“And what did you come here for? It can’t be to stuff my lovely children into your bottomless stomach, right?”
Luxuria asked Gula.
Gula clicked her tongue sharply and made a truly contemptuous face at his question.
“Don’t say stupid things. Even if you beg me, I’ll never come just to eat your kids or whatever.”
“Why did you come then?”
Luxuria talked while wiggling his body from side to side, and it just increased Loren’s discomfort.
[Couldn’t he stay still?]
Loren wondered. He wasn’t able to cut into their conversation though.
Just when he had decided that he had no choice but to endure it, Gula spoke as if on his behalf:
“Stand still. You’re scaring these two pitiful kids, you know.”
“What are they scared for? Did I do something?”
“Even while doing nothing, you’re still a lump of revolt.”
[That is absolutely correct]
Although these were Loren’s thoughts, he couldn’t say it out loud – in fact he couldn’t even nod in agreement. He could only applaud Gula’s choice of words in his mind.
“Let’s talk business. Just quietly come with me, will you?”
Gula went straight to the business.
Luxuria’s answer was short.
“I refuse.”
“State your reason.”
“I’ve gone through the trouble to build a nest and gather all these cute children of love here. Why should I abandon all and let you take me somewhere?”
To be clear, Loren believed they should burn down this whole forest instead of evacuating everyone. There was still some uncertainty about it, but he had a hunch that releasing those still under the influence of this Evil God of Lust into the world wouldn’t bring about anything good.
Gula showed Luxuria, who had turned away in a huff, a dangerous smile.
“I can use brute force, you know.”
“Try then. I’ll teach you how helpless gluttony is before the power of love.”
Undeniable tension rose between the two Evil Gods. Something very bad would happen for sure. Following his senses Loren began to try gaining some distancing from that place while still shielding Lapis. But before he could, Gula clasped her hands together in front of her chest and cracked her knuckles.
“What can a sex-obsessed idiot like you teach me?”
“Your body is the only nice thing about you. How about I push you down and personally teach you the splendor of love?”
“I’ll eat you, muscle-head daruma!”
(Xem: Daruma is a round shaped doll)
The cleft chin macho made a gesture of fondling something with his hands, and Gula suddenly charged.
The force of her fist was almost undetectable, and as befitting the differences in their physiques, Luxuria received and stopped it with the palm of one hand.
The collision gave out a thunderous sound totally unlike flesh meeting flesh, but it was Luxuria who fell backwards.
The naked men stepped forward and formed a wall of nude bodies in front of Gula. Wet with their own sweats, their bodies gleamed brightly under the sun. Unconcerned, Gula slammed her fist into the row of men.
Being under an Evil God’s influence didn’t mean having an Evil God’s strength, and the bodies of those struck by Gula’s fist burst as if they had exploded.
Before the blood spray could fall to the ground, Luxuria threw a fist at Gula as a return gift. But his fist couldn’t reach her: it stopped midway with a deafening noise as if it had collided with something invisible.
Loren could see a semi-transparent gigantic mouth literally bite into Luxuria’s fist. The fangs of Gula’s <<Predators>> could easily bite off the naked men’s bodies, and they did manage to stop Luxuria’s blow, but they could only make faint impressions on his skin.
“Is my hand delicious?”
“It tastes gross, idiot!”
Gula started ordering more mouths to attack Luxuria. Meanwhile, Luxuria thrust his other hand into the mouth biting him and tore it off with all his strength. With both hands free, he began to intercept Gula’s mouths.
Whenever fist and mouth clashed, a sound blast and shock wave would spread, disturbing the earth and sand and blowing the naked men away. But Luxuria only had two hands while Gula’s Predators were numerous; even though the mouths broke once hit, it seemed to Loren that Gula had the upper hand to some extent.
“I’m pushing you back just like this!”
“Do you think I’ll let you? Take this <<Lust Dance>>.”
Loren thought it would be something similar to Gula’s <<Predator>>, but the scene unfolding before his eyes was disgusting beyond that.
As Luxuria clenched his fists, countless clones of himself emerged from his body and proceeded to hug the mouths with their thick arms.
Just one Luxuria was causing enough mental damage to Loren, multiple of them made Loren’s very soul scream. Unable to run away and with Lapis clinging to his back, he desperately endured it.
