“It was you who saved me,” she told me. Then she handed me the cane. The cane changed shape and turned into the blade of a sword. I had earlier kept the hilt in my pocket and now I took it out and tried to join it to the blade. The blade and the hilt magically joined to each other.
“Go,” said the girl, “go to the upper floor of this castle. You need to get out of here.”
I nodded. The girl suddenly embraced me and kissed me on the cheek.
“Thank you,” she whispered into my ears.
“Go,” she said as we broke apart.
When I went out of the room I saw that the end of the corridor had transformed into a flight of steps that led to the upper floor.
Once I had reached the top of the steps, I knelt down and caught my breath. I checked my stats and saw that my health bar had climbed up a little bit. The pain in my head was little more than a dull throb now. What concerned me however was the youth bar. It had dropped even more. Another ninety points in youth gone. I felt my face with my hands and I could make out quite a few wrinkles on my face. Youth did slip away quite fast, didn’t it?
I waited a few more moments so that my health climbed a little bit more. In the second floor too was a corridor. The room near the end of the corridor was open. I prayed whatever was in the room would be less grotesque than what I had already encountered.
I made my way to the room. When I reached it, I reeled looking at all the blood that was on the floor. There was an old lady, the same one whom I had seen from outside. She was sitting on the floor not far from a window. Surrounding her were quite a few odd creatures that were the size of puppies. Initially I struggled to make sense of what the creatures really were for I had never seen the like of them ever in my life. One thing I was certain of was that they were the source of the blood that was on the floor. The old lady looked very frightened and she sat on the floor visibly shuddering, embracing her legs with her arms.
Finally I realised what the creatures were. They were hearts. Hearts that had limbs and mouths and eyes. Each of the heart monsters had several cuts all over their bodies which was the source of the blood on the floor that was increasing with every moment. But I could see no reason why the hearts should be bleeding. The old lady possessed nothing with which she could possibly injure the heart creatures.
Suddenly the darting eyes of the old lady fixed on me. She sprung to her feet and came running, jumping over the heart monsters so desperate she was. She came and fell to my feet.
“Please save me!” she begged. Her face like the faces of the child and the teenage girl had a striking resemblance to the succubi queen. I grasped her shoulders and gently pulled her up.
“Thank you for coming here,” the old lady said, clasping her hands together. “They are going to drown me, please save me.”
The heart creatures approached me and the lady from all sides. They had menacing canines that gleamed bright.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said to the old lady.
I raised my sword and swung it at the heart monster closest to me. The sword made a deep cut on the side of the heart monster, such that fresh blood leaked out of it. At the same moment, another heart monster crept behind us and closed the door. I felt a stinging pain at the back of my leg and turned to see one heart monster having sunk his canines into my leg. I wasted no time in putting my sword through the monster’s eye. Fresh blood spurted from the monster, even as it let go of my leg.
I let out a yell and I began to hack and slash at the heart monsters one by one. Every time I hit any of them they would fall down limp and great amounts of blood would spill out of them. What sucked was that for every one heart monster that I killed, three more seemed to materialise from nowhere. The old lady and I soon found ourselves against a corner of the room, being approached by tens of the heart monsters. I tried to console the lady, but she was shuddering very violently in her fear. The level of blood on the floor was steadily increasing and by now it had reached my knees. Suddenly the realisation struck me. I turned at the old lady with wide eyes.
“You said they drown you,” I said, “They drown you in blood?”
The old lady nodded. My heart sank. I had thought that the monsters drowned her in water or something similar. That she was being drowned in blood had never really crossed my mind until now. I was sure that the old lady would survive even if she drowned. I however would not.
I stopped fighting the heart monsters. There was no point in doing so because the more I killed them, more of them appeared. I focused on defending myself and the old lady instead, preventing the monsters from sinking their teeth in either of us.
I was at a loss as to what to do. The level of blood kept rising until I was waist deep in blood. The heart monsters were guarding the door at the opposite wall, plus it would be quite difficult to wade through the blood to it. I didn’t want to be bitten any more. My health was already very low.
“We are going to drown,” the old lady said, her wide eyes glistening with fear. The level of blood had now reached my chest. The hear monsters kept producing blood all the while, and they seemed to having a menacing smile on their odd faces.
I turned at the old lady. I understood that she was frightened but couldn’t she see that she had drowned earlier, yet it hadn’t really done anything to her?
I wasn’t ready to give up yet. Seeing that I had regained a little mana, I aimed my hands towards the door.
“Blast!” I yelled. As the blast of air went from my palms towards the door, it created a wave on the surface of the blood. But by the time the air blast reached the door, it had already run out of energy.
I had tried everything. There was nothing I could do now. The old lady was shorter than me, so I lifted her onto my feet. The fear of drowning began to settle over me. I told myself that it would be a quick death and then I would be in a third world, possibly one which had my sons and daughters and everyone who never managed to come to the Second World and died when the war had broken out in the real world.
