Alter: Lineage

The alabaster court mage sat across the table from me, her thick thighs resting over one another as she leaned back in the armchair. She'd taken us to what I assumed was her study, a small, tidy place full of bookshelves overflowing with novels, tomes, and all other manner of literacy that no doubt went into her duties. The sound, smell, and sight of a warm, well-stoked fire with a bear-skin rug sat just before conjured rather homely and intimate fantasies in the back of my perverted little mind.

Elise sat with a mug of mulled wine in her hand, swilling it around gently as her fingers gripped the top of the tankard, eyeing me up with a questioning glaze as a small smile touched her icy, painted lips.

"I must admit, Richter, you seem to hold yourself better in the company of one such as myself than others your age do," she chuckled, sipping the red liquid from the mug. "No sweating, no stammering, and no awkward crossing of the legs to hide your excitement?"

"I think you'll find I'm much more familiar with this 'part of the job' than most boys my age," I said with a shrug, leaning forward in the chair I sat in and cocking an eyebrow. "Your proposal was enticing, so what's the offer?"

She fell silent for a moment, sipping another, larger mouthful of the berry-flavoured wine before getting to her feet. I watched her as she walked, the swinging gait of her wide hips and very-bountiful backside being an extremely entrancing thing to behold. She wrapped her nimble fingers around the spine of an old, worn tome laying atop an ancient wooden desk before turning back to me. With a throwing gesture given first to prepare me, she then tossed the book over to me and leaned against the desk the book had rested on.

"I mentioned earlier you have the scent of monsters about you, Richter," she said, looking me over once more with a much less flirtatious glint in her eye. "And I also mentioned you seem a man that's fought many of them time and again. How far does that reach extend?"

"Over several schools of training, several species, and several continents," I answered, looking down at the book and noticing the title; 'Matters of Maulings of the Magically Malignant'.

"Are you familiar with that book?" she asked me.

"Very much so," I nodded, flicking through the pages to one of my favourite chapters that described the effectiveness of a Fiend fang as a survival tool. "Could probably list off and cite every beast in this damn thing. But which is the one bothering you?"

"I've no idea," Elise said with a heavy sigh, walking back over to her armchair and sitting down with a slump. "You'd never imagine me to be a rather useful court mage with that response, would you?"

"I'd never imagine one as young as you being a court mage to begin with," I said with a shrug. "I can hardly imagine being in-charge of all magical matters for an entire country. I'm barely three years younger than you and often forget to button my pants after leaving the toilet."

She smirked in kind, enjoying the humour, before growing serious once again.

"Yes, all matters magical... it's a shame that this blasted war has forced me to abandon several of my usual duties in favour of divining scout locations and healing those wounded in battle," she said with an annoyed curl at her lips, sipping from her steaming wine with an angered expression. "I'm up to my eyeballs in political nonsense near-fifteen hours a day and as such can barely even sleep myself, nevermind investigate magical beasts roaming about the town."

"And I'm imagining that's why you've come to me?" I asked.

"Is it really 'imagining' if it's as obvious as daytime, Richter?" she asked in a teasing, playful tone, tilting her head sideways as she asked. "But yes, your truly limitless imagination has lead you to the correct conclusion. I'd like you to investigate the beast attacks we've been seeing in the city as of late."

"And what would be my reward?" I asked, looking down at the book once more.

"Reward?" Elise asked in a faux-surprised tone. "Surely, good sir, the eternal gratefulness of the city and the praise of one so regal and beautiful as myself is reward enough for your actions?"

"Mhm, and if I had a crown for every time I'd accepted a polite 'thank you' as a reward for risking life and limb in battle with a great beast..." I said, my fingers rustling briefly to exaggerate my pause. "I'd have exactly zero crowns. Work begets wealth, Elise. A woman as regal and beautiful as yourself should know that."

"Hm," she said, toying with the tip of her pale chin with the tip of a pale finger. "The treasury's funds are already spoken for thanks to the war, I can't sign out arms and armour due to it all being vital to equipping the army, and I need to keep all of my magical stock here and accounted for in case I require it at a time when importing is no longer an option..."

As she spoke, she moved over to my chair, laying her knee next to mine and leaning her buxom, pale form over the top of me, eventually pressing her heaving breasts into my torso with a seductive pout on her lips as she continued to speak.

"So what, pray tell, could a woman as beautiful, voluptuous, and..." she whispered, taking hold of my hand and placing it against her well-defined, enormous rear. "open-minded as myself offer my gentleman monster hunter?"

"Well, I'm sure that one of such bountiful beauty and eternal kindness is too busy to offer the kind of reward I could settle for," I shrugged, tugging her dress up over her back and grabbing a handful of bare, snow-white ass flesh with my warm, strong hands. "She's too busy for such vulgar behaviour. I can't have her sacrificing her country's needs for the several days she'd need to recuperate from being so exhausted and... sore."

