Magtyra didn't know what was more horrendous: the succubus or the tree.

Leafless and greyed, the twisted oak burned by fel fire arched toward the sky, like gnarled fingers pointing to where the sun should have floated. Despite the thick trunk, the tree's branches twisted and curved into thin wooden claws, bending at knobby joints and ending in sharp little points like...insects. There was no clearer analogy in Magtyra's mind; the branches of that tree looked like insectoid limbs, even more insectoid than the disgusting spines lining Nina's calves.

Even more horrifying was the tree's heart. Slimy and green, the plant possessed an organic heart pumping fel taint into those insectoid branches, veins that transitioned from slime into wood connecting the putrid juice to the body of the trunk. Like a giant maggot or grub, the heart pulsed, writhing around as if trying to break free from a cocoon. The tree's heartbeat vibrated through the corrupted ground and traveled up into Magtyra's hooves like the beat of a drum.

Completely unafraid, Nina clopped closer, her back arched at a ridiculously suggestive angle as she honed her vision on the younger of the two male vindicators, obviously the weakest link. Falling into her role as leader without any apprehension this time, Magtyra stood in front of the two men, shielding their eyes at least from the vile mistress in front of them if she couldn't protect their young eyes from the orgies behind them.

"Be gone! You are not welcome here!" Magtyra shouted with less confidence than she would have preferred. The holy symbol she traced in the air only amused the foul succubus even more.

"You welcome people into their own houses? Interesting," Nina replied as she continued to strut straight into the trio of draenei. Despite the fact that she was short, skinny and about a third of Magtyra's body weight, the little demon displayed absolutely no fear as she forced them to back up even further.

And every time Magtyra took her eyes off of that damned tree for one single second...it appeared even closer. So did the trench surrounding it. She couldn't stare at it when her mind was busy wondering if Nina would strike or her cultists would mob them, thus Magtyra wouldn't be able to prove that the ground was shifting around them, but she knew that it truly was.

"You've all traveled for so long...won't youstay for a while?"

With a flick of her limp wrist, Nina cast a spell before the trio had even noticed. Green, black and purple magic seeped out of the ground beneath the feet of the two male vindicators, transforming into demonic traps that pulled both of them flat on the ground. Magtyra whirled around, raising her shield at nothing as she felt the panic grip her. Where was that mercenary?

"Come and get them, boys and girls!" Nina cackled, motioning for a group of unclothed revelers to slip and slide out of the jacuzzis of wine. Dirt collected in their bare skin and mixed with the wine, a decadent contrast of material excess and filth as the naked, unarmed cultists lustily strutted over to the two restrained vindicators. "There's enough for everybody!"

Magtyra spun around, counting just under a dozen cultists licking their lips and rubbing their...ugh...selves as they crept over toward her two youngers. There were too many for her to capture alive without a fight, and killing them could only be used as a last resort. "Nina, release them! You have no right - NO!"

It was too late. As fast as lightning, Nina's whip lashed out, wrapping around Magtyra's mace arm. Despite the fact that the succubus was only about the size of a human teenager, she was still a demon; unholy strength fueled her as she yanked and brought the proud draenei holy warrior to her knees, just about putting them at eye level. When Magtyra tried to stand up, Nina flapped her wings and flung herself straight forward, kneeing Magtyra in the chest plate and bringing the draenei flat on her back. Unnatural, unholy magic magnified Nina's weight as the little succubus straddled Magtyra's chest, pinning her to the ground and laughing maniacally as she took control of Magtyra's wrists. Slowly and methodically, Nina tied the vindicator's hands together in her whip and then cupped her chin and pressed.

Magtyra felt the back of her head being pushed into the ground, granting her an upside down view as Nina forced her to watch her restrained allies kick and thrash against the demonic snares in an attempt to crawl away from the slowly approaching cultists. "Stop, I'm begging you! They're just younglings, please, spare them this horror!" Magtyra cried while trying in vain to wiggle out from underneath the unnaturally heavy succubus.

Nina was unrepentant and beyond reason. "Don't worry, darling; there's plenty to go around!" she snickered, shoving on the draenei's chin to forcibly grind her molar teeth together.

Wood crashed into solid ground.

The ambient sound of demonic orgies and unholy white noise died away, revealing just how loud the pit had been before. The contrast was unbelievable, granting pause to every single person in the demon camp as even the cultists grew frigid and looked around. Bit by bit, the cauldrons and jacuzzis disintegrated into ash, buring away and dissipating as their tether to the mortal plane was severed and the Twisting Nether claimed them again.

The unholy snares disappeared, and the two male vindicators scrambled for their maces. The cultists, robbed of their confidence, seemed to realize that they were all unarmed and naked against two very large, heavily armored draenei with fear in their eyes. Even Nina loosed her grip on Magtyra, glancing around in confusion as the unnatural darkness in the sky gave way to the normal blue sky and light of day.

"What...what's going on?" the succubus asked angrily. "What happened to my sexy party?"

"Your tree's dead."

