Character Profile:
Momo Bella Deviluke (Female)
Race: Devilukian
Bloodline: Devilukian
Size: Height 151 cm, Weight 45 kg, 3 sizes; B78-W54-H78
Weapon: Rifle
Ability: Super Strength (Passive), Botanical Communication (Active), Lightning Tail (Active), Expert Xenobotanist and Horticulturalist (Passive).
Plant: Shibarisugi (Giant Tree), seeds shooter, pumpkin house, wheel plant, Kenja Flower (Calming agent), Dazuul Seeds, Aphrodisiac Flower, Rain Flower, Milkea Flower (Nectar), and Carnivorous Plant.

Trivia: She's secretly a pervert.

(***)

The pillars omitted a red eerie light, something like vein attached across the length, presumably the reason why the goblins hung the females on them.

"Master... more... ahh..."

Alex approached one of them, his heart bled at her condition; her brown hairs were messy, eyes lost focus, nose dripped mucus, mouth gaped open, and her tongue draped over the bottom lips, saliva trailed down from the corner of her lips.

Her skin filled with bruises, breasts covered in bites, and vagina swelled in misuse.

What caught his attention was the bulge in her belly, knew exactly its meaning.

He stared at the red vein, it flickered like a neon flash, Alex felt powerful mana lived in it.

"System, what is this?"

"I am sorry, Alex, I have no knowledge about it."

Alex startled, the system usually had no problem explaining something to him, sometimes in great detail, but now... it didn't even know this red vein, how mysterious this could be?

He extended his hand and traced it, feeling a flow of mana inside.

Alexis wandered around the hall, looking at all the impregnated women in here, she unconsciously traced her stomach... the memory of these three days still flowed in her head like a stream of the river, every humiliation, each single dropped of their seeds entered her womb had strongly recorded into the stem of her brain.

She didn't know whether she also pregnant like them, but assuming she did, Alexis didn't want to conceive the goblin's descendant.

Of course, she's not as cruel as to kill a newborn, she had a plan, but finding Elliot was her first priority, then later took him home, regardless alive or dead, afterward...

Her eyes caught a figure on the southeast pillar southeast, she focused her eyes and immediately let out a gasp, trembled slightly before she ran toward it.

"Rinoa!"

She was Alexis' friend back at the knight academy, not a close friend, but no ill relationship either, the kind of friend that sometimes would accompany you to walk the hall or talked in the park. Alexis heard Rinoa return to her house last semester, but she never expected to find her here.

"Master... your slave cannot bear it..."

"Rinoa, don't you recognize me?!"

Alexis grasped her body, noticed the bulge on her tummy was quite large, probably 7-8 months phase of pregnancy...

This was impossible... if she had been taken here last semester... how her belly was this big already?

"Master..." she kept mumbling incoherent words, she behaved as if saw no one despite Alexis clearly beside her.

Alexis' heart couldn't help but ache painfully, she bit her lips to hold back her tears.

What fate worse than death? What punishment worse than execution? What life without mind?

"Rinoa... I promise I will release you..." she said, had firmly decided in her heart.

Meanwhile, Momo curled at the far side of the wall, way further than the location of the pillars.

She's OK with corpses and dead bodies, but seeing these? Her mind wasn't ready yet...

Shizuka calmly sat beside her, knew the younger woman's mind and heart currently chaotic and depressed, she wanted to console, but she wasn't exactly the expert in this.

Back in her world; torture and death were not something uncommon, them being a kunoichi knew what sort of end they would have gotten into, being subjected to sexual abuse definitely in the list.

"What... Deviluke planet... looks like?" she said through difficult wording.

Momo looked at her, noticed the awkward gesture, she lifted the corner her lips slightly, said, "It's beautiful..."

"We have this many forests, contains exotic and unique plants, tall and powerful mountain, but our technology is also the best in the entire universe, we..."

She abruptly paused, then shook her head, said, "No, never mind."

Momo knew that talking further about her homeworld was just making her wanted to run away from here, demanded Alex sent her home.

