"Now this is the type of fella I want in my team. Almost makes me want to switch my allegiances," Ayden clapped at Urag's entrance, showing his approval with firm nods. At his left and right, Estrella, his lover, and Tristan, his most loyal friend, both pursed their lips in disgust.
"Kilian, ma man! Missed me? Give me five!" Eager to make amends, Urag rushed toward Kilian, and raised his hand for a high five. A cold breeze welcomed him. And feeling the myriad of gazes surrounding him, Urag broke into a cold sweat.
"Come on man, there are like 50,000 people here. You can't do this to me." Urag tugged on Kilian's sleeve with his left hand, as the right hanged in the air. Reluctantly, Kilian met Urag's hi-five, but still avoided the imp lord's gaze.
Seeing that the situation wasn't entirely desperate, Urag brought out his killing mace. Snapping his fingers, the imp lord produced pink-colored sparks from which three captivating figures emerged. But while the first two still needed time to adjust, once she laid eyes on Kilian, the green-eyed brunette directly leaped toward him.
"Master!" Lena trapped Kilian between her arms. And sobbed with warm tears. Instantly, Urag felt proud and elated.
"There ain't any problem you can't solve by summoning three barbies. Why am I so damn clever?" Urag jerked his shoulders and moonwalked out of Kilian's reach. But as his self-satisfaction peaked, a chilling aura locked him from all sides, and Urag felt as if a soul-piercing glare stood at his back.
Alarmed, the imp lord swept all faces, old and new, yet didn't find the source of those eyes.
"Why do I feel like I just fatally offended someone I should have not?" Urag scratched his head in confusion, unaware that he owed this little disturbance to Eleonora's stare. While she'd learned of Kilian's girls from the "disloyal" Inyoka, Eleonora silently hoped to spend as much alone time with him as possible. How could she expect that a second after they stepped into the Fortress, the damnable imp lord would summon three barbies to distract her husband?
The audacity!
What a pity that she had to remain gracious. Or his head would now stand on a pike. Meanwhile, Tamara and Anke stared at Kilian's eyes and face. But though similarly startled, different thoughts troubled them.
"That time in the Banquet Hall, I already felt something was wrong. But the more I look, the more oppressed my heart feels. Why? Those eyes...those eyes…" Although he belonged to the Technomancy Department, as freshmen, Kilian and Anke did share a few classes in Arcane Theory. However, Kilian avoided her gaze, and she didn't seek his. Therefore, following that brief eye contact before the examination and Dra Root Testing, they had no exchange.
At first, Anke had simply tossed Kilian on the list of Kilians she had to kill to sate her fehl madness and relieve her heart's sufferings. But the more she looked at this new Kilian's eyes, the more her beloved's figure overlapped with him.
But how could this be?
Tamara's thoughts were simpler. Eye color aside, the man before her was like an enhanced version of her fallen brother. Even if everything in her screamed to take revenge, when confronted with Lukas' figure, how could she strike? And as the two daydreamed, Lena's complaints poured forth.
"Master, how could you just abandon me in the middle of nowhere? You're...too heartless," Lena said, sniffling between the words. Though she could guess that Kilian wanted her to have a taste of the Sura Plane's dangers, her hellhound instincts found the separation insufferable.
But knowing that Lena's grief was just about to break through new levels, Kilian didn't coax her yet. "Wait, wait, wait for it…"
Feeling an unfamiliar female scent, Lena checked her surroundings, and saw a goddess-tier woman standing at Kilian's right, with a bright, welcoming smile aimed at her. Instantly, Lena's senses summed up the situation, and realizing that her master not only ditched her, but brought back a new competitor, she was so distraught that she no longer knew if she should cry or bite—a memorable scream followed.
"There." Seeing that the situation had reached the critical point, Kilian pressed Lena against his chest, and gave her head a few pats. But as the surrounding factions were starting to feel extra, the ground and walls shook under unexpected tremors, and an authoritative female voice boomed throughout the fortress.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Fortress of Vices," Instantly, the competitors' attention left Kilian to seek the origin of the voice. But it didn't take them a minute to realize that the voice...was the Fortress itself.
"If you're hearing this message, it means Hel, that bitch, managed to steal my treasure and toss it at some worthless wretches. However, how could I allow the greatest achievement of my life to fall into the hands of any Tom, Dick, or Harry?" The voice, Ashera's voice, began, and as others just paid attention, Eleonora's eyelids twitched, while Esther raised a thumbs up.
"To ensure that my baby is obtained by someone I approve of, I tweaked this place and split it into 14 zones, 13 orbiting zone 0—the control center. Whoever can reach the control center first and engrave their name on its stone tablet, will become the new master of my Fortress of Vices.
Problem…" Ashera's voice trailed, holes opened in the Fortress' walls releasing purple gases that filled the entrance hall, and spread throughout the fehl lair. Immediately, those with shallow willpower or low Dra Control could feel their minds vacillate, and fell to irresistible illusions. Worse, a collection of horrible devices, spiked coffins, cockstretchers, brazen bulls and worse, emerged from the walls.
"This is a place designed for the debauched to live in Heaven. Here the most determined of monks and nuns reject their vows to embrace a life of lust and decadence. My many legions and their Lords ensure that visitors such as you learn to adapt. And from now on, you can only grow by having sex. Between you or with my daemons, men with women, men with men, women with women. It doesn't matter, we don't discriminate here. But if you fail to resist my legionaries, I get to steal your souls by proxy.
More details once you reach your zone. By the way, you don't just get lol-rifted, you have to claim your spot. And there is only one way—ahead.
Best of luck. Have some fun. And remember, Ashera's courtesy." The voice stopped here, and while the hallucinogens buffeted their faces and tempered with their senses, an orb of sinful energies flashed before the struggling contenders. From that orb, 600 naked daemonic figures emerged, crowding the halls with their infernal sex appeal.
Incubi and succubi, Fehl Nobles of the highest caliber, now stood in the hundreds, greeting the confused contenders with lecherous glares.