"Ahm... Vance, do you have a moment?"
Lilith asked, her expression betraying—or rather, deliberately displaying—that she wanted something. Something far beyond what she usually wanted. That subtle shift immediately awakened Vance's curiosity.
"Yes, how can I help you?" he replied.
They were just leaving the dining room, the day before their departure for their next adventure. Aria was a few steps ahead, walking in quiet silence, but she turned around the moment Lilith spoke.
"Aria said you come from another place, but she didn't tell me where," Lilith began, her eyes searching his.
"Do you want to know that much?" he teased.
She grinned—a wide, wicked stretch of her lips—and released an evil, melodic giggle.
"I do," she said, with that expression of a predator on her face.
"Someday." He casually dismissed her, resuming his walk.
Her shoulders dropped, and her grin faded away. He heard a soft sigh coming from her. "As you wish..." she said, before perking up again. "But, actually, what I wanted to ask was about the dress code in that place. What do women wear?"
"Hmm..." Vance mused for a second, stopping. "It's hard to explain. There were a lot of clothes, accessories, shoes, and things I didn't even know how they were called, only for women."
"Yes! Yes! You have to tell me!" she pressed, stepping closer. "Or rather, if you allow me a glance to your memories..."
"A glance to my memories?" he asked, turning his head slightly.
"Yes, like when we were in the vault... You let me in," she explained, her voice dropping into a softer tone. "I saw too many confusing things... I saw some sort of flying monster of steel, towers of glass, devices that allowed sight of other worlds."
Vance turned to face her. Should he be angry? He mused. He hadn't given her permission back then, but she had gotten in indeed, in a more intimate way than she could understand.
"How did you do it? How did you get in?" he asked.
Lilith tilted her head, confused. "I was just there... In the dark, but there were visions floating around, I took a glance to some... I thought you wanted me there... Did I do something... wrong?"
Her heart dropped at his tone, her cuteness spiking to the moon. Vance sighed. Women were indeed too powerful with this beauty of them.
"I will allow another glance," he added, turning and walking away.
A squeal of happiness was heard behind him, and he smirked softly, tossing a look over his shoulder. "You might join her too if you want, Aria."
Aria, who had been just a witness of the exchange, looked unhappy until he told her those words. Both women had done their best dealing with the elder in their previous battle; Aria was traumatized by the experience, while Lilith was... Lilith. He smiled. But she had made him smile.
He went to his bedroom. Not that he needed sleep. But he felt calm. The hunger remained, but there was this calm now, this clarity that had settled somehow. He saw the bed and some distant memories came back to him; they made him lay down onto the mattress and look up at the ceiling of darkness. There were no thoughts. Peace. Until there wasn't.
He remembered that being in the dark—that thing telling him to devour Lilith, that thing whose memory gave him chills. Not even the elder had had that effect on him. And the certainty, which he refused to accept, that the thing he had seen was his doom.
He shook his head and opened the window of his stats, his eyes laying on the "Perception" skill. Evolution path: Clarity → "Sanity" → Enlightenment → Illumination → Madness
"Sanity" was under quotation marks, his current level of perception. His gaze read to the right, up to the last possible stage of the progression. The word it read was "Madness".
"What is the meaning of this?" he whispered to the dark, understanding the word for the first time since he had received the perception skill. It was as if all this time he had a veil that allowed him to see only the progression, only what he was going to win, and not what he might lose. The dark ceiling, though, could not give him an answer.
Someone knocked on the door, bringing him back to reality.
"Who is it?" he called.
"Lilith," the beautiful, very feminine and seductive voice replied.
"This is not the moment, Lilith. Leave," he replied, his tone heavy.
"Aria and I came to take a glance to your memory, Vance. Like you said," she replied softly.
He doubted before telling her to leave. Both of them would surely make him focus his mind on something else other than the thing dwelling inside of him.
"Alright... Come in," he called them.
The door opened and both women stepped in. Lilith was wearing a very revealing nightgown—subtly covering her more intimate features, and yet see-through. Aria, on the other side, looked pure and modest, though extremely stunning as well.
"This is going to be different than the last time, Lilith," Vance began, sitting up. "You will have to use your magic, however it works, and I will awaken, in a meditation stage. This will allow me to guide you both without getting lost in here." He tapped onto his temple with his index.
"Yes," Lilith replied. "How should I proceed? I normally perform my magic better when I'm naked—"
"Keep your clothes on. You don't want to distract me, do you?" he countered.
"If you want me to distract you then I will and want!" she quickly replied.
"The time will come," Vance answered, and wondered if the time would indeed come. Was he really going to, one day, lay with her? She was beautiful like no other woman, so there was that, and her wild nature, the way how she claimed that he was her mate already. There was something in that way of being of hers that he couldn't refuse, reason why he hadn't banished her.
"D-Did I—Am I distracting you? Do I look... Too beautiful?" Lilith added, stuttering first, the blush on her cheeks making that cuteness skyrocket once again.
"Very," Vance replied.
That wasn't a distraction. It was a gift. The moment the word left his lips, the subtle veil of Lilith's human disguise completely dissolved.
She shed the illusion, laying bare her true, unblemished nature. Her skin shifted into the pale, immaculate shade of flawless porcelain, glowing faintly against the ambient darkness of the room. Positioned right upon her forehead, two smooth, elegant horns emerged—bone-white to match her porcelain flesh—sweeping backward like a wicked, dark crown. Her ears tapered into delicate, sharp points, and from her back, two powerful wings unfurled, their leathered span casting long, dramatic shadows across the carpeted floor. Behind her, a long, slender tail swayed with a sharp, fluid rhythm, ending not in a decorative heart, but in a lethal, arrow-shaped blade designed for sudden, violent precision.
