Birth and Dead

One thing was for certain, this was no longer Minerva.

The Champion had a certain rugged, muscular beauty to her. This was now all gone in favor of a far more slender and softer design.

Her eyes were normal again, but that was about the only thing normal about her.

Her sun tanned skin was gone, replaced with a deep, dark blue. There was a sort of oily texture to it, that shimmered in the sun light.

She was also very evidently naked, her sex making it very clear that this new body was still female.

For a few seconds the figure merely observed her new form as everyone was holding their breath.

Then a voice spoke, neither male nor female but surprisingly gentle and dignified.

“I offer you my thanks.”

...

“Dark Lord Ithere?”, I asked cautiously.

It nodded and then smiled.

Due to the hypnosis I was not able to feel relief, but even I couldn’t help to complete subdue the twinge of emotion upon receiving this response.

No, I couldn’t let my guard down. This was still a Dark Lord. A vicious being.

Thankfully, Femto took over.

“Pleasure making your acquaintance, Mr. Dark Lord Ithere, Sir!” the devil gave him a big smile. “Boy, oh boy, were you in a dilly of a pickle or what? But not to worry! Not to worry! My esteemed client got you covered! So! Shall we dive right into compensation talks or...”

“Compensation?”, the Dark Lord asked, slightly furrowing its brow.

“Wehell!”, Femto laughed, not missing a beat. “You aren’t planning on just keep fighting us after we saved your behind, right? I mean, that would just be outrageously ungrateful!”

“I am aware of was has transpired”, Ithere responded calmly. He didn’t seem too bothered about being turned female at least. “You have freed me of this wretched curse that humans have impudently placed upon me.”

“You got it!”, Femto happily agreed.

“I have no intention of fighting the ones who saved me. That being said, you will understand that I do not desire to become your **** either.” He then addressed Ben. “Referee, what should we do in this situation?”

“Oh umm…”, Ben was a bit timid, no doubt remembering his last encounter with Ithere. “That is a rather good question. I will have to check in with management.”

Ithere shook his head. “That is not needed. I hereby admit defeat. Give the victory to my opponent.”

Ben didn’t seem entirely satisfied with that. But a glare from Ithere prevented him from raising any further objections.

“That is most generous”, I stated carefully. “We have a friend that Minerva enslaved. Would you be willing to free her?”

“Ah yes”, Ithere continued to smile. “Naturally, I will release her. Have no fear.”

“Wonderful”, Femto smiled. “And we even got about eight minutes to spare! Love to see it, when a contract ends early!”

So, is that it? Have we truly won?

“I-I see!” Ben coughed. “Well...in that case there is only one thing left for me to do.”

He took a deep breath. “The winner of this match and the champion of this years Rasheul Great **** Tournament iiiiiiiiiis….

…

...

...

AMBER DOMINATOR MARI BETA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

…

...

...

...I did it.

I won.

I actually won.

It’s over.

It’s finally over.

“Heh”, Femto smirked at me. “Nice job, Sir. Well, I did most of the work but…”

The devil stopped mid sentence. There was a puzzling expression on her face.

That was because a blue spear had torn a hole through her torso.

Femto coughed up a swill of blood at my face and immediately reformed herself. Only to get impaled again. And again.

I realized that I was the reason she couldn’t defend herself and quickly put some distance between us.

This finally allowed Femto to turn her body around, towards her assailant before she got ripped apart again.

“Gotta admit. This is quite the boost”, the Dark Lord’s elongated face turned into a hideous open smirk. An impossible amount of razor sharp teeth pointed at us from all directions. Then, out of that mouth, shot a dark blueish spear towards Femto. This time she tried to avoid it but the projectile was so fast, it still managed to tore her right arm clean off.

The Dark Lord laughed. “If I knew Ithere was this pathetic, I would have done this sooner. Much appreciation for the push.”

“W-WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?” Ben cried out. “This match is over! You surrendered!

“Dumbass”, Minerva casually responded, while still keeping her torment of Femto up near effortlessly. “Don’t you know your own rules?

A surrender can happen via three things:

-ejaculation

-suicide

-speaking the phrase. “I surrender.”

Minerva did none of these things.

”B-But...I already...”

“Oh give it a rest”, Minerva sighed. She didn’t need her mouth for those projectiles, I noticed. She could shot them from every part of her body. “Or should I tell the good folks in the audience what you just did? How your bosses and my opponent blatantly cheated against me?”

