A Salamander, but Mighty

Getting to Seltipont was not a serious problem for Aradra and Rosalia since the first of the two had both the power necessary to kill the majority of common monsters that roamed the world and the will to do so; once they arrived near the village, Rosalia stole clothes suitable to hide her features and that of the monster she was traveling with, trying to pass themselves off as pilgrims traveling in search of greater contact with nature and the forces of the divine.

Entering the village therefore turned out not to be too difficult, also because it seemed that the village had only recently emerged from a period of crisis and the guards were perhaps relaxing a little too much in carrying out their duty.

“It seems like things have been going better recently,” Rosalia said to one of the guards at the entrance to the village, “has there been a problem with bandits or monsters?”

“Ah, miss! Worse than both: an ascended monster!” The guard replied with a friendly smile, “the bastard had decided to make himself a home in the nearby hilly area and had begun to scare away all the common monsters.”

 'An ascended monster? Aren't they a rare thing?' Aradra thought, reaching out to hold on to Rosalia's robe, a sort of invitation to stay there and continue the discussion.

“It's terrible! And have you solved it? I imagine that many adventurers showed up to face and eradicate the threat..." Rosalia bowed her head slightly, "I can't imagine how many perished during the mission."

“Not many actually, a handful of those sent to clear the way of the common monsters and only two beastkins who had accompanied Princess Dyenna to eliminate the ascended monster.”

Rosalia gasped, “Princess Dyenna was here? But… are you sure it was her? What was she doing around here??”

“I couldn't say,” the guard rubbed his chin and looked up at the sky, “what I know is that without her we would still be in danger right now and some of my colleagues would probably no longer be here if it weren't for her …that girl is a blessing to the kingdom.”

 ‘A blessing my ass.’

Aradra thought about the fate of her friends and the people of Wadencap who Dyenna had hurt or killed in an attempt to blame her for something she hadn't done, that thought once again began to make the fury of the monster within her boil... an act such as that could only be repaired with vengeance, she knew it and felt it in her heart at a level of intimacy that almost made her tremble, Tamara was truly a memory now, and yet she had to resist a little longer, perhaps soon she would be able to ascend, and what was left of her humanity would then be saved.

“This story is very interesting! Can we talk about it more? I want more details,” Rosalia asked politely while also bowing her head out of respect.

“I'm sorry miss but I don't know much more about it,” replied the guard, “if you want you can try looking for the mayor, he was the one who assigned the tasks and who recovered the princess from the mountain since the fight had left her on the brink of death.”

“Uh… t-thank you! I’ll do that!”

The two continued walking, passing the entrance and entering the village, where people seemed to be starting to have their peaceful lives back again and in certain areas it was possible to still see the damage caused by some monster and was in the process of being repaired. Finding Lyndvrath's temple wasn't that difficult as Seltipont was a small place all things considered, and the structure was a modest white-painted temple with large mosaic windows.

“I'll accompany you inside and then I would like to go and look for the mayor of Seltipont, I have some questions about my sister,” Rosalia said in a low voice and lowering herself to be eye to eye with Aradra, “it could be useful for us to understand something more about her, about what…” she swallowed, almost looking like she was about to cry again, “…about what made her like this.”

Aradra wanted to protest that there was no time for those things, Velen was dying, Luchael and Helen were probably somewhere in the kingdom of Heliolite and their situation was unknown, there was no time for detours and pauses… however, her human side still remembered the family she once had on Earth and what she would have been willing to do for her brother, so she nodded.

“As soon as I'm done, I'll come back to get you from the temple. Wait for me here.”

Inside the temple they found a scene that at least for Aradra was completely unexpected: the priests and priestesses who were in the religious structure were engaged in all kinds of art, there was a priest leaning against a wall practicing a melody with a flute, some priests and priestesses dancing in almost completely transparent clothes and even a couple in a corner who were engaged in a noisy intercourse. Rosalia tried not to look, bowing her head and blushing, Aradra instead continued straight and stoic, aware that her body did not allow her to show embarrassment.

 'I wonder why this is exactly the kind of cult I should have expected Lyndvrath to have…' Aradra thought, snorting through her nose, 'am I going to have to stay here and wait until someone realizes there's real work to be done? I can't wait for them to finish having fun and sex!'

“Hello, miss. Can I help you?” The priest armed with the flute asked, turning his eyes towards Rosalia and smiling affably at her. He was a particularly well-groomed man, not too muscular nor too tall, but from the shine of his hair and the silky appearance of his skin it was clear that he took enormous care of himself.

