***The Infernal Plane of Lust***

***Amon***

“Something is missing,” I grumbled while I roamed the dark streets. Going out hadn't really been about the fresh air, but about getting some time for myself. Being the confident leader of a group of demons was a trying task after all. So I decided to take a 'walk around the block', so to speak.

Although there wasn't exactly a block of buildings to walk around in Irkos. The settlement's living area was an interwoven pile of buildings that had been stacked on top of each other, forming an incomprehensible maze of streets and tunnels that connected and interjoined without rhyme or reason. The fact that the whole hive-part of the city was warped out of place thanks to dimensional magic only added to the confusion.

Sometimes I asked myself what would happen if Irkos was hit by a giant Dispelling Ritual, causing all the dimensional magic to fail. Would the true vastness of Irkos be revealed, or had the enchanters in charge of all the maintenance work taken the appropriate countermeasures? It would certainly be a sight to see Irkos's central dome split open, revealing a spilling mass of concrete and demons which flooded over the settlement's poor outer districts like a tidal wave.

Not even Isabella had been able to tell me about the city's true dimensions or even Irkos's population number since there was no central ruling body to take note of such things aside from the warbands that called the city their home. There also wasn’t something like law and order. The only rule for the average citizen was not to draw the attention of a warband in a bad way. And for most demons who didn’t already have the qualifications to join a warband that meant drawing no attention at all.

Unbidden, my thoughts returned to the evening, and the cute demoness that I had pinned a few minutes earlier against the wall of a closet. I sighed, frustrated that I had allowed myself to be seduced into another fling with someone who I didn't even know.

Not that I thought myself to be above my fellow demons. A healthy male could only do one thing with a naked female who was begging for it in front of him. But I slowly came to the realization that I desired more than to bounce from one attractive ass to another. Purely sexually speaking, the bar's waitress had been a fine enough encounter, I guess, but the act just didn’t measure up to my memories. Fucking some random demoness wasn't the same as doing it with Isabella.

By now, I had taken my chances and tried out a variety of females, but none of them could compare to that first time with the succubus lady. It wasn't like I had been left completely dissatisfied after my various misadventures, but something was always missing compared to that first time in the woods.

There just wasn't that mental afterglow of satisfaction. Just the fulfilment of mere physical needs.

Or was it just that I was glorifying the experience with Isabella in my mind somehow? Had the succubus truly gotten into my head? I didn't believe so. Maybe it was the fact that Isabella was a succubus, and I would have to test out another succubus in order to satiate that particular desire?

What a phenomenally bad idea...

I shuddered, recognising the other stirring uncomfortably within my thoughts. Somehow, I had hoped that it would be gone after my most recent evolution, but that was clearly not the case. Unfortunately, it was right insofar that bedding another succubus was indeed a bad idea. It would cause a whole host of troubles if I suddenly had to deal with two backdoors in my mind. Not to mention that Isabella had warned me of straying in no uncertain terms.

“Whatever will be, will be...” I told myself and turned around another corner, intending to return to the Impaling Horn with a made-up mind when a dark figure sprung out from the shadows of a doorway too close for comfort.

Stumbling backwards, I tried to get out of dodge, but my inattention had made it utterly impossible to react in time.

I felt the knife rake over the side of my torso and I twitched away from it, anticipating the pain of being gutted. When instead, the passive enchantment runes flared up all over my skin, I relaxed slightly. What I had felt was nothing more than the overlapping force fields being pushed against my skin while preventing an actual cut.

Despite that, I was still not properly prepared when the attacker waved his hand, materializing a wickedly glowing second blade for a follow-up attack. For all intents and purposes, that second blade should have buried itself inside my chest.

But my hand caught his arm at the wrist anyway, pulling him towards me and breaking bones in the process. That finally caused me to react in reflex, activating Death Grasp, and striking my opponent's throat.

It was a knee-jerk reaction and the contact wasn’t long enough to kill him, but the resulting shriek and cough were definitely female. This educated me on the fact that not all back-alley thieves necessarily had to be male.

She tried again with her first dagger, the one that I had no control over. This forced me to let go and jump back unless I decided to test the reactive barrier enchantment a second time. Despite Ex despising such inefficient spells, I had seen its use and copied it straight from the ring with the Infernal Shield spell, adapting it to my affinity with force magic and mana manipulation. There was no need for that fiery pomp which my predecessor apparently liked so much. Even with my adaptations, it was still too inefficient for a sustained battle, but warding away a surprise attack was well worth the cost of upkeep.

The thief refused to give up despite her broken wrist. She dropped the normal dagger and switched the enchanted one to her good hand. Then she brought it to her front in a menacing stance. Unlike the one which had been deflected by my barrier, this one glowed with a yellow sheen in my mana sight.

My souls’ knowledge told me that this visible aura effect only appeared when a material was overloaded with more enchantments than could be contained. The result was the slow bleeding-off of various energies as the enchantments degraded. Despite what most laymen thought, the magical artefacts which had a visible aura on them were actually the bad ones.

