Friska was flying back from the east at around noon of the fifth day after they returned to the southern continent. Since Warren had about a six days head start over them sailing towards Pinewood Hill, he was estimated to return around the same amount of days later than them. Except the wind has turned in these last few days, it was now blowing from the north, and it grew quite strong at times, especially at nights. It could have sped up Warren's ship by a fair amount. At the moment though, the air was still and humid, and quite warm too. The fairy was flying fast enough so that the air currents felt refreshing against her sweaty blue skin. Not that she cared too much about the heat; like everyone else's, her mind too was occupied with the looming threat that could have been arriving at any time.

And it did. She was the one to first notice it: a lone ship appearing on the horizon. She stopped her momentum and hovered in place high up, taking out her spyglass from her side-bag. She saw that it was an old-looking, grey ship, and there was a bit of red on its dark sails too. It was Heartbreaker without a doubt.

“That damn Carlos... where the hell is he?” she muttered.

In a few minutes, she came across one of the small patrol groups they sent out, the easternmost one. They were sitting on some blankets laid down on the dusty ground, playing cards.

“Hey, warren's here, you dummies!” she yelled from above their heads. “Look, can't you see it?”

The men got up and stared, getting anxious quickly. Friska too take another look: while the ship was a bit closer to the land now, it seemed like it was turning eastwards.

“Is it going to Murky Bay?” yelled one of the men below.

“Fuck,” the fairy muttered.

Only around fifty people stayed in the pirate town, including Warren's liberated slave Suzy, and the little boy from Newchance called Ali. Even from where they were, the town was some 50 kilometres away.

“He isn't going to take much of a detour my ass...” She looked down towards the men and raised her voice. “Go back to the camp as fast as you can! Tell them to get going towards Murky Bay at once, and I suggest them to stick together. That includes Chio too! Got it? Whether she is our strongest asset or not, we have more strength in numbers!”

“And how about you?” one of the guys asked, covering his eyes with his hands from the sun as he was watching the little woman above.

“I'll speed there to warn everyone. We will abandon town, go further inland and reconnect with the alliance later.”

“All right!”

Friska flew on towards the east, now really working her wings. She held onto her spyglass, and whenever she slowed down to take a bit of a rest, she looked through it, keeping an eye on Heartbreaker. The ship got relatively close to the shoreline, and it followed her relentlessly. Well, it surely didn't follow her in particular, it was very unlikely that they could see her from there, as small as she was... but what if they did? The thought was spine-chilling. But no, it was just going to attack the now vulnerable Murky Bay again, surely.

“Why the hell did we not go there to protect it?” she said to herself at one point. That town was the only place now on the Scorched Lands where civilians (if you could call stationary pirate-folk that) were still hanging out, even if they were few in numbers. But the alliance did not want to split up, and Carlos said that grassy mound was their best spot. The real question was why did he say that.

Overall, Friska was faster than Heartbreaker though, so eventually she could barely make it out in the distance behind her. She had a dilemma about whether she should keep going at her maximum speed or slow down a bit, just so she can continuously watch the invading vessel. In the end, she decided that the safety of that fifty in Murky Bay is her first priority. And she sped on.

Meanwhile, the patrol group reached the alliance's main camp, catching everyone's attention with excited yelling. As they revealed what they saw and what Friska told them, Chio of course did not want to stay back with the rest of them. While the whole camp was frantically getting ready to board their ships (sailing was going to be faster than walking) she was just about to take wings alone when Porco and Terry ran up to her.

“What are you doing?!” Porco called her out.

“I'm... going to Murky Bay!”

“Chio, just think for a moment! Why the heck did this alliance come together if Warren is just going to drag you around alone? What is the point?”

“But the fleet will only get there by dusk! Do you want me to just...”

“Friska will warn them, and they will escape the town. You have to trust her! Warren is a dangerous enemy, you know that. You cannot be reckless now.”

Terry stepped forward and put his hand on Chio's shoulder. The girl stared into his worried eyes, sighed, then turned to Porco again. “You are right. I'm sorry.”

