Trouble

Granberia stared into nothingness, her face held up by her palm as she sat at the table. This journey had just started and yet it was interminable. She wasn't sure she could take anymore. Sara was sitting across from her, eating and talking. And talking. Granberia had tuned her out long ago. If this was what being with a woman was like, Granberia decided that she definitely preferred the company of men.

They had arrived in Edenberg after several days of wandering the countryside of Eden continent looking for trouble. Luka and Alice hadn't even been looking for trouble and had found it in spades. All they'd wanted was to see sights, learn things, and enjoy food. Of course, in this particular city that had all been Granberia's fault. She felt stupid for joining Alma Elma on her ill considered crusade to stop heroes from Sentora from receiving baptisms, as well as stop heroes on Ilias continent from reaching Sentora. The strategy was fine as far as it went. For two years, no new heroes had been baptized, which exceeded both of their expectations. So why had she decided to attempt a takeover of Iliasburg and then march on Ilias Village, with the intent of destroying the temple? She'd rationalized to herself that it was an act of self defense, consistent with the Monster Lord's orders. When she arrived in Iliasburg, however, she had felt like an idiot. The heroes were no threat to anyone. They would have been hard pressed to inconvenience an imp. Looking back, she realized it was a direct violation of the Monster Lord's orders. Alice had allowed it, seeing her and Alma Elma's point of view, but she clearly did not approve. She must have been tickled to see her new pet cranking on Granberia's arm while she laid on the ground in considerable pain. The defeat had been utterly humiliating and yet exciting at the same time. She had immediately forgotten her original plan and turned Luka into her personal obsession.

That obsession had only grown when Alma Elma popped back into the castle a few days later to cheerily announce that the human fake hero had defeated her as well. Granberia could scarcely believe her ears. Luka was weak to pleasure attacks and no one's pleasure attacks were more lethal than the queen succubus'. Although Granberia disdained pleasure attacks, she had had a moment of weakness after smelling how delicious the boy was and had licked him. Not even in a sensitive place, just his neck. That alone had caused him to tremble and weaken. She never told him this, but at that moment she had seen an opportunity to turn the tables on him and threaten to break his own arm. Ashamed at her unwarriorlike actions, she had given him a moment to recover his resolve. She didn't want to win that way, even though she knew she could. She probably could do so today. Hmmm, she thought, maybe I should take Luka by surprise and try that someday. Alma Elma had sent Granberia a quick telepathic message that it was open season on Luka. Granberia doubted that very much. She knew that Alice had been considering becoming more tolerant of other monsters tasting him once in awhile, but Granberia knew there was no way in hell Alice would ever let Alma Elma have unlimited access to him. Even Granberia, who she trusted completely, would only be tolerated to some extent. But perhaps one time surprising him with pleasure attacks… Hmmmm… he did taste good.

"So are you bisexual?"

Granberia snapped out of it. Sara was staring at her, expecting an answer to some question.

"What?! Did you just ask me if I'm gay?" Granberia answered.

"No, I asked you if you were bisexual," Sara explained. "I mean, I know you love Luka, but you're also out here with me, to give me a chance to prove myself to you. So you're attracted to women as well?"

The fact that Granberia was even out here mentoring Sara on the premise she might be marriage material should have made the answer to that question obvious, but Sara was having doubts. She hadn't failed to notice the Knight's relentless disinterest in everything but her training. Sara knew that Granberia was initially enthusiastic about this journey because she expected some adventure. Yet she seemed so crushed by boredom that Sara feared she might give up on the whole thing. She had dared hope that perhaps Granberia would find her company sufficiently rewarding. Luka and Alice had sure seemed to enjoy each other's company right from the start, although she couldn't know that that too had been one sided at first. She was beginning to wonder if Granberia had any interest at all in her.

Granberia thought for a moment, then answered. "I guess I never gave it much thought. There are no true gay monsters. We all need semen. We all crave it. Even you have felt the craving recently. And yet, I do enjoy playing with women as well. Perhaps I am bisexual. Although I think my true orientation would be warrior. I like warriors."

"Why?" Sara asked. "I know you love the sword above all else, but there's more to life than that. I know that you have other interests."

"I do," Granberia replied. "But I would be bored if a man couldn't give me a good battle. He doesn't have to be better than me. That would be asking too much. But there should at least be some challenge. There should at least be the possibility that occasionally I might lose."

"I notice you said man," Sara said. "We girls have to stick together. That's so chauvinistic to assume that only a man can give you a good fight."

"It was just a shorthand," Granberia said. "Although I have never had a good fight with a human woman before. I've had very few with human men for that matter. Luka and maybe two others. And even with those other two the fights were only interesting because I was having trouble staying awake. Still, I gave them their just rewards for doing so well. Other than our mutual firned, I have only been truly challenged by non-human opponents. They were all female of course."

"But why does combat have to be the only way for you to be interested in a person?" Sara countered. "A marriage is a partnership. You should be strong where he or she is weak and vice versa. If you are both just warriors, there's no way to grow, no way to expand your horizons. Most importantly, if you two encounter a problem that can't be solved by swinging a sword at it, what do you do?"

"I live in the Monster Lord's castle. If that kind of problem comes up, I have others to rely on."

"That's my point!" Sara argued. "You can be your best version of you because where you are weak, you have friends to support you, to do the things you can't do! You don't need a warrior in your life. You need a scholar."

"A scholar?" Granberia smirked. "Are you talking about yourself?"

"Maybe," Sara mumbled. "When you saved me that day in the desert, I admired you so much and wanted to be just like you. I trained so hard with the sword. I thought I got pretty good. I never neglected my studies. I guess I'm pretty educated. I had the best tutors, access to a huge library, and the responsibility of ruling someday hanging over my head. I took it very seriously and I guess I did well. People say I'm pretty smart, that I'll make a fantastic queen."

