Nemea (5)
"Ahem!"
With a cough that belonged on a man three times her age, Nemea settled herself down beside me.
"....."
"....."
I looked at her without a word. She looked right back. Anyone watching would have sworn we were locked in a staring contest — neither of us so much as blinked.
Damn. She really is insanely beautiful.
Her frame was small, but Nemea possessed a face that could stop a man's heart. Her skin was snow-white and immaculate, without so much as a single blemish. Golden hair spilled down to her chest, gleaming as though someone had melted down actual gold and spun it into silk. A high, elegant nose. Eyes that glittered like jewels set into her face. Lips as red and full as ripe cherries. There was not a single feature one could find fault with.
There was, however, one flaw.
"How long do you intend to stare solely at my eyes? Is gazing at my eyes all you shall do while I stand manifested before you?"
That manner of speech — like some ancient crone — was her one and only defect.
"Why do you talk like that?"
"My speech? What of it? I fail to grasp your meaning."
"...Never mind. If that's a charm point, I guess I can live with it."
"....?"
I shook my head, and Nemea tilted hers, looking thoroughly uncomprehending.
"That aside — why have you manifested me?"
"Manifested? Ah, you mean why did I summon you?"
"Indeed."
"Mm... just because?"
"...Just because?"
"Yeah. It's not like I need a reason to call you out. Besides, I get the feeling there's still more I need to hear from you."
"Hrm... I suppose that is so. And yet I cannot say I know what it is you wish me to tell you."
"Think of it as a continuation of what you said while you were still sealed. And I'm extremely curious about the past."
In some distant age I couldn't even begin to date, Nemea had been sealed by three men. A man who had shifted from tiger to human. A man in armor with a mean, sly face. A dark-skinned man.
I knew one of them.
The hulking man who had first appeared as a lion and then fought Nemea in the form of a tiger, a savage, all-out brawl. I knew exactly who that man was — or rather, I knew him in his tiger form.
The Iron-Blooded Tyrant.
A tiger with metallic hide and blood-red stripes. That was his name. In Fairy Masters he was one of the raid boss monsters. In this world, he was one of the Sinful Beasts — the twelve legendary creatures that had risen in rebellion against the creator known as the Nameless God.
That name, incidentally — the Twelve Beasts of Sin — was something the Gigaesingwan had told me, the boss of a dungeon I had cleared some time ago.
Ahh... Tyrant, that son of a bitch. Just thinking about that bastard still pisses me off.
I had no shortage of bad blood with the Iron-Blooded Tyrant. As I said, he was one of the very few raid bosses that had appeared in Fairy Masters. Physical defense and magic defense both through the roof, so ordinary attacks barely scratched him. Immune to crowd control. An HP pool that went on forever. Physical attacks that leveraged that enormous body, plus blood-based magic and a vampiric drain on top of it. The attack patterns themselves were simple, but stack every broken effect in the game onto one creature and you got something truly grotesque.
In my past life I had assembled a party of my finest Fairies and opened the raid. I failed to kill him before the raid window closed.
The low-level versions of Tyrant you could knock over with a slapdash party, no problem. But would a veteran of Fairy Masters like me settle for a low-level raid boss? Of course not. I went straight for the level 300 Tyrant. And as I already said — I failed. The time and effort I sank into that thing... just thinking about it still makes my blood boil.
From what I heard, over the entire two-week raid window, the only person who managed to kill the level 300 Tyrant was the player ranked number one. And even he only got the kill on the very last day, by sheer dumb luck.
Looks like I'll get to finish here what I couldn't in my last life.
Raids were capped at three parties — fifteen Fairies, no more. But this was reality. I could throw as many Fairies into a raid as I wanted.
Almost feels like fate.
I was already planning to kill Ouroboros, another of the Twelve Sinful Beasts. And now I had a shot at Tyrant too — the one I had never been able to take down. It felt as though destiny itself were herding me toward slaughtering every last one of them.
"A continuation of what I said before..."
"Right. I told you last time, didn't I? I'm going to kill Ouroboros — one of the bastards you consider your mortal enemies. Anything about those guys. I don't care how small it is. Tell me everything. Every scrap of information is going to matter when the time comes to put them down."
"Hrm..."
Nemea folded her arms and sank into thought. After a moment, she opened her mouth.
"I know not."
"Yeah, I figur— wait. What?"
What did she just say?
"You don't know?"
"Correct. I know not."
"....."
Was "I don't know" really something you could declare with that much dignity? Not that she had any reason to be ashamed of it, but still. Come on.
I studied her eyes carefully. She did not look like someone trying to hide what she knew.
"When you say you don't know — you mean you don't know anything about those bastards?"
"That, too, I cannot say."
"What? What is that even supposed to mean?"
"I did know of them. Of that I am certain. I dreamed daily of the hour of my vengeance, and I pondered and worried over what their weaknesses might be. And yet, for reasons I cannot fathom, those thoughts and those deliberations will not return to me. Thus I know not what I ought to tell you."
