Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Chapter 11: Wild at Heart, part V



   When Cova asked them to come along, Niu complied without giving it a
second thought.  While the three little prostitutes who also followed Cova
were freed from the whore-catcher's ropes, Chii still walked on Niu's
leash. She didn't ever seem to be bothered by it in the slightest.  The
fancily dressed gothic girl led the way through the stews and into even
darker parts of the town.  Niu didn't pay a lot of attention to where they
were headed.  She was really tired after all the things that had happened
on this day.  Conflicting thoughts were shooting through her head
continuously and she had no chance of comprehending all of them.  She had
seen two gruesome massacres on this day and also her life had been in grave
danger at least twice.  Niu still remembered that she had sworn to herself
never to leave Fel's side in her whole life, but right now she was doing
exactly that, following a girl she had just met some minutes ago.  She
could think of so many reasons why this was a good decision and so many
other reasons why it was a terrible mistake.  It made her head spin. 
Although it was painful to admit it, it all ultimately boiled down to one
fact: Niu was weak.  She needed to be protected.  And the one who had
protected her most recently was Cova.  So she followed her.
Niu realized that her views on life had changed considerably in the last
few weeks.  During her time in the Water Temple, she had accepted death and
had only been waiting for it to finally happen.  But right now, she feared
death.  And not only her own.  Maybe she was even more afraid that
something could happen to Chii.  Why this was so, she could not explain. 
Maybe she was just trying to imitate Fel who was also protecting her.  It
felt ridiculous, but she still was determined to protect Chii with

everything she had.  Which was not a lot, admittedly.

   Although there was no sign that Cova intended to hurt them, all the
girls were still visibly afraid of her.  The otherworldly gothic girl had
shown such an insane display of her murderous skills that it was hard to
not be intimidated by her.  Cova herself didn't seem to be very happy about
that.  She made several attempts to start an amicable conversation with one
of the girls, always acting very polite.  But the girls were way too scared
to say more than a few words to Cova.  Niu had no idea why this demonic
killer would be interested in befriending the little whores, but Cova
really looked sad about her failure to do so.

   Finally, Cova dropped back a little so that she walked beside Niu.  She
gave both Niu and Chii a warm smile.  "So...  you two are a couple, I
guess?" Cova blushed a little about what she just said, but it was nothing
in comparison to how red Niu's head became when she was asked that
question. Before she was able to deny anything, Chii proudly nodded.  "Yes,
we are!" Niu turned around and stared at the blue-haired girl on the leash.
They were?  Really?  Well, there had been the bathhouse-incident...

   Cova cheerfully clapped her hands which made Niu jump in surprise.  "Oh,
how romantic!  I admire you girls so much..." It felt surreal to hear this
serial killer talk about romance.  "When did you meet?  How did you fall in
love with each other?" Right now, Cova looked just like a dreamy young
girl, twirling her umbrella in excitement about hearing all the details of
the other girls' relationship.  Niu tried to make some sort of response. 
"We met...  ehm...  it was..." She tried to recall the details, but what
she remembered was way too insane to be told as truth.  Cova giggled in
amusement.  "Oh, forgive me for asking you such an embarrassing question!
Of course you don't have to tell me anything.  I'm just happy knowing that
you two are happy together." Chii nodded again.  "Yep.  We are!" Niu was
still way too confused to answer anything.  Were they happy together?

   At some point Cova led the group of girls into a ruin and then they went
down a long stairway.  No one dared to question what destination Cova had
sought out for them.  The place they reached was unlike any place Niu or
Chii had ever been to.  It was an underground laboratory, tightly packed
with hundreds of strange gadgets whose purpose was impossible to guess. 
The mess in the laboratory was immense.  Not only were there countlessly
many occult books spread all over the place, the shelves and benches were
also overfilled with alchemistic paraphernalia, including living animals in
cages and conserved human body parts.  Niu cringed as she walked by jars
that contained eyeballs, tongues, hearts, breasts and fully erect penises.

