Succubus Lord 6, page 25
part #6 of Succubus Lord Series
“Then what are we waiting for?” Todd announced impatiently. “We gotta head over to this oversized dick’s cave and kick its ass. The spice must flow.”
“Ya know, there are a surprising amount of sand worm references in this world,” I observed with a chuckle. “And you seem to know them all, Toddster.”
The imp put his hands on his hips and let his cloak flow behind him like a superhero. “I sure as fuck do,” he said through a toothy grin. “Now, come, House of Ralston. We’ve got a worm to kill.”
The three of us began to scope out the landscape and count the number of bodies we saw. The clusters seemed to grow bigger off to the east, so we began to march in that general direction. We continued in this direction for nearly an hour. As we walked, we observed the groups of bodies growing larger and larger, until we were eventually passing by clumps comprised of fifty or sixty people.
“We gotta be getting close,” Todd mused. “It’s starting to look like an orgy-flavored icee around here.”
“That was a term I think I could have gone my whole life without hearing,” I laughed.
“I’m not even going to pretend to imagine what that would taste like,” Gula gagged.
“Sweat and the disappointment of your parents,” Todd explained. “That’s what it would taste like. And raspberry.”
We finally came over the crest of a small hill and stopped in our tracks immediately. Before us stood a huge, open landscape filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of tormented bodies. Their cries echoed through the air with a haunting hum, and it was unnerving enough that I almost wanted to turn back. Most importantly, however, was the fact that there was a massive opening in the center of the field of bodies.
“That must be Vermis’ lair,” I said as I pointed to the pit. “Now we just need to draw him out.”
“That won’t be hard.” Gula shrugged. “A simple blast of Hellfire should be enough to grab his attention.”
I looked back and forth between Gula and Todd. “This is it, guys,” I announced. “We can’t go any deeper into Hell before we kill this thing. Are you ready?”
“Wait!” Todd exclaimed. “Give me a second to get into character.”
The imp clapped his feet together, stood up straight, and began to hum the theme from Footloose. As his tune crescendoed, he began to do the infamous dance in all of its glory until he came to the end of the song.
“There,” he panted. “Now I totally feel like Kevin Bacon. Let’s do this shit.”
Gula and I looked at each other with fear in our eyes, and then we turned our bodies in the direction of the massive pit. We both summoned red Hellfire into our hands, and then clapped them together in unison to intertwine our spell and send a mammoth-sized fireball hurling toward Vermis’ dwelling. The attack lit up the dreary landscape as if it were a miniature sun, and then it disappeared into the opening of the cave. There was a loud, echoing crash when the fireball made an impact, and then there was silence.
“Maybe he’s not home?” Todd suggested. “I mean, surely there’s a lot of errands a devil worm can--”
Before Todd could finish his sentence, the ground began to tremble at our feet. Instantly, the three of us summoned our Hellfire into our hands and prepared to face whatever horrific monster awaited us.
Slowly, the head of Vermis erupted from the cavern and raised itself into the air until it stood nearly six stories tall. The worm creature didn’t have any sort of eyes, but he had two massive silver horns like a bulls that rested on his forehead. His skin was a dark reddish color, and it looked like it was covered with a thick layer of slime and dirt. Vermis’ mouth opened in four different directions as he let out a primal hiss of rage, and I observed that the inside was filled with thousands of razor-sharp teeth.
“This is it, guys,” I growled and drew my dagger from my belt. “Let’s turn this fucker into worm food.”
Chapter 18
“I’ve never actually seen Vermis in the flesh before,” Gula muttered as we stared down the giant devil worm. “He’s even more disgusting than the stories I’ve heard.”
“He’s one ugly mothafucker,” Todd added in a Schwarzenegger voice.
“He’s also way bigger than I would have thought,” Gula said as she looked the six-story-tall demon up and down.
“If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that one,” I joked.
“You’d have like, eight nickels, bro,” Todd shot back coyly. “That’d be about enough for a gas station soda.”
