Aetuornos Beta I-1

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Intermission I

"Well, everything okay?" Carthan patiently stood still again while the process of sticking all of that equipment on him was run in reverse.
"Yeah, perfect. It didn't even look like you got slightly upset the whole time, just—biologically speaking, as if you were sleeping peacefully."
"As it should be," the Neko nodded.

"Well—so how'd it go?" the lead designer asked. "What did you think?"
"I admit it was fun," he said. "I met up with a few other players, we went through a dungeon and then back to town.

"From what I can tell, they all seemed to enjoy it quite a bit as well. When I pressed, they had some complaints regarding that device," he said, pointing to the pod. "I thought it was comfortable, but it isn't the same for everyone. One of them seemed to believe its inner workings could fit in a wearable."
"Hmm, yeah. But it's a lot easier to lose something like that, and we really want all the beta models back to run diagnostics on. I'm sure we can ship them some wearables if they want to keep playing afterward, though," she said.

"Understandable," the Neko nodded, dropping his arms after the last of the medical equipment came off.

"The acclamation process seemed to function perfectly, but the process itself seemed...somewhat intense," he said. "Not unpleasantly so for the most part, and of course not in a way that affected my actual body...but I think, enough to issue a disclaimer to at least anyone taking on the opposite sex in the future."

"Yeah, I noticed what the randomizer picked for you," the designer said, following him out toward the hall as he went. "What's it like being part-sheep, anyway?"

"Odd. Not unpleasant. Really, it began to feel natural before very long. I don't know if I would've liked it if I were stuck that way, or needed to cope with the different dietary needs I would have in that form, but it was enjoyable feeling young and strong," he said. "I admit I only met with three other actual players—and two of our employees—during the session."
"That's about what's expected, for the number of beta players we have spread across the game world. Just try to party up with a different group next time, if you can. That is part of the idea of the game, after all—getting out of your comfort zone and meeting people you never would otherwise."
Carthan nodded. "Never thought I would have a civil conversation with a fox, for one thing."

---

Marcus was such a bizarre person. He was unerringly forthright about everything, excited about everything, and never approached anything in any way besides diving in headfirst. Naomi met him in college when she was already engaged, and—although he was a tall, fit, handsome man, he never expressed any romantic interest in her either before or after learning that. Instead, after knowing her for slightly over a year, he'd approached her with a business proposition.

Her first impression of him was that he was some kind of male ditz—a nice, excessively friendly jock, but without much going on in his head. This proved to be totally incorrect; Marcus was deceptively clever in some ways, and his ideas for setting up and running a gym were rock solid. After talking it over with the man who'd become her husband by then, Naomi agreed to go in with him on the project. And miraculously, five years later, they were still wildly profitable.

It was Monday, so—like clockwork—he ran in the door just ten minutes before open. Naomi had taken care of setting things up and was sitting behind the front desk; he'd make up for it by coming in early later in the week. "Morning! Sorry, overslept." He dashed around checking everything himself, finding it all already done.

"Yeah, yeah." Even though it didn't surprise her, he always seemed astonished and a bit ashamed when he overslept the night of their day off and wound up coming in late. "Hey." Naomi waved at him when he was near the counter, and patted the side of her head. "You're due for a haircut, you know." It was just long enough to look a bit wild, since he didn't usually do more than run his hands through it briefly when he was running late.
"Huh." He ran one hand through it now like he was surprised about its length, then shrugged.

"You have fun with that new game last night?" She wasn't really into video games, but of course he'd been so excited about this new thing that he wouldn't shut up about it for approximately a month, making her almost as much an expert on the matter as he was.

"Yeah! It was amazing. Oh, I even met a cute girl, too. I mean, like, I dreamed about her last night!" he said, grinning.

"You know she's probably a fat old man or somethin'," Naomi said, but half-heartedly. As always, Marcus's smile was infectious.
"Haha, yeah, but...it just. The game world, is so real. Like actually, really being in another world. You can—see, and feel, and hear and smell everything," he said, gesticulating excitedly.

"I'm sure someone will be pleased they can simulate any stench they want now," she said sarcastically. "Heey, maybe you can try out virtual allergies soon!" One infuriating thing about Marcus was that he'd never had any kind of allergies, and she was pretty sure he'd never been sick in his life, either.

He came back to the counter again and finally stopped running around for a minute. "Sorry, uh, who's on the schedule today?"
"Well, you've got Yaboth first thing..." she listed everyone off for him, counting on her fingers. Yaboth, poor dear, was a gluttony demon. For him, carrying some extra weight wasn't the least bit unhealthy, but he still didn't like it and kept looking for new ways to get rid of it. Marcus had talked him down from three or four different useless fad diets so far. "...then Giles and Phillis this afternoon," she finished. "Some wiggle room after that."
"Got it, thanks!" He gave her an actual thumbs-up and headed off to get started, just as their doors officially opened and the first few customers started walking in.

---

Aetuornos was no ordinary game. Usually Remus could separate himself mentally between 'work' and 'play', focusing exclusively on his job when he was at the job, but he caught himself several times more or less daydreaming about the next time he'd get to play: Wondering what the story the demon general had hinted at was going to be like, or dreaming up creative new spell ideas and strategies. It wasn't enough to really disrupt his work; if anything it energized him to keep at it when he would otherwise have been unbearably bored. He hadn't had quite this level of near-distracting obsession with a piece of media since he was a teenager.

He wasn't really into 'trying out a girl's body' the way Marcus seemed to be, but getting to be someone else—especially someone with incredible magic powers—certainly appealed to him. Ever since the veil was lifted and everyone learned that magic was real, he couldn't help but feel he'd missed the bus. Of course he'd tried out some basic tests for magic capability and found more or less nothing at all. He was far too old to try to become an alchemist or something, and he just wasn't quite adventurous enough to go shopping for magical trinkets online. Really, even Marcus was practical-minded enough to not buy possibly cursed artifacts from strangers.

And..they didn't really know any especially magical people. That wasn't to say they weren't acquainted with some who turned out to be, such as several of their respective customers, but no close friends or anyone Remus would feel comfortable approaching and asking to help him earn a Kitsune tail, have a werewolf bite him, or something crazy like that. Realistically, it was silly to want more in the first place when both of them had fulfilling...well, reasonably fulfilling and decidedly well-paying jobs. Maybe the game, with how real the power felt to him as 'Aranthra', was just helping him scratch that itch, and that was why he was getting so obsessed with it. Well, hopefully it'd be long enough before they pulled the plug on this one that some comparable competition would show up by then.

If he had an opportunity, though, Remus thought...maybe he'd take on a second character sometime, for an extra fee if they asked it. Someone male, and also at least as ridiculously physically fit as Marcus always was. He wasn't sure if he could stomach being an all-physical class, but there were plenty of hybrids to choose from in that regard. Maybe he'd even try out a race with some nonhuman appendages, like the eagle folk or something...yeah. But he'd only played as 'Aranthra' for one session so far and was very far from tired of her. Marcus would surely be disappointed to see him 'give up' so soon, too, and anyway the option to play multiple characters hadn't even come into the conversation yet. For now, he knew, she would do just fine.

---

"Now, it's no skin off my nose, but y'all ain't plannin' nothin' evil with this, are ya?" The red-headed, two-tailed kitsune was hard at work reconfiguring a set of speakers for a bit of a mismatched couple.
"Nothing you'd do with it," the wife said—a short catgirl named Violet. He wasn't too sure whether she was a Neko or not, and it didn't really matter that much. "There's more people with ears that can hear at higher frequencies these days, and even for the ones who can't, there's all kinds of temporary fixes. I just think it's high time someone wrote music that takes advantage of that."

"In theory, we've got the software side fixed already," her husband said. Lance was a tall, burly werewolf with a somewhat wild beard. "You want to stick around for the test?"
"Nnnah, I think I'll be as far away as I can get," he said. "No offense, now."
"None taken," said Violet. "The avant-garde isn't for everyone."

"Hey, is that what I think it is?" he said after working quietly for a bit—pointing to a familiar plastic shell he could just see the edge of through the doorway to an adjacent room.
"I guess so, if you recognize it," Lance said. "You part of the beta too? We were supposed to get two pods, but one of them broke in shipping and had to get sent back. Soo, we're taking turns for now."
"Hmph. 'Nother reason they shouldn'ta used such ridiculous kit in the first place. All the actual tech in that thing could fit in a hat," the Kitsune said.
"Oh?" Violet said, wandering back into the room. "I suppose you've had a look inside for yourself. Reconfigured things, maybe?"
"Now, I ain't admitting to anything like that."

"Heheh. I wouldn't blame you, though. Lance barely fit into it last night, and was stiff for hours this morning. We called and complained, and they said they'd up the size of the replacement for him. Off the record, though, I don't suppose you'd be able to..'customize' ours a bit?"

"Hmm. I can't exactly rip out the tech without voidin' your warrantee, as I don't quite know enough'a how it works to put it back together again. Tell ya what though," he said, getting an excellent idea. "I oughta be able to rig somethin' separate up that can communicate with it, without tamperin' with the proprietary device itself. I'll test it with mine and come back to ya if it looks like it works."

"That'd be great," Lance said.

"Say, what's your character like?" the werewolf continued. "We wanted to try out forms kinda like each other, you know, for fun."
"Now, I'd rather not say. I gotta keep some mystery, and I ain't hidin' my tails," the Kitsune said. "..Anyway, it's rigged up. Should be able to put out the high squeals and low rumbles like ya asked. And.." He popped the speaker casing back together. "Don't look like anything special at all," he said, standing up and patting it a couple of times. "Just in case the avant-garde wants to surprise somebody."
"Heheh, as long as it isn't you, I presume," Violet said.

"Yyyep."

