Chapter 42.5

With a sigh, I ran my fingers over my scalp.  Why did everything have to be so complicated?  It seemed as though every question answered only opened up about a thousand more.  Maybe that was why Bline hated them so much.  She must have felt like a kindergarten teacher with the whole of the world constantly shouting why, why, why!

“She can only eat sex?” Jax asked.  “Huh… didn’t ye tell me a story about some critter like that, Master?  Sucky-busses or sommat.”

“Succubus,” I corrected her shortly, focusing on her rather prominent ram-like horns.  “Yeah, that thought had occurred to me.”

She grunted.  “Do that mean you’s one, too?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe,” I admitted.  “Although, since I’m male, that would make me an incubus.  Not that it matters.  There’s not much difference.  Still, neither Lynnria or I can steal souls or whatever, so it doesn’t quite fit.”

“What are the two of you on about?” Mia asked, bewildered.  “Nobody here ‘eats sex.’  Least of all, Donum.”

I frowned.  “Then… what—?”

“You require purified Life Energy, of course,” Mia explained quickly.  “Which is provided by your lilim.  Their natural ability to convert emotions suffuses it into their every orifice.  That is what you have been consuming.”

“You’re saying… he has to eat… us?” Arx asked.  From her face, I was not sure which side of that particular innuendo she wanted to land on.

“He could, dick breath, yes.  Or any part of you.  Even absorbing it through the skin is possible, particularly via fluids.  However, it is not a very efficient way of feeding.  The skills you already possess are far better suited for that.”

“So that’s it,” I murmured, shifting my attention back to Lynnria.

Outwardly, she had not changed all that much since gaining her Layer.  She was still the sporty, purple-haired young woman she always had been.  Just… slightly more monstrous.

The claws so indicative of the Lilim race were out in full force, though unlike my other two, hers looked like they had been dipped in some sort of thin, purple dye.  Their tips had just the faintest hint of color to them, becoming more vivid toward their points.

Meanwhile, the fangs she had been threatening had finally come home to stay.  Though hers seemed a bit smaller.  Less pronounced.  So perhaps lesser Do-lilim was apt.

As for her eyes, there was no trace of the shimmer the other two sported.  However, I could easily recognize the wild hunger within them.  That is not a look one readily forgets.

We were going to need to feed her somehow.  And soon.

But first…

“The spell you crafted said something about my new minions being locked at their current Power level,” I began.

“Indeed.  However, the confluence of events which led to the creation of this being did not begin with that spell.  Now did it?” Mia finished.

I nodded with some relief.  “Not exactly an answer to the question.  But I’ll take it.”

“And?” Jax asked softly.  “What happens when the Master makes her a full Do-lilim?  Will that break this spell of yorn?”

“Why should he bother making her a—pole smoker—full Do-lilim at all?” Mia returned.  “With the amount of influence he has over her, she will always value his—cock!  Huge, veiny—uh… interests.  Even over her own.”

I grimaced slightly on hearing that.  I still did not much like knowing how much control I could exert over the destinies of the people around me.  But there was also very little I could do about it.  That ability would only grow stronger as I did.  I just had to make certain to maintain a soft touch with them.  Else, who knew what kind of damage I could cause?

Still, I could see the conflict between this new paradigm and Jax’s arbitrary rules of access.

“Jax, this spell is going to change things,” I said.  “I’m not going to be able to promote every lesser Do-lilim I create.  And some of them will die.  Permanently.  I’d prefer that not be from hunger.”

Jax favored me with a patient little smile while caressing one of Arx’s ears.  “Now, Master… don’t act the goon with me.  Ye know why just as well as I do.”

Arx nodded along, her own hand creeping up the inside of Jax’s thigh.  “You said it yourself.  She might die.  Neither of us want to feel your grief.”

“But your rules,” I persisted.

Jax snorted, then jerked her chin toward the tied up girl.  “Ye think that girl be less than yer own creature?”

I quirked a disbelieving eyebrow.  “Then why bother tying her up?”

“Now ye are being daft!” Jax returned with a scowl.  “I told ye already, that one be too hungry to pay attention to no rules nor regulars.  And y’ain’t gave even a proper hello to yer second, yet.”

I cast a quick glance down at the Do-lilim in question… who was busily gliding her fangs over the soft flesh of Jax’s leg.  And staring raptly at me all the while.

“Well, I mean…” I swallowed awkwardly.  “I ate her out a little.  Back in the labyrinth.”

Arx pouted.  “Only once!  And I even carried you most of the way through.  I deserve way more of a reward than that.”

“A heavy burden, to be sure,” Jax murmured dreamily, beginning to shift her hips.  “With his hands a roving about ye?  And he himself pressed against yer back?  Mmm~”

Oh, boy…

With most of the anger cleared out of the way, it was inevitable things would turn this direction.  But I was still too invested in the conversation to allow my ever-ready second brain to take over.  Yet.

“You never answered Jax, Mia,” I reminded her.  “About the spell?”

“Donum, please,” she moaned.  “All these questions are driving me out of my mind!  Couldn’t we take a break?  At least allow me a degree of vicarious satisfaction.”

Irritated, I ran a finger down the gap in my beard.  The friction burn had healed there along with the rest of me, but that had done nothing to regrow the hair Lynnria had accidentally blasted away.  I was going to need to shave just to even things out again.

But then I had thought.  While we certainly had a lot of things we still needed to sort out, our biggest problem in the here and now was Mia’s mounting sexual frustration.  And I did have one thing that could alleviate it.

“You know, Mia… I could always use a bit of spell practice.  And I don’t seem to recall any flying positions in that list of yours,” I said suggestively.

She gasped.  “Naughty boy… fine!  But you have to look at me while you do it.  I want you to see what you do to me.  Every day, do you hear?  Do that, and I’ll never mess with your stats again!  I swear it!”

“Master…?” Jax began, but I waved her off.

“You’ll see.  Now answer the question, Mia.”

“Hmm?” Mia said a moment before her translucent form stumbled into view.

She already had her dress pulled up and was struggling to get the thing untangled from her antlers.  In her haste, I thought I heard a slight rip.

“Oh, that,” she said distractedly, smoothing her hair and settling into a demure pose.  “Don’t take me for some amateur, my lord.  I may have forgotten the standard forms, but I still have thousands of years of experience.  The moment I created the spell, Lynnria was ensconced as a… well, I can’t say the rest.  Knowing the unknown and all that.  But rest assured, it will work perfectly as long as you or I have the Will to cast it.  Now, let’s be about this!  How long does a Faen have to stand naked in front of you before you do something about it?”

I could not restrain my smirk.  Prior to my coming to this world, I would have scoffed at my current self.  How long indeed?  But when you have four women—or close enough not to matter—all lusting after you all the time, it can be easy to forget how rare an opportunity this truly should have been.

So I cracked my knuckles and began to loosen my shoulders.

“Let’s do some spell casting, shall we?”