Demon Queened

I stared at the bear before me. It was something like nine feet tall, standing on its hind legs. It had dark brown fur, with lighter brown spikes extending from its spine and elbows. They looked remarkably sharp, but I doubted they were that sturdy. Nothing I couldn't snap off if things got really desperate.

The creature didn't move during my examination. I could almost imagine that it was looking me over, in turn, trying to decide whether I was worth feasting upon. Not an impossibility, actually, if it was anywhere near intelligent as the wolves.

"You do not want to fight me," I warned, letting some of the magic within me spill out and over the beast. I wasn't expecting the bear to submit as the wolf had, but I did think it would turn and flee once it felt the difference between us.

To my surprise, it let out a roar and swung for my head with one of its massive paws. I ducked beneath it but didn't strike back, too worried about what Lucy might think if I sent the beast flying.

"Wh-what's going on?" Lucy demanded from behind me. She was still undressed, wearing only one greave, but now clutched her sword in her hand. "Spiked bears are pretty curious, but they don't usually attack unless they feel threatened!"

...Ah. Perhaps this was my fault, then? I felt bad for the bear, in that case, but I had little choice but to deal with the threat before me.

"Lucy!" I called out, dodging another of its blows. "If I can keep it occupied, can you take it down?"

"I think so!"

"You

think

so?" I questioned, grimacing a little. I wanted to pretend that I was weaker than Lucy, for the sake of my disguise, but if Lucy was the pinnacle of human strength then I really didn't know what to say.

"I can try!" Lucy declared, holding her sword up high. "Usually I'd say we should run, but if it's attacking people for no reason then we definitely can't let it go!"

"Good girl," I responded, lifting both hands and grabbing hold of the paw that swung toward me. I tried to make it look like a struggle, allowing its claws to get perilously close to my face.

"Now Lucy!" I yelled, pressing back against the paw.

The bear growled in response, as Lucy leveled her blade toward the creature. Before she could step forward, however, I heard a roar behind me. I couldn't turn around, but I could easily guess what it was.

"A second spiked bear!?" Lucy cried out, confirming my suspicions. "It must be the first one's mate!"

"Then I imagine it's not going to be very happy about this," I muttered, taking advantage of Lucy's distraction to thrust the bear's claws away from my face and step backward.

"Shall we each take one?" I asked Lucy, eyeing the bear. Its muscles seemed to tense under my gaze, as if it was wary of what I might do. It didn't show any sign of backing down, though.

"Each take one?" Lucy asked me, her orange eyes going wide as dinner plates. "Eena, you could barely fight it!"

"Physically, perhaps, but you haven't seen me use magic yet." Humans weren't supposed to be strong enough to toss bears about, but magic was another matter. Magic capacity fluctuated wildly from person to person, after all. "Can you take the other bear, Lucy?"

"...I'll manage!" Lucy declared, lifting her sword up in front of her face.

A small smile tugged across my lips at the display of determination. "Good girl," I repeated, turning my attention back to the beast before me.

It roared, dropping down to all fours and charging toward me. Its mouth opened as it ran, wider than I would have thought possible. I could see four rows of teeth in its maw, all razor-sharp. All rushing toward me.

I dodged to the right, elbowing the beast in its side and driving it into the earth. Then I ran a bolt of electricity through its body, causing its fur to stand on end as its body twitched beneath me. When I cut off the flow of electricity, the monster was already unconscious.

Lucy's back was to me, her focus on the other bear; I had no reason to hold back. Still, I chose not to go for the finishing blow. The creature had, ultimately, only attacked because of my own actions. It felt wrong to kill it for that.

Unfortunately, I couldn't expect the same result from Lucy's fight. When I turned my attention to her, I found her battling it out with everything she had, deflecting the creature's claws with her sword, dodging strikes, and cutting into the bear whenever she could. It had a myriad of red stains on its fur, from numerous shallow wounds, but it looked no closer to going down.

"Perhaps I can help?" I called out, as Lucy dodged one of the beast's paws.