"Do you enjoy the accolades, or feel crushed by the pressure?" Granberia asked, now genuinely interested.

"A little of both. The people of Sabasa adore me. It's wonderful, but also a lot to live up to. I can relate to Luka. Seems like every monster on the planet wants to have him. Every man in Sabasa wants to have me. How about you? You're famous the world over for your skills. You're easily the most well known Heavenly Knight to the human populace. Most humans can't name two. But most can name you."

"I never gave much thought to what anyone thought of me, especially humans," Granberia replied. "I have only ever felt chastened by the disapproval of two people: my mentor, Salamander, and the Monster Lord Alipheese. Alipheese's criticisms can be especially harsh. I am almost thankful Luka defeated me in this city. If he hadn't, I am sure Alipheese would have intervened and scolded me for my foolishness."

"Didn't you want to be the Monster Lord once?" Sara asked.

"Monster Lord?" Granberia scoffed. "The very thought is absurd! I did compete for the title, but it was strictly for the competition. Had I won, I would have done my duty, but we dragonkin live a very long time. I was not about to be weighed down by that responsibility for the next 500 years. I would have abdicated as soon as Alipheese or someone else was ready to replace me. Although I wouldn't have just let her have it. She would still have had to prove herself by defeating me in battle."

"Thank you for training me," Sara said. "I really think I'm getting better. If that's the only way I can prove myself to you I promise I'll work hard at it. I've never failed at anything I've put my mind to."

Indeed, Sara had been an excellent student. She had learned not one, but two cursed sword techniques in their last lesson, and already could perform them surprisingly well. Granberia had initially shown her Thunder Thrust so that she would be able to gain an early advantage over an opponent. She had learned the technique so well that Granberia had also introduced her to Demon Decapitation. The problem wasn't in Sara's intelligence or ability to learn proper sword technique. There was the matter of physical gifts as well. Luka had given Granberia a good fight in this city because of his insane reflexes, not because of his garbage sword techniques that he had picked up from who knew where. With just a few lessons, Luka had gone from only being able to defend himself to fighting Granberia on near equal terms. Sara, on the other hand, was slow and weak. By monster standards, anyway. By human standards, she was quite good.

Granberia's thoughts were interrupted once again, not by Sara this time, but by a man calling her name and approaching the table. Granberia looked up. The man looked familiar somehow, although she couldn't place where she had seen him. He was remarkably handsome and well built. Obviously a warrior. Granberia gave sword lessons in this city every so often, but she did not recognize him as one of her students. She stood up to greet the man, and also to be ready in case of a threat. She knew that some people held grudges even though it was a different world. His demeanor did not suggest hostility, however. He had a broad smile as he approached her and offered his hand. Granberia had learned enough about human culture to accept the handshake.

"Granberia!" the man said. "It's been a long time! Do you remember me?"

"I am embarrassed to admit that I do not," she replied, in the unusual position of looking up at this huge man. Granberia stood about six feet tall and most of the men of this world stood well under six feet. This man was a head taller than she was. "Yet you do seem familiar to me."

"No worries, milady," the man replied genially. "Our 'meeting' lasted less than three seconds. I was one of the last ones to challenge you before the hero Luka arrived on the scene. You wouldn't have seen my face clearly because I was wearing a great helm. Fat lot of good it did me."

"Wait! I do remember now!" Granberia exclaimed. "Were you the large one who came at me even though I had caused my sword to erupt in fire?"

"I was!" he said, spreading his arms out. "I always did have more guts than brains."

"The same has often been said of me," Granberia said, now smiling herself. She immediately liked this man, and although she did not respect his skill, she had admired his courage. She had only ignited her flame because two men had been poised to attack her at once. One of them had immediately quailed before the heat, although he had recovered his manhood a moment later, after she'd already dispatched the one standing before her now. But this one, he hadn't hesitated at all. In hindsight, she felt a bit bad for using her teleportation trick on him. He deserved a stand up fight and she had denied him that. Not that it would have lasted long. His attack on her had been slow and ugly. "Are you still a warrior? I have been teaching the local heroes here from time to time, but I haven't seen you among them."

"That's one reason I came back to Ilias- I mean, Edenberg. Word still travels slowly in this part of the world. I was humiliated and couldn't show my face around here. I even got chased away by the owner of the Sutherland Inn! So I went to Ilias Village, where I've spent the last year trying to get better. I'd hoped to challenge you again. I know I'll lose, but I'd like to see how far I've come, and perhaps be here next time you give lessons."

"I admired your bravery then and I admire your candidness now," Granberia replied. Yes, she definitely liked this man. Handsome, and now that baptism was no longer a thing, delicious smelling. He and his fellow heroes had smelled quite unappetizing when she'd come to challenge them. It had made Luka's savory smell all the more intoxicating. But this man standing before her now…. This was one very attractive and tasty slab of meat. She shook her head. I must show more respect, she thought. I must not be ruled by my monster instincts! "I would like to know your name, warrior."

"I am Edgar!" he said cheerfully. "I see you've already eaten so I guess joining you lovely ladies for dinner is out of the question. So I guess we'll just meet up when you're ready to spar with me?"

"I'm Sara, by the way," Sara interjected. "Princess of Sabasa."

"Oh my!" he exclaimed. " I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see you with an important guest. I won't detain you any further."

"Actually," Granberia said. "I'd love to spar with you right now. It will be nightfall soon and this city still doesn't have electricity. And Sara and I will be leaving in the morning. There will be no better time than now."

"Very well then!" he said. "Lead the way, milady."

