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

Chapter List
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“Mother…. Mother…. I’m so sorry! Mother! Please let me out! Mother! Mommy!”
A small girl was stuck in a jail cell, shaking the bars. Was I dreaming? I must be. This was one of those third person dreams, where you see something but aren’t a part of it. Who was that little girl?
“Wait there for awhile, and behave yourself,” said another voice. “Even with your power, you can’t bend those bars. Alice… You must live.”
Alice? Yes, that was Alice in the cell! But she was a little girl! The woman outside the bars was also a lamia. She looked so much like Alice. Alice had referred to her as mother, had she not? It was hard to think.
The older woman took a long, loving look at her daughter before hurrying away. As if watching a movie, my vision left the cell and followed the older woman down a grand hallway. A single fox girl stood in her way.
“Stand aside, Tamamo,” the older lamia ordered. “I must meet with them.”
“But your majesty,” Tamamo pleaded. “Those heroes come to take your life!”
“Yes,” the lamia replied. “That’s why I must meet with them. Are you unable to trust in my power as Monster Lord?”
“There is no one your equal in power,” Tamamo said. “The sword of a mere human wouldn’t even inflict a scratch on you. But if you intend to die…. That’s a different matter.”
“As I expected from a trusted friend who has watched over me since I was small,” the Monster Lord, Alice’s mother, said. “Able to see right through me.”
“That’s why I won’t let you pass!” Tamamo stated firmly. Hadn’t Alice said that Tamamo was perhaps more powerful than any of them? Maybe she would stop the Monster Lord? “Trying to end the strife between human and monsters with your own death is…”
“Tamamo, look into my eyes,” the Monster Lord ordered. “Do I look like someone walking to my own death?”
Tamamo did as she was ordered. The Monster Lord’s eyes flashed. Tamamo fell to the ground unconscious.
“Sleep for awhile,” Alice’s mother said to the fallen Tamamo. “Please, you must live for the sake of a peaceful world. And please… Support my daughter. She will need it after losing her mother at such a young age.”
The Monster Lord continued on to the throne room, where four heroes awaited her. Was she going to simply let them kill her? No! A battle ensued. It seemed to go on forever. She threw flames, ice bolts, and dark magic at her opponents. A human wizard with them was returning fire with magic bolts of his own, although they appeared to be far less impressive. Whenever one of the men with a sword or an axe got close to her, she would wallop them with a fist that would send them reeling back. And yet there was no imagination to her fighting. I knew from experience that Alice had a nearly endless number of ways to defeat her enemies. Shouldn’t this Monster Lord have been able to put them to sleep? Or control their minds? Did they have protections like I did? No. As if there was a silent narrator in my mind, I knew these men were simply baptized heroes from this world.
Even in the use of her magic she was clearly holding back. Despite the maelstrom of magical energies she was producing, not one man was seriously injured. Why put on such a show? Did she need them to believe they had earned this? I could sense in the way you can only sense things in dreams that the men were starting to realize that she wasn’t fighting with everything she had. Doubts were creeping into their minds. Most of their minds, anyway. One man had no doubt within him. He waded through the magical storm until he was nearly nose to nose with the Monster Lord. She made as if to hurl him back with some sort of magic, probably a gust of wind or some kind of telekinesis. She was too late. He drove a short sword into her neck, up through her jaw. She fell, her blood pooling on the ground around her.
The man who had killed her stood over her. If he hadn’t had doubts before, he had them now. It had been too easy. None of them had expected to survive this day. Yet all of them stood tall, while she lay dead on the ground. They began to realize what I already knew: she had planned this.
Tamamo emerged into the room. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw the body of the Monster Lord on the ground. There was so much blood. But these idiots didn’t understand. The Monster Lord’s efforts were to be wasted. In order for her sacrifice to have any meaning, Tamamo had to refrain from killing these men. She had to recover her composure and explain to these ignorant humans what they had just witnessed.
They were dumbfounded, but not as stupid as Tamamo imagined them to be. “What have we done?” said the old wizard.
Stifling back tears, Tamamo explained. “The Monster Lord wished for peace between humans and monsters. Since she was portrayed as the epitome of evil by humans, she felt that if heroes killed her and returned with the story of their deed, that it would reduce the fear that humans had for monsters. She has entrusted you with her dream. She never wanted anything but coexistence.”
“And so she… wanted to be slain?” one of the warriors asked. “This wasn’t the way! Why didn’t she talk to us?!”
“Would we have listened?” the wizard asked rhetorically. “We journeyed long and hard to reach this point, braved the terrors of Hellgondo. We bore witness to the ruins of Remina. Mere talk would not have stopped us! We would have assumed it to be a ruse!”
The warrior who had driven his sword into her neck spoke. “Even looking at her laying there, part of me screams that this must be some kind of trick, some illusion. Perhaps some imposter. And yet I know in my bones that this is indeed the Monster Lord. Her blood is on my hands. My moment of glory that I dreamed of since I was but a boy…. But this is not glory!”