---

The old Neko came to his house and checked his mail, shuffling through it on the short walk to his front door—a quite old habit of his, to have the majority of spam set apart from the little that mattered before he even got inside. This time he paused briefly at one particular flier, mentally filing it for closer inspection before taking the last couple of steps to go inside.

Tired of old age? Want to live longer?
REJUVENATION SERVICE

In town this week only!

Call to reserve a place...

It was a little funny for these people to use physical fliers, when an email or text would surely be easier and cheaper, Carthan thought. But then—it was people exactly like him that they were trying to reach, and he had to admit he checked the snail-mail far more often before signing on with the "virtual-reality" people. Much of the space was taken up by photographs of past "customers" with an arrow pointing from their (literal) old appearances to the new, young ones; of course, these results all looked like young-adult versions of the originals, and only the fine print mentioned how unpredictable the results could be sometimes. He'd heard stories of that magic unexpectedly awakening humans into demons, overshooting their target and leaving folks physically children, or changing hair color, complexion, and all kinds of other "minor" changes in appearance that rendered them initially unrecognizable to their friends and family—if the reduced age wasn't enough for that.

He sighed, placing it on the kitchen table while he threw away the rest of the mail. Until today, he'd gotten so used to being old that he forgot how much worse it felt than being young. And anyway, his tail wasn't showing any signs of splitting anytime soon, so that much more stable path to immortality was likely closed for now. But, besides the fact that it was probably too late to call tonight, he just...needed more time to think about it. Maybe another time being 'Jesse' for a while would either convince him to give it a shot, or else fail to—and then he could make a decision. Besides, he'd have to speak with the Aetuornos people beforehand, too, since perhaps they still needed more medical data from an old, "weathered" body like his present one to be absolutely sure their device was safe.

---

As you may have already noticed, I've changed the way this story is numbered/titled slightly. The reason for this is that I've essentially had what I hope is a good idea for how the story overall will be organized, and a different way of "numbering" it to match. I think it maybe also fits the theming of being based on a video game slightly better, as well as distinguishing it a bit more from how the other stories are numbered.

 

Hopefully it isn't too confusing; in fact please let me know if any of this nonsense makes it actually difficult to navigate things. If I change my mind later, I may alter the numbering yet again, but I'm happy with this new system for now at least.

A Summoning, Part XXVI

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Part XXVI
~Fool~

After reaching the dorm room, Jess had about enough time to sit down for a short break, then stand up and think about actually getting something together to eat, before some mental communication warned of some unusual incoming visitors. After that, Zotha appeared in their bedroom along with her dragon friend, who was carrying something that made the priestess lose her appetite for the moment.

“Set him here,” she said, pointing to her own bed, and Thomas complied.

“So uh, you think there's..anything you can do?” The dragon-girl took a step back to get out of Zotha's way.

“Well. We've established I can 'change' someone from injured or sick to well, but this is..a little more extreme. But hey, he's still alive. I'll just, hit this with the best I've got,” she said, rubbing her hands together briefly. Then, spreading them over the badly injured guest, she ordered: “Kɴɪᴛ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴡᴏᴜɴᴅs.” Her power poured down into the winged man's body then, with immediate effect.

He shuddered and twitched slightly, groaning a bit, as the worst of the cuts and bruises faded off. His armor began to put itself together, at the same time softening toward cloth and changing color toward the same pure, snowy white as hair; the clothes he had on under it were similarly hard at work putting themselves together. Zotha's power even seemed to evaporate away the grit and blood, leaving him, his clothes, and the bed fully clean before the healing was even half-complete.

After this, he convulsed briefly again, and then his previously shallow, ragged breathing stabilized. The purple glow of the goddess's power remained visible about him as his wounds continued to disappear, none of them leaving behind so much as a scar. He gave a vocal sigh of relief then, a slow “Haahhh..” as the pain he'd been feeling left entirely. But, of course, the overall change was still far from done; even as the healing went, he still only had one wing.

“Mm~mmh...” The strange man's voice rose in pitch as he folded his arms together in a sort of light self-hug and began to steadily shrink downward and inward, his half-repaired clothes keeping pace as well. His hair started to grow out, trailing down his forehead and the sides of his cheeks as his face lost its sharp, rugged qualities, instead rounding and softening into a smaller, cuter shape. His body hair vanished away as his shoulders and waist narrowed, his arms and legs slimmed and his hands and feet became smaller and smaller. “A~aah..” And his voice continued to pull up out of male reach entirely as he shuddered again; his remaining wing seemed to regain some missing feathers just before a second one violently sprouted out past his right side, at first seeming to be made out of brilliant white light which then burst off to reveal some short but growing white plumage.

“Mmm~mh..” By now his voice was high and girlish, and his body looked very small; his armor had turned into a mostly-unzipped white hoodie, and below that was a sleeveless, fairly low-cut black top and no obvious pants to speak of—leaving his slim, smooth pale legs fully visible. His hair had spread down to hip length behind him, somehow pushing its way into place between his back and the top of the bed as it went, and now his small, girlish face lit up with a blush. “...Ah!” The small, cute cry came as he jerked slightly again, though clearly not in pain this time—and changed into a girl. Then her arms lowered down to her sides as she let out a soft “Mmm~mh...” in response to her body gaining faint curves: A small pair of breasts visible under the top and a slight widening of her hips to complete a small, petite, and utterly adorable figure. By the end of this, the glow of Zotha's influence over her body had faded out completely, and the goddess dropped her own arms to her side to survey the results.

“Fffh...” The winged girl's eyes opened slowly and looked around at the various people in the room looking over her. They were a bright, pale shade of blue which seemed to match the bright shade of her wings and hair perfectly; in a moment, they were fixed on the goddess. “Greetings.” Her right hand reached up to feel the reformed wing. “I..suppose I have you to thank for restoring me?”

“Looks that way,” Zotha said. “How are you feeling? Everything..in its proper place? I admit I haven't done exactly that before.”

“Mmh, well,” she sat up, stretching her arms upward and the wings outward; Jess had to take a bit of a step back to get away from the surprisingly wide wingspan. “I feel entirely uninjured, if that is your meaning. Although I presume this..alteration in appearance was a side effect?” she said, waving toward herself.
“Right. I can undo that part if you want.”
“Hmm.” she nodded, and then finally seemed to really look at the goddess for a moment, tilting her head. Before whatever question had come to her mind could be asked, however, she remembered the dragon-girl was present.

“..Ah.” The winged girl pulled her legs around to that side of the bed to look that way more easily. “Kind dragon. I don't know whether I was coherent enough to express my gratitude to you properly before. And now, it appears you had a part in saving my life as well?”
“I guess? This is all pretty weird,” Thomas said. “Anyway, I couldn't exactly leave you there to bleed out...”
She nodded, and looked at Zotha again. “I am extremely grateful for your healing, although I am also now rather curious. You have a physical appearance similar to a demon's, but no demonic magic in you. What magic there is feels rather overwhelming, but I am having some difficulty in placing it.”

“This is Zotha,” Jess said, taking this as a cue to come around to the same side as the others and introduce her. “Goddess of change.”
“Heheh,” the deity chuckled slightly. “Right. I 'changed' you from injured to healthy—I hope.”
“It would appear that way. Though, you are an actual goddess?” Her head tilted a bit farther. “I wonder why I do not know of you.”

“Well, I only 'ascended' last Saturday,” Zotha said. “I think there are plenty of people who've never heard of me.”
“Oh! That explains it then,” she nodded. “I was made about a full week ago, so of course I would not know of events since then. And it is most unusual for a new deity to come into existence in the first place.”

Boreas was presumably at least a little surprised to see her new apprentice walking hesitantly into the shop—resuming a more relaxed, confident look as soon as she was sure there was nobody else there—but it hardly showed on the tall werewolf's face. “Morning. You're here early.”
“Uh, yeah. They canceled classes for a massive rainstorm, which then almost immediately stopped. I'm pretty confident Steph and his roommate are involved, since the latter got four tails and they've clearly been planning some prank all week,” she said. “Oh, your hair's different.”

Boreas's hair was just barely long enough to frame her face at the moment. She nodded, and then waved a hand upward slightly as the locks cascaded halfway down her height, then retracted again. “Got the potion to work. Think the 'human' version still needs some adjustment. Anyhow, it's just as well you're here early.”

While Prama came around behind the counter, she pulled out a drawer and reached in, rifling through some things to pull out a piece of paper, offering it over once the diminutive genius was in range. “Wrote this while dreaming last night,” she said. “Pretty sure it's a message for your goddess from mine.”
“Uhh..” To the short bespectacled girl, it looked like the top line said Send this to Zotha, please and the rest was completely random-looking pen scratching that didn't even resemble a code, much less a language.
“Magic writing. Rarely used these days,” Boreas said. “Supposed to only be readable by who it's intended for, but there's ways to crack it. Maybe not with La Lune casting it, though.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Prama shrugged, taking a moment to dig her phone out of her purse.

Placing the paper flat on the counter, she took a picture of the whole message and texted it to Zotha along with a brief explanation. Boreas watched this with her head very slightly tilted. “Guess that is quicker,” she mumbled.
“Well, the first line's to me and says 'send', not 'bring',” Prama shrugged, taking the paper and neatly folding it before dropping it into her purse along with the phone—just in case. “I guess you've got some real work for me, too?”
“Sure.”

---

“Uh..back up,” Thomas said. “You were 'made' a week ago?”
“Oh, yes,” she nodded, not appearing to find this unusual. “Sol created me for the purpose of tracking down the source of a number of weak lesser demons and eliminating it. As it turned out, the one you aided me to slay was responsible for the whole mess, but I was..less prepared than I should have been to confront it.”

