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

It was time to face the music. The music being Roshasha. Kanae could delay no longer now that everything was ready. Back at the Amethyst Hall, Aisha was doling out potions. She gave Kanae her share, too. One by one, they drank their cocktail of elixirs. Each time the bitter liquid slid down Kanae's throat, a status screen popped up in her vision.

[You have temporarily gained Greater Elemental Resistance.]

[You have temporarily gained Minor Health Regeneration.]

[You have temporarily gained Iron Skin.]

[You have temporarily gained Immunity to Blindness.]

[You have temporarily gained Poison and Venom Resistance.]

"Wow. You really worked overtime to make all of these," Kanae said, only now noticing the bags underneath the hobgoblin's eyes.

"A few of those I had to scour the palace for the relevant skills to make elixirs into. Having a Witch Doctor infuse spells into potions is handy, isn't it? Well, I've done all I can. Last thing left to do is wish you all luck. I'm going to bed. Whether you're dead or not when I wake up is a problem for later." Aisha waved as she dragged her feet upstairs to hit the sack.

"I'm impressed." Petyr Stormcloud smacked her lips after downing the last elixir. "Iron Skin is a Vanguard passive skill that raises physical defense, Immunity to Blindness likely came from a nocturnal beastman, and Minor Health Regeneration from a troll. That hob is no ordinary Witch Doctor."

Aisha did come from the Hellfire Badlands and was the daughter of Warchief Gabrul. In fact, as Kanae glanced around the room, every single member of the Amethyst Hall was an extraordinary individual in their own right.

Speaking of extraordinary, Reen emerged from the pantry with a tray of biscuits just like last time. She insisted that everyone eat them while they were still hot. As Kanae and her companions tossed the little morsels into her mouth, power surged through her veins.

[You have temporarily gained Major Magical Potency.]

Kanae recognized the skill as the same one from when they were about to enter Ha'Vavish. This buff made her non-offensive spells stronger. But how much stronger was it now going from minor to major?

"I might not be as incredible as Aisha, but I still wanted to contribute. I hope these help. Good luck, everyone! Good luck, Knight-Commander!" Reen cheered them on.

"We'll put this skill to good use, Reen." Kanae nodded in thanks.

"Shall we be off before these empowerments wear off then?" Alicia asked.

Among the Queen-Mother's daughters, only Hilde seemed anxious. Likely not for her own safety though, but for Daya's. There was no backing out now though.

Kanae led the way through Aidenhall. Grand Eye Analise was waiting for them in the Basilica of Saint Rue. A larger number of knights than usual guarded the entrance. When she arrived, they stepped aside to let them through. All eight Saint Priests were present and arranged in a circle at the front of the cathedral, and the Grand Eye herself stood at the pulpit as if ready to deliver a sermon. Everyone was tense.

"Amethyst, will this be everyone?" Analise asked as they approached. "A necromancer, four succubi, a traitor, and…" She squinted hard. "Is that your child on your back?"

Most of the Saint Priests who hadn't noticed snapped in Kanae's direction.

"I, uhh… Yes… Esta insisted I bring our daughter, and Feraline won't get off me! There's nothing I can do about it!" Kanae sighed.

"This is hardly a task for an infant. Are you crazy?" Delayn gasped.

"I disagree. A battle against the former demon lord is the perfect place to bring a child. You and Feraline have my well-wishes!" Vestrid flashed a fanged smile.

Kanae rolled her eyes. Of course, the only other drakeling in the room would think so. That race was just cut from a different cloth. With Feraline on her back, she could feel the infant's heart pounding with anticipation. She was actually excited for this.

"Well, far be it from a childless woman such as myself to lecture you about parenthood. Step into the circle when you're ready. Unlike last time, we'll bring you directly to Roshasha," the Grand Eye said.

"Erm. Not to rain on the parade," Kanae began after clearing her throat, "but what happens— and not saying we will— if we fail?"

