User blog:Jerichow/MGE Fanfiction - Chapter 2

 Chapter 2



 　　Through the shroud of darkness, Adam opened his eyes, the room was dimly lit, and comfortably warm, maybe seventy degrees or a little more? His skin felt the air on his face as it laid still, no wind to move it around. The maybe twelve candles in the room were all the light fighting off pitch black darkness. His head had finally stopped throbbing and his heart rate had slowed as well, for all intensive purposes, he felt back to normal again. The memory of the event shook him and he placed his hand on his forehead to think, but felt his glove touch fabric and a soft square protrusion. Tapping a few more times, he could feel it stick out, soft, pliable, it was a bandage from when he head-butted the Ushi-Oni earlier. The force must have split his skin or bruised him enough to warrant it.

 　　Sitting up, Adam righted himself and took a quick look around, in the plain wooden room that looked to be made of wood planks on all walls, he realized he was lying on a mattress on the ground in the far side of the room from the door. Far side being a figure of speech, the room itself was tiny, enough room for the bed, a single small dresser and another small table or bench with a chair in it, small as well. Everything was small, reserved, without the feeling of wasted space or over abundance.

 　　Across the room from him was the door, and to his left, a window, open but black outside, it was night it seemed. There was no wind carried in from the outside, and faint sounds of voices and other unfamiliar sounds came in, but he could not make any of them out. Some voices were of children, some were of adults, he ignored it, nothing unusual.

 　　Turning and sticking his legs out, Adam pushed himself up to his feet. The boards under him creaked, protesting the weight of his armor focused on the two spots under his feet. Another step forward and he caught a sight out of the corner of his eye, a mirror. Turning to it and leaning forward, he held his body up with his hands on the dresser below him and looked his face over. His hair was a little longer now, maybe another inch or two, that struck him as particularly odd. His eyes had changed a bit too, his irises, normally a deep shade of brown, now had what he thought was a splash of red to them. They were still brown, but now they definitely had a brighter, redder tint to them. Had it not been for the memory of his fainting from pain being reminded by these eyes, he might have smiled at the change.

 　　A noise came from the other side of the door, someone’s footsteps walking closer, then away as they passed his door. Walking forward, Adam silently took the doorknob in his hand and gently twists, prying the door open with a low creaking sound on the hinges. The sound must have caught the person’s attention, the footsteps stopped, and a silent woman’s voice called out, “Hello? Who’s there?” She didn’t seem scared, or surprised. Rather, it sounded worried about him.

 　　Silently, Adam stepped out of the room and looked to the woman, “Um... Where am I?” He asked, making sure to greet her before she ran off, the look on her face certainly played the part of the scared woman when she saw him.

 　　It took her a moment but the nun calmed down, nodding her head, “I apologize, you must be the one the Captain brought in earlier yesterday afternoon.” Her fear faded, recognizing him and beckoning him forward with her hand, her other clutching what looked to be a bible of sorts, “Please follow me, you must be hungry or thirsty.”

 　　Almost apprehensively, Adam nodded, and followed after her. He did his best to be quiet on his feet but he could barely stop the heavy thuds of his boots on the wood as they walked, he was only able to give out his apologies to it, but the woman, kind as she was, simply smiled back, assuring him it was no worry. She led him through several hallways, past nuns, young and old, as well as what looked to be school children in very plain clothing, simple cloth dresses, brown, and with small white cuffs that were frilly, the only decoration to them. They also had plain brown leather boots on, unusual for a dress, but it made sense if they were going outside or doing a lot of walking, he figured, at least a lot more comfortable than dress shoes.

 　　After what was probably no more than two minutes of walking, the sound of many young voices could be heard talking in unison, chatting, laughing, giggling, and enjoying themselves. The sound got louder and louder, and as he may have expected, they came to what looked like a modest dining hall, they entered through the back right corner entrance of it. Directly to their right came the sounds and smells of a kitchen, and in rows of tables with simple benches on either side sat the source of all of the giddy chatter, close to four dozen girls aged between what looked like ten years old and nearly adult aged eating dinner.

 　　His heavy footsteps betrayed his spectator status, and upon hearing what was probably extremely heavy thuds on the ground, everyone turned to look at Adam and the nun. Suddenly, with nearly a hundred eyes all staring at him he began to flush red in the face, scratching the back of his head and looking away. Was he camera shy? No, but being the single person in an advanced suit of armor in what had every hallmark of being an old ages girl’s school or home run by a church, and having everyone stare at you was not the most comforting thing in the world. Some girls whispered to each other, some squinted apprehensively, some gaped, some gasped, some smiled and others looked frightened of him, but everyone refused to look away.

 　　“Come, you must be hungry, you’ve been asleep for almost two days now.” The woman again told him, gesturing to a spot on a table where a few adult nuns were sitting, eating their dinner as well.

 　　“Um... Okay.” He agreed, if only because he was nervous beyond words at this point, every single pair of eyes still locked onto him and watching his every move. They walked across the room to the left side, their table conveniently close to the kitchen where a few more adults and some of the near-adult girls where busy serving up the last of the girls in line getting food.

 　　“Come, sit down with us. I’m sure you have many questions.” She gestured to the spot on the bench but now was a good time to protest.

