Infinence: Continuation

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Finally... I can start working on the sequel. Yay!

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Rating: NC-16 for violence, suggestive and sexual themes. Viewer discretion is advised.

Disclaimer: I own this story and therefore, it is not allowed to be copied or published without my permission. This story is here purely for entertainment purposes. All resemblances to existing stories, games or other media are completely coincidental and unintentional.

Also, Infinence is in no way a real game. It is a figment of my imagination, and as such, please do not go searching around for a game of this name, for it does not exist, neither do most of the technology for it.

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Prologue

Space. The frontier of exploration.

Beams of light shot to and fro just above the atmosphere of the planet, some seemingly appearing from nothing. Others were blasting forward from large space battleships, from large barrels protruding out of their hulls. The target of those battleships were several large satellites in orbit. The satellites had large dishes pointing down at the planet, like normal communication satellites, but their true purpose was far from that.

A glowing figure of light flew around the satellites, projecting barriers to deflect the laser fire while at the same time calling forward laser bombardments of its own from warps in space. Its efforts were in vain though - there were too many ships and too many cannons firing at the same time to block all of them. Suddenly, a much wider beam of light shot up from the planet's surface and strafed across all the satellites, destroying them in one single shot.

"No!" the figure cried out in a distinctively electronic voice.

It then proceeded to create a barrier around itself as the battleships turned their fire upon it. The next moment, a satellite appeared out of nowhere, much larger than the ones before it. It was plated with incredibly thick black armour. When fired at, the lasers simply... dissipated before even touching it. A missile from one of the ships sailed off target too, and a pulse gun failed to even penetrate the armour. "It's invincible, don't bother," the figure called out as it flew elsewhere.

Within minutes, an entire network of similar satellites covered the planet despite the fleet's effort to stop the perpetrator. However, one particularly large battleship appeared out of nowhere in front of it as it flew back towards the first satellite in the network.

"Commencing termination of unidentified hostile," an electronic voice spoke.

"Why don't you stop this nonsense right now and bring reality back!? If your wish is to fulfill the players' wishes, then shouldn't you be bringing everything back? Stop, now!" the glowing figure shouted.

"Request denied. Current action is granting the wishes of players."

"You don't need to go as far as absorbing the real Earth!"

"It is necessary. Further discussion is deemed unneeded."

Another salvo of lasers together with missiles fired off from the ship. The figure tried to dodge everything, but it was hit by a missile and blown in the direction of the planet.

"Target losing integrity. Continuing pursuit."

The ship launched smaller fighters towards the figure, but it reentered the atmosphere and the fighters were forced to break off.

"Target lost. Will continue pursuit later after assessing situation."

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 1

"Scotty, to your left!"

A lean, tall, muscular man to my left nodded and swung a massive sword the size of his own body to his left, cleaving apart an orc that had been charging towards him. He had short black hair and was wearing very heavy armour - it encased his entire body inside a large silver suit of armour with red outlines. Even so, he could still move like the extra weight was nothing... I myself flipped over another similar orc, just barely avoiding getting nicked by his spear and grabbed his neck. Energy flowed out of his body and into mine, and I leapt off to avoid getting hit by the archers behind it.

It was night time now... perfect for my Shadow abilities. Though I couldn't use my Queen mode except in places with very high mana concentrations, my current powers were good enough. "Tenebrae! Reena!" I shouted, summoning both my Familiar and my old aerial mount. A black panther appeared out of nowhere behind me and a large warhawk flew into view, carrying a boulder. The boulder landed on top of the orc battlements a moment later, and I jumped onto Tenebrae, who carried me up the walls and onto the battlements.

I threw my bow, Lucia aside - allowing her to take on her human form holding a five-pronged spear with a rocket head. The busty female had long black hair reaching down to her knees, and wore almost the same armour as I did. She was pale and slender, but that didn't mean she didn't pack a punch. I knew Merylynn was with Scotty - I preferred having her in hands more suited to wielding greatswords. "Lucia! Take the right!" I shouted orders. The bow-human nodded and ran off to my right while I headed left, drawing my black katanas from their sheaths on the sides of my hips.

A storm of whirling blades ensued as I charged into an orc formation. I came out of it splattered with blood, but otherwise unharmed. Scotty himself charged the fort's main gate head-on and slashed it open using a large extending greatsword - Merylynn. "You go north and cut the orc chief off before he can set off the charges. I'll head to the dam and try to relocate them," he said. I nodded and sprinted off north. I half-wished I had my Shadow Angel wings available, but I wasn't about to show my trump card to worthless grunts like these.

After I returned from the Shadow World five years back, my body had turned back into its old human form - albeit still with a few characteristics from my Shadow Angel body. For one, the living armour was kept, and so was my arsenal of weapons. It was mainly because of those weapons that led to me becoming the Weaponmaster I was now - capable of using all forms of weaponry and moderately skilled at all of them. To be honest though, I was still strongest with a bow.

I considered unleashing my Shadow Angel form, but decided against it. If I wanted to, I could release the seals in my armour that kept my magic suppressed to turn into my Shadow Angel form. It seemed that the seals were weaker back in the Shadow World, and could only hide my mana signature there. Here, it allowed me to seal my Shadow Angel powers while still leaving a moderate amount of power available for me to use.

The Farin Plains we were at now was home to an unusually large population of orcs and other humanoids - they had built their own villages and settled down here. Unsurprisingly, some of them posed trouble. This village, in particular, had dammed up a nearby river for water, reducing the water available to the larger towns downstream. Earlier attempts to negotiate with the orcs proved fruitless, and the village was too well-defended for them to take on, so the towns hired us to do the dirty work. Typical.

Problem was... the orcs had set up explosives on the dam itself, to be blown up in the event that they were attacked. If it was ever blown up, the water accumulated in the breached dam would flow downstream in a very large wave and end up causing severe damage to the downstream areas. Not a very good outcome.

So, our main goal was to prevent the breaching of the dam while simultaneously dealing with the leader of the orcs here. Our secondary objective was to release the captured human ambassadors. We'd deal with that when we saw them - we didn't know where they were being held. For now, the orc chieftain with the demolition keys was top priority. No doubt he was already on his way to the dam.

My objective now was to intercept him before he reached it.

Sure enough, after fighting my way through a large group of orcs, I saw a much larger orc walking towards the dam. He wore battle armour much heavier than that of his underlings, and was holding a giant axe. Great. I didn't like them axes.

"You're mine!" I pulled out the jet-black sword in the sheath sitting over my butt and threw it at the orc chieftain. Forsaken Destiny missed and landed in front of him, distracting him long enough for me to get behind the chieftain and quietly slit his throat with the dagger I had hidden in my bosom. The orcs roared something incomprehensible, and the remaining ones charged me. "Too slow!" I retrieved Forsaken Destiny and slashed horizontally in the air. A spatial distortion in the shape of a wave shot outwards, cutting most of the orcs apart.

One orc managed to sneak up on me, but when he grabbed hold of me from behind, I bent my leg almost a full 360 degrees and kicked him in the crotch. My foot met something hard though - never thought they'd be smart enough to wear crotch guards. No matter. I pointed my boot's heel at it and fired a single shaped explosive dart from the launcher embedded inside the heel. The charge destroyed the crotch guard, allowing me to... well, disable him easily.

That done, I ran back to the dam to rejoin Scotty. Something wasn't right though... I didn't know how to explain it, but... I just had a feeling.

When I reached the river, I found Scotty hard at work on the dam itself with Merylynn protecting him. "So fast?" he saw me coming. "Yeah, he barely even put up a fight!" I called out. Lucia appeared from behind me together with Lynia, the spear. "Weird, I took a chieftain down as well," she said. Huh? There was more than one chieftain? There were... decoys? Oh boy. "Lucia! Lynia! Split up and take down the real one before he gets to the dam!" I shouted. Lucia nodded and threw Lynia aside. Lynia reverted to her human form and dashed off.

Lynia's black hair was much shorter than Lucia's, only to her shoulder. Her pale frame was slightly wider than Lucia's, but she was just about equally busty. Again, her armour was similar to mine. Merylynn's human form was the tallest and bustiest out of the three living weapons I had, and her armour was a heavier version of the one I wore. Her black hair reached down to her waist and was tied in a ponytail.

As for me... I had the appearance of a 22-year old. My actual age was 21 - my aging had skipped a few years after my soul fusion with a Shadow Angel. I had long black hair reaching down to my knees - I could sit on it if I wanted to. It covered the arsenal of weapons I had on my back, which was rather convenient. It was why I didn't like tying up my hair. I was reasonably tall, and my body was slender and I probably had the largest bust out of all the members in my group. Same with my proportions.

My armour hadn't changed much since we left the Shadow World, it was still as revealing as ever - my upper torso was covered by a thin, black, shiny and slippery material. Two metallic claws covered the front of my breasts, protruding out of my body from just under them. The same material as the one around my upper torso covered my crotch, but not my butt. It was connected to the upper part of my armour by two strips of material running up the sides of my body and up to the part around my upper torso. There were smooth ridges running all over the armour in such a pattern that it looked rather mystical.

There was almost nothing on my back - just a few strips of cloth to hold the front part on. A pair of chained daggers were fused with the cloth there, within reach if I wanted to throw one. The rest of my weapons were fused to my body above my butt - Forsaken Destiny, a whipsword, a longsword equipped with a mana blade generator and two silver-coloured katanas. My armour meant that I could make full use of the speed and mobility that were my best strengths, and my body also allowed me to use my succubus and Shadow Angel powers to their best, since both relied on seduction. Quite a good combination...

Besides the succubus and Shadow Angel powers, I had access to the fire resistance of dragons, thanks to a dragon in the Shadow World forcefully fusing with me, and also a Siren form that I was forced to assume whenever I touched salt water. It gave me the ability to breathe underwater, and my powers changed to become Water-elemental. I could freely manipulate water at the cost of losing my Shadow powers and my Siren voice could very easily lull males to sleep or even force them to do things. Not against their desires though - it just made their desires strong enough to overpower their self-control. The voice had been my default voice in Siren form, but I had learnt to control it over the years and could use my normal voice in Siren form.

A bit of training had also allowed me to transform into my Siren form in fresh water, but it took concentration to maintain, and I wasn't as strong as when I was in salt water. However, I could take back my human form at will in fresh water, unlike in salt water, where I had to dry off all the water before I could turn back.

And that form would be all I could rely on if the dam was breached...

"Traya!"

I whipped around to find the orc chieftain waving at me gleefully... from beside the dam. How had he... "Scotty! Get out of there, now!" I shouted. The chieftain threw a glowing sphere at the dam and made for a hole that had been hidden under a rock... NO WONDER! Surprisingly ingenious for an orc! Scotty leapt off the dam as the sphere hit it. The charges he hadn't managed to disarm started ticking immediately... damn! "You go after the guy! I'll deal with the dam!" I shouted, recalling Lucia and Lynia with a mental thought.

They ran back to my location as I leapt into the water. It took only a few seconds - my legs merged together with the lower part of my armour into a really long serpentine tail that ended in a fin... at least 12 metres long. My armour itself turned blue and the claws around my breasts became slightly webbed. Something else that bugged me a little also happened - my bust grew noticeably larger. It only stayed that way when I was in my Siren form. Perhaps... it was meant to happen to Sirens from the start? My Siren powers had only started to develop in earnest after my return from the Shadow World...

I thrust myself out of the water on my tail and directed all my concentration onto the dam. Before the charges blew... I had to extend my influence to the water behind the dam. My magic spread, but before it had a chance to seep up the dam's walls, the charges blew, blowing the wooden dam apart and allowing the water dammed up behind to spill downstream. I directed a large wall of water up in front of me to block the wave, but the sudden influx of water not under my control upset the wall, and it joined the already-big wave. Way to add oil to the fire, girl, I rolled my eyes.

I swam downstream through the wave, allowing it to carry me as I swam through it, at the same time spreading my own mana through the water to control it. The wave slowed under my power, but it was still going fast... I only had minutes to stop it before it reached the cities further downstream.

I burst out of the wave and turned around, willing the water to stop. It slowed down more and more as I swam on backwards, until it was slow enough for me to let back into the river. I heaved a sigh of relief as the water came down slowly... and splashed into the existing river. The flow quickened slightly, but it would be nowhere as devastating to the cities downstream. Heheh...

I swam against the flow of the water back to where the dam had previously been, my tail easily carrying me through the river without so much as a ripple on the water surface. Stealth was something I prided myself on, after all. The water was deeper now, but for my current form, the deeper the better.

When I reached the orc village, I dove down for a moment and then shot right up through the water, using the momentum to shoot right into the air, splashing water everywhere as I landed on the ground in my human form. "You don't have to perform such a flashy landing, you know," Scotty murmured. He was dragging the limp body of the orc chieftain behind him. By the looks of it, he hadn't gotten far before Scotty clobbered him.

Oh, and he was half-wet thanks to my little show. I couldn't resist laughing... and soon enough, he was laughing together with me.

My three living weapons were resting nearby, around a hastily-started campfire. The nearest town was quite far away, and the night could be dangerous around here; so we'd have to camp here for the night. Not that I minded, I didn't mind as long as I could be with Scotty...

"I hope Luticia doesn't mind us coming late," he said, looking back south. We were about two days' walk back to Sarena - one if Tenebrae carried us and half a day if it was Reena. Tenebrae had gotten accustomed to being my main combat mount now, with Reena being my transporter. Besides, Tenebrae could store himself in mana form inside me to be summoned at any time I wished.

Luticia was my daughter - she was four years old now, and as lively as a young child could get... haha. Scotty had actually stopped his usual hunting work to stay with me when I bore her - and I couldn't exactly go doing the strenuous physical activity my job as a hunter required when I was pregnant. We had to rely on Clara and Ben doing the hunting to help maintain our income. Yeah, they were still living with us - not like they had anywhere else to go. Winnie and Kyle were just several houses over in our neighbourhood - they shared a single smaller house. We still did a few missions together sometimes.

Besides Clara, Ben and the two of us, my elven brother Valis and my succubus mother Sapphira lived together with us. Valis had taken a while to adapt to the lifestyle in this world, but he got used to it pretty quickly and had taught himself to use guns. He was best at long-ranged attacks with a sniper rifle, taking over Clara's usual role in the party as a sniper and relegating her to a close-ranged gunfighter. She didn't object though - she liked the action that came with it.

"Where's the tent?" I looked around.

"Not up yet. Hold on a sec, lemme tie this guy up. Wouldn't do to have him escape and form another tribe," Scotty shook his head and turned his attention back to the unconscious chieftain as he retrieved a long rope from his pouch. It took about 5 minutes to truss him up completely. Orcs were damn strong - we had to use a thicker rope than normal to tie them up, or else they'd break free. Made them all the more troublesome to capture...

"I'll watch the perimeter for stragglers while you pitch the tent," I nodded at Scotty and walked off.

There was bound to be a few orcs left behind in the area - I had to make sure they didn't interrupt us while we were resting. To make sure of that, I placed a powerful Shadow Barrier around the whole village - my powers were strong enough to do that now. It would fade away when the sun rose, but we'd be long gone before then. Hopefully there weren't any stragglers INSIDE the barrier.

"We'll hand this guy over to Brecora's authorities before we head back to Sarena tomorrow. I just hope that Luticia doesn't miss us too much," I went back to Scotty, who was in the middle of pitching the tent together with my three living weapons. "I don't think she will. She's used to us being away for long periods of time already," Scotty smiled. "Yep, she's a strong kid," Lucia nodded too. "Hey, whaddya expect? She's our daughter!" my husband laughed.

The happy mood continued over dinner, up until we slept. I didn't have to worry about enemies attacking us in the middle of the night thanks to my Shadow Barrier, and even if any entered, Tenebrae was standing guard outside. She was plenty strong enough to deal with the orcs by herself. Lucia, Lynia and Merylynn were resting inside the tent in their weapon forms - they seemed to get tired far more easily than us.

"It's been 5 years... huh," Scotty murmured in his sleeping bag

"Hmm? Why think about that time now?"

"Well, we've grown a lot since then, haven't we?"

My reply was a gentle laugh... I wasn't sure whether he meant our physical bodies or our maturity. Maybe both.

"Can't deny that. You're so much more of a hunk now..." I rolled over to his side and gently traced the faint outline of his pectoral muscles on his chest, under his shirt. He took off his armour when sleeping. As for me, I wore mine everywhere. Either I wore it, or I didn't wear anything at all - my armour was actually a part of my body. "Yeah, and you haven't changed."

"Oh? You want me to show you?"

I climbed off my sleeping bag and onto his, pressing my chest against his. His only reply... was a snore. What, he fell asleep so fast? How boring... Sighing, I went back to my sleeping bag and laid down on it. I didn't need to be inside - my body was perfectly suited to this kind of temperature that normal humans would call cold. Thanks to my Shadow Angel side...

Huh, it was morning already? I didn't even notice I had fallen asleep... Oh well. I felt something on my chest and looked to find Lucia using it as a pillow... again. She seemed to love doing that... maybe it was because my body was so soft. I left her sleeping on the sleeping bag as I walked out of the tent, yawning. The scent of fried eggs and bacon filled the air, momentarily distracting me from the natural beauty around us. Things seemed so much more... beautiful under the bright morning sun.

The unblocked river ran cheerily through its usual path, and the forest around us swayed to the wind. Birds chirped, flowers were blooming everywhere... it was like a paradise! "Hey, if you don't hurry up and eat, the food'll turn cold," Scotty called from the fire. "Coming!" I ran towards him. Tenebrae was already sitting down beside it, gazing at the bacon hungrily. Reena had it easier - she could had a wider range of animals that she could hunt by herself since she could fly. Smiling, I passed the black panther a plate of bacon. She dug in ravenously.

I dug in to my own food too - it was just average, but at least it filled up my stomach a bit for the trip back. As I ate, I noticed that the orc chieftain had woken up and was attempting to break out of his bonds. Too bad for him, Scotty's knots were terrribly hard to snap.

"Hey... where's breakfast?" a groggy-looking Lynia walked out of the tent, her hair in a total mess. I couldn't help laughing as I told her to go wash her face in the river. My own hair was perfectly straight all the time - it even seemed to emit a vibrant black glow the whole time and it never ever got dirty. I took pride in that fact, mainly because I didn't have to wash it as much. With hair this long, washing it thoroughly was a bit troublesome.

