Mimiru took a step back in the face of pressure so intense it almost seemed the creature's whole body was comprised of pure mana, and readied her wand. In her eyes, there was no trepidation to be seen. Only a cool gleam focused on how to bury the enemy before her.
The baphomet was still in freefall as it approached the ground, but when it had a reached an elevation roughly seven times its own height, the speed of its descent dropped precipitously, and its posture shifted from that of a sky diver to a haughty posture, fully erect with its arms crossed. By the time she neared the ground, her descent had slowed to less than the speed of a falling leaf, and then... she softly alighted.
Mimiru was more than a little surprised by the baphomet's appearance. She was prepared for the characteristics of the baphomet as she had seen them in illustrated encyclopedia being circulated surreptitiously within church, but the baphomet now before her eyes was clearly... peculiar. Her mantle and necktie, which might be considered symbols of power or rank, were tattered around the hem like those worn by wanderers. Or so it appeared at first glance, but actually its shape was constantly changing, causing it to billow and look as if dusty brown flames were sprouting from her back. The encyclopedia showed a baphomet's mantle fastened with clasps patterned after goat's horns, but hers were secured with deep red orbs like crystallized blood. One eye hid behind her bangs, as if to conceal a glare that could not but terrify the faint of heart.
The baphomet's most striking characteristic was that the fur that covered her arms and legs, as well as the hair on her head, was the color of darkness itself, darker even than black. Her skin was the same deep brown as a dark elf's, as if that pigment had begun to dissolve into fair, soft skin. If she were to stray into a settlement whose people equated the color black with evil, her coloring, as well as the mana that could hardly be contained in her small body, would almost certainly make her the foremost candidate for the inquisition.
Heedless of Mimiru's unvoiced surprise, the baphomet struck a daunting pose, threw out her chest... and looked slightly up at Mimiru do to the difference in their heights. Her deep crimson gaze was piercing.
"We meet for the first time, Mimiru Miltié. I am Lucella, and I serve under her royal highness Druella, fourth princess of the monster realm."
Her air of intimidation was so overwhelming that Mimiru did not even notice the incongruity of the comical pitter-patter made by the baphomet's pads as she walked. Mimiru stared straight at the invader without stirring an inch. Her keen stare was a match for the baphomet's piercing gaze.
"You must have a lot of confidence to reveal your unit."
Mimiru renewed her grip on the wand. Her words were calm, but her but her hands were slick with sweat. It was as if the battle had already begun. The force of their gathering mana had already grown so intense that it was noisily swaying the needles of the clock above the baphomet's head.
"Of course I'm confident. I was chosen by the Dark Lord's daughter, after all. Still, you've got some fine mana yourself."
"I don't care to be complimented by a monster!"
The magical power both emitted was causing dry leaves fallen within the barrier to crackle and burst. And it wasn't just fallen leaves. Even the flowers planted in beds around the square before the clock tower to soothe people's hearts were scattering with popping sounds like those made by static electricity. But neither of them paid any heed. Their eyes were locked on each other, taking note of the least strain in their opponent. They were each looking for an opening, wondering which would make the first move.
Surrounded by whirling torrents of mana, the two maintained an eerie silence. The first to break it was Lucella.
"When I heard that Monique and Harum had been forced to retreat, I confess I doubted my ears. But now that I see you, I can believe it... Paralyze."
Snap. The sound came from the light gathered on Lucella's palm. She had completed a spell to deliver a powerful electric shock almost without an incantation. Mimiru was more than a little shaken, but concealed her feelings and, without uttering a word, caused her palm to be coated in ocher light. Neither shifted her gaze. When they did look away... the contest would probably be decided in an instant. The one who averted her gaze first would lose.
Then their quiet standoff...
"Pierce!"
"Wall of Earth!"
...became a battle of motion, as each flourished her light-covered hand.
◊ ♦ ◊ ♦ ◊
"O sovereign of the depths who shakes with anger, bring your scorching roar upon this land! Consuming Flame!"
"Reunion! Lance of Light! ...What? It didn't completely dispel the—"
Ten minutes had passed since their battle was joined. If there had been an audience to this conflict, at present it would probably have appeared to three quarters, or even seven eighths, of the spectators that Mimiru had the upper hand. So far Lucella had been on the defensive and had not managed to land even a single attack on Mimiru. Seven eights of the remaining onlookers would probably have judged that the two were evenly matched. It was not as if Lucella had suffered a serious wound yet either. The spells Mimiru launched at her were all powerful, and several that an ordinary magician would have used as a trump card were among them. Lucella was considerably reducing their force. The few remaining spectators would probably have judged that Mimiru... was at an overwhelming disadvantage.
Unbelievable! How is she blocking my attacks this well?
The more time passed, the more Mimiru realized how disadvantageous her position was. She didn't know the nature of the barrier, and her opponent was a baphomet, the backbone of the Dark Lord's magical forces. There was a strong possibility that the barrier surrounding them had more functions than just clearing the area of people. She realized that the moment she faced her enemy in this place she had fallen into their trap. She regretted her own blunder in having forgotten herself and rushed in, but she refused to let it show. She stubbornly focused herself to concentrate solely on the task at hand — on defeating the baphomet.
