***The Infernal Plane of Lust***

***Isabella***

It was truly happening. My time was slowly running out.

I stood in the castle’s courtyard, together with my mother and a few of my sisters and we were about to receive one of Khorne’s envoys. He would finalize the peace-treaty between castle P.o.P. and Khorne’s legions. Once the breeding contract was struck, there was little that could be done to change things. And just like that, my firstborn would be signed away like a mere resource.

Slowly, I went through all the possible schemes I had come up with to prevent such a thing from happening. Most of them were ludicrous, and few actually had a chance of succeeding. Even so, if there was the slightest chance, I would bet my life on one of these ploys.

In the worst case, I would have to leave my family and go into a self-imposed exile on some mortal plane. It would still cause trouble for my mother, but I doubted that Khorne would start a war with Ashley Ashborn over something that she couldn't provide – like a runaway daughter. He would simply have to find another way to get himself an heir with a powerful bloodline.

I watched the courtyard and studied the green garden while my sisters stood there and awaited the arrival of the envoy in silence. The eighteen succubi didn’t look like much, but all of Ashley’s daughters were powerful demons in their own right. Spies, assassins, high-class magic users and courtesans who could twist a demon’s mind so that he would turn on his own master in a heartbeat. The least of us had the power to stand as the right hand of a powerful Demon Lord.

It was the only reason why Khorne would consider my mother’s small family worthy of an actual negotiation and not just treat us as a thing to be taken. Though, my mother had always paid attention not to present herself as a Demon Lord in her own right. It was easier to avoid conflict with those who warred for dominance and to play the submissive role than to fight for control over the numberless masses.

Only in this case, this strategy had put us in a weaker position. As a powerful Demon Lord who had risen to power quickly, Khorne didn’t see us as much more than a resource. According to our intelligence, he didn’t have the proper experience to judge the dangers that the Ashborn family posed. If refused, he would be very likely to try taking what was denied. The unfortunate thing was that he had the power to challenge my mother, and Ashley wasn’t willing to pay the price that open warfare with Khorne’s legions would have demanded of her daughters.

Playing the willing harem to a Demon Lord with delusions of grandeur would be the lesser evil in Ashley’s eyes than to lose a third or possibly half of her daughters in a violent conflict. She hadn’t become a succubus matriarch with forty-one living offspring because she tended to throw their lives away.

And if her youngest had to bear a demonling that wouldn’t become a succubus, then that was the price to pay.

A magical circle formed on the ground in front of us, and seven demons appeared. I recognized Khorne’s envoy from his first visit when he had delivered his master’s ultimatum to my mother.

The powerfully built demon smiled and stepped forward, offering Ashley one of his four hands in greeting.

My mother’s expression had already transformed from a sour one to one of joy before the delegation had fully materialized. It was just as much of an ability to mask one’s true feelings for a succubus as it was to shapeshift into another form, and Ashley was a master in both.

“Greetings, Mistress Ashley.” The demon bowed slightly, but not too much. “I am glad that you seem to be open to discussions.”

Ashley only smiled and allowed the envoy to kiss her hand. “There are some details which have to be clarified before we can seal the deal, but I am confident that someone as powerful as Khorne can provide. Is he still fighting to subdue that rival who challenged him? I think Mekedesh was his name. Is that why Khorne couldn’t come in person, again?”

“I am afraid that you are right.” The other demon dropped his smile. “It was very curious how Mekedesh’s holdings, which were supposed to fall quickly under my liege’s control, suddenly got reinforcements from several warbands in the region. But it will only delay the inevitable.”

“What a pity.” Ashley touched her cheek, perfectly feigning her emotional investment in the matter. “I hope that this won’t delay the proceedings for too long. Do you have any inkling of by how long Khorne’s personal attendance will be delayed? I am afraid that as long as he isn’t able to contract with me in person, all our negotiations will remain… esoteric.”

The envoy frowned, clearly displeased that my mother apparently had no intention of signing a contract in the absence of the other party. It was the sensible thing to do since if Khorne fell tomorrow in battle, she would have bound herself and her daughters for nothing. A lesser demon probably would have had no choice but to entertain the envoy’s and his Lord’s whims, but not Ashley Ashborn.

