He found Nelith in the new maternity ward, helping to put the st few items in pce. They had chosen an airy room with multiple windows, all of which had by some chance escaped being broken, a rge firepce along one wall, and retively quick access to the kitchens. Getting the red-skinned succubus' attention, Fenrir asked, "Do you mind if I borrow you for the next half hour or so?"

  "Sure, Chief, the rest of the girls can finish up here." She followed him back to the succubi's sex den, as he had begun to refer to it internally, a spark of curiosity in her eyes. Once they reached it, she spoke up again. "Is this about what I think it's about?"

  "If you think it's about turning you into the ultimate deepthroat queen, then yes," Fenrir grinned. "Let's see if my upgraded mana capacity will let us finish this in one fell swoop."

  Nelith gave an involuntary shiver at the phrase 'deepthroat queen', and there was an undeniable eagerness in the way she presented her throat to Fenrir for the flesh shaping procedure.

  He csped his hands gently around her throat, feeling the movement as she swallowed, and reaching within himself for the correct spells, began. It was a complex procedure; several muscle groups had to be heavily adapted to handle the new range of motion unhinging her jaw would necessitate without compromising their original purposes, and all the tissue of her lower face required extra esticity in order to stretch as far as required without leaving visible marks. He had to take extra care to avoid changing the sound of her voice by altering her voice box incorrectly, and then there was the necessity of altering the way her jaw was attached to her skull, but even as expensive as flesh shaping was, the upgrade Menoche had given Fenrir was substantial. Far more substantial than he had initially thought, he realized now that he was actively drawing upon it.

  'I wonder what the average mage's mana capacity is. I know Saeko doesn't have nearly this much mana, but I'm not sure she's typical of mages. If I recall, Safara has more mana than her, even though level-wise Saeko has her far outstripped.' Finished with adding esticity to Nelith's skin, he began working on her muscuture. 'Along with improving my physical fighting capabilities, I should also continue working on getting myself the Sorcerer css. After all, when it comes to having ways to defend myself, more options is never a bad thing.'

  Even with the upgrade Menoche had given him, it took most of his mana, but he successfully finished before entirely running out. Removing his hands from Nelith's throat, he said, "There. Now try opening your mouth as wide as you can."

  She did so, then frowned in confusion. "It feels different, but I don't think my mouth opened any wider."

  Fenrir nodded. "That's by design. This way you won't be accidentally opening your mouth wider than should be possible and scaring people. It feeling different I can't do anything about; that's due to the fact that your internal muscle structure has been altered, not to mention that your cheeks are capable of stretching a lot more. You should be able to unhinge your jaw now though, essentially detaching it from your skull. I'm not sure exactly how to tell you to go about doing that, so try experimenting a bit and see if you can't figure it out."

  Nelith did as suggested, and before long discovered the trick which allowed for opening her mouth much wider than had been previously possible. "Woah, hat heels weird," she managed around a mouthful of her own hand as she explored the limits of her new hypermobility.

  Fenrir pulled on her elbow, stopping her from essentially deepthroating her own arm. "I've got something better for you to bully your tonsils with. Here."

  Nelith readily submitted to being given a cock to suck instead of her hand. "That's amazing, though," she said between licks of Fenrir's shaft. "How did you know how to make it possible for my mouth to do this?"

  "My flesh shaping spells do a lot of the heavy lifting. I have in mind a preferred end result, and then the spell guides me through what I need to do to make it happen. I still have to do the work, of course; it just tells me how."

  "I see." Satisfied with the state of Fenrir's erection, Nelith repeated the action she had once before unsuccessfully undertaken and put it into her mouth, but unlike that other time she was able to take more than the tip before her teeth came into contact with his shaft. In fact, she made it more than halfway down his length before pausing with his cock in her throat. She didn't stay there for long, however. A quick shift of her body gave them a better angle, and she continued to sink herself down. When next she stopped, it was because her nose was firmly nestled against Fenrir's groin.

