Monstergirl Quest
Book Two
by C.S. Darknight
Copyright 2021 © by C.S. Darknight
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter One
My Dayfire blade was restored, recharged, and deadly as ever. The Soulguard sparkled in the morning light, like the enchanted gauntlet was itching to smash some more skulls. My mana was full, my armor was in tip-top condition, and we were ready to take the fight to our enemies.
After that last battle, I’d gotten up to Level 22. My stats were looking sick, and were only going to get better. When the Silverton guards asked if we wanted an escort back to Homehold, I’d almost laughed at them.
Because the deadliest thing on this road south was going to be me. Plus I had two deadly little Mananymphs at my side.
I made a save point then we got a move on just after dawn.
With the Spriggan King dead and Silverton safe, along with Lord Ephemera chickening out before he could attack Homehold, I should have been able to relax a little on our day-long ride back to Homehold.
But honestly, I couldn’t stop thinking that we dodged one hell of a bullet.
Because if we’d arrived at the Siege of Silverton just a few hours later than we did, if Lord Ephemera hadn’t been spooked by our victory and had gone forward with the attack, there was no telling how many would have died.
This kept running through my head, even as I rode in the saddle behind Pandora, even as I watched the golden morning sun filter through her crystalline fairy wings. Still, I couldn’t help but admire her.
Though she’d ditched her traditional Mananymph kimono for her assassin’s outfit – she liked the kimono, but the leather ninja-style getup was better for a fight – she opened two slits in the back to let her wings out. Also, now she wasn’t wearing the hood, proudly showing off her pointed Mananymph ears.
Thankfully, Duke Elfblood spared us a pair of horses to speed up our journey back to Homehold. We kept a good pace, with me riding behind Pandora and Felaxia riding behind Sephara.
“What is it, Earthman?” Pandora asked with some concern in her voice when she looked back at me.
I sighed. “I’m just thinking about what could have happened if things didn’t go our way during that battle,” I answered. “How close we came to Lord Ephemera attacking Homehold, not to mention how many would have died if Silverton’s gates had fallen.”
“You think too much, Earthman,” Pandora said. “Already, you’ve won two major battles against the Necromancer’s forces. You fought a vampire lord to a draw. And let’s not forget, if not for you, I’d have been slain in the skirmish against that goblin horde.”
I ran my fingers through her midnight strands of hair then slid my hands down to her hips, where I held her tight. “Yeah, I know,” I said. I shook my head and grit my teeth. “But I’ll have to fight harder, I have to get stronger. If I had to face off against the Dark King now, I’d get my ass handed to me.”
Yeah, adding to all my other worries was the prospect of having to take on King Darkheart sometime in the near future. He was just as strong, if not stronger, than the vampire lord Aegis Winterhollow, and I’d just barely escaped that duel with my life. Even with all the skills I’d learned and the many levels I’d gone up, it wasn’t enough.
“Once we free Bella from Lord Ephemera, we’ll head to the Imperial Library at once,” Pandora countered. “There, we’ll speak to the head librarian. The Necromancer must have a weakness. Once you know it, you can exploit it.”
I nodded, because yeah, I’d known all this already, but hearing Pandora speak it out loud lifted my spirits a bit. “Hopefully he can point us in the direction of one of those Gaia Gems or Gaia Stones, as well,” I said. If I could harness the power of one of those powerful baubles, it would truly give me an advantage over the Necromancer.
I took a deep breath. I had to stop getting ahead of myself like this. After all, we still had to meet up with Duke Gladios. At the crack of dawn, Duke Elfblood had sent a raven back to Homehold to give Duke Gladios a head’s up.
Since Duke Elfblood’s spy had given us the coordinates to Lord Ephemera’s pocket dimension, we’d decided to find the master illusionist named Corvus Gavrus. Though Duke Elfblood wasn’t sure exactly where to find Gavrus, Duke Gladios’ cartographer just might.
