Seigyou Tensei – Legitimately Employed Reincarnation
24
"So, that's a Stone Treant?"
Ruijerd nodded in confirmation. Eris, hands on her hips, huffed. "It looks like a rock to me."
"They are like giant seeds. They take that form to blend in with the environment and attack when prey gets close," Ruijerd explained.
I summed it up. "Ambush predators." Gesturing towards Eris, I grinned. "All yours."
"Really?" she asked, surprised.
"I want to see how you do with it," I explained. "We'll back you up if it looks like you're in trouble."
"I don't like this," Ruijerd grumbled, but I waved him off.
"You've been sparring with her for the past two days. You're telling me you don't think she's capable?"
Ruijerd sighed and shook his head. "Capable, but inexperienced."
I gestured at the camouflaged monster. "And this is how you get experience, isn't it?"
The man looked surly, but said nothing else on the matter. With that decided, I gave Eris the go ahead. "Go collect our firewood."
Eris pouted. "When you put it like that, it just sounds like a chore."
"Sorry," I grinned. "Eris! You have to save us from the vile tree-beast! If you don't, it'll set root in our brains—"
Eris gave a full body shudder before shooting me a dirty look. "Stop that. You know I hate that stuff!"
She launched herself away in an explosion of wind and red dust. A second explosion spread out from around her other foot halfway there, and the 'rock' abruptly sprang to life, taking on a form that looked more like an angry tumbleweed.
"Haa!" came Eris' battle cry as she drew her new sword and swung. The blade, which looked something like a scimitar, cut through the branches of the monster easily. Eris pulled it around for a return swing, this time adding a trailing wind blade as she bounced to the side and up, away from the Treant's retaliatory strike. She continued hacking away like that, dodging at unpredictable angles that the monster shouldn't have been able to counter, but its unique body allowed it to at least make the attempt.
Finally, the thing collapsed to the ground, little more than splinters and chunks of wood. Telekinesis picked up the wood and we walked the short trek back to our camp. A door opened in the wall around the camp and I dropped the wood inside. "Can we go find another?" Eris asked, rocking back and forth on her heels in excitement. "I want to see what Rudeus can do!"
"Sure," I agreed, pulling out my phone and accessing the feed from the drone overhead even as Ruijerd lead us towards another Stone Treant. "So, these things can't be ambushed, can they?"
"They sense through vibrations in the ground. They're blind otherwise, however."
Blinking, I palmed my face. "Tremorsense? Really? Hang on."
A bit of earth manipulation produced an ultra-low frequency vibration that spread through the ground towards my target and, on the drone feed, I watched as it immediately sprang up and started swinging at nothing as it panicked. Ruijerd looked over in interest. "What are you doing?"
"Projecting sound through the ground. If I make enough cover noise, then they're effectively blind," I grinned as we topped a small rise and took in the flailing monster. Gesturing with my staff, I lifted it into the air and pulled it apart with Telekinesis until it stopped moving.
Eris sighed. "That's so… disappointing, Rudeus."
"What? I'm just collecting firewood, not fighting an actual enemy."
The redhead turned a glare on me. "You're sucking all the fun out of it."
I've got something you can suck, alright, dirty old man brain desperately wanted to retort, but I kept it to myself, in consideration of present company. I may bring it up later.
Something she can suck. Bring it up. Hah. Yeah, going to need to keep my mouth shut before I say something I shouldn't. Swear to God, Ruijerd is the biggest unintentional cockblock with that damn sense organ. Going to have to find a way to shield against that thing just to get some privacy.
"Eris, most of the magic I could throw around would either set it on fire, soak it and make more work to strip the water back out, or reduce it to sawdust. Yanking it apart is the most practical way to do it."
"I know," the girl sighed. "But…"
Switching my staff to my left hand, I reached over to pat her head, earning an annoyed look. "It's fine. We're not getting off this continent any time soon, so we'll have plenty of time for that. We've got lots of places to go and people to save, remember?"
"Fine." She was sulky, but acquiesced easily enough.
"Alright. Let's go find some more stuff to practice on. And maybe, just for you Eris, I'll show you something cool."
The girl perked right up at that. Following my drone feed and Ruijerd's sensing organ, we tracked down and ambushed a pack of Pax Coyotes, some Acid Wolves, more Stone Treants, and a Great Tortoise. Ruijerd showed us how to harvest all of them for parts, but it was honestly little different from what I already knew about skinning animals—mostly the differences lie in where to find the monster cores and which parts were most valuable.
We bundled everything up into rolls of hides, teeth, claws, and bones before Sending them to the new storage bunker. Then I cut out chunks from the tortoise for our supper. The shell, I cut a chunk out of for future study to see if I could make anything useful out of it, but the rest of the shell would be staying where we left it because it was simply too big to store.
By the time we were done, Eris was covered in blood and had to give herself a scrub using water and fire magic. We went back to camp and I started a fire, then made a pot to boil a stew for our meal. Ruijerd and Eris went off to practice her swordplay for a bit while I took the time to work on a new spell. As I worked, I thought back to the conversation I'd had with the others the previous night.
It had taken a full day for her to respond, but eventually we got to speak with Sylphie again. Apparently, there was some kerfuffle over the fact that an unknown mage made their way into the palace and one of the princess' guards died, and only Ariel's intervention had allowed Sylphie to stay.
"With that, father agreed to hire Sylphie on as my bodyguard. Don't worry, I'll look after her while you're stuck on the Demon Continent."
"Thanks, Ariel," I nodded. "I appreciate it. I don't doubt her ability to deal with any problem she can handle with magic, but, well…"
"You can't solve most political problems with magic," she nodded.
I grinned. "Well, you can… But people tend to get annoyed about their kingdoms getting washed away under forty days and nights worth of flooding. So thanks."
The princess smiled, reaching out and pulling Sylphie into a hug against her side. "I'll take good care of her. So, about that talk we had the other day!" Ariel grinned. "Have you made me a car yet?"
Sighing, I sent the blonde a flat look. "I'm working on it. Mostly concerned with making more drones and sending those out. A car isn't high on my build order, mostly because it'll take a few days to make and we've already left the Migurd village." Shifting my gaze to meet Sylphie's red eyes, I said, "I promise, as soon as we get to Rikarisu, I'll start work on it so you can go after your mom and sister."
"I know, Rudy. She's safe in a town for now, so you don't have to rush—"
I shook my head. "No. Even if I didn't know and like them, they're important to you, which is good enough reason to make getting you to them a priority. I just… need time to sit down and do it," I sighed.
Sylphie frowned. "You're not overworking yourself again, are you?" She turned a look on Eris beside me. "Is he?"
Eris shrugged. "A little. I'll make him take a break if it gets bad."
When the white haired girl nodded and let it go, I frowned and studied her a bit more closely. "Sylphie, is something bothering you?"