Lucella, meanwhile, was shocked by the rare potential this girl possessed. It had been difficult for her to believe that her old cromrades, Monique the amazoness chieftain and Harum the Echidna, had been forced to retreat. That was why she had positioned Druella. Those two were not a pair to be defeated by a mere girl. It was only natural, then, for her to take an interest in Mimiru's abilities. All the more so because, as the commander of a sorcery unit serving a daughter of the Dark Lord, she had hardly been unaware of Mimiru's existence. And now that she was exchanging spells with the girl, she understood. Mimiru certainly had outstanding talent. A prodigy like her might appear only once in several decades, if that. Lucella recognized that it was no wonder Monique and Harum had been defeated, faced with the possessor of such power.
However...
At the same time, Lucella felt it. Felt something lacking in Mimiru's magical attacks. It was holding back Mimiru's abilities, and tipping the odds in Lucella's favor. If Mimiru were truly using magic from the bottom of her heart, facing her might have cost Lucella a serious effort.
"Wall of Flame, Wall of Water, Wall of Wind, Wall of Earth, Wall of Lightning... There, that ought to do it."
Magical defensive barriers of multiple attributes sprang into being simultaneously around Lucella, and Mimiru gritted her teeth in frustration. Breaking each wall would require a spell of the corresponding element, but... could she do that with her current mana? She might be inflicting damage on Lucella, such as it was, but the effort was taxing Mimiru's physical and magical strength. Thinking strategically, turning the situation to her advantage and striking a blow against the baphomet... was not impossible. If she could evade Lucella's attacks long enough, she had a secret weapon, that, if it hit, would take the baphomet out of the fight. It was a spell of her own invention, and was not yet known to anyone else.
Mimiru kept silent, and tried to put some distance between herself and her opponent. Lucella made no move to pursue her, and instead began to question her with an air of nonchalance.
"What a pity. You disappointment me, Mimiru Miltié."
Mimiru made no response. She just went on with her incantation while staring at Lucella with apparent indifference.
"Why don't you open your heart? Why do you set yourself against everyone? You possess talent far beyond the ordinary, but you might as well be putting shackles on yourself. Magic is no different from the body. Did you think you could turn your back on your own heart and deny yourself?"
There was no answer. Mimiru merely regarded Lucella with a cold, almost inhuman gaze, and devoted all of her considerable magical power to invoking her spell. The was no emotion in her — or rather, she was deliberately shutting down her emotions. She would not be able to complete the spell otherwise. Even though Lucella was a monster, even though she was an enemy of humanity and had never met Mimiru before, she had easily seen through to Mimiru's true feelings, her heart's true nature, and put them into words. If Mimiru allowed her brain to fully register this fact, she would become unable to maintain her composure.
Before Mimiru's brain could convert the sounds her ears captured into information, her incantation was complete. As it finished, a magician's hexagram formed at her feet. As if in testament to Lescatié's love of cleanliness, it boasted a white radiance that swallowed and erased all other color.
"Well now... I never imagined you would be capable of casting a spell of this level."
Lucella's face showed surprise and admiration. She realized that this would be Mimiru's trump card. What shocked her was that Mimiru could have progressed to the point that she was able to cast magic on this scale, even in an imperfect form, unaided. Unmoved by Lucella's reaction, Mimiru chanted the words of activation.
"I, by this light, cast darkness back into eternal nothingness... Trial!"
A colossal light gathered around Mimiru's wand, and gradually began to take on contours. It was like a giant sword, or perhaps an all-piercing spear, or perhaps an unstoppable arrow. Its aim was fixed on the lone black goat standing before her.
"So, you're pointing that thing at me? And it looks like it would chase me even if I tried to run... Hee hee."
Lucella put a hand to her mouth and chuckled at Mimiru, as if she had just seen something funny. There was nothing in her manner to suggest that her life was in danger. Mimiru's dormant feelings cried out in anger at that reaction, but were contained deep inside her and not allowed to show. She aimed the light, which had already grown to the size of a cannon, at the heavens and let it fly. It cut through the air as if to pierce the sky, which had become shrouded in dark, roiling clouds due to the influence of mana, shining all the while. If anyone had been present to view the battle, the light would likely have appeared to them as a goddess, born up by the heavens, trying to guide humanity to victory.
In the sky, the light continued to grow denser and sharper. It was becoming something close to a single, well-honed spear. The spear of light, floating in the heavens, was pointed at Lucella, and her alone. In an emotionless voice, Mimiru pronounced the sentence of death.
"Judgment!"
Obeying her command, the spear of light took aim at Lucella and let fly. Faster than the eye could follow, it pierced Lucella's shield and all her magical barriers, bringing down an iron hammer of pure destruction! It ought to have run through Lucella's heart in the blink of an eye. It was a spell which aimed, if its incantation were not interrupted, to annihilate the enemy with its massive destructive force. When Lucella had failed to interrupt the casting, Mimiru had gained a slim chance at victory. By all rights, had she been able to fire it with an unfettered, joyous heart, the light should have been able to shine through the darkness. But she had fired it without ever feeling an ounce of joy in the act, and now...
"Devour, and leave not even marrow — Corrosion."
"What!?"
It was all Mimiru could do to cry out in shock. The instant the spear of light, whose killing power ought to have risen to the absolute limit, struck Lucella's breast, it broke and withered like a flower petal in the freezing cold, eroded by darkness. Mimiru now saw that a magician's pentagram had formed at Luella's feet, and an eerie, purple light was rising from the ground to the sky.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Like a frozen sweet being crushed in a mouth, the lance of light was splintering from the tip, becoming contaminated, and dissolving. As it did, Lucella's mana was climbing. There could be no doubt — she was devouring it. Lucella's mana was consuming Mimiru's.
