"Who are you? Wait, you're not another one of Beldia's damn inspectors, are you?" A deep baritone voice said as John was trying to get his bearings after being teleported. "I told him we will have the repairs completed in another week. I can't make these cursed undead move any faster than they already are. If he wanted this done faster, he should have sent more beastn slaves, not undead goblins. Seriously, what am I supposed to do with more goblins? They were dumb enough when they were alive; dying did nothing to improve that condition."
"I... umm... good evening to you too. Yeah, I'm here for Beldia." John said, dusting non-existent dirt from his armour before turning to the voice, trying to buy himself a few monts. The voice belonged to a man in a black robe, who had two large wings covered in black feathers folded on his back. He was a fairly attractive man with long dark hair, clear skin, a pale complexion, and a mouthful of perfect teeth.
Did he say Beldia? Didn't Wiz ntion that na? One of the Devil Kings generals or sothing. Wait, slaves? What in the hell did I drop into?
He appeared to have been teleported into the courtyard of a castle, surrounded by high stone walls and a keep that was partially covered in scaffolding. Dozens of beastn were in the yard, cutting lumber or dressing stone bricks, while groups of undead goblins and skeletons were moving finished products inside the castle, and others were pushing carts out full of rubble.
"Oh, where are my manners? I am Duke, General Beldia's aide de camp and future general of the Devil King."
"John. I am... known as the Twilight Knight, but I doubt you have heard of . The jobs I do for Beldia are... sowhat sensitive. I'm sure you understand."
"Say no more. We all have our roles within his greatness's army, so more clandestine than others." The man said, seemingly buying John's made-up bullshit. Despite his initial reaction to John's arrival, he seed rather happy to have soone to talk to. "Now, what does the general want? Another progress update? Force to redouble my efforts so he can enjoy his new ho sooner?
I can assure you, I cannot move any faster. I already don't sleep or take breaks. Our slaves are only getting four hours a day to rest as is; if I push them any harder, we will get even poorer quality work, and things will go even slower. I warned him they needed at least six, but do you think he would listen to reason? It's a miracle we haven't had more accidents than we have like this."
"No... Sothing has co up that will delay him by a day or two, so your previous estimates will work fine. I'm here because I'm going to be working out of here and wanted to look around the castle and get a lay of the land. He has... business he wants to attend to nearby." John said, trying Scouter out. A blackness blocked him, so he tried Card, and that was blocked too.
Just who is this guy? Only goddesses have been able to block Card so far.
"That is excellent news. Please, look around to your heart's content, but if you leave on foot, make sure you take the Western gate. We are keeping the North gate closed in case soone cos down the road from Axel and looks at the castle. Don't want anyone to know we are in here until we can move the army in. Would you like a guide? MICA! GET OVER HERE!" He asked, but called for soone before John could reply.
"I'm here, Boss!" A beastwoman dressed in rags ran up and stopped in front of him. She was about five feet eight inches tall, with alabaster skin, perky C-Cup breasts and wide hips. Her shoulder-length silver hair frad an attractive heart-shaped face, a single mole blemishing her skin below her grey-blue eyes. Two furry silver triangles were on top of her head, and a long furry tail, which reminded him of Nebulas. He was positive she was a wolfkin beastfolk; if she wasn’t, he would eat his eye patch.
"Good. This is John, an important mber of General Beldia's staff. Show him around the place, then you can take your downti. Do not anger him, else you will get the whip again." He said, then turned back to John. "She will show you around and keep you from entering spaces that are unsafe, and the areas we are still reinforcing. I swear, for a Dullahan, he wanted so many anities in this place you would think he was still alive. Speaking of, since you are still alive, feel free to use Mica however you wish. She is clean and willing; just don't break her, she is one of my better workers. If there is nothing else, I need to get back to work. These lesser undead are just so bloody brain dead, I need to hold their hands, else they are liable to cut them off. Cheerio!"
"Okay, thank you," John said to Duke's retreating form. The man reminded him of All Might that day in the office when he would barely let John get a word in. His work seems to have driven him to distraction; he barely questioned who John was or why John had just shown up out of nowhere.
I guess I arrived just as they were already teleporting things; maybe that is also how these inspectors showed up. So, I accidentally infiltrated the enemy base, which, by the sounds of it, is the old castle outside of Axel. So, now what do I do?
He looked at Duke's retreating form again and contemplated just walking over there and cutting him down. Assuming he was undead, he could wack him with Holy Light, hit his invulnerability, and it would be all but over. Of course, he would have mana exhaustion, and a whole castle full of undead to deal with then... not to ntion all these slaves who may or may not rise up against their captors.
I got my Pelican and the Playboy Mansion in my pocket... Neither will really help here. I think I need to get so more single-use spell scrolls next ti I'm in DEN.
He pulled out his Substance X and popped another pill, hoping to increase his mana regen a bit more. He would take a tour of the place with this Wolfkin, maybe fish for more information from her, and then decide whether to try to find his party up in the hills or just clear the place out.
