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Peony sat with her butt against the wall, trying not to touch her broken leg. This entire thing was so, so, fucking stupid. Her family had really fucked up by throwing in with Thanatos. Only reason she saw to want to live your next life next to your relative was in the hopes that old Daedalus himself would be your kid, so the moment he popped out you could smash his brains against the pavement in revenge for what he'd done to them. For the rest, well - people didn't remember their past lives. Thanatos saw to that.

Now that shit was basically out the window anyway, and the Ikelos part of the family, the part that wasn't stupid enough to join up with the group literally called Evilus, were stuck holding the bag. Revis was a fucking monster.

None of this was how they operated. This wasn't why they operated. Knossos was supposed to be a big secret, the great project to be unveiled when it was finished, and now the Loki familia knew all about it, and were able to march right in and pop Thanatos off like the cork from a wine bottle. She looked back at the surveillance device, which was still weird as fuck. "Could one of you idiots-" by that, she meant the former Thanatos members who hadn't gotten themselves killed by Revis, "-see what's going on? I don't want to stand on this broken leg."

The smell was starting to get bad, honestly. Adventurers had a better sense of smell. If you were a human, it wasn't close to a lot of other races, but the blood just... stank.

One of the former Thanatos familia members - one of the ones who had enough brains not to suicide bomb the combat monster that was Revis - leaned forward towards the device, the veil once more illuminating images from across Knossos. She stared at it quietly, trying to pick out where Revis was... but after looking closely, she saw that Revis wasn't here. She glanced down at her leg. "Either of you have a healing potion?" She asked. She could get out. Not of Orario - she still had to work on building Knossos, thanks to Daedalus's everlasting curse on all his descendants - but she could leave this shitty room full of corpses.

"No," they both said after a moment.

She sighed, looking down at her leg. She could maybe limp along... fucking bitch. She forced herself to her feet, leaning against a wall, starting to hobble her way out of Knossos, very, very, very slowly.

Fuck Thanatos, fuck Enyo, fuck Revis, and fuck every one of Peony's stupid cousins whose retarded asses got them in this fuckawful situation.

* * *

Revis sat on the chair. Its wood grooves didn't feel right to her, the way they pressed against her bare skin. Comfort wasn't part of this new life. Ryu was talking, explaining everything that had happened to her, everyone she had been. Alise Lovell. Captain of the Astraea familia. Friend to Kaguya, Lyra, Neze, Iska, Maryuu, Noin, Asta, Ryana, Celty. Shining exemplar of justice.

No matter how closely she listened, no matter how much she tried to imagine the things that Ryu described, or retrieve them from some hidden room in the back of her mind - all the names and descriptions stirred up very little. Occasionally, there would be some small flash of recollection. Kaguya's dark hair. Ryana's smile. The way she adjusted her posture so she didn't feel like she was looking down at Lyra. Astraea's fingertips brushing across her cheek, who knows how long ago, some sense of... something, carried alongside it. But that was all. There was no flood of anything, no rush of memory.

In all of it, she was left with one question: where was Alise? She'd seen her past self, and that past self seemed to know so much more than she did. More than Ryu did. When Alise spoke, Revis listened and heard. When Ryu spoke, it was just stories.

At some point, Ryu's voice became hoarse, and the silver-haired girl - Ryu's friend, Syr - came with a tall glass of water, offering it up to her. She gave Revis a brief glance, something curious and intense, before giving the pair of them space again.

Revis just listened. She knew she wasn't getting that much out of the stories that Ryu was telling. She'd forget most of them. But she hoped that one, just one, would pierce deep into her mind and let loose Alise.

It didn't, in the end. Ryu started yawning in her stories, and the sun came up, and eventually Revis did feel something familiar and old. "You should go to sleep, Lion," she said.

"A-ah," Ryu looked at the window, as if just realizing how long she'd been talking for. "You are correct, Alise. Thank you." She laid back down in her bed, sighing. "I am truly glad you are alive, Alise," she said, reaching out with one hand for Revis's own, giving it an affectionate squeeze.

"I know," Revis said. It wasn't the first time Ryu had said that.

Ryu didn't respond. She just passed out on the bed, slumping down into it. Revis looked down at her for a long moment, then reached for the blanket, pulling it up and over the elf's slender form, standing up, every bone in her body seeming to crack and clatter against one another.

