Divine Arsenal: Dual Weapon Cultivation

by Dante King

  I could fix it, a little voice whispered in the back of my head. This could be a way to test whether I can do what I did to Anna with other women. Lyra certainly seems like she’s into us both. She’d probably jump at the opportunity…

  Careful, Eric. I had to play this cool—come on too strong, and I’d scare the woman away.

  “It’s kind of an embarrassing story,” I confided, sparing Anna the duty of relating how her transformation had occurred. “I’ll tell you, but you’ve got to promise not to laugh.”

  Lyra’s eyebrows furrowed together with surprise. “Young man, you’ve told me you’re from another world and you were brought here by the Peak Supreme God. Trust me, nothing you tell me is going to be treated as a joke.”

  I locked eyes with Anna, asking her with my gaze whether she was alright with me telling Lyra. After a moment, she nodded —then a giggle broke from her lips. She knew Lyra would probably get a kick out of this.

  “Alright,” I said, leaning back in my seat. “Right after Eliezer left us, Anna and I went back to my apartment—my dwelling…”

  I told the whole story. How Anna and I had fallen into bed together, and how we’d begun sensing each other’s Mana halfway through the foreplay. I tried to skip around the dirty parts, but Lyra coaxed me on—clearly, she wanted to hear all the naughty details. So I explained the whole thing. Her breasts rose and fell faster as I described the intense, super-intimate sex as the Mana belonging to Anna and me entwined. I’m turning her on, I realized. Damn, she really is into this…

  As I finished with the bit about Anna turning into a scythe, Lyra gasped. “You’re kidding,” she blurted, her eyes as an owl’s. “Anna, could you… could you do that right now?”

  “I don’t see why not,” the blonde said with a shrug. “Give me a second.”

  Anna closed her eyes and concentrated. Light shimmered over her skin, bathing her in a phantasmagorical array of real and fictitious colors. A few moments later, a scythe sat leaning up against the back of the bench, right where she’d been sitting.

  “Amazing,” Lyra whispered. Her fingers grazed the jeweled handle, tears rolling down her face. “You can turn back now. Or Eric can turn you back.” She paused a moment. “Can she hear me?”

  “Not really,” I said, chuckling. “But I can communicate with her inside my head when she’s like this.”

  In fact, I could hear her stream of consciousness like a stereo inside my skull. The moment Anna transformed into the scythe, she started lusting for combat—I could hear her demanding I pick her up and go hunting for bandits. As she described in erotic terms exactly how she wanted to tear them limb-from-limb, I sent a mental command for her to reform. She did, slumping against the seat with exhaustion as the transformation finished.

  “I’ve heard about this,” Lyra said, stilling her tears. “But I never thought to see it in person before. You turned Anna into a Cultivator through Dual Cultivation, didn’t you?”

  Both Anna and I were startled. “I didn’t realize people knew about that,” I said. “Eliezer made it sound like a pretty rare thing.” Hazel had known, of course, but the more time I spent in that woman’s presence the more I realized what an anomaly she was.

  “Most people wouldn’t,” Lyra agreed. “But I have somewhat of a keen interest in Cultivation lore, as you’ve already guessed. Never thought I’d meet a Dual Cultivator…” She tossed back her head and laughed. “Imagine. Me getting into sex magic at my age!”

  I decided to be bold. “You certainly look like you’re the right age to me,” I said, putting my hand on top of hers on my thigh. “Are you curious what kind of weapon you might turn into, Lyra?”

  She stared down at my legs, desire and caution at war in her eyes. “Likely an old bat like me would turn into some kind of garden rake,” she muttered, glancing at the path ahead. “I missed my best Cultivation days, I’m sorry to say. You probably wouldn’t be interested in a woman like me—and I’m sure your girlfriend’s probably ready to wring my neck right now…”

  Lyra glanced over her shoulder just in time to see a catlike smile spread across Anna’s features. “Actually, I think you’re beautiful,” the blonde purred, sliding an arm over Lyra’s shoulders. “The only thing I’m thinking about doing to your neck right now involves my lips and my tongue.”

