The Hero Became a Succubus! - Chapter 161

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Chapter 161

The camp was almost ready to move. Margrave Grell emerged from Highgreen with numerous wagons flanking him. He looked the most worried.

"I'm sorry about Noah. If I had known that something was off, I would have acted sooner," Grell said apologetically.

"You're not the only one." Kanae frowned, biting back the urge to snap at anyone other than herself. "What's all that behind you?"

"Stopping you isn't going to be an option. Noah's mother was the same. Always putting his safety above all. What I can do is provide you with the means to withstand the cold ahead." He nodded to a guard, who opened the back of the wagon to reveal all manner of cloaks, mantles, and jackets.

When Kanae picked one up, she recognized right away that it was enchanted. A gentle glimmer rippled across the fabric. As soon as she threw it around her shoulders, the frigid cold just didn't exist anymore. Instead, warmth enveloped her like a blanket.

Grell continued, "They are enchanted with cold resistance, magical and non-magical. Where you're headed is a dangerous and frigid place. The geographical barrier serves as the first line of defense against Lord Charron. It's why attacks from demons are few, but the few that happen are made in earnest and with great effort."

"Thanks for the gift and warning. Don't worry. Noah and Mikki will be back home soon enough," Kanae assured him, then gestured to Lilith and the Sisters of Sin to begin distributing the margrave's cold resistant clothing.

"Mama!" Teana shouted. She and Kanae's other daughters, riding on the devil mutt Tiny, came running in their direction. They were joined by Nelly, as well as Kanade and Suvee on the Vantaean foal.

"Oh, no. You girls are staying here where it's safe," she scolded her daughters.

"That includes you, Nelly." Arenade sided with Kanae and folded both arms. "It's not safe where we're going, so stay with your uncle."

"Mama, Auntie. We're not budging this time. You can compel us to stay, but we're just going to catch up once you're far enough away and the magic wears off. Mikki's our sister. Nothing's going to stop us from helping," Kanae's eldest declared.

Grell exchanged an uneasy look with Kanae and Arenade. Kanae had thought running a country was hard until she had children. They were rebellious at the worst of times.

"If that's how it's going to be, then fine." Kanae sighed.

The girls lit up.

"But Kanade and Suvee are staying," she and Arenade added without compromise.

"Ehhh? But Dad needs my help, too! It's not fair!" Suvee pouted, and even Kanade was in agreement with her little sister.

There had to be a way to get them both to behave.

"You two have a very important job to do here, though." Kanae kneeled down and planted a hand on each of their heads.

"We do?" Suvee stopped tantruming.

"As princesses of the Commonwealth, you have a duty to protect your home. If the demons attack while I'm gone, you're the only ones I can count on to fight them. Don't you think Dad would be sad if he came back and saw his home all broken?" she asked.

"I guess so…"

Although Suvee came around, Kanade didn't look convinced. It was hard to read that poker face of an expression that she always wore.

"Their help will be invaluable. Kanade, Suvee, shall we return and plot out Highgreen's defenses?" Grell hooked a lead rope on the foal to guide them back to the city, then nodded at Kanae.

"Supreme One's ass. Those two coming along would've given me a constant heart attack," Arenade said.

Lucky for you, Kanae thought and casted a worried, sidelong glance at her goblin daughters in the middle of picking out cold resistant clothes.

Not wanting to waste another second, they proceeded into the mountainous border that separated the Commonwealth and demon domains of Lord Charron. The snow capped peaks were hidden behind thick clouds. Tall cedar trees jutted out of the snowy landscape like beds of needles. They were the only greens across these mountains.

Neither Kanae, Arenade, Gretchen, nor Eliza risked flying. Visibility was already poor and was even poorer the higher they went. The army trudged through snow and gale force winds. Despite wearing the cold resistant clothing, their exhaustion was beginning to show. Kanae glanced over her shoulder. Daya, who was still feeling guilty about Mikki's kidnapping, clutched tightly to her from behind as they walked.

Meanwhile, Teana, Revah, and Pan were huddled up around Nelly, all four half-buried within Tiny's red mane of fur to stay warm.

"M-M-Man… This cold is n-no joke… even with this jacket." Arenade shivered as her nose drippings turned into icicles.

"Esta, Eliza! How are you two holding up?" Kanae asked.

"This is nothing," Esta said, though her armor had accumulated plenty of frost.

"I shall be fine as well. However, I believe one among us is faring better than everyone else." Eliza directed their attention to the army of tireless undead in the front, not at all fazed by the cold or terrain.

In fact, if it wasn't for Edina's line of death knights and bone brutes blocking most of the downward windchill, it would have been much harder to press forward. Kanae thought that too soon. A strong gust blew in, kicked up by Edina on the undead dragon flying overhead.

"H-How in three hells… is that r-ratwhore not cold?" Arenade grumbled.

"It's like she isn't affected. Curious," Eliza quietly said.

"Curious how?" Kanae asked.