"..." Shizuka went silent, she leaned back her head, said while closing her eyes, "shimmering fireflies..."

"Hm?" Momo glanced at her, wondered the words she just spoke.

"In the place not far from my village, there was this forest which fireflies would flutter at night... I would occasionally go there to relieve my tension after training; the quiet, and dim environment soothed your weariness of one stressful day..."

"That is a wondrous place..." Momo smiled.

"Also the place of memory..." She sighed with deep emotion, "buried deep down but never forgotten."

"..." Momo widened her eyes as she could sense a hint of a bit of sadness, she faced toward the hall again before burying her face on her own tight.

Meanwhile, Alex continued walking in the area, soon stumbled upon a pedestal, it's a stone-based with a weird engraving on it. He swept his eyes and noticed all the red veins ended up here, or they were rooted from here.

"What is that..." Alex said as he approached the pedestal, there was a small slot right on the top of it which holding sort of red shard.

"System?"

"No clue, Alex."

"Well, let's try to pick it up and then see what happened..."

"Alex, are you sure? What if the entire cave became unstable once you remove the red shard from the pedestal? Or, what if it killed you due to the exposure?"

"System, if the cave starts shaky, then I'll place the red shard back on the pedestal, and I wouldn't touch it directly with my hand..." Alex bought a pincer and combined it the shovel, it immediately became a long-range pincer with the shovel's head on the other end.

"Gently..." he pointed and slowly moved the pincer toward the red shard, he nipped it then exerted his strength to pull the shard out, it's actually difficult, he had to wiggle and twist the pincer, but he knew the red shard could be taken out.

*Pop!*

He stumbled a little bit as he took out the red shard, immediately wave-like energy traveled from the red veins in the center, all the way toward each vein in the pillar, then they went dim, no longer radiated gloomy redness.

"That's not so hard, right?" Alex grinned proudly as he brought the shard in the front of his eyes, inspecting it.

"Alex, you can allow me to identify it for you, just store the shard like other items, and I'll do the rest of the job."

"Really? How long it will take you to do that?"

"That depends on the complexity of the item, sometimes can take minutes, sometimes days."

"Well, it's not like I have other option, please System, inspect this red shard for me," Alex politely said, no matter an AI or Human, one must remain courteous when requesting something.

"Affirmative, Alex, oh just reminder, I won't be available in the span of examination; if you had anything for me to complete, please ask now..."

"Oh, alright..." Alex quickly did a little bit shopping, he already had several things in mind.

Afterward, he let the system inspected the shard while returned toward the entrance of the hall, Alex smiled a bit seeing Momo no longer depressed, and the fact both her and Shizuka hit it off made him happier.

He hoped the character he summoned also had an excellent bond, they trusted and took care of each other backs.

"What are you talking about?" Alex said, both beauties immediately turned their face to look at him.

"Nothing important," Momo faintly smiled, said, "Alex, what are we going to do with these women?"

"We release them first from the pillar," Alex swept his eyes on the hall, "then, afterward..."

Honestly, he also didn't know what to do with the situation, these women were broken, damaged in both mind and soul because of the goblins, can they really be cured? Perhaps if one was an expert of brain territory, they could have brought their consciousness back... but still, the depraved soul, how to recover from that?

"We kill them."

At this moment, Alexis gradually returned toward the front hall, no one got to surprise by her suggestion, because they knew; if they were traded place with these women, perhaps they would beg to be killed also.

"Sounds extreme..." Momo sighed, had a hint of unwillingness in her tone.

"But the only solution..." Alexis said, "forgive my audacity, but if we left them alone, they would die nonetheless, both the females and the newborn goblins, no one left to take care of them after all, but that's under my assumption that you had slain all goblins."

Right, the delivery process would have killed them due to the strength and willpower they must gather, also could die from excessive bleeding, the newborn goblins would have no way to gain nutrition on their own.

