It didn't take very long for Eolande and Soph to reach their destination. What they saw upon arriving, though, shocked them greatly.

Ele'hunda was struggling to free himself from the succubus' whip that was coiled around his neck while Lipsilk was darting through the air dodging blows from the woman. She was essentially tying down the king with one hand - the one holding the whip - while her other hand furiously assaulted the great elder with punch after punch.

The general glanced towards Soph and Eolande. This was very telling of her immense power since she had room to spare as she dealt with Ele'hunda and Lipsilk to grant her attention to the new distractions. "Oho? Hi, girls. How are you two doing?"

Lipsilk frowned deeply. "Don't reply to her! She's using a skill right now, The Devil's Pact. It gives her power over you if you reply."

As a reward for warning Soph and Eolande, the succubus slapped Lipsilk across the cheek, sending him flying through the air and dislodging several of his teeth.

Eolande wasted no time. She could sense several powerful charms which had been cast all over the place. There were six on Elu'hunda and forty-two on Lipsilk alone. This was fairly indicative of who the general was more wary of.

Eolande got to work on removing these charms. Firstly the ones of Ele'hunda. From his countenance, it almost seemed like he was going to swap sides considering how he was slowly calming his resistance to the whip that was ensnaring him.

Naturally, the general wasn't blind. She could clearly sense Eolande manipulating some sort of powerful enchantment magic that was working to counter her own charm magic. She was about to cast a spell designed to shake a person's mind to interfere with Eolande's magic, however, a new threat to her had emerged.

On top of Lipsilk attacking her, Soph had given control to Sophie and she was now using her barrier blades to help harass the succubus. The powerful green disks of death whizzed through the air and expertly avoided Lipsilk as they assaulted the general who was forced to use her free hand to block them. Unlike Itchy, this woman was far less durable physically, so she couldn't afford to not avoid a single one of Sophie's attacks.

Clicking her tongue lightly, the succubus muttered, "What a nuisance." She, while evading Lipsilk, pointed her hand towards Sophie and chanted a soft and mesmerizing magic spell in the ancient language of magic.

Runes formed at the tips of her slender fingers, and before long, a magic circle was formed. A swarm of purple hornets flew out of it and all flocked to Sophie and surrounded her.

There was no way that Sophie was just going to sit still and let these magic-created creatures sting her since they could have any number of effects, including instant death in a worst-case scenario. She teleported away from them and resumed her relentless assault on the unnamed general.

Her mana points were draining quickly, but Sophie didn't care. Her job right now was to help the XXX-rankers of the world tree kill this general of Ythmagobla, so even if it crippled her mana organs, she would not disappoint Lone. Not again.

With the crisp sound of a bell chiming, the first charm placed on Ele'hunda was crushed by Eolande's enchantment magic. The succubus couldn't help but widen her eyes. 'She broke one this quickly? With enchantment magic? Is she a child of Reality? No, I can't sense any primal energy on her... How insanely talented must she be to have the skill to destroy my charms at the beginning stages of a double-X-ranker?'

The woman would never get her answer. Lipsilk and Sophie continued to cast spell after spell, launch attack after attack. They kept the woman's focus on them as Eolande unravelled the charms ensnaring the King.

By the time Eolande had removed four of the six charms, the succubus had had enough. She let go of her whip and flew backwards to gain a bit of distance between herself and Lipsilk. Sophie's barriers were a hassle to deal with, but they were more than manageable by themselves.

"I admit, I did not expect to get pushed this far," she confessed before she smiled seductively. "But it ends here. Enough games."

After the general had said that, she clapped her hands three times. As a result of her clapping, everyone except for Ele'hunda who was only now coming back to his senses could feel the mana flowing inside of the succubus shift and change.

Massive dark-purple wings sprouted from her back, her leathery tail divided and split into two, the massive nails on her fingers extended and grew, and finally, the goat-like horns on her head tripled in size.

"I can't maintain this form for long and it's incredibly exhausting, but it should be enough to handle all four of you I'd imagine," she stated with a coquettish grin on her gorgeous face.

"You... You're no ordinary succubus," Lipsilk whispered under his breath in shock.

"Aha, what gave it away?" she smiled in response. "You're right. I'm the Origin Succubus, Bella. Nice to properly meet you. What are your names?"

"Don't reply or tell her your names! Like I said earlier, it'll only give her power over you, especially giving her your name. Never do that with a succubus," Lipsilk warned as he shot several beams of Fairy Light at the woman.

Batting the now feeble attacks away, Bella smirked. "Speaking from experience, are we?"