The powerful demon looked around, profusely aware that he and his men were surrounded by over a dozen succubi who eyed them like tasty treats. “That is hard to say. Mekedesh managed to strike an unlikely alliance with two lesser Lords, one of them who was supposed to be his archenemy. There is no question that Khorne will eventually triumph, but it won’t be as quick as we hoped. He has to be present in order for his legion to perform satisfyingly.”

“Too bad,” my mother replied primly. “I guess that we could theorize about the details of this breeding contract in the meantime?” She eyed the rest of the delegation and smiled. “And your people could enjoy the pleasures of castle P.o.P. while we are at it? Do you want to stay overnight?”

The envoy cleared his throat, unsure whether he should take the treat of a stay in a succubus castle without the imminent threat of death, or whether actually taking the offer would get him in trouble with his Lord. But his clearly insecure attempt at an answer was interrupted by a rumble from the sky which came and went like distant thunder.

I had remained a silent bystander the entire time, but when I looked up with a frown, I saw the rift in the sky. A sudden twinge forced me to reach for my chest as I felt one of my contracts activate. One I had actually forgotten up until now. But as it was in the Infernum, no contract was ever to be forgotten completely.

“What is that, mother?” I asked, equally wondering about the exact details of the contract that was urging me on, and what it had to do with the strange phenomenon in the sky.

Ashley pursed her lips. “Interesting, it has been some time since I saw the veil between the planes broken.”

Then it started to rain… demonlings.

I gasped and tried to shield myself while one of the little buggers slapped butt-first into Ashley’s face. It fell to the ground and skedaddled away before the offended succubus matriarch erected a pink energy dome that covered the entire courtyard.

“And now, I must admit, having demonlings rain on my castle is a first,” she commented rather drily and wiped imaginary dirt off her perfect face.

What started just with demonlings commenced with some imps and then larger demons who didn’t withstand the impact of falling several hundred metres so well. One turned into a red stain on my mother’s shield. Another struck the pointy rooftop of one of the castle’s towers – which didn’t end so well for him.

“What the actual fuck?” Jada muttered, the one of my sisters who had a serious boyfriend problem, before she pointed at the sky and yelled, “Look at that one! So big and strong, he is mine!”

An impressive specimen of an imp-like demon with wings, only much, much larger had caught Jada’s eye. Unlike the unfortunate masses who were raining from the sky, he had stabilized his fall and was sailing in confused circles, apparently searching for something. With her sole attention on her newest victim, she spread her wings and slipped through beneath the edge of Ashley’s shield. And with that, she was off to catch the hunk that had caught her interest, our mother’s negotiations completely forgotten.

“JADA!” Ashley screeched her daugther’s name with enough force to make the entire delegation of Khorne’s tested veterans jump half a metre. “Come back here right this instant! We have no clue what is happening!”

While my mother’s attention was on Jada, who had honed her ears expertly in the skill of tuning out our mother’s screams, I used the chance to take a tentative step away from Ashley’s side. Once I confirmed that everyone’s attention was on the phenomenon of raining demons of all sizes, I tiptoed away silently with quick and determined steps, as to not look like I was fleeing the negotiations.

One of my contracts told me that there was a place I had to be in, and I couldn't care less about signing some breeding contract with a Demon Lord who would take my child away.

***The Infernal Plane of Lust***

***Amon***

“It was supposed to blow up!” My scream turned into an inarticulate howl as I was sucked up into the rift that reminded me very much of my predecessor’s chaos magic which had teleported me out of his crypt. The Lode Stone was supposed to blow up and leave me to respawn cleanly at the Anima Stone in front of the hatchery. Then I had planned to lay down some new rules with the caretaker, using my newly gained powers.

But alas, things had gone seriously sideways when I lost control of the souls that were overwhelming my mind. I actually remembered nothing from the point onwards when I ordered Shax to give the signal to the demonlings and Uphir to blow up Baaar’s plaza.

I flailed as I was sucked through the rift, and then felt like something was pulling me sideways into another dimension like on a gigantic infernal roller coaster!

By the time I regained my bearing, I was falling towards lush planes of grass alongside others. The Demon Lord who had given me a beating and must have killed me several times was nowhere to be seen. Had he refused to follow me through the rift? If so, that was actually a good thing. I had to admit that I had been left without chances against this fellow’s power.

