<~> Book 6 - Chapter 328Six months after the events now called system's end.

  I opened my eyes to see the roof of the house I had called home for the st five months, feeling a bit sore and sticky. I raised one hand and pulled at the invisible strings of magic that ced through my body. With a tug, my mana flowed and cleansed me from the inside out. It had been a familiar skill ability. One that I had gotten from sleeping with dozens of succubi in Oceane's brothel back then. Freshen up, I remembered with a bit of amusement. It had been one of the first skill abilities I was able to relearn. I had used it so often compared to most of my other skill abilities that it came retively easily.

  Turning, I leaned over and gave Bel a kiss while running my fingers over her rge taut belly. Our future daughter. After six months, her pregnancy had advanced much faster than was typical for a human or even a beastfolk child. At six months, she already looked nine months pregnant. Because Bel was a healer, she was able to monitor a lot of her pregnancy herself, though at my insistence, she had met with another healer who had been a midwife in the past. Both of them said that despite the rapid growth, there didn't seem to be anything to worry about. The child was healthy and progressing normally otherwise. One of the downsides of your lover being able to monitor her own pregnancy though, was that there hadn't been any surprise about the sex of our child. I didn't know if our daughter would be born a succubus or not, and the thought somewhat worried me, but I'm sure we would figure out what our daughter needed to grow. So far, one thing she needed was an ample and steady supply of mana as she grew in Bel's belly. She was ravenous for it, and all of us had to help Bel stay well stocked or be drained dry. Bel needs quite a lot more sex than before to stay satiated, but we also figured out how to infuse mana into each other directly, though at quite an inefficient transfer cost. Bel had become really frisky tely, so the former wasn't difficult to achieve, but we've had to turn our family orgies into regur nightly escapades as of te to keep up with her.

  We had talked about getting married, but with all of the chaos in the world right now, I didn't think it was likely we would be able to get married before she gives birth. Not for ck of desire, but things had broken down over the st six months. The nearest church of Morkinnen that we knew of was in Goldenhearth, and there had been riots there, along with most of the rger cities. Without the system, people had been panicked and crazed as they tried to adjust. I had never considered this before, but when people suddenly no longer had system-granted csses and titles, they wondered why the king or princess was in charge of them and had the fancy castle. It reminded me of how kings were ordained by god in the history of my own world, except now god was dead... so to speak. With a sudden ck of authority to say that they were better than you at governing, people started to wonder why they were being governed at all. In a dangerous world where people could get significantly stronger by hunting monsters in the woods, armies and guards were a bit less scary to a rge enough mob that no longer liked their rulers. Even the lowest borer had stats that would make them fearsome by the standards of my old world.

  I slipped out of bed and got dressed. The clothes were durable and form-fitting. I had them tailored to work well under my light armor constructs. The new spell had been fresh in my memory. It hadn't taken long to reproduce the effects with Morrigan's help. Since I was off to do some training, I grabbed one of my training swords and fluttered my wings on the way out the door. I wasn't always able to, but I tried to squeeze in training in the te morning every day I could. I hadn't had the opportunity to actually train with a weapon much since I stole that skill, excluding the actual fights, so I was working on turning most of that theoretical knowledge into practical knowledge between my other responsibilities. There was no simple way to measure my growth anymore, but I felt like I was getting better pretty rapidly. As I made my way to the new park where the old sver's guild had once been, I continued to think about the trouble in the region.

  We got the news four months ago. The civil war in Torlimal that the Cult of Amphores seemed to be aiming for had come to pass, and Torlimal City itself was now in ruins. With the help of the elves, Goldenhearth was part of a new country ruled by the once Marquis Saffadder, while Duke Kallord, the unpopur duke of the western half of Torlimal, had taken over rge stretches of nd neighboring his home territory. The former capital had been right in the center of a border dispute between the two new countries, and the entire city had been razed and destroyed in the battle for it. The civil war still hadn't been settled, but the city they were initially fighting for was nearly wiped off the map. King Saffadder had been protected by the elves and was safely evacuated from the former capital, according to reports. That fact didn't help the rumors that north-eastern Torlimal was being groomed into a puppet state of the elves, an argument that wasn't entirely without merit from the Kallord Empire, the new country that was once south-western Torlimal. As far as I've heard, north-eastern Torlimal hadn't been renamed yet, though the name "Torlimal" had become very unpopur on the eastern half of the former country, so a new name would come eventually.

