Rupegia

Chapter 173: Massacre – Part 2

Our dinner is a strategy meeting with the Officers (Oritiki, Alcander, Hihiriwa, and the senior officers for the Lordsguard and Companions) and everyone relevant for tomorrow's fight (The Four, Caterina, and Urmeie). We're all serious and focused, but Hihiriwa seems extremely happy with how things are going.

The gray, dragon-headed Captain doesn't hide the reason for his elation for very long and happily shares it with us after we go over the Sky Lander troops that were "loaned" for this operation, "But the Sky Lander soldiers aren't very pleased with how much authority the royals have given to us. They're so completely leashed to the Carrier that we might as well call ourselves 'Sky Generals,' or 'Supreme Generals' if you want the old Chimera Title."

Yunia is actually interested in this and explains the reasoning behind the Hau-Hou royals' decision for the less politically-savvy among us, and by that, I mean The Four, "They can't conquer this dungeon on their own, so the power is in our hands, and they don't want to risk us abandoning this quest, even if it means trampling upon their soldiers' pride."

"You guys have a bloody carrier. It isn't hard to see that you control this expedition," Lily promptly adds. My Lily was very politically knowledgeable, so I expected this much from alt-Lily.

And I can't help myself but tease, "You British, now?"

"Shush," she grumbles back, and I know she liked it.

This is also another little thing that makes me nostalgic. As we're both non-English-native immigrants that spent most of our free time gaming online, we tend to have a mess of an accent and also adopt expressions from all over the world.

Then the Companion officer loudly puts down her cutlery, and we all notice how obviously tense she is, so we understand that she's preparing herself to speak. I've been inside her tight, young, golden elf pussy and even tighter asshole… and also her very eager but not very skillful mouth… Wait, where was I going, again? Ah, yes, I've been inside her a few times, and she seems to be very shy and submissive in front of me, so the wives and I give her a gentle stare to make it easier for her words to come out.

After a couple of seconds of silence, she concludes that nobody else is going to speak, so she finally dares voice her thoughts, and her tone is sober and steady, very different from the ecstatic, girlish moans I remember, "Your Highness, with all due respect, I recommend reducing the amount of casual banter in front of our men. It hampers their morale since they respect you so much."

And the girls immediately share through our connection how much they agree with the officer. Sometimes, we need an outside perspective to give us confidence that we aren't being biased.

I gently smile at her to soothe her worries that I might be offended by this suggestion, though it does hurt a bit that they have a problem with my behavior. Then my "Charisma" shows its power by making the officer blush, but she doesn't let it show in her expression.

"I know I have a soft spot for the Realm Travelers…" I calmly begin and give the Earthlings in question a pointed look (and Lily responds with an annoyed frown). "… so I understand that I've let my human side run loose for too long. I'll work harder to behave as befitting of my station in public."

"Can I still make fun of you?" Lily immediately latches onto the chance to banter.

But I have to be serious now, so I gently shoot her down, "In private, but right now, we're in public. Remember that I've become a king. Well, not yet, but I'm still a 'royal.'"

"Hmm…" the stubborn little loli makes a skeptical hum as she stares intensely at me.

Then Oritiki decides to chime in, proving that her diplomatic skills are truly worthy of someone with such a prestigious position as the one she had in her old empire, "We've sworn to serve the Ryders and even give our lives in exchange for theirs because we believe they're above the common people and even ourselves. This level of reverence warrants the same level of respect, and to see you treat him as merely another friend demeans our honorable sacrifice. I know you're all Earthlings and also Gifted, so I hope you'll also grow into someone worthy of having your own sworn warriors."

And she speaks with such a calm and deliberate tone that if she wasn't (currently) male, I'd be screaming "mommy!" internally.

Boy, I sure do miss her tits, though.

Lily sobers up instantly, and as a (former?) businesswoman, she's also able to answer with matching diplomacy, "I don't wish to be given that level of responsibility… but I understand your perspective. We simply don't have anyone who deserves such a level of respect in our world, so it feels 'fake' to treat him like that."

