We left Jonangu Shrine as quickly as possible because the blast and falling tree had alerted a lot of people to the area. A nearby apartment building's rooftop provided us some semblance of privacy. After giving Taleia and Yumi some space, the rebellious, teary-eyed succubus returned to me with a solemn apology.

"Sarena captured Mio and Selene because she took advantage of my weakness. I don't know if I will ever earn your forgiveness, but I will do whatever I can to make things right. Whatever punishment awaits me is deserved," Taleia said, making an effort to sound as genuine as possible.

"Well, as long as you've learned your lesson." I folded my arms and sighed.

The excess trouble Taleia brought affected all succubus. Including the ones that were about to betray me when I became human. After all, they were a race that followed one another. A human leading succubi would have been a hard pill to swallow.

Although… They had a more direct hand in trying to rape me, so punishment might be appropriate there.

"Now that you're safe and sound, why don't you tell us what you were planning to do?" I asked Taleia.

She raised her head, shocked. "You're not… going to punish me?"

"You still have the wrong perception of me. I'm not like Beatrice. I never will be. Besides, I get that you did it for Yumi. Punishing you for something I'd probably pull for my own sister would be wrong. There is a certain group of succubus I want to punish though…"

When Taleia turned to Yumi, the elder sister simply smiled.

"Saeko is possibly the kindest queen we've never had," Yumi said, much to my embarrassment.

"I…" Taleia pressed her fingers together in a shameful display of guilt. "Sarena gave me an enchanted bomb… If I used it to blow myself up, she would ensure the succubus in this world would be spared. I thought doing so would make up for what I did…"

Yumi held her younger sister tightly to comfort her.

That damn Sarena. People were all pawns to her. Taleia, the elven artifact hunters, and even myself… We played into her hands, and she now had the power to back up whatever schemes were on her mind.

"Taleia, can you tell us anything you might know about Sarena's plans and where she is so we can stop her?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I don't know. Sarena chose to meet me at a park, but I'm pretty sure she had come from elsewhere. Regarding what her plans with the sword are, I'm not entirely sure either. She was really secretive about it. Even when the light elves who were with her mentioned something about a deal with the Goddess of Everlight, Sarena snapped at them to be quiet."

Goddess of Everlight?

From what Shayle had told me earlier, that was the goddess that cursed the faction of elves with infertility for siding with the demon lord. But what did a succubus have to gain for bargaining with her? Certainly not to help the dark elves with their ailment, otherwise Sarena would have been more open with Shayle about her plans.

The fact that the ones helping Sarena were all light elves and not a single dark elf made it all the more suspicious.

"It appears we have no lead. What shall we do?" Yumi inquired.

"Wait!" Taleia lit up.

"Did you remember something?" I asked.

"As I was flying away, I distinctly heard them talk about a shrine to make contact with the goddess. But is there such a place on Earth to do so?"

If there was such a place…

When I turned to Yumi for any ideas, she said, "It would have to be a place where the veil between our worlds has weakened. Perhaps places where portals have been ripped open previously?"

"Like the place where all you succubus were first transported?" I put forward, furrowing my brows in thought.

Both Taleia and Yumi glanced at each other with their mouths agape.

"That must be Fukuo Shrine then," Taleia said.

"Fukuo… Shrine? That's where I fought Beatrice." Recalling that battle sent shivers down my spine and not the sexually pleasurable kind.

Just remembering how ass-clenchingly close that battle was enough to put the fear back into me. Come to think of it, Beatrice had also briefly transformed me back into a boy at the time. These damn succubus think they can mess with my gender… Mio, Beatrice, and then Sarena which made three.

My gender wasn't something to mess with!

"What do you think, Saeko?" Yumi asked.

"It's our only lead, so we should at least investigate."

Using the artifact Shayle had given me and visualizing the love hotel room, I opened a portal for us to return home.

As soon as I stepped through the portal, the overwhelming scent of lust blasted my face like standing in front of a fan on max settings. Succubi and dark elves were having sex like no tomorrow. On the floor, the bed, the bathroom, even outside in the hallway, and against the open window, no place was off limits to them. Several succubus even had a dick, evidence to them having taken the dark elves' potions.

The only light elf among them was Ellara, just as much a participant in the orgy.

"Ara~ It seems everyone has been busy while we were away for a short time." Yumi giggled.

"HANA!" I ran out into the lobby to find her asleep, legs up on the counter, sleeping mask on, and drooling from the corner of her mouth.

Instead of waking her up normally, I tightened my aura around her.

"Uuuwaaaahh! No wet dreams! No, sir!" She fell backwards and tumbled to the ground.

I picked her up by the collar of her shirt. "You were supposed to supervise them, not let them have an orgy!"

