"Really? This is humiliating. You lucky you're my friend, otherwise, I would have smoked your ass for even suggesting this." I said as I pulled on the magical collar around my neck.
"Smoked my ass? Is that like a sexual thing?" Raven looked at me with a smirk. "Come on, don't be such a baby. This will get us a leg in." She said as we brazenly walked to the castle's gate. The guards atop of the walls were running around in a fury as they saw us approach.
After we were only a few dozen meters away from the gate, they shouted at us to identify ourselves. Couldn't they sense Raven's aura? I doubted they wouldn't be able to recognize Trigon's daughter, or were they not from Trigon's forces?
She just floated up to the wall, causing the demonic guards to surround us with spears made of darkness pointed at us. "I am Pride. Guide me to Lust. I wish to speak with him." She declared with her head raised high, looking down on the guards that had surrounded us.
I could hear them murmur in shock as they figured out it was the Raven, Trigon's daughter, and with that realization, we gained considerable status among the surrounding demons. One demon finally stepped forward and declared that he would guide us to Lust, who was apparently the lord of this castle.
We followed the demon that appeared to have a higher status than the normal guards, a general perhaps. Weirdly enough, he didn't seem to be one of Trigon's forces. He lacked the characteristics of two sets of eyes and red skin. We tracked through the castle, which was more like a small town from the inside than just a castle. Every corner of this was filled with debauchery, not unsurprising considering who the lord of this 'castle' was.
It didn't take long until we arrived at the building, supposedly housing the lord. The general informed the demons that were guarding the entrance of our wish for an audience. After just a moment, we walked inside and were guided to his room. The surroundings were lavish and wouldn't be weird to be found in a royal abode.
Even with the door closed, we could hear the moans and claps resounding in the room. The door opened, and we were greeted with the sight of Lust being surrounded by several human women. They seemed to be as high as a kite as they were completely out of it. Did he drug them? No... probably his powers to influence his target's emotions would be enough to leave them in such a state.
One woman was giving Lust head while the demon in question didn't focus on her at all. His attention was directed entirely on Raven before his eyes flashed to me. His eyes widened and fear could be seen in his eyes when he saw us. He quickly stood up, making the woman pleasuring him fall on her side, while revealing himself to us...
Ugh, really didn't need to see that. Fortunately, his trousers magically appeared after standing up.
"You! How are you here??" He backed away before stumbling over the pillows and women lying around to create some distance. Well, it was less a bed and more like a bunch of pillows on a slightly elevated soft ground. It had a middle eastern kind of vibe. Raven smirked slightly at his apparent fear before calmly glancing at the dirty women and men on the bed and floor with disdain.
"Leave. I have something to discuss with your master." Raven said with a sneer and I had to give it to her. I would totally buy her act of a prideful person... if it was an act that was. She shooed out the confused women.
She glanced at me, trying to say something through her eyes. She couldn't use her telepathy, otherwise, the other demons would notice that we communicated. It had to appear like we had some sort of subservient relationship for a while and it wasn't something we made up on the spot.
I suspected she wanted to sit down as a show of power while Lust was cowering behind his 'bed'. I looked around and found a comfortable-looking chair at a desk and grabbed it before setting it down for Raven, but she didn't sit down immediately. Through her eyes, she conveyed I should sit down.
I didn't think much of it and sat down. To my surprise, she sat on my lap, leaning comfortably into my chest as she regarded Lust, who seemed to have calmed down a bit. "What do you want, Raven?" He asked with some renewed courage, enunciating her name.
"It's Pride now... Lust, take a seat. " She said waving to the pillows as if this was her place and he was the guest. He wanted to retort venomously, I could tell by his expression, but when his eyes glanced at me, he gritted his teeth and obeyed.
"I think you still remember my bodyguard?" Raven said before reaching behind her to stroke my cheek affectionately.
He bit his teeth and glared at us hatefully, "I remember, sister..." It seemed like our last encounter had left an impression on him, even though I hardly remembered my fight against him. I had been out of my mind back then because Wrath had roused my anger and wasn't able to handle me entering Pseudo Super Saiyan. From what Raven recounted back then, I had pinned him to the ground and beat him to death. "... but it seems like he is more than just your bodyguard." He finished.
