A gorgeous lady was leaning on the side of the door. Her arm rested upon her curvaceous hip. While her silver-gray eyes gazed at the man on her bed.

John sat there, listless. The revelation from the woman of the call made him see the alraune lady in a different light. Yet his hand quickly hid his phone behind him. Ignoring the constant shouts that were fading by the distance.

“My ears might be deceiving me, but I think I heard you’re talking to someone,” the alraune lady sauntered towards him with her hips swaying side to side.

Yet John’s gaze had no intention of being lecherous. His mind mulled over what kind of horrid monster was an alraune. Then the sun shone over the alraune lady’s skin, warming her mint green complexion. Her lustrous dark green hair draped over her shoulder as John finally witnessed the true appearance of this vixen.

“Judging from that look on your face, I think the cat is out of the bag,” she stood in front of him, looking from above with her hands on her hip. The little smile on her had never been so confusing for John.

He couldn’t tell what she was going to do. His hands turned clammy and his beige complexion lost its color. “Are you going to kill me?” he asked.

What came next defied his expectation.

She laughed with her brilliant white teeth. Down below, John could even see her pink palate as the alraune lady took her time enjoying John’s torment. “Oh please, if I want to I would have done so by the pond,” she elegantly wiped the little tears at the corner of her eyes.

“So you’re not going to kill me?” he asked, staring at the lady before him.

“Why? You want me to?” she smirked.

“No!” he shouted, standing up on his two legs. “I mean…I prefer not to be killed,” he barely looked her in the eyes and glanced away to the floor.

“Then perhaps you need a bit more luck than that, don’t you think?” she winked at him as John could feel his back ran cold.

‘She knew,’ the alraune lady had been listening to his phone call since the beginning. His chance of hiding his phone was getting slimmer.

“You know, straggler. The mind is a fickle thing, perhaps I might change my mind out of the whim,” said the alraune lady.

The threat behind that voice was apparent as the sun in the sky. Death might not be the only outcome if John didn’t pay heed to what she said. He swallowed a mouthful and turned his gaze at her. “And what should I do to make it stay that way?” It was all or nothing for John. He was up against a tall and thick wall that the current him couldn’t contend with pure will alone.

She smiled. Her hands wrapped around John’s neck from the front as John could felt her bosoms pressing against his chest. But this show of flirting was only a front to John. And humping it out was at the bottom of his to-do list.

“Show me that thing you’re hiding from me,” she said.

“Your hands, ma’am,” John replied.

“Aw, don’t be so serious. Don’t you men like these sensual touches?” she smiled as her hands left John’s shoulders.

“Not all men are the same,” John turned his back and grabbed his phone hiding beneath a layer of blanket.

“Here,” John showed it to her on his palm, his Uphone Mini 12.

Her lovely relaxed countenance fell. A frown that had never appeared, emerged on that beautiful face of hers. Her steps retreated a few with her hands up to her chest as if guarding her precious life.

John didn’t expect her reaction to being like this.

“What is that?” she asked.

“It’s a phone. It’s something from my world where we can use it to talk to people over a long distance,” John explained.

Yet the alraune lady’s guard never went down. She stared at it for a long time as if trying to comprehend something that didn’t make any sense to her.

“But why does it have a–” her words fell short, staring at John in a daze. Then her hands dropped down as if she just realized something. The frown faded away as her beautiful smile returned like the blooming flowers of spring. She had never smile this way before and it was as genuine as it could get.

“Make a pact with me or I’ll kill you,” she said it straight like an arrow. There was no more hidden intention as she bared it open.

“Okay,” John immediately accepted. As long as he could keep on living was the biggest bargain he would ever get.

She was surprised for a second there, but John decided it quickly made this pact of hers more exciting. “Good, then let’s begin,” she said.

An unknown wind ruffled her hair as a glowing circle started to form on the floor. Her eyes closed while her lips were mumbling something.

John stared in amazement. The magic he always saw in the silver screen was happening right in front of his very eyes. And compared it to his little Lantern’s Light, it paled in comparison.

Then her silver eyes opened. She handed her hand to him, a gesture of inviting him into the circle.

His heart palpitated over the unknown. Yet the promise of not being kill still stood. Steeling his will, John stepped into the circle.

“Your hand,” said the alraune lady.

John looked at his hand and then at hers. “Oh,” he made haste and placed his hand over hers. The moment their skin touched, John felt the tingling electricity coursing into his body. It wasn’t painful but it felt strange. Then her voice pulled him over.

“In the name of the angel that governs order and pledge, witness our pact between I, Fellelone and…” her gaze fell to John, hinting at him to continue.

“John Creed,” he said.

