“And, just who might you be, Miss?”, Eli asked the woman who had presented herself to one of his patrols only minutes earlier. She along with a couple other women in various states of undress had been waiting outside a large ranch house, the purpose of which was clear once one got within a few feet of the entrance. The smell of cheap perfume permeated the air around the building, almost to levels that would choke out a normal man.

Any man who’d served overseas and had been dragged into such dens of iniquity would recognize the building just from that gaudy perfume. The red velvet carpet leading into the building, as well as the group of half naked girls lounging about on the patio only drove home exactly what this place was. A brothel, which he had no doubt in his mind the men and women, yes men, presenting themselves this very moment were not here willingly, all things considered that is.

Although, he had his doubts, as he’d yet to see a slave collar on anyone's neck. He decided he should at least hear the woman in front of him out. And what a woman she was. Almost every person he’d met after the System did its work was what one would consider the picture of physical perfection. Somehow, this woman remained thicc. It wasn’t the massive cocoa colored breasts that were spilling free from the sheer gown she wore, nor a rear end you could place a beer on without it falling over. She somehow still carried an ample ring of fat on her midsection. Her thighs were easily thicker than his torso, and they managed to end in a pair of bowling pin shaped calves, capped by fat feet squeezed into bright red heels that appeared to be at least two sizes too small.

The woman wore a too white smile on her face that was covered in garish makeup. Green eyes peered out of thickly painted eyelids, accented in too long lashes. Her hair cascaded down her back in thick ropey dreadlocks, flowers of red, pink, and white woven through them. Bright gold and silver bits of jewelry hung off her ears, a diamond stud in her nose, with several pearl necklaces of differing sizes draped around her neck threatened to be swallowed by the chasm created by her massive cleavage.

While the woman was certainly not his type, something about her made it hard for him not to drool. Her smile suggested she knew exactly the effect she was having on him and his men. If not for Hilga standing behind him, glaring over his shoulder, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to contain himself. She had joined him as the main body of the Legion reached their designated holding points, waiting for the Dwarves to infiltrate and disable the fortifications defenses.

“She’s probably dumped everything she has attribute-wise into Charisma. If you check your current status effects, you will see that you are suffering from a Charm debuff. And I didn’t detect any ability usage, so she must have over 750 Charisma.” His VPA, Nero, informed him as he waited for the woman’s response.

The woman fanned herself, batted her oversized lashes at him, and flashed a coy smile before responding, “Miss? Mmmm. We got ourselves a gentleman, ladies. And with a sexy accent. Oh, my, forgive my rudeness, you did ask who I am, didn’t you? Well, I’m Cherise Appleton, the girls call me Momma Appleton. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“I see, ahem, and what is it you actually do here?” Eli already knew the answer, but the Charm debuff he was suffering from made it difficult to form a coherent thought, so he kept it focused as he was taught in the Army.

“Well, you see, I run all of the King’s brothels.” She held a hand up to her mouth in a mock stage whisper, then laughed. The result was to cause her most desirable bits to shake and jiggle in a pleasant manner.

Hilga must have saw him drifting off, because he felt a sharp poke in the ribs as she cleared her throat and got the conversation back on track, “Yes. We can see that. The real question here is how many of these men and women are slaves?”

Cherise gave Hilga a sour glance before answering, “None of them are here against their will, per se.”

“And just what does that mean?” Hilga pressed.

“Well, you see, these little lovelies were given a choice, they can go with the Cartel to Mexico, or they can service the King’s men.”

Hilga spat on the ground next to Eli, “So they are slaves!?”

Cherise, despite being more than two feet shorter than the imposing Valkyr woman, stepped up to her, thrusting her ample bosom up in the process to retort, “No! They were all given a choice. And they chose this. If you notice, none of my boys and girls wear a collar. It’s not practical from a purely business standpoint to force them into this. While there are those that enjoy raping men or women, there are just as many who prefer a willing and active partner.”

Eli couldn’t argue with her logic, though he knew these people were still slaves, just of a different sort. Human trafficking came in many flavors, this was just another as far as he was concerned. He looked around at the few who were watching the exchange from the nearby patio. None appeared to be in a hurry to rush into the arms of their saviors. For a moment, he began to wonder if this was a problem that needed to be resolved while they were still technically fighting a major battle. But, the woman was beginning to irritate him. A brief check showed that her Charm debuff was slowly wearing off, something to do with diminishing returns.

