More War!

It took an hour to gather up all of our people. I decided to warp us all to San Ilia next. I was very happy that I'd already visited the four capitols being attacked. That gave us a chance to defeat the Monster Lord's opening attack in only one day. That could buy us time to make it to the Monster Lord's castle and get her to end the conflict, assuming I could verify her reasons for initiating it. Of course, being able to defeat her attack in one day meant not taking too many losses at each capitol.

"How many did we lose here?" I asked Alice.

"No one killed or seriously injured, but four are in critical ecstasy," Alice reported. "In a pinch, they could be back in action later today, but for now they are being taken back to the castle. So for the moment, we're eight down."

War isn't just hell, it's hard, I thought. "Okay, I want to get to San Ilia now, so let's go with who we have and before moving onto Sabasa we'll pick up anyone who is ready to get back into action from the castle. Do you guys think that's a good idea?"

"Normally no," Alice said. "But speed is important here, and we at least have our most powerful resources still in the fight."

That much was true. Of our core group, only Sonya was absent, as she had volunteered to help carry Pochi back to the castle just outside of town. Pochi hadn't avoided being wounded in any of our battles, which led me to decide that she should simply remain in the castle. She was too innocent and loyal to fully understand what she was getting into. Enemies in other cities might not be as gentle as the elves and fairies.

Verifying that I had Alice, Tamamo, Ilias, Alma Elma, Black Alice, and quite a few others, I concentrated and brought us all to the entrance of San Ilia. As expected, we dropped into mayhem. Mermaids were attacking everyone. I guessed that made sense, since San Ilia was the closest major city to Port Natalia.

"As always, Luka, find and vanquish the leader!" Ilias yelled, taking to the air to engage in her favorite pasttime: sniping monsters from the air who couldn't reach her. Alma Elma followed suit, as well as Regina, the Beelzebubs, Flippy, and Flappy. The mermaids would probably have no answer to attacks from above.

My ground forces surged forward, concentrating mostly on rescuing males being raped by mermaids. The mermaids were mostly concentrating on subduing their opposition rather than killing, but like the elves weren't afraid to resort to physical force when they thought it necessary. Some men were on the ground moaning in ecstasy, others battered and bruised by mermaid tails. A very lovely mermaid made me feel very bad by forcing me to seal her with my sword thrust right into her chest. Even though I knew mermaids were strong, it felt awful to hurt a naked woman. The elves and fairies were at least dressed in battle gear!

Alice and Alicetroemeria showed no such reluctance. A mermaid dared to strike Alice with her tail, prompting Alice to retaliate with her own tail, knocking the poor mermaid out. Another mermaid with a little elemental skill made Black Alice say "ouch!" by hitting her with a concentrated blast of water from her finger, a technique Meia told me was a "water bullet". Black Alice may have been willing to obey my rules about killing, but that did not mean she couldn't still be cruel. She cast a spell that surrounded the unlucky mermaid in dark magic, causing her to scream and writhe horribly until she too, was mercifully knocked out seconds later.

The human city guards were at a disadvantage against the ordinary mermaids, but seemed to be at least competitive against them, so I sought foes more worthy of my skills. I found two of them dominating a whole squad of soldiers, obviously mermaid warriors. To my relief, they were clothed and had actual weapons. Even though I knew pleasure attacks could be lethal, I still always felt bad about attacking someone with a sword who was trying to make me come. I'd never gotten used to the idea that such a fight could be fair under the terms of this weird world.

The city guards, seeing me zip as fast as the wind between the two mermaid warriors to engage them, withdrew from the fight, leaving the two to me. I may have bitten off more than I could chew. Both knights could use the water element fairly well, which meant they could enter the flow. The battle went on for several minutes at a very hectic pace, causing me to begin to tire, which wasn't good because I still had to take on whoever the big boss was that was leading the attack. My friends had my back, however. The two opponents became one as the three Akaname sisters barreled into one of the mermaid knights, taking them down.

"Stop! Stop with that damned licking!" the knight raged, struggling as the surprisingly strong sisters held her down. "Fight like real monsters!"

"This is how real monsters fight!" one of the sisters said, burying her face in the mermaid's groin.

"Ah! Ah! On second thought, keep licking! Please keep licking! Truly you are the most valiant opponents I have Ahhh! Ever faced!"

One on one, I had a much easier time with the other mermaid. Startled by her own sudden lack of backup, she made a mistake and I sealed her a few moments later. The Akaname sisters were finished with their opponent as well, the other mermaid knight lying on her side, quivering with joy.

"So…. Much…. Wonderful… licking…."

"Thanks for the assist, ladies," I said gratefully. "You really licked 'em good."