“It is!” Tamamo insisted. “It has to be! You are all heroes now. Not merely baptized heroes, but the greatest heroes since Heinrich. If you wish to make this right, the only way to do that is to go back to your towns and villages and advocate for the peace that the Monster Lord desired. You are the legendary heroes who destroyed the Monster Lord! People will listen to you. Monsters will listen to you as well. They will fear the men who were strong enough to defeat a Monster Lord.”
“Yes…” the old wizard said. “Yes… a great wrong has been done here today. We must make it right. It won’t be as easy as you say, noble fox. The people’s faith is strong and has only grown stronger since the atrocity at Remina. Even four heroes who have slain the Monster Lord cannot overcome the influence of the Ilias priesthood. But I pledge on my life that I for one will try my best.”
“I will as well,” the man who had done the deed himself said, stepping forward. “It is the only way I know to repent for the blood I shed this day.”
The other two were about to express their agreement as well when the small child I had seen before entered the room and saw her mother’s body. I recognized the little one as Alice without any further doubt. She had a way of getting angry that was unmistakable. She was angry now.
The old wizard tried to console her. “Little one, we mean you no harm. We want peace between monsters and humans now, just like your mother did.”
“Now?!” Alice cried. “Now?! How… dare…. You! I’ll kill you!”
The ball of dark energy that Alice sent their way dwarfed anything her mother had produced. Her mother had been holding back. Alice was not. The last thing I heard were the mens’ screams.

I awakened inside a room I didn’t recognize. Must be an inn, I thought, but not one I’d been in before. It didn’t seem to be a very good inn, but it did have a heck of a bed for such a low class establishment. I wondered if Alice had selected this one to make me as comfortable as possible? I would have liked to think so, anyway.
What was that dream about? It sure felt like I was being told something. I remembered it well. It had been so vivid. Had Ilias sent it? If so, why? And why had Ilias stopped speaking to me directly? Had she given up on me as she had “threatened” to do? Or had she stopped speaking to me precisely because I was on the path she wanted me on?
My eyes were open but I still couldn’t move. Not much, anyway. I wiggled a toe. It hurt, but it moved. Then a finger. That hurt a little more, but it too, responded to my commands. I tried lifting my head. Nothing. Maybe an arm? Nothing. I kept trying. My arm jerked. That’s when I found out Alice was in the room.
She rushed to my bedside. I saw her face staring at mine. “I can’t believe you’re awake this soon! You’re going to need a lot more rest before you can resume traveling again.”
“How long have I been out?” I asked.
“Only half a day,” she replied. “I thought you’d sleep for days given the extent of your injuries. If I could, I’d put you back out with my eyes right now.”
“Where are we? I don’t recognize this place.”
“Gold Port,” she replied.
“Gold Port?!” I exclaimed in surprise. “That’s like, a three day walk! Did you carry me for three days!?”
“I could have,” she replied. “but no, I’m too lazy for that. I flew you here.”
“Flew?” I started chuckling. “Medevac! I’ve been medevaced!”
“What are you babbling about now?”
“Nothing that would interest you,” I said. “Just a little something that was funny only to me.”
“Here,” she said, putting a spoon of something to my mouth.
“What is that?”
“Applesauce,” she said. “Your stomach can’t take much more. It was carved into several sections.”
“How did that not kill me? I know her sword is enchanted to be nonlethal, but still…. That was… violent.”
“Her sword is called Ares,” Alice replied, shoving the spoon in my mouth. “It’s not a nonlethal sword at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. The sword’s primary power is to project her will. If she doesn’t choose to kill her opponent, the sword won’t kill, no matter how vicious the cuts. It’s the craziest enchantment I’ve ever seen. But it’s foolproof. It means that no matter how berserk she gets, she won’t kill her opponent unless she intends to.”
“So what did it do to me?” I asked.
“The cuts are real. You’re paralyzed because your spine was cut cleanly in several places. Since the cuts are perfect everything is still where it’s supposed to be and can heal. But until all those connections in your nerves and muscles are restored, you can’t move much.”
“I felt everything though,” I asked.
“Yes, you did. Worst of all worlds, you can feel but you can’t move. That’s how the magic works.”
“It hurt,” I said. “A lot.”
“Are you fishing for sympathy again?” she asked, shoving more applesauce into my mouth.
“I’m definitely not above doing such a thing,” I replied with a smile.
“Well, you aren’t getting any. You two are so annoying. There was no reason for that fight.”
“Did I do good?” I asked.
“Very,” she said. “Well enough to put her in a berserker rage, anyway. Now you know what it’s like when she holds nothing back.”
“Thank you for bringing me here Alice,” I said. “Why Gold Port?”
“I wasn’t going to take the glorified slab of meat that was you into Lady’s Village, that’s for sure. Succubus Village has no good food. Gold Port was our next stop. Saves time, too. If you healed in Succubus Village, we’d have to walk to Gold Port for three days. This way you heal here, so it’s like saving three days.”
