“Ah, my traitorous daughter…” Karmila then proceeded to break Karmine’s axe and send her flying with a blast of mana from her hand. “You should have known better then too-” She took notice of Karina’s magic summon circle still being active and releasing an assortment of soldiers into her throne room. “STOP HER YOU FOOLS!” She commanded, pointing a finger at her daughter to do just that, the tip of it condensing power for a brutal pinpoint attack.

“NOT SO FAST!” Karmine yelled, bringing out several axe’s and sending them flying towards her mother as Karina continued summoning more of Van’s troops.

It soon became chaos as nobles both tried to flee and fight, confused as to which they feared more. Karmila’s ire if they didn’t help, or being dragged into a battle they weren’t prepared and weren’t sure they could survive. After all, one of the people they would be fighting was Karmine, a known battle freak, and the other was Karina, someone who was almost just as strong with rumors about her having assassinated entire houses without ever getting caught.

“Van! I’m here to help!” Gwen rushed towards him alongside Kella who was making sure no one got in the way. She quickly flew and swerved behind him and started taking a look at the seal placed on his neck and began to tamper with it. “Kella! I need some time! Cover me!”

Kella didn’t need to be told twice, she got in position and gave threatening gestures to anyone that got to close. Most didn’t, trying to assess the situation and calculate if it was worth it or not, while a few others simply figured this wasn’t their problem and started to edge their way towards the walls of the room to get out of the way of the fight.

Isa, Lyn and many others began to flow out of the portal like a fire hose. They quickly started to create a formation around Van and Karina for their protection.

“THIS IS FOR SENDING YOUR DAUGHTER TO RAPE MY MAN!” Lyn yelled a battle cry. “DRAGON VOLT!” Lyn’s electricity took the form of a lightning dragon and blasted her way towards Karmila who barely was able to lean away from the attack. Instead her treasured throne was blown to smithereens.

“YOU DAMN INSECT! HOW DARE YOU!” Karmila roared in rage, her eyes fixating on the bug that destroyed her precious throne. She raised a hand to blast her away but-

“DON'T LOOK AWAY FROM ME!” Karmine came back with a new battle axe made just for her by Katalinya. It was a wicked looking weapon with sharp edges and runes all over. With just a thought and a little bit of power it burst into flames and she charged at her mother with everything she had.

“Tch!” Karmila was forced to return her gaze to her daughter, raising a hand she created a shield to protect her.

Karmine gritted her teeth, even with the new weapon and having trained and grown stronger than before, she still couldn’t break through a simple barrier made by her mother.

“You’ve grown stronger, sweet daughter…” Karmila taunted. “Sadly it isn’t strong enough!” With a flick of her wrist she sent Karmine flying with a blast of her shield outward.

“YOU ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!” She yelled, rising off from the ground as a slowly growing tornado of shadows began to form around her.

Karina was slowly forced to back away, gritting her teeth as her very veins burned with power, charring her from the inside out as she battled with the energies that flowed through her to keep the portal open at all costs.

Upen seeing this show of strength and hearing the clank of guards and soldiers on their way, many of the nobles who were on the sidelines also began to raise shields of their own.

“NO YOU DON’T!” Lyn yelled, she twirled her halberd above her head and a counteracting force of a lightning storm began to swirl overhead. The two opposing powers began to clash and cause friction as well as bolts of electricity to swerve unpredictably all over the place.

“YOU DAMN INSECT!” Karmila shrieked in anger at these constant annoyances. The two then began to battle it out for control of the environment.

Karmila sent tendrils of shadows towards Lyn, who would shift between both her big size and small one to confuse her opponent and make it harder to hit her. She also zipped like lightning from place to place at great speed.

As the two fought it out with Karmine periodically throwing a few axes in for good measure. Van and Gwen were working their way through the seal on the back of his neck, trying to undo it as quickly as possible. Even for him, having gone through the monster flood back at school, this was a terrifying experience. He wanted nothing more than to be able to use his magic and do something helpful. But even he knew that it might not be enough even with him aiding everyone.

Karmila was just that powerful…

“WE GOT COMPANY!” Ashina yelled. She had joined the melee a few minutes prior and was guarding Van as Gwen worked on him.

The doors burst open with a small army of soldiers rushing in. By this point most of the nobles had fled the room and the few that remained were practically hugging the walls, trying to stay as far from the fighting as possible.

To confront them a small army of Annas formed up and prepared to engage the moonshadow soldiers. Three dozen Annas charged at the soldiers as they just entered the door, preventing them from using their full numbers and constraining them to the corridor.

