The Hero Became a Succubus, and the Only Way to Level is to… What?!

 

A shuddering earthquake snapped Kanae awake. The ground shook violently, and she nearly fell over twice just trying to get up. On the other hand, Arenade was still sound asleep with an eye mask over her face.

"Ugh… Who set that alarm?" Edina sat upright, rubbing her crusty eyes.

"That's not an alarm. Something's happening outside! Arenade, wake up already!" Kanae tried to shake the elf awake, but the elf wouldn't stir. "I'm going to molest the shit out of you if you don't wake up."

Arenade's snoring seemed to grow a little louder. It took Edina coming up from behind and giving her a swift kick to the ass.

"OW! Excuse me, but I believe I still have five more necessary hours of beauty sleep!" Arenade lifted the eye mask and glared.

They ran outside with their gear equipped and stopped cold. A parade of walking trees slowly marched past them. Some large, many small. Leaves shook loose with every step, and a heavy thud followed suit from each footfall.

The trees left behind trampled, flattened ground in their wake. Panicked animals and monsters darted away. Confused critters on

the marching trees clung onto the branches for dear life, including… what appeared to be some kind of dwarven humanoids?

Those odd-looking faefolk were maybe three feet tall at best. They had incredibly large heads compared to their bodies, which were stumpy and a fraction of the height. Their arms and legs were reminiscent of primates, allowing them to hold onto the marching trees. A ring of red hair framed their faces.

"Holy march of ents!" Edina gasped.

One of them took notice of Kanae and her companions. To their surprise, he steered the tree up to them.

"Greetings, strange ones!" the fae greeted. "Might you be admiring the parade? A spectacular sight, is it not? We thought to stop by Shimmeroong to trade with a satyr settlement, but it seems they have been besieged. On to another city, I suppose."

"Exactly where are you headed?" Kanae asked.

"To the endaran city of Starlight. Would you perhaps like a ride?" he offered.

Kanae recalled a satyr mentioning 'Endar'. But that was a place of enslavers. If they were to find the rest of the ingredients, then Starlight might be the place to look. The trio accepted. Finding hospitality in Faerealm was a rare treat, and they were willing to accept it wherever offered.

Vines lowered down from the branches. Kanae and Edina flew up instead while Arenade climbed up the makeshift rope. As they began their journey to Starlight, the Porupo poured out from the longhouse to give chase.

"God is leaving!"

"Don't forsake us!"

"You sure you don't want to give them one last suckle?" Kanae teased.

"Supreme One's beard, I don't want to remember…" Arenade clutched herself and shuddered.

Riding on the tree was surprisingly smooth. There were a few scares of almost falling off when it traversed rough terrain. Many of the dwarf-like fae rested on hammocks tied between branches. It was almost as if they were on a bus, except it was made of wood and walked on two legs.

Monsters hesitated to approach and made a wide berth around or steered clear. Faerealm had no shortage of unique monsters. Even though Kanae was originally from earth, and everything in her second home was new to her, everything here was a lot… stranger, to say the least.

The parade marched past a lake, where an inhabiting house-sized toad captured animals with its sticky tongue and ate whole. Swarms of tiny flying snakes shimmered in and out of existence, leaving behind a cloud of colorful gas. One of the fae riding with them huffed it all, then fell into a hallucinogenic trance. Apparently, even the ents needed to rest. They stopped by a glittering lake to hydrate themselves, dipping their feet and roots into the water.

In the middle of drinking water, an enormous plant monstrosity emerged. It snatched a few fae off the branches for a snack. When Kanae, Arenade, and Edina wanted to go help, the one who had invited them motioned against it.

"Ah, there's plenty of us around. Won't miss a few dead. Besides, no sense in risking your life against the wildlife," he said.

"On second thought, I'm not thirsty." Arenade, her face paler than a ghost, backed away from the river.

"Faerealm is scary… I think I like it up here… in the safety of the branches…" Edina trembled as she clung to the upper tree.

Necromancer or not, it seemed that some fears were baked into instinct. They boarded the ents again after rehydrating. According to the fae, Starlight wasn't much farther.

"Thank you for letting us ride with you," Kanae said as she weaved through the branches up to the fae. "We can actually fly, but we probably would've run into a bunch of danger. I still haven't gotten your name yet. I'm Kanae."

"Mito's the name. And no problem! I can tell the three of you aren't from Faerealm. What even brings you here?" Mito asked.

"This. Think we can find these in Starlight?" She showed him the list of ingredients for Fairy Rot, three of which they had already obtained and still needed to find the other four.

He tugged on his beard for a second and lit up. "Oh! I recognize these. All very hard to find and exceedingly rare. Particularly the googarulodongwun. You may or may not find them in Starlight. If you do, it will cost you a pretty coin. Or a deal with a swamp hag."

