On the upside, wizardly crap takes a lot of time so all I have to deal with here is a collection of summoned pets. I'm counting two demonites and a full fledged servant beast. I spin on my heel and cut the first demonite in half with the largest blade I can conjure. It won't slow it down much but having to pull itself back together should slow the cross breed freak down a little bit. This one looks like the bastard offspring of Josh Mankey and a Cthulhu cabana girl.
"So what did she offer you then?" I ask the demon conversationally as I spin to deliver a kick to the second demonite.
"Why would you care, Human?"
"Well, I'm always interested in motives, they're usually the easiest way of defeating your foe," I reply lightly.
"You think that you're going to be able to trick me into revealing the terms of my contract with her so that you can undo my bindings? It won't work, I have to kill you to earn my release. She was very careful with the wording of her agreements."
"A wise summoner, eh? Don't you just hate those?"
"Oh yes, there is nothing worse in the world and considering you mortals sicken me on a very specific level, with your biological functions…"
I'm about to respond as the squid demonite jumps on me from behind. I bear down under the weight and go sprawling, hitting my face on the floor.
I slam my elbow into the beast with enough passion to hurl it back, but it's not as if I can cause it to hurt. I get a few moments to try to leap to my feet, which I squander in desperate movement and I get jumped by the other one. Screaming in pain and disappointment at my defeat, I split a pair of long nails formed from the Lotus through my skin and nail the damn thing to the wall.
"You'll be looking for the binding for those things so that you can concentrate on defeating me," offered the Demon in a manner that oozed helpfulness. It pauses as I punch the second demonite clean through the head and slot it down over a nearby outcropping, "sorry, just thinking out loud," it finished, noting my expression.
"I can't work out which one I despise more, you or the demonites," I respond, mildly annoyed.
"Probably them. I'm only a lust demon. I was supposed to help distract Junior but I guess you're more of a threat so she sent me after you."
"Lust demon?"
"Oh yeah, I can take the form of that which you most desire and use it to torment you. I just assumed that it wouldn't have much effect because she's dead."
"She's dead?"
"Yeah. Wait a minute, you're not entirely what your inner thoughts would have me believe are you?"
"I'd really hope not."
"Complicated people are very common in my line of work, but they usually come out very simple. You, however, are very simple but reading you is proving very difficult."
"Let me guess," I offer, parrying a downward slash and twisting it into the way of the charging demonite, "I don't have any threads to pull on to unravel what's hidden in there?"
"That would be a solid analogy, yes," it responds dragging the demonite around and throwing it at me. The thing shreds into a million shards on a sharp net of tiny metal barbs.
"What's getting in your way?"
"You have a lot of love in you for a mortal," it replies in a way that almost conveys respect, scooping up a handful of ruined demonite and throwing it towards my face.
"Always with the love, isn't it?"
"Apparently so," it replies as I manage to get a metal encased hand up to catch the sludge and throw it back. "Don't you just have that?"
"I technically have no arena for hate. I merely feel utter contempt for you as a mortal."
"At least you're capable of talking about your feelings."
A heavy paw lashed down as I realise that the thing is a shape shifter, but it looks laboured, as if that is not a form that it should have any business assuming.
"That was painful for you, wasn't it?" I ask, feeling a combination of insane concern and a little insight.
"I take on the form of your greatest desire, fool! I'm not intended to fight like this."
"How are you intended to fight?"
"If I had had time to prepare, you would have found an interesting redhead to talk to upstairs who would have consumed your soul in the first kiss," it spits back to me.
"You're a succubus?" I ask incredulously, feeling foolish asking a question like that to something so androgynous.
"I'm anything you need me to be Ronnie," Kim replies.
I finally slipped. I admittedly haven't ended up fighting my greatest desire but it certainly is weird trying to kick Kim's biscuit. He chose well, adopting both Kim's form and her fighting style. The idea of being destroyed by one's desires is a strange and disturbing thing.
It's interesting, however that it would be a hell of a lot harder to hit Bonnie if he had taken that form or if he had taken the shape of Anne, I'd be in even more trouble. I'm not in love with Anne but trying to hurt something that looks more like a mother to me than my own is shudder-worthy.