“Will I heal in three days?”
“Hard to tell”, she said. “You’re not normal. A normal human would probably take a month. I estimate with very low confidence that you’ll recover in a week. Two at most.”
“I know we don’t have enough money for us to stay in this inn that long,” I said.
“Sure we do,” she replied, handing me a replenished money bag. It was heavy, almost as heavy as when I first departed Ilias Village.
“How?” I asked in disbelief.
“I sold the Travelers Guide,” she replied. “Did I get a lot for it?”
“I’ll say you did,” I replied. “But that was your guide, which means this is your money. Once we’re done traveling together, you should take it.”
“We’ll see,” she said noncommittally, feeding me the last of the applesauce. “Anyway, I spiked your applesauce. You’re going back to sleep soon. But first, the spirits wanted to talk to you. So…. Do that thing in your head where you converse with them. I’m going to go get myself something to eat.”
Before I could even process the fact that she’d drugged me, Sylph piped up in my head. “Yay! We’re all together again!”
“That’s nice, Sylph,” Salamander said. “Now THAT was a fight! Best thing I’ve seen in 500 years! But now it’s a matter of pride. She exceeded me long ago, but together, you and I can beat her!”
“Don’t forget about meeeeee!!” Sylph sang happily.
“Yes, of course,” Salamander said. “You’ll need these three as well. But I’m the most important spirit. I’ll teach you how to use me to the fullest.”
“Wow, that would be great, thank you,” I said.
“You have to bring your fighting spirit to its utmost limit,” Salamander instructed. “and let your spirit explode in a burning blaze of life. Let that burning spirit of yours take hold in your sword. If you wield that sword of yours with your burning hot spirit, you’ll hit with a ton more power. Well, maybe not a ton just yet. Gotta walk before you learn to run.”
“I know!” Sylph screamed happily. “Let’s go on a picnic!”
“There’s also a drawback to using the power of fire,” Salamander explained, ignoring Sylph. “you could…. Maybe… sorta… self immolate.”
“That doesn’t sound good at all,” I said.
“That why if you do try to use it, direct it only at your sword, not yourself,” Salamander explained. “It will take a lot of practice.”
Now Undine spoke up. “You should be able to do it. You were able to use the most difficult power, the power of water. The most noble attribute. You should be able to master the simple, shallow power of fire.”
“Excuse me?” Salamander said.
“Giving yourself over to your fighting spirit is such a barbaric method of fighting,” Undine explained. “How can it be called anything other than simple and shallow? See what YOUR student did to our Luka? You owe him an apology for unleashing that animal on him.”
“My apology will be to show him how to beat her,” Salamander said curtly. “Something you couldn’t help him do.”
They continued to bicker as I passed out once again.

Since money was no longer an issue, I just enjoyed the rest. Alice of course continued to indulge in expensive food, and large quantities of it. By day four I was able to eat whatever I wanted again and began to indulge with her. My appetite was pretty prodigious myself when I wasn’t watching my coins, although nowhere near Alice’s.
By day five she had begun some light training with me. This was more about rehabbing than learning anything new. For the first time, she even asked me to teach her something! That was new. She told me that she’d been fascinated by my ability to grapple but had been too busy teaching me, which was far more important. Since wrestling was second nature to me already, and it would allow me to perform a lot of stretching, she thought it might be a good opportunity for me to teach her some of the things I knew.
She assumed human form for the lesson. In her natural snake form, she already had a nearly unbeatable hold with her tail that few could break. I demonstrated a variety of chokes, armbars, kneebars, locks, and the guard position. She liked that one and for awhile we just stared into each other’s eyes while laying on the floor in that position. I was sure I’d seen this in movies. Was I supposed to try to kiss her at this point? If so, I chickened out. She seemed to get annoyed and changed back to snake form, giving me a lesson on how the guard was utterly useless against someone with a snake body. We rolled around on the floor, laughing. Yes, I was definitely falling for her. There was no doubt. I just didn’t know how to tell her. Or how she’d react.
By day seven I was back to full strength. The training got more serious. The slapping part resumed, although by this point they rarely hit. She’d even try to throw new wrinkles at me such as tail strikes. Her tail shattered a chair at one point. She still seemed to have some control issues of her own. But there was one thing I wanted to learn about over all other things.
“What the hell was that move she hit me with at the end?” I asked Alice.
“That’s her best move,” she said. “Vaporizing Rebellion Sword. I’ve never seen her use it in a real fight before. Her opponents are always down long before then. Before she used it on you I’d only ever seen her practice it on dummies.”
“Is there a way to counter it, parry it… something?”
“I wouldn’t know,” she conceded. “I can’t teach you the move. I can’t teach you a counter. I know of no defense.”
“How would I beat her then?”
