Lust

"What do you mean I have a baby?!" Melia cried, panic and fear gripping her voice and body.

"E-Err, I just...I mean there's a fetus developing in your womb. Were you unaware?"

"Milady, did you-" Roswell started but was quickly cut off by a trembling Melia, "NO!"

"Get an ultrasound." Roko said.

"Yes!" Helena ran over and grabbed the doctor by the shoulder, "Prepare to scan the bodies of all the admitted girls. As quickly as possible. Now!"

"Y-Yes ma'am!" The doctor cried as he turned around and ran off, dropping the clipboard he was holding.

"Oh god." Melia sobbed as she covered her face, "Oh god..."

"It's okay, Melia." Helena rushed over to comfort her devastated friend, "We're going to get to the bottom of this."

"It's a monster."

"What do you-"

"It's a monster." Melia said as she calmed down enough to look up, "One of those inhuman, tentacled...things that they were controlling."

"We don't know th-"

"I know it!" Melia cried, "I can feel it! Oh god-" Melia covered her mouth as her body heaved, threatening to vomit.

"M-Melia, calm down." Helena said as she hugged her friend, "I promise you that we'll get to the bottom of this. We'll get rid of whatever they did to you, okay? You have to trust me."

Melia had begun crying once more, her shuddering body unable to form a response but she managed enough to give a small nod. Before anything else could be said, doctors rushed into the room to collect Melia and usher their group out. With nothing they can do, Roko and his friends retired for the day.

"They're all pregnant?!" Roland cried.

"Seems like it." Roswell scowled, "This is disgusting. To think they would take advantage of these women like that."

"Well they weren't going to do their taxes for them." Roko shrugged, "You can't say you can never suspected something like this."

"I...didn't want to think..." Roswell's voice faltered.

"No matter if we think we knew or not, what they did is unforgivable." Roland scoffed, "They're not getting away a second time now."

"Hey!"

Everyone looked up as Helena ran up to them while carrying some papers, "I got the results."

"How does it look?" Roko asked as Helena gave him the papers.

"Like you suspected, whatever is inside those girls isn't a regular fetus." Helena shivered in disgust and anger, "As you can see, these things barely resemble humans."

"They're using women to incubate their own monsters." Roswell scowled, "Disgusting."

"That poor woman we fought in the church." Helena bit her thumb, "Are all the monsters going to appear like that?"

"I'd like to say no." Roko said, "If they all killed their hosts after being born, they would quickly run out of hosts to use. At least, that's what I hope."

"This is so messed up." Helena held her head with both her hands, "I...I just don't..."

"This is something that should have never happened to those girls." Roland nodded, "And something you should never had to confront."

"...I don't know what to do." Helena took a deep breath, "I don't know how to help them."

"Can't we just abort them?" Roswell asked.

"One of the girls demanded an abortion when she found out the truth. Preparations were made and she was on the table before whatever was in her began to convulse and attack her body from the inside. The operation was stopped and that...thing settled back down. All abortion procedures have been halted to prevent any further dangerous reactions from those monsters."

"Not only are they leeching off those poor girls but they're holding them hostage?" Roland growled, "Just when you think they couldn't get any worse."

"I've contacted my informants again." Helena sighed, "This should go much faster since they have a name and face to go on but I don't expect we'll hear back in the same day. So we have a day to prepare."

"Well, Roswell and I are still kitted up from our last mission so we're set." Roland shrugged, "Dunno about Roko though."

"Roko, how are you?" Helena asked.

"Hm?" Roko looked up from studying the documents. "Yeah. I'll be fine."

"I heard you got slammed against the rock wall a few times. Are you sure you're okay?"

"You ever get the feeling that your eyes are sticking out of your sockets just a bit?"

"N-No..."

"Oh. Then forget about it."

"No, I think I should be worried."

"We can deal with that afterwards." Roko said as he handed the pictures back to Helena, "For now, we need to post a ton of guards at the wards where the girls are staying."

"What? Why?"

"What if one of those girls give birth? We would have a monster in the middle of a hospital ward. That'll put everyone in danger, the girls, the patients and the hospital staff."

"That's true." Helena gulped, "I'll make a call to double...no, triple the guards at the ward."

"I feel sorry for the police force now." Roland shuddered.

"Now that it's come this far, dealing with this cult should be the authorities' top priority." Roko explained, "Now that they've been exposed to this extent, they can't continue to operate in Aporia so their next move is probably to escape."

"We've set up choke points along every known way out of the city but you never know what kind of stuff they'll pull with their weird magic." Helena nodded.

"They warped space before didn't they?" Roswell asked, "Couldn't they just do that to escape?"

"If that's true then we wouldn't be capturing any of the panicking cultists." Roland said, "I assume their 'God' isn't quite that generous."

"And there's the problem." Helena said as she began to think deeply, "The Gods abandoned us in all but magic. However, whatever this 'God' they're worshiping is demonstrating some strange set of powers. It's certainly nothing like any of the stories of the God Era. And yet, despite them having Godlike power, they're doing something like kidnapping and impregnating women with their monsters. They don't act like Gods but their powers are unmistakably God like and I can't explain it any other way. If they have in fact come into some kind of God after the gods all left, then who is this God? What do they want and what happened to the original gods?"

Roland and Roswell considered Helena's words with a grim solemnity. Roko just stood there, perfectly capable of understanding the weight of Helena's thoughts but the sight of serious discussion about gods as a proven and undeniable existence despite having not seen one since he arrived at this world and having no such concrete proof in his old world had Roko disassociating a bit.

"Well, I'm sure there some sort of reasonable explanation for this." Roko sighed.

