***The Infernal Plane of Lust***

***Ashley***

Actually, catching up to an enraged Amon was easier said than done, because when Khorne and I stepped aside, most of those who had followed us down the stairway took that as a sign that it was fine for them to make way as well.

“Minions...” I cursed silently at their insubordination while the Átahsaia got away. In this case, it was in my interest for the monster to escape, but bad employees were bad employees. Khorne clearly hadn't trained his men very well. Didn't they know that it was fine to sacrifice their own lives in order to give their leader a chance at glory?

The consequence of their lack of spine inevitably resulted in a trail of destruction that led from Kasdeya’s basement all the way up to the castle's courtyard. Amon very clearly had lost it and didn't hold back with flinging whichever spell entered his mind while chasing the Átahsaia.

It hurt to see what had been done to my home. All the broken artworks, the destroyed tiles, and the blood of those who hadn’t been quick enough to get out of Amon’s way. Seeing the mess, I had to wrinkle my nose. I couldn't even make any of my daughters clean up the mess, because they for sure didn’t deserve a demotion to common labour. Khorne was the one who had invited the insufferable soul mage into my house, but something told me that they for sure wouldn’t do it.

Once I was done with Khorne, I would throw out Amon too... preferably before the storm season ended. Or maybe we could lock him inside Kasdeya's basement? The two of them certainly seemed to be getting along.

I passed the remains of one of Khorne’s minions, wondering how exactly it had come to pass that his torso was mushed in between two pillars of the stairway’s broken guardrail while the demon's lower half had found its way onto a bronze sculpture of myself, impaled by a stretched out arm which was pointing at something that wasn’t part of the scene.

Why, oh, why, had it been necessary that the statue's pointing arm had penetrated exactly the male's anus? Had this been intentional? Was the Infernum itself trying to tell me something?

Khorne was not as distressed by the mess as I was. In fact, he didn't care at all about my home and simply rushed past the scene of carnage.

I definitely wanted to lament my fate some more, but I had to follow him.

We finally reached the courtyard where Felicia valiantly held the line against Amon with her scissor-blade. The gate was open and icy winds were pelting the area.

In her chosen function as a gatekeeper, it certainly would have looked impressive for my daughter to hold back a soul mage. If she had actually been between Amon and the outer gate.

Another problem was that being a gatekeeper was entirely without purpose during the storm season.

The weapon was shaking slightly in my daughter's hands, which was totally unbefitting of a millenia-old succubus. That, and her brave stance was a futile gesture because Amon didn’t pay her any attention, nor did he want to get back into the castle.

On the other side, I had to admit that Amon's magical aura was impressive, and Felicia had been likely caught off guard while counting her beans, nuts, and other seeds...

I sighed. That girl definitely needed a better hobby, but she was the only one of my daughters who was willing to deal with the verdant vegetation that sprung up during the fertile season. That, and keeping the forest's Dryads away. Sometimes I wondered who Jada had fucked for Felicia to turn out this way. I just hoped it wasn't a Dryad.

I hated dealing with the dirty Dryads.

My attention returned to Amon when he shook his fists at the storm in a futile gesture. The soul mage was roaring like an animal while patrolling up and down in front of the open gate that led out of the castle. He looked like a cat that had lost its mouse and was now prowling in front of the hold that it had escaped into.

Already, the howling storm had blown a veritable amount of ice-shards into the courtyard, which forced me to shield myself with a barrier. Raising a hand, I raised another shield to push back the howling winds that made it entirely impossible to have a conversation.

Once the courtyard was slightly more inhabitable, I addressed Felicia, “Where is the Átahsaia?”

My daughter shuddered and pointed her blade at the gate. “It went out into the storm, rather than to face him. I thought it would be fine to let it go if it desired to die outside.” She pointed the weapon at Amon but dropped it when he looked at her.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. It was probably for the best that Felicia's plants did most of her job for her during the fertile season.

Khorne apparently realized that going out into the storm wouldn't be the smartest move. Instead, he turned immediately, storming back into the entrance hall to check on the Anima Stone. “Did it respawn? Did anyone see the Átahsaia respawn?”

I also turned, intending to inform Khorne of the situation, but Felicia was faster. “Nobody respawned since this morning.”

When Amon heard us talk, he kicked the gates to the outside shut and stormed towards the Anima Stone with murder in his eyes. “Where is the little shit!? I will show that fucked up tentacle thing what we do in Gluttony to our enemies!”

I noted that his voice was almost back to normal, but not quite. The mention of Gluttony also didn't escape my attention.

It was another confirmation that Amon's group likely came with all the other demons through that spacial rift a few months prior. I still remembered interviewing some of the demons who got caught up in that event. It was hard to forget bodies pelting my castle like raindrops. It took days to get someone to clean the walls and the roof – and by then the corpses had started to reek.

