Chapter 100: A quiet interlude
Under the daylight of a clear blue sky, the neighboring land around the hospital grew dark, as if an incorporeal presence diluted the ambient with fog. The few beasts and zombies that dwelled around the perimeter were suddenly frightened and began to run away from the place that faintly chanted an ominous doom.
Severed from the monument, Filianore was completely free from its control. However, she could not regain the physical body she once lost. With the link of curse broken, an inhuman screech resonated from the stone, terrorizing any living being. Streams of dark radiating energies floated out and disappeared into the darkness. The thirteen figures in black robe held their hands by their ears in pain; only the two overly endowed ladies were unaffected by the frequency.
Then, from the dark, foul hideous creatures came from behind; they ambushed the figures in black robes and consumed their flesh. Those abominations were corpses of necrophages that Zomi killed near one of the subway stations; they were taken here for experiments but now reanimated by the souls within the momentum.
"Come inside." Gwenyvere whispered to her cousin while petting the cousin's head.
Filianore gave the high priestess a trustful look before turning ethereal and diving into the jewel of a necklace resting in Gwenyvere's deep valley. Rubbing the jewel with her finger, the high priestess then submerged her hand into the same valley and pulled out another vial.
She briefly watched the chaos before her and tossed the vial onto the monument. Within the cracked container, the same white substance flowed out, dyeing the stone in white. From its surface, the white stain seemed to spread in all directions upon contact. Within a minute, the cracking sound of the monument was heard. It started to collapse and crumble into pieces in the next instance. Even Gwenyvere was shocked at the effectiveness of her own potion.
"Seems like I added too much, I will need to adjust the ratio next time. In that case… wait…" Realizing her mistake, Gwenyvere grabbed hold onto her jewel again and inspected the spirit inside.
"It's aphrodisiac property works on soul form as well; I need to record that in the catalogs." She can faintly hear the moans of ecstasy of her dear cousin resonating in her mind through the crystal.
With the monument destroyed, the re-animated necrophages stopped moving and some collapsed on top of the black robed figures. The surviving victims finally showed their faces due to the earlier struggle; they were humans, awakened humans. If the governor of a certain station was present, he would have recognized most of them.
Gwenyvere gave them a quick glance and proceeded to ignore them. She picked up several pieces of stone and a core looking like crystal from the shattered monument then left the hospital without speaking anymore words, leaving the humans not knowing what to do.
The awakened humans were promised immortality and power from the lady in black; they were shown the magic that the monument was capable of. However, the divine, goddess-like lady just took their boss away and shattered their hopes and dreams. With nothing left, their only option was to go back to the station they once came from.
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By the entrance of the central station, the high priestess was greeted by her capable fellow servants of the god. The maidens all sweetly smiled upon Gwenyvere's return, a sight that melted the heart of bystanders watching. There was one girl however, that tried to avoid eye contact with the high priestess, she had her hands hidden behind her back with the fragments of talisman she broke.
"What's the matter, Arwen?" Gwenyvere asked with a smile through telepathy.
"Nothing~~" The maiden responded while tilting her sight with her lip swirled at the right; but the high priestess was still smiling at her. "Yeah… I kind of broke my talisman, it snapped on its own."
The high priestess would normally be upset and go on lecturing her for hours on how precious the materials for the talismans are and how difficult it is to make; but today, she was in a very good mood.
"Be careful next time, child. I will make thy a new one." Gwenyvere pulled a few pieces of fragments from the monument out of her valley for a quick moment and winked her eyes.
Arwen was amazed, she never saw one so large from all her scavenging.
"Where in the world?... As expected from our beloved mother, the divine priestess, beacon of holiness…"
"Enough there, child. Add ten more hours to this week's meditation. Thou need to learn to control the flow better." Gwenyvere still had a gentle smile on her face.
"But! But! But…" Arwen fluttered, but the high priestess had already started walking.
The return of the maidens as they walked the streets back to their headquarters had been commemorative; words of their prowess quickly spread amongst the station's populace. More eyes had turned to the order for those who are more desperate in these desperate times. Many women look upon the maidens with awe and aspiration, looking to join their ranks. However, a few nuns sighed in secret; they were expecting an influx of new applicants to join the order, and that meant their workload would be increasing. No more slacking off by taking excessively long lunch hours.
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Gwenyvere returned to her chamber and stripped away her silky white robe and lavish garment. With only a few scanty clothes pasted to her vital spots, the former princess dived into the large triple king-sized bed. On her hand was the large crystal core of the monument. She held it above her head and stared into its luster, faint movements of fluid within the stone crystal were observed.
"What do you plan to do with this, princess?" Filianore finally recovered from her bliss and floated out from the necklace.
"Don't call me princess, for I am no longer one. How are you feeling now? After absorbing the potion?" Gwenyvere dodged the question.
"Oh, I can't believe what I have just experienced. I haven't been able to feel anything but agony since I was in this form; but even before that, the feeling was indescribable. I think that was my first enlightenment, I didn't even know this body can do that as a spirit." Filianore's cheek was flushed red.
"I am glad that you enjoyed it. Then I am confident that you will like someone that I will bring you to see. We will need his help to make you a new body," Gwenyvere revealed her plan.
"He? Our princess has a male acquaintance besides the men in our family? I do not believe any of them survived," Filianore shockingly said.
A woman of Gwenyvere's status, caliber and capability naturally had many suitors waiting in line. But as a former fire keeper and a holy priestess of the flame, she had to retain her purity. Until now, there was a divine worthy of her chastity, her clairvoyance had never failed her.
"You will see," Gwenyvere smiled again.
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On top of a radio tower, Leo took a deep breath of fresh air and wandered his sight upon the vast range of mountains. Looking down at the forward base camp for the ongoing operation, he saw numerous men and women assembling for monster clearing today. He was just here to sightsee; despite his desire to get some action, the harem assured him there was no need to use a nuke for small flies and they will make up for the missing actions with even more intense actions on bed.
The few days with the absence of Leo's harem had been difficult for other survivors. Having noticed the lack of presence of the more powerful humans, the monstrous beasts bravely came out from their hiding places and confronted the expedition teams for revenge. There had been losses and the survivors finally caught a breath of relief with the harem's return.
Leo felt an unexpected softness pressing on his back, the voluminous divine texture spread and covered a large portion with heat transmitting to his skin. Then, two arms wrapped around his waist and a chin resting on his shoulder, he heard the gentle voice of his sister.
"What are you doing up here alone?" Sarak spoke softly into his ear.
"The forest… felt different than the last time I was here." Leo looked to his side. "Don't you feel the same? It is like the trees have gotten even more livelier."
"Now that you pointed it out, it does. Do you think they will start moving one day? Ah, that reminds me of the giant living tree." The sister said.
"I wonder…" Leo activated his vision, the forest was tainted in red.
The catalyst of this phenomena had been the vast amount of blood spilled on this land. The corpses from monsters and humans alike were high quality fertilizers to the soil. Just the blood flooding the mountains alone was enough to invigorate the forest. The change has yet to come, but one can certainly expect what mutated the beasts also mutated the trees.
"Say, let's go hunt a game for tonight's dinner. Mom will be coming too. I don't believe you have tried the strange variant of the new local meat," Sarah humorously said.
Hearing meat, he instantly got excited and the rumble on his stomach coincidentally sounded. Leo had been feeding the harem for several days straight but forgot to feed himself; it seems like engaging intercourse with women can somehow keep him energized and make him forget about hunger, but nothing beats having food in his mouth until he is satisfied.