 　　“Sorry, if I sat down on that bench I’d snap it in two.” He kindly started, “N-No offense to the craftsman or anything, but I weigh almost five hundred pounds in this armor, I don’t think a wood bench would be able to hold me very well.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You propose a good point.” She sat for a moment in thought, “Well, we cannot have you going hungry on us, that just would not do. Is there any way you may remove your armor before you sit down?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Thinking, maybe he could? If they weren’t lying, he had been asleep for almost two days now, maybe his suit had enough power to open up so he could get out of it. It was worth a shot, he thought to himself, and closed his eyes, the familiar windows popping up in the darkness behind his closed eyelids. Of all of the advances in technology he could have cared less for that Guardia had invented, optical implants and augmentations were among the first on the list of ones he actually enjoyed having. Like a HUD on a video game, his vision seemed to be like that of a computer monitor or virtual reality, giving him all of the status windows that his suit had shown him while he wore his helmet.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Relief, his suit energy had recovered, if only by a few percent. It appeared as though his reactor had begun to malfunction; it must have failed on him between leaving the house of the Succubus and waking up, the charging output was almost nonexistent. It was more than enough though, to open the suit and let him step out of it. He was beginning to feel claustrophobic in it now anyways, he hadn’t spent this much time in a suit before, and it was starting to bug him. A quick thought went back to his Commandant Leo, who as a soldier, often spent days at a time in the suit without breaks, Adam wondered how he got used to it, or if he ever got used to it. He would have to ask him when he got back.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Walking around to one of the large stone pillars that was right behind the table, he backed up against it and stood straight up, holding his hands out, palms forward and fingers spread. He took a look at the nuns at the table and some of the girls that had gotten up and come to see him, unable to sate their curiosity of him, “Please don’t freak out, this is just something this suit can do, okay?” He asked them making sure to get a confirming nod from them before continuing. Closing his eyes and again, with the suit linked to him, it took a simple thought to issue the command to open the suit up.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Splitting at each of the main plates on the front of the armor, it seemed to split itself open at the seams, unlocking joints between plates of armor and then swing forward, revealing the entirety of his under-armor, its tiny hexagonal plating outlining his entire body from his neck down. With the legs, then arms open, the chest plate split down the middle, and retracted up and to the sides, taking each half of the breastplate out of his way, giving just enough clearance for his head to get by with only a few inches of spare room. The layered abdomen armor simply split down the middle as well and rotated around his sides, stopping behind his kidneys.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Now free of the confines of the armor, Adam was able to step forward and out of the suit, taking in the feel of the wooden floor beneath the thin soled under armor shoes covering his feet. The under armor itself seemed to have its own armor plating too, but it wasn’t for protection, around his shoulders, triceps, chest, back, and outer sides of his thighs, and front of his shins were thin, flat metal plates with several small circular openings.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　A chorus of gasps and silent whispers filled the hall as those who saw the event quickly told their friends who had not seen it, some girls acted like it was the work of the devil, and some seemed to think it was just the coolest thing ever.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sighing, Adam took a deep breath, no longer weighed down by the external armor that had no doubt saved his life earlier. He appreciated it, greatly no doubt, but there came a time and place when he didn’t want to have to walk around in it all the time, and now was most definitely one of those times. A few quick stretches to work out a few sore spots in his joints and muscles, and a few twists in specific places snapped and cracked the vertebra in his back like clockwork, their resounding crack carrying far and wide for all ears to hear.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Turning and sitting down, Adam now took his seat between two nuns, facing the woman who had walked him into the room, who now held two plates of food in her hands, setting his down first in front of him and sitting down herself with hers.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That’s a very interesting.... Thing you have there, my boy.” The woman to his left joked, she was in her late forties, her brown hair showing early signs of graying, but her face still fought off wrinkles like a champion, her skin smooth and young. Her brown eyes shone with a luster of youth still in her, one that age itself failed to take away, staring into Adam’s eyes as he sat.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Thanks, it’s something we’re working on back home, getting in and out of those is really a tricky thing without that feature. It’s my job to try to figure out a way of making it work with everyone’s suits, so that theirs can do the same.” He pointed out, being kind with his words and doubling his efforts to not irritate anyone.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“So there are more of you? Are you from the Order?” The one to his right asked, she too was middle aged, maybe mid thirties at the oldest, with blonde hair tied into a modest ponytail behind her and blue eyes that were a deep, navy blue.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yeah there are about a hundred and fifty thousand of us now, we’ve grown our numbers in the last few centuries due to issues planet-side.” He started out, making sure to add one detail as not to confuse them, “But we aren’t from the Order, I’m afraid I don’t know what that is. We are from a place called Guardia.” He points up, “It’s a ring world circling the planet that watches over the people living here, but ... I’m being told this isn’t the planet that it’s orbiting.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The women sat there silently for a few moments, no doubt surprised at the information they were hearing from him, but finally after not another agonizing silent moment, the one across from him asked, “Are you going to eat? Your pork will get cold soon if you don’t.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m sorry, I didn’t know if you all said grace before eating.” He replied, noting that none of them had started eating their food yet, “I didn’t want to be disrespectful.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　A kind smile found its way on her face as she tilted her head ever so slightly to the side, “That is very courteous of you, Mister Sigil. We do say grace before eating, are you comfortable with that?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Of course, though I have to say, I’m absolutely terrible at leading one...” He said with a half-hearted smile on his face.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　She picked up on it quickly, “Oh no dear, it’s quite alright, it’s my turn to say grace today, so please don’t worry about it.” She held her hands out, and as with the others, Adam took the hands of the two sitting next to him, lowered his head, and they said grace silently, finishing with an Amen before returning to their meals.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Are you not a religious type, Mister Sigil?” The one to his left asked, quickly but carefully taking to her pork strips with her fork and knife.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m afraid I am not, ma’am.” He started, cutting one of his pork strips in half as well, sticking it with his fork but not placing it to his mouth just yet, “However, I’m what we like to refer to as a ‘Neutral’ or ‘Tolerant’ or in short, someone who does not follow any one religion.” He stops, making sure to get her attention as he wanted to be explicitly clear about the next part, “However, as such, I respect and will do my best to follow the traditions and customs of any religion while I am in their house, place of warship, establishments, or churches. I may not be a religious person, but I fully respect any and all who follow one, and give them their due respect.” He finished with a simple smile, the woman smiling back at him as they both took a bite of their pork strips at the same time.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That is quite... Unusual.” The one across from him starts, no menacing or angry tone to her voice, “You do not follow a religion, but you respect all of them, I can only assume then, does your world have multiple religions?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Indeed it does.” He says after swallowing his food, “There are over one hundred different practiced and recognized religions on Aeon.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Well, my young man, we only have one here, and that is the Order of the Divine.” She says with a beaming voice of confidence, “It is through our Lord Michael that we were saved from the Nine Hells and their Demon Lord nearly two thousand years ago. He sacrificed his life on this world to bring an end to the Demon Lord’s tyranny and conquer his army, saving the human race from being destroyed.” All of the women at the table bowed with their hands clasped, reciting a ‘We thank you, Lord Michael’ as she spoke.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That’s incredible...” Adam said with awe dripping from his words, “So there was a large war between humans and those monsters?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yes and no...” The woman stated, and was about to speak up when the door at the far end of the hall swung open and the four familiar people walked into the room. Everyone fell silent but there didn’t seem to be any fear or imposing aura to the situation, if anything, the girls in the hall seemed to welcome their presence.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Ah, Captain, I see you got my message.” The nun stood up and walked over to the man, greeting him kindly with a smile, he too smiling back with his greetings, “We sent a messenger as soon as one of us confirmed he was awake.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Thank you, Sister Sandra, I appreciate it.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　So that was her name.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Should we leave?” She asked him but he shook his head.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“No it’s quite alright, actually would you do us the honor of dinner here tonight? We were out on patrol and ran into that Ushi-Oni again, we chased it for several hours and nearly got it this time. The twins are famished and my mage is running on empty.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Of course Captain.” She said cheerfully, “You should know you never need to ask here. Please, go help yourselves.” She gestured him towards the kitchen with haste.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Sorry, sorry, force of habit, and it’s a gentleman thing.” He joked as she kindly pushed him towards the chef who had already been preparing him a plate. Everyone here seemed so friendly, so close to each other and so kind, Adam almost felt as though this was a place he could let his guard down in. Almost.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I see you took your fancy shmancy armor off, huh?” The captain asked him, walking up and retrieving the plate of pork strips and vegetables, declining the soup, “Bet you get all cooped up and stuff inside that thing wearing it all day huh?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yeah, this was the first time I wore it so long too, started to get a little claustrophobic in it, and it weighs a ton so I couldn’t sit down with it on.” He said, stabbing another pork strip with his fork and taking a bite out of it.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“So now that you’re not in any real danger, what is that thing exactly?” He sat down next to Sandra to her left and dug into his pork strips quickly, the other three still in the line to get their food and not yet arrived.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“It’s an advanced, prototype armor I’m working on. It’s a test armor of sorts.” He explained it, trying to make sure it wasn’t too complicated, “I’m supposed to be testing it to make sure all the kinks get worked out of it before we update everyone’s armors to be like it. Things are going.... Less than optimistically, however.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Why’s that?” The man said through his mouth full of strips, a little of the sauce stuck to the bottom of his large mustache as he spoke.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Standard flair problems, certain parts don’t work, others do, stuff shuts off when it shouldn’t, but with enough damage they start to mess up. It’s my job to, well, test the suit in combat. Once I see the problem, I take it back to the lab, throw it on the work bench, and hammer out the problems.” He paused, looking at the man who returned the glance, “Sometimes, literally.” They both laughed at the comment, understanding the joke he was getting at.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I guess we have the ‘where are you from’ thing down right? Some ring world thing in the sky over the world, pretty ominous if you ask me, but I guess the big question is how you got here.” The mage asks, sitting down to Sandra’s right, “I’m intrigued to know how you got so far into this country without a single person or scout pointing you out.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Ah, here it was, the conversation he was looking for. Adam was going to bring it up soon, or maybe right away once everyone was sat down at the table, but it seemed it was unnecessary to wait any longer.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That’s actually what I want to ask you guys.” Setting his fork down, Adam clasped his hands together and set them on the table, “I ask because, quite frankly, I have absolutely no idea how to explain what happened to me.” He looked to the mage sitting across to his left, “I think you might know, I’m guessing you might with that awesome floating book-of-awesomeness you had earlier.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The mage simply looked blankly for a moment confused, but chuckled quietly as he understood what Adam meant, “Ah yes, my Amplifying Tomb, indeed I am a mage and it’s a quintessential part of my equipment, why do you ask?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Because I think I got pulled through some sort of magic circle which brought me here.” His words were accompanied by the sounds of many pieces of kitchenware and glasses suddenly hitting tables, clearly, everyone was tuning into this conversation.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“A magic circle huh? Was it star-shaped like a pentagram? A couple of rotating circles around its edges and gave off a lot of light?” He asked, his tone curious.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yep, bright pink looking one, took forever to pull me through, felt like quicksand, but I couldn’t pull my feet off the ground.” Adam tried to describe the situation as best he could, “My friend tried pulling me out, but had to make sure not to touch it himself, we feared it might have taken him too.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Your fears are not unfounded, my friend.” The mage informed him quickly, “If I imagine what you went through is accurate to your description, you were summoned here through demonic magics and likely, for less-than-noble causes.” He clasped his hands together, leaning forward on the table, resting his head on his hands, and his arms on the table, “Tell me, was it a Baphomet? A Lilim? Maybe a Succubus or Devil? What summoned you here?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I think the last two.” He pointed his finger upward and at the mage a few times, as if acknowledging him, “Succubus, early twenties looking, long hair, horns on her head, wings, thick slick tail with a spade at the end?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“And an unusually large bust?” The mage finished, seeming to smile with the thought.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Enormous.” Adam joked back, “Unnaturally is an understatement.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You would be correct in guessing it was a Succubus then.” Leaning back again and off of the table, the mage picked up his fork, “So, how was she?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What do you mean?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You know what I mean? Succubi only summon human males for milking them of their spirit energy in order to fuel their magic. They get it through the act of intercourse, repeated intercourse.” He joked, poking his fork into a part of the small stack of vegetables he had.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m afraid I don’t have a tale for that one, nothing ever happened in that nature.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You’re kidding?!” The captain blurted out, coughing a little from the drink he was taking, “How did you manage? How did you get away before she charmed you?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Charmed? You mean when they do that thing where their eyes glow and whatnot? No, no I didn’t get away, she did it right to my face a few times I think. Once for sure.” Adam was quick to remember it, those seductive eyes glowing red nearly as she gazed into his eyes, piercing him, “I know she did it to my commanding officer, he never relaxes or drops his guard in front of an enemy like he did in front of her.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You... You resisted charm magic from a succubus point blank?” The captain dropped his fork to the plate and the clang rang loud in the hall, “Young man... Are you absolutely certain that’s what happened?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Nodding his head, Adam was feeling a little nervous now, the jovial tone in the older man’s voice had long gone since hearing of the subject of him resisting charms, “I think so, I don’t know what’s supposed to happen, but I didn’t really feel like it did anything out of the ordinary. Why? Is that bad if something didn’t happen?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Bad?” Retorted the captain almost as if he was dumbfounded that Adam didn’t understand the severity of the situation, “Adam? Only a very select few men in the world are able to resist the charm magic of a succubus, and most of those men, aren’t just humans any longer.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What are they?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Either they are Grand Paladins of the Order of the Divine, soldiers born and raised to be the sword and shield of their masters, the Grand Cardinals.” He stopped for a moment, sighing before continuing with a much more grim tone, “Otherwise, I worry you may be becoming an incubus, male monsters of sorts as some would go as far as to claim. They are still humans of course, they don’t look any different from you or me; but they are stronger, faster, live longer, and have more... Endurance than humans do.” He became terrifyingly serious leaning forward onto his elbows onto the table, staring Adam down face to face, glaring at him right in the eyes, “If you are in fact becoming an Incubus, you pose a great danger to us and yourself.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Okay, time to get nervous.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“How do I know if I am one?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Simple, you resisted the charms of the succubi, unless you are honestly, truly something else we have never come across on this planet, and you are not from the Order, it’s a safe bet you are or are becoming an incubus.” The mage spoke up instead while the captain returned to a more laid-back posture, sitting back on his chair, “Either that or you are blessed with the gifts of the Chief God to resist them and are here for a purpose that goes beyond yourself.” The mage spoke calmly, but seriously, “When we brought you back, we had to use healing magic, arts of sorts on you, in order to remove the demonic energy from your body.” He lowered his head and looked Adam straight in the eyes, “You had much more in your body than normal for someone who was exposed to so little.