I've never felt more relief in seeing the mossy cobble walls of our home. It usually meant the end of a pleasant day in the grass, but this time, it's the end of a bloody nightmare.

"Comrade! What happened?!" one of the guards shouts as he sees how bloodied I am while the Crusaders barely hold on to their dignity.

"Alarm! Demon attack imminent!" Gedeon energetically shouts back. It seems like he still has more stamina left than Arpad.

But the human guard just stands still, dumbfounded, while his comrades gather around in confusion.

And this angers Gedeon so much that he fucking roars, "I SAID! DEMON ATTACK! SOUND THE ALARM AND GET THE CRUSADERS HERE!"

"Are you a Crusader?!" the fool shouts back, starting to make even me angry.

So that obviously makes Gedeon's boiler explode, "YES, YOU SHIT-CUNT!"

And the idiot finally realizes how dumb he's being. "Fuck!"

Then he runs off while the rest of the guards make way for us.

"Fiubun, Elina…!" Arpad suddenly calls, so we stop and turn around. He's folding in half and barely holding on, but he still finds the energy to speak, "We'll stay by the wall… you go get your family… to safety… and we'll find you again… to give you your bounty."

"If we survive, yeah," I blurt out. I'm definitely not an optimistic person.

Sis gives me a glare for my quip, but then she turns to Arpad again and informs him, "We'll hide in the Debrecen Second School."

And he nods. "Got it… now go…!"

 

Without having little humans slowing us down, Sis and I run across the town like a gust of wind. Once we reach the inn, the sirens finally start screeching, but it'll take a while before people remember what they're for.

"I'm going to Margit's. We'll meet back at the school," Sis hastily announces.

"Good luck," I grumble back.

And she gives me a bitter smile. "You too."

Then we split.

Everyone at the inn looks confused, but it only doubles up once they see me. I just ignore the patrons and immediately go to the kitchen.

"Fiubun, what happened?!" I hear Aliz shout. The senior maid looks a bit angry that I'm dripping blood all over the inn's floor, but the fact that I'm bloody is a lot more important and concerning to her.

"Demon attack. We have to evacuate to the school," I bluntly answer.

But I guess I was too brief as she just freezes in confusion. "What?!"

So I walk up to her and insist. "I'm serious. I'm taking Mom and leaving, so you should come with us."

She blinks, then my words finally enter her head. "I need to get my husband," she blurts out and immediately runs off.

"Fiubun?!" Mom shouts in despair. Then she runs up to me and starts to inspect my armor in search of a wound.

But I grab her wrists and force her to look at my face. "The blood isn't mine. There's a demon attack incoming, so we need to evacuate."

"Where's your sister?" she immediately questions, looking frightened for a second.

So I soothe her, "Going after Margit. We have to help the neighbors evacuate."

And she nods obediently. "O-okay…"

The siren sounds again, so I wait until it stops, then turn around and loudly announce to the rest of the crew as they stare at me in confusion, "DEMON ATTACK! THE SIREN IS TELLING US TO EVACUATE TO THE NEAREST SCHOOL!" And I'm pretty sure everyone inside and maybe even those outside have heard me.

"OH, FUCK!" I hear Huba shout in despair. He's a pious human, so this must be his worst nightmare.

"COME WITH ME!" I shout again, then start to leave, and it seems like almost everyone follows, but I don't have the state of mind to count everyone.

All I can think about is taking Mom toward safety.

 

"Fiubun! What's going on!" old Édis shouts as she sees us approach. She's helping her husband as he's struggling to walk even with a cane.

"Demon attack! I'm taking your husband with me!" I bluntly answer.

"You what?" she quacks back in confusion.

I don't wait and simply pull the old man into a princess carry. "Oh, what in-a blood-eh mess!" he starts to whine, frowning at all the blood that gets on his clothes, but too scared to complain or resist.

"Come with us, please," Mom gently requests as she grabs the old woman's hand, who sheepishly nods and obeys.

"What is that?!" I hear someone shout, so I stop and turn.

There seems to be a tower far in the distance… towards the forest… in the exact direction we found the source of the taint.

That ain't good.

