A Gift of The Goddess Ch. 02

"I've got no strings to hold me down ba-ba-ba ba-dum-ba-dum," Max sang to himself mostly. His song and more importantly the focus of bardic magics caused his undead troops to move faster and more precisely.

Christian for all his apparent naivete immediately knew to lash out at his attackers including kicking one guy attacking him between the legs. Max marveled as the femboy took advantage of the bent over victim of his nut shot to side roll over his back to gain enough distance to unleash a familiar flurry of thrusts at another attacker then unbelievably turned around and used his back again as a vaulting point to slash a second from the air, landing smoothly to spin kick the now kneeling thug who was too busy cradling his balls-sack to even try and block the kick.

Max was absolutely sure of it now. He'd played a certain sword combat rpg back home and remembered having his ass handed to him by a player who loved this specific character and especially this specific combination of moves. This wasn't just someone who looked like the fictional video game character, this was someone who'd mastered his entire skill set including the annoyingly massive list of Pay-To-Win combos that had been a source of community controversy. This guy, whoever he was, had reincarnated just like Max.

The remaining men finally clued in that they'd been ambushed. One of them ran at Max thrusting his sword at the cleric. Or he would have if the whip at Max's side hadn't suddenly coiled around his arm, preventing his movement. Max's eyes glowed with necrotic power and the whip uncoiled, to lash out at the man leaving wounds that seethed with dark and corrupting energy. The last guy made the mistake of trying to hit Talona. One of the ice daggers melted before reforming into an icy discolored stalagmite that reached up to stab the man's arm. Then another stabbed him through the other hand. Leaving him hanging in mid-air wailing with agony.

Christian maneuvered himself to stand against the carriage looking at Max cautiously

"Stand and declare ma'am!"

"Excuse me?"

"Stand and declare madam, while I am sure her Imperial grace would appreciate your timely assistance, you're obviously a necromancer so I ask you again to stand and declare."

"Ah ok number one, I'm not a woman."

"You're wearing female vestments."

"That is true," Max replied, "but so are you."

"You look like a woman."

"Looks like ... being the operative term," Max replied, "but thank you. I crossdress, well I think of it as cosplay but potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto."

Christian looked at him, mystified, "Cosplay? And Ella Fitzgerald? You're not from this world. You're reincarnated like me."

"I'm partial to the Louis Armstrong version myself, "

Max thrust out his hand, "Maximilian, my friends call me Max."

"I am-..."

"Christian De Barrett, I heard your very dashing introduction. Can I call you Chris?"

Chris blushed, "I aspire to knighthood so I occasionally get ahead of myself. I'm an-"

"An apprentice knight who dresses as a woman because of your beloved mother.," Max finished, "I remember the game and character though I wasn't anywhere skilled enough to even try to master Christian's move-set. You pulled off the lightning strike."

"You know about that?"

"Amazing!"

"I'm a servant to her imperial grace, Radiant Dawn, ...which reminds me."

Chris turned to The carriage and struck the lock which he had apparently jammed shut to protect the person inside

"My Lady, we are safe and sound!"

A young woman exploded from the carriage to throw herself into Chris's arms. Max was taken aback by the bundle of high energy that was the Imperial Princess. She hugged Chris hard and ran her hands over his body checking to see if he had been hurt or injured.

"I was so worried about you Christian, how could you lock me in the carriage like that."

"They tried to assault me my Lady but these people happened upon us and lent aid. This is Max, a necromancer and his companion is...

"Mina, The titular witch of Witch's Woods," Max lied smoothly, her true identity wasn't Max's to share.

Talona grinned, It amused her that one of Loviatar's bitch-boys chose to go out of his way to conceal that the mortals stood before an infamous dark goddess.

The princess however seemed apathetic to their introduction, continuing instead to inspect Christian for harm and ultimately finding a bruise where the boy had been struck. Max watched as an disturbing animalistic rage swept across her face so quickly Max wondered if he'd seen anything at all.

Dawn turned her gaze on him and something about her stare was unnerving. Then he realized what it was. A lifetime and a half ago he'd seen a large and decidedly odd collection of porcelain dolls, their lifeless eyes always struck Max as creepy. Dawn looked at him with the same unblinking gaze. As if her face, ...her entire being, were a mask concealing something darker and more ugly.