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“How did I get it in me?” Hunger gone, Adam ignored his plate of food before him, only half finished now. He was hungering for something other than food right now, he needed information and answers more than he needed plain, unseasoned pork chops and vegetables.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Well we can guess one of two ways, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense chronologically. You were being attacked by the Ushi-Oni when we found you, and we have kept an eye on you ever since. You were exposed to her blood when we tried rescuing you, and that is likely where you came in contact with her demonic energy. Ushi-Oni blood, or rather, blood of just about any monster out there, if ingested in any way, is almost sure to either kill you, or in many cases... turn you into an Incubus.” He stuffed another mouthful of vegetables into his mouth, apparently he wanted Adam to reply.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“But I ran from the succubus and her daughters before I ran into the spider woman you guys saw.” He had to defend himself, he needed information and being persecuted for something he didn’t understand was certainly on the bottom of his list of most effective ways of getting info.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That is where your story gets interesting.” The captain’s voice grabbed Adam’s attention, “You say you were summoned by a Succubus and her daughters, Devils right?” Adam nodded, “So if you didn’t run into the Ushi-Oni yet, how were you able to resist them?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You tell me.” The Guardian sat back on the bench, “With no disrespect, sir, this is a two-way thing going on here. I know I have a lot of questions to answer to, and I promise I will do my best to answer them to the best of my knowledge... But I have as many, maybe, probably more to ask back. I don’t want to step on any toes here, especially since I’m unarmed, my suit is almost out of power, I don’t know where I am, and I have neither supplies, nor money for supplies to travel anywhere to find out what happened to me. And this is all excluding the fact that I’m unbelievably grateful that you guys were then to help when you did.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Understandable, and you are doing fine answering our questions, perhaps then, you would like to ask a few of your own now?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The captain’s gesture to ask a question was not missed, so Adam began, “I guess my first and most important question is, where am I and how do I get back to where I was?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sitting back, the mage again decided to take the question, “You are currently in the world known as Terraria, and how to get you back? Well there are two ways, either you travel by land or boat, or, if you are truly from another world, the only one who knows how to return you then is the one that summoned you.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“And if she doesn’t know how to send me back.....?” Adam asked, worry hung thick in the air with his question.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m afraid then you’re between a very large rock and a very hard place. I’m sorry, if she does not know the location she pulled you from, then it is likely there is no definite way of sending you back. Any wrong inscription on the pentagram’s outer rings could send you a thousand feet under ground or into the sky, some even say certain inscriptions open the gateways to heaven and hell, though that his highly debatable.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That stupid, horny, tunnel-visioned bitch!” Adam accidentally yelled out loud, everyone shutting up when he let the last word out. It took him a moment to calm himself, realizing all too clearly that he screwed up just then. The embarrassment very well may have killed him if it were not for the shock of the revelation that he may have involuntarily been given a one-way-trip to this new world, “I’m... I’m sorry. It’s just that, that succubus said the only thing she made sure of on her summon was that it picked out a human with an over abundance of spirit energy or whatever. It sounded like location wasn’t something they made sure to take into account, it sounded like they were pretty desperate and wanted something that would give them the biggest boost the fastest.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That sounds like something a succubus would do...” The captain grumbled, “Sex, sex, and only sex are on their minds. Tunnel-visioned is right, if they aren’t figuring out a way of wringing a man out of his semen and spirit energy, then they’re probably in the practice of doing it. It’s all they think about, it’s like their entire life is devoted to nothing but acts of depravity.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yeah... yeah that sounds like what she was, heck even her daughters wanted in on it and they looked like children.” Adam grimaced at the thought, “Makes me sick to think that a mother could let her daughters do something so soon.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“They probably weren’t as young as you are thinking they were.” One of the women finally spoke up, it was one of the twin scouts, sitting next to the captain, her green eyes glancing over at Adam, “Often times those creatures have a preset age they grow to and stay at. For Devils, it’s pretty common that they stop at about ten or eleven, right as their breasts start to grow. There are a few occasions where they grow to mid puberty but as of the present knowledge, there has not been a devil that has grown to the size of a full adult female.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The description explained a bit, but still it didn’t sit right in Adam’s stomach, “So they might have been twenty or thirty years old? They certainly didn’t act like it, they acted like kids still.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Typical.” She shrugged the comment off, “For them, acting like kids is all part of the act of seduction. Look like a kid, act like a kid, but fuck like a succubus.” She rolled her eyes, “Lost a few friends to those she-devils a while back. Never heard from them again either.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m sorry.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m not.” She coldly shot the words back, “My friends knew the dangers, they knew not to pick a fight with them, and they knew damn well not to do it outside city walls and at night. You turn the wrong way, you round a tree and suddenly two pink glowing eyes later you’re a slave and your life is over. They knew better but they still went out.” She sighs, sitting back and crossing her arms, “I’ve resigned myself to believing they did it on purpose, the damn closet child-lovers. I hope they got wrung out till they died of exhaustion.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yeah I can see your point...” Adam rested his head on his pointer finger and thumb again for a few moments, bracing himself with his elbow on the table, “So to sum up my situation in a nutshell, I’m stuck here, on what sounds like a planet I’ve never heard of, nowhere near home, with no immediately known way of getting back, and no connection to contact anyone. All thanks to a horny succubus and her underage daughters wanting to bump-uglies happened to choose me out of the billions of people in all of known creation...” He paused for a moment, taking another breath while his thoughts collected again, “I escaped said mother and daughters, only to run into a crazed spider-lady who also wanted to ride my nuts, also again, likely to death; and after getting some of her monster-blood-juice in me, I got the pleasure of a migraine of a lifetime, my heart nearly exploded, and now I’m here...” He paused for a few moments to soak it all in, only speaking up again, looking at the Captain, “In at least one saving grace, I can say this day could have gone worse, you guys could have not shown up and I wouldn’t have gotten away from that Ushi-Oni. Lord only knows where I’d be now if it weren’t for you guys... Thank you, all of you for that.” He nodded his head towards them in showing respect.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Nah, you sound like you’ve had an incredible day, be it good or bad, but at least you’re still alive and well. We have pressing issues to worry about, especially if you in fact, are an incubus or worse, but those can wait for now I think. We should go outside.” The captain stood up, gesturing for Adam to do the same.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yes, yes let’s please do, I could use some air.” He too stood up, stretching himself out, Sandra telling him to leave his plate and that she would take care of it later. Giving her a nod to show he understood, Adam took a step back and leaned back into the armor, there was no way he was going anywhere far without this thing now that it had a little juice in it again.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Watching the suit contort and link itself back together over Adam, the Captain gave a resounding whistle, “Man, that’s some pretty fancy stuff you have there, any chance if we get you back to your friends, I could get one?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam could only laugh as he stepped forward and around the table, joining the man as they walked towards the exit, “You help me get home and I’ll personally design and build you and your entire squad armors.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The man gave a hearty laugh before patting him on the back with his own heavy armored glove, “I’ll hold you to that, you know?” The two walked out of the room together, heading for the outside of the large building they were in. Some fresh air could do Adam some good, and the chance to head outside was welcomed, if they were still on Aeon, then the ring that made up Guardia could be seen from the surface at any hour of night. It was specifically placed in a way that could be seen at day or night, and not obstruct the sunlight during the day, it was able to maintain its orbit around the planet above it so that it never obstructed the sun.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Stepping outside, it was a clear, star-filled night and the moons shown brightly in the sky tonight. Adam ignored the detail for a moment as he looked for the ring he was hoping to see, but after seeing in the horizon something that, on Aeon, was absolutely not possible, Adam knew he was nowhere near his home world.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The skies of Aeon contained one moon, and the ring world that on rare occasion blocked off a tiny part of the moon during its orbit around the planet. This sky however, contained two moons, no ring, and off to the west was an enormous blue gas giant planet with rings like Saturn.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Beautiful.” The captain said, coming out and taking a deep breath, “I never get tired of it.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I can see why...” Adam had accidentally given off the tone of his voice too clearly, and the captain was all too quick to pick up on it.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Not up there, is it? Your home that is.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“No, it’s not. I suppose this really is another planet.” He sighed, sad that he had hoped so greatly that there was going to be his home looking down upon him, that he almost didn’t bother to think of what he was going to do if it wasn’t there.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　And now here he sat, alone without his friends and home watching over him from above, that almost comforting feeling of knowing someone is up there keeping a watchful eye out for you was gone. Adam was for the first time in many, many, many years, truly alone.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Well, again kid, at least you’re alive. I’ve seen things Succubi and Devils, and worse, Ushi-Oni do to men they capture and even if they say they love ya. They don’t. It’s all about the sex to them, the sex and the spirit energy.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It took a moment for Adam to register in his head that the man had placed his hand on his shoulder trying to comfort him, but eventually he looked over to see that big grin on his face under that bushy mustache.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” He looks back up, “I just don’t know what I’m going to do now. I mean, I’m on a world I’ve never been on, and I don’t even know how far away Aeon or Guardia is from here. For all I know it could be in any one of those stars up there, I have no way of knowing which one is our solar system or galaxy.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That what those are?” The man looked up into the sky, taking a more keen observation of the stars he’d seen thousands of times, “Those are other worlds?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Not exactly...?” Adam sighed, “Yeah some of them are other planets, other worlds. A lot of them are actually suns too.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Other suns? Like ours?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yep, but a lot of them are a hell of a lot bigger than yours or mine, sometimes with other suns revolving around them. Then around every one of them can be anywhere from zero, up to a dozen planets like this one circling around it. And any one of those planets could be home.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That’s... A lot of planets.” The captain was almost at a loss of words, there were countless stars in the sky, and if they averaged even as few as three planets to each tiny dot of light in the sky, he understood the young man’s peril all too easily, “You sure know a lot of weird things kid, that story of yours of being from another world’s starting to become a bit more believable.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yeah, I know it’s far fetched, and I wouldn’t believe it either. I didn’t believe in magic either until the other day when a magic circle swallowed me whole.” Shrugging his shoulders, he looks at the captain with a smile, “Yet, here I am. Possibly billions upon trillions of miles away from home all ‘cause some slutty woman wanted my nuts.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Laughing loudly and with a large smile on his face, “Yeah, life is... Whimsical like that, isn’t it? I gotta say, if you stayed and bent her sexy ass over and had a little fun yourself--” He looked to Adam with a grin, “I couldn’t fault ya one bit for it, given what you been through. Maybe before it’s all said and done, you can go and give her a little payback? Yeah?” He joked, nudging Adam’s shoulder with his elbow with the last word a couple of times. Both men chuckled as they walked towards the town.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He hadn’t given it much thought to actually look at his surroundings yet, they were outside a large wooden building that was reminiscent of a small cathedral of sorts atop a hill that overlooked what seemed to be a town from the medieval times, many wooden angled roofs with chimneys that smoked in the distance could be seen. They weren’t even a quarter mile away, maybe a five minute walk at best, and far on the other side he could see, there appeared to be a large, very large at that, stone wall with a few towers what looked to be at sections where its wall changed direction, and hundreds of merlons ran along the top as he expected. Tracing the wall, he realized it seemed to span all the way around the town and back towards them, reaching around the church they were walking away from.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That wall is huge...” Adam couldn’t deny it, the fact that it was as long as it was, and seemed so tall, he had to ask, “How long did it take to make?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Not long actually, we used a lot of really powerful magi to forge the stone walls quickly. Was kind of a necessity, the king at the time commissioned it, cost a pretty penny too, but it’s been totally worth it. Not a single monster siege has broken these walls in all the time they’ve been up.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You’re kidding? Damn, this would have taken forever without magic I bet.” He continued to look at the walls that were closest, the ones to their left of the path they walked down, heading into town, “How do you guys manage it with so few people?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Everyone’s got a horn, if there is any trouble, we sound off and depending on the situation, we use the horns to sound off a code that tells the others what’s going on. Biggest worries are the aerial ones, Mothmen, Harpies, Thunderbirds, Succubi sometimes, but they’re not the type to swoop in and grab you, nah, you know how they work.” He strained the word, not meaning any harm but trying to make light of the situation to make it easier on the kid next to him, “But worst of all I’d say are the Manticores, ugh...” He shivered at the name, “Crazy fuckers, those are. Tall, slender, sexy as all get out too, but their arms and legs are like a beast’s, all furry and large, and those claws they got can rip through armor like it’s paper. But that’s not the worst of it.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What is?” Adam asked, he knew the man wanted him to verbally ask him.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“The fact that they can fly, and that freakish tail of theirs. Thing is like a second pussy to them, it’s so messed up.” He spat on the ground, like a bad taste was in his mouth, “Thing’s got barbs on it she can shoot at you, if it hits you, good luck getting away. Your body ain’t gonna listen to you, and if she flashes that tail at you, your dick’s gonna jump forward into it so fast your body’s gonna need a minute to catch up.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Wait, wait wait wait wait...” Adam cut him off, the expression of confusion, disgust, and disbelief painting an odd portrait of a face on the young man that looked at the captain, “Her tail has a hole in it... and you can--”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yup, just like that hole between her legs, it’s freaking weird. One of my men got captured by one once, took us three days to find’em and get him back. Poor bastard was like skin and bones when we found him, getting straddled by her and sucked dry by that tail. Any longer and she’d suck his soul out of him.” He forcefully pat Adam across the back of his shoulder, “Can you believe it? They won’t ever actually have sex with you? They always use that tail of theirs, and the more you struggle, the hornier they get, it’s like you being terrified or angry gets’em off harder. Poor Emil had so many claw marks and gouges on him I thought he’d die by time we got him back to town.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“So he lived?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Barely, but the ordeal took its tole on him, guy won’t look at a human woman the same anymore, or any woman really, monster or human.” He sighed, “Big problem too, considering he has no kids of his own, doubly so given our current situation.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Situation?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You saw all those girls in the church right? Orphans mostly, moms turned into monsters or brothers and dads got seduced by them. Every one of them has a parent or two missing because of the monsters. Worst part is, guys that go almost never return, and women that change, can’t change back.” They finally entered the town, it was quiet, likely it was getting pretty late and most people were going to bed soon, but that didn’t hinder the quaint feel of the place. The sound of the gravel under their feet, mixed with the sounds of shops nearing the end of the day, windows lighting up the streets and dotting the houses like the stars in the sky above.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“So they physically become another monster-like woman?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yeah, crazy shit too, sometimes its random what you turn into, sometimes it’s specific. If a Werewolf bites a woman--” he snaps his fingers, “Instant werewolf woman next full moon. Same thing with monsters like Lamia.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That sucks.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yeah it does, and that’s not the worst of it.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“It gets worse?” Adam found it hard to believe it could get much worse than that.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Any one of them monsters that gets knocked up? They always have a little monster-girl of their own, never, ever have we seen a male monster before. They all but went extinct two thousand years ago when the first Demon Lord got put in his place by Michael, bless his heart.