"Finally a cave." Gloin noticed a wide crack in a rock they were passing by. Even demons needed to sleep and he thought about getting rid of the hostage, because the elves were definitely not following them and the hostage had lost her usefulness.

Almost.

Entering the cave, there was not much light, but it bothered him little considering what he was. The last rays of light were painting long, spooky shadows on the walls of the cave, the stale air adding to the gloomy atmosphere.

"This is perfect, undress dog. It is time so serve you master." Gloin said with domineering attitude and was pleased to see defiance in Irwen's eyes. He did not know if she wanted to defy him, or she was just reluctant, but did not wait to find out and activated the ring right away.

"AAGGGHHH!" Irwen cried out in agony and collapsed to the ground, where she began to convulse in pain.

"These toys are as effective as I remember them to be." He watched for a while, thinking about torturing her to death, but he felt too lustful to pass this opportunity. He deactivated the ring and repeated his command.

"Undress dog, now!" He thundered and Irwen began obediently taking off her clothes with shaking hands. Gloin could not help himself but giggle, pain was above pride, it was only a matter of dosage. It took just a moment and all her clothes was on the cold floor of the cave. Gloin watched her curves, noticing a shiver running through her body from time to time.

"Good dog, do you know what your master wants to see now?" Gloin stepped closer to her and she lowered her head, looking on the floor.

"P-Please just . ."

"Your master wants to see the naked version of the previous show first!" Gloin began to enjoy himself, switching the ring back on, watching the desperate struggle of the elven girl, who had fallen down again and was rolling on the floor in pain, her back bent like a bow in a futile attempt to resist the pain. When her screams began to sound hoarse, filled with despair, Gloin decided to stop, not wanting to ruin his dog too soon.

"On your knees, present your ass to me elf! That is a good bitch!" She immediately obeyed his orders, afraid of another waterfall of pain and he entered her from behind, her breathing already erratic from the previous torture.

He gripped her ass tightly and thought about using her second hole by his tail, but he did not want to get it dirty. The rivulets of blood ran down her ass, flowing out of minor wounds caused by his claws.

He breathed in the smell of blood with excitement.

"I have a better idea, I will do it with style, like with the human from the last time." While thrusting hard into her, he used his snake-tail to slither alongside her body, starting from her behind, his tail moved in a spiral towards her neck. It snaked past her hips, breasts and finally coiled slowly around her neck. Gloin caught Irwen's both hands in one of his, holding them behind her back in preparation for what was about to come.

"This will be a pleasant way to go, consider it a boon." Gloin began to thrust into her even harder and gradually tightened his tail around her body and neck, allowing less and less blood to reach her head.

"This is the way!" Gloin groaned with pleasure, while Irwen was desperately struggling not to suffocate, but Gloin held her firmly in his grip, preventing all her attempts to breathe in enough air.

"That's it, now only to time your death right, my loyal dog." Gloin was about to reach the peak and prepared to tighten the tail around his victim's neck with full force and kill her.

"H-Help, anyone help!" Irewn's small voice escaped her lips, before an unyielding force constricted her neck tightly and all strength left her, everything became darkness.

There were only the two intertwined bodies, how could there be anyone else to hear the voice?

While one of the bodies was frozen in extasy, the other went limp.

* * * *

Absolute confusion.

Some part of him were lost, replaced by something he did not recognize, but he was very afraid of it.

A terrifying thing, black and brutal, he desperately sought shelter from it. He could not fight it, for it was too terrible.

He has to hide! The deeper, the better. Disappear. Vanish.

Still, he could not hide completely and glimpsed outside only to hide again. Hide from what? From whom? He did not know, but he felt so weak in front of it. It has to be powerful, it was filled with malice, pride and desire.

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Desire? That one was new and the feeling intensified. He decided to peek outside only to be flooded with emotions and surreal scenes. The scenes of what must have been him, but was not him . . and someone else tormented by him.

The terrifying thing was distracted by the desire, it did not know, it did not look for him.

Than he heard a voice and sensed the terrible thing was absolutely oblivious to all dangers.

Now it was vulnerable, it was now or never!

He imagined gripping the terrible thing and squeezed and squeezed, making it suffer, but he did not care, the thing had to give in, it had to break, shatter, it was the only way for him to be again.

* * * *

"AAAAAAAAAHHHh!!" A black body of a demon parted with a smaller, feeble one and ran for a few meters, only to slam into a wall. The thunderous sound resonated in the cave, but the black body seemed to be oblivious to the pain caused by the heavy hit and continued to roar, as if the pain it felt had been caused by something much more sinister.

* * * *

Suddenly, the terrible thing gave in and its resistence ceased under his assault. Toby expected to destroy the thing, but instead, it seemed to melt into him.

Toby opened his eyes and found out his mind was his again, but not quite. There was not much time for more thoughts, as he found out that the surreal scene he had experienced prior to his liberating actions was reality, a naked body of the fiend's victim lying next to him motionless.

"Help." He managed to decipher the word the voice had said and understood it belonged to this elf on the ground.

Toby sighed and laid his demonic black hand on the dead body, only to widen his eyes with surprise. There was a pulse!

After checking for her breath, he found out the elf was not breathing, but her pulse was still there. Only a short while had passed from the moment she stopped breathing.

