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Luka's Story 3-Traipsing around the Multiverse	By : Ditmag Category: +M through R > Monster Girl Quest Views: 1078 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Monster Girl Quest is owned by Tortorro. I do not profit from this work.

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Given that there had been no transition the last time Alipheese had moved me from one world to another, I expected the same. It was not the same. Instead of immediately transitioning, I felt myself fading away. This had been a familiar feeling from long ago. I had faded away slowly when Ilias was dying and I was returning to my home universe. The nature of the spell Alipheese cast must have been similar. My stay on each world until I reached the one I wanted would be temporary. I decided that it was probably for the better that I get a few seconds of warning before moving on.
A room came into focus. I was surprised, since I’d been taught that teleportation indoors was dangerous. I had to just trust that the nature of Alipheese’s spell was different. She’d said that it would lead me where my heart wanted to go. So maybe whatever made teleportation dangerous under certain circumstances didn’t apply to this one.
As the room came into focus, I realized that it wasn’t a room. It was a hallway. A very long hallway. It looked very familiar. With a start I realized where I was. Alice’s castle! Was I already home? Had the spell been more effective than Alipheese expected? She said that I would know when I was in the right place. I didn’t have any unusual feeling. I decided not to worry about it. Even if I was too dense to notice I was in the right place, there would be no more transitions once I reached my Alice, due to my bond to her that tied me to her world. I decided to just not worry about it. Then I started to worry, anyway. If this was the Monster Lord’s castle, and it wasn’t occupied by my Alice, I was probably in a heap of trouble! Humans entering the Monster Lord’s castle uninvited were attacked by extremely powerful monsters! I could be dead meat on my first jump!
I looked around, but saw no one. There seemed to be some kind of activity in one direction, so I decided to go in the opposite direction, where I heard no sound. I walked down the long hallway. As I approached an entrance, I realized exactly where I was. This was the hallway to the throne room! I was in serious trouble. In one direction was possibly the Monster Lord herself, in the other direction, noises that probably belonged to extremely dangerous monsters. I decided to take my chances with the Monster Lord. I was also driven by the thought that it might be a counterpart of Alice. I was confident that no matter what the background of this alternative Alice, that I could talk her into not killing me. I believed, had to believe, that at a person’s core, he or she was the same across all universes.
As I approached the throne room, I saw movement inside. Before I could get a closer look, I ran smack into an invisible wall and fell down on my now somewhat plump behind. Force field, I thought. Alice had put one of these around the throne room when….
I quickly rose and got as close as I could to peer inside the throne room. An intense battle was taking place. I identified Alice immediately. She was bleeding from multiple wounds and throwing pure magical fury of every type she knew how to throw at her assailant. The man attacking her barely even looked like a man. He had purple hair and appeared to be no taller than five and a half feet. He was moving so fast I could only see him when he briefly stopped to get his bearings and renew his attack. I tried to pass through the barrier to come to her aid. But this was no mere force barrier. In my own version of this world, she had cast a barrier that was inaccessible even to a god, at least in theory. Well, I was more than a god in at least one way. I prepared to blast down the protective barrier. That’s when I saw the boy’s face.
No, he didn’t look anything like me. That wasn’t what was so familiar. Something about the boy’s eyes. There was pain there. Pain I could relate to, because I had been in his position. He clearly didn’t want to be doing this, but was compelled. I noticed that Alice’s attacks were as unimaginative as they had been when she had forced me to fight her. They didn’t lack for ferocity. She was holding nothing back in that regard. But with this little young man so obviously filled with the power of the spirits, she had little chance of defeating him using such simple tactics unless she got very lucky or he got very careless. He dodged nearly every bolt of energy she fired at him. When she attempted wider area affect spells, he took damage, but only enough to egg him on. It became clear what I was looking at. My heart had taken me to the most awful moment of my life. Now I had to watch it all over again.
I heard shuffling behind me. I ignored that danger, so fixated was I on the battle. When Alice finally fell, my heart broke all over again. The boy looked just as heartbroken, standing over her and panting. There was no sound. I couldn’t hear a word they were saying to each other, but I had a pretty good idea. Alice was urging him to finish her. He just stood there. His face was etched in pain, more emotional than physical. I held my breath. My brain told me he couldn’t possibly do it. My heart pounded, fearing he would.
He slowly raised his iron sword above his head. Alice nodded and smiled at him weakly. He didn’t want to do it. I could tell that this was killing him. Then I screamed, as his sword descended and finished her off. She said one more thing to him and died. I fell to my knees in despair. The boy just stood over her dumbly, now emotionally dead, not fully able to comprehend what he had done. He looked younger than me. Maybe in the end he had simply trusted her so much that he would even do that for her. I decided not to judge him. He had only done as she asked. He would live with that pain for the rest of his life.
What happens next? I thought. Since he did what he was supposed to do, did that mean Ilias wouldn’t wage war? She hadn’t been entirely clear on that with me, but she had inferred that if I had done as she ordered, that she would have given humanity another chance.
At that moment, Ilias descended into the room. She and the boy exchanged some more words that I couldn’t hear. She directed him to a treasure chest in the corner of the throne room. I remembered that Alice had kept such a thing in her throne room in our world. I never did find out what was in there. I never dared open it, as it was not my business and could possibly just be a pet mimic.
The boy opened the chest. He reached in and pulled out a ribbon. I remembered that ribbon. I’d bought it for her on our journey. It was the only non-food item she had ever asked me for. She proudly wore it on her tail for the remainder of her journey. I hadn’t even noticed that she never wore it again after that. Had she placed it in that chest before our battle? Had it remained there for the next year?
