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Luka's Story	By : Ditmag Category: +M through R > Monster Girl Quest Views: 4827 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Monster Girl Quest is owned by Tortorro and I make no money from this project. It is a labor of love.

Chapter List
- 13
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I carried her back to Port Natalia. As can be expected, it was pretty difficult, between her weight and her length. I put her upper human body on my back and wrapped as much of her tail as I could around my midsection. It took until morning for me to get us back to the inn, whereupon I laid her in one of the beds in our room and pulled a blanket over her.
Despite my exhaustion I waited by her bedside for her to regain consciousness. It took some time. Although she had fainted, the exhaustion had apparently caught up with her as well, and she transitioned into a deep sleep. I dozed off in my chair a few times.
Around midday she awakened with a start, not sure where she was. When I told her she was at the inn, she looked at me wide eyed. “Did you carry me all the way back here?” she asked. “Oh, Luka, you’re so sweet! You’re going to be so stiff tomorrow!”
“I was going to be anyway thanks to the Queen Kraken’s apology,” I pointed out.
“Well we’re going to stay here for a few days until you’re in shape to travel again,” she admonished. “Besides, this city has a lot of good things to eat and you know I’m in no hurry to go to San Ilia.”
I agreed that it was the prudent choice. She continued to sit up in the bed and look at me, seemingly struggling with what to say next.
After a moment, she found her words. “Luka, thank you for taking care of me in there. I’m so ashamed that you saw me that way.”
“Why would you be ashamed?” I protested. “Everyone’s afraid of something. You’ve seen me afraid.”
“I’m the Monster Lord,” she responded. “There’s no room for fear in my existence.”
“I don’t know which Monster Lord you saw in that mansion,” I said. “But the one I saw was very brave. You thought there might be ghosts in there and you went in anyway.”
She laughed softly. “I’m not really convinced of that, but thank you. Now you get some rest! Have you been sitting in that chair instead of sleeping all day? Go to sleep! And stay in that bed until you’re better! I’ll take some of your gold and go get food for us while you’re recuperating.”

As she said she would, she bought food over the next couple of days while I stayed mostly in bed. She didn’t have a very good concept of money, so she went way over budget, buying things based on how good they looked rather than identifying good value. I decided not to complain this time, as I was grateful for her ministrations, but if I ended up bedridden again on this trip I knew I’d have to teach her how to stick to a budget.
I was pretty stiff the next day but I must heal fast because I was already feeling much better the day after. The talon wound and Granberia’s cuts were fully healed, although I wondered if the scars would ever go away. I hoped I wasn’t going to get excessively carved up on this journey.
Lying in bed thinking all the time didn’t help my mood, though. I started thinking again about the challenges ahead. I had to defeat Granberia and Alma Elma, but the task seemed impossible. Sure, Alice could train me, but this wasn’t a video game where I could just keep on leveling up until I got strong and skilled enough. I had human limitations. Greater than normal humans around here, but human nevertheless. No matter how good I became, I wasn’t beating Granberia definitively and I didn’t have a clue how I would even touch Alma Elma, who I assumed was no more powerful than Granberia but presented a different set of problems. It was a classic matchup problem. Granberia was a tough opponent, but it was my strengths against her strengths. Alma Elma, on the other hand, was my weaknesses against her strengths. A complete mismatch. And she was the most important part of all this, being the one imposing the blockade!
Alice entered the room, carrying big bags of food. At least she wasn’t a shopaholic. I’d be broke if her appetites weren’t limited to edible things. “I got your favorite,” she announced. “A 40 piece fried shrimp basket. And later on there’s a lot more here. They just have the best seafood here! So much better than eating raw things on the bottom of the ocean!”
She noticed my glum expression. “Are you all right,” she asked. “I thought you were feeling better today?”
“Sorry,” I said. “Just thinking again about what I have to do and realizing how impossible it is.”
Alice sat down on the other bed. “You know,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about that too. I might have an idea for you.”
“Really? What is it?” I asked eagerly.
“I… haven’t decided yet if I should share it,” she admitted, looking down. “I’ve got a lot to think about still. Besides it’s not the only path to getting what you want.”