Granberia harrumphed and began the walk with her two companions to the city square where she had initially battled the heroes of this city. She would never admit it, but she liked being treated like a lady, at least sometimes. His chivalrous nature further impressed her. Finally, something interesting was happening. She didn't expect a good fight, but at this point ANY fight was better than what she'd had so far. She'd grown used to intense workouts with Luka nearly every day. In the week since she'd been traveling, she hadn't swung her sword in earnest more than twice. She hoped he'd give her at least five good swings before falling. If he did, she had great plans to reward him. Assuming he was willing, of course. She was no longer that kind of monster. At least not to nice guys. She figured that she could suspend the no rape rule if a man actually attempted to hurt her. It was what such a man deserved.

He actually allowed her a dozen good swings before going down. His technique had improved dramatically, although it was his reckless style that made the fight tougher for her than it should have been. She'd been surprised by the ferocity of his attack and actually been driven back for a moment. But only a moment. Once she regained the initiative, he had parried only a few of her strikes, the rest getting through. But he was tough, and refused to surrender until she'd cut him badly. Fortunately, Ares was never fatal no matter how bad the cuts, and this cut wouldn't have been fatal even if she'd been using an unenchanted sword. She judged that it would heal fully within a few days.

She extended a hand to Edgar. "You have indeed improved. Your technique does not justify your aggression, however. You left yourself too vulnerable. The fight would have been longer had you started out on the defensive."

"I'm sorry, milady," he said, still cheerful, despite wincing in pain. He took her hand and stood up. "I felt that my only chance was to go for broke. Despite my belief that I couldn't win, I felt I should still try."

"An admirable motivation," she replied. Yes, this man definitely deserved a reward. "Perhaps you would like to join me in my room for the night?"

He seemed taken aback and began to stammer. Sara began to fume. "That's OUR room, Granberia!" she corrected.

"Of course," Granberia said. "Would you like to join the two of us in our room tonight?"

"Don't I get a vote on this?" Sara said petulantly.

"You do not," Granberia retorted. "But if you behave yourself, I promise to make it worth your while as well. Those are the terms. If you do not like them, you can get your own room. You certainly have the gold to afford it."

She expected Sara to be upset, but the promise of something for Sara in all this seemed to interest the princess. She consented to the arrangement with no further argument. That left Edgar. She really did hope he'd say yes. She had grown hungry and did not relish the thought of saying yes to the random travelers who accosted her. She had standards, after all!

"I… I would be delighted to join you lovely ladies!" he said, grinning from ear to ear. "Now mind you, I expect nothing! If all you want is to have company, I am fine with that! You have honored me enough today!"

"I desire far more than company," Granberia replied. Monsters in general were very direct about sex. Granberia in particular had no patience for beating around the bush. "I cannot speak for Sara, but about me you need have no doubts. I want to taste you."

"Well then…" he said, stammering again. Granberia thought it was adorable how squeamish many humans were in. In truth, she preferred this to the lascivious men. "I guess our night isn't finished! Lead on, miladies!"

With that, they headed towards the Sutherland Inn.

I was having a dream. I tended to dream lucidly more often than most people, so it wasn't unusual. The setting was also not unusual. I was in a cave. A lot of my dreams were replays of things I'd done on my adventure with Alice. Most of these dreams I regarded as nightmares, although that depended on the circumstances. Sometimes I would dream that I was helpless, that Alice was laughing as I was devoured. I still obviously had a lot of issues about that whole thing. It was the one thing I had never quite forgiven Alice for. I didn't let it harm our relationship, however. I reasoned that she'd never actually let me die, so maybe she never would have? I had to believe that to stay sane. But the nightmares often told me otherwise. She still had to comfort me from time to time when I sat up abruptly in a cold sweat, trembling in fear. I never told her about her part in the dreams. I simply let her think I was reliving a tough experience from that time. In real life, she had almost always been invisible when I had been in danger. But in my dreams, she was always there, not just watching impassively, but smiling evilly, taunting me as I was consumed.

However, other dreams, especially the lucid ones like now, were also replays of those events but they went very differently. In those dreams, I dominated and completely destroyed my opponents. If I knew I was dreaming, I gleefully murdered them. I wasn't sure what that said about me, but it seemed to be therapeutic, making further nightmares about that particular opponent less frequent.

At the moment I was in a cave. Was this the Treasure Cave, or the cave of Yamata-no-orochi? Neither encounter had been particularly traumatizing. I had been threatened with death in neither case. The Treasure cave had featured mainly foxes who wanted to defeat me, but would not seriously harm me. Yamata-no-orochi wanted to keep me as a "sacrifice", but only for one year. Since Tamamo had my back that night, there had been little danger of that. The most difficult event that night hadn't even been the powerful monster. It had been Tamamo and Alice's confrontation over me. Was that what this dream was going to be about?

As I advanced through the cave, sword drawn, ready for anything, I saw a form up ahead of me. It was shrouded in shadow, but I could make out wings. That was unusual. I hadn't encountered any winged creature in a cave before. A bat girl perhaps? I don't think I'd ever seen one, although I knew they existed.

As I drew closer, I saw that I wasn't too far off the mark. It was a succubus, a distant relative of bat girls. In fact, when sealed, succubi turned into bats. This was an unusual dream indeed. I'd faced a few succubi on my adventure, and met many more. Succubus Village was lousy with succubi ever since it had become their sanctuary. I had never seen this one before. She was even more beautiful than Alma Elma. Not that this was surprising. Dream girls can be impossibly beautiful. A subject which I'll get to a bit later.

She didn't seem to expect me. She looked at me quizzically. "Who are you?" she said. "Why am I here?"

"You're in my dream and I assume you're a figment of my imagination," I replied. "even in my dreams I have no desire to fight, so if you aren't interested in attacking me we can just chat until I wake up or go into another dream."

She moved closer to me and touched my face. I nearly ejaculated just from her touch. It sent lightning bolts of pleasure through my entire body. Must be another dream thing, I thought. Sometimes dream sex is better than real sex. She sure felt real.