I spread my wings, but all I could do was to slow my fall without magic. My current body didn’t have the makeup to fly on its own!

What would happen if I died without a respawn point in another dimension? Would I respawn at the Anima Stone back in Gluttony? Were the Anima Stones a network that functioned throughout the various Infernal dimensions? But even as my mind spun with those questions, I saw the rift above me wink out of existence with a thunderclap.

Something told me that I didn’t want to find out.

At least my wings were able to stabilize my trajectory as I quickly searched my surroundings. When I saw a larger demon flailing alongside me in the air, I angled my wings and dove forward, slamming into him with enough force to drive the air out of his lungs.

“Wha-”

“Sorry, pal, but you are life-insurance!”

I had already wasted enough time with my earlier considerations, and so my last impressions before impact were the meadow below, a few hills with a forest next to it, and some big structure in the far distance.

Then we slammed into the ground, the larger demon cushioning the impact while I activated Death Grasp, sucking the life out of him.

I think that I blacked out for a moment because I came back to myself next to a corpse and a handful of other demons. Bodies were littering the ground, with some demonlings already gnawing on those who would certainly not rise again.

“You!” One of the demons who were left standing pointed at me. “He is one of them!”

They drew weapons which enticed me to get to my feet quickly and pull out my own dagger from its sheath. I ignored the pain which shot through my right wing which was left hanging limply at my side. I had no clue who the demons were who took offence with my presence, but I could only guess that they were some of the competitors who we had fought.

Kill them! Kill them all!

Two voices screamed in my head like needles stabbing into my frontal lobe, and then instinct took over once more.

The first was within reach quickly, and I blinded him with a fireball to the face before I swung the energy whip through his mid-section. A kick to his chest followed, sending the upper body tumbling away and right into the path of some incoming spell while the legs were left standing before toppling over.

My Infernal Shield sprung into existence, blocking an arrow while I retaliated with a series of Ice Spikes against the caster. The other mage easily blocked the first few, but my new body’s mana reserves allowed me to send forth an endless hail of the things. As soon as the first got past my opponent’s defences, piercing his shoulder and interrupting his concentration, the following ones quickly turned him into a pincushion.

Then another warrior was within reach. He swung his axe and I counter-attacked while stepping to the side. He quickly used the axe’s handle to block my own weapon, but the dagger-whip’s peculiar property allowed it to bend around and sear his shoulder and throat while being guided by my will, or rather, the instinct that was guiding my actions. It snaked back down and gutted him seemingly on its own while I withdrew the dagger, the energy-whip defying the motion of the main weapon completely.

The quick end which I had brought to the first few demons must have impressed the rest, because the archer who had tried his luck withheld the next arrow, and the closest warriors stepped back instead of advancing further.

With nobody charging me, I managed to regain control of my body, distinctly feeling the two most powerful souls I had, the mage and the warrior, struggle with each other for dominance within my mind.

I spit on the ground and withdrew the dagger, trying to make an impression on the other demons, even as I felt a rush of souls enter my body. The last thing I wanted was to fight everyone who was left standing on the meadow. I doubted that I would have survived that.

After making eye contact with those who were watching me I turned my back and walked into the nearby forest, hoping to leave the scene without further trouble. I needed to find a spot where I could rest, heal up, and get a damned grip on what was going on.

There was obviously a problem with my souls. I winced and rubbed my temple, trying to get rid of the pain in my head. Amon’s legacy had presented me with ‘The Art of the Mind’ and ‘The Art of Slaughter’ as paths to advance my evolution. In my greed, I had taken in all of the souls that were offered to me, including the most powerful ones of which one of them was now warring with my original one.

Was it a mistake to absorb the souls of both paths, or was it a problem between only those two? Was taking in two conflicting paths the reason why the original Amon became so unhinged as to pursue the Chaos of the Lower Planes?

My mind drifted as I worried about my future and made my way deeper into the woods without much of a goal other than to get away from other demons who could pose a threat to me in my weakened state.

At last, I reached a little glade with a pond. It felt safe enough for now and I hadn’t noticed anyone following me. Maybe I could rest here and take care of my broken wing? Figure out what new capabilities this altered body of mine gave me? I looked now fairly human aside from the normal features a demon had like wings, tail, and horns. At least it felt like that. I would have to find a mirror.