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“So the problem is what, exactly?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“There ain’t enough guys to go around for all the women now.” He wanted to sound happy or laugh about it, but his tone was grim, “Population’s been on decline for centuries. Soon, there won’t be enough men left to keep the human race going the way things are now, and we’ll just fizzle up and disappear one day unless we take drastic action. Worst of all, them damn fucking monsters don’t seem to give two shits about it! All they want is to grab a guy, sometimes a kid even, and run of with’em and never return.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Don’t they understand that they’re killing off the population?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Remember, sex sex and more sex?” The captain reminded him quickly, “Seriously, only a few of them actually worry about anything else, Centaurs are an exception. Prideful, devoted, disciplined. Dragons too, they even helped fight off the monsters in the previous Demon Human war, but honestly, they’re too damn prideful to do anything with a man half the time and they’re dying off too, but that’s just their ego getting to them and them not doing anything about it.” He paused remembering another one, “But their sister race, Wyverns? Those girls are awesome, same kinda mentality, but total fire-crackers, real tomboys, and not too egotistical they’re abstaining themselves into extinction.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Sounds like a keeper to you.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Absolutely!” The man joked, slapping Adam on the back again, this had to have been close to half a dozen times now since they started talking, “If I was ever to have to be with a monster, I’d hope to high heavens it’d be a Wyvern. But them girls are picky too in their own right, only knights and people who prove themselves can be with one. Nobles try all the time... gods I love it when that happens, and I think the little ladies do too.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“It doesn’t turn out so well?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Ha! Oh it turns out great! The Wyverns always just toy around with the nobles, thinking they’re so high and mighty with their fancy personal trainers and classes. Once they get into the ring with a Wyvern, what’s the first thing the little ladies do? They blow a huge ring of fire around the arena, sealing the two of them in... Why? Because they can. Because it scares the kid shitless to be surrounded in fire, face to face with a monster and all you got is your lousy fancy schmancy sword all polished and decorated for this one occasion.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Evil?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“More like awesome, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a noble ever successfully conquer and claim a Wyvern in my entire life. Don’t think I’ll ever see it either, to be honest. They’re tall, their scales are harder than any metal known, they can fly with a single bat of their wings, and they can spit out this huge fire cone from their mouths. All this while they have the strength of ten men!” The man looked at Adam with a wide grin under that bushy man-stache under his nose, “Most knights can’t even beat them in single combat most times. One on one, a Wyvern’s just too strong for a single human to take. Most of the times the ladies wait ‘till their man challenges them, then if he gives an honest enough effort in the fight and is sincere about his loss... You know, as a knight should in a duel? Then the ladies will bow down and offer them the right to be their partner.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“So it’s a matter of respect, and honor versus raw strength and power.” Adam asked and the man nodded in response.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yes, but should you win the duel, that wyvern would become yours. Not like, your wife or anything, but she herself would be yours, and she’d do anything you ask. The same goes the other way of course, if you lose, they will tell you never to challenge them again, and you have to abide by that.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What if you wanted her as a wife?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That’s usually the first question most ask actually, most knights are wed to their wyverns. It’s why they challenge them really, because they want to be with them.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That’s pretty cool actually...”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Indeed it is.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam was enjoying his conversation, but something bugged him, and he had to ask the question, “So, Captain, I have a question for you, on a serious note.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Shoot.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Why are you guys acting like you trust me so much, and why are you treating me so kindly? Not to disrespect the people that helped me or anything, I don’t mean anything like that, but it’s just really odd that you all just kind of come out of the woodwork to help me.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“An understandable point.” He led Adam into the wall which seemed to be hollow inside, with quarters for soldiers for sleeping, eating, and weapons and armor storage, up some stairs and into another room, he kept leading Adam up, “Again I’ll go back to the point of the male population, Adam. Right now, if we were to count, we’d be lucky, lucky to get two or three guys to every five women, if we’re lucky. I’d honestly say it’s likely by now, closer to just two per five.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“So...?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You’re a young, able-bodied man around twenty years old and you don’t seem to be an Incubus, thank the gods...” He trailed off for a moment, “I’m not sure why you’re here, because I don’t really believe your whole succubus story, and I’ll admit, a part of me does and doesn’t care at the same time. My job is to worry about the men, women, and children of this town, and I’ll do it till the day I die.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Or get captured?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Till the day I die.” He reiterated, “One of them things thinks they’ll make a husband out of me’s got a three foot surprise coming their way. I’d sooner stuff them with my iron sword than my own sword. Wyverns are an exception and I do consider them allies to the human race, but I’d still never marry one.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It was surprising to see him speak about monsters in such a grim way, he seemed like such a friendly person too. But maybe the world’s situation was really that bad that the thought of it brought any good mood he had crashing down.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　They finally reached the top of the wall and were around a few other soldiers who greeted them, and their remarks caught Adam off guard, “Oh, you’re... A lady?” He asked the one that shook his hand.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yeah, you got a problem with it?” Her disciplined person stood tall and rigid, clearly this was a woman that took pride in being a soldier.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“No, no not at all, quite the opposite, actually. Female soldiers are treated with a lot of respect where I come from.” He says with a smile, and can feel her gaze upon him lessen to merely looking at him, rather than a death stare, “But why are--”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　She explained to him the situation before he could even finish asking, “If men were to patrol these towers instead of women and monsters knew it, they’d be snatched up by sunrise without a second thought. Monsters around here now all think the town guards are women, it doesn’t make us much safer but it’s better than sacrificing men for a single night’s safety.” She held her halberd in one hand and her shield was held on her back, secured to her thick plate mail covering her whole body and head.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Is it usually peaceful, how often do they normally attack?” Adam leaned against one of the merlons to the wall and stared out to the open plains that extended for nearly a mile before turning to the right, following the lowest point of ground with large hills on either side, covered in forests.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Nightly if you count the few stragglers stupid enough to think they can sneak into town quietly. Usually one or two, sometimes three. If you don’t count those, then maybe once a month, once every other month. Usually happens when enough of them get sick of not having any guys around and are willing enough to die trying to get one for themselves. Damn monsters don’t exactly like to share, and sorry to say for the guys that got taken unwillingly, but it’d be easier and better for us all if the monsters did share’em a little.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I know what you mean.” The captain sighed, leaning forward onto the merlon next to Adam, staring out into the fields too, quickly pointing out, “Ah, speak of the she-devils themselves. See Adam, over there? Three lizardmen, young ones too.” He pointed to a short clearing by a rock, “Probably kids or young teens thinking we can’t see’em from here in the dark.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Squinting his eyes, Adam did in fact make out the figures of three young girls, thick tails wagging slowly behind them, the tails were much too solid to be fur, that must have been what gave it off. They were a pretty good distance out, but he could see they were still trying to keep hidden, but from the corner of his eye he spotted another figure out in the open charging at them.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Oh, lucky you, Adam, you get to witness irony at its best.” The woman joked, pointing to the figure, “Looks like a Minotaurus, adult... And pissed to boot.” She laughed, “Those lizards are so fucked.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What’s going to happen?” He asked, noticing the girls hadn’t reacted to the figure charging at them, probably young and inexperienced, or so engrossed in watching the three of them on the wall that they didn’t notice the lumbering giant sprinting at them. By his guess the lone Minotaurus was nearly twice their size, and carrying a huge object behind her.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“She’s probably pissed at them because she lost a husband, or lost a potential one because of lizardmen and is about to get some payback against those three.” She patted him on the shoulder, noticing his distressed face, “Honestly kid, don’t feel bad, monsters kill each other all the time way out here like their animal halves do in the wild. You gotta disconnect yourself from it or it’ll eat you up inside, watching girls die left and right and all.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The captain could see the large figure’s charge finally catching the attention of the three girls that quickly broke away from the rock darting towards the forest, “She’s right, its best they direct their anger at each other rather than focusing on the humans, we make it through each night because monsters are too focused on their territorial pissing matches and competition over men to worry about actually conquering us. If they all focused on one goal... we’re doomed.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The faint sounds of a sword battle could be heard off in the distance, and Adam had to clench his teeth hard when he heard a high pitched voice scream out in pain, no doubt one of the three girls had to have fallen victim to that huge weapon on her back.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“One down, two to go.” But the screams never came like the three thought, instead, the large figure came barreling out of the woods again, stumbling and limping. She no longer had the large ax in her hands. Behind her nearly a dozen lizardmen came out of the woods brandishing swords and bows, letting arrows fly towards the retreating Minotaurus. From the distance they could see one of the arrows had landed in it’s leg when the retreating woman stumbled violently, trying to keep balance but ultimately failing, falling to the ground.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Well, she’s dead.” The captain shrugged, “Should have known three young girls would probably be guarded by their mothers.” And as the man figured, the swarm descended upon the body, a thunderous roar of pain coming out as they no doubt skewered her body with their swords, stabbing her several times he guessed, hearing the beast yell out a few more times before falling silent, the mass of silhouettes walking away slowly back to their side of the forest and leaving the body for all to see. No doubt it was a warning left for the other Minotaurus.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’ll have a few head out tomorrow to remove the body, looks like it’s right next to the trail. Don’t want any visitors seeing that on their way in.” The woman turned and started walking away again, “Anyway, nice meeting you Adam, take care of yourself.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You too.” He replied, letting her walk away and back to her route along the wall. There was little emotion to his voice, this was his first night in this new world and he’d already seen two people die within minutes of each other. It worried him that this might actually be a common thing here in this world, he wondered if his mind, if his heart could take it until he got back.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Hey, Adam, hey, look.” The captain tapped him on the shoulder hard, several times, “Look, over there.” He pointed to a break in the trees not terribly far off to their right.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Looking at where he was pointing at, Adam could feel terror take hold of him. The cool air now felt warm on his ice cold, terrified face, drained of all of its blood, staring at the figure standing tall and proud, yet eager and impatient against a tree. A figure whose eyes were locked onto Adam and would not budge, “Oh shit...”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Oh yes... You sir, are indeed in a world of shit.” The captain wanted to laugh, but knew the problem they were staring at, “You’ve made a fan.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Not funny.” Adam looked back to the captain who was fighting back laughter, but finally managed to choke it back, understanding the young man’s peril.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yeah, I shouldn’t laugh at that. She’s our problem too, now that you’re here. She won’t stop till she captures you, or she dies. I hope you’re aware of that.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Staring out into the distance at those glowing golden eyes, her blue green skinned naked body with that cape of black un-kept hair, standing tall over her eight legged spider half, Adam knew exactly who was standing out there. The Ushi-Oni was staring straight into his eyes, that wicked smile still as wide as ever.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It was hard to accept, and the thought made Adam feel like he must have hit his head on something and gotten brain damaged because he couldn’t deny that in her own right, she was downright sexy as hell.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Or at least, her human half was.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He had long known that among other things about women that he liked, for some strange reason, that messy, unkept look always attracted him. Maybe he was sick of all of the women in advertisements back home, with their professional, completely impossible-to-wear-daily hairstyles, or maybe he just loved the more natural look of messy hair, spared of the perversion of gels, foams, and styling tools. Whatever it was, this woman wore it spectacularly.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　And then there were those eyes. Those golden, glowing eyes that felt like magnets to his own. Was it the color? Maybe, nobody on Aeon or Guardia had golden glowing eyes, but there were implants, contacts, and other augmentations that gave purple, red, clear blue eyes if someone wanted. Adam wasn’t sure but it didn’t seem to matter, a part of him loved staring back into her eyes and admiring the natural golden luster they gave off, and any time he lost focus he found his eyes right back in her stare’s grasp, blankly staring until a spark, a thought in his mind snapped him back to reality and he peeled his attention away again, if only for a few minutes, “Is there any chance she’ll give up?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Once she’s dead, yeah.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Any other options?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You could try running, but I’m pretty sure your last try let you know how fruitless that effort is.” Adam knew the captain wasn’t trying to be an asshole or anything like that, but he found it harder and harder to believe he wasn’t with every rotation of their conversation constantly hitting an apathetic tone regarding these women dying left and right, “Or you know, you could just seal her. If you think you’re up to fighting a monster with the strength of a hundred men and the sex drive of a thousand.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Seal her?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yep, only monster known that needs one in order to function in society. It’s a powerful seal written on a cloth that gets tied around their head like a sideways bandanna, covers one of their eyes and makes them.... Tolerable.” He pulled a long, red cloth out of his pocket, dark purple glowing runic symbols glowing on it with other insignia surrounding it, “Had the magi cook up one of these when we found out one of them things was in the area. Killing one is almost impossible as they are naturally, so sealing her first, hard as it may sound, is easier.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Just tie it around her head and get one eye covered, then she goes back to normal?” Adam asked, taking the cloth from the captain who had handed it to him to look at.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Back to normal? No, that monstrosity is normal right now, putting that thing on her makes her sane enough to think straight and understand what she’s doing.” He sighed, looking out at the Ushi-Oni still standing there under the tree, motionless. Her gaze completely ignored the old man like he didn’t even exist, the only thing on her mind was standing next to the captain, still cooped up in that strange armor, staring back at her.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I swear, whatever created all of these creatures really fucked up with those things; limitless stamina, limitless sex drive, strength of countless men and with no rhyme or reason. Just crazy, violent sex day in and day out till you die or they fall asleep.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“But if I can seal her, she’ll be okay?” He asked, clenching the cloth in his hand, he had no intentions of giving it back now that he had a possible means of beating her in his hands. If the captain wasn’t lying, Adam knew that a confrontation with the woman was only a matter of time, and so he would need this cloth to survive that encounter.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You’re showing compassion where it should not be, Adam.” The captain’s voice was stern, he was not going to have Adam fall victim to useless sentimentality or naive beliefs like he had watched others fall to, “We’re going to use that to seal her, and with her mind and power sealed, we’ll run her through and be done with the problem. Trust me, it’s not the prettiest thing in the world to do, and I don’t like using such bastardly underhanded tactics, but those creatures are nearly unstoppable without being sealed.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What if we--”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Enough.” The man finally cut Adam off, “Please don’t finish that question. I’ve seen Ushi-Oni before, fought them before, and every time I felt like I was playing tag with the reaper. These creatures are monsters among monsters, why do you think she can just waltz through Lizardman territory like it’s her back yard and a dozen of them won’t fight her off?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“....” Turning back out to the woman and staring into her eyes, he realized she must have better sight than him, because her facial expression changed upon seeing him look at her with concern in his eyes. Looking at her, he could see her crazy and insatiable grin faded for the first time, her lips covering her exposed teeth and...

