Tentacle Queen (6)
I snapped back to reality the moment I saw Esther arch her back and squirt a transparent liquid from between her legs. It wasn't her love juices—no, it was just ordinary pussy fluid. My face, warmed by that slick fluid, brought a sliver of reason rushing back. Esther's body trembled violently, her pussy twitching. What the hell was that voice just now? That was Esther's voice? It was ridiculously cute. Nothing like the cutesy tone from her pre-infection videos, the one so obviously forced it was hard to listen to. This was the real deal—adorably tickling my ears.
My mind cleared slowly, like static fading from a radio. My dick throbbed painfully hard, unbearable, but a chill raced down my spine, my skin prickling with sensitivity, overriding the lust. The sharp killing intent radiating from around me helped sharpen my focus. It was an uneasy aura that stung my skin enough to overpower my desire.
Hissssss…
The tooth-tentacles ground their jagged edges with a screech, the lip-shaped ones whistled like leaking air. The blade-tentacles rasped menacingly against each other, while the plain ones coiled like vines, squeezing their bodies with crackles and pops. Touching Esther any more would be suicide. It felt like walking a dark alley at night and getting ambushed by a tentacle monster stabbing me in the back. No matter how addicted I was to her juices, that premonition of death was strong enough to claw back some sanity.
The tentacles seemed to sense my state too—they stopped spraying her fluids. My mind cleared bit by bit, but my body still wouldn't obey me properly. Thanks to drinking Esther's nectar, my cock stayed rock-hard and aching, refusing to go down. And as if that wasn't bad enough, light began bursting from Esther's head. The same faint lightning that had flickered around Ash's head formed a crackling ring above Esther's, sparking wildly. Unlike Ash's clean, steady glow, this looked unstable, like it could explode any second. I'd seen this reaction before through Rapid. The hypnosis was breaking.
Heeeek… hek…
Ahuuuu, ahhhhn…
Kgh…!
I immediately slid down the massive tentacle monster like a playground slide, landing beside Grape. My body wouldn't move right, but sliding was doable. Covered in slime, I dashed desperately through the cluster of trembling women. If Esther's hypnosis broke, it was over. I wasn't sure if I could re-hypnotize her the instant she snapped out of it. It hadn't fully broken yet—I had to run now.
“Esther!!”
Then a familiar voice rang out. One I could never forget. I painfully turned my head toward the sound. Fluffy brown hair tied in twin tails, a skin-tight purple leotard-like suit. Breasts even bigger than Esther's, a slim waist, wide hips… long, slender legs. Yet her overall figure looked soft and gentle, her face radiating saintly compassion. In one hand, she gripped her iconic magic wand, her expression twisted into a fierce scowl that didn't suit her as she aimed at Esther. One of the four original magical girls alongside Esther, known as the Saint. It was Rapid.
“Ah? A… aaaaaah? Raaaaapid!!”
Hearing Rapid's voice made the lightning above Esther's head crackle furiously. Something shattered with a crash!, and madness flooded Esther's eyes. She cocked her head sideways, grinning at Rapid as she swung her arm.
“Sun Blade!!”
Flaming swords materialized in Esther's hands. Gripping one in each, she spun her entire body like a maniac, hurtling toward Rapid. The speed was too fast for my eyes to track, but I could tell she was launching herself, leaving only afterimages.
Before the Esther-disc-turned-white-flame-disc reached her, Rapid thrust her hand forward.
“Slow Territory!”
Rapid extended her magic wand, and the space Esther was flying through seemed to freeze solid. Dust, floating rocks—everything halted midair in that zone. I couldn't comprehend the phenomenon. Esther thrust one flaming sword aside, blasting fire with a boom! to change direction and charge again. It was the same technique she'd used on Grape—using hot winds for acceleration and turns. Cackling, she spun once more, transforming into a massive flaming buzzsaw hurtling at Rapid.
“Hahaha! Just don't let it hit!”
“Appoint Recall!”
“Ooooooh?! Waaaaaah!!”
Rapid precisely aimed her magic wand at Esther and cast. A beam of mana stretched out like a designation marker, hitting Esther. Her body rewound unnaturally, snapping back to her pre-turn position. She plunged into the frozen space and… stopped? No, slowed. Her flaming sword swayed lazily, its flickering form crystal clear. In the slowed space, Esther grinned ear to ear. Our eyes met, and Rapid's face tensed as she extended her free hand for another spell.
“Space Compression!”
Space rippled, squeezing toward Esther. The air itself crumpled. It was different from opening portals—portals tore space, but this folded empty air like crumpling paper.
“Hahahahaha! That's all you got?! Rapid!!”
“Huh?”
Suddenly, Esther's frozen body loosened and dropped from the air. Rapid flinched, lowering her hand. The crumpling space passed right through Esther's body. That was the only way it made sense. Rapid's spell had slowed her, but what happened next defied understanding, even if my eyes could follow.
“Eclipse.”
One of Esther's madness-filled eyes darkened. Her blazing, radiant body shifted to black. No—not black… it turned semi-transparent. Right in front of me, she became ghostly, obscured, hard to see. Only flickering flame shadows lingered in the air, black and bright mixing chaotically.
“How's that? New trick.”
“Spacial Rend!”
Rapid slashed her magic wand through the air, splitting space itself. An invisible blade rippled forward in a line, streaking to Esther and passing clean through her. It defied logic, but Rapid's magic went right through.
“Hahahahaha!! It doesn't work, doesn't work!”
Esther playfully tapped her eye corner, snapped her fingers, and pointed at Rapid. I knew that gesture. It was her signature pre-corruption move—a spell that shot tiny stars.
“Shooting Star!”
Tiny flames burst endlessly from her fingertip like machine-gun fire, meteors stitching the sky. Despite their cute size, the impacts were devastating—small explosions cratered the ground, wrecking everything.
“Come on, come on, come on!”
“Deflect Barriers!”
Esther was deliberately grazing shots to ruin the terrain around Rapid. From the CCTV footage I'd bought on Magin-sa, Rapid's style was fast movement and long-range pressure magic. Esther preferred close-quarters, heavy single strikes. She was breaking the ground to pin Rapid's feet. Rapid deployed barriers, tweaking the Shooting Stars' trajectories to bounce them back at Esther's tentacles. Esther parried them with her sword, whipped around, and froze—scowling as she said…
“Hold up… where'd all the ones you were holding in your mouths go?”
The tentacles hissed angrily, and Esther's scowl deepened. She looked up at the biggest one—number one—then at the women and Grape on the ground, baring her teeth in disbelief.
“What the hell! Why'd you let Grape go? Where's 124?!”
“Multiple Barriers!”
“No matter what, you don't let go of Grape or 124! Number one, you're dead later!”
The largest tentacle monster whined pitifully, shiiik shiiik. Meanwhile, Rapid swung her magic wand at the people, firing small bubble-like orbs that drifted lazily before settling on the fallen women, erecting countless barriers. Esther clenched her fist, commanding the tentacles to attack the barriers while swinging her flaming sword at Rapid—draining her mana by forcing more barrier creation.
“124?! Where the hell is 124?!”
But mid-command, Esther jolted, scanning around. She'd noticed I was missing from the people shielded by the barriers under tentacle assault. I ducked into the debris, clamping my mouth shut, but a ticklish sensation swept through my body. Something had scanned me. Esther whipped her head ghost-like toward me.
“There you are?”