44 The End

TW: Very lewd chapter

Hina gasped for air, kneeling before Lu's throne, her soot-and-snow hair lank with sweat and hanging around her shoulders and chest in rippling waves that practically dripped with sweat. Her green eyes were glazed over with lust and pleasure and mental fog- there was some sort of drug in the air, there had to be...

"Well, I suppose I'll need to put you up on display this time!!" Lu sighed emphatically with a pout, looking just as cute and innocent as ever in her poofy gown- a garment that seemed entirely too big on her to justify wearing it to begin with. Her eyes gleamed with mischief, though. This, the face of a girl who knew very well that she could and would have whatever she wanted and would be hard pressed to back down against anything, or anybody, who told her otherwise.

"Let me... Let me go, damnit! What do you mean, display...?" Hina shuddered, feeling that same terrifying telltale sensation of the tentacles slowly, lightly wrapping over her thighs and around her wrists, starting to guide her. They were much gentler this time than before, and yet somehow more forceful all the same. Hina strained against the restraints, and Lu sighed, smiling and stepping closer, shoes tapping on the tile as Hina started to fight.

"Hina, Hina... If you were even remotely strong enough to escape, you'd have done it quite a while ago, you know...? Just because you're among the gods, doesn't mean you're at the head of them," Lu whispered, gently cupping the badger girl's cheek with a playful smile, then slapping softly as the hero gasped, feeling one of the monstrous appendages slowly slam into her, bulging her waist.

"Wait, wait..."

"Nope! No more waiting," Lu snarkily retorted, "The funny thing is that you had the power to fight me if you'd tried early on, you know?"

"N-Ng, what do you m-mean??" Hina gasped, feeling her arms pulled slowly behind her back, her knees bent, breasts flattened as she was pressed into the floor, fucked faster, arms and legs bent behind her and upward.

"I've been inside your dreams, Hina- I know you, and I know what you can do. You communed with a god weapon made to stop me- and she said that she would be here, when you needed her, but where is she? Your skill- you always forget to use it! You have some of her power, and yet now you're far too gone and ruined to have any hope of putting up a fight... It's a shame, but your friends are on their way to visit me, so I'll need to put you aside for at least a bit. Maybe I'll bring you back later, or maybe I won't. Who knows, who knows… So many decisions..."

"Talk too much, sh-shut up," Hina moaned slowly, eyelids fluttering, another tentacle slowly drifting toward her tail, grinding against her. Arms and legs bending unnaturally, Hina yelped, her frame hoisted up off the floor, her breasts spilling under her as she was raised up and fucked without any sign of yielding, Lu smiling up at her.

"If this is the last time we speak, then, it was nice, Hina- and you've been a great toy!!" With a wink, Lu turned around and walked away toward a door. As if a switch was flicked, the tentacles started to get rough, almost violent, slamming into Hina harder, faster, locking her arms and legs upward. Something cool and solid started to spread across her lower back and down ass, the tentacles getting still more violent.

"W-Wait, let me down, let me down- I'm not gonna- not gonna-!! Not like this...!!" Words gritted through clenched teeth, body tightening, Hina threw her head back and moaned brokenly as the liquid steel slid up her back and around her torso, onto her stomach, and began spreading over her breasts, thighs, up her chest, her neck... Her mouth was covered well before the rest of her body, but this did nothing to dampen the force of her moans as the badger girl came hard enough to cause her mind to go numb, struggling in vain, unable to move, beg, or plead. Moments passed beyond that, and Hina was reduced to being a horribly lewd, grotesque web of steel latticework in the ceiling, her body the centerpiece of a grand chandelier.

===

"Keep quiet as we enter, and, at least to begin with, allow me to do the talking." Fang barked this as an order, not a request, and the surrounding crowd nodded. "You, and you- you both will stay out here with Akihiro-"

"Like hell-!" Hina's father tried to begin a protest, and Fang waved a hand dismissively.

"Odds are you'd do nothing but keel over and die in there. I'm sorry, but this is so far out of your league it's not the least bit laughable. You'll stay here with two bodyguards. Emily, Aurelia, Nao, Charlotte, you'll be coming inside with me and my men, but stay behind me. Be prepared to fight, and more importantly, be prepared to run if you need to do so, alright? I hear one argument and I'll go in alone to find your friend."

