How Did We Get Here?

There wasn't much else to say for the remainder of the trip. My worries about Ilias Village only increased. I prayed we'd be in time to help. My prayers were in vain. When we arrived, the village was already destroyed. Corpses were everywhere. I recognized almost every face. I'd thought I could never know greater despair than I had in Alice's throne room, but this…. This was far worse. All I'd done to save Ilias Village, only to have it destroyed!

"I know what you're thinking, Luka," Alice said, putting her hand on my shoulder. "You couldn't have gotten here in time even if you'd left the lab immediately. These corpses have been here for hours. The attack must have happened within minutes of the attack on the castle. The angels must have come pouring out of the temple."

"Actually," a voice said. "It was just me."

I turned to see who it was. I knew just from the tone that it was an enemy. My blood was cold, my mind calm. Not only could I feel my power, it was raging to be let out. I recognized the enemy as another archangel. My last battle with an archangel had not gone well. Without Alice to save me I would have been defeated. Maybe that's why this one had such a confident air about her.

"Your homecoming was a bit late, disgraced hero. Looks like no one is here to greet you."

"Did you destroy this village?" I asked, a tone of danger in my voice.

She didn't seem taken aback by my tone at all. "Yes, this was my work," she confirmed. "it's an archangel's duty to punish sinners."

Brandishing a tentacle, she gave a sadistic laugh. "With this tentacle I broke their necks or strangled them."

Showing me another appendage that looked like a mouth, she said, "With this I held many of them until they dissolved in agony. The villagers here were quite interesting. They kept begging and pleading for Ilias to help them. All while I slowly squeezed them to death. Clinging to Ilias all the way to the end. How pathetic. Still begging and pleading to the very one who ordered their deaths."

I was seething. I'd just gotten through telling Alice that I never wanted to kill. I knew with cold certainty that I was about to break that promise. The archangel didn't recognize how much danger she was in.

"Hahaha!" she laughed. "You look so angry. Looks like your special serene state of mind that I heard about won't help you now. You'll never be able to defeat an archangel with your heart so-"

I extended my hand and released a bolt of raw power at her. She was instantly blown apart. Alice just stared in shock.

"Luka…"

"We should go," I said. "Maybe we can get to Iliasburg in time."

"Luka," she said. "There aren't enough bodies here."

That got my attention. "What are you saying? Do you think a lot of people got out in time?"

"I don't want to get your hopes up, but…. Maybe. If this was just one angel's doing, then they might have been able to escape. Even an archangel can't be everywhere at once, and she seemed to enjoy killing these people slowly. Once the villagers had fled, she must have just waited here for you."

She started to sniff the air. "Wait, that's not it."

"What's not it?" I asked, apprehensive.

"They didn't run away," she explained. "They were teleported away. There are traces of transport magic in the air."

"Who could have done that?" I asked. "I doubt anyone on this continent could do that. Do you think they were taken prisoner?"

"It's possible, but it doesn't smell right," she said. "These corpses, they are random. If they were going to take prisoners they'd be selective. I don't know this for sure, but I think the villagers were evacuated soon after the attack started. That archangel was killing whoever she could get her hands on. While she was doing that, someone teleported the villagers out. I think."

"Then where would they be?" I mused. "Wherever they are, they might need help. I'm sure if Ilias wants them dead, she can find them and send more angels after them."

"I think I know where they are."

"You do? Where?!"

"Do you know about a village near here called Enrika?" she asked.

"I've heard rumors of such a place," I replied. "Very reclusive folks. How do you know they are there?"

"I don't, not for sure, but it's logical to assume that's where they were taken if they weren't taken prisoner. You said yourself that you doubted anyone on this continent could teleport masses of people."

"I don't think there's anyone on this continent that can teleport one person," I said.

"So yeah, that leaves Enrika as the only place where there might be such a person, or people. It would explain why they are so reclusive. Doesn't Ilias frown on using magic? That would explain why they didn't associate with the rest of the continent very much."

"I'm glad you mentioned that place!" I said. "I was going to go to Iliasburg, but Enrika is closer! Even if the villagers aren't there, Enrika might need help! Galda, come!"

Enrika was so close that there was no time for talk. I knew that Alice would want to talk about what I'd done back there. I was sure she didn't judge me for it. That angel had killed people I knew, and done so sadistically, horribly, and slowly. But I could tell that Alice was concerned about me. It was a conversation I dreaded.

For the time being, however, there was the more immediate concern. Enrika was already under attack. For all I knew, the whole world was under attack. Enrika in particular was being hit from two sides. Apparently not nearly defenseless as Ilias Village had been, the defenders were doing better than I would have expected. There must be more to this village than meets the eye, I thought.

As we descended, Alice advised me to help the defenders at the front gate, while she would take the back. When I arrived at the front gate to help, I saw something I didn't expect. Leading the defense was an elf! While that was strange, far stranger was the chimera closest to where I landed. It looked like it was 90% tongue. Actually, it was a giant tongue, with only a human face and chest. Even the human portion had an enormous tongue, because why not? Even its hair was tongues. My first thought was that I needed to be concentrating on angels, since I had the only weapon that could defeat them. I also had no desire to face a giant tongue given how vulnerable I'd always been to licking-based pleasure attacks. An elf was already engaging this particular chimera. Unfortunately, she got caught by it and was given a good working over, whereupon her face went slack with bliss and she was dumped to the ground, out of the fight for the time being. Wasn't she a monster? I'd always thought that monsters were immune to monster sexual magic? Unless a giant tongue just doesn't need any extra magic! I had no choice but to face her.

