World of Women - World of Women – V5 – Chapter 24

“Father!”

“Daddy…”

As soon as I jumped through the portal, I was greeted by Raven and Lexy. Lexy immediately threw her arms around me, while Raven watched like she wanted to, but couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“Where are the other girls?” I asked, taking in the small quarters.

Compared to the place I had been housed in, which was a beautiful suite, they looked like they were stashed in a cheap motel. They only had one bed for both of them and not much else with them.

“It was so boring without you. They keep telling us we can meet soon, but then nothing happens.” Lexy cried, perhaps using the moment to touch me a bit much.

“Raven?” I asked her since she seemed to have a cooler head. “Kemala? Syph? Brianna?”

Raven took a breath. “We were all split up. We don’t know if they’re nearby or taken away.”

I frowned. I was hoping for better news, but I couldn’t be too surprised. It seemed like the Republic of Trilor was particularly good at separating people and keeping them in the dark. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to sit and worry about this, and neither did my daughters. Although the portal was already closed, the magic would linger. It would be something that people sensitive to magic could feel, and they might even deduce what I used and where I went.

“Come on, we need to go. Follow me.”

I lead the girls out of the room. In the hallway, I found a single inattentive guard. They didn’t put the same level of care into watching the girls as they did for me. Before she had a chance to say anything, I rushed at her, grabbed her head, and then used magic. She immediately fell asleep. Raven watched as I carefully put her down.

“You’ve done this before.” Raven frowned.

“You’ve had to have heard the stories,” I responded. “You can’t still be doubting I use magic, right?”

“I never doubted!” Lexy spoke excitedly, grabbing onto my arm.

Raven blushed. “Mom said you mostly did a lot of stupid stuff as a kid.”

My lips twitched. “Well, your Mom isn’t much better. One of these days, I should tell you what she liked to do on the streets in her teenage years.”

I seem to recall meeting her mom as she tried to higher a street worker to sexually satisfy her. She hadn’t exactly been the brightest girl either.  I didn’t have that much time to dwell on the past though. Instead, I started pulling the clothing off the guard.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Raven cried out.

“Daddy, if you need to release, I’m available.” Lexy pouted.

I looked at my pair of daughters and wondered for not the first time where their minds were at. “It’s better if I look like a guard. We’ll move easier. This place doesn’t have as many cameras as where I escaped before, but we can’t be too careful. Plus, I don’t have a tracker on Kemala or the rest, so we’re going to have to look around a bit.

“Even if we find them, what are we supposed to do?” Raven asked poutily. “We’re still trapped in the middle of enemy territory.”

“I’ve already worked that out.” After I finished changing clothing yet again, I checked a certain formation I had scribbled on paper as I switched it to my new pockets. “They should be able to help us in time.”

“They?”

“Let’s go.” I decided she didn’t necessarily need to know.

I had made sure to grab the guard’s weapon, so I was now armed.  I didn’t want to have to use it. If I killed anyone, then it really would be a diplomatic incident. Instead, it’d just be a deterrent and last resort. They also shouldn’t be shooting me. That would be counterintuitive to their own goals. With the girls in tow, I began making my way through the hallways of the motel.

The motel was one-sided, with one side being a wall with windows, and the other side being numbered doorways leading into rooms. The carpets were old and smelled faintly of mildew. The walls had a vaguely yellow color to them as if they hadn’t been taken care of in some time. We were on the second story of a long building which was composed of fragments. Each building led into the next, tilted at a slight angle to the other, enough that one couldn’t look from one hallway to the next. On top of that, there was a doorway between each subsequent building, so one couldn’t look from one to the next.

I had to open the door to glance into the next hallway. When I did so, I saw a few more guards, but it wasn’t a heavily guarded area. It seemed they had assumed that being locked in a room was enough to block any escapes. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t know I had already helped two of them escape. I pushed open the door and began walking toward them, trying to look like a standard guard.

I only made it a few feet before one of them noticed me walking toward them. “Stop! Put down your weapons and put your hands in the air!”

“Father!”

“Daddy…”

The girls cried out behind me. I was wondering why I had been found out so quickly. I had thought my outfit would have allowed me to at least get a bit closer before they realized I wasn’t a woman and wasn’t Trilorian. I had been walking toward the other guards like normal. What I hadn’t expected was my daughters to follow me right into a hallway filled with guards.  I hadn’t asked them to wait, but I thought it would have been obvious. They didn’t have any sense. I immediately lunged forward and attacked.

“Don’t move!”

