Chapter 57 - A Real Graveyard Smash!

Akira squinted at the Squell that had just landed in her arms.

"Have we met before?" She asked.

Vash froze, gawking at her careless blunder.

'I called him Akira-sama!'

'Even though his name is displayed as SexLover69!'

'Still, there's no way he can tell it's me...'

Kanna walked up while he was thinking this, clapping him on the back.

"Sup, Vash." She said casually.

"What?! No way! How did you know it's me?"

She shrugged. "It was a lucky guess. You're a Fire Mage with your name hidden, so I just assumed you'd been turned into a Squell somehow and wanted to keep it a secret.

"Oh, yeah?! Well, thanks for ruining the whole secret part!"

Ai gasped at her in awe, rocking excitedly.

"You're so beautiful, Vash!"

Vash growled, glancing away with her arms

crossed and a bashful glare.

"Shuddup--you vapid, annoying little slut!"

Akira softly planted this new, sexier version of Vash unto her feet, then proceeded to circle around her, examining every inch of her from every angle, as Vash stood there feverishly blushing, cowering into herself.

"Q-q-quit it!" Vash protests. "It's not like you haven't seen a cute Squell before!"

Akira stopped abruptly, her head turned.

Her voice was low. Deathly serious.

"No, Vash...it goes much further beyond that--"

Suddenly, she planted a hand on Vash's shoulder, facing her with tears of purest joy gushing from her eyes, declaring loudly with emphatic bliss:

"Yours is absolutely the sexiest piece of ass I've ever laid my eyes on!"

"Eh?!?!" Ai and Kanna gawked, enraged.

"Uwah?!?!" Vash gasped, jumping back in shock.

Akira continued, frantically flitting around her:

"Just look at that incredible chest measurement! Those amazing hips, and skull-cracking thighs!"

"Your wonderful, tanned complexion!"

She took Vash's hand, gingerly rubbing the spread palm against her face.

"Such lovely, small, tenderly soft hands!"

Vash's eyes glistened, her voice softening to a demure whisper.

"You're not...serious, are you?"

Ai and Kanna, watching all of this unfold, crossed their arms and huff in dismay.

Then suddenly, Akira was dead-serious again.

"We have a history together, as friends."

"You're the first to join me on my adventure in this world; and through your teachings, provided me with a foundation to become the great warrior I am today."

"That is why, I'll ask first..out of respect for you, as my dearest old friend..."

She gently took Vash's hand in hers, kneeling.

"Vash...will you be one of my business associates?"

Staring down into Akira's eyes, Vash was left unable to speak through the flood of emotions rising in her at once--having to take a deep breath to collect herself.

Chieftest among those feelings, was one of relief.

"For all the time I've known you, I struggled with feelings of jealousy." Vash admitted tenderly, with a sorrowful look in her eyes. "I wanted to be the HERO--the main protagonist of this world who becomes super-powerful, saves the day, and gets all the girls..."

"However, it became clear to me that I could never compete with you for that role."

"I grew bitter and resentful."

"I began to outright hate you, more and more, as it went on."

Akira rose to her feet, looking concerned.

"I know. It's the nature of competition."

"There can be only one person in the number one spot--"she prodded her thumb at her own chest, proudly--"and so long as I'm in the running, it's always gonna be me!"

Vash nodded, with a serene look. "Right."

"I'll only ever exist in your shadow, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing."

A warm, fuzzy sensation--the same as what she'd felt before, when thinking of Akira since becoming a Squell--had returned-- overwhelming all of her other competing thoughts and senses, as if it were a viral form Akira Maximillian himself, invading and conquering her insides.

Though, in a way, he'd already done just that.

She'd never realized it before, but all of that jealousy she harbored toward Akira...

It was actually borne from...

Admiration.

"I could never compete with Akira-sama." She said in a soft, sultry voice, as she draws closer to until their comparably sized, giant breasts meet, in a squishy collision.

"However, I can still continue to support you..."

Akira cups one of Vash's rear cheeks, their tail swishing approvingly as they softly giggles.

"Not only as a friend, but as a woman!"

Then, they kissed: solidifying their newly formed bond as Kanna and Ai watched a while before exchanging awkward, uncertain glances, then promptly joining in as well: the four lust-filled lovers all combined in a moaning, groping mass; celebrating the addition of the newest member of their harem, in the only way that's logical...

Throughout all this, the [Level 20] [Glorious Lich] had been patiently observing--his [Kancowla] forces likewise halted, in accordance with his faltering will--as he questioned how to proceed.

"So...what? Do I...interrupt them?"

"I mean, it's not every day that you're given a show like this, in an ancient graveyard."

He sighed.

"What am I doing with my un-life, anyway?"

"I can't even leave this crappy place, since those damn sages sealed me here, all those years ago!"

As the [Glorious Lich] floated there, continuing to watch the party of four attractive lesbians make out like animals in a pile of leaves...it brought back long-buried memories, of his own days as an adventurer. Memories of a time well before when he became all corrupted, and dark, and...skeleton-y.

