I Was Called A Demon

“… Ow. Everything hurts…” her own voice woke her up, and brought attention to the immense pain and discomfort that filled her tired flesh.

As her eyes opened to the familiar ceiling of the ship cabin, Bianca couldn’t see any of her injuries, but she could feel bandages on her body, as well as distinct parts of her body that were in far more pain than others. The spot where she had been struck by the first arrow, on her side and just beneath her ribs, was especially obvious, as were the slightly moist bandages covering that spot.

‘Ow.’

“How much of that fight was actually fought by you?” the kitsune suddenly spoke, nearly giving Bianca a heart attack as she turned her head and spotted her sitting by her side.

“Wha-”

“You’ve already shared the fact that something overtakes you when you fight, and I could feel the hateful aura around you even through the barrier. How much of that fight had been controlled by that other… thing?”

“… Since I was injured by the first arrow.”

“As I thought, then. Is this the first time you’ve been injured to this extent?”

“… I think so.”

“Right. Need some time to yourself?”

She took a moment to consider, then shook her head, “Nah, I’ll be fine. I think I managed to get out of this without… too much harm.”

Just to make sure, she glanced at the Demonic Tyrant’s interface and confirmed that it was the same as before the fight, without any rippling or new additions that might provoke the odd fear that she had run into earlier. She wasn’t sure what had provoked either the rippling or her fear of it, but she was happy that it had occurred prior to her whole body being skewered by a dozen more projectiles.

The kitsune stood up and walked up to the door, knocking on it a few times before taking an oddly excessive leap back. Bianca nearly asked why she did so, but the door slammed open before she could.

Song Ming managed to leap all the way from the doorway to Bianca’s bed in one go, landing atop her with just enough sense to hold her hands and knees apart so as to not smash directly onto Bianca’s front. It would be rather unpleasant to endure someone’s full weight with so many internal and external injuries, and that’s assuming that she didn’t manage to land on one of the more severe ones and hurt her more.

“Bianca! You got me so worried, but I’m glad that you’re okay!” as soon as she steadied her position, Song Ming pulled Bianca into an embrace and let herself lay down onto Bianca’s body.

“T-Thanks for your concern… ow…”

“Oh, sorry… You keep doing stuff that scares me, but… I have to admit, you looked quite good fighting back against someone two realms above you,” Song Ming muttered, pausing when she felt something by her groin and shifted her hips a little, “Oh, I see you’ve kept that, as usual. Want me to-”

“Not for now, cutie. I’m not… quite recovered.”

“Ah, of course. Just don’t take care of it without me, okay?” her cute, blushing and ‘thirsty’ face was difficult to reject.

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t skip out on receiving your attention… though I’d prefer to talk about something else for the moment. The fight… I wasn’t sure what I expected, but she was able to take care of me rather well. Is that the advantage of being realms ahead even when she held back her energy?”

“Um-”

“Not quite. There is a number of reasons that you’ve lost, among them being the fact that you are most able to fight using the equivalent of brute force. Your attack skills simply flood foes with energy, your defences simply flood the area around you with energy, and so on. Against opponents that are able to overcome that might with any kind of strategy, you’re at a blatant disadvantage,” Xue Yaling explained, “As for the gap between realms, the easiest way to summarise it would be that each realm grants you more options and flexibility in your skills, but, if the overall power of attacks is equalised, it wouldn’t be enough for a person in the higher realm to overwhelm you.”

“I… see?”

“As I said, this was a bad match for you. You have only yourself to attack with, while she can rely on proper projectiles and attacking from several positions, moving quickly, and releasing multiple attacks in one go. Furthermore, she is able to simultaneously exert attacks in a wide and narrow area, compressing energy into a fine bolt while also spreading it out… Truth be told, her Prismatic archetype is absurdly powerful in the right situation.”

The kitsune leaned back in her seat and looked up at the ceiling, her eyes narrowing in thought.

“Additionally, and I may be mistaken, I think she was using a Heart of Dao. It didn’t match the sheer… intensity of those that I’m familiar with, but I can say without question that there is more to her cultivation technique than meets the eye.”

“Heart of Dao? What was that again, some special cultivation technique?” Bianca asked, her tired head not wanting to retrieve that information from her memories.

