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

After a night of drinking, calm returned to Talahurah as citizens returned to work and went about their lives. The health of the new kh'shanti seedling certainly lifted spirits. Kanae no longer walked past sulking beastmen. They stood upright, their smiles beamed as much as the morning sun, and a newfound vigor carried them throughout the day.

Kanae dropped by the seedling first thing in the morning. A few of Chieftain Sheeba's honor guards kept watch over the young plant. It had grown significantly since she last checked. The roots had grown as thick as her pinky and anchored themselves to its predecessor's stump. The trunk was about the circumference of her forearm, too. All that magic seeping out from when the original kh'shanti fell must be feeding the seedling now.

Something about the tree did catch Kanae's attention. A very subtle and distinct image of a woman's figure appeared to have taken shape on the trunk. She wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't for her being a horndog.

"Weird… Is this from Gaea's gem or something?" Kanae wondered aloud to herself.

No sense in worrying about it now. If she were to unearth the gem, that would be going back on her end of the deal with a demigod.

Satisfied with the kh'shanti's condition, Kanae made her way over to the Eminence of Sin church. The adjacent brothel was lively as usual, but she wasn't going to be a prostitute today. Instead, she had another promise to fulfill. When Kanae threw open the door to one of the deepest rooms in the church, a fog of necromantic energies that seemed to groan rolled past her feet.

"Annnnnd we're almost done!" Edina exclaimed after affixing a skull atop a pile of more skulls.

Arenade wore the most sour look on her face. She had been forced to hold the Pillar of the Damned aloft while Edina fiddled with the pile, which appeared to be the source of the necromantic fog.

"Thank the Supreme One you're here, Kanae. My arms are getting sore. Switch, switch!" Arenade hollered.

"Oh, can it. All you had to do was hold the staff, and you're still complaining? We're done with part one anyway." Edina snatched the staff from the high elf's hands.

They had cleared out a storage room much earlier in the morning. It was here, in the heart of the Talahurah Branch church, that Edina would plant her next soul cairn.

"What's the next part?" Kanae asked.

Edina retrieved the Scythe of Soul Reaping from the same depths her undeads emerge from and brandished it. "We've set up the soul cairn. So next, we the souls of some powerful monsters to charge it with. That way, it weakens the veil between our plane and the Realm of Eternal Sleep."

"I'm still wholly against this, by the way!" Arenade interjected. "Creating soul cairns is illegal in the entire world. There's a reason we don't have liches around. Well, maybe we do, and they're just in hiding— but you get my point!"

"Last I checked, it ain't illegal in the Commonwealth. And I'm a founding ruler!" The necromancer smirked.

Arenade turned to Kanae for help.

"Sorry, Arenade. I'm with Edina on this. Besides, if things go wrong, we have a world-class priest to solve an undead problem. Everyone knows how capable you are," Kanae explained.

"Heh. I suppose they do. I am very capable, given my divine existence! What are undeads to a priest?" Arenade was too busy basking in praise to realize she had been played.

Off to the side, Kanae and Edina clasped hands having once again duped their conceited high elf.

The three of them flew to the adventurer's hall. Being so early in the day, most people had picked up quests to do already. Only a few were around to drink and cavort. Kanae and her companions planted their faces against the notice board. They were surprised to find it mostly barren.

"Where are all the quests?!" Edina complained.

"I'm so sorry! I'm on my way" Taileen rushed over and had to catch her breath.

"Taileen? What are you doing here?" Kanae asked.

The flustered beastman hare cleared her throat. "Oh, greetings… Queen Kanae… High Priestesses Arenade and Edina! Well, lately the adventurer's hall has been having trouble. It's usually really busy, with a lot of quests coming in and lots of people picking up quests. Talahurah is a big city, so they asked me and Erin for help collecting requests from citizens. It's been very hectic as of late. Just give me one second while I put up these quests!"

Taileen pinned wanted posters and papers of slaying requests onto the board. They weren't run-of-the-mill quests like killing slimes or repelling predator attacks on livestock. When Kanae, Arenade, and Edina took one look at the pinned notices, the urge to take on any of them went out the window.

They crowded in front of one quest, which asked them to plug a magma-spewing salamander monster that had awakened from its slumber in the frigid mountains north of Talahurah. Recommended classes: Geomancers and Elementalists. Use of fire resistance potions highly suggested.

Another needed help dealing with a Beheading Wraith Knight, an apparition inhabiting a full suit of armor that appears randomly and attacks anyone. Decapitated heads had been found wherever it was sighted, whether they were adventurers, travelers, or monsters. Classes with extremely high defenses recommended.

A monster known as a king rampape was causing trouble along a frequently-traveled road, throwing boulders at caravans and hindering trade.

"Th-This one seems easy!" Arenade grabbed the king rampape quest.

"What are you talking about? Clearly, we should be taking the Beheading Wraith Knight quest!" Edina insisted.

