With Friends Like These...

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 38, Post Number 931

-Outside Haunted Guild, midnight-

Dressed in her white Steel Matron t-shirt and resized black skirt with Azure Armor and Bandolier clanking over the armor, Victoria also carried her trusty Silver Dagger because tonight she would be going into the Haunted Guild on behalf of the Order of Lightbringers. Her mission was to wipe out a cult that had taken refuge in the Haunted Guild, secure their books, scrolls, and other effects for disposal by the Order, and rescue any people they had intended to sacrifice for their nefarious purposes. Victoria felt a sudden gust of wind blow her ponytail about and heard female screaming floating on the wind while she waited for her Order partners to get here before going inside to start the mission. Having traveled to the Haunted Guild twice before, having fought for her life in the arena at Haunted Castle, and having recently been to Sin to fight and kill a rogue scientist who experimented on live human test subjects, the screaming was nothing but background noise like the music at Capital Crocus Mall. Victoria knew a little about the history of Haunted Guild and had been inside of it twice, so she knew what to expect from the rundown place.

The screaming was simply an unfortunate by-product of whatever had happened to make the Haunted Guild haunted; the exact nature of that occurrence was still a mystery and not too many people were keen on investigating it. Victoria was not interested in solving that mystery either. She was not the scholarly sort who had the patience to devote any great length of time to the research necessary to learn what had happened to the Haunted Guild. She was a fighter who did best when pointed at a target and told to take it out. She just wanted to turn cultists to Swiss cheese, save any captives they had taken, complete the mission, and get paid.

The tall brunette listened to drawn-out male screaming come from the Haunted Guild while looking around for her partners from the Order, who were due to arrive any time now. Maybe they were just a bit late in leaving Holy Castle because someone had forgotten to take their favorite weapon or put on their armor. Maybe they were busy fighting zombies or werewolves who had ambushed them on the road. At any rate, Victoria would wait for them to show up before going in. The cultists were probably expecting company and had set up elaborate defenses... or they had just crammed the corridors with cultist soldiers, spirits, and any other minions they could throw at Victoria and the Order.

-Twenty minutes later-

Victoria had reached out with her ability to sense magic and detected a pair of signatures approaching from behind, so she turned around to face them and saw Amberlin and Serena walking up. They did not recognize the tall brunette standing before them and paused when they saw her. Victoria realized that she had spent so much time enjoying her new form that she had forgotten to find a way to let others know that she was the same Victoria Sheridan they had known before, only taller and more attractive.

"Uh, hi there. I'm Victoria Sheridan. You know, the short chick who looked like a guy that you guys worked with before?" Victoria awkwardly introduced herself to the shorter mages. Amberlin and Serena remained unconvinced and silently readied some kind of Holy magic to blast her with. Great.

"Hey Amberlin, wait a minute before you start slinging Holy magic at me! I'm the one who went with you and Minerva Anderson to Haunted Castle to save Serena, remember? I'm the one who helped you fight in Henry Capella's arena, remember?" Victoria asked the pink-haired mage and recited a few details from their last job together. The tall brunette did not have any special weakness to Holy magic, but the sheer magical firepower that Order clerics could bring to the table meant that they were not to be taken lightly. If they could turn zombies, werewolves, and demons to dust with their spells, it stood to reason that they could make humans have a bad day too.

"Hey Serena, remember that time I rescued you from here? That was the job where I got my Silver Dagger from your pals at the Order of Lightbringers!" Victoria asserted, presenting her Silver Dagger as proof of her claim. Amberlin and Serena backed up and continued to prepare their spells.

"She might be a shapeshifting demon who killed the real Victoria and stole her appearance and memories. Don't be fooled!" Serena warned Amberlin. Victoria was beside herself with frustration. Serena had drawn the wrong conclusion from what Victoria had told them.

"I'M NOT A SHAPESHIFTER!" Victoria yelled indignantly. She dropped the Silver Dagger, then took off her armor and bandolier and set them on the ground.

"Look at me. I've worn this same Steel Matron t-shirt, this same Azure Armor, this same skirt, and this same Bandolier for many jobs now. Do you really think that a shapeshifting demon could kill me, steal my gear, and tell you the kind of details I just told you two?" Victoria asked them pointedly. The Order clerics hesitated and lowered their hands for a moment.

"Well, she DOES look kinda familiar. She's also got the same magic signature as Victoria." Amberlin said to Serena. The shorter brunette remained unmoved.

"We're near a place taken over by cultists. They can summon shapeshifters to fool us. Don't be fooled!" Serena countered. Amberlin looked at Serena and tilted her head, then nodded. Both mages brought their hands back up and showed looks of determination.

"She's a shapeshifter who's gonna report us to her masters! Blast her!" Serena shouted.

"OH COME ON!" Victoria shouted indignantly before scooping up her Silver Dagger, Bandolier, and Azure Armor and running towards the door of the Haunted Guild with her gear held in both hands. This was NOT how she imagined this job would go. Instead of a by-the-numbers sweep through Haunted Guild with two Order clerics for support, Victoria would most likely have to fight the cult while avoiding her supposed "friends."

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[Total Word Count: 1,030/11,000]

Her hands full of her gear, Victoria's fingers desperately scrabbled on the old brass doorknob, trying to turn it and get to "safety" before she got turned to dust by the Order clerics closing in on her. The fingers of the brunette's right hand managed to get just enough grip to turn the doorknob. She quickly backed away and opened the door just enough for her to get inside, then forced herself and her gear through the door and hurriedly closed it behind her. Victoria hated this job already and it had not even started yet.

-Inside Haunted Guild-

Dropping all of her gear onto the floor with loud clattering noises, Victoria took a moment to give her tired hands a break. With the noise she made she would not have long to put her gear back on before either the cultists arrived in force or Amberlin and Serena barged in after her, so she would have to be quick. Victoria seized the Azure Armor by its collar and put it on so quickly that she had nearly dislocated her left shoulder, but at least she would have some protection should a fight break out right away. She then grabbed the Silver Dagger and put it back in its sheath so that she could fight ghosts if she had to. Finally Victoria put the Bandolier Itori had given her back onto her armor so that no one could take the priceless gift that Fox Lady had given her so long ago.

Victoria had geared up just in time because the door started to open behind her. Victoria saw a flash of brown hair and knew that Serena was about to ruin her night, so the brunette turned around and pushed back against the door. An indignant "HEY!" sounded and fists started to pound against the wooden door. Knowing that she did not want to be around when Serena got in, Victoria stopped pushing and hurried out of the foyer, sprinting towards the basement stairs to get to the next place of refuge. Thanks to her longer legs, Victoria was so fast that she disappeared down the stairs just as Serena burst through the door shouting at her to stop running and die like a demon.