And now the spell that had captivated the audience seemed to have evaporated in an instant.

“The champion is right!”, someone from the crowd shouted.

“The hell was that about Ithere resisting?”

“What’s about that attack on the champs tower?”

“Why the fuck is this devil fighting the whole time instead of the Amber Dominator?”

“THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?”

“Continue the match!”

“Continue the match!”

“CONTINUE THE MATCH!”

The crowd grew more and more unruly. Minerva, Dark Lord or not had all the support she could have ever wanted.

There was nothing Ben could possibly do. “The match continues! I...I retract my previous declaration!”

“Atta boy.”

And now Minerva went into close quarter combat. Femto tried to slash at her, but Minerva evaded the attack with ridiculous ease and beheaded the Devil.

“PEOPLE OF RASHEUL! HEED ME!”

Once again, Femto reformed herself immediately and went to counter but Minerva was more then up for this challenge. Her speed had increased to a tremendous level.

“YOU ARE BEING DECEIVED!”

Her body was less defined. Almost like a slime girl actually. She whipped and contorted her shape in a way that should be impossible.

“THEY DID EVERYTHING TO MAKE ME LOSE THIS MATCH!”

Her hands had turned into axes. Not just shadow axes but clear extensions from her skin.

“THE CULPRIT?”

And any attack from Femto resulted in retaliation and execution.

“THE COWARD BEFORE YOU!”

Worse, if she did land a hit, it appeared Minerva’s slime like body simple reformed itself.

HE’S WORKING WITH THE MAJOR SHAREHOLDER OF THIS TOURNAMENT! OJOU-SAMA!”

The next time Minerva cut her arms off.

“HAVE NO FEAR! I WILL KEEP FIGHTING!”

Followed by her legs.

“I WILL WIN!”

Beheaded her.

“AND I WILL PUNISH EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!”

Ripped her guts out.

“BUT I NEED YOUR HELP!”

Slashed her in two from head to groin.

“SURROUND THE AMBER DOMINATOR’S TOWER! SURROUND THE ARENA! SURROUND THE FIGHTERS DORM! SURROUND OJOU-SAMA’S MANSION!”

Ripped her into tiny pieces.

“LET NONE OF THEM ESCAPE!”

Skewered her with dozens of small spears.

“AND AFTER MY VICTORY!"

Reduced her to nothing but a fine mist.

"I WILL DELIVER JUSTICE!”

The arena led out a tremendous roar of approval. Security was barely able to contain the frenzied mob. Some even tried to climb my tower outright.

But I couldn’t concern myself with that.

For Femto was barely able to move a muscle before the next execution took place. As the battle progressed Minerva appeared to get faster and faster. Her speed was now at level that was beyond my comprehension.

“Still hanging in there are you?”, the Dark Lord sneered, finally paying her opponent proper attention again.

“Don’t worry. I kill you as many times as its needed! Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over overandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoveroverover!”

This was hopeless.

“Femto!”, I shouted. “Retreat! Hide in the void!”

A Devil has tremendous healing capacities. Killing one takes a huge amount of effort. But even so, Minerva made significant progress in that direction. A human would have died dozens of times already.

And Femto was starting to feel the toll of it. If not physically, then mentally.

“Retreat!”, I shouted again. “This is an order! Femto!”

“That’s against the ruuuuules!”, Minerva cackled as she mercilessly continued her slaughter.

“Yeah”, Femto gave a **** chuckle. “Even if I wanted to, contract is contract, Sir. I have to give it my all until the contract is up up.”

That’s right. Time was almost up. Even if Femto was able to reform herself indefinitely, she will have to leave in a few minutes.

Minerva was howling now. A rage and primal bloodlust that was unabashed in its intensity. She truly did not care that Femto continued to put herself back together, she intended to kill her until there was nothing left.

And finally, Femto was no longer able to reform her body completely. Her right arm was missing two fingers now. In lieu of this achievement, Minerva stopped.

“64 times”, she stated. “Killed you 64 times so far. Talk about a handicap. Eh, I suppose you still have a few lives left? Don’t worry, I make sure to completely and thoroughly grind you to dust. I’m a professional after all.”

“W-what a coincidence…” Femto vomited up a round of blood. “So am I.”