Also, let's pretended that Alex could save them all, then what? Should he waited for all the women to give births? Marooning here while the dragons outside possibly had risen?

"You right... we should stop their suffering..." Alex depressedly said, then he walked toward Shizuka, crouched beside her and said, "Please let me borrow your kunai."

"Star, you don't have to, I can do it for you..." Shizuka abruptly said, proceeded to stand up but Alex tapped on her shoulder, shaking his head.

"If I can live through this horror, I can take the next thing that comes along," Alex smiled and opened his palm.

Shizuka bit her lips, then she took out her kunai and placed it on his hand, but she didn't quite let go for a while.

"Remember, you don't have other choices..." Shizuka said, trembling eyes deeply connected to his.

"No... I have," Alex turned his face to look at Momo, he lifted his hand to caress her head, said, "but I pick the most painful one."

Then he stood up, turned around and walked toward one of the pillars.

Alexis approached Shizuka, bowed her head and said, "Ms. Kunoichi, pardon my rudeness, can I also borrow your weapon? I'll help Mr. Star."

"I am sorry, I have only one..." it's obviously a lie, but she had to, due to her understanding of Alex's action, Shizuka knew they couldn't trust Alexis for a while, at least not with any weapon in her hand.

"I see..." Alexis said with a bit dejected tone, then she turned around and quickly approached Alex in the distance.

The first woman he decided was a fair-skinned one with dark blue eyes and pale blonde hair, two pigtails on the diagonal spot of her head, her face was not bad at all, compared to most of his friends in high school, she almost could be considered one of the beauty.

Shame such jewel had to fall into the hand of goblins, twisted into a perverted moaning mess.

"I am sorry..." Alex said as he pressed the kunai on her short throat, but he didn't shear it, deep intense conflict lingered in his eyes.

Alexis arrived beside him, noticing the older man's struggle but she didn't say anything.

"Master... your slave is itchy..."

"Please inserts it again..."

"Ah... cannot wait... Master's big cock..."

Alex looked at her, glanced to the side as his eyes felt hot and nose turned sour, he faced her again, trembling tone said, "I wish you a better life."

Then he pressed the kunai edge on her skin, slid it to the right as swiftly as possible.

Honestly, he could have used a gun, but with Alexis here, he didn't want to show her those firearms yet.

Blood spilled from the gap on her throat, the woman widened her eyes for a bit before they went lifeless, strangely the right side of her lips curled up, it's like she's smiling... genuinely smiling.

Alex stayed, the pair of eyes became blurry as he was unable to hold back his frustration, he desperately begged for a scold inside, said to him this was a wrong choice, he could have a better way!

At this moment, he felt a hand grasped the kunai, softly said, "Sir Star, please take your time, let me do the rest."

"No, I-"

"I know you don't trust me, I understand, I applaud your wariness..." Alexis gently, and in fact, easily took the kunai, she said, "but there is a difference between strengthening oneself and destroying oneself..."

"Push your limit too much, you won't get a good result, you'll be defeated before you succeeded," she walked toward the woman in front, using her hand to wipe her face in order to close her eyes, "moderation is the key... practice is the key..."

"You can become a killer one night, but you won't get used to killing under the same night..."

Alex went silent, tilting his hat as he drew back a little, said, "Sorry, please let me rest, but..."

Alexis looked at him, smiling a bit as she nodded, "Alright, I'll wait."

(***)

Afterward, Alex continued his killing, from one to the next, he was getting less burdened and performed the task easier, his heart still complicated and painful, but he steeled himself, believing that he was saving them.

Alexis never left his side, accompanied him and took the kunai from his hand once she thought he reached the limit, she also released the female when he's done, letting them laid peacefully on the ground.

He noticed that Alexis seemingly always kissed their forehead and whispered something in their ear, unknown what she said.

Finally, they arrived at the southeast pillar, the one where Alexis' friend, Rinoa was hung.

"Sir Star, please forgive me, but for this one... can I do it?"