It's probably important at this point to briefly talk about the difference between the serene states I could achieve. I know I've gone over it before, but it always helps to reiterate so I don't confuse the reader. The serene state I achieved while using Undine's power, and which I had recently learned I could still use even without her, was me clearing my mind, pushing my pain, anger, fear, etc. aside. Without Undine, I could only dimly see the flow, but it was far better than what I had before I learned how to achieve a serene state. On the other hand, the serene state I had when I could touch my power was entirely different. I'm not even sure serenity is the right word for it. It was more of a real emptiness inside. Almost a lack of emotion. I'd almost achieved it through deep relaxation with Undine in her cave, but what truly brought it out was a high level of stress, followed by me feeling emotionally drained. A little bit of slow burning rage didn't seem to hurt either. Very hard to describe. But suffice to say that facing this tongue, I couldn't even see my power, much less use it.

I could, however, use my more normal serene state. This proved to be both helpful and less than helpful at the same time. It was helpful in the sense that the serene state revealed that she was more than just a giant tongue. She had numerous tongue appendages that could reach out for an opponent. It was less than helpful in that there were too many to dodge even if I could read their attack patterns perfectly, which I could not given how limited my ability was without Undine.

I did win, of course. Rather easily. I only mention this battle because I learned something interesting. I got licked quite a few times. Sure enough, there was no monster magic that I could detect. Neither was there that feeling of wrongness that I normally felt when being pleasured by artificial creations. This must have been another experiment, a way to get around the problems of imperfectly replicated monster magic. Make it so amazing, Promestein didn't even need to add it.

The elf that had been incapacitated by the tongue monster had recovered somewhat by the time I had sealed it. She thanked me for my aid. Now that I could see the battle from ground level, it was easy to understand why the defenders were so formidable. Elves were renowned for being extremely effective warriors in groups. Not to say that elves aren't dangerous individually, but they are one of the few monsters that are physically weaker than a normal human. Their strength is in speed, skill, and magic. But as a group is where their true prowess in battle is demonstrated. Brilliant archers, they were mowing down the chimeras with volley after volley of arrows. The chimeras, at least on this side of the village, had no chance of breaking through.

That caused the angels to come forward. The arrows passed right through the angels. The elves were about to sound the retreat when I stepped forward to challenge the angels. Recognizing me, they surrounded me. Did Ilias have "Wanted" posters up all over Heaven? In any case, it was good that they were focusing on me. I didn't want them slaughtering the elves.

I feared taking on so many opponents without the spirits. A serene state assisted me somewhat. I was surprised again to find that angels weren't actually all that great as fighters. It seemed their main strength was their invulnerability. Deprived of that, there wasn't much to worry about combat-wise. Realizing they were no match for me as long as I had Angel Halo, they shifted their strategy from trying to hit me with their weapons to bum rushing me and disarming me.

In this, they came close to succeeding. I had to endure dangerous pleasure attacks. I was pretty angry at Ilias for that. While angel sexual magic didn't feel anything like the monster version, it had similar effects. It seemed that angels and monsters weren't all that different. Ilias' stated reason for hating monsters was that they led humans into temptation and got them to commit depraved sexual acts. Yet these angels were happily committing depraved sexual acts against me! Using the very magic to subdue me that monsters used, although it had a different "taste" to it. What saved me is that they were as inexperienced at pleasure attacks as they were at combat. Coordination was lacking, skill even moreso. It wasn't the prettiest fight, and I didn't seal them all, but they spooked and fled from the field once they realized they were overmatched. It angered me that the forces of the heavens were just bullies, joyfully killing those who couldn't fight back, yet running away at the first sign of adversity when someone could hurt them. With the angels and chimeras routed at the front gates, it was time for me to see how Alice was doing at the back. I was blocked, however, by a terrifying sight. One of the Next Dolls stood in my path. Unless I could reach my power I knew I had no chance. Assessing my options, I prepared to retreat back to the elven lines in the hopes that we could overwhelm her with sheer numbers.

Before I could do that, a woman stepped between the Next Doll and me. The Next Doll's arrogant confidence melted away. "You can't be! Micaela! I thought you lost your power and departed from the world!"

"It's true I don't have the power I once did," the woman named Micaela replied. "but I'm still more than enough for one or two dogs like you. If you believe my sword of the heavens has rusted, you can gamble your life on it."

Even without my extrasensory perceptions from Sylph I could feel magic crackling in the air. This Micaela woman was not bluffing. The Next Doll and the woman stared each other down for several moments. Elves were starting to approach, arrows nocked. The Next Doll may have been tough, but she had gotten ahead of her forces and was all alone. She blinked first and withdrew. With but a glance from Micaela, the elven warriors parted to let the Next Doll pass.

