The Four Shrines

When we emerged from the tunnel into open plains, it was nightfall, so we opened the Pocket Castle and did what we usually did. We'd managed to recruit a few companions. Good, strong minotaur companions. Mina, the minotaurus we'd encountered first in the tunnel. Carol, a slimmer minotaurus but no less fierce looking. And Odette, the lady I'd been eyeing in the kitchen. She must have noticed my interest, and thus chose to come along with us. Good. I could use the kitchen help. As our party grew larger, we needed more kitchen staff and more men for them to feed off of. Unfortunately, there had been no men in the tunnel, and none of the minotaurs had had semen for over a week. That meant that I had a new mission.

The first mission was of course to feed everyone, and since our newest guests liked beef, I busted out my famous prime rib dish, something that I knew the beef-addicted minotaurs didn't get to eat very often due to the cost. As usual it was a hit with everyone who ate meat. Those that didn't, my staff made potatoes, corn, mixed veggies, and apple pie for desert. Quite the feast, although I knew well that for monsters that had been deprived of semen for awhile, it only whetted the appetite.

Mina was the first to "kidnap" me, taking me to her room, lifting me off the ground, and shoving my penis between her huge breasts. She never said a word, just grunted and pushed and pulled my body so that I thrust in between her boobs until I came. Then she unceremoniously deposited me onto the bed to recover. By the time I felt as if I could rise, Carol entered the room. Carol was a little more talkative.

"Hey there, little bro, big sis is here to make you happy," Carol said.

"I'm pretty sure we're not related," I replied.

"Don't mind me, all of us minotaurs do that. Men love these breasts, so it makes them hot to think of us as mothers, sisters, aunties, that sort of thing."

"Interesting," I said. "And a little creepy."

"We monsters don't judge. Humans can be hard to figure out. Some of you really get off on the weird stuff and some of you are offended by it. If it's not your thing, I can just be Carol."

"I like Carol. That's a very pretty name. And you're a very pretty lady."

I wasn't just trying to sweet talk her. Carol was probably the prettiest minotaurus I'd ever seen. Most minotaurs are quite pretty, but they aren't everyone's type. They tend to be very large, with rippling muscles. As they age, they tend to get fat from their heavy diets of milk and meat. Carol was tall, but not very bulky, rather skinny, at least for a minotaur.

"Well, I was just going to rub a couple loads out of you, since we just met and all," Carol said. "But if you're going to be that sweet to me, I should let you decide how I'll do it."

I'd already had some wonderful if a bit perfunctory breast love, and asking Carol for intercourse when we'd literally just met seemed a little forward. I knew that some monsters would go straight to that, but usually only if they were having mating urges or intended to kill. Carol just wanted to feed a little.

"Would you use your mouth on me?" I asked.

"Oh…" Carol said. "You don't know?"

"Know what?"

"That's going to be a bit of a problem. Here, let me show you."

Carol bent down and put my penis in her mouth. At first I enjoyed the extraordinary warmth and wetness of her mouth, but then her tongue rubbed against me.

"Ouch!"

"See?" Carol said, sticking her tongue out.

"Oh my, you have bristles on the tip!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah," Carol said ruefully. "Makes giving oral difficult. But if you really want a blowjob today, I've got a tip for you."

"A tip?"

"Odette. You see, we don't have those bristles on our tongues when we're young, they grow in shortly after puberty. But they also fall out over time as we age. Odette probably doesn't have them. And she's very, very hungry."

"Is she now?" I asked, very interested, imagining Odette's enormous mouth devouring my manhood.

"Yes she is," Carol said, beginning to stroke me with her hand. "Her breasts are enormous too, much bigger than mine or Mina's. It was almost as if Odette was built just to please men."

"You're very good with your hands," I said appreciatively, as she added a second hand, rubbing me in a circular motion.

"I have to be. Although…. Maybe once I get to know you a little better…."

I understood where she was going with that. That thought made me hot as well, especially knowing how hard warrior-types could squeeze with their vaginal muscles. That caused me to erupt all over her hands. Carol proceeded to lick my seed off of them.

"That'll be enough for now," Carol said. "When you're feeling like you can get up, go back to the kitchen and see Odette. She's such a sweetheart. She wasn't going to eat today because she wanted Mina and I to get our fill. But one is enough for today. We wanted to be sure to leave her some."

Since Carol had given me a tip on where I could get great head, how could I not follow up? I returned to the kitchen as soon as I was strong enough, which I'm proud to say only took about thirty minutes. I found Odette still hard at work, alone. Eva, while not a bad kitchen helper, never stuck around to do the dishes or pans. In her defense, the magical maids did that job just fine. But Odette seemed to get satisfaction from doing it herself.

"Oh, hello, Luka!" Odette greeted me. "Already done with Carol and Mina? I was afraid they'd be too rough on you given how long it had been."

"Actually, Odette, they were thinking about you. They went easy on me so that you could eat tonight as well."

"Did they now?" Odette asked. "How thoughtful of them. Well, I won't keep you waiting. How would you like me to do it?"

