ceiling, pooling up out of the floor and covering the room completely, "You aren't fighting this, don't waste your energy, your focus. Call out to it, shout out what you want."

She nodded, her eyes still screwed shut. "I know. I'm scared, though."

My eyes, meanwhile, could no longer be held shut to keep her from being frightened. As I pushed out, mouths, teeth, and tongues formed and moved, and eyes snapped open from within the mass. I was closing in, and I was losing my ability to hold back. It was time now, and the contract no longer kept me from her.

The sense of her was overwhelming and I wanted it so badly.

"I understand," I said, my voice coming from all around her now, as the walls began closing in. "But don't worry, I'm here for you."

She gasped and flinched, and I fell upon her before she could do much else, collapsing in onto her from all sides, and bubbling up from the floor.

She opened her mouth, perhaps to scream, and I flowed inside her.

"Relax," I whispered inside her ear, "The hard part's over, you already surrendered, remember? I'm not going to hurt you, Elsie."

She had no clothes to shed, and so I flowed across her surface luxuriantly, cleaning away grease and grime. I scoured her down to her pores, but gently so, and I felt it as she finally stopped struggling, as the lightest delights played across her skin.

There we go, nice and clean! That had been bothering me desperately.

With the formalities out of the way, and with her body already mostly mine, I focused down on making her feel as good as possible. I rubbed at her slight breasts, kissing with mouths too small to see, and licking with tongues too many to know, I came up inside her from beneath, meeting myself in the middle, smiling lightly at the surprised tension as I entered her, which all too quickly melted away, and I played with her pussy tenderly, lovingly.

It wasn't long until the movements of her body were not her own initiative but all responses beneath my touch, but with the loss of her senses came a sort of passion to her movements I couldn't help but enjoy. She leaned into my every touch like a magnet, almost anticipatory, and I taught her body to dance.

I poured my energy into the void inside her soul, pleased in a visceral way to watch her be stained and filled with the infection I reveled in. It was so much more than I thought it'd be.

But I had a purpose here, a mission, and I wouldn't let myself be distracted.

I could see it leeching into her, and while I didn't have a sense yet of how the changes would happen, I did my best to guide them by will, to send the energy with intent.

"Please," I thought as loudly as I could, "Please hear us, please hear her, hear me. Help me take her to the fulfillment of herself. Don't let her be another thoughtless convert, let me sculpt her, help me show her."

I… thought I caught the interest of something. Something I was swimming in, much like Elsie swam in me. I could taste/hear/smell/see/touch the focus of it, the attention so bright it was all I could do to sense it at all.

WELL WELL WELL LITTLE ONE.

I shook.

WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?

I shuddered.

NO, NEVERMIND, NO NEED. I SEE IT.

I strained.

BUT THAT'S NOT HOW YOU DO IT, LOVE.

It was too much!

DO IT LIKE THIS.

I twisted.

YES, LIKE THAT, TINY FLOWER.

I screamed.

 

[The_Letter_K]

It's not really possible to lose yourself when you've filled a room. You're pressing against every surface and against yourself in a way that makes you too aware of where you are, like clothes that are as tight as you dare to wear.

That said, when you're being assaulted by a presence from outside reality, or whatever it had been that had just happened, you can still wind up disoriented.

At least in my experience. I'll compare notes with anyone else, if they offer.

Maybe they'd know what the hell just happened?

Elsie, for her part, seemed unaware anything had happened, transfixed as she was by her own sensation. She was nearly full up, now, absolutely and sinfully saturated with demonic energy in a way that made me squirm, knowing I'd been the cause, but… I had to wonder if something had gone wrong?

I'd have expected her to start growing a tail or something by now.

She certainly wasn't holding back on the passion, anymore writhing and freely cumming inside my omnipresent embrace, but it was that perfect hold, like clay squeezed tight in your fist, that made it impossible to miss that she was, at a glance, unchanged, at least beyond the smoothing away of imperfections that even Incubi could count on. I suppose it was possible her skin had started to change? I wasn't sure I'd be able to tell if it was merely a shift in tone.

The last of her purity drained away, in a moment that was, for me, quite entrancing, but she remained stubbornly vanilla.

That is, until she abruptly vanished.

.
.
.

"Oh my lord I think I ate her!" I yelled, panicking, as I collapsed into myself, pulling myself back into my familiar shape.

I ran towards the door, not having thought clearly enough to condense there, and yelled for Magenta.

"Magenta! She's gone, I think I ate her!"

Magenta burst into the room, like she'd been trying to get in for some time, and only just realized I was no longer blocking the door.

"You what?!"

"I ate her!" I yelled, fully panicked. "She just disappeared after I filled her up completely! Vanished! I must have pulled her in! I'm like fifty percent mouth!"

What do I do?

What do I do!?

"Okay, calm down, Lilac." She said, and her voice lilted oddly over my name. I could focus on what she thought about that later, it had just slipped out. It felt right. But now wasn't the time.

She looked around the room, but it was incredibly obvious there wasn't anyone hiding in here, given there was nowhere to hide.

She turned back to me, and I stumbled back under the weight of her gaze.

"What's that?" she said, looking at my stomach.

"What's what?"

She waltzed over, and I looked down, half expecting to see a finger or something morbid like that. Instead, it was what looked the corner of a piece of bleached paper.

I stared down at it.

Had I picked something up out in the street? Things did get stuck in my body from time to time but I usually munched on them if they weren't too big.

She reached out and grabbed it, tugging at it a little. I fought the urge to make her fight for it, and wasn't entirely successful. She had to yank to pull it out.

It was a small rectangular piece of thick paper, roughly the size of the palm of my hand.

"What the heaven?" Magenta asked, doing her, admittedly doofy, equivalent of a curse.

As we watched, the paper changed in her hand. An odd black symbol, like a clover, appeared repeatedly across it, and the number 'seven' etched itself into the corner.

Magenta dropped it immediately, and backed away like it was possessed.

"Oh shit!" she said, eyes on the object, "H-how? W-what?"

