I'll admit that I deviated from some from the plans I had originally made. Once I had been ready, I moved quickly through the village, following the dark stains of the souls I could see, as well as the voice of anyone that needed my help. It pained me to think that these poor people had been dealing with this for months on end, probably thinking that help would never come.
Part of my plan had involved finding Raizen's buddy, Jerrion, and asking him some very pointed questions regarding his friend. That plan was thrown out the window when I finally found him in one of the houses near the back of the village. The sounds of a woman crying and pleas for help, as well as her begging someome to stop, was what had me barging into the house.
I had found the sick fuck with two women. One was beaten and bloodied on the bed next to him, while he himself was in the process of raping another. Any ideas of questioning him was lost in my fury as I ripped him off of the woman, tore off his cock, shoved it in his mouth, and proceeded to beat him to death with my bare hands. The woman that was conscious was both horrified, but there also a spark of righteous fury and glee in her eyes as she watched this happen.
I had stuffed Jerrion into my Abyssal storage, along with Raizen's other lackies I killed, healed the women, and made some cloaks to wrap around their bodies, and proceeded to move on. I had found many similar scenarios in the village, which only furthered my anger, and my drive to see all of them dead.
That's when one of the people I saved, a mother, had told me that the yellow bastards had build a large windowless building in the back of the village where they were keeping the children. I brought her over there immediately, finding many of the villagers I had already saved trying to do the same, although there was a couple of the yellow fucks outside of the building, but my arrival meant that they were no longer there after a second once I ended their lives. When I saw those kids, huddled together like cattle, scared, and half starved to death, I actually saw red in my vision, and I quickly went to work in slaughtering the remaining few scumbags.
It did not take me very long to clear the rest village and instruct the villagers to stay safe while I dealt with Raizen. I had even found Serena and Benji's father towards the end of my spree, and had quickly brought him to them. I didn't stay to catch their reunion, but the crying and sobs of relief I heard as I darted off told me how much they had missed each other.
I had business to attend to with a certain fox tailed asshole, and once I had arrived at the chief's house, I scattered all of his buddies around like trash, before flinging Jerrion through the door. I was determined to make sure fear filled every inch of the fucker's very being before I killed him. In the end, he was another puffed up asshole drunk on his power, chasing dreams of grandeur as he let his past shape him into what amounted to a monster in Beastkin skin. That also further pushed the point that it wasn't just humans that ended up like that, thinking that their power gave them free reign to act like a tyrant.
That led to right here and now. While I was getting better at accepting praise and such, the posturing, and the literal fucking bowing was something I don't think I'd ever get used to. I looked around me, seeing pretty much every villager with their heads pressed to the ground, and I couldn't help but sigh. I did not want another village treating me like this.
I then looked forward, at the woman who had stepped forward, who now stared at me with her head raised from her position on the ground. The position made me stiffle a cough, as her frankly ridiculous breasts were in a battle against gravity as it tried its best to drag them to the ground. That also made me look at her and the other woman a bit closer. Most of them were scantily clad in small breast wraps, and either short skirts or just underwear. That was enough to tell me that Raizen truly was a degenerate all on its own, but the cuts, bruises, and bumps on their bodies made me want to revive him just to kill him again. One girl was even missing part of her ear.
"Fucking asshole." I muttered, and my words caught the ears of the woman near me, and that caused her to blink out of the staring contest she was trying to have with me.
She was a gorgeous woman, with some ridiculous curves, and I could tell she was a bit older than the other girls Raizen had taken. However, as I looked closer, I felt like I recognized her, as her face was very similar to...
My thoughts stopped dead as I used Abyssal Eye.
[Name: Delphia Rosewood]
[Age: 45]
[Race: Beastkin (Fox)]
[Class: Fire Sorceress (B)]
[Designation: Resident of Redwood Village]
I blinked a few times.
"Fuck." I said, feeling my face becoming a bit warm again.