"You know," I replied. "You minotaurs are so nice. Most monsters don't ask. In fact, they say requests are just terms of surrender."

"Mina allowed you to make a request?" Odette asked, mildly surprised.

"Well…. No. She actually didn't say a word to me. Just hauled me into her room and had her way with me. But Carol did ask!"

"Carol's a sweetie," Odette said approvingly. "Keep your eye on that one, Luka, she's marriage material. She may even be beast queen someday. At the very least the next cow queen. Mina's nice too, but bullheaded. I do declare, young man, many young minotaurs make love like men. No wooing, nothing gentle about it, just grab a man and force him to come. Other monster races make milking men into an art form. Not most minotaurs, no, no, no."

"Well I would hope most men don't force women to have sex with them," I said.

"Pardon me, Luka, I meant no offense. Truthfully I don't know much about human culture. Men aren't very talkative while we're drowning them in pleasure. I just assumed that men treat women the same way we treat men."

"Some do," I admitted. "But most of us prefer a willing partner."

"I agree, and you've got one now," Odette said. "You know why I decided to join your group?"

"No, why?"

"Because I saw the way you looked at me. It was very flattering, all those lovely minotaurs around and you seemed to focus on an old hag like me. Are you into older women?"

"You have no idea," I said, deciding not to tell her at that moment just how much older than her I was. Now let's be clear about one thing. Odette was no old hag. It was easy to tell that she had been beautiful in her younger years, but middle age spread is a big problem for cows and she was carrying quite a bit of extra fat around. But her face was still lovely and her chest… oh my, that chest! As for her actual age, she wasn't even quite middle aged yet, more equivalent to a human woman of thirty-five than one well into her forties. There was no gray in her hair and no wrinkles on her skin. The only evidence of her age was the softening and flab of her body, so common to the muscular minotaur race.

"So you haven't told me how you want me to do it, yet," Odette said.

"Carol told me that you could give great oral," I said hopefully.

"Did she now? It's not really what our race is known for. I'm sure you know what we're most famous for. These jugs. But since Mina had her way with you, as you put it, I'm guessing you've already had your fill of that for the night. We're also very good at handjobs. We're naturals at milking. We know just the right points at which to give a man a good squeeze. But blowjobs? I admit, I can count on my fingers the number of times I've done it. Let me tell you a little gossip. Carol's actually super good at it. She gives the best fellatio of any minotaur around."

"Carol? But I thought…."

"Oh, the men pay for it later," Odette laughed. "Oh, do they pay! Her tongue rips their penis up but good! That's why she only uses it in combat, or to punish men who have attacked her or her friends. At first her tongue bristles hurt. But as you know, being so experienced with monsters as you are, the human brain registeres almost all pain as pleasure once a monster gets her hooks into him. So despite the damage being done, the man submits to it, and she sucks him as ferociously as the most ravenous succubus. By the time she's done, his penis is bloody and there are pieces of skin…"

"Oh, that's…. really not great for the mood," I said, wincing.

"Well, they do heal," Odette said. "She's never done permanent damage to anyone. As far as I know. Ah, but you're more interested in me right now. Lucky for you, my tongue doesn't have the dreaded bristles anymore. But since I only lost them recently, I'm afraid I'm not very experienced. I've seen the lamia girl, and the succubi you have here. Even a dog girl, and I know that they can lick a man into oblivion. I'd hate to disappoint you."

"Impossible," I assured her.

"Well, if you're sure that's what you want, okay," she replied, lifting me up and setting me down on the prep table. "Lie back, and I'll be right back."

Right back? Where was she going? Singing to herself, Odette went into the pantry. I heard her rummaging around, mumbling to herself. "No, this won't work. This is too spicy. Hmmm, sticky, but that might be a good thing. Ah, this is perfect! Ooh, this too!"

Odette came out carrying several jars. She set each one carefully down on a counter, then turned to me and carefully removed my pants, exposing me.

"Oh, you really are into me!" she said with delight. "Look at that! It's the perfect size, too! Not too big, not too small. So I brought all these ingredients, because we are a in a kitchen, and I have to liven things up if I'm going to give you a blowjob to remember. So let's see, what should I use first…."

I still wasn't sure exactly what was happening. I found out pretty quickly when she opened a jar of grape jam and without warning, simply shoved my penis directly into it. When she removed it, something like half the jar of jam was all over my crotch. She closed the jar and put it back on the shelf.

"Should that really go back on the shelf?" I asked.

"The monsters won't mind, believe me," Odette replied.

"Yes, but we have humans and angels who eat that as well," I argued.

"Oh. Well okay, might as well use the whole jar, then!"

She opened the jar and poured the rest onto me. Bending down, she began licking the excess off with her enormous tongue, and there was a lot of excess to lick off, seeing as how she'd dumped the entire jar on me.

"Oh, you're going to make me so fat!" Odette said with delight. "Now that I've eat all the jam from your legs, chest, and balls, it's time to suck it off of your penis!"