Raven snorted, "Well, of course. He is also my living dildo." I kept my expression neutral as best as I could, while Lust looked shocked by the declaration, switching his attention back and forth between the two of us. Her words and the way she wiggled slightly to get more comfortable certainly didn't help... calm me down.
"Even though I have higher standards for my partners than you, I think we have some things in common, Lust. I believe I can cooperate better with you than with our siblings." Even though she was just saying this to trick him, I didn't know how affected she would be by being in this realm and constantly with her demon side in the forefront. How much was this act and what was real?
Lust was stunned for a minute before he chuckled slightly and conjured up a glass of wine and found a place to sit. Really? How pretentious. "I see you have finally come to your senses. There was no better time for you to have come than now. We are still missing a helping hand, and I believe you will fulfill this role just fine."
"Don't waste my time. What are you planning in this boring dimension?" Raven said as if Lust would just comply with her demands, and he didn't even seem to be surprised by her attitude.
"Very well." He started before setting down the wineglass on the bedside table that I hadn't noticed before. "It's like this. We don't know why, but father is weakened..." Wait, does he really want to put his cards on the table?
The last time, they had ambushed us, and we killed them in retaliation. Would he really reveal anything important after Raven had been walking inside and commanding him like she owned the place?
"He had retreated to this realm to rest and heal. With him being unconscious, we were able to siphon his power. Not only are we able to recover from our deaths..." He glared at me as he said that before continuing, "... but we are also growing stronger. However, we cannot break through our limits. We can't absorb more power. We believe that our pull on his power with just us six is not enough to take more than what he is leaking. If you join us, we might be able to siphon all his power into us. With all of his power, we would be unrivaled in this universe and even goddesses will bend over for me to fu-"
Raven interrupted Lust before he could delve deeper into his debauched fantasies by stretching out her hand with her palm up, as if she expected him to give her something. He looked at her hand, confused, prompting Raven to demand in an annoyed tone, "The spell to siphon father's power."
Lust was stunned before nodding. "I will hand it to you after I informed our siblings of the great news." He stood up and was about to head out before Raven willed a closet in front of the exit.
"Who are you to dare keep me, Pride, waiting? Give it to me now or forfeit your life." She demanded domineeringly, while not even looking at the stunned Lust as she leaned into me with her eyes closed.
"I- it's against our rules. We have-"
"Our rules? We have? Who am I speaking to exactly? Are you not your own demon? I will give you One. Last. Chance. Use it well or perish." Damn. Not going to lie, that's hot.
Lust looked like he was in a predicament, and to be honest, he was. After all, in his eyes, either he would break the rules he and his siblings had created or die. Although he might survive his death again, I was sure it wasn't without a setback.
I reinforced her threat by shooting a death beam next to his head, grazing his cheek. An attack that would have instantly killed him if I had intended to kill him. He knew that point well as he looked at the sizzling hole in the wall beside his head.
In the end, there was nothing for Lust to do than grit his teeth and hand over a scroll. Raven calmly took it and read through it in leisure while making Lust wait on the side.
"You didn't have the best magic teacher, and it shows." She said after reading through the scroll. "Even if I joined in your plan, you wouldn't be able to take all of Father's power, at least not with the obvious issue this method contained. You would have to be stronger than the individual you stole power from. Even if he was weakened, he would still be stronger than us combined."
She finished her speech, which made Lust speak up again. "No, that's impossible! I admit we were arrogant to think we could take his powers with just us six, but he ensured us we could take it all with all of us gathered!"
"Who ensured it?" Raven raised an eyebrow at his outburst as she burned the scroll with a black flame.
"The one that resurrected us and brought us here, Neron! He is a powerful demon from hell. There is no way that his spell is flawed!" Raven stared at Lust for a moment before nodding her head in agreement.
"Indeed, his spell wouldn't be flawed if it wasn't intentional."
"...What??" Lust's eyes widened as he realized what Raven implied.
Raven didn't answer his outrage, "It's time for you to pay for your sins." Raven said before raising her hand at Lust, who looked shocked to no end. His face twisted slightly, "Y-you can't do this, si-sister! Pl-please." He took several steps backward. He stumbled to the floor and quickly aged before collapsing into dust.
