“It’s the tradition of the moon people,” Modart said. “Over the time and the seclusion from the rest of the people on earth, we have come to develop our own unique culture. No other hair styles are allowed on the moon for a moon citizen.”

“Tell us about the succubus,” I said to Modart.

The Modart nodded, seemingly wanting to get to the main thing than to talk about hair styles.

“Her name is Luna. She has been around for as long as the moon itself. But never in history has she done anything to cause us any trouble. I do not know the reason behind her sudden anger at all the residents of the moon.” Modart gestured us to follow him even as he continued speaking, “The succubus Luna is slowly poisoning all the water in the moon. Many of our citizens have fallen into a coma after drinking water that had been poisoned.

“We tried to talk to the succubus but she refused any discussion with us. Our king had once received a blessing which allowed him to send a message to earth. And since no time could be greater than this, he decided to use it.”

We had reached a strange device at the very centre of the deck of the ship. It was shaped like a gun and was placed atop a stand. But the device didn’t have any barrel through which a bullet could be fired. Instead it had an antenna of sorts. There was also a small telescope attached to the top of the gun-like device.

Modart placed a careful hand over the gun-like device.

“It is through this device that we were able to locate you in the earth,” he said, “we scanned the earth, searching for someone who possessed considerable power and who could tame the succubus. When we came to know that you controlled thousands of succubi and demons, we at once knew that it was only through you that we had our best chance at saving our home, the moon. Our king used his blessing to send you the message and also the rocket so you could travel to here. However our king passed into coma in the process because the magic associated with sending the message was too powerful. Until a short time back he was in the ship before we decided to send him to the capital so that the best physicians could attend to him.”

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“The message said you would give us anything in return for helping you,” Danor suddenly said. Modart’s eyes widened a bit. Maybe he hadn’t given much to the fact that we could actually want something in return for our services. Then Modart forced an earnest smile onto his lips.

“Of course, anything!” he said. “We are ready to give you anything in return for saving the moon.”

“Anything? Really?” Danor said and there was a rather expectant edge to his voice. Modart nodded vigorously.

“Money, spells—”

“Spells?” Danor said. “I would really like some cool spell—”

I placed my hand on Danor’s shoulder so that he became quiet in a rather embarrassed way. We had yet to actually help the moon people. The moon succubus was yet to be tamed. We could think about what to ask for rewards later on.

“Where will we find the moon succubus?” I asked Modart.

“In the north pole of the moon,” Modart replied and he seemed somewhat relieved that he didn’t need to go on giving us a list of rewards that he could offer in return for our services. “That is where the ship is currently headed.”

It took us a good two hours to reach the north pole of the moon. The north pole of the game world moon was covered by a great ice sheet. There was what looked like a castle made of ice exactly at the pole which Modart told us was the lair of the succubus. The castle was surrounded by what looked like trees that were made entirely of ice. Green plants also grew, but they were at a considerable distance from the forest of the ice trees.

Modart gave each of us a special kind of vest that could protect us from the cold below. The vests were stretchable and they fit our bodies perfectly like they had been made for us. Once I had worn I vest, I felt considerably warm even though the regulated temperature at the deck of the ship was mild. The ship dropped us just outside the forest of the ice trees. Modart told us that if the ship went any further, the succubus would be able to detect it and the consequences could be severe.

Very carefully, Lana, Danor and I began to make our way through the forest of the ice trees. The ice trees grew close to each other so that we could no longer see Modart’s ship. Danor plucked a leaf from a tree and observed it.

“How did this come to existence?” he wondered aloud, turning the leaf up and down. He tried to bent the leaf to check its flexibility. It shattered. Danor let out a sound of disappointment and let the leaf fall to the ground.

Just then I heard a noise behind us. I whirled around at the spot, alert. I made my sword materialise in my hand.

“What happened?” Lana asked me.

“I thought I heard something,” I said, scanning the trees with my eyes, but there was nobody.

The three of us didn’t make the slightest sound or the slightest movement for a few moments. But we didn’t hear anything further and we decided that it was safe to continue moving towards the castle.