Dilemmas & Loot

Tricia raised a third seat between John's and her own, and the Warden took her seat with some trepidation. Tricia remained in the buff; her slightly parted thighs might've tempted John in any other context; instead, he reclined into his seat as he tried to get comfortable. Where should we even start...

Moira took John's curious glance to her as an invitation. "I've texted my home to allow for an extended stay, if needed. We have time, now... time to start from the beginning: how did you capture an angel in the first place?"

John shook his head. "I didn't. Summoning the angel was its own spell until a moment ago. I... learned it from marrying you."

"Then marriage has given you some power over the Golden Rose," Tricia surmised.

"I-Impossible! I've never heard or read of the Lady granting us the power to call angels down to war! Indeed, that kind of power would make our mission rather simple..."

"In any case, I lost it." Moira eyed John with naked doubt. "Apparently I've been 'forsaken' by my guardian angel."

Moira paled at the declaration. Tricia, unperturbed, brought up a series of her windows. "We have... some records, albeit third-hand, on the Guardians of Humanity. I'm not sure if these are the same-"

"They are! That was in her short description!" Finally something lines up between the Game and what the Hell else everyone talks about!

"... well, the records cultivated by the Gorbachev do not indicate that they looked like that."

"Forsaken..." Moira breathed, still in disbelief. "I never thought it possible..."

"It also said something about her protecting 777,777 people, but what the Hell does that even mean? What have I 'lost' when she looked ready to kill me?"

"You've lost the protection of Heaven from the agents of Hell," Moira suddenly replied.

"... That is the mythos proclaimed by the Order," Tricia derisively added.

"Mythos? Hell is quite real, Gorbachev; we've helped protect Earth from its machinations enough times to know."

"Well," John muttered, "if that's what our protectors look like, I'd hate to see our enemies..."

"Twice now you've insulted her appearance... why?" Tricia and John both blinked at Moira. "She was beautiful... perhaps the most beautiful thing I had ever-"

"W-What? What?" John repeated. "What are you- are we talking about the same nightmare that came in and ripped the dragon apart by hand?!"

Tricia blanched at that, and the Eye worked to calm her anew.

"W-What? I heard the single, merciful slice of her holy sword! There was none of this... and what of her was a nightmare? Perhaps to you, who somehow angered Heaven itself-!"

"She had bundles of arms and an H.R. Giger head, for two things- wait... back it up. I pissed off Heaven just by calling her down?"

"Not by calling her down, no," Moira carefully answered. "You must know whatever crime you committed that could be worthy of this sentence; nothing you've done that I know about would be worth such a punishment."

"Did she not describe his crime?" Tricia suddenly asked.

Moira allowed a heavy pause to search John's eyes before quietly answering, "No."

"So... does that mean Gaia is pissed at me?"

"Angels have never been linked directly with Gaia, not anymore than other benevolent spirits in the Abyss," Tricia summarized. "They usually answer to some higher power or a mischaracterized supreme being that is then never proven directly. As such, like all benevolent spirits, angels are presumed to be indirect servants of Gaia."

Moira scowled at the Gorbachev, but did not correct her.

"So what happens to me now? The Devil comes around with loot boxes that're paid for in souls?" Actually, depending on how soul gems work, that wouldn't be half-bad... wait, does that mean soul gems are the premium currency-

"John, this is serious."

"Then seriously tell me what happens."

"I don't know!"

"I believe I may," Tricia interrupted. Moira, obviously frustrated, remained silent. "In truth, John, there has been no record of one of these 'Guardians' intervening in human affairs save in one capacity: to offer guidance to those societies or organizations that both deal with the Abyss and are dedicated to the cause of Heaven. Even there, their intervention is only advisory. At best, then, it would appear you will suffer nothing... so long as you don't interact with angels ever again. At worst, however... perhaps the Order will be advised to destroy you."

"N-Never!" Moira yelled.

"They've done worse."

"Lies! John, I promise I won't let that happen without justification."

"With... Without justification?!" John suddenly replied in disbelief. “So you would let it-“

“John, please!” Moira’s plea seemed amplified within the chamber. The black blocks beneath John rumbled slightly. The drones all turned, some with alarming beeps. Tricia and John both fell silent. “Please... never ask me to choose between you and my duty as the Warden of the Golden Rose...” John’s face twisted in contempt- “... because I’m already doing everything in my power to make sure you come first.”

John's heart skipped a beat as she bore her earnest plea in her eyes. The two shared a moment there, John coming to understand Moira’s burden, Moira bearing her raw, beautiful heart-

A muffled cry. “I will always do my best to make you come first, too, Master! And last, and again, and again-!” John's lips curled. Moira's brow furrowed.The moment passed. Tricia snorted and, with a thought, called up the source of the interruption. The floor opened up nearby with a thin billow of suspicious steam, and up from the depths rose a familiar, succubus-wrapping trap... and a nearby cart with jars packed full of a translucent pink fluid.

