by A. J. Markam
I whirled around, ready to cast the most powerful spell I could –
“It’s us!” Alaria cried out.
Stig scampered and hid behind her thigh-high boots.
I exhaled in relief. “A little warning next time.”
She glanced past me to Zali. “How is he?”
“Almost dead.”
She looked at me, a blank expression on her face. “Are you going to finish him off?”
I stared at her, revulsion rising inside me. “You want me to?”
She paused… and then her whole body sagged, her face turned mournful, and she sighed. “No. Not like this. I never wanted it to be like this.”
I kissed her, relieved. “I’m glad to hear you say that.”
A frail voice whispered behind me. “Ee-an…”
I knelt beside the tiny warlock.
Zali turned his face towards me. He could barely keep his eyes open. “You deed eet… I am proud of you… you have keeled me…”
I smiled ruefully. “Not yet, I haven’t.”
Zali smiled back. “What are you waiting for, then?”
“I didn’t mean for it to happen like this.”
“That ees how art ees, Ian… the fee-neeshed painting never quite turns out how you expected eet to…”
“This isn’t art. This is…”
I couldn’t say ‘a video game,’ even though that was the truth.
So I said what I could.
“…this is life.”
“Life ees art, and art ees life… and you have painted your masterpiece. Now… you must sign the canvas.”
I stared at the fragile little form before me. Then I turned back to Alaria.
“Can’t we let him live?” I pleaded. “We let Tarka live – can’t we let him, too?”
Alaria considered. “If he promises not to enslave anybody else to do his art… then okay.”
I grinned and turned back to Zali. “Did you hear that? Just promise us that you won’t ever enslave any more demons – or anybody else – and we’ll help you survive.”
The hatchetfish smiled. “Your offer is very generous… but no.”
I frowned. “You’d rather die than give up enslaving demons?!”
“That ees not eet. I would gladly accept your offer… but eet ees time for me to go…”
“No it’s not! All you have to do is use Soul Suck on me and gain back some Health – I’ll let you!”
“No. Eet ees my time, Ee-an. I have leeved mag-nee-ficently… and I have created mag-nee-ficently… but as we both know, an artist’s legend can only truly be complete after his death. Only then can he become… immortal.” He breathed out the word ‘immortal’ like it was the name of his beloved. “Now that time has come for me. I ask only one last thing of you.”
“What?”
“A small favor, nothing more, before I shuffle off this mortal coil…”
“Name it.”
“You promeeese?”
“I promise.”
“Very well… I weesh… to feeeel your pulchritudinous buttocks.”
My eyes bugged out.
“WHAT?”
“…your buttocks… they are perfection… and I would touch perfection one last time… before I die…”
Behind me, Alaria and Stig burst out into snorts of laughter.
I stared down at Zali. “Are you serious?”
“…absolute-leeee…”
“Did you really not see that coming?” Alaria asked.
I just glared at her.
“Please, Ee-an… please… you promeesed…”
What…
The…
Actual…
FUCK.
“Yeah, babe, you ‘promeeesed.’ Are you seriously going to deny a dying fish his last wish?” Alaria asked, barely able to contain her laughter.
“Yeah, boss. Plus you basically killed him,” Stig pointed out.
“Zip it!” I ordered him, then looked at Zali. “Can’t I grant you any other favor? ANYTHING? Well, I mean, not anything, but – ”
“…please, Ee-an… eet ees my final weesh…”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I grumbled as I stood up.
“See?!” Alaria said. “You just said Jesus – ”
“NOT ANOTHER WORD OUT OF YOU,” I snapped as I gave her the Finger of Doom.
Stig opened his mouth –
“YOU EITHER,” I snarled.
Both he and Alaria stayed silent.
Or tried to, anyway, as they suppressed their snickers.
I sighed…
Gritted my teeth…
Lifted up the back of my cloak…
Checked my pants to make sure there were no holes in the seat…
And then squatted down next to Zali with my rear end facing him.
“You stick a finger near my asshole,” I growled, “I swear I’ll kill you myself.”
“…eet ees not the asshole that entrances me… onleee the butt cheeeeks…”
I winced as I waited for the inevitable –
And then felt light cuppage on each one of my haunches.
“I cannot fucking BELIEVE I am doing this,” I muttered as Alaria burst into gales of laughter.
Stig just said, “Nice ass, boss.”
“I am going to kill BOTH of you if you don’t shut up.”
Then I felt the light pressure fall away.
I turned around to see the tiny warlock’s arms crossed peacefully over his chest.