-In the basement stairwell-

Knowing that the Order mages would soon be in pursuit, Victoria jogged down the stairs, her Bandolier jingling with each step. Maybe she should have left the Bandolier back at Sabertooth Guild Hall, but she had not anticipated being mistaken for a shapeshifting demon and having to keep one step ahead of her "back-up" during the job. She also did not want that Mai kid to get her hands on it and wreak havoc with it or try to eat it or something. If that happened the blame would be laid at Victoria's feet because it was her Bandolier and Mai had managed to get her hands on it because such a dangerous item was not locked in a "secure" place.

Victoria was hurrying through the darkness and was halfway down when she wobbled in mid-step and nearly fell over; only a minor miracle kept the tall brunette from falling forward and rolling down the stairs to a broken neck. Taking the hint, Victoria slowed down to a walk to avoid risking a second fall. She made her way down to the three-quarters mark when she heard shouting from upstairs.

"I hear something jingling like bells at the Winter Festival!" Serena announced. Victoria clenched her teeth and did her best to muffle the sound of the Bandolier while trying to sneak down the rest of the steps, but it was no good because Serena's blue eyes fixed onto her. Oh well. It was time to go.

"THERE SHE IS!" Serena shouted and pointed at the hapless brunette. Amberlin hurried to Serena's side and the pair began chanting for a spell. That was Victoria's cue to get out of the stairwell and disappear around the corner before she got turned to dust. She took a risk and jumped over the last eight steps, landing on the hard concrete below and pulling off a four-point landing. Turning her head left and seeing bolts of golden magic flying at her, the brunette scrambled to her feet and dove to the floor, narrowly avoiding being hit by the spells.

Victoria scrambled to her feet a second time and hurried to avoid a second pair of spells cast in her direction. The Sabertooth mage hurried past the first of the metal cell doors to her right and barely cleared the second before she spotted trouble looming just ahead. Ahead of her was a trio of men in brown robes who were wielding two-handed greatswords and did not look like they wanted company.

"Intruder!" One of them shouted at her. Victoria sighed. It seemed like tonight nothing would go easy for her.

"Seize her as a sacrifice to the great Infernal Lord!" A second suggested to his fellows. Victoria sighed again. If they thought that she was going to lie down on an altar and let her heart be cut out of her chest with a knife, they were sorely mistaken. Trapped between two persistent Order clerics behind her and the cultists in front of her, Victoria had nothing to lose by fighting. If she killed enough cultists she might even be able to convince Amberlin and Serena that she was not a shapeshifting demon and that she was really on their side.

Victoria gathered gray magic into her hands and waited until the men got close, then pushed out with both hands once they were within thirty meters of her. Victoria used a Claymore Burst to send out a spray of steel ball bearings that punched through the men and dropped them to the floor. Victoria had solved the immediate problem of angry cultists, but then she heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs and knew that she had to hurry before Amberlin and Serena caught up with her.

Sprinting past the dead cultists and the closed cell doors, Victoria continued to run until she reached the end of the hall. There she saw a bend to the right and a metal door. Despite not knowing what was on the other side, she really did not have time to think the matter over because Amberlin and Serena had reached the bottom of the stairs and had cast a hovering ball of golden light to help them see. Victoria jogged over to the door and opened it, then shut the door behind her.

-Inside the room-

Victoria turned away from the door and found herself standing in a library with wall-to-wall shelves crammed with old books of all sizes and lit by a brass chandelier hanging from the ceiling. In the center of the room was a rectangular wooden table with neat stacks of books in the middle of it, but that was not what drew the Sabertooth mage's attention. What drew her attention was gathering of cultists who had just entered the room from the door opposite her current position. There were six men wearing brown robes and one who was wearing black.

"Seize the intruder!" The man in black ordered. As the six brown-robed men advanced on her Victoria frowned and clenched her teeth. Not this again.

[Post Word Count: 1,224]
[Total Word Count: 2,254/11,000]

Victoria was being chased by two supposed "friends" and in front of her were seven confirmed enemies. This was shaping up to be quite the job, but awkward circumstances were not new to the brunette. She had been attacked by a panty thief two out of the three times she had visited Capital Crocus Mall; the first time was in the company of Gaia Sabin and the second time was with Sarah Stone. There was also that time she went to a festival with Music Man, the same guy who had attacked Silver Moon Inn and killed some people with a few friends from his old guild back in her Black Rose days.

The brunette knew exactly what to do to get out of this situation. She focused magic into her hands and pushed forward, using Claymore Burst to send out a spray of steel ball bearings that ripped into three of the brown-robed cultists and downed them for good. The other three, clearly not expecting to run up against a mage who was a walking arsenal, hesitated for a few moments. That gave her enough time to bring out an equalizer in the form of her tried-and-true Light Machine Gun. The sight of that weapon made the cultists turn right around and run for the door as fast as their legs could carry them, which gave her a chance to open fire.

Victoria held down the trigger and noticed that her aim was a bit off... she was aiming a bit higher than normal, a problem which was likely a result of her new body's increased height. She compensated for this and aimed a bit lower before opening fire again. This time she was able to hit two of the cultists and force the other two to duck for cover, giving her the chance to finish them before they could escape. Once the first two were down Victoria aimed and fired at them as they frantically shoved the bodies of their fallen out of the way and tried to open the door. She killed the last of the brown-robed cultists and only lightly wounded the black-robed leader, who made it through the door and slammed it behind him.

"Great." Victoria dryly commented as she hustled over to the door. The leader's escape meant that she would have to deal with even more robed guys once she got through the door. The volume of her weapon also destroyed any chance she had at stealth, but that was a given considering what kind of magic she used. She worked best when one needed a sledgehammer, not a scalpel.

Just as her left hand touched the doorknob the door behind her opened, which meant that she would have to dodge Amberlin and Serena again. Serena was absolutely convinced that "Tall Victoria" was a shapeshifting demon who was trying to fool them into believing that she was the mage they had worked with a few times before so that she could kill them on behalf of her cultist masters. Right now there was no convincing her or Amberlin that the tall brunette standing in front of them was really Victoria, so the best plan would be to keep distance between herself and the clerics until they realized that Victoria was not a shapeshifting demon.

"There she is!" Serena shouted. Victoria sighed.

"Um, Serena, look at those dead cultists and the weapon she's carrying. I don't think that we're dealing with a demon here." Amberlin tried to interject with some common sense.

"It's all part of the deception, Amberlin! Her masters ordered her to kill the disposable cultists to lull us into complacency before she kills us too!" Serena retorted. Victoria sighed. Maybe Henry Capella had done something to scramble the brown-haired cleric's brain before returning her to Victoria, Amberlin, and Minerva because before her abduction Serena was not so... off-kilter. Either the vampire lord had used some kind of mind-altering spell on the cleric or she really had a grudge against demons.

