by J. J. Pavlov
Maybe Chandra had planned to do that from the start, or it was a coincidence. Considering that she hasn't seriously hurt anybody so far - even though she could have done so easily - means that this fight is still nothing more than a sparring match to her. It's frustrating to admit, but she's still going easy on them despite saying that she would get serious.
Hreidunn goes to help Leif again by trying to lift Gram's shield off of him. But she realizes just how heavy it really is and gains a newfound respect for the big man's strength.
Rolan exchanges a glance of coordination with Kamii then charges forward to attack the six-armed woman first. The little dark elf waits a moment before doing the same from the other side.
Sigurd shoots his crossbow down the center, aimed at the ajura's thigh. Unlike earlier, she won't be able to deflect it with a kick, but it's still difficult enough for her arms to reach it without having to bend her back. And unlike an arrow, a crossbow bolt can't be thrown as accurately to be used against them.
But as if to prove that she can do more than catch or deflect it, Chandra sidesteps the attack with an unexpectedly nimble move toward Kamii. Taken aback, the dark elf twists her leg to avoid a collision while throwing her cursed arm around in a downward swing at her much larger opponent. With one of her six hands, the ajura grabs the base of the pincer and lifts the petite girl straight off the ground.
At the same time, Rolan gets into range and prepares to swing his sword at Chandra's back. In the next moment, Kamii is thrown around like a ragdoll and crashes into him from the side. The force wasn't enough to break anything on either side, but still knocks the wind out of the little dark elf and throws the leader off balance.
Dropping to the ground, Kamii holds her chest, which impacted the breastplate Rolan is wearing. She gasps for air and squirms from pain, unable to get up again anytime soon. It looks like she's down for the count.
"Torrentos Aquos, Perrumperos Claustros!" Vigdis takes the opening the others have created to finish a spell. A swirling sphere of water appears behind her, which elongates and turns into a churning snake at the movements of her staff. Pointing it at the Ajura boss who turns around at the noise, it shoots forward like a drill.
Instead of dodging, Chandra braces herself to take the spell head-on. But she realizes at the last moment that it may be too much for her, after all. Twisting her body out of the way, she barely avoids the tip of the water torrent. It grazes her stomach before dissipating behind her into a wave that washes over the watching ajura.
"That was quite a surprise." She looks down at herself to see her skin chafed from the spell. Leif's fiery explosion wasn't able to harm her, but Vigdis' torrential drill could at least draw some blood. Still, the water mage's flabbergasted expression makes it sufficiently clear that it was her most powerful spell. Her drooping shoulders suggest that she has lost her will to fight after this.
Suddenly, Gram tackles Chandra from the side. His face is pale, most likely from suppressing the urge to vomit after having received at least one fist to the gut, but he has still drawn out all of his strength to get back into the fight. However, it's not even enough to throw her off balance, as the sound of his chainmail has given him away.
Pulling the big man toward her and putting him in a headlock, she glances at Sigurd, who has finished reloading his crossbow. The bard sees that the situation seems helpless and raises his arms in a gesture of surrender while smiling wryly. Hreidunn glares at him for giving up, but her head swivels around at the sound of Gram being dropped to the ground after falling unconscious from the grappling move Chandra put on him. She understands that with him, Kamii, and Leif out of the picture, they stand no more chance at victory.
That's when a flash of light shines from behind Chandra and seems to put the rising sun to shame with its brilliance, causing a murmur to run through the watching crowd. The light only lasts for a moment before dimming to a more reasonable luminosity.
Rolan has drawn Roshanee, the Sword of Light, and is holding it with both hands. The blade leaves behind a streak that seems to be burned into the retinas of the onlookers when its wielder seems to zoom forward. He bridges the distance to the Ajura boss in the blink of an eye. The shining blade appears to run straight through her torso, but she has stepped out of the way just in time to barely avoid it.
