The Power of Ten

Chapter 13-368: Legion and Cohort

“It’s a good thing you tamped down the Nereid Aura, because you look so dangerously sexy right now.”

They turned slightly as I inserted myself under one arm, ignoring the spiked scales, perfectly aware that they would not harm me; the sharpest spikes in the world wouldn’t do anything if Versatile UA made them blunt damage.

“It truly is a horrendously powerful weapon,” they said softly, so many voices in their Voice I couldn’t even tell anymore, it just shook me with its power.

“Was it better than slaughtering them all?” I asked calmly, hand around their waist as they pulled me tighter.

“We...” they trailed off softly. “Yes. Yes, it was. Knowing you were coming to wipe out the demonic bloodline, this is much better than death, especially the afterlife that we know is coming.”

“How bad?” I asked, leaning into them. They were sturdier than the tree, so that was easy.

“Black or dark purple. All of them. Even the youngest babes had the taint of it.” They exhaled softly. “Slaves to the Bloodline, all of us. We could not defy the Queen at all. The normal human women were Blood-bound to their owners, breeding stock and helpless concubines to their owners. We were kept until we could have no more children or lost our beauty, whereupon we would be killed and replaced by new human women, or another alu’ri or demonling’s daughters.

“We were all bound for the Pits of Demonium. And now...” They lifted up an elegantly scaled and clawed hand, talons gleaming like razors ready for action. I could feel the intensity of the power there. Their hand could rend steel like cheese right now.

“And now, a Seventeen Lilitu is a half-dragon, giving a +4 to their virtual Rank. You are a Faux Twenty-One, and have exceeded the limits of your Pacts.”

They looked at me, I lifted an eyebrow, and they shook their head slightly. “Not yet, but not long. The combined Karma of all of us is pouring into the succubi Racial Levels. We have two now. We imagine we will gain one every day, until we have all Seventeen, and then the Draconic Bloodline will be fully digested and refined, instead of borrowed.”

“Combining Karma forces a gestalt,” I pointed out calmly.

“Your Curse effects are powerful. The Feeblemind and Wisdom-assault effectively rendered all of us with minimal mental capacity, which was replaced by the Amazon-style Pact Buffs based on Master Fred. On average less than two percent of our mental capacity was our own, and a starting 98% synchronicity across 5,619 minds is basically a gestalt as it stands. When you add in the effects of the Bloodline and shared life, it was above 99%.

“On the other side, we are unable to drop the Amazon Pact now, so we have three fixed Pacts.”

“Your other ladies?” I asked calmly.

“We are fine,” they replied in their stereo Voice. “Thank you for asking. We aren’t using the Amazon Pacts for ourselves!”

I nodded. “I’m assuming this means you also took two Warshaper Levels.”

“Yes. The first Succubus Level qualified us for it,” Legion confirmed.

“You I’m calling Legion. The ladies I’m calling your Cohort,” I said after a moment, and they smiled in appreciation.

“Thank you,” the Cohort replied, giving me a squeeze... very gently.

“Any problems with the Legion?”

“There is the wish to kill the Dragon Queen for what she did to us, but we are her, and she is so delighted to have saved a thousand years advancing to lilitu, and being far, far more powerful than she imagined, that it is basically useless at this point. Her goals align with the rest of ours, and she has no desire to return Down, especially as the rest of us do not.”

“The key thing is that you will be able to go down and return,” I said softly. “Hell will not be able to hold you or take you now...”

“This is a very crazy way to get that status, My Lady Traveler,” Legion murmured, stroking my hair. “But given how much we do not wish to go to Demonium, either, this is by far the best compromise for the rest of our souls, not just Master Fred.”

I inhaled once with an audible sniff. “And you inherited the Sorcery.”

All half-dragons could be Sorcerers. It was a part of who they were, even if the spell choices were constrained by Bloodline.

“You can feel that as well. Yes. It is tied to our Pacts and our Bloodline, but we cannot wield it until the Bloodline is fully assimilated.”

“What Level?”

“Syasstrar was but an Eight. Appropriate Karmic gain was difficult, as you might imagine.”

Since she would be paying Twelve prices, and have the contrasting need for powerful enemies, I could imagine. The fact she had used her Bloodline instead of embarking on the warrior’s path being a half-dragon made much more viable was also telling of her personality.

Why be a Warlord when you can just birth a Warlord and control them to do what you want, after all?

“Exceeding your Hellpact also means you can have children... although not Master Fred’s.”

Her hand tensed on my neck and shoulder, then resumed its gossamer caress, ki sliding against mine, backed by utterly incredible Might. “We have had thousands of children. We are thousands of those children,” they murmured softly. “A bond of slavery, not of love, forever obedient to our mothers, not even knowing there was an alternative.” They gently touched the warm arc of their horn to my head. “It... was not an unpleasant experience conceiving,” they admitted calmly. “Using shapeshifting to manifest the required organ to acquire or deposit a fertile egg is a simple matter, and so either side could become pregnant.”