"it's what we do!" the blue haired sister said with a smile, running off to find another opponent.

They found one quickly, taking her down the same way. It was good to see people who knew what they were good at and loved doing it. I ran past them, towards another big fray in front of the San Ilia temple. There, I saw who was leading the fight. It was El, the Mermaid Princess. I expected that. The Queen Mermaid was a recluse, and back in my world had been eager to pass her title on to El as soon as her daughter was ready. This was an awkward situation for me. El was no more than a child, but she was a very powerful child. I looked around for Alice or Ilias. I could see neither. Damn. It was up to me.

"El!" I shouted. "Stop this madness now!"

"You stop!" the princess shouted back. "it's you humans who are the meanies!"

"The humans welcome mermaids in this province! Why would you attack them!"

"Because my mommy said to!" El replied. "Now either challenge me or stop bothering m- Waaahhh!"

A huge cannonball impacted El in the chest, sending her flying back. Her personal guard, alarmed, chased after her. I tried to follow, but several mermaid knights blocked my path, swords drawn. My friends had my back again. Alma Elma intercepted El, landing right in front of her and restraining the little princess. Her personal guard attacked Alma Elma, but the queen succubus barely took notice of them. Alma Elma's eyes flashed and they all went to sleep, probably having very sexy dreams.

The already confused mermaid knights in front of me were cleared by my little air force, which set upon them from above and quickly overcame them. That left me a clear path to El, who was still being held in place by Alma Elma.

"You meanie!" El said to me. "Well I'm not afraid of you! Do whatever you want with me! It's your right!"

"Sorry, I don't think you're Luka's type," Alma Elma said. "But I have no qualms about punishing you."

"You…. You wouldn't!" El said, frightened. "You wouldn't eat me, would you?"

"Rather than find out, how about calling off your forces?" Alma Elma said sweetly.

"Fine!" El said petulantly. "But my mommy is going to be very angry with you!"

"If your mother wants to take it up with Two Heavenly Knights and the rightful Monster Lord, she's welcome to do so," Tamamo said. "But I'm guessing your mother wasn't told by the pretender to that throne that she's not the undisputed Monster Lord. Your mother is such a recluse I'm assuming she has no idea that the throne is contested at the moment."

The mermaid army spent the next hour or so clearing out of the city. Since San Ilia had no monsters to defend it, we'd arrived just in the nick of time. I realized I probably should have remembered that and come to San Ilia first. But as with Grand Noah, there had been no deaths. I waited for all of our friends to rejoin us.

"I'm not seeing everyone," I said. "Who did we lose?"

"Kimuro got violated," Tamamo said. "I teleported her back to the castle already. I think we only lost one here."

"No, Nanabi was with her as well and got wet, so she fled," Alice reported. "Kitsunes, amiright?"

"Seriously?" Tamamo asked. "The third strongest kitsune in existence and she ran because she got wet?"

"She does hate getting wet," I said lamely. "I'm not going to judge her. The Nanabi I knew had as much courage as anyone. But she also hated to get wet. Maybe it's a phobia for her. Like Alice and g-"

"Don't you say it!" Alice warned.

"Okay, then let's go to Sabasa," I said.

"Wait, let's take a ten minute breather," Alice said.

"While you guys are doing that," Alma Elma said. "I'm going to see if Kitsu and the others who fell in the Grand Noah battle are ready to fight. Be back in ten."

I teleported my slowly dwindling army to Sabasa, where we found that vampires were attacking. The good news was that vampires were far less numerous than elves or mermaids. They aren't known for having a lot of babies. But individually, they were much more powerful than mermaids or elves, which meant that the humans in Sabasa were almost completely unable to stop their rampaging.

Juska, who had acquitted herself well in both battles we'd been in, quickly stepped forward and addressed our party.

"This is the moment where we fight for justice!" she yelled unnecessarily, given that we weren't that large a group and could hear her quite well. "Those creatures of the dark-"

"That's a myth, Juska," Alice said with exaggerated patience.

"Are attacking the helpless citizens and drinking their blood!"

"Also a myth," Alice said. "Mostly."

"We must be the light in the darkness for these helpless people!"

"Yes," our candle girl, who I hadn't seen since we invited her to the castle, said. "I feel my fire burning!"

A tiny little flame appeared above the candle girl's head.

"I know vampires are scary," Juska continued.

"Actually, they're really just weaker succubi," Alma Elma said.

"With their long, sharp fangs…"

"I got big blades," Matis said.

"And I've got a big ax!" one of the minotaurs added.

"And their scary looking capes," Juska continued.

"Very impractical," Alma Elma pointed out.

"But we're heroes! And what do heroes do?"

"We are most certainly not heroes," Striga said.