"There's something falling towards us!" another person shouts and points directly above us.

I look up and see a black ball that's rapidly increasing in size. I don't have time to react as it lands a block down from where we are, making a disgusting splash sound along with the crash of glass and wood breaking.

But then something comes our way and splashes right before our feet. We look down and see something that looks like a bloody, deformed baby but with spider legs coming out of its head.

Then the legs skitter towards me, dragging the baby's dead body along with it.

"HNMPH!" I groan as I stomp it with my boot using all of my strength, making a sound that I'd rather never remember again, and a number of horrified screams follow.

It was just so repulsive I couldn't even wait to see what it was going to do. Then the smell of rot fills my nostrils, and someone gags.

"THAT'S A DEMON! THEY'RE ATTACKING!" I roar in disbelief of my own words. Arpad said they'd attack by nightfall, so was he wrong?!

Yes, he was obviously wrong. The attack is starting now!

Then we hear screams coming from the other block along with heavy footsteps, and I don't want to wait to see what's over there.

 

The chaos intensifies, but I ignore all that as I lead my group to the school, and I just pray that Elina and Margit are safe. For the first time in my life, I pray with all my heart.

Please, let them reach the school safely, please.

Suddenly, a naked man running on all fours enters our street, then stops as he notices our group, and I see that he has bloody claws while his chin also drips with blood. We all freeze at the sight, but the demon also stops and analyzes us.

I gently lower old Yomber and conjure my water spear, then step forward and point it at the demon. It's small and thin, but the demon inside Fodor had even thinner limbs, so you can't judge a demon's strength by their looks.

The naked man scowls, showing pointy bloody teeth, and I feel like it's preparing to attack us, but then it sniffs the air, and the scowl disappears from its face.

Then it just turns around and runs while shitting itself.

What…?

"Let's go!" Emil, shouts hurriedly, his orange dog ears fully folded back in fear and wariness.

I don't have time to think about what just happened, so I just grab Yomber again and continue running.

 

I see the school come into view and feel almost as much relief as when I saw the wall. Then I see Sis waving at us, and now I feel true relief, but there's no time for tearful reunions. Margit is with her, along with a group of people that I believe is the rest of her family, but there's also no time for introductions.

"The entrance is over there!" Sis shouts and points down the street. There's a robed priest waving and shouting on a megaphone for everyone to gather, so we all run over there.

"Go towards the bunker and hide!" the priest orders as we cross the school's gate.

The school's courtyard is just an open grassy field with a cobble path, but there's a big gathering of priests on the field, and I see a silver smoke coming out of their bodies.

I stop in confusion, and then a flash blinds me for a second, and now there's the most confusing-looking thing I've ever seen floating above the priests. It's like a bunch of rings filled with eyes floating at the center of a confusing mess of wings, arms, and… swords covered in golden flames.

"An angel…" I hear Mom whisper in awe from beside me.

She's one kind of angel, while this thing is the other kind.

And it immediately flies away in a messy flutter of wings.

"DON'T STOP!" the priest at the entrance yells at us, so we wince and continue.

There are more priests along the way guiding us towards the bunker, and they take us underground. Then we end up at a huge hall, bigger than the fucking school and the church, it seems. So big that even though I'm a big dude, it makes me feel very small.

But we aren't allowed to gawk because there's a stream of people coming in, so we find a corner and gather up.

"Okay, what happened to you, Fiubun," Mom immediately questions the moment that we stop.

So Sis and I retell the whole thing.

 

"Demons… the mayor let a demon nest grow free," Aliz mutters, her tone full of all kinds of negative feelings, so her chubby husband gives her a hug to comfort her.

"Could he be a demon himself?" Sis quietly suggests.

"Who knows? I'd never heard of a person exploding into a demon," I tiredly grumble, and everyone else seems to have a similar opinion.

"But you two fought and killed a fucking demon," Emil praises me as he pats my armored back, his tail slowly wagging.

"Survived a demon. The Crusaders did most of the fighting," I grimly correct him.

"Is that demon blood?" Huba questions as he scans me up and down, sounding extremely anxious.