I was faster than the first guard. They hadn’t been prepared for me to leap at them, so before they could react, I had reached them and knocked them down. I wasn’t a martial artist, but I had taken enough fighting classes periodically. Even though I was best with a sword and I only had my fists here, I was still a man. Most men instinctively suppressed their strength in this world, so most women didn’t realize they were the weaker sex. As a result, they put up no particular protection when I got close. They seemed to expect they’d be able to overpower me. When I used my full strength, it surprised them every time.

“Girls, stay behind me!” I warned them as I held the guard I had reached first like a human shield.

“Okay.”

“Got it.”

If either of them was shot while I was fighting, that would be a mistake I couldn’t forgive. The two girls finally stayed back as I rushed forward. The two remaining guards hesitated as they found their friend being held in front of me. That was all the time I needed. I threw her at one of the guards while I attacked the other. I created a blinding flash of light, and then I heard a shot as one of the guards fired randomly. She ended up striking her friend, but it wasn’t a killing blow. I used the time and their mistake to knock the remaining two out.

“You can come out now,” I ordered the two girls who were peaking around the corner, even though they should have been hiding.

Lexy looked extremely excited, while Raven seemed extremely conflicted.

“What is it?” I asked.

“You… did do all those things?” Raven asked.

My mouth fell open, and then I closed again. They were asking such a thing now? I knew that my kids had some questions about the stories, and even I accepted that some truths, especially the ones about another world, were perhaps too farfetched for them to accept, but I never would have believed that my girls flat-out thought it was all made up. Exaggerated, maybe… but even if they just stuck with things that were known and recorded, such as what I did on the day of WRATH, I would have thought they had more respect for me than that.

I shook my head. “We need to get going!”

One of these guards pulled a trigger, and the gunshot along with the commotion was not something the rest of the building could ignore.

Thud. Thud. “Hey! What’s going on out there?”

The three of us looked at each other and then I didn’t hesitate to kick in the door leading into the bedroom. When my eyes landed on Syph and Brianna, I let out a little sigh of relief. These girls were professionals. If I felt a bit overwhelmed going forward by myself and protecting my daughters, that ended here.

“You know what to do,” I ordered.

Syph and Brianna glanced at each other once and then nodded. The pair walked out of the room and immediately began stripping the guards. Neither of the guards’ clothing fit the girls correctly. The Trilor women were too short to match Brianna’s height, and too small in the chest to match Syph. As a result, Syph’s blouse buttons looked like they were being tortured by her chest, and the hem of Brianna’s coat and pants came short of her ankles and wrists. It might have looked comical, but as Brianna lifted a weapon and Syph found a glove with a spell engraved on it, both women gave off a professional aura.

“Orders, Boss?” Syph asked, not even bothering with questions like how I got there or what was I planning.

“We need to find Kemala and the spiritualist. Then, I need you guys to buy me time while I set up another transport.”

It would be very difficult doing another transport, and especially one for so many people, but I had no choice. It was the only way we could make our rendevous on the edge of the Republic of Trilor.

“Come on,” I ordered the girls.

After we made it to the next hallway, the group split up. There were too many rooms and not enough people to check them all.

“Brianna, you watch Lexy. Syph, you take Raven.”

The two women nodded. My daughters gave me worried looks, but the bodyguards knew what I was capable of. They had long since accepted that they worked for me. The three groups separated, and then we were all going from door to door. We couldn’t afford to waste time knocking on doors and waiting for a response. Even if the guards weren’t rushing to get here, we still had very little time.

Brianna kicked in one door, causing it to burst open. Syph used a spell to open the lock on the next door, rolling her eyes as she silently checked the next room. As for me, I didn’t want to waste any more mana that I didn’t have to. I lifted the gun at the doorknob, and after shouting out a warning, I shot off the knob and then shoved open the door.

“Clear!”

We moved from room to room, clearing them as quickly as possible. As we heard a commotion downstairs, Syph went to the exit and then put up a barrier to keep the door locked. She managed to bring it up just in time, as a group of people slammed into the door only a few minutes after she erected it.

“Surrender now! You will be spared!” A voice came from the other side of the door in broken common tongue.

I ignored the voice and tried the next door. As soon as I did so, I let out a cry. That’s because this room wasn’t like the other rooms. There were no beds, but instead a wall with chains. Chained to the walls were two familiar faces. One was Kemala, and the other was the spiritualist. They both had blood running down their body. There was also a woman standing there next to them. She had a gun at Kemala’s head.

“If you take another step, I kill her!”

My body shook as I looked at Kemala’s lifeless body. I heard a gasp as one of the girls appeared behind me. The woman tensed even more, her hand tightening on the trigger.

“Why?” I asked coldly.

