Rustling sounds came from beside her ear.
Claudia suddenly tensed.
"Who is it!"
She wanted to rise as she had done countless times before, drawing her sword in one fluid, vigilant motion.
This set of movements had been practiced by the holy knight until it was as natural as breathing during her long years of harsh training and experience.
It was very heavy. Very tiring.
Fatigue and constriction from within and without urged her:
Sleep. Sleep now!
The holy knight felt an indescribable terror wrapping tightly around her.
The omnipresent pressure made it impossible for her to open her eyes, speak, or even make her heart beat properly — it could only thump weakly, little by little.
Even her thoughts gradually stiffened and stalled.
It felt as if the next second she would once again be swallowed by that darkness.
"Goddess…"
Claudia instinctively prayed to her faith.
Again and again. The darkness's influence grew deeper.
Her thoughts grew slower and slower, yet she received no response from Myrmidia.
"My Goddess, You taught us how to wage war with our fingers. Your excellent gaze pierces the fog and sees all…"
She recited scriptures and passages brokenly. Every time she reached the next sentence, the previous one seemed to slip from her memory, requiring effort to recall.
The continuous recitation failed to soothe the holy knight's heart. Instead, it made Claudia even more terrified.
The darkness was almost about to swallow her completely, yet the last lifeline refused to manifest.
"You are our Lord, the King of all armies on earth… the King of all the earth!"
"No, no!"
Claudia grew more frantic. The darkness pressing closer eroded the mind of this champion warrior who had endured many setbacks yet stood unbowed. She sensed that once she was completely swallowed by that darkness, she would be lost forever, eternally, in a depth far more terrifying than any hell.
"By, by Your glory, Goddess… please look upon me, grant me courage, please lead me out of this darkness!"
"Goddess!"
She screamed madly in the void of her consciousness, begging some merciful great power to hear her call.
And such a merciful great power.
Al had four of them behind him.
Claudia suddenly felt a strange sensation that pulled her back from the mad chaos of being lost.
It felt as if something was gently pressing on her chin.
She shouted with all her might.
"Fiona? Is that you, Fiona!"
"Ann? Come out, Ann!"
"Elia? Kalien?"
"High Matriarch Themis!"
Still no response. In the dark space, only void enveloped her.
The sensation on her chin that let Claudia know she was still alive and still had a body gradually faded. She fell once more into that state of being imprisoned and bound in boundless nothingness, unable to perceive or control anything except her own thoughts.
The holy knight's heart turned to ash.
A pure, solid diamond was slowly injected with gray-white deathly qi, transforming its nature, making it sensitive and fragile.
[I heard your prayer.]
"Goddess!"
Hope surged once more in the holy knight's heart. She cried out desperately, even ignoring how seductive and alluring the Goddess's voice sounded.
"Please look upon me, give me courage, please lead me out of this darkness!"
[My son will fulfill your wish.]
The female voice giggled and withdrew, leaving the holy knight alone to face everything.
She was confused, tense, and kept praying…
Until a new change occurred.
Claudia felt a warmth. She eagerly tried to perceive the source of that warmth.
First the back of her hand, her forearm, her arm — then it slid upward, like two little snakes slithering along Claudia's arms.
As they passed, Claudia joyfully perceived the existence of her hands, felt warmth, felt touch, felt the sensation of soft fur pressing against her!
"Please continue, please, please save me!"
If consciousness could cry, Claudia would be weeping at this moment. The void imprisonment had made her endure pressure every single second. She desperately wanted to escape the darkness.
To return to the warm, familiar, yet hardship-filled material world.
The two little snakes slid over her shoulders, passed behind her ears, and caressed her face.
A warm, soft, wet thing pressed against the holy knight's lips. Her consciousness craved it uncontrollably, demanding it.
She wanted to swallow it into her mouth, down her throat, to warm the holy knight's body once more.
However, although she could perceive her body's existence, she still had no control over it. She could only silently wait for the "snake" to continue moving, to "unlock" more parts of her.
Then the "snake" slid downward, past her neck, over her collarbone…
It climbed onto the two full, upright peaks on the holy knight's chest.
And stopped there, slowly moving, seemingly uninterested in other areas.
Ignoring the strange kneading sensation on her chest, the female warrior was frantic with anxiety. Having finally grasped a glimmer of hope, she feared it would shatter again like before. She exerted all her strength trying to control her body to make some movement, to startle the "snake" into continuing its journey.
"She seems to be moving?"
A clear, boyish voice, still carrying a trace of youth, sounded beside the holy knight's ear.
Like thunder cracking through the sky and piercing the darkness, Claudia's entire body jolted. The dark curtain receded, the void dissolved.
She opened her eyes.
What met her gaze was a delicate, still somewhat childish face.
The burning blood-red eyes made the boy's face look somewhat demonic and cold.
A cute but slightly strange beautiful boy.
Claudia thought to herself. She still could not control her body, but soon more memories flooded back.
The Goddess's mission… comrades… ambush… the shrine she had protected along the way… betrayal… the evil statue!
And that boy riding on the centaur's back, looking down at Claudia with indifferent red eyes!
