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The Mask Comes Off	By : Samson Category: -Misc Video Games/RPGs > Slash/Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 4984 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Kingdoms of Amalur intellectual property, nor am I making any money off of this fanfic. Unauthorized duplication of this work is prohibited.

Chapter List
- 16
- 17
Under the Mask

The Mask Comes Off
Part IV - "Fateless Ones"
By: Jesse Racine AKA Samson
Original Date Written: April 19, 2017

“...Malchiorn, what do you make of miss Leah’s story?”
The Fae barely raised an eyebrow, turning just well enough to look back over his shoulder. Robin, the stoniest of the Clementine brothers, sat at the dim study’s widest desk, all manner of scrolls and texts laid out before him. Multiple clusters of candles sat lit all around the office, including a number at either of the desk’s two far corners, offering Robin ample illumination to read under. Malchiorn, for his part, stood at one of the stained glass windows overlooking the forest beyond, the purple-skinned Fae keeping his arms crossed over his chest as he turned back to the window, resuming his vigil.
Expression cold, aloof, his thin lips hardly moved as he stared out at the forest beyond the cathedral walls, answering “Nothing she told you differs terribly from what she mentioned to me. A more detailed story, to be sure, but nothing too unexpected. I’m more concerned with what the giantkin told you. Asmodeus’ motivations grow more and more perplexing to me with every piece of the puzzle we find.” He briefly narrowed his eyes before adding “Primal magic, now? Nothing adds up. Abandoning his Telling with me, his rise in intellect, the condition his Brownie servants sometimes enter, and now Primal magic? How many different flavours of magic has he been exposed to?”
Robin raised his eyebrows, idly twirling a quill between his hands. “Whatever’s happened to Asmodeus,” he remarked, “it’s clear he’s been shorn from the same repetition of behaviour the rest of the Fae experience. That would suggest red Prismere, but it wouldn’t seem to support a rise in intellect...Chaos magic very likely wouldn’t be responsible for that, either, but it might explain the berserk transformation he can force his underlings to undergo. The Primal magic angle is especially puzzling.” Robin narrowed his eyes, drew in a long breath, and thoughtfully tapped the end of his quill down against his desk. Thinking aloud, he pointed out “Miss Astraia claims that Primal magic is not particularly potent on it’s own, and that it’s best used as a primer to enhance the effects of other forms of magic.”
“A troubling prospect in the wrong hands,” Malchiorn observed, merely thinking aloud in kind. Robin raised his eyebrows, adding “Precisely what I was thinking. If Asmodeus can manipulate Primal magic, we have to assume that his capabilities could potentially be beyond whatever we previously thought. Whatever his natural limitations might be, he could potentially use Primal magic to exceed them. And, he would seem to be a master of it: even though Primal magic is apparently quite weak, he nonetheless used it to directly deflect multiple sceptre rounds from Lady Beaumont. And, then there’s the suggestion that Asmodeus may be attempting to prompt a Telling into reenacting itself, with Leah.”
Malchiorn’s brow immediately furrowed. The concept caught his attention in a snap. Turning around from the window, he uncrossed his arms, eyed Robin carefully, and asked “How do you mean?” The late middle-aged Almain dropped his quill to his desk, then leaned back heavily into his tall, ornately carved chair. Watching Malchiorn with a subtly puzzled look on his face, he explained “Based on what Asmodeus said to Leah earlier today, it would almost seem as if he’s hoping to reenact a Telling. At first, we had a hard time understanding why Asmodeus would treat Leah the way he’s been treating her: slaughtering her home village, only to spare her and then attempt to hunt her back down as she enters adulthood, only to yet again turn his back on her once he finds her.”
Robin sat up a little more, looking overtly perplexed as he cocked up his cheekbones, briefly narrowing his eyes as he added “Based on what he said to Leah, on the conditions he seems to be imposing upon their inevitable conflict, it would seem as if he’s looking to meet some kind of criteria, most likely for a Telling.” He raised an eyebrow, barely shook his head, and mumbled “It would seem as if he wants Leah to face him in direct combat with heroic bravery, but the fact of the matter is, she’s terrified of him. She doesn’t seem to be much of a hero - in fact, any one of her friends would be braver than her, it seems - and she’s in no particular rush to fight Asmodeus, but he doesn’t seem ready to give up on her. The question then becomes, what sort of Telling involves a Crudok and an Almain?”
Malchiorn’s brow furrowed. His eyes briefly shifted around in thought before he gave a resolute blink, barely shrugged his shoulders, and answered “None, as far as I know. I’m familiar with a couple that involve Crudoks, certainly, but nothing that would line up with how Asmodeus has behaved towards Leah, thus far. Going so far to provoke a confrontation?...No Crudok has had the sentience for such a scheme, before.” Robin gave a couple blinks in quick succession. Eyes shifting about, he quickly enough pondered aloud “Well, then...Well then, wait a moment. What if...”
