Chapter 158 – Delilah

Chapter 158 – Delilah

I braced my hand against the railing to stay steady.

"That's impossible... you're—"

My mother stepped forward so casually, I didn't think to move until she was right next to me. As I stumbled back, her eyes appeared to regard me so pitifully.

"Human? Tell me, Saeko. As you are Queen Succubus, what powers is the Blade of the First Temptress capable of? The answer then doesn't seem so far-fetched, does it?" she asked.

"But how?" I asked. "The sword should have been lost. There's no way you could have transformed into a human!"

"It was the deal I made with Beatrice. A deal in which I turned my back on when I had you two," she said.

"Me... and Hatsumi?"

She nodded slowly.

"You see, when victory began to slip from Beatrice and the demon lord's grasps, her worthiness to wield the weapon faltered. She grew desperate. Sought any means possible to keep that power. As her closest and most trusted, I was her answer. Before she lost the Blade of the First Temptress entirely, she sent me to Earth with a fragment of our master's artifact."

"And what were you supposed to do here? Soften this world up for Beatrice to take it?!" I shouted.

"That is not it at all. My task was to produce a child safe and away from the reaches of the Armies of Everlight. Once you came of age, I would use the artifact to transform you into a succubus. That's where the artifact fragment came in. We hoped that one of you would spawn the Blade of the First Temptress," she said, revealing to me the now-dulled orange crystal that Mio used to change me last year.

That fragment was an artifact once belonging to the demon lord before it somehow shattered, and had incredible powers to shape realities on a greater scale than even the Blade of the First Temptress. How couldn't I recognize it? But the one in Delilah's hand was much larger than the one Mio had.

"Then... you were going to transform me and Hatsumi into succubi— Wait! You were waiting for me to graduate before transforming me, weren't you?" I asked accusingly.

"No. The reason Masato and I stayed away was so that I wouldn't be tempted to follow through with Beatrice's plan. Which was why I used the artifact fragment on myself to cast away my succubus identity and became human," Delilah said.

"To become... human? Why?" I asked, baring my fangs and exerting my greater succubus aura around her.

Unfortunately, it didn't work like before. My mother was somehow immune, even as a human being.

"You don't have to mind control me to tell you the truth, Saeko. The reason is because I fell in love. Twice. Once when Hatsumi was born, and again when you were born."

A hiccup sprung from my throat and escaped with a squeak.

"Why?"

It was all I could ask again as I began to choke up.

She continued. "Because there was no victory to be had in Elza. Beatrice would use you two as pawns in her armies to fight a losing war. I would not see my children be captive slaves."

Again, my mother took another step forward to approach me. She wanted to get closer, but I still couldn't fathom all that she was telling me.

"Would you deny me the 19 years I've lost from holding my child?" Delilah asked.

"I still don't even know who you are... I still don't believe it. I don't want to!" I yelled.

"Then transform me," she demanded. "Point the Blade of the First Temptress at me and return my succubus form, then you will see."

I did just that, raising the sword at her. Not because I wanted to transform her into a succubus, but because a part of me wanted to run the sword through her. It took both hands to hold up the sword. I'd held it many times, but it seemed so heavy now. My hands were shaking.

"Go on," Delilah urged in a motherly tone.

"What makes you think I won't blast you instead? You might be resisting my aura, but you can survive a magical blast if I fired one at you," I said.

"Then you will have put nearly 22 years of my agony of leaving you and Hatsumi behind to rest. More importantly, because I know you want to find out the truth more than anything." She smiled.

I bit down on my lower lip. Incredible magical energy traveled down my arms and into the Blade. It gathered at the tip like a localized storm.

My mother, Delilah, the succubus who was close friends with Beatrice until she betrayed her, stood steadfast in front of me. The fearless and unmoving posture I'd always seen in pictures was all I ever knew of her.

I fired the blast into Delilah, who keeled over and clutched her stomach with both hands. My instincts threw me towards her with every intention to help my mother, but she stuck out a hand to stop me.

The energy surged through her, rippling across the surface of her skin with purple electricity. It traveled over like a receding wave brushing a fresh coat of sand over a beach, but in this case it was her skin, taking on a slight reddish tint. As the energy diminished, Delilah straightened her back to stand at her full height.

There my mother was, a succubus with two pairs of horns and an aura that rivaled Beatrice. This aura, however, wasn't malign in any way. It felt familiar. Like I had experienced it before. Although dwarfed by mine, her aura embraced me as if it had arms.

Memories from a distant past resurfaced. Warm, tender arms held me tight. A much younger Hatsumi was asleep, across from me. We were both being held by Delilah. As I glanced up at her sweat-caked face from recently giving birth, she looked down with a smile.

I returned to my present self with a rush of wind, knocking me against the railing. That same smile was here now.

"I am conquest itself. In my prime, I was known as Delilah the Insatiable. Thousands have fallen to my very touch and were left writhing on the ground for more. However, now I am only a mother, longing to reunite with her children," the greater succubus said.

