Chapter 117 - You Only Live A Dozen Times (Part 1)

Akira Maximilian's patience was beginning to grow thin. 

He'd shaken the ball, tried tossing and dropping the ball onto the ground, yet still nothing would happen. Until, with all his ideas exhausted, there seemed no other recourse but to stash it away and try again later.

"There is still much ground for us to cover," Zhao warned, having taken the helm of the group—leading their progress, as the one most knowledgeable about the tunnel layout. "And the rest of the tunnels are sure to be crawling with many dangerous beasts, so we'd all best be on our guard."

Already, he could see the rocky walls around them were layered in [Giant Spider] silk. As well as some eerily human-sized cocoons, dangling from the ceiling.

The torches on the walls were all snuffed out, leaving just the one in Zhao's grasp as their only remaining source of light.

"It is imperative that we stay close together," Zhao said. "The [Giant Spiders] are cunning hunters, who will only attack when they see an opening within our ranks."

Chunhua chuckled. "Nice try, Zhao. But you're still forbidden from touching me after what you did."

"I know you're still angry, but now isn't—"

"Only Master can touch me."

"Damn it!" Zhao blurted furiously. "Are you two even listening to me?" 

After hearing only a slight giggle from Chunhua in reply, tempted a sideways glance over his shoulder. Frowning bitterly, as he discretely observed the two conversing: 

"Do tell me, my Lord," Chunhua said, while she was being cradled in Akira's arms. Playfully pouting and pinching his arm, whilst he was merely smiling, facing forward—a picture of perfect serenity. "How am I expected to fight for you, in my current capacity...?" she bleated, putting forth more of an effort to artificially lighten her voice. "I am wholly incapable of wielding my Feng Shui magic; frail and weak as a child."

It was only as she proceeded to lift one of her hands, then rest it—in a sweet, smooth caress against his cheek—did he thus stir:

"Screw that bullshit treaty!" Akira declared, pointing a thumb at himself with a prideful pose. "As your man, it's my responsibility to protect you."

Chunhua giggled. Zhao, meanwhile, rolled his eyes as he looked away.

"Then, I suppose you'll have to make use of me in other ways," Ai said suggestively, her lips parting slightly and cheeks blushing as she cast him a demure smile.

To which Akira chuckled. "Now we're talking business."

Chunhua tugged at his sleeve. "My Looord!" she whined. "Quit being so sneaky, and tell your sweet little daughter Chunhua what business you're talking about!" 

Whatever it was, she was dying to know. As, with this shameless side of her now fully exposed, she wanted nothing more than to be reduced to a piece of meat. Nothing more than for her—a formerly impenetrably cold cultivating mistress, turned into a loli, with zero fighting capabilities; totally dependent upon a man for her defense—to be ravaged, and then pumped full of her master's warm milk.

Akira of course wouldn't say, but the smile he was wearing was solely meant to hide the fact that he wasn't reciprocating any of Chunhua's steamy advances.

His mind was currently elsewhere...

'I know it's possible for two women to become pregnant in the real world, through scientific means…' He sighed. 'Although, I highly doubt whether this world, that still relies on torches as a source of lighting, would be capable of producing a similar feat.'

Deep down, despite all his previous bold statements about impregnating every [Pocket Maid] he catches...Akira was hugely self-conscious of the fact that he had never had sex as a man before.

Such that now, just thinking about it, made him...

"Lord Akira?" Chunhua said. Shifting about, within the narrow crest of his arms, she looked upon his intensely sweating face with mounting concern. "Your visage…! Oh, how it oozes with so much of your Heavenly Dew!" 

She then cast a sideways glance, just to confirm Zhao was watching, before turning back to him with a sensual smirk. 

"Have I permission...to taste, my Lord?"

Without even awaiting an answer, she eagerly sat herself upright and started to lap the drops of sweat from Akira's face with her tiny tongue, much like a doting feline; her eyes half-closed and glowing bright red in pure ecstasy, amidst her medley of sharp grunts and shrill moans of pleasure.

Through all this, Zhao was watching with a soulless stare. As Akira, meanwhile, bore through the savage tongue massaging without even the slightest small shift to be observed in his voidal, if not slightly tense demeanor.

He was being licked down, like a lollipop, and yet didn't feel a thing.

"Fine." Zhao said firmly, with his nostrils flared in anger as he turned away slowly—once he'd seen enough of his childhood friend debasing herself.

"You two can stay together."

He reached for one of the unlit torches on the wall. Tore it off, then threw it down at Akira's feet: whose vacantly staring eyes only vaguely followed Zhao's actions, even as he then proceeded to walk away; leaving the couple to fend for themselves.

"Finally," Chunhua frustratedly whispered into Akira's ear, once Zhao was surely gone. 

But Akira said nothing.