“I really don’t know,” Alice said. “I guess the only way would be to learn to use the spirits so well that even that move can’t hit you. You’ve got the building blocks. Sylph increases your speed. Use her to parry the strikes. Gnome can help reduce the damage from the strikes when they do hit. Undine can help you go with the flow so that you can avoid the strikes entirely and counterattack. Salamander can increase the power of your counterattack, maybe even break up the move. I notice that you tried to counter her with Death Sword Chaos Star. Yours got disrupted and stopped. No reason you can’t do the same to her.”
“Salamander, do you have any suggestions? Maybe you can teach me that move or a counter?”
“Sorry,” Salamander said ruefully. “I didn’t teach her that. She developed that move herself. It’s basically an upgraded version of Death Sword Chaos Star. But it’s not as simple as just doing Death Sword Chaos Star with the fire element. She’s doing something else that I can’t identify. Maybe if I saw it a few more times….”
“You could blast her with all this raw power you’ve got in here,” Undine said helpfully.
“What are you babbling about?” Salamander said.
“You don’t see that?”
“See what?”
“The power! This boy is loaded with it!”
“Gnome,” Salamander said. “Do you see any power here?”
Gnome: “…….”
“Sylph?” Salamander said hopefully.
“Let’s climb a mountain and go Yahoo!!! We’ll be able to hear an echo!”
“How am I the only one who sees this stuff?” Undine said.
“You’re hallucinating,” Salamander replied.
“No, it’s there,” I interjected. “Maybe she sees it because I was briefly able to see it myself when she induced a serene state in me.”
“See?” Undine said, sticking her tongue out at Salamander. “I’m the only one with perception around here.”
“Do you know how to help me access it?” I asked hopefully.
“No, but I’ll work on that,” she said. “Maybe I can make it so that you can reach it through me. Then we’ll really be playing with power!”
“Are you two screwing with me?” Salamander asked skeptically.

Alice was enjoying the food and the relaxation, so she made me stay put another three days. It’s not like we’d have anyplace to spend the money on Hellgondo, so why not? Finally ten days had passed and it was time to see if we could find a ship to take us to Hellgondo. I wasn’t sure I was ready for this. Hellgondo wasn’t a huge continent, but it wasn’t tiny either, so Alice assured me that even there, I would have time to further develop my use of the spirits. Besides, she had long been planning to investigate Remina. She didn’t anticipate any trouble there. It was just ruins after all. The wandering monsters on Hellgondo were powerful, but she was confident I could handle any of those threats without breaking a sweat.
The port town was a bit depressed, much like Iliasport, since its main destination was no longer accessible. A blockade was not needed here. Without human settlements on Hellgondo, there was simply no reason for ships to go there. Thanks to the sheer size of Sentora, it wasn’t quite as dead as Iliasport. Ships still sailed to other ports on the continent and overland trade was still healthy. The town didn’t tolerate monsters. In fact, I noticed that Ilias Kreuz’s headquarters was in Gold Port. Alice obviously took on her human form, already knowing this. I, on the other hand, had been cooped up for ten days.
Getting a ship proved impossible. Not only did sailors want no part of Hellgondo, they said there was no place for a ship to land anyway. When I asked how people had traveled before, I was informed that a Garuda Girl had picked up goods and people from ships that would come in close. But she had not been seen since the Slaughter of Remina. She was assumed to be one of the dead. That caused my ears to perk up. Did the sailors know that the slaughter had involved killing the monsters as well as the humans?
“The monsters were killed as well,” one of the sailors said. “It’s common knowledge here in Gold Port but doesn’t seem to be as well known elsewhere. The church doesn’t like it when the official story is questioned.”
“Do you know why everyone was killed?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “We only knew that monsters were killed because bodies of monsters and humans alike were washing ashore. “
Alice and I shared a look. This wasn’t new information, but it was interesting that many humans knew the true story, at least as much of it as Alice knew. I could tell that she really wanted to investigate Remina now. We still had the problem of getting there to solve. I knew Alice could get us there quite easily. But unless I was near death she never gave me a ride anywhere.
I started throwing wild ideas at Alice, all of which she shot down.
“Can we take a small boat and row close enough?”
“You’re an idiot.”
“Maybe I can fly using Sylph?”
“You don’t have that kind of control and aren’t going to develop it anytime soon. Idiot.”
“Okay, picture it: giant slingshot.”
“You’re just going to have to use the garuda girl,” she said.
“I thought she didn’t exist anymore,” I said, confused.
“There’s a small shrine n the west called the Holy Wings Shrine,” she explained. “In there, a legendary bird egg sleeps. There’s your garuda girl.”
“I don’t get it,” I said. “The bird sleeps? In the egg?”
“It’s a very powerful bird,” she explained. “It can fly anyone all over the world. To prevent its power from being exploited, it seals its young into an egg. The key to awaken it is put into six orbs, spread all over the world. Only someone capable of gathering all six is worthy of reviving it from its slumber and requesting its aid.”