“That sounds very much like demonic lack of inhibitions and practicality at work,” I half-laughed.

“Children are power,” they murmured in a hushed Voice. “Nine hundred and forty-two of us were pregnant.”

I could only shake my head. “Given your proclivities, I’m surprised it wasn’t higher.”

“Yes. As the bloodline dilutes with each generation, the weaker are also capable of becoming pregnant more easily. A succubi, as an aspect of Lust, is very fecund when mated to powerful souls. This is less true as the bloodline mixes with lesser beings, with alu’ri sometimes being almost sterile, and demonlings wildly variable. Impregnating a human is far easier than one of the lesser of us becoming pregnant ourselves, and naturally multiple pregnancies of demon-blooded children is very strenuous for a human, even with a succubi Blessing.”

“Ah, yes, you’ll be able to administer both Blessings and Brands freely.” Her tail twitched once, gleaming ruby and gold at the tip. I reached up and tapped the shoulder that was not Marked. “I want one.”

They looked at me. “You are Powered. It will not stack,” they said softly.

I reached up to their face, tracing the fine bones around the swirling Tats where eyes should be, an almost terrifying unnatural beauty there... which I was immune to, of course. “You are bearing my Blessing. Effective or no, the least I can do is bear yours.”

They sighed, a sound that went right through me in all the ways. I did not resist as they bent to give me a kiss, and their tail rose up to poke me in the shoulder.

The energy that came through was from Wrath, not demonic, and blossomed across my shoulder. It harmonized with the Mark on my other shoulder, giving no power, but strengthening and resonating with what was already there... and with the multiple levels of telepathic bonds we already shared.

Of course, that was an incredible kiss, and one could say they had all the experience at it!

The kiss broke at exactly the perfect time, and I sighed and put my forehead against her eyeless face. “You are still My Warlock,” I told them happily.

“And you our still Our Lady,” they replied in deep satisfaction. “Shall we go see about initiating a few new Warlocks to the Land hereabouts?”

“You will probably have to tone things down. Even without the Nereid Aura, you’re kind of stupefyingly attractive,” I told them.

“Ah, yes.” They looked at their hands and arms, and concentrated. Magic swirled, and the frill of horns, the spikes, tail, and scales all washed away. They kept the eyeless face, horns, and hooves, which was actually not all that outstanding compared to some of the anthro females around.

“Shall we?” they asked, ramping down the power in their voice, but the overlays still made them sound very distinctive. Their wings had reverted to black angelic again, although with a glossier sheen to them than before.

“Work, work, work,” I groused, as ever the demands of time weighing down on me. Ah, to chuck it all and live like a normal person... right up until the world ended, and it would all be for nothing unless a certain someone intervened.

Right-o...

---------

The Old Steed was soon on his way back with the Disks full of Investable stuff, which would be able to start the men and women here on the process of making stuff to kill the undead. They still had a lot of work to do, naturally, but starting wealth was starting wealth, and the Dragon Queen and her people hadn’t had a small amount of loot.

I later watched the tri-masted galleon sweeping up towards Waterdown, hoving to with familiarity and practice just outside the protective reefs and the channel that had been cleared through them. There was no true harbor here, as the rusting iron hulks that towered over the wooden ship indicated.

I sent the Old Steed out with an escort of forty Disks that had all been unloaded before the ship could send off a launch. Even at this distance, the reaction of the captain when he saw the Old Steed’s unique appearance and counted all those Disks was something to see. He and his entire crew stepped aboard the Disks cautiously, and rode them back to the shore in the wake of the great burning beast, clearly having lost a good deal of their swagger as they did so.

They were a mixture of humans and anthros... humanoids, just to use the broad term, but no orcs or goblins or mixed-bloods. It seemed fair-skinned halvyr were only found around the sole elven kingdom, which was half the world away, making me a rare beauty and prize, I was informed.

I was also a spellcaster who could blast their ship to powder, so they were on very good behavior. They gawked at the revised cliff dwellings, the many walls, the new streets, the stone buildings, and the BIG walls over yonder totally encapsulating the new city.josei

Then they learned from chatting with the locals, many of whom knew one another, that all that had been done since yesterday by a certain someone.

They were kind of quiet as they were led up to the new amphitheater and set to learning the Human Tongue.

I noted the condensing presence of the local Land Spirit to the east, where Legion and a dozen potential Landbound, including the Professor and Matron Osellyi, were gathered to supplicate themselves before the Land and receive its blessing.

New Warlocks would be sent into action, and there was really only two places at the top of the list of things to be dealt with for the Mother Lands...