Love's Labors, Part 20

The corrosive fury of the Incubus King's consciousness rages across your inner world, the fragments of his memories howling around you. Howling through you. Even as he fights Khaytala in the physical realm—and even as your more conscious self resists him—his fundamental being is trying to obliterate yours entirely.

Your innermost self faces his in a waking dream. Or at least... something very akin to a dream. The same kind of mental space to which you travel in a normal Dreamwalking. Here, at last, you can at last see the spirit that has beset you at every turn. The foe who threatens you with ultimate extinction.

He looms above you. And in this ephemeral plane—where metaphor and seeming can cut to the heart of a being's identity—you can see his true nature laid bare. And to be sure, his upper half does have the semblance of an incubus, albeit one stricken by a profusion of blisters and tumors.

But below the waist he is fused unnaturally into your dreamscape. An infection of writhing spiritual decay and bile, stretching out toward you like a carpet of roiling demonic flesh. A growing mass, sprouting innumerable, bulbous eyes. Gnashing, fanged mouths. And misshapen appendages that stretch out toward you, trying to drag you down where you can be devoured.

How long has he endured in this state? Coming back time and time and time again, to keep claiming a new host? A cursed revenant, clinging to his former role and power. A twisted mockery of incubus-kind, rabid with thwarted spite.

You can feel the weight of the power he still clings to, unwilling to let go. The mantle of the Demon Lord of the Second Circle. It crashes against your soul, a crushing weight like nothing you've ever experienced. Demanding that you surrender yourself to his mad designs. The sheer spiritual force drives you to one knee, even as the distorted appendages grasp and paw at you from every side, reaching out of the encroaching, pustule-ridden flesh.

It's all you can do to keep resisting. Yet you resist all the same. Even though you know it can't last.

With each hand that swarms over you, adding to the writhing blanket, more of the Incubus King's memories intrude on your own. It's becoming harder and harder to keep any separation between them and your own memories. Your very sense of self is weakening, wavering, as you drown in a crushing sea of cancerous, twisting flesh. You clutch at your head, trying to focus, even as your enemy's psyche batters you from every direction with his overwhelming might.

You have to—

You can't let—

This bastard won't—

...someone, help...

"Fight him! Fight him and win! I know you can! Come back to me, please!"

The familiar voice shoots through your soul like liquid fire, as you find something in the maelstrom of corruption to center yourself on. A beacon of hope. A lifeline to latch onto.

A reminder of who you are.

Your eyes snap open and you surge to your feet, tearing free of the rotting, grasping limbs, even though they continue to paw and clutch at you. You focus on the voice, realizing what is happening. Lily is using her link to her summon to reach into your inner being. Just like she did the very first time you met, when you showed her the vision of meeting Rysanial.

And that memory of Rysanial that you shared with Lily—in this exact way—blazes to life, making all the invading memories of torture and degradation look twisted and foreign by comparison. You focus deeper, remembering that moment you and the succubus shared, when you won her over with your seductive, affectionate love-making. You remember the trust that Rysanial gave you after that, and how precious it was.

Then you think of the revenge this monster would inflict on her. Using your body to do it. And your own anger starts to burn. You fix the looming figure of the ancient incubus with a glare. Limb after limb lunges out of the cancerous muck trying to latch onto you. But you fling them away, again and again, as the metaphorical battle of wills increases in furious intensity.

"No! No, curse you! Just lay down and die already, you insufferable little gnat!" the Demon Lord rages. But with your newfound clarity of vision, you realize for the first time that he's not as in control as he pretends to be. The first unique rune may have afforded him this chance to try for direct control over your body... but the Brand itself is still only half-activated.

He isn't at full strength. Not yet.

And what's more, not only is your Brand bound by a Seal crafted by one of the most powerful sorceresses in this world... but you also took the precaution of reinforcing it a second time, with the full power of the Witch Queen herself.

Looking more closely at the towering hulk of demonic flesh, you can see that even now, glowing chains are wrapped around his form. Unbroken chains. You smirk toothily, holding you hand out toward him. Then you clench your fist, focusing all your own immense willpower on those chains, reaching out for the Seal with your thoughts.

And you pull.

The Incubus King howls, the magical chains burning into his flesh with a cold, bluish-white radiance. Now it's your turn to drag his enormous bulk downward, as more and more spectral links erupt out of the dream's surface. The Demon Lord roars curses at you, the sheer force of his will sending you staggering back, threatening to disrupt your concentration as his countless hands continue to clutch and tear at your soul.

But with every foreign memory of torture and sadism that he tries to inject... you focus on a memory core to who you are. A memory of yours that makes his fetid memories stand in stark relief.

You remember your first seduction in hell, the one you told Lily about. How you comforted the lost soul Nyali and gently taught her to overcome her fear of Lust.

You remember teaching Belan and Ioni the pleasures of the flesh, and how the young elf and the tortured former oracle of Melca found solace in each other, even in the midst of pain and fear.

You remember giving the two vampires a chance for solace in each other's arms, a new level of intimacy after so many centuries of lonely existence.

You remember all the heroines that have joined your cause, and their willingness to help even an enemy.

You remember Khaytala's charming honesty, and her fiercely giving and protective heart.

You remember how Verika strives to make up for her life in the Underworld, and her desire to show her people the better way that she's found.

You remember Ceriss, her passion for art and beauty, and how her drive to share Pleasure is so similar to your own.

You remember Nevati, how you helped her to finally consummate the hidden affection that she had never found the courage to speak aloud.

You remember all of them. You remember the feel of your touch on their skin as you taught them ecstasy. You remember how they responded to it by offering pleasure themselves.

It's something this monster has completely forgotten. If he ever even understood it to begin with.