“I'm not familiar with this either,” Zotha said. “You were made. A week ago. As in, created, or..?”
“Well, yes: Created,” she said. “I am a Celestial, after all.” Seeing that this explanation didn't clear up much, she continued: “Every one of my kind is made by Sol to serve a particular purpose, and endowed with general knowledge alongside anything that may be useful to fulfilling that purpose.” She held up a hand, palm forward. “'Praise Sol, who gave me life and purpose.'”

The dragon-girl crossed her arms. “This is all kinds of messed up, I don't even know where to start. Did he even, like, give you a name?”
“Oh, no,” she said, shaking her head lightly. “That's for me to decide, once my purpose is fulfilled. Or—rather, there is no reason I couldn't come up with a name before then, but it's somewhat of a tradition to come up with a name after.”

“'Tradi'—how do you know what's 'tradition' if you were just made a week ago?” said Zotha.

“It's..among the knowledge I was made with,” she said, seeming confused they saw this as a problem. Putting a finger under her lips, she clarified: “Perhaps 'tradition' is a bit of a strong word for it, however. It would be more accurate to say that we tend to be created knowing it's what those who came before us did, and a majority agree that it's a good idea. As did I.”

“Ooh-kaay. So, once your 'purpose' is done, you get a name and...then what?” the goddess said.

“Ah, I skipped that part, did I? Being granted existence, intelligence, and power is a debt that one could perhaps never repay. But Sol considers it repaid once one's purpose is fulfilled. A celestial who has done his job is free to live as he chooses afterward,” she said. “Many look for ways to continue serving Sol, but just about as many go on to live their own lives.”

“And..what if someone doesn't want to do their, extremely dangerous, job?” Thomas pressed.
“Typically, Sol is disappointed, but won't act against them. He simply commissions someone else to take care of the problem,” she said. “That is extremely rare, however. It is nearly as rare these days not to survive the completion of one's purpose; I was afraid I'd be one of the unlucky few, until my luck changed.”

“So..are most celestials 'made' for the purpose of hunting down demons?” the dragon-girl said, deciding that it was futile for the moment to convince her of how utterly strange being created a week prior, as a full adult, with instructions she was more or less required to fulfill was.

“Sol's main purview is the prevention and elimination of threats to humanity,” she replied. “As it happens, lesser demons making their way into this plane is among the most common of those threats. So: It would not be unreasonable to guess that a majority of us are created for that purpose, especially since our kind of magic is particularly effective against demons. However, I am not aware of the exact statistics.”

“I..met a demon yesterday, though. Or rather—a guy I knew turned out to have always been one? He seemed nice enough.”
“Ah, that would be a greater demon,” she explained patiently (and even a little cheerfully). “They fall under the broad definition of 'humanity' I intended, because they are people with intelligence and self-will. Lesser demons are more like the animals of the demonic plane—if all animals were highly aggressive predators and most of them had powerful magic at their disposal. They instinctively fear more powerful demons, including all greater demons, so the demonic plane is relatively safe for them. Most other people would not survive without an escort, and one of my kind would probably die even with one. At any rate, lesser demons do not belong here, and can present a danger to many people depending on how powerful they are. On the other hand, many greater demons today have never even seen their 'home plane', and perhaps they are all the better for it.”

---

“I remembered a lot last night!” The early-morning storm had awoken both of the werewolves from a nap, so they were up early enough to have breakfast with her before she had to go to work. “But uh..a lot of it doesn't seem super important,” Damon continued.
“She remembered mostly stuff from video games. Which...I guess is still a good sign?” Sam said, presently in that adorable female form. “Actually, when she's playing a game it's like she never forgot anything. Like, she plays exactly how she did before, and remembers mechanics, muscle memory, all that kind of stuff no problem.”

“Any progress is progress,” Onida said. “I guess..playing a game well is basically a kind of skill, right? Maybe it's just that you lost mostly 'information' and not so much 'ability'?”

“Mmh. I'd really rather it be the other way around,” the werewolf said a little sadly. “I wanna remember all my friends..and our parents.”

Her sister just nodded solemnly back, and the table was quiet for a minute or two.

“So, I can trust you two to watch the house while I'm gone, right?”
“Yeah. I mean, ah..I'll prolly be asleep for a while, but I'm a pretty light sleeper,” Sam said.

“Me too!” her sister said, without clarifying which part she meant.

“Okay. Well, there's sandwich stuff in the fridge whenever you get hungry for lunch. I should be back around five, hopefully; I'll call—oh, wait. I need your number,” she said toward their guest.

“Huh? Oh, sure.” Sam pulled her phone out and recited it, Onida typing it into her own.

“Got it. So, I'll call if I'm held up or anything. And you call me if there are any problems here. I'll send a text in a minute so you'll have my number too.”

---

“I see...well, this has been pretty educational,” Zotha said. “But I feel like we've gotten a little off track. First: Are you actually okay with the..appearance you've wound up in? Like I said before, I can put that back like it was—without the injuries.”

“Hmm. I have been thinking on it,” she said. “However, I was only male for a week. Given the opportunity, perhaps I would prefer this appearance, but..I don't yet know. I don't suppose I could postpone a decision on whether to remain this way until later?”

“That's fine. I can give you my number, if you've got a phone? Or..some way to borrow someone else's..actually, how are you gonna..function in society? You don't have any, identification or records or anything,” the goddess realized aloud.

“Ah, well, there is an organization whose job it is to help newly-made celestials with that very issue,” she said. “It was founded by some of our kind who, as I said, wished to continue serving Sol, but a majority of their members are actually of various other kinds. As I understand it, within recent years—by which I mean the past few decades—they also took on the job of helping maintain the veil by helping people who've had it torn off by certain kinds of magical events to adapt.”

“..Oh.” Zotha nodded; Jess had more or less the exact same realization. I guess we've been indirectly dealing with Sol all along, she remarked to the priestess. “In that case, I'm sure they'll help you call me if you want, right?”
“Most likely,” she nodded. “We are..on a college campus at the moment, or near one, correct? I was considering taking on the role of a student initially—it'd be nice to fill in the gaps of my created knowledge, and just to learn things for myself for a bit, I think.”

“It's gonna be a little weird for a new student to drop in near the end of the semester, but I guess they've dealt with this situation before,” Zotha said. “You can't possibly be the first person to want to learn things shortly after being created, after all. I suppose that just leaves the matter of your name, then.”

“Mm-hm...” The winged girl stood up. “I gave it a little thought, but of course I didn't anticipate this situation.” She looked up at Thomas. “Er—kind dragon, do you have any suggestions?”

“Uh, m-me?” The dragon-girl scratched her chin with a finger, trying to figure out whether or not the little celestial's face was actually sparkling. “I'm..not real good at names.” Her face felt a little warm, too...weird. Oh no, she was still staring up at her. “Um..Stella? Because...staaarrs..?”

The short girl put her hands together, grinning brightly. “Oh, it's perfect! I will come up with a surname myself. And, may I inquire yours?”
“Uh, Toma—I mean, Thomas,” she half-mumbled the last bit, nodding. “Oh, your uh, sword's against the wall there by the way,” she added, pointing.

“Oh, thank you. I should probably have dismissed it sooner, but was..rather distracted.” 'Stella' waved her hand gently in the direction of the blade, which seemed to cause it to burst into a blue, heatless flame that then dissipated into the air.

---

Graham was up characteristically early yet again, and decided to try her hand at making breakfast. To be honest, neither she nor her granddaughter was a particularly great cook, but following basic instructions wasn't beyond either of them. Being so much smaller made it harder to reach the upper cabinets and shelves, and once or twice she had to fight a mild urge to either leap for things or just clamber up onto the counter and make herself go get a chair to stand on instead. But other than that, her body seemed much more agile and coordinated than it ever had been, and in many ways this helped her be a better cook than before. That didn't seem to quite be all, either—she simply picked up on how to do things much quicker, too. Perhaps it was just a matter of having a “younger” brain, too.

Her big white kitty ears could pick up the sound of Rachel getting out of bed and heading for a shower near the beginning of the preparation, and by the time it was done she was stepping out and heading for the kitchen, before audibly yawning in the doorway. “Morning, dear,” the white-haired Neko said. “Storm wake ya up?” On one hand, she wondered how anything was private in a house full of people with such excellent hearing, but on the other it was kind of reassuring to be able to directly perceive that her granddaughter was alive and well and moving around. Anyway, fair was fair—Graham could be heard just as easily.
“Yeah, for a bit. That smells really good.”

“Well, I hope it is good. I tried out somethin' new for us this morning.”

They both sat down to eat, and Graham felt her ears perk up and her tail whip around a bit faster behind her in response to the taller girl's clear enjoyment of her work. After some more time quietly eating, she said, “You know somethin'? I've felt a little bit restless since turning young again.”
“Mmhmm?” Rachel's mouth was full, but she turned her head up from the plate to indicate she was paying attention.

“I might wanna go looking for a job soon. Or just something to do. That wouldn't upset you too much, would it?”
“No, that's great!” she said. “I'm sure you'll find something quick. I mean, you're really smart, and they sure can't turn you away for being too old now.”
“Heheh,” the short Neko giggled. “They'd look pretty silly for that. Nah, at worst I bet I'd be 'overqualified'. That's somethin' they do to folks sometimes, too.”

---

“Well, I think I know the people you're talking about,” Zotha said. “We were more or less introduced to them as 'veilkeepers' of sorts. I can just teleport you to right in front of their headquarters if you want. Or at least, the office where we met them.”

“Thank you,” the winged girl said, grinning brightly. “I will take you up on your kind offer, Miss Zotha.”

The goddess made a nearby door open out to the target area, deciding that this might be less jarring to the celestial than a direct teleportation. She stopped briefly in the doorway, turning toward the dragon-girl again. “Thank you all once again. I'm certain we'll meet once more soon, Miss Toma.”

“Oh, uh, yeah. Hope so.” Thomas gave her an awkward thumbs-up, and she stepped through the threshold. Jess exchanged a wordless, knowing thought with the goddess and got back the concept of agreement alongside an admonition to let it be for now.