"You're already done!?" Lucy called back, voice pitched high in obvious shock. Not that she let the surprise slow her down. She dodged another blow, as I watched, and gave the bear another shallow cut on its side. It seemed obvious to me that Lucy was winning, but how long could she keep it up? Even if she had the stamina, the bear only needed to get a single good strike in to win this.

"I got a few lucky blows in," I lied. "Do you need help, or not?"

"I could really use some!" Lucy called out to me. "This one's really strong! If my sword wasn't unbreakable, I'd probably be dead!"

"Unbreakable?" I asked, mentally sifting through my options. Perhaps a small shock? Not enough to bring the bear down, but enough that Lucy could find an opening for the final blow? That would allow the heroine to keep thinking she was stronger than me. "I'm sure it's well crafted, but if you treat your blade as if it's unbreakable you're going to end up in trouble."

"No, it's literally unbreakable!" Lucy insisted, bracing the sword above her head to block an overhead swing from the bear. "It's a holy blade!"

"What? So it's..." Indestructible. That was the word on my tongue, but I couldn't force it past my lips. A holy, indestructible sword? There was only one that I knew of, in the entire world.

It had been my mother's.

"Lucy?" I called out, voice trembling faintly. "Where did you get that blade?"

"Huh? My sword? It was a gift from the Grand Patriarch himself! Apparently, the demon queen stole it from heaven, but the church recovered it for the sake of the Goddess! It's a really nice sword, but..." Lucy paused, using her sword to ward off another of the beast's blows. "But it's not really enough right now! A little help, please?"

I didn't respond. My eyes were locked on the weapon Lucy held. The holy blade that was mine by right. The miraculous item that had been stolen from us when my mother fell. I could feel my handscurling into fists, my nails biting into my palms.

"Eena?" Lucy called out again, as the bear drew back a step. "Eena, what's wrong? I could really use some help!" The bear dropped down on all fours, its eyes locked on Lucy. Its jaw opened wide, revealing rows of teeth that were obviously meant for tearing at meat. It charged toward Lucy. "Eena!" she shouted, desperately, jumping to the side.

The bear didn't stop its charge, even after Lucy leaped out of the way. It continued moving forward, running straight past her and toward me. Its jaws were mere moments away from me, but I wasn't scared. I doubted it could hurt me, but it was welcome to try. I probably deserved it, letting Lucy fight and risk her life like that. Not helping when I said I would. When I'd caused this problem to begin with. I knew that was wrong.

It was just that she had my mother's sword.

"Eena!" Lucy called out, terror in her voice as the creature's claws came toward my head.

Suddenly, a blur of black and red struck against the bear's side. The monster let out a roar of pain and surprise, striking at the thing that had hurt it, and sending a black-furred creature tumbling across the forest floor. It came to a stop right in front of me, whimpering faintly.

"...You..." I whispered, staring at the horned wolf I had spared a few days prior. She whimpered again, in response, her dark eyes fluttering open. Her gaze focused on me, and she let out another noise. She sounded somehow happy, as if she was relieved I was alright.

...What, precisely, was I doing

?

Allowing people to worry over me, to get hurt over me, because of some sword? What would I have done if the beast had chosen to focus on Lucy, instead of the one who'd taken down its mate? Had I not spent the day thinking of Lucy as another victim of the church? Could I have lived with myself if she had died? I was ashamed of myself.

I turned my attention to the bear. The wolf's horn had struck it in the side, and a patch of its fur was blackening and falling away. That didn't stop it from turning toward me again, roaring loudly before beginning its next charge.

"Eena!" Lucy shouted out, pushing herself up onto her feet. There was fear in her eyes. A fear she held for

me.

She honestly thought I was in danger. Would her fear for me turn into fear

of

me when she saw what I was capable of?

Casually, I lifted a hand toward the beast, as if I intended to stop its charge with no more than my palm. A bolt of lightning shot out from the center of my hand, striking the bear mid charge and causing its muscles to spasm. It collapsed to the ground, tumbling forward and coming to a halt a few inches in front of me. It was still breathing, but in bad shape.

I stepped toward the creature, grabbing a hold of it by the scruff of the neck and dragging it toward the other bear. I was aware of Lucy staring at me, eyes wide, but I didn't say anything. I only placed my hands on both bears and sent warmth into their bodies.

