The Mook Maker

The earth hummed under the thousands of assorted feet,paws, and claws, as the furry horde spilled into the countryside. 

 

The giggles of the excited ‘Purifiers’ mixed with all the noise, as well as the screams of mortals in the distance, as the giant, mutated crustaceans waded forward through the crowd, accompanied by dozens of deformed fleshy hulks of zombified former humans. 

 

“For Master! For Master!” The furry flood shrieked, cried, and chanted.

 

A loose arrow landed harmlessly near me, only to splinter as it hit the unnaturally thick carapace of the crab-like creation. 

 

More voices, echoing inside and outside of my mind as the chaos reigned all around.

 

“For Master!” 

 

A ‘Corruptor’ fell from the back of the oversized crustacean while attempting to load the ballista, which they somehow lodged onto the beast’s unrealistically large carapace. 

 

I looked around, dazzled, preoccupied with the necessity of making a choice. 

 

The endless cacophony agreed on one thing - fire! 

 

I stuck my head, trying to shake off the feeling. Not fire, water! 

 

The host continued on its course. I sensed the ‘Fleshspeaker’ excitement to test the spike spitters, whatever those were, and my ability to sense their racing, alien minds when my own wandered off made me distraught and confused. For the moment, the things had played in slow motion, compared to the raging network of joined minds, almost urging me to contribute to their insane ideas. 

 

More screams of the wounded in the distance brought me back to reality, audible even among all the chaos. It was only a matter of time until…

 

Water! 

That’s what we went there for! 

 

Choose, now! 

 

“Select skill Terror from the Abyss…” 

 

I barked out with little thought, hasty to make my choice, to give purpose to all that violence and bloodshed, and with the words spoken, it felt like a significant burden fell from my shoulders. 

 

A split second decision, fueled by the fear that the system would have made a selection for me the way it did the first time, which led to the first ‘Eviscerators’ being summoned. Although I wouldn’t trade my beloved Miwah for anything, my firm, ever present support among the madness, selfless and faithful, I still dreaded the loss of agency to the system’s fickle nature. 

 

Perhaps it would even congratulate me on the attempt to cause greater destruction, while none of it was my intent, and for the brief time I had the thought whether the ‘earth’ option wouldn’t be a better choice to hide ourselves from all that hostility. 

 

It was not to be - I made the choice, and the system accepted it. 

 

The red mist, the one that gave birth to all of my girls, erupted around me, but this time, it wasn’t just an ‘Alpha’ of the new breed that appeared, but nine ‘Fleshspeakers’ as well, spreading their wide leathery wings and raising their girlish voices in the cry “For Master!” 

 

I blinked, confused. I didn’t ask for them. Did the system play me again? 

 

Among them, a new figure formed from the same red mist, but unlike others, fell to the ground while the others did not, the large leathery wings of the ‘Fleshspeaker’ blocking all views like the living curtain, even if it would take the Fruit of Arcane to make them my size. 

 

“Did something go wrong?” I asked. 

 

“Master! Master!” The bat-girls chirped as I focused on the notification, providing the answer I sought. 

 

Skill “Terror From the Abyss lvl.1” gained. Skill “Messengers of the Ever-Living Horde Lvl.18” gained.

 

I waved it away, as I understood the very moment I spoke my will. Some of the ‘Fleshspeakers’ or ‘Overseers’ scored a kill, satisfying the system’s even growing thirst for blood.  

 

There was a sense of relief that the system - one I only tentatively understood - didn’t cheat on me this time. 

 

“Master! Master!” My new bat-girls were particularly giddy, jumping up and down as her older sisters circled above, and their shrieks, both as a means of expression and method of attack, filled the air. 

 

I raised my hand. 

 

“Where are the other priestesses?” 

 

One of them, one that briefly sealed Miwah and Sora away, was dead, but her compatriots were still around, and posed a threat. 

 

More shrieks, more chants. 

 

“For Master! Master! Master!” insisted the cohort of chiropteran monster girls. 

 

They tried to drive the priestess away. Supposedly, they wounded one, but she disappeared. 