"Heroes protect the innocent and vanquish evil!" Juska finished. "Now let's go show 'em what we're made of!"

Juska flew off, on her own, presumably to do heroic stuff.

"We'd better go and do… er…. Whatever it is she's doing," I said.

"I like your inspiring speeches much better," Alice said.

With a battle cry of "meh", we charged into Sabasa, easily dispatching the first few vampires we encountered, who weren't focused on fighting so much as draining victims of their semen. But not just their semen.

"Luka, this man's lost a lot of blood!" Sonya said in horror.

"Alice, do vampires drink blood here?" I asked.

"Vampires always CAN drink blood, they just usually don't," Alice answered. "Their fangs aren't actually meant to draw blood, rather than siphon a victim's energy through them. Have they developed a taste for blood, or are they just trying to terrorize the populace?"

"At least we're still not seeing any corposes," I pointed out.

"Luka, if I don't get this man some blood soon, he might not live," Sonya said.

"Sonya, your blood type is compatible with his," Ilias said. "Victoria, angels are universal blood donors. I know you're a warrior, but we're going to need you for a more important purpose in this battle."

"I understand," Victoria responded. "I serve you loyally, my goddess."

"Shit, it means I'll need to give up my blood as well," Ilias said sourly.

"The vampires aren't too numerous," I said. "I think we've got enough monsters to deal with them."

We did, and for the sake of speed we all split up into groups strong enough to take on the one or two vampires at a time that we were likely to encounter. The attack on Sabasa had more the flavor of a riot than an organized act of war. Vampires rampaged singly or in pairs, attacking any victims they could reach. I sealed one in the middle of draining blood from a young woman, another who was stalking a small child. I began to work with more urgency, recognizing that vampires didn't have the same scruples as elves, fairies, or mermaids. While they may not have been seeking to kill anyone, I guessed that they would shed no tears of a few citizens died accidentally. I was appalled to see that the vampires also had no qualms about attacking children. Within the first hour of battle, there were bats flapping all over the skies of Sabasa, all recently sealed by my sword.

I raced to the castle once I'd sealed all of the vampires in my area, remembering that vampires were also asssassins. They had targeted the king and Sara in my first encounter with them in Sabasa, so it made sense they would go after Sara this time as well.

The monsters on my side weren't being terribly gentle either. I found a trail of unconscious, battered and bloody vampires along Sabasa's main street. I found out why within a mile of the castle. Three minotaurs were in a berserker rage, barely under control as they brutalized vampires, who seemed to be drawn to them. The minotaurs were covered in blood, mostly not their own. I rushed to their aid, both to protect them and to keep them from killing anyone.

When all of the vampires in the area had been either beaten to a pulp or sealed, Carol seemed to calm down somewhat.

"I hate vampires," she wheezed.

"We cow girls have very tasty blood," Odette explained. "The vampires that drink blood want us as much as they want the humans."

"You three rest for a bit, okay?" I ordered. "I'm heading for the palace to make sure Sara's all right."

I sealed three more vampires on my way to the palace. The citizenry in the area had either been fed on to the point of unconsciousness or had fled. The streets were empty except for some vampire stragglers who came after me from time to time.

When I reached the palace, I saw a more organized scene. A group of powerful looking vampires were engaged in combat with the Sabasan Royal Guard. I was preparing to summon Sylph and deal with them fast when Juska landed beside me, her spandex superhero suit as clean as if she'd just put it on. Then again, it was mostly red, so maybe I just couldn't tell.

"We must protect the Queen!" Juska declared unnecessarily.

"Let's do it," I said with determination, summoning up Sylph. Juska may not have been directly proficient with the wind element, but her own unique power enabled her to move almost as fast as me. Together we sealed and beat up vampire after vampire.

"I could do this all day!" Juska yelled triumphantly, sending a vampire flying with one punch. She swung at another vampire, connecting solidly with its jaw. The vampire didn't even budge. Juska cried out in pain and held her injured hand gingerly. "Okay, maybe I can't do this all day."

Oh crap. Her power had cut out. Given how long she'd been at it today, and she was on her third big battle, it was surprising that her power hadn't cut out sooner. Angry vampires swarmed her.

"Luka!" Juska shouted. "Go find the queen! I shall fall as a hero!"

Juska went down as the vampires mobbed her. I wanted to save her, but realized that the vampires probably wouldn't kill her. In any case, Royal Guard were rushing to her aid, and the minotaurs appeared around a corner. Juska would have help. I rushed into the palace.

Inside the palace, I saw that the brave stand of the Royal Guard had been for naught. Moaning and unconscious guards lay everywhere. None appeared to be drained of blood. The attack inside the palace had been a more traditional vampire attack, or what passed for traditional on this world. They'd been drained of their semen, as well as their energy. Each guard had two small punctures in his neck.