Lipsilk remained silent as he continued to attack. Sophie was busy charging up a Barrier Blade Barrage. "Everyone, buy me some time!" she demanded. The moment she had started to create her barrage, the succubus has glared at her before smiling sweetly, sending a chill up Sophie's spine.

Ele'hunda, who had regained his sense now, recognised the powerful skill that Sophie was preparing from her keeper test a few short months ago. 'Definitely, if it's that, we may stand a chance!' he thought before he sprung back into action.

He charged at Bella who was overwhelming Lipsilk. He moved like lightning and each of his attacks was powerful enough to crush a mountain. Ele'hunda kept the general's attention on him while Eolande worked hard to counter Bella's attempts to layer more charms onto him as she was also removing the existing ones. Lipsilk was focused solely on steering the fight away from Sophie so she wouldn't get caught up in any of the attacks.

Every time the king successfully landed a blow, entire parts of the succubus' body would explode into a gory mess, but as if by a miracle, they simply restored themselves to perfection. Eolanded and Sophie didn't know why this was happening and Ele'hunda only had a brief idea. Lipsilk, as knowledgeable as ever, shouted, "Origin Succubi have incredible self-healing abilities when in their transformed states, but it's not sustainable! She must be burning through her MP like there's no tomorrow, so keep it up, Ele'hunda!"

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Nodding lightly, the king didn't falter. He and Bella were exchanging skills and blows, but Ele'hunda was obviously superior. While much closer to the Divine-level, Bella just simply wasn't specialised for close combat, which was why she had focused her more powerful charms on Ele'hunda and the weaker ones on Lipsilk. Her body was just as susceptible to damage as an I-ranker's would be, much like with Sophie and Eolande.

"I'm ready!" Sophie yelled.

Everyone turned to look at her and gaped at the sheer number of Barrier Blades she had prepared for her barrage. Looming overhead was at least two-hundred of the devastating things.

Sophie had really pushed herself. Thankfully Lone existed, otherwise, there would never be any hope for her to recover her mana organs ever again after this. Sophie could feel her mana brain shutting down and her mana heart ceasing to pump.

Bella could sense her death within those green blades of energy. She wanted to evade, but by the way that Ele'hunda and Lipsilk were tying her down, it seemed like they were prepared to die with her if need be.

"Master told me to only use it in moments of need, so I suppose now counts as a moment of need, no?" the succubus muttered to herself as a slight grin formed on her lips.

The Barrier Blade Barrage had been successfully launched by Sophie who was now collapsed onto her knees. The blades spun through the air and - with the help of the king and the great elder - hit their target. They relentlessly pounded Bella into the earth, pushing her further and further down as they decimated and destroyed the landscape around them.

Ele'hunda ended up losing an arm as he was trying to evade the barrier blades and get to safety. Lipsilk was able to fly out of harm's way in time since he was fighting from a bit of a distance anyway.

The two made their way over to Sophie. Eolande followed behind them and continued to expend her mana points to rid the men of the charms still plaguing them.

"Both you and Lone, you two are incredible," Lipsilk said with a small smile on his worn and exhausted face. He could hardly move. It was taking all of his willpower to resist the still lingering charms while he had used almost all of his mana during the fighting.

Sophie just smiled faintly before she gave control back to Soph. She wasn't as good as she was at managing mental pains. Sophie was far more well-versing in enduring physical pains.

"Is that really the first thing you say? Have a little bit of concern for your friend, why don't you?" Ele'hunda grumbled as he sat on the ground and focused on stopping the blood from flowing out of his shoulder.

"You'll be fine, so stop crying like a baby. Lone will be able to fix that for you anyway," Lipsilk said as he laughed lightly.

Eolande frowned. "Speaking of him, we should go help. Ythmagobla's already arrived."

"Oh, Master's here, is he?" a very annoyed but still somewhat sultry voice asked from within the crater that Sophie had created.

All four of them turned to look at the hole in the earth and gaped in horror. Bella, the Origin Succubus general was slowly walking out of it. "I am very surprised. To think that an S-ranker could almost kill me. I'd give you a kiss as a reward, but our circumstances hardly allow it."

The tiny tooth-shaped necklace that had been hanging from the woman's neck withered away and turned into dust. "Were it not for Master's token, I definitely would have died. I was fortunate that he gave it to me and not to one of my companions, wasn't I? At least now, I can kill all four of you."

Of course, she hadn't escaped unscathed. One of her horns was gone while the other was cracked. Her left wing had been torn to shreds while the right one had been sliced in two. There were cuts all across the Succubus' flesh as well. "If only I had Master's claw too. It's a shame he gave that to Itchy, his precious daughter."