 

“For Master!” 

 

It’s dangerous, they repeated, but I was not going to run into the battle. 

 

“Then find her!” 

 

First, I need to check on my newest girl, the only one which didn’t move or speak yet, covered even from my eyes by the considerable wingspan of the massed anthropomorphic bats, who also demanded their share of attention. Or perhaps they wanted to shield me from the enemy's arrows. Ordinarily, ‘the Fleshspeakers’ were mindful of where their wings were. 

 

Perhaps I confused them, I didn’t know. Normally I was other breeds that lurked nearby, rather than the bats. Now, even my ‘personal Displacer’ was missing, and there was a wall of a few dozen representatives of the chiropteran monster girls. 

 

I was ensconced by a veritable flurry of bat wings. The sky was only visible for the briefest of glimpses.

 

A deafening earthshaking detonation shook the ground, and with the usual “For Master!” a group of the ‘Purifiers’ formed, forcing me to pause and reconsider my increasingly crowded position. I looked around through the whirlwind of skin and fur, only to see the massed ‘Corruptors’ influence on the forest around. 

 

More explosions made me jerk away, and the ruby fog had returned to form the entire batch of the ‘Purifiers’ while their winged cousins simply refused to move, and when the familiar red smoke once again receded into nothingness, I swam in bats and foxes. 

 

“For Master!” 

 

They didn’t need to remind me.

 

Skill “Scorched Earth lvl.37” gained.

 

Waving away the notification, my vision already obstructed as it was even without it, I demanded the explanation. I almost fell down, but the nearest little fox girl tried to keep me up.

 

“For Master!” 

 

“Go scatter! Now!” I hushed them to disperse the crowd and discourage humans from concentrating fire, especially if I wasn’t sure we weren’t in range after the disorienting teleports. Perhaps humans just fired a few arrows and ran, but I couldn’t be sure. 

 

“For Master!” 

 

Better to trust my girls with it. They knew. 

 

“The volleys and barrages being fired at large concentrations are the biggest threats. And spells!! The sooner the humans are gone, the sooner I’ll give you some greetings.” 

 

While I didn’t have any education on battle tactics, my scattered brain did remind me that soldiers kept their distance to minimise the effect of artillery, so I was told. 

 

“For Master!” 

 

The nimble ‘Purifiers’ were first to leave, heading in all directions. Their small frames made it easy for them to hide and seek cover among the forest if the ‘Corruptors’ kept the overgrowth to maximum. They were also more likely to return as quickly, demanding attention, and I could sense their enthusiasm to sweep the humans under the fiery bombardment before the humans could do the same. 

 

Concepts involving burning came to them easily. 

 

They spread the mood around all ‘Purifiers’ I could sense as much. Perhaps they were excited how effective their concentration of fire would be, I didn’t know. 

 

The ‘Fleshspeakers’, being not so agile on the ground, and an easy target on the open sky, merely hopped away, deciding to keep considerably closer. I could sense them considering using their wings as the cover for me, and experience pain rather than suffer the ‘sealing’, but the need never arose. 

 

I found my nearest ‘Alpha’ - or rather ‘Bride’. Miwah seemed rather preoccupied. Now there were a lot of new ‘Eviscerators; in the wood, and she herself was freshly recovering from the ‘sealing’ magic’s impact. 

 

The fire raged in the distance, and the familiar blasts of the fireball impacts mixed with screams, and road, and the excited giggle of the little furry pyromaniacs. 

 

New notification, new ‘Purifiers’ forming from the ruby fog, with another of the fire foxes ready to join the fray, with the excited laughter on their vulpine faces.

 

Skill “Scorched Earth lvl.38” gained.

 

I dismissed it with a gesture, more for the sake of the ‘Purifiers’ than the system itself. 

“Miwah? Speak to me!” 

 

“Yes, Master!” She was, in fact, more focused than I ever was, and announced: “We were capturing those who broke to flee.” 

 

“Good. The explosion? What the hell happened?” 

