1 Day since the last chapter…

Succubus homeland, Research facility

 

“Bren, that is not a toy! Put it down!” Rex chastised in a frightened yet moderated tone of voice. He was worried he would startle her into dropping what was in her hand.

 

In the succubus guard's hands was what appeared to be a small container of gold powder. It had been sitting on a large foam pad in the middle of Rex’s lab in a shockproof container before Bren picked it up. Labeling the front of the container were two ominous words: ‘Fulminated Gold’. The container also carried another marking denoting the powder was completely saturated with mana. The moment Rex saw her take it from its shock-proof storage, he felt his breath catch in his throat. This material was an experiment as old as time.

 

Fulminate is Latin for “to explode violently”, so fulminating a substance was the process of making it explosive. This process involved subjecting the substance to nitric acid and ammonia and letting it react to become something even more beautiful. The first primary explosive that humans ever created came from the 1590s, this was rarely ever used due to how sensitive it was to handle. Mana helped with the volatility though, as the more mana something had, the more stable its bonds tended to be.

 

“I am a succubus, I will be fine. What is this yellow powder, my succubus sense is telling me that it is something incredible. I can’t even look at it due to how much mana is in here. What is a gram?” Bren was squinting at the yellow powder inside the case with a look of wonder.

 

Her succubus sense was always correct. Her senses were telling her whatever this stuff was, it was something that would be very valuable to some of the succubi on the island. Anything that came inside of a container that kept it suspended inside of another container meant that it had to be incredible. However, she knew that they wouldn’t be able to figure out how it was made without finding a recipe or some other paperwork associated with it. Or she would need to watch carefully how he made it to be able to figure out a recipe or procedure.

 

Kira, as the leader of the succubi, had all of her expenses covered by the collective group. Rex’s expenses were similarly covered. Funds were raised through taxes and what he considered patent rights. They took one coin out of every ten that the succubus economy produced and placed it into a special coffer. This was the main reason that Rex didn’t get angry that the succubi stole some of his research since it was technically paid for by the succubi as a whole. This situation was similar to that of a researcher living off the government, except he had a lot more freedom in what he created.

 

“That is called fulminated gold, it is an explosive I am researching that uses mana as a part of its structure,” Rex said calmly.

 

“Gold can explode?” This was incredible news to Bren, she knew that many succubi would be very interested in this information.

 

“Most metals can with the use of nitric acid and ammonia,” Rex explained. “I learned several things about mana when I was experimenting with it, one of those was how mana settles and moves. Metals are a great material for storing mana. I plan to try fulminating magical metals later too. I thought about vaporizing a solid and detonation is the fastest way to do it.”

 

Bren, as a succubus, was very familiar with these chemicals; they were things that every succubus was taught so they could make explosives. A book was being written by the great succubus philosophers for all future children of the succubi, it was titled “The Young Succubus Survival Guide” and it possessed everything a succubus would need to build her own weapons to protect herself. It was a step-by-step guide to ensure the succubus’s safety in any situation. It was something that every succubus would keep on their nightstand since in their minds they were always young.

 

“Have you tested this yet?” She asked him seriously.

 

“No, there is more mana in that powder than the bomb that was set off in the ocean. Gold can store an insane amount of mana and still be stable. I thought lead would be even better but it’s the opposite, lead only stores a pitiful amount. I haven’t fulminated gold before so I had to experiment to find the best way to dissolve and re-participate it back into gold. There is a lot to the process to get it to take on the additional atoms.”

 

She had no idea what he meant by atoms, but she was starting to understand what this process entailed, dissolving metals and retrieving them out of the acid. They would then be reborn into things that were explosive like the yellow powder in her hand. She felt like she could feel the money rolling in with this new information, but she needed to see how much she could sell it for.

 

“Then we must test this, as a succubus I am the perfect one to assist you!” Bren declared proudly.

