Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 20: Undine's Spring

<- Previous: Esta

Esta’s Tartarus region is a no-go area at the moment.  So, there’s nothing for it but to head back to Grand Noah.

But before then, Alice mentions Undine’s Spring is not far from here and it would be a good idea to take a detour and go and contract Undine.  I think Toro Toro Resistance is a pretty good writer, but this is one section where the plot gets a little sloppy.

If you try to contract Undine before Esta, she isn’t there.  Her appearance only triggers after Alice tells you about her after the events in Esta.  Thing is, this is inconsistent with what’s happened previously.  In part 1 the Tartarus regions were big scary unknowns and the advice was to contract with the nearest elemental spirit before descending into the depths.  It would have made more sense for Alice to suggest contracting Undine before investigating Esta’s Tartarus region.

There is better rationale for it, should you go straight back to Grand Noah first.  The preparations for invading Grangold’s territory are not ready, which does give an excuse for a side trip to Undine’s Spring.

Overall, the sequencing feels a little clumsy here.

I suspect it’s also because I’m a little tetchy at Undine’s Spring turning out to be one of the most disappointing locations so far.

Sexy slimy fun times ahead (warning: risk of absorption and digestion)

Slime Girls are up there with succubi when it comes to my favourite monster girls, so I was looking forward to seeing what new gooey goodness awaited us at Undine’s Shrine and there’s... nothing.

No new content anyway.  We have various combinations of UN_DO’s slimies.

Sexy Slimies

And the blob and jelly girls.

Jelly and Blob.  Avoid Blob.

Nothing new on the Bad Ends or requests either.  Blob girl’s Bad End was never that sexy to begin with – Luka sort of gets sucked up in a weird little opening in her side.  It’s disappointing because Setouchi* has done a pretty sweet piece showing blob girl getting her sexy gloop on, but you’d have to go digging through Tokinokogiri’s Monmusu Delicious Nom-Noms series to find it.  Then again, it probably would have been a wee bit naughty to swipe the art from someone else’s release.

*It’s possible I’ve got the wrong artist here, although it does seem pretty close to Setouchi’s style.

A "better" Bad End with Blob Girl

Overall, the lack of originality shouldn’t be that surprising.  MQ:P part 2 has been fairly consistent so far – new locations get new gals, old ones get returnees from the original series.  It’s unfortunate that this particular segment of the game has been a long stretch of old content (Yamatai, Plansect Village and now Undine’s Spring*).

*I forgot Mephisto’s School of Magic.  And intend to go right back to forgetting about it. *shiver*

Anyway, enuff bitchin’ ‘n’ whinin’.  We got a world to save and a water spirit to get all wet and squelchy with.

Undine’s Spring is the first place where I felt the game was catching up to my over-levelled characters in terms of difficulty.  Up to now I’d been levelling up various characters and switching them out at level 40.  I might have to raise that cap.  My first excursion into the spring saw the whole party taken out by an exploding blob girl and Undine became the first story (rather than optional) boss to wipe me without any dirty temptation shenanigans.

Undine does not hold back.  Bring waterproofs.

The boss fight felt like a legit difficulty spike.  She even took me out a couple of times when I tried coming back with a moderate ‘serious-business’ party.  Those AOE splosh attacks of hers do a ton of damage and she also has an annoying habit of raising her magic-reflecting aqua shield right before the party mage tries to zap her with lightning.

The best way to deal with Undine is probably a bit of Luka-bait cheese.  Have him in the party.  At some point Undine will absorb him and start doing all kinds of naughty naughty.  Don’t select the struggle option for Luka.  Instead have him lie back and think of England while your party healer casts Mega Heal on him every turn.  Eventually Undine’s pleasure damage will outstrip your healer’s healing, but this will give 5 or 6 turns of complete freedom to hit Undine with the other two party members.  And time Undine spends doing various creative wet and squelchy things to Luka’s nether regions is time she’s not unloading that ridiculous AOE water attack on the rest of the party.

The worst of it is that it isn’t even the worst of it.

Uh oh.  We have to fight Erubetie as well?

The relief of finally overcoming Undine is short-lived as Erubetie arrives on the scene before we can properly contract with Undine.  There isn’t even an option to save before we’re thrown right into a second boss battle.

Erubetie is kind of like a more powerful and pissed off Undine.  She also has silly AOE water attacks.  Her dubious (don’t ask) Neverland Frontier attack also makes a return.  In game terms it’s a party-wide debuff that drives the whole party’s stats into the floor.  I’m not even sure there is a way to remove debuffs short of having the character die and be raised again.

So yep, this fight is going to suck.

Ah, but she’s a proper heavenly knight, like Alma Elma.  Which means she’s probably around level 60.  There’s no way they’d sic a heavenly knight on us, going all out, right after that difficult boss fight against Undine.  So yeah, it’s probably one of those unwinnable story fight things.  It won’t matter if we lose.

Luka found out too late that Erubetie wasn't kidding around

Um, Erebutie.  This was just a test, wasn’t it?  I mean you’re not really going to go all out on our pitiful level 40 party.  Um, what are you... GLOOP.

Yup, it’s a proper boss fight.  Lose and Luka will get absorbed and probably dissolved right down to his pearly-white bones.

Fair play.  It’s been fairly easy to coast through MG:P so far.  The double difficulty spike right to the cranium does change things up a little.  Erubetie is – as you’d expect – vulnerable to lightning, so it’s not completely hopeless.  That Neverland Frontier mass debuff is still a bitch though.

