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Erin’s lust was stronger than ever before but it wasn’t any less unbridled. In fact, her lust was more focused. By accepting the devious part of herself, Erin’s control over her lust increased tremendously. Though her personality was a far cry from how she was and seemingly lost in this martial lust of hers, she still had a grasp on her rationality and propriety. She felt that she could rein herself in if the circumstances required her to do so. However, her current circumstances were all in favour of her unleashing her unrestrained martial lust unto her opponents.

The newly emerged four-armed Demon quickly found itself in a plight as the five-tailed Fox-kin promptly dominated the battle flow. She had snapped one of its arms with her bare hands and snatched a sword from the now three-armed Demon. The sword was heavy but not too much for her to handle and it was made of the same steel the Augur boy, Cynric, gave to her. With that Crimson-steel sword in hand, Erin defaulted the Demon into a pair of arms and she took another sword into her other hand. In just under a minute since the Demon’s emergence, she had completely turned the tide of the fight. Erin was shaking intermittently as she looked at her opponent ardently. This was Martial Lust state, quite like her Lust Deviant state before but the glaring difference was her control over her mind and the price of this state, which was something she realised she had slightly misunderstood. The price for this state wasn’t paid along the process but paid in the future. In other words, she took on credit when she entered the Martial Lust state. And this led to another change in her divine gift. She could no longer relieve her lust simply by participating in intense battles. While battles would quell her martial lust, they would also inflame her carnal lust in return, and vice-versa. It was a never-ending cycle of lust, a befitting trait for her as the Apostle of lust.

The confident and poised expression of the former four-armed Demon turned into absolute horror and despair as Erin overwhelmed it. Erin’s expression was the opposite of the Demon’s own. She was grinning widely and bearing a poised yet lewd expression. Every strike and blow she made was akin to having her womanhood stimulated by her lovers. Under Martial Lust, a fight was similar to coitus but the pleasure wasn’t mutual, it was completely one-sided.

The burly Demon intervened at some point but Erin wasn’t the least concerned about that Demon’s participation in the fight. With a sword in each of her hands, she was more confident than ever in her chances of victory. The burly Demon ploughed into a wall in the first seconds of its participation and its arm was lopped off its shoulder. The two-armed Demon fell further into despair as it fought desperately but it was simply no match for Erin’s swordsmanship despite all the advantages it had. Eventually, Erin took the third arm from the former four-armed Demon but before she could take its last remaining arm, the tall Demon intervened. Erin clicked her tongue and flipped over the tall Demon’s lunge by bouncing the walls and landed some distance from the Demons.

“Please don’t tell me this is all the reinforcements you have,” Erin mocked. “Three level fifty Demons against one under-level puny vixen and this is the result? How tremendously disappointing.”

“Be careful what you wish for, you cocksure fox,” the tall Demon snarled.

“Tell you what, you tell me your boss’ whereabouts and his plans, and I won’t humiliate you any further, how does that sound?”

“If you know our boss, you know we would rather suffer this humiliation than expose him.”

“As you wish.” Erin shrugged. “But please, do send in more of you lot. This fight is getting stale and I doubt I would garner much experience from just the meagre three of you.”

The tall Demon chuckled. “I have killed a lot of cocksure bitches and arses like you. How I wish I could add you to that count but I just have to settle with you being half dead.”

“I’m a bitch but you’re the one barking and failing to bite anything.”

“I’m gonna enjoy breaking you without killing you.” The tall Demon snickered. “Luden! Gather everyone here now!” it yelled, seemingly at the air but Erin knew it was communicating with someone through telepathy means.

“I know what the boss said! Just send everyone here now!”

“I’m well aware of the consequences but do you? This bitch is more than I can handle.”

“Just shut up and send the rest here! The Venerers be damned! We’ll just have to be gone before they arrive.”

“Tell the captain we will pay him more! Hold the guards for just a while longer!”

