There was only a minor feeling of relief as I knelt over the body of the dead king, staying in the middle of the active battlefield.

My wings were flapping and twitching in agitation, subconsciously reacting to my thoughts.

Without meaning to, I began to get uncontrollably swallowed by memories that began to rise from where they were buried in my mind. Memories of fun times with my old party, back when I was a Hero, the memories of my time with the princess Kirrin.

At some level, I felt a warmth and slight weight sit on my lap and arms entwine around me for a second...before my consciousness was devoured by the memories.

 

 

"I have summoned you to this world, Hero, to kill the Demon King. Our great God Arre called you here, and you accepted." A deep voice reached my ears.

While I understood the words, my mind was elsewhere.

I was consumed by confusion, looking around myself.

No longer was I in my familiar room, gone was my computer and bed, instead I was kneeling on a stone platform.

It seems that when the strange voice spoke to me, while I was playing an online game, he had been making a truthful offer.

My knees were starting to hurt, the hard stone under them was cold.

Looking up at the new person who spoke to me, I saw a dignified looking old man with gray hair, there seemed to be something like respect in his eyes.

"Daddy, you succeeded? Arre answered our prayers?" I heard a soft and melodious female voice coming from behind the old man.

He stepped aside and looked back at the beautiful girl who was standing behind him.

That was the first time I saw her, the first time I saw the princess Kirrin. She was beautiful, her large, damp, eyes were a deep sapphire blue. Her nose was slim and high, with a cute tilt.

Her cheekbones were high, her lips thin and naturally a brilliant crimson.

When she smiled, I saw a pair of deep dimples in her pale cheeks.

Her raven-black hair framed her beautiful oval face, then cascaded down over her small shoulders, terminating at her slim waist.

Back then, she was sixteen, the same age as I was.

I couldn't help but think that genetics had treated her well, much better than they did me, but that was before I found out that Arre had rebuilt me, and well.

I came back to myself, realizing that I had accidentally been staring straight at her for a while now.

My face burned with a deep blush as I felt a surge of embarrassment.

But strangely, she was blushing as well, though she was staring back at me the whole time.

Her eyes were wide, curiosity burning deep within them.

However, it was likely that my stare contained more than curiosity.

"Yes Kirrin, our Lord, Arre, allowed us to summon this Hero. Our prayers have been answered..." The old man's voice interrupted our rather awkward non-verbal interaction.

Being raised by the church, and her parents deeply believed as well, Kirrin grew up on stories about how great Arre was. She truly loved him, truly trusted him, believing him to be the best God, to be kind and benevolent. She even thought that he cared for his people, other than that he needed to keep them alive and having faith in him, because he needed that for power. She believed in him, and until the very end she never knew what a monster he was.

I felt a surge of pride at his words, I had actually been summoned as a Hero by a real God...I was also going to be saving people from evil Demons. Saving a world, fighting for justice, instead of just believing in it and dreaming.

This is what I had wished for since I was a child.

It turned out that this old man was the king, he introduced himself as Erros. Kirrin was his eldest daughter, and the crown princess.

He signaled for me to sit down.

I sat down on the lip of the stone platform.

Kirrin sat down next to me as Erros stood in front of us.

The warmth of Kirrin next to me was fascinating, and the sweet scent of her body filled my senses. It struck me as strange that girls could smell this good.

Before my summoning, I had never been good with girls.

Kirrin would occasionally glance over at me, and then blush and quickly look away when her eyes met mine.

Then Erros started to talk about the war, the great war between Humans and Demons, it was a war between light and darkness, between good and evil.

Because of reading books on the internet before I was summoned, I had the idea that Demons and darkness were inherently bad, so I didn't require much convincing.

After he finished his explanation, he said something that would stick in my mind for the entire year long journey that we took, killing the Demon King, and on the whole way back, "I shall arrange your engagement to Kirrin; marrying into a Hero bloodline will be a real blessing for her."

I looked over at Kirrin as he said this.

She nodded in response to the words, though she blushed so deeply that her face was as red as a tomato.