“Touché, Todd,” I admitted. “Touché.”
“So, what’s the plan?” Gula asked in a panic. “I don’t think he’s gonna take long to figure out it was us who just ruined his beauty sleep.”
“Let’s call our battle strategist and find out,” I said as I placed my finger on top of the black angel wings tattoo.
There was a quick burst of light as Cupi’s figure appeared. The succubus was already battle-ready, with her wings sprouted and her polearm at full length in her hands. She wore the vargrat fur cloak we’d made her around her shoulders, and her wings poked out the back somewhat comically.
“Cupi,” I ordered. “What’s your take on this situation?”
Vermis was scanning the landscape, surely looking for the source of the disturbance. Without eyes, I assumed he was a blind demon that used the rest of his senses to navigate the Third Circle. Or maybe he had infrared vision or some shit like that. There was still a lot about this worm creature I didn’t understand.
“We need to hit him hard and fast,” Cupi explained. “Vermis navigates by echolocation and his sense of sound, so if we move quick enough he won’t be able to get a handle on our location..”
“But how the fuck do we kill something that big?” I asked as I cautiously watched the worm begin to slither forward. “He’s larger than Cerberus!”
“I don’t know,” the blonde succubus admitted, “but the portal to the next Circle is located in the caverns below, where he has a massive advantage over us. We have to kill him up here, or we’ll all be worm food.”
“Then what the fuck are we waiting for?” Todd screamed as he raised his flaming hand into the air. “Let. The. Spice. Floooowwww!”
The imp charged in the direction of Vermis, and the rest of us were right behind him. Cupi was far and away the fastest of the group, and she was several feet ahead of us in no time at all.
“You two take to the sky,” I commanded the succubi. “Todd and I will try to hit him from below.”
“Got it,” Gula nodded and summoned forth her wings.
The curvy redhead in the cloak zipped up and into the air with her battle axe at the ready. At the same time, Cupi propelled herself off the ground and went airborne next to her sister. They both rocketed toward the demon worm’s head at breakneck speeds.
“I need you to be my spotter, Todd,” I admitted to the imp. “It’s a risky game we’re playing here, summoning all of the succubi rapidly like this. Your job is to make sure I don’t get distracted.”
“Uh, I dunno if I’m the best imp for that,” he groaned. “I swear I got ADD. I get distracted so easily.”
“If we pull this off, I’ll finally sign off on those papers for that dispensary you and Tris have been talking about,” I offered.
The imp’s eyes shone bright with happiness, and he nodded without another word.
“First things first,” I ordered, “we need to give the girls a little distraction.”
I summoned red Hellfire into my hands as I channelled all of the energy I had into my attack. At the same time, my temples throbbed aggressively, and the darkness around me was illuminated by a soft blue glow.
That’d be my horns, right on cue.
Todd was charging his own attack. “Kame … hame … ” he growled as his whole body trembled at the awesome fireball he was creating.
It was only about the size of a basketball, but bless him for trying.
“Ha!” Todd cackled as we both released our incendiary spells.
The two fireballs shot across the slushy landscape as drops of slushy rain sizzled against the white-hot flames. Eventually, they struck Vermis in his midsection, and the devil worm let out a roar of pain. The sound was so intense it shook the entire landscape and nearly knocked Todd and I on our asses. Vermis turned his attention in our direction and began to slither over toward our position.
“Oh shit, bro,” Todd gasped. “We’re totally about to get Beetlejuiced! I don’t wanna wait in line for forty years.”
Vermis was approaching fast, but my succubi were faster. There were two flashes of purple streaking through the sky on the demon worm’s left side, accompanied by the glow of Gula’s battle axe. The two women struck Vermis in the side of the head at full speed, and there was a small spray of blood as his body stumbled to the side. The girls zipped up into the air just as he snapped at them with his jaws, and I saw the underside of his neck was now exposed.