"Now's not the time to question the fucking hero," Emil growls back and flares his lips in anger.

And almost everyone else glares at the little human. Yomber looks down at his clothes, but his wife already gave them a light wash, so it's only stained, and then the old man joins the glares against Huba.

"I-I just…" he tries to defend himself, looking like he's about to cry.

But I don't blame him, so I just politely take the non-confrontational option. "I'll find somewhere to wash myself," I calmly announce and leave, but Sis, Mom, and Margit tag along. "I can do it myself."

"I just don't want to be away from you," Sis casually remarks.

"I'm not letting you get in any more danger," Mom emphatically states.

"I find it safer beside you," Margit quietly confesses.

I just chuckle and move on. I'm feeling too mentally exhausted to argue.

 

It actually takes an annoyingly long time to wash off all the blood. It seeped deep into the cotton padding, so we have to really work the fabric to get out all the blood. Thankfully, there are a lot of supplies here, including a magical source of water and a spell-tool to dry the armor off. We're still in danger, so I want to put it back on as soon as possible.

I don't think this blood is actually tainted, it doesn't have the rot or any magic in it, but it's better to be safe than sorry. So I spend a bit of my mental focus studying the drier because looking at magic just feels relaxing to me.

It's simply a clothes iron, but there's a small book inserted in the main body, and a metal capsule above it filled with gas that's used to store the magical energy. I'm not allowed to open the book because it has the instructions for the spell-spirit on how the enchantment is supposed to work, and I could damage the pages with my big, clumsy fingers, while I also can't open the capsule because it'll obviously release all the gas with the magical energy.

I still occasionally see wisps of magic come out of the iron, so my goal with studying the tool is to train my magicsight and get some insight into it like I can with my sources. Maybe one day I'll actually be able to see the spell-spirit as it works, so it's worth the effort to study any spell-tool I can get a hold of.

"Let's go back," Mom wryly requests as she puts a hand on my shoulder.

I put the tool down, feeling just a bit of sadness, and follow them. There are still demons outside, so now's not the time to visit scholar-me and retreat to my Dream Realm.

 

We return to our group, but we immediately notice that everyone is tense and worried. I mean, more tense and worried than before we left.

"What's going on?" Sis immediately asks.

"They just closed the door. We're sealed in here," Huba answers, sounding increasingly rattled.

"Okay? So what? We're safer," she replies with a shrug.

But then he points out, "It means that there must be a demon outside."

Oh, fuck…

I sigh tiredly, but then my fist starts to tremble. My mind doesn't want to fight, but my body is ready.

No, not just ready, it's yearning to fight, and even the Strangler's energy is reacting by making my blood boil. The way I used the water spear against Fodor's demon felt like a miracle, but maybe it isn't.

Maybe I have the instincts for it, after all…

And by the way that Sis clenches her fist, I know she's feeling the same as me, minus the Strangler's energy.

Then we hear a priest announce on a megaphone, "All young and able-bodied men and women, present yourselves at the exit. We'll need you to defend your family and loved ones."

Just to make it more dramatic, we hear a loud, dull thump coming from the doorway. The door to the bunker is down a corridor after that doorway, so it's pretty obvious that the sound came from over there.

I turn around and face the staff. After hearing my story, nobody is going to give in to cowardice and back away, but then I turn to Mom, and my heart dies a bit inside.

"Mom, we have to," I immediately state and grab her shoulders.

She grabs my gambeson and pleads, "No, no, not after all you did. It's fine to stay!" Then her gorgeous, blood-red eyes start to tear up.

Suddenly, we hear another thump, and people jump in fear.

"If I don't go, other people will die," I gently point out.

And she starts to become desperate. "There must be someone else stronger than you! You can just leave it to them!"

But I have to be direct. "And what if there aren't?"

So she freezes. Her heart is just too golden for her to tell me to just abandon everyone.

I pat her beautiful white hair with my huge, padded hand, making her head feel small. "I love you, Mom."

"I love you…" she whispers back as her voice cracks, so I give her a tight hug.

But another thump makes us hurry up, so I release her and turn to Margit. "I love you," I confess to her and also hug her slender and frail body, but I notice that she's starting to tremble in fear.