That provided a likely answer as to who on this continent was capable of a mass teleportation. Micaela radiated power perceptible even to normal human senses, although she tamped it down once the Next Doll had left the village. She turned to me.

"Ilias' forces are strong in might but weak in heart," she said to me. "To be so easily cowed by such a simple bluff. My sword rusted long ago."

"My name is Luka," I said, introducing myself. "I guess I know your name, but I sense you're not quite human."

"I sense that you aren't, either," she said, raising an eyebrow. "Or at least, not a type of human I've ever encountered."

I spotted Alice approaching with an elf. The elf addressed Micaela. "Master Micaela, we've repulsed them at the rear gate as well. If this girl had not appeared, we would be in serious trouble."

"Hmph," Alice muttered. "it was just a bunch of boring beasts. This side seems to have been much more interesting."

I'd been in enough fights by now to know that "easy" didn't necessarily mean a breeze. She wasn't hurt, but was clearly quite tired. Without her full power, she must have relied on bludgeoning each chimera beast into submission. Even if they were no match for her, that must have been quite a workout.

"It appears you two were the difference between victory and defeat today," Micaela said. "What brought you here?"

"I was hoping that perhaps you had something to do with the disappearance of most of the residents of Ilias Village," I said, hoping with all my might that she had good news for me.

"Yes," she answered. "Most of them are safe in Enrika. But those who were in the open were the first to be preyed on. Now, come this way. We have much to talk about."

"As much as I'd love that, I fear there are many other places under attack. I have to help them!"

"You cannot be everywhere at once," Micaela countered. "What I have to tell you is vitally important, more important than the short time you will gain by leaving immediately."

As I followed her to her home, I spotted many familiar faces. I wanted to run to them, as there were so many friends and acquaintances that I hadn't seen in months. But that would have to wait. I hoped that what Micaela wanted to tell me was important enough to justify the delay in my departure. When we arrived at her house, I wasted no time with small talk.

"I don't mean to be pushy," I said upon entering. "but I'd really like to know who you are."

"That…. That's quite a story. Perhaps too long of a story to summarize here."

"Well, then let me thank you for rescuing so many people from Ilias Village," I said. "And for saving my bacon, too."

"You have bacon?" Alice asked. "I don't smell bacon. Where's the bacon!?"

"Figure of speech," I explained. Alice sagged with disappointment.

"Your manner of speech and your aura marks you as from Earth," Micaela observed.

"Wow," I said, nonplussed. "You're the first one to identify the name of the place I came from."

She gave a wry smile, "I do like to keep my ear to the ground, as your people would say."

"Why do you have such power?" I asked. "And what is this village, exactly? I've barely heard of it, and I lived in Ilias Village for two years! This place can't be more than two hours' walk from it."

"I can already answer one question," Alice interjected. "humans and elves live here together. On this continent, the humans wouldn't tolerate that."

"Yes," Micaela confirmed. "There are some humans here, but mostly elves. As well as some fallen angels."

"Fallen angels?" Alice and I said in unison.

"Some angels have rejected Ilias' way of thinking about monsters," explained Micaela. "Chased from the heavens, they took shelter here."

"Are you a fallen angel?" I asked.

"Yes," she confirmed. "I was the first angel created by Ilias. I see you have a million questions. It will be faster if you just let me explain from the beginning. The story starts several billion years ago, before this world was formed."

"Before the world was formed?" Alice asked. "Wasn't the world created by Ilias?"

"No," Micaela answered. "This world was not created by anyone. Though it may sound strange, this world was not artificially created by an intelligence."

"It doesn't sound strange to me," I said. "It's long been believed that my world wasn't either. Creation stories are useful for explaining things that are hard to comprehend given the limits of our knowledge, but as our knowledge grows we start to fill in those gaps. We no longer need to assume that a god just made it so."

"Okay, who are you and what have you done with Luka?" Alice said, staring at me.

"I don't know how your world came to be," Micaela said. "But given the apparent scarcity of magic where you come from, it seems likely that your world evolved through natural processes. Our world did not have the same origin. Magic does exist here, as you've seen. There are two basic types of magic: light and dark. The primordial magical forces in those early days of this world repelled each other, and so were kept separate. As time went on, those forces developed their own will."

"They became self-aware?" I asked.

"Yes, that's another way of putting it," Micaela confirmed. "Ilias was born from the light magics. From the dark magics, the Dark God Alipheese came forth."

"Dark God Alipheese?!" Alice exclaimed.

"The Dark God called herself the first Monster Lord," Micaela said. "It could be said that Alipheese and Ilias were the incarnations of dark and light."

"So she… lied about creating the world?" I asked.

"She did," Micaela confirmed. "However , she was not lying when she said she created intelligent life. I was the first. Pleased with her creation, she made many more. The angels."

"Why did she create them?" I asked.

"She was lonely," Micaela replied. "The only other being that existed was Alipheese, and Alipheese could not interact with Ilias. Dark and light repel each other. Ilias, tiring of simply creating angels from her own essence, took an interest in the life that was evolving on the surface of this world. She decided to grant them intelligence, so as to have fellowship with them. She did this by influencing the course of evolution. She altered the planet's atmosphere to advantage the mammals and disadvantage the reptiles. Eventually, humans evolved from monkeys."

