The Queen's Pillars, Chapter 2

Hisako blinked once.  Twice.  Three times.  Finally, once out of her stupor, she said, “The… Queen’s Pillars?”  She looked around at the four monsters flanking Alexi.  She could guess that these were the other members of that group, but she had no idea what that title meant.

Lucky for her, Alexi knew well enough what she was questioning.  “As one of my Pillars, you will be the highest rank of my soldiers, and the pillars upon which my empire can grow, and my ultimate plan can be enacted.”

“Which would be what, exactly?” Hisako asked.

“I plan to overthrow my mother, and wrest from her the title of Demon Lord.”  At Hisako’s returning look of confusion, she continued, standing as she did.  “You see, my mother wishes to turn all women into monsters like us, and all men into incubi.  Turning all men into incubi is a problem, though not a large one; turning all women into monsters, however, is different.  For you see, if there are no more human women, then there will be no one to birth males, and excuse me for sounding crass, but this means that the main source of food for most monsters is gone.  She would be causing the needless extinction of two species in her idiocy.

“Now some people, such as many of my sisters, believes that this can be worked around, simply by sharing the men between races, and leaving perhaps a few women as humans.  The issue is that most monsters are less than willing to share their husbands with other monsters, even of the same race.  Even if they were willing, the humans, no matter how strong of an incubus they become, won’t live forever.  They’ll die, leaving us at best without food, and at worst with no way to birth new generations.  And as for keeping some women as humans, eventually this would lead to inbreeding, since the gene pool would be so limited, which would leave us with a race nothing like the humans we know now.

“That is why I wish for the usurpation of my mother.”  Alexi now stood in front of Hisako, her single eye staring into one of the raiju’s.  “I attempted that myself, long ago, and as you can see, all that got me was a missing eye and half of the Grand Spire destroyed.  I’m lucky she forgave me, else I would be long dead.  So, I ask you again, with your newfound clarity, will you become one of my Pillars, and help me save both our race and the humans?”

Hisako knew that, morally, there was a simple answer to this question.  Alexi’s quest to usurp the Demon Lord was noble, and in the end, a necessary task for a sustained future.  However, to fight the Demon Lord was a prospect that was undoubtedly going to happen if she did join, and she could guess that there was overwhelming power within someone who could alter the genetics of several species across several planes.  But, the look in Alexi’s eyes… eye, told of the desperation within her.

So Hisako knelt, and bowed her head before the queen.  “I, Hisako Tanaka, pledge my allegiance to you, Queen Alexi.  My loyalty to you shall last until either I, or the planet itself dies.”

Alexi looked down at Hisako, before a near imperceptible giggle rose from her.  The raiju, nonetheless, heard it, but just as she was beginning to look up, Alexi stopped herself, still smiling.  “Sorry, it’s just that, you are the first to do something like that.  The others just accepted my offer and left it at that.”

From behind her, the dhampir squinted at her.  Alexi, as if knowing what was happening, said, “You just bowed, Jehona(1).  Speaking of which, Hisako, meet your fellow Pillars.”  At this, each of the four came up beside their queen.

First to speak was the demoness, who curtsied before she spoke in a voice oozing with sexuality.  “I am Vapula, of the Second Circle, and the third of the Queen’s Pillars.  It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Next was the dhampir, who bowed as one might before a duel.  “As you heard, I am Jehona Riven, Second Pillar.  Welcome to our family.”

Then the amazon came along, who simply nodded her head.  “Aquilina(2).  First Pillar.”  Hisako expected more than that, but thought nothing of it; the woman would say more when she felt like it.

Just as when they entered, the baphomet was the last to greet Hisako, her smirk still present.  “I am Belial.  It is an honor to meet someone who could best a god.”  At this, she flared her latent demonic energy, something noted by all within the room.  Hisako simply cocked an eyebrow at the goat demon, internally questioning the show of power.

Nonetheless, Hisako placed her right hand, balled into a fist, upon her left breast, and bowed.  “I am happy to meet all of you.  I shall do all that I can learn how best to serve and protect with you four.”

