Chapter 6:

The circle for summoning a succubus is actually also rather easily done, as I was told and Kaal's acolytes would get started on preparing one immediately after I left. Yet there had to be some kind of difficulty to it, don't you think so too? And yes, unfortunately it turns out there was one..., a succubus is not summoned so simply like most other demons, they only come to this world if you either offer them something or if you lure them to this realm. Sometimes, though rather seldom, they appear on their whim, but sadly you simply can't force them...

After reentering the Temple of the Damned, Kaal pointed me towards a staircase. If I followed the steps up and outside, I would meet Kaelystia. Not questioning any of what he said I did as I was told. I know I acted like sheep, blindfolded on the behalf of somebody else, but I was still foolish at that time...

But like this I found out that the temple had an upper level to it outside of the building itself.

Searching for this mage I followed the way around half of the building before I could see the banshee hovering in mid-air.

She was still very much looking like an elf, yet her appearance was ghostly to say the least. Her body almost completely white and transparent, though judging from the other banshees I met since that time, something was off about her.

The moment I spoke to her, she responded rather friendly in the typical high pitched voice of these creatures. The sound of it almost hurt my ears, though it wasn't as bad as Eredrun at the time. She pointed out that her scholar would be able to aid me with my problem. She told me his name and that he would probably be on the other side of the moat trying to improve his skills in tailoring magical cloth.

You got to love being sent around all the time...

Fortunately enough I found a second staircase leading down on the outside so I wouldn't have to go through the inside of the temple again. The moat was crossed fast leaving it behind me for now, the imp by my side already complaining again. Egocentric little wretch...! Always going on about why I was still forcing him to walk around with me. Especially now when the blue cold thingy would surely be a far greater help than his presence... I ignored everything the imp said and just walked onwards, luckily a demon is bound to its master so he has to follow, no matter what happens.

After I had finally found the local tailor I actually also stumbled upon the scholar. He was a bit surprised that his mistress told me to search for him, but then again he also told me that he was involved with warlock invocations ever since he became a Forsaken. Great how the guild trusted outsiders... wouldn't happen on my watch, but to hell with all of them... they've been digging their own pointless graves ever since. We left the tailor's store because of our discussion to come should not be suitable for everybody's ears. Living with the constant fear of being spied upon is something I still had to learn back then, but besides that I guess you don't have to spread rumors about how to summon different types of demons to people if you can avoid it.

"Well, right now we have nothing in stock that we could offer to a succubus that would suit her tastes so I guess we will have to lure her into this world." Those were his first words concerning my problem.

He told me that a succubus sometimes responds if you offer her something she looks at as fun. This could, for example, be a living person, or to be more precise the body of a living person that she can have her way with. The definition of that being rather loosely...

"To lure her into this world we have to make use of the fact that succubi are attracted to people who are pure and naive - men of honor and blind goodness. Luckily for us, those people don't have to be alive anymore. This should make it easier for you to obtain what we need." We crossed over the moat on one of the bridges.

On the other side he stopped and told me what exactly I would need.

"The hearts of two people should make do, two certain people though. And I know exactly who would be most appropriate for your needs..." The undead smiled at me revealing a row of blackened teeth. "The name of the first one is called Dalin Forgewright. He supports the refugees of Lordaeron at the Greymane Wall in the south of the Silverpine Forest. The wall itself is still shut tightly, but still those idiots make camp at the giant gate, hoping it would open someday, offering them the shelter they sought for so long. And the other is a man named Comar Villard. He lost his wife in the wetlands to the south of the Arathi Highlands. He still wanders that area in hope of finding her. What a naive fool he is..." The Forsaken chuckled. "Now, please excuse me, I still have unfinished business to turn my attention to."

He granted me a quick farewell and I responded accordingly. From what I heard I assumed the biggest part of this task should be all the travelling and I wasn't wrong on that part... But I guess the true horror lay deep within the imp that would accompany me on the whole way. On the other hand I could have just dismissed him sooner or later, if I think of it and he would have been glad about it too.

Having an idea of what I needed I decided to gather some more supplies in Undercity before I headed out into the world again.

