After waiting for many long years, the Incubus King has launched a renewed assault on the continent of Arclent. Marauding orcs backed up by greedy succubi subvert and smash all the armies of the civilized nations, led from the front by the Incubus King himself and his fast, unstoppable dark power, unchallenged and overwhelming all defense wherever he goes-
-Until now.
"She'll be fine, I think. A good woman, kept her band together and alive in a bad situation... The Fertile Chalice is the part of the Incubus King's domain that escaped becoming a wasteland. Supermajority succubus population, some orcs, they surrendered willingly to him in the early days and weren't ruined by conquest. What kinds of aid can you most easily provide?"
"...Insofar as I have a specialty, I have focused on spatial magic and artificiery. Teleportation, portals, expanded storages - enchanted to keep the weight down, obviously. I can conjure clean and lasting water, and semi-irreal food that does provide energy but is not particularly of lasting nutriment, in large quantities. Real food is harder but I have worked out a few enchantments, they just have rather less throughput and are rather specific. If there's an item with certain qualities that you need for some purpose, and a duplicate would be helpful, I can likely manage that.
"If there's an item you direly need but don't have, it's possible I could make something that performs whatever necessary functions, as well.
"It's likely that I could access wherever the... I will not dignify him with the title he did not deserve... Ran off to, at the moment. Magic that powerful leaves a mark."
"...Depends on the damage, and the souls, but so far, in this case I am going to believe that yes."
Her eyes flare with will, as her grip on her staff tightens.
"We've found, I think... A secret weapon. 'Unsuccubi'. Mutilated succubi on the same principles as Ardoheim's unpeople... Sex has been removed from their souls. For humans, this is tolerable, especially if they were the sort who wanted that. For succubi. It is not."
She's pale and tense as all hell.
Deep breath.
"Shall we?" And she transmits a direction and distance.
Here is a deep crypt, absolutely befouled with evil, blood, pain, and despair. A handful of succubi are around, torn between shock and trying to - do something -
-The things sealed deeper within, in little cells five to ten at a time, are howling in pain and rage, grey masses of twisted flesh, all wings and extra limbs and claws.
If you have magical senses for this sort of thing, it's even worse.
Riala closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.
"He was worse than any of us thought... I haven't gotten your name, ma'am. But this is Iris, previously the chief of staff of the Incubus King. She worked miracles and endured abuse to... Minimize the damage he could do. It does not obviate past sins entirely, but I personally believe she can do much good, now."
"I absolutely would have betrayed him the moment I discovered this atrocity, even if I hadn't before. I just - I can't do anything about this. I don't have the right kind of magic. I don't have anything. I should have done a better job distracting him..."
"Alicia Thorn, I have fancy titles but we're not bothering with them right now because I am too busy damn well fixing this."
This cannot be borne. She refuses to permit it. She will tear the power to fix it from her own bones if she must, and in the strength of her conviction make herself whole.
These people are within the range of the law that is herself.
She strides forward into the crypt, the (different) staff that just appeared in her hand flaring a purple-yellow-green that blends to silver - the shift in approach because she's fairly sure that this is, for all that this was called differently, Spirit damage - the characteristics of the energy she's sensing are not the sort of Immutable Selfness that soulstuff is, and Azerosan-soul damage doesn't produce physical mutations -
She is not, technically, a shaman. But she has not worked and fought alongside one for more than a decade without picking some things up, and both raw power and reality distortion fields covereth a lot of little fiddly things.
...Firstly, to deal with whatever the absolute fuck that is before it can interrupt her while she's healing.
"The suffering... It is likely to manifest in tangible form when I try to get it out of the way so I can actually work without being disrupted by a hostile genius loci. And while I have time to say things instead of being busy fighting, Iris, you were a deep-cover double agent, stop beating yourself up about that. I have no doubt that you did everything you could and then some. Now. To arms! If anyone needs something that they do not presently have on them, or the Doom King wants to make a personal appearance, now's the time. We're about to be facing something very difficult to kill, and while I'm good at killing things, I have to drag it into reality in the first place."
"...I'm told you already saw past the pretense, and everyone else here is in on it. The Doom King is fake. I'm Simon. Nice to meet you. Robin, Riala, does what she's saying sound correct?"
"...There's a lot I don't understand about her magic. But as far as the succubi go... She's correct. Some of them can definitely be saved by drawing off the pain, but it will mainfest as a powerful pseudo-demon. I'm not sure about the ones where the transformation is already complete, though."
"...I can keep whatever manifests focused on us and shield her. That's all I can confidently say. This is beyond anything I've worked with before."
"Let's not waste any more time then. Sex magic will be useless, and my gut says... We want arcane magic, healing, and defense in the front line. Carina, Altina, Robin, and Hilstara. Usually, more than four people on a single target gets untenable in terms of interference and free movement, but the rest of us can support the front line with buffs and be on guard for any other unpleasant surprises."
"We already checked our gear and potions earlier today, before the battles... We're ready when you are, ma'am."
"Pleasure to meet you when we're not in pitched battle, Simon."
She'll begin.
This is a relatively simple working, in a sense.
Death, to pull the scattered echoes of pain together, and peel them free from the mass.
Order, to sieve through them and find who these fragments of Spirit are for, and to hold them steady as the fight continues.
Order guiding Light, to reunite them - once they are done.
Simple, however, does not necessarily mean easy. To do this will take power and control. (She's never been the load-bearing NPC for a boss fight before! It would almost be fun if it weren't for everything else!)
She takes a position on the edge, and summons her spell circles.
"...I have my own defenses, but let's try to avoid testing them. ...This isn't my raid, I do not need to give the schpiel and it would probably confuse everybody if I tried - but I will give you the status network. They'll be a bit more approximate than I'd like, but they'll work. If anyone has any Big Important Things they can't do very often, speak now and I'll cue the magic to notice." A series of spells sweeps over the assembled group, giving them an unobtrusive awareness of, well - the raid, and her 'store-brand DBM and Omen' predictive suite. "Hopefully the nature of the ritual I'm doing should pin the demon to at least the central circle while I sieve through it, but I don't actually know how your magic works either, so I make no guarantees.
"Beginning the ritual in 3, 2, 1, now."
And Death reaches out from the centerpoint and pulls.
Much could be said about the battle that ensues. But the author is, unfortunately, not really up for writing it out in more detail than this.
The mass of corrupted magic and pain lashes out with blind but devastating attacks, of such power that it seems like there might be a total wipe right from the beginning...
Multiple times, fighters go down in crumpled heaps.
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