Alex looked at her, then glanced back at the female, she had a slender figure with a bit curvaceous sides, cerulean eyes with long platinum blonde hair, her ponytail reached below, and a bang framed the right side of her face.

"Friend of yours?"

"Yes."

Alex hesitated for a brief, then he offered the kunai to her, said with a weary tone, "I am a bit tired, I don't think I can do this one."

Alexis startled before faintly smiled, she strolled forward, grasping the kunai, she turned her body to bow at him, "Thank you."

The older man waved his hand, then he retreated slowly before walking toward the distance, honestly, he did tired...

Alexis looked at his back for a while, then she approached Rinoa, staring for a while before come forward to hug her, placing her face into her bosom as she greeted her smooth neck into the edge of the kunai, she slit her throat quickly and let her smearing the white blanket with blood.

"Al... al..."

She widened her eyes, quickly leaning back to look at Rinoa, found that she had stared at her, the intelligent light as if returned to her eyes for a while.

"Rinoa, I am sorry... ooh... I am really sorry..." even with her heart being ready, Alexis couldn't bear but to sobs faintly, quickly held Rinoa's face close to her chest.

"T... u..."

There were no more sounds, Alexis buried her face into Rinoa's hair, then she kissed her forehead, brought her face toward her left ear, said, "May the ancestors welcome your soul."

Afterward, she closed Rinoa's lifeless eyes, pulling her down from the pillar just like the rest of them.

She returned after clearing the rest of the females, Alex immediately offered mineral water wrapped in a translucent bottle, which she found odd.

"Alright, what's next?" Momo said while she sat beside Alex, the latter had been playing with her hair.

"I still need to find my armor and sword, later I will go to find that young man..."Alexis sat with both knees on the ground.

"What's so important about this armor and sword of yours?" Alex said.

"It's my family heirloom..."

Alex and the others exchanged glances, then they nodded, not long after, they traversed the hall together, Momo still supported Shizuka to walk.

They checked all rooms together, but nothing in there, probably the place where the goblins kept the female before they were hung on the pillars.

Finally, in the last room, Alex pushed open the door, bright light quickly shone through the gate.

"!"

Here was a mountain of coins, from copper to golds, all stacked up and formed a big mountain, the four of them immediately stared in dumbfounded.

Not just coins, treasure chests, sword, armor, clothes, potions and others, this not an armory, it's a freaking treasure vault!

"By the Ancestor," Alexis mumbled, "how many merchants and caravans that these goblins had robbed?"

"Or the better question... how long they had been operated, my guess is more than a year..." Alex strolled in, he extended his hand and buried it inside the mountain of coins, he grasped a handful of them as he took back his hand, mumbled, "definitely more than a year."

"This many coins might have earned you a mansion in my home," Momo's purple eyes wandered around the room.

"Or land in my village..." Shizuka said.

"Strange, why none of the kingdoms took any action sooner, surely lots of merchants would have applied a complaint," Alex said, "they paid taxes so the kings could guarantee the security of the trade route."

"Because of the war..." Alexis rummaged through the stuff, she picked armor and sword one by one, "the fight between the Lionheart Kingdom and the Knightwalker Kingdom left many borders unprotected, the knights that posted in several path and road had been mobilized to Gunnar Field to participate in the war."

Alex, Momo, and Shizuka exchanged glances, Alex coughed a bit said, "A long-standing grudge between these kingdoms needed to stop, why prolonged fighting over a gold mine this long?"

"Fighting over a gold mine?" Alexis startled, snapped her head toward Alex while wrinkling her eyebrows, "I am sorry, Sir, what are you talking about?"

"You know... The Lionheart Kingdom discovered this remote gold mine... but the Knightwalker kingdom claimed it belonged to them... thus the war exploded..."

"I don't know any gold mine, but that's not the origin of the grudge between them..."

"Oh?" Alex wrinkled his eyebrows, "What's your version then?"

"My- what?" Alexis funnily looked at him, said, "it's not my version, the people of both Kingdom knew all about it."

"Well, what is it?"

