The Succubus Queen of the Four Heavenly Kings
Even if she said she finished recovering, she couldn't have healed completely. The essence of just six men here wouldn't have been enough. We had to hope that was the case. Damn that filthy whore...!
But the men who had been drained of their essence still wouldn't wake. My healing had restored color to their cheeks, and they were clearly breathing... yet they remained unconscious.
"This is..." They weren't dead, and their souls were definitely still there, but they wouldn't wake up.
"Fufu, is it frustrating? It must be so frustrating, isn't it?" Her mocking tone grated on my nerves. The vitality in their bodies... their very life force seemed to be draining away somewhere. I had definitely healed them, but it was leaking out again. Could it be...?
"Are you holding them hostage?"
"Fufufufufu! Hostages? How vulgar. They are sacrifices."
Sacrifices? Only after hearing those words did I notice. The life force escaping from the men was flowing upward...
"Eugene!" Without a word, the Hero lunged at the Succubus Queen. Having regained her composure, she easily blocked and evaded his strikes.
Damn it...! What should I do with these people? Sacrifices? Is there no way to stop their life force from draining? I quickly scanned through all the knowledge in my head, searching for a suitable Divine Art. What if I severed the space around them? The problem was, if I maintained it for too long, they wouldn't be able to breathe. But it was the only thing I could think of. I hurriedly gathered the naked men onto the bed.
"It is useless to try such things."
Maybe so... Ignoring the Succubus Queen's taunts, I cast my Divine Art. I conjured a dome—no, a massive sphere—to completely envelop and isolate the bed. The Succubus Queen darted around, dodging Eugene's strikes while throwing attacks in my direction. Eugene intercepted most of them, but a few slipped past his guard and flew straight toward me... I blocked them with my own body. Tsk, I should have cast a barrier first...
"Tsk..." It was fine. It stung a bit, but it wasn't a fatal wound.
"Saintess!"
"Don't make a fuss! Focus on the enemy in front of you!" Even if I hadn't said it, the Hero would have done so anyway. Good...
"Done. Isolation barrier, sever." My Holy Power materialized, seizing control of the space.
"What?"
Considering the amount of oxygen inside the sphere, I couldn't keep it up for long. "I can't maintain this for long! Finish her quickly!"
"Got it!"
"Come to me, my children!" Turning my head, I saw other monsters smashing through the walls—scantily clad succubi. Were they trying to seduce the Hero? Fortunately, Eugene didn't even blink at the sight of the naked demons, ruthlessly cutting them down with his sword. While maintaining the isolation sphere, I provided offensive support from the rear.
"Eek!" Ordinary succubi were no match for the Hero. They were nothing more than meat shields... and they were highly vulnerable to my Divine Arts as well. Since we were indoors, I couldn't tell what was happening outside, but magic likely wouldn't work here. The Succubus Queen tried to cast a spell, but Eugene shut her down instantly. We could keep this up for a bit. I deliberately pretended to struggle with maintaining the sphere. It was an act, all for a single, decisive moment. My acting must have been convincing, because the Succubus Queen ignored me to focus entirely on Eugene, merely sending a few succubi to keep me in check. I purposely refrained from counterattacking, focusing solely on blocking their advances. Soon enough, I saw the succubi let their guard down. Monsters really are stupid. They seemed to have already forgotten that I was blasting them with Divine Arts just moments ago. With the Succubus Queen's attention completely diverted, now was the time to strike. I slightly bent my knees, preparing myself. All of this is just to build up momentum! The moment Eugene's attack forced the Succubus Queen to halt her movement, I leaped forward at maximum speed, channeling a massive amount of Holy Power into my right hand...
"Die!" Once again, I unleashed a burst of pure Divinity.
"Kyaaaah!" The Succubus Queen shrieked. Seizing the opening, Eugene lunged forward and swung his sword. With a clean slice, her arm flew into the air.
"Tsk!" He had aimed for her head, but she sacrificed her arm to protect her neck.
"Finish her now!" I bound the Succubus Queen with my Divinity, and Eugene swung the Holy Sword mercilessly. But the Succubus Queen...
"What?!" She escaped using teleportation. That was an incredibly advanced spell...?!
"Could it be an artifact?" Otherwise, the casting speed made absolutely no sense. Eugene quickly finished off the remaining succubi first, while I deactivated the isolation sphere to check on the men. The moment the barrier went down, their life force began to leak out again.
"What should we do?" Eugene asked, looking to me for direction.
"We'll hand them over to the raid team and hunt down the Queen again." We had severed her arm this time, and she wouldn't be able to heal herself with essence anymore. Still... we couldn't afford to waste time.
"Understood." For now, we gathered the naked men. I carried two, and Eugene carried four as we made our way out of the castle. The wall the succubi had smashed earlier came in handy. Once outside, I immediately looked for my sister.
"Sister?! Did you defeat her?"
"No, but we managed to rescue the captives." Eugene and I handed the rescued men over to the raid team.
"You need to keep a close eye on them. The boss cast a spell on them, and their life force is being drained."
"What?! Then what are we supposed to do?"
"Kill the boss, obviously." There was no other way.