  Nelith gave a pleased hum that was half a moan, and Fenrir echoed the sentiment in deeper accents. Almost the first third of his cock was buried so deep in her throat that it had actually passed into her chest, and the tightness there was another beast entirely. Her mouth was rgely occupied with his knot, but every time she swallowed a wave of delicious tightness milked him from base to tip.

  "That feels incredible, Nelith," Fenrir managed, reaching out a shaky hand to stroke her hair. She gnced up at him, her own eyes hazy with a deep-seated satisfaction, and another moan vibrated around his shaft.

  His succubus turned cocksleeve did not choose to withdraw, even as the seconds stretched. Instead, she took to milking him with every means at her disposal, repeatedly swallowing both for the pleasure it brought him and to ensure she did not lose a single inch of his cock. Her teeth danced ever so lightly over his knot, the contact only enough to excite him further, while her tongue did its best to caress as much of him as possible despite being pinned to the bottom of her mouth. Her hands came up to fondle his balls, adding still another drop to the waves of pleasure Fenrir was already battling.

  But with him as worked up as he already had been, he knew he wasn't going to st much longer. "Nelith, I'm close." The words were a strained grunt.

  Nelith threw herself harder onto his cock, now swallowing with a vengeance. Her eyes sought his and held them, a look of uncharacteristic neediness in them as she begged without words for his cum.

  Under such an assault resistance was impossible, and Fenrir felt himself slip over the peak. His cock pulsed and pulsed and pulsed again, depositing rope after rope of cum almost directly into Nelith's stomach. She let out a throaty moan, still swallowing furiously, and Fenrir could feel her frame shudder as she experienced a handsfree orgasm of her own.

  Even after he came down, Nelith didn't want to let him withdraw, swallowing around him yet again and shuffling forward to keep her nose pressed against his pelvis when he tried to pull away. Fenrir was beginning to grow worried about her ck of air, however, and taking a handful of her hair, he pulled her slowly but inexorably off his shaft. She didn't let it go without a fight, vishing every inch with the most pleasure she could as it was withdrawn in an attempt to entice Fenrir into hilting himself again.

  He held firm, however, and when the st shining inch came free, absolutely clean except for Nelith's saliva, she gave a desperate gasp and surrendered to a short coughing fit. As soon as she was able to speak again, she asked, "Done already? Are you sure you don't want to go for another round?"

  Fenrir shook his head in wry disbelief. "I swear, you'd have been perfectly happy to kill yourself choking on my cock if I hadn't pulled you off of it."

  "Oh, come on, I wasn't going to pass out for another couple of minutes at least. I was only deepthroating you for, what, five minutes? Somewhere around there."

  "You know, that'd knock most women out cold."

  "Most Light-race women, maybe. Succubi are made of sterner stuff. Even a novice should be able to deepthroat cock for at least five minutes at a time. My record before passing out is nearly fifteen minutes." Nelith looked slightly proud of that, but she didn't linger on it. "So come on, stuff my throat again. I know you liked it."

  Before Fenrir could reply, the door opened and Koreen stuck her head in. "Ah, there you are. Lilli says the food's ready." Her gaze fell to Fenrir's cock and she bit her lip, but quickly retreated, possibly to avoid falling to temptation.

  Nelith turned her attention back to Fenrir and sighed when she saw the look on his face. "Okay, but promise me we'll do this again soon, alright?"

  Fenrir helped her to her feet and they both turned towards the door, Nelith wiping off the drool that had dripped down her chin with a handy towel. Fenrir waited for her to finish setting herself in order before they both left the room. "I'm not sure I could resist experiencing that again. But why are you so eager about it? It can't have been that comfortable for you."

  "Well, no, it wasn't comfortable exactly, but..." Nelith trailed off, searching for the right words. "It was still amazing, you know? That feeling of being stretched around a really huge cock, with it pulsing in your throat, and you know there's no way you're ever going to get a breath around it because it's just way too big. I could feel it all the way down in my chest, too, and then when I think about it being your cock that I'm serving like that..." She shivered. "It's hard to expin, but everything about it was just so..."

