Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit

"Well, that doesn't look good," Frowned Lexia warily.

"Yeah, that's a whole lot of Miasma...I wonder what it feels like, to have your strength sapped by it and-...?" Began Colt with a look of intrigue, as he peered over the edge, before Lexia grabbed the back of his collar and yanked him back.

"Don't even think about it, dumbass, we're only here to scout out the situation, nothing more. And at first glance...yeah, the nation might be fucked," She responded with a grimace, as she let go of his collar.

"Mm...do that again, it felt really good," He grinned, as he rubbed his neck gingerly.

A week had passed since the Undead King attacked the Capital, it was the 27th of November, 1918, around 11 PM at night.

And over the last few days, word of what had happened in the Capital spread like wildfire throughout the entire Kingdom, with the reputation of the Knight Order taking a serious hit, as a handful of Nobles had been killed by the undead creatures that had been summoned to the Capital by the Undead King.

That, on top of the fact that they had also failed to stop The Irregulars the same day, led to severe criticism and blame being thrown at the Knight Order.

And those sentiments had been further amplified by the Noble Houses that were opposed to the way the current Knight Order operates, and they were particularly scathing against Jules.

Colt and Lexia were currently at the southeast border, where the Death Zone was located on the other side of. They were atop the tall wall that had been erected across that side of the border to keep the undead creatures and Miasma out, surveying the situation.

And it didn't look good, the entire area ahead of the border was brimming with Miasma, and there were hundreds of undead creatures in sight, roaming through the region.

"Looking at this, it's pretty insane how so many Nobles aren't taking this threat seriously," Remarked Colt in bemusement.

"Yeah, instead of rallying together and trying to think of ways to deal with it, they're putting their energy into bashing the Knights, blaming the Commander even though all it'd take is the tiniest shred of common sense to figure out that there was no way anyone could've predicted this. Their main argument is that this wouldn't have happened if she hadn't recruited so many Commoners into the Knight Order, which doesn't logically correspond to the situation whatsoever," Sighed Lexia in exasperation.

"They're so disconnected from reality that it isn't even funny...none of the Knights we've killed were Commoners, and there are only about a couple dozen Commoners in the Knight Order anyway, most of whom have Noble blood. Well, not that that particular fact would ever be publicly acknowledged. If the nation does fall, it'll be the fault of those braindead Nobles, but I doubt any of them will even realize that fact before-...," Began Colt, before trailing off as his ears perked up, lowering his voice and adding, "Sounds like someone's coming, we should probably hide."

The two of them then ducked behind a stack of crates, right as the glimmer of a flashlight came into sight, footsteps echoing out from that direction.

In their rush to get out of sight, they didn't have time to get into comfortable positions, Lexia was laying on top of Colt, who was sprawled across the floor.

A Knight then came into sight, his gaze turned to the Death Zone with a grim expression, muttering to himself as he shook his head while strolling across the top of the wall.

"Hm...what a novel new sensation this is. The contract between the hardness of the floor on the back of my head and the softness of Lexia's boobs on my face is...is pretty damn arousing. I think this is awakening something new inside me...," Colt thought to himself as he felt his body starting to heat up.

"Stop breathing so heavily, it's-...," Began Lexia as the Knight walked past their hiding spot, before trailing off with an incredulous look on her face as she felt something poking against her thigh, "I-is that his...!?"

"Damn, I-I...I'm so turned on right n-...," Colt began, before his train of thought was cut off as Lexia reached down and grabbed his erection with a tight, crushing grip, as she glared at him indignantly.

But of course, that only aroused him even more, stoking the flames of his masochism to heights he'd never reached before...

As Lexia promptly realized that she was only playing right into his hands, she then let go and quickly got back onto her feet as the Knight walked out of earshot, her face bright red as she raised her hand to slap him, before catching herself and stopping as she realized that'd only turn him on even further.

"H-holy shit, that was...wow," He sighed contentedly as he stood back up, a wide, flushed grin spreading out across his face.

"You sick fuck...why are you like this?" Growled Lexia through gritted teeth, as she thought to herself, "Still though, that bulge...it was a lot more hefty than I would've thought, he's pretty well-endow-...w-wait, what the fuck am I thinking!?"

"Uh, you okay?"

"H-huh? Shut up! I'm fine! A-anyway, now that we've scouted out the situation, there's no reason for us to stay up here any longer, so we might as well head back to the-...why the fuck are you still hard!?"

Meanwhile, in the Capital...

"Remind me why the two of us are here instead of Colt and Lexia?" Inquired Raven with a frown.

"They may have much better stealth skills than us, but they're not exactly good at holding normal conversations and negotiating. I think I'm pretty good at that, that's why I'm here, and you're here because you can fly. In the event that they have something similar to Tacitus's Teleportation Jamming Spell, we can still escape by you flying us out," Replied Aster, as the pair approached the castle.

The two of them had snuck into the Capital, intending to find and speak to Jules about the Undead King. Aster figured that it'd be mutually beneficial to share everything they know about him with the Knights, since he was a threat to both sides.

They'd first headed to the Knight headquarters, looking into each window of the building until they found her office, but she wasn't in it. The lights were switched off in the room, so they surmised that she must be in the castle.