  A surprised grunt escaped Lyra’s lips. “Wow. You two have definitely given me something to think about.” A strange smile spread across her features. “How about you let a girl buy you two a couple drinks first, then we talk about this?”

  Anna giggled. “Suits me fine,” my girlfriend said, letting go of Lyra. “Just letting you know. I’m definitely down for having some fun—and from the look on Eric’s face, he’s got a thing for older women.”

  Holy shit. Had Anna always been like this, or had Dual Cultivation brought it out of her? I found it hard to believe the girl who’d been too shy and scared to go on a roller coaster could propose a casual threesome out of nowhere. Had my magic unlocked her inner slut, or was it just the amazing sex?

  After that, Lyra got quiet for a while and focused on the road. The sexual tension between the three of us remained charged as the cart wound through the countryside, occasionally stopping to cross several bridges much like the first. At various points in the road, Lyra stopped at a village or a town with poorer looking fortifications than the Hollow Frog Guild’s base, dropping off a barrel or two of alcohol. Soon enough space opened up in the back of the cart for Hazel to lie down, and she stretched out against the wood while staring blankly at the wall.

  The next town we passed turned out to be abandoned. The logs that had once formed the village’s defensive wall lay scattered like toothpicks across the forest floor, blackened and scorched from either torches or flaming arrows. It looked like the buildings inside had been looted, then razed. Only a few burnt-out husks remained, with no people in the streets.

  Lyra made a complicated motion with her fingers when she saw the devastation. It took me a few moments to realize it was this world’s equivalent of crossing oneself. “Gods,” she whispered, urging the oxen on. “That’s another one gone. Damned bandits.”

  I couldn’t believe it. “We’ve seen dozens of Hollow Frog members in this area,” I growled, my hands balling into fists. “And they didn’t lift a fucking finger to protect these people.”

  “They just don’t care,” Lyra said, glancing back into the cart with a serious expression. “You’ve already seen what happens when someone bucks the trend and tries to help a stranger in these parts. They end up like poor Hazel: punished by Guildmaster Ji.”

  My desire to get revenge grew even stronger. The system the Hollow Frog Guild had created was rotten to the core: whatever I created on top of it could only be better. This world needed more people like Hazel, not fewer.

  As if to mock the situation of the nearby village, the very next hill revealed a much taller palisade wall than we’d seen so far, practically brimming with Hollow Frog guards. They’d been all of a ten-minute walk away when the village had been attacked and burned, and still they’d done nothing about it. A disquieting possibility occurred to me: maybe they’d been the ones who’d done the burning and looting.

  “What is this?” Anna asked, leaning forward in her seat. The wall went up and up, so high that whatever was on the other side couldn’t be seen. “It looks like the entrance to Jurassic Park or something.”

  Lyra had no idea what that was, but the gorgeous older woman had already begun getting used to references from Earth. She brushed it off easily. “That gate forms the boundary between this Mana Zone and the next,” she explained. “Part of the Hollow Frog Guild’s job is to man these guard posts throughout the Verdant Ruins. A different Guild sits on the other side of the boundary, protecting us from monsters from that side.”

  The information interested me. “How many Guilds are there?” I asked.

  “Dozens,” Lyra replied, like she’d never thought too hard about it. “Just within t
he Empire, I’d say there’s about fifty or so vying for dominance. This is one part of their job they take very seriously—there hasn’t been a monster wave that’s breached any of the Hollow Frog’s territories in over three centuries. Other Zones are watched with just as much vigilance.” A tiny tremor passed through Lyra’s curves. “The basic monsters in that Zone could eat the special ones in here for breakfast.”

  Progression, I thought, studying the oversized gate. Like the loading screen between two zones in an MMO. I wonder when I’ll be strong enough to walk through there?

  “Three centuries, huh?” Anna scooted a little closer to Lyra. “I’m surprised a Guild as lazy as the Frogs keeps records that far back.”

  “It’s easy for Cultivators,” Lyra said breezily. “Guildmaster Ji keeps a close eye on the Cultivators in his inner circle. He’s done it for centuries.”

  My eyebrows shot to my hairline. “Guildmaster Ji is three hundred years old?”