Moira stared at the demon-no, her sister wife-with enough contempt to forget her moment with John. “On second thought, I’ve never heard of a mortal willfully marrying a demon. Perhaps destroying her will return you to Heaven’s-“

“No,” John flatly refused.

“Master!” a mostly satisfied Lily called. “During my last sessions with these nice human machines, I sensed that you did a very good job while I was here," she declared with an overt wink. John's instructions to her, to keep secret his Extinction King affiliation, were obviously too lenient. "Congratulations!”

“Eh, thanks Lily...”

"Well, if we're no closer to figuring out your transgression," Moira sighed, "I could try and ask a favor of our Seer to learn what it was. Of course, if it's something you should've known, and I learn you were lying to me-"

"You won't," John urged. "Unless masturbating three times in one day is worse than... whatever else you can think of."

"Obviously not, if that were true I'd..." Moira let her words drift off. "T-That is, that's a natural thing! That can't be it."

"May we move on to the topic of the barrier?"

John eyed Tricia, whose gentle smile almost comforted him. The blonde had looked the worse for wear when they escaped, and that message for her Eye had ticked some dozens of times in the last ten minutes. She had been so thoroughly shaken... was the Eye really enough to cure her so soon? "Tricia... are you alright?"

“Of course.” John’s worried look didn’t go away. Why would it? Tricia had fallen to crying, and then to nausea, not only at the horror of it all... but at what the angel somehow **** her to remember in explicit detail. The faces of her first victims were always buried there, at the back of Tricia's mind, but to have them thrust into her face, renewed and fresh as if she were a child once again... it was a testament to her new self-control that she didn’t lose herself then and there. "I... was just reminded of a bad time," Tricia confessed. She shifted in her seat, crossing her bare legs as she struggled to get comfortable. "My condition would be improved more rapidly if we discussed something productive. I presume nothing remains to try and resolve this 'angel' problem?”

“There is no resolution, except atoning for a crime he cannot recall." Moira looked John up and down, her nose wrinkling at his ugly new lower wear. "You said you lost the power to call her down again?”

John nodded. “I took lay on hands instead... all the other options were kind of situational or else superseded by what I have.”

“Lay on hands? Like a paladin in-?”

“Wait,” Moira interrupted, “can you describe this power?”

“Eh, yeah... I can touch someone and take away status effects. Right now I can only take away fatigue, but it’ll probably level up with... time...?”

John’s words trailed off as Moira’s eyes became wide as saucers. Her mouth hung open, and her head shook softly. “That’s... But that’s just like... can you demonstrate it?” Moira looked around until her eyes fell on Tricia. “She looks quite haggard. Use it on her.”

“I told you, I feel fine."

"Any reason?"

"It's just... you said this power came from marrying me? Well the Golden Rose granted a similar power to me when I first matured into the Warden. I later learned how to properly perform it as the blessing you've seen... so if you have it now, too, that may be more evidence to prove that your power is a blessing from Gaia!" ... and that could help convince father not to eliminate him...

"Right... well, we'll see, I guess?"

"Moving on to the barrier?" Tricia quietly suggested. Moira bit her tongue as her mind raced over the possibilities. “We were promised a number of awards, some of which I’m deeply interested in reviewing. Based on your... alternative fashion decisions just now, I suspect you were given at least some of them.”

John nodded, bringing up his inventory menu. Looking through all the junk, he sorted by date and looked through the interface to the girls. “What should I bring out first?”

“The tomes-“

“The gold-“

The girls paused. Moira cleared her throat as Tricia tossed a judgmental glance at her.

“R-Right... books and gold. But I really want the alchemy one, OK?” John stood, and Tricia made a small table rise between the three seats to accommodate him. His hand floated over the table, calling three golden bars and two of the books between the girls.

Moira’s eyes took on an avaricious shine, but Tricia wrinkled her nose. “I still cannot analyze how you’re doing that... more, weren’t there supposed to be three books?”

“The last one is... eh... well, look.” With a hesitant wave of his hand, the mating manual appeared. Tricia blinked at it... and blushed as she cleared her throat. The spike of lust in the air had Lily twitch happily, but she knew to remain silent. “There’s also two bits of magical gear I’m not wearing, but I’m not sure how you guys want to split it up... they’re not exactly matching your classes or builds, after all.”

“The Order must collect and quarantine dangerous magical objects,” Moira lectured as she gave the golden pile a rub. “If you provide me at least one, to show the Order a bit of goodwill for your favor, the utility or value doesn’t concern me- is this... this isn’t actually solid gold, right?”

"Unlikely," Tricia chimed. The Gorbachev's drones swept in and blasted the bars with scanning laser fields. “One moment... they're... no, that can't be.... right- oh... one moment... yes... solid... pure gold. Absolutely pure... impractically pure by normal refinement methods. Each is... one moment..." Tricia was a flurry of reference pages, websites on holographic windows, and alarmed, eager tapping. Moira and John watched with rapt attention. "Yes, precisely 400 ounces of one-to-one parts fine gold, shaped, but unlabeled, according to Good Delivery standard of the London markets...“

“What... does that mean?”