The boy stared at the ribbon. I didn’t know how he could keep his composure looking at that, assuming that like me, he’d bought it for her on a journey of his own. Was this boy a variant of me? I expected him to break down, but he simply stared at it, uncomprehending. Ilias said something else to him, then grabbed him and flew up through the sun roof. The barrier remained in place, at least in this hallway. I heard no commotion elsewhere in the castle. An attack didn’t seem to be imminent. For now, whatever was going on here was over.
I turned and came face to face with Tamamo. She was in bad shape. That must have been the shuffling sound I’d heard. She was barely standing. She started to fall down and I caught her. She roughly pushed me off.
“Who are you?” she asked, clearly trying to sound authoritative and failing due to her condition. “How did you get in here?”
“I…” I didn’t know how to answer that. When in doubt, I went with the truth, as was my norm. “I’m Luka. You don’t know me, but….”
“Luka is in there!” she cried. “You’re not Luka!”
He was a variant of me. It was all too much. Tamamo could see that I too was distraught and only growing moreso. She put aside her questions about my identity.
“She’s not….? What’s going on in there?”
She pushed me aside and peered into the throne room, apparently able to sense the barrier and not run into it. She gasped and fell to her knees. I bent down to comfort her.
“It happened again!” she wailed. “I failed again! Why did she do that?! It wasn’t her fault!”
“I know, Tamamo,” I said. “the guilt was just too much for her. She honestly thought it was the only way. I saw his face. He didn’t want to do it. He trusted her.”
“Who are you?” she asked me again. “You’re a human! How could you know these things?”
“It’s very hard to explain,” I said. “But I’m a friend. I loved her very much, Tamamo, and I love you very much. That was the most painful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. All we can do now is make Alice’s dream a reality.”
“Where’s Luka?” she said, peering in and not finding him.
“Ilias took him,” I said. “She brought him straight to heaven. I hope he finds happiness there. I fear he won’t.”
Invoking Ilias seemed to harden her. She stood up to the best of her ability and faced me with as much determination as she could muster.
“I believe you when you say you’re a friend,” she said. “I don’t know who you are or how you got in here, but somehow I trust you. At least enough to not attack you for invading my home.”
“I didn’t really invade it,” I said. “I just sorta…. Got dropped in here. Again, it’s hard to explain.”
“If you behave yourself, you can explain it to me at length in a guest room,” she said, wiping away a tear. “If you don’t, you can explain it to me in the dungeon.”
“Fair enough.”
The other three Heavenly Knights entered the hallway. When they sighted me they began advancing on me. Granberia’s eyes were fearsome. I’d missed her so much, and yet I nearly wet my pants when I saw that look. I had no sword. Tamamo got between the other three and me. She began to talk them down. I couldn’t hear what she was saying. Why couldn’t I hear? I noticed that my body was becoming transparent. I saw the three Heavenly Knights facing in my direction react with surprise. Then I was gone.

The world slowly came back into focus. I was outside, in a village. The village was familiar, as the castle had been. This was Ilias Village! It made sense that my heart would bring me to my adopted hometown. For the moment, however, I was still overcome. I simply fell down into the grass and cried.
“What’s the matter, stranger?” a voice said. I looked up into the kind face of Hans.
“It’s tough to explain,” I said, standing up and shaking his hand. I imagined I’d be using that phrase a lot. Possibly for the rest of my life.
“Well, whatever’s wrong, it’s nothing that a nice slice of my wife’s blueberry pie won’t fix,” Hans said amiably. “Come on, let’s go eat and you can tell me all about it.”
I realized it was going to be quite annoying not knowing how long I had in any given world. I could disappear in the middle of a bit of pie, or even before I reached the promised pie! It turned out that I was to remain a bit longer. I shared some relaxing conversation with my old neighbors. When I told them my name, Hans looked delighted.
“My neighbor’s name is Luka!” he said. “If you’re in town awhile, you should go visit his inn. He cooks even better than my wife does!’
His wife gave him a dirty look. Good ol’ Hans. He’d never hesitated to say the same thing in my version of this world. His mention of a Luka living here who was a great cook perked my interest. I decided to go check it out. I knocked on the door of the inn and a young man who looked just like the young man I had seen in the throne room a universe away answered.
I reminded myself that this wasn’t that Luka. For all I knew, this Luka would never go on a journey with Alice. Besides, he had an inn! I hadn’t owned an inn. He would never leave such a nice business, would he?
“You must be Luka,” I said. “My name is Luka, too. Hans said I should meet you.”
“Oh, that’s great!” Luka exclaimed. “Come on in!”
I followed him into the inn. It was deserted. Given his reputation as a cook, that surprised me.
“No business today?” I asked.
“Oh, this inn isn’t really open,” he replied. “I mainly just use it as my home. I cook for neighbors and visitors, give a bed to visiting relatives of people who live in the village. Tourists I usually charge a nominal amount to, just to keep the place up. If they can’t pay I let them work off the stay.”
“Oh, so it’s not really a business for you,” I observed. “It’s nice, though. Wish I had one of these.”
“I’m going on a journey, so if you want to rent It from me, that would be great,” Luka replied. “it would save my neighbors the trouble of keeping it up while I’m gone. I’d charge you almost nothing as long as you promised to spare them that work.”
“You’re going on a journey?” I asked, dread creeping into my voice. I desperately didn’t want his story to end the way the story of the last Luka I had witnessed ended.
“Yeah, I’m going to be a hero!” he said proudly. “Then I’m going to see the world and do heroic things!”
“A hero?” I asked. “Do you follow Ilias?”
“Of course!” he replied. “Oh, you’re from out of town. They aren’t as religious where you come from?”
“Um… no,” I said, then told my first lie of what would be many on my journey across the multiverse. “I’m from Grand Noah. Monsters and humans get along really well there.”
He stared at me in surprise, but quickly recovered. “You know, I didn’t want to say this to anyone, because people might judge me, but even though I’m becoming a hero I really want to see monsters and humans get along.”