"Whaddya want me to do next? Tell magnets to stop working? You put a dark elf and succubus in a room together, sex is inevitable!"

Sighing, I let Hana go.

Light elves were lounging in the lobby. Many of them red up to the tips of their pointed ears from the sounds of sex. Others put on a regal demeanor in an attempt to stay composed, but the squeezed-shut thighs rubbing together was proof that their restraint was waning.

Just the sight of them made me want to ruin every single one of their purity—

No! Now wasn't the time!

"Yes… Yes… Come to the dark side…" Hana croaked, making weird hand gestures behind me.

"Stop that!" I slapped her hand. "It's time to gather all the succubus and elves. We're heading to Fukuo Shrine to confront Sarena."

It took some corralling to separate the succubus and dark elves from each other, then out into the lobby. Thankfully, Shayle's commanding presence whipped her artifact hunters into gear, and a large number of my succubus were afraid to anger me further after the near-mutinous incident.

In fact, many of them were made to stand before me on Clerissa's orders.

"Q-Queen Saeko, we are terribly sorry for even thinking about betraying you. It won't happen again," the frontmost succubus said to me, trembling where she stood and unable to meet my eyes.

I stroked the side of her cheek. So many of their small, overlapping auras were engulfed by mine. The difference in our strengths were night and day. Upon shrinking my aura to her size, the succubus shuddered and fell forward into my arms.

A human would have been mind broken in a split second, but for a succubus…

"I'm truly… s-sorry for having… nngh… the audacity to think about betraying… you…" she stammered, face flushed red and eyes spinning.

My aura and a mere touch had brought her to a climax.

"I'll just have to thoroughly punish you all later, and I'm sure Mio would like to give me a hand." I smiled, causing her eyes to roll back and shudder.

"As… As you command, Queen Saeko…"

"All my artifact hunters, with the exception of the four who have sided with Sarena, are accounted for." Shayle nodded to me from the other side of the room with her elven group at ready.

I returned the nod and used the mirror artifact to carve a portal to Fukuo Shrine. As the leader and one who bore the sole responsibility for letting this get out of hand, I took the first step through, followed by Yumi and Hana.

Chilly winds battered me the moment I came out the other end to the familiar shrine. The place where I had done battle against Beatrice. However, not a single piece of evidence was left from the destruction of that fight. The entire place had been quickly repaired, as was expected of a place with cultural and religious significance.

With the others coming out and flanking me from behind, I walked towards the shrine's main worship hall past the torii gate. Mio's and Selene's aura brought me comfort, knowing that they were alive.

But among them was another, much larger aura than a greater succubus. It belonged to Sarena, which shouldn't be since she was a lesser succubus.

There they were before the building. Sarena was channeling sexual energy from the sword, guarded by four light elves. Mio and Selene were on their knees, bound and gagged. Their eyes filled with relief upon seeing me.

As expected, when I tried to commune with or recall the sword back to me, it didn't respond.

"So you were here… Give up, Sarena! You can't possibly fight against us all!" I shouted to her.

"We're here for vengeance, baby!" Hana added, brandishing her gigantic dildo weapon.

"Regrettably, I need not fight you myself, dear queen!" Sarena glanced over her shoulder and smirked. She let the Blade of the First Temptress hover above the offering box where magic began to seep out like a cyclone. More than that, wispy tendrils tethered to Mio and Selene, draining them of their energy. Both keeled over on the ground, groaning in pain.

"Then we're just going to have to do this the hard way! Everyone, surround her and attack from all sides!" I ordered.

As we charged in and the four rebellious light elves took an aggressive stance. Sarena turned around and pointed at us.

"Kneel before your new queen!" she demanded.

All of the succubi were forced to the ground. Only myself, Yumi, Hana, and the elven artifact hunters continued the charge thanks to our cloaks.

I shattered through the gate and flew past the light elves. They tried to pursue me, but my friends kept them busy. A destructive brawl waged explosively behind me as I slammed a fist into Sarena.

The ground shuddered beneath my feet and wind bursted outwards from the impact.

Sarena had easily blocked my strike with her palm.

"Incredible, isn't it? That my strength could rise to that of a queen from merely wielding the sword! I've never felt so much power. Oh, I can get drunk on this forever!" she cackled.

Our duel tore across the shrine grounds. Sarena lobbed powerful spells at me, but I saw them coming a mile away and deftly dodged every single one. Hana and Beatrice casted deadlier spells than that, and Selene drilled it into my head to pay close attention to the hands for their trajectory.

"I expected nothing less from the one who defeated Beatrice. How about something you can't dodge?" Sarena flew high into the sky and absorbed some of the magic from the cyclone-like pillar, coalescing into a marble-sized black orb in her hands.