She bit her lip and Ariel nodded slowly. "She's been a bit down since yesterday, but wouldn't say why. I thought it was just the whole… situation."
Taking a deep breath and letting it out in a quiet sigh, Sylphie asked, "Does my hair make me look sickly?"
I blinked. Turning to my side, I sent Eris a questioning look and the redhead shrugged. Likewise, Ariel looked confused. The blonde frowned, turning her attention on Sylphie. "Who told you that? Better yet, when did they do it? I was with you all day yesterday."
"No one told me. Some people were talking about it," she explained, wagging her ears. "They said it made me look sick."
"What? There's nothing wrong with white hair. White hair plus red eyes is one of the best fantasy combos. It looks cool." Gesturing to the blonde, I said, "Ariel, back me up on this."
The princess nodded. "It's true. I mean, yeah it usually evokes a sort of 'broken bird' image and is supposed to endear sympathy—"
"Not. Helping." I cut Ariel off with an annoyed look, earning a wince from the blonde. I caught Sylphie's eyes from where she had sort of huddled into herself a bit.
"Here, see?" Letting out a quiet sigh under my breath, I focused on one of the (very) few bits of modified healing magic that actually worked for me without complications. My scalp and eyebrows tingled a bit, but that was the only outwards change I noticed. I knew from previous experience that not only had I modified the roots to produce differently colored hair, but the rest of it should have changed as well.
"Squee!" Sylphie… squee'd.
Beside me, Eris hummed, frowning as she studied my now white hair. "Not sure I like it."
"I love it!" was Sylphie's response.
Ariel hummed as she assessed the new look. "Give it a few years and it'll be dashing." Her lips twitched into a small smirk. "You're on the Demon Continent. It's pretty sunny there, right?"
"It's about like Colorado. Hot and sunny during the day, cold at night. Lots of red desert and mesas." Having a sneaking suspicion of where she was going, I asked, "Why?"
"You should go shirtless more. Maybe wear shorts. Spend lots of time outdoors. Get a tan…"
I sent her an unamused look. Then, a thought occurred. On the one hand, I could chastise her. On the other hand, we clearly shared some tastes and it wouldn't hurt to remind her of home a little. "I am the bone of my sword."
"Squee!" Ariel… squee'd.
Sylphie and Eris traded a look. "I don't get it," the redhead complained.
Sylphie nodded. "I think it's an Earth thing."
Ariel ignored them. "You'll have to lose the birthmark."
Raising an eyebrow, I pointed out the obvious. "I'm a man. It's a mole. And I was kind of thinking on leaving it. Women like—"
"I'm a woman and I'm telling you I don't care," Ariel countered.
Turning a questioning look on Eris and Sylphie for confirmation, the younger of the pair smiled. "I think it's cute, but you would look fine without it too."
Eris simply shrugged. "Don't care either way."
Rolling my eyes, I asked, "Sprite, can you give me a mirror?"
A new hologram popped up in the display, showing my face. Studying the spot in question, I used a bit more healing magic to remove it entirely, before looking over to the other holograms. "There. Better?"
"Much," Ariel nodded.
"Right. I think that's everything for this morning. We need to get a move on. We should make Rikarisu later today."
"Remember, you have the full authority of the crown in this matter."
Ariel's father hadn't wanted to get involved, but after explaining that Sylphie and I were both King-level mages, he had changed his tune right quick. Apparently my name and reputation as 'Rudeus the Road-Builder' had reached Ars at some point. Made me wonder what else they knew about me.
We said our goodbyes and goodnights, since it was nearly time for everyone on that side of the world to turn in. Putting away my phone, I got to my feet along with Eris and we went to find Ruijerd. Shortly after that, I knocked down the camp and we were on our way. But not before one minor detail was taken care of.
We rolled up to the gates of Rikarisu a few hours later to somewhat envious looks from the guards on duty there. A man with a snake head eyed us and our bikes warily. "Names and purpose for entering?"
"Rudeus Grayrat, Eris Boreas Grayrat, and Ruijerd Superdia."
The guard jerked at the name before casting a look over at Ruijerd. Ruijerd and his blue hair, and a pendant from the local Migurd tribe (it was a fake, just a copy of the one Roxy gave me that I'd made with earth magic. Sorry Ruijerd, no way was I parting with Roxy's gift). His sensory organ was currently covered by a makeshift bandana.
Yeah. I figured if I was going to change my own hair, I might as well do Ruijerd's too, since 'green hair' was pretty much the number one identifier for a Superd. A bit of testing with Eris before we left camp showed that, while she had overcome Ruijerd's 'fear effect' through stubbornness and exposure, she was still affected by it. But the moment I changed his hair blue? The 'fear effect' disappeared entirely. I was marking that down in my book as some sort of curse to look into later, but for the moment this was good enough.
"Uh huh," the guard hissed softly, in that tone of someone seeing bullshit but too polite to call it outright.
"Purpose for entering is reporting a magical disaster to the Adventurers' Guild and registering a new party."
The guard raised an... Eyebrow? Eye ridge? More of a ridge, yeah—since it was scaly. "What sort of disaster?"
"Everyone and everything in the Fittoa region of the Central Continent was caught up in a mass teleportation event. We wound up here, in the wild just outside a little village of Migurd people. Ruijerd here found us and has looked after us since. I figure we weren't the only ones transported, if only because we saw the spell or whatever it was go off, so there may be others like us stranded here and looking to get home."
I wasn't exactly going to just confirm that, because then I'd have to explain how I knew. Which would mean explaining Sprite and giving away my advantage in drones.
"I see," the man murmured. "Very well, then. The guild is down the main street there. Can't miss it."
Taking that as permission to enter, we advanced slowly, giving people time to get out of the way as we rode down the middle of the street like we saw many doing on oversized lizards. I recognized those lizards as similar to the ones we had seen with Hilda, just different in coloration.
As stated, the guild wasn't difficult to find, so we parked outside and I used a little earth magic to lock the wheels in place on the ground with stone just outside the building. Just to discourage anyone from getting cute.
Stepping inside, I ignored the atmosphere as many of the patrons turned to eyeball us when we entered. Eris froze for a moment, but shook it off quickly and joined me as I made my way up to the counter. Ruijerd followed along behind us, looking stern and imposing as he usually did but not putting any real effort into it.
I could tell because no one fled. Even without the fear effect, the man was damned imposing.
Laughter resounded through the guild when I didn't even come up high enough to see over the counter. "Can I help you?" the demon woman on the other side asked, leaning over to see.
I stepped back a bit and created a pillar of ice under my feet to put me on her eye level. The laughter died down a bit, but I was… distracted. Jesus Christ, I always thought the 'three boobs' thing from Total Recall was fucking stupid, but this… Where have you been all my life?! I want to dive in and motorboat those titties. Hell, Eris and I could share! Wonder what it would take to get the hot green-haired totally-not-an-elf in bed.
