Today is the 10th, Tann, day of Darkness. A day for reflection and mindfulness, and even the capital of the world slows down on this day of the Cycle.
I'm awoken by Hukarere, which is a surprise, but a welcome one nonetheless. I pat her furry head lovingly, and the smile she gives me is so warm that I can just imagine a tail wagging. It's a pity that she doesn't have one since she already has such a majestic wolf head, but I won't judge the Chimera body part mix-and-match "fashion."
It's been some time since I was last inside her, so I push her back, put her in missionary position, and then kiss her scaly legs as I easily slide in.
She immediately starts panting like a dog and tries to speak, "You like… lizard legs…? I'm thinking… about… changing them."
I glance at Aoi as she stirs awake. "Well, yeah, duh."
She makes a brief pout. "They're… lizard legs… not draconic."
I actually can't tell the difference, but it'd be a bit embarrassing to admit that.
"Sure, I like them. Why do you want to change them?" I quickly move the conversation forward.
"The… 'smooth blend style' is… becoming popular… among the elves."
"Smooth blend," huh? I still fondly remember that deer blend Chimera I fucked. Gods, she was gorgeous…
I lean forward until our noses touch, then interlace my fingers with hers. "Do what makes you happy."
"I want… something new… and a tail… would be nice…"
I reflexively raise my eyebrows in excitement, and my thick tail starts swaying from side to side, which Hukarere immediately notices, making her smirk.
"I knew… you'd like… this idea."
I kiss her snout and pick up speed. Out of all of the women that I love, she's the only one who's an actual wolf, so, of course, I'd be excited to see her become what I had only ever dreamed about.
Aoi is now level 48.
My [Sword Use] and [Polearm Use] increased by 2 (now 15+17 and 15+7).
Alissa increased her [Bow Use] and [Earth Magic] by 1 (now 42 and 4+1).
Roxanne increased her [Fire Magic], [Water Magic], and [Earth Magic] by 1 (now 5+35, 5+35, and 0+1).
Hana increased her [Two-Handed Sword Use], [Block], and [Shield Bash] by 1 (now 0+11, 0+16, 0+8).
Ciel increased her [Sword Use], [Tiretiera Maire Style], and [Wind Magic] by 1 (now 4+6, 0+2, and 12+28).
Lina increased her [Hammer Use], [Axe Use], and [Cursing Magic] by 1 (now 3+27, 2+18, and 10+10).
Yunia increased her [Spirit Magic] by 2, and her [Nature Magic] and [Weaverism] by 1 (now 2+23, 4+11, and 31).
Hukarere doesn't join us for breakfast to avoid making the other Companions jealous, but we've already had a quickie, so it isn't too much of a loss.
It's a tough choice deciding whether I'll drink coffee or not-earl-gray tea, but whenever I work out or "work out," my hunger grows enough that I can comfortably drink both.
"Snob," Roxanne teases through [Bind], but yesterday made me feel like a true King, so I find mercy within me and just ignore her.
The weather here is suspiciously good. Not too dry, not too wet, not too hot, and not too cold. The only problem is that it isn't hot enough for the thin dousnadeias to become the norm, but the comfortable temperature almost makes up for the loss of eye candy.
The morning proceeds peacefully. Lolo leaves to talk to Nikolas about our plan for this afternoon, Klein goes to train with the knights so that they can make use of their increased soul potential, and the girls and I begin our boosted mana circulation training.
I make a couple more Chuckys for the golems to study. If we could find a way to remove the unhappiness from these murderous dolls while keeping them aggressive and suicidal, they'd become the perfect disposable army. Once their mission ends, or they're captured, they'd simply kill themselves unhesitatingly, getting around the biggest risk of creating golems that have all of my memories.
There's still the chance that someone will be able to stop them from committing suicide by using something like the [Chain Soul] spell that Yunia can cast, but these golems have all of my knowledge of [Soul Manipulation], so someone would need to completely immobilize every single part of their souls to prevent suicide, except that would also make it impossible to extract any information from them.
I can't be too overconfident, though. I don't know enough about [Illusion Magic] and all the other mindfuck spells that are out there, so the Chuckys will forever remain a last resort.