It landed on the ground, face down. On the back, a fantastical landscape was depicted, with a strange castle at the center of rolling hills with a checkerboard pattern.

Something about it disturbed me.

I watched it for a moment, confused.

"What is it?"

"It's her," Magenta said, confused, and a little shaken. "She's… a Trumpart."

A what?

The thing flipped over, and began to float into the air, growing larger.

I backed away, suddenly very unsure, the relief I'd started to feel at the idea Elsie might be alive smothered by a strange dread.

Elsie's head popped out the surface, from the central symbol, and she was scowling.

"Can you two keep it down? I want to do an inventory of this library and I can't think over your theatrics."

"Elsie?" I asked, confused.

She nodded. Her black hair had a white streak running through it. It was shaped, on one side, like the symbol on the paper, on the other, like the seven from the same.

What?

"Look," She said, "I'm grateful you got me a house to hide in, that's more than I could have hoped for, and I was thinking I'd have to go out and source the ropes myself, but the silk is a nice touch. That said, I'm all sexed out for now and I just want to explore my mansion. Please be quiet."

"O-okay." I said, and with that she sunk back down out of view, the paper returning to its original size and lying on the floor once more.

Magenta grabbed my hand, and pulled me out of the room, shushing me any time I tried to speak.

"Lilac," she said, once we had a door between us and Elsie, "What did you do?"

 

[The_Letter_K]

It was a great question, frankly, and one that echoed for what seemed like years on my walk home.

What had I done?

It was a question with nuance.

There was the bare practicality of it; I'd given into urges I'd admittedly been somewhat blindsided by, turning a woman into a monster in the process. How could I be satisfied with that?

Then there was the feeling of it; I'd done something righteous, something beautiful, touched something it would be perverse to even reject. Found something that was such an integral part of who I was that I hardly thought to question it, justified it to myself any way I could. How could I bear to be anything but satisfied with that?

Finally, the real depth of the circumstances. More than the animal, typical transformation I'd indulged in, it was clear I'd done something else. Reached out to something, someone else. That Elsie had wound up a Trumpart, of all things, was more than evidence of that, even if my own memories weren't reliable for that on their own.

We had been trying to reach out to the Demon Lord quite specifically, the easiest explanation was that the connection had been made, and stronger than we'd bargained for. She would have had the power to do what had been done, but I wasn't completely satisfied with that explanation.

If it was the truth, it wasn't the whole of it. I could feel it in my sludgy, slimey bones.

It hadn't escaped my notice that in her transformation Elsie got exactly what she had asked for, if not precisely what she'd wanted. Trumparts, the queensguard of the Wonderlanders, could retreat to their personal playing card at any time, a kind of privacy few could boast, and from the sounds of things, whatever was in there, it was cozy and well stocked with books.

Prying Sally out of something like that would be a nightmare.

However, regardless of how well matched her desires might have been, no one I knew of aspired to be a Wonderlander. It was something that got inside you and was impossible to remove, not unlike the dark energies of Mamonodom themselves. If I had told Elsie how she would end up she may well have taken her chances with Magenta.

It was too late to ask now, of course.

My musings, however, were cut short as I arrived home, and opened the front door to see Beeps standing right at the entrance, staring at precisely my eye level.

"Lyle." She said, and though she had said it so many times before, the name felt ever-so-slightly off now.

"Hey Beeps." I said, "Looking to go out?"

She nodded. She might not be one to ask permission for things she wanted, but she could still do things like 'preform maidly duties directly in front of the door' until I caught the hint.

She held up the hammer, still well dressed in its sunhat and robe.

"Journey." She said, by way of explanation.

"Huh. If you're going far you know I want to come too, right?" I said, seriously.

The lights in her eyes brightened some, and she reached out and hugged me, stiffly, but only because she was made of metal.

"Is it urgent, or can we take some time to plan and supply?" I asked, as I moved into the house.

There was a pause, before she responded, "Plan."

I nodded.

"Faust!" I called, "I'm back, and I need a map!"

Immediately after, I winced. I'd forgotten, I was still angry with her.

I didn't like fighting with either of them for this reason, we were too reliant on each other.

We needed to resolve this, or at least break the tension, if we were going to move forward. I'd made my position clear, we'd all be on the lookout for any followups, and Sally had… seemed to understand. At the very least she knew she'd done something upsetting, but I thought Charlotte might have even framed it in a way she understood.

Maybe I was a pushover, but the damage had been done, and letting the atmosphere remain upsetting would be selfish, and only hurt the others, Blackberry especially.

Hmmm.

Blackberry… especially…?

I smiled.

I knew exactly what to do.

I looked at Beeps and said, "Go get Amy, and meet me in Blackberry's room. If we want to do this right, we need to clear the air."

To her credit, she nodded, despite this additional delay. It never failed to get to me how she trusted me so completely.

I walked over to Sally's door, and rapped twice.

"I don't know which map we'll need, better bring what you have. I'll be in Blackberry's room."

I heard a muffled noise on the other side which could have been frankly anything, but I didn't stay to find out. I had to move quickly if I wanted this to work.

I made right for Blackberry's sliding door, throwing it open in my hurry. I stepped in, and Amy followed shortly after, being all but shoved by Beeps.

"Whoa, hey, okay, okay!" She said, as she stumbled forward.

I looked at Beeps as she closed the door behind her and I rolled my eyes.

She quirked an eyebrow. "Delivery."

I snorted.

Blackberry, meanwhile, trotted up from further in the false forest that made up her bedroom. She looked subdued, and that by itself was enough to make me certain this needed doing.

"H-hi…?" She said, and I thought she might have been crying. I wasn't sure if it was because of the arguing, or because of what Sally had done, or both, but I knew I couldn't let it go on.

I walked up to her, giving her a hug, a kiss on the nose, and then flowing around her to sit astride her in her saddle.

"O-oh! Um, Lyle I-"

I scratched her right behind the ear, cutting her off.

"Amy, when Faust comes through the door, I want you blocking the exit."

Beeps' eyes sharpened. I heard her motors and gears spin up.

Amy looked confused, but nodded. "Sure, but I'm going to want a reason."

