The Hero Became a Succubus, and the Only Way to Level is to… What?!

Ever since transforming into a lich, Edina hadn’t stopped showing off in absurd displays of her strength. Undead from Legion of the Dead and all twelve death knights regularly patrolled the streets of Ehmvier. Both the dragons and berinath ruled the sky. It all served as an omnipresent force that deterred would-be attackers. They also came with the benefit of a severe reduction in crime in the city.

Murders, robberies, and assaults were already much lower in Ehmvier than its contemporaries like Radevic and Talahurah. When everyone prospered, no one became desperate enough to feel the need to take from others. However, the city guard had reported to Kanae that there was a significant drop in minor and major crimes.

If Edina was a lich during the Ortesian invasion, she might have been able to hold off their army. Or even repel them single-handedly. Her power, according to Elizabeth Bedlam and Chappy, had risen beyond her pre-Hax’gorah era when the devil inhabited the Pillar of the Damned. She drew mana from all soul cairns passively, which was why her undead were able to stay summoned for so long. In Savir, she demonstrated that the destruction of any one cairn granted her a massive boost, too.

However, as Edina had said herself, she wasn’t invincible. Resistant to almost all damage didn’t mean being immune. Enough holy magic would put her out of commission. While the soul cairns also were an extraordinary deep well of mana, it wasn’t infinite.

Kanae stepped out of the castle to get some air after a long morning of addressing her citizens’ concerns. Today was fairly overcast. Tiny white specks fell gently from the sky. One landed on her hand and melted. Snow! Kanae hadn’t seen snow since living in Japan. That was many years ago now. She couldn’t remember the faces of her coworkers or parents anymore. Nor Takumi, Ichi, and Manabe. As far as she was concerned, they were a goblin, minotaur, and orc now.

”I hope it snows. It’d be nice for the kids.” Kanae stretched her arms to the sky.

Just as Kanae thought that, a death knight stomped past with Kanade and Suvee giggling on each shoulder. Suvee was holding a shovel above her head like a trophy. A poor canine beastman gardener gave chase, exhausted to the bones.

”Get… Get back here… Oh, gods… I’m going to pass out…” He dragged his feet trying to catch up to them.

”Flee! Flee! The enchanted shovel is ours now!” Suvee laughed.

”Girls!” Kanae shouted.

Both of them tensed up.

”Uh, oh. The dungeon boss found us. Trusty stead, throw us! Throw us!” Suvee grabbed the death knight by the head and yelled.

”What? No! Come back here with that shovel!” Kanae launched after them.

The death knight flung Suvee and Kanade into the air to give them a head start. They flew all over the courtyard and castle. Kanae caught up, grabbing them by the scruff of their necks and descending back to the surface. She made them give up the ’enchanted shovel’ back to the gardener so he could get back to work.

”Girls, what do you say?” Kanae folded her arms.

”We’re sorry,” her daughters said in unison.

”It’s not a problem, Your Majesty. Maybe I needed the extra exercise.” The beastman laughed it off and took his leave.

”And what do you have to say about this, Edina?” She sighed, looking up at the shrugging death knight.

When Kanae returned to her attention to scold her daughters again, they were already tiptoeing away.

”Hey!” Kanae snapped.

”Can’t catch us!” Suvee stuck her tongue out and took flight with Kanade into the city.

Kanae pressed a hand to her face and groaned.

”Suvee and Kanade giving you trouble?” Inquisitor of Impiety, Gretchen Redbaron, emerged from the castle with a young dark elven man at her tail.

”They were riding on a death knight, playing keep-away with a gardener’s shovel.” Kanae glared in the direction where the two fled.

”Even I’ve been unable to rein those two in. I imagine Kanae and Suvee are getting around to that rebellious age of childhood,” Gretchen said.

”You think so? Teana, Pan, Revah, and Mikki weren’t like this at their age. Oh, no… I hope Feraline doesn’t have a rebellious age in a few years…”

”Hobgoblins are instinctively inclined to obey strength, and goblins prop up their own matriarchy. Suvee’s other half is dark elven, whose race possesses a natural wanderlust. Kanade’s high elven blood demands that she make the rules and not be ruled herself. I couldn’t tell you how Dawn and Feraline will turn out,” she explained with a smile.

Kanae threw her hands up. Her gaze fell to the dark elf behind Gretchen and thought she recognized him.

”Isn’t he the servant you brought with you to Goldridge?” Kanae asked.

”Oh, yes.” Gretchen pulled him to the front, throwing an arm around his shoulders intimately. ”His name is Kale. He works for Rown Company. I’ve taken a shine to him. Make no mistake though. My heart still belongs to my dreadmourn stallion, Virtue. But if I want to grow my house, I need to start a family with someone with whom I can bear children with.”

”As a Rown employee, I’ve worked the stables and taken care of plenty of their beasts. I help care for Virtue while my lady Gretchen is away,” Kale explained.

”You take care of Gretchen’s dreadmourn lover? That’s a complex cuckold arrangement you got there. Hey, what about…” She leaned into Gretchen and whispered, ”Errenard DeSalle? I heard you still have him captive?”

”I keep Errenard as my slave. I make him watch whenever I am intimate with Kale or Virtue. If your fury for him ever begins to waver, know that his cruelty as Grand Admiral cleaned the streets of Ortesia of orphans… by employing them as expendable deckhands in his vast fleet.”

Kanae made a face half-way between disgust and wrath. Luckily, Arenade wasn’t around to hear, or she would have gone to kill him herself.

”Heyyyy!” Edina’s voice interrupted them, coming through from her death knight.

”Edina?” Kanae gasped.

”Is that Gretchen with you? You guys should come outside. West of the city gate. We’re throwing down to see how I stack against some heavy-hitters,” the newly-minted lich explained.