Erin raised an eyebrow. “That’s a very convenient detail to know.”

“Don’t worry, little fox.” The tall Demon snorted. “It changes nothing. You think you’re the only one who knows? A lot of people do but none could do a damn thing to change anything.”

“Well, they aren’t me.”

Four more portals appeared in the alley and all that came out of these portals were humanoid Demons with their respective sense of self retained. Erin saw one that had a mouth that split open vertically and mist of some kind was constantly oozing out of that gaping mouth of its.

“Damn you, Oslo,” uttered one of the Demons, pointing at the tall Demon. “You owe us for this one.”

“We work for the same boss, idiot. This is your job as much as it is mine.”

“But I have my own designated place and time!”

“Fine. Help me with this and drinks are on me tonight.”

That Demon snorted and nodded begrudgingly. “I’ll be holding you to that, Oslo.”

From the conversation alone, Erin gathered that these Demon transformations were most likely not permanent and it was reversible. “Hiding in plain sight,” she mused in her heart. A headache followed suit when she thought about what this piece of information entailed.

“What’s this, Oslo? You can’t deal with a single puny fox?” scoffed one of the newly-emerged Demons but it disappeared from the other Demons’ sight. That Demon reappeared in a hole on the wall with a loud rumble and Erin’s foot on top of its head as it lay motionlessly on the ground.

[Experience gained +10% - Level Progression: 90%]

“Only ten percent? Is this a fucking joke?”

All the newly-emerged Demons gasped. None of them saw Erin’s movements.

“I really wish I’m fighting real Demons instead of you mongrel breeds. They are very unpredictable and severely more dangerous but you lot? Barely an inconvenience.”

“What a foul cocksure tongue you have, little fox.”

Erin sighed with her eyes and rolled with her swords slashing.

The Demon with the vertical mouth spread its jaws wide open and unleashed a wave of dark mist that swallowed the whole alley. Erin instantly realised it was miasma. She grimaced and quickly covered her mouth and nose. The Demons laughed and rushed at her upon seeing her distress. However, Erin flashed all of the Demons who rushed at her with a wicked smirk and flourished her swords around her. Blood as black as the night splattered across the walls and the ground. A head of a Demon went rolling and two Demons were cleanly bisected vertically in half.

[Experience gained +10%]

[Experience gained +10%]

[Experience gained +10% - Level Progression: 120%]

“Not even a surprise for me at all?” Erin taunted them silently. “How truly disappointing.” The surge of power from the increment of levels was simply tantalising. It made her want to just seek out Lyra or Siv and kiss them until they were gasping for breath and then proceed to make love right then and there. But she reeled her desires in before they could go out of her control.

[Erynthea: Level 41 increased to Level 42]

[Skill Points acquired +2 | 2]

[Ability Points acquired +2 | 2]

[Level Progression: 20%]

“Impossible!” cried the Demon with the vertical mouth. “This bitch is completely unaffected by miasma! What kind of absurdity is this!?”

“The kind that spells your end,” Erin retorted and closed the gap between them in the blink of an eye.

The Demon shrieked and counterattacked without any composure. Bolts of darkness were shot out from its mouth but Erin evaded them all without any difficulty. The Demon tried retreating but Erin kept the distance between them close and red streaks of glint crossed the Demon’s sight and those were the last things it saw before its world crumbled apart as its body crumbled into three pieces.

[Experience gained +10% - Level Progression: 30%]

“Damn it… Damn it…” muttered the tall Demon, who had reverted to its human form and did the other Demons. “This is impossible… this is impossible…” The thug’s level had dropped to below thirty once they were no longer in their Demon forms.

“Oh, shut it. It is possible,” Erin retorted in a mutter. She appraised their status for good measure and nothing seemed to be indicating they had something planned or hidden. They were genuinely at their wits’ end. As if to assert her victory, Erin felt the suppression of magic was lifted. The last of her assailants had given up but she could not sense that person’s presence anywhere. She dispelled her Martial Lust state and her weight seemingly returned to her body after the elated sensation left her.

