Soul Merger

Alissa looked over the approach to the back door. Rubble had been carefully placed to create pockets of concealment along the overgrown lawn. She picked out at least eight hiding spots where guards could lurk. The actual door was a solid double door that looked fairly rusted, and with a heap of junk in front. Easily moved, but still impossible to slip past quietly.

"Hm, looks like we'll have to approach," Rosalina muttered.

"Seem's pretty open to me," Alissa protested. "What's keeping Fili from just dropping fireballs on them?"

"Magic draining field," Fili replied. "You wouldn't notice it, but it's pretty obvious to trained eyes. I think there's a mageslayer golem in the middle there." She pointed to a pile of concrete in the middle.

Alissa grimaced. That meant they'd have to go to plan B, which involved actual risk as opposed to killing everything from a distance. "Alright. So that's our target?"

"Please," Rosalina replied giving her a pat on the back. "After that I think we should be able to manage the battle. Though I doubt it will be enjoyable."

"Wonderful." Alissa drew her blades. "Ibaraki, you're the point."

The catgirl oni stretched, eyes shining brightly. "The words I love hearing. You squishy girls ready for a party?" Everyone nodded. "Then let's go!"

Ibaraki rushed out from behind the building they were peering past and headed straight for the doors. Alissa pushed herself into a run right behind the shorter woman. Above her she heard Kotori's wings flapping hard.

They were almost past the first hiding spots when two sloth demons burst out of the shadows, arachnoid legs pushing them towards Ibaraki. The woman laughed and swung her club in an arc, casually slamming the two ten foot tall monstrosities into each other. "Mine!" she declared, leaping grapple with the duo. Alissa pressed past, making sure to keep the one Ibaraki was kicking between her and the other.

Kotori was faster of course, flying over the area Fili had pointed out. The harpy was carrying two bags in her claws, and when she passed the boulder she dropped both. The liquid and powder that Fili had spent time preparing mixed as the fell down, and burst into blue flames. Kotori did a half flip and a turn before speeding away from the blaze.

A crude golem with runes carved all over its flat chest staggered away from the flames, trying to pat them out. Alissa gave it a casual swipe of her blade as she passed, the blow cracking the wood the golem was made of. She guessed they didn't have enough time to make a stone version.

She felt the atmosphere change as she pressed on, and a fireball from Fili told her the golem had died. Twisted undead popped out from behind three of the remaining hiding spots and began returning fire. The last one to show its face got a heavy crossbow bolt in the head that burst into white light, and several of the undead changed targets to fire at Clara's position.

And as they'd suspected, none of the enemies were targeting her. It seemed Rosalina's guess had been right. The succubus wanted to lure her in.

She was very tempted to turn and take a stab at one of the creatures leaving themselves open, but that would mess up the plan. So Alissa carried onwards, her boots crushing the overgrown weeds as she closed with the door.

"Hey sister!"

She barely had time to bat away the knife the succubus tossed at her. It wouldn't have killed but she didn't want the wound. Alissa kept one eye on her enemy, and let her attention search for the main threat.

A flickering shadow caused her to roll backwards. A figure slammed into the ground with enough force to make her knees hurt with sympathy pangs. Alissa shifted to keep her new foe between her and the succubus before sizing it up.

The creature had once been a woman. Perhaps several women. It was stitched together with fine gold thread, making the repair lines obvious on the thing's dark skin. The monster likely had once been attractive, but the featureless mask bolted onto the face kinda ruined the style. It held a bastard sword in one hand and chains were wrapped around its body.

"Sorry to delay the main event sister," the succubus cooed, "but you're always so hasty. So I had to bring out a new playmate so we could talk for a bit."

"I prefer to just kill people instead of having long conversations," Alissa replied as she faced off with the creature. Sadly the plan relied on her delaying the succubus for a while, so she'd have to chat and fight.

The sewed up abomination took a two handed grip and tried to overpower Alissa with an overhead swing. Alissa carefully guided the blade past her with her mithril sword, using her offhand knife to keep the angle constant. As the thing recovered she lashed out in retaliation cutting the creature's cheek. Alissa's own face felt a shiver pass through it at the blow.

The succubus used the rock to keep herself covered. "Not big on foreplay huh? Well I can kinda understand. When you've got a body like ours, partners don't last long. Still there's something thrilling about drawing out the finale. Especially if they aren't expecting it."

Alissa thrust out at the creature, only to get blocked by a wrist shackle. She ducked away from the counter slash, holding her ground with a foot stab that forced the creature's retreat. "On that note, planning on betraying this boss too? I admit I did appreciate you backstabbing that dragon."

"Thank you~!" The succubus seemed incredibly pleased. "It was some excellent work. But I could never betray the demon who helped patch up my soul. Something like destroying the alarms that would warn him if people had breached his secret sanctum? It would be cruel for no real purpose."

The creature stepped forwards and slashed at her midsection, forcing Alissa to block with both blades. It was stronger than the average human, but so was she. A kick to the creature's gut sent it backwards, but Alissa chose to step back a bit, regaining her stance. "That's the key point isn't it," Alissa said. "Cruelty. If it were just about sex you wouldn't be a succubus. There's gotta be sadism in there too. And your favorite sadistic move is betrayal."