I shuddered at the memory. Why couldn't things just go back to their normal state of affairs? Ever since Khorne had started to shake up Lust it was one thing after the other. Granted, it didn't look like the dimensional rift was his fault, this time, but I was too old and had seen far too much to not believe that the Demon Lord wasn't somehow to be blamed.

My attention was forced back to the situation at hand when one of Khorne’s men stepped up to keep Amon away from the object that their leader was inspecting. The soul mage only snarled and gave the supposedly experienced soldier a shove that sent him flying onto his back and sliding ten meters down the hallway until a wall stopped him.

“I will kill that fucked up tentacle thing once it respawns!” Amon declared. His eyes were burning with golden fire and his irises had contracted to slits in his fury. “And anyone who stands in my way will share the fucked up tentacle thing's fate!”

“Whoa there, big fellow!” Kasdeya came up running at that moment, thankfully stepping in between Amon and the crowd of Khorne’s underlings that would have stepped up to protect their master. “I think that was the Átahsaia.”

“It doesn't deserve a name! It's a fucked up tentacle thing!” Amon roared back while towering over Kas. In his current state, Amon seemed to be perfectly capable of starting a brawl that would be to nobody’s benefit. I nonetheless prepared to defend my daughter. If he did so much as touch any of my family the wrong way, his fate would be sealed.

Thankfully, Kas seemed to know how to calm down her friend. “Look, it survived undamaged!”

Kas showed Amon the small disc that had been held by the contraption from earlier. “See? Just got a little soot on it. The reinforcements we added held up just fine. No need to be so stressed out.” She spoke soothingly, like a mother trying to divert a child’s attention.

Amon immediately seemed to calm down upon seeing the artefact. He took the disc as if it was a newly laid succubus egg, holding it gently on his palms. Then he pressed it to his chest and sighed while he seemed to deflate. “I thought the consolidation process for the spell matrix had been interrupted.”

For a moment it felt like he would restrain his aura, but then it was back in full force and a sneer returned to his face. “I still have to tear that bastard limb from limb for destroying your energy imprintor!”

“It's fine!” Kas patted his shoulder. “I have a few more of those in storage.”

She somehow managed to turn the emotionally unhinged demon around, pushing him back the way towards her laboratory while his aura seemed to lessen again. It didn’t help with the nervous twitch to his tail, causing everyone to give them a wide berth. The people still remembered that the serrated blade at its tip wasn’t for show.

The crowd stilled when the Anima Stone glowed, and Amon turned to scowl at the artefact, not allowing Kasdeya to escort him away. He raised his hand and summoned the staff which I had seen him use during battle. Hellith had provided me with a detailed report.

It wasn't the Átahsaia who respawned, but one of those who had fallen victim to the chase. When the freshly rematerialized demon met Amon's eyes, he turned and emptied the contents of his stomach next to the Anima Stone.

We waited for a few more tense seconds, but nothing else happened.

“Shouldn't the Átahsaia have respawned by now?” someone whispered from among the crowd.

Amon scoffed and chuckled darkly. “He better not... not if the fucked up tentacle thing knows what's good for it.”

Kas pulled on his arm and he finally allowed her to lead him away after unsummoning his weapon.

Khorne's gaze followed them with a concerned expression, but he returned his attention to the Anima Stone when Amon's aura retreated for good. “Why didn't it respawn? Is it possible that the Átahsaia somehow survived outside the castle?”

I took note that the other Demon Lord tried to draw attention away from Amon’s show of power. But he could fool nobody. There was no longer a duality of two balancing powers within this castle’s walls. Now, there was a third force.

Instead, Khorne looked towards Felicia.

My daughter held hands towards her chest, clearly anxious at the attention. “I am certain that it went outside. It didn't even pay me any attention, as if Lust herself was after it.”

His eyes went towards me, so I had to seriously consider his question.

My eyes went towards the now closed gate as I thought about the possibility of the creature surviving. “If the Átahsaia is outside, then it must be dead... unless it's as powerful as a Demon Lord. I can say for certain that I could survive for a few hours outside the castle, but I doubt that any lesser demon would make it more than a few minutes. There aren't any natural shelters nearby that would allow survival. We made sure of that.”

Khorne scoffed and regarded the Anima Stone. “Maybe it didn’t bind to the Anima Stone for safety reasons and respawned somewhere else?”

“Possibly,” I admitted while thinking to myself that it was unlikely.

Then I spotted a familiar figure among the crowd, hugging Hellith and Lilli to his sides. The male demon’s bulk wasn’t hard to recognize, what surprised me more than him being with two of my daughters was that he was still here at all.

“Ebandon!” I pointed. “I thought you went back to Irkos.”

Ebandon, leader of his own warband and nothing other than my personal lackey in disguise winced, doing a bad job at hiding his displeasure at being found out. “Just… enjoying the show…” he hedged. “And having a little fun with Hellith.”

“Then make yourself useful.” I gestured towards the closest of the recently caused damages. “Summon some of your imps to clean up this mess!”

