She heard the creaking of wood, the sound of the sea outside, footsteps and muffled talking above her head. She realised quickly that she was restrained in a standing position – the metal cuffs on her wrists and around her neck bound her to the wall of the dark cell she was in. From the corner of her eye, she noticed another person next to her. She turned her head carefully and stiffly in her restraints, and saw that the other prisoner is secured the same way as her, but swaying loosely in slumber. Her dark skin was fully uncovered but visibly beat up, and so was Arabel's own naked body, she realised. She wasn't sure how long she has been out, but through the creeks of the old vessel's walls, she could see that it's daylight outside. What happened?

  “Shreya!” she whispered.

  The other succubus did not react.

  “Shreya!” she whispered louder, to no avail.

  She clenched all muscles in her body, but she could not get out. She tried to transform, which turned out rather unpleasant – her demonic body was all-around bigger, so the metal around her neck dug into her dark red skin, making her choke. She turned back quickly, coughed, then grinded her teeth. Should she yell at Shreya? Is there even a point? And what if whoever is out there hears her?

  Better to stay quiet, she thought. And so she did, but not for long. The feeling of vulnerability, the uncertainty, worrying for Chio, for everyone else, feeling guilty for what happened to Terry, it all added up. And then there was her uncomfortable physical position. Arms spread out since what felt like forever already, body aching all over, the fact she couldn't even scratch an itch, it all culminated in a scream. Thoughts raced through her head, gnces of horrifying mental imagines, and the feeling that she might have lost what she had going with Chio forever. She screamed and screamed.

  “Arabel...”

  But she barely even registered Shreya's raspy voice. She was sobbing now, shaking silently.

  “Shhh! It's okay, but please stay quiet,” Shreya said. “Please, Arabel!”

  The redhead took some deep breath and slowly turned her head towards the other. Shreya's eyes were scared, but she smiled lightly. Arabel tried to shake her head as much as she could, to get rid of the tears on her face. She looked annoyed with herself now.

  “What can we do?” she whispered.

  Shreya ughed nervously. “We are fucked, sis. We are so fucked. What you can do is... stay put, do what he says, and hope that it will be over one day.”

  “It's Warren, isn't it?”

  “What, you don't remember?”

  “Last thing I remember is flying after him in the battle.”

  “He tortured us. You were awake too, you... I guess you did hit your head badly.”

  “Fuck him! We fuck him up, we will! Don't give up! We can still...”

  “Arabel, please!”

  “We just have to...”

  The door opened, Shreya shivered and closed her eyes, taking some deep breaths. Warren Crown walked in alone, and he slowly, gently closed the door behind himself.

  “You're making quite a ruckus,” he said, still with his back turned to them.

  “Fucker!” replied the redhead.

  “I told you never to call me that.”

  “I remember, fucker.”

  The man turned around, and stared at Arabel with emotionless dark eyes, looking her up and down. “I did not expect you to have such a fighting spirit after yesterday.”

  “I don't remember yesterday.”

  Warren grinned creepily. “That just means I get to break you all over.”

  “What, are you going to rape us? Is that what you want, some succubus sex-sves?”

  “Raping you? I wouldn't do such a disgusting thing, the mere suggestion is an insult. I don't do sex. No, I'll leave the raping for others.”

  “If I turn right now...”

  “I can look away the moment you start, it's not that difficult if one expects it.”

  “Coward...”

  “Even if you somehow got me, you would still be trapped. You would just die here.”

  “Do I look like I have a choice? I know that I'm doomed either way.”

  “You have Chio. Your own, personal fallen angel.”

  Arabel clenched the first of her restrained arms. “Where is she?”

  “I don't know. Probably in Murky Bay where I left her. She will try to rescue you, I have no doubt about that. So try not to get yourself killed prematurely, you don't want to miss your bittersweet reunion, do you?”

  The succubus grimaced.

  “I will make it real bitter,” the man stepped closer to her, staring straight into her eyes. “I promise.”

  Arabel screamed angrily, and began to turn (Shreya gasped). She didn't care about the metal cutting into her neck, she could ignore that for a few seconds, she could hold her breath and be a demon for long enough to mess this monster of a man up for good. If she can do it suddenly enough, if he is too slow to react, if she just has a chance...

  But Warren did not react at all, he kept staring, and that creepy grin returned on his face. Arabel was in her true form now, and yet, the man still looked at her with the exact same expression of superiority.

  How?