  Lyra looked amused by my shock. “Oh, he’s much older than that. You really don’t know how Cultivating affects your lifespan?”

  Anna and I shared a look. I could see my thoughts reflected in her own: we might live for three hundred years? I hoped we’d still look halfway decent at that age.

  “For every Level a Cultivator achieves within a Realm,” Lyra explained, “they gain a boost to their lifespan. That’s how monks can afford to sit on mountain tops for decades, meditating on the ‘essential nature of reality’ or whatever it is they do.” Her snort let me know what she thought of that. “Some of us have to live in the real world. But yes, a Cultivator living to the ripe old age of three hundred isn’t unusual at all. At higher levels, five hundred years or even a thousand isn’t unheard of. I’m sure your friend the Peak Supreme God is a serious silver fox!”

  “I’ll have to tell him you said that,” I muttered, shaking my head in disbelief. I could hardly imagine living for a century, much less ten of them stacked on top of each other. Again, it felt as if I’d won the lottery. I gained power and energy through having hot sex, and every new level I achieved gave me decades and centuries of time to enjoy it. As much as I wanted to wring his neck, Eliezer was looking like a better and better friend.

  Less than an hour later, we came to a town nicer and larger than all the rest. Lyra’s smile widened as we drew closer, the set of her shoulders tensing with excitement and the promise of rest after a long journey. “Here we are,” she said, patting my thigh with her hand. “My home. Sure took us long enough to get here.”

  Anna had fallen asleep in her seat, her head resting against the back of the bench. At Lyra’s touch she stiffened, shot awake as if preparing for combat. “What’s there?” she gasped, blinking rapidly as the real world asserted itself.

  “Chill out,” I said, both Lyra and I laughing. “You dozed off, Anna. We’re here—this is Lyra’s town.”

  Anna held a hand against the side of her face, like someone coming out of a trance. “Good,” she said, rubbing her cheek. “God, I had the weirdest dream.”

  “Oh really?” I asked as we drew closer. “Anything fun?”

  Anna let out a naughty chuckle. “Not in the normal way,” she said, cracking her neck. “I’m even dreaming about being that damn scythe now. You had my neck really tight in your fingers, and you kept using me to slice these dragon monsters in half. My blade was totally covered in blood.”

  So my girlfriend had started having wet dreams about being a killer scythe. Awesome.

  Unlike the Hollow Frog Guild’s hideout, these people felt no need to have a moat filled with spikes surrounding their town. Guard towers protruded from the walls in intervals, with bamboo ladders stretching back down to the town’s interior below. A handful of men with spears lounged near the entrance, startled out of a game of dice by the cart’s approach.

  The lead guard grabbed his spear, then relaxed when he saw who drove the cart. “Ho, Lyra!” he called, gesturing for his fellows to put down their weapons. “What’s the news?”

  A note of sadness cut through Lyra’s smile. “The village near the Zone crossing has been destroyed,” she said, pulling up to a halt before the gate. “Someone tore down a section of the wall and put the whole thing to the torch. I didn’t see any survivors.”

  The guards traded uneasy looks. “Bandits,” one swore, spitting in the dirt.

  “Possibly,” Lyra said through gritted teeth. Did she share my suspicions about the Hollow Frog Guild? “I brought back some Cultivators from the Verdant Ruins Zone. They got on Guildmaster Ji’s bad side—they’ll be staying in my tavern for the next few days while they get situated.”

  I thought the guards had been uneasy before. I couldn’t tell whether it was Anna and I or the mention of Guildmaster Ji that brought those looks to their faces, but it was clear they’d rather Lyra turn right back into the forest and leave us wherever she’d found us.

  “They will be welcome,” the lead guard said with a shrug. He walked to the front of the cart and extended a hand. “I am Pratt.”

  “Eric,” I said, holding out my own hand. The man had a firm handshake— almost too firm, in fact. “This is Anna—she’s with me.” That would probably get the point across without having to use a term like ‘girlfriend’. The men nodded, evidently understanding. “And that’s Hazel in the back.”

  Pratt started. He hadn’t noticed her—but then, of course, she’d been laying down. Two of the guards came alongside, peering into the bottom of the cart. Their eyes went wide at the sight of Hazel, lying there with her strangely slack expression.

