Chapter 287

Pent-up Prenuptials

(Mallory)

(35 Minutes Ago – Present)

Frustrated.

If Mallory had to sum up her current situation, and how she felt with everything that had happened and gone on up to this point and her current mood going forward, it would have to be summarized as frustrated. If shew as given more words to elaborate it would be Unsatisfied, Soiled, Lacking, and above all premature.

“Hey congratulations commander, those bonuses already paying off for us,” Advisor Wordsworth stated, his tone sadly honest and excited for the bonus.

“Yeah, kudos to you for getting that taken care of first thing,” Vickard and Melkin both chimed in.

As she looked at them, she saw no mocking glance, no jovial mockery, just pure pride and satisfaction in their leader. Which made the entire process so much worse.

They were of course referring to the treaty bonus that was increased by an additional 50% thanks to her consummating the event with Gwen, immediately after the wedding.

Major Guild Quest Complete: A Permanent Treaty: You as the leader of your Guild have made the ultimate sacrifice for peace. You married and subsequently consummated your marriage to the ancient elven King Galuminous De’Arcaneri. By doing so, you formed a permanent peace and integration of all assets belonging to both your guild with the inhabitants of the elven capital of Deolar. Rewards: Experience, Rank (Queen), Title, Badge, Daytime Protection Bonuses.

Note: You and the members of your guild will gain a 25% bonus to all rewards received from this treaty now that you consummate the marriage. With the additional 25% bonus to all rewards received due to the consummation happening before midnight on the day of the wedding.

Thanks to the 50% bonus that all rewards received, the overall effects were as follows:

New Rank Acquired: Queen of World’s End

Queen of World’s End: Your word is law, at least in World’s End and all surrounding lands that are eventually conquered and brought to heel under your empire. Effect: +150% Leadership, Strategy, Production, and Military Bonus while conducting operations in World’s End. Note: Effect halved when leading World’s End residents outside of World’s End territory.

New Guild Title Acquired: Founding Citizen of World’s End: You are recognized as one of the initial founding citizens of World’s End and are subject to greater reverence and bonuses by being on the territory of World’s End. Effect: All Combat related Skills, Abilities, Talents, Traits, and Powers used while on World’s End territories are increased by +75%. Additionally, all production related Skills, Abilities, Talents, Traits, and Powers are increased by +150% while on Worlds End territory.

New Feat Recorded: Official Queen of World’s End (10,000): You managed to rise up through the ranks and make yourself become Queen of World’s End.

Consummation Bonus Acquired: +75% to all Skills, Abilities, Talents, Traits, and Powers will be noted for each day the wedding contract has been consummated. A further increase of +150% to fertility rates for all World’s End residents noted until time expires. Time Remaining: 23 hours, 42 minutes…

Experience gained: 1,500,000

It was of course that last one that sparked a new daily quest.

Hidden Daily Guild Quest: Consummating an Heir: You have been tasked with continuing to try to consummate your marriage by siring an heir with the King of the Deolarian empire. Each day that you are recorded as attempting to sire a child will result in increased prosperity for residents of both unified empires.

This was the daily emperor’s quest that tried to promote marriage in as positive a light as possible. During this time contraceptives of any kind were okay to use, by either party, to maintain that 'newlywed' glow for a married couple. This time the only real difference was that the entire guild would get the bonus and be notified of the continued actions by Mallory and Gwen, because she refused to do this with anyone else.

There did also seem to be the underlying tension that the world wanted Mallory to now suffer through the same nine-month torture that Gwen just had, but that was not necessarily the case. In fact, one could argue that no bonuses were given for conceiving. Just attempting to conceive were registered.

Still as embarrassing as it was to have her and Gwen's personal time logged and registered for the guild to see and clearly enjoy the benefits of, that wasn’t the worst thing about this completion bonus.

While the 1.5 million experience per Midnight Hunter member, and naturalized citizen did help out a lot, there was also something deeper that weighed on Mallory’s mind.

“I mean, it was no marathon session to consummate the wedding, but that was greatly appreciated,” Melkin stated. His words adding the exclamation point to the dissatisfaction that Mallory now felt.

The entire thing had been a rollercoaster of events.

