The Temple of the Lion

Wandering around proved fruitless, so she eventually decided to just ask someone. No one seemed particularly approachable and they all generally seemed to be avoiding her, however politely, so she just had to pick at random.

Tugging on a passing man's coat, she said, 'excuse me, could you tell me where to find the temple of Ariel?'

The man, middle-aged and portly with bushy black eyebrows that matched his large moustache, turned to her and his face went from weary to serene in an instant. He stared up at her, first at her face and then at her bust, until she crossed her arms once again. The movement brought him back to his senses, and he finally replied, 'um, yes, Miss Angel, the temple is next to Helga's Potion Shop, you can see that from here, look, the building emitting all those purple fumes.'

She had indeed seen the fumes. 'Thank you,' she said, as sweetly as she could manage.

'No, no, no, thank you, miss! It has made my day to behold such a beauty as you! We are so blessed to have an angel in our midst!' He shook her hand for far too long before going about the rest of his evening. The experience bewildered her but she tried to push it out of her mind and simply walked over to the potion shop.

He'd been right, and the temple, such as it was, was awkwardly crammed between that shop and another, much less showy, shop for magic items. The buildings were terraced and the dividing line was quite striking, as the temple was entirely painted gold. Next to the door was an altar featuring a statuette in the likeness of the young man she remembered. The one who gave her this great gift. She mouthed a thank you before entering the building, to chaotic scenes of priestesses, in revealing golden dresses, rushing around. Once she made her presence known, with an awkward cough, they all dropped what they were doing and turned to look at her, with shock, at first, and then fear.

'I am an one of Ariel's angels,' she announced, feeling bold, 'and I command you to attend me.'

For a good long while, none of them spoke. Their fear seemed to grow with every passing moment, and it caused her dread. She wondered if they somehow knew exactly who, or what, she was. Had Ariel told them? If he had, presumably he'd also explained that they were safe on sacred ground and that she had sworn not to harm the innocent. Eventually, she felt herself becoming angry. She wanted to shout at them and was only stopped short of doing so when one of them finally spoke.

'We are protected here, monster,' a girl said, with trepidation in her voice but an air of authority, 'if you try to hurt us, the Lion of Heaven will strike you down.' She was beautiful, with big brown eyes and yellow hair, full lips and wide hips. Callisto wanted her bad, and almost growled with arousal. Of course, those feelings just made her ashamed of herself, so she decided to plead rather than argue.

'I'm not a monster, please believe me. I'm an angel. Your lord made me himself.' She knew, instinctively, that an angel would never be so whiny but she felt her confidence slipping away. The beast roared through its muzzle, in outrage and disgust.

The girl seemed to steel herself, 'there is an easy way to tell. You are weakened here, and we are empowered. I will fight you, though I am only a girl, and defeat you. If you try to use your claws or your teeth, we will call upon Ariel's power and smite you.'

She remembered the things he'd spoken of, but she could not tell if what she was saying made sense. She was not attacking this place, nor were they defending it. Then again, perhaps they were, if only because they believed they were and that would count for whatever metaphysical nonsense determined such things. Callisto did not think she would be weakened, since she had a human soul, which they'd told her was a Light soul. Since it seemed like defeat only meant being expelled, unless she broke their rules, she decided to accept, 'okay, I will fight you but, if I win, you should apologise to me.' She needed to claw back some of her pride, at least.

'Agreed,' the girl said before disrobing and beckoning her to the far end of the main room, where the pews, which were really just dark wooden steps, finished their descent, and there was a large open space with a thin cream carpet. A few of the other women sheepishly manoeuvred an alter, and other obstructions, out of the way, as the naked girl got herself into a wrestling stance.

Nude wrestling with a pretty girl. If it hadn't already lasted so long, Callisto would've been convinced that she was in some porn-addled daydream. Sighing, she walked down and admired her adversary. God, her body was fine. Her breasts were a little small, but her hips and thighs made up for it. She had a cute little tuft of yellow hair between her legs but, elsewise, her skin looked perfectly smooth and soft. Her shame spoke for her, 'do we really have to be naked?'

'Nudity is pure and lovely. You monsters have tried to corrupt it, with your perversions, but in this place, we are innocent. I can tell there is naught but filth behind your eyes, but I assure you, you'll get no satisfaction from me.'

Callisto became afraid, then. Perhaps she was telling the truth and her own mind had betrayed her. She was a monster because of the monstrous thoughts in her head. No, she reasoned, shaking her head, these women just loved cock, and mistook their lack of sexual interest in each other's bodies for real chastity. She was not being monstrous, just realistic. Everyone had these kinds of thoughts and urges. It was human. She was human.