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　That face.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Staring at her face and reading her expressions, Adam could see she knew their conversation wasn’t a pleasant one. Was she worried about him? No that couldn’t be it. But she was at least reacting to his own apparent distress right? That was sure as hell better than that lascivious, adulterous whore of a succubus, ignoring Adam’s terror and shamelessly trying to bed him still. This Ushi-Oni at least seemed to be paying attention to him, and reacting accordingly. She couldn’t be as bad as the Captain... The captain? What was he doing with the captain again? A conversation? That’s right, he was having a conversation with the Captain.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It was strange, staring at the Ushi-Oni so much was making Adam’s mind feel like it was fading in and out, that he had all but forgotten he was in the middle of a conversation with the captain, and gazing at this woman was all he could focus on. Her golden eyes and that beautiful, feminine smile focused entirely on him. Even her blue green skin which he thought at first was so awkward and out of place seemed entirely all too fitting, and even seemed attractive with the tattoos of the tribal points coming from around her cheeks to point inward towards her nose, “Can I keep this, she’ll come after me and I don’t know if I can fight her off without it.” He held the cloth up so the captain could see that it was what he was referring to.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I meant to give it to you, she’s not going to give anyone else any of her attention now that she’s made an advance on you.” He took a deep breath and leaned back, letting the joints in his back snap and pop, “Gotta say though, that’s got to be the only upside to those creatures, is that fierce loyalty they got on a man they set their eyes on.” He noticed Adam was looking at him with a head-tilting, confused expression on his face, “Ushi-Oni, unlike Succubi, absolutely refuse to bed another man or even consider them while they’re focused on one. Makes me a little jealous sometimes that human women don’t act like that.” He chuckled into his glove, “Dear me, I should be ashamed, saying such things about my wife like that.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“You’re married?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Of course!” He boasted, “Got five little ones scurrying around the house too, all boys!” To say he was proud of himself could have easily won the ‘understatement of the year’ award a thousand times over. The man had puffed out his chest, beating his hand into it with a slam, “All between five and twelve years too. The wife and I got off to a late start but I’d say we made due quite well.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Smiling and turning his head away, Adam hid his true expression from the man, gritting his teeth and the smile disappearing like it had never existed. He had to force himself to stop gnashing his teeth together, lest he accidentally crack or chip one under the force he was putting them through. He could probably bite through a plate of steel by time he finally got his jaw to do as he wished and let up, “That’s... good to hear.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Why was it any time a good conversation got going, something, or someone just had to bring up a random line or sentence that brought all of those unpleasant memories of the past back? It never ceased to amaze Adam at how perfectly the line or sentence would be timed in order to pull the conversations in such a way to ruin his mood. He was beginning to feel like some sort of deity or Fate itself was sneering at him, toying with him for some sort of sick entertainment. He hated the topic of families, of children, mothers, fathers, anything of the sort, and it felt all too predictably perfect that the captain would bring it up right around the time Adam was relaxing and no longer worrying about his current situation for the time being.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Something wrong?” The captain was keen on Adam’s tone, “Did I say something that upset you?” He wanted to step forward but looking down at the clenched fist, he knew not to go near him. Adam’s fist was clenched so tight it was shivering under the forces his muscles were straining at.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“No... It’s nothing you did. Just reminded me of something that happened a long time ago is all. Nothing you should worry yourself with.” He took a moment to clear his head, sighing, “I’m happy for you, really, it’s good you have a family that’s doing so well...” He took a few steps over to the steps and started walking down them, looking back for only a moment to meet the Captain’s concerned stare with his own downtrodden one, “Cherish it and don’t ever let it go.” Bidding a silent farewell with no more words, the young man walked down the stairs and out of view, leaving the older man to stand there in the silence of the windless night. He merely stood there, pondering on the last few minutes of their conversation until he reached his conclusion and sighed, turning and heading off to continue his night until his shift was over.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Shutting the door to the tiny room he woke up in behind him, Adam stepped out of his armor and threw himself down to the mattress on the floor, watching as the suit itself, with no owner to occupy it, walked over to the corner of the room and closed up. Standing there on its own, it looked like a knight’s armor hung up on a display rack ready to be donned whenever it was called, it felt somehow fitting despite the obvious differences it had to armor of this world.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam held the red sealing cloth up above him and stared at it silently for what must have been ten or fifteen minutes before he sighed, letting his arm drop, the cloth resting across his face lazily. It blocked one of his eyes. Is this what she’d see the rest of her life with that thing on? He thought to himself, thinking not of his own future but that of the Ushi-Oni that had nearly killed him only the other day.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It felt awkward, any time he thought about her, he still felt his body stubbornly twist and contort each time he started thinking about that soaking wet spot below her abdomen. Rightly so, he admitted as beautiful as her face and upper body was, that part of her still terrified him, and even grossed him out.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He wasn’t gay or anything of the sort, but the look of the soaking wet fur around and under it didn’t sit well in his stomach, her messy hair on her head was one thing, it was dry, perhaps a little tangled here and there, but otherwise was fine. Below? He had to intentionally try to get the image out of his head, clumps of hair were matted together, soaking wet and sticking with other hairs that got caught on it, some sticking to the pink skin that was coated in the juices.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam felt his stomach try to burp up a little bit of his dinner in response.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He didn’t dare imagine what it must smell like, he feared what his stomach would do if he didn’t divert his attention soon. It was already pressing up a little bit of bile into the base of his esophagus as if to remind him what it would do if he went too far down that train of thought.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yeah, different thoughts... Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.” He kept telling himself over and over again, thinking of different things as best he could until he felt his eyes were harder to keep open than they were to keep shut. It didn’t take long for him to fall back asleep, he had been up for barely two hours but it was late, his body was familiar with sleeping when it was dark, and he still felt oddly fatigued. It didn’t feel the same as over sleeping fatigue, it felt like his whole body was exhausted from running a long time and had no energy in it, so he decided picking a fight with his body was not in his best interests. Laying the red cloth down on the side of the bed and covering himself up in the simple cloth blanket, he shut his eyes and let dreams take over. With any luck, he’d wake up in Guardia and this whole crazy nightmare would be over with, and he could return to work like nothing happened. Yet a part of him knew better than that.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The following morning was entirely uneventful, and devoid of anything note worthy. After waking up to the sound of dozens of footsteps scampering back and forth outside of his room, Adam covered himself in a set of hooded monk’s robes laid out for him and had joined the rest of the orphanage for breakfast where he again ate and talked with the nuns and other adults. The morning breakfast was much easier on him though, as his presence attracted notably less attention than the night before when his arrival in the room silenced the entire crowd.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　After breakfast it was time for morning chores. Everyone disappeared in a hurry, some heading out towards the town, some towards the stable where horses and other animals stayed, and a select few changing their clothes to match that of the nuns and helping out with the adults. Adam opted to head out and see what the Captain was up to, and see if he could do anything to help out around town since all he was right now was a freeloader, and even if he didn’t have anything to contribute to the orphanage, he could probably help the guard.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He walked along the paths in the town, looking for the captain, leaving his hood to his cloak down. He didn’t want to look suspicious or menacing, and admittedly, he didn’t know where the hell he was half the time and it would have been harder to see with it on. The town itself wasn’t very large, maybe a total of fifty or sixty moderately sized buildings. Every now and then he would come across a couple patrolling guards, and after asking him where the captain was, they would usually shrug their shoulders or point in a general direction with some half-winded excuse saying where he might be if he wasn’t already at home in bed.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It took him the better half of the morning to finally find the Captain, perched atop one of the towers watching the main gate to the city with tired, lazy eyes. He hadn’t noticed Adam coming up until he tapped the man on the shoulder, startling him and causing him to draw his blade half way in response before noticing the young man in his robes.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　After a quick conversation about helping out, it turned out there wasn’t much for him to do for the guard during the day. They were fully staffed and ready to go at a moment’s notice should anything happen, but it was because monsters didn’t attack during the day that he assured Adam that there was nothing to worry about. He did however, beckon him to the tower at sunset later on though, admitting he could use the help watching the main road tonight since one of his guards fell ill and nobody was available to replace her. Adam was more than happy to help, and it gave him several hours before he had to return to the tower to find out where he would be patrolling, so he headed back to the orphanage.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It was nearing lunch hour by time he got back to the orphanage, and much the same as breakfast had went, when lunch came by, it went by without much of a big ordeal. It lasted a little longer than breakfast or dinner, and when all of the girls had gone, Adam located Sister Sandra.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Hey, do you have a minute?” He asked her, catching up to and walking with the woman who, as always, had been clutching her bible.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Of course, Adam, what do you need?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I need to know if there’s any way I can get a couple of tools, or if I can’t, where and how I can get them made.” He figured it was a bit of a long shot, but he had seen towns on Aeon much larger where it seemed everyone knew where everything was, no matter who you asked. And indeed he was right with this town and its people.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Of course, you can find the blacksmith just outside of the residential block, I can have one of the girls show you to it if you need. If you tell him I sent you, he should have no problems making you any sort of tools you may need.” She always spoke with that smile of hers, and it never ceased to put Adam at ease when he came to her, she always seemed to have an answer.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Thank you, that would be a huge help. I think I can get my armor working again if I can get the right tools to fix what’s wrong with it.” He admitted, having explained to the adults over the last few meals how his suit worked. Many of them were very interested, the idea of it turning Dark Matter into a form of power similar to magic made their eyes sparkle with fascination, especially after he gave them a general rundown of what Dark Matter was in the first place.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That’s wonderful to hear.” She practically smiled the words, beckoning a young girl to them, “This is Amanda, she will be your guide until you have what you need.” She gently pushed the red haired child to Adam, who smiled down at her with a simple hello of a greeting. She couldn’t be more than ten years old, and cute as a button to boot.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　She smiled back up at him, returning the greeting, “Sister Sandra, what does he need?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Why don’t you ask him, dear?” She pointed to Adam, “I’m sure he could tell you.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Turning to him, she looked at him with an expecting kind of pleading look in her eyes, fists tucked up to her chest in anticipation, “Um, I need to speak to the blacksmith.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Izzit ‘bout that fancy armor of yours?!” She suddenly exploded with enthusiasm.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Y-yeah, it is, I might get it to work if I can get the tools to fix it.” He scratched the back of his head nervously, her sudden burst of enthusiasm caught him off guard. It didn’t help he had never been the very best around children except long ago when he too was a child. He wasn’t exactly entirely sure on how he should act around her.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yeah I can show you where it’s at, come on. Come on!” She took him by the hand and began pulling, it was amazing the kind of energy a child so young could have, but her laughing and excitement was too cute to Adam, who dared not protest and ruin her mood.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Cuteness, the ultimate super-weapon against his otherwise impenetrable defenses, he found no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t say no to an adorable little girl’s plea, and this was no exception it seemed.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It took them another two or more hours to get around town and find all of the things they needed for him, but much to his relief, they were able to find them without much fuss. It did take a few trips back and forth between the blacksmith and other shops which Amanda insisted they stop at on the way, and again, he could not refuse. This was going to be the death of him, he had assured himself long ago when he became aware of it, and yet here he was, powerless against this kid’s whims.