Everything from the start of the wedding, to Gwen clearly breaking her water, to Cass breaking reality to swap out Gwen for Penelope in the King’s avatar. Then the actual breaking of reality, a nightmare image that Mallory still couldn’t get out of her mind, what with that tentacle monster reaching out and trying to embrace Cass.

Yet, Cass managed to avoid any major damage, despite the creature apparently draining three Legrand spies dry of the punishment energy that Cass inflicted on them. Mallory still didn’t understand what exactly had happened there, nor did she want to.

In fact, she made it a point to try to forget most of the horrors that she had seen and witnessed.

Everything from a giant tentacle monster with a gorgeous female elf’s face, to Cass then losing her face on the way back to the wedding. To the wedding going off with clear flaws, but everyone who was in attendance swore it was perfect.

Then the war started.

Originally, Mallory wanted to run to the front lines, where she could be the most good.

But it was Cass, or maybe her Simulacrum who made the offhand comment.

“Shouldn’t you two consummate this thing, so all our work was not in vein?”

At that comment, plans were readjusted.

Mallory and Gwen who was still playing the role of the King were escorted by a throng of spiritual knights to the royal bedchamber, where they were to consummate the marriage right then and there.

BOOM!

All while artillery rounds and concussive bursts were going off around, shaking even the great chamber of the Delorian King.

Stolen story; please report.

Somehow dust fell from the ceiling of the immaculately clean and ornate ghost palace.

Still, they had a job to do, and needed to consummate the wedding in order to get the bonuses that everyone could clearly need to repel the invading forces. That was when Mallory and Gwen both started to move.

There was just one problem, for it would seem that familiarity does breed contempt.

What had been seen as a novel way to spice up their relationship earlier, was now sadly routine. Like wearing the same slutty King costume two months before Halloween, only to take it out for the real occasion and find that it still had stains from the last use.

Still, that didn’t mean much, as they began going through the motions.

It wasn’t until Mallory saw it, that disgust and revulsion ran through her.

“What is it?” Gwen asked, clearly seeing the revulsion on her face.

“Nothing, it’s fine,” Mallory responded, of course it wasn’t fine. It might never be fine again. At least not on the same day as she saw the long tentacle monster from the void try to destroy the world. After seeing that long mass of quivering muscle, seeing a smaller version that was also filled with an elven bluish tint didn’t make the moment any easier.

That was when Mallory just lay there, covered her eyes and tried desperately to tune out the memories of the past few hours.

Gwen for her part was a pro, getting her cookies in near record time.

Then just as Mallory was able to finally mentally relax and forget about the horrors she had witnessed earlier and enjoy the moment with her girlfriend, it happened.

KA-BOOM!

A giant explosion rocked the lands and caused Gwen to apparently lose concentration enough to end things prematurely.

Ding.

“GAH!” Gwen cried out as the king, but it was okay, as they had things to do.

“It’s okay, this is probably perfect,” Mallory responded, purposefully rolling off the bed and trying to leave the room as quickly as possible. As she tried to keep her mind from making any more mental connections from eldritch horror beasts to her girlfriend when she was cosplaying as the king.

That was why, now when people gave her congratulations for completing the quest, Mallory could only shake her head.

“We need to focus, where is the enemy the most concentrated?” She asked.

“The enemy is making use of long military distribution lines. We think they have used one of the older outposts as a temporary staging area,” Advisor Wordsworth postulated.

Hearing his assessment, Mallory had to agree. Then after pausing for a moment, she found herself wondering if there were two or more staging areas. That was how Mallory would have done such an endeavor.

Though if that happened, Mallory then wondered why her spymaster had not warned her about such an outcome. Only after posing the thought did Mallory realize how stupid that assessment was, as Cass had been busy.

Not only had Cass been working on teaching classes, dealing with minor Cass-tastrophies that shot up, but she had been fully engaged in the wedding.

Worse, Mallory realized that she had been so focused on keeping Cass occupied, to keep her from doing world breaking events, that she was likely unable to do her normal activities.

Just thinking back, she remembered the numerous quests that her four Simulacrums managed to accomplish during a fifteen minute span.

For a moment, she wanted to scroll back and see what some of them were.

