I screamed in agony as the rod began to cook my hand, but I did not let go.  I had experienced worse.  Was currently experiencing worse.

Soil was flying out the end of the cubit-length of wood like a pressure washer and taking every atom of that created matter out of my hide in the form of Life Energy.  Normally, that would not have been such a terrible thing.  I wielded Life on a daily basis, and at worst, a single spell would only ever knock the wind out of me.

But this?  Every muscle in my body was burning like I had been dipped in a vat of acid.  I could not breathe fast enough.  My lungs were on fire.  The back of my mouth was bile.  Exhaustion crawled like a fungus through every inch of me.

It took a will of iron to force myself not to drop that wand, not to immediately stop the spell I had already paid so dearly just to cast.  And I would have within seconds were it not for the constant source of Life streaming in to supplant what was lost.

However, I had succeeded.  Everywhere the soil touched… became solid.  Smooth.  Hardened.  A continuous slab of terracotta.

Slowly, the wind began to dwindle as the great rent Xhinn had torn through the glass filled.  And when the clay I put in its place dried, strange patterns and designs began to etch themselves into the empty expanse, each crevice and bump glazed with seemingly random yet beautiful colors.  It was like the room simply could not bear to be other than a delight to the senses.

“A Dirt Palace,” Arx breathed in wonder as I slumped wearily, the wand dropping from my now-insensate fingers and rolling somewhere under the table.

“Be what he said, aye,” Jax agreed, but she did not seem too concerned with that.  Her excitement over my triumph had extinguished the moment she saw what it cost me.  “Master, yer crying blood!  Tell me that spell ain’t blinded ye?  And just look at yer hands!”

“I’ll be… alright, Jax,” I wheezed, though my voice carried an ominous crackle to undermine my words… and I seemed to be having some trouble keeping myself from shaking.

Watcher’s eye, that sucked!  If it took all that just to cast a real spell, I could not see myself attempting it very often—if ever again.  No, sir.  I would be sticking with the goddess-assisted version, thank you very much!  How in the unholy balls does Mia enjoy that so much?  I must be missing something…

“Just let me catch my breath, and I’ll heal it right up.”  

The crack of thunder racing across the sky provided an unnecessary reminder of the continuing battle between the titans.  Thanks to my improvised magic, we could not see it anymore, but the war was far from over.  

I still could not fathom why a couple of goddesses would have any interest in me—Xhinn’s explanation not-withstanding—however now that I had revealed a situational-at-best ability to Speak, I doubted that interest could have waned.   And from the steadily intensifying sounds picking up overhead, my intuition was spot-on.

They appeared done with banter and taunting.  All that remained was combat.  To the victor the spoils.

“Put me down, Jax,” I said.  “We need to get out of here.”

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” a voice replied.

We turned as one to discover Xyn standing imposingly in front of the exit, the tip of her tail still wrapped about the door handle.  The once-pristine stained glass had shattered and the remaining frames of the double doors had been warped beyond recognition.  They had clearly not been engineered to withstand a decompression event—and given what laid beyond this room, that kind of design choice seemed… a tad cavalier.  

However, Xyn had strangely not suffered at all for having been so close to the glass shattering around her.  Her bare skin remained as softly pristine as ever.

“If it ain’t the skelped arse herself.”  Jax tutted irritably as we came to our feet.  “And here I thought ye’d done us the favor of getting fucked.”

“Shocking as it may sound,” she returned, “I wasn’t in the mood.”

I sighed then quickly directed my abused Life reserves toward a healing spell.  I had a feeling I was going to need to freshen up for this.  “Can I assume you mean to finish what your Lady started?”

“You may assume whatever you wish,” she said as a thin, black blade manifested out of her palm and slowly extended almost to the floor.  “You will not be leaving this room.”

Our conversation was briefly interrupted by something that sounded like a chorus of screaming banshees shooting past off to my left which were silenced by an equally deafening series of explosions.