Wresting my thoughts away from dirty old man brain, I said, "I'd like to put in a request to the guild."
"Certainly, sir. Let me just grab the proper paperwork and we can get started." She shuffled into the back room behind the counter and returned a moment later with a book. After a moment of searching, she took out her drip pen and asked, "Name of requester?"
"Kingdom of Asura."
The woman raised an eyebrow. "And your name is...?"
"Rudeus Grayrat."
"What is the nature of the mission? Is this an elimination mission, delivery, gathering—"
"Search and rescue, followed by escort," I cut her off.
The eyebrow raised again. "Please give a concise summary of the mission details. Its goals, what is required for successful completion."
Nodding, I gave her the short version of the story. "A mass teleportation calamity struck the Fittoa region of the central continent. Everyone within the region was teleported randomly across the world. The mission is to search the Demon Continent for survivors and escort them to Wind Port, where they will be handed off to be taken the rest of the way to Fittoa. Most of those teleported are going to be humans, but there was a small population of other races as well. Successful completion of the mission will be to find the survivors and deliver them safely."
"That makes more sense," the woman murmured. "And I assume the Kingdom of Asura will be footing the bill, given it's one of their territories?"
"By order of the King himself, yes," I answered.
The green-haired demon lady asked, "And how would you know that?"
"I enchant things as a hobby. I've got someone with an instantaneous communication device in the capitol relaying information." Technically true on all counts, save that the king didn't know about the phones. She didn't need to know that though.
The woman nodded before asking, "Who will be responsible for accepting the refugees in Wind Port and escorting them from there?"
"That would be me, miss."
"Erm, not to put too fine a point on it, but... You don't exactly look capable of completing the journey. Are you sure you wouldn't rather have them escorted the entire way?"
I shook my head. "It'll take longer and be more dangerous."
"If you insist..."
"I do. But if it makes you feel better, here," I dug into my vest pockets and found my Guild card, before passing it over. The woman's eyebrows immediately climbed towards her hairline.
"This… what in the world? But we don't make exceptions—"
I grinned. "You do when the person you're dealing with can cover a hundred mile round trip in a few hours. It's just plain easier on everyone involved when you let that party take on multiple jobs at the same time."
"I see. And it says you're King-level?"
"Yup."
Passing my card back, the woman gave a bright smile. "Very well, then. Just let me finish this up."
With that, she filled out the rest of the paperwork and a new mission was officially listed on the board—a B-rank Search/Rescue/Escort quest.
"Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"Yes. I'd like to exchange some money and our friend," I gestured to Ruijerd, "would like to register as an adventurer and join our party."
The woman frowned again. "I'm afraid I can't just—"
"Did you read the second line of the exception?" I asked with a smile, before handing the card back.
"'The bearer of this card is exempt from party rank restrictions.' What? Why?"
I smiled. "If you start him out at E-rank, we're just going to look at the board, note down all the jobs at every level, and do them all for the next week until we grind up Ruijerd's level to the same rank as ours. No one else will get any jobs and you're going to have everyone here complaining about job sniping and double booking until we decide it's good enough. It's what we did in Roa, because we couldn't form a party with Ghislaine, who is an S-ranked adventurer. We grinded our level out to A-rank and pissed off pretty much everyone there. The guild begged us to stop, but since it was not against guild rules and we were bringing in that volume of quest completions per day, they didn't have a leg to stand on. Thus, the exemption. It's to keep us from power-leveling anyone else again just to prove a point."
"I, I see," she murmured. "Alright then. I'll just… register your friend. Would you like to add him to your current party or form a new party?"
I gestured Ruijerd up to the counter while I looked down to consult Eris. "Keep our party as [Morning Star] or form a new party?"
The redhead shrugged. "Did you have a name in mind?"
"[Dead End]."
Eris hummed quietly. "Well, we're not traveling with Sylphie and Ghislaine… and I like the way it sounds. Kinda scary and threatening, you know?"
I nodded. "That was what I was thinking—"
"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that. You said your name was Ruijerd Migu—"
"Superdia."
"That's what I thought you said," the woman sighed quietly, but dutifully put down the name. Many an ear pricked up at the name, but most of them dismissed it as a Migurd with a death wish.
The guild worker caught my attention. "Have you decided on your party?"
I'd like to say that I put a lot of thought into our name. That it was some sort of grand scheme to help our friend.
I'd be lying.
Roxy had called Ruijerd by an epithet when she first laid eyes on him and later, Ruijerd confirmed it's what most of the demon continent knew him as. Me personally? Eris and I saw eye to eye on this—we just thought the name 'Dead End' sounded cool.
Also, I sucked at naming things.
It was a talent I lacked. Like anything musically inclined, or dealing with idiots for prolonged periods of time. It wasn't so much a lack of creativity as it was a complete lack of fucks to give. If I didn't care, I couldn't be bothered to try. And I really didn't care. It was why I had turned over naming our first party to Eris, after all.
Besides, I'd rather steal borrow Ruijerd's name than come up with something that made me sound like an edgy middle schooler. These people had the sort of shit naming sense that made me intentionally try to forget the name of my staff.
"Yeah, disband our current party and form a new party with just the three of us, with me as party leader. New party name is [Dead End]."
Not everyone held the same opinion, apparently. In fact, I'd go so far as to say they hated it.
"Hey kid, you can't just name your party after that monster!"
I gave them all the attention they deserved.
None.
It was probably a minor blessing that Eris couldn't understand the language yet. I was working with her on it though.
With party stuff taken care of, I exchanged a few Asuran gold coins for the appropriate value, minus fees, and we hit the job board. "This would go faster if we split up," I suggested. "Eris and I could take a mission and go one direction and you could do the same and go another way."
Ruijerd shook his head at that. "What if something happens?"
I sent the man an amused look. "Then my count climbs to eight."
The man frowned, before a look of realization crossed his face. "You are blooded?"
Eris supplied the answer. "Rudeus saved us from kidnappers when he was first trying out for the job as my teacher. I was... Stubborn and made things harder on both of us. I got captured again and Rudy killed them for it."
I noticed the faint smile on the girl's lips, but refrained from comment. Never point out when a tsundere flips to dere or she'll flip back to tsun. Even a tamed tsundere like Eris could flip back under anything she perceived as teasing. "Some kidnappers, some thieves, and a group of assassins. The first as Eris said. The second tried to murder me and take my stuff, so I returned the favor. The third was just a probing attack."
Eris frowned. "Wait, was this before or after the thing with you and Sylphie getting ambushed by three separate groups?"
"After," I shrugged. "I didn't feel the need to mention it. Torched the bodies, told Phillip, and let him deal with it."
Eris sighed, sending me an annoyed look. Ruijerd's hand came up and tentatively rested atop my head. Sending him a confused look, I asked, "What's that for?"
"No child should have to bear that burden, especially so young."
