The eyes snapped open, making my heart leap. The black dried skin began to moisturize.
I took some steps backwards. If I would need to fight the succubus, at least I could make myself ready. She had horns, and I could tame her after all. The succubus sat up straight and turned her head at me. It was an eerie sight and I recalled the old horror movies.
The succubus stood up and came out of the sarcophagus. As she did so, the bandages covering her began to loosen and fall to the ground, more of her skin getting moisturized in the process. She decided she wanted to speed up the process and she began to take off the bandages. In less than a minute she was done. I watched in awe as her skin became taut. There was nothing ancient about her anymore. I felt drawn to her. I had mistaken her earlier, for her charm was the strongest I had ever felt. I became incapable of doing anything as I just stood and stared at her, like I was in a trance. My mind screamed at me, but I didn’t care for my mind anymore. The beauty of the succubus was brighter than the sun.
She approached me.
“You awakened me?” she asked, her voice like music.
“Yes,” I said, in no control over myself, “will I be rewarded?”
The succubus smiled, revealing dazzling white teeth… and fangs. She began to encircle me.
“Why were you sleeping in the sarcophagus for so long?” I asked her.
“A long time ago someone decided to put me to sleep,” she said, “the sleep that follows death.”
She took my hand, rubbing my fingers with her own. I liked her touch, so smooth it was.
“Do you like me?” the succubus asked.
“Why would anyone not?”
“You see, I had been getting lonely in my bed… I just needed a partner to be with me.”
“I will be your partner,” I said. I was ready for her.
“Then let’s go and sleep together,” the succubus said. I looked around, slightly confused.
“Where is the bed?”
“That one of course,” the succubus said, pointing at the sarcophagus.
“Will it be comfortable?” I said, not quite sure it was.
“Oh, once you lie down inside it, you don’t need comfort,” the succubus said.
“I will believe you,” I said. I allowed her to lead me to the sarcophagus.
“Enter,” she said, gesturing inside it. I nodded, obedient. I put one leg after the other and then I lay down inside it. It wasn’t as comfortable as she had promised. It was hard and my back hurt.
“It isn’t comfortable,” I complained.
“Oh, but it isn’t,” the succubus said as she herself entered the sarcophagus and she lay on top of me. “I said you wouldn’t need comfort here.”
She caressed my face and looked into my eyes. She ruffled my hair. I felt like I was in heaven. Behind her, I saw the lid of the sarcophagus slowly closing on its own. When it finally closed, it created an unusually loud sound.
One that was enough to break me out of my trance.
I suddenly realised that I was inside a closed sarcophagus, a succubus lying atop me. The gods knew what she was going to turn me into. A demon perhaps? My heart rate shot sky high.
“Your heart beats fast,” the succubus said and I noticed that the music from her voice was slowly disappearing and her voice was becoming like that of an old woman.
“I am excited,” I said. I reckoned the succubus didn’t know as of yet that her charm had broken, and I decided to play to it. It just might save my life. I ran my hands up her back. Her skin, which had been taut only seconds ago, was now becoming very uneven and getting wrinkles very fast.
I caressed her neck. My heart was beating even faster now for I could feel the lips of the succubus on my cheek. I was glad that there was darkness, who knew perhaps I would have been still under her charm otherwise?
I had to do this, I told myself. My finally attempt for my life.
I gritted my teeth, preparing myself. And then I grabbed the horns of the succubus hard.
The moment I did so, she cried out, her voice devilish. She tried to bite me, but I gave all my strength to keep her head and her mouth away from me. Her nails dug into my body, and despite all the pain I only grabbed her horns harder. There was a great wall around her mind. She had been asleep for who knew what length of time and this had allowed her to create a strong mental defence.
I searched for weak spots on the wall like mad, even as the physical struggled continued. She grabbed my arms with her hands, but I fought on. Just as I felt her hot breath against one of my forearms, I found a weak spot in the wall and I broke into her mind.
It was interesting, for the black magic left the moment I did so and the succubus went limp. I felt her horns shrinking. She became lighter in weight and I felt bandages appearing over her, even as her skin became dry. She was turning into a mummy. This had been no ordinary succubus at all.
I pushed open the lid of the sarcophagus, removed the succubus from over myself and I stumbled out. The fresh air felt good. Then I realised there was a green shadow standing on the wall just opposite me. The shadow had horns, wings and a tail. I looked behind me and saw nobody. Wait… are shadows green?
“You thought I would leave so easily?” the shadow spoke, in the same eerie voice of the succubus.
And the shadow leapt at me, right out of the wall.
The beating heart of the dragon…
I made it materialise in my hand, and held it in front of me like a protective shield for I didn’t know what else I could do. There was a great flash of green light as the shadow cried out. And she was gone. The heart stopped beating. A message popped up in my vision.
Congratulations!
You level up by 9!
I had never been this high even in my old tamer life. I reckoned taming the three demons was the reason behind this as they were not ordinary succubi or demons. The healing spell was a plus point too.