“So, no one is forced to do anything they don’t wish? You, madame, how old are you?” He singled out a particularly young looking girl who was gripping the railing with fingers dug into the wood. She looked to barely be of legal age, and he suspected she was much younger.

The girl’s eyes widened in fear. She swallowed a lump in her tender throat before casting a furtive glance at Cherise. The plump black woman who ran the establishment narrowed her eyes slightly, fixing the girl with a vicious glare. The girl's jaw worked in a circular motion before she decided to turn away silently. Eli took a moment to really look over the people on display before him.

“Nadia is old enough to do what we do. Don’t you worry about that soldier boy. Look, we ain’t no threat to you or your men. In fact, we could provide a valuable service to your people while you figure out what to do about dem’ forts back there. Ain’t no fighters here, you see. Only lovers.” Her demeanor, and her apparent loyalties, shifted so fast Eli was slightly stunned. When he gave it a second to percolate in his brain though, it made sense. Cherise, for all she appeared, was no fool, she could see that his Legion would eventually take the city. She was simply shifting allegiances to whichever side was currently winning. She didn’t really lose, as long as she was allowed to maintain her businesses.

With a sharp look to the woman, Eli called over the Centurion that had stumbled upon the brothel while on patrol, “Centurion, I want you to take your men and do a thorough inspection of the premises. While you’re doing that, I want you to privately question every living body here. I want a full accounting of who is here, how they came to be here, as well as all of the basic demographic details; Age, gender, where they’re from, etc.”

Cherise looked as if she was about to protest, Eli didn’t give her a chance, “As for Miss Appleton, have two of your most devout Christian men take her into custody, isolate her from this location, and hold her until we have time to sort this mess out, understood?”

“Yes, sir!” The Centurion saluted, then turned to begin giving orders to his men. Cherise looked as if she were about to protest, then changed her mind. She instead chose to sprint away from the building at the best speed she could make in those heels, which was surprisingly pretty good, all things considered. Hilga, having already determined that she had crossed some unspoken line, flew after her in a blur of winged glory.

In less than two seconds, the golden haired Valkyr, and the ebony skinned Cherise were a comical tangle of limbs in the street. A second after that, Cherise Appleton was bound and gagged, being dragged behind a very triumphant looking Hilga. As she delivered the woman to the Centurion’s men she shot Eli a withering look.

“I really hope this isn’t what does it for you. I’ve never felt something so soft in my life.”

She then turned that glare towards the much shorter woman she’d just restrained, “While I don’t care much for your chosen profession, I care even less for the way you attempted to manipulate my man!”

Cherise stared wide-eyed up at Hilga for a moment before finally relenting to the custody of the pair of soldiers behind her. She was quietly escorted across the street to be detained in a mostly intact shoe store while the rest of the Centurions men got to work.

Hilga returned stoically to Eli’s side. He flashed her a slightly flushed smile. While all of the men and women of his Legions knew of their relationship, they’d never been so public about it. If there was any question before, the cat was now truly out of the bag. He was ruminating in pleasant thoughts of what they would do once this campaign was over when a priority message from Gregor appeared in his vision.

He quickly read it, then whistled in concern at the images which were attached to it. He looked at Hilga with an arched brow and forwarded the image to her, “Ever deal with whatever the hell that is?”

Her vision unfocused, then quickly refocused on Eli, “By the Gods! That shouldn’t be here! Hells, that shouldn’t be anywhere near this part of the Verse.”

“Well, I don’t think any of this should be, but it is. What is that?”

He realized she was seriously troubled by the thing in the image. A shiver ran up his spine and goose bumps formed on his skin at the thought of something that could evoke such a reaction from the beautiful, strong, Valkyr woman, “It is a manifestation of an Old God. A thing older than the System, older than this Verse even. The manifestations only appear in places that have been overrun with mana, places like the planets we fled.”

Eli furrowed his brows, “What do you mean? I thought mana was what made all this possible, are you suggesting there can be too much of a good thing, so to speak?”

“Yes, there absolutely can be. You see, mana is part of a natural ecosystem. The System regulates the collection of mana by channeling it into sapient beings that use it to power their own growth. Mana is the engine of rapid evolution, which is why you don’t destroy dungeon cores if you can avoid it. The destruction leaves a void where the System placed a collection and distribution point. Mana then can pool in this void, unregulated by the System. When the dungeon reforms itself, it has more unregulated mana than it had before, so it forms stronger.”