To avoid looking into the calculating yet empty eyes, Max gestured towards an open spot on the forest floor. The dead he'd reanimated trudged to the spot where Max saluted them before lighting their lifeless corpses up with fire. He was surprised by Chris joining him with respectful salute. They watched as flames consumed the bodies until they were practically charcoal.

"Why bother with such grisly theatrics?" Dawn yawned

Max was about to give his usual snarky response when Chris interrupted, "These poor souls gave their lives in your service My Lady and this man ensured they continued to protect us even after death, it's only right we honor that sacrifice."

Dawn gaped then a look of sensual joy floated to the surface. Max was sure of it now this woman didn't FEEL emotions so much as wear them like masks -- except for anything she felt because of Chris.

"Christian, please get the witch to treat your wound as best she can. I'd like the Cleric's assistance when I speak to the survivors."

"Of course your Grace, we exist only to serve you."

Talona seemed ready for a bitter dismissive comment but Max quietly and subtly waved her to if not silence, then at least a certain restraint.

Talona, who had as much use as Loviatar for saccharine charity sighed, "Alright Hero let's have a look at you," she grumbled.

Max accompanied the princess over to the survivor.

"My deepest apologies Brother but I ask for your indulgence."

"Brother?"

"I meant Brother as in Brother in Torment, though your sigil marks you as a branded."

"Branded?"

"Branded of the Goddess."

"You're Loviatian wait a member of the Imperial royalty serves a femdom Goddess of pain and torture?"

"That's hardly the most unusual thing you'll see today."

"With that the Princess arrived at the prisoner, "Young man, I'd like to know who sent you and where they can be found?"

"I don't know anything!" The thug replied defiantly.

The princess smiled, a disturbingly large grin bisecting her face into a shark-like smile.

"Might you have a glove I could borrow?" Dawn asked politely, Max gave it to her without comment

The man looked mystified but wasn't for long

Dawn slipped the glove on, admiring its fit. Then she smashed the thug in the face and grabbed his hair slamming his head against the carriage. She then hurled him to the ground and stomped on his hand. Max heard an audible snap.

"You have 27 bones in your hand, over 200 in your entire body." Dawn hissed, "Believe that I know exactly how to break each and every one of them in the most agonizing way you can imagine."

"I'll tell you what you want to know!"

"Understand, you TOUCHED my precious Christian so you WILL be torturously punished, the only question is how painfully it happens? How many hours will it take? And how often will the Death Mage here resurrect you so I can do it AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN?"

"Please Miss I have a wife and child."

"Good then after I grow bored torturing you I can turn my attentions on them. There's no end to the sadists, sickos and perverts calling themselves nobility I could sell your child to. As for the whore calling itself your wife? After she's so addicted to narcotics she'll clean my ass with her tongue for another fix, i'll give her to farm animals for my personal amusement have you seen a pigs penis what it can do to a human female is a sight to see and you will see it, I'll let you live just long enough to witness the depraved drug-addled slut I turn her into before I end her and bury you alive next to her corpse."

"Marquis Bradley! It was Marquis Bradley! You've been messing with some business or other so he was hoping to scare you."

"Christian is going to come back soon, you'll tell him what you told us and beg for the lives of the sow and the piglets you call a family. Say anything about how you were persuaded to speak and I promise you, I'll set their impaled bodies afire to light a garden party I hold to view your torture and execution."

The man looked genuinely terrified and was struggling to respond.

"Don't speak, just nod if you understand."

The man fearfully nodded

Christian came from around the carriage just as she shoved Max's glove back into his hands. While the princess' face, indeed her whole body seemed to transform, becoming once again a sweet girl smiling with saintly patience.

"Christian, your survivor has seen the error of his ways, young man, please repeat what you told us."

"Marquis Bradley, he owns a shipping business that transports banned and restricted goods. He hired us to scare you."

"That's cruel and disloyal, you should be ashamed of yourself." Christian lectured.

"Unfortunately for us the law in such matters is clear he and his family must be punished."