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam couldn’t tell her no, her wide smiling face with the fiery red hair held in a modest bun on the back of her head and those eyes, again, those eyes Adam thought. He couldn’t help but take a few glances at her as she happily chewed through a jelly filled roll from the bakery, a little bit of the cherry filling stuck to her cheek. He had to convince the baker to give him the last cherry one, and with a little effort, he convinced him to hand over the last roll. Yet his effort was for naught when the girl had snatched it from the baker’s hand as he handed it over to Adam, and run off with it giggling the whole way out of the shop.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Laughing as well, Adam had to sigh and ask the baker if she had done this before. His only reply was a calm, smiling, “All the time.” The two laughed as he left the bakery, having to jog to catch up to the little one scurrying away with her bounty.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Walking with her now that they had finished their rounds around town, he noticed without realizing it, that he was holding her hand with his right hand, a bag with all of his supplies in his left. When did he grab her hand, he wondered, or maybe, when did she grab his? Surely he would have noticed it right? It seemed odd that he only noticed it now that he had taken a look down at her, smiling and chewing the bit of the roll she chomped off of it a moment before. A single tooth shown under her top lip in her grin, humming a tune while they walked, Were canine teeth always that long? He licked his own and realized they never came past the others in his mouth. Whatever. He thought, it didn’t matter.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Picking the girl up under her legs and scooping her up, she let out a quick yelp and nearly dropped her roll in surprise, snatching it out of the air in both hands before it fell down. He lifted her up and set her on his shoulder, holding her up with his arm.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Wow....” She slowly said, looking around, “So high.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Thought you might like the view.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The girl put the roll in her mouth, sounding off with an exaggerated ‘om’ as she bit down on it to free her hands. Shifting the skirt of her dress, she picked her left leg up and tossed it over Adam’s head and rested the bunched up cloth down behind his head, setting one hand down on his head and grasping once again at her nearly eaten roll.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Better?” He asked, looking up at her.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Uh-huh!” The adorable face nodded, looking down at him with a wide grin on her face, “Want shum?” She handed the roll down at him, still chewing on her last bite.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m good, you can have it.” And quickly the roll disappeared.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“M’re fur me!”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Passers by took note of the girl riding on the shoulders of the new face in town, some laughed, others whispered with smiles hidden behind hands, and others simply smiled and kept walking. Amanda enjoyed the ride the rest of the way home, all nearly fifteen minutes of it, kicking her feet gently as they walked, humming her little tune as they walked.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　When they reached the orphanage, Adam rocked forward hard in recoil when Amanda leap-frogged off of his head and onto the ground in front of him suddenly before they got to the door. Brushing herself off, she hardly looked like she had any problems with the landing, and without another word, opened the door and walked into the main hall. Adam knew there was something up with the girl, something unusual, but he also knew it wasn’t a big deal and that he need not worry about it. She was a cute, adorable kid with a happy-go-lucky attitude, and he had no problems with that, considering how helpful she was around town. There was no denying that expression she gave him with her fists balled up to her chest, and her demanding, wide eyed puppy-eyes stare had won him a few items he may not have gotten otherwise when she used them on some of the merchants.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　With a few hours left before the sun had fallen, Adam retrieved his armor and brought it out to the vacant main hall where he had plenty of room and table space to work with. He stepped into the room, letting the suit walk behind him as if it was being worn by someone else stepping in after him.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Oh my...” Sandra gasped, noticing the suit walking on its own, “I had no idea it was capable of such things.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Yeah, as long as it’s got power, I can do a lot with this thing.” He walked with the suit to a table he had set a large cloth down on with several tools the blacksmith crafted for him on top of the cloth. Many of tools were things like small Phillips and flat head, or torque bit and hex bit screwdrivers, among other tools like a hammer and punches of multiple sizes. A pile of cloth and bristled brush sat next to the tools as well in case he had to clean anything out.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sandra watched intently when the suit turned and its right shoulder blade armor shifted in a way she hadn’t seen before. Under it and right next to the right side wing was a circular disk-like item Adam had exposed. It looked complex like nothing she had laid eyes upon before in her life, and she felt she shouldn’t make a single noise when Adam reached for the first tool, a thin rod with a hook apparatus at the end of and hooked it to a spot in the cavity. Wiggling it a few times, he tapped the bottom of it to wedge the tool like a tiny crowbar; and with a little luck the sound of what she thought was metal against metal could be heard when it fell out of the cavity and into its owner’s hand.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Setting the tool down on the bench, Adam set the disk-like object in the center of the cloth and sat down, taking a deep breath, “Is that it?” She asked him finally.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“This? Yeah, this is the broken piece.” He replied, looking down at it, both of his arms on the table with clenched fists around it, “If I get this working again I should be able to get this suit working again.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“And if you can’t?” She asked cautiously.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’d prefer to give that thought time, only when I have to.” He tried to smile, the fear of it not being fixable was as thick as the robes he wore currently, “But here’s to hoping I don’t have to.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I will pray for you.” She nodded, allowing him time to work in silence.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　For the next hour, Adam tinkered, toyed with, poked, prodded, and twisted pieces of the device, taking small plates out here or there, setting them down systematically on the open space on the cloth he no doubt did on purpose. It was incredibly tedious work, his hands barely moved while he worked, or at least, from where Sandra sat she could barely make out what his hands were doing.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　All was silent until a loud resounding, “FUCK!” exploded out of Adam’s mouth, rattling the windows of the hall and nearly giving Sandra a heart attack. The woman sat, clutching her chest tightly through her robe staring at Adam who had slammed his fist on the table when he yelled, having since rested his elbows on the table, clasping his hands together and bracing his thumbs against the bridge of his nose. She didn’t need to ask what happened, simply seeing him shaking violently as he was, was all the answer she needed.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The device was broken.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m sorry, Adam.” She tried to say, her voice still shaken and not recovered from the surprising curse he let loose moments ago. He sat silently for some time, a few people came into the room to check up on them, but she quietly, quickly waved them away. It only took a moment to look at Adam to see why she wanted them to leave, and so they did.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“It’s not... Completely broken.” His voice trembled, “But it’s not fixable... Not with the tools we can make here. I can.. I can get part of it working again... I think.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What do you mean?” She finally got up and started walking towards him, no longer content with standing off to the side and being a spectator.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“It’s a part of the converter.” Adam wondered why he was even going to explain it to her, what was the point? Fuck it, that was the point, he wanted to get his mind thinking about something else, so he talked, “It’s a part that takes the Dark Matter after it’s condensed and passes it through the... It’s really complicated so I’ll just explain it in lamest terms. Like I said earlier, Dark Matter is a particle that is everywhere, but feels like it’s nowhere, it passes through us all the time, but this reactor has a part in it that, if enough of that Dark Matter passes through it, it will generate power for the suit to use. We call it Electricity.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“And is that piece broken? That special thing that Dark Matter has to go through?” She sat down across from him, wanting to take his hands in hers, but didn’t.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Not exactly, a control part for it broke. I’m only going to have two speeds if this thing turns on now. Idle, which is... For a lack of better words, it’s like taking a large bucket, and every few seconds put a single drop of water in it.” He finally took his head from his thumbs, two red marks on the inside of his eyes shown clearly against his light skin.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That sounds like it’ll take--”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Weeks, weeks or months to get any decent amount of power out of it, yes.” He cut her off, not wanting to wait to get his mind going again, “The other mode is maximum output. It’d charge the suit in probably ten or twenty seconds, but this thing’s unstable as hell. I have no idea what would happen if it went critical.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What do you think would happen?” She asked, “Certainly getting it working again in only a few seconds would be worth--” A snap of the fingers shut her up, his gaze rising over the hand he had not snapped with. She gulped when she saw the death-like expression on his face.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That fast.” he started, leaving several seconds of silence for her to process what he had just done, then snapping his fingers again, “That fast and everything for miles in every direction becomes dust. Man, woman, monster, building, everything. Disintegrated instantly in a blast of fire as hot as the sun in the sky. All that would be left is an empty crater.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　She felt a bead of cold sweat fall down the side of her head and down her cheek, that tiny disk could destroy so much so fast? What in the heavens was that thing and why would he have it so close to him inside that armor then? She looked down at it like it was about to explode, terror in her eyes.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Catching onto her distress, he calms her, “Don’t worry, it can’t explode while it’s like this. It has to be running in order to get the stuff it needs to detonate.” Adam had to sit back and sigh, taking a few moments to calm even his own mind, “And the only way it’ll get that kind of power is if I force it into the maximum power setting, and for everyone’s sake I’m not going to do that.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m glad you took us into consideration.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Of course, I’d be dead without you all helping me.” He grabbed one of the thin, long metal rods with a spiked point at the end and angled it over the device, pushing the tip into it.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What are you doing?” She leaned her head up and forward to get a look at what he was doing inside the tiny cavity within it.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I have to manually set it to work at minimum, with the part that tells it how hard to work or not broken, I have to kind of override it and make it work one way. I’m really glad I thought of this when I made it.” He kept tinkering with the rod back and forth, a tiny clicking sound as the metal tapped against parts inside it kept clinking with each movement, “And... There we g--”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Suddenly with a loud bang that sounded like a gunshot going off in the room, Adam threw his right arm back violently and with so much force he threw the needle straight into the wall behind him, sinking it nearly through the board. His body however, spun, falling back when he let out a loud scream of pain, stumbling on his feet and falling to the floor against one of the large pillars with a heavy thud.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　His body moved on instinct, wrenching his right hand within his left to try to cope with the pain, “Oh my god, oh my god.” He kept repeating to himself, words trailing off into nothing more than grunts and whimpers, tears already wetting his eyes and streamed down his cheeks as he hiccuped silently a few times, fighting back crying. His entire right arm shook violently despite his best attempts to hold it still, his body not faring much better, and spasms shaking his whole body every few seconds making him take short gasps each time it did.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“My god Adam!” The woman ran around the table and tried holding him, but he shook too much for her to get a grip on him, “What happened?!”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Th-th-th the r-r-r-reac-c-ctor, i-it s-still ha-had power, in it.” He stuttered nearly every word, “M-Metal in, in the t-t-t-tool, wa-was c-c-c-conductive.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　 “I don’t understand, I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean!” She pleaded, looking up and yelling out loud for any of the magi or medics, or anyone to come help them.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam couldn’t help but laugh a little as he shook, the pain in his arm fading as the electricity that shocked him acted as a sort of pain killer, numbing out his entire arm and making it feel like it was waking up, “I g-got struck, by a, a lightn-ning bolt.” He choked, taking his hand away and trying to wipe his tears away. Rather, he wanted to wipe the stream of drool starting to come down out of the corner of his mouth, he was leaning down to his right and had lost almost all control of his unconscious functions of his body. He thanked god he hadn’t accidentally soiled himself when he got shocked, the embarrassment would have likely killed him. Considering how many volts just went through him though, he was surprised he didn’t die, but he wasn’t complaining. He was at least saved that embarrassing mishap.