I nodded back to her, turning to look at Beeps.

"Deputy Beepatrice, this is your Sheriff speaking." I felt Blackberry tense in between my thighs. She shifted excitedly. "Initiate Detainment Protocol: Sally Franks."

A gleam entered her eye, and I could have sworn I saw a slight smirk as she followed my command, her body shifting, panels opening and optimizing her form for freedom of movement, before climbing a tree like a spider, moving up and out of sight.

Not a moment too soon, as Faust came through the door not a second later, her eyes alighting on me as she passed through and into the room, the door shutting behind her in a display of telekinetic force. Amy silently slid in front of the door as Faust, oblivious, walked towards me with a slight frown on her face.

"Lyle, I must ask; what are you doing atop Blackberry?"

"That," I said, "is Sheriff Lilac to you."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Lila-?" She shook her head "You are not the sheriff of this town, my love."

But she took a step back.

Well, telekinetically.

She took a float back.

I pointed at her dramatically, my arm just long enough when I was leaning forward that Blackberry could see the flourish.

"Faust von Frankenstein, I'm bringing you in!"

I heard Blackberry gasp.

Faust, meanwhile, whirled, and looked at the door, spotting Amy blocking her in. She whipped her head back around at me, furious.

"You wouldn't da-"

"You're a no-good, dirty, rotten varmint, Sally Franks" I said, "and you-"

"Lyle don't you even think about-!"

I reared Blackberry back, and she winnied as threateningly as she could.

"-are under arrest!"

The world exploded into motion.

 

[The_Letter_K]

Enemy Territory
Morningwood

Founder Faust von Frankenstein's Manor

Common Area





Day 14 of Capture

Late Morning



As a knight of Chalté, a certified Hero, it wasn't as though it was the first time I had heard the sounds of the many fucking through the walls, nor was it even my first adjacency in this house, but there was something unnerving about the matter-of-factness of the multi-person orgy simply springing up with no warning, even if behind closed doors.

I wasn't sure how exactly I had expected it to go, but the sexual escapades here seemed less sinister and more… casual. I suppose it was unrealistic to think that all Mamono shouted about how much they enjoyed corrupting humans until they devolved into animal copulation even when in the comfort of their own homes, far from the frontlines, but the domestic nature of it was almost more unsettling for its facsimile of normalcy.

Samael, Thagolynn, and I were left to stay in the common area, but frustratingly, I could feel that my 'time' for the day was not ticking down. Neither Samael not Thagolynn could be used to skirt the lines of the deal I had made, apparently. Not entrieely surprising, but nailing down edge cases like those could always reveal a simple, overlooked weakpoint in a plot or scheme. Not so this time, but a good habit nonetheless.

Samael busied herself staring at me like she thought I wasn't looking, though she knew better than most exactly how aware of her I must be, at all times. She had been the one to train that awareness into me, after all, but even so, it wasn't she who had the whole of my focus, I admit.

I had been pondering the Dragon for some time now. Or perhaps, the Dullahan. Or perhaps, the Jiangshi. Or perhaps, something else altogether. The Lich had an unfortunate talent for taking all the worst aspects of a situation and combining them together.

She sulked opposite me in the circle of seats, powerful frame warped by petulance. I had been brought up to speed about the situation surrounding her mother, the Jabberwock, after Lyle had departed. I don't know why I had been surprised that even the moderate utility she presented as a obedient combatant and deterrent would have been somehow mitigated, but her mother being a possessive Wonderlander was a poor coincidence. I was beginning to think there was something working against me in the background, arranging fate against me in some way. Had I caught the attention of some kind of scheme-laying Mamono? There was really no excuse for how things kept going so wrong on this mission.

"So, Thagolynn." I said.

She looked up at me, glaring.

"What do you want, you fucking cheat?"

Her childishness was irritating, but I didn't need to like her, I just needed her to be useful.

"You have, apparently, been enslaved to me."

She glowered.

"The situation, though, is not as bad as you may think." I shifted in my seat. "As a Hero of Chalté, I have very little use for an enslaved Dragon, and while I might be tempted to kill you to be rid of you, I have frankly no idea how to do that, given the number of creatures you have had stitched into yourself by our… mutual captor."

Her expression didn't change at all.

"Today is the third day of a deal I made with the group here, and on the end of the seventh, the morning hours of the eighth, I will be leaving this place, returning home as best I can under my own power."

She snorted, grumbling, but I could tell she was listening.

"If you guard me while I do so, and assist in my return to the depth of Chalté without allowing my corruption, I swear to you, I will to order you to return deep into the Mamono Lands, to perform some meaningless, trivial task, and that task, at that time, will release you from your service."

She sat up.

"You're gonna let me go?"

"I am returning to Chalté, creature. I could not keep you there even if I intended to survive my return, and I do not. My death is the only safety I have with so many powerful Mamono after my soul. Even leaving yourself out, a Lich, an Automaton, a Fallen Valkyrie, a Shoggoth? That is to say nothing of the thing that lurks at the center of this city, that thing which has already had me captured once. My time as a Hero is over, my service done, and only by returning to the embrace of the Chief God can I hope to keep my soul my own."

Her eyes widened. "You're gonna off yourself?"

I shook my head, "The priests will do it. If my body isn't disposed of properly, my soul not sent off in the proper way, I still run the risk of reviving, especially with a Lich after me. But the church is not helpless, we have layed Heros to rest before. I will get out of here."

And then, Chief forgive me, I used the gift I was given.

"And you, Thagolynn, will give your all to assist me." Her eyes flashed, but the Heavens must have been listening, for she didn't seem to notice. "It is, after all, in your best interest."

She nodded, begrudgingly.

And I took one step closer to home.

 

[The_Letter_K]

Enemy Territory

Morningwood

Founder Faust von Frankenstein's Manor

Common Area





Day 14 of Capture

Late Morning



The bedlam barely barred by the barn door Blackberry bedded behind continued unchecked, as I stewed in the knowledge of what I'd done. The moans and groans and little 'eeps' from voices I was too familiar with soured my mood.

