The Hero Became a Succubus, and the Only Way to Level is to… What?!
Chapter 353 – Brawl in the Emerald Palace

Seif and Panner were kind enough to use their status as Ordane scholars to fix Seven and Kara with a place to stay. The university offered many gated dormitories from which students and academics lived. Kanae's top priority, at least for the moment, was to make sure those two were safe. Ideall

The four of them flew as fast as they could towards the palace. Well, three of them were. Claudia was still paralyzed, so Alicia had to carry her. A few guards on the surface shouted for them to stop flying, but now wasn't the time to worry about abiding by the law. The massive walls around the Emerald Palace were still standing, untouched by the fighting going on within. Guards up top were scrambling over what to do while their fellows on the ground raced for the building. One of them saw Kanae and her companions approaching, and warned the others before priming a bolt on his crossbow.

"Any closer, and we'll riddle you full of holes!" he shouted.

"You're under attack by the Harpy King, and Sultana Dudula is in danger! We're here to help!" Kanae yelled back.

They exchanged anxious glances with each other, clearly on edge by all that was going on. One guard subtly shook his head to the rest, keeping their crossbows trained on them.

"Knight-Commander, we don't have time for this. We can deal with their ire later. For now…" Alicia exerted a powerful charm on the guards, and they tensed up enough that their crossbows slipped from their hands.

Kanae, Alicia, and Edina beelined for the palace entrance, but the large doors were closed shut. Guards beat their fist on it, shouting for others inside to let them in. Those that could cast magic tried to blast the doors open with little success. Something had sealed it from within to keep help from entering.

Fortunately, they didn't have that issue being able to fly. Edina pointed to a nearby window from which smoke was billowing out of. The glass had been busted inward, likely from someone else like a flight-capable guard having the same idea. They were able to climb in but were immediately assailed by the thick smog of smoke. It looked to be a cramped servant's room, mostly untouched with the exception of the broken door.

"Ugh… I think I can finally move again," Claudia groaned.

"Good. You're heavy." Alicia steadied her sister.

They emerged from the room and into what would have been a magnificent hallway, if it wasn't for the burning drapes on the ceiling, unconscious guards and servants strewn on the ground, and smoke everywhere. A layer of ash stained the polished floors, and wax candles from chandeliers had all but melted.

A canine beastman servant, dressed in finer clothes than those of lesser status, coughed and heaved as she made her way down the hall. Narrow eyes watered from all the smoke. Coarse brown fur had been matted in sweat. She pressed a wet towel to her nose and mouth, only to gasp down a breath full of smoke upon seeing them.

"More in… truders!" the woman screamed.

"Wait! Believe it or not, we're here to help! Do you know where Sultana Dudula and Vizier Duran are?" Kanae asked.

"Are you… the succubi foreigners that Vizier Duran has been speaking about? By the sands, these… these thugs with elemental magic broke into the palace and attacked all of a sudden! They ripped through the place in search of the sultana. You must help her! I don't know where they are, but Archmage Donnu should. He's in the Sand Gardens, putting out the fires. Follow me!" She beckoned them and headed back down where she came.

A spiral staircase led them an atrium deeper into the palace. There was no battle. Guards weren't clashing steel with sieging attackers. Instead, they battled creatures of elemental origins. Hounds with fiery manes pounced on guards. Golem constructs made of mud trapped defenders in their earthen bodies. Servants rushed around putting out fires and taking pickaxes to stone blockades.

The Sand Gardens was an enormous open-air chamber. A terrace of sand stretched from end to end. Warm sunlight flooded in from the unclosed ceiling above. Exotic trees and cacti on fire rained ashes down on the people trying to put them out with buckets of water or spells. Leading them was Archmage Donnu, the dark elven man Kanae had met at the gates to the palace. His short white hair, previously well-combed and put together, was stained gray from soot. The black and gold robes glimmered with magic and seemed to sear off ashes that landed on him. He wielded a wooden red staff that flared out into two hooks holding a lantern each.

Donnu muttered an incantation. Dark clouds formed above them and became the ceiling that wasn't there. A cool shower rained down on them, drenching everyone and everything, but putting out most of the fires. He breathed a sigh of relief, but when the beastman servant led Kanae and her companions up to him, the archmage conjured a fireball into the palm of his hand that threatened to set the place ablaze again.

"Stop! It must be no coincidence that you're here as the Emerald Palace was attacked!" Archmage Donnu exclaimed, drawing nearby guards in to circle them with spears and pikes.

"The only coincidence here is Vizier Duran bringing us into the city to help, and when you turned us away, everything went to shit!" Kanae countered.