“I do too,” I said. “We have a lot in common.”
“We sure do! You telling me it’s possible gives me a lot of hope! Hey, so did you want something to eat?”
“Oh, no, that’s okay,” I said. “Hans and his wife fed me so much pie that I’m stuffed. I think I’ll be going. Can I give you one piece of advice for your journey?”
“You must be an experienced traveler, coming all the way from Grand Noah,” Luka said. “So yeah, any advice you can give me would be great!”
“If you… acquire a companion on your journey…. “
“Uh huh?” he prodded.
I didn’t know what to say. I’d thought of warning him on a whim, desperate to avoid another repeat of the horrible tragedy I’d just seen. But the words failed me. What was I to tell him? Don’t kill her? That would sound weird. Go into great detail? I wasn’t sure how to proceed. He continued to look at me, wondering if I’d lost my train of thought.
“Luka,” I said. “don’t ever forget that nothing is more important than the ones we love. At some point you’ll probably be forced to make a very difficult choice. Someone you care deeply about is going to tell you that you have to sacrifice to achieve your goal. But that sacrifice should never be the people you love. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Not at all,” he replied. “Are you okay, mister? Do you want to talk about it?”
I wondered if maybe I should. If this Luka was like me at his core, just a little different because he’d grown up here instead of being from another world, he should have my open mindedness. Maybe I could talk him into things. But my time was up. Shouts of alarm spread through the village. I knew what that was. A monster had been sighted. It was almost certainly a slime girl. Luka’s journey had already begun. He just didn’t know it yet. It would take him places he never imagined he would go. I just hoped that he would make the right decisions. I considered following him as he excused himself and ran out the door. Then I decided against it. A third wheel on his journey, even assuming I’d be here long enough, was a bad idea. The person I had become had been forged by my time alone with Alice. Two Lukas were a crowd. I would just have to hope that it would all work out. Maybe my cryptic advice would make the difference.
I never knew how Alice had gotten into the village undetected. When Luka returned from his adventure in the forest a couple of hours later, he was alone. I remembered that Alice had beaten me to my place. I hadn’t seen her enter Luka’s inn. She must have been invisible when she’d done it. I stealthily peeked through a window. She was there, talking with the boy. I shouldn’t have done that. She looked up sharply and stared me right in the eye. Her eyes flashed at me. I zonked. When I came to, I was no longer even in the same universe. I’d jumped just as she’d flashed me.

The next few jumps ranged from ten minutes to ten days. I was relieved to see that not all of them would be emotionally harrowing. If anything, I was often arriving late, if that makes sense. In one, I ended up in Grand Noah, perhaps because I’d talked about it and thought about it? Anyway, the Queen’s Cup Tournament had ended two days before. Luka had won, defeating Kyuba. I didn’t want to hear the details, as that was another painful memory that I was grateful I had been spared. I heard them anyway, and to my pleasant surprise, my counterpart hadn’t been treated very roughly. There had been no torture, no attempts to make Luka do violence to Alma Elma. She had gone straight to trying to get him to use his wind power better and then gave him the win when neither could hit the other. When the differences weren’t awful, it was actually kind of fascinating. I wondered how not being tortured would change Luka’s outlook. It had been a pivotal moment on my own version of that journey. It had changed both Alma Elma’s and Alice’s view of me. It was soon after that Alice became very possessive. Would that not be the case with this Luka? Maybe that wasn’t good. Maybe that’s why Luka had killed Alice in my first jump. They hadn’t grown close enough for him to fall in love.
I put the thoughts out of my mind. I was going to see more of these worlds than I could stand in a lifetime. I’d best just enjoy myself since Grand Noah had been my favorite place on our journey. Even without Alice, it would be fun to see the old sites. Maybe I’d even take in a play if I was here long enough.
As luck would have it, I was present long enough to fade away just as the play was reaching its climax. I found myself back in Ilias Village. I was late here as well. Luka had left yesterday. I hung out, enjoying the company of old friends who didn’t know they were old friends, before a few hours later, moving on yet again.
It would turn out that the vast majority of my jumps would be uneventful. I’d usually end up at a sentimental place, a nonthreatening place, as if my heart was seeking comfortable familiarity. Yamatai Village, before Luka and Alice arrived. I spotted Tamamo just walking around and said hello to her. She smiled and said hello back. I was just another stranger in town, not alarming but also not important.
Sometimes I’d even end up in the wilderness. These moments were a little more tense. I was still unarmed. My only defense was my power, which I didn’t want to use, and my feet, which I’d been unable to use in practice very often due to most monsters being faster than I had thought. I still had my grappling skills, but as weak as I still was to pleasure attacks, that would just be feeding myself to most monsters. So I would move around cautiously, not heading in any direction in particular, watching for predators. I’d sleep without a campfire to avoid letting anyone know I was in the area, but knowing that my smell could attract a monster just as easily. I wasn’t use to being so afraid of monsters. Even on my original journey, I’d been too dumb to be afraid at first. Now I lay in my sleeping bag, jumping at every sound in the woods. But my luck held. I was not attacked, at least not on my first few jumps.
The most interesting jump was one of these wilderness jumps. It was night, and I wasn’t tired because I’d just woken up. That reminded me to be prepared for possible jumps in my sleep. I could very easily fall asleep in a sleeping bag in the woods and then wake up in that same sleeping bag in the Monster Lord’s throne room. That would be… awkward.
This time I was awake, and so I wandered slowly through the forest. I came across something extraordinary. A variant Luka and Alice were by the campfire. Luka was swinging a sword at Alice, clumsily, as she dodged and gave him pointers. I knew that if I was this close, Alice was probably already aware of me. Yet for the time being, she didn’t notice, or pretended not to, as she instructed my counterpart. Seeing the camaraderie between them gave me a nostalgic feeling. This Luka was like the others, younger and small than me. His sword skills were even more garbage than mine had been, plus he seemed to lack my reflexes, although I knew that judging him based on practice wasn’t fair. My true natural reflexes had only come out in combat. He could be the same way.