I shrugged. "I'm not the best example for what a child should and shouldn't do. But… I appreciate the sentiment. Now, let's see about stacking our jobs. I do love getting paid three times for the same trip."
Turning to face the board, I looked it over before taking out my phone and taking a picture. I would give Sprite instructions later, but for now—
"Hey kid, what was that toy just now?"
A big man had appeared at my side. Ruijerd removed his hand from my head and returned to his normal attentive guard position. Eris looked at the newcomer with suspicion. Can't say I blame her for being suspicious of the guy. Pretty sure I recognized him from that 'your struggle only makes my penis harder' meme, taken from some demon rape hentai.
"Can I help you?" I asked politely.
"Well, I think I can help you, kid. Name's Nokopara—"
"So I shouldn't trust anything you say because it's likely a scam."
The horse headed demon whinnied. "Who told you that?!"
"My former master and future wife. You know her, actually," I gave the man a shit eating grin.
"And who's that, then?" He grumbled, puffing up in a way that said there would be trouble if he didn't like the answer.
"Roxy Migurdia."
The horse demon blinked, a look of disbelief on his face. "Roxy. Really? She teaching brats now?"
"She was. She's heading this way now, by way of Millis," I supplied.
"And I suppose she told you to call on her old buddy Nokopara if you needed help," he surmised, crossing his thick arms over his brawny chest.
I nodded. "Something like that."
"Say I don't believe you?"
Ruijerd looked like someone had just insulted his mother. "Rudeus speaks the truth."
Or at least some version of it, most days, I mentally amended. "I could let you speak with her."
The man looked confused. "Don't see how that helps you now. It'll take her forever to get here."
I grinned and pulled out the phone again. "Sprite, please call Roxy for me."
Sprite chimed her confirmation and the phone rang. A moment later, a hologram popped up in the air above the phone and the guild went silent as everyone shifted around to get a look.
"Rudeus, good evening," Roxy greeted. Her hair was down and she was wearing her white nightgown and sitting in a bed in an inn, lit only by the light from the hologram. Thankfully, Sprite had the sense to frame the shot from her neckline up, so no one here was getting a free show of my waifu.
"Roxy?! Is that you? You haven't aged a day!" Nokopara's eyes went wide. I noticed adventurers had begun to crowd around us.
Roxy reached out and shifted the display on her side. "Nokopara. You look old."
The horse man gave a faux hurt look. "So who's the brat? They came in here and made a party. Call themselves [Dead End], like they've got no sense. The Migurd with 'em claims he's Dead End himself. Pfft."
Roxy sighed. "I am aware of Rudy's sense of humor," she murmured, sending me a bemused, if put-upon look.
"Hey now," I protested half-heartedly. Mostly because it was true.
"Rudeus is my former student and fiance. Please give them whatever aid you can, Nokopara."
The two spent a few minutes catching up before I said my goodbyes to Roxy for the moment and pocketed the phone. Nokopara loosed a quiet whinny, shaking his head. "Where'd you get that magic tool, kid? That something the magic kingdoms are making now?"
"Probably not," I shrugged, seeing we had the attention of pretty much everyone in the guild. "I made them. It's how we confirmed that Fittoa is gone. Now, we're in need of some new clothes and things. You wouldn't happen to know where we could get some and not get ripped off, would you?"
"Sure, yeah. Come on, I'll take you. Do you guys need a hand with missions...?"
Nokopara turned out to be a piece of shit, but not entirely useless. One of those friends in low places. With his help as a local guide to Rikarisu, we had a fairly easy time of things. Once he was sure we were on our feet, and his obligation to Roxy was fulfilled for the time being, he picked up the mission to look for survivors and took off, after speaking with a few other parties who took the same mission—coordinating where they would be searching.
We stayed in town long enough for me to make two trucks (with an enclosed, front and rear bench seat cab and a bed in the rear for cargo) and Send one each to Ariel and Roxy (with me having to give the bluenette driving lessons via hologram), then immediately began working on the SAR mission as soon as I was finished with that, stacked with delivery, elimination, and gather missions.
All the while, in my head, I kept marking off hours and days. How long can they survive, if they're somewhere like this?
Seigyou Tensei – Legitimately Employed Reincarnation
25
In the following six months, on the Demon Continent…
We were making our way slowly towards Wind Port. I'd had Sprite plot us a course that let us take a mostly straight shot between Rikarisu and the port, allowing me to raise a road the entire way, trailing off to villages here and there.
Evenly spaced along the main highway I was laying down were rest stops. Each stop was a domed and walled stone shelter, similar in design to what I made for us nightly, but much larger in scale. Within the walls were gardens (created by samples gathered from the Migurd, Rikarisu market, and in every village along the way that had edible plants), fed by water drawn from a well, which also provided drinking water and hot water for a communal bathing/shower area. Inside the dome were rooms for storage and preparation of food, along with simple bedrooms with multiple bunks. There was no bedding, but it was better than sleeping on the ground.
Finally, outside each structure was a statue. Around the base of each statue a simple compass was laid out, showing the cardinal directions, Rikarisu and the nearest villages, and Wind Port. Every statue pointed towards Wind Port—a life sized copy of Roxy in various action shots, with her staff always pointing the way.
I really wanted to see her face when she saw one. Bet she'll blush real good.
Eris was less amused. "How come I don't get statues?"
"Demon Continent. Roxy's a demon and from here. Makes sense that the local adventurers would trust the image of one of their own more than a human."
"Oh. I guess that makes sense," Eris relented, but I could see she was still disappointed.
"Tell you what. When we get back, I'll make you a statue too."
The redhead perked up. "I'll hold you to that!"
A single magic stone powered every camp, tied into the same wireless charging network as everything else I was using these days. Honestly, I didn't even notice the draw from them because so far, most of them were unused and used little in the way of power even when in use. The stones we collected along the way, using Sprite to spot prey from miles off and hunt them down specifically for their cores if they weren't already on our list of mission targets.
Behind us, a train of adventurers and refugees traveled on foot. Far more than I had expected and growing seemingly every day. At last count, over a hundred people—humans, beast-kin, demons, and more—who would have otherwise died. I checked in on them occasionally with the drones to make sure they were following the road, but Sprite was taking care of overwatch for me.
When the sun started to go down, we called a halt to travel and I set up camp for us. Eris and I would spar with Ruijerd, sharpening our sword skills. Eris seemed to take more from those lessons then I did, but what I got was important—at least to me. Like Ghislaine, Ruijerd was someone I could fight against and not have to worry about accidentally killing if my control over my touki slipped.
It was happening less and less frequently as time went on and I grew more accustomed to using it, but I don't trust myself not to hurt Eris when using it yet. We still sparred using magic combined with sword skills, but I didn't use touki during those bouts. Eris did, and it gave her a huge advantage when she could close range. Unless I got my own touki under control, she was going to start beating me in those spars soon.
At night, I took the time to work on spell development. I was going a few different directions there, really.