After we (finally!) beat Erubetie, Undine points out that her heart wasn’t in it and that meant she wasn’t fighting at full strength (Dissolved-to-mush Luka from half an hour ago might disagree here).  Erubetie isn’t happy with what Alice’s mother is doing either.  So, of the heavenly knights, Alma Elma’s doing her own thing, Tamamo is sulking in her hut and now Erubetie is having doubts.

Can we recruit her?  Can we recruit her?

Nope, sadly.  She’s off to think things through.

We do get Undine though, so that’s quest complete.  I’d also recommend recruiting some of the other slime girls as well.  By this point in the game I was finding the enemies get a little bullet-spongy.  They don’t really pose a threat to the party, but they have so much HP it can take a while to kill them, especially if you’re trying to level a character up through one of the squishier support classes.  Slimes get around this.  Level them up in Carnivorous Slime and they gain the ability Blob Boa at some point (think it might be level 3 or 4).  This is an instant KO on any enemy with the “Digested” state.  Most slimes also pick up the “Melty Shot” Throwing skill, which has a good chance of giving the “Digested” state to all enemies (Carnivorous Alraune also have an attack that does the same thing).  That combo will wipe out most mobs in one or two turns regardless of HP and make grinding for XP/items a lot less painful.

Anyway, that’s it for Undine’s Spring.  By now the preparations should be ready back at Grand Noah.  It’s time to join the war against Grangold!

-> Next: The Ruins of Lima

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 19: Esta

<- Previous: Resolving the Plansect Civil War

We appear to have gotten all the various side quests out of the way.  That means it’s time to head off to Esta and maybe the first Tartarus trip of MQ:P part 2.  Esta is a village midway between Grand Noah and the border with Grangold.  As with Rubiana in part 1, there’s been a mysterious disappearance and all of the inhabitants are missing.  If you were wandering through this section of the world map aimlessly in search of new monster girls, you would have found the village off-limits.

Esta with the ominous Tartarus rift just above it

Now it’s open, and... things get a little weird.

The first time we enter Esta it’s hard to see what the problem is.  The village is far from abandoned.  There are plenty of people walking around.  Wasn’t everyone in this village supposed to have vanished?

There are plenty of hints that things aren’t quite right.  The first is fairly obvious – Luka is here on his own.  Our personal monster girl harem is not with us.

We also can’t leave.  The roads are magically sealed to prevent us from leaving.  The same applies to harpy feathers and warp spells.

The people here also seem a little too cheerful.

Ah, this would be why.

We're not in Esta anymore

Carry on walking to the east and the town gives way to fluffy clouds and angels.  And that explains what’s going on.  We’re not actually in Esta.  We’re in some kind of heavenly copy up in the sky overhead.

This also explains what happened to the people of Rubiana and Esta.  The angels abducted them and brought them all here.  They also seem to be running every aspect of the people’s lives, including changing people’s jobs to what they think will make the person most happy.

The Tartarus location in the lake also extends all the way up here as a pitch-black hole.  Currently there’s no way to get to it.

In the north of the village is a big cathedral.  When we first enter the village, the cathedral doors are locked.  One of the guards tells us that they won’t open until a bell chimes.  This isn’t a particularly hard puzzle.  The bell is either on a timer, or triggered by walking over various tiles in the village.

The cathedral

Once the bell rings, the game tells you, and you can go back to the cathedral.

Which isn’t a cathedral.

Walking through the door sends us into some kind of wibbly-wobbly cosmic space.  There we’re met by the angel Rafaela.

We don’t have long to talk before a demon – Sai-Shin? – teleports in.

Your choice is Angel Tits or Snake Tits.

I’m not totally convinced I got her name right, machine translation not always being the most reliable and all that.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s supposed to be Satan, or Shaitan.  She looks fairly familiar.  I think she might be one of the ‘Big 6’ demons Toro Toro Resistance posted on his website before Paradox came out.  She has a bit of a snaky theme going on.

Her and Rafaela have what appears to be long and involved metaphysical debate about freedom and choice.  Rafaela says her and the angels are making the humans very happy by controlling every aspect of their lives, so that the humans don’t make the mistakes that would fuck up their lives.  Sai-Shin counters by questioning whether the lives have any value if the humans have no control over them.  She argues that the humans need the freedom to make their own decisions, even if some of those decisions are the wrong ones.

Then they turn and ask us which of them we agree with.

Um, yeah.  Not going near that one with a ten-foot barge pole.

Is there a third option?  Yep.  Take the third option.

Then it’s back down to Esta where Alice lets Luka know he went nowhere and just spaced out for a few moments (similar to what happens whenever Luka visits the Hades location hidden in Ilias’s temple).

Real Esta is empty.  As with Rubiana, everyone has gone and various investigators are wandering around and trying to work out what happened.  We know the answer, of course, but I doubt anyone will believe us.

The angels abducted them all to a happy place up in the sky.

Right yer are, mate.

The one key difference between Esta Below and Esta Above is that Esta Below has a way to reach the Tartarus location in the lake.  There are rowboats moored up on a pier.  We grab one and row out into the lake.

We’re going to Tartarus.  What strangeness is waiting for us this time?

Nothing as it happens.  We get to the edge of blackness and there’s no way to go further.

Really?  After all those side quests through the Realms of Nope.  Fack!

Oh well, nothing for it but to row back to the village.  We manage to make it back to the pier before there’s a big crash behind us and Gnosis emerges from the darkness of Tartarus.

Gnosis, Angel of Nope

Uh oh.  She was the angel that killed Micaela in part 1.  She tells us that she’s calculated that history has diverged so far from the “correct” path she might as well kill everyone.

Not today, Gnosis.