The man said something to her, as she started to go - he seemed perfectly refreshed and fine somehow - but she was tired of listening from listening to Ryu, and she didn't know the man, so she just ignored him. He wound up walking after her, but she didn't care about that. He followed her all the way back to Daedalus Street, all the way to a door to Knossos, at which point he did say something she vaguely cared about, enough to process, "...what should I tell Ryu?"

"About what?" Revis asked.

He nodded to himself, his head bobbing from side to side. "I figured you weren't listening. About where you're going and what you're doing."

"Knossos," she said, pointing to it. What was she doing? "Going home."

"You think of Knossos as your home?"

"No. The Dungeon is my home." He looked less than pleased with that answer, but she didn't care what he thought. She took out the orb, opening the door to Knossos, starting to walk inside. He watched her go, but didn't follow.

* * *

"Fuck bitch," Peony grunted, the two curses coming together so smoothly as to almost sound like a single word. The individual steps weren't the problem - most of the time, she managed to avoid putting any weight on her injured leg, managed to avoid anything more than a numb pain as she wobbled her way up through Knossos. But every so often, she moved wrong, and agonizing pain hit her again.

She had actually wound up taking a nap at one point in the process of climbing through Knossos, it was so slow and laborious. The Loki familia had pretty much cleared out Knossos, which meant nobody was there to really help her, except the two fuckheads who couldn't have helped a rabbit out of a hat. She'd gotten rid of them just because she couldn't bear to hang around them.

Hadn't she told the rest of her family? Hadn't she said? She grit her teeth and just kept moving. Fine. Whatever. Fucking - they'd figure something out. They always did. There was a thousand years of labor in Knossos, they weren't the first to work on it and they sure wouldn't be the last. Loki could do whatever she wanted, cuntwhore, they'd be back to work in time.

"Fucking twat," she hissed out, as she put her leg down wrong again, agonizing pain shooting up the broken limb, and she just halfway collapsed against the wall. Her breathing was ragged, and she wound up - very, very carefully - sliding her way down to sit on her ass again. The moment she was there, she remembered what an unbelievably painful experience it would be to get back up, so she decided to stay there for a bit, just trying to recover from her hellish journey, currently probably... half finished. Maybe more.

As she rested, she heard footsteps in the distance. It was a single set, and they weren't rushing, so the soft clip-clop was probably a friend rather than a foe. She considered getting up, then decided that she'd be better off just waiting here for them to show up. If they were friendly, they could help her up, and if they weren't, she could play dead or surrender or something.

The figure turned the corner, stepping into Peony's own lamp. It was Revis, because of course it fucking was. How bad did her luck have to be, really? She'd even specifically picked a different exit, just so that she wouldn't meet Revis. She looked up at Revis as she stepped close. "Hello," Peony said, her voice sardonic and bored. If this bitch wanted to drag her back to the surveillance device, she'd have to carry her the whole way, because she sure as fuck wasn't walking back.

"Ah." Beautiful word. Revis just stared down at her. "You're the one whose leg I broke," she added. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think?" Peony replied, rolling her eyes.

Revis just stared, her lips turning into a thin line. Bitch looked angry, which meant Peony was about to die. Hopefully she could give Thanatos a good kick in the balls when she got up to Heaven. Or Daedalus. Or both. Either/or. "I broke your leg to keep you from moving."

"Yep," she agreed.

Revis stared at her. Fuck. She was acting like even more of an empty-headed machine than normal. "What would Alise do?" She muttered to herself, turning her gaze down to her hand.

"The fuck should I know? Who's Alise? Either kill me or move on, I've got a long way back to the surface."

Revis stared at her again. "You're going to the surface?"

"Yes. It's where I live. I am not actually your personal unlock device who unlocks the security system."

"I see." Revis nodded. "Good luck," she said, then walked on past, moving as if Peony's presence wasn't a concern of hers at all. For about a minute, Peony listened closely as Revis walked away, entering the inky darkness of Knossos and thereby vanishing from sight, her footsteps nevertheless echoing through the halls, until finally fading beyond what she could hear.

Wait. Revis was gone. She wasn't going to get killed? That bitch killed everybody who pissed her off. And that should have included Peony. Peony let out a long sigh of relief, put her hand down to start getting up - and then let out a silent scream of pain as she was painfully reminded that her leg was broken.