“We don’t have that choice,” I said once it was actually possible to hear again.  “I’ve sealed the dome for now, but with the way those two are going at it, I doubt it’ll last us long.”

She quirked an eyebrow.  “And?”

“And?!” I repeated incredulously, but Arx extended an arm in front of me.

“Save it, Dearest.  She can only do as her mistress bids.”

Xyn regarded her a moment then held her blade up in something of a salute—one lilim in recognition of another—before sweeping it to one side.  “Well?  Do we wait for the inevitable?  Or do we go down in combat?  I know which I would prefer.”

Jax immediately summoned her ax and began cockily twirling it in hand.  “Then we’s agreed on one thing.”

“Be careful,” Mia whispered.  “She is not called the eldest for nothing.”

I nodded that I had heard.  I had hoped the tiny shred of influence I had managed to implant within this creature would at least convince her to let us by, but it was not to be.  Her loyalty was still too strong.  And we simply did not have the luxury for caution.

Besides, we had her outnumbered three to one.  Well… two and half.  

“I’m sorry, Xyn.  If you’re not going to move, we have no choice but to go through you.”  I gave my Dolilim a significant look.  “Take her.”

Jax snarled gleefully, thrilled to be set off her leash, and began cleaving great arcs through the air.  Meanwhile, Arx skipped to one side and let an arrow fly.

Clang!  Crack!  Swipe!

Abruptly, Jax leapt back with a fresh line of blood blossoming across her cheek, and the arrow clattered to the wall.  

Xyn had barely moved.  I could almost be persuaded the self-satisfied little grin she now sported had cost her more effort.

“Oh.”  I should have seen this coming, but in fairness to myself, this particular archetype was not often portrayed by a naked supermodel.  “That’s what you meant by eldest.”

Xyn cocked her head, not having heard the earlier exchange.  “What did you think I meant?  That I had slept for the last two-thousand years?”

“On yer back, anyway!” Jax yelled.  But instead of rushing forward, this time one of her shadow-clones ran ahead of her.  

Xyn barely even acknowledged it.  She simply waited for the whistle of the real ax before deftly angling her thin rapier to guide it to one side then swiped through the construct with the claws of her other hand.

And again, Jax had to retreat with a fresh trio of cuts along her arm.  Xyn had not moved her feet in the slightest through the exchange.  

“Not bad,” she cooed, casually licking some of the blood from her claws.  Though, whether that was meant in recognition of the quality of Jax’s gambit or her blood, I could not say.  “But I think it’s time you tasted the real thing.”

She tilted her blade toward Jax, fixing her with an intense stare.  And waited.  She looked like a taut bowstring, ready to fire at the slightest provocation.

Then, for a split-second, it felt as if the the ground left our feet as a sound like a fighter jet passing not twenty feet overhead rippled through the earth.

In that moment of disorientation, Xyn let herself fly.  Her blade was a black blur as it swiped toward Jax, who frantically moved to parry before recognizing too late the move for what it was.  The second the redhead was off-balance, Xyn feinted left and began harrying Arx.  

Blond hair and white flew wild as the two exchanged furious blows.  With her scimitars gone, all Arx had to defend herself with were her dagger and claws.  Her one advantage was sheer speed.

In every other respect, Xyn had her beat.  There was, of course, the reach of her weapon, and in an even fight, that would have been plenty.  But I had little doubt she could have preformed as well with a toothpick.  Her every block was a masterclass in economy of motion, her every thrust and riposte timed perfectly to destabilize her opponent.  Arx did not have a prayer against her alone.

“Jax!” I yelled.

Immediately, a cluster of shadowy duplicates rushed toward the pair and began bobbing and weaving about.  They did not achieve much beyond momentarily disrupting the lilim’s line-of-sight, but that was enough for Arx to get some space.  Even so, she had not escaped the exchange unscathed and was now sporting a host of punctures and gashes.

