AMG CH10

Persephone was freaking the fuck out. She had never been so nervous in her long life as a monster queen until that moment. She was a necromancer queen, a step below a tyrant and far below a goddess and a source of all things that was monster girl. Her Dullahan Maeve, the strongest undead type of monster girl made from human and doll parts, had lost to a hero less than a month in their world.

Thunder boomed around her as storm clouds gathered, filled with necro lightning, ready to give life to death. Her personal Hero sat on his throne beside her, staring a hole in the image of a mustached man pounding Maeve on an open field from behind. The monster girl in question had parked herself on her own back to watch and root for the Hero. It would be forgivable if she tempted him into falling.

She looked over to the Hero with her Pluto, the man who betrayed the angels and helped her, a mere witch, climb the monster girl ladder to queen. She had been contemplating a response to the chimeras lost at the village, a small raid to pick off villagers outside the city, and maybe a direct attack on the village when the heroes were elsewhere. It was standard procedure and a lesson she gave to all new idealistic heroes. A few chimeras weren’t hard to replace, and the humans would reproduce more humans with time. She pushed them all to one city for that reason alone.

Vampires, ghosts, and Franken monsters stood at attention while they watched the Hero. Banners hung in the throne room of different factions within the court. Countess Elizabeth stood with her white hair in pigtails, pretending she wasn’t guilty of letting this infant hero thrive. The balance demanded they give the Hero a grace period of 3 months, but clearly, the Hero wished to try their patience.

The werewolf countess Zena tossed back her red hair and licked her lips at the sight of the powerful young Hero. He was not even in his second tier, and his power was undeniable. She had called a meeting earlier to finally unveil her prized creation, a perfect immortal doll body for her to inhabit. She would finally reach lichdom and possess a doll evolving past mere queenship and into the Tyrant realm. From a witch to a necromancer queen, and finally, she would become a Tyrant. It was only a matter of time.

She needed two months at least to prepare her soul to inhabit such a powerful body. That’s where her countesses came in. They would wield their forces like a hammer and anvil and keep the Hero from approaching the castle again after they drove him out.

“He is impressive but not a match for me,” Pluto said and immediately lost interest.

Everyone giggled at that statement. Persephone rolled her eyes but let herself smile at her personal Hero’s antics. Half-remembered reports flipped through her mind until she found the triangulation of his outpost through a handful of reports of strange occurrences alone. Far from the village, in a sectioned-off piece of farmland, the Hero placed his base with magics that hid its location. With knowledge of its location, such tactics would no longer work.

Her countesses would defend her lands by laying siege to the Hero’s stronghold. She would be throwing the lives of food soldiers to contain a powerful hero, but it would be worth it when she reached the next stage.

“Countess Zena and Countess Elizabeth, once the Hero is driven from my castle, follow him to the farmlands beyond the village and use your forces to contain him. There is no need to slay him; only keep him from rest with rotating numbers until he surrenders or until the grace period ends.” Persephone said.

“I can not; there is a hero causing problems in my lands.” Countess Elizabeth said.

“It is clearly up to the loyal werewolf to do what the so-called noble vampires can not.” Countess Zena said.

One would be enough, but two powerful monsters leading a legion of forces on their own would be better. Both were close to reaching the rank of queen, and she would maintain her rule over them once she became a Tyrant. That’s the only reason she would allow them to rise themselves.

“Why can you not obey my lady?” Pluto asked.

“My sister has found her own Hero and has grown quite powerful. Word has reached me of a plot to take my seat in the North and bring my territory into the Queen Victoria’s fold.” Countess Elizabeth said.

There were three counties in her territory, each led by a countess. Besides the queenlands stretching around her castle and her own creations, she had no other forces. Her countesses were the main protectors of her lands and borders. A rebellion by Elizabeth’s sister Marie, backed by Victoria, would take a third of her power when she could least afford it. At the same time, the lion’s share of Elizabeth’s trained fighters were scattered. The monsters Elizabeth commanded were green; this journey was used to blood them with rogues and bandits while teaching them how to act as a military force. Few, if any, of Elizabeth’s seasoned commanders were present.

Taking numbers and experience off the table if she only factored in power. Even Elizabeth would have trouble fighting Maeve.

Together, Elizabeth and Zena put Maeve in a permanent check. Potentially, they could wear her out by fighting her one after the other. Persephone didn’t like the odds of only Zena’s forces fighting Maeve and the Hero together. Heroes grew stronger with the amount of points they gained from defeating monsters. The stronger the monster, the more points gained. An army of potentially weak soldiers would be demolished by a hero who could stand up to Maeve.