Right. Fuck. She let the pain subside, then very slowly and carefully, got back up, to slowly hobble her way out of Knossos.

She wasn't risking Revis coming back and deciding to kill her.

* * *

Ryu woke up, staring at the ceiling. There was no light in her room. It was night. She groaned, wiping at her face. There were still tears staining her cheeks. Her dreams had been unbearably sweet - now that she was awake again, plunged into the real world, she remembered that Alise was dead.

She paused at that thought, trying to think of the flaw in her logic. Syr popped her head in as she did so. "Good afternoon, sleepyhead," she said, with an airy charm. "Or evening, maybe! You missed your shift for today, but don't worry," she said, with a wink, "I covered for you with Mama Mia, and you can pay me back later."

"Thank you," Ryu said, with a solemn nod, shifting her position on the bed, lowering her legs over it. "I had..." she sighed. "A very nice dream."

Syr stared at her, then closed her eyes. "Ryu. Do you think that what happened last night was a dream?"

"I do not know how I could answer that question without you being more specific," Ryu replied.

"Last night, Alise came by to visit you, and you chatted her ear off until you passed out from exhaustion," Syr told her.

"Ah." Ryu blinked. So it wasn't a dream. "I see. Thank you for telling me." She slid her body off the bed gingerly, rising to her feet, collecting her clothing to get dressed.

"So eager to be up and out?" Syr asked.

"Yes," Ryu said. "If last night was not a dream, then I owe Drake a sincere expression of my gratitude."

Syr stared at her for several seconds, looking to be about to say something - then she just sighed. "Alright, Ryu," she said, giving her a half-hearted smile. She reached over to gently squeeze Ryu's shoulder, her expression looking like she was sending her child off to war, rather than saying a friend could go visit another friend.

"Thank you for taking over my shift," Ryu said, not sure if she had said it already.

"No problem! Anything for my second favorite person in the whole world," Syr said with a shining smile, and Ryu felt a certain glow hit her cheeks. Syr's smile seemed to grow brighter. "Ooo, somebody's weak to compliments, don't let Drake use them on you too much," she said, with a playful laugh. She paused for a moment, sliding one hand down to Ryu's own, clasping her fingers together with Ryu's. Among the elves, that sort of touch would most certainly have been strange and improper, but with Syr - "Ryu. I really do care about you. Don't do anything... in a rush, with Drake, okay? For me?"

Ryu was more confused than anything else, but she nodded. "Very well," she said, giving Syr a brisk nod before heading off, going right for the Loki familia headquarters, the Twilight Manor seeming particularly beautiful today as she looked upon it.

The gate guard looked at her. "What business do you have?"

"I want to speak to Drake Holt," she told him.

"Another one," he groaned out. "Right. I'll send the message up," he said, fiddling with something inside his little building. "Who is it?"

"Ryu Lion," she told him.

"Mhm," he said.

She did not understand what he was doing, but a minute later, Drake emerged, Cass and Erza following right after him on either side, so it must have worked. "Hello, Drake," she said, waving to him gently through the gate bars - he promptly just leapt over said bars, Cass and Erza following a moment later.

Erza surprised her with another forceful bear hug, making her let out a noise of surprise. "I am glad to see you are feeling better! I last saw you in emotional agony, but then reunited with your friend, and I am glad it has brought you happiness!"

"Yeah," Drake agreed, a soft smile on his face. "Let her go, Erza," he added, apparently able to recognize that Erza's hugs were a bit too enthusiastic.

Erza released her, smiling warmly. "What brings you to the Loki familia headquarters?" Erza suddenly sucked in a sharp breath through her nose. "Ah! Did you mean to join the Loki familia?!" Her expression was giddy. "That would be incredible! We could spend lots of time together, doing things like helping one another with our hair, trying on new clothes, ah!" Erza bounced around in place in excitement.

"No," Cass said. "She's here... for Drake..."

"Oh," Drake said. "For me?"

"Yes." Ryu gave a gentle bow, feeling her heart pounding in her chest that little bit harder as she bowed to Drake. "I wanted to express my sincerest gratitude for what you did for Alise. She told me about what happened, in Knossos," she said, rising up again. "It is thanks to you that I have been able to speak to her again." Her eyes focused on Drake's lips rather than his own eyes for some reason. They were half-quirked upwards, a loose smile, which made her heart pump all the faster. She managed to force her gaze up to his eyes.

