Book II
Arc 2: The Valley Tournament
Part 1: The One I Follow
Greed:
It smelled like rotten fish… and no, it was not Snow's breath.
We sloshed in the dark as we swam in a foul mix of tar and goo. I couldn't see a damn thing, but I could hear Rex's screams in and out of splats that panged my ears every so often.
"Fuck… ing… hell…" someone said. I think it was Snow.
Not here, goddamn it… Not like this… I thought as I tried so desperately to activate my black coating. But with the constant rotations and body handling, I couldn't get a grasp of where up or down was.
I started thinking back to how I got here… why I said yes to take this mission with this band of idiots: Rex, Snow, Zeno, and Ryo… well… I suppose it wasn't exactly my choice…
Crunch! Splat!
Nope... it definitely was. This was all my fault.
Either way—anything beats getting devoured by a Keeperforsaken Grade 0 monster.
What makes a great Captain? I thought, recalling a random memory.
Choco Bars.
Fuckin' what?
I'm joking. What the hell do you think, you damn brat? Asura replied.
***
**About a month ago, and a week after the incident with the Blue Phoenix Knights**
Morning had found its way into my quarters of the Wolves' Den. It was the dew of early spring, rays petering out through the pockets of the tall, black curtains of my gothic room.
My king-sized bed lay messy, with pillows scattered to the foot of the bed. Everything was a monotone gray, save for the headboard that was black with intricate carvings.
The time was approximately 0651… The sixth day in a row I hadn't woken up on time.
I let out a drawn-out yawn, completely naked under the covers. Tattoos covered my arms, my neck, and the rest of my body. My right arm was under the pillows supporting my head, and my left arm trailed over and down into the covers and onto someone else who was there with me.
Her platinum-white hair glittered as the sun's rays danced upon her. Her white eyelashes did the same. Her rose skin glowed, and she was just as naked as I.
Unlike my rough, black-inked skin, hers was untouched and smooth, except for the gold ink of an intricate, patterned sun tattooed on the back of her neck. I noticed it the couple of times we had slept together, but I never bothered to ask about it. If I had a pet peeve, it was people asking questions they shouldn't. And I, for one, didn't want to be on the other end of that.
Following the trail of my left arm, my hand disappeared under the covers just over her chest. When she inched closer to me, the covers fell slightly, revealing my hand gripping one of her breasts. She moaned quietly under my grasp.
"Good morning, princess," I said with a raspy morning voice.
"Good morning, my Greed…" she replied, falling back asleep comfortably within my arms.
I removed my hand, leaving imprints, and brushed her soft platinum white hair from her face. It was like touching sunlight, if it had a form. Then, deciding to get up, I turned over and moved to sit at the edge of the bed, but it seemed I brushed up against a pillow from underneath... a heavy 'pillow' hindering my movement…
And that's when another voice in the room met my ears before I could consider it.
"You don't ever say good morning to me like that… Hu…"
I whipped my head toward the voice as, through the curtains, the sliding door to the balcony opened. A female with short black hair and a long blonde behind her entered, wearing nothing but a cropped tank and a lace undergarment—gracefully barefoot.
"Ophelia… What are you doing here?" I asked, almost unsurprised.
"What do you mean, Cappy? I used to come in and out of this room all the time… while you came in and out of m—"
"Good one. But don't finish your sentence. I'm with Belle now. That is officially in the past," I interjected before she could get another Keeperforsaken word out. "So, what do you want?"
Ophelia giggled and tilted her head at the two of us under the covers, "Oh, relax, I'm only teasing…"
Belle was still visibly asleep, unaware, or so I'd hoped, of the conversation we were having.
Ophelia's infamous black eyepatch, which covered her right eye at all times, was still clearly visible, even though her right bangs slightly obscured it.
"Don't worry, Greedy, I'm just here to get something, and I'll be on my way…" she said slyly.
"What could you have possibly left here that you didn't already take with you last time?"
"Well, you see… hmm… let me rephrase. 'I'm here to get someone, and I'll be on my way.' How's that?"
"Someone?"
As I said this, I felt movement under the sheets from the 'pillow' I had brushed over. It crawled closer and dreadfully closer in between my bare legs. And it wasn't Belle…
My eyes widened as I pulled the covers off myself quickly, but quietly, so as not to wake her. "Teddy… don't go yet… forgot to give you something…" she said as she opened her mouth wide, inches to my—
"STAR NO!" I snapped, maybe just a bit too loud. I covered my mouth with one hand after I had said it, and the other I used to push away her head, my hand in between her two dark gray horns that curved upward from both sides of her noticeably long, pink hair. She was only wearing an oversized red shirt, and most likely, that was it.
"Ophelia!" I whisper-shouted to her, gesturing with my head to get Star out of there.
She giggled and took her time to come over and grab Star away. "Okay, Miss Overlord, let's go. Let's leave the two lovebirds alone now, shall we?"
She dragged her out of the bed, and she flopped, continuing to sleep even as Ophelia lugged her on the floor.
"You and Miss Princess have a good rest of your morning now… Bye, Greedy." Ophelia said swooningly, waving a hand, and heading to the door.
