Clarity 2 – Black Outside


    How Claire yearned to investigate these rediscovered sensations properly. To have him do with her body as he pleased, let his experience in matters of the flesh dominate her and to know what lay at the end of lustful urges. Alas, it was not yet time.


    As she came to stand on her own two feet again, the calm subsided. Weaker than before, nonetheless present, her lust entertained the thought of taking a break. With it surged back in the hatred and the rage. It would be a sweet victory to destroy the Ironborn after she had reclaimed that which the world they had built had taken from her. It would be an even sweeter victory to reclaim it after she had destroyed it all.


    So, they resumed running.


    “Master, Master,” Claire happily babbled the word, feeling a surge of glee and desire each time it left her mouth. “You’re wonderful, Master.”


    “You should get to know me more before you decide that,” he cautioned her.


    “Why, you hiding something from me?” Claire asked with her ever-present smile. Although she often verbally diminished her skills, the vampire knew that she was outstanding in a number of ways. One of them was that she was good when it came to social skills. It just came naturally to her, to endear herself to those around herself. It was a large reason why, despite her uncooperative attitude, she had been kept alive for all this time. A part of those social skills was that she was good at reading people’s intentions. All this time, she had felt nothing but benevolent honesty or guilt from John. Two emotions she had seldom felt from anyone else.


    “Not deliberately,” John responded. “Still, you might discover something about me that you loathe. Might be smarter to take things slow.”


    “Hmmm?” Claire took a wide leap, keeping up with the flying double. Mid run, she caressed the side of his face with her index finger. “If it’s so smart, then why kiss me at all?”


    “I’m easily influenced by gorgeous women,” the Gamer sighed, leaning just a little bit into her touch. How much that little gesture of his pleased her, it was unfathomable. “Never trust me when any are involved.”


    “Then I can trust you right now no issue.”


    “Master would not have kissed you were you not gorgeous,” Aclysia chided.


    Wind whipped around Claire’s face, overpowering her chuckle even in her own ears. The three of them sailed down a final ravine, the outer wall of Archduchy Labyrinth. Claire could see far in the darkness, further even than John and Aclysia. In the distance she saw the flat savannah of the Kingdom of War, her homeland. How she loathed returning there. How she loathed going anywhere in this world.@@@@


    Another day at most, a few more hours more likely, then she would see him and those other harem members she had heard about. Would they all be as wise and accepting of her as Aclysia? From what she had heard, they were a spread of many different characters. She was all too eager to prove she was worthy of joining them. Certainly, all of them must have fallen for John the same way she did. A maid as smart and wonderful as Aclysia would never let her Master enter a relationship with women who did not wish the best for him.


    Claire almost forgot to land properly, fascinated by the swing of Aclysia’s hips. Primarily, her desire was focused on John, but there was no doubt that she wanted to see more of Aclysia as well. ‘I wonder if I would look better if my hips were just a bit wider,’ Claire thought and made a mental note to try when she next had access to a mirror.


    The savannah vanished behind the horizon. Without the elevation, she could no longer look beyond the many hills and mountains that marked the transition between the two Kingdoms. As long as they kept heading west, they would eventually see it again. For a few more hours, they kept running.


    Fire.


    Claire’s head whipped around, noticing the red and golden glow immolate a mountaintop in her periphery. It grew and grew, caused an avalanche to roar down the frozen peak, only to be overpowered by the massive crack of the very tip of the stone itself breaking off.


    Burning brighter even than the peak rising into the sky was the hatred inside Claire. Violently, it expanded inside her mind, reclaiming almost all it had occupied before she had met John. Black energy swirled out from her body, as she yelled, “METEORA!”


    Aclysia and John stopped, the Gamer grabbing Claire by the arm and forcing her to halt her momentum herself. Teeth clenched and bared, the vampire hissed. His brown eyes, strong and resolute, forced a moment of calm onto her. The peak of the mountain rose higher. A humanoid form, that of the Iron Maiden herself, could barely be seen against the backdrop.


    “We fight,” John stated.


    Claire furrowed her eyebrows. Had there even been another option? She chose not to think about it. There were more pressing matters.


    “Because I have a heart.”


    The Gamer unclasped his hands, revealing the sphere of silver between them. Twisting his body despite the spikes sticking out from his chest, he pointed the right palm at the Iron Maiden. As it was launched, the mana transformed into solid crystal, a lance shooting outwards.


