***The Infernal Planes***

***Willow***

“Felicia, Karin, run while I buy you time,” I instruct the remaining succubus and my pupil. At the same time, I do my best to unleash all my power, hoping to break down the restrictions I put on myself with Ascathon's help. There is no time to pay any more attention to them, the being in front of me is just too dangerous.

Hopefully, they will be smart enough to open a portal at the earliest opportunity to escape.

Raising my hands in a defensive posture, I channel pure mana through my body and a halo of light surrounds me as I inadvertently lose control of some of the energy.

By applying the techniques Ascathon taught me for control in reverse, I do my best to forcefully break through to the next stage of my development. There is no doubt that forcefully ignoring millennia of self-imposed limitations will have a price. That is if I even manage to ascend. As far as I am aware, no immortal ever tried to forcefully suppress the ascension. Maybe my divinity will be like an atrophied muscle, stunted and weak compared to even the least of deities?

First, my skin tingles, then my muscles cramp up from the surge of power within me, but I don't back off, demanding ever more, more than a mere mortal body would have to give. Pain wrecks through me as I quickly reach my limits, seething agony demanding for me to stop, but I ignore it, clenching my teeth.

Lesh, God of Morals, tilts his head – his expression en evident show of bemusement. “You wish to challenge me in order to protect your friends? Who do you think you are?” His eyes wander over my body, staying stuck where they definitely shouldn’t be. The pupils emit a glow in a dim golden light as he tries to assess the power leaking away from me in waves. Too weak for a god, but too strong for a mortal.

“I am Willow,” I smile, barely able to hide the effects of channelling so much power. “And I will be the one who kills you for doing this to my friends.”

“Hahaha.” He shakes his head. “Not a chance. You are an immortal at most – someone who is able to reincarnate. I feel no spark of divinity from you, even with you pulling off this light-show.”

He is trying to plant the seed of doubt in my mind.

“I hope to correct that in order to protect my friends,” I announce haughtily, trying my best to banish even the smallest sliver of indecision. If Ascathon is right about a god's power depending purely on their own state of mind, then I have no room for any feelings of insecurity. I can do this! Millennia of preparations, just for a moment like this. I am ready. I was ready for a long time.

Lesh, God of Morals, smiles and raises a hand towards me, apparently intending to just wipe me from existence. The blood on him is in stark contrast to his golden-haired, angelic features. He has a sleek, almost youthful face, right at the edge to adulthood.

Weren't it distorted by an expression of cruel excitement, I would have considered him dating material. In a church, attaching a halo to his head and pinning some wings onto his back would have turned him into a perfect angel.

I blink and ready myself for the blow which is about to come. There is no doubt in my mind that this fellow’s appearance is just a mask. It’s just too perfect.

He stops, looking at me in a contemplative manner. “You know, protecting your friends, that’s an act I can agree with. It’s a noble thing to do, even if it doesn’t matter whether they run away or not. I’ll find them wherever they go.”

Or not! I am sure that Karin and Felica are opening a portal as we speak. Even if they can’t walk the dimensions like real gods, they should be able to get away.

Waving his hand in a circling motion he gestures in the direction where Karin and Felicia ran off to. “Why don’t we make a bet? It doesn’t matter to me whether two weaklings like them get away. So, I’ll play with you a little – without using my full strength. And if you manage to get past one minute without being broken, I won’t pursue them.” He smiles, making it seem like he just gave me the offer of all offers.

I clench my fists in a futile attempt to control the raging energy within me. Only by digging my fingernails into the skin of my palms, I manage to distract myself from the pain in my chest.

“You will regret this! Transmutation!” Raising a hand, I throw my magic at the ground beneath him in an attempt to encase him in a wave of earth, one of my favourite spells.

“Teleport!”

Appearing behind him, I am just in time to witness him incinerating the entire area in front of him with a huge jet of flame, turning hundreds of meters into a raging inferno and cancelling out my spell by interrupting its spell-matrix.

Unable to appreciate the performance, I raise both hands against Lesh’s back. “Disintegration!”

A ray of red energy spills forth from my hands, hitting him dead centre in the back. But his shield catches the incoming energy, dispersing and breaking the channelled spell, resulting in our surroundings being cut to pieces as the ray fragments. Whatever remained of this dimension’s strange flora quickly surrenders to my magic.

“More!” I need more power!

Unimpressed, Lesh turns around, lazily swiping a hand at me. The force spell hits me like a brick, and for a moment my world turns black as I feel myself tumbling through the air like a thrown doll.

It doesn’t matter. “More...”

I teleport again, conserving my momentum to appear just to his right in order to ram my own shield into his.

Surprised, Lesh stumbles sideways as if someone shoved him. Surely more by giving in to his combat instincts than from having respect for his opponent, he teleports by using the pathways.