I could definitely see where Serena got all of her... assets from. Before I could dwell on the fact that I had been inadvertently checking out the mother of the one of the women I was interested in any longer, shouting came from the side.
"DEL!" A Man shouted.
"MOM!" Two familiar voices shouted at almost the same time, and that made me smile.
The woman's head whipped towards the voices, and once she saw not just her husband racing towards her, but her children as well, her whole body began trembling she let out a loud sob. She was only halfway off of the ground before Serena and Benji, who had raced past their father, arrived first and bowled into her. Tears raced from Delphia's eyes as both of her children pressed their heads into her bosom, and her relieved smile as she held them tightly, kissing the top of both of their heads repeatedly, got a reaction from me too. No families should ever be torn apart like this, but at least they were able to reunite.
Benarious arrived a few moments later, wrapping his impressive arms around all of them, and held them tightly. Most of the other villagers had turned their heads to the sight, and even many of them were shouting for joy, and even tearing up at the sight of Serena and Benji being back, and seeing that they were safe.
"You've done something wonderful again, my darling. I'm so proud to call you my husband." Cici said as she and the others finally made their way to me from the crowd.
"And I'm proud to be yours too, Eli. You've helped so many people. You're such an amazing man." Clarissa added, and I smiled at both of them.
"It's not official yet, but I think of you as my wife too, Clarissa." I said, which made her blush cutely, but her smile was so genuine it gave me butterflies, "Thank you both. I just do what I can."
I wasn't ever letting Clarissa go, and once things calmed down a bit, I'd definitely be making that official with her. Both women continued to smile at me as the rest of our friends came up to stand around me. They were about to speak when I heard Benji start to speak frantically.
"Is Alina okay?? Is she..." He said, but when he turned his head and looked towards the Chief's home, his words died in his throat.
I followed his gaze to the girl missing half of one of her ears. She was a pretty girl, and I mentally gave a thumbs up to Benji, as my Abyssal Eye confirmed that was Alina. The woman was staring, seemingly out of her previous trance of cascading emotions after finally being free from Raizen. Her eyes locked on Benji, and each passing second had them growing bigger with realization.
That's when the tears began, streaming down her cheeks as she opened her trembling lips.
"Benny..." She said, and despite the emotional scene unfolding, I actually had to hold back a snort. I was definitely using that.
Benji's parents just smiled with happy tears in their eyes as they both released their arms from their son, and after only a moment, she disengaged from them, and set off at a dead run towards Alina.
"ALINA!" Benji yelled, and his voice, and his actions, spurred Alina into motion.
The way her face morphed in relief both hurt my heart, but warmed it at the same time as I saw in her eyes what I saw from my loves. This girl was in love with Benji. Dirt kicked behind her feet, as she went from on the ground to running in moments.
"BENNY!" She yelled, her voice cracking as she ran at him.
The scene brought back memories for me as I watched the woman launch herself through the air at Benji. Her body met his, Benji's arms outstretched to catch her, as she wrapped her arms and legs around his body. Unlike me, however, Benji was not OP. His fuzzy payload crashing into him made him lose his balance, and sent him falling to the ground flat on his ass. He did make sure that no part of her body was crushed or injured.
Alina cried into Benji's neck as the young man who was almost like an eccentric younger brother to me held the back of her head and ran his hand over it as he too wept tears of relief. It was almost like I was watching an altered reenactment of when I first rescued Cici, as Alina suddenly brought her head to Benji's, and mashed her lips into his. I actually did laugh this time as his eyes widened from the kiss, but he didn't even try to pull away. Still, I was happy to see it. This was the kind of stuff I liked to see.
"Thank you for helping them..." Sheila said off to my left, and when I turned to look at her, she had a smile on her face, and a single tear running down her left cheek.
She was close enough that I was able to reach other and run her hand over her head.
"I'd do anything for any of you." I said, and my words and action caused her smile to widen, and for the tear in her right eye to finally fall free as well.