Of course, Kirrin already knew that her marriage would eventually be arranged by her father. She knew that she could never marry purely for love. She had accepted this long ago, because even if she may not like it, she always obeyed her father. She actually loved and trusted him, he was like a second God to her.

On the third day of our journey, we were camping out in the forest. Our quest to kill the evil Demon King and save the world.

I was sitting and staring into the forest, looking at nothing and thinking about the upcoming fun, when I suddenly hear Kirrin's voice.

Hearing Kirrin, my attention was drawn over to where she and Jesh were sitting and talking.

Jesh was the Elven Mage, traveling with us, part of the 'Hero Party', our back line support.

"C'mon, teach me... Teach me?" Kirrin was nagging Jesh.

Apparently she wanted him to instruct her.

This happened a lot on the three days.

I have no idea why he responded this way, but his response was a question, "Why so insistent, little Princess?"

She had started asking Jesh to teach her since the first day, it. I had noticed it at first on the first night when we camped.

For some reason, when he asked her the reasons, she would blush slightly and stop talking.

However, today she decided to gather her courage and answered his question.

"I am useless at close range combat, but I want to be of help to Alex, I don't want to be dead weight."

I almost forgot that name. My birth name...was Alex.

When I heard that she wanted to be of help to me, and for some reason I felt a strange warmth in my chest.

First I rejected my name, until Master taught me the Revocation of Names ceremony. For a year I was a Nameless, going only by Vindicus; until Master died, her final request was that I accept a new name.

Names have power in this world, in Magic.

I eventually took the name of the character from my online game, the one I loved before I was summoned by Arre.

Jesh shrugged and patted her head, like she was a pet dog.

When I asked later, I learned that the two of them had grown up as childhood friends, but Jesh entered the academy but Kirrin couldn't because she was the crown princess.

"A noble cause," Jesh smiled proudly, speaking as though he was an older brother proud of his little sister, "I shall teach you."

Looking amused, Jesh took a book out of his bag, holding it out to Kirrin.

She looked so happy as she grabbed it from his hand and darted over to the campfire, and plopped herself down next to me.

Unexpectedly she leaned against me shoulder as she started to study the book.

Looking at her for a second, I felt my heart skip a beat, before I managed to tear my gaze away from her and began to read over her shoulder.

 

 

Over the next few days, Kirrin began asking me to learn with her, I agreed pretty quickly, not needing too much convincing.

So, in the end, Jesh ended up teaching the both of us.

He saw that our chemistry was good, so he taught us a special Elven Magic.

The Magic was known as 'Partner Magic'.

These spells needed two people with absolute trust in each other working together to cast them, they were created by the Elven gods, who were a couple. A male and female deity that had been married before they ascended together, and this was the difference between them and most of the other gods. They were much more powerful than most deities on their level, but they could only bring out their most powerful Magic, 'Partner Magic', when they were together.

If they ever separated, they were actually only individually had the power of a Higher Demigod.

One of the things that originally drew me to the princess, that enabled her to worm her way into my heart so easily, was that she was so sweet and innocent.

She was nice, caring almost to a fault.

But she wished to help others, to be strong and reliable, instead of relying on people more powerful than she was.

While Kirrin originally had a small crush on me, the moment she officially fell was when I saved her life directly for the first time during one of our battles against the Demons.

She apparently needed a little push to turn the crush and friendship to love, though it was also a classic example of the suspension-bridge effect.

Swinging my sword at the Demon's neck, I felt the now familiar feeling of flesh being parted, the horned head flew through the air with a jet of blood.

I had been travelling in this world for almost three months now, learning how to fight and survive through live combat, which was how all Heroes were trained.

It had originally been suggested by a famous general, since then it had been proven to work many times since then.

Because with my Hero body, I had the capabilities to survive against most of the Demons that could be found near the Human territory, even without much training.

I felt a strange sense of accomplishment, and as I basked in the kill, I suddenly heard a scream.

Spinning around, I saw Kirrin being approached by a couple of Demon soldiers, their killing intent was enough to chill my blood even from the distance I was from them. I couldn't imagine how bad it was for Kirrin who was right next to them.

She seemed have run out of Mana and was in a bad position, she was leaning against a tree, bent over and panting. The Demons looking at her had both killing intent and lust in their gaze, which triggered bloodlust in me.