Her amber pupils suddenly contracted. Claudia remembered everything about how the darkness had dragged her in!
In an instant, fear and hostility that could not be concealed flowed from her gaze. It was her instinctive reaction, yet it was destined to make her regret it later.
Al pursed his lips, somewhat embarrassed as he withdrew the hands that had been playing with the holy knight's breasts for a while and hid them behind his back.
Her previous state had been too much like a breathing, heartbeat-having lifelike doll. He had unconsciously become engrossed and done some things that, in a normal state, he would feel too shy to do with Goat Mom and the mare.
For example, treating her body like a toy, touching and exploring it inch by inch.
Pinching her chin to examine her mouth.
Kneading her breasts like rubber.
Experimentally tugging at the hair in certain places that matched the color of the hair on her head.
Treating someone else's body as a toy and getting caught in the act.
This made the Chosen, who had just argued with one of the Four Mothers about "respect" and "free will," feel his face burn.
He might as well just fuck her directly!
But when the boy saw the complex emotions in Claudia's eyes.
Panic, tension, fear, and a trace of confusion, yet almost instinctive hostility.
Like an injured female beast that had fallen into the hunter's claws.
Al's heart softened.
He exhaled a long breath, stood up from the holy knight's body. Her bright red nipples were exposed to the air. After Al's earlier playing they had become erect and prominent.
Al casually pulled off his robe and tossed it aside.
His bare upper body was covered in a faint layer of fine sweat. The air inside the tent was too hot.
Goat Mom stood up, gently draped a thin blanket over the completely naked holy knight lying on the fur, and helped remove Claudia's armor.
Al looked at that sleeping face.
It reminded him of the shadow of a person he did not want to recall.
Celestine…
Al turned his back to Claudia, remembering what he had experienced half a year ago — less than half a year — when he first came to this world:
The Slaanesh Beastlord Zharkhan had abducted his holy mother Celestine for the child blessed by the Four Gods in her belly — that is, Al himself.
After Al was born, Zharkhan intended to possess the Grail Knight he had long coveted, only to have his genitals torn off by Al, who had received the Bloodmother's blessing, and died screaming in agony.
What he was doing now with Claudia…
Al took a few steps, pulled the curved blade from the centaur girl's waist, and quickly returned to the blanket. He gently placed the gleaming steel blade against the holy knight's neck.
Gritting his teeth, he looked into the holy knight's eyes.
The face he had gently caressed, the body he had measured inch by inch with his hands, from top to bottom, every part, every inch.
He had fantasized about uniting with her, about the pleasure he could obtain from this body. Her healthy, strong physique was in no way inferior to his mother Celestine's.
Her thighs were full and long, her buttocks perky and elastic. Although her breasts were not as large as the centaur's, from Al's perspective and size they were still an enviable treasure.
Not a trace of excess fat, broad shoulders, a firm body, abdominal muscles tighter than the mare's.
Al had fantasized about completing on this healthy, tall body what he had not done in that cave after killing Zharkhan — the unfinished act of committing the sin of incest with Celestine because he had not yielded to the Reveler's control…
"Before midnight, if I do not enter your body, you will die."
Al bent down, looked straight into the holy knight's eyes, and spoke word by word.
Al suddenly understood the Reveler's game, her plan.
His mother of desire did not use crude, violent manipulation. Instead, she used subtle, gradual influence, like gentle spring rain, to make him fall.
Using temptation instead of oracles, sweet words to soften a heart of steel, arranging beautiful things for Al, making him gradually lean toward the Reveler's camp, influenced and controlled by her.
Al could resist once, ten times, but there would always be a next time.
He wouldn't always restrain himself so extremely in the face of the pressure of the world-ending crisis, would he?
Such extreme self-control and saintly virtue — Al had never possessed it in the past, and he would not have it in the future.
He suddenly smiled, looking at the face so similar to Celestine's. With one hand holding the knife and the other lifting the blanket covering Claudia, he lay down beside her.
Lying next to her, he slightly lifted the holy knight's upper body and pressed it against his own chest. One hand still held the curved blade, while the other grabbed her full, soft breast.
There were still ten minutes until midnight.
"I like you."
Al whispered softly beside the female warrior's ear.
He leaned down and gently kissed that face so similar to the Grail Knight's, his fingers continuously pinching and rubbing the holy knight's nipple.
Claudia's skin flushed with a layer of crimson. Her consciousness was cursing, raging, begging, yet she could not control her body to speak any of it aloud.
"I like the way you look. The way you hold your sword is valiant and beautiful."
"I want to have you."
The boy said seriously to the woman who was much older than him in both age and appearance:
"To possess you, and then own you — not because of my mother's game, but from my own heart."
Al threw the curved blade, stabbing it into the ground. He dragged Claudia's body upward and pressed himself on top of her.
"Before I reach that step, I do not believe I will become the savior of the world."
The woman's eyes were still moving — anger, hatred, tears, and many other complex, indescribable emotions on the verge of overflowing.
Al pressed down on the holy knight's breast, propped himself up, and kissed her eyes.
"You consider me a demon. Please continue, because it is indeed so."