The Hero Became a Succubus, and the Only Way to Level is to… What?!

The outpost Edina and Eliza found really was attacked. Unconscious high elves were strewn about. At a quick glance, it was a small 20-man camp likely a forward outpost for reconaissance. They weren't going to do much recon anymore in this state though.

"Whaddya think? Maybe the ones from your monastery did this?" Edina wondered aloud.

Kanae shook her head. "No way. This looks recent. Besides, the Depraved Monastery is a little far. If the succubi from there had anything to do with it, their orgy would still be going on."

Feraline's head snapped to one direction. She dashed deeper into the camp on all fours and someone yelped aloud. They caught up to find her on top of an elven man's back, claws primed to slash his throat.

"Not so fast, Feraline." Esta yanked the drakeling girl off by the scuff of her neck. "In battle, you must practice restraint on the fallen. Only when they scorn your mercy may you become merciless."

"It really feels like the two of you produced a wild animal together." Arenade eyed the both of them.

"Give Feraline a break, she's still a newborn. Besides, she caught a guy trying to escape. Good girl." Kanae patted her adorable drakeling daughter on the head.

They surrounded the terrified high elven man, who was shaking like he had been thrown into freezing cold water. Edina strolled up to him and summoned an undead to draw a sword to his face.

"What happened here? You got one chance to tell the truth, or you're joining my army of undead." Edina smirked.

The man's eyes rolled back. He blacked out from fear.

"You scared him shitless! Now how are we going to get answers out of him?" Arenade put a hand to her face and groaned.

"But threatening people usually works! I never had someone go and faint on me before!" Edina complained, so she ordered her undead to lift the man up and shake him awake. "Get up, bozo. We ain't done with you yet!"

"Let me try." Kanae scooted Edina and Arenade out of the way. She kneeled down next to the man and cast Turn Horny. Not only did he spring a boner, but he also snapped back to consciousness.

Arenade immediately used Plant Growth to restrain him. The vegetative growths lifted him up to face them eye at eye-level.

"Where are my babies?!" Arenade demanded.

"I-I don't know! If anyone has them, it's Admiral DeSalle and Lord-Major Stormcloud!" he cried.

"We already know that, Arenade!" Kanae tried to calm her down from behind. "What happened to this camp? Who attacked you guys?"

There was initially some resistance. However, after realizing that they were going to get answers out of him one way or another, he relented.

"We were… assaulted by our own…" he answered dejectedly.

"Looks like the good ole empire still isn't as cohesive as I remember," Arenade said.

"How do you mean?" Kanae asked.

Arenade directed everyone's attention to emblem on the elven man's shoulder. All of them bore two sigils, a cross that signified them as a worshipper of the Supreme One and the other a maple leaf.

"Each high elven house lends able-bodied soldiers from their own domain to the empire. On paper, they're loyal to Ortesia. Truthfully? Everyone swears loyalty to whosever house or domain they came from," Arenade explained.

"Which means the Ortesian forces are currently in-fighting? Whose people attacked?" Eliza pressed the man.

"We… welcomed them back with open arms and warm shelter, too… It was… soldiers from House Pyrelle," he said.

The name didn't ring a bell to Kanae. However, Arenade, Eliza, and Esta gasped.

"Is that bad?" Kanae asked.

"House Pyrelle is first in line to seize the imperial crown. It makes little sense why they would attack their own so boldly." Eliza cupped her chin in thought.

"They are greatest, most well-respected family in Ortesia. In fact, my mother's Loyalty Fixation triggered on their son, Guillaume Pyrelle," Esta explained.

Arenade tugged Kanae aside. They went behind a tent, out of earshot from the others.

"What's up? You want a quickie?" Kanae teased.

"No!" Arenade pouted. "It's about House Pyrelle. Listen, backstabbing and betrayals is about as natural to high elves as breathing. Those guys? They wrote the book on it. They want nothing more than to stay on top. The only reason I got exiled was because the head of their house led the motion in the Lord Council to remove me. But I think there was more to that… the Pryelles were trying to help the Ducantes achieve deification—"

"Wait, I heard this from Admiral DeSalle. He mentioned Ruedegard Ducante having his deification robbed from him. Was it Pyrelle?"

"It was me," she said seriously. "Not on purpose though, and I was never on the path to deification anyway! All I wanted to do was help people, but noooo! Apparently, me being too nice and generous was 'stealing' Ruedegard's potential worshippers."

In that case, House Pyrelle might be trying to finish what they started by trying to resurrect Saint Rue. But Ruedegard Ducante was a member of a cult worshipping the devil of Lust. The Pyrelle family had to have known that.

"Arenade, does the Cult of Lust and Depravity ring any bells?" Kanae asked.

"Nope. Sounds like something you came up with." Arenade shrugged.

