Yamatai

"Alice!" Tamamo exclaimed. "What a surprise this is! Welcome to my home village! But why are you carrying Luka around like that?"

Alice set Luka down carefully on the soft grass. Tamamo gasped.

"Alma Elma's work," the fox said knowingly.

"Oh, how'd you guess?!" Alice said sarcastically. "Is it smile on his face?"

"So he lost to Alma Elma and you didn't leave him?" Tamamo asked. "And…. She didn't take him, either. Or eat him. This doesn't compute."

"She beat him in the colosseum," Alice sighed. "I don't know how much you know about those stupid tournaments, but monsters don't get to just do whatever they want with the males they defeat there. They can do quite a lot, but not kill, eat, or enslave the loser. Rape only."

"She darn near killed him by the looks of it. So why are you still hauling his carcass around? Do you think he's going to get better? I have to tell you, Alice, recovery from Alma Elma's mind cracking sexual techniques isn't always complete. He may never think clearly again."

"I brought him here because I was hoping you, or maybe the villagers, could do something for him," Alice said.

"Hmmmm….." Tamamo thought for a moment. "I know a few tricks, but they probably won't work. The villagers have some local medicines that they use to cure the sacrifices. That might do some good."

"Sacrifices?"

"There's an ancient monster named Yamata no Orochi living in a cave nearby," Tamamo explained. "She's an eight headed lamia, or eight lamias conjoined. No one's quite sure. She demands a sacrifice every year. One human male, a young one, who she pleasures for a year and then sends back. The males take a year to recover, and that's even with the special medicines the villagers give them."

"So it will take a year to cure Luka?" Alice asked.

"As legendary as Yamata No Orochi is," Tamamo replied. "What she does is nothing compared to what Alma Elma can do. Yamata just wants semen. Alma Elma seeks to punish. Someone should remind her that she's a monster, not an avenging angel."

"I intend to remind her of quite a few things when I get my hands on her," Alice said darkly. "I ordered the Knights to not harm Luka. She found a loophole."

"As she always does," Tamamo said gravely. "So you said Knights. Who else tried to hurt Luka? Erubetie?"

"No, Granberia," Alice answered. "Erubetie is troublesome in her own way, but she doesn't actively seek trouble."

"True enough. Look, Alice, if you're looking for a quick solution, you won't find it here. I'm sorry. Helping a man recover from something like this is a long process. His mind will need to be rehabilitated. If you want to leave him here, the villagers will gladly care for him. I'll protect him from the other Knights, should any seek to directly disobey you. Why are they so intent on hurting this boy? He's nice."

"I wish I knew," Alice said in frustration. "I think they might fear I'm too attached to him."

"I'm concerned about that myself, but it's not my place to question you in this matter," Tamamo said. "I expected you to meet someone on your fist journey into the human world. It's only natural. The rules I put in place for Monster Lords and their relationships with humans are already more than sufficient to protect you and the throne. And I've been around long enough to be a pretty good judge of character. Luka is a friend. Misguided, occasionally idiotic, and definitely naïve, but a friend nonetheless. If you leave him with me, I'll be sure he's protected and well cared for."

"Tamamo, thank you so much," Alice said gratefully. "I know I don't always express my gratitude to you, but knowing that you're on my side in this…. It means a lot. But I'm going to keep him with me. I have faith that he can recover. So I'm just going to continue lugging him around for now. If I get bored I'll take him back to the castle."

"He'll receive excellent care there as well. I really wish he was in fighting shape. I was going to ask him to help me with my Yamata No Orochi problem."

"How is it a problem?" Alice asked. "She's not killing anyone."

"The village is experiencing economic problems due to males competing to be the sacrifice," Tamamo explained. "But more importantly, I can't stand her arrogance. This is my territory. All the monsters here make a living from willing men offering themselves up freely in our shrines. She makes demands. It's ill mannered. She has to be taught a lesson. I guess I'll just have to do it myself. Pity. This would have been a good opportunity for Luka to be a hero. I do hate fighting my fellow monsters. Anyway, why don't you stay the night before moving on? You can stay in my home."