Orbs? I looked in my backpack. I had three orbs. Were those the ones she meant?
“Yes, the orbs in your bag are the orbs,” she sighed. “You are the luckiest idiot I’ve ever seen, collecting three rare orbs by complete chance. So half your work is already done.”
“Okay, first off, me picking up three orbs by accident, doesn’t that sound like fate to you? Haven’t there been way too many coincidences on this journey?”
“You’re overthinking things,” she said. “Never a good idea where you’re concerned. Of course I’ve noticed all the coincidences. I’ll worry about those, you worry about your quest.”
“Just as I thought I was about to reach my goal, now I have a new quest?”
“Don’t you enjoy traveling with me?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.
“To be honest,” I said. “I was dreading the end of it. Sorry, I just hate looking for things. Traveling with you during the brief moments we were able to pretend we were just on a sightseeing tour…. Those were the best days of my life here in this world.”
“Then wherever we have to look for the orbs, we’ll also have fun,” she said. “Your money bag is full again. No reason to stop the fun now. Hellgondo will still be there when we’re ready to go there.”
“So how do we find three orbs?” I asked. “One just randomly fell out of a suitcase. Another was in a pyramid. Another was in a royal treasury.”
“One was with the kraken queen,” Alice pointed out.
“Yes, one was with the kra- hey, you’re right! That’s what she was protecting down there!”
“Nothing gets past you,” she said. “The silver orb is with the South Sea queen. So now you just have to find one orb, the purple one.”
“It’s good that we only need to find one, but we’re still talking about the entire world. What if it’s on Hellgondo?”
“It’s not on Hellgondo,” she said. “I don’t know where it is, but I know who last had it. Pirate Captain Selene.”
“Really?! So does that mean it’s in the treasure cave back at Iliasport? Was it in that chest I didn’t open?”
“No, idiot, it’s not in that chest you didn’t open,” she said, shaking her head. “All that chest contained was a monster. It wasn’t even a real chest. It was a mimic.”
“So somewhere else in the cave? We never did enter the treasure room.”
“It’s not there either,” she said. “If it was, Tamamo would have been sure to retrieve it. She’s the one who ordered the orbs that we knew about placed in protected locations.”
“Well then where is it?”
“How should I know? It could be anywhere, even the bottom of the sea.”
“If it’s at the bottom of the sea,” I said. “Then it’s not possible for me to retrieve, and thus I never go to Hellgondo.”
“Nope,” she confirmed.
“So then what?”
“We travel until we’ve seen everything or I get bored, then I go home and you go back to Ilias Village. As long as you stay there, I don’t have to keep an eye on you. You’re even more dangerous than the orbs. Your choices are Ilias Village, or my castle.”
“Hold on,” I said. “You’ll fly me to your castle if I don’t find the orb? Okay, I can’t find the orb. Take me to your castle.”
I held my arms out expectantly and closed my eyes. Nothing happened. I opened them. She was looking at me with her arms folded, her expression neutral.
“I guess I’ll look for that orb then,” I said.
“Good choice. I’m not taking you to my castle to raise hell in there. If you want to do that you have to get there on your own. If I escort you in there it’s as a guest. You’ll behave yourself and you’ll live the rest of your days there until you die or we figure out how to get you home. Your real home. You will of course cook for me during your stay. If you want that, tell me now and we can leave immediately.”
“Isn’t that the slave thingy you were going on about a few weeks ago?” I asked.
“Yes, except we’re not calling it slavery. More…. Protective custody. You can’t be allowed to run loose with that power of yours and Ilias pulling your strings.”
“Like I said, I’ll look for the orb,” I declared. “If it was last in the possession of the pirate captain Selene, then I bet sailors know some rumors and legends. Maybe we’ll get a lead.”
“Now you’re thinking sensibly,” she said, smiling.

Turned out, no one knew where the purple orb was, but it was probably on Selene’s ship which sank about 100 years ago. This Alice and I arrived at through a simple process of elimination. She only had one treasure cave and one ship. It wasn’t in the cave. It stood to reason that the orb was on the ship. But where was the wreck?
“That’s what all the treasure hunters around the world would like to know,” said a sailor. “It’s still sitting at the bottom of the sea somewhere, waiting for someone to find it.”
There were more fantastic rumors as well, of a ghost ship. Many sailors had claimed to have seen it. But sailors see all sorts of things. Sailors also drink a lot. Then again, I had seen real ghosts. One never knew. Perhaps there really was a ghost ship. I would much rather board one of those in search of that orb than try to find it at the bottom of the sea, where there were a lot more ways to die. Ghosts didn’t frighten me. The ones I’d met were very nice.
Surprisingly, a strange woman seemed to have even more knowledge about Captain Selene than the sailors. She offered to tell me the whole story.
“I’m looking for her purple orb,” I said to her.
