Blood Ties, Part 32
It's with a strange sense of satisfaction that you decide on your method for stalling the summoning ceremony of this ancient incubus, while the ratfolk messenger runs to Ceriss with the information necessary to complete your trap. You don't know exactly how these demons and their king twisted their natures. Not yet. But however they did it, they traded sanity for power.
And now—in revenge for all the times the fallout from that trade has ruined your plans—you have a chance to demonstrate to them just how foolish a bargain that was.
You give the ancient incubus your smuggest chuckle. Perfectly pitched to get under the skin. "So ever since the Rebellion... you've really just been hiding here?" you ask, then shake your head in amused disappointment. "All this time... and all you've done is just cower in fear of the Lust Queen? Waiting for your king and hoping he can fight the big bad succubi for you, while you hide behind him? By the Abyssal Depths, that's sad."
The demon glances up from his work to shoot you a truly venomous look. You blithely ignore it, and continue talking. "Over a thousand years, and all you've got to show for it is one moldy old chest, and a trail of dead..."
You pause. Then you widen your eyes, as though you're suddenly figuring something out. Then you laugh. "Oh fuck, I just realized! The reason why every time you make one of those 'mad killer' disguises, it's always prostitutes that you target! It's because in your mind... they're the closest thing to succubi that you're actually brave enough to face!"
Rather than continue with words, you just let yourself dissolve into peals of mocking laughter. The other demon shoots to his feet, abandoning his summoning to stalk over toward you, fists trembling with rage.
"We made a tactical withdrawal!" he snarls, glaring down at you. "We scattered to the shadows, to wait for an opportune moment, and to ensure that the traitor queen could not rest east, knowing that some loyal incubi still—"
You interrupt his protest with a fresh guffaw. "You think the Lust Queen is afraid... of you?" you ask, your expression full of incredulous mirth. "Oh, I bet you try to tell yourself that every night before you go to sleep, don't you? As though she hasn't had over a millennia to see exactly what you're capable of on your own, without your precious master to hold your hand. You haven't been able to make anything happen in all that time. Not even the slightest move against her. Oh... but I'm sure you have plenty of excuses for why you haven't been able to perform, right?"
Then you fix the murderous incubus with a look of withering disdain. "Well, take it from someone who lived in the Circle you ran from. The succubi aren't afraid of your cringing little band of failures. No one there is. Succubi, incubi... we're all just laughing at you." Then, twisting in your bonds, you lean in closer to deliver the final blow with a smirk. "Laughing at your impotence."
With a howl, the other demon swings his fist around in a vicious blow that nearly takes your head from your shoulders. You reel, the world spinning around you as you feel the blood in your mouth, feel the bones in your jaw and neck slowly stitching back together. Before they've finished, you feel his foot slam into your rib cage, snapping more bones and kicking you straight through the wooden beam. You tumble along the ground, coughing up blood, only for your foe to grab you by your shoulder and spin you onto your back, raining brutal punches and kicks down on you from above.
You try to curl up, to minimize the damage. But he's ridiculously stronger than you, and none of your attempts hinder him much at all. Just as you'd planned, you get a firsthand experience of the power he gained from his dark bargain.
Again and again and again he strikes. Eventually, you lose track of time. Your world becomes encompassed by the pain, each impact pulverizing the small, lightweight form you're wearing. By the end, you're left as a bloody, almost-unrecognizable ruin on the floor.
Croaking for breath, you feel yourself starting to pull back together yet again, even as the demon looms above you, his bloody fists trembling as his breath shudders in and out. He's getting himself more under control now, looking down at his handiwork, what he's done to his king's container. His eyes dart back and forth, looking for a reason to explain his actions... and then a mad gleam enters his eye, as he thinks of a plan that might justify what he's done, and satisfy his still-boiling fury at the same time.
He disappears from view for a moment, as you continue to regenerate. You hear him unlock the manacles of his other prisoner, the girl, and drag her over to you by her hair. "Feed," he demands, an ugly look in his eyes. Then he tosses a knife down onto your chest. "Feed our way. Make her bleed, as she gives you everything."
The bastard is trying to break your will. To make you give ground to the churning malice that you can feel boiling up inside you, even weakened by Ceriss' seal. You've spent so much lust healing from the protracted beating that hunger gnaws at you, the need to be fed pulling at your soul. But even if you had been willing to do it, you simply aren't capable of gaining sustenance from the only things he'll allow you to do.
That's his game. The only way you can end your hunger is by letting your unwanted passenger take control again.
Your vision is blurring, and it's hard to focus. Your regeneration has slowed to a crawl, even though you're not nearly recovered. You really are running on empty. And even with the protection of the seal, the brutalization you've suffered is so extreme that you can feel the dark voice in your own head grasping for control, demanding that you gut this worthless bitch and rape her as she dies!
Shakily, you raise your head to look the other incubus in the eye. Normally, there would be any number of eloquent retorts at your disposal to choose from... but in your current condition, all you can manage are two words. "Eat... shit."