"I'm glad to have been able to help."

"Ah! Ryu!" Erza said, her voice sharp and sudden, making Ryu suddenly look her way. "You haven't washed since yesterday, have you?"

Ryu blinked, looking down at herself. She had gone into Knossos, laid in bed crying, Alise had arrived, she had spoken to her all through the night, gone to sleep in the early morning, then she woke up and came straight here. "No."

"In that case, please! Guard! Let our friend Ryu in!"

"Oh yeah, friend," he said, with a long-suffering sigh. He fiddled with something again, and after a minute, there was a tinkling bell sound from inside the room. "Yes, you can come in," he said, stepping out to open the gate properly.

"It's... a thing..." Cass said, making Ryu confused about what she was talking about. "There's... a string... with two bells... they talk... that way..." she explained. "Rei... made it... that's why... he reaches down there..."

"Ah. I see," Ryu said. "Thank you for your hospitality, Erza, Cass, Drake, and yourself, Mister..."

"Argrave," he said. "Brian Argrave."

"Thank you, Brian," she said.

She then followed an excitable Erza into the shower room. Cass joined her, all three women stripping themselves bare in short order. Her thoughts were distant, however. They were on Drake, not on what Erza was saying about washing her hair properly, or on cleaning her own body. She just let the pleasantly warm water of the shower wash over her as she thought about the matter of Drake again. His smile. She wondered if he was in the men's shower, which made her blush for some reason.

Cass spoke up at that point. "You... like Drake..." she said, making Ryu turn her head up to Cass.

"Yes. He has been kind to me, and helped me, in ways no one else could or did. I am very thankful to him."

"No..." Cass paused. "You don't... see it," she finished, limply. She paused for a long moment. "You should... kiss him," she explained.

Ryu felt a heat grow in her cheeks at that, turning her gaze to the faucet suddenly. Kiss-? She had never kissed anyone. Her hand went to her lips, as if to shield them from a potential kiss. A kiss... with Drake... She swallowed. That thought... she liked that thought. A lot. She thought about it. She wanted to kiss Drake. Yes. That was the logical conclusion. That was why she had been staring at his lips.

She stepped out of the shower, drying herself off. She should kiss Drake. Cass spoke again. "Let me... come," she said, also exiting the shower in a half-rush, drying herself off.

Ryu didn't know why Cass would want to come along, but she nodded in acceptance, waiting patiently for Cass to dress herself, before both of them left the shower room. They soon found Drake, where he was sitting at a desk, writing quite thoroughly. Ryu peered at the text he was writing, curious as to what it was.

Ryu's cheeks were hot as she stared, wondering what the next line of the story would be, and Cass cleared her throat, making Drake turn away from his writing, seeing that Ryu was looking at it, and then hurriedly flipping the paper over. "Please don't watch me write," he said. "They're for my wives."

Ryu felt truly embarrassed and humiliated in the moment, her cheeks bright red. "Oh. I am sorry. I will leave."

"Don't," Cass said, making Ryu pause, simply standing there quietly. She wondered what would happen in that story after the kissing. They were already having sex, after all. Her gaze was drawn to the paper, though she couldn't see through to the other side. "She... wants to... kiss you," Cass told Drake.

"Oh!" Drake said, standing up quickly. "Sorry, Ryu. I- I just don't like people looking over my shoulder as I write in general, especially not private things. I'm not angry." He paused for a second. "Do you still want to kiss me?"

She looked at his lips. They looked very inviting. She nodded. Drake leaned down over her, from his towering height, coming to her lips and softly pressing them against hers. It was a gentle touch, intimate and strange at the same time, the soft feeling so distracting and disorienting, making goosebumps run along her spine despite how minimal the contact was. He broke off the kiss, smiling gently at her. "There. A kiss."

"She wants... more kissing," Cass offered, and Ryu immediately nodded. Drake smiled and leaned in again, pressing his lips against hers once more.

He tasted nice. His lips felt nice against hers. Then there was a soft flick of his tongue against her lips, and she straightened up in surprise, not knowing what to do next. The only thing she could think to do was the same thing that he had just done, flicking her own tongue against his lips. He seemed to like that, reciprocating once more, and soon enough, their tongues weren't licking one another's lips, but instead were licking each other's tongues. It felt good, and pleasant, and intimate, and warm, and wet, and she felt her heart racing the longer they kept doing it.

