The Dullahan stood in front of the gate, unmoving like a parked tank. My initial attack had been a probe to see what kind of defenses she had. Anti-long-range spells like a crystalline blood shield seemed like the obvious defense in hindsight. For all I knew, her amor might provide the spell by itself with her control as an additive bonus. Getting in close might be possible. I had the enhancement to keep my blood pumping in high gravity, but that seemed like a bad idea. I wanted to move in. I wanted a good fight, but moving in close to an enemy that could blood-control me sounded like a bad plan.

 

My Gehena was still on cooldown. I needed to practice the spell a lot more before the spell cooldown would drop appreciatively. I had two other spells, Hell Court and Rivers of Hades, two very complicated spells that would take 24 hours before I could use them again. I already invested the energy in the spell slots to power them besides the aura requirement; they were ready. Hell Court was a crowd control spell, and Rivers of Hades was anti-structure. While I could use it, I was certain the queen would survive and come after me with all the forces she had left.

 

I wanted to brawl with the Dullahan. Blonde braided hair peeked out of her helmet, dangling from her arm while her armored body stood strong. Even without her head, she was easily hitting 7ft and that armor. Black and red were great colors, in my opinion, and the spikes were the right kind of edgy. While I had 3 spell slots, I didn’t think she was so limited. From what I understood, she has been guarding the castle gate for decades.

 

She lunged forward and thrust her sword, and spears of blood rose up from the ground aimed at my chest. I couldn’t feel a tug on my veins, but I was still in range, it seemed. My energy blade appeared in my hand, and I swept them away. Clearly, I needed a reliable weapon that fired energy-infused rounds instead of my space dictator-style discipline.

 

“What are you doing here, hero of the angels? Your 3 month grace period has yet to end. Leave, and I will forget your transgression, but continue, and I will show you how far my reach extends.” The Dullahan said.

 

“Three-month grace period; this is the first time I’ve heard of it. Are you lying to get me to retreat and enjoy a nice long training session, or have the angels neglected their tutorial more than anticipated?” I said.

 

“The fault is not ours if the angels refuse to train their heroes in the ways of the balance. Retreat to fight another day or face me in the fullness of my wrath and find out why I am Mauve the undefeated.” Mauve said.

 

“Undefeated, that is a title. Why don’t you join me and we can train together every day. It has to be more fun than guarding a gate day in and day out. What do you say? Join the winning side.” I said.

 

“I am already on the winning side and am no traitor,” Maeve said.

 

“Don’t be like that; my side will always be the winning side because I am here.” The line came from an anime I watched in the past that I couldn’t help but use. Our conversation was getting good, and I felt my blood pumping; a good fight was coming my way, and I barely had to trash talk for it. “What do you say? Join me and never know fear.” I said.

 

A growl was my only response before the spears turned into lances and redoubled, shooting out of the ground. I shot from side to side, dodging them and never staying in the same place for more than a moment. She could hear me and communicate over vast distances with her blood magic somehow. It was amazing. I wanted her blood for my artifact. With it, I was certain to get a good tool to use blood magic through.

 

The seals were already forming in my mind as I ran through different scenarios and designs. Since I was on the side of angels, I decided an angel theme would be my best bet. I was getting so excited I couldn’t help but toss her more lasers.

 

Red beams of light flashed across the distance, hitting her shield and chipping off pieces as I tossed around energy with abandon. Every pill I took increased what my energy had to work with that, including the magic pills. I recovered enough energy to toss lasers out without a care. The Dullahan blocked them all before taking a single step.

 

I felt a tug then and barely resisted with my enhancement techniques. Gravity training didn’t train me for a force actively targeting just my blood. While I resisted, it was clearly only the very edge of her control.

 

Control worked more like a territory; the further away something was, the less control someone had over it. The Dullahan’s single step from several football fields away was enough to concern me. I was already developing counters, but I was dealing with a powerful monster girl. Her speed might be equal to mine, doubtful, but she was the guard while the chimera were throwaways.

 

I didn’t know what a true fight against a chimera would look like, but I was sure it would be something intense. More spears of blood launched out of the ground the closer Maeve approached, some breaking on my barrier, but a few managed to touch my skin. That was concerning.

 

For a moment, I thought about retreating and training for a month before tackling this again. I could build some proper firearms with the piercing power I needed to get through the shield. With such weapons, I could save my spell slots and energy for the queen. That’s how I could guarantee a win. After that, I would have an entire castle and its remaining inhabitants to rule over. Resources would be plentiful. I could perfect not only my blood artifact but perhaps darkness or even a theoretical necromancy one. The options were limitless.