This is another great feature of this curse of undeath... the simple fact that you don't have to sleep anymore. After a while I noticed that it would probably be a good idea to send my demon resting for a change. That little creature still could grow tired enough.

The demon squeaked happily the moment I dismissed him.

Then I summoned my voidwalker. I did not want to go out along for the moment, besides I wondered how it would be travelling with him.

"I hate this place..." The deep voice grunted the exact moment he stepped out of the portal next to me.

I knew immediately this could only go great...

As I walked through the center of Undercity, I saw something that looked like an enclosure with giant bats. I walked directly up to the Forsaken standing in front of it hoping to find out a bit more about it. Yet before I could ask any of my questions, he already told me that the bat-travel-service out of Undercity was currently out of order because many of the animals were sick. Appears some idiot brought in a highly contagious decease from Kalimdor. Whoever it had been..., I cursed him! This would have speeded things up by a lot.

So I had no other choice but to leave Undercity on the usual way, meaning on foot. As soon as I had left the ruins of Lordaeron I started to make my way to the west following the road. It should turn to the south soon enough, if I believe the people who tried to give me directions so far. Not to mention the map I got from a cartographer in Undercity showing where I had to go to. I guessed this would take a couple of days at least until I reached the wetlands. The Greymane Wall was not so much the problem, but still it was quite some way. That demon better be worth it, was one of my main thoughts over and over again.

It took me over half a day to get even only close to the southern end of the Silverpine Forest. I started my journey in the early afternoon, and it already was way past midnight when I first saw the Greymane Wall appearing in the distance up ahead of me.

Silverpine Forest itself was about as densely packed with trees as the woods in Tirisfal. The biggest difference between them was that Silverpine was swarming with wolves and bears of seemingly every possible size. At one time I even thought I had seen one of them walk on two instead of four, but the animal had disappeared before I could get any closer and to be fully honest, that didn't matter to me that much at the time.

To my surprise hardly anyone was standing guard at the camp of these self-proclaimed refugees. And the Greymane Wall was a lot bigger than I had ever imagined. Those people from Gilneas really wanted to make sure nobody would ever trespass into their lands. I still raise an eyebrow whilst thinking about this, but whatever floats their boats...

As I had now reached the encampment I was confronted with a new problem: how should I find that Forgewright person?

The dark blue entity called a voidwalker next to me only silently wobbled around as we drew nearer towards the campsite, dodging behind the closer trees. Directly in front of us, only about five meters away, a campfire was set up with three guards around it. Those seemed to be all humans that were awake at that time.

Although I was here to kill only one person, I felt this itching in my hands again. Somehow I had liked the skirmish that had taken place when I was fetching the grimoire from the Scarlet Crusade, although they were hardly a match for me. Again it was the feeling of superiority which appealed to me.

My biggest problem was that I did not know any spell at that time that was able to take care of a lot of enemies. This made things difficult for a start. So I took my time and thought about it for a while, but as it turned out to be of no use, I had no other choice but to go with a diversion tactic.

The fact that it was a rather dark and cloudy night was not only to the delight of my newest pet demon but also formed to be a major advantage. I ordered my voidwalker so suck up as much of the shadows around us as he could. And as he began to follow the order, slowly he grew and grew upon feeding from the darkness around us. I still wonder sometimes if a creature like this would be able to explode due to too much feasting.

After the voidwalker had about doubled his size, I ordered him to stop, in fear that he might become stronger than me. At that time I still wasn't able to assess how mighty my demons were and which tasks suited each of them best. If I think of the situation back then now, I would say sending the voidwalker in there after letting him feed on the shadows was a great idea. A stroke of genius every madman encounters once in a while.

As I then gave the command, my voidwalker rushed off to the guards at the campfire. If I'm honest, he wasn't that fast, but for his means he rushed in there. The blue bulk hit the first warrior off guard on the back of his head so that he fell over, sadly enough he only landed right next to the fire and not in it.

The other guards jumped to their feet and began yelling on the spot, "DEMON! ... TO ARMS! DEMON IN THE CAMP!"

Meanwhile my voidwalker was in the position to touch the second guard. The moment the hand of my minion reached the arm of the warrior, the man fell to the ground uttering. All of those who came in contact with Belmon started yammering about loneliness and a relentless chill, leaving me thankful that I had never touched that demon before.