Alexi smiled at this, though pointedly ignored Belial’s attempt to cow Hisako.  “Well, then, perhaps you could show us some of what you can do.  Then we can just how you were able to beat Ojibwe.”

Hisako nodded at this.  “Then we will need to go outside.  I need clouds for this, and I’d prefer not to destroy my new home.”

“Boastful,” Alexi said, “but can you back it up?  Let’s find out!”

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The group relocated outside, onto an unoccupied field behind the castle.  Hisako sighed as she looked to the sky.  The sun was slowly setting, giving the sky and orange tint, but that wasn’t her worry.  Rather, there were no clouds, meaning some of her abilities were off the table.  Unless…

“Do any of you know any lightning spells?”  Each of those following her looked at Vapula, before she nodded.  “Good.  Then I need you to hit me with one, and sustain it for about 5 seconds.”

The five present were shocked to hear this, but Jehona was the first to bring up her concerns.  “I don’t remember raiju being able to absorb lightning.  In fact, only the Thunder God can do that.”

“I’m not like most raiju, then,” Hisako said.  “Now, Vapula, would you kindly?”

Shaking her surprise off, the demoness nodded, then raised her right hand to eye level.  She clenched her hand, then snapped it open, now revealing lightning crackling in her hand, though if her face told the truth, it was a struggle to truly control.  Then, she pointed her arm out, firing the bolt of lightning at Hisako.  When it struck, rather than convulsing, she simply closed her eyes and clenched her fists.  When it was over, she looked none the worse for wear, despite the electricity flitting out from her.

“This is the basis of my abilities,” Hisako began, a sort of strain present, but barely so.  “I have learned to absorb lightning into my own person, and transform it, like so.”  At her words, an unruly looking bolt of lightning, shaped almost like a spear, appeared in her left hand, which she promptly slammed into the ground, causing an explosion of dust and plasma to erupt from her place.

When the dust cleared, Hisako had disappeared.  She was found, however, when she laid a hand upon the shoulder of Jehona, whose leather armor made her the most grounded.  “I can increase my speed exponentially, though this can be done without a charge.  It is simply easier with it.”

“Alright, that’s fine and all,” Belial said, unimpressed.  “But you said that ya didn’t want to ‘destroy your new home’.  Other than the bolt, I’m not seeing why we couldn’t stay inside.”

Hisako, though she wasn’t too pleased with the snide remark, obliged, walking back to her original area.  “Then let me show one of two things that I was worried about.”  She held her right arm out to the side, forcing all of the excess electricity into a single point, letting it build as much as possible.  The queen and her Pillars could see the lightning, once raging around her body, now slowly moving to her palm.  Once there was nothing left around her body, she slashed her arm across the air, and released the energy she had built up.

A wave of blue plasma shot from out of Hisako’s right hand, soaring through the air and leaving an intense heat in its wake.  As it flew, it grew in size, becoming so large that it began to look like a second sun, tinting the sky blue among the sunset.  When it finally dissipated, after almost a minute of time, the sky colored back to its orange tint.  For those outside the castle walls, they could very clearly see it, and although they weren’t sure what caused it, they knew they had reason to fear whatever it was.

When it was done, Hisako lingered in her pose for some time, before she turned around to face her new queen and sistren.  Their mouths were agape, their eyes wide open from what had just occurred.  And though Belial’s jaw had not dropped as her friends had, one of her eyes was twitching.

“That was something I had once used to destroy a mountain,” Hisako said, somehow with not an ounce of smugness.  “Of course, I needed to absorb far more lightning than what Vapula gave me.  The point still stands, however, that there was a reason I didn’t want to stay inside-”

Hisako was cut off as she raised a gauntlet to block a swipe at her neck from a large, scimitar like blade.  Seeing Belial at the end of her the blade, she noted that the scimitar was her scythe, apparently collapsed into this form.  Though it was likely more important that Belial had just attacked her, she believed.

The baphomet was quick to explain herself, however.  “I wasn’t expecting you to catch the blade.  I was just gonna stop it close to your neck, to try and scare you.”  Belial brought her weapon to her side, transforming it back to a scythe.  “Guess it didn’t work.”