"I l-love you, too…" she shakily replies, then grabs my furry head and gives my lips a gentle kiss.

Sis suddenly pulls them both into a tight hug, and they whisper tearfully to each other.

There's no time for long goodbyes, so Sis releases them after a moment. Then I nod to the rest of the inn's staff, and we walk towards the entrance.

A lot of people are gathering up, but there are too many for that little corridor, so the priests are filtering out the weaker ones.

"You! Tiger! You look like you have experience!" a priest exclaims and comes rushing towards me.

"Fiubun?!" I recognize Caliban shout my name, and he also comes rushing towards us. "Boy! Are those blood stains on your armor?!"

"They are," I hum with a nod. Then I conjure a spear and a stone. "I also have magical sources."

"And I have a hand cannon," Sis follows up and pats her holster.

"The big one at the front, the gunner stays in the back," the priest that called us immediately gives us our assignments.

Caliban scowls, but the virtuous owl man knows that he can't say otherwise, so he vows to protect me, "I'll focus my Benison on you."

"Thank you," I quietly reply as I un-conjure my stuff.

Then the priests start to organize us so that we form a wall of spears and shields in the corridor. I'm paired up with other full beastmen, but nobody is as tall and muscular as me since they're all mostly dog beastmen, and Sis is forced to stay further back since she has a gun.

There are a few oil lanterns lighting up the corridor, and they clearly show that the big, thick metal door is getting bent out of shape.

*THUMP*

And another dent appears.

"You have to be really fucking big to make a dent like that," the dog on my right jokingly remarks with a brave smirk.

"We're fucked," the dog on my left starts to despair.

I don't like doing this, but I feel like they need a bit of encouragement, "I don't know about y'all, but I'm gonna live through this."

"You're in the first line, at the center," the frightened dog stiffly replies.

"Now's not the time to point that out," the joking dog worriedly states.

I raise my hands as I bravely confess, "I know I'm in danger, but I'm certain I'm going to live." Then I make use of my deep voice to get it through their thick hides. "So y'all better fight like hellhounds, or I'm going to fuck you all up in the Sea of Souls and kill you again."

A little bit of blasphemy doesn't hurt, and if we end up fighting actual hellhounds, it'll even be a bit ironic.

"YOU HEARD THE BIG GUY!" a dog at the back shouts cheerfully.

"Where even is your spear?" the frightened dog questions, sounding a bit more calm.

Now I feel like showing off. "HERE!" I shout as I conjure a big, long one.

"FUCK YEAH! A MAGE!" another cheerful dog shouts.

And it gets me so steamed that I even joke, "I GOT ONE TRICK IN MY SLEEVE, BUT I'M DAMN GOOD AT IT!"

"AWOOO!" one of the dogs starts a howl.

And the rest follow up because they can't stop themselves.

*THUMP*

The nails start to come out.

I just smile at their infectious excitement, but then I hear the priests start to chant, so I focus on that, "We offer ourselves to the will of the Greatest God! May our fervor be answered! Our faith upheld! And our love returned! Deliver our wish and our prayer upon our chosen! Bless their weapons, for we've laid our lives upon their feet! Steel their hearts, for they stand only with each other! SAVE US ALL FROM OUR WEAKNESS!"

And my heart suddenly turns into fire, but the flames start to spread through my veins with every beat, and the howls become even louder. Then the fire cools down when it reaches my muscles, and it feels like a refreshing drink that fills me with energy while also soothing my tired nerves, making me ready to fight again. And to finish, we all begin to glow as we're enveloped in a semi-transparent golden fire.

I feel… brave, assured, powerful. This isn't what I imagined that holy magic would feel like, and it also doesn't seem to conflict with my "taboo" Strangler energy, but I'll take it. This is a spring rain, not autumn.

Then the door suddenly flies off its hinges and spins, but it's so heavy that it just hits the floor a few times and then slides towards us, stopping just a meter from my feet. This actually gives me a scare because it'd hurt bad if it had hit us.

And everyone falls silent, but the other side is too dark for us to see, so we squint. Then we hear footsteps, the loud clack of high heel boots.