"It's so lovely," the succubus replied with a languid sigh. "Especially if there's no reason to do it. And especially if they're powerful. They get so shocked. 'How could you betray me? What are you even getting out of it? This is madness!'" The succubus shivered with delight. "It's even more fun than taunting you~! No offense."

"None taken." A loud whistle from behind told Alissa she didn't need to stall anymore. Time to move onto the next stage. One she hoped worked. "But I'm afraid I mostly like humbling the powerful for just reasons. Not for a quick burst of pleasure. And that means we're done playing."

The creature stepped in with another overhead swing and this time Alissa met it with crossed blades. The blows met, and Alissa easily twisted her foe's aside, while twisting her dagger into an overhead blow. The blade smashed through a weak seam in the stitched together skull, breaking into the brain and killing it a second time.

And then the pain of the creature's death flooded into Alissa. She'd expected this but the raw agony still drew out a scream. Her eyes blurred with tears and she could barely focus on anything. Her knife fell out of her hand as the resistance of the creature's skull ripped it from her weakened grip.

The succubus stepped out in front of Alissa and blew her a kiss. "Looks like you win again sister. But I'm afraid I win too. I'm sure we'll meet again-"

A burst of warmth surged through Alissa from the charm Rosalina had placed on her back, blowing away the pain. She stabbed out, even as her mind reeled from the sudden relief. The succubus barely managed to block the strike, getting a cut on the arm as Alissa pressed her advantage.

"How?"

"Long range healing," Alissa replied as she cut at the succubus' wings. The creature was better at blocking this one, but she still took a cut. Alissa didn't wait to see if that would stop the succubus, instead pressing the advantage.

The succubus was on the back foot, retreating while blocking Alissa's careful cuts and thrusts. Finally it managed to block one of her strikes hard enough to get two steps back instead of only one. The demon pointed at Alissa and screamed 'visions of hate'!

The air twisted like it often did when demon magic was used, and a red black cloud streamed at Alissa. She stepped back, and cut at the magic calling on her disdain for the succubus' murderous obsession. "Hope's Dismissal." The technique slammed the dark spell into the ground where it fizzled out.

Still that bought the succubus enough time to jump into the sky. Its wings unfurled and it shot upwards.

Alissa pulled again on her feelings of hate and desire to crush the succubus' twisted dreams. "Black dart" she called out, then threw her sword.

The missile shot out, straight and true, and buried itself in the succubus' stomach before pinning the demon to the wall. She let out a shriek and shuddered as blood splattered down.

The succubus blinked a few times then looked down at Alissa. "Guess this is our last... sister." It coughed up black blood. "Something... to remember me."

It raised its own sword and Alissa rolled behind the rubble. This was the endgame. They'd figured the demon would spend its last breath trying to murder someone she loved. Her eyes flickered to Fili. Rosalina had prepared for this last act of hate, but Alissa still worried.

"Enjoy your regrets." The succubus let her arm drop, flinging the sword. A black streak that burned through the sky. Straight for Kotori.

Alissa's mind slowed. The harpy flapped her wings to move back, but it wouldn't help. The shot had been aimed at her throat, and flying up would just get her hit in the chest. She reached out, but there was nothing she could do from here.

The sound of metal hitting wood with a hefty crunch tore her from her shock. Kotori finished ascending to the sky, but there was no threat. Clara's heavy crossbow was sitting where the harpy had been standing, the black blade turning both into a mess instead of two weapons.

"Well, guess I'm gonna have to use my axes from here out," Clara said with a shrug.

Alissa nearly collapsed in relief before looking back. The succubus was still now, her eyes shut. The creature's last act of evil thwarted.

"What the hell was that!?" Kotori yelped as calm descended on the battlefield.

"Proof that bitch knew us just a little too well. Or at least me," Alissa said, gathering her dagger.

Rosalina shook her head. "And after all that work devising a shielding and healing spell that would turn aside a deathblow while cleansing the injury. Demons really are the worst."

Kotori landed and peered at them all. "But how would killing me hurt her. She likes me the least." Alissa winced at the frank assessment.

"Because she knows that's dumb of her and she's trying to treat you fairly," Clara patted Kotori on the head. "Figure that demon guessed it'd eat at her knowing you got killed before she could treat you like the person she knows you are."

Alissa felt a little embarrassed as the harpy peered intently at her. Especially since her other friends were smiling way too much at Clara's comment. She folded her arms. "It'd also mean one of us would have to climb up and get my sword. You're the only one who can fly."

Kotori slowly grinned and nodded. "Sure sure. I'll go get that then. Maybe eat her brains. You know the usual." The harpy looked to Clara and gave her leg a winghug. "And thanks."

Alissa joined the others as Kotori flew off. The adrenaline of the fight was slowly cooling from her veins. "We made it," she finally said.

Fili took her hand and squeezed. "All of us."

"And now you all relax, I move some trash and then we kill a true demon," Ibaraki said cheerfully.

"Yeah." They'd cleared the first hurdle. But the fight wasn't over yet. There was still one more problem before they could return home.