Yet, they had all completed those quests at times that would be recorded, while not being broadcasted to everyone.

Thinking back, Mallory remembered asking about one set of completed quests, where Cass ended up becoming the Mage Guild and Thieves’ Guild Hall Masters of the year.

As the guild leader she could still see the official notification.

World Notification: Congratulations to the Midnight Hunters Guild for having the Guild Hall Masters of the year recipients for both the Mage’s Guild and the Thieves’ Guild.

While that message would not be broadcast to the world again, the fact that Cass was registered as the recipient for both made her ask the question, when she finally had a chance to ask. Though she might have only managed to get the answer from Cass' Simulacrum. At a time that was just after the wedding, but just before the consummation, Mallory managed to have a quick congratulatory handshake with the Doctor, during which time, she made sure to bring up that notification.

“Congratulations,” Dr. Spiritlight noted, an air of utter exhaustion emanating from her as she shook Mallory’s hand.

Mallory chose that exact moment to clasp down and offer her own congratulations.

“I have to say the same to you, Doctor, though I might have to say so twice,” Mallory stated as she refused to let Cass’s hand go. Her grip wasn’t tight, but it was unrelenting.

“What? I mean, yeah, but why twice?”

“Oh because, you achieved the vaunted rank of year leader twice,” Mallory pressed.

By now the line behind Cass was building up, and Mallory knew that she wouldn’t be able to keep this both vague and without blatantly calling her out. This was when Mallory bulged her eyes and gave her the sign.

“Right,” Cass stated verbally, while opening her mind Telepathically to state, “what now?”

“Finally,” Mallory hissed as she responded mentally to Cass who could be surprisingly dense sometimes about her Telepathy. “You were noted as the Guild Hall Master for both the Mage’s Guild and the Thieves’ Guild?”

“Oh that, yeah, what about it?” Cass responded back mentally, as if it was nothing much for her.

“How?” Was all Mallory could mentally send back as she began smiling and thanking everyone that came up and shook her hand in congratulations.

“Oh, I’m apparently a genius. See I wanted to make the work on Curing the Blight through Harmonious Magic freely available. So I posted that with Heal-Ulacrum on the second floor of the Arcanarus Tower’s Mage Guild. Then to capitalize on that, I then let Heal-Ulacrum pose as the Guild Hall leader and steal the credit for making that spell and new School of Magic available in my guild Hall, which got me Mage of the year honors. Apparently, stealing credit for underling’s accomplishments is highly lucrative in the Mage Guild. Then because I am only posing as the Mage Guild hall leader, and the world seems to recognize that, I got credit here under my primary role of Thieves’ Guild Hall Master for both accomplishments, and thus here we are. Again, nothing major, but kind of glad that happened during a glitch time, otherwise my cover would have been blown, which I believe is what that message was about.”

Hearing that, Mallory was both glad she had asked and sad that she did, as that likely also caused problems later when she tried to consummate the marriage, by forgetting thoughts of giant tentacle monsters coming for her. That was when she ended up remembering that exact explanation of events from Cass. For a moment, Mallory wondered if she might have said or done anything to react to that memory, for Gwen seemed to change immediately afterwards.

Snap, snap.

“Earth to Mallory, you there?” Vickard asked after snapping his fingers right in front of Mallory’s face.

“What, huh?” Mallory asked shaking her head as she tried to understand where she was.

“You spaced out on us there, are you okay?” Melkin asked.

Hearing them, Mallory relaxed a little as she tried to remember where she was in the planning phase.

“You about ready to head out?” Vickard asked.

“Yeah, I could deal with some mindless slashing at enemies,” Mallory stated as she summoned her Ethereal Scythe from wherever it rested normally and prepared to go out.

***

(Penelope)

(35 Minutes Ago – Present)

Gwendolyn Spiritlight, now back in her normal form was quiet. It was clear that she was sunken and withdrawn, not her normal exuberant self.

Seeing her, Penelope originally gave her time and space, hoping that whatever was happening she would eventually snap out of it. Originally, Penelope assumed that her state was due to the horrors of war, but seeing the way she just coldly fell in on herself after her mother, Doctor Spiritlight, left caused Penelope to wonder what exactly was going on in the prodigal daughter’s mind.