Then he broke off the kiss. "Better?" She nodded. "Would you like more?" She nodded. She didn't know what 'more' meant, but she didn't care very much at all. He leaned into her once again, kissing her on the lips, and this time, his fingers reached for her body, softly trailing through her hair, along her neck, down to her back. He stopped halfway down, fingers somewhere around the small of her back. She found that she wished his fingers kept going downward, to her butt, as their tongues kept flashing against one another.

"She wants... your hand lower..." Cass said, and Ryu hummed in agreement, prompting Drake's fingers to slide down to her buttocks, his fingers softly wrapping around her butt and giving it a gentle squeeze. His other hand arrived at her hips, slowly sliding up, and up, until it finally reached her chest, gently cupping it, teasing at her nipple with his thumb. She shivered softly as she kissed him. His hands felt very nice against her. He was obviously very well practiced, which made sense, as he was married many times over, and by how Erza and Cass spoke of him, he loved all his wives very much.

She wondered if she could touch him, like he was touching her. Or maybe more. "She wants... to touch you..." Cass said, then changed who she was speaking to. "He... wants that..." she told Ryu, making her cheeks burn, but her hands followed the implicit request, fingers trailing along his chest, feeling up his pecs. He was a very muscular man. Most elven men, even the athletic ones, had a lithe figure, and while he wasn't bulky by human standards, he was by elven standards. She decided, after squeezing at his pecs a few times, that she liked it. She liked the feeling of his body in her hands, as her fingers trailed down his body, eventually finding his abs, running along those, as well. He was very impressively muscular, with a well-shaped body that made her heart pound that little bit faster as she touched him.

And a little bit faster as she contemplated letting her hands continue on their trailing journey downward.

If she reached for that, then there would be no turning back. Her heart pounded as she thought about it. As she made her decision, to step beyond her fingers on his body, his fingers on hers, and let her hand continue its slide downward - but she paused. Was she going too far? "He won't... mind..." Cass said, her voice soft and reassuring, and Ryu trusted her, letting her fingers slip down to Drake's pants, feeling his erection, his tumescent length extremely hard through the fabric. Tangible. Delightful. She panted into his mouth as she felt him up, and he reciprocated in kind, moving his hand from her buttocks to the front, slipping under her skirt and then brushing his fingers over her sex through her panties.

She panted softly into his mouth. The feeling down there was intense and intoxicating, the sort of thing that made her breathing turn ever more ragged as she felt his fingers brush her body. She squirmed under the attention, her breathing becoming hotter, harder, faster... her own hand on his length became similarly excited, seeming to trace his manhood out entirely, to take note of every single part of it.

Then he broke off the kiss, his own expression seeming as aroused as hers as they stared into one another's eyes. "Ryu," he said. "Would you like to...?" He made a small gesture with a jerk of his head over to the bed. She felt her cheeks burn, but she nodded in ready acceptance. He took hold of the base of her skirt at that point, peeling her dress up and off her body, her own arms cooperating readily. As he started to work her bra off, she reached down for his pants, wanting to see what she had felt. It took barely a second to pull his pants and underwear down enough to reveal his turgid length to the open air, the rod throbbing, seeming absolutely enormous - impossibly so - to Ryu's inexperienced eyes. How could something like that fit?

"It... fits," Cass reassured her, as Drake undid her bra, stepping back for a moment and pulling off his shirt. His body most certainly looked intensely, naturally appealing, sheared of all clothes as he stood naked in front of her. She almost resisted the urge to pull off her own panties, simply because she knew that she was aroused, and was worried he would be as enchanted with staring at the physical evidence of her arousal as she was with his.

In the end, she didn't, though, joining him in nudity, as he drew her alongside him over to the bed. He paused, glancing back at Cass, as if for guidance. "Her... on top... I think..." Cass said, her cheeks burning as she ducked her head just a little.

"Cass is pretty good at reading people," Drake said, which, in Ryu's experience, was a vast understatement, but she nodded anyway, as he laid down on the bed. "Straddle me, I'll show you what to do."

"I am aware of how to have sex," Ryu said. Even if she had not actually done it, she knew. She was twenty-one years old, after all. He nodded in response, and she moved to place herself over him. His hard rod pointed up towards the ceiling and, as she shifted her body, towards her sex. He took hold of the base, and she began to descend down towards it, soon finding the very tip entering her, her whole body faintly trembling at the sensation of it.