I recognized that spell from when Beatrice had almost levelled the shrine with it. If I dodged, the entire place would be destroyed.

"Enjoy this parting gift, former queen!" She fired the orb at me, and I stood firm to take the blast.

"You aren't dying until you fulfill your end of the bargain!" Shayle came between me and the spell, using her ring to absorb the magic.

The black marble stopped in place but continued to rotate at high speeds, creating a gust that tore branches off trees and blew people off their feet.

Crack!

Shayle gasped. We both realized that the ring was reaching its limit.

When it shattered at last, I shoved Shayle away and took the blast. It sent me skidding to the other side of the shrine. Aside from my boobs being slightly crispy, I was otherwise fine.

With Sarena's elves defeated, the artifact hunters came to mine and Shayle's defense. In the corner of my eyes, Yumi attempted to help Mio and Selene but was shocked everytime she got near the magic tethers.

"You're alone now, Sarena." I flew up to face her from a distance along with an army of elves.

"Come now. This arrangement would be good for you, too. A permanent portal connecting Earth and Elza. All for the small cost of handing the planet over to the light elves and their Goddess of Everlight," Sarena said.

The light elves were stunned. They almost faltered from fighting any further once they heard the name of their goddess.

"What? The Goddess of Everlight would never make a deal with a succubus. What do you even have to gain from them coming here? They would annihilate all succubus including you!" Shayle blinked at the massive portal that was manifesting as a result from the sword.

"Things have changed ever since the demon lord upset the balance of power. The goddess needs worship after all, and what better than the cattle of humans? Only I could have struck a deal with her, and once the armies of Everlight have arrived, there would be nothing and no one to stop them. You light elves, after hearing that, would you still rebel against your goddess' will?" the treacherous succubus asked.

"Why do people like you want to enslave Earth so much? Can't we just live in harmony instead?!" I cried.

For once, Hana was spooked. "Even after the demon lord decimated the armies of Everlight's forces, them's still packing a whole lotta firepower. More than we can handle, that's for sure…"

Many of the light elves did lower their weapons. They bickered amongst themselves over what was right. After all, their express purpose was to help their dark elven sisters regain fertility. But with their own people and goddess coming, that had become a conflict of interest.

"What are you doing? Don't surrender now! You have promised to help us!" Shayle pleaded desperately to her light elven counterparts.

Amongst the noncombatants, however, one of them stepped forward.

"I for one, will not side with the Goddess of Everlight," Ellara declared to the gasps of her many kin. "It is wrong to let them conquer this peaceful world, and it was our hubris that helped ignite the civil war back in Elza. I refuse to see it happen again here."

"Ellara…"

"Are you really going to betray the Everlight for them?"

Several of the light elves expressed disappointment in their fellow sister, but others appeared supportive.

"You just want to have more degenerate sex with the succubus, don't you?" one of them teased.

"Urk—! Th-That's not entirely true! Just like ourselves, even the Goddess of Everlight may be led astray herself. I genuinely believe we cannot continue these ceaseless battles. We saw what it did to Elza! Shall we see it done to Earth?" she asked everyone.

To my surprise, their answers were a resounding and unanimous, "No!"

"Well, Sarena. Going back to what I said earlier, it seems you really are alone in this." I sneered.

Sarena's normally steeled composure began to falter.

"The Goddess of Everlight promised me a land to rule once her ilk have conquered this world. I will have my kingdom one way or another, and she has granted me her blessing to do so!" A golden bow manifested in her hands, a weapon brimming with as much power as the Blade of the First Temptress. "Behold, the artifact of the light elven people— Everdawn!"

The light elves watched up in horror as Sarena pulled the bowstring back. An arrow made of pure light, as though stolen from the stars above her, nocked itself on the bow.

Ellara grabbed my shoulders. "We have to escape! If she fires that, it will annihilate this entire mountain!"

"It's that powerful?!" I choked on my spit.

My body seized as a familiar power returned to me.

"Begone from my sight." Sarena fired the arrow which shot forth with the intensity of a meteor.

Instincts took hold, and I called forth the Blade of the First Temptress into my hands. Sarena's eyes widened with surprise. The sword's powers flooded into me, and with its dark magic, made null the arrow back into harmless light. Below, Mio and Selene were freed from whatever was sapping them of their energy, but the cyclone continued to manifest.

"H-How?" she screamed like a banshee.

"From what I can feel it telling me, you became unworthy the moment you wielded Everdawn! Looks like you and the Goddess of Everlight didn't think this one through." I smiled, swinging the sword with glee. "Now, how about we settle this queen versus queen?"