“Alright, well..anywhere you wanna be dropped off?” Zotha said, turning to the dragon-girl.
“Hmm..maybe the gym? I got something I might wanna try out,” she said, seeming to recover out of the awkwardness almost as soon as Stella was gone.

“Got it. Just step through the door there.”

“Thanks.” Thomas headed out too.

“..Phew. Now, I think you've waited long enough for breakfast,” Zotha said, waving vaguely toward the kitchen to make some food appear. “Annd, I've got a little more cleanup work to get to—” she was interrupted by the ping of a message on her phone. “Hmm.” Pulling it out, she found something from Prama: A brief explanation along with a photo of what looked to the goddess like a handwritten letter.

Lady Zotha:

I hope you can forgive my capriciousness in choosing a liaison, but my original choice was very short-sighted. She is complicated to speak through, and I don't want to put an undue burden on her while she is still recovering. I think I really will stick with this one for a while, however. Instructions are included below to cast a spell of private writing similar to the one which was used for this letter, since I think you may find that convenient in general. If you want to send a message to me specifically, just use that spell to write a letter and forward it to the alchemist to ensure that I see it. You're also welcome to visit my domain at some point..though my brother believes it would be best to wait until after you've spoken with him.

Anyway, on to the main purpose of this letter. I'd like to formally request your permission to use your power for something. Specifically, I think there's someone who will want my 'blessing' soon, but I want to help that person even more by 'borrowing' your unique ability to give someone the power to shift between two different forms at will. If this works, I think their gratitude will split at least equally to you, if not more, so it should be to your benefit. Just pass along a 'yes' or 'no' to the alchemist to reply regarding this request, if you don't mind.

Below that was an ornate, extremely curly signature:

-La Lune

“...Well then.” Jess was leaning over to try and read it, and couldn't—confirming the claim that the writing was magic, as well as indicating that it stayed that way even through the filter of being photographed and sent in a text. Zotha just pushed a brief summary of its contents into her priestess's mind.

“Oh. You think you should let her do that?”
“Well, she only wants to do it once. I'm more interested to learn that granting someone the power to go back and forth is 'unique' to me, though. It sort of makes sense that that wouldn't be standard with what I know of magic now, so I guess we just kinda 'thought it up' while what I am was still forming and it stuck. Anyway, I have a hunch about who it's for—if it is someone we know of in the first place.”

After that Zotha gently prodded Jess's side in the direction she'd need to go to get around the bed and head to the kitchen. “Hey. Go, eat, no more distractions. Anika's been 'you' for half an hour by now, and I'm gonna go get to work, too.”
“Okay, Master.”

Aetuornos Beta 1-9

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

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1-9: Unexpected Rewards

On top of the drops from the bosses themselves, The passage that the demon general seemed to have come from had a few treasure chests in it, all lying half-open. Actually, one of them was fully open and appeared to be mostly empty. Scylla rushed to that one to lean over the top and look inside. "Huh, what's with this?" She reached in and pulled out a scroll. "'For the clever little mage'..uh, I can't read the rest of this."

"That's a spell! Gimme," Ara grabbed for it; her friend could probably have pulled it up out of reach or held on for a tug-of-war, but let her take it and scan through it instead. "Magnetism...this is someone else's custom spell. Iella's?"
"That wouldn't make any sense, if she's supposed to be our enemy," Jesse said. "Yet it does seem addressed to you."
"Yeah, and it was your idea that hit 'er," said the fox-girl.

"But she teleported out. Unless she went here, swapped this with the chest's original contents while we were busy, and then left," the mage reasoned aloud. "Still a little weird to do that. But...this seems like a pretty useful spell. I'm definitely learning it next time I meditate; maybe some other lightning-elemental stuff, too," she said, rolling up the scroll.

"So, do we need to worry about these being trapped?" the sheep-girl said, looking around at the rest of the treasure.

"Nah. This is dungeon-win rewards," Scylla said, waving a hand dismissively. "It's gotta be safe!"

"Ain't sporting otherwise," Kite agreed. "Still, I think you two oughta open 'em all first, just to be safe. I'll be over here in case you need any healin'," she said, stepping back to the entrance of the room. This caution proved unnecessary, however, and soon they were laying out loot to split it up once again.

The majority of it was more crafting materials, which were easy enough to split among them, but there were also some pieces of jewelry: Rings, bracelets, necklaces, some faintly glowing and some not. These were placed on top of the chest the spell had come from, now shut, until everything else was divided; then the samurai stood over it. "So...is this stuff enchanted oorrr...?"

"I'll identify," Ara said, stepping in. She sorted them into one pile of unenchanted jewelry and another of things she could feel magic from, then picked up each of the latter in turn to fully perceive its enchantment. "Thank goodness we don't have to expend scrolls or go back to town for this...let's see here."

"A ring of might...adds a small percentage boost to strength. Jesse?" she offered it toward the brawler.
"I'd rather know what everything is before making a selection."
"Understandable." The ring was set down again. "Ring of improved..archery. No good for any of us, but it could be traded or handed over if you party up with a bow-user. Necklace of dark-vision...hilarious, game," she deadpanned. "Collar of dog...this gives the wearer dog ears and a tail. Tiny bit useful, but mostly annoying, I think. Plus it's cursed, and won't come off without a temple or healer class's help."

"Aww, you'd look cute with puppy ears," Scylla said.

Aranthra just sighed. "And..bracelets of dust, a little unique. Clink them together and they shoot a cloud of dust out in front of you."

"Ooh, I want that one!" the wolf-girl said excitedly.

"Any objections?" No one spoke up. "Sold," she nodded, half-pretending to be an auctioneer.

"The strength ring does seem best for me," Jesse said.
"I'd like the archer ring," the fox-girl chimed in right after. "Bet I can find a way to make a tidy profit on it."
"Okay. Well, you or I should get the necklace," said the mage toward Jesse, who waved a hand back toward her to indicate she could keep it. "Right. And...that just leaves this collar."
"I vote you keep it!" Scylla said right away.
"Seconded," said the fox-girl.

"Seriously? I'm just gonna sell the stupid thing." She looked at Jesse, who just shrugged—not particularly wanting it either. "Okay then." The mage stuffed it in her inventory.

The rest of the jewelry was split up more or less evenly by value, except that Scylla grabbed a necklace she thought 'looked cute' and gave up a bit of her claim to the others for it. "Worth noting all this stuff can become enchanted," Ara remarked as everyone stowed their treasures away. "The more valuable the material, the higher the ceiling of enchants on it. So, think before you go selling it all."
"Understood," the brawler nodded.

After this, they continued down the passage a short way before finding a small raised stone pedestal with a glowing circle on it. "Hm..how convenient," Aranthra said, coming in. "If I channel some magic through this, it'll teleport whoever's standing on it back to the mouth of the cave. I guess, in theory, this was a quick way out for miners who got in deep, or if they got trapped or something...as long as one of them could channel magic, at least."

"Well, that's good," Jesse said, "It would be tedious to walk the entire way back out. And..I feel this session has been going for a while now. Not that it hasn't been fun; you're a fine party to work with."

"Aww, thanks," Scylla said, rubbing the back of her head, grinning and wagging her tail. Everyone got up onto the platform.

Aranthra placed her staff about in the center of the circle and closed her eyes, concentrating. The others saw a firelike glow surround the mage, flow into the staff and then down into the platform, followed by a bright flash—and then they were outside. "..Phew. I guess if I learn some fast-travel spells, they'll feel like that," she commented.

"Let's go!" the wolf-girl said cheerfully, pointing the way toward the town they'd visited before.

"Now...Kite."

"Huh?" The fox-girl turned toward Jesse.

"I left this discussion earlier, as there were far more important things going on..but how many of the charms you purchased, at our expense, are actually useful?"
"Okay, you got me. I just grabbed up anything that looked halfway interestin' to try it all out."
"I think that was a pretty good joke," Scylla said cheerfully. "We didn't have all that much money anyway, and it turned out the 'useless' stuff was really useful after all!"

Aranthra didn't say anything—possibly feeling supportive of her friend's opinion—soo the sheep-girl just shrugged, feeling outvoted. "Very well, then. Just promise you won't do something like that again."
"I dunno about that. I can swear to ya that if I do, it won't be your money, though."
"Fine."

"Hey, but speaking of charms—what was that one you put on your staff?" the mage said.

"Oh, it was 'overcast'. Super-powers the next spell channeled through whatever you stick it on. Also, it was..pretty expensive, so I only got the one," Kite said. "Shame I had to use it up, but she was comin' right at me. Well, I know what I want more of next time I get chance, anyway.

So, hey, do y'all trust me enough to share emails now, at least?" Kite asked.

"..Give me yours, and I will contact you later with mine," said the sheep-girl, deciding that she should probably set up a 'fake' account rather than give everyone her work address at the company's website.

"I don't mind saying mine!" Scylla said. "Ara and I are friends IRL, soo, I can pass anything along to her if you want."
"Yyeah..that's probably best." Among other considerations, the mage's email address included her real—and very male—name. Marcus, on the other hand, had a much more ambiguous email address built out of some random words followed by a few numbers. He'd used it for games and other online contacts for ages.

After exchanging emails, the wolf-girl said, "Hey, what do you guys do for a living? I own a gym!"

"You own a gym?" Jesse repeated as a question. Scylla didn't seem to her quite like the...focused sort who could handle the full load of running a business.

"Well, co-own. I do a lot of the front-end, customer relations stuff, and I work as a personal trainer for a lot of our members."
"Oh, I see." That made a lot more sense.

"Accountant," Aranthra said, "Nothing too impressive there. Pays pretty good, though."