It would also be a help to increase my repertoire of spells to more than just basic elemental magic. And there was the issue with my souls which certainly had to be figured out rather sooner than later.

I took a step closer to the pond and the promise of water and maybe seeing my reflection, or rather, I tried to. When I looked down, I noticed that a sturdy root had snaked around my ankle.

“What the f-”

The root shot forward, digging through the earth and dragging my foot out from under me. My curse was cut short when I hit the ground, which wasn’t a pleasant experience given my broken wing.

More roots grew out of the earth, quickly entangling me as I squirmed. It had been a lost battle the moment I stepped into the trap. Within seconds I was bound to the ground, spread-eagled and on my back. I was so tightly wrapped up that I couldn’t even raise my head!

“Look at what we have caught, sister.”

“Hmmm, looks like a yummy one.”

Two female voices came from either side of me and I strained my eyes to see who had trapped me with fucking roots of all things. My capturers stepped into view, two green demon ladies with plant-like features, their voluptuous bodies adorned with flowers and leaves. Instead of horns, they had something like antlers. The only difference between them as far as I could tell was that the one to my left preferred white flowers in her getup and the other blue.

“Let me go!” I ordered and cast Death Grasp on my hands, managing to whither away some of the root system I was wrapped up in. But it was to no avail since new growth quickly covered the dead parts until I could no longer touch the new restraints. One of the new roots even covered my mouth, gagging me.

“He is a feisty one.” The sister to my left kneeled down next to me and poked my chest. “We will have fun with him.”

“Oh, but before that, we should ask him why so much food rained down from the sky. So many, many men in the forest. I can sense them.” She pursed her lips. “Will it happen again? Or do we have to ration them?”

“Fun first, questions later.” The kneeling demoness pricked me with a thorny fingernail which was oozing a white fluid.

I could immediately feel… something. A pleasant tingle throughout my body. What kind of venom was this? My question was left unanswered, as there was a flap of wings and a shadow fell over me.

The two plant demons were in the process of looking up when a tail with an arrow-headed tip snaked sensuously around the kneeling demoness’ throat. It whipped away in an instant, faster than I could comprehend. The result was an enlightening display of violence. The plant woman’s neck gave a soft crack as her head made a one-hundred-eighty until it ended up looking in the wrong direction and a generous spray of green blood erupted from her torn throat.

The other plant-lady screeched as a red blur shot past my field of vision, taking both combatants away from my sight. There was a splash, followed by some scuffle in water, leaving me to assume that both combatants had landed in the pond. My eyes trailed to the dead and half-way beheaded plant demoness who was still kneeling next to me and I decided that I wanted nothing to do with whoever had just chosen to interfere.

I doubled my efforts in getting rid of my restraints, but those damned roots were really strong.

Before I could make meaningful headway with my escape, the sounds of battle ended and I could hear something crawl towards me from the direction in which my feet were pointing. The survivor of the conflict? Some animal that would find me an easy meal?

A black-haired succubus came into view, crawling on all fours above my body, and I groaned when I recognized her face and the black hair. It was a face that had given me some nightmares. What an unlikely happenstance. Or was it?

“Who do we have here?” She smiled and got up on her knees. She had her wings tightly wrapped around her upper legs, making it look like she was wearing a skirt. As she looked down at me, she started wringing out her wet hair as if she had all the time in the world. “Such a strange day. I felt one of my contracts activate, my mother’s home gets bombarded with demons, and I find a very handsome demon who should be a demonling, at least as far as I remember.”

She threw back her hair and pushed the still kneeling corpse away from us and out of my view. Then she lay down on top of me before she trailed an incredibly long tongue along my collarbone and up to my chin. The sensation was pure ecstasy and made me shudder.

The succubus smacked her lips and she wore a look of contemplation before she rested her chin on top of the intersected fingers of her hands. “Tastes exactly the same. Did you know that we succubi can remember our prey forever once we get a taste?”

I shuddered at the memory of her sucking my head into her mouth.

When I didn’t even attempt to answer, she used an elongated and razor-sharp fingernail to cut through the root which was gagging me, allowing me to spit it out.

“Hello… Nice to meet again!” I forced a smile. “And since we have had such a prosperous relationship, do you mind freeing me from these roots?”