I threw caution to the wind, as I often did, and rushed to the throne room. I made sure to listen to the wind to avoid an ambush. It did me no good. Vampires themselves can be like the wind, suddenly appearing out of nowhere. I only knew the vampire was there when I saw her cape out of the corner of my eye as it wrapped around me. Her fangs sunk into my neck.

I did myself more damage by pulling free from her while her fangs were In me. Blood started to pour down my left side. I tried healing myself with my power, and slowed the bleeding somewhat. I had never been as good at healing myself as I was at healing others, but at least I wasn't likely to die of blood loss. I faced the vampire who had attacked me. I recognized her immediately. It was Carmilla, probably the prettiest, but also the most dangerous of vampires.

"Remember me?" Carmilla asked gleefully.

"I do," I said evenly. "I'd ask why you would say that, but I think I know by now."

"You're much tastier than in my dreams. I can't wait to find out what your semen is like."

Wrapping herself in her cloak, she vanished. Nope, I thought, not getting fooled by that move. I had already begun my mule kick before she appeared behind me. I connected solidly with her midsection, knocking her down. I sought to finish the battle quickly, driving my sword down, but she caught it between her hands, stopping it inches from her heart.

"If you've been dreaming about me, I'm sure you know that you're going to lose," I said, grunting, trying to overpower her and sink my sword into her breast. "So why not just give up now?"

We struggled like that for a few minutes. I added Gnome to try to finish her, but she simply summoned up even more vampiric strength to prevent the sword from dropping the few more inches it needed to seal her. She smiled as she gazed into my eyes.

"Okay, I give up," she laughed.

"What? Seriously?"

"Yep, I'm done," Carmilla said. "I just needed to delay you while Elizabeth took the queen."

I ran from Carmilla into the throne room. There had obviously been a struggle. Sara had probably given a good account of herself. But she was clearly gone, probably teleported away. Crap. That girl was always getting kidnapped.

"Hey hero!" Carmilla shouted. "You can teleport, right? You know where the canal is? That's where we've got Sara. Why don't you come and do your hero thing? Fight well and I might make your own dreams come true. I know I'm your favorite."

I wasn't sure how she knew that, but she wasn't lying. Carmilla was blazing hot and had haunted my dreams from time to time even though I'd only encountered her for a few minutes in my world. I hadn't had the opportunity to get to know her, as the vampires, like many monster races, had never fully reconciled themselves to coexistence. They had still resented both Alice and me.

I teleported to the canal to find myself confronted by over a dozen powerful looking vampires. An absurdly young looking vampire was holding Sara captive. I knew that looks could be deceiving when it came to monsters. I presumed the young vampire was Elizabeth, but if she was powerful she was probably older than the vampires who were with her.

"Thanks for volunteering to spring our trap!" the young vampire said triumphantly. "We chose this location because none of your friends are nearby. The Monster Lord will be very pleased when we bring your drained, almost lifeless body for her to devour."

"And what do you plan to do with Sara?" I asked. "Let her go, and I'll let you take me to the Monster Lord now, without a fight. How about it?"

"I'm not stupid, hero!" Elizabeth retorted. "You want us to escort you to the Monster Lord so you can kill her!"

"You flatter me," I said. "But fine. You can drain me all you want before taking me to her. Just let Sara go. I won't resist if you just let her go."

Elizabeth seemed to consider. I was willing to take a chance on that bargain. I was convinced Alice's mother wouldn't actually eat me, although she would be very likely to go through the motions to provoke a defensive response from me that would kill her. I was hoping I'd get a chance to talk her out of it first.

"No, I think I'll decline your generous offer," Elizabeth said. "While the Monster Lord wants you, we're getting something out of this as well. Once we conquer Sabasa, we'll no longer have to live in the shadows. We'll be able to walk around in broad daylight, in our true forms, feeding on whomever we wish. All of the citizens of Sabasa will be our slaves! And this queen here…. She'll be my personal servant."

"I urge you to reconsider," I said threateningly. "I count fifteen vampires here. I've already sealed at least twice that number today. You won't win."

"You sealed peons," Carmilla said, appearing behind me. "Every vampire here is a high ranking vampire."

"We've been fully briefed on your abilities," Elizabeth said. "You won't win unless you're willing to kill some of us. And since you're not…. Well, that's your hangup. The only reason we haven't killed anyone today is because we were told it would be a very bad idea to make you angry. But since we haven't killed anyone, your own foolish moral code won't allow you to use excessive force on us."