“Ah… uh…” Rosalia blushed even more, “we… she,” she said, pointing to Aradra, “is desired by the high Lyndvrath and would like to meet her.”

“Oh” The priest's eyes shone with understanding, he nodded twice and turned his head towards the couple who were having sex in a corner of the large hall, “Lenera, these are the people we've been waiting for! Can you… um… come, for a second?”

Lenera turned her head towards Aradra and Rosalia: her cheeks were flushed, long curly red hair went down almost to her firm, naked buttocks. The sweat made her skin shiny and the bangs that covered her forehead were ruined and wet while continuous gasps of pleasure came out of her plump lips, "can you... mmh... wait a moment? I'm…” she stopped speaking to let a long, sweet moan escape her lips, “I'm almost done.”

“I… I should go, Aradra,” Rosalia said swallowing, “I have… that thing to do, maybe it's better if I hurry.”

Aradra only nodded affirmatively, remaining with her predatory yellow eyes staring at the two, not understanding if she was feeling more envy for Lenera who was being penetrated by a tall, muscular man with a sculpted jawline or for the man who was penetrating a girl of such beauty and grace.

Rosalia did not ask for another invitation to leave and quickly walked away, leaving the poor musician priest with all his hopes of getting laid dashed. Meanwhile the couple still didn't seem to be on the verge of finishing: Lenera was holding onto the man's toned back with her hands, digging her nails in, the man responded with a moan and put so much energy into his next thrust that Lenera moaned and found herself with her buttocks flat against the wall behind them. Aradra began to feel frustration growing inside her, she tried to calm down... her father had once told her that before doing something stupid, to always count to ten so that she would have time to think carefully about whether it was worth doing it or not.

 ‘One… two…’

The man and Lenara exchanged a passionate kiss and bit their lips.

 ‘TEN.’

Aradra let her Mana flow into the sac of acid in her mouth and taking a momentum that involved the whole body, she threw an [Acid Spit] so high and so fast that it passed just above the heads of the loving couple, impacting against the wall behind them and starting to devour it immediately with a sizzling noise similar to that of carbonated water and causing an unhealthy smelling smoke to rise. Needless to say, the duo's lovemaking ended instantly.

“What the... are these the proper manners??” Lenera complained, distancing herself from her lover and approaching Aradra while still naked, red-cheeked and panting, “I said I only needed a moment! Furthermore, you have damaged a place sacred to the Goddess of Beauty and Dance!”

Aradra on the other hand enjoyed her work more than she would have liked to admit to herself. She was the fake Nightmare Tyrant, but that didn't mean she could be taken lightly as if she were totally harmless. In response to the naked priestess' words, Aradra used a small amount of Mana to cause a few more drops of acid to drip from her mouth onto the floor.

Lenara watched the scene in horror, “I wonder what our goddess wants from an ugly little monster like you,” she hissed angrily, “all right, all right, it's not my role to contest the will of the supreme Lyndvrath. Follow me, little monster, I'll take you to her.”

Of course, hearing herself called that way wasn't exactly nice, but deep down she had asked for it... and she felt too proud of having interrupted the couple's erotic moment, after all, if she couldn't do something lewd herself, it seemed right to her that no one did it in front of her eyes.

Aradra followed the priestess, who in the meantime had recovered a simple dress which she closed at hip height using a blue fabric rope. The temple was small and therefore it didn't take long to arrive in front of a door that had been worked with attention to detail and sculpted to represent scenes of dance, art, nature and obviously some figures linked to the erotic sphere. Lenara stood next to the door (still with an angry expression on her gorgeous face) and opened the door to allow access to the false Nightmare Tyrant.

“Here, my lady is waiting for you on the other side of the door.”

Aradra nodded at her and went through the door: the room beyond the door was larger than it seemed from the outside, it was full of statues, precious ornaments and paintings that seemed to be the work of the best painters that ever existed on Earth.

And there too was Lyndvrath, sitting on a precious golden throne with red padding; the goddess had her left leg crossed over her right and was slightly bent with her back to rest her elbow on the arm of the throne and partially cover her voluptuous lips with the use of the fingers of her hand. Lyndvrath seemed enthusiastic and eyed Aradra with the same cheerfulness of a child who had found a doll she feared she had lost forever.

A long road, many difficulties and both physical and emotional pain... and Aradra was back where she started, abandoned in a wonderful room together with an almost omnipotent entity endowed with a volatile personality.

“Here you are finally! Of course you're a little ugly, but everything can be remedied with enough makeup!” The goddess exclaimed, straightening her back and giggling.

 'Let's try to stay calm and behave well, she's the last ally we have among those who matter,' Aradra thought with a sigh.