“Yes, you’re right!” I said. “I just remembered! Before Alma Elma attacked me that you said if I could control that power I had I could beat them!”
“Don’t get too excited,” she warned. “When I helped you against the Kraken Queen, I didn’t do it just to help you. I also wanted to get a better look at that power. When you hit Nanabi with it I tried to sense that power within you and I couldn’t. I didn’t get a good look at the blast either because it happened so fast.”
“But you did get a look at it the second time?” I asked.
“Yes,” she confirmed. “And now that I’ve seen it and know what to look for I see it in you now. It’s…. a lot.”

“A lot?” I asked, not sure whether to feel dread or hope.
“A lot a lot,” she confirmed. “What you released in both of those incidents was a tiny fraction of what’s inside of you. It confirms my earlier theory. You’re not from here. That power isn’t like anything in this world. I can’t even tell what it ‘does’, per se. It’s raw magical force.”
“What are the possibilities?”
“That’s really tough to say,” she said. “It could do anything, it could do nothing except what I’ve already seen it do. I could give you magic lessons at the same time I’m giving you sword lessons, but I wouldn’t even know where to start. In this world, magical force isn’t something people just carry around inside unconsciously. We gather that kind of power by practicing magic, similar to how a muscle gets stronger. Everyone has different potential, just as with athletic ability, but no one just winks into existence with the ability to lift 300 pounds or wield an insane amount of magical energy. Except for you. You just arrived here able to pick up a sword and beat any other human, and now I find you have more magical power at your beck and call than any ten Monster Lords.”
“That much?” I asked in wonder. “But it’s not at my beck and call. I’ve never even seen it. I only see the results.”
“That’s why I don’t know if I can ever teach you to control it,” she said. “The first step would be to teach you to find it. The second step would be to teach you to grasp it. The third step, to mold it to your needs. But I don’t even know how we’d get you to the first step since you can never see it. It’s only triggered when someone tries to use magic against your mind, and only then when you’re threatened. I don’t even know how it’s possible for a human body to contain all that energy. It certainly wouldn’t be possible with any magical energies on this world. But yours is of a completely different kind so it may follow different rules. In any case, as it is now it won’t help you against a Heavenly Knight. They aren’t just where they are today because of raw power. They learn, they adapt. If Tamamo knows about this ability of yours and how it’s triggered, then they probably all do by now. None of them will try mind magic against you and if they get wind of you somehow learning to control it in a rudimentary way they’ll just figure out ways to counter that as well. You’d need to be able to do a variety of unpredictable things with it for it to truly be a threat to them. That would take years of training.”
“And this other idea you have? It doesn’t take years?”
“That depends on you,” she said. “I’m not going to go into much detail yet, but the gist of it is that it would make you a lot stronger than you are immediately. How much stronger you got beyond that would depend on your aptitude. Since it’s not intellectual, like using magic can be, you’ve got a decent chance.”
Her compliments weren’t really compliments sometimes.

After three full days of rest, we set out for San Ilia. The distances were a lot greater on this continent due to its much larger size. This was a five day journey. I’d made sure to equip myself with a lot of food, and of course lots of pairs of pants. I say myself, because Alice, like typical royalty, wasn’t carrying anything. Maybe it didn’t occur to her to offer, maybe she had no intention of carrying anything. I decided not to press the issue. I needed to get stronger and carrying all the equipment contributed to that goal.
Of course, when you buy 15 pairs of pants, that’s when you go five days without a monster encounter. I’d heard that the monsters on Sentora were plentiful and powerful, but I might have gotten the wrong idea since if one could be expected to run into a monster every day, no one would ever travel, and that clearly wasn’t the case. We encountered other travelers on the road to San Ilia, although always in groups of at least three, and only in groups that small if they were all armed. This was generally how people on Ilias Continent traveled as well.