And without that excessive force, I would lose. I was in a genuine moral dilemma, and I knew I wasn't creative or smart enough to think my way out of it. I would either fight a good fight with my loyal spirits and go down fighting, or I would go nuts with my power and probably leave dead vampires in my wake. I was sure that Alice and Ilias would tell me to do it. If the mission failed, everyone was doomed. If I lost here, Sabasa would fall to the vampires and the people would live lives of slavery, their dreams demolished.

"Even high ranking vampires are just low level succubi," Sara said. I didn't like the glint in Sara's eye at all. She hadn't appeared frightened before, more concerned. Now she was looking gleeful and sadistic. "Both vampires and succubi are descendants of Minagi, but succubi are far superior. In fact…."

Sara transformed into her succubus form, much to the alarm of the vampires, who had apparently been thoroughly briefed on me, but had not been told that Sara was a succubus. A very odd thing for the Monster Lord to leave out, given that Sara had probably had her monster blood awakened on the Monster Lord's orders.

"In fact," Sara continued, as the vampires stared at her agape. "I think you will all serve me."

Sara's tail closed over Elizabeth's face, draining the powerful young vampire's energy in an instant. Infused with such potent energy, a wave of what I can only describe as sexiness exploded from Sara. Several of the vampires closet to her fell, coming uncontrollably. The wave hit me and brought me right up to the edge, which was the weirdest feeling since I hadn't even been touched. Carmilla, who had been shielded from the wave, took full advantage of the opportunity to finish me, grabbing me with one arm and shoving her hand down my pants.

I felt her cool hand grip my penis, before she was abruptly pulled away from me. Had one of my friends arrived to bail me out again? No, in fact it was one of Sabasa's small population of monsters. A gator girl had grabbed Carmilla by the cape and dragged her into the canal. I saw thrashing and blood in the water. When it was over, the gator girl, entirely too cute for a monster so fearsome, surfaced and belched.

"You didn't…."

"Only a taste," she giggled. "Humans taught me that it wasn't nice to kill, not even your enemies. I try to be a good monster."

Carmilla's unconscious, bloodied form surfaced and floated towards me. I pulled her to land.

"Keep an eye on her, okay?" I asked the gator girl.

"No prob," she replied.

I turned to deal with the remaining vampires, but Sara had already taken them all out. Incredible. I'd known that she had a ton of latent power, but as with me, it tended to only come out when her emotional state allowed for it. If Alma Elma saw this, she might worry about her position. Assuming Alma Elma even cared about her position.

With the defeat of Elizabeth, the leader of the vampire raid, the vampires retreated. We lost a few more allies, none dead, but so severely drained of blood and energy that they would need days of rest. We lost Victoria and Sonya, not to combat, but blood loss, as they had to donate so much of their blood to victims of the vampire attack that were most in danger of dying from blood loss.

Sara had returned to her human form. She regretfully told us that she had to remain in Sabasa, as the vampires or other invaders were likely to return.

That left one more capitol under attack. Grangold. I gathered up what forces remained to me and teleported us to the last of the four capitols under attack.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Nanabi back. Tamamo had gone to retrieve her, since she was needed given that we had lost a third of our forces. Carmilla had also been taken back to the castle to have her wounds treated and for interrogation purposes. Elizabeth had recovered long enough to escape, since the only thing that had been wrong with her was that her energy had been abruptly drained.

Juska, however, had been drained pretty badly of energy and blood, so would definitely not be part of our last battle in this first stage of the Monster Lord's war. Our numbers had been whittled down, but I was still pretty confident given that our most powerful members were very much still in the fight. We also still had the minotaurs, most of the kitsunes, including Nanabi and Tamamo, and several other assorted monsters, from insects to succubi to the ever reliable Barbun and Mary, who made a great team, with Barbun taking enemies out from a distance and Mary knocking any down that got close to her friend.

I teleported us all into Grangold to find that the city was being attacked by spiders. I had almost no experience with spiders, so wasn't sure what to expect. Not only hadn't I ever fought spiders, they were another monster race that had aligned with Black Alice and never really embraced coexistence.

As before, there were a few spiders busily draining men near the entrance to the city. We set upon those few and neutralized them quickly, and as had become routine, checked on the males. Many of them were wrapped in silk. Others had been in earlier stages of getting violated and had not yet been wrapped up.

"Luka!" Sonya shouted. "This man is dead!"

So much for a bloodless war, I thought. I wasn't angry yet. It was surprising no one had died in the other three cities. A spider had probably just gone too far with a man who had a weak heart.

"This one too," Tamamo said gravely. Oh no.

"How?" I asked.

"I don't know," Sonya said, shaking her head helplessly. "Poison, I think? There's some discoloration."

"This one had his juices sucked out," Tamamo said. "Many spiders feed this way. They inject a poison that liquefies the victim from the inside, leaving only the skin and bones. The muscle tissue and organs are then sucked out through the wound."