The room began to disappear, and I found myself in a clearing. A few feet away from me was Lana and a few feet away from her was Danor, the old lady and the old man beside Lana and Danor respectively. I realised we were in the same clearing where the temple had been. Except it was here no more and only the clearing remained.
Lana and Danor both limped up.
“You did it!” Lana said. “Good job, captain!”
“You saved us, sir!” Danor said.
I looked at the heart that had stopped beating and couldn’t help but smile.
***
We were travelling towards the dragon when both the old man and the old lady woke up. They said that they were husband and wife and that they had been bewitched by the succubi a long time ago. They told us to drop them at a certain village, and that they could manage from there on.
After some hours we reached the dragon. The only reason I had come in this direction instead of moving towards the next glowing spot on the map was that I didn’t want to separate the heart of the dragon from his body. It just felt wrong to do so.
There were quite a few scavengers around the dragon. But none of them had claws or teeth that were sharp enough to pierce into the thick hide of the dragon and they seemed to have missed the tiny hole on the chest of the dragon from where we had taken his heart. Several of the scavengers fled upon our arrival. A giant floating sphere was scary, that was sure.
Danor, Lana and I knelt near the hole on the chest of the dragon. I made the heart materialise in my hand. My hands shivered as I put the heart inside the dragon through the wound cavity. I was about to leave it there, when I felt the heart make a very distinct beat.
I looked at Danor and Lana with wide eyes as the heart picked up pace.
“The heart is beating!” I said, unable to control my excitement.
“But isn’t he already dead, sir?” Danor asked. “How can the heart of someone dead beat?”
But hadn’t it been beating all along? Only after the heart saved me from the shadow had it stopped beating.
Lana pursed her lip
s, determined.
“You know, let me try to heal him,” she said. It had been a good while since she had used her energy and she was revitalized now.
I grinned.
“Let me try as well,” I said. Lana frowned, not understanding.
“I received a new spell,” I said to her. She nodded in understanding. I took my blood stained hand out of the wound. The blood, even though a considerable time had passed since the dragon’s death, was still fresh and hadn’t clothed. Yet, somehow magically no blood had flowed out of the wound.
The two of us placed our hands on the dragon’s chest and closed our eyes in concentration. The wound began to close. After a while, I was quite spent. Both mentally and physically. I wished the makers hadn’t made doing anything in the world so demanding.
The wound had sealed. But the dragon still lay limp. Its heart however was still beating. We waited right there for nearly an hour, praying that the dragon would wake up. But he didn’t. His tongue was lolled out, his eyes were closed. His heart was still beating, but he was still dead.
“I don’t think he’s coming back,” Danor said. He was right. I stood up and so did the two of them. With shoulders hunched we moved towards the Sphere. I pushed opened the lid.
Just then a great cough reached my ears. I whirled around.
It was the dragon!
His eyes were open. He had come back!
***
Lanak Tanor
Class: Succubi Tamer
Race: Human
Sex: Male
Level: 10
Strength: 467
Health: 870/900
Mana: 512
Intelligence: 110
Mental carrying capacity: 495/550
Youth:285
Chapter 12: The Succubi Queen
I had never felt so low in a long while. The dragon hadn’t gone to bathe in the pool of the gooey liquid that was needed to keep the volcano calm. What more he had attacked the succubi, thwarting the plans to turn the people of the three villages into succubi and demons. The villagers had fled taking the opportunity.
I watched as the magma bubbled deep inside the volcano. I picked up a piece of granite and threw it down. It took nearly forty seconds for the granite rock to hit the magma, creating a small splash. The magma had been bubbling violently for a while now. The volcano would explode if the magical gooey liquid wasn’t given to it. I couldn’t afford that happening.
There was only one way that the dragon could have become free from my magic— if someone killed him and took out his heart. There were few weapons which were capable of piercing into the hide of a dragon, so the possibility that something like that happened was very low. Besides, who would have the guts to do something like that?
While the dragon on occasions was able to take over his own mind, my magic always ultimately prevailed. But now I had lost all connections to the dragon. The magic had been broken.
The second reason behind my low spirits was that someone had attacked one of the towns that the succubi were controlling. They had been powerful people and they had destroyed the magical facility that the succubi had set up so painstakingly to manufacture pills which could be used to turn ordinary human women into succubi without the need of the usual succubi charm or the succubi bite.
There was a voice behind me. I turned to see that it was Ranik, making his way down the mouth of the volcano, a look of pleasure on his face.
“You?” I said. I had told him not to come near the volcano. He was a human. If he fell into the magma down below, he would not survive unlike the succubi to whom the magma was like mere water.
“I had one of your succubi,” Ranik said to me with a grin. “I am thankful you didn’t ask them to bite me.”
He came and sat next to me on a rock and looked down at the volcano.
“I hope you have plans of what to do when that shoots up, right?” Ranik said, pointing at the magma.
“I think I asked you not to wander inside the volcano?” I asked him, more or less severely.