She dove down, devouring my penis in her large mouth, sucking hard and using her tongue to clean every part of it. When she was finished, she proudly inspected her work.

"I don't know that I give great head, but I definitely know how to get things clean!" Odette said proudly. "I mean, you didn't even come from that! So what should I use next….? Aha!"

She grabbed a jar of honey, fortunately not the very expensive Happiness Honey, but the plain old generic boring honey. I feared that she would just dump it out on me, but she chose a more delicate approach given just how sticking honey is. She lightly poured a small strand onto my dick, then licked it off. Then she repeated it with a little more honey. Finally, she poured a somewhat larger amount, quickly engulfing my penis again before it could spread downwards to harder to reach places. This time I did orgasm, as her sucking and licking had become relentless and hard due to the difficulty of getting all of the honey off of it.

"Oh, so delicious with the honey!" she exulted. "Now I know how bee girls feel! Would you like me to keep going?"

I nodded eagerly. What she lacked in technique she more than made up for by just being hot and one of the more powerful suckers I'd ever experienced. Odette went back to the counter and tried to choose something. She had probably wanted to try all of the jars, but recognized that I was already on my third orgasm of the night and didn't have much more to give. Finally, she chose. Peanut butter. She poked a finger into the jar and sucked the peanut butter off.

"Mmmm…. This is so good!" Odette said. "All it's missing is the flavor of you!"

Dipping her finger in again, she pulled out a hunk and began applying it to my penis. Just as she was about to finish and start the wonderful sucking again, someone barged in.

"Oh my, Odette-san!" I heard Kimuro's voice say. "I am so sorry! I didn't know you were feeding!"

"Why don't you join me, dearie?" Odette said. "Peanut butter is so hard to properly suck off of a man."

"I would not know," Kimuro replied. "I have never tried."

"Well I'm glad you're here, then!" Odette laughed. "Your tongue is made for cleaning! Come and assist me!"

"I do like peanut butter," Kimuro admitted. "And I have learned numerous oral techniques."

"I'm afraid there's no technique to what we're doing here, dearie. Just pretend that you're licking it off of a spoon or a butter knife. Don't overthink it. Besides, I don't want you to make me look bad."

"Then I shall endeavour to give the most mediocre head that I know how, Odette-san."

"I appreciate that. Now let's get started."

What followed for the next five minutes was some of the most interesting head I'd ever experienced. The contrast of Odette's huge, smooth tongue with Kimuro's little slightly rough tongue enhanced the sensations of both, giving me far more pleasure than should have been possible given that all they were doing was basically cleaning me. I came three more times into their eager mouths. I was barely aware of Odette carrying me to my room.

Entering Yamatai Village, I felt a pang of nostalgia. There were three places in that world that had that effect on me: Ilias Village, the castle, and Yamatai Village, where I would spend more of my life than any other place, residing there from the time of my marriage to Tamamo until my death, hundreds of years later. I wasn't sure what I would do if Tamamo was present in the village. Alice had been sprung on me by surprise way back in Iliasville, but I entered Yamatai knowing that I might encounter Tamamo.

We'd kept the group small, just Alice, Ilias, Sonya and myself, since Yamatai didn't really hold much interest to most of the other castle denizens. Although they were free to explore on their own, individually, so long as they behaved.

"Everything looks peaceful enough," Sonya observed uncertainly. "I wonder what kind of trouble Alma Elma heard about?"

"I suggest we talk to the village elder," I said. "I don't know where Alma Elma got her information either, but if there's trouble here, the village elder would certainly know about it."

"I hear there are a lot of delicious foods here," Alice said. "Do you think we'll have time to sample them?"

"I have little doubt that we will," I chuckled. "The best part is, the food here is dirt cheap. You can all have as much as you want."

But that would come after I talked to the elder. I'd already fed them all a big breakfast. Even Alice could wait. So we marched up the hill to the surprisingly large home of the village elder. It was large not because he required a lavish lifestyle, but because there was always so much going on. People constantly came to the elder for advice or assistance, or to adjudicate disputes. Yamatai had always been needier in that regard than other villages.

We found him where I expected to find him,and of course he was quite busy, rarely getting a moment of peace from villagers bringing all of their problems to him. And apparently, there were many, which told me that Alma Elma's information was probably quite reliable. Somehow, the elder had learned that help was being sent, because when he noticed the outsiders in his presence, he quickly acknowledged us and began to tell us what the situation was.

"All of our major shrines are in crisis!" he told us. "No one knows where the cat or tanuki goddesses are, the snake goddess is trying to take over the village, and the fox goddess is despressed!"

"Tamamo is depressed?" I asked. That was very unlike Tamamo. Alice seemed perplexed by the news as well. But the most important question was, "So Tamamo is here?"

"Last I heard, she is," the elder confirmed. "Please, if you can help her somehow, find the missing goddesses, and calm Shirohebi down, I would be most grateful. I was told to expect you, and that you could help us."

"Well, I'm not completely clear on what the problems are, except for the snake shrine. I know that problem all too well. But we'll do our best."

