Chapter 57: Queen Revival, Please
Unlike in Bitsurk, please let this be enough. I repeated that to myself over and over in my mind. But it wasn't. Our preparations were far too inadequate.
What had I done back in Bitsurk? I'd carefully built alliances with other parties, step by step like stacking stairs. With desperate lies, I'd uncovered the succubi's secrets. The Monica sisters had been the key in the end, but those preparations had at least gotten us the best outcome possible.
But unlike Bitsurk, this time an uncontrollable catastrophe had struck. Rally the dragons by promising them fine bottles of liquor as prizes and go block that Baldenhart bastard? Fat chance. Those very dragons were now foaming at the mouth, convulsing on the ground.
As I sprinted toward the Dragon Forge, I prayed Lord was safe. If Lord was unharmed and had noticed this anomaly, he would've flown straight here to clean things up. But if not...
"Looks like we're the only ones who can fix this."
"Damn it all."
Morgan and Esen sighed in unison. They glared at each other for a moment. The sisters wedged themselves between the two, shoving them apart as if to say not the time. Then they rushed straight to the fallen man.
The groans leaking from the dragon who'd been beaten to a pulp sounded familiar, letting us barely recognize him as Eitryon.
"Eitryon! Who the hell did this—"
"Bal... den... hart..."
"...Is he inside the forge right now?"
"No... already... gone."
Eitryon clutched at the sisters' collars. Feebly, but desperately.
"More importantly... Nidroga's... in danger."
"...Is Nidroga inside?"
Eitryon nodded. My mind went blank white. The situation was obvious to anyone. Nidroga, who'd flown ahead toward the forge and crossed our path, had run into Baldenhart and met a gruesome end.
The sisters' trembling hands glowed with healing light as they tended to Eitryon. The combatants and I charged into the forge without delay.
And that's when we learned we should've listened to him more closely.
Dragons. Rulers of the skies. Creatures who chew mountains and rocks like salt, treat storms and earthquakes like playgrounds, and snack on every fierce beast from heaven, earth, and sea alike—the strongest beings alive.
Lords. Rulers of rulers. Masters of the world's mightiest. Excluding the long-gone Demon King and the first hero 'Atelentina,' no one throughout all history could even name a match for them.
All those grandiose words aren't some sycophant's fabricated flattery to curry favor with winged lizards. Even the most vicious agitators who dismiss proven facts as fiction hesitate to claim a dragon's renown is false. It's not just fear of offending a passerby who might be a dragon.
The corpses prove it. Dragons submit evidence of their strength in endless variety. From temperature: fossilized monster carcasses long gone cold to steaming piles of fresh kraken flesh. From texture: squishy hero corpses mistaken for targets to nations turned to glassy plains.
Nidroga belonged to that species, born of that blood. She'd forced others to kneel but never knelt herself. She'd shown mercy but never tasted defeat. Not until she'd blindly plummeted into the storm just days ago—trapped in peril but never desperately needing aid.
So this recent humiliation felt utterly alien. Even with her wounds unhealed, to suffer like this again? Twice shamed in mere days, Nidroga lay paralyzed, screaming silently in her mind. Her mouth, meanwhile, moved on its own toward her friends, brazenly spouting lies.
"You're a bit late."
"Damn it, Nidroga! You okay?"
The forge's iron door swung open as her friends rushed in. Nidroga, peering down from the platform, wanted to scream at them to leave. To run from her now. But her urgency echoed only in her thoughts.
The thing possessing her body grinned, lips curling high.
"I'm fine. You guys?"
"Glad you're safe at least! You know what's going on outside?"
"What's going on?"
"...Too embarrassing to even say. You'd have to see it yourself, but I'm worried you'd end up the same if you went out. Fuck, those sleazy bastards. How could they pull something so filthy... like..."
Esen, who often teased the porter with dirty jokes, flushed red and just smacked her lips awkwardly.
Knight Reni shouted in her place.
"The dragons are foaming at the mouth and pissing themselves from orgasms!"
"Don't yell it like that, you lunatic!"