Gnosis is not that tough, but takes an age to take down.  The HP of bosses seems to have ramped up a lot as we get deeper into part 2.  I might have to take a closer look at min/maxing some of my characters, especially the ones responsible for dishing out damage, as these boss fights keep taking a while.

Knocking Gnosis back makes her reconsider the whole obliterating us from existence thing.

(Just fucking kill the bitch, Luka.  She killed Auntie Micaela.)

Especially when she overhears Luka mentioning he’d spoken with Rafaela.  She decides she might have made the wrong call and we might be powerful enough to do whatever the angels are trying to engineer to stop the world being destroyed.  Then she flies off.

Remind me, why did we come to Esta again?

Looks like we might as well report what we know (ha!) to Queen Noah.  But before then, Alice mentions that Undine’s Spring is not far from here, and we should pop by to contract with Undine.

Off to the caves of slimy pleasures it is then.

But before then, we shall look into the alternate universe opened up through the wonders of save scumming, to find a Luka who did not fare so well in his boss fight versus Gnosis.

(Are we sure?  It is a Xelvy.)

Blowjob doesn't seem so bad...

Well, this doesn’t seem so bad.  Gnosis seals our movements with angelic power and then comes close for what I guess will be a bit of cock-slurping.  I’m fine with th—

!!!!!!

Grahh!

What the fuck is going on with that mouth?  That does not look a comfortable place to put my pride and joy.  It’s not like we have any say about it.  The ring Gnosis slaps over Luka’s cock to prevent him from coming also looks far too tight to be comfortable.

The ring apparently doesn’t stop us from pissing, which Gnosis makes us do, and then slurps up because sado-crazy angel or something.

Her mouthparts must not be as bad as they look, because after a few minutes of them vacuuming away on Luka’s no-longer-so-dangly bits gives him an urge to come that’s painful with the ring blocking it.  So it’s one of those classic Bad Ends where the femdom succubus/monster girls wants us to beg her to let us come.  Well, we all know how they end up, so we won’t be—

We beg her to let us cum.

Gnosis sucks out so much that Luka ends up going floppy.  I don’t think I’ve seen that before.  Maybe that’s true angel power.  Gnosis says that’s okay.  She has a means to give our drooping little man some support.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and: ow ow ow)

Graghhhwww!

Tongues do not go there!  Especially spiky tongues that look like they’re covered in barbed wire.

It works and that’s more white stuff for Gnosis to slurp up.  Unfortunately, there’s no Beyond the End and happy frolicking kittens this time around.  Gnosis keeps sucking until Luka is empty of energy and dead.

Don’t mess with the angels, Luka.

-> Next: Undine’s Spring

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 18: Resolving the Plant-Insect Civil War

<- Previous: Insect Mountain

The negotiations continue.  Currently we’re in the middle of a civil war between plant girls and insect girls.  Previously in MQ:P this would require picking a side and then that determined what new girls we’d get to add to the ‘harem’.  This time the game gives us a third option, which is finding out that neither the plants or insects are particularly interested in warring with each other, and brokering a peace between them.

After talking to Queen Bee, return to the Alraune Priestess in Plansect Village.  Again, there is the option to side with either plants or insects.  Select the third option instead.

Priestess hears out what we have to say on behalf of Queen Bee and it is acceptable to her.  They also want an end to the war.

So, that’s the end of it.  Quest done, right?

Not exactly.  The only reason this war flared back up again was thanks to the manipulations of Black Alice and her catspaws.  And now along comes the literal cat to express her disapproval at these peace negotiations.

The cat came back...

Priestess sends the three Canaan sisters after her and Tezzie boffs them into the lake without breaking a sweat.

Looks like it’s down to us then, Luka.  Boss fight!

Unfortunately for Tezzie, I was training up two characters in the Maid job at the time (to unlock the useful +50% Job XP ability), one of which was also a succubus.  Tezzie, despite being some kind of undead doll version of an ancient god, is still of the beast race and the beast race is rather weak to pleasure attacks.  An early use of the Ecstasy Massage skill puts her in a trance and after that she’s pretty much helpless as Eva sexes all her energy away.

However, should we want to see what Tezzie is capable of, if allowed to have her wicked way with Luka, there is always an option to replay the boss battle in Hades.

That’s for later though (like bottom of the blog post later).  Right now there are more pressing concerns.  After Tezzie slinks off after her defeat, Priestess hears that the other fake god, Quetzalcoatl, is attacking the insect girls on Insect Mountain.  She temporarily joins the party and we’re teleported right to the top of the mountain where Queen Bee is under attack.  Time for another boss battle.

Quetzie is based off the legendary Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent.  In fighting she’s more feathers than serpent.  She fights like a giant harpy with lots of gale attacks and dance moves.  I’m also not exaggerating the giant part.  Quetzie is big.  Her temptation move is to squash Luka between her big titties.

This is usually done with the other head...

Her Bad End has her force us to fuck her and then spoil us like a baby.  It’s an excuse for more femdom baby-play fetish.  Or more big bouncing boobies, if you like that kind of thing.

Quetzie don't care about no size differences

(I’m sorry.  I failed to resist temptation.  Big boobies are my weakness.)

Oh well, that’s what the save and reload buttons are for.

No sooner have we defeated Quetzie than Tezzie puts in a repeat appearance.

Uh oh.  Looks like we might have to fight the two of them at once.

Or not.  As Tezzie launches right into Quetzie, for... reasons?

The Secret Alliance of Evil has a few bugs in need of ironing out

Um, Black Alice, I think your cat god doll might be a bit of an idiot.

