In the end, Li Zihan never managed to get Miss Guda into bed.
The reason was simple.
He was in bed with Mash.
It sounds unbelievable, but that was the reality of the situation.
"When a man is faced with a mortal crisis, he instinctively wishes to leave behind a successor."
"Your desire to be with Master right now is not born of affection. It is merely a need to vent your primal urges."
This conversation had taken place just before Li Zihan was about to go on his "date" with Miss Guda and claim his prize. Miss Mash had intercepted him, her expression utterly serious.
"I suppose there's some truth to that," Li Zihan had mused, finding the whole development strangely similar to an eroge. After a moment of thought, he gave his reply.
"But I don't believe I've done anything wrong."
"I'm facing death, so I feel desire. If I don't take it out on my lover, then who should I seek out?"
He paused, a sly look in his eyes. "Am I supposed to come find you instead?"
"Goodbye. I'm going to sleep with Ritsuka now, and I'm going to make her beg for mercy in that soft, sweet voice of hers."
The man who never hid his desires turned, fully intending to knock on Miss Guda's door.
And then...
Miss Lecherous Eggplant's face flushed crimson, then deathly pale. Just as Li Zihan was about to reach the door, she grabbed his arm.
And then...
What happened next was a scene that could have been lifted directly from an adult visual novel.
Miss Mash, unwilling to let her Master fall into the clutches of a monster, chose to feed her own body to the tiger.
The terms of the exchange: Li Zihan was forbidden from making a move on Miss Guda. At the very least, he could not pursue her for a reason as base as simple carnal desire.
"If my life were a game, it would definitely be an eroge," the boy thought to himself, finding the situation perfectly absurd as he wrapped his arms around the girl's slender waist and claimed her with a savage rhythm.
The girl's voice, now weak and breathy, escaped her lips in a series of sweet moans. But before she could fully cry out, a new, powerful thrust drove deep inside her, cutting her elegant song short.
Every inch of her body trembled. A fine sheen of sweat coated her delicate skin, glistening under the dim light as they moved in a frantic, then gentle, then frantic again cadence.
Only when a final, desperate climax was reached did her body convulse, drenching his thighs as her long, melodious wail finally faded.
The graceful girl collapsed limply on top of her Master's lover, gasping for air.
As is the case in every eroge, the absolute carnivore had no intention of refusing the chance to play with his lover's Servant.
Perhaps it was the flood of high-quality magical energy that had revitalized the Demi-Servant. She recovered a sliver of strength, lifted her head, and spoke to the man, a part of whom was still intimately connected to her.
"I have dealt with your... issue. Should you face a similar situation again, I will handle it."
"In return, you are forbidden from laying a hand on Master for such a vulgar and shallow reason."
"I understand," the boy, having unexpectedly slept with his lover's Servant, agreed with a solemn nod.
A man is always more agreeable right after he's finished. Besides, Mash's condition was only that he couldn't pursue Miss Guda for shallow reasons. She hadn't forbidden him from pursuing her altogether.
No matter how he sliced it, this was an absolute victory.
"Should we get cleaned up?"
The boy, who had rigged a makeshift shower in the temple, gently lifted the girl he had just taken.
"It wouldn't be good if Ritsuka saw us like this."
Mash, who had either acted on pure impulse or had been spurred by the sheer brutality in his tone when he'd spoken of her Master, nodded heavily.
Soon, the two, who had spent a long time together within that stretched bubble of time, had washed themselves and gotten dressed.
"Li-kun, what's next on the agenda?"
Miss Mash, now filled with an unprecedented supply of magical energy, looked at the boy who now appeared utterly harmless in his fresh clothes. Her voice was a complex mix of emotions.
Honestly, this situation is beyond bizarre, she thought. From now on, I'll just have to try and interact with him normally, unless something else extreme happens.
"Did you know? According to legend, the one who holds all ten of Solomon's rings becomes the master of the seventy-two Demon Gods."
With a lighthearted smile, the boy produced the tenth and final ring of the true King Solomon. Then, as Mash watched, he began to draw a summoning circle on the floor.
It was the ritual to summon a Demon God Pillar, a technique he'd learned from Romani. The catalyst for the summoning was Solomon's ring itself.
