The Abomination lunged forward with surprising agility, raising a massive limb fused from several arms to crush the group.
However, Lilith had no intention of waiting for the impact. She pushed off the ground with both feet, her wings snapping open and propelling her like a meteor. She was in front of the monster in a fraction of a second. Crossing her talons in a destructive gesture, she struck the Abomination's descending limb.
THUD!
The Monarch's metallic talons collided with the rock-hard, rotten tissue, blocking the attack mid-swing. The monster roared in fury, and a wave of hatred struck Lilith again, causing her HP bar to flicker slightly downward. The Rotting Abomination raised its other free hand, intent on crushing the Monarch who dared to block it.
Suddenly, thick, thorny vines erupted from the stone walls along the monster's arm. They wrapped around the limb with incredible force, immobilizing it mid-swing. The Abomination's main heads turned toward Mina, who was weaving the spell with effort but determination. The monster roared in frustration and jerked with all its might, but the vines held fast.
That moment of hesitation was all Kala needed. Exploiting the brief opening and the monster's fury directed at Mina, Kala - shrouded in the scarlet aura of a berserker - shot forward like a bolt from a crossbow. She appeared right behind the Abomination, where the rot was thinnest. With fury in her eyes, she drove her talons deep into the monster's side, piercing it through and through.
The Abomination let out an inhuman howl of pain that chilled the blood. It jerked violently, tearing the vines from the earth and breaking Mina's hold, but it was already too late. Kala, with a wild smile on her lips, ripped her talons from its body, leaving a gaping wound from which black, toxic gore erupted.
Lilith pushed off the ground, leaving cracked stone beneath her feet. Her talons crossed with the Abomination's massive, fused arm, producing the sound of metal grinding against hard, dead bone.
"Now!" she cried, though her voice was nearly drowned out by the monster's furious roar.
Mina immediately struck the damp mine floor with her open palms. Thick, spiked vines erupted from cracks in the rock, coiling around the monster's legs and torso like giant snakes. The Abomination jerked, and one of its heads spat a stream of corrosive slime, but the plants tightened further, biting into the rotting flesh.
"You're not going anywhere, you monstrosity!" Mina hissed, tensing her muscles to maintain the magical grip.
The monster, immobilized and focused on the vegetation tearing at it, didn't notice the red blur flashing over its left shoulder. Kala was already in the air. Her body pulsed with such intense scarlet that the gloom of the cave seemed to burn.
"Die!" Kala's roar was louder than the Abomination's scream.
She drove both hands deep into the monster's central chest, exactly where the seams connecting the corpses met. With a macabre crunch, she yanked in both directions, tearing apart the cluster of rot. Black, foul-smelling gore sprayed against the walls, and the monster staggered, losing its balance.
Lilith seized the second. She performed a lightning-fast spin, slicing through the air horizontally. Her talons passed through three of the Abomination's necks at once, cleanly severing the howling heads from the rest of the mutated torso.
The Rotting Abomination of Hatred remained motionless for a split second, still entwined by Mina's vines, before its body went limp. The gargantuan mass of meat collapsed to the ground with a heavy, wet thud, kicking up a cloud of dust and stench.
A sudden, ringing silence fell over the mine. The only sound was the heavy breathing of the three succubi standing over the enemy's carcass.
[You killed a Rotting Abomination of Hatred! Gold +300!]
Lilith let a long, trembling sigh of relief out of her lungs as the tension slowly left her muscles. She looked at her companions. Mina, without waiting for a command, went to work immediately. First, she tended to Kala's talons, and a moment later, she approached Lilith.
The green, soothing light of nature magic wrapped around the Monarch's hands. Lilith was slowly growing accustomed to the characteristic stinging that accompanied the cleansing of the rot's venom. When she glanced at her interface, she saw her HP bar was full again, glowing an unbroken red.
"Thanks, Mina. Good job," she said with a smile, to which the small succubus simply puffed out her chest proudly.
A healer who can not only heal but also effectively immobilize enemies... that's just OP, Lilith thought. Without her, this mine would have been a path through purgatory.
At that same moment, the paralyzing grip of the Abomination's aura released. The fifty skeletons jerked almost simultaneously, returning to their mechanical, soulless march. Lilith looked at them critically and shook her head.