But what if they didn’t commit and only rattled their sabers and used stalling tactics to keep from committing. Well, that would ensure the Hero never rested, and when she rose to the tyrant realm, she could deal with him herself with the grace period lifted.

…

Helel wanted to yell at their Hero, who had managed to tempt a monster to their side. Maeve, the undefeated, would be incredibly useful. As an agent, she could tempt heroes to return to the fold, and they would welcome them with open arms if it didn’t appear that Atom was forming his own little harem. It was a fact at this point.

Atom had finally finished dicking down the Dullahan and appeared relaxed. His eyes were dilating, and the aura around his body had transformed into flowing particles controlled by his magic and aura control. It was potentially a devastating use of the power. None of them knew what was going to happen next. They hoped he wasn’t going to go deeper into the castle. While he was strong, this was the time he needed to use to grow. Somehow, they had failed to mention that due to his original’s penchant for preparation. How were they to know this one enjoyed taking chances and fighting powerful enemies.

Pieces of heaven continued to fall no matter what the Hero did. Every point spent by him helped their deficit, but they were so far under the table it wasn’t funny. His spending spree had helped a little, but they needed him to increase his rank and purchase vast amounts of items to have a chance. Worse, until he spends a certain amount, they won’t be able to sell him as many items as the other side. By swapping over, Atom would get items that they couldn’t afford to give him until he spent enough to start rebuilding heaven. All the while, billions of monster girls continue to be born from elements, queens, and even a few remaining human scientists from a bygone age.

To be the leader was to be responsible and go down with the ship if necessary. While they weren’t fully destroyed yet, it was only a matter of a few more centuries. She was afraid that they would soon lose their last hope.

The darkness in Atom’s body had set in, and it may be impossible to remove. Half of Satanos’s wings have been turned by the darkness. While her sister hadn’t fallen like so many others, it grew worse every day.

“I think this is a good thing,” Satanos said.

“You think we should add monsters to our side. That will only confuse what few allies we have.” Helel said.

“What allies? We lost another one a few minutes ago to a succubus tyrant. Others will follow, and when the grace period ends, Atom will have to face the same threats as our other faithful ones.” Satanos said.

“He needs to up his rank quickly. Why can’t he dial us up? He’s had plenty of time to search his phone, but he only fucks, trains, and fights. His idea of using nationalism was inspired by his own world. In the past, there was a state called Rome that used similar methods as he described to establish a sense of belonging to its people,” Uriel said.

“You mean by eradicating parts of their populations to make an example of them and enslaving the rest,” Satanos said.

“It's just crazy enough to work,” Helel said.

“Oh, Mohweh, please say you don’t agree with him. If we do that, then how are we going to tell anyone apart. Humans, monsters, and angels will mix, and then who knows what side who belongs to. I prefer to know on sight who are enemies are.” Michael said.

“Shut up, Michael, that isn’t working. Ever since the fall of the gods, we have been on the decline, giving up pieces of heaven to bring heroes into the world. Do you feel how tight it is here? Soon, even the throne will have to be moved.” Helel said.

“Having a place on Echidna to belong even if we lose heaven might not be a bad thing. If heaven is lost, we need a place to flee to. Don’t tell me you haven’t thought of this sister.” Satanos said.

Helel bit her nail. It wasn’t something she enjoyed talking about. Heaven was their home, their birthright, but they had to sacrifice heaven pieces at a time to buy time for the rest of it. Heroes rose and made small donations through points, but when they truly grew in strength, the other side stole them. It took only a few generations for the monsters to adapt to the heroes and change their very genetics to prey on them. Perfect female bodies, flesh that grants ever greater pleasure, and a drive to make deals with humans.

Only in this current iteration, the monsters’ strategy has backfired hard. The current Hero uses diplomacy as much as a weapon as the monster girls themselves. Will his approach cause the dark goddesses and Diablos to change again.

She turned her attention to the screen where Atom watched the castle. What he thought was speculation at best. The powerful Hero had options, but the enchantments on the castle would protect it from direct attacks. Nothing he could do with his current power would bring it down. The only way to defeat the monsters within was to fight them himself.

Atom turned his back on the castle, tossed Maeve over his shoulder, and grabbed her head. Under his feet, he rose on a cushion of air and aura and sped away from the castle. Bat girls flew over him as he crossed the distance faster and faster. He zoomed, drifting across turns and jumping chasms on his way to return home.