"We will seal the prison and everyone within until the Saint Priests devise a method to contain her again," she answered.

Kanae gulped. No pressure at all then.

The members of the Amethyst Hall fearlessly entered the Saint Priests' ring. Kanae turned to each of her companions. Edina, Petyr, Alicia, Hilde, Claudia, and even Feraline… Radevic's alliance with Artaggon rested on their shoulders. Kanae wanted to chuck Feraline away before the ritual circle activated to keep her safe. But maybe Esta was right that she could be their secret weapon.

A chant filled the quiet cathedral. The Saint Priests recited an incantation that once again leeched flowing tendrils of magic from their bodies. That same magic gathered together and created a portal into an artificial Rift that was Roshasha's prison.

"I'll be watching closely from here," Analise said. "Succeed or fail, I'm going to enjoy watching you meet your match, Petyr."

"On the flipside, I'll make you squirm showing you how hard I can hit Roshasha." Petyr threateningly drew a thumb across her throat.

There were no more words to exchange. The succubi sisters were about to enter first again, but Kanae stopped them. As Knight-Commander, it was her duty to lead the way. After all, she needed to set a good example for her daughter.

Kanae entered the portal into the coliseum which contained Roshasha. The others emerged soon after and came to a screeching halt on their heels. The demon rhyleth was lying on her chest, playfully kicking her legs as if she were a teenager reading an interesting book. Feraline tensed up and snarled.

"That's… Roshasha?" Daya asked, sounding unimpressed by the rhyleth.

"Don't let her appearance fool you. Stay behind me." Hilde shifted to put herself between them.

"You guys are back!" Roshasha exclaimed after finally noticing them. "Does that mean we're gonna play this time? Oh, but are we sure this is a fair fight? It doesn't look like there's a whole lotta you. Last time I had a good time, they sent an army!"

"Hey, you want an army? I'll give you an army in a sec!" Edina winked, hand clenched so tightly on the Pillar of the Damned that her knuckles turned white.

"Alright, Grand Eye! If you can hear me… bring down the barrier!" Kanae shouted.

It disintegrated from the top. The shimmering magical dome began to vanish. Roshasha glanced up. Her lips cracked into a deranged smile, and her red pupils constricted into tiny dots within a sclera of black. The shark-like tail whipped back and forth excitedly. When the barrier fully came down at last, Roshasha tore off the magical chains that bound her wrists and ankles. However, she didn't attack them outright. Both sides stared each other down in silence.

"Who wants to die first?" Roshasha smirked.

"Out of the way." Petyr transformed Shifting Steel into a warhammer and marched ahead. "Demon lord or not, you don't scare me. Do you know what they called me in Ortesia? I'm—"

Roshasha torpedoed herself into the empire's greatest knight. They crashed into the side of the coliseum. Everyone, who had been looking forward, craned their necks back and gaped in absolute shock.

"Huuu! Hit me like that, too!" Claudia hollered, face flushed red and panting.

"Remember the plan!" Kanae exclaimed.

Hilde cast Bond on Daya and Alicia, and Kanae did the same for Claudia and Edina. The two former Mistresses of Pain flew into battle. Daya dashed back as Hilde rang her summoner's bell, calling forth her 'children' of dire beasts and a brand new adolescent red dragon. They were followed by Edina's own army of undead, Death Knight Cantu, and the dracolich pouring from portals.

"Finally." Cantu stretched his rigid skeletal limbs. "Out of that damnable abyss again—"

"Sacrifice Undead!" Edina shattered half her undead, including Cantu and the bone dragon.

"OH, GOD! IT HURTS! PUT ME BACK!" the necro lord screamed as his body broke apart.

Piles and piles of bones flew to Edina, dressing her in a suit of skeletal armor. The necromancer took the form of a hulking undead monstrosity, wreathed by the spiny wings from her dragon. The tatters of a black robe draped down her legless body, and a mist of dark green and purple necromantic energies billowed out from underneath. Longer bones fused the Pillar of the Damned and Scythe of Soul Reaping together into one large weapon.