Bringing them here was a bit pointless, she concluded in her thoughts. They're only good for moving stones and making a crowd. In a serious fight, they are completely useless. It's a good thing the ceilings in this mine are so high.
She looked up at the dark ceiling disappearing somewhere high above their heads. The fact that they could use their wings freely gave them a gargantuan advantage. If the corridors had been low and cramped, forcing them to fight in their human forms, conquering this territory would have been nearly impossible.
Lilith narrowed her eyes, peering into the depths of the darkest tunnel. She felt it. The deepest area was just around the corner, and a presence radiated from it so dense and dark it was almost palpable.
What kind of being could have built a mine like this? And what led to the creation of such warped fusions of corpses as that Abomination? she wondered, feeling a cold shiver on her neck.
Remaining highly alert, the three succubi began to descend even lower, leaving the skeletons slightly behind. The ghostly screams that were previously only echoes now resounded with such force it was as if someone were screaming directly into their ears. A sudden flash of the system interface nearly blinded them.
[You have been afflicted by the Curse of the Undead. Healing effect -50%!]
[You have been afflicted by the Weakening Curse. MP -1 every 10 seconds!]
Lilith felt a sudden hit of weakness. Her mana points began to drain systematically, as if a small hole had opened in her body through which energy was leaking. It was a powerful debuff, but Mina took it the hardest. She was the only one of them who relied almost exclusively on MP and healing magic, which was now drastically weakened.
Mina winced, clutching her chest. Her face paled slightly, and her confidence momentarily gave way to irritation and unease.
"I hate this place..." Mina hissed, feeling her magic reserves slowly evaporate. "If we don't find the source of this curse fast, I'll be without energy for even the simplest vine soon!"
Lilith grit her teeth, her talons sliding out with a quiet click. "We have to hurry. Whatever is sitting down there is trying to bleed us dry before we even reach it."
The gloom of the mine began to thicken, and the icy tentacles of the curse bit into their essence with every passing second. Lilith exchanged a quick, knowing look with Kala and Mina. There was no more time for a slow march with the skeletons.
"Leave the bone-bags! We have to reach the source before this hole sucks all our mana out!" Lilith commanded.
With those words, the three succubi unfurled their wings and shot forward, slicing through the air like black lightning. They flew through the tunnels at breakneck speed, ignoring isolated zombies that tried to block their path - Kala simply rammed them in flight, turning them into a bloody mist. They felt their MP dropping, and every second of delay worked against them. This place was designed to slowly bleed intruders dry until they became part of the local scenery.
Finally, the tunnels expanded abruptly, and they burst into a gargantuan cavern that took their breath away with its macabre scale. They landed on ground that was no longer stone - it was soft, strewn with a thick layer of crushed white bones.
Before them lay a gargantuan underground chapel, illuminated by thousands of ghostly blue flames levitating in the air. However, what stood at the very center made even Lilith feel a shiver of pure terror.
Inside the mountain, in a place where no sunlight should reach, a monstrous tree was growing. It was nearly a hundred meters tall, its branches reaching the vault, clawing into the rock like talons.
"How... how could something like this grow here?" Mina choked out, clutching her shoulders. "There's no life here, only death..."
Lilith narrowed her eyes, her ears pulsing from the roar. This was it. The source of all the sorrowful screams that carried through the mine. Every gust of wind, every groan of the mine was born right here. As they stepped closer, Lilith felt goosebumps appear on her skin.
The tree's bark was not wood. It was living, pulsing tissue, entirely covered by thousands of deformed human and half-orc faces. The mouths of these beings were open in an eternal, silent scream, and their eyes - empty sockets - seemed to track every movement of the succubi.
Lilith felt the Curse of the Undead hit here with triple force. This tree didn't grow thanks to water or sun. It fed on the suffering and souls of those who died in the mine, turning their pain into physical matter.
"It's not a tree," Lilith whispered, extending her talons, which shimmered ominously in the blue light of the flames. "It's a parasite on the soul of this mountain. And it looks like we've just found the host of our bronze chest."
Kala stood beside her, her scarlet berserker aura rippling, fighting against the chapel's blue glow. "Whatever it is, you chop it just the same as a zombie, right?"
Mina winced, looking at the faces writhing on the bark. "I hope so, because this sight is worse than Kala's feet. Let's destroy it fast before I lose the rest of my mana!"