"You smell delicious, human," she said, creepily. "It has been so long since I've fed. And yet I know that feeding on you here would not provide me with sustenance. None of this is real. I must at least know whose dream I am in. So I ask again, who are you?"

"I am Luka Fateburn, husband of the Monster Lord," I replied. "And you are?"

"Monster Lord's husband?" she said, laughing. "Do not joke. No monster lord would ever take a husband. Clearly that was just another of your dreams."

"Perhaps, but I'm pretty sure it's a thing that actually happened," I retorted. "Your name, please?"

"I am Minagi," she replied.

I knew that name. I had read it in my studies of the histories of the Great Monster Wars. She was the ultimate succubus. The original succubus. Ah, so that's it, I thought. I'd been thinking about the Great Monster Wars and so now I was dreaming about meeting one of the Six Ancestors. I felt no fear. First, this was a dream, second, I'd been told that they weren't evil. Humans had often judged monsters to be irredeemably evil, but in my experience that wasn't always true. Although a succubus was always someone to be cautious around. Their energy draining abilities were so formidable that they could kill without intending to. Men could also go mad experiencing the pleasure they could give.

"Well, Minagi, what brings you to my dreams?" I asked conversationally.

"I was going to ask you the same question," she countered. "I have been asleep for so long. I can still feel that my true body is sealed, but now my mind is free to wander. I have been seeking out the consciousness of my sisters and the Dark God. I found Tamamo no mae's consciousness but her mind was closed to me and did not respond. In fact, all minds in the world are closed to me except for yours. Why is that?"

I'd had a twinge of doubt about this being a dream, but that doubt was now dispelled. Ilias had come to me in dreams and it had been real. But she had also placed a protective spell on my mind to block access to it. Only she was allowed access, and then only through dreams. The idea that I would be someone Minagi could enter and no one else was absurd. Other humans had no protection. Even most monsters didn't. So there was no way she could get into my mind.

"Getting into my mind is impossible," I replied. "The Goddess Ilias placed a block on my mind to prevent monsters from using mind magic on me."

"The Goddess Ilias!?" Minagi exclaimed. "Then you are an enemy! I have been led into the den of an enemy! I will not let you seal me again!"

With an unholy scream, she flung herself at me. I awoke with a start, sitting up in a cold sweat once again. Alice, always a light sleeper, woke up and tried to calm me. This time I told her about the dream, in full detail.. Alice froze, a look of dread on her face. When she recovered her composure, she shook her finger at me.

"If you ever, and I mean, EVER, see her or any other Ancestor in your dreams again, you will tell me immediately," she said sternly. "You will leave out no details! Do you understand? This is important!"

"Alice, are you suggesting…"

"Same rule applies as before, with Ilias," she said, cutting me off. "You're not ready for that discussion yet. It's probably nothing. Just a dream. I know mind magic. Nothing can get in your head except the one who cast the spell."

"It sounds uncomfortably as if there's a 'but' in there somewhere."

"Maybe," she said, looking a bit spooked. "We're talking about beings of immense power. I can't be certain what they are capable of. I'm going to have to talk to Tamamo. I'm sure she'll put my mind at rest. She's an Ancestor herself. If the seals were weakening, she would feel it. Her body is sealed as well, you know."

"Okay," I said. "I trust you both. And I'll be sure to let you know right away if I have a dream like that again."

"See that you do," she ordered. "Now get dressed, you know what today is."

"I do?" It seemed like we had something important planned, but I couldn't remember, as frightened as I was.

"Gamercon?!" she reminded me. "You only talked me into doing this after badgering me about it for weeks! You seriously don't remember? Sheesh, you really were scared out of your skin."

Gamercon! Of course! This would be the first time that Alice and I would meet our adoring public on my own world since the game, and later my book, had been published. I only convinced her it was necessary because the royalties from both had funded the bulk of the technological improvements we'd been making to this world. She was truly grateful despite not approving of the game at all("It's for perverts!") and only barely approving of my book. But despite her misgivings about both, they had contributed a great deal towards making this world a better place, and as Monster Lord she could not overlook that. She would endure this for the sake of all those who had donated to the cause. I, of course, would enjoy it immensely, not just to bask in the approval of the fans, but also to see everything there was to see. I'd never been to a gaming convention before.

Getting there had become routine. This was our fourth trip. We never stayed long, because time moved faster here than in my world. A week on Earth meant a month or more on her world. I never did figure out the exact timing. It seemed to vary a little. Tamamo had explained that it had something to do with the fact that the universes didn't revolve around each other in a perfect circle. The time differences increased the further apart the two worlds were. So sometimes being on Earth a week meant three weeks had passed back home, other times it meant six. So staying long wasn't in the cards. On this trip, we'd be gone only one day, Earth time.

The kitsunes had installed a portal in the castle near the server room. Only Alice and the more powerful kitsunes knew how to activate it, but once activated it was as simple as stepping through it. As always, we entered my world through my apartment. Given how much money I'd made from royalties, it was cheap and easy to just keep this place. I'd offered to buy it, but the landlord said he wasn't ready to sell, so I just continued to pay the rent.

Getting back wasn't as simple as stepping back through the portal, however, except for us. I was bound to Alice's world through Alice, whereas before I'd been bound to it through Ilias. There was no way to travel to her world and remain for long, because my world had more stringent physics than her world. If something didn't belong, my universe tried to reject it. Even weak monsters could, in theory, stay as long as they wished to, and pop right back to their own world with no more effort than clicking their heels. As Promestein had said, our world couldn't wait to get rid of them. I'd asked Alice if it was uncomfortable being here, but she assured me that it was barely noticeable until she tried to leave, at which point she felt like she was being proverbally kicked out the door and a good riddance to you, don't ever come back.