 

The ‘Purifiers’ could throw fireballs - it was their primary method of attack - but the booms they created weren’t as deafening from a distance. Smoke rising to the sky explained nothing, and the sulphur smell wasn’t a surprise anymore. 

 

“A building exploded after it caught fire, Master.” Miwah answered, her beautiful voice still audible among the confusion of the battle, and more detonations somewhere far away. 

 

“What? Tama did it?” 

 

“No. The Purifiers are attacking the town from the other direction where the barrier fell. The building exploded, however, and the town was burning. Tama is leading her sisters from the side where their barrier fell, and humans are fleeing.” 

 

The gunpowder, I realised - the locals were using gunpowder, and we just hit their powder storage, hence the detonation, and more of my girls charged in afterwards. I wasn’t certain that was safe. 

 

“And other magic barriers? Did we get all the priestesses?” 

 

There weren't any notifications, were there? 

 

“Still up, Master.” Sora said, with the annoyed growl in their voice as more explosions blasted into the background. She, and Miwah, were only ‘Alphas’ present, with Kuma and Ekaterina were somewhere down the road, with rest tied up who knew where, with the accursed priestesses still on the loose. 

 

I couldn’t risk more of them being sealed. 

 

The priestess who sealed most of my precious girls still lived, and with her, did her magical wards and shields. 

 

A trap. It could be a trap! A nagging sensation that whoever hit the largest number of my girls had persisted, tugged on my brain, demanding the corrective measure to be taken, but I gathered myself. 

 

“Don’t get close.” I decided. “The Purifiers must have hit their magazine and there could be a chain of explosions…” 

 

The notification, along with the stinging, aggravating sensation of the mental feedback from the host’s telepathic link, had disrupted my speech, and made me stagger. 

 

1 units sealed until the caster is dead.

 

“Bitch!” I cursed - even one more of my girls being ‘sealed’ was one girl too many. 

 

I wasn’t going to let them hurt the host any more. 

 

“Let the town burn and fall back. If they have more gunpowder, it may detonate soon. I don’t want anyone near that damn fort! Or even town.” I ordered, pointing, rather uselessly, at Sora: “Especially not Tama!” 

 

I didn’t know where the volatile vixen was, and whether she could get herself in harm's way, whether it was near the human priestesses or their exploding gunpowder storage. Hopefully, the human’s new weapon would kill some of their own, especially the ‘casters’. 

 

The loss inflicted by the last spell hitting the large gathering of my girls still throbbed within my heart and soul, and I wasn’t going to accept the spell slowly chipping away at the parts of our collective being. 

 

I could only hope that Arke’s control of the drones - as she called them - was unaffected. 

 

“The Fleshspeaker and Overseers handle this with their drones!” 

 

Another explosion made me jolt and quiver. It differed from blasts of the ‘Purifier’ fireball, even though I wasn’t sure how I could tell.

 

“Arke is working on it, Master.” Miwah assured me, however, before I could respond, the promise was somehow fulfilled. 

 

When the ruby mist erupted once again, the crowd of the bat-girls grew even larger, and the familiar floating window already announced the success of whatever effort the ‘Fleshspeaker’ put into pacifying this accursed settlement. 

Skill “Messengers of the Ever-Living Horde Lvl.19” gained. Major Enemy killed. Eight more to advance the General level

 

I dismissed it. Right now, I didn't care who fell victim to the ‘Fleshspeakers’ or their drones. There were far too many priestesses within this human city, and they all represented a threat in equal measure through their magic, or through the dragon they represented. Eventually, they would get to the one that sealed Helmy and made her pay for harming the host. 

 

However, it was one step closer to freeing the captive members of our host. 

“I wish we sometimes went somewhere peaceful.” I sighed, and there was a hint of desperation in my voice, almost wanting to laugh along with the manic ‘Purifiers’ lobbying their fireballs at the enemy. I didn’t. It was tempting, though.

 

“We are making it peaceful, Master.” Miwah said, coming closer. 