"I...used to have a harem, too."

"Sure, I'm the one who turned them into zombies as part of my dark initiation, so I shouldn't be complaining...but..."

He let out a big, heaping, lungless sigh.

"I...haven't even touched a living girl in decades."

There was no helping it, he decided.

It was time to carry out his Escape Plan Z.

[Glorious Lich] then unleashed a harsh, agonized scream, with sparks of arcane energies bursting out of him like fireworks as he slowly descended to the ground--what WOULD have been his fittingly "glorious" unique death animation--as of course, a glorious death--even if self-inflicted--warranted an equally GLORIOUS death speech, the likes of which he already had prepared:

"Foolish heroines!"

"You may have defeated me on this day, but mark my words:"

"In my dying breath, I place a curse on thee!"

"The weakest among you shall bear my soul, ensuring that I will be reborn!"

"So, enjoy your puny victory--while it lasts!"

Akira and company, being they were still wholeheartedly engaged in their "celebration," gave no indication of having heard a single word he spoke, nor at all noticing his subsequent complete annihilatio--in a puff of hideously evil smoke--causing all of his summoned [Kancowla] to simultaneously perish with him.

That is, except for Ai, whom had overheard to it all: her expression twisted in terror.

Within the hour, Mithil Guards were moving in.

They came upon Akira's group lying there, exhausted, among all the scattered bones.

"Quick! These are the brave heroes I saw!"

"They ran straight into danger, even after I warned them, and muat have defeated all the Kancowla by themselves!"

"Now, they're too tired to even stand!"

A swarm of Mithil Guards came to the girls' aid, lifting them up and dusting them off, cheering for their assumed triumph over the lich and his army, as Akira noticed Ai was shivering, obviously terrified about something.

"What's wrong?"

Ai looked at her sharply. "The lich...he said..."

"The weakest would recieve a curse."

"Who?" Akira said, nonchalantly cleaning his ear with a pinky finger. "Who's this lich?"

"A Boss monster, who appeared just now."

"I'm sorry, but I can't seem to recall--"

"Akira, it isn't a joke! A high level monster just cursed one of us with his dying breath!"

She swallowed nervously, eyes wide.

"Saying he'd curse the weakest..." 

"Well, I think that that could only mean me."

...

Elsewhere a girl was laid in bed, snug beneath the blankets.

'If only I could stay like this,' she thought whilst in her sleepy, dreamy haze, as she held back her breath to hide from the presence she could sense looming at her bedside: ready to pounce upon the absolute serenity of the moment like it's a dangling chew toy.

Sita'a body craved rest, but it had to wait.

'Arise now, sleeping beauty!" Came the voice of her handmeister, slick yet cruel like a charming purloiner's.

Shortly after, a burst of bright light shined forth from the briskly parted curtains as Sita instinctively shielded her face, before remembering the far more effective option of concealing under a pillow.

The handmeister's laugh was the very bile in her stomach.

"I hope you aren't expecting a kiss!"

"Never from you," she croaked in replay. "Bastard."

With this uttered curse, and her silver hair and pure white silk nightgown in an unintentionally sexy disarray, she reluctantly sat up—squinting aggressively, as she clumsily reached for her glasses that were set upon the bedside table.

"Never mind: I take it back," said the handmeister with a playful air. "I would gladly kiss you, looking so undone and disheveled."

With her glasses on, she could now clearly see him: a pure black, short furred Rakshasa standing at her bedside, impeccably dressed as always in a black tuxedo with a white shirt and black bow tie, carrying an unfathomable scent like an entire wharf bathed in an ocean of perfumes.

"What now, Hellion?" Sita asked of him.

"The CEO is making a move on the Ivory Quarter."

"Good. He's making progress, then."

"He intends to become a Dragon Monk, in order to bypass the dome."

"Clever." Sita said, knowing that he Pizza Monks were the sole outside presence allowed beyond the dome, as they only made deliveries to the Ivory citizens.

A poor business strategy, she considered, while stroking the grey [Big Business Tie] that was hung from her neck. But like with many institutions that existed in Mithil, the Ebonies were entirely left out of consideration--for no purpose that she could discern other than to keep with ancient tradition.

That's why she arranged for all her businesses: the Athenaeum, the Amrita and many others, to be built within the Ebony Quarter. To tap into the market demands of the percieved "lesser" folk.

To even knowingly hire Rakshasa immigrants as her staff, where others would not.

She had slept comfortably that morning—having drifted off with her thumb stuck between the pages of a particularly saucy romance novel, in which she'd envisioned herself and Akira in the roles of the two star-crossed main protagonists.

Hers...was a comfortable life, albeit one utterly devoid of purpose. Except for these dealings she made in the shadows, to avoid His watchful eye—a covert proxy existence, from which she desperately wished to escape.

'Hurry, my champion!' she thought to herself, in despair.

'Your future Queen awaits.'