He shook his head a little, as if he, himself, didn’t very much believe the concept. “What if, perhaps...Asmodeus had heard any old story, any random fairytale, and he assumed it was a Fae Telling? Maybe he wouldn’t realize that it’s not a Fae-oriented story, or maybe he wouldn’t realize that mortal-oriented stories aren’t exactly bound to repeat themselves-” Malchiorn’s eyes began to widen. He barely raised a hand, barely even pointed at Robin as he answered “That is an interesting suggestion. Do you have any books here on Almain fables? It’s entirely possible that Asmodeus mistook a mortal fairytale for a Fae Telling, and if that’s true, then if we find the story, we’ll find what Asmodeus is trying to accomplish.”
Robin gave a quick, hard nod, hastily pulling himself up from his chair before hurrying over to a nearby bookcase...
Niobi had barely trekked a mile away from the Grand Cathedral before vibrations began to course through the dirt, shuddering the earth beneath her feet. She paused, briefly narrowing her eyes. Considering she had already been travelling cross-country, she wasn’t particularly worried about being discovered - that wasn’t the concern, here. The real trouble was, she was more than familiar with the distant rumbling of a moving army, and after what Astraia had told her of Asmodeus and his Brownie horde, she was more than a little wary of what could be coming.
She took off like the wind, silent as a shadow under the moonlight, one hand never straying far from the blades sheathed at the small of her back. It took a minute, but slowly, new sounds reached her ears: growling, gnashing, an almost child-like cackling. Nearing a wide road, Niobi found a suitably large tree and gracefully climbed from branch to branch until she could bear a clear view down the dirt path. She pulled a small, cylindrical spyglass from inside her robe, held it to her eye, and peered into the distance, trying to make out what she saw under the starlight. Sure enough, a great mass of writhing shadow was steadily marching up the road towards the Grand Cathedral, dotted with innumerable pairs of glowing yellow eyes.
Moving at the front of the horde, floating above the rest, were a pair of purple lights. Niobi leapt from the tree, hit the dirt in a roll, and sprinted as fast as she could, making for the cathedral with all haste...
Robin’s brow continued to furrow deeper and deeper until, at last, he snapped “I’ve got it!” Malchiorn hurried to the seated man’s side, but already, Robin was reciting the text, nodding with a growing smile. “Under the Mask, written some three hundred years ago by an unknown writer. It’s about a Crudok with a, uh, a horde of Brownies, who...Comes and terrorizes a small Almain village, provoking a young boy into confronting the monster...” Malchiorn’s brow furrowed. Eyeing the illustration opposite the first page of text, he muttered “So far, so good. A strong parallel.”
His eyes drifted across the image. A Crudok was depicted sitting cross-legged, hands folded over it’s knees, mandible mask shut. Just across from it, wildly dwarfed by the Fae creature’s size, a young boy sat cross-legged, arms out as he spoke, as if he were gesturing something for demonstration. Robin flipped to the next page, eyes shifting across the words, mouth shifting in kind as he mumbled “Here it says that the boy was the only one in the village brave enough to actually approach the Crudok...When he did, he tried telling the Crudok that it couldn’t simply harass them or attack their homes...That it couldn’t kill them or attack their livestock, and...Then he asked why the Crudok was doing what it was doing.”
Malchiorn raised an eyebrow. Robin flipped the page, and opposite this new text, there was an illustration of a Crudok’s mandible mask parting halfway, exposing the glowing eyes and wide, toothy grin underneath, the more humanoid face hidden under the shield. Robin read and re-read the passages, eyes briefly narrowing in curiosity as he mumbled “Because...It says, “Because...I’ve travelled far and wide, searched through the dark, through the light, for a way to return home...Now I carry the dark within me, and can no longer touch the light. I am trapped. If I cannot have my home, then neither can you.”
Malchiorn’s brow furrowed, eyes briefly narrowing. Robin turned the page again, briefly raising his chin as he read “Run along, boy. Scream through hill and dale...For having the bravery to face me, I’ll allow you to flee. You’ll get to see the sunrise, a few more times. Only, never forget...Nothing, neither mortal nor Fae, may escape Fate. One day, I’ll find you, again. However, if you think yourself brave enough to go further and fight me here and now, if you think you can defend your home from me...Then we’ll see whose Weave unravels: your’s, or mine.”