That sounded a lot like both fatalities were intentional. Oh God.

"Spiders can be exceptionally cruel," Ilias said. "The Monster Lord did say that the war was for the purpose of committing genocide against humanity. Apparently the spiders took that seriously. We're going to find a lot more dead bodies here."

I felt responsible. I hadn't chosen Grangold last purely at random. I had assumed that with their ant army they would be best able to defend themselves. But the very presence of such powerful forces may have contributed to the spiders' savagery.

"All right, I'm going to head to the palace!" I said. "I suspect I'll find the leader there."

"Luka, the palace is under construction," Alice reminded me. "It's the warehouse you need to go to."

"Got it!" I said, and began running to the north of the city.

Since spiders couldn't fly, our flying monsters took off in groups looking for small units to ambush. Our land forces followed me, trying to keep up. More unmoving bodies lined the streets of Grangold, mostly human, but some ants as well. I couldn't take the time to find out if they were dead or just unconscious. I had to end this as soon as possible.

I arrived at the warehouse, not having encountered a single spider. The areas I'd been through had already been thoroughly denuded of inhabitants. I entered the warehouse to find the Queen Ant and the King of Grangold alone.

"Are you two okay here?" I asked quickly.

"We are fine!" the Queen ant replied. "I could not in good conscience keep a personal guard while the people of the city are in danger. All available forces are engaged with the spiders."

That made sense. The king had become pretty powerful due to what evil Tamamo had done to him, and the Queen ant was similarly not one to be trifled with.

"It would appear that the invaders don't know that the palace is out of commission," the king said.

"Indeed they do not," the queen agreed. "I have ordered my children to execute an organized retreat towards the palace, to give the invaders the impression that they are guarding it with their lives. That is also giving the surviving civilians time to flee the city. The Spider Princess is very eager to take the castle and capture us. Her attention has been drawn away from the innocent civilians."

"If she's the leader, then that's where I need to be," I said.

The castle wasn't far from the warehouse, so I made a beeline for it. I began to encounter spiders. Some of them were fearsome, some cute, all tried to restrain me with silk. Using Gnome made their attempts futile. I didn't even stop to fight them. I saw no civilians about that needed protecting.

Close to the castle, however, I did see three prone forms on the ground that were neither human nor ant. That I had to stop for. They could only be allies of mine. When I got closer, I saw that they were my minotaur friends. None of them were wrapped up, but all of them were down. Carol was the only one semiconscious.

"Carol, what happened here?" I asked her. Her face was alarmingly puffy and purple.

"Ambushed by a squad of spiders, led by….. a really powerful one that called herself Tsuchigumo," Carol said weakly. "We all got bitten. Poison…."

Carol lost consciousness, her head lolling to the side.

"Sonya!" I called. My childhood friend was nowhere nearby. I desperately tried to lay my hands on Carol and heal her of the poison the way I healed wounds. No effect. "Ilias! Somebody!"

As the goddess was answering my prayers, Ilias descended and immediately checked on Odette, the minotaur who had been helping me in the kitchen for the past few weeks. Ilias checked Odette, then moved on to Mina. Whatever she found when checking Mina, the goddess began working furiously, applying a different kind of healing magic to her. Cursing, Ilias pulled out a small bag and reached for some herbs, which she stuffed into Mina's mouth. Mina woke up and weakly chewed the herbs.

"Carol needs help, too!" I shouted. "How is Odette?"

"Luka, go!" Ilias ordered. "Take out the Spider Princess!"

Odette was so still. I didn't see her chest moving. "Ilias, how is Odette?"

"She's gone, Luka," Ilias said quietly as she brought more herbs to Carol. "Luka, you need to focus! You need to do whatever it takes to stop this now! These three aren't the only ones with venom in their systems!"

Cold fire burned through me. Odette was a good friend. She had been by far the most helpful and skilled person in the kitchen, and had been a joy to be around. Someone was going to pay for this.

I arrived at the castle a split second later, not even having bothered to run. I simply teleported right into the midst of a platoon of spiders. Summoning all four spirits, I gave vent to my rage, sealing them all in minutes. As I angrily pulled slik off of my body, I faced the person who was most responsible for the death of my friend: Tsuchigumo.

I had met Tsuchigumo once, at a rare event where the Spider Princess had sent an envoy. She had been pleasant enough, but somewhat cold. I couldn't help but to think at the time that she was being punished for some slight. It was one of the more boring events I'd ever had to attend in those days. I'd struck up a conversation with the high ranking spider, one that was less than satisfying. She felt that coexistence was a joke, that humans were meant to be food for monsters, nothing more. By then, I'd had little tolerance for that kind of bigotry, given how well coexistence had gone for many decades at that point. I'd told Alice later. Alice had responded that the spiders were probably irredeemable, and that as long as they kept to their caves, it was the best we could hope for.

