Turning Point

“Oh, I am absolutely stuffed!” Laimessa said as she and Lilith flew over the Badlands, heading back to meet up with Geist.

“I would hope so with everything you ate. Goodness, Essa. I don’t know how you can pack so much away and still be so tiny.” Lilith teased, eyeing the slight, visible bump in the bloated vampire’s stomach. You'd better hope none of them stay on your belly.”

“Vampires can’t get fat, Lia. That’s, like, the most basic of the basics.” The ashen-skinned, mildly nauseous girl said with an air of confidence. “That, and I’ll stay young and pretty forever!”

“How would you even… Hey, do you see that down there?” Questioning how her friend could be so confident without anything to back up her claim, Lilith noticed a group of people riding as quickly as their mounts would take them east over the Badlands below.

“Oh! It’s Victoria and Maxine’s group! Wanna stop by and say hi? Maybe grab some dessert?” With the keen eyesight that came with her transformation, Laimessa’s mood immediately perked up, indigestion forgotten.

“Seriously? You just said you were full.” The raven-haired succubus sighed, remembering she should never underestimate Laimessa’s appetite, though descending towards the cavalcade of horseback riders all the same.

“There’s always room for dessert. It uses a separate stomach!”

*****

After coming to outside of the ruins of the Demon Monarch’s castle, Victoria woke the survivors of her subjugation force and made for the capital as fast as they could. Luckily, their mounts hadn’t been slaughtered by the armored Demon Monarch or Corrupted into monsters.

“Keep pushing! We must return to the capital and inform the Council that we have gravely underestimated König Geistdunkelrustung’s strength!” She hollered back to the rest. “With any luck, the new Champion has already been summoned and–”

“If you want to inform the Council about anything, General, you’ll have to speak to Essa’s pudgy stomach.” A voice said as two figures landed from the sky before them, causing the horses to rear back in panic. With a flap from their wings, the two Corrupted women blew away the cloud of dust they created, and Lilith crossed her arms confidently under her chest.

“You two?! But, you should both be dead!” Maxine shouted, her rage clouding her mind.

“I mean, ‘Inessa’ and ‘Lylia’ kind of are dead. Right?” Laimessa asked, looking to the older ravenette.

“No more than three.” She said back to her, knowing the hungry look in her eye. “And the General is mine.”

Looking at the knights, soldiers, and assorted adventurers trying to get their horses under control, the voracious vampire shrugged. “Nah, I really only want Maxine anyway.” She said, rubbing her stomach. “With how proud of him she was, I’m sure she’d like to be with Alexander. Don’t you think?”

“Suit yourself. But we’ll have to take this somewhere else.” Lilith said, looking to the other twenty-three riders in front of her. “You all can thank Goddess Lini that you get to go home to your families… unless they were attending the banquet last night, then I make no promises.”

“What are you talking about–?!” Before she could finish her sentence, Victoria’s instincts told her to raise her guard a moment before both Corrupted women rushed forward and tackled her and her daughter off their horses. However, neither were knocked to the ground, and instead were flown at high speeds far beyond the reach of their allies. “U-Unhand me, vile Corrupted whore!”

“Oh? I’m impressed. Your daughter was too slow. Essa’s already feeding.” Lilith said, motioning to show her that Laimessa had already sunk her fangs into Maxine’s neck.

“Maxine!” Swinging her fist at Lilith’s face, Victoria managed to break free of her hold and break her fall thanks to them flying at a low altitude. Both Laimessa and Lilith stopped and turned back to face her. “I may have been no match for König Geistdunkelrustung, but I am more than enough to deal with two Corrupted traitors!” She roared, lunging herself at Laimessa specifically to rescue her daughter.

“The mighty fall and the meek be no longer weak. Mini (Superior).” Before she could reach them, however, Lilith shrank both her and Maxine to the size of her pinky claw. “You know… You are not wrong to call us traitors, but you do realize you forced us to this, right?” She said, sauntering over to the once-tall and mighty General.

“Lia! I was still snacking on Maxine’s Hit Points! I can’t suck on her when she’s basically the same size as my fangs!” Laimessa complained, holding out the delirious, tanned redhead. “You want her Mana?”