A thin outline comes out of the darkness, and then the lights hit it and reveal a… stunningly beautiful demoness. Her skin is dark purple, her body is slender and tall, but she has curves in all the right places, and her tight white fur pants hug her form as if they were perfectly elastic. Her top is merely a white fur bikini to hold her small but supple breasts, which also exposes her well-defined abs; her face suffers from extreme bitchiness, but it also makes her dangerously gorgeous; her irises look like the blackest night, and I sense a chill as they glance over me; her lustrous dark hair is tied in a cute ponytail, and it glistens in an impossible way; and her spiral horns are similar to a goat's, but they exude a dark flame that feels just as dangerous as the golden flame that covers our bodies.

Overall, she's almost like a perfectly normal human only with purple skin and creepy horns, but there's something "off" about her, as if all her features are just "a little bit" warped. And the more I stare at her, the more dreadful and ugly she starts to look, yet at the same time, she still makes me increasingly horny.

"More mutts for me to skin!" she shouts gleefully and raises her right hand. Then it starts to shift into a very long and very sharp-looking black blade that also exudes the same black flame as her horns.

And then I realize that the fur she's wearing is likely from beastmen.

"But this corridor feels a bit tight, so why don't we 'stretch' it a bit?" she continues with a seductive yet chilling voice. I feel like it's dangerous to hear her speak.

She makes a grabbing motion with her hand, then moans sensuously as she slowly spreads her arms apart, and the corridor starts to widen. We blink blankly as we look around, confused at what's going on, but it isn't an illusion. She's using such powerful magic like it's nothing.

"Reform, reform the line! Fill the holes!" the priests desperately order us.

And the demoness simply waits as she smiles at us, just like a mother watching their children do a cute thing, but her behavior only creeps me out further and further…

The others behind us quickly fill the openings to the sides and hastily get in position again.

But before the confusion fully settles down, the demoness speaks again, "Now, if you wish to surrender, I, Great Demoness of Rape and Pain Aleriaxstraza, will mercifully turn you into mere fuck dolls for my personal pleasure." Then her face stretches horrifically as she makes an impossibly wide grin. "But if you resist, I shall throw your souls into the Pit of Rape for eternity!"

Her words hit like a cold rock to the face, but then a golden voice helps us recover and remain standing, "We shall never surrender! Fight on, comrades! Our prayers will sustain you!"

And her grin turns into an impossibly exaggerated frown. "Oh, priests, you really love ruining the fun, don't you? I-…" Then her face suddenly returns to normal as she becomes confused. "Huh? What's this…? I smell demon blood."

I freeze in fear, and the rest of the inn's crew glance at me, but there are others who also look around, so the demoness doesn't seem to find me.

"Well, I'll eventually find the holy cunt," she casually remarks with a shrug, then snaps her fingers and points forward with her index finger. "Slaves… attack!"

And a number of naked humans and beastmen with manacles on their arms rush out of the darkness. Their eyes have a haunting white glow making them seem possessed, but then I get a horrible feeling that tells me that these are actually citizens of Hatarvros.

"FIGHT! FOR YOUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS!" I hear Caliban's howl, and it fills me with… RAGE.

"HAAAH!" I let out the most powerful roar I've ever made, and its echo attempts to rupture my eardrums, but I feel like I'm made of steel and endure the pain.

The crazed slaves don't seem to care for the wall of spears we have pointing at them, so they'll just throw themselves at us, but we must not drown in their bodies.

I thrust with my water spear, and it sinks right into the head of a slave, but the one right behind it bumps into the first, making the tip sink so deep that it comes out of the back of its head. So I just keep extending my spear, and I use my gift with control to skillfully skewer a number of them, but then it hits something hard, and I see that the demoness has stopped it with the flat part of her flaming arm-sword.

Suddenly, all our guns fire at the same time, deafening me, and the slaves start to fall, but they continue to stream out from behind the demoness.

I dissolve my spear and conjure it again before the demoness can do something nasty to it, then continue to skewer the unfortunate victims.

