Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls-Chapter 205: She was a succubus

Liora looked at Exalia with her mouth half open, as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

"You were... damn, a wagon ran you over," she said, her voice choked with shock and relief.

Exalia tilted her head slightly, her expression as steady as tempered steel.

"Is this the time to make jokes about my condition?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "I almost died here, give me a break."

"Give me a break!" Liora approached her, touching Exalia’s arm gently, almost reverently, as if testing whether it was real. "Damn, since when do you heal so fast? This was supposed to be screwed up."

Kael, still feeling the pressure in his head, rubbed his temples and leaned against a fallen rock. "Why does this all feel like a joke?" he wondered.

"I’m healed now, Kael healed me," Exalia murmured, glancing at him over her shoulder. "I told you that, remember? He’s strong."

Liora looked from one to the other, then finally dropped to her knees on the grass, exhausted but smiling.

"You two are going to kill me prematurely. I ran through half the forest thinking I was only going to find bodies."

Kael looked up at the now clear sky and let out a deep sigh. "You almost didn’t find them," he said slowly, before continuing, "We’re dealing with a demon."

Exalia, now fully upright, walked slowly to where her broken sword was stuck in the ground. She pulled it out carefully, holding the two fragments with regret.

"It wasn’t a fair fight. She was much stronger... but we still almost killed her."

"Almost," Kael repeated. ’And now she knows it.’

Liora stood up again, wiping her hands on her clothes. The wind blew cleaner now, without the metallic taste of demonic magic. The forest seemed to be in respectful silence.

"Do you think she’ll come back?"

Kael nodded slowly.

"She will. But next time, she’ll come in a hurry. And with more anger. She knows we’re not easy prey."

Exalia looked around, analyzing the damage. The ground was twisted, marked by the explosion of Ahri’s magic. Fallen trees, burned roots, life there had been forced to renew itself.

She then turned to the two figures before her—Kael, dejected but alive, and Liora, anxious but determined.

"We have to prepare. What happened today was not the end. It was just... the awakening."

Kael stared at her, sensing something change within her. The Exalia who had defied many things on the battlefield now carried something more. It wasn’t just the invisible scar of near-death. It was purpose. Something greater than revenge.

"Don’t worry. We’ll stay alert... and if she comes back, we’ll finish what we started. Okay?" Kael said, his gaze steady.

Exalia just nodded silently, but the determined gleam in her eyes said more than words could express.

Kael then turned to Liora, concern returning to his face.

"What about the others? What happened to them?"

Liora took a deep breath, still seeming to recover from the tension she carried. Her eyes met his with a mixture of relief and unease.

"They’re alive. But..." she hesitated for a moment, "they suffered seizures while they slept. It was as if they were trapped in deep nightmares, all at the same time."

Kael frowned, feeling the weight of the information.

"Did it attack them too?"

Liora nodded. "Yes. But in a different way. Silently. She poisoned them through their dreams. While she was fighting us here, she kept the whole group unconscious... vulnerable. She isolated you two to prevent any interference."

"Mind control, illusions, essence draining..." Exalia murmured thoughtfully. ’She wasn’t just any demon. That was succubus stuff.’

"That’s what I thought too," Liora added. "From the powers she displayed, probably an ancient succubus. Dreams, desires, illusions... She knew exactly where to strike."

Kael clenched his fists. "And the worst part: she didn’t show us everything."

"No," said Exalia, her tone colder now. "She was testing us. Playing with us."

Kael frowned when he heard that. The weight of the information settled on his shoulders, as real as the exhaustion that consumed him.

"Convulsions in dreams..." he repeated in a low voice, as if processing each word. ’That explains the fog. The distorted time. The feeling of... imprisonment.’

Liora nodded, wiping the dust from her face with the back of her hand. "She invaded our minds. Manipulated our sleep, our emotions... turned us against ourselves. But it wasn’t just illusion. She drained our essence while we slept."

Exalia, still holding the fragments of the sword, clenched her jaw. "She tried to break us before the fight even began. That’s what creatures like her do. They creep in slowly, whisper, feed on fear."

