Act IX

by Alexander Gordon

  Jacqueline reached down into the crate and slowly pulled out a weapon that drew a devilish smile across her face. It was a sword forged not of steel or iron but instead runestone, a solid piece of magical ore that glowed with a soft silvery light. The blade was sharpened on one side while the other had a black steel cover that ran down to the hilt which bared two glowing blue gemstones embedded within it. The hilt for the magical sword was spiked upwards around the runestone with tiny white gems glittering on the dark steel.

  “Ohhhh,” Jacqueline purred in awe. “This looks like it could be fun to play with. What’s this one called?”

  “C-Called?” the cyclops stuttered. Jacqueline glanced to her with a raised eyebrow as the woman shakily looked back and forth between the sisters. “Um… I wasn’t aware they… needed names. Uh, I don’t… um…”

  “Whatever,” Jacqueline scoffed before turning away and grinning wickedly at her new sword. “I’ll name it myself. Let’s see, what would be fitting for this?”

  She slowly turned her eyes towards the female slave that stood near her chair, the human trembling at seeing the dark look in the monster’s eye. Taking a few steps towards her Jacqueline held the sword down to the side with a low chuckle, the blade emanating dark blue swirls of light while the ground below it began to frost over. Jacqueline glanced to the blade as a faint whistling sound was heard from the air becoming super chilled around it then laughed as she held it back with a cruel smile at the frightened human.

  “Okay, I thought of a name now.”

  With a fierce slash of the blade a crackling arc of white and blue light flashed outward, soaring across the clearing before striking the screaming human. The magical wave of energy sliced right through the woman while both freezing and shattering her flesh and bone it connected with. The attack struck the side of the tent and instantly exploded outward in a cascading wave of jagged icicles and spires that shredded and froze the crimson tarp. Everyone around the area watched in awe as the large ice formation quickly spread across the side of the tent before freezing in place, with all eyes then turning to the human woman that was sliced into two pieces with dozens of bloody ice chunks lying by her. The woman hoarsely gasped in shock, the only lung she had left being frozen and unable to inhale properly, before she fell silent with a lifeless gaze in her eyes.

  “It shall be my Ice Princess,” Jacqueline giggled before laughing at the sight.

  The surrounding crowd of monsters cheered and clapped from the demonstration while more gathered around to witness their leaders’ exhibition. The humans they held captive felt only terror sinking in from seeing the power of their oppressors while the other female slave was crying at the sight of her slain friend.

  “Not bad, sister,” Jovian complimented. Jacqueline turned to her and gave a polite curtsey then held the magic sword up high which gained a round of applause from the monsters in the crowd.

  The cyclops shut her eye and struggled with the guilt of arming these wicked monsters with such powerful weapons then noticed Jovian watching her with a cold glare. She had one hand held out towards the woman while the other was now tightly gripping the head of her daughter. The young monster cried and tried to pry the gemini’s hand away while Jovian cleared her throat with an expectant glance down to the crate then back to the cyclops. The woman looked down to the remaining weapon then nodded and lifted the second blade up to present to Jovian with both hands.

  “Just as you asked,” the cyclops whimpered before lowering her head.

  Jovian smirked and took hold of the weapon, holding it up and examining her own magical sword. This one also was forged with a sharpened runestone, the ore being a dark green while the backside of the weapon had black steel running along the edge with long thin spikes clasping both sides of the sword like spidery legs. The hilt was silver with yellow gemstones embedded within while the handle was made of dark steel with a band around the top. The air crackled with small arcs of energy dancing around the blade in the gemini’s hand, her eyes observing the runestone carefully as she could clearly feel the power radiating from it.

  “Nice work,” Jovian kindly said. The cyclops slowly looked up to see the gemini smiling wickedly at her new weapon. “Yes, I think this will do nicely.”

  She glanced over to the female slave who was crying on the ground, the woman slowly taking notice of the gemini then jumping with a fearful gasp as the monster turned to face her. Jovian held the blade down and back while her cruel smile turned vicious at the human. The slave shook her head and fearfully held out a hand to the monster as lightning crackled and zapped around the magic sword and down into the dirt.