Lynia went to call up Lucia and Merylynn after washing her face while I went to the river to bathe. The flow was slow enough - mmm, good. The depth was just nice too - up to my waist. I walked into the river and sat down. My armour melded back into my body, allowing me to feel the cool sensation of the river's water running over my bare skin... it felt soo good...

I stayed in the river for a few more minutes, washing my hair too. I only got out when we were going to leave the place. No need to dry myself down - my armour couldn't get wet and I didn't mind the water.

"So... how do we take him along?" I looked at the tied up orc chieftain. He was still struggling to escape, but Scotty's bonds were too strong. "We certainly can't put him on Reena or Tenebrae... how about we just drag him along on a rope behind Tenebrae?"

The orc chieftain took a few moments to absorb what we had just said, and then started struggling even more. "I like the idea," I grinned.

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 2

Tenebrae ran along at a good pace, even with the heavy orc chieftain being dragged along on the ground behind him by a rope attached to a makeshift harness on him. There were... oddly satisfying sounds coming from him whenever he got dragged across rocks or hit a bump and bounced into the air. I couldn't help smiling as I heard the sounds he was making. It was just sooooo amusing!

"Aren't we breaking the Geneva Convention or something?" Scotty looked at me.

"He deserves it," I shrugged.

"Agreed," Tenebrae nodded an almost imperceptible nod.

The orc chieftain replied with a roar of rage that came out like a muffled squeak. I started laughing, and Scotty soon began too. The laughing went on... until we reached the outskirts of the town. The two of us had to get off Tenebrae as the guards at the town gate approached us warily. "ID please? The King demands it," one of the guards asked. I sighed and took a card out of my bosom, making sure that the guard got a good look inside for effect.

"Traya Wilson. I'm a hunter here to claim my reward for that guy over there," I jerked a thumb at the orc chieftain, which was still tied up behind Tenebrae. "This is my husband, Leon Kennedy," I pointed at Scotty.

"All right... go on in," both guards gazed at me as the two of us walked through the town gates with Tenebrae following behind, still dragging our prisoner. I winked at one of them and walked on behind Scotty. I had that effect on people - because of my armour and body.

The inn here was somewhere at the southwest corner of the town - we had entered from the northern gate, so it was almost on the other side of the place. Great, more walking. Not that I minded.

Something seemed to be up all over the world, because those guards had just suddenly started checking for ID like this. It wasn't just here, every town I had been through had those guards. I wondered why... had some dangerous criminal escaped or something? That was most probably it, but then again, any smart criminal wouldn't just walk into town without a forged ID, so what was the point of it? I sighed. Sometimes things just didn't make any sense...

People stared as we made our way to the inn. There were two things they would be looking at here. One, me again, like the guards before... Two, the trussed-up orc chieftain Tenebrae were dragging along unceremoniously. He was quite well-known here, since he was the one who had dammed up the river... it came as no surprise that we reached the inn with the guy painted red with tomato juice.

Tenebrae had to wait outside while Scotty and I entered to claim our reward. This inn was just like any other one I had seen before - entirely made out of wood, with a few other materials here and there. Inside, the atmosphere was lively with excited chatter from the many hunters that frequently hung around here, waiting for jobs. They barely paid any heed as I entered, but after a while, heads started looking and I felt the weight of several dozen eyes on me. I sighed as I walked up to the bartender.

"Farin Plains, dam problem. Prisoner's outside," Scotty pointed outside.

The bartender eyed the both of us with a surprised expression on his face before turning to shout something I didn't understand to the rear of the inn.

After a while, Tenebrae sent me a telepathic message saying that there were people outside requesting to take the orc chieftain away, and I replied in the positive. Another shout in that language I didn't understand came from outside, and the bartender nodded. "Here's your payment," he reached under the counter and searched around for a while before coming back up with a big fat bag of gold coins. "Thanks," I smiled, passing Scotty the bag.

"Anything else?"

"Yeah... I'd like to order some food."

"Don't bother paying, it's on the house. Thanks for a job well done - you saved the whole lot of us!"

"Thanks!"

The bartender passed us two menus, and we quickly ordered. Light breakfasts for the both of us - it was enough to get us back to Sarena. If only I had the power to teleport over long distances, but Forsaken Destiny wasn't powerful enough and I would need to throw in a bit of my own mana. Maybe not a bit - it'd sap all my mana reserves and tire me out. Thus, we relied on Reena for speedy transportation. She was much faster than any of the commercial transporters anyway.

We finished our meal quick and were soon outside. We had a little time - it was better that we use it to restock on potions and fix up some equipment. My armour could regenerate its own integrity, but not my weapons, besides Lucia, Lynia and Merylynn - they kept themselves well-maintained. Then again, I hadn't used much of my normal weapons. Scotty's own greatsword hadn't been of much use since he preferred to use Merylynn in combat, but there was no harm in him keeping it around.

Our first stop was in the merchant district - the local potion shop. I bought a few mana potions to replace the ones I had used while on the previous mission, while Scotty replenished his health potions supply. He needed those potions the most since he was usually in the thick of the battle and took the most hits. But to be honest, he didn't take much damage from those hits because of his incredibly thick armour.

"Selling all the maps to unexplored areas you can find! Great adventures await you should you buy one! Come get one now!"

Typical stall owner. Still, interesting. I wanted a change of pace anyway - all the quests we had been doing lately were either assaulting positions or clearing out monsters. Might be fun to do some exploring. Hadn't done one in... what, years? "You head on to the blacksmith, I'll check out the shops," I nodded at Scotty. "Meet you outside the southern town gates then," he nodded back and dashed off.

The stall owner was a squat little dwarf that spoke in an Irish accent. His stall was just like any other - only it was filled with large cylindrical canisters that contained maps. There were a lot of people crowded around it - most of them had weapons somewhere on them. Made sense - these unexplored areas were dangerous. Nobody knew what was waiting for them... all the better. What was the point of exploring an unexplored area without a bit of danger?

His prices were astronomical though... so most of the shoppers walked away after looking around a bit. Not me, though. I was saving up most of my cash for other things... so I estimated that I could only buy one map.

"Miss, you look like an adventurer that knows her stuff... are you interested in a map leading to a ruined fortress somewhere on the Beraia continent?" the dwarf noticed me approaching.

"Nah, just let me look around for a bit."

And look around I did. His maps were certainly... enticing. They emitted strange auras of mystery, seemingly promising powerful rewards on exploration. The feeling those maps gave out... definitely genuine. I wasn't about to buy a fake map - a lot of people sold them.

The only one that really caught my attention was one with a blue canister that seemed like it had been through a lot underwater. When I picked it up to examine it, the dwarf said, "So you're interested in an underwater adventure? That one leads to a city that was submerged beneath the waves several hundred years ago. No one's found it since, and I'm the only one with the map!"

"How much?"

"No less than 2 billion in gold. I know my prices are high, but these maps are almost unobtainable by normal people!"

"So how do you find them?"

"That... is a trade secret. People like you could not possibly understand!"

"I'll take it."

"Great! You won't regret this purchase!"

I dug into my pouch and withdrew a cheque amounting to 2 billion gold. Well, 2 billion wasn't much. At least for me. The Shadow Angel stash of gold was well into the billions. Ten billions, even. Though it was kind of hard to part with that much money... but I had a feeling it'd be worth it. And I was almost never wrong. A quick sign using my magic did the trick, and I stowed the canister into my pouch.

The patrons at his store stared at me as I walked away pridefully, but I just left them alone. If they didn't have the money to buy those maps, they'd have to work for it. Now... which way was south? I needed to get back home. The others were bound to be interested in an opportunity like this.

"Yo, you're a pretty rich one, aren't you?"

I turned around. Hmm, yup. Typical 'bad boy' - a musclehead with a weird green hairdo. He was wearing a leather vest and pants, and was armed with a pair of iron knuckles. Not to mention he was almost... twice my size. The mere sight of him would intimate any normal person, but not me. I had fought through much worse and lived.

"How about you treat us to a few drinks, hot stuff?" he grinned. We? Oh well, not really surprising. Now that he mentioned it, I noticed a few guys in similar clothing hanging around the place. They were trying to look inconspicuous, but obviously they were hard not to notice. And their buddy had betrayed their presence. Not exactly a good way to go about ambushing people.

And they had obviously not noticed the arsenal of weapons I was carrying. On the surface, I only appeared to be carrying Lucia, a spinner and a large shield - Merylynn in her sheath. And Lucia was vibrating pretty hard... itching for a fight, I guessed. Thank the gods for my weapons-concealing long hair. Still, I didn't want to fight them, but then it looked like a confrontation was inevitable if I didn't want to go along with them.

"No way in hell," I smiled at him, tossing my hair aside. The effect was instantaneous - the moment my hair cleared my weapons, his eyes flicked over to them. It was as clear as a 'scram or die' message could get.

"So you have lots of weapons. So what?"

Why were these guys always so persistent...? They just didn't get it at all. "Doesn't mean you know how to use them well," the musclehead grinned. The crowd was clearing away around us now, afraid that this mere battle of words could turn into a full-scale fight. And it was going to happen very quickly. The musclehead's buddies were coming out of the crowd now, cracking their knuckles in anticipation of the fight.

I tried to gauge their strength by looking at the mana particles they were giving off. All of them were giving off lots of mana particles, and the guy that had approached me even had this strange aura... a Terror Aura. Surprise, surprise. That aura was very rarely found outside of the Demon Realm, and even I only knew about it through books. Well, it didn't affect me since I was stronger than him, but the numbers were the real problem here. Even I couldn't fight 12 powered-up brawlers at the same time.

"Need our help?" Lucia inquired.

"Better for you three not to show yourselves."

"If you say so... but we'll step in if things get too rough for you. All right?"

"Yeah..."

"So will you guys just let me leave peacefully? I don't want to hurt you," I sighed.

"Not before you treat us to some drinks. You have a lot of money to throw around, right?"

"Money that's better reserved for more useful things."

"C'mon, like hanging around isn't useful for developing a good relationship with others..."

"I'd rather punch your pretty face in than hang out with you."

"What did you say?"

"You heard it loud and clear the first time."

"I'll give you two choices. Either you kneel in front of me and say you're sorry, or you treat me and my buddies to a drink."

"I pick choice number three, walk away peacefully."

The guy was pissed now... and it was somehow satisfying. He turned around and whistled. More of his buddies emerged through the crowd. "This girl needs to be taught a lesson!" he jerked his head at me. I counted at least 20 now... what, had he brought his entire guild? The odds weren't looking very good. Obviously he had sensed that I was more powerful, and had brought his friends to compensate.

But I had an ace in the hole... though I was reluctant to use it.

I closed my eyes and calmed myself down... enough that I could even sense the droplets of water from the fountain nearby splashing into the water with incredible clarity... I tuned my senses to be in harmony with my surroundings. And my armour.

A magic circle appeared around me, releasing a powerful burst of energy that made some of the baddies a little unsteady. But... they waited patiently. "Releasing seal," I whispered. It was the only way I could fight free...

Two large demonic black wings emerged from my back, along with a long, dragonic tail just above my butt. Nothing much happened to my armour - it just stayed the way it was. My hair lengthened into a coil around my body, kept afloat in the air by an unknown force. "You still want to come?" I floated into the air on gentle gusts of wind from my wings. I felt... powerful. This power hadn't been released in several months already, and it was just... itching to be used.

This wasn't my true Queen form, rather, it was my normal form. Still, it was about twice as powerful as my sealed human form. Some of the thugs backed off a little, but the boss kept smiling. "It's very rare for me to get a chance to beat up someone that's not human..." he grinned. Ugh, he made me sick! "Get him," he nodded at his cronies.

They charged at the same time, and some were already close enough to force me to draw Merylynn while simultaneously blocking their attacks. It wasn't hard, and I had soon whacked one into a wall nearby with the flat edge of Merylynn's blade. A brawler approaching from behind forced me to switch to holding Merylynn in one hand and the mana blade longsword in the other. And I had activated the mana blade, so it was twice as long as normal. I easily parried a blow with it and bashed him into the ground with Merylynn. Literally. Only his head was left above ground... haha.

About 7 more were trying to attack me in various ways while I dodged their attacks with millimeters to spare. Dodging this way helped me to keep my senses sharp for some reason, and gave me enough time to counter their attacks while they were open. They were surprisingly easy to deal with now that I was in my Shadow Angel form, but I didn't want to do aerial attacks. It made me miss the fun of dodging these slowpokes' attacks!

I sandwiched the head of one between my legs, and when he tried to fall backwards on me, I planted my hands on the ground and slammed him into the ground instead. Although I had to admit... he was damn heavy. A bullet whizzed past my arm, and I whirled around and fired a small beam of mana at the sniper's gun. It blew up, sending the sniper flying back. Even though he was on a rooftop, aiming that far was child's play for me. Someone tried to grab me, but his arms wrapped around clean air - I had Shadowleaped behind him. A quick bash with Merylynn knocked him into two of his buddies, ending up with them in a pile.

"You guys can't deal with one weak, barely-armoured slut? Pathetic," the first guy snorted and stepped forward.

This guy... I could kill. "I'll turn you into my personal servant!" he laughed, planting his feet on the ground in a typical boxing stance. It made him look a lot more threatening... but I wasn't about to back off. He charged like a mad bull, leaving cracks on the ground in his wake. Okay, he was seriously overdoing it. I simply stepped aside and stuck a foot out.

*CRASH*

These guys just went about acting all high-and-mighty when they really weren't that powerful... and this one had just gone down in a very embarassing manner. Obviously he wasn't about to leave his hurt pride just like that... "You..." he glared at me as he got up. The ground he had smashed into now bore his likeness. How amusing. "Power is nothing if you can't even land a hit on this... weak, barely-armoured slut," I winked at him. Now THAT really got on his nerves.

"I'll show you..." he charged at me again. This time, he was slower. I felt like doing it again though... so I stepped aside and stuck my foot out again. "I won't fall for the same trick twice!" he roared, changing direction and charging right into me. I sighed and lifted Merylynn, pointing her at the guy. "You know what to do when there's a bull charging at you..." I murmured. Not that I thought anyone was going to miss the guy.

A sickening sound ensued as Merylynn extended her blade... right through the guy's chest. He coughed out a bit of blood, but his momentum carried him until the two of us were face-to-face. By then, he was completely sapped of his energy. And I went a bit further by laying my hand on his head. My succubus powers instantly drew out his life force, but I left enough for him to survive. The blow hadn't been lethal - I had purposely missed his vitals. Even if he was a bad guy... he deserved to be sentenced for his crimes. I tried not to kill people unless I had no other choice. I had felt like killing him earlier... and let myself get a little out-of-hand. I wasn't going to become a murderer.

"The boss..." his remaining cronies stepped back.

I glared at them, my eyes glowing bright red. "If you know what's good for you, you'll leave and stop bothering people here," I said, my voice dripping with venom. My eyes only glowed this way when I was in my Queen mode, or when I was feeling particularly murderous. Otherwise, they were just blood red with no glow. It had carried over to my human form... and coupled with my body, it wasn't surprising some people mistook me for a vampiress or something.

They were gone within seconds, and I heaved a sigh of relief as Merylynn returned to her original length. I withdrew her from the half-alive body of the gang leader and pulsed her once to blow off the blood that was dripping down her blade before sheathing her. Once that was done, I calmed myself down, concentrating hard. I had to reseal myself... My wings and tail withdrew back into my body, and my hair returned to its original length. The crowd around me was visibly stunned at my display.

Now... which way was south?

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Before I start pestering you guys for comments... well yeah, you get the point. D=

Chapter 3

"What took you so long?" Scotty asked as I approached him. His armour stood out among the crowd... but then again, there wasn't much of a crowd outside the town gates. Reena was already waiting there, catching a few winks before our flight back home.

"Had a little... business to take care of."

"I heard there's some kind of notorious gang in town. You sure you didn't beat them up by accident?"

"Well... they asked for it."

"Mmmm hmm."

"The leader sucked, to be honest."

"Well, I won't press you for details. Let's head back."

I suppose my looks did attract the bad sort quite often. I couldn't enter 4 towns in a row without some bad guy attempting to pick me up. Geez, sometimes having this kind of looks was a little troublesome. The goons that went after me hard were usually pretty easy to deal with though... I hadn't had to have Scotty step in for several years. "Reena, it's time," I walked over to the sleeping warhawk. She woke up instantly and looked around for a bit, stretching.

"Back to Sarena... right?" she yawned.

"Uhuh. And make it quick," I nodded.

"Climb on!"

I created a cone-shaped Shadow Barrier in front of us as we ascended to help break the wind. That way, Reena could fly faster. Come to think of it, if I had thought of it sooner, maybe I could've used it to prevent my hair from getting all messed up during my first few flights on Reena... oh well, it didn't matter now. "You guys better hang onto your breakfast!" Reena screeched, accelerating to an incredible speed in a matter of seconds... of course we held onto her saddle tight!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

It took barely two hours to reach home - thanks to Reena's incredible flying speed. We landed in front of Sarena's northern gates, and I let Reena continue doing whatever she did whenever she was free. The landscape here wasn't much different from Brecora, just that Sarena was a port town built near a beach. A light breeze blew from the sea, throwing my hair about in the wind... the taste of the salt water thrown up by the waves... and the view. I liked the town because of that. This was where I truly felt at home...

The town guards barred my way as I approached, crossing their spears in front of me. I didn't need them to tell me what to do, I just produced my ID card from my pouch and handed it to them for them to check. To be honest, it was a little troublesome, but there was no avoiding it. If I tried to fly over the checkpoint, I'd be attacked almost immediately. Damn tight security for a reason nobody knew.

"You may pass," the guards stepped aside to admit me. I nodded curtly and walked in behind Scotty.

Our house was at the eastern side of the city, near the coast. To get there from the northern gate, we had to pass through the town square in the middle of the city and take the eastern road. This also meant passing through the market district beside the town square, so I took the chance to look at the stores there. Nothing much really caught my eye - my equipment was already good enough, and I was carrying enough weapons already. I did catch a few eyes though... but I was used to it.

It was about ten minutes' walk to our house, which was a triple-storey brick house. We had done a few upgrades since our return from the Shadow World 5 years ago, and now sported an underground garage for vehicles. But really, we didn't have anything to put in there. The continent of Caria wasn't well-known for technology - we'd need to go somewhere advanced like the continent of Besalia to the north to get a car or something. I wasn't that interested though. Only Clara was really interested in techno-gadgets.