 

“No, I was going to wait for Kira to get back…” Rex paused as he heard the pitter-patter of feet and turned to see Bren running for the door to his laboratory, he could already see her wings pushing out of her back. “Damnit!”

 

***

Meanwhile…

Beastmen Plains, Beavermen’s fort

 

A succubus who did not properly get her beauty sleep would be an incredibly fierce monster, even more so when she realized she was going to have to spend even more time away from her husband.

 

“Those damn birds fled the moment we showed them our machine guns!” Kira was very angry that this battle was going to go on even longer now.

 

From a rough count and the few minutes they were allowed to fire into the large group of birdmen netted the succubi close to a thousand kills, but she didn’t get to do much of anything. This was then followed by a sleepless night where she was expecting to be attacked again; she had been hoping for it! Instead, she was left to get out of bed a few hours later, and here she was.

 

“What is the progress on the tunnel to the birdmen’s mountain?” Kira asked seriously.

 

Just as the Falcon King feared, the gophermen were already tunneling into the mountain and large amounts of resources were constantly being mined. As the valley began to flood the beavermen ran out of places to store all of the ore, so now it was being placed on top of the fort’s rotunda to give it a shiny coating. However, the Falcon King's problems were only just beginning.

 

The keep’s door was opened up by a beaverman wearing robes, today all of them were covering their nakedness. A group of people could be seen being led to the audience chamber by several beavermen wearing heavy robes.

 

“We… are… here!” A male lion announced proudly and loudly to everyone in the audience chamber.

 

His graying mane and vagabond demeanor could only be described as ‘rugged’. This was only magnified by the shiny frilled, long-sleeved white shirt. His tight black pants looked to be made of reflective, rubbery material. His smile also seemed to reflect the glimmer of the magically powered lights on the ceilings.

 

As the leader of the Pride of Men, he was currently in charge of the island’s shipping, and another ship would be departing from the island in a few days. Now that the magical mill and lathe were being incorporated into production processes on the island, the rate of firearms production was slowly ramping up. Little did the birdmen know that in a week their problems would increase by almost double.

 

“Did you bring the guns and explosives?!” Kira asked excitedly.

 

“Of course! I had to empty the hold to make room for our haul! We discovered a shoal a short ways off of the shore and are going to convert it into a place to store things between the various ships.” Simbad reported.

 

“Did you take down any ships on the way here?” Kira asked.

 

“Surrounded by men on all sides with our fortress of iron, how could we not pluck the precious flowers that were all around us?” a beaming Charlice exclaimed as he entered the room.

 

“We will be adding fifty new brothers to our ranks once they have been taken to the island and properly cultured.” Simbad agreed with a nod.

 

This number caused the expression on Kira’s face to disappear when she heard it. It was a large number, it also meant that they had taken down a ship on their way to the mainland.

 

“What happened?” Kira asked.

 

“We ran into a battle between a beastman and an elven ship.” Simbad recounted...

 

***

A few days ago…

The open waters

 

A metal ship driven by large twin engines cut through the waters at great speed as it left a thick white bubbling froth in its wake. The ship was painted black and white to match the uniform of the crew that ran it, the ones who weren’t wearing colorful dresses, anyway. Folding tables and fabric chairs held the men’s large frames while they talked on the deck. That was until an airborne succubus flew down towards the deck to shout a warning so the men could get ready.

 

“There is a beastman ship in battle with an elven ship dead ahead. If we keep going for another few minutes they will be able to see us!” She reported.

 

Simbad had been sitting on a large U-shaped conversation couch which was covered in water-resistant plastic. Before this, he had been looking bored without his main culture partner, Mallard. That wild goose knew all kinds of things that were simply incredible. Hearing the news of this battle that was in their way, he decided to ask the question he was most curious about.

 

“What tribe of beastmen is it?” He asked.

 

“The sealmen!” The succubus called.

 

“Oh?” Simbad raised his head and put his hand on his chin and began running his claws through his thick mane. A smile crossed his face when his imagination pictured those smiling fellows painted in his colors and serving his crew. “Behave!”