  Fenrir chuckled. "I won't pretend to fully understand, but I think I've got the gist of it." He pced a hand on Nelith's head briefly, stroking her hair. She all but purred under his touch, leaning into his side as they walked.

  Their evening meal was a fairly calm affair. Myrina had recovered herself and divided most of her time between staring off into space and staring at Fenrir, though she avoided his gaze. Tsavani, surprisingly enough, did not immediately make a beeline for the direwolf as she was busy chatting with Kira and Katari. She still sat next to him at dinner, but Fenrir was both amazed and delighted at the change already showing in her. He didn't notice any difference in Saeko except for an increased ease when interacting with the rest of his followers. She was integrating herself into the group at a surprising rate.

  After he was done eating Fenrir took the time to give the pregnant succubi another fuck; he was all but certain that they needed his cum for their developing pregnancies. Neither was likely to compin about more sex in any case, of course, and he set out for the capital through the fading light, leaving a well satisfied Lilli and Yumiko behind, not to mention several other succubi in varying states of envy.

  Unburdened as he was and already familiar with the terrain he was traversing, Fenrir fshed down the narrow road, taking shortcuts wherever possible and pushing himself to the utmost speed he felt he could sustain. His haste was not only due to wanting to get back to the castle quickly, but also because he wanted to know how quickly he could make the trip between his castle and the capital if necessary.

  Fenrir made such good time that he paused under the giant oak on the knoll where nearly a month ago they had gotten their first look at the capital while the moon was still high in the sky. Here he made a detour to the little clearing that had hosted them several weeks previously to pick up the message that Kira and the others had left for him; while it was unlikely to be discovered and still more unlikely to compromise him if it were, he saw no reason to leave a loose end hanging that was so easily accessible. A short dip in the river to wash off the dust of travel, and he turned his attention to infiltrating the city and the Cathedral yet again.

  It went smoothly; apparently no one had discovered the secret passages that led into the Cathedral, and guard patrols on the streets seemed back to normal. Shimmying along the ledge at the top level of the building, Fenrir broke the tch on a window with a nearly imperceptible snick of his cws, and a moment ter stood in the Saintess' personal quarters. A clock on the wall told him it was only half-past four.

  On soundless feet he made his way into Elmeria's bedroom, finding her sound asleep beside a simirly resting Mitzi in her luxurious canopy bed. Deciding not to awaken them, Fenrir retreated to the study and, finding a book, settled down to read by the light of the waning moon.

  It was about half past six that he heard movement from Elmeria's bedroom. Pcing his book aside, Fenrir rose and reentered the bedchamber. Elmeria was just sitting down before a dressing table with brush in hand, looking quite ravishing in a silky nightgown. Mitzi had been in the process of stretching when Fenrir entered, sitting naked in bed with her legs spyed under her. Her mouth opened wide in a squeaky yawn, then as she rexed her eyes fell on Fenrir. "Master!"

  Elmeria whipped around, then when her eyes fell on Fenrir she knocked over the stool she had been sitting on in her haste to reach him. She still did not beat Mitzi, however, who despite her obviously pregnant belly moved with surprising agility. Fenrir caught each of them in an arm for a tight hug, then held them at arm's length to look them over.

  Mitzi's pregnancy was coming along quickly, and she had the same hungry look Lilli and Yumiko had had. Other than that, she seemed in excellent shape. Elmeria seemed to be holding back tears, but otherwise looked as well as he had ever seen her.

  "It's been more than a week," Elmeria accused him, surreptitiously trying to wipe her eyes on her sleeve.

  "I know. I had a lot to do." Fenrir pulled her in close again for another hug and a kiss, then shared a kiss with Mitzi as well. "I trust all went well here, however?"

  Elmeria made a dismissive sound. "It was whatever."

  "Elmeria missed you. A lot," Mitzi offered in her high-pitched, almost squeaky little voice.

  A blush fmed on the dark elf's cheeks. "H-Hey! Don't just tell him that!"

  "Why not? It's true."

  "W-well, yeah, but it's embarrassing." She almost whispered the st word.