"Well, Edina hasn't rested ever since I've kept an eye on her. Not even so much as a nap," she explained.

"It's true." Esta nodded. "Edina stays up all night, performing rituals to summon fresh souls into death knights. I wonder if her lack of sleep is the result of the staff."

Ever since Edina acquired the Pillar of the Damned, different had been the best way to describe her.

"I'm going to check on my daughters," Kanae said, but she couldn't fly with Daya clinging onto her. "Did you want to come with me?"

"No, I don't think I should…" Daya frowned and let go.

Kanae spread her wings and flew up Tiny, where her daughters and Nelly sat. Their teeths chattered like crazy, and they were huddled around Pan's hands which glowed with fiery magic.

"Pan, can I speak with you for a moment?" Kanae asked.

"Ehh? But Pan's keeping us warm!" Teana complained.

"You can survive a few minutes without her." She rolled her eyes.

"What's the matter, Mom?" Pan wrenched away from Nelly and her sisters.

Kanae pulled her daughter into the air and out of earshot.

"It's about your Aunt Edina. You stayed with her for a bit, right? Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary?" Kanae asked.

"Well… Auntie and her undead haven't hurt me, if that's what you're worried about. Other than being the same old funny and weird necromancer, no. Oh! Auntie sometimes yells at her staff. Like really yell! Kind of like when you and Auntie Arenade argue," Pan explained.

"Wait, what?" She blinked.

The ground rumbled violently. Something bursted out from the side of the mountain. Yetis, giant ogre-like monsters covered in white hair, roared and stampeded down at them. Commonwealth soldiers tried to draw their weapons, only for them to get stuck in the sheaths and scabbards.

"Kanae, get yourself and your daughter out of the way! Those aren't normal yetis!" Eliza shouted.

But the warning came too late. The yetis were already on top of them. Kanae put herself in the path between them and her daughters, readying to Charm the stampeding monsters at a moment's notice. However, they stopped within several feet from her.

One of the yetis stuck out a fist. All of them surrounded her in a half-circle, just… watching.

"Uhhh?!" Kanae searched Eliza for help as she, Esta, and Arenade arrived.

"Master, it's challenging you!" Esta exclaimed.

"To single combat?" she asked.

"No." Eliza shook her head. "To rock, paper, scissors."

Kanae wasn't sure she heard that right and stared at Eliza, completely dumbfounded. The yeti grunted, urging her to the challenge. Without much of a choice, she put her fist forward. Other yetis grunted and beat their chest.

Both of them pumped their fists three times, and Kanae threw out scissor. The yeti's hand remained a fist. Rock.

"I lost, so—" A crushing force punched Kanae across the face, nailing her into the snow.

"Mom!" Her daughters leaped off Tiny and rushed to help her back up.

"Ow… What kind of stupid fight is this?!" Kanae rubbed the bruised side of her cheek.

"I told you these aren't normal yetis! They possess magic and duel in rock, paper, scissors. If you lose, their magic assaults you like feedback," Eliza explained, not daring to come any closer.

The yetis looked upon Kanae with a taunting gaze.

"We don't have time for this. Mikki is out there alone and scared." Kanae climbed to her feet and compelled a charm on the yetis, but magic came right back and uppercutted her. She fell back, falling into the snow in a daze.

"Leave this fight to me, Kanae!" Edina landed with her undead dragon and raised a death knight.

Another yeti stepped out from the pack with a fist up. Edina's death knight threw scissor, and the yeti showed paper. An invisible force drove into the yeti's gut, sending him crashing back into the tunnel he crawled out of.

The head yeti, who had defeated Kanae, nodded respectfully at Edina and grunted to signal his fellows to let them pass. With the danger over and yetis clearing away, Kanae breathed a sigh of relief. She was about to thank Edina when the necromancer began to talk to herself.

"Are you stupid? I'd loooooove to raise a raise an undead yeti, but I'm not going to kill them. Do you know how strong their magic is?" Edina asked her staff.

"Ahh. It's happening again," Pan said.

"Edina, who are you talking to?" Kanae asked in disbelief.

"Gareth." She turned their way and the topmost skull's empty sockets were glowing red. "This dumbass wants me to slay the yetis and raise them in undeath. I'm the greatest necromancer in the world, not dumb."

"Peh! Greatest necromancer in the world, my bleached skull. You're just a chicken. I'm the one who was the greatest!" Gareth fired back.

"No, you're not. I am! I was so close to ruling the world during my time!"

"Shut up, all of you. I'm clearly the best. The greatest number of death knights I raised was 60! What was yours?"

"I nearly conquered Radevic from the high elves. What have you achieved?"

"You're lucky I can't piss in your skull!"

Everyone stared with their jaws hanging open as the many skulls of Edina's staff argued over each other. It was a dick-slinging contest over who was the better necromancer.