She tilted her head from left to right, apparently trying to remember what I was speaking about. “Oh, right. You got a soul from me because I worded my deal with you so... unfortunately. I never imagined that a little demonling would actually manage to cause a meaningful delay for those warlocks.”

The demoness sighed and placed her head on my chest while circling a trailing finger on my shoulder. “Having you die here before you could reach your full potential would certainly be a shame… I was very impressed when I saw you fight those other demons on the meadow. It isn’t often to see a little demonling rise to power so quickly. It makes me wonder what you experienced since our encounter. Though, now that I saved you, don’t you think that I deserve some reward?”

I chuckled and relaxed just a little bit. Maybe there was a chance to get out of this. At least this succubus seemed open to negotiations, which the plant-ladies were not. “I guess it will be souls… how many do you want?”

“Souls…” She rubbed herself against me as if she wanted to cover my body in her scent. “Sometimes, souls are good, but I really saved your butt, stud. Those dryads would have sucked you dry and kept you just at the edge of death for as long as possible to nurture their trees. Sometimes it takes decades for their victims to expire. That is if the prey doesn’t turn mad and hands over all its souls for free just to end it.”

“That sounds terrible.” I wet my lips. “So you want to say that I owe you more than just preventing a single death?”

She sat up with her butt on my thighs and reached down between her bosoms, straining the fabric of the fancy, gold-threaded shirt which she was wearing. It wasn’t much of an armour and only covered her chest, shoulders, and upper arms while leaving her belly free. What made me furrow my brows, was how deep she was reaching down there. Did she have a spacial pocket between her tits?

Then she pulled out a scroll which was made out of sturdy, leathery parchment which could have been someone’s skin. “This time we do this the right way, with a contract between two consenting parties.” She unrolled the contract partly and leaned over me, giving me a perfect view on her dangling bosom. “Hold up your thumb.”

“Wait a moment!” I quickly enclosed my thumbs within my fists. “I haven’t read that contract! There is no way I will sign something without knowing the contents.”

“Don’t be a spoilsport. Reading the entirety of the demonic legalize would take days. Open your hand. I promise that it’s a fairly standard payment contract for services rendered.” She tried to pry open my hand, but I apparently had the upper hand when it came to physical strength.

Her dainty fingers couldn't even make me budge. “No!”

She huffed and reached between my legs, squeezing down hard. “You know… I really don’t need a contract, now that I think about it. There really isn’t much you can do right now. And it’s fairly obvious that you are lost in the woods without a clue of where to go.”

I clenched my teeth. “Fine! Just tell me honestly what I am signing up for.”

The demoness blinked innocently at me. “You know, I am not that evil. It’s really just one soul in exchange for services rendered, nothing more. Succubi are sex-demons. We twirl men around our fingers by offering them what they want. I am no liar.”

It took a long look into her eyes without seeing any falsehood for me to open my closed fist. “Fine. I suppose that I have no choice, and I can’t imagine you gaining anything out of this that you couldn’t take right away. Just swear that this isn’t some enslavement contract.”

She actually looked offended. “You know… other succubi would have torn your throat out for suggesting that they would need a contract for such a thing. Especially when it's about getting a guy to do what they want.”

I gave her a look because it was really the only thing I could do right now.

After rolling her eyes, she sighed and placed a hand on her chest while raising the other in the pose to make an oath. “I, Isabella Ashborn, swear that this is a mutually beneficial contract. It won’t enslave you or restrict your actions. Happy?”

I offered my thumb and Isabella leaned over, pricking my thumb with a fingernail before pressing the welling up blood against the contract. That done, she sat back down on my thighs and studied the contract. “Amon Chaogenito. I like that name. Amon, it fits you.”

“How-”

“Contract magic.” She turned the paper around and showed me what should have been a bloody fingerprint, but had turned into a signature written in blood, though the last name was news to me. Something to remember.

“Okay.” I decided that it wasn’t important right now. “So I give you one soul and you free me.” Eager to get away, I reached within me and grabbed a random soul out of the largely grown pool that I had accumulated during the competition. Baaar’s Lord had cut it down quite a bit by killing me so many times, but I still had over a thousand left. It was a vast improvement compared to what I started out with. And I had already learned that there was such a thing as quality over quantity. Then I pushed it at the succubus.