  Fenrir chuckled. "I don't mind admitting that I missed you as well, but I'm sorry to say that I doubt we'll be able to spend too much time together for at least the foreseeable future. I'm still going to need you to be a Saintess for a while longer."

  Elmeria's shoulders slumped in resignation. "I thought that might be the case. You'll at least come visit every once in awhile, won't you?"

  "I can do that much," Fenrir smiled, giving her a quick squeeze. "Eventually I want to bring you to live with me permanently, but there's still a lot that needs to happen before that's feasible."

  She nodded into his chest, and he turned his attention to Mitzi. "I see your pregnancy's coming along nicely."

  "Yes, they growing much faster than most goblins," she replied, pcing her hands on her stomach. "I felt kicks already."

  Fenrir pced a hand on her belly as well, his comparatively giant palm covering nearly half its surface, and a moment ter felt several light taps from within.

  "They know their papa," Mitzi beamed.

  Fenrir could not help but smile in return. "I'm not quite sure how they would, but I'm not going to contest the point. About when do you usually have breakfast?"

  "A little after seven, normally."

  "That's still fifteen minutes from now. Well, the two of you should get ready for the day, but we can talk while you do."

  Elmeria rather reluctantly left his embrace to continue brushing her hair. Mitzi did the same, and Fenrir took a seat on the bed while he waited, musing briefly on the change in Elmeria over the st month. 'From killing all Dark-races on sight to willingly sleeping in the same bed as one. It's quite a transformation.'

  Mitzi spoke first. "Did you find your Safara?"

  "I did. She's safe, though there were complications in her rescue. Elmeria, do you know anything about null glyphs that can be applied to a person?"

  The dark elf shook her head, pausing momentarily to untangle a knot in her hair. "Not really. What does it do, exactly?"

  "Locks off her magic entirely. Apparently, she can't even feel her mana reservoir. According to the information Kira -that's one of my other girls- got out of one of the svers, it's also designed to make anyone branded with it weak enough to be manhandled, but we haven't noticed any difference in her strength. Of course, she was never all that physically powerful to begin with."

  Elmeria nodded slowly. "I've never heard of any magic that can do that, but I could look into it if you'd like, Mas- ...Fenrir."

  Fenrir could not entirely suppress a chuckle. "You know, I don't mind you calling me either Master or Fenrir, but you should probably make up your mind one way or the other. Mas-Fenrir is a bit awkward, as names go."

  Elmeria flushed and gred at him, though there was no real heat in her gaze. "Sh-shut up. It's not as easy as you make it sound."

  "What's the difficulty?"

  "Well, y-you're my mas- my master, but it's embarrassing to say it out loud..." She ducked her head as she spoke, her voice trailing off into nothingness.

  "If it makes you feel any better, there are several others who call me Master, so I'm pretty accustomed to hearing it. But back on topic, I say go ahead and see what you can find, but do it quietly. There are several in the Cathedral which are allied to the svers who took Safara, including the bishop and at least one of the lesser priests. We want to keep them in the dark as much as possible to avoid arousing any suspicion; the less they know, the better it is for us. Let them think they've entirely evaded Princess America's crackdown on the svers for now."

  This news shocked Elmeria out of her embarrassment. "Bishop Tavill is one of the svers?"

  "Yes, we have it direct from one of the lesser priests named Janus Carrow, while he was Charmed by Kira. The bishop wasn't directly involved in the work, but he was aiding and abetting their actions."

  "I never liked him much, but I wouldn't have thought him capable of stooping to such a level."

  Fenrir shrugged. "Try not to treat him any differently; remember, we don't want to raise suspicions."

  "Okay, I'll do my best," Elmeria nodded.

  "By the way, have you heard anything from any of the other Saintesses?"

  "Yes, Tomoko came in response to the summons from Commander Valtos, then she left in search of a Key of Apollyon. When I got back I sent a message to her saying I'm safe, but I don't know whether she's received it yet."

  That raised Fenrir's eyebrows. 'I hope she doesn't find one. I don't need a Saintess possibly wandering around Apollyon as well, let alone the most powerful of the bunch.' Aloud, he asked, "Tell me, is Tomoko as... fanatical in her efforts to wipe out Dark-races as you were?"