The spark of lightning feels similar to when Ascathon took me to places and I reach out for that power, following in Lesh’s wake.

When I appear in an unfamiliar landscape, probably far away from the castle, I feel the high of a small victory.

Not wanting to lose my momentum, I pull on more power and repeat hurling myself into his shield.

Unconcerned with the resulting shockwave of our collision he regains his bearing as our immediate surroundings and a part of a distant lake are torn asunder.

“More!” Clapping my hands together, I aim a sonic attack at Lesh, assuming that his defences have trouble with protecting him against attacks with a physical component. He didn’t waver when I attacked him with a pure energy-spell, but he countered my earth-attack instead of taking it head-on. Ramming him with my shield showed also more results than the Disintegration spell.

The self-proclaimed god winces and retaliates with a ball of glowing, golden energy.

Again, my shields are tested to their limits as I just barely avoid the attack, only to be blown away by an explosion on the scale of a small tactical nuke. Somehow, I notice the rest of the lake being dispersed amidst the agony raging through my body.

It really seems like I am not ready for a forced ascension.

“More.” Something shatters in my chest and I feel power pouring forth like an endless ocean.

With me still flying in free fall, Lesh appears right in front of me, delivering a kick to my belly that sends me flying like a broken toy, his foot covered in golden flames. A mountain passes beneath me, and it still doesn’t seem like I am on the height of my ballistic trajectory.

The humiliation! I am not a football!

Thankfully, the thought of my own humiliation allows me to regain the right state of mind and using force magic, I halt myself mid-air and wait, stretching out my senses. Using the pathways might be more natural to a god and superior to a normal teleport-spell, but it’s also flashy, announcing a person’s arrival just a moment before they can orient themselves.

This time I catch his use of the pathways early enough to counter-attack. Noticing the incoming flash of conjuration ripping the natural fabric of the multiverse apart, I pull back my fist – but not for a simple punch. By creating the spell-matrix directly on my knuckles, I intend to guide a channelled force spell directly at my enemy, which should allow for the most force possible.

Spinning my whole body, I strike right into the blinding light beneath me, summoning all my power, imagining it pouring forth from my fist in an explosive discharge that goes on, and on without end.

‘Crack!’

My hand shatters upon impacting something, and then the mountain range beneath me comes apart as if hit by a projectile.

Even though I just put everything I had behind this single attack, my mana rapidly replenishes and the pain within me quickly turns unbearable once more. Raising my good hand, I follow up with a simple fireball, pouring power into it without care. What was intended as a simple fireball turns into the resemblance of a meteorite coming down from the heavens. The red flame descends downwards to where I suspect Lesh to be.

Moments later the earth comes apart where my spell hit, erupting in a mockery of a super-volcano.

Something wells up from inside me, giving me heartburn, and I try not to puke. Instead, I swallow what tastes like blood. It’s better to think of me having eaten something bad. Yes, no reason to stop now.

Lesh appears in front of me, looking worse for wear, but well enough to fight on. His left eye is closed, with blood welling up from inside. It looks like I gave him the mother of all black eyes. Additionally, his clothes look a little singed, so it’s likely that my last two attempts managed to get through his shield.

“It seems like I underestimated your potential. But you are clearly unable to keep this up indefinitely.” He tilts his head, causing his spine to creak as misaligned bones reset themselves.

Unable to help myself, I grin, revealing what he somehow noticed anyway. Blood pours fourth my mouth and I gurgle to recite the mantra I decided upon. “Mg… ohr… re...” More Power! Enough power to smite my foes and to protect my loved ones. He won’t get to Karin or the others. I’ll stop him before that.

Propelling myself into him, we collide, but he holds his ground as pure energy cascades away from the point where our shields intersect. It’s still not enough, so I press forward, willfully abandoning the sane option of retreat, but in my mind, I have already committed. There is no retreat, and likely no victory after I broke my limits. But the least I can do is to take the fucker down with me.

Our shields shatter, but we are still held apart by some invisible force – an aura – I realize.

“More!” Reaching out, I push into his defences with my bare hands, trying to force the power which I can’t hold out of my palms and into his shields. There is another feeling of something with me breaking. Lesh’s face is a mask of intense concentration as he gives his everything to hold me off.

The strange feeling in my chest registers in my head, but it doesn’t matter. My hands are through, and I scream in triumph! Who cares that the skin is flaking off? Or that the world turned white all around us?

I have my hands on the asshole’s neck and he won’t get away. Ignoring his wriggling and kicking, I squeeze until there is a satisfying ‘crunch’. Then nothing. Lesh stops his struggles abruptly, going limp in my hands.