"and so, there I was, surrounded on all sides, back to the hard stone, dug in as much as I could manage with the time I had." Thagolynn said, her voice gravelly, full of bravado, "Other Dragons? Pshaw. They'd have been done long before then. Who knows how quick they folded? Probably wanted to, the losers. But I held out, I fought them, kept them off for a day and a half!"

She was explaining to Samael why it was she had not fallen to the debauchery common to Dragon Zombies. Apparently, Dragons are generally sex-averse, but on their death, on awakening in the lands below, they are caught by the same tide of lascivious bodies as any other would be, and by the time they come up with their minds had forcibly changed. Coming back from the dead, they seek the same again, with all the power of Dragon at their command to get it.

But she, apparently, woke up fighting, just on reflex, and simply hadn't stopped. Her vile, brutish personality apparently enough to repel most of the weaker Mamono. Her struggles, though, had caught the attention of the stronger ones after a while, and the fighting got harder.

"And then, just as those assholes thought they finally had me, I broke out of hell because fuck you, that's why." She said, proudly.

Whether she really thought that was what had happened somehow or she was just trying to hide from how close she'd come, I didn't know, but it sounds like her resurrection was seconds off from being too late to save her from the fate of every other Dragon Zombie, even for all her bragging. Even the slightest delay, if I'd hesitated at all, she might have woken up very different. It was hard to say whether I'd have preferred that or not.

Obviously she was a nasty one as she was now, but I don't think a rock-stupid sex-starved maniac would have been an upgrade, exactly, even if she might have been less likely to fight my orders, and even if it might have been easier for me to justify those orders to myself if she wasn't all there.

As she was though, she was less help with Samael than Sally had claimed she'd be.I couldn't order someone unwilling to bed her any more than I could let Samael force herself on me. It would have been convenient if she was more eager, and Samael was too busy fighting off her advances to be plotting how she'd get me to accept her own.

If Faust hadn't had that pen ready for me to sign with, and if we'd had to look for another in her mess of a room…

Well, things would have been quite different.

The door to Blackberry's room popped open, and the whole lot of them piled out.

I thought about trying not to look but I unfortunately did need to keep an eye on them at all times.

The Holstaur, Amy, came out first, her hair mussed and her muscled frame relaxed and limp. Shortly after her was Blackberry, strutting with a sort of childish swagger, Lyle astride her, looking less grim than she had been, with just enough room for her circular horn to clear the door frame. Beepatrice came out last, stoic as ever, holding Faust over her shoulder. Faust herself was, well…

She was pretty obviously tied up. The ropes, concerningly, had little eyes and teeth on them, despite no obvious trail to Lyle herself. More evidence of something I'd been concerned about. Her Demonic side may let her magically control her body even at short distances from herself. That was concerning, especially as I'd already seen that she wasn't as small as she looked. I wouldn't forget that monstrous, enormous arm appearing next to me in the span of an instant, pinning the Cyclops against the wall.It would likely haunt my nightmares for as long as I survived to have them.

I also couldn't miss how red her bottom was.

We were taught to control our blushing instinct from day one, but that was a sight that tested my skill and discipline.

…Perhaps 'discipline' wasn't a word I ought to be thinking right now.

Beepatrice strode over, throwing Faust onto the couch roughly, and then immediately turning and sitting on her head.

At least she was already dead, but the second-hand embarrassment would get me too if I wasn't careful.

Amy plopped down some rolled up maps on the table before sliding down into a seat next to Samael with an audible, happy, self-satisfied sigh. Blackberry navigated to her specialized seat, while Lyle slid off, taking a seat right next to Beeps, and directly on top of Faust's… sensitive bottom.

A muffled 'oof', forced into the cushion of the couch, could barely be heard.

Samael looked on with a smirk and Thagolynn didn't bother to hide her schadenfreude, but she demonstrated more awareness than I thought of her when she looked around and visibly choked down whatever taunt she'd instinctually meant to sneer.

A small tendril of Lyle reached out slowly, and laid the maps flat, unrolling them and spreading them out so they covered the table while being as visible as possible, given how many of them there were.

"So," she said, "do you see it on here, Beeps?"

I saw her eyes scan the pages, flitting across the landscapes.

"Unknown." She said, after a moment. "Ages."

Samael perked up. "Looking for something from before, I bet? I might know a thing or two." Then she said, or perhaps sang, something in a musical tongue I didn't recognize.

To my shock, Beepatrice responded in the same tongue.

"Is that," I whispered, reverently, "The words of the Ancients?"

Samael smiled at me, and for a moment I almost saw the wholesome light of her old self in the pale blue skin of her demonic face.

I looked away.

"bv vrbs v z nchnts???" Came a muffled voice from the sofa. "Bt zz r lng lst!"

The singing continued as I struggled to look away from both Samael on one side and Faust on the other, while also still seeing both of them and all the rest.

Eventually, Samael pointed at one of the maps. "It ought to be around here, or near enough. No idea how far down though."

Beepatrice shrugged, shifting her weight and grinding Faust further into the couch.

"Excavate." She said, and though her tone was no different, I knew she meant it as a casual dismissal, even all these years later. Something about the timing of when she said it, I thought.

"How far is it?" Lyle asked, "and for that matter, what is it?"

"Lt ee eeee," The couch cushion whined. Everyone ignored it as best they could.

"Far enough we'll need transportation, if you intend to go," Samael said, "and as for what, it's not really my place to say. Technically I shouldn't be telling you where it is at all, and while the chief doesn't hold my chain anymore, she has more than enough people left to send after me if I start getting too many ideas."

She crossed her arms and leaned back. "If you really mean to go, you'll see it soon enough."

Beeps nodded solemnly, and I felt a strange resolve settle over the group.

Beeps wanted something, and even though they weren't sure what it was, they were already settled on helping.

Unfortunately, as their prisoner, I couldn't exactly let them go alone.

"I," I said, "am not going out into the wilds without that spear and shield I was promised."

Lyle nodded at me, and it was settled.

We were heading out behind enemy lines.