"She didn't just will them into existence?" Alice said. "I have to say, I'm not impressed. What she did has been done by humans and monsters for centuries. She just had more time to do it, being immortal."

"Yes," Micaela said. "Once humans evolved, she made contact with them and became their object of worship. "

"How did monsters get here, then?" Alice asked.

"The Dark God Alipheese was pursuing the same goals as Ilias," she replied.

"With apparently more skill," Alice said smugly. "Her creations were stronger and smarter."

"It wasn't skill," Micaela countered. "It was simply the properties of the opposing magics. White magic, holy magic, strengthens the spirit and the soul. Dark magic strengthens the physical and magical attributes. Monsters are not more intelligent than humans in the aggregate. There is simply more disparity between monster races, ranging from genius level intellect to bordering on animalistic. Back to the story: The Dark God also directly created offshoots of herself, the first being Alipheese the Second. In addition, she combined her genes with six monsters on the surface. Those legendary monsters became known as the Six Ancestors. All monsters that exist today descend from those six."

"Promestein mentioned those," I said. "She said they were sealed?"

"Yes, after the first Monster Wars," Micaela said. "About a thousand years ago, the conflict between Alipheese and Ilias reached a head. The battle had spread to the surface world. An army of angels led by Ilias on one side, with legions of monsters led by Alipheese on the other. Even humans were dragged into it. I was an archangel, leading the angel army. I crossed swords with the Six Ancestors many times. Ilias was the victor."

"Are you saying that the first Monster Lord was defeated by Ilias?!" Alice asked in disbelief. "That can't be!"

"Alipheese's forces indeed were winning the war," Micaela said. "Ilias won in the end due to a cowardly trick. The destruction from the war was massive and terrible. Both gods realized that if the fighting continued, everything would be destroyed. Alipheese was not willing to see the world burn. Ilias was. Ilias threatened worldwide destruction if Alipheese didn't surrender. She said that if the Dark God and the Six Ancestors would seal themselves, she would not lay a hand on the other monsters. The Dark God agreed to surrender. She and the Six were sealed."

"What made her think Ilias would keep her promise?" Alice asked.

"Alipheese had no doubt Ilias would break her promise," Micaela replied. "So they tied in a special trigger that would cancel the seal into their magic. It was to be released if Ilias broke her promise."

"Ilias has broken her promise!" I exclaimed. "How come the seals haven't been released?"

"When a monster dies, her magic returns to the world, to be recycled into the endless cycle of birth and death. If a large amount of monster magic were released at once, it would saturate the world with dark magic. The amount of holy and dark magic must stay in balance, or the seal will break."

"I had no idea!" Alice exclaimed.

"There is an exception to that rule, however. Baptism doesn't simply serve to protect her followers from the erotic magic of monsters. It also enables the hero to destroy the magic instead of releasing it. In that way, Ilias seeks to cleanse the world of dark magic, and thus monsters. Luka is another exception, since he is not of this world. You yourself, Alice, contain enough dark magic to trigger the release of the seals. Unless Luka or some other hero killed you."

"But monsters are being killed in large numbers right now, and not by heroes!" I objected. "How is that not releasing the seals?"

"That's where Black Alice comes in," Micaela explained. "Black Alice is being used to absorb and manage the dark magic so that it does not affect the seals. In this way they attempt to keep things balanced even as they commit genocide."

"Why is she doing this?" I asked. "Why now?"

"She is weary of humanity's inability or unwillingness to destroy all monsters. Humans may be weak, but she believes that if their faith was stronger, more would be baptized and they would eventually overwhelm the monsters through sheer numbers. Frustrated that not enough humans were getting baptized and taking up their swords to eradicate the monsters, she ordered the slaughter at Remina to stoke the hatred of humans towards monsters and increase their faith. She succeeded to some extent. More people sought to be heroes. The quality of these heroes was lacking, however. Just two Heavenly Knights were sufficient to bring the recruitment of new heroes to a near halt. Ilias recognized the danger immediately. Her final gambit was to find a different kind of hero, one not of this world. She hoped that you, Luka, would kill the Monster Lord, or at the very least, end the blockade that was strangling the production of new heroes. "

"Wow," I breathed. "My arrival and the start of the blockade were both two years ago! I was serving here even while I thought I was doing my own thing. Her plans really are multi-layered."

"More than you can imagine. More than even I can imagine, and I was her right hand for thousands of years. She is not perfect, however. Ultimately, her plan did not achieve its objectives. Heroes can once again be recruited, but that is offset by the things you've done to improve relations between humans and monsters. She has a new plan, now. She intends to cleanse the world and create a new race of humans. It is clear that she foresaw that this might be necessary. She always plans for contingencies."

"Such as the ability to seal Alice?" I asked.

"That would certainly be an important spell to have in case you failed in your task," she confirmed. "She couldn't have the Monster Lord organizing resistance to her, and yet still be unable to kill her. As you know, there was also a contingency for you. To state what is obvious to you, she did not completely achieve her objectives."

"She came close enough to move forward, though," I observed.