But as she opened it, a shorter, younger blonde girl with pigtails stood outside, appearing as if she was just about to knock before the door had flung open. With a dull expression on her face, she held her position as she said, "Well… that explains that. Looks like you are messing around with other girls aside from my sister… Figures."
The younger girl jeered, her baby blue eyes drifting past Ophelia and Star, narrowing to me behind them, and then to Belle, who was still sleeping, back facing where we all were, and then lastly, again, to me.
Fully dressed in a black corset, a long black skirt that was shorter in the front, black fishnets, and black combat boots to finish off, she truly looked the part of a Black Wolf Knight. She even wore a black choker, a bit of eyeliner she never used to wear, dangling silver hooped earrings with a cross in the middle, and, of course, our esteemed Black Wolves jacket, custom-made just for her a few days prior, cropped with puffed sleeves.
"It smells like hot, messy sex in here," she scoffed.
"Alice! Why are you—" I said, trying to save face, but she beat me to the punch with a completely unnecessary escalation.
"Two half-naked girls sneaking out of your room with my sister passed out on your bed naked. Doubtful that you all did it together. She's quite prude despite her lustfulness for you… I bet you had these two tramps sneak in here only after she was out cold. For a light princess, she's quite the heavy sleeper. You can't lie, you walking red flag. I followed both of them to your room just to catch you red-handed. Talk about not slick. And talk about finishing quick. I bet Belle fakes it when you 'satisfy' her."
Her words cut like daggers as I sat there still naked under the covers, unable to defend myself from her falsified facts that seemed to line up in her favor somehow. Of all the times Ophelia decides to use the door instead of just passing through the walls out of here. Of course they were basically nude. Of course I was, too. And of course Belle was passed the fuck out and facing the other way.
"That's quite the stretch Alice, you've got it completely—"
"I don't know what's worse. Your impulsive desires or your half-ass excuses. Honestly, what did she ever see in you… Wake Belle up now, and I'll save you the trouble of explaining the situation to her."
Between her, Ophelia, who was building up a laugh, and Star, who had begun to moan even louder. "Mmm, Teddy!" I finally decided to stop being meek, grounding my teeth at the three uninvited guests invading mine and Belle's personal space.
"GET OUT!"
My voice boomed, and a bursting wind behind it seemed to carry them out.
As they got up, Ophelia and Alice brushed some invisible dust off themselves, and Star continued to sleep there on the red carpet hallway.
"Okay, okay… we get it!" Ophelia waved from the other side of the door.
"Come on, girly," she spoke to Alice. "Let's leave these two lovebugs alone. You like ice cream?" She threw an arm around her, successfully changing the topic.
"I-Ice cream? T-This early in the morning? I-I'm not a kid, you know…" She paused for a second, then asked quietly, "What flavors?"
"All types! Codey makes them from scratch!" Ophelia said, going on as they went down the hall, leaving Star there, completely forgetting about her snoozing on the floor with her arms and legs spread out wide.
"Hey, you forgot…" I sighed. "Never mind…"
I got up, put on some boxers, went outside, and tried to pick Star up and lead her back to her room, which was just down the hall. But in a flash, she darted to my doorway.
"Gimme your DONG, Teddy!" she said maniacally, pulling my boxers down quicker than I could blink.
"STAR, I SAID NO!"
Then a sweet voice entered my ears from behind on my bed, "My Greed?"
My eyes widened as my foot landed on Star's face, kicking her out into the hallway. I shut the door behind me in a matter of seconds. And the whole time, Belle was still rubbing her eyes as she sat up, breasts out unashamedly. "What's going on, my Greed?"
"N-Nothing, babe… Just the usual Black Wolves shenanigans in the Den this morning…" I replied nervously as Star banged on the door.
Ding-dong, Teddy's dong! she teased, voice muffled.
"Is that Star? Early even for her this morning," Belle asked.
"Also…" she pondered, her deep, sky-blue eyes trailing down ever so slowly. "Why are your boxers down?"
I felt a nervous sweat trail from the side of my face. "Ah… I was just about to get ready to train…"
She tilted her head to the side with an expression I couldn't read, then said, "Are you now?"
I gulped.
But she giggled, putting a clenched hand up to the bottom of her mouth, "Not with that, you're not…"
Pointing down below me, I slowly lowered my head and found myself completely… excited; I nervously laughed, unable to keep my eyes away from her.
She sat upright, rosy legs bent to both her sides, her bare feet curled, barely touching her perfectly shaped thighs, her hand positioned under her mouth like that, arm between her exposed breasts, and her big, deep blue eyes sparkling as the sunlight through my black curtains shaped a glowing silhouette of her—glowing her. She was an angel… Keeper… she was an angel. If now was the time I got saved, this would have been the moment that did it.
"My Greed, come here."
I perked, and so did the lower half of me, continuously growing from my arousal. I locked the door behind and pulled my boxers back off, gravitating to her like a magnet. I prowled over to her, grabbing her by the legs and pulling her closer to me. Aggressively. Gently. And she squealed softly as I did. Again, she looked at me with those beautiful sky eyes, but shyly away as she allowed me to do to her as I pleased.
