The Tower of Trials

He'd barely opened his mouth to respond before she had swooped down behind him to the backs of his feet, bent over and wiggling her ass in the air. "Awh, heck! Lookit that!" She clicked her tongue and shook her head. "Snakebite, huh? Well!"

"Well, what?" Mikhail scowled down at her, jerking his foot away and turning to face her. "Beg your fucking pardon, but I'm not fool enough to let a succubus lay her lips on me!" Knife raised menacingly, he spat on the ground. "Think I don't know about your venom? For all I know, you're the one who did this to me!"

The succubus floated up to eye level once more, though hers held no glimmer of amusement. Half-lidded with the scowl to match, she just kind of stared at him for a moment. Before scoffing. "Wow. Lookit you. Did your homework and everything. Well, unfortunately for both of us..." Bringing her hands up to pull the corners of her mouth apart, she stretched her jaw wide -- though it was within the realm of normality, he had to admit -- and showed off her teeth.

Not a fang in sight, hollow or otherwise.

"Not exactly," she continued with a snap of her teeth, "a standard succubus. So, you know, thanks for that. I thought I had heard the last of that kind of crap from the other succubi, but apparently!" She threw her hands in the air suddenly enough to startle him. "Humans know enough about the 'normal' ones to make fun of me, too!"

Mikhail blinked at her. Could this be. A test? Each lesson his mentor had imparted to him had been true thus far, and he distinctly remembered that a succubus was possessed of three cardinal traits: her glamour, her venom, and her mesmer.

He had to be looking at her glamour. Demons were almost never that curvaceous naturally. Her mesmer, he was on guard for. She hadn't revealed it yet, but there wasn't a chance in Hell that she wasn't going to use it on him at some point. And her venom...was apparently. Nonexistent.

He watched her carefully. There had to be a catch. Some trap she was yet to spring upon him. Who's to say that her glamour wasn't disguising her fangs? Or perhaps she'd ensorcelled him with her mesmer the instant she'd set her eyes on him! She wasn't so unique as to lack one of the three sinister weapons of the succubus! She-

And his leg went limp under him.

Cursing, Mikhail crumpled to the ground, knife knocked from his grip by the fall and dignity similarly lost once more.

"Ooh, I toldja!" The succubus lowered to his level, shaking her head. "Didn't I? I said- Well, I didn't say, but I was about to say. You need someone to suck the poison out!"

Mikhail didn't know where to begin, so he opted to first sputter with indignation. "Suck the-" He repeated, hobbling to one leg. "Suck the poison out of it! That isn't- You can't suck venom out of a wound! That's not how it works!"

"Listen," she continued, rolling her eyes. "One of us has a snake bite buzzing away in their foot. No judgements! But I don't think that negative thinking is going to get you to where you need to be." She pressed her palms together and pointed her hands at Mikhail. "We have an idea. Right now isn't the time to say 'no.'"

"But that isn't-" Mikhail hissed through gritted teeth. Numbness had given way to a sort of pinprick-stinging in his ankle, and he would be lying if he said it wasn't worrying him. If only he'd caught a glimpse of what it was that had bitten him! Without that crucial key, there was no telling if his serums would help...or guide him to an early grave.

The succubus snapped her fingers in Mikhail's face, and it jolted him out of his panic. "Listen! Just give it a chance! Either way, you're fucked, right? So at least let's see if it works!"

"It's not-!" Gods below, but he couldn't think with her crowing at him! "Fine, fine!" He waved a hand in her face. "Go ahead!" At least he'd have some time to think if she was occupied with whatever nonsense she was talking about. Sucking the poison out! Peh!

That being said, she lit up at the permission. Hearts practically bloomed in her pupils as she kicked a foot back. "Ooh, you won't regret it! Here, lemme give it a try."

Curiously, though, she didn't seem to move. She stared into his eyes, that innocent smile upon her lips. Was she going to-

And then there was a little kiss upon his ankle, just this hint of pressure. Like a pair of plump, pillowy lips nipping at his heel. They seemed to probe the now-exposed skin for the wound, and then...they sucked.

The pain seemed to vanish almost instantly. The numbness, too. Relief had never been this fast, even with his mentor's antivenoms. But it shouldn't have worked at all, should it?! Sucking the venom from a wound, that was impossible! And yet here she had- Wait, how was she doing this, anyway?

A glance away from her face -- smile turned irritatingly smug -- showed that the supposed panacea was...the spaded tip of her tail.

