World of Women - World of Women – V4 – Chapter 35

“What should we do with the ship?” A certain man asked as he approached me.

“Huh? I mean, can anyone here fly it?” I asked.

The men all looked at each other, shrugging helplessly. I was going to take that as a no. Regrettably, the men might be interested in fighting back, but they had very few practical skills in that field. Most of them hadn’t even learned magic, let alone things like weapons and piloting. About that only thing they were good at was impregnating women. I wouldn’t even say they were good at sex because, in this world, a man who came quickly was considered more manly.

I had occasionally been mocked by other guys because I took so long with women. Back when I was in the reeducation facility, many men struggled to understand why women kept picking me. They could pop off their sperm in under a minute, while I took sometimes hours. I could barely erupt. Those poor women had to wait all that time if they wanted their seed. Strangely, none of the women who had been forced to endure ever complained about their time though, and I remained popular with women until the end.

Sadly, this group here were all men. These were the guys who had hid during the initial commotion and were only rounded up later on. They didn’t know which women were on their side, so they had remained aloof and confused, trying desperately to protect themselves despite having very little to do it with. Up until now, they had depended on their numbers, but they didn’t have a lot going for them. I could have used some women who might at least be able to figure out the basics when it came to an airship, but I still didn’t know where they were.

Instead, all I could do was station a few men on the airship to keep the women from taking it over, and then keep it tied up to the island. At the very least, it couldn’t be used against us. Everyone who wasn’t essentially was let down on rope ladders. I was now back on the island connecting with the group of men down here. As I looked up at the airship above me, my eyes landed on Cornelia.

She threw her hands up. “Don’t look at me. I’m not able to pilot an airship.”

I wish I had taken a few women from Angela’s fleet. They could have taken the airship and then use it to help us more quickly find the other women. However, they were already stretched very thin having their crew spread out across three ships, and I didn’t want to take any more. The only women present were the ones I absolutely couldn’t trust.

There were three dozen women on the ground who had been forced to surrender. The ground forces quickly surrendered after the commander gave the order. I had them all bound up. We also brought the women that had been on the ship down to the island. I couldn’t risk one of them managing to escape or outwit the men. Now, if any woman wanted to take the ship, she’d need to climb up, giving them men plenty of time to cut the rope and prepare. Of course, another airship could attack, but at that point, they’d have no choice but to be recaptured.

Upon realizing who I was, the men on the island immediately began taking my orders like I had always been their leader. Seriously, when had my reputation grown to such a point? I didn’t think I was that impressive, but they hung on every word I said, eager to learn from me. Since that was the case, I barked orders, getting them to reposition into a building where they’d be out of sight and could also better defend themselves. Other than the weapons left for those on the ship, the rest were distributed among the men down below.

Very few of them knew how to use the weapons though. Swords were handed out, but other than knowing where to poke the sharp end, I didn’t anticipate any of them had been trained. It was similar with guns. I gave them to the men who were comfortable with them, but I made it clear they weren’t to fire them unless they had to. They were there as a deterrent, not something the men should start using.

That left their only real defense, magic. There were a handful of men who knew enough magic that they could use the runes cards once I finished drawing them. I made sure to complete a few dozen fireball spells, and these men were probably their best bet at remaining protected.

“Just use these when you can. You probably don’t have a lot of mana built up, so hide first. This should hold you out until I send someone. I’ll make sure to leave them with a sign so they know you’re with me. Don’t go shooting at any woman you see, you hear.” I gestured to Cornelia who had been watching me with a complicated expression on her face. “You see, not every woman is your enemy right now.”

“Wait, are you leaving us?” One of the men looked anxiously.

Several of the other men looked worried. They were scared, and they hadn’t grown up with the tough guy machismo from my own culture, so they were even huddled together with some openly weeping. Well, testosterone could only take you so far after literally centuries of oppression, I guessed. They had been expecting me to take responsibility for all of them right now.

“Don’t worry. I have things that need doing, and I’ll move faster alone. However, I haven’t forgotten about all of you. I will return.” I assured them.

Some of the men grew more relaxed at these words, but others did not. It would have to do. I did mean it. I was going to make sure as many men got out of Amaryllis as I could. This may have been the country I was born in, but there was no saving it anymore.

As the men relocated into a nearby building, close enough that they could still communicate with those on the airship who would act as their scouts, I realized I had spent as much time as I could afford to help them out. It was time that I moved to another part of the island. I could have used the airship to get a better vantage point, but at its current height, it was too low to see far, its view being blocked by the nearby buildings. If I had flown up higher, then we would have been noticed by other airships and might attract them over were. I had only managed to take this airship through luck. I wasn’t looking to try it again.

Glancing one more time at Cornelia, she gave me a reassuring look, and the two of us began to move off in a light jog. As we left the small courtyard and began running down what was once one of the residential streets surrounded by dilapidated buildings that had been converted into male dorms, I reached an intersection and glanced both ways.

“Can’t you come up with some kind of people-finder spell or something?” Cornelia demanded.