If they don't just pile through the teleporter themselves. Damn it, I can't just stand here and wait to see if they show up; that would look rather odd. I'll just have to be ready in case they do.
Mica was looking up at him expectantly, her head tilted a little bit to the side, tail tense. He thought if he told her to jump, she wouldn't ask how high, but would shoot for the moon and pray it was high enough. He activated Scouter.
{I can't believe he offered again! Hopefully, he is happy with just a massage and a handy. I'm fertile right now; ti off or not, I don't want so devil sympathizer’s pups! Why is he just staring at ? He isn't going to be happy with just a handy, is he? Eris, I don't know what my people did to displease you, but please forgive us. Please, save us.}
"Relax, Mica. I'm not going to do anything to you." John said reflexively. While a massage and a handy sounded great right about now, he wasn't going to take one from soone who was a slave. "How about you show around the castle, then sowhere I can sit down and relax for a bit?"
"Yes, Sir! If you please follow ." She bowed to him, then headed towards a side door of the massive keep.
He glanced around the courtyard one last ti, then followed Mica. He had no idea what was happening back at the adow; were they going to step through the unknown teleporter to co after him? Could they even follow him? Would they do sothing else?
Shoot, were the girls in Suzy Q okay from the fall? It's a hell of a drop with a sudden stop. Damn it. We need radios or sothing.
"Heal!" Aqua chanted, casting her magic on Yunyun, repairing the unconscious young Arch Wizard's broken leg. She had already healed gumin's broken collarbone and concussion from slamming into the window of the ch when it toppled. Chris managed to get out unscathed, even dragging the other girls out of the contraption that John had brought with him.
Speaking of, Chris was over in the clearing with Darkness, tracing out the edges of that teleportation field and trying to figure out how to activate it. She and Darkness had tried to follow John imdiately, but the field wouldn't activate again for so reason. When they found out about the injuries, she stopped trying to activate the teleporter; their injured comrades needed to co first. Darkness lost her composure for a bit, wanting to follow John so she could be beaten up by the undead instead of him, but thankfully, she recovered enough to realize they were in no position to follow him imdiately.
Leaving the two unconscious girls with one of the grey wolves, she joined the other two in the clearing. "Any luck?"
"Not really. I... can't be sure, but it seems like it's activated by dark or shadow magic. John's armour has both holy and dark elents, so I think that is how he went through. I don't have anything that could trigger it, and I doubt our two wizards actually have anything either." Chris said. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest, and tapping her foot while contemplating the issue.
"Did you search the corpses for sothing that might activate it? An artifact or trigger of so sort?" She asked, looking around at the ss of broken bodies those missiles had ripped asunder.
"I didn't do a physical search, but I can't detect any magic items on what is left of them, so I didn't bother. If there was sothing, I think it exploded along with everything else."
"Hmm... Well, that ans it's up to ." She said, pulling out her adventurer card. She had levelled up when she turned that Giant Ox, so she had more points to spare. After a mont of lanting that she couldn't take another party trick spell she really wanted, she added another one from the Arch Priest list. "It will take a bit, but I'll scry out where he went."
I need to prove to him I can be useful! I don't want to be left behind to live in a stable and do construction work!
"And this is one of the guest rooms for any of the VIPs that may co to visit from the Devil King's Army. You're free to use it for as long as you stay here."
"Well, thank you for the tour, Mica," John replied, taking a seat on the bed in the well-furnished room.
The place was definitely in much better shape than Darkness thought, the beastfolk and the undead pretty much having already renovated most of the building. There were training facilities, a kitchen, stables, a forge, and a large audience hall, among many things. There was even a mana-infused bath in the basent, a magical device heating the water like a hot spring.
It took about an hour to see the place, in which ti Mica had started to relax around him, her tail sotis swinging like she was happy for a few monts before going still again.
"Ahh... you're welco, Sir. If you have no further need of , I will return to my duties and leave you to your rest."
"Actually, co sit down. We need to talk." He said, activating Scouter.
"Sir?" She said, ears pinning back on her head and her wagging tail going still again.
{No... He is going to want the extras, isn't he? Maybe my mouth will be good enough.}
He ignored that. Little John was trapped underneath his armour and unable to embarrass him right now. "Let's just say that little prayer you said to yourself earlier is about to co true."
"I... I have no idea what you are talking about, Sir." She replied, confused at what he was saying.
"Well, Eris didn't send , but she is a friend of mine. I think I might be able to help your people out, but I'm going to need your help to do it." He said, activating his Sage quirk.
"What? I have no clue what you are talking about. I am... a loyal servant of the Devil King, Sir. Eris is the enemy of our peoples."
