Succubus Lord 7 Page 16

  “This even has coordinates and everything,” Libidine observed.

  “Exactly,” I confirmed. “Which is why we’re also in luck I brought this fancy interdimensional GPS along for the mission. We just need to use the map to find the dead center of the lake, punch the exact coordinates into the device, and voila! There’s our Unhallowed Sword.”

  “Interdimensional GPS?” Todd asked. “I didn’t realize our carrier got signal in Hell, bro.”

  “I guess,” I said with a shrug. “Oliver gave it to me. He said they used it to find Azazel whenever he called an emergency meeting. The old-timer claimed it worked on any dimensional plane.”

  The team poured over the map as we tried to figure out the exact center of the lake. Cupi and Eligor teamed up to read the map and draw the longitude and latitude to the correct coordinates. Meanwhile, Todd read off their deductions aloud, and I transcribed them into the GPS. Liby stood back cautiously and observed the Lake of Fire in all its unholy glory.

  “There!” Todd called out when the two blondes figured out the final piece of the puzzle. “I think we’re all good to go, Jakey.”

  “Not quite,” I corrected. “We still need our swimmer. Liby, are you ready to head back?”

  The dark-haired succubus turned around with a sad look in her eyes. “I’m never ready to leave you,” she sighed.

  I walked over and placed my hands tenderly on the succubus’ shoulders. Then I looked her deep in the eyes as I began to caress her cheek and run my hand through her hair.

  “Don’t worry about us, Liby,” I reassured her. “We’ll make it through this, and then we’ll be back on Earth Realm before you know it.”

  “If you say so.” Liby frowned. “Just … don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

  “What, me?” I asked innocently. “I’d never do anything stupid.”

  Liby shot me a look of annoyance, and then she gave me a quick kiss before she stepped away and straightened her posture. The Sister of Lust gave me a nod, and I pressed the glowing eye on my bicep.

  A white light shot out of the tattoo, engulfed Liby, and then sent her back to be with the rest of the Circle of Sin.

  The second she was gone, I pressed my index finger against the whip tattoo on my arm and activated the cycle once again. The light returned, but this time it brought us the taller, more slender of the two black-haired succubi.

  Ira stepped forth from the light, cracked her neck in a way that sounded painful, and then let her whole body shiver.

  “I’ll never get tired of that, you know,” she giggled. “The whole sensation of interdimensional travel feels like a light, full-body orgasm.”

  “We need your assistance, Sister,” Cupiditas sighed. “Unfortunately, it’s not going to be pretty.”

  Ira craned her neck as her violet eyes lit up. “‘Unfortunately?’” she asked. “What’s so unfortunate about it?”

  “I hope you practiced your breaststroke, Crazy Eyes,” Todd explained and motioned to the fire behind us. “Because you’re going swimming.”

  Ira turned around, gazed into the Lake of Fire, and then let out a squeal of glee.

  “Why didn’t you think of this sooner?” she exclaimed. “I think this is the greatest thing you’ve ever asked me to do, Jacob. Aside from that one thing, but you asked me not to talk about that in front of the others.”

  My face went beet red as I remembered exactly the thing she was talking about.

  “Anywhooooo,” Ira continued. “Where am I headed?”

  Eligor held up her map, which now had a small circle drawn at its dead center. “Right here,” she explained as she slapped her finger against the drawing. “If our calculations are correct, there should be an island at the Lake’s center, and the Unhallowed Sword will be there.”

  “Use this GPS,” I added as I held out the device. “The coordinates are already punched in, so they’ll lead you right to it. Just one last thing to do … ”

  I held out my hand, summoned purple Hellfire into it, and then engulfed the tiny device with the spell.

  “There,” I mused. “I’ll hold that for as long as I can, so it isn’t melted by the heat of the fire. Once I get out of range, you’ll have to use your own powers to keep healing it and yourself. Think you can do that?”

  “You of all people should know,” Ira said with a sly smile, “I can do anything your little heart desires.”

  The succubus sat the GPS down on the ground and began to strip. She was still in the medieval clothing that we’d stolen before, so it was a simple process. First, Ira ripped the headscarf off her head and released her long, flowing black locks. She then shot me a hungry look as she bent down, grabbed her dress around the ankles, and began to lift it off her body.

