Time Is on Our Side
"…Surrender and hand Bella over to us. On the condition that you give us Bella, I shall renegotiate for both our lives and yours."
"And how the hell am I supposed to trust that, you damn hag?"
I slammed a bolt of lightning down onto Berika's head.
KRA-KOOM!
Wind howled above Berika's skull and caught the strike. The lightning failed to pierce the curtain of air and crumbled away, spent and useless.
I wasn't particularly surprised. Berika was a high-tier Archmage and a Grand Spirit Mage who commanded spirits of the highest class. It would have been stranger if a blow thrown in pure temper had actually landed.
"Your anger is understandable. But it is precisely in moments like these that one must think coldly and choose the best path. Men like you already know what that path is without my saying so. Bring me the witch."
Berika spoke with easy composure. She alone was far stronger than all of us put together.
I twisted my face and called for Elena.
"…Elena."
"You need not say it. I will bring Bella."
Elena started for the underground prison where Bella was being held. Demitera would be down there with her. The worst possibility was that Demitera had already betrayed us and smuggled Bella away — but if Bella appeared before us, it would mean she hadn't turned. Or else no one had yet informed Demitera of the village's decision.
"A wise choice. As I said before, I will negotiate with that man and secure your lives. Until then… remain inside this lodging and wait."
"……"
Unlike my own grim mood, the atmosphere among Berika and the elves lightened at once. They clearly believed events were flowing exactly as they wished.
A short while later, Elena returned with Bella and Demitera. Demitera glanced once around the room and kept her expression blank. Berika paid her little attention either.
Bella wore nothing but a scrap of burlap over her full, voluptuous body. Whip marks scored her skin in places, and her hair hung in a wild tangle. Her face itself was unharmed, but it was twisted with gloom and irritation. The hollow look in her eyes suggested Demitera had worked her over through the night.
"Glad to see she's intact."
Berika eyed Bella coldly as she spoke.
"Now. Hand that witch over to me."
I took hold of Bella's shoulder. No plague was seeping from her body. Even she could not scatter pestilence around the clock.
I looked at Elena. She nodded. Ready.
"I already told you, hag. Why the hell would I believe a single word out of your mouth? You elves made the wrong choice. You should have trusted us and followed us — not some bastard named Veint or whatever he calls himself."
The easing mood froze solid in an instant.
"Demitera! Hand Bella over here!"
Berika barked the order. Demitera regarded her with flat indifference and gave a small shrug.
"My apologies, Elder. As of today, I've taken a new position. To be perfectly honest, village work had grown terribly dull."
"Demitera! How dare you…!"
Berika trembled. Mana erupted from her body in a violent surge. I opened my Heavenly Eye and watched it. Invisible currents of power were wrapping around us, sketching out a spell formula in the air. She meant to cage us with magic.
Blue butterflies appeared. More than ten of them fluttered and danced through the space around us — Elena's Illusion Butterfly Art.
"Damn elves. You don't deserve decent treatment. I'll make every last one of you into slaves…! Until then — a brief farewell!"
Berika's magic took shape. But Elena's illusion was faster, and far more refined.
Whoosh.
Our bodies vanished and reappeared somewhere deep in the forest.
"Cough—!"
Elena staggered and spat blood. I caught her by the shoulder and held her steady.
"Good work, Elena."
"…We're roughly thirty kilometers from Beliac Village. For the moment, this was the best I could manage."
Elena wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth with her palm.
"You don't need Complete Recovery?"
"It isn't that serious. My insides feel as though they're twisting, but I can endure. In our present situation, I need to be thrifty with whatever lifespan I have left."
With that, we had cleared the most immediate danger. It would take Berika a fair amount of time to pin down our location — and even if she managed it, she could not casually leave the village.
"Pointless. There's nothing you can do. How does it feel, getting turned on by the very elf who was supposed to help you? Heh heh heh."
Bella laughed in my face. I shot Demitera a look.
"Bella. How many times have I told you that Master Yujin is to be your master?"
"Hah? Don't make me laugh. No matter what any of you do, I serve no one. Unless you become my slaves, that is."
"You clearly haven't been beaten enough."
Demitera yanked the burlap clean off Bella's body. Her pale, naked form was laid bare. Bella made no attempt to cover herself; she simply glared at Demitera.
"I swear it on my name. You will not die an ordinary death. You'll be raped to death by filthy magical beasts. I'll make certain of it."
"How terrifying."
Demitera raised her hand. Bella flinched — pure instinct. The hand looked ready to crack across her cheek, then veered and struck her buttocks instead. Smack. A wet, sharp sound rang out. I watched Bella's large rear jiggle and ripple under the blow.
Bella glared at Demitera with pure murder in her eyes. That was all she could do. With her ankles bound fast by Yuria's shadow, that was the full extent of what Bella could manage.
"Haa…"
Elnoa let out a long sigh. The moment our eyes met, she bowed her head.
"I'm sorry, Master. I never imagined the Elder would react that way."
"You don't need to apologize. The one who screwed this up is that damn hag. Elnoa — you're going to follow me, right?"
"I've already left Beliac Village. All I have left now… is you, Master."
I nodded with quiet satisfaction. That was the proper response.
"Yujin. What do we do now?"
Elena asked.