"Seriously Elias, for this, and for everything else you've done for us. I wanted to thank you too." Terroth said, and while he did not shed any tears, his smile was warm, and full of affection for his friends.
"You are... scary sometimes, but you have a good heart." Marina said, and I smiled and nodded at the both of them.
"It makes me so happy to see them happy like this..." Valerie said quietly, a soft smile on her lips as droplets of tears fell from her eyes.
I smiled at everyone around me.
"Thank you. All of you. I'm so glad to have found such good friends. It's almost... surreal sometimes." I said, thinking about how not too long ago, my life had been far different, and in my opinion, far worse.
It was then that Cici and Clarissa both pressed themselves into my sides, with Cici on my right, and Clarissa on my left. I smiled as I wrapped my arms around both of them, and let the whole moment of loved ones reuniting lighten my heart, along with the loved ones at my side. Somewhere along the way, Alina's own family, a mother and father, had arrived and had both Alina and Benji in their arms. Then, both families had come together, and celebrated their freedom with more hugs and tears of joy.
People still stared at me, and thankfully, a lot of the bowing had stopped, but it was replaced with quiet mutterings about who I was, what I was doing here, what I might want from them, and many things involving my friends, as well as my ladies pressed against me. The two aforementioned women giggled softly against me, as this was an area I wasn't as strong in as opposed to many other things.
"You killed Delvin in front of a whole arena full of people and even gave a whole speech. Wouldn't think this would get to you." Clarissa said, and I frowned at as I thought about that.
"That was different. I was trying to expose him, and it worked. I was also pissed off at him for what he said, and wanted to do to you both. Even after that, no one bowed and suplicated to me like this." I replied, and she did nod, although a little slowly.
"That's fair..." Clarissa replied, and I gave her small squeeze.
"You've gotten so much better at accepting it, though. I understand how you feel about it, but you have to remember what they've all been through. These people probably feel like they owe you everything." Cici said lovingly.
I sighed, but I nodded, as she was right. I had gotten used to it back at Crosse Village. The name still irked me a bit, but what could I do? I supposed it wasn't that bad. Even so, I'd gotten to know more people, and they grew more comfortable around me, but not all of the reverence had faded. I'd saved these people from enslavement, torture, starvation, violation, and more, so it did make sense. I just wanted to be treated like everyone else... but I wasn't like everyone else, was I?
I glanced over at moment, and caught the large group of Serena's and Alina's family walking towards us. They seemed nervous, but they weren't hesitant. Benji and Alina still clung to each other, which made me smile. My smile dipped when I saw his glowing green hand on Alina's ear, and he looked frustrated by the fact that it wasn't growing back. I'd fix that no problem. I'd also be doing something about the clear limp that Delphia had, leaning on her husband greatly for support. Still, the tears in her eyes as she stared at her family with complete adoration in her eyes did ease my anger a bit.
They arrived in front of me only a moment later. While Benji stayed with Alina, the gratitude in his eyes as he looked at me spoke volumes. Serena though had disengaged from her family, and strode forward. Cici and Clarissa seemed to sense what was coming, and they released my arms and took a step back. Serena finally reached me, and her head hit my chest as she wrapped her arms around me. My affection for her grew so much in that moment that I felt my eyes sting a bit. I wrapped my arms around her, and began used my right hand to stroke the back of her head gently.
"Thank you, Eli..." She said, sniffling as her words came out thick with emotion, "You've done so much for us... and now because of you, we have our parents back... our friends... I don't know how we can ever repay you."
Her words filled my chest my with warmth. The others had strange looks in their eyes, but it was melting quickly as they watched our interaction.
"You don't have to do anything for me. Everyone being safe, and you and your brother being happy and back with your family is all I need." I said gently, the arms around me tightening as she rubbed her cheek against my chest.