  “I think I have just the name for it,” Jovian mused while her multicolored eyes appeared to have arcs of light dancing around in them from the flashes.

  With a fierce slash outward she cast a barrage of lightning bolts that erratically flew through the air while striking into the ground below with powerful snaps. The wave of flowing energy seared across the clearing and decimated the slave woman and Jovian’s chair, tearing apart both into bloody and charred pieces. The crowd of monsters behind the unlucky woman screamed and dodged to the side as Jovian’s attack slashed through and carved a burning crevice all the way towards a centaur that was tied up to a low branch. Only a short cry was heard from the monster before she was struck and ripped apart by the vicious energy wave.

  The attack finally dissipated with a loud echoing crackle, leaving everyone staring in silence at the long gash of terrain the gemini had created with a single swing of her sword. Jovian smirked at the sight then gave a polite curtsey to her sister, with Jacqueline giggling and clapping with a few hops. The crowd of monsters then joined in with cheering for their leader, with Jovian gazing around at them with an amused chuckle before she turned to the cyclops again.

  “I think I’ll call my new weapon Hellstorm. What do you think?”

  “Y-Yes. As… as you wish,” the cyclops sniveled. “You have what you asked me to bring you, are you satisfied now?”

  “Yeah, I’m good,” Jacqueline said while running her fingers along her new blade.

  “I’m quite satisfied with your work,” Jovian complimented. “The craftsmanship of a cyclops is well revered, and for obvious reason. You should be proud of what you created for us.”

  “Thank you,” the cyclops whimpered. “Now please, give me back my daughter and let us leave. I beg of you.”

  “Oh, her,” Jovian plainly said as she looked to the young monster who was silently crying, the girl still trying to pry Jovian’s tight grip off her head as she sat on the ground at her feet. “I actually forgot I was holding her. Silly me.”

  “Please let her go. You promised.”

  Jovian grabbed the young girl’s hand and lifted her to her feet, taking a moment to eye over the trembling monster before smirking at her mother.

  “We’ll let her go,” Jovian slyly said. “But before that you’re going to do us one more favor in atonement for being late today.”

  “But I wasn’t late!” the cyclops cried out. She gasped as Jovian gripped the young monster’s hand tightly, causing the girl to cringe in pain and drop to one knee. “Wait, please don’t hurt her! Please!”

  “Only if you make it up to us.”

  “What do you want from me? Just name it!”

  “Nothing unreasonable,” Jovian answered with a shrug. “Just fix up everyone’s weapons and armor in our little camp and then you and your daughter can be on your way.”

  “What?” the cyclops yelled out in surprise.

  “You heard me. A lot of their armaments are in poor condition. I mean have you seen what the goblins take into battle with them? Give them a cyclops’ touch and make them as good as new, and then you can go.”

  “Hurry up though,” Jacqueline mentioned. “We’re planning on going for a little walk soon with all our friends.”

  The cyclops slowly looked around at what appeared to be countless numbers of dark fiends gathered in the encampmen
t before shaking her head in disbelief at Jovian.

  “You can’t be serious! There’s no way I can repair so many armaments here alone, much less in such a short time as you’re asking!”

  “Are you saying you need a hand with it?” Jovian curiously asked.

  “Of course I would! Just because I’m a blacksmith doesn’t mean I can singlehandedly do everything here like you ask of me so easily!”

  “Okay,” Jovian said with a shrug. Without batting an eyelash she sliced her blade up through the young girl’s arm and severed her hand, the daughter screaming in pain nearly as loud as her mother did in absolute horror. The crowd around them however laughed and pointed at the sight with cruel smiles while the human men cringed and looked away from the sight altogether. Jovian casually eyed the hand she was holding then carelessly flung it over at the cyclops, the lifeless limb hitting her chest and dropping to the ground before her.

  “There. Now quit bitching and get to it.”