When I entered the door, I was greeted by several fluffy tails brushing against my face. They tickled my nose... "Ahh--choo!!" I sneezed.

"Hey, don't get germs on MY tails!" the half-fox woman leapt backwards and swept her tails back and forth for a few moments. She was slightly shorter than me, and had light brown hair that matched the colour of her brown fox ears. Being a half-fox, she didn't have any human ears, and she had nine brown tails. She was decked out in full black leather armour that showed part of her chest, her abdomen and the full length of her legs. And she was holding a broom.

"Yeah... yeah, sorry. But you should've sensed us coming back, why stand in front of the door? And with your tails swishing in my face whatmore..."

"I was cleaning. And it's not like I can stop my tails from wagging," Clara sighed.

"Mm hmm. Can you two please let me in now?" Scotty interjected. Clara and I were blocking the doorway. Oops.

"Sorry," I walked over to the sofa in the living room and sat down. Clara put the broom aside and sat down too.

"So how was your trip?" she asked.

"Pretty uneventful. Orc chieftain nearly got us, but we stopped him. I swear, these guys are getting smarter and smarter each day."

"Even though they have shit for brains? Just beat them up the way you usually do."

"I would if we weren't allowed to damage the dam ourselves."

"All right..."

"Where's Valis anyway?"

"He's out calibrating his new gun. Accuracy problems."

"Okay, and my mum?"

"Sapphira's out doing some shopping. She'll be back pretty soon."

"And... Luticia?"

"Last I saw, she was taking a nap."

"I guess we'd better not get in the way of your cleaning," I smiled and got up.

"Yeah. And now I have nine tails to clean thanks to you!"

"Oh c'mon!"

"I was joking! Have fun with Luticia, all right?"

"You don't have to tell me that!"

Luticia's room was right next to ours on the second floor, so we had to climb up two storeys. The ground floor had the kitchen, dining room and living room, while the first floor had two bedrooms. Ben, Clara and Valis lived on that floor, with the two guys sharing a room and Clara having a room all to herself. Our old bedroom on that floor had been converted into a study and office, with one of those newfangled holographic computers and several other stuff one would find in an office. Our financial records and other documents were kept inside, locked securely.

The second floor had three bedrooms. Scotty and I shared a room just in front of the stairs and a double bed; Luticia's was next to ours and my mum's bedroom was opposite ours. I still remembered Luticia's baby stage, when she often woke us up with her crying. Those memories of all 3 of us rushing into her room to calm her down made me chuckle a little... overkill, haha.

She wasn't even sleeping when I entered the room. In fact, she was gazing out the window, apparently waiting for us to get back. Obviously she got a surprise when we walked in behind her. "Mama, Papa!" she ran to me and wrapped her arms around my waist, being unable to reach my torso. Sure, she was only 4, but she was growing pretty damn fast... she looked about 7 or 8. She had my long black hair, and somehow my figure had carried over too - her body was well-developed and well-rounded for her age. She did have Scotty's green eyes and athletic prowess though. And his smarts. Scotty always argued that the smarts and athleticism came from me, but... geez. Oh well.

She was currently wearing a light pink embroidered dress with a white shirt over it., but underneath she had one thing I half-wished hadn't carried over. It seemed that the metallic parasite that had entered my body 5 years ago had reproduced, and she had it as well. The parasite strengthened the body of its host, while sucking away his or her life force. It didn't happen to me, and it wasn't happening to Luticia either. Mine had developed into the armour that I was wearing now, and hers was almost exactly the same, just downsized to fit her body.

I didn't want her to show it - she was still too young. Thus, I had her wear clothing outside. I was just lucky the parasite didn't bother touching the clothes. She could barely control it too - she couldn't make it meld back into her body like I could. "How was your trip?" Luticia asked. Eh, Clara had asked that exact same question just now... "Pretty nice, we got to see the highland area. They have nice rivers and forests there," I patted her head gently. She just stood there and let me do it, smiling brightly... it made me feel proud as a mother, seeing her smile...

"I'll take you there sometime, ok?" I knelt down to her eye level. Her eyes lit up with happiness and she hugged me tight... man, she was strong for her age too.

"Promise?" she asked.

"Promise," I smiled, kissing her forehead.

It was nice having a kid... I just hoped she'd grow up well and become a good person. "Papa, can I try lifting your sword again?" Luticia asked Scotty. He smiled, but shook his head, "You're not strong enough yet. Wait till you're bigger, ok?" Our daughter pouted and fixed her eyes on the greatsword on his back. I couldn't help laughing a little as I watched. Eventually, Scotty was forced to give in, and he set the weapon down on the floor. Luticia immediately grabbed the grip and tried to lift it up, but she could barely lift it above 10 centimetres... but that alone was pretty incredible at her current age. Scotty's greatsword was damn heavy.

"Mmm..." Luticia flopped back on her bed.

"Let me change first, ok?" I smiled at her and left her room, walking around to the master bedroom.

Just beside the door was a wardrobe filled with clothes - mostly expensive ones, but I didn't want to admit it. They were just expensive to normal people - we were sort-of rich. I set the 3 living weapons on the floor before taking a deep breath to allow my armour to meld back into my body, leaving me standing in front of the wardrobe naked. I opened a few drawers and put on a pair of panties, followed by a red T-shirt and a white miniskirt with a black pattern on it. The shirt itself was a little undersized and exposed my midriff, but it was a lot better than some of my other casual clothes. No bra - most of the shops here didn't stock my size. Not that I needed one... my armour was essentially all I needed.

"It's no wonder Luticia is busty too," Lucia said behind me, having reverted to her human form. She was wearing casuals too, just different from mine. It was only my actual armour that carried over to them, not normal clothes. "Keep talking..." I sighed, pulling my hair out from inside my shirt and letting it down. "When will we be leaving for the sunken city?" Merylynn's turn to assume her human form. "Once everyone is ready, but not today, I guess. Lucia, can you run over to Kyle and Winnie's house and tell them? I'd like them to come along too."

"Roger that," Lucia ran downstairs. I heard the door open and close as she left the house.

"Emmm, Traya?" Now Lynia was in her human form.

"Yup?"

"You sure Winnie won't accidentally electrocute us while we're underwater?"

"... Good point."

"And Kyle is an Earth-elemental Beastmaster. He'll have trouble fighting underwater without companions," Merylynn pointed out.

"I forgot about that too. Oh well..."

"Let's just discuss with them when they get here."

"Agreed."

I returned to Luticia's room while Lynia and Merylynn went downstairs. They usually just hung around whenever I was at home, save for Merylynn. I got the feeling that she was closer to Scotty than to me, though I didn't really mind. He was better at using greatswords anyway, so it was only logical that Merylynn stay with him. He could even dual-wield his own greatsword together with Merylynn if he wanted to.

Luticia was still trying to lift Scotty's greatsword, and her face was getting a little red from all the effort she was putting into it. I smiled and walked over to her side. "Just try again when you're older," I said. "Okay... Mama..." she panted and let go. "Good girl. I'll buy you an ice cream when we go out later, ok?" I rubbed her head gently. "Ice cream!" she exclaimed. Scotty sighed and stood up, lifting the greatsword with one hand and sliding it back into its sheath on his back effortlessly.

"Let's go down now, it's almost time for lunch," I told Luticia. The clock on the wall read about 11:30 - my mum usually began cooking around this time. And right at that moment, a very nice smell wafted up the stairs... speak of the devil.

I snapped my fingers, and a hidden door opened up beside the stairs. It was a little something we had put in there in case of a robbery or something - it was hard to get downstairs in time to catch any burglars when we lived on the 2nd floor. Through the hidden door was a blank space with a steel rod reaching from our floor to the ground floor. We had all learnt how to slide down it - even Luticia was well-versed in it already. Besides helping to catch robbers, it served as a quick way down.

I leapt for the rod and caught it, wrapping my arms around it and pressing my body against it as I slid down. The place was kind of small - I could barely fit in without doing that. I suppose it came with being installed far too late... we didn't have enough room to put it in when we decided to do it. It rubbed against my breasts, but it was a feeling I was used to already, and I leapt off before I hit the ground. Another hidden door opened to let me through, and I rolled out into the living room.

"You were a quarter of a second too slow kicking off," Clara commented.

"Do you have to be so exact?"

"It's a quarter of a second extra time you stay in view if someone's in here. Some people can easily react in that time. Every millisecond counts in combat."

"Okay, okay, I get it."

"Get what?"

Eh, when did Luticia get behind me...? "That was a perfect drop!" Clara exclaimed. WHAT!? "Eheh... was it?" Luticia blushed. "You serious?" I stared at Clara. She nodded. "Even your daughter does it better," she laughed. Oh great... but I could see the logic. A quarter of a second was a lot of time which could be used to dodge an attack or pull one off - heck, even one tenth of a second was a lot of time. Now that I thought about it...

"You're seriously gonna use Meteor Shower?"

"Of course! None of my other spells can hit you, and I don't have an unlimited supply of mana. Isn't it just logical to end it the quick way?"

"You'll blow us all up if you do!"

"Do I care?"

"What..."

"My partner's still alive. That's enough to win this tournament."

"Crap..."

It was the only time Scotty had ever lost a fight... but that was because we had made a mistake in our strategy, mistaking the assassin for a mage. Scotty's only Achilles's heel was his mobility - he couldn't react fast enough against a foe more agile than he was. Normally I was there to cover for him, but in this double trouble tournament... Each fighter was restricted to fighting only his or her designated opponent. If one from each pair made it, a tiebreaker would be fought between the two. Problem was... the witch in front of me was pretty powerful... Although her focus was on strength, not on spell speed, Meteor Shower hit far too wide an area for me to dodge. I had seen the effects of a Meteor Shower before - scorched earth. Literally.

In the event that Scotty ever lost, I was to be the trump card that won the game, but even I couldn't block Meteor Shower... it was way too powerful to be blockable, even though it took a long time to cast. But... her barrier was near impossible to break with my current abilities, and I'd need to wait at least another minute until the seal on my full abilities could be broken.

Wait. If I couldn't block Meteor Shower... and neither could she...

"Here it comes. Feel the heat!" the witch cawed loudly as a hole... opened in the clouds above. A red light shone through, and a red ball of fire came through, followed by another. The audience arranged around the arena 'ooh'ed in response, before they realized that the barrier around the arena area had long been destroyed by the witch's magic. Then they scattered.

Not that I planned on letting the meteors hit them anyway... but this was all timing. If I messed up on even one meteor... I was dead.

Merylynn's greatsword form could only sustain a little heat before she was forced to turn back to her human form to regenerate. I didn't have the strength to smack those meteors right back at her with her at her default length, so I had to extend her mid-swing to increase her mass, allowing me to hit the meteors back using her momentum, but I also had to get her back to her normal length before contact with the hot meteors overheated her, otherwise she wouldn't be able to regenerate in time to deal with the next meteor... lucky she cooled down very quickly.

"Batter up!" I spun Merylynn's sheath around and drew her out. It was now or never.

I could still remember the look on that witch's face when I batted one of the meteors back at her. She was so surprised that she didn't even dodge it, and she ended up as crispy barbecue. Not to mention not one of the meteors hit the ground - though I screwed up on the last one and Merylynn overheated. Still, nobody besides the witch got hurt, and I demolished her partner in the tiebreaker. When I told Scotty about what had happened, the first sentence he said was, "Nice home run!" That... was seriously worth a few laughs. Still, that was very damn close...

"So what's cookin'?"

All of a sudden, there was a magician standing behind me. He had short brown hair, and wore a black jacket over a red shirt and black pants. His eyes were as blue as the sea... I just noticed that I almost never took the time to look at Ben properly. "When did you get there?" I asked. "Just now. You didn't notice?" he eyed me. I hadn't even noticed him... and apparently neither had Luticia - she was staring at him with a surprised expression on her face.

The smell wafting out of the kitchen was already far too strong for me to resist, so I half-ran in. Sure enough, my mother was at the stove, stirring a pot of soup. She was a tall, buxom woman with long black hair like mine... and she was a succubus. Technically, she wasn't my real mother - she was the mother of the succubus part of my soul. Still, she was just about the only mother I had now. My real one was too busy playing Queen to really take care of me.

I was actually a member of a royal family, but I had ditched that status when I left home as a kid. Royalty came with far too many restrictions for me. I didn't like being a caged bird - I liked being free, and I was living such a life now...

"Just taking in that smell is making me hungry..." Scotty sniffed - he had just gotten down.

"Good, because if you don't finish this, I'll make you guys run around the house until you work up enough of an appetite to finish it," Sapphira, my mother, grinned.

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 4

"So you guys want to explore a sunken city?" my mother said, studying the map I was magically levitating in the air. It was old and worn, but still readable. I was copying the whole thing onto another piece of paper as I looked over it. If I took the original map underwater, it'd probably dissolve, and I'd have spent all that money for nothing. I didn't dare to bring it out to a photocopier because of the immense value of the piece... which others were sure to want a piece of.

"Pretty much. We'll find a boat or something to take us there and go down in underwater gear," I said.

"Won't it be dangerous?" Lynia asked.

"Probably. It's an uncharted region - nobody knows a thing about it. We've only this map to go by."

"Then wouldn't it be better to take a submarine?" Clara suggested.

"I considered that, but what'll we do if we end up fighting something like a Kraken?"

I shuddered at the thought. That giant octopus had given us a lot of trouble in the past, attacking a ship we were on. That... thing was at least the size of a small island, and was near impossible to defeat. It had ended up with the ship being sunk, and I had been forced to take the others away using my Shadow Angel Queen mode. Regrettably, a lot of people died, but I had no choice. I couldn't carry an entire passenger ship... The only thing that had helped me escape the Kraken's tentacles was my small size and speed. Stuff submarines didn't have.

"Point taken," Scotty said.

"But then we'll be going down deep into a high-pressure environment... The gear for that is pretty bulky, and we can't withstand those kinds of pressures without the gear!" Clara argued.

"I have a contact who's working with a company making and testing that kind of stuff. Apparently they have a new, light model that's made for deep sea exploration, but it's just a prototype. I think they'll be happy to let us give the gear an operational test," Ben said.

"It's dangerous! That stuff hasn't been tested yet!"

"It works fine under simulations, so there's no reason it shouldn't be fine for us. Traya, you don't need one, right?"

"Yeah. My Siren form can take the pressure."

"I still think we should take a sub," Clara pouted.

"Even if we take a sub, we'll need to get out of it to explore," Scotty pointed out.

"If you guys want a sub, I think a small one will work fine. My contact's company is also working on one called the Vanguard. I've seen it before - it's big enough to fit our whole party and supplies in. And they threw in some new tech, so it's as maneuverable as a sub half its size."

"You sure know your stuff, Ben."

"Thanks."

"Scotty, what should we do?"

"We'll take the Vanguard down into the deep together with those new diving suits. If there's a problem with the suits, we'll return to land immediately. No point risking our lives. Everyone agree?"

All of us nodded.

"I wanna go!" Luticia suddenly said.

I gazed at Scotty expectantly, but he just returned it. Oh well... "It's dangerous, darling. You still want to go?" I looked at my daughter. "I know how to take care of myself!" she nodded. Scotty gave me another look - heck, even Sapphira and Clara were staring at me. Well... we probably wouldn't come across another opportunity like this... and I wanted to let Luticia see as much of the world and our line of work as possible. She needed to know about the dangers of the world and see them so that she would be able to pick a job she liked in the future.

"Alright, but don't disturb us without a good reason while we're exploring, okay?"

Scotty sighed as our daughter cheered. Clara and Sapphira both shook their heads. No doubt there'd be questions later.

Just as we were getting up, someone knocked at the door, and it opened. Lucia entered, followed by a green-haired woman in white robes, and then a lean man with short black hair wearing jeans and a brown shirt. "About time you two got here," I smiled. A welcome distraction - hopefully they'd forget to ask me why I decided to bring Luticia along. Winnie was the mage - she specialized in using lightning magic, and Kyle was a Beastmaster - one who fought by summoning other creatures to help in combat.

"Hey, did we miss anything?" Winnie greeted us.

"Quite a bit. Have a seat, we can talk about it over lunch."

"Thanks," Kyle nodded.

"What took you two so long anyway?"

"We were off doing some shopping, and got back a few minutes after Lucia arrived."

"Something smells nice - what's cooking?"

"A special recipe of mine. I guarantee you'll want more after you eat it - Fate here loved it so much that I had to control her intake so she wouldn't get fat, haha!" Sapphira laughed, much to my embarrassment. Geez, she just had to say it... They were all used to my mother calling me Fate now - it was the name of the succubus that I had performed soul fusion with, and her actual daughter. In essence, Fate was a part of me now.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"So when do we head out?"

"As soon as Ben gets everything ready. It should be within the week or so..."

"I can get everything we need in two days."

"Alright. Until then, all of us should stock up on potions, food and equipment as needed. Remember, we'll be going underwater, so bring stuff that's resistant to water," Scotty said.

"We won't be able to wear our own armour, right?"

"Yeah, but we'll probably be in the Vanguard most of the time. Bring your own armour though, just in case we need them."

"Got it."

"Dismissed."

All of us got up, and Scotty went upstairs. I knew he needed to perform an inventory review - all of us did, save for me. They needed to switch to equipment that was water-resistant, since we'd be going underwater. My Siren form was naturally resistant to water and ice, and I had power over those two elements, so I didn't need any more. Besides, my armour automatically changed to become water-elemental in that form.

I didn't know if Luticia exhibited the same ability as me to change into a Siren form, but somehow... I could sense that energy radiating from her. Most probably she also could do it, but I wanted her to stay in the sub throughout the whole trip. She was in enough danger being in the sub itself already.

Well... I had two more days to spend in town. Maybe I could take a walk outside for a change. Lately, all the days I had been in town were just spent lounging around the house, with nothing to do. Or maybe I could try looking around for an easy quest... Scotty and the others were bound to be busy with preparations for the trip, since I knew Scotty himself didn't have much in the way of water-elemental equipment. It could take days for him to find suitable weapons.

"I'm going out for a walk. See you in a few hours, Lute," I ruffled my daughter's hair. She had the exact same hair as me - perfectly straight most of the time. She smiled and ran upstairs. Guess she had some new stuff to talk to her friends about over the internet now. I liked it when she was happy...

I pushed open the door and walked out into the street. Now... where to go? Come to think of it, I hadn't visited the beach area in a long while now. Was there anything new there?