Since my apartment was in South Florida and the convention was in Orlando, we boarded a train for the four hour journey. Alice loved trains, so this was no hassle. She spent most of her time in the dining car, of course, which proved to be a greater expense than the tickets. I was prepared to deny her nothing, however, given that I had the money and she was doing me a big favor. I knew that the fans would be absolutely thrilled to see her. It's not every day one gets to see a real monster in person.

We checked into our cheap motel and got an Uber to the convention center, Alice in her human form. She would not resume her true form until we were at the event. The crazy thing about all this is that it had never been stated concretely that the game or the book were about a real thing that happened. Alice found it hilarious that I could just write a book about the experience and the authorities here took no notice of it. Aliens were literally walking on this planet and the only people aware of it were a few million gamers. And yet it was still mostly a secret. People dimly aware of it just assumed there was a game about yet another fantasy world, and the obligatory novel tie-in. I'm sure even most of the fans assumed it was all fictional, although the fan mail we received suggested that most of our fans were convinced it was real. It was going to be quite a day.

Contrary to the cheap motel Alice and Luka were staying in over in Orlando, a universe away, Granberia and Sara were at the Sutherland, a posh hotel that rivaled anything on Luka's world in terms of elegance, Granberia, like Alice, didn't really care if a hotel was nice. Granberia's own accommodations at the castle were quite Spartan, in fact. The Sutherland had been more for Sara's benefit, since she was a princess and used to fine accommodations, although she enjoyed camping as well. But the princess was not about to check into some cheap inn smelling of alcohol, or even worse, tobacco. Smoking was rare in Alice's world, but somehow the smokers always seemed to find the cheap places and leave their stench in it, although that wasn't a problem on Eden continent, where smoking and drinking alike were almost nonexistent. Old traditions still held sway.

Granberia led Edgar into her room by the hand, feeling a nervousness she hadn't felt since… well, last week. Normally she just had her way with defeated men, taunting them as she bent them to her will. Occasionally, however, she would meet one who she judged worthy of more sensitive treatment. Edgar was a very nice man, and a fine warrior to boot. He had not earned the full treatment. Although she would never tell Luka, she had actually never had intercourse with a male until that night one week ago. She didn't feel as if that made her a virgin, but she feared that Luka would take it that way and be upset that she had given herself to him. She remembered that he had placed great significance on Alice giving him her virginity. She didn't want her own relationship with Luka to get weird. Luka placed far more significance on such things than she did. He was only human, after all.

Instead, she had an idea for something she wanted to try that she had always wanted to do, but had never gotten around to doing. Men she disliked, she tended to just use her hands on. If she did like a man, or was particularly hungry, she'd reward him with her mouth. Edgar was going to experience that tonight as well, but not before she rewarded him with another first for her.

She invited him to lay on the bed. He was as nervous as she was, which she found endearing. She made a mental note to return to Edenburg more often to teach. Perhaps this man could be worthy of her one day. He was so handsome. Luka wasn't really that much to look at. It was his heart and his skills that attracted her to him. This man, on the other hand, was older than Luka and absolutely gorgeous. As she removed his pants, she found yet more to love. He was enormous! Luka wasn't tiny, but he was unremarkable in that respect. This was an unexpected treat. In her experience, men tended to wield big swords to compensate for lacking in other departments. Edgar wielded a big sword, but his other sword was equally as impressive. She was going to enjoy this a great deal.

To her irritation, he tried to sit up and kiss her. This was the downside to a good man she just wanted to bed. He wanted to please her as much as she pleased him. She politely returned his kiss, but then glared at him and pushed him back down. She was a monster and this was not a lovemaking session. This was food and a reward for him. She had no interest in him pleasuring her. In fact, she had other ideas about where she wanted to get that this night.

She removed her armor and clothing. He gasped at her beauty. Granberia knew she was beautiful but was somewhat self conscious about her looks, given who she lived with. She was sure she was the least pretty of the Heavenly Knights. She went to great lengths to take care of her beauty, from lotions to creams to exotic hair care products. She disdained makeup, regarding such things as fakery. This was another thing she would never share with Luka, or anyone else for that matter. All of her beauty supplies were kept hidden in her drawers, and no one could rummage through her room and live to tell what they had found. She knew that she must be doing it right, however, because Luka loved her hands. Even before she had been allowed to play with him, she'd enjoyed making him shiver with her touch, while acting always as if she hadn't intended to make him feel that way.

Most of all, she saw Edgar staring at her breasts. They were ample, which she actually didn't appreciate given that they were a hindrance in battle. Finding armor and a bra that would hold them tightly in place without being too uncomfortable had been even more challenging than finding a sword that could be enchanted exactly as she had wished. That she did feel free to share with Alma Elma, at least, who shared similar challenges, although Alma Elma, unlike Granberia, considered her breasts to be weapons as lethal as any sword. Being the queen succubus, she was right about that. Granberia knew that well.

She was delighted that Edgar admired them so much, because her breasts were exactly what she intended to use on him. She knelt over him and lowered them over his large penis, then pushed them together and rubbed them in circles. Since she had never done this before, she wasn't sure if she was doing it right, but thanked the Dark God that the monster magic all monsters had been bequeathed with would make it amazing no matter how clumsy she was. Sure enough, he arched his back in pleasure. While he was certainly not a virgin, as a former hero she doubted that he'd ever been with a monster before, much less a Heavenly Knight. She could literally do no wrong here, which made her nervousness melt away.

She was having fun now, moving up and down his long shaft, sandwiched between her breasts. She gave him credit. Most men were ejaculating like crazy within a minute. He had some stamina. Still, she was hungry and wanted that first taste quickly.

"Sara!" she called. Sara had been standing in the corner, watching, whether enraptured or angry Granberia wasn't sure. But at the calling of her name, she perked up immediately. "Please come over here and assist me. Would you like to lick these breasts?"

