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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
- 35
- 36
- 37
I ran through the passageway and into the throne room. Alice was waiting for me. Even though we had not been apart for more than a couple of hours, it had seemed like weeks. Never had I fought so many tough battles in one day. Despite how much I had done, I was riding the waves of my elation as if I had acquired a fifth spirit named happiness. One last fight and then it would be over. No more being afraid, no more uncertainty. Together Alice and I would finish what we started on our journey of discovery.
“Hero,” she addressed me. “Well done making it here. I am the Monster Lord, Alipheese the Sixteenth.”
“Alice?” I said. “I know who you are. We haven’t been apart that long.”
Maybe this was part of the ritual? I didn’t understand many of the human cultures on this world, much less the monster cultures.
“Now then,” she went on. “You came to defeat me, didn’t you? Take up your sword, hero. Burn the power of the Monster Lord into your eyes!”
Oookay. Whatever it took, I would win. I don’t know how long she had planned this. I had entertained the idea in my mind briefly many times during this journey, but it wasn’t until that night on the hilltop that I was sure. I would have to ask her later when she had first decided that she wanted me to be her husband. Was it right at the beginning? Was it a hidden purpose of her going on this journey? Or had she just acquired the idea when she discovered my potential?
She seemed somewhat confused. “I didn’t expect it to be this easy,” she said. “Is your battle lust that high after defeating the Knights? Whatever, it doesn’t matter. You’re here to perform a ceremony of sorts. The masses need an easy to understand story to pass around. A simple story of a Hero slaying the evil Monster Lord.”
What was she saying? Realization hit me harder than Granberia’s ultimate move. Was this not what I thought at all? Was she trying to make up for ruining her mother’s plans by doing the same thing over again?
“Alice, what are you saying?!” I asked, my voice cracking with fear and emotion. “This isn’t…..?”
I couldn’t bring myself to ask the question. If I had been wrong it was my final act of idiocy, an act to top all others in our months on the road. I had no choice but to hear her out.
“It’s an old tradition,” she explained. “A way to end an old era, and let everyone look towards the future.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. I thought I did, but prayed I was as wrong about this as I had been about her wanting me to be her husband. Maybe this was something entirely different. Some third option, maybe some congratulatory ceremony for defeating the Knights.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “This is my role as the Monster Lord.”
“Role? What role?” I asked.
“With this, the world will have peace,” she explained calmly. “After the death of their leader, the monsters will stop acting violently. After that… I entrust the rest to you. Greet the world as the hero who slew the Monster Lord.”
There was no longer any doubt. This was an elaborate suicide ceremony, identical in nearly every way to the one her mother had performed. Tamamo had known. It’s why she was willing to use any tactic to defeat me, even bordering on the dishonorable. It’s why she had tried to stop me from coming in here. It’s why she had practically begged me to surrender. Thoughts raced through my mind. Now I wanted to know when Alice had decided on this. I also realized this would be the toughest battle I’d ever fought: I would have to persuade Alice, someone who I almost never won an argument with, to back down from this insanity.
“You’re forgetting one thing,” I argued. “I’m not a hero. It was never my intention to challenge the Monster Lord, not even in the beginning. Seek an audience with her, perhaps, but that’s it.”
“If you don’t want to be called a hero, I understand,” she said. “That word carries specific connotations on this world. In the end, whatever you call yourself, it amounts to the same thing. A great man is needed. My mother knew that. As the one who spoiled her plans, it’s my duty to execute them again.”
My world came crashing down. It would be impossible to describe the devastation. It’s one thing to get bad news when your life is already a mess. It’s another thing entirely to be riding the highest high you’ve ever ridden and then get hit with the crushing disappointment that what you were striving for has been snatched from you. Or worse, that it never existed in the first place. I had known that it was impossible to read Alice. Every assumption I’d ever made about her on our journey had been wrong. I was so over the moon that I’d forgotten that simple fact.