"What makes you think that you get to put conditions on how we go about saving our friend-" Charlotte began, baring her fangs- metaphorically, but yet again, Fang was there with a rebuttal. 

"What makes me think that, you insolent cat, is that I have dealt with Cthulu before and killed your kind more than once, so don't think that getting up on your high haunches is going to frighten me. Perhaps a thousand years ago, so to speak, you may have frightened me, but one learns a lot in as many lifetimes as I've lived, and no matter how strong you are, only one of us is immortal. Now let's settle down, avoid the infighting, and get in there to try and save your near and dear badger friend, alright? Any more objections?" At this, Charlotte, evidently seething, settled down a bit, and silence fell. Aurelia gripped her sword hilt but did not draw it, Nao was shuffling her feet, expression nervous but determined, and Emily, standing there nervously, couldn't help but feel nervous, glancing down at her soft, lilac-hued arms. Something just felt wrong here...

"Alright, we move in, now." Fang began to bark out more orders for the formation of her squad, and the girls fell into step behind her as she pushed open the castle doors, leading them into a sort of antechamber, a simple hallway with red carpeting and an arched ceiling.

There were a few paintings on the walls, Emily noticed as she stepped inside- they were generic and gave little away, though. One showed a beautiful blonde girl with crimson eyes, perhaps thirty or so in age, to the left. To the right was an image of an old man who was likely a king, judging by the red and gold crown he wore.

Generic... The hallway seemed almost too normal, and Fang led them into another after that which was much the same. Taking a deep breath, Emily looked back before rounding a corner and watching the outside world disappear. 

"Alright. We're about halfway to the throne room," Fang hummed, and though she was very quiet as she spoke, her voice carried, accompanied only by the sounds of breathing, respirators, and shoes on musty carpets. 

"You've been here, directly, before?" Charlotte asked skeptically, one eyebrow raised, and Fang nodded, terse.

"There was a girl who had fallen from the surface by accident. She chanced upon the hall of doors and ended up here. Her brother was locked in asylum for seven years until he learned to pretend that she had drowned in a river, and he no longer told stories of portals in the grass, or the like. Yet, he could never rest."

"What is an asylum?" Aurelia asked cautiously, still looking around, still gripping the hilt of her sword.

"It's a place where they put you if you've gone mad," Nao explained quietly, brow furrowed. "In some worlds, I suppose, they are set up in order to make sure that you cannot hurt others during your fits or delusions."

"Correct," Fang agreed, nodding, her ears twitching, "I was tasked with finding Alice before the worst could happen. Alex fell with me, and we had quite the adventure, we did. Unfortunately, it was for naught."

"Alice was dead?" Emily spoke up, still looking around, mind largely focused on Hina more than anything.

"Just for that, though? Didn't you say that you only get summoned for enormous disasters? What's so important about one missing girl that it would warrant some super space force?" Nao chimed in, eyes wide with curiosity.

"Alice was the previous queen of this place, before Lu dethroned her. It was not Alice that I was truly called for, but to stop the atrocities that could happen if Lu took over. However..."

Fang fell silent, and for a while, nobody spoke. The party traipsed through generic room after room- scarlet rugs here, statues there, suits of armor that way.

"So, Lu defeated you then?" Aurelia eventually asked quietly.

"That is not so," Fang sighed, shaking her head. "Lu and I never came to blows, as Alice was killed, and that resolved my task of keeping her on the throne for the worse. Lu knows of my existence, but we have never directly fought, as she understood that by killing Alice she would also get rid of me, who was there for her sake. The... fine print, shall I say, of our work can be manipulated at times."

"What ever happened to Alex?" Nao asked, voice showing nothing more than worried empathy.

"He... was a good man, but that's a story for another time," Fang whispered softly, shaking her head. The next room that she entered with the others contained an enormous set of brass double doors, and at Fang's signal, two of her soldiers rushed forward, beginning to mount something small and boxy at the hinges.

"We're going to blast the doors down, in case there's an ambush waiting just behind them, like something waiting to grab us. Aurelia, Charlotte, you're the most accomplished fighters here, aside from myself, so with me, please." In moments, the explosives were armed, and Fang directed all to step back, raising a hand. "Are we ready? I have no doubt Lu is waiting past here; I can feel her."