By then voices arose from the tents nearest to the wall. "Protect the women and children! Attack the vile creature with everything you have!"

I still lay low and watched the situation. Out of a tent to the far right of the camp a man came out shouting "What is going here?"

The guards responded without a moment's hesitation, "Forgewright! A demon by the campfire! Quick! To arms!"

"A demon?" He asked in disbelief before turning around in search for his weapon.

"Found him..." I mumbled to myself as I then began closing in on my target.

He disappeared into his tent again so I had to hurry it up, I needed to get him be he retrieved his armor and weapons. My voidwalker still had all the attention from the guards giving me the opportunity to head over to the tent where this Forgewright guy seemingly was.

With a quick immolate spell I set the tent on fire without any further ado. I heard how he screamed from the inside because of the sudden fright. Immediately he came back running out of it, careful not to catch fire. Yet I had been too late for him anyhow, my shadow bolt was already flying straight towards him. With a direct hit to the face, he was taken down immediately. Not much left to do but to I hurry towards the dead body and collect the spoils after that.

Meanwhile guard after guard fell to the touch of my voidwalker and as they lay on the ground they lost most of their fighting spirit. I guess that ability worked somewhat similar to the spell 'Corruption' I used, meaning that if you have a strong spirit and a lot of willpower you will be able to just ignore this effect or at least weaken it. It's amusing how pathetic they all were.

As I reached the body of Forgewright, I felt sickness rising up in me. It was the first time I saw the brain of somebody, half of his skull was plainly missing. It left me wondering why ghouls always cried out for this mass and I couldn't even imagine how that batter should taste like anything.

Averting my eyes from his missing face I took the short sword lying next to the corpse and opened the chest with a few quick stabs and cuts. I had to get the heart out somehow after all. It took a while to get past the bones, but during the time I took my oversized voidwalker was still wreaking havoc in the camp. If you could call 'running around touching everybody so they fall to the ground wincing' wreaking havoc that is.

After a couple of broken ribs and me finally managing to obtain the heart of Forgewright, my robes had been completely drenched in blood. But not only that, I also had to carry that damned heart around... Without much of a choice I wrapped the bloody organ into a sheet of cloth that I ripped off from the clothing of the man and put it into one of my bags.

I was sure I would need a new one afterwards, two of these things bleeding all over my belongings...

The moment I had what I came for I backed away from the body again. They would find him or what was left of him soon enough. Whilst retreating I yelled towards Belmon that he should stop attacking and follow me. The humans at the gates were unable to follow me, most of them still rolling through the high grass imagining how they froze to death. Nevertheless I hurried to get to the road again and out of the Silverpine Forest. Yet this time I took the way towards the Hillsbrad Foothills.

Getting the second heart as ordered was almost nothing else but mere travelling. It is still hard to admit it but travelling with the imp had been far more fun. The little demon at least talked to you, the voidwalker on the other hand mainly silently somehow glided along, sometimes only uttering how beautiful the landscape could be if we would be in a dark cave or engulfed by constant darkness.

I don't know..., that creature just had something depressing about it.

It's hard for me to recall how long it took me to get to the northern wetlands, but it surely had to have been three or four days at least.

Anyhow I found this Villard person very quickly at a little camp right at the Thandol Span. He was constantly sobbing and going on about how cruel destiny had been to him in the last few months so he was fairly hard to miss. The things I overheard from him sounded incredibly self-centered to me, but well, who am I to judge. Just interested in getting what I had come fore I killed him anyway and collected his still beating heart from his body. Inwardly I hoped that the good will of offering two hearts would still do the trick, even if one should taste a bit bitterer than the other.

The next problem would be getting away from there. Hoping to get aboard a caravan or anything like that I headed north, fighting my way through the wild lands of the Arathi Highlands hoping to find that outpost of the Horde somewhere. I came passed a camp of trolls, but they weren't too friendly with me at all. Being on this trip for several days now I didn't want to give in to a fight, so I retreated while axes were flying past my head as a more or less poor warning.

Continuing my way to the north I drew closer to Hammerfall. Spotting the ridge in the distance I slowed down after I was sure that the trolls weren't following me anymore.

