Contemplation

“So Asmo lost? That's a bummer”, commented Bea as she enjoyed her after meal tea. “I believe she rather wanted that Blood Soul.”

Do I even want to know what that is?

“Your ignorance is only eclipsed by your lack of manners.” Beatrice let out one of her patented obnoxious sighs and arrogantly sipped on her tea. For a moment, I had the fleeting hope I would be spared a lecture. Of course, I was not so lucky. The moment the teacup landed back on the saucer, the witch began her unwanted explanation. “When a Dark Lord sustains mortal damage, he turns into a blood red stone. Kinda looks like a marble. Rather pretty. I want one.”

Don’t look at me with these puppy eyes.

“I know that one, my Lord!”, Sanakia eagerly cut in as she was fighting with Fisti over the last piece of Henderopa. “The marble is the foul soul of a Dark Lord! It can’t be destroyed. Not even with all the might of the church!”

“True, a blood soul might be indestructible...”, Bea mused with a somewhat greedy glint in her eyes. It surprisingly reminded me of Femto. “But if devoured you can become a Dark Lord yourself.”

“Ingesting a blood soul.”, Sanakia grimaced, allowing Fisti to win the battle for the meat. “Who would do such a most sacrilegious and unholy thing?”

Based on the facial expressions, three alone at this table.

“Not that I want to, but how would that have even worked?”, Fisti asked with her mouth full. “Ya get revived when ya die, right?”

“Ah! But this is the fun part”, Bea grinned at us. “Technically, a Dark Lord is not **** once turned into a blood soul. So, Ithere wouldn’t get revived! At least not until the time out! That’s plenty of time for an opportunistic individual to gobble the marble up.”

Why is she looking at me like this would even remotely be something I want to do?

That was when our maid politely interjected. “If I may, while Blood Souls fall indeed into a grey zone, I do not believe the Tournament Association would allow this to happen. Most likely the turning into a Blood Soul would be recognized as **** and the combatant revived as such.”

Both Beatrice and Sanakia looked EXTREMELY disappointed over the fact that the tournament wasn’t allowing actual **** to take place.

“Well, to be fair...”, Beatrice grimaced slightly as she finished her tea. “Once ingested, a struggle ensues between the Blood Soul and the host. Usually the original Dark Lord simply takes over the new body. I doubt Asmo would have taken the risk in the first place.”

“Fascinating stuff. What does it matter?”, Cassandra complained, finishing her own meal with a generous serving of ****. “With golden boy and devil bitch out of the picture, every other combatant is fucked. The Dark Lord will just stomp all over the rest.”

It was hard to disagree with that assessment. None of the remaining fighters had the means of cutting through the Dark Lord’s invincibility field.

“Never mind the Dark Lord. There is also Lady Sylphid, Valkyrie, last years Champion Minerva…” Fisti scowled on the empty plate in front of her. “Pretty much everybody will make for a formidable opponent.”

Cassandra nodded, clinking her glass, which Maria diligently filled once again. “Hate to say it Daddy, but they are all waaay out of your league. You are easily the weakest finalist.”

She absolutely did not hate to say it.

“Mari not weak” Aiju let out a low hiss towards the huntress.

“Quite!”, Sanakia bristled. “You will take that back or have me to contend with!”

“Uh...scary…” The huntress made a show of downing her drink. “Look, all I'm saying is that it's a small miracle Daddy made it this far in the first place. But that's it for him. End of station. Time to leave the train.”

“Well, it’s not like he can just drop out”, Fisti argued.

“Sure he can”, Cassandra countered. “And it would be the fucking smart thing to do.”

“How cowardly! That is most unbecoming of my Lord!”, The Sexy-Knight glared at the huntress, who casually met her gaze.

“Is it? Have you considered what will happen to us if he surrenders? This isn't just his life at stake here.”

Cassandra was of course right. This was a weight around my conscience that has troubled me ever since Aiju became my “****”. But of course, even If I wanted to drop out, I couldn’t.