Her stubbornness annoys Alissa, who gives the loli a stern warning, "I advise you to work on your feelings because you're someone far too important to suffer from 'locked knees.' The Emperor and other high nobles won't be as forgiving as Wolfy or the Hau-Hou royals have been in regards to courtly manners."

"You really want to make her kneel for us?" I question my bitter fox through [Bind].

"Oh, I'd love to do that, but I don't think it'll happen," she answers with a vengeful tone, but her fire starts to quickly die down.

I worry that the girls and The Four might be acting too abrasive towards each other. The only one who doesn't need a reminder that we're all supposed to be working together is Ciel.

Then Lily turns to the rest of the Officers and starts to read the mood. They're very serious about this, and they're also showing a lot of respect by being so restrained in this matter. The other three Earthlings are a lot more tense, though, as they realize they've committed a large number of faux pas.

This time, there are no ethical concerns to fuel Lily's outrage, so she sighs in resignation and begrudgingly agrees, "I get it. He has to keep up appearances, so I'll keep my tongue tied."

"That's all we ask," Oritiki coolly replies with a nod.

And since things have started to defuse, Urmeie decides to chime in, "As for me, you can keep being casual in public as long as you accept that you're likely to be challenged to a duel by the nobles around me."

Lily gives her a curious glance and daringly questions, "If I win, will they stop bothering me?"

"They… likely won't, though at least they'd respect you a bit," the Princess grunts amusedly.

"Sorry, but dealing with nobles seems like a huge pain," Lily blurts out with a wry but tired smile.

Hana sympathizes with her and gives a bit of encouragement, "I used to think that, and even fear them, until I just got used to it."

"It helps to have loyal sworn servants that can guide you," I smugly add, and Lily flashes me an annoyed frown.

Then this topic starts to die down, so Thant goes back to something that caught his curiosity, "Okay, but what's this about 'letting your human loose'?"

And Lily immediately latches onto it. "Yeah, you sound like you have a split personality… Your Highness."

"That's a start, but if you use that tone, it's better to not use the honorific," Alissa strictly advises.

"Sorry…" Lily mumbles, holding back an eye roll.

It's a start…

I clear my throat and calmly explain, "I do have a split personality. I'm a human fused with a dragon, a weredragon, and so I have three personalities: the two originals, who occasionally speak in mind, and the fused one, the real me."

"Lovely," the loli tersely replies, and I know she's dying to tease me about this.

"Let's move on to more important matters," Yunia soberly interjects.

And there's also something very important that we must test before the battle.

After we eat, we take a quick [Gate] to the docks, where the Carrier has been made ready for us.

"This is ridiculous…" Alcander quietly remarks as he looks up.

"Are you sure this is necessary, Your Highness?" Hihiriwa worriedly questions, and his whole body seems tense.

"Absolutely," I calmly assert.

The chains slowly straighten until the winches' operators sense a bit of tension, then they stop and wait. Once all winches are ready, the coordinator gives the signal, and they all resume reeling in the chains again.

We watch apprehensively as the Carrier is slowly lifted up, but the chains hold, and the winches all pull at the same speed, keeping it perfectly level. The crewmen and Hihiriwa look even more worried because this airship is as much their home as the jewels that house their spirits.

But we only need the Carrier to be lifted a little bit, so the winches soon stop, and now it's my turn. I fly up with [Telekinesis], then stop before the glass dome of the bridge and grab the rope that has been tied to it.

The mechanics behind storing things inside [Item Box]es or my "Items" are a little funky, but every Space mage agrees that a basic requirement is for the object to be "movable" and "unattached," as in, you should be able to lift it, and it can't be chained to something unmovable, though every "movable" object chained to it will also be pulled into the [Item Box]. And just to make sure that the "movable" condition is fulfilled, the winch operators wiggle a little bit, causing the Carrier to very subtly move back and forth (which wouldn't happen naturally as the wind storm has already died down).

Then I push the "store" button on my system screen while holding the rope… and the Carrier disappears.