"No, wait my Lady. I realize I have no right to even ask it but surely there's a way to save his family at least."

Dawn made a show of considering Christian's proposal

"Oh my sweet and noble knight I continue to find it difficult to refuse you, my champion, anything."

"Thank you my princess, and you sir should get down on your knees and thank the Gods it was Radiant Dawn you attacked and not someone more sadistic or vindictive."

"I, ...I thank you for your mercy," the man replied fearfully.

"You'll spend your remaining days in the mines," Dawn announced, "but your family will be kept safe and sound -- so long as you pay your debt to the imperium."

Her not-so-veiled meaning was abundantly clear.

"Thank you, your Grace!" He shouted.

Chris finally noticed the blood on the man and the glove in Max's hand

"Sister Cleric such unseemly violence in front of the Princess, I know you meant well but-"

"Now Christian, the Cleric was only doing as you would have, protecting me." Dawn sounded so sincere.

"Indeed young knight I've already seen many of the qualities that you admire most about your noble lady." Max replied.

"I only wish to serve with every fiber of my blood and being." Christian said proudly.

"Now you and the cleric should go to town and return with a detachment of imperial troops," Dawn mused, "As nervous as he makes me, I'll stay with the prisoner. I'm sure M'lady Witch could protect me."

"Oh she's a thing of rare beauty," Loviatar hissed.

"She's a straight-up psychopath and the hero-boy hasn't a single clue." I mentally whispered.

"Some people see what they want to see, you of all people should understand that."

Max looked at Chris and his adoring worshipful reverence for his Imperial Princess. He remembered a young man so blinded by lust and naivete that he'd failed to see a dangerous bully for who and what she really was. Had he been that clueless? Maybe a little, maybe even a lot.

Then he looked at the terrified thug who obviously did not wish to be left alone with the Princess but was too terrified to say so.

"You know by coincidence there's an alternative to returning to town if you don't mind a little detour."

"We're on our way to the Imperial Capital!"

"Perfect, it's on the way and there's a chance that land owners recently beset by demons could have their spirits boosted by a visit from the Radiant Dawn."

"I would happily welcome a chance to help if I could but I'm reluctant to expose The Princess to any danger."

Dawn looked like she was about to orgasm on the spot but the look she had when Chris actually looked pleading at her was again a mask of saintly kindness and compassion.

"Christian I serve my subjects,you most of all, if there's anything I can do, I'm happy to help."

"Well then Max, please cast your spell and we'll see what aid we can provide."

8

9

8

Christian's Tale

I know what others think of me.

The deviant ...

The cast off...

The DeBerrett family haven't been actual nobility for a long time. A noble so unimportant history barely recorded his name saved a member of the imperial Household. Whether he was hunting with the party or poaching depends on the teller of the story and their desire to be cruel.

To hear Christian's ... sorry, I still make that mistake, to hear MY father tell it, we're practically owed the Golden Throne itself. I am the third son and largely useless. Created by accident after a drunken liaison, my father left me with my doting mother because he already had an heir and a spare, technically my only role was as marriage collateral. Married off to secure a trade deal or more often to pay off a debt. In extreme circumstances I'd join the military and hope honor on the battlefield would translate into marriage proposals to widows seeking my veteran's benefits.

But my mother wanted a friend and companion. The first dresses she had me wear were simple unisex outfits but eventually she stopped pretending. She had always wanted a daughter and seeing as I already possessed feminine features she decided to improvise.

Soon I was my mother's living dress up doll. A parent having a favorite wasn't new nor was my brother's mockery in the face of her clothing me in gowns and dresses.

Mother had lost two children to her husband's schemes and plots. Oh they were very much still alive, but for the amount they talked, my elder brothers might as well be in another country.

They were too busy fighting the Empire's enemies to entertain her need for companionship and love, or at least that's the official story. Unofficially, they were apparently jealous of her family's connections, connections I was introduced to during the boring gardening parties and dressup games they mocked me for.