The name surely sounded like of an orcish encampment to me and after I had reached the road again this impression was amplified by the dead human bodies lying along it with axes stuck in their torsos. I mean, I heard that they were a rough kind of people, but that it would be this extreme...

Two orcish grunts were standing guard at the entrance to the camp. I was finally there, back amidst the settlements of the Horde, though calling it 'civilization' would be a bit farfetched. At least they didn't even bother offering me a strange look or something, as seemingly a lot of Forsaken come through there.

I was a bit surprised to find several trolls here as well, that was at least something I wouldn't have expected. I can't tell..., I just disliked those creatures. I tried to avoid them as good as I could... orcs and trolls. Dreadful things...

Eager to get back to Undercity I asked the first orc I saw whether here was something like a flightmaster or whatever you wanted to call it. Astonishingly friendly and quick he pointed me the way to the young orcish woman that kept watch over the animals of the outpost.

I dismissed my voidwalker, which was a relief for me too and booked a flight to Undercity.

She told me what I should watch out so that I didn't fall off the creature. After that explanation of hers I began wishing they would just tie me to the bat.

Those animals were surprisingly gigantic, I didn't know by that time that a common bat could grow this tall. Yet, on the other hand I know better by know and suppose some alchemists are most likely involved with this whole matter.

My hands slightly shaking I climbed onto the animal only reluctantly. It had a strong muscular structure, really impressive for a bat, as I supposed this would feel quite similar to sitting on a living horse.

The creature took off with a short start-up. The animal was pretty fast and a bit fluttery, but I loved it. Even with my numbed senses I could envisioned how I would have been. Feeling the wind on my face would have been surely something extraordinary. This was one of the few scarce moments that I really wished I would have been still alive.

It didn't take too long to reach the Undercity with this way of transportation. It was not the most comfortable one, in the end you were still only sitting on the bat, but that should be something you can, well, ignore for the moment.

After I had arrived in the city, I went directly to the mage quarters to tell of my success in obtaining the hearts of the two men I was sent out after. I entered the Temple of the Damned and greeted the members of the warlock guild with respect.

I didn't have to say a single word to Kaal, the trail of blood I left behind me said more than enough.

He led me outside of the building again where his apprentice already had prepared a runic circle similar to the one we had used for the voidwalker.

Kaal briefly instructed me, telling me what I had to do. He also took his time to warn me that a succubus is a very dangerous opponent and that she will probably fight in a different way than I might expect. For a final time he stressed that she will be a far stronger demon to fight than the voidwalker and afterwards he sent me into the middle of the summon circle, wishing me the best of luck.

Beginning the ritual I took the hearts out of my bag and placed them one by one inside the circle. Then Kaal started to speak in demonic again.

"Theramas il zenn, parn xi amir. X nagas xi shi zila enkilzar. (Mistress of pain, hear my call. I bring to you this oblation.)"

Meanwhile the apprentice of Kaal performed the spell to create a normal demon portal from the twisted nether breaching into this world.

A faint giggling could be heard as the portal to the demonic realm opened fully. It definitely had worked out the way it was supposed to. The hearts had attracted a succubus.

A beautiful woman with long black hair stepped out of the shadows lying beyond the portal. She glanced at us for only a moment before focusing her attention towards the hearts.

Her voluptuous body was squeezed into a tight leather bodice. Her skin had a milky toning, her eyes shining in a deep blue. Her appearance surely was stunning...

It took a moment for me to snap out of it again, she mesmerized me within an instance after leaving the portal. As she walked slowly towards the two hearts inside the runic circle, the image I had of her slowly took more demonic forms. Her legs ended in hooves and she had a long thin tail lashing out at the air. The color of her skin was actually a light purple. Two horns reached out of her forehead and two bat-like wings unfurled from her back. In her right hand she was bearing a whip, leaving open whether it was a weapon or more an accessory.

Nevertheless she still was stunningly beautiful even with these truly demonic features to her body.

The apprentice of Kaal also needed a moment to focus again, but he acted fast enough and closed the portal to the twisted nether again whilst the succubus was crouching down in front of the two hearts.

