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Chapter 87: The Maiden's Revival Several days of rest later, I was finally ready to revive Artemis. By then, the confused angry mobs that had chased Artemis away from the ex-Kerning Crater had calmed down. "Don't use the Key in a confined space. It draws the magic it needs from the air around us, so if you use it in a small room, you'll blow the whole house to smithereens." She advised. "Okay." I replied, walking out to the field behind our Kerning house. Surprisingly, Roy and the others had survived the first explosion and had come back to find the city in the state it was before the boom. Apparently, Lacus had got into tarot cards and had predicted the catastrophe. Mei Ling had tried it, then Kagome, all getting the same result. Agreeing that it the agreement was too great to be coincidental, they had evacuated. "You'll have to provide the mental image. I don't really know your body's composition." I said, closing my eyes. "Sure." She smiled. A mental image of her bod instantly appeared in my mind, along with labels and colours depicting the composition. Surprisingly, she had chosen to keep the Horntail's dragonskin, just it covered her somewhat oversized breasts only. The body she designed was quite a sexy one, but also dared people to mess with her, as depicted by the black dragon tattoo on the right arm. It was also a human body this time, without the pointed elven ears. "You sure? What if people see the dragonskin?" I asked. "I'm sure. Besides, no one will see the skin if I don't go stripping in public." She confirmed her decision. With Artemis's body image in my mind, I opened the gate to the Alexis insisted on transferring all of my original powers back into my newly created body. Smiling, I let her do it. She was a good woman. That thought led me to wonder how Saevio had taken control of her that time. Magical control was the likeliest option, since I had also been controlled once. I shuddered at the thought of Ikfarion, who had transformed me into the Dark Angel and nearly made me level Kerning. Saevio had murdered many people to achieve his goals. Hold on. He got shot back in the castle though. Nah...... He was too powerful to get killed by a shot like that. Most likely he had some Horntail powers inside him, and had regenerated the wound, just like I had regenerated an arm. "Good to see you back, Artemis." Rushuna smiled as she reentered my body. "Honestly, I thought you were dead when Alexis rammed your old body through. I didn't sense your soul flying into her body with us." Sakura laughed. The Alexis seemed to have inherited a bit of my personality from when I was inside her. For instance, she enjoyed wearing revealing clothes, and was now frequently wearing my clothes, and sometimes even my swimsuit. Her dragonskin shedded a few times whenever she used her magic, but it didn't assimilate into her body like mine. Actually, it was the other way around. Her skin began assimilating the dragonskin, and a few days later, it was her skin colour, and it had stopped shedding. It was the same with my own dragonskin. "Pity. I thought it looked cool." I poked my now normal breasts. Alexis and me were now sitting on the side of the swimming pool, looking very much similar. I had cloned my own swimsuit for Alexis's personal usage since I was getting tired of her bagging it all the time. The only things that differentiated us from each other was our classes and Inner Beasts. She had even copied the black dragon tattoo on my right arm, and she kept her black eyes and hair. "Alexis, let's go make dinner!" Lacus came down, addressing me. I simply stared at her. "She's Alexis." I pointed at Alexis, who waved at her. "Geez, you two really look like twins now. I can't tell you two apart!" Lacus groaned. I laughed. "That's because we WERE twins from the start." Alexis chuckled. "When's Ares coming anyway? We still need to talk about our marriage." I asked. "I was right here all the time and you didn't even see me?" Ares's cheerful voice rang out from a corner of the room that was covered in shadows. "When did you get there?" I gasped. "I didn't make it to Paladin without learning a few Magician skills. Teleport's one spell I'm good at." He laughed, stepping out of the shadows. "I need to brush up on my senses." I sighed, embracing him tightly. "Did you revive Dray? He was back in his Orbis house yesterday looking rather confused. Said he was standing in the middle of a group of angels, then he was back in his house while I was cleaning up." Ares asked over dinner. "Well, maybe I did." I smiled. Dray was an important member of the