  Slowly, but surely, the slender succubus’ body was revealed. It started with her delicate ankles. Then it was her lean, willowy legs. Next came her thick thighs, followed by the shaved slit that sat between them. The fabric slid over her toned navel, and then each of her massive breasts plopped perkily against her chest as they were released from their clothing prison. Finally, she pulled the garment over her head and tossed it to the side.

  “Much better,” she sighed. “I fucking hate normal clothes, so you can only imagine how terrible these medieval garments are.”

  “They certainly don’t look as good,” I admitted as I watched the succubus strut over to the edge of the lake.

  Ira let out a tiny gasp of surprise as one of the flames leapt up onto the bank and singed the bottom of her legs. Her feet and shins were now covered with third-degree burns, but she simply shuddered, summoned golden Hellfire to the wounds, and healed them immediately.

  “Oh, this is going to be soooooo much fun!” she cackled.

  The Sister of Wrath increased her spell, and the golden Hellfire spread up so it surrounded her entire body. She looked over her shoulder and shot me a wink before she crouched down, wiggled her tight ass, and jumped up into the air. She got to about two or three feet above the surface of the lake when her wings sprouted, aglow with both purple and gold flames. Then, she was off. Ira dashed toward the center of the lake with lightning-fast speed, and her body was smouldering with heat until she finally disappeared from our view.

  The purple Hellfire went out in my hand, and I took in a deep breath.

  Ira was on her own now.

  The four of us sat down on the rocky beach and waited nervously. Ira had been gone for nearly ten minutes now, and I was beginning to wonder if we’d been wrong about this whole endeavor. Maybe we sent her to the wrong coordinates? Maybe there was a trap waiting for her at the Lake of Fire, and she was now ensnared in its horrific tendrils? The possibilities were endless.

  Finally, I saw a weak shimmer of golden Hellfire on the horizon.

  “Guys,” I announced. “Ira’s coming back!”

  The succubus rocketed toward us, her body completely engulfed in gold flames. The spell around her looked more powerful than any healing spell I’d ever seen before. The flames danced nearly ten feet above Ira’s body and let off a radiance that was blinding all the way back here.

  I shielded my eyes as she got closer and smiled. She did it, she got the sword that was going to save her final Sister, and the same sword that was going to kill Azazel once and for all.

  “She’s coming in too fast!” Cupi gasped.

  “Duck and cover, bros!” Todd exclaimed as he threw himself to the ground, and the rest of us followed suit.

  The golden ball of fire zipped toward the shore, smashed into it with a sickening crack, and then Ira’s body tumbled violently across the rocky landscape. She came to a halt in a heap, her limbs twisted all around her body in ways that shouldn’t be humanly possible. Blood dribbled out of her mouth, and there were burns all over her body.

  “Ira!” Cupi choked, nearly in tears.

  The blonde succubus ran over to her fallen sister and tried to console her. Eligor, Todd, and I were not far behind, and we all looked upon the gruesome scene
in shock.

  “What happened?” I demanded.

  “It’s … it’s just too strong,” Ira wheezed. “I made it halfway there, but then the fire started turning f-from red and orange to blue and white. It was too much for my healing powers. I saved the GPS, though.”

  Ira’s palm opened up, and the interdimensional GPS rolled onto the ground.

  I reached down to touch the succubus’ face, but then realized that would probably just cause her more pain.

  “You just focus on healing up, okay?” I ordered. “We’ll find another way.”

  Ira nodded, but the simple motion caused her to grimace in pain. She laid her head back down and tried to summon her healing fire into her hands, but all that came forth were a few flickers of flame.

  “What’s wrong with her?” I asked desperately.

  Cupi put her hand against my shoulder. “She will be fine, Jacob,” she promised. “She used up a lot of her magic trying to get to the center of the Lake of Fire. She should be able to completely heal, but it might take a minute or two.”

  “We can’t afford to wait a minute or two,” I shot back. “Look at her! She looks like she’s on death’s door. I’m sending her back to Earth so Sia can heal her quickly.”

