World Guide I Short Story — "Until She Falls"

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Well, it's been a little while since I posted something new. To make up for it, here's a complete translation of "Until She Falls," the short story from the end of World Guide I. Although it was actually written before Fallen Brides, it effectively serves as a sequel to Wilmarina's chapter. It's also about half as long as a Fallen Brides chapter, clocking in at just over 12,000 words.

Next on the list for MGE stories is the short from the end of World Guide II, by Strange. If you like weresheep or you're getting tired of corruption stories, it's probably for you. I don't think I'll post it all at once like I did with this, but expect a short delay while I work up a good chunk to start with and get some other projects sorted.

Comment if you have any specific requests for after that, although it won't necessarily determine what I choose to translate.

(Full text and illustrations after the cut.)

Until She Falls

By the Dullahan's Groom

Translated from the Japanese by OtherSideofSky

He was always protecting me, always standing in front of me. He was always the first to come running to me, never hesitating, never flinching from anything that meant me harm. That was why I was able to follow after him without fear.

"Shit!"

I cursed reflexively as I looked around me. Sweet, coaxing voices were coming from everywhere. Just hearing them made me shudder and want to cover my ears. But if I did that, I wouldn't be able to link up with the others. That voice of reason stopped my hands in their tracks, and lent speed to my headlong dash up Main Street.

How did things end up like this...?

Dazzling Lescatié, second largest of the Order states and origin of numerous Heroes. A sacred metropolis administered by the Order in the way most in accordance with the Chief God's will. Of course it was not without its problems — inequality chief among them — but everyone knew that even those were the will of the Chief God. That was why the city was still able to develop, and tackle its problems as one.

But this town, my pride and joy, now resembled a painting of Hell. All around me was filled with the bestial cries of men and, and the loathsome, enticing voices of monsters. I could even catch the screams of small children among them. But I couldn't help those people: I didn't know if I could overcome the monsters alone. Most importantly, I needed to let the Heroes know what was happening fast.

That's right...! The Heroes will be able to do something...!

Heroes had received divine protection, and brought about countless miracles. They were the Orders most devout believers, and the cornerstone of its fighting strength. And there were some here in Lescatié. That was why it had never fallen to monster invasions before. Our situation might be desperate this time, but with their help we would manage to turn it around again. Firm in that belief, I hurried on up Main Street to where those Heroes were probably protecting the royal family.

"Aaaaahh♥"

"S, stop... D, don't come any closer!"

"Cumminggg♪ I'm cumming againnn♥ My cunny's clamping down on your cock, big brother♥♥"

Shit!

I mentally cursed again at the noises entering my ears — screams, moans, angry bellows. I'd heard that not even a Hero's miracles could turn a girl who'd become a monster back to normal. In other words, even if we eventually won, the girls I abandoned would just be "put down." I supposed that dying as a believer, rather than living as a monster, might be a kind of blessing. The human heart, however, wasn't made simply enough to accept that. No matter how much I believed, it was a fact that I'd abandoned them. It didn't even matter that there was nothing I could do.

Why...? Why is this happening...?

My feelings of powerlessness turned straight into anger at monsters. Even I knew I was mistaking the problem. But there were lots of non-combatants in this pious city, people who weren't prepared to fight. In spite of that, the monsters were indiscriminately assaulting women, making the things that had defined them grow hazy, and reducing them from humans with reason to beasts who ran only on instinct. And their numbers were rapidly increasing. Of course, as one of the faithful I'd known that monsters were wicked creatures, but I hadn't understood just how terrifying they could be.

But... those wicked creatures will surely be driven from the city soon.

Perhaps God was still watching over me, even though I was deserting so many people: I was taking the shortest route to the palace, but I didn't run into a single monster. The Chief God must be thinking of me; She always saved the faithful. The castle loomed up impressively in front of me as if to prove it.

"Messenger! I'm a messenger!" I shouted, diving through the unattended gate and into the castle grounds.

I crossed the lawn that grew green and thick, and passed straight into the castle proper. It was odd that I met no one on the way, but most of the soldiers must have been down in the city. In which case, I had to deliver my message quickly and join in expelling those obscene and wicked creatures from this sacred town.

Shortest distance or no, I'd run through half the town, and my breath was coming fast. I'd discarded my armor bit by bit as I put on speed. My shirt was clinging with sweat, and my standard issue trousers were just as bad; it felt totally gross. But, although my body was groaning with exhaustion, I was still full of energy. If it would help to drive out the monsters that had destroyed my peaceful life, I was ready to dash off immediately. With that rage seething in my chest, I opened the castle door.

"Somebody! I have a message! Take me to where the Heroes..."

Inside the castle, where I had expected to find people rushing every which way, there was not a soul. The lounge, which was normally buzzing with not only soldiers, but also maids and other servants, was now so silent it made my ears ring. It was dusk, but the candles still weren't lit. It was dark as night inside the castle. There was something eerie about it. The magnificent atmosphere the sublime stained glass windows and ornate pillars usually created was completely absent.

"Oh my, whatever is the matter?"

The voice that answered me out of the dim lounge made me start. A moment later my hand was on the mass-produced sword at my hip. I kept it there while I turned to look at the owner of the voice, and found a familiar, smiling face — a face I'd been looking for.

"Lady Wilmarina..."

I could never mistake the face that stood out clearly in the darkness. Lady Wilmarina Norscrim, Lescatié's mightiest Hero, and devout follower of the Chief God. Her bluish-silver hair, cut in a short bob, shone indomitably even in the gloom, almost like a halo of divinity. Just seeing her face was enough to make me feel that everything would be alright if I left it to her. Something hot pricked at the corners of my eyes.

"The main gate has already fallen into monster hands. Our group was almost completely wiped out. The captain sacrificed himself so that I could escape..."

"I see."

Huh...?

The Hero who was supposed to solve everything for me didn't even change her expression. She kept her sweet smile through my whole report. Just as I was starting to feel uneasy about that, it caught my eye.

"You’re still human."

A pointed, orchid-colored tail emerged from the darkness. It was clearly sprouting from Lady Wilmarina. And that wasn't all: when I looked closer, there were pointed ears sticking out of her short bob. Pointed ears were characteristic of elves, but I'd never heard that Lady Wilmarina was an elf.

"You idolized me, didn't you? I'd be willing to 'take' you myself..."

With those words, Lady Wilmarina stepped out of the blanketing darkness. She wasn't wearing her usual, dignified Hero's garb; she had on a bondage dress that emphasized her beautiful figure, to which any woman would aspire. The bewitching garment, which seemed almost designed to tempt men, exposed practically everything but the tips of her breasts and between her legs. It was obscene. The fact that you could still see traces of her proper clothes, which had seemed to express divine might, in it made it worse. When I’d followed her into battle, that ensemble had given me courage. Now it frightened me. Besides, Lady Wilmarina had been a Hero, and the boots — a distinctive glossy color in imitation of her tail — made her look like a whore.

Of course, her costume wasn’t the only thing that had changed. The old Lady Wilmarina — the human Lady Wilmarina — hadn’t had curved horns or night-dark wings. Most of all I was struck by her shining wine-red eyes; I couldn’t see a shred of their former beautiful azure.

