XX-calibur!

Wait a second.

To free all those people, doesn't this thing actually have to wake up in the end?

"Hey, Skull. If she wakes up again, there's no such thing as resuming the game, right?"

Yes! If the one arbitrating the contract says so, it's settled!

I clenched my fist and reveled in our narrow victory.

"Um, Hero~?"

"Huh?"

At the sound of my name, I turned to find Fresia fidgeting with her cock, wearing an expression of pure frustration.

"What about this?"

"...You can stop now..."

"Aww~ but you promised to suck me off, remember~?"

"W-we still have to get the people out of the dungeon! That was only ever a strategy to mess with Sukmehek! It's over now!!"

"Grrr..."

Puffing out her cheeks in a full display of sulky displeasure, Fresia poked her cock insistently against my belly.

"Ngh... cut it out!"

"You made me strip exactly as you ordered, and do exactly as you commanded, Hero. And that's it? We're done?"

"Th-that... I'll do it later... I'll take care of it later, okay...?"

At my words, Fresia seemed satisfied and stopped thrusting her cock at me with a smile. Then someone grabbed my shoulder from behind, and I turned to see Valeri.

"Hero... me too...!"

Valeri's eyes were wide, her voice moist as she barely held her excitement in check. She looked like she was clinging to the very last thread of her restraint, ready to pounce on me at any moment. That look honestly scared me a little.

"Y-yes... Ah! Now is not the time! Liznet is watching, you know! Both of you, get dressed!"

"Ye-yes, ma'am!!" "Fiiine~"

At my words, the two of them headed back toward the chairs where they'd left their clothes.

That was close. Close, close!

Honestly, my heart was pounding... I was terrified they'd pounce on me. No—my heart was pounding because I wanted them to pounce on me.

My lower belly is burning... Damn it... I'm getting more and more corrupted, aren't I...!

Having first peeled the two of them off me, I tried to calm my restless body and turned my attention to Liznet. She was putting her bracelet and boots back on, then drew a wide cloth from her pouch and wrapped up her piercings and plug before tucking them away. Before long, our eyes met.

"It would hardly be proper to be wearing these in front of everyone, after all."

"No, no, no, no—you were already out of bounds the moment you put them on in the first place."

I finally delivered the retort I'd been forced to swallow during the game. True, I'd done my own share of bizarre things for the sake of victory, but when it came to sheer weirdness, she was the undisputed champion of this room.

Thirty consecutive days of climax, nipple piercings, an anal plug... I couldn't believe people like this actually existed. That sublime, earnest exterior with this ungodly filth constantly leaking out of it—my brain simply couldn't keep up.

"Is that befitting of a saintess?" Fresia asked breezily as she got dressed. It was a question I'd been hesitating to ask, and the fact that she'd fired it off so smoothly put me inexplicably at ease.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"Well... you're a saintess and all, so I thought accessories like those would be forbidden..."

"And the daily washing, too," I added. Could you two please pass the mic for once?

At our questions, Liznet clasped her hands tightly together and struck a reverent pose. Then, with an expression not merely serious but downright sublime, she began to speak.

"I am a saintess candidate. The position of saintess candidate comes with many conditions, but since answering your questions requires only a portion of them, let me say this much...

"The official scriptures contain the passage: 'She who would become a saintess must preserve a body ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pure and chaste.' Interpreted bluntly, it means one must remain a virgin."

Having spoken with perfect gravity, she placed one hand over her chest, smiled, and tilted her head to the side.

"I have kept that precept quite faithfully, you see?"

So that sentence just now means... 'I enjoyed everything except that place, so I'm good~'? Is that what it means?

"So you just look at them and never use them?"

Too blunt, Fresia!! But honestly... I wanted to ask that too...

"Yes. I have never engaged in carnal union, and my virginity remains perfectly intact. This is a matter that my patron deity, Lady Definie, has graciously proven by bestowing upon me the light of the goddess."

Ah, knowing that particular goddess, maybe she judged your virginity worth spotlighting precisely because of everything else you get up to. Congratulations, you cursed goddess. So you had more material to laugh at besides me, huh.

Her attitude was so brazenly unashamed that I grew afraid to ask anything further and just went numb. Meanwhile, Fresia, now fully dressed, sidled up to Liznet and struck up a chattering conversation. Responding to her, Liznet pulled the piercings and plug back out and began explaining them.

Two impossible freaks had found each other... No, they were similar, but different in flavor.

Fresia was a pervert with no common sense whatsoever, while Liznet was a pervert who exploited the very common sense she possessed. If anything, the twisted, profound depths of her perversity exceeded even Fresia's—it certainly didn't fall short...

Is this saintess really the kind of saintess who's supposed to become our comrade?

"Uuugh..."

Sukmehek clutched her head and lifted her face. Having apparently realized she'd passed out, her eyes slowly widened as she stared at us. We were all fully dressed, waiting for nothing but her to wake.

"You lost. Release the people."

"Wh...? Wh-who's going to do that?!"

As Sukmehek moved to resist, the Skull shoved its face right up to hers.

"Eeek...!"

Before long, we stepped out into the corridor and heard the murmur of voices.

"Ugh... why am I here..." "What were we doing?" "Mom? Mom?" "I'm hungry..."

People began emerging from the rooms one by one, and seeing this, Liznet stepped forward.