 

“For Master!” cried a voice somewhere from behind, an ‘Overseer’ for certain, but I was completely uninterested in their supposed success of the siege crab designs, 

 

“The new girl…” I said, suddenly realising that I completely forgot something - someone - very important - and looked around, then rushed towards the new ‘Alpha’, still laying sprained on the ground, currently surrounded by the few ‘Corruptors’ that took interest, or pity, over her new cousin.

 

When they finally parted, I could lay my eyes on the newest addition to our little family. 

 

Her appearance has been even more wild than it has been usual, even considering the four-armed moth-like ‘Mutators’, or the lizard-like ‘Corruptors’ that ringed her. 

 

It was because of the new girl … she had tentacles. 

 

Even knowing the power that created my girls was taking increasingly more liberties in notions of biology, the half-humanoid, half-octopus body shape felt somehow over the top.

 

The upper section of her body, including the head, was relatively human-like, albeit with the skin in the different shades of blue and yellow over the firm, modest breasts and sleek, hydrodynamic curves,of her swimmer’s build with the relatively normal hands distinguished only by their unnatural shade and claw-tipped fingers, stayed relatively within the reason of what has been usual for the rest of the horde. 

 

The lower section of her body was a mass of octopus tentacles currently writhing like they were desperately trying to grab on something, explaining why she couldn’t stand up as the others. While ‘Fleshspeakers’ imitated bats in their shape, they have muscular legs, very easily capable of standing, or propelling them in the air. The ‘Mutators’ too could walk and fly. 

 

My new girl, on the other hand, could not, it seems, and merely wiggled her appendages. 

 

One of my ‘Corruptors’ supported the new girl’s head. 

 

I kneeled next to her. 

 

“Do we need to get you water?” I asked the obvious. Whether she was asleep, or unconscious, or merely in deep focus, I didn’t know. 

 

“Master!” she rasped, opening her eyes, almost as I interrupted her deep concentration. They were azure, too, even in the different shade than Miwah’s, but with the oddly shaped slit pupils, not to mention the odd glow. 

 

The girl smiled, revealing her pointy, sharp teeth, reminiscing me more of a shark than anything else. When I thought of it, she did have the oddly shaped face mildly resembling one of the notorious sea predators, with two nares, although she was considerably more cute than the fish would ever be. She even had fins resembling the pointy ears, giving her appearance an unusual, hybrid-like feel. 

 

“Do we need to carry you to the water?” I queried a second time, quite dumbfounded, coughing a little with all that smoke and the drying air, without realising that my hesitation could cost her life if she wasn’t amphibious as my brain simply couldn’t grasp my followers being unable to live on land. 

 

The flash-thought of worry was, however, over. 

 

“No need. I was just gathering…” she continued, her voice feminine, but notably grating and quickly improving. As I touched her face, I realised that what I thought to be hair was in fact a tiny wet feeler too, reacting to contact with the gentle, almost affectionate grip suggesting conscious control. Her skin was also unnaturally smooth, soft, and, more notably, wet. 

 

Then the octopus girl lifted herself from the ground. Literally. She could fly, or rather levitate, and floated herself into the air, her tentacle parts wiggling in what I thought to be excitement. She propelled herself up and down, the same way as her animal counterpart would swim, except she did the same in air. It, however, wasn’t her element. 

 

“Ah!” she exclaimed, “Just a little … wetness.” 

 

I coughed, my throat sore from the arid air around us, and then blinked in the sudden realisation - I think I could guess how this worked. 

 

“You levitate as long as there is moisture in the air?” 

 

“Yes, Master.” She stated proudly and repeated the swimming motion to pirouette, allowing me to inspect her figure, then lowered herself to my eye level. Although her tentacles, resembling somewhat a strange, flowing skirt, remained motionless, touching the ground, but she might not stand on the firm ground without the active support of her magic - I must get her to the sea. 

 

I reached for her, which she accepted, and pushed herself closer. 

 

She doesn’t seem to mind if I touched her sides. They, too, felt moist to the touch, almost as  though fresh from the bath - and in a way, she was. 

 

“Master?” 

 

“Could you swim in both regular and salt water?” 