The elusive mage had dedicated himself to learning the intricacies of the illusion school. Though he wasn’t nearly as powerful with illusion magic as Lord Ephemera or the Necromancer, the old hermit would likely be able to decipher the coordinates to that aforementioned pocket dimension.
Then, once I got in there, I’d go about smashing Lord Ephemera’s forces to bits. But, again, I tried to keep my mind on one thing at a time.
Suddenly, Sephara and Felaxia came wheeling around the bend. Felaxia’s face had gone ghostly white, terrified by Sephara’s manic riding style.
“Slow down, you crazy elf girl!” Felaxia screeched as Sephara ran circles around us.
“Hush up, you red-haired sourpuss!” Sephara shouted back, giggling.
When she was finished giving Felaxia a heart attack, Sephara brought their horse up next to ours. “Did you see anything up ahead?” I asked her.
The young Mananymph shook her head, making her moonlight-silver hair dance upon her shoulders. “Nothing but the open road and flowers in full bloom, Earthman,” she said. She looked back at the blood mistress Felaxia. “Hey, fire-hair, hold the reins for a second.”
“But I don’t know how to ride!” Felaxia countered, but by then, Sephara had already thrust the reins into Felaxia’s hands.
The sassy Mananymph deftly and effortlessly jumped from her saddle to ours, landing on my lap, straddling me. I laughed as she threw her arms around me and gave me a quick peck of a kiss, right on my lips, before backflipping back to her own horse.
“I swear upon Mother Gaia, I’m never riding with a Mananymph ever again!” Felaxia shouted.
“I told you to hush up!” Sephara giggled back to her, then kicked the horse, which shot ahead quickly, and Felaxia’s panicked screams filled the air as they disappeared up around the next bend.
“Your sister is a little insane, I think,” I said to Pandora.
“Yet you love her as much as you love me,” Pandora answered. Now, it was her turn to kiss me lightly on the cheek. “So I guess that means you’re nearly as crazy as she is. Maybe more.”
I sighed, laughing, and for the first time since we left Silverton, I was actually feeling good again. “I think you might have a point,” I said, then we hurried on to catch up to Sephara and Felaxia.
Within the hour, Homehold loomed over the horizon. It got me thinking about how the commoners would react to seeing a second Mananymph walking among them. Since I made sure Duke Elfblood sent word about Pandora’s revelation when she sent that raven, I figured
Duke Gladios would have prepared everyone for her arrival.
The duke of Homehold would be happy to see her revealing herself, for sure. I was certain Sir Lucien would have his reservations, because certainly, this was going to piss off the Emperor once he heard about it.
Anyway, I still shared Duke Gladios’ opinion. Giving freedom to the Mananymphs would ultimately bring more support for the United Rebel Front. And hell, we’d need all the support we could get, because as tough as the battle against the Necromancer had been so far, I had a feeling our eventual confrontation with the Emperor would be worse.
Soon, a small contingent of Homehold soldiers greeted us on horseback. I smiled when I saw that Sir Lucien was riding at the head of the group.
And yeah, I thought it was almost hilarious that seeing the stubborn old prick would bring a smile to my face. It wasn’t all that long ago that we’d hated each other’s guts, but after nearly sacrificing his life for me and Pandora against that legion of blood ghouls, I found that I could trust the old knight with my life.
He brought his armored horse to a stop before us and removed his iron helm. He bowed toward Pandora first. “My lady, though you know I have many worries about your decision, it is quite heartening to see your true, natural beauty,” the old knight said.
“Thank you, Sir Lucien,” Pandora answered.
Next, Sir Lucien looked to me. He nodded respectfully and thrust his hand toward me, and I shook it. “Surely, these tales I’ve heard about a mere Earthman felling the Spriggan King are nothing but fantastical lies!” he said as we shook hands. He held this ruse for less than a moment before cracking a smile. “It’s good to see you, Earthman.”