After eating so much meat yesterday, our lunch today is focused on elven veggies. We have not-bruschetta as the first course, followed by a heavier dish of Zinotue ribs, which are quite tingly and spicy, a side dish of not-mango salad for the girls with a more tropical appetite, and a warm bean not-chili as the finisher. For dessert, we have fruit salad with whipped cream, a favorite of Ciel's.
The ribs are dripping with fat, and they're just what we need to fuel up our bodies because we'll be doing "Meat Grinder 2: Meatier and Grindier" today.
"Alright, where's the next place we can attract a horde?" I question our guides. The monster population will take a while to recover in the area we cleared, so we need a new, fresh location.
"The perfect place would be Trox Mael, the Cursing of the Realm," Nikolas answers and taps on a hand-drawn map of the dungeon floor. There are a few interesting notes on it, but we don't have time for a tour.
"Ah, when monsters first came to be," Lina chimes in, slightly excited.
"Exactly."
Lolo adds, "It just takes a bit to get there."
And I affirm, "As long as it's possible for us to get there this afternoon. Operation Meat Grinder Tw-…"
Alissa interrupts me before she can die of cringe, "I'm sure that if it's only us, we can speed things up."
Lolo glances at us oddly and replies, "If you can take us with you while flying, then we could easily guide you to the nearest settlement, which is where you can start Trox Mael."
And I smirk as I suggestively state, "We can certainly take one of you without any issue."
Nikolas subtly narrows his eyes, obviously not feeling like wasting his time arguing against this when he knows us so well. There's just no fucking way that any of us will be carrying a man, not even my wind-Alissas.
"How long will it take for us to get there?" Hana asks.
And Nikolas deliberates, "On foot, while fighting the monsters along the way? The whole afternoon. With [Fly], and just butchering everything without wasting a second? A couple of hours, I think."
Hana slaps Roxanne's back, making her stumble forward, and she'd have faceplanted if she didn't have her staff to lean onto. "This bitch here should get her eyes fixed, then," the savage woman asserts.
"What?!" Roxanne squeaks in confusion.
And Hana earnestly explains, "Our free time is always filled with something, and we don't often have moments like this where you can just… do nothing, so take this opportunity to grab Kahura and get your eyes fixed."
"That's actually a really good idea," I agree with a nod.
Roxanne immediately becomes anxious and starts making excuses, "Wha-… I have [Explosion]! I'm the one who can kill anything with just a glance!"
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"We have an Alissa," I point out, and my foxy wife narrows her eyes at me, trying to guess whether it's a meme or not.
"Yeah, we'll be fine," Hana affirms and lands a heavy hand on Roxanne's shoulder.
"It is ironic that the ranged mage needs glasses," Alissa cheekily remarks, but then she quickly adds. "Not that you ever missed."
"Don't be a bitch, and just do it," Yunia delicately encourages.
Ciel narrows her eyes at the ribbing, but then immediately tries to soothe Roxanne, "You can still use your glasses with clear lenses if you miss them."
Who then chuckles nervously and admits, "That's not exactly what I'm worried about."
"You can take your time thinking about it," Ciel reassures her.
And Roxanne glances at the map as she smiles a bit bitterly. "You can… just go without me, then… and I'll get ready."
"Want me to stay with you?" I gently offer.
Secretly, Roxanne would like that, but no, she can't hold me or Hana here. She's a big girl… a big, crazy girl, but she'll be fine on her own.
"Don't you want to make some final changes to your hands?" Lina asks Alissa.
"Oh, well…" Alissa looks down at her own, pretty hands, then smiles wryly. "Doesn't seem like it's worth the trouble right now."
I walk up to Roxanne, then grab her chin and pull her face down so that I can give her a loving kiss. "You'll be fine, my love. See you soon."
She slowly nods bashfully, then Hana steals her to one-up my kiss.
We return to the dungeon, then I shift into my dragon form, and Lolo mounts me. I don't have armor for this form, but I want to fly with her for a bit, and Aoi will carry her when I get tired. Just to make things easier, I summon two air elementals to lower the air drag on all of us, and also an electric elemental to divert the frequent lightning around here.
It has been quite a while since I last summoned an electric elemental, and it really fucking surprises me when a huge Aoi made of glowing plasma and crackling lightning suddenly appears before me.
"Hey! I have my own elemental, now!" The real Aoi exclaims happily, and her powerful, draconic, double voice makes Lolo shudder in fear.
The electric-Aoi turns her head towards the real one, then lowers it respectfully and flexes her wings.