She had changed so completely that she almost seemed like a different person, but I could recognize Lady Wilmarina in the details. Her overall impression, however, was utterly alien. The old Lady Wilmarina had embodied cleanliness and purity; now she was the image of wantonly flirtatious femininity. But at the same time, there was something unapproachable about the disgraced Lady Wilmarina, like a finished work of art. The womanly charm that had been concealed by her aura of purity had been set free.

Why…?

I didn’t want to understand what I was seeing. Lady Wilmarina had been my aspiration. She’d been Lescatié’s guardian angel. She’d been the strongest and most reliable Hero. And now she was an enemy. Seeing clinching proof of that brought my legs to the verge of collapse. The sensation of the ground swaying under my feet was probably an attempt to fool myself into believing this was a dream. But Lady Wilmarina, slowly drawing closer, her boots clacking on the floor, would not let me.

Someone’s coming… It’s Lady Wilmarina… No, it’s a monster…!

When my thoughts got to that point, a fire lit inside me. It felt like I was about to explode. Lady Wilmarina had been more devout than anyone, and the monsters had made even her one of them. Their wickedness made me sick to my stomach. I shouted at my trembling legs to stand firm, then drew my sword and threatened Lady Wilmarina — no, the monster Wilmarina — who continued to approach me and made no move to defend herself.

“Stay back, you… you… monster!”

I didn’t want to believe that the woman in front of me was the Lady Wilmarina I’d loved and respected, but I felt that I had to do something about the reality before my eyes. I felt that pointing a sword at Lady Wilmarina was blasphemy, but I had nowhere else to point my directionless rage against monsters. My mind boiled with contradictions, but I kept my sword and my gaze desperately trained on Wilmarina.

“...What are you planning to do?”

“If you’re a monster… If you’ve become a monster… I’ll slay you! I’ll kill you!”

“With your hands shaking like that?”

Wilmarina was right: my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. The blade of my sword was knocking against the guard with an unpleasant clatter. The point wavered unsteadily. I probably couldn’t even swing a sword straight in this condition. I’d lost my idol, Lady Wilmarina; I’d lost my officers and comrades; this sword was my last day of hope.

“You’re liable to injure yourself with your hands like that. Let it go. I’m saying this for your own good,” Wilmarina declared bluntly, but not unkindly. Her tone reminded me of the few times she’d coached me personally, back when she’d been a Hero. I remembered her thorough, easy-to-understand instruction making my heart dance, and practicing my forms like a maniac to develop anything she’d praised me for. Those had been pleasant, proud memories, until a moment ago. But now… they just filled me with shame.

“Stop it…! Stop using Lady Wilmarina’s voice… Stop using her face…! Stop pretending to be Lady Wilmarinaaa!”

I bellowed, hoping to shake free of the memories, and advanced on Wilmarina. I held my sword above my head; it was my best stance, the one Lady Wilmarina had praised me for. I wanted the monster in front of me gone. I lunged, shifting the strength of my legs into my dorsal muscles, and then to my arms, and brought my sword down in a twisting diagonal slash. Wilmarina still didn’t budge, let alone draw her sword. Then—

“No roughhousing.”

Just as my sword stroke was about to reach Wilmarina, something arrested my arm. It constricted my bare hands — I’d abandoned my gauntlets with the rest of my armor — like a vise, and my sword clattered to the floor. The dry clang reverberated in the lounge, deserted except for Wilmarina and me, and even more hollowly in my heart.

“Lady Deruella… Back so soon?”

Deruella…?

The unfamiliar name was aimed not at me, but at something behind me. No sooner did I turn my head to look than an intimidating pressure struck me like a blow. I had no training in magic, but even I could tell that a dense, swampy mass of mana was coming my way. My body gave an involuntary shiver. I felt myself on the verge of screaming, but the pressure that seemed to be squeezing my heart wouldn’t even let me do that.

“Things have settled down a bit, so I thought I’d take a little break… Oh, and I found something interesting.”

Something about the cheerfully smiling monster resembled Wilmarina. Maybe it was the vivid, wine-red eyes. There was also the shape of their tails, horns and wings. But her wings and tail were pure white, in contrast to Wilmarina’s — so spotlessly white they somehow almost seemed noble — while her horns were so dark that Wilmarina’s looked pale in comparison. And yet her skin was snowy, like someone had forgotten to color it. The contrast was weirdly eyecatching.

Her clothes were like Wilmarina’s, except even more shockingly revealing. And whereas Wilmarina’s were bondage-esque, hers more strongly resembled armor. The bright red designs — seemingly modeled on her own eyes — set into it all over reinforced that impression.

A glance at any part of her was enough to declare her a beauty to rival or surpass Wilmarina. Taken as a whole, she was a woman whose beauty could ruin countries. Any man would submit to those strong-willed eyes. No, not just men; this monster filled the air with so much charm that even other women would be forced to adore her.

“Be that as it may… Coming that close to cutting you now is quite a feat.”

“She was excellent.”

Words of praise from Wilmarina’s mouth. Just yesterday that would have made me jump for joy. Coming from the monster Wilmarina, however, they only hurt me like a blow to an old wound.

“It appears so. Well then… I’ll ‘take’ her for you.”

Runnels of cold sweat ran down my spine at the monster’s words. To me, those words were a death sentence. I instinctively twisted my body in a terrified effort to escape. But the dark tentacles holding my wrists showed no sign of letting go. They clung to my skin like they had suckers or something.

“Everything’s under control here, so you go back to your darling.”

“Can I really?”

“Of course. I know you hate leaving him.”

The color went out of Wilmarina’s face at the monster’s words. To be more precise, everything but a rapt look of joy went out of it. It looked like she might start drooling at any moment. There was no trace of the Hero she’d been in that expression; just a monster’s primal joy at her own monstrosity.

“Thank you very much, Lady Deruella. Excuse me.”

With those words, Wilmarina turned her back on me and advanced into the castle. She didn’t spare me so much as a glance. It was like I’d never been there. I was less than a stone on the roadside. I seethed with humiliation. But it was true that Wilmarina and I were as different as heaven and earth. The gap in our combat ability was so great that a more rational part of me actually felt relieved at being ignored.

“Now then… shall we start by introducing ourselves?”

The monster glided from beside me to in front of me. Not having to look over my shoulder to see what she was up to was welcome — in a sense — but when I considered what she was about to do to me, I decided against thanking her. My mind made up, I shut my mouth tight. I had no sword, and the tentacles held my arms so they formed an “X”; that was the only resistance I could muster.

“Oh my, the silent treatment? Not knowing what to call you will be such a bother...”

Be bothered all you like!

I didn’t know how strong this monster was, but, considering that Wilmarina called her “Lady,” she was probably the ringleader who’d turned Wilmarina into a monster, or at least someone close to her. Even I could tell that. But I’d just lost so much in a single day because of monsters — not only my idol, Lady Wilmarina, but also my good-natured comrades, and even him… my contemporary cum childhood friend. I was boiling with hatred for monsters. She might be able to overpower me with a wave of her hand, but I glared my intention to resist to the bitter end.

“I see. Well, it doesn’t matter; you’ll feel like telling me eventually. I’ll go first. You probably already heard, but my name is Deruella. Perhaps it would mean more to you if I said I’m the Dark Lord’s daughter?”

The Dark Lord’s daughter… That means… a lilim!?

