"Look there." The succubus pointed at the group of armed soldiers that were patrolling nearby. As they just left the cold environment from the mountains, they were still far away from any sign of civilization. They had expected to meet some hunters or other people with a similar job, but not soldiers. And like the two of them noticed the soldiers, the group of ten men were not totally blind. One very large form in the rocky ground was easily spotted and numerous shouts could be heard. Since they had nothing to fear for the moment, Davion stopped walking and waited for the arrival of the humans. Right when they were in dire need of fresh energy, something like that happened. Both the succubus and the orodil looked at each other and nodded in approval.

Even if the soldiers were running at full speed, they were still desperately slow. The few hundreds of meters were covered in half of a minute, a time that could be considered quite good with their heavy iron armors and equipment. But to the blue man that was capable of jumping casually from a hole of 3 meters, they were only slightly quicker than a snail. Finally, they saw a man still in his prime approaching them with the rest of the soldiers spreading around, to encircle them. No weapons were drawn but if they dared to make any suspicious move, those scared humans will make their move.

"You have entered the land of the Republic of Avenio, state your name and your race or begone!" The eyes of the man in charge was still a little bit dubious about the situation. He could clearly see the woman with red hair on the back of the creature and while she was visibly injured, she was extremely calm. At first, he imagined that she was captured by the tall monster but it seemed that it was not the case, otherwise she wouldn't be smiling at them like it was normal. As for the monster in clothes, he was feeling threatened by it. He couldn't see anything but he didn't dare to ask him to remove his hood.

While the sergeant of the small squad was examining the two foreigners, the rest of the soldiers were not faring very well. They were torn apart between the fear of the unknown creature towering on them and the visible beautiful girl on its back. They were capable of containing their l.u.s.t, but they repeatedly threw a few glances at Meridiana. The latter noticed it and decided to play along.

"Thank you mister the soldier, we were lost and without your help, one could imagine the terrible fate that would have befallen on us. We are so grateful about it." While she talked, she descended from her position and approached the commanding human. They had no idea that it happened, but in that small time-lapse, Meridiana had morphed from a young looking girl into a plump mature woman. Her previously loose clothes were suddenly tightened around her forms and her entire att.i.tude was the same as a distressed woman extremely grateful to her saviors.

If it would have been a normal woman, the soldiers would have probably been able to keep their calm, but what they were facing was not even an ordinary succubus. Their menacing stance was already gone and they were drooling at the perfect body of Meridiana. Even the sergeant was stunned and only looked at her with a perverted gaze. Noticing the sudden change of atmosphere, Davion simply retreated and walked past the oblivious humans. Right before getting away, he still made the succubus remembering his presence. "I want 3 of them intact."

His companion that was seductively undressing winked at him and as she kept murmuring lewd words in the ears of her preys, they finally fell victims of her ploy. A few minutes later, the same young girl with red hair came close to the resting orodil and presented him the three strongest soldiers unconscious. Nothing on either her body or her clothes could have made someone believe what happened a minute ago. Her previous short hair was also now resplendently long and slightly under her shoulders. She also sat down for a minute or so while Davion was slowly eating the brains of the three unfortunate humans.

Similar to the way the duvodiads are capable of morphing themselves into a copy of actual animals, the succubus are capable of shaping their very bones and skin to have the perfect form for their targets. No one really understands how it is possible, but they have also a very accurate sense of what is that form. There were countless tests and trials to apply this sense in actual combat, like guessing the next magic a magician will use and stuff like that. However, while they are capable of knowing the ideal form of desire for their target, they are just doing that and nothing more. The male counterpart of the succubus, the incubus shares the same properties.

Coupled with her centuries of experience and the intense training she suffered, to deal with one of the strongest succubus will be extremely hard. Not a lot of races are totally exempt of desires but for those that are not part of that group, a succubus will always be able to find a way. Gathering all the corpses in one big pile, Meridiana casted a flame that consumed everything. The small tricks and charms she threw previously didn't cost her any mana and with those new offerings, she wasn't a dead weight anymore.

"Did they said anything useful?" Davion still interrogated the succubus just in case something strange was happening. That patrol was very far from their base to roam on this inhospitable land. "Not really, just the fact that some soldiers had their rest days canceled and had to come back. Not everyone, however, meaning that it is probably just a precaution." She still managed to get the direction of the nearest city and after stealing the coins on those soldiers, they will probably be fine for the moment.