Emily wanted to ask for an explanation, but she didn't dare. After all, Fang was a lot older than herself, and likely much more attuned to magic as well.

"Ready," Aurelia sighed.

"Let's get our badger," Charlotte agreed.

"Behind you," Nao answered.

"Ready, boss." Chimed a few of the soldiers. Fang glanced at Emily, as if to make sure, and she ruffled her wings, the razor feathers among her ebony appendages clicking together lightly. 

"I'm ready."

"On three, then," The wolf girl barked, stretching, "THREE. TWO. ONE!!"

And the explosions went off, which was rather convenient, as while the explosions rocked the wall and the floor slightly, Emily's impulsive 'Wouldn't that be on one...' went unheard. 

With a gust of magic, Aurelia flapped her wings forcefully enough to blow the debris away, and the throne room was revealed. The room was grand but simple, with an arched ceiling and a black and white marble checkered floor... and on the throne, waiting with a lazy grin, was Lu. Short, blonde, she barely looked to be an adult, if that- and this was the monster, responsible for so much death and trauma, the cunning mind that managed to send Fang away without conflict once upon a time? Emily could hardly believe it, but she kept herself focused on the situation around her. 

"My, my, MY!!" Lu laughed with a girlish giggle that suited her appearance. "Fang!! Long time no see, old friend! What brings you into my neck of the woods?! It's been, what, two hundred and thirty years? I can't be sure; time flies when you're as old as I am. It might as well have been yesterday," she continued, laughing louder, giggling sharply, and ending on a snort that almost made her choke before she recovered, quieting. "Heh, don't stare at me, that was embarrassing..."

"Not here to fight, or have any conflict at all," Fang spoke boldly, keeping her sidearm prepared in a two-handed grip but lowered at her side, pointed to the floor. "We understand that you might be able to help us find Hina, is that correct? Or, perhaps, you've taken her into your custody? Can you offer us information?"

"Oh, sure, sure," Lu hummed casually, waving a hand. "Just look up. Really, see?" She gestured vaguely to the ceiling, and almost as one, each of the girls glanced up, only to gasp, or in Nao's case yelp, at the sight there. Among the many bars of the elegant silvery chandelier was undeniably Hina, her wrists and ankles now ending in candle holders, her face a mask of terror and pleasure that bordered on bliss.

"And what…" Fang spoke carefully, slowly turning her eyes to Lu, "are your conditions for releasing her?"

"Simple, actually," Lu smiled, her voice implying a candor too good to be true. The way Lu spoke caused Emily to step back. Her head felt a bit fuzzy, probably stress from worrying from seeing the chandelier that Hina temporarily was.

"You see, Fang, there is a lot of trouble in an adversary, that, by the will of the universe, cannot die. For many, many years after I managed to send you away, I wondered what I might be able to do to kill you- a way to break the cycle if you will?" Slowly, Lu sat up a bit, raising one leg over the other to get more comfortable. "Do you know what I came to realize?"

"That not even reality can be broken, only altered, and there's no way to kill me. So, your conditions?" Fang raised an eyebrow, seemingly unamused.

"Yes, well, as with everything there are loopholes, and I realized that if I can't kill you, I can contain you," Lu spoke, giggling excitedly again, tapping her temple as if to signify how amazingly intelligent she truly was. "You're right as well: reality cannot be broken, only altered. Here is a great example of that!!"

Lu snapped, and like a switch had been flicked, Emily was naked. She, Fang, Aurelia, Charlotte, and Nao all were, and the floor of this room wasn't dry at all but covered in some sort of viscous, mucus-like slime. Barely having registered that her clothes were gone, Emily yelped as she was shoved onto her knees by something, tentacles slowly wrapping up her arms and her thighs.

"Boss, what do we do?!" One of the soldiers shouted, and Fang, snarling, shook her head.

"Fall back and tell Sebastian what's happening! He'll know what to do!!" Oddly, she didn't sound worried, to the extent that even Lu raised an eyebrow- at least, that's how it looked from where Emily sat straining, trying to free her arms, cursing in pain as her thighs were wrenched further apart. 