The bodies quickly pile up all over the floor, making it hard for the slaves to gain speed, but then the guns stop firing, so the numbers that reach us start to increase.

I stab them repeatedly as they fall upon my shield, but even with four of them trying to pull it out of my hand, I can easily handle them. The magic that was used on us clearly made us stronger, and I also have the Strangler's boosting me even further.

Then I feel someone pull my armor from the back, so I glance back and see Emil desperately trying to drag me as he says something, but I'm still deaf. As I turn forward again, I see that my comrades to the right are getting overwhelmed, and I suddenly feel afraid of being left alone in the middle of the swarm.

So I start to step back as I continue to fight, but I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. My body just moves on its own.

Slowly, my hearing comes back, and I hear the death cries of my comrades as they're clawed and torn apart by the slaves.

No, no, no!

The crew, the inn's crew is fighting! Emil is right behind me! I can't let them die!

I NEED TO PUSH THEM BACK!

I extend the water spear all the way to my right until it reaches the wall, and then I swing.

"HAAAAAA!" I howl as the slaves pile up on the shaft of the spear, but I still push them back. I push them all back!

They fly away and pile up on top of the demoness, clogging the entrance. There are still some to the left that weren't picked up, but now the rest of my comrades work together and quickly deal with them.

Suddenly, the bodies all balloon up, and I preemptively close my eyes. Then they explode with so much force that I even fall on my ass. Everything just becomes a shower of blood, guts, and pieces of bone.

But the demoness is still there, so I promptly stand up, and I see a dark flaming sword lunge towards my face. By instinct, I hit it with the edge of my shield, pushing it away. Then I stab with my water spear, and it sinks into something fleshy.

"YOU!" the demoness' creepy but seductive voice hits me like a cold bucket of water. "YOU KILLED THE DEMON! I'LL MAKE YOU INTO MY PERSONAL PET!"

Then my eyes focus on her petite form, and I see that her face is warped again into that impossibly wide maniacal grin.

I reflexively extend my spear, pushing her away from me, but her flaming sword-arm slides across my shoulder, and I feel the cold metal split open my flesh. I don't even have time to react to the pain as she uses her nails to destroy the spear's cohesion, and then the black-fire sword advances toward my face again.

So I block it with my shield, but the blade just goes through it and almost stabs my face. Then she uses a ridiculous amount of strength to rip the shield out of my hand, and I suddenly feel completely naked.

I thrust with my spear again, but she uses her nails to destroy its cohesion while her sword is now free to stab at me, so I use my free hand to catch the flaming blade.

"MIGHT!" Caliban shouts, and my heart turns into fire once again, but this time, my skin becomes golden. Yet it's still barely enough to slow down the sword, so it sinks into my left hand and splits it open, then continues down my forearm, right through my bone, but it finally stops at the elbow and gets stuck.

"NOOOO!" I hear Sis cry coming from right behind me. Then a spear sinks into the demoness' gut.

So I throw a rock at the purple bitch's face by instinct, snapping her neck and making her chin point to the ceiling, but then her head suddenly returns to normal a second later, which is just enough of an opening for me to stab her eye with a very small water spear.

But she's still grinning.

For some reason, she isn't moving her sword-arm anymore, so I grab her right wrist and keep it in place as another spear sinks into her belly, and then another.

Suddenly, I feel something cold enter my ribs, and I see that she's stabbed my right flank with the nails of her free left hand. But the horrible feeling continues to sink deeper into my body, towards my heart.

"ANNIHILATE!" Caliban's voice fills me with energy once again, but it also gives me the feeling of power, as if my whole body is a dangerous weapon.

And the horrible grin finally leaves the demoness' face, but my one usable hand is occupied.

So I open my mouth and bite her head off just as a golden light fills the entrance to the bunker.

 

I open my eyes and sit up, confused at what just happened. Then I notice that my surroundings have changed.

It's dark, and there's a weird blue moonlight coming in through the windows, but I recognize the statues of the Patron Gods, making me believe that I'm inside the Trinity Church right next to the school.

The thing is, though, is that I'm alone, and everything is deathly silent.

I try to remember what happened after the fight with the demoness, but my memory is hazy. I do remember spitting a lot of black blood.

