Lorica and Xana laid on the ground a twitching mess. Their disheveled hair, erratic gasps, and rolled-back eyes informed me that I had given them the best, if not the most brutal sex of their lives.
The slimy tentacles retreated from their holes and returned to form my robes. It was brimming with magic now, filled to the top from draining the two succubus. As it turned out, the living robes synergize well with Vessyra's gifted power. After all, these clothes became an extension of myself when worn. Being that I could drain magic more efficiently now.
"Filthy curs! How dare you lay your disgusting hands on me! I am a greater demon, you are all but lesser mongrels." Thelia was stomping the demons I had frozen earlier, shattering them into smaller shards of ice.
It wasn't enough for her to just break them. She made sure to grind her feet, annihilating any trace that they had existed.
"Thelia, they're already dead!" I shouted, trying to get her to stop. She faced me, then realized the situation she was still in. "Don't forget, you're still our captive."
The erinyes swallowed hard and cast her eyes to the ground.
"All this time we were biding our time to lay siege to your world. Yet we find that you witches have become something akin to monsters," she said, trembling where she stood.
I raised my eyebrows, trying to gauge whether she was scheming by feigning weakness, or anything that a demon might try to free herself. If Mira or Belle were here, they wouldn't care and have us move right along.
Vessyra said I was perfect for their power because of my kindness, but I felt as though it has more often than not been taken advantage of. In fact, this whole agreement with the gods was not to my best interests.
"Centuries of practicing witchcraft does that to us. If you don't want to end up an icicle, you better not try anything funny," I warned Thelia.
With our combined strength, we tore the chains from the stage to use as the succubi's leashes. Thelia gave each of them a good smack to wake them up. I had made sure not to drain too much so they remained alive. Their legs were a bit wobbly, but they could at least still walk.
When we went back inside the castle, the entire scene had changed from the neverending dark hallway. Cart-sized metal links were interconnected to serve as walkways, connecting to floating stone land masses. Below us was a churning pool of lava that bubbled with activity. Aside from the oversized chains, no other paths were offered to us except where we had come from.
"Believe it or not, this is the true appearance of Zertos' castle," Thelia said, craning her neck up to top of the chain. "It isn't an exaggeration to say that the castle is a part of Zertos. It may be why we weren't getting anywhere. He only allows us to meet with him if he so wished."
"And you neglected to tell us this earlier… because?" I asked, invoking magic onto my staff.
Thelia staggered back, raising her arms to defend like a cornered animal.
"I thought if I wasn't of any use, you and your fellows would have no reason to keep me alive…" she said, meekly.
Walking around with two succubus on chain leashes and another demon following along scared out of her wits, it clicked in my head that I was looking like the bad guy here. I rubbed away the oncoming headache and sighed.
"Look, we have no reason to— okay, maybe the others do— but I have no reason to hurt any of you. All we want is to stop a greater threat that's happening on the outside. We need Zertos to cooperate, or we will make him cooperate," I explained.
It might have been more than I should have mentioned, but I kept it pretty vague. If gods could make alliances, who was to say demons wouldn't try the same. It would make for a miserable time if Edith Percouli herself got in touch with demons.
When the witches of the Crimson Wars imbued the souls of demons into familiars, they summoned untold numbers of terrors that wreaked havoc. However, we weren't entirely out of the water yet.
As fate would have it, Abstinence had made a pact with Zertos. Whatever that meant had to be anything but good. We began our ascent with Thelia leading the way. I figured now was the best time to get more information out of her without the other two terrorizing her.
"I want you to tell me about the deal made between Abstinence and Zertos," I asked of Thelia.
She hesitated to answer at first, then her shoulders slumped.
"Some time ago, a large group of brazen knights laid siege to Lord Zertos' castle in search of something. They cut through our forces with magic unlike anything we had ever seen. One duplicated herself, and the other caused the ground beneath our feet to fissure." Thelia stared into the palm of her hands as though recalling the battle she might have had with them.