She was about to lose her chastity. Her maidenhood.

She could not think of anyone she would rather do so with, than Drake.

She kept going downward, letting her inner walls caress his length, his hard cock spearing up inside her inch by inch. She expected some pain, from the way women spoke of first times, but there was none - his length smoothly slid inside her, up until his length had completely entered her, her sex wrapped taut around his cock. She let out a faint groan as she felt him inside her, the idlest movements of her hips now brushing his hard rod all over her inner walls, making her pant. His hand slid slowly up her flank, rising towards her breast, one finger seeming to tease at something in the air, right in front of her sternum.

"Would you like me to make it very, very good?" He asked her.

She contemplated the question seriously for a moment, then nodded. There was no reason not to make it very, very good. His fingers moved as if pulling down a single string, as it slid down her body, eventually turning around to tease at her clitoris with his index and middle fingers, making her breath catch in her throat at the touch. It felt amazing, the way he touched her down there. "Please, do more of that," she asked him, and he nodded, smiling.

His other hand grasped her by the hip and began to guide her movements. She could have resisted him, but she didn't, instead enjoying the way he shifted her body, seeming to actively seek out the ways to move her that made her feel best. Her breath caught in her throat, ever-lewder noises escaping her lips, utterly obscene in the moment. "Ahn, aham, oh," she panted, as he touched her like that, her eyes closing so she could focus her mind more intensely on the sensations going on down in between her thighs, the way his fingers teased her clitoris, the way his hard length rubbed across her insides just so, twisting her up and down gingerly, grinding his length against a particularly sensitive point inside her.

She could feel her breath quickening, and realized she was doing little for his pleasure. Her hands went to his chest, caressing his pecs, teasing his nipples, and she leaned down over him, meeting his lips with hers, tongue flashing out to batter against his. He let out a soft groan into her mouth, and kept at his hard work making her body feel as good as he could manage - which was quite good. She had hardly any idea what to do, and was trying to figure something out, when Cass spoke up again.

"You should... squeeze," Cass said. Ryu glanced out of the corner of the eye, seeing Cass, fully dressed, sitting in the chair, a bright smile on her lips as she gently rocked back and forth with obvious delight and excitement. "With your..." Cass blushed rather than saying the word, but Ryu understood.

Ryu tried to squeeze on Drake's length that way, and he groaned in pleasure, which encouraged her to repeat the process, feeling his length throb inside her. She ground herself against him more thoroughly as well, feeling her clitoris pressing down against his pelvic bone - and then she orgasmed. Even if she'd never had one before, the sensation was unmistakable, a lightning bolt of pleasure coming up from in between her thighs, directly assaulting her brain. She jerked in place in response to his touch, moaning softly into his mouth, her sex tightening and squeezing his length all on its own, now, doing its best to milk him dry as she shivered in place.

The orgasm left her slowly, ebbing out of her body as she shuddered atop him, still pressing her lips against his as she came back to herself. His fingers continued to play with her clitoris, and he continued to guide her in how best to move on his cock to rub against her most sensitive spots. She didn't know if he was even really enjoying himself - he seemed entirely focused on maximizing her pleasure. On the other hand, perhaps he liked to bring her pleasure? He had asked if she would like him to make it "very, very good." She decided to let him set the pace on such matters, since he knew how he liked sex, much better than she knew how she liked sex.

She was enjoying herself, pressing down against him, nipples scraping into his chest - when it hit her. Her entire body suddenly became vastly more sensitive, the merest brush of his fingertips against her clit the sort of thing that would make her come, the feeling of his hard rod inside her utterly intoxicating, her nipples scraping against his chest feeling more sensitive than her clit had mere moments before. She panted breathlessly into his mouth, her eyes widening in pleasure, and he slid one hand up from her flank to her hair, gently pulling her off the kiss, staring up at her face with obvious lust. She was certain she looked utterly obscene, given the sheer pleasure coursing through her body, but the way his eyes devoured her body only made her more aroused.