With each memory you drive his influence further back, your willpower increasing as control of the shared dreamspace becomes more your own. The chains of the Seal tighten, constricting the invader's movements as he rants and raves with frothing hatred.

Bending all your inner strength to the task, you grit your teeth as you struggle to assert control. But your enemy is hanging on with crazed, tenacious resolve, and you don't know how long you can keep this up. Both of you strain, the mental contest playing out into ever-increasing chaos. The dreamscape starts to shatter around you, the false reality coming apart at the seams, undone by the clash taking place inside it. As everything you are hangs in the balance.

And it's then that one last memory comes to mind. Oddly... it isn't even a memory of Lust. Not of anyone you've had sex with. Not even of anyone you've helped to have sex. Simply a memory of your mistress, standing on the fortress tower. Saying goodbye to you as you departed on your first mission for her.

"Lily... That's... my name. My real name."

The trust in her eyes as she said it. Trust, that a demon could save her from her hopeless fate. Even now, she's calling out to you. Believing in you.

And you're going to let this parasite destroy that?

With a furious shout of defiance, you push back the last vestiges of the invading presence with your will. In this fast-disintegrating dreamworld, that defiance of yours manifests as a wave of hellfire, raging out from you to scour the surface of this place. The Incubus Kings screams as it washes over him, and you take ruthless advantage, constricting the chains around what remains of his main bulk even tighter. Dragging him back down, back into the depths.

It's all you can do for the moment. You know you don't have the capability to cause any permanent damage to him, not as you are right now. But as the chains of the Seal slowly drag him back beneath the surface of the dream... you realize there is one way you can take advantage of his premature attempt to wrest control.

All throughout this fight, the battle has been waged through the clash of memory, as you tried to hang onto your memories while the Incubus King tried to destroy you by overwriting yours with his own. But now, in this brief window of opportunity... you have a chance to take advantage of that. On your own terms.

Launching yourself forward, you hurtle across the disintegrating dream toward your chain-bound enemy. Upon reaching him, you drive your arm deep into his fleshy bulk, your psyches clashing once more. But this time you hold the advantage.

He set up this contest specifically to force his memories into you? Very well.

You can work with that.

But you don't want just any memories, nor will you allow them to hit you with such force and number that they threaten to overwhelm your sense of self. No, you reach in with surgical precision, grasping only the memories you want to know. Searching for secrets about how this situation came to be in the first place.

Secrets that might help you survive what's coming.

The Incubus King howls as he realizes what you're doing, how you're turning the tables to use his own chosen method of attack against him. His struggling increases, as he thrashes against the chains binding him.

It's too late for him to escape now, not as close as he is to being pulled back under. But it makes your search for memories difficult. And you know you will only be able to grab a few of them.

You catch tantalizing glimpses through the connection between your psyches. Hints of different courses you could pursue in more detail. It's a difficult decision. This may be your only chance to learn some of this information... and which information you choose may have a strong impact on what you're able to accomplish in the future.

If you wanted, you could plunder his memories of your Brand's construction, learning in detail the hidden secrets of how it works and exactly how it is affecting you. This could help you uncover new options in your fight against the Incubus King's influence, and aid in the battle for your soul.

You could also search his memories to learn about the unnatural corruption that you've observed in both the King and his followers, how they traded their sanity for power. How did they inflict this unnatural state on themselves? And could anything be done to cut them—and him—off from its strength?

Speaking of his followers, you also know from your encounter with the murdering incubus in Vekmar that the Incubus King's loyalists are still out there, waiting for their master's return. Particularly their leader, the demon mage Zethuriel. And if they've been watching with any level of divination, there's no way they'll have missed a manifestation of such plane-shaking power. They will no doubt be coming soon to aid their master. But you could search their master's mind for secrets that could greatly aid in dealing with them.

There's also the question of the Incubus King's immortality. Whether or not you defeat him in your own soul, this is a battle he has fought countless times in the past. Yet no matter how many of your predecessors ended up killed by the succubi, he always came back again. How is the Demon Lord clinging to existence so tenaciously? And how is he infecting new incubi, over and over? Learning that secret might allow him to be ended for good.

Finally, it's obvious that a huge, twisted knot of the Incubus King's psyche is wound up in his memories of the Lust Queen. The succubus who killed him and ended his reign. What truly happened between them, during that long-ago revolt? What secrets, what weaknesses does he know about the Queen that is even now hunting you? The Queen who, with this outpouring of power, doubtless also knows your location now?

Making a quick decision, you reach for one of the memories. The Demon Lord fights tooth and nail to stop you, and even in his weakened state the power he levels at you is almost too much to withstand. But you focus on the Seal, on the enchantments that Ceriss so carefully wove into you, and you weather the storm, wrenching free your target, claiming it as your own.

Striking a second time, you go to plunder a different memory. Again the Incubus King resists, malformed arms erupting from his chest between the criss-crossing chains to rend at your flesh. But you focus again, this time calling on the part of the Seal that you and Lily fashioned together, her power and your knowledge working in concert. Once again the chains tighten, and you're able to claim a second secret.

The dream is near the breaking point, but you go for one last try. The bound Demon Lord howls, and this time you only barely manage to withstand it by the skin of your teeth, relying purely on the raw willpower that you gained from the Brand itself, then honed and tempered through your frequent clashes with it. Once again you emerge the victor, with another secret as your prize. Though you are nearing the end of your rope.

You can already tell that you won't be able to manage a fourth one. Instead of making the attempt, you instead put the last remaining dregs of your strength into dragging your foe completely down beneath the surface of the dream, back into the slumbering torpor he was in before. He spits curses at you every step of the way, the chains pulling him deeper and deeper.

Until he finally vanishes from sight, and the dreamscape he crafted finally shatters around you. Leaving you in darkness.