Monster Girl Uprising

Maia jumped as her shoulder was tapped, then gave a sigh of relief as she turned to see Elise and Steph. “What’s the situation?”

“Anya’s back there.” Elise informed. “They’ve blown a hole in the wall, so Alexis sent us to take your position here at the front. I heard Galiena mostly has it handled, though.”

Maia paused to turn back to the battlefield, where an increasing number of skeletons under Galiena’s control were clashing with the other undead. “Yeah, I’d say so.”

“Hurry.” Steph said. “Things are a bit worse there than they are here. Just follow the hallway near the back of the room and take the first left.”

Maia nodded, then dashed towards the other side of the temple, following Steph’s instructions and taking a left at her first opportunity. The moment she rounded the corner, she was able to see fog spilling into the temple further down the hall, fainter than it was outside, but still enough to hamper vision.

She threw a few spells at the ceiling, driving back the fog as she pushed into the room where the fighting seemed concentrated. It was another large, open room, and by the looks of it, most of the wall on one side had been completely blown to pieces, revealing the steep drop-off of the cliff the hill was built on. Alexis, Sylvie, Lily, Violet and Corina were desperately trying to dodge incoming spells and arrows from the fog while preventing any enemies from flying in, occasionally taking seemingly fruitless potshots at the enemies further out.

Maia cast three spells in quick succession, not aiming at anything in particular and just aiming to dispel the fog, but nonetheless one of her shots hit the broom of a witch, sending her tumbling down to the ground below.

“Good timing!” Alexis shouted. “Anya should be out there still, can you handle her?”

“Probably!” Maia replied. “I might need to get out there, though!”

“Sylvie, back her up!” Alexis ordered. “Violet, you make sure nothing gets close, the rest of you, supporting fire!”

Maia flexed her wings, then took off into the air, taking only a moment to revel in the sensation of flight as she rocketed out of the hole in the wall, Sylvie close behind. She dodged a couple of spells and fired back more of her own, further revealing the area and the things that had been lurking in the fog.

There were more witches, as expected, but there was also a pair of enormous birds that quickly darted back into the fog the moment they had been revealed. Maia frowned and lobbed more spells after them, but they only retreated further and further into fog, and Maia soon had to give up on chasing them to focus on finding Anya.

That was easier said than done when she was in the midst of the enemy, but her allies did an admirable job of keeping her path clear; Sylvie kept anyone from getting too close, and the rest made sure the visible witches had to devote at least some time to dodging. Furthermore, with Anya yet to launch an attack since Maia had arrived, Maia felt the best way to look for her was to continue to pepper the witches with spells, slowly expanding the visible area of the battlefield.

This continued for about a minute before Sylvie hurtled into Maia, barely throwing them both out of the path of an oncoming lightning bolt from off in the direction the birds had gone. The two spiraled in the air for a moment before they regained control and separated. “We need to deal with that.” Maia said. “But they’re just going to keep flying away if I reveal them…”

“There was a big light right before it fired.” Sylvie said. “Look out for that and you can probably nail it while it’s shooting. I’ll keep you safe while you do.”

“Got it.” Maia said, shifting her spear into the shape of a bow once again and scanning the fog for any hint of an attack. And, just a few moments later, the fog in the distance lit up, prompting Maia to take her shot. The arrow cut through the fog just as her spell did, allowing for her to see for just a moment as it struck one of the birds and sent it into freefall before the fog closed back in on the narrow gap the arrow had made.

Another few moments later, the other bird Maia had seen began to glow, and it too was swiftly shot down. With them taken care of, Maia returned to the task of hunting for Anya in the rapidly thinning group of witches.

She didn’t have to look long. A short time after the birds had fallen, the fog suddenly vanished completely, revealing Anya off in the distance, putting away some sort of tome. And, from the quick look around Maia got before she sped off towards Anya, the battle had tilted dramatically against Anya and her troops; there were only ten or so witches left, the front of the temple was held firm by Galiena and a group of both monster and humanoid skeletons, and Maia couldn’t see any reinforcements for Anya anywhere in sight.

