“How bad was the Atonement?” I asked Legion sympathetically.
“Eight thousand could not withstand the removal of so much Sin, and their psyches collapsed entirely,” they replied calmly, resigned to the fact and unsurprised by it.
Well over half. As bad as the draco-demon Bloodline inheritors. They were so hard and invested into Evil that they simply couldn’t endure without it, and the Wrath of Heaven wasn’t gentle to such beings.
Cancelled out and burned away by Heaven instead of feeding the Lower Planes. Well, it was what it was. It cost both forces identically, after all.
On the other hand, it meant several thousand more souls weren’t fated for The Pits, and could participate in Virtue. A win from this point forward, I supposed.
“How do you want to handle those two cities?” I asked them calmly.
“We thought we’d walk around with our top off,” they said reasonably.
I pursed my lips, and couldn’t help smiling at the mental image. “Oh. You got the Nymph’s Beauty working...”
Nymphs were the carriers of nature’s greatest beauty, too great for most mortal minds to actually behold... and absolutely lethal against things which didn’t appreciate that beauty.
Will Save or die on the spot if you saw an unclad nymph and were not her lover, or she had not cut down on her power, as the sight literally blew out your mind. If you made that, Fortitude Save or be instantly blinded as your eyes were overwhelmed by the sight before you.
It was an ability capable of killing armies, and Legion had it now. On them, the power of it would be far, far greater than it would be off a rote nymph. The save was based on Hit Dice and Charisma: 10 + 1/2 (Hit Dice or Level), +Charisma.
Twenty Hit Dice, and a 58 Charisma with a modifier of +24, which they usually kept under wraps so as to not reduce everyone nearby to drooling gawkers. Save DC of 44.
You had a 5% chance of looking away in time not to die if you had a +24 to those Saves. +24 was an incredibly good base Save Modifier for most beings and creatures.
I could hit the Blinding number on a 1, i.e., auto-succeed. I boosted those Saves for damn good reasons... and only hit it because Warded Soul giving me a flat +4 against Death Effects. The Will Save wasn’t an issue.
It also meant I could look at them without any fear of adverse effects, one of a very limited number of people who could do so.
I blew their hair out of the way and kissed the jet skin on the back of their neck. “A question,” I asked softly, as they sighed contentedly.
“Yes?”
“Can that ability be made Thanatopic?”
They blinked, and turned enough that the elegantly swirling and glowing cerulean eye on the right side of their brow could see me. “That... we have no idea...”
The implications were just devastating for the other side of the equation. Nymph’s Beauty took a Valence IX spell to replicate. Having it as a permanent ability was just insanely strong.
And if the other side was undead, normally immune to Death Effects and Fortitude saves based on biology... “You’ve a Pact Mortai. I think you could make it effective against them.”
They began to hum musically, with that multi-layered voice that sounded like a subtle and vast choir was beginning a song. “You think of the most dangerous things, My Lady,” they purred in a much lighter tone.
I nestled into the world’s most huggable shoulder. “I’ll give you whatever help you need or want in clearing them.”
Legion nodded their acceptance. “I think all I would need to know is if there is anything there worth saving, and if they could be spirited away ahead of time.”
I considered that as the secrets under the Sahara unraveled beneath us, and The Map grew. “A spell that looks at bloodline, and another for Aura. Conflate them and Cast them out of VIII with an area that can include a city. I can do that.”
“Then we need but find them.”
Our Wrath intertwined, mine having grown considerably stronger over the last twenty days, and Sleipner tooted merrily as the unending dunes of the greatest desert in the world rolled past...
----------
“Ladies.”
Their representations were phantasmal, still ensconced in the Binding Gems I’d made for Legion, who’d coughed them all up into them with full knowledge of their Truenames, which had been passed on to me.
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The succubi were naturally in their base forms, so the dark or bone-white forms they’d displayed among the drow weren’t in evidence, replaced by a rather wider-ranging set of demonic or fleshy hues, ranging from human skin tones through red and violet, among others.
Still, no wild demonic mutation among them, although there were doubtless individual variations.
They looked like they wanted to speak up, but magic was hissing around them with knowledge of their Truenames, and clamped them up as I sat down in the holospace with their images.
“You are not getting back inside Legion,” I informed the two dozen of them calmly, and all their faces fell and twisted despite themselves, their images shaking at the force of their thwarted desires. Yes, being that damn powerful and gorgeous was horribly, horribly tempting and addictive to them.
“You have nothing to offer Legion except burning in vivus. You have been preceded, as it were.” I steepled my fingers as I looked over this array of black and purple-black Auras, and they quailed back under my silver eyes.
“You know that you aren’t supposed to be on the mortal plane. I am fully within all of my rights to simply extinguish all of you, and be done with this matter.” The golden fires of Heaven played about my fingers, annihilation for all of them, but they couldn’t do more than adopt more servile postures, sort of wave their limbs feebly, and make imploring faces.