I wouldn't allow Kirrin to get hurt...or worse.

Using one of my Holy Powers, I teleported to her side, my sword already swinging towards one of the Demons.

Teleporting in combat is dangerous since you have to be careful to keep your focus while teleporting, which is difficult in the chaos of a battlefield, if you didn't wish to die.

It was easier than when I used to practice, probably because of my bloodlust and berserking, both Demons were dead before they could even notice me.

Turning to Kirrin, I made sure that she was okay.

She was looking up at me, tears in her eyes. Beginning to cry, she jumped up and latched onto me, clinging to my chest.

"Thank you, Alex, thank you!"

As she looked up at me, her eyes meeting mine, we stayed like that as the world seemed to fade away except for the two of us. Something in her eyes changed somehow, it was as though she had made a large decision, I could see it deep in her gaze.

Standing on her tiptoes, stretching up, she lent forwards and kissed me.

Without warning, her soft, and strangely hot, lips met mine, her scent tickled my nose.

Since this was our first kiss, it was quite clumsy, but that didn't make it bad.

I felt a warm current wash through my body, originating from both my chest and where our lips met, electric shocks followed the heat, which were strongest were our skin touched.

Later that night, at the campfire, I asked her what the decision was, the decision she made before kissing me. She looked slightly confused for a second before muttering, "How did you know?"

"I saw it in your eyes."

My response was rather lame.

But she smiled widely before leaning closer to me and whispering so that no one else would hear, "I decided that life is too fragile, I should stop being so scared. I realized that I love you, and decided that I would start acting on it."

Her face was blushed like a tomato and her voice shook as she spoke, but she managed a shaky smile.

When she looked like she was going to move away, running because of embarrassment, I decided to move. Managing to gather my courage and act, an act that was more difficult than fighting three or four Demons at once, I gently cupped her face and brought my face closer.

It was my turn to kiss her this time.

Those kisses were the first, but there were many more afterwards. Of course, we showed moderation, since we were on a very dangerous journey. I was very careful and if she ever showed any signs of hesitation, I would stop right away.

We never went the whole way.

She wanted to wait until after the war, the thought of accidentally conceiving a child during this conflict terrified her.

 

The moon was high in the sky, the soft light illuminated the countryside around me. I could even see the outline of the Demon King's castle in the distance, the pitch-black stones looked as though an ominous shadowy behemoth squatted between two hills.

We were camping on the ridge of a large mountain range.

Our campfire was burning a small distance behind me as I sat with my back against a large rock and looking out at the castle, the upcoming fight had me worried.

While we could see the Demon King's castle, we were still a few weeks from entering the Demon territory, let alone near the castle.

I heard a soft rustling noise behind me, upon looking back, I saw Kirrin walking up behind me.

Without a moment's hesitation, she sat on my lap.

"I missed you at dinner." Her voice was quiet as she leaned back against me, her head resting on my chest, fitting under my chin. Her hair tickled my skin.

I couldn't help but focus on the feeling of her soft butt pressing against my lap, her breathing sped up a little as she squirmed a little.

While she didn't hesitate with her skinship, her hands rested in her lap, curled into fists and shaking slightly, she was obviously nervous.

I looked down into her deep eyes, feeling as though I were about to be consumed, and smiled reassuringly at her.

Moving slowly, like trying to reassure a small animal, I reached over and gently held her hands. Her fists uncurled and her slim fingers entwined with mine, her trembling slowed, stopped.

As she started to relax, I gently rested my chin on her head.

Watching her staring into the sky that was visible over the mountains and castle in front of us, I asked a nonsense question, "Do you know where my home is?"

She smiled and raised one of our entwined hands and moved her index finger, pointing up at the stars, "Somewhere up there...Arre would know."

I don't know why I asked, since I knew that she wouldn't have the answer, but I wanted to fill the silence.

But it seems that Arre was apparently watching us.

One of the stars glowed much brighter, seemingly highlighting it.

While I was shocked, Kirrin gasped.

"Well, it seems like your home is there, apparently." She giggled and then whispered.

She released one of my hands, gripping my other with both of hers. I do not know why she did this though.

