Rey was sure that he was seeing wrong because Kassandra had a gaping wound in her abdomen and Filomena had a small hole in her thigh. They were both bleeding profusely, and they hadn't even taken the time to tie off their wounds. At the same time, Ajay's delivery was twenty months overdue. He had no idea that this would happen when they left the castle to do some light training.

  Well, this went south so fast it punched a penguin.

  Another good thing was that since it hadn't happened last time, he had no idea how this would resolve. One thing was becoming increasingly clear to him—if they didn't take care of this angry Nestoriel, all of them wouldn't make it out of these tunnels. And he needed all these folks as they somewhat liked him.

  "Ajay!" Filomena cried and ran to him, ignoring the scary demon altogether. "What happened to him?" She didn't dare touch him, but her hands hovered around his inflated belly.

  "He got impregnated by that recently departed demon," Rey replied. "Right now, he's the proud mama of about…a few dozen or so Nestoriels. Well, not really their mama, but more like an incubator... so, foster mama, I guess. Soon, the eggs will hatch inside him, and the babies will eat him out from the inside as they burst out of his belly."

  Filomena's eyes widened, but she was so stunned that she said nothing and stared at her future boyfriend.

  "Rey," Kassi hissed. "The Nestoriel—"

  That was all the time she got, as the demon attacked. It lunged for Kassi, but she jumped aside, wincing as she clutched her stomach.

  Rey sighed and used Gravitational Attraction on the demon and pulled it towards himself. As the demon flew towards him, he swung his scythe in an arc and stabbed the thing in the abdomen, right above its egg sack. It shrieked, but his scythe hadn't gone deep enough to do real damage. It did piss off the already angry demon.

  It slashed at Rey with its claws, but he rolled away. He had to leave his scythe, as he had no time to pull it out. The demon encircled his weapon's shaft with its tail, yanked it out without even making a sound, and tossed it to the other side of the cave.

  Rey backed up a few steps from the demon, making some room between it and him.

  "Kassi, wrap that wound of yours or you won't be of this world for long," he called. "And then do the same for Filomena. I can't have either of you departing without seeing more of this wonderful world."

  The Nestoriel eyed Rey with its lone eye. It thought that Rey was powerless without a weapon, but it was still keeping its distance after that gut wound. These things were fucking hard to kill, but not impossible. And with the three of them there, it would be easy, no matter how battered they were.

  Rey pulled out his dagger. "I'm going to make so many holes in you that Swiss cheese is going to file a copyright claim."

  He didn't think Nestoriel understood, but it roared in reply.

  Rey replied with a roar of his own, which made Kassi stare at him. He frowned at her. "What? Can't a guy let off some steam?"

  She shook her head and went back to her work. It seemed she had the same idea as him; she had taken her shirt, rolled it up a little, and was tying it around her waist. Thank goodness, she had another shirt on. Rey would have had a hard time trying to concentrate on this fight if that were not the case.

  The Nestoriel launched its tails at Rey. He danced away, slashing wildly at the tentacles with his dagger. He was unsuccessful in cutting them off outright, but he did leave bloody slashes on two of them.

  Without his scythe, this was going to be a prolonged fight. He could have used Attraction on his weapon, but if he did, then he would be pretty much out of Mana. If he had known he would be fighting the second Nestoriel queen as well, he would have saved it and not gone all out in his last bout.

  The others were busy wrapping themselves up, and Rey wished that he had more Mana. Man, why are the fucking Mana potions so far away?

  They wouldn't run into those for a long time, until they reached the home of nightmares, the Kingdom of Night, where they would be fucked on every step. It was so bad that it made his current situation look like a pillow fight with an angry teddy bear.

  By the Sovereigns, why am I so weak?

  The cockroach bear attacked him again with its tentacles, trying to capture him, but he was too fast for this overgrown cockroach. He dashed for his scythe and almost made it when the angry bear struck.

  One of its tails rolled around his ankle and yanked him off his feet. Rey didn't even think that these things could extend that far. He took a hard fall, almost landing on his face. He didn't even get a second to get his bearings before the demon pulled him towards it. He was dragged on the ground, and the wound in his abdomen screamed bloody murder. Not to mention, his front chassis was getting scratched up just as much as his back.

  He tried to turn on his back, but before he could, he was pulled off the ground and found himself face-to-face with the Nestorial. It gnashed its teeth in Rey's face. The one arrow that stuck out of its eye bobbed up and down as the demon surveyed Rey. Then, a brand new tentacle with an open mouth hole at the end of it emerged from his abdomen, not far from where he had stabbed the demon.

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  "Oh, fuck no!" Rey exclaimed and slashed like a madman with his dagger, but the ovipositor tentacle hovered just out of reach.

  He tried to cut the tail that was holding him up, but that was out of reach as well. Despite his Gravity powers, he wasn't immune to its effects. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't reach the demon, and it knew that, as it didn't even try to stop him. It simply waited for Rey to tire himself out before he impregnated him, too.

  "You think you're going to fuck me," Rey snapped. "No, I'm going to fuck you."

  With his free hand, he gripped the arrow sticking out of the demon's eye and, with one strong tug, yanked it out of its eye. The demon flinched and shrieked as dark blood sprayed out of its eye. It staggered back, and Rey plunged his knife in its chest, not deep, but enough to do the trick.

  The Nestoriel finally let go of him and dropped him to the ground. He grunted, but it wasn't a particularly hard fall. The demon had it far worse. It skittered back, reeling in pain.

  Rey couldn't help but grin. Before he could even get up, two welcoming faces were standing over him.