"Everyone! Please listen to me! I am Liznet Boyal, saintess candidate of the Saintess Order of the Definie Church! You were ensnared by the wicked schemes of the Demon King's army and imprisoned in this place. But! Thanks to the Hero and his companions, everything has been resolved! Proceed up the stairs and outside, where the Saintess Order will guide you! The time has come for you to return to your families' sides!"

When Liznet finished her practiced speech, the people, though somewhat bewildered, followed her words and made their way toward the stairs. Once the crowd had thinned, we searched the inner rooms one by one, checking that no one had been left behind.

In the course of checking, we saw that the rooms were empty of everything—no furniture, none of the wall decorations. It had all been Sukmehek's illusions; they had been bare chambers all along.

Finally, we confirmed that no one remained in the outermost room, the Room of Appetite.

"And that's that."

I said, closing the door behind us.

"'That's that,' you say...?"

From a distance behind us, Sukmehek spoke with her head bowed. Her fists were clenched, her whole body trembling.

"Don't get the wrong idea, humans! The contract only ever covered freeing the humans outside that room! Which means you lot are exempt!"

"What? Where's this stubbornness coming from?!"

The Skull spoke as it drifted toward us.

With those words, the Skull vanished in a wisp of smoke, and through that smoke we saw Sukmehek glaring at us from behind her mask.

"This dungeon is no longer the Pleasure Dungeon... It is your GRAAAAVE!!"

KUGUGUGUGUNG!

With Sukmehek's rage-laden scream, the dungeon began to shake violently. Before long, the ground surged upward behind her, molding itself into the shape of a colossal golem.

"I knew you'd pull something like this. It's time to pay for your sins!"

Valeri declared this, drew her sword, and advanced into a ready stance. Behind her, Fresia immediately produced her crossbow and loosed an arrow at the golem.

Ting! Ting!

But Fresia's arrows bounced harmlessly off the golem's brick hide, dealing no damage at all. Valeri charged forward, and the golem, shielding Sukmehek, threw a punch at her.

"Aah! None of the arrows are sticking!"

"If that's how it has to be!"

I drew my sword. What could resolve this situation was the power of the Holy Sword.

"Hero! The 'skill name'! Are we doing the thing from yesterday?!"

Fresia called out to me, practically bouncing with glee.

"What?! The thing we talked about after the banquet? That was a JOKE!"

"I wasn't joking."

This little... Your mouth is smiling, but your eyes are deadly serious!

There was no time to argue. Valeri was dodging the golem's punches with dazzling footwork, but she could do no more than hold her ground—she was being pushed back by one-sided attacks.

"Tch, damn it!"

I focused on the power of the Holy Sword within my body. My lower belly began to hum with a low vrrrmm, and something warm traveled up through me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠until it touched my heart. At last, a brilliant light began pouring from the blade.

"That light...!"

I heard Liznet's astonished voice behind me. I squared my stance to unleash the strike.

"Hero! The skill name! The skill name!"

"Aagh! I know, I know!"

Answering Fresia's cries, I narrowed my eyes and took aim at the golem.

"Aah! I really didn't want to say it! But fine, I'll say it—so listen up! And don't you dare tell a soul!"

I raised the sword high, putting my strength into both hands. The pouring light gathered rounder and rounder, enveloping the blade. Timing itself to that moment, Valeri rolled out of the way to the side.

With my shout, the light erupted from the tip of the blade and blew clean through the ceiling.

KUGUGUGUGUGU!

Still in that stance, I swung the sword down, and the blade of light carved through the dungeon's ceiling, sliced cleanly through the golem's body and Sukmehek's shoulder, and split even the floor beneath. All of it, in the span of a single second.

When the Holy Sword's light faded, all that remained was swirling dust and powdered stone, and the golem crumbling away into that same dust.

"Magnificent! Hero!"

Valeri, smiling as she watched the golem dissolve, turned to me and cried out.

"D-damn it...!"

Behind Sukmehek, blood now streaming from her shoulder, a shadow began to writhe.

"Just you wait! Next time I won't go easy on you!!"

Limping backward, Sukmehek retreated into that shadow.

"I won't let you escape!"

"Valeri, it's dangerous!"

I held Valeri back as she lunged to seize Sukmehek.

"The dungeon is collapsing! We have to get out!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

With the dungeon literally shuddering to pieces around us, we scrambled up the stairs in a rush. We barely made it to the ground floor before the space below the stairs collapsed entirely. Catching our breath, we turned toward the exit—the great iron gate had vanished without a trace.

And at last, as we emerged from the cavern—

WAAAAAH!

The crowd outside was cheering, welcoming us with open arms.

"Thank you! Hero! Saintess!" "Thank you so much!!"

Those same people who had been dazed and bewildered when they first came to must have heard the explanation from the Saintess Order's soldiers, because every one of them beamed at us with bright smiles and words of gratitude.

"All of it, thanks to the Hero."

At Liznet's words, her hands clasped in a warm smile, I scratched my head awkwardly.

"Heheh, it was all of us together, really~"

Truthfully, I was so happy I could hardly bear how embarrassing it was.

"All of us together, is it?"

"That's right, Valeri!"

"So that includes us?"

"Why of course, Fresia!"

In the next instant, the two of them pressed themselves against me from behind, squeezing me from both sides. Fresia's soft breasts pushed against the back of my head, and Valeri's firm thighs pressed against my hips.

"Then you know what that means, right, Hero?" "I... I don't think I can wait until tonight... Hero..."

Um...?

Huh?