The Deity Entertainment Network

Chapter 254 – Moon Under A Hammy

"So they are still sending materials?" John said. He was standing in the courtyard, Mica clinging to his right side, while Andre and Julia gave them a report. The couple were guarding the place while the rest of the Moonfall clan were resting and recovering. Nebula and her pack also took up residence in the courtyard. She was beside him, accepting some ear scratches while they were talking.

Darkness, Megumin, and Yunyun had already left for Axel earlier. Darkness was going to set up an appointment with her father for them, while Megumin and Yunyun were turning in their slime quest before Yunyun would depart for the Crimson Demon Clan territory. He had offered for her to stay with them, but she was insistent that she needed to return home to learn more magic and grow stronger. She wanted to defeat Megumin in a duel, and she believed her best bet for that was to go home. She did say she would keep in contact and would return in the spring if they were still here.

"If you mean to take on the Devil King, I will see if I can recruit more of my clan. We are an odd bunch, but most of us have more spells than we know what to do with. Megumin might have the most powerful spell around, but the rest of us are much less specialized." She said, then glanced at Megumin for a moment, then smiled up at him, a playful twinkle in her eyes. "Keep her safe, okay? I can't have my archrival fall before I have a chance to defeat her myself!"

Aqua was purifying the castle and checking for any lingering dark magics. She was also going to install a permanent undead ward to prevent any of the Devil King's minions from coming inside its walls. That left John with Mica, the wolfkin matriarch, who was not straying more than a couple of steps from him like he was some invalid about to fall over. 

In front of them were four roped-off areas, presumably the spots where Duke had his undead teleporting materials. One was still empty, but the other three were nearly full of wood and stone.

"Looks that way. If they don't have new orders, they will just keep doing whatever they were told to do. We found the device that activates the teleporter, but we were waiting for more people to recover before moving through to the other side to clear them out." Andre said, showing him the little sceptre that Duke had tried to give him before.

"Hmm... probably for the best. How much time do you think they need to deposit enough material to finish this place?"

"At this rate? Two more days' worth would probably do it. Why? Are you thinking of making us finish the job we were slaves at?" Julia asked. She didn't sound bitter at the thought, more like they were discussing the weather.

"Making? No, but I was looking for a place to live and start training adventurers to assault the Devil King. Your clan did such a good job with this place; it would be a shame to just abandon it. It would almost be poetic to turn one of his generals' schemes into a tool for his downfall."

"I didn't think about that. What do you think, Mica?"

"I think we no longer have a home, and we already spent blood to build and then liberate this place. If John thinks it should be our new home, then our home it shall be."

"Umm... not quite where I was going with that. I wasn't going to ask your people to spill more blood to attack the Devil King. You have suffered enough."

"John, you have forty-three fighting-age wolfkin ready for vengeance against our slaver. His general killed our elderly and turned them into the undead in front of us. They took our children, and we have no idea what they did with them. We are going to take our grievances directly to him and find the missing pups. If we can enlist the aid of the human kingdom to build an army, we can be patient, but sooner or later, we will be taking the fight to him." Mica said, looking up at him. "You don't need to ask us, John. If you want to take out this Devil King, we are with you."

"You know this won't be fast, right? Darkness and I will be visiting the Duke sometime in the next few days to discuss securing financial and logistical support for this plan. Otherwise, we will need to start taking jobs at the adventurers' guild so we can feed and clothe your people."

"We know. It has already been over two years since we were enslaved, and if it takes another two years or more to prepare, then so be it. Our clan was nearly ten thousand strong before we were attacked. Over two thousand were taken, split up into smaller groups and scattered to the winds. We are all that is left of the two hundred our group started with."

"So, there are more of your people out there?"

"We would like to think so, but who knows at this point."

Damn it. I need my Pelican more than ever now. Do I drop the passengers off here, or do I take them elsewhere? Bah, I need to think about that more later.

