Chapter 32 – The Power Source Is XX
After a stretch of time during which my mind had completely left my body, I lay limp across the bed, still receiving Valeri's relentless kisses along my neck. Only once the violent movements finally stopped did I register the cool air touching my skin. A chill breeze tickled over me, and my whole body gave a little twitch.
"Haah... haah..."
Shallow, ragged breaths spilled from my mouth.
Mwah... mwah...
Valeri, bent over me, teased my neck with her tongue and lips for a while longer before straightening herself up.
Her collarbone and shoulders were slick with sweat, and her lips were damp with both our saliva. The eyes above them were glistening. They seemed to hold something other than the feverish excitement of a moment ago.
"Did that feel good, Hero? I hope I did well by you..."
Did it feel good...?
Well... I'd just had the longest, most violent climax of my entire life, and even though the skirt hid it from view, there was no doubt my lower half was an absolute disaster.
Even now my body wouldn't respond... when I tried to tense up, the inside of my stomach and my hips tingled weakly.
Huh? Wait, the way Valeri just spoke—?
The instant I was about to answer, I noticed a bright glow coming from below us. Valeri's gaze and mine both landed on the skirt covering our lower halves. Light was shining through it—and it was unmistakably coming from my cock.
Creeeeak!
At the ear-piercing sound of the door opening, both Valeri and I flinched and whipped our heads around. The door, of course, had been opened by Queen Anaris.
"You're all finished, aren't you?"
Come to think of it, the Queen had been watching the whole time...
"If you're not done, I can step back out."
"We're done! We're done!"
Like anyone would want her to witness *that* sight again?!
While I hurriedly answered, Valeri climbed off of me and rushed to cover my body with the blanket. In no time at all, my groin—brimming with her semen and my own fluids—lay exposed. My cum had splattered across my waist and everywhere else beyond anything I'd imagined, and there it was, my glowing cock with its halo, smeared with a gloss of semen and precum like a fresh coat of paint.
While I was still floundering, Valeri—panicking first—squeezed her eyes shut and pulled the blanket over my lower half. Then she sat down beside me and hid her own lower half beneath her dress skirt. But the soaked, pure-white fabric turned sheer, giving a half-transparent view of everything underneath.
The two of us kept our heads bowed.
Was this strange, heavy silence also part of the refractory period? Well, I had just come, after all...
"The bedding will need changing."
"Th-then won't the other elves find out?"
"Don't worry. Our cleaning servants have enough pride that they wouldn't dare breathe a word. More importantly, back to the matter of the experiment—"
Mid-sentence, Queen Anaris raised a hand to cover her nose. Her face had been utterly composed until that very moment, but her eyebrows shot up in an instant.
"It reeks."
"Well, what did you expect?!"
The retort burst out of me in a mortified yelp. Beside me, Valeri flapped her arms in embarrassment too, then turned toward the window and began fanning the air with her hands.
"My apologies. Still, while I was silencing the room, I should have cast a ventilation spell as well."
Still pinching her nose shut, Queen Anaris strode over to me and, with her free hand, swept away the blanket covering my lower half.
"Waaah!"
Startled, I reflexively moved to cover myself—only for my hand to plunge straight into the puddle of semen and love juices pooled around it. At some point, the light and halo from my cock had vanished.
"So it did glow this time..."
"Well then, my hypothesis was right to a degree. The condition for your cock to glow required 'sexual intercourse with a futanari.' Well done, both of you."
"I—I didn't..." "That... it was nothing..."
Neither of us could manage a proper reply, unable to tell whether that was meant as praise.
"And now that I've seen it with my own eyes, I've learned something else."
Queen Anaris stared intently at my concealed cock as she spoke.
"I sense powerful mana from your body—and not just any mana. Very special mana. And most likely..."
She continued speaking as she bent down, took hold of my ankle, and rolled me over onto my side.
"Waaah!"
Squelch.
As my body flipped over, the sticky mess pooled beneath my hips and between my thighs slid off and dripped away. Some of it had already dried onto my skin, and it made a wet noise as my cock dragged against the bedsheets.
"Spread."
"EHHH?!"
What is this Queen saying?!
"Valeri."
"Y-yes, ma'am!"
Valeri scampered over to stand between me and the Queen.
"There's something I need to verify. Spread him open with your hands."
"B-but the Hero is clearly uncomfortable!"
"This will let me grasp the Holy Sword's power with precision. It's absolutely necessary."
