Chapter 157: Succubus Log - Imperial Date 255 Part - 1
Sariel sat atop the destroyed garden wreckage, her eyes shining with golden light while gazing upon Ryuji, who slowly climbed out of the crater. His movements were so smooth that it seemed hard to believe the person complaining half their body was destroyed a few moments ago.
'This boy loves to twist the truth. Is it to make that cowardly hero misjudge his power?'
With a flick of his wrist, the ground began to converge, returning to normal. Although, he couldn't repair the damage to the stones and rock features. Ryuji could at least level the ground before he let out a sigh.
"Haa... Sariel, how long do you think it will take for me to reach their heights?"
"!!!" The golden eyed succubus seemed shocked that he saw through her.
'How?! I used greater invisibility to avoid detection from the hero!'
"!!!" Sariel trembled as she asked, "You knew?!"
Ryuji nodded. "Of course. When your power touches me, it feels like soft feathers tickling my skin. If I don't react, then isn't it rude? To treat you like you don't exist?"
'I can't even hide from the eyes of this young child?!' The being controlling Sariel seemed completely shocked, unable to process Ryuji's casual response. 'How can he be this sensitive?!'
As Sariel floated down to his side, Ryuji's gentle expression never changed.
'No matter what I try, there is no difference in his reaction. Then, should I...'
The golden light faded as the succubus appeared once again, gazing into the blonde man's ocean-blue eyes; the moment she released control, Ryuji hugged her body tight. His gaze became fierce and narrowed the moment her eyes changed back to normal.
"Hii!!" Sariel flinched as Ryuji glared at her, the pressure making her heart race.
"You really tried something funny."
"N-no, I..."
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Her mouth trembled as the succubus within her hesitated.
'Why does Master seem so angry? Sariel didn't steal any food or a taste of his milk!'
Ryuji smiled gently once more. "There you are, you're finally home. How are you today?"
'Ah! Master is talking to me! He is so gentle to Sariel, hehe... what was I doing again? There was this strange scent in the woods, and I am suddenly here?!'
While Sariel was panicking, Ryuji placed his hand on her forehead and tried to sense any changes in her body or magic, hooking onto the faint string within her body that didn't match. Ryuji pulled it into his palm, severing it with a single thought. 'Hmm? What is that?!'
Ryuji looked down to see the succubus in his arms, the one that called herself Sariel. 'Then where is the one I severed?'
Sariel didn't seem to understand what he was speaking about and instead enjoyed his pampering.
"Master's touch feels so nice. Sariel wants to be fed lots of delicious food!"
'Hmm? I guess it didn't matter?' Ryuji wondered as the string vanished. He looked at the lovely pink-haired girl clinging to his chest while wondering what she was doing. "So, what were you doing today? Did you go to the arena?"
The lovely succubus shook her head, with her heart-shaped tail swaying. "Well, I remembered that the smelly old man's room was strange last time, but I left because of the nasty smell..."
"Strange?" Ryuji pondered over her words. "Was there something inside?"
Sariel nodded her head and happily told him what happened. "That's right! Sariel sniffed around, and there was a shiny object below the floorboard. There was also a weird book that smelled bad!"
'Strange book? Shiny object?'
"Here! Ehehe, praise me. I got them for you, master." Sariel held out a book and a strange stone-like object. Ryuji's eyes immediately glowed, and his mind expanded toward the objects she held.
'What is this?!'
The stone hummed the moment he touched it. A feeling of magical power flowed inside, throbbing and raging inside... Ryuji could feel it, the energy from countless creatures... monsters and humans lived within the jewel.
Ryuji felt it the moment he touched it. Thousands of mana signatures remained locked inside the stone, but he could sense some of the mana faded over time, and there was only one creature that had recently become trapped.
"This is amazing, Sariel; where did you get this?"
"Ehehe, the master is praising Sariel! From the old man's room, where that nasty woman goes!"
'Old man's room?! Nasty woman? Could Sariel be talking about Lord Qwass and the queen... she did mention them having a fling...'
Ryuji glanced down at Sariel, and she smiled brightly, happy he was praising her. 'Did lord Qass store this? But why is the queen visiting his room every day, and why is it that I can only feel her energy from this thing and not his?'