“A penny for your thoughts?” Penelope asked.

“Huh?” Gwen asked, then seeing Penelope there she just shook her head, before answering, “it’s nothing.”

“It doesn't seem like nothing?” Penelope pressed. Going closer, and wrapping a knowing arm around Gwen’s shoulder.

Tears.

At that one subtle gesture, Gwen started to cry out beautiful glowing tears. These were tears that were clearly not as magical as the ones her mother could make by sweating, but were still glorious to behold.

“You want to talk about it?”

“No,” Gwen managed to get out through sobs.

“Tsss, we are all friends here,” Penelope pressed, holding Gwen tighter. In her mind, she understood at least part of what Gwen had been going through, for bearing children was taxing and the effects immediately afterwards are tough.

Then staring off to the side, she saw the child, this Redding Spiritlight out making communications with other people. Seeing the importance given to Redding, a light of understanding went off in Penelope’s mind.

“Is it because you were replaced by your own child?” Penelope asked, wondering if the sudden lack of seeming importance would bother Gwen. Though this didn’t seem to be too much of an issue, it could still be overwhelming for someone still regulating their hormones after giving birth.

“No,” Gwen began, but then seemed to ponder the words, “well at least it wasn’t a concern.”

Hearing that Penelope grimaced slightly from the comments, as she realized she might have given the girl something else to worry about.

“Well what had you originally worried?” Penelope asked.

“It’s stupid, I don’t even know why I bother sometimes,” Gwen responded.

“Bother with what?” Jhonny asked.

“How to compete with mother,” Gwen stated.

“What?” Penelope and Jhonny both asked in unison.

“Nothing, it’s just that she called out her name,” Gwen finally managed to get out.

“When?” Jhonny asked confusedly.

“When do you think, you moron, when they completed the Guild Quest for us,” Penelope shot out.

“Oh,” Jhonny replied automatically, then as dawning reached his mind he responded again, “OHHHH, oh wow, that is…”

Jhonny was about to continue, but a quick glare from Penelope stopped him.

Penelope was about to use that moment to say something else to Gwen, to help her with this, but fortunately she got an urgent message from her bonded partners.

“Master, the energetic one is getting flustered,” the mental voice of Kujo rang out crisply in her mind. Hearing the voice, Penelope wondered how their connection suddenly got so clear, only to realize that she now had over 750,000 experience points that went to leveling her new Master Level Tamer class. An act that took her from Level 1 to Level 122.

Feeling the surge in levels, Penelope could only be thankful for how much effort Gwen and Mallory put into immediately consummating the relationship, but then remembered the fact that apparently during that moment, Mallory called out Cass’s name.

Realizing this might be the perfect distraction, Penelope called back to Mr. Kujo.

“Can you come and get all three of us and take us to her?” Penelope responded mentally. Then before she forgot to warn everyone she spoke.

"We are needed elsewhere," was all Penelope could say before Kujo appeared.

Poof.

Rather than respond, Kujo came and with a light bite around the arm of Gwen, Jhonny, and finally herself the three of them were moved to the Kujo Caverns.

Only afterwards did Penelope realize that Redding had been left behind, but after a moment Penelope realized it was better to just help Cass put out this fire.

Poof, poof.

As Penelope looked around attempting to get her bearings, she saw multiple things going on at once. She saw Cass, the real Cass, Resurrecting dozens of people in mass.

Then she saw one of the Simulacrums popping into and out of existence dropping off bodies to be added to the Resurrection pile.

Seeing a commotion, Jhonny instantly went to help Cass, the real one. Gwen for her part just reluctantly began Healing people, which left Penelope to find something to do.

Seeing that her four Pomeranian pack members were staring down some of the Legrand soldiers, she mentally sent them a “Good Job,” before looking around to see something else she could do.

Unfortunately, as a Tailor and now a Master class Tamer what she could do to help were rather limited.

Poof, poof.

Then seeing how Cass’s Simulacrum kept popping into and out of the area, Penelope looked to Kujo and suddenly realized what she could do to help this situation, in her own way.

“Come here Kujo, we’ve got work to do,” Penelope sent out, as ideas began forming in her mind.