Power was important. 'Must get stronger,' it applied to my current situation. Lirael gave me a look like I was the biggest piece of shit in the new world.
Jean used a ritual to kill the sound around the pregnant girl. At a guess, she was sixteen. She was just old enough to be a fully grown adult and stupid enough to believe a demon could love her.
The way she clutched at her belly and asked Jean and Lirael about her babies made me want to abandon her to her fate. She said something to me, but I ignored it. My focus was on not killing her as I filled her body with microscopic chains to make her body more elastic.
I acted slowly, adding elastic chains between the woman's organs. They were atrophied. The demonic power from the children kept her alive, but it would leave with them. Each of her children had healthy demon cores that regulated their bodies. They would also keep the mother alive as long as possible to ensure the imps were healthier before they ripped their way out.
"Do you even know her name?" Lirael asked.
"No, and don't tell me I don't want to know."
This was a horror show, and I didn't want to be a part of it. No, I just wanted to benefit from the finished product.
I looked into the mother's brown eyes. They were mad. How else could I describe someone hunting rats to eat them raw? Everything was for her children. The very acid that would dissolve her body allowed her to process raw meat with few health problems.
This entire situation was a stalling tactic. I could have ordered Garnet or Citrine to kill the mother, but I hesitated. This was a good chance to stall.
The road was filled with dangers.
Three paths lay before us. Two were blocked by demon fortresses, with fiends undoubtedly ruling over them. The last path was through a place called the Black Fens. I could fight against prepared demons with fortresses protecting them, or I could make my way through a poison swamp. If it were only my party and the demons, the fortresses might be possible with refugees, especially human girls, who could be bred by the demons to make more imps. The swamp was the wisest choice.
If there were only one choice, why stall? I didn't know.
Theoretically, it should work.
I slowly produced demonic chains after demonic chains connecting cell structures. My mind felt like it would boil over in my head from the effort. I was willing, but so many chains, even small ones, were impossible.
The imps would become restless again soon. I couldn't keep them still forever when their instincts were to rip and tear their way free. Inducing labor wasn't an option until her body could be stretched to accommodate them. Even at their current age, Imps were the size of 5 or 6-year-old children. The woman's skin looked as thin as paper. Only the demonic power from them kept her together.
I didn't want to do this, but what choice did I have?
How can I make it simpler? One chain at a time wasn't going to do it, and I couldn't sit and forget. When I added demonic power to fuel the chains, the imps leeched it.
My idea had been that simple structures made from demonic power couldn't be outright absorbed. They had to be broken down, or I had to dismantle them personally. The breakdown, when unattended, lasted around 20 minutes. It could take 12 hours to saturate her body thoroughly, but only 4 to clear the imps out without destroying her.
The problem was that my work would dissipate as I finished it. I could never complete it with my current method. So, I needed a way to set the chains in the macro.
"Citrine, make an illusion of her organs."
My yellow Illithid returned from her patrol and did as I asked.
"Why do you need to see her organs?" Jean asked.
"Sometimes a visual aide helps."
"Highlight in green the places I've finished and remove any pieces that break down," I said.
The withered organs appeared, and I sucked on my teeth. Lirael gasped, and Siegfried made a gesture that must have been religious.
The minuscule amount of progress, as indicated by a few green dots lining the uterus and cervix, wasn't enough to achieve what we needed. Precision had its place. It wasn't here.
I underwent shape changes while unleashing vast chains from shadows, much like paint from a can. For hours, I went through various shapes and aesthetic changes. Every trick I had to use, from grappling fallen angels out of the sky to sniping enemies from miles away. Techniques were used to hold my body together, and even defensive techniques were used to block damage from being that might as well be gods in hell. Liquid chains flew out, acting like ink.
A heavy weight lifted from my thoughts. I had to cover a section of the body with my chains and then connect them with links. The anatomy illusion began to take shape, and the woman's body started to turn a greenish hue.
The rigidity of my chains had always been a feature I enjoyed before. Rarely has a less rigid chain been more useful.
The others could see it, too. Hope, even as my head throbbed and I knew this was only a glimmer of possibility. I was damned for feeling it too. I thought that we had a shot.
There was only one way to be sure. Her body was approximately 90 to 98% soaked through. As my power detected, she was, in essence, part of a solid link in a chain. When pulled, she would stretch, but her organs wouldn't rip. I grabbed her leg and bent it up at the knee.
Instead of breaking, the joint bent the opposite of how it should. The woman stared. She didn't look to be in pain or concerned. I released the leg, and it returned to normal like a slightly stretched rubber band.
I sucked in a breath and let it out. What we wanted to do was possible. "Garnet tags out with Peridot. We need her telekinesis."
"Boss, that isn't necessary. I can get them out. You might want to look away. This is going to look like something straight out of hell."
