Note: Three days of non-stop posting are up! I'll resume my normal schedule starting this Saturday! 

“Not like I exactly like the idea of being worshipped either y’know? One day I’m an average adventurer, leading a village and fawning over elves, and the next? I’m a deity! Hell...I’m still trying to get over the fact that I turn into an owl and fly now...” I thought aloud, the very thought of being high up in the sky making my feet feel like they were floating while I immediately got a sense of light-headedness. 

Never, not even until the end of freaking time would I get used to flying! That skill would have to be used sparingly for crying out loud! 

“Well, I can find a multitude of ways to properly worship you. I'm quite sure you'll thoroughly enjoy my methods of worship.” The Incubus winked. 

“Let me guess, through the use of your crotch?” I scoffed. 

He let out a longing sigh, my cheeks immediately firing up at the sight of his eyes almost immediately gaining a glazed over look to them. 

“How I love how straight-forward you are my beauty." He winked.

"I'd be honored to earn the new Guardian's blessing by showing her what I can do with my mouth and fin-" I quickly placed my hand over his mouth before my head began to dart around.

Akuji let out a neigh that sounded along the lines of a sigh and in all honesty? I was with him! The Incubus was a bit of a pervert and even that was covering it all! At times I found it hilarious and others? Straight up embarrassing! After all, we were in public damn it! I wasn’t trying to have my entire pride be torn down because someone happened to hear his mouth running off! 

“Embarrassed?” Ryzel said with a muffled tone. 

“Yes!” I squeaked out. 

“Hm...shall I save my flirtations for when we officially get out of our Mateless Mates stage then?” Ryzel suggested as he gently removed my hand from his mouth, a devilish grin present on his face before I rolled my eyes. 

“Please, you've been flirting with me since the day I met you." I chuckled, placing my hands on my hips. 

"Besides, with the way you're actin'? You're not getting anywhere near second base until after the war." I said, causing Ryzel to burst out laughing before he got onto Akuji’s back, causing me to quickly shift into my dog form.

The stallion shot my a look of confusion alongside an equally confused neigh. Petty or not, I couldn't help but bark at him a little, making the stallion step over just a tad before I snorted. 

Though it wasn't the friendly, 'I like you' type of look I was hoping to receive someday. It was a nice change of pace compared to the hostile look he seemed to be intent on giving me, even if it was just for a moment or two.  

“What’s with the laughing? It’s true! I’ll do it!” I barked before I trotted after the two as soon as Ryzel made Akuji start to move.

“Well...not only am I confident that I’ll be able to seduce you into bed long before then but, my love, you do realize one of the only ways to get into the Under-Realm is being mated to a Daemonium?” Ryzel chuckled, my eyes widening into a pair of two suns at the information. 

Two sides began to war in my head, one side said that this option was completely fine! It wasn’t like I was completely against having a bit of nightly fun with the Incubus, at this point? I was just stalling and stalling due to nervousness! However, at the same time? I couldn’t help but be curious about the other options, after all, I wanted to mate with the man because I was comfortable and didn’t feel pressured, not because it was technically my train ticket into getting into a forbidden realm! 

I quickly shook myself in an attempt to get rid of the nervous feeling lingering on my fur, the sound of Ryzel snickering making my ears perk. 

“I’ll just assume that my lovely mate isn’t comfortable with using me as a passage into the Under-Realm?” He hummed, causing me to scoff. 

“What are the other options?” I asked. 

“Well, you must either have a Beast’s weapon-” 

I immediately let that option go in one ear and out the other, there was no way in hell that a Beast Demonium was just going to willingly hand over their weapon just so I could get into their homeland.

“-Or you can wear the fur or skin or a Daemonium on your body to sort of...give the illusion that you’re one of us.” 

“Those are some pretty gruesome options...” I whined, my tail tucking underneath my body a tad at the fact. 

“Gruesome but something that works. After all, it’s been keeping mortals out of a dangerous environment for years prior.” Ryzel sighed before Akuji let out a snort in my direction before turning his head back towards Ryzel. 

“No, she’s not going to fight a Beast for your sadistic enjoyment,” Ryzel grumbled. 

Slowly but surely, I began to tune out the two’s ‘bickering’, from the options alone, I knew that I only had one choice and that was to get ready for a long night with the Incubus, the only issue was when and where it would happening! Sure, there wasn’t technically the idea of public nudity in this world, after all, someone could be naked in a forest next to a kingdom but so long as it wasn’t directly in the kingdom? No one seemed to matter, hell, even I didn’t care when the rare moments popped up! 

But...possibly being that far away from home in the middle of the wilderness?

 All sorts of worrying thoughts began to pop up in my head.

Ants were the least of my worries, I’ve been bitten by so many of the tiny bastards over the years that I nearly had immunity to them at this point! 

But, the thoughts of bandits? 

Wild animals? 