Malchiorn’s eyes began to widen. Slowly, he muttered “...That’s disturbingly close to what Leah says Asmodeus told her.” Robin turned the page. Now, the illustration depicted the young boy standing before the Crudok, the size difference between them depicted as a pebble before a mountain. The boy, back turned to the reader, held up a kitchen knife in one hand, a pot lid in the other for a shield, all while the Crudok loomed over him, mask parted to expose the devilish grin underneath. Robin’s pace slowed as his eyes followed the words. Eventually, in a mumble, he remarked “It says the Crudok fought fairly, barely struggled, and that the boy...Too small of a target for the Crudok...Eventually landed a single strike, and it killed the beast.”
Malchiorn’s eyes lifted. Why was the floor beginning to rumble?
Robin raised an eyebrow, turned the page, and mumbled “When the Crudok died, the Chaos that had infested it was set free, purifying the Crudok, allowing it to pass on to the Fae afterlife, a realm of pure magic...And the boy who had so heroically stood up to the bully was hailed as a saviour by the rest of the village, forever marked by Order for delivering his people. The intended meaning behind the fable is: “Running from your trials fails to resolve them, and will only lead to more hardship down the road. It is better to face them head-on as soon as possible, even in the face of impossible odds...”
Malchiorn looked over his shoulder, eyes alert as he paced off to the window. Robin looked up from his book of fairytales, looking a hint perplexed as his eyes followed the Fae. Slowly, almost under his breath, he remarked “...This would suggest...This would almost seem to suggest Asmodeus wants to die. He wants Leah to stand up to him, to beat him in a fight.” Malchiorn’s jaw tightened as he stared out through the window. He could feel it: Asmodeus was coming, and he wasn’t coming alone, this time. Hastily, he answered “Looks like we’re bound to find out, friend. Go and rouse your guests. Asmodeus is clearly hoping a little more pressure might make a hero out of Leah.”
Robin raised his eyebrows, but when he finally noticed the rumbling in the ground, he bolted out of his chair for a second time...
Kelly grinned, bit her lip, and gave a hungry chuckle, looking down at Leah with a needy gleam in her eyes. Leah, red-faced but smiling, gently pressed her oiled bust close together, faint wet sounds filling the air between their bodies as she rocked her globes up and down. She looked down, offering an exhilarated little titter. The contrast Kelly’s tanned skin made against her pale bust was mesmerizing, and just the way her skin shifted, her polished helmet gleamed, as her bosom slid back and forth...Mm. Leah looked back up, raised an eyebrow, and was practically grinning as she admitted “You look so good, like this...I never thought I’d get to do this, it’s actually kinda fun. It’s turning me on like crazy!”
Kelly’s grin relaxed to a smile. She opened her mouth to answer, but she could barely get out a few syllables before scrambling footsteps were abruptly filling the hallway outside. Kelly and Leah both lost their smiles in curiosity, and as Leah stopped her motions, Kelly looked back over her shoulder. After a few hard knocks at one of the other doors in the hallway, one of the Clementines called out “Everyone, wake up! Asmodeus is coming back! He has his Brownies with him!” Leah and Kelly promptly looked at each other, faces turning ashen. Without hesitation, Kelly pulled away from her Almain lover, rushing over for her clothing. Leah jumped up from the bed and did the same.
Frank frantically knocked at Farrah’s door, desperate to alert her without actually opening the unlocked chamber. After several moments, he jumped across the hall and did the same for Astraia’s door, then bolted further down and furiously rapped his knuckles against Miriam’s own. Before he had even moved on to Leah’s door, he was loudly calling “Everyone, please! We, we have a problem! We-!” He trailed off, panting and nearly sweating, as a door opened behind him. He turned around to find Astraia stepping out through her doorway, having hastily pulled on her clothing, already bearing her chakrams in either hand. When Frank saw her, the skittish man rushed back up the hall towards her, hurriedly explaining “Please, miss Astraia, gather everyone up! W-We need to evacuate, Asmodeus is coming back! He has his Brownies!”
Astraia’s jaw tightened as she watched the little man hurry away. A moment later, Miriam’s door was opening. Out came a naked Dokkalfar, yawning and brazenly unadorned, carelessly showing off her doubled-up southern regions. Giving a stretch, she mumbled “The hell’s going on, out here?...Haww. Can’t a girl count some sheep?” Astraia barely let her eyes flicker down Miriam’s body, expression stony as she ordered “Get dressed, Miriam, we’re about to have company. Sounds like a fight.” Miriam raised her eyebrows. With a smack of her chops, she gave a smart turn on a heel and stumbled back into her room. No need to tell her twice.