At least, it had been spaded before. Now it had split down the middle to reveal a slippery, drooling maw. Toothless, it flexed and sucked, slurping out the venom and leaving Mikhail more or less cured. But the hydra of his wound had split in two at the revelation behind the supposed "cure," and, stumbling back, he pointed his knife at her.

"Devil! She-beast!" He snarled. The sudden jerk back wrenched his foot from the tail-mouth, though he was left staggering from its separation. "What kind of devilry is this?! Answer me!" Such a fool, trusting a succubus brazen enough to approach him without a glamour. No, this whole thing was a trap of her sinister device, one designed to leave him ensorcelled!

"Yeah, this is kind of what I figured." She spoke simply, vaguely disappointed. "Turncoat viper. Here." She snapped her fingers and plucked a handmirror from the air, showing Mikhail his reflection. For the most part, it was the one he'd seen a thousand times before. His eyes, though, were bloodshot. More than bloodshot, the whites of his eyes were nearly pure crimson.

He gawked at the sight, fury turning to shock before another snap sent the mirror vanishing into smoke. "Didn't quite get to it in time. See, the pain's more to distract you from the real point of it. When a turncoat's gotcha?" She shook her head with a sigh. "Everyone's out to get you. At least, that's how it seems to you." She clicked her tongue and planted her hands on her hips, looking angrily to the side. "Shoulda known when you started acting all grumpy!"

"Whuh-" He mumbled. Turncoat viper? He'd never heard of that before. But then, this was a forest unlike any he'd seen in his life, and- No, she was lying! She had to be! He pressed a palm to his forehead, suddenly dizzy. His ankle didn't hurt, but now his head ached. No, more than ached, it throbbed with a war-drum's maddening pound. Every heartbeat brought a spike of pain. It was impossible to think, much less-

She hugged him, and the pain seemed to fade. "Wow, you're looking to be in dire straits there, buddy." Her voice wasn't as shrill as before. Had it been shrill before? It was difficult to think between the flashes of skull-rattling pain. "Uhm. OK." She sounded concerned, actually. A nervous sort of tremor in her voice.

"There's not a lot I can actually do for you right now. Like, normally I'd just -- slurp! -- suck out the poison before it can get bad, but you were...Well." She sighed, drumming her fingers idly on his shoulderblade. Chin rested on his shoulder, the succubus paused in thought. "Not really your fault. Turncoat viper and all."

It was getting to be too much. Eyes screwed shut,

STAB

Mikhail grit his teeth. Sweat beaded on

STAB

his brow, and his skin flushed painful red.

STAB

"Stop...Stop...!" Why wouldn't it stop?!

"Here." Her tone had a certain nervous urgency to it now, and though he didn't see it, he felt her pull away. Hands on his shoulders, the succubus sucked in a breath as Mikhail shook with pain. "I can help you, but. I need your permission first. OK?"

"Fine!" He blurted it out without thinking, without even realizing what he could've just agreed to. It was just that miserable ache, right behind his eyes, and-

And it was gone. Just like that.

He blinked. Stared at her. For the most part, she looked more worried than anything else. Though as soon as his shoulder slumped -- since when had he been tensing them? -- hers did, too.

The succubus gave a sigh of relief and an airy sort of laugh to go with it. "Ho! Gosh, I was worried for a second there! I don't really see a lot of guys come back from a turncoat's venom without going absolutely bonkers, so. Good thing I got to you before you started foaming at the mouth, huh?" She smiled at him, wide and pure, and canted her head to the side. "Feel better?"

Mikhail looked down. He did feel better. Almost entirely better. Even the little aches and pains in his back were gone, replaced by blooming warmth. He stretched experimentally, and the pleasure it brought his muscles coaxed a happy hum from his lips. His eyes shut once more, and she giggled in response.

"Thought so. Had to do some quick thinking, but I guess it got the job done, huh?" She hugged him once more, and his body exulted in her presence. He'd been a little too occupied to really notice how her body felt against his when she'd hugged him before, but now...Ooh, now he could feel just how soft she was.

"What'd you do?" He asked, voice sounding relaxed to the point that his speech nearly slurred. "I feel incredible." His muscles seemed to go slack of their own accord. If she weren't there to catch him, Mikhail likely would've slumped to the ground.

"Oop! Hey, easy there, tough guy!" She giggled, and the most incredible thing happened to him. Before, there had been agonizing pain, invasive, stabbing his thoughts away. Now.