 

[The_Letter_K]

A trip outside the city was something I wasn't sure we were ready for, but I didn't know if the feeling was real, justified, or a senseless holdover from before. After all, now that I was made of slimy demonic goo energy, or whatever the particulars actually were, there was nothing in the Demon Lands I needed to worry about, in theory. Roving bands of feral heroes or stumbling into the nest of a national army were not so much concerns as the monstrous version had been on the other side of this divide, and so it was hard to pin the unease on any particular thing.

Still, as we packed and suited up and rented a carriage, the feeling persisted.

It was honestly hard to ignore that we were probably what anyone or anything troubling us probably was terrified of meeting themselves. And yet, I found it didn't really have to make sense for it to be something that stuck with me regardless.

I watched as Faust loaded down our carriage with all sorts of doodads and whatsits, a few I recognized, most that I didn't. Research stuff, surely, we were going somewhere ancient. The number of things she was fitting in the various boxes she'd set inside was far more than what you'd expect they could hold, and the boxes were color-coded and labeled with inscrutable words like 'infratechnical magiarray', 'squondoshtuallar extractamoid', and 'supplies'. The telekinetic parade of objects wobbled to and fro as they settled into their assigned containers, in a queue leading from deep inside her lab, through the great living room, and out into the street in front of our house.

"I gotta say," Faust looked to me as I spoke, her telekinetic grip not faltering, "What a way to pack!"

She nodded, and then stopped, looking back at me, and said; "Well now, just a moment, Lyle, how else would you get all this into one tiny carriage, I'd like to know?"

I held up my hands in surrender, "No, no, I think it's wonderful!"

"Oh! Yes it is, rather!" She looked quite smug at that, so I couldn't resist.

"Of course, I could probably do half these things' jobs with no prompting, and the other half with a bit of explaining. And well, I should hope you're leaving room for all of us in there, let alone just me!"

She frowned. "I suppose that is one way to do it. Although I remain skeptical about your ability to emulate this equipment considering you needed me to magically change even your temperature, Lyle."

Harrumph. I could do it!

"Mmm… I've… I've been thinking…" I paused.

"Oh?" She asked, her focus having moved back to her procession of flying tools and trinkets.

"I've been thinking about… Lilac. Not Lyle."

The objects nearly fell out of the air all at once and she turned back to me, eyes wide, although the things had stabilized and once more begun to move.

"You did say that, didn't you?" She said, struck. "Right before, well… right before all of that in Blackberry's room. You'd said Sherriff Lilac."

Yeah, I guess I had, in the heat of the moment.

I nodded, carefully.

"Oh, but that's a perfectly wonderful name, darling!" She said with a smile, and I matched her with my own. "I will endeavor to remember the change. It is an elegant one, and, well, you have already done the same for me, have you not?"

"Mostly, anyways," I said, nodding again.

"Then it is settled." She said, in an officious, imperial tone.

A warm little feeling in my chest stayed with me for a while as I said my goodbyes to her, and went inside to check on the others.

"Hi Lilac!" Blackberry said, grinning, although her face immediately went serious, and she reasserted a very tense posture. She was wearing her saddle of course, but also some additional bits of equestrian equipment she didn't normally wear. She was taking this very seriously.

"Hi again honey, it's only been a few minutes, you know? I was just outside." I smiled though, she could greet me every time she blinked, I'd still find it charming. If, maybe, a bit hard to hold a conversation.

She nodded, but was very committed to her role here.

"I see your hitch and reins are still in place, and in excellent condition." It was hard to believe she'd made them herself.

She blushed deeply, across her face and down her neck, but her stern expression remained.

"I'm ready, Lilac. I've been ready since the day I was born." She paused. "Well, maybe I would have fallen over on my actual birthday birthday, and my hooves were still too soft to pull anything, but…!"

"But this is your dream, huh?"

Her nod was earnest, but with an imposed fierceness. The cart renter had tried to rent us a boar as well, for the trip, but at the mention of my beautiful Bicorn he immediately backed off, and effusively apologized. That's a man who'd rented the wrong person a beast of burden once too often for their spouse's liking, for sure.

"A carriage holding my husband and my wives and my hero, and my mom and my best friend and Charlotte who's like my sister since Beeps is like her mom and her friend who's an angel and!" She trailed off, nervously.

"I can't wait sweetie, I know you'll get us there safely." She beamed, but then the serious expression was back, so foreign on her face. She nodded, slowly, carefully, and sagely.

"I'll leave you to your preparations, Blackberry." I said, with a deference to her focus.

Beeps, the last one on my list to check on at the moment, sat quietly in the living room, eyes closed, not far from where Blackberry was preparing herself.

I sat next to her, leaning on her a bit, though she did not react outwardly, her temperature rose slightly as her gears spun faster at my touch. "You ready, Beeps?"

She nodded.

A satisfactory explanation of where we were going had yet to be reached, but I was confident she would not waste our time on something frivolous, and frankly even if she were, I'd fight for her right to it. She gave me everything she could, and worked tirelessly and flawlessly on my behalf to address any need or inconvenience. The only thing she'd ever asked in return was that I be there to let her do so. That she wanted something for herself now, whatever it was, I'd help her achieve it. The trip promised to be somewhat long, a few hours each way, plus whatever work her earlier "Excavate" had implied… We had limited time with Charlotte, but as she was coming along, I could think of no reason to delay this trip, and every reason to give Beeps literally all she'd ever asked for for herself.

So I settled in beside her, and we waited together.

 

[The_Letter_K]

Travel by carriage was a large improvement over wandering the wilderness, even if most of our trip to Morningwood had been with Blackberry along for the ride, or maybe with me along for the…? I rode Blackberry most of the way there. Sometimes the phrasing still gets me.

Anyway, even though I mostly hadn't walked it myself, the wilderness was a very different experience from a carriage ride. While there might not be many paved roads in and out of the Mamono lands, it seemed they still maintained the ones internal to their holdings, or at least the presence of demonic energy prevented their decay, if they weren't actively maintained. Blackberry made an impressive pace once the roadway was sprawling out ahead of us, it was clear just from the way the cloth siding of the wagon rumbled as the wind sped over its taught surface that we were out-speeding any horse I'd ever ridden. Several times she stepped up her speed as we got further from the town, then the outskirts, then the outer farms, the secluded huts, and then, finally, when the last of the city was out of sight, something clicked inside her, and suddenly she was unleashed, nearly twice her previous speed.