"Thank you, other me. I also feel honored to have someone so formidable representing me," she more calmly responds, and I don't detect a single hint of narcissism in her earnest tone.
Electric-Aoi raises her head again, then sits on her hind legs and folds her wings. The two stare at each other, their poses mirrored, and, somehow, they speak without words.
Then they suddenly nod in sync, and Aoi affirms, "Yes, we're happy. Wolfy is a great husband."
"Okay… thanks? I love you, too," I bemusedly reply.
The Aois glance at me, then the elemental spreads her wings and takes flight.
"What just happened…?" Alissa asks for all of us.
Aoi answers matter-of-factly, "She reaffirmed her position under me and thanked me for being allowed to take my form, and then we both agreed that Wolfy is worthy of being our husband. It's a draconic greeting, like kissing the hand of an elven noble."
"Huh…" Yunia hums loudly as she watches electric-Aoi fly in circles around us.
Well, since the two of them are done, we just activate the [Fly] in our armor and start flying in formation.
The patchwork combinations of broken terrain, lava, vegetation, and other environmental hazards make for quite the alien sight. The twinkling, little holy lights that fall from the misty sky aren't affected by the wind, so we're constantly colliding with them as we fly forward, and they make us feel a bit tingly and twitchy, but it's not that bad once you get used to it.
Even though I'm not that great at flying, and the wind-Alissa helping us out is like having training wheels on, this is still quite an enjoyable experience. There also isn't much noise in my soul space since everyone is concentrating on watching out for monsters… and because Roxanne is sleeping.
"For once, I miss her insufferable presence," Yunia casually admits through [Bind].
"She's a nice bitch to have around," Hana lovingly adds.
"And to look at," I hum absentmindedly.
"And also very lively," Ciel comes to defend her.
"Did you all miss me when I was away?" Alissa concernedly asks.
"Of course!" I instantly reply.
"Why did you even think you needed to ask?" Lina returns the question, but Alissa doesn't answer. Her tail, though, wiggles inside her armor from happiness, begging to be released.
The girls chat a bit through our connection, but they keep it down to not bother me, allowing me to meditate as we fly. After an hour, I start to get physically tired and a bit mentally stressed, so I switch back to human form and let Aoi carry Lolo.
Our [Fly] enchantments are extremely efficient, and having the wind-Alissas to reduce our drag coupled with high-quality MP potions, we could theoretically fly all day. In truth, we'd start suffering from potion poisoning after a few hours if we drank too many MP potions, so we let our mana drain a bit to space out the potions more.
Flying monsters are very rare on this level, so we just fly past the Symbols of Mankind without care while they creepily stare at us. A few of them try to use magic to strike us down, but it costs us very little to have one of the golems turn around for a quick execution.
And then Roxanne ends up waking up before we reach our destination.
"Don't take the blindfold off yet, Your Highness," Kahura gently requests, and Roxanne stops tugging at the piece of cloth over her eyes. "We'll do it slowly. If you feel any discomfort, we need to stop and let your eyes rest for a little longer, okay?"
"Okay~…" She groggily mumbles back.
Kahura helps her up, then slowly removes the blindfold. Roxanne carefully opens her eyes, but the room is completely dark, so she doesn't see anything, though at least there's no pain.
"I'll slowly open the blinds, now," Kahura whispers and walks away, making me wonder how the hell this old woman can see in the dark.
For the next couple of minutes, she opens the blinds bit by bit, stopping to ask Roxanne how she's doing, then waits for about ten seconds before opening them some more. Roxanne's eyes adapt to the increase in illumination without any discomfort or pain, but it takes a while until she truly notices the changes in her eyesight as she's still waking up.
"There. Come to the balcony, and tell me what you see," Kahura requests.
Our dear wife hesitates for a second but quickly stands up. Her legs are a bit wobbly from fear, but her composure quickly returns with each step. She stops beside the old woman, then reflexively touches her own face, trying to find the pair of glasses that aren't there anymore.
"I see… everything. This is… so different from using glasses," she whispers, her tone full of wonder.
Kahura smiles warmly. "Indeed, that's what they all say."
And Roxanne turns to her. "But that's it…? My eyes are fixed? Just like that?" She asks, both confused and surprised.
And Kahura nods. "Of course. Sight problems are the most common imperfection we can be born with, so I'm very well versed in correcting them."