  "Um, I don't think so. It's not like she has any compunctions about killing them, but normally she's content just to make sure every human settlement is safe. She wasn't really interested in leading a holy crusade to wipe the Barrens clean of all Dark-races, like some in the Church want to do."

  "I see." There was a moment's silence, during which both Elmeria and Mitzi finished their morning toilet and began dressing. They were almost finished when there was a knock at the door.

  "That's breakfast," Elmeria said, stepping out into the sitting room and closing the bedroom door behind her. Fenrir listened as she greeted the servants who had brought her food, and thanked them (if a little awkwardly) for the meal.

  "She took your words- umm, what is the phrase? Something chest...? -oh, I remember, to heart," Mitzi expined softly, climbing onto the bed to sit next to Fenrir. "She tries very hard. She wants to please you."

  "I'm gd. It should make her life here more pleasant and less lonely, especially when we leave."

  Mitzi cocked her head in confusion.

  "I came to take you home with me. It's not safe here for you long term, especially once you give birth. Keeping one goblin hidden isn't too difficult, but add multiple babies to the mix and it gets much harder very quickly."

  "I do not want to leave Elmeria here alone, but you're right. It's not safe for Mitzi to stay."

  Elmeria opened the bedroom door. "They're gone now, you can come out and eat."

  Fenrir and Mitzi rose and stepped into the sitting room, where breakfast had been id out on the table. Taking seats around it, they began eating. At first in silence, but once the first edge of hunger was taken off Fenrir resumed the conversation.

  "So I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you, Elmeria. I'm going to have to take your companion from you, at least for now; we can't have her giving birth here."

  Elmeria nodded, showing no signs of surprise. "I thought that might have been why you came. I was a little worried about how I'd keep her babies hidden. It's easy enough to hide Mitzi, but it would have been hard to expin the sound of babies crying. And also the mess of childbirth." She tried not to wrinkle her nose at the thought.

  Fenrir chuckled. "I didn't come here only for that, though. I also wanted to see you again, and we need to y out pns for the future. You'll be my eyes and ears in the capital for the time being, so I need you to keep an eye out for any possible consequences of my first visit here. I made a rather rger spsh than I would have preferred."

  Elmeria nodded again. "I can do that. But don't you pn to do anything about the bishop and the others?"

  "Well, considering they assisted in the capture and selling of Safara, I certainly don't intend to just forgive and forget. But I'm not going to jeopardize my followers' safety further just for revenge. We'll have to wait and watch for a good opportunity. Perhaps if you can uncover hard evidence of their misdeeds, you could prosecute them yourself under the authority of the church."

  "That'd be tough," Elmeria said, her shoulders slumping. "Having it come to light that such an influential member of the church was involved in trafficking sapients? It would shake the faith of a lot of people. The church will try to avoid that at any cost."

  Fenrir frowned. "Of course."

  Elmeria flinched at the tone of his voice. "I'm not saying I agree with that, of course! It's just, that's how all of them will react even if I were to find solid evidence."

  The direwolf sighed, a little heavily. "I'm not bming you, Elmeria, it's just a story I've seen far too often."

  A silence descended for several seconds, only broken when Fenrir shook off his contemptions and said, "Well, keep an eye out. Who knows, you may uncover something that not even the church can afford to sweep under the rug, but prioritize keeping your investigation hidden. As I said earlier, we want them to believe they got away scot free."

  Elmeria blinked at the strange phrase but did not comment on it and neither did Mitzi, who had been contentedly sitting and munching on her breakfast while the other two conversed. Instead, the dark elf asked, "So, how long are you going to stay?"

  "Only for today. I'll be leaving tonight after dark; several of my succubi have pregnancies of their own coming to term, and I want to be there for that."

  "Oh. ...You have succubi?"

  Fenrir smiled. "I do. In fact, the majority of my followers are succubi. They're the group of demons the Vigil was chasing up into the mountains where that magic surge attracted your attention in the first pce. Speaking of which, you should know how to find my home, just in case." He detailed how to reach the castle, then continued, "I'm sure I don't need to tell you not to allow anyone to learn this from you without my explicit permission."