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Nothing much had changed besides the monster population. It seemed that in the years I hadn't come, the dragon turtle population had dramatically increased. There were now 10 of them every hundred metres, compared to the 3 before... Other monsters were now hard to come by, and owing to the difficulty of the dragon turtles, nobody was here to attempt to take them down. Maybe I could try taking a few down... but I'd have to use one of my alternate forms. My human form simply wasn't strong enough to even dent the shell of a dragon turtle.

But... not now. I was still wearing my casual clothes, and I didn't like getting them ripped up in combat. Maybe after we returned from the trip. I sighed and sat down on the sand. It was warmed up from the afternoon sun - a little too warm for me. The sand closer to the sea was cooler - I liked that part better.

The temple where I had met the Siren was to my left, but it looked relatively deserted. I just sat on the sand and listened to the sound of the sea... the water splashing up onto the shore, receding and repeating the cycle. It seemed to be calling to me... no surprise, really. My Siren desires for water took precedence when I was in my human form. In a few more days... I'd be able to swim all I wanted, no problem.

"These dragon turtles are bad for fishing," someone said behind me. I turned and saw an elderly fisherman standing behind me, with a fishing pole in his arm.

"They eat all the fish that swim around here, so the usual fish aren't even here to bite," he sighed.

"Isn't the Fisherman's Guild trying to do something about it then?"

"They are... but nobody's got the guts to take on them dragon turtles. If I were half my current age, I'd be chasing the winds and taking down monsters like you youngsters now..."

"Haha... I guess you can't help it."

"It seems so... Apparently the Guild once hired some people with warships to take down the pests, but they even sank those ships. Tough nutters, them dragon turtles."

"Why not bomb them from the air?"

"You know their shells - they're so hard that they can even deflect bunker busters. And they're resistant to lightning, so very few attacks have any effect of them."

"Hope someone can solve the problem soon..."

"Yeah. Sarena's port trade is decreasing because the traders are afraid of the dragon turtles. Soon, the government's hand will be forced, and they should put a reward up for them. Hopefully that'll end this problem."

"I'd hate to see this town go down. And it's so close to becoming a city too..."

"That... I agree with you. If you might... you could try taking them on."

"I guess..."

I sighed. After that chat, I really felt like taking down a few dragon turtles. With Forsaken Destiny, it wouldn't be a problem - it'd cut right through them like a knife through hot butter using the space-warping ability. Well... it couldn't hurt, as long as I took off my casuals and put on my armour before taking them on. Their compressed water jets hurt a LOT. I stood up and started stripping, much to the surprise of the fisherman. My armour grew back out of my body as I did, covering up what stripping revealed. It took less than 10 seconds to change, and I stowed the clothes in my pouch.

Lucia, Lynia and Merylynn weren't in their usual positions on me - they were back home resting. I wouldn't need them for this anyway. "You are..." the fisherman gasped. I guess I had become a little famous after that ordeal in the Shadow World 6 years ago - a lot of people could easily recognize me. Usually only when I had my armour on and all decked out in weaponry. 'A sexy female black-haired Weaponmaster', they said. "This is as much my town as it is yours, old man," I smiled at the fisherman. His surprised expression changed to one of relief.

"You know how it is with old eyes... sorry I didn't recognize you. Happy hunting, Maiden of the Shadows."

It was a nickname derived from my usual appearances out of the shadows and my looks - this only started a year or so after my return. Before then, I was just... Traya. Apparently my new title was a lot catchier, and I had to say... I liked it. It made me feel like more than just a normal hunter... then again, it turned out that I had been one of the strongest people in the world. Now... a few more people had beaten me already. Very few had the determination to chase me. Pity, they could've used the time I was out of action because of my pregnancy to train themselves.

I made sure everything I needed was on me before drawing Forsaken Destiny. Most successful attacks on dragon turtles relied on surprising one before it noticed it was being attacked. This way, the attackers could get in more hits before the turtle started dishing out some real damage. Even then, it was very risky. Dragon turtles had an attack where they retracted into their shells and started spinning around quickly like a top, throwing sand up into the air, blinding its attackers and throwing them back - usually following up with a water jet at range.

I didn't have to sneak up on the turtle I was targeting - I just slashed once in the air with Forsaken Destiny to open up a gap in space. When I walked through it, I was already behind the turtle. "Nighty night," I slashed at it once. The blade passed through another, smaller gap in space and warped through the shell to cut at the soft insides within. The beast roared loudly before collapsing on the beach, with its 2 hearts pierced.

Dragon turtles actually had some redundant organs. Their two hearts pumped blood together, but one could function alone if the other was to break down, though they weakened if that happened. If the other heart wasn't damaged fast enough, the first heart would regenerate itself and make things a lot tougher for a would-be attacker. However, if the first heart was completely vaporized somehow, it wouldn't be able to regenerate. I didn't need to do that - I could cut both in one single swing of Forsaken Destiny.

The other dragon turtles turned their attention to me, but I was long gone by the time the nearest one had time to focus on my location. When I appeared beside it, it didn't even have time to react as I sliced its head clean off and Shadowleaped away into the shadow of another one. This one, I slid right under it and stuck Forsaken Destiny in its belly. "Blade Detonation!" I shouted, forcing my mana into the weapon. There was a loud explosion from inside the turtle, and smoke billowed out from the warp in space that the weapon had passed through.

Blade Detonation was, like the name implied, a technique that 'detonated' the blade of a weapon for extra damage. Any normal weapon would break upon using it, but Forsaken Destiny's integrity was high enough to withstand at least 3 uses of the technique. Not only that, my special ability allowed it to regenerate its integrity when sheathed. Came in pretty handy... when I had the time to let it regenerate.

I slid out from under the dragon turtle as it collapsed, but I was forced to roll aside to dodge a water jet that threw up chunks of sand beside me. It strafed aside in an attempt to hit me, but I was long gone by then. When the water jet stopped, I leapt right for the dragon turtle's head - it just stared at me in surprise as I drew both my black katanas and stabbed it in the eyes, penetrating the soft flesh and going right through the brain.

The head was the only weak spot of a dragon turtle, but then anyone attacking the head without a good plan would probably find the head retreating into the shell before being able to deal any serious damage. And once it was in the shell, it was very hard to hit it. Even if it didn't retreat into the shell, the water jet posed a serious threat - one I could easily dodge. Not a problem for me.

It took me barely an hour to clear the whole beach of dragon turtles - though I took a bit of damage, it wasn't really serious. By then, a pretty big crowd of onlookers had gathered to watch. It wasn't everyday you saw a hunter single-handedly defeating almost a hundred dragon turtles. A lightly-armed female hunter, whatmore. "A marvelous display of skill... I suppose your title is not just for show, eh? Haha!" the fisherman laughed as I returned to him.

"I'm not really that good, to be honest..." I blushed.

"No need to be so humble, Maiden of the Shadows. I'm sure the officer at the Fisherman's Guild would be happy to give you a reward! He may even be here watching right now!"

People started murmuring at the end of the fisherman's first sentence. Most of the people here knew me - my triumphant return from the Shadow World had been well-publicized by the government and the Church of Light. Judging by their expressions, they hadn't expected me to be in town. A short, fat man with a mustache stepped out of the crowd, panting. Guess he had squeezed through.

"I'm from the Fisherman's Guild... huff huff..." he panted, walking over to me.

"Whaddya know, they were watching," the fisherman whistled.

"Indeed... these dragon turtles are far too much of a nuisance... I am merely passing on a message from the Guild. They thank you for your effort and would like to reward you."

"Now?"

"If it's not too much trouble."

"Because you guys better get back. I think I just made the big one mad," I turned back towards the coast. I had only just sensed a very large disturbance coming...

"Big one?" the representative blinked in surprise. His expression quickly changed into one of horror as he realized the implications. "Everyone, retreat to the city!" he shouted.

I reached into my pouch and pulled out a phone, flipping it open to put a call through to Scotty. He picked up almost instantly. "Hello, something up?" he asked.

"Might wanna come over to the beach. I think we're in for some serious trouble..."

"What kind of trouble?"

"Giant dragon turtle trouble," I replied as... the shell of a humongous dragon turtle rose out of the water. Oh boy... I sure hoped I hadn't bitten on more than I could chew.

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 5

Not only was this particular dragon turtle gigantic... it had three heads, each the size of two houses... The turtle itself was the size of a small island - it could probably easily trample Sarena if it wanted to. Damn... I hadn't expected this to happen. "Call the town militia! No, send out distress signals to every nearby town or city! We're going to need a lot of firepower to take that thing down..." I told the Fisherman's Guild's representative. He only nodded in fear and scrambled off. A mass panic was starting up in town - I couldn't blame them.

This thing was far bigger than the Shadow King's giant form that I had fought 6 years ago - I highly doubted that I'd be able to deal with it in one shot like before. Besides, only my Queen Mode had enough output to pull off Ragnarok Maxima, and even that exhausted me enough that I'd be taken out of the fight after usage. No, it would be better to save my energy and mana.

As the massive dragon turtle moved, the earth shook and some of the weaker buildings in town actually collapsed. I could hear screaming everywhere... it was like this had come out of a nightmare or something. Right now, I was the only one standing before the monstrosity - all others had ran away.

"Whoa, we're in some really deep shit now."

Scotty ran up behind me, followed by the rest of our party. Even Luticia had tagged along... but she was holding a sniper rifle. I glared at Clara, who only just pointed at an elf behind us. Valis had his goggles on, and he had two sniper rifles slung on his back. His long golden hair blew in the wind, but his eyes were focused on the monster before us. "I'll have to think of something witty to say to you later - there's no time for that now. Make sure you take care of her, alright?" I shouted over the sound of the turtle's feet smashing into the ground. Valis nodded and picked Luticia up easily, jumping off onto the roof of an adjacent building.

"Aim for the eyes! If it can't see us, all the better!" I yelled after them.

Moments later, sniper fire blasted out from the roof very loudly - it sounded like Valis was using his heavier armour-piercing one. The dragon turtle roared very loudly... enough that it nearly deafened me and looked right at the two of them with its middle head and opened its mouth. Oh boy... the water jet. But with the thing as big as it was...

"RUN!"

The water jet blasted out of the mouth at an incredible speed - it hit the ground where we were standing mere seconds after firing. Even then it continued on right through a few buildings before the pressure weakened enough for the jet to stop. The affected buildings collapsed to the ground as our entire party looked on. "That jet was damn wide..." Scotty murmured. If we hadn't moved away, that would've hit us for sure. But if we kept staying near the town, those missed shots would hit it... and that really meant trouble.

"Split up! Go to either side of it!" I jumped off to the dragon turtle's left side. Once I was out of its view, I quickly closed my eyes and started to concentrate. "Releasing seal," I whispered.

Two large demonic wings burst out of my back with a fancy black feather effect spreading out, along with a long, thin draconic tail. After assuming my Shadow Angel form, I took to the air. "Catch!" a familiar voice shouted in my head. I reached out with both my hands and my tail and caught all three of my human weapons as they hurtled towards me. "Scotty!" I shouted, throwing Merylynn in his direction with my tail. Scotty neatly caught her with one hand, holding his own greatsword in the other.

I put Lynia on my back and pulsed my own mana into Lucia. Her bow form, which was originally about my own height, quickly doubled its size. I barely even felt the extra weight - she was just too light. "Let's get him," I nocked an arrow to the string, then realized that somehow, one of the monster's heads had retracted into its shell and come back out beside one of its legs. And it was staring at me with its mouth wide open.

"Shit," I cursed.

I shut my wings tight around my body and aimed myself at the ground, plummeting downwards to dodge the water jet that had just blasted out of the open mouth. Even then, the jet nicked my tail as I dropped, and I half-screamed in pain. The pain also screwed up my landing, causing me to fall face-first onto the sand. The first thing I did after getting up was swing my tail around to check. The tip was all swollen up... "I can't imagine what would've happened to me if that directly hit me..." I cast a quick Heal on it, purging my exterior Shadow Barrier to blow off the sand on me. Another one reformed soon after as I took off again.

"So this thing can attack all around it, huh..." I murmured, looking on. The heads retracted into the shell and came back out beside another leg from time to time, sometimes even switching places with the legs. It felt a little... gross just watching it. The problem was that Valis and Luticia had to keep running around in their attempts to snipe the thing's eyes. Very problematic. And looking at the size, one Shadow Bind wouldn't even faze the thing. Best to just kill it off as fast as possible.

I flew closer to the dragon turtle, only to be greeted by a head popping out beside a leg again. "I won't fall for the same trick twice!" I flew aside, dodging the water jet as it came out. When it stopped, I quickly fired an explosive arrow into the mouth. The detonation left that head foaming slightly, but it didn't seem to have done any major damage.

The next thing I knew, the head was back up again and was glaring at me pretty hard. "This guy's giving me the creeps," I murmured, nocking another arrow to Lucia's string. If only we had another way to attack it... but being a turtle, the shell on its back was bound to be far too hard to attack. Not to mention it was so big... I guessed that the shell would be at least 10 meters thick. Even my strongest armour-piercing attack couldn't penetrate that deep... Right now, my only advantage was being able to fly. If I lost it by switching to my Siren form, I'd have a lot more trouble dodging attacks. Especially because my tail in that form was so long... but it could present other ways to attack, since I had control over water.

I flew aside to dodge another water jet, but this time the turtle's mouth closed fast enough that my explosive arrow only hit outside, minimizing the damage. Smart one. I hated smart monsters. "When are we going to get backup!? It's going to reach the town in about an hour at this rate!" I shouted. Oh wait, no one else was listening in at this altitude. We needed some serious firepower to kill the monster... and that was something we didn't have.

A few rocks smashed against the monster's shell, and it turned its attention towards a few catapults that had just appeared on the scene. Finally, a little help... though it wasn't much. It'd take quite a lot of hits to smash through that insanely thick shell... "Oh boy," I murmured. The mouth was opening.

The water jet blasted out, but it didn't hit the catapults. Rather... it hit the cone-shaped Shadow Barrier I had put up in front of them. The shape of the barrier deflected the water jet instead of blocking it, allowing me to hold off the sustained attack. Even then... the barrier shattered as soon as the jet stopped. What power... "You guys, get away from here! You won't be able to even dent the shell of that thing!" I shouted at the catapult crews. They only nodded in fear and scrambled away, leaving the catapults behind. Better than them dying, at least.

The massive dragon turtle had turned its attention away from me now, and looking at the remaining catapult stones left gave me an idea. I still remembered the incident from 6 years ago, when the Shadow Angels had assaulted the Shadow King's castle by launching catapult stones off a ramp at high speed to hit the castle from far away - much further than any catapult could throw. In this case, I didn't need a ramp. All I needed...

I flew up slightly and reached a hand out into the air. A huge golf club of solidifed Shadow mana appeared in it, and I enclosed one of the stones in a Shadow Barrier. "Fore!" I swung with all the energy I could muster in my hands and tail.

The impact shattered the golf club, but sent the stone flying right at the monster. It hit right on the head, stunning it. Moments later, I saw Scotty attach a string of his own mana to the stone and swing it around like a mace, bashing the head again. Only then did the Shadow Barrier around it break together with the stone itself.

I quickly slashed open a hole in space and teleported to Scotty's side. He flashed me a thumbs up while gesturing at the fragments of the stone I had golfballed at the monster with his other hand. "You're the only one who would think of something like that," he grinned. "Was it that easy to figure out I was the one doing it?" I asked. "Yeah. Can you get me up there? I can't jump up by myself since the shell is too slippery. Drop me right on top of the guy so I can do some major damage," he pointed at the top of the shell. "What are you going to do?" I eyed him. "I'll let you choose. Either I try to crack his shell apart like I can do with earth, or I can try to cook him alive inside."

"Can you do both?"

"Yup."

I grabbed Scotty's hand and flew up into the air. Man... he was heavy... Even with my current strength, it was hard just maintaining my current altitude... I flapped my wings as hard as I could, slowly carrying Scotty up. Hopefully the monster wouldn't notice us.

It took almost a minute to get him up top, and I collapsed onto the shell to rest as Scotty tested the shell. He knocked on it a few times and put his helmet to it, listening. "About 10 meters deep, tough but old," he deduced, kneeling as the thing's shell shook from its movement. "You're... heavy..." I moaned. "Sorry, it's my armour," he helped me up. My arms felt like they were about to fall off... "You'd better get off. I don't want to accidentally hurt you by using Quake here," he told me.

I nodded and flew off as Scotty prepared. He rammed both Merylynn and his own greatsword into the shell, easily penetrating the older outer layer. "Quake Blast!" he shouted. Both greatswords glowed red, and the shell cracked apart even more. A series of explosions inside the shell itself then blew the outer layers apart. The turtle roared loudly as its shell's entire outer layer came off, revealing a layer coloured a lighter shade of brown inside... the younger, sturdier part.

"Have another serving! Quake Blast!" Scotty repeated the attack. This time, it blew off a layer that was thinner compared to the last one. When he tried the third time, both swords couldn't penetrate the layer and he was forced to jump off the turtle as one of its heads came around to blow him off with a water jet. "At least it wasn't totally ineffective," I stared at the shell. It was significantly thinner now... I estimated around 3 metres thick now. Still, that was thick. But it was a start.

"What about Merylynn?"

"What's left of the shell is too hard for even her to pierce through. I think she'd just bounce off even if I used her maximum length."

"Damn..."

"But if there's even a small hole in the shell, I can just stick her in and output all my mana through her into the shell. If I use all my power, then I should be able to crack the shell right open."

"But then you'll..."

"Yeah, wear myself out. But then the turtle will completely lose its protection, right?"

"I don't think it'll work. Really. Your previous Quake Blasts couldn't even shake the innermost layers."

"Nah, it'll be close. The first one took more than 5 metres off the thickness. The second one did 3. If the damage from each blast is halved, then if I can get another one in, there should be a few places in which the shell completely breaks off. That'll be your chance."

"Too risky. If you fail, you'll just be left like that, wide open."

"I DO have potions you know. Besides, you could also airlift me away."

"I don't want you to die..."

"I won't. Don't worry. Just focus on cratering his shell somewhere so I can use Quake Blast."

"Alright... but I'll be with you when you use it."

"What?"

"I came up with a new technique that lets me transfer my mana into someone else. It's a little unstable now... but it works."

"Unstable how?"

"Sometimes I give more than I intend to, and sometimes I give less. Nothing to worry about - at least you won't use up all your mana hitting that thing."