Mom was a bit of a shotacon. She'd married a noble deathly fearful of being cuckolded even though he regularly dishonored their marriage making a fool of himself with women half his age, ...at best. She could live with me in the family home in the Imperial Capital but mother could have no other men in the household. However she got around that strict rule by hiring the city's population of boy whores, young men who regularly crossdressed. Apparently wearing maid's clothing and having to spend days in chastity cages was a vast improvement over potentially starving on the streets or dying in a back alley and it wasn't as if the more experienced didn't find opportunities to use their more carnal skill sets. Mother wasn't the only noble lady in the capital who found a crossdressing femboy better company than a strapping young knight or noble who might get ideas above their station. And it wasn't just a one-way thing, jealous wives and paramours who might start deadly fights or embarrassing scandals for dalliances with attractive females, oftentimes overlooked or outright ignored a femboy maid.

I became just one more crossdressing young man in my home. My brothers and father mocked my situation.

However I quickly demonstrated that unlike her house full of shota femboys, I had combat abilities and skills. She found an instructor, one of her old friends within the Sisterhood who was willing to train me. Due to some ancient historical language in The Sisterhood Charter, no MAN can be taught the ways of the Sisters of Battle; however any person willing to surrender his masculine identity in service to the Gods of War could be trained. Thus my first lessons were not exactly lessons but more akin to amusing forms of foreplay with my mother and her friends watching with barely restrained lust as a combat instructor dominated a house full of crossdressing boy whores under the guise of training.

That's when my memories came back to me.

Christian De Barrett was a DLC character for a popular video game. The femboy swordsman, his biography explained his third-son position, doting mother, and preference for ladies clothes in terms so colorless that I barely recognized myself within my reincarnated life. I'd masturbated to enough rule34 porn of him during my lonely and sickly first life that living his actual life felt odd. I'd practiced his move sets for hours. I even learned his taunts and challenges changed if you were facing men or women, ...especially the game's one confirmed dominatrix.

Before my first life ended I maxed out Christian's ability and skills tree. I played female characters for years but there was something about playing a crossdressing femboy sword princess that appealed to the lonely video game playing shut in I used to be. Imagine my joy when I woke up in this new world with all of the skills I'd previously gained. Annoyingly however I was obliged to train my reincarnated body to do what my video game character did. The Lightning Strike looks super cool onscreen. Actually doing it physically is a challenge, though thankfully not an insurmountable one. And you should have seen the look on my instructor's face when I unleashed a one hundred hit combo, Christian's signature move.

My brothers and father continued to mock my efforts. The only thing we shared was a love of swordplay. Then SHE found me and the laughing stopped.

I met The Radiant Dawn at a boring garden party. The princess was to be entertained by a show of combat prowess.

Wearing a scandalous dress, I danced for my Radiant Dawn while wielding a sword. She was impressed, and I was entranced.

I saw my actions as the duty of any citizen. Dawn asked that I be released to her service. I'd continue my training as her bodyguard and companion.

My father doesn't laugh anymore now he boasts to anyone who will listen that I serve her Majesty. My brothers don't laugh anymore; they call me almost every day hoping I assume to hear news that will grant them an edge in the endless game's played by nobles.

Sometimes I notice my family's nervous looks whenever I go home and Dawn accompanies me.

People think that I'm blind, that I do not see my lady's darker nature. She is surrounded by schemers and plotters and thus she constantly wears a mask even around me. But Max ... for the first time, I see her relax. Something about Max makes her relaxed and comfortable enough to show how much she cares about me, about the kingdom I pray she'll one day lead.

We arrive in a farming community where we meet Max's friends, Sister Eve and Sister Kristina. Eve and Kristina's eyes light up upon hearing my name. My instructor is apparently a well known and well respected warrior to the Sisterhood.

Dawn observes as Max administers the cure and the victims immediately respond to treatment. Then he gives a different cure to another Sister and her frenzied twitching and feverish dreams seem to lessen and fade.

Princess Dawn asks to know how the Imperial troops were dispatched to this remote location. Dawn is intrigued when she learns that it was Marquis Bradley who sent them.

"Interesting, someone who you're looking at for smuggling asked the army to secure a village that sits close to a trade route," Max mused.

"A trade route that demons sought to control access to," Dawn replied, "I'd like to see this trade route if I could?"