  And then Warren turned too. He leaned back a little, his flesh and skin got peeled off his skull, then from his entire body, disappearing into nothingness in seconds. His clothes slid down his skeletal form, and several extra bone-limbs sprang from his back, making him look like some grotesque spider. When he was done, he leaned forward and grabbed the woman's jaw with a skeletal hand, the tips of his cold hard fingers dug painfully into her chin. The only humanly things that still remained on him were his dark eyes, which he kept fixed on the woman's face, from very close now. He smelled like death.

  Arabel turned back, gasped for air, closed her eyes, shook in terror. She then got a series of powerful punches. In her face, her stomach, her chest. Warren was using all of his limbs, it was as if three or so men were beating her at once. At st, he stopped and stepped back. The redhead panted, she could barely think straight. It was as if her body and mind shut down.

  “W-what are you?” Shreya asked quietly.

  “What do I look like?”

  “You're no ordinary undead, right? Not a Shiendian.”

  The country of Shiendia was an isnd in the far west, where an ambitious wizard-king turned his entire country into skeletal immortals a thousand years ago. When someone in this world referred to the undead, they referred to them. These skeletal people could not die of old age, nor sickness, but they could still be killed. Not a lot of them were left by now, but some lived on Midridge, for example.

  “Shiendians don't have a fshy form they can switch to, nor these extra arms. I'm indeed not like them. Let's just say I'm one of a kind.”

  Shreya gulped. “If what you are doing to us is not due to some twisted perversion, then... why? Just what do you want from us?”

  Warren transformed back, his extra limbs disappeared and his fsh reappeared on his bones, followed by his skin. He titled his head to the side as he began speaking.

  “I hate sex. Passion, love, romantic love... there is nothing I despise more. It's like a virus, an addictive trick our own minds py on us. It's the curse of the very nature of reproductive life, nothing but a greedy, insatiable compulsion. It's my mission to ruin it. Twisted perversion, although repulsive, is a ruination of the promised bliss, that mirage that's built into us, that farce. So I approve it. Rape, torture, sex out of hatred, anything that injects darkness into the concept, I welcome it. The bliss of sex is meant to be crushed, because it's just no good. That is why I see you as a disgrace. You, especially,” he set his gaze on Arabel again, who was still panting and dissociating, but somehow, with some deep instinctive stubbornness, she kept the man's eye-contact.

  “You are a succubus, a sex-demon. You're meant to be a powerful, ruthless predator. One who crushes bliss by her very existence, who tears men apart by their desire and leaves a stream of heartbroken widows in her path. I admire that. But for a succubus to be virtuous? To live a moral, responsible life? I understand adapting to your circumstances, hunkering down, or even becoming a prostitute out of necessity. But surely, deep down you have the desire of living as your true self. Walking this earth proudly as a demon, dominating and consuming anyone and everyone who falls into your orbit, taking it all in with endless hunger. Because that's what you really are. The most honest, most uncompromisingly destructive manifestation of the folly of desire.”

  He tilted his head to the other side. “To think that a succubus would fall in love with a mortal... A futanari, right? But of course. As I understand it, she really did start out as a futanari, then as a result of the weird circumstances around Neia Silverlight's foolish schemes, she somehow got turned into an angel. And yet, she came back for you. For a sex-demon. Now that's twisted!”

  For the first time, Warren's cold, dark eyes shimmered with anger. Arabel quivered.

  “But I'll draw out the truth of your being, Arabel. Even if your demonic mind has been poisoned by her promise of bliss to the degree of no return, I'll be sure to use you as you are meant to be. Having a pair of succubi as living weapons does not sound bad at all.” He took a step back. “You understand now, Shreya?”

  Shreya did not reply.

  “And just to make sure we are on the same page. You two could rebel, turn my men mad, summon fire in your palms and burn this ship to a crisp, but you can't get rid of me. Arabel, there was that murder-mystery on the ship we travelled together on. People didn't quite get how Madam Birch was killed when her door was locked from the inside, remember? I climbed out my cabin, under the ship, got in through her window, then I left the same way. In my true form, can you picture that? The truth is, I don't really even need to breath.”

  He stepped closer to the redhead, staring at her face again. Arabel looked weak of mind now, almost on the verge of passing out, and she avoided Warren's gaze. He grabbed her hair. “There is no escaping me. Ever.” He then spped her, and stepped back.

  “So let's not make things difficult for yourselves! You two need to be fed, and I'll send a big guy to have fun with you. Make sure to take all the 'love' he has to give you. Will you?”