"Do you like it?" He asked her, his voice having this playful edge to it, and she nodded rapidly. This was his doing. Something he'd done. This was what he'd been asking about. A fresh orgasm hit her, far more intense than her previous one, and her pussy squeezed on his cock again, a rhythmic vibration as her whole body shuddered in place, a lewd mewl escaping her throat. "I'm glad, Ryu. You deserve happiness," he told her, leaning in, kissing along her neck, each feather light touch of his lips sending a fresh jolt of pleasure through her body.

She tried, weakly, to rise on his cock, certain that would feel better for him, but her legs were uncooperative, utterly betraying her in the moment. "She wants... to move," Cass said, and Drake dutifully used his grip on her hip to start to pump her up and down his cock, hot breaths escaping her throat as she slid up and down his length. He felt absolutely fantastic, each brush of his cock against her inner walls seeming to carry with it a truly intense pleasure, mewls escaping her throat as she trembled in place. His strength as a Level Four was more than enough to pump her up and down on his cock as if she were little more than his own right hand, making her pace vigorous and intense.

Of course, it felt utterly fantastic for her, just as everything else did. Even the pinch of his hand on her hip, thumb pressing in, fingers curling around, felt good. The other hand, which roamed her body, sliding up and down, teasing her stomach and breasts and neck and cheek and ears, playing with them softly, running along the cartilage - it was so intense that it set her alight. Not to mention the sensation of his length, pistoning in and out of her, pulsing inside her with its own arousal as he enjoyed himself. She could no longer keep track of orgasms: the line between the pleasure of one orgasm and the next, between orgasmic bliss and the mere ecstasy of this supernally good sex, were blurry and beyond her.

He thrust inside her, his hips bucking away, enjoying himself as well. Occasionally, she would glance over to Cass, seeing the girl, so sweet and kind, practically bouncing in her chair, a giddy smile on her lips, so utterly unlike what she would have expected. For the most part, though, she looked down at Drake, enjoyed the ravenous way he looked at her, the way he practically devoured her body with his eyes as his hands brushed this way and that, touched her here and there. Sometimes he pulled her back down into a kiss, and she could only limply reply to his kiss with her own mouth, soft lips pressing against his, tongue dashing out.

How long did it take for him to experience his own first orgasm? She couldn't have guessed. She just felt it. Felt the splash of his seed inside her, the low groan he let out into her mouth, her own pussy continuing to squeeze and grip, the intense pleasure of his touch everywhere remaining for several long seconds before it finally vanished, letting her simply collapse atop him, shuddering in place.

He truly was amazing at sex, she had to admit. Her breath tickled at his neck, his length still deep inside her as he took a moment to recover himself. "There's... something I'd like to ask," he said, glancing over at Cass. Ryu couldn't see what Cass did, but presumably it was a nod or some other go-ahead. "It's just a small thing." Ryu nodded quietly. "I'd like you to say, I love you. I love you," he added, a soft whisper in her ear.

She felt her cheeks burn brilliant red at that. The intensity of his words and his request were far too much. She bit her lip. On the other hand, he had done so much for her. "I love you," she whispered back, and he gently tilted his head, kissing her once more. She let out a soft sigh.

They wound up doing it again in short order, Cass watching the whole thing with a happy face, as if silently cheering her on.

She wondered if Cass looked at Syr the same way?

* * *

"You did what?" Syr asked, her expression having gone completely still, Ryu washing her hands to get ready for another day's work.

"I slept with Drake. He is a very talented lover."

"Yes, but, I," Syr sputtered, "I asked you not to do anything in a rush!"

"Yes. That meant not joining the Loki familia, did it not?"

"Khh!" Syr simply placed both hands on her head. "No, it meant sex! And saying I love you, too?!"

"Oh." Ryu hadn't realized she had meant that. "But I can simply not have sex with him again..." She felt her cheeks flush as she thought about it.

"Gah! As if! Only a god could resist his sex skills!"

"He is very good," Ryu agreed, a smile curling across her lips. Syr also had sex with Drake, didn't she? Even if she only did it to be close to Cass, she also knew how good Drake was at sex. "But sex is not everything in a relationship..."

"That's true, that's very true," Syr agreed, pointing at Ryu seriously. "You're saying wise words right now, hold onto them."

"Yes... even if Drake wasn't good at sex, he would still be earnest, hard-working, heroic..." Syr was making exaggerated signs of discomfort, banging on her own head as Ryu spoke. "You have slept with him too."