That instant, Mimiru's defeat became certain. She had put all her magical and physical strength into the spell, and now she had none left. Lucella, on the other hand, was making Mimiru's strength fodder for her own. Mimiru could not even muster the strength to flee, and even if she could, it would do her no good within the barrier. She was painfully aware of that.
Lucella, who had finished absorbing the last fragment of Mimiru's spell, turned calmly back to look down at Mimiru, who sunk to the ground with a groan. Mimiru was backing away while keeping her eyes on Lucella, who was already displaying the composure of a victor. Her dress and shoes made scraping sounds on the flagstones.
Lucella, her emotional restraint perhaps beginning to melt, flashed a somehow licentious grin at the cowering Mimiru. It closely resembled the smile of one who has seized the power of life and death over the vanquished, but... there was definitely something different about it.
"I wonder... Why? I doubt you've lived even a fifteenth of my years, so why have you closed your heart so completely?"
As Lucella approached, making a soft tapping sound with each step, Mimiru could do nothing but slowly retreat to gain distance. In her current predicament, it was no comfort to her that Lucella's strides were not very long. It did no more than draw out her fear.
"It's no exaggeration to say that the beauty of the young lies in the purity of their souls. As they grow, they become conscious of deceit, experience hardship and conflict, and end up sullying their souls by their own hands..."
Tap. Tap. Mimiru could not help shivering at each footfall, a little louder than the own before.
"I pity you. Your ability as a magician could likely rise to still greater heights, but the stain on your soul is holding you back. Why do you try so hard to be 'grown up'? I want to know for your own sake as well."
Being told by a monster that something was "for her own sake" provoked a slight response from Mimiru. That is to say, a faint light of determination returned to her frightened eyes, although it was hardly as if she had regained sufficient strength to overturn her situation.
As far as Mimiru was concerned, monsters were the enemy, and only the enemy. So whatever her opponent might say to her would be to her opponent's advantage, and would bring no benefit to Mimiru. A high-ranking monster like the one standing before her was incapable of uncalculated kindness. She could never trust such a creature when it told her that something was "for her own sake."
However.
"So..."
Whether she trusted or not, Mimiru was powerless to refuse Lucella's "generosity."
When Lucella's feet came to a halt, Mimiru had been driven back to the barrier's edge. There was nowhere left to run. Lucella gazed at Mimiru, and her lips twisted into a crescent. Her eyes seemed sympathetic, and yet a scrap of her inner sadism managed to peek through.
"...I'll need you to let me take a peek into your mind."
That was when the strange thing happened.
Slither.
However advanced her magical knowledge, and even if she had enough remaining mana to extricate herself, she was still a girl of tender years. There was no way her bodily strength and stamina would be sufficient to break free. And that was to say nothing of her present condition — her mana, although it had been high at birth and only grown as the years passed, was already exhausted. She had not even held enough back to defend herself in her assault on the black goat monster who now floated before her, arms crossed, looking down at her. So there was no way at all for her to evade an attack.
She didn't even have time to cry out. In the blink of an eye, her arms and legs were bound by... tentacles. Black, similar to the black of the baphomet's clothes, and clad in a strange, slimy, deep purple fluid, they removed her clogs and were twined about her cream-colored knee socks.
Beginning where the jet-black tentacles touched, the knee socks began to melt. Almost like a flesh-colored stain spreading, their surface area was rapidly decreasing. As the stuff that separated skin from tentacle disappeared without accomplishing its function, the touch of the tentacles fell directly on Mimiru's flesh.
Disgusting. Mimiru's face grew even more drawn in response to a touch which seemed to make manifest a human's inborn sense of revulsion. They were jelly-like, as if an amorphous mass of protein had been crammed into an enamel membrane, and coated like a slug in a fluid which dripped to the ground in sticky strings and covered the girl's dainty feet so thickly that they seemed plastered in slime. And the tentacles were expanding the scope of their bonds.
Two tentacles wrapped around the girl's chest, as if to further restrain her. During an interval in the shrieks rising from the town, the fizzing of the ribbon-adorned clothes that covered her bosom dissolving away reached her ears.
"Be at ease. Those creatures are of the same substance as my mana. They don't eat people. They won't dissolve your body... although they might melt your heart. See?"
The summoner of the tentacles flashed an ominous grin, and Mimiru grit her teeth. But she was rapidly losing the strength to do even that. Her body seemed to be growing heavier, spreading from her feet to her legs, and from fingers to her hands and arms. Her strength was being sucked out. Just as leeches with blood, the black tentacles touching Mimiru's supple skin were latching onto her body and sucking up what little physical and magical strength she had left. In those tentacles resided a devilry that stole away the power to resist, like powerful ropes in the age of the old monsters.
A passionate embrace that made bones grind and creak audibly, such as lamiae performed on humans in the age of the old Dark Lords... the tentacles' grasp was not that strong, but because it caused Mimiru no pain, she could not distract herself from other sensations — ticklishness and shame. In the end, regardless of her performance on the frontlines of numerous battles, Mimiru was a child. Although not as tender as a baby's, her skin was far more sensitive than an adult's. Sensitive enough that she could not help feeling even the almost-imperceptible heat of the black tentacles on her skin.
Mimiru's socks, which had been reduced to a substance half fiber and half goo, were spreading a hot, sizzling sensation across the soles of her feet. It was as if, despite their whole substance having eroded into a deep purple ooze, the socks were still struggling to wrap her feet in an effort to faithfully accomplish their appointed role. But the ooze was not socks. Their earnest desire to fulfill their duties, rather than protecting her, was putting her in an even more trying position.