After a tense voyage that felt like it somehow went by both faster and slower than expected, they reached Murky Bay at dusk, and what greeted them was the sight of burning. Basically every remaining building was set on fire, it was absolute destruction.

As they entered the port and got off their ships, they found themselves surrounded by the familiar screeching of Warren's female battle-slaves. Despite the horrifying scene though, the actual fight was a peace of cake. Warren's women were just as frenzied and animalistically determined as during their first invasion, but they were actually quite few in numbers. Some twenty women and five men serving as their masters. Two of those guys were killed fast, the other three were quick to surrender. Chio also held down most of the women once they realized how few of them were present, and they ended up tying them all up. That wasn't easy, even with the help of Chio's power, but with how much they outnumbered them, it was doable. The angel declared that she is going to rehabilitate each and every one of them when she has the chance, but for now, they were just carried on their ships and locked away.

The three captured pirate guys were different, as expected. One of them broke down sobbing and begged for forgiveness, another passed out, but the third one was able to stoically answer their questions – he was creepily calm and nonchalant about everything, but according to Chio's intuition, he did not lie. He told them that they found nobody in the town, so they just set everything on fire, as per the instructions Warren gave them. Warren apparently had a bit of a fleet of his own. Three ships in total, including late Ike Lazarus's prized Annabelle. He sent Heartbreaker here alone with a smaller crew, probably as a distraction. Where Warren himself went with the rest of his forces, the dude couldn't say.

After the three captured males were brought on their ships too, the leaders of the alliance stood together on the wide waterfront-street, watching the cavalcade of flames and smoke from a safe distance.

“Have we been played?” Eric asked.

“Who does he think he is, playing games with us?!” Marcella grimaced angrily.

“Dammit...” Porco crouched down, facepalming. He felt like he should have seen this coming – they even noted how there wasn't a single ship left at Newchance's port when they went there after the first battle here. It was obviously possible that Warren took some of those ships. Did Warren just slip through their fingers? Did he already land, and was he going further south, only Carlos knows where?

“What's weird is that he would just give up Heartbreaker like this,” said Iesha. The grey ship was already searched through by their men, it was pretty much empty. “Back in the day, he was supposedly furious when Carlos stole it from him.”

“He sure was,” nodded one-eyed Owen, who was there.

“He must think he can get it back after he is done,” said Fabio. “With whatever it is he came back for.”

A building collapsed near them with a crack, embers flew up into the air. The whole alliance took a step back.

“So what should we do?” asked Eric.

Porco stared at angelic Chio, elegant but impulsive Marcella, and tattooed Iesha, wondering if it was his lingering succubus-addiction that made his brain slower.

 

 

Arabella and Shreya were dragged out onto the main deck of Annabelle under the the orange sky. They were just brought over to this vessel from Heartbreaker this morning. Before that, they were rarely taken outside, so they haven't even realized that Warren had multiple ships, but apparently he did.

Annabelle was now anchored in the port of a silent, ruinous town. Not Murky Bay, another place. The two exhausted, lethargic succubi didn't have much time to look around though. They were surrounded by Warren's female slaves, who looked at them with those creepy, startled, maniacal eyes from all directions, just standing over them while the succubi had to kneel. Then Warren appeared and began to beat the demons up. They both knew they had no chance against him. Not only were their hands tied behind their backs, but they haven't got a drop of semen to eat for the last three days. They were kind of used to being physically abused by now, but Warren was really brutal this time. He was using his bare fists, and that surprising power which one wouldn't have expected from a thin, sickly looking man like him could be felt in every one of his strikes. Arabella was loosing track of her thoughts, and was on the verge of passing out when Warren finally stopped.

She could barely register what happened in the next few minutes. When she somewhat regained her wits, she found herself surrounded by walls again. Although the wooden window of the room was closed, she could tell that they weren't on a ship anymore, they were in a house inside that abandoned town. She and Shreya were lying on the floor. Several of Warren's women were sitting around them, one held a torch, casting dancing shadows on the walls. Shreya seemed to be unconscious.