He looked at the blood splattered painting that I had pointed out and sighed. Then a veritable horde of imps popped into existence all around him. They swarmed out and immediately started cleaning up like a group of helpful little fairies.

Not a mere second after I had miraculously solved that particular problem, another arrived. One of Khorne’s men dashed out of the main hallway into the entrance hall and headed directly towards us. “My Lord, it’s Zuebin! Zuebin is gone!”

I frowned, wondering who this Zuebin was supposed to be, before I realized that it was the minion who Khorne and I had checked upon before finding him french-kissing the Átahsaia.

Khorne immediately understood what had happened and groaned. He closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose. “Please tell me that all of you kept up with sticking to your groups while the chase was on. There were no opportunists who sneaked off?”

Unsurprisingly, it was the messenger himself who blanched, which told Khorne everything he needed to know.

The Demon Lord let out a low growl that rumbled from deep within his chest. “Why am I not surprised?”

I bit back the desire to double down on his humiliation by pointing out that I had told him so.

The Átahsaia had proven the weak point in our tactics and played us all by sending us on a merry chase after a mind-controlled puppet while the real culprit had slipped away. The worst thing was that we had it right in front of us and couldn't tell it from its mind-controlled victim.

This new development was slightly concerning – even for me.

***The Infernal Plane of Lust***

***Amon***

I sighed in relief after checking the enchantment. We were still on our way back to Kasdeya’s laboratory. The enchantment had been successful despite the early abortion of the runic system’s imprinting process. “It’s perfect!”

“Yes, but haven’t we forgotten a chain to wear it?” Kas commented while hovering over my shoulder. She had used her wings to gain the necessary height advantage.

“I never intended to wear it like that,” I commented with a dark chuckle. “Items can be taken away or lost.” With that, I opened my shirt before I used my tailblade to slash open my chest. To a mortal, it would have been a serious wound, but to a demon it was nothing more than an inconvenience. Especially since I would benefit from the amulet’s effects afterwards.

Then I pushed the disc into the wound, forcing it beneath my skin where it settled above my sternum. Closing my eyes, I held my palm on the injury and concentrated. Activating the artefact from within my body wasn’t as easy as one might have thought, but Ex’s lessons on internal mana manipulation showed their worth now more than ever.

The artefact activated, and I could feel my whole body surge with vitality while the wound sealed shut faster than ever. By the time I stopped channelling my power a minute later, there was no trace of the injury apart from the blood on my palm and my chest.

“Fantastic!” Isabella’s voice startled me out of the meditation exercise, and I turned to find her watching me with crossed arms, with Kasdeya standing next to her. “Can you tell me now what exactly had you so freaked out that you had to draw Khorne’s and my mother’s attention? I even had to send Kas after you.”

She gave her sister a withering look. “Thank you for going out of your way to leave your basement. I owe you.”

Kas waved her hand dismissively. “Aw, it’s okay, little sister. And I actually like Amon. We definitely share a passion.” She winked at me.

“I can see that,” Isabella replied and allowed her eyes to wander between the two of us. “So what can this disc do that has you so excited?”

Kas clapped her hands together. “It can convert mana directly into life energy! Meaning that Amon will never run out of juice or fatigue as long as he has mana! It’s an endless stamina hack! Oh, but we have to test this version too.”

Isabella’s face scrunched up in confusion before she realized what was going on. “You mean… he can keep going forever?”

“Yes!” Kas confirmed giddily.

“And the two of you have already ‘tested’ a previous prototype?” Isa unerringly followed the events to their logical conclusion.

I almost felt all the hairs on my body stand up straight at that moment.

“Ah…” Now Kas seemed to get that something was wrong. “Just a tiny bit. The first one blew up in our faces.” She wisely left out that it had worked for long enough before that.

Isa let out a sigh as if giving in to something. “Just so you know, he is mine.”

The other succubus tilted her head while I held my breath, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. I couldn't tell why, but I felt like I had stepped onto a landmine and the slightest movement might set it off.

“Yours?” Kasdeya asked. “But aren’t you and Khorne-”

And this was where I got my surprise. Normally, I would have expected Isabella to be all possesive, but that wasn’t the case. At least not completely.

“Yes, mine!” Isa growled while interrupting her older sister. “The thing with Khorne isn’t settled yet, just so you know, and I might be willing to share, but that means that you are complicit with the two of us!”

Kasdeya blinked and looked from her sister towards me and then towards my chest. I supposed that was less because of my splendid male physique, but rather because of the artefact. Then she looked back to meet Isabella’s eyes.

“Okay,” Kas replied quickly. “But I demand stress testing right away. Your guy might have helped with the implementation, but the artefact was my idea!”

The two succubi looked towards me, and this time the hairs on my neck felt like I should run back to the gate and jump out into the storm.

I swallowed. “Stress testing? I don’t like the sound of that.”

Oh, don’t be a wuss, this will be fun!

The other cackled madly in my mind while the two succubi grabbed my arms and dragged me through the closest hidden door into the castle's passageways.