Kanae gathered anyone who was still able to fight into a study room, which was almost the entire group. The only ones too injured to even stay standing were Renya and Kris, not that the latter was a fighter to begin with. For the coming assault on Duststorm Tabernacle, Kanae had the strength of Claudia, Alicia, Petyr, and Edina. They should be enough, but there was no telling what Jhene had in store for them, or how much of Vanuis had been charmed into serving her.

An older clergy member brought them a map of the ancient temple, drawn up back in the day and transcribed in the past few years because the original was beginning to fade. In a separate parchment, Kanae and Alicia added in the extra chambers that had been constructed since like the dungeon. It was more or less all they had to go on.

Kanae pointed to the dungeon and said, "The deacons of the Priesthood of Three and a pregnant woman are being held captive in here that I promised to save. Petyr, I want you to break her and the other prisoners out. I'm having Praijya go with you, so she can fly her to safety. The rest will just have to make a break for it. Afterwards, fight your way back to us if possible and rejoin us… here." She shifted her finger to the main worship chamber. "This is where most of the construction seems to be taking place. Alicia and I didn't get a chance to see what was down there, but we will this time."

"How are we getting close? Is Alicia going to sneak us in one by one with Magical Stealth?" Claudia asked.

"Nope." She shook her head. "We're going to have help."

The door creaked open, and Quinncera entered dressed in battle raiments and wielding a spear.

"The clerics of the Cathedral of Three and I will lead a mob to the steps of the Duststorm Tabernacle. That should draw most of the attention outside. We're tired of sitting around and letting them forcibly seize control of Vanuis," Quinncera said.

"When enough of them come out of the temple, we'll rush in and close the doors behind them. That locks out a lot of their guards. From the foyer, Edina's undeads will fan out across the Duststorm Tabernacle, while the rest of us confront Jhene," Kanae concluded.

Everyone moved into place. Priests from across all denominations in Vanuis gathered their followers and clergy, gathering just outside of the Cathedral of Three. The numbers swelled from tens to hundreds in a matter of minutes until they were just over a thousand. All of them angry and suspicious of what had been going on in the Duststorm Tabernacle, whose loved ones and fellow neighbors had gone missing.

They carried torches, pitchforks, maces, and scepters. Some of them shouted obscenities. Kanae started to wonder if she had incited a riot…

"Yeeeaaahh! Burn it down! Burn it all down!" Edina yelled, waving around a torch of her own.

"Can you take this seriously?" Kanae groaned.

"Oops. Got caught up in the heat of it…" She laughed it off.

The mob began to move. Cloaked in headscarves, Amethyst Hall easily blended in with everyone else. They moved as one cohesive mass with a singular purpose— to take their grievances to the Duststorm Tabernacle.

Some citizens of Vanuis emerged from the safety of their home to join. Others stayed back and watched, voicing their support in cheers instead. The general city guards didn't bother trying to quell them, too outnumbered to even consider.

They reached the courtyard pool in front of the temple, where visitors submerged themselves in the water before being let in. Everyone walked around it instead. The tabernacle clerics made a run back to their sanctuary, and as expected, nearly a hundred armed guards poured out in their place to form a defensive perimeter around the entrance.

"I haven't seen my brother in weeks!"

"Where's Deacon Bali?"

"We want answers!"

The angry mob butted heads against the guards, who desperately pushed them back. Good. Now was the time to strike. Kanae nodded to her companions, and they launched into an offensive all at once. Petyr led the way, shoving her way to the front. One guard held his pike horizontally to use as a sort of barricade.

"Back off! I'm warning you!" he growled.

"Pathetic and undisciplined. Get out of my way." Petyr lifted the man off his feet and tossed him backwards.

They pressed through the opening. Guards closed the gap and scrambled to stop them. The second they crossed into the Duststorm Tabernacle, Petyr and Claudia split up to push the massive doors shut. Edina flipped the bird at a guard who raced right up to the entrance, only to have it close on his face.

The mosque's clergy stared in disbelief, shock, and terror. Many stopped what they were doing and bolted away. What few guards stayed behind in the foyer, Petyr easily pummeled into the ground.

"Everyone knows their role. Go!" Kanae yelled.

"Necronomicon doesn't think I'm worthy? I'll show 'em. Legion of the Dead! Rise and serve your master!" Edina bellowed, her echoes traveling menacingly across the enormous halls.