  Before anyone could protest, I tapped the flaming whip tattoo on my shoulder, and Ira’s beaten body returned to Earth Realm. I was sure the rest of the succubi would be shocked to see their Sister completely mangled, but Sia would know what to do immediately.

  “What’s the plan now?” Eligor sighed. “Ira was our best shot at getting there in one piece.”

  “Jacob, could you make a series of platforms with your protective flames?” Cupi asked curiously. “Almost like a makeshift bridge?”

  I shook my head. “I could, but you heard Ira,” I explained. “The heat was way too intense even for her. We’d have to be way further away from the source, but if we do that, we’ll be walking blind.”

  “One wrong step, and tooasssttttyyyy!” Todd added.

  “What about you, Eligor?” Cupi tried her next option. “You said that your armor was some of the most powerful in the universe. Do you think it could protect you from the flames?”

  The knight shrugged. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “But we’re running out of options, and Lilith won’t tolerate failure.”

  Eligor tossed off her cloak to reveal the glimmering silver armor that just barely covered up her unmentionables. Despite its skimpiness, it was stolen directly from a Demon Queen herself, and the knight boasted that it was far stronger than any other armor she’d owned before.

  Still, I couldn’t help but be skeptical as she walked closer to the edge of the lake, and I found my eyes gawking at the thong-like rear of the garment. Each cheek of the fallen angel’s ass bounced delightfully as she walked, and I felt my undergarments suddenly get tighter.

  Thank God this armor had a codpiece.

  “Eyes up here, Jakey,” Todd whispered and broke my gaze. “I know you wanna take her to pound town, but we got bigger fish to fry right now, bro. And if we ain’t careful, those fish are gonna be us.”

  Eligor reached the edge of the lake, took a deep breath, and then delicately tried to place an armored stiletto into its depths. She let out a loud “yeow!” and pulled her foot away instantly. Her metal shoe was now red hot, and she instantly kicked it off her foot in a panic. The glowing metal landed on the brimstone with a sizzle as the fallen angel danced around, trying to ease the pain of her burn.

  “That’s a no-go,” I sighed. “Todd, you can turn into other creatures, right? Could you turn into a stone golem or something?”

  “Afraid not, bro,” the imp admitted. “I can only disguise myself as other humans. I can copy the voices of anything in the world, but I’m not quite at the point where I can shapeshift into anything.”

  “What about the other succubi?” I suggested. “Tris or Gula or Sia might have something special about them that could help us in this situation.”

  “I can’t think of anything off the top of my head,” Cupi answered. “I don’t see how necromancy or overpowered Hellfire or anything of that nature could be useful. Sia can heal people, but we’ve already seen that the Lake of Fire is stronger than our best healer.”

  “What about Slothy’s necromancy?” Todd suggested. “She could kill a bunch of vargrats, bring them back to life, and then throw their bodies into the lake to make a bridge or some shit like that.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Eligor said through a grimace, “but it wouldn’t work. They would dissolve in seconds, and the heat would still be too intense.”

  “Then we’re out of options,” Cupiditas said somberly. “One of us is going to have to make the sacrifice play.”

  “No!” I immediately shot back. “Nobody’s dying. Not on my watch.”

  “There is no other way,” the blonde succubus reiterated. “You can cover yourself with your purple flames, and then I can fly you out to the island. If I move quick enough, I can surely get us there before … well, before I’m turned into nothing but ash and bone.”

  “That’s not going to happen, Cupi,” I reiterated. “Even if I was on board with the whole ‘sacrificial’ plan, which I’m not, it wouldn’t work. Ira with all of her healing powers could only get halfway. You’d be toast before we even made it fifty feet offshore.”

  “Wait … ” Todd interjected. “What was the second part of your plan, Cupi?”

  The blonde succubus cocked her head curiously. “What?” she asked. “The part where I get roasted alive?”

  “No, no,” Todd sighed. “The part about Jakey.”

  “What? About him protecting himself with the purple flames?” she said as she tried again.

  “That’s the one!” Todd clapped his hands together happily. “Why don’t you just fly Jakey over to the island, and he can use his purple fire on both of you?”