  The young girl screamed while holding her bloodied stump before Jovian grabbed her by the hair and started dragging her back towards the tent. The elder cyclops stared in shock at the severed hand on the ground then looked to see her daughter thrashing around in pain as she was taken back with the gemini.

  “You godforsaken demons!” the cyclops yelled out in her rage. Jovian stopped and slowly glanced back to see the monster glaring at her with tears flowing down her cheeks. “How dare you treat my little girl like this! We had a deal! You promised you wouldn’t hurt her! I won’t lift a finger to do any more work for you if this is how you’re going to treat my baby!”

  The crowd quieted down while the gemini just watched the infuriated cyclops with bored expressions. The young monster in Jovian’s grip screamed and cried as she gasped in pain, with the Darker One’s eyes glancing down to her for a moment before back at the mother.

  “So what you’re saying is you’re not going to do what I say if we keep hurting her?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying!” the cyclops shouted.

  Jovian remained silent for a while then nodded and let go of the young girl, the monster dropping to the ground clutching her bloodied stump while screaming.

  “Okay.”

  She turned to face the cyclops then promptly stomped down with her boot on the young girl’s head, crushing it with a loud crack and blood splattering across the ground. The cyclops felt her heart stop and her breath leave her entirely as she saw the girl killed before her eye, the young monster’s leg twitching on reflex one last time before she remained perfectly still.

  “There,” Jovian simply said. “She’s dead. Now we can’t hurt her anymore. Happy?”

  “NOOOO!” the cyclops shrieked. She dropped to her knees crying as she stared at her daughter with an unblinking eye, the world around her muffling from the shock while the laughter of the surrounding crowd was barely heard in her ears.

  “There’s just no pleasing you, is there?” Jacqueline sneered before she began laughing too. Jovian chuckled and started walking towards the cyclops with a simple twirl of her blade, watching as the horrified mother was sobbing her heart out at seeing her daughter slain and straining out devastated cries between her heavy breaths.

  “Let me guess,” Jovian mused. “Even after giving you what you wanted you’re still not going to help us out, are you? Am I going to have to send you after your daughter into the underworld now?”

  “You won’t… you won’t get away with this…” the cyclops whined under her breath. “You’ll pay for this, you fucking demons.”

  Jovian walked past the woman and swiftly sliced the head clean off with her sword, the cyclops wavering for a moment before dropping down next to her severed head. The monsters around the area howled and cheered for the executions as Jovian kicked aside the empty chest and eyed over the wagon. She walked over to the horse and patted the animal’s head before looking around at the crowd of followers she had applauding her.

  “And she even brought us a pretty horse to ride,” Jovian giggled at her sister. “Such a nice lady.”

  “All these great gifts, while surrounded by our many friends,” Jacqueline sighed in delight. “Aren’t we so lucky, sister?”

  The two sisters giggled together then started laughing in unison. They gazed around at the sight of the horde they had created before glancing to each other with wicked smiles.

  “I think it’s time we get going,” Jovian proposed. “We have more friends to make after all.”

  “What if they refuse to play with us like the centaurs did?” Jacqueline asked.

  Jovian chuckled and glanced to her sword, the dark blade giving off small bursts of energy which arced around the glowing runestone.

  “If they refuse, we’ll make them scream for us.”

  *****

  Sitting in the bathing room at the edge of the pool Clover was slowly brushing her long hair while gently kicking her feet below the water’s surface. Her eyes were unfocused as she looked past the ripples in the bath with her thoughts wandering to the human that made her heart flutter.

  “Dan,” she quietly spoke to herself. “You fucking asshole. Why did you have to go and be right about such things as humans loving monsters? Why did you have to believe in such a thing? Why did you… why did you have to be such a great fucking guy after all?”

  She sighed and looked up at the ceiling with a distant gaze, the gentle lapping of the bathwater being the only sound in the room as she couldn’t get Daniel out of her mind, nor the others she had been traveling with that she realized weren’t just crazy monstergirls after all.