I put an arm around the old lady and gave her a consoling look.
“It’s okay,” I said to her, “if you drown, I am also going to drown with you.”
The old lady looked at me with wide eyes. I thought her eyes were rather large for her bony face.
“Is it okay?” she asked to me, almost in a whisper, even as the blood level reached her chin.
“Yes, it is,” I said. “So now, do not be afraid of it.”
The old lady kept staring at me, but I could see that the fear was slowly leaving her face. And then something interesting happened. The level of blood began to go down. The heart monsters, who had began to cheer, became quiet and looked at each other confusedly.
I abruptly realised why this was happening. The fear of the old lady and the level of blood were related. It was not the heart monsters who were always drowning her in blood. It was herself!
“See?” I said to her, the blood level falling fast. “It is okay!”
The old lady looked at the falling blood level with much awe. She seemed to realise that her fear and the blood level were related. In mere minutes, most of the blood had disappeared entirely, and just stains of blood remained on the floor and sides of the walls. What more, the heart monsters had stopped bleeding as well. The colour of their bodies was becoming less and less red and more black as if their bodies were drying from the insides.
The heart monsters began to make panicked sounds and they grouped together in the middle of the room. I held my sword firmly. I knew that they were going to attack me and the old lady. The heart monsters looked very pissed. I couldn’t afford to let the old lady face any more fear.
Once the heart monsters grouped together, with some climbing on top of others such that they formed a small hill at the centre of the room, something weird happened. Their bodies began to fuse into one another.
The result was a gigantic black heart monster, who took a considerable space of the room. The monster roared and advanced towards me and the old la
dy.
I turned to look at the old lady.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said to her, “do not be frightened.”
And without further ado, I threw myself at the heart monster. It tried to swat me with its gigantic hands, but I was able to evade every time, even though there were many cases when I tripped and fell on the floor. I was determined not to be hit by the heart monster for I did not want to lose health. I landed cut after cut on the body of the heart monster. No blood ensued from any of the cuts. The body of the heart monster had toughened considerably, and every time I hit it, I felt like I was trying to chop a piece of wood. I grew certain that at this rate my sword would go blunt.
No, I had to attack the monster at its weak points— its eyes.
Somehow, I was able to go behind the monster and I climbed onto its back and moved towards the top of the monster. I raised my sword, my aim the left eye of the monster. Just then I felt a sudden force on my back as the monster hit me with one of its hands. I lost balance and ended up putting my sword into the monster’s face, mere inches away from its eyes.
I ignored the pain, but I was concerned very much about my health bar, which was blinking and about to be depleted. As the monster’s hand came to grab me, I jumped from its head and landed on the floor and rolled away to lessen the energy of the impact. Once I was back to my feet, I immediately assumed an attacking pose and studied the monster.
The giant arms of the monster were the main problems. If I could do something about them then I could easily hit any weak point of the monster without necessarily having to fear for my health and for my life. Thankfully, the hind arms of the monster had less girth than its forearms. Once again, I ran behind the monster, and as it tried to turn its massive body towards me, I quickly climbed onto its back again. This time I approached the right arm.
I hit the monster with my sword at the very base of the arm. The monster cried out and tried to grab me with its left hand, but I was able to evade it. I landed yet another hit on the base of the arm, deepening the former cut. Two more quick hits and the arms completely detached from its body and fell to the ground. Now, I turned my attention to the left arm.
I was able to chop it off quickly. The arms continued to struggle on the ground, but otherwise they were now harmless. I climbed up to the top of the helpless monster and I put my sword into its eye, which was the only soft thing in its body. The monster cried out as I pushed and pushed my sword. After a few moments the monster ceased crying. As the giant body of the monster toppled to the floor, I carefully jumped away.
The old lady clasped her hands and sobbed,
“Thank you! Thank you!”
The castle began to dissolve around us as though it had been made of mere smoke. Very soon we found ourselves in the ground. Then even the old lady disappeared. Next moment, I was falling. I was out of the mind of the succubi queen. Below me the volcano groaned and smoked even more. The succubi queen reached me and grabbed me. I noticed that her wings and horns were shrinking in size very fast. Just as the two of us landed safely at the foot of the volcano, the succubi queen completely lost her wings and horns, and also her tail.
“I thank you for freeing me from my fears and the black magic that had dominated me for so long,” she told me. I realised that she was growing more and more translucent.
“Are you going to die now?” I asked her. The succubi that I tamed usually turned into normal girls, but this was the succubi queen after all.
“Yes, and no,” the queen answered and there was a genuine smile on her lips and then she completely disappeared.
Just then a message popped up in my vision.
Congratulations!
You have successfully completed the quest to bring the downfall of the succubi queen!
You receive full control over all the succubi and the demons that were previously under the control of the succubi queen!