"I still don't trust any of you," he grumbled, only to motion the guards to stand down a moment later. "But I have little choice. The Dervish freaks sealed us off from reaching Sultana Dudula and Vizier Duran." The archmage gestured to one end of the Sand Gardens, which was covered in molten slag. "It's the same in the other paths. This is the most direct route to the audience hall, but we can't break through the blockage."

So, the Dervish Five really were behind this attack?

Kanae squinted suspiciously at Archmage Donnu. Why wasn't he with the sultana or vizier to begin with? Somehow, he managed to be separated from either of them during the attack.

"Oof. Yeah. This is hotter than three hells." Edina grimaced at the molten blockade.

Donnu shook his head. "We can punch through it if we can cool it down, but my magic is nowhere near cold down. It has to be someone crowned an Ice Mage."

"Or a Necromancer with powerful ice magic," Kanae said, turning to her squirreling friend.

"I better get a special exemption to freely practice necromancy after this!" Edina staked her staff into the sand and summoned half a dozen skeletal mages. "On me! One… two… Creeping Frost!"

A frigid chill blew across the Sand Gardens. Edina's minions joined her with frost spells of their own, blasting the molten blockade with cold magic. Kanae and Archmage Donnu helped, too. She casted Hailstorm, and he channeled a beam of ice.

The bright red slag began to dim orange. Their mage steamed the entire room into a sauna. People who couldn't take it ran to the other end. Thankfully, the open ceiling allowed most of the steam to escape and brought some relief.

When their combined magic ended, they succeeded in cooling down the blockade of lava into porous stone. The archmage fired a volley of arcane bolts and blew a hole through it, revealing a stairway leading up. When the guards tried to follow, he barked orders for them to stay and guard the entrance, then beckoned to Kanae and her companions with him.

"Are you sure it was a good idea not to bring more people?" Kanae asked.

"They will only slow us down and get in the way. We must make haste. Sultana Dudula and Vizier Duran are guarded by the palace's elite. The bastards shouldn't have broken into the inner chamber yet!" Donnu exclaimed.

The palace would have been quite the sight to behold if it wasn't on fire, and its denizens weren't injured and passed out all over the place. Entire murals were painted on the walls. Grand winding corridors, large enough for chariots to roll through, led to enormous chambers that put Aidenhall to shame. They passed by an amphitheater terrace overlooking the city. Another room contained lavish baths, but of course no one was bathing at a time like this.

Eventually, Archmage Donnu stopped in front of a chamber with an emerald jewel on top of a closed entryway. He pulled out a pendant underneath his robes and shined it at the larger one. Both crystals glowed brightly, and the doors parted open. A pair of guards inside looked stunned, brandishing their weapons until they realized it was the archmage.

"Step aside, you fools!" Archmage Donnu growled.

"Forgive us, my lord!" One of the more skittish of the two bowed apologetically. "When the palace came under attack, we followed your procedure to close the way."

"Is Sultana Dudula alright?" the other asked.

Without so much as answering, Donnu strolled right in. Kanae and her party followed suit, entering a two-story room that looked like a gallery. Or a museum. Strange artifacts and objects sat underneath glass display cases, protected by magical wards. Others rested on cushions in the open.

"Something is off," Alicia whispered, eyes darting every which way.

"Donnu, are Sultana Dudula and Vizier Duran here? This doesn't look like the audience chamber," Kanae said.

The archmage silently went to a large display cabinet, containing the same cylindrical stone keys that Seven had stolen from the museum. There were ten in total. Sultana Dudula had all these in here this entire—

"Watch out!" Edina shouted.

Kanae spun around too late and saw the point of a guard's spear. Claudia grabbed the shaft, twisting it out of his grasp and throwing a hard punch. He flew across the room. The second guard put his hands in the air and shook his head.

Shrill, unhinged laughter echoed across the chamber. The source of it came from Archmage Donnu. Or rather, the tall succubus embracing him. Her muscles stretched taut against soft brown skin like that of a hobgoblin. A vertical scar ran down her cloudy right eye. Wild, unkempt black hair draped down to her shoulders as thick dreads. Underneath all that hair almost covered the crown-like horns of Queen-Mother Zariah along the side of her head. She wore the pelts of dire beasts stitched together. The head of a wolf sat on her right shoulder and on the other was a bear, as though they were sinking their teeth into her. Fixed to her waist were numerous fist-sized skulls from monsters… to even a dragon.

Kanae recognized them as shrunken heads. Teana had some around her belt. This succubus must also be a Headhunter.

"Hello, sisters!" The succubus flashed a toothy smile.

"Jhene! What are you doing here?" Claudia gasped.

"Ah~ I would tell you, but last I heard, you renounced the Queen-Mother. You're looking at the new Mistress of Subjugation. You and Hilde turned your back on us. We got no reason to tell you a damn thing." Jhene sneered.

"We?" Kanae raised a brow.