"It all started 500 years ago, the duel between both kingdoms' young masters; Glen Knightwalker and Ashford Lionheart, in order to win the heart of the young miss of the noble family, Ann Orlando."

What? Their long-standing animosity was because of love? Couldn't this get any more lame?

"Ann Orlando was not just famous due to her household name, but her beauty and talent were exceptional, in the Cathedral Knight Academy, she earned the nickname of 'The Knightess', she's the first Expert rank below 20 years old."

Right, the system once mentioned that most people upgraded to Expert rank from journeymen in their 30-ish, only a few talented people can achieve the rank while still in their 20-ish, no wonder they praised highly that Ann Orlando.

"The Orlando and the Knightwalker had been in a close relationship for many years, but the Knightwalker and the Lionheart had been always formed a deep rivalry, but nowhere near great animosity, in fact, they didn't even mind drinking wine together."

"Glen Knightwalker was not just Ann Orlando's childhood friend, but also her fiance, their marriage had been set up by both families pre-birth, and later Glen Knightwalker deeply infatuated with her, but Ann Orlando didn't hold the same feeling yet didn't reject the marriage."

"One day, Cathedral Knight Academy was tasked to slay the evil beast called the Beast of Azalea, it had been tormented a town in the land of Azalea, a very dry place."

"The academy sent their best to perform the task, among them was Ann Orlando and Ashford Lionheart, Glen Knightwalker was a frivolous man, he liked to fool around and lazy to practice martial arts, thus his strength considered not appropriate for the task."

"Thus 8 people with 2 teachers went to the slay the Beast of Azalea, it was a long journey, probably about a month trip."

"It's been rumored that Ashford Lionheart also fell in love with Ann Orlando, but due to his pride as a noble, he didn't take any sort of advance toward her, they just remained an acquaintance in the academy, and this task was their first long interaction together."

"When they arrived at the location and met the beast, it was out of their expectation, this beast was so ferocious and dangerous, it killed 6 students and 1 teacher, almost killed Ann Orlando also but Ashford lionheart sacrificed his left arm to protect her, the last standing teacher told them to escape and report back to the academy, he sacrificed his life so the two of them could escape."

"It took them three to four months to return to the academy, and by at that time, Ann Orlando had fallen for Ashford Lionheart but still hesitated to confess it since didn't want to ruin her family promise, but after sometimes, she couldn't hide her feeling anymore and decided to confess this to her family."

"Of course, they rejected it, kept insisting her to marry Glen Knightwalker, she rebelled, and they locked her in her room as a punishment, Ashford Lionheart heard this news, he immediately challenged Glen Knightwalker in a duel, the latter agreed, he's confident to defeat Ashford because the latter was now a disabled man."

"The duel happened soon later, under the spectator of many people including Ann Orlando and the three families."

"The fight was fierce and heartwrenching, that's because Ashford couldn't fight in his prime and got beaten multiple times by Glen Knightwalker, his figure was bloody, but Ashford kept standing up again and again."

"Eventually, it became the fight of endurance, Glen Knightwalker's stamina had been worn out by the durable Ashford, in their last attack, Glen managed to cut off his nose, while Ashford threw his enemy out of the stage, effectively won the duel."

"The knightwalker and Orlando didn't have much a choice but to break off Glen and Ann's engagement, and soon after, Ashford and Ann would have their wedding."

"Glen Knightwalker couldn't accept this, he resented Ashford, thinking he was cheating, so in the night before their wedding, Glen tried to assassinate Ashford, hiring one group of people along with him to kill the man."

"Ann heard about this, she managed to arrive in time before they killed Ashford, in her anger, she slew all the assassins, including almost to kill Glen, he begged for his life, remembering him as her childhood friend, Ann's heart grew softer, she prepared to leave with Ashford when Gleen finally took this chance to stab Ashford in the back, Ann noticed this, and in reflex, she shielded Ashford with her own body, the sword tip punctured her heart as she died on Ashford's arms, Glen ran away afterward."