  As a result, Traehall and other frontier cities near the eastern edge of the country were in a strange spot. Officially, we were still cimed by north-eastern Torlimal, since we had been part of their territory at one point. Unofficially, none of the frontier cities were part of Torlimal anymore. All support to the frontier cities from the former country was entirely gone, diverted to the civil war. With the elves funding their war effort, the frontier cities weren't even worth trying to collect taxes from since the areas between the frontier cities and Goldenhearth had become overrun with loose demons that had left the forests surrounding Traehall. Even if they attempted to collect taxes, the frontier cities likely wouldn't give them anything, because the cities that had once relied on imports suddenly had to fend for themselves. Right now, the frontier cities were still trading goods where they could with north-eastern Torlimal, which was better than fighting on a second front for nd considered fairly inhospitable. There was a reason Torlimal's borders had ended at the forest that surrounds Traehall for much of its history, and that was before demons had spread so much in the region.

  "Hey Eira!" I waved.

  "Hey!" The excited cheetahfolk-succubus ran over to me and nearly knocked me over with a hug. "You wanna spar again this morning?"

  I nodded. "Yep, I have a meeting in the afternoon, but I have a few hours."

  Eira had been one of the few succubi who had become a greater succubus since Bel had, and the only one in Traehall that had become one outside of our group. We're still not entirely sure what is triggering it, but fighting monsters and leveling definitely seem to help. I also suspect there's some kind of mental aspect to it too, like self-acceptance or something along those lines.

  "Great! How are the others doing? I haven't seen the triplets in a while," Eira asked.

  I chuckled. "Well, all of them have been pretty busy. They've always been early risers for the most part, so they're usually gone by the time I wake up. Morrigan's been busy teaching her magic csses, and Tori and Lori usually go on morning demon hunts with the other rangers."

  Eira began warming up and stretching her muscles. "Yeah! I'm gd my build had a bigger emphasis on my physical stats before system's end. I didn't have too hard a time adjusting. It's still amazing to me that Torien and Lorienne were able to pick up their scouting abilities and their shadow magic again so quickly. I keep hearing good things about them from others."

  "I wish Mori had a bit more time to spend with us at home, but she's been a bit overloaded tely," I said with a sigh.

  Eira ughed. "That's what happens when you're one of the only one who can use magic anymore."

  I nodded. "It's been quite the reversal for her. From what she told me, all her life she felt like... an imposter, I guess. But ever since system's end, she's become one of the most valuable mages in the region. She's done a lot of compining about it, though. Some of the mages who were once higher level than herself still haven't been able to sense the mana in their own bodies. My perspective is a little skewed. I was always interested in how magic worked, and I had someone like Mori who could answer my questions. I hadn't quite realized just how reliant on the system most spellcasters used to be."

  "So did the system dying not hurt her at all?" Eira asked.

  I shook my head. "It did quite a bit, actually. Her css had been very skill heavy. Rather than getting spells from most of her abilities and level ups, her css had given her a lot of things to manage her stamina and support wild casting. But since skills are easier to relearn if you were already familiar with using them, she was able to adjust faster than most people, and more than basically any other pure spellcasters."

  Eira and I both drew our swords and started sparring. Eira was one of my favorite sparring partners since her fighting style was so different from my own. In line with her cheetah looks, she had a dexterity and speed-based fighting style that was a strong match-up against my slow and steady one. I wasn't using a shield today, so it was good practice trying to parry and deflect attacks with only a one-handed sword despite the disadvantage I was at. Unexpectedly, my charisma gave me the ability to feint and detect feints significantly better than a normal fighter, and my luck was obviously still a factor since people still tripped themselves when fighting me occasionally. After a good half-bell of this, we decided to take a break.

  The cheetah girl practically fell backward on the grass, though I knew she was being over-dramatic. When she sat back up, she was smiling. "So! How are Bel and the baby doing? She looked HUGE st time I saw her!"

  I ughed. "Yeah, we think she may give birth soon, likely within the month."

  Eira licked her lips. "She smelled good st time I saw her too... Is there still an open invitation to share the bed with the two of you?"

  Smirking, I looked up and down her cute body. She was trying to look cool and collected with her expression, but her closed bond and her twitching spade-tipped tail gave her away. She was feeling bashful about asking to py with a pregnant woman, even though Bel would be happy to have her. "Of course. You seem especially interested in Bel right now. So you'd better join us before you lose the chance."

  Eira flushed and looked away. "Gods, how are you able to read me so well. Don't tell anyone that I think it's so hot. People will think it's creepy."

  I rolled my eyes. "No one thinks it's creepy, Eira. Besides, it is fucking hot. Pregnancy has done amazing things to that sexy deer."