It was worth a shot, but they were a secret organization after all…

"Say, I'm always hearing about how you got exiled. What happened to Charron back then? I can't imagine he was happy about the fall of House Ehmvier, seeing as he's christened 'Demon Lord' hellbent on sticking it to Ortesia," Kanae said.

"Ahh… That idiot brother of mine just can't let a grudge go. I tried my hand at charity, failed, and passed away in disgrace. Charron didn't want to go quietly. Years later, I hear he got demon-fied in some ancient ritual. Kind of like Edina and your half-succubus transformations. Unlike you, he hurt a lot of people in the process. Probably over the centuries, too. That, I won't forgive." Arenade folded her arms and glanced off to the side.

When Kanae reached out to try and comfort Arenade, Edina popped her head in from around the tent.

"You guys good? We're thinking we should hit the Ortesians soon," Edina said.

Kanae and Arenade nodded to each other, then went with Edina to rejoin the others. Their group consisted of the three of them, Wendy Ironspear and her squad of six Lights, Eliza, Lapis, Esta, and Feraline. Not exactly a sizable group to take on the Ortesians' main encampment. They had no other choice but to try.

Three days after arriving to Windy Bog and eliminating almost a dozen outposts along the way, the group finally reached the Ortesian encampment. Arenade wasn't happy that Kanae needed to screw her a second time to regain the Healing Aurora spell, but having two healers was going to help a lot. This was going to be their second time assaulting it, and the Knight of Gold likely expected them to come.

They couldn't see what was going on behind the palisade wall. Flying up to scout was too risky. Judging by the number of guards stationed on the walls and outside the perimeter, there was significantly more Ortesians around than usual. Kanae sensed her daughters, Kanade and Suvee, somewhere inside. 

"I doubt they plan hurt Kanade and Suvee. Chances are, they want to take them hostage in Ortesia to use against the Commonwealth. We'll hit them hard. Harder than we ever have before. Edina, how big of an army can you muster?" Kanae asked.

"Well, I used to be able to have twelve death knights out when the staff was at full power. Now? Only half that number. Legion of the Dead will give me a couple of thousand, and I also got the dragon. It's gonna take a lot of mana though. I'll need your Bond, and some drain fodder on standby." Edina made a humping motion rubbing two fingers together.

Good thing there was plenty of drain fodder ahead of them.

"Man… if I had a coin for every time my kids got kidnapped, I'd have three coins. Which isn't a lot, but it's still weird that it happened three times." Kanae sighed.

"There won't be a fourth. I guaran-fucking-tee it!" Arenade slammed a fist into her other hand.

They might be severely outnumbered, but they had the advantage of the Ortesians being fractured and starving, morale at their lowest points from consecutive defeats, and pinched in from all sides. If there was ever a time to strike, it was now.

Kanade, Suvee, and Gretchen, too.

Hang in there a little longer.

"It's too dangerous for us to attack from the sky. Edina's death knights will punch a hole through the wall. Lapis, you're leading the charge. Your anti-magic will nullify and weaken any holy spells they try to shoot them down with," Kanae said.

"Updating sexual combat parameters against prudes… Leave it to me!" Lapis clenched her fists.

"Time to get this show on the road. Arise, my death knights! You, too, Cantu!" Edina summoned six massive death knights.

"Ow, my neck. You need to let me out more often." Cantu cracked his spine straight.

"There's a camp of high elves that need knocking down. Get going!" The necromancer gave him a swift kick to the rear.

Everyone else positioned themselves behind the line of death knights and charged. Right away, magical spells bombarded them. The volleys that came too close diminished into puffs of smoke thanks to Lapis' anti-magic meisterium core. Having realized that their magic was useless, high elves on the walls were screaming to those inside the camp. The ones outside fell into a tight defensive formation.

"Don't stop! Run them down!" Edina yelled.

Lapis and the death knights did exactly that. When the Ortesian clerics on the wall cast spell buffs on their infantry below, the effects went poof as soon as the dwarven automaton got close. Without their magical enhancements, six death knights sent the defensive line flying like bowling balls to a bunch of pins. They continued onwards, barreling through the wooden barricades and into the camp itself.

"We're under attack by the necromancer!"

"It's not just her, there's more!"

War horns sounded across the camp. Hundreds of Ortesians poured out from their tents with weapons drawn thinking they were about to fight death knights, but Edina cast Legion of the Dead. Thousands of undeads stampeded out of abyssal portals to do battle with the living. Her undead dragon soared over the camp and flew circles around the center until a bright beam of holy energy shot it down.

"There!" Edina pointed. "Just before my dragon plummeted, I saw the moustache dude walking into a portal with your kids!"

"You don't have to tell me twice. Holy Armament: Suit of Armor!" Arenade dressed herself in plate and was about to take off until Kanae yanked her back down.

"We have to stay low to the ground, or else we're going to get blasted out of the sky like Edina's dragon!" Kanae warned.