 

Despite it being rather stupid in hindsight, I never realised that some of my people would have preferences for the environments they lived in until I met her, as even the lizard-like ‘Corruptors’ weren’t amphibians. They were climbers, hiding among the trees they reshaped. 

 

“Yes, Master. All the oceans would split before you.” 

 

“But you could breathe air and water?” I verified, even if it too was lame when I thought of it. I looked at her, trying to find out whether she had gills, though her being an anthropomorphic octopus complicated a few things: her anatomy played by its own rules. 

 

“Yes…” she breathed out when I found slits on her neck, but didn’t seem to mind being touched at all. Finally, she answered fully. 

 

“Yes, Master. I don’t need to leave your side, as long as there is just a little …” she said, then paused, “...wetness.” 

 

She did have a certain playfulness in her, too. 

 

“Not that. I’ll need you to recover something for me, but first…” I decided, “First I give you a name.” 

 

“Yes, Master.” 

 

It was easier said than done, though. The entire process of naming was rather strange, and possibly dangerous, but I’ve come already too far to worry about why it would, without flaw, give me more girls for the sake of something so mundane. Eventually, the worry of tripping over the power I didn’t understand became less worrying than simply calling my girls something silly. 

 

“Master?” she asked, as I absentmindedly touched her face, and her bottom tentacles coiled herself around me. 

 

I didn’t want to call her ‘Scylla’ - even if she technically was one - which made me hesitate. 

 

Something Greek, I thought, was desperate to find patterns I could remember later.

 

“Nereida.” I said, “I’ll call you Nereida.” 

 

While I wondered whether it was, indeed, a Greek name, the system took my decision as final, interrupting the moment with yet another of its announcements, while the red mist once again bursted out of the thin air and formed the nine little anthropomorphic octopi into existence. They, too, collapsed to the ground, even if the other girls, always mindful, caught them.

 

They might need their personal ‘Displacer’ too to drop them into the water, or bring the water to them, maybe just a bucket to splash over them so they could speak in liquid they required, but right now, I wasn’t going to chase the kittens that didn’t want the bath. 

 

I shoot notifications at a glance before once again dismissing it. 

 

The naming conviction was, as always, equally unhelpful as it was ominous

. 

Unit named! Nereida, The Tidereaver Alpha!  Skill “Terror From the Abyss lvl.2” gained.

 

“Nereida? Nereida?” The freshly named girl tasted the name on her tongue, then reaffirmed: “Nereida!”

 

“You don’t like it?” 

 

This was a problem. I never thought about what would happen if the monster girl refused the overly silly name. This one wasn’t as ridiculous. Helmy got it worse, but I didn’t want to offend. 

 

“I think it’s a Greek name for the sea nymph.” I explained, however, before I could explain my reasoning, her eyes lit with understanding.

 

“Oh, I would try to sing and dance for you, Master.” she offered, almost as the new concepts flow into her mind. Although I could sense her mind, the inexplicable form of enlightenment was something else. 

 

I would ponder about it later. I think it wasn’t the first time it happened, but her smaller sister brought me out of it with her melodious but throaty, rather girlish voice, protesting. 

 

“For Master!” 

 

If they had singer’s voices, they were ones that were desperately in need of a drink. I should probably get them to water. 

 

“Oh!” I said, turning away from freshly named Nereida, and to Sora. The catgirl was about to get herself armoured back, and considering she was one of my people who abandoned the traditional clothes in favour of the ‘Fleshspeaker’ construct, it was a strange thing to behold. 

 

“Sora, bring the little ones here to the sea.” I ordered, 

 

“Yes, Master.” 

 

She replied, her face betraying the expression of the cat experiencing the unwelcomed bath, and waved her hand. 

 

Unlike the little ‘Displacer’, the ‘Warpstalkers’ could open their rifts with the flick of their fingers, without the necessity to drag someone through, and soon the anthropomorphic octopuses fell through the swirling vortex, dragging a few new ‘Corruptors’ with them. Whether the scaly ones wanted their trip to the sea, I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to risk it. 