guild, and no one wanted him out of action. Ares joined us for dinner that night and slept with me that night too. Alexis went to sleep in Kagome's room, winking at me. Later, I heard a knock on the door and opened it to find a bottle of wine lying innocently on the floor. "Thanks, Alexis." I whispered and brought the bottle in. Suddenly, Ares appeared behind me and wrapped his arms around my midsection, lifting me up and placing me gently on the bed. "Did I scare you?" He chuckled. "Nope. Want a drink?" I smiled, holding up the wine bottle. "I'd prefer it if we do this first." He slipped my shorts off, exposing an undersized pair of panties. "Hey, it's more enjoyable if we drink first." I popped the cork on the bottle, dripping a single drop onto my outstretched tongue. One drop was all it took to get me drunk, a side effect of the "Wake up, Artemis. Now!" Ares's voice rang in my ears as I slowly got up, rubbing my eyes. "Wha..." I mumbled. "We need to find cover. Now!" He shouted, forcefully pulling me up. I looked around, sensing something amiss. "Whoa!" I shrieked, stumbling backwards just in time to dodge a giant sword that had come out of the ceiling. The sword slid right between my breasts and between my legs. It felt really cold. "What the hell's going on!?" I jumped backwards, snatching my clothes from the side table and putting them on. No time for underwear. "Someone set loose a few giant Tauros in the city, but these guys were really souped up and mad. Not normal Tauros either. The ones in the dungeon don't use swords and they're not that big either." Ares explained as we ran for cover behind a ruined wall, although it wasn't really much use. Those Tauroswords could cut through a few centimetres of concrete without a problem, and were classified as S10 demons. What the hell were demons doing here!? Not to mention there were hundreds of them clanking around the city in heavy battle armour. So much for Ares's 'few'. I quickly led Ares down to the swimming pool. The others were already gathered there in the empty pool. "Over here!" There was a sudden explosion from above, and the shockwave blew me off the ladder. I landed in the water, and the river's flow started carrying me along. "Ares!" I shouted. I felt my shorts drift off my hips, carried by the water, and started kicking my legs in a breaststroke. Even I couldn't outswim a raging river, and I was soon drifting on the water, helpless and drowning. After I went under, the last thing I felt was another shockwave buffeting me, then I blacked out. I woke up several hours later and found myself drifting on a swampy area. The Kerning Swamp? How did I get here? The underground river was supposed to lead to a hot spring! I got up and started trying to get my bearings, noticing that I wasn't wearing anything on the way. My clothes must have drifted off with the river while I was out. Looking around, I could see alligators. Although, they really looked like oversized alligators, because they WERE oversized. Each alligator was twice the size of a normal human, sporting a longer tail and way nastier teeth. "What the hell..." I gasped, then noticed an alligator staring at me intently. It's eyes were filled with insatiable hunger, and I knew I had to run. As soon as I began to run, two of those alligators were on my tail. These things weren't just supersized, they were fast! I ran through the swamp, dirty feet leaving footprints in the muck, searching for the exit. The alligators were thumping after me, sludging through the mud on strangely agile legs. I was pretty sure they could reach their backs now. Eventually, I found a mangrove tree that looked sturdy enough to climb up. However, I regretted climbing the tree when the alligators caught up. Their feet were lined with claws, quite good at gripping a tree trunk. Soon, I was on the run again, with those things nipping at the heels of my feet. I saw the entrance to what looked like a concealed cave behind a few trees and I started thinking about hiding there. However, the trees were relatively close together. Would I be able to squeeze through? No time to waste. Those alligators certainly weren't small enough to get through, and this might be the only place to hide for a few kilometres. I ran towards the opening and dived through it with my eyes closed. When I opened them again, I was staring into a dark cave, but I wasn't standing on my feet. "Oh man." I groaned, turning my head around. I had gotten stuck halfway through the opening. Apparently, my butt was too big. I started pushing the tree trunks, trying to get myself free. Those alligators were closing in real fast, and they