Lilims, the daughters of the Dark Lord, were acknowledged as the Order’s most dangerous adversaries. That was partly because their physical and magical abilities were far above those of other monsters. Even more troubling, however, was the fact that these lilim were capable of turning a woman into almost any known species of monster. Monsterization tailored to individual environment and values was recognized as an advantage so powerful that it could consume an entire city from within. It was said that even the Order needed to take exceptional caution when dealing with them.

“Hee hee… I see you understand. Well then… we’ve made friends, so let’s get started...♥”

Her immoral voice seemed to claw its way up from the bottom of a dark well. Just hearing it sent a shiver down my spine. At the same time, several more tentacles sprouted under my feet and coiled around my legs. They were about as thick as a child’s fist, and felt weirdly smooth and slimy to the touch. When I looked down, I saw that they were thickly coated in transparent goo.

It was honestly uncomfortable. My body was already dripping with sweat from the run here, and now this gunk was making it even stickier. Still, everywhere the tentacles touched got strangely warm and tingly, and I couldn’t call that heat totally unpleasant. The sinuous, unchaste movements of the tentacles should have been sickening, but the heat they were carving into me was sweet as a roasted marshmallow.

Still… I can take this…!

I was up against a member of the monster royalty that had gone against the Chief God’s teachings and devoted themselves to obscenity. I was prepared for her to have something in the goo to make my body hot. It would take more than that to fluster me, I desperately told myself. I kept my teeth clenched tight.

“Stubborn, aren’t we? This would be enough to drive most girls half crazy...”

It was true that the sight of the tentacles smearing goo onto me was enough to make me wish I was dreaming. I hadn’t planned to allow my body to anyone until marriage; now it was being toyed with by these things, even if it was through my clothes. And it was making me hot, no matter how much I wanted to deny it. It’d be no wonder if this drove me half crazy.

“Well… I suppose that means you’re worth ‘taking’...♪”

As if in response to the monster’s — Deruella’s — words, the tentacles started to get more forceful. They’d just been smearing their goo into my clothes, and now they were doing something even more obscene. They went for my chest, of course, wantonly toying with my smallish breasts and knocking them free of my bra. The tentacles squeezed my now-unprotected breasts from both sides, forcing them to form cleavage. One of the ill-natured things bobbed up and down like it’d been charmed by the gap between them. The sight of the tentacle thrusting so close at hand was so overwhelming that I could almost feel it, even when I looked away.

“Hee hee…♪ You’re looking dirtier by the minute...♥”

Deruella’s teasing struck a nerve. I really was starting to look quite obscene, just as the monster said. My sweaty shirt had already been clinging to my skin so that my bra showed through, and now that clear goo had made it even worse. Of course, my narrow waist and chiseled abs were no exception. I took pride in my firm belly without a trace of femininity, but it was also a mass of complexes.

Having a monster see even that part of me…!

Honestly, I wouldn’t even want a man I liked to see my abs. And now they were being seen by the ringleader of the monsters I hated. My cheeks flushed with the shame.

“Oh my… There’s really nothing to be ashamed of. I think you’ve got a quite a nice body. Very toned♥”

Deruella almost sounded like she was responding to my thoughts. My complex, however, was too deep for me to take them at face value. It felt like every time I got stronger to protect the man I loved, I got farther from being happy as a woman. I was so bad at that side of things that lately I’d given up on it completely.

“Oh dear… Such a sour look. Don’t you think I mean it?”

How do you expect me to look in this situation…? I wanted to shout at her, but I restrained myself with an effort. I looked away, seeking a way out. The tentacle were still practically raping my chest, but I ignored them as well. Watching them gave me a weird feeling, and there was nothing fun about watching the tentacles ravish my breasts. Then something hard and smooth brushed my abs.

“Ah!”

“Hee hee...♪”

I couldn’t repress a cry — almost a scream — at the unfamiliar sensation. I didn’t even have a chance to regret it before Deruella’s nail was slowly tracing the grooves of my abs.

“See...? You have such a lovely, sensitive belly♥ It would be such a shame not to like it.”

“N, none of your business!”

Once my mouth was open, I couldn’t keep the words in. By the time I mentally cursed myself, it was already too late. Deruella’s lips parted in a delighted grin.

“I see you’ve finally decided to open up a bit...♪”

I grimaced. I’d been determined to keep my mouth shut, but now that I’d lost control once, I couldn’t get it back. I tried to be mindful and repress the abuse that threatened to burst out of me, but I had to admit my results were less than perfect.

“Hee hee… Still, if you hate this belly that much… I could change it for you. If you become a monster, you could have a soft body… and keep your strength. Actually, you could be even stronger.”

“...”

“You would even be able to protect that boy — your childhood friend — who covered for you when you were starting out.”

At those seductive words, I found my gaze drawn to Deruella in spite of myself. That was… That was a secret I’d always kept hidden in my heart of hearts. I’d been a wimp; he’d always protected me. Then, one day, he’d ended up seriously hurt. That was when it had started. I’d decided to get strong enough to do without his protection — no, strong enough to protect him. That desire intensified, and by the time I joined the army, our power dynamic had reversed. I worried about my body being far from feminine, but I’d sworn to myself that I’d protect him as long as I lived, even if I couldn’t tell him how I felt.

But I’d ended up being protected yet again. During the chaos at the main gate, he — my childhood friend — and the captain had acted as decoys to let me escape. The scene stood out painfully in my mind. If I’d been stronger, he wouldn’t have had to do that. If I’d at least been strong enough to offer a helping hand to the people crying out for one, I wouldn’t have had to let them die. Self-condemnation weighed on me.

“He was pretty cool, wasn’t he…? Fighting desperately to defend you...♪”

Wait. How does this monster know that?

The monster invasion had happened so suddenly. And it had come from inside, as well as out. It had been a panic in an instant. I hadn’t considered it particularly strange at the time, but… it was hard to imagine the fundamentally individualist monsters acting with such coordination on their own. But if there had been higher-ranking monster directing the chaos… And if that chaos had recently “settled down”...

“It couldn’t be… You…!”

“Hee hee… I wonder♥ It might be what you’re thinking, and it might not...♪”

My glare had gone past hateful all the way to murderous. But Deruella took it in stride; my murderous rage seemed to bother her less than a mosquito bite. I seethed with humiliation all over again. If she’d hurt him at all — no, even if she hadn’t — I wanted to throw myself on her and kill her this instant. But I didn’t have the strength; all I could do was cry with frustration.

I couldn’t protect him… I…!

I’d trained my body to the point that I’d given up on my happiness as a woman, all because I’d wanted to protect him. Luckily, there were lots of women Heroes in Lescatié. I might not be able to become a Hero, but if I trained, I could at least help them. With that in mind, I’d trained as hard as any man.

But Deruella’s words meant it had all been for nothing. I’d just wanted to be with him. I’d just wanted to protect him. Monsters had taken even that from me.

“Oh my… Is there anything I can do? I didn’t mean to make you cry...”

Deruella sounded troubled. As she spoke, she touched her cheek as if lost in thought. She held that pose for a few seconds, then clapped her hands like she’d just had an idea.

“Of course...♥ Let’s think about it after I ‘take’ you♪”

As if on cue, tentacles began to coil around not just my upper body, but my lower body as well. They incessantly tormented my hard calves and muscular thighs — which I was almost as self-conscious about as my abs — spreading their feverish heat throughout my body. It seemed to embody Deruella’s words, tingling and refusing to cool. On the contrary, the more the tentacles touched me, the stronger it got. It was beginning to make me feel lightheaded, like a low-grade fever.