  Kassandra extended her hand. "Need a hand?"

  "I need more than that." From you. But he didn't let his intrusive thoughts win...this time.

  She gripped his hand and helped pull him up off the ground. Filomena looked far worse and was favoring her right leg, the one without the bloody thigh.

  "You sure you can fight?" Rey asked.

  "Don't worry about me," she replied. "Let's kill that thing and save Ajay."

  "I'm with you on that, babe. This thing just tried to give me an involuntary tonsil massage, and I'm not about that life."

  The angry demon had just about recovered from its pain, and it was about to come for them any second. By them, it was most likely going to come for Rey, which was not a good thing at all. As much as he liked to play the hero, his selfish, demonic side was telling him that it wouldn't be a bad idea if the Nestoriel tackled the girls for a little while.

  Of course, one of those girls was Kassandra, so Rey told his demonic self to shove it.

  He held out the arrow that he had yanked out of the Nestoriel's eye to Kassandra. "Use it wisely."

  "Thanks," she said, taking the arrow and putting it in her empty quiver. "Seeing as how it is my only one. I'm going to have to."

  "If you guys can buy me just a few seconds, I need to get to my scythe," Rey said.

  "Don't worry," Filomena said, stepping forward and rolling her sword in circles. "I owe this thing a lot of pain."

  Rey glanced at Kassandra, and she nodded in understanding. He gave her a nod of thanks and loved how they could understand each other without a single word. It was like they were made for each other.

  Made for each other to split apart. Made for each other, so you could watch her die the most excruciating death.

  Rey wiped the smile from his face, and she noticed, frowning slightly. He turned from them and raced for his scythe, and as expected, the demon lunged for Rey, but Filomena came to his rescue.

  She shot the pregnant demon in the baby sack with a lightning bolt, making the thing cry out, and Rey was sure she popped a few eggs, which was good.

  The demon shrieked, checking its babies. Contrary to popular belief, demons had emotions like love, sadness, and every other thing. Who would know better than Rey? After all, he had been a demon for the majority of the past five years.

  The lightning bolt to the sack was perfect as it turned the demon's attention away from Rey to Filomena, who was equally, if not angrier than the mama demon. Kassandra had only her dagger in her hand, and her bow hung over her shoulder.

  By the time Nestoriel charged the girls, Rey had his scythe in his hands.

  He hugged his weapon tightly. "Ah, I'm never letting go of you again, baby."

  With that, he turned towards the demon and saw that Filomena was going toe to toe, or rather sword to claw, with the demon. It was rather spectacular. He knew that she would eventually lose her footing as she wasn't putting too much weight on her damaged leg, which was dangerous for a swordsman. As all their strength came from their footwork. But thankfully, she didn't have to do this alone.

  Kassandra danced around the demon, slashing at its tails, distracting the demon as best as she could.

  Should I even bother stepping into the melee? Rey wondered as the girls were doing a pretty good job themselves. However, the problem was that while they were doing a good job, Kassi was only superficially wounding the demon, and unless Filomena got lucky, they wouldn't be able to beat this thing.

  Alright, Rey, you're up.

  He quickly checked his Mana.

  [Mana: 23/180]

  Okay, this might as well be 'Oh no!' written in flaming letters.

  He could do two Mana-based attacks, and that was it. Well, maybe three if he were desperate, but then he would be in Mana fatigue and useless to anyone around. At that point, he might as well offer himself up to the demon.

  He charged silently and, on instinct, was about to use Attraction to pull himself to the wall and come up on the demon's back, but decided to hoof it instead. After all, the thing had only one eye, and it was trained on the girls who were giving it hell.

  Kassandra saw him coming and, on purpose, positioned herself in front of the demon so that it wouldn't see Rey. But that was a mistake.

  The Nestoriel whipped its tail at her at a speed that caught her by surprise. She smashed into Filomena, and the demon slashed at them in an arc. Kassandra took the brunt of the blow. The shirt she had tied around her waist was shredded to bits, and her wound was opened anew.

  Filomena rolled on the ground, and Rey couldn't tell how much damage she'd suffered. But she was not his primary concern right now.

  He shot a Repulsion wave at the demon and sent it flying.

  He bent down to cradle Kassiandra's head. "Please tell me you're okay."

  She huffed and nodded. "Barely."

  "Thank God." Rey had to resist hugging her. He helped her get up, took off his shirt, and tied it around her wound. She was about to protest. "You need it more than me," he insisted.

  He wasn't lying. She really did. There were new slashes on her belly, which did not look like they had tickled.

  She winced as he tied the knot tightly. It was this pain or lose a shit ton of blood.

  "Sorry, but if you didn't know, you need to keep your blood inside you."

  "Gee, thanks," she said, suppressing a smile.

  Rey smiled lightly and turned towards the other girl, and his jaw dropped. "Well, butter my butt and call it doomed."

  The Nestoriel had recovered much faster than Rey had expected, or he had taken too long to patch up Kassandra. From where he was standing, it was definitely not the latter.

  The demon had a tentacle wrapped around Filomena, pinning her arms to her sides, while another, the one that came from its abdomen—the one it used to lay its eggs in others—was down Filomena's throat.

  Kassi gasped. "Oh no…"

  "I think we're well past a simple, 'oh no'. We're way into the 'oh fuck no' territory and heading straight for the plot twist where everyone dies."

  She gave him a look that said, 'How can you even joke about it in a situation like this?'.

  "Okay, okay," Rey said, raising his hands. "Let's go kill this thing."