Ranik sighed. He drew his wrinkles in an expression which said he thought it was no big deal.
“I just wanted to stretch my legs a bit,” he said. “And I wanted to ask you something.”
“What?” I said.
“Once your work with me is done, I can leave right?” he said, “Or are you going to turn me into a demon and enslave me till the ends of eternity?”
“Do not worry for that,” I said. “I do not punish those who obey me. Besides, haven’t I told you already that your coming here on your own is a great help?”
Ranik pursed his lips and nodded.
“That is good to hear,” he said.
“Now return to the tent, I do not want you accidentally falling into the magma below,” I said. Ranik sighed and got up. He left the volcano.
I flapped my wings and took to the air. Feeling low was not helping me. I decided it was time for a final attempt to connect with the dragon. I began to fly over the volcano in circles as it boosted my connection powers many times over and I felt my mind leave my body in search of the dragon.
I didn’t find him.
And then the realisation hit me hard. Could the dragon’s mind not responding to my command and the destruction of the pill manufacturing facility have anything to do with each other? Whoever had destroyed the facility had to be powerful. How hard would it be for them to kill the dragon? Perhaps the dragon had somehow come across them and he had asked them to kill him? The dragon had occasionally tired others method to kill himself which I was aware of, but those methods had failed.
Either ways, the dragon was gone from my grasp.
I would wait a day or two more. Maybe he might return despite all odds? And if that didn’t happen, I would have to hurry up the process. Even though doing so might end up killing a few too many succubi… or even me. But I had no option.
Or did I?
Could I throw my charm over a different dragon?
It would be risky. The dragons by now must have come to know about what I had done to one of their kind. But I didn’t wish to give up at any cost. Waiting is for the weak, especially when one knows that waiting might not be fruitful.
I decided to take the risk. I called some of my best succubi. The ones who had mastered the art of charming. Bites wouldn’t work in the case of a dragon because of their thick hide, but even a dragon wouldn’t be able to resist the charming power of ten succubi who had mastered the art.
Together with them, I dived into the magma bubbling at the pit of the volcano. The extreme heat didn’t affect our skin at all, and our eyes could see through the magma as though the magma was air. We began to make our way down the earth’s crust through the magma tunnels. It took us nearly three hours to reach the end of the tunnels and enter the great magma sea under the crust of the earth.
“Be careful,” I said to the other succubi, “time runs in a different manner here. You do not want to go into a place where time runs at ten times the speed of the outer world.” If something like that happened to me, I would have to readily give up all dreams of completing the ritual.
We began our search for the dragons. I had found the last one swimming in the magma separate from his companions, which had allowed me to cast my charm on him.
It was after another hour that one of my fellow succubi spotted three juvenile dragons swimming and alerted the rest of us about them. We swam towards them at full speed. Even a juvenile dragon would do my job well.
I stopped short when I saw that on the head of each of the dragons there was a shiny object. A diamond. I couldn’t believe it. These were princes.
“What is the matter, o queen?” one of the succubi asked me, probably noticing that I seemed concerned.
“Those are princes. They can’t be swimming all alone. There must be other dragons nearby keeping guard over them.” If the guard dragons saw us we would be in big trouble as we would not be able to cast our charm on all of them.”
For a moment, we just observed the area around the juvenile dragons. There was no sign of guards. I did not understand why the guards would be absent. And then I noticed that the juvenile dragons were moving a bit sluggishly.
Were they drunk?
It was common for dragons to feed on a certain mineral borne out of magma that produced an effect in them similar to the consumption of wine. Usually, only adults fed on the mineral but it was more than a possibility that the juvenile dragons had snuck out of their castle and tried out the mineral without anyone knowing.
If that was the case it should be easy for us to charm all three of them!
“Let’s approach them,” I said. “But be careful. I don’t see any guards but keep a way out open.”
We swam towards the three dragons. They saw us approach and we cast our charms. They didn’t flee. My hopes began to rise.
“Hello dragons,” I said when we reached them. Their eyelids were drooping and I knew that I was correct about them being drunk with the mineral. We surrounded them on all sides.
“You are pretty,” one of the dragons said. He had a birthmark near one of his horns. He came towards me. I touched his face and he closed his eyes with pleasure.
“What are you?” another of the dragons said. He had the longest tail of the three and was probably also the oldest one. “I have never seen anything as beautiful as you.”
“Would you like to come with us?” the other succubi asked him, “We can… play,” they said with a hint of naughtiness.
“I would like to play with you,” the third dragon said, the smallest one of the three, “I hate it at home. The daily routine we need to stick to sucks the life out of me.”
“If you come with us you never need to stick to any routine,” I said, as I swam around his neck, “only happiness shall touch you. We will play, we will make merry and so it shall be.”
“Where do you live?” the dragon with the birthmark asked.
“A long way from here,” I said, “we were getting bored of staying alone. We needed company. Company of able dragons like you three.”
Chains of a Succubus Page 14