I opened my mouth and then shut it again. The reason I hadn’t depended on such a spell was that I hadn’t considered such a spell. Grumbling slightly to myself while Cornelia looked away innocently, I pulled out a blank card and quickly scribbled something that would allow me to track groupings of people. I might have been able to put together a spell that would specifically find my sisters or something with enough time or with a sample of their hair, but I had neither. Thus, I decided to hope the next group we rain across are the people we were looking to encounter.

After casting the spell, I got a general direction on where we needed to go. “This way!”

We turned left and started to pick up the pace. There were several areas where a grouping of people was gathered, so I just picked the closest and the largest. However, I had been focused on casting the spell rather than thinking about my surroundings. We ended up walking between two buildings at the end of the street, taking the straightest path to the street beyond and the largest group.

“Wait!” Cornelia cried out as I walked out from between two allies into the street.

I only looked up from my card as she called out.

“That’s Clyburn!” I heard a woman shout.

I looked up to see a group of uniformed women who were moving down the street. There were at least twenty of them, with weapons drawn, walking cautiously forward. I had walked right in front of them, only about twenty meters down a somewhat narrow street. As soon as they saw me, one of the women pointed out her finger and cried out. This group of women I was very familiar with. The one leading them was Detective Roxanne, and standing behind her was the friendlier but still distinctly part of the Amaryllis police force, Grace.

“Capture him!” Roxanne coldly shouted as the pair stared at each other for a few moments.

“Crap!” I cursed.

I wasn’t lucky at all. Instead of running into Faeri’s forces, I ended up running into a team trying to reclaim the island. Just as I spun to dive back into the ally, a horn blew.

“Attack!”

The doors in the buildings on both sides of us exploded open. The police force that had started to charge toward me was suddenly ambushed by both sides. The small ally made it impossible for them to get their weapons up before the other side was upon them. Women seemed to be attacking other women. A few had weapons, long stun batons, and even a sword or two. At this point, they were still avoiding killing.

“Wait! Stop!” I shouted.

My words might as well have been tossed at a wall. The girls continued to fight each other, but the ambushed cops were quickly subdued.

“Hmph… you think you can order us around?” A voice called out to me. “You’re just a man.”

I turned to see Faeri standing there at one of the entrances, casually sitting on an arm rail as if she was having a picnic and relaxing rather than a revolutionary fighter in the middle of a battle. My eyes narrowed on her.

“You…” I said darkly.

“You missed me?” she asked mischievously.

I started to walk across the street. At first, she was grinning like a cat, but as she started to realize I was storming toward her, she stood up.

“H-hey, wh-what are you doing?”

“You!” I roared.

The revolutionaries had managed to overtake the police force and had them all to the ground. They were tying them up at that moment, but this time everyone heard me and looked up to see Faeri backing away nervously as I stormed toward her.

“Wh-what? Do you have a problem? I-I’m just one of many Faeri, you don’t even know who I am underneath!”

“Bullshit! Hannah. I recognize that ass anywhere.”

“Ahh! M-my ass… y-you… what about my ass.” She stumbled back.

“I’m going to punish you by spanking your ass!” I announced.

“Wh-what? You can’t do that! I-I’m Faeri… ahhh!”

I reached her and grabbed her, yanking off her mask. For good measure, I attacked her chakra points, tearing apart any spells she might try to use to change her appearance. The real Hannah was exposed instantly. She had wide, scared eyes as I grabbed onto her.

“Now… Clyburn, understand I did everything for your good. I’m your big sister. You can’t punish your big sister.”

“Shut up! You’ve been a bad sister! Now, take your punishment properly!”

“Ahhh! No! Someone, save me!”

Sitting down, I threw Hannah over my knee, her ass sticking up in the air. All of the women who were just fighting a moment ago were staring wide-eyed as if they had no clue what to do. Their leader, the illusory presence known as Faeri, was unmasked, upended, and was now bent over the knee of a man. These were the same men they were all trying to protect, although it was anyone’s guess what any of their personal feelings were regarding men.

Slap!

“Ahhh! B-brother! Ahhh!”

Slap!

“I’m sorry! Your big sister is sorry! I didn’t mean to say all those mean things!”

Slap!

“Ahhhn… when you spank me like that, I feel funny!”

Slap!

“Hah… Hah… big brother is mean!”

The woman who had managed to execute a prison break and completely upend the city and government was now crying with a red face while her younger brother spanked her in the middle of the street. I was a generous guy though. I only gave her ten whacks. By the time the tenth one fell, she was bawling her eyes out.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

When I let her up, she threw her arms around me and began to hold me tightly, crying into my shoulder. Everyone else present, even the police being hogtied on the ground, looked away awkwardly. I sighed and then began stroking Hannah’s hair. My sister was crazy, deceitful, and a major pain in the ass, but she was my sister, so how could I stay mad at her.

“Don’t do something so ridiculous again.” I chided her.

“I-I won’t…” She said in a muffled voice, rubbing her nose on my shirt in the way only a sister would.