Now there was the opposite. A pleasant, disorienting throb of pleasure every few seconds. It did just as much to hinder his thoughts as

throb

the pain did, but there was an undeniable

throb

an undeniable sort of pleasure to it, and soon Mikhail w

throb

was having trouble remembering what

throb

he felt good

throb

real good

She smiled at him, and if Mikhail had been able to piece it together, he'd detect a note of...smugness to her grin. "See, I can't do much," she began, her voice all but lost to the pleasure-drunk ranger, "but I have a real particular glamour and a real particular mesmer. See my tail?"

The maw of her tail raised up once more, lips smacking and drool dribbling from its ravenous mouth. It swayed from side to side, just in front of Mikhail's vacant eyes, and puckered for a kiss. A glob of spit flecked his cheek, but given that the wetness turned to rapturous golden heat a moment later, he hardly minded. She leaned her head on Mikhail's shoulder, watching the tip of her tail with an amused smirk.

"Looks pretty, doesn't it? Well." She clicked her tongue -- the one in her head -- and narrowed her eyes at it. "Maybe not pretty, but I bet you wouldn't mind having that wrapped around your cock, mm? Except..."

The wet smack of its lips turned to a sinister, sibilant hiss, and in the blink of an eye, the mouth of her tail turned to the snapping jaw of a serpent. Mikhail tried to pull back, but his body refused to obey, too drowned in lethargic pleasure to budge. Scarcely a hand's length from his face, the serpent bared its dripping fangs. Right in his ear, though, the succubus tittered.

"Not so pretty anymore, huh. That's the thing! I can't change how I look. But!" The snake-head gave a little wiggle in front of him. "I can change how this li'l guy looks! I dunno what happened, but somehow all the bog-standard stuff that a succubus usually gets ended up with this guy instead. Glamour..." The snake turned once more to a simple mouth, glossy, black lips puckering at nothing. "Venom..." Another glob of spit landed on Mikhail, this time on his neck. His head lolled back almost instantly, muscles gone limp.

"And. Mesmer." A pair of lips pressed to the nape of his neck -- hers or her tail's, he couldn't tell -- and his eyes rolled back.

It was exquisite, like pure liquid pleasure pumped into his body. Tongue lolling out, Mikhail felt his dick stiffen in his pants almost immediately, and it only twitched harder with each moment that passed. Oh, he didn't know what she was doing, but whatever it was, he was prepared to beg, grovel, and plead to make sure she didn't stop. He couldn't manage words, true, but the way he bucked his hips up hopefully got the point across.

Apparently so, given how the succubus giggled in his ear. "See, right now, you're, uh." She traced a single fingernail in circles on his chest. "You're in a whole heap of pain. But thanks to a little kiss my buddy here gave you, you think this is one-hundred-per-cent pleasure. Its venom actually just kind of causes horrible pain. But!" She nuzzled against his side as Mikhail humped the air. "Turn that around, and you're in heaven. Ain't that right, babe?"

He nodded.

"Exactly. So. I see you're having a little bit of a, uh." She gave his crotch a pat as her tail pumped him full of its venom. "A little bit of a situation down here."

Her tone dropped to a sultry purr, right in the shell of his ear.

"Want me to help you with that, darling?"

Insensate or not, Mikhail managed a nod at that. He was almost disappointed when the mouth popped off of his neck, but the smacking of wet, sloppy lips trailed lower, lower, lower. Snaked under the belt of his trousers, and then-

oh

oh

oh, that felt. good.

As far as he could tell -- and his perception was more or less compromised by the aching stiff-dick pleasure flooding his mind -- there wasn't any venom involved in the wet, slippery suction around his cock. Hardly mattered, though, given he was practically pickled in it already. He was swimming in pleasure, and the mouth suckling at the tip of his cock only gave a focus to that maddening ecstasy.

"See? Isn't that amazing?" She hissed in his ear, breasts mashed up against his arm. "C'mon, baby, just cum nice and hard. You know you want to. Who needs to make babies when you can fuck this whenever you want? Here." She reached down, grabbed him by the balls with one silk-smooth hand kneaded them gently.

"Ooh, you're nice and heavy for me, aren'tcha, babe?" She giggled to him once more, and the slurping heat on his cock only sucked that much harder. "Saving up for the big wedding day? That's sweet. But you're way too pent up!"

Eyes rolling back, Mikhail barely heard her. Her tone turned more than a little teasing at his slack-jawed delight, and soon the succubus was churning his swollen ballsack. "I can practically feel how long you've waited for this. How's it go lately? One month without ejaculation before you're sent into the tower?"