Then Xyn simply jumped through the clones, coming at Jax in a fresh whirlwind of steel.

Shit!

In a flash, I rattled off the Words to Renewal of Consumption and threw the result toward Arx.  With the pressure of the two deities battling it out to fuel my Life-giving chain, I did not need to worry about things like cost.  Even after suffering the effects of that horrific spell, I was moments away from resuming my Wisdom-buffing mantra, and that was the only reason I still carried a sliver of hope for this fight.  

Xyn might well have been the Dread Pirate Roberts with a blade, but if she meant to win by bleeding us out, she had another thing coming.

And I had more than just heals to my name.  Without so much as taking a second breath, the sequences for Fortunate Shadows and Efficacy in the Gloom began rattling from my lips.

However, Xyn was not about to tolerate some spellcaster doing whatever he pleased.  The shadows had only just begun to coalesce when she flipped over one of Jax’s still-wild, horizontal swings and landed a brutal side kick straight to my diaphragm.  

I bounced hard off the table and crumpled immediately, my buffs accompanying me to the floor.  You would think with 12 in Toughness and who-knew-however-much Wisdom to back it up, I might have been able to make a concentration check or two.  But no.  Once the wind had been forced from my lungs, my body simply shut down.  No other tasks allowed but to regain it.

“Dearest!” Arx yelled in horror and began raining a fresh hail of arrows on my attacker.  

Xyn favored her with a pitying look, casually swiping each from the air.  But it did give Jax the opportunity to quickly interpose herself between me and the danger.

“Master,” she barked, “Ye left yer skill off!”

Oh, right.  No wonder!  For the sake of diplomacy, I had allowed Forgotten in Stillness to lapse during the ‘dinner’ party, and of course the decision had come back to bite me.  

There’s got to be a way to automate some of this crap.  Detect danger?  All passives activate!  Not a bad idea, actually…

Xyn slowly advanced on her attacker—either not noticing or not caring that every shot fired was accompanied by a slightly longer note—at least until the arrows began to change course mid-air.  But then, suddenly being faced by a swarm of deadly curve-balls would wipe the smug from anyone’s face.

Arx had even taken a page from Xyn’s own book by randomizing her targets.  Each arrow began at the same central line but was just as likely to veer toward a hand, foot, hip, or elbow, as it was something more vital, forcing Xyn’s blade into a constant defensive blur.

Not that it would appear that way from Arx’s point of view.  Thanks to my little tweak to her ability, she now had the beginnings of some perceptive time distortion on her side.  It would not be much yet—the distortion grew with her skill—but I could tell it was already helping immensely with her control.  There was a reason ‘bullet time’ had become such a mainstay in video games, after all.  

And after a mere dozen or so attempts, she actually managed to slip one arrow past the one-eyed lilim’s defense, allowing it to sink into her thigh with a satisfying thud.

“Hmph.”  Xyn ripped the arrow clear and smirked as the wound began closing of its own accord, leaving only a smear of blood behind as evidence.  “Good.  I was hoping you’d get at least one shot in.  I wouldn’t want to be accused of bullying.”

“Yer ma’s flappin’ tits!” Jax roared, leaping into the fray with a fresh batch of clones behind her…

…and was almost immediately swept from her feet by Xyn’s tail, sporting half a dozen fresh injuries.  

The fuck just happened?!  One second, the battle had been looking at least somewhat favorable, and the next, everything was in shambles.  Either Xyn’s fighting style was guided by divine fiat, or she was so damned good, we might as well have been a bunch of misbehaving children in her eyes.  Neither of which was particularly heartening.  

Forcing someone like that to get serious would only leave us in a constant cycle of bleeding out on the floor.  And if she could cut us down that fast, never mind the cost, there was a serious concern that my healing might not even be able to keep up!  We needed a strategy.

But first, I had to get Jax on her feet again.