Sara very much did and was in the bed in an instant, licking and sucking Granberia's breasts and nipples. Granberia was impressed at her skill. Granberia had experienced the best in Alma Elma many times, but Sara was much better than she expected. Yes, there would have to be more of this tonight as well, once she was done with Edgar.

"Sara, don't forget to give his penis some attention as well," Granberia instructed.

Sara didn't hesitate, running her tongue over his shaft and head as well as giving extra special attention to Granberia's cleavage. This new stimulation quickly achieved the desired result. Sara backed away in surprise as he spurted. Granberia quickly put her lips over the head of his penis to catch most of it. It was quite delicious. She was glad that the baptism spell hadn't done permanent violence to his semen.

Without even asking, Sara licked off what was on Granberia's breasts. Sara was indeed part monster, seeming to enjoy the taste despite having no use for the man who had put it there. Granberia wanted more, however, and was determined to get it. This was going to be a challenge. She had never pleasured a man so well endowed before. She relished the opportunity to see if she could do it well.

Once she was clean, Granberia plunged his large member down her throat, trying to get it all the way in. She had a big mouth, and not much of a gag reflex, which was natural for her dragonkin race. Still, he was huge. This would be interesting. She was proud when her lips made contact with his base. His reaction was quite a bit more enthusiastic. She knew that her throat had more texture than a human throat, and had been mildly disappointed that she couldn't ever show this unique pleasure to Luka given his modest size. Edgar was getting the full experience, however, and unless she rewarded him with it again, he would probably never experience it a second time. Perhaps that would motivate him to do well in his training.

Sara was feeling a bit left out, but there was no way to share this particular experience so she'd have to settle for something else. Granberia considered ordering her to give his chest some attention, but decided against it. Sara didn't care for Edgar. She only joined in to be able to touch Granberia. Well, Granberia would give her another opportunity in a moment. Granberia began moving up and down like a piston, taking his entire length down her throat again and again. When she felt him stiffen, she withdrew a little, with her lips just under his head, moving her tongue around to enhance his orgasm. When he finished, she grabbed Sara's head and planted a kiss on her, sharing the semen in her mouth. Sara was surprised at first, then lost in passion. She found Granberia's breath and Edgar's semen irresistible. Despite her initial anger at Granberia's interest in this man, she was now very glad for this experience.

The male part of the experience was over, however. As Granberia crawled up to look into Edgar's eyes and perhaps kiss him again, since he seemed to enjoy that sort of thing(only after swallowing of course), she noticed with mixed disgust and pride that he was unconscious. Oh well, that was to be expected. She briefly admired the wounds her cuts had left. She hoped that she'd made him forget his pain. By morning, most of the pain of those cuts should be gone and he would be left with some lovely scars and a memory to treasure.

That being said, her interest in him was finished for the night. She lifted him off the bed easily, and unceremoniously deposited him in the hallway, taking care to at least put his underwear back on.

"Did I make it worth your while?" Granberia asked, turning to Sara after shutting the door.

"You did," Sara said softly. "Thank you. I know you need to feed occasionally. I'm sorry I got snippy about it. Anytime you want to do that again, I'd be delighted."

"The night isn't over yet," Granberia said. "It's time you and I got better acquainted."

Sara gasped in delight as Granberia picked her up and deposited her on the bed. There had still been no good adventure on this journey, but at least it was no longer a total waste of time.

"I'm sorry, what was the question?"

That was me, trying to hear the questioner. The room was filled with people, about 200 of them, mostly young men, peppering Alice and I with various questions. I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't hit us with lewd stuff. All in all, they were a very polite crowd and instinctively understood the ground rules. I'm guessing that Alice's intimidation factor didn't hurt. She was trying to be congenial, but was clearly annoyed at the insipidness of some of the questions. How many boards can you break at one time with your tail? Could you beat Brock Lesnar in a fight? Do a magic trick for us! Boxers or briefs?

Some of the questions, however, were quite good. This one in particular that I hadn't quite heard had sounded intriguing, because it was something I'd thought a lot about myself.

"If all kinds of things were triggering your memories, how could you have missed that Ilias was Irene for so long?"

Here's where I go back to the dream girl thing."Well, in my dreams, Ilias had enhanced herself to look even more goddess-like. Being in our world cost her a little bit of her holy aura and while she was still the most gorgeous woman I had ever seen up to that point, she was basically mortal here."

"But you saw her again in the Monster Lord's castle. Why didn't you recognize her then?"

I was flattered and impressed that so many people knew the story front and back, sometimes even better than I did. I'd had to ask some questions of some of the people involved to get certain details in the book right, and then promptly forgot about them again once I'd put the information on paper. Why hadn't I recognized Ilias as "Irene" in the throne room? It seems that I should have been instantly triggered by her presence in the real world, even if I didn't quite recognize her in my dreams.

"To tell you the truth, I'm not entirely sure," I replied. "It was the most stressful situation I'd been in through that entire ordeal. I think I was just so completely focused on Alice that I didn't notice that Ilias should have looked familiar."

Alice smiled and squeezed my hand. Good answer, I thought, although I wasn't entirely convinced that was it.

"Next question?" Alice announced.

A young woman stood up. "There are a lot of discrepancies between the game and the book, for reasons we all understand, but one in particular has bugged me. When you encountered Chrome while looking for Alice's real body, Chrome said that she'd defeated Le Croix and that Le Croix had done some things that she said, quote 'would break your heart'. In the game, of course, she had revived Alice's mother. Did you ever find out what Chrome really meant by that?"

