Chapter 118

"R-right, my ass. What the fuck do you think I'm thinking?"

"Exactly what you're thinking."

"Don't lie to me! He made his own body into a vessel?!"

Even as he shouted, Kay remembered the bullshit Virgo had said that day in Molinsi, after swallowing a priest whole.

"He needs high-calorie food."

"Because it isn't an ordinary vessel."

Kay sat with his mouth open for a long time.

"That can't..."

It couldn't be.

"Are you sure he knew what it was?"

"Master?"

Dezeb was the master of all black magic.

"He performed the procedure himself."

"...Fuck. Why are you telling me this?"

"So you won't make a mistake. Maintaining a proper balance requires the Pantheon as well as Sanctuary."

"That crazy..."

Crazy bastard.

"Has your Master lost his mind? Is he actually insane now?!"

Whatever his feelings were, fuck, this was beyond reason.

A lich held all authority over its vessel.

Erabelle Vermilion now held Dezeb's leash. He was no longer his own master. Like his Dogs, he had become a creature obliged to bark in whatever direction his master pointed.

"That's insane..."

A chill ran through Kay, and he scratched at his arm, though it hadn't even healed yet.

"...Fuck. Has he really lost his mind...?"

He glared at the shadows swarming across the planet. Ol spoke.

"We'll compensate you adequately for the damage."

"Fine. Just get them off my planet first."

"That's beyond my abilities."

Fuck. Kay threw away the cigarette that had burned down to the filter and searched for another, then scowled.

That had been his last one...

"Then as an advance, buy me a pack of cigarettes. No, a few cartons."

"......"

"What? That's within your abilities."

Kay watched Ol, who looked faintly taken aback.

"Red. Six milligrams."

"You really have changed."

As they spoke, the mass of shadows spread farther.

"No, but why the hell are those things on someone else's planet—"

"Master won't do anything too terrible. The Lieutenant is with him."

As if to prove his point, the shadows fell still in an instant. Kay was so dumbfounded that he grabbed the back of his neck.

"You're supposed to enjoy what you bought, customer."

Dezeb pressed her down with his body and kissed her. The cheap motel mattress sank under their weight.

"Ahh..."

Before Erabelle could collect herself, he had stripped off her clothes and begun touching her between her legs.

He pushed a finger inside her, working it against the walls of her vagina. Then he took her hand with his slick one and wrapped it around his penis.

"Keep going."

He guided her hand up and down once, then pushed his middle finger back between her wet folds.

"Ah..."

Erabelle squeezed her hot, stinging eyes shut. She couldn't bring herself to meet his gaze... But his tongue thrust against her eyelids. Her eyes were forced open, and tears spilled from them.

"Keep going."

Dezeb licked away the tears, then pressed his lips to hers as he spoke.

His tongue drew hers in again. His finger worked inside her, and she had to hold his penis with both hands and stroke it.

Hot semen spurted across her stomach.

He straightened to his full height and smiled languidly.

"Shall we plug it up?"

Erabelle stared blankly at the urethral plug he had placed in her hand.

"...What?"

She wanted to believe she'd misheard.

He took a deep drag on his cigarette, set it by the head of the bed, and sat with his thighs spread, leaning back.

"I want you to put it in first. I like this customer so much I can't help coming again and again."

"I-I think that would be all right..."

"It's tiring to keep ejaculating, customer."

"Th-then perhaps you could just go to sleep..."

"Sweetheart, if you don't want me coming inside you until you're full, hurry up and plug it. I don't want to stop halfway through to change condoms today. You wear yourself out after only a few rounds when I come inside you."

Erabelle squeezed her eyes shut.

"Quickly."

At Dezeb's urging, she finally positioned the metal plug at the opening of his urethra. Her hands were trembling.

He lowered his head, gripped the base of his penis, and helped her line it up.

"I'll understand if you draw blood. It's your first time."

Her face grew paler at his laughing whisper. He had told her to do it, so she couldn't simply stop. She was inserting it carefully, cold sweat beading on her skin, when Dezeb deliberately let out a moan to distract her.

"Ah..."

Tears gathered at the corners of his gentle-looking eyes.

He smiled. By the time the plug was all the way in, Erabelle's forehead was soaked with cold sweat.