"Please do," the elder pleaded. "We are a small, peaceful village. The turmoil in the shrines affects us all. We cannot be happy if the gods are not happy."

Our first stop was the cat shrine, since it was the closest. While nekomata were very common in and near Yamatai, what was going on in the shrine was on another level. It looked as if there was a nekomata convention going on. I consulted the shrine maiden.

"Oh, what am I to do!" she exclaimed with worry. "There are so many stray nekomata here that I can't tell which is our cat goddess!"

"Have you tried asking each one?" Alice asked.

"Do you see how they run around at random?" the shrine maiden replied. "There's no way to systematically search."

"Let your goddess handle this," Ilias said, stepping forward. "Hey fuckers! Which one of you is the false cat goddess!"

Most of the cats didn't even deign to acknowledge Ilias, except for one, who approached Ilias out of curiousity and began affectionately rubbing her body against Ilias. Which is adorable when a little kitty cat does it to your leg, but at Ilias' current size, the nekomata was actually somewhat larger than her. Still, Ilias laughed.

"Stop it, you loathsome creature!" she chuckled. "Oh, your fur is so soft! You wouldn't happen to be the cat goddess, would you?"

"Unyah!" the nekomata said helpfully. Nekomata were notorious for understanding human language, and even many monster languages, but refusing to ever speak them.

"This doesn't seem like much of a crisis," Sonya observed. "How about the rest of you move on while Ilias and I try to figure out which one of these is the goddess?"

"I endorse this plan," Ilias said, stroking the cat's fur as it purred and continued to rub against her. "Not because I want to touch these disgusting abominations, mind you."

Alice smirked as we left Sonya and Ilias to deal with the problem at the cat shrine. We would head over to the fox shrine. I still hadn't decided how to approach Tamamo. How does one even talk to a depressed kitsune? While depression among kitsunes wasn't unheard of, I had rarely seen Tamamo sad for more than a minute. There were only two things that could put her in tears: the death of a loved one or a palpable reminder of the wrongs she had once done. But by the next morning, if not the next hour, she was usually fine again. Then I remembered the Tamamo on Ariana's world. She had been in quite a funk, understandably so, after losing all of her sisters and being disfigured. I'd reached her by showing her that even someone she'd wronged believed in her. Would something like that work for this world's Tamamo?

"She doesn't know you, idiot," Alice said. "She's not going to care what you say. To her, you'll just be some young human who knows nothing about nothing. So let me do the talking. I know how to motivate that silly kitsune."

We arrived at the fox shrine minutes later, to find several actual foxes, not fox girls, surrounding Nero, who had apparently decided to make another inexplicable appearance.

"Nero!" I addressed him, as he seemed distracted by the foxes, who were actually being quite affectioniate. "I assume you're here for something important. Do you have any idea what's going on?"

"Oh, hi, fancy seeing you here," Nero said mildly. "This coincidental meeting is quite unexpected.."

"I'm sure," I said skeptically. "The foxes seem to really like you. They took to me as well, although they had to get to know me first."

"It's weird," Nero said. "Because yes, foxes like me, but just as it was with you, only because I was raised in an environment where I was encouraged to be nice to them. But these foxes shouldn't know me. Very worrying. It's as if some beings on this world are remembering things that happened on others, even though they didn't experience them."

"I've had similar feelings," Alice said. "No firm memories, but… impressions. Like I could trust you and Luka, without really knowing why."

"That wasn't a predicted result of chaosization, but it's definitely been an observed phenomenon now that it's well under way," Nero explained. "So um…. How's your journey going? Having fun?"

"Yeah, a thrill a minute," I said sarcastically.

"You seem to be having all kinds of fun back at the castle," Alice said sourly.

"I know everything is weird for you all," Nero said. "But I can't really explain everything just yet."

"Even though I already know a lot?" I asked. "I know about chaosization, I know about this true history, I know that beings from other worlds are causing trouble here while claiming to be helping. Then there's your sister, I don't know what she's trying to accomplish."

"Look, Luka, you're just going to have to see and experience things for yourself. That was always the plan, and even though you know more than you should, it's still the plan. Look, I need to apologize for something I said to you when we first met."

"Oh? What do you feel you need to apologize for?"

"I can't stay it out loud in front of her," Nero said, gesturing to Alice. "But that thing that I said you weren't, I shouldn't have been so angry about it. The Luka of this world wasn't that thing either."

"Do you actually think I haven't figured it out already, idiots?" Alice asked irritably.

"My mother once told me that thinking you know something is miles away from actually knowing it," Nero said in response.

"Oh, as if that doesn't give me a huge clue!" Alice yelled.

"Maybe I said too much. I should probably be going. More and more foxes are coming. I love them, but I don't want to get fur all over my outfit."

Indeed, while we were speaking, the number of foxes hanging around Nero had grown from several to two dozen, with more coming out of the forest. Nero bid us goodbye, without giving us any useful information about Tamamo. Of course, I'd forgotten to ask.

"Well, that's the shrine," Alice said. "I can feel her presence. She's definitely home."