Then she started screaming.

Even with my elevated senses I couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

Something dark emerged out of Femto and chased towards Minerva. The Dark Lord responded with her own attack, but the blue spears that up until now ravaged Femto with so much ease were now itself overcome as the dark **** obliterated them effortlessly and raced unobstructed towards Minerva.

The Dark Lord was not taking any chances, she abandoned her attack and jumped back towards the shade, the dark **** in hot pursuit.

And they were becoming faster.

No, not faster.

Minerva was becoming slower.

Her insane speed decelerated. Minerva slashed at the tendrils with her axes, but all that did was cut the black **** into smaller and smaller pieces that honed in on her from all sides.

The Dark Lord even used shadow teleportation to get away but the dark tendrils immediately pinpoint her location again.

And finally the darkness found purchase on Minerva’s oily skin.

Not just one or twice, but from dozens of small points the black tendrils seemed to rip and burrow into her body like tiny worms.

Minerva started shrieking as her body was ripped apart from the inside. Her axes roared in a **** attempt to defend herself as she was shredded to pieces. Black, red ooze gushed forth in all direction like a horrible fountain of carnage and gore.

Even the arena mob, as unruly as it had become couldn’t help but stop what they were doing and look on in astonishment.

For this was madness given form.

A cavalcade of darkness against darkness that engulfed near the entire arena and even blocked out the sun. All I could do was prevent myself from getting swallowed in this maelstrom.

And suddenly, the spectacle stopped. As abruptly as it started.

What remained of Minerva was laying in a pool of black liquid that now covered almost the entire arena, completely motionless.

Meanwhile, Femto was still standing.

But her skin. Her normally grey skin was now nothing but pure white. As if all pigmentation had left her.

“Ah shoot.”

Then she collapsed to the ground.

“Femto?”

She slowly turned her head towards me. Even that appeared to take a considerable effort.

“I got her good, Sir. Beat her within an inch of her life, but that’s the extend I can do. The rest is up to you. Stick to the plan.”

The plan.

Our last option. In case both Femto’s time was up and Operation “Divide et impera” failed.

Plan D.

Bang.

“What are you talking about? You still have a few minutes.”

She let out a pained grunt. “D-didn’t I tell you, Sir? I’m a professional. And as per the contract I gave it my all...literally.”

I didn’t understand. Or rather, I did not want to understand. “N-No. You will be healed. Once the battle is concluded…”

BANG.

Femto smiled weakly. “Someone else will try to come collect it, Mari. Cass...show her...the contract. She’s a smart girl. She understands.”

BANG!

“She won’t! Think about Beatrice! She needs you!”

In response Femto only chuckled. “R-Right. I...forgot. Can you tell Bea one last..thing...for me?”

She whispered a few words and looked at me.

BANG!!!

“N-No. Femto! Don’t do this!”

“M-Make sure...to use the exact wording...alright?” She looked me in the eyes. “Take care of her...and you...two.”

The door cracked.

“Femto! No, you idiot! Stop this!”

“Goodbye, Mari. You’ve...grown...strong...aahh...at...last...”

Femto closed her eyes, let out a sigh and smiled gently.

“I can...feel...again…”

Only her white body remained and not for long. It slowly started to disappear into tiny flakes of dust, as if absorbed by some higher power.

I wanted to scream, to cry, to shout, but I couldn’t. I could feel how the hypnosis my Queen put on me was on the verge of collapsing. Once that happens all was lost.

I needed to push this down.

And then Minerva laughed.

And the arena cheered.

---

Mari’s estimate on victory over Minerva

upgrade to high grade equipment (+10%/+5%)

mental anguish due to excessive spending (-5%/-2.5%)

Operation divide et impera (+13.6%/+6.8%)

My Queens hypnosis LV 2 (+8%/+4%)

Balance Breaker Lucky, trying really, really, hard(+10%/+5%)

Amber Dominator Mari Beta void training completed (+7%/+3.5%)

Rule VIII struck from the record (+1%/+0.5%)

Devil of time(1 hour) (+13.6%/+6.8%)

true Dark Lord Minerva(greatly weakened) (-20%/-10%)

My Queens hypnosis LV 2, on the verge of breaking (+4%/+2%)

Plan D (+2%+1%)

chances of victory by kill: 9%

chances of victory via surrender: 4%