”Well, far be it from me to decline hurting a lich. Kale, I’ll be back later,” Gretchen said.

They took flight in the direction Edina had instructed. There was already a battle going on far outside the city. Lanil Hammerthorn with Chappy pummeled Edina in lich form with powerful spells. The necromancer tanked them all. She brushed off every attack like dust on her shoulders.

”I am an undead god!” Edina cackled.

Lanil wasn’t the only one around. Elizabeth Bedlam, Archbishop Patrice, and Bocchiri Ruu were present, too. There was a picnic blanket and basket laid out on the grassy knoll with tea, snacks, and books. A stark contrast to what was going on.

”Gretchen, my old uppity friend!” Archbishop Patrice rose first to greet them.

”Ugh.” Gretchen glowered.

”What’s with that sour face? Does seeing me in your position put a damper on your mood? Come, Gretchen! I’m not here to gloat or rub it in your face. From what I understand, you’re much happier where you are now, aren’t you?”

”Good to see you, Patrice.” The former Archbishop sucked her upper teeth and sighed.

”Sorry. Should I know if there’s any beef between you two?” Kanae asked nervously.

Patrice shrugged while Gretchen faced away with a grimace.

”I can’t… I’m pooped… Edina doesn’t fall no matter what I throw at her…” Lanil walked up and collapsed face first into the picnic blanket.

”Your pal over there is made of some sterner stuff than previous liches. Gotta say, I’m impressed!” Chappy complimented.

”Who’s next?” Edina shouted from afar. ”Gretchen, Archbishop, you two get over here! Let me test my mettle against your holy magic!”

”You know what? I’m not liking where this is going. Edina, are you sure you want to get blasted with the equivalent of a nuke?” Kanae asked.

”I dunno what a nuke is, but I gotta learn how much I can take somehow,” she explained.

Both Gretchen and Patrice retrieved their respective staffs. Each of them had an upgrade. The archbishop’s staff was destroyed in the climax of the Saviran civil war. She now wielded a long white stave, where the bottom ended in a red crystal and the top boasted a crescent. Gretchen, on the other hand, downgraded from her glorious staff that befit a high elven priest. The inquisitor opted instead for a wooden cane half the size with a cross topper ornament. A more subtle and appropriate option for someone of her occupation nowadays.

”Are you absolutely sure about this? Our magic may outright kill you,” Gretchen warned.

”Gretchen is right. And I may not be as experienced in combat as Arenade and Gretchen are, but my spells will not land softly,” Patrice added.

”Enough yapping and hit me with the best you’ve got.” Edina stood her ground.

The two high elven priests exchanged glances, and then obliged.

”Full power, Sacred Exorcism!” Gretchen and Patrice uttered their incantations at the same time.

From their spellcasting element came two concentrated beams of holy energies. It was like the light from a lighthouse magnified a hundredfold. Edina braced her feet as both rays slammed into her. Kanae had seen and experienced Arenade’s Sacred Exorcism before. Her spell was much stronger thanks to the Halo of Holy Radiance, but she was just one crowned Priest.

”Alright, alright!” Kanae motioned for them to stop.

The beams of light disappeared as quickly as they fired out. Kanae expected to find Edina cremated into a pile of dust on the ground. Close enough. The necromancer had been turned into nothing but a mound of bones. Her flesh had been seated off, leaving nothing but robes, bones, and horns

”EDINA?!” Everyone raced up to her.

”Hoohoo! That hurt something fierce… let me tell you… auughh…” The skeletal Edina groaned.

”How the fuck do we heal you like this? Healing magic hurts you now, right?” Kanae asked, though relieved that she was still alive in a sense.

”Oh, give it a sec.” Threads of necromantic energies sewed the squirreling back to her usual self, meat and all. It took a few minutes, but she looked right as rain. No one could have guessed Sacred Exorcism just destroyed her body.

”You’re virtually immortal!” Gretchen gasped.

”Nothing is immortal. Not against my hammer.”

They spun around to Petyr, who was coming up the hill with Vesh by her side. The paladin was donning her usual dragonscale equipment, wielding the felmetal warhammer.

”What? You wanna have a go? I’m strong enough to beat you now!” Edina cackled.

”Doubtful. If that’s an invitation for me to try, I’ll happily show you why Ortesia called me the empire’s greatest knight.” Petyr looked down at the necromancer from her nose.

”Ortesia’s strongest paladin versus the world’s strongest necromancer. Bring it!” She twirled the Scythe of Soul Reaping and smirked.

Kanae jumped in to stop them, but someone else beat her to it. The two squared up against each other when a Penance binded both of them.

”Not here. If you wish to do so, then let it be done at Aidenhall. At our first ever Knights’ Tournament,” Archbishop Patrice said.

”Knights’ Tournament?” Kanae cocked her head.

”Did you think I merely came here to aid Edina in becoming a lich? I’ve come to extend an invitation. It is important for Radevic and its allies to demonstrate their strength. At my suggestion, King Turren has decreed that we host a tournament for champions far and near to participate. We’ve sent letters to Artaggon and Savir. I address you not as Knight of Amethyst, but as Empress Kanae Toyomi. Will you join the Knights’ Tournament and bring forth the Commonwealth’s greatest warriors?”

”Kanae, join the tournament!” Edina and Petyr got all up in her face and demanded.

”You guys just want to beat each other up to death!” She groaned.

”Exactly!” they shouted.

Kanae looked Archbishop Patrice in the eyes and wondered what she really had planned. At my suggestion, was what she said. The high elf never concocted a plan without a deeper meaning behind it. But her burn-scarred face was unreadable as usual.

”Alright. The Commonwealth accepts your invitation,” Kanae said.

”Splendid.” Archbishop Patrice grinned.