At a glance, most of her injuries were inconsequential blows to her arms and legs, but then, she did have an ability that forced people to hesitate in hurting her.  As skilled as Xyn was, I doubted she could have stabbed anywhere she did not mean to, so she was clearly not immune.  

As she and Arx again collided in a frenzy of claw and steel, I absently placed a hand on Jax’s wrist, anxious to heal her but unable to avert my eyes from the battle—at least until the heal refused to take.  Instead, my spell was met by an odd, blue glow coming from her gauntlets.

Just like the knife…

But when nothing else happened, I was forced to dismiss the matter in favor of recasting.  I did not have the time to ponder such things.  That heal had been intended for Jax, not whatever random, Life-hungry spell still laid embedded within her wrist-guards, and she was already getting to her feet again, eager for more punishment whether her body was or not.

“That all ye got?” Jax panted, shivering with the pleasure of her own wounds closing.  “Or can ye do more with that pig-sticker than just foreplay?”

Good!  Just keep her attention for a second…

“Ha!” Xyn crowed over her shoulder.  “Then you’re ready for me to finish you off?”  

The blond quickly delivered a punishing series of blows to Arx’s legs, forcing her to the ground before cleanly slicing the backrest off one of the chairs… and kicking it straight for my head.  

Jax instantly deflected it with her ax, but my flinch backward was still enough to jumble the cast.

Dammit!  She’s never going to let me get these buffs going.  My skill may have rendered me functionally invisible, but that only worked as long as I did not move.  And against an intelligent opponent, that was a problem.  I needed to reposition—preferably while her attention was elsewhere.

On cue, an arrow blossomed within Xyn’s back, forcing an anguished cry from her lips and diverting her attention back to my downed companion.  Unlike a real archer, Arx could fire from virtually any position, so a mere leg wound was no hamper to her offensive capability.  And it afforded me the opportunity to scurry from my spot by the table to the nook by the door.  There I froze and began the task of regaining Arx the use of her legs.

Xyn’s ear twitched at the sound of my voice and quickly cast about for me, however Arx was not about to let up her onslaught unless forced.  And with her sister’s improved skill, Jax now had the confidence to risk friendly fire.

Blade clashed against blade.  Flash after blue flash lit the room as Jax was forced to dismiss and resummon her bulky weapon in a desperate effort to keep up with the far more experienced lilim’s speed.  Meanwhile, arrows rained in from the now-all-but-recovered Arx only to be smashed to one side.

And then the shadows from my buffs finally began to darken the room, obscuring each of my allies attacks with the uncertainty of twilight and pinpoint accuracy while our foe languished in the spotlight.

“Damn your eyes, Donum!” Xyn growled, becoming more and more frantic in her efforts to weave her singular blade into a bastion of total defense.  “I should have guessed you would never stoop to fighting with honor!”

I just snorted.  “Honor doesn’t mean much to the dead.”

Xyn cackled at that.  “Cute.  But then, death doesn’t much to me!”

With that, she swatted Jax’s weapon aside with her—to that point—bare wrist, somehow meeting the downward stroke with the sparks of metal on metal, then hammered the point of her rapier straight into Jax’s gut… the blade of which instantly broadened until it was nearly a full span at the guard.  Then she lifted her now-enormous weapon overhead with my First’s still twitching body in tow while Arx’s arrows pinged worthlessly off of her back.

Scales—each as black as the metal of her sword—licked and flickered along her flanks with each ignored strike, automatically appearing as needed to protect her from the onslaught.  Which, I now realized, they could have done from the very beginning.  She was only ever just humoring us.  Perhaps to let us think we might have had a chance.

“Poor little thing,” she murmured, caressing Jax’s cheek… then tutted as her victim weakly attempted to snap at her.  “If you could just remember to could keep your anger in check, your defenses would have worked so much better.”

Then, she spun, launching her weaponized bag of meat straight for me, and the pair of us crashed into the far wall.