 

Feeling his pants tighten he gave the front of them a sharp slap as he stood to his feet and began marching forwards towards the front of the ship as if he could see the battle happening in the distance. He saw two ships circling each other as they threw flammable materials at each other during broadsides, as well as spears, arrows, javelins, and other weapons. In the event the two ships passed close enough to each other, they would even send fighters over to try to kill the other members of the crew,

 

“Men! There is a battle directly ‘afore us, between the beastmen and the elves! Where do we want to be, between these two sides?!” He called out to his fellow Pride of Men members around him.

 

“Right between them!” He was answered by several members of the crew making their way onto the deck.

 

“Just like Andrew was between Jerry and Sigmund last night” catcalled one to the amusement of the crowd.

 

Several men came walking out with large-caliber rifles, these could shoot holes directly through the ship, they also had shotguns and other weapons. The crew was forty people strong, but only thirty were currently on the deck, plus they had a flight of 10 succubi as air support. A large tarp was removed from a misshapen bundle on the deck, revealing a large barrel fastened to a recoil-capable frame. Its housing was open in the back to allow a shooter to take cover from arrows or other projectiles.

 

A large catman with orange striped fur that made him look like a tiger walked forward on his large paws to the large cannon. Leaning forward and bending exaggeratedly, he grabbed the two grips of the gun and used the handles to make thrusting motions with his hips, which caused the cannon to raise and lower. He began looking around at all of the other men who were walking onto the deck with weapons over their shoulders with a suggestive look on his face. This was especially true of the two large machine guns to the left and right of him.

 

These were manned by two more members of the pride of men who were also swinging their hips in a circle and spinning the machine guns with it. Both were dog men from the doberman clan that were brothers with a forbidden relationship. Simbad nodded as he saw the large guns were prepared and that the people on the deck were getting into position. It took less than a minute for them to form a line across the deck.

 

“Men, show them your bonds!” SImbad called out to rally the troops.

 

The men all reached to their sides and began joining hands, they looked proud as they stood tall with their guns slung over their backs. This was a sign of unity and power that Simbad felt would send shivers down his enemies’ backsides.

 

“They are coming into sight!” A spyglass-wielding crew member from the bridge called. “They will be able to behold our bonds soon!”

 

Simbad nodded as a smile spread over his face so far his sharp fangs shone in the daylight.

 

“Aim the weapons carefully, we don’t want to hurt any of the men on board. We will sink them and they can accept our culture or swim to the shore.” He commanded with a grin.

 

***

Back to the present…

Beastmen plains, Beavermen’s fort

 

“And then we sank them, and they didn’t want to swim,” Charlice concluded the story. “Some of them tried to pull a fast one on us and mutiny, but they had some lead inserted into places where the sun doesn’t shine. That large cannon was able to punch right through the hull of their ships and sent them sinking without any climax.”

 

“That is good to hear, now we can arm even more people for this fight,” Lunas said with a smile.

 

“Do we know what the purpose of their attack was? It almost seems like it was a feint. Were they trying to draw out the machine guns so that they could see if we had any other hidden weapons left?” Greko asked as he yawned tiredly.

 

The group was inside of a repurposed mess hall where the beavermen ate their favorite food, wood. Their preference was a type of tree that grew cotton from its branches; it was a specialty they cultivated in the valley. The succubi saw this as an excellent opportunity since they had previously been forced to collect all of this material for their clothing. They could have the beavermen trade them this scrap for more resources produced on the island.

 

Kira had a group of her warriors behind her while she sat on a wooden chair before a sturdy table. A large map of the canyon and the mountain had been made of mud and were the model for the battle. The model showed just how majestic the large peak was and the massive canyon they found themselves in.

 

The mountain stood 5 miles(~8KM) above sea level at its peak elevation. It was smaller than Everest on earth, but this one was also a lot shallower and didn’t rise nearly as steeply. It was such a good place to put artillery that the succubi had their eyes on it ever since they returned to the mainland. Then they discovered that it was filled with several resources the succubi desperately wanted for production.