   There was a single person in the laboratory who awaited them.  It was a
girl around twenty in a white lab coat.  She wore glasses and had her black
hair tied into braids that almost reached down to the floor.  When the
group entered, she was busy with handling a strange crystalline apparatus
that contained various colorful fluids.  While Niu still wondered who this
person was, Cova addressed her cheerfully as "Mommy!" and embraced the
black-haired girl with a broad smile on her face.  "I brought some friends
to play!  Does that make me a good girl, mommy?  Am I good?" The girl who
was obviously way too young to be her real mother gave her an annoyed look.
"Yes, yes, you are fine.  Now leave your mommy alone for a moment, she is
busy with an experiment." Cova immediately let go of her.  "Oh, I'm so
sorry, mommy!  I didn't notice that you were busy!" Niu could hardly
believe the freakish show that was unfolding in front of her.  Not only was
there no way that this pair could be mother and daughter, it was also
disturbing to see the murderous Cova act in such an outright childish way.
Cova smiled at Niu and the other girls.  "Please make yourself at home! 
Oh, but please don't touch any of the instruments or mommy will get mad."
Niu looked around herself.  Was this a joke?  There was hardly a way to
move through this crammed room without touching any of these weird things.

   A little later, the girl in the lab coat was finished with her work. 
She turned to Cova.  "I guess you must be hungry.  Do you want to drink
some milk?" Cova's eyes became large in excitement.  "Oh really, can I have
some?  You are so nice today, mommy!" The girl with the black braids walked
over to a huge metal box and opened its lock with one of the many keys on
her key ring.  Niu's heart made a jump when the lid opened and a naked
human being came out of the box.  And it made another jump when she
realized that it wasn't a human being at all.

   The naked woman who had been locked into this container had several
outstanding features- a pretty childlike face, long red hair, a pair of
titanic breasts, a cock that was even twice the size of Fel's prick, two
pointed black horns that grew out of her forehead and...  a pair of wings.
Human-sized bat wings, black on the outside and pink on the inside.  No
doubt about it, this was a demon from hell.  But contrary to the stories
that Niu had heard about them, this one looked pretty cute and harmless.

   The demon girl looked a little sleepy after crawling out of her box. 
The girl with the braids immediately grabbed a long riding crop and started
violently beating the demon's plump ass.  "Get out of your box!  Over here!
Kneel down!  Cova wants to drink!" The demon didn't seem to mind being
ordered around or being whipped at all.  Wordlessly, she complied with
every command.  Cova affectionately hugged one of the demon's tits.  It was
several times as big as Cova's head.  Then she moved her lips to the
demon's pink nipple, bit into it and started to suck eagerly.  While she
closed her eyes in joy, the demon's face remained without emotion.  The
breastfeeding seemed to excite her though.  The demon's penis quickly
became erect and assumed an even more unbelievable size.  Some milk was
also squirting from the unused nipple and formed a small white puddle on
the floor.

   After drinking from the demon's breast for a few minutes, Cova fell
asleep right on top of her giant boobs.  Niu was really tired herself but
what kept her awake was the constant feeling of bewilderment.  The same was
true for the other girls who had been led here by Cova.  Chii was sitting
on the floor next to Niu and grasped her hand when the girl in the lab coat
turned towards them.  Niu could now see that there were several fine blood
sprinkles on her otherwise perfectly white coat.  She looked at the girls
as if she was examining new specimen.

   "I'm afraid I haven't introduced myself yet to you girls.  My name is
Siria and I'm the owner of this laboratory." The girls looked at her with
frightened and confused eyes.  No one said anything.  Just like a cage of
lab mice that don't ever talk back.  Niu gathered her courage.  "I...  my
name is Niu." To her surprise, Siria smiled at her response and took a
closer look at her.  "Oh, is that so?  That's a nice name...  but please
don't be mad with me if I forget it.  I'm not very good at dealing with
people..." Niu gulped.  She could see why this girl didn't have a lot of
friends.  Everything about her and the place she lived in was ludicrous. 
Still, Niu felt like she should try to get on Siria's good side.  "May I
ask what...  Why Cova brought us here?"