Emma watched, annoyed and dismayed, as Alice and Tamamo remained in the same small room with Luka. Her only consolation was that her adversaries were probably also there, equally impatient and annoyed.

"You know," Alice said. "Maybe Luka can help. I want to try something."

Elias was enjoying Grangold immensely, but he had a sense of unease about what he was seeing. The ant girls seemed content, and yet the humans had become lazy, leaving ant girls to do almost all tasks. As far as Elias could tell, perhaps one in ten humans in the city were employed, while every single ant was always busy. They seemed to work far more than humans ever would. He wasn't sure how long the Grangold work week was, but it certainly wasn't 100 hours. Yet all ants worked from dawn till well after dark, seven days a week.

That being said, the ants were courteous, if a bit stiff, and did their work with extreme effiency and professionalism. As a hero, he found that he had little need to spend money. As long as it was food or lodging, citizens of Grangold willingly gave him things for free or at greatly reduced cost. Since he neeed at least SOME money, he'd done some odd jobs over the past few days for some old widows who could have asked the ants to do it, but felt as uneasy about it as he did. Sometimes the widows were motivated by racism, not trusting monsters and spoke of how sure they were that the ant girls would turn on them if given the chance. Others simply didn't feel it was right, making the ant girls do all the work. And still others simply loved the idea of a handsome, strong man doing labor around the house for them.

Elias wasn't sure what he was doing in Grangold, or where he should go next. He was dimly aware that his primary motivation was to be a hero, to monster and human alike. But aside from helping old widows with jobs they had become too frail to do on their own, there hadn't yet been any opportunities for heroism in Grangold. His instincts had told him that he should be here, and although he had little memory of who he was, something told him that his hero instincts were quite reliable. Well, it couldn't hurt to stay awhile and do more good deeds. Perhaps soon someone would have a suitably heroic quest for him to undertake with the very dull sword that he had not yet replaced for reasons he couldn't quite understand. He had the money, so why not get a better one?

His thoughts were interrupted by a woman in an alleyway beckoning to him. Ah! Elias thought. Perhaps this woman has a quest for me!

"Good day, citizen!" Elias greeted her. "Tell me what you need from me, and I shall endeavour to perform the task heroically!"

"I don't need nothin' from you," she said gruffly. "But you look like you could use something from me. Do you happen to be here lookin' for a good time?"

"A good time?" Elias asked.

"Yeah, you know, the kind of good time that men have with women," she said.

"Oh. OH!!! My mind was wandering and I didn't realize that I was walking in THAT part of town!"

"I figured a guy like you wouldn't need to pay," she said. "But then again, I'm sellin' something that can only be experienced if one has the ability to pay."

"You do?" Elias asked. "Well, I like sex. In fact, I think I have sex all the time! It's been a few days though."

"Good," she said, smirking. "So your lust is high. Tell ya what. Since you're so handsome and obviously a hero, I'll give you the standard package for 1 gold. But if you want the deluxe…. 2 gold."

"I think I'd like the deluxe!" he said eagerly. "What is the deluxe, anyway?"

"Girls!" the lady shouted, summoning five ant girls who had been loitering nearby, just out of Elias' sight. "You have a customer."

"Please come with us to the Slap N' Poke Inn," one of the ant girls instructed in a very neutral tone.

"Wait, I'm not purchasing your services?" Elias asked the woman. It wasn't that she was particularly attractive. She'd clearly been worn down by life, and apparently a couple of decades of tobacco and alcohol as well, and who knew what else. But she'd been the one to proposition him, and he imagined she had to be quite skilled and experienced. Were the ant girls doing the work even in the prostitution district?

"You are purchasing my services!" she said in her gravelly voice. "I'm the pimp, these are my girls. I haven't done the actual services in awhile, but for a guy like you. Throw in an extra gold and I'll come in after they're done with you."

"I… I don't feel right about this," Elias said uncomfortably. The ant girls were just standing there, neither excited nor disgusted. It was just another job for them.

"What is not right?" one of the ant girls asked. "We are monsters. We need semen. You are horny. It is a good deed to feed us."

"See, what she said," the pimp agreed.

