***The Infernal Planes of Lust***

***Amon***

I awoke when someone or something tugged on my wing, the one which I vividly remembered being broken. The memory made me open my eyes and suck in a deep breath before I realized that there was no pain. Above me was the forest's canopy, and when I moved my head to the side, I found the succubus sitting there. She... Isabella was humming while moving my wing back and forth, testing its range of movement.

“What are you doing?” I asked and quickly pulled my wing away from her. Then I realized that we were still on the glade with the pond. Only that there was now a small campfire with two fish on sticks sizzling above it, together with a larger, greenish piece of meat.

I looked to my other side, finding that the succubus had removed the dead plant-demon by tossing the corpse further away between the trees. The other plant-sister was floating face down in the pond and the water seemed a little greener than I remembered.

Isabella pouted. “No 'thank you' that I kissed your wing better?”

She kissed it better? What kind of strange sex-demon magic was that?

I moved my wing and found that it was indeed in perfect condition. Demons healed fast if they got the chance, but a broken bone was still a broken bone and wouldn’t be fine just by sleeping over it. She had done something while I was out for the count.

“Thank you,” I replied tentatively, unsure of how to react to this situation. Was this service part of being raped by a succubus? Or did she want something more from me? I had no way to tell since Isabella was the only succubus I ever met.

She scooted closer, looking excited. “Do you want some fish, or mystery meat?”

My eyes went to the campfire, then to the corpse whose ass was bobbing in the pond, sans one cheek.

I certainly wasn't squeamish, being born in Gluttony and all, but if I had to choose whether I would eat someone's front- or rear-end, I would always choose the first option. Who knew where the plant demon sat the last time while she was still alive? “I think I will go with the fish.”

It may be a different case if Isabella had served me their tongues, but what was done was done.

Isabella took one of the fish and used one wing as a supporting surface while she took it apart with her sharp fingernails. Before I could ask what she intended to do, she offered me a piece of white meat with childish enthusiasm. “Say, aah...”

I opened my mouth to ask just what was going on and she stuffed the meat inside.

Utterly confused, I closed my mouth and chewed. If I didn’t know better… I would have said that the succubus was genuinely trying to be nice. Then again, she had cheated an immortal soul out of me – which was still better than dying with an unknown outcome.

But what was I thinking about? There was no such thing as a nice demon. Even Sozzudon betrayed me in the end and he was the nicest one I met so far.

I had to remind myself that I still had no bind-point in this dimension. For all I knew, Isabella had turned a worst-case scenario into a not-so-bad worst-case scenario. If it was about dying for real, I would have gladly paid one of my stronger souls if there was no other choice about it.

The demoness fed me another piece of meat while I was playing along and considering whether to be mad at her or not. In the end, I chose to be neutral towards her, for now. She hadn’t done anything openly hostile and had I been in her position, I would have taken the chance to do much worse.

When I had apparently been silent for a little too long, she suddenly moved next to me and folded her free wing around me. The next thing I felt was her tail winding around mine and she let out a sigh while looking at the pond. “Isn’t this a beautiful place?”

My left eye twitched involuntarily in annoyance. I couldn’t help it. “It’s a dead plant-woman-thing in a pond. And everything in this dimension is so… green. I don’t find that particularly appealing.”

“Shush!” She raised her finger and shushed me while offering me another piece of the fish. “I was trying to create a moment here. When you are living in a place like the Infernal Planes, you have to learn to ignore the bad stuff and see the good things, Amon. Otherwise, you will get a serious depression sooner rather than later. Where were you spending your time until you came to Lust?”

“Gluttony, and, you mean like... ignoring the corpses?” I asked, my eyes flicking to the bobbing ass in the pond. “I think I can do that.”

The thing that wasn’t so easy to ignore was that a succubus lady with a very dangerous tail was sitting right next to me as if we were the closest of pals. The picture of her tail ripping out that throat was still very vivid in my mind.

“Good!” Isabella squeezed my knee. “Which brings me to the question, how old are you exactly? It's very astounding to think that you were a demonling when we last met.”

How was she able to home in so unerringly on a sore point of mine? Should I lie? Then again, pretending to have experience that I didn’t have probably wouldn’t fly for long.

“One.”

“One decade?”

“One.” I didn’t think that going too deeply into the topic of my age was necessary.

