Reunion
Until mere moments ago, Seona had been violated so savagely that his body was a wreck — yet somehow, he was recovering. Rapidly.
He never used his healing ability unless he was on the brink of death, so something was wrong. Strength was flooding back into his limbs. The oppressive air of the Demon Realm, which had always felt so stifling, now seemed almost cool and refreshing.
Was it because, like his mother Mina, he had been pushed past his limits again and again?
By repeatedly surpassing every boundary his body could endure, he had re-awakened the same ability Mina possessed — Adaptation. But Seona had no idea what a re-awakening even was, so he couldn't recognize what had happened to him.
He could feel something powerful stirring deep inside, yet he had no clue what it was or how to use it. All he knew was that something felt strange.
Seona steadied himself and pulled on the clothes he had discarded. Then his thoughts turned to Miel.
He wanted to see her. He wanted to finish this revenge as soon as possible. The thought of Miel coming to find him filled him with anticipation.
The expedition force had agreed to seize the northern sector of the castle within the territory in eight hours. Under the pretext of gathering intelligence, Expedition Leader Mina, Yurin, and Miel set out ahead of the main force, claiming they would infiltrate first.
Their real objective, however, was something else entirely: the rescue of Seona.
Mina, Miel, and Yurin slipped into the castle together. Along the way, Miel finally took a proper look at Mina's condition — something she hadn't been able to assess clearly while her own mind had been in such disarray.
Here was a being whose magic was purer than anyone's, and whose reserves dwarfed even those of Miel's own mother. Even a Demon Realm elder would have struggled to match that volume of power. Mina herself almost certainly had no idea. She was a human who couldn't cast a single spell — and yet, instinctively, she was channeling that magic into reinforcing her own body.
It was nothing short of genius. Physical reinforcement of that caliber was difficult even for demonkin who had trained for years. Whether it was the sheer purity of the magic solving the problem for her, or raw natural talent, Miel couldn't say — but at that level, Mina could probably hold her own even if the entire Royal Knight Order came at her at once.
Miel already knew who had been ambushing them for the past four weeks. They had worn robes over their armor to conceal their identities, but Mina had cut one of them down the moment an opening appeared, and the corpse had told them everything.
Royal Knights. The order that the retired Minotaur Lord had once belonged to — the sword of the Council and the royal family, the enforcers of their will.
Even if thirty of them attacked at once, Mina could handle it. There was no reason to drag the expedition's full army into this. Mina alone was more than enough firepower to save Seona.
Miel glanced once more at Mina's back with a sense of reassurance, then fell in behind Yurin, who was leading the way. She had already given them the route before they set out, so she didn't need to guide them herself — and that was critical. Mina could never be allowed to discover that she was a succubus.
A few days earlier, Seona had gone to the Succubus Lord's office claiming he had a request. He asked her to summon her daughters and have them violate him without restraint. He even asked them to carve tally marks into his flesh — one for every time he climaxed.
He told her he wanted to relive what had been done to him when he first arrived. He even specified that he wanted it to happen in the room Miel used to occupy.
The Succubus Lord had tried to talk him out of it. Once his memories were restored, she warned, this would become a genuinely traumatic recollection — she asked him to reconsider. But Seona was desperate, and her daughters, who had already tasted his body, were eager to have him again.
And so he had been ravaged without mercy, and the marks had been carved into his skin. Enduring once more what he had first suffered, he had sworn that when Miel finally came for him, he would make her suffer even more.
Today's gang rape had barely ended. Seona hadn't even erased the tally marks from his body yet when the visitors arrived.
"Seon… a…"
Yurin started to call out in joy at the sight of him — then her voice died in her throat.
Seona was naked. Tally marks covered every inch of his body in dense, crowded rows. Kiss marks and bite marks littered his skin, and his spent cock hung limp and drooping from the sheer number of times he had been forced to climax. He lay trembling on the bed, eyes half-rolled back in his skull.
Mina, who had entered behind Yurin, first scanned the room — searching for her son. Then she saw something her eyes refused to believe.
Her son, sprawled across the bed. And surrounding him, a ring of succubi.
"Ugh — aaah! I'll kill every last one of you! You bastards! My son—!!"
She had known, intellectually, that it would be like this. But knowing and seeing were two entirely different things. She wanted to butcher those monsters who had so thoroughly defiled her child right then and there. The tally marks carved into his body like a running score of every climax told her exactly how mercilessly they had used him.