“And next...♪”

In answer to Deruella’s proclamation, several tentacles began to touch me directly by slipping through seams in my clothes and the neck hole of my shirt. The thin fabric of my shirt must have been doing something to protect my body, because being touched directly felt incomparably more vivid than being touched through it. As the immediacy of the sensation penetrated my brain, the goo on my skin was making my body even hotter.

I was breathing hard for a different reason than when I’d run to the castle. I hurriedly closed my mouth, not wanting to admit it, but Deruella must have heard. There was something weirdly irritating about her cheerful grin. I wanted to at least say something, but my mind was rapidly emptying in the face of heat that seemed to reach all the way to my bones. I could feel a meaningless list of words gaining power; I was losing my capacity for rational thought.

How could I… end up… like this…?

Raised on the Order’s teachings, which strongly forbid fornication, I had never masturbated. I had occasionally felt horny, but then I’d exercised until it passed. The feeling assaulting me now was like that, only hundreds of times stronger. It didn’t seem like exercise would be enough to to shake off what was slowly but surely oozing its way into my body.

N, no…! I, I don’t want this…!

I was going to turn into something that wasn’t me. I finally felt the reality of it, and that feeling blotted out everything else in my mind. A desire to beg for forgiveness and ask her to overlook me reared its head inside me. But a monster would never turn a blind eye to prey she’d already caught. I pessimistically decided that, in that case, it was better to stay as I was than to shame myself like that. I held in my surrender and shut my mouth tight.

“You look a bit happier now...♥ Hee hee… You look even lovelier than when you were playing cool...♪” Deruella whispered sweetly as her hand gently stroked my cheek to wipe the traces of my earlier tears. The gesture was so kind that I couldn’t imagine a monster making it. But at the same time, the tentacles were still smearing goo inside my shirt. The humiliation continued.

Then, in contrast to the kind gesture, the tentacles began to assault my chest in earnest. Some of them fused into what looked like suction cups, and stuck to my tormented breasts. Those tentacles hugged my teats like spoiled children, giving me definite pleasure. My smallish breasts screamed in pain as they were pulled this way and that inside my shirt, but the tentacles would show me no mercy. On the contrary, they clung on as if to say they wanted to hear more of it.

“Such a nice voice...♪ You might even turn me on...♥”

Deruella sounded delighted, but I hardly heard her. Finding a way to escape the tentacles was more important. I struggled as best I could, but it would never be enough to shake them free.

“Tee hee hee...♪ You know… you look just like you’re shaking your bottom to attract a mate♥”

I froze. Then I heard a tearing sound. It was like she’d been aiming for that opening all along. Shocked, I looked down, and saw a vertical slit had opened in The ancient and honorable uniform of the Lescatié army hard been turned into something that would look at home on a prostitute. I was still frozen in shock when the tentacles coiled up around my newly-exposed thighs.

“Aaah!”

I meant to scream in disgust, but it came out sounding more like a moan. It sounded, to borrow Deruella’s phrase, like I was trying to attract a mate. The shrill cries I’d heard running through the picture of hell that was downtown were coming from my own mouth. I shook my head, determined to deny the truth, but the hand-like tentacles stroking my inner thighs weren’t going to let me.

“Oo… ngh… aah...”

That area, close to my embarrassing parts, must have been part of an erogenous zone. I couldn’t stop moans spilling from my mouth every time the tentacles brushed my skin. My body burned with a tingling heat, totally unlike what I felt after strenuous exercise. It was feeling it so much my hips shivered at the slightest touch. I pulled my hips back in a reflexive effort to escape the stimulation.

“Aah...♪ You look like a beast...♥”

I couldn’t even spare the effort to deny it. In fact, I couldn't even stop the pose Deruella called bestial. The tentacles stroking my inner thighs were slowly working their way upward. The closer they got to my womanhood, the more I shivered, and the more worked up my body got. The excitement plummeted into the pit of my belly and began to whirl. No sooner had I become conscious of the unfamiliar feeling in my abdomen than Deruella whispered:

“Sticking your bottom out like that… might convince me to give it some attention...♪”

I felt something lukewarm touch my bottom. When I craned my neck to look, I saw a tentacle forcing its way into the crack of my protruding rear. It was advancing into virgin territory that even I hadn’t touched outside of voiding my bowels. My thighs quivered.

“Aaaaah♪”

The tentacles overrunning my twin hills refused to stop. They weren’t even giving me time to focus on controlling my involuntary groans of pleasure. They just went in and out, in and out, trying to worm their way deeper inside. The sight of phallic tentacles thrusting so close to my privates would be no laughing matter, even at the best of times. In fact, it was so nightmarish that I kept silently pleading for it to be a dream. But my body, detached from my mental protests, was getting feverish pleasure from it.

“Oh yes, we mustn’t forget your adorable chest...♪”

Her sweet voice still hung in the air when the tentacles clinging to my breasts advanced into new territory. They now enveloped my breasts all the way to the base, not just the peaks. But they hadn’t simply increased their surface area; there were lots of suckers on their insides. It felt like many mouths pressing on my skin. And of course they didn’t neglect my — already erect — nipples. That was an erogenous zone that even I, my life spent in service to the church, knew. My back arched, beaded with cold sweat.

I could never have experienced that grotesque sensation with another person. It had begun to file away my reason. The goo on my skin encouraged the process. I had virtually zero resistance to pleasure — I’d always despised even masturbation as unclean. There was no way I could endure the wiles of a monster who had seemingly been born to commit obscenities.

But still…!

An emotion akin to stubborn pride supported me. It was Deruella who’d turned Lady Wilmarina into that obscene monster. It was Deruella who’d hurt him. I’d never give in to her. I’d never curry favor with her. That determination was all that kept me going on the verge of breaking.

“Hee hee… It looks like you’re tougher than I thought...♥”

But that was ultimately a passive resistance, nothing more. It wouldn’t break me out of this deadlock. And no reinforcements were coming, no matter how long I held out. I’d come here to get them and ended up caught by Deruella, so the monsters were probably everywhere. In other words, I was a fish on the cutting board, desperately struggling not to be cooked. No matter how hard I tried, I’d be cooked in the end regardless. Deruella knew it too; I could see the complacency in her grin. Even that impression, however, was dispelled by the words Deruella suddenly whispered in my ear.

“But just think...♥ What if it was your darling’s lips… sucking at those cute breasts of yours…?”

That sweet, gentle voice, almost like a mother cooing to her child, pushed its way into my unresisting mind. I couldn’t dislodge the sweet delusion. The childhood friend who’d watched at me with a hint of sadness in his eyes ever since I’d gotten stronger than him was sucking on my nipples like a spoiled child. No; that wasn’t all. He was making love to them, kissing every inch of my smallish teats…

That mental image was far too sweet. The pleasure I’d been resisting became suddenly delicious. My body gave a huge jolt, and my inner thighs rubbed together. I was conscious of something hot and sticky spilling from between them. At that point I finally realized that that bliss was a sweet poison, but but it was already too late. Once the image had been seared into my mind, there was nothing I could do to shake it off. Even though these tentacles were nothing like him, he came to the front of my mind with every suck.

No…! Wh, why…?

I was confused, shaking my head from side to side like a child throwing a tantrum. But the delusion lodged in my thoughts refused to come unstuck. Maybe it was because, even though I’d given up on confessing to him, there was a girlish part of me that still dreamed of it. I tried desperately to deny my awakening as a woman — the awakening of a self I’d thought I’d thrown away — but the joy filling my breast wouldn’t let me.