Heck, even the thought of some poor adventurer accidentally stumbling upon us freaked me out! But, Ryzel was the one who knew the most about his own people though, the only one who could keep me from being eaten alive or possibly ‘disappearing’ by simply suggesting the idea of permanently joining the fight until the official end of the war! I was at a loss, no clever ideas or stunts were going to work in terms of reaching this new realm...I was placing my entire being into the Incubus’ hands and that? 

That alone made me huff to myself at the loss of a small part of my independence.

‘Least I’ll finally be rid of the rest of my dignity. Not to mention checking another thing off my bucket list!’ I thought to myself with a snicker.

Once Ryzel and i had reached the central part of the tribe although, the rest of our day simply having us walk here and there to grab a few extra items in preparation while I quietly ordered Cronos to go back and tell Ares my plan as well as to let him know he was in-charge until I returned. 

Nighttime had come like the sudden blink of an eye at the feeling of someone gently shaking me awake! 

The nighttime stars in the colorful, purple mixed with dark blues and morning time oranges never ceased to amaze me. However, with the gentle fall of snow? Turning my brown fur into a dirty white for a moment until I got up and shook the flakes off myself? 

I couldn't help but begin to feel...bad in a way.

Ares had been by my side for longer than Ryzel, that was just a simple fact. 

Yet, here I was, not telling him exactly where I was going and possibly leaving him to take care of a village for the rest of his days if I just happened to die in this fight! The burden and the forbidden secret that came from having a Daemonium tribe in your midst, goblins constantly running around looking for guidance and such accompanied by the fact that I had passed? 

I wouldn't be surprised if he had just decided to up and leave.

There was nothing to stop him just like there was nothing to make him come along with me like he had done ever since I was a teenager. 

I struggled with myself.

I didn't want him to come, watch me potentially come out all messed up in the head from war. 

But...I wanted him to come all at the same time, he gave me a sense of fatherly comfort that I thought could never be replaced. 

Was that selfish? 

'Maybe I should tell him to-' I was shaken once more, this time to snap me out of my own head before my attention was refocused onto a Succubus. 

"It's time to go to the bonfire. Are you ready?" She asked.

‘You’d best be ready to wake up to an entirely different era Ibis.’ I thought to myself before I eventually nodded my head, causing the woman to flash me a smile before we walked off. 

Although it was better for me to stay as a dog, with the feeling of flame engulfing me alongside a quick snap of my fingers? Placing me into the champion's outfit I've had ever since the day I came into this world. 

Though it wasn’t exactly a celebration, the feeling of the leather material as I donned a gold and white skirt with a sword belt tied around my waist? The feeling of the bandages tightly wrapped around the soles of my feet and calves giving me strangely good protection against the soft snow while wore a sleeved crop top the same colors as my skirt.

It felt appropriate!

After all, I had no doubt in my mind that I’d be doing some fighting here and there.

“If you’re going to wear that Lady Eos then take a cloak! It’ll only get colder this night!” One of the Succubus giggled as she handed me a black cloak with even blacker fur lining the rims. 

I nodded my head in thanks, causing me to quickly throw the thing around my shoulders before I walked off to the bonfire where Ryzel stood beside Akuji. I didn’t dare let the sight of Akuji nuzzling and touching the heads of the other horses slip my eyes, however. 

‘So there is a soft spot in the grumpy horse.’ I thought with a small smile before I stopped beside Ryzel, the feeling of the winds beginning to pick up to make the flames as well as my cloak dance in the winds making me grin to myself. 

The sounds of intense drumming, chanting and excited whooping made my heart beat fiercely in the all-too-familiar feeling of being ready for an adventure, a completely new one that would send me into a land that was most definitely new! 

“Someone’s excited.” Ryzel quickly commented, causing me to shoot a glance at him with a scoff.

I looked him up and down, I was so used to seeing him in a loincloth and nothing else that it was almost weird to see him wear something that covered him head to toe! Sure, his clothing was still scant, the loincloth being longer and more so resembling an ankle-length skirt while its colors were black and held the tribe's symbol in the middle, a red and blue sun with golden dots surrounding it, instead of the typical white one he wore. 

He actually wore something that resembled a jacket in a way!

Although, it did little to hide the front of his torso and more so covered his arms and back. It was a jacket no less, the colors being the same as his loincloth while he had newly placed silver bands on his horns 

“And someone’s taken to wearing more clothes." I teased. 

"I swear, how in the heck do you guys keep managing to dodge getting frostbite?"I asked. 

“You’ll come to find out soon enough that the Under-Realm's conditions are harsh. The Surface-Realm's whether is always pleasant whether it's snowing or burning, this-" He gestured to the clothes he currently wore. "-Is for looks, I have to look good as the Cheiftess' younger brother after all." Ryzel snickered, his mouth immediately shutting up at the sight of Ortilla appearing from the middle of the crowd with two weapons in her hands. 

Finally, the start to actually ending this damned war was just beginning to get on track.