  “I really do like them,” she softly admitted. “They are like family to me. They actually do care about me, even after how I treated them. They really are all so nice and shit, even to a horrible bitch like myself. And Dan… he’s always so fucking charming and caring to everyone, including me. He really is a great guy. I… I don’t want to be without him now. Why do you have to be so fucking desirable, Dan? I never would have believed such nonsense if… I never would have let myself feel until… and all because of you.”

  Lowering her head she held a hand over her heart, a faint blush forming on her cheeks as she thought about Daniel fighting against Ember with his magical shield and sword.

  “Now that was a real man. Fighting like that, like a fucking knight, all to save a monster. And not just to have sex with her, but because he really cares about her. He was ready to fight to the death to save a monster, what other human would dare try that?”

  The memories of when Daniel carried her after she was wounded flashed before her eyes, all the times he cared for the elf despite her flustered protests and threats of crucifying him for touching her. Even how he punched Mika not only for attacking his mates but also for the way she made Clover feel sad and hurt from slaying her kin made her heart beat faster.

  “He would really defend me,” Clover quietly praised. “Even after the way I’ve been treating him he was protective of me. Dan… wanted to protect me. Me. Do I really mean anything to him as I am?”

  “You mean everything to me,” Daniel said, with Clover quickly spinning around to see him standing behind her. Her eyes went up along his naked body, pausing for a few moments as she noticed he was standing erect in more than one way, and then met with his gaze as he was watching her with a serene smile on his face.

  “Dan?” Clover squealed before quickly ducking down into the bath and covering herself. “W-What are you-”

  “Haha, you’re adorable,” Daniel laughed before sitting down at the edge of the bath. Leaning forward a bit he observed with amusement the elf stammering something to herself while she blushed brightly. “Why are you so embarrassed? You’re a beautiful monster after all, your lovely figure should be something you would be proud to show the world.”

  Clover froze in place with a quiet whine before holding a hand over her mouth, eyes quickly darting down to his lap then back to his face as he tilted his head playfully.

 
“What are you saying?” she stuttered out. “What… what are you doing in- wait, you think I’m beautiful?”

  “I know you are,” he said, gently reaching over and caressing her cheek. Moving his hand behind her head he brought her closer, the girl staring at him in stunned silence as he used his other hand to brush the hair away from her face.

  “You’re perfect, Clover.”

  “P-P-Perfect?”

  “Yes, perfect from head to toe. That’s why I love you so much.”

  “LOVE ME?” Clover screamed before slapping both hands over her mouth. She quickly looked around to make sure none of the other girls were around then stared at Daniel with wide eyes. “You… really love me? Are you fucking serious?”

  “How could I not?” Daniel admired while tenderly holding the elf. “You’re so enchanting, your bravery and skill as a huntress is incredible, and the fire you have inside of you I dare say is greater than even Triska’s.”

  “Holy fuck,” Clover breathed out as her eyes slowly closed, her mind beginning to blur as she felt like she was melting in his hands. “You don’t hate me? You don’t hate me for how I’ve been with you in the past?”

  “I could never,” Daniel promised, holding her gaze up to his.

  “Oh god, please don’t let this be some sort of sick joke. If you’re just messing with me I swear I’ll beat the shit out of you.”

  “I love you, Clover,” Daniel repeated. Clover felt her heart skip a beat then began to pound steadily in her chest as he held her with a calm smile on his face.

  “I… Dan, I…” Clover said, her words seeming to be stuck in her throat as she tried to speak. “I… I… love… um…”

  Closing her eyes she tried to steady her breathing and thoughts, something she was having the utmost difficulty in doing at the moment.

  ‘Holy fuck! He does love me! Wha- what do I do now? Say it back, say it back, dumbass! Fuck, why is this so hard? He’s actually confessing his love for me, why can’t I say it back? Say it, you fucking bitch!’

  “Dan,” Clover shakily spoke up before taking a big breath. “I… want you to know… that… I… ah fuck it. I love yo-”