She jumped to her feet and turned around immediately upon this atrocity, her eyes showing fury and rage, drops of heart's blood running from her lips.

"Maev? Kamil no X? (What? Where am I?)", her gaze was shifting from one person to another. "Maev il lok toralar il zila archimtiros karkun? (What is the meaning of this, treacherous mortal?)", I still didn't understand everything she said, but slowly the words and sentences said in this language grew clearer to me.

I took a small step towards her, her eyes now fixed on me. "I demand to know your name, demon!" My voice may have been clear, but I was trembling somehow, yet it was not because of fear or anxiety.

"Shhh, how rude..." She responded to me in our language. Her voice was clear and had a mesmerizingly beautiful melody. It was hard not to fall for her instantly.

As she came closer towards me, even the way she walked was alluring.

Kaal and his student observed the scene, prepared to interfere if something would get out of hand. At least that was what I hoped.

Not that much of a fool I wanted to make a step backwards, but it was simply impossible. I didn't know what had happened but I was unable to move even an inch from one moment to another.

The succubus had closed in successfully and now stood directly in front of me. She was about as tall as I was so she could look into my eyes without giving it her any trouble.

I watched her every movement for a while, but quickly this watching turned into something else entirely... I couldn't take my eyes of her. Those sensual lips while she was talking to me, those hips swaying with every step, the breasts hidden behind the thing piece of leather cloth. I cannot even recall what she said to me or if she even said anything at all! My mind was being flooded with fantasies of all kinds. I barely saw how her lips began moving as the two of us were doing all kinds of things to each other's bodies in locations as twisted as her own demonic body.

An age seemed to have passed before I found myself again as I stood there just staring at her and she was still right where I had left her... Quickly she whirled around once in front of me, letting her whip fall to the floor. She was laughing in a high pitched voice while she did all of this. I guess she enjoyed it somehow.

She then began to slowly walk around me. Her arm stretched out, hovering above my chest. By then she stood to my left, my body was still paralyzed and I couldn't even move my head to follow her movements anymore.

She touched my chest with one finger and followed a lining on my tattered robe with it.

Her touch was pain. Every inch of my body she crossed with her finger was aching, it burned. It was a feeling far beyond anything I had ever experienced and not even my numbed senses would protect me from this.

She let her complete hand touch my shoulder, she even had the nerve to try and hide it away as an accident at first. But I did not care for that. I only wanted to scream out loud, to make room for the sudden pain, but my body wouldn't even do that. Her eyes were filled with pleasure upon seeing me tortured and overcome with agony like this.

I wondered for many months why Kaal didn't interfere at that point.

But something must have happened which I didn't understand at that time. Because there must have been something about me that she liked, that she greatly enjoyed maybe even loved in a strange kind of fashion, although I'm not sure whether it might have been simply the fact that I did not die instantly.

By then she stood behind me.

"Shi mordanas modas? (You gathered those?)" She asked, whilst giving a short nod into the direction of the two hearts. She whispered those words into my left ear, careful not to touch me. I heard how she spoke in demonic, yet the thing she asked was astonishingly clear for me.

She took another two steps, by then she stood at my right ear.

"Xi parn il... (My name is...)" Lasciviously she breathed the words into my ear before commencing with the final part of her show.

She seized my right shoulder with her left hand. I felt the pain of her touching me immediately. She stepped in front of me again, drawing closer and closer towards me.

She pressed her body against mine, putting her right arm around me. Letting go of my shoulder she started to stroke my cheek with the back of her left hand.

Pain overcame me... it filled my mind up restlessly. I felt endless ache everywhere she touched me. It was as if death itself had chosen to creep up to me a second time. And I couldn't even scream. It felt as if I was torn apart just by her presence.

She kissed me.

I tasted blood, not sure if my own or still from the hearts I had gathered. The pain quickly became unbearable. But..., but this was not the time for me to die, not again!

Suddenly she let go of me and immediately backed off a few inches, yet only so far she wouldn't touch me anymore. I still was paralyzed otherwise I would have been hardly able to keep standing on my feet. She looked deeply into my eyes. I saw a strange glistening in them.

She drew a bit nearer to my ears again and whispered it to me.

"Darnys..."

She winked at me as she made another step backwards.