Still, I didn't want to wrestle with whatever enchantment was on that thing and instead gathered mana around the thief until it solidified. She reacted with a counterspell that contested with my control over the magical energies in the surrounding area. For a moment, we were caught in an intense magical tug of war as I tried to overpower her interference.

Pointing out her palm, she did her best to end it with a second spell directed at me, making me wonder which effect the forming spell matrix would materialize. But seeing the weakness in her spell, I reached for my own magical power and blasted her forming spell matrix with unguided energy. The tightly contained spell matrix made it clear that it was shielded well from foul play, but the rate at which the spell drew in the surrounding power made it clear that the caster forewent a proper energy regulation in order to speed up the casting time.

This lazyness gave me an opportunity.

Thanks to my interference, the forming spell matrix was suddenly over-saturated with power, causing the carefully guided magical energies to go out of control and her guiding spell matrix to fizzle out of existence. What was left, was a ball of magical power in my opponent's palm.

Naturally, it decided to disperse in the form of a little explosion, singeing her palm and causing her to lose her concentration. She lost our magical contest, allowing the gathering mana to snap closed around her in the form of tightly wound energy that burned her clothes and skin.

The female struggled, but I tightened the bonds which allowed me to lift her into the air and pin her against the wall of the nearest building. Likely thanks to my recent evolution, the process of controlling the raw mana worked incredibly quickly. I hadn’t been able to test out my new body’s capabilities, but I already knew that my control over, and maybe more importantly, my ability to sense mana had been greatly increased.

Despite that, the hold on my enemy wasn’t perfect. The thief twisted her body expertly, almost snaking out of my grasp through purely physical limberness. To prevent that, I changed the shape of the imprisoning energies, straining her body until I heard the snap of her spinal cord. Not a lethal injury for a demon, but definitely an incapacitating one.

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She instantly went limp inside her magical bonds and hung there, pinned against the wall.

Once I had the time to think and process the encounter, I dropped the twitching body, allowing the energies to disperse, and looked down at my shaking left hand. The one which had caught the thief's second strike without my conscious involvement. Some might have shrugged it off as a reflex, but I knew better. I had been too stunned to do anything when my hand had moved of its own accord.

Forming a tight fist, I tried to control the shaking until it stopped. “What was that?”

That second dagger had a one-time barrier-breaking spell on it. Oh, and it's a soul weapon. Just be glad that watching your struggles became somewhat amusing recently, so I felt inclined to watch you for a while longer. I want to reincarnate at some point, but not quite yet.

I froze, trying to process this newest development as I felt something like true fear for the first time in my life. Just now, the other hadn't only spoken within my mind, it had also controlled my body! How could this be? I thought I was gaining more control the stronger I got, not losing it!

The only thing you are gaining more control over is the souls' memories within you, which leaves me with a little less distraction. And more room to stretch, allowing for more independence. Although, I prefer to watch you stumbling around.

I cursed, considering to expunge that first soul of mine. Was this really Amon's ghost who came from the past to haunt me? And it was awfully chatty today.

Now, that would be an overreaction – and it would kill you in the process. A demon should never lose his first soul, as it is the foundation of all his being. On the other hand, you should have realized by now that I am the part of your original's ascension ritual that actually worked, although not exactly as planned. Instead of reincarnating in a new body with a strengthened soul and his mind intact, the only thing that was transferred over was the soul, sans most of the mind. The transferred mind was too much for a demonling's little brain and what little made it over is now me. The ritual split your mind – leaving the naive you on one side, and the diminished me on the other. I don't know what Amon expected, honestly, shoving the knowledge of an adult into a demonling's unformed brain is like trying to fill a bottle with more than it can hold. Unsurprisingly, it would spill over, and you were lucky that it didn't burst completely.

Was I really supposed to believe that? That I was some kind of schizophrenic nutcase with two personalities within me?

Two similar personalities, but two personalities assuredly. Now, would you please concentrate and take care of that assassin on the floor?

Assassin?

Sigh, yes, an assassin, you total dimwit! Or do you really believe that some mere robber would randomly roam the streets with a soul dagger and get stabby with some passersby? How would she know that you are worth the risk of using such a weapon? Lack of local law enforcement aside, there is no chance that the warbands would allow some street rat running around with a soul weapon. The first time she was caught using it, she would be hunted down and dealt with.

I swallowed and finally fought to get my act together. The other me aside, there was definitely something foul about the circumstances of this encounter. Rubbing my temples, I waited for more to come, but the other stayed silent.

Once I was sure that the other me wouldn't keep on narrating in my head, I picked up the assassin’s weapons and found that the one which was glowing yellow was indeed a very special one. Multiple enchantments had been stacked on top of each other, creating something that might only work once, but would certainly deal a heavy blow to any demon, possibly even injuring his soul well. And once that happened, without a way to store any more souls, a demon's days were numbered.

I was lucky that my attacker had tried to hold back this single-use artefact.

