Chapter 75 - Slow Progress

King Dragomir woke up from his dream and sat up straight on his bed. His whole body was covered in sweat and he was short of breath. He gasped for air and tried to remember why he was in such a state. "What was I dreaming of? Was it some nightmare?" the King wiped his sweat off from his forehead and racked his brain.

But he was just able to remember bits and pieces of his dream. He remembered that he had seen Auvera in his dream but no matter how hard he tried, he could not remember why he was panting and sweating.

And then he felt very sad because he had just seen Auvera in his dream and he was reminded that she was no longer in this world. That sweet memory of her would now just be limited to memory and he wouldn't be able to see her again.

The dream had made him realize what he was missing from his life. He recalled how much Auvera meant to him. He was also reminded again that Lillian was the reason why he had to lose her. His heart began to ache again and his veins started to bulge aggressively. For a fraction of second, he felt like going to Lillian's quarter and strangling her to death.

But he did not let his anger get the better of him. He had promised to his daughter that he would pretend that he has no knowledge about Auvera's murder. And he was not going to break that promise and sabotage his daughter's plan.

He lay back on his bed and closed his eyes to get some sleep. But he could not. Earlier, it had taken him a lot of time to refrain from thinking about Auvera and fall asleep. But now that he had woken up from his sleep, no matter how much he turned sides and no matter how much he tried to clear his head, he was unable to fall asleep again.

And Dragomir started to reflect back to the conversation that he had with his daughter earlier in the morning. "So, the most feared Devil that lives on the top of that hill turned out to be the guardian of my daughter. And my first wife turned out to be the actual Devil in disguise…"

He took a deep breath in and kept on staring at the blank ceiling. And drops of tears started to roll down his temples.

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Lillian was impatiently walking back and forth in her private chamber. "How long is it going to take?" she gritted from between her teeth and kept on pacing.

She was waiting for the succubus to arrive and tell her everything that happened after she entered inside the room. She wanted to know what the succubus did to Dragomir, and she also wanted to know how long it would take for him to eventually die.

A flapping of wings was heard in the room and she quickly turned around with great expectation. She wanted to hear the details soon. So she immediately asked, "So, how did the hunting go? Did you manage to take his life force?"

The succubus was not as cheerful as before and was not acting in a seductive way either. She had a grumpy face and she slowly spoke, "Don't get mad. I didn't get much of his life force."

"What? Why?" Lillian immediately exclaimed in anger. She had used so much of the negative energy and she had endured so much pain and cursing from her ancestors. And after she had done so much to summon the succubus, she was now saying that she did not manage to get her one task done properly.

She glared at the succubus and then shouted to her, "I went through all that trouble to summon you and now you are telling me that you could not do the very job that you are good at?"

The succubus answered without being fazed by the Queen's tone, "He happened to be one of the strong minded man. So when I was just starting to take away his life force, he immediately found out that something was not right and my control over his mind wore off. But I assure you, it was not my fault that he had a strong mind. I had given it my all and tried my best to lure him."

The succubus was clenching her fists and she was also visibly angry. She was angry at herself and she was angry at Dragomir.

And why wouldn't she be angry. She had put in so much effort to build up the story in the dream and build trust with the King. However, right when she was about to reap the fruit of her labor, her prey regained the control of his dream and she had to retreat. Her 'food' that was right on her lips and that was about to enter her body was snatched away from her.

The succubus took a deep breath in and then in the next second, she was back to being her usual self. She smiled and spoke in a seductive voice, "But don't worry my evoker. It was never going to happen in one go. It will take some time to reach to the end goal, and depending on the mind of our prey the duration to reach that end goal will vary."

The end goal that she was talking about was, of course, the death of her victim.

The succubus leaned closer to Lillian and then caressed her with her tail, and said in the softest voice, "And in the case of your husband, it will take a little longer to push him to his death. I hope you will summon me daily from now on. That is, if you still want to kill your husband."

From the way the succubus was speaking to Lillian, her anger was slowly calming down. She didn't know if the succubus was using some kind of magic on her but she knew that getting angry was pointless as today's chance and time both was already over.

Lillian untangled herself from the tail of the succubus and spoke in a calmer voice, "Okay. I believe you that it was not your fault. He is one of the strongest King after all, so that much is expected of him." Lillian looked at the succubus and spoke firmly, "I will call you tomorrow as well, around the same time. Be ready."

Lillian expected the succubus to leave after she had said that much but the succubus was playing with her hair and thinking something. Or rather than thinking, the succubus was staring at Lillian and giving a judgmental look.

"Is there anything that you wish to say to me?" Lillian asked in curiosity.

The succubus began to flap her wings and circle around Lillian. And then she stopped in front of Lillian's face and said, "How much do you know about the forbidden magic, more specifically the summoning?"

Lillian felt a little uncomfortable with this question. She felt like the succubus was trying to embarrass her so she asked in an unyielding voice, "Why do you ask?"

The succubus began to fly around Lillian again and she spoke her mind, "I see that you have great raw power and you are capable of channeling a great amount of negative energy. But you don't even know the basics of the summoning. It does not quite make sense."

Though Lillian felt like the succubus was insulting her, it was also true that she did not know much about the summoning. She had just found an old forbidden book and whatever she knew was from that book. And the book did not answer all of her questions. Like she had no idea if a larger circle would actually work and if it did she had no idea that the cost of the larger circle was that excessive.

So Lillian swallowed her pride and then answered to the succubus, "I have been practicing witchcraft since several decades but I had not practiced the summoning spell from that long. It has just been a few days since I started to perform it."

"Well that is even more remarkable then, to reach such height in just a few days." The succubus was nodding her head as she was very impressed by Lillian. And then she thought that she would give some insight to her, "I see a lot of potential in you, which is why I am going to share this with you."

Lillian was listening very attentively to the succubus. If it meant that her understanding of the summoning magic and her overall power would improve, she was even willing to listen to the mystical being from hell.

The succubus gave a piece of information to Lillian, "If you always want me to appear when you summon a succubus, then you have to make a blood pact with me. Else there is a high chance that when you use your summoning spell tomorrow, some other succubus can appear instead of me. And I will tell you that you don't want that because, each succubus will have to start from the scratch. And that King will never die at that rate."

"So, tell me how to do this blood pact?" Lillian was already disappointed by the slow rate of progress and she did not want to make it any slower.