“No,” I said, fighting back tears. “No,no, no… Is that why you taught me how to fight properly? Is that why you taught me cursed sword techniques? The spirits? So that I could kill you with them?”
“At first, it was merely to entertain myself,” she answered. “But as we traveled together, I became convinced you were the one. My partner to work towards peace with. To fill the world with hope.”
She couldn’t have twisted the knife more cruelly. Her words were exactly the sentiments I’d had. At first I just enjoyed traveling with her. Then I grew to love her. Finally, when it became clear she wanted the same things I wanted, I knew we could be partners working towards that goal together for the rest of our lives. So similar in our outlooks, yet with completely opposite intentions.
“This isn’t the way!” I yelled. “Don’t you realize this is exactly what Ilias wants?! Why would you give her your life so easily?!”
“It’s true that Ilias wants my death,” Alice said. “It’s also true that Ilias’ plans are not so obvious that we can just defeat them by simple avoidance. Giving my life voluntarily is not what she expects. If anything has a chance of ruining her well laid plans, this is it. I had to think beyond her stated plans, to her actual goals. What is her goal, Luka? What does Ilias want?”
“She wants all monsters destroyed,” I replied.
“Yes,” Alice confirmed. “As long as there is hatred and strife, Ilias is always just a few steps away from her goal. The only way to defeat her plans is to end the hatred. Humans need a scapegoat. With my death, maybe humanity can move on. With you as their living embodiment of heroism, you can help them. As the one who destroyed the Monster Lord, people will listen to you. Monsters will fear you at first, but when it becomes clear that you mean them no harm, most will accept the new world. You became a believer in destiny in recent weeks, didn’t you?”
“I did,” I said. “Even though a goddess brought me here to do one thing, I thought that perhaps destiny, or perhaps an even higher power, had better intentions for me. I started to believe that maybe I could save this world. Those thoughts seemed so foolish when I was in Ilias Village mediating domestic disputes. But between your training, all the incredible coincidences, and all the good we did, I started to believe.”
“Then fulfill your destiny,” she said. “Strike me down and carry the news of your deed all over the world. Be the savior this world needs. Do it for humanity and for monster kind alike. In that way, maybe we can frustrate Ilias’ plans.”
I was losing again. Even in this, she was running circles around me. We were debating her death at my hands, and she was almost convincing me. Almost. It didn’t matter how convincing she was, she could never get me to kill her. I loved her. Even if I didn’t feel that way, I wasn’t a killer. Much had changed about me in the past couple of months, but not that.
“I’ve already fulfilled my destiny,” I declared. “I defeated the Four Heavenly Knights. They’ve agreed with my vision, at least for now. They will work with me to make a more peaceful world. With me as the hero who defeated, but DIDN’T need to kill them! With them as my allies, how could we fail? Imagine if the Monster Lord herself was also my ally! Do you realize what we could do together? Look at how much we’ve already done! And that’s with me rushing ignorantly into situations and you more often than not just letting me do it! Yet we still came out smelling like roses! Imagine how successful we could be as a team! Your brains, my sword, my new reputation! The situation today isn’t like it was when your mother made her choice. Things are different now! You don’t have to sacrifice yourself!”
Her resolve seemed to waver for a moment. If this was a battle of words as intense and as high stakes as any battle with swords, I had scored a potent hit. But she quickly recovered and counterattacked with anger.
“Quit with the naivety!” she scolded. “A human, especially an unbaptized human, running around with high ranking monsters would be regarded as a collaborator, a traitor, by most humans! The Monster Lord’s little pet! You could say all you wanted that you’d defeated the Four Heavenly Knights, but why should anyone believe you? Are they not all still alive? Without my death, no one will believe or trust you! Sure, you helped some people! They might come forward to vouch for you. But they are just a drop in the bucket. The monsters you helped certainly won’t be listened to by the humans! Their testimony would just be more evidence of your treachery!”