"Alright. I'll gladly help you find your people and let you get vengeance on the Devil King and his minions. Will you and your people become the first members of my new mercenary company?"

"Gladly. Anything for our saviour."

"Your people saved yourselves. I just gave you a bit of a kick in the right direction." John replied, deflecting a bit.

"Do not lessen your role just to seem humble; a real leader accepts their accolades along with their criticisms with grace and dignity. We had no chance to defeat these undead without your aid. Trust me, we tried." Mica said, her tone becoming sad at the end.

"She is right, John. They purged all our people who had holy and water magic. Without your spells, we would have had no way to destroy that lich as rapidly as you did. He could have literally turned most of this courtyard into a lava field if he had a chance to cast a spell, then burned us to ashes with his fire magic. We tried to rebel once early on in our enslavement, and it did not go well. We lost fifty of our number that day." Julia added, her voice becoming a growl as she talked about the past.

John just looked at them, then nodded. "I won't pretend to know what you all went through, but I will help you as best I can to find your missing people and destroy this Devil King and his generals who allowed this atrocity to happen." He said. He really needed to go speak to Wiz again. As much as she wanted to be a simple shopkeeper, she was one of his generals and probably had a bunch of information he could use. 

"Now, I need to borrow that teleporter key. There are a few things I need to go pick up." He said, trying to steer clear of this heavy subject.

"Pick up? You're injured." Andre said, handing him the sceptre.

"It's fine. They are quite portable, and are going to be key in our fight against the Devil King."

"Do you want some company?" Mica asked.

"If you have the time, I would love some." He replied, then looked at the other two. "If your people are up and about soon, get them to start emptying those teleportation squares. As much as I would rather let them rest in peace, let the undead keep sending us supplies for now. Their deaths were a tragedy, there is no doubt, but we need the resources to build our army. Let this be their last act of defiance against the Devil King before we send their souls to the afterlife."

"We are your people now, John. We will do as you ask." Andre said, bowing his head slightly to him.

"My people?"

"Come, let's talk about it while we get these things of yours," Mica said, guiding him to the teleportation field. "There is much you need to know about our clan, and I will do the best I can to teach you."

"Sounds good, Darlin'. Now, I think we destroyed all the undead on the other side, but just in case." He said, drawing his sword as they approached the teleporter and began cycling his mana and ki. Nebula yipped once, and the other three wolves joined them. Mica had her axe in hand, the weapon now having some strange craving on its handle. He would have to ask about those later. Rune Knight was one of the options he was thinking about specializing in.

They stepped into the field and were teleported away.

"Do you think it's wise to trust him so soon?" Julia asked her husband. "He saved us, but we barely know anything about him."

"The spirits say he walks with both Eris and Aqua. They say that the woman who resurrected many of us yesterday is actually the goddess Aqua herself, sent from heaven to support him during his journey to defeat the Devil King. They say that the small woman who disappeared was actually Eris herself, watching over their journey. If our goddesses follow him, then it would only make sense for us to do the same." Andre said, turning back to look at his wife. "Besides, Mica is enamoured with him, and Eris knows she needs a strong male to curb her impulsiveness."

"Oh? Is that why you didn't go after her when we were younger? Not strong enough to handle her?"

"Don't play games like that, my mate. You are more than enough crazy for me." 

"Ass." She laughed, giving him a playful swat. 

"Don't mind if I do. Though this time, it won't be in the ass." He replied, sweeping her off her feet and carrying her off to the side of the courtyard with a wide grin on his face. Now that they were free, they had to start repopulating their clan. He suspected that in the next few months, there would be plenty of bulging bellies among the womenfolk. A stray thought entered his mind.

I wonder if John knows what he has gotten himself into?

"What is this thing?" Mica asked.

"It's a motorcycle. Think of it like a steel horse, just faster, louder, and it isn't alive." John replied. 