I threw out a portal of green Hellfire in front of us and nodded at the imp. With my other hand, I summoned forth yellow Hellfire and launched two or three handfuls of yellow throwing stars through the jade inferno. At the same time, Todd tossed fireball after tiny fireball through the portal.
I pointed my glowing emerald hand at the worm’s neck, and our projectiles reappeared right at the fucker’s soft spot. Even from this distance, I could see the impact of our attack, but it seemed to do little more than make the worm angry.
Vermis roared once more and brought his head down like a battering ram.
“Fuck!” I screamed as I threw up the biggest purple barrier I could muster.
My shield held up, but the impact of the massive worm’s body against my Hellfire forced me down to my knees and caused a small crater to form around my feet. This asshole was heavy as fuck, but I couldn’t let up now or Todd and I would be crushed to a pulp.
Up close, Vermis was somehow even uglier. The demon worm’s skin was rigid like an Earthworm, and gooey pink slime oozed out of every inch of his body.
There was the sound of blade hitting flesh, and Vermis screamed in pain. The creature pulled itself back into an upright position and tried to snap at its attacker with its jaws.
“We need to move,” I commanded the imp as I summoned a portal of green at our feet.
“Ya don’t gotta tell me twice,” he confirmed and then jumped through the glowing green vortex.
I hopped into the portal and reappeared about half a mile behind Vermis.
“That thing’s taking damage, but it’s still going strong,” I growled.
“Maybe we need Strawberry Shortcake to weaken it with her fear powers?” Todd suggested.
The imp was right. Gula and Cupi were doing some damage, but right now they were doing little more than inflicting flesh wounds on the six-story-tall creature. Maybe having Sia around could at least weaken him enough to land a fatal blow.
“Alright, Cupi,” I mused as I touched her symbol. “I’m calling you back.”
The light shot across the landscape and engulfed the flying succubus. Not even a second after she had disappeared, I called forth Sia with her golden hand tattoo.
“What’s the situation, Jacob?” she asked as her petite figure appeared next to us.
“We need your fear powers,” I explained. “Gula is our most powerful fighter, and she’s not doing much damage to this bastard. If you could weaken him a little, maybe--”
The madame stepped forward and summoned black flames into her hands. “On it,” she cut me off as the spell began to engulf her entire body.
Sia’s tiny figure floated up into the air, surrounded by the dark Hellfire that she was charging. Then, she let out a grunt of determination as she launched a beam of her fear magic directly at Vermis.
The spell struck the fucker in the back of his torso and set him ablaze with the black flames. Gula must have understood what was going on, because there was a flash of her enchanted battle axe as she zipped over to the darkened spot. This time, what looked like a geyser of blood sprayed across the slushy landscape, and Vermis’ sounds were much more agonized.
“That fucking worked!” I clapped my hands together joyfully. “Sia, Todd, let’s toast this bitch.”
Sia shot another blast of the black Hellfire at the beast, while Todd and I threw everything we had at the monster. Spells of yellow, red, and black illuminated the sky as they struck Vermis in the side and caused him to howl in pain.
The creature whipped its head around and began to survey the air. Then, he seemed to lock down on our position, and he slithered toward us faster than I’d seen him move this whole time.
“Hit him again!” I ordered, and Sia launched another blast of her fear spell.
This time, Vermis must have been onto us. He began to serpentine through the slushy ground and dodged each and every one of our attacks. The demon worm was approaching fast, and I was gonna have to improvise if we wanted to make it out of here without becoming worm shit.
Then it hit me. Cupi had mentioned that Vermis navigated based on vibrations.
I summoned forth the bronze Hellfire into my hand and blasted it into the ground about ten feet away. The slushy landscape began to vibrate violently, and Vermis stopped right in his tracks.
The devil worm raised his head up into the sky and looked around in a confused panic. My idea had worked. He had no idea where the hell we were, and that made him a sitting duck.
The succubus madame didn’t even need another command. She blasted a wave of black Hellfire into the side of the worm creature’s face. Gula followed up with another strafe with her axe, and the monster screamed in pain as the bottom right jowl of his mouth was sliced off.