"You're not going to do what I think you're going to do," I said.
"I'm going to need to wash my tentacles after."
I regretted everything. "I need to stay to maintain my ability," I said.
Garnet ripped the girl's underwear and stuffed her tentacles inside her. I saw them pressed against the woman's belly, nearly bulging before they pulled.
A leg appeared, and Jean blushed. Orange-skinned feet slipped from the woman, and I tried to look away. Garnet, for her part, moved swiftly. Her black tentacles worked hard to dislodge another imp from the woman. This one was a darker shade of orange, closer to red.
It went on while I was sure the woman moaned.
I tried to think of how I was going to min-max traits when I had enough demons. Royals had high traits that were dominant over others. If I could obtain a tier 7 green trait, I could use it to breed that trait into a generation of demons and add more traits to them, ensuring I had the strongest demons possible.
Lirael slapped a hand across my back. The elf smirked. "You did a good thing. I wish it were easier than pulling teeth."
"This shouldn't be possible. We are lucky I have the technique I do. She's still going to become a demon. Humans will be food for her. Demons are like viruses. They can't help but spread."
"What about you then? You were an arch demon, remember." Lirael said.
"I never went full demon. Even in hell, I resisted the final transformation that would have made me a true archdemon." I gave her a look, reached out, and took her hand. "You owe me. I told you something I like to keep secret. Share something about yourself for a change." I said.
"What is there to tell? I was an orphan abandoned by my village for this birthmark on my ear. A huntsman found me, and his family raised me until I was a child, decades later. Her smile was full of old sadness. "My father died long before I was a woman. Elves live a long time."
"It must make forming close relationships difficult," I said.
"Yes, but some humans are pushy and force us to care."
"I doubt I'll live much longer than a normal human lifespan if we manage to kill the demon lord. All I've managed to do with the potions and training is increase my strength at the cost of my longevity. Everything has a cost."
"And if you don't reach the power needed to defeat the demon lord, we are on borrowed time regardless," Lirael said.
I smiled, and maybe it reached my eyes. Lirael, the beautiful elf, let the corners of her lips edge upward. Kissing her might have been inappropriate, so I held off.
The last of the imps were pulled out of the woman, and I dissolved the chain, spreading demonic power through her body. She spasmed as her body transformed before our eyes. The woman's eyes turned green, her hair became vibrant red, and her skin paled. I watched her breasts fill out and her hips widen. She rolled over on her hands and knees, and a black tail with a heart-shaped tip whipped free.
She pissed and shat herself as her stomach altered until it could no longer tolerate solid food. Her breasts increased by another size, and she opened her mouth to moan.
The woman had become more and less human. She was a predator designed to hunt mortal men and drain them of their vitality. To round her out, I planned to give her the breeder, assassin, and courtesan jobs. My abstract plans for my army were coming together.
What I wanted from her was a tool capable of identifying traits that could benefit my army and denying them to the enemy. An assassin would make it easier for her to utilize her succubus powers to kill even more quickly and blend in. The courtesan would allow her to blend in with high society, and the breeder would let her push out more units for my army.
The imps were seven males and two females. Their T3 greed traits gave them plenty of advantages. Being imps, they would mature and be fully grown, ready to kill, in a matter of days. Jinxara could fully outfit them, and we could work on the jobs they needed.
"Hey, boss, do you want me to suck your dick?" The new succubus asked.
"No, I'm good. There are refugees in our caravan you can feed from, so long as you don't leave them incapacitated. Don't let them impregnate you. If a breeder job is offered, take it and no others unless it's a job that can tier into the courtesan or assassin jobs.
"Why would you say that?" Lirael asked.
"So we have fewer mutineers when they hear about the next leg in our journey," I said.
Siegfried and the others looked confused. "Boss, have you been sharing the information we give you?"
"I forgot with the whole woman about to be eaten, and you know the Black Fens."
"Why would we go into that death trap?" Lirael asked.
"Because the demon lord had positioned two black fortresses on either side of it to prevent us from circumventing the swamp in time to reach White Crest and take a ship to the capital."
Charlotte spoke in her heavily accented voice. "We have the makings of an army. Why go to the Capitol at all?"
If we were dealing with a different situation, she would be right. With the sun half devoured, we had two options. Build a weapon to take down the T6 demon beast devouring a star, or confront the T6 demon lord. One specialized in tanking star levels of damage, and the other was a command-type unit. In other words, we had a better chance against the demon lord than the demon beast above.
"Our only chance is to band together and mount a spear strike into the demon lord's lands. We must abandon all defense and focus everything on the demon lord. It's our only hope." I said.
"So, there is no hope," Charlotte said.
The next 12 chapters are on my patreon. Chapters 1 $1, 2 $5, 4 $10, 5 $20. Go ahead and check the collection out. Link