"Indeed," Micaela agreed. "Do you know what you have to do now?"

"Defeat her armies," Alice responded. "Then defeat her, personally. Somehow."

"She is easier to defeat than you might imagine," Micaela said. "While nothing in this world can be more powerful than Ilias or Dark God Alipheese, Luka is not from this world, and thus is not bound by its laws. Ilias took a calculated risk in bringing him here because she despaired of ever finding someone on this world to do the job of eliminating you."

"That means I have to be able to use my power," I said. "At the moment, I can only use it in certain situations beyond my conscious control. Do you know how I can use it more reliably?"

"I know only things of this world, and since I started living among the humans, I only know what my eyes and ears tell me."

"Given what you know," Alice surmised. "I'd guess some of those eyes and ears are still in Heaven."

"I can neither confirm nor deny that," Micaela said with a slight smile.

There was a hurried knock on the door. Micaela excused herself and answered it. It was an elf. "There is a nine-tailed fox here wanting to speak to the Monster Lord," she reported.

"I see," Micaela said. "Please invite her in."

Tamamo needed no further invitation, pushing her way in past the elf. Alice asked her if she had anything to report.

"We've found some information on the seal on the spirits," reported Tamamo. "I thought you should know about this right away."

Tamamo jumped into a chair and shared a look with Micaela. "It has been a awhile, Tamamo," Micaela said.

"What irony," Tamamo responded. "For our reunion to be in this manner. I would like to speak with you, but I need to discuss this first."

Turning back to Alice and me, Tamamo gave her report. "The seal on the spirits is completely different than the seal on the Monster Lord. The range Is worldwide, and its being maintained on a massive scale. It's designed to drastically reduce their power. But it's not exactly a perfect seal. It's weakening them, making it impossible to communicate."

"So weakened, but not sealed?" I asked.

"Yes," she confirmed. "They were returned to their original dwelling places."

"Why were they safely sent back to their own dwellings?" Alice asked. "Why weren't they killed?"

"The spirits can't be killed, at least not without serious consequences," Tamamo said. "Their existence itself is a force of nature. If you were to kill them, nature would be thrown into disorder. Ilias is not willing to go that far."

"So I just need to go get them again?" I asked.

"It's true that you should be able to recontract with them," Tamamo confirmed. "But if that seal isn't dealt with they will be very weak."

"Still, it would make sense to go get them back," I said.

"Yes, but be careful," Tamamo said. "the heavens will do their utmost to block you at every step. I'll continue investigating how to break the seal. There are so many discs, I've been bringing as many kitsunes as I can to assist. We found more terminals for them to work on, so it's going faster than I expected."

"Thank you, Tamamo," I said. "The quests never end."

"There's bad news, though," Tamamo said. "Chimeric beasts and angels are attacking all over the world. Many places are resisting well, but it's not looking good for the long term. As the weaker cities and villages are defeated, it frees up Heaven's forces to add their numbers to the assaults on the stronger places."

"That damn Ilias really is going all out, isn't she?" said Alice.

"Then let's go!" I said. "We'll do just as we did when we first travelled together, except a lot faster since we have Galda. We'll help each city and village as we go and collect the spirits when we're near their locations."

"I know you're eager to get going, Luka, but slow down," Tamamo said. "I have something to discuss with Alice."

"And I have something to discuss with you, Luka," Micaela said.

Taking me aside, she gave me a very serious look and began to speak. "I know you aren't a killer, Luka, but now you are in a war. I will say this very plainly: you will lose if you are unwilling to ever take a life. Everything you care about will be destroyed. All those you love will die. Do you understand?"

"Micaela, I've already killed. I used my power to kill an archangel."

"I'm sure you had no choice," she said, trying to comfort me. "Without the spirits, your power was your only recourse against such a being. But it is not archangels I'm referring to. Your sword can seal them once you are able to fight them again on equal footing. When I tell you that you have to kill, I mean the more powerful ones: Black Alice, Ilias, perhaps Promestein. Sealing them will not help. They cannot be reformed. They will never stop being a threat. The only way to defeat them is by destroying them completely. You are the only one who can do it."

"I understand," I said.

I had never held to an "avoid killing no matter what" rule. I hated killing and I had fervently hoped I would never have to do it, but I recognized that a time might come when it was unavoidable. What bothered me about the incident with the archangel in Ilias Village was my murderous intent. At the time, I had wanted to. I got satisfaction out of seeing her blown apart. I'm human. She killed my friends and laughed about it. She deserved what happened to her, of that I had no doubt. What I didn't like was what that said about me. I didn't want to emerge from this war a hard man. There were times when I felt like less than a man because I was immature, or soft, or whiny. As much as I didn't like that about myself, I liked the idea of being a hardened killer even less.

It took much longer than I'd hoped, but finally we left Micaela's house and boarded Galda.

"Luka," Alice said as Galda sped towards Iliasburg. "the enemies are only going to get more powerful. In this body I can't contribute as much as I'd like. Tamamo taught me a new skill to help out. It's called Word of Dispel. It lets me return to my real body for a short time."

"That's incredible!" I said. "For how long?"

"Um…. Three seconds."