"Alright, shove it. I'm the one who's alive right now, so I make all the decisions!" Edina smashed the staff repeatedly on a rock. They cried out in an array of complaints and 'ouches' before finally quieting down.

"By the Supreme One… Then it's true. They really are all of the past wielders of the staff!" Eliza exclaimed, eyes glistening with scholarly curiosity.

"Guh. That thing gives me the creeps. I just want to exorcize the living crap out of it," Arenade said.

"Oi. Keep your holy magic to yourself." The necromancer glared and clutched the staff tighter.

Before Kanae could get another word in, Esta hollered to them from the rest of the troops.

"Master, we have a problem. I'm not sure our forces can continue in this cold," Esta cautioned and was helping up a soldier who had fallen.

"There's no telling how much farther Milton and Mikki are. We can't stop now. I can feel the direction she's in. We have to keep going," Kanae urged them.

However, many of the soldiers were on the verge of collapsing. Grell's cold resistant clothing wasn't enough. Just now, had a full battle broken out, almost half of them wouldn't have been able to draw their weapons.

"Then send them back, because I'm all you need. I was just thinking how I could move faster on my own." Edina thumbed to herself.

"Edina has a point. At this rate, you will lose your forces to exhaustion. We should press on with a smaller group. It just means we will have to pick our fights more carefully," Eliza said in support.

Kanae grinded her teeth until a beastman soldier, recognizable by the familiar pelts Talahuran warriors often wore, leaned against a tree to stay standing. He and all the others were out here for her, and they would probably stay if she commanded them to.

It dawned on Kanae that she was no military leader or strategist. Just a succubus who happened to found a country. She was also a worried mother.

"All of you are right. Lilith and the Sisters of Sin will turn the army around. Tell Grell what's going on and stay put until we're back," Kanae ordered.

"Mistress, we're willing to march into the three hells if you ask. Just give us the word," Lilith insisted fervently.

Kanae grabbed Lilith's shuddering shoulders. "I know. That's why I don't want to put my loyal followers in needless risk."

Lilith relented. She faced the Sisters of Sin and the army, signaling them around. Unfortunately, there was one group that wasn't going to leave no matter what.

"We're coming with you whether you like it or not, Mama." Teana stood firm alongside Revah and Pan.

"Teana isn't going to give me much of a choice either. I'm stuck with them." Nelly shrugged.

The army began their reluctant and grateful march down the mountain.

In the meantime, Edina de-summoned her entire army of undead with the exception of the dragon.

"Everyone, climb on!" Edina shouted.

With the exception of Kanae's daughters and Nelly, who stayed on Tiny's back, the rest fit somewhat comfortably along the length of the dragon's spine.

"Don't worry about us, Mama! Apparently Tiny can follow your scent from miles away!" Teana assured them.

"G-Good to know…" Kanae blushed.

As Edina commanded the undead dragon to take flight, Tiny sped close behind from below. They made good progress, traveling at a significantly faster speed than before. Soon, their incline became a decline. The clouds parted away and grew sparse. Frigid mountains turned into vast forests of cedar, a tundra, until the dragon stopped at an enormous shimmering lake that opened before them. Icy slush crashed against the rocky shores. A flock of birds flew in to get a quick drink only for a swarm of giant, monstrous fish to jump out and catch them for a meal.

Tiny emerged from the forest a moment later, screeching to a stop on his heels. The abrupt stop launched the passengers off over the lake. Revah and Pan caught themselves in the air, and Teana picked up Nelly before he plunged into the water where a fish snapped at his ankles.

"We're finally here." Eliza breathed a frosty breath in awe. "The demon domains of Lord Charron, Artaggon. We've entered uncharted territory now. Kanae, can you sense your daughter?"

"Yeah. I sense a lot more clearly now. She's just across the lake," Kanae said.

"No need to wait then. Ehehehe… Let's drop right in and let my undead army start hacking away!" Edina suggested, rubbing her paws together like a villain.

"Talking to those skulls must have made you looney! Don't forget, those demon bastards have been mustering up a huge force and we left ours behind," Arenade reminded everyone.

"Minestra also mentioned that the Queen-Mother's daughter, the Mistress of Debauchery, was up here to sow chaos. We should exercise extreme caution," Esta implored worriedly.

There were a lot of unknown factors to take into account. Where was the Mistress of Debauchery? Just how big was the demon army across the lake? Kanae was worried to death about Mikki, but she didn't want to put the rest of her daughters in too much danger.

"Then we make camp. I'll stake out the demons. Arenade, you stay. Your halo is too bright. Gretchen, with me since you're expendable. Everyone else, Esta is in charge until I'm back," Kanae instructed, spreading her wings to take flight.

As Gretchen joined Kanae in the sky, Daya disobeyed to fly with them.

"I have to know if Mikki is okay. I won't forgive myself otherwise," Daya said, biting down on her lower lip.

Kanae reluctantly agreed. The three of them soared across the lake, cutting wakes in the water.

Hang in there, Kanae thought. Your mom is here now.