"He smells unusually delicious and nutritious," another of the ant girls said flatly. "Even if he had no money, we would desire him."

Nothing in their faces indicated desire to Elias, but he knew that not all monsters expressed emotion the same way. But they did all need to eat, and If there was one thing Elias was good at, it was feeding monsters. The lovely nine-tailed fox had been very pleased with him. He sighed as he remembered those fluffy tails.

"All right then, I guess I have a heroic deed to perform!" Elias said, now certain of his course. "Here is my two gold."

"You don't want my extra service for one more?" she asked.

"No, as a human, you don't require my semen," he replied. "I must not waste a drop! These girls look famished!"

"We have actually been very well fed," one of the ant girls said. "Business is good."

The ant girls led Elias to the Slap N' Poke motel. Elias didn't even need to purchase a room. Apparently the local pimp already had a deal with the owner. An ant girl produced a key and the six of them entered the small room.

What happened next was an extraordinary experience for the legendary hero who for some reason no one had heard of. Perhaps he wasn't the only one with amnesia? Hmmmm…. Maybe that was his quest, to find out why no one remembered him, not even himself. Powerful magic indeed! But then his thoughts became lost in the pleasure, as the five ant girls demonstrated why ants were such legendary bedmates. At least if you bedded more than one at a time.

Ants were second to none when it came to teamwork in bed. Harpies were close, as their drilling for war enabled them to use that discipline and teamwork in bed as well, but for ants, working together in perfect sync came naturally to them. They required no trainining. They simply did it. Even with harpies, five of them at once would often get in each other's way. But the ant girls seemed to function as five women with one brain. Whenever Elias shivered in pleasure at being touched in one place, all five ants would instantaneously be aware of it and focus on that place. They seamlessly transitioned between different kinds of penetration, never getting in each other's way or having to take him out of the mood with awkward repositioning. One moment he'd be balls deep in an ant girl's vagina, the next there would be three licking his penis at the same time. In fact, there were times when his world just seemed to be nothing but tongue, as all five girls licked his body. Then his world would become breasts as two of them would put his penis in between their breasts and move in perfect sync while another pair of breasts was in his face and two more rubbing over other parts of his body. Then he'd feel himself sink into a warm ant pussy again while hands, tongues, and breasts found his other sensitive areas.

He never had to give instructions or make requests. They knew exactly what to do, could tell instinctively what he wanted more of and what he didn't like very much. Which was good, because he didn't even remember his own preferences. The ant girls knew more about his body than he did, and they had only just met him moments ago!

The moments turned into hours as the ant girls continued to work. That was the only turnoff for him. No matter how skilled they were, they went about their lewd work the same way an office worker would file papers. He imagined that tax audits were probably more sexy than this. It wasn't that he wasn't enjoying himself. Physically, they were perfect. The most skilled sexual technicians he had ever encountered, even though he couldn't remember any of his previous encounters(except for the lovely fox girl, of course). And yet somehow he knw that in that one respect, this was his best experience ever. Still, it needed that little extra intimacy and sexiness to really be perfect. The ant girls just weren't capable of it.

On the bright side, they exhibited no impatience with him. They worked patiently and expertly, until finally they sensed he was close and attacked his most sensitive areas with a vengeance. He barely even noticed that by the time they made him come, there were only three of them still working. Two of them had already had orgasms themselves, and were in a corner barely conscious. The three remaining ant girls' tongues received his semen. Even though he only came once, he shot enough to easily satisfy all three and then some. The three conscious ant girls woke their fallen sisters and shared the semen by mouth.

"Thank you for your business," one of the ant girls said abruptly, as they prepared to leave, carrying out their two weak sisters.

"Wait," Elias said. "Can we talk?"

"Talk?" one of the girls asked quizzically. "That is not part of the service we offer."

"I'll pay you another gold piece. Directly. You won't have to share it with your pimp."

"We do not take direct payments," she replied neutrally. "But…. Your semen was unusually delicious. We already feel stronger. When we fully recover we will be able to service even more men than we normally do, for at least a few days if not longer. And we do need to rest up for the next client. You were…. draining. Highly unusual. We drain males, they do not drain us."