"Three seconds. I see."

"I can only do it once every hour or so, and probably not more than a few times a day."

"It sounds useful, but I'm having trouble figuring out exactly how we'd use that," I said.

"If I'm with you during a battle and not otherwise occupied, three seconds is more than enough time for me to cast a pretty vicious spell. You know what my offensive spells can do."

"Ah," I said. "Now I get it. You can blast 'em!"

"Basically," she agreed."If I'm quick, I can even trigger your ability with my eyes. That won't be ideal in most situations, but as you remember, we've done that before. I can foresee situations where that might come in handy, even if it is a little unpleasant for you."

"I'm getting used to it," I said. "It's really annoying when it gets done to me while I'm minding my own business, but in the heat of battle it doesn't bother me too much. I just worry about killing my opponent. I'm less worried about that now. We're at war. People are dying as we speak. If some angels die, I guess that's how it has to be."

"I know it's hard for you, Luka," Alice said. "I worry about you. The fact you wouldn't kill my cute little subordinates is one of the first things I liked about you. But you're right, this is war. Your resolve must not fail. Some enemies are too powerful for you with just your sword, and others can't be defeated by mere sealing. I wish I could say you won't have to kill again, but I can't promise you anything."

"I worry about me too," I replied. "I don't want to become a different person."

"War changes people," she said. "The only thing I can promise you is that whatever we do, we'll do together. After the war, well…. Who knows?"

We sat on Galda's back in silence for a few moments. Alice touched my hand to get my attention. "So….. now do you remember if you're a virgin?"

"Why is that so important to you?"

"I just want to know!" she said teasingly.

The fact is, I did remember now where I lost my virginity. I just didn't want to tell Alice. I soon realized that the story might be important. I had to tell her. If I withheld this information and it turned out to be vital she'd be very unhappy with me.

"It's… not a story I'm going to enjoy telling," I said.

"Oh," she replied. "That bad?"

"It… might just tie into how I got here," I said sheepishly.

"You losing your virginity is how you got here?" she asked skeptically, folding her arms. "There's no way you can't tell me this story now."

So I began. The version I told her was the same in all the key facts, but I left out things that she wouldn't understand absent long explanations. Since you, the reader, are from Earth, you'll get all the references.

It was a couple of weeks after high school graduation. I was still trying to decide whether I wanted to start college right away. I already had a great job working in a data center at a company with great upward mobility, and they were not sticklers about degrees. I spent most of my free time when I wasn't at home or work at the mall. I'd always loved indoor malls. The mall was a great place to walk and get exercise without the hot sun shining on me. You know, back when I thought I'd accomplished something if I walked 5 miles. Malls were also great for walking because your refreshments are never more than a few feet away. But most importantly, there were women. Lots and lots of beautiful women. I never bothered any of them. I'd always been shy around females. The opposite sex had never shown all that much interest in me. I'd had a couple of girlfriends in high school. Even got to third base once. I was 18 years old and a virgin, gazing hopelessly at an endless menu of lovely women I would never have the guts to approach. It wasn't just about guts. It had always bothered me when men harassed women in public places.

Now I know I've talked before about my lack of situational awareness. So I don't know how long those two lovely ladies had been following me around the mall, but eventually I took notice. One blonde, one brown haired lady, both looked a little older than me but still pretty young, probably mid-20s. The blonde one was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. They didn't just follow me around. They'd be walking behind me for awhile, then to the side, then in front, then they'd be gone entirely. I wasn't the only one they were checking out. These two were definitely hunting for men. The brown haired woman carried around a phone which she would use to snap pictures or video. At least that's what it looked like she was doing. The blonde bombshell would make comments about various men they passed. I didn't hear her say anything about me, but they seemed to always come back to me.

I went to go see a movie for a break, another great advantage of walking at a mall. The movie that I selected that day was a nice little horror gem called Ready or Not. The two women entered and went up the stairs to the top row. The blonde haired woman was enraptured by the film while the brown haired lady continued to stare into her phone.

After the movie, I did more walking. At first I thought the two might have lost interest or maybe I was just paranoid, or worse, engaging in wishful thinking. I walked about two hours seeing no sign of them. As I got close to taking a food break, however, I noticed them behind me once again. Their demeanor had changed. They were talking animatedly, making sure they spoke low enough that I couldn't hear. The brown haired woman was now making no attempt to hide the fact that she was filming me. Spoiler: she wasn't filming me.

When I arrived at the food court, I ordered my usual at Burger King, a few burgers, fries, and a coke. I picked a table, sat down and ate. Around the time I bit into the second burger, those two women sat down a few tables away, having gotten themselves a couple of slices of pizza each. The brown haired one would occasionally hold her phone up, seeming to take a picture of me, and then they would both stare at the phone, discussing something in excited tones. I looked over a few times. They'd look back, say something to each other, and giggle. Deciding that they were probably just making fun of me, I tried to pay attention to my food. But my goodness, was the blonde one beautiful! The brown haired woman was no slouch in that department herself.

