Diana’s smile faded with the light of the Paladin’s magic, the knights disappearing along with her quarry. Teleportation? Humans were certainly carefree when it came to the secrets of the gods. She’d have to chase after them if she wanted to keep Christoph alive. She might as well at this point, or else all those drugs and spells would have been wasted. She hadn’t expected him to be nearly so resistant to her little ‘suggestions’. What kind of human could degrade mind control to a headache, she wondered? Sighing, she shoved at Emilia’s stiffening form with her left hand, drawing her dagger from the beast-woman’s back with a trickle of blood and poison.

Emilia fell forwards, hitting the leaf-covered ground with a thud as Diana frowned down at her. If possible, she had wanted to avoid making the beast-clans her enemy, especially considering the sheer strength of their current ruler. Well, the furry little harlot here might still survive if she was lucky. To think that the beast-girl had been fortunate enough to stumble across such a rare specimen and also stupid enough to waste all of her days with her legs wrapped around his waist! Diana glared down at Emilia before stepping over her motionless form and heading deeper into the forest.

Wait, had she been trying to conceive a child? That monster’s offspring might be as interesting as their father… No, Diana doubted that the lustful wench had been thinking past her carnal desires. The beast gods might lead their people in satisfying primal urges, but for them to lack such sense was almost unthinkable. And for that man to be so taken in by such filth! She had thought that he might exhibit intelligence above that of a common human, but that was obviously not the case. The affections of the lesser races remained a mystery to her.

In any case, her plans were proceeding smoothly. Her infiltration of the beast clans had been flawless, and the success of her studies had surpassed her wildest expectations. In her first month, she had learned enough about the beast-clans to rival the palace’s royal library, although that had more to do with the ‘unnecessary’ nature of her subject than the thoroughness of the royal collection. Even her abduction by Bastias had been an experience that would have made her journey worthwhile in itself. Diana shuddered as she recalled the time she had spent with the beast god.

To think that the other races might be so close to their deities! Militia was a god that did not bother with the common folk, but Bastias didn’t seem to hold such lofty standards. She had been worried that they would execute her for trespassing on their lands, but they hadn’t even brought it to Leila’s attention, simply dropping her back off at the village when they were done with her. Was it because she was merely here for research and not out of hostility? To someone who was exiled from her homeland for merely expressing interest in the lesser races, such mercy was almost enough to touch her heart.

Even so, she had invested too much in her current plans to abandon them now. All her hours of observation, every moment she had spent layering spells after spells onto her prey, so slight they would be almost imperceptible. She doubted that Christoph could withstand her magic if she brought her full force to bear, but it was possible that he could have broken free of her manipulations had he noticed her spells before they had taken root. Suggestion and confusion, such magics were almost child’s play to her by now.

Diana shivered in anticipation of her future studies, her own form blurring for a moment to reveal a slim fair-haired figure before she solidified the illusion once again. The humans though of Christoph as a demon, and the beasts treated him like a monster and a slave. Diana’s own people would dismiss him as trash without hesitation, but Diana was determined to find the truth of his existence. Bastias had said that he tasted of the world serpent! If that was true, this would mark the first time the dragon god had ever taken a follower that he had not created himself! Was it possible that he would continue to do so in the future? Whenever the Ouroboros shifted his influence, the world trembled, and Diana was not about to let this opportunity pass her by.

…

The trees of the forest shook as the weapons clashed, steel and light colliding almost without pause. Leila swung her massive one-handed sword with a grin, unable to keep a smile from her face as Gideon retaliated, his blade of light smashing her own sword aside. He had returned! After so many years, he had simply walked into her forest, her mother’s greathammer grasped in his hands as though it were only natural. She could hardly contain her glee.

“I hear that the church continues to revere that hammer as the relic it once was,” Leila said, chopping at the unarmored knight with heavy overhand swings.

“They do,” Gideon replied as he caught her blows. “Stellar’s soul might be the vessel that holds its power, but even so it remains an artifact of humanity. Don’t forget where it was she claimed the hammer from in the first place.”

“Once something is taken by the forest, it belongs to us for all time,” she said. “Neither you nor that hammer will be an exception to this rule.” Leila bared her teeth as the Templar moved onto the offensive. His blade might be forged from light, but the weight of each of his blows was immense, the long handle of his sword naturally lending itself to powerful attacks.

“I will not betray my church,” Gideon said. “Not for Stellar, not even for you. If you wish to take me back, you’ll need to try harder than that!” Widening his grasp on the handle of his weapon, he began to strike out at the beast-woman with highly unorthodox sweeping blows. His words didn’t reflect it, but he knew that he couldn’t last in a protracted battle with the beast-woman. If he did not end the battle soon, he would be defeated.

Leila back away from the knight, her smile widening until laughter roared out towards him. “Betrayal? Remind me who it was that took the life of the woman who raised him?”

Gideon raised his guard as she left his range, looking across the distance to where Leila’s face had twisted in manic anguish. “That is a sin I will carry with me always,” he said. “I have never stopped mourning the death of your mother. Even now I carry her soul wherever I go.”

Emilia lunged at him, smashing at his sword and forcing him back with a series of thunderous attacks. “I’ve missed this!” she said, kicking the knight back again with a grin. “Where have you been all these years?”