“…thank you, Ee-an… I have touched perfection… one last time… and now I can die… happi-leeee. For I am… ZALI!”
The hatchetfish pumped one arm up above his head and stared defiantly into the void.
Then his eyes closed…
His Health dropped to zero…
And he gave up the ghost.
49
After we buried Zali beneath the sands of the battlefield, Stig, Alaria, and I retreated to a rocky ridge high above the city. I still had three bottles of booze in my bag, so I passed them all out and we proceeded to get drunk as we watched Fathmos burn.
Well, not burn, exactly.
It was underwater, after all, so there weren’t any flames.
We just watched it get destroyed piece by piece.
From this distance, the thousands of protestors were little more than specks – but they moved like a giant amoeba, swallowing up entire buildings and razing them to the ground. I guess to their minds, they were doing their own version of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. First Zali’s art, and then the rest of the city.
“What a bunch of dicks,” Stig grunted.
I couldn’t have agreed more.
I’d actually gotten a lot of hit points when Zali died, and leveled up immediately to 32. A new power… but I didn’t have the heart to check it out. I’d just swiped away the computer window and set about burying my former enemy.
“You know what?” I said aloud, already severely buzzed. “We should pour one out for our homie Zali.”
Alaria looked over at me. “What? What’s that?”
“It’s when you pour out a little alcohol on the ground.”
“Why would you do THAT?!” Stig said, horrified.
“In remembrance of a dead friend.”
“Like a libation to the gods for a fallen comrade,” Alaria suggested.
“Exactly.”
“He’s not our friend or our comrade,” Stig said in an irritated voice, “so why would we waste booze on him?!”
“I kind of liked him at the end,” I said.
“You tried to kill him, boss.”
“No, he tried to ‘keel heem,’” Alaria said with a smile as she imitated Zali’s voice.
“Yes, but he would not be de-feee-ted,” I said with a grin.
“And then he felt your butt,” Stig said.
I shot my imp a nasty look. “You’re one to talk, you little traitor.”
Stig’s ears drooped. “What?”
“You sold us out to those assholes down there,” I
said, pointing at the amoeba swallowing Fathmos.
“I didn’t know!” my imp protested.
“Whatever,” I said, and raised my bottle. “Pour one out for our homie.”
“No!” Stig whined.
I glared at him until he relented.
“…fine,” he grumbled.
“To Zali,” I said, and poured out a little booze onto our rocky perch.
“To Zali,” Alaria said, and did the same.
“Mrm,” Stig grunted, and poured out no more than a drop.
We all sat there and watched as another beautiful building collapsed.
“You know what I wish?” Alaria said, slurring her words slightly.
“What?”
“I wish there was some way to stick it to all those religious lunatics down there.”
“Yeah,” I murmured.
“I just don’t understand people who hate sex,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief. “I mean… it’s SO great… why do they hate it so much?”
“Who knows…”
“And all Zali wanted to do was use art to show how hot it could be.”
“Yeah…”
“You said you hated him,” Stig reminded her.
“Noooo, I never said that,” Alaria protested.
“Yes you did!” Stig scowled. “You said he made you pose for three years and you hated him!”
“…oh yeah…” Alaria looked up as though her memories were written in the sky. Then she shrugged. “Oh well.”
“Oh well,” I repeated, and took another drink.
“He was a true artist,” Alaria said in that somber, earnest voice only drunk people use.
“Yeah… a fuck artist,” I agreed.
Alaria laughed. “An artist of fuck.”
“Fuck me,” Stig grumbled.
Alaria turned to me, a mischievous gleam in her glassy, intoxicated eyes. “You know what we should do?”
“What?”
“We should fuck. Right here. In honor of Zali. As a way to say ‘fuck you’ to all those assholes down there.”
“That’s a GREAT idea!” I slurred.
“NO IT’S NOT,” Stig croaked.
“Yeah! We’re gonna fuck, and we’re gonna flip them the bird!” I shouted. I held both my middle fingers up in the air towards Fathmos. “FUCK YOU, JESUS FREAKS!”
“Yeah! FUCK YOU!” Alaria yelled, and held up both her middle fingers, too.
“For Zali!” I said as I got up and yanked down my pants.
“For Zali!” Alaria cheered as she stood up and pulled down her panties.
“UGH,” Stig grunted, and tried to shield his eyes with one hand. “AWKWARD.”
I corked my bottle and tossed it to Stig. “Here, take that and go over there and leave us alone.”
“Okay!” Stig agreed as he caught my bottle.
