This Pathetic Succubus Will Do a Dogeza
Inside the department store.
Most of the people had already evacuated according to the emergency broadcast.
I, however, remained inside.
I had no need to run.
As long as I held the Guardian Sword that Chaewon noona gave me, there was zero chance of getting hurt.
In fact, leaving to evacuate would only cause more trouble.
While I gripped the Guardian Sword, all external contact was completely cut off.
Nothing could even reach me; everything was pushed away before it could touch.
But if I went to a crowded evacuation area?
I would end up like Gojo Satoru, accidentally crushing everyone around me.
Yeah. Staying right here was clearly the best choice.
Still, just to be safe, I wandered the department store in case anyone had been unable to escape.
That was when the air around me changed completely.
Pink smoke suddenly billowed out, swallowing the entire interior of the building.
Pink smoke.
I knew exactly what it was.
It was such a common phenomenon that we had covered it in high-school safety classes.
The pink haze now filling the department store was an aphrodisiac gas created by a succubus’s ability.
Any human who inhaled it would go into heat like a beast in rut.
It wasn’t life-threatening, but the constant arousal until they had enough sex was mildly annoying.
The gas enveloped me, yet thanks to the Guardian Sword it never actually touched my body.
As long as I kept a proper grip on the blade, I would not be affected.
Then I spotted something moving in the corner of the department store.
It was a young boy who had failed to evacuate in time.
He lay on the floor sobbing, apparently injured in the leg.
“Uwaah…! Sa…! Save me…!!! I don’t want to die…!!”
The succubus smoke only induced heat in humans; it posed no threat to life.
That was true for adults whose sexual development was complete.
For a child whose body had not yet fully matured, however, the gas became a lethal neurotoxin.
The boy on the floor looked no older than an elementary-school student.
If he breathed in the gas, he would surely die.
In that instant I ran through every possible way to save him.
My first thought was to grab him and flee.
But even a moment’s consideration told me it was impossible.
My physical ability was nowhere near enough to carry him while moving faster than the spreading gas.
Besides, as long as I held the Guardian Sword, I could not even touch the boy.
So carrying him out was off the table.
Physically shielding him from the gas?
Obviously impossible.
Hmm. No normal method would work.
…No normal method.
I looked down at the Guardian Sword in my hand.
“…Right. It’s far better for me to go into heat than for a little kid to die. Well… it’s not like I’ll actually die. I just have to have sex, right?”
According to victim testimonies, the sex was so intense you felt like a dried-out squid afterward…
But what choice did I have?
A human life was more important.
Unlike normal men, I didn’t even feel any particular aversion to sex.
If a little heat was all it took to save a child, it was an overwhelmingly good deal.
Before the gas could reach the boy, I sprinted forward.
Fortunately I arrived first.
I stroked his head to calm him and spoke in a steady, clear voice.
“Hey, kid. If you hold this sword, it will protect you from any attack. It even grants immunity to that succubus gas. So keep a tight grip on it, okay?”
“Huh…? Whaaat…?! Wh-what did you say…!”
“Hold it tight. You’ll be safe. No matter what happens, do not let go of this sword.”
There was no time left.
I pressed the Guardian Sword firmly into the boy’s hands.
Luckily he seemed to have understood.
He hugged the blade tightly to his chest.
Good. That was truly fortunate.
Now the boy would survive and be safely rescued.
Which meant… all that remained was for me to go into heat.
The pink gas was already rushing toward me.
There was nowhere to run.
I closed my eyes and waited quietly for the oncoming mist.
In the end, I was completely swallowed by the succubus gas.
###
Underground parking lot.
Beneath the department store, S-class hunter Ha Chaewon and the Archdevil Lilith were engaged in combat.
No. “Combat” was the wrong word.
This was one-sided violence.
Ha Chaewon gripped a single sword and mercilessly carved Lilith apart.
Lilith somehow used her Queen’s Authority to regenerate at ultra-high speed, but even that had its limits.
Her body was being systematically destroyed by Ha Chaewon’s attacks.
“Wait… just a moment!!! I wish to speak with you!! I have a proposal!!! I will promise you infinite glory!!! So please, let’s talk!!!!”
Overwhelming power that even an Archdevil could not withstand.
In the end, Lilith cast aside her pride to survive.
Queen or not, she begged Ha Chaewon to settle things through conversation.
But her opponent was Ha Chaewon.
A cruel warrior who showed mercy to no one except Doyun.
For Ha Chaewon, the very concept of talking with a demon did not exist.
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m in a very good mood right now. So I’ll kill you with only moderate pain. Normally you would have died with every nerve in your body feeling like it was being pierced by needles, but this time I’ll simply carve out your heart.”
“No!!!! Do you truly possess no human heart at all!!!! Just listening to you makes you sound more demonic than I am!!!!!”
Lilith thought.
Her opponent was a monster of a level she had never encountered even in the demon world.
A creature so terrifying it could slaughter the entire demon army single-handedly.
Escape was impossible.
That left only begging for mercy, yet watching Ha Chaewon ruthlessly sever limbs made even that seem futile.
Still, she had to try.