    While the speed of the spell itself was impressive, the time he had spent aiming it was not. Even Claire could have dodged something so clearly telegraphed. The Arc Lance sliced past Ell’s head and she raised her right arm to retaliate.


    It was an opening. An attack to Intercept. Claire rushed forwards, only mildly surprised when she saw Aclysia, who had been rushing over since she landed, teleported the last three metres. The model maid’s sword sliced through the left arm embedded in her Master’s back, while Claire went directly for the chest of the Iron Maiden with a conjured blade. Both attacks connected, but while Aclysia’s heavy cleaver sliced straight through, Claire only cut the surface. Like stacked layers of cloth, the metal frayed when cut.


    Ell’s body transformed into a fully liquid state, including the severed arm, and she retreated as a flowing stream of blue. Everyone wanted to set after her, but Meteora slammed down between them. A blade of pitch-black metal, forged in a form like splintered obsidian, descended on Aclysia.


    Black and white blades met. “You think you invaders can just humiliate the Emperor’s chosen?!” Meteora’s distorted voice was filled with rage. The earlier attack had left a cut in the Astrotium armour. The natural regeneration of Ironborn diminished the wound with each passing second.


    Aclysia pushed back with three rapid attacks with all of her weapons. They drove Meteora away from John, but achieved no proper hits. After the final attack, the model maid changed to her katana. Her physical power seemed lessened when she went on her offensive again. Meteora met those strikes head-on. Their blades locked in a contest of strength where neither was the immediate victor. Scales gradually pushed out of Aclysia’s skin as the air around her cooled.


    Claire was looking for an opening to attack, when John grabbed her by the arm again. “New plan: run!” he ordered her.


    “WHAT?!” the vampire screamed. Love rebelled against rage, the two intertwining as they so often did inside her. To no proper conclusion, this time around. “Sorry - WHAT?!”


    “We can’t win this,” John told her straightforwardly. “Don’t mistake a good opening for a path to victory. Aclysia can escape on her own. This body doesn’t matter. Only you do. Run!”


    “You told me that-“


    “Today is not over yet, now go!” John forced her to move by dragging her along with him. One last look over her shoulder showed Claire a ring of light expanding from Aclysia’s feet. It reached all the way to Ell, who had reformed and appeared to set after Claire and the Gamer. Instead, once the light spilled around her feet, she suddenly turned to Aclysia.


    Impotent rage filled her lungs and Claire screamed as she broke into a full sprint. The mana she had prepared to attack, she used it instead to create a number of familiars that ran by her, to serve as distractions if need be. “Why can’t we win?!”


    “Because you and I are weak,” the Gamer told her. It was the honesty she least and most of all wanted to hear. “I pulled all the tricks this body can afford. You just don’t have the strength to fight in their league. If we were dealing with one of them, you’d be a deciding factor, but Aclysia can’t keep both of them off us – not for long.”


    “I just want to murder them. Kill them. Dismantle them. TEAR THEM ALL APART!” Claire screamed as they headed west. “DAMN IT! DAMN IT ALL!”


    They ran. Ran and flew as quickly as their feet would carry them. For a while (how long Claire did not know), they did nothing but advance, the sounds of battle behind them almost fading entirely. The Iron Maidens seemingly tried to give chase, only to each time be interrupted by Aclysia.


    “...Shit,” John cursed out of nowhere. “Aclysia lost Ell.”


    “How much further do we need to run?” Claire asked, her mind calm enough to think rationally.


    “We need to get-“ John suddenly stopped, his expression turned dark. “...So that was your game...”


    Claire’s light sensitive eyes spotted something glowing on the horizon. She could not see its origin, only that it had the sickly green colour of Arkeidos’ necromantic magic mingled with the red of Hellfire. Several seconds after the light had started to ebb away, Claire felt the ground under her feet tremble. It was faint, yet still noticeable.


    John stopped and looked at Claire. “At top speed, we are still at least two hours away from me and my loves,” he told her calmly. “I wanted to meet you halfway, but Arkeidos just made that very difficult. I will win the fight with him. Ell will get here before then. Meteora is still fighting Aclysia. The only way we can do this is if we beat or delay Ell. I didn’t want to take a fight I didn’t know we could win.” Suddenly he placed his hands on both of her cheeks and kissed her on the mouth. “I’ll give you everything I can. You will make it count.”


    “I will, Master,” Claire pledged.