"Hm? Do you have an idea, Roko?"

"No, none at all." Roko replied, "All this God stuff is still pretty foreign to me."

"Well, I've never seen a God myself either." Helena admitted, "Nor have my parents, I believe."

"In any case, we just need to get more information on them." Roko said as he began to walk off.

"Where are you going?" Roland frowned.

"I'm going to question the girls for a bit." Roko said, "Any information I can get would help tremendously in taking them down. We're just waiting for Helena's informants now right?"

"What are you going to ask them?"

"I'll figure that out along the way."

"Sir! A-All preparations have been complete!" One of the cultists saluted as he came up to Bedlam, "All regalia have been smuggled out of the city. All that's left is to escape ourselves."

"Good." Bedlam nodded, "We'll make our way out soon. Gather the others and prepare to move out within the hour."

"Y-Yes sir." The cultist nodded and bowed but continued to stare nervously at Bedlam.

"What's wrong?" Bedlam frowned.

"Oh! N-Nothing sir, it's just...your new form..."

"Ah yes, isn't it magnificent?" Bedam flexed his new burly muscles, "Our great God has seen it fit to rescue me from death and give me a new, more apt body."

"It's...it's certainly a sight, sir." The cultist gulped.

"If you serve our lord faithfully, perhaps you may be rewarded in the same manner."

"Y-yes sir."

The cultist bowed again and shuffled away nervously as another, normal looking man walked in with a concerned look on his face.

"Brother, what happened to you?"

"Ah, Daniel." Bedlam smiled, "Look at this. This is the body given to me by our glorious God."

"How did this happen? What happened to you?"

"A little interloper turned out to be more clever than I expected. Thankfully, I was saved by our God."

"This is...unnatural." Daniel said fearfully, "This is not right. Are you sure this is safe?"

"Daniel. There are few left on this earth that can even recall the age of gods. It may be hard for you to believe but this may very well be how the relationship between gods and men were like."

"I'm not from this world and I know nothing about these gods but..." Roko strolled into the room with Helena, Roland and Roswell at his side, "I'm pretty sure that's not true."

"Well, look who decided to show their faces again." Bedlam sneered as Daniel backed away in shock, "You certainly do not know how to let things go, your highness."

"We've got room to negotiate, Bedlam." Helena said as she stepped up.

"Oh do we now?"

"Either remove the monsters or tell us how we can remove them from your victims without harming them. Do that and you can leave the city without further trouble."

"Oh that's so sweet, princess but I'm afraid there is no way to save those girls. Not even I can do that."

"You lie!"

"I am very much serious." Bedlam chuckled, "Well, perhaps somewhere in this book, there is a spell like that. But I don't think you'll even be able to comprehend the words of our god."

Bedlam waved the red book tauntingly with a triumphant grin on his face.

"Hand over that book." Helena growled.

Roland drew his sword, preparing to take the book by force.

"Oh you sweet child. You simply don't know. Let me show you then."

And to everyone's surprise, Bedlam opened the book to a random page and showed it to them. On the page was a mess of symbols and letters, none of which resembled any sort of writing system that did exist or even could possibly exist. It was a chaotic mess of scribbling that despite seeming to hold some sort of structure, such as sentencing, there was no possible way to tell how it could possibly be read. The more Roko stared at it, the more he felt his mind breaking, trying to comprehend it.

"Well now." Bedlam shut his book, "I sure hope you believe me now."

"Wh...what is that?" Helena scowled, still recovering from the chaos that the book seemed to instill in her.

"This? This is a grimoire. The sole book containing the words of our God. Held only by their most loyal acolytes. There is no truly 'reading' the book. To 'read' it, you must hear the voice of our God. By his guidance will the book's purpose be found."

"What...what kind of God do you worship?" Roswell gulped.

Bedlam grinned, "The great Biomancer. He who sees man for the chaos that they are and moves to create a new form of humanity befitting his grace. The architect of flesh whose vision will succeed humanity. His majesty, Gnasci."

"G-Gnasci..." Helena said, the name now seeming to induce a shudder in her and her friends.

"I assume that doesn't sound familiar?" Roko asked.

"That doesn't even sound human." Roland grimaced.

"Well it is a God."

"Roko, can you not?"

"Regardless." Bedlam smirked, "I don't believe you're in any position to negotiate, princess."

"What do you mean?" Helena frowned.

"Do you really think you can beat us with just the four of you?"

"I know you think you have a lot of cultists but none of them are going to fight for you." Roko said, "I've proved that."

"And I don't think you being a bit more buff is going to help you any."

"You doubt my wondrous body?" Bedlam flexed.

"Personally, I don't care for muscular men." Helena scoffed.

"None of you have good taste." Bedlam sighed as Roland shifted about uncomfortably in his armor, "But I was never one for direct combat and I could hardly depend on those layabouts outside. That is why..."

Bedlam opened his grimoire and raised it, red light pouring from the writings inside. Black water suddenly bubbled out from the ground and familiar black masses appeared from them. But creepily enough, these monsters seemed to have defined legs, though they stood quite unsteadily on them. The body seemed to drip black sludge and human ribs and bones pokes out at odd angles. They didn't seem to be able to form arms, instead wielding a pair of smooth undefined tentacles. They jerked and moved in disturbing ways, as if the legs still had not learned how to fully hold the atrocity above it. Despite missing a head, the attempt at legs and protruding bones were clear mimicries towards the human anatomy but it didn't seem to understand the human body enough or seem able to copy it further. Yet its attempt and the clear progress it has made in copying the human form was enough to induce a sense of terror and disgust.

"I have these."