Changing my partially supine position, making it so I could move my hand as I wished without falling over, which would be embarrassing, I looked down into Kirrin's beautiful face, reaching down I started to slowly stroke one of her soft cheeks.

"No, that would be where I am from, but my home is here...with you."

I felt like slamming my head against the rock because of that sappy line.

But Kirrin blushed a brilliant crimson, from the tips of her ears, all the way down her neck.

"You say things like that now, but what if Arre gave you a way back?"

I could see the doubt in her eyes, the fear of being abandoned, the fear that I didn't return the love that she had for me.

"I would choose to stay here, in this world. Not only am a Hero here, but this world has the most important thing for me...The girl I love." I gently kissed her forehead as she stared up at me.

This was actually the first time I actively said that I loved her.

After her shock wore off, after a slight pause, she spoke, "I love you too...I hope that we can be together forever..."

She meant her words, she really loved me, and she proved it many times. Her love for me eventually became greater than her love for Arre, this could have been one of the reasons Arre convinced the King to kill her.

 

 

"Jesh, hurry up! The bandit base is just ahead."

I was running ahead of my team, I couldn't hold back on my enthusiasm to deliver justice to those evil bandits, the karma that they deserved. Doing this would help many people, including merchants and innocent villagers.

Looking back, I saw Kirrin sign to me.

Obediently slowing down, I went and joined her.

"Why do you want me to slow down?"

I was jogging by Kirrin's side when I asked the question.

"We should work as a team. You may be powerful, but please, share your burdens with us...with me? It's what we are here for." She looked up at me with puppy eyes.

Jesh, who was nearby, and preparing some Magic, heard her words and smiled at us. I couldn't help but notice how he also rolled his eyes at our childish antics.

I nodded to Kirrin, a sign that I would share my burden with her...and with the others.

Still jogging, I reached out and took her small hand, to which Kirrin giggled and squeezed it affectionately.

I was so innocent back then.

Innocence is an unpardonable sin.

Instead of Lust or Wrath, Innocence and Justice should be the Deadly Sins. The former are just normal parts of a Human's psyche, but the later two always lead to unavoidable suffering to the sinner and to everyone around them, they are unpardonable.

Justice is just evil under another name. The most disgusting evils are committed by men with eyes clouded by justice.

Pure evil is always disguised as the best intentions, bringing all to the depths of hell.

 

 

"Dude, you were awesome!" With an arm around Noa's shoulders, I laughed.

While he laughed along with me, he looked embarrassed.

He never liked praises, never thought that he was good enough for them, no matter how much he succeeded.

"Well, I wouldn't say awesome. Okay, I did hit that flying Demon in the eye at one hundred paces, which is fairly good even for me." His tone changed slightly as he partially admitted that what he did was impressive, his hands were caressing his Elven War Bow.

"Yeah, my brother is cool... All three of you are cool!" Jesh started to act his age, a teenager, when we were drinking.

"Hey! What about your sister here?" Kirrin raised a bit of a fuss from where she was sitting.

"It's Alex's job to tell you how awesome you are, and to love you, my sister." Jesh laughed as he raised a thumb at me.

"Well, thatsh true," Kirrin slurred slightly as she muttered and looked up at me.

We had just finished a very difficult fight, and Kall had agreed to get us all some alcohol, to celebrate.

Speaking of Kall, he was the final member of our party, and he was sitting across the campfire from Kirrin, Noa and I, watching our antics and making sure that we didn't do anything stupid when under the influence.

For once, this overly zealous Priest wasn't harping on with his preaching about his God.

Kirrin squirmed slightly, readjusting her position, "I love you, Alex."

She was currently sitting on the ground, leaning forwards against my legs, her legs on either side of the upright log that I was using as a chair. Her soft breasts sat on my lap, her eyes were on my thighs and she supported her chin on her hands.

Kirrin was so cute, her face was flushed from drink, her puppy-like eyes were large and damp, staring into mine. Though her eyes were slightly unfocused.

Smiling down at her, I spoke, "I love you too Kirrin."

Reaching down with one hand, I gently, and rather clumsily, stroked her hair.