“She means they're... Lady preserve me...”

“ ... that is... well, sale would require that they were reforged to be 995 parts of 1,000 to avoid any... mundane inquiries and to provide the standard rigidity. But if they're sold as that, then each bar would have an estimated value of roughly 523,200 USD.” Tricia’s words slowly grew lower and lower. “My record of the potential rewards shows that you would have obtained... 40 of these? Then you would have approximately 20,928,000 USD in solid gold... given this one adventure.”

“We have 20 million,” Moira corrected, her voice also low. “But I don’t think we can start injecting this kind of money into the market without noticeably destabilizing the gold standard, especially if we keep earning like this.” Both stared at Moira. “What? A Brighton must learn the ins and outs of finances... and we deal in plenty of gold ourselves. That we made this much in... ten minutes, real time? The possibility of catastrophe is... well. What's done is done. I would request my share of them, first of all.”

“I would take one brick, for experiments... and a few more to finance a few projects previously beyond my means. I’d also request the books, just to scan them into my records,” Tricia added as she did her best to ‘casually’ grab the mating book first, “for in-depth analysis without denying your access later.”

The discussions went on that way for a time, ending in an agreeable divide: the cheat dice to Tricia to study as she desired, the dagger to Moira to lock in a vault somewhere until Kingdom come, and a 15/15/10 divide of the gold for John, Moira, and Tricia, respectively. At receiving her bars, Moira had fallen into a quiet, almost adorable appreciation for her bricks as she slowly, lovingly loaded them into her shield. “... and I’ll keep the crafting materials,” John added, finishing the tally.

“I would normally demand at least some... but as long as you promise not to sell them to other mages, I will not argue,” Moira muttered as she rubbed the last golden brick that was hers.

“I have sufficient materials... for now. This is acceptable.”

John nodded calmly... though inside he was almost impressed by how much they wouldn't let him take. He felt rather silly for thinking they wouldn't ask for much after all they'd been through. "Oh! You two... leveled up, too. Do you... feel different?" Both girls gave him surprised, and then tired, stares. "R-Right, maybe after a good night's rest..."

With their night at an end, they said their tired goodbyes and went home: Tricia to her lab, Moira to her mansion, and John, with Lily in tow, tunneling straight into his bedroom. John shuddered as the portal closed. Home. Had it been the length of the day, of the time spent away? The trappings of his bedroom, once the majority of his life, now seemed foreign... quaint. He tried to shake it off and focus on what to do with the rest of the night: he needed no sleep, he had nothing due except homework (if he could even bring himself to care), and apparently all of Heaven to worry about coming after him. He could grind... but the last thing he wanted now was another fight. Every day of the past week had made the world seem a bit more deadly, unpredictable, and hostile; every new person he met in this magical new world seemed to bring a new horror into his life.

A week ago, he thought people were silly for being afraid of devils; now he was terrified of angels. He thought back to the towering monster... and remembered his first thought upon falling to his knees before her awesome presence. Reflecting on that first impulse caused him to shudder; it barely felt like his own thought, and yet... wasn't it a natural question? It hadn't been a doubt of what he scanned as her stats, or whether that was fair, or whether the world could tolerate something so god-like amid the level 3 and 4 humans in his world... he didn't even wonder if they'd survive, but rather...

When can I become that powerful?

"We're home!" Lily cried out happily before going to leap on his bed. "Yaaay!"

"Lily, you need to go downstairs-"

John stared in disbelief at how quickly Lily had gotten into position. The deviless was spread eagle on his bed, her legs almost impossibly flexible in how they bent backwards to tuck behind her own shoulders, and her hands spread her tiny, glistening virgin hole as a **** offering. "I-Is Master alright? I've been very good," she pouted, her fingers teasing the edges of her labia, "and even filled all those cups for your other wife..."

"Tricia..."

"Whatever... I-I mean, of course, Master! But I'm... I'm eager for you most of all." She struggled to kick her legs in excitement. The sight was vulgarly adorable.

The door opened. Lily's skin shifted to human on reflex... but she was otherwise paralyzed in her pretzel pose as Brenda Newman popped her head in.

John froze. Lily froze. Brenda froze... and then smiled. "Oh, honey! I didn't hear you come in... and make sure to use protectionokaygoodnightbye!" With the due haste she showed every time she caught John masturbating, she was gone and the door was closed.

John squeezed his eyes shut and sighed slowly as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Lily looked up at him, eyes huge and full of hope. "We can make love until tomorrow, Master... even through tomorrow, if it pleases you."

"Tomorrow..." John sighed. Lily's eyes began to sparkle- "I think I'm just going to try and relax from now through tomorrow... maybe take care of some errands, but nothing too... strenuous."

Her sparkling eyes transformed to glistening. "B-But..."

"I think that's fair," John sighed, stretching. "After all..."