were snapping their jaws already! "Sh!t." I cursed, pushing harder. Finally, I got through, scratching my hips on the way through. "Owww..." I rubbed the injured area, then heard a scratching sound from behind the barrier. "Those things don't give up easily!" I moaned, then ran into the inky darkness of the cave, only to stop dead at the sight of a cave-in. "Oh boy...... I'm in deep trouble..." I breathed. I could tell by just looking at those monsters that they were completely immune to magic, so I couldn't use the Keys or the Archaeion, as it fired magical arrows. I could whack them with the bow, although it would be pretty useless against such thick skin, and I'd just get myself killed in the process. I climbed up to the top of the rocks, and noticed a barely visible gap between the ceiling and it. "Maybe I do have a chance." I mumbled, scrabbling the rocks down. Soon, the gap looked big enough for me to pass through, and I quickly squeezed through the gap, only to find out that this time, my butt got stuck again. "Not again!" I groaned, quickly trying to move a few more rocks. Growling noises came from behind me, and I knew the alligators had made it through. "I won't die, I won't die, I won't die......" I repeated, scrabbling more rocks down. Another tight squeeze pushed me through, again, with bad scratches on my hips. "Why do I have so much bad karma......" I moaned, continuing running through the cave. It was pitch black in there, and several times I bumped into stalagmites. "Where the hell does this lead?" I panted. I felt like I had been running for a few hours now. Those alligators seemed to have stopped chasing me, I couldn't hear them any more. I stopped for a breather, bumping into another stalagmite. "What's with all the stalagmites anyway?" I sighed, sitting down. Right on top of another tiny stalagmite. "OW!" I jumped up, rubbing my butt in pain. Suddenly, lighted torches lit up on the walls of the cave, and I discovered that what I had sat on wasn't a stalagmite, but a small switch in the floor. "What is this place...?" I looked around, amazed. This was a small circular tunnel fabricated out of white bricks. I summoned the Archaeion just in case there was something dangerous lurking on the other side. I walked through the tunnel, marvelling at the craftsmanship. Those bricks were perfectly smooth, and there weren't any missing ones. They seemed to have been made out of marble too. The tunnel ended in a circular door the same diameter as the tunnel. There was a strange energy in the tunnel, but I couldn't place it. I noticed a few items floating in the air right in the middle of the tunnel, then noticed the torches were stuck into the bricks. "Gravity blocks?" I noticed that my hair was floating in the middle of the tunnel and jumping. A sudden pull of gravity pulled me into the middle of the tunnel, and I hung in the air for a few moments trying to figure things out. I felt dizzy. "Their gravitational pulls are holding objects in the middle of the room......" I swung my arms to a side and felt the gravity on that side take hold, pulling me back onto solid ground, painfully landing on my face. "Ouch." I stood up, rubbing my nose. The Archaeion's magical arrows weren't much use here. The gravity was way too intense, and would pull the arrows down before they even hit a potential target. Unless, of course, I was shooting point-blank. I noticed that the end of the tunnel wall had a depression in it, and I examined it for a few seconds, then gasped. The depression was shaped like the front of a female human body. To be precise, it was the exact same shape as my body after I tried standing in front of it. "Is this......" I reached a hand into the depression. The inside felt organic. All of a sudden, intense gravitational pull sucked me into the depression. A wall closed down behind me, leaving me stuck in total darkness with my nose stuck in some kind of squishy jelly that I couldn't breathe through. I felt my cheeks turn slightly red as a sucking sound came into hearing range and my breasts felt like they were being vacuumed. Then, I was sucked into the jelly. "What the hell..." I accidentally let my breath escape, but found that I could breathe now. This space was a zero-gravity area, and I found myself floating around inside the jelly towards yet another depression in a wall. All this time, the vacuum sensation pulled on my breasts and now was starting on my buttocks. The scratches I had gotten from squeezing through those tight spaces were healing themselves now. What was this stuff? Yet again, I found myself sucked into the depression, and this time, what happened