Victoria hurried and opened the door before she could be shot in the back with Holy magic, then slammed it behind her and turned around.

-On the other side of the door-

Victoria spun around and found herself looking down a hallway lit by torches with cell doors on both sides just like the hallway that the basement stairs led to. In front of her was a quartet of blue-robed enemes who emitted magic signatures. The black-robed cultist had decided to bring some heavy hitters to the fight and had brought them in the form of his own mages, who did not waste time with threats and instead began to weave spells while their hands glowed black. Victoria dispelled her Light Machine Gun and tried to think of a good spell or two, but by the time she could raise her right hand for a Derringer spell they were already slinging balls of dark flame at her along with spectral skulls. Victoria ducked under the dark fireballs and spectral skulls and then fired back with a Derringer to the left shoulder of a blue-robed cultist, wounding him but not affecting his ability to use magic in the slightest.

He retaliated by casting another spectral skull in her directed and Victoria ducked under that one; she spotted a black fireball flying directly at her head and cast Caduceus Shield with her left hand. The golden shield blocked the fireball and it exploded in a burst of black sparks, leaving her unharmed. However, she could not win this fight just by defending... she would need to take the fight to the cultist mages at some point with any one of her wide range of weapons and offensive spells. She made a step in that direction by bringing out her Submachine Gun and putting it in her right hand. She aimed at a cultist readying a black fireball and fired the entire magazine at him, riddling him full of holes and dropping him to the dirt just in time for one of the spectral skulls to "bite" her right arm and make it go cold and numb.

"Damn!" Victoria hissed. Her right arm was numb and her weapon was empty, but she still had plenty of magic power and plenty of spells to use. It was just a matter of picking the right one, but she had a feeling that things would not quite that easy because the three spellcasters were getting reinforcements in the form of brown-robed cultists wielding melee weapons like maces and greatswords. She would have to use her Grenade Launcher or another crowd control spell to level the playing field.

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[Total Word Count: 3,364/11,000]

With her right arm rendered cold and numb by the bite of a spectral skull and her Submachine Gun empty, Victoria watched as a number of melee weapon-wielding brown-robed cultists entered the hallway to stop her intrusion with the swift and violent application of metal to her face. The blue-robed cultist mages stopped slinging spells long enough for their brethren to form up and push on the brunette's position in a single shoulder-to-shoulder line formation that was picked for intimidation. Even though she was not in the best of shape, the brunette was not ready for a sacrificial altar yet. She picked up her Submachine Gun with her left hand and prepared to stand her ground against the advancing men.

Victoria aimed and fired at the head of a man wielding a greatsword, dropping him with seven shots to the head and neck. She turned and aimed at a second and emptied the weapon into the chest of a mace-wielding cultist, then threw the empty weapon at the head of another cultist with a greatsword. He raised his sword to block the thrown gun and laughed mockingly, but he was not ready for what she had prepared next. Victoria readied a Grenade and threw it towards the feet of the men moving in to her right. The dark green sphere clattered to a stop and Victoria covered her ears to protect them from the resulting explosion that killed one man and wounded three more, halting the attack instantly.

The men to her left started moving faster and their weapons clanked menacingly, but Victoria brought out her Light Machine Gun to stop them. Using her numb right forearm to brace the weapon, the brunette fired at the men and cut them down one by one until only the enemy mages remained. Once all their reinforcements were dead or wounded the trio began casting spells again.

Victoria aimed at the nearest mage and opened fire on the center mass, but the rounds bounced off of a shimmering violet spherical shield without result except to make the man laugh at her. Victoria dispelled both the Light Machine Gun and the Submachine Gun, then forced her left and right hands together to prepare a Beam Cannon. She wondered how long he would be laughing when her anti-shield spell hit him in the forehead. She focused magic into her fingertips and aimed the spell, then fired directly at the man's forehead. His laughter was cut short when the golden beam punched through the shimmering shield and through his forehead, dropping him to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

"We cannot best her! We must fall back and get reinforcements!" One blue-robed mage instructed the other. They nodded at each other and ran away before Victoria could ready another spell to take them out, leaving her in command of the hallway. The door behind Victoria started to open and the brunette swore under her breath as she ran past the dead cultists and nearly tripped on a fallen mace. Just before the halfway point Serena and Amberlin burst through the door and began firing Holy magic in her direction, specifically aiming at her legs to bring her down. The running mage avoided three of the spells by running in a zig-zag pattern but felt one hit the back of her left leg in mid-stride, causing her to fall forward and skid on the cold stone floor for about a meter before coming to a stop about ten meters from the door.

"GOT HER!" Serena exclaimed triumphantly. The two clerics hurried towards Victoria, who struggled to her feet and began hobbling for the door that would take her away from the two clerics who had mistaken her for a demon. Ignoring the burning pain in her left leg, the Sabertooth mage reached the door and flung it open, then hurried through as her pursuers reached the halfway point.

-In the next corridor-

Victoria slammed the door shut and hurriedly began using healing magic on her left leg. She formed and cast a Medical Bag spell to heal her left leg so that she did not have to hobble through the rest of the Haunted Guild. The healing spell did its work admirably, healing her left leg instantly and restoring it to running condition. She then repeated the process to heal her right arm to fighting condition and sighed with relief as it regained full functionality. Now that she was able to fight and run like normal Victoria looked to see what was in front of her.

In front of her loomed another forbidding stone corridor lit by torches in wall sconces and adorned with black tapestries. On the tapestry to her right was a grinning red skull with crossed axes behind it... chances were good that that was the symbol of the cultists she was fighting. She heard the faraway sound of a door slamming and turned her attention away from the tapestry and towards the end of the hallway, where the door had just been slammed shut. Victoria had just missed another chance to knock off the cultists who had escaped her earlier, but she had other problems to worry about because the door behind her flew open and a familiar voice broke the silence.

"HIT HER BEFORE SHE RUNS! WE CAN'T LET HER GET AWAY!" Serena ordered, but Victoria was already sprinting down the hall for all she was worth. This was getting tiresome in more ways than one. She needed to find a way to convince the brown-haired cleric that she was not a demon, but how could she do that without getting blasted into dust by Holy magic?

"WAIT! STOP! WE CAN TALK THIS OVER!" Amberlin called out. Victoria ignored her and kept running as Serena slung more spells aimed at her legs. The brunette began to run in a zig-zag pattern and stopped at irregular intervals to make herself harder to hit, a tactic which was bearing fruit because Serena was starting to get so flustered that she stopped casting spells and began cursing aloud as if she were trying to rival Victoria for being a foulmouthed brunette. Victoria only laughed as Serena yelled obscenities at her until she got tired and issued a final challenge.