"What'd I say wrong? I heard they were starved for pleasure, but apparently not this kind! Men soaking their pants with cum, women squirting everywhere—total chaos! Can't you hear those moans outside? 'Ungh-hoook' this, 'Ung-kiit' that!"
"Whatever the curse, it seems targeted at dragons only. We're fine."
"Heh. Lucky us. Remind me—what was your name again? Morgan Tomco?"
"...That's right. And your party's healer, Monica, said, 'It's definitely the Succubus Queen's doing. Corrupted lust is spreading everywhere.'"
"Corrupted?"
"Yes. And if the sexual ecstasy keeps looping like this, even dragons used to stimulation won't hold out—they'll go mad soon. So if you have the sealing orb right now—"
"Hand it over. Gotta fix this somehow! Where's that fucking bitch's sealing orb you stashed?"
As always, Esen charged ahead. Excluding hero Tena, she was the party's only one comparable in raw physical power. As reckless as Nidroga—maybe more so. But Esen had someone to rein in her recklessness.
The porter grabbed her collar desperately, halting the stubborn tigress—who ignored everyone else—like a trained pup.
"Wait, Esen!"
"What?"
"Sure, I don't know Nidroga as well as you guys. But something's off, no matter how you slice it. Is that really the Nidroga you know?"
Dragons lacked in nothing. The porter's frantic whisper reached Nidroga's ears clearly despite his efforts to lower his voice. No—perhaps it wasn't Nidroga's ears anymore. The possessor's.
Nidroga wanted to scream that intel was leaking to the enemy.
"What's off about it?"
"First, that stiff expression like she's acting rigid. Biting her lower lip to hold back a laugh. That cocky legs-spread stance. Does Nidroga even like showing off like that?"
"No, but anyone could stand like that—"
"And crucially, she laughed differently than before. Everyone's laugh is unique, like fingerprints."
Nidroga felt hope. Enough to reach the conclusion she craved. But against her desperate wish, her friends just sighed and gnashed their teeth. They didn't flee.
Reni and Esen cracked their knuckles and stepped forward. Nenya teared up but raised her staff. Even the newbie porter and Bilena didn't turn to run—instead, they shuddered as they pulled vials from their coats and held them ready.
Nidroga's chest tightened. They weren't cowards to abandon a friend.
The possessor laughed.
"Would've been better if you were cowards. Right?"
"You're not Nidroga."
"Obviously not. I am 'Seduction.'"
A voice like Nidroga's, but too sultry for her. That true color revealed was the Succubus Queen's—the one we'd heard countless times through the crystal orb.
I gritted my teeth. I hadn't known the Queen could pull something like this. Since humans began recording monster habits, no succubus had ever been known to body-snatch. And monsters wielding unknown special tricks were usually the most dangerous in their species' entire history.
The thing wearing Nidroga's skin like a skin licked its lips.
"A charm that melts ice, a desire that topples fortresses, a rapture that breaks heroes to their knees."
"Fancy."
"Fancy? No one among you even asked who I am?"
"We gotta ask, you slut? Think you're some noble or celebrity?"
Esen cracked her knuckles with a grin. But her nape hairs stood on end like when terrified, and her legs shook. For good reason—our foe wore Nidroga. Daughter of the Lord meant at least half purest dragon blood. Strongest blood.
"More than that. I could've been the Demon King, ruler of all monsters. It's mortifying to end up like this, but those bitter days of humiliation are over now."
I reeled at the loaded words. Shipboard talk flashed like lightning: the succubus close to Demon King status, impaled on the holy sword and sent to her fate.
"Hundreds, thousands of dragons gathered on this island—their vital energies flow into me. To assemble such prime prey so neatly... I must thank the Dragon Lords' foolish decisions from the heart. Feels so refreshing."
The Queen in Nidroga's body gestured, and the door behind us slammed shut. Bilena fumbled to open it in panic, but the iron didn't budge.
"So, for the first time since my birth, I'll show ocean-like mercy and personally tell you livestock my exalted title. I am Queen Lilith."
The revived Lilith grinned with Nidroga's face.
"The one who will blanket this world in lust and usurp Ishtar's throne."
"Fuck that."
Esen slammed her fists together and jerked her chin in signal. Then charged first.