Any time I got a chance, I captured prey alive and spent time practicing biology manipulation, flesh magic, biokinesis, whatever you wanted to call it. I had mastered simple changes before we had even left Roa, so I was building on that.
I felt like I wasn't far off from being able to do things like safely improve my muscles, bones, tendons, and so on—raising my base level of physical strength, which would theoretically raise my overall strength when using touki. Maybe. I had so much of the stuff that it felt like a waste of time beyond doing it for personal vanity some days.
I was trying new branches of magic, and bigger, nastier spells while I had a whole barren wasteland that no one would mind if I destroyed handy. Drones were useful for making sure nothing but monsters were inside any blast radius.
I figured out how to use lightning to mimic electrolysis and split hydrogen from oxygen in the air on a huge scale, resulting in blasts that were probably in the kiloton range. Then, I refined my control to be able to do it without using the middle step of electrolysis.
I tried doing it in reverse once. That is, splitting water into its constituent parts, then fusing H3.
Once.
On a small scale, using about a cup of water.
I was now looking into spells to detect and defend against radiation, and preferably eliminate it outright.
Eris liked the mushroom cloud, at least. She got that look in her eye and I'm pretty sure the only thing preventing her from dragging me back to camp and bouncing up and down on my cock for a few hours was the fact that Ruijerd was the world's biggest unintentional cockblock.
Because I happen to love shonen anime and wanted to try a few things, I decided to run some experiments with lightning.
The less said about that, the better. It didn't happen.
I had been playing with an idea for a while now that I wanted to try, but had never really had the chance to in Roa. Now, I had all the time in the world…
I had light spells already, but nothing that really qualified as a light based attack. A bright flash, beam of light, strobe, or a blinding laser (or a laser pointer for driving beast-kin nuts. Seriously, every maid in the house…) didn't really count in my book.
No, when I thought light, I thought sci-fi or anime. Lasguns, beam blasts, main battery lasers or phasers, Star Wars (both the only three movies they made and the black project by the same name for a space based laser satellite). A 'fuck you' delivered at the literal speed of light (in atmosphere).
So, I started with what I had and scaled up from there. Which, considering the nature of light, lasers, and energy basically just meant adding more juice, adjusting the frequency, and refining the way it was focused.
Creating a laser based attack spell at Elementary-level was that easy. It produced a blue laser that burned pretty little holes in whatever I pointed it at, or set things on fire. The next two levels up were similar matters of power scaling for a basic single beam.
Saint-level is where I started to get creative and where things started exploding. I created a spell to rain lasers down from the sky across a wide area at random, or specifically target them on one area.
The power individual lasers produced at this level was enough to cause lightning strikes as secondary effects of superheating air into plasma, cause anything with enough water in it to spontaneously explode in a steam explosion or combust if it didn't, set metal on fire with indirect exposure, and liquify dirt into molten lava.
King-level was just a scaled up version of the Saint-level spell, but the power behind each individual laser was increased significantly.
Thanks to Roxy, I knew what the jump from King- to Emperor-level required: namely, putting all the power and destruction of a King-level spell into a construct the size of an Elementary-level spell. In other words, concentration of power and starting over at the Elementary level, then going up again in order to progress further. At least, that was my assumption for getting to God-level.
Theoretically, a God-level spell would, at minimum, cover an area exponentially greater than the jump between Saint- and King-level, while each individual spell effect would have, again, the same kind of exponential power increase. The sort of size and power that sank continents.
I simply didn't have the mana capacity for that.
Yet.
With the fact that I was constantly supplying a whole host of drones and other things with mana, on top of my own spell practice, and exhausting myself every day to make sure my capacity grew? It wouldn't be long. A few years, maybe.
I would really like to know where all the mana comes from. Swear to God, it breaks conservation of mass/energy unless my body is some kind of mana nuclear reactor.
Instead of bothering with running that thought down, I focused on creating my first Emperor-level spell. Again, given the nature of energy, etc and so forth, it really was as simple as scaling up the Elementary-level spell while keeping the beam itself small.
I feel kind of cheated. Like it was too easy. On the other hand, pew pew lasers.
Since that feeling of it being too easy left me dissatisfied, I set about modifying the Elementary-level spell to make things more interesting.
I had a light spell that every drone and phone came equipped with standard: a spell to amplify ambient light. Applying that to my lasers was like adding a new focusing lens, condensing them and squeezing all of that power into a smaller beam, meaning I could use less power for the same effect (or more power for greater effect).
Not feeling like that was enough, I began applying other light-based spells to modify them.
Another one in use by the drones and phones under Sprite's control was a remote viewing spell that used light to reflect light and act as mirrors. Technically, it was part of my illusion/hologram spells, because it was just plain useful for getting 3D images, but I never used it for its original purpose these days. No, mostly it was used in the Search and Rescue project.
Adding that spell to lasers allowed me to bend them around obstacles, corners, or attack from unexpected angles. Adding a second to let me aim them by sight gave me a second alpha strike spell, except unlike lightning, I could attack with a laser silently (up to a certain level of power) and at a much greater range without resorting to bombardment of an area.
Well, if they're silent, I should make them invisible too.
The only real reason I wanted them visible at all was to see what I was aiming at, but for a spell designed for stealth kills, not being able to see it or track where it was coming from was best. So, I shifted the 'alpha strike' version up into the ultraviolet, 'invisible to the human eye' spectrum.
Death ray lasers and invisible death ray sniper lasers. Pretty good. But I think I could do better. What about fields of invisible lasers as an active defense to kill anything trying to get close? Or to trap something or someone in place. …I should add lasers to the drones too.
"Rudeus, what's wrong?"
Glaring at the flaming, partially melted remains of a tire I had just thrown away and blasted with a fireball after… losing my cool and screaming at it like a sailor, I supposed that was a fair question. Taking a calming breath, I answered Eris' question.
"Something about the environment is causing them to degrade faster than they did back in Roa. Before, I could go a couple of months without changing tires. Now, we're going through two sets a month each. Twelve tires a month on average between the three of us. I only made about three sets of a dozen—what I thought would last a year each for three bikes seeing fairly active recreational use. At this rate, that'll be three months. Less now, actually. Because of the cars, and if Sylphie or Ghislaine need replacements."
"What do you think is causing it?" Eris asked, studying the back tire of her bike, which I hadn't removed yet. It was cracked, dry, and the rubber was starting to fall apart.
"Well, for one thing, we're putting a lot more miles on them now than we were in Roa. The terrain is a lot rougher here when we're off-road. It's hotter. Could be all the mana in the air for all I know."
Ruijerd hummed quietly from where he stood nearby, keeping mostly silent vigil while I worked after Eris lost her front tire. "We can travel by foot if need be."
"Absolutely not," I nixed that idea immediately. "The bikes are too useful to give up. We cover a ridiculous amount of ground with them that we just can't on foot."