"In that case, we shall wait here," Namgung Min declared.
"Besides, returning to the entrance would be quite difficult." Ah, right... Even if they ran, it would take dozens of minutes. Who knew what might happen in the meantime? It was safer not to move.
"Alright, I leave everyone in your hands." I entrusted them to Namgung Min and cast healing and buff spells on the rescued men once more. Some voiced concerns about me wasting my strength like this... and indeed, it did drain me a bit. Eugene and I headed back toward the castle. Above the fortress, a magic circle was slowly drawing itself in the air.
"That bitch is persistent." To think she was preparing a spell even after sustaining such a wound...
"Should we attack it?" We had to disrupt her, even if only a little...
"Yeah, we need to interfere." Eugene swung his sword, unleashing a barrage of sword energy and magic. The moment they struck the magic circle, a violent shockwave erupted. The unstable magic circle wavered, its progress visibly regressing.
"Well, that should buy us some time." We entered the castle, searching high and low for the Succubus Queen. Suddenly, I felt a sensation. It wasn't a divine revelation, just pure intuition. The audience chamber. She had to be at the center of it. As someone who called herself the Succubus Queen, she would naturally be waiting there, fitting for a ruler. We had been here once before. It wasn't a pleasant memory, but at least we knew the layout. As we made our way to the audience chamber...
"Fufu, so you have come?" Clutching her severed right arm, the Succubus Queen glared at us. Though her attitude remained haughty, beads of sweat lined her forehead, and her complexion was deathly pale.
"You're stubborn."
"Of course. After all, this is my duty." As if the Demon King would ever appreciate her sacrifice.
"Do you really think the Demon King will appreciate this?"
"Especially since the Demon King is already dead." At Eugene's words, the Succubus Queen's eyes widened in shock. Suddenly, an eerie sensation washed over us. It felt as though the entire world had fallen into a dead silence, and my body froze, unable to move. What was this? The Succubus Queen was acting strange, as if her mind couldn't process the information. Then, my body began to move again. At that moment, Eugene spoke once more.
"The Demon King was already slain by the Saintess and me. What lingering attachment brings you back here like this?" Once again, the Succubus Queen reacted bizarrely to his words. Her body—no, her neck—began to twist and contort erratically. The grotesque, unnatural movements sent a shiver down my spine.
"What is going on?" Eugene tensed, warily watching the bizarre anomaly.
"Fufu, so you have come?" The Succubus Queen repeated the exact same words she had uttered when we first entered the room. It was as if some external force was resetting her... Eugene and I exchanged glances and nodded. The NG Word was almost certainly "Demon King." We had to fight without mentioning him!
"Ha, have you even tried contacting the Demon King?" Huh? I stared at Eugene in sheer panic as he suddenly blurted out the word. "Eu-Eugene?!" But Eugene just looked back at me, utterly confused. "Was that not what you meant?" "No! I meant we should finish her off quietly..." Apparently, Eugene had assumed I wanted to exploit the enemy's glitch to defeat her. Regardless, the Succubus Queen exhibited the same bizarre reaction as before. It was like... a bug in a computer game. She looked completely glitched out.
"Now!" Seizing the moment while the Succubus Queen was paralyzed, Eugene closed the distance in a flash and swung All Master, which was currently in the form of the Holy Sword. The blade sliced through her flesh with ease... severing her head from her shoulders. Even in her final moments, the Succubus Queen seemed completely oblivious to what was happening to her, her face frozen in a daze. A heavy thud echoed. Just like that, the head of the once-mighty Four Heavenly Kings member rolled onto the floor.
"Yes!" Eugene pumped his fist into the air, celebrating his victory. It was honestly a bit ridiculous, but... "Good job." His judgment had been correct. Anyway, I wondered where the exit would appear. While the anticlimactic ending was baffling, we had gained valuable information from this raid. Specifically, that the Gate was a world replicating the past, and when an anomaly occurred, a "world correction" would be applied. We had managed to defeat the Succubus Queen during the brief window when this correction was taking place. And the trigger for that correction was likely the "Demon King."
"Is there some connection between the Gates and the Demon King?"
"Who knows... But considering what we discussed before, there's a chance that an entity even more powerful than the Demon King is involved." Did that mean the demons had their own god? Ah, this was getting too complicated for me. "I really don't know."
"Well, we can figure that out slowly as we go." Eugene was right. "Anyway, you did great." I walked over to him and gave him a firm pat on the back. No matter what anyone said, the MVP of this raid was undoubtedly Eugene. If I had attempted this alone—or even with just the Moorim Alliance—it would have been an utter failure. Even if I could have resisted the Eternal Sleep like I did in the other world, my combat instincts had dulled too much in this peaceful life to survive on my own.
"You did great too, Saintess—I mean, Nix." Eugene smiled warmly, looking relieved. For some reason, seeing that smile made my heart flutter.
"Now, let's let everyone know we succeeded and head back." "Yeah." Stepping outside, we saw the exit portal swirling in the middle of the plaza. We had really cleared it...! I had been worried that the clear condition might glitch out too, but it seemed we could finally relax.