My eyes widened, not having expected that she would actually kill him. True, I might have the opinion that these demons were better dead than alive. I wouldn't be bothered if he died and I wouldn't even have shied away from killing him myself, but Raven?
Just before we entered this realm, we had talked about forgiveness for our actions that caused others' pain and suffering. Now she went around and killed her sibling, someone that was arguably in the same situation as her? I contemplated for a moment if I should say something since I had encouraged her to do exactly this before coming here. Absorb his powers and kill him permanently.
But now, to actually see her follow through, it kind of made me feel bad like I had corrupted my childish idea of her. In the series, she could be seen to be more ruthless or rather more decisive than the other members of the team, but she never killed. Perhaps she hadn't gone that far because of the people she was surrounded by. In this life, she was surrounded by Kara and I...
Raven's aura rose after she had evidently siphoned Lust's power. "Mmm~" She moaned out as she ground her butt into my crotch. It was fortunate that I wore my armor, otherwise the sensation would have been too tempting. Besides, that wasn't my focus anymore. Without hesitating, I stood up, forcing her to stand up abruptly as well.
She turned around with a frown. Her face was redder than previously, so before she could speak I interjected with concern, "Are you okay, Raven? You killed someone, after all." I glanced at the dust that was once Lust. Despite being a demon, he was her brother. I wasn't truly upset at her decision, but I worried about what her actions would mean for her, for her mentality. Killing someone for the first time wasn't easy on the conscious.
She blankly looked at the dust pile as she contemplated my inquiry for a moment, or rather, she seemed more distracted by something else. She shook her head. "It is as you said. He deserved it. You know he won't change even given the chance. He and the others had long willingly joined Trigon's side. You know what havoc they had already caused on earth... No-" She pinched the bridge of her nose, "I-I'm fine... but t-this place, it isn't good for me. We have to leave this place quickly. Not to mention... Not to mention... after absorbing Lust's power... With this power... if I absorb more power of my siblings, of this realm, of... If I can, then..."
Her breath was ragged, and she seemed to lose herself slowly. Her face seemed to have turned even redder as if she was blushing, but her expression showed a rarely seen murderous look as she looked into the distance.
Her expression changed again when she caught sight of me again. It didn't seem like she wanted to continue her train of thought. What and why she wanted to absorb their power. If I hadn't known her, I would have just thought of her as power-hungry, but I felt that this wasn't the case.
She looked like she had something in mind. However, she didn't seem to want to continue her speech as she stared at me intensely, hungry and demanding. A memory of a particular dream came to the forefront of my mind.
She licked her lips before her familiar leotard and cape vanished, leaving her body completely nude. The exotic sight of the demon Raven nude was... captivating. With her breath being shallow and her reddened skin, it seemed like absorbing Lust's power wasn't without consequences.
"Let's take care of this." She reached out to my crotch, which I stopped as I grabbed her wrist. She was desperate to push forward, but even though she was evidently stronger, it wasn't quite enough to overpower me easily. "Please, Nathan. I need this." She said as she kneaded her breast with her other hand, almost desperately. Despite the situation and the rising worry, the sight was just too enticing for me to not have a reaction.
Seeing that she couldn't overpower me, she tried persuasion instead. "Kara said it was fine and I know you want it too! I am an Empath, Nathan... I can sense it. You and Kara want it, but are too afraid to take the step. So, how about you man up and take that step?! Are you not embarrassed to leave a wanting woman waiting??"
"Calm down. You are being influenced after having taken in Lust's power-"
"Please, Nathan. I really. I really need this."
"Raven, listen to yourself. This isn't you." I responded and dragged her into a firm hug. I stayed like this for a few more minutes until she stopped wriggling around and clung on to me.
She took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm down... No. She sniffed me. It seemed that the influence of this realm and the absorption of other demons on her demon side was bad news. Honestly, something we should have anticipated. We should find a way to leave soon, or who knew if she snapped at one point? At least currently, she didn't outright attack me, so there was that.
It didn't take me long to realize what she was doing when her body shivered and the wet noises resounded in the otherwise quiet room - well, quiet if one excepted the debauched noises coming through the open window. She was masturbating to my scent. Jesus... A muffled scream into my torso later and she finally calmed down.