“Are you forgetting the favors we did for all of the royalty all over the world?” I shot back. “Every monarch is already on our side! Your mother couldn’t even have dreamed of that outcome! We’ve already created so much change! You say you’re entrusting this to me, but I can’t do it alone! You’re right, I’m too naïve for that!”
“Tamamo will help you,” Alice replied. “She’s always shared my mother’s dream. She’s far wiser than me. She can be your partner in this endeavour if you feel that you need one. She certainly tried hard enough to salvage what I ruined.”
“But the monarchs-“
“Enough,” she said quietly and firmly. “Don’t trouble me anymore. This is your destiny. You’ll see that in time. Now pick up your sword, Luka. The iron sword, not Angel Halo. Sealing me doesn’t get the job done.”
Had even her selection of my new iron sword all the way back in Grand Noah been part of her plan? It was a far better blade than the one I had left Ilias Village with. It did not appear that I would get to ask. She was taking a battle stance.
“Don’t misunderstand me,” she warned. “I will not just roll over and die. If there is any hesitation in your blade, I’ll kill you. You wouldn’t be worthy of my trust if you couldn’t defeat me for real.”
I had no idea how to get out of this. I knew I wasn’t the idiot Alice had always told me I was. Even she had conceded that I wasn’t. Yet when the chips were down I never seemed to have any ideas. Would she really kill me if I refused to fight her? I’d seen her kill. She didn’t seem to have any hesitation when she felt that she had to go that far. Had she ever even loved me? She’d said she didn’t when asked by Tamamo. Then why give me her virginity? The question answered itself. She intended to die, and didn’t want to die a virgin. I just happened to be there. She truly was a monster, in the pejorative sense.
For a brief moment I hated her. It passed quickly. No matter how much she had hurt me, I could not strike at her in hate. What I wanted to do at that moment was walk away. However, I knew that would be impossible. I could feel a barrier similar to that which I had encountered on Selene’s ship. Tamamo should have rushed in by now. Someone should have! No one was coming. Could I leave? Unlikely. Alice had thought of everything. There seemed no way out but to die. I was sure she even had a plan for that contingency. My dying would serve no good purpose. I would have to fight.
When the first bolt of dark magic hit me, wracking my body with pain to rival what Granberia had done to me, the fight was on. She had chosen that spell for a reason. It caused terrible pain but not much damage. She was goading me.
Salamander spoke. “Luka, you need all four of us at the same time! I promise you, we won’t fail you! Whatever it takes, we’ll endure to the end of the battle!”
Undine and Sylph agreed, determination in their voices. Gnome’s silent assent said that she was on the same page. I brought forth all four of them at once, and the battle was joined. You’re probably expecting a detailed play by play. There are two reasons you won’t get it. The most important is that the memory is too painful. The other is that the battle wasn’t really all that exciting or suspenseful. Even without being able to use all four spirits together, I had managed to defeat the Heavenly Knights. With all four working at once and determined to not falter no matter how long the battle lasted, there was no force on this planet that could stop me, not even the Monster Lord.
She made a good effort. She wasn’t holding back when it came to pure force. She threw fireballs, ice storms, dark magic bolts, and variations that kept me off balance. When I got close, she would knock me away with fists that hit harder than even Tamamo’s. Her tail would whip at me with enough force to pulverize me. Most of the time, she couldn’t even hit me. She, however, was quite hittable. Again and again my sword cut her. Real cuts, with real blood. I was fueled by anger and pain. She was choosing her attacks to inflict as much agony as possible. On the few occasions that she was able to hit me with something, pain and rage exploded within me. She was trying to make me forget who I was. Trying to make me kill. She came closer than I’d care to admit. I was inflicting as much pain with my blade as she was with her magic.