I sat down and watched from a distance, smiling as I watched. I knew I was probably going to be in trouble soon, but this was just too wonderful to not witness. Towards the end of the session, Alice’s demeanor became less serious. She would playfully push Luka and they would both laugh. At one point he tried to grab her and lift her off the ground. She didn’t budge, but affectionately mussed his hair. They sat back down and talked for a bit. It wasn’t long, because Luka was obviously worn out from his training and went right to sleep. Alice curled herself around a nearby tree and did the same. Maybe Alive didn’t view my presence here as a threat. I was only human, after all. I decided to go make camp a few miles away. I got up to begin my hike.
As I rose, I came face to face with a very angry lamia. “Did you enjoy the show?” she asked threateningly.
“Ummm… I just thought you two were great together, that’s all. It’s wonderful to see humans and monsters being such obvious friends.”
“Uh huh,” she said, folding her arms. This was already becoming a bit much for me. Right in front of me was the love of my life, at least her counterpart. This was my first direct interaction with an Alice, having only furtively glimpsed her from a distance until now. She could sense my uneasiness, but misinterpreted it.
“Are you afraid?” she said, coming closer to me. “You should be. You look delicious. Did you know that lamias can swallow their prey whole?”
I didn’t back down. I actually hoped she’d get closer. I knew she was bluffing. She wouldn’t eat a mere human unless that human turned out to be a real threat.
“I’m not afraid,” I said evenly, looking her directly in the eye. “I meant what I said. I consider monsters to be friends, at least the ones who don’t try to eat me. I doubt you’d be traveling with a human if you were one of the bad ones.”
“Why are you so interested in us?” she asked. I could smell her sweet breath at this distance. I missed her so much.
“You know how the world is,” I answered. “Like I said, it’s just… good to see. It’s not a sight that you see very often.”
“I don’t believe you,” she said, putting a finger in my chest. “I have ways of making you tell me the truth that are unpleasant. Do you want to sample a few of them?”
“There’s no need for that,” I said, staying calm. “As you can see, I’m not armed. You also know that I’m alone here. You’d smell it if someone else was around.”
“You seem to know an awful lot about lamias,” she observed. “is that what this is about? Did you have a lamia girlfriend at one time and you wanted to peep at me?”
“Alice,” I blurted out. I never got another word out. Her tail was wrapped around me in an instant.
“Okay, creep!” she threatened. “You’re going to tell me what I want to know. I’m going to squeeze you until you do. If you know lamias, you know how tight we can squeeze. You probably also know that many of us can use eye magic. I will find out what you’re up to! So make it easy on yourself.”
Having her tail wrapped around me, even in a threatening manner, only served to remind me of how she used to cuddle me in bed. If I didn’t control myself, I might blurt out my entire life story in thirty seconds. I was talkative under the best of circumstances. Nervous, I could be even worse.
“Honest, I mean no harm,” I insisted. “I did once know a lamia. We were close. I’m just trying to get back to her.”
She seemed to consider for a moment. Then her tail tightened. I’d had enough.
“I’m from another world I know you’re the Monster Lord we were married in that world and I missed you so much we used to do that by the campfire and I know I shouldn’t have but it’s been really hard on me losing you and-“
Her eyes flashed, as I knew they probably would at some point in this conversation. I zonked out. When I came too, she asked me again what I was actually doing there.
“Everything I told you was true,” I said.
“Which everything?” she demanded. “The last thing you said contradicted what you’d said before.”
“The last everything!” I whimpered. “I… I just don’t know what else to say! I’m sorry!”
She set me down and released me. She appraised me again, seeming to look deeper. She gasped.
“You…. You’re telling the truth! You’re really telling the truth!”
“How did you figure that out?” I asked.
“You’re holding a strange power in you,” she said in wonder. “I didn’t see it at first, but… what are you?”
“I’m human,” I assured her. “I know I shouldn’t have done what I did, but my journey is so long and I let my emotions get the better of me. I know I mean nothing to you, I don’t even look like your Luka. But my name is also Luka and we did this same thing together.”
“Are you saying that I’m… going to marry that boy?”
“I’m from an alternative version of your world,” I explained. “I really don’t know. Your fate is not set. I’ve seen it go another way, a terrible way. It’s going to be up to you. All I can say for sure is that you two will probably grow much closer.”
“You probably shouldn’t be telling me anymore than that,” she said. “I believe you, but please, no more. I should not know these things. Even if you’re not technically a time traveler, it sure feels like you are. You could be changing things for the worse.”
“Or the better,” I said. “But you’re right. I should have given it more thought. I’m such an idiot.”
“Now I know you’re really a Luka,” she said, smiling for the first time. “Hey, you shouldn’t be out here unarmed and it’s a little cold. If you agree to shut the hell up, you can come sleep by our fire. In the morning, though, you need to move on.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’d like that. It’s good to see that no matter what universe I’m in, you’re still Alice.”
“And if every Luka in every universe is like you, that makes me very afraid. C’mon, put your sleeping bag close to me.”
I entered the campsite. Luka was still sound asleep. Alice showed me where to place my sleeping bag and wrapped herself around a tree a few feet away. I climbed in. After a few minutes, I felt her tail wrap lightly around my sleeping bag.
“I’m doing this to make sure you can’t sneak out of bed and hurt Luka,” she said. “But if you want to think of it as me cuddling you, go ahead. If everything you’ve told me is true, I know my counterpart would appreciate this.”
I thanked her and went to sleep. For the first time, I jumped in my sleep.