Her clothes were melting into a deep purple fluid that attacked her. I was like an anti-monster nation being invaded by monsters. More than once, Mimiru had seen a nation that had been an ally until a few days before raise the standard of rebellion against the church, the brunt of their aggression now directed against Lescatié. And now Mimiru was that in miniature.
"Tee hee hee. Intelligent as you are, I'm sure you know what that ooze covering your legs is going to do...♪"
Mimiru did not answer. No, she could not answer. She was desperately suppressing the words that were on the verge of spilling from her mouth, earnestly clenching her teeth with all her strength, even as it was being sucked out of her. The viscous fluid clinging to her bared arms and legs made her nerves overly sensitive and imparted an oozing ache, and the tentacles had twined up to her shoulders and thighs, fondling them with abandon. In her teary eyes, however, light still dwelt. The light shot through the baphomet, but there was no way the monster, in an overwhelmingly superior position, would heed her powerless gaze. In the end, she was just kicking her heels against the ground.
As if to mock her determination not to let out a scream, the tentacles were one by one expanding the scope of their encroachment on Mimiru's body. Slurping, oozing, they pressed against various parts of her body and repeatedly caressed them, as if motivated by a covetous affection. Their heavy, slippery smoothness and light, clinging stickiness made Mimiru feel as if her arms and legs were receiving thousands of loving kisses. An unpleasant sound like stick candy being licked right next to her ear echoed in her surroundings.
The tentacles were reaching up from her thighs to her buttocks. They made her clothes turn to goo wherever they touched, but a few places still eluded them. The body's exit, the anus, and the entrance to her holy citadel... the labia.
"That comes last. There's nothing to be afraid of; my tentacles won't steal your precious virginity."
Lucella whispered kindly to Mimiru, apparently indifferent to whether she could be heard. Mimiru, of course, was in no state to listen. The parts of her body in contact with the slime of her rapidly melting clothes, which was steadily increasing her sensitivity wherever it touched, seemed to Mimiru to be generating an unnaturally high heat.
Mimiru's body was transmitting an ache to her in a fixed cycle, as if several new hearts were now beating within it. The tentacles were fondling her, directly touching her nerves, separated from the air by an ever thinning layer of skin, continuously delivering pleasure like shocks of static electricity. Mimiru, feeling her own body refuse to obey her, merely endured the pleasure with determination. Even she herself was likely unaware what drove her to do so. Lucella, however, had perceived that it was the "adult" still in Mimiru's heart.
"Hmph. Stubborn, aren't you? Well, it can't be helped — that's the way you've been living. It's still within my expectations."
Leisurely, with the attitude of a conductor waving a baton, Lucella began to chant another incantation. Mimiru, her pupils losing focus due to the itching sensation caused by the tentacles' continued caresses, was unable even to keep her gaze trained on Lucella as the latter played a silent symphony. It was already becoming difficult for her to keep up her earlier piercing gaze.
Lucella gazed at Mimiru with deep affection. Concealing the sorrow she felt because that gaze would probably be interpreted only as that of a conqueror basking in her position of dominance, the baphomet ran her claws along the lines of Mimiru's exposed back... Stroke. Stroke. Stroke.
The reaction was obvious. Mimiru arched her back, and she shuddered as her face convulsed in a voiceless cry. There was something enticing about the faint panting that slipped from the corners of her mouth. In Mimiru's eyes, which no longer possessed the strength to glare back at Lucella, the tint of impurity was growing. Casting her gaze down, she found her vulva beginning to moisten itself with fresh nectar despite not being touched, as if eager to see use. Her body had already stopped resisting. It had been unprepared for the tentacles ministrations.
Lucella nodded in satisfaction as she gazed up at the crucified Mimiru. Everything so far had been merely the hors d'ouvres, so to speak. Lucella had already prepared the way for the main course. Only, she would not be the one to partake of it. That was where her personal involvement would cease.
"Tee hee hee... What a lovely body you have — it reminds me of a bud about to bloom♪ Especially these legs... I just can't help wanting a taste of them♪"
Slurp. Without warning, Lucella sent her tongue crawling over a goo-wet leg. Mimiru convulsed again at the somewhat rough touch accompanied by the sensation of something even slimier than the goo being smeared onto her. Lucella, heedless, went on licking and tickling Mimiru's bare skin, which by this time was covered only by scraps of cloth it would be absurd to call "clothing."
"...To think... mmm... that this adorable belly... will one day swell with... nh... a gentleman's essence... ah... How lovely you'll look...♪"
Up the leg to the navel, then down the other leg, Lucella licked and tickled methodically with her tongue. It was almost like she was an animal diligently affixing its sent to a toy, or else... like she was painting something, with Mimiru's soft skin as her canvas.
"...Whew. Hee hee...♪ Now, shall we begin the feast?"
Lucella had had her fill of Mimiru's undeveloped, nubile body. There was something obscene about the way she licked up the ooze clinging to her lips. Her expression, as she turned her gaze on Mimiru, was even more delighted than before.
Mimiru felt a new, different heat oozing from the places she had been licked. It was different from the heat of lust burning through her body. A more primitive, gentler heat whose warmth made her heart melt. That was what Lucella's skillful tongue-work had brought forth as it brought skin already softened by the tentacle ooze to the absolute limits of pleasure. Mimiru was resisting the assault, but her spirit was hanging on by a thread. No, it only looked as if she were holding out — her body was already yielding. That she had yet to let slip a cry was a testament to Mimiru's incredible force of will. But that will, too...
"Now, show me your real heart, freed from the yoke of 'adulthood'...!"
