Chapter 98

As Flavna watched Samira leave, she asked her fellow Captain, “What do you think?”

“She was all over the place,” Gamesh said. “I’m sorry to say but I’m still trying to figure out what here intentions were.”

“Do you believe that she knows nothing about the demon attack?”

“No chance! I’m also supposed to believe that she just came here for a few words and then went away with nothing but a ‘thank you’? We need to scrutinize every living being that she talked to.”

“Agreed,” Flavna nodded. “The princess, Remi, and those in the third pit. To think she actually left her sister here—Ah!”

“You think she would?” Gamesh asked.

“Is there anyone close to her cell?” Flavna asked, agitated.

Gamesh closed his eyes and stood still and silent for a couple of seconds, before opening them again and said, “No.”

“Shit!” Flavna rushed back to the Mary’s cell, followed by Gamesh. “She killed the witnesses when she talked to Felicia. She was about to kill Remi. Fuck!”

“The royal family managed to last this long without killing each other,” Gamesh said as he ran behind Flavna. “Why would they start now?”

“Why would Samira leave her sister with us? ‘Cool off’ my ass! Stupid!”

The distance that they walked away from Mary’s cell, Flavna sprinted back within seconds. The young captain swung open the door to the guard room and saw the twelve Samira’s skeletal soldiers falling apart in the same spots they were left. The bones of their limbs fell off one by one, several skulls already rolled off their gory shoulders, their weapons turned to ash.

“Back already?” Mary asked, sitting up on her bed.

“Huh?” Flavna stood in place, taken aback. “Why are you still alive?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Mary asked, but quickly caught on to the meaning behind the question. “Wait. What are you saying?”

Quickly regaining her composure, Flavna swiftly walked to Mary’s barred door, past the skeletal warriors as they crumbled and decomposed turning to fine dust.

“Do you want everyone in this city to die?” Flavna asked.

“ ... No,” Mary answered.

“Then talk to me!” Flavna demanded.

“I don’t know nothing about the demons!” Mary said angrily. “I was assaulted by that big-tit bimbo and her skinny fucktoy! The next thing I knew, I had tentacles all over me! Find that bimbo! She’s the one with all that weird magic!”

Flavna clenched one of the metal bars tightly and asked, “What did Samira want? What did you talk about?”

“Nothing! Berating me for having some fun while nobody ever seems to care that her murders are beyond the counting. Oh, and my sister’s birthday is coming up. Whooptidoo!”

“Urgh!” Flavna turned around and stormed out of the room.

“Hey!” Mary called out but was ignored and left alone.

Only after the door was closed, Flavna said to Gamesh, “I ought to break every bone in that spoiled child’s body until she stops wasting my time!”

“Are you sure you’re not projecting your feelings concerning a certain other little ‘princess’?” Gamesh asked.

Flavna took a deep breath and said, “But now Samira’s actions make even less sense. Even if Mary is somewhat unpredictable, it’s not like Samira wouldn’t be able to handle her herself. Could she really not know anything after all? And that’s why she came here to find out? No, then she would not have walked away with empty hands.”

“She also did not even mention the so-called Savior,” Gamesh pointed out. “That would suggest that our ‘tip’ did not come from her.”

“And instead of focusing on apprehending the possible culprit of the demon attack, Samira spent more time worrying about Mary’s whereabouts. Why does she want Mary to remain here? Just so that she doesn’t cause more chaos? But all the Seven Sisters were free to do as they please before ... Something else is coming.”

“Samira also didn’t seem too concerned when you said that you would send Remi straight to Samuel,” Gamesh said. “Though that could make for an interesting experiment. To see in what other ways the Taint could spread.

“Yes, all the more reason to start the interrogation with Remi. Then everyone in the Third Pit. I don’t buy that Samira killed our men during her ‘visit’ there just on a whim. No more playing nice. If Felicia and her remaining goons don’t cooperate, I don’t care if they can’t walk or function ever again. They will talk. Same goes for Remi and every other Purple Cape, no matter the level of their ‘Taint’. We were careless with the survivors.”

“Remi showed no signs that the others had,” Gamesh reminded.

“Maybe there’s a delay depending on the exposure. Lock up every single one that was in the mines that night. Even those that came after the Abomination was driven away.”

“Wouldn’t that include us as well?” Gamesh chuckled.

“You will drive a blade through my heart before I succumb to the Taint.”

“JESUS HOLY FUCK!” was all that Beatrice could think as the world spun and shook around her while the giant bat creature crashed through the Shadow Woods, mowing down countless thick trees and all plant life that dared stand in their way.

“Ugh,” Beatrice groaned, aching all over as she crawled from under a giant sleek wing.

When all was said and done, Beatrice saw a long, cleared path behind them with turned up dirt and destroyed trees that looked like a sight of a plane crash. Far in the distance, the royal palace stood tall and proud atop a rocky terrain, elevated above the large city it governed, with a clear night’s sky in the background. The hole in the wall through which they broke through was barely more than a speck on the white façade.

That overpowered bitch is in league with the demons!? Beatrice finally had the time to process everything that happened. A ‘bastion for humanity’ my ass! No wonder the king snorts drugs all day and laughs at the idea of ‘Saviors’! And even if he somehow is unaware that his wife has a demon in her dress that’s because he probably hasn’t been sober in years!