With a strange noise, she grabbed my hand and pulled it down, before wrapping her fingers around it.

At first it seemed pretty normal, but then she continued guiding my hand down and placed it on one of her breasts, her breathing speeding up slightly.

Then she began to rhythmically squeeze my hand, encouraging me to grope her. A great feeling filled my hand as I kneaded the soft and pliant flesh of her well-shaped breast, and after a few seconds, she didn't have to do anything since I was moving on my own.

She began making noises and panting, her hands firmly gripped my thighs, squeezing in time to her rapid breaths.

The others had looked away and began talking among themselves, but I noticed that Kall would glance over and seemed ready to stop us at any time if it went much further.

 

I released her chest and supported Kirrin under her arms and helped her to her feet. Once she had stood up, I turned her around and she sat on my lap. Leaning back with her head on my chest, she looked up and into my eyes.

As she stabilized herself, I wrapped my arms around her, placing one hand back on her chest, going back to what I had been doing before.

She gripped my other hand and guided it down to her stomach, and I began to trace small circles on it. With each circle, she began to squirm slightly, and I could feel her stomach muscles twitch and contract.

Her eyes were glassy and her breathing was rough, one of her hands was still on top of the one I was using to play with her stomach, and she gripped it firmly.

She was encouraging me, wanting me to go further.

However, I knew that she was drunk, "Uh...We should probably leave it here."

My head was fuzzy, but I managed to get control, and while I suggested this, I must admit that I was feeling quite reluctant. I was barely keeping myself from just pushing her down there.

It was likely that I had minor exhibitionist tendencies. Or I didn't care that the others were there because of the drink...

I released her chest and moved my hand away from her stomach, though she seemed like she tried to push it back. Linking my hands in front of her, I hugged her tightly for a few seconds before I got up and gently sat her down onto the log that I vacated.

"Please look after her...I am going to sleep." I looked over at the three guys, specifically asking Kall, who was sober. He looked back at me with a grin and nodded, I knew that I could trust him.

They were all blushing slightly, which was understandable.

I had sobered up, so I felt like my face was on fire and my blood was ice cold, the signs of severe embarrassment.

Turning around, I went and lay down in my tent, with the door open I could still see them.

It took me quite a while to calm down enough to actually fall asleep.

Jesh and Noa thought of Kirrin as a sister, so neither of them made any moves on her. Kall was a Priest, and he was married, with a wife and young child waiting for him back in the Dwarven capital, so Kirrin was safe after I left.

She also showed no attraction, or lust, towards them even with her inhibitions gone from the drink.

As I was trying to sleep, I could see that she would often glance over at the tent.

What worried me was that I saw tears in her eyes.

I was scared that I had accidentally upset her, and I ended up having nightmares because of it.

 

 

When morning came and we all woke up, the guys still seemed a little embarrassed when they looked at either Kirrin or I. But Kirrin walked over and hugged me, squeezing tightly, and when I returned the hug, she pulled herself deeply into my embrace.

She seemed to be shaking slightly, "Thank you, Alex."

Her voice was a whisper, her face blushing from the ears to the base of her neck, but there was a deep happiness in her eyes.

Those were the best of times, the celebrations after the fights, and the fights themselves.

 

 

"Just listen, okay, Alex. Jura, the God of the Forge is real, and he is the best!" Kall spoke up enthusiastically as he looked up from his 'Book of the Five Gods', which he read fairly often.

I sighed as he started preaching again.

The only God I had chosen to follow is Arre.

"Sorry bro, Arre is the best." I laughed as I spoke, carefully cleaning my Holy Sword.

Kall just smiled in return and turned to the Elven brothers.

"Nope!"

Both of them spoke at the same time, shaking their heads in unison.

Back then, I honest thought that Arre was the best god. But now, I would willing follow Jura if it meant getting the power to kill that bastard... But when I contacted different gods, through different rituals over the last four years, they refused to lend out power for something that could start another War of the Gods.

Everyone seemed to be scared of Arre.

 

 

"Dammit, run Noa! The Wards have failed!" Jest yelled at Noa as the Demon King's spell speared towards the unprepared archer.