“No, it did not,” Hisako said, unperturbed, if only from getting an explanation.  “Should I be expecting this again?  And will I have to retaliate if I do?”

“Yes,” came the answer from all four other Pillars, apparently out of their stupor.  Vapula, Jehona, and Aquilina all glared at Belial as they spoke, though, showing some wish that this wasn’t the case.

Hisako nodded at this.  She could understand why this was done, at least.  It kept them all on their toes, so that they would prepared to deal with any threat, no matter how suddenly it may have come.  Of course, how annoying that likely became was equally understandable.  But she was used to this kind of treatment; it was why she had become so desensitized to killing, unlike most monsters.  It was far more effective at permanently dealing with problems than knocking them unconscious.

A yawn came from Alexi, who hadn’t spoken since they came outside.  The yawn spread throughout her Pillars, though it skipped over Hisako, who was still literally amped from Vapula’s lightning spell.  “Well,” Alexi began, “I don’t know about you, Hisako, but it has been a long day for me.  And, it is becoming night, so might I suggest that we head off to bed?”

“The day has been uneventful for me, but I will need to know where my room is.” Hisako deemed to not mention the seven men she killed.  Most monsters did not take well to killing, whether or not the victims deserved it, or if the monsters themselves had killed in the past.

Alexi smiled, something Hisako began to realize she did quite a bit more than most people she had ever met.  “Then follow the girls.  There’s at least five more rooms along that hallway.”

“Must you call us that?” came a response from Aquilina, surprisingly.  “It makes me feel like a child.”

“I consider you like my children,” Alexi retorted.  “And aren’t you the only one to call me mom?”

Even through her tan, one could see Aquilina’s blush.  “Could you please not embarrass me, mom - Ma’am!”

Her blush deepened.  Jehona chuckled, and patted her on the shoulder as she began to lead the way to their rooms.

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Soon, the five had arrived at the hall that held their rooms.  Indeed, there were five vacant rooms, including the one that Hisako had taken as her own.  The other Pillars apologized for how spartan the room was, but she did not mind.  It had a bed, which was more than she had for quite some time, and all that she needed.  There was one problem, though.

“Where are the baths in the castle?”

It was a reasonable question, really.  One should always know where the bath was, for cleanliness and hygiene was very important to anyone wanting to rid themselves of diseases and stench.  And although she wasn’t sure if the others could do so, she could still smell the blood upon her person.  It wasn’t getting to her, it was just something she didn’t want to sleep in.  So that wasn’t the problem.

The fact that the baths were on the other side of the castle, however, was.

Still, she made her way to them, but not before setting her armor in her room on a stand she grabbed, leaving her in her bodysuit.  She made sure to tell her new allies not to interrupt her, and to quickly disabuse the dirty thoughts that ran rampant within some of their minds about what she meant by that.

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Once Hisako was well without of hearing range, however, the four remaining Pillars communed.

“We need to talk about Hisako,” Aquilina said.

“Which part of her?” Vapula responded.  “The unnatural lightning abilities?”

“The blood I could smell on her?” Jehona added.

“The fact that she could block my scythe’s blade?” came Belial’s question.  “I’ve cut through steel with this, and she caught it like it was nothing!”

Aquilina sighed.  “Yes.  I think we all have realized that she is not from here, and whether that means this country, this continent, or this world, I don’t know.  What I mean, however, is that whoever she is, I am worried for our queen.  We all knew the likelihood of having to kill the Demon Lord when we got to her, but this, I think, tells all we need to know about how she expects this to go about.”

Vapula winced at the possibility.  “I don’t relish the thought of murder, no matter how necessary.”

“Indeed,” Jehona said, nodding her agreement.  “No monster wants to have any kind of blood on their hands, vampires notwithstanding, of course.  It is just against our nature to want to kill either others of our kind, or the beings that we consider life mates, whether as former humans or as simply humane monsters.  But Hisako…

“I don’t think dear Hisako would care either way.”

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(1) Pronounced ye-hawn-ah
(2) Pronounced ak-il-leen-ah