The Generator: The Succubae Seduction (93 page)

I walk over to the pile of hilts with invisible blades and pull one out. It fits easily into the sheath that Murasame once used. If anyone notices that my father is missing from my hip, they don’t say anything.

“We should get going then,” I say, heading back to the rocs.

“We can’t go with you,” Brooke says, fear and worry in her tone. “We won’t survive in Fire’s domain.” I remember what happened to Brooke the last time she was there. The arid atmosphere was too dry for the mermaid. She’d almost died.

“Take me, Master,” Sheila pleads with me.

“I can’t protect you,” I try to let her down softly. Almost everyone else that’d been in Marchosias’s nightmare world gained some fighting skills, but my ex-boss was a tavern wench.

“I can’t stand staying here and not knowing,” she tells me. I glance at the map that Thomas is looking over, but know what she means. We likely hadn’t shown up on it while swimming. “I can fight. I can watch your back. Just don’t leave me behind! I need to be with you, Master.
Please
!”

For a second I’m tempted to act like the stern master I know she appreciates, but when I see the desperation and love in her brown eyes, I relent.

“I’d better not regret this,” I tell her, waving to one of the rocs waiting on the balcony. “Expect to be punished when we get back.” She shivers at my tone, and I know I’ve pleased her. My heart wrenches, knowing I won’t be coming back.

I think back to the reason Gaia said I couldn’t live past this battle. Generators were all killed off because of how dangerous they could be. They gather followers the way a queen bee gathers drones. Even though I have no interest in ruling, the mere fact that I could amass an army of loyal followers to challenge the Pillars is enough to make any of them worry. The choice is either war for no reason and watching my loved ones die, or sacrifice myself. Looking around at those I love in this room, and the friends I’ve made, I know what I have to do.

“I don’t suppose there’s time for a recharge?” Becky asks me. She glances at the map and shakes her head. “No, I guess not. I wish I could go with you, but I’m needed here. You’d better come back to me!” The short woman steps up to me, grabs my filthy shirt-rag and pulls my face down to hers. Our lips meet and there is so much passion in the kiss that I really wish there was time for a recharge.

“Becky has been a big help,” Thomas informs me without looking up. “Already she’s caught and countered two ambushes that I would have missed. She’s quick to grasp the skills and weaknesses of our forces and turn them all to advantages.”

“I’m no tactician,” she tells me, “but I help where I can. I just wish I understood magic better.”

“I’m coming along,” Alloria states, brooking no argument.

“Then I am, too,” Emmet follows her.

“Like hell, you are!” she spins and screams at him. “I’m going to get away from you,
human
!”

“You’re carrying my child, bitch,” he snaps back. “I don’t care what you feel for me, but I’m not going to let you put my child in danger without me there to help protect it. If that means protecting you too, then so be it.”

Alloria’s eyes go wide as she rubs her flat stomach, before she glares at him.

“I don’t care if you’re coming, or staying,” I snap at the two. “But decide right now. It’s either both of you, or neither. I’m going right now.”

“Of course you’d take his side.
Men!
” the elf sneers as I climb up behind Sheila. A moment later, I see the other two climb onto the other bird. “Try not to get any of your filth on me,
human
,” she tells Emmet. “I hope you fall off!”

“You didn’t mind my filth when you were fucking me, slut” he sneers back, wrapping his arms around her. She closes her eyes for a moment, but doesn’t say anymore and doesn’t make him remove his arms.

I hope I didn’t make a mistake in letting them come with me. Or Sheila, for that matter.

Something is bothering me about Aldol’s tactics. In order to destroy the worlds, it has to destroy the Pillars first. Why was it working with Varun, while striving to kill Angela? For that matter, why is it leaving the other Pillars alone?

I didn’t realize I was muttering my thoughts, until I hear Lysa’s voice.

“Gaia is too well fortified to take on directly, and the creature can’t survive in the Light and Dark domains. We think it was planning on betraying Varun, but not until they achieved maximum chaos in his realm.”

“What about you?” I ask. “Are you safe?”