It seems he made the right decision. That or he wanted to screw two monster girls at the same time. Then again, there was always the option he was looking for to further increase his power. All of them knew this attack would demand a reprisal. Atom had struck the castle, stole the gatekeeper, and left.

…

A few days after returning home, I worked on a small forge, mostly pieced together through Medy’s efforts. I gave it some thought and decided to go ahead with a personal weapon. After my initial attempts failed miserably, Medy kicked me out and told me she would make me a hammer to be proud of, just leave the patterns I wanted on it. It was utterly humiliating, but the metal slime seemed to enjoy hammering metal when she didn’t just use her magic to make it work.

She ended up giving me a vial of her blood, for which I was thankful. The staff idea I originally planned on died almost instantly. Plan A was to build a staff and place all the magic artifacts on it. Still, then, no matter how many security seals I placed on it, eventually, someone would steal it.

That led me down a road of crafting constructs with different shapes and sizes until I fell under a realization that none would ever be good enough. The only thing I had going on that no one could steal was my aura. Placing things in aura wasn’t exactly against my original’s cultural laws; it was more like being extremely careful once something was placed inside; it was incredibly hard and painful to remove.

With that in mind, I had to be incredibly sure that I wanted to place the artifacts in my aura. The power to outright control an element was incredible. I had reason to believe that the control wouldn’t be limited to what magics I’ve found so far. I’m not sure if the esoteric was an option like justice, death, and other concepts, but there was a lot out there.

I submerged myself in liquid energy while I worked on what could potentially be the best power-up ever. Blood and metal would open so many options for me. Combo spells were a thing that often worked between monster girls or heroes and monster girls. For instance, Medy and Maeve could make iron blood spears, which would shift like flowing blood and harden stronger than steel on command. With both of them working in tandem, their spells would be even stronger. I couldn’t wait to see what I could do with my hammer when it was finished.

Back in the present, liquid energy was extremely conducive to thought. Just by submerging myself, all tiredness went away, and my body felt energized. Things that should have taken all my reserves to do became much easier, like using blood from a monster girl combined with seals that I have simulated a thousand times to form an artifact. Then, of course, because combining blood with seals wasn’t hard enough without carvings, I had to implant them in my aura. The process was similar to giving myself a tattoo on my eyeball. I couldn’t wait.

I sucked in a breath and let it out. For once, I was alone. Gray was, at most, a rival working with me until he had an opportunity to stab me in the back. I cleaned up his mess and left him to rule the little village. He was probably already on the monster side fucking the shapeshifter. Unless she was a man-eater variant.

Living with monster girls, even those mostly on my side, was a lonely thing. Power wasn’t helping with that. What I needed was like-minded people to talk to so I could know I was on the right path or tell me where I was wrong. Gray wasn’t able to do that; he was an idealist.

So, to compensate, I decided to go with a scheme to force nationalism on the world. The only way to really get that rolling was with an obscene amount of power and competence. The power I had but competence; I was a man who enjoyed seals.

Even as a clone, my love of seals hadn’t changed. Spreading them to the people and establishing a country based off of that technology would go a long way to create a nationalism that could wear away at other cultures and bring them into the fold. Such a plan was only viable because I had seals. It wasn’t my PL or aura that would see me through this snow-covered path in the dark. A flexible technology capable of bending energy and causing effects would be my tool to establish myself and cause an ultimately good change.

I started with the blood artifact. Through a series of tightly knit seals crafted from Maeve’s blood, I spun them around until the seals became a blur. A blood-colored ring appeared between my fingers within the liquid energy. The energy level dropped with its creation as more energy was needed to sustain it while the seals powered up.

The pain hit the second my aura touched it. As the ring continued shrinking, it soon appeared no larger than the other particles within my aura. Seals that were once large things had completely vanished as the artifact shrank and condensed on itself. My aura mixed with the particle as the seals within it stretched, opening the tiny ball like a budding flower as it connected seamlessly with my aura.

While the connection only took moments, painful flares shot through my aura as I felt a phantom limb come back to life. The slightly darker red in my aura seemed to vanish as it joined the whole. That was the power that came with seals. It was a system of control that worked well with my aura. I knew the frequency of my aura and how best to connect foreign components to it.

In a matter of months or years, there would no longer be a seal hidden within my aura. My aura will naturally be able to control blood. That was the point of using seals. I took something from the world and made it my own instead of haphazardly using the symbols taught by the books given by the system.

Fire would be taken into my aura to free up the mental space from using the spell.

For a moment, I was in a good mood after falling into a depression that may have something to do with the darkness in my veins. That’s around the time a monster hit my fence and lit the night sky with an enormous shock.