"That is weird," he agreed. "But that's not what I wanted to talk about. I want to know about you girls. Don't you have any hopes and dreams? I can't imagine that you all like just working all the time."

"We are ants. We live. We work. We serve the queen."

"And the queen wants you to do all the humans' work in Grangold?"

"That is her will, yes."

"But there must be more to life than just work!" Elias protested. "I know how collective your minds are, but you are still individuals. You have to have certain preferences! Things you like and dislike."

"I like candy," one of the girls said.

"See, you like candy!" Elias said triumphantly. "What is your name?"

"My name is Worker Ant in your language," she replied.

"That is what all of our names are in the human tongue," another said.

"So tell me your name in your language," Elias urged.

"We cannot," a third said. "We communicate chemically. There is no way for humans to decipher our names. Our 'names' are simply pheromones. They smell unique, and we know each other and refer to each other by those smells."

"Our human language skills are superior to most ants," another said. "Most ants can only say a few words at a time. Since we are in a more…. Social profession, we were chosen for our proficiency with the human tongue."

"See!" Elias exclaimed. "That's an individual trait! Some of you are better at speaking as humans do than others! Did you have an interest in the human language?"

"All ants are chosen for tasks in the city based on their skills," an ant girl replied.

"Okay, wait, wait," Elias said. "I just can't talk to you five without you having names. Can I name you?"

The ant girls paused, confused. Then they shrugged. "Only you will know us by the names you give us. We do not acknowledge human names. We only go by our descriptions. We are all Worker Ants. But if naming us will make you more comfortable, you may name us."

"Fine," Elias said. "You, with the dimples. You are Eleanor."

"Fine," Eleanor replied.

"You, I really liked the way you smelled," Elias said."I'll call you Sage."

"I like to wear human perfumes," she replied."I am insecure about my pheromone scent."

"See, another individual trait!" Elias pointed out. "Now you, you're exotic, a little different from the other ant girls. I think you shall be…. Taliyah!"

"I was chosen for my interesting looks for this job," Taliyah replied. "Men find me attractive."

"You…." Elias said, pointing to a fourth ant girl. "You look like…. An Abby. You're pretty sweet."

"I like humans," Abby replied.

"And you…" Elias said, pointing to the youngest ant girl. "You're Willow. It just feels right to call you that."

"Williow is a nice name," Willow replied in her soft voice.

"Now Willow," Elias said. "What are your hopes and dreams? Here, why don't you all get back into bed with me? Stop standing there looking uncomfortable!"

The ant girls obeyed. Elias marveled at how seamlessly they simply crawled into bed with him. No negotiations about who would lie where, no getting in each other's way, no awkward shifting or shoving. In just a few seconds, he found himself surrounded again by lovely ant girls, each one pressing against his still naked body.

"I want to be an actress," Willow said when they all got settled in.

"An actress? Why, that's marvelous!" Elias exclaimed. "Are there theaters here?"

"There are," Willow answered. "It's one of the few jobs humans do. They tried to make us do it, but were were too stiff. We remembered our lines, but the audiences felt we showed no emotion. But I enjoyed my short time in the theater immensely. I am trying to learn how to show more emotion so that I can get a job there."

If Elias was being honest, she wasn't even close to being there, but what was important was that she had a dream.

"I would like to be a chef," Eleanor volunteered. "I love to cook and bake. But we are assigned jobs based on our skills, not our interests. My hands are far more skilled at kneading dicks than dough."

"Ah, so those were the hands that made me so happy!" Elias said. "They felt like the kinds of hands that would be great in a kitchen!"

Eleanor blushed, which was something given that her face was already red.

"I want to be a great warrior!" Taliyah said. "But I'm not big and strong enough. My best assets are my beauty and my language skills, which is why I am in this job. Warriors don't need to speak human very well."

"Well, work on your fighting!" Elias suggested. "They can't make you be a prostitute if you're just better than the other warrior ants."

"I practice all the time," Taliyah said. "Someday…."

"How about you, Abby?" Elias asked.