Farrah opened her door a minute later, looking as prim and proper as ever even at that late hour, the absurdly busty Ljosalfar behaving well-heeled to a fault. Ivory sceptre in one hand, her beautiful armour-reinforced dress smooth across her curvy body, she delicately ran her fingers through her hair as she murmured “Did I hear correctly? Asmodeus is coming back? I thought he said he’d give Leah more time to compose herself?” Almost under her breath, Astraia muttered back “I guess he’s changed his mind. Sounds like he isn’t coming alone this time, either.” Farrah would’ve answered, but they both turned their heads and looked down the hallway when Kelly’s door opened up. Out came one tall Varani, complete with armour and pike, accompanied by one short Almain, dressed in half an outfit.
Leah barely noticed them in her hurry to cross the hall, barging back into her own room to finish dressing in the rest of her Trollhide armour. As Kelly walked up the hallway towards the two of them, tapping the end of her pike against the floor with every step, she gave the two a grim look, asking “You two ready for this? Fighting a Greater Crudok’s bound to get nasty.” Farrah gently drew in a deep breath, then offered a brave smile, uncertainly mumbling “As ready as I’ll ever be.” Astraia gave a resolute nod, answering “I’m not too proud to admit that I’m a little worried...But, this is what the goddess Ethene wanted of me. It’s an honour.”
Footsteps hurried up the hall towards the group, and as Kelly looked up, she found Robin rounding the corner, rushing towards the group with a book in hand. Raising his eyebrows, he hastily called out “Wait, wait! You may not have to fight Asmodeus, after all! I think I’ve figured out what he wants!” The three of them perked up, each giving the other quick glances as Robin came to a quick stop in front of them, panting all the while. Raising his eyebrows, he gave his book a wave, doing his best to catch his breath as he asserted “Asmodeus wants Leah to stand up to him - he’s trying to follow through on a fairytale, he thinks it’s a Fae Telling! Here, look!”
He handed Kelly the book, and the Varani was quick to skim over the words. The more she read, the more her brow furrowed. She handed the book to Farrah, who eventually passed it to Astraia. As Astraia read on, Robin, who had more thoroughly caught his breath by then, resolutely exhaled “If Leah follows the script, Asmodeus should, too...And that should include all but allowing her to kill him.” The three women gave each other grim looks. Robin’s eyes shifted as Leah’s chamber door opened again, a moment later exposing the armoured farmgirl. Kelly turned to look back over her shoulder. Leah looked over at them, obviously intrigued by the gathering. Kelly nodded her over, firmly insisting “Babe, we need to talk...”
Within five minutes, Leah was walking out into the Grand Cathedral’s lobby, positively sweating bullets. Her stomach was in such turmoil that if it weren’t for the four friends flanking her sides, she might’ve bent over and retched. This was not a good idea, but...Everything made so much more sense, now. Everything from the way Asmodeus had attacked her old home to the way he had been stalking her, the way he had berated her for not being brave enough to face him...He wanted her to stop him. All she needed to do was have the courage to convince him that she could finally play her part in this ludicrous fairytale he was fixated on, and he’d let her get him out of her life.
Of course, once Leah had stepped up to the busted doors of the cathedral and found herself facing the mass of gray Brownies beyond, what little courage she might’ve mustered just about trickled down her thighs. The little critters were practically frothing at the mouth, crawling all over each other like insects in a pit, cackling like imps in a bloodthirsty craze. As soon as Leah showed herself at the grand doorway, a great thudding resounded throughout the earth, and out came Asmodeus, slowly walking over from the right side of the doorway. As soon as Leah saw him again, she started to shrink, but when Kelly put a hand to her back, she slowly recovered.
This was it. The moment of truth.
Asmodeus’ lengthy scorpion-like tail gave a bit of a curl in the air, and the great beast uttered “How curious. You come to meet me, quivering and shaking and surrounded by allies, yet armed for battle, all the same. Very strange.” Leah’s brow furrowed, and in spite of the tremble in her lips, she opened her mouth. Still, she needed a moment to form the words. When she started, her voice was weak, small, an admittedly rather pathetic warble: “W-Why are you doing this? Just...” She gulped and caught herself. Her face slowly started to harden, turn more resolute. No, that kind of whimpering wasn’t going to sway him. She needed to be louder. Raising her voice, her tone turning considerably more steady, she demanded “Just stop it, already! Enough is enough!”
Asmodeus, the six nightmarish arms under his body plodding against the dirt with hand-like feet, came to a stop directly across from her, leaving a good twenty or so feet between them. He didn’t immediately answer, instead opting to merely stare at her. After a moment, he slowly turned his head to the side a little, giving her a bit of a cockeyed stare from underneath his smiling, wavy-ridged mandible mask. The eyes of the mask glowing purple all the while, he flatly answered “Are you finally brave enough to face me, then? I’ll admit, you’re showing promise, at the moment. You’ve found it in you to face me...Albeit with friends to protect you.”