He took her still-trembling hand and thrust against it for a little while with a movement of his hips. Then he tore open a condom packet and rolled the condom on. Looking at her bloodless face, he sighed.

"I'm yours now, customer. You can't stay afraid of me the whole time. You ought to learn how to play with me. I'll do anything you want."

"Then could we just hold hands and sleep...?"

"Except that."

She never missed an opportunity, did she? Grumbling, he caught Erabelle by the calves and lifted them. She fell back, exposing her flushed vulva.

"Ah...?"

Dezeb let saliva drip from his extended tongue, then pressed his mouth between her legs and sucked.

"......!"

He held her writhing body down with his arm. His lips sucked at the cleft while his tongue worked inside her opening and along its folds.

"D-Dezeb...!"

"Yes, customer."

Grinning, Dezeb spoke against her crotch.

He sucked between her legs with an audible smack. Erabelle convulsed, releasing gush after gush of clear fluid. He rubbed his penis against the sheet. As the tip of his tongue flicked across the folds inside her, the walls of her vagina tightened around it. He wrapped both arms around her hips and pressed his mouth closer, trying to reach deeper with his tongue.

"Ahh... ah—"

Only when Erabelle's eyes had half rolled back and she was panting and drooling did he smile, give her swollen vulva a few light kisses, and lift his upper body.

"Customer, what would you like me to do now?"

"P-please, spare..."

"Hmm? You meant to say, 'Please put it in,' didn't you?"

He set the blunt head against her, withdrew slightly, then drove deep inside her until their bodies met.

"Aahh...!"

She clenched tightly around him. Dezeb complained that she was the one squeezing him, so why was she the one whose eyes were rolling back?

"Why do you keep tempting me, customer? What are you going to do if I fall for you? Hmm? I'm leaking even with the plug and the condom."

He leaned over her, spread her buttocks farther apart with both hands, and thrust deeper. His hips drove against her until his testicles were crushed between them. Adjusting the angle, he pressed hard against the spot Erabelle liked.

"......!"

Her body trembled.

"Where does it feel good? Here?"

He nibbled gently at her chin as it quivered with her climax and whispered to her.

"Here... What would you like me to do?"

His own voice had grown husky. Erabelle could only tremble with her mouth open, unable to say a word. He rubbed the head of his penis against that spot, then caught one of her ankles, which kept trying to close, and bit her Achilles tendon.

"Tell me, customer. I'll take good care of you."

"Ahh..."

Erabelle barely managed to breathe out. Saliva ran from her mouth, and he kept praising her for how pretty she was.

"...I told you not to make me fall for you."

Holding her slender ankles in both hands, Dezeb drove his penis in to the root. His working muscles swelled fiercely.

"Ah... So pretty."

Erabelle convulsed again, her body jerking in short bursts. He held her so tightly she could move only a little.

"Customer, shall we date? I'll treat you well."

He whispered into her ringing ear about the many things he could do for her. Erabelle couldn't bear it any longer and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck.

"...Digging your own grave?"

It had been a poor choice. She could feel his penis swelling even more inside her. Erabelle squeezed her eyes shut.

She heard raindrops striking the window. Tap—tap...

Erabelle blinked and slowly opened her heavy eyes.

Dezeb had driven her so hard that her body felt ready to give out, yet something had woken her.

It wasn't merely the sound of rain. He was... he was...

"Erabelle, answer me."

He was crying.

"Dezeb...?"

His large body lay over hers. He wasn't even holding her tightly, only loosely enclosing her in his arms as he shook and wept. Startled, Erabelle tried to sit up.

The moment she moved, his arms wound around her entire body.

"So cold."

Dezeb gave a soft laugh and bit down on his own tongue with a crunch. Erabelle trembled. Unable to move, she turned her eyes toward him. The smell of blood filled her nose.

His head was buried against her neck. Her skin was wet from the nape all the way to the back of her head. He had definitely bitten his tongue.

"...Let's form a pair bond."

"Dezeb."

"Answer me. Just once. Ah, so this was that house? Come here. Come over this way."

He was wandering somewhere else.

As he spoke, he slipped a hand between their pressed-together bodies. Erabelle looked down. His shoulder blocked her view; all she could see was his motionless upper arm.

But his hand was doing something between them. He was... he was digging his nails into his own abdomen and tearing it open...