Otherwise she would die.
Even as her body was being sliced to pieces, Lilith desperately searched for a way to live.
She cried out in a wretched voice.
“I will give you thousands of tons of gold!!! I swear to provide you with enough wealth to live in luxury for the rest of your life!!”
“…”
“Honor!! I promise you honor!!! If you desire it, I will even hand over the throne of the demon world!! Take my crown as well!!”
“…”
“Ah… or perhaps my Queen’s Authority… No…! How does that sound?! With this power you too… I mean… you could become even stronger!!!”
Before death, all are equal.
The once-arrogant Lilith’s tone grew increasingly servile.
In the end she resorted to polite speech and begged for her life.
“Please!!! I beg you, spare me!!! Big Sister!! This Lilith will kneel before you like this!!! I will never hunt humans again!!! If Big Sister wishes, I will even go to prison!!! So please, just let me live!!!!”
The queen’s dignity had fallen to the floor.
Tears streamed down Lilith’s face as she performed a perfect dogeza.
She had completely lost the will to fight and could only tremble, hoping for Ha Chaewon’s mercy.
At this point most people would have at least considered talking, but Ha Chaewon had no such intention.
It was convenient that she was already on her knees.
Ha Chaewon intended to separate Lilith’s head from her torso and end it.
“Good. Stay right there. Since you’re going to die anyway, don’t waste your strength.”
Ha Chaewon stepped on Lilith’s head and raised her sword high.
The Archdevil’s execution was about to begin.
Even so, Lilith refused to give up begging.
She threw out whatever words came to mind.
And fortunately one of those desperate ramblings caught Ha Chaewon’s attention.
“If you spare me, I will give you an elixir that can make any man fall hopelessly in love!!! With this elixir you can thoroughly subjugate any male you desire!!!!”
“…Elixir? There’s something like that?”
For the first time, Ha Chaewon showed interest in Lilith’s words.
She could not waste this golden opportunity.
Lilith quickly lifted her head and spoke in a rapid-fire torrent.
“Yesss!! That is correct!! I belong to the succubus race, specialized in seducing men!! Something as simple as charming one man is far too easy for me!!!”
“…”
“A-and I also possess a truly wonderful elixir for men!! If they drink my elixir, even a man suffering from erectile dysfunction can stand his dick up straight and proud!!!!”
“…Really? Is that true?”
Fortunately, Ha Chaewon had taken the bait.
She lowered the sword she had raised high and began listening intently.
Whether she would spare or kill Lilith was still uncertain, but for now Lilith had to keep talking.
She abandoned every trace of queenly dignity and started pitching her wares like a desperate salesperson.
“Yesss!! If Big Sister desires, I can even change a man’s preferences!! For example, I can turn a man with dominant tendencies into a complete masochistic slave!! Or make him feel an overwhelming attraction to a specific part of Big Sister’s body and have him lick it like an obedient dog!!”
“Hmm… Is that elixir safe? No side effects?”
“Yes!! Absolutely none!! There is not a single side effect, so you may use it with complete peace of mind!!!”
“I see… So that’s how it is…”
Ha Chaewon fell silent in thought.
She weighed whether to kill Lilith or not.
After a brief pause, she reached a decision.
She would spare her.
In Ha Chaewon’s eyes, the succubus’s abilities were simply too valuable to throw away.
“Fine. I’ll spare you for now. I’ve grown interested in that elixir you mentioned.”
“Th-thank you so much!! Big Sister!!!”
Lilith was genuinely overjoyed at having prolonged her life.
Whatever Ha Chaewon might order her to do could be worried about later.
For now she was simply grateful to be alive.
‘Good… I survived for the moment… As long as I’m breathing, I can watch for a chance to escape later… Right now I’ll just pretend to obey that woman… and run away when the opportunity comes…!’
Although Lilith called her “Big Sister,” her inner thoughts were pitch black.
She intended to flee at the first chance.
And Ha Chaewon had roughly guessed as much.
Her opponent was a demon.
A race that lied as easily as breathing.
From the start, Ha Chaewon had placed no trust in her.
“Yeah. I’ll spare you, but I’m going to make a few adjustments first. I can’t just walk around with an Archdevil like you.”
Ha Chaewon gripped her sword and swung.
What she cut was Lilith’s very soul.
She sliced away the rank of the Archdevil named Lilith.
“…Eh?”
To cut down the fundamental rank of a living being.
In theory, such an act was impossible.
Merely swinging a sword should not be able to shatter the core concept of a life form; it was a phenomenon that could never occur under normal laws.
Yet Ha Chaewon accomplished it.
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, she rewrote Lilith’s very race.
From Archdevil to high-ranking devil.
From high-ranking devil to common devil.
From common devil to low-ranking devil.
From low-ranking devil to beast-type devil.
After several slashes, the ruler of the demon world, the Archdevil Lilith, had been reduced to an utterly ordinary beast-type devil.
Even her appearance had changed.
The voluptuous form that once resembled a human woman had become a cute little bat small enough to fit in the palm of a hand.
Faced with this absurd and shocking transformation, Lilith was left utterly speechless.