...was regretfully overrun as Lucella spoke. The tentacles, which until now had only twined about Mimiru's body, now rubbed themselves along its contours. Then some of them stilled — they had not overlooked the fact that, as Mimiru watched their behavior with vacant eyes, her mouth hung loosely open. The tentacles bent close to Mimiru's face, almost as if they were appraising her, and the next instant, displaying an agility to which no ordinary person could react, dove into Mimiru's mouth!
Mimiru's first reflex in response to the bitter taste that rushed in a moment from the tip of her tongue to the base of her nose was to vomit, but the deep purple tentacles flared open their tips inside her, as if to assert dominance over her mouth, and she could not dislodge them! Miniscule tentacles flooded from the opened tips, licking and brushing the backsides of her teeth, lightly tickling the underside of her tongue, twining around its root, crawling into over every inch of her mouth as if tasting it! The goo the tentacles secreted tasted sour, and because it clung stickily to her tastebuds, forcing its flavor on her, Mimiru tasted the pain of wanting to vomit and being unable to do so. Lucella, who had floated up into the air, stuck out her tongue and licked up the tears overflowing from Mimiru's eyes. Mimiru shuddered at even that faint stimulation, and seemed on the verge of crying out, but any cry was stifled by the tentacles filling her mouth. Even so, something like a moan could be heard.
As if to steal a march on Mimiru, whose attention was focused on the tentacles running roughshod in her mouth, the other tentacles bent down as well, and began to stick to Mimiru's skin all over! Some opened their tips like the ones in her mouth, and clung slimily to her shoulder blades while dripping thick ooze from the smaller tentacles that emerged. The inner surfaces of the tentacles, which spread open like flower petals, were shaped like suction cups. Where they clung, they pulled up the skin wherever they touched, and imparted a stimulus like being lightly pinched. The tentacles stuck like that to Mimiru's feet, to the undersides of her armpits, to the backs of her knees. Some of them even fastened on her lovely chest. The minute tentacles that sprouted from their centers twined about her nipples, still like innocent cherries, and firmly groped them to their tips. Her nipples being groped with movements that seemed intent on seizing the foci of her sexual sensations, groped with movements more forceful than masturbation, of which she was still ignorant, was causing a unfamiliar heat to swell within Mimiru.
The unknown stimulation drove Mimiru to twist her body almost unconsciously. The tentacles, however, all remained stuck to her body and would not be detached. On the contrary, the stimulation imparted by the tenacious way they clung to her skin sent an electric shock running through Mimiru. Syrupy nectar was overflowing from her secret place. As if aiming to suck up even that fluid, spilled by a purely physiological reaction, two tentacles slithered themselves round her thighs like creepers of morning glory, and — squelch!
"Nngh...!"
They latched on to her, centered on her vulva and her anus, as if to cover up her nether regions! As they did so, two more tentacles melded their petals to the others and covered the whole region of her hips, forming a tentacle diaper!
Tiny tentacles sprouted like fine hairs all over the linings of the tentacles stuck to her legs and flanks, and the stimulation of being licked and fondled conflicted with the intermittent sucking that went on between her legs. The tentacles themselves, moreover, massaged her buttocks, further heightening the sensations assaulting Mimiru to a point just this side of pain.
Minute tentacles traced the outlines of her vulva without breaking her hymen, sucking up the overflowing nectar. Those on her anus, in contrast, after heavily plastering it with slime, thrust forward into her rectum as if to develop a new sexual feeling there.
Mouth, feet, armpits, knees, buttocks, and her unmentionables... Every spot on Mimiru's body was being assaulted simultaneously. She quickly passed the critical point, and ended up climaxing. The tentacle diaper noisily slurped up the overflowing obscene nectars, passing it into their roots. Mimiru, having received the first climax of her life, was drained of strength. She was in no condition to consider the fact that it had been brought about by a hated monster. The tentacles that had dominated her mouth poured a sweet fluid thickly down her throat, but not even that provoked a reaction.
As Mimiru hung in that state, a single tentacle fastened onto her neck.
Despite the climax she had just experienced, Mimiru roused at once. It is said that humans, whatever their mental state, are pulled back to reality by moments of supreme danger. Perhaps her body sensed that such a moment had come. But it was too late.
"Ngh! Mmm!"
Mimiru shivered in fear at the chills rising up her spine. They felt almost like bits of ice were being slipped beneath her skin, one by one.
The tentacles stuck to Mimiru's spine, unlike the others, were flat-surfaced. But their undersides sprouted small, pointed tentacles. When these made contact with her skin, they penetrated it without causing pain, then coiled about and merged with her blood vessels and her nerves.
The sensation of her insides being silently, tinglingly violated frightened Mimiru. It felt as if she was ceasing to be herself. If she had been a veteran fighter with many years behind her, she might have considered suicide as an alternative to her present predicament. But Mimiru had no such thoughts. She struggled to think of a way to break free, not with a cool head, but falteringly, in a panic. And yet...
Her fear, the cause of her hurried thoughts, was fading. As it did so, her mind was growing so calm and relaxed that she could not think what to do. The fluid that had just been forced down Mimiru's throat was beginning to take effect. The powerful sedative induced a state almost like intoxication, half-separating her mind from her body.
The tentacles stretching into Mimiru's body were sticking to her veins and nerves, even reaching into her spine. The bitter sensation of the squirming tentacles overrunning her insides, however, cause no discomfort to her detached mind. Instead, it brought about a sensation that resembled the warmth of being "linked" to another... Drool flowed smoothly from the corners of Mimiru's mouth, accompanied by a wordless cry. The lines of her body, so overloaded with pleasure it seemed about to burn up, expressed submission and lust.