"STOP RUNNING, DAMN IT! GET BACK HERE AND FIGHT ME LIKE A DEMON!" Serena yelled impotently as Victoria reached the end of the hallway and grabbed the door. She was not going to let the cleric get a second wind. She would leave while the going was good and deal with whatever was waiting for her on the other side. Victoria slipped through the door while Serena yelled in frustration at the opposite end of the hallway.

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[Total Word Count: 4,486/11,000]

-On the other side of the door-

Victoria closed the door behind her and rubbed her forehead. She was starting to get a headache from dealing with Serena Anderson, who had pegged the Sabertooth mage as a demon and was doing her level best to kill the tall brunette despite the protests of Amberlin. The pink-haired cleric had the unenviable job of trying to rein in Serena before the latter did something rash like killing Victoria with Holy magic strong enough to turn real demons to dust in a single blast. The tall brunette took a deep breath and turned to face the hallway, which looked like another prison block with the cult banners hanging proudly at each side of the door on the opposite end of the hallway. There were sturdy metal doors with slots at eye level on both sides of the hallway and the occasional dried bloodstain leading into a cell.

Victoria did not see any cultists charging down the hall at her or preparing to sling spells, but that reprieve was not going to last long because three of them had gotten away from previous encounters to warn their fellows of the Sabertooth mage's approach and the heavy firepower she was packing. In the meantime she looked closer at the metal doors and saw that all of them were secured by a bar on the outside that kept the door shut. If it was lifted whoever was inside could push the door open and get out. Victoria took a deep breath and walked down the hallway while listening out for anyone locked in a cell she could rescue.

"HEEEEEY! IS ANYONE OUT THERE?" A female voice shouted from a cell three doors down to Victoria's right. Following the voice, Victoria lifted the bar to the cell and the door was opened suddenly and violently with a kick from inside. The Sabertooth mage was hit in the face by it and staggered back while clutching her right cheek. A black-haired young woman with blue eyes peered out from behind the cell door and panicked when she saw that she had not hit a cultist with the cell door, but rather her rescuer.

"OHNO OHNO I'M SO SORRY! PLEASE DON'T THROW ME BACK IN THERE!" The dark-haired young woman profusely apologized for kicking the door in on Victoria's face and pleaded not to be thrown back into the cell to await whatever the cultists had planned to do to her. Clutching her right cheek with her right hand, Victoria took a look at the young woman she had just rescued and saw that she was wearing a midriff-baring purple tank top and black skirt. She also looked like she had not eaten a decent meal in a few days.

"It's OK, really. How did you get here?" Victoria asked her.

"I came here with my sister to find a cookbook that's rumored to be hidden here. It's a cookbook written by a master chef over one hundred years ago. The chef who wrote it served the King of Fiore for decades, so finding the cookbook's kind of a big deal 'cause it's got all the recipes that the king liked." The young woman answered. Victoria blinked when she heard that reason for coming out to Haunted Guild. Many months ago she had once met a young woman in Lycan Woods named Alex who was going to culinary school and was looking for ingredients in the werewolf-infested woods. The Sabertooth mage wondered if the girl's sister was Alex.

"Say, does your sister's name happen to be Alex?" Victoria asked. The young woman blinked.

"Yeah. How did you know that?" The raven-haired youth asked in return.

"It's a long story, but I was one of the mages who rescued Alex from werewolves in Lycan Woods many months ago. She was out searching for ingredients when she was attacked by them and I went to her rescue." Victoria explained how she knew the other girl's name.

"I kinda remember the story she told me, but she said that she was rescued by a short female mage with a flat chest who looked like a guy." The other girl replied. Victoria frowned when she heard that unflattering description of her original form. She was not going to be able to set aside the mental image of her old form even if her new form was a beauty queen in comparison. The Sabertooth mage set that issue aside and focused on the girl in front of her.

"My name's Allison, but I also go by Allie." The young woman finally gave her name.

"OK, Allie. Aside from your sister, do you know if anyone else is being held prisoner in here?" Victoria asked Allie.

"Yeah. Those weird cultist guys have a lot of female captives. I heard the cultists saying something about requiring virgin sacrifices for their lord... someone named Zupazu." Allie replied. Victoria frowned when she heard the name Zupazu. So Infernal Lord Zupazu was the cult's patron... the brunette wondered how they had managed to get in contact with him that if she had banished him from the physical plane for one hundred years after their battle beneath Hargeon Town. She was not educated enough in occult lore to understand how that worked and she really did not want to know. Like with the details of Project Lacedaemon, there were some things that the brunette was better off not knowing.

"Did the cultists do anything to you like brainwash you into being a sleeper agent?" Victoria asked Allie.

"No. They just captured me and my sister and threw me in that cell. I spent about five days in there until you came along." Allie replied. Victoria saw that she was telling the truth, so the Sabertooth mage's thoughts shifted to finding a way to get her to safety. if she knew that Serena would not try to kill her as a demonic accomplice of Victoria's she would send the raven their way so that they could teleport her to safety. Suddenly the door a short distance behind her opened to let in Amberlin and Serena.

Speak of the devil...

"THERE SHE IS!" Serena yelled. Allie shrieked and took cover behind the cell door while Victoria strode forward with a facial expression that screamed "I'm so pissed right now."

"SERENA, ENOUGH. JUST... ENOUGH." Victoria fumed as she drew closer to the pair. Serena raised her hands and began to focus magic for a spell and Victoria pulled her hands down while Amberlin took a giant step to the left in case things got physical. The tall brunette got into Serena's face and launched into a forceful appeal to reason.

"Serena, listen to me and listen to me good. I'm not a demon. I'm not working with the cultists. You've seen all the dead cultists I've left behind me. If I was really working with them, would I have killed so many of them and be talking to you instead of trying to rip your head off?" Victoria pointedly asked Serena, her patience obviously near its limit.

"If I was really working with the cultists, why would I free Allie over there to try and bring to you instead of dragging her right to them?" Victoria asked another pointed question to try and get Serena to save her magic for the real demons. Allie nervously peeked from behind the door, ready to pull her head back behind it if a fight broke out. Amberlin watched in apprehension as the two brunettes faced each other and had a face-to-face talk about Victoria's status as a human.

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[Total Word Count: 5,758/11,000]

Victoria thought that she had made good arguments for her status as a human, but in the end Serena would have to be the one to decide if the tall brunette's claims were true or not. Serena's facial expression shifted from determination to uncertainty for a few seconds. Victoria hoped that she was getting through to the shorter brunette and had convinced her that the taller brunette was really Victoria Sheridan and not an imposter. After a bit of hesitation the Order cleric then spoke for the first time in minutes.