A few witches tried to attack Maia, but she was able to dodge the attacks and begin closing the gap between her and Anya. And, just as she was ready to unleash her first attack against the woman, Katrina’s voice rang out. “The time is finally here, folks! The two maestros of the mediocre are finally going to meet on the field of combat in a proper fight! No running, no deus ex machinas, just two losers duking it out! Analyst Nia, what’s your take on this fight?”

“Maia will win, of course.” Nia said glumly. “You yourself have said that you expect her to. Anya only has experience over her, and has much less divine power within her than Maia. It’s just a question of how much damage Anya can do before losing.”

“Hear that, little failure?” Katrina asked tauntingly. “Even your enemies have no expectations for you! You know, there’s a saying some Lesser Beings have…what was it…‘when I die, I want you to lower my coffin, so you can let me down one last time’? Yeah, I think that was it. Anyway, that really perfectly encapsulates how I feel about you, but this is the one time I would actually be somewhat okay if you didn’t meet my expectations, so try your best. Or don’t. I really don’t care anymore.”

Anya stared at Maia with that somewhat vacant look she had always had, and, having finished switching out her tomes, fired a couple of spells at Maia. “The Mistress has commanded that I do my best!” She said, the intensity of her voice not quite matching her expression. “I will win!”

Maia darted sideways to dodge, but the spells arced in the air, closing in on her position. Seeing that dodging was likely pointless, Maia changed her spear into a shield and intercepted the magic with it. The impact sent shocks down her arm, and cold darkness spread to envelop her, but she grit her teeth and poured magic into the shield, imbuing it with a blazing light that drove the darkness back.

With the attacks dealt with for now, she resumed her frantic flight towards Anya, firing off a few spells of her own that forced the woman to dodge wildly in the air. The broom she was on was clearly less mobile than Maia, and Maia pressed that advantage as best she could, closing the distance and stabbing out with her spear.

Anya had to sharply wrench her broom to the side in order to dodge that last hit, and Maia followed right after, grabbing hold of the broom and pulling it to a near-vertical state. Anya was forced to let her tome tumble to the ground below as she clung desperately to the broom, that unnerving vacant expression still on her face.

“The Illian Gambit, a classic!” Katrina cackled. “See, this is why any reasonable society doesn’t use flying machines like this! Go on now, Maia, finish her! One good conk on the head should do it, she’s really not anything special! The harder the better, I want to see the blood fly!”

Maia didn’t do that. She was tempted, but then Anya would lose her grip and fall, and Maia was unsure if she would survive the drop to the ground. It was likely she would, but Anya had already been defanged, and –

Anya bit into Maia’s hand and that same cold darkness began to radiate out from the wound, so cold that it burned Maia’s skin as it traveled. “The Keitan Defense!” Katrina exclaimed.

Maia wasted no time in using her other hand to hit the affected area with her spell, the holy fire dispelling the darkness and soothing Maia’s wounds.

“Ooh, that’s a new one! We’ll call it…The Maian Rebuttal! That works, but you probably should have thought that one through a bit better!”

It took Maia a second to realize that the holy fire had spread to Anya, and the woman’s grip was visibly weakening under the blaze. Maia hurriedly dragged the broom downwards, fighting against its levitation spell as she tried to prevent Anya from falling to her death. She managed to get around halfway to the ground before Anya fell off and plummeted to the ground below.

Maia quickly let go of the broom and dove after her, and quite nearly made it, but Anya slapped away the hand that was reaching for her. Then, Anya hit the ground, and was still. Maia landed a moment after, and was somewhat relieved to see that Anya was still breathing, if only just, and began the process of curing her.

“Okay, fun part’s over.” Katrina grumbled. “Aira, Nia, you handle the cleanup.”

Suddenly, Aira and Nia appeared in front of Maia. “We will explain later, but we need to hurry before Anya dies.” Aira said quickly. The shadows around her deepened, and suddenly things felt more…real. “We officially name you queen of the monster girls, with all the rights, powers, and responsibilities that come with it. Do you accept?”