“And what’s this I taste?  Shock?  Confusion?  Oh!  Perhaps you thought your skill could hide you… when your emotions betray your every step?”  She threw her head back and laughed, then—only because she could—casually deflected yet another arrow almost without looking.  “Delightful.  Now be a dear and wait while I finish off this other annoyance.”

Turning, she began to stalk toward Arx, who was still valiantly  attempting to sneak an arrow past Xyn’s seemingly impregnable defenses.  She tried everywhere imaginable.  The eyes.  Straight through the mouth.  Curving the arrow around to the base of her neck.

Some of these, Xyn swatted aside with her again rapier-thin blade.  Others, she allowed to ping worthlessly off her scales.  Then, mid-stroke, her blade would become as long and wide as a horse-cleaver and crash through a chair or sink into the flagstones, forcing Arx into constant retreat.  But Xyn did not rush.  She only needed to succeed once.

“The arrows aren’t working!” I yelled.

“No shit?” Arx retorted as she ducked another stroke of the guillotine.  “I don’t exactly have a lot of options here.”

“Well, we’re gonna have to do something!” I called, struggling to push the strongest regeneration spell I could into Jax’s flagging body.

Stay with me now…

“Enchant my arrow with your Sap!” Arx suggested, then leapt into the air in an effort to keep her kneecaps intact.  “That’ll get through her armor!”

Xyn actually nodded in agreement.  “True.  If it hit me.  Which it won’t.”  Clang!  Smash!  “And I let him cast it.  Which I definitely won’t.”  Swoom!  “Oh, excellent reflexes!  Pity you’ve never learned to dodge properly.”

“Get bent, ‘stit-fucker!”

“Is than an offer?”

Then it hit me.  “Sing, Arx!”

“Sing?!  Sing what?”

“I don’t know!” I yelled, still frantically pumping away.  Jax was not quite dead… but she was not quite alive, either.  “You’re a Siren.  Try to entrance her!”

“But… but…!”  

She cast about for a moment for inspiration, then vaulted over the table to escape another furious series of blows.  The table did not survive.  

Xyn casually reached down to fling half of the ruined furnishing to one side in her pursuit, revealing Lynnria’s curled up form in the process.  For a moment, she eyed the helpless girl, then turned to smirk at me.  And slowly lifted her giant cleaver.

My eyes widened in horror.  “Arx!”

“Buh…”  In a panic, Arx blurted out the first thing to spring to mind.  

“High on a hill came a floating moat turd.  

Lady o’ the lady o’ the lay-dee, hoo!  

Loud was the birth of the floating moat turd!  

Lady o’ the lady o’ the loo!”

Both of us turned to stare at her.  

I had no idea what sort of reaction to expect from someone like Xyn to a song like that.  But for myself, it was a mixture of regret and cringing embarrassment.  Partially, because the lyrics were all wrong—it’s goatherd!—and yet still kind of worked in about the worst way possible.  And partially because I had been the one to teach it to her.

Don’t judge.  Musicals were not a thing on this world, and when a stupidly hot woman shows an interest, you quickly find ways to keep it.

Regardless, Xyn’s weapon slowly began to dip to one side, hopefully showing that at least some part of the entrancement effect had taken hold.  Arx glanced at me and waggled her knife significantly before easing forward.

Right…  The spell was on my lips before she even got to the second verse.  And then a second time.  Come on Detonating Sap, you bastard!  Don’t do this to me!

“Folks in a town that was quite remote heard, 

‘Lady o’ the lady o’ the lay-dee, hoo!’  

Lusty and clear from the moat turd’s throat heard, 

‘Lady o’ the lady o’ the loo!’”

I winced.  The already butchered lyrics were starting to go adrift.  Unless she was referring to Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo, no moat turd was ever going to have a throat.  I would totally watch that episode, though.

Right as she entered the children’s chorus, my spell took hold, and the satisfying gleam of poison covered her knife.

“Lady o’ the lay-dee…”  

She eased to just within reach.