Her chest wrapping isn't so lucky, though, as it falls apart and exposes her bare breasts once again. But as before, she doesn't worry about it and instead focuses on the fight. Sidestepping the blindingly fast slashes from Rolan without much effort, she matches his speed.
Seeing an opening, Hreidunn shoots an arrow at where Chandra is likely to step next. This time, it hits her shoulder, causing the ranger to break out into a smile. Then the arrow bounces off the ajura's skin after barely scratching the surface. Suppressing the urge to break down crying, Hreidunn lowers her bow and just stares at the leader fruitlessly swinging at the nimbly dodging opponent.
Finally, Rolan forces himself to sheathe the sword, upon which Chandra suddenly steps forward, grabs his wrist, and forces it back out. His eyes widen in surprise, but he looks thoroughly exhausted and can only struggle weakly against her grip. She then puts a hand around his and pulls the sword out of it, which he can't even try to prevent.
Collapsing to his knees, he looks up at the towering woman, who scrutinizes the glowing Roshanee with a curious gaze. The two-handed sword for a human of regular height appears like a one-handed one when held by an ajura. She proceeds to swing it a few times at blinding speed, then raises an eyebrow at it.
"What did ya do to this?" Chandra asks Rolan, who looks up in surprise. "This is one of the six Roshanees wielded by my grandfather. But aside from glowing, it never did anythin' else."
The leader's jaw drops when he hears that the Sword of Light, the only piece of treasure they found in the lich king's chamber in the Lost Tombs, is, in fact, an Ajura weapon - and that there are five more like it.
"It gave ya a boost in speed." The Ajura boss performs a blindingly quick sword dance with it, ignoring the fact that her large but firm chest is still exposed, and comes to a stop back at the very point she started at. "But I don't feel it."
Shrugging, she tosses the blade down in front of Rolan carelessly. He musters all his remaining strength to quickly grab it and pull it into its sheath before falling over from exhaustion. With ragged breathing, he tries to ask what Chandra knows about the sword, but can't bring out any words, as his consciousness is beginning to fade.
"Is this it then?" Looking around with a grin, Chandra regards the three in the backline who are still standing. Sigurd already signaled his surrender, and Hreidunn and Vigdis clearly lost their wills to fight. Gram is out cold, Leif is still pinned under the big man's shield, and Kamii can't even push herself off the ground from the pain in her chest. "Seems like it."
With these words, she turns to the leader with a mischievous grin that shows off her sharp canines.
"Ya lost, so all of ya gonna be staying." She crosses all three pairs of her arms and states in a satisfied tone. The last thing Rolan sees before his vision goes dark is Chandra's mischievous grin. Then oblivion claims him.
Chapter 83 - Kessler Syndrome
The first thing I realize is that I'm not freezing. In all those big-budget movies set in space, people freeze all over once exposed to the vacuum of space. Here I am, seeing almost the entirety of Mundia, as the planet I was launched from is known in the Empire of Terminus, but it doesn't feel cold.
Then again, according to several sources at this point, my kind came from space. Being able to survive it should be in our nature, so I'm not surprised. However, I have no idea how to maneuver, and without any air, I can't chant magic to propel myself with. I'm stuck watching Mundia slowly recede - though I believe that I'm traveling at incredible speeds still.
It has been several hours since I left the ground, and I've passed the altitude from which the International Space Station took photos of Earth a while ago. We were
shown those in class in middle school, and I would have never even remembered it, if not for the view before me.
I'm surrounded by tranquility and silence. My Crawling Chaos body is unaffected by the vacuum of space, but it also has no circulation. One's heartbeat supposedly echoes in one's ears in absolute silence, but I don't even have that.
All I can think about is how things came to this.
The first point standing out to me is that I was betrayed. Mithra helped the humans when I was definitely winning in my battle against them. If he had teleported me back to the castle in Arkaim or anywhere else in the world, I would have given him a chance to explain himself. But he launched me into space just as he did with the enormous Crawling Chaos that appeared in the Dominion thirty years ago.