Anyway, the two fake gods are too busy fighting each other to bother either the plants or insects of Plansect, so that would appear to bring this quest strand to a satisfactory conclusion.  All that remains is to pick up the swag – i.e. new recruits to the roster.

Both Priestess and Queen Bee return to their respective spots.  They are both easy to recruit.  Just go up and talk to them (I’m guessing that picking a side would have resulted in locking out one or the other).  Priestess has been a bit stressed out by all the war stuff, and thinks a bit of travelling and adventuring away from the pressures of ruling will allow her a chance to unwind.

A suspect her unwinding will involve a lot of this.

Alraunes need their relaxation breaks

The Canaan sisters can also be recruited, but they’re mercenaries, so you’ll need to pay them 10,000 gold.  Their presence in this game seems a little tacked on, as if Toro Toro Resistance felt obligated to include them, but couldn’t really find a good way to slot them in.  They also feel like a pre-built racial party trio with them specializing as healer, ranger and heavy respectively.  Maybe this is a nod to the Tribal Mode of the coliseum.  I do like the idea of training up race-specific squads.  I might play around with the Canaan sisters later to see what their synergies are.

In the platonic sense of playing!

Given how carnivorous they are, I doubt it’s safe to leave Luka in the same room as them without a full hazmat suit.

That’s it for Plansect apart from a couple of minor things.  It’s time to update Vanilla’s shop.  In fact, I’d forgotten about Vanilla’s side quests, so it might be a good time to do a catch up.

She wants to stock gold needles.  They can be supplied by the scorpion girl that lurks by the entrance to the pyramid close to Sabasa.

The next thing is grimoire pages.  Cornelia (Page 65537) has those.  Talk to her in the pocket castle library, assuming you’ve already recruited her.

After that it’s the bigger nature magic stones.  The supplier for these is the mermaid merchant in Plansect.

That should now bring Vanilla’s shop improvements up to date.

Next... are we finally going to Esta (and Tartarus)?

Oh, but before then I said I’d throw in Tez’s H-stuff.  As with all bosses, you can fight her again in the Hades room on the second floor of Ilias’s Temple.

Her temptation move is to use her cat tongue to give us a good lick (no prizes for guessing where).

Nya nya SUCK!

Her Bad End isn’t that icky considering her beast-centaur form.  It’s still horse cat pussy, but arranged in a way that doesn’t look like someone’s trying to sneak a bit of bestiality in under the radar.  She wraps her forepaws around Luka’s back and still has her extra set of arms to push his face into her tits.  Her pussy apparently feels like it’s full of tongues and she uses them to lick us to repeated ejaculation.

It's Kittens Ever After for Luka

This scene is translated, but I suspect it might have been by one of the enthusiastic volunteers rather than Dargoth or Rogue.  Whoever did it might have gone a little overboard on the nyas.  I know, cat girl and all that, but there is a thing as too much nya-nya.

Despite being one of Black Alice’s fake gods, Tez’s Bad End is surprisingly light on the Bad.  Luka’s ‘punishment’ for losing is that he’s forced to marry her and travel the world surrounded by their playful kittens.

Does not seem... Bad.

Quetzie just wanted to pamper Luka forever as well.  Maybe we should just let Black Alice’s fake gods take over.  They seem a lot friendlier than everyone else.

-> Next: Esta

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 17: Insect Mountain

<- Previous: Plansect Village

As with canon!Luka from the original Monster Girl Quest, we’re playing peace envoy in the middle of a civil war between plant girls and insect girls.

This is assuming you took the third option.  Feel free to swat either the plants or insects around if you don’t like either.  They’re both mainly Delphinus anyway.

Okay, so the insects are slightly less Delphinus.  There are a couple of Setouchis roaming the woods around Plansect that also show up at the insect mountain.  Silkworm Girl likes to wrap you up in an ecstasy cocoon that triggers non-stop ejaculation.  Mantis Girl...

Does the reproductive process really require the daddy to be covered in eggs?

...covers you in some kind of spooge (her wriggling eggs), by the looks of things.  It could be worse.  The Monster Girl Quest universe is considerably less fluffy than the worlds of KC’s Monster Girl Encyclopaedia or Okayado’s Monster Musume, but even it knows where to draw the line, so we don’t get any graphic post-coital artwork of Luka getting his head chewed off by his mantis girl lover.

(Me, on the other hand... jots idea down for future story...)

The insect mountain is to the south and slightly to the east of Plansect Village.

Red(?) Mountain

I think the official name might be Red Mountain from the machine translation, but I wouldn’t say I was confident on that.  If you tried to visit before, the way was blocked by a horde of plants and insects fighting it out.  Now it looks like the insects have been routed and the way is clear to hike up to the peak.

Also returning from the original series are hornet girl and the trio of mosquito girl, moth girl and caterpillar girl.

Still not as bad as the angels...

The moth, mosquito and caterpillar trio are surprisingly annoying to fight against thanks to caterpillar’s healing and moth girl’s AOE paralysation and similarly annoying effects.  As with the Delphinus plant girls, they are also recruited as a group.

The “boss”, Queen Bee can be found at the top of the mountain.

Boss NPC of Insect Mountain

Talking to her reveals she also wants the war to end, which makes sense as the insects are losing.  As with Priestess, she asks if the player is here to take her out on behalf of the plants, or aid her against them.  Again, you should probably take the third option.

Turns out the insects are quite happy with Red Mountain and are happy to make it their new home.  That seems an easy resolution to the conflict.  The plants stay where they are.  The insects stay where they are.  Everyone is happy.

Queen Bee wants us to pass that message back Priestess in the hope it will bring about a ceasefire.  She can’t send any of her own minions as the plant girls will just attack them on sight.