"I want to keep my neck, thank you very much. If you or Kanae are beheaded, don't count on me to heal you!" the priest protested.

"Our classes are also the furthest thing from having 'extremely high defenses'. We also aren't Geomancers or Elementalists, so the magma-spewing salamander is a definite no," Kanae added nervously.

"Okay, fiiine!" the necromancer groaned.

They soared out of Talahurah on the back of Edina's undead dragon. King rampapes were the dire form of common rampapes. The monsters were supposed to be adverse to conflict, so it was strange to hear them attacking anything. If attacked, however, rampapes wouldn't hesitate to retaliate by flinging things.

Their destination was the eastern arm of the Imperial Span. Rown Company had been hard at work extending the high elves' ancient road. It wouldn't be long now before every major city in the Commonwealth is connected. The chairwoman herself, Renya, was probably already making plans to extend into Artaggon, too.

"I can't wait, I can't wait! Once I finish this one, I'll be half-way done!" Edina giggled to herself from the head of the dragon.

"You're at five? I thought the third one was in Amethyst Hall. Where did you put the fourth?" Kanae asked.

"Yeah, I stuffed it inside Cantu. You ain't gonna find a more secure place than the body of a death knight." She grinned.

The party arrived at the Imperial Span with plenty of daylight to spare. As the squirreling's luck would have it, they came just in time to witness a rampape attack on a caravan of wagons and carriages. Large chimp-like beasts with gray fur and big underbites hurled rocks at the poor people, who hid on one side of their vehicles to escape the shower of stones.

One among them was bigger than the rest. It bellowed loudly and pointed at Kanae and her companions, who were beelining for the Imperial Span.

"We don't wanna kill 'em," Edina warned. "Just incapacitate the big guy, so I can rip his soul out!"

"Arenade, help the caravan. I'll deal with the smaller ones first!" Kanae leaped off the dragon and veered away.

Arenade casted Holy Armament, granting herself wings and a suit of armor. She landed beside the grateful merchants and adventurers, who seemed to have taken a beating from the rampape ambush.

Meanwhile, Kanae laid waste to the chimp monsters with Hailstorm. A torrent of hail bludgeoned a lot of slower ones, then made sure they stayed down with a Doom & Gloom-infused Sleep spell to affect a wide area. As many tried to get up only to slip on the sleet of ice, they teetered side to side before falling unconscious.

Enough of them had escaped to still pose a problem. They were stronger than the rest or had jumped off the Imperial Span to avoid Kanae's spells. Too bad an army of undead awaited them at the bottom of the highway. Their shrill cries were cut short by swift deaths. Terrified by the loss of his fellows, the king rampape made a run for the forest.

"Kanae, we gotta incap the ape!" Edina yelled.

"With what? I don't have any restraining spells!" Kanae replied as she gave chase.

Conjured Caltrops wouldn't work against a stampeding beast. The king rampape was also among the monsters unaffected by Sleep.

"I don't either… I'll go get Arenade! Use your body in the meantime or something, I dunno!" Edina suggested.

"Well, you don't have to tell me twice!" Kanae landed in front of the king rampape and flashed it with Piercings of Impurity.

The hulking beast beat the ground with his fists and roared. When he could finally see again, Kanae had taken off her clothes and used two fingers to spread the lips of her pussy.

"Where do you think you're going? How about repopulating your pack with me?" Kanae switched on Versatile Womb.

Turned on by the scent of her womb becoming biologically compatible, the rampape sprung a massive erection. He picked her up with two coarse hands. A hot and heavy tongue licked her face. The tip of an even hotter piece of meat throbbed against the entrance of her pussy.

"Come on, you big ape! Fuck the daylights out of me! Make me pay for what we just did to your kind by having me birthing more! I want your cock to make a mess out of my pussy!" Kanae cried enthusiastically.

The rampape cock pried open just pussy. Just as they were getting to the good part— Thunk!

Arenade bashed the king rampape over the head with a giant fucking hammer. The monster fell forward on top of Kanae, crushing her underneath his weight. She flailed her arms out to the side for help and was running out of air until two death knights pushed the beast off.

"Whew. There's no better restraining spell than a good whack to the head. Aren't you glad I made it in time?" Arenade smiled.

"I feel so cockblocked right now…" Kanae sighed and switched off Versatile Womb.

After Kanae got dressed, she and Arenade went to check on the caravan. The folks were so grateful, they tried to offer them a small sack of gold. Both of them refused and ushered the merchants to be on their way before another monster attack came.

The two returned to Edina, who was in the process of using the Scythe of Soul Reaping to carve the king rampape soul out of its body. A translucent mist clung tightly to the curved blade, but even the slightest movement from the necromancer threatened to lose it. She had to be careful not to wave the scythe around too much.

Eventually, the writhing soul of the king rampape settled down. Edina guided it into a metal lantern, oozing with purplish necromantic energies, that hung on her girdle.