"I will not let you get to the Spider Princess," Tsuchigumo said.

"You don't have a choice in the matter," I said coldly, and blasted her. Hard.

Tsuchigumo was thrown into the castle wall, which collapsed upon impact, burying her under rubble. I didn't stop to see if she was okay. She was strong. And she had chosen her path. I only had so much mercy for killers. And at the moment, I had a more important task. End this, quickly, efficiently, and if necessary, brutally.

Tamamo and Alma Elma appeared at my side and advanced with me.

"The Spider Princess has figured out that the warehouse is where the King and Queen are," Alma Elma reported. "You wiped out the force guarding the castle, but there's a lot more of them heading towards the warehouse."

"Then let's get going," I responded.

Tamamo blinked out, returning shortly, in ones and twos, with allies. First Alice, then Alicetroemeria, then Saki, then Matis and Silk, finally bringing in two kitsunes. I saw more allies that flew still overhead.

"Luka, it's so awful!" Saki said tearfully. "So many dead, so many dying!"

"I know," I said. "That's why we have to end this. We don't need to be gentle about it. Whatever it takes. Don't be gratuitous about it, but as of now, the no kill rule is waived."

"Luka, are you okay?" Alma Elma asked, clearly concerned.

"Nowhere near okay."

We encountered the vanguard of the Spider Princess's elite forces a few hundred meters from the warehouse. They'd chosen an alleyway to create a chokepoint in an effort to delay us. Rather than engage us directly, they quickly erected massive webs to block our path. I began to summon my power again.

"Luka, no!" Tamamo said, gently forcing my hands back down. "It might burn through those webs, but it might also richochet back at us. Spider silk is very elastic. Matis, Silk, you're up!"

Matis and Silk quickly and efficiently cut through the webs, but it took a few minutes. Once through, the spiders were gone. So we advanced, not particularly cautious or subtle about it, either.

Exiting the alley, we encountered dozens of spiders. By now Saki was as angry as I was. I didn't know it because of her expression. I wasn't even looking at Saki. I knew it when I heard the music.

The music began as the sound you hear in Michael Bay trailers. Just a loud, all encompassing, foreboding sound. It startled the spiders, who looked up into the sky. Then the loud guitars kicked in, almost deafening. And then a voice that sounded like it came straight from the depths of hell sounded clearly through the wall of sound.

"Let the bodies hit the floor!"

The ground underneath the spiders exploded, sending them flying in all directions. Saki repeated the lyric and where she directed her voice the ground exploded there as well. When Saki was done, not a single spider was moving.

"Now that's how you throw a party," Alicetroemeria giggled. "You have a lot of potential, young succubus."

Saki had deflated completely, either from weakness at having exerted so much magic, or shock at what she had done. As far as I could tell, most of the spiders were breathing, although most also had at least one broken limb, some several broken limbs.

"Oh, here come some more!" Black Alice chortled. "So the no kill rule is waived, huh, Luka?"

"It is," I said. "But don't be excessive. Whatever you think you need to stop them. But no more, okay?"

"Well, it's progress," Alicetroemeria sighed as another company of spiders hastily formed ranks to block our advance and protect their queen. Black Alice pointed at them, then held out her outstretched palm. Dark magic, blacker than any magic I'd ever seen, formed in her hand. When she was satisfied that it was enough, she squeezed the dark sphere of magical energy.

"Die for me!" Alicetroemeria said quietly.

The black orb of magical force disappeared from her hand and reformed around the spiders. Before they even had a chance to panic, the black orb closed on them. Their screams were terrible. I immediately regretted letting Black Alice have her way, however necessary it might have seemed at the time. When it was mercifully over, every spider was down.

"Alicetroemeria?" I asked.

"I don't think I killed any of them," she replied. "But they'll never forget that lesson."

Our grim advance continued. Tamamo and Alma Elma took the lead this time, batting opposition out of the way with ease. Finally, we could see the warehouse, surrounded by even more spiders.

"I can rain hellfire down on them with ease if you give the word," Black Alice said gleefully.

Before I could respond, the hellfire was already raining down. To my horror, all of the spiders were incinerated, leaving only one spider still standing. By the look of her, it was the Spider Princess.

"Alice!" I shouted at Alicetroemeria. I really should decide on one name for her, I thought.

"That wasn't me!" she protested. "I wasn't going to use nearly that much force! Whoever did that…. Such power!"