Unfortunately that was not the only place the soldiers were pouring in from. As secret doorways in walls, and another set of hallways on the other side of the room started to allow their enemies to flood in.

“Protect Karina!” Van shouted as she was the only one that could help make the difference in this fight.

Karina herself was gritting her teeth, bleeding all over her body as she battled to maintain the portal that allowed for their reinforcements from Van’s soul realm. Insect-kin, goblins, troglodytes, harpies, kobolds, and more, haphazardly stormed out of the portal in every which way. Trying to figure out what to do and just going with the flow or rushing into the fray in the hopes of doing something productive.

It was then the portal started to fluctuate as something particularly big tried to worm its way through. A skeletal hand burst out and then three more grabbing the edges of the swirling vortex and forced its way out. Van’s death knight entered the scene, and with it a growing horde of skeletons.

“THAT'S ENOUGH FROM YOU!” Karmila shouted, pointing a hand towards Karina and preparing a ball of magical energy. But it went nowhere as she was attacked from several different directions distracting her.

Venus did her best to hold down the passages that the enemy soldiers came through with her wood tendrils that she summoned from the ground. Sela used her powers over the earth to slowly create earthworks and trenches to make it more difficult for the enemy to move while Sena used her kobolds friends to shower the enemy with arrows. The harpies and the insect-kin worked together to control what little sky was available in the large but enclosed throne room, and Scarlet, Sini and Leaf just did their own thing to cause as much mischief and chaos in the enemy ranks as possible.

At this point, what few nobles remained started to break the few windows there were to jump out of the building, rather risking a fall then get in the way or caught in this clusterfuck of a war in miniature.

“ANY FOOL THAT FLEE’S WILL HAVE TO ANSWER TO ME!” Karmila roared, glaring hot daggers at the worms she held under her thumb.

This made the nobles hesitate, but another quick glare from Karmila helped make up their mind. Even if they didn’t like it they had no choice but to interfere and risk their lives. It was preferable to die at the hands of a kobold than at the hands of Karmila…

Speaking of kobolds… They were just that and goblins… Not like Van’s forces posed a real threat to them, or at least that's what they thought. Not to mention they were all powerful people from high pedigree, even the laziest of them could easily deal with a few goblins…

This added a new dynamic to the fight, as the nobles who were now on the sidelines began to help Karmila and her soldiers. Not fully or in any way that would put them in danger, but enough to force Van’s forces to reorganize their formation and defend from this new vector of attack.

“Gwen! Hurry!” Van said, panicking a little as things became even more chaotic.

“I’m trying!” Gwen complained, annoyed by the finicky nature of the seal. “Just a little more… YES!”

Van felt a quarter of his powers flood back to him.

“Just need a little more time to undo the rest.” Gwen said.

“Right.” Van replied, just happy to get some of his powers back. He raised a hand and created another portal allowing another stream of reinforcements from his soul realm to pour through.

At this point even Karmila and a few others who took notice were beginning to wonder how many people were living in Van’s soul realm.

“ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! YOU ALL DIE NOW!” Karmila roared exasperated by all these flies buzzing around. She sent a shockwave of dark power throughout the entirety of the room, flinging people left and right off their feet. Even those who were airborne were knocked down and or left reeling from the blast.

She glared with malevolent eyes at those beneath her. “This was supposed to be a happy day… I gave you all a chance to serve or die… You should have been happy I gave you a choice at all! Now you will all suffer the consequences!” She raised a hand and a dark sphere of shadow began to form above her head.

“Shit…” Van commented as he realized that there was enough power to blow them all up in one go.

Almost immediately everyone, guards and nobles included, began raising their mana shields or fleeing out the room. Those who weren’t sure about jumping out the window before felt like now was a good time to grow wings and chance the fall. The Annas disganged with their opponents who also lost the will to fight and rushed to surround Van, setting up overlapping barriers to protect their master.

“DIEEEEEEE!” Karmila unleashed her bomb and watched as it exploded beneath her.

It was like a miniature nuke just went off. Anyone even near the center of the blast was vaporized almost immediately. Everyone else was sent flying towards the walls, a few unlucky ones weren’t given the choice to jump or not anymore as they were flung out the windows from the sheer force of the wind and magic.

Van cried out in pain, both because he was sent flying and smashing into the nearest pillar, and because he felt the connection cut with several of his Annas and a few other girls of his.

Venus had lost an arm and Scarlet had a clipped wing. Thankfully, none of the girls important to him had outright died, though a few were dangerously close, and those who did survive would have a long time to recover. Karina wasn’t fairing any better, she was completely out cold, meaning they wouldn’t be able to rely on her to help reinforce themselves. Gwen who had been helping undo the seal on his body had a broken wing and probably by the looks of it a broken leg. While Van himself by some miracle remained mostly intact though sore everywhere on his body.