“…In this pact, he will bring me to the next realm, no matter the cost, and I, in turn, will never harm even a skin on his body…” the talk of the next realm left John befuddled. Yet what came next shook him to the core.

“…If any one of us dare break this pact. Let the Spear of Judgment fall upon us and burn our bodies and souls to cinders.” The spectacle was reaching its final point. The glowing circle converged in the air forming a ball of energy. It spun wildly with lights shimmering from the inside. Then it broke into half. Before John knew it, one of the halves flew right to his heart. It vanished in plain sight as the pact was finally done.

John stood there in a daze. His eyes were staring far at the distance as his brain was rattled over the content of the pact. His hand grasped his left chest right at the spot where the energy vanished. ‘It’s do or die, huh?’ it was the gist of the pact, and even if it sounded impossible he had to do it.

John looked up and stared at Fellelone’s content expression. Whatever she meant by the next realm was definitely a big deal to her.

“From the way, I heard it…” John approached Fellelone. “…it sounds like we’re now husband and wife.”

Fellelone gave a seductive smile. Moving closer to the man who had always halted her advance. “Is that a yes I’m hearing?” She whispered in his ears. “I wouldn’t mind having an early lunch.”

It sounded erotic. But for once he questioned why the excessive use of different meal times. Why it just couldn’t be as simple as saying sex.

“I’m sorry, but what do you mean by lunch again?” he asked with curiosity this time.

“What else other than fulfilling my hunger,” Fellelone said. She said so naively that John had to take a double-take.

“You mean you literally going to eat me? And not having sex?” John had to ask further.

“Isn’t it both the same?” again that carefree tone of hers was quite at odds with what she said.

John was left speechless. He almost stumbled on his feet but Fellelone grabbed him by the arm before he could fall. “Wait, didn’t you just said that you’re not going to hurt me?”

“Of course I won’t. Why would I do such a fooling thing?” she said.

“But you literally said you’re going to eat me, isn’t that just the same as killing me?” he was getting more confused with each question he threw.

“What a silly man. I thought you know what an alraune is?” she looked at him with keen interest.

‘She’s right. I don’t really know anything about an alraune,’ the woman on the phone only mentioned what Fellelone was and it didn’t go further than that.

“I’m sorry,” John said. He stared into her silver eyes with conviction. “Please tell me what an alraune is.”

“Come,” Fellelone brought him to the edge of her bed as she told him what she was.

An alraune, a sub-species of treant with the closest resemblance to a human when compared to the other treant sub-species. They relied on their sweet scents to lure victims into their honey trap. They sucked the mana and life force of a person through the sheer method of sexual intercourse. Most victims would end up bedridden for a few months but for those powerful alraunes, a single act of intercourse was enough to lead a man to death.

John listened through everything. For once he was glad he made the right choice last night. If he didn’t he would have been a dead sex toy for a humanoid plant. Then the kiss of a woman broke him out of his stupor. He turned and saw Fellelone’s face just an inch away from his. Those plump lips of her had never looked sweeter.

“Now what would it be? Care to give me a little treat?” she couldn’t be more alluring in that tone of hers.

“I promise it won’t hurt. It’s just a little bit of mana drain and nothing else.” She smiled. Her eyes were glowing with anticipation.

John had to admit, his heart was swaying like mad over her beauty. But for him, in life, there was more than just physical attraction. The past came back to him and his head went down. “I’m sorry,” he said.

Again, it was another rejection and Fellelone couldn’t hide her surprise.

“This time I really mean it. It’s not you,” John said.

“Than what is it?” rather than mad, Fellelone was curious.

“It’s going to sound a bit cliche, but I can only do it with someone I love,” John said with a melancholic smile. “You wouldn’t have any of those berries from last night, would you? I’m kinda starving.” John got up and left the bedroom to look for food.

Fellelone sat there, staring at John’s back. Intriguing as love may be, she never knew what it really meant. “Interesting,” she said.

***

At the dining table, John helped himself with a plate of yodel berries. The berries that didn’t let him down. And this wasn’t his first plate.

Fellelone came and placed another wooden plate full of yodel berries in front of John. She sat at the side and watched John enjoyed his meal. It wasn’t fulfilling for John but it was better than nothing.

‘I almost forgot, didn’t I just earned the warlock class?’ The knowledge transfer was still fresh in his mind. It pertained to the most basic aspect of a warlock. “Menu. Arcane.”

His shoulders drooped. Seeing those precious spells being incomplete was quite disappointing. Yet the thought of warlock and Alden made him remembered something crucial.

“Oh, I forgot,” he glanced at Fellelone. She sat on her seat, prim and proper, like a lady of a noble house.

“Is there something?” Fellelone asked.

“I haven’t thanked you yet for saving my life,” John said with smears of pink juice all around his lips.