  “That’s not a bad thought,” I admitted. “But it’d limit Cupi’s mobility, and she wouldn’t be able to fly. I haven’t figured out how to make my protective Hellfire fluid yet. If I had, I’d probably be wearing a whole suit of flaming armor into every battle.”

  “That’d be bad-fucking-ass, bro,” Todd gasped. “We could call you ‘The Purple Knight’ and everything! You could be one of those badass mofos who goes around the kingdom avenging widows and maidens. Before fucking them, of course. Ya know? One of those big worldbreaker kinda dudes.”

  “Worldbreaker … ” I trailed off as my mind began to ponder.

  That was it. If we couldn’t pass over the flames of the Lake of Fire, we needed to move them.

  And we could do that by breaking the world.

  “What the fuck do we do now?” Eligor growled. “We can’t even sacrifice ourselves to make this happen. Lilith is going to have our heads for this. And probably your guys’ balls, as well.”

  “Eligor,” I interrupted the knight, “what’s under us?”

  “What do you mean?” she questioned. “It’s brimstone.”

  “But for how deep?” I continued. “Are we talking a thin layer of topsoil? What?”

  “I don’t understand … ” Eligor admitted with frustration in her voice.

  I let out a deep sigh and instantly summoned bronze Hellfire into my hands. “Does this help?” I asked somewhat forcefully.

  The lightbulb appeared to go off in Eligor’s head as she let out an understanding “ohhhhhh.”

  “Are you gonna try and vibrate the entire lake, bro?” Todd gasped.

  “It’s not for the Lake of Fire, Todd,” I explained and closed my eyes. “It’s for the ground underneath it.”

  I started to think about all the injustices we’d seen back in the village. How people were forced to perform like trained monkeys for Azazel and his followers, and how all the ones who “lost” ended up on the receiving end of the most sadistic torture the King of the Fourth Circle could come up with. I also thought about how the citizens of the Fourth Circle were forced to use fucking rats as the
ir only source of protein. Sure, they figured out how to make it work, but it was still goddamn rat meat.

  As the injustices I’d encountered in the Fourth Circle passed through my mind, I began to feel a dull, almost pleasurable tingling in my temples. I heard Eligor gasp as I realized my horns must have been growing out of my head. I opened my eyes, and the radiant blue glow in my peripheral vision confirmed my suspicions.

  “Oh my … ” Eligor gasped as she looked back and forth between my horns. “That size is… unexpected.”

  “You haven’t seen anything yet,” I reassured the blonde knight with a wink. “Everybody hold on. This could get a little rocky.”

  I raised my glowing bronze fist above my head, concentrated on what my magic needed to do, and then slammed my hand into the ground.

  Instantly, the entire ground began to shake as if it were being hit by a six-point-oh magnitude Earthquake. The ground rumbled intensely as the fire in the lake danced chaotically before my eyes, but it wasn’t enough.

  I needed to increase my power.

  I closed my eyes once more, but this time I thought about everything I’d been through in the last two years. I’d literally survived battles between the forces of Heaven and Hell. I squared off with more deadly demons than I could even remember. I faced down an Archangel and lived to tell the tale. Sure, there’d been a lot of great things happening for Jacob Ralston in the last twenty-four months, but there’d been an awful lot of shitty things, as well.

  I just wanted this to be over. I wanted to kill Azazel, take my place on his throne, and enjoy the rest of my life with the women I loved deeply. Every second I spent doing an intense mission or trying to take down Azazel’s minions was a second of my life I wasn’t relaxing by the pool or catching a matinee with my friends or making love to my succubi.

  Talk about injustice.

  I felt a surge of energy swell throughout my body as I re-opened my eyes and saw the bronze fire in my hand grow larger. I let out a primal roar as the ground shook harder, and the flames began to jump off the surface of the lake like they were affected by their own intensity.

  Finally, there was a loud crack. Before me, the rocky ground split open and formed a crevice that seemed to have no end. The fire directly above the chasm tumbled down into the abyss into the darkness, and the flames from the surrounding area started to pour into the opening with the consistency of magma.