   The question made Siria grin.  She came closer to Niu who she seemed to
find particularly interesting for some reason.  "I wonder why..." She
replied playfully.  "Wasn't it to save you from the city council's
henchmen?" Niu was shivering all over but she was brave enough not to back
away from that insane girl.  Trying to look straight into her bilious green
eyes, she replied: "But why did she bring us to this place then?  If she
did it just to bring us to a safe place, then...  Then where are all the
other girls she saved from the whore-catchers?" It made Niu shudder to say
that.  She probably didn't want to hear the answer to that question.  Siria
seemed to be impressed by the girl's boldness.  "Heh heh.  If you really
want to know...  I will ask you a question in return: Why, do you think,
are this so called 'whore-catchers' capturing young girls all over the
town?"

   Niu clenched her small fists.  She was walking a fine line here.  If she
spilled everything she had heard from councilor Liry, Siria might have
gotten suspicious of her.  Niu feigned to be thinking about the question
and then hesitantly replied: "It is...  because of the new law against
prostitution, isn't it?" It was the answer that Siria had expected.  She
immediately continued to ask: "And why do you think that the city council
would issue such a law in a town that has been known for centuries as the
town of whores?" Niu felt the girl's stare digging right into her soul. 
She could impossibly feign ignorance here.  "Because...  they are afraid of
High Heaven's rule, I guess..."

   Siria suddenly laughed out so loudly that it startled Niu.  "And that is
where you are wrong, little girl!  Wrong, wrong, wrong!" Niu felt her heart
sink.  What was happening here?  Siria quickly resumed her composure.  "But
you don't need to feel ashamed, girl.  The city council has everyone
fooled. The truth is that High Heavens couldn't be any less concerned about
a worthless town like Nargath.  No, the reason why the city council is
capturing little girls lies within...  this!" With these words, Siria
grabbed a book from a table and showed it to Niu.  Niu couldn't read any of
the strange runes, so Siria read it out loud for her:

   "...and in the town of whores, a child will be born with hell's
blessing. She will grow up in misery among the scum of the town, but when
she is discovered, the calamity will follow.  Still a child herself, she
will impregnate a demon and their child will be known as 'Aras, the fiery'.
Aras will set the city aflame and the wicked people will weep and burn in
the flames that were born in hell itself.  Her power will be beyond belief
and she will strike fear into the people's hearts near and far.  Oh you,
who do not believe, turn around and sell your soul to the Divine Syndicate,
since long is the path to salvation and..." Siria closed the book.  "The
rest of it is worthless Syndicate propaganda.  But the prophecy is genuine.
Aras will be born."

   Niu was trembling so heavily that she had to stand up.  All of the
things she heard and saw seemed to be only possible if this was all a bad
dream...  but then why couldn't she wake up?  Niu shook her head.  No, she
had to accept that this was reality.  She turned to Siria, looking very
serious.  "Then...  the city council is trying to prevent this from
happening?" Siria shook her head in denial.  "No.  Even if they were, the
prophecy still would come true anyway.  But think of it this way: If such a
powerful creature is born and you have it under your control...  you can
live with this hopeless town being burned down, even if you are in the city
council.  You will be able to conquer as many cities as you like.  There is
another prophecy which says that the one who discovers the blessed child
will be called 'Empress'.  Do you understand now what the city council is
trying to do?"

   Niu did understand and it made her heart clench in fear.  This world was
a hellhole, no doubt about it.  There was only one question left to ask. 
With a grim look on her face, she asked: "Then what are you trying to do?"
Siria gave her a wicked smile.  "What do you think, Niu?  Why do you think
I have summoned a demon from hell and keep it here in my laboratory? 
Moreover a Succubus, a demon whose only purpose is to be fucked by humans.
There is only one way to find out whether one of you is the blessed child,
you know?  To see if the semen of one of you will be able to impregnate
this slut from hell..."