While I couldn't feel Tamamo's presence in the same way Alice could, as in literally know where Tamamo was when she was close, there was still a difficult to describe feeling that I was in the presence of someone I loved dearly. Alice had been my first true love, but that didn't mean I loved her more than Tamamo. I'd spent twice as much time with Tamamo as with Alice. Tamamo had been there for me as my life had slipped away. She had given me joy when everyone else I loved had passed on. I was desperate for that comfort now, while knowing that I probably wouldn't get it.

With great trepidation, I walked up the steps to the shrine entrance. The shrine maiden was present and silently waved us in. She seemd quite depressed as well, probably finding it impossible to be happy when Tamamo, whom she served, wasn't happy. Inside the shrine, we found Tamamo sitting and brooding. She clearly knew we were there, but didn't acknowledge us. She was in a form I hadn't seen in centuries, her sealed form. And yet, I'd always been attached to that form emotionally. That was the Tamamo that had befriended me.

"Tamamo," Alice said. "Do you recognize me in this form?"

"I do," Tamamo replied listlessly. "I knew what was done to you hours after it happened."

"And you didn't come find me?!" Alice asked.

"What's the point? I can't restore you, and even if I could, we're all doomed anyway. And if we're not doomed, what kind of world will we live in? Your mother is destroying the world in order to save it. I've lived in the world she's creating. I don't have any intention of going back to that. If that's what she wants…. Well, she can enjoy it. I'm too weak to stop her."

"So you're just going to sit there and rot away?!" Alice asked, appalled.

"That's my hope. Although I think I'll die along with the rest of the world before that happens. I take a long time to rot."

"Tamamo, is that really you?" I asked. "You're not a hologram?"

"What's this boy babbling about?" Tamamo asked Alice.

"This is Luka, Tamamo," Alice said. "Do you know him?"

"I have a very good memory. I'm quite sure I don't know him."

"Look more closely, Tamamo. Looking at him doesn't make you feel anything?"

"He smells good, and I am hungry," Tamamo said. "The way I used to be, I'd already be on him, making him my slave for life. Sometimes I wish I was still that person. That Tamamo was never depressed."

"The Tamamo I knew was never depressed either," I said. "The Tamamo I knew would never give up on the world."

"Oh, here we go!" Tamamo exclaimed, at least coming out of her brood for a moment to be annoyed. "What the hell do you-"

Tamamo stared at me, as if seeing me for the first time. Actually, I think it was the first time she'd looked directly at me.

"Luka….," she whispered. Then she shook her head in frustration. "Argh!!! The damned chaos! I just had a flash of memory from another Tamamo again! You're from another world, aren't you? And apparently there was something between you and this other Tamamo. No… I don't want to know. It doesn't matter. There's only one way to save this world, Luka! And the way you're probably going about it isn't it!"

"How do we save it, Tamamo?" I asked desperately. "I'm here for that purpose and that purpose alone. What do I need to do?"

"What I know now that you won't do," Tamamo said. "So someone else will have to. I'll have no part of it. The other possibilities are even worse."

"So because all the choices are bad, you're just going to refuse to make one?" Alice asked angrily.

"If I was the Monster Lord, I'd make the hard choices. Since I'm not, I'm taking my tails and going home. I gave my advice. It was disregarded."

"Then back me!" Alice urged. "You know I'll listen to you! Help me get my true body back, and then my throne, and then tell me what I need to do!"

"I know," Tamamo said gently."And that's exactly why I'm NOT backing you. It can't be you who does it. That would break my heart, Alice. And I've had enough heartbreak for several lifetimes."

"Let's go, Luka," Alice said morosely. "The snake shrine problem is the most important problem in this village. Tamamo's given up."

"Wait," I said gently. "Tamamo, I'm not going to pester you. I know well how ineffective that is. But I do want to leave you with one point you may not have considered. You didn't know I was here, or why. I was sent here from another world, I didn't come on my own."

"Wait, someone sent you?" Tamamo asked, now curious. "Who?"

"I don't actually know for sure. I suspect my world's Ilias did it. I believe that I was contacted by her. She said that her world, MY world, was being consumed by chaos. So I'm not just trying to save this world. I'm trying to save all the worlds that can still be saved."

"I'll admit that's interesting. Why you? Ah, I see. You have power. It's subtle despite its potency. I didn't notice it at first. But we're talking about Ilias here. I've never heard of a truly benevolent Ilias. Which means that she either sent you because she knows you can save her world by saving this one… or…."

"Or?" Alice asked, gesturing impatiently.

"Or she believes you can save it by hastening its destruction," Tamamo finished. "Ilias would be quite happy to make that trade."

"Would that actually work?" I asked.

"Luka!" Alice exclaimed.

"Of course I wouldn't do it!" I hastily replied. "I couldn't intentionally sacrifices countless lives, even to save other countless lives!"

"Maybe," Tamamo said. "I have no idea if it would work or not. All my knowledge, and I know so little. Alternate worlds were a theory, something we thought we knew were real, but…."