Now, Leah’s fear was turning to desperation, indignation. The horde of Brownies quickly began to quiet down as she marched forward, separating from her friends. Miriam watched her with a surprisingly firm look on her typically vacant face, while Farrah and Astraia were both a bit surprised to see her so readily separate herself. Kelly wanted to step forward, wanted to reach out or keep by Leah’s side, but she knew that if Asmodeus’ belief in the fairytale was to be exploited, Leah needed to follow the script. She grit her teeth and hung back, hands locked on her pike in a death grip, watching for any subtle motion Asmodeus might make that would betray deception.
Far in the background, clear across the cathedral, there stood the five Clementine brothers. Malchiorn, eyes locked on his old nemesis, slowly crossed the cathedral lobby, making for the four women left behind by Leah. Standing in a tree across from the cathedral’s front, keeping a close eye on the situation from behind the Brownie horde, was Niobi. In the event of any sort of treachery on Asmodeus’ part, in the event that Leah couldn’t convince him that she were prepared to follow the fairytale, all pieces on the board were ready to engage.
Leah stared up at Asmodeus, no doubt pale to match her perspiration, but still, she found it in herself to demand “You destroyed my home, you chased me out of another one, and now you think you’re gonna wreck the cathedral, too? F-Forget it!” She threw her arms out by her sides, adding “Why are you doing this? Why have you singled me out, for so long?! Couldn’t you just leave me alone?” Asmodeus simply stared at her for what felt like a long time, but then he simply started to sit down, catching her off-guard with the fluidity of his movements. His horde having gone completely silent by then, he sat himself down until he could cross his front pair of legs, fold his hands over his knees, stare right over at her, and utter “...Because I have to.”
Leah just stood there, stock-still. With Asmodeus sitting, the two were nearly at eye-level with one another. A uncomfortably long period of silence passed by, and slowly, Asmodeus began to drop his chin, staring hard at Leah. With every second that went by, Leah found herself more and more stunned, found it more and more difficult to budge her muscles. It had been working, she had been talking him down, but now she was slipping. She just kept on staring into Asmodeus’ glowing purple eyes until, at last, something broke his gaze away from her. Asmodeus raised his eyes to peer past her head once Malchiorn reached the four women standing in the doorway, the Winter Fae taking up Leah’s old spot between Kelly and Farrah.
Asmodeus’ mandible mask barely shifted, the two halves giving a quick jitter against each other before he stated “Ah, Malchiorn. My old friend. Good to see you. Looks like we’ve come full circle, haven’t we? Reunited at the very end.” Malchiorn briefly furrowed his brow before answering “You abandoned your role in my Telling. Whatever you are, you aren’t the Asmodeus I’ve known, not anymore. I’ve tracked you across Amalur, I’ve investigated everything you’ve done...But this isn’t my fight to finish.” Asmodeus barely nodded, glowing purple eyes turning back down to Leah. “Well said,” he idly answered.
Leah swallowed. Finally, she remembered what she needed to say next. Slowly, she started to sit down across from Asmodeus, keeping one hand over the handle of her rapier all the while. Trying not to sound uncertain, she asserted “You can’t just...Raze peoples’ homes, like that. You can’t just ruin peoples’ lives. You need to stop...This has to end. Why are you doing this to me, to us?” Asmodeus’ broad chest swelled as he took in a deep breath. Slowly, quietly, almost compassionately, he answered “Because I must. When I was exposed to the red Prismere carried by the Tuatha, I was severed from the Tapestry of Fate. I was woken up to who and what I was, as well as to the emptiness of an endless cycle, the futility of being a bit player in someone else’s story.”
Asmodeus briefly held out his arms by his sides. Leah’s blood ran cold as the mask over Asmodeus’ face cracked down the middle, splitting just a couple inches, just wide enough for her to see the skin beneath, the Cheshire grin. A bit more quickly now, he explained “As my comprehension grew, so too did my hopelessness with the world’s state. Gadflow and his new god had permanently upset the balance of the Fae, dooming us all to extinction. Any who perished were no longer reborn...Or were corrupted. I sought a new Telling, and it didn’t take me long to find one...A simple tale, a story of an incomprehensible monster faced down by a hopelessly overwhelmed boy, who sacrificed itself to make a hero out of a child and send itself somewhere better.”
Leah’s jaw tightened. Asmodeus dropped his hands back down to his knees. He dropped his chin for a few moments, then muttered “...I’ve travelled far and wide across Amalur, searched through the dark, the light, for a proper way to return home, now that Gadflow’s god tainted the way to Esharra. In the process, I only wound up tainting myself, even more thoroughly. I tried to help this world, to dispel Chaos wherever I found it, but I only wound up soaking it into my own body, as well as dooming my soldiers to the same fate. We’re all linked, now...And, I can never return home until the dark has been purged.”