I woke up, thankfully in the morning, in the middle of the public square in Iliasburg. There weren’t too many people about yet. Those that did see me paid me no mind. Maybe it wasn’t unusual for travelers to just camp out anywhere. Probably best not to question things too much when jumping around different universes. If my presence caused no alarm, I shouldn’t be alarmed either. I put my sleeping bag away and began to explore the city. I needed a sword, but then remembered my promise to myself after my battle with Alice. I would never pick up an iron sword meant for drawing blood again. If I couldn’t have Angel Halo or some other nonlethal enchanted sword, I would simply go unarmed, regardless of the risk. Then I reconsidered and entered a weapons shop.
“Do you have any training swords?” I asked. The proprieter nodded and led me to that section of his shop. I chose one that looked fairly sturdy, I bought a scabbard to go with it. Fortunately, even the best training swords were dirt cheap. He thanked me for my purchase and I left the store. I walked around town for another hour, simply browsing around. I decided that I’d find a cheap inn and settle in early. I wanted some Ipod time for relaxation. This was probably another nothing jump, not that I was complaining.
It was not a nothing jump at all. In fact, it ended up being one of my longest. It lasted a full month. The next world must have been pretty far away.
Just as I was about to look for an inn, definitely not Sutherland since I didn’t have 2 MILLION gold pieces on me, I heard commotion and the clanging of swords in the main plaza. I was pretty sure that I knew what that was. Granberia was here. I considered going to an inn anyway. Alice’s warnings about changing things gave me pause. Then I made my decision. This wasn’t time travel. Nothing was set in these worlds. Things could be better. They could also be worse. If Granberia took this city, she’d move on to Ilias Village and destroy the temple. I wasn’t quite certain, but I feared that was exactly what Ilias wanted. It would radicalize Ilias followers all over the world. While it would end the production of heroes, that was only a technical victory. Ilias followers would simply pick up their swords and kill monsters while unbaptized.
When I reached the city square, I realized I’d forgotten something. This world’s Luka would probably challenge Granberia. I was interested in seeing how that turned out. If it went badly, I could always challenge Granberia afterwards. She was not a killer. This world’s Luka would just take his beating and I’d be next in line.
As before, I saw Granberia calling for heroes to come and challenge here. A few did, and were dispatched, bloodlessly, in seconds. Then I spotted Luka. He was hiding behind a tree, scared out of his wits. I waited for him to make his move. Granberia continued to issue challenges. No one was coming forward. I approached the boy and tried to find out what was wrong with him.
“Hey, kid,” I greeted him. “Are you going to challenge her?”
“I…. I want to,” he replied, his voice shaking. “I’m so afraid, though! I don’t think I can! I don’t think I should! She’s so strong! I’m no match for her.”
I thought of telling him that she wasn’t a killer, but decided that he was too petrified. Maybe my example would get his courage up. As before, I didn’t think I would win. I was out of shape, out of practice, I had no spirits. I believed that I could still do well enough for her to find me interesting, however. Granberia tended to listen to people she respected. I didn’t have to beat her. I just needed to make her respect me. I left my counterpart behind the tree and issued my challenge.
“You’re challenging me?” the Heavenly Knight asked. “With a training sword? Are you joking?”
“I see all these bodies around the square, but none of them are dead,” I said. “Since you’re obviously not trying to kill anyone, why should I use a deadly sword on you?”
“There is a big difference between an enchanted sword that I can choose not to kill with and a training sword,” she said. “I control this city, now. The weapons shop is right there. Go get a real sword and come back out if you want to challenge me. Otherwise, stop bothering me!”
I felt pretty silly. She was right. What was I going to do with a training sword in a real fight? Slap monsters with it until they stopped bothering me? I sighed and went over to the shop. The owner didn’t even wait for me to come inside. The hilt of a sword simply appeared through the crack of the door. I thanked him and accepted it. I would return it when this was finished. Granberia was probably safe to use this on. At best, I’d nick her up a little.
She took a battle stance. I knew what was coming next. I swung at her and she appeared behind me. Once again, I connected with a kick to her gut. Again, it didn’t move her. Damn. I’d gotten so much stronger with that before I’d ended up back home. It was as if I was back at square one when it came to combat skills.
Still, she was impressed, just as she’d been last time. Then the battle began in earnest. I was happy to find out that I hadn’t lost everything. She got in almost all of the offense, but I did nick her up a little. She tasted her own blood and smiled at me before renewing the attack. No cursed sword techniques so far, just like when I’d lived through it the first time. But they would come if I continued to do well.
Sure enough, the first one was Demon Decapitation. The first time I had dodged it just in time. This time, however, I knocked it aside with my sword as if I’d seen it a thousand times, which I had. That changed her demeanor substantially. Had that been the wrong answer? She came at me even harder. I was backed up to the wall of a shop. Last time, she’d followed up quickly with a Demon Skull Beheading, which I’d blocked and then lost my sword to. I was prepared to accept that. What would follow would be a wrestling match that I should win.
That’s not what happened, however. Perhaps it was that little difference in the way I’d dealt with her first cursed sword technique. Maybe it was something else, some subtle way that I battled her. Maybe it was the light wounds I’d inflicted on her. Whatever it was, I spotted the alarming footwork of Vaporizing Rebellion Sword. That footwork had been seared into my memory. I could not get cut up like that again, even though I’d survive.
My instinct was to lash out with my power but a cautionary warning in my head told me not to do that. Instead, I tried to match it move for move. Granberia had tried to teach me her ultimate move a few times. I had never been able to even come close to doing it the way she did it. But what I learned at least spared me the worst of it. Our swords clashed again and again as my poor imitation of the move prevented me from enduring the most awful of her cuts. I took enough of them, though. When it was over, I was on the ground, unable to rise, my body wracked with pain. At least I could move. She hadn’t cut my spine or my limbs. The cuts were not quite merely superficial, but I would recover. In a few days, anyway.