With the final ring of Solomon as a medium, summoning a Demon God should have been a simple affair.
There was just one problem: Goetia.
That entity, holding the other nine rings, could use their collective power to forcibly suppress any attempt to summon and control a Demon God. Under normal circumstances, trying this would do little more than enrage Goetia.
But then, enraging Goetia is precisely what I need to do, isn't it?
The boy, having already sent Ling and Tiamat to infiltrate the Sea of Imaginary Numbers, smiled and poured his magical energy into the summoning circle.
---o---
[Separation Line]
Ars Paulina: The Time of Crowning Has Come, Hereby the Myriad Manifestations Are Inspired. This is Goetia's second Noble Phantasm.
Rank: A
Classification: Anti-World Noble Phantasm
It is a Bounded Field created by Goetia using the amplified remains of King Solomon, a pocket dimension that collects and integrates all of human history converted into magical energy. Also known as the Grand Temple of Time, this Singularity exists in the Sea of Imaginary Numbers, completely severed from the normal flow of time. From his throne within this temple, Goetia himself witnesses the annihilation of each era with a cold, mocking sneer.
As usual, the Beast of Pity sat upon the throne in the guise of his master, Solomon, and waited.
King Solomon, knowing humanity was destined for extinction, chose not to correct its course and accepted his own death in peace. However, the Demon Gods he created—a "System for the More Efficient Advancement of Proper Human Order"—could not accept his decision.
The Demon Gods, who abhorred the concept of "extinction," concluded after much deliberation that "humanity, which will eventually die, and its future, hold no value." This conclusion was a source of great disappointment for them, as their entire purpose had been to guide the proper development of human history. All their work had been for nothing.
Yet, despite this declaration, as special familiars of Solomon, they could not exist without being utilized by humans. The shame of being high-dimensional lifeforms forced to serve a worthless species with no future was unbearable.
How could perfect Demon Gods be subservient to humans?
Goetia, as the collective consciousness of the seventy-two Demon Gods, refused to accept this contradiction. He initiated a revolution, redefining his purpose: to prove, absolutely, that he was the supreme existence on the planet.
To do this, he had to reach a point even Solomon could not. He planned to rewind time by 4.6 billion years, to the very instant the planet was born, and claim all the energy of that moment for himself. His goal was not to become the Star Brain or an Ultimate One.
His goal was to become the planet itself.
However, a temporal leap of this magnitude was beyond even Goetia's power. Even incinerating the entire Earth would not provide enough energy for the journey.
Fortunately, a far more efficient fuel source existed. The total accumulated magical energy of a certain intelligent species, one that had flourished for 2,500 years, far surpassed that of the planet, did it not?
By converting all of human history from 1000 BCE to 2016 CE into magical energy, he would have enough power to leap to the dawn of the star.
Therefore, all of humanity had to be killed.
Not a single living soul could remain on the planet's surface.
Everything was for the sake of elevating his own existence, of proving himself the "supreme being" of this world. Whatever stood in the way of his ascension would be crushed without mercy.
And he possessed the power to crush anything. The band of light encircling the Earth was his third Noble Phantasm, a weapon whose heat surpassed anything in the whole of Pan-Human History. Before it, Chaldea was nothing but an insect that would be vaporized with a single, focused sweep.
It was a tragic reality, but a reality nonetheless. A complete Beast was an entity second only to the planet's proxies, the Ultimate Ones. And should they complete their ascension, they would even transcend them.
Struggle all you want.
The Beast of Pity, who had never considered Chaldea a worthy adversary, recalled their futile struggles and smiled. It was a cold, blood-soaked smile.
But that smile suddenly vanished.
He felt a part of his own body moving against his will.
A human, using a special medium, was attempting to command one of the Demon Gods.
Who?!
Who dares to command me?!
And by what means?!
Goetia, the collective of the seventy-two Demon Gods, rose from his throne. The cold fury in his gaze could freeze creation itself. He cast his gaze across the Sea of Imaginary Numbers to the distant planet, using the Clairvoyance he inherited from Solomon to find the source.
It did not take long.
"So, it is the petty thief who stole my final ring."
The collective of Demon Gods, which would not tolerate any existence on this planet superior to itself, spoke in a voice of chilling frost.
"Thou shalt be executed!"