Soph hobbled to her feet. Sophie was in no condition to return now. She couldn't control their body when its mana organs were crippled, so Soph had to manage somehow on her own. She hated fighting, but she wasn't going to cower in fear like she might have done a year ago.

She took her swords from her waist and held them in front of herself. She slashed down four times, twice with each blade, and she infused her sword intent into each strike. Thankfully, doing this only drained her stamina and worldforce. Were it not for her new skill, Mental Pain Resistance, then no doubt, even she, with all of her innate resistance to the mental pains, would be in a coma right now.

Soph could feet the damage of her mana organs seeping into her soul, but she had no choice. This woman, this pawn of Ythmagobla, she had to die!

A giggle escaped Bella's mouth as she simple side-stepped and avoided the attacks. "You are skilled in that peculiar barrier magic, and I am astonished by your teleportation capabilities, but your swordsmanship is below par. You have no chance of hitting me. Not in a million years, even if I am in this... this state, and even if you can wield Worldforce."

Ele'hunda and Lipsilk both frowned. Neither of them were in a position to fight. Lipsilk knew that he had no more mana. He had also overworked his mana organs like Sophie had. Not to the same extent as her, but the damage was done, and if he was being honest, Lipsilk was afraid of crippling himself again after living with Ythmaobla's curse for fifty years. Even if Lone could fix everything, the mere thought of enduring something like that - even for just a brief moment - scared the man stiff.

The king, on the other hand, was struggling to keep his wound under control, so fighting in hand-to-hand combat again was simply out of the question. He specialised in strength, not endurance and self-healing.

Eolande was reacting very differently. Her thoughts were very dangerous. 'Is there any way that I can kill her? Even if it means that I have to sacrifice myself... Is there any way? Two-hundred-thousand years and you didn't bother to learn anything related to direct combat, you stupid girl!'

Bella was experiencing a wealth of schadenfreude upon witnessing everyone's despair and hopelessness. "I can offer you a way out, you know? Just become loyal followers of Ythmagobla, and I can spare you all. I'll just form a contract with you four and we can be on our merry w-"

Bella's words were interrupted by the sound of a blade piercing her throat. Mere milliseconds later, a thunderous noise entered everyone's ears.

The four of them looked on in shock and confusion at the enormous yellow rift that had appeared out of nowhere.

The body of Bella, the general of Ythmagobla, slid off of the sword that was lodged in its neck and fell to the ground with a wet thud, revealing the person responsible for the woman's death.

A teenaged girl of no more than maybe seventeen, possibly eighteen years, was standing there calmly. She was looking at them with clearly appraising eyes. Her face was pleasant, not as much as Soph's or Eolande's, but in most places, she would easily be classified as a beauty. She was dressed lightly in leather armour with some chainmail visible between the joints of her clothing. Her long brown hair flowed down her back and gave her an air of aloofness.

An unfamiliar voice broke the silence. "Jeez, Hazel, why did you jump through... straight... away... Oh. Oh... Okay. I was gonna complain about you not sticking to the plan, but yeah, they don't look too good."

The voice's owner was a brawny young man who equalled King Ele'hunda in size. In fact, his heavy metal armour made him almost look bigger than the muscular Elf. He had short fuzzy hair that complimented his sharp facial features well. He briefly scanned Lipsilk, Ele'hunda, Eolande, and finally, his eyes ended on Soph. "Wow. She's as pretty as Alisia said she was. 'Sophia Vladimirovich', was it?"

A small girl no taller than the girl in question walked out of the rift with another young man and woman. This small girl with hair much like Soph's frowned and she pulled down on her massive cone hat as she sighed. "Again, my name is 'Alisa', not 'Alisia', and her name is 'Sophie', not 'Sophia'. You are so dumb, Scott."

Scratching his head in response, Scott replied, "Potato potahto. You still love me either way, don't ya?" Scott grinned at the blush forming on his girlfriend's face. He turned to Hazel once again. "Anyway, she's your brother's companion, right? The one the headmaster wants."

Hazel stepped forwards and had a very serious look on her face. "Yes. Yes, she is."

It had finally clicked in Soph's mind. Lone had mentioned having a sister called Hazel a few times in the past. He always had a sad and hopeful look in his eyes whenever the topic of his former student's being summoned here had come up. Perhaps that hope was because he could see his younger sibling once again? "You're Lone's sister, aren't you?"

"Yes. I am, and I have a lot of questions." Hazel looked at the sky and closed her eyes. A few short moments passed before she reopened them and looked back down. "But that can wait. I already have most of my answers now anyway. We should all go and help Darr- Lone. We should go and help Lone."