The other demon's foot slams down on your chest, and you can feel more ribs crack. They aren't healing at all now. "You will give in," he insists, and the dark voice in your head roars in agreement. "There is no other hope. No other rescue for you. No other way you can heal this damage. I will continue this for as long as it takes... but you will give in! Feed on her!"
Coughing, you glare back up at him, into those crazed eyes. His foot already positioned for another stomp. But even so, you give him a weak, bloody-toothed smile, doing everything you can to keep his attention focused solely on you. "Eat. Shit."
Which is when the searing blast of concentrated arcane energy slams into your tormentor from behind, tearing a gaping hole straight through his torso.
The demon lets out a choked noise of disbelief, the girl tumbling from his spasming hand. He staggers around... only to see Ceriss standing in the now-opened doorway to his secret lair. And for all that her surface appearance is demonic, she is still a vision of righteous wrath, her body alight with glowing runes and lines of magical power, representing layers upon layers of battle enchantments both defensive and offensive, such that the very air around her seems to crackle with suppressed power.
She has her wand in her left hand. But in her right hand she grasps her long wooden staff, elaborately and intricately carved in its flowing lines. Most mages focus on one or the other, either the wand for more precise, detailed work, or the staff for its advantage in power. But clearly, Ceriss can not only use both, but use both at the same time, in perfect accord.
The two of them face each other in their true forms at last. Protector and murderer. Hunter and hunted. Demon and tiefling.
Father and daughter.
Even as you watch, the ancient demon's wound starts to close, regenerating. Your eyes widen a little, shocked. A wound like that would have killed you instantly. This level of healing isn't just beyond you, it's beyond any incubus you've ever heard of. Is this part of the power he was talking about? The power that they traded away so much of themselves to achieve?
Ceriss, for her part, immediately goes on the offensive, tracing out spells with both hands. Her wand launches a burst of seven small projectiles that swarm toward their target, arcing in from different angles, glowing blue energy that swerves to track his motions even as he dodges. With her staff, she unleashes a devastating blast of ice and air pressure that explodes outward in a cone, knocking over and freezing everything it touches.
The demon leaps away from the frozen blast, but only at the cost of opening himself to the smaller attack. The glowing projectiles pierce deep into his skin before exploding, tearing more chunks out of his flesh. He throws himself into a roll, grabbing hold of his large wooden chest as he goes by. Then he hefts it and flings it at Ceriss, so fast that you hear a shockwave as it tears through the air.
But Ceriss just barely evades it, her own physical abilities boosted to an incredible extent by all the enhancement spells woven across her body. The projectile rips past her cheek... but she's already counterattacking. Spectral chains, glowing green with deadly energy, explode out of her staff, winding through the air like snakes as they attempt to ensnare their prey, forcing the ancient incubus to take to the air, dodging frantically. Ceriss follows him, taking flight herself as the battle continues above you.
On and on it goes. Destructive magics flood the air, ripping the very warehouse asunder in their wake. Even the near-misses fling the demon about like a rag doll, as he tries to recover from the grievous damage that Ceriss' surprise attack inflicted, while he was distracted by your gambit.
The heroine doesn't let up. She isn't remotely interested in a fair fight. She isn't interested in anything that might give her foe the chance to escape and harm more innocents. This isn't an honorable duel. It's an execution. The too-long-delayed end of a mad dog. A mad dog that Ceriss intends to put down as efficiently as possible.
Even as the two of them play out their devastating clash, four colorful figures drop from the rafters to land next to you and the girl. Nevati's familiars. The earth elemental slams her palms through the floorboards and into the earth below, and a rocky barrier explodes up out of the ground, forming a protective shield between you and the battle, and the rest of them take up defensive positions as well.
Once they've done that, the fire elemental turns to glance back at you, puffing out her chest a little. "Heya!" she says brightly. "Nevati told us to make sure nothing happens to you or the girl! So you just sit tight, and don't worry about a thing! There's no way some dumb demon is getting to you while I'm here!"
You crawl to the edge of the earthen barrier, leaving a bloody trail behind you as you peek out from around the corner to watch the carnage. The hole in the ancient incubus' chest is mostly healed now... but he's taken many other hits in exchange. Any one of them would probably have put you out of commission, if not killed you outright.
But while her opponent's regeneration might dwarf yours... even he can't keep it up forever. You can see that he's tiring. Burning through his reserves of strength every time he heals, just as he burned through yours.
He's losing. And he knows it. In desperation, he turns and launches himself with a flap of his wings toward a gaping hole that their fight blasted into the warehouse wall. Flying with all his might in a desperate attempt to escape. Strangely, Ceriss makes no move to stop him. With a cackle of triumph, the demon reaches the opening in the structure...
...only to slam face-first into an invisible wall at top speed, the magical barrier blazing upon impact with a ridiculous amount of energy. As it lights up, you can see the faint outlines of countless runes glowing in mid-air. You can't make heads or tails out of most of it, but you can tell that it's a truly nasty anti-demon ward, one of mind-boggling power and complexity.