The rumble as we shot overland was something fearsome, at least until Sally had gotten sick of it, and flung splashes of magic at the fabric of the walls irritatedly until the warbling vibration finally stopped. Then it was the sound of the wheels as they spun across the stones that dug at her, and she growled, floated out of the wagon, wind whipping at her hair, bandages, hat, and cloak, and then flashes of bright light were flung once more, silencing the wheels.

That left the rhythmic pace of Blackberry's hooves as she galloped down the stonework, like an avalanche of hail, or a storm of meteorites. It wasn't so much pitter-patter as it was calamitous clatter. I saw as Faust first noted the noise, then smiled fondly, dismissing it. And then, of course, I saw as it crept into her head anyway, watched as she fought off the irritation out of a sense that this was Blackberry's moment to shine, and that she'd intervened all she could.

I traded a look with Amy as Faust's fists went from merely clenched to trembling from the squeezing. She'd lasted about three minutes, but she was reaching her limit. I shook my head, and took a breath to say something, but then another sound caught my ear.

"Mmhmmhmm hoofstep, mm-mm-mm windswept, sunshine songs ba-ba-bup backs~"

My gaze swept the cabin, but Samael wasn't singing, and neither, obviously, was Charlotte. Amy and I weren't either, and Faust and Beeps were both equally unlikely to break into song themselves, if for different reasons.

In fact… My eyes all slowly turned towards my horsiest wife, and sure enough I could just see her bobbing her head.

I chuckled to myself, quietly, and when Faust looked up at me, glaring slightly, not at me but the entire world for the indignity of her situation, she saw me smiling widely at her.

She narrowed her eyes, opened her mouth, and then paused as I started to hum along with Blackberry's barely audible song.

Although she didn't turn around, I saw her ear flick, her head freeze, no longer bopping back and forth, and her singing faltered.

I'd caught the tune enough to keep it going with just my humming, but I elbowed Amy, lightly, since she was closest.

"Ow," she murmured. My elbow was made of gooey jello, so it was more of a reflex than anything, but she got the message and started to hum along as well.

Beepatrice, bless her little clockwork heart, needed no encouragement, and she began drumming her metallic fingers on her body, the clicks and clack in time with and supporting the beat.

A frozen moment, and then, softly at first but gradually gaining a joyous vigor; "Sunshine songs burned on our backs! Our love smooths over all the cracks! Our hearts together bring us through! Our herd, our love, it's me and you! Our hearts are dressed to trot for battle; we carved our dreams into our saddle! A temple in our hearts where we enshrined it! Believing in our love before we find it!"

Faust smiled, shaking her head, but her hands were loose.

And so it went.

.oOo.​

Eventually, Beeps hopped up front to guide Blackberry off-road, which cut our speed down considerably, but also signaled our journey was drawing to a close. It was probably only another hour before we'd reached whatever it was.

As we clambered out of the carriage I took in the scene around us. Rocky, barren, little in the way of growth at all, extremely unusual for the Demonic Realms, where most of the plant life subsisted on ambient sexual energies. I didn't even see any prisoner fruit, and it was notoriously difficult to stop it growing. Rumor was, in the pure lands, chance unchaste thoughts in the garden could grow it spontaneously even from other healthy plants, and while I'd seen no proof of that, it wasn't impossible for me to believe.

A glance around showed the nearest growth almost a minute's pace away, at a walk, back the way we came, and the radius of the effect went farther than I could see, although we had only stopped after we'd gotten a ways inside it.

Beeps brought out the hammer, still in its tiny hat and sundress, and made more of her musical noises at it. The language, that is, not the body drumming she'd been doing on the way here. It flashed in response, and Beeps gently led Blackberry, unhitched from the carriage, at a slow trot further into the effect, stopping about as far again as we'd already come.

"Here." she said, finally.

"Finally, she said we're here!" Faust groaned. "I tired of the traveling games more than two hours back, Lilac."

"I actually was surprised you didn't bring a book," I said, amused.

She froze, closed her eyes, looked up to the sky, and let out a wounded, lowing groan.

"You didn't think of that, huh?"

She didn't say anything, but I left her to her grief to check in on the others. She was the only one who knew what unpacking needed doing, and she'd distract herself with that soon enough.

Amy had paced over near Blackberry, and what scraps of their speech I could hear, it sounded like they were chatting about the travelling songs Blackberry had learned from her herd. A few of the themes had been troubling, but the songs were all unfortunately catchy, and I had the suspicion I'd be humming them again later, willing or no.

Samael looked uncomfortable being here, but she and Thagolynn, who had slept the entire trip like a rock, had given the group some space. Charlotte was actually atop the carriage, and I had to ask.

"What are you up to up there?" Her spear and shield hung at her back, the last things holding us up before we departed, but she seemed well pleased with them, so I was too.

"Trying to spot the edge of this wasteland. I'm not going to go wander, but even from up here I don't see the edge of it."

I made myself a sort of triangular leg structure, and hoisted myself up to her height with that support. As I looked around, I saw she was right. I grunted, thoughtfully, slowly sinking back down.

"How much of you is there, anyway, Lyle?" she asked, casually. "You seem to grow and shrink."

I considered correcting my name, but considering our dynamic and my goal, it seemed counter-productive. She'd pick up on the change from the others, and hopefully switch over on her own. I didn't want to push on that myself and make her think I was losing it. It somehow stung a bit, though.

"I haven't had a reason to pull it all out," I said, after a moment, thoughtfully, "but I've filled a room full of myself… twice now? I was pushing it both times, but that's plenty to work with normally." I didn't say that I still seemed to be growing. It was hard to track it anyways, and using it all was impractical.

She nodded. "I haven't dealt with Shoggoths before, generally with Slime type monsters, what you see of them is how much there is. It's got to be strange, however it works."