“Hmmm. How surprising.” She nodded to herself and her expression changed. “I thought so from watching you. Others would have known that the woods on this plane are dangerous. Though, I have to admit that someone so young… who is yet so powerful… that is very sexy. I am also very young in demon-terms.”

That made me perk up a little. “How old are you?”

Isabella cuffed my thigh. “You should never ask a succubus her age! But be assured that while I have a few decades on you, it isn’t measured in centuries.”

“Oh.” That still meant that she was probably very used to her form – while I was not. “Is that why you are so…” I couldn’t find the right word for it. Mainly because I didn’t want to risk offending her.

“Pretty? Nice? A genuinely good person for saving your ass?” She tried to help me out by flattering herself. “Don’t forget that I offered the demonling-you to be hospitable if you ever visited my plane. Aside from that, I am not quite like other succubi. I have a soft spot for the pretty ones.”

“I see,” I answered, while clearly not seeing what she wanted to tell me.

“Do you want to learn to fly?” She suddenly changed the topic, overwhelming me with her speech. “I bet you wouldn’t have broken your wing in the first place if you knew how. Oh, and you definitely have to learn how to shapeshift them. They kind of get in the way for hybrid evolutions like ours. I honestly don’t know why one would get wings if they aren’t physically functional, but one has to make the best of things. Probably you should learn a partial shapeshift first. You have to cast a spell matrix like this, but instead of channelling outwards, you have to allow the spell to seep back into your body. Be wary not to force it, or it would hurt.” She summoned a spell matrix to her palm without actually finishing the spell so that I could study it.

My eyes wandered between the complicated energy vortex in her palm and her pretty, but sharp face. I frowned when I noticed that her hair was a little browner from up close than the black that I remembered. The Isabella in my memory had hair as black as total darkness. This was a much friendlier tone.

It probably was a trick of the light.

Again, was she genuinely trying to be nice or was this some ploy to get into my good graces? “I have to apologize for being wary of free gifts, but why are you doing this?”

She frowned and practically shoved the spell matrix into my face. “Are you seriously questioning my generosity after I saved you? And didn’t I follow our contract to the letter? I might even argue that I am already doing more than I am compelled to. Have I already mentioned that we succubi take it as an insult if men imply that we would need duplicity to get them to do stuff for us?”

“I think you already mentioned that,” I admitted. Granted, if she would spread her legs and do a repeat of that lust-magic-thing, whatever it was that had my mind melting like ice in the desert sun, then I would probably consent to anything she wished for. Just by remembering the little encounter I already felt compelled to beg her to do it again. Maybe with me on top this time?

I wondered how that would work out. I seriously had to build up more mental resistances for this plane. How many succubi lived here? Were they common? And was Isabella powerful compared to others of her kind? I certainly didn’t want to end up as a fucktoy until the end of my days.

My contemplations were interrupted when Isabella got impatient and raised her palm again.

It was an incentive to copy her spell as best as I could and in proper demon-manner, I memorized it immediately. I raised my own palm to form the same spell matrix out of my own energy and held it for a moment, noticing that my new body had no problem with the difficulty-level of this spell while it was several magnitudes above anything I could have done as an imp. Then I allowed it to seep back into me, just as instructed.

There was a slight tingle on my back, and I felt my wings fold in on themselves, somehow becoming part of my arms. It wasn't some form of mass-conversion, but rather a reshaping of my form. In exchange, I felt a little larger and more muscular.

“Very good!” Isabella clapped her hands together. “Now in reverse.”

It felt good to be praised. Nobody had ever done that for me. But I had to remind myself that she probably acted like this because she wanted something.

After already performing the spell once, it was no challenge to do it again in reverse and in a moment I had my wings back.

“Fabulous!” the succubus continued with her cheerful attitude. “There are many different ways to achieve flight, such as levitation spells, but those take time to master. The easiest solution for us is to use a simple repulsion spell and to project it with our wings. Try this.”

She closed her eyes and dropped the remains of the fish to spread her wings behind herself. “Spread your wings and search for your soul-well. Imagine it and push the magic into your wings. Allow it to seep out of them. The more you push, the faster you can go.”

Isabella rose just a few centimetres into the air and hovered there.

I awkwardly spread my own wings, trying my best not to touch hers. Then I spend a whole minute trying to copy her. It wasn't that this method was complicated since I fairly quickly achieved the effect of propulsion. The downside of this technique was that my wings acted less like wings and more like jet engines. I had to angle them just right and control the amount of energy perfectly, or would quickly find myself toppling over.