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It took a few minutes for a doctor and magi to enter the room, and upon seeing Adam, ordered everyone in the room to leave. By time they arrived nearly all notion of sound and audio recognition faded from his ears and there was nothing more than vacant silence and a low buzz in his mind. Not even the best sound-blocking headphones or ear plugs could negate sound this well, Adam thought when he finally felt darkness slowly press her fingers down on his eyelids and put him to sleep.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The next few days went by lazily and slowly. Adam had woken up apparently the next day after they carried him back to his room and had a magi use healing magic on him. Whatever they did to him, it gave him partial control of his arm back at least, but it was nothing like the magic in TV shows or video games that would simply undo damage and reset his body. They told him on many occasions throughout the days and during the healing sessions in the dining hall that after what he described to them as similar to getting struck with lightning, that he would have to go through several more of these sessions before the magic would heal him completely.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　As Adam found out through Sandra who spoke with him during the hour long sessions of healing, that Succubi and other monsters like Thunderbirds and Raiju like to use lightning-based spells. This was apparently convenient, Adam was told, because the magi that was healing his arm had seen this kind of damage before, having treated Templars and Knights of the Order that had faced off against such monsters and lived.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It took more than a day before he got feeling back in his arm though, and another day after that before he could move it again on its own. It still didn’t respond the way he wanted to, and he found he was subject to random spasms in his arm, and sometimes the rest of his body shook at random times. He cursed under his breath as it seemed to happen at the worst times, like when he was trying to eat something he accidentally shook his left arm so hard he tossed the mixed vegetables into the air and poked his lip with the fork hard enough to draw blood. Another time he accidentally knocked his drink over while trying to reach for it.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　None of the nuns around him held it against him though, even if the water got their dresses wet or he made a mess with the vegetables. The expressions on his face of anger, humiliation, and repressed tears were enough to quell any angers they may have possibly had should they have felt anger in the first place. This whole entire thing, the new world, stranded away from home, his armor broken and now his body being hurt. It was clearly bothering him far more than it could bother them.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“It’s alright, Adam.” The nun to his left placed her hand on his shoulder, causing another minor body spasm. Her face contorted with pity, feeling sorry for Adam who had just been trying to fix his suit when an unfortunate accident occurred.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“It’s not alright.” He clenched his fists tightly forcing his arms to press down and stop shaking, “I should have known better, I did know better. I was just stupid and impatient and I got what I deserved. I should have known the metal would conduct electricity, I should have known the reactor would have power left in it.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“But isn’t it fixed now?” She asked, taking her hand off of him fearing that any additional touching or movement would cause another outbreak.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“It’s charging, yeah.” He slowly reached his hand forward toward his glass of water, but the nun already grabbed it for him and moved it to his hand for him to grab, only letting it go after he got a good grip on it. She meant no harm with the gesture of holding it, and Adam didn’t take it as such, she wanted to make sure he had a good hold on it before letting go was all.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“That’s a good thing right?” She tried being optimistic, but his face said it all, “Or is there still something wrong?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“It’s going very slowly.” Sandra said for Adam, realizing that talking was becoming difficult for him, “It will take upwards of two to three months to get it to full from where it’s at.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“And it only takes a few minutes to drain it from full.” Adam grimaced, “It’s practically useless now.” The painful reality of the situation had set in the second day after Adam woke back up when Sandra volunteered to put the reactor back together under his direct supervision. Her hands were dexterous, and Adam was positive his body had taken all the charge that was left in the reactor, so it was safe for her to touch it again. Once they got it back up and running again he had her place it back into the back of the suit and let it run a diagnostic test, it came back calculating barely one full percent charge per twenty four hours with the reactor running at the speed it was. Even sacrificing all of the secondary functions, and walking on foot in the suit, never using his boosters, and leaving the helmet off so it didn’t use any more power, he would barely get its usage down enough to stop it from consuming a charge. He would have to leave the suit shut completely down unless he absolutely had to run it, and even then, he would be lucky to get more than a few minutes of use out of it after a week of charging.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I’m sorry.” The sincerity in her voice pierced Adam’s anger, and he calmed a little, relaxing his muscles in his body.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“It’s fine, it’s better than not working at all I guess. And it’s already at about ten percent charged, so if I don’t do anything crazy with it, I should have a little breathing room.” He took a drink from his glass carefully, feeling the shaking in his arm as it sloshed the water to and fro in the glass. He didn’t want the nuns to help hold him steady, opting instead to force himself to get used to it or get over it.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What kind of things can you do with it?” The nun was curious, as he didn’t talk about it much. Or rather, he had not yet gotten around to actually explaining what his fancy armor could actually do if it was working properly.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Well for starters, it can make me... Impossibly strong if I need it to. Sandra‘s been teaching me about all the monsters in the world and their abilities, and traits and such. From the sounds of it they’re all pretty strong for their size, and a few in particular are extremely strong.” He recalled them in his mind, “Baphomet, Minotaurus, Ushi-Oni, Manticores, Ogres, Amazons, and Orcs are all physically stronger than normal monsters, who are all much stronger than most humans.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Good, yes, there are a few others but those are among the strongest, the Baphomet, Ushi-Oni, and Ogres being the strongest three. Minotaurus are about the same, but I would say Ogres are more dangerous due to being a little more intelligent.” She chuckled, “But not by much I must say.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Sounded like it.” Adam couldn’t help but smile, he had spent the majority of the days since his accident studying the monsters of the world in order to better serve him once he left the safety of the town. It was pretty simple understanding each monster, but he had to gawk at the sight of the encyclopedia they had on monsters in the world, it was enormous and she wanted him to memorize all of them before she was safe with him leaving the town.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“So that suit would let you be as strong as one of them?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Stronger.” He corrected, taking a moment to laugh a little inside at her gasping reaction to his statement. He doubted she ever heard of a non-monster beating out a monster in pure physical strength, even if he was cheating.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“So that’s why you want that suit running then?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Well it would certainly make any kind of fighting a lot easier. It makes running easier too, I could have easily outrun that Ushi-Oni in the woods if I wasn’t running on fumes when she found me.” Finishing his glass of water, Sandra had it refilled before he could protest, her kindness was a welcomed sight more often than not, but there were still times he felt she was being too nice. Maybe it was just a nun thing? He didn’t know for sure.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Next to him, the nun had rested her hand again on Adam, this time on his left hand, “It sounds impressive, well I for one hope you never have to use it, and your journey is safe from here to wherever you need to go.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Me too, but I doubt that’s the case. With all those monsters out there, I’m sure I’ll need to knock some sense into a few of them before they stop chasing me.” Adam joked, the nun smiling as well at his simple banter.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Where are you going to go from here when you leave?” She asked, him, it felt like she was checking his pulse in his wrist, two of her fingers wrested right over the artery so accurately there had to have been no mistake. The care these women put forth towards him was like he was at a never-ending doctor visit, but by this time he’d resigned himself to just letting it happen, he wasn’t in a position to argue against them anyway.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Going north, through the main gate and up the road until I get to the next town. Maybe I can find a little more info there about magic circles and such. I think I want to find someone or a few someone’s who specialize in pentagrams and summoning arts and see if they can help me decipher a way of going back.” He had planned very little in his journey it seemed, and the nun was all too quick to point that out.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Then your quest for information will take you to a very dangerous place. You realize that what you look for, the final point of your journey is going to put you right in the heart of a city filled with the very thing that brought you here, right?” She squeezed his wrist, making him look at her, “That city will be the death of you if you are not absolutely steeled in mind, body, and soul when you walk through the first gate.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“What is the city called?” He asked her, looking down at his wrist as if to tell her to let go of it, which she did thankfully.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“We just refer to it as Hell. The city’s name is actually Hel, spelled with just one ‘l’ in it, but frankly, to anyone who follows the Order, the city might as well be the physical incarnation of it.” Sandra told him, “The city is a smoldering wasteland of lust, depravity, lascivious women and men alike. Unwary men without the company of their women are said to be swept into alleys and raped until they faint, the woman who committed the act snatching him away and making him hers for the rest of his life.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Doesn’t sound like an issue to me.” His monotone and unimpressed tone surprising Sandra, “A succubus already tried charming me and failed miserably, and an Ushi-Oni couldn’t get to me despite her best efforts. I think I’ll be fine as long as I don’t take my suit off.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I do hope you are right, though I fear getting to the city is going to be the difficult part. If you can make it there, fighting off the charm of the women will be easy. It is deep within Demon territory controlled by one of the four of the Demon Lord’s very own daughters.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Sounds... Perilous, well I’m sure as long as I keep my head down and don’t cause a scene I should be able to get to my destination without too much trouble.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“I do so very much hope so, Adam. For your sake I really do hope so.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The night was fair, maybe sixty degrees, and a low wind made Adam glad he remembered to bring his under armor before putting his monastic robes on. The wind cut through that thing like he was walking around naked, at least the under armor lining blocked the wind. He had decided that he would spend a few hours walking with the captain and patrolling with him while his body was still recovering. The man gave him no shortage of humorous chatter and banter, showing no mercy as he poked at him for ‘skipping out’ of guard duty on his very first day.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The night passed slowly, and without too much incident for them to have to deal with. They spent a good deal looking out the northern gate again, onto the fields where the Minotaurus and Lizardmen seemed to have at each other nightly, sometimes casualties would be left for the town guard to clean up, sometimes it would end in an awkward, kill-less stare-down. It seemed if the Lizardmen lost any of their own, they were sure to bring the body back while the Minotaurus seemed to not put as much effort into recovering their fallen. The captain explained that of all of the non-friendly monsters in the world, Lizardmen were among the most disciplined and well-behaved. He had seen once before a graveyard of sorts with headstones and swords stabbed into the ground, it was on a patrol one evening and he was nearly ambushed by the guards watching it. He joked, saying the only reason they let him live was because he had not accidentally taken two steps farther and stepped within the boundaries of it, apparently it is penalized by death for a human to walk on sacred ground in their society, and him being a man held no regard apparently.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It made sense, considering only the day before when they went out to clear the remains of a battlefield and had brought back the body of a lizardman that fell during the night, a group of nearly forty of them came unarmed to the front gate only a short while later, requesting the body for burial.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“How were we to say no? Monster or not, a soldier’s gotta respect a soldier’s life, and in this case, her death.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Adam had remembered watching the event take place, the lizardman was laid out on a long stretcher, her clawed hands rested on her abdomen and wounds patched up, her body was clean and her blonde hair was placed in a bun style with a ribbon tying it in place. She had her sword in its sheath under her hands pointing down towards her feet, her tail laying between her legs. She had been stabbed through the left side of her chest, no doubt through the heart by a spear, given the shape and location of the wound.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It tore at Adam to see her dead body, such a lovely face and beautiful woman fell to the violence of what? Territorial matches? Grudges? Vendettas? Were there beings out there, intelligent ones, that were still so petty as to kill each other when there had to be some sort of diplomatic or peaceful resolution that could be had? Adam knew very well that there were certainly times where violence and bloodshed were needed, but was this really one of them? Was the struggle over human males to marry worth fighting and dying over?