"I want to be a mother, and raise children, both human and ant," Abby said sadly. "But we worker ants are sterile."

"You could adopt," Elias suggested.

"There Is no need to adopt ant girls," Abby replied. "From birth we sharethe collective intelligence. We know all that we need to be ants. Individuals have certain specialized knowledge, but no ant, no matter how young, needs to be 'raised', per se. I guess I would like to marry a human male and adopt human children. I really love the humans. Sometimes I feel I would be better able to be my best self if I wasn't part of the colony."

"Too much individualism," Eleanor scolded. "Thinking this way makes you sad."

"I can't be anything but what I am," Abby said tearfully. "But I recognize that my dream will never be fulfilled. It would be irresponsible of me to abandon the colony for a human mate. Only the queen has mates, and she only has mates for the purpose of ensuring the colony's survival."

"Still," Elias prodded. "You can have both. I'm sure there's a way."

"I have thought about it," Abby said. "Maybe someday. I would seek advice from the Queen, but she does not see anyone."

"Really? That sounds aloof," Elias said. "I wonder why she's not seeing anyone? Hmmm… I must give that some thought.Sage, what are your dreams?"

"I have always wanted to be a prostitute," Sage replied flatly. "Semen is delicious. Most ants must eat second hand semen in this city. I am one of the lucky few to get semen directly from the source."

"That is a pretty nice benefit of this job," Taliyah agreed.

"Okay, so you're all individuals, as well as members of the colony!" Elias argued. "So you're not really that much different from us humans! We are also constantly conflicted about our responsibilities to our community vs our responsibilities to ourselves."

"For us, the needs of the colony always come first," Eleanor said firmly. "The colony needs my hands to stroke penises. So that is what I do."

"But you could be creating the next great entrée, and becoming a world renowned chef," Elias said.

"World renowned," Eleanor said wistfully.

Elias had certainly given the ant girls much to think about. He himself had a lot on his mind as well. Was his instinct for heroism guiding him to Grangold because of this? Was his purpose to give the ant girls a purpose beyond their everyday jobs? Or did it have something to do with the Queen?

Elias continued to cuddle with the five ant girls as he thought.

"This feels really not okay," Tamamo said, staring at Luka's prone body on the carriage.

"It'll be fine!" Alice insisted. "We'll be there. I know Yamata is legendary, but she's not in our class. She's not, right?"

"Not even close," Tamamo assured her. "This truly is a golden age of monsters. Monsters who were legendary a few hundred years ago would be merely impressive today. I'm not worried about her taking Luka. Actually, I don't even really care. Luka as a sacrifice would take this issue off of my plate for another year. It just… feels wrong. He's not even conscious. What exactly is the plan here?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure," Alice replied. "I just think that if we let her try to take him, something will happen."

"He's your claim," Tamamo said, shrugging.

"I haven't claimed him!" Alice protested.

"Sure you haven't," Tamamo countered. "You're just dragging around his catatonic carcass rather than leaving him because you like the taste of his semen."

"Well… I do."

"It's okay to admit you love him."

"I do love him," Alice said, looking down. "But you know how it is. If I claim him, I have to defend him. He's on a quest for coexistence. I can't join him directly in that fight for the same reason I can't just order monsters to get along with humans."

"You do realize that at some point you will have to contribute," Tamamo said. "Assuming you believe in his cause as your mother did. Luka can't do it alone."

"I know that," Alice said grimly. "I'll do whatever it takes, you can be assured of that."

"That's what your mother said. What are you thinking of doing, Alice?"

"I think you know what I plan on doing," Alice said quietly.

"Alice, it wasn't your fault! Her plan was faulty from the start!" Tamamo protested. "Don't go down that mad path!"

"My mother was not mad!" Alice growled, her tail swishing threateningly.

"You are the Monster Lord," Tamamo said sadly. "But understand that if you do decide on your mother's course, I will do everything in my power to stop Luka from reaching you."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Alice said. "The hero must be credible. Luka isn't there yet, even if he does regain consciousness. But you are not to touch him until he is ready."

"Wait for the hero to actually be a threat before dealing with him?"