“Same to you, Sir Lucien,” I answered. “Even better than my ugly mug,” I jerked my thumb back toward the way we came, “Duke Elfblood is getting that shipment of supplies on the road as we speak.”
Relief rolled across the old knight’s weathered face. “Thank Mother Gaia for that,” Sir Lucien said. “What does the duke of Silverton mean to send us?”
“Food and medical supplies by the crateful,” I said, then I added a grin. “Oh, and weapons. Lots and lots of silver weapons.”
Then, from behind Sir Lucien’s small patrol, came the sound of a war horse’s hoofs coming our way. Sir Lucien frowned, wheeled his horse around, and ordered his men to draw their swords.
I did the same, leaping off the horse and unsheathing my Dayfire longsword, expecting bandits, or maybe a small horde of orcs.
But when Sir Lucien spotted the large rider and the wild warhorse coming down the road, he merely shook his head. “Mother Gaia curses me to protect a duke that would prefer to ride alone,” Sir Lucien muttered with a grin. “And all under the specter of open warfare, at that.”
Duke Gladios rode up, grinning ear-to-ear when he spotted Pandora on horseback, showing off her pointed ears and fairy wings. About a hundred feet behind the duke rode his two squires, who were calling for their lord not to ride off alone.
Duke Gladios reached us, jumped off his horse, and kissed Pandora’s hand. “Though it may very well bring many dangers, I’m so happy to see you embrace yourself, Lady Pandora!” Gladios said.
His hapless squires rode up behind him, red in the face, and I thought they’d melt under the burning, angry eyes of Sir Lucien. “Boys, you two are idiots!” Sir Lucien called to the squires. “Robbin, I thought I’d told you to stay by the duke’s side no matter what!”
Robbin was a freckle-faced youngster with a mop of ginger-red hair. He looked like his armor weighed more than he did. “The duke wouldn’t listen, Sir Lucien,” Robbin answered, looking like he might burst into tears. “And besides, the duke rode off on Piper’s watch!”
Piper, the other young squire, wore thick glasses that made his eyes look at least three times as big as they actually were. Those big eyes were full of fear when Sir Lucien stomped over to him.
“So you’d let your duke ride off with no protection, young Piper?” Sir Lucien shouted.
“S-S-Sir Lucien, the duke said he didn’t need an escort!” the bespectacled squire said, and I turned away laughing.
Duke Gladios gave me a bear hug, catching me off guard, and he squeezed me with his big, burly frame. Forget saying he was strong for his age. The duke was strong, period.
“Ah, the Earthman returns!” Gladios said. He held me by the shoulders, the way a proud old uncle might. “Duke Elfblood writes that you jumped right down into that overgrown twig’s belly! Surely, the duke of Silverton lies! No man is dumb enough for that, not even one from the Earth realm!”
I nodded and shook the duke’s hand. “Well, Pandora and Sephara are always calling me the ‘idiot Earthman,’ so I guess I wanted to live up to my reputation for once.”
Sephara hopped off her horse and joined us. “What do you mean, ‘for once,’ Earthman?” Sephara said. “You live up to your lofty reputation once every few minutes.”
As the duke laughed at her playful jibe, Sephara threw her arms around my neck and kissed my cheek.
“Duke Gladios, does your cartographer know where to find Corvus Gavrus?” I asked.
“Indeed he does, Gamelord,” the duke answered. “And as we speak, he’s putting the finishing touches on drawing you a detailed map in order to get to his position. However, the evening draws near and he won’t finish his work until well after twilight.”
Though I would have liked to get our journey under way at once, I was a bit relieved to hear that. So far, I’d refused to waste a single second, because every moment we were idle was another moment that Bella – not to mention Ciara and all those other Mananymphs – would remain in bondage. However, if we were going to have some downtime, I was going to take advantage of it.
“Come then,” the duke said as he got back upon his great warhorse. “Let’s show the city just how beautiful our Lady Pandora truly is!”
Remembering what had happened when we revealed Sephara to the public, I made sure to make a save point well before we entered the city.