"....."
What was I supposed to do with that? She couldn't remember?
"When the seal was broken and I came to dwell within you, an unknown power settled upon me. And my memories of the past vanished — as though they themselves had been sealed away."
"Haaah..."
A sigh escaped me on its own. The more she talked, the less any of it made sense. I wanted to understand. I just couldn't.
"A few things, however, I was able to perceive."
"Like what?"
"That you harbor a deep wrath toward the Fallen, and toward a certain human woman. And that you possess a greed and a lust without end or bottom."
"...You read my thoughts and feelings?"
"It is not that I chose to read them. Dwelling within you, I simply felt them, whether I willed it or not. I suspect the effect holds only so long as I remain inside you. As I am now, I can sense neither your thoughts nor your emotions."
"Hrm."
I folded my arms and looked at her, turning her words over.
She can read my thoughts and feelings.
When she was nested inside me — that is, when she was unsummoned — she could read my mind. In her summoned state, she felt nothing. Used properly, that could be a hell of a weapon.
"Can you feel exactly what I'm thinking? Say I'm hungry and I want to dunk some bread in soup. Do you just feel that I'm hungry, or do you get the whole thing — bread, soup, and all?"
"The latter. I can read your thoughts."
"....."
She could read my actual thoughts, word for word. Played right, that was a very good card to hold.
The first use that came to mind: a situation too urgent to issue verbal orders. Think what needed doing, drop Nemea in, and let her execute. Cutting the briefing time out of a fight was a solid offensive option.
There was, however, one prerequisite.
"Nemea. If I give you an order in my head — no, if I ask you for something — will you do it?"
She had to actually move the way I wanted her to.
Nemea was a monster who had lived in the same age as Ouroboros. She was weakened now, sharing my stats, but she was still a being great enough to call the Creator God her father. Would a creature with that kind of past really dance to my tune?
Then Nemea gave me an answer I had not expected.
"I cannot refuse your command."
"Huh? You can't refuse?"
"Correct. By some means I do not understand, I am at present bound to you. Whatever order you give, I have no choice but to obey."
"....."
I stared at her, blank.
Nemea was... talking back?!
No. Wrong reaction.
She couldn't refuse my commands? She had no choice but to obey, no matter what I told her to do?
At that, I glanced around.
The dead of night. I was the only one on watch. Canisia and all my Fairies were asleep. Just the two of us.
Begone, you pure-hearted Alan! From this moment on, this body is mine!
The lewd devil arrived and seized the controls.
"Really? You genuinely can't refuse, no matter what I order you to do?"
"Did you not hear me the first time? Why do you ask again?"
Irritation flickered across her face as I pressed her. Even that was stunning.
She stood not even five feet tall, but inside that tiny body lived a soul that had endured a span of years I couldn't begin to count.
A legal... loli?!
"In that case, Nemea. I'm giving you your first order."
"What? Why are you taking your trousers off all of a sudden?"
I shoved my pants and underwear down, and Nemea cocked her head. The lewd devil was running the show, and my cock was already stiff enough to ache.
I pointed at the rigid thing standing between us.
"Suck it."
"What is that supposed to mean? Suck it?"
"Don't play dumb. I want those pretty lips of yours wrapped around my cock."
I tapped her mouth as I said it — those cherry-red, dangerously inviting lips. Nemea's face tightened.
"A phallus is not meant to be sucked by the mouth. The male organ exists for the begetting of offspring. Applying one's lips to it will produce no child."
"These days we don't use it just for making kids. More to the point — you said you can't refuse my orders, so why are you still talking? I told you to suck it. So suck it."
"Ah—!"
I yanked her in and shoved her face against my cock. She braced on instinct, putting strength into her arms, but she wasn't nearly as strong as I'd expected.
"Mmph—!"
I gathered that golden hair in my fist like a set of reins and smeared myself across her lips. She glared up at me, indignant — and then her mouth opened.
I pushed in.
"Nngh— mmph—!"
"Hhah—"
The sound that left me was half a groan. Her mouth was as small as the rest of her, and the squeeze of it felt almost like a pussy. She wasn't even trying to work it — no technique, nothing — and I was already about to blow. Fuck, why did this feel so good?
"Mmph! Mmph-mmph! Nngh—!"
"Holy shit... I'm losing my mind. Why does this feel so fucking good?"
I used her head like a toy, pumping it up and down, wrecking that little mouth. She couldn't take the whole thing. Her face twisted as she struggled to swallow me down.
"Hah... hah... ah, fuck, I can't hold it. I'm coming, Nemea!"
"Nngh—?!"
I yanked her down onto me and unloaded.
"Ghk— ghk—!"
Cum sprayed from her elegant little nose. She had no idea how to swallow, so she just held it in her mouth — and I kept pumping, so it had nowhere to go but back up through her sinuses.
"Nngh... that's it... fuck, that's so good... Don't just hold it, Nemea. Swallow. That's an order."
"Nnn..."
Her throat bobbed, hard, as she obeyed.