Kanae's jaw dropped. She hadn't seen that before. Edina was looking like a real lich lord now.

"What? I look cool, right?" Edina asked in a deep, bellowing voice.

"Rahh!" Feraline roared with warning intent.

Across the coliseum, a cataclysmic battle raged on. Battle might be the wrong way of describing it. Kanae had seen how strong Petyr, Alicia, and Claudia were. However, the rhyleth was toying with them.

Petyr landed smite after smite, but only because Roshasha let them hit. Her claws caught the blunt side of the hammer. Holy energy that would have devastated anyone in a single strike seemed to explode harmlessly on the demon.

"Come on! Hit me, too!" Claudia chased after Roshasha with the enchanted paddle.

"Sure thing!" Roshasha spun around and roundhouse kicked Claudia across the arena.

Alicia materialized right behind the rhyleth and plunged two blades into her back.

"Gotcha. Now the basilisk venom will—" Alicia gasped when Roshasha glanced over her shoulder with a grin dripping with viscous purple liquid.

"Hehehe! Those knives tickled! But too bad~ Rhyleths are immune to all toxins. I've got some venom of my own though!" Roshasha grabbed Alicia's arm and sank razor fangs into the succubus, then allowed her to retreat.

"Sister!" Claudia recovered to help Petyr in fending off Roshasha. 

Alicia staggered back, wincing in pain and hand clenching the wound.

"Go help them! The necromancer and I shall stay here and guard Daya," Hilde insisted.

Kanae joined the fray with a small army of undead and two death knights on her heels. She checked on Alicia first, who was on her knees. Sweat drenched her face.

"Are you okay?" Kanae asked.

"The hobgoblin's elixir… it's working, but the venom is still very potent… If possible… I should like to collect… some," Alicia panted.

"You're okay." She rolled her eyes.

"How about you, succubus?" Roshasha appeared suddenly and squatted down beside them. "Aren't you the leader or something? You don't wanna fight me?"

Before Kanae had a chance to react, the rhyleth grabbed her by the throat and lifted her.

"Feraeline… meet… Roshasha," Kanae croaked.

"Huh?" Roshasha cocked her head.

Feraline popped up and breathed a breath of flames at Roshasha so hot it turned blue. Taken by surprise, the rhyleth let go and darted away. She patted her charred face, growling back at the drakeling infant.

"Good girl!" Kanae reached back to pat her daughter on the head.

When Roshasha lunged for them, Petyr slammed Shifting Steel into her chest and knocked her back. Kanae cracked Lust on the ground and switched on Sadist. She struck the rhyleth all over, leaving red marks on her purplish skin, each hit infused with Turn Horny.

However, Roshasha stood her ground and took it all.

"I'll make a mess out of you yet. Beg, worm!" Kanae demanded.

"Yes! Ahhh! More! I haven't felt this way in so long!" Roshasha howled in pleasure.

Kanae grimaced, and for once, she didn't feel like attacking anymore and switched off Sadist.

"This bitch is tough," Claudia said while helping Alicia to her feet. "Hits harder than the high elf, too. You guys need to feel this! Let me turn on Project Agony—"

"NO!" everyone yelled.

"Everything I throw at her, she shrugs off. It's like my smites are tickling her." Petyr spat on the ground.

"You guys are buying time for something, aren't you? And it has something to do with what's going on back there." Roshasha thumbed over her shoulder to Daya, causing everyone to go stiff.

Did they make it too obvious? This rhyleth wasn't the former demon lord for nothing. Roshasha was likely just as intelligent as she was strong.

"Maybe it's time to show you what real power looks like! Singularity," Roshasha uttered a single word, and a tiny pitch black orb appeared in the palm of her hand. Light and space seemed to bend around it, but the rhyleth herself looked perfectly fine.

"I don't like that." Petyr took a step back.

