Chapter 1104: Chapter 1103: Fiendish Gear (1)
Chapter 1104: Chapter 1103: Fiendish Gear (1)
"That sounds like the worst kind of battle honestly, though after fighting this... Gods I don't even want to think about it since it gets my stomach rolling..."
Lady Kio stuck out her tongue and shook her head as she hinted at the terrible time spent fighting a Nua Fiend, and honestly despite not being there to participate, I could relate to her current feeling since the last time I had fought one, I had felt the same way.
Those abominations were absolutely horrendous things to face, and the idea of fighting against one made my stomach do somersaults as all the pus and bile and everything in between resurfaced again, albeit reluctantly since she had brought that mention to the table with her.
"Thank the Gods we already ate dinner and had time to settle... otherwise this plate would be hurtling towards your face, Mother. Please never remind me of those absolute monstrosities ever again!"
For once Lady Kio just nodded and didn't mind Anput's confrontational tone whatsoever, the petite Dogkin more focused on herself as she tapped her fork against her plate before sighing and setting it down, letting the rest of her food go uneaten as she instead slid it over to her pups, who were all blissfully unaware of the horrors of this world.
Aisha was looking at us curiously, but when a sizable portion of curry was placed before her she just began to dig in with no questions asked, allowing us to return to the conversation as Lady Kio said "Yeah, we burned that bastard into ash, so sorry... that included its bones, though there was... little of them left anyways, mainly since the damn thing was brittle as could be. Very odd, but also not too surprising since it was a newer Fiend."
That made me tilt my head as my curiosity got the better of me, my question completely open as I asked "I thought all Fiends were 'born', created or whatever with strong bodies no matter the domain? And when I say strong I just mean extremely solid and well above the average mortal? So why was it brittle..?", my gaze flickering towards the Sultana as I waited for the pink explosion to signify Cali's appearance.
Sadly it never came, though as the Sultana answered "Yes, but also no. I would call that Fiend we faced more of a pseudo Fiend thanks to its more transitional state from mortal to Fiend, but the difference is rather peculiar. A weaker physical form that is still making strides to catch up to the gigantic boost in arcane power lets you know if a Fiend is in that transitional state, and this one was." I could only guess that Cali was going to remain scarce since she seemed 'afraid' of the Sultana, though not as much as she was afraid of the Empress.
Someone who wasn't that afraid of the Sultana - for a few different reasons, apparently - was Sla'Salaxi, the Sla Fiend who had turned Khisba into her playground for a little while and a Fiend that was immensely interesting considering we knew that she was a puppeteer of some kind, and according to the Sultana she was a 'Mana Body' and immaterial.
Currently her preferred form seemed to be that slender Dogkin woman since it fit the 'vibe' of the Sultanate the best, and as she appeared beside the Sultana in a burst of pink mist, she ignored the bristling Dogkin seated squarely on the lap of the Sultanate's most powerful futanari and instead said "Those fledgling Fiends are so~ pathetically weak~! Right, A~ Nu~ Bi-?"
Leaning over the arm of the chair and trailing her fingers up the Sultana's arm, the Dogkin Fiend smiled coyly at the Sultana and added "Especially the Nua Fiends; the plagues and pestiliences assaulting their physical form needs time to acclimate to the new flesh they wear, so them being rather brittle wasn't too surprising...", answering my question despite not once sparing me a glance.
"Sla'Salaxi, might I ask what you are doing?"
The flat tone of Lady Kio barely earned her any recognition from Sla'Salaxi as the Fiend just hummed and said "Hey Anubi~! I was thinking, with you gone I need a place to stay and call my own, right~? I couldn't really requisition your own bedchambers for myself... unless..?", her seductive tone contrasting the Lady completely and earning her a fierce growl that made all of the pups flinch as they stared at their Mother worriedly.
"Salaxi, if you enjoy the privilege of living within this desert, I would suggest toning it down immensely, lest my wife put you beneath the sands."
The threat fluttered above Sla'Salaxi's head as she just grinned and finally turned towards Lady Kio to say "This thin Dogkin-? Mm... I don't think so, Anubi~! It saddens me to hear that you think so little of my strength, but I am pleased to see how you come to the defense of your woman~! You sounded so sexy when you said that..."
The slight turning of the Sultana's head made the Fiend back up a step as she coughed and said "Brave and amazing! That's what I said~! Yup..! A-Ahem, anyways, Dogkin brat, you were asking about Fiends right?"
She finally turned towards me and smiled, though I could tell she was only doing this to placate her target since she continued on without waiting for me to reply, saying "Even if you could get yourself some Nua bones, the problem with them is that the pestilence they hold within themselves is usually deeply engrained into their being, so you need to do a myriad of things to purify those bones, and if you mess up, well..."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
Shrugging, the Fiend left that open to interpretation before coughing again as she faded away into nothing, leaving us alone and prompting the Dogkin seated on the Sultana's lap to stand up and snap "I'm going out for a little bit!" before she too disappeared, though that was thanks to her storming out of the hall.
All of her pups watched her go in stunned silence before looking at one another, wondering what had gone wrong and even beginning to tear up as they wondered if it was them, which made Yasmin rush forwards as she distracted them and cheered them up with promises of story time and play before bed.
What really calmed them down was when the Sultana pushed her chair back and gestured for them to come to her, her large - yet lithe - frame more than capable of holding them all as she gathered them onto her lap, consoling her children and petting them all as she waved us away for now, wanting silence and an empty hall.
I wasn't going to argue with her on that front, so I led the way back to the room as we settled down and chatted for a little while before climbing into bed once more, cuddling and 'cuddling' for a few minutes before falling asleep.
Rested and rejuvenated was barely able to describe how I felt, and surprisingly as I sank into the cool waters of the bath I found that my prior frustrations had seeped out of me overnight; don't get me wrong, I was still very pissed with my performance, but now I was more willing to seek out solutions and ignore the root cause that required those solutions, which made it all the easier for me to go and join Anput after I was done bathing.
We had a good amount of materials to play around with after that venture into Bascra, and whilst we hadn't really done what we had wanted to do, we had completed the task that the Sultana gave us, so when Anput and I entered her 'forge' we weren't too surprised to find a few chunky ingots of high quality metal waiting for us.
"Well... that's nice. Certainly makes this easier on me; I need to warm up - like always - but I'll go ahead and get those discs you wanted made up, alright? In the meantime, why don't you go sort through the bones again and find the 'weakest' one when it comes to mana. That'll be my test bone."
The Jackalkin's usual playfulness was gone as she gathered up her tools, bringing out that serious side that I very much liked watching; even as I began to do what she asked me to, I still found it hard to resist stealing glances at her, and it was another reminder that all three of my lovers were all impeccable fits for me.
That made it even easier to forget my frustrations as I focused on the good of my life instead, something that seemed so simple yet was always harder to do then people thought; finding this one thing to be immensely grateful for and focus on that was doing wonders for my mental state right now, especially since the things we were doing would help me with one of the other things that would do me wonders.
Of course that was making the task of torturing and killing someone who was a bit of a pain to fight much easier than it was before, and I already had a few people in mind to vent my more base frustrations on...