To my surprise, Isabella pushed the soul right back. “Oh, nonono. What are you doing?” She chided and rolled up the contract, which was written in such a tiny script that it made me actually worry what kind of loopholes would be in there. The scroll then disappeared between her bosoms. “Are you serious that you want to hand over a soul just like that with me at hand? There are so many pleasurable ways to extract them.”

She scooted forward and did something with my leather pants, and then it was suddenly very breezy down there.

“Ah, I would politely refuse,” I replied. “I have seen what you did to those humans.”

“Don’t be a scaredy-cat. They had only one soul and you are a demon with more than enough. Oh, what a pleasant surprise, look.”

I contorted my eyes to see what the needy bitch was on about and hissed when she grabbed my erection and pressed it against her belly as if to judge its size. It actually reached right up to her bellybutton. “That dryad venom is doing a number on you. You should be glad that I can extract it. You know that this little problem down here won’t go away until it’s taken care of?”

Somehow I didn’t want to tell her that I had never taken care of such a problem. I had tried my best to ignore the problem in my pants since the plant monster had pricked me. “Dryad venom?”

“Gives you a serious boner. This is the Infernal Plane of Lust after all.” She edged further forward until my hips disappeared beneath hers, and her wings. Then she fell forward and landed on my chest while rubbing against me with something slick and moist between her legs.

I groaned and then she suddenly kissed me, pushing that long tongue of hers into my mouth.

“Yes!” She let go of my lips and gasped while sliding back and forth on top of me before she changed the angle and plunged down. I was suddenly enveloped inside something hot and tight. The feeling made me groan. I was inside her, and she was somehow inside me, frisking through my well of souls. She touched and discarded one soul after the other as if they were her own.

Our tails intertwined and she found my original soul, tugging on it. “That one is powerful. You have two immortal souls in there, you devious man. Is that why you are so powerful?”

I clenched my teeth, somehow forcing myself to think. “Not that one!” I held onto the soul and a tug of war ensued.

Isabella sat up on top of me, bouncing with her whole body. It went on and on until she hissed and ground down hard. I could see her abdominal muscles clench with the strain of an orgasm while her thighs shook around my hips. I thrust upwards and used her surprise to tug the soul away from her and hide it deep within my core.

Then I lost control and came, pumping everything I got into her.

Without hesitation, she switched targets and snatched the ‘Art of Slaughter’ away from me, the powerful martial arts soul that I had gained from the crypt. I groaned at the loss but wasn’t sure whether it was actually a blessing in disguise. I had agreed on one soul, but not which one. Isabella may have solved a problem that I could not.

“Phew!” She squeezed her breasts and looked down on me with a smirk. “Another round?”

“Ah, I am afraid that I will pass. You just stole one of my stronger ones.” I pulled on the roots. “So could you get me out?”

She actually looked disappointed. “You know, I might be persuaded to do a few more rides for free if you would be a little nicer to me. And I just got myself an immortal one. Still, having men try to run off just because I am a succubus is sad. What do you say?”

“I-” I stopped myself when she started gyrating her hips again. “I think… that a beautiful lady like you shouldn’t waste so much of her time on someone insignificant like me.”

“Oh, but you are certainly not insignificant. I am sure of that.” Isabella pulled off her shirt and allowed her breasts to spill free. Then she slowly opened my leather armour and laid down on top of me without stopping her sensual motions even once. Touching skin to skin with her was like having a fire of lust raking my body. The woman was so damned soft that I really started despising my restraints.

She kissed me again and studied the amulet on my chest while my mind was melting. “Why haven’t you used that thing?”

“What thing?” I was barely conscious at that point, but I somehow managed to notice the artefact in her fingers. “It doesn’t work…”

Isabella smiled and put the amulet back down. She could have easily taken it at that moment, but she only kissed my chin and whispered into my ear while my body was consumed by the pleasure of her rubbing against me. “Those things are very expensive. It takes a very powerful enchanter to make one. Indeed, I have only seen them worn by Demon Lords so far. Normally, the rune on the back is the activation charm. Next time, try slapping your chest and saying ‘Deploy!’”

I was barely aware of her words because, for the next hour, my mind was a melting, delusional maze of lust while a pretty succubus lady rode me once through the Infernum and back.