"I can take it!" Claudia exclaimed, taking one forward.

"Hehehe! Let's play catch!" She hurled the Singularity spell at them.

However, Petyr lifted Claudia up and threw her in return. When the two of them collided, lightning ejected from the orb and carved fissures in the ground. A blast erupted from it, sending them flying in every direction.

Kanae opened her eyes and sucked in a harsh breath. The coliseum walls had been blown away. Feraline was lying a few feet away from her. She scrambled to check on the drakeling, who only suffered a few scratches. The infant promptly snapped awake and climbed back onto her back.

"Glad you're okay…" Kanae sighed.

Not too far away from them, Alicia was confronting Petyr. Both of them were covered in burns, but that didn't stop them from fighting each other. Fortunately, Minor Health Regeneration was slowly healing away their injuries.

"That was my sister you threw!" Alicia glowered.

"She said she could take it!" Petyr fired back.

"I… I'm okay…" Claudia gave a shaky thumbs up from the ground. "I'm… satisfied… but everything… hurts… I need a moment…"

Where did Roshasha go? An explosion rocking in the distance answered Kanae's question. Edina, Hilde, and a massive undead army were fending the rhyleth off, desperately trying to keep her away from Daya. She jumped onto the scythe when Edina missed, plunging it into the ground, leaped onto the weapon, and climbed up to the necromancer's monstrous skull.

"Quit bickering! The others need help!" Kanae shouted.

Roshasha had torn Edina's undead form apart. Bones littered the ground. Broken skeletal warriors laid still alongside dire beasts. She was dragging an unconscious Edina by the tail up to Daya, whose only protector left was a severely injured Hilde standing between them.

"Nuh-uh. No one moves, or we all explode again!" Roshasha held up another Singularity in her palm, and they grinded to a stop.

"You're not laying a hand on my sister." Hilde glared past one open eye and was barely able to stay standing.

"Hilde…" Daya murmured worriedly.

The demon cackled. "And whaddya plan to do about it? Your monsters are dead. Your only dragon is paste. You're about to keel over. I can just pop this thing and end you! Ahaha!"

Kanae and the others inched forward but feared setting Roshasha off. Suddenly, Hilde cracked a smile. She unfolded her partially-broken fan and laughed heartily into it.

"Who said I only had one dragon?" Hilde rang her summoner's bell.

A dragon soared out of a portal and chomped down on Roshasha whole, leaving Edina to fall from her grasp. Hilde rang the bell a second time, sucking in her mighty draconic beast just as an explosion went off. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief— until her bell cracked.

Hilde whistled sharply. A mildly injured gorag picked up Daya and Edina, carrying them away just as the bell exploded.

"Hilde?!" Daya cried.

"WHOOOO!" Roshasha emerged from the bell, charred from head to toe by her own Singularity that went off inside the bell. She pressed a foot to the unconscious Hilde's head and raised both arms up in triumph. "That hurt! I expected nothing less from myself!"

Claudia and Alicia saw red. They flew into a rage, seeing their sister Hilde hurt, and launched themselves into another brawl against Roshasha. Meanwhile, the gorag brought Daya and Edina back to them.

"Daya, Edina!" Kanae ran to check on them.

"The Debilitating Band is ready…" Daya replied tearfully, then gazed up at her with eyes full of resolve. "We're not letting Hilde's sacrifice be in vain!"

"No, we won't." She agreed.

"Get up, necromancer filth. We aren't done yet. Focused Divinity: Lay on Hands. Divine Chain!" Petyr forced a golden sphere of energy into Edina's chest, shooting out healing magic that jumped to each of them.

"Holy fuck! I thought I actually died!" Edina sat upright and choked down a hoarse breath.

Kanae led the rest of them back into the fight. She forcibly switched on Sadist and lassoed Roshasha's throat. Petyr grabbed the rhyleth from behind, using Shifting Steel to pin her against the paladin's own chest. Claudia pulled taut her left arm, while Edina and Alicia did the same to her right. In her frustration, Roshasha expelled a breath of lightning that carved a trench in the earth.