Then something happened. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the one with the phone holding it up in my direction for at least a full minute. I assumed she was filming me again for who knew what reason. I got a pretty good idea when something flew towards my head. My hand went up instinctively and caught it out of the air. The blonde one had thrown a half full pepsi can at me. She had an impressive arm. Catching it saved me from getting hit in the head, but did not prevent me from getting a blast of soda in the face. I heard the girls giggling loudly now, the one with the phone still holding it up. I get it. Pick on the dorky looking guy, put it on youtube. Maybe they were younger than I thought. I couldn't imagine mature women acting that way. I looked over and smiled at them, since I wasn't really angry. They smiled back. I wiped my face and shirt with a napkin and went back to my hamburgers. The next thing I knew, they were sitting across from me at my table. The woman with the phone had finally put it away.

"What kind of guy doesn't notice when two lovely ladies are interested in him?" the blonde one asked me.

"Sorry," I said amiably. "I didn't know throwing things was a means of getting my attention."

"Oh, we weren't trying to get your att-" the brown haired woman's reply was cut off by a firm kick under the table from the blonde one.

"Sorry, I can be a little aggressive sometimes," she said. "Isn't that how people show their interest here? I think I've been hit on by every man in this mall except for you."

"I'm not really used to aggressive or passive interest from women," I replied. "But I'm definitely flattered, so thank you."

"I'm Irene," the blonde haired one said, "and this is my… friend, Pamela."

What followed was some casual conversation about the movie we'd seen, the mall itself, some very odd questions about the area, to which the brown haired one answered my quizzical looks with, "We're tourists." They asked what I did, what skills I had, if I was a warrior? I told them I'd wrestled in high school and had a very small amount of martial arts training in jiu-jitsu and tae kwon do. Nothing too impressive though. Despite being a bit of a geeky kid I'd never had much of a problem with physical bullying. Being on the wrestling team had gotten me some respect, as well as backup, in the school halls, and my skills, while meager, were enough to make me not worth the trouble for bullies. I wasn't terribly large, or strong, or fast, except for my reflexes, which my classmates had said were uncanny.

The topics turned a bit more teasing, with questions about my virginity, whether I had a girlfriend, whether I was gay…. I was starting to see where this was going. Girls had done this to me all my life, talking to me in couples or groups just to amuse themselves. I generally didn't mind, as it never got too mean. Then Irene asked another strange question.

"Do you ever play around with magic?" she asked. Pamela shot her a dirty look.

"You mean, like magic tricks?" I asked.

"Yes, that's exactly what she meant!" Pamela interjected.

That was not among my hobbies, and now I was certain they were just screwing with me. Until they asked me bluntly to take them to my home. I'm not stupid. Well, I am incredibly stupid, as subsequent events will show, but I can't be accused of going into this unaware. I'd read about this. They were going to rob me. Probably give me a drug-laced drink and then make off with anything valuable that they could get their hands on. What makes me a moron is that even though I knew this was a con, I agreed to take them home with me. Although first I offered to summon them an Uber, which only seemed to confuse them. Oh well, tourists. Tourists with Midwestern American accents. I asked them where they were from. "Up north," was Pamela's response.

In my defense, I didn't own much of value. I decided that I'd make a point of not letting any drink I was sipping out of my sight, and if it went bad, at least I got to spend some time with two lovely ladies. I was really starved for attention from the opposite sex, which is absolutely hilarious given that where I ended up, practically every girl wanted to screw my brains out. The monster girls, anyway. Although even the human girls there seemed to take a liking to me. I had just been cautious about getting involved with women once I arrived there, and I suspect this encounter was the reason, even though I didn't remember it.

Since I assume you, the reader, are also not an idiot, you probably know they weren't interested in robbing me. I drove them to my home, a pretty humble two bedroom apartment. To my surprise, they didn't ask for drinks first, which I would have assumed would be the standard way of getting me out cold. As a matter of fact, they went straight to removing my clothes. Irene's clothes soon followed. Pamela decided to stay dressed for the time being. Irene was hyper aggressive, kissing me hard and passionately while her hands were all over my body. Pamela was taking on more of a supporting role, lightly kissing and licking me on my ears, neck, shoulders, and back. Was this actually happening?! This only happens in porn movies!

Herding me into my bedroom, Irene threw me down onto the bed and with an exuberant cry of joy, leaped on top of me. Pamela had stopped kissing and touching me, pulling out a tablet from a handbag and doing some kind of work on it. Once on the bed, Irene straddled me, holding down my arms. "I'm gonna fuck the shit out of you, virgin!" she yelled down at me. I was okay with that and said so. At least, I was okay until I saw Pamela pull a syringe out of her handbag and start filling it with something. They weren't going to even bother spiking a drink! They were just going straight to injecting me! I started to struggle. Irene couldn't have weighed more than 100 pounds and I was a pretty fair high school wrestler. She should not have been able to hold me down. Yet she did, with some difficulty.

"Ooohhh, you picked a good one!" Irene said with glee. "He's strong! Feisty!"

Pamela didn't look up as she finished filling the syringe. "They're all strong in this dimension. That's not what makes him special."

She approached me with the syringe. I redoubled my efforts to get Irene off of me. This dimension? What was this?

"Are you two in a satanic cult or something?" I asked.