I could only imagine. She spoke of the christened knights of the Order of Piety, Glory and Abstinence. Both of whom Mira and I were not so eager to face after our first bout.
The erinyes continued, "They were somehow able to negate Zertos' control of the castle, and eventually came to his very chamber. I was there when it happened. None of us could believe what would happen next— the one you call Abstinence proceeded to kill her companions."
"What?" I choked on my own spit.
For what reason did Abstinence have to sabotage the Order's goals? The christened knights up until now were all zealous fanatics, going as far as to make use of soul-bound weapons they considered profane.
No, that made sense.
They were willing, by any means necessary, to do anything to meet out their blind justice as long as it served the Council. Or rather, so long as Edith led them to believe it was in their interest.
Thelia took a deep breath before finishing.
"The deal was that Zertos would provide the soul stone of a high demon, in exchange for setting us free into your world," she finished.
I stopped dead in my tracks. The chains were pulled taut, and the succubi were forced to stop walking. Little did I realize, we had already come to the end of the chain. A large, iron-bolted door embedded into the side of this suspended stone monolith was all that stood between me and Zertos. I knew he was behind it because of the massive magical signature within.
"Not on my watch…" I bit down on my lip and pushed open the door.
A foul stench rushed out, the low groan of a large creature shrouded in the unlit chamber rumbled. It was like I walked into a cathedral. Pews have all been pushed off to the sides of the room, stained glass as tall as the room itself depicted demons and witches in battle, and grey pillars of polished marble were beset between them.
We weren't alone. Humans and demons occupied the pews, the floor, and some were airborne, all locked in the rapture of intercourse and sexual deviancy. A group of imps ravish a woman loudly begging to reach orgasm. Another is stuck in wooden stocks and was being whipped by a succubus.
These had to be the remnants of the Piety knights.
"How do you like the entertainment? I cannot partake due to my… circumstances, but nothing is more enjoyable than watching the pious ones fall to lust," a voice bellowed.
Sitting at the front of the cathedral was something like a mountain of fat as tall as the ceiling. An oversized demon with many smaller horns protruded from his head. A thick tongue licked an even thicker pair of lips as he watched me approach. Two of his forearms patted his rotund belly, while the other two made a bowing gesture. He appeared immobile, but one could never be too careful with a demon.
Rather than fear, I was more repulesd than anything else.
"I'm not exactly a voyeur, but I won't judge someone for their kinks," I answered. "I presume, you're Zertos?"
Though he could not move from his spot, the demon towered over me and had cast a shadow large enough to reach the door. One by one the torches on the columns ignited and gave light to the dark chamber.
"I am. I have fought your ilk before, little witch. Before you try anything, know that a demon of my calibre is not like the lesser ones you so easily slaughtered. I could squash you like an insect," Zertos threatened.
Before Edith, before the Crimson Wars, witches served as the frontline against demonic threats that slipped into our world. It was too bad that when the danger passed, we turned that power to our fellow man.
"Lucky for you, we're not looking for a fight yet. You and your army have taken residence in a forged world that I need to destroy. This is me asking you to kindly leave, or be obliterated along when it collapses," I explained.
Zertos' laugh shook the cathedral. It felt as though the roof was going to crumble, then I was reminded of what Thelia described to me— that the castle was part of Zertos.
"Amusing. The other three in your party are still stuck in my castle. You would condemn them and your petty gods that reside here? You can't destroy this tower even if you tried!" he exclaimed, laughing and patting his stomach like a drum.
Vessyra and Demos said the demon engorged himself in magic. All this time we had been searching for the room where the magic crystals were powering this forged world. Could it be that he consumed them whole?
"You… ate the magic crystals, didn't you?" I asked him.
"Finally catching on. Witches are slower than I thought," he said, erupting into another raucous laughter.
"I have a better idea." I drank the potion of gigantism and immediately, my body began to grow in size until I was as tall as Zertos. My robes grew with me, powered by the magic I had drained earlier, a dozen appendages emerged from my back. "I'm going to pull them right out of your stomach."