"I think you're a succubus." Serena stated to the Sabertooth mage. Victoria blankly looked at the cleric and then looked towards Amberlin for an explanation as to what a succubus was. The pink-haired mage quickly provided the sought-after definition.

"A succubus is a beautiful female demon who seduces men. The male equivalent is the incubus, a handsome male demon who seduces women." Amberlin defined the term for the tall brunette, who was not educated in demon lore. Victoria was not sure what to make of the definition. So now the Sabertooth mage was classified not as an ordinary shapeshifting demon, but instead as a succubus, a beautiful female demon who seduced men.

Victoria was not sure whether that was a compliment or an insult.

"The Victoria Sheridan I know has short brown hair, an average stature, and a flat chest. She could pass for a guy if she really wanted to." Serena argued in her defense. Victoria clenched her teeth when she heard the unflattering description of her original form for the second time tonight. She looked towards Amberlin, who hesitated before nodding her agreement with Serena and gave a pained "I'm sorry" facial expression. The Sabertooth mage sighed. It was going to take a long time and jumping through a lot of flaming hoops to convince some people that she was really Victoria Sheridan.

"OK, maybe you have a point about the original me. But after I killed so many of their men, do you still think that the cultists would want me on their side? And if they did, how come they haven't already bound me to their service with some kinda ritual so I'd be totally obedient? And wouldn't total obedience include not killing their people?" Victoria asked Serena a string of questions in another attempt to make the cleric see reason. Serena appeared uncertain and tried to come up with a response to those questions, but so far she could not. The tall brunette hoped that she was finally gaining ground with the cleric. After another awkward pause Serena spoke up.

"I still think you're a succubus, but I don't think you're bound to them." Serena replied. Victoria sighed in annoyance. Still, it was a step in the right direction. At least now the shorter brunette did not think that Victoria was serving the cult.

"OK, if you still think I'm a succubus, fine. Once we've saved everyone and killed the cultists we'll go back to Holy Castle and Father Morris can use magic or something to prove that I'm really Victoria. Now help me get Allie to safety." Victoria requested of Serena, giving up on convincing her of who she was in favor of getting Allie and the other young women slated to be human sacrifices to Infernal Lord Zupazu to safety. Victoria making that suggestion seemed to startle Serena, who was not expecting to hear that from a succubus. Amberlin too was surprised but soon recovered and spoke up on the tall brunette's behalf.

"If she's really Victoria and really a human, she should be able to approach Holy Castle without trouble. If she's really a succubus, just approaching Holy Castle would hurt her because of the concentration of Holy power gathered there. We'll have to take her to Father Morris after we're finished here to settle this." Amberlin sort-of agreed with Victoria's idea to prove once and for all that she was not a demon of any kind. The Sabertooth mage was pleased that someone had seen reason and was not trying to murder her with Holy magic. Now if only Victoria could be sure that Serena would not try to shoot her in the back at some point, things would be a lot easier. Still, she would take what she could get.

"We're currently standing in a prison, one of two prisons if what Allie told me is true. Allie told me that the cult's gathered a lot of young women to sacrifice to Demon Lord Zupazu in order to help him return to the physical plane one hundred years early. We've got to rescue everyone before the ritual starts." Victoria told Serena and Amberlin while Allie watched from the safety of the metal cell door.

"We won't have long to free everyone in here. I wasn't able to kill all the cultists I ran into and I'm sure they're rallying reinforcements to keep us from freeing the captives." Victoria informed the clerics of the time constraint that they would be under. She opened the cell door to the left of Serena and out stumbled a young woman in a blue t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts. She too looked like she had not eaten in days and voiced a complaint to that effect.

Suddenly the door at the other end of the hallway burst open and in flooded a small army of cultists with melee weapons backed by a few blue-robed spellcasters. Allie abandoned the safety of the metal cell door and hurried to Victoria, who readied a Beam Cannon spell to take out one of the enemy spellcasters before the magic really started to fly. She waited until the raven-haired youth was behind her before aiming and firing the Beam Cannon at a blue-robed cultist who was just entering the room. The man was hit directly in the heart and fell face-first onto the floor, where he lay motionless. The brown-robed cultists formed up in another human wall formation and advanced down the hall with weapons at the ready.

Victoria brought out her Light Machine Gun and Serena strode forward to do battle with the real enemy, something which made the tall brunette happy. Having Serena's wrath directed at the cultists instead of her would make this job a lot easier because the cleric's Holy magic was nothing to be trifled with. Now the Sabertooth mage and the clerics would have to clear this area of cultists before they could rescue anyone else in the area. Once this prison was cleared out they would have to hurry to the other prison to keep the prisoners from being taken and sacrificed on an accelerated timetable.

[Post Word Count: 1,114]
[Total Word Count: 6,872/11,000]

Victoria saw the spellcasters put up their shimmering shields and the wall of cultists advance on the trio plus the two captives they had managed to rescue so far. There were likely still more of them trapped in this cell block, but with the cultists armed and active there was no way to safely extract them without unacceptable risk to either the rescuers or the captives. The Sabertooth mage and her cleric support team would have to just hold their ground until they could eliminate the enemies in front of them.

Victoria took a deep breath and aimed at a cultist bearing a steel mace that glistened in the light. She squeezed the trigger and rattled off ten rounds, dropping him to the ground with holes in his chest and abdomen, but the wall kept advancing. Serena charged Holy magic into her hands and pushed outward with both hands, firing a wide beam of light that had more effect than Victoria's Light Machine Gun. The beam hit the targets, turning three men on the far left to dust with one powerful blast of Holy magic. That served as confirmation that Victoria had done the right thing by running from Serena and Amberlin instead of sticking around to be hit with a spell that powerful.

The five or so blue-robed spellcasters began flinging more spectral skulls at the group. Victoria calmly raised her left hand and blocked the one aimed at her head with Caduceus Shield and moments later Amberlin raised a pale golden wall that protected the group while Serena and Victoria decided how to deal with the cult's spellcasters. They would need to go before they could deal with the melee weapon-wielding cultists, who were advancing on them without pause.

"We've gotta get rid of those guys!" Serena told Victoria the obvious as a black fireball crashed against the wall and disappeared in a puff of sparks.

"No shit." Victoria snarked, letting some of the frustration over being deemed a demon and used as target practice by Serena seep out to the cleric. A spectral skull slammed against the shield and almost seemed like it was going to break through before disappearing.

"They've got shields that can stop my Light Machine Gun, so you're gonna need a spell that can punch through shields if you wanna bring them down." Victoria advised Serena, who was already channeling magic for another Holy spell. Victoria set down her Light Machine Gun and readied another Beam Cannon spell. Serena waited patiently for Victoria to be ready; once the Sabertooth mage was ready Serena nodded at Amberlin and the pink-haired cleric lowered the shield. Serena formed her hands into a triangle that framed the target and fired off a pencil-thin golden beam of light from the center that punched through the skull of a cultist holding an axe and punched through the skull of a spellcaster about twenty meters behind the first man who was about to launch another black fireball. Both men fell to the floor within seconds of each other.