"So do something different. Metal tires maybe?"
I considered Eris for a moment before shaking my head. "It'd be rough. And slower."
Trying something else was pretty much the only option I had though. Okay, if the tires are causing problems why can't we just… Get rid of them entirely?
Because the alternative was a hover bike and that would be a bitch to control.
Or not? Use summons the same way I'm doing in the drones. Let them do the heavy lifting of making the minutae work. Provide a frame, power, an engine, and controls to tell it how you want it to go…
"Okay, we're setting up camp here for today," I decided, standing and beginning the process of making walls to monster proof our camp.
"Are you sure?" Ruijerd asked, to which I gave a nod.
"Yeah. I've got some modifications to make to the bikes. I just need one for now and the other tires are… In poor condition but should be okay for a bit of light riding. Why don't you two go track down our target for today and take care of that, while I work on modifying Eris' bike as a test case?"
"'Kay," Eris agreed quickly. "Acid Wolf fangs and Pax Coyote hides, right?"
"That's right," I confirmed.
The pair took off and I set about modifying the bike. The first thing to go were the wheels. This also meant everything connected to them also had to go.
It can't stand on its own like this, which means parking will be a bitch. Why not use retractable landing gear?
An impromptu stand allowed me to work on it without holding the whole thing up with telekinesis. Next, I went about changing the interior. Adding a single large forced air engine arranged horizontally under the seat through the body of the bike and four smaller independent forced air engines each on their own gimbal system so they could turn as needed for maneuvering.
A pair of short wings were added to the front, barely six inches long each, capable of tilting up and down. A similar set were added to the rear of the bike. Then, I added a rudder behind the primary engine.
I'm really going to have to build another of these. Bigger. Capable of hauling people and loot. Essentially, take the trucks I made for Ariel and Roxy and make them float.
We did enough quests with the guild to justify having what amounted to a truck, too. The bikes had made us very popular within the Guild on this continent as well. Or at least well known, if not well liked. Just as in Roa, people bitched.
That last part was due to the sheer volume of quests we could take on in a week. Most parties, even those with the local lizard type mounts, took a day or two to do any quest outside the city. We picked them up in groups before coming back and claiming them.
The general process went:
Investigate mission board.
Have Sprite photograph mission board.
Sprite takes down the jobs, removes what we don't qualify for, scans aerial drone footage of local monsters, plots us a course that takes us to them in the shortest time possible, then updates the map and gives us waypoints.
We follow the waypoints, kill whatever needs killing, collect what needs collecting, and move on to the next mission.
We return in a few hours, bikes loaded down with materials.
We turn in the missions.
Rinse and repeat until we're ready to move on to another town.
This has, of course, earned us a bit of enmity from certain people and groups within the Guild. Other parties we double booked on, beat them to the punch by a day or more, and pissed off by 'stealing' what they felt was 'their' missions. Yeah, we were sniping missions, but it was not against the rules.
Refocusing on the task at hand, I finished up the last modifications and summoned a spirit to stick into it—one of the same lower level just as the ones in most of the drones (save for the carrier drone) to do the heavy lifting of keeping it airborne and following the rider's directions. Then, I went ahead and enchanted the thing like a drone and linked it to Sprite.
Yeah, I'd just upgraded from 'recreational vehicle' to something close to 'semi-autonomous fighter jet.'
"Eris, have a look," I called as she and Ruijerd came back into camp some time later.
"What did you do to my bike?" She asked, tone suspicious.
"I made it better. Here, watch." I slid into the seat and turned it on. The four engines on the under side kicked on and it rose into the air about a foot, enough to pull the handle to retract the landing gear.
As I worked, I explained the controls. They weren't much different from those of the ultralight, really. That shouldn't be too surprising though, since the new and improved hover bikes would be able to not just run above the ground like a speeder bike from star wars (which was the default, low power consumption mode), but take to the air and actually fly.
Finally, I took off and circled the camp a few times. As I flew, I made notes of what I'd need to change. For starters, everyone would be getting a harness like the one I wore with the ultralight, just to keep from falling off. Also, I'd be adding a magical wind screen to blunt the worst of it—if not all of it for rain, cold, dust, and so on.
I landed and Eris practically knocked me off the bike. Then, her hands were fisted in my cloak and her lips were attacking mine hungrily.
"Thank you!" Eris practically squealed, before letting me go and sliding on behind me. "Let's go!"
I recovered my wits and laughed quietly, before taking her up as Ruijerd watched with a small smile.
As we flew, my mind wandered back to the same problem I'd had for the last six months. The one gnawing at my conscience and keeping me up at night.
Six months and no sign of Zenith or Norn—
And as always, I dragged my mind off that path and onto something else. Namely, how the new hoverbike was performing. How I'd need to change the rest of our bikes, that way we could cross the Demon Continent faster. Get to Wind Port. Make airships. Sprite was already working on using a few drones to tear down a mountain and make more drones and separate out the raw materials, while hunting monsters for their cores. Soon enough, she'd be full Von Neumann and resources would stop being a problem.
I swear to God, if someone hurt them, I am going to raze whatever shithole allowed it to the fucking ground.
They walked into the Guild office in the middle of nowhere—some little town she hadn't bothered to learn the name of, about two thirds of the way between Rikarisu and Wind Port. Well, Eris and Ruijerd walked. Rudy… stormed, was the best way she could describe it.
He grew tenser and angrier by the day. Eris knew why, so she couldn't really fault him for it. And to his credit, Rudeus never took out his anger and frustration on herself, Ruijerd, or any of the others he talked to in their group. But she suspected the tire burning incident was approaching the… how did he put it? Straw that broke the camel's back. Whatever a camel is. Something like a horse. Why not just say horse? Earth sayings are weird.
Rudy approached the counter and visibly calmed himself before using Air Walking to bring himself level in height with the receptionist across the counter. "[Dead End] reporting ********** for six jobs. Materials for the kill ****** are outside."
Eris was still having trouble understanding the demon tongue, but she understood enough to carry on a conversation, or follow a mission report. Or hear perverts talking about the way her pants hugged her ass and thighs when her cloak rode up. Quit staring, idiots. You're not on the list of people allowed to look, she grumbled internally, but so long as they kept their comments quiet and their hands to themselves, she wouldn't start a scene.
Again.
As much as she enjoyed getting spanked, she didn't want to make an ass of herself in public. More than she usually did.
Paying more attention to the crowd than Rudy's dealing with the Guild clerk, Eris saw the exact moment when one of the drunkards lumbered out of his seat and over to her… friend (lover, betrothed, future husband). She reached back and laid a hand on the handle of the sword gifted to them by Rowin and Rokari, but Ruijerd made a gesture with his hand that she interpreted as 'hold.' So she held, and let it play out.