The barren plains left the place to a small wood where they saw only a few humans inside it. At the same time, they encounter a few wolves extremely big and traces of mana could be felt leaving their bodies. The moment Davion began to march toward them, however, those terrifying monsters instantly ran away, their tails between their legs. Not bothering to catch them, the group of two kept running toward their goal. Different from the clothes of Leilade that were programmed to be destroyed during her travel, what the two were wearing was more resistant and thanks to the agility of the orodil, mostly intact. Meridian also took great care of not damaging it when she dealt with the h.o.r.n.y soldiers.

Because of that, the more they met humans, the more they saw surprise and wariness but not hostility. They knew that because of their deep friends.h.i.+p with the elves, numerous races were doing business with the Republic of Avenio. Some were still labeled as monsters and exterminated at sight, like goblins, orcs, and even trolls. But the elves and some other humanoids were capable of traveling without getting worried of being enslaved. The only one that truly cut ties with the humans was the dwarves, retrenched in their kingdom in the West. As for why no one that they killed knew that for the moment.

Profiting from that clemency for strange creatures, Davion and Meridiana arrived at the closest city, named Archet. Before that, however, they had to wait in line at the eastern gate, hearing the complaints from everyone else. To not be too high profile, Meridiana was not carried by the orodil anymore and was just walking side by side. Since she fully recovered, she began to exude her natural charm and the group right behind them was constantly staring at her. Receiving the dark stare of the blue man because of her high visibility, she toned it down and looked only beautiful, not devastatingly gorgeous like before.

After a dozen minutes, it was finally their turn and as they guessed, they were escorted to the captain for further investigations. Even some wagons were smaller than Davion and since he was totally covered under his clothes, no one was capable of finding his race. Because he was rather slim, they dismissed the idea of him being a troll but it was also causing a headache for the captain. The poor human had never heard about a creature as tall as a troll but nimble like a human. At the same time, it was extremely disrespectful to ask the tall giant in front of him to remove his hood. Recently, some elves were badly treated and the mayor was trying to fix it before it blew out of proportions. The captain had absolutely no intention of creating another incident.

So, for a few minutes, he only just talked about common topics, like how the weather was very nice recently and stuff like that. Meridiana was the only one talking and while she responded calmly to the questions and didn't do anything to bewitch the human, the latter was still heavily sweating. As time pa.s.sed, Davion even began to poke at the succubus to make her stop, prompting the latter to berate him because it was not her fault. But since they both realized that they were not leaving anytime soon, Meridiana was forced to manipulate the man, prompting him to release them. They quickly b.u.g.g.e.red off before the captain realized what he had done.

After wasting so much time, they immediately searched for the main plaza of the city. The sun was still up in the sky and they were probably in the middle of the afternoon. For the next few hours, they roamed the city, gathering all the recent news. Thanks to that, when both of them returned to the eastern gate, they found out about the recent increase in price for the weapons and armors. Coupled with their encounter with a patrol near the mountain, they understood that something was brewing inside the republic. As for precise information, they won't be able to get it just by stalking merchants and listening to drunk soldiers. No, they needed an official status, recognized by the higher-ups.

Finding the most broken and dirtiest inn of the city, they rent a single room. The shady innkeeper looked with l.u.s.tful eyes at Meridiana and a few other men that were drinking nearby were sharing the same idea. That was the main reason for choosing such an establishment. Baiting some unconscious preys, not having to pay a lot and be far away from any capable magicians. The moment they locked the frail wooden door and sat on the pitiful bed, Meridiana began to establish a mental connection with Malakov.

"Ah, Mis…, greetings succubus. What did you learn?" The proud voice of the undead resonated in the mind of the succubus. She felt that he was taking control over the spell and she left him to do that. That way, it will reduce the strain on her mana reserves that were not infinite.

"A few things. The mountains separating the two countries are apparently filled with deadly monsters but we were fine, so it is probably not that scary. At the same time, it still took us nearly four days to cross it. Also, the Republic of Avenio is acting weirdly, the prices of numerous weapons, armors, potions and other things related to fighting are skyrocketing. However, the reason for that is unknown, probably related to our arrival but could be something else." She waited for a few seconds until Malakov started talking.

"I see, so you can't get anything more until you are known. I guess your plan is related to the adventurers or something like that. Well, you will be pleased to learn that we found a few metal veins that made master Agnil very pleased. So, to make it big instantly, instead of going naked like you are, I suggest you come back. I can't promise anything close to anything we had on Artosis, but we should still be able to do something good. If that's all, I expect you in four days, succubus."

"That's all, may you not disappoint her, Envoy." A loud laugh was reverberating in her mind while the connection between the two was fading. Seeing the succubus opening her yes, Davion asked her what was making her smile. She only answered by one word.

"Agnil."