“Lady o’ the lay-dee…”  

Her eyes flashed in triumph as she raised the dagger.

“Lady o’ the lay, o’ l—!”

Abruptly, another sound like the world splitting in twain rent the air, shaking the foundations almost out from under us.

And just as suddenly, a thin stem of metal blossomed within Arx’s throat.

“It was a good try,” Xyn acknowledged.  Then, her blade morphed into a thin horizontal bar, and with a quick stroke, Arx’s head was separated from her body.  “Sadly, concentration was never your strong suit, was it, my dear?”

For a moment, the air was still.  Then, with a mournful whoof, Arx’s body erupted into a dim, blue flame.

Xyn watched it for some few seconds, almost seeming regretful, before turning to me again.  “Well, that was almost entertaining…” she said with a sigh and shouldered her still-dripping weapon.  “Unless you have something else up your sleeve?”

I did not reply at first, choosing instead to hold perfectly still.  I could see from her eyes that she was not quite focusing at me.  From that, I could assume my emotions only revealed my approximate location.  But then… with that huge sword, it would only take a few random swings.  Hiding would never work.

All I had left was Jax… assuming I could get her upright again.  She had yet to erupt into flame, so I still had at least some hope.  Have to find a way to stall…

“I think we both have a pretty good idea as to what I can and cannot do,” I said, slowly coming to my feet.  “What would you recommend?”

Her eyes snapped to me the moment I began to speak.  But she did not immediately attack.  

“Recommend?  For you?  Against me?”  For a moment, bright, tinkling laughter erupted from her throat.  Then she cocked her hip and sighed.  “Oh, I do so love your wit.  You have no idea how much it pains me to have to kill you.”

“That makes two of us.”

“Undoubtedly.  Now, let’s see…”  She turned and began to pace side-to-side with a gloating swagger.  “Any good with your fists?”

I blinked.  Ahnbe’s heaving chebs… that’s some gall.  She’s actually considering the question?

However, she began shaking her head almost as soon as I did.  “No… you would not have focused so heavily on spell-casting if you had any confidence with that.  And I’ve seen your spear-work.”

“Hey, now!  I’ve taken out a few Gobs.”

She looked at my pityingly.  “A child could kill a Gob.  And most of them could as easily kill you.  No, if I were in your position, I would certainly try to run.  You have the door at your back, after all.”

We stared at one another a moment, neither moving.  She was clearly baiting me, but it was just as clear I had no other options.  Jax was down… and Lynnria?

Xyn followed my eyes to my unmoving third.  “You hesitate over this?  Foolishness.  Even if I gave you a running start, there is scant hope you’d ever make it to the exit.  Try to save her as well, and there would be none.  Your only move is to abandon her as dead.”

“You don’t have to kill her,” I said, gritting my teeth.  “She never did anything to offend you.”

“My task is to reclaim what was stolen,” Xyn countered.  “Or did you think those fangs appeared out of thin air?  Besides, we already showed her the mercy of childhood.  She rejected it.  And now she will pay the price.”

With that, she turned and began stalking toward the girl.  

“My back is turned, Donum,” she called.

The fuck?  I took a single step backward… but I could not force myself to go farther.  It was too easy.  Too heartless.

“What is this?  Some kind of sick test?” I shouted.

“Test?”  Xyn grabbed up Lynnria by the hair, exposing her neck.  Her blade again morphed, but this time to retract until it was nothing but a dagger… which she slowly pressed to the young woman’s jugular.  “We are the Dungeon, fool!  We must play fair.  This is your one opportunity.  I suggest you take it.  Run, Donum.”

I heard the words.  But when she looked back at me, I could instantly see the conflict on her face.  The moisture shining in her eye.  The plea within her voice.  

“Run!”

I took another step back.  The exit called to me.  Just two flights of stairs and out the door… free and clear.  All at the cost of one innocent life.  And a piece of my soul.