Undead soldiers marched out of dozens of abyssal portals. They blocked the other corridors, keeping tabernacle guards from coming to stop them. Swords and bones clashed loudly in the mosque. Not a single guard could break through.

Petyr and Praijya made way to the dungeons, while Kanae and the rest of the group beelined it for the main chamber. They grinded to a halt inside a surprisingly empty worship hall. A thin layer of dust and sand stretched across the floor, with signs of carts and wagons having been pulled through here.

Their footfalls echoed with every step. The chamber was maybe a hundred feet tall, and its width and length even larger. A preacher giving a sermon here must be quite the experience, with echoes becoming their own chorus. There was no furniture except for cushions arranged neatly on the floor, and only a pulpit at the front of the chamber stood out amongst the emptiness. Aside from the candles' flickering flames on chandeliers that hung above, it was otherwise very dark from a lack of light sources and windows.

"It's a little too quiet for my liking…" Claudia muttered.

"Just where is everyone?" Kanae wondered aloud.

The mosque shook violently. A chain holding one of the chandeliers snapped. Kanae pulled Alicia out of the way as it smashed the ground where they were just standing.

"Is it an earthquake?" Alicia asked.

"I-I don't think so?!" Kanae exclaimed as fissures snaked up the walls and across the floor.

The harsh clamor of grinding stone drew their attention to the front of the worship hall. Behind the pulpit, a section of the wall sank slowly into the ground. Kanae, Alicia, and Claudia reached for their weapons as someone emerged from the dark tunnel.

Jhene, the Mistress of Subjugation, flew out and landed on top of the pulpit. The hobgoblin succubus flashed a toothy grin as she twirled the shrunken skull of a dire wolf attached to a rope.

"Yo, sisters! Kanae, too. I'm kinda in the middle of something. So, if you can gimme that weapon you stole from the vault and come back later, that'd be great. If not, I'm gonna have to kick your asses~" Jhene said playfully.

"We want Rasheena's resistance members. Hand them over, and we won't kick your ass too badly," Kanae fired back.

"I'm not trying to negotiate—"

Alicia threw a knife dripping with venom at Jhene. It struck the pulpit, the blade embedding several inches into the wooden furniture.

"The next strike won't miss." Alicia glared.

"Enough talk. Kanae, hit us with Bond! Time for a couple of siblings to duke it like siblings should!" Claudia shouted.

Kanae casted Bond on them both. Their emotions and time together formed an unbreakable link. Power filled their being. Strengthening succubi with Bond was something else. The sensation exhilarated Kanae, and she felt stronger herself.

The pair of sisters went invisible. A rush of air blew past Kanae. They didn't hesitate one bit in attacking Jhene, whose smile widened.

"You know the funny thing about going invisible?" Jhene stopped twirling the dire wolf skull and absorbed its latent power. "I can still smell you!" She threw a punch, knocking Claudia out of stealth, and grabbed Alicia by the throat. The hobgoblin succubus howled in triumph.

"It's too bad you didn't inherit Mother's intelligence. Didn't I tell you, the next strike wouldn't miss?" Alicia plucked the knife out from the pulpit with her tail and sliced Jhene's thigh.

"Kuh!" She hurled Alicia away and flew backwards.

Kanae activated Heightened Haste, giving herself a boost of speed. Jhene was about to consume a troll skull until she gave chase with Necrotizing Touch to negate its regenerative effects. They flew around the chamber, smashing against chandeliers and weaving through pillars.

"Why run, sis? I thought you wanted to fight!" Claudia bodied Jhene into a column, and they rolled across the ground with debris raining down on them.

The troll skull slipped from Jhene's hands. Kanae kicked it to the other side of the chamber. Undeterred, Jhene rose unsteadily to her feet even as Alicia's paralytic venom worked its way through her body. She was resilient, they had to give her that.

Claudia didn't let up. The three of them hounded Jhene with a flurry of blows, not giving her any chance to consume the skulls around her waistband. They were her source of power as a crowned Headhunter after all. Kanae landed a hit on her arm, causing Necrotizing Touch to render her unable to heal. Now, the skull would be useless even if she did pick it back up.

They dogpiled on Jhene, who had grown too sluggish to fight back. Claudia placed her in a chokehold, and Kanae and Alicia held down her arms.

"This is the part where we shove Kanae's dildo weapon up your ass, Jhene!" Claudia snarled.