wasn't pleasant at all. Slimy worm-like objects began poking through my skin in several places, and I let out a muffled scream, as one had pierced through my heart, yet I was still alive. When I was released, I saw tubes of green stuff stuck in my body. They seemed to be pumping something in, and I guessed that it wasn't good. Trying to pull those things off was like pulling my own body apart, and I finally gave in. My body felt strained, and a layer of green slime was forming around me, covering nothing but my private areas. The coated area soon merged into my skin, and the sucking sensation intensified covering my entire body. More of those green tubes shot out of the walls and forced their way into me, forcing strained veins to pop up everywhere. I struggled to break free, then drifted into yet another depression. Then, I was free. My body felt like new, and my skin was radiating a pale white glow. I felt refreshed and relaxed. All that was a purifying mechanism? How unusual. I was standing on the edge of a pool of clear white water with a waterfall supplying the same water to it. A few trees dotted the side of the pool, while the sun shone down into the place through a transparent dome. " "I'm...... I'm sorry..." I quickly got out of the pool. "It's fine. May I ask what is your name?" She took off her robe and set her bow on a rack near the pool, sinking into the pool herself. "Arte....Artemis." I stammered, not entirely sure now to react. "Interesting. Do you know that you are named after the Greek goddess of archery, hunting, and the moon in the human world?" The woman lifted a smooth leg into the air. "I do, why do you ask?" I asked, more confident now. "Because I, am that person." She replied. "Wha... what?" I stared at her. This silver-haired woman person was the Greek goddess herself!? Why was she in this world? "The fact that you are able to access this sacred sanctuary proves that you are a gifted one." She smiled at me, pointing at my breasts, then at my forehead, then at my belly. My hand seemed to move by itself to cover the marks of the five Keys. "I take it an army of demons is rampaging outside, no?" She looked at the overhead dome. I nodded. "It has begun. The ancient legends foretold this, but I never dreamed it would come so early." She sighed. "Ragnarok?" I gasped. The end of the world. "I saw that an elite Horntail visited this world a few days ago, and you were the one who received it's powers and later committed suicide. If an elite Horntail enters this world, it means that the dimensional barrier has already crossed the dangerous point. If the demon's army appears, then it marks the end of the world. Ragnarok himself will appear after the four barrier crystals are destroyed." Artemis explained. "I take it the four barrier crystals reside in the houses of the four Job Masters." I said. "You catch up fast, my child." Artemis nodded. "Two have already been destroyed. Kerning City and Perion. Dances with Balrog and the Dark Lord have already begun marshalling forces to Ellinia, since they cannot allow Ragnarok to progress any further. Henesys is being marched upon as we speak." She added, staring at the waterfall. An image of Henesys was projected on it, with hundreds of gigantic Tauroswords marching on the paths leading towards it. Panicked residents were fleeing, but 9 figures stood still behind the gates. All of them had their weapons out, and several people were beginning to join them. "No way..." I gasped. The others were there. Alexis had obviously cried her eyes sore after my separation, they were red. "Judging by the look on your face, you want to help." Artemis smiled at me. "Of course I do! My friends are down there, and I can't just let them get killed!" I yelled, looking around for an exit. There were no visible exits. "If you go there now, you will get yourself killed." Artemis said calmly, getting out of her pool. "I can't just stand her and do no-" I shouted, but Artemis pressed her bare body against mine and kissed me. I stood there, surprised. "I am neither alive nor dead, and hence, I cannot help. However, I can grant you my powers permanently, on the condition that you will not misuse them......" Her body condensed into silver stars of blinking lights, passing into my body. I collapsed to the ground, panting. A sudden magical infusion wasn't something anyone liked to receive. My hair extended by a full metre, snaking onto the ground and changing colour to silver. The same sucking sensation that had occupied my entry arose again, and I started to feel like I was experiencing orgasm. |
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