Then again, what was that response of his to my question regarding Kamii? It sticks out as a discrepancy and makes me doubt his motives. I couldn't tell his expression due to his bandaged face when he activated the gravity spell.
To the humans, he should have appeared like a savior. Whether or not he's a traitor to Maou-mama, his standing among them should have improved further. Although I still don't know why they don't recognize the successive court magician to two reigning monarchs of the Dominion. Especially considering he doesn't even change his outfit between his two jobs.
My thoughts move in circles as I stare at the blue planet while reminiscing about all the things that happened to me in the last two days. If I weren't a Crawling Chaos with an untiring body, I would have been completely exhausted even before the battle at the academy. After all, only the night before, we fought a dragon and a godlike being known as Aurelia, the Golden Queen.
Speaking of that Golden Queen, she's still inside my stomach, alive and, until a few moments ago, literally kicking. Her body is unscathed by my digestive powers, and she hasn't lost her sanity while engulfed by my flesh.
I close my eyes and enter myself - and not just figuratively. As I open my eyes, I find myself standing in a room I created inside my body in a life-sized avatar of myself. It's connected to the wall through an umbilical cord growing out of its back. This is possibly by far the most creative use of my physics-defying insides yet.
The room has an atmosphere - a leftover of all those experiments when I tried to keep something alive inside me. It seems that rooms I forget about remain intact as they are, floating around in the infinite space within me. There's even gravity, but I have absolutely no explanation as to why.
In either case, where there's an atmosphere, sound can carry. And with all the free time on my hands, I could use a conversation partner. Considering there's nobody here but Aurelia, she's the only choice. Of course, whether or not she cooperates all comes down to persuasion.
The girl in question is hanging from the ceiling in a hogtie, her limbs wrapped with a multitude of tentacles. Her extremely long hair is tied up as well, as I suspect that she can manipulate it with her powers over gold. She has been stripped of all other gold, including her broken armor, and is now exposed before me in all of her naked glory.
And it's truly glorious.
Glancing at her perfectly shaped thigh, I once again marvel at her body's softness contrary to appearances. She has a metallic sheen all across her body as if her skin is slightly oiled, but appears to be made from different shades of gold. Just like a normal human, she radiates body heat and produces saliva and other fluids. However, she neither breathes nor has a heartbeat, and her skin turns completely rigid against impacts.
"Maybe you're gilded rather than gold throughout." I round her and take a peek between her legs. She peers over her shoulder with an angry look; even now, she tries to maintain her majestic dignity. The gag in her mouth keeps her from voicing her indignation and hurling insults at me, though something tells me that she's not the type to stoop to such unrefined manners.
I slide my hand along her thigh before moving up her soft belly, causing a shiver to run through her body. Whether that reaction is from disgust or pleasure, I don't know. And I frankly don't care. We fought to the death, she lost. Her life is now in my hands.
"Does that mean you always looked this beautiful?" Asking in a suggestive tone, I run a finger up between her somewhat small breasts without directly touching her skin. Then I reach her chin and force her head up so that she looks me in the eyes. Her golden irises are the only parts of her that look like true gold. All the others have mixed colors to generate all the shades found in the human body. "Tell me about yourself."
With these words, I pull the tentacle acting as a gag out of Aurelia's throat. Its entire length is coated in saliva, and I savor her glare when she regains control over her countenance. The inside of her mouth is red like a human's, but even there, I notice the metallic sheen. If she isn't coated in gold, then her body is almost as mysterious as mine.
"I have nothing to say to a creature such as you." Even in her unfavorable position, she maintains a condescending tone.
"You lost against me. So you should listen to me." I lower her legs to the ground but keep her arms up. She has about the same height as Hestia, but their bodies couldn't be any more different. Where the angel girl has a curvaceous figure that looks soft from every angle, Aurelia is toned but not visibly muscular. She's like a finely crafted statue that embodies human perfection, but her chest is strangely lacking.