As with the wolf, pouring my healing energies into the bears resulted in a sudden understanding of their anatomy. They were both females, though that hardly discounted Lucy's theory of them being mates. I wasn't entirely sure how monsters reproduced, but if it was like monster girls then sex itself wasn't actually necessary. Reproduction, at least for us, was more about intermixing magical energies.

"Eena?" Lucy called out behind me, stepping toward me. "What... what are you doing?"

"I'm healing them," I responded, calmly. "To begin with, they only attacked because they felt my magic power." I knew Lucy was going to object. These were dangerous creatures which posed a potential threat to humanity. But that wasn't all they were. The way the second one had come right for me, only facing Lucy long enough to get her out of the way before charging at the one who stood over its mate... I couldn't hate a creature capable of loving another like that. I couldn't kill them in a fight I had unintentionally provoked.

Lucy didn't respond, but her lips pressed together into a thin line at my words. I imagined that she was angry, but I didn't stop what I was doing. Not even as she crouched beside me, and held out her own palm toward the bears. "

...Bellora radem akor morrin.

"

White light spilled from Lucy's hand, bright even beneath the light of the sun. Instantly, the blackened flesh and fur of the bear on my right began to lighten and heal. The fur that had fallen away grew back before my eyes. What's more, my magic told me that the electrical damage I'd inflicted on both bears was starting to heal. In moments, it was gone altogether and the two beasts were slumbering peacefully before us.

"...That was holy magic." It wasn't a question. I had felt the warmth of it as it intermingled with my own magic, and there was no mistaking it for anything else. Not for me, at least.

"You're really strong, Eena," Lucy told me, instead of confirming. A small smile was touching her lips. "Your magic is amazing, and your physical strength - I've never met anyone like you before. You must have trained so hard... I totally understand how you took on those wolves, now!"

"...You are not mad at me for hiding my strength?"

"You're

really

strong," Lucy repeated, her smile brightening. "But you're even more kind. The way you saved the village, and then the way you decided to spare the bears - and I bet you did something really nice for that wolf, over there, too..."

The wolf in question was still laying on the floor. She was breathing heavily, but otherwise seemed unhurt to my eye. I wanted to check on her, but my attention was currently locked on Lucy.

"And you're not mad that I helped monsters?"

Lucy hesitated a moment. When she spoke, her voice was soft but firm with conviction. "The church says that monsters are evil. That they've been tainted by demonic energy. But my mom never believed that. She told me that monsters were just animals with a little extra magic. And demons are just people with a few extra parts. She said people used to know that, but then the demon queen came and made us all start fighting each other."

"...From your own words, that's a rather blasphemous viewpoint," I pointed out. Honestly, other than the part about Luci instigating things, what she said wasn't too far off from what the demons taught. Supposedly, in the ancient past the world had been filled with wild magic. The theory was that monsters came from animals being exposed to that magic during pregnancy. There were even some who took it a step further and claimed that monster girls had originated from monsters undergoing the same process.

"My mom was pretty blasphemous, for a priestess," Lucy confessed. "I told you before, right? That she always said she wanted me to think for myself, and not just do what the church told me."

"Why are you telling me this?" I demanded. "You're the heroine. Surely you've been encouraged to keep your mouth shut on such things?"

"I'm telling you because I trust you, Eena!" Lucy told me, smiling brightly. "And I want you to know you can trust me, too! I don't know how you got so strong, or what you've been through because of that strength. Maybe you've been judged before? Maybe people used you for your strength, or hurt you, or even accused you of things. I'm sure you have all sorts of reasons why you didn't want to tell me everything. But I don't need to know everything! All that matters to me is that you're a good person. A good friend! And if you ever want to join my party, I'll be waiting."

Lucy stood with those words, walking over to her armor and plopping back down to the earth. I stood silently as she put her armor on. I didn't say a word, even when she buckled her sword around her waist. I simply watched her, uncertain what to make of everything she'd said.

"I think I'm going to go now," Lucy informed me after she was fully dressed. "I can try to heal the wolf before I go if you'd like."