"Idiot, what does this win you?!" Fang barked, teeth grit, eyes narrowed and furious.

"In the immediate? Not a damn thing," Lu hummed, and Emily missed the next few years, gasping in agony as a tentacle rammed into her slit. "In fact, I'll be killing my best soldier, so... in a sense, this is quite the trade off," She added, giggling, her eyes drifting to Charlotte. 

"Let us go, damnit...!!" Charlotte screeched in response, a tentacle wrapping around her neck and yanking her down onto her hands and knees.

"Hey, don't get me wrong," Lu hummed, as if Charlotte wasn't getting violated in front of her, her sentence interrupted by Aurelia moaning out in unwilling pleasure as one- no, two tentacles slammed into her, a third tugging at her left breast. "I could have done this on my own, but you made it easier, being so very prideful as you are, believing that I had no ulterior motive. Now I'll get four powerful, world traveling heroes AND the heroic wolf out of my way," she laughed.

The soldiers were fleeing, and oddly, Lu let them- only Fang did she seem to be concerned with. Perhaps, only Fang was strong enough to pose a threat to her? Emily couldn't think. A tentacle was grinding against her, slamming in, moving deep, hard, fast, forcing an unwilling moan out of her mouth. Beside her, Emily saw Aurelia being painfully silenced, her head pulled to the floor, a slimy tentacle shoving into her mouth, pushing open her jaw.

"Plus," Lu added with a giggle, "Fang, you were so confident I wouldn't kill you that you didn't think to prepare for other traps! You're as hot headed as you used to be, and no less arrogant~"

Emily wasn't fully hearing her now, as tentacles were exploring more of her body, grinding against her mouth, her ass, slamming into one, then the other, forcing her to take them. Her ears slowly filled with the sounds of her own moans.

"It's just proof that wisdom doesn't come with age," Lu smiled, and though two of them tried to answer, all five girls fell silent due to the tentacles plunging into their throats.

"So, what happens next... well..." Lu slowly looked up, toward Hina. "I can't kill you, but I can transform you all, rewrite your genetic code until you're immobile for time eternal!!" Suddenly she giggled as if elated, clapping her hands together, and Emily tried to shout for help or release, only to moan louder as the monstrosities violating her became suddenly more forceful. "The wolf narrows in on her prey... but fails to notice what lurks just behind."

"Shut, the fuck, up...!" Fang snarled, shifting as she pivoted her hips slowly. "Stop this, damnit...!"

"No, I won't," Lu hummed, but the words were slurring together for Emily- her entire body felt so damn sticky, she couldn't move... Aurelia was halfway gray, body going stony... Lu was humming, snarking something or other about the way that it was foolish to traipse into a god's territory and expect a happy ending... Emily couldn't think, so tired, and what was that cracking sensation around her ears...?

===

"Oh? What is this, pray tell?" Turning, the blonde young girl laughed. She stood among a room full of her trophies, her victories, and here, standing just before her, was... a simple golem? Among the filthy room, a yawning plant golem slowly walked toward her, not very mindful of the statues.

"Oh... my name is Thorn," The golem yawned, looking down and around. "I promised that I would be here during my friend's time of need, but it seems I was a bit too late. This is, so sad..." 

"Haha, I guess so!" Lu's voice was jaunty and aloof. "I'd offer to give you the same ending as a mercy, but can golems even feel pleasure? Honestly-"

Stiffening, lips twitching, Lu looked down to see the top half of a blade sticking through her chest and looked back toward the hilt where there was a young teenager holding the blade- brunette, squirrel tail, non-human.

"Are you really stupid enough to think you could-? You idiot!" With a ferocious backhand and the resounding slap of flesh on flesh, Lu sent the teenager flying into a wall, unconscious before she hit the ground. However, before our blonde menace could even move to pull the sword from her chest, something closed over her head: dark, oppressive, and knobby, like the roots of a tree, pinching.

"What the-"

"Quiet now," The golem's voice reached Lu, and her mind faded, swimming, going dark as she fell to sleep- not dead, and not quite asleep, but somewhere very far in between.

"Wait, you're... hold on, your, hero is gone, so..." Dark. Only the suffocating, oppressive darkness.