Victoria aimed and fired her Beam Cannon at another spellcaster hanging back near the door he had used to enter the room. The brown-robed swordsman in front of him ducked, but the enemy mage did not react so quickly. He took a direct hit in between the eyes and stared numbly towards the ceiling for a few moments before staggering back a few steps and slumping against the wall. That left three spellcasters and around fifteen melee cultists, who were now within approximately ten meters of the group and closing fast. Amberlin quickly raised the shield and bought time for another quick planning session.

"That was a pretty good spell, lady." Serena complimented Victoria on the latter's Beam Cannon. It was clear that the cleric did not fully trust Victoria, but the Sabertooth mage would settle that issue later. Right now they needed to save the prisoners and deal with the cult trying to bring back Infernal Lord Zupazu.

"Your spells aren't bad either, Serena." Victoria gave the shorter brunette a compliment.

"How are we gonna deal with these guys?" Serena asked Victoria. The Sabertooth mage had an answer ready and waiting.

"If you've got any crowd control spells, now's the time to use 'em." Victoria quickly gave her answer. She held her hands out in front of her and channeled gray magic into them to prepare for a Claymore Burst. Serena raised her hands in front of her and channeled golden magic into them for another Holy spell. Once both spells were ready Serena nodded towards Amberlin and the shield was lowered.

"DIVINE SEEKER!" Serena shouted, firing off a burst of eight golden balls the size of a basketball towards the cultists. The projectiles fanned out in a horizontal pattern and each one hit a cultist in the chest and punched through before vanishing, leaving eight dead cultists on the floor. The remaining men did their best to keep formation, but Victoria loosed a Claymore Burst that riddled another three with steel ball bearings through vital organs, killing them almost instantly. That did it... the human wall formation fell apart and the survivors retreated for the door; the mages fired off one last burst of black fireballs to cover their retreat before fleeing themselves.

Victoria, Serena, and Amberlin were left in control of this cell block and the two clerics paused to catch their breath before hurrying to open the cell doors before still more cultists moved in to stop their progress. Grabbing up her Light Machine Gun, Victoria hurried for the door the cultists had just retreated through.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Serena asked her. Victoria screeched to a halt and turned to face Serena.

"Allie said that there's another cell block where prisoners are being kept. Now that they've lost this cell block, they're gonna hurry and try to move the prisoners in the second block. The cult's gonna try and sacrifice them before we can rescue them. I'm gonna go ahead to try and buy you guys some time to get the captives to safety!" Victoria shouted back her answer. She did not wait to hear Serena's response but instead pressed forward, reaching the door and yanking it open with her left hand. The cultists had a good minute or two for a head start. The tall brunette needed to hurry and catch up to them as quickly as she could.

[Post Word Count: 1,074]
[Total Word Count: 7,946/11,000]

-Inside the next hallway-

Victoria had pressed ahead to do what she could to keep the cult from taking the captives that remained and sacrificing them on an accelerated timetable. She had left the first cell block behind and was now in another hallway that led straight ahead. In front of her were five brown-robed cultists and one blue-robed cultist who had stayed behind with the purpose of delaying her for as long as they could. Unfortunately for them they would be nothing more than a minor speed bump. Victoria stopped after taking five steps and let her Light Machine Gun do the talking for her.

The brunette aimed her weapon and opened fire on the men holding swords and axes as the spellcaster in the rear flung black fireballs at her. Victoria's opening volley had killed one man by shooting him numerous times in the chest and she did the same to a second man wielding a two-handed sword with a dull edge like it had been worn down from frequent use. The remaining three closed the gap as the Sabertooth mage ducked under a black fireball that exploded just behind her and rained sparks that threatened to land on her hair. Undaunted by the prospect of close-range combat, Victoria dispelled her Light Machine Gun and brought out her Shotgun. She quickly pumped the weapon, aimed at the nearest armed man, and fired a round of Big Shot to end the threat he posed.

The remaining two men looked at each other, then nodded and charged simultaneously. Victoria quickly aimed and fired a Solid Slug at the head of the first just before the second man closed in and tried to cut her in two with a broadsword. Victoria turned her weapon sideways and used it to block the downward path of the sword; the two struggled for leverage for a few moments until he kicked her twice in the left knee and forced her down to the right knee. He kicked away her shotgun and raised his sword with both hands to strike her down. The unarmed brunette put both hands together and fired a Hand Cannon shot that hit him in the head, causing him to fall backwards and land on the floor without moving.

Seeing that he was now alone with her, the spellcaster hurled one last black fireball at Victoria before fleeing further into the basement. The kneeling Sabertooth mage blocked it with a Caduceus Shield and watched impotently as the surviving cultist made his getaway through the door at the end of the hallway. Struggling to her feet, Victoria cast a Medical Bag spell on her left knee and reclaimed her Shotgun, then hustled to catch up with the cultists before it was too late.

-In the next room-

Victoria hurried through the door and opened it, finding herself in a large chamber with a high vaulted ceiling and black marble pillars with a red skull motif. All around her were torches in wall sconces that burned blood red, giving the room a sinister black-and-red coloration. Cult banners liberally festooning the walls proudly proclaimed who owned this place. Above the large double doors in the center of the room was a large crimson skull that smiled down on her.

Victoria looked around and noticed that in addition to the large double doors there were two smaller wooden doors, one to the left and one to the right. She wondered which one led to the other cell block where the sacrifices were being kept and was not sure if she had the time to wait and see if a straggling cultist hauling a prisoner would come along and give her the answer. The Sabertooth mage agonized over which door to pick when the left door opened and in came a brown-robed man pulling a terrified young woman by her bound wrists. It was time to go to the rescue.

Victoria ran over to within fifteen meters of the pair and pumped her shotgun.

"Hey asshole, over here!" Victoria shouted. The man turned away from the young woman and looked towards Victoria, getting a Solid Slug through the head for his trouble. He fell to the ground and the former captive ran towards Victoria, who pulled out her Silver Dagger and cut the young woman's bonds.

"Thanks! Those creepy guys were about to drag me through those double doors and sacrifice me on an altar to some Infernal Lord Zupazu!" The young woman thanked Victoria for her sudden and violent intervention. She had black hair with a blue short-sleeved t-shirt and black skirt.

"No problem. Were you kept prisoner with any other young women?" Victoria asked her while putting away her Silver Dagger and taking up her Shotgun again. The young woman nodded.