“I love you too, Dad,” she replies happily, even though I can’t see her. “He can’t attack me, because I can be anywhere there is air, just like Gaia can show up anywhere there is ground. I’m safe enough for now. But if he takes out Aunt Angie and Varun, then Gaia will be too weakened under that strain to defend herself. If three Pillars fall, this world falls.”

“I won’t let that happen,” I tell her seriously.
I can’t let that happen
, I think to myself.

Soon, we cross the border into Angela’s domain. The air suddenly goes dry, marking the border.

An explosion rocks the air next to us, and I hear the other roc screech in pain. The elf and healer plummet as their ride falls out from under them.

I don’t even hesitate as I pull Sheila off with me. Using her for mass, I pull out my wings. Her scream at the sudden plummet suddenly resounds in my head as I chase after the two below me. My wings are tucked tight to my body as I dive.

“Stop screaming right now!” I order Sheila, and thankfully my slave obeys.

The rock ground is racing up to meet us, but I don’t spread my wings yet. I have to catch the other two first.

“You’re not going to make it,” Sheila warns in my head. I can actually feel her terror, but at least she’s not screaming.

I know she’s right, but I can’t give up.

Wind buffets me as I slow down.

“This is all I can do to help,” Lysa’s voice tells me.

It’s enough. I’m able to grab one in each hand, and change fully into a dragon, spreading my wings mere feet above the ground. A shockwave shoots out as I have to pull in air around me to make up the mass the other two can’t supply, the sudden vacuum creating a sonic boom. For a second there is no air for my wings to catch. Fresh air swoops in a second later, pounding me, but slowing my descent.

I still end up face planting into the dirt, unable to completely turn my momentum around.

“No offense, Lyden,” I hear Emmet mutter in my head, “but every time you suck me into this, you make life painful.”

“Don’t you dare talk to Master like that after he saved your ass,” Sheila reprimands him, reminding me a bit of my old boss. I can’t help but laugh. We’re all alive!

“You might want to get up and defend yourself,” Lysa’s voice reaches me.

Despite the toughness of my scales, I still hurt as I get up onto my legs. That landing was hard! What I see before me makes me growl deep in my long throat.

Myrmidons and other rock like humanoid creatures are running for where I’m at.

“Cherufes!” Alloria growls. “I hate those things. Be careful of them, Lyden. Their skin is made of stone and their blood is molten lava.”

So, fire breathing ant creatures and magma filled rock men. And me without Murasame to kill them. Life just keeps getting better.

Glancing at my claws, I see they’re missing. No, not missing, just invisible and made of solid air.

Thank you, Lysa
, I think to my daughter.
I still have a magical weapon
.

I charge a group of Myrmidons, not even slowing when gouts of fire spring at me. I let the flames wash harmlessly across my scales and swipe at the closest one. My air infused talons pierce the ant monster and my world rocks as it explodes.

“What the hell was that?” Sheila cries as I try to focus on the bad guys still coming at me. They’re wary now, but then again, so am I. It doesn’t help that I’m seeing everything in triplicate.

“Aim for the ones in the middle,” Sheila tells me, but I hold back. I’m off balance and don’t know why it exploded.

“Your claws are made of air,” Alloria tells me. “They must stoke their internal fires, fanning them into an explosion.”

“We’re fucked!” Emmet yells. “Lyden, let me out. I may have a spell to slow them down.”

I can’t
, I tell him.
Slowing them down won’t work and will only get us all killed
.

“What about the talismans?” Sheila offers.

Thank you!
I mentally send her a kiss.

I don’t know if I can pull the talisman out in this form, but maybe if I concentrate on one of them. . . . The image of Varun’s talisman floats through my mind, and I feel a wash of power pour into me.

“Stop!” I yell after changing my tongue. Fire breath isn’t going to help me out much here. “Stop or I will destroy you all!”

They pause for only a moment, before laughing and rushing at me again.
I tried
, I think. That thought is immediately followed by,
I hope this works
.

Using the power of the water talisman, I fill my lungs and bellow out a spout of water. My own energy levels don’t decrease as gallons of cold water torrents out of me into the oncoming force.

I hear sizzling as it strikes the first Myrmidons and they go down. The Cherufes stay standing a little longer, but they slow down. I see them grow stiff, their movements stopping as the deluge of water continues to buffet them.