Squish, slither, squelch... The tentacles were stuck to her all over, on her arms, on her legs, on her back, and gradually extending beneath her skin, joining with her. Mimiru was bodily becoming one with the tentacles. Of course, the tentacles weren't touching her anus and vagina at all as they did so. It was all as Lucella willed it — Mimiru's body was joined to Lucella's mana.
"Now that we're linked, opening up your memories and emotions will be a simple matter... And naturally, interference from you will be virtually nil...♪"
Lucella made a tube of mana sprout from the tentacle stuck to Mimiru's neck and stretch out towards toward Mimiru's head. Mimiru, still being violated, moaned helplessly in response to the numbing sensation coming from her body. She no longer had the strength or the will to resist.
When Lucella's tentacle drew near to the line of Mimiru's hair, she caused it to split into two branches. Their targets were... Mimiru's ears, the openings nearest to her brain.
The tentacles were slithering their way into Mimiru's head through both her ears, in such a way that they might have made wet squelching sounds, had they been real.
"Mmm... Mmm... Mmm..."
Mimiru trembled, moaning like an idiot. The pleasure running through her like an electric shock was so intense that it would drive some people mad, but Mimiru's mind was unharmed. Her body was shouldering her mind's portion of the stimulus.
Squish... Squish... Twisting and turning more than they needed to, turning to immaterial mana and passing through Mimiru's eardrums, the tentacles' tips leisurely penetrated to the place that housed her brain. Then, without any hesitation, the tips changed into bodies of mana and sank themselves into the region governing memory — the hippocampus.
"...I expected as much, but... I see. Hmm..."
Lucella's expression was obviously gloomy.
A "voice" that grew louder as Lucella's mana spread through Mimiru was informing Lucella about Mimiru's mind. The voice conveyed, along with Mimiru's memories, enough evidence to show clearly why Mimiru had so closed her heart.
Her parents' self-serving complaints.
The loneliness of having no one to treat as an equal in school.
The absence of adult role models.
The pupils used in ugly power struggles.
The never ending chain of praise giving rise to jealousy and utility, which in turn drew more praise...
"...Quite a 'blessing' you have there."
Lucella practically spit the words. A tinge of distress and sorrow rose in her face. No, perhaps it could better be called anger. Without doubt, it was Mimiru's ability that had caused a girl of such tender years to be struck full-on by the darkness the world contained, for it to twist, trample and bind her spirit. In light of the undeniable results she had achieved thus far, her ability could only be called wonderful. But what that ability had brought her was a deficiency of the warm communion of which boys and girls of that age ought to have their fill, and a premature knowledge of the truth of the cruelty of human society, of which a child of her age ought, on the contrary, to remain ignorant.
As a monster — no, as a baphomet, a true believer in the ideals of the Sabbath, who valued the "purity of youth" — this sort of poor treatment was something she could never turn a blind eye to. And so Lucella, taking her own primary objective into account, decided to give Mimiru a "gift."
The tentacles smoothly withdrew from Mimiru's mouth. Mimiru coughed faintly, as if choking on the inrush of air. Her eyes... were still clouded. She seemed no longer to be looking at Lucella. No, it was more probable that she was no longer even aware of "looking." It was Lucella who had made that happen. In order to release Mimiru's heart, she had scraped away its protective coat of willpower.
"...It must have been hard. I bet you wanted to scream. It wouldn't even surprise me if you hated yourself, the way you were swung about by a power you never wanted..."
Lucella was pouring her mana into Mimiru through the tentacles that linked them. As she did so, a strange red mark was gradually emerging on Mimiru's body. It's outbreak seemed to follow the lines Lucella had traced with her tongue, covering Mimiru's whole body in red as if it were crisscrossed with wounds.
"...So, I'll make you forget. You don't need a nightmare like this to be your true self. Bad dreams are for forgetting quickly, and erasing from the depths of your memory..."
With a slither, a single tentacle bent low and fixed its aim on a certain part of Mimiru's body. A complicated crest was inscribed around that place, as if Lucella's tongue had crawled over it with particular care.
"Now, go back. Go back to before you were born, to a pure, unknowing being."
Slither, squelch. With a soft sound almost like a frog jumping into a pond, the tentacle sank towards Mimiru's navel, and, just like that, merged with it, completing the tentacles' encroachment!
The pleasure that struck Mimiru's mind just then was overwhelmingly bright, almost like an aurora. The reunion of her flesh and spirit brought with it countless compunded climaxes. Mimiru raised a voiceless cry as warmth burst from her groin. Inside the tentacle diaper, the tentacles were drinking up and taking nourishment from the hot fluid that gushed out along with her obscene nectar.
With her spirit and flesh reunited, Mimiru's sight returned. The look she saw on the face of her mortal enemy as her body was rocked by a climax so intense she seemed about to burst and her mind melted with pleasure was...
"...Ah..."
In a smile that seemed to gently accept her, Mimiru sensed an almost motherly tolerance and an almost fatherly strength. Perhaps it was the mana's influence, but she seemed to see the image of a man's face layered on top of that smile.
"...E... El..."
A weak voice, murmuring as if in delirium. In it, her true feelings found expression. Once you tried to clear away the wall of adulthood... it turned out to be a surprisingly trivial task.
"Then I will teach you to live again. To live as you are, as your heart is."
Deep purple tentacles spilled from the magic circle one after another, coiling around Mimiru's body as if to hold her in the afterglow of climax, or else trying to shield her from outside enemies. It was like a tentacle flower blooming in reverse, with Mimiru as its pistil.