The drunk man, some sort of big bee-headed looking guy, dropped a hand down on Rudy's shoulder hard enough to rock the boy's body forward. Ever so slowly the white-haired boy turned his head and regarded the offending limb, before turning cold green eyes on the demon it was attached to. "Can I help you?" he asked politely.
Eris mentally translated that in her head to, 'I'm going to zap the shit out of you if you don't have a damn good reason for putting your stinking hand on me.' Rudy did notlike to be touched, she had noticed. The list of people he tolerated it from was short and could be counted on both hands with fingers left over. That most of those were female and people on 'the list' was probably not a coincidence.
"Nice haul, kid. I guess it pays to be rich enough to afford fancy magic travel tools. How about you share the wealth, eh? Buy us a round or two, maybe… pass around a little coin to smooth down a few ruffled feathers over having our jobs stolen out from under us?"
Rudy's right eye twitched as he turned around fully and Eris' gut told her that if someone didn't step in soon, he was going to do a lot worse than zap the guy. She felt the hair on her arms stand on end as the room began to smell like it did before a storm. The light coming in from outside dimmed as the wind began to pick up. "We're leaving tomorrow and not taking any more jobs today."
"Even better!" the man cheered, and how could he not realize how much danger he was in?!
"I'm not in the mood to deal with extortion attempts. Walk away." A rumble of thunder from outside punctuated the warning.
The bee-headed demon's hand fell to the hilt of his sword, sealing his fate.
Or it would have, if Eris hadn't intervened. Throwing her arm around Rudy's waist, she pulled him off the platform of air he'd been standing on, bringing him flush against her side. For just a moment, he sent her an annoyed look that said he knew exactly what she was doing and didn't appreciate it, but Eris didn't care. "Ruijerd! Take care of the rest!" she called to the man as she dragged the slightly shorter boy—man—out of the Guild office before he killed someone. And she didn't mean that figuratively. No, if that guy's sword had cleared its scabbard, Rudy would have 'preemptively self-defensed him to death' without so much as a word of warning.
"Very well," Ruijerd nodded, moving up to the counter in Rudeus' place.
"Oh, one more thing," she tossed over her shoulder, almost as an afterthought. It wasn't. "Find somewhere else to sleep tonight."
She wasn't asking. It was not a request.
The Superd warrior was fairly loose in his interpretation of what qualified as a 'child' sometimes, but on the matter of her and Rudy's nightly activities, he almost refused to budge. The man was an unrepentant cockblock, as Rudy called it, and felt that they shouldn't be having sex at their ages.
He'll just have to get over it tonight.
Looking up as they left the small Guild office, Eris found what she was expecting—storm clouds gathering overhead. "You want to dismiss that?"
"Not really," Rudy grumbled, but did so anyway given the way the clouds began to disperse and it started to drizzle rain.
She waited until she got him back to their room before starting in on him. "I've had enough."
Rudy raised an eyebrow as he began toeing off his boots. "Going to have to be more specific, Eris."
Planting her fists on her hips, Eris' red eyes met Rudy's green in a glare. "You're pissed all the time. You're constantly working on magic, or building something, or doing jobs and pushing us on to the next town. I know you've been using healing magic to hide the signs, but I know when you don't sleep Rudy—and you haven't been sleeping well in months. When's the last time you had more than four hours of sleep in a night?"
She wanted to hear the answer to that, but now that she'd started she was on a roll and it was all spilling out. All the little worries that had been building over the past months as the person she l—loved self-destructed and just kept going like it didn't matter. "When you do sleep, you grind your teeth, or toss and turn. Or you cry—"
"I do no—"
"Shut up!" Eris cut him off with a yell. "You've hit me more than once, you know. In the face! I didn't say anything, but it's starting to get annoying. I hear you at night, mumbling to Sprite. You need to stop blaming yourself for not finding Zenith and Norn and let her do her job! You've done everything you can do and all you can do now is wait. Yes, it sucks! It absolutely sucks! But it's not your fault and you can't let it drag you down like this!"
"You done?" he asked in that dismissive tone of voice that grated on her nerves. The one he reserved for idiots and assholes. Eris twitched. "Great. Now, I've got shit to do—"
"No more!" Eris yelled and threw herself at him. She collided with Rudy's upper body and dragged them both to the ground. He fought back, but by some unspoken agreement neither of them was using touki. And if he was giving her a chance…
Rudy went for the joint lock almost immediately, but Eris twisted her arm, hand out at the wrist to break his hold as he had taught her, before grabbing his own wrist in both of hers. He tried the same maneuver, but she shifted her grip to his shoulder and forced the smaller boy to roll onto his belly.
Having none of that shit, Rudy continued the roll, twisting hard into the hold she had on him in a move that hurt himself but forced her to let go or have her hand crushed between his back and the floor. Shifting her hips, Eris straddled Rudy and locked legs around his waist. "Stop. Fighting," she growled down at him as she manhandled both of his hands into her own while he struggled, putting her greater reach and weight to good use as leverage. He was just as strong as her without touki, even with her age and height advantage—maybe even a little stronger—which meant she had to take whatever help she could get.
She leaned down a bit, only to be met by a headbutt to the forehead. Eris saw stars, but a quick, silent healing spell fixed that and she returned the favor with a blow of her own that sounded like two coconuts smacking together and left both of them stunned. She healed herself again and collapsed atop her lover with a groan. Her lips sought his out and, for a moment, he resisted—turning away as he glared at her. Eris persisted and after a moment, he returned the kiss and their tongues waged a similar struggle to the one they'd just had.
Then they were fumbling at each other's clothes. Rudy jerked her pants open, not quite but almost breaking the buttons holding the front of them closed. Eris fumbled with his belt before giving a mental 'fuck it' and simply grabbed the top of his pants—pants, belt, underwear, and all—and jerked everything down, exposing him to the air. She stood long enough to kick her pants mostly off before returning to her perch. Pulling her panties aside, she dropped down onto his length forcefully, drawing a pant from both of them.
And then they were fucking.
Eris bounced up and down on Rudy's cock as one of his hands came up under her shirt, pushed up her bra, and mauled her breast—his fingers rolling, pinching, and pulling her nipple in a way that almost hurt but felt oh so goodwhile he squeezed the flesh of her tit in his palm. She ran her fingers through his white hair, grabbed a double handful, and dove in for a kiss that left her lips bruised and her tongue tingly. The hand not occupying her tit reached between them and found her clit, then he began flicking her little nub in time with her bouncing.
Rudeus shifted his legs a bit under himself to get some leverage and, on her next down-stroke, he thrust up hard enough to make her eyes cross as she felt the length and girth of him—stretching her almost uncomfortably—plumb her to her very depths. Eris's eyes fluttered briefly before she growled, used his hair as a handhold, and brought herself down hard enough that when he met her stroke it left the skin of her lips—stretched taut around his cock—tingling with brief pain.