Alice was definitely starting to open up a little more, although many subjects were entirely off limits and would result in no conversation for a few hours if I pushed too far. She tolerated me passing the time telling stories and legends that I remembered from my world, sometimes even asking questions if something sounded particularly intriguing(rarely) or illogical(constantly). There was one interesting conversation that I should summarize: I had felt that Chrome had gotten off too lightly given the enormity of her crimes. Alice assured me that she knew Chrome’s family and that Chrome wasn’t going to play around with desecrating the dead anymore. Since I wasn’t a judge and jury, I decided that this would have to be good enough. As long as it was over, it was no longer my problem. Her victims’ spirits were now free. Still, it was impossible for me to forgive what she had done to Frederika and me. Being constantly sexually assaulted was something I took in stride most of the time, given the realities of this world. But that had been on a different level of evil. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Nights were spent mainly at sword training. She taught me no new monster techniques, since the only one I’d gotten decent at was Thunder Thrust. But she did make me practice more efficient movements while correcting me on my bad habits. I was hoping that she’d have an idea about teaching me to use magic, but she could think of no way to safely experiment that wouldn’t knock down several trees.
Around midday on the fifth day since leaving Port Natalia, we arrived. While I could understand why Alice wanted no part of San Ilia, it vastly exceeded my own expectations. The architecture was incredible. This had to be the cultural center of this world. The castle, which at one time had been the most important cathedral to Ilias, was now used both for governmental and religious purposes. For the first time on this journey I was able to believe for a moment that I was on a vacation. The city was peaceful, bustling, and there seemed no limit to the number of things to see. While I was concerned that Alice didn’t like it here, I believed we’d find more than enough to keep her interested.
But first things first. I wanted to see that cathedral. That proved easier said than done. There was a line to get in. The line consisted of a lot of beefy looking guys, which told me that this must not be just for tourists. These must be heroes. I asked a random person in line what was going on. I was informed that heroes journeyed from all over to gain an audience with the King of San Ilia. Since I just wanted to get a look around the castle, I waited in line, signed in despite not being a real hero, and was told that I’d be welcome to not only look around, but even stay in the castle! I’d have to talk that last part over with Alice, plus I was uneasy about taking advantage of San Ilia’s hospitality under false pretenses. I didn’t feel guilty about looking around. After all, they let Alice in as well, and she was certainly no hero. Could women be heroes in this world? I had never heard it said they could not. Huh. I’d have to ask about that.
The inside of the cathedral was every bit as wondrous as advertised. Most interesting to me was the statue of Ilias. From a study of religion standpoint it was fascinating to see a monotheistic faith that also practiced idolatry. Even at the time I remembered enough to know that it wasn’t a normal way of doing things. I guessed that even Alice would find the statue interesting, but I was wrong.
“They say this statue is 1000 years old,” I said to Alice. “Notice how when everyone passes by, they keep their sword pointed away from it. It’s forbidden to point a sword at the Goddess. I believe that’s their third commandment out of five.”
Alice’s only response was to ask if she could destroy it. Not that I could have stopped her if she was determined to do it, but I really hoped she wouldn’t. Maybe this had been a bad idea. In the mood she was in she might be dangerous in a place like this.
She had jokes though. “You can’t beat me in a normal fight, so you brought me here to die of boredom? How cunning.”
Equally funny was my conversation with a guard in which he proudly stated that the San Ilia guard consisted of the finest heroes in the world, and that no monster would get into the cathedral while they were on watch. You know, while the Monster Lord and an offworlder toured the castle. Hmmm, I wonder what the Ilias faithful would think of me if they knew?
One thing that really piqued my interest however was the library, supposedly the largest in the world. I figured that Alice must be interested in that, but she was steadfastly refusing to be interested in anything in this city, so commented snarkily that she couldn’t eat books. I knew better. A woman as smart and educated as she was had to read a lot. I was sure once I got her in there that she’d find something interesting to do. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a public library so it appeared that I’d never get to find out.
Just as I was about to find us something else to do in the city, lest Alice lose her patience and start wrecking the place, a guard ran up to us. Uh oh. I hadn’t been sure whether this cathedral was for baptized people only or if I’d just used the wrong line to get in. Did they figure out I was an unauthorized visitor? No, it couldn’t be that, they let Alice in without her even signing in. But then the guard laid a shocker on me: I was to see the king. What?!