Dark shadows engulfed their bodies, anchoring them to the floor. Kanae couldn't even lift her feet. Another succubus waltzed past them, her steely blue eyes as cold as the spell casted on them. Human in ancestry, she sported the same horn shape as Jhene and boasted the wingspan signified one as an older, mature succubus. Long, black hair reached down to her hips, flowing as though they were waves. The most disconcerting was her trailing black robes that oozed with misty darkness.

"Elaine." She stared directly into Claudia's eyes. "The new Mistress of Pain." Her calm, unnerving gaze shifted to Alicia. "Our long lost sister. We haven't seen each other in centuries. Good to see you."

"The feeling isn't mutual." Alicia scoffed.

Claudia threw her head back in laughter. "Haha! So, mom went and gave you two mine and Hildy's titles. Big whoop! Mistress this, Mistress that. They don't mean shit anymore. That bitch is going to replace you as easily as she replaced us! Now, before we break out of this and beat your asses in, Kanae asked you a question. What the fuck are you doing in Savir?"

"Wouldn't you like to know? But I guess it ain't no secret. The Queen-Mother and Ambrosia want to restore the Cult of Lust and Depravity. They sent us here to kickstart it. We went to Avanesse to play politics. Those cattle bent over backwards to become our slaves! Once we find the Devil of Lust's ancient weapon, the whole world will be a livestock ranch. And there's nothing you can do. Bleeeh!" Jhene stuck her long tongue out and flipped them the middle finger.

"Zariah… And the palace being attacked by elementals. Is this also you're doing?" Kanae asked, slowly inching her tail to her waist to draw the wand.

"Nope." She shrugged. "Whoever attacked gave us a nice distraction though. Place was swarming with guards. Would've been suicide even though we can charm most of them."

"And now that we have what we came for, it's about time we take our leave." Elaine nodded to her sister.

Jhene snapped her finger. The succubus magic surrounding Archmage Donnu vanished. He collapsed to the ground like someone had snipped the strings of a puppet. The Mistress of Subjugation scooped all of the stone keys into a bag and hoisted them over her shoulders.

"Damn it! Just wait until I get out of here! I'll tear both of you new assholes!" Claudia snarled.

"Kuh… I can't summon undead while I'm stuck like this!" Edina complained.

"There are more ways to inflict pain than just tormenting the physical body. I never believed you nor Alicia were ever fit to become the Mistress of Pain. I'll make proud the Queen-Mother since you two have continued to fail her. Now, Embrace Darkness." Elaine lifted both hands, and the shadows around their bodies obeyed.

"No, please!" Alicia shrieked, writhing and thrashing as the pool of darkness engulfed her upper body.

"Sis!" Claudia shouted.

Kanae held Alicia's gaze until they were entombed in a pitch black cage. She yelled, but her voice didn't come out. It was like floating in water, except she couldn't see nor hear a thing. The wand. Kanae had to focus on finding the wand. Her tail sweeped found purchase on the thin, wooden tool. With one quick flick of Dispel, the darkness dissipated. She hit the floor on her hands and knees, gasping for air.

Three more cages of shadow remained. Kanae casted Dispel on each of them. Claudia, Edina, and Alicia fell out, but the latter was lying on the ground and clutching her knees.

"It was… so dark… I-I couldn't hear anyone… see anything…" Alicia muttered to herself as though in a trance.

"Alicia!" Claudia raced over and scooped her up, but her sister was despondent. "I'm going to tear those two apart with my bare hands the next time I see them. I'll string them up and give them a spanking they'll never forget!"

But Jhene and Elaine were gone, and the stone keys with them.

"I don't wanna be that squirreling, but we still got the sultana and vizier to save!" Edina reminded everyone.

"Damn it. Hey!" Kanae grabbed Donnu by his collar and shook him. "Get up!"

"What… Why am I in the Archives? Wait, why are you in the archives?" Archmage Donnu asked, carefully gauging the situation.

"You got charmed. Not by us, but by succubi worshippers from the Cult of Lust and Depravity. They had you lead them in here to steal the Under Road keys!" she exclaimed.

His eyes shot to the empty cabinet. "No! Curses! How could I have been so careless? Those keys are another matter… but if you are truly friends of Vizier Duran, saving Sultana Dudula is the top priority. Follow me!"

Archmage Donnu didn't wait to run out. Kanae and Edina stopped at the door, having noticed Claudia staying with Alicia on the floor.

"I'm not going to leave her here. Go! We'll catch up," Claudia said through a clenched jaw.

Kanae returned to the room and gave Alicia's trembling hand a squeeze. The shaking and muttering stopped. Scared eyes lifted to meet her own.

"No, Claudia. I'm okay… We go together," Alicia said, picking herself up and drawing both of her daggers. "And when we're done here, I want to pay Elaine back with the worst pain and agony imaginable."

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