Alice stiffened. This, along with the H-scenes, was another reason Alice didn't approve of the game. She had powered through it when it first came out, but had shut it off and deleted it, in a rage over the portrayal of her dead mother being revived. She'd immediately teleported to Chrome and asked her, no, interrogated her, with eye magic, to force Chrome to tell her what had happened. Fortunately, La Croix had not actually reanimated Alice's mother, or any other famous monsters for that matter. She had, however, stolen quite a few random monster bodies and reanimated them, forcing them to live an existence far more torturous than anything even Chrome had done to humans. Seeing that and being appalled by it made Chrome resolve never to perform necromancy again. As with many monsters, she had never even thought about how cruel the practice was when she was performing it on humans. Seeing monsters in that state made her realize how evil it was. As she said, it had broken her heart and she had been eager to spare Alice the sight of her cute little subordinates treated in such a horrible fashion. Alice's mother's body was safe in her grave, another thing Alice made sure of.

I decided to answer for Alice. "Well, the whole point of the differences between the book and the game was to illustrate just how much the whole thing wasn't totally about me. A video game needs to make the plot all about the player character, so my role was exaggerated in the game. A lot of the events took place out of my sight. Most of those events are just speculation and creative license by the designers. In reality, I would never have gotten very far if not for the efforts of my friends and allies. Chrome proved to be a surprising ally. Thanks to her, we got Alice's body back much sooner in reality than the game portrayed."

"The game also decided to have more fun at my expense with the ghosts," Alice said through gritted teeth. "The second Chrome encounter was an opportunity for the designers to humiliate me, as if having my private life broadcast for two universes to see wasn't enough."

I knew that was just her anger talking. I would never have shared my private moments with Alice with you if she hadn't blessed the project. Being a monster, she was not at all squeamish about her sex life being public. She also felt that it was good therapy to write about my experiences, as she was concerned about all of my nightmares, and how I would still sometimes flinch from her when she touched me. But the scene with her dead mother had crossed a line for her, so now she was going to rant about everything if I let her.

The young woman's question had never quite been answered, but she was cowed by Alice's anger and sat back down. I squeezed Alice's hand. I knew this was difficult for her, but she needed to not alienate the fans. To their credit, they seemed to sympathize with her point of view rather than be angry at her. As much as she called the fans "damn perverts", these were good people. I'd been very impressed with their appropriateness and politeness. Even the woman's question had not been intended to spark that kind of reaction. It just hadn't occurred to her how real that was for Alice.

Alice spoke again after composing herself. "I'm sorry, that's always been a sore spot with me. I wasn't consulted on any of the creative for this game. I know they didn't mean to hurt me and I hold no grudges. I want to thank all of you for your support. Your purchases haven't just been fun for you, they've been extremely helpful to your fellow humans in my world."

The emcee of the event chimed in. "I think our time is up. I want to thank both of you for coming here, it's been an unbelievable treat. Seeing you here today, it's hard to believe that your existence isn't common knowledge in our world. I guess the tale is just so fantastic that you don't even need to hide it. You two just came to Orlando and waltzed into this convention center in plain sight and no one batted an eye. People bought your story for the sex scenes, but they were inspired and moved by the story. As a fan of the game and book myself, I can't thank you enough for that. Is there any chance we'll ever meet any of the other famous figures from your story?"

Everyone started shouting at once, different names. I had expected the Knights to be popular, but I was surprised to hear a chant of Chrome! Chrome Chrome! emerge. I guess it made sense. These were gamers, and Chrome had been making video games of her own. I decided to plug her latest creation while I had the opportunity.

"Granberia and Tamamo have already been to this world, disguised in human form, but I think I can talk them into coming. Be careful with Granberia though, she doesn't like it when people ask her dumb questions. It could get ugly in here. As for Chrome, she's just finished her work on Rape Zombies 3. It'll hit stores in one or two months!"

Rape Zombies? Alice mouthed at me, covering the microphone with her hand. I shrugged. If Chrome couldn't do necromancy for real, she'd use video games as an outlet. "Damn perverts." she mouthed again.

The next hour consisted of taking photos with fans. Alice was very gracious. She was every bit the Monster Lord, showing off her diplomatic skills admirably. She knew how important this was to her world. I laughed inwardly at how these photos would be all over the internet and yet no one important would ever suspect that a monster girl had just been hanging out in Orlando.

Apparently, however, there were SOME rather important folks who knew she was real. Towards the end of the photo and autograph session, a very large man approached us. I recognized him immediately. This was Rick "Heat Wave" Baxter, one of the most famous wrestlers in the world. Oh, if only Granberia was here! She idolized this man! Apparently, the feeling was mutual.

"Hey, pleased to meet you both," he said, introducing himself. Alice raised herself so that she stood a few inches taller than him. Alice always made sure that she was looking down on people she spoke to. As a lamia, she could raise herself up pretty high with her incredibly powerful snake body. I always wondered just how high she could get, but towering over the Heat Wave's six foot six form was no challenge. It was probably why she was so taciturn when in human form. Aside from it being uncomfortable, she only stood five feet four in that form.

"So I wanted to talk about a business opportunity," he said. "The AWL would love to know if a monster would like to compete. It would be huge for ratings and would mean a ton more money for your projects back home."

"AWL?" Alice asked. "What's that?"

"It's the American Wrestling League," he said. "Ah, I remember, you don't dig wrestling. Granberia's the big fan. If she'd like to compete, I can guarantee her a title match at the next pay per view against me. But if she can't, any monster will do. I know they are all tough, it's just that if it's a lower level monster she'll have to work her way up the ranks first. But a Heavenly Knight, hey, one of them would be entitled to a title shot right from the beginning."

"Isn't wrestling fake?" Alice said, arching an eyebrow. "I guess Granberia would be willing, possibly thrilled, but you talk as if it would be a match."

I knew that wrestlers HATED it when you called their form of entertainment fake, but Heat Wave was trying to make a deal here so apparently took it in stride.

"Actually, we prefer to call it scripted, and we'd of course negotiate the result of the match once she agreed to participate. A lot would depend on whether it was a one off or whether she wanted to appear regularly, whether she wanted to be a face or a heel, but we can talk about that later. I'm just here to find out if there's any interest. Obviously the real negotiations will have to take place with the boss."