Cici and Clarissa both began to rub her back gently as they said sweet and encouraging words to her. Most everyone else was silent, but Serena's parents watched me carefully as I held their daughter to my chest, and stroked her hair. The feeling of her body pretty against mine was almost like a giant pillow, as she was was of the softest women I'd ever held. She was slim, yet curvaceous to almost sinful levels, and definitely inherited the full package in the chest department from her mother. Her mother's hesitance turned into a soft smile as she watched our interaction.
"Our children told us a bit about you." Delphia said, being the first one to speak, "My boy was quite adamant that you are the strongest man he's ever met, and my daughter has told us about your kindness, and their request to you. You didn't hesitate to agree to help us. Seeing this... I think I can see what they mean."
Serena let me go so I could address her mother, only to be pulled into a hug by Valerie next. The foxy bombshell didn't even hesitate to wrap her arms around her in turn. Delphia and many in the group smiled at the scene, before turning back to me.
"I can definitely throw a punch." I said, which made and the others chuckle, and it made my ladies snort, "Serena and Benji are pretty important people to me, and you all experienced something you never should have... of course I was going to help."
Delphia gave me a radiant smile, while Benarious, their father, seemed pretty moved and thankful. He had been in the process of getting whipped by a man until I had removed said man's head from his shoulders before promptly bringing him to his kids. He stepped forward, and held out his hand to me.
"They said your name is Elias, yes? Thank you for everything you've done, and thank you for taking care of my children so well." He said, and I smiled and clasped the man's forearm, as he did with mine, and we shook firmly.
"Elias Crosse." I confirmed, and everyone else around us smiled as I added, "It wasn't a problem, and I was more than happy to help. My friends are important to me."
The man gave me a respectful nod before we disengaged our handshake, and I caught Delphia studying my face intently. It once again made me feel a little warm in the face, and for whatever reason, that made the woman giggle a very youthful laugh.
"You're so strong, and yet... you're just a boy." She said, and that only exacerbated the heat my face was feeling, "And there's more than just you. I'm so happy to see my babies have made such wonderful friends. I'd love to sit down and get to know all of you."
"I also would like to know more about you all." A voice said, and I turned around to meet the eyes of a very well built older fox Beastkin, one that I found earlier. Our eyes met, and he gave me a nod, "Especially you, young man."
The man in question was the old village chief, and he was one of the last people I had found before confronting Raizen. He was a 90 year old man named Ezra, but he didn't look at day over 40. He had orange fur with a few streaks of grey in it, and he radiated power just by his muscular appearance. His class was called Monk of the Flaming Fist, which sounded pretty cool to me, and he was the highest ranked resident of this village at A- Rank.
Any talking and murmuring from the other villagers had stopped by this point, and I was also happy to note that no one was on their hands and knees anymore. Now, all eyes were locked on myself and the chief as he addressed not just me, but my women and our other friends.
"You look a hell of a lot better without all those bruises and cuts. You feel better?" I asked, and the man smiled at me, and nodded.
"Yes, thanks to you, I do. I would like to thank you properly, and I would like to hear about the people who came to us in our time of need." The man said, before he looked around the village and grimaced, "I suppose we should clean up this mess first, though.
"I can clean that up... my bad." I said, rubbing the back of my neck, and the man laughed.
"You are just a young lad, aren't you?" He asked me with a chuckle.
I didn't look that young, right? Although, I guess compared to him, I was just a kid. I only grumbled a little bit. Still, there was more to do here. I had to make sure everyone was healed, and I had to clean up the bodies around us. It was going to be a busy day, but at least everyone was safe, and this was work I was more than happy to do.
All of my friends looked at me with smiles, while my two loves made it very clear in my mind just what they thought of the insinuations as they giggled away. Alina's parents still seemed a little wary of me, but that warred with their appreciation for what I'd done. Hopefully by the end of this, they'll be more receptive to me. I looked looked towards the bodies I thought of the best ways to dispose of them. After that, I looked at Alina, Delphia, and then numerous other fox people who had cuts, bruises, and more on the bodies, and I nodded to myself.
"Time to get to it."