"I don't know what that is," Pamela replied. "so let's just agree that it's 'or something'."

She injected the fluid into me. "Shhhhhh….." Irene said, an unnerving smile on her face. "Don't worry, I haven't led you on. You're totally getting laid tonight! It's gonna be awesome!"

"This might hurt," Pamela said. "A lot."

It did indeed. I started screaming as a burning sensation spread from my chest, encompassing my entire torso. I was surprised that it didn't start in my arm where I had been injected. I was even more surprised that my torso started to glow slightly. Was it my imagination or an effect of whatever she'd injected me with?

"That confirms it," Pamela said, satisfaction in her voice. "He's a perfect candidate. You can begin the ritual now."

"Ritual?!" I said, as the pain subsided. "This is some kind of cult, isn't it?"

My struggles had started to irritate Irene. "Can't you give him something to calm him down!?" she said to Pamela.

"We already tried that with the last candidate," Pamela replied. "My paralytic agent doesn't work very well on the men here. They have very strong resistance."

"Nothing like those useless humans back home," Irene said, a crazed smile on her face. "I knew they were strong here, but to make ME have to work hard! Incredible!"

"He's strong, but it's not just his strength," Pamela explained. "This place makes you and I weaker as well. We're almost…. Human."

Now I was starting to get really worried. When I get really worried, I get a nervous kind of humor.

"It sounds like this is either going to be the worst day of my life, or something incredibly awesome," I said.

"It's going to be something, that's for sure," replied Pamela.

"It's gonna be awesome!" Irene assured me in a not so assuring voice. "You're getting fucked by a goddess, and in return I'm going to have a little task for you. But first…"

She released my arm long enough to touch my forehead. I felt a slight discharge that felt like static electricity. That had apparently not been what Irene had been looking for because she cursed. "Why the fuck didn't that work?"

"Magic doesn't work very well here," Pamela explained. "I told you that. You can't touch him with just a small amount of power, you need to really get in there."

"Sounds good," Irene said. "Help me hold him down."

Pamela put down the tablet and grabbed one of my arms as Irene placed both of her hands at my temples. This time I felt something a little more significant, although still not too painful. A slight jolt.

"I think you got him," Pamela said. "Now you can begin the ritual."

"What about you?" Irene asked. "How are you getting back?"

"Getting back is easy," Pamela replied. "This place doesn't want us here. It takes hundreds of times more power to get here than it does to return to where we came from. This dimension is always eager to bid us good riddance."

"Then why do I have to do this ritual?" Irene asked. "Not that I'm complaining. This guy is fun!"

"For us, getting back is easy," Pamela explained. "It's getting HIM there that's the challenge. He doesn't belong there any more than we belong here. He has to be bound to you magically for his presence in our world to be stable."

"Gotcha!" Irene said, then looked back down at me. "Time to get started!"

Releasing one of my hands for a moment, she reached down, grabbing my penis and pushing it into her. The feeling was indescribable. I had always wondered what a woman's pussy would feel like but I hadn't ever imagined it would be like that. Any thoughts I had of resistance were ended for the time being. It wasn't critical ecstasy. It wasn't even draining. I just didn't want it to end. I assumed that when she was done I could resume my struggles.

Inexplicably, she grew impatient after what seemed only a minute. "Why the fuck is this taking so long!" Irene asked Pamela.

"I keep trying to tell you, you're not a goddess here," Pamela replied.

"I am ALWAYS a fucking goddess!" she yelled.

"Maybe you should let his penis know that," Pamela said.

"Hmmm," Irene mused. "Your dick is blaspheming me, Luka. I'm going to have to punish it!"

Her gyrations and bouncing got more intense. I was having the time of my life. She seemed to enjoy that I was into it, but also seemed to want to get it over with. At the three minute mark she got her wish as I exploded into her amazing vagina. I closed my eyes in ecstasy.

That's when things got REALLY weird. I felt wind and a falling sensation. Irene had let go of me. Where was I? I opened my eyes just in time to impact the ground. I landed back first, the back of my head painfully impacting the ground a split second afterwards. As my consciousness started to fade, I heard voices. It sounded like Pamela and Irene.

"What the fuck was that?!"

"Traveling between dimensions isn't easy, Goddess! We materialized about 40 feet above the ground. Why didn't you hold onto him? He can't fly!"

"How was I supposed to know that?! You're the fucking scientist! Is he dead?"

I felt hands on me, checking my pulse, my chest, exploring my naked body. "No, he seems all right. I can't find anything broken."

With that, I passed out.

Alice stared at me in shock. "Ilias… Ilias was your first time?!"

"I think so," I said. "The evidence definitely seems to point in that direction."

"I assume 'Pamela' was Promestein," she said.

"That seems likely as well. Are you angry?"

"Very," she seethed. "but not at you. I've grown used to your idiocy. I can't get upset about that anymore. I'm angry FOR you. Angry that your first time had to be like that. Now I feel even worse for being aggressive towards you. You deserved better, Luka. From me and from her."

"I appreciate that very much, Alice," I replied. "It means a lot to me. Some good has come of it, though. I'm running around this world making it a less rapey place."

"You are at that," she said, smiling.