But it was a Faustian bargain.  A wish from a monkey’s paw.

Nothing would be resolved.  Whether Ahnbe won or lost the battle overhead, Xhinn would remain a goddess.  Even in defeat, I was certain she could find ways to hound me.  Some loophole to exploit.  Strike a bargain with a third party.

Appeasement was the only way.  I had seen the conflict within Her eyes, just the same as I had within this shadow’s.

But more importantly, I had just seen a finger twitch at my feet.

“Put your knife away, Xyn,” I said softly.  “This isn’t what you want.”

She tilted her head back.  “And that would be?”

I took a breath.  I was going to be taking one hell of a gamble with this.

“You’re a lilim, aren’t you?  Isn’t it obvious?”

I took a deep breath… and simply let go.  Without the armor of my Will to hold it in check, the Lust that had been building within began to spew forth like water from a flood gate.  Lust for her.  Her glorious body.  Her overwhelming prowess.  I allowed myself to see what had been nakedly before me the whole time.  The wanton temptation she represented.  In that moment, I wanted her with every cell of me.

And then I slammed the door closed.

Xyn’s mouth gaped open in a barely repressed urge to lunge for me and everything that singular moment had represented.  I could almost sense her hunger.  She shook with it.

“You… bastard!” she wheezed.  “I gave you a chance, and you use it tempt me like this?   Under their very eyes?”

“What does that matter?  I’m damned no matter which way I turn.”

Again, I hit her with every ounce of my building Lust.  And this time, I allowed my member to lengthen.  And slowly rise.  Pulsing.  Harder.  And harder.

“Come with me, Xyn,” I crooned softly.  “Join with me.  Be mine, and you can feast… on this… every single day.”  Again, I shut it all down, forcing an wretched cry from Xyn’s throat.  “Or kill me.  And live in regret.”

She took a ragged breath.  “Come with you?  Feast on you?  I can’t come with you.  I’m not bound to you.  I’m bound here!  I cannot cross the boundary.  I cannot go anywhere, you blasted… fiend!  And even if I could, they would rip me to shreds.  Stop with this… this torture.”

I nodded.  If that were true, it would be a kind of torture.  For her anyway.  For a lilim.  She was a creature of temptation.  Of allure.  All she wanted was to feed from the delicious emotions of those who crossed her path.  None of which compared to those from bliss.  Sex was her life’s blood.

But she was trapped here.  A place of death.  Not Life.  Of destruction, hatred, and fear.

For her, I represented the pinnacle of that need.  I was the Lilim’s Chosen.  The shining beacon for all lilim-kind.  I carried a piece of her own maker.  It was no wonder she was so conflicted.  

And as for her goddess?  We’ll just see about that…

I opened up a third time, blasting her openly with how very much I wanted to meet her lips.  To suckle upon those luscious mounds.  To take her to the floor and sink within her folds.

“Just once then?” I asked plaintively.  “Just one time?  One glorious romp before the end?”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest as though to defend herself against the temptation I represented.  But it was a fruitless gesture.  She had already shown her hand.  Arx had died in the process, but I had seen her weakness.  All I needed was for her to drop her guard.  To take one, singular step away from Lynnria.

Shaking and gasping for air, Xyn teetered on the edge.  She just needed a little push.

I shifted my hips just a fraction, drawing her attention to the target of her desire.  And ever so slowly, I began to crinkle my robe upward, showing just a bit of ankle.

With a gasp, she stumbled forward.

“Jax!” I yelled.

Immediately, an army of shadowy clones scattered in all directions, giving Jax just enough of a distraction to roll to her feet and hurl her weapon.  Almost by instinct, Xyn’s own blade rose to deflect it, but it was still just a dagger.  The weight of the ax simply pushed it aside and sank with a satisfying thud into the meat of her shoulder, and her arm fell limply to one side.

Xyn’s face contorted into a rictus of betrayal and agony.  “You… bastard!”