“P-please… have mercy…, Lady Fae,” pleaded Oslo, the person who was the tall Demon. While Oslo was on his knees and begging for his life, his two friends had already turned their backs to him and started running.

But before Erin could give chase, a figure descended from the roof, a large figure. That figure landed before the two running thugs and swung the cleaver they were carrying, bisecting the two thugs across their waist. Erin appraised that individual, though her instincts were warning her not to but how could she not appraise the individual that she knew not to be an ally or foe. The individual before her was a woman, a female Augur, to be precise. She was level fifty-two with a Might value of seventy and most of her Arcane Arts were related to the amplification of her physical strength and prowess. Her hair was red like the setting sun during dusk and her skin was as dark as copper. Even from a distance, Erin could tell the Augur was a head taller than her and significantly burlier than her too. Amyra was the Augur’s name.

The Augur trod leisurely towards Erin and Oslo like she had all the time in the world. She barely gave the two men she just killed any more attention than she already had. She was grinning widely as she approached Erin, dragging the gigantic cleaver along. Her wardrobe was the brazen kind, consisting of only a strapless leather corset armour and a pair of trousers.

“Are you going to kill this scum?” asked the Augur, Amyra, pointing at the shivering thug with her cleaver.

“What’s it to you?”

“If you don’t plan on killing him, may I?”

Erin frowned. “Why would you want to do that? Before that, who or what are you?”

“Surely you already know that, don’t you, little Fae? You have already appraised me after all.”

Erin clicked her tongue. “I did, Amyra, but what are you?”

“I am an adventurer just like you, Erynthea.”

“You know me?” Erin took notice of the absence of “Lady” in the Augur’s addressing of her name. She was the first person that wasn’t a Fae, to be addressing Erin without a title.

“Of course, I do, and so do a lot of people. Your reputation precedes you. Your rise among the adventurers is a very thrilling and inspiring tale. Anyway, what of this thug? Shall I kill him or will you?”

“P-please don’t… I—”

“Silence,” Erin muttered and kneed him in the face, silencing him. “Why are you here, Amyra?”

“To help you since none of the guards in this city seems to be doing anything. Useless bunch they are. Suspicious, don’t you think? Anyway, I heard there were Demons, where are they?”

“These thugs are the Demons. Well, quasi Demons.”

“How exciting and you killed all of them.” Amyra licked her lips, glancing at Erin up and down. “That’s very fascinating of you. The rumours didn’t exaggerate.”

“Um… thanks?”

“So, can I kill this thug Demon person?”

“I’m sorry, Amyra but I need this one alive. I have a lot of questions that I need to be answered.”

Amyra chuckled. “Good luck with that.”

“What does that supposed to mean?”

“It means that similar incidents have happened and those involved were taken in for questioning but it never went anywhere. They all died an undue death.”

“Really?” Erin glanced at Oslo. “Then I should extract his memories before that happens,” Erin said and clutched the thug’s head with her hand.

Immediately after, the thug began to shudder as black veins covered his body. Amyra moved before Erin could. She grabbed Erin by her arm and leapt to the roofs just as fifteen feet black spikes erupted from all over the thug’s body. The black spikes then melted into black goo as abruptly as they appeared.

[Experience gained +5% - Level Progression: 35%]

“Hmm. They usually explode into bits and pieces,” Amyra remarked. “This one’s new.”

“They were indeed watching…” Erin muttered.

“Say, is it just you or does all Fae have a spell or a method to extract memories?” asked the Augur.

“Oh, that? I was bluffing. I wanted to test something.”

“I see… Smart.” Amyra’s grin was even wider.

Erin couldn’t help but be bothered by how the Augurv was looking at her.

“Erynthea,” she called out.

“What?”

“Be mine,” she said. “You are fit to be my lover.”

Erin blinked, dumbfounded.