No longer was there the cold stare that turned the blood in my veins to ice, but an almost affectionate and endearing gaze fell upon me that wore down my walls. Walls built up brick by brick after almost two decades of her estrangement from my life. This stranger was now a being I knew intimately. All in the span of a few seconds.

My mother reached out to stroke my cheek, the same side that she had slapped me not too long ago.

"We even have the same crimson eyes as succubi. You truly are my daughter," Delilah said, opening her arms to me.

I wasn't sure what came over me, but I leapt at the chance and slammed into her. As I buried my tear-stained cheeks into her chest, it was as though I regressed back to being a baby.

She shook her head. "The number of chosen succubus can be counted on one hand, and it only appeared to you when you became one, correct? Then that would mean all other existing succubi are not worthy and cannot manifest it."

Giving up being a succubus?

I looked over at Mio, who was shaking where she sat just thinking about Beatrice coming back. If Beatrice was gone for good, then we wouldn't need to deal with her ever again. Mio didn't need to suffer the trauma of her shitty sister, too. But...

"I'm sorry... but I want to stay as a succubus. I don't want to be anything else. This is who I am. Come what may, as queen, I'll face Beatrice again if that's what it takes. She's going to be so surprised to learn that I'm stronger and have new allies," I said.

Delilah sighed after a pause. "Who taught you to be stubborn?"

"You're the one who left me in Hatsumi's care," I teased.

"Hey..." Mio suddenly spoke up, but her head stayed hanging so we couldn't see her face past her hair. "You and Bea were close, right? Then how come no one's ever heard of you? I was Bea's sister and never heard of Delilah until now. Just who the hell were you?"

The shift in tone from playful to serious gave me whiplash. I was so engrossed with my mother that I hadn't realized Mio was hurting. But she was onto something.

Delilah the Insatiable.

That was how my mother declared herself after I transformed her. She had a past I knew nothing about.

"I was an assassin," Delilah answered, staring Mio firmly in the eyes. "No one knew my face or aura aside from Beatrice."

"Oh, yeah? I only just realized it now, but why have you been hiding your aura from me?" Mio jumped to her feet to confront Delilah.

Concealing the succubus aura, a skill only greater succubi could make use of. As a greater succubus myself, I couldn't have noticed since it was impossible to hide it from another. Mio, on the other hand...

"Mio, do you recognize my mom's aura?" I asked.

"I don't know. She's gotta show it to me first. Well?" Mio clenched her fists.

"There's really no need to," Delilah said. "Since Saeko has resolved to stay as a succubus, we should figure out how to deal with Beatrice—"

"Show it to me!" she yelled with fangs bared.

Delilah shifted comfortably to face me.

Whatever it was that Mio wanted to know or confirm, she deserved to find out. So I nodded to my mom. Sighing, Delilah shut her eyes and presumably let her aura flow so that it could be detected by lesser succubi.

By now, Mio should have already felt it.

"What is it, Mio? Did you figure something out?" I asked.

"Yeah," Mio said, then blasted Delilah out of the apartment with magic.

Kana and I were stunned. It wasn't until Mio flew out of the hole in the wall did our brains finally catch up.

"Saeko, what the hell was that?!" Kana yelled, gazing out the hole in terror.

"I-I'm not sure! Stay here!" I leapt out after them and found the two fighting in the streets.

No, not a fight. It was a one-sided battle that I didn't expect at all.

Traffic grinded to a halt. Vehicles that slammed the brakes to avoid running into them formed a makeshift arena. Delilah laid sprawled in the road with Mio on top, wailing into her with clenched fists.

"It was you! It was you back then!" Mio cried repeatedly.

"Mio, stop!" I pulled her off, but she continued to struggle in my grasp.

There was blood in her eyes that showed unquenchable rage.

Delilah got up and wiped the trickle of blood from her nose. Although her hair was a little disheveled, she only suffered minor injuries from all that beating.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Your bitch mom... she was there. When Bea came to take me away from the ship I grew up in, I sensed two auras there. One was my sister's, and the other... was her. Delilah, that cunt, sunk everything and everyone I knew into the bottom of the ocean! All of them... my friends... my foster father..." Mio collapsed to her knees in tears.

Delilah's gaze softened.

"I'm sorry—"

"Sorry doesn't cut it!" Mio snapped. "You didn't even let them escape. You put them under a charm and had them stay as the ship sank, you sadistic bitch."

Mio wrenched away from my hold and shoved me back.

"I'm not standing another second with her around. It's me or her," she said, leaving the ultimatum to me.

That choice didn't come easily for me. But seeing me freeze up seemed to hurt Mio, who probably expected me to pick her without hesitation.

"I... I can't choose between you two..."

"Must be nice to have a family again. Mine is all gone. I'll make it easy for you." Mio conjured portals with chains that grabbed my ankles, then flew away as I struggled to break them.

"Mio, wait!" By the time I shattered them, Mio had gone too far for me to detect.