She took a sharp breath inward, and I could just see the precursor of something particularly ominous start to lick the edges of her mouth.

Oh, you have got to be kidding me.

“Master, no!” Jax screamed, and leapt in front of me just as a torrent of flame erupted from the enraged she-dragon’s maw.  

It shot through the intervening space in a focused jet, from the center as white as the sun, yet at the edges, it flickered and curled just as blackly as her scales.  And when it hit Jax’s crossed fists…

…she did not die.

She did not burn nor disintegrate.  The flames did not wash over her.  I did not even feel its heat.  A nearly translucent dome of blue had spread out to cover us, concentrated right at the point of impact, but still faintly discernible as it swept over my head.

And then it was over.  The shield flickered and died, spent of its  Energy in the same moment Xyn’s breath ran out.

“Holy… shit,” I muttered under my breath.  “That was some kind of luck.”

“Aye,” Jax agreed, eying her gauntlets.  “Wished I’d known they could do that sooner.”

“It won’t help you…” Xyn growled furiously, gasping for air.  She would not be doing that again any time soon.  “Even with one arm, I can still kill you both.  You’re dead.  Do you hear me?  You’re both dead!”

I just smiled.  Like I said.  I had seen her weakness.

With a flick of my finger, I turned to my First.  “Jax, if you would?”

She grinned with dawning comprehension.  “Aye.  Try a taste o’ this, ye bloody weapon!”

With that, she hurled a ball of apparently nothing toward the unsuspecting lilim.  Or nothing visible, anyway.

Xyn might well have been the greatest warrior to ever live.  But she was still a warrior… with a warrior’s vulnerability.  Conveniently enough, to the very worst skill in my arsenal.  

Lust Transfer.  

Mark II.

And Jax had just dumped an entire mountain’s worth of it onto her head.

Xyn began to scream from the agonizing need suddenly crawling through her skin, seeking purchase.  Stimulation.  Connection.  I knew the feeling intimately.  It had been inside me not a moment before, but with my buffs I had been able to ignore it.  And now passed on, it had been magnified by my skill.

Her blade appeared and morphed crazily within her palm, and she began thrashing about with it uncontrollably, still trying to take us down despite her affliction.  Random insults and nonsense spewed from her mouth.  Promises of torturous pleasure.  Begging.  And other things best left unrepeated.

None of which left her in any room to notice the shock of purple hair rising behind her.

“Dirt!”

The wad of soil slammed into the back of the anguished she-devil’s head like a cannon shot, and I unconsciously winced in sympathy.  I had taken one of those myself.

Xyn went to the ground in a heap, still mumbling promises of what was to come if she ever laid hands on me, and instantly began trying to climb to her feet once more.

Lynnria stalked forward.  “Dirt!”

Xyn’s head ricocheted off the ground with the force of the blast.  Even so, she did not quite go still.  Her hands were still roving about her body, weakly trying to give herself the pleasure she so desperately craved.

“…how…?” she wheezed.

“Hmph.”  Lynnria tilted her nose upward—conveniently ignoring the dried sick running down her shirt.  “What?  Never seen a ruse before?  All I had to do was wait for the Wisdom to build, and I would be just as immune to the pressure as the rest of them.  No Lust required.  That part only ever affects the willing, after all.  Now be a good girl and go to sleep.  It’s time for your Dirt nap!”

Xyn’s entire body jerked with the blast… and went still.  Finally at peace.  There were no cuts or abrasions nor any other signs of trauma on her body—beyond the soil, anyway.  Her scales had protected her against that.  But scales could not protect against concussion.  They never were much good against blunt damage.

Lynnria grinned cruelly and pressed the tip of her wand to the comatose woman’s forehead, intent on finishing her off, but I quickly jerked her hand away.

“No,” I said simply.  “We’re taking her with us.”

For a moment, both of my surviving girls turned to stare at me like I had finally lost it.

“What?!”