"Okay, I'm picking up traces of her scent around the path leading to the front entrance...which probably means that she entered the castle not too long ago," Remarked Raven quietly, before adding, "So, what do we do? Go in, or look through the windows like we did with the Knights' headquarters?"

"No, entering the castle is too risky, we'll save that as a last resort...we'll look through the windows and try to find her that way. It's fairly late, so she might have just gone to bed. In which case, we just need to find her room and sneak in," Surmised Aster after mulling it over.

"That feels a bit creepy, if I'm being honest..."

"Nah, it's fine...you are technically her brother, after all," Responded Aster with a thumbs up.

"Half-brother. And only speaking biologically, she's essentially a stranger in all the ways that count...so, I don't see how that's relevant to-..."

"This is an emergency situation, and it's not like we can request a formal meeting, you know. Now, come on, fly me up and go past each window," Instructed Aster, before Raven relented with a sigh and grabbed his shoulders, lifting him off the ground and flying up.

The pair were equipped with two Spell Cards, one that cast an invisibility barrier around them, and another that cast a barrier to keep any Detection Mages from sensing them.

The latter would only work for a fixed time before entering a cooldown period; it lasts for about an hour once activated, and then can't be activated again for about two hours.

They'd already used about a third of that time limit searching the Knight headquarters, after which they deactivated it to conserve the Spell.

Aster activated it along with the invisibility barrier as Raven flew up and over the gilded fence surrounding the castle, before heading towards the building.

He steadily made his way past each window, pausing in front of them momentarily before moving on to the next one.

"Shit, the curtains are drawn, I can't see inside this one," Frowned Aster, as Raven hovered in front of a balcony with glass doors that were shut.

"Hm...I'm not picking up her scent from in there, so I don't think this is it."

"You sure?"

"Mhm, yeah...there is someone in there, but it isn't her. I don't recognize their scent...though based on the scent of their Mana, I'm pretty sure it's a Light Mage," Raven informed him.

"A Light Mage, huh? It might be the First Princess, also the Crown Princess, the one that the King chose to be his successor to the throne. We don't have much information about her, so let's leave her alone and keep moving. And besides, since we're only here to talk to the Commander, we probably shouldn't kill anyone tonight," Replied Aster, before Raven continued flying ahead, making his way to the next window.

Aster felt a hint of anxiety creeping up as they passed by a couple more windows...he was hoping that they'd find Jules before potentially coming across the King, he didn't have much confidence that Raven would be able to keep his cool if that happened.

He had considered assassinating the King if they got the chance, but with the looming threat of the Undead King, he decided that this would be a bad time to throw the Capital into chaos, which would be all but certain to happen if they killed the King.

"Hm? Hey, this one...I'm picking up her scent in here. And she's alone, I don't sense her moving at all so she's probably asleep," Suddenly remarked Raven, as he stopped in front of another balcony.

"Alright, then, let's go in," Replied Aster, before Raven quietly landed on the balcony.

"The sliding doors are locked, how do we-...?"

"Just leave that to me," Declared Aster, before approaching the doors and chanting, "[Telekinetic Zone]."

He then unlocked the doors from the inside, before sliding them open and stepping in as he took out a Spell Card and activated it, casting a soundproof barrier around the room. It took him a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dark, before spotting a head of blonde hair peeking out of the covers on the bed in the middle of the room.

"So, uh...how do we wake her? She'll probably attack us," Pointed out Raven.

"It's fine, we'll just have to deal with it. Now, [Telekinetic Push]," Chanted Aster, firing out a weakened version of the Spell and hitting Jules' shoulder.

She let out a sleepy mutter and rolled over, before he fired it again, the Spell lightly thudding against her back and eliciting a groggy grunt from her, before she stirred and turned around, her eyelids starting to open.

"Wha's going on, who's-...?" She began drowsily, before a look of alarm appeared in her eyes and she quickly sprang out of bed, flames erupting around her fists.

"Calm down, we're just here to-...oh," Began Aster, before his eyes widened at the sight before him, as Raven quickly averted his gaze with an awkward look on his face.

"What? What're you-...?" She started to respond with a frown, before trailing off as she glanced down at herself, her face turning red.

"Wow. Guess you're, uh...guess you're the type who sleeps naked, huh?" Remarked Aster, as he looked away sheepishly.

"Wh-wh-wha...!? Y-you bastards!" She exclaimed as she pulled the covers off the bed and draped it around her body before unleashed the flames around her fists towards the pair.

Aster blocked the flames with his Telekinetic Zone, while Raven let her attacks hit him, the flames having no effect on him.

"Hey, calm down, we're just here to talk...I know sneaking into your room like this might not have been the ideal way to go about it, but I couldn't think of any other way to-...," Aster tried to reason with her.

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!!! Y-you...you saw, didn't you!?"

"U-uh, well, I-...if it makes you feel any better, you have a really attractive physique," Responded Aster quietly, before several more blasts of flames slammed against his Telekinetic Zone.

"For the record, I thought this idea was on the creepy side, but we didn't have much of a choice...we're here to talk about the Undead King, but if you don't want to talk, we can just leave," Remarked Raven, as a swirling fireball hit his chest and dispersed.

The pair then glanced at Jules after a momentary silence, a conflicted look on her face, though the indignant rage in her eyes hadn't faded in the slightest.

"...alright. I suppose it'd be foolish to ignore that. Fine, let's hear what you have to say," She muttered reluctantly.