A long time passed like this in silence when Warren came again. The man just stood over them for what felt like a minute, while his slaves got to their feet and watched him eagerly, tensely, ready to obey his every word. Arabella pretended that she is passed out too, lying on her stomach. The man could not be fooled though, he noticed that she is awake, and rolled her to her back with his foot.

“I was wondering which one of you I should use for this. I think it has to be the dark one. I want to keep you as you are for leverage over that angel, and of course I'll continue keeping you as a pet once this is all over. Aren't you grateful, succubus?”

Arabella did not reply. Warren grabbed Shreya's body and flung her over his shoulder effortlessly. His slaves only sat down a minute after he was gone.

The building Arabella was left in was right at the western border of the town. There was a stretch of even dusty ground outside it, and Warren already drew some large, complicated symbols into it using a spear. He lay the unconscious Shreya down in the middle of his ceremonial site, while most of his servants spectated him: more than two hundred women, and around forty men.

Then, the evil pirate went to get the the grey-mane lion, a strong, adult male in its prime, which was kept chained to a pole. He captured it before they left Newchance some two weeks ago, and kept it in a storage room beneath the deck of Annabelle. The animal was only ever fed by him personally. It had been through several long days of complete isolation in the belly of a swaying ship, a dark and small place, so he was rather moody now and restless, yet, he seemed to fear Warren still, and everyone knew that he had good reasons to. He was exceedingly large, a true pride-leader, a great catch.

“Grey-mane, succubus...” Warren muttered as he led the chained animal towards the middle of his ceremonial circle. “Scorpion...” he pulled out one from his pocket, its legs writhing in the air. He put it down and stepped on it, with not enough force to kill it, just to keep it in place. “Something's missing.”

He was about to create yet another manticore, but this time, he had no obvious candidate to add to the monster's drive. He figured he will just use one of his men as a final touch, one of the more fucked up ones, he had a few of those. The monster may end up being less ferociously hell-bent this way, but he, as its master, can still give it that singular purpose that manticores live by. And a manticore made in part by a succubus, as far as he knew, was unprecedented. For Warren, it was going to be amazing, even if it was possibly a little risky. Even he couldn't be certain about how this manticore was going to turn out, but when his goal was to create mayhem, perhaps that didn't matter.

He took a long look at the people around him, his gaze stopping on each of his men. If they knew what he was considering, perhaps they wouldn't have been so still.

“You! Come here!” he pointed at one, and the man did as he was told.

Creating a manticore was only possible on stable ground, that's why Warren was carrying this beast of a lion with him. After he created the one made partially of Ike Lazarus, he had to take a break. These ceremonies took a toll on even someone like him, he couldn't just do them all the time. And so his plan was to create one once they get to Pinewood Hill – the voyage to that place would have been a sufficiently long break. But of course things have changed. Although it did seem like he had a bit more time than he feared, he knew had to act. What happened, what he sensed, he just had to get to the bottom of it, it was crucial, and at the same time, he was very aware of the alliance that was formed against him, eager to fight him, and not too far from where he was. Distracting them with his ship seemed to work for now, but that was only a temporary solution, it only brought him an opportunity to land safely. Now, he needed to go all out.

The man who he called out for, a guy with shaggy brown hair and a wicked smile, stopped by his master, looking at him in awe and with morbid curiosity. “What do you want me to do, captain?”

Warren, who was still holding the lion's chain with one hand, stabbed they guy with the other, using his sword. It was a swift motion, and he stuck him in the guts.

“Bleed for me!” he said.

The man fell to the ground and began screaming in pain. Warren looked at the spectators. “The rest of you men should go on a walk,” he suggested. “My work will include a succubus, so you better not watch.”

Arabella could hear the screams from where she was confined. She was still lying on the ground with bound arms, feeling weak and being covered in bruises and cuts. That handful of women were still there with her, watching her diligently. The screams outside were first only a man's screams, but a woman's screams joined him soon. Arabella could tell that it was Shreya. She sat up – one of her guards jumped to her feet and kicker her in the chest, pushing her back down. Arabella wanted to scream in helplessness. Instead, she just clenched every muscle in her body, then gave up.