A gust of wind blows past us as air rushes to fill the void left by the airship, and its whistle is drowned out by the gasp of horror from the crewmen as the object they've haunted for Gods-know-how-long is now gone. But I don't pay attention to them as I feel like my Cock has enlarged by ten times, though the sensation is fleeting, and after a moment, I'm back to feeling like I have a respectable gun in my pants. This makes me wonder if my "Items" does have a "limit," and it's just "extendable," though I don't feel very inclined to test that as it'd be very impractical.

I don't wish to torture our men any longer, so once the chains are cleared from the pad, I select the Carrier from my "Items," but now the problem is that the "ghost" of the airship (which is stuck to my right index finger) is fucking huge and fills my whole view. Not only that, but if I put it down just a little bit tilted, it might damage its internal structure, so now I have to be very careful about what I do.

The golems help me out by flying up and giving me a good view of the area, and though they can't see the "ghost," the wider perspective makes it easier to perfectly align the Carrier with the support beams. Then I touch the floor, and the massive airship reappears with a massive *poof*, the kind that's supposed to make us go deaf, but the sound isn't actually real, so all we get is a sense of incongruity. There's still a strong wind tho as the airship displaces a boatload of air again, but once it's past us, the crewmen all let out a sigh of relief even though they don't need to breathe.

The Sky Lander airships and our airplanes are all also perfectly secured inside and on the Carrier's landing runway, so there's nothing else to do here besides watching the crewmen perform a few drills to quickly re-man the Carrier. We aren't interested in that, so everyone disperses for the evening.

Not even Urmeie is the type to drink alcohol and party before a battle, so she leaves us alone to cuddle and drink a bit of Eia to calm our nerves. With the aim of relaxation, we drag the bed to the balcony so we can watch the night sky and the psychedelic moon with its spinning and also psychedelic little moons.

From left to right, we cuddle in the following order: Hana, small-Aoi, Kaatohe, Yunia, Roxanne, Alissa, Lina, me, and Ciel, with Gify nestling into my hair.

"I'm excited to see what's beyond that fortress," Ciel quietly remarks as I sink the back of my head into her massive tits without poking her eyes out with my horns.

"Could be fun," small-Aoi chimes in with her chibi voice from in between Hana's balloon tits.

"Could be horribly bloody as we massacre a nation's worth of monsters," I concernedly remark, dreading tomorrow's bloodbath.

"As long as I can eat them," the hungry little dragon replies, making us chuckle softly.

Then Alissa raises her head, her pointy ears straight and attentive, and kindly whispers as she pats our gloomy loli, "You may think you're being pessimistic, but don't change, Wolfy."

And my naked cat chimes in from behind Yunia's fragrant forest of golden drills, "I find a lot of comfort in knowing that our ruler is so compassionate, even towards monsters."

The Eia is making me emotional, so I warmly respond to their love, "And I'll be thankful if you girls keep periodically reminding me to not lose my humani-… humanoidity?"

"'Conscience' would've been fine, or just repeat 'compassion,'" Ciel quietly corrects and pats a horn.

I pinch one of her nipples as thanks, though she doesn't seem to appreciate it in the way I wanted her to.

And so, we fall asleep under the psychedelic moonlight, and then the golems slowly pull our bed back into the room and close the curtains.

Today is the 5th, Fo, day of Fire. A favorable day for this operation.

But there's no wake-up blowjob as a Companion awakens us when the time comes for us to get ready. The sun isn't even up yet, and we're set to attack right when there's a change in the guard, as that'd cause the greatest amount of chaos inside the fortress.

Breakfast is light in volume but packed with energetic foods, and then everyone takes a [Gate] to the dungeon while I go towards the docks. The girls make themselves busy and oversee the mobilization, but I don't have much to do as I wait for the winches to do their thing.

Hihiriwa runs a tight ship, though, and after a couple of minutes, the Carrier is once again lifted up for me. Then everyone moves in perfect sync according to their instructions.

I store the Carrier, Alcander opens a [Gate] for us to the camp inside the dungeon, we cross through it and walk towards the open field, I pull out the Carrier again in the outlined area, and then the crewmen eagerly and orderly board their darling while Alcander opens a [Gate] for all of us directly to the bridge.