“Ok?”

“Well, let’s say an entire planet’s dungeons have gone through this reforging process repeatedly. Uh, it’s hard to explain this part, but, before the System you’re people referred to the Verse as a universe. A single thing. We refer to it as just the Verse, because this Verse is one of many, and, with enough control of enough mana you can pass from one Verse to another.”

“So, a multiverse? We had some fiction that spoke of such things, and some scientists theorized of it as well.”

“Yes, that is an apt term, but that’s not the point. That thing under our feet right now? That thing is a creature many in the Verse believe to be from the First Verse. Spawned from a God or Gods so powerful they rejected the System and pushed it, as well as all mana, out of their Verse.”

Eli chewed that information back and forth through his mind before he came to a conclusion, “Gregor and his people likely can’t defeat that, can they?”

Hilga shook her head, “Not alone they cannot. I’ve already forwarded this to Freya. I.. I must head to the tunnels with my Queen, we go to face an abomination, my love.” She leaned forward and quickly kissed Eli hard on the lips before he could respond.

“WAIT! You’re going to do WHAT!?”

“We are the highest ranked fighters in the land, we must form a… a Raid, and drive this thing back. Your planet's future is at stake, tell your Warlord he should try to reach out to the Administrator.” She unfurled her wings and took flight, staring down sadly at Eli.

Eli called out to her, “We can come too!”

She called back as she floated upward, “You know you cannot. You are needed to command your Legion, and Karl must take Litchfield. Be safe, my love.”

With that she flapped her wings, accelerating hard and turning back towards downtown Phoenix where already the call had gone out. The women of the Valkyr would answer it with blade and bow. The Dwarves and the Daemon’s strongest fighters were already turning their attention to this existential threat. Eli frowned, struggling to remain where he was while the first woman he’d opened his heart to in nearly twenty years flew off to what was best described to him as certain death. He allowed one tear to roll down his cheek before contacting Karl.

“You got it too?” Karl asked before Eli could acknowledge the connection.

“Yes. Hilga has gone to join Freya, the entire Valkyr Division is leaving the field. Gregor says the other four sapper teams will push on to their objectives, leaving one fort standing.”

“Yeah, Shubin cleared a threat on my end, then pulled back with his best fighters. He got warmed up, now he’s ready for the big show. How do you plan on bringing down that last fort?”

Eli considered the information Karl was giving him. They didn’t have but two guns that could shoot at the fort from a safe distance, he wasn’t sure they’d be enough, at least if he used conventional munitions. A plan started to form in his head, which he relayed back to Karl.

“Hmm, ok. Have you checked on our friends up North? The situation there has… changed a bit.”

“I heard they had met some heavy resistance at a school or something, but I was kinda busy with the King’s mamma-san. What happened?”

“Shit, Arnold, Irene’s special needs kid, he got killed. Sam got the bastard, but she and Irene are not taking that well at all. They’re both a wreck. John is keeping the forces focused on taking out any slavers they come across, but…”

“You think they might blame us? Eh, any rational person could see that’s a crock, sir. But you’re right, if Irene or Sam aren’t rational any longer, they might try to make their own moves.”

“And if you hadn’t noticed, John’s gotten sweet on Irene.”

“Bollocks.”

“Exactly. Either way, figured you should know. We’ll go ahead with your plan as of now, hopefully we still have use of the Artillery when we need it. Any word from Nandi?”

“None, she’s been a ghost since Hualapai exploded. Still got her as a contact, so she’s still alive. Somewhere.”

“I think that about covers it, oh, yeah. Hilga said you should contact the Administrator, see if you still have his favor. He might be able to do something about the big bad down below.”

“Mmm… almost forgot about him. I’ll call him now, later.”

Karl cut the connection before Eli could reply, though he’d already begun manipulating the command overlay in his head, repositioning units, reinforcing others, and overall doing as Hilga had said. Commanding his Legion. He sent an overview of his plan to Captain Devers, as well as information on the Manifestation below the city. He suspected the Mermen would also send their own fighters to aid in that fight, further drawing down their combat strength in the north. Though he knew he had more than enough as is, and one more body below would mean higher chances of Hilga returning to him.