Kael struggled to his feet, leaning on what remained of a fallen tree trunk.

"A high-level succubus, then. Capable of creating mental veils, trapping bodies in cycles of forced sleep... and still maintaining a physical presence during the attack." He looked at Exalia and then at Liora. "That puts her far above most of the demons we’ve faced."

Liora approached, crossing her arms. Her voice was firmer now, but there was obvious concern.

"And if she did that with ease, even after being wounded... then when she returns, she’ll be more dangerous."

Exalia looked up at the sky, as if trying to see beyond the clouds. "She’ll be back. And she’ll want more than revenge. She’ll want domination."

Silence fell for a moment between the three. The wind blew through the remaining trees, bringing the sound of distant leaves. The world seemed to slowly recover, like someone waking up from a nightmare.

Kael took a deep breath and broke the silence. "Then we have to find a way to resist her power. Not just in combat. But mentally as well."

"Dream protection barriers," said Liora, completing the thought. ’Anchoring rituals. Vigilance talismans... I’ll gather everything we have on this at the camp.’

"And I..." said Exalia, dropping the fragments of the sword on the ground with a metallic clink, "...I’ll need a new blade. One that cuts through dreams, if possible."

Kael smiled slightly at her determination.

"You talk as if it were easy to forge something like that."

"If it were easy, I wouldn’t be interested."

Liora rolled her eyes. "Oh, heavens. Gods give me patience, because physical strength is what we have most of around here."

But there was something else in her words—relief. Seeing them standing there, still arguing and making plans, was a miracle in itself.

Kael looked one last time at the place where the succubus had been swept away. The earth still pulsed slowly, as if warning them: she wasn’t completely gone.

"Let’s move. Before the forest decides to swallow us whole."

...

[Royal Elf Castle — Hall of Dawn]

The soft light of the constellations filtered through the leaf- and branch-shaped glass windows, casting golden patterns on the white marble of the hall. The scent of moonflowers filled the air, but even the ancient beauty of the Royal Elf Castle was not enough to calm Queen Aelyra’s hurried footsteps.

She paced back and forth, her long silver silk dress trailing behind her like an ethereal tail. Her delicate hands clutched a letter sealed with black wax — a symbol that had not been used for centuries, not even in the darkest ages of elven history.

Her advisors, lined up silently at the sides of the hall, exchanged cautious glances. No one dared speak until the Queen had spoken.

Finally, she stopped before the throne carved from the wood of the Primeval Tree. She turned slowly, her eyes sparkling like ice under a full moon.

"We have received a message from the Children of the Veil," she said, her voice calm but with palpable tension. ’One of our clans infiltrated among the High Elves has reported a movement... of concern.’

An almost inaudible murmur ran through the hall, but it ceased immediately when Aelyra raised her hand.

"They speak of a figure who has risen among Val’tarion’s advisors, a certain Sareth el’Volmir. He is not an ancient name. He does not belong to the lineages of the Solar Nobility. But he has already attracted the attention of at least three Great Houses."

She held the letter up to the light.

"According to the spies... he speaks with a voice of honey and eyes of coal. He promises a new order. Peace, he says. But his eyes... his eyes shine like those of something that does not breathe."

An icy silence fell over those present.

General Taleron, one of the few veteran elves of the Last Eclipse War, stepped forward.

"Your Majesty... this sounds like dark magic. Or worse. His name... does it appear in any of the archives?"

Aelyra shook her head.

"No. Not in the lunar records, nor in the blood chronicles. It’s as if he came out of nowhere."

She then walked over to the huge window that opened onto the Starflower Gardens, her silhouette blending into the night.

"And now, we have received a second report. From a detachment in the south, where a person attacked a resistance cell. This person has enough power to manipulate dreams en masse."

She closed her eyes for a moment.

"These events are not unrelated. We need to be more alert. An attack will come soon."

Taleron frowned.

"Liora is out there, isn’t she?"

Aelyra nodded slowly.

"Yes," she paused, hesitant. "She killed one of the elders and got involved with new figures who appeared... She’s probably coming here."

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