"I am...retired," Jesse said a little too slowly. This was technically true, and even though Kite made it immediately obvious she didn't buy this as the full story, nobody seemed inclined to press for details when she seemed so hesitant to say this much. All the better for it, she thought.

"Ah, well, as for me," Kite said. "I'm a bit of a freelancer, doin' magic-tech integration work. Mostly computer hardware stuff, like installin' enchanted heat sinks, power sources, you name it."

"You see much business with that?" Ara said, genuinely curious.

"Oh, like you wouldn't believe! Like: Once I did work for this witch who wanted to use her smartphone as a spell focus, but the crystal was drainin' power like crazy all the time. I hacked together somethin' homebrew usin' voice recognition to listen for when she was castin' a spell and only power the crystal then, fixed it right up. Or: Some guy wanted his monitor to output actual 3D images, and I was able to rig up somethin' with light magic illusions for 'im? Not really any software that supports it, but he was happy to have the 'magic' part of it done and work on the rest himself. I'm tellin' ya, this is the next big thing in the tech industry. Someone who does work like I do is gonna be the next Bill Gates or somethin'...but probably not me. I ain't that lucky."

"Man, that actually sounds cool," the mage said. "Wish I'd taken some more CS classes instead of all math and finance."

"Well, hey, if I ever corporatize into a startup, I'll be sure to ask you for investments," Kite said, giggling.

After a brief pause, something occurred to the sheep-girl. "Would I be incorrect to assume your interest in this game has something to do with that?"
Kite shrugged. "Sure, to some extent. But hey, I'm pretty much addicted to hot tech and video games myself, even without that angle. Nobody with my hobbies and habits is gonna pass up an opportunity to play this!" she said, spreading her arms out and upward for a second.

"Have you had a look at how it's put together?"
"Well, sure. The panel ain't locked or nothin', so I had to at least take a peek. I didn't try to tamper with it, though," she said, shrugging.

"Well, what did you think of its construction?" Assuming—perhaps unwisely—that the fox-girl was telling the truth about her occupation and expertise, Jesse reasoned it was possible she might have some useful feedback in this area.

"Ehh, well. I'm a little annoyed at the casing, for the most part," the fox-girl said. "There's no way ya need that gigantic shell to house it. I'd rather just be able to put somethin' on and lie down where I'm comfy, instead'a pinching my tails under me in that ugly shell. It ain't exactly space-savvy for anyone who don't live in a mansion, either."

"Yyeah, we kinda had to cannibalize the big room I use for the old goggle-based VR," Ara said. "I get they wanted to sell the whole 'dive into another world' angle, but think I'd trade that thing for something convenient and wearable in a heartbeat."

"Hmm." Jesse nodded in vague agreement, after biting her tongue to keep herself from saying something like 'we'll look into that'. "So, you think the technology itself is working well enough?"

"Well, sure. I ain't enough of an expert on exactly how all this works to point out miniscule flaws from a little look," Kite said. "I'd have to do a teardown to get much of any info, and maybe that's lookin' at proprietary stuff that I'm better off not knowin' too much about."

In what seemed like no time at all—and without an encounter to speak of—the four of them arrived at the town, and made their way to the inn. First Jesse, then Aranthra, bought rooms and headed upstairs.

"Oh yeah, you've..got a home," Scylla said, thinking aloud. "Oh! Did we uh, need to get you there?"
"Nah, I can afford a room for the night easy," the fox-girl said. "Actually..I got somethin' I wanted to talk to just you about anyway."
"What's that?"

"Well..how much d'ya know about beastfolk, really? You're obviously interested in 'tryin' it out', so to speak, right?"
"Um..eheh. I guess I know about as much as anyone else?" the wolf-girl said. "We've got a few werewolf and Neko customers at the gym, among other things..And, I have wondered for a while what it's like having a big, fluffy tail~," she said, pulling her own in front to hug it again.

That's unfairly cute, the fox-girl thought, her ears lowering slightly. But she managed to maintain her composure and keep going. "Weelll, there's at least one part'a the experience I think you're missing. You know, it's pretty common for us to, ah, express affection in a certain way?"

"Hmm?" Scylla let go of her tail, headtilting. Kite actually seemed just a tiny bit nervous—her cheeks were even a bit red. "What's that?"
"Well, y'know, pettin' ears and stuff. It's normal for families, good friends...that kinda thing. I just think it'd be a shame for ya to miss out on that part entirely, is all. And..you might not meet someone else, y'know, next time you play that'd be willing to help with that?"
"..Are you offering?" she said after taking a moment to put together the fox-girl's words.
"Y-yeah. I mean, I sure like you enough to, ah, have a good time with it for a bit."
"I would love to!" she said excitedly. "I guess we can probably do this in an inn room, huh?"
"That's what I figured," she said. "Should be about as much privacy as we can get in the game. If ya don't mind me sharin' a room with ya?"
"Oh, not at all!" the wolf-girl said excitedly, turning to buy them a room and eagerly starting off toward the stairs.

Well, now the little miko was nervous. It was one thing to tease a person, to try and slowly push them toward a certain thing...and another entirely to have them dive in head-first when she had only been maybe a third of the way into her pitch. She just tried to remind herself that this was something she'd wanted since not too long after meeting the gorgeous wolf-girl; in fact it was something vaguely like this that she'd picked a female player-character for all along! Being a personal trainer at a gym, Scylla's real body was probably physically fit, and maybe quite pretty itself, too...So she followed the taller girl's eager steps up the stairs one at a time until they got to their floor, then hurried with her shorter pace-size to keep up on the way down the hall.

Once inside, the wolf-girl approached a dresser and put her hand on its top. "Oh, heey..check this out!" A quick puff of white smoke seemed to instantly replace her clothes with a tank top and a tight pair of soft gym shorts. "Clothes change! I guess this outfit's restricted to 'bed wear' since it doesn't include my weapons or anything," she said, looking down at herself, "Buut, there's a bunch of options I could switch to on my way out, too. Oh man, I can't wait 'till they add the ability to buy a home and teleport back and forth to it and stuff!"
"H-heheh." Kite couldn't help but giggle; Scylla's enthusiasm was equal parts hilarious and infectious. "I guess I'll give it a try, too." The samurai didn't move very far out of the way as she crossed the room to the dresser, and she had to force herself to not stare at the...impressive view that the deep cut of the top provided. Her own options for outfits sprang to mind when she got close to the dresser, and tapping it while thinking of one of them seemed sufficient to cause a change into it. She wound up in a short-sleeved robe, its hem about the height of her thighs, with an extra hole for her tails to poke through without flipping it up in the back.

"Uh, what do ya think?" She turned toward the wolf-girl, spreading her arms out.
"It looks great on you! Really cute!" the wolf-girl said, wagging her tail again. "So, is there like a system for this, or can I just reach over and touch your ears now?"
"Err." Kite's mind actually locked up at the prospect of that, and how suddenly and easily it had come out of her mouth, and she just giggled nervously for a second.

"Oh! Um. Sorry, am I like..coming on too strong with this?" she asked, her ears lowering in contrition. "I know I can be super excited about stuff and then just get carried away sometimes."
"Um, no no, that's fine. It's—I think it's somethin' I really like about you, actually," the fox-girl said. "But I guess it's fair to say I expected to be pushing, instead of the one bein' pushed, so to speak? Um..

"Well, there ain't no procedure for everyone or anything, just, y'know, whatever feels right. It's mostly instinct, and—just a, personal expression of friendship, after all," she said, gliding carefully around the other girl toward the bed. "Maybe we should sit down first, uh, just so I don't end up with my nose in your uhh.."

"Your nose?" Scylla followed obediently anyway, as the fox-girl sat down carefully toward the head. "What, in my boobs?" she said, laughing. "Maybe I'd like that, you never know!" She landed next to Kite hard enough for the whole bed to briefly shake.

"Uh, well, y'know, it's just—sometimes if someone ya really like has their hands on your ears, sometimes some instincts take over, and you just start to..lean in toward them," Kite explained, unconsciously beginning to do just that herself. "A-and maybe you just wanna nuzzle their face, but with the height difference and all.."
"Heehee! Well, maybe this will help," the wolf-girl said, grabbing her into a hug so their faces were at the same level—and their chests pressed against each other.

Kite blushed furiously, locking up agian. "Ah—uh—..."

She lowered her ears again. "Oh, sorry. Too fast?"
"N-no, uh. Just." The fox-girl slowly drew her arms around the taller woman's slender waist to return the hug. "Well—maybe, but not. In a bad way?"
"Heheh," Scylla giggled, running a hand gently through the shorter girl's bright pink hair. "Ooh~, it's soft."

"Um, yours are too. I-I mean, you..uh, fur looks.." There was probably no hiding which part of the body Kite had actually meant, so she just gave up. "Would ya just rub my ears already?"
"If you want!"

"Aa~h.." Scylla had a fairly light touch, and the fox-girl wasn't quite ready for how it actually felt. It was true that close friends would pet each other among beastfolk sometimes, but...it was more common for werewolves than anyone else. "Mmh..mrr~rrh.." Actually, this was the first time anyone other than family had pet Kite's ears; it felt good in a rather distinct way that she hadn't experienced before, and had her softly churring and leaning in even closer. Kitsune still had a certain degree of mistrust and caution toward others, and petting put one in a...somewhat vulnerable state.

Near-involuntarily, her own small hands reached up to return the favor. The wolf-girl gave a high yip at first, then quickly relaxed forward, the tip of her nose just barely touching the smaller girl's cheek. "O~oh, that does feel nice," she said quietly, her voice sounding particularly deep and mature. "Same for you?"
"Mnnh..y-yeah.." That was something of an understatement from Kite's position, but it was difficult to get words out with their bodies and faces so close...and with the wolf-girl still gently rubbing the bases of her ears. Instead of trying to get more eloquent, she just leaned the rest of the way in and began nuzzling in earnest, more soft churring rumbling out of her throat.