"Combat stations! Code orange! Readiness check in five!" Hihiriwa growls orders as he takes his seat at the center of the glass dome. Even though he has a draconic head, I don't find him particularly threatening, but when he's like this, the old lizard actually looks a bit fearsome.

Then we take our seats behind his.

Kaiia, his panda-headed Executive Officer, repeats the orders and steps forward to directly oversee communications as our army and our fleet prepare for battle. Timing is everything, and getting these thousands of men all working in sync takes a lot of talent.

Then the reports start to come in.

"Main crystal manned! Mana levels at max!"

"Gas tanks manned! Initiating conjuring!"

"Shields manned! Mana levels at max!"

"Propellers manned! Starting test spin!"

"Wing arrays manned! Initiating test flaps!"

"Main deck manned! Sky Lander ships launching!"

"Pilots at the ready! Airplanes ready for launch!"

"Field guns manned! On standby!"

"Trinity cannons manned! Ready for contact!"

"Guards deployed! Ready for contact!"

"Gas tanks at half! Floating imminent!"

"Propellers at the ready!"

"Wing arrays active! Holding us on the ground!"

"Main crystal active and stable! No mana leaks! Ready for maneuvering!"

Then Hihiriwa turns to us, his face perfectly stoic and confident. "Initial preparations are complete, Your Highness," he calmly reports.

"Launch the Celestial Horns," I reply in kind.

He nods and growls to his XO, who orders one of the communications officers to give the signal.

"Continuing as scheduled! Lift-off!" he orders again, and the Carrier finally begins to float up.

The gas tanks are the same as the Floater's (except the Carrier has two, and they're bigger, while the Floater only has one), which are filled with a lighter-than-air conjured gas, while the pressure is constantly monitored and the tank is refilled as Chimera technology isn't very good at hermetic sealing. The wing arrays are literal sets of feathered wings located at both flanks of the Carrier, and they provide fine, omnidirectional propulsion and also rotation. The propellers are the same as the Floater's (just more numerous), and they're focused on efficiency to function for long periods of time so that the Carrier can maintain a constant speed. And the main crystal is used for bursts of movement since it's very inefficient mana-wise, so it's only used in critical moments. In the end, the Carrier moves exactly like a tanker water ship, except it flies.

But since it's so slow and awkward to move, it takes us long minutes to move away from the camp. The bridge is also completely covered, as is every firing port in the Carrier, to prevent any light from escaping, which also gives us more time until the monsters realize that something is going on, so there's absolutely nothing to do while we wait.

Eventually, Oritiki gives us the signal.

"I'm ready to [Gate] you, Your Highnesses," Alcander coolly states, so we all stand up.

"Go on, have your little fun without me," Urmeie grumbles, playfully sour.

"We will," I quietly tease back. Then we step onto the black portal, one by one, except for Gify, who stays, with Alissa and Roxanne being escorted by Ted and Suzy, respectively.

The well-lit glass dome is replaced by the absolute darkness of the cabin of Urmeie's airship, though we can see the lights of the fortress nearby coming in from outside. There's no need to speak, so I only share a nod with Oritiki, who also has [Sense Presence]. Then I activate the [Fly] enchantment in my armor and leave the airship, making room for the next wife to cross through.

We spread out and each aim for a different floor, then enter through the open firing ports, to the surprise of the bored hobgoblin standing guard within them, but after a quick swing or shot or spell, the monster is silenced before they can raise the alarm. Then we turn around and activate the Sky Lander [Conjure Stone] magic tool, sealing the firing port with a very strong and thick wall of fully physical matter, which isn't dispellable like an [Earth Wall] is.

At the same time, the rest of the Horns and select winged soldiers do the same to the firing ports opposite to the direction our fleet is approaching from, except that they stay on the outside. This way, we'll funnel the swarm into coming out from a single direction, one that's covered by our Field Guns and the rest of the fleet, creating a disgustingly lethal killing zone.

But while the alarm remains unraised, we'll do a bit of scouting inside the fortress.