  Elmeria huffed. "Give me a little credit."

  Fenrir smirked, but did not linger on the subject. "What does your schedule look like for today?"

  "I have several meetings after lunch and a pile of letters to answer, but I can make time if you need me to."

  "No, that's fine. I only need you to set aside an hour or two for me."

  "What for? ...Oh." Elmeria blushed and could not entirely stop herself from squirming in her seat. "If that's what you want."

  "Can you fuck Mitzi too? I've been really horny for weeks," the diminutive goblin asked.

  "Pregnancy hormones, eh? Sure, I can give you what you need as well."

  Mitzi not know what hormones are, but thank you." She gave him a happy smile.

  Elmeria cleared her throat loudly. "A-anyway! Who are your other followers? I know I'm probably not going to meet them for a while, but it would be nice to know more about who else is serving you."

  "Good point," Fenrir replied, doing his best to hide his amusement. To avoid embarrassing her still further, as amusing as that would be, he unched into an introduction of all his girls, including a description of what each was like and what they had done so far under his banner. This naturally necessitated a recounting of most of Fenrir's exploits, though conscious of the passage of time, he kept it retively short. Neither of his listeners had heard most of it before, however, so he had a captive audience.

  When he finished there was a long silence. Elmeria sat with her arms wrapped around herself, staring unseeingly at the floor. Fenrir just caught her whisper, "I'm so ashamed..."

  The direwolf relocated to sit beside Elmeria, who turned further away as she felt his weight on the cushion beside her. He pced an arm around her shoulders, pulling her gently but firmly towards him. "Talk to me. Why are you ashamed?"

  A trembling began in her shoulders. "I misjudged you so horribly. If what you told us is true, you were the first to broker peace between the Light and the Dark in maybe ever. You're more deserving of the title of Saint than I am."

  "Don't get ahead of yourself there. An alliance between several individuals is a far cry from peace between Light and Dark. And I'm no Saint. I'm just someone willing to do whatever it takes to protect those whom I care for. If it would have been more beneficial to set myself against my now allies, I would have done so. Not that I'm not gd it wasn't," he finished with a slight chuckle.

  Elmeria ignored his attempt at levity. "You don't get it. I'm the Archbishop of Marstolle, the goddess of Love. But I never even considered- I didn't even want to consider that Dark-races might be people too until you forced me to. Gods, how many people have I killed just because they were Dark-races? What if I had tried to make peace?"

  "A minotaur is unlikely to accept an offer for peace, if what my succubi have told me of them holds true."

  Elmeria turned tear-filled but baleful eyes on him. "I'm not talking about the monsters. I'm talking about the people. Like the oni we fought, or the beastfolk, or the demons, or all the other Dark-races who have their own cultures and societies. Gods, I even had proof right in front of me that it was possible. We got Runa to switch sides and help us. How many others could have...?" She turned away again, the shaking in her shoulders becoming more pronounced.

  "...I see." There was silence for a long moment as Fenrir considered how best to comfort the dark elf, but before he came to a decision, there was an interruption in the form of Mitzi.

  The tiny goblin had so far listened to all this in silence, but now she left her own seat to climb up on Elmeria's other side. "Mitzi not know what all you did, but you're not like that anymore. You're Mitzi's friend. You can become other Dark-races' friend too. Past is past, but we can change future."

  "That's true," Fenrir said. "The past can't be changed, so there's no point agonizing over it. All we can do is learn from it and move on. It's the future that we must look to for the rectifying of our past mistakes. I know that's easier said than done, but give yourself a little grace. You've been through far more suffering than anyone should be put through, especially considering your age. It wouldn't be unusual for someone in your position to be far more hateful than you are."

  Mitzi reached up to wrap her arms around Elmeria on one side while Fenrir did the same on the other, and with the contact, the dark elf finally broke down completely, tears falling thick and fast while both Fenrir and Mitzi provided what comfort they could.

  TheBestofSome