“Now do you understand the consequences of disobeying me?” Karmila said, looking down on them from her high position. “You're lucky to survive.” Her gaze was still furious. “I’ll give you all one last chance… Surrender now and walk into my bedchamber… And I may spare your friends.” Her eyes narrowed.

Van’s whole body ached, he felt pain run through his body in waves. But even despite that he stood up with all his might and looked her in the eyes and said. “Go choke on a cock.”

Karmila smiled evilly. “That's the plan… Though I don’t think you are aware of your poor choice of words… So I’ll help you think it over. One, Last, Time…” And with that she raised her hand again and an even larger ball of shadow began to form overhead. “Surrender… Or watch all your loved ones die…”

Van froze as he realized he was beat. Even if they were able to remove all the rest of his seal. There was no way that he was going to be able to beat someone who was clearly stronger than him in every way. He looked left and right for a way out of this mess, hoping against hope someone or something would show up to save them.

It was then as he was looking around him that his eyes locked onto a plan from someone he didn’t expect.

“I don’t have all day.” Karmila said with a frown. “You can look all you want, but no one will save you now. What is your decision.” she demanded.

Van couldn’t believe he was doing this, but decided to accept his defeat gracefully. He turned to Karmila and let go of his glamor, revealing his true sex appeal. For added benefit he also turned his eyes pink and gave Karmila an upturned look.

“Your right Karmila… I can’t beat you, and to be honest I thought you were the most beautiful women I ever laid eyes on. I see now I have no choice but to accept my fate…” He said in a tone of absolute defeat.

Karmila blinked, suddenly taken in by Van’s unnatural beauty and attractiveness. She shook her head and gave him a knowing smirk. “Don’t think you can fool me boy… Your looks may endear me, but it won’t be enough to-” Her eyes widened as she became at a loss for words.

Van slowly started to take his clothes off one by one, stripping himself bare for all to see. He gave her a pout, as if she was trying to tease him. “Don’t be like that.” He said demurely. “The truth is… I have a thing for strong women… And I'm already getting hard from just thinking about us together…” Fluttering his eyes her way as well as adding a bit of pheromones to the mix.

Karmila blinked, her mouth hanging open. She had plenty of people try to show off their husbands or sons in the hopes of getting her attention. And she had bedded plenty of males in her life. But this was the first time she felt such lust for an individual before…

Almost against her will she slowly descended closer to him. And the more she did so, the more appealing Van became in her eyes as he turned up his glamor and what little mana he had access to was used to enhance his lustful gaze.

“Look how hard I am for you~” Van teased. “Can’t you see that my feelings are genuine?”

Almost like she was in a trance Karmila inched closer and closer until she was right in front of him.

“That’s right… Just a little closer…” Van said. Then his eyes alighted and he pulled out his sword he pulled from his soul realm from behind his back, aiming it right for Karmila’s head. He had never truly killed someone in cold blood before, or someone who was defenseless to him like her, but he was willing to make her the exception.

But…

Van was slammed back into the pillar, shadows clawing his body and pinning him against the hard rock.

“You fool~” Karmila chuckled. “Did you think you could really charm me?” She couldn’t help but laugh a little as Van struggled against her shadows. “I admit, you almost had me there. But I've bedded a lot of men like you… Forcing yourself on a male so many times can give you a plethora of different experiences…” Leering at him. “I knew what you were up to from the very beginning…”

“Oh so I guess you were expecting that then too huh?” Van choked out a laugh.

“Hm?”

A shadowy spike slammed through Karmila from behind.

In sheer befuddlement she looked down at the shadowy protrusion that had rammed itself through her chest, unable to comprehend what just happened. Slowly she turned around to see who dared and found her daughter Karen and a shadowy black cat…

Karen chugged the rest of her wine down, and gave her mom a placid look, her left hand still raised, manipulating the shadow that had pierced her mother with the help of the strange black cat.

“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to do that…” She said, letting her wine glass drop to the ground where it shattered into a million pieces.

Karmila slowly turned away and back at the large spike through her chest. She had believed all resistance had been dealt with from her last attack. Yet somehow…

“GRRRAAAAAAHHHHH!” She began to roar a sound of pure anger and rage. She refused to die like this. She needed to get healing right away. But first… “I’LL KILL YOU AAAALLLLLLL!” Her body began to course with black magic as she prepared to give everything in one final explosion…