Thinking this was ofd, as well as feeling slightly put-off, Chunhua then gave a small giggle as she jumped free of his arms, to now stand before him—the top of her head only barely surpassing the height of his waist.

"My Lord, we finally have a moment to ourselves. To indulge in whatever divine amusements you have planned for me," she said. Whilst trying to cutely snuggle herself against his still body, but struggling to do so—for the fact that his arms had strangely remained folded, as they were when he had been carrying her, to now stand as obstacles in the way of her dripping hot passion.

"My Lord…?" Chunhua smiled. "Aren't you going to instruct me to do something lewd?"

Akira said nothing.

"Anything at all, that your heart desires…"

Still, Akira said nothing.

She stripped away her shrunken-down robe, letting it fall to the ground without care as her bare slender body was thereby fully exposed—save for the pixelated clouds serving to conceal her modesty, as they did before in the case of the skeleton-turned-loli.

"Come to think of it, you still haven't granted that other girl a name, have thee?" Chunhua mused, tossing back her silky, dark hair over her shoulder with one hand. 

Then, frowned sadly. "Nor have you granted one to me."

After which, upon slowly shifting her gaze further up, she gasped at the realization that Akira wasn't even looking in her direction. Following it with a frustrated huff.

"If it makes you feel any less uncomfortable, I'm actually over 1000 years old, with dragonian blood! So hurry up and rip these pesky clouds off me already: so that you may fully revel in my resplendent youthful beauty!"—she commanded, while reaching for his hand. Grunting with exertion, as she forcibly pulled on his non-compliant fingers; desperately yearning for him to uncover her apparent "censorship bikini," that was presently hiding her breasts from my descriptive language. However, in the process of doing so, only caused him to drop the torch out of his other hand.

"Damn it!" Chunhua finally snapped. "What have I done to deserve this cruel punishment?!" she asked, biting back tears. "Have I not proven myself to be the ideal woman?!"

Unbeknownst to Chunhua, however, it was not a case of Akira snubbing her after all…

Akira felt trapped—within his own body.

'I...can't move. Can't speak.'

No matter how strongly he willed it: his limbs nor his mouth, nor even so his eyes would move. And yet, he was able to remain standing, perfectly still, and fully conscious of all that was happening around him.

'It's almost like I've been—'

Just then, a piercing scream tore him from his thoughts.

"Spiders! Spiders! Spiders!"

It was Chunhua: reacting to a swarm of babe spiders climbing up her flawless leg.

'Spiders!' thought Akira. 'Like Zhao said!'

The light of the fallen torch was growing more and more dim, as Chunhua danced around, screaming, repeatedly brushing the advancing tiny terrors off her before abruptly running away from Akira's view.

'Wait! Don't just leave me here, you stupid bitch!'—Akira wanted to say, though his lips remained sealed.

His entire body was completely numb to the feeling of the thousands of tiny legs crawling across his body, fully enveloping him, to the point where they started to cover the front of his eyes...

'I can't...die here! Not like this!'

Before long, the light of the torch had fully dwindled and he was alone, with no way to run, or to even scream out for help as the little ones worked to combine their spinning silks, forming a dense cocoon to encase their helpless catch.

But through the darkness, Akira could hear a reassuring voice:

"Akira, dear...it'll all be fine. Just relax."

A voice, soft and pure like a warm summer breeze, that at once filled him with a sense of peace. Sounding like it was coming from someplace far, far away.

And, it was then...Akira opened his eyes.

'What the—'

He found himself seated, in a comfy leather chair, at what he immediately recognized as his desk back in his room at the Akira Corps building. Staring into his computer screen, showing the email invitation to the "Maiden Quest International" closed beta he had once discovered while perusing his junk messages.

And there, sat on the edge of his bed beside him, was—

Akira's eyes widened. "CITA!"

The pale, white-haired part-machine part-girl was there with him: dressed in what could best be described as a white, skirted "combat leotard", combined with a pair of thigh-high white iron boots that ended in sharply narrow needle tips.

Startled, from seeing her there, he fell back in his chair with a loud yelp.

"B-but...how?!" he questioned, holding up his shaking hand to point at her. Upon taking a cursory glance around, he was certain beyond a doubt that they were in his old bedroom. 

Or perhaps, he thought, what was far more likely to be an incredibly convincing fake.

'Could this be a fake CITA as well?'

"Akira-san. There is little time for me to explain, for we are presently 'down to the wire' as it is," the entity that looked like CITA said, her soul-piercing amber eyes wide and glaring with uncompromising seriousness. 

To which Akira gave a slight smile, saying to himself "yeah, it's the real one alright."

Only to quickly change his tune, as CITA then went on to say: "Do not relax, just yet. For it is imperative, to both our futures, that you suffer an unfortunate encounter with a speeding vehicle again."