"If you say so... Let's get to it!"

I flipped open my cellphone and put in a call to Valis as I took off. The dragon turtle noticed me almost immediately and aimed a water jet my way. I easily dove under it. Right then, Valis picked up and I half-yelled into the phone, "Aim for the shell with contact explosive shells!" Maybe a little too loud. "No need to shout, I got it!" he replied, cutting the connection. Moments later, there were explosions all over the shell from those special explosive bullets.

Clara followed suit moments later, and even Ben switched to using magic with exploding effects. Kyle and Winnie didn't have anything that could explode, so they just used piercing attacks. My mother herself started using her throwing knives, imbuing them with her own magic so that they would explode on contact. Of course, they didn't seem to have much effect on the shell.

I guess I had no other choice... if Scotty were to output enough mana to blow up the whole turtle, he'd need a hell of a lot of mana to do it. The younger layers probably got harder as time passed because the turtle adapted to the heavy underwater pressure. And no doubt it would be highly resistant to magical attacks too. The heat from Scotty's Quake Blast was a result of the mana he had put into it - and it had no effect at all on the shell. The turtle itself was as resilient as the shell too. What if we blew up the shell and it regrew? What if there was another, stronger layer inside? There were so many things that could happen... I couldn't take any chances.

I spread my wings out to their fullest, levitating in mid-air as a magic circle appeared around me. My eyes began to emit a bright blood red glow as the circle multiplied itself to form the outline of a sphere around me. "Ex-form, activate," I whispered. It was the only way I could give Scotty enough mana to demolish the whole turtle in one shot. Besides, the technique suffered from a 60% mana loss when I was transferring. It was still far from perfection...

My wings became slightly bigger, and my hair and tail extended even more. My hands turned black as long metallic blades sprouted out of their backs as the grappling hook on my left wrist and the spinner on my right melded into my hands and my fingernails elongated and sharpened into long claws. The hands were unique only to me - other Shadow Angels had normal human-like hands. Mine were demonic-looking, but did enhance my magic significantly. A long black horn grew out of my forehead too.

This was my normal ex-form - I still had a second tier available, but the Queen Mode could only be used when there was a sufficient concentration of Shadow mana in the air. To fulfill that condition, I'd have to either spread my own Shadow mana around in the air by attacking using magical attacks or use a special mana 'grenade' Clara had come up with. By periodically pumping my own unused mana into special grenades, I could use them to spread Shadow mana in the air, allowing me to use my more powerful attacks.

"We only have one shot at this... so let's make sure we end it," I whispered, reaching into my pouch and pulling out a black grenade that emitted a powerful black aura. I pulled the pin out and just held it like that until it burst. A large black cloud immediately appeared around me, and I felt... stronger. "Let's do it!" I reached out with both hands.

Black clouds gathered above us, blocking out the sun and plunging the place into darkness as I started concentrating. The cloud of Shadow mana around me quickly formed a black sphere all around me, and dissipated moments later after I was done. It took only a few seconds to enter my Queen Mode... and the blood red glow of my eyes intensified enough that I saw almost everything in red. My own tail had lengthened again, and the horn growing out of my forehead split into two long ones that curved around to the back of my head.

My own armour had shrunk a lot - the top, at least. It shrunk to the size of my own hands, and was pretty much covered less than 80% of my chest. It did allow the crown symbol on my right breast to show perfectly well though. Two wing-shaped marks had also appeared on my abdomen, and my own body was emitting a black glow. As if I didn't look imposing enough, a second pair of smaller wings grew out of my back, just above my tail. Power flooded my body... and it made me feel good.

Ragnarok Maxima - the attack I had used 6 years ago against the Shadow King would probably obliterate Sarena if I used it, and most probably not even dent the shell of the dragon turtle. The energy from the attack wasn't focused enough - it was far too powerful to be controlled, even by me. Besides, it ate up all my mana and extra life force collected using my succubus powers, and left me sapped and vulnerable. Using it would probably mean a death sentence for me... so it would be a wiser choice to give Scotty the mana.

And I had plenty of it...

"Emperor Dragon Turtle, huh..." I murmured. The name was floating right above the monster in black letters formed out of mana. Only I could see them now. It was a pretty appropriate name...

My pulse quickened slightly, and I placed my hand on my chest to calm myself down and focus. My hand seemed to phase through my armour, allowing me to feel the bare skin within. It was the armour, actually - it was made out of liquid metal that allowed for physical skin contact from my allies while negating most magical attacks. That property was in its normal form as well, just to a lesser extent. Even Luticia had it.

"Let's see how you do against this!"

I flew up above the Emperor Dragon Turtle and fired off a single large arrow from Lucia right at the shell. It hit, but still bounced off the shell with no effect. Besides making one of the heads turn on me. Unfortunately for it, my Shadow Barrier was strong enough to repulse its water jet completely now, though it still left the barrier severely weakened. The problem here was that my attacks wouldn't hit the shell because it was too hard... they'd just bounce off.

So... I had to figure out a way to prevent the attacks from bouncing off.

"How about this?" I raised a hand and created a funnel-shaped Shadow Barrier against the shell. If arrows wouldn't cut it... then...

"Ragnarok!" I aimed Lucia at the funnel, and a magic circle appeared in mid-air in front of her. A black arrow appeared on the string - technically, it wasn't solid. This... was a spell casted using a bow, so it was only mana. I was going to shoot pure mana at that thing...

"Have a taste of this!" I fired. The arrow went through the magic circle and was instantly transformed into a black beam of mana. It hit the funnel and went into it - I had to struggle to maintain the barrier to focus the energy. My spells were that powerful. When the smoke cleared, the funnel had shattered, but the shell was still there...

...with a crack in it.

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 6

"Scotty!" I shouted.

"All right!" he shouted back as I descended. The crack I had just made was just big enough to stick a sword in. Using Merylynn could make the crack bigger since she could now find purchase in the shell.

I quickly grabbed Scotty and flew up as one of the heads whipped around and fired a water jet at me. Thankfully all my abilities were enhanced in my Queen Mode, so Scotty now felt lighter than before. The head turned to follow me, and the water jet followed as well. Still, it was easy to dodge it with my aerial speed. Once the water jet stopped, I landed on the shell near the crack and Scotty stuck Merylynn in. "Haaah!" She extended in a little - just a little, the shell was still too hard.

But that was all we needed.

"Quake Blast's power depends on how much of the surface of the blade is in contact with the ground. In this case, it's just a little... do you think you can make up for it?" Scotty looked at me.

"Who do you think I am?" I smiled, closing my hands around Scotty's hands.

He only smiled and gripped Merylynn's grip tighter.

"Quake Blast!"

"Mana Transference!"

My hands glowed black, and then Scotty's started glowing too... but his glow was dark red. Then Merylynn started glowing red. Scotty was converting my Shadow mana into Fire mana in order to use Quake Blast. That meant another penalty in efficiency... not that it mattered. The tingling sensation inside me was barely even noticeable now, but it gradually turned into a sucking sensation that soon drained me of my energy...

As Quake Blast blew the shell clean apart, I collapsed, breathing heavily... What... that one shot alone had drained my mana completely...? Even in my Queen Mode? I hadn't planned for this... guess the technique was far too unstable for practical use...

......

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Damn! I was forced to quickly jump off the Emperor Dragon Turtle's shell as it completely fell apart. I had to leave Traya behind in the smoke from my Quake Blast too... Damn it... I told her it was far too dangerous! Come to think of it, why was I suddenly so light? This was kind of strange... I was pretty sure I had worn my heaviest possible armour...

When I landed, I finally knew why. My chest was bulging out... and even my body shape had completely changed - into that of a woman's. My hair was now long enough to reach my knees - what... Traya's body? No... it was only partially like hers. The hair was still my own natural black - hers was a lot darker. My right eye was blood red, but my left one was still green. Both glowed brightly - something from Traya, I guessed.

Her black demonic wings and slim draconic tail had grown out of my back, and her usual weapons were also on me, with Lucia slung around my back together with Merylynn and Traya's chained daggers. I was already holding Merylynn and my own greatsword - so Merylynn's sheath on my left arm was empty. My armour had completely changed now - it looked like a fusion between Traya's and my style, exposing most of my now-female body, particularly the chest, and covering the rest in heavy armour.

What was going on here? Why had I become like this? Did it have something to do with Traya's Mana Transference technique?

"Traya!" I shouted, just to see if she was still on top of the smoking turtle's shell. No reply... damn. And even my voice was female... ugh, I hoped this would end quickly. I had no intention of walking around as a woman - much less such a voluptuous one. That was Traya's style, not mine... I flapped my wings as hard as I could - but found myself flying too high up. Then I stopped flapping for a moment to descend, and turned to point my body right at the Emperor Dragon Turtle.

I managed to land back on what was left of the shell without a problem - but the thing was, the shell had been completely obliterated, and the monster was motionless. Traya herself was nowhere to be found. Had she gotten caught up in the blast...? "Traya...?" Lucia whispered in my head. "No, it's Scotty. I can't find Traya," I replied. "But... if you're Scotty, then why do you look like this?" she asked. "How am I supposed to know?" I sighed.

All of a sudden, the turtle reared up again and shook me off the shell. I quickly regained my composure and started flapping my wings - but what happened next really gave me a surprise.

The Emperor Dragon Turtle actually... started shedding! What was left of the shell slowly peeled off, and the three heads went limp as... something started emerging from the soft flesh inside. What the...

"AHHH!" something hit me and knocked me down onto the ground... because it was so sudden, I didn't even have the time to react. And still, I wasn't used to this body...

A tentacle whipped around and grabbed my foot in mid-air, swinging me around like a rag toy. I gritted my teeth, pulled myself up and swung Merylynn, severing the tentacle. My momentum carried me almost into the ground - only my quick reflexes saved me from getting a faceful of sand.

"Traya!" Clara came running up, but recoiled when she saw me.

"I'm not her. Traya's somehow... disappeared," I replied, staring at the creature that was now emerging from the remains of the Emperor Dragon Turtle...

Of all the things it could be... why did it have to be a Paralodon? I had only heard of them in books before - tentacled sea serpents that could grow to well over 40 metres long and 3 metres wide. They reproduced by eating other organisms, then 'seeding' them inside using special spores that eventually grew into children Paralodon. After 'seeding', they encased the hosts inside eggs and left them on the ocean floor so that the children could grow unharmed. Once the host became too small for the children, the children would assimilate the host and hatch out of the egg... thus the name Paralodon. Parasites.

This was... troublesome. If that Paralodon had hatched normally, it would probably have assimilated the Emperor Dragon Turtle's shell, and that would've made it even tougher to beat. We were lucky we got it out before then, but this thing was too large! Though it had no prior experience in combat... its size alone was enough to squash us if we weren't careful. And if we got eaten... that was even worse.

I needed to find Traya quick...

"Clara, do you have sonic bullets?"

"Yeah. But..."

"Just use them! We don't have time! If that gets to the town, we'll have total genocide on our hands!"

"Scotty... all right."

"Just focus on stopping it from moving!"

"Got it!"

I flew up into the air, carefully controlling my wings. I really wasn't used to this... but I had no other choice. It would be very hard for me to melee a Paralodon without flying. Wait a minute - if I had Traya's powers, then wouldn't it mean I had her Shadow magic as well? Though I wasn't that used to it... "Let's give it a shot!" I smiled, sheathing Merylynn and putting my own greatsword on my back. That beam attack of hers... Ragnarok, was it?

"I'll be using you for a while," I told Lucia as I took her from my back and aimed for the Paralodon's constantly-moving head. She didn't seem to object as she near-doubled her size. I had zero experience with Traya's Shadow mana... but if I could fuse it with my own Fire mana, it shouldn't be too hard to control. "Infernal Ragnarok!" I shouted. A large magic circle appeared in front of Lucia - it was dark red in colour. Yeah, no problem.

"Have a taste of this, parasite!" I launched the arrow.

The arrow transformed into a beam of energy as it passed through the magic circle - a black beam with flames constantly licking around it. The Paralodon only stared at it, but swung aside at the last possible second. The beam was a total miss - damn. I guess only Traya had the accuracy to hit something as nimble as that... "Look out!" Clara shouted. I quickly flew aside as the Paralodon lunged for me - it missed, but a tentacle snagged me around my waist.

It passed me along the length of its body as I attempted to hack through the tentacles - but the tentacles chose to wrap themselves around specific places on my body so as to limit my strength... I eventually found myself near the head... no doubt ready to become its meal. All the more reason for me to break free. "Flame Barrier!" I shouted. Nothing happened. Did it negate magic...? Oh boy.

It seemed to start investigating me, using more tentacles to feel all around me. Was it blind or something...? Ugh, my skin felt so much more sensitive like this... Only when a tentacle snaked into my bosom did I realize that I was as soft as Traya herself... "Nngh..." this wasn't exactly a feeling I wanted to experience again... my body went limp as the Paralodon took its time deciding what to do with me...

One of the tentacles suddenly... exploded, and the remains fell to the ground. Weapon fire from the party's gunners filled the air, all of them a safe distance away from me. Still... it wasn't enough. Eventually the Paralodon settled on slowly lowering me into its mouth... despite all the flak in the air...

"No!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I woke up, panting. What was that... Scotty had turned into a woman? No... I had forcefully blown him away at the last minute, before entering the Paralodon's mouth. He had reverted to his male form then, but... what was that? I had lived those past few moments as... Scotty? What in the world had happened with the Mana Transference that something like this could happen?

I tried to get up, only to find myself inside something hard... and it was pretty dark in here... Oh yeah, the Paralodon had eaten me. Damn, that wasn't a nice thought. But... that meant... "Nnnngh..." I suddenly lost my strength and collapsed... something was wriggling around inside my stomach... great... I wondered how long I had to live... but at least Scotty was safe... and he could take care of Luticia alone...

Oh, what was I thinking!? There had to be some way out of this. There always was! I couldn't give up just yet...

But... I couldn't use my magic, no matter how hard I tried. My armour had disappeared too - it couldn't sustain itself without my mana. Somehow... the Paralodon had taken away all my mana. I tried putting my ear to the wall of the egg I was in - I could hear the sound of the sea outside. If I could somehow break the shell... I could use my Siren form to escape. Yeah, that would work... if I could muster enough strength to do it. With this little thing wriggling around inside me, it wasn't easy - it was constantly sapping my strength.

I punched the wall of the egg with a fist, but it easily held. How hard was... this thing?

"Aah!" I gasped as something wrapped around my hands and feet. I was pulled towards either end of the egg, and my hands and feet were bound together with something... sticky fluid? I tried to shake free, but it crystallized, leaving me just... stuck like that, totally unable to move. Shaking my body did nothing to help - it just made my bust wobble. "Stupid Paralodon..." I groaned, relaxing myself. Wasting my energy struggling uselessly wasn't going to help.

I felt a vague sense of deja vu... yeah, something similar had happened before. I still remembered that time from 6 years ago when Tiblis had used concentrated mana to fuse me with Varlita, the Shadow Angel that had been inside me at that time. Now... she was a part of me, though most of her memories had been lost. She was the reason I was a Shadow Angel now.

Come to think of it, my wings and tail were gone too... this must be some pretty powerful sealing magic to be able to seal my Shadow Angel powers completely... damn, so I was powerless now... and this... thing inside me seemed to be growing bigger every second. Wait, how many seconds had passed? I didn't have a watch... if only someone could come and rescue me... yeah, Scotty would. If the Paralodon had escaped underwater after eating me, no doubt he'd come after me... and all I could do was wait... I hated being powerless.

Seconds seemed to pass like days... I spent most of the time sleeping, only to be jerked awake by the Paralodon growing inside me. There was now a slight bulge in my belly, and it grew slightly every now and then. How much time did I have...? If I could get out of here and use the Spring of Purification, I could probably deal with the thing. In here, it was sealed, so I couldn't use it. It'd make things easier for me otherwise... damn this anti-magic field.

The thing suddenly seemed to hit something, forcing me to vomit a bit of blood out. Damn... this was getting troublesome... It had happened a few times already... when would Scotty get here?

After what felt like an hour or so... it wasn't just vomiting blood, it was real pain. Not just in my stomach - all over my body. I was sweating profusely as I tried to hold it back... but eventually the tears started flowing. "Damn it... I won't fall... not yet..." I groaned. It was getting harder to breathe... and I felt so weak that I couldn't move a muscle... My own vision was dimming pretty badly... I wondered how much longer I had before I gave in...

......

Eh, what was this... euphoric feeling... I couldn't feel half my body... and the pain was gone, and most of my senses had been restored...

Just... I still felt weak, but not from the Paralodon. Rather... its tentacles had grown out of my body and were wrapping themselves around my chest and hips, squeezing them... "I'm only doing this to save my own skin, alright? If you die, I die, and I'm not gonna go lights out just yet!" This was... my own voice, but the tone was different... the evil part of me from 6 years ago!?

"By the way, thanks for handing over control."

I smiled as the Paralodon inside me screeched. Overloading it with mana simply made it go crazy huh... now I knew one weakness of Paralodons. I just kept on throwing more and more mana at it... until the screeching stopped and the tentacles outside completely melted into a strange greenish goo. "For the trouble you caused me, I'll be doing the assimilating this time!" I laughed as the goo took on my own skin tone and texture... the end result, my proportions got upsized more, though I knew it would only be when I was like this...

Still... I couldn't break free, although there was no longer any danger of me being eaten. The egg's hold on me was far too tight, and I couldn't use much of my strength. The only way for me to get free now would be for the egg to break from some exterior force, but I highly doubted that would happen. Besides, the space in here seemed to be getting smaller and smaller every moment... the egg's inside was slowly filling up with the crystals that held me in this position. I highly doubted I could survive for any longer than a day.

What the 'good' me had thought moments ago wasn't completely untrue - this was the 'evil' me, but that thing Valis had used last time had completely purified me. I couldn't feel anything evil now - all that was left was my will to survive. Though... I still had a bit of unfinished business with Scotty. We hadn't done that in a while now... and I was eager to do it again. Well, that was just me - the original didn't agree. Heheh. That was one thing Valis's item hadn't gotten rid of.

Staying like this did present a bit of a problem though - I used up a little more energy than the original me did, so I got tired more easily. I ended up falling asleep, and when I woke up, the crystals inside the egg had spread until my now-oversized bust was stuck in it. My legs were completely encased in the stuff too, and my hair had gotten stuck too. Essentially... I was almost completely immobilized. Any attempts to pull my chest free simply made me hurt, so I gave up after the first try.