I was hastily rushed into the audience hall, Alice following along, still bored. The king looked more like a religious leader than a monarch, but I guess he was both and considered the religious leader function to be the more important. He seemed like a gentle man at first glance. The King of San Ilia sent the guard away and it was just himself, me, and um, the Monster Lord, alone with the foremost religious leader in the world. If I’d remembered the name of a god to pray to, I would have prayed right then that she would behave herself.
The king addressed me. “Traveler that calls himself Luka,” he said. “I wish to ask you a question. You are not baptized, are you?”
“That’s right,” I replied. “I am not.” I didn’t tell him that I wasn’t even a believer in the faith, although given where the evidence was pointing, I didn’t really feel comfortable saying that under the circumstances.
“Oh!” he exclaimed. “So it really is just as Ilias revealed to me in a dream!”
Even though this wasn’t the first time a priest of Ilias claimed to be having the same dreams I was, I still don’t think my mind had fully accepted that the Goddess could be real. I still couldn’t accept it completely, even at this point. But the evidence was becoming harder to ignore.
“Last night,” he said. “Ilias came to me in a dream. With her beautiful hair, her pure face. Her angelic appearance was like a breath of-“
“That part doesn’t matter,” Alice interjected. “Why don’t you get to something important.”
I don’t think I’ve ever facepalmed before. I did just then.
To my relief, he simply moved on. “Anyway, so Ilias gave me a revelation. An unbaptized person named Luka would come before me, and this unbaptized hero will be the one to defeat the Monster Lord.”
I shared a glance with Alice. I was really getting tired of hearing this.
The king continued, “Now, I shall indicate the path you should take. There are three wise men on this continent. You need to demonstrate your power to all three, and receive their blessings. I shall bestow this only upon the one who receives all three blessings. The sword of a true hero. The Goddess Sword. If you wield this sword, it is said that all monsters, even the Monster Lord herself, will bow to you.”
The king gestured towards a beautiful looking sword next to his throne. This was new to me. I hadn’t heard of this sword or read about it. It looked enchanted, or maybe it was just pretty. But if it was called the Goddess Sword and if Ilias was real, and she wanted me to wield it against the Monster Lord, I was willing to bet it was pretty powerful.
I looked over at Alice to see what she was making of all this. I expected alarm, but her look of boredom and disdain was still present. “What a stupid quest,” she said, and walked over to the sword.
“Alice! Please don’t!” I said, mortified. But she had already grabbed the sword and raised it above her head. And then… it shattered!
“See, Luka?” Alice said. “With a crappy sword like this you wouldn’t have been able to scratch anyone. Three wise men? Proof of your power? What a load of crap from this old man!”
The king had paled, his face starting to twitch. I was sure he’d have the guards back in here in a heartbeat and have me taken away, probably to be tortured Inquisition style. But instead he seemed to have gone catatonic.
“I’ve made a decision,” Alice said. “Let’s get out of here.”
The king was now starting to laugh hysterically. “Oh, Ilias! Look at what happened!”
Guards rushed in. They immediately noticed the shattered remnants of the Goddess Sword. Getting no coherent response from the king, one of the guards turned to me. “You! What the hell happened here?!”
I just told the truth. “The Monster Lord did it!”
“The Monster Lord!?” the guard exclaimed. “Yes, it had to be, no one else could destroy the Goddess Sword! We need to defend the castle!”
Alice and I hastily made our way out. “Alice, was that really necessary?” I asked her. “You can’t just go around denigrating people’s religion. Look what it did to him!”
“He was speaking such gibberish that I had to wake him up,” she replied. At least she wasn’t bored anymore.
Soldiers were running frantically around looking for the Monster Lord, who of course was standing right next to me. But then suddenly, everything changed. The soldiers, previously running in every direction, started to make their way towards the entrance to the cathedral, screaming about a monster attack. It didn’t take long before I realized this was no false report. Turning the corner into the great hall, a figure, too far away for me to see clearly just yet, was manhandling soldiers with ease. It didn’t even look like the figure was really fighting. Just… walking, as soldiers fell or were thrown against walls, or even just fainted. As the figure got closer, it was unmistakable.