 

“Don’t let my Corruptors drown.” I ordered. 

 

“Yes, Master.” Nereida confirmed, while Sora looked rather unconcerned, even though she did very clearly send a few of her little sisters to recover them, since her ordinary ‘Displacer’ attendants disappeared into the spatial rifts of their own. 

 

“Aside from that, I am afraid you will be on fishing duty after the battle is over…” 

 

I said, tentatively, realising that it would be increasingly difficult to feed our growing number and seafood may end up our future method of sustenance now that all the plants were being converted. Unless the sunk caches of magical artefacts were a norm, rather than an exception, then our ‘Tidereavers’ would be prime treasure hunters. 

 

However, my further worries were soon discarded, as another notification had appeared, and with it a new group of bat-girls. 

 

Skill “Messengers of the Ever-Living Horde Lvl.20” gained.

 

They, once again, crowded along while the battle I momentarily forgot about continued. The explosions were not heard anymore, and things quiet down 

 

“You…” I said, “Just get into the air and circle around the village, keeping out of their sight. Stun everything that moves. Animals. Humans. What comes in sight, what comes in sight.”

 

“For Master!” They paused, and then backed away, taking their time to take off one by one, more by necessity as their assembly hardly allowed for free space, rather than hesitation to obey.

 

Their shrieks became more numerous as more and more ‘Fleshspeakers’ took flight, and the prospect of silence falling upon the fields was soon interrupted by the countless shrieks of my bats. 

 

“I want the priestess dead.” I demanded as the other bat-girl backed off to launch herself to the air. “Rest we capture, if we can. We need to find their gunpowder maker. Nothing enters. Nothing leaves. We overrun this town today!” 

 

I could release them later, but now, no one would get away with them harbouring our enemies.

 

“For Master! For Master!” 

 

Their voices echoed through the air - perhaps the prospect of capturing all the humans brought some life, and inspiration, into my bat girls. Now, we only need to take care of the last problem.

 

It seems to resolve itself the moment I think of it. 

 

“I think we know where the last priestess is.” Nereida said, quickly setting to the role even if it was the minutes of her presence in this world. I, similarly, become too comfortable being close to her. Tentacles or not, she was one of mine. 

 

“Tell me. Where? Get them. Can you see the portal above them?” 

 

I wanted to end it quickly. 

 

“No. They are trying to get on the boat. They are under the barrier now.” Sora interjected, “We couldn’t get close.”

 

I looked at the new octopus girl. She blinked at me and smiled with her pointy, shark–like teeth. 

 

“How they could have a boat… we never saw one…” 

 

They could have boats left. Only vessels I could notice from the distance, I saw that wretched town would be large sea-going ships, like galleons, or the local equivalents, not the fisher’s rowing boats. 

 

No, I decided, it doesn’t matter if they sail, make rafts, or swim - the priestess that sealed my girls wasn’t going to leave the town alive. We could also try the range of the water-controlling octopi on them. 

 

It was the risk, I considered, but the dig site had its own barrier too. They need to learn to bypass that, somehow. 

 

“Go.” I pushed her away, gently, “Take your sisters, and try to sweep their docks with the tidal waves. Sink everything that tries to leave.” 

 

It was what their name implied they could do. Nereida, the octopus, floated herself to the portal Sora had opened for her. It was much more graceful than the first attempt.

 

“Be careful, please.” I said, but didn’t get the response, and once the swirling portal closed, I could only wait for results with bated breath.  

 

“We will see…” 

 

They came sooner than I expected, and it wasn’t Nereida’s work. 

Skill “Messengers of the Ever-Living Horde Lvl.21” gained. Major Enemy killed. Seven more to advance the General level

 

The ruby fog once again came into existence, enveloping me as it did when the horde has doubled in number, quickly dissipating to form into the individual bodies of the future monster girl, but this time, this time it wasn’t another batch of the restless bat-girls despite what the notification have said. It was all the breeds, the ‘Purifiers’ and ‘Eviscerators’ and ‘Defilers’ and even the evolved ‘Devourers’, and with them came the unbelievable sense of relief. 