Despite this, I knew she was holding back. Not holding back in the sense of pulling her punches. No, I could tell by the intensity on her face that she was coming at me with all the power at her disposal. What she wasn’t doing was showing any kind of imagination in her attacks. She was far too clever to simply throw punches and magic at me. I knew she had to have other tricks after the way she so casually took Cassandra apart. She also refrained from pleasure attacks, which I was still vulnerable to. Given my feelings for her, those pleasure attacks would have certainly taken all the starch out of me. She knew my strengths and weaknesses. She knew exactly how to beat me. Yet she was battling me where I was strongest. Because of that, the outcome was never in doubt. It’s fair to say that the battle wasn’t even close. She caused me a lot of pain, and it took quite a bit of time, but I dominated her.
Finally, she fell, lying in a pool of her own blood. My own body was scorched in places, frozen in others, bruised in yet more. I’d suffered wounds from other battles that day as well. I no longer had adrenaline and happiness fueling me. As I stared at her lying on the ground, all the fight went out of me. I could barely stand or hold up my sword. I fell to my knees in front of her prone body. She reached out a hand to touch my face.
“It’s been a fun journey, Luka,” she rasped. “The days I spent going around the world with you were the happiest days of my life. Now, end this journey with your own hand. Since it’s you, I can keep my resolve.”
I didn’t move. I just continued to stare at her. Without the pain of her attacks fueling my anger and my burning desire to live no longer threatened, the battle was over. She had no power to compel me any longer. She had failed.
“Why are you hesitating?” she said. “Just one stab with your sword, right where you saw Lazarus stab my mother, and it’s over.”
I didn’t move, but I found my words. I could no longer hold back the tears. “Alice, you’ve taught me so much these past weeks. But you forgot to teach me how to kill.”
With disgust and revulsion, I threw my iron sword as far as I could. As dramatic gestures went, it was less than satisfying. It clattered only a few yards from where I was kneeling. The spirits had withdrawn their power, as exhausted as I was. Nevertheless, I resolved I would never pick that thing up again, no matter what. I had shed enough blood in this room for a lifetime.
“You can’t do it?!” she said, her voice regaining some strength. “You idiot…”
She began to rise. She had been so near death, yet like a movie monster that you thought was dead but was very much still a threat, she rose, towering over my still kneeling form. Her wounds had already stopped bleeding. What was this woman made of? I wasn’t sure I could even get up to meet her, much less put up further resistance. If she was going to kill me I would no longer be able to stop her.
“How naïve, thinking that you can attain such a lofty objective without some sacrifice along the way,” she said. “Do you realize what you’ve done? All the efforts you made these weeks, all my efforts, they will all go to waste now! All because in the end, you didn’t have the guts to do what needed to be done! I thought better of you, Luka! How could you?!”
“I love you, Alice!” I shouted. “I couldn’t kill you because I love you!”
She froze. “Luka…. I…”
“Do you know why I already had my sword out when I came into the room?”
“No,” she replied. “I thought you were still so keyed up from your battles, or maybe you understood what I was doing.”
“I thought I was supposed to prove I was stronger!” I yelled through my tears. “I thought I was supposed to prove I was worthy of marrying you!”
Her eyes widened in shock. She put her hands over her mouth. “Oh, Luka,” she said. “I’ve been so cruel to you! I should have known. If I had known, I could never have asked you to do this. I would have known you couldn’t possibly…. Oh, I’m the real idiot! I’m such an awful person!”
She lowered herself to where I was kneeling. “I still think I’m right,” she said quietly, her own tears starting to come. “I can’t ask you to do this thing anymore, but I know I’m right. Now I don’t know what to do. I’ve ruined everything again.”
“You’re not right,” I insisted. “What you are is overcome with guilt. Guilt that your mother died for nothing because of you. That’s an act that can’t be taken back, even assuming that it would have worked. It wouldn’t have, and I’ll tell you why: her plan was so fragile that all it took was a grieving toddler to ruin it. Do you realize just how many ways this could have failed? Do you think Ilias would just stand by and let you ruin her big plan? You envisioned me going around the world talking about my deeds. But who brought me here? Don’t you think she could send me back anytime she wanted to? Just like that, your plan would have been ruined.”