“In the simplest terms, sure. Essentially, it taps into the very premise and focus of an archetype. When someone cultivates a Heart of Dao, their bodies, minds and energy can all transform into something in perfect alignment with the archetype… But all you need to know – unless you find a Heart of Dao for your archetype – is that it tends to make people vastly more powerful than someone who does not practise a Heart of Dao.”

“Ah… so even if we were in the same realm and stage and all that, she could be much stronger than me?”

“Provided her archetype has any skills at that realm, sure.”

“Huh… And what was that golden sword you used?” Bianca asked, “Was it related to the shard you had… absorbed after I, eh, filled up Song Ming?”

“Indeed it was. You recall the archetype I had wished to pursue, don’t you?”

“Shard?”

“Mhm. I had used the opportunity the other day to switch my cultivation paths. I used my ghostflame as a foundation, and absorbed the first shard into my Domain of Shards, gaining the Aureate Sword,” the kitsune explained with a proud smile, “The normal function of the weapon is to remove all sense of presence from itself and gather power from doing so, accumulating more and more until it is finally unleashed. Or, that’s the normal function…”

“What does it do in your hands?”

“It isn’t so much that I can use it differently, but that the previous owner left me a gift. Their usage of the shard had changed it, and thus it became able to divert the presence that it has towards something else – in this case, it was towards my other hand, letting me have it out the whole time without anyone finding out. Very convenient, in my opinion.”

“Right… Incidentally, how injured did I end up getting? I remember starting to bleed out before I passed out, but I didn’t truly feel the whole extent of the damage.”

“Song Ming took the initiative to bandage you up and apply some medicinal paste to your most grievous injuries, so…”

“It wasn’t pretty…” Song Ming muttered, sighing, “The arrow that hit your side left quite the mark, and all the rest… Well, your insides must’ve been devastated, there were numerous surface wounds, and your clothes were turned to dust… Quite the view, even with your injuries.”

“Oh… Did I bring my knife this time, and was it okay?”

Xue Yaling nodded, “It was, as was Song Ming’s weapon, so nothing of value was lost. That being said, you’ve been wearing more or less the same thing for a while, so I figure this can present an opportunity for you to pick out something new. I have plenty for you to look through, after all, and my servants should look good – and no Demon Queen should look like some homeless woman, either.”

Bianca rolled her eyes, though she wasn’t going to pass this opportunity up, minor as it might be. More importantly, however, figuring out how much she was injured was also interesting, and prompted her to direct her spiritual perception into her body.

Understanding what it provided to her was challenging, but she was ultimately able to conclude that there was no major issue. Her outwards wounds would heal in time, but her insides looked more or less fine, so either she hadn’t been as hurt as she expected, or she managed to heal relatively quickly. The latter would be fortunate, though so would the former, given that it would indicate that her odd endurance spread to her insides, too.

“Well… give me a while, and I’ll be ready to pick and choose… Probably.”

“Don’t worry, honey, we’ve got plenty of time for you to rest. That being said, I hope you’ve learned something from this.”

“Huh? Was there something specific I was supposed to learn?”

“Not something specific, but when you get into fights, I want you to learn something, anything at all. You’ve started out with zero competence, but so long as you keep accumulating something with everything you go through… you may end up not being completely useless without the Demon Queen.”

“… Thanks, I guess… Well, I sort of did. Demon Queen me seems quite a bit better than I am at controlling spiritual perception and what not, but more importantly I’ve been able to snap out of her control for once. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do so in the future, and maybe even hold her back a little if she ever tries to take control again.”

“Hm… I suppose that is something. Controlling your anger is always a benefit, though it would be best if you could learn to use what your Demon Queen self uses without needing it to guide everything for you. That being said, I’m curious whether she’s your original identity?”

“H-Huh? She… Uh, well… I d-don’t know…” Bianca calmed herself down before her confusion became any more obvious and gave away the truth any more than her current responses were doing, “I s-suppose it isn’t impossible, but I would very much prefer not to… accept that, I guess. If that was what I had been like, then it must’ve been as a result of a lot of tragic events or some kind of manipulation, since the normal me is… nothing like that.”

The kitsune looked at her in silence for a while, then shrugged.

“Perhaps. Go on, rest well, cutie. I’m sure Song Ming will take good care of any of your needs.”

 

“So… clothes. What’ve you got?” Bianca was sitting up in bed, her back resting on Song Ming’s chest, while her pet supported herself with a hard pillow and brushed Bianca’s hair.