"But you didn't KNOW," Alice finished. "Not until these beings from other worlds started showing up."

"Yes. Now that we really know, it changes everything. And we found out in the worst possible way. We're either doomed, or we're going to live in a world that I want no part of."

"Or maybe, as you pointed out, Ilias knew something," I said. "Maybe there is a way. My Ilias changed a lot…."

"That assumes it was your Ilias who sent you," Tamamo pointed out. "Or any Ilias at all. There are higher powers in the multiverse than this world's puny gods. And I'm not even at that level. Whatever is going to happen, it will happen because someone far above me made it so."

"Tamamo, I know you don't like talking about this, but when you and your sisters were conquering kingdoms, did they not resist because you were stronger? Or did they fight back with everything they had?"

"Get out," Tamamo said. I'd know she might end the conversation there, but my goal hadn't been to continue the conversation. My goal had been to get her thinking.

"We're going, Tamamo," I said sadly. Then, throwing caution to the wind and violating Alice's constant admonitions to stop hugging people who didn't really know me, I wrapped my arms around Tamamo. To my surprise, she returned my embrace fiercely.

"I'm sorry, Luka," Tamamo said tearfully. "Take good care of Alice. Whatever happens, she's going to need you."

"I promise I will, beloved Tamamo," I replied. Tamamo reluctantly broke the embrace and Alice and I turned to leave.

"Luka," Tamamo said in parting. "The humans we conquered didn't resist. We subdued them with pleasure. Ruthlessly. That's why Ilias intervened. The humans had completely given up and become our livestock. It was easy. Too easy. But…. You're not totally wrong. There were individuals. Single heroes who were willing to take on virtual gods, by themselves, to be free. I admired their spirit. I rewarded them for their valor by pleasuring them to death. What I learned from that was that heroism is useless in a futile cause. I don't want stories written about me. I want to WIN, Luka! I don't want to be a martyr to a lost cause! Do you understand?"

"I do," I said. "I at least understand that your perspective is different from mine, given who you are. It was the one thing between us that never changed. I could never fully understand or relate to your point of view. You've seen so much, experienced so much, lived countless lifetimes. But no matter how long you've lived, anyone can learn something new. I don't believe in lost causes either, Tamamo. I believe we can win."

"You don't even know the rules of the game," Tamamo said bitterly.

"No," I admitted. "But what I do have are friends, companions, people who love me and who I love back. And most importantly, someone out there believes in me. I hope you'll be one of those someones in the near future, Tamamo. Because I believe in you."

As Alice and I walked away from the shrine, Alice cornered me against a nearby house.

"Okay, who the hell is Tamamo, really?!" Alice asked. "Because I knew she had lived a long time, but she was talking as if…."

"I can't betray her confidence, Alice," I said. "She always wanted you to know when it was time."

Alice sighed. "Fine. I'm sure I already know that as well. I should have always known, I guess. Come on, I'm in the mood to beat someone up. Shirohebi will do just fine. Do NOT try to hug her! I'll do the squeezing! So I assume you know who Shirohebi is?"

"I do," I replied. "She has a nice twin sister, but It seems like she tried to replace her sister in every universe."

"And how did you deal with the problem?"

"I didn't," I answered. "Tamamo did."

"Great," Alice muttered. "So that part will be new to you."

We reached the snake shrine, which as I remembered was much more extravagant than any of the other shrines. Alice had always said that was because lamias were the greatest of all monsters. I didn't write about it much, but I did manage to establish a cordial relationship with Saja, who I saw many times during my marriage to Tamamo. Saja would often come to the snake shrine to be worshipped, and to make sure there were no troublemaking lamias with delusions of dominating the village. Since lamias were by nature one of the most predatory monsters, trouble usually emanated from the snake shrine. Saja, who had become committed to my vision over time, made sure to pay me back by checking on the lamias in Yamatai every few years or so.

Miko, who was always one of my favorites due to her beauty and up front kindness(her true nature was that she was quite perverted), greeted us warmly and allowed us to see Shirohebi, wondering in passing if we were here to lend our support to her. Shirohebi wasn't in the main shrine, but in a smaller shrine nearby which Miko redirected us to. Shirohebi was as I remembered her. An albino lamia who wore her hair unusually short, she had Asian features like many of the local monsters, due to breeding primarily with Yamatai Villagers. Our relationship had never been warm, not even with her sister, who while kind, was standoffish. Miko had been the only lamia in Yamatai that I had ever truly been friends with.

"Hmmm…" Shirohebi mumbled, looking at me with a hunger in her eyes that I knew all too well from her race. "And who might you be?"

"Shirohebi, we're not going to let you take over this village!" I declared.

"Wow, you're an idiot," Alice said. "This is the nice sister."

"THIS is the nice sister?" I asked in disbelief. "Did you see the way she was looking at me?"

"I look at you that way, and I'm nice," Alice said defensively.

"Pardon me," Shirohebi said. "I've been stressed lately and when I get stressed, I get hungry. I would never prey on you without your consent. So… you've come to extinguish the fires my sister has stoked? Please, be gentle with her. She is not evil. But she has been tempted by one who is."