“The boy is wiser than he seems,” a voice said. Didn’t she have a barrier up? Who could have broken past that barrier? We both turned. Standing before us was the woman from my dreams. She was as majestic and beautiful as I had dreamed, but the difference between dreams and reality couldn’t be more stark. Her radiance and power were overwhelming. She was an awe inspiring figure. She was indeed a goddess, and she was right in front of me, in the waking world.
“He didn’t QUITE get it right,” she stated, not sounding like a goddess at all. In fact, she sounded like a classic mean girl from high school. “You see, once he killed you I wasn’t going to just send him back. I promised him an eternal reward. He was going to ascend directly to heaven, to spend eternity with me and my angels. The boy seems to enjoy sex. He’d get all he could stand up there, with a harem of angels and the goddess Ilias herself as his lover, for all eternity.”
“Ilias…” I breathed in awe. I had known she was real, but I never expected to see her right in front of me. “Why me? You had to know I wasn’t capable of this.”
“Not capable?!” she replied. “Do you know how long I searched for the right one? For 500 years I scoured this planet trying to find the next Heinrich, someone to complete the task he left unfinished! None of my useless followers had what it takes, so completely fed up, I had to go looking in other universes for my hero! Guess who I found? You! You had so much magical potential, such unnatural reflexes, I knew that when you reached your full potential you could squash the Monster Lord like the vermin she is!”
I stepped in front of Alice, putting myself between her and Ilias.
“Why not do it yourself?” I asked. “You’re here now, why do you use humans to do your dirty work?”
“Because I can’t kill the Monster Lord myself!” she yelled. Ilias was clearly quite worked up. “As for why, it’s none of your business. I’m not here to tell you my entire divine plan. I’m here to punish you for failing me!”
“So this actually was your plan?” I asked. “I was supposed to kill the Monster Lord? How could you have expected that I would do that?”
“Because I told you to, of course! What other reason does a goddess need? That, and your reward. I know a monster can bring you ecstasy like you’ve never experienced before. Now imagine what a goddess can do. But no! You had to let yourself get seduced by that whore!”
“Seduced me?” I said, now amused. I turned to Alice. “Alice, did you seduce me?”
Alice gestured helplessly, not understanding what I was going on about. I turned back to Ilias.
“If she was trying to seduce me, she failed,” I said. “I fell in love with her despite, not because of, her sexual prowess. I fell in love with her because she loves food. No matter what’s going on, food is always near the top of her mind. Even now, I bet I could hand her an Ama Ama Dango and she’d eat it while she watched us have our tete-a-tete. I fell in love with her because she’s brilliant. Her mind is even more formidable than her power. You know how many arguments I’ve won with her? Exactly as many as the number of fights I’ve won. Just one.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet,” Ilias said sarcastically. “Do go on, you’re entertaining me now.”
“Okay, I’ve got a whole list!” I said, looking back at Alice. Her expression told me that she was deeply touched by what I was saying. I continued. “I fell in love with her because for all her power, she’s afraid of ghosts. I also fell in love with her because of her courage. Despite that fear, she always accompanied me and faced her fears. I fell in love with her because she said she wouldn’t help me, but whenever I really needed it, she helped me anyway. But most of all, I fell in love with her because she’s willing to die for what she believes in. She was wrong, but the fact that she was willing to make that sacrifice… Even I wasn’t willing to go that far.”
“Luka,” Alice said, laughing threw her tears. “I don’t even know what to say to all that. It’s so... much.”
I was kinda hoping for an Oh Luka, I love you too! And she’d throw her arms around me and kiss me passionately, and music would play, and since music was playing, Ilias couldn’t interrupt us, because that’s the rules in movies. At least I’d gotten it off my chest. If Ilias struck me down right now, at least I would die having said what I needed to say to Alice.