Next, I turned my attention to the broken demoness on the ground who glared up at me with defiant eyes. I was sure that I could count my enemies on two fingers, but I asked anyway, “Who sent you?”

She pressed her lips together, apparently unwilling to speak.

“You know that I know soul magic?” I asked. “There are really only three ways this will go, and the end result will be that I will get my answer either way. So, one solution is that I suck all the souls out of you, including your memories, or I hand you over to a succubus friend of mine for her to get the answer I seek, or you give me a satisfying answer right away and we call it quits after I merely kill you.”

Leaving her with a way out may seem soft-hearted, but I didn't expect her death to gain me much. Either of my potential enemies likely had countless followers who they could send after me. Leaving an incompetent one alive who already failed to kill me once wouldn't lessen my chances of survival.

I stopped myself, thinking of another possibility. On the other hand, killing her permanently might send a message of fear to her master.

She must have seen my thoughts in my eyes because she was suddenly eager to come forth with an answer. “Alliance!” the assassin forced out from between her lips.

“So it’s about the war. That's believable enough, I guess.” I raised my hand and conjured Death Grasp, intending to go with the second option nonetheless.

“Bargain!” she wheezed through her damaged throat. “Verbal... Contract!”

I hesitated and thought over it, cursing myself for making the offer in the first place. The Infernum was fickle when it came to verbal bargains. Had it listened to my offer? I thought of what Sozzudon had taught me about speaking with intent, and my exact wording.

Had I spoken with intent? It was hard to tell.

But there was no need to risk it, so I formed a mana blade above her broken body and beheaded her smoothly. I even made it quick, even though I didn't think that my words had exactly required that.

As expected, only a few scant souls entered my soul well. If she had more, then the assassin had likely entrusted most of her souls to someone before she went on a likely lethal mission. At least that was what I would have done.

I also didn't believe her to be able to tell me anything noteworthy. The fact that Sogman's army had bothered to send someone after me revealed more than enough. For one, they knew that I was to blame for the loss of one of his Anima Stones – which was unsurprising since my captors would have respawned like all the other victims of my nuke.

My only hope had been that they wouldn't be stupid enough to tell their commander that they were the ones who carried the nuke into their own base. How degenerated would someone have to be to do such a thing? Then again, there had been more than enough witnesses who saw them bring in a prisoner. That, and they had certainly bragged about catching a soul mage.

I sighed, annoyed at my previously too optimistic assessment of the situation. Of course, the legion commander would have launched an investigation. It was just a question of time until they put the culprits through the wringer and got all the answers they needed.

On the positive side, I now knew for certain that I was definitely on the shit-list of a large political faction which included three powerful Demon Lords.

“Just great...” I sighed and continued back to the Impaling Horn, already anticipating that Isabella would mock me for having told me so. This time, I stayed well away from any dark corners in which assassins could hide. It felt just like back in the valley with the lizard things. I simply would have to stop being lazy about my surroundings.

My newly awoken vigilance wasn't tested the same night, as I arrived back at the inn without any more trouble. I returned to our private lounge where I found the rest of my clique out cold, sans Shax and Jada. The two of them had likely taken their own room.

Only Isabella was still up, sitting alone at a table in the corner and holding a glass of fae juice. I approached and took the seat on the other side of the table. “Hello, I was just out on the streets.”

She shrugged, seeming somewhat listless and tired. “I noticed. Did you have fun without me?”

I raised an eyebrow. Thinking that mentioning the fling with the waitress would be in bad taste, I simply went with the other noteworthy event. “Met an assassin who tried to knife me with a soul weapon. Killed her after she told me that she was from the Alliance.”

That woke Isabella up real quick. “One of Sogman's people? Or the other two?”

I frowned. “Would that have been important? She came from their faction.”

“Of course it would have been important!” She leaned forward. “If she came from Sogman, that would be best, but if either Mekedesh or Vegth sent the assassin it means that Sogman sees you as a large enough threat to involve the other two.”

She shook her head and sighed. “But you are alive, and it isn't like I didn't warn you about the repercussions. You should have really thought of a better way to use that nuke. Some way which didn't paint you as a target. I am pretty sure that they will send more of their minions until they either get you, or you manage to arrange some defenses which make it impossible to get to you.”

I honestly had no witty reply to that. “Well... it's just another thing we have to deal with. How do the mortals say it? The show must go on.” I hesitated. “But why aren't they sending people after you and Jada? You two are the daughters of a powerful supporter of Khorne.”

Isabella gave me a look that could have incinerated the Infernum. “Let's just say that it's not done.”

“Not done?” Now I felt stupid.

She nodded. “Mom doesn't send assassins after Mekedesh and his ilk, at least not skilled assassins, though everyone knows that she could. So, what would happen if one of her daughters gets attacked?”

“Then the gloves come off?” I guessed. “And the Alliance prefers that the gloves stay on.”

Isabella smiled and leaned forward to pet the top of my head. “You are such a smart boy,” she cooed.

I tried to slap her hand away, but she withdrew it just in time, laughing.