 

A doubt still nibbled on my mind for the quick moment until they landed on the fiery, curvy vixen among them, her fur brighter than other, her eyes of much shinier citrine.

 

Helmy was back. 

 

“For Master! For Master!” They cheered, and more than a few tried to meet me in the group hug, but first, I had to embrace the one vixen that started this. 

 

Helmy didn’t protest when I hugged and kissed her, and my short, but eventful stay did give me an appreciation for my anthropomorphic fox girls. In fact, I barely could tell there should be any difference - they were part of me as I was part of them. 

 

A lot of them, freshly released, joined together in the group hug, the ‘Purifiers’ giggling as always, while others expressed themselves similarly, with sniffling or even silent chants, and all of them wanted to share the moment. 

 

I took a glimpse of Miwah, but she didn’t object to me being drowned in fur, and she even gestured to the few of the ordinary ‘Eviscerators’ to welcome me properly, as always not showing any sign of jealousy. If anything, I was supposed to show affection to as many of my girls as possible. 

 

What Tama thought about it, I didn’t know. She and many of her ‘Purifiers’ rampaged elsewhere, but the designated ‘Alpha’ did have something to say. 

 

“Master.” Helmy said, first her voice soft, but then suddenly enraged once the topic changed: “Those humans! I would…” 

 

I didn’t let her finish, nuzzling her a little just the way my girls often did. Her revenge for her sealing wasn’t required. I got her back, and that mattered. 

 

“No need, Helmy,” I said, as the new notification interrupted our moment and the fog came back, giving me the very new octopi breed as well as announcing the demise of the last priestess. There was no need to send Helmy to danger, not anymore. 

Skill “Terror From the Abyss lvl.3” gained. Major Enemy killed. Six more to advance the General level

 

I blinked the window away. It doesn’t bother me much longer.

 

The previous one wasn’t the last, I realised - how many ‘casters’ could a single town possibly have? 

 

“Was it really the last one?” I asked, still holding Helmy. It was still hard to believe she once was smaller. 

 

She spaced out, a sensation of her inquiring about the host becoming more noticeable now there wasn’t this underlying stress of the more girls being sealed away. 

 

“I don’t know, Master.” Helmy said.

 

We had no means to confirm that information, true. 

 

“There are no more barriers, Master!” Sora's voice interjected from somewhere even though, at the moment, I had Helmy in my arms, and the little ‘Displacer’ holding me at the hip, and two ‘Eviscerators’ holding me, and even the growth rat-girl ‘Devourer’ holding me from behind. My vulpine, canine, and murine - my people, my girls, were back. 

 

It seems over. 

 

However, I couldn’t forget the threat, the promise I’ve given to the ‘Red’ dragon should he ever interfere with me or mine, something he had done by sending his goons to seal away Helmy. 

 

“Did we find the temple, or shine?” I queried - the unbearable weight of the disruptions to the host’s telepathic network caused by the ‘sealing’ still left enough distress inside to forget the implications when I received the answer. 

 

“Arke’s drones cornered the people hiding there, Master” 

 

I hesitated, and … 

 

A split second after, an unpleasant, stinging sensation shot through my head as the ‘Purifier’ materialised from the tiny outburst of red smoke, and collapsed on the ground, almost as if it was supposed to send me a message. 

 

“No.” I said; to nobody in particular: “Just no.” 

 

Then I looked at Sora. She looked outfitted now, and was ready for action. 

 

“Barrier?” 

 

“No, Master.” She answered, and I considered my option as the little ‘Purifier’ had to be infused with some life energy to recover by the nearest ‘Defiler’.

 

“But there was something at their gate…” 

 

“Those little warding glyphs.” I guessed, “A few were in the viceroy’s castle, too.” 

 

I turned to Helmy - my patience with the Red dragon’s followers was over. 

 

“Please get Tama and as many Purifiers are close by, and concentrate on the fire of the temple.” 

 

Her eyes shone. I didn’t back out: 

 

“Burn them all.”