“I… am… more…”

My head feels suddenly as if it’s packed in cotton. Feeling dizzy, I let go of Lesh, his eyes wide open in disbelief and his face bright red from being strangled to death. His body falls, down, down, into a sea of molten red.

I just have time to realize that the landscape we fought in is gone, replaced by a field of magma as far as I can see. Deep down, Lesh’s body turns to ashes in a puff of smoke as it impacts the surface.

Good.

My whole body sacks as my power wanes and I try to grasp for the slightest bit of energy, just a little bit for a healing spell. But there is nothing… the feeling of a pool of mana in my chest is just… gone.

Someone grabs my good hand, holding me aloft with force magic. Turning my head just right, I look at the newcomer. “Seria?”

“Yes.” The blonde goddess smiles at me sadly. “Seems like I just came in time to collect.”

“I don’t feel so good...” I cough out, feeling something rasping in my lungs and instead of blood, there is just a thick, red foam, keeping me from breathing properly.

“Yeah, dying sucks.” She shakes her head. “You broke both of the cores Ascathon gave you as a safety measure to keep you from awakening. Why did you have to run off to another plane? If it hadn’t taken so much time to follow, I may have been able to prevent this from happening.”

Ah, so that was the strange sensation? Ascathon, you weasel. “So… the cores… were a… safety-fuse?” He always told me that they would increase my power, but in truth, they were limiting me.

“Something like that. I would heal you, but you broke this body by awakening in the way you did. There isn’t just physical damage.”

“Karin?” I ask, wanting to know at least that much.

“She and Felicia are fine. I, uhm, brought them to safety while you decided to have a stand-off with that other god. Didn’t want to show myself as long as there was a chance of him running off, you know, keeping my neutrality and all that. I also hoped that he wouldn’t be too eager to kill you.”

“It’s… okay… then… you helping… now?” I try to exhale the bloody foam, but all I achieve is another coughing fit.

Seria winces, clearly unhappy with my current state. “I am sorry, but I am actually following my own agenda. Though I have an offer for you and believe me, the offer is worth your consideration.”

***The Infernal Planes***

***Seria***

I lay down Willow’s body some paces away from the succubus-castle’s crumbled remains, hoping that the location would get things to move on a little easier. So many things to do, and so little time. Hopefully, I get to Ashley in time.

“They really went for the jugular when they finally decided to move,” I mumble, talking to myself. Worse, I almost didn’t make it in time. Though, it remains to be seen if I manage to get to Ashley.

Just as I am thinking that thought, I feel someone’s arrival through the pathways and Ashley appears in a flash of light.

The succubus matriarch looks different from when I last saw her. Somehow more radiant, shining with life. Her horns are longer and on fire with some form of ghostly essence. Additionally, there are glowing runes all over her almost naked body – which she tends to show off quite readily.

Ashley’s eyes wander over the scene of destruction, staying stuck on the remains of her castle for quite some time. That is, until she notices me and the body at my feet.

Walking quickly, she approaches in long elegant steps, unable to hide her nature even in a situation like that.

The corner of my mouth twitches upwards when I notice that spark of power within her that’s natural to all gods. “It seems like congratulations are in order.”

Ashley looks down at Willow’s body and then back at me. “Seeing this, I don’t feel like celebrating. How did she die?” Her eyes narrow clearly suspicious of me.

I sigh, well aware that Ashley never came to trust me completely. “She protected Karin and Felicia from one of Myrm’s followers. They must have traced you back to this place at some point and decided to destroy any obvious rallying points to which you would retreat.”

“The bastard got away?”

“No.”

“So you killed him? I thought you are neutral.”

“Well, I am.” I clap my hands together, wringing them in an attempt to find the right words. “Willow killed him, and I arrived just in time to save Willow. Doing so stretches my neutrality a bit, but I doubt it matters in this case. In fact, I was just about to go looking for you. But you coming to me also saves me a lot of troubles.”

She glances down at Willow’s body. “It doesn’t look like you saved Willow.”

I purse my lips. “Right. I guess you aren’t that familiar with reincarnation and all that stuff, given your nature. This body may be broken, but I collected her soul before permanent damage could be done.”

Ashley studies me for a long moment before she nods. “Then we have to go to find Ascathon now and regroup with the others. It would be nice if you could guide me to him.”

She is about to turn when I raise a finger to stop her. “We can’t do that. Actually, our time-schedule just tightened because of your unexpected ascension. We have to get you somewhere safe before the Council picks up on you. I have no idea how they do it, but I would give us another hour at most since you likely ascended by fighting that guy who attacked Ascathon’s base.”

“How do you know that?”

I shrug. “I know a great many things, and if you play nice, you should be pleased by the outcome. So, can I bring you to where I stashed away Karin and your daughters? At least those who I reached in time?”