“Purple orb?” she said. “That’s the treasure Captain Selene loved the most. Even on her last voyage, she never let it leave her side.”
This was surprising information. This woman claimed to know of the orb. Everyone else had known she had lots of treasure, but the only specific piece of information anyone had ever had on that treasure was Poseidon’s Bell, which of course now resided in my backpack.
“If you want to know more about the orb, give me a little time,” she added. “I have some preparations to make.”
I had some to make as well. I was going to need get the Ball of Guidance back from Maia in Port Natalia so that I could go under water to get the two orbs we did know about. I’d also need it if I had to descend to the wreck of Selene’s ship. Port Natalia was quite far. From here it would take two weeks to get there. I informed the strange woman that I had to make preparations of my own, but that I would return as soon as I could.
“Alice, we have to go all the way back to Port Natalia,” I said.
“I know,” she replied. “There’s no other way for you to get down to the bottom of the sea.”
“Do you really want to just go where we’ve been before? That’s a two week hike. If you’re good with it, so am I. But I know somebody who can get us there quickly.”
“I do too,” she said, smirking. She grabbed my money bag and approached a man operating a carriage. “How much to take us to Port Natalia?”
“10 gold. Each.” he replied. That was highway robbery, but I decided not to argue the point. By carriage we could arrive in three to five days. Monster attacks would be unlikely. I wasn’t sure how I felt about traveling this way, but realized that the strange woman might not wait for us a whole month. If we took a carriage both ways it would be about a week, which was more reasonable. It was just that presented with the option of traveling this way I found that I really did just want to extend my time traveling on foot with Alice. I guess it didn’t really matter though. I had already decided that if I failed to find the orb I would go with her to the castle. Maybe they could get me home. I’d also get to spend more time with Alice. Going back to Ilias Village just didn’t seem like something that I could do anymore.

We arrived in Port Natalia three days later and went straight to Maia’s house. She was very happy to see me. “So what did you stop by for?” she asked.
“I was wondering if I could borrow your Ball of Guidance again,” I replied. “I need to go back to the bottom of the sea.”
“Oh, I’ll just give it to you,” she said. “I don’t need it anymore.”
“Oh wow, thank you!” I said, very grateful indeed.
“Hmph,” Alice humphed. “We’re done here. Let’s go.”
“That’s awfully abrupt, Alice,” I said.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did you want another mermaid blowjob?”
“Oh my,” Maia said. “If you want one, you just need to ask.”
“Um, no, I’m good,” I stammered. “but thank you. You’re right, Alice, let’s go.”
“Now who’s the rude one, refusing such a kind offer as that?” Alice said, smirking. Maia giggled.
As we walked outside, I turned to Alice. “I thought we had settled that.”
“We did,” Alice said, smiling. “I just couldn’t resist an opportunity to embarrass you. Oh, don’t look at me like that. You’ve more than proven yourself to me. But how can we be friends if we can’t mess with each other now and then? Besides, you might be running into another of your favorite girls when we get to the beach.”
“Who would be waiting for me at the b-“ I froze. “Oh, no, you don’t think…?”
“Didn’t Ilias tell you that you were going to face her again?” Alice said, now really enjoying the teasing. “Your greatest nemesis? The fearsome, unbeatable crab girl? You know if she beats you now that you have the spirits, I should make her a Heavenly Knight.”
“I’m glad you find my lowest moment amusing,” I grumbled.
“In all seriousness, she was someone you could have beaten when I first met you. If she dares to come ashore to harass you again, just seal her. Since then I’ve seen you seal much tougher monsters with one swing. Remember that centipede girl?”
“I don’t, actually.”
“That’s because you barely noticed her as you sealed her,” Alice said. “And she’s a lot stronger than that crab girl. Don’t worry, the only way this can be tough is if you’ve got a complex. Or secretly love being washed by her that much.”
We left the city limits and made it down to the beach, near that exact spot. This was the third time I’d been here. The first time, when I was defeated, the second to actually perform the errand for Maia, and the third was now. Wait, fourth, since the kraken queen had tossed me onto this beach as a way to “help” me. I’d have to remember not to let her do that again.
My mind started to race. I was getting nervous. So I’d been here four times and the crab girl only bothered me once. That means I had only a one in four chance of encountering her here, right? Wait, wouldn’t that be two out of four chances, since I’d have to come back here once I got the orb? What if she ambushed me underwater? This was silly! Why was I so nervous about such a low level monster?
“Oh, did you come back for another cleaning?”
WAH!!!! I jumped. Standing behind me was the crab girl. My mind had been racing so much that I had failed to listen to the wind and hear her approach. I had also failed to notice that Alice had disappeared.
“Oh, hello there!” I said, hoping to get out of this with my dignity intact. “So I really appreciated the wash last time, I was so dirty.”
“You sure were!” she said. “You’re kinda dirty now.”
“You know, I just needed to do something really quick and then I was going to go back to my hotel room, get showered, you know…. I think I can clean myself this time.”