  “Whatever you say,” Shreya whispered defeatedly.

  And Warren left.

  The “big guy” was a bulk of a man. He was so tall, he had to duck to get inside the cabin, and he was muscur to an absurd degree. He was bald, half-naked already, and his small eyes were rather angry-looking. He had such a hostile aura, that it felt intimidating even for the pair of sex-demons – especially when they knew that they can't really afford to turn the guy mad. Still, the first thing the man did was unlocking their restraints. Handling the small keychain he had with his enormous hands looked almost comical, he was a little clumsy, and quite restless. He did not say a word, but he was growling quietly like an animal.

  Once both of the women were unlocked, the guy turned rather aggressive. He dragged and tossed them around at first, as if they were two pieces of decoration he wasn't sure where to pce in the room. Then, he pulled out his dick and grabbed both of them by the hair, forcing their faces on his rod from both sides. He was using them like toys, and it was clear he was absurdly strong physically. Perhaps the strongest man either of them have ever met, and his spirit was of an animalistic brute. Shreya wondered where could Warren find a guy like this so quickly; he only just took back his ship and status as a pirate captain a month or so ago. Arabel did not really wonder about anything. She was still kind of out of it, just letting herself used like a living doll with an expressionless face. Shreya felt bad for her.

  Then, the guy grabbed Arabel, sat her down against the wall, and started to face-fuck her, deep in her throat. Succubi usually were pretty good at deepthroating, but the man was rge and aggressive as fuck, he rammed her skull like he wanted to break it. Arabel started to choke and struggle, she attempted to push the man off of herself, but that only made him angrier. He pulled back, and straight punched her in the face, with his fist.

  “I'll suck you, man!” Shreya quickly jumped to him and hugged him, trying to take the man's attention off of the redhead. “Let me...”

  She was smmed down on the ground, but the guy did turn his focus on her now. He sat on her belly and grabbed onto her boobs painfully, then turned her over and started fucking her from behind, pushing her face down against the hard wooden floor with one hand. Between the guy's fat fingers, while being rammed without mercy, Shreya still looked for Arabel, and she saw the redhead standing up, shaking with anger. Her fighting spirit was back, but...

  “Arabel, don't! You have to mmmmppph!” the guy grabbed her mouth to shut her up. They kept fucking.

  Arabel was indeed on the verge of transforming. No man can treat succubi like this, that was the thought that overwhelmed her mind. She knew that she could fuck this guy up easily, that he was nothing before their true form, and her every instinct was telling her to put him in his pce. A part of her understood that it would surely be no good, that Warren is still out there, who would surely punish them badly if they did that to the guy, but... who the fuck does he think he is?!

  “Wait for Chio!” Shreya screamed. “You have to...” the guy put three of his rge fingers in her mouth and reached as far down her throat as he could, shutting her up again.

  “Got it,” the redhead mumbled.

  The big guy finally let Shreya go, and he grabbed Arabel again. He pced his toys on top of each other: Shreya lying on her back, Arabel on all fours above her. And he began ramming the redhead.

  “You need his dick, you are a succubus,” Shreya whispered beneath her, caressing Arabel's forearm. “Focus on that... on our food. We need it.”

  “Yes...”

  “Dick feels good... dick is all that matters.”

  As the guy continued switching between them, abusing them, throwing them around or hitting them, Arabel was paying attention to her dark-skinned companion, and started to “follow her lead”, so to speak. She understood that Shreya simply gave in to the present situation, accepting her role, and doing her damned best to enjoy it. It was none other than masochism, because she had no other choice. And Arabel let herself into that headspace too. It was very new to her, but at the same time, she has been on the other side of such dynamics before. Not in such a masculine-brute way, but for example she enjoyed abusing and torturing Chio a little bit. That was all just pying around now, but once upon a time, she even straight up kidnapped her, and used her as a toy herself. And that was happening to her now. In a weird way, letting it happen was indeed her best course of action. What else could she do? Resist? Dissociate? Purely just suffer? The fact of the matter was that she WAS hungry, and that she did like dicks. And this guy was sort of impressive, as much as she hated feeling that way. One giant ball of dumb, unadulterated, unrestrained masculinity.

  So despite everything, she enjoyed it. She enjoyed the huge dick pushing inside her, the smell of it, the muscles, even the physical pain when the dude grabbed her like he was trying to tear her apart. Because lust can be insidious like that. It can find a way against all odds. And that in and of itself is hot.