Asmodeus parted his mask wider and wider, pulling it back. Leah began to quake. Asmodeus’ face was disturbingly human-like, with unsettlingly mortal features. His skin was smooth and bloodless, and not only did he lack eyebrows, but his eyes were solid orbs of purple light, emitting beacons of luminescence. His nose was flat and vaguely serpentine, while his mouth were split into a wide crescent, permanently affixed into a giant grin, filled from corner to corner with short, needle-like teeth. In spite of the big, taunting grin he was locked into, his tone was cool, flat, as he added “I tried to purify myself. I mastered Primal magic in the hopes that it could make me susceptible to an Erathi ritual, but it wasn’t enough. Maybe I failed...Maybe the ritual was never meant to account for a Crudok. I can’t say.”
“Now, I’m running out of time. I can’t contain the Chaos inside me for much longer. As it is, my soldiers are...Changing. Devolving.” His eyes started to narrow. “...If I cannot have my home, then neither can you.” Leah wanted to flinch, wanted to move. Her body was locked up, yet again. She tried to open her mouth to speak, but Asmodeus cut her off. He started to stand back up, coldly muttering “You’re terrified of me. For having the bravery to face me, however, I’ll allow you to flee. You’ll get to see the sunrise, a few more times. Only, never forget...Nothing, neither mortal nor Fae, may escape Fate.”
Asmodeus closed his mask with a snap. “One day, I’ll find you, again. However, if you think yourself brave enough to go further and fight me here and now, if you think you can defend your friends from me...Then we’ll see whose Weave unravels: your’s, or mine.”
Leah’s eyes shifted to the Brownies behind Asmodeus. Some of them were beginning to twitch, blood pooling into their glowing eyes. She looked back up at the Crudok, rising to her feet in kind, hand going for her rapier. What in Mitharu’s name was she doing? Would this really work? She assumed her combat stance as she drew her blade, just like Kelly taught her, and raised her voice as best she could, barking “Forget it! We’ll settle this here and now, just you and me!” Asmodeus pulled his mask back open. As he looked down his nose at her, she swore she could see his permanent grin stretch wider.
Asmodeus abruptly threw his arms out by his sides, rearing his tail up higher to better showcase his spear-like stinger. In an instant, Niobi, Malchiorn, and all four of Leah’s friends went for their weapons, readying themselves to intervene before Asmodeus dramatically shouted “Well, here I am, then! Face me, little boy! You have heart and I commend you for it, but heart won’t be enough to stop me! Do you really think someone like you - weak, puny, fragile mortal - has any sort of chance of stopping me? Here stands your behemoth, your life-long tormentor; do you flee, or do you fight?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Leah ferociously shouted back, curling her lip up even as terrified tears dewed in her eyes.
Her response only seemed to surprise Asmodeus. He grinned even wider before muttering “...At long last, you’re man enough. Your parents would be proud of you.”
“Don’t you dare talk about my parents,” Leah snapped, moisture trickling down her cheeks.
Asmodeus loosely crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll fight you fairly,” he asserted. “Strike for strike. Aim true, boy. Fashion yourself into a hero in the eyes of your gods.”
Everyone watched, stared, silent, tense.
Leah flinched, barely taking a step forward. Then, she was grabbing her rapier with both hands, recklessly charging forward, making not a sound. Asmodeus flung his tail over across the top of his body, snapping the end down past his head. Leah’s face twisted up, an agonized cry filling the air, as the stinger punched into her off-hand shoulder, all but instantly disabling her weaker side. Asmodeus could’ve struck her sword side, he could’ve even struck her head...But, he had intentionally aimed elsewhere.
Leah thought the long, thick barb puncturing her flesh was pain enough. When the venom flooded into Leah, however...That was when the true pain began. The toxins burned with a searing intensity, boiling her flesh and blood as if she were being immolated, almost perceptibly following her veins deeper on throughout her body. Once it reached her heart...Out of sheer, animal desperation, Leah kept her aim true, even though she had to let her off-hand fall from the rapier’s grip. Asmodeus barely even flinched when Leah traded blow for blow, pierce for pierce, exactly as they had agreed upon.
He made no attempt to dodge, to parry, to avoid the blow or redirect it somewhere less vital. Arms up by his sides, as if to welcome the attack, he simply stood there and held his breath when Leah plunged her rapier into the center of his chest, sliding the metal in nearly halfway in a single strike. She gave a weak grunt at the recoil, at the way her fist slid across the grip and hit the guard. Leah tried to pull her weapon free, but she was already feeling weaker and weaker. Within seconds, the fingers she had kept looped around the rapier’s grip were numbing, going limp. She couldn’t pull the weapon back out...And now, she stood directly before Asmodeus, helpless.