"I just witnessed blasphemy." Arenade shook her head.

"Cool blasphemy." Edina grinned.

"H-Help!" someone screamed from the direction of the Imperial Span.

They flew back up to the highway to find the caravan being impeded by a lone knight— No. It wasn't just any ordinary knight. The towering figure was clad in full black armor and a closed helmet. A dark fog billowed out from the gaps and seams of its suit. In its right hand dragged a giant broadsword capable of decapitating a horse.

"The Beheading Wraith Knight?!" the three of them exclaimed in terror.

With one swing of the massive sword, the ghostly knight took the head off of a languisteed. Everyone ran in the opposite direction. Although the wraith didn't give chase, it moved onto the next beast of burden.

Arenade was tiptoeing away until Kanae grabbed her by the back of the collar.

"You're the one whose magic can destroy that thing!" Kanae scolded.

"That wraith puts the fear of death in me! I'm not risking my neck. That caravan had the right idea. Let's get out of here!" Arenade pleaded.

"A wraith knight has to have a super strong soul to claim. Here comes the necromancer, baby!" Edina raced ahead to meet the ghost head on and summoned a knight of her own.

Death Knight Cantu emerged from a portal and parried the wraith knight from beheading another languisteed.

"Ho, there! Fellow undead foe, you are no match for—"

The wraith knight spun the other way and beheaded Cantu. His head went flying off the Imperial Span, and the rest of the body panicked and ran to catch it. In doing so, the death knight left its necromancer master alone.

"Uhh… Bow before a necromancer, lowly undead!" Edina commanded, but the wraith knight advanced on her instead. "Bad news, guys! My Compel Lesser Undead isn't working!"

"Edina, get down! Arenade, use the thing. Bond!" Kanae empowered the high elf, who shuddered intensely from having not experienced the spell in a while.

"WAIT, DON'T—"

"Sacred Exorcism!" Arenade fired a purifying beam from her Halo, catching the wraith knight and Edina, who threw her arms out in a silly attempt to block the spell.

"EDINA?!" Kanae and Arenade gasped.

Sacred Exorcism scorched off the dark miasma around the wraith knight, revealing gold and silver underneath. Arenade ended the beam, and they raced over to check on Edina. The necromancer was a smoking mess on the ground.

"My life is flashing… before my eyes…" Edina coughed up dust.

Kanae plugged a healing potion into Edina's mouth, and she recovered just enough to sit up.

"Fuck my squirrely cheek pouches… Being twice as vulnerable to holy damage hurts like a bitch… I feel like Petyr just smited my ass." Edina smacked the side of her head to knock some dust out of her ear.

"Why in three hells did you just in between my Sacred Exorcism, you idiot?" Arenade asked.

"I needed that wraith knight's soul! Speaking of which, what happened to it?" She searched left and right.

"Uhm. I'm pretty sure that's the wraith knight." Kanae pointed to the cleansed ornate armor on the ground, no longer covered in a mist of darkness.

It seemed Arenade purified the wraith which haunted the suit of armor. They got up to get a better look. Slowly, a translucent soul drifted from the plate as if trying to get a good look at the surroundings.

"Thank you, adventurers." A grateful voice echoed from it. "Now, my soul can finally—"

"Chance!" Edina scythed the soul and stuffed it into her lantern.

Kanae and Arenade's jaws dropped.

"That poor soul was about to pass on, you flat cunt of a tombstone!" Arenade wanted to get her hands on Edina, but Kanae held her back.

"Arenade, stop! We're in the same party!" Kanae managed to pull the elf out of arm's reach.

"I'll let the soul go after a few years of service, alright? Promise!" Edina beamed.

Except for one dead languisteed, everyone pretty much came out unscathed. The caravan continued on their way, and Kanae and her companions returned to Talahurah with two souls for the soul cairn.

Back in the confines of the church, Edina yanked the souls out and stuffed them into the pile of skulls. Kanae hadn't been present before when Edina created soul cairns. The sensation was akin to stepping out of a humid place and into a dry one. According to the necromancer, the souls served to open a small crack in the veil which led to the Realm of Eternal Sleep. This connection would enable her to eventually achieve lichdom, whatever that entailed.

"And done." Edina completed the ritual and dismissed the Sisters of Sin who were helping.

Now, the soul cairn was glowing just like the other ones that Kanae had seen before.

"It looks so ominous in a dark room like this…" Kanae grimaced.

"With that over with, can we go home now? My skin's been chafing since I used up my slime lotion. I need to restock in Ehmvier!" Arenade rubbed her dry cheeks on the way out of the room.

"Give me a sec. I forgot something." Edina ran back up to the door and placed a sign on it.

The wooden board read, 'Open at the risk of becoming an eternal undead minion -Edina Hackett, the greatest necromancer in the world'.

"Yeah, that will show people." Kanae laughed.

"If you got a better idea, I'm all ears!" Edina pouted.