 

“That is unlikely, the retreat wasn’t very organized.” Welch pointed out.

 

She had seen that the enemies seemed almost surprised when they were called to retreat, they had been in the middle of their attack. The losses the birdmen suffered were light compared to what it could have been. As a result, the birdmen lost 800 people in the attack. However, they had also lost some of the people in the tunnels, 4 mousemen, and an unlucky fox sniper. The smoke hadn’t been much of a problem due to the amount of ventilation installed in the tunnels.

 

“They seemed shocked that it happened, many of them had surprise on their faces when the call was made,” Lunas reported this news that came from Snow, who was currently sleeping.

 

“We can confirm that as well.” A succubus machine gunner from behind Kira confirmed.

 

“Maybe we scared them with our mighty weapons!” A Succubus suggested.

 

“Yes, that must be it!” Another agreed.

 

Kira raised her hand to silence these sisters and instead turned to a much more seasoned expert on these matters.

 

“Chief Flattail, what is your opinion?” Kira asked.

 

The old beaver was sitting in a chair woven from sticks into a large basket and filled with cotton padding. His wife had gone to sleep and he could be seen nodding off on occasion in his large chair. Hearing his name caused him to open his eyes and look around the room as he gathered his thoughts.

 

“That had to be the Falcon King who called them back, they wouldn’t have reacted that way to just a normal commander.” Chief Flattail speculated. “Something must have happened to cause him to rapidly recall his troops. I don’t think it was a challenger or a rival. Could it have been the elves?”

 

There was an entire side of the mountain hidden from their position, they had no idea what was happening on the other side. Lunas was able to squash this thought as she had come from that area.

 

“No, there aren't any beast kings who are close except for the Crocodile King, but he is currently embattled with the elves,” Lunas told them. “On the other side of the mountain are some tribes of leopardmen and boarmen, none of them have the resources to produce a beast king.”

 

“We can only continue the plan!” Kira announced.

 

***

Meanwhile...

Beastmen Plains, Village of leopardmen

 

“Those damn birds!” Allyn complained as he wiped some blood off of his mouth.

 

Allyn was currently in a cave system that ran underneath the leopardman settlement. It was used as a larder for storing meat due to the lower temperatures found inside, and frost rimed the rough rock surface. A thick, cloying smell of blood permeated the cavern from the various leopardmen twitching on the ground with holes in their throats from the vampire’s fangs. For those that hadn’t been turned yet, they were being held down and bitten by vampires of various races.

 

After a certain amount of their blood had been drawn, the vampires drinking would inject some of their blood into these leopardmen. This would begin the process to turn them into fellow vampires, Allyn had only bitten a few of them to create some commanders for this fodder force. A vampire’s saliva possesses a strong paralytic poison that reaps its victim's ability to fight, as a result, all of the leopardmen being tossed into the tunnel system were motionless. There were hundreds of them, but they had been attacked by thousands of vampires.

 

“Master, there were 500 more beastmen here.” A vampire elf came running to Allyn and kneeled before him.

 

“Some of them will resist till the end and die, but it is a good number.” He responded.

 

Allyn nodded as he looked at all of the beastmen being shoved into the coldest areas of the cellar. A vampire during their transformation would have a high temperature that caused damage to the brain if they weren’t kept in a cool location. The vampires had learned this lesson well after many decades of flagging intelligence rates among their people. In the past, he had tried to use this by creating feral beasts that were only loyal to him but they were too hard to use.

 

“This village was small, but the predatory races usually don’t keep the same numbers as the beastmen who eat mainly plants,” Allyn concluded. “It is daytime so we will hunker down here until it is nighttime again.”

 

The first part was uttered by him in disappointment, that was because he wanted much larger numbers. Vampires had one of the strongest abilities to multiply, but this caused the vampires who were turning others to be weakened for a few days after turning large numbers like this all at once. The blood that they used to turn someone into a vampire was special to the vampire's existence and they only had a small amount of it in their body.

