Mira sighed as she caught an image of herself in the mirror. She was wearing the damn lust demon armor Zemoria had bought her. At least Reia had not seen her in it yet, but half the town had. Reia had been gone yesterday, and today. Unfortunately, she was going to be back from the errand Mira had sent her on early tomorrow. This new turn of events was a real damper on her mood.

As bad as the armor was, she was currently reluctant to take it off. The reason for that being the nude dragoness behind her. A dragoness that was playing around with a ball. It was an odd-looking ball with a blue top, and a white underside. At one point around the grey-colored rim, it had a small circle, white in color. Mira had no idea where she got it, but the dragoness seemed to consider it quite the prize. Mira had even caught her polishing it, nine times today. It was already gleaming. So why polish it? Especially that many times. All she knew about it though was that the Dragoness had it when she came to greet them in the morning.

Mira repressed the urge to rub her bottom as she remembered the scolding she got. Apparently, she wasn’t even allowed to wear nightgowns anymore either. She just wanted someone to save her from this crazy dragon. Not that she knew who to ask for that kind of help. Which is why she had been silently praying to every god and goddess she could think of looking for help. The last one she had tried sending a prayer to was the Primordial God Queen, and that was five minutes ago.

Suddenly the world stilled, and then she heard a giggle. No that wasn’t quite right, it was a giggle, but it seemed to be coming from the center of her head. It was really weird. “You want help being rescued from Zemoria? Not much I can do if she isn’t breaking the rules, and so far she has not. Although in a few cases she has tread the line, but not so far with you. I can offer you a bit of advice though.”

Her day had just brightened. “Advice!? As in a way to deal with that crazy dragon!?”

An idle chuckle, and then, “Sort of. Tomorrow morning, I suggest you visit the guild master. Tell her you to want to talk with the dungeon. If she gets you a meeting, I advise that you take full advantage of it. Forge a blood contract with the dungeon. It’s the only way you will be able to keep your clothes, but I won’t guarantee they will remain modest.”

“Is that my only option?”

“Well you could try making a bet with Zemoria, but I would not recommend it. You would have to bet something she would want like your modesty. Although if you lose you won’t care all that much about not wearing clothes again. So in a way, you sort of win regardless. Besides, you don’t have anything to offer me worth a blood contract..”

Her only reply was a wry chuckle. Yeah, that wasn’t really a win, but she could see how it might be considered a win, from a certain point of view. The bit about her lacking things worth a goddess’s time was humbling, but not entirely unexpected. Then the world returned to normal, and Zemoria prompted her, “Come on hurry up and get out of that armor. You don’t want to be late for dinner do you?”

She gave the dragon a look and then turned back to the mirror. Reflected in the mirror was her armor. A silver bikini style that barely covered her breasts, and wasn’t much better down below. Way less coverage than she liked, but it was the most modest thing Zemoria would let her have. It was better than being naked though, but the dragon wasn’t going to let her leave this room till she stripped. Her mind then drifted to the choice she had just been given. Go to the dungeon, and enter some kind of contract or make a bet with a crazy dragon. Honestly, she had to agree the bet idea wasn’t the route to go. She simply had no idea how a contract was supposed to help either. Although she wasn’t the kind of girl to make the mistake she witnessed a certain princess make. If she went to make a contract she was going to read it. Not that either option was going to save her from spending her dinner in the nude. 

Zemoria spoke up, “I could help you out of that.”

She shuddered, she didn’t need a dragon helping her out of her clothes. With a bit of reluctance, she started to slip it off. The whole time she knew full well that she wasn’t going to be allowed to wear anything for the rest of the day, and the following night. This was going to be a long and weird evening for her. At least now she had an out.

The young girl sighed as she followed Dewari out the door. Apparently, today was the day she faced her fate, whatever that meant. All she knew was that she was being forced to wear this ridiculous and shameful outfit. An outfit that left her very self-conscious, she was just so exposed. It effectively hid nothing, everything she had was on display. No self-respecting Celestial would choose to wear this if they had a choice. Yet here she was wearing it.

As she followed the naked goddess, she considered asking questions but hesitated. She knew she had messed up, and that was why she was here. It was why she was wearing an outfit she wouldn’t even want to be seen in. At least her butt had finally stopped stinging. However, she had no idea what Dewari had meant by facing her fate. She wanted to ask but found herself hesitating to actually do it. Instead, she found herself fidgeting, and worrying. Every time she opened her mouth, she would falter and no sound would come out.

Before she knew it, they had reached their destination. A small arena, and waiting for them were two young women. Both of them were on the smaller side, and wearing more than she was. One of them was wearing a very cute dress that complimented her purple hair nicely, and the other was wearing a revealing and sexy dress. What drew her attention though were the two small horns on her head. A spike went through her heart when she noticed that a demon was dressed more modestly than she was. 

She was not even given time to recover from that shock before the goddess announced, “Phyllis, Misaki, this is Seli. This talented young woman is a level 210 Arclight Celestial and she will be your opponent for this match.”

She had no idea what was going on. It felt strangely nice being acknowledged as talented by her new Patron goddess. Not that she was all that happy to be put on the spot, especially given the outfit she was wearing. Hell, her nipples were on full display, and the skirt she was wearing was way too short. Although she was proud of her level, she was the youngest member of her Aerie to have reached a level over two hundred. Not that it was all that big an achievement, as a Celestial she had an advantage. Her longer life, and innate racial abilities made it easier to reach high levels and evolve. Especially so when compared to races like Humans. Where most humans never made it past one hundred, most Celestials typically reached around two hundred. This meant that a Human elite would be around two hundred, and a hero might cap around three. Celestial elites on the other hand were all in the three hundred range, but she had not heard of any that had recently reached four hundred. Few bothered even trying to reach that level of power. By level three hundred you were already powerful enough that few could be a conceivable threat to you, and the rewards for being there were good enough for most. Not to mention it was very hard to find the opponents needed to grant any kind of worthwhile experience at such high levels. 