Rudy let go of her tit and brought his hand around behind her. When they next joined fully, the smack of his hand on her left ass cheek was loud in the room, even over the sound of their thumping against the floor. Eris gasped into his mouth, hissing as her eyes narrowed in pleasure and pain, returning the favor by biting his bottom lip nearly hard enough to draw blood.
She climaxed like that only a few short stokes and swats later, his length feeling like a steel bar inside her as her muscles tried to milk him dry. For a moment, all thought fled from her mind.
Rudy's hands found her hips and he rolled her onto her back without pulling out, breaking their kiss and her hold on his hair. Grabbing her ankles, Rudy folded her legs up until her knees were pressed into her chest.
This position is always fun—she found the thought cut off as he took both of her long, toned legs over one shoulder, closing them and making her that much tighter around his length—consequently, making him feel that much largerinside of her already almost overstuffed cunt. Then he started hammering away at her with slow, deep trusts—each more forceful than their combined efforts earlier. Each one threatened to slide her back against the floor—and in fact, a few did and Rudy had to use his grip on her legs to pull her back into him as he fucked away at her. Then, he began spanking her other ass cheek and Eris howled as she came again, water running between their legs as she lost control.
"I should make you lick it up," Rudy threatened, and Eris felt herself blush as he leered down at her. "Flip you over, plant my foot on your head while I fuck you like a bitch in heat, and force you to lick it up."
She came again, feeling shame that she really liked the thought, finger nails digging into the floor to either side of her hips. And then he hilted himself in her and her womb filled with hot, thick seed. The feeling made her groan and left her wanting more—more and more, until it filled her every nook and cranny. Until it sprayed from her gaping, gasping sex to puddle on the floor. Until her belly swelled up and she had to be preg—
Eris was pulled from her thoughts as she felt Rudy lift her up and carry her to the bed. He tossed her none-too-gently onto the bed and joined her a moment later, pulling the blanket over them both. It was just late afternoon, but she felt like a nap anyway. A bit of magic on his part had the room dark as night.
Laying there, their breathing in sync, Eris quietly asked, "Will you talk to me?"
Rudy's body stiffened against her for a moment before he relaxed and pulled her into his arms. His soft, warm lips found the nape of her neck and kissed her. Eris rolled onto her side, pulling her lover into an embrace with both arms and legs.
"You're leaking on me," Rudy chuckled.
Eris rolled her eyes and nipped his shoulder. "Your mess. You clean it up."
She felt the familiar sensation of water magic pulling Rudy's seed from inside her, leaving her feeling cold and empty in a way she did not like but tolerated, because she didn't exactly want a child at the moment. Eventually, in a few years. Maybe two or three… One every other year?
"I'm so—"
"If you finish that, I'm going to smack you," Eris threatened halfheartedly.
Rudy sighed, his breath warm against her skin. Then she flinched as it was his turn to bite her, apparently. "Brat," he accused. "You're right."
A small smile tugged at Eris' lips and she couldn't help herself as she asked, "What was that? I couldn't quite make it out—"
She yelped as Rudy smacked her red ass. "I said you were right. Don't make me repeat myself," he grumbled, and she felt his cock stiffening, its heat brushing against her leg.
Shifting her legs, she captured it in the gap between her thighs and pussy. Slowly, gently, she rubbed herself back and forth. Enough for both of them to enjoy, but not quite enough to lead to another round just yet. Knowing that sometimes, he needed a bit of time to get his thoughts in order, she kept silent—her lips planting gentle kisses here and there up Rudy's shoulder and neck.
Eventually, he spoke. "There's this rule back on Earth, about survival. The Rule of Three. You can survive three minutes without air or in freezing water. Three hours with no shelter in extreme heat or cold. Three days without water. Three weeks without food. Yeah, magic can fudge the numbers, but… it's been six months. I want to believe they're alive, out there somewhere. But Sprite's got so much coverage now that there are few places they could be—and that coverage is growing by the day as she adds more drones to the network. Every day that goes by without finding them is like watching their chances of being alive and not already monster shit dwindle."
He shifted slightly against her and cleared her throat. His voice sounded rough, but Eris paid it no heed. "If I don't do something it's all I can think about, but I'm already doing everything I can, like you said. My mind's too active to sleep most nights. Or I have nightmares about one or the other of them getting eaten by monsters, gang raped by bandits and sold into slavery, or any one of a thousand other equally bad possibilities. Sometimes, yeah, I've woken up swinging, and for that I'm sorry."
Eris smacked him. Not hard, but enough to let him know she was annoyed.
"Ow! Okay, Asuka," he grumbled.
It was not the first time he had called her by another woman's name. Usually, it was specific names when she did specific things. Being 'tsundere' got her called Rin, for instance. She made a mental note to ask about it later, but didn't want to give him the opportunity to change the subject while she had him actually talking. "You were saying?"
"Right," he nodded. "Other times, I don't want to wake you up if I don't come to violently. So I check in with Sprite and see how the search is going, get status updates, that sort of thing."
"Is that what the thing behind your ear is?"
Rudy nodded against her. "Small piece of crystal from my phone stuck against the bone there. Allows for audio through the bone and I can subvocalize back, which what you've been hearing."
"Okay," Eris murmured, thinking the problem over. "Can't do anything to really help with your mom and sister."
"I kn—"
The redhead planted a finger on his lips to shut him up. There were times where she just wanted to smother him with a pillow until he stopped talking. "I think I can help with the sleep problem."
Rudy chuckled against her shoulder before planting a kiss there. "Knock yourself out."
"The other way around."
She felt the eye roll in his words. "Unconsciousness is not sleep, Eris. It doesn't work like that."
A sly grin pulled her lips upwards as she picked up the pace of her sliding his cock between her thighs and against her dripping lips. "I was thinking more along the lines of wearing you down until you pass out."
He caught on quickly as his hands found her hips and his lips met hers. "Sure. Let's try that. Someone's going to have to tell Ruijerd to stop his cockblocking."
"Mm, I think he'll understand. Now, shut up and come. To. Eris!" she growled, shifting her hips and hilting him fully in one go, drawing a quiet laugh from her love as she started round two. "And no touki!"
"Yeah, yeah. It'd defeat the purpose," Rudy agreed easily.
Going to have to call the others and see what they think,Eris decided. And that was the extent of her decision-making for the rest of the night, if it didn't involve changing position, speed, or whether she wanted his load in her womb, on her tongue, or if she wanted to try getting it down her throat.
On the one hand, nothing quite compared to the feeling of his seed filling her up—even if he had to take it back out after. She ached for the day when he would just leave it in.
On the other hand, she enjoyed the taste and liked watching his face as she bathed the head of his cock with her tongue while he came in her mouth…
And on the other, other hand, she really liked it when he fisted her hair in his hands, impaled his cock down her throat, and filled her belly directly… It was both arousing to see him lose control like that—to know she had that sort of power over him, and to know that if he tried, she couldn't resist even if she wanted to—and degrading, which made it all the more arousing.