There was also the strange book Sariel brought him, a time he recognised the strange writing immediately.
[Apostle of Light - The Tome of Transformation (fake)] Is what his system translated the weird words into, though the original words were more... vulgar and disgusting.
'Hmm?!' Ryuji's eyes glowed while looking over the tome. 'This... is this the reason the queen is visiting other men now?! To store enough energy to become an Apostle, but this book... it's fake!'
His system's identification was very clear.
The tome was a magical artefact that held the ancient knowledge of a lost tribe. It claimed to transform any woman into a beautiful and youthful Apostle, never ageing and absorbing all the power that they had absorbed. However... Ryuji could see the flaw.
'The magic within is not the type that Apostles use. He only knew because of his power and remembering Sheila who used her power right in front of him.
It is demonic energy!' Ryuji read the tome, his mind soaring and learning the strange language almost instantly, 'To use this fake tome, you need the blood of a female monster and the blood of a male monster. She has been killing succubi... and likely has the male blood already. What is this book really going to turn her into?'
Ryuji could understand the ritual within the tome; it was supposed to absorb the blood of female and male monsters, changing the woman using the tome into a perfect Apostle. However, the ritual needed a special sacrifice.
'Using the blood of a pure succubus and a Demon, the Queen can complete this ritual... and she would become a lesser demon... a lesser succubus, a slave to her desires?!'
Ryuji was disgusted reading further; the ritual was a cruel one that absorbed the power of the monster while transforming the woman, creating a type of monster known as a lesser succubus.
Unlike Sariel, she would lose her mind and become a monster that attacked men in order to increase vitality in order to evolve towards a normal succubus.
However, this type is limited in growth and, unlike Sariel, would always be required to lie with men to survive.
"Who tricked the queen?" Ryuji pondered,
'Someone wanted the queen to fail. Lord Qwass, he would never do this... could he be the innocent victim? Hmm, no, I doubt it. The queen should be quite intelligent and could deceive her... Could someone have placed the tome there intentionally?'
'Who would gain power over Grigor by making the queen act like a common whore, betraying the king and turning into a demon...'
Ryuji didn't want to be too vague or bring this to Alan before having a clear mind, though he suddenly thought of the Goddess of Light and how this kingdom and many of their royal bloodline seemed to be cursed...
'Could it really be the goddess herself, maybe even the Apostles?'
"Hmmm?"
It was at that moment the thread appeared once again.
His eyes snapped towards it as it reached Sariel, who was quietly watching his face. Her eyes filled with a sense of respect and affection.
***
Meanwhile, in an unknown location, a beautiful woman with dark blue skin and long, flowing pink hair began to convulse as she pressed her lips together while screaming and writhing in agony as a strange power attacked her soul directly. Her nails began to scrape her arms, trying to gouge out the pain directly from her.
'Who?! Why is someone trying to sever me from my her forcefully?!'
The woman began to panic as the attack grew stronger, severing the string-like connection that bound the succubus in Ryuji's arms to this woman sealed in a dark room, her limbs bound by chains that pierced her wrists and ankles, the wounds so old that the skin seemed to have healed over the bindings, her black feathered wings tattered and filled with wounds, spread across the cold, stone floor.
With a closer look, as the faint light shone through the small moonlight opening, showed a beautiful yet pale face of a woman that looked 99% identical to Sariel, with a more mature shape, her sharp and pointed jaw, seductive and perfectly sculpted, soft, red lips with a dull shine, despite being cracked and weathered.
Her beauty was almost beyond what was human and would make men kneel in reverence and beg to worship her.
"Khh!! Who?! What is happening?! My only connection to the outside... A part of my soul... now severed.
Please reconnect... I have to get out of here!"
She screamed as her consciousness was nearly severed, her vision growing black as her dull golden eyes shone one last time, a small crown sitting on the soft pink hair, now matted and dirty, between her huge curled horns.
"No! NO!!" She thrashed on the ground, the chains digging into her wounds that tore open her wounds and ripped apart her flesh, making her collapse as if they were absorbing her blood and strength.
The next moment, a small thread flickered, reaching into the void.