LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 33: Succubus
Mila
When Mila regained consciousness after having her soul modified and a new body created, she wanted two main things. First, she wanted to strangle Aalam. She’d calmed down a bit from her initial murderous rage, so she no longer wanted to kill him. But she’d thought she’d be some kind of monster that still ate food, not souls, and especially not souls filled with lust, so she was very interested in him feeling pain.
Second, she wanted to know what she looked like.
This, however, was easily fixed. Her new body had been spawned right next to a lake in what looked to be a tropical jungle, so all she had to do was look down into the water to discover that she appeared almost exactly like she had back when she was human. Granted, her chest was about a half size bigger, her waist maybe half a centimeter smaller, and the few small scars on her body were all gone, but her face was pretty much exactly the same and nothing else about her had changed. For having been reborn as a monster, the differences were quite minor.
She was also almost completely naked other than the Twin Dragons on her ears, both dragons still the grayish-green color they’d been in the tutorial, but that didn’t bother her. The changes to her artifact after it was fully created in the real world, however, did.
Twin Dragons of Life and Death (G-Legendary) [Growth]
A legacy artifact formed by a Reaper’s Token from the flesh of an Invincible Slime, Formless Silver, and the emotions of the Heavenly Spark Soul King’s chamberlain. Due to the chamberlain’s desires, the Twin Dragons can only be used by the Heavenly Spark Soul King or one of his servants and has multiple effects, including the ability to absorb the legacy information of other legacy artifacts, the ability to transform into multiple forms, and the ability to store unused nascent energy. It was later enhanced by a Healer’s Token and gained the further ability to act as a Seal of Contract for both the Heavenly Spark Soul King and his chamberlain.
Current Legacies: The path of Illusions from a random D rank, the path of Shadows from a random D rank, the path of Passion from a random D rank, the path of Tranquility from a random D rank, the path of The Reaper from the Origin of Death, the path of The Healer from the Origin of Life, and the art of crafting from an apprentice psychic
Possible forms: Twin Dragon earrings (weight greatly reduced), Twin Pistols, Longsword, Spear, Shield, Reaper’s Gown, Healer’s Raiment, Lord’s Seal, Seal of the Chamberlain
Effects: Legacy Eater, Transformation, Nascent Energy Storage, Conductivity, Contract Seal
Requirements: The Heavenly Spark Soul King or one of his servants
The first change was the System now referring to Aalam as the Heavenly Spark Soul King, seemingly his title as a monster, which was way too cool sounding for him. Second, along with Aalam’s crafting legacy, there were three new legacies as well, one each for her Laws the artifact hadn’t had guidance for, the paths of The Healer and The Reaper already covering the paths of Bonds and Severing.
Mila felt her anger almost start to fade, but then she quickly activated her Law Egg of Rage to bring the anger back. Even if so far her body seemed almost perfect, far better than she’d expected from the term ‘monster’, she wasn’t going to let Aalam get away with turning her into an incarnation of lust.
Taking a deep breath, Mila activated the Twin Dragons to transform into its Healer’s Raiment form, giving herself actual clothes, but she didn’t like the result. The transformation consisted of a somewhat puffy blouse, a long and somewhat restrictive dress, and a hat which called to mind nurses from the 1800s, all in shades of greenish gray. The outfit seemed designed for desexualization, which could be handy, but it was a terrible thing to wear when trekking through the jungle.
She then tried the Reaper’s Gown and it was much better. Granted, it was a gown, obviously designed for sexualization, and it consisted of a single grayish-green sleeveless dress with a plunging neckline, but it was easy to move in and, when she had no other options, that was what was important.
She then felt for her bond with Aalam and, instead of yelling at him over it, she used it and her Law Egg of Bonds to figure out where he was, following it a quarter of the way around the lake to find him sitting cross-legged on a rock a couple meters into the water.
He looked different. First, he’d grown more than twenty centimeters to be 194 centimeters tall. His usually messy hair was still shoulder-length, but it now made him look more like Fabio and less like he just never showered, its color a very dark shade of blue instead of dark brown. And his previously brown eyes were now a bright shade of amber, almost orange.
His skin, which he’d never really taken care of, was flawless. His face had morphed to become more traditionally handsome, his jaw especially more defined. And, with the washboard abs and defined musculature of a Hollywood action star, he was basically the definition of handsome.