"Black Alice," I said grimly. Of all the people I'd fought on many worlds, the only one who had been irredeemable.

"Yes," Shirohebi comfirmed. "My sister has rallied the lamia army with the intent of joining her cause. I fear you two will not be enough to stop her."

"Maybe we should come back with reinformcements," Alice suggested.

Just then, an explosion rocked the area. Rushing outside, Shirohebi,Alice, and I stared at the main snake shrine, which thankfully wasn't on fire, but had suffered significant damage.

"Luka, did you…?" Alice asked questioningly.

"You saw me, I was inside the smaller shrine with you!" I protested.

"I don't know the limits of your power!" Alice reminded me. "maybe you did this unconsciously."

Was that possible? Only one way to find out. Alice and I rushed into the shrine. Inside, lamias lay in varying states of consciousness.

"Alice, get Sonya and Ilias!" I said, giving unaccustomed orders to Alice. She said I was in charge, after all.

"Luka, are you sure?" Alice asked. "You're going to face Shirohebi and whoever did this by yourself?"

"If you're worried, get back here quick! The cat shrine is only two minutes away as fast as you can move!"

Since I wasn't a terrible healer myself, I bent down to assist the first monster I could reach. It was a Youki-Onna. My hands hurt just to touch her, so cold was her skin. But that was a good sign. If she'd been dead or dying, her temperature would have rapidly increased to near room temperature.

"What happened here?" I asked.

"I don't know," the Youki-Onna answered. "She hit us so fast! No one is that powerful!"

"Why are you here? You're not a lamia."

"Shirohebi is gathering all of the local monsters who believe as she does."

"And what do you believe? That feeding on any humans you want, whenever you want, is your right as a monster?"

"You are human," she wheezed. "You could never understand."

I checked on a few more monsters, but none appeared dead, or even terribly hurt. So I was dealing with someone powerful, but probably not a killer. That lowered the stakes considerably, so I charged upstairs to see what I could learn. I should have expected what I found. Nero had been present, so why not Neris? Neris was facing off against Shirohebi, the evil one, although Shirohebi didn't seem to have much fight in her.

"My entire army!" Shirohebi wailed. "Who the hell are you?!"

"You haven't heard of me?" Neris replied. "I'm Alipheese the Seventeenth. Aaannndddd, it looks like we have an interloper. I'd know that smell anywhere. Luka!"

Neris turned to face me, looking mostly like my Neris other than the succubus wings and the more pronounced monster ears. But that face was unmistakeable. Whatever different genes her father had compared to mine, that face was so familiar to me.

"Neris!" I exclaimed. "First, thank you for dealing with this problem. But why? What is your goal here? I want to help if I can!"

"Actually, this is very bad," Neris fretted. "I'm not supposed to run into you here."

"So you're concerned about the correct history?" I asked. "How does this help?"

"Black Alice's conspirators were crushed in the correct history," Neris replied.

"So is that what you're doing? Running around dealing with all of Black Alice's followers?"

"That's my job at the moment, but I'm not going to finish there. We still have to stop Ilias' plan to remake the world."

"I'm pretty sure that's off," I said. "The Ilias who is with me wouldn't do that, and the Ilias here disappeared thirty years ago."

"Ah, explanations are borrringgg…" Neris said, and disappeared abruptly.

"Neris! Damnit girl, come back here! You owe me an explanation, young lady!"

That worked about as well as it did when Neris was seven. As in, not at all.

"What the hell is happening here?!" Shirohebi yelled.

"I….really am not sure," I replied.

"Whatever it is that's going on, I'm taking it out on you!"

"I'd urge you to rethink that, Shirohebi," I warned.

Faster than even Alice, her tail was around me. Stupid! I'd anticipated that she might want to talk more and been caught off guard.

"A lot of men secretly want to be wrapped up by a lamia," she said, her face inches from mind. "I could tell just from looking at you that you're that type. Am I wrong?"

"Not exactly," I admitted. "But I don't surrender easily."

I struggled as she tightened her hold on me. I didn't summon Gnome. I recognized what was happening. It had become a matter of pride for both of us. She wanted me to surrender. I wanted to break out with my own strength.

"Wow, you're strong for a human," Shirohebi hissed pleasantly, tickling my ear with her breath.

"If you admire me so much, how about we not fight? Your army is beaten. Neris has proven that she can come back here and dominate you anytime she wants. You gain nothing from doing this to me."

"I gain a meal," Shirohebi said. "Are you also one of those men who wishes a lamia would swallow them? Would you prefer me to start with your head, or your feet?"

"You don't have me secure enough yet," I grunted, still struggling.

"No, not quite yet," she purred. "But I'll just shift a little…."

Her coils rotated around me, giving me pleasure all over my body as they moved. But it also made her hold less secure, as she had to loosen her grip a little to move. Against normal men, the pleasure would cause them to cease their struggles long enough for her to tighten again. But I'd played this game with Saja, who half jokingly had been threatening to swallow me whole nearly every time that she saw me. I never knew if it was to annoy Tamamo or if she knew about my dark secret desire.