"Ah... Aha...♪"
There was a charmed expression in Mimiru's slowly-shutting eyes. As if in sympathy, the tentacles were sheltering Mimiru within themselves. Even the rustling sound they made as they rubbed against each other no longer seemed unpleasant to her. On the contrary, it seemed almost like the solicitude of devout knights giving her shelter. Before long, as if to conceal Mimiru, who now looked as peaceful as if she were drifting off to sleep, the tentacle bud closed around her like an inviolable fairy's bower.
It was a deep purple plant, or rather a bud, putting down roots into the flagstones. It rose up before Lucella, stretching out roots in accordance with her magic circle and sucking up something from the ground. It was sucking up Lucella's mana and the necessary knowledge to become a monster's family. The immense mana and their way of sucking were transmitting the fundamentals of a monster's way of being to Mimiru through the plant.
Ba-dump. Ba-dump. The plant quietly, but powerfully, pulsed. With each pulsation the magic circle around Lucella's navel flickered. The tentacles attached to the roots swelled in time with it, and transmitted that swelling to the bud. It was almost like nutrients being delivered from a mother to a child...
"Hee hee... Mmm♪ Now, I'll suck the corruption out of you inside my mana's womb... Then a true 'blessing' can be yours... Aah♪"
There was something in Lucella's expression as she murmured and rubbed the area around her magic circle that made on think of a mother's unconditional love...
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The plant's interior was filled with the ooze secreted by the tentacles, but, mysteriously, Mimiru found no difficulty breathing.
It was some time after Mimiru's body had been entirely concealed within the plant that Mimiru's consciousness, which had been blown away by climax, hazily returned. She opened her unfocused eyes just a little... and found herself in the midst of a deep violet darkness. The deep purple tentacles that composed the plant pressed so closely together that no outside light could leak through. Instead...
Mimiru's body was glowing dimly. The goo that coated its surface was reacting with Mimiru's mana and emitting a cool, gentle light like a firefly, illuminating the plant's interior. Mimiru was curled into a ball, hugging her knees. Tentacles were clinging tightly to her hands, feet, arms, and legs. The tentacle attached to her navel was putting down roots, as if it was merging with Mimiru. Only a short while before, Mimiru would surely have struggled in panic and disgust, trying to escape at any cost. But now...
Mimiru reached out a hand and clasped a tentacle firmly, as if handling a fragile thing. It was as if the tentacles were now precious to her... She, meanwhile, looked almost like a baby waiting peacefully in its mother's belly to be born.
The tentacles were crawling further inside Mimiru, making wet, slithering sounds. It was as if they were putting down roots deep, deep into her, eating into her body and mind. Within the space filled with amniotic fluid goo and gentle light, they were strengthening their bond with Mimiru ...A succubus' wing-crowned back; hips; seducing men; an inviting womanhood; an anus; arms and legs for embracing; a brain that considers how to put ever-so-lascivious thoughts into practice... The tentacles were sticking to Mimiru, assimilating with her, and changing her body into something other than human. Her immature body remained as it was, but its posture and mannerisms were steadily taking on a tinge of lewdness. And yet her body was stronger than an ordinary person's, brighter in color, more charming...
Here and there on the tentacles attached to Mimiru's body, mysterious swellings were forming. They seemed to be drawing nearer to her with every beat of her heart. Lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub... lub-dub!
The moment the swellings touched her, they poured into her all at once! The mana-rich fluid that flowed into her veins and circulated throughout her body in the blink of an eye was nourishment for monsters. Inside the plant, she could feel every part of her being stained in monsters' colors. Mimiru now found it a calming sensation.
No, not calm. Release. The fluid pouring into her veins was releasing her from all the ties that bound the human Mimiru Miltié. That was peace to her now.
The fluid, having circulated through Mimiru's body and arrived at her brain, set to work on her mind and memories. Behind her closed eyelids, past experiences were rising up and vanishing. Only the memories of the time she had spent with Elt were continuing behind her lids.
Rising and vanishing, Mimiru's memories.
Rising and staying, the time she had passed with Elt.
Rising and vanishing, Mimiru's accumulated knowledge.
Rising and staying, the words she had exchanged in conversation with Elt.
Rising and vanishing, all the feats and praise that had shaped Mimiru, and the calculated self-interest that lay behind them.
Rising and staying, her true feelings, secreted in the words she had exchanged with Elt.
Then, when Elt had suffused Mimiru in her entirety, the light...
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"...At last."
The plant rooted in the flagstones began to pulse intensely. Lucella lightly stroked its surface, observing its condition with pleasure. Feeling a sense of achievement for the plant, which transmitted delight as it beat out the persistent rhythm of life, she sent mana into the magic circle at her feet once again.
Red. Crimson. Shining. The peculiar arabesques inscribed in the magic circle were shining, and the plant was lighting up magnificently from below. There was something wonderful about the phosphorescence it emitted as it as it sucked up and stored mana. If the light of the magic circle had been blue rather than red, the deep violet plant would probably have appeared even more mystical.
Lub-dub... Lub-dub... The pulse of the giant bud echoed in the space enclosed by the barrier. And mingled with it, the faint breathing of a sleeper. It was like the buds of the flowers said to exist in Fairyland. The sleeper's breathing made only a slight sound, like the rustling of wings, but it did not escape Lucella's hearing. From those shallow breaths, she sensed that the time of awakening was close at hand.