Mina was about to go berserk and swing her sword when Seona rose from the center of the bed and stepped directly into her path, blocking her from the succubi. Then he looked past her — at Miel — and spoke with a mocking sneer.
"I asked for all of this myself. Who the hell are you? And look who else is here — the kidnapper, and the traitor who sold me out."
Mina stared at him, unable to believe the cold expression on his face as he addressed the three of them.
"Seona… it's Mom. Don't you recognize me?"
Her face was a portrait of pure shock. The hand gripping her sword trembled violently.
"Mother. Seona has clearly been brainwashed by the succubi. We need to deal with all of them first."
Yurin spoke in a rush. She already knew that Miel was the reason Seona couldn't remember anything — but if Mina found that out, she would tear Miel apart on the spot. And if that happened, Seona would die too.
Mina listened and raised her blade again. Once more, Seona stepped in front of her — as if daring her to try. He moved like someone performing for an audience, and the one his eyes sought was Miel.
Miel looked at Seona and felt, with absolute certainty, that something had gone terribly wrong. She spoke to him — this boy who shouldn't have known anything about what she had done, staring at her with that expression.
"Seona… why are you doing this?"
Mina froze at those words. That psychic-type ability user had only been brought along as insurance against mental attacks from the succubi — so why was she calling Seona by name?
She remembered how flustered Yurin had looked earlier. With her sensory enhancement pushed to its absolute limit, every instinct she had was screaming. These two were connected to what had happened to Seona. The realization slammed into a corner of her mind like a physical blow.
And then, through the open doorway behind them, someone else approached.
The Succubus Lord entered with the expression of someone who had always known this day would come.
The Succubus Lord studied the sword-bearing woman whose eyes so closely resembled Seona's, and drew her conclusion. This had to be family.
Mina was over forty, but with the Adaptation Ability and the magic accumulating in her body, her appearance had shifted from her late twenties down toward her mid-twenties. She had already looked young enough to pass as Seona's older sister or aunt — now she could simply be called his sister without anyone batting an eye.
The Succubus Lord assumed she was Seona's sister. Those matching eyes, that negligible age gap — the illusion was complete. The memories she had extracted from Seona, she decided, must have been memories of a sister.
Then she took in the magic packed into the body of this supposed sister, and the sheer impossibility of it staggered her. A human possessing magic was absurd enough — but this woman held a greater volume of higher-purity magic than the Succubus Lord herself.
If they fought, this entire territory would be reduced to rubble.
So the Succubus Lord resolved to persuade her instead. It wouldn't be easy — not after what this woman had just witnessed: her own daughters taking turns ravaging the boy without restraint. Her gaze found Miel. Only if Miel unlocked every memory sealed inside Seona's mind and returned the ones she had swallowed could this woman possibly be made to trust them.
"Are you Seona's older sister? We have no intention of treating you as enemies. Please — lower your sword…"
The Succubus Lord spoke first, her posture carefully deferential.
"I don't have an older sister."
Seona's voice cut in from behind, sharp and absolute. The Succubus Lord shot him a look that pleaded for silence — their survival depended on his cooperation — but Seona was wound too tight, too electrified by the sight of Miel, to care. He was ready to snap at the slightest slight against him.
"I'll be direct. Seona has been brainwashed — not by us, but by the succubus standing with you. Miel. We have done nothing but protect the boy. Everything he has done to himself, he did of his own free will. Miel — reveal yourself."
Under ordinary circumstances, Mina would never have believed a word of it. But with her sensory enhancement cranked to its limit, every instinct told her the Succubus Lord was telling the truth. She briefly wondered if this itself was a mental attack — but her sixth sense responded differently to psychic interference. This was real.
At the Succubus Lord's command, magic lashed out and stripped Miel of her hat and outer clothes. The wings and horns she had hidden beneath baggy garments and bandages were laid bare — and Mina saw the succubus for what she was.
Mina's gaze turned ice-cold as it settled on Yurin and Miel.
"Yurin? What the hell is going on?"
Yurin stood frozen, terror plain on her face — the look of someone whose carefully kept secret had just been ripped open. But she still had to speak. If she didn't, Mina would tear Miel to pieces.
"You can't trust anything those succubi say. Miel has been helping us this whole time. Even if she is a succubus, she's one of us — she's been fighting alongside the expedition."
Mina was far too sharp to be easily deceived, so Yurin had to weave a careful half-truth — a plausible argument dressed as pure reason. Without so much as a flinch, she delivered a truth so close to a lie that it might as well have been one, desperate to salvage whatever she could from the situation.