The delusion reduced my ability to resist pleasure. The little tolerance I’d been building up was blown away, and I had no choice but to accept the ecstasy. The pleasure, accompanied by the lingering heat, slipped through my insides to settle in my loins, where it began to pulse steadily.

“Hee hee… Well? Doesn’t it feel wonderful…? Just thinking about your darling… makes your heart ache, doesn’t it…?”

“Y, you’re wrong…! It doesn’t…!”

I denied Deruella’s words, but my body affirmed them. Even so, I simply couldn’t accept them. I’d already abandoned my womanhood to be with him — to protect him. If I acknowledged my inner woman… it would mean denying everything I’d been.

“But you couldn’t protect him.”

Deruella’s cold word seemed to see right through me. I couldn’t refute them. However much I wanted to deny it, it was a fact that even after I’d gone as far as abandoning my womanhood to protect him, I was the one who’d ended up being protected.

“And can you really say you were protecting him when you left him alone and did nothing but train…?”

“W… well…”

Deruella’s barb left me at a loss for words. It was true… I remembered his lonesome figure watching me as I singlemindedly trained from dawn to dusk. I’d refused his invitations to go enjoy ourselves on holidays more times than I could count to keep up my regimen. Could I really claim to have protected him when I’d been rejecting and hurting him like that…? I was starting to feel uncertain.

“But… if you become a monster, you won’t have to make him lonely♥ In fact… you’ll hardly ever be apart♥ You’ll always be connected to your darling… and you’ll be right there to protect him…♪ Both his body and his heart♥ Wouldn’t that be real happiness for you...?”

“Happiness...”

The word coursed through me like deadly poison.

When I’d been a child, innocently chasing after him... I’d wanted that… No, I’d been sure it would happen. We’d marry, make a happy home… be dragged around by children… hold each other’s hands as we nestled close… I’d vaguely believed that that future would come to pass. But things were different now. I’d chosen to be with him as a warrior. As far as I was concerned, that was a life for spoiled weaklings.

But… was it really…?

I suddenly doubted myself. I’d claimed to have given up on happiness as a woman… but I’d still wanted to stay at his side. Couldn’t… couldn’t that be because I’d been waiting for him to confess? Hadn’t I been hoping for him to come to me and hug me tight? Hadn’t I been wishing for him to protect me like he had when we were children…?

I don’t know… I… don’t know…!

But I had a feeling my aching heart was saying “yes.” It felt like my chest was choked with feeling. It was agreeing with Deruella, but I didn’t want to admit it. I retreated back into my shell.

“Besides… if you just protect him… you’ll never feel this good...♥”

Deruella’s words were tempting. I shook my head no. This did feel good. I’d admit that. My nipples were already so hard they hurt, and almost seemed to be waiting for someone to suck on them. But my stubborn pride wouldn’t break. I went on desperately shaking my head, trying to deny everything this obscene, evil creature was giving me.

“So stubborn…♥ You’re going to fall anyway, so why not give up now…? It will be easier for you.”

Deruella didn’t sound exasperated; if anything, she sounded kindly. It might not be something I wanted, but this monster probably wasn’t encouraging me to fall solely for her own benefit. But even so, I could never accept Deruella. I could never forgive this monster who had corrupted my idol, this monster who had hurt my comrades, this monster who had probably defiled the person I loved.

“Well, have it your way… If you don’t want to fall now… I’ll just teach you ways to feel good until you do...♪”

Something like an electric shock ran down my spine at those words, making my body shiver. I’d never felt anything like it before; it gave my flushed body fresh pleasure. It must have been what they call a sense of immorality. I’d had nothing to do with it as pious believer and strict observer of doctrine, but I recognized it instinctively. It was enough to put cracks in my values.

It, it’s not true…! I don’t want it… exactly…

There was a shade of anticipation in the chill that raced through me. My mind could protest all it liked, but my body — which had been regrettably acquainted with lust — would probably keep wanting more and fresher pleasure. No, it wasn’t just my body anymore. The earlier bliss had fully awakened my desire, and now it was drooling for more.

“Hee hee… Next… try imagining with your thighs...♪ What if it was his hands stroking them…?”

D, don’t think…!

My reason desperately warned me not to repeat the same mistake. But it seemed my newly-awakened lust was stronger. Deruella’s words met even less resistance than before. The tentacles stroking my inner thighs became his rugged hands in my mind, which now took vivid pleasure in their touch.

“Hee hee...♪ Still… it must be embarrassing having your thighs rubbed when they’re so sticky...♥”

“Oo… Aaah♪”

As Deruella said, my inner thighs were in an awful state. They were soaked. Of course, my sweat and the tentacles’ goo had something to do with that. But most of it was due to the drool trickling from above — from my womanhood. It had soaked through my white underclothes, and now it was drizzling down my inner thighs, mingling with the sweat and goo.

“I wonder what he would say...♥ Would he say obscene things to humiliate you? Or maybe he’d get all hot and bothered… and look at you like he might grab you any moment...♪”

Again, a distinct image popped into my mind. He was assaulting me with words while he fondled my slutty body. My childhood friend was communicating his enjoyment with an awkward smile. My comrade was staring at me with bloodshot eyes, his breathing hot and heavy. They all seemed possible. I couldn’t choose one. The only certain thing in my indecision was… that Deruella’s words had gotten the better of me again. Even my hips stopped trying to escape and relaxed a little, coming forward in acknowledgement that it was the man I loved touching them. As if they had been waiting for that, the tentacles crawled further up my legs. In the end, they were fondling me all the way to the border of my underclothes.

“Ooooo♪”

The tentacles — no, his hands — were just a few centimeters shy of my privates. I let out a shrill cry. There was no longer any shame in it; I was just following my body.

“Well then… last are the tentacles on your bottom...♪ How would you feel if this… was his cock?”

Everything I’d felt so far paled in comparison to the ecstasy that coursed through me in that moment. Tingling numbness spread from my buttocks, covering my vision in a thin mist. An electric shock of pleasure coursed through every inch of me, intensifying the sweet fever. I heard something burst in the back of my brain as the pleasure that had built up in my loins finally reared its head. It had taken all the pleasure in into itself, and now it swelled up like it was about to explode.

His… his parts...♪ His parts are… rubbing against me...♪♪

In my mind’s eye, I could see him leaning over me from behind, breathing hot and heavy, thrusting his hips like he might ravish me at any moment. That instant, the pleasure in my loins exploded. It raced through me, mingling with the sweet fever and becoming a powerful electric current. Just as I became aware of the sensation raging freely through my body, my vision flickered.

“Ooooooooo♪♪”

I let out a moan that was almost a scream. It felt like all the pleasure I’d experienced so far combined was being smashed into me at once. My whole body quivered. It was like something inside me had broken. But it was pleasure, not pain, coursing through me. Of course, the tentacles — no, he — remembered to play with me the whole time. He was clinging to my quivering body, showering my breasts with kisses, making love to my thighs, even pressing his organ against me from behind.

“Ah… aaah…”

As the exhilaration began to recede, a single strand of drool spilled from my mouth. It must have been hanging open the whole time; I’d been so focused on pleasure I hadn’t noticed. I felt a little disgusted with myself. Even that, however, was swallowed in the marrow-numbing afterglow. It was an electric shock with the warm comfort of floating in a hot bath.