The woman made a face. “You think we’re foolish? Boys know nothing, but this girl has intelligence. Intelligence we can use against Valiant. As for the spiritualist, such abilities can be harvested and given to betters. She’s already served her use.”

“Are you starting a war?” I asked.

“War?” She sneered. “With who? Valiant? Do you think you have the power to go against the might of our republic? You’re just a handful of silly boys playing at the house. You don’t have an army. You don’t even have a right to call yourself a country. We women merely allow you to exist for our amusement. You are nothing! You are- ahhhh!”

Brianna had been standing right next to me, and without a word, I drew the sword from her hip and slashed. I crossed the room in an instant, and my blade slid right between Kemala and the woman. Some of Kemala’s chains, as well as this woman’s hand, went flying through the air. Her gun was still attached to it, but she naturally couldn’t pull the trigger. She let out a cry, staring in shock as if she didn’t understand what had just happened.

“Since you have declared war on Valiant, prepare for the consequences,” I responded coldly, sending my blade directly through her neck.

I left the sword there. Her head wasn’t quite severed, but she was pinned to the wall in a standing position. Lexy walked up to the sword, looking at it with some interest. As for Raven, she had broken into tears. Brianna went to fetch her blade, an awkward expression on her face. Syph was the only one gone, working on keeping the barrier up. I confirmed that the spiritualist was already dead, but Kemala was still breathing. I pushed magic into her, trying to repair some of the damage. I wasn’t a doctor though, and the damage was extensive.

Her eyes fluttered open. When she saw my face, she smiled slightly. Her expression seemed pained.

“Master…”

That’s all she got out before she passed out again.

“Boss,” Brianna spoke up. “If I had known they were torturing her…”

“It’s not your fault,” I responded. “They tricked all of us.”

“Wh-why did they do this?” Raven demanded with tears in her eyes. “Why?”

“She’s WRA. What did you expect?” Brianna asked, cutting open a piece of the nearly headless woman’s dress and revealing a WRA tattoo on her chest.

“WRA?” Raven shook her head in denial.”

“This world has always been hostile to men,” I explained. “Many women believe as she does. Men are trash. They’re useless beasts of burden. Seed banks. Cum dispensers. It’s the only reason I escaped. They don’t even think a man can use magic correctly. They look down on us completely. They thought they could just force my hand.”

I picked up Kemala’s unconscious form and carried her out into the hallway. As I did so, I heard loud booming noises.

“Boss… I can’t hold on much longer!” Syph cried.

“I-I didn’t know…” Raven came to the door, looking like she was slightly sick.

“How did you not know?” Lexy huffed. “We’ve all told you as much. Did you think everyone around you lied except the one group who benefits most from lying?”

Raven looked away, an ashamed expression on her face. I wasn’t focused on her and any epiphanies she was having right now. Instead, I felt an anger inside me I hadn’t felt in a long time. They had completely fooled us. I was being fed honey. It was probably the equivalent of spoiling a dog to get it to change loyalty. While I was being treated well, they were waiting to reveal the stick when I tried to leave.

They probably expected I’d be too terrified to escape, and then go on the record defecting to their country. Suddenly, all of the speeches I gave affirming how wonderful Trilor was had a more nefarious purpose. They were setting me up for a forced defection. This was something that I couldn’t allow to stand. Not only did they hurt my close lover, but they likely planned to use my kids to continue to blackmail me.

I supposed I was lucky Syph and Brianna didn’t arrive as bodyguards. Based on Talitha’s recommendation, they didn’t wear any weapons and presented themselves as my fluffers, just two women who made me hard, just two mindless floozies. If they had known they were bodyguards, they might have already been dead.  I pulled out the sheet from my pocket. After a moment, I made a few changes.

“Sorry, guys, I guess I won’t be making the rendezvous.” I sighed, crumbling up the paper and tossing it on the ground.

“Boss!’ Syph fell to her knees, blood pouring from her nose.

“Surrender now!” A voice shouted, and a face could be seen on the other side of the barrier, the door that had once been there had been incenerated and only her barrier held a group of soldiers back now.

I put a gentle hand on Syph’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll take it from here.”

“Wh-what is daddy doing?” Lexy took a step forward, her eyes filled with worry.

Brianna grabbed her, holding her back. “I think… he’s going to stop holding back.”

I stopped right in front of the barrier. The woman on the other side, an officer of some rank, sneered at me dismissively. The republic had revealed its true face finally. They didn’t show their faux smiles and overly kind words of encouragement. Instead, they showed their true arrogance.

“You wanted to force my hand,” I repeated, raising my hand. “You’re going to get exactly what you want. I hope it’s everything you were looking for.”