But just moments later, someone entered the building.

“Get out!” she heard an unknown male voice.

“But Sir, Warren said...”

“You know who I am. I am Crowmaster, second in command of Warren, who's busy now. Know your place!”

“Yes, sir! Sorry, sir!”

The women left. Arabella sat up again, and took a look at the man she was alone with now. He was a freakishly tall, dark-skinned human with a black beard. He had to slightly duck as he stepped into the room from the small corridor where the building's front door opened from. He wore the usual black uniform of Warren's crew, with the simple image of the pierced heart on its back.

“I'm going to have sex with you, succubus. Come over here and show me your tongue!”

The tortured man's screams stopped outside, but Shreya was still going.

“Did Warren send you?” asked Arabella.

“Who cares? We are all going to die, I can feel it. It doesn't matter. I just want to know how your touch feels before the end.”

Arabella quickly crawled over to the guy and stuck her tongue out. She had a black eye, her lips were bruised, yet she did her best to look as cock-hungry as she could. It really worked. The guy pulled his sizeable dick out and she started sucking on it. In all honesty, it was rather tasty. She was so hungry. But that wasn't the point.

“Who did you say you are?” she asked, licking the cock. “Crowmaster?” She put it back in her mouth.

“Yes. I am a mage from Lion's Isle, I used to serve Warren back in the day. Ah, that's nice... suck it more!”

“A mage? Can you control crows?” she asked quickly, then continued sucking quickly.

“I can. And I see through my crows' eyes too. I am his secret spy. Fuck, succubi are good...” he grabbed Arabella's head. Shreya sounded like she was dying outside.

“To be honest, I wasn't too thrilled by Warren's return,” Crowmaster continued. “He came to pick me up first thing after he got back his ship. I thought I was through with his bullshit. But there is no saying no to that man, I know that well. It doesn't matter now. As master of crows, I also have good intuition, I can smell doom, just like the birds. I feel it...” his hold on Arabella's head softened as he was getting close to the climax.

That's when Arabella jumped to action. She stood up quick and transformed – the man's eyes widened, his hands froze, and his cock was dripping cum without being touched.

“Feel this!” the succubus said in her demonic voice, kicking the dude in the balls. He fell to his knees, Arabella grabbed his beard. “Kill Warren for me!”

To the succubus' delight, Shreya's method really worked. Crowmaster stood up, stared at Arabella with an open, drooling mouth, then he slowly nodded and turned around. A succubus-sick man turning his back to her out of his own will! Arabella never thought she would see something like this.

While the man walked out the main door, Arabella quickly licked the drops of cum from the floor, opened the window, and jumped out at the backside of the building. Getting a bit of food was nice, but she was still quite weak, and her wings were messed up, there was no way she could fly. Still, the adrenaline and that taste of freedom gave her some strength. She wanted to escape, but she hesitated just for a moment. Shreya's screams stopped now too. Was she still alive? Could she still save her? Doubtful. At last, she started running away.

She didn't get far. It was Warren himself, in his grotesque, multi-limbed skeletal form, who caught up to her, just outside town on the eastern side. Arabella really thought for a moment that she was going to die as this monstrosity of a man was catching up to her. But he didn't kill her, didn't even hurt her much. He turned back into his human form, grabbing her arm. “What did you do to my Crowmaster?” he asked quietly.

“Nothing...”

He slapped her with just enough force to remind her how helpless she was. “Tell me, succubus!”

“He came to have sex with me, and I wanted to escape!” Arabella cried. She felt so foolish now, but she just had to try.

“Why did he attack me? I never saw a guy being like that. He was fully under your charm, wasn't he?”

“I... don't know.”

“You are lying to me, and I just lost my Crowmaster due to you. Yet, I'm not even mad at you. You can control men, I don't know how, but you can. That's great to know, my dear succubus. Come! Let's put your talents to good use!”