 She was quick to analyze the two girls in front of her. The demon was the younger of her two opponents, and naturally had a lower level, but her stats were quite high for her level. She also had very high magic skills, clearly a mage. Although for some reason, she got only question marks where the demon’s class should be. The other was a Human Spellsword, and she was level two hundred. That was very impressive, especially among humans. The human woman was clearly talented, in fact they both were. This was going to be a challenging fight. A fight made even more challenging by the fact that she was lacking her usual equipment. Then again, they didn’t seem to be wearing their combat gear either. Honestly they seemed to be dressed in their everyday wear, but they both had weapons, where she did not.

Dewari suddenly handed her something. Feeling the familiar weight in her hands, she was happy to have her staff back. She was a mage herself, but she had learned some close combat skills as well. Perhaps this wasn’t going to be as bad as she first thought. No one had armor, all of them used magic to some degree, and she had the highest level of anyone. Perhaps she had a chance, and if she won this would push her up a few levels. Idly, she was aware of Dewari explaining the rules for this little battle, and as she listened she began to get worried. Her opponents were allowed to touch her sexually? There was also a bonus if they managed to get her to willingly give up her virginity? Mind influencing spells were allowed? They were not the kind of rules she liked. Although the mention of a field that will prevent them from dying from even fatal wounds was comforting, and the rest of the rules were fairly normal.

The match began almost without her noticing. The demon moved first and started chanting a big spell. A spell she recognized and knew she could not let the demon succeed with. It was a spell with multiple effects. It would drain her mana pool, weaken her resistances, and reduce the strength of her mana shields. The level of effect was highly dependent on how many hits were scored, and the size of the barrage the mage channeled. It was a high-level spell that most mages didn’t learn below level two hundred, and this girl was only a hundred. It seemed she was more talented than she realized.

Realizing the danger, she moved quickly to disrupt her casting with a spell of her own. She cast Arclight Ray, a Divine Lightning-Celestial dual advanced element spell. It was a powerful spell that was also quick to cast, and more importantly effective against demons. A beam of crackling blue light shot across the space, but it never landed on the demon.

With seemingly impossible speed, the human coated her blade in mana and blocked the spell. It was rare to see that. Divine Lightning was not something that could be blocked by metal, like normal lightning. Everything it touched disintegrated, sometimes explosively, and that property remained with Arclight Ray. The blade however was undamaged indicating not only the human’s skill, but also the quality of the blade. Given her level, she should have expected no less, but this complicated things. She decided to try another spell, this time purely of the divine lightning element. A bolt of blue lightning struck out and smashed into a ward. The human had cast a ward, in the short time it took her to cast her spell. The ward held naturally, and while she could brute force it, doing so would take too long.

Already she was admiring her opponents, they were good. The human had a good grasp of the field and was anticipating her moves. Doing a very good job at defense, but with the demon channeling that spell they had forced her hand right at the beginning. Controlling the flow of the battle, and limiting your opponent’s options was a good way to ensure a win. Even if it was a little frustrating. She had enough time left for one last spell, and she wanted to make it a good one. Since the direct approach wasn’t working, perhaps an Area of Effect spell would work. Although this would take a little longer to cast.

She started her chanting and took to the air. Being in the air should protect her from the human, she hoped. Given the human had magic skills, she could not be certain. It turned out the answer was no.

A magic shockwave of lightning and fire sprang from her blade and sliced through the air. It was powerful, and naturally, she dodged, but doing so broke her focus for just a moment. A critical moment, she could not afford to lose. The demon completed her spell and unleashed a barrage of pink bolts. Quickly she rechanneled her magic, and put up a few wards, not bothering to try and evade. The spell created tracking projectiles, and those were hard to evade. It was easier to block them with wards. The bolts of light slammed into her wards one after another, each one draining them significantly. The wards shattered before the barrage ended, and she was hit with a barrage of pink light. She could feel each one weakening her, as her mana drained with each hit. Her breathing also grew rougher, and her core grew warm.

She cursed internally, knowing full well that taking that spell was going to hurt her. A quick check of her status showed she had lost a little over half her mana. That stung, but her resistance debuffs were going to sting more. Now future hits were going to deal more damage to her, and she was more likely to be adversely affected by secondary effects. Making this worse, her mana shields were currently gone. For a mage that was a major part of her defense. Unlike warriors, a mage wasn’t all that beefy. Lacking the armor and endurance of a physical fighter, mages like herself relied on mana shielding to help shrug off hits. Wards were useful, too, and stronger, but they could only guard a single vector. They could not be moved either. Shields moved with the user, and covered all vectors. 

Knowing she was losing, and not happy about being hit by that spell, she was quick to consider how she could take control of this battle. Her level wasn’t high enough to brute force this encounter. Seli mentally went through her spells, and picked one she felt might help. This time as she was chanting, she kept a closer eye on the human. Wary of her force blades, the last one may not have hit, but it had disrupted her at a critical moment. She did not let herself forget the demon either, who had started chanting a second spell already. This time she did not recognize the spell being channeled, but she had no doubt it was going to be a problem.