“I have another use for you, but it will require a great deal of patience from you... and forbearance and sacrifice, things you are definitely not in the habit of possessing.
“On the other hand, you are demons, so what I call great patience, you no doubt call an overnight lark. But first, you need to be aware of the actual situation you are in. I am speaking in Truth.”
All the images writhed uncontrollably, venting black blood out of all seven facial orifices in spiritual sympathy.
I waited while they recovered from hearing one of the Words of Creation. “I did that so that you know that I am speaking no falsehood to you. What follows is the situation you are in.
“You are Fiends, born of Sin, Soulborn of Evil in the Realms of the Hereafter. I have let you see the Shroud, and I know that you felt the threat. You can feel the Haze even now.
“What you do not know is that the Shroud is supposed to be over the world entire, and there is not supposed to be a mere Haze here. It required the sacrifice of this planet’s World-Angel to stop it, for which I am sure you will not shed a tear,” they didn’t, “but it didn’t change the fate of any of you.
“From the moment the Shroud came onto this world, you were bound unto it as Soulborn servants of Evil, having been coopted as servants in the afterlife the Shroud represents as surely as The Pits you sprang from.
“When we bring down the Shroud, you will be dragged off this world to another... and it will be one with an intact Shroud, and likely Shroudlords, who will instantly enslave you to their wills.
“You will then be slaves to an undead thing until the end of time, or the entire Shroud, on all its many worlds, somehow dissipates. If you die, then your undead nightshade selves will continue to serve it until the Final Reckoning.”
Their acting had finished, and they were staring at me in barely-leashed anger. The black blood on their faces seemed to hiss and writhe as their anger started to rise. The average Charisma of a succubus was 26, which was an incredibly intense emotional level by human standards. Demure and peaceful was a personality type of exactly zero succubi.
“So, my killing you now is basically saving you an eternity of slavery, in body and soul. It doesn’t matter how clever you are, how seductive you are, and how duplicitous your schemes are. You will be slaves to the undead, die to the undead, and still be a slave when that happens.”
I distinctly saw most of them swallow at the realization.
“So, this is my one and only offer, your slim, slim grasp at Hope.”
Black blood welled up again, but this time it didn’t spray; it was more like tears flowing down. Even demons can hope, however futilely.
“You can fight, but only through mortals. Under the Shroud, you cannot grow, so you can only grow through mortal aid. You can fight to bring down the Shroud!
“Yes, yes, I know; why would I possibly need succubi to fight? That is definitely not your role in the way of the worlds.” A black point formed in front of me. “This is the first Shrouded world, taken and killed, from the lowest bacteria to the World-Spirit itself.” Twelve gates rose out from it, and came to twelve red worlds. “These are the Dead Marches that left that world and destroyed twelve other living worlds, reducing them to Tombworlds under the Shroud, and from them, more Dead Marches arose from the dead...”
Their burning eyes watched the numbers expand through orange, yellow, green, and now blue. They could definitely do the math. “Figure a thousand years for a complete cycle of expansions, we believe.
“Your guile and charms are worthless against the undead. However, compared to most mortals, you are still ferocious combatants, and powerful.” I swept up a standard 10-11 Stat array for mortals, and then their own next to it. Despite themselves, they smirked on seeing it.
“You are fully capable of giving your racial prowess to mortals, and furthermore, your longevity, enabling a mortal to grow powerful enough to actually give you a chance at resisting and escaping your fate.” The physical Stats of the mortal changed to something more exceptional than an average 10-11, to 15-16... but then the +4 Strength, +8 Dexterity, and +10 Constitution of the succubi moved right over, and suddenly that mortal was stronger and faster with them than either of them were apart.
Their eyes all narrowed in consideration. It would require literally giving up everything to do that, and needed Binding and Truename magic of great power.
I was fully capable of wielding the Binding and Truename magic to do that, making mortal succubi-Possessed who could grow very strong, indeed. It was basically the same as taking their Racial Levels and refining one of them away to do it.
“Then, of course, comes the choice of which mortals.” Once again, I looked them all over. “Your mortal servants of Evil are useless. They cannot take command of the undead of the Shroud, and have no special tools to use against them. Likewise the Neutral Powers have precious little of use, and Law and Chaos are geared to fight one another, not the undead.
“Thus, your best tools to do this are Good souls. Furthermore, it becomes in your best interests to defy all your demonic tendencies and make them very, very Good souls, so that they can use the Sacred and Holy powers that are by far the most effective against the undead.
“So, my precious little demonesses who want to be free of slavery, I’m willing to give it to you... way, way in the future, if you fight for it. Ready to show a little Valor?”