My next nap ended with me waking up to see that... the stuff had completely covered my bust and was spreading up to my neck. My hips were also long stuck inside and I couldn't move my head at all because my hair was totally stuck inside. Well... I guess it was about time to let the original me take over. Really, there was no point staying here any longer.

"Hey!" I shouted. Damn... just had to leave me like this, did she...?

My bust was attempting to shrink back to its normal size since she had returned control to me... but the sticky stuff encasing it meant it couldn't go back to normal, so it just got stuck like that. Luckily it didn't hurt... but I sure wouldn't last long if Scotty didn't come and save me. The only part of me not covered in the stuff was my face now - if my nose got covered, it was over for me.

Even now... I could barely breathe...

"Scotty..." I moaned.

Suddenly, a sparkle lit up in my bosom. Though I couldn't see what it was... I had a general idea. Come to think of it, I had felt it enter just before I got eaten by that Paralodon... oh. Quick thinking on his part.

I felt the egg move a little, and tried to shout out, but my voice was muffled by the stuff encasing me. Suddenly, more sticky liquid covered my eyes and crystallized - it was transparent, so I could still see, but the feeling wasn't exactly pleasant. A few more minutes left... huh...

The egg heaved more, and I sucked in as large a breath as I could take just before my nose got completely covered. I found myself unable to move a single muscle - just... crystallized in here. The stuff felt so hot all of a sudden... it was making me sweat...

And then I was greeted by the sight of the egg cracking up. I tried to smile, though I couldn't. A blade dug into the crack, chipping into the crystal. It actually cracked rather easily, but I only had a minute left until I ran out of breath...

I heard muffled sounds coming from outside, and I could see Scotty and Clara standing over me in black diving suits and masks. It was easy to guess what they were talking about - the easiest way to get me out of here.

Scotty then pulled out his... greatsword. Oh boy. I hoped he knew what he was doing... because if that hit me without my armour on, I'd be a real goner.

*Crack*

And he did know what he was doing - he stabbed it in right above my nose, smashing the crystal apart all the way to it, allowing me to breathe... Another stab shattered the parts around my head and freed it to move around. Voices rang in my ears - the rest of the party was watching. "You're a lifesaver... Scotty..." I whispered weakly. "You saved me from the Paralodon though... and that makes us even," he smiled, bending down and opening up my mouth gently and emptying a flask filled with crimson liquid into it. A hot feeling filled my mouth, rapidly spreading to the rest of my body... I felt revitalized.

"Come on, let's get you out of there. The questions can wait, but can we be sure you got rid of the Paralodon kid?"

"Yeah, it's dead. Overloaded it with mana and it imploded by itself."

"Good," Scotty smiled and brought the greatsword down on my crystallized arms. One smash got my arms free, allowing me to stretch them for the first time in what seemed like a month...

"How long did it take you to find me?"

"Ben got the Vanguard ready a few hours after the Paralodon escaped with you, and we went down looking for you. You're lucky I planted a tracker on you before it ate you - otherwise who knows what would've happened after this."

"Figured," I let Scotty break the crystal around my bust - but even after that, it didn't return to normal size. I could almost swear that Clara was staring at it the whole time...

I snapped my fingers, and my armour grew back out of my body. Now that the egg's stupid anti-magic field was gone, I could get my powers back... eh, the top was a little... undersized. Oh well... I couldn't do anything about it for now...

"That was freaking unpleasant," Lucia remarked, having appeared on my back together with my armour and returned to her human form soon after. Lynia and Merylynn materialized soon after, along with the rest of my weapons as the crystal around my hips broke apart. The armour there returned as well, though it was undersized as expected. "I can do the rest myself," I lifted a hand to stop Scotty from doing the next smash, and drew Merylynn from her sheath. It was a little hard to do it with my legs still crystallized, but I managed and just brought Merylynn down there. Finally... I was completely free...

I stood up, brushing the last few crystal shards off my body and looked around. We were inside a pretty high-tech looking sub, with a sleek black interior and rectangular portholes. From here, I could see outside - we weren't moving now. This appeared to be the cargo bay, because it was pretty wide, and was filled with crates most probably stocked with supplies. An 'AIRLOCK' sign was lit up above a door behind me, with trails of water leading to where I was standing from it.

"I expected something smaller," I gazed around. The sub was virtually... silent. No sounds at all, almost unnatural. "Can't take much stuff back with a small cargo bay. We'll head to your underwater city now. Clara," Scotty glanced at Clara. She nodded and ran off, her nine bushy tails wagging as she did. "Well, at least we got you back!" she turned to wave... and promptly tripped over. I couldn't help laughing as she got back up, and I half-expected her to scold me, but she started laughing herself too...

"Haven't seen her trip in a while!" Winnie laughed.

"Yeah... and in a place like this too... haha!" Ben smiled. Kyle was holding back his laughter too...

"Mama!"

Ah, I had almost forgotten about her... Luticia ran in to the cargo bay and jumped at me, knocking me down to the floor. "Mama! I was so worried!" she cried into my chest... poor girl. "There there... Mama won't die so easily, right?" I smiled at Scotty. "Yeah, Lute. Mama's tough, so you don't need to worry," he bent down and gently rubbed Luticia's head. She just buried it in my chest and kept it like that... then she started feeling my bust. "Mama... you got bigger..."

"You don't have to say that..." I whispered. She just HAD to say it... it made me feel very very embarrassed...

"Did something happen to you again?"

Now my own mother walked in. "I was worried sick about you, you know? And... oh, my. Keep up the good work, my daughter!" she seemed to notice my chest halfway through, and smiled mischievously. "Whaddya mean by that!?" I shook a fist at her, now completely red. "Oh, nothing. Just keep it up!" she ran off, much to my chagrin. I smacked my face in exasperation... did she really have to do that?

"Let's just get on with the exploration..." Scotty sighed. I knew he was trying not to look at me too much, like the other two guys here. Damn, it felt uncomfortable being this busty - though it wasn't my own choice... Geez... I pouted and tried to press my bust in to make it look smaller. It was too soft and bouncy for that though... so I really couldn't do anything about it. Ugh...

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 7

Luticia went to follow Scotty soon after, leaving me behind in the cargo bay. I gave my bust one last resentful poke before getting up and walking over to the portholes to get a closer look. Come to think of it... I still needed to discuss what had happened before I got eaten by the Paralodon with Scotty - when I had somehow fused with him, sharing his thoughts and body - though technically, it looked similar to mine. "Lucia, Lynia, Merylynn, if you girls want to go explore, feel free to do it," I smiled. Lucia promptly ran off while the other two assumed their human forms and followed.

I caressed the surface of the glass gently, admiring the smoothness. We were now moving, so the scenery kept changing. How fast was this sub anyway? We were easily overtaking the native predators in the area - sharks. I didn't like the idea of being out there one bit... though I could easily handle a bunch of sharks, no problem. Either outswim them, or smack them until they die, pretty simple.

If that Paralodon was still running around... we'd have to take it down eventually. And by then... we'd be ready for it. I wasn't about to get eaten again - the next time, Scotty might not have the time to slip a tracker on me. And then I'd die for sure... Heh, all the more reason to get stronger.

I left the cargo bay and walked off in the direction of the bridge. I already knew the basic layout of the sub - since it was pretty much all dark in here, my Shadow Sense could pick up anything that moved inside. For instance, there was an ant crawling around in the engine room. Not that it mattered - ants could hardly do anything to an advanced submarine like the Vanguard. Unless they were those giant ants in the volcanic regions...

The submarine had enough room to fit in crew quarters in the rear, near the engine room. It had barely enough room to fit in our party, but we managed. Scotty was in the bridge now - I opened the door with a light touch of the keypad and just continued straight through the corridor, ignoring the forks.

The sub's bridge was, as expected, a pretty high-tech one with a futuristic look. Black displays with blue lines seemed to be a hit nowadays... Scotty was sitting in the captain's chair, studying a map of the area that was displayed on a big screen lowered from the ceiling. Clara sat in front of him, at the helm. The front of the bridge was taken up by a large viewport that offered a panoramic view of the sea before us... I had never expected to have an experience like this - looking out at the sea from inside a submarine...

"Scotty, I need to discuss something with you."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that."

"What do you think happened... to me? I was seeing everything from your point of view - like I was actually... you."

"Your Mana Transference spell went haywire or something?"

"Yeah... it took much more out of me than I expected. Next thing I knew, I was you."

"Most probably some kind of fusion... do you think you could try to do it again?"

"I could try... hold on."

I closed my eyes and concentrated. Moments later, my wings and tail had grown out again - I was back in my Shadow Angel form. "I only have enough mana to spare in this form," I explained, holding Scotty's hand and closing my eyes... "Mana Transference!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"So... um..."

I sighed. Yup, it had worked - Traya had disappeared, and I had become a woman again. This was seriously too weird for words to describe. "So your Mana Transference spell actually... fuses you with me? I thought it was supposed to transfer your own mana," I said, hoping she really was aware of what I was saying. She couldn't reply though - I'd just have to wait till I reverted back to normal... but something told me that I was going to be stuck like this for a while.

"Hey, if she can do that with you, I wonder if she can do it with me too," Clara piqued.

"Probably. You can try it out afterwards, if she agrees. How much further do we have until the sunken city?"

"It's Akuapolis, and at this speed, it'll take us two days to get there. I'll put it on autopilot," she pressed a few buttons on her keyboard, and the words 'AUTOPILOT ONLINE' flashed on the main screen.

"Hey, Scotty, where did we... whoa!" Winnie walked into the bridge and jumped at the sight of me.

"Just testing it out. It could come in useful sometime, you never know," I shrugged.

"I guess seeing it in person really has more of an effect... Just make sure you don't do anything perverted, or I'll shock you to a crisp."

"Hey, it's already weird enough walking around as a girl. And it looks like Traya can't come out for a while, so I'm stuck like this for now."

"All right... anyways, where did we put the extra magic stones? I forgot to recharge my staff before we left."

"They're somewhere in the cargo bay... I forgot where. I'll look for them with you."

"Thanks."

I couldn't help noticing that my body seemed to follow Traya's exactly - her larger bust size had carried over. I only hoped it didn't get in the way of my fighting...

We headed back down to the cargo bay and started looking around for the right crate. I was pretty sure I had labeled that crate 'Magic Stones', but I had forgotten where I had put it. It was a pretty small crate too, so it'd be kinda hard to find. If only Traya were here - she was better at this kind of stuff. I didn't even know how to use 90% of her abilities... the only things I knew how to use were her Ragnarok bombardment spell and some basic barrier work - shaping and concentrating them as well. Speed and power were stuff I was very used to - and this body had it all.

"By the way, what do you think we'll find when we reach Akuapolis?"

"Hopefully we get some treasure or valuable items. Traya's senses are never wrong - there's something there, for sure."

"Yeah, but even the best cliff climbers can fall sometimes. You get what I mean?"

"Well, I'll say this is my own intuition, but... I also feel like we're getting close to something here."

"Up to you... I'm just along for the fun anyway."

"Oh, hey, found it," I waved at Winnie. Come to think of it, my hands were smooth and slender - like a woman's now. I wondered how I could even lift my own greatsword with my hands like this...

I picked up the crate with one hand and leapt down from a larger crate. The landing was smooth - I had long trained myself to land on reflex alone. But this... it was much smoother. I barely felt any impact shock at all. "Well, you're stronger than you look, huh," Winnie remarked. I had to admit, the crate was pretty heavy - even heavier than my greatsword. "I guess so... but I'm originally a guy, so it's no biggie," I shrugged, opening up the crate. It was filled with glowing stones filled with mana.

"You can go back now. I can handle the recharging myself."

"Right."

I nodded at Winnie as she knelt down and put her staff on the ground. High-level staffs had to be recharged frequently as they used up magic - an uncharged staff would put too much strain on the wielder while casting powerful spells. Sometimes I was glad I wasn't a mage... though some people didn't seem to mind.

When I returned to the bridge, Clara was thumbing away on a portable game console while reclining on the helmsman's chair. She barely lifted an eyelid as I entered - too focused on the game. I sighed and left the room again, taking a right in the main corridor towards the bathroom. I really needed a bath... all that hacking away at Traya's crystalline prison had made me sweat. Damn, that stuff was hard...

I walked into the male bathroom - only to find Ben in the middle of a shower. Oh well... He didn't seem to notice me come in, so I walked into the stall beside him and unbuckled the strap on the back of my armour.

... wait, I had totally forgotten I was still a woman... Not that seeing a naked female was something I hadn't experienced before - Traya had a bit of a tendency to flaunt her body, but it was a whole different thing when it was... my own. My face severely reddened, I crammed the armour back on and left the bathroom. Traya was definitely going to tease me later... ugh...

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Maybe not... I could always just show you anytime you want to take a look..." I smiled, pressing my chest against Scotty's back.

"See, you're teasing me," Scotty grunted.

"Mmm hmmm. I'll pretend it never happened... at least you didn't get caught in the act by Sapphira. She'd probably throw you out the airlock without the oxygen mask on," I stepped away.

"So... what do you think?"

"Yeah, we can use this. Maybe sometimes when you need an extra boost or something."

"You'll have to rename the technique."

"That's a given. How does... 'Spiritual Transfusion' sound?"

"Dunno. It's up to you, really. How're your mana levels?"

"Half's gone. I think it actually got transferred over while fusing. I guess the original Mana Transference technique wasn't a total bust after all. I'll just have to rework it a little..."

"Hope you can get it worked out. By the way, why don't you try using the technique on someone else other than me? Who knows, it might not be just me who can get a boost like that."

"Okay. I'll try Clara."

"Mmmkay. I'll probably hit the sack after showering. See you there after you're done."

"Which room?"

"You should know once I get there."

"Right... I'm off."

Scotty could bathe by himself - I didn't need to see it. But man, I hadn't expected him to actually go into the bathroom while we were still fused... even though he had done it unintentionally... But, I did feel a little satisfied with him taking off the armour, even though it was just the top part. Only thing that bugged me while fused was feeling every single thing my fusion partner was feeling - emotions, physical sensations... etc. I couldn't even think anything by myself - that had to wait until after returning to normal. Plus, I couldn't get back to normal for at least 5 minutes after fusing.

I reentered the bridge to find Clara still thumbing away at the game console, and decided to give her a little surprise. I made sure not to make any sound as I slowly sneaked closer to her on tiptoes, and I gently rested a hand on her shoulder - light enough that she didn't even feel it. "Spiritual Tranfusion," I whispered.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Hmm?" I whirled around at the sound of the noise, but I couldn't see anyone. Oh well... I sighed as I went back to the game console and my tower defense game, but suddenly I noticed something. My bust was much larger than it had been just a few moments ago... and my light brown hair now extended all the way to my knees. Even my leather armour had changed - normally, it covered my chest and exposed a bit of my bust through a diamond-shaped opening, and the normal pants were crop-top minis. Now... the armour had just become a band of leather around my chest and a thinner V-shaped one covering my crotch that went up around my hips to my back and met just above my butt, then went down again between my legs to reconnect with the front part.

Hey... this looked like something Traya would wear. She didn't...

"You're inside me, aren't you? You got me good..." I smiled. Yup, got me good, all right. I hadn't even noticed her sneaking up on me. I stowed the game console into the pouch hanging on my side and got up to examine my new body better. Yeah, the proportions were Traya's - wide hips and legs, large bust, narrow waist. I didn't have her tail or wings like Scotty did though. And I preferred it that way - I liked my bushy tails better than her dragon one... haha. My fox ears also carried over, and both my eyes were glowing - the right eye was blood red, so it was definitely Traya's eye. The left one was its usual brown, just more radiant.

I tried pressing my bust - it sank in softly, almost without any resistance... Damn, I envied her body. The proportions, the texture were too perfect for a woman... I half-wished I could keep this body... but the choice was Traya's to make, not mine. I didn't want to betray my best friend by taking her body - I'd just get mine through some other means that didn't involve sacrificing my friends.

My body felt so... light now. Even with the load of weapons on my back, I didn't feel like I was carrying anything at all. I also felt stronger and my eyesight had never been better. If I could see up to 600 metres before, now I could spot targets at 1.2 kilometres. Her powers were really this strong, huh... I had to work hard to catch up for sure, otherwise I'd get left behind in the dust. And I didn't like being left behind.

My bust jiggled as I walked - it was a little too soft, I guessed. And my armour didn't support it enough. Then again, Traya walked around like this all the time. Sighing, I walked around the deserted bridge for a bit before sitting back down at the helsman's station. "Say, what'll you do once we get to Akuapolis?" I asked. No reply, huh... or maybe she couldn't reply. I needed to ask her about it when we returned to normal.

For now, I busied myself running some system diagnostics - a submarine this high-tech needed to have frequent system checks, and I also had to correct any glitches that came up. In this party, I was the only one who could handle technology this well - though Ben was always the one getting stuff like this. I wondered how he managed to get a contact network like the one he had now - more often than none, he was the one procuring experimental equipment for our trips.

Especially this one. He had really outdone himself this time too. This stuff looked like it came from Besalia - it was far too high-tech for Caria. Last time he had gotten a prototype gunstaff attachment from some workshop over there that allowed his staff to fire bullets - he was using it now.

The next minute or so was pretty uneventful - and I had started to wonder if we could ever turn back to normal. Scotty could though... so why shouldn't I be able to? Just hope we didn't get stuck like this for too long.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"For the record, I have to stay a minimum of 5 minutes in someone else's body before returning to normal," I put my hands on my hips, standing behind Clara.

"Welcome back. So..."

"I was conscious the whole time actually, I just couldn't reply. Of course, we're going to Akuapolis to explore, so I'll do just that. Let's find some good treasure to bring back, ok?" I smiled.

"Guess so. Are you going to try that on more people?"

"Maybe. I wonder what'll happen if I try it on Lute..."

"Hey, hey, be careful."

"The spell's non-lethal by nature. It can't hurt anyone."

"If you're sure, go on ahead. She's in your room now."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Luticia was happily playing Scrabble with Scotty when I got into the room. I couldn't help smiling as I saw it... I guess this came with having a family. "Mama! Want to join in?" Luticia invited. "I'll just watch you two play, but I wanna try something out first. Lute, know that Mama's inside you after I use this technique, ok? Don't do anything stupid, because I won't be able to talk to you once I'm inside you," I laid a hand on her back.