  “That’s Hazel Bright-Eyes,” Pratt said, taken aback. “What are you doing trying to smuggle her into town, Lyra? You know she’s been banned.”

  “Banned?” I asked, half-rising from my seat. “What for? Did Guildmaster Ji send a note forbidding her from seeking shelter? Is he that much of an asshole?”

  The guards looked utterly gobsmacked at me calling Guildmaster Ji an asshole. I got the distinct impression they’d all thought the same at one time or another, but would never dare voice such opinions in public.

  “Ah, no,” Pratt muttered. “Governor Shingu banned her from the town. She started a brawl in the market square a few months ago, crippled poor Gentry.”

  Lyra leaned over and spit into the dirt, startling the guards. Not to mention me. “Gentry deserved it,” she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Every single one of you knows it. Just because he’s Governor Shingu’s son, he thinks he can grope every pretty girl in the town he sees. Didn’t we all joke that one day he’d take hold of the rear of the wrong girl and get himself laid out?”

  “A punch is one thing,” Pratt said, looking uneasy. “But what she did to the boy was something else entirely. He’s still bed-bound, you know that.”

  I snorted. “Sounds like he got what he deserved, then.”

  As one, the guard’s eyes turned to me. “Between that and calling Guildmaster Ji an asshole,” Pratt said with a snort, “it’s clear this Cultivator has some kind of a death wish.”

  Lyra started to laugh. She flicked the reins of her cart, provoking the oxen into snorting. “Gentry should have realized Hazel was a Cultivator,” she said, as if she considered the matter closed. “And he shouldn’t have been pinching her bottom in the first place! Regardless, the girl is under my protection. If Governor Shingu has a problem with her being in the town, he can tell me to my face.”

  Pratt looked at his other guards for help. None of them seemed to want to tangle with the woman—and they certainly didn’t look as if they were spoiling for a fight with me. His resolve held out a few moments longer, then he shrugged.

  “Fine,” he grunted. “As far as I’m concerned, none of us saw her lying back there. Isn’t that right, fellas?”

  Slowly, the other guards nodded.

  “Thank you,” Lyra said, turning her attention to the gate. “Come by the Hungry Herb sometime and I’ll hook each of you up with a pint.”

  Pratt stepped
forward. “Between us, Ly,” he said, gripping the side of the cart in his powerful fingers, “I’d think twice about bringing Bright Eyes into the town. First she pisses off the Governor, now she’s finally run afoul of Guildmaster Ji?” He shook his head. “Nobody’s going to be happy having her here. You know that.”

  Lyra’s face set as hard as stone. “I will be,” she snapped, brushing Pratt’s fingers away from the cart. “Don’t worry—I’ll be careful.”

  The guard pulled back, then saluted as we made our way through the gate. The streets inside were far livelier than the interior of the Hollow Frog Guild’s hideout had been. A woman stood at the corner tending an enormous cookpot, while children played a game in the street involving sticks and circles drawn in the grass. People waved and yelled questions as Lyra drove by, evidently relying on her to bring back news and gossip from the outside world. She answered these good-naturedly, but I couldn’t help but notice her keeping an eye on Hazel in the backseat.

  No one else noticed the former Guild member hidden in the back as we approached the tavern. Lyra’s combination inn and distillery dominated one corner of the town, a massive three-story building of wood and brick. Tables surrounded it on the outside as overflow for excess customers, or as a place to sit and eat on a nice day. The tips of the roof curved up like a pagoda, in a style similar to the guard towers we’d passed on the bridges as we crossed over to this side of the Zone.

  A liveried servant emerged from a side entrance as we pulled up, taking the reins away from Lyra. “Welcome back, ma’am,” she said, patting the side of an ox with the kind of familiarity usually reserved for a pet. “How’d the beasts do?”

  “Perfectly able,” the redhead said with a smile. She gestured for Anna and me to hop down. The dirt beneath our feet was slightly damp from recent rain, our heels sinking into the road. “I have a couple of guests who’ll be staying with us for a bit, Kij. Cultivators.”