So, it’s time to head back to Plansect Village for more peace envoy work.

Hmm, this segment was a little shorter than intended.  What can I do to pad it out?  How about some lewds of hornet girl’s Bad End.

Bad End minus Bad End CGIs

Ah.

From the text I think she inserts the tip of her abdomen in Luka’s mouth, squirts in some kind of aphrodisiac and then buries his dick in her ‘honey jar’.  She decides Luka is not worthy of mating with her queen and uses her ‘honey jar’ (which may or may not be her vagina) to thoroughly squeeze us out.  I’m not sure what the tentacles are doing there, to be honest.

This is a carry-over from the original Monster Girl Quest series.  I’m not sure of the specifics, but I think there was something between Toro Toro Resistance and the artist, Niku Drill.  Niku Drill is probably best known for their monster girl (usually insect) doujinshi.  Something might just have been a mix-up over what was commissioned.  The end result is the game got the character sprites, but no Bad End CGIs, hence this odd tentacle cutaway.

Queen Bee has a slightly more appropriate cutaway.  She grabs us from behind, curls her abdomen around and sucks our cock in with the tip.  It starts off pleasant and ends up industrial-strength semen sucking machine. 

Industrial-grade sperm sucking courtesy of Queen Bee

(I’m slightly ahead, so I picked this screenshot up from Queen Bee’s request scene.  I imagine her Bad End scene is the same though, if you decide to fight her).

Unfortunately, you don’t really get the full impression of this, thanks to the limited artwork.

Oh well, if you’re really hungering for bee girls, here are some gorgeous ones from D-gate’s recently remastered Echidna Wars DX.

"There's no need to struggle.  The inside of my abdomen is so comfortable."

Queen Bee's tactic for subduing magical girls is to shove their face between her tits.

It’s an action platformer rather than an RPG, but well worth checking out if you like gorgeous predatory monster girls and aren’t turned away by a spot of vore.

-> Next: Resolving the Plant-Insect Civil War

Let's Play Monmusu Quest: Paradox [part 2] - 16: Plansect Village

<- Previous: School of Nope

After proving Mephisto is, surprise surprise, in league with the devil, we now have to carry out a mission for her.  Plansect, the original Forest of Nope, is in civil war, with insects and plants happily munching each other.  Someone should make a spin-off game – Plants vs Zombies Insects: An XXX Parody.

Plansect Village can be found on the map as a big tree to the west of Grand Noah.

Warning: Forest of Nope ahead

We’re barely through the entrance gates when Lily and Rooty attack us.  Both of these were in the original series.  Lily kills you by wrapping her petals around you and absorbing all your juices.  Rooty does the same with her roots.

It's not just your semen she's drawing up...

Probably a good idea not to die to them then.

Despite the hostile alraune-type monsters running around, Plansect is still a village of sorts.  You can use a harpy feather to warp here and it has NPCs in the form of a blacksmith and mermaid merchant on the south side of the central lake.

Left: Blacksmith & Merchant.  Ahead: Alraune Priestess & Canaan Sisters

Amira is even hiding here at the end of a passageway to the south that curls back close to the entrance.

The area around the lake is safe.  Outside of that and we’re open to attack from various horny plant-type monster girls.  I say horny, but it’s hard to tell given that most of them seem to want to eat us or grow mushrooms out of our bodies.  They are also all repeat girls from the original series.  The only new one is a spunky l’il mushroom gal that appears to be a daughter of the original parasol mushroom girl.  It’s a Delphinus, so if you were expecting horror extra from Matango, you’re not going to be disappointed.

The angels are worse...

Someone asked to go a bit more in detail on the Bad Ends, so I’ll try and do it for at least one girl per post.  For this one it makes sense to go with L’il Shroom as she’s the only new monster girl in this section.  Her temptation move is to smother our dick in soft mushrooms.

For her Bad End she hugs us close and buries our dick in her ‘flesh hole’, which I presume might have been a vagina at some point.

Mushroom sex

After getting us to come, she’s eager to use that semen to make us her seedbed.  As she’s a fungus that means…

She grows on you after a while...

Uh oh.  Yup, it means growing all over us with nice soft fungus.

A little too much growing on you

Maybe, it’s not that Bad of an End.  Luka seems all happy and comfy and is spraying tons of spunk into her.  Then the spunk runs out and we sort of... rot.  Not nice, L’il Shroom.  Not nice.

L'il Shroom, I thought you were one of the nice ones...

Burn.  All.  Mushroom.  Girls.  On.  Sight.

Given the variety of the monster girls, recruiting everyone here is easier than you might think.  Rooty and Lily are recruited as a pair.  The others are also recruited as group of four (similar to the fairies and zombies).  No new group scenes from what I can see.  Toro Toro Resitance obviously kept Delphinus busy populating the Tartarus regions with fresh horrors.

The quest NPC is another returnee from the original series – the Alraune Princess.  You can find her in the centre of the village here:

Plansect Village's Chief - the stress is making her unwell

Behind her are the Canaan sisters that also showed up in the original series.  They’re here as mercenaries and not interested in talking to us.

Time to find out what’s going on from Priestess.  The plants are tired of the war even though they appear to be winning.  The insects have been pushed back to a mountain in the south.

(You can visit this location before talking to Priestess.  The main entrance is blocked by a horde of plant girls and hornet girls fighting each other.)

Machine translation is also a little sketchy again.  This is what I think the Priestess said, but it might not be totally accurate.

Plants and insects have always been a bit tetchy with each other.  They were at civil war before, and then Alice 17th came along and bashed everyone’s heads together and forced a ceasefire.  The ceasefire didn’t hold because two of Black Alice’s fake gods turned up to stir things up again.  These are the jaguar god, Tezcatlipoca, and the feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl.