Ilias gave a low chuckle. “I’d note that she didn’t actually say she loved you back. Even after you proved your strength over her, thus making you eligible to marry her. But maybe I’m wrong. Would you like me to officiate this wedding before I disintegrate your body and throw your soul into the Sealed Sinner’s Prison with Heinrich? My unqualified hero’s prison has plenty of space for the both of you.”
“Unqualified?!” Alice interjected, eliding the subject of love and weddings. “All Luka has done is fight for others. With no thought of his own safety. I’ve never met anyone as brave or as generous as him. I have to compliment you, Ilias, you chose a true hero.”
“I’m sure he appreciates your compliment, snake lady, but I decide what the definition of hero is in the world I created. Now be silent. This is a disgraced hero and goddess conversation.”
Alice opened her mouth to retort, but no sound came out. She settled for flipping Ilias a middle finger. Where had she learned that? I never taught her that!
“Ilias, why do you hate monsters so much?” I asked.
“Oh, the fact that my handpicked hero was raped 82 times doesn’t give you a little hint? The question that should be asked is how you can’t hate them? Even the love of your life tried to rape you not two days after you met her. She had no idea you were such a poon hound and didn’t mind! She admitted she wouldn’t have stopped even if you begged her to! You act as if it’s some giant mystery why I thought you would want to kill her! I was sure that spending just a few days with her would make you want to strangle her! Let’s see, she tried to rape you, she verbally and emotionally abused you, she was letting her little minions rape you while she watched. She spent all your money to feed her gullet! She made you carry all the supplies! Then you get to have a little fun with an actual human fucking PRINCESS and she decides that you belong to her without getting any of the benefits of belonging to her! How many reasons do you need!? You idiots were overthinking this the whole time! Everything was EXACTLY as it appeared to be! But you’re so much of a bleeding heart, so incapable of hate, that you still fought for them! The very monsters who were willing to rape or kill you without any regret whatsoever!”
“I guess that was your mistake, then,” I said. “You were looking for pure power but never thought to find someone who could hate enough to get the job done.”
“Please!” she scoffed. “I didn’t even get that! All that power within you, and you never even used it! The only reason you got strong enough to beat her is because she was hell bent on dying herself so she had to hold your hand through the entire process! The way it was supposed to go is you discover your power and one day when she goes to rape you, you obliterate her! That’s why I stopped talking to you! I realized you were hopeless. I had to rely on HER to get what I wanted! “
“Maybe if you hadn’t wiped my memory…” I said.
“Oh, that?” she laughed. “As I told you the first time I spoke to you, I’m not perfect. You had… how shall I say it? A rough landing in that forest. Almost in the same spot your girlfriend there landed. She’s a little sturdier than you, so was no worse for wear. You, on the other hand… Well, you bumped your little noggin. Wouldn’t have done you any good, anyway. Your power doesn’t work on your world. That’s why it was latent. Maybe it’s not your fault. Not even I know how your power works. I didn’t create it, after all, I just borrowed it and your sorry ass came with the package. No, the only thing I did to you intentionally was protect you from mind control. Couldn’t very well have my unbaptized hero running around with his mind AND his prick unprotected.”
“You know something, Ilias?” I said. “You are the most lovely, radiant being I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
“I get that a lot,” she said, twirling her hair with her fingers.
“How do you contain so much ugliness inside you?” I asked.
“Excuse me, fake hero who’s about to die?”
“I remembered something recently about one of the gods they worship on my world. He loved humanity so much, that he sacrificed his life for them. You know who else tried to do that today? That woman,” I said, pointing to Alice.”Seems to me that she knows more about what it means to be a real goddess than you do.”
“Real goddess?!” Ilias said in disbelief. “Real goddess?! You insignificant little flea! I’ll show you the power of a real goddess!”