Arabella was forced to turn back into her human form, and then dragged back to Warren's ceremonial site which was surrounded by his female army. Crowmaster was on the ground just outside the symbols, decapitated. In the middle, there were a couple of bodies: another man with a cut on his stomach, mostly dead; a grey-mane lion lying on his side,breathing with a heavy, unnatural snore; and Shreya in her true form, unconscious again, arms and legs twisted unnaturally, blood dried under her eyes. She was still breathing too.

Warren called out for a female slave to drag the gutted guy away. “I'll have to start over, but it's probably fine. We do have a bit of time,” he muttered. Then he took Arabella behind one of the buildings, where his men were standing around. He said the name of one, and that trembling little guy stepped forward. The one who used to feed Arabella and Shreya during their voyage after the “big guy” died.

“Don't worry, I promise I won't just gut you,” Warren said. “I just want you to cum. We need to feed the other one, I don't want her to die prematurely.”

“B-but... captain, I don't know if I can...”

“Touch her first, she will get you in the mood!” he tossed Arabella towards him.

The little guy hesitantly grabbed her boobs, and a shy smile appeared on his face. His eyes were still scared, but his shaking was in part due to excitement now, and he had his penis in his hands. Warren then called one of her female slaves over, and made the man cum in her mouth, commanding her not to swallow it. It was her task to carry it over to Shreya and feed it to her through a kiss without wasting a drop. Warren then picked a guy – another one, not the little one, a stronger, bigger one – and told the others to leave. It was just him, this one startled male, and Arabella now standing in the long shade of an abandoned house. The sun was almost fully down now.

“I want you to do it, Arabella,” Warren said. “I want you to control a man like you did with Crowmaster. Needless to say, you will suffer greatly if you refuse.”

“Control me?” the guy jerked his head up.

“Don't worry,” Warren replied with barely any care.

“What do I have to...” Arabella muttered defeatedly.

“Hmm. I suppose commanding him to kill Chio is one thing even I won't be able to make you do.”

“I would rather die.”

“Then I would say it's either that ice mage, whatever her name is, or... the fairy. Friska, was it? I was impressed by her in the battle of Murky Bay, she has quite a few tricks up her sleeve, and she is a swift flyer. Let's go with her.”

“Friska...? I... I...”

“Look, at the end of the day, I want to win, and I want to live. But you, you want to live too. As long as Chio is alive, as long as you can see the slightest chance of being with her again, you will cling to your life. Repulsive, but true. Isn't that right?”

“W-what are you talking about, captain?” the confused fellow asked.

“I can just kill you, Arabella.” said Warren. “It would be disappointing, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. You would be useful to me alive, you know it. So why don't you hold onto your hope a little more? Come on, Arabella. Make me keep you alive.”

The succubus grunted in frustration, then transformed. The guy turned his back to her in time and tried to escape like a panicking animal, but Warren didn't let him, he forced him to watch. And then Arabella did what she had to. She looked into her victim's widened eyes, she kicked him, and she told him to find and kill Friska. According to Shreya, the commands only lasted for a few hours... maybe it won't matter. And even if it did, Arabella had no choice. She wanted to live.

She was brought back to the same building where she was held previously, now ten women watched over her, who were told to not leave their post until Warren personally says so. Arabella was lying on the ground, dissociating. They didn't even bother to tie up her arms now.

Half an hour later, while the screaming outside was once again loud and intense, the wooden window was slammed open. Someone grabbed Arabella. She didn't know what the hell was going on. Was she dying again? Did she already die? Was it Warren? Was it someone else? Her head was hurting, and her ears were ringing. Yet, she still heard her female guides yell desperately... and their screeching was farther and farther away with every passing second. They were in the air. Whoever was carrying her was flying.

She gasped, and with her last strength, began to squirm around in her saviour's grasp in pure euphoric excitement. Yes, she did catch a glimpse of white feathers. It was her!

They landed soon, and the angel put her down gently on the ground. They were atop a smaller mound to the east of Newchance, quite far away from the town now. Arabella was on her knees, staring at the woman standing over her. She had blood-red hair kept in a braided ponytail. She was not Chio. Arabella smirked, then passed out.