 

“Where is our next destination?” Asked a female who wore heavy robes and a veil.

 

This was a dark elf vampire that was especially vulnerable to the sun, she had mutated and had a special ability. In the darkness she could blend in and become invisible if she was completely naked, this had its problems though. Sometimes rare mutations would happen and a vampire would be blessed with special abilities outside of what they normally gained. Her rare invisibility was one of these strange abilities, she was the only one he had seen with such a unique ability.

 

Allyn walked over and sat down on a stump left to act as a chair for the leopardmen. The cold of the cellar did not affect him. Turning several of the leopardmen into vampires caused him to tire, so he needed to rest. The dark elf vampire wearing the heavy robes was supposed to be a replacement for his wife, but he had been experiencing problems lately when he tried to sleep with her.

 

I can’t get it up… This thought nearly drove him insane with anger, and he found himself grinding his teeth in shame. That was because he realized all he needed to do was think of his ex-wife cheating on him and it would spring to life violently once again. His daughter who he also placed high hopes in had something wrong with her and hadn’t woken up since they had left the demon’s fortress.

 

His youngest daughter claimed she had gone to the succubi’s island and tried to take one of the people hostage, but she was driven away by their incredible weapons. The weapons were so fearsome that the vampire patriarch felt uncomfortable attacking their island directly from what he had heard about it. Instead, he had gotten lucky when some of his spies reported they had seen the succubi making moves in this area, and they had spotted their leader. They had learned that the succubi leadership had changed by infiltrating some of the beastmen clans.

 

“We need to continue turning these small villages over the next few days, the Falcon King is also planning on expanding his forces by taking in as many clans as possible. He wants the rodents gone and I want to cut the head off of the succubi for hurting my daughter.” Allyn told her.

 

Yes, they were planning to beat the rodents and the succubi through numbers, they had seen the weapons the succubi possessed, and that was the only thing they could come up with. In the sky they were both sitting ducks, they had no way to avoid the pinpoint fire that came from the tunnels. If they swarmed the tunnels then they would incur fire from the machine guns and die in droves. The other thing worrying was that none of the fighters who entered the tunnels had come back out.

 

“When are we planning to attack?” She asked.

 

“A week.” He answered.

 

***

Meanwhile…

Succubus homeland, The beach

 

Rex was watching in horror at what the succubi were coming up with to set off the explosive he had created out of curiosity. That was because they discovered something incredible when they tried setting it off, they couldn’t detonate it by dropping it. Dropping a stone on it didn’t detonate it and putting a flame on it wasn’t enough to set it off either. This was completely the opposite of how a fulminated metal typically reacted.

 

A succubus floated in the air a large oceanic reef that poked out of the water. She had attached the container holding the golden powder directly to the side of a grenade. These were grenades that could be detonated by dropping them from a certain height onto their cone-shaped bottom. She was so high in the air that Rex was not able to see her.

 

They were on the same flat landing from when the Succubus Fulfillment Society showed off their own mana-powered weapon.

 

“Who are they?” Rex asked Bren who stood next to him.

 

Rex was pointing to a group of succubi wearing heavy robes and veils to cover their bodies, the only thing you could see of them was their tails and horns. The color they chose was a bright pink color, but the odd thing about them was the number of guns they carried. They had a gun of every type strapped onto their body in a different configuration for each of them. Some had several rifles on their backs and pistols and SMGs at their sides with shotguns over their stomachs.

 

“They are the great succubi philosophers!” Bren told him proudly.

 

“Why are they dressed like that?” He asked, and immediately regretted it.

 

“They have determined that a succubus should not be judged by her looks but by her ferocity,” Bren profoundly told him.

 

Rex looked back at the group of succubi in heavy robes watching the show carefully, but they weren’t the ones he was most shocked to see.