"But...!"
"Spread."
Her calm voice froze over in an instant. Valeri, at a complete loss, glanced back and forth between me and Queen Anaris. In the end, I gave a small nod and buried my face in the bedsheets.
"Th-then... I shall proceed."
I heard Valeri take a deep breath. Moments later, two fingers slid easily into my back hole.
"Mnn..."
My body shuddered at the foreign sensation of something entering me again—then two more fingers pushed inside.
"That position won't do. Hero, lift your hips."
"Nnn, hnnn...! Y-yes...!"
I moved slowly, planted my knees on the bed, and raised my hips and rear up into the air.
What on earth is even happening right now?!
Granted, I'd already committed far worse sins past the point of embarrassment, but this was just too humiliating!
"Haah, haah..."
"Don't just hold still—spread him."
"Y-yes, ma'am!"
"Hnnnngh!"
Valeri soon spread my back hole open. As best I could tell, she'd inserted two fingers from each hand and pulled apart. Since Valeri's cock had already gone in and out of there, the hole spread apart with absurd, almost insulting ease.
"Now, look inside."
Why?! I seriously feel like I'll die of shame.
"Y-you say look, but... th-that... um... what I'm seeing is... terribly lewd, aaah..."
Don't narrate your weird observations! Please, PLEASE stop!
"The semen is gone."
"Wh-what did you say?!"
What is she talking about?!
"It didn't leak back out. The Hero absorbed it. And the timing when that absorption is believed to have occurred is the exact moment your cock began to glow and I started sensing mana. Which means—"
"Which means!"
Which means...?
"The Holy Sword's power charges by absorbing semen into your body, Hero."
"WHAAAAT?!"
"What kind of design is that supposed to be?!"
"But putting together everything we just observed, that's the only possible conclusion."
What kind of setting is this, straight out of some B-rate eroge...!
Wait a second—come to think of it, the last time it glowed again was when Freesia's love juices ended up in my mouth.
Then it really is...?
Knowing that cursed Goddess, she absolutely would have designed it that way...
I wanted to deny it, but the situation made far too much sense, and frustration and shame welled up in me as I beat furiously at the bedsheets. Startled by my thrashing, Valeri yanked her fingers out in a hurry.
"Nnggh!"
The rough sensation of them scraping against my inner walls startled me, and I curled my legs up, shivering.
"F-forgive me!"
Valeri apologized, wrapping her hands around my shoulders.
"I didn't tell you to remove them yet."
"Pardon?"
Stop. Stooop...!
"You two need the Holy Sword's power right now, don't you? Then we need to put the semen that charges it inside you. Spread again."
Stop it! Just stop, please!
Valeri opened my back hole once more. Before I could even protest the earlier stimulation, the feeling of being spread apart again stole my voice entirely.
"I'll lend a hand myself, too."
Sliiiick!
A long finger—caked with something thick, sticky, and slippery—pushed inside. Unlike Valeri, who had moved with care, Queen Anaris's finger worked without restraint, jabbing the semen deep into my back hole.
"Hnnngghh!!"
Somebody stooop thiiiis!!
"You wish to accompany us, Hero?"
"Yes! Please take me along with you!"
The next day, I made my earnest plea to Histira, who was assembling the troops gathered for the monster hunt—no, the extermination campaign. I was begging her to bring me along so that I could make use of my Holy Sword's power.
"You are now able to wield it properly, are you not?"
"Ah... yes, ma'am! Presumably..."
Thanks to yesterday's semen-shoving session, I had gone to sleep without even eating dinner—effectively passing out, because that was honestly exactly what it had been...
When I came to in the small hours of the morning, Valeri was sleeping beside me, and the bedding had been changed out for fresh linens.
Even now, come morning, a strange, alien sensation still lingered in my backside and made me flinch now and then—but it was at least a hundred times better than the small hours, when my legs had been wobbling like jelly.
"Very well then... I shall place my trust in you, Hero!"
"Woohoo!"
At Histira's words, Freesia, standing beside her, hopped into the air with a delighted cry.
"Hero."
At the voice behind me, I turned to find Valeri holding my sword. She carefully offered it to me with both hands, and I carefully received it with both of mine. The moment the blade changed hands, Valeri gently brushed her fingers over mine.
"You can do this, Hero!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Before long, we were marching toward the depths of the forest where the operation would take place. Compared to yesterday's hunt, several times more troops had turned out.