“Care to explain yourself, Aalam?” Mila almost growled out the words.
“Explain what?” Aalam jumped to his feet and lightly hopped the couple meters to the shore.
“Why didn’t you tell me you would be turning me into a Succubus?”
“Oh that.” Aalam looked her up and down, his eyes staying a bit longer on her chest. But that wasn’t abnormal. She knew he liked her in the style of dress Reaper’s Gown had copied. Just like with the dragon-shaped earrings, that’s why the artifact had taken the form in the first place.
What was abnormal was the lack of appreciation in his eyes. He was looking at her in the same way he’d look at a new piece of equipment for his lab. There was an excitement, an interest in why she’d changed in the way she had, but there was no aesthetic admiration.
Aalam had never cared about appearance much, more attracted to an intellectual connection than a physical one, but he was still a warm blooded male. The last time she’d worn a dress like the one she had on now, when they’d been invited to a black tie event, he hadn’t been able to stop staring at her all night. Now, though, he wasn’t seeing her as a sexual prospect at all, his focus on her chest only because that was the part of her which had changed the most.
And it hurt—far more than she’d thought it would.
“Nana Xara told me not to.” Seemingly completely oblivious to her emotions, Aalam continued answering the question. “She said it’s the race you’d want if given the choice, but would never admit to, so I should choose it for you, asking for forgiveness instead of permission.”
“So you made me a so called ‘incarnation of lust’ because an old woman told you it's what I’d want?” The hurt Mila was feeling translated into her words as anger, but Aalam either didn’t register it or, more likely, just didn’t care.
“No.” Aalam shook his head. “I made you a Succubus because I needed to be an Incubus but couldn’t be in charge of gathering my own souls. It was the best way to get around the build’s feeding problem.”
Mila just glared at him for several seconds. She was obviously missing something again, and she didn’t like where her mind was taking her.
“So, let me get this straight.” Mila was very much growling by this point. “Your optimum build required you to become an Incubus who doesn’t rip out people’s souls during sex. And, to get around that limitation, you needed a strong magical bond with someone who could get those souls and then send them to you via the bond. Correct?”
“Almost.” Aalam nodded, completely ignoring the implications of her tone of voice. “Sex doesn’t have to be involved for getting the souls though, just feelings of strong lust.”
Mila felt her anger growing, but her training kicked in and she tried using her Law Egg of Calm to lessen her emotions. “So, when we met in that first challenge and you agreed to partner with me, this was the reason?”
“Of course.” Aalam nodded his head. “I wasn’t sure you’d be able to get the Exemplary Servitor skill, but Fairy Law would make the sending of souls at G rank possible if you did, so I wouldn’t have to make a specialized artifact.” Aalam raised his left hand, on which he wore his only article of clothing, his azure scaled fingerless glove, and he smiled while looking at it. “That freed me up to make this.”
Aalam looked back up at her, a smile still on his face. “Also, you had the right skillset, what with your previous job and all.”
At that moment, Mila’s training broke.
Congratulations!
Your Law Egg of Rage has advanced to high grade.
Your soul is affected by your understanding of Laws.
Spirit +16, Soul +8
“Aaaaaaaaaah!!!” Mila couldn’t help herself, screaming out at the top of her lungs. Then, having to fight the urge to punch him in his now perfect face, she turned around and started walking away.
“When you’ve cooled off a bit, could you find a settlement? We’re probably going to start getting hungry in a few days.” Aalam spoke over their bond without any irritation of his own, and Mila looked back to see him moving to sit on his rock again. “Meanwhile, I’ll focus on improving my Laws. That way we’ll be able to get more free stats before my advancement to an F rank race makes it impossible for a while.”
“And what makes you think I won’t just go my own way?” Mila growled over the bond.
“Nana Xara’s predictions haven’t been wrong yet and she has a lot more experience with this type of thing than I do.”
Mila stopped walking for a few seconds, then continued, muttering under her breath, “I’m going to find a way to murder that woman.”
“Oh? Why?” Mila heard Nana Xara’s voice in her head, sounding cheerful, and then she started running.
She ran several kilometers away, effortlessly ignoring the obstacles present in the tropical forest. Then, aware she couldn’t get rid of the old woman but far enough away Aalam wouldn’t be able to hear her, she found a rock, sat on it, and allowed her tears to start falling, not really knowing what exactly to feel.