The girls watching who had never had such relationships with a man swallowed heavily as if imagining what it would be like. Even though Hannah had just been spanked, some of them were slightly jealous. They wanted a man to spank them! A man who cared so much about you that he’d even go to that length. Even Cornelia’s expression looked like she was regretful I hadn’t spanked her. I cleared my throat.

“Um… anyway, we better get to it.” I urged Hannah.

She looked up at me. “The government is going through with their plan. At the moment, we’ve just been passively resisting, but we’re starting to get to the point where blood is going to be drawn. I’m not sure what to do. We were thinking of escaping. Brother, you shouldn’t be up here with us. Part of the reason I felt I could do this is that I was certain you were down there where it was safe.”

I gently patted her head. “Is mom up here?”

She made a face. “I don’t know. I didn’t see her except in passing while I was in the prison. They brought us here on work detail, although I had determined they were going to start sacrifices so I planned for us to escape. I don’t know if mom was among those brought in.”

“I see…” I stroked her hair one more time and then stood up. “Things have changed. We’re going to manage this together, okay?”

I held out my hand to her. Hannah sniffed one more time, and then took my hand, letting me help her back up. The pair of us walked away from the step and over to the group of women. The cops watched us with narrowed eyes, all except Grace who gave an awkward smile in my direction. The others just watched with curiosity, distinctly noticing me holding hands with my sister. I stopped right in front of Detective Roxanne. She shot a look at Cornelia, who blushed, before turning to me.

“They’ve given an order to shoot already, haven’t they?”

The girls holding them down all let out gasps. Roxanne stared at me and then nodded.

“We got the order fifteen minutes ago.”

“You…” Hannah’s eyes darkened.

“You didn’t pass the order out.” I continued.

She looked away. “It’d turn into a bloodbath. They don’t appear to be hurting the men. If bullets and kill spells start flying, that might change.”

“That’s what Amaryllis is counting on.” I declared, lifting my hand.

I had a stone in my hand, very similar to the one I used to do transportation. This had been the trump card I had been waiting to pull. I put magic into it, and audio began to play out loud. It was the unmistakable voice of the prime minister.

“That just makes you one more of a gullible, foolish public.” Her voice sounded out in a harsh chuckle. “Men are nothing but animals. They exist to serve women. That is all.”

The conversation continued to play as she explained the plan to summon demons and trap men in milk farms. As these words came out, Hannah let out a little gasp, and the girls standing nearby’s eyes all went wide. As the small recording finished, Roxanne looked away.

“What am I supposed to do about it?” She responded.

“The government is run by the WRA.”

“I still work for them. I still have a responsibility to follow orders. What are you suggesting? Do we turn on the government? I join these gang members, prisoners, and this so-called Asyllum? They were voted by the people, and if the people chose this path, then it is the path we must go down!”

“The men didn’t choose this path,” I responded. “And the men will refuse to go down it. Do you think there will be a single man who will acknowledge this country once that recording gets out?”

“What do you want from me?”

“I want you to think… and decide real hard on the future you want. Amaryllis is no longer the future. We are… if you don’t care about that, then you might as well have started shooting when you got those original orders.” I declared.

Roxanne’s expression looked uncertain.

Cornelia bit her lip and then stepped forward. “Roxanne, I know you, better than most. You’ve always been someone who cared about doing what was right, then following the law. I was always the one who just did what I was told, and you were the one who sought to be better. You know what’s right. Please…”

Roxanne closed her eyes for a moment, her hand tightening, and then she looked up at me. “If you’re willing to trust me, I’m willing to work with. However, I can’t speak for the rest of my team.”

“Boss, we’ll always follow you!” Grace declared, her eyes filled with tears like she had been touched by this moment.

All of the other women on the grounds let out cheers as well.

“That all may be good.” Hannah frowned. “But that is just twenty of them. There are hundreds all over this island. We’ve only managed to last by doing hit and run tactics using the roofs and the underground paths. Even if you can convince everyone who’s landed on the island to switch sides, we’re still in a crappy situation and I’m all out of ideas. I planned to find out what they were doing, and by the time I did, it was too late to do anything but throw a wrench in their plan. If it’s one this far up the ladder, I don’t think there is a wrench large enough to stop them.

The girls who had been growing a bit excited let out sighs. It was true. The best they could do is find a way off the island and escape. At best, they had made it difficult for the government to execute their sacrifice. As long as they got away, the government would have to do it some other day with some other plan.  It would buy them time, but that was the most they could hope for.

At that moment, the ground under them shook, and some of the girls were standing stumbled as if the island had suddenly started to move.

“W-what is that?” Hannah asked.

“That’s the plan,” I announced. “I already said it. Things have changed. The goal is no longer to prevent a massacre. A bloodbath is unavoidable.”

“Wh-what are you saying?” Roxanne pushed up, even though she still had a girl on top of her holding her down.

“We’re leaving Amaryllis, and our ride just started. From here on out, things are going to get messy.” I declared. “Hannah, you need to get me to the underground area. We need to destroy the demon circle so it won’t activate because from this moment on, we’re fighting for our lives.”