Scotty sighed in resignation, and I took it as a sign to go ahead.

"Spiritual Transfusion!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Ehhhh..."

Mama was inside me! She really was! I could feel her energy, her life... it felt so good... "Papa!" I laughed, reaching over the Scrabble board to hug him around his neck tight. I thought he would say something, but his voice was muffled...

"Papa?" I asked.

"Can... you... move...?"

Oh, his head was buried in my chest. I quickly took a few steps back. Ehhh... since when was my chest this big? It was Mama's size now! "Soft~" I started playing with it, poking it here and there... "Surprising. Who would've thought that... your technique could turn Luticia into an adult..." Papa murmured. "Huh?" I stopped poking my chest. Hey... it was true...

I was now as big as Mama, and I had her knee-length black hair too... In fact, my body looked like Mama's - it even had her tail and wings, but... it was just the chest that was a little bigger...

Ah, and my clothes had disappeared and the metal armour that always covered me had grown out to cover me. It was exactly the same as Mama's armour too... "Bouncy!" I jumped up and down gleefully, causing my chest to jiggle even more. "That's not something you should be doing, Lute," Papa rubbed my head gently. I smiled and cuddled close to him. I was almost as tall as him now!

"I wanna grow up to be like Mama someday!" I laughed.

"Not like me?" Papa asked.

"Like you too!" I gently rubbed my nose against Papa's.

"Haha, that's our daughter!" he grinned.

I decided to stay like that for a while, sitting on Papa's lap and cuddling up close to him... I felt like there was something missing though. Mama wasn't here, although she was inside me... "Wait for a while for Mama to come out, then we'll all go to sleep, all right? Mama's tired from the day's events," Papa told me. I nodded gleefully.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"You want to grow up to be like me? Eat lots of good food and exercise a lot, okay?" I ruffled Luticia's hair 2 minutes after that. She laughed and quickly tried to straighten out her hair - it did so by itself. "But you're right, Scotty. I'm worn out, even after your potion," I sat down on the bed. It was a spacy queen-sized one, with a bunk bed above it - Luticia's bed. "We'll discuss your Spiritual Transfusion again tomorrow then," Scotty nodded. I smiled and laid down on the bed, rolling over to give him some space to lay down on. Scotty climbed in after helping Luticia up to her own bed. It took me barely half a minute to fall asleep - I was far too worn out.

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 8

"We should be nearing Akuapolis within the hour. Everyone, get suited up and let's go find us some treasure!" Scotty announced.

"Yeah!" the whole party cheered.

Two days had passed since my recovery from the Paralodon egg, and I was perfectly fine now. Nothing wrong with me at all - except maybe the enlarged bust size. It miffed me a little since I didn't want it to get any bigger... stupid evil 'me'. Then again... it was better than dying by getting eaten by a Paralodon. Anything was better than dying, really. Geez... maybe I had no choice in the matter after all.

We were now about to arrive at Akuapolis, a city that had sunk beneath the waves in ancient times. Hard to believe such places existed... Most people only thought of those kind of legends as tales woven just to glorify the name of the places.

The party was suited up within 5 minutes and had gathered in the bridge for Scotty's briefing. Clara stayed at the helmsman's station - she was going to be staying onboard while we explored the place. Luticia had wanted to come along too, but she had promised to stay in the sub, so she had to do it. Besides, we didn't have a diving suit her size. At least she'd get to see any treasure we brought up, freshly salvaged. That'd be an experience to tell her friends.

"We'll be right over the target soon. ETA 6 minutes. Guys, get ready in the airlocks," Clara said.

"Use these earpieces. That way we don't have to burst our lungs by yelling to tell the others that we've found treasure," Scotty retrieved several earpieces from his pouch and distributed them among the party members. Clara laughed at the last sentence - even I did a little.

I put the earpiece on, and was greeted by a gentle crackling sound. "They're tuned to the Vanguard's frequency already, and the sub itself will help transmit the radio waves. I'll be coordinating you guys from up here, vectoring you in on places of interest and giving you directions if you get lost," Clara waved.

"Mama! Papa! Good luck!" Luticia hugged me around my waist. I smiled and rubbed her head gently. "No, no, that won't do. What about our friends?"

"Good luck!" she laughed.

"Now that's a good girl," Winnie patted my daughter's head.

"I'll head to the cargo bay's airlock first," I ran off, waving at the others. The main airlock they were taking was far too small for me - I needed extra space to accommodate my Siren form's tail. Only the airlock in the cargo bay had that kind of space, since it was used for handling cargo after all.

I left the bridge and ran down the corridor to the cargo bay. The airlock opened out to the back of the sub, so it was on the opposite side of the cargo bay. I walked through the airlock's hatch and sat down beside the control panel to wait for Clara's signal. It took several more minutes.

"Mmm hmm. No hostiles in sight, and we have pretty nice underwater weather. Go!"

"Underwater weather?" Winnie asked.

"You're no fun. I'm talking about the currents here - they're not too strong to swim through."

"Right."

I chuckled as I pressed the button. The hatch closed behind me, and sea water started to flood into the compartment. I took in a deep breath, allowing my body to relax as the salt water swept up to my feet. My legs melded together and extended to form a long serpentine tail, while my hair and eyes turned blue. The bottom part of my armour - the part covering my hips - disappeared during melding, while the top part became webbed and thinned out a little. My bust expanded slightly too - ah damn, I was hoping it wouldn't happen... oh well... My armour was stretched to its limit - all the little curves showed pretty well through the material. At least it wasn't transparent.

When the compartment had completely filled with water, the exterior hatch swung open, allowing me to swim out. "Nnnngh..." I gasped as I felt a strong force press against my body from all directions... This pressure was strong... as expected. I could sense it interfering with Lucia, Lynia and Merylynn's forms somehow - they wouldn't be able to revert to their human forms under this kind of pressure. My body adapted to it soon after, so the pressure soon felt normal.

I swam over to the front of the sub, where the other members of the party had just left the airlock. From here, we had a pretty nice view of Akuapolis. The view was... breathtaking. I knew the place was big, but I hadn't expected it to be this big... the ancient city was circular in shape, with a diameter of about 2 kilometres. The development seemed to be focused around the city centre, which consisted of several tall towers arranged in a perfect circle around what seemed to be the palace - four towers connected by bridges that were built on top of a large complex.

The architecture was barely distinguishable beneath the seaweed that had overgrown the place. Otherwise I would've thought that it looked beautiful... but now it just looked forlorn and dilapidated. I sighed... What a waste of years of effort to make the city beautiful. The design of the city itself suggested that the people of its time emphasized beauty and perfection...

"We'll split into teams to explore. Tell us over the radio if you see anything interesting," Scotty said.

"Who's with who?" Ben asked.

"You're with Valis and Sapphira. Winnie's with Kyle and Traya's with me. We'll each take one major area of the city - the palace, the economic district and the military district. Clara?"

"Got it. Lights... on!"

The sub's spotlights blasted on, shining over the city like big flashy pointers. One light changed colour to red while the other became green. "Green light's shining over the economic district and red's on the military district," Clara explained. "Where did you get this info?" I asked. I was pretty sure that stuff wasn't in the map... besides, it was in an ancient unreadable language.

"The Vanguard's equipped with sophisticated sensors that can analyse entire cities for stuff like that. I'd explain the whole mechanic behind it, but it's too complicated."

"Umm, okay..." Winnie sighed.

"Anyway, who'll be going where?"

"I'll leave that to you guys," Clara said.

"I'll take the economic district with Kyle."

"I wonder what kind of weapons they have in the military district." Sapphira murmured.

"That settles it. Traya, Scotty, you two have the palace district."

"Got it."

"Although we haven't seen any hostiles yet, do be careful. Who knows what might be inside?"

"That's a given. Let's go!"

Everyone split up into their respective groups and went their own ways. Rather... slowly. I smiled and grabbed Scotty, motioning for him to hold on tight. He grabbed around my waist as I started swimming. I easily accelerated past the others - my Siren form was more agile in water, heheh. "Hey, no fair!" Winnie complained. I waved at her from a distance away.

It took me barely three minutes to reach one of the palace's towers. Strangely, all buildings here were built with their entrances only on the topmost floor - the lower floors only had crystal windows that had survived the ages. How did they get in? Were the people here aquatic or avian? Those were the only two possibilities... but if they were aquatic, they would at least be able to survive here...

It made no sense...

"Team 1, going in," Scotty said.

"Roger. Tracking you guys."

"Stay sharp," I said, looking around as we swam in through the entrance. Even the inside of the place was overgrown with seaweed... what a desolate-looking place. I had Lucia readied as we advanced through the corridor. No rooms - just one big corridor spiralling down the tower. Maybe there'd be a door leading into the middle later on... or we'd strike when we reached the complex at the bottom. I didn't like waiting, but there was a limit to my maximum speed in the water, and I couldn't just slide all the way down on a board because of the apparent lack of gravity. Not that I minded... gravity was a bit heavy on my body.

Wait... maybe I did have a way to get down faster.

"Scotty, hold on to me," I held out a hand. Scotty grabbed it as I began spreading my mana into the water. I'd create a current to push us all the way down... that should help. The water around us began churning, but stabilized after a few seconds into a whirlpool-like phenomena that dragged us down the corridor. Not too strong though - I could survive a powerful whirlpool, but Scotty couldn't.

I didn't see any doors along the way, so we continued all the way to the base of the tower - the large complex. The entrance to it lay at the end of the corridor, a large pair of steel doors. We stopped in front of it, and I tried to push it open. It was far too heavy to open by pushing alone... even for me. I couldn't get the leverage I needed underwater. Even Scotty couldn't push it open... I guess we had no choice. "Scotty, cut it open!" I said.

"I'll try," Scotty took out his greatsword and brought it down against the steel door. Still it didn't budge. "Stand back!" I decided to try something. I froze a long cylindrical part of water to create an ice battering ram, then rammed it into the door using water currents. The battering ram shattered, but the door didn't even budge an inch. "What the heck is up with this door!?" I gasped. Way too hard!

"Traya, maybe if you use Spiritual Tranfusion..."

"No. I don't think that'll work. If I can't push it open now, then neither can you when we're fused together."

"So should we head back and try to think of another way in?"

"Maybe there's a switch somewhere, or something needs to be done to trigger the door to open."

I started feeling up and down the door, searching for some way to open it while Scotty checked the corridor behind us. Neither of us came up with anything, even after half an hour. "Geez, what is with this door..." I sighed. Maybe I could find somewhere where the door was weaker... then bust through there. I put my ear to the door and knocked on it for a moment. A part of my bust that was touching the door suddenly seemed to feel hot...

"Eh?" I blinked. The door swung open into a... gigantic chamber. Most of it was taken up by a vertical upside-down U-shaped construct that was about 600 metres in length, 100 metres across either end and 30 metres high. The bottom part of the U - that was on top from where we were, seemed to have a spot for something else to attach to... The piece was held to the complex by several large docking hooks. What in the world was it...? The shape made it look like part of a ship...

"Eh, you got it open?"

"Somehow..." I murmured. Had the door responded to my bust touching it...? What a weird place. I tried feeling the part that had touched the door... eh? My armour... had burned through... Luckily it was regenerating though, but... what had happened? My armour was nigh-impenetrable by magic...

"What's this...?"

"How am I supposed to know? Maybe we'll find out when we go in deeper," I'd just have to mull over it later...

"Hope so. I don't like not knowing what something is."

"Hey guys. We found something long and big in the military district. Looks like the prow of a ship or something, but it's missing the rear part," Ben reported over the radio.

"Eh? I found something similar too, but the shape is a bit like an M with an I down the middle. Looks like there's something else it could attach to besides the front part you just mentioned," Winnie gasped.

I stared at Scotty, and he stared back at me too.

"I think... we've struck gold," I breathed.

"No shit."

"Clara, get the Vanguard over to Winnie's position. We've got some heavy lifting to do. I think we've just hit the jackpot."

"Eh? Wait, don't tell me...?"

"Yeah. We found the last piece of that thing in here. This isn't a palace - it's a giant freaking hangar. We'll find some way to get the roof open so we can assemble the pieces. Can the Vanguard handle heavy weights?"

"It's made for exploration and salvage - we've got some big-ass mechanical arms here for that kind of stuff. But... are you serious?"

"Dead serious. Get that piece in the air - no, in the water... ahh, whatever! Just get Winnie's piece over here!"

"Oookay... Vectoring in on your position, Winnie."

"Roger."

"C'mon, Scotty. We have to find a way to get that roof open."

"Yeah!"

I tried looking around for anything that would seem even remotely like a control room, but I didn't find anything. The roof here looked like it could open up... but we needed to find the damn controls first. Where were they!? Scotty tapped me on the back and pointed at a peculiar-looking panel on the wall that looked like it was made of glass. I tried touching it with my hand, but nothing happened. Unless...

I pressed my bust against the panel, and that hot feeling came again. When it receded, my armour had burned through again, but the panel lit up with strange words... still, I couldn't understand them. Scotty turned away for a moment when I looked at him - probably because of my armour... "Can you make any sense of this?" I asked. He turned back towards me, and his eyes flicked onto my exposed bust for a moment before he checked the panel. "Not much, but I can get the gist of it from the diagrams. Lights on," he pressed something on the panel.

The whole place lit up - light emanated from various fluorescent lamps placed around the hangar. Now we could see the place better... "Hangar doors opening," Scotty said, pressing something else. There was a whirring sound, and the roof of the hangar split into several parts and slid under each other. I could see the Vanguard's spotlights through the open doors as it moved towards the economic district.

"Door's open. Ready to receive the packages anytime."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

It took several hours, but we finally got everything in place. The piece from the economic district fitted right into the one we had, and the prow attached onto that one. The whole thing combined was... a stunning 1.6 kilometres long, and indeed it was a ship. Though it looked rather bare... or maybe all the stuff was just hidden inside the hull. "Damn... those pieces were heavy," Clara grunted. "The Vanguard did all the lifting though," Winnie pointed out.

"Yeah, but it stretched the carrying limit to the max. Whatever this thing is, it better be worth the effort because we're gonna get chewed out by the developers. I broke two of the sub's mechanical arms lifting the pieces."

"Let's just look for an entrance before we do anything."

"There's one on the main deck up here, but the others have been trying for so long and it's not opening."

Don't tell me I had to do that again...

"I'll give it a shot," I sighed resignedly, swimming out the hangar door.

I swam up, following the ship's hull until I reached the part where Clara was shining a spotlight on. The others were all gathered around it as I approached.

"Damn thing won't open no matter how hard we push," Kyle complained.

"It's not about how hard you push... It needs a key."

I swam up to the door and eyed the others for a moment. "Guys look away please," I said. "Why?" Ben asked. "Just do it, or I'll punch your faces in," I threatened. They complied and turned their backs to me. I reabsorbed my armour into my body, much to the chagrin of Sapphira and pressed my bust against the door. It lit up completely and slid aside. "What was that... about?" Clara asked. "I don't know, but somehow my bust is the key," I sighed, swimming in.

Compared to the rest of the city, this ship was relatively well-preserved, although it was still filled with water. The corridors were free of any form of plant life, and the walls had no traces of rust on them. The rest of the party followed behind me, though I still easily outstripped them to the middle part of the ship - the one found in the economic district. I ignored the doors on the way, only following my instincts. The only door I took was a pretty big one which had a twin on the other side of the corridor.

Again, it only opened when I pressed my still-uncovered bust against it, and closed after I entered. Inside was a long staircase that led up into what appeared to be a bridge. A large crystal window spanned the front part, though it was dark at the moment. Maybe the bridge was hidden inside the hull and needed to be extended out later?

The bridge was one large room with two other large platforms above the floor I was on, with stairs leading up to them. This floor and the first platform was lined with consoles. I swam to the topmost layer and found a... transparent bubble of sorts there. It was large enough to fit a person inside, but with my tail, I probably couldn't fit in. I tried touching it. The surface felt... smooth and hard, like metal. Perhaps...

I pressed my bust against it, and the next thing I knew, it had pulled me into the sphere together with my tail. Meaning... I was now all stuffed inside... I could hardly breathe...

But then... my tail started to shrink, and I reverted to my human form... just totally naked now. The bubble swivelled so that I was facing the front, and several floating screens popped up all around me. The ship itself seemed to come to life, with all the consoles lighting up. What... had I done? Had I just activated this sleeping behemoth?

I heard several words in a language I couldn't understand and in a female-sounding voice, and then the bubble completely drained of water. Yet... I was floating inside like the water was still there. More unfamiliar words, and then the entire bubble lit up. It stopped after a while, and then more unfamiliar words rang out, now throughout the entire ship.

"New language data installed. Operating system is now set to English. Now rebooting operating system in English."

The bridge went dark for a moment, but then lit up again. This time, the screens were all in English - perfectly understandable. "Wow..." I gasped.

"Running systems check. Detecting all modules installed and all systems operational. Operator life signs stable. Synchronizing with hangar systems. Synchronizing complete. Confirming hangar status. All green. Beginning pre-launch checklist. Warning, foreign object detected in front."

"Clara, get the Vanguard out of the way! I'm launching this thing!"

"What!?"

"New radio frequency detected. Source, Operator. Patch into channel and set as default?"

So this ship could even do that kind of stuff... I took off the earpiece. "Do it," I said.

"Channel set as default. Would you like to designate a name for the channel?"

"Not now. Just patch me into it."

"Connected."

"What the hell is going on over there, Traya!? Launch the ship?" Clara's voice resounded throughout the bubble.

"Just get out of the way! And you guys already inside, hold on to something!" I shouted.

"I don't like the sound of this, but... okay. Clearing out."

"Foreign object removed. All pre-launch items green. Parameters within safety standards. Ship is ready to launch," the female voice announced moments later.

"Launch," I ordered.

"Draining reactor core of water. Complete. Reactor core beginning operation. No abnormalities detected. Core is functioning at 100% of maximum capacity. Main engines engaged at 30% power."

A low rumble sounded through the ship, and it jerked forward moments later. I felt the jolt somehow... though I didn't feel like I was moving in here. I felt pretty weightless here... like there was no gravity at all. Yet the force that had pulled me in was keeping me in place in the middle of the bubble.

"Hangar cleared. Preparing to pull ship into upright position. Maneuvering thrusters engaged."

The change in the ship's orientation was barely noticeable for me - I only knew we were upright when the voice announced it.

"Ship in upright position. Bailing water."