She got herself into position, letting her armour fade into the ether as her sword had, and waited for the fight to begin, though she had no idea who, if anyone, was keeping score. It was time to put all those hours at that after-school club to work. When the girl came at her, it took all of her self-control not to burst out laughing. She felt relief roll over her as the girl's weak attempt to take her down floundered. She let herself enjoy the sensation of having a girl grab at her arms and writhe against her waist before making her move.

'I told you so,' she said, allowing herself a little bit of smug satisfaction as she grappled the girl and took her down with ease. She got on top of her and the girl struggled uselessly, making a squealing noise that she almost responded to with a moan of her own. Soon enough, Callisto had her pinned, though no one called the match. She laid on top of her for as long as she had to, relishing every second of it as she brought one knee between her legs and dangerously close to her exposed sex. 'Yield,' she finally spat, as much to the rest of the women as to the one underneath her.

A groan was all the girl could manage, but their audience eventually intervened. 'Get off of her!' one of them called, and Callisto obliged.

'See? I proved it. I'm an angel.' The women all shot her sceptical looks but none of them dared to argue. She turned to help her opponent up and noticed something when she looked into her eyes. The girl's demeanour had completely changed, from nervousness and anger to dreamy serenity.

'She's right,' the girl announced, 'there's no way she could be so strong in a place like this, if she were truly a monster. We should be kind to her, attend her and love her.'

Callisto felt the emotional whiplash from that statement as keenly as the rest of the people gathered around. One of them spoke up, a slightly older one, skinny with long black hair, 'Sister Tandy, surely you can't be serious. Whatever this thing is, it's no angel.'

The girl - Tandy, she now knew - glared daggers in response, 'don't ever say that again!' she bellowed, almost screeching, before turning to Callisto and stroking her arm, 'I'm so sorry for not believing you.' It almost seemed like she was about to start crying.

This world made no sense at all. 'It's alright, I understand why you doubted my story.'

'No, no, no,' she demurred, 'it was wrong of me.'

Hit with a startling notion, Callisto strode right up to the girl who'd challenged Tandy.

She was frightened at first but as soon as they were less than a foot apart, she melted. 'You,' she faltered, 'you really are an angel. Forgive me.' The effect was not so strong as it had been on Tandy but it had still occurred, unmistakably. It was a power of hers, she realised, one of the blessings Ariel had given her.

For a while, as the girls around her continued to patter about, frantically, Callisto warred with herself over whether or not to exploit this ability. On the one hand, it felt wrong, almost like mind control but, on the other hand, it was an angelic blessing, from one of the good guys - or so he'd said - so it didn't seem so wrong. In the end, practically won out. She made a promise to herself not to **** it. Otherwise, she felt free to put every woman in the temple on the right page. It was somewhat irritating to track them all down but within an hour, every last one of them had looked up at her reverently and had either apologised or been too embarrassed to say anything.

In good time, she was given a room and some food, though, for whatever reason, she didn't feel hungry at all and didn't eat. She was mostly left alone, which meant that she had a lot of time to contemplate the situation she was in. Her state of high emotion had long since faded, and she could now look at her situation logically.

She'd died. The memories of that were still a little too painful to dwell on. Then, she'd been given the chance to be reincarnated into this world, this Ruyanei, as a monster, specifically a **** monster. It had appealed to her. That was hard for her admit to herself but it was the truth. Deep down, she wanted to take without asking, and to hurt anyone who resisted. In the end, though, she refused to act on her feelings, which, she told herself, is what really mattered. An angel, or a deity, or something else, had come and brought her to her senses. He'd given her the ultimate gift, not a monstrous body but the one she'd always wanted, or close to it. Now she was here, and she needed to start acting like an angel, a warrior of Light, not the perverted failure she'd been in her past life.

'I am an angel,' she said to herself, repeating it as many times as she needed to for it to sink in. She focused on the sensation in her wings, the clearest proof that she was not lying to herself. Eventually, her self-image morphed from something better left forgotten to something resembling one of those heroes she'd seen, a woman with a sword in her hand and shining armour, ready to defend the innocent and smite the evil.

She was interrupted a while later, after most of the temple's roster had fallen asleep. Tandy came, looking nervous, wearing a diaphanous white nightgown. Callisto yearned to touch her again, to wrestle with her and grind against but she let none of her feelings show. Whilst the girl stumbled around for whatever she'd planned to say, she activated her God's Eye. Tandy was young, scarcely older than eighteen, given up to the temple as an orphaned child. It was the only life she'd ever known and she was sincerely devoted to her patron. She learned what Tandy, and presumably her fellows, had initially thought of Callisto, believing her to be a monster. Part of the girl still did believe it, but she felt conflicted. She'd been aroused during their fight and had fallen in love.

Love? The startled her. Callisto had never known romantic love, though she'd had crushes and obsessions, always unrequited.

The girl then spoke, ripping her from her thoughts, 'I just wanted to apologise, again.' That was a lie, the God's Eye told her.

