The Power of Ten

Legion had no difficulty discerning the whereabouts of the Dragon Queen’s kingdom. Traveler had painted it into the Map, verifying it with several of the inhabitants of Waterdown.

Like many places in this world, it was built into the trees, a common defense against some of the brutally powerful land predators here, if not all of them. This layer of defense was somewhat even more useful, as the demon-blooded descendants of the Queen could fly.

Interwoven vines, carefully Shaped or molded branches, and the like could make a very stable home, accented with thorns and spikes, and protected from the weather by the canopy. The only way to dig them out was with a dangerous climbing assault or fire, neither very optimal against the demon women who lived here.

Getting to the approximate area, Legion descended through the forest above easily, unafraid of anything lying in wait. Sure, there were titanic snakes and massive bugs dwelling up here, but if the beasts took a shot at them, the beasts would regret it.

They did pass a squirrel the size of a rhino, which froze as they fell past, wondering if it should fight or flee, peering down after them as they vanished into the dark of the gloom below.

Darkness was also not an issue for demon-bloods, although bio-luminescence soon started to light the area up around them.

With great ease they stopped at the second lowest level, looking around with the Eyes of Heaven.

There...

It was a team of huntresses, bearing the standard equipment of such: powerful bows, stopped spears, axes, and knives. The additions of draconic wings, red and black skin, and lambent eyes with frills of horns supplementing their dark hair was not something a human huntress would have, however.

They were gliding through the undergrowth silently, moving from location to location with minimal wingbeats, trying not to alarm any prey. The team of four was probably strong enough to move a fairly large prey animal once they cut away the excess material, but that wasn’t going to be an issue in a moment.

The four of them had just alighted on a lower branch about a hundred feet above the ground, clawed feet grasping the rough bark easily, when Legion came down out of nowhere and landed in front of them.

All four of the huntresses flinched in shock. Legion looked at the dragon-irises of their eyes, the mixture of diluted draconic and demonic blood on these alu’ri, and then down at their hands. The huntresses froze in rapture, staring at Legion in undisguised lust and fascination.

Their Auras were black to purple, and colors of the same dripped off their hands with the maleficent deaths of innocents, the enjoyment of pain and destruction, unhampered lust, greed, and sadism.

Legion stepped forwards, and the enraptured alu’ri just stared in awe and desire.

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There was no alarm as they walked into Syasstrar’s throne room. That was mostly because there was nobody left behind them, and this was the Resting period by worldwide convention, but especially for the few humans among the citizens of this place.

The alert Royal Guards outside had spotted them, as they weren’t making much of an effort to hide, but sounding an alarm had been the last thing on their minds when they did that. Legion walked inside, letting their spears fall against the wall, and their rough bronze armor fall to the ground.

Their entry naturally attracted attention, and the guards therein, waiting by the many wooden statues carved to glorify the beauty of their queen, snapped to attention and started to step out to stop Legion as they entered. They all froze in midstep, gawking, and Legion walked right past them, totally ignoring any threat they presented.

Syasstrar realized something was wrong, and broke off her somewhat bloody fondling of one of her concubines to see who dared disturb her in her place of power. When she saw her guards frozen in place, all staring at the newcomer strolling unconcernedly towards her, she rose to her feet, spreading her full wings wide. Red embers flared within the dark leathery folds, and her horns and scales began to light up from within...

The intruder’s gaze settled on her, and she gawked, the words she was about to say frozen in her throat.

She had never wanted someone so badly in her whole life. Her whole body was alive with desire, even as she recognized what was approaching her.

A lilitu! A succubus queen! Despite her own power, she knew she was not a match for the elders of the succubi, at least not alone! With her guards, yes, she could probably fight this one and kill her, but, but...

There was no way. She couldn’t bring herself to lift a finger to the attack.

And there was more. This lilitu... shared her father’s bloodline!

In total disbelief, her burning eyes took in the black scales undercut with red, the frill of horns unique to the Abyssal Maws of demonium, the long and deadly claws that looked like elegant gauntlets on her hands, rippling with fell energies, and a long draconic tail swaying back and forth. Hooved feet nevertheless bearing razored talons clicked on the wood rhythmically, swaying with every step, impossibly alluring and beautiful. The eyeless face was a Tattooed Mask, a swirl of colors and energies that represented great and terrible might, and they were unconcernedly directed at her.

“Who-who are you?” she managed to get out, her disbelief warring with her desire. She would know if her father had another daughter like herself, as she would have killed them before her position could be threatened!

But this was a lilitu! Older, and more powerful than she was! She had heard nothing of this, let alone one with such a distinctive face, and trapped in this pitiful small world!