“LUCARAD!!” Helen screamed and rushed to the High Priest who saved the small group of survivors from the clutches of an overpowered Queen B. The priestess dropped to her knees at Lucarad’s side and gently held his head as his bat-like monster form reverted back to his familiar huma appearance.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Beatrice tried to process ten things at once. “That guy had his head chopped clean off!”

“Lucky for me, Annie didn’t know that just cutting my head off doesn’t quite get the job done,” Lucarad laughed, even though he was clearly in a bad shape and struggled to move.

As Lucarad regained his human form, all the damage that he sustained from Merillia’s one attack was retained by his human body. The Queen had damaged Lucarad’s bat form’s left wing, but now the damage was revealed to be more severe. Not only was the High Priest’s arm barely a step above minced meat, the left side of his torso was also bruised, cut, and bleeding all over.

“Please, hang on!” Helen begged with tears in her eyes and put the palms of her hands on Lucarad’s arm and side. A dim but warm green light shined weakly beneath her arms. “If only my healing skills weren’t this pathetic! Elen was better even at this.”

“You’re doing fine,” Lucarad smiled and coughed.

At least he’s not coughing up blood, Beatrice thought, concerned more with the tropes of battle wounds than real medicine. After seeing a man survive getting his head lopped off, transform into a bat, and then witnessing healing magic, reliance on conventional medical knowledge seemed to be all but pointless.

“Well, so much for your little eunuch group,” Ember said as she stood up and dusted off her generic roguish leather armor that Samantha gave her earlier.

“Oh, right,” with everything that had happened, Beatrice almost forgot the treachery of the three sniveling cowards. Only one of them proved loyal to his convictions. And he instantly paid for it with his life. Though Beatrice would not hesitate to slaughter her former minions the first chance she got, she understood why the poor cowards made the choice that they made in their desperation. They did follow her for the promise of cocks and sex, after all. Now, hardly different from the very demons they fought against back in the Forge of Champions. “Didn’t their transformation look similar to the monster form that the couple transformed into back during the tournament?”

“There were some similarities, yes,” Ember nodded. “The Queen was behind that too?”

“Who knows at this point!” Beatrice wasn’t even sure where to start. “Maybe her entire family has the ability to transform people into monsters! Did any of you know this about this so-called Queen!?”

“No, that one caught me by surprise, or I wouldn’t have led us directly into her lair,” Ember said.

“Something happened,” Lucarad uttered weakly, under Helen’s care. “Selirius is a dear friend of mine. He wasn’t always a powder-snorting senile bastard that he is now. The Queen was always a bitch though.”

“Wait, where’s Olivia?” Beatrice asked as she looked around.

“Olivia!” Beatrice called out to her friend once she spotted her.

Though it was night, the clearing that Lucarad’s bat crash created combined with the bright moon upon a stary sky helped to spot the petite naked ninja girl. Slowly, barely able to stand on her two feet, moaning and groaning, Olivia staggered back to the palace, fingering herself as she went along.

It did not prove much of a challenge to catch up to the masturbating ninja girl. Getting through to her proved to be another matter.

“Olivia, snap out of it!” Beatrice tried to shake some sense into her.

“Lord Beelzebub! Lord Beelzbub!” Olivia, cross-eyed and drooling, kept moaning in delirium as she tried to push past Beatrice with all the strength of a broken puppy.

“The High Priest commands to bring the girl to him,” Helen said after quickly catching up to Beatrice and Olivia.

“‘Commands’?” Beatrice asked, but then remembered that she was talking with one of the last members of a degenerate cult of sex fanatics.

Despite her feeble resistance, Beatrice and Helen dragged Olivia back to Lucarad who was left resting against a broken tree trunk. Along the way, Olivia tensed up and shuddered, cumming a little, either from masturbating or just from getting restrained and dragged against her will.

“Hold her down,” Lucarad instructed and pulled out the misshapen skull from his robes.

While Helen and Beatrice pinned Olivia to the ground, Lucarad struggled to get up on his feet, eventually resigning to crawling to Olivia.

“My Lord!” Helen cried out, distraught by her master’s state.

“Worry not, my child,” Lucarad said as he crawled closer to Olivia with the ugly skull in his hand.

Olivia’s arms were pinned to the ground by Beatrice and Helen, so Olivia resorted to squirming to get some stimulation between her legs. But as soon as Lucarad brought the skull closer to her, Olivia screeched like a banshee and arched her back high into the air.

“What the hell!?” Beatrice exclaimed, suddenly having to exert much more strength to keep Olivia pinned down.

“Hold her!” Lucarad shouted as he brought the skull closer to Olivia’s wet pussy.

The High Priest began chanting a spell in some strange language and black mist started draining from Olivia’s nether regions while the girl screamed louder and louder as she contorted her body in ways that bordered on anatomically impossible.

“LET ME GOOOOOOUAAAAAHHH!” Olivia screamed as she climaxed violently while more and more dark mist was drained out of her and formed a powerful, loud whirlwind while she screamed and came and cried and cursed. “Let go of me, unworthy scum!! UUAAA! Worms! Insects!! Drop dead, unworthy wombs!! Die, perverted small-dicker!”

“What incredible level of Taint!!” Lucarad shouted as a dark torrent blew in his face, messing up his long, oily silver hair. Lucarad eventually resorted to covering his eyes with one hand from the rough particles of Olivia’s dark vortex. “It’s as if she’s been Tainted by a Sovereign!”