Granberia.
Now I know I’d said to her that I’d consider facing her again to be an honor. And I was being honest! Truth be told, I found her to be the most remarkable woman I’d ever met and wanted to see more of her. It’s just that there’s a good time and a bad time for such things, and this didn’t feel like a good time at all. I’d just gotten over some childish emotional turmoil, not to mention my first real defeat to a monster that couldn’t even hold a candle to the dragonkin warrior. My confidence was not high.
Granberia reached me at an even stride, the soldiers opposing her not even an inconvenience. “Stop!” I yelled, at the soldiers rather than her. “Don’t resist her! She’s come for me!”
Thankfully, the soldiers looked at me questioningly but complied, clearing a path for the Heavenly Knight. She didn’t even give them a glance. She simply marched up to me, stopped about five feet away, and stared at me. “Granberia!” I said in greeting. “What a pleasant surprise! What brings you here?”
“What do you think I’m here for?” she shot back.
“Hopefully not to invade San Ilia?” I said hopefully.
“Don’t joke around,” she said. “What point is there in attacking some castle in the middle of nowhere? I came here to cross swords with you!”
“Me? Now?”
“I told you there’d be a rematch,” she said. “Now unsheathe your sword!”
“Granberia, that was what, not even a month ago? Couldn’t we do this, like… anywhere else?”
“We’re doing it here and now!”
“Okay, okay, I guess we’re doing this now then,” I said, reluctantly. I am so about to get my ass handed to me, I thought. I hoped I wouldn’t get injured too badly. Alice hated this place.Spending a long time recuperating here would only worsen her mood.
No sooner was my sword out than Granberia took her first swing at me. I was nowhere near ready, yet still managed to get my sword up quickly enough to parry. “Still quick on the defense. Let’s see if your offense has improved.” She held her sword up at the ready, waiting for me.
I went with my usual opening move, Thunder Thrust, and she parried it easily. “I knew you were traveling with Alipheese but I didn’t know she was teaching you Cursed Sword Techniques. What others has she shown you?”
I tried Demon Decapitation. Also parried. She demanded to see more. Feeling stupid, I climbed up onto a balcony, forcing Granberia to wait for me much too long. So long that she put her sword by her side. Surprisingly, she made no derogatory comments. I came down with Demon Skull Beheading. Also blocked. “The first two you’re getting good at. That last one, you’re still a beginner. You have to do it the way I did it to you, when I shattered your cheap sword. You have to be able to launch yourself in a fluid motion. Like this!”
She came off the wall with commendable speed and brought her sword crashing down upon my head. Or would have, if I hadn’t blocked it again. Angel Halo, being made of sterner stuff, enchanted stuff, didn’t break. Love this sword, I thought.
“Now enough of the lessons!” she said. “I won’t be going easy on you anymore!”
With that, she went at me, with even more vigor than she had shown at her most fierce in Iliasburg. But to my surprise, Alice’s training was paying off. I was able to keep up with her, and even occasionally force her to defend against my own attacks. In Iliasburg, I only had offense when she let me have offense. Here I was forcibly taking the initiative from her, if only briefly.
Our swords rang throughout the cathedral as the soldiers watched. I was dismayed at the damage being done as Granberia’s huge sword crashed through columns and gouged out large chunks of wall in her zeal to get at me. I feared she might bring the entire place down around our ears. I caught Alice in the corner of my eye, also watching. As with the short, humiliating battle with Alma Elma, she saw no need to hide herself. It’s not as if Granberia didn’t already know she was here.
Alice had no useful advice for me this time, as she did in the Alma Elma fight. I was truly on my own here. But as our battle raged on, I found myself feeling grateful for Granberia’s appearance. I had been in a depression, my confidence destroyed. Now I felt every bit the glorious hero warrior, standing on near equal ground with the greatest swordswoman on the planet. I knew she was still not giving me everything she had. She was using only conventional sword techniques other than her demonstration of her version of Demon Skull Beheading. The techniques Alice insisted could end the fight in a heartbeat were not in evidence, so I wasn’t really facing her as an equal just yet. But it still felt good. I could see why Granberia loved battle so much. The adrenaline high was unreal. It certainly helped that I was still fairly certain Granberia didn’t mean to kill me. I wasn’t sure what the consequences would be if I lost this fight. Alice had warned me that I would not like what happened at all if I lost, but knowing that I wasn’t fighting for my life kept the fear in check.