“There is no shame in losing, human,” she said, standing over my fallen form. “you fought well and honorably. Truly, the greatest battle I have had in years. But now you will tell me where you learned those monster techniques.”
Uh oh. That’s what I’d forgotten! In our first fight I had refrained from using the one cursed sword technique I knew, in part because I didn’t think it would work due to my lack of practice, and second, because I feared it would blow Alice’s cover. Now I knew the consequences of showing her what I’d learned.
“You’re not going to tell me?” she said. “I think I know who taught you that, and I would like to have a match with that person.”
“It’s hard to explain,” I said. “I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you.”
“You will tell me,” she warned. “Believe me. A human walking this earth with your skills and those sword techniques is dangerous.”
“I just don’t know what to tell you,” I said. “I don’t think you’d understand.”
“Fine,” she said, sheathing her sword and scooping me up in her arms like a child. “We will go somewhere more private and you will tell me what I wish to know.”
This was something I didn’t know about Granberia. I could not predict what she was going to do. Could she torture a person? Would she try to use sex to get it out of me? Was she going to beat it out of me, as Alice had warned she would have had I used Demon Decapitation on her the first time I lived this? I tried to figure out what to tell her. I knew her well enough to know that she wasn’t as open-minded as Alice. The truth would only make her angrier.
She carried me into the forest and dumped me on the ground. She ripped my pants off, then kneeled before me and grasped my balls.
“This is how it is going to go,” she said. “I’m going to ask you questions. Tell me what I wish to know, and I will do something pleasant. Tell me nothing, and I will squeeze these precious jewels of yours. Tell me lies, and I will crush them!”
That sounded very bad. I started to pray for a jump to bail me out. I also desperately tried to come up with a believable story.
“Now, where did you learn those techniques?” she asked, her hand on those balls.
“I told you, I just don’t know how to explain it,” I said, now pretty scared.
She squeezed lightly, just enough to cause pain. “Not a lie, but also not an answer,” she declared. “I’ll give you a chance to think for a minute and make a wiser choice. For now, what is your name?”
“Luka,” I replied.
“Where are you from, Luka?”
“Ilias Village.”
She paused, seeming to consider the veracity of my words. Then she moved on. “Why did you challenge me? You are no hero.”
“I couldn’t let you make the mistake of taking Iliasburg!”
She paused. I realized I’d said one key word that I shouldn’t have. “Why do you think it was a mistake?” she asked.
“Because it would just stoke hatred among Ilias’ followers and make relations between monsters and humans worse!”
She gave my balls another warning squeeze. “Why do you care about that?” she asked. “Of what interest is it to you whether I take Iliasburg, or humans hate monsters more than they already do?”
“I don’t think monsters and humans should be enemies!” I said. “Can’t we all just get along?”
I knew that was lame, and Alice had called me an idiot for saying that. Granberia seemed to think for a moment. Her hand came off of my balls and instead grasped my penis. She gently stroked for a few seconds. Those hands! I sighed in nostalgic pleasure.
“Now you see the rewards of telling me what I wish to know,” she smirked. “I have to confess, giving me such a good battle made me hot. You smell delicious. This can end pleasurably for you. I will take you back to the Monster Lord’s castle and make you my lover if you give me the answers I’m looking for. You also know the price for not talking.”
“I know,” I assured her. “I’ll try to answer your questions as best I can.”
“Very good,” she said, and stroked me a few more times. “Now, why were you in Iliasburg?”
“I’m traveling,” I answered, deciding on a good cover story that had once been true. “I’m on a journey to learn about why humans and monsters don’t get along. I wanted to see if maybe I could come up with ideas for making things better.”
“Really?” she said, stroking me a little more. “You’re pleasing me now, so I am pleasing you. I will make you very happy now, if you answer the question I most want answered. Where did you learn those techniques?”
“From you!” I blurted out. This was only partly true. The technique in question, I had in fact learned from her. Of course, all of my other cursed sword techniques, the ones I could actually perform well, had been taught to me by Alice.
Her hands shot to my balls and squeezed painfully. I made a decision to use my power to prevent her from actually crushing them. That was an agony I was going to avoid at all costs. I probably should have thought that one out better. Blasting her with her hands clutching my balls probably would have caused her to end up a hundred yards away, my balls still in her hands, ripped off of me. Fortunately, she must have been bluffing. She let go of them, got up and retrieved her sword. “Get up!” she ordered.
“Are we going back to the Monster Lord’s Castle?” I asked.
“No!” she snapped. “You are a mystery I intend to solve. If you are on a journey, I shall accompany you. I will show you myself why humans and monsters don’t get along. Along the way, I intend to learn the truth from you. I believe that you have a very interesting story to tell. Torturing an answer out of you will only get me what I most immediately wish to hear. What I want to hear now requires a different approach.”
With that, we began a month-long journey that took us from Iliasburg to Grand Noah. It was a very different experience, but an enjoyable one. I was disappointed that it ended so abruptly, with me disappearing in the middle of a conversation. She helped me to get back into shape quickly, being merciless in her training. After sword training was over, she would give me the other kind of training, usually with her hand, but during that month I experienced everything else she had to offer as well. In both ways I became stronger. I didn’t do all that much fighting. Granberia, unlike Alice, didn’t disappear when threats approached. Most simply chose not to bother me once they saw that I was with such a scary looking monster. They must have assumed I was hers.
I repeated history in Happiness Village, helping the harpies to see that what they had been doing was wrong. Granberia had chosen not to involve herself, only watching with bemusement. I could see the gears turning in her head. I also did the errand for Maia. Cindy never came out to accost me. Granberia stood on the beach with me as I raised the Ball of Guidance. If Cindy was near, Granberia chose as usual not to depart. I was attacked under the water, but handled those without seriously hurting my opponents. I ran the errand successfully and received my reward from Maia again. That had been an experience well worth repeating. Granberia knew about it, but unlike Alice had no problem with it. After all, had I not done a favor for a monster, risking my life? She was growing increasingly impressed at how I was matching my deeds with my words.