“But if you do it there,” she replied. “I don’t get to eat. And you know how hungry us sea creatures get. Not many men are foolish enough to come to the water’s edge. Hee hee. Unless they want to be cleaned by me.”
She started advancing on me. I backed away. “Can’t I just say no?” I asked. “Are you really going to force me to submit to another cleaning?”
“It’s so much better when a man doesn’t struggle,” she said, giggling. “But if you want to make a game of it, I don’t mind. You were fun last time.”
She scurried forward, closing the distance between us. I ducked under her reaching claws and tried to get around to her backside. She grabbed at me with some of her human hands, making contact, but failing to get a good hold on me. I found myself looking at her back. I drew my sword, preparing to strike at that defenseless back.
“Butt bump!” she said, giggling some more, as she backed up, knocking me flat with the backside of her large shell. Quickly turning around, she restrained me with several arms and one claw, which held down my sword arm. I desperately tried to prevent the other large claw from grabbing my other arm, but after a brief struggle, I found myself in exactly the same position I had been in the last time.
There was a major difference this time, however, This time, I had Gnome. I summoned her power and resumed my struggles. The claws were still too strong to break out of. Okay, let’s see if I can lift her shell now. I lifted the shell off the ground a couple of feet. “Oh! Wheeee!” she said. “Boy, you’re strong now. But my center of gravity is too low for that.”
She was right. Even with Gnome, the specific nature of her biology made it impossible to escape with brute force. I had to wriggle out another way. But hadn’t I tried that last time and failed? Then I remembered Ilias’ advice in my dream. When she gets ready to do her “special course”, an opportunity will present itself. I decided to relax and let her do whatever she wanted until she got to that point. Perhaps ceasing resistance would make her careless.
After removing my clothes, she began blowing bubbles on my body. She used her hands to scrub my chest and wash my hair. It was annoying, but nothing about this was dangerous. When she was satisfied that my hair, face, and upper body were clean, she paused.
“It’s time for your favorite, my special course!” she said happily. “Don’t worry, I remember just how you like it.”
She began blowing more bubbles in preparation. I started looking around to see where my promised opening was. Her claws were still holding down my arms. How could I strike at her if my arms were still pinned? Then I noticed that she was blowing the bubbles into a few of her hands, which were no longer restraining my legs. This is going to be one heck of a stretch, I thought.
I lifted my legs up and spread them, trying to maneuver them around her shell and then upwards towards her head. I had hopes of flipping her somehow but knew that it almost certainly wouldn’t happen. That left a choke. With my legs. Against her ten arms. The first step, though difficult, worked. I succeeded in wrapping my legs around her head. I was in an incredibly awkward position. My arms were pinned to the sand, my back was against the front of her shell, my legs around her head. I wasn’t applying nearly enough force yet to cut off her oxygen.
“Hey!” she said. “If you want a blowjob you have to wait until you’re clean! Get… off!”
She applied all ten arms trying to pry my legs open. I hooked my legs tighter and clenched them as hard as I could. Unfortunately, this forced her head down on my penis, which slipped into her mouth. “Mmmph!” she said.
I gradually increased the pressure, if only because there was nothing else to do. Her head was all the way down, held tightly. She began gagging loudly and stumbling around, trying to dislodge me. I held on for dear life, hoping that I was cutting off her oxygen, which would force her to let me go. It didn’t seem to be working. As much as she coughed and gagged, somehow she was still getting air and still refusing to release my arms from those giant claws. Alice later told me how stupid this strategy was, given that crabs have gills that can breathe on land as long as they are wet. Since she had just emerged from the water, her gills were quite moist and therefore my cock down her throat was merely uncomfortable. For me, this posed a more obvious problem. I was about to go into critical ecstasy a second time with this very same opponent.
After a couple more minutes of her stumbling around and gagging, I suddenly orgasmed. Semen exploded from her nose. My legs no longer had any strength left. She pried them from around her head and tossed me to the sand like a sack of potatoes.
“Oh! You dirty….My nose! Oh, how disgusting! You came right down my… OH! All you had to do was wait! Why are you so impatient? You know what? Your cleaning privileges are revoked! No more special service, mister!”
With that, she scurried back into the water. Alice reappeared.
“Sooooooo,” she said. “You’ve had some pretty pathetic fights since I’ve been traveling with you, but that one definitely tops them all.”
“I dunno,” I moaned, lying on the sand, arms splayed out. “I did drive her off.”
“All four spirits, all of my training, and…that…. That’s the best you could do….you’ve let her get into your head. Which is all the more embarrassing because crab girls aren’t exactly masters of psychological warfare.”
“Well,” I said, starting to rise slowly. “At least I won’t be seeing her again.”
“No, I don’t think you will,” Alice responded. “Disgusting a monster so much that they don’t want to eat you... I have to admit that’s a new one.”