“I, too, have missed-” Gideon began.

“Enough!” She flung her sword to the side, hunching over as her spirit blazed, the pressure alone enough to stop Gideon’s breathing for a moment. “If you are going to come at me with the intent to kill, then I won’t hold back either! Prepare yourself, Gideon the Slayer!”

A shockwave rose up as she leaped at the Executioner, and he took a step forward, leveling a diagonal attack that would cleave her in two. It was the same attack he had used against Christoph weeks earlier, but this time his opponent would not evade his blade. The blow carried the strength of his entire body, reinforced with prayers of might and the experience of his many years wielding the weapon. Leila’s fist smashed his sword aside without even slowing down, the force of the blow snapping Gideon’s right forearm as the blade winked out of existence and the hammer soared away into a nearby tree.

The beast-woman was on him before he could react, and he fought to remain conscious as he felt his face hit the dirt, furred hands holding him down as he struggle to breathe. Leila’s fangs sank into his neck without ceremony, and he jolted as she marked him with her god’s blessing.

“You are mine now,” she said. “I will never let you go.”

Gideon looked up at her with tired eyes, his lips raised in a thin smile despite the pain he felt. “I’m sorry,” he said, feeling his strength fading as a tear dropped from her face to land onto his. “You must have been waiting.”

“I waited so long,” she said, leaning down to press her forehead against his. “Why did you never return?”

“Leila!” Oliver’s voice cut into their reunion. “You told me to report to you after I’d defeated the intruders, but… we found Emilia lying paralyzed by the forest’s edge. She’s been stabbed in the back, and we need your help to treat her wounds.”

Leila frowned up at the beast-man as he approached them, eyes narrowing in anger. “Diana,” she hissed. Bastias had seen fit to release her back into the village, so she had overlooked the intruder for now, but if she had harmed her family… Leila stood, retrieving her sword from where it had been lodged into a nearby tree. “Protect this human,” she said to Oliver. “Also, follow any orders he gives you.”

“Leila.” Gideon caught his breath and called out to her as she began to move away. “I never wished to fight your mother, you know? I could not refuse her duel, and Stellar, she would not allow me to lose that fight.”

Leila looked back the knight as he fought to stand, a warm smile spreading over her face. “I know that,” she said. “My mother wanted you to return to your people, and that was the only way she could justify your release. However, don’t think for a moment that she never wanted you to come back.”

Turning, she broke into a sprint and left the two men behind. Oliver grinned down at the former Templar, reaching a hand down to help him to his feet. “You’ve taken your time,” Oliver said. “For someone who left to find his freedom, you’ve sure become comfortable with your chains.”

“This village was the only family I had,” Gideon replied, reaching up to touch gingerly at fresh bite marks that mirrored his old scars on the other side of his neck. His right arm hung limply by his side, and he winced in pain with the movement. “Even before I was captured, the church never treated me as more than a soldier.”

“I’m sure that’s true,” Oliver said. “But I wasn’t talking about Leila and her mother. I was talking about the church. If it takes a slave contract to keep you where you wish to be, the chains called duty must be strong indeed.”

…

The four Paladins closed in on Christoph with shields raised, swords swinging out in perfect synchronization. Ducking under a horizontal swing, Christoph deflected a thrust, blocking a third attack before the fourth blade stabbed into his left shoulder. Smashing into one of the knights, he broke free from the circle and thickened his crystal blade, lashing out to crumple one of the four shields that moved to negate his attack. The pain in his shoulder faded as the wound healed over, and he took the defensive again as the knights retaliated. Should he flee? He wanted to, but at the same time he had to stay. Emilia had been stabbed! Diana… his head ached as he thought of the tall woman, his headache flaring up as he recalled her wink. Evading the Paladins’ attacks, he retreated out of their range for the moment.

“Dia- …the tall beast-woman who stabbed my mistress, is she an accomplice of yours?” Christoph asked.

“The church does not ally itself with non-humans.” The four Paladins spoke with one voice, and Christoph frowned at their response. He opened his mouth to reply, but his words were cut short by a flash of light. Heat washed over him, and a fireball roared past him to burst over one of the four knights, incinerating the Paladin in an instant.

“Now now Claude darling, you shouldn’t tell lies.” Diana smirked over at the three remaining Paladins as they turned to face in her direction. “The church might not ally itself with anyone, but a certain Paladin might come to a certain spellcaster when he needs help defeating a certain dragon…”

“What do you know of that, beast?” Claude replied. The burnt Paladin disappeared with a flash of mana, and a moment later another knight appeared to replace him. Reaching up, the four removed their helmets, and Christoph’s frown grew further.The four knights shared a single face, just like…

Diana smiled as she spread her arms, her image blurring before falling away. Her fur disappeared, catlike ears vanishing as her hair lightened to blonde, her tight-fitting fur wraps seeming suddenly indecent as fair skin replaced her previously fur-covered form. In a moment the beast-woman was gone, and Christoph blinked as another person took her place. Was this who Diana really was?

“What do I know?” The elf smiled as the illusion of her beast-form faded away. “Honestly, I’m quite surprised you didn’t recognize me, Sir Dragonslayer Claude.”