The surface of the red crystal walls that served as Dink’s mental cage filled with deafening cracks. Jiltia watched the scene with a subtle smirk of self-satisfaction. The first chunks began to fall away, dissipating into glowing specks of light, revealing an expansive horizon behind it.

  Dink felt the sensation of falling while he remained standing on the crystalline ptform. Looking around in curious wonder, Dink didn’t recognise their location but was simultaneously intimately familiar.

  This is my mana pool inside my body, this is my first time visualising it. It’s said that the Elves go into this pce when they enter meditation, shaping it into a paradise of their own making. Below me is a raging ocean with an empty expanse above me. Let me try something…

  “Halt!” Dink commanded the plummeting demonheart, raising both arms to the heavens. Accompanied by thunderous lightning streaking across the sky in response to the firing of neurons inside his physical body, the dissipating ptform suddenly stopped in pce. Jiltia turned to regard with an expression of surprise on her intoxicating face. “In this pce, my will is w. Think again if you believe this demonheart could freely merge with my mana pool. I will allow it to remain and grow, uprooting it should it become a parasite upon me. Let it be done!”

  In response to his words, the fragments of red light escaping across the violent sea were called back by an invisible force. An electrifying vortex formed with them at the centre, eroding away their footing underneath, repcing it with pulsing bark. The demonheart transformed from a shattering gemstone into a towering tree bare of leaves. Its roots stretched down, intertwining together in an attempt to touch the water below. Dink allowed only a single root to grace the surface, dying the depths crimson and fttening the surface in a limited radius.

  A bulging trunk emerged with the visage of a gnarled heart with sprawling branches stretching upward in a caricature of living veins. The blood-coloured wood thrummed with a beating pulse beneath their feet.

  “You’re not living in my head rent-free. We’re not done here. The demonheart can also keep this contained,” Dink said.

  He reached up and tore something from his neck, a crude talisman made of sticks and rags in the shape of a Goblin. A branch sprouted next to them, snatching the cursed talisman from his grasp and carrying it up high, ensnaring it tightly out of reach. Sensing its presence, a Draconic shadow stirred deep between the waves, revealing the illuminated slit of a colossal blue eye gncing up at them. Its head rose from the wild sea, cascading waterfalls the size of rge rivers streamed from its surface like tiny rivulets.

  “Sword Saint, you return,” The bck Dragon, Akarad, spoke tiredly before lowering back under the waves.

  His head failed to completely breach the water, the uncovered portion caused the mind to quake at comprehending the enormity of his presence. The exposed head dwarfed the huge demonheart hosting them in size, giving enough clues that the Dragon curled on itself to fit snugly inside the Legend realm mana pool. The Hags' influence remained, causing Akarad’s heavy eyelid to fall closed, returning to slumber once more.

  “You’re still here, Sword Saint? Perhaps you wish to py with me before you go?” Jiltia invitingly asked, pressing her buxom chest against Dink’s arm. He brushed her off, taking advantage of the opportunity to pinch her nipple as he did.

  “Not yet. If you have forgotten, there’s a flock of Harpies that desire to eat me outside,” Dink declined, stepping away. Jiltia draped an arm across his shoulder and followed, leaning her seductive lips close to his ear.

  “Keke, my demonheart is that of a Succubus, my sweet, our demonic aura is seductive. Your influence was limited to suggestions while decorating your sword like a gaudy bauble. Now? I’ll let you discover that becoming dinner is no longer on the table. Unless you want it to be…” Jiltia breathed into his ear, her words fading away.

  ***

  Dink’s physical body escaped its trance, his ear twitching at the sound of melodic ughter deep within his consciousness. Testing the movement of his fingers, Dink felt the chill of mountain air caress him and cause goosebumps to form on his exposed flesh.

  Blinking to focus his vision, Dink looked up, getting an uncensored view between the feathered thighs of the Harpy clutching him in her cws. A devilish grin spread across his lips, taking a moment to admire the underside of her breasts, rge and well-developed from flight.

  “Coo?” the Harpy made an inquisitive sound, looking down as if only becoming aware of Dink for the first time. A flirtatious smile abruptly formed on her face while fluttering long eyeshes in his direction.

  Other Harpies heard their exchange and turned to curiously look at them, all taking notice of Dink at once. The flock had grown rger than the hunting trio that had snatched Dink and the nameless Human veteran back at the road. Some took turns carrying the burden back to the nest while others rested.

  “Chirp!” A gorgeous Harpy swooped close. Dink got the impression she was offering to hold him by the vivacious smile she gave him.

  “Chirp! Chirp!” The one holding him aggressively declined, jealously shielding him away with her wings.

  “I have no clue what you just did with your sword, Goblin. But I think it may have just stirred the hornet's nest!” the Veteran loudly whispered to Dink, clutching at the Harpy’s cws carrying him.

  He’s holding her leg as if his life depended on it. Which it very well might be considering the annoyed expression on her face. I think she’s considering dropping her lunch and making her own offer to carry me. Jiltia spoke the truth about the effect of the demonheart.

  “Ha! I recommend that you just tight, my unfortunate friend. Once we get back to the nest, do what I say and you might just make it out alive without becoming dinner. Harpies are a female-only race, they have to breed somehow. They fawn over their chosen mates,” Dink casually replied with a mocking ugh, eted at being back in his own skin.

  “What? Y-you can speak?” the Veteran asked in shock, completely flustered and gripping the Harpy tighter.

  “Of course. You may call me, Dink Leathertongue. These dies are about to show us their best hospitality. It will be interesting to see how they would react to the thought of mothering a brood of Goblins because I don’t think they realise that would happen if they successfully mated with me. Fortunately for them, I appear to be infertile. Hahahaha!”

  Dink’s unrestrained ughter echoed freely throughout the mountains as the flock continued onwards towards their destination.

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