“Hee hee...♪ You came…♥ How adorable...♪”

‘Came’...?

“Oh my… You don’t know? In Order-speak… ‘orgasm,’ perhaps?”

Orgasm…? So this is climax… This is cumming…

The words penetrated my mind like they’d been carved in. The unfamiliar explosion of pleasure and the words that defined it were hard for me to resist. Especially now, with the mind-numbing pleasure still lingering in my flesh. I couldn’t stop myself from accepting the kind words I’d been given without a fight.

“That’s right. This is the greatest pleasure a woman can have...♪”

Deruella looked ecstatic, maybe even drunk. She gently stroked my head. Her cool hand felt strangely pleasant on my sweat-drenched forehead.

“Happiness… This is… happiness...♪”

“That’s right...♪ And monsters share it with others so that everyone can be happy… So that everyone can feel good...♥”

That’s sophistry, something inside me said.

If this was happiness, what did that make that scene of hell? What was “happy” about having your life smashed to smithereens, and even your values destroyed? As one of the people the monsters were taking from, I couldn’t help being repelled by them. But that voice was already a minority within me. My orgasm-melted mind was ready to agree with Deruella.

“Hee hee...♪ Are you having trouble believing me…? Well then… I’ll start by making you happy♪”

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than my world turned upside down.

The tentacles binding me turned around. I had been facing into the castle; now I was facing the entrance. My thoughts were still muddled, but I was just wondering what they were doing, when I caught sight of a familiar color. I would recognize it anywhere; I saw it every day. My mind shouted, It’s a dream! It’s a mistake! But all of me knew it was him.

“Ah… Ahh!”

“Well…? How does your emotional reunion feel…?”

Deruella was saying something. She sounded boastful, but I hardly registered it. My mind was busy raging at my own stupidity. Raging at my slutty self for climaxing from being toyed with by tentacles. I’d been watched the whole time. Watched by the person I most and least wanted to see me Like this.

“Ahh! Aaahhhh!”

Something inside me finally snapped. Cracks rippled through me. I tried to patch them, but they wouldn’t close. On the contrary, the more I fumbled at them, the more I was forced to realize how stupid I’d been. I was only hastening the collapse.

“Don’t look…! Don’t look!” I shouted half-madly. But I already knew it was impossible. He was carefully bound and gagged by another group of tentacles. He must have been in Deruella’s shadow when I’d looked behind me earlier. That was why I hadn’t noticed him. He’d been in the blind spot created because I’d already checked there once...He’d been watching me be raped by tentacles.

“Don’t look… I said don’t look…”

The stubborn pride that had kept me firm in these desperate straits broke. I could almost hear it crack. The old, whiny, wimpy me showed through. The me I most hated — the me I’d shut away — was sobbing huge tears.

But Deruella wouldn’t let her hands rest, even while I was crying. In fact, she was lifting my legs, as if to say that she was only getting started. The pose looked like holding a child’s legs to help them pee, but it was probably intended to show him all my embarrassing parts. Actually, his gaze locked on my wet underclothes gave me a thrill. The female animal in me was delighted, but the rest of me shed more tears at the humiliation of being forced into such an obscene pose.

“Stop… Just stop already…”

She’d taken my idol, my comrades, and the person I loved. Now she was even wrecking my first love. A moment ago, I would have responded with anger. But now my heart had completely broken, and tears were all I could muster.

“There, there. It’s alright♥ Look…♥”

Deruella hugged me from behind like she was trying to comfort me, while her hand gently slid the crotch of my underpants aside. With a gesture likes brushing aside a curtain, she exposed my untouched privates. A clear, viscous fluid was trickling from the tightly closed break in my skin. The sight intensified his gaze, and in turn the tingling in my intimate parts.

“See? He’s aroused too… Aroused by seeing you♪ He doesn’t hate you…♥”

She sounded like she was delivering a lesson. It restored just a little of my composure. But there was also something like a narcotic about it. My cracked and broken heart would never return to what it had been. The panic might have passed, but that only emphasized the floaty elation of climax.

My mind knew that that elation was dangerous. It was like a balloon floating up into infinity. What would happen to me when it popped — that is, when I came back to reality? Now that I’d known this exhilaration and escape, I would want seek out more of it. And while I was stuck in that cycle, monster values would take root in me.

He’s… he’s looking… looking at me...♪

But most of all, I was happy to bask in his gaze. Our relationship had been somewhat strained since I’d surpassed him, but their was no awareness of that in his bestial stare. The naked instinct in it set gooey heat squirming in my loins. It was a portent of another climax. A sweet sigh escaped my lips.

“Hee hee...♪ Come on… look over there♪”

Over… there…?

Deruella was pointing at a spot in between his legs. I’d never seen it so swollen. For a moment I thought it might be hurt or inflamed, but then I remembered that that’s where male genitalia were. The bulge was so big it looked like he was hiding something there. That was the ultimate proof that he was aroused by my humiliating position.

“Aah… His organ is so...”

“Oh no♥ That’s called a ‘cock’♥”

Deruella’s words arrived to instruct me.

“Cock…” I muttered dazedly. The word was so much dirtier than any I knew. Just saying it sent a strange, pounding sensation through my thighs. I realized it was making him even more excited. He was making his organ — no, his cock — twitch as he focused even more of his attention on me. I was glad.

“Cock… Cock… Cock...♪” I repeated like a child. I would never have said anything so vulgar just a little while before. But that was why saying it made me feel an electric shock of immorality. My lustful mind repeated it to escape reality.

“Well done…♪ Now… I’ll give you a prize♥”

As she spoke, the tentacles holding up my legs squirmed, tying them into the shape of an “M.” Having my plump, swollen mons exposed in front of him was, of course, embarrassing. But it wasn’t maddening me anymore. In fact, I was helping to spread my thighs on my own, hoping to bask more in his gaze.

There was a “plop,” and something came floating up from under me. When I tore my eyes from his bestial expression and looked down, I saw a sphere the same dusky hue as the tentacles rising from my shadow. It was just the right size to fit snugly between my thighs. It stuck to my privates, slowly lifting me. Then, just as I felt a bewitching touch that belied its muddy appearance, two small, fine tentacles extended from it and spread my closed slit.

“Oo... aah♪”

Fluid, overjoyed that there was nothing more holding it back, came gushing out. It was a perverted scene designed to put my intimate parts on display, and the only one watching was the man I’d always wanted to have at my side. A sense of immorality and feminine joy commingled inside me. The result was delicious.

“Well…? Doesn’t it feel good getting your darling to look deep inside you…?”

“It... it feels good♪ It feels good♪” I repeated like something in me was broken.

“Hee hee...♪ I’m so glad you like it…♥ Well then… shall we proceed to the next lesson?”

Deruella cheerfully stroked me. One of her fine, delicate fingers pointed to my lips. Lips a little rougher than an average woman’s; I hadn’t had much time to take care of them while I was training. Deruella slowly ran the ball of her index finger across them, healing them for me.

“Now… what do you call this…?”