“Thanking me for not killing you? For a human, you’re pretty weird, John Creed,” Fellelone chuckled.

“No, it’s not that. What I meant was, thank you for saving me from slavery. If it wasn’t for you, I might have become some man-child’s guinea pig,” John said. True to his words, he was utterly grateful. He couldn’t imagine what would happen if he became a slave. Just the thought of it was making him lost a bit of his appetite.

“And why a guinea pig? Are these animals slave to humans over there?” Fellelone asked. She had never been interested in the matter of man before, not until she met John Creed.

“I…um…” John was lost for words. What she said wasn’t entirely wrong, perhaps the pet system on earth was more or less slavery from their point of view.

‘That’s just fuck up. I never should have thought of that,’ regret was a bit too late. Sometimes, enlightenment couldn’t be any harsher. He tried to distract his mind from such a thing and looked back to his arcane menu. Remembering his acquaintance on the phone, he wondered whether he should pursue this job or not.

“Fellelone, what do you think about warlock?” he asked the only person he could.

“You’re asking the wrong person,” Fellelone said.

“Why is that?”

“I’m not actually human you know,” she said.

“That doesn’t matter, I just need to hear your honest opinion about them,” he popped another berry in his mouth. Waiting for her answer.

“I don’t know much about warlock but I can tell you this, that old human you spoke off, wielded tainted dirty mana. It’s so vile to the point of disgusting,” her eyes appeared cold and dead.

John lowered his head. That remark of Fellelone really put the nail in the coffin. It seemed the warlock job was indeed sided with the dark side. Yet he questioned whether it was logical for him to abandon such an opportunity. ‘John, it’s a dog eat dog world out there. Can you really survive here without any power?’

This new world was the survival of the fittest. And he knew that firsthand. ‘Should I do it?’ he wondered.

“Ah, yes. I remember something. No wonder I felt the dirty mana so familiar,” Fellelone’s words perked John’s ears.

“If I’m not entirely wrong, I think I once killed a big serpent with that kind of vile mana,” Fellelone said.

The mention of a serpent rang a bell. The thing she spoke of might be the serpent that belonged to Alden. John jumped on his seat and gaze fervently at Fellelone. “Please take me there.”

***

Fellelone brought him far away from her garden grotto. They trod through a different path until the trees that always surrounded them were thinning down. Soon, there were no more trees. It was a patch of barren wasteland with the sea of trees at the far end of the horizon.

“Where is it?” John asked. His eyes scattered around, looking for any sort of animal remains.

“You’re standing on it,” Fellelone said in her nonchalant tone.

John looked down and there was nothing but the dry dirt ground. It got him thinking. He did a quick scan around him and for a place so verdant with greenery only this patch of land was barren. “You buried it?” he asked.

“Not exactly. The bones of that strange-looking serpent dissolved itself after a week or so and the disgusting mana from those bones caused all of this,” Fellelone hid a tint of regret behind those silver eyes. She could have done better for the forest if she knew what would happen.

“You mean due to the influence of the warlock turned his serpent into something demonic?” John couldn’t find the right word. Demonic was all he could think about when relating to the dark side.

“Not quite. When I fought it, the serpent was unlike any other beast I’ve encountered. It kept mentioning about culling the humans for the sake of some war or something,” Fellelone said.

“What do you mean? Is there a war right now in this world?” the notion of war had never crossed his mind.

“War is everywhere, my little silly man,” she chuckled. “Yet I doubt the war it spoke of is related to this realm.”

The word ‘realm’ surfaced once more. Fellelone never told him about what she meant by bringing her to the next realm, and it made him curious.

“Fellelone,” he called her.

She turned and gazed into John’s eyes. “If you have the intention of asking what is the next realm, then I’ll have to decline.” She shot him down before he could even ask.

“Baby steps, straggler,” Fellelone’s two words struck him right at the core as she returned back first. Leaving John to his own.

He knew what she meant. There was no point brooding about something far away. It was better for him to focus on what he could do at the moment and not in the far future.

Deep in thought, John was onto something.

‘She did say the serpent is unlike the beast in this realm. Then could it be that it wasn’t even from here?’ his eyes opened wide. An epiphany dawned on him. He couldn’t contain a smile and John rushed on his feet, chasing over Fellelone’s fine ass.

Soon, he found her and grabbed her by the arm. With a little pull, she turned to him.

“It’s possible,” he said with a jubilant tone.

“What’s possible?” Fellelone was confused.

“There’s a chance of me using the warlock’s knowledge without getting to the dark side,” he announced.

“And how exactly?” she asked. John’s enthusiasm was tugging her string of curiosity.

“It’s simple,” he grinned. “I just need to find a heart core of a beast in this realm.”