She collapsed, seemingly having an intense orgasm running through her system, forcing me to prop her up. I picked her up and sat her on the pillow before she started again, now watching me while biting her lower lip. "Really, Raven?? Are you this easily influenced by your siblings' power? Masturbating because you can't get laid?" She narrowed her eyes at me, and my attempt to appeal to her prideful side seemed to have worked as her hand finally stopped moving.
"Of course not! Who do you think I am?" She said with a snarl, puffing out her chest as her tone grew haughty. Prideful seemed to be her demon side's default, but I still didn't like her attitude. I flicked her forehead hard, which made her grimace, "Ouch! What the hell, Nathan?!" She dabbed her forehead gently with her fingers, but it seemed to have brought her senses back, at least for a bit. The changes in her mannerism were almost too fast for me to keep up.
"Could you... your clothes?" I pointed at her nude form. She looked down at her body before covering herself up with her usual outfit. I wasn't sure if her face turned red from embarrassment or if it was an aftereffect of her absorbing Lust's power, though I was leaning on the latter, especially when she was still biting her lower lip while her hands were slowly moving to her sensitive parts.
Without me prompting her, she decisively sat down cross-legged and meditated for a dozen of minutes before she deemed it okay to come out of it. I watched her intently, noticing how her expression changed during her meditation. She was rarely this emotive, but when she woke up from her meditation session, she seemed to have stabilized. "So, what do you think?" I instantly asked her after I saw her stand up.
She looked at me with a familiar neutral expression that I learned to love. "This place is bad news. I can't change to my human look while being here. I feel my demon side getting stronger, but it is also twisting its nature, pulling out the worst of me, turning me into the Sin of Pride."
"Why Pride though? I hadn't perceived you as very prideful." After saying that, she gave me a contemplating look.
"Unlike my siblings, I didn't follow him like a lamb. There were several opportunities to go over to his side, but... I wanted to be my own person, a hero. Trigon's first child rebelled against him from the start. I am the only one that could embody the Sin of Pride." When she explained it that way, I couldn't help but agree with her. The others were full on demon mode, while Raven was the only one stubborn enough to want to create her own path and wanted to live as a human, as her own person...
"I could probably have taken on Lust as a Sin as well as I also have an affinity for it because... you know why. However, Lust was already embodied by him." She pointed at the pile of dust.
I looked at the pile of dust that used to be Lust. "Your siblings... do you think they are being influenced by the realm like you are losing control now?" Trying to see whether Raven's actions are being influenced.
She frowned as she thought about it. After all, when they ambushed us back then, they had a similar realm like this one. "No." She finally responded. "Just like the realm we were ambushed in, this dimension can't influence one if one didn't use its power. Even back then, they had accepted this power. It had long corroded them to be the ruthless demons they were back then. The influence this realm has on them should be minimal..."
She paused before looking at me with an assuring smile on her face. "I know what you worry about. When I said this place was bad news, I didn't mean this realm specifically. The realms aren't the source, just a medium through which he influences us. Only Trigon can directly influence me to this degree, even if I am not using this realm to empower myself, but now that he is unconscious, his influence isn't that great."
I nodded while noting that she didn't say that he couldn't influence her at all. "And what is going to happen to the Sin of Lust?" I asked since now that no one embodied the Sin of Lust, wouldn't the position need to be occupied by someone else?
"Now that he is gone, I could embody this Sin as well, but there is no need for it since Pride is the sin from which all others sprung. By being Pride, I already embody the other sins as well. I can subdue the other sins and conquer them, but we are going to test it with the others to be sure..."
"Wait. You want to try it again and absorb another one? No, we can't risk it. After seeing how it influences you, who knows what it does to you-"
"Nathan, we don't have another choice. If we were in our universe where only a fraction of Trigon's power could reach into it, then you might have stood a chance, but we are in his realm. His power in here is immense, and we need every ounce of power we can get."
"I think you underestimate me. I already have bested gods, besides didn't Lust say they are absorbing Trigon's power? He must be weakened-"
She shook her head. "Don't be prideful." The irony didn't go over my head.
"Really?"