"This is as far as you go, Queen of the Commonwealth. You, too. Estaline." Darren von Cleisseldor cut down a horde of undead. He led hundreds of dragoons in to reinforce the high elven knights.

"Brother." Esta offered him a single bow, then threw herself into battle.

The drakeling siblings clashed, greatsword against greataxe. They almost seemed evenly matched, but Darren was the larger and stronger of the two. He lifted one thick leg and kicked his sister skidding away.

"Give up, Sister. We already demonstrated years ago who was better," Darren taunted.

"You're right, but that doesn't mean I can't try again. Also, I'd like to introduce you to my daughter, Feraline. Feraline, say hello to your uncle!" Esta kneeled down, allowing Feraline to climb onto her back and leap off.

Darren was too stunned to react. Feraline landed on his head and started clawing at him.

"Ow, stop! I'm glad to have finally met my neice, but Estaline… this isn't a fair fight anymore!" Darren cried, trying in vain to pull Feraline off.

"Go!" Esta urged the others. "Leave Darren to me and Feraline!"

The farther they pressed into the camp, the less help from Edina's undead they got. That was when Lapis proved most useful. Her earthen golem body, like the other automaton constructs in the dwarven cities, made her incredibly resilient. Her arms reshaped into whipping appendages that grabbed ahold and fucked unsuspecting high elves.

Wendy and the six Lights demonstrated that they were better disciplined than the Ortesian brothers and sisters, having lived a lifetime of constant warfare in the Hellfire Badlands. Their teamwork brought down scores of knights despite being fewer in numbers.

When they finally made it to the center, the only one there to greet them was Petyr Stormcloud, the Knight of Gold. She held Lynn Alton by her hair.

"Very, very clever. To think, you turned one of our own against us. You set us back days! We could have been on ships bound for Ortesia half a week ago!" Gold tossed Lynn over to them, and she landed in Kanae's arms.

"I delayed them… as best as I could… they found out… I'm sorry, Queen Kanae…" Lynn muttered.

"Where's Kanade, Suvee, and Gretchen?" Kanae asked.

The empire's greatest knight thumbed over her shoulder, pointing at the distant ships that were now pulling away from the coast.

"You want them? You're going to have to get through me, bitch! I was on the verge of luxury. I'd never have to lift a hand ever again! You stole that from me! If I'm going down, I'll take you with me." Gold reached for her waistband and pulled out a bright blue dildo instead.

"What? Are you going to use that sex toy on me? I'm just going to enjoy it~" Kanae teased.

"Wait… my Shifting Steel? I had it right here!"

"Sorry, it's in my possession now." She smirked as Vesh dropped Gold's signature shapeshifting weapon into the palm of her hand.

[Shifting Steel: Transforms into any weapon you desire and applies an elemental or magical attribute of your choosing to its attacks.]

Gold's eyes full of hurt flicked up to the incubi.

"I'm sorry, Petyr." Vesh transformed into his true, adult form to her surprise and his brothers followed suit.

"You were an incubus this whole time? No, this can't be happening. I thought we… you… didn't you love me?" Gold clutched her stomach and grimaced.

"Love you? You stuck dildos up our asses and never established a safe word! We incubi are into a lot of kinks, but you're just twisted in the head. All those sweet words we whispered to you? They were… lies," he said, seemingly lying himself.

"Get up, Gold. You have no one to blame but yourself, falling for my hospitality. I'm going to pay you back with a thorough fucking!" Kanae transformed the weapon into a club shaped like a dildo.

"Haha… HAHAHAHA! You think I need a fucking weapon? The Empire of Ortesia fashioned me to a fine point. I'll smite you with my fucking fists, you succubus slut!" She chucked the smaller dildo away and let out a war cry that would put dragons to shame.

"Yeesh… I know she's been disarmed, but my fur is still standing on end looking at her." Edina shuddered.

Delirious and at the edge of sanity, Gold lunged at them like a wild animal. When the others readied themselves for a fight, Kanae flew ahead parried her fist with the Shifting Steel as a dildo. The impact forced them both back, their heels dragging fissures in the dirt.

"No one touch her. She's mine!" Kanae waved the others off and stepped forward again to meet her in battle.

"You're insane if you intend to fight Gold alone!" Eliza cautioned.

"Forget about me. The rest of you, catch up with the ships before we lose them! Now!" she insisted.

Edina raised her undead dragon a second time and ushered everyone onto its back. With one heavy beat of its wings, the mighty beast lifted off into the sky and scattered tents away with a strong gale.

"GET BACK HERE!" Gold snarled, picking up a discarded crossbow from the ground.

Kanae whipped her arm. She flinched just enough that the smite-infused bolt missed them by a hair.

"I'm right here, Gold! It's me you want. I'm the one who screwed you over and over, now I'm going to screw you for real." Kanae glared.

"You want my full attention? Alright… You have it," Gold said with her fangs bared.