I heard a faint purr of excitement come from the beautiful mage, a hot tongue sliding over her lips as she stared down at me, eyes alight with sexuality and desire.

"The court mage is often busy... but I've heard from a very reputable source that if her valiant hero was to slay the foul beast, she'd have just enough time for some... personal audiences," she giggled, gently placing her warm lips against my own and moaning softly. "How about it, hero? Would you mind freeing up my schedule?"

"With the greatest pleasure," I said with a slow nod, enjoying the last few moments I got to massage her backside before she gently moved my hand away and lowered her dress again.

The tension lit up the air, breathing hot and heavy as Elise moved back over to her chair, sitting down with a blush on her cheeks as heavy and hard as the length in my hunting trousers was.

"Well, now that we've agreed to our terms, we must get down to business," I said, sitting up straight in the chair and suppressing my arousal. "Do you have any information, evidence, witnesses? Something to give me a general idea of what I'm looking for?"

"I'm afraid all we've got are the bodies, Richter," Elise said, readjusting her dress to fit properly once more before sipping from her wine. "And I must admit, it's not a pretty sight. Nor one riddled with evidence."

"Am I dealing with pieces more than bodies?" I questioned.

"It'd be fair to say," she said with a short nod.

"It's still enough to work with. Can usually tell what the teeth are like, how big it is, how it hunts, how it fights, and a shitload of other things from pieces," I shrugged.

"I trust that you do," she said with a nod, looking back up at the frosted window above her desk and sighing at the weather. "I'm afraid I must apologise, Richter. The coroner's office isn't kept on the castle grounds. It's deeper into the city itself and... well, I'm sure you're well-acquainted with our lovely weather."

"I'd consider snow and I good friends," I said with a chuckle. "And besides; the thoughts of snuggling up against a certain beautiful court mage will be all I need to keep me warm and in high spirits."

"Then you best hurry back," Elise said with a playful smirk. "Or that certain beautiful court mage may get lonely."

"So, where about's is the love little corpse shack?" I asked, getting to my feet with a weighted sigh.

"Try your best to stick to the path that winds down the hill from the castle and out of the gate, then try to hug the fence to your left that goes down that road. If you can manage to make out a large church through the snow, you're at the place you need to go right at. It's a small, stone building right next to that church," Elise explained. "And please don't die. I've got so much riding on you, it's not even funny."

Smirking quietly to myself about the sexual joke I could make, I began to make my way to the door, only for a lack of weight on my right shoulder making me come to a stop.

"At the risk of completely ruining all the good will and professionalism I've just built up here," I said, pivoting slowly. "Can I borrow a sword? I didn't bring one with me before I left."

Elise blinked blankly, rolling her eyes as she got to her feet and headed over to a wooden chest stacked next to a bookshelf. She flung the lid open and dug around inside it for a good few seconds, eventually producing a leather-scabbard-covered arming sword. She used her magic to toss the thing over to me, a firm slap of flesh hitting leather as I caught it in my palm. I slid the thing out of the scabbard and looked over the state of the blade. It was old, that was for sure, and a bit duller than I'd have liked it to be, but it would have to do for a non-situational protection weapon.

"Thanks, Elise," I said with a nod, using the straps attached to the scabbard to sling it over my shoulder, fixing it in place and testing my ability to draw it.

"Please don't break it," she said with a sigh as she sat down at her desk and began going through papers. "It's the only one I've got."

"You have my word," I said, politely nodding my head before turning back to the door. "Oh, and can you make sure to inform my father of where I've gone?"

"Of course, Richter," she said with a curt nod as her full attention turned to the papers. "Good luck. Stay safe."

"Same to you," I mirrored, exiting the doorway and heading through the castle.

"You left me behind!" came the furious roar over the wind.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," I responded over our mental link, knowing full well that being cutesy with him would only piss him off more.

"We were supposed to leave together, Richter," Grael snarled in a beyond-furious tone. "What would possess you to ever even consider leaving without me?"

"You looked so peaceful in your little bed. I couldn't bring myself to wake you," I chuckled.

"Richter, for the love of the lives lost throughout time, I am supposed to be your Familiar. I get that you would rather not have someone babysit you, but Goddesses Above, Richter, you're staying in the middle of an active war zone without me," Grael explained.

He was calming down, not through a lack of anger, but mostly because he knew yelling would only tire himself out. If he was going to convince me, he needed to reason with me. He knew that as well as I did.

"I'll be fine, Grael. I'm not on the front lines of the war or anything. I'm playing general with dad for the entire trip," I explained.

"Why can I currently sense blinding cold and agonising wind through our link right now?" Grael asked.

"Oh, that's because I'm stumbling out in a snowstorm trying to find the coroner's office so I can hunt down an unknown beast responsible for killing several innocent people," I answered. "As you do."

"..."

"You still with me, buddy?" I asked after there came no response.

"I'm going to talk to Celestia, and she's going to teleport me there," he said in a cold, resigned tone. "Don't do anything stupid until I arrive."