"Violate me, kill me, if either pleases you." The Golden Queen meets my gaze head-on, defiant to the end. "You will never break my-"
Before she can finish, I push her down to the floor and undo the transformation of the room's interior. It quickly warps back into what it usually looks like: A space overflowing with tentacles searching for prey to digest. I found her in it earlier, the tendrils covering her entire body, wiggling in frustration at their inability to do their work because of her nature.
They now spread across my avatar, exploring it blindly before deeming it part of the whole they belong to and ignoring it. Instead, they go for the golden girl's body once more. She has been subjected to it for almost a day before I came here. However, my face splits into an abyssal grin, as all the tentacles surrounding me begin to move with clear intent. Upon seeing that, a hint of terror glints in her eyes before she realizes her moment of weakness and turns away her head.
"Come now, don't be so cold. We only have each other now." Bringing my lips close to Aurelia's ear, I breathe into it hotly. She stares at me in confusion, and I draw back while keeping eye contact. I run a finger from between her chest down to just above her belly button before standing up. "Do you know where we are?"
Not waiting for a wild guess or continued silence, I pull all the air out of the room into another and seal it off. Just like me, she doesn't need to breathe, but I don't want to let the atmosphere go to waste. We still need the air for our voices to carry.
My avatar fades into the ground before I turn myself inside out, causing Aurelia to end up in space. Tentacles growing from my back are still wrapped around her arms so that she doesn't separate from me. Wordlessly, I point past her at Mundia as we continue to drift away from it. She stares at it for a moment, then closes her eyes as if sighing. Of course, she doesn't have any air in her lungs, so nothing comes out. Turning her head back to me, she seems to be saying that she has seen enough.
In the next moment, I swallow her back inside me and bring her into the same room we were in earlier before letting the air rush back in. Then I undo the tentacle bindings on her arms, as it seems we're no longer on kill-on-sight terms.
"You seem to understand where we are." I'm intrigued to find that she seems to know that we're in space. There were no indications that the technology of this fantasy world could have given anybody a glimpse of the planet they live on.
"Indeed, I do." Aurelia regards me with a sharp look while rubbing her wrists as if being tied up hurt her. I feel like she's only doing it to spite me, as her skin seems impervious to anything physical. She doesn't look at all affected by the vacuum of space either, just as I had
expected.
"You can't just leave me hanging on such a statement." Although I know it's an exercise in futility, I scold her with a frown, but she turns her gaze away, disinterested.
I play with the idea to put her back into a hogtie and force the answer out of her. The only kind of torture that has any effect on her body would be the sweet kind. But that would most likely also be pointless; she didn't break from seeing my real appearance after all.
"In either case, I've tried everything to get back, including throwing out all of your golden weapons." I state with a click of my tongue at the memory. Upon hearing this, the golden girl spins her head around to me, and her eyes widen in anger. According to movies, if you want to propel yourself in one direction, you need to push something in the opposite direction. But it turns out that I'm still caught in the gravity spell, or Hollywood lied about how space works once again.
"All of them?!" She suddenly flares up, and I understand what she must be worrying about. But to think that her priorities lie there when we find ourselves drifting into space uncontrollably, I can't help but wonder.
"No, I've kept it. It was the only one that seemed special." Shaking my head, I reassure her that the strange weapon she used to try and kill me with is still safely stored in my body. For some reason, I felt the need to tell her even though I'd never let her reunite with it. "But before you worry about that, you should think about our situation. At this rate, we'll die out here."
In my case, that would be of starvation. I'm a race that can live in space just fine, but hunger will become a problem eventually. Aurelia may be like a statue and doesn't require sustenance, but that will only mean she'll float through space alone after I'm dead. Maybe she'll die by falling into the sun someday.
"I have long since waited for death." She scoffs at my concern and mutters with a self-deprecating smile.