"Yeah, but the cultists started clearing out the cell blocks when some brown-haired girl came down here and started killing them all. I take it they were referring to you." The young woman replied to the question.

"Yeah, they were talking about me." Victoria answered casually as if killing cultists was a regular thing for her to do. In a way it was. When she joined Sabertooth she was charged with protecting the world from outside threats and Infernal Lord Zupazu was definitely an outside threat. If Infernal Lord Zupazu were to return in the flesh and rally more cultists to his cause there was no telling what kind of danger the world would be in.

"By the way, I'm Alex. Have you come across my sister Allie?" The young woman asked the Sabertooth mage. Victoria jerked her left thumb back towards the door she had entered the room through.

"Yeah, I rescued her from a cell block two rooms back. She's hungry but OK. A holy order known as the Order of Lightbringers is working to get her and the other captives out of here." Victoria answered. Alex exhaled in relief.

"I'm glad that she's OK. We came here looking for a cookbook from a master chef and found a cult instead. They threw us in those cells and left us there until today. They muttered something about the time being right for us to be sacrificed." Alex said to Victoria. Moments later Serena and Amberlin burst through the door and found Victoria conversing with Alex.

"Alex, I'd like you to meet two members of the Order of Lightbringers, Clerics Serena and Amberlin." Victoria introduced the black-haired youth to the Order clerics responsible for helping save Allie from a sacrificial altar. Technically Victoria was the one who opened the door, but right now she was not counting who did what. Now that an uneasy truce had been struck with Serena, the taller brunette could focus fully on saving the cult's prisoners before they were sacrificed to bring Infernal Lord Zupazu back into the world.

[Post Word Count: 1,142]
[Total Word Count: 9,088/11,000]

-Five minutes later-

After Allie had been teleported to safety by the combined efforts of the clerics Victoria faced the two and asked them for the next step of the plan. They did not have much time to waste before the cultists started sacrificing people, so whoever proposed the plan had better be quick about it. Victoria dispelled her Shotgun and readied her own Rocket Launcher in case no one could come up with a plan... if no one came up with a solid plan she would just blast the large double doors down and go from there. It was reckless and stupid, but the trio were running out of time and they needed to act fast.

"So, what are we gonna do about getting in?" Victoria asked Serena and Amberlin.

"Does the dead guy have a key?" Serena asked Victoria. Before the Sabertooth mage could answer Amberlin took the initiative to hustle over to the dead cultist and search the body for a key to the doors. The pink-haired cleric knelt down and searched the man for a key, but so far she had had no luck in locating a key. After a few more moments Amberlin stood up and showed her hands to show that she had nothing. Victoria took a deep breath.

"We've gotta get in there fast! I can feel dark energy building up behind the door!" Serena said to Victoria. The tall brunette wordlessly raised her Rocket Launcher and waited for Amberlin to get clear, which did not take very long once the pink-haired cleric realized what was about to be fired in her direction. She scrambled clear and Victoria steadied her aim.

"You two don't want to be standing behind this thing when I fire it unless you want to be burned by the backblast." Victoria warned the clerics who were standing behind her. They got the hint and obligingly split up, Serena standing directly to her left and Amberlin to her right so that they would not get burned by the concentrated rocket exhaust. Once they were clear Victoria fired the Rocket Launcher and watched the rocket fly towards the center of the door. Moments later there was a bright flash and a deafening BANG as the doors were blasted open in the center, leaving a big enough hole for Victoria, Serena, and Amberlin to get through.

Inside the hitherto closed room glowed an ominous red light that flickered with the speed and rhythm of a human heartbeat. Groups of robed men moved towards the doors to stop the trio from interrupting the sacrifices that were about to happen. Now that stealth was a laughable impossibility it was time to take the direct approach to rescuing the captives. Victoria brought out her Light Machine Gun and waited for the clerics to ready themselves for combat.

"If you've got any more tricks up your sleeves, now's the time to use 'em." Victoria advised the clerics. They obligingly began to focus magic into their hands and mutter incantations while the brown-robed men formed up into a human wall and the surviving blue-robed spellcasters began to sling spells at the trio. Victoria opened fire on the melee weapon-wielding cultists while Serena fired off a horizontal fan pattern of eight Divine Seeker shots and Amberlin worked to shield them from the black fireballs of the enemy spellcasters.

Eight of the cultists fell to the Divine Seekers and two fell to the Sabertooth mage's chattering LMG, but they still had a lot of cultists to wade through and the sound of chanting was starting to sound from within the room. The cultists at the door were selling their lives to buy time for the sacrifice and the trio was not sure if they could break through in time without resorting to drastic measures. Serena focused for another spell and pushed her hands outward, firing a powerful blast of Holy magic that disintegrated three men as they began to advance on the trio but leaving in excess of thirty more. Victoria's LMG continued to chatter and claimed another three cultists, but the black fireballs were still raining down on the trio and they were getting no closer to getting inside the room.

"Victoria, we need to hurry!" Serena shouted. The trio could hear female screaming ring out as the chanting got louder and the red light pulsed faster. Victoria closed her eyes. She could already tell where this was going, but there was no choice in the matter. She would have to do it.

She would have to use her Grenade Launcher against humans for the third time in her career.

Tear Gas would take way too long to disperse to levels that would not adversely affect Victoria and the clerics. They did not have the time to wait around for the non-lethal gas to disperse.

"Are you sure that you want me to use my Grenade Launcher?" Victoria pointedly asked Serena. She would give the brunette a chance to back out before things got messy. Serena refused.

"We don't have time to play around! Use it!" Serena answered. Victoria looked to Amberlin and the pink-haired mage nodded. So be it.

"You're not gonna like what's about to happen. Don't say I didn't warn you." Victoria expressly warned Serena and Amberlin before dispelling the LMG and bringing out her Grenade Launcher, that tool of destruction that could reduce masses of humans to an indescribable mix of blood and torn bodies. Victoria felt another part of her soul slip away as she prepared to fire. She started firing the grenades so that they landed at the feet of the human wall of brown-robed cultists advancing on the trio. Moments later she started to hear loud explosions and agonized screaming from the men she was blasting apart. Victoria hated what she was doing, but there was no turning back for her.

Once the firing stopped the entirety of the human wall lay scattered on the floor with missing limbs and blood liberally coating the area. The enemy spellcasters were still active, but Serena and Amberlin were too shocked by what Victoria had done to stop them. Half of Victoria could not blame them for being sick. She too was appalled by what she had just done even if the enemies were cultists bent on sacrificing innocent women to resurrect a demon lord.