A huge wave of divine power exploded out of the goddess. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl. I could see the wave coming at me. That wave contained more power than anything in this world. It wouldn’t leave an atom of my physical body intact. My soul would presumably be taken by Ilias to join Heinrich for all eternity, never knowing rest. I could see behind me that Alice was frantically whipping up some kind of shield. Her reflexes were commendable, but I could also see her magic clearly, as easily as I could Ilias’. It was too little and would be far too late.
Have you ever been so angry that you were dead calm? That’s the best way I can describe my state of mind just then. I wasn’t really angry, per se, it’s not a perfect comparison. I’d been through an incredlble roller coaster of emotions that day. The fear of treading these halls, knowing that at any moment something more powerful than I could handle would end my journey. The excitement and tension of the battles with the Four Heavenly Knights. The elation at my victories. The heartbreak of Alice’s unknowing destruction of my dream. Even the mild amusement at this goddess and her oh so human pettiness and arrogance. I had nothing left emotionally. I was completely serene.
Within that serenity I could clearly see my own power as well. It stood out as plainly as Alice’s and Ilias’. Not only could I see it, I could touch it. I could even form it to suit my needs. The most urgent concern was that I needed to not die. It seemed so easy. Ilias was the goddess of this world, but she had made a grave miscalculation. I wasn’t from this world. I was not bound by its laws, laws such as, “Nothing can be as powerful as the creator,” a law that seemed as immutable as nothing exceeding the speed of light. This power I had wasn’t just stronger than ten Monster Lords. It dwarfed even Ilias. But only if I could use it.
At that moment, however, I could, and I did. Using just a fraction of my power, I formed a shield around myself. I didn’t need to worry about Alice, I was in front of her, and in any case, Ilias could not harm her. Somehow I knew this to be the truth, even though I had only her word on it.
Ilias’ power impacted me like a thrown pillow. My power absorbed it like a sponge absorbing a small spill a child had made. Time returned to normal. Ilias stared at me in astonishment. Her astonishment turned to rage.
“NOW you harness your power! Seriously?! Are you fucking kidding me!?” she raged.
“Do you believe yourself a goddess because you’re powerful?” I asked her, my voice low. “Let me show you power, then!”
I released her own power back at her, along with the entirety of my own, directed in a thin bolt to avoid damage to anything but Ilias. The bolt hit her full force, sending her crashing through the walls of the castle. An Ilias shaped hole now adorned the throne room wall. Now I was truly empty. It wasn’t a physical emptiness. The outpouring of power had healed me and restored me to full health. I was ready for battle if Ilias had more fight in her. But I was emotionally drained. I turned to Alice.
“Alice-“ I said listlessly. The enormity of what had just happened finally hit me.
A loud boom echoed through the castle. “It’s not over!” Alice yelled.
Ilias crashed through the wall, this time making an entrance instead of an exit. Now there were two Ilias shaped holes in the wall. “Very impressive for a mortal!” Ilias yelled. She was looking pretty mortal herself. The divine glow was gone. She was battered and bruised all over. I didn’t know how much power she had left. My serene state was gone. I couldn’t read her power anymore. “Looks like you’ve dodged death once again! But I don’t have to kill you myself! I’m going to turn this castle into a second Remina! Be exterminated with these monsters you so adore!”
Ilias vanished. More booms shook the castle to its foundations. Erubetie rushed into the room, Alice’s shield apparently down. “A report, your majesty!” she exclaimed. “An army of angels, along with a group of strange monsters, is invading the castle! We have already begun to counterattack, but their numbers are overwhelming!”
“So it’s a full scale war, Ilias?” Alice said. “Got it, I’m heading out!”
“I’m going with you!” I said.
“Okay,” Alice said, almost with tenderness, taking my hand. “From now on, we fight together. Isn’t that what you’ve wanted all this time?”
“That and many other things,” I said, smiling.
“The other things will have to wait until we have some time to talk,” she said, smiling. “For now, I hope this is enough.”
Taking my hand, she rushed us out of the throne room and into the fray.
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