 

Blood would also be the key to building a proper defensive base. Unfortunately, those plans only mattered if I won. I sucked in a breath and let it out, powering up and flexing my aura. The spears melted into slag as I used my control to direct my aura at twice the speed I originally managed.

 

A rush of aura gathered around me under my control, bereft of shape, construct, or manifestation. The heat it generated was contained, leaving only a slight red light covering my body. Airwaves filled my vision as the heat scorched the sand until I took control of even that aspect of my power. My aura should only burn what I allowed it to. I condensed the head until it vibrated within the small light show standing above my skin and shot forward.

 

I threw caution to the wind and decided to fight despite the chances of danger.

 

Maeve gasped as I flickered across the distance. Heat waves below my feet and my own aura movement technique allowed me to take a single step and cross vast distances. It was almost like I was roller skating on a cushion of air.

 

She lifted a hand, and I spun to the side, leaped into a twisting flip, and drifted around her as spears blasted up from the ground all around me. Blood seeped up from the sand surrounding the castle as the Dullahan prepared to go all out. I put my foot down and stopped my momentum.

 

My feet had yet to touch the ground when I raised my fingers and formed an energy blade. The Dullahan drew a black blade with red veins running through it completely on theme. From our close distance, I could see some of her throat sticking out of her armor. Her skin was pale, almost yellow-white. The smell of blood and roses filled the arena as blood seeped from her own body before she placed her head on her neck. The blood moved to her back then and stretched out, hardening into segmented-plated scorpion tails.

This was going to be a great fight; I could feel it in my bones. I had been feeling foul ever since I entered the village it was good to finally let loose. The chimeras had only handled a single spell, and that had been me showing off and giving them ample time to counter. Their wimpy barriers hadn’t been enough to contend with me. I shook my head that wasn’t important; the disappointment was gone. I had a real fight to focus on.

 

She moved in close, and I could feel a pull on my blood, weakened by my aura. It was good to know my aura could run interference in another’s control. Withdrawing after showing up to give me all would have been embarrassing.

 

Our blades clashed, and her blood constructs struck with no mercy. I had to wiggle and move to dodge one powerful blow after another. Maeve raised her foot, and the spikes on the bottom lengthened with blood spikes. She kicked for my gut, and I blocked with my foot, catching the back of her knee. The force of my air and aura cushion knocked me back. I mentally gave her a point for forcing me to back off first.

 

As a petty gesture, I raised a finger and blasted her with a dozen lasers at once. Her shield appeared, and this time, I saw the glow emerge from her armor. My beams struck, and it heated up and bled off instead of deflecting; parts of the shield fell away, and I couldn’t bask in the discovery. She closed in with a horizontal slash followed by a blade of blood.

 

My energy blade met the attack and then continued on despite losing the part where my blade blocked it. I felt my barrier crack, and the blade sank into my skin. It evaporated on contact with my aura but still broke my skin. I regenerated quickly, but blood from my wound rose off of me, and was attracted by the woman’s blade. This fight was not going how I wanted it to.

 

I moved in, blocked her blade, and punched her with all my strength. She moved back a few inches but otherwise held her ground. Never before had my strength felt so insignificant. I pushed more power and relaxed my joints. Clearly, if a basic punch only empowered by enhancement wasn’t enough, then I needed to give her a beautiful punch with all my power behind it.

 

“You aren’t as strong as I expected. All those muscles and that strange power, and you don’t even measure up to a third-tier hero. I didn’t expect this to be such an easy fight. You aren’t even distracting me to let a stronger hero pass; this is your legitimate attempt to challenge Persephone. It's laughable. Are you sure you don’t want to change sides? I could make a powerful hero out of you; if you train hard, you might find yourself on your knees servicing me while I guard the gate. Isn’t that what strong young men like you want most of all.” Maeve said.

 

Oh, it was on.

 

“I don’t know who you think you’re talking to, but be ready to go from Maeve the undefeated to merely Maeve the housewife,” I said.

 

“Do go on with your proposal. Now that I see your skills myself, I can’t help but wonder if this was all along an elaborate strategy to court me. If you had only brought flowers, I would have happily agreed to a spar; this job of mine is so ever boring.” Maeve said.

 

“Then rejoice; you will soon be unemployed,” I said.

 

I shifted my ankle, dropped my knee, twisted my hip, matched my shoulders with the swing, and punched. A pop resounded, and the sound barrier burst. Glowing blue, baleful eyes within Maeve’s helmet snapped open as my fist collided with a hastily formed shield and shattered into a thousand pieces. Aura crossed the distance and melted through layers of armor before my control stopped it cold.