"Rr~rrf...!" The fox-girl's steady rumbling was punctuated with periodic high yips and low barks as Scylla clearly enjoyed this just as much. Kite could hear her huge, fluffy tail sliding rapidly back and forth across the cover behind her, which only sharpened her urge to touch that, too. While she could keep enough control over her hands to restrict them to the taller girl's ears and hair, her tails turned traitorous fairly quickly, each one curling around one side of the wolf-girl's luscious hips, and then...

"Yyyip! Ahahah!" The wolf-girl pulled back slightly, laughing. "Y-you've got your tails in my tail!" she said, as they continued to gently twist their way around it.
"Mrnh—uh, y-yeah. Like I said, instinct. S-sorry."
"Oh, don't apologize, silly!" Scylla rubbed the top of her head teasingly, which made her face feel even hotter than before. "Rrr-ruff! It feels really nice! Yeah! C'mere you!" Now that she was excited, the wolf-girl's energy seemed to have her nearly yelling every word, and no sooner had she pulled the smaller girl back into the closest hug she could manage—noses on cheeks all over again—than she started aggressively pushing her over onto her back.

"W-a~aah..! Rrf!" Kite felt an embarrassing bark come out as the wolf-girl's curvy body landed on top of her, especially the full weight of those enormous breasts squishing against her own smaller pair. "Aa~aah..mmh, mrrRrrrnnh.." One of her hands returned to rubbing Scylla's ears while the other one ran its way gently through her hair and down her back.

Part of the fox-girl's mind reeled at what was going on now: They really hardly knew each other, besides that both of them were girls just now, so...was it really supposed to feel this good? But Scylla seemed to be enjoying it just as much, and the way she kept diving in headfirst made it difficult not to follow. Her barks and yips were further intermingled with the occasional yell, either an incoherent "Ooh!" or an excited "Yeah!" or something like that—Kite was in no mental state to keep track of the specifics. And, before long, she turned over onto her side (pulling the fox-girl with her) to start stroking the smaller girl's long, pink hair again.

How long this went on neither of them could really say. But, eventually, Scylla let out a loud, wild howl—"AOWROOOOO~!"—and at the same time Kite let out a high, squeaky sort of half-sigh ("Aa~aahh..!") that expressed an equal amount of pleasure in its own way. Their bodies still clinging together and their tails (and legs too, now) tangled up hopelessly, they pulled their faces just about an inch apart.

"This is way too much fun," the wolf-girl said, in that quiet, low voice again that made Kite shiver just slightly. "Hey, Ara's probably wondering why I'm not out yet, though, and..I don't wanna make her worry."

"O-oh, uh, yeah." She nodded, feeling for the moment unusually...the only word she could think of for it was 'submissive'. Like she just wanted to do whatever the person holding her in her arms wanted, and she'd only ever be as happy as Scylla was.
"We should do this again sometime, though!" she said happily, grinning.

"F-for sure," the fox-girl mumbled, lost in those smiling, bright green eyes.

"Mmh." Scylla leaned in, pressing her nose against Kite's cheeks one last time, and then managed to log off in a way that seemed like she was just exhaustedly drifting off into a deep sleep. It seemed that holding on to each other like this was something of an exception to the rule that players couldn't even be touched when they were logged out, as her body seemed to stay solid in Kite's arms—and to continue holding her just as tightly. And...even though she knew the taller girl couldn't feel it now, the fox-girl couldn't resist nuzzling one last time and gently stroking those soft, warm ears before pulling out of the meditative state herself.

The two-tailed Kitsune sat up abruptly in his chair, panting softly. His face still felt warm, and..certain other parts of his body were still reacting just as expected for having recently been in the arms of a gorgeous woman. "Uh..w-wow," he mumbled, carefully uncrossing his legs and putting a hand to his cheek for a moment. "That...ain't what I was expectin' at all. H-heh..." He hopped out of the chair and stood staring at the device taking up half of the room for a long moment. One way or another, he decided..he was going to have to meet that girl in real life. But...there was no reason to rush it, especially since that would entail giving up on his clever ruse. Just...playing with her again, soon, would be good enough for now.

Marcus finally sat up—after Remus had had time to go to the bathroom, get a glass of water, and then walk back into the game room when he realized his friend still didn't seem to have logged out yet. "Hey, what took you so long?"

"Oh, nothing. Kite just wanted to talk for a bit," he shrugged, jumping out of bed. "You know what? I'm pretty sure she's actually a guy using a female character in hopes of getting to be close to other girls." He stretched and then shook off some of the stiffness from lying in the pod. "That seems like a pretty 'Kitsune' thing to do, right?"

"Is..that what we're doing?"

"Nah. We—or at least I—wanted to know what it's like to be someone else for a while. And it's fun, isn't it?"

"A little," he admitted, following his friend out into the kitchen.

"So, are you gonna call her out on it? Or, him..whatever?"
"Nah. She's fun to be around, and wound up with a super cute avatar, anyway. Why not just enjoy it?"

"I gotta admit, before today I didn't know you were into, uh..animal ears and stuff," Remus said, twirling an index finger near one of his ears to suggest the idea of a fuzzy one.
"Yeah? Me either. I mean, I haven't really had much 'exposure' before today," Marcus shrugged. "Soo, maybe I'm not, and I'm just curious? Either way, I'm having fun!"
"Well, that much is obvious. Just don't forget to fill out the feedback form so they'll let us keep playing."
"Yeah, yeah."

Cherry Blossom Wonderland

 

 

It's far from spring, but that doesn't stop me from getting spring-based ideas!

Aetuornos Beta 1-8

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1-8: Bargain on Bosses

A minute or two's walk through the tunnel past the crystal took the small group to a much larger chamber, the walls opening up to the point where Kite's light proved insufficient to show their far edges on the left or right; even the cave ceiling arced too high up for even those with dark-vision to see the whole thing.

Scylla paused carefully, one hand on the hilt of her blade while the other went up over her brow so she could squint up and around at the place. "Such a big place, and...nothing here?" she said quietly.

"I dunno about that," said the mage at the same volume. "This place gives me 'Deku tree basement' vibes..."

"No, I mean I don't hear anything," the wolf-girl clarified, pointing to a twitching ear with her free hand. "Kite?"
"Nah," she shook her head, "Maybe we failed our spot checks?"

Jesse whispered, "Your what?"

"Let's just...take it slow, " Aranthra advised. "And keep an eye out. Actually: I'll watch the sides, Jesse our back, Scylla look ahead, and Kite look up."
"Got it," the fox-girl said, the others nodding.

They took several more slow steps inside, until the entrance they'd taken was as difficult to see as the walls. "Hmm. Hold still a sec," Kite said, getting an idea—so they did. She waved her hand upward, and was able to make the orb of light fly a fair distance toward the ceiling—but still not enough to see its top. Sweeping her hand from side to side, she got the light to reveal the entrance they'd come from, and more of the roughly dome-like shape of the walls. "This's gotta be it. Major boss room vibes. Just ain't standin' in the right spot?" The light floated back down to the party.

"Look out for webs," the mage advised quietly as they continued. "Weird we haven't seen any yet, but I guess they could just be 'not that kind of spider'."

"Does anything smell unusual?" Jesse asked. "I would expect some scent of fresh prey, perhaps."
Scylla turned her head upward slightly, closing her eyes and folding her ears to horizontal, and sniffed at the air a bit. She hadn't just passively picked anything up before, but now there was definitely a faint odor of blood and rot that went out in all directions, possibly permeating the entire chamber. "There's definitely been bodies here in the past, but..nothing useful." She continued on then, the others behind her.

The next time the samurai stopped, she put out an arm to emphasize that the others should do the same, then pointed. "Uh..suspicious, pile of rocks?" she half-whispered. "Just up ahead."
"Ten to one that's not rocks," Aranthra said.
Jesse said, "Kite, you..still have that bomb paper?"

"Well, sure," she said, half-turning backwards and holding it up, "but thissun's expensive. No good wastin' it if we ain't totally—"

"Ssh!" Aranthra pointed, drawing both of their attention to something the wolf-girl had already noticed: Some faintly glowing red points of light up ahead, distinctly in the arrangement one would expect a giant, monstrous spider's eyes to be.

No sooner were all of them aware of it than the eyes moved upward, to a position maybe thrice a person's height—as their owner stood up. This was followed by a loud, multitonal version of the high screeching noise the smaller spiders had used as an alarm before. Kite yelled "On it!" over this, pushing power into the charm and sending it forward. It wove back and forth, dodging Scylla and landing squarely onto the side of the mostly-unseen beast before bursting into a violent explosion of flame.

While the monster screamed, the red glow of the fire made its true, somewhat terrifying scale much more obvious. A black substance oozed out of the wound opened by the explosion, already starting to seal it. The fire also made it much easier to see a number of smaller spiders on either side of the

mother, arranged in a row which continued out toward either side of the party.

While the boss quickly skittered backward, her army closed in, making something abundantly clear. "When did we get surrounded?!" Jesse said.
"Whole way in, I s'pose," the fox-girl replied, drawing her staff. Aranthra was already busy casting a fire enchantment for everyone's weapons.

"I guess they can be really quiet if they wanna." Scylla backed toward the group, waiting for the telltale glow of her sheath before making her move. "Don't worry, I got this."

After completing the spell, the mage said, "Just don't get too far away! I could've sworn this was a setup to get hit from above."
"No worries!" After a brief mock-salute, the wolf-girl took off, slicing her way in a circle around the group to clear the monsters away. A few of the spiders got skipped by her combo and closed in toward the others; Aranthra threw a fireball where the samurai wasn't, and Kite blocked each one that leapt at one of them with a barrier, stunning it long enough for Jesse to finish it off.