Lucella continued to pour out mana, loudly and clearly reciting an incantation. The bud, which had begun as an ovoid, was now nearly a ball, and the speed of its pulsation was increasing. Softly, its tip began to tremble. Even now it seemed on the verge of opening, almost as if it had been following Mimiru's spirit. There was no need for it to strain anymore, because that was not her desire. Lucella thought that if it had been, that would have been a mistake. As if to embody that thought... she engraved the rune of flowering on the plant's fiber.
"Now, be born, awaken, Mimiru Miltié."
Slither, squelch...
The many-layered bunch of tentacles was slowly beginning to open. The sticky liquid that filled its insides spilled through its gaps, making a gigantic puddle on the ground. In places the goo evaporated and changed into a pink vapor so thick that one could not see one's way through it, filling the air with a sweet fragrance. The tentacles, having opened, were also vaporizing, wrapping Lucella in a dense cloud.
From within the tentacle plant, which hissed as it entirely vaporized, a human figure gradually began to come into view. Pink hair, tinged with purple at the tips, gave the joint impressions of vigor and voluptuousness. Soft skin that knew no blemish, gorgeous shoulders, developing breasts, and... soft, supple belly and legs, on which the patterns set down by Lucella glowed crimson. All were sopping wet with goo, emitting a brilliant luster. It seemed as if it would feel pleasant to rub bodies with this one.
"...Nm... Aah..."
Mimiru blinked her eyes sleepily. She looked at the world around her, shrouded in pink mist, through still-bleary eyes, and discovered a shape approaching her through the fog. It was a girl monster, about the same size as herself, or perhaps a little smaller — a baphomet. Faced with a powerful monster, Mimiru... flashed a brilliant grin.
"Mommy...♪"
Pat. The baphomet — Lucella — placed a paw on Mimiru's head energetically stroked it. Mimiru, whose expression showed mingled ticklishness and pleasure brought on by the elasticity and softness of the pad and Lucella's exquisite moderation of pressure, filled with love, made as if to dive into the baphomet's characteristically warm, soft fur and hugged her tight.
"There, there, Mimiru... How do you feel now?"
Stroke. Stroke. Lucella gently rubbed Mimiru's back as if handling a baby. It must have felt good, because Mimiru's embrace became still more forceful. Lucella lightly checked Mimiru, who had pressed her face to Lucella's bosom and was rubbing her cheek against it.
"Yes, I know. You're glad and it feels good. Now show a little self-control... Don't pout like that."
Lucella looked Mimiru in the eyes, as if to remonstrate with the sullen girl. Their attitudes were almost those of a parent and child related by blood. Except for the flames of lust that filled their eyes. Lucella brought her face close to the still-sullen Mimiru's ear... and by muttering something unintelligible, at last mended Mimiru's ill humor — and revived her careless grin.
"—Now, as a maiden, you'll need making up, but..."
"It's fine... Look♪"
Before Lucella's eyes as she worried what to do about the composition of clothes, Mimiru made tentacles appear without any incantation. They appeared to sprout from Mimiru's back and wrapped up every part of her in the blink of an eye. Then, just like that, she made them alter their appearance in the blink of an eye.
"Ah... Aah... Mmm♪ There. Rub there... Yes, like that... Yes...♪"
The goo the tentacles secreted as they twined around Mimiru was rendering her sense of touch even more sensitive. Mimiru wriggled every time the silky smooth surfaces of the tentacles, hidden beneath the goo, rubbed her sensitive parts, writhing with stimulating pleasure. When their movements ceased, Mimiru was clad in tentacle clothes that were modeled on her old dress, but gave an obscene impression. At a glance, they looked not unlike a bondage outfit with an open front. Needless to say, every bit of them, even the parts that appeared to be ordinary cloth, were comprised of tentacles, and could be used as surrogate limbs, as well as clothing, at Mimiru's will.
Squelch! Squelch! Squelch! The sticky sound coming from inside Mimiru's clothes was her intentionally controlling the tentacles, continuing to violate her own body as Lucella had just done. They were pumping vigorously in and out, in and out of her anus, in particular, as if picking up where its earlier rehearsal had left off. So vigorously that the tentacles were soaked with gleaming intestinal fluid.
Either way, all this was merely advance preparations for partaking of the main dish.
"...Now this is a surprise. Even I never imagined you would be able to use magic so freely or to birth such impressive specimens..."
Although shocked by Mimiru's display of magic, Lucella summoned a giant triangular hat with the face of a black goat affixed to its front — this was the uniform of the Lucella Sabbath — from the air, and gave it to Mimiru. Mimiru took it with a tentacle and set it on her head, making her tentacles intertwine with the hat. That was the moment that Mimiru, the Black Goat Witch, was born.
Mimiru, having fully become a witch, brought her hands together in front of her, interlaced her fingers, and struck a pose as if offering prayer. Slithering, the tentacles flooded down her arms to her hands, forming a single object. It was patterned on the wand Mimiru had used when she was a magical girl. In the center of the heart on its tip was a red eye, peculiar to the equipment of the monsters under Druella's direct command.
Tightly grasping the wand, Mimiru agitated the mana within her body. Then...
"Come here...♪ Big brother El...♪"
She called Elt by the name she had long wanted to call him, and her body and wand shone dazzlingly—!
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"Huh!? His scent's... gone...?"
"—Elt!? Where did her go!?"
"Oh? Has little Elt... vanished?"
"...He was taken just now... And here I wanted to have Elt's first with the body I received from Lady Druella..."
"Why did this have to happen while we were in an audience!? Hey! Holy Knights, are you al... What!? No one's been here but me...!?"
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