Beatrice rolled her eyes, apparently fed up now that the conversation has passed her realm of expertise. “Haven’t you figured it out yet? He can’t drop out. He’s a lucky loser.”

That certainly had the desired effect of getting everyone at the table to shut up. At least for a few seconds.

“You got to be fucking kidding me!” Cassandra was the first to break the silence with a loud groan. “Is that fucking true?”

“Yes, it is fucking true”, I grumbled. “But it doesn’t matter, I have to win the next round regardless.” I already made a fortune as far as money was concerned. But even so, I still needed one more win to reach my target.

My bravado didn’t land as much as I wanted. I had Sanakia on my side of course and Aiju gave me a quick “Mari will win” as well. Maria meanwhile was just a mask of politeness.

The other three girls where less enthusiastic about my prospects and unfortunately these where the more realistic takes. I locked eyes with the girls. “Look, I get it. You don’t believe in me. However, I do hope you will believe me in one thing. No matter what happens. I promise you, I will not surrender!”

It sounded pretty cool in my head, but all that earned me was a cackle from Beatrice and another annoyed groan from Cassandra. Oh fuck you, that wasn’t even that bold of a statement! After Cassandra’s poison and Beatrice’s toybox I’m pretty sure I can take any **** thrown at me.

“If I may”, Maria politely spoke up once more. “There is a certain rule that comes into play in the finals, that it appears, Master Beta is not aware of.”

I did not like the sound of that. “What are you talking about?”

“For the final three rounds of the tournament”, the maid calmly continued. “There is one additional way to get someone to surrender. And that is to **** your opponent to orgasm.”

“What!”

“H-how utterly depraved!”

“You guys aren’t just the clowns, you are the whole circus”, Cassandra sighed and this time outright snatched the bottle “Did none of you bother to read the fucking tournament rules?”

“Can't read, don't care”, justified Aiju herself and yawned loudly.

“Naturally, I had Femto read the rules to me”, Beatrice announced as if that was something to be proud about. “Such a pity this wasn’t already in place in the preliminaries. Otherwise, Mari would have never made it past me.”

“Well, I mean. I didn’t want to be presumptuous.” I mumbled somewhat sheepishly. “I definitely planned to read up on the finals rule set eventually, but then things just kinda got in the way.”

“H-how are ya even measure that with us girls? I mean with males it's pretty...ugh...” Fisti became too embarrassed to continue that line of thought.

Maria happily explained. “The arena ground is equipped with a magic scanner that will detect any climax that occurs. Incidentally, the playroom is facilitated with a smaller version as well. In case, you wish to confirm its validity.”

That changed things. I was sure I could deal with any **** my opponent inflicted upon me. But I was considerably less sure that my body would not betray me.

“Well that's how it is”, Cassandra and the black hole that is her liver managed to almost finish the entire bottle. “Congratulations Ladies, get the lube because we are well and truly about to get fucked.”

“That is too early to say!”, Fisti interjected. “Mari might end up facing Lady Sylphid! Getting crushed by her wouldn't be so bad!”

Yeah thanks for the support there, Fisti. Really appreciate it.

Aiju nodded eagerly. “What if Mari crushes balls before going into fight?”

What if Mari crushes himself to escape this hellhole?

Maria calmly poured Aiju a glass of milk as we all stewed in this situation. “I understand the issue here, but I would suggest to at least attend the drawing ceremony tomorrow before despairing. It might be in your favor.”

“Well, I for one second that motion. Unlike this drunken loser, I have no intention of throwing in the towel before the fight even began”, Beatrice claimed, now yawning as well. “That said, this can wait until tomorrow. If you excuse me, I shall retire to my quarters.”

Looks like everyone is pretty tired. Well, it was a long day. Might not be too bad of an idea to turn in early today.

That said, it was still only 8 P.M, that was even early for early. Anything else to do before bed?