Chapter 588 – One Step Ahead

Ten men and four women laid strewn about the room unconscious. Not a single one of them lasted more than a round. As it turned out, finding willing participants to have sex with a succubus was easy. Few from the Nu-hauta Archipelago had seen a succubus before. They knew only that it was a race of sex demons, and that was more than enough for them to say yes.

Kanae ate out the pussy of a cute elven woman, who was writhing madly on the table. Meanwhile, her tail sucked off a man seated in a chair. His feet arched and eyes were squeezed tightly shut.

"It's so good! Oh, my gods… I'm close! I'm cumming!" the woman cried.

Kanae didn't let up. She flicked her tongue faster across the swollen clitoris. The elf twisted and turned, eyes rolled back, chest heaving in labored breaths. Her ensuing climax came so strongly that she blacked out.

"Mmm. Thank you for that meal." Kanae wiped her chin, then turned to the remaining elven man. "As for you…"

"Please… let me blow my load already… You've been edging me for half an hour now…" the man pleaded.

"Awww. You can't last another minute? Tell me how badly you want to cum, and I might just let you~" Kanae cooed, tightening her tail's hold on his cock.

"Please, let me cum! I can't take it anymore!" he cried.

Thrilled by his begging, Kanae picked up the pace and pumped her tail faster as if milking a cow. He threw his head back and blew such a big load that some of it dribbled down his balls. She suctioned the rest and savored the warm feeling oozing down the length of her tail to her womb.

"Whew. Now for the main course. I hope you're ready to—" Kanae looked up at the elven man, who had also fallen unconscious. His head dangled limp over the seat's backrest. Any life left in him to drain would just cause harm or a massive headache.

The warehouse door swung open. Vestrid entered with a minotaur man following her in. He wasn't as large as others of his race that Kanae had taken, but his size should still make for a nice meal. She propped both hands on a crate, stuck her ass out, and beckoned him over.

Reluctant, the minotaur turned to Vestrid as if searching for permission. The Saint Priest shrugged. He stomped over and pulled out his large shapely cock. Kanae sighed in delight as he pushed into her. Vestrid walked around to face her, arms folded and unamused.

"Sorry, Vestrid… You're kind of killing the vibe… Unless you want to join?" Kanae offered as the minotaur began to fuck her.

"Nice try, Amethyst. But unlike Ulric, I meant the vows I took. My strength is not yours for the taking, even though I like you. All this is going to amount to something, right? I didn't become a Saint Priest to help a succubus get fucked." Vestrid rolled her eyes.

"It's for a good… nngh… cause. Huu… Harder… slam my pussy harder!" She balled up her fists as the rutting intensified.

Vestrid walked away, sighing. The minotaur picked Kanae up, pressing her to his broad and muscular body. His thrusts pounded her with enough force to knock the wind from her lungs with every blow. He let out a guttural grunt before climaxing. Her legs stretched to their limits. Cum gushed out from her pussy from being overfilled.

"Whoa, whoa!" Kanae fell backwards with the minotaur, and they landed on the floor only for her to find that he had passed out. "Either these folks don't have much to go around, or I'm draining a lot more than usual…"

"Here's your living grimoire." Vestrid tossed Isabella onto the crate.

Kanae stood up and straddled the box between her legs. She let the fresh cum dribble onto the pages of the ancient tome to be quickly absorbed. Isabella came to life and lifted into the air.

"Mmm, mmm! I love the taste of goopy cum in the morning!" If the living grimoire had arms, she would be stretching right now.

"Alright, you glorified diary. Time to fork over what you know. What do your pages reveal about manathine?" Kanae asked.

"Oh, there isn't really anything in my pages about that. It was just a lie to get you to fuck a bunch of people while I watch," she explained.

They stared at the living grimoire aghast. Vestrid sucked in a deep breath, which Kanae recognized was her about to breathe fire. She quickly covered the drakeling's mouth.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait! I said there's nothing in my pages about manathine, which is true. But I know a little about manathine!" Isabella confessed.

"Then hurry and tell us before I let go and Vestrid burns you to a crisp!" Kanae groaned.