The one who did that was the King of Grangold. I wasn't going to judge him. He was what evil Tamamo had made him to be and I imagined his control wasn't the best. Even if it was, he was defending his people and he didn't work for me. But if the Spider Princess wanted to remain alive much longer, I needed to reach her first.

I did, as the King and Queen seemed too shocked to do anything further. The Spider Princess was the most shocked of all.

"I don't understand what's happening here!" the Spider Princess yelled in frustration. "How does a human have so much power! Are you even human, King!?"

"I… I don't know anymore," the king responded, stunned by what he had done.

"Do you see what your folly has brought to your people, Spider Princess?" the queen ant asked rhetorically. "Your brutality has finally caught up to you. Now you are at our mercy."

"I am defeated," the Spider Princess admitted. "You may do with me as you wish."

Alice and Ilias arrived and reported that the battle was all but over. My allies were still dealing with stragglers, but the most elite of the spider forces were out of action. Many, permanently. It had been a dark conclusion to what had started out to be a much cleaner war than I had expected. What happened in Grangold, that's what I'd expected, but I'd talked myself into hoping it wasn't going to go that way. If only I'd come to Grangold first. All of this death was on me as much as it was the Spider Princess or the Monster Lord.

"Who is the leader here?" Spider Princess demanded to know. "Who decides my fate today?"

"I guess that should be me," the King replied. "But I…. I've done enough killing. I don't want your life, nor do I want to keep you as a slave. Queen Ant?"

"The voices of many of my children have been stilled forever," the queen said angrily. "By our laws, I could claim your life and it would be entirely justified! But I know how much Luka hates killing. I owe Luka a great deal. He is the true leader here today. He saved the city. The decision must be his."

I was in a dilemma. As much as I was willing to kill her, I came from a world in which we also had rules. One of those rules was that we didn't just execute a surrendering combatant. But I also recognized that this wasn't my world.

"Alice, what do you think?" I asked.

"Do you mean me, or the little kid?" Alicetroemeria asked.

"I mean the little kid… I mean the Monster Lord."

Alice seemed to consider for a moment. Then, making her decision, she stated firmly. "The Spider Princess should die. It's the only way for her to atone for the crimes committed here on her orders."

"I guess I don't have to ask what you think, Ilias," I said.

"The Spider Princess is one of the cruelest monsters in existence," Ilias replied. "I agree that she should die."

"Do it, Luka," Alicetroemeria urged. "I can feel the rage inside of you. You want this. That power of yours, it demands her blood. Take it!"

"I know we lost Odette today," I said. "Is everyone else accounted for?"

"Not everyone," Tamamo said softly. "We lost at least one more. She was a Devil Fighter. Her name was Regina, I think."

"Oh, no. Dead?"

"Yes," Alma Elma confirmed. "Many spiders wield powerful magic. Being airborn wasn't perfect protection for us. Regina got hit at pretty high altitude and fell to her death."

Another friend gone. Because of her. Spider Princess was putting up a brave front, but her eyes were watering. She was afraid, and also distraught that her quest for power had led her to her doom. She clearly treasured her own life. But she had too much pride to beg for it.

"No," I said. "Even though you are unanimous on this point, I won't do it."

"I knew you would say that," Alice said. "And… I'm kinda glad you did. As much as she deserves it, she's helpless now. Killing even her in cold blood would be wrong."

"I don't agree," Ilias said. "But I knew Luka wouldn't do it, and I'm done being upset about Luka being Luka. So the question now is, what do we do with her? Surely we aren't just letting her slink back to her lair?"

"No," I said. "Spider Princess, you're coming with us. We need to keep you from causing problems. You'll be well treated, as long as you behave yourself. But you know some things, and you're going to tell us what you know. Do you understand?"

"I understand," the Spider Princess said, unable to meet my eyes. "I will cause you no trouble. But before I answer your questions, I have one of my own."

"You are in no position to interrogate us!" Ilias retorted.

"I think I know what she's going to ask," Alicetroemeria sang.

"Why are you with them?" Spider Princess asked Black Alice. "Are you angered that I chose to participate in the Monster Lord's attack on humanity? I had thought you to be aligned with me on the subject of oppression at the hands of the humans! I pledged my loyalty to you for that reason. But seeing as how you assisted in the defense of the city, I must assume that you did not agree."

"Actually, I'm not Black Alice," Alicetroemeria replied. "At least… not your black Alice. I don't really care about this attack. I just thought fighting would be fun."

"I don't understand. Nothing makes sense!" Spider Princess raged in frustration.

I couldn't agree more. Everything about this was senseless. Worse, if Alice's mother intended for me to kill her, she had made it a lot more likely that I would due to the events in Grangold. I needed to calm down, think, and talk with my closest friends before I did something rash.