“No, I just wanted to make sure her branch of the Quentellias was gone for good.” She replied, ignoring the screeching woman as she slammed her foot down on her and twisted it back and forth. “Go join Gloria by the Goddess Lini’s side.” She muttered under her breath, words dripping in hate.

“Well, except Alexander’s wife and kids.” The vampire corrected, tossing her half-eaten snack in the air and catching her in her mouth, swallowing her whole. “Thanks for all the wonderful training, Maxine.”

Wiping her foot off on another patch of dirt, Lilith shrugged as they continued towards Geist’s dilapidated castle. “Without their muscleheaded grandmother around, maybe they will turn out decent.”

*****

Returning to Geist proved slightly more difficult than they had anticipated. Not purely because of the distance, which even with their great flight speed took more an a day, or because they didn’t remember exactly where it was, as, like when they had their Divine Artifacts, they could sense his presence and direction regardless of the distance. No, what made it so difficult to find Geist, and his newly rebuilt castle, was that the entire terrain had been altered!

Mountains now stood where flat plains once were. Ravines and river beds snaked through the desolate land. There was even some vegetation growing in the arid wasteland, though it was scarce.

They eventually did find their way, seeing that one of the new mountains was hollow and open to the sky from the peak.

“Hey, Geisty~! We’re home~!” Laimessa cheered happily, getting to the throne room of the castle easily thanks to the simple, intuitive layout. “I see you’ve been busy while we were having fun at the castle.”

“Welcome back.” The towering, armored shadow greeted, getting up from his throne. “Just thought I should help the Badlands recover a bit before we left. So… You guys really, uh…”

“Slaughtered all the jerks who ruined everything? Yup!” With a smile far too bright and joyful to be talking about massacring so many people, the bubbly vampire darted and flitted around the vaulted room without a shred of remorse. “You know the saying. Revenge is a dish best served cold. And what a sweet dish it was.”

“She’s talking metaphorically, right?” Geist asked Lilith, who conducted herself in a much more refined and mature manner.

“Oh, you have no idea of the satisable problem you have on your hands now, Master Geist.” She said, earning a wide-eyed look of disbelief from him. “Yeah… It feels weird calling you ‘Master’ when speaking directly to you. Besides, we both know you truly belong under my feet.” Licking her lips lasciviously, her eyes were alight with mischief for but a moment. “But, we’re leaving?”

“Yeah. I didn’t want to go without the two of you, but I’m worried about the Corrupted on the other side.” He said. “If I’m right about the cycle of Dark Magic to Light Magic…”

“Right, and they would have no Pure to feed on either.” She realized.

“You both really don’t have a problem with killing and eating people like that?” He asked, forming a swirling doorway of shifting shadows in the air before him.

“While she had some reservations about it, Essa killed Corrupted when it was necessary,” Lilith said passively, twirling a lock of her ebony hair around her finger. “And she thinks more with her stomach than you would guess.”

“Lia! You make it sound like all I care about is eating!” Laimessa complained, pouting as she joined them.

Realizing how foolish it was to worry about how they were adjusting to being Corrupted, Geist connected the portal with the dimensional coordinates he remembered from Chrysaor’s memories.

And the other side was about as he expected, with a worryingly low amount of Dark Magic Corruption, and only a handful of demons and monsters doing their best to survive on the scraps. However, sensing the return of their Demon Monarch, the few Corrupted welcomed him and the two women with him with enthusiasm.

Drawing in a large wave of Dark Magic from Facide, Geist quickly made the dimension more hospitable for their kind, and as they had no deal with the Goddess Lini restricting revival magic, he was even able to resurrect any Corrupted who left a special material behind when they died.

“Alright, I think now is a good time to tell you all how I plan to deal with our relations with the Pure going forward.” He said after casting revival magic on the last drop item they had. As their Demon Monarch, all the Corrupted would serve him faithfully, but he wanted them to understand his intentions as well. “As you have seen, we need the Pure as much as the Pure need the Corrupted, but I realize that cooperative coexistence would be impossible. That is why, here, in this dimension created by my predecessor, Demon Monarch Chrysaor, I declare that we shall…” Pausing for dramatic effect, he let the anticipation build before throwing a dark metal gaunleted hand in the air triumphantly. “...create a Dungeon!”