"Those are my orders, Tamamo."

"He's a good kid, Alice. That's why I won't touch him until then. And If I defeat him, and I will defeat him, I'll treat him well."

"I know you will. But for now, we have a more immediate concern," Alice said. "How does this thing work? Do we have to push it?"

"When the time comes, Yamata no Orochi will summon it," Tamamo answered. "We just become invisible and follow it. Should I assume our other invisible friends will be joining us?"

Emma stiffened. They knew! Well, of course they did. They weren't stupid, after all. Emma was used to dealing with unthinking adversaries. Having to outsmart people wasn't something she was used to.

The carriage began to move. Alice and Tamamo became invisible and trailed it as it transported the cataconic Luka to Yamata no Orochi. In all, there were five beings following the carriage. All were in turmoil. Sariela and Tamamo were worried that they would fail to take Luka off world before Ilias recovered her divinity. Emma was worried that her failure at the coliseum would only be compounded, this time costing Luka his life. She was hungry, too. Having spent the last year with Ben, she'd gotten used to a steady supply of good semen. She'd been trailing Luka and Alice for days. She wasn't ravenous yet, but it was beginning to get difficult, looking at Luka's body and not partaking as Alice did. Alice was worried about her…. She wasn't really sure what Luka was, or why she felt so strongly about him. Why hadn't she left him when Alma Elma had defeated him? And then there was Tamamo, frightened beyond measure that she would fail a second time.

The carriage entered Yamata no Orochi's cave and stopped a few dozen meters in. A voice called from deep in the cave.

"Come, sacrifice, and present yourself," it said.

Of course, nothing happened. Luka just continued to lay there, that stupid grin still on his face. Yamata called to him again. Still, he didn't respond. Alice and Tamamo, as well as their unwanted companions, watched as the eight headed lamia emerged from the shadows to inspect the sacrifice.

"Is this some kind of joke?" the legendary monster asked. "You send me a dead man? No, wait. He is not dead. Merely…. Unconscious? His smell…. Mmmmm…. This is not what I wanted, but perhaps I will taste him before I destroy the village for their disrespect."

Yamata's heads began to lick Luka, tentatively at first. Finding his taste agreeable, they explored more purposefully, licking armpits, thighs, even his taint. Luka did respond to that, squirming a little. His stupid grin became stupider.

"Is… something supposed to happen?" Tamamo asked.

"Wait for it," Alice said.

Two of the heads began to lick his penis, which had already grown erect from the foreplay. His penis began to twitch. His mind may not have been quite there, but his body understood exactly what was going on and approved.

When he came into the two waiting mouths, it was time for Yamata no Orochi to get a stupid grin on her face.

"Hmmm…. Perhaps this wasn't intended as an insult after all," she said approvingly. "Still, this one will be most uninteresting for the next year. I won't be able to talk to him or have him pleasure me. I will go and threaten them with destruction if they don't offer me a second, more able-bodied, sacrifice. But I will keep this one. Mmmmm…."

She resumed licking him, all eight heads working on his body with more intensity than before.

"Okay, so he came," Tamamo said.

"I thought…. I thought he'd do something," Alice said sadly. "He did when Alma Elma attacked him."

"Maybe he doesn't see Yamata as a threat?" Tamamo wondered. "Alma had just hurt him with her body. Yamata is just… licking him."

"Wait a bit longer before we end this," Alice instructed. "She's getting excited. Maybe she'll go too far."

Yamata no Orochi wasn't the only one getting excited. Emma's second stomach growled as she watched the legendary lamia swirling her long tongues around Luka's member. She wondered if evil Tamamo was having the same pangs. Little did she know that Tamamo had eaten Elias' semen and was probably good for at least a month.

Luka came a second time, his body twitching as the merciless licking continued. Yamata became even more excited. As an eight headed lamia, she needed eight times the semen of a normal lamia, and lamias already ate a lot. She had enough experience to avoid killing, but that didn't stop her from bringing men as close as possible to the brink of death. And even take some liberties as well.