I also didn’t have to get the Bell from the Treasure Cave. Granberia merely threatened a captain to set sail, assuring him that it would be fine. Alma Elma dropped by to question the whole arrangement, but it didn’t turn into a fight. Granberia simply informed her that she was interested in observing me, and that Alma Elma should kindly allow her to continue doing so until she got the answers she sought. Alma Elma offered to get them out of me her way, but Granberia told her in no uncertain terms to move on. I became a little miffed at Alice for not doing something so easy for my benefit.
By the time I moved on, Granberia didn’t even seem to care where I’d learned my techniques. She began to trust me and enjoy traveling with me. When I felt myself begin to slip away, I told her the truth.
“I’m moving on to the next world,” I told her. “I learned that technique from you. That was the truth. Another you, in another world. I look forward to meeting you again.”
As she stared in wonder, I faded away.

More and more jumps followed, universe after universe. I was starting to despair. My tablet told me that another year had passed. How long would that be on Alice’s world? Since I was no longer on my own, how did the time differences even work? Alipheese had warned me that the odds were against me, that even if I did make it to where I wanted to go, I might not like what I found. I began to fear that I could arrive hundreds of years from the time I’d left, with Alice long dead. But then something happened that made me begin to feel hopeful.
You see, everywhere I went, one of two things occurred. Well, an endless number of different things occurred, but all alternate universes I arrived in had an either/or proposition: either there was a counterpart Luka who had been born in that world rather than transported there, or I never came across one. That didn’t mean there was no Luka, it just meant that for whatever reason I didn’t encounter him or hear of him. I must have gone through over one hundred jumps with that binary proposition. Then something different happened.
I had jumped in my sleep again, by this time not that unusual an event. I woke up in my sleeping bag, but instead of being outdoors, I was in my own bed in my own home in Ilias Village. I got out of bed and looked around. I recognized my things, the same things I’d owned during my two years in the small village. What in the world?
I took a few steps outside. “Good morning, Luka!” greeted Donald. “Morning, Luka!” yelled Betty from a distance.
I was…. Me! Could I be home, just at the beginning of my adventure with Alice? I dared to hope, but I was also fearful. I didn’t want to go through the awful things I’d been through a second time, yet if I changed things, would I have the life I had grown to love? In the end, wouldn’t it just result in me getting ripped from this world again, only to repeat my search in an endless loop until the day I died? And even if I tried not to change things, could I avoid it? Would I endure all that I had endured only to have things end badly?
When the cry went up that a monster was outside the village, I almost went back into my house. I didn’t think I could endure it. I prayed that this was just another stop on my long journey and not my final destination. But I was who I was. The slime girl needed to be turned back before she raped someone. If she succeeded, she might get emboldened. And what of Alice? How would her travels have gone had she not accompanied me? I didn’t believe she’d turn into Black Alice as she feared, but I did know that she’d encounter the worst of humanity in many places, without me to give her hope. Screwing up my courage, I left the house and ran out into the woods. The timing should still be the same, since I didn’t waste time questioning villagers or checking on the local soldiers. I purposely left without my sword. Slime girls were nearly indestructible. I decided I’d just give her the tiniest taste of my power if what I planned didn’t work out. That little taste would be enough to get her to leave.
I encountered the slime girl approximately where I remembered doing so the first time.
“Hey there!” she greeted me, this time having not snuck up on me.
“Hello yourself,” I said amiably. “You know, you’re scaring the villagers. You should probably go away.”
“What, are you a pacifist or something?”
“No, I just don’t like that you’re causing a panic.”
“Well, I’m awfully hungry, so I’m not going away,” she said. “you look delicious!”
She shot a tendril of slime at my crotch. My pants dissolved and the slime began to play with my genitals. I simply looked down, folded my arms, and then looked back at her.
“That’s good,” she said soothingly. “Just let me make you happy. I’ll send you to heaven!”
“As long as you don’t mean that literally,” I said. “I have no problem with this. If feeding off of me means you won’t bother the villagers, I’m happy to help you.”
She pulled her slime off of me and looked at me quizzically. “Really?” she said. “You’re not tricking me? You’ll let me eat your semen?”
“I have an appointment, so you’ll have to be quick, but sure!” I answered. “I just need your promise that you’ll let me go when you’re done.”
“Deal!” she said, and slammed into me, absorbing me completely in her body except for my head. Trusting her like this wouldn’t have been possible when I had first lived this experience. But now I had my power as the insurance. Even in critical ecstasy, I could release it, because it required no muscle strength to do so. I’d have to hurt her in the process, but if she was evil enough to take advantage of me like that, she’d have it coming.
As she pleasured my entire body as quickly as she could, I also realized I didn’t have to worry about my reputation. No one was coming. The soldiers couldn’t get organized and every villager was getting to safety.
I’d experienced a slime’s full treatment once before, and it had been the greatest slime of all, Erubetie. She had made love to me slowly, skillfully, and thoroughly. This was a slime quickie, and it was an extraordinary new experience. Every part of me that could be stimulated was getting rubbed with her slime as I lay on the ground inside her. I could feel her quiver in pleasure herself as my semen shot into her. She never stopped the wonderful sensations she was giving me, which led to another orgasm a few minutes later.
“Do we still have time?” she asked. That was a good sign. I had suspected when I’d first encountered her that I’d misjudged her. Now I was sorry I’d driven her off.
“Yes, I think there’s time for one more,” I said.
“Awesome!”
Not that she had even paused her full body work. In another few minutes we both became very happy a third time. She detached herself from me.