Yeah… Den life was chaos. But this—her—Belle... this was mine again. And no longer the forgotten past.
I entered her. We entered bliss. And we had a shared goal.
The time was 0701 now… I wasn't going to make it to training again this morning.
Funny... I thought I had all the time in the world back then.
***
Outside in the clearing of the Wolves' Den, the boys were ready to train; Code, Havoc, Brand, and Nash were all there. They'd been waiting an extra fifteen to twenty minutes these past few days, ever since Greed and Belle got together.
Sometimes he did. Sometimes he didn't.
Havoc sniffed twice toward a room. "Hmm…" he muttered, staring up at those windows...
He shifted his eyes—one blind and one fully dark green—up at the sky like he was wrestling a thought.
"Yup, hot sex galore. He ain't showin' up today either. We should just start without him. Damn… It's spar day today too. I wanted to fight Cap, but I guess I'll settle for the 'android' or maybe 'Mr. Influencer' here," he said as he finished the remains of his canned energy drink that seemed to have no effect.
Nash walked up on his right, comm in hand, pointed to himself as he said, "Welcome back to 'Stoic Gains channel', this is your host, IronNash, and today we will be starting today's workout... fighting this fucking thing." He turned the comm toward Havoc.
Havoc looked at the camera sidelong and then threw up a middle finger, to which Nash responded, "Also... leave him alone. I do the same when I have a chick over," he tried to say as stoically as he could.
Havoc then leaned his whole upper body forward, still facing him to the side, looking up. "You? The guy stuck in his room for two weeks at a time? Good one." He chuckled and jabbed. "Those virtual chats sure are becoming way too realistic, aren't they?"
"Fuck you, Havoc. I have a social life—I'll have you know. Only real men have them after all," Nash said proudly. "And this is a live stream. Not a virtual chat with only a few chat members. I have approximately twenty-odd-K followers watching at this current time. So, smile, goddamn it."
"Oh, I'm sure! All those followers on your social media are totally your social life!" He turned his whole body toward him now. "You know, just because it has the word 'social' in it doesn't mean it counts as a 'life.'"
"And just because it has a hole doesn't mean you should be fucking it," Nash countered. "When was the last time you dated anything besides an animal?"
"Why does everyone keep saying that? Where did that even start?"
"You can thank Ophelia. She got the tea."
"False fucking tea. I have a girlfriend, you know!"
"What species?"
Brand roared with laughter.
Both males continued to butt heads, flaring their nostrils and tossing burn after burn all the while.
At last, Code clapped his hands to interject in their tomfoolery. He wore a white cap over his black-tipped white hair and carried a double-hilted long sword on his back.
"That's it. We're jogging first. Get your asses moving," he said with a calm yet commanding tone.
Both Havoc and Nash reluctantly nodded, glaring back at each other as they began sprinting ahead. Everyone was to do laps around the Wolves' Den and the surrounding area before sparring today. That was his spontaneous decision.
As Code paced himself behind, eyes closed, head tilted slightly down, and taking one last hit before flicking his cigarette to the side, he walked past Brand who was just finishing up his stretch. His screen-like mask had nothing but innocent digital white eyes on it as he watched Code breeze by.
"Another day without the Captain. Better get started." Brand said as his metal skin clinked. His body was entirely cyborg, yet there was no hint of human skin on him.
"Brand," Code said.
"Yes, Vice Captain Code?" he replied, turning around and jogging in place.
"Lead the rest of the sprint when you catch up to them and then have them try to catch up with you… We're gonna go extra hard today." Code said, finally opening his eyes, and their light gray hue glinted, appearing almost blue in the sunlight as he adjusted his round glasses with his middle finger.
"Yes, sir!" Brand saluted and sprinted off, sounding like an engine.
Code continued to pace as he slowly took his long swords from his back and raised a hand, snapping his fingers and summoning a wooden stand that was replaced by a speck of dirt just ahead to his left.
He placed one sheathed long sword on it and took the other out, slinging the bare blade between his belt and pants.
As he readied himself to sprint, a large wolfdog came running from behind, giving him a low, heavy huff from its nostrils, joining him and the rest of the guys in their morning sprint.
"Good girl, Yuna," he said to her, wagging her sweeping tail as he petted her large head when she passed by.
She ran off to the rest of the group, and Code thought to himself, I'll make sure these morons stay in top condition. He paused his thought. Actually... I'll make sure we're better than we ever were, Asura… We could have been more prepared... I'm just glad we have Greed. That fucking idiot...
***
Elsewhere, while the Wolves' Den settled into its morning chaos, a very different kind of gathering was taking place.
**Arcane King's Castle**
A man wearing a royal blue cloak stood up at a table where eight other individuals were seated. The man was Sirus, and he opened the meeting for the Royal King and Captains there, "Thank you all for attending today to discuss the dreaded event of six days ago regarding Syemore and the Blue Phoenix Knights." He paused and panned the room to certain captains, closing his eyes briefly before saying,
"But before that… In the words of Arcane King Daz's native tongue, 'Magia nostra in pace quiescat.'"