"The cultists who have been giving you all trouble? Them! They were searching for manathine thousands of years ago. It has this weird property of being able to channel mana to each other. But because the ore is extremely rare and difficult to obtain, the cult uses them sparingly," she said.

Manathine! Kanae remembered now. They had discovered manathine in the Under Roads beneath Savir during their expedition to Avanesse. It was in that dwarven city suspended over a sea of lava. Kris, the explorer, her metal-seeking compass led her to the buried ruins of Alleia, where a trove of manathine had been hidden within a cult vault.

"What are they using manathine for?" Kanae wondered aloud.

"I wish I could tell you, Mistress. I'm not so sure." Isabella shrugged her ribbon bookmark. "Waaaaay back when they had their boring grubby hands on me, it was always on a short leash. They only brought me out of the drawer very occasionally."

"How did you come to escape their clutches?" Vestrid asked.

"Oh, an old—"

Kanae closed Isabella shut.

"Maybe we save getting to know each other for later?" Kanae cleared her throat.

Thankfully, Vestrid acquiesced. Kanae didn't need the Saint Priest knowing that Isabella had fallen into Marwin Fransk's hands at some point. She was definitely smart enough to put two and two together.

After cleaning up, Kanae thanked and bid goodbye to the unconscious around the warehouse. She and Vestrid emerged to the sun still blaring down on them with plenty of daylight to spare.

"What do you plan to do with the manathine? We can't exactly make anything out of it. Considering who we've been running into, I don't imagine keeping the ore around is a good idea either," Vestrid said.

"Maybe we can make something. We're probably in the best place to find an artisan to do it. There's nowhere else in the world where manathine is harvested organically," Kanae explained.

"That doesn't change the fact that it's a rare ore. Who in three hells would have worked with manathine?" she asked.

Kanae had an idea. She had Vestrid accompany her to Imael's apothecary. The old pharmacist was tending to a patron when they came in. He dangled a bouquet of smoldering herbs over a boy with a runny nose, his mother standing worriedly behind him. The smokey fumes smelled of fragrant flowers and mint. Vestrid browsed a selection of oddly-bottled potions in the meantime.

Eventually, the boy began to heave as he struggled to hold back a coming sneeze. Imael produced a napkin from his pocket. He pressed it to the boy's nose.

"There you go, sonny. Sneeze it all out," Imael encouraged him.

"My nose is cleared!" He gasped.

"Oh, thank The Many." The mother expelled a sigh. "My son has been having trouble breathing through his nose for weeks now. He sometimes choked in his sleep because of it."

"Mm. It's the increase in humidity most likely. Throat and nasal infections are becoming more common because of it. Burn these herbs around the house once a day. It should help," he said, preparing them a bundle.

They thanked Imael and left in smiles.

"The increase in humidity caused by the volcano," Kanae said.

Imael nodded. "Indeed. Children and elderly are the most susceptible. I wish there was more I can do to help, but so long as that damnable volcano continues to spew lava, so will the ailments. But you're not here to hear about that, are you? What brings you back?" He adjusted his thick glasses. "I notice you aren't with your usual retinue. So, you've come with a drakeling this time."

"Vestrid, pleased to meet your acquaintance." Vestrid smiled.

"We're hoping you can point us to someone versed in working with this." She pulled out the red-speckled ore.

"Manathine?" he muttered. "As a matter of fact, I do have someone in mind. However, I'd like you to do something for me in return."

Kanae sighed and began tugging her clothes off.

"NOT THAT, YOU SEX DEMON!" Imael yelled.

"Oh, sorry. I just got out of an orgy, so my mind is still fresh with sex." Kanae rubbed the back of her head.

"As I mentioned before, many in Kazhai and the neighboring towns are falling ill. They come to me, and I provide them with the herbs for their ailments. I'm running dangerously low. If you can fetch these plants for me, I'll introduce you to someone who can work with manathine." He jotted down a list of foreign-named plants and handed it to her.

A bulb lit in Kanae's head. She looked around the room, found a ceramic flower pot, and sprinkled the spores Kashar had given her into the soil. An exact copy of the alraune quickly grew out of the small pot.

"What needs slaying, Chosen of Mother Gaea? Is it that old man?" Kashar sprouted vines in Imael's direction.

"What?!" Imael cried.

