Chapter 10:
Our Perfect Isekai World is Spoiled by a Demon Girl?!
4.1 - Doomsday
It's a nice ass. There is just no two ways about it. It's no dumpster truck, petite in its way, but it’s plump and round, and the tail peeking out from it utterly perfects the image.
If you're wondering why I'm staring at Ko's ass, I doubt I have a very satisfactory answer, I do however, have one half-baked excuse: A couple days ago she snuck off from me and Eshu to have some sort of secret tryst with lady Lila by moonlight. Ever since the two have been oddly close, but moreover, Ko's cat emote seems to have broken; it's now permanently on. Ko says she doesn't mind this, as she'd been thinking of leaving it that way already. Apparently, the tail in particular feels as natural to her as her legs. I'm not sure I follow that explanation, but if she's happy, it's fine by me. It is a very fluffy white tail after all.
Actually, it's not the only odd change; my hair has reverted to a light brown shade. My hair in the old world and Escape was naturally brown, but a while back I changed it to black - get some more protagonist energy going - yet I woke up one morning and it was brown again. Eshu, the only one of us to have no odd cosmetic changes occur, said she likes this colour more, so I guess I don’t really mind. Still, it does make you wonder what the heck is going on with all these bugs in the world, if that's what they truly are.
Speaking of, we're making the trek up to the fort's roof, through the narrow, winding stone staircases. Lila claims today is the day, armageddon, doomsday, end of the world. Ko and Lila are a couple of steps ahead, then Eshu and I, followed by the skeleton man we see most, the one with the goofy top hat.
"Hey, hey Sek. Is it a reverse harem or a normal harem, if it has boys and girls?" Eshu says beside me.
"Err, what?"
"My harem, is it reverse or not?"
"Who says it's your harem? As the man, surely it's mine," I point out. Eshu gives me a pointed look like I'm wearing clown make-up, "Sek, don't be silly. You don't even like Lady Lila. No, it's clearly Eshu's harem; everyone likes Eshu, no one fights with Eshu. Simple.""She has a point," Ko says from ahead. "Mmmhmm," Lila adds.
"You can't be serious," I say, my shoulders slumping.
"I have a Tsundere and a Kuudere and a Nyandere," Eshu continues happily.
"Don't call me a Tsundere," I retort a little too fast.
"I never said who was who," Eshu grins back viciously.
"Urk..."
"Maybe I need a better balance, one more guy makes two and two," she adds, ignoring my suffering.
"Guhhhhhh, oh, ya? And where are you going to magic one of those from?"
"That Mike guy was pretty nice."
"More like hot as hell..." Ko mutters. I find myself a little offended at that, "Ya, well, he's gone, so tough."Eshu lays a hand on her chin, looking awfully serious. I'm half afraid she'll trip on one of these narrow stairs, her concentration is so deep. "What about the skeleton men? How 'bout you guy?""You can understand them, Eshu?" Ko asks.
"Hmmmmmm, more like, interpret." Even Lila looks impressed, "Now that's something special.""Well, even if it is, he's a skeleton, they all are, he's not gonna be much, ya know," I mumble, that sentence quickly feeling rather dangerous. Eshu grins, "Ya never know.""He's literally an undead!"
"Urk, Urk!" the 'guy' seems to disagree."You're kidding?" Just what sort of ‘meme mob’ did the developers go and leave in the game?
"Dead serious. They may not be as intelligent as some demon species, but left alone, they'll graze on grass - er, no one knows where that goes either, but it makes them happy - search out others of their kind and when they find them, form tribes. Hunt, patrol, teach each other things, proper little societies." Our mighty ‘Grand Imp’ pauses unhappily for a moment, "Most demons treat them as things. They don't need to graze or rest; it's just what they do naturally. They are a favourite for frontline vanguards and even unpaid labour.""Wait, wait, wait, so like, you didn't just summon them out of midair?" That had been my presumption at least.
"Eh? Gods no. I can summon shadow apparitions, sure, but those aren't alive, just a temporary mimicry of life. The Estolpfo are a sapient species. The ones I've been bringing here, I teleported from home, they've served me for years. What? Did you presume they were 'less than NPCs' even?"
"I ah..." She has me there. Lila is one thing, talking characters in a game do generally have more comprehensive coding. Monsters like the skeleton creatures are just, I mean, I'm not wrong, ya know?
"Mistress, you called him a major?" Ko asks. She's constantly using the word mistress lately, it seems to make Lila happy, and me cringe.
"Oh ya, guess I never mentioned that? Before I deserted to come here, I was Specialist Major Rowan of his Sovereign's Royal Forces. Tom was the head of my personal battalion, a captain, but since I'm now my own lady, I thought he should have the rank. The hat denotes his role."
"The hat...."
"Right the hat."
I look cautiously at Eshu, Ko does too, her eyes suggesting the girl keep her mouth shut. Eshu, of course, does not, "We thought it denoted him as being special," she adds with that remarkable skill for no tact.
"Of course he's special, he's my oldest servant," Lila nods proudly.