She had a brief smirk on her face before she schooled her expression again, "Trigon isn't someone that could be compared to a mere new god. He is ancient, had tussled with old gods, and looks down on all of them. As for my 'siblings'. The spell they have is just siphoning a portion of his power, barely scraping the surface, especially since they are too weak and unskilled to forcefully take away more power, but I believe making my 'siblings' grow stronger is not the main purpose of this spell. It is to keep Trigon from fully resting. He is in a perpetual state of resting. I believe Neron wants to take the opportunity when Trigon isn't aware to take over his realms and then take his power for his own."
I nodded my head as I couldn't believe that a demon of hell would handily give over the amount of power Trigon possessed to some of Trigon's spawns.
"Why doesn't Neron just come here and take it for himself? Couldn't he just take Trigon's power now and take over his realm afterward? From what Lust had implied, Trigon is trapped here, unconscious and helpless, to his offspring siphoning off his powers. It shouldn't be a big deal to enter this place, right? Especially since he was able to bring your siblings here."
She frowned, "I don't know. Maybe it's because he isn't related to Trigon and would have a harder time absorbing his powers? Maybe he needs other realms to boost himself to overpower Trigon? I am not sure." She shook her head before turning to Wrath's and Envy's positions.
"We should take Wrath's powers first and then Envy's. They are still weakened from their deaths and I can take their powers easily, besides with their sins, I should be able to take their power rather easily. The emotional backlash shouldn't be that bad." She planned, and I couldn't help but worry about her. However...
"If you think you can take it, then... let's go for it. However, wouldn't it be best to have your siblings around to weaken or distract Trigon while we escaped from here?"
Her eyes appeared to shine with a strange fervor. "Even with an alliance, our forces would be disjointed. We wouldn't be able to weaken Trigon significantly. Besides..."
We had already flown out of the open window and talked before Raven stopped mid-air. I turned to her and before I could ask her what she was stopping for; she raised her hand. In the next second, the demons I could see were visibly aging before turning into dust.
The humans that were around only registered that the pleasure disappeared, had approached their fellow survivors, not caring that all the demons had become dust. I wasn't sure if my eyes were playing tricks, but a large landmass underneath us turned dark as if the entire ground and all the buildings turned into solid darkness. The humans indulging in pleasure didn't even seem to notice the change or care for it. My eyes widened slightly, "Raven..." She would not go power crazy and devour everything, right?
"They are demons created by this realm's energy and the corrupted human corpses, who then create more energy by committing the sins of the master they submitted to. If I absorb the demons in this realm, I am taking away this realm's energy and slowing down father's recovery.
I can sense that my siblings are also taking over this dimension while siphoning Trigon's power to not only boast their strength but also create more demons with the excess energy. They are becoming more powerful with more demons and territory under their command. It is probably why they had separated into individual castles... If I controlled all their territory and absorb it, I might be able to wrestle Trigon's control over this realm and let us escape this place... or maybe use it to kill him once and for all."
Her eyes were glaring with fanatical ambition and blood lust. She found a way to get rid of her father that was a looming threat, which had persisted all her life. It was a threat not only to her life but to everyone she loved or even met. It was understandable why she was enthusiastic about dealing with her siblings. To deal with Trigon, killing her demonic siblings and the other demons of their territory was a small price to pay for salvation.
Maybe if her siblings were innocent people or if she wasn't influenced by this realm- no influenced by Trigon, she wouldn't have killed them. If I was a better person, I should have stopped her, but I wasn't. Not for demons that thrive in pain and suffering.
"Right... So how do you know this?" The information she gave was too detailed and something that I wasn't able to sense at all. The territory of this realm was divided up between them and the nature of the demons running around here. How did she know this?
"Instinctively. When we entered this realm, I knew what to do in order to subdue this dimension. How I could make it acknowledge me, especially with its current master being weakened and unresponsive. However, with a little modification to their spell, I am able to use it on the very realm itself." She admitted before we noticed some demons running away from the black castle.
They didn't look like Trigon's demons or humans. We quickly locked onto them and arrived in front of their direction of escape.
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A/N: As of last week, I am also uploading an Overlord NPC-SI fanfic called "Prince of Nazarick". Check it out. The schedule for that is every Tuesday at around 6 pm. CET.