{This is a trap. It has to be a trap.}
"Mica, I'm not testing your loyalty. I ca here by accident after my party destroyed a bunch of undead that were cutting trees, and I sohow triggered the teleportation field they were using. If you're willing, I could use you and your people's help to clear out this castle and win your freedom."
"If... if this is true... how could I trust you? You could just be trying to entrap in saying sothing negative against our glorious King. No, no, I already have enough scars from being whipped, I don't want sothing worse to happen."
"If I healed your scars, would you believe ?"
"Healed? You look like a death knight, not a priest. How would you heal my scars?"
He took his helt off then, and allowed his magic to bleed out of his eye. "A death knight? No, darlin', I'm the Twilight Knight, a Paladin who protects the innocent. Now, my healing isn't as good as an Arch Priest's, but it's pretty good. Will you take a leap of faith and let heal you?"
She didn't say anything, her grey-blue eyes staring into his for a mont that seed to stretch into eternity. She sighed, then turned away from him, lifting the rags she was using as a shirt and showing him her back. His anger flared at the sight before him. A dozen long gashes crisscrossed her back, most of the wounds still open. Lacerated skin was stuck to infected, pus-filled wounds, in desperate need of being cleaned.
"I'll just warn you now, my magic has so side effects, but I should be able to clean this up." He said, trying to keep the anger out of his voice. He was about three seconds away from burning down this whole building.
"Side effects?"
"Yeah. It has a habit of... causing won orgasms. Sotis it doesn't do it if the damage is severe enough, but I am just warning you that it might happen. Are you okay with that?"
She sighed. "Do as you will. If this is a trap, at least I might get one last good feeling before I'm killed."
"It's not a trap, it's your salvation. Now, Middle Heal! Cure!" He said, placing a hand on her trembling back, channelling his rage from this senseless abuse into the spells.
"AHHH!!!" She moaned as the magic twisted through her body. Her back reassembled itself, the dead skin falling off as new skin replaced it, covering new muscles that had been damaged. It left such a ss on her back that he couldn't even see how much had actually healed. "Hah, hah, hah, what was that?"
"Waterball, Firebolt." He said, forming a ball of water over his left hand and a fireball in his right. He heated up the water until it was warm, then grabbed a sheet off the bed, wet it, and proceeded to wipe all the crap that ca out of her wounds from the magic.
"Ahh... what are you doing?" She asked after she recovered from the healing magic.
"Just cleaning you up. How are you feeling?"
"Like I'm a young pup again. Your hands feel really good."
"Well, I'm just glad that this worked as well as it did. You were in pretty rough shape. How were you even walking around like that?"
"High pain tolerance. Before I was captured and put into the Devil Kings press gangs, I was an adventurer, a Rune Knight to be exact, and I have put a decent amount of points in defence skills." She said, then turned towards him, her hands covering her breasts. "How does it look?"
"The major damage has been repaired. There is so discolouration on your skin, but it's smooth again." He said, trying very hard not to stare at the hand bra she had made.
God damn it, I need to get laid. This Ki usage is really turning into a horn dog.
She let out a ragged breath. "And you say you know Eris?"
"Yes. We have t a few tis."
"You t the goddess? Not just speaking to her in prayers?"
"Yeah. She is an interesting person and cares deeply for the people here." He said, the picture of the petite goddess stroking his cock ca unbidden to his mind.
"So she did hear our prayers and sent you."
"Umm... I wouldn't go that far. As I said, it was a mistake that I was teleported here."
"She does not make mistakes, just happy little accidents." She said, then dropped her hands, exposing her breasts to him. Her pink nipples were rigid, and her left breast had a little mole on its side. "I'm ready to have a happy little accident with our saviour. I'm in heat and ready to mate if you are."
"Easy there, darlin'." He replied, quickly covering her with another sheet off the bed before he crossed a line he was not willing to do. "Let's get your people free first before you start celebrating. Besides, I already have a couple of other attachnts."
"Of course. What was I thinking? You're a human, and I'm a beastfolk. Why would you want to be with ?" She said, sounding dejected from his rejection.
"Actually, a couple of my fiancées are beastfolk, but that isn't a discussion for right now." He said, sitting her back down beside him. "What we need to discuss is this Duke guy, and if there are other beastfolk willing to rise up. We might not have a lot of ti remaining before my party figures out where I am, and anything you can tell will help."
"Hah, goddess give strength." She said, then looked up at him. "Let get dressed again, then we can find the rest of my party. We don't have any of our weapons or armour, but we will aid you as best we can. Julia and Andre will need healing as well, but Kathleen and Sam are both okay. I have taken their whippings for them."
"Alright, bring to your friends and let's see what we can do," John said, gently squeezing her shoulder. It was almost like squeezing Darkness's shoulder, her muscles much denser than her size indicated. He had so concerns about burning more of his magic up before fighting, but having more allies should more than make up for that.
One thought kept bothering him, though. The fact that he couldn't Card Duke and the black void he saw when he used Scouter on him.
Just what in the world is that man?
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