Pete reaches the castle

Pete knew they were getting close. They'd started encountering monsters fairly frequently now. Most of them were pretty weak but it gave them time to hone their skills. He hoped they would be in peak fighting form by the time they reached Vivi and he was cautiously optimistic about that.

With Kelly gone he didn't really have any resistance to his leadership. He was able to assign everyone roles and trust that they would follow them. Most of their battles ended up going the same way. Kura was clearly the tank. She would charge forward and try to draw the enemies onto her. Leanne did the only thing she could do and continually sent fireballs flying. Zahara was on standby as a healer. Pete and Tiffany would use their swords to dart in and out around Kura and take out the monsters swarming her. And Gideon acted like a support caster. She'd discovered quite by accident that her power to make things bigger didn't just work on dicks and tits, although that was still her preference. It turns out she can make muscles bigger too, resulting in a corresponding increase in strength. She could make small changes permanently or large changes temporarily so she'd been working on improving Pete slowly during their downtime and gave him big boosts during battle.

Pete was satisfied with their combat abilities, it was everything else that had him concerned. The truth is that while he loved sex, he was just one man and the demands of his Harem, cause frankly that's the only word that fit, was getting to be too much for him. Tiffany and Kura were totally obedient and he could tell them off despite their clear desires but the rest of them struggled to take no for an answer. If he had more energy he would have tried to put his foot down, but as things were he was pushing them on a pretty fast march and by the end of the day he was too exhausted to refuse them all.

He had decided to just put that all on the backburner and wait until Vivi had been defeated. Then he'd sort them out. For now though his goal was pretty clear. Defeat Vivi. Free Annie...and Kelly too he supposed. Return to their own world. Based on the information they'd received in the last town they should be able to see the castle today, and they'd arrive tomorrow. Sure enough as they crested a hill they saw it off in the distance.

If they tried they could probably reach it today, but there was no point showing up exhausted. He ordered everyone to stop and make camp. Their normal jovial mood was dampened by the sight of Vivi's castle. For the first time since leaving the last town nobody tried to have sex with him. Instead they all just cuddled up together and went to sleep.

The next morning they were all up before the sun. Pete ordered them to break camp and begin their approach to the castle. Despite being so close to their enemy they didn't encounter any monsters at all. It seemed strange to Pete and made him terrible worried.

Then about 4 hours into their hike they saw someone on the road ahead of them. Pete ordered everyone to stop. The person was too far away to make out, but it was clear they weren't moving. Pete considered getting off the road and trying to sneak past them, but then he worried it would just leave an enemy to attack them from the rear. In the end he decided to approach cautiously.

As he got closer he realized the person was in fact Didi. Not dressed as a Goddess anymore, but in a simple white dress. She smiled and waved as he approached.

"Hi there!" She squealed.

Pete sighed, "Didi...what's going on?"

"Oh I just came to wish you good luck...and to give you a warning."

"A warning?"

"Ya. So obviously Vivi's in that big scary castle with your friends. If you defeat her you will free them and you'll be able to return to your own world. Of course you'll lose your cool fantasy stuff like magic and those elf ears, but any injuries you sustain in battle will also be healed.

However if you lose...well...you'll never go home. None of you. In fact Vivi plans to keep you all here as pets until you die of old age...and she's quite skilled at keeping humans alive with magic..."

Pete sighed, "Right...so don't lose..."

"Yes. But also the two of us worked out a deal. We'll send you and your party home. Right now. Even Zahara, wherever she wants to go. You just gotta give up on freeing Annie and Kelly."

Pete didn't consider it for a second, "No way. I can't leave Annie."

"And Kelly?"

"Meh," Pete knew he shouldn't leave her behind, but he didn't feel as strongly about it as he did with Annie, "Her too. I'm taking them both with me."

"I thought you'd say that. So did Vivi. Which is why it's not up to you at all. Look behind you."

Pete turned and saw the girls were all completely frozen. Even the breeze wasn't moving their hair, it was like there were frozen in time, "What did you do?"

"Each of these women is going to be given a choice. Mentally they will be free of any magical influence from you and asked if they will stay and fight, or flee."

"And what? Is it majority rules or you will let each of them choose for themselves?" Pete wasn't sure what would happen if they had no magical attachment to him. Would they abandon him? All of them were only with him because of magic, weren't they?

"If any of them decide to flee, I'll send all of them away. You see...just to make things interesting I already made a wager with Vivi about the outcome. She's sure that they are all going to leave you. I think they are all going to stay. So I agreed that if any of them chicken out, you lose them all. But if I win the bet...well let's just say you'll like the outcome, and so will all the women in your life."

Pete stared at Didi, then turned to his harem again. All of them...or none of them? He was screwed.