"How disappointing," Alice said. "I'd be interested in seeing that match for real."

"A shoot?" he said. "Hmmmm…. That's more for the mixed martial arts folks, but if you really want that I'm sure we can arrange something. Either way, the event would be a license to print money! Think about, okay? Run it by Granberia! Or any other Knight! But definitely Granberia!"

Heat Wave walked away. I didn't know if it would actually happen but I knew that Granberia would jump up and down like a schoolgirl once she heard that the Heat Wave wanted to wrestle her. Only in front of me, of course. I was touched that she only showed that side of herself to me.

That had sure been fun. We walked through the convention center checking out various stands, attending various events. She remained in her lamia form and while it seemed like everyone wanted their picture taken with her, no one seemed to be afraid or taken aback, even though many of the fans there had probably never heard of her and were there for other fandoms. One in particular caught Alice's notice. Standing on a table signing autographs was none other than Chucky the murder doll. Alice was a big fan of those movies and dragged me over to the table to meet him. I wasn't sure if she realized that Chucky wasn't real. An animated killer doll wouldn't be a big shock on her world, but here such a thing was patently impossible. It sure was an impressive animatronic, though.

Alice waited patiently in line to meet Chucky. The line wasn't terribly long, so she didn't lose patience. She could be incredibly impatient at times, especially when hungry, and I knew she had to be hungry after that two hour question and answer session. When she got to the front of the line, she seemed to realize that Chucky might not be real and started poking his chest and face.

"Hey! Keep your hands to yourself, bitch!" he said. Wow. That was pretty convincing.

"I'm guessing you don't know who I am to talk to me that way," Alice said threateningly.

Chucky looked at her more closely and his eyes went wide in surprise. "You're the Monster Lord! I've always wanted to meet you! I'm a huge fan! I loved it when you took out that Cassandra bitch. That's how it really happened, right?"

"Yes it is," Alice replied proudly. "I'm a huge fan of yours too. Those are just movies, right? You don't really go around murdering people?"

"Of course not! I'm an actor! Just between you and me, dolls don't get too many roles in Hollywood. This has been the role of a lifetime. They were so thrilled when they could get a real animated doll for the reboot instead of having to use that old animatronic thing. It was expensive and not nearly as convincing!"

Hold on a sec. Was this Chucky real? Perhaps Alice hadn't been as ignorant of what was possible in this world as I thought, because she was starting to get it as well. True to form, she also made the next leap of logic before I did.

"Chrome!" she shouted. "Get out here!"

Chrome sheepishly emerged from behind the table.

"Okay, first off," Alice began. "how did you even get here? Second, how in the hell did you get an animated doll to work in this world? Third, who gave you permission to come here? Fourth…. What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"I have fans here too!" Chrome protested. "I just wanted to meet them and show off my newest creation! You said I could make dolls! This is a doll! He won the role of Chucky in the next movie with just one audition!"

"And this… thing works how?"

"Of course I had to make it and animate it back home, and it took some adjustments to make it work here as well. It's actually a combination of animatronics, artificial intelligence, and just the touch of necromancy that this world's physics can tolerate. Isn't he magnificent? Don't worry, he really doesn't want to hurt anyone, he's a nice doll."

"And I'm a vegetarian too," Chucky added.

We were starting to draw a crowd. Many in the crowd recognized Chrome and we were all soon mobbed. Alice vowed to continue this discussion with Chrome at a future date and took her leave. She was getting tired of the crowds and wanted to go get something to eat and then go back to the hotel for the night. But there would be one more encounter.

This one was much less pleasant. We were approached by a man who did not look like a fan at all. "Luka Snodgrass?" I nodded. He shoved an envelope into my hands and said, "You've been served." He then walked away. That didn't sound good.

"What does that mean?" Alice asked.

I opened the envelope. Sure enough, it was a court summons. I was being sued. The plaintiff? One Ms. Promestein.

"I'm being sued for libel," I said, confused.

"I don't know what any of that means."

"It's Promestein and she is claiming I defamed her in the game and novel," I explained. "She seeks 100% of my profits from the sale of all intellectual property associated with it."

"That's absurd!" Alice protested. "Everything you said was true! I mean, I guess the confrontations with her at the end of the game never happened, as well as some of the conversations we weren't privy to, but none of it was particularly slanderous. She really was evil. If anything, the designers went easy on her! Eden's the one who should be royally pissed! She got treated like dirt in the game!"

"There's more to this than meets the eye," I mused. "This is another Promestein plot where she wins no matter what. We either go to court and prove that it all happened somehow, which would probably not be great for us given how much exposure it would give the authorities to the existence of your world, or we can't prove it and she wins."

"So we just prove it, then!" Alice said. "It's not like we've been trying to hide the existence of our world. Millions of people already know, or at least suspect, that it's real. It's not like humans can get to our world easily anyway."

"There's a lot more potential complications than that, but I'll go along with it if you want to fight this," I said. "But we might want to consider settling. Most likely, Promestein wants money so that she can pursue her own research. I think right now she depends on benefactors who control what she gets to do and force her to abide by laws and regulations. If she got even half of what she's asking for here, she'd be able to fund her own research for a long time."

"You know more about this stuff than I do," Alice said. "So I'll let you decide. Chrome's projects actually make more money than ours and I'm sure I could convince her to donate to the cause. It's not like she spends any of it anyway. If we have to give up a lot of the earnings it'll still be okay."

"I hope so," I responded. "We'll have to consult an attorney."

"A what?"

"An attorney," I explained. "A lawyer. A legal specialist. Someone that can represent us and tell us if she has a good case. A lawyer can also help negotiate a settlement that might leave us with adequate funds to continue the work we've been doing."

"Ugh, this is so annoying," Alice spat. "Come on, let's go back to the hotel. I'm not even hungry anymore."