She gave him a peck on the forehead -- with her "real" lips -- and clicked her tongue. "Poor baby. One whole month without getting to stroke that big, thick stiffy at all! You must be aching to empty those big, bloated balls into me!" She hugged his side and nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck. Mikhail was all but limp now, the only movement he was capable of being the desperate thrust of his hips upwards.

"You wanna cum, babe? You wanna cum real hard for me?"

The tail had taken him to his root, and even if there wasn't the steady bob of it up and down on his length, now there was an exquisite pressure rolling up in waves, milking his entire length. His chin twitched downwards in something approaching a nod. His cock felt like it was about to burst. How he hadn't finished already was beyond him, but there was something about that insistent, ravenous suction that kept him creeping higher and higher.

"You're cute," she purred, giving his balls a little clench. "And I feel bad that you've been saving up for so long, so. Tell you what." She suddenly shifted positions, straddling his belly and staring down at him. Devilish smirk tugging at her lips, the succubus fixed her gaze on his. Blearily, Mikhail did the same.

"Give up. Just stay here and let me milk this big, fat cock of yours whenever I want." She leaned in, and the suction around his cock made his eyes cross. Wet, lewd smacking sounds rang in his ears, and the milking suction worked each aching inch of his cock. He'd touched himself before, of course, but his hand couldn't possibly compare to the insatiable maw sucking at his cock. What kind of idiot would turn away the chance to fuck a hole like this whenever they wanted?

Dumbly, Mikhail grinned to himself. He'd get to cum whenever he wanted! He'd get to fuck her tail every chance he got! Who needed a wife when he could have her tail? His tongue was heavy in his mouth, but apparently the succubus understood his intent when he mumbled some non-answer.

She winked down at him with a purr. "I was hoping for a 'yes, mistress,' but I think that was close enough. Cum!" She pinned his shoulders down with her hands, but all Mikhail could focus on was her relentless tail. Too much. It was all too much, and the overwhelming pleasure finally crested. He bucked his hips up, more involuntary than not, and spurted the first shot of his pent-up seed into her tail.

Apparently the insistent suction hadn't been reward enough. The instant he pumped his first shot of semen up into her tail, the slurping maw savoring his cock lavished it with affection. Before, it had almost been mechanical, designed to extract an orgasm from him as quickly as possible. Rigorously efficient, enough to drive him to the brink in minutes. But now...

Now it was sweet, soft, almost gentle -- but not a bit less enthusiastic. It pulled back, suckling at the very tip of his cock, focusing its attention on the sensitive crown. Each splurt almost seemed to carry a second layer of pleasure to it, because whenever Mikhail shot another wad of his seed up into her tail, it bobbed down a few inches, ensconcing just a little bit more of his cock in sticky, heavenly wetness.

"Aw, you have more than that for me, don't you?" The succubus teased, having taken to lounging beside him once more. She hardly needed to coax him, though, given that her tail was training his cock already. Mikhail had never cum this hard in his life. He was broken in one mind-shattering climax, and the last thought to pop into his nearly-empty head...

...was that he'd never go a day without this ever again.

Ritten, for the most part, didn't have much to do once the other three had stepped or stumbled into the tower themselves.

He considered waiting a bit longer before heading in, but what good would that do? He felt fine. He certainly didn't feel ill. Maybe some stretches to get a little bit more limber before beginning the trial?

Honestly, the only things he could think of doing to prepare were little more than killing time before he took the plunge.

Ritten organized his pack, double-checked his knives, and, having prepared as best he could, stepped into the tower.

Though he didn't know it, his was the only trial that took the form of what the setting implied. Though it was perhaps a bit sinister thanks to the dark granite used in its construction, the foyer of the tower was nothing if not regal. Banners hung from the ceiling, depicting the crest of the demon queen and her six fell vassals. Torches burned between them, casting their eerie, wavering light upon the polished floor, but...

...there was really no avoiding the woman in the center of the room. Honestly, no matter where he looked, Ritten couldn't help but glance to her after more than a few seconds. It wasn't for some unnatural lust. She was attractive, sure, but more than anything else, she was. Incongruous.

Clad in gleaming golden armor -- and wielding a similarly gilded spear and shield -- loomed the tallest fallen angel Ritten had ever seen in his life. Her eyes shone like beacons, and though the air in the room was still, her honey-blonde hair swept about wildly, as if she were in the midst of a maelstrom. Scowling, her stoic attentions were focused squarely on him.