"No, umm," should I really say this? Ko’s gaze now on me suggests otherwise, but if I don’t, Eshu probably will anyway haha… "Special as in, a charity case, one you keep around to pour the tea out of the goodness of your heart..." Lila stops in her tracks, or well, floating. She turns icily on us, "Pouring the tea is a great honour, as is the hat of leadership! Tom is my oldest and strongest piece! He could beat all three of you!""Now you're bluffing."
Our ‘mistress’ flails her thin arms rather childishly… and albeit quite cutely too, "You imbecile! He's nearly level 200, a Tier 2 species, unlike you Tier 1 humans. He's an evolved class, Estolpfo-Lizardguard!"
"But he looks just like the others," Eshu says, tilting her head.
"That’s... He was always shorter than his peers. Before he evolved he was only half that height. But height has nothing to do with skill or power! Hmph! You should all show more respect to your senior, damnit..." Lila mutters, turning and floating up the last few steps into the cool dusk air on the fort’s terrace.
"Teleported them from where?" Ko asks, perhaps trying to soothe me and Eshu's accidental insult of our supposed ‘senpai’."Well enough talk for now, we have a job to do today." She floats over to the parapets and looks out rather stoically, "Here, I got these from the menu, should let you see some of what I can."
We step up to three steampunk-looking telescopes on little tripods, "Bought with our resources, you mean?" I grumble.
"Not really. You guys sucked at 'gaming', ya know that? This fort generates far more material and gold by the day. The Estolpfo massively increases its habitation count, thusly increasing the profits even more. Finally, your human lands are oddly lacking in rulership; this is the only castle in the region, which automatically marked me as the local landlord, even more profits. Honestly, I could pay back the poultry sum I used from you three at the start and still be rich. Heck, if we live through the day, I'll give you each an allowance."
"Way to hit my gamer pride..." Now that she mentions it, we hadn't really been trying to stack resources; our humble little house would have generated just the bare minimum versus this whole fortress set-up. "Survive today, eh? Guess we will find out for sure if you're crazy or not.""Sek, you should look at this," Ko says from her telescope."
"Huh?"
"No really, look baka," Eshu adds more urgently.
I shrug, feeling a bit silly, but check my own. "What the hell?" If you've ever played one of those battle royal type games, where the walls of the world visible close in as a timer ticks down, maybe you can visualise what's happening before me. In the far distance, towards the game-world borders we're familiar with, towering walls of magnetic blue hexagons are pulsating. They reach impossibly far into the sky, way beyond the skybox limit, and most likely far below ground level too. And then the walls flash."Did you see that!" Eshu says.
"Yup," Lila nods, "Every few days at first, then once an hour, now--"
"Again!" Ko adds.
"--now more and more often." I turn to Lila, "Why didn't you show us this before? Is it, like, everywhere?""Sort of. Behind us, to the south, you don't wanna look. The East is my homeland, the West is the Mechanised Empire, but south of us is just… Nothing, an empty void. Honestly, I just hope it stays that way. As to why I didn't show you, well, why would I?"
"Because it would have proven all your speeches about the end of the world!"
"So -_-, I never needed to prove anything, you're my slaves, not a democracy."That rather boils my blood, but now doesn't seem like the time for another argument, especially since, if this is really happening, then Lila truly is our only hope? I guess? I mean, ok, the barriers around our world are true, and they are weakening, but that could all still be an in-game event, right? A man's cope never dies, I suppose…We're dressed for the occasion at least, no gym clothes or lounge wear today, Lila used the menu to buy us all custom armour. Ko is in this flowing emerald-coloured battle kilt that leaves her legs plenty of room. Her torso is covered in a lighter red leather armour, and she's wearing those wolverine-looking gauntlets of hers.
Eshu has this stylish cream overcoat on, hooded and everything. It's an assassin’s cowl, apparently, and goes well with the knife skills she is so naturally good at. Beneath it is something more appropriate for a wrestler I feel, but supposedly the coat has a good enough armour rating that her lazy under clothing won't matter much.Lila holds up three stubby little fingers, "One is my ultimate shield, been shimmering on the boil for a whole month, it should survive even a direct hit from anything my side has. Two is a chaff barrier, designed to repel all manner of gases and poisons. I had to edit this one the most based on the Mechanised Empire’s tech I read about in the tutorial - a shocking amount of really nasty 'biological' weapons and radiation shit they seem to love - hopefully I've done enough. And three is just the battery; I've been channelling a Grand Demon's worth of magic into it daily. It should allow everything to hold for weeks, maybe even months if I'm right and nothing comes too close to us. But, if I fail to cast the spells, or they aren't enough..."
"Then?"
"Then, it sure was nice knowing you all," Lila grins rather more shyly than you expect from her.
I sigh before hoisting my weapons more firmly. The others do the same, Ko in particular stepping in front of the demon, "Alright, chances are nothing from the south, right? Eshu you stand East, Sek, you West."
"That's my lieutenant," Lila grins impishly. Ko smiles right back.
It's time, doomsday.
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