"It feels a bit like…" I paused. "Like peeking my head out the door to see who's outside. It's a totally new direction that feels like in and out, but in a way I couldn't go in and out before. It's a little weird, yeah. I got kind of a lot dropped on me at once, though. The breasts and the wings are almost as strange, and the horn probably would have rocked my noggin a few times if it were fully solid instead of slime like the rest of me. I feel like I'm getting used to it, slowly, but every so often I still feel bizarrely outside myself."

"The chance to chat about the mechanics of it is novel," Charlotte mused. "Normally, I'd just kill you and call it a day."

I shrugged. "If you figure out how to kill me let me know, Faust wants me to be some kind of undead but she's flummoxed at my suddenly much less killable body."

Charlotte snorted.

"Any chance you know what we're here for?" I asked. "I don't know of anything special in the area, but I'm not a military bigshot."

She shook her head. "I didn't have clearance for anything oldworld. We had specialist teams who delved for that kind of thing. Going underground is a different set of risks, it requires special training."

"Oh?"

"Different Mamono habitats, mostly, lots of risks from things you don't usually see surface-side. The ruins themselves were often dangerous too, and you also needed to know what was worth taking risks for, and what was basically a fancy salt shaker."

I nodded.

We both watched in silence as Sally finished setting up something she'd pulled out of a box, stabbing the pointy end into the ground, and a pulse of sound like a physical force washed over the clearing, a green map roughly showing the outline of the thing beneath us sprung to life above the stick.

It was big.

"I don't know what that is," I said, resigned, "but I doubt it's going to dig itself out."

On the bright side, it was a lot of dirt to eat. On the other, we were just talking about me getting fat…

I shifted, moving towards the gesticulation of Sally and Beeps as they stared at the map.

"Best get started."

 

[The_Letter_K]

I hadn't expected digging it out to be the easy part, but according to Faust and her doodads, the structure was sound beneath the ground, and we just needed a way in. Apparently the material was old, like, way old, and made of things we no longer understood, so there was little concern of collapse. Whatever this place was, that detail had impressed Charlotte.

"They don't make buildings this size out of Startanium, Faust, are you sure your machine got that right? We'd be standing on unfathomable wealth just from the walls alone, let alone whatever they'd been built to protect. Run it again, that can't be right."

Beeps had shaken her head, simply saying; "Correct."

Charlotte had gone quiet after that. She looked pale.

There was more discussion as we set about finding the way we wanted in.

"We will need to aim for the front bay doors, we have no way to know what we are here to achieve, communication issues being what they are." Sally'd said. She had gestured at the green, boxy, floating transparent mess that was apparently an exterior map.

I'd squinted, looking at the confusing overlapping light, trying to puzzle out which side was closet to me. Lots of eyes made this harder, I was seeing through it at too many angles to really make sense of it in my head.

"You mean those tiny little things way at the bottom there?"

"Those 'tiny things' are two stories tall."

After that, I went to sit next to Charlotte, there was something down there the size of a city. I understood some now of how she felt. This was much bigger than I had thought.

Still, eventually we'd found our angle of attack, and with no need to uncover the whole thing, and with coaching from Sally about the width and the angles, I set about 'cleaning' the ground, consuming it whole. I wasn't able to keep down nearly so much as I could pick up, but it was extremely easy to just kind of engulf it and roll it away like a big muddy ball, depositing it far enough away it wouldn't cause us issues.

I did notice less and less got spat back out every trip, though. I hoped the changes to my appetite weren't permanent, or we'd be in a lot of trouble when we got back to Morningwood. I didn't think Twinkle Star would be impressed if I started gobbling up her roads every morning.

Less than half an hour to dig a shallow wedge into the earth that led down nearly half a mile. Once the façade was exposed, and the doors finally freed, a surprisingly humbling three quarters of that depth was all building.

As awe-inspiring as the sight was, lines and lights tracing the exterior, some still flickering, functional, it grew stale as we failed to gain access.

Beepatrice was speaking to a panel in her musical tongue, beyond the understanding of anyone born in the modern era, but you didn't have to be able to speak the language to understand the question from the door kept changing, but her answer stayed the same, repeated over and over. After five minutes of no apparent progress, Faust decided she'd had enough and had tried to carve her way in.

That had been a mistake.

I was well on my way to being a living living room, but this building had me beat by a scale beyond my understanding. It was absurd, but I was certain it was alive, because when Faust splashed it with her powerful magic, over Beeps' wide eyed protest, and Samael's sudden, startled scream of; "No, don't-!", the building… well.

It got angry.

Sally and I had both seen Beeps pull out her cannons before, more times than we could count, so we knew what we were looking at when the walls came alive, and I suspect that was all that saved us.

It fired without bothering to rev up, without stopping to flash ominously, and without pausing to shout warning, it simply shot to kill.

Sally's shield was up a split second before the red-white light washed over us all, and I pulled us all in tight to let her shrink it.

The screams were more surprise than fear, no one else had had time to realize what happened. Charlotte was in shock at the size of the thing, Amy and Blackberry had been distracted. Thagolynn wasn't even down here with us, having left to spend more time napping, being bored out of her mind. Had it not been for us not being able to trust her in our house alone, I might have thought to leave her behind. If we'd been a second slower, there's a real chance she'd have been the only survivor.

Then, Samael, with trembling fists, and clenched jaw, let out a furious growl.

Then Samael, with haunted eyes, with fear on her lips, began to sing.

It took only a moment for the assault to cease.

"What…" I asked, "What was that?"

"This is an old facility," she said, tightly, glaring at Sally with a fury I'd yet to seen on the normally melancholy, somewhat irreverent Valkyrie, "It was built to kill things meaner than you. Much meaner. There was a time the Monster Lord was a ferocious, miles-long Dragon, the kind that didn't have tits and a sex addiction. His influence spread through the monsters of the land as Lilith's does now. This place was built to keep those things out. You don't rate, none of us do." She shoved her way to Faust inside our little sphere, and grabbed her by the shoulders, looking her in the eye. "Don't. Challenge. It."