Her body was a masterclass in biological design—crafted with the sole, uncompromising mandate to maximize sexual allure and absolute feminine power.
She possessed the tight, sculpted frame of an athlete without sacrificing a single drop of softness or grace. Her midriff showed only the barest, subtle contour of toned muscle—a delicate promise of strength that never once compromised her femininity. Her arms were smooth, her waist pinched sharply, sweeping outward into deep, powerful hips and thick, sculpted thighs built with the kind of intoxicating density any man would burn to be crushed between. Higher still, her breasts rose high, full, and perfectly rounded, framing a silhouette so overwhelmingly alluring that it felt less like simple beauty and more like a lethal, hypnotic weapon.
She was a succubus goddess—a creature built so utterly around the concept of undoing men that the mere sight of her true form was enough to shatter a mortal's sanity. Any ordinary man brought to her bed would crumble before he could ever dream of touching her, completely drained of his mind and essence by the sheer, crushing weight of her presence.
And yet, Vance merely looked at her.
His dark eyes lingered over every inch of her exposed, porcelain majesty—taking in the crown of horns on her forehead, the sharp arrow-blade of her tail, and the devastating curves of her predatory form—with the calm, appreciative focus of an artist admiring a masterpiece. He didn't tremble. He didn't fall to his knees. He simply acknowledged her power, entirely unbothered by the tide of raw desire radiating off her skin.
Lilith's amber eyes burned with a mixture of deep, dangerous satisfaction and absolute devotion as she summoned her thin, translucent nightgown back over her body, covering the porcelain skin once more. Beside her, Aria let out another hushed gasp, her heart hammering against her ribs at the sheer, terrifying presence the demoness commanded.
"I'm sorry," Lilith purred, her voice carrying a low, seductive vibration. "I just perform my magic so much better when I am my real self. I hope I didn't distract you too much."
"That wasn't a distraction. It was a gift," Vance replied, and before the woman could reply, he continued. "Come." He sat on the carpet on the floor at the feet of his bed.
[SANITY SKILL ACTIVATED: YOU ARE NOW ALLOWED TO SEE THE TRUTH OF THE SELF].
He read as he fell into deep relaxation, his senses still connecting him to the outside world, but his focus reaching deep into the darkness. His self appeared alone, standing in the dark, and then his memories were presented to him as screens—worlds he could step into. It was the first time he had found this.
Suddenly, before he could truly process his finding, Lilith's warmth reached him. Her consciousness materialized an avatar of herself next to him, followed by one of Aria. Both women took a seat next to him on the carpet within his mindscape.
Vance instantly felt urgency because there were things he didn't want to show. Those dark, dangerous secrets vanished instantly from the space, leaving only that which he had promised to share.
"What is this, my male?!" Lilith was extremely excited, her eyes locked on the three windows left.
"What I promised," Vance replied, calm again.
"I've never seen anything like this!" Lilith added. "Please show me more!"
Vance hesitated. How did people normally show their memories? Or see them? Like just flashes, confusing and inaccurate?
"Come," he said, and stepped into the first window—the first, full world.
Both women gasped. Even he would have, but somehow he felt that it was normal. He found himself in the parking lot of a massive shopping mall, standing next to the two women.
He would soon regret his choice when Lilith discovered the lingerie section. Time was completely under his control here, so they explored that world at length—the food, the movies, and countless other sights were there. However, he didn't let them try the food or anything else beyond clothing, because this entire construct, made with his original memories as a template, was a dangerous simulation that could never be dismissed as simple unreality.
The damage, however, was already done.
When he opened his eyes after the mental trip was over and the three windows had been thoroughly explored, he found his succubus wearing something completely different. Her old nightgown was gone—and he would never see that nightgown again.
Instead, she stood wearing an audacious piece of modern lingerie—a intricate frame of dark, delicate lace and thin straps that carefully outlined her high, rounded breasts and framed her intimate curves without actually covering them at all, designed for absolute, immediate access.
Vance stared. His pulse hammered against his ribs, his throat going dry as he took in the sight of her. In that single, breathless moment, he was right on the precipice—if she had pushed him right then, if she had simply looked at him and demanded he take her, he would have surrendered completely.
But Lilith was utterly oblivious to the storm she had just unleashed in him.
Driven by that pure, feminine obsession with feeling breathtakingly pretty, she was far too focused on how the sleek fabric felt against her skin. Without noticing that Vance was practically rendered speechless, she nonchalantly pulled a modest black gown over top to cover her prize. She was dying to get back to her own room so she could materialize and try on the dozen other designs she had memorized, purely to admire how gorgeous she looked in them.
"Do you like my new clothes?" Lilith teased, flashing him a quick, radiant smile before turning around. "Come, Aria. We have a lot to do."
"What?" Aria let out, her voice squeaking in shock. She was currently wearing a white, see-through lace set as well—looking breathtaking, courtesy of Lilith's sudden fashion overhaul.
"Let's not interrupt Vance's rest anymore. Let's go. Thank you, my male," Lilith said, strutting toward the door in a pair of towering high-heeled sandals she had materialized, dragging a blushing Aria behind her by the hand.
"No... Problem..." Vance managed to let out into the quiet room.
He sat alone on the carpet, taking a long, slow breath to regain his composure as the door clicked shut.