"You remember who you're talking to, right?" I smirked.

"More than anyone else alive," he growled, his fury leaping up once again before the mental connection was cut.

"Oh..." I said, my laughter fading away to a remorseful sigh. "He's going to fucking kill me."

I continued staggering through the snow, squinting against the pulverising wind and the lethal temperatures before finally making out the church Elise had mentioned.

"Oh, thank fuck," I said with a frozen shiver running through my body.

I doubled my pace in the foot-deep snow, staggering towards the small tone building marked with a rather morbid skull sign. I banged loudly on the wooden door, hearing it echo throughout the coroner's office and waited. I huddled my hands against my body and tried to turtle up as much as possible, desperate to hide my flesh from the chilling wind.

The door soon swung open and I was allowed inside. I was greeted, or faced, with an old man with white hair and a short beard dressed in a brown medical robe. He closed the door behind me and cast a questioning glance at my snow-coated, freezing form.

"I'm here to take a look at the bodies," I pointed out, another bolt of shivers running through me. "Elise sent me to lend a hand."

"It's about time," he said with an irritated growl in his voice. "I've been keeping these things on the table for over a week now."

"That must smell great," I joked, following him through the rooms before being pointed to the actual morgue.

"They're not decomposing," he answered. "Room's too cold for that."

"Goodie, more freezing temperatures," I sighed, entering the room with the coroner behind me and looking over the carnage.

There was a lack of blood on the pieces of the bodies, probably because it had all either frozen and flaked off when first being spilled or because most of it was buried back at the crime scene, if the snow was anything to judge it by. But what the pieces were, however, was ungodly fucked up. I could see split bones and shredded muscle fibre from the distance I was currently at.

"Where were they found?" I asked as I walked over to them.

"In several places... and in several places," he answered.

"Ah, good old mortician humour," I said with a warm sigh, looking over what I deduced was a femur sticking out of a hunk of meat.

The bone itself was snapped, but it looked less like a clean break and more like a tree trunk that had been split in half. The bone had broken partly, but it was torn away from the rest of it, and that lead to some pretty nasty results. Something like that suggested power in both the body and the jaw. Ruled out lesser things like Hellhounds, Ravagers, and simple wild dogs.

I turned my attention to the bite marks themselves, noticing clear puncture wounds throughout the entire length of the upper part of the femur, suggesting that it wasn't a regular beast with regular jaw structure. Instead of two canines made for digging in and tearing flesh, these teeth seemed almost torturous. There were a hell of a lot of grooves on the inside of the bones, which made me think that the insides of this thing's teeth were serrated as well as enormous, judging from the size of the puncture marks themselves.

Serrated teeth... ruled out most, if not all, Draconids, Insectoids, and Ethereals. I took a step back from the leg, looking over what looked like wrist bones, ribs, and a spinal cord crushed in the centre with a hell of a lot of force.

"What're you thinking?" the coroner asked me.

"Well, aside from the fact these poor bastards were torn to pieces, there's a good bit of evidence to suggest something Demonic," I said with a hefty sigh, never liking it when those evil bastards got involved.

"Demons?" he asked. "What makes you say that?"

"If there's one thing I've noticed about demons, it's that their appearances can almost always be described as 'sadistic', even down to an evolutionary level," I said. "They're spiky, pointy, sharp, and very destructive. The creature that did this was huge and powerful, but the teeth marks are what swayed me. Too big to be any earth-born creature where their features are evolved to aid in life. All this thing's teeth are enormous, serrated, and 'designed' to be as painful as possible."

"Sounds like a great way to die," the coroner joked.

"Demon's harvest energy creatures release when in enormous amounts of pain. Everything they make is designed to cause agony, it makes them stronger, it feeds them," I said with informed confidence. "These guys died in agony, and gave whatever the hell killed them a good meal."

"So... you can't identify the demon?" the coroner asked me.

"Sorry to say, but 'big, serrated teeth, strength, and size' aren't exactly unique to one species of demon," I said, crossing my arms over my chest and exhaling. "There's about eight different types of beast demon this thing could be, nevermind the sapient ones."

"We hoping for a Succubus, eh?" he said with another morbid jest.

"Hopefully," I nodded. "They're much easier to stab in the skull when you're having sex with them."

"Heh, good one, kid," he said, slapping me on the back with a grin.

The look I shot him a moment later told him that I wasn't making that up, nor speaking from a place of inexperience.

"Damn," he said with a curt nod. "So... what're you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna head back to Elise and see if she's got some kind of device that'll let me track demonic energy," I answered. "The fuckers spray it about everywhere they go, so if she's got something that can sniff them out, all I need to do is find part of the trail, and it'll lead me right to the source."

"And then?"

"And then I kill it," I shrugged.

"That easy?" he asked.

"That easy," I said with a firm nod, turning to the coroner and shaking his hand. "Thanks for letting me have a look."

"No worries, kid," he said with a firm grim and a firm nod. "And good luck with your slaying."

Ha.