Far away from the Duke's estate, the allied army made camp, resting for the night. They had marched many miles west, to the region where the villages had been attacked and where the demon worshippers reportedly had their main hideouts.
"Drink up, Kilis! Tomorrow we'll have no time for it!" Jörn boomed, devouring the contents of his mug. They sat by a campfire, the royal soldiers drinking heavily.
"Haha, no thanks, you know I don't drink—" Kilis stopped mid-sentence, his gaze snapping to the west.
He was the first to notice it. Even before Jin and the succubus back at the castle, Kilis sensed a particularly terrifying aura rising in the distance.
'This...' he thought, his blood running cold. 'That is not part of the intel I received.'
"Is something wrong?" Jörn asked, lowering his mug.
"Nothing," Kilis replied, his expression smoothing over.
'It's still far away,' he thought, his hand tightening on the hilt of his dagger. 'I need to finish this mission, fast.'
"I'm going to sleep," Kilis said, standing up abruptly.
"Bah! You're so boring," Jörn grumbled, already reaching for another drink.
Kilis ignored him, his mind focused on the distant disturbance. 'This aura... it must be from a being of the other realms.'
"You are right," a sinister voice whispered, not into his ear, but directly inside his mind.
'I didn't call for you,' Kilis thought, his internal voice sharp.
"I know. But I sensed him too," the voice continued, amused. "It should be one of the Demon Monarchs. You have no chance of winning against that."
'You think so?'
"I know so. He's from the Third Realm, which means he can't enter this world without restriction. He's only able to use a quarter of his power, at most, or he'll face Heavenly Tribulation." The voice paused, then added, "If you let me take over, I can kill him. If not... he'll destroy this entire kingdom." It finished with a dry, cackling laugh.
'No. I have my own plans.'
"As you wish... hahahaha..."
The voice faded. Kilis entered his tent and laid down on the simple blanket that served as his bed, staring into the darkness of the canvas.
'Soon,' he thought, his eyes hardening. 'Soon, this will all end.'
***
At that same moment, back in the castle, Jin wondered who could be emitting such a powerful aura. The outburst had been too brief, and his cultivation level was still too shallow to track or identify its distant source.
"Normally, such a powerful being shouldn't be able to exist in this mortal realm," he thought, pacing his small room. "But then again, I am here, so anything is possible."
Then he remembered.
'The sacrifice altar... with a large enough ritual, it would be possible to summon someone. One of the beings from the hell realm, perhaps? But the altar I saw was too small. There wasn't nearly enough chaotic energy there to summon a being of this magnitude...'
His eyes widened in realization.
'The demon worshippers... I thought they were all talk. But it seems they actually succeeded elsewhere. They summoned a being from the hell realm, which means this kingdom is doomed.'
He went to the window, looking out at the dark, empty courtyard where the army had departed.
"Gilga, I am sorry," he whispered. "It seems your death will be in vain."
He let out a sigh. "I wish I could fight this demon to warm up, but I am far too weak, even though it is probably heavily weakened by this realm's restrictions. I doubt those worshippers have any way to control what they've summoned."
A cold, analytical smile touched his lips. "I wonder how this will play out."
Jin knew he needed a solution to his cultivation problem, but after the initial surge of adrenaline, his mortal body's exhaustion took over. He calmed himself and went back to sleep. For now, there was nothing he could do.
The creature on the Duke's balcony, however, thought otherwise.
'I am weakened right now,' she thought, her grey-skinned form shivering as she stared into the dark. 'I can't fight that demon.'
'If it notices me, I'll be dead for sure. But I need this Duke's special constitution!' She glanced back at the sleeping man. 'He's too weak to handle me taking more. If I drain him too fast, he'll die, and I'll lose the source. I have to siphon it slowly. Just having more sex with the fool won't speed up the process safely.'
She estimated her progress. 'I must have about fifty percent of his vitality by now. But I need at least ninety percent before I can safely assimilate this energy and regain my true power. What a dilemma... and to top it all off, I don't feel a shred of pleasure from that ugly oaf.'
Her frustration mounted. 'I'll have to pleasure myself again tonight, or I'll lose control and destroy this place far too soon.'
She brought one hand to her breast and the other back down between her legs. "Ahhh..." she moaned, her head thrown back. "This feeling... this power... I need more of it!"
She convulsed, climaxing violently against her own hand, releasing her essence onto the cold stone floor.
"That demon monarch," she panted, her rage returning, "had better not ruin my plans."
She went back into the bedchamber and laid down next to the deeply sleeping Duke. A cruel smile played on her lips as she looked at his oblivious face.
She raised her hand, which was still slick with the sticky essence of her fluids, and hovered it over his lips.
"Taste it," she whispered, her voice a low purr. "Taste the promise of your death."
The very act, the sheer audacity of her dominance over him, sent another ecstatic shiver through her. Her entire body pulsed with a dark, satisfied energy. She bit her lip to silence her own pleasure as the feeling crested.
"This," she breathed, "is true satisfaction."
What Jin, the creature, and Kilis didn't know was that the distant demon monarch had just found a treasure—one that would change the entire situation drastically.