If you do not want to take responsibility of the succubi and the demons then you can either give over their control to someone you trust. You can also initiate the process through which the succubi and the demons would turn into regular humans. However this process takes time, and if you would like to immediately turn any of the succubi or demons to humans, you can only do so to ten of them.
Would you like to initiate the process? The process takes a period of two years for completion and in this time you would be the supreme ruler over the succubi and the male demons. However, it is not compulsory that you must initiate the process. You can rule over the succubi and the male demons for the rest of your life!
Already the prospect of ruling over the succubi and the demons for two years felt like a massive responsibility, so I immediately selected yes. I might even consider handing over the responsibility to someone else in the future.
The next moment another notification appeared in my vision, as a fuzzy feeling took hold of me.
You level up!
You have decided to free the succubi! You receive 1000 luck! You can also immediately free fifty succubi instead of the initial ten!
Overhead, the succubi were still fighting with my friends. With a mere thought I was able to order them to stop doing so. The succubi as well as my friends descended down.
“You did it!” Lana said, casting an uneasy glance at the succubus nearest to her. “You defeated the queen!”
“But I don’t understand why the succubi are being suddenly nice to us,” the dragon commented. “And it’s not like they are trying to cast their charm on us.”
“You are an old man again, sir!” Danor said to me. I touched my face and wasn’t very surprised to feel quite a few wrinkles.
I smiled.
“I didn’t defeat the queen,” I said, “I defeated the black magic inside her. I tamed her. And as a result I have gained control over all the succubi who were previously controlled by her.”
“Can you turn the people of my town into humans again?” Lana asked, stepping towards me. I said that I could only do so to fifty of the succubi and demons immediately. Lana gave me the names of her mother, sister, a friend called Mowa and some other people from her town. I asked these people to come to where I was and immediately quite a few succubi and demons came to where we were standing.
Lana burst into tears when I turned her mother, sister and the friend into a human again. She hugged each of them tight and they all cried. I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of jealousy when she hugged her friend, Mowa his name was. But I reckoned I was an old man now and Lana a young lady, even though if we tallied our ages from the real world as well as the game world, we would probably be around the same age. I should stop thinking about her, I told myself, as I looked towards the volcano.
The volcano was smoking even more. For everyone’s safety, I ordered all the succubi and the demons to move away to an area that was at a safe distance from the volcano. I ordered the succubi to carry the demons and the humans as they couldn’t fly.
Finally, only Lana, Danor, the dragon and I remained at the foot of the volcano. Lana had asked her mother, sister and the friend to move to the safer area and that she would be following soon.
The dragon turned at all of us.
“It is time that I return to my own world,” he said with a meek smile. “Not everything went as planned, but I recon everything that happened was for good. We weren’t able to get to the centre of the earth, but apparently we needn’t have done that. The favourable factors helped us. Goodbye, may we meet again.”
The dragon beat his wings and off he went towards the mouth of the volcano. We waved at him. Then he disappeared into the mouth of the volcano. None of the magma, or heat would harm him for the dragon was of the same world as them.
“Now, I think we should get away from here, captain, before lava splashes on us,” Lana said with a small grin.
“You remember you were saying stuff when the Sphere was drowning?” I asked her. I hadn’t meant to speak that. The words had automatically spilled out of my mouth.
> Lana turned a shade of pink.
“A little of it,” she said, “but whatever I spoke was true.”
“I thought you like your other friend, Mowa, isn’t he?” I asked her.
“Yes, I like him,” Lana said, not meeting my eyes, “but a friend he is and that is all.”
“But I think you should make more than a friend out of him,” I said, looking away at the many succubi flying away, “I am an old man now.”
Danor gave out an uneasy cough, listening to our conversation.
“You were an old man once,” he said, “then you turned into a young person. Perhaps you can turn into a young person again, sir?”
“Ah, the cycle of youth and old age,” I said, and we all laughed. “Perhaps someday… But now I would need trustworthy people who can help me rule over the succubi and the demons for the two years for which I would be responsible for them. Would you two like to help me?”
Lana and Danor looked at each other and then they turned to me. They spoke together.
“Of course, we will!”
The end… for now
Author’s Note:
Thanks for reading the story.
I have been dreaming up stories ever since I was four. It is said that change is the only constant, but for me there is another constant: writing. Creating imaginary worlds and people is what gives meaning to my life.
I hope you liked Chains of a Succubus. For a while I have been fascinated with youth. Everybody wants to be youthful. I wanted to create a world where one can become old and then young and then old again. Also, another thing that has caught my interest recently is the concept of ‘favourable factors’. These are the factors or elements in the universe which are always working in our favour, even though at times we feel like they are working against us.
If you didn’t like Chains of a Succubus, I am sorry, I tried. Be sure to leave a review on Amazon, as reviews are an indie author’s best friend. Praise me like I am Shakespeare or shoot me down with criticism. I’ll be thankful for both.
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