But lose I did. As in our first fight, I allowed myself to get backed up to a wall and then failed to shift the momentum of the battle to give myself more room. Trapped against the wall, she charged like a bull and slammed me into it, my sword across my chest blocking hers, but with her steadily increasing the pressure, bringing the edge of her sword closer to my neck. I felt no heat from the sword at this close distance, yet when it touched my neck it instantly left a painful burn mark. She must have absolute control over the fire element, because I’d seen her do everything from a flaming sword whose heat could be felt dozens of feet away, to a sword that didn’t even seem to be hot until it touched you. Now I’m normally a screamer, but something about fighting Granberia made me want to prove my manhood to her. So I stifled the scream as best I could as the sword sizzled against my skin.
She smiled triumphantly and removed her sword from my neck. My sword held weakly against my chest, she batted it away, sending it clattering to the floor. She brought her face close to mine. Even through my pain I marveled at how good her breath smelled. She began to sniff me. She stopped where she’d burned me and licked it. She then looked me in the eyes, an inch away from mine. “I told you the result would be different this time,” she whispered. “I could claim you now as my plaything and Alipheese wouldn’t stop me. But I know you can get better. Don’t disappoint me. Be seeing you.” For a moment I thought she was going to kiss me, as her face continued to hover an inch from mine. Either that or bite my nose off. Instead, she stared for another moment, released me, took two steps back, and vanished.
Soldiers rushed to my assistance, but I waved them off. Despite the ferocity of the battle, she had not cut me. Whether because I’d become that much better or because she wasn’t trying to cut me I didn’t know. It had felt more like a workout than a true battle. As I surveyed the cathedral, I noted all the damage. Nope, that was a battle. I may not have been seriously wounded, but the cathedral’s main hallway had suffered extensive damage.
Alice looked thoughtful. “Granberia letting a beaten opponent go? I didn’t expect that. She likes you.”
“Does she normally express her affection by swinging a sword?” I asked.
“That’s the kind of woman she is. Still interested?”
I ignored that last comment. When I’d beaten her, she had seemed every inch the admirable warrior woman. This time, however, while the respect remained, I wasn’t sure I’d enjoyed her more predatory approach towards the one she had defeated, namely me. Still, the idea of doing something with her that didn’t involve violence intrigued me. She couldn’t spend all her time at warlike pursuits, could she? I also found that even though Alice and I had reconciled our differences somewhat, I felt I understood Granberia better. She liked to fight. She honored those she fought if they gave her a challenge. I still wasn’t sure what Alice’s motivations were.

I was sure Alice would want to leave San Ilia immediately and prefer to camp, but it turned out she was wrong about there not being good food here, so we stayed at an inn for the night. There, she revealed to me her decision.

“The Four Spirits?” I asked.
“Salamander, Sylph, Undine, and Gnome,” she replied. “They should be somewhere on this continent. Locate them and ask for their blessing.”
“And what happens then?”
“You’ll gain a mighty power from each of them.”
“Okay, two questions,” I said. “First, are these spirits what you were alluding to before when you said there might be a way for me to challenge the Heavenly Knights?”
“No, that was about the Sword of Uncompromising Imbecility,” she replied. “But I’ve decided that you’re overqualified to wield it. If you fought with such a weapon the sheer force of the stupid would sweep my Knights aside effortlessly.”
It took me a minute to realize she was being sarcastic.
“Second question then,” I asked. “Why would you want me to have this power?”
“When did I say I wanted you to?” she countered. “I’m just suggesting that if you want to fight the Four Heavenly Knights, you’ll need more than just training.”
“I’m confused,” I said. “Do you want me to fight the Heavenly Knights or do you not want me to fight the Heavenly Knights?”