Then Roxanne starts chuckling softly. She was so concerned about the complications of modifying something as delicate as the eyes, but now her worries look silly considering how easy it all was.
She can now see in proper HD. The details of the wooden floor, the elven patterns on the wall, the texture of the moss, the individual leaves rustling in the wind, the people walking down the street, the endless rows of red rooftops, the Throne of Ascension in the distance, the clouds high up in the sky. Different from seeing through our eyes, she's seeing it all raw and with so much more detail than she could've ever imagined, making her brain go into overdrive as it's flooded with a level of information that it never had before.
"I'm not one to appreciate the sights, Wolfy, but there's something I really want to see…" Her sultry voice whispers in my soul space.
She thanks Kahura and immediately excuses herself. Then I summon her and hug her lithe body tightly, but her pale hands immediately go for my face to keep it still while she stares at my every detail.
Hana suddenly crushes both of us in a bear hug, but she quickly loosens it to not kill her delicate wife. Roxanne's head starts darting between the two of us as she can't decide who to look at first.
"You look better with glasses," Yunia offhandedly remarks.
Roxanne turns to her and becomes momentarily stunned. "Wow, you're hot," she blurts out.
The Queen raises a questioning eyebrow, wondering why Roxanne had to state the obvious, but the other simply giggles and turns back to us again. Her heart is filled with so much happiness that she suddenly starts wildly kissing us.
We're still inside the dungeon, flying far above the ground, so I use [Telekinesis] to keep her afloat while her emotions overwhelm her. But then her happiness starts to seep through our connection, and that triggers a group hug, which delays us for a few minutes.
It's absolutely offensive for Roxanne to remain without glasses, so Lina mobilizes the golems, and the four of them forge a new frame on the fly. Then the golems conjure sand, lime, and soda (and they're surprisingly adept at conjuring), and melt it all into clear glass for the lenses.
And our gorgeous succubus definitely enjoys her new sexy pair of round glasses. Though her personality is quite bubbly and cheeky, Roxanne just isn't the same without the cool aura from her glasses.
But her playfulness cools down as we approach our destination, a walled, concrete jungle.
Like with the ruins we've occasionally stumbled upon, the buildings are all square, gray, boxes of varying heights, all made of concrete. But if the ruins were eerily Earthling, these are… uncanny. They're arranged in rectangular blocks and surrounded by black asphalt. It's like someone was playing with 3D software and made a copy-pasted city grid, and then just randomly populated it with rectangles of different heights.
There are no boulevards, parks, traffic or street lights, signs, any green areas, or decorations of any kind. It's all concrete and asphalt. The only other notable thing about it is that at its center, there's a huge spiral staircase of white stone that rises into the sky and disappears into the gray mist above. It's like the Throne, but more boring.
"Gih," Gify whispers in my mind, and we all turn our attention to the wall.
It's manned, and Alissa can see their tabards, which are painted with the unmistakable red field and yellow sun of the Imperial Army.
Gify doesn't want to go too far from us, so I send a Holly ahead to scout, and we stop in the air while we wait for more information.
"What is it?" Lolo asks confusedly.
"There are Imperial soldiers inside the settlement," Ciel answers for me.
And the bunny girl frowns. "What? Seriously?"
"Is this a common thing?" I question.
"Nope," she hums and snorts.
The Holly finds that there are only handfuls of men spread out on the streets, but then she notices a large group of people in front of the first step of the Not-Throne-of-Ascension, exactly where we'd begin the Trox Mael "event."
And further inspection reveals that these aren't soldiers. Instead, they're an extremely eclectic collection of people of all races and sizes, armed and armored with all sorts of weapons and armor.
"What about adventurers?" I question Lolo again.
And realization dawns upon her. "Oh… yeah, sometimes they gather here in large groups to do exactly what we're about to do. But I've never heard of the Army joining them…"
We stay still for a couple of minutes as we ponder on what to do, but then Hana recognizes one of the adventurers. It's the dragonkin she fucked with a sword yesterday, and his fellowship is right there with him. That piques our interest, and the girls find that quite a few of the problematic fellowships from yesterday are also here.
"I smell a scheme," Yunia states, her small nose wrinkled in distaste.
And with perfect timing, Romy reports to my bird back at the embassy that Léonne has arrived with her Sworn Hunters.