The lilitu stopped right in front of her, within arm’s reach. Despite herself, Sysasstrar reached out to touch that perfect skin and figure. She wanted to touch it, feel it, caress it, cut it, watch it heal...

The smile that greeted her as the equally clawed hand came up to clasp her own, and guide it towards those red lips, made her heart race madly even as her instincts warned her that this was her doom.

“You will know shortly,” was the reply, and Syasstrar swore she could hear a score of voices she knew in those words, as her hand was inserted into that open mouth...

---

Legion turned around as their wings rippled out, getting larger and more draconic, new burning Runes forming on them, while new bands of scales the guards watching were quite familiar with rose here and there on their skin.

“My darlings,” they said in a Voice of voices that raged in the blood and could not be denied, “Come to me. All of you. And bring your women and your daughters and your wealth with you.”

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“Ahem.”

The deer-like woman’s sprint towards the new wall halted abruptly as I came down in front of her, hooved feet skidding to a halt so quickly she tore a trail in the tough grass here.

Her dark eyes went lambent, and narrowed into the slits of a dragon, balefire seething behind them.

“You’re too slow. Fly.” I flicked my finger, and the Flight spell washed over her before she could inhale and breathe ineffectually on me.

She staggered as I stepped aside, staring at me. Then black dragon’s wings of thematic size erupted from her softly furred back, and without looking back, they beat once and sent her soaring into the sky with great speed for the kingdom of her Dragon Queen.

I watched the Dragonbound Warlock vanish quickly into the distance, as did several spotters on duty on the new wall. They enjoyed the new vantage and devoted seats for sentries, too.

“Don’t worry about the alarm,” I told them from hundreds of yards away. “She won’t be coming back.”

And not just because she’d blown her disguise.

I turned around to give word that the Old Steed and I would be starting our Lived-Line trip towards the North Pole, but we would Teleport back in twelve hours, and we would be going to pay the Dragon Queen a final visit. My Warlock associate would meet with anyone who wanted to become a Landbound at that time...

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I kept to the seas, hills, mountains, and open plains as much as I could, because the large forests really slowed things down. When you are traveling at speed, mile-high trees without roads are just massive obstructions in your way slowing you down.

Pass Through Natural Terrain and Treeslipping saved my bacon, combining to allow the Old Steed to flow through the forest as easily as if the trees were not there, enabling me to get over two thousand miles of travel in before Legion indicated they were done in the distance.

The Old Steed had pathed his own Lived-Line towards the forest, so I diverted onto that, and with very precise directions from Legion, quickly made a beeline through the forest towards their location, the flaming unnaturalness of my mount easily warning off everything in our path that might have a notion of messing with us.

The Dragon Queen’s kingdom had naturally consisted of multiple tree villages, outposts, and settlements, spread through the forest to maximize the area hunted, keep watch for enemies, and be bases for raids on neighboring territories.

They were all empty, as my Commune with Nature verified completely. None of the settlements had their own Place Spirits except the central one, which was rapidly fading away as the reason for its existence was gone.

We rose up from the ground to the entry of the carved audience hall, noting that the wood was growing with tremendous speed as a convenient Forestbound was fast-growing the outside of it here.

The statues inside of the Dragon Queen had all been torn apart by great force, ripped, shattered, and tossed outside.

Over the floor was scattered a bloody fortune, literally, in precious metal coins, crude jewelry, poor-quality magical Weapons and Armor, rare stones and crystals, gourds of Potions, and scattered racks and tubes of scrolls and records and things.

That was why I was here. I flicked up the Mass Disks, and Einz swiftly got to piling things up, a Telekinesis spell for Clavus getting him into the task, too. Arcs of coins began to land on the many Disks, other objects scattered around were retrieved and stacked up more neatly.

It took several minutes to stack up and arrange it all, and while there was a bunch of it, it didn’t hit the limit of my Disks at all. I headed to the back of the Hall, where the Dragon Queen had entertained herself, and which was now misting white with the amount of vivus poured into the blood-drenched wood there.

Legion was out on the balcony/branch outside there, standing there looking at nothing, while volumes of Wrath poured down their legs into the tree underneath them. As the Old Steed withdrew from the hall behind us, Disks in tow, I heard the wood began to crack and groan as the tree began to grow into and consume it behind us.

The ram-head lilitu horns had gained an ornamental frill behind them of spikes, burning golden-red energy visible at their seams. The black scales looked more like some sort of fetish armor than anything serious, although the slowly moving tail with its new crest and scales looked much more dangerous, particularly the burning tip of the stinger at the end.

And, ho boy, was I feeling some strength vibes off them.