'No, you wanted to see my body again,' she replied, evenly.

Tandy blushed and turned to leave.

'I don't mind. You can look.'

'I really shouldn't. I'm sorry, truly.'

Callisto felt her fist clench in frustration, and she decided to be bold. She would need to train herself to shed her hesitation. Crossing the room, she loomed over the girl and pinned her against the door. Seeing the heat rise in her cheeks made her heart pound and she took a kiss without asking. Tandy squirmed and squealed but eventually began to return it, kissing her back and granting her tongue its eager entrance.

Tandy spoke, breathily, when the contact was finally broken, only managing to say, 'whoa.'

'My name's Callisto, by the way.'

'Callisto,' she said, wistfully, as she was lured into the bed.

She could hear Tandy's shallow breaths as the two awkwardly shared a bed made for one, their faces mere inches away from one another. For the first time in her life, she was in bed with a beautiful woman. They laid together in comfortable silence for a while and it drove her wild. Slowly, she reached her hand towards the girl's leg, trailing her fingers along her thighs and across her navel, and staring deeply into her eyes.

Tandy exhaled, shakily, and made no attempt to protest physically but said, 'I am sworn to celibacy.'

As much as Callisto simply wanted to press head without saying anything, her better nature **** her to try persuasion, 'can't you make an exception for me? I'm an angel, after all.'

Tandy considered that, her mind seeming to struggle. Callisto knew what she wanted in her heart of hearts, however, because her God's Eye had told her so.

'Do me this kindness,' she said, kissing the palm of the girl's hand, 'please.'

After another tortuous long while, struggling against her own mind, Tandy answered her, silently, with a tender kiss and a hand placed on her hip. Soon after, they were stroking and caressing one another all over. Kisses came more regularly after that, each one more eager than the last. Callisto thought the softness of her bed mate's lips might bring her to orgasm from the kisses alone. If this was all that there was, if this was all just an elaborate fever dream running through her dying mind and it was coming to an end, she would die happy.

'I want you,' she moaned, as her thoughts ran to carnal vulgarity, grabbing one of her breasts and pressing one of her knees against Tandy's cunt.

Her bed partner growled, shaky and low, 'then take me.'

That was all Callisto needed and soon she was kissing Tandy's body all over, first her neck and then her chest. When she got to the girl's breasts she wanted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Instead, she held them and squeezed them, taking care not to scratch them, and took one into her mouth. Tandy gasped as she sucked on her nipple, tickling it with her tongue. She tore herself away quite quickly, after, however, since there was a much juicier fruit waiting for her down below. She manoeuvred the priestess onto her back, eliciting a lovely squeak and a cute look of fear and embarrassment as the girl's eyes darted to the door.

She spread her wings out, instinctively, and it felt great, exactly as though she were stretching her arms or legs, and observed her first conquest as she knelt between her legs. The girl was beautiful but it was the redness of her cheeks that most aroused her. She got herself into a comfortable position on her stomach and then went to town, descending on Tandy's pussy without warning. The girl had to clasp her hands tight around her mouth to stop from screaming as Callisto began to lap up her juices. It was bliss and she closed her eyes, to focus entirely on devouring her.

Gripping tightly onto her hips as she began to buck violently against her, Callisto **** her to ride out the fist orgasm and then the second, refusing to let up even for a second. By the time she'd run out of things to throw across the room, Tandy was squealing and screaming unbidden, daring the whole temple to wake up. No one stirred and, with a girl writhing uncontrollably beneath her, Callisto decided to test her abilities. Soon, just as she'd once had a sword and armour, she had managed to conjure a dildo made of hardened light. It was crudely made but felt great as soon as she grabbed it, the back end of the toy rubbing against her own walls.

Tandy was too bewildered to see it, so she just got straight to work, pressing the construct into her virginal cunt. At that, the girl's eyes went wide and she groaned with a mix of pain and pleasure. 'Fuck,' was all she managed to say when she tried to speak.

She had no interest in making it hurt, as much as the beast bristled against the notion of treating her gently, so she went slowly. She received growls of pleasure each time she went further, and it did not take long for all six inches of the thing to get up inside her. She picked up her pace only once she knew the girl could handle it and began to thrust in and out. She relished the noises it caused her to make and, eventually, they came together. Callisto's body shook as it had never shaken before and she felt a tremendous wave of relief wash over her body along with the roils of pleasure and the sensation caused her to have a second climax just a few minutes after the first.

That was not the end, however, as she went back to ploughing the girl, determined to keep fucking her until she fell asleep from exhaustion. By the time she felt the slightest bit tired, she'd lost count of her orgasms and Tandy's. Her heart continued to thunder inside her chest long after she'd pulled out and fallen on her back. Tandy was eventually able to soothe her, however, as she laid in Callisto's arms and caressed her. She went to sleep that night, perfectly contented.