“L, lips…”

“Wrong. It’s called… a mouth-pussy♪ It’s for saying sexy things to arouse your mate… and for stuffing your cheeks with cock♥”

“Ah… aah...♪ Mouth-pussy… Mouth-pussy...♪”

I obediently repeated Deruella’s words. The image of stuffing my cheeks with his cock popped into my mind. Luckily, the subject of that delusion was right before my eyes. I fantasized about being able to suck the mass of meat that was lifting up his uniform with my mouth-pussy. The moment I drunkenly pictured oral sex — which the Order certainly didn’t endorse — a burst of pleasure rocked my loins.

“Aaaaahh♪”

“That’s right. Now, here’s your prize...♪”

The new “prize” was several fine, hair-like tentacles brushing me with bright pink goo. The membranes down there were so inflamed they were nearly red, and very sensitive. Shut or not, it was still the entrance to my vagina. Hot fluid spilled out with every brush of the little tentacles.

Of course, his gaze on me was growing ever more intense. He looked so turned-on that he might attack me this instant if only he wasn’t tied up. That look combined with the goo heating up my body and the direct stimulation on my vulva to make my prize even sweeter.

“Next… this adorable chest…♥ What do you think it is?”

“A, a place… to get him to touch…?”

“I can only give you half marks...♥ These tits make males verrry aroused…♪ You can use them to sandwich his cock, or get him to kiss them… or press them against his hard chest...♥”

“Tits…♥ Press against him… Squeeze his cock...♪”

That fantasy was attractive, but the fantasy of being kissed was even more so. Because my teats, which were still being copiously sucked and stimulated, had been giving me a similar fantasy just a little earlier, that image went straight to my heart. It awakened joy within me and sent a shiver down my spine.

“Now… here’s your prize♪”

Unlike the previous prizes, the reward that accompanied Deruella’s words came and went in an instant. The sheer concentration of ecstasy, however, put everything so far to shame. My spine arched back with the pleasure of my clitoral hood being peeled back. It was too piercingly vivid. Sparks flew in my loins. Just a moment longer, and I would have been able to climax. But just before I reached orgasm, it vanished. I twisted my slutty body with dissatisfaction, practically begging for more.

“No need to struggle; I’ll make you feel even better soon…♥ The next question… is right here♪ Do you know what this place is called?”

“Aaahh...♪”

Deruella’s finger stroked the grooves of my abs again. If I were thinking normally, the answer should be “abdominal muscles.” But this quiz was designed to teach me dirty talk. “Abs” or “belly” wouldn’t be the answer. I’d need to give her a dirtier name or a more sexual body part. And luckily or unluckily, I had an idea. There was something down there that had been almost painfully throbbing for some time.

“My… my womb...”

“Hee hee… Correct♪ This is a precious, sexy place… that fills up with his semen, and makes your and his baby♥”

Make our child. That was something I’d already half given up on. Our relationship had grown strained, and I’d been unable to repair it, no matter how much I’d wanted to. Now, however, that fantasy was within my reach. If I became a monster… If I fell, I could have lots of sex with him. I’d be able to live for him alone, like a beast running on pure instinct...♪

“Aaaaaahh♪”

The instant I thought that, vivid ecstasy ran through me. It felt like the earlier stimulation on my clitoris, except it lasted longer. Moans that were practically screams burst from deep inside my throat. But the little tentacles wouldn’t stop. More and more of them stretched out and coiled around my swollen clitoris. My sensitive spot was small, but because of that its pleasure receptors were especially dense. Each lick across it set off an explosion of heat in my womb, sending out waves of orgasm.

“Aah♪ Aaaaah♪”

The tentacles were making me cum in front of him again. But the sensation wasn’t driving me half-mad with humiliation like it had earlier. Instead, I felt only intoxication, a sense of immorality, and the accompanying arousal. I was so happy to be made to cum in front of him that I writhed in ecstasy.

“It looks like you’re up against it now...♪ Well then… I feel sorry for you, so… I’ll make this the last question♥ Where do you feel the best right now…?”

“Aah My pussy♥ In my pussy♪ Tentacles stirring up my pussy feels great♥ It’s so good♪ Tentacles feel so good♥♥ I get a shock every time they churn my cunt♥”

The words just spilled out. I willingly declared that I was feeling it, not to mention all the crude language. And I was doing it for Deruella, who I’d loathed.

That was the moment the last support inside me crumbled.

I’d submitted to the pleasure. I didn’t even need to be told to spout obscenities anymore. The pride and values I’d clung to had crumbled like sand. All that remained of my heart was a hollow cavern, which my rapidly swelling love for him and lust for pleasure filled in in the blink of an eye.

“Now then… I’ll give you… your final prize...♪”

“Aah… ooooo...♪”

Anticipation swelled in my breast at Deruella’s — no, Lady Deruella’s — words. I was climaxing over and over again. What could possibly feel better? I wanted her to teach me. I wanted her to teach me even dirtier words to please him with. Such thoughts whirled round and round in my mind as I waited on Lady Deruella’s next words.

“You see, the tentacles coiled around you are made of succubus — that is to say, monster — mana.”

But she didn’t give me new obscene words to learn, or even a new question. She didn’t even give me more pleasure. The tentacles that had been having their way with me until a moment ago refused to stir. Not the ones that had been groping my chest; not the ones that had been lapping at my thighs; not even the one that had been rubbing against my ass crack. I couldn’t help squirming at the interruption of the ecstasy that I’d finally accepted as a matter of course.

“And when monster mana enters a human… she becomes a monster. So, if all these tentacles enter you… you’ll be a monster before you know it...♥”

Then I understood my final “prize.” Lady Deruella intended to make me a monster, just like she’d originally planned. She intended to pour all those tentacles into me, and make me a beast capable only of lewd thoughts. I’d already lost the power to resist it. In fact, it was a joy — no, a blessing — to me now.

“Of course, if you don’t want to… I won’t forced you♥ I think I’ve taught how wonderful it is to be a monster… but I have no intention of taking your ‘freedom of choice’♥”

She emphasized “freedom,” but I doubted there’d ever been a gesture as empty. There was really nothing else I could do.

If Lady Deruella was telling the truth, I was already drenched in monster mana. Becoming a monster myself was only a matter of time. But she still wouldn’t give me the last push; she was waiting for me to fall voluntarily. She might have forced all that pleasure and dirty talk into me, but she was telling me to take at least the last step on  my own. And in front of my darling, at that.

Lady Deruella was implicitly telling me to declare that I’d fallen after being toyed with and violated by tentacles in a way that he could understand. If I’d been alone, I could have answered without much hesitation. In front of him, however, it wouldn’t go so smoothly. My stubborn pride might be broken, but my love stopped me from nodding my head.

“Hee hee… In that case, I’ll give you a little present♥”

As she spoke, something pushed its way out of the sphere that had been lifting me up. It looked like a mirror with an ornate golden rim. But I couldn’t believe it was a mirror at first; the woman reflected in it didn’t match my image of myself at all.

Maybe it was just sweat, but my short, chestnut hair was glistening. It still stuck out on the sides as usual, but it had an unusual sheen like I’d just stepped out of the bath, improving its color and lustre. The drooping corners of my eyes only enhanced the impression. My eyes had always tended to slant upward at the corners, but the pleasure I was feeling had lowered them. That on its own was enough to make me look like a different person. To top it all off, my tearstained cheeks were flushed bright red. Their color, almost like ripe apples, showed my arousal at a glance. My slightly-parted lips and the drool trickling from the corners of my mouth made it even more obvious.

This is… my face…?