 

“How on earth did they find out about this?!” Rex muttered in horror when he saw another group of succubi landing on the dirt field.

 

Wearing white robes that matched and made them look like female monks was another group of bizarre succubi he didn’t like to interact with. The Repository of the Great Weapon of the Succubi was almost a cult within the weapons manufacturing plant and they were headed by a group of 20. This group had been working with Rex from the very beginning, but this didn’t make them any easier to work with.

 

“Earth?” Bren asked.

 

“A planet, not this one,” Rex told her.

 

“You don’t ever use this planet’s proper name, I have noticed this,” Bren told him.

 

“Wait, this planet has a name?” Rex asked.

 

“Of course, the succubi have long known it.” Bren looked kind of surprised. “I am surprised Kira never told you what it was.”

 

“What is it?” Rex knew he was going to regret it the moment he asked,

 

“Succubar.” She told him this with complete seriousness.

 

He had just opened his mouth to tell her that there was no way he would allow the planet to carry a name like that when one of his guards pointed to the sky.

 

“It is starting!” She said.

 

“Wait, I thought they were only using a single grenade?!” Rex muttered.

 

Somewhere in the time that he had been talking with Bren, the succubi in the air had decided that one grenade wasn’t enough and instead decided to use a bundle of them. The tape was a polymer band covered in adhesive and the island had already begun producing it at the plastics plant. Fortunately, Rex couldn’t see the bundle but he was able to tell that she used a lot more than a single grenade.

 

“It is a single grenade,” Bren told him.

 

“No it isn’t, I can tell from here.” He said.

 

“It doesn’t matter, we must see what it is capable of.” She changed the subject. “How much mana was in that powder?”

 

“It should be more than the one that was set off before but not by much. When it comes to storing mana, silver is the best followed by gold from what I can tell.”

 

It didn’t take long for the bundle to make an impact with the reef poking out of the water and an explosion was heard off in the distance. That was all they saw for a moment until a sudden change happened out in the waters. They could see a golden light and a purple flash followed by a rainbow of colors forming that threw beams of light everywhere. Giant bolts of lightning in various colors formed and began slamming into each other sending sparks and explosions ripping through the air.

 

Explosions like flower petals began blooming everywhere in the sky, but something more frightening was happening out in the waters. Giant orbs of water larger than battleships began rising out of the ocean and floating like bubbles. They were filled with rubble from the seafloor and some even had monsters. When one of the explosions forming in the air hit one of the giant balls of water they saw something miraculous.

 

Pop!

 

The monster, the water, even the pieces of coral vanished like a popped bubble from the green explosion. The explosions in the air resembled fireworks as they continued to produce different phenomena one after another. Beams of plasma then started forming and firing out like arrows hitting the water and some even made it several miles to the island and burned the sand on the beach into a glass. They looked like pine needles made of light pelting the water and flying into the air.

 

“What the fuck?!” Rex cried.

 

It was way more destructive than the last weapon that the succubi had made and he had a theory as to why. Guncotton and black powder; chemically, were identical in their composition, but guncotton was stronger since everything was put on the same molecule. Since the mana was held in the gram of gold instead of the multiple magical stones, this meant that when it detonated the mana began moving immediately when it was freed. Even now almost a full minute later, the spells were still being launched in every direction.

 

Looking over since he hadn’t gotten any kind of reply from Bren or the guards, what he saw was the worst thing possible. You can tell a lot about a succubus’ mood from the position of its tail. Like a meter for their excitement, the higher it is positioned the more amazed and excited they are. As spells like balls of fire, bolts of lightning, plasma, and balls of ice pelted the shore of the island from the core of the blast nearly 2 miles(~3.2KM) away.

 

If Bren or any of the other succubi’s tails could raise any higher, they would be straight up into the air. Their eyes were enraptured as if they were seeing their new god, reigning destruction over the planet. From this crowd, a single voice could be heard.

 

“What a wonderful time to be a succubus!” She murmured.