“Why would the Monster Lord want you to fight her Heavenly Knights?” she asked. “You were the one who said you needed to fight them.”
Is she screwing with me? Or do I just not understand how monsters think?
“Let me explain this slowly so you can grasp it,” she said. “You, Luka, said that you have to defeat the Knights so that the blockade will be lifted and there won’t be any attacks on human cities by them anymore. I, Alice, explained that I see their point of view in this and I’m not going to stop them. I, Alice, further explained to you that I’m not going to stop you from stopping them if that’s what you want to do and you can actually do it. Because I see this from your point of view as well.”
“Okay, I think I get it,” I said. I didn’t, actually. “So where are the spirits?”
“Are you really asking me that?” she said. “Have you not been listening to a word I’ve said? Why would the Monster Lord tell you where the spirits you can use to defeat the Monster Lord are? How ridiculous.”
“How did we get to defeating you? Do I need to defeat you?”
“That’s for you to figure out, idiot.”
Ugh.
“But if you did want to find them,” she said. “There’s a library here that might have information on their locations.”
I was still very unclear about the conditions under which she was going to help and under which she was not going to help, but that did sound promising, so I went to find a guard the next morning at the catehdral. I did better. I found the captain of the guards. “Is there any chance I could get access to the library?” I asked.
Turns out, when you fight a Heavenly Knight and not embarrass yourself, you can get access to just about anything you want. So it wasn’t long before Alice and I were ushered into the library. It was huge, although I remembered seeing public libraries on my world that were bigger. Alice and I were the only ones in the library. With all the space available I wondered why they restricted access.
Alice found a stack of books and started to sniff them. “This library smells an awful lot like monsters,” she said.
“Monsters are in here?” I said, looking around, my hand on my sword.
“Stop looking around like an idiot, idiot.” She said. “It’s not like there are wandering monsters roaming around the room. They must have taken possession of a book.”
“Possess a book?” I asked, having no idea what she might be talking about.
“Whatever, just hurry up and find what you’re looking for,” she said. “I don’t want to spend too much time here. Since I can’t eat books, I don’t like them.” How’d she get so smart, then?
I scanned the library’s catalog and found a title that made sense: Four Animists and their Sources. Thirty-fifth bookcase on the second level. I found it easily enough. It looked like it hadn’t been touched in years. Decades perhaps. Made sense though, this was an Ilias library, and this was a pagan book. Hoping to find information on the locations of the spirits, I opened it. And suddenly a monster flew out of it! So that’s what she meant by possessed!
The monster spoke to me. “It is forbidden to read this book.”
“Why?” I asked.
“It’s the Monster Lord’s order,” she said, and then moved to attack.
My reflexes were excellent. I never did get a chance to see how she was going to attack, because a Thunder Thrust sealed her immediately.
I looked over at Alice quizzically, intending to ask her why the book would attack me at her order. Or maybe it was a previous Monster Lord? But Alice was busily stacking books in a corner. Then alarmingly, she set them on fire!
“Alice, what are you doing?”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “These are just the books about Ilias.”
“Don’t worry?!” I exclaimed. “Aren’t most of the books here about Ilias?”
Then I noticed she wasn’t just burning them to burn them. She was baking a potato! As absurd as the situation was, I realized I couldn’t stop her, so I focused on the issue at hand. “She said the Monster Lord told her to possess the book. Do you know anything about that?”
She looked guilty. “I dunno,” she said. That’s suspicious.

I opened the book again, hoping to get out of the library before Alice set it on fire, and then another monster popped out! This one’s mode of attack seemed a lot more obvious. It had a giant hand which immediately tried to grab at me. One sword slash later and it too was sealed.
“Alice..” I said.
“I… I don’t know.” She wouldn’t look at me.
I went to open the book again. Alice spoke up. “My amazing intuition tells me that there’s one more monster in that book. It’s quite a powerful one too. Be careful.”
I opened it a third time and just as Alice predicted with her astounding intuition, a giant monster popped out. This one had tentacles. What was most interesting about her was that she was dressed like a librarian, with glasses and her hair in a bun. Was this part of the plan, to make men trying to read the book surrender immediately to their fantasies of a librarian?