 

Once, pristine armor ran like wax as blood rippled and flacked away, dispersing the worst of the heat.

 

My follow-up stalled as I watched her shudder under the force of a single punch from me. “Perhaps you should reconsider joining the winning side,” I said.

 

“Congratulations; in the last decade, I can only remember a handful of heroes capable of driving me to my second phase.” I followed up with a jump kick that knocked her head off her body. “That’s breaking protocol.”

 

I kicked her legs out from under her and began stripping her armor off. When I finished, she was naked and overwhelmingly beautiful. Her helmeted head charged back over on blood spider legs.

 

“You can’t just claim me if you haven’t beaten me in my second and third phase. There are rules; you’re supposed to let me fully transform battle me until I have to take on my true final form. We’re supposed to clash from there in a beautiful display of our passion and skill until you finally beat me in an epic display of swordsmanship and magic mastery. Then, on the very battlefield we fought, you’re supposed to take me from behind while I watch from a 3^rd person's POV.” Maeve said.

 

I sighed at her words. Of course, she was right; what right did I have to shatter her dreams of a perfect first time. If that was truly the experience she wanted, then I had leverage.”

 

“Join me, and when I finish up with the castle, you can have your epic battle. I’ll let you do as many phases as you want and even play along.” I said.

 

“Of course, the angels would hire a devil to do their dirty work; it is just like them. Why do you even want me to join you? It's not like I can become an angel?” Maeve said.

 

“The strong do as they wish, and the weak suffer what they must. Join me, and we will become strong enough to alter the way of the world itself.” I said.

 

After all, if I become strong enough, then I will decide how the angel faction works. Helel will serve me while I sit on the throne. Who the hell wanted to be ordered around for the rest of their life? Clearly, the world would be better off in my hands than the angels and monsters fighting over every soul.

 

“I like the sound of that. My contemporaries have been obsessed with pleasure while I did my duty. Every day for decades, I guarded the gate so no hero could disturb my queen and her ladies. Is this your full power, or can you get even stronger? That punch was strong; how many more of those do you have in you?” Maeve asked.

 

“That was a normal punch; the punch before it was sloppy,” I said.

 

The woman nodded, and bloody tendrils moved, taking the rest of the armor off for me. She walked over beside me, and her legs spread. Milky white, perfectly muscled legs led to a perfectly trimmed vagina of a soft pink color. The head looked at me expectantly as I pulled my pants down and tossed them to the side. Her hands rose and tweaked her small breast, exposing her large, pointy nipples. My dick was already hard at the sight of such a woman. Her helmet came off, revealing a blue-eyed girl with flowing blond hair and a lecherous smile on her face.

 

“You know I didn’t say yes to joining you. The angels and I have a lot of bad blood between us. Do you have the power to guarantee my safety?” Maeve asked.

 

“The only way to ensure peace is to grant pardons to once enemies. We are all Echidnians.” I said.

 

Maeve giggled at my answer. Nationalism was the way to turn this use vs them into a society. There were bound to be pushback and civil wars in my future, but it was the only way to deal with the problem.

 

“Monster girls fight each other for being different as much as we do angels and humans. How are you going to make us all one group with pardons and say we are members of the planet? I don’t see how it's going to work. Why should I join up with an idealist?” Maeve asked.

 

I spread her legs a little wider and pressed the tip of my cock against her warm entrance. Her warm wet lips were enough to cause a waterfall of pre to spill down my cock in preparation. Every pussy was a little different than the other, and giving this girl the pounding she needed would take skill, determination, and lots of focus.

 

“Lots of examples, easy-to-understand laws, and harsh punishments for those who break the law. A society needs to benefit the people, humans, monster girls, and angels alike. Nationalism is what I believe will cure the worst of our problems. Believe in the country we will build, and you will have nothing to fear.” I said.

 

I pressed into her, and she was so tight. My eyes almost rolled to the back of my head from the pleasure. Medy was gooey inside and so tight, but Meave was a vice grip with inner muscles strong enough to bend iron. I slammed down to my base and felt her control push more blood to my cock.

 

“This is sex; it's so warm. I feel like I’m melting.” I pulled almost out and slammed into her. Monster girls were really something else; they had such different pussies. I felt her G spot almost immediately; the little bundle of nerve really got her going until the head moved in beside me.

 

“Let me try something, please,” Maeve said.

 

She climbed up atop her body and latched onto her own clit. Her legs spasmed and shook, and Maeve skirted on the spot.

 

“That’s the stuff. I like my poundings to be quick and intense. Fuck me from behind. I’m going to hop on my back and watch.” Maeve said.

 

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