Scylla's combo ended with her sword stuck into the latest target, and she channeled the momentum from yanking it out into a backflip that landed her next to the mage, softly panting as she slowly resheathed it. "Back the way we came!" the mage said, pointing. "We need a wall on one side, so—"

BOOM

The giant spider landed right in front of them—making it appear briefly that the mage was pointing at it. Its feet cracked the cave floor from the impact, and it screeched again, raising three of its front-facing legs in preparation to attack. "Oh, you want some?" Scylla said, standing up straight and drawing her blade into a defenseive stance while Aranthra took a few quick steps back. "Come get some!"

One of the miko's barriers appeared in the way of the giant beast's long, spiky legs as they swept forward in a flurry; the first one glanced off of the barrier, cracking it, and the second shattered it entirely; Scylla sidestepped it with a counter-slash that hardly scratched the limb's hard shell. The third strike she met with her sword's blade, its hilt in both her hands; the impact pushed her back a fair bit and made her wince, her ears folded back, from the sharp force hitting her arms. "Rrr-aah!" She slid the blade along the limb and swept it off, moving aside and letting it land.

This distraction lasted long enough for Aranthra to charge another fireball and send it right at the giant spider. It landed opposite where Kite's bomb charm had, the glow of the explosion showing an army of smaller spiders arrayed to either side of the giant one, all seeming to climb around on top of each other in impatience to reach their prey. Then, screeching, the mother leapt again, going forward to sail over their heads and audibly land somewhere beyond them, well out of sight.

During this maneuver, Jesse did her best to prevent the smaller spiders coming in from the back and sides from getting too close, occasionally darting forward to grab one by the leg and sweep it around or toss it away into the growing stacks of beasts beyond, but it wasn't really enough, and by now they were uncomfortably close to the group. "Scylla!"
"Hm?" She turned back to see the situation. "Oh!" And went to work again right away. Aranthra led the rest of the group into the gap the jumping mother had just left behind before the army could close it, and joined her efforts with a swarm of crescent blades aimed to keep their way as clear as possible.

Almost as soon as the wolf-girl stopped, the giant spider landed again, this time to one side and dangerously close to Kite. She was lucky enough to have a barrier prepped, which caught some very caustic-looking green slime the mother spat at her, but then one giant limb disintegrated the wall with a sweeping slash. The miko had to jump roughly backwards out of the way to keep from being impaled, and Jesse stepped in between after that since the samurai was still busy catching her breath. Knowing she couldn't hurt those legs and having something of a mad idea, the sheep-girl squatted, put all her strength into as high a leap as she could manage, and then wrapped her legs around the upper part of one of the spider's legs on the landing, following this up with a swfit clamber up onto the main body to punch/slash at its hide with her clawgloves.

The mother turned her head to an unnatural-looking angle to look at the brawler, and she barely had time to jump off before being spat on, landing with a short tumble that ended half-knelt over near the others. Another fireball hit the beast, square in the front this time, and she leapt away immediately.

"Grrah! I wasn't ready," Scylla complained, slashing away some of the small spiders in frustration. "That stupid boss is cheating, being all invisible in the dark and stuff!"

"I could make us invisible too, if you think it'd help," Kite offered facetiously.

Both Jesse and the mage responded in chorus: "Don't."

They went back to fighting the smaller mobs, again making slow progress toward what Aranthra was pretty sure was the direction they'd come from. "Say, you really think it'd help if we could see 'er?" the miko asked in between casting barriers.
"Yes! We'd know when she's gonna jump, and where she's gonna land," said the samurai.

"A'right, well, I gotta idea. Dunno if it'll work or not. Next time she lands, just keep 'er busy like always."
"On it!"

The next jump was at their rear, aimed to try and impale Jesse with the landing; even though she neither saw nor heard it coming, the brawler felt some unaccountable instinct or reflex that made her dive back toward the group just in time to avoid it. Only halfway through her latest combo this time, Scylla managed to chain over to the giant beast not a second after it landed, planting her feet on the side of a leg and running vertically up it to hop over and make a rapid-fire series of slashes to its side before kicking off again well ahead of the retaliatory stream of acid. Some of the spiders to that side caught it instead, and screeched pathetically as they were absolutely melted by it.

Scylla landed to that side of the spider but much more forward, at an angle relative to the main group. "Ya missed me!" she taunted, which was sufficient to get its attention and have it slashing away at her. Kite took this opportunity to pull out two charms, one in each hand, and overchanneled each before throwing them forward. They swept up, dancing through the air before landing on the beast's body. From one of them, a ripple of bright color spread out across the short hairs on the giant arachnid's body; the other seemed to similarly spread out an effect that made the hairs it affected glow. The glow on the original, dark hairs was somewhat difficult to see, but before long both waves had covered the whole of the beast, covering it in bright neon-pink hairs that were also very visibly glowing.

The monster seemed to notice this—particularly the light surrounding it—and screeched confusedly, staggering back a few steps instead of pressing a planned third strike at Scylla (who'd handily dodged the first two), then leaping away into the air—only this time, everyone could easily see where it landed.

"Hahaa, yes! I wasn't too sure those'd work on a monster," Kite said. "'Hair dye' and 'glowy hair' enchants. Think they'll last maybe ten minutes on an unwilling."

"And these are among the useful charms we bought for you?" Jesse demanded, throwing another spider at a group in the way by its leg.

"Well that is useful, ain't it?" Kite placed a barrier to block another one tackling her from the side.

Aranthra, at least, appreciated having a glowing target. Her fireball spell prepped once again, she aimed it straight at the mother and scored a direct hit on the side, not far from where Scylla had just been slicing holes in it. She screeched in pain and ran in a panicked-looking fashion, her legs audibly squishing right through some of the army arrayed around her.

Through catching her breath, Scylla went back to helping cut a path toward the entrance—or at least, the same direction they'd been going for a bit. Any wall was good, she figured, for keeping them from being totally surrounded all the time. Aranthra turned her own attention to some more crescent blades for cutting through the mass of them, and Jesse helped clear the pile of bodies by picking them up and throwing them to either side or behind them—into more of the live encroaching beasts to keep them away.

"Heads up—scatter!" Kite yelled, being the first to notice the boss jumping with an aim to land directly on top of the group. They dove off to four sides of her, Scylla recovering the quickest and going to clear out some small spiders that were entirely too close to the two physically weaker party members. This left Jesse in front of the mother, who was flailing her four forelimbs around wildly, sweeping several of her own presumed offspring away in the process. The sheep-girl backed away from the attack, putting a hand behind her to catch a smaller spider's attempt to tackle-stab her and judo throw it forward into the sharp end of a panicking limb.

"I don't think she likes being a light source," the brawler observed. Aranthra scattered a glimmerblast to keep the spiders from getting too close to a briefly-winded Scylla, and Kite moved to follow the mother spider, placing a barrier to protect Jesse from some smaller ones coming at her side.

The samurai stood up. "Too bad! Jump assist, Kite?"

"On it."
"Hyyah!"

The wolf-girl leapt, shattered a barrier by pushing off of it, and landed on top of the boss just behind her head. Her sword came out of its sheath, raised high and pointed downward, and then stabbed straight down into the head, making her screech and spasm wildly in response. She stumbled forward as she rocked back and forth, trying to make Scylla let go of the hilt of her blade and fall off.

Trying to get away from the giant spider, Jesse backed into something solid, her left hand quickly touching the surface and feeling cold stone. "Uh—wall! WALL!"

"Wall!" Kite answered cheerfully, putting a barrier not in front of the mother's flailing forelegs, but her body, and she bounced awkwardly against it so that she began to stumble backwards instead. Scylla took the brief loss of momentum as an opportunity to wrench her sword loose and leap off before the ride could get rough again, landing next to Jesse and slashing away some smaller spiders that were getting too close on one side.

Aranthra managed to arc her next fireball up over the body to the giant's head, just about where Scylla's sword had been, and with its explosion came the sound of a screech that started ear-piercingly loud, but faded to a weak sort of whimpering sound before long. In the wake of it, her head was gone, and the same green, caustic substance she'd been spitting gushed out from the neck and melted parts of the body nearby as its legs skittered around wildly, rocking it back and forth briefly before it collapsed onto one side.

The mage panted; casting a strong (for her level) spell so many times in quick succession was really taxing. "Got it! I think? Whoa!" No sooner did the giant spider collapse than all the smaller ones had stopped in their track and stood still, appearing to watch her. Then, they all began to move seemingly at once, the nearby ones swarming toward the fallen body and seeming to take care to step around the two adventurers when they would otherwise be on their path to the target. They covered the mother spider like flies, completely obscuring her body and audibly tearing pieces of it off; if it hadn't been dead before, it definitely was now.

Scylla's ears folded back a bit, watching this. "Uuuhhh.."

"This is disgusting," Jesse said, turning half-away with one of her eyes closed on the other squinted.

"I think it's just a 'boss death cutscene' equivalent," the mage said. "So we don't have to...yeeaah.." The majority of the spiders that had been feeding on their (presumed) mother's flesh began to screech in pain, collapsing and melting as if they had just been covered in her corrosive acid. Those that didn't began to scatter away, fleeing the cavern entirely, and in this way it rapidly emptied of living monsters until the four adventurers were left with only the bodies.

"Well, that sure was somethin'," Kite commented first.

"Hahah...yeah. I guess we won?" Scylla said. "Victory pose!" With this, she threw an arm over Jesse's shoulders and used the free one to hold up a peace sign.

"H-hey!" She put a half-measure of effort into pulling out of the unwanted hug, and brushed herself off after it was released.

"Yeah! Staff clink," the fox-girl said, holding out her gohei toward Aranthra.

"Uh, okay?" She tapped an upper bit of her staff against the miko's.