She waited until she saw something in Sally's eyes, contrition maybe, before continuing. "I told it I was an Angel of the Chief God, and to stand down. Invoking that authority puts our visit here on a timer, unless you all want to try your luck slaughtering a heavenly host?" She scoffed. "It will take time for the Chief to pull together a force she's willing to risk corrupting still strong enough to fight us all, but if we're still here when she does…"

Faust nodded, shaken. "Is…" she asked, "Is it safe to drop the shield?"

Samael narrowed her eyes. "If we're done picking fights with ancient death machines, yes." She paused. "But, I invoked authority I don't have anymore, and I expect She's-"

Faust dropped the shield.

And Samael was struck by lightning.

 

[The_Letter_K]

(Content Warning - PTSD)

Enemy Territory
The Darklands
Interdiction Zone 176 – Avoid At All Costs
Not Avoiding It




Day 14 of Capture
Early Evening


My first dive into an old world dig, all this technology, this lost knowledge, and it has to be shared with Mamono. Mamono I know, sort of, but that's cold comfort. I'm not supposed to know Mamono.

Except Samael, that is. And Beepatrice, I suppose. But then, we all treated both of them as harmless, and look at them now. Samael practically drooling every time she thinks I'm not looking at her. It makes me sick to remember her as she was and see her as she is. I've run out of puke to give to the idea, but I still get queasy. And Beepatrice? She's currently actively attempting to break into a facility so secure none of should know it exists. If I had an ounce of control over the violence of my body I'd have killed us all myself. We should not be here.

Beeps, unaware of my thoughts, or uncaring, kept on. Her constant refrain, over and over, in the tongue of the ancients. I never learned to sing it myself, obviously, that's forbidden knowledge, but I recognize what she's saying from Samael's slip-ups over the years.

"Dead," she says.

The computer speaks again, some new variation on the same question, again and again.

"Dead," she repeats.

It asks.

"Dead," she answers.

It rumbles.

"Dead," she responds.

"Dead," again.

"Dead," and again.

"Dead," it's truly endless.

"Dead," she's been at this for almost five minutes now, and while progress must be occurring, it's excruciating to watch. This wouldn't be so hard if I could enjoy where I was, what I was about to see. But I'd kept track, roughly, of where we were, relative to where we'd been, although Blackberry's stunning speed was difficult to accept. If we did more training to pass the time, her regimen would need adjusting, to say the least.

"Dead." But as we plodded on, my stomach sunk lower and lower as my mental map drew us closer and closer to Interdiction Zone 176, one of the really bad ones. The kind that was on the shortlist called; 'die for asking too many questions'.

"Dead." Whatever was down here, I'd be killed just for knowing about it. If I hadn't already been going home to die, that would have changed today. Hooray for morale boosters. Already too doomed to be doomed again. I strained against the contract to strike at them as they got closer and deeper, but I had to 'give them a chance'. A bit broader than I'd intended it to be when I put it out there. I'm not sure anyone even knew I was trying it. Even Samael didn't seem to react, and if she couldn't tell I was being restrained, I didn't know anyone who could.

"Dead." The unearthing of the gargantuan megaplex was nearly as ominous as the ride over. Startanium. All of it. At least I knew now what kinds of things I could be killed for knowing. And wasn't that a funny thought? Forbidden knowledge of forbidden knowledge. It's recursion all the way down.

"Dead." Whatever lay in wait inside, to build a complex of this size out of such rare materials, rare even in the old world, durable beyond durable, impervious beyond impervious, whatever was inside was worth ensuring no one ever got inside, and that it lasted until those with the right to retrieve it returned.

"Dead."

"Dead."

"Dead."

They'll be here any day now, I'm sure.

"Dead." I couldn't help but want to speculate about the technology within, so far beyond anything I'd ever seen, Beeps herself aside.

"Dead." Although.

"Dead." While most people wouldn't catch it, on seeing Beepatrice again, I couldn't help but notice she was more than sixty percent modern material components. There's a certain quality to the manufacture of oldworld tech, and much of her shell, her limbs, parts of her torso, and even her face… Notably lacked it. When she'd come back online the very first time, she must have been torn to shreds, left to scavenge enough to move, piece by piece.

"Dead." A grim story, and one I could commiserate with her on, in a way, dragging yourself forward, come hell or high water. I'd let her know I sympathized, but all I'd do is remind her of the times she'd now gotten free from, and long since, unless I missed my guess. After all, that fateful day those years ago, when she arrived in town, she appeared in perfect repair to my untrained eye.

"Dead." I wondered if she knew how to repai-

"No, don't-!"

What?

A sudden movement shook me out of complete distraction just in time for the complex to come alive with fury, and I replayed the previous moments in my head as Sally's shield held and Lyle pulled us close to aid her.

Ah. Faust. I should have been paying attention, but I got too excited at the prospect of the oldworld knowledge. The same reason I was denied joining the delving parties before, and now proven wise. I was too interested.

Distraction is death.

If I had been thinking, I could have predicted her and put a stop to this before it began. Oh well, perhaps this will drive them off, and we can go h- go back to Morningwood, instead of tempting fate.

Then Samael began to sing.

And the walls ceased their assault.

I stared at her in horror. What was she doing? She had pushed it just by openly conversing with Beeps, but using the Ancient Tongue with the Authority of the Chief God to manipulate oldworld tech, as a Dark Valkyrie? I started to shake. No… No, doesn't she know she'd be-!?!?

"-and I expect She's-"

Light like fire split the sky from nowhere and everywhere at once as cloudless day gave way to divine retribution.

All centered on her, on Samael.

"NO!' I grabbed her as she fell. "Sammy! SAMMY!"

Oh shit oh fuck oh god

her skin is

like rice paper

the smell the smell oh god not her please the smell of meat

theblackened crust its all fallingoff

"I'm so sorry so sorry I forgive you its okay its okay I don't hate you please Sammy no god please not you"

the fire is everywhere the villagers are screaming I killed them I killed them I killed her its my fault

no no no no

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.