"I told you you wouldn't like it." Victoria said grimly as she dispelled the Grenade Launcher and prepared a Beam Cannon, invoking a special ability called Bullet Time to make sure that her first Beam Cannon used on each spellcaster would be the last. Her outline glowed gunmetal gray as she prepared to fire on a spellcaster who was too shocked by the bloodshed to move or fight back. Victoria fired a Beam Cannon right through his skull and he fell to the ground. She repeated the process four more times to put an end to the enemy spellcasters.

Now that they were gone it was time to go into the chamber and stop the sacrifice.

"LET'S GO!" Victoria yelled to the clerics before breaking into a run and sprinting past and through the bodies of the dead brown-robed cultists she had blasted apart with high-explosive Grenade Launcher rounds.

[Post Word Count: 1,210]
[Total Word Count: 10,298/11,000]

-Inside the sacrificial chamber-

Victoria had sprinted inside the chamber and found seven red-robed men standing at the points of some kind of emblem drawn in blood that formed a seven-point star. Inside the seven-point star were standing around thirty-five panicked young women who were scared out of their minds and had no idea of how to get out of the situation they were in. Where the blood to form the star came from was unknown, but what she did know was that things were getting very bad because the chanting and flickering picked up speed.

"INFERNAL LORD ZUPAZU, TAKE THESE MEAGER OFFERINGS AS A TOKEN OF OUR FEALTY TO YOU!" A red-robed man appealed to the ceiling with raised hands. Victoria noticed that the ceiling had the same seven-point star as the floor and was aligned precisely with the one on the floor. That was no coincidence. She did not have time to ponder the significance because she heard a deep bass voice speak and a giant face appear on the ceiling.

"Oh shit." Victoria said to herself as the cultists conducting the ritual rejoiced. The giant face was Infernal Lord Zupazu's and he was watching the proceedings in person! He was close to manifesting on the physical plane! The young woman intended as sacrifices pounded frantically on a blood-red barrier that kept them trapped in the circle, explaining how they could not escape despite the lack of guards to stop them from fleeing.

"Shit. Shit. SHIT." Victoria said to herself as his face popped out of the ceiling to allow a head to form. Seconds later more of Infernal Lord Zupazu's body manifested... his left arm was beginning to appear as a shadowy mass, but it was only a matter of time before it took form. Her racing mind came up with a quick plan. If she killed the chanting men she just might put a halt to the ritual before it was completed and the demon lord had fully manifested.

"INFERNAL LORD ZUPAZU, TAKE THESE MEAGER OFFERINGS AS A TOKEN OF OUR FEALTY TO YOU!" The plea was repeated just before Victoria fired a Bullet Time-enhanced Beam Cannon through the skull of the cultist who had voiced the plea. He stood still and moments later fell forward. The invisible barrier flickered, showing that the cultists were powering it and taking them out might weaken it just enough to allow the women to get free on their own.

"NO! THE RITUAL MUST NOT BE INTERRUPTED! WE ARE SO VERY CLOSE!" Another man yelled in despair before a Beam Cannon through the skull silenced him as well. Three of the remaining five cultist leaders turned away from the ritual and towards Victoria to stop her with their magic. They let loose with black fireballs that traveled faster than those of their blue-robed subordinates and summoned a mass of red spectral skeletons that advanced on the Sabertooth mage. She dodged the fireballs and the grasping hands of the spectral skeletons by rapidly backpedaling and maneuvered just enough to get a shot on a cultist standing still.

Victoria held her breath and fired off a Beam Cannon. It punched through his skull and he fell to his side, dispelling the skeletons and ending that threat. However, two of the black fireballs connected with Victoria's chest and nearly knocked her off her feet. She put out the sparks that threatened to ignite her shirttail and then hurriedly waved her hands to cool off her palms before she could use a Beam Cannon. Where were Serena and Amberlin when she needed them?

Victoria raised her left hand to block the incoming fireballs with a Caduceus Shield and blocked them just in time, but she could feel the force of their impact through the shield. She saw another mass of red spectral skeletons appear and advance on her; the second cultist had switched to summoning while the first pounded her with fireballs to keep her in place. Victoria had to maintain the shield to avoid being roasted by black fire and thus could do nothing to stop the skeletons from reaching her and seizing her by the arms.

Where were Serena and Amberlin?

The brunette saw red skeletal hands reaching for her throat and felt hands as cold as death grab her throat. While being strangled she saw the shadowy left arm of the demon lord take shape and heard the young women scream as the arm reached down for them.

So this was how it was going to end. The brunette would die a failure.

"HANG ON, VICTORIA!" Amberlin yelled. Moments later a blast of golden energy enveloped her and the skeletons, destroying them and giving her a nasty burn from the intense light and heat. Another blast of golden energy killed the summoner and yet another killed the cultist hurling fireballs. The barrier holding the young women flickered and turned solid for a moment, then fell, allowing them to flee the circle before the demon lord's hand could grab one of them.

"NO! DAMN YOU BROWN-HAIRED WOMAN! DAMN YOU!" Infernal Lord Zupazu bellowed in anger as his arm faded back into a shadowy mass and his face began to recede into the ceiling. The two cultists, eager to appease their patron and possibly salvage something out of the ritual, turned to fight the three mages but were blasted into oblivion by Serena and Amberlin's powerful Holy Magic. A loud, drawn-out bellow filled the air as Infernal Lord Zupazu was drawn back into the ceiling, where the face twisted around as if fighting banishment before soon fading away with one last bellow.

The red light remained, but the flickering had stopped. Victoria voluntarily ended Bullet Time and took a deep breath. She turned to face the clerics who had come to her rescue right when she needed them the most.

"Thanks for the rescue, guys. We did it." The slightly roasted Victoria thanked them for their help.

"It was close, but we pulled it off. I'm glad you helped us." Amberlin agreed without fanfare.

"Whether you're a succubus or not, you kicked their asses!" Serena exclaimed with excitement, seeming to have already shrugged off the effects of witnessing the Sabertooth mage blast apart the cultists earlier. Victoria was too tired and too roasted to argue over whether she was a succubus or not. The young women who had been rescued from being sacrificed did not care what form their saviors took... they were just glad to be alive.

"Let's get everyone back to Holy Castle! Our reinforcements should be arriving any moment now to guarantee us a safe trip!" Serena suggested. Amberlin and Victoria nodded.

"There they are now!" Amberlin said, pointing them out to Serena, Victoria, and the rescued captives. The group streamed out of the sacrifical chamber and towards the clerics and knights who had just entered the room outside the sacrificial chamber.

Soon Victoria would be on her way to Holy Castle to prove to Serena once and for all that her new form was not that of a demon. Once that was done she would collect her payment and return to Sabertooth Guild Hall to chalk up another successful mission. Then after she had recovered from this ordeal she would peruse the job board and take another dangerous job for pay and adventure.

[Post Word Count: 1,224]
[Total Word Count: 11,522/11,000]