With one burst of strength I forced myself out of her hold and rolled out of the way as her tail went for me again. Shirohebi shifted tactics, throwing magic at me. Small fireballs impacted harmlessly against my hastily created shield, so she sent ice balls instead, which my shield couldn't stop. I really had to figure out how to stop solid objects with my power! Fortunately, she wasn't Alice-level with her magic, so it was more like getting pelted with hailstones than the massive ice boulders that Alice could create. It served to distract and cause pain more than actually disable me. That was another common monster strategy. If a man refused to submit to pleasure, show him pain, which would then make the pleasure even harder to resist when she switched back to it.

I summoned Gnome as she went for me again, but Alice was back and beat her to the punch. Wrapping up Shirohebi's upper human portion in her coils.

"Do you really think you can hold me, child?" Shirobebi said derisively.

"I don't need to hold you," Alice smirked. "I just need to reduce your movement enough for my friend to crack your skull with her club."

Shirohebi looked up into the irate eyes of Sonya, who brandished her club threateningly. Ilias stood behind her, arms folded smugly.

"It appears I have been foolish," Shirohebi said, giving up. "I have been humiliated and completely defeated in every way."

"Pick better allies," I said gruffly. "I just don't get it. You're pretty in an exotic way. Men in Yamatai have no problem giving themselves to the monsters here. Why would you want to take forcibly what you already have?"

"It is not just about me, you naïve fool!" Shirohebi raged. "I do not seek power for power's sake. I seek it for my fellow monsters who cannot eat whenever they desire!"

She had a point. Aside from the Youki-Onna, there were many other monsters in the shrine that didn't have as easy access to semen as beautiful lamias. As a matter of fact, all the major shrines in Yamatai were built to honor beautiful, cuddly monsters, with lamias being the closest to actually being dangerous. But due to also being civilized, they could live and work well with humans when so motivated. Many of the monsters who had allied with her were not so fortunate. They often lived in the wild, where they survived by hunting men. That had been a problem that had never gone away, even in the world I'd left behind. A man still took his life in his hands if he wandered the wilderness alone.

"Nevertheless, Black Alice's way is not the answer," Alice argued.

"Then what is?" Shirohebi challenged Alice.

"I…. I'm working on it!" Alice said defensively. "But right now there are more important tasks ahead of me."

"An easy thing to say when you're well fed. My followers cannot wait for you to think of a solution. They are hungry all the time."

"Believe me, I can relate," Alice said. "And I promise you, I will help as best I can. For now, these villagers are very open minded and welcoming. Try them. Not in the all you can eat buffet sense, but in the get to know them better and understand what they want. Part of the problem is that many of you more predatory monsters just want to take and give nothing in return."

"We give them pleasure beyond their wildest imagination!" Shirohebi protested. "Whether a monster is pretty or ugly, the pleasure is far greater than they can experience with a mere human woman!"

"It's not just about that!" I interjected. "Think about how you asked me if I wanted you to do things to me. Many monsters don't even do that. Just ask what we like, and then do what we like. How much trouble is it, really? With most men, it's two minutes of labor to get fed. It takes me longer to prepare a sandwich!"

"And what if the man wants nothing?" Shirohebi asked.

"Then find another! Some men aren't into lamias. Some aren't into dragonkin. Some don't like slimes. Some really get off on spiders! To each his own! But even If you're not a particular guy's type, you'd be amazed at how far you can get with a man just by being nice. 'Hey, I'm hungry, if you do something for me I can do something for you.'"

"Many monsters find that humiliating, begging for scraps."

"No one in the world gets everything they want," Ilias said. "Not even me."

Shirohebi sighed. "I will urge my allies to do as you say. We have been soundly beaten. Therefore, we shall try it your way. At least until our Monster Lord, whoever that may be, can find us a better solution."

"Thank you, Shirohebi," Alice said. "if you make a commitment to do better, so will i. I don't like to see strife between monsters. I especially don't like to see strife between lamias."

So that was that for the lamia shrine. Sonya and Ilias had found the cat goddess simply wandering around with the other nekomata, not bothering to let the shrine maiden know that she was fine and hadn't run off. Very typical of cats. We couldn't do anything more for Tamamo. As for the Tanuki shrine, that was a simple errand. A kitsune had dared a tanuki to go into Yamata No Orochi's cave. I expected that a fight would be possible, but Yamata no Orochi in a world where she could easily lure willing men into her cave was a lot less hostile than the one I'd fought on my first adventure. I ignored the multiple cries of ecstasy coming from deep in the cave, cries which had frightened the tanuki and left her cowering in the shadows. Alice scolded her, explaining that Yamata No Orochi had no interest in her and that she was in no danger. I teleported us all back to the tanuki shrine, and we were done.

The village elder thanked us profusely. We hadn't been able to solve the problem with Tamamo, but Alice explained that Tamamo was a big girl and would have to figure things out for herself. We'd done all we could.