But I look down and see that my body is fine, and even my left hand has been healed without a trace, so what happened? Why am I alone? I also have no armor, but I still feel that my two sources and the Strangler's energy are inside me, which is a bit comforting.

At least it's clear that I've survived the attack, or else I'd be swimming in the Sea of Soul by now…

I stand up and look around. The Debrecen Trinity Church is quite big, so the Hall of Patrons is very wide to accommodate all of the soulful that come here to pray. Usually, there are many rows of seats so that people can pray while staring at the statue of a Patron God, but there are none here right now, only the statues.

No point in staying here, so I walk to the entrance, then stop and stare in confusion.

I see my house, the inn, a grassy clearing of the Dark Forest, our garden patch (without the demonic corruption), the brook we like to visit, and the school's library. Little pieces of reality, all surrounding the church, all places that have a strong presence in my memories.

Which means that I'm not in Hatarvros anymore. I'm in the Dream Realm. Or rather, my soul is.

Oh, oh, oh yeah!

I look up and see a dark blue sky filled with twinkling, colorful little stars. But these aren't "normal" stars, they're the Kingdoms of other souls that have entered the Dream Realm.

But I'd rather focus on my own Kingdom as I'm its King and God, so I just imagine myself in the inn's kitchen, and my vision blurs for a second, and then my surroundings change, and I find myself exactly where I imagined. Then I imagine the crew working again, and they all appear, including Mom, Sis, and Margit, all working to make breakfast, and even the smell of bread baking fills my nostrils.

This is the coolest part of the Dream Realm: your imagination has power, so you're the supreme being while inside your Kingdom.

But then my smile becomes sour as I observe everyone in the inn going about their work.

Our lives won't go back to being like this, will they…? Even if the crew survived the attack, Hatarvros is fucked. Will we even be able to live here after so many demons have bled upon our soil?

Will I be fine after having a demon stab my fucking lungs and cut my arm with a black-flaming sword?

I sigh tiredly. There's nothing I can do about it right now, and I don't even know how to leave the Dream Realm, so I'll just explore it for as long as I can because this place is. Fucking. Interesting!

So I imagine myself moving to the edge of my Kingdom.

And now I find myself staring at a tunnel of stormy, dark clouds that end in a glowing, gray hole. It takes me a bit of squinting, but I recognize that the hole is actually showing a stony interior of a building, and then the colors of the hole start to seep into the clouds, slowly mixing into a chaotic gray mess.

Alright, it feels like a waste leaving my Kingdom without playing around, but I wanna know what's out there.

Then the gray takes over everything around me as things blur, and I suddenly find myself staring at a boring wall of gray stone.

I look around and see that I'm in a cozy, rustic library of sorts, just rows upon rows of wooden shelves filled with books, but I don't recognize this place. The books also seem to be written in unknown languages, so I grab a random one and flip through it in search of pretty pictures.

Then a ghostly green spider jumps out of a page and crawls up my arm.

"AH!" I shriek in fear like a little girl and drop the book as I try to squish it with my hand, but it simply dissipates into a green puff of smoke the moment I touch it.

I look around in fear, but there's not a single reaction, just absolute silence aside from my own heavy breathing.

Why do I even have to breathe here? I'm just a soul.

Then I notice that there's something moving far ahead, at the end of the long, long row of bookshelves. So I put the book back and walk over there, each of my muffled steps making a lot more sound than I'm comfortable with.

But my eyes are drawn to the movement at the end of the corridor, and I start to forget all about my fear the closer I get as my mind becomes completely entranced by what I see. It's like… I'm seeing through someone else's eyes, but many of them.

Then it becomes more clear as I get closer, and I realize that I'm not just seeing, but I'm actually living through other people's lives.

A Greenskin orc farmer slowly working their pathetic field in the Green Wastes; a huge Kamae dragon leisurely attempting to open a hole in the Aether in the hopes of creating a magical source; a tall Ulap human bravely sailing through the cloudy skies with its little boat; a Fae gnome gardener growing mushrooms with Bloomen magic along a pretty trail in the middle of a colorful forest as it imagines what it'll have for dinner tonight; a horned, Touched human drifter in a sandy cave attempting to harness the demonic power in his heritage. All the lives flood into my mind at the same time.