Maia didn’t hesitate. “I accept.”

The odd sense of hyperrealism faded, and Nia gave Maia a nod. “Begin her cure, then bring her and meet us in the temple. We will gather the others there.”

Maia laid a hand on Anya’s forehead and began the cure as the goddesses left. The process was, oddly enough, easier than it had been with either of the corrupted people Maia had cured before, and after only a minute or so, Anya’s body began to writhe and twitch as she changed.

Once it was safely underway, Maia slung Anya over her shoulder and took off towards the front of the temple. It was awkward, carrying the ever-shifting form of Anya, but they hadn’t been that far away from the temple, so Maia was soon walking into the main room, where everyone was waiting.

“Already?” Nia asked, clearly taken aback. “We were thinking it would take you at least twice as long to start her cure. Impressive.”

“That only proves that you were the right one to make our champion.” Aira said. “Allow us to explain some final concepts before we leave you to your work. This sick ‘game’ has entered its second phase, and with it the way you go about it should likewise change. Up until now, we have been on the defensive. Now, we are expected to go on the offensive.”

“Katrina believes it would be boring if Maia had to go through every single town and cure their people one by one. Therefore, she has…graciously allowed a workaround.” Nia said, grimacing. “When a group acting under Maia’s orders defeats another group, be it conquering a village, defeating a group of soldiers, or even taking over a country’s capital, every person belonging to that group automatically begins the cure process.”

“Is that why all the witches suddenly fell?” Alexis asked.

“Yes.” Aira replied. “And, since Maia was not here when the question was asked, yes, they are alright. Their transformations nigh-immediately healed any damage they took in their falls.”

“I was going to ask, thank you.” Maia said.

Aira gave her a smile. “Some stipulations about this mass curing; it only functions when someone is acting on Maia’s orders, but in the broadest sense possible. If Maia has ordered there to be a war, then any action in furtherance of that war counts. If Maia has ordered that people defend themselves, and they defeat an attacking squad of soldiers, that counts.

“This isn’t all-encompassing, though; you have to be in charge for this to work, like Galiena has alluded to. Orders also have to be reasonable; you can’t declare war on every country at once, those countries have to be places you can reasonably attack, or can reasonably attack you. And people who refuse your rule or are acting against your wishes are completely exempt from this. This is most common with bandits or pirates, but sometimes someone tries to go and get extra glory by doing something stupid and undesirable, and they’ll be confused when this auto-cure doesn’t work.”

“That is the most important thing we wanted to say, but there are two others.” Nia said. “You are being given a two-month grace period to gather your forces and build defenses, during which time you will not be attacked, nor will guidance be given about you. If you attack somewhere, people will be allowed to defend, of course, but the grace period itself will not be broken until you take a major city or deal with a large part of an army. Please use these months wisely.”

“Finally, we will not be able to use our power to aid you any further until you build a shrine to us in your capital.” Aira added. “Once you have, we will be able to use whatever power we accumulate to increase your fighting capabilities or grant you weapons or supplies. We are currently out of power we are allowed to expend, and will likely not have enough to do anything notable for a month, so do not feel a need to rush.”

“Do you have any advice on what we should do during this grace period?” Maia asked.

“Split up.” Aira said. “You will not have to worry about organized resistance, so it would be worth sending a couple of your faster people to gather those you have already cured into one place. Then…choose carefully your first targets.”

“Understood.” Maia said. “Thank you. “Does the grace period start now?”

“Yes, but today isn’t counted for the sake of easier bookkeeping.” Nia said. “And I am afraid that is all the time we are allowed to spend with you at this moment. I know you all must have many questions, and we would love to answer them all, but we cannot. We will speak again, but not for some time. Thank you for aiding us, and farewell.”

And with those unceremonious words, the goddesses vanished. After a few moments, Maia turned to the rest of the group. “Alright, once everyone’s cured, let’s get everyone on the ship and sail off. We can discuss the plan there.” And so, the group left, the timer for their short period of safety already ticking away.