She had a feeling this would happen.
The moment she entered the goblin's caves, she was getting ogled at by the small guys, panting and howling and whistling like cartoon characters. Well, she WAS a succubus, after all. It was natural to become eye candy. At least she was used to it.
Ellie only smirked. This would be TOO easy.
"Hubba Hubba!" One goblin drooled. It was time to put her charms to work.
"Hello there, little ones." Ellie cooed. "I'd like a little something from you…"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Another yelled. Goblins weren't exactly known for being smart. They surely wouldn't mind what came next.
"Why don't you lucky boys come on over here?"
The goblins began pushing and shoving each other as they scrambled over to her. About the entire cave rushed up, lips pursed awaiting for a kiss. Ellie only chuckled at this.
"Good boys…"
She then proceeded to kick the one directly in front of her right in the face, knocking a tooth out. The goblin flew up into the air and skidded to the ground with a faceplant, only moaning "Ow…" in sadness.
As for the others, she only blew a kiss. The charm magic struck them, and the goblin horde fainted from the lust, sighing as they collapsed to the ground.
Ellie only bent down and snatched up the goblin tooth, as well as giving any possible goblins behind her a good view.
"Thanks, darling. See you around."
Taking the tooth, Ellie left the cave and flew off. Of course, it MIGHT be a while before she got back to the Keep. The cave was a bit far, after all.
Yet still, something told her that others wouldn't be so lucky on THEIR ends…
…
Night had begun to fall in the woods. Lynne, Clarissa, and Vanessa continued to venture forward, trying not to get lost.
"Those back in the village stated that a witch lives in these woods." Lynne stated. "Didn't give an exact location, though. Should be around here SOMEWHERE."
"But they said that her place is a bit hard to find." Vanessa added. "I wonder why…"
It was then that they heard something. Something like footsteps. LARGE footsteps. A nearby lake began to ripple.
The three readied themselves for what was about to emerge from the mist. A large shape took form…
It was…a house.
But not just any house, no. This hut seemed to be enchanted. Sentient, even. Massive chicken legs carried the ground it was settled upon. And the widening of Clarissa's eyes meant that she KNEW this place.
The legs bent and squatted, making the small cabin fall to the ground. And the door threw itself open. There, in the light of the interior, stood a young witch. She had pointy ears, blonde braided hair, and a wooden staff.
"Bout time." She smirked.
"Master?!" Clarissa asked, startled.
"Hold on…you're…Baba Yaga, aren't you?" Lynne asked.
"Yep. The one and only."
"But…you're…younger!"
"Not bad for a 27,000-year-old, am I right? A few hundred thousand more before I become as old as my disguise." Yaga smirked. "You coming in or what?"
Cautiously, Lynne and Vanessa followed Clarissa. Once they were settled, a snap of a finger from the master witch closed the door and had the house moving again.
"So you brought your niece and a hunter." Baba stated. "You must be trying to save her daughter and stop the Dark Lord, am I right?"
Lynne paused. "How did you…?"
"Don't need a cauldron to gaze into the future now, do I?" The witch chuckled. "But where are my manners? Long story short, I'm the one who trained the Grimhilde sisters back during the Trial years. Belladonna fled in search of her own power, Christine got a LITTLE too into the dark side, but hey, at least you had some sense. Not my best moment, but hey, I've been through worse."
"So…can you help us?" Vanessa asked.
"Do I really have a choice? Drac's already gotten two of those stones. Five more and bye bye sunrise. Not the first time I had to deal with a God of the Night before."
"Really? Like when?"
"Like this super scary demon dude called Chernobog. Dark brother of Belobog." Baba Yaga informed her pupil. "Big, black, creepy, got fused to be the top of a mountain and emerged every night. Even got called Satan himself. Now, if HE was around during the Eternal Night, well, we'd all be super screwed. Dracula? We're gonna be super duper ULTRA screwed."
"So…you beat him, right? How?"
"Well, it was back around then he broke free of Bald Mountain and tried to drown the world in shadow. Seeking out dark hearts, devouring souls, casting victims into fiery pits, pretty much what any Dark Lord would do. More like Satan's SHADOW if you ask me. Might have even COME from Nether. Basically he was doing all this chaos for the fun of it, and since Belos wasn't around during the night, well, SOMEONE had to do something."
"It must have been one powerful battle, Master."
"Should've been there. Summoned forth the spirits of hanged criminals, fallen warriors, all those not buried in sacred ground. Dude literally tore holes into the Shadow Realm! Those Reapers were NOT happy."
"Ripped holes through dimensions? My mother did much the same."
"Yeah, and I didn't even TEACH her that. THEN Cherny tore holes into NETHER to summon some demons he then corrupted! Basically, all those ghosts and demons and harpies would be NIGHTMARES to mere mortals. But back in my day, I was the greatest mage around. Yep. I was kicking ass that day. And to finish things off, I used this incredible Solar Spell of mine: Made the moon amplify the sunlight it reflected to straight up DESTROY the black god. Soul and all. NOTHING left. Boy, that ancient crystal sure came in handy!"
"What about the balance?" Clarissa asked.
"Oh yeah, you can't have night without day, so that guy was gone too. Two sides of the same coin and all that. Maybe they were the same guy?"
"I recall a legend from my wife. Lucifer banished a powerful and fallen Makai warrior to another realm after splitting his very being in half. I guess that could explain some things."
"Oh. Seriously though, this so-called 'God of Monsters' trying to bring that Eternal Night with that same putrid attitude? Bleh. Not cool. Well, time IS of the essence. He JUST got four more of those stones. One more and no more mortals."
"What?!"
"Future-seeing spell, all-knowing, whatever you wanna call it. Magic works in mysterious ways."
Baba Yaga then held out a hand, and a potion flew into her grasp.
"Super-enchanted Holy Water." She said, handing it to Lynne. "May not hurt for your half-demon daughter, but it ain't gonna tickle either. A slight sting to cure that monstrous corruption."
"Uh, thanks." Vanessa added. "We gotta get back to the Cryptid Keep now."
"Oh, you mean this place?"
Another finger snapped, and the house dropped. The door opened to show the outskirts of Vorsheer Village, and another hidden entrance to the Cryptid Keep.
"Guess Kochy here knows his way around the place."
"You NAMED your house? And gave it a gender?"
"Hey, it can get a bit lonely sometimes. Better get going. A few more minutes and Lucy's a lunatic."
Right. Time was of the essence.
The three of them rushed out of the house and into the hidden doorway. They may have failed with the Moonstone missions, but they still had a chance to save her.
But the night was still young, as the house walked away. Things could STILL get worse…