I try to ignore everything but the dragon and the gnome because of my endless thirst for magic, but just before I can fully grasp what they're actually doing, a new life appears, that of a silver-robed man as he and his group endlessly stare at the reflection of a lake.

They start to speak in an unknown language, but there's something about their words that I feel like I understand, and it grabs my full attention, for some reason. It's like there's something on the tip of my tongue, and it's a rather irritating feeling.

Inescapable.

Constant.

Cyclic.

The words start to appear in my mind.

But suddenly, all of the lives go white in my mind for a second, and then they're replaced by the face of an old, bearded man with pinkish skin and a thumb-sized, glowing pink jewel on his forehead. I believe he's a Jeweled, and I'm fascinated by the pretty gem.

Then he frowns, and his face (faces?) becomes blurry as a painful headache attacks me.

"Argh!" I groan and look away as I grab my head.

"You're not ready for the Truth," a gentle, soothing voice enters my ears and massages my brain, making the pain go away.

I jerk my head toward its source and blurt out in confusion, "Mom?" And my jaw goes slack.

There's an angel floating before me, completely still in the air with her huge white wings open wide, and she looks just like my mother, except for the wings, but then I notice that there are some pretty obvious differences. The angel is much curvier than Mom, and her breasts are so big that they defy gravity without looking "ridiculous." Her legs and ass are also much thicker and "delicious" than Mom's, while her face is older, but the surprising thing is that she looks even gentler than Mom.

And, of course, there's the godsdamn aura of kindness and love that she exudes. Just by staring at her, or even being in her presence, I feel soothed and relaxed, as if I just woke up from a long and comfortable sleep in a warm bed.

"Others call me 'Mother,'" she kindly states with a slow nod.

And I blink blankly. "You mean, the Worldly Goddess called 'Mother'?"

She nods and flashes the gentlest smile. "Yes, I'm also called a 'Worldly Goddess.'"

No wonder she's so stunningly gorgeous. But here I am, ogling at a literal naked Goddess.

I blink and put my hornyness aside for a moment, then curiously ask, "What's the 'Truth'?"

But she makes an apologetic face. "A little secret. Don't ask, and you won't be killed for it."

And that puts the fear in me. "O-okay…"

She gently clasps her hands in front of her bare body in a very delicate pose, and then her tone becomes empathetic as she continues, "It's unfortunate that the Silent Watcher is your patron, so be careful in your search for knowledge."

"That's the Silent Watcher, and he's my… patron?" I hesitantly ask as I point to the side. They're known as the patron of the scholars, so that actually makes me really happy.

And she nods delicately, but her tone is still sorrowful. "Against Their will, yes. The Watcher doesn't care for those who don't know the Truth, but to seek it is in your nature, so you're fated for a journey without guidance. And though it seems I'm also your patron as I feel like I was called here, it's best that we take you to Gra-ah for advice, as you'll need it if you want to survive your demonic corruption."

And I'm taken aback. "Wait, what? Corruption?"

She nods again and frowns. She looks so pure and kind that it's making me sad that I'm making her look so sad. "I see it in your soul," she whispers softly.

No, no, no…

I look down at my left hand and see that it's starting to tremble as the fear enters my heart, and then I give in to despair and start to rant, "Fuck! It's obvious that this would happen. I took a fucking black-flame sword to the arm, then nails to my lungs, and I finished by eating the head of a demoness! Not to mention all the fucking stupid shit with Fodor and the tainted source!"

"Are you from Hatarvros?" she kindly asks, sounding almost as sad as I am about it.

And I just nod as I hum, "Yes."

Then her next words give me a chill, "Poor thing. Let me console you with my body."

"What?" I quack in surprise and raise my head again.

And her smile blinds me with its brightness. "Have sex with me. It'll soothe you for a long time."

"Yes please," I flatly blurt out.

Then I realize that I got a boner the moment that I first looked at her.

This was totally worth leaving my Kingdom.