“Here, you can have mine, too,” Alaria said as she did the same.
“Not so awkward anymore,” Stig said happily as he took all three bottles and waddled over to the other side of a large boulder, out of sight.
Alaria reached down and caressed my cock until I was standing at attention. Then I turned her around, had her brace her hands against the boulder, and entered her from behind.
“Oh YES,” she moaned drunkenly.
I began to fuck her, my thighs smacking against her ass, slap slap slap slap.
“For Zali!” I yelled at all the self-righteous little butt-stuff hypocrites tearing Fathmos down.
“For Zali!” Alaria yelled, then collapsed forward onto her forearms. “Ohhhhh…”
“For Zali!” Stig yelled, then belched. “URP.”
I was drunk off my ass at this point, so I didn’t really give a shit how weird the situation was.
“For Zali!” I yelled again.
“For – unh – for Zal – unh – lee!” Alaria moaned.
“For Zali. URRRRP.”
“FOR ZALI!” I yelled as loud as I could.
“For – for – oh GODDESS – FOR – ZALIIIIIIIIIIII!” Alaria screamed as she came.
Her high-pitched shrieks echoed over the plains of Fathmos for a good ten seconds.
When Alaria finally stopped screaming, Stig said hesitantly, “Uh… boss?”
I saw what was alarming him.
The giant amoeba had paused in its reign of destruction, and now was standing still.
As the echoes of Alaria’s orgasmic shriek died away…
…the amoeba switched course.
It moved through the empty streets, then spilled out the gates of Fathmos and boiled over the seafloor toward us.
I reminded myself that they were only a bunch of Jesus freaks.
None of them were above Level 15.
…but there were about 6000 of them.
And though they were half a mile away, they were moving pretty fast.
I just stood there motionless, my cock still inside Alaria, as I stared at the army rushing towards us over the plains.
Neither she nor I said a word. We just watched in silence –
Until I slipped out of her and said, “Well, I think it’s probably time to go.”
“Yeah, probably a good idea,” Alaria agreed as she grabbed her panties and stepped into them.
“After all, we’ve got more ex-masters to kill,” I said with fake cheerfulness as I pulled up my pants.
“LOTS more.”
“I thought it was only three now,” Stig said in a perplexed voice. “Four if you count the pirate chick.”
“That’s a lot,” Alaria snapped.
The amoeba was getting closer. In fact, strands of it were beginning to break away and swim up through the water towards us, like pseudopods reaching out for prey.
“Are they bringing booze?” Stig asked hopefully.
“NO, they are NOT. Let’s go,” I said as I swam up over the top of the rock outcropping.
“Right behind you!” Alaria called out.
Stig was the last one to leave.
He drained all his bottles, tossed them over the side of the cliff, and then squatted down in a crouch.
“FUCKOFF!” he yelled at the amoeba, waggling his bare ass at the approaching horde…
…and then he joined me and Alaria as we all swam off to our next adventure.
Ian, Stig, and Alaria will return in SUCCUBUS 7: FAIRY TAIL.
By the way, you do know there’s a Succubus Christmas Special, right? On sale now?
And EX-SUPERHEROES #1 if you want more sex and super-powers.
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Also by A.J. Markam
Ex-Superheroes #1
A Superhero Harem Series
Succubus Christmas Special
Succubus
(Kindle and audiobook)
Succubus 2: Hell To Pay
(Kindle and audiobook)
Succubus 3:
The Good, The Bad, And The Crazy Stupid Hot
(Kindle and audiobook)
Succubus 4:
Gnome Place Like Home
(Kindle and audiobook)
Succubus 5:
Hardcore Dungeon Core
(Kindle and audiobook)
Dead Man Gaming
Zodiac: Operation Zodiac
Recommended
I have a friend named Rob Nolan who just came out with his first book, all about a mage with powers over metal. (It’s kismet, what with Ian quoting Magneto in SUCCUBUS 6.) Check it out on Kindle Unlimited!
IRON MAGE
Another friend of mine named M.H. Johnson writes LitRPG, and I highly recommend checking out his Endless Online series. It's all about a soldier who gets into virtual reality gaming to help deal with his injuries and PTSD - and then shit gets real.
ENDLESS ONLINE: Oblivion's Blade - Book 1
ENDLESS ONLINE: Oblivion's Promise - Book 2
ENDLESS ONLINE: Oblivion's Price - Book 3
> ENDLESS ONLINE: Oblivion's Peril - Book 4
ENDLESS ONLINE: Oblivion’s Crown - Book 5