More of Black Alice's fake gods

(who also happen to be real Aztec gods, although your value of real may vary depending on what you believe)

As with the Aztec deities that inspired them, Tez and Quetzie don’t seem to like each other much.  It’s not long before they’re fighting and dragging the plant and insect girls into their squabble.  Plants are forced to align with Tez and the insects behind Quetzie.  And they’ve been at war ever since.

They don't like each other

Priestess asks which side we want to support.  So, another pick-a-side to determine which girl joins the harem.

Well, not quite.

There is a 3rd option where you can go talk to the insects to get their side of the story.  Select this one.

Now it’s time to visit the Red(?) Mountain to talk to Queen Bee.

-> Next: Insect Mountain

H-space MGB Profile: Bubble-Prison Arachne

Name: Bubble-Prison Arachne
Type: Arachne
Habitat: Bük'al Kulburburia (This appears to be a HSIO city and centre of industry).

Description:
A specialised type of arachne (spider girl) distinguished by a large abdomen that resembles a transparent bubble.  The abdomen is hollow and used to contain human captives while the arachne 'sublimates' them.

Bubble-prison arachnes occupy a worker caste position within HSIO society.  Their role is to sublimate humans to their liquid essences, which is a key ingredient in various exotic drinks brewed by other HSIO workers.  As best as we've been able to translate, the sublimation process appears to involve the extraction of the human soul, and requires the subject to be taken to—and held in—a state of extreme sexual nirvana.

After ingesting a captive, the arachne fills the abdominal cavity with aphrodisiac gases to subdue them.  She is able to regulate the space within her abdomen by pumping air between the outer wall and inner lining.  Once the captive is subdued, the arachne shrinks the cavity around them and uses gases, secreted fluids and the motions of her inner lining to first induce extreme sensual euphoria, then sublimate her captive to a liquid essence.

(Scientifically, I do not know how this next step happens.  And no, I will not condone the feeding of "willing" recruits to our specimen in order to test the resulting sublimation fluids.  We are scientists, not monsters.)

Given their peculiar specialisation to this task, I wonder if the bubble-prison arachnes were specifically bred—or even engineered—solely for this purpose.

Attack Strategy:
Bubble-prison arachnes are workers and as such are slow and unused to direct combat.  Despite this, they shouldn't be taken lightly.  As a defensive measure, a bubble-prison arachne can fill her abdomen with her aphrodisiac gases and release them as a cloud.  The arachne secretes a stronger form of this venom on her lips and are physically strong enough to "kiss" a person into submission should they allow her to get close enough.

As with other spider girls, the bubble-prison arachne can produce a silk-like substance from her abdomen to bind opponents.  The silk is not strong, but it is impregnated with her venom and most captives will be too overwhelmed by horniness to attempt escape.

Countermeasures:
Gas masks are ineffective against the gas clouds released by the arachnes as the active agent is absorbed through the skin.  Fortunately, this active agent is not strong and requires continuous heavy exposure to incapacitate most men.

As with other low-tier HSIOs, bubble-prison arachnes have some limited regeneration, but not enough to withstand sustained assault.

Threat Level:
Low.

*I fear Doctor Cummings has become unhealthily attached to our specimen, Burbuila.  Burbuila is friendly and has proven very helpful, but one should never lose sight of what she is.

H-space MGB Story: Bubble-Prison Arachne

PFC Stewart Peter Bate awoke suspended above pandemonium.  He was bound at the wrists and hanging from a rope like a side of beef.  He was completely naked and both his cock and legs dangled beneath him as he slid through the darkness on an unseen conveyor.  Bate couldn't see what.  Above him, the rope—which looked like catgut—stretched up into pitch-blackness.  Below him, a long way below him, Bate saw a bustle of activity as people worked.

Not people.  Demons.  Okay, aliens, although Bate was less sure about that now.

They weren't supposed to be this organized.

"Simple tribal hierarchies at best," the big brains had said.

The big brains had lied, or been utterly incompetent.  Either way, the activity Bate saw was considerably more complex than 'simple tribal hierarchies'.  Bate thought he was looking down at a factory shop floor, or maybe a chaotic bazaar.

And he was travelling over the whole thing like a strung up pig's carcass.

This concerned Bate greatly.

He tried to remember how he'd got here.  Last he remembered was chilling at the base.  Then a puff of pink smoke, a sweet smell, and darkness.

And now—more darkness.

He was transported through inky black shadows, far above the activity taking place below.  He couldn't tell whether it was night or day.  Not that he'd be able to even if he could see the sky.  H-space didn't really do night or day.

Bate was not the only on the meat hooks.  Ahead of him he saw another pale, naked body.  A fellow soldier?  He was still unconscious... or dead.  He hung limply and his head lolled forwards between his shoulders.

There was another person (body?) behind him.  By twisting his body from side to side, Bate was able to glimpse him, but not see whether he was alive, or awake.

Bate was going to call out to both when he saw something ahead of them.  Spiders.  Giant spiders the size of automobiles.  Bate's cry died in his mouth.

There were monstrous spiders all around him.  He watched as they descended on silvery ropes to the floor far below.  They halted just above great vats containing violet liquid.  Muscular hindigs with hunched, carapace-covered bodies swirled the vats with great long oars.  One of the giant spiders upended itself.  Its bloated abdomen was the same color as the liquid in the vat.  The reason for that became clear as its abdomen shrank and a stream of violet fluid poured down into the vat.  Like squeezing the juice out of a grape, Bate thought.  Flecks of gold glittered in the vat as the hard-shelled demons swirled the liquids around.  Its abdomen empty, the spider climbed back up into the shadows.