Thankfully, Duke Gladios had his mages roving amongst the crowd, all of them scanning the commoners and soldiers alike with life detection spells. Still, I kept my hand gripped tight on the Dayfire longsword’s hilt, with the Soulguard tightened into a fist, keeping a sharp eye out for anyone who might be looking to assassinate a Mananymph.
The crowd, however, just cheered in delight when they saw Pandora riding with her pointed ears and wings displayed proudly. Still, I had to laugh when I saw her blushing.
“Go on and wave to your adoring fans,” I told her.
“Don’t make me cut you, Earthman,” Pandora growled adorably as she forced herself to wave back at the commonfolk.
The soldiers politely cleared the way for us as we rode toward the castle. Before long, I let myself relax a little, because if an assassination attempt were going to occur, surely, the assassins would have made their move by now.
When we got inside the castle, away from the roaring crowd, Felaxia turned to me. “Forgive me, Earthman,” she said. “But I’m going to find my fellow blood mistresses now.”
I’d almost forgotten Felaxia’s pledge to train the other blood mistresses to go to war against the Necromancer. “Sure,” I answered. “Felaxia, you don’t have to ask me for permission.”
She chuckled. “You sell yourself short, Earthman,” she said. “But give me some time to train the blood mistresses. Hopefully, I’ll have them battle-ready well before that wicked Necromancer rears his head.”
With that, Felaxia broke off from our party, off to find her sisters.
However, I soon found that not everyone was quite so happy to find out that Pandora was a Mananymph. As we made our way up to the dining hall for an early dinner, I realized that Therena was nowhere to be seen.
That was strange. Being the duke’s chief mage here in the city, plus a dedicated ally of the Mananymphs, I’d figured that the high elf mage would be among the first to congratulate Pandora.
Instead,
we only saw Therena when we reached the dining hall. She wasn’t even sitting down. Instead, she was standing off to the side, arms-crossed, with a sharp scowl on her face.
Pandora and Sephara glared at her.
“Does the golden-skinned wench have a problem with us?” Sephara asked quietly.
“Take it easy,” I whispered back to her. “Remember, Therena took a dagger in the shoulder for you,” I added. “If not for her, you’d be dead.”
“And here she is, the Mananymph who’d been hiding in plain sight for years and years,” Therena said, although now I noticed that her anger wasn’t necessarily directed toward Pandora, but Duke Gladios.
Pandora was apprehensive when Therena approached, but the high elf mage only bowed respectfully. “Lady Pandora, I wish I’d known this secret you’ve been hiding for so long,” Therena said. Then she turned toward the duke, scowling again. “But I suppose Duke Gladios wanted to keep that on a need-to-know basis.”
Duke Gladios sighed as he fell into his chair, and it was then I realized they must have had this argument many times already. “Therena, please, how many times must I explain myself to you?” Gladios answered. “The fewer who’d known about Pandora, the safer the secret.”
“Well my lord, I never thought that you’d consider me a security threat,” she said. “I’ll remember that the next time I fight by your side or take a dagger for a Mananymph!”
Therena left after that, angry as hell. Shit, I guessed realizing that she wasn’t in the know about Pandora had hurt Therena’s pride. I could see why, of course. I was glad that Duke Gladios was a fair man. I was sure there were dukes in this Empire who wouldn’t let their underlings talk to them so brashly.
“Just say the word, my lord,” Sir Lucien said. His weathered old face was hard with rage as he watched the high elf walk off. “I’d have my men toss her in the brig for a few days for speaking so freely with you.”
Duke Gladios waved off the assertion. “I don’t blame her for her anger, Sir Lucien,” Duke Gladios said. “Therena’s been loyal to me for a long, long time. She’s earned the right to speak her piece to me.” The duke grabbed a big mug of ale from the table and raised it high. “Now let’s fill our bellies before the undead hordes return to us, eh?”
Monstergirl Quest Book Two Page 1