"Yes. Yes, I have," Syr agreed. She paused, looking seriously at Ryu again. "You should... take it slow. You haven't even gone out on one date yet! Yes, that's it, you just showed up and slept with him!"

Ryu frowned at that. "Would going to Rezianal and Knossos together not count as a date?"

"No! Make him wine and dine you! Romance you! Work for it! If you don't, he'll think you're a slut!"

"Oh." Ryu didn't want him to think she was a slut. Although, that made her concerned... "Syr." Her friend quirked one eyebrow quizzically. "Did he wine and dine you, before you slept together?" Syr just blinked. "Because if not, that would mean he might think you are..." She did not want to say what.

"I know what it would mean! Gah! This is so stupid! No, no, it's different because I went on dates with Cass! And also because I don't care what he thinks of me!"

"Ah. That's good, then." Ryu looked down at her hands, then finished drying them. "I have to get to work."

"Yes. Please stay at work forever, Ryu."

"I have my debt to work off," Ryu replied. Syr's eyelid twitched at that, a plastic smile on her lips. "Is something wrong?"

"Just remembering something else Drake said. I'm going to go see if I can find Leah and give her a bath."

"She does not enjoy your baths."

"She doesn't like any baths, but she's a dirty girl, so she needs them," Syr said. "Plus, it's fun!"

Ryu decided not to say that she didn't think it was fun for Leah. Chloe and Anya had told Syr that many times, and she did not listen at all, ever.

* * *

Revis looked at the corpses of the former Thanatos familia members. From what Ryu said, she didn't think that Alise would have killed them.

No, she might have. But not for the reasons Revis did.

Revis heard a noise and looked up. It was Ein. As always, the other creature was hooded and masked, its voice a strange cacophony of male and female voices speaking together. "You abandoned your post."

"The Loki familia has broken the Thanatos familia. I tried killing them myself, and failed - they were here in too large numbers, and we weren't able to shepherd them."

"You should have kept the Thanatos remnants under control."

Revis glanced at the corpses. "They look under control to me." She turned her gaze back to Ein. Even behind the mask, it was possible to see the other creature bristle with anger. "I'm sorry that your plan turned to shit, but that isn't my problem."

"You...! Do you know how you have ruined Enyo's plans?!"

"I'm pretty sure the Loki familia are the ones that did that." Something vague popped up in the back of her head, and she let it take charge of her mouth. "This is really tiresome, you know?" Her voice felt fluid and natural in that moment - it was like capturing something from the old her. "If you want to complain, go ahead and try to kill me." She lost that connection to the old her, and finished her thought more naturally. "I already ate Olivas to try to fight the Loki familia. It wasn't enough."

"You idiot! You've ruined-"

"The Loki familia ruined things. Don't blame me just because you can see me."

"Maybe I should try to kill you," Ein hissed, gauntleted hand rising. "Like you killed Olivas."

"Go ahead and try," Revis said, a smile appearing on her lips as she placed one hand on her hip. There was something deeply familiar about the movement, like she'd done it dozens of times before. It must have been something Alise did.

Ein just paused at that, staring quietly at Revis. "You're acting strange."

Revis's smile disappeared at that. "Maybe," she said.

"Tch. Fine. It is done. Olivas is dead, Thanatos is gone... I suppose it's good that you, at least, are still here. We had thought the Loki familia had killed you, too. Enyo will have to devise a new strategy. Wait for my word."

Revis's expression flickered at that. Was she really going to just... wait? "Why should I do that?" Those words weren't hers. They came out from that old place, too. A tiny flower breaking up through the cracks.

"Don't be stupid. The Demi Spirit is too stupid to accomplish its will, left to its own devices."

That was right. The Demi Spirit... if it hadn't been for the Demi Spirit, Revis would have stayed dead. Alise would have just been another corpse in the Dungeon. Whatever she had now, she owed the Demi Spirit... "Given how your plans have worked out, it seems like you're too stupid to accomplish its will either."

Ein twitched, then shook its head. "I won't be provoked. Keep the Loki familia out of Knossos as best you can," it said, then departed, leaving Revis alone to think.

Revis's thoughts didn't dwell on Ein, or Enyo, or Thanatos, or the Loki familia, though. They were on the Demi Spirit. The magic stone inside her was a gift from the Demi Spirit, and it also connected her to it.

She followed that connection back into the Dungeon.

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