My teacher was apparently satisfied when I achieved a form of wobbly levitation next to her.

“Perfect!” she praised me with a pleased expression. “Just practice that for a few days and I will be back. For now, I have some things to do.”

Isabella winked at me and leaned in to give me a peck on the cheek before beating her wings once. Within a moment, she was above the canopy and out of sight.

I lowered myself back to the ground and reshaped my wings like she had taught me, utterly puzzled by what had just happened. She would be back? Did she think I would wait here for her? And why would she leave just like that when she clearly wanted something from me? Why would she give me important knowledge without payment? Did I misjudge her after all?

Was Isabella actually a nice succubus?

I couldn't make horns or tails out of that woman, but one thing was for certain. I wouldn’t sit around on this glade and wait for something to find and eat me. Hadn't she mentioned that the woods were dangerous? The one thing that was important right now was to find a place where I could rest and take account of my abilities and find out what limitations I had.

I got to my feet and found all of my belongings next to the fireplace. Once I was equipped, I took the second fish, ignoring what Isabella had dubbed the 'mystery meat'.

Then I made my way through the woods, choosing the general direction which I had come from since it was the fastest way into the open planes. I could try to fly, but I wasn't completely sure of my skills in that regard and I really wanted to bind to an Anima Stone before I risked breaking my neck.

Rested and fed, I quickly returned to the open grasslands, if not exactly on the same path which I had taken into the forest.

All of the demons which had inhabited the area a day prior were gone. Some ignored and forgotten items on the ground told the tale that something had happened here, but strangely enough, there were no bodies.

I bit my lower lip, unsure of how to proceed.

Isabella could have left me with some directions, but the demoness ran off before the matter came up. I could try to find other demons, but that would be likely counter-productive to what I had in mind, which was training in safety. Just staying here seemed also like a bad idea.

Narrowing my eyes, I tried to remember what I had seen when I was falling. Grassland, forest, some castle-like structure – never would I go in that direction. It was for certain that someone powerful would be living there.

So, in absence of any obvious direction to take, I would head away from the place which was likely to spell trouble, the castle. I oriented myself, trying to correlate the direction of what I had seen while I was falling, and headed along the fringe of the forest towards the open plains.

The terrain wasn't so ideal, but I made good speed while I tried a variety of spells from my souls' memories, finding that I was a real fan of force magic and mana manipulation. Both forms of magic were incredibly difficult to control, but once I reached some degree of proficiency in them, they would be powerful and versatile additions to my arsenal.

I tried keeping control of a blue-shimmering walking stick, while a little rock orbited above my head. I had shaped the stick out of mana, remembering how useful such a tool was in keeping lesser creatures under my control. The way mana manipulation worked was also very likely to be the origin of Amon's dagger, the Eldritch End, so it was a major motivation of mine to cultivate the ability.

About two hours passed like that and the violet sky was darkening when I reached the top of a hill's steep incline. It had prevented me from seeing what was hidden in the indentation behind it.

I immediately stopped my excercises when I noticed the camp in the grassland, about a hundred metres below me. There were a handful of campfires and about twelve demons of various forms and sizes. Finding someone else living here wasn't so surprising. What was strange, was to find sixteen other demons lined up in glowing chains.

Sighing, I resummoned my walking stick and headed down the hill. I wouldn’t have done so, if it weren't for the fact that I recognized Philomena's large frame among those in chains. I hadn't known my sub-commanders for long, and I certainly had no chummy feelings for the rest of those who had joined Operation Baaar. All I promised them was to earn a lot of souls – which they had. I never said anything about taking responsibility for what would become of them afterwards.

But Philomena, Uphir, Shax, and Kitia were no mere subordinates. They had names which I remembered. They weren't total strangers and they performed well enough under my command. Allowing them to ascend with me only to have them end up as... whatever this was... it didn't feel right.

Emotions... I shuddered. I only hoped that my ties to those four would not get me killed for nothing.

One of the twelve demons pointed towards me and screamed something when I was halfway down the hill. I hadn't been very stealthy since I knew no way to hide while I was in the open – a shortcoming that I would have to address. I mused and promised myself to add some defensive skills to my training while the other demons screamed and grabbed some sort of pitchforks. Lengthy staves which ended in a reversed omega. My guess was that they would try to hook and subdue me with these tools. I wouldn't go as far as to call them weapons.