"What? No, we're not doing that! Knock her out already!" Kanae exclaimed.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You said you can handle it on your own, Jhene. Maybe your sister Elaine would have been a better partner," someone coming out of the tunnel said in a very pompous and flamboyant manner.

Kanae snapped in the voice's direction. A smiling high elven man with fabulous, golden hair down to his chest sneered at them. He wielded a flanged mace in one hand and an open tome in the other. Chainmail glinted from underneath his gilded white tabard, which bore the emblem of a single eye and an eagle carrying a book. She recognized both symbols. The eye distinguished him as a cleric of the Church of One, and the eagle with a book as a member of House Pyrelle.

"Cattle… Help me… already…" Jhene muttered past a clenched jaw, barely conscious yet hanging on by sheer willpower.

"No, you don't!" Kanae launched herself in the high elf's direction.

"Falling Swords!" He incanted a spell that illuminated the entire chamber with glowing swords of light.

They plunged down all around Kanae. One brought her to the ground. She thought she was dead, but the sword didn't hurt. Instead, it just pinned her down. Kanae flicked the wand in her tail's grasp, casting Dispel to free herself.

It was too late. The elf muttered another spell, "Detox!"

"A priest spell? Shit!" Kanae gasped, glancing over to Claudia and Alicia in time to witness them get thrown off.

Jhene darted back to safety and flexed her arms, no longer affected by the paralytic venom. She consumed another skull that Kanae didn't recognize, but instead of healing, her body bulked up.

"Who is that? A high elf that Jhene charmed?" Claudia asked.

"That must be Arnault Pyrelle, the leader of the Ortesian force in Savir. I thought he was supposed to be at the western coast. Did you charm him to come here or what, Jhene?" Kanae yelled.

"Hahaha! You think I am charmed by this succubus Nonsense, for I prefer the company of men! Your boobs? Disgusting mounds of fat. That cavernous hole you call a vagina? It pales in comparison to the erect glory of penises! Yes, I am Arnault Pyrelle of House Pyrelle. A commander has to see to the smooth function of their operations. It is serendipitous that we meet here. Pleased to meet your acquaintance, Queen Kanae Toyomi." Arnault Pyrelle bowed.

"I can agree with the erect glory of penises, but calling boobs 'disgusting mounds of fat' makes me irrevocably angry. My wife, Arenade, has the juiciest pair in the world. I'm not going to stand here and let you insult her best features!" Kanae shouted back.

"What the fuck did I just hear when I came in?" Petyr groaned from the back, joined by Edina but not Praijya. "We got everyone out. Your harpy thrall is taking the pregnant woman and the deacons to the cathedral."

"Fancy seeing you here, Lady Stormcloud. I learned of your failures in the north from my brother, Guillaume. I figured you had perished or became the Demon Queen's thrall," he chided mockingly.

"Arnault… I'm going to wipe that smug grin off your face send you back to your brother black and blue!" she threatened, infusing her warhammer with holy energies.

The ground shuddered again, and the quaking had intensified. Cracks formed all over the Duststorm Tabernacle. Both sides stepped back as the beautiful mural on the ceiling broke apart and collapsed. Rubble crashed all over, creating a wall of debris that separated them.

Arnault shouted from the other side, "I would love to stay and chat, but it seems we must depart! Sultan Cerberus is expecting our rather generous gift. But rejoice! For you shall be the first to witness the Cult of Lust and Depravity's greatest weapon yet!"

Alicia almost took off to chase after Jhene, but Kanae grabbed the succubus' hand. They had to leave. The entire ceiling was coming down.

The group made a mad dash back to the foyer. Falling debris crushed unlucky undeads into bone dust. The doors had since been pried open, and what few clergy of the Duststorm Tabernacle left behind rushed for the exit alongside them. They jumped out as the gates folded in on themselves, landing back outside where the mob and mosque guards clashed.

But they weren't fighting. Everyone stared up at the sky with their mouths hanging open. Kanae and her companions followed their gazes to the sky. A giant ziggurat, in much the same appearance as the sunken temple off of Barkwen village's lake, floated in the sky. The flying black cathedral hummed with magical energies. Metal pipes ran along the framework underneath it, without a doubt dwarven engineering.

Jhene sat on the railing of a balcony and stared down at them, sneering.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Edina grumbled what they were all thinking.