"This should work." He remembered the most basic first aid, thankfully she had pulse, there should be a fair chance to bring her back. He quickly put his mouth against hers and breathed air into her, surprised by the resistance of her lungs, as he had never done anything similar before. It was even more difficult because of his mouth, the shape of which was far from humanoid.

Toby was lucky, the elven girl began coughing just after his second breath, instantly shocked by the proximity of his mouth. Crawling backwards, she immediately distanced herself from him, bruising her mouth, as she had not paid enough attention to his sharp fangs. Toby's clumsiness was not helping, he had yet to get used to all the new pointy and sharp parts of his body.

Looking at the shivering bundle of misfortune, he naturally needed her name. He could search in the thing's memories, but he was very afraid it might return if he digged too deep in his brain.

"Who are you?" He asked, not noticing he was using the mannerism of the old inhabitant of the body, the body being too foreign for his usual human subconscious gestures, which had been replaced by those more natural to it.

"I am a dog." Toby received an unexpected answer, completely stunned.

"Your name!" He tried to ask soflty, but it was a tall order when one was using the body of a demon and his soft, patient voice ended up as a low growl.

"Irwen?" She asked, apparently ready to accept any name he wanted.

"You are free to do whatever you want, we will talk tomorrow" Toby interacted with her only because she had been in a life-threatening situation, he had enough of his own trouble to think about.

He leaned against a wall and tried to put his mind back together. He remembered what it felt like being a demon, when he had been in Durkan. The sensation was similar. If he had to describe it, it was like taking steroids. He had a tendency towards more aggressive behaviour, but it still was not at the level of losing control. The thing at the back of his mind bothered him more. He was not sure the thing was there, but he had to presume it was. Not long ago, he was in a similar position.

"This situation suck!" He thought, but understood how much only after he had opened his status.

* * * *

Irwen's body ached all over, sitting against the wall of the cave, she waited until the demon fell asleep and began to limp to a tiny pond present in the cave to wash the demon's scent and fluids away. She had felt an unbearable urge to do it since the moment he had penetrated her, but she was too afraid to move while the monster was awake.

After washing herself she should have felt better, but she had not. Only at this moment she understood the severity of the sacrifice Anshalla requested of her. If the damned tree saw her, she would have surely said that the demon changing his mind and leaving her alive was the proof of her plan working.

She glanced at the demon, her eyes trying to hypnotize him not to get up.She half-expected him to stand up and go for a second round with his twisted games, it was the reason he had left her alive right?

The two figures in the cave spent the night of nightmares. One's dreams filled with snakes, choking her and prodding endlessly, the other's full of mad searching for something hidden that was looming over him, about to mold him into itself.

* * * *

The first to wake up was Irwen, she glanced at the demon and realized there was yet to be a second round. Was it possible he had other reasons for stopping the other night? There could be only one.

They had been followed and as long as they were, she had the value of a hostage! The memory of other elves brought a little hope back. The elves had surely dispatched agents to watch over her, the demon would not be able to safely kill her! It was a slim hope, but it was something. When she noticed the rays of morning light that reached into a small portion of the cave, she thought about the elves that were surely somewhere on that sunny plains watching her every step.

It was a source of hope for her, while her brain thought about how to proceed with her seemingly impossible mission.

* * * *

Faeldin traced his finger along the face of a huge mural that was depicting several beings in a life-like manner, it was realistic enough that they seemed ready to step out of the stone at any moment. A line of blue and green light followed his finger and a complicated rune appeared inscribed on the stone, only to vanish a second later.

"That is not it, but I am getting closer." Faeldin sighed and went to sit down into the midst of a pile of books nearby. There were all kinds of books, originating from elves, humans, dwarves, demons, elementals and even undead. He had long discarded the concept of forbidden knowledge, nothing was forbidden and everything was allowed as long as he managed to strengthen the seal that was the mural in front of him, the stone statues in it were actually the demon lords fighting Verdun, with Verdun himself sealed inside of the mural as well.

"Damn, you should better hurry with your plan Anshalla" There was a discussion in the background that no one could hear, the exchange that would have rocked the whole elven society if someone heard it.

"Be patient, the plan is in place." The voice of Anshalla answered, venomous enough that no one would have recognized the wise old Great Tree in it.

"It is too flimsy, the specimen you chose is too stable." The second voice argued vehemently.

"Shut up already, it will work and even if it wouldn't we can always send some of our agents to finish the job! Listen, it is a crippled shadow demon, he will definitely torture her to death in a matter of hours, days at most. After the deed is done, we will conjure some silly signs and send The Mistglaives in . ."

" . .yeah, yeah and they will reconstruct the situation and tell Faeldin his only remaining relative had been raped and tortured to death by a demon . .. "

" . . .that is right, Faeldin will lose focus and the only elf who is able to strengthen the seal will descent into despair, not able to focus on his work anymore. It will be flawless. "

"What if he works even harder after the little accident?" The second voice had still doubts about the plan.

"Impossible, top tier seals and enchantments need extraordinary focus, he will not be able to continue." Anshalla refuted immediately.

"I hope that you are right Anshalla, we have been stuck in these fucking static bodies for ages, we deserve our freedom!" The voice said with a hint of rage.

"And we will get it, one way or another. With the only one who can obstruct us out of the picture, our freedom is at hand!" Anshalla said with finallity, imagining the demon lords in front of her stepping forth out of the mural and free their kin, they were demonwood after all, why should they not?

It was better to risk their wrath than to stay in these cursed tree forms a second longer.