They came running towards me, clearly unconcerned by the fact that I was walking up to them without a worry in the world.

I touched the amulet on my chest, deciding that I may as well test another piece of knowledge which the oh-so friendly succubus had decided to impart on me. “Deploy!”

The amulet suddenly grew into a chest-plate and pieces of armour shimmered into existence, encasing my entire body and head. The material wasn't known to me, but it was light while feeling sturdy enough. Looking down at myself, I found it to be functional and a piece of art. There were complicated runes and patterns all over the black metal. The inlays were made out of gold and some ruby-red crystal which was shaped with a technique I could only guess at.

“Neat,” I commented and reached into my bag of holding, pulling out a belt-fed M134 machine gun, with the belt still disappearing inside the pouch. Oh, boy, how long had it been since I bought this thing and never got to test it?

The first demon was only ten metres away when I pressed the trigger. I leaned forward while stabilizing the weapon against my hip. There was a short delay as the barrels started spinning up, allowing my opponents to gain even more ground.

When the closest among them had almost reached me and was only five metres away, the gun started spitting lead with the sound of a buzz-saw. The closest opponent's mid-section simply disappeared, and I laughed as I swung the gun slightly to the left and then to the right, showering the whole group with bullets.

Several demons went down when they suddenly gained so many holes that it was hard to count them at a single glance.

Only the last three demons in the back kept standing. One of them was carrying a large tower shield and a mace. When I started firing, he had hunkered down behind the barricade which he was carrying in one hand. It also gave the two coming behind him enough coverage to survive the initial onslaught of my toy.

When the rest of the charging group was down, I directed the last twenty seconds of ammunition on the tank. Bullets sprayed off to the left and to the right, but none were able to penetrate his shield.

In the end, the ammo-belt coming out of my pouch ran out and my weapon kept spinning without the sound of bullets being fired. My well of souls swelled a little with the death of my enemies, but these were fairly weak. I hardly felt the souls I got from them.

I sighed and dropped the gun back into my pouch before drawing my dagger. At least the gun had levelled the odds. Next time I made a visit to Betsy's plane, I would make sure to carry more than 5000 bullets.

The last three demons stayed behind the shield, apparently expecting another rain of projectiles.

That gave me plenty of time to pull out two hand-grenades and throw them in an arc above their cover. Two explosions followed that rocked the little hill.

I expected it to be over, but when the dust settled, the hunk with the shield rose to his feet. He had moved his protection just in time to protect himself from the shrapnel. Somehow, he had also stayed unaffected by the shockwave.

Though, his two mates who depended on his protection hadn't done so well. One was missing an arm and a leg, bleeding out rapidly, while the other was face down on the ground.

The tank roared and charged me with big, long strides. It wasn't fast by any means since he was still carrying a shield as large as himself. But each step the huge fellow made ate up the ground between us. He apparently intended to ram me with the shield.

I waited and waited, and then I summoned a thin blanket of mana, a shimmering and extremely smooth surface that I laid out in front of me. Then I jumped to meet his charge and landed on my ass right in front of him. His club parted the air above my head as the hill's incline allowed me to lie down and slide through between his legs.

All I had to do was to raise the dagger as it slid through my opponent’s loins. Once I reached the end of my improvised slide, I rolled back to my feet.

My opponent howled upon falling forward and then quickly turned silent as something spilled forth from between his legs. It helped with his quick demise that I blasted his now vulnerable rear-end with the largest Ice Cone I could manage.

Once I made sure that none of the twelve attackers were twitching, I sheathed my weapon and walked down the rest of the hill towards the prisoners with my hands behind my back. All of them were watching me with a great deal of attention.

I saw no recognition in Philomena’s eyes and upon coming closer, I realized that Uphir was right next to her. They looked very wary of me. Finally, I remembered that my new armour had a helmet, yet the enchantments on it somehow provided me with a perfect field of vision. For a moment, I was a little embarrassed that I didn’t know how to take the armour off, but then I figured that the same unimaginative activation sequence would be needed to switch off the armour.

I slapped the red gem on my chest. “Un-Deploy!” The armour practically dematerialized and the chest plate slid back into the amulet. Now able to, I showed them the best grin I could muster.

The reaction of my soon-again minions upon recognizing me was prize-worthy, as they both groaned in relief… or was it resignation? I wasn’t sure.

Then Philomena shook her head, throwing off the surprise of encountering me again.

“Amon, please. We have no time. We have to save Kitia!”