She looked up, tears streaking her paling face, eyes wide and desperate, filled with hope that her blow had managed to even so much as daze the great beast. Asmodeus had kept his mask open, all the while. After a couple moments of holding his breath, he gave a short sigh, then drew in an equally clipped breath. His eyelids flickered for a moment before, in a bit of a wheezing exhale, he mumbled “...Finally...I can go home...” Leah’s eyes widened in surprise. She could only let her numb hand slip from the rapier’s grip as Asmodeus started to collapse. He dropped to his knees before his more humanoid torso simply began to tilt back, arms hanging limp at his sides, the rapier embedded in his chest almost displayed to the heavens. One last sigh drifted from Asmodeus before the purple glow in his eyes simply vanished, leaving behind milky white eyeballs.
Just like that, he was gone.
Slowly, the dozens of Brownies that had lined the forest across from the cathedral began to collapse like Asmodeus had, dropping to their knees before thudding to the dirt, their eyes similarly dying to a milky white. Everyone watched, wide-eyed, stunned. Was it over? Was it that simple? Were they all really dying, just like that? Kelly kept watching Leah, unsure of what to do until Leah, too, began to drop to her knees. Blood ran down her white surcoat, flowing in wide rivulets from her shoulder, complete with excess venom that seeped across the Trollhide, corroding it like acid.
Kelly’s eyes widened. She took off in a run, calling “Leah! Somebody, get some antivenom!”
Leah couldn’t stop crying, nor could she hold back the delirious laughter, any longer. He was finally dead...She was finally free. This hadn’t been the heroic ending to their struggle that Asmodeus had wanted - she was no hero. She had manipulated his delusions, nothing more. And yet...At last, finally, she was free. The murder of her parents, of everyone she had known as a child, had been avenged. Free.
...One month later...
A chocolate-toned arm came up, rapping knuckles against the wooden door. Kelly smiled excitedly to herself, trying not to grin. What a surprise they’d be in for, she thought. Still, she was really only a tag-along for this plan.
When the door opened up, there stood Daniel Bruin, Leah’s adoptive father, quickly joined by Madeleine, Leah’s adoptive mother, stepping over from the living room. Annabelle leaned out from inside the living room, peering over with curiosity, looking no worse for wear after the sickness Leah had had to fetch medicine for. When the three of them saw Kelly standing there, dressed to the nines in the off-duty uniform of a Warsworn officer, their eyes widened...But they went wider still when they witnessed the curvy young woman standing by her side.
Although she had been tempted to have a little fun with her uniform, Kelly had nonetheless respected it, refraining from even so much as leaving some buttons undone to show off some deep, mocha cleavage. She had to admit, standing around in her dress uniform with her hair up in a bun was a bit more butch than she was used to looking - she was most comfortable in loose, flowing clothing, hence her penchant for short skirts - but she had wanted to make a good first impression, so she had skipped out on the more revealing stuff in favour of something more conservative.
The top-heavy woman at her side had been a little more at-ease with her own garb. A gift from Farrah, she wore a short dress combined with a corset vest, coloured green and black, respectively. The snug top of the dress, like a corset with shoulder straps, was laced up fairly loosely, as was to be expected thanks to her cup size. By the time the Clementines had been able to purify the Chaos from her body and nullify the magic in her nipple rings, her cup size had expanded well into the double digits, leaving her with a goodly bosom that stretched taut the thin white material of her undershirt. Finally, she had the top to match her bottom, and all without the existential guilt that the Chaos had brought on.
The dress reached down to just above her knees, but with the black sequins and high heels the woman wore, not an inch of bare skin were visible. Her strawberry red hair pulled back into a ponytail, she gave a big, excited smile so wide, her eyes partly closed. The multiple bracelets at her wrists jingled and jangled as she joined her hands over her thighs. Starting to grin, utterly terrified and excited in equal measure, she tried to sound as casual as she could as she murmured “Mom, dad...It’s been a while. I’m, uh...” She raised her eyebrows. A glisten began to well up in her eyes. She gave a bit of a huff as she mumbled “...I’m back! Eh heh...”
Daniel raised his eyebrows, looking his son up and down. Madeleine went even more wide-eyed. When her eyes locked on Leah’s chest, there was no mistaking it - Madeleine made no attempt to hide what she was doing, much to Kelly’s inward amusement. Annabelle narrowed an eye, widened the other, and loudly blurted out “Leah?” Leah smiled from ear to ear, looked over at her baby sister, and nodded. “It’s me,” she reassured. “I, uh, I thought I’d come back and visit, now that everything’s quieted back down,” she added. Daniel and Madeleine both kept staring, openly stunned by Leah’s unbelievable transformation. Like most of the family, they had always fought against Leah’s girliness, but now, their feminine son had gone so much further than any of them could’ve ever possibly expected.