Two of the heads began nibbling Luka lightly, her sharp lamia fangs lightly scratching his body. Luka squirmed again and grimaced, trying to avoid the fangs. Given enough time, his body would interpret their bite as simply a different kind of pleasure, but at first it was always a little painful.

And then one of the heads bit his thigh a bit too playfully, drawing blood. Luka sat up.

"Here we go," Alice said excitedly. "I want you to tell me what you make of this."

Yamata was surprised, but pleased. "Ah, so you are awake! My legendary talents have awakened the dead, so to speak! Do you like my biting? I will do more of it, until it feels good to you. You have not known true pleasure until your flesh has been punctured by my fangs."

"Ugh, I hate that," Alice said.

"That's why your fangs got dull," Tamamo laughed. "You don't use them. Raised on soft foods."

"I'm refined," Alice huffed. "Human prey is meant to be sucked not bitten."

Yamata seemed to disagree, completely misinterpreting Luka's reaction to her nibbling and biting. He wasn't waking up because he found it pleasurable. Quite the opposite.

At first he didn't respond. The light nibbling caused him to fidget, but he didn't object. Then fangs punctured his neck.

Luka sprang off of the carriage and punched the head that had bitten him directly in the nose. The nose exploded in blood and mucous, broken by the violent punch. The other seven heads hissed in outrage.

"You dare harm me!?" they said.

"He invoked the spirit of Earth!" Tamamo exclaimed. "But I thought he was still a beginner?!"

"He was….I don't und-"

Two heads lashed out, attempting to strike Luka. But Luka was no longer there. He appeared behind Yamata. Before she could turn, power lanced from his fingertips, knocking down four of the heads, leaving only three still conscious.

"What the hell was that?!" Tamamo yelled.

"That's what I want to know!" Alice exclaimed in reply. "He did something similar to Alma Elma! What is that power? It's not from the spirits!"

The three remaining heads attacked. Instead of zipping away using the power of wind, Luka's serene mind went with the flow, easily avoiding every strike Yamata attempted.

"That's the power of water!" Alice exclaimed. "He doesn't have Undine yet!"

"Something is very strange here," Tamamo agreed.

And then their entire perspective changed.

"Luka?!" Yamata cried. "Luka, why are we fighting? I thought we were friends now!"

"My… my husband," Tamamo said softly, seeing Luka with new eyes.

"Luka….." Alice said, trailing off. Suddenly, she remembered everything.

The moment passed. Everything returned to normal. Yamata's remaining head stared at Luka, confused. Luka collapsed back on the ground.

"What… what just happened?" Yamata asked. "We were fighting, and then…. Something... like a dream. I knew you."

"Who is this guy?" Tamamo asked. "What just happened to us, Alice? For a moment there I had completely different memories!"

"I felt it too," Alice confirmed. "Were they real? Did Luka get into our minds somehow?"

"We were married," Tamamo said softly.

"Well, that can't be real," Alice scoffed. "In my mind, I saw visions of US being married."

Yamata hoisted Luka up and laid him gently back into the carriage. With a silent magical command, the carriage began moving back towards the entrance.

"What's going on?" Alice asked.

"I'm not sure, but I don't think Yamata no Orochi is going to trouble this village anymore," Tamamo said. "I'm going to come back and talk to her later, but she saw something. She recognized Luka as an old friend. Something tells me those visions were more than just random hallucinations."

"What the hell just happened there?!" Emma said over her telepathic link with Heaven.

"Ilias would know better than I," Eden replied. "Although I'm not even sure Ilias can use his power that way. It's as if he changed the entire reality of this world, molding it into the world he once knew. A world in which he had achieved his dreams of coexistence and was married to the woman he loved. Although in this case, both of those women happened to be here with him."

"Did you have any visions?" Emma asked.

"For a second…. Yes. It almost feels as if his power transcended not just this world's subdimensions, but other universes as well."

"Geez. I thought I was powerful with what I inherited from him, but that…. That's beyond me, or Ilias, or… anyone."

"We need to get him conscious, and fast!" Eden said. "You may have to consider taking a risk! If he is using his power to that extent unconsciously, there's no telling what consequences there could be for the multiverse! He could even unintentionally cause chaosization to return!"