"No! No, not him!" Kanae jumped between them. "We need your help for a different reason. Can you grow the plants from this list using nature magic or something?"

Kashar took hold of the parchment and read over the laundry list of herbs, flowers, and other vegetation that Imael commonly made use of. She glanced up at Kanae, exasperated.

"You want me to be your glorified gardener?" Kashar groaned.

"Kind of… Ahem. Mother Gaea would be overjoyed that you grew these for her disciple, me. For these plants are… her gifts to mortals. Imael here plans to help his ailing people, and how better to participate than to grow them from your bosom?" Kanae explained.

"Your improvisational skills could use work," Vestrid whispered.

"Shut up." She huffed.

"Very well. It shall be done! Elf, you best thank Mother Gaea's bounties. Her Chosen has spoken!" the alraune exclaimed proudly.

"Uh, yes. Of course! Thank you, Mother Gaea!" Imael played along.

All Kashar needed were seeds, pollen, or a sample of the plant. She grew them straight on her hair from which Imael harvested. The alraune grew so much that the apothecary's storage and nets were bursting.

"So, how long do you last?" Kanae asked.

"As long as my magic is sustained. Growing these plants slowly drains my mana. I should disappear once the last drop is gone," Kashar explained.

"Well, then. I wouldn't mind an alraune assistant for the time being. You've kept your end of the bargain, and I shall keep mine. The man you're looking for is Talar. He is a jeweller at the very end of the terrace on this level. Come with me," Imael said.

Kanae waved goodbye to Kashar, who seemed more than happy to continue blooming flowers in Mother Gaea's name. Imael led her and Vestrid down the terrace to a jewelry shop named Cerulean. The small boutique was about the same size as Imael's salon. Instead of the kind of jewelry Kanae thought would be sold, Cerulean sold pearls and shells fashioned into necklaces, rings, bracelets, and more.

Nearly all of the merchandise was on display in crates rather than locked behind glass cases. It seemed the owner of the shop wasn't worried about theft.

"Talar!" Imael smacked the bell on the counter. "You've got customers!"

An old hunched-over elf emerged from the back. His hair had been bound in a ponytail. Tattoos around his neck had long faded and were only a shadow of what they used to be.

"Imael? Hello." Talar bowed his head.

"These mainlanders got their hands on manathine. Think you can still make something out of it?" Imael asked.

Vestrid pulled out the ore to show him.

"I'm sorry. I'm afraid I don't know how to work with manathine anymore. It's been so many years since I last touched it. I'm more likely to shatter it than anything," Talar explained.

"What? That's not right. You're always bragging to our drinking friends how skilled you are at working with manathine. By the seas, the last time you brought it up was two weeks ago!" Imael recalled.

"I think I know what's going on here." Kanae grabbed Talar by the collar of his tunic and pulled him close. She exerted a Charm on the elf, overpowering the one that currently affected him.

"Charmed?" Vestrid asked.

Kanae released the spell to give Talar back his mind and body. He staggered back a few steps as clarity returned to him.

"S-Succubus!" Talar cried, pointing at Kanae.

"Yes, I am. And it looks like a succubus visited you before I did. Describe them to me. Now," Kanae demanded.

"Gods… I don't remember a succubus… I remember right before being charmed, a strange pair walked in here. One was a dark elf. She spoke in a sing-songy manner and strummed a lute every now and then. The other was human. Brown hair, red eyes. Had a very pissy tone when speaking," he explained to the best of his memory.

The dark elf with the lute was definitely Labelle, and the other with Human Ancestry had to be either Charlotte or Elaine.

"What did they want with you, Talar?" Vestrid chimed in to ask.

The elven man looked like someone had stabbed him in the gut. Talar darted back into where he came out from. Imael, Kanae, and Vestrid followed him in. They entered a storage closet full of dusty boxes, textiles, and more. He was on his knees, rummaging through the bottom of a bookshelf.

"It's gone!" Talar cried.

"What's gone, man? Speak to us," Vestrid said, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"The books I kept… journals, encyclopedias… handed down to me by my father, and his father before him, on how to properly handle manathine. It's all stolen…" He sulked.

Vestrid shot Kanae a knowing look. Labelle and the others had gotten here before they did.