Salamander spoke up in my head. “I…. I don’t know what that was. You follow up one of the most brilliant fights I’ve ever had the privilege of witnessing with…that? I thought you were close to being on the level of Granberia. Now I don’t know what to think.”
“He improvised,” Undine replied. “I thought it was inspired. The fact that it was hilarious doesn’t take away from that, in my opinion.”
Salamander pointed out, “There aren’t many successful human vs. monster strategies that involve the human force feeding himself to the monster.”
“Yay!” Sylph said. “Luka beat the crab girl! Now we get to go swimming!”
“Unless the monster in question is easily grossed out, “ Undine said in rebuttal. “One adjusts their strategy to the opponent. In that respect, Luka was brilliant.”
“Hmmmm…” Salamander thought. “I guess one could say he added spunk to his fighting style.”

“Sit down and rest a bit,” Alice ordered. “As before, you’re going to encounter lots of hungry monsters down there. You’re strong enough to recover pretty fast from just one orgasm but we need to be safe. I don’t sense anything dangerous near, so let’s just sit here on the beach for an hour and pretend we’re on vacation.”
“Now that’s an idea I can get behind,” I said. “So you aren’t angry?”
“Angry?” Alice said. “Nooooo. I’m starting to get over myself in that respect. But you still make too many mistakes. Do you know what the margin for error is going to be once you enter my home?”
“I’m guessing there will be absolutely no margin for error.”
“That’s right,” she confirmed. “That’s even before you get to the Heavenly Knights. There are other powerful residents of my castle that will challenge you. I would expect some surprises set for you by the Heavenly Knights as well. One mistake and you’ll be done. You have to get your head right. I’m not insulting your intelligence this time, as much fun as that is. I’m talking about your emotional state. You still let fear and doubt get in your way. You beat yourself. You need to have the same focus, the same fearlessness fighting every monster that you do fighting Granberia. That’s the true strength of the Heavenly Knights. They adapt, they are creative, they are focused, and they fear nothing.”
“They do have their weakness, though,” I said. “From a mental standpoint.”
“They do,” Alice said. “What have you noticed?”
“Alma Elma lacks seriousness. She doesn’t commit to fights. Granberia seems to crave the battle itself more than the victory.”
“Good, you’re thinking, I like that,” Alice said. “Now, how can you use that to your advantage?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I can’t count on Alma Elma not being serious, it’s just sorta something that happens. I can’t very well go into a fight with her expecting her to just surrender out of the blue or not go for the finish when she has a chance. The same goes for Granberia. I can’t just assume she’ll give me a chance to breathe or hold something back next time.”
“Good thinking,” she said. “Those are genuine flaws that those two have. But they are flaws that aren’t easy to plan around. Your weaknesses, on the other hand, are exploitable. The way your power is progressing I honestly think you can beat all four of them. It’s truly been incredible to watch. I feel privileged to see it, especially given how much I had to do with it. I take full credit.”
“Your modesty, as always is one of many reasons why I like you,” I said.
“Being serious,” she said. “I don’t know how to train your mind. Only you can do that. You need to stay away from that castle if you aren’t in the right place mentally. If your brain isn’t where it needs to be, how powerful you are won’t matter. They’ll find a way to beat you. It’s what they do.”
“You’re right. I’ll do my best.”
“You could also give up,” Alice noted. “My earlier advice to you still stands. You don’t need to martyr yourself. This isn’t your world. It’s not your responsibility. I can take you back to my home as a guest. We can try to find a way to get you home. The magic to accomplish that is powerful, but we are powerful enough to do it. It’s just a matter of learning how. My library probably has an answer.”
“I’ll give it some thought,” I promised. “I’m on yet another quest at the moment. But I promise that I won’t even set foot on Hellgondo if I don’t have the confidence that I can succeed.”
“Thank you,” she said. “And….Luka?”
“Yes, Alice?”
She paused for a long time. I was afraid that she would decide to not say whatever she was about to say, that she’d tell me to forget it. But to my relief, she made her decision.
“If you come to the castle as my guest….. I’ll claim you. You’ll be under my protection. No more having to fight your own battles. Not that you’ll ever have to fight again. No monster in the castle would dare lay a hand on the Monster Lord’s lover.”
It wasn’t quite a confession of love, but I was moved nonetheless. I was also tempted. I might even take her up on that offer. But not yet. I was needed. I couldn’t just turn my back on the people of Ilias Village for my own selfish needs. But who would know? Once I entered that castle, I’d never leave it except to return to my own world. As far as the human world was concerned, I would just be a hero who did a lot of good things and then disappeared, presumed dead. I wouldn’t be the first.
But I’d know. Did that make me a good person, or just stupid? So many questions to resolve before my mind would be in a place where I could succeed. Those questions could wait, though. For the time being, for an hour at least, Alice and I were just a girl and a boy sitting on the beach looking out at the ocean. I put my arm around her shoulders. She snuggled into me, placing her head on my shoulder.
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