When you really looked, I had quite a baby face; the muscles slanting my eyes upward had just been negating the impression. But not anymore. Pleasure, love, and a sense of immorality had relaxed them. I was seeing the ecstatic look of a young female animal on my own face for the first time.

“See how lovely you look♥ You’re making a face like a succubus with her head full of pleasure...♥ But you know… if you become a monster, you’ll be able to make an even dirtier, sexier face...♥ Then he won’t be able to stop looking at you… or loving you...♪” Lady Deruella whispered sweetly from behind me.

Her words melted my hesitation. I’d been faltering, but now I had a just cause — this was “for him.” I began to walk forward. My feet moved slowly — sometimes they even stopped — but I wanted to show him more of the me on the other side of the mirror. At last, my lips parted.

“Please...”

“What’s that? I can’t hear you very well…”

Deruella must have heard the words I’d slowly, shamefully spoken. She’d caught quieter moans earlier. But she still gave me that teasing answer, like she was trying to humiliate me even more. She wanted… Of course, she wanted to let him hear my declaration.

“Please make me a monster…!”

My shout resounded through the lounge. As it did so, I exploded with joy. I felt liberated, and a little guilty, but most of all I was probably happy to announce my fall in front of him. I didn’t have much time to consider, however, before gooey mana came flooding into me, robbing me of the power of thought.

“Mmm… Aaaaaaahh♪♪”

The aphrodisiac in the tentacle goo couldn’t compare to this. An even hotter and more lingering fever was spreading to every cell in my body. I could feel it reaching deep inside me, rapidly permeating and remaking my body.

But… it wasn’t unpleasant♪

The sensation of my own body being remade into something other should, by all rights, have been loathsome. But it was accompanied by a feeling like every nerve in my body had been soaked in sensual pleasure. My body felt good — no, it felt great — and soon it would feel nothing else. It felt wrong, but I could barely contain the joy of it.

“Aaah♪ Hot hot hot hot hoottt♪”

I could feel the direct influx of monster mana building up in my body. Several tentacles had already vanished into me. By the time only the sphere was left, it felt like molten magma was raging through my veins. The heat made me writhe, but there was no discomfort. On the contrary, it was making me flush with arousal from head to toe.

He’s… watching… me...♪

Rather than bestial, like it had been earlier, his gaze looked concerned. Maybe it was because I was shaking so much. My kind childhood friend was worried about me, even though he was so turned on himself. My heart burst with joy. I spread my arms — there were no tentacles left to bind them — to show that he didn’t need to worry.

“It’s fine...♪ You don’t have to worr… yyyyy♥ It feelsh good… Becoming a monster feels good...♥”

He turned his face away. I couldn’t understand why he’d make a face like that. I was so muddled, and I felt so good. Maybe he didn’t? My thoughts were so dulled by pleasure that I couldn’t figure out what was troubling him, but seeing him like that tickled my protective instincts.

Aah… I’ve got to protect him… This time… I’ll keep him safe...♥

That was my only clear idea. Everything else was being sloppily reconfigured by ecstasy. I clung to that one thought like it was my identity.

Then the sphere that had been holding me up started to shrink. By the time it had vanished into me, the inside of my head was in chaos. Only my resolve to protect him held firm; everything else was drifting away on a sea of pleasure. Amid my fading consciousness, I clung to my love for him. That instant, a powerful urge welled up inside me.

“Oo… Aaaaaaaaahhh♪”

It felt like something was pushing out from inside me. From my head, from my back, and from my bottom. It was slowly crawling out of my body, like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. The grotesque sensation of something sprouting from my body was beyond my normal realm of experience. I could feel my flesh splitting, then pulling tight. But my body was already full of monster mana, and it adapted with pleasure. I almost climaxed.

“Oo… ooo...♥”

When I finally caught my breath, I was lying limp, face down on the cold marble. I could still feel an ache at the base of my newly-grown parts — horns, wings, and a tail to match Lady Deruella’s and Lady Wilmarina’s. My new monster parts were as sensitive as a baby’s skin; just touching the air made them tingle.

“Ah...♥ Ooo...♪”

“Hee hee… You make a lovely succubus♥ Here… I’ll help you up… and give you a look at the new you♪”

Lady Deruella slowly helped me to my feet, watching me with a tender, motherly gaze. Then she turned me to face the mirror that had come out of the sphere.

The figure it reflected wasn’t so different from the last time. The rapt expression was more obvious, and the eyes had changed to a vivid wine red like Lady Deruella’s and Lady Wilmarina’s, that was all. Even the horns, wings and tail didn’t stand out as much as I’d self-consciously expected. But I’d made one more happy miscalculation.

“Well…? It seemed like you had a complex about them, so I tried remaking them, but...”

My chiseled abs, toned thighs, and burly upper arms were now tinged with feminine roundness. The change to my chest was especially striking; the soft flesh hadn’t been ample by any standard, but now it was so big it pushed up my shirt and filled it practically to bursting. My belly looked charming with its supple lines unchanged and only my visible abs gone. The mere sight of my voluptuous thighs was tempting.

“Hee hee…♪ I see you’ve taken a liking to it♥”

Lady Deruella smiled kindly, noticing that I could barely help myself from reaching a hand between my legs. I was about to smile back, when I noticed him behind her with pained look on his face.

That’s right… I have to do something for him…

A monster’s values had been imprinted on my charmed brain, but I still couldn’t figure out why he looked so distraught. It was hard for me to see him like that. I felt that I need to do something for him, but there wasn’t a lot I could do.

“To be honest, I’d like to spend more time on you... but I suppose he comes first right now♥”

Lady Deruella sounded kindly as she stroked me. She must have noticed my predicament. I approached him, spurred on by her warm hands. His face stiffened at that, but the tentacles still bound him — he had nowhere to run.

But… why would he want to run…?

I was just trying to protect him. I just wanted to love him. Why would he react like that?

More importantly… what was I going to protect him from…?

My body was flushing hot, like when I’d been touched by the tentacles. But I didn’t mind when I remembered it was the fruits of my passion. In fact, it made me happy to think of it as advance preparation to copulate with him. Surely anyone else would feel the same. Monsters were now the majority in Lescatié; no human here who would try to hurt him.

Oh… I see. There are none here… but there are other places…

The Order. The enemy that wanted to eliminate us monsters and steal our happiness. They would be something for him to worry about. He must be worried that this joy wouldn’t last. Which meant… if I defeated the Order, he wouldn’t have to look so distraught. He’d face me with an innocent smile, like he had when we were children.

Yes. I’ll do it for him… But first...♥♥

I leaned slowly, coquettishly against him, gently stroking the place between his legs with my right hand. His painfully erect cock twitched in response.

Hee hee...♥ First… I’ve got to free him from that painfully swollen cock...♥

“It’s alright...♥ Don’t look at me like that…♪ From now on, I’ll always be at your side, protecting you...♥ Your heart… your body… everything. Fill yourself with me… become one with me, and you won’t have to be lonely anymore...”

I’d allowed him to feel lonely. As a first step to protecting him from all suffering, I’d complete his heart with mine. That was another reason to make love to him with this body plentifully endowed with womanly charms. I whispered sweetly as I showered kisses on his lips, greedily devouring his delicious saliva. Meanwhile, my arms and my newly-grown tail were skillfully removing his clothes, and lining up his cock, already drooling precum, with my waiting cunt…

And so, the curtain rose on my new days of happiness.