“By order of the Monster Lord, I cannot allow you to read this book.”, she said
“The Monster Lord is over there, eating a baked potato, and she says I can read this book.”
“She is?” the librarian monster said, “Egads!” But when she looked for the Monster Lord, she saw nothing but the fire in the corner of the library. Great. Alice decided to vanish again.
Turning back to me she said, “I dislike practical jokers in the library. Your punishment will be to have all of your energy sucked out.”
I attacked her, but unlike the previous two, one slash didn’t do the job. It barely got her attention. Rather than focusing completely on the fight, she was reading a book! But her tentacles seemed to have minds of their own because they started battering me, caressing me, or trying to grab me. This time though, striking the tentacles with Angel Halo caused them to stop briefly. In addition, they weren’t as coordinated or as fast as in most of the other battles I’d fought. It seemed that this fight would be longer, but not terribly challenging. At least that’s what I thought, until one of my strikes undid her hair.
“You had to go and do that,” she said. “it’s time for me to get serious.”
She pulled out another book and started reading from it. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like whatever spell she was looking up. I tried to disrupt her reading, but the tentacles were holding me at bay. When she finished, she closed the book and flashed me a wicked smile. And then she flashed me for real. Oh no, not in a lib-!
My mind went zap. When I came to, the portion of the library that I had been facing was in ruins. Pages were falling all around me. There was no sign of the book monster. Behind me, the library was untouched. It was as if a tornado had ripped through half of the second level. Then I remembered Alice and the fire. I hoped that my… whatever that was, had extinguished it and not spread it.
It was a vain hope. I saw flames erupt from the general area where Alice had been cooking her baked potato. “Oh no!” I heard her say behind me, “All my potatoes are ruined!” But hadn’t she been in the path of whatever blasted out of me? Wait, she’d disappeared. Or had she moved to get behind me? That amazing intuition again?
“Hahaha..” she laughed. “Look at it spread.”
“Alice, this is a library! We need to do something!”
“I can submerge the entire castle underwater if you want.”
“Maybe a little rain?” I asked hopefully.
“I don’t have that much control.” Grrr… Half the second level blasted, the other half burning.
Just then the guard captain walked in. “Are you finding everything alright, Lu- What the hell is this?”
I decided that honesty was the best approach. “The Monster Lord set the library on fire!”
“What?! The Monster Lord?!”, the captain exclaimed. “Not only destroying the holy sword but now setting fire to our library? We have to rescue the books!”
The captain began shouting out orders to men, who were already arriving with buckets of water. Alice and I slipped out in the confusion. We headed into town, Alice following me with her head down.
“Really, this time I actually am sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to burn the place down, I was just bored and irritated. I should have remembered that the last book monster used a magic eye spell. You did notice that you reacted violently again, right?”
“How could I have missed it?” I said. “but if you didn’t know that was coming, how did you avoid getting caught in it?”
“Oh, I had finished my potato and was getting another one.”
“I see,” I said. “Well I’m afraid I didn’t get the book. Once I blacked out I never saw it again. It must have burned or been blown away.”
“Here,” Alice said, handing me the book. “I took it in the commotion.”
“Oh wow, thank you, Alice!”
I sat down on a bench and began going through the book. The book did indeed have the general locations of the Four Spirits. The fire spirit was located in a volcano, in the Gold Region. Made sense. The water spirit near the holy springs of Noah, the earth spirit out in the desert, and the wind spirit in the forest of spirits, which was close to San Ilia. That seemed like the logical place to start.
When I told Alice this, she said, “Elves live in that forest, separate from humans. As the Monster Lord, I don’t want humans to go into that forest.”
“You know I’m not going to bother anyone who doesn’t bother me,” I assured her.
“Good,” she replied. “Since you’re a human I can trust, I’ll allow you to enter the forest.”
“You trust me, Alice? Really?”
“DIdn’t I already tell you several times that you’re a good person?” she said.
“You’ve also called me an idiot.”
“Can’t you be both?” she responded.
- 13
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