As Bate approached closer he saw a spider being ridden by a woman who was naked aside from long tresses of hair covering her breasts.  Was it even a spider?  The abdomen was bloated, but also transparent.  It looked artificial—like a giant bubble of clear plastic.  A robot?  Or some kind of mechanical walker?  The long legs still looked kind of spidery—organic rather than machine.

One of the spider riders plucked the unconscious man in front of Bate off his rope and carried him away up into the darkness.  The line continued moving.

Then it was Bate's turn.  A spider rider came for him, only now Bate was close enough to see that his initial impression was wrong.  There was no spider—or mechanical walker—and rider; spider and rider were one and the same.  The woman's upper body emerged directly from where the head would have been on a giant spider.  Like the centaurs of myth, Bate thought, but with the lower half of a monstrous spider instead of a horse.

This had to be a nightmare.  It couldn't be real.

"Oh, you're awake," the spider girl said.

She had an open, friendly face.  It was pretty... if you could fool yourself into thinking the black orbs clustered at her temples were some form of exotic body modification and not actual eyes.  Her naked body was pretty fine as well, with a set of tits a stripper would be proud of.  That rack would be totally visible if her silky platinum-blonde hair wasn't long enough to cover it, Lady Godiva style.

Yes, her body was all fine... until you reached the hips and the woman ended and the spider began.  That part was loathsomely arachnid.  She had eight long, jointed legs.  Her abdomen was a large bloated transparent balloon.  That part was utterly alien.  There was nothing in it—no organs, nothing.  Just a giant transparent sac.  It looked like a giant bubble attached to her ass.

Nightmare.  Had to be a nightmare.

"Do you have a name?" the spider girl asked.  "Mine is Burbuila."

"Roger," Bate replied, "Roger Bull."

"Hi, Roger Bull," Burbuila said.  "I'm to be your..."   She seemed to be struggling to find the right word.  "...squeeze... er."

"What are you?" Bate asked.  She seemed to be acting friendly enough, but there was still that demon body...

"I'm an essence extrac... squeeze... er..."  Her brow furrowed again.  "Your language is so clumsy.  I'm a type of arachne.  Spider girl," she elaborated.  "But not one of the scary ones you might have heard about, no no no.  I'm a specialized arachne.  Look."

She leant back and ran a hand over her bloated abdomen.  The surface dimpled and rippled like an air-filled rubber bladder.

"See how soft and comfortable it is."

"Uh, okay," Bate said.  "I don't suppose you could get me down."

She reached up and plucked Bate off the rope.  One of her spidery forelimbs moved forwards and snipped through the rope binding Bate's wrists as if it was nothing more than thread.

"Thanks," Bate said.

"You're welcome," she beamed back at him.

She turned and carried him away from the line.  She was stronger than she looked.  She cradled his 200 pounds of mostly muscle in her arms as if he was no more than a baby.

She wasn't holding him tight though.  If Bate struggled, he reckoned he break free of her.  And then what?  If he missed any of the ropes (web?) she was walking on... splat.

"It's so nice to have this conversation with you," Burbuila said.  "It makes the squee..."  Again, a pause.  Again, a furrowing of her brows.  "...process much smoother and more pleasurable."

The silvery ropes Burbuila walked upon were hard to pick out in the shadowy gloom.  There could be a complex web of them—criss-crossing and intersecting in a mesh dense enough to catch Bate if he fell.  Or there could only be a few strands running far apart.  In which case... splat.  Bate didn't fancy taking that chance.

After walking a short distance, Burbuila stopped.  She gave him a flirty little smile and brushed aside the silky smooth hair covering her left breast.  Bate caught a glimpse of the little pink button nub of her nipple.  He was sure it was deliberate.

"Shall we begin?" she asked.

Bate smiled back.  Begin what?  The way she bent over him, her eyelids half-closed and her luscious lips all bunched up, looked like she want to kiss him.  Bate was kind of okay with that.  A kiss—even a kiss off a freaky spider woman demon—didn't seem so bad.  It could be worse.

Bate glanced over her right shoulder.

He saw worse.

There was another spider woman some way above him.  She had a man trapped inside her big bubble abdomen.  He was pushing his hands against the transparent wall like it was bars.

Bate's eyes widened.  He started to squirm too late as she gathered him up in a tight, inescapable embrace.  Her luscious lips pressed against his.

...and Bate stopped squirming as he lost himself in her kiss.

It was like being sixteen all over again:  Nervous, heart fluttering, blood pounding, stomach churning, then that perfect timeless moment as his lips pressed against the lips of his crush of the time.  Time stood still.  No.  Time didn't even exist.  Their lips locked, tongues tangled, breath was shared.  He tasted sweetness—like the juices of some exotic, forbidden fruit.  Hot flashes traced burning trails across his skin.  His loins throbbed.  He melted in her arms.

Burbuila broke off the kiss and smiled down at him.

Bate gave her puppy-dog eyes back.  He no longer even knew where he was.

"See," she said.  "Specialized arachne.  I don't bite.  I kiss."

Glistening dew drops bubbled up on her lips.  She kissed him again—on his lips, his cheeks, his neck, his chest.  The lipstick impressions she left on his skin flared and tingled.  Bate felt hot, shivery, weak.

"That's the first part of the process," Burbuila said.

She held Bate's body away from her with her long jointed forelegs.

"Now for the second."