The wolf-girl bounded over to the mages (taking care to go around what was left of the mother spider's corpse), and Jesse followed slowly. "Oh man, that was great! Way bigger and flashier than that bear boss. I wonder what kinda crafting stuff this one dropped!"
"Hahah, no kidding. That thing broke right through my shields like they were paper," the fox-girl said, nodding.
"I am so glad I picked fireball to learn first," Aranthra added almost simultaneously.

With all three of them briefly talking over each other, they didn't immediately notice a sound echoing from a distant edge of the chamber. Jesse waved at them and pointed, and all three turned the same way she was looking. The sound was that of a single person slow-clapping, and when they looked they found someone coming out of an entrance which was much closer to their present position than the one they'd come from. A bright glow surrounded this person without having a terribly obvious, singular source.

It was a tall woman in something resembling a military outfit, including a hat and a long coat that failed to entirely hide a bright red skirt, black stockings and a pair of boots. She was curvy, with deep purple eyes and a cape silver-white hair nearly down to the hips; the hilt of a sword was visible on her left side, constantly crackling with what looked to be electricity. There were also two short, curly horns ending in spikes coming from the corners of her head, and something like wings made of several pieces of metal that appeared to be floating in place a short ways behind her. Now that she had their attention, she put a finger up to her lips.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," she said in a low, smug voice, getting just into conversational distance. "By all means," she smirked and put out a hand toward them, gesturing to continue the celebration.
"You kinda ruined the mood with the slow-clap," said Scylla. "So, who're you?"

"You may address me as General Iella," she said. "I was sent here by her majesty, the demon queen, to clear out some pests, but it seems that's already taken care of. My assignment also involves searching out the defenses of this country, but there really isn't much to speak of. Only a few scattered groups of adventurers who wouldn't pose much of a threat to the weakest of the queen's glorious army. I could probably mow down the few pathetic town guards myself."

Scylla and Aranthra exchanged an uncertain glance in the wake of this. Kite was even less sure of what was going on; was this just some roleplaying, or what? Iella tilted her head slightly at this point, however, and continued "So how was that, I wonder? It's been a while since my last 'grand, villainous speech;' I'm afraid I may be a bit rusty."

"Um..it was better before you started asking for a rating," the mage said. "So you're a..player, or..?"
"Well, I just told you," she said, putting her hands on her hips, "I'm a general in the demon queen's army. What, you thought just because you're playing a beta there wouldn't be a story? We can't have our first players telling everyone else they found the game directionless and boring, after all! Anyway...

"A-hem." With a soft clearing of her throat, the demon-woman drew her sword and held it out toward them; the entire blade seemed just as full of electricity as the hilt. "You lot don't look like much, but out of gratitude...I'll let you live if you can manage to score a single hit on me." She smirked again. "I'll even let you make the first move."

Three out of four members of the party recognized this offer as a trap. Unfortunately, the one who didn't was also the swiftest of them by far, and Scylla put her hand on the hilt of her sheathed sword and made a charging slash at the demon general before anyone could get a word out to warn her. Iella seemed just as capable of moving quicker than the eye could see as the samurai—if not more so—and seemed to effortlessly catch the blade on her own. The electricity arced around from the point of contact to encircle the katana's blade, evidently magnetizing the metal since she was able to yank it entirely out of the wolf-girl's grasp just by swinging her blade away. Then it was released at the end of the swing, sending the sword flying across the cave elsewhere to clatter loudly on the ground.

"G'yaah!" Scylla stumbled slightly back, but didn't entirely lose her compusure, instead pulling one of her kunai and making a wild toss in Iella's general direction. She batted this away effortlessly, but needing to do so prevented her from countering the unarmed samurai. Jess stepped in with a punch (which she easily sidestepped), giving the wolf-girl a moment to run after her weapon—and having a plan besides. Iella swung back at her, Kite managed to put a shield in the way which shattered instantly but still slowed the swing enough for the sheep-girl to sidestep and grab the flat of the blade.

"Rrrg—!" Electricity coursed over her, but she had enough endurance to bear it and keep trying to pull the weapon out of her hand. Unfortunately, Iella far outclassed her in strength and maintained her grip, instead swinging the brawler up over her head and away to one side, ending in a rough landing. Predictably, she also had no trouble at all deflecting a shower of sparks from Aranthra and advanced unimpeded on their healer.

Kite pulled out a charm she'd rather have saved and stuck it to her gohei, planting its base firmly on the ground. Three layers of dome-shaped barrier appeared around her, and barely held up against Iella's hard swing—it shattered the two outer layers and badly cracked the third. Scylla was back before she could follow up, this time making a series of swift, low-impact strikes that pulled her blade back before it could get stuck to the demon's electrified sword.

Aranthra gambled a bit, taking this time to charge a fireball and send it Iella's way. She casually swiped her blade to one side and hit the fireball, batting it back the way it came and forcing the mage to dive out of the way of the explosion. She narrowly avoided getting blown up, but rolled painfully across the ground and still took some of the heat damage. Kite tried to assist by placing barriers in the way of some of Iella's counter strikes, or walls where she was about to move toward, or badly sloped floors just where her feet were going to step—but she shattered the first of those and always seemed to still have the reaction time to avoid all the more subtle traps. By now Jesse was close enough to try and get some punches in, timing them for when Iella was attempting to counter Scylla's strikes. Still, the demon general evaded everything and seemed to have more than enough time to make things difficult for both of them, hardly giving them room to breathe.

"Oww..." Aranthra pulled herself up to her feet slowly using her staff and examined the situation for a moment, thinking. The AoE explosion was a good idea against someone who no-sold everything with stupid fast dodging, but then she'd just deflected it back. She thought: What kind of sword lets you tennis a fireball, anyway? It must be some kind of high-grade artifact or something. Wait...

"Kite," she whispered, moving slightly closer to the fox-girl. The miko was concentrating on helping with the fight, but her eyes darted the mage's way for just a fraction of an instant to let her know she'd heard. "Mini-dragon strats." A slight, swift nod acknowledged that she understood, so Aranthra began charging antoher fireball.

Scylla was reaching the end of her stamina, starting to feel terribly out of breath and making what her instincts told her were some fairly severe mistakes. "What's the matter? Can't keep up?" Iella taunted, deliberately not captializing on any of them—she probably wouldn't need to if things kept up this way. Just when it felt like she was really going to collapse or drop her sword, Jesse stepped in front of a downward chop from the demon and clapped her hands against the flat sides of the blade to hold it.
"RrrrRRRgh..!" She pushed back against the blade, shaking with effort, as it inched closer to her face and continued to force electricity into the ground through her. Just when it was about to cut her, Aranthra finished her spell. The chanting had a very particular end that indicated she was actually throwing the fireball, and Iella clearly knew what it was. She yanked the sword back out of Jesse's grasp and swung around with it to swat away the fireball again.

Her blade hit the fireball, and it got an inch or two away—and then a barrier formed right in front of it. The shield shattered from the impact, but did its job, making the magical bomb explode right in the demon general's face.

Once free of the sword, Jesse stuck a hand out behind her to help pull Scylla to her feet. When the explosion cleared, it revealed Iella looking enitrely uninjured—not even her hair or clothes appearing lightly singed. Still, she wasn't swinging her sword anymore, and even sheathed it as she looked around at the group—all of them panting from exertion. "Heheh..haa~haha! Nice work," she said, crossing her arms. "Maybe you lot have potential after all. I'll have to tell her majesty to kep her eye on you~."

The wolf-girl reasoned that this was a major antagonist, and so probably worth tons of experience. Her breath caught, she got ready to swing at the currently unarmed villain. Iella, meanwhile, pulled out a small crystal of some sort, holding it in the palm of her hand, and crushed it in a fist. As Scylla swung at her, she vanished, visibly teleporting away in a brief show of dark purple light—and the sword went right through the place where she'd just been. "...Dangit."

"Well, that was a...thing," Aranthra said. "I guess we got two bosses for the price of one, huh? And some plot exposition."

The samurai sheathed her sword, and looked around—particularly noticing the area where the giant spider had been. "Loot!" she said excitedly, running off toward it.

"That was a great plan, Ara," Kite said, clapping the mage on the back unexpectedly—making her stumble forward a couple of steps. "You've got the makings of a trickster yourself, girl!" Then she continued on toward Jesse to heal her wounds from being electrocuted—the worst any of the group had endured between the two battles.

"I sure hope not...

"Hey, is uh, is it racist to cast demons as the antagonists?" she said, following along in hopes of getting some of her relatively minor burns and bruises looked at afterward. Meanwhile, Scylla excitedly ran back and forth carrying the copious treasure that the spider mother and her spawn had dropped over to the rest of the group to split up.

"Well, someone's gotta be the bad guy," Kite said between reciting healing spells. "And y'know, historically, demons have tried to conquer the world repeatedly throughout history. Just 'cause it ain't all demons, don't mean that it ain't demons sometimes."

"Human society has placed demons as 'evil' for longer than human history remembers," Jesse added. "To such an extent that we say 'demonize' to indicate characterizing something as evil. There have indeed been many heroic demons, but if they were upset about it, I'm sure they would've said something by now. It is really no worse than characterizing Kitsune as tricksters, or werewolves as nature-lovers."

"I reckon they just get a kick outta how powerful they always are in fiction," the fox-girl said, turning to take care of the mage's wounds. "Anyhow, ya can't go through life wonderin' if every single thing's gonna offend somebody. Sometimes ya just gotta do things and hope they'll speak up if it bothers 'em."

"Yeah! Demons are a playable race, anyway," Scylla added, finished carrying everything over. "So if someone doesn't like it, they can be the good demons." Satisfied that the discussion was done, she went straight to picking out her portion of the spoil.

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It's more of a fun easter egg than something that I think will be story-relevant, but General Iella's "player" is actually someone we've met in another ongoing story. I wonder if anyone has a guess who it is?