I felt panic as I realized that I couldn't do anything, I had just used all of my Divine spells associated with shielding when I protected Jesh and him from the Demon King's last assault.

All of the Wards had been penetrated by the last spell that the Demon King had cast.

Even with all the power of a Hero, there was nothing that I could do.

"Noooo!" Kirrin screamed as she tried to disengage and run forwards to grab Noa, to pull him out of harm's way.

But Jesh moved faster and stopped her, holding her back, saving her life as his brother was enveloped in a Demonic hellfire. He had tears streaming down his face, he knew that there was nothing that anyone had could do.

"Jura curse ye!" Kall's accent only showed up when he was extremely emotional, be it pissed off, sad, or scared. With a snarl, he channeled Jura's Divine power to cast a powerful Ward on Kirrin and Jesh, he couldn't have done this for Noa because he couldn't react quickly enough.

With a shout, I jumped forwards and slashed the Demon King with my Holy Sword, flinging him through the air and into the stone wall.

The Demon King screamed something in a language that I didn't recognize.

A black phantom appeared, flashing out of the Demon King's body, looking around with flaming red eyes glowing brightly. With a strange shriek, it shot towards Kall and slammed into him, through him.

Kall stiffened, black lightning flashing inside his eyes.

With a strange noise, his body melted, rapidly turning into a puddle of deep black goo.

This phantom seemed to consume the Divine power inside the victim, using it to empower a spell of Disintegration.

 

When I killed the Demon King, I saw Jesh pick something off the floor. He had walked over to the wall where the Demon King's corpse laid against the wall.

I know now that was the Demon King's horn.

 

 

I stood on the familiar stone platform, the one on which I had first been summoned.

Kirrin was standing across from me.

She was staring at me with love obvious in her gaze, and for some reason there was a slight sense of fear warring with trust.

"After this, my beloved, we can finally, officially get married," Kirrin was so happy that small tears leaked from her eyes as she spoke.

As I watched her, feeling a mixture of joy and as though I would be pulled into her eyes, I saw a priest walk up behind her.

He had something glowing in his hand.

The unassuming Priest pressed the glowing hand against the back of her head.

With no warning, no signs, all of the light faded from her eyes.

It was painfully obvious that her will was consumed, her mind and emotions dulled and then vanished. The last thing to disappear from her eyes was the love that dwelled deep in her mind, it was as though she held onto that last vestige, the most important thing to her. She fought for as long as she could.

It was as though she wished to convey her feelings, making sure that I would remember it.

She knew that as soon as the glowing hand touched her head, that she was going to die, and she wanted my last image of her to be her deep love for me.

It was then that the white beam came down and teleported me away, that was the last I ever saw of my beloved Kirrin, and the last time I saw the Human capital for around a year.

I heard of her true death a year later. This spell was only a mind control, they used her as a puppet, to blame me and accuse me of being the new Demon King.

They publicly, and brutally executed her.

 

 

As I saw these memories, drifting at a distance and watching as though from a third person perspective, I saw a girl standing where Kirrin had been.

The girl looked like she was fifteen years old and she was wearing a tee-shirt and jeans, clothing from Earth.

However, her face was blurry, and I couldn't tell what colour her hair was.

She looked at me, her silver eyes suddenly become incredibly clear and visible, I could see a deep sadness.

"Once you wake, go to the Capital, for there you will find the key to your final victory over Arre."

I nodded.

But just as I was about to speak to her, to ask her the myriad questions that were spinning through my mind.

However, she just raised her hand and everything shimmered and spun.

 

 

Just when the repressed feelings and memories forced their way out of the walls with which I had suppressed them, I had instinctively tuned out everything around me.

My final act before I was pulled into my mind and fully absorbed, was to protect Soea, to shield the telepathic link.

For some reason though, I could feel a strangely comforting warmth and softness wrapped around me the entire time I stood and watched the memories.

Suddenly returning to sanity, I lowered my head slightly and saw Soea's glowing blue eyes, her pale face was framed by her raven-black hair, her head was resting against my chest as she embraced me tightly, holding me so hard that her arms were shaking slightly.

"Kirrin?!"

I blurted this name out, without thinking.