She let out a soft grunt.  Her fleshy labia—pink and plump and human in appearance even though they lay at the juncture where human became spider—parted.  Another soft grunt, this time of exertion.  Her sex opened out into a tunnel.  Glistening strands of lubricant stretched between the moist tunnel walls.  They snapped as the tunnel opened up wider and wider.

Bate's eyes widened also.  He was still woozy from Burbuila's kiss, but he could see her vagina had opened too wide for any meaningful sexual intercourse.  Why, it was wide enough to fit his head.

Bate was not woozy enough to be blissfully ignorant of what she intended.  He started to squirm as she pushed him headfirst into the gaping maw of her sex.

"In you go," she said, before letting out a breathy sigh.

Wet muscular walls enfolded Bate's head and upper body.  They gripped and smoothly pulled him down an organic passage.  Bate barely had time to panic before he was transported down the fleshy tunnel and excreted out into the open space of her transparent abdomen.

From the inside it even more resembled a giant bubble.  Through the translucent walls he saw other spider women resting on silvery threads, their bubble abdomens also containing captives.

From the inside of her...

Oh fuck, he was inside her.

Then Bate panicked.

He stood up and banged his fists against the outer wall.  It felt soft and yielding, but also tough like thick rubber.

"Ooh, a fidgety one", Burbuila said.  Her voice was muffled by the transparent walls of her bubble abdomen.  "That's ticklish."

"Let me out," Bate wailed.

"I will, after I've put you through the nirvana of sublimation," Burbuila said.  "Just relax.  It's an intensely pleasurable experience."

Violet fumes welled up from the floor.  The bubble was filled with a sickly sweet scent.  The air became thick, cloying... musky.  Bate felt strange—heavy, but also horny.  He felt the blood rush down to his groin.  His thoughts fogged up.

"Lie back.  Relax," Burbuila said.  Her words sank into Bate's brain and fluttered against his pleasure centers.

Before he knew it, he was lying on the floor of her bubble.  It had grown thicker and softer—like an airbed pumped up with air.  A puff of membrane swelled up and formed a comfortable pillow for his head.

"Comfortable?" Burbuila asked.

Her voice—her soft sighs and moans—seemed to be coming from a position right next to Bate's ears.  As if she was in there with him.  The air inside the bubble was thick with exotic scents and the musky odor of arousal.

Burbuila lay back against the bubble and rubbed her arms against the pliant walls.

"And now to squeeze," she sighed.

Soft, membranous walls closed around Bate.  He felt gentle pressure all over his body.  The warmth and scents reminded him of teen fantasies of being tangled up with the naked and nubile bodies of the entire cheerleading squad.

Burbuila breathed in and her bubble abdomen throbbed around Bate like a giant heart.  The membranous walls moved all over him, caressed him, squeezed him.

"Give yourself to the pleasure," Burbuila said.  She lay back against her balloon-like abdomen as it swelled and throbbed.  "Let me squeeze out all your tension and melt you with bliss."

Bate's erection was engulfed and sucked up inside an orifice.  He could see it bobbing away through the transparent membrane walls.  He saw his foreskin move back and forth as his member was gripped by a gentle force.

"Squeeze," Burbuila said.

She breathed in.  Her membranous walls pressed all around Bate.  Suction tugged against his erection.  It responded with a meaty twitch.

"And relax."

She let out a breath.  The gentle pressure all over Bate's body subsided.  Fleshy walls fluttered around his cock.

She repeated the cycle until Bate twitched, mad with lust inside her.  So close.  He felt so close.  He wanted to reach over and finish himself off, but the membranes kept him pinned to the floor of the bubble.

"And now the big squeeze," Burbuila said.

The soft walls pressed all around Bate, molding perfectly to his body and applying gentle pressure all over, with special attention to his cock.  Bate felt the pressure—the suction—building on his manhood until he could withstand it no longer.  He shuddered helplessly and bucked against the smothering pressure as he emptied a great stream of cum into her.  It was drawn from him as if inhaled.  The bubble throbbed around him and each pulse sucked another massive flood of sperm from him.  Something else as well.  Some hazy nebulous element of him.  Not enough to empty him, but enough to make him feel like some part of him was missing.

Fucked right out of him.

He lay back on the soft membranes, panting from the exertion.

What had he just done with this... thing?  And why did it feel like the best sex he'd ever had?

More sweet-smelling fumes were puffed into Bate's face.  Warm exotic fluids were poured over his naked body.  His doubt and disgust melted away.  He felt hot and horny and eager to go again.

"This is where my sisters would squeeze, and suck, and churn, until you were fully sublimated to your essence," Burbuila said, still lying back against the transparent bag of her abdomen.  "They're too impatient.  It should always be long, slow and sensual."

More warm juices were squirted into the cavity.  They sank through Bate's skin, soaked into his muscles and made him feel blissfully relaxed.  So pampered.  He felt so pampered within her.

"The longer you give them nirvana, the greater the flavor."

She sighed and rubbed her arms against the membranous wall of her bubble-prison abdomen.

"They always tell me my flavor is the best.  Because I care for you and make you feel so good."

Slow steady throbs started up again with Bate at the heart of them.  His cock was sucked up and squeezed by air pressure.  He let out a low moan.  Nothing else mattered as Burbuila slowly pulsed him up to another long, slow orgasm.  More violet fluids flecked with gold flowed into the chamber of her abdomen.

"We're going to share bliss together for such a long time," Burbuila said.

She was good for her word.  She could have emptied Bate out with a few strong squeezes, but instead she let him recover, let his body rest, let his balls fill back up before she squeezed and massaged him to another monstrous climax.

Over and over again.

It was a long time later when she descended down and emptied Bate's sublimated essence out into the vat far below.