  "Okay, fine, she's so hot now," Eira said rapidly. "Let's get back to training! You said you had a meeting in the afternoon!"

  "Sure," I said, getting back to my feet. "How have you and the other girls been? The council formalized the legality of the brothel. Has that affected anything?" I asked.

  Eira lifted her sword. "Kinda. It actually changed up the clientele more than expected. Fewer people cheat on their wives when everyone knows about the brothel. Most of the girls like it that way, though. Plus, with prostitution legal in the town, some of the girls have been talking about settling down here permanently. Succubi being an open secret in the city has made the girls a lot more comfortable here than they had been in Goldenhearth after their transformations."

  We traded a few blows. I had to think farther ahead while fighting Eira to get any good hits in, but thinking so much made it difficult to react to her strikes as quickly. It was an interesting game to adjust my tactics on the fly. After reaching a natural stopping point, we took a few steps back and reset our stances.

  "How much has the number of Succubi in the brothel grown?" I asked.

  "It hasn't, there hasn't been a ton of interest in becoming succubi since we went public. Most of the people in town are men, which is good for business, but bad for convincing people to turn into hot women. Even ones with dicks, like me," she said with a ugh. "Some of the non-succubi girls in the brothel are sorta interested, but we're trying not to be pushy about it."

  We went through another round in which Eira completely outmaneuvered me. She had begun to expect my feints and now feinted being tricked by them. It was an interesting level of mind game that most of my other sparring partners hadn't developed.

  She sighed. "Besides, I still feel more comfortable with you doing the ritual. It feels weird to do it without you. Plus the stat redistribution is more automatic now, so people have to think about it a lot more before going through with it. I think a lot of potential people are scared off since they're worried about it redistributing their stats in a way they don't want, and they can't check the results themselves anymore, even if none of the people we've transformed after system's end have had a significantly negative experience. I don't think the redistribution can change anyone's stats away from the person's desires."

  "From what you could test," I added.

  Eira shrugged. "Sure, but while we don't have nice number values to look at, it's obvious when someone who had basically no strength can suddenly lift a bed with one hand. The stats definitely aren't disappearing, they're just being rearranged to best suit what the person wants to do, just like the old karma abilities."

  "How have you been handling that?" I asked.

  "That's probably the worst part," Eira sighed. "Telling people, 'you'll be great at something, but we have no way of figuring out what!' is a really unconvincing argument. Honestly, we're really lucky so many of us became succubi before the system's end, or else we would have no hope of selling people on it."

  "I'm sure we'll figure something out," I said as I sheathed my sword.

  "Aww, leaving already?" Eira wilted, clearly disappointed.

  "Sorry, like I said, I have a meeting. I need to stop by Mimi's shop and grab her before the meeting too," I said.

  EIra dramatically groaned. "Fine! I'll just have to find someone else to entertain me for a while..."

  I ughed. "Good luck! See ya ter, Eira."

  The energetic cheetahgirl rushed over and gave me a long kiss. She wrapped her long succubus tail around my waist to draw me in and flicked the base of my spade tip with her own. I shuddered at the sudden burst of pleasure that I felt from both ends through the bond. I had to stop myself from letting her drag things out any further. I didn't have time for this, as much as I would have enjoyed it.

  When she finally pulled away, she winked. "I'll swing by tonight, love. Make sure to tell Bel that I'm coming over!"

  I squeezed her ass and gave her another peck. "Of course, cutie. See you tonight."

  Quickly untangling with her, I began to head over to Mimi's shop, but I was interrupted when Eira changed her mind and tried to pull me into an alley so she could stuff her dick into my mouth. She was surprisingly seductive when she wanted to be... I guess I could spare a few minutes...

  Saine

  Hello! For the record, the next chapter will not be about Eira's quicky with Lilith in the alley. Figured I should just say that before people get their hopes up. Don't worry, Eira will get plenty attention in a future scene ter. So! I decided to start this book with a bit of a time skip so that we can gloss over some of the less interesting parts of dealing with the fall out of the system going away. Six months is long enough to get past them putting out the immediate fires, without it being so long that all the interesting parts have passed by. A good chunk of the upcoming book will be about things stabilizing in Traehall, as the characters adapt to the changes that have happened since system's end. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, see ya next time, and thanks for reading!

  Check out my other story here: Umbral Feast

  Here's a link to the community Discord: https://discord.gg/XsNwYuZp6s

  If you would like to support my writing on Patreon, you can read up to 10 chapters ahead there!

  Please leave a favorite so I can get my story in front of more eyeballs! I would greatly appreciate it!