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He could only shake his head, feeling the wetness in his eyes knowing she’d never wake up again. He didn’t know this lizardman, yet that didn’t seem to do much to numb the pain that made a few tears well up in his eyes until he wiped them away. Death was still death, and knowing she died for next to nothing made it so much worse. He couldn’t get it out of his head, imagining the girl growing up all through her childhood, into her teen years and barely approaching adulthood when one fateful night, she met an untimely end at the end of a spear. A spear cast by someone with just as little reason to be fighting as she did.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He’d watched the lizardmen, a race he was told were violent but extremely martial and disciplined, peacefully negotiate for the body of their ally, taking her away silently with not a word said after the initial exchange was made. He could only stare at a few of them, looking them over as it was the first time he got a good look at a monster up close and personal without being under any extreme circumstance or duress. A few looked him over as well, no doubt noticing him as a new face in town, some scowled at him, most remained stoic, and only a select couple had given any sort of hint of approval.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　One smiled at him, not moving her body, but only staring at him with her eyes, winking at him. She like several others had light brown hair, hers was in a single pony tail held up by a small black ribbon tied into a knot, golden dragon-like eyes and pink lips made for an extraordinarily attractive face. She didn’t look a day older than eighteen, but Adam knew behind that smile likely laid a lethal swordsman, her swordless sheath sat at her hip, and so he remained calm, giving her a small but noticed nod with a faint smile. It was enough, and he could see her bite her bottom lip a little, trying to be subtle.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　When the event was done and over with and the lizardmen were on their way out, he had noticed she gave him an extra glance back, so without attracting attention, he waved at her without raising his hand above waist level. He knew she saw it when she smiled and turned her head back, keeping up with the others in her clan before the doors to the city closed.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　And here he sat, watching another fight between the two races again, it looked to be around ten lizardmen versus three Minotaurus, their strength and size gave them a pretty sizable advantage over the much smaller reptilian women. He found himself silently hoping the lizardmen came out on top without any losses, their speed and agility doing them a huge favor against those large axes, spears, and swords their enemies held. The fighting lasted all of probably fifteen minutes, two lizardmen fell to the ground during the fight but managed to pick themselves up after the fighting was over, limping away or being held up by one shoulder.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　All three Minotaurus were on the ground, dead.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Damn it, gonna need a fucking wagon cart to get three bodies off the road for tomorrow.” The captain grumbled, “They’re getting restless out there. Keep your guard up from now on Adam, we haven’t been attacked in almost two months, and things have really picked up in the last week.” His tone was serious as ever, “No doubt they’re fighting to see who is going to get to storm the town.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“They’re fighting over who gets to attack us?” Adam asked, kind of surprised in the way it sounded like they were killing each other, in order to see who could kill the humans, “Are they fighting over who gets to kill us or something?”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Kill us? Oh no.” The man shook his head, “Far worse. They’re killing each other off to see who gets to try to rampage through this town and snatch up all the men and boys they can when they attack. They don’t ever really kill anyone unless they have to, especially the guys. No, they’ll fight us, they’ll try to storm the town, and if they get in, we’re all but doomed.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Is that why the front gate is so heavily reinforced and never opens?” He knew the main gate was like a drawbridge, but also had a very heavy set of reinforced wooden and metal doors that swung open behind it.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Basically.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Why don’t they just jump the wall? I mean I’ve seen them jump twenty feet in the air, and these merlons aren’t more than a single jump or two up. We’re maybe forty feet up.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Magic barrier, I told you the wall was made by magi long ago right? They weren’t dumb enough to let simple logic beat them. Any monster that touches this wall will feel like they’re putting their hands and feet on a red hot iron plate. That’s why our guards are basically always looking upward at the sky. Flying monsters are the ones we have to worry about.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It made sense, if magi made the wall it wasn’t hard to believe they would add a fail safe to it, considering the two races that were always surrounding them. Or rather, he should say three races if he included one very patient spider woman still standing out towards the east forest, waiting.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Every night he was out on patrol, she would be seen in the woods, watching him. If he walked down the path, she too would walk along the forest line, stopping when he did and resting a hand against the nearest tree should she stop next to one.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　The two inadvertently made a game out of it a few times, Adam walking and abruptly stopping at random times when he should have kept walking, only to see that she didn’t miss a beat and stopped at the same time he did, every time. Seeing him smile made hers grow wider, and at one time he was worried she would try climbing up the wall to catch him, taking a few hurried steps towards him but stopping. Even if she was a crazy sex-driven half-spider woman, she must have had a few run-ins with that wall to know it wasn’t something to be trifled with, because she stopped every time.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He knew his day to face her would come soon, with each passing day his arm recovered more and more, little by little. His spasms lessened in both frequency and ferocity, and the shaking eventually came to a stop all together. The time would soon come for him to head out of that gate either alone or with the next caravan of merchants or soldiers passing through, and he knew before any monster caught his scent, they would have another to get through before getting to him, and she would not hand him over so easily.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　It had been a little more than a week since Adam arrived in this new world, and resigned himself to the fact that this was not the planet he thought it was, and that he would not be going home any time in the near future. He had to make the best of his situation and that meant planning a bit of a journey north through a few towns, and then straight west into the Demon Realms. He was looking for the city Hel, and he wasn’t going to stop until he found it and got an answer. He shuddered at the thought, knowing that before he finished his trip and went home, he would have to stop by a particular house buried in the woods north west of town and have one of the most unnerving conversations of his life.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He knew his peace in the town would come to an end soon, he figured if anything it would come when he left for his next destination.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　And again his naivety was getting the best of him, because later in the evening only a day later an hour or so after the sun had gone down, Adam was in his room lying on his bed now that had been propped back up on a frame rather than laid out on the floor. He was nearly asleep when the boom and shock wave of a large explosion off to the left of the church shook the ground and the window lit from black to red.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　From the intensity of the explosion, knowing the wall wasn’t very far off, it didn’t take but a moment to make sense of the situation. The wall closest to the church, the west wall where it was the shortest, was under attack; and from the sound of the explosion, it seemed like they had opted to simply destroy a chunk of the wall outright to get in.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　Sighing angrily, Adam got up from the bed and tossed his robes down behind him, sliding the hexagonal-plated body suit over himself and pulling it tight. Its edges connected like a zipper being pulled up, pulling the small plates together and binding them into one solid piece that started just under his abdomen and ended at his neck.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　In the corner of the room was his armor, waiting for him, and he did not make it wait long, quickly stepping up and turning around, he sat back into it and let the shell contort around him, sealing him in and making him ready for battle. Checking his percentage of power on his suit, it read eleven percent, just over critical. He wanted to cry a little inside, knowing he would likely drain it all the way back to zero by sunrise if this was a full on monster attack, only after he finally got it out of the red.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　“Oh well.” He told himself, “Time to put your game face on.”

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;"> 　　He steeled himself, and turned and faced the door exiting his room, the sounds of dozens of feet scrambling outside, he could only hope what he learned as a Guardian during his basic training course would serve him well tonight. He grabbed the knob to the door and twisted, pulling it open and stepping out to greet his foes.

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">

<p class="p0" style="margin-bottom:0pt;margin-top:0pt;">I actually wasn't going to add a chapter to this until the final project was done, but seeing as I'm hitting Chapter 17 with barely a fraction of the planned story put on paper, I figure adding another chapter or two wouldn't hurt. If people like it, I'll see about uploading Chapter 3 at a later date, but I'll need to get it OK'd first because it begins to taper off into the lewd NSFW territory.