"You like what I've done with my hair, Ron?" she asks, vaulting over me and kicking out at the back of my legs. Momentarily distracted, I don't shift positions and end up staring up at her. I'll freely admit that her hair is nice. Sort of Princess Leah buns. Nice neck access and it really frames her face, making the small amount of puppy fat that graces her chin look delightfully strokeable.
"You know, I can see right up your nose…" I say lightly as I hammer my fists down onto the stone, causing a mild shudder to the shaft and propelling myself onto my feet. She twists and tries to kick out but I mould my body around it and then hammer my twinned hands into the heel. She sails away for a second.
Taking the initiative, I grab as much of the lotus as I can, forming it into a sledge hammer and take off after the woman, reasoning that the bindings for the demonites will be in her possession.
"Nobody dumps Kim Possible!"
The scream is one I've heard before and it was as hot then as it is now. The psychotic redhead on the other end of the cry doesn't seem nearly as impressive, however. Maybe it's the fact that she's trying to regrow her arms at this juncture.
Reweaving the lotus into the hammer, I return my attention to Kult. She's done her reading. I've been dodging the effects of that Junju wand for the last few minutes. Should have expected her to have some arcana that didn't take long to cast.
"I'm impressed, you found a witch-toy that doesn't require a ritual to make it work. African or Middle East?"
She offers no answer and I'm forced to break Kim's neck for the third time. I've noticed that the demon has to rearrange its body each time it gets injured. Catching her lunges and whipping her head around backwards is an effective way of dealing with the issue, I suppose.
"You know, this one is really trying my patience. How about sending it back or at least stopping it attacking me," I ask as Kim's body clatters to the floor once again.
"Why would I do that? It'll eventually find the right form to destroy you."
"It isn't changing form. I've killed Kim here at least a dozen times already and it keeps getting back up. I know it isn't real so it has no power over me."
"Oh how blind you can be," she replies with a wicked smile.
"Ron? What's going on?" asks a terrified voice behind me. The thing has Bonnie by the throat and has its hand down her pants, rummaging.
"You know, that was the dumbest thing I've ever seen; you just got me annoyed."
It pauses, looking at me as if to say 'you've been angry this entire fight'.
"Demon, what is your definition of soul?"
"The god-given force of goodness that protects you from the darkness, granting self control and the ability to earn grace."
"Nice use of technical terms. Let me introduce you to the part of me that doesn't have a soul."
Its puzzlement remains as a copy of me coalesces in the air before the pair of girls that made up the demon. He looks at them with a barely contained mixture of anger and lust.
"Those two are a demon. You can't have your soul stolen because by the succubus definition, you don't have one. Bonnie there is part of the whole; have fun," I say to my double and I watch as the darkes expression I've ever seen from him and I fear, ever will, breaks across his face. I return to attacking the witch who made the mistake of looking. I swear her body tried to turn into a pillar of salt and her hair turned white to prove it.
The crumpled body of Olivia Kult lies at my feet. I tried threats, I tried reason, eventually I tried the lotus blade and it stuck. I kneel and close her shocked eyes, muttering the Catholic benediction for witches.
At least now, she has peace from her madness.
In the centre of the island, I find a young girl, innocent, virginal, bound tightly and wearing a scold's bridal and something that looks like a chastity belt. There is also the ichor of a dead demon here. I suspect whatever Kult had planned was going to extract blood in a different way. Using tiny blades of Lotus, I scour the very rock of any trace of her actions.
Senior was there to greet me as I walked over the edge of the pit with the girl in my arms and didn't pass comment as I asked for him to get flame throwers and scorch the very rock down there. We reached an agreement that night, one that would last for a long time.
Author's Note: This may be the last Chapter that I post for a while, I refuse to be less than 5 ahead at any given point so unless I produce something extra in the next few days, you'll have to wait until I return from Hong Kong on the 25th. While i'm away, i'll be working on some extra special stuff for you guys that will probably take the form of Ron Conners: What Rons May Come, which will actually explain the question more than a few of you have raised about why Saint can't just bring Kim back from the dead. Expect complex metaphors, to learn about many different religion's versions of heaven and hopefully some artwork to go with it, but i'm not promising anything.
If you need something to read while i'm gone, look out CaptainKodak's illustrated version of the Lotus Bloom. The story is excellent and the art fairly evocative, even if his writing style makes me want to claw my eyes out. Best ideas man in the business and the conversation between the mind-controlled Ron and Kim is heartwrenching.