The wolf in question was still laying on the forest floor, but her breathing had evened and she didn't seem to be in any pain. The moment Lucy's eyes swung over to her, however, the wolf moved into a sitting position and let out a low growl.

"...It's fine. I can handle that much," I promised Lucy, striding toward the wolf. She quieted as I approached, and I crouched down beside her to offer my hand. She sniffed at my fingers for a moment, and then licked my hand. Her eyes returned to Lucy immediately afterward, but I thought she seemed just a little more relaxed.

"That's so cute!" Lucy declared, smiling brightly at us. "You should make sure it doesn't follow you to any towns, though. Not everyone looks at monsters the way I do."

"I'll be careful," I vowed, frowning. "But are you seriously telling me you intend to leave? What happened to taking me to the next town?" It wasn't as if I wanted Lucy's company. The sooner she left the sooner I could make my flight back to the tower, after all, but it worried me that I couldn't tell what was going through her mind.

"I promised you I'd leave if you proved you could take care of yourself, right?" Lucy reminded me. She was still smiling, but her eyes didn't quite meet mine. "And..."

"And?" I pressed, idly running my fingers through the wolf's fur.

"And I want you to trust me, Eena! I want you to know you can! So I have to keep my word, right?" Lucy's eyes met mine, at last. They were wet with tears. "You made me feel so good, today. You made me feel like I mattered as a person, and not just as the heroine. I'm really glad you took my virginity, and I really hope you'll have sex with me again! Even if you don't, I definitely want to see you again. And I'm really scared I won't..."

"Lucy..." I started, then stopped. I didn't know what to say. I wanted to assure her that we'd meet again, but I didn't know that it would happen. I'd never wanted us to meet to begin with.

"I'll be in Rendra City, for a while," Lucy apprised me, smiling softly. "If you head north down the road, you can't miss it. I'll be staying at the church. So. If you want to meet again, like I do... I really hope you'll come to find me."

I nodded, slowly. Lucy's lips were set in a smile, but I couldn't help but notice the sadness in her gaze. She truly didn't want this to be goodbye.

"...Well. I'll be going now!" Lucy declared, forcing an even wider smile for my benefit. "I really hope to see you soon! But if not, I'll understand." She turned away from me with those words and started to walk away.

I knew I had to let her go. It was in my best interest that she walk away, and forget about me.

I knew that, but...

"One week!" I called out. Lucy paused mid step, but didn't turn around. "One week," I repeated, more softly this time. "In one week, I will come to Rendra City. And if you are still there, then... perhaps... We can have more sex."

"...Do you mean it?" Lucy's words were almost a whisper, barely audible even to my ears. She turned toward me, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Do you mean it?" she asked, again, louder this time. "You really want to see me again?"

"I don't recall saying that," I protested, my gaze dropping to the floor. "I simply think that we have more to offer each other. I can teach you about sex, and you can help me with the adventurer's guild." I stole a glance at Lucy's face. She was smiling.

"I'll be waiting in the church, okay? One week! I'll definitely still be there!"

"Yes, yes, whatever you say," I muttered, turning my gaze back to the forest floor.

"I'll see you in a week, Eena!" Lucy said, again. I lifted my gaze after she'd turned around, watching as she disappeared beyond the trees. Once she was out of sight, I let out a long sigh and shook my head.

"I don't suppose

you'd

know why I did that, would you girl?" I asked the wolf laying in front of me. She whined faintly in response and nuzzled her snout against my hand. "It seems not..." I sighed. "Well, perhaps it's not the

worst

thing to be spending time around her. I might even learn a thing or two. For example..."

I stood, walked over to a nearby tree, and casually broke off one of the thicker branches. Then I held the jagged piece of wood up against the tree, fitting it back into place as best I could, and held my other palm out toward the break.

"

Bellora radem akor morrin.

" I felt something light up inside me as I spoke as if my very soul was resonating with the words. As a pleasant warmth lit up inside my chest, and a light began to emanate from my palm. Before my eyes the tree began to heal, the fibers of the branch and tree rejoined as the cracks in the bark began to disappear. In seconds, I was staring at a fully repaired branch.