Once unleashed, I can’t stop the flow, and even after every enemy is either dead, or stalled, I continue to spew forth liquid. I have to slowly walk back as the water pools, and still it comes out. By the time it finally lessens and stops dripping from my jaws, there is a small lake in front of me.

“It’s a good thing you don’t cum like that, or you’d kill any woman you slept with!” Jennifer’s voice sounds behind me. “I’m glad Thomas ordered us here to watch that display.”

I look back to see her still riding on Blue.

“You’d love to be filled up like that,” I tell her, laughing.

“Any chance you can do that a couple more times?” the large-breasted woman asks.

I mentally check on the seahorse carving, but it feels dead in my head. “No, I think that was it,” I tell her sadly. “How goes the battle?”

“We’re holding our own, but only because we have superior numbers. Those damn ants are fucking hard to kill.”

“What about Aldol? Has it shown up?” If I can get to it and kill it, I may be able to end this.

“Your succubus said it showed up to her, but when it couldn’t talk to her because of these ugly glasses, it left. Otherwise we haven’t seen it.” She points to her Blublockers as she looks at me critically for a moment before adding. “It’s good to see you’re alive, Lyden. Your daughter wouldn’t give us any information on you. I . . . we were getting worried.”

“I didn’t want any eaves droppers hearing what you were doing,” the Pillar of Air defends herself. It’s weird knowing she is everywhere at once.

“Show me where I’m needed,” I say, and take to the air, spreading my wings.

Blue joins me a second later and playfully nips at me. I have I no doubt she approves of my current form. I nip back to let her know it’s appreciated and then let her lead the way.

As we fly, we pass over battles and devastation. Bodies from both sides litter the ground. There has been no time to clean them up. Whoever thinks war is full of glory has never seen this. It makes me sick!

“When we stop, will you let me out?” Alloria demands. “I’m sick of being in here with the
humans
.”

“It’s no picnic for me either, Slut,” Emmet retorts. “But as long as you’re carrying my child, I’m going to protect you.”

“That’s all you care about? The child?” I can tell from her tone that Alloria is hot under the collar.

“I might care more for the mother, if she weren’t such a slut and bitch,” he decries.

“I am neither of those,
human
!”

“Then say my name, slut!”

“No, never again!”

“Bitch. Slut.”

“Fuck you, Emmet!”

Before I even realize what’s happening, the two are kissing madly. What’s wrong with them? Are they angry lovers? As clothes begin to come off, I mentally turn a blind eye to them.

“I think I’m going to try some of those moves the next time we’re together, Master,” Sheila informs me. I can’t stop my chuckle.

We land just as the two lovers finish up. Oddly, I feel more energized, despite not having taken part in their frenzied sex.

“I’ve missed you, but did you have to make a lake in my realm?” I hear Angela’s voice chide me softly. “It feels like an itch on my skin. I can sense everything in my realm now.” I look up to see the woman that’d introduced me to this world float down. Her hair is made of red flames, and fire caresses her body like a robe. The power of the Pillars must be different from person to person, seeing as TanaVesta was not outfitted with these flames. I saw barely any difference in appearance between Lysa before and after she became the Pillar of Air. Is she only doing this for effect, or is it because she’s still trying to control her powers? Either way, she looks
hot
!

I change back into my human form, making sure I have fireproof clothing, and run to her when she lands.

“The fire,” she tries to stop me. “I can’t completely control it yet.”

“I don’t care,” I tell her, pulling her into my arms. The flames lick around both of our bodies, but I’m still immune to them.

As soon as she gets over her shock, I feel her arms wrap tightly around me and her lips seek out my own.

“Now that’s
hot
!” Jennifer states. Despite myself, I laugh at how much our thoughts are alike right now.

We laugh as we pull away from each other, but Angela refuses to let go of my hand.

“How are you?” I ask, worried for her.

“Besides that new lake?” She asks, arching one glowing eyebrow. “Tired. I’m still trying to control myself and the powers of being a Pillar. Aldol isn’t making it any easier. Neither is Aeacus. He has a grudge against me for some reason.”