Kanae cursed under her breath. She was hoping the ingredients would be easier to find in a city. If not, then maybe the Fairy Rot cure itself from some atelier or shop.

The ents lurched to a stop, nearly knocking everyone off. Actually, one fae did fall off and face planted on the ground. They couldn't see why just yet. There were too many branches in the way.

"Mito! We've got trouble!" someone shouted from another ent.

Mito hopped off his hammock and waddled over to the end of a thick branch. He pushed the drapes of leaves aside to look down. They had come to a stop in a bog. Shallow murky waters rose up to around one to two feet up the legs of ents.

Another one of Mito's fellow fae directed their attention ahead. Protruding from the water were turtle shells. Many of them. They were covered in a layer of moss and not really moving.

"Tch. Damn it all. We'll have to go around," Mito growled.

"Why can't we just go through them?" Arenade joined to ask.

"Those things down there are hasty tortams. Tortoise people. Don't let their sluggish appearance fool you. In a burst of speed, they can move faster than a blink of the eye. Well, only once a day before falling into a weeklong slumber to regain energy," he explained.

Kanae squinted down the bog. There were a lot of shells in the water.

"How long would it take to get to Starlight if we went around compared to through?" Kanae asked.

"Tepid Bog is a big place. Going around… we're looking at maybe adding three days to the journey. Going through? By lunar rise, so less than half a day. But you're not seriously thinking of fighting through all those hasty tortams, are you?" Mito gasped.

Three days wasn't time they could afford to spare. Going around wasn't an option. It was through or over, and riding on the ents had been the safest journey yet. 

"Why don't you go down?" Kanae elbowed Arenade in the side.

"Gross. No! Look how nasty that water is down there. It's going to get my robe all dirty. I like mud baths, but not this kind. There's also no telling what other disgusting monster is lurking around! Why don't you go down there?" Arenade suggested.

"I have Prestidigitation now to clean us up," she said, but shifted gears when it wasn't working. "I'm saying you should go, because you're the… right, you're the strongest of us three! What's a bunch of tortoises to you? Faerealm is like an uncharted world for you to demonstrate your magic and strength to its people. All these fae and ents? They're just waiting for you to perform a miracle. Imagine, denizens from another realm worshiping you, Demigoddess Arenade Brightwind."

"Heh. Hehe! At last, you're coming to realize my worth! These creatures will rue the day they stood in my way, and that day is today!" The priest donned a suit of armor with Holy Armament and descended into the bog.

"That was easy," Edina remarked snidely.

Filled with confidence and power, Arenade landed in the bog. The swamp waters were up to her shins. However, no amount of dirt or mud managed to stain the golden armor. She summoned a shield into her other hand, then brandished Great Retort at the closest hasty tortam.

"I-I forgot to mention that it's mating season for hasty tortams! Your friend really shouldn't be down there," Mito said worriedly.

"Mating season?" Kanae and Edina repeated before turning their attention back to their priest.

"You there, lowly creature. Move aside or be moved. Rejoice, for I've given you the agency to make the choice yourself!" Arenade exclaimed with her high elven arrogance.

It neither responded nor moved.

"Hello? Is anyone home?" She knocked on the turtle shell.

The hasty tortam suddenly stood upright on two feet. It towered over Arenade by an extra head. They almost looked kind of silly. Deep and loose jowls hung from their jaws. Its skin was green and mottled with black spots.

However, they were all drawn to the sight of the hasty tortam's cock. The massive thing might as well be a giant club while erect, and it bumped against Arenade's golden plate armor.

"Uhh… H-Hey, no one told me these things were going to be horny! Kanae, I think this is a job for you!" Arenade yelled nervously from below.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Kanae licked her lips and jumped down. She landed, only to find Arenade floating face down in the water. The elf was no longer in armor. Her robes had been pulled off and tossed to the side. Great Retort floated next to her, too.

What happened? Arenade was just fine a second ago. Upon closer inspection, white spunk was leaking out from her pussy. The hasty tortam she confronted was gone, nowhere to be seen any more.

"No one screws my busty high elven wife and gets away with it!" Kanae shouted.

"Look out!" Mito warned.

Farther in the bog, other hasty tortams were waking up. They yawned deeply. Kanae prepared herself for a fight, but an impact punched her gut and knocked the wind from her lungs. No. That wasn't quite right. She doubled over in soreness, feeling like someone had just pummeled her pussy for hours.

"Uu… What just… happened…" Kanae twitched in pleasure as ejaculate dribbled down her thighs.

"I told you, these things aren't slow! They expend all their movement in a single burst of speed. Whenever it's mating season, hasty tortam males gather in a body of water and wait for a female to pass by. You have to get out of there before they fuck you to death!" Mito explained in panic.