One by one, and with looks of ecstasy on their faces, the cloned Luxurias disappeared together with the mouths they were hugging.
“You still use that disgusting technique!”
Gula said through gritted teeth.
“Even though it was through my clones, they did ascend to heaven while being in my embrace. Calling it disgusting is a bit exaggerated, isn’t it?”
Luxuria replied while continuing to wiggle his body.
Even though Loren desperately wanted to run away, he couldn’t speed out of there as he would like to. If he made a wrong move, he would attract their attention and bring danger to himself.
And, in a forest influenced by an Evil God, would he be able to escape from his hands just by running? That was a problem in itself.
Even though it was already too late by now, Loren began to regret not bringing Klaus along. Despite his interest being towards women only, Klaus did have the same mind-set as Luxuria, and Loren wondered if he would be able to somehow stop the Evil God because of that.
“Not good, I’ve reached my limit.”
Watching <<Predator>> being offset by <<Lust Dance>> and disappeared, Gula said with regret.
“We’re basically on the same level.”
“Idiot. Shouldn’t you have realized that before doing all this?”
Luxuria didn’t try to attack Gula further. Was it because he knew Gula would just offset his attacks, or because he actually hadn’t really wanted to fight from the beginning? Whatever it was, the Evil Gods’ quarrel seemed to stop here, and Loren breathed a sigh of relief.
He was immediately shocked by the words Gula spoke next though.
“Well, can’t be helped then. Let that swordsman onii-chan and his girl over there be my agents.”
“Hey, wait a minute!”
“Gula, they surely are cute kids, but I don’t understand how they can beat me when even you can’t?”
“You tone down a bit, and I give them some help. And you can’t use Evil God’s power. How does it sound? The match ends when they give up, or when you take a blow from them.”
“Even if they go numb after hitting me, I’ll still lose? I’m ok with this though.”
‘Don’t drag me into this!’, Loren wanted to scream. But it was an Evil God who had dragged him into this, thus he didn’t know what the hell she would do if he offended her. Denying her statement in front of Luxuria might not be a wise course of action.
“How’s this: If I win, you have to obediently go with me. If you win, turn this place into a love nest or a garden of pleasure as you like. Then never come out again until this world ends.”
Declared Gula while glaring and jabbing a finger at Luxuria, who was still wiggling his body as he always did. She then returned to Loren’s side.
[It wouldn’t be a problem if I spoke to her now, would it?]
After short contemplation, Loren feeling a bit cold feet, decided to object.
“Don’t drag me into this.”
“Do you want to see us keep on fighting then? I don’t care about the damages to this area if we do, but do you?”
“If you two fight in earnest, then… Give me some examples.”
“Well, the forest will be gone, and the terrain here will be altered.”
Loren immediately understood that the battle would be on such a level that it couldn’t be allowed to happen. And the thought of it being on the verge of happening gave him shudders.
But even with that fact in mind, Loren still had something to say.
“I don’t think there’s any benefit for me to get involved in this though.”
So what if a forest in a place that had no relation to him disappeared, or the terrain in that place changed a bit? It still didn’t answer the question of why he had to fight that Evil God of Lust. If he couldn’t escape this, then at least he should get something out of this. In that case, even if things later came to a point of no return, he wouldn’t regret it that much, or so Loren believed.
“Benefit… benefit huh. Well, it’s surely a bit unfair to have to fight that without anything on offer.”
“Do I even have a chance to win to begin with?”
“I have a feeling that you’ll be able to manage to win somehow, but… You said ‘I’. Can it be that you want to fight him by yourself?”
“I don’t think I should let Lapis fight him in this state.”
Pointing at Lapis, who was still shaking and clinging to his back, Loren said.
Gula pondered for a bit with a troubled expression, then clapped Loren on the shoulder.
“I’m pleased that you don’t want to let priestess-chan fight. Alright, I’ll offer you one benefit.”
“Will you really offer me a proper benefit?”
Loren glared from the corner of his eyes at Gula to emphasize his doubt.
“Of course. I’m called an Evil God, but I’m a woman who keeps her words. Just trust me.”
Full of confidence, Gula beat her chest and answered.