They made it to the meadow without issue, and with a bit of Ki, John had the wolves fan out to search for any undead stragglers. 

"A horse? Can you take me for a ride?" 

"I would love to, but I can't." He said, waggling his stub of an arm. "I need my right arm to control it. I could probably use my left, but it would be rather dangerous to drive it like that. Maybe if we get out to a smooth road, I'll take the risk." 

He pushed some mana into the rune on its gas tank, shrinking it back to its pocket size, then stuffed it in his jacket. "Now, the main thing we are here for is off in those trees." 

"Okay." She said, wrapping his good arm around her shoulders and leaning on his chest. She was still wearing the rags from when they met, though fewer of them now. He hadn't noticed it yesterday, but she had several intricate tattoos on her body, the ink nearly the same colour as her skin. 

"What are the tattoos for?"

"Which ones?" She said with a laugh. She pointed to the one on her chest. "This one is the symbol of my clan and represents that I am their leader. These ones on my arms are runes I had put on that increase my strength, speed, and reflexes. The ones on my legs do the same, and they also increase my endurance. I had one on my back at one point, but it was destroyed; it told the story of my family."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's okay. I'll have it redone once we are reestablished. Let's see. The ones on my face and neck amplify my mana regeneration."

"You have tattoos on your face?" He said, looking at her. He couldn't see any of them. 

"That ink is invisible. People from outside of the clan don't generally respect barbarian heathens with faces covered in ink, so we developed ways around it. Finally, I have one on my waist over my womb. It increases fertility and helps keep my babies safe." She said, pushing down the rags covering her waist a bit. There were a few faint stretch marks, but he could easily make out the tattoo in the lighter coloured ink most of her body had.

"Do you have children?" He asked. He didn't think she could be older than twenty-five, though he hadn't used Card on her to check.

She is the matriarch of their clan. Maybe she just has good genes. 

"Yes. I have three... we were... separated after my husband was murdered, after we surrendered. He had healing magic like you, so he was deemed a threat still." 

"Mica... I'm-"

"Don't. Please. I made my peace with his death long ago. I just want my pups back, though they would hardly be pups anymore. They were born over thirteen years ago and will be considered adults soon. I just need to know they are safe."

"I understand. I would do anything for my children."

"You have kids?"

"Hah, yes, though they are all adults now and have their own kids, and there might even be another generation at this point... I'm a bit older than I look. I'm not from this world."

"Oh? Are you one of those reincarnated people? I met a few of them before... they were a bit strange but didn't seem to mean any harm. I even adventured with a few of them once, though I had to return to my clan afterwards."

"Yeah, something like that, though I am different than those ones." He said as they moved into the bushes and up to Suzy Q. It had landed on its chest, but from what he could see, it didn't seem too damaged from the fall. "I got to bring some tools from other worlds with me."

"What in the name of Eris is that?"

"It's a mech. Think of it as a construct you ride inside of, if that is easier for you. Unlike the motorbike, this one is a weapon of war. I have this and a few other tools I plan on defeating the Devil King with."

"Amazing. Can... can we go for a ride in this one?"

"With pleasure." He replied, mounting the ladder to get to the cockpit hatch. He thought he could operate it with just one hand easily enough. He would just have to slave the weapons to the left-hand control yoke. If he needed to adjust its torso, well, he would figure something out. 

Damn it... I really am going to need my arm regenerated sooner than later. I guess I need to take Aqua out hunting some undead. Oh, I should check that adventurer card later. I might have gained enough points to get the spell myself...wait, no, I need someone to show me how it works first, don't I? Aqua already knew all the arch priest spells as a goddess, so she didn't need to be retaught them. That begs the question of how people first received these skills if no one knew them. More questions for the goddesses when I get the time.

Little did John know that as he climbed up the ladder, he was being watched by a very hungry set of eyes below him. A very hungry wolfkin who was in heat and wanted a bite out of that ass that was wiggling above her.