The plan went as follows: a vanguard unit capable of moving through the treetops would first draw the monsters out with volleys of arrows. Then, alternating between retreat and counterattack, they would funnel the beasts back toward the main force. The main body was split into two units—one firing arrows from the trees, the other holding the ground in close combat to block the monsters' advance.
As for me, I was embedded with the ground unit and positioned a little behind the line. I'd been placed in the rear to wait for the right moment.
"A Hob Goblin..."
I recalled the name Histira had explained to us. A Hob Goblin was an unusually large goblin—one that had survived long enough, accumulating experience, to rise as the leader of its pack. According to the scouting report, a Hob Goblin had been confirmed deep in a region beyond where we'd hunted the Horn Wolves, together with several other goblins.
My role was this: once the luring operation succeeded in drawing out the Hob Goblin itself, I would land the Holy Sword's slashing strike on it along with the remaining Horn Wolves and goblins.
Soon, rustling leaves and bestial cries drew steadily closer. Leaves came cascading down as swift-footed elves descended from above and rejoined the main force.
Yip! Yip! Kyaaaah!
What came into view past Valeri's back was a horde of charging Horn Wolves—and the goblins riding on the backs of several of them.
Rat-ta-ta-ta-tat!!
The bowstrings' release layered upon itself in waves, loud enough to bury the monsters' shrieks and the thunder of their charge.
Death screams of falling monsters, the sharp whistle of arrows loosed one after another, the ring of blades and the crack of blows cutting down anything that got close. Before my eyes, Valeri carved through the ever-growing tide of monsters without pause.
"Valeri!"
Worry got the better of me, and I called out to her at the top of my lungs.
"Worry not!"
Thwack!
Valeri cleaned a monster in a single crisp stroke, then turned her head slightly to look back at me with a smile.
"It's me who protects YOU, Hero!!"
The instant I heard those words and met her crimson eyes, it felt as though every sound in the world fell silent.
Thud! Uooooooh!! Thud!Thud!
And it was the heavy footfalls and monstrous roar that shattered the illusion.
"Here it comes!"
The Hob Goblin—a hideous monster twice, no, three times the size of any other goblin—appeared, club in hand.
"It's closing in! On my mark, open the line!"
'Opening the line' meant Valeri and the elves beside her would clear a path and push me forward to the front. In other words, it would be my turn to unleash the Holy Sword's slash.
"OPEN!!"
Before the signal had even finished falling, Valeri and several elves cut down and shoved aside the monsters ahead with sword and shield. In that instant I surged forward, taking the spot where Valeri had been standing, and gripped the sword tight in both hands.
Then everyone who had advanced dropped back in unison to just behind me.
"HAAAAAAAH!!"
Flash!Hmmm...
FWOOOOM!!
Light burst from the blade, and just like the first slash I'd loosed back near the church, a crescent of force tore forward, shredding the trees ahead. The great horizontal swing punched straight through the Horn Wolves and goblins that had been charging right at us.
And the slash also caught the Hob Goblin advancing behind its minions, carving through one of its wrists and its torso. But—
Uwooooooh!!
Its club fell from its severed hand, and blood poured from the great gash across its belly—yet the creature didn't stop. It kept charging straight for us.
"It wasn't enough!"
"It was not!"
As I cried out in dismay, a blur of red hair streaked past my side.
Running so fast the earth seemed to erupt beneath her, Valeri launched herself in a high leap in front of the Hob Goblin. The creature swung its uninjured hand at her, but the moment it raised its arm, its knee buckled and the blow veered wide and low.
Valeri planted her foot on that errant arm and sprang off it, straight up beside the creature's head. The Hob Goblin tried to raise its wounded hand—but the injury kept it from lifting at all.
[Spin Slash]
Spinning twice through the air so fast the wind shrieked around her, Valeri brought her blade around.
Swish!
Her sword stroke took the Hob Goblin's head off clean. With a heavy thud, the creature's body crashed to the ground as Valeri landed on the earth below.
Cheers erupted from every direction. The sounds of the forest were utterly swallowed by the roar of celebration, but I ran to Valeri and shouted over it all.
"Valeri! You did it! That was incredible!"
My voice carried clearly through the cheering, and Valeri turned toward me with a bright, beaming smile.
"Of course it was!! Because I am!! The Hero's comrade!!"
That voice rang out crystal clear above the cheers.