  The guy's orgasm did not disappoint, he gave them quite a lot to swallow. And then he left, not even bothering to secure them again, although the door itself was locked from outside.

  The two women just y next to each other for several long minutes, trying to catch their breaths. Naked, bruised, utterly used, the taste of sperm still lingering in their mouths. It was humiliating. Arabel felt her anger growing again, and she clenched her fists.

  “I'm gd to see you like this,” Shreya put her hand on Arabel's arm.

  “Like what?”

  “Furious. You shouldn't give up hope, it doesn't suit you. I'm sorry for being so... defeated earlier.”

  “But what can we do? We just have to fucking endure everything, don't we?”

  “Yes, for now. But Warren won't kill us, he is having way too much fun with what we are. And he has enemies. Your girlfriend... I had no idea she is a fallen angel, but that expins things. She will surely come to rescue us.”

  “But he is expecting her to come. He wants her to come.”

  “Let him. There is Carlos Wayne too, that man somehow managed to defeat Warren once, for a while at least. Our best bet is to hold on until Warren's enemies catch up to us.”

  “I don't know... we could warn them about how Warren is. If we could escape on our own...”

  “We can't even fly right now. Yesterday, he made his female sves cut up our wings. Can't you feel it?”

  Now that Shreya mentioned it, Arabel did kind of feel it. Even though her wings weren't manifested at the moment, she could still have a sense of them. They felt messed up.

  “He has plenty of those women with him still, on this ship,” Shreya added. “I think they make up more than half of his crew.”

  “Fuck...”

  “At least we're not alone. Can I kiss you?”

  “Go for it.”

  They had a tired little smooch, and then y back down on the wooden floor, their shoulders and legs touching.

  “My pussy is sore...” sighed the redhead.

  “So is mine.”

  “I wanted to fuck that guy up so bad. That fucker.”

  They fell silent for a while. Arabel didn't think that being confined in a small, dark pce could be so much worse than what she already experienced on Chestnut Isnd. But, as Shreya said, at least she wasn't all alone this time. She put her palm on her fellow succubus' pussy, as if she had Chio's healing ability. Shreya did the same for her. It was a little comforting.

  Eventually, they heard the muffled voice of a couple of woman screaming somewhere above them, and some men ughing. The women were probably getting whipped. Must have been some routine disciplining, or punishment. Or both.

  “If they are being treated like that, why do they obey him?” Arabel blurted. “Even death must be better, surely.”

  “But that's not the case for you either, right? You wanna hold on. And so do I.”

  “Fucking hell.”

  “I know.”

  The screams continued for what felt like a morbidly long time, but eventually they stopped. Shreya sat up.

  “Arabel, did you know that us succubi have a secret ability?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “We can not only turn men into mindless idiots with our sight. We can also control them.”

  “What you mean?”

  “I found out accidentally. I think almost nobody knows about this, but when you reveal your true form to a man, as his mind starts to slip into madness, if you kick him hard in the balls right at that moment, they end up in a weird headspace, and they will obey all your commands without thought for the next few hours.”

  “Really?”

  “Don't ask them anything too complicated though, their brains will be kind of mush. Not as much as they normally would be after they see us, but still.”

  “And... what happens after those few hours?”

  “I've done it with two guys, one turned into a mindless drone afterwards, the other turned back to normal. That was Goliath. It's a long story.”

  “Kick them in the nuts...”

  “Yea. Just keep it in mind. Who knows, it may be useful when the time comes.”

  After some long hours passed by, they ran into another ship. It was a cargo ship from Midridge going to Newchance, unaware of the recent fall of the settlement, but of course Arabel and Shreya couldn't really tell that. Warren picked them up, escorted them up to the main deck, and tied them to the front of Heartbreaker, like a pair of living figureheads. He then chanted some inaudible words in a weird tone. They couldn't really see what he was doing above them, as they could only look forward, and at the bow of the ship below cutting through the sea.

  That other ship was slowly getting closer and closer, until they heard its crew yelling, and saw them shoot arrows at them. Suddenly, the whole structure of Heartbreaker's prow began moving, and the pair of succubi were somehow raised up high into the air. Bdes pressed against their throats from both sides, like two pairs of cws, as if the ship itself came to life and grew some half wooden, half metal fingers to hold them with.

  “If you want to keep your heads, transform!” they heard Warren's cold, commanding voice, and they knew they had to obey. Shreya was hit by an arrow on her shoulder, she shuddered, but still turned. And the yelling seafarers on the other ship quickly fell silent.

  Warren was pleased.