"..."

While retelling the stories behind the enmity between these two kingdoms, Alexis had been turning the treasure vault upside down to search for her family heirloom, meanwhile, Alex, Momo, and Shizuka stood on the sideline.

"Since that day, Ashford Lionheart swore to the sky that he and his descendant will kill Knightwalker to their last people, but the strength of Knightwalker was no weak either, the war had been going for 300 years, and due to the destruction it caused, both Lionheart and Knightwalker agreed on peace treaty, but each party was not allowed to enter their territory, otherwise executed immediately."

"Ms. Alexis..." Alex said, "does this mean both countries had been in peace for 200 years? Why they start having war again?"

Alexis shook her head, said with a hint of sadness in her eyes, "It remains unknown."

"..." Alex frowned; the war after 200 years in peace, goblins' high population, merchants and caravans robberies... something was happening here, had this possibly connected with the rise of Dragon Clan?

"Ms. Alexis, do you know something about Dragon?" Momo suddenly asked.

"Dragon?" Alexis startled as she picked an armor, she looked at Momo, pondered a bit and said, "I think I read about them in the books, said they had extinguished more than 1000 years ago."

She looked back at the armor and quickly her eyes lit in joy, said, "Found it!"

(***)

They waited outside the room while Alexis wore cloth and her armor, Alex secretly returned to the treasure vault and took everything inside, in total he had accumulated 1,000 golds, 545 silver, and 1,200 coppers, not to mention swords and shields, armors and others item, he practically had almost everything now.

He shared some with Momo and Shizuka, both of them accepted it but they preferred Alex to keep it for them, it's a nuisance to carry them around.

Soon, Alexis went out of the room, the three of them immediately stayed.

What appeared in front of them was a valiant female with blond hair and curly parts that flowed down to her chest, She wore a red tunic that expressed the outline of her slender waist, a set of silver pauldrons covered her wide shoulder, and chest plate with a symbol of lion on the middle, she had elbow pads, a pair of white gloves with large brown cuffs, complete with brown pants and boots.

A long sword hoisted on her waist, its blade was radiating a clear pitch of dark blue with white light near the middle of the blade.

"Sir Star, Ms. Bella, Ms. Kunoichi, I can't display how deep my gratitude was," she bowed toward them, then she stood straight up, placed one hand across her chest, "but I swore if one day we can meet again, I'll repay it, even with the cost of my life."

Alex exchanged glances with Momo and Shizuka, they had a smile on their face.

"Ms. Alexis, we actually had a surprise for you."

"A surprise?" Alexis startled.

Outside the cave, the sky had shone brightly with the sun on its peak, Elliot and the three soldiers just arrived in the front of the Goblin Nest, in their hands held swords and knives, the reward from the goblins' corpses, Shibarisugi carried almost pretty much everything with its root and branch.

Looking at the aftermath of the fight, Elliot couldn't help but tremble with emotion, Dick noticed it, he thought the young man couldn't wait to meet his sister.

"Don't worry, Mr. Star definitely rescue her!"

"Y-yeah..." Elliot replied in a stutter, he dropped the stack of weapons onto the ground, looking away from the plain graveyard ahead.

After a while, they saw a glimpse of light came from the deep inside the cavern, soon several figures began to emerge, saw Alex, Momo, Shizuka, and one blonde female walked out from the nest.

"!" Elliot immediately stood up from the rock, the previous pale and lament turned into excitement, disregarding all the corpse on the field, he rushed toward the cave's entrance.

"Sister!!!"

Alexis stiffened, she widened her eyes as she covered her mouth in a gasp.

"Elliot? Elliot?"

Looking at the familiar figure quickly ran toward her, her face flushed with excitement, immediately also rushed ahead.

The brother and sister met in a hug, both started bawling tears from their eyes.

Alex smiled as Momo clung into his right arm, leaning her head, Shizuka also faintly smiled.

They might have experienced disaster and tribulation, but seeing the scene in front of them, God knew it was worth the effort.