“Thanks for that meal!” she said happily. “I’ll be going now. You know, if you want to do this again, I can meet you a little further from the village so I don’t scare anyone. There’s a small stream where I hang out most of the time. No one ever goes there. With your delicious smell, if you go there I’m sure to find you. I can show you what I can do when there’s no time limit!”
“I’m afraid I’ll probably be going on a journey starting today,” I replied. “But thank you for being a nice monster. I really hope that humans and monsters can start getting along better.”
“I do too,” she said. “I’d like to talk to you more about that as well. You’re a pretty great guy. But I know you have places to be, so…. I hope I see you again? Maybe when you get back?”
“Maybe,” I said.
She left and I began to walk in the direction that I knew Alice would land. Quite slowly, given that I was dealing with a three orgasm critical ecstasy hangover that made my legs more than a little wobbly. My anxieties returned, and yet so did my excitement. All of my other encounters with Alice in these alternate worlds had been with her already accompanied by a variant Luka. This time, for as long as I was in this world, I’d have her to myself. If this wasn’t an alternate world, but my final destination, just a different time, I’d have to simply try to do things better this time around.
I was early. I actually saw the limp body falling out of the sky, impacting the ground. Soil flew into the air, almost in a mushroom cloud. I’d known she’d hit hard, but actually seeing it… Wow. She’d been mostly unhurt in that fall!
I rushed over to the crater that her lovely blue form lay in and looked at her. That’s when I realized that I was definitely not in my version of this universe. Staring back at me was not Alice, but a male echidna!
He immediately pulled himself up and looked at me. “Who are you?” he said in a booming voice.
“I’m Luka,” I stammered. “And you are…?”
“I am Albert, the twenty-seventh Monster Lord! Don’t bow, it’s okay, I know you’re overwhelmed! I try not to let my incredible might and status get to my head, you see. Just treat me like I’m a regular guy, the same as anyone you’d meet in your town of…. Where is this again?”
“Ilias Village,” I replied.
“Ilias Village?!” he repeated in surprise. “That freakin’ guy. As strong as I am, and he flung me all the way over here?”
He seemed friendly enough. Was this a world where monsters and humans didn’t hate each other too much? The village had been scared of the slime girl, but perhaps that was just because this was Ilias Village?
“By any chance, do you have a problem with humans?” I asked.
“Why would I?” he asked. “You seem nice enough. I didn’t say anything racist to you, did I? Sorry, I don’t hate humans but sometimes I’ve been accused of being a little insensitive sometimes. I tend to run at the mouth and oh, there I go again.”
I sighed in relief. At least this monster lord wasn’t hostile. I wasn’t sure how to proceed. We both just sort of stared at each other in awkward silence. He coughed uncomfortably.
“Wellllll….” He began after that long pause. “I thank you for coming to check on me. I know a lot of the people in this village are scared of monsters. I’ve long believed in coexistence. Glad to meet a fellow believer. Put it there, pal!”
He offered me his hand and I shook it.
“Well, hope to see you around again, gotta go!” he said abruptly, and vanished.
I wasn’t even sure what to think about that. At least I was obviously in another alternate universe. I didn’t have to start over. All that remained was to wait to jump.
Since I didn’t jump the next day, I decided to go find the slime girl. I didn’t do it to have sex with her, I just thought that hanging out with her and learning more about her would be interesting. It would give me some perspective. Our talk was so delightful that I returned to her every day for the next two weeks. Sometimes she fed off of me, sometimes she just enjoyed my company. Her name was Lime, oddly enough. She told me her story, I told her mine, and she accepted it completely, even though it was shocking to her. Since I liked her, I also warned her that one day I just wouldn’t come back and she’d never see me again. That made her sad, but she was glad I warned her so that she wouldn’t wonder what had happened to me.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure how this worked, since in this world, I had obviously arrived as somebody who already existed here. Had I temporarily taken over a counterpart’s consciousness, so that he’d return once I was gone? If so, would he remember anything? I had no way of knowing and no way of finding out. That left me with some very uncomfortable moral questions. Did I have a right to put this body in danger, or let monster girls use it? I decided that if these counterparts were really me, just slightly different versions, that they would probably approve of my actions. Still, if this was to be the new norm, I had to take the possibility into account that I was just borrowing my counterpart’s body.

It was the new norm. My next few jumps were my own life, mostly in Ilias Village at some point in the two years that I stayed there. A few were brief moments during my travels with Alice. These tended to be very short, minutes to hours, but I treasured reliving these moments. None of them had been traumatic. Mainly campfire conversations and walking. It reminded me that for all the moments of terror on my journey, if one selected a random hour on that journey, there was a 95% chance that that hour consisted of just walking. To be with Alice for these short jumps, even if it wasn’t my Alice, lifted my spirits. Even when she was being mean to me. I took care to act as I had at the time, rather than worry Alice with knowledge that she wasn’t ready for. It felt a little satisfying to hold that information from her, given how stingy she had been with me, even after we were married.
I even landed in an alternate world that was as modern as my home world, yet had monster girls. My stay was only three days, but during that time I managed to buy a few cute, if not very useful gadgets, just things that could entertain me on my possibly endless journey. My favorite was a VR headset that was far better than anything my home world had. I didn’t feel bad about spending the money, because I’d made some here and there doing odd jobs in my most frequent jumps to alternate versions of Ilias Village. I knew how to make money there, which kept my financial situation on firm ground. I was thankful to not yet have encountered an alternate world where gold wasn’t currency.
Grangold in that world was the gigantic metropolis, containing millions of beings, monster and human alike. It was so weird seeing dragonkin on motorcycles, slimes behind the wheel of a car, boarding a public bus with special seats to give lamias some tail room. I even turned on the news and found that the President of this united world was Alice. Her closest advisor, Tamamo, stood by her side as she gave a press conference.
Then came the jump that changed everything.
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Luka's Story 3-Traipsing around the Multiverse