“A surprising amount. My shrinking bag is, uh, beyond full, really, so putting anything on you would be good,” Xue Yaling chuckled, “Tell me a few things you’d like, and I’ll pick out something for you. Depending on your what you want, I may have quite a few options. Of course, I can also choose some things for you, but-”

“Anything that’s outright… not okay in the places that we’re going to?”

“Showing off your nipples and genitals in public is frowned on, but aside from that… nothing that’s especially frowned upon. We see all sorts of people, and all sorts of people see us, so pretty much anything goes.”

“In that case… Is showing off the belly, uh, accepted?”

“Of course, though you ought to keep in mind that the more you show, the more people will look. Prepare to receive some attention from all kind of men.”

Bianca shivered reflexively, a few faces showing up within her mind. It was almost enough to discourage her from adopting some fashion from Orbis… almost. She wasn’t going to give any of those figures the satisfaction of preventing her from doing something she wanted to do, whether or not any of them might ever have the chance to actually see it… or whether they even care.

“Then, I’d like to show it off. I think it looks nice, and, while we’re on this topic, I’d also like to show my legs. Again, they look nice, and since my body is way tougher than clothes anyway, the less material there is to damage in fights, the better.”

“A… valid approach, I suppose,” the kitsune shrugged, reaching in between her tits and removing the shrinking bag so that she wouldn’t need to keep her hand there the whole time, “I think I’ve previously acquired some minimal outfits with some eccentric tailor – not sure what happened to her, hope she’s doing okay – and they might fit you, more or less. Worst case scenario, you ditch any semblance of underwear and let your nipples show, which will send a few wrong signals, but that’s nothing that a display of might or two can’t stop.”

She sighed, but it was hard to deny that this world liked displays of power, and fighting in general, “I’ll keep that in mind, then.”

The kitsune nodded and finally pulled out a top and some shorts, resembling more modern items in shape but not material and make. For instance, while the shorts – very short shorts – resembled something made from denim that could be purchased at any decent clothing store, they were instead made from some kind of uniform grey cloth. Similarly, the top was rather minimal, though its brown cloth was more akin to the shirts Bianca previously had obtained within this world.

Nonetheless, when she put on the top – the bottom would require more effort, and would struggle to fit her cock and balls even at their smallest – she found it to be decently comfortable, and it was just large enough for her boobs, so that was a plus.

“What do you two thi-” Bianca stopped herself and sighed when she glanced over to her side, “Song Ming.”

“… Ah, yes?”

“You’ve nearly drooled on my new clothes. Please don’t.”

“S-Sorry…” she wiped her mouth clean and tried to look at Bianca from the side without letting her gaze drift down, “Uh, looks… quite striking. You have lovely boobs, by the way… How did you ever get them so- right, you wouldn’t know…”

“Pretty sure that’s up to, uh, bloodlines or whatever, mostly…” she responded, glancing at the kitsune and relaxing when there wasn’t any kind of reaction.

“I suppose…”

“And, uh, what do you think, Xue Yaling?”

“Fits you rather well. You’re not especially muscular on the outside, but the lean and thin appearance works when showcased like this. Since this is just clothing, it indicates nothing in regards to your physical durability, so people might still believe that you’re more akin to the typical cultivator in that regard… Oh, and you do have nice tits. However you got them, they’re a marvel to behold.”

Bianca couldn’t quite hold back her blush, so she distracted herself by trying to recall the fashion of Orbis instead. It took quite a while, since it had been over a month since she had even the slightest chance to glimpse it, but as her gaze wandered down, an idea came to mind.

“So, uh, socks and stuff. Any choice in those?”

“There are long socks, short socks, stockings, pantyhose, all that lovely stuff. Not popular among the westerners, I’ve heard, but where we’re going, it’s popular amongst… you don’t need to know, actually.”

“Somehow I doubt that. Either way, I’d like to try on some things. I have a feeling my legs can look much nicer if given the right kind of… accentuation,” Bianca proposed, trying to act as if she wasn’t just remembering her own dress habits from her previous world, “And I’m quite curious about the kinds of shoes that you’ve got, too. I have a feeling it would be absurdly impractical for fights, but maybe heels of some kind would suit me…”

“You sure are creative. Nonetheless, I’ll take out the things I’ve got and let you try them out. Might as well put these things to use…”