For crying out loud, Leah was essentially their daughter, now! He was more top-heavy than his own mother, for Mitharu’s sake! That mattered little to Annabelle, who simply started to smile as she broke out into a little run, rushing over past her mother’s side. Leah closed her eyes and chuckled as she and Annabelle threw their arms around each other, the younger Bruin blurting out “Where in Mitharu’s name have you been, Leah? It’s been almost two months! What the heck happened to you?!” Leah gave another chuckle, groaning out “Ohh, where do I even start? It’s been a hell of a trip, trust me.”
As they released each other, Kelly respectfully kept her silence, holding her hands together behind herself. Annabelle smiled from ear to ear, briefly held Leah’s shoulders as they unhanded each other, and earnestly asked “Are you coming back home for good?” Leah gave a bit of an awkward smile, tossing a glance at their parents. To her credit, she maintained a pretty casual voice, classily answering “Ah, well, that’s the thing. I wanted to introduce somebody.” Annabelle tossed a glance at Kelly, as did Daniel and Madeleine. Leah smiled, briefly gestured over at Kelly with a glance, and said “This is Kelly, she helped me deal with a lot of problems over the last few weeks. I can finally tell you all about them, now that it’s over. She’s enlisting with the Warsworn, again, and...”
Leah raised her eyebrows and clicked her tongue. Quickly beginning to sound a little awkward, she tried not to mumble as she went ahead and admitted “And, uh, well...She, uh...She’s my boyfriend. We’re going to be moving into a house in Gorhart, next week. I can’t very well come back home if I’m living together with someone, can I?” It was plain to see on everyone’s faces that when Leah said “boyfriend,” the three of them had shock enough for the whole family. Kelly, considerably more confident than Leah, was certainly much more casual as she uncrossed her arms from behind herself. Smiling wide, she offered Daniel her hand, saying “It’s good to finally meet you, mister Bruin. Leah’s told me a lot about you all, it’s great to finally put a face to the name.”
Daniel gave a couple blinks, but readily reached out to shake Kelly’s hand. Perhaps, Kelly thought, her confidence even in the face of Leah’s nervousness was enough to impress the man. After their lengthy silence, one of the two parents finally spoke up. Daniel, eyeing Kelly’s uniform, at last answered “...Yeah, good to meet you. I think Eli mentioned seeing Leah with a Varani, when he went looking for him.” With that, Madeleine broke down. Smiling, tears welling up in her eyes, she hurried between the handshake, blurting out “Oh, just come here, you had me worried half to death!”
Leah gave a self-conscious chuckle, but happily embraced Madeleine once her mother had grabbed her in a bit of a bear hug. As they released each other, Daniel raised an eyebrow, slowly rumbling “Ehh...We just finished up with lunch, but there was leftovers. Come on inside, we’ll put something together for you two.” Kelly smiled, graciously answering “That’d be very kind of you, mister Bruin, thank you.” Leah grinned, resisting the urge to tease her own mother as she sniffled, trying to blink back the tears. Still, Leah couldn’t help but wryly remark “Something to chow on while we chat might be for the best. I get the feeling we’re gonna be talking, for a while.”
Daniel gave a bit a begrudging hum. His severe eyes found her’s as, his beard barely twitching, he grumbled “Hrh...Maybe not as much as you think. You’ll always be my son, boy. I didn’t spend all this time raising you for nothing, you know.” Leah smiled from ear to ear, briefly dropping her head. When she raised her head again, eyes glistening, she tried to keep her voice from tensing up as she answered “That means a lot more to me than you know, you know.”
One by one, the five of them walked inside, and the farm door shut behind them. Home sweet home.

(Author's Note - Oh my God...Has it really been four months since the last chapter? D: I’m so sorry, guys...This ending’s a bit rushed, so I suppose it doesn’t really make up for the wait, but I hope it’s at least a somewhat satisfactory way to finish the story. I’m a little sleep-deprived at the moment, so I don’t have much to say, other than...Well...On one hand, I’m not super happy with how the story turned out, but on the other hand, it had fun parts. ^_^
Anyway, if you’d like to try something else from my gallery, feel free to take a look! I have plenty of other stories, and one of them just might sound like fun, to you. :D As well, if you’re interested in keeping up to date with chapter releases, chapter delays, new story announcements, and other relevant stuff, feel free to follow my writing thread on the Hentai Foundry forums, or even my Tumblr! And hey, feel free to let me know what you thought of Mask’s ending! ^_^ I’ll see you in the next one, guys. :) )
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The Mask Comes Off