Vermis shrieked and lashed out blindly with his tail. The massive appendage headed in our direction, and I only had seconds to react. I threw up a wall of purple flames, but the shockwave from the impact tossed all three of us back into the wet, icy ground.
I quickly hopped back up to my feet and checked on my friends. Todd was struggling to stand up on the icy ground, and Sia was laying there, groggy but alive.
“Fuck,” I hissed. “Sia, you need to get back to surface level and heal yourself up. You’ve done enough for now.”
“No, Jacob, I--” she tried to protest, but I had already touched her emblem.
Sia disappeared, and I turned back to watch Gula squaring off with Vermis.
The curvy redhead was zipping past the demon worm, but she had much less speed in her flight than she had before. She must have been getting worn down from the battle.
“I think it’s time to call back Gula, bro,” Todd observed. “Maybe Slothy will have a solution?”
“Liby and Tris it is,” I nodded and tapped the flaming battle axe to recall Gula.
Instantly, I pressed down on the two logos that represented Libidine and Tristitia, and the succubi appeared by our side. Liby didn’t even hesitate before she summoned her wings and sprang into action, soaring up toward Vermis and darting back and forth around his head like an annoying fly.
Tris, on the other hand, just stood there with a joint in her mouth.
“Are you high?” I demanded. “Right now?”
Todd wiped away a tear. “I’m so proud, Slothy,” he giggled.
“You say ‘high’ like it’s a bad thing, dude.” Tris shrugged. “But don’t stress, I already have a plan. Namaste, Jacob. Namaste.”
“You have a plan?” I asked with surprise. “What exactly are you--”
“Are you familiar with a zerg rush?” the brunette asked coyly.
“Slothy,” Todd sighed, “you make me one happy imp.”
Tris’ eyes began to glow orange, and the color engulfed both of her arms. She reached out toward all of the bodies lying around in the slushy mess of the Third Circle and encased them in the Hellfire.
Slowly, each of the tormented Shades began to show new life. The groans of agony stopped, making the landscape eerily quiet, and they started to pull themselves to their feet. Soon, Tris had a whole army of Shades at her side. The succubus shot me a smile before she tossed her glowing hands forward and commanded her undead army to attack.
Hundreds upon hundreds of Shades ran up to Vermis on all sides and began to climb up his body like they were kids on a playground. Within seconds, the demon worm’s entire lower body was covered by a swarm of the undead. He tried to shake back and forth to throw them off, but there were far too many of them. The swarm eventually overtook his entire body and pinned Vermis down onto the ground.
“Holy fuck Tris!” Libidine exclaimed as she landed beside us. “That was brilliant.”
The brunette succubus just shrugged. “I do my best, Lib,” she admitted. “To be honest, I stole it from an online game I play while you guys are out on missions.”
“I don’t care where you got it from,” I whistled. “It worked like a charm.”
“As great as it is, I don’t think it’ll hold him forever,” Libidine admitted. “We need to figure out a way to land the killing blow.”
“What if we went at him from the inside?” I asked curiously. “We could send Ira’s Sub into his throat, and she could take out his internal organs?”
Todd slapped my leg happily. “I knew there was a reason I kept you around, Jakey,” he giggled. “Let’s Hercules this bitch.”
“Sister Tris needs to stay here to keep him pinned down,” Libidine nodded. “I’ll sit this one out, even though I totally want to see how this all ends.”
“I’ll tell you all about it the next time we see each other,” I said lovingly to the dark-haired succubus.
I touched my tattoo and recalled Libidine. Then, I summoned Ira, who was already in her two different halves and ready for battle. I quickly explained my plan to the succubi, and the sub looked like she was about to get off just from hearing my words.
“I fucking love it!” she exclaimed. “All that stomach acid … those razor-sharp teeth … get me in there!”
“You’re not gonna have to wait much longer, guys,” Tris said through a grimace. “These Shades are starting to lose their grip on Vermis. They’re only humans, after all.”