"Arenade, get up! We gotta get out of here!" She lifted the elf, who gagged on a mouthful of cum. "When did—"

Kanae couldn't speak. Her throat was beyond sore, and she also had a mouthful of her own. It felt like something had throat-fucked her the entire day. She gulped the jizz down and tried to take off flying.

All at once, Kanae orgasmed intensely. Both of her holes were sore. Now, her ass and pussy oozed with tortam seed.

"Cough! This is… a nightmare…" Arenade spat out a loogie of jizz. "I'm getting fucked at the speed… of li— aaahhh!"

Another flood of cum poured from Kanae's pussy. Her knees and thighs were weak. One after another, tortams had their way with them in a fraction of a second. Before long, both of them were lying in the bog water mixed with a pool of viscous white goo.

"Amazing… the elf and succubus are sacrificing themselves to clear the way!" Mito whooped.

That is not what's happening!

Edina fluttered down, but only just before her toes touched the water. Kanae wanted to warn her until a chilly wind passed through. 

"Creeping Frost!" Edina sent forth a frigid gale that froze the water and tortams before they awakened.

A couple of undead minions pulled Kanae and Arenade onto the frozen sleet that used to be the bog, now an icy expanse with a layer of mist over it.

"Pweh! Since when did you have ice magic?" Kanae wiped the cum from her chin.

"For a while now, actually! Necromancy's spell domain overlaps with ice magic and poison magic. I rarely ever use them though. What's a necromancer who uses ice or poison magic? Be glad I'm not above casting—"

"YOU SHOULD HAVE CAST THAT EARLIER, YOU DUMB BITCH!" Arenade grabbed Edina by the robe and violently shook her.

"Ack, stop! You're getting tortam jizz all over me!" Edina cried.

Much to Arenade's relief, Kanae's Prestidigitation cleaned the gunk off them and their equipment. Mito was glad for their presence, because if it wasn't for them, they would have needed the ents to go around.

Edina's impromptu ice magic put the tortams into a state of low energy. Reptiles didn't function well in extreme cold after all. It was also hard to stay erect in freezing temperatures. The ents were able to traverse the bog just fine now, and they walked over the sleet of ice with ease.

Fortunately, the caravan faced no more problems along the way. It was a smooth march all the way to Starlight, an endar city of Faerealm.

The forest was behind them now. Before their eyes was a dense, sprawling city of gray stones and impossibly tall spires that stretched into the dark blue sky. In the sky, an illusory mushroom cloud shimmered above them, like a sort of ghost from a long dead tree. No moon or star could be seen, yet a soft glow of light bathed Faerealm in spite of their absence. Like Highgreen, canals were interwoven with roads that snaked through each block. Lights behind every building window flickered with life.

It reminded them of cities in their own plane, but there was a sense of capriciousness about Starlight that put them on edge. As if… the city itself seemed to be alive in a way.

No one cared that ents walked right in. This was just another day for them. A fairy almost bumped into an ent, and she threatened to viciously shave it down to a stump.

One common race strolled the streets with slaves as casually as walking a dog. Endars. They weren't much taller than Kanae or Arenade. Their skin, however, were varying shades of blue from the lightest touch of azure to the darkest of midnight. Like elves, they shared long and pointy ears. High cheekbones and slender figures were also a regular sight among them.

Endars weren't the only races around though. Fairies like Cylia fluttered about, picking fights left and right. Satyrs walked about but kept to themselves, and they showed meekness around endarans. The ruling race of Starlight was obvious.

"It was nice meeting you, strange folk!" Mito let them off on a bridge between two city blocks. "If we meet again, then we meet again. Farewell, and remember the rule of Faerealm: never make a deal with a hag!"

The ents and dwarf-fae marched off deeper into the city.

"Why do people have to purposefully raise flags… We've been good about it so far." Kanae sighed.

"We should probably look for shops, right? Our best bet are ateliers and alchemy parlors," Edina said.

The party picked the first shop they came across, an unassuming residence with an 'open' sign on the window. As soon as the trio entered, a creepy old lady with a heavy mantle cloaked over greeted them.

"Kekeke… Hello, dearies—"

"Hmm. Nope!" Kanae made an about face and walked right out.

They entered another shop called 'Nana's Poultices'. Another elderly woman with an ominous aura flashed her jagged yellow teeth when she smiled. The three walked out of that one, too.

The third store was also managed by a ghoulish lady. Bell chimes on the front door even played a terrifying tune as they entered.

"Are all shops in Starlight run by hags?!" Kanae dropped to her knees and despaired.

"I mean, we just gotta make sure not to bargain with hags. How hard can it be?" Edina asked.

"Oh, you mean you wouldn't mind walking into a store with a hag pointing at some suspicious contact?" Arenade glared at a shop where someone was doing exactly that.

They avoided eye-contact immediately.

"We'll check hag shops as a last resort. How about we just find a place to stay for now?" Kanae suggested.

"Agreed." Edina and Arenade nodded.