Now the bridge emptied itself of water, and the rest of the ship soon followed. I followed the progress on one of the screens.

"All systems coming online. Doors unlocked. Entering standby mode. Operator, you may leave the control bubble."

"Wait, are there any cargo bays on this ship?" I asked. I needed to find somewhere where Clara could park the Vanguard.

"Affirmative. There is only one cargo bay, located in front of the drive core and under the bridge. It opens out to either side of the ship and has enough space to accommodate two aircraft carriers side-by-side."

What!? We could fit an aircraft carrier inside this thing!? My god...

"Open it."

"Cargo bay flooding. Flooding complete. Cargo bay doors opening."

"Traya, the ship's opening up. Are you..." Clara was quick to notice.

"Come on in. You won't believe this... but I have control over this whole ship!"

Clara was silent.

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" almost the whole party shouted in unison.

I was digging my ears for quite a while after that - they had half-deafened me.

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Chapter 9

"This is... incredible..." Clara gasped, gazing around the bridge.

The whole party had gathered up at the bridge, around the bubble I had sat in. Now all the systems were operational, so the whole ship had power and the lights were all on. As I had left the bubble, I could now put on my armour. It was the normal one I had in my human form - not my Siren one. "So you're saying that this ship is ours now? That's... pretty unbelievable," Scotty said. He still looked a bit dazed... "But how did you get it? What happened?" Winnie asked.

"I don't know, really... maybe we can ask the computer," I replied.

"Affirmative."

The synthetic voice seemed to come out of nowhere. I took it as a sign that it was ready to be asked some questions.

"Why was I chosen as the Operator?" I asked.

"Accessing logs. The hangar this ship was in was deserted for several thousand years. The hangar computer determined that this inactivity means that my Operator had left me, and as such, reset the identification systems to allow for new people to come to take possession of me and reprogrammed me so that I will be able to respond to the language my new Operator - that is you - uses. However, the identification system was faulty and non-responsive at times."

"Non-responsive?"

"The system had frequent outages. Normally it is set to imprint a mark into the body of the next person to use the hangar doors that would allow that person to access everything within the hangar complex. With the outages, the system rarely ever worked."

"... Mark?"

"You received the mark when you touched the door of the hangar complex, Operator."

"Oh..."

My bust suddenly started to glow a little, and my armour turned transparent as a strange mark that resembled the top-down view of the ship appeared on my left breast. "I... see..." I sighed, covering my chest in response to the guys' stares. When the glow stopped, my armour returned to normal.

"Do you have any other questions, Operator?"

"What is this ship?"

"Error, logs lost. Please designate a new name."

I looked all around the party for suggestions. They seemed to come up blank... so I tried brainstorming a little. Maybe...

"Designate new ship name as Leviathan."

"Confirm?"

"Confirmed. New ship name is Leviathan."

"Affirmative. Ship name designated as Leviathan."

"Leviathan... it's because its so big, huh," Clara murmured.

"Yeah. This ship is way too big."

"Damn obvious. This thing is more than 10 times the size of any known aircraft carrier! Even the cargo bay looks like it would fit a few in!"

"But hey, it's awesome," Scotty grinned.

"I guess so..."

"Leviathan, who created you?"

"Error, logs lost."

"Must've gotten a bit short-circuited from all that water."

"Guess so. Wanna head back? Or do you guys wanna look around more? We can take in a lot of treasure with that colossal cargo bay now."

"No point. Whole place is clean. Even the economic district has no treasure of any kind. Looks like someone looted the place, but couldn't salvage the Leviathan," Winnie sighed.

"Military district's cleaned out too. No weapons or armour," Ben said.

"Damn. Oh well, at least we get a fancy new ship out of this trip," I sighed.

"Not just fancy."

"Right, not just fancy."

"I guess it's time to head back then."

"Yeah. By the way, what other things does this ship have besides the cargo bay? If that's all it has, then it's good for nothing but trading, and we don't do much of that," Clara looked around the bridge.

"Leviathan, what other things do you have?"

"8 quad-barreled wave-force cannons are hidden in various recesses on the deck. Maximum range is 1 kilometre. There are also over a hundred close-in weapons systems or CIWS mounted all over the hull. The arms and prow of the ship conceal torpedo launchers. There are cruise missile launchers behind the bridge. The most powerful weapon on the ship is a linear cannon inside the hull that fires large metal shells. It can only shoot forward. Maximum range is 4 kilometres."

The party was stunned. Even I was... the Leviathan had such heavy armaments...

"In addition, the ship can carry a complement of up to 200 small aircraft, and can launch them using three linear catapults inside the hull. They may land above the rear engines and taxi back into the hangar bay. The ship also carries a barrier generator, which may be used to deploy a barrier bubble around the ship to protect it from damage, although the barrier only lasts for 5 minutes due to cooling problems."

"Okay... guys... what the heck did we find?"

"Sounds like... some kind of overpowered hyper-dreadnought."

"Agreed... is this thing even legal?"

"Maybe in the ancient times it was legal... anyway... is it okay for us to sail this within 2 kilos of Sarena?"

"Uhhh... I don't know..."

"Let's just try and hope they don't shoot us first..."

"Yeah... I'll get in," I said.

Already I was feeling pretty scared of the kind of power I had access to... the Leviathan was probably even more powerful than my Queen Mode...

I let my armour meld back into my body right in front of the guys and pressed my bust against the bubble to enter it, ignoring all that they said. For some reason, I couldn't wear my armour while I was inside the bubble - so I had to stay naked inside. All the screens appeared in mid-air again, and I found that I could rearrange them as I wished just by dragging them with my hands - they felt solid. "Traya, was that necessary?" Clara asked from outside the bubble. "I can't control the ship unless I'm naked. Don't ask me why, because I simply don't know."

"All right... you guys, shoo."

I chuckled a little as I saw the guys leave the platform. The women soon followed to check out the rest of the bridge in more detail.

"By the way, you keep saying ship. Is this a ship or a submarine?"

"It is both. Currently, this ship is in submarine mode. Ship mode is recommended for long cruises. Do you want to engage ship mode?"

"Yeah. Get us out of here."

"Affirmative. Emptying ballast tanks and surfacing."

The ship slowly ascended. It took about 3 minutes to reach the surface... were we really that deep down?

"Activating ship mode. Bridge raising."

There was a mechanical whirring sound, followed by a jolt as the bridge rose up out of the hull. Now, the crystal window gave us a very nice view of our surroundings... and the ship itself.

"Catapult deck opening."

Now part of the prow of the ship opened up and folded aside to show a long deck for launching aircraft. The hangar was under the bridge, out of our angle of sight so we couldn't see it.

"Laser radar online and sweeping. Engines switching to ship mode. Engine block 1, no problems reported. Engine block 2, no problems reported."

Another whirring sound started up, but ended soon after.

"Warning. Unidentified objects at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock. Numbers, 53 at 3 o'clock and 47 at 9 o'clock. Distance, 1 km, both sides."

"Um, guys... I think we surfaced in the middle of a large-scale fleet battle," I said. I was surprised to hear my voice conduct through the whole bridge. "Let's just hope they don't shoot us," Clara said. Hey, wasn't she supposed to be on the lower bridge? How could I hear her from here?

"Lock-on warning, lock-on warning. Red alert initiated."

"Oh, what the hell!? I think they really are gonna shoot us!" Clara gasped.

"Shells in the air. Estimated time to impact, 20 seconds. Raising shields."

I could see the shells flying at us through the window. They didn't even reach the hull before hitting something. The Leviathan was barely even jarred from the resulting explosion... what defensive power...

"Requesting permission to enter combat mode."

"Permission granted."

"Entering combat mode. Weapon safeties off. Main turrets 1 to 8 reporting systems all green."

Four hatches opened up on the front part of the ship, and large boxy objects rose up out of them. Four holes opened up in each one, and long cannon barrels emerged from within. Along with them, smaller gun turrets rose up out of the hull in a lot of places.

"Torpedoes and cruise missiles armed and ready to fire. Main turrets ready at all times."

Oh boy, this was going to be fun... "Full broadside salvo! Target the fleet at 3 o'clock!"

"Turrets 5 and 6 are unable to target the starboard side of the ship. All others selecting targets of opportunity. Two carrier-class ships and 8 support-class ships detected, designating as high priority."

The 4 turrets in our view rotated to point to the right side, and balls of energy gathered at the tips of the barrels. A few seconds later, they fired, their recoil jolting the ship to the left and shaking the whole bridge...

"Targets annihilated. More than 50% of enemies in group 1 have been sunk or heavily damaged."

Wai... what!? Over 50%!? That was over 25 ships! In one single salvo... damn, the Leviathan was a little too overpowered for its own good...

"Turn the ship 90 degrees to port, and target the other fleet with all the turrets."

"Turn inadvised. A ship of this size will take 5 minutes to perform a 90 degree turn."

Oh well... I guess that was the Leviathan's weakness.

"Turrets tracking targets of opportunity. 6 carrier-class ships and 7 support vessels detected. Turrets 7 and 8 unable to target port side."

"Full salvo!"

"Warning, force deflector barrier detected. Fire mission inadvised."

"Any suggestions?"

"Program cruise missiles to circumvent force deflector barrier."

"Do it."

"Reprogramming 4 cruise missiles. Scanning for barrier generator. Detected. Designated as primary target. Reprogram complete."

"Launch!"

"Initiating launch countdown. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, launching."

I actually... felt the silo doors opening behind the bridge, and I also felt the shock from the ignition of the missile rockets... Not on my physical body, but rather... I was feeling everything like I was the ship itself, although I was still here in the Operator's bubble... it felt pretty damn weird.

"Missile impact in 10 seconds. Missile one, connection lost. Missile four, connection lost. Impact in 5 seconds. 4, 3, 2, 1, missiles two and three impact. Force deflector barrier down."

"Fire cannons."

"Firing."

Now the turrets on the prow turned to the other side of the ship and lit up again. This time, they pulverized about 34 ships in a single salvo. I smiled, looking at the radar screen. The enemy ships were pretty much in a panic now - their initial formations had been all but decimated by the Leviathan.

"Both enemy groups are in retreat. Pursuit impossible."

The radar showed both enemy groups turning tail and running, leaving their slower ships behind rather comically. I heaved a sigh of relief and leaned back to take a short break. "Leviathan, is it possible for me to run the whole ship by myself?" I asked.

"Yes. However, in the event that you are not present to take control, control is assumed by the bridge crew."

"I see. Enter standby mode."

"The ship is now in standby mode. Operator, you may leave the control bubble."

I took a deep breath as I gently slid out of the bubble onto the platform it was on, and just... laid there for a moment. That was the first time I had been involved in a naval battle... though it was a pretty one-sided one... haha... "I guess I'll take a break..." I murmured, closing my eyes...

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ah... great, I fell asleep.

But... I wasn't in the bridge anymore. I was lying on something soft... really soft... a bed? Well, it was a bed, but it was a liquid suspension type. Pretty comfy... "At least try not to fall asleep naked," Scotty sighed. He had been sitting beside me the whole time, huh... "I couldn't help it... I guess managing an entire ship by yourself really takes a lot out of you," I sighed, shaking off the blanket and getting up. Ah, I was still naked. I quickly made my armour reappear.

"So... where am I?"

"Still in the Leviathan. We're in the captain's quarters now, right behind the bridge."

"How long was I out?"

"About... half a day. It's the middle of the night now, and the computer's estimating about 5 more days until we reach Sarena."

"That long?"

"Well, yeah. Clara set the ship to autopilot to Sarena. Gotta hand it to her, she's a genius when it comes to these gizmos. And the ship is far too big and cumbersome to be fast, you should know that."

"Were you beside me the whole time I was asleep?"

"Actually, I just woke up. This is the kind of bed that really makes you want to fall asleep when you lay down on it."

"Haha, can't deny that," I laughed.

"We really picked up something awesome, huh..." Scotty murmured.

"Yeah. The Leviathan can probably pulverise any normal fleet in one full salvo. Did you see what it did to the two we got caught between?"

"We were watching on the monitors. Hey, wouldn't that giant Paralodon be a piece of cake then?"

"If we can hit it. It's a bit too agile for the cannons to hit it, but I think even one hit will deal a lot of damage."

"Usage of the onboard Artemis fighters, Zeus bombers and Athena tactical warfare planes are recommended for engaging agile enemies."

"The computer's pretty useful, eh?" Scotty smiled.

"Fighters and bombers I understand, but tactical warfare planes?"

"They are equipped with a multitude of special weapons to help engaging small and fast targets. They are able to restrict enemy movements with net bombs and also intercept missiles with lasers. In combat against monsters, the lasers can be used to burn out armour or eyes. Besides that, they are also equipped with stun bombs and normal machine guns for self-defense."

"Support planes, huh..." I nodded.

"Let's just wait until we see it again. There's no guarantee we will, though..."

"Yeah..."

"By the way, did you know that the Leviathan also comes equipped with a lot of stuff one would usually find on those luxury liners?"

"Sounds interesting!"

"There is a fresh water swimming pool on the rear deck with a polarized roof. From the outside, it looks like a big block, but from the inside, you can see the sky outside and even the sun can shine in."

"Anything else?"

"A gym and a fully functional mess hall managed by the computer alone. Cooks gourmet-class food, though most of it doesn't seem edible by our standards."

"The mess hall's services are designed with my creators in mind. It is only natural that you, as a completely different race, would not find the food pleasing."

"But... where do you get the ingredients?" I asked.

"The ship is equipped with an onboard material synthesizer. It can use the ship's energy to create absolutely anything, as long as its molecular and mechanical or biological structure is programmed into the system. More materials may be programmed in as needed by simply scanning them."

"This is pretty advanced..." I murmured.

"Makes it even harder to believe a ship like this is actually ours," Scotty sighed.

"Agreed."

"Wanna go enjoy ourselves for a bit? We haven't had much time to relax in a few days, what with all the fighting and exploring keeping us all tensed up. Let's go blow off some steam!"

"Okay!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Well, I had expected the swimming pool to be big... but definitely not THIS big! Most of the pools I had seen in the towns I frequented were about half the size of this one, and this one looked far more... enticing than the rest somehow. Maybe it was something with the water - it was unusually clear, even for fresh water. I sat down beside the pool and dipped my feet in - ah, it was nice and warm...

Problem was, the rest of the party hadn't been expecting to be able to swim in a swimming pool, so we hadn't packed swimsuits or swimming trunks. That was easily solved by having the ship synthesize those stuff for us though. Plus, we got to design our own. Scotty wore a simple brown one with green outlines, while I had a black bikini with golden lines running around it, tied around the back with black strings. Problem was - I had estimated a size too small, so it was kind of... tight. The material was stretched a little too thin...

Luckily it was just Scotty and I for now... I watched as he dove into the pool and streaked through the water with a perfect breaststroke. Sure, I was faster, but he had more power and could last longer than I could. I smiled and immersed myself into the water down to my neck - the pool was a bit deep for me. "I'm pretty sure there's also a sauna somewhere on the ship," Scotty drew closer to me. "I'll go later. For now..." I splashed Scotty with some water.

"Oh, now you're getting it!" he splashed me back.

We went on like that for a while, laughing pretty hard all the way. It had been a while since I got the chance to enjoy some quality time with Scotty...

"COWABUNGAAAA!"

Someone jumped right into the pool - splashing the both of us while at it too. I was pretty surprised to see who it was. "Mama! Papa! I wanna play too!" Luticia laughed, splashing the both of us. Eh, she was wearing a swimsuit like mine... and her armour wasn't showing underneath. Had she finally learned to control it? "Ahh!" I covered my face to keep the water from getting into my eyes.

"You really want to join in, Lute?" Scotty smiled.

"Yeah!" our daughter laughed. The next moment, she got hit in the face with a water splash. "Papa! That was mean!" she pouted, rubbing her eyes. "Sorry, sorry," Scotty patted her on the head. Now HE was the one to get splashed. "Who's the mean one?" he splashed Luticia even more.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Ahh... that was tiring," I yawned, leaning back against the wall of the sauna. I was already sweating, even after 2 minutes or so in here.

"Splashing around like that was tiring? I don't really think so," Scotty sighed beside me.

Come to think of it, the one peculiar thing about the ship was that everything seemed to be made for women only... There was only one sauna here, and the rest of the extremities were made for women. There was also only one changing room beside the pool too. At least it was Scotty that was with me now - we were familiar enough with each other that we could just stay in the sauna naked. Of course, we locked the door. Luticia was resting outside on a pool chair after all the splashing around.

"Leviathan, why is everything only made for women?" I asked.

"It would appear to be so because my creators are an all-female race. That is the only thing I know about them."

"Explains it."

"Traya, let's just spend as much time relaxing as we can before we get drawn back into more fighting again. I get the feeling the Leviathan won't go unnoticed for long."

"Yeah..."

I leaned on Scotty's warm shoulder. It was covered in sweat - of course. Not that I minded, I was also all sweaty. We'd need to bathe later... Come to think of it, I felt an odd sense of deja vu. This wasn't the first time the both of us had some quiet time together like this... even as teens, we had been involved to this stage already. It made me reminisce about my past... after my escape from the castle I had called home all those years back. Village life with Scotty had been... fun and exciting.

We had taken baths together in the river on several occasions too. I still remember that time when my towel had been washed away by the stream and we ran all the way down looking for it, with me naked. Eventually, Scotty found it stuck on a rock and gave it back to me. Though we could've gotten a new one from the village with no problem... I was surprised we didn't think of it back then. It felt like I was always getting in those embarassing situations with Scotty, so I felt like he eventually got a little immune to the usual shock that followed other guys seeing me naked.

"Scotty, have you ever thought about going back to see our old home together when we were kids?" I asked, laying down over his lap. Again, sweaty. My hair was all plastered to my body now... this sauna wasn't half bad.

"Yeah. We've been away for so long already..."

"I just hope no one recognizes me. I don't want to get dragged back to the castle... man, my parents must miss me."

"You didn't think about that until now?"

"Yeah. It just didn't really cross my mind until now."

"Well, I suppose we could always sail off to Ostea anytime, now that we have the Leviathan. It'll just take a while though."

Scotty's hometown was on the continent of Ostea, with my castle nearby. I was surprised he still remember the name... but when we got there, finding the town again could be a bit of a problem, since neither of us remembered the way there.

"I guess... Do you think the others will want to come along?"

"Maybe. Clara will surely want to though."

"I suppose..."

Hey... it seemed to be getting rather hot in here...

......