Magtyra froze. Hope filled every iota of her being as the mercenary's voice reached her ears, and even the crushing weight of the succubus on her chest suddenly felt bearable again. The cultists continued to back up, and when Nina flew in the air and landed some distance away, the draenei sucked in a gasp of air. Once she fought to a sitting position, she couldn't believe what she saw.

To say that Zhenya destroyed the cursed tree would have been an understatement; the woman wiped away its existence from the record books of time. Green slime from its smashed heart had been stomped into the ground, along with wood chips so small that they couldn't even have been used as mulch. The trench had been filled with dirt pushed over by the flat top of Zhenya's warhammer, which was slung casually over the shoulder of the woman who was built and dressed like a tank. When fully encased in her armor, not even her neck tendrils or tail could be seen; only her two hooves and one and a half horns were showing. The grill on the front of her helmet cast a glow as golden as her armor, but the Light emitting from the slits bore an unseen darkness to it that frightened Magtyra almost as much as Nina's lascivious nature.

The cultists began to back away, much to Nina's irritation. "Fools! She's mortal, she can still be tempted by the rites of flesh-"

Zhenya would hear none of it. "Tiiiiiime to make some monies!" she growled in what had to be the scariest cheesy catch phrase Magtyra had ever heard, though more due to who was saying it.

Light blasted out of Zhenya, radiating in a circle as the corrupted ground in the pit was consecrated from evil. Passing over the trio of blessed vindicators harmlessly, it set the heretical cultists ablaze, flaying their naked bodies as they all screamed and fled. When Zhenya slammed her warhammer into the ground, she send a shockwave that burned a few of them alive, sparing Nina only because the demoness flew up into the air and landed on a boulder.

Magtyra scrambled to her feet, fighting to untangle the demonic whip that seemed unnaturally wrapped around her wrists far more times than its natural length should have allowed. "Zhenya, no! We're supposed to save them, not kill them!" she cried.

In slow motion, Nina floated in the air, flapping her wings far too few times than should have been necessary to levitate. "Fall!" Nina growled as she raked her claws through the air, sending a dark shockwave of her own. The two male vindicators dropped their maces and dove to the ground, narrowly dodging and crawling over to Magtyra where they helped her crawl to safety.

The shockwave broke through Zhenya's force field, causing it to dissipate as the tank woman was knocked over. A similar demonic snare washed over her, much more powerful than the one Nina had used previously as Zhenya was covered in darkness like a swarm of bats. Rather than lust or mockery, pure malice laced Nina's voice.

"Nobody crashes my sexy parties!" the little succubus screeched. "Nobody! Now, you lose!"

Even beneath the living darkness, Zhenya's roar frightened the succubus and wiped the malice from her demeanor. The paladin's body shook, and Magtyra sensed that same sort of competitive defiance she'd noticed in Zhenya earlier. It scared her, even more so than demons, and when the darkness cracked like glass, Magtyra just pushed her youngers into a trench for safety rather than risk them getting involved.

Zhenya's voice was monstrous and furious. "You will not-"

The darkness broke entirely, shattering to pieces that flew everywhere as the living seige engine rose.

"-BEAT-"

A warhammer flew out. Not a conjured one of holy light, but an actual physical warhammer, breaking Nina's shadow shield and knocking the hapless demoness to the ground.

"-MMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

A loud quake vibrated through the ground as Zhenya body slammed the succubus. Sitting on her back like a schoolyard bully, Zhenya gripped both of Nina's wings in each hand.

"Zhenya, don't!" Magtyra shouted, just a second too late.

A primal scream rang out from Nina's throat as Zhenya tore her wings off, sending foul green blood spurting all over the place as two of the demon's wings were ripped from her body. The holy consecration sealed the wounds and canceled Nina's demonic regeneration, and the force with which Zhenya yanked sent the little succubus flying into the dust many yards away.

In one of the more bizarre episodes of her life, Magtyra found herself feeling sorry when the frantic demon's eyes met her own. Such creatures knew no true kindness or mercy, but something about the tiny, mutilated demon sent a twinge of sympathy in the vindicator's heart. When she stepped forward, Nina flung her little body in kind, belly flopping into the dirt and throwing herself at Magtyra's feet like a scared child clinging to her mother's ankles.

"I yield! I yield!" Nina sobbed, offering her wrists up for the holy, antidemonic restraining shackles on Magtyra's belt. "Just keep her away from me!"

No longer angry once she'd made some sort of a point, Zhenya simply collected her warhammer and slung it over her shoulder, most definitely striking a pose this time. The two young men hid inside their trench, and Magtyra wasn't so sure from who. The cultists gone or dead and the demon camp disintegrated, Magtyra just held the shackles in one hand while reaching for the hysterically weeping demoness who clung to her ankle in the other.

"Zhenya...we have methods of converting and saving creatures like this!"

Shrugging as if she wasn't even interested anymore, Zhenya just started walking away. "That tree's dead. You owe me five hundred gold."

She didn't even turn around as the two males, much to Magtyra's irritation this time, followed the mercenary as if she was the boss. The vindicator just shook her head, resolving to give Zhenya a stern talking to once they returned to the convent.