Granted, most of that realization is just from observing the effect on the ancient incubus, as the full-on impact damn near melts his face off. He screams as the crackling discharge from the barrier sears his flesh, before the subsequent detonation flings him away along a smoking arc. You hear a giggle from the air elemental. "That's our mistress!" she exclaims gleefully.
You can see their plan now. While Ceriss was facing the demonic killer down, Nevati was casting that horrifically powerful barrier. Encompassing the entire warehouse, to make absolutely certain that the killer would not escape again, as he had done before.
The incubus crashes back to earth. His ravaged body rolls along what remains of the torn-up floor, before finally pulling himself back to one knee. He looks up to see Ceriss, her chest heaving with her own exertion, her staff leveled directly at him. Lightning crackles all along its length, the intensity building higher and higher with each passing moment. Soon it's running all along her body, as though Ceriss' entire being was a conduit for the bolt of retribution that she's preparing to unleash.
Her enemy tries to rise... but at long last, after all the impossible punishment he's sustained... even his impossible resilience has finally run out. His legs struggle to hold him, before he finally crumples back down to his knees. "No!" he screams, frantically punching the floor in anger and disbelief. "No, no, no, no, no! Not now! Not when I was finally about to go home!"
Ceriss' face is impassive as she watches the killer's final, desperate flailings. She simply waits, her gaze cold as ice, until her spell is at its utmost capacity. And only then does she permit herself one brief indulgence.
"This is for my mother, you pathetic piece of shit," the tiefling says quietly.
You watch as the demon's eyes widen. You see the significance of Ceriss' words strikes home. You see him understand the full extent to which he was his own undoing.
He opens his mouth. To protest? To plead? To laugh at the irony of it all?
You'll never know. Ceriss has no interest in anything her father has to say in reply. She simply unleashes her spell, the thunderclap obliterating any words that might have carried the distance between you, as the entire world goes blinding white. Even at this distance, you can feel the shockwave wash over you.
When you finally clear the afterimages from your eyes, all that remains of the other incubus is a charred corpse.
Now that the threat is past, you see Ceriss' shoulders slump. It's clear that the fight took a great deal out of her as well, to say nothing of the emotional toll. Even so, she still rushes over to check on you, kneeling down next to your prone form to check on your wounds. "Oh goddesses, Niko..." she whispers, as she sees how bad it really is. "What did he do to you?"
"Worth it..." you rasp, making sure to play up the pain in your voice. Though it actually is bad enough you don't have to embellish too much. "If we'd fought back at your mansion... would've killed someone. This way... got the drop on him instead... found his hideout... rescued his prisoner. Worth a few... scrapes and bruises."
Hurriedly, she starts to cast healing magic. It does help with some of the worse damage... but the desperate, horrible gnawing at your entire being remains. "Ceriss..." you say weakly. "That's not... it won't... it's not what I..." Then you let your voice trail off, allowing her to fill in the blank.
She's silent for a long time. She knows what you really are. She knows what you really need if you're to recover from this. All the fears and doubts and lust and desire all collide inside her. Even with her wards against aphrodisiac, she knows how dangerous this could be.
She also knows you will die without it.
And really, that is what decides it. Just as you knew it would, even before you provoked your enemy to beat you into this state.
In truth... there was never really a choice to be made. Not for someone like Ceriss. She just isn't the kind of person who could leave you like that. Not when you injured yourself to protect her and others. That desire to save you counts for even more than the risk she knows she's taking.
Part of it is the lust you've already enkindled in her, true. The desire to experience your touch again prompts her to rationalize, to find reasons to trust. And part of it is also the genuine help you've given her, making those rationalizations so much more plausible.
But in the end... it is her simple compassion that is her undoing.
"I..." she says, wrestling with the decision she knows she's already made. "I... know a place we could go. Nearby."
You've got her. She was already teetering on the edge before. And this encounter will unquestionably be enough to push her over.
And not a moment too soon. You don't know how much of the other demon's ranting Nevati heard from outside the warehouse, but once the traumatized captive you rescued tells her story about how he was trying to force you to feed on her, you have to assume the gnome wizard will be able to put together the real reason why a curse that can only work on demons is working on you.
You're almost out of time. But with a little luck... you just might be able to pull this off anyway.
You'll still need to make it past Nevati to get alone with Ceriss. And there's other questions to be decided as well. You glance over to where the smashed remains of the demon's chest line off in the corner. You could point Nevati in that direction, warning the heroines about the menace of the loyalist incubi and their interest in your brand. It might be useful to have the heroines alert to these enemies as well, since you have a feeling this isn't the last you'll hear of those bastards.
On the other hand, it would mean that you don't have direct access yourself to any information that could be gleaned from what remains. If you distracted Nevati instead, sending her off somewhere else, it would buy enough time for the Thousand Eyes to swipe anything that looked interesting, so that the information goes directly to you.