"Now… Daya!" Kanae yelled.

The canine succubus landed in front of Roshasha's outstretched right arm. She pulled the Debilitating Band out, which the rhyleth recognized right away.

"Not again! Ahh, screw it. What's another point-blank explosion?" Roshasha materialized another Singularity in her left hand.

For whatever reason, Feraline sniffed the air frantically and came around to hug Kanae from the front.

"Feraline, no!" Kanae let go of Lust to shield her daughter.

Everything flashed white. The ground was charred. Petyr was the only one still standing, but that didn't last very long. She dropped to her knees and coughed. Kanae was lying face down and crouched.

"I win! I win!" Roshasha skipped up with a spring in her step. "That was kinda fun! Maybe not as fun as when I lost, because that was a crazy fight back then. Come oooon. You can keep fighting, right? You guys really had me going there! Don't tell me you gave up?"

"As if… I have a wedding… soon, and I'm not… missing it for the… world," Kanae groaned.

"No, no. I think you're gonna miss it. You weren't strong enough to beat me. Oh! Say, where's that drakeling with you?" She turned her over with a foot to find nothing.

Kanae was clutching onto nothing but empty air and grinned. Roshasha furrowed her singed brows. She whipped around only to have Feraline pounce on her face.

"Stupid little… monster!" Every time Roshasha flung Feraline off, she jumped right back on to start clawing again.

A stone's throw away, Claudia and Alicia had protected someone of their own from the blast. While Feraline was distracting Roshasha, Daya wrenched away from her sisters' protective grasp with the Debilitating Band still in hand.

When Roshasha wrenched Feraline off, Kanae introduced the rhyleth to her succubus tail next. The three-pronged mouth clamped down on Roshasha's face. They wrestled to the ground until Kanae was on top, and Petyr slammed the hammer down on her left wrist.Daya slipped the Debilitating Band on while Roshasha was kicking and screaming. The cursed item shrunk in size until it became a snug fit. 

Weakened now, like a light switch had been flipped off, Roshasha was powerless to fight them all off at once. Kanae continued to drain her stamina and mana. But the rhyleth still had some fight left. She unleashed a lightning breath, and Kanae had no choice but to let go. Furious eyes flicked to the band on her wrist.

"Not fair! Not fair! That's cheating! How am I supposed to fight at my full strength now?" Roshasha threw a tantrum.

"Let's see how much stronger Major Magical Potency is. Sleep!" Kanae cast her one incapacitating spell on the rhyleth.

Roshasha's eyelids fluttered. She tried her best to stay awake but eventually succumbed.

Their bodies illuminated with a bright light. The next thing Kanae knew, they were back in the Basilica of Saint Rue, surrounded by eight Saint Priests and Grand Eye Analise in a state of utter disbelief.

"Hah… How… How's that, Grand Cunt? I beat Roshasha… so you better… be afraid of…" Petyr collapsed backwards and passed out.

"Don't just stand there. Administer healing to the members of the Amethyst Hall! Leave Petyr for last. I don't need her awake and acting all smug," Analise ordered before hurrying over to Claudia and Alicia.

Delayn broke off from formation, joined by several clerics in the cathedral, to provide healing magic over Edina and Hilde.

"Is she okay? Will Hilde be okay?" Daya shook a priest in the middle of healing Hilde.

"Yes, I believe so. She is hurt badly but very much alive," the priest assured her.

While the other Saint Priests apprehended Roshasha, Kanae searched for her daughter. She didn't need to look for long. Feraline trotted up and plopped down on Kanae's lap. The drakeling began to lick her own wounds, not at all fazed by their battle.

"You turned out to be our trump card after all. I'm proud of you!" Kanae pinched the drakeling's chubby cheeks, eliciting from her an adorable giggle.