I sank into thought for a moment. There were ways to take revenge on Beliac Village. Hit them with modern ordnance and even elves would be wiped out to the last.
But that would leave my true goal — enslaving the elves — completely unfulfilled.
Then one fact surfaced in my mind. Every elf in Beliac Village was already infected. Elder Berika was no exception. Bella had been spreading her plague through the elf village for a long time — half a year or more, perhaps.
"We wait. Time is on our side."
I turned my gaze toward Bella.
"Hiiieeek—!"
Bella was letting out lewd, broken screams as Demitera pinched and pulled at her nipple. The pink tip stretched like rubber, drawing her breast out taut. I licked my lips. My cock went rock-hard.
I had to hold back. Now was not the time. When the moment came, Demitera would call for me.
More importantly, there was a great deal I still needed to hear from Bella.
Berika ordered elves near the village out into the woods to search for Yujin and Bella. They could not have left the forest. They must not have.
Time ground on. Ordinary elves groaned under the plague, writhing in pain. The sensation of their entire bodies rotting from within filled them with raw terror. The number of elves who had died of the disease had surged dramatically compared to the day before.
Berika lifted her hand. The black spots that had surfaced on her skin were far more distinct than earlier. Her insides ached and stabbed; her whole body felt leaden and heavy. It was as if the plague itself were a flame, slowly burning her from the core outward.
This plague cannot be driven out.
Neither healing magic nor the power of spirits could make it vanish. By the time she understood that, it was already far too late.
That witch… she had been preparing this long before.
What rose in Berika's mind was Elena — a woman who wielded magic of an entirely different order. Magic like hers might be able to erase this plague. But relations with her had already soured beyond repair. And her power had limits. Her strength alone could never save the entire village.
Night fell.
A window opened, and someone stepped into her home. A neatly featured platinum-blond nobleman. Heavy dark circles hung beneath both eyes.
"You failed."
"…Things merely went slightly awry. I did not fail."
"Tell me what happened."
Veint's voice was high-handed and cold. Berika swallowed her resentment. Her only remaining option now was to cooperate with him.
"…I see. So this woman Elena's magic is formidable. Secret arts, is it?"
"Most likely. They may already have left the forest."
"They have not. I don't know the precise location, but I can sense my sister's presence. She is somewhere in this forest."
Berika did not press for details. She did not need to. Fellow devil contractors could sense one another — or else he possessed some special magic, or an ancient relic.
Veint spoke to Berika as she stood there, composed.
"Three days. That is all the time you have left. In three days, there will not be a single elf remaining who can still move."
"……"
Berika let out a small sigh. She swept her staff through the empty air. Space split without a sound, and from the rift a green orb emerged — the ancient relic Bella had coveted. The Earth Jewel.
An ancient relic capable of commanding the earth itself. Its uses were many: reshaping terrain, cloaking the forest in illusion, deploying barriers on a massive scale. It was also the treasure Bella and Veint had been hunting.
"Is that the Earth Jewel?"
"I will give you this as well once the matter is settled. Do not forget our agreement."
"We are devil contractors. Whatever else may be said of us, we take contracts seriously. You may trust us."
"I would like to believe that as well."
Gripping the jewel, Berika focused her mind. Her mana was drawn into the orb. Her senses expanded. In an instant, that awareness blanketed the whole of Beliac Village. She felt every elf lying fevered in bed, infected by the plague, with vivid, merciless clarity. The sheer volume of information was staggering. Had she not been an Archmage, she could never have endured it.
Not in the village. Though there was always a chance they were hiding there.
She discarded the confirmed data and pushed her senses outward, maximizing them beyond the village bounds. Sweat beaded on Berika's brow. Even for her, this was nearly too much to bear.
…Found them.
They were roughly thirty kilometers away. And to her astonishment, they showed no fear, no panic at all. They were comfortably eating dinner, bantering as if they had simply wandered out on a casual outing. The sight made something ugly surge up in her for no good reason.
That witch is fine as well.
Demitera was tormenting her, yes — but it was not true torture.
Now that I know the location… now… hup—?!
One of their party — a silver-haired maid — suddenly turned her head. It had to be coincidence, and yet the sensation of their eyes meeting made Berika flinch hard in shock.
…Coincidence. There is no way she noticed me watching through the jewel.
Berika released her concentration. The connection through the jewel severed. She had burned through more than half her mana.
"I found them."
"Where is my sister?"
"About thirty kilometers to the northeast. They were not even running — quite at their ease."
"Understood. We move."
"…You intend to go yourself?"
"I do not trust leaving this in your hands."
"……"
Berika clenched her teeth and fell in behind Veint. He set off into the forest with an air of leisure, yet his pace was remarkably swift. Wherever he walked, plague-ridden corpses gathered and trailed after him. Veint was a Puppeteer — a master who commanded the dead.
I watched Demitera toy with Bella. A beauty tormenting another beauty made for quite the show.
"D-don't touch there…! Aah— kyaaaugh!"
Demitera relentlessly worked over the clit of the bound Bella. She peeled back the hood, pinched it between her fingers, licked it with her tongue and sucked hard. After three hours, a stiffly erect clit stood out prominently between the platinum hair between Bella's legs.
"Y-you crazy bitch…"
Bella cursed Demitera through her tears. Demitera's technique was skilled enough that Bella had already climaxed from her clit alone six separate times.