Alex gasped. Why did little Merumeru have a succubus in her bathysphere?

  “Dear,” The succubus cooed, “Don’t be afraid you and I are not too different.”

  Alex reached for a doll to point it at the offending demon only to find none within arm’s reach. “You are a demon. I’m a human. We are not the same.”

  “Cutest magical girl Alice.” The demon woman said. “I’ve surrendered to your lovely friend Merumeru. She’s even restrained me.” She raised her hands that were cuffed together with velvet cuffs.

  Alex raised an eyebrow. “Kinky.”

  “They started out being metal cuffs but because I was transformed into a complete succubus anything I wear slowly transforms into interesting items.” The demon got out of the bathysphere and put a bck-high heeled shoe into the shallow water.

  “Are you the demon that has been invading my dreams?” Alex jumped straight to the point.

  “No.” She shook her head. “That was the king’s concubine. She ran the brothel.”

  “I’m confused.” Alex tilted her head. “Why give the doll back? What are you even doing here?”

  “I’ve been trying to say it this whole time.” The demon sounded sultry. “I am a magical girl.”

  “Whaaaaa.” Alex gaped.

  “A red-skinned woman invading your dreams.” The demon mused. “That is how it started. You don’t need to know that sad story. Let's start over. My name is Grace. The demons who started corrupting you did the same to me. They were the ones responsible for controlling the king.”

  “King Jass?” Alex asked. “What happened?”

  “All kinds of chaos.” Grace continued. “We had captured this slime girl, shortly after a bunch of people sailed away in the middle of the night. Cut to, and a revenant came to the gates. After a lot of fighting he broke into the city and challenged the mountain. Then an angel came and interrupted the fight. There were beams of light flying all over the pce, striking everyone, then they vanished from this pne of existence."

  Alex gulped. “How did you not get taken?”

  “I am not an outsider.” Grace pointed to herself. “When the angel struck me with its power I thought I was going to be gone, it had already gotten all the other succubi but unlike them I’m not an outsider. So, I ended up in this weird position where I was the only one left. Before that Cosmos showed up at the castle and dismissed one of King Jass’s concubines. So things have been unstable for months now. I was hoping to get a chance to escape and one presented itself.”

  “And you went to free Merumeru?” Alex said. “This has to be a trick somehow.”

  The demon nodded. “Yes, for my entire time I’d always been under the heel of more powerful demons. It took a while to realize that I actually had a chance to escape. And the more powerful demons were bragging about how they discovered another group of humans that had been hidden all this time up in the mountains worshiping the forgotten goddess Catalina. I got to thinking, originally I was just going to try to find a pce to waste away and die. But from what the senior demons said you had a way to reverse being transformed.”

  Fufi chimed in, fpping her pink wings. “She’s right Alex. Her css is [magical girl]. Though I can’t tell what kind of magical girl she is.”

  “I was a musical focused magical girl.” Grace said. “Though it has been neglected for many years.”

  “Can you not use your css as a demon?” Alex thought that didn’t sound right.

  “We can, but pying instruments that defeat opponents isn’t very useful for someone whose master gives tasks like keeping the popution submissive.” Grace frowned slightly. “I’ll be happy to give up that if there is a chance.”

  “What do you think Merumeru.” Alex looked to the slime girl. “Should we take her with us? Hopefully it won’t release another angel on the countryside if we bring a demon into the temple.”

  “Meeeeruuuuu” Merumeru nodded cutely in agreement.

  “It is settled then.” Alex deployed the carriage and looked back. “If you are coming with us then I’ll need your measurements.”

  “Oh my.” The succubus winked and followed Alex inside.

  Alex took a few hours to make a plumber outfit for the demon magical girl. She expined that it was the key to traveling through the portal pipes.

  “I’ll just hang on to this for now.” Grace said. “It is incredibly modest and anything I wear will not remain so for long.”

  Merumeru took the time to create another smaller stone pipe next to the big one that led to the new isnd settlement.

  When Merumeru was finished with her work, they unched the air boat and took the long journey to get to the swamp grotto. After the travel, and getting changed into plumber outfits they took the pipe to the pipe nexus.

  Merumeru motioned for the others to wait. She took a couple hours to add another pipe to the collection in the pipe nexus that went to the isnd in the river. They took this time to make food, get some rest after the air boat voyage and prepare the carriage in furs for the extreme cold of the upcoming cold biome.

  The group headed into another pipe that led them to the gcial area by the temple. Everyone got changed again and they started up the firepce in the carriage and braved yet another frigid journey back to the temple.

  “I should work on my appearance some.” Grace looked around for a mirror in the carriage but the closest thing she could find was some reflective gss. “I don’t think looking like I currently do will go over well.”

  “They’ll detect demon magic.” Alex expined. “But I don’t know, the harpies would fly in and they are used to that.”

  “Ah,” Grace nodded. “I can do that.”

  She twisted a bit and shimmered. Flickering lights obscured her for a few moments and when they cleared she looked like a harpy.

  “What?” Alex blinked in disbelief. “Did you just transform yourself into a harpy?”

  Grace shook her head. “No dear, It is just an illusion. Any succubus can do it. It is one of the simpler cultivation techniques I was taught.”

  Slowly, they slogged through the ice and snow and arrived at the temple in the middle of the night like the st time. The residents of the temple called down to them from the ramparts above the gate.

  “Who is there?” An Ekta yelled over the wind.

  “Alex, Grace, Fufi and Merumeru.” Alex answered. Wincing that she let her real name out after the fact. Maybe Grace was pying along calling her Alice but yet again she failed at being sneaky.

  “Magical girl Alice.” Ekta called out. “We’ll open the gate. Is there any news from outside? The guardian angel flew out and we were worried it was after you. It has been several weeks and everyone feared the worst.”

  “I’m okay.” Alex yelled. “Lets talk more when we get inside. It is really cold out here.”

  It took a minute but they opened the gate and with the ticking of clockwork mechanisms, Alex drove the carriage into the courtyard of the temple.

  “What news do you have?” The Ekta from before descended from the ramparts.

  “The angel went to the demon nds.” Alex expined. “The st news I know of was that it was assaulting the capital. But that is a bit old at this point. It is dismissing mass amounts of demons everywhere it goes.”

  Other priests and maids came out of various pces. Getting a visitor was a big deal in this pce, even in the middle of the night.

  “I see you are still all wrapped up.” Ekta inspected Alex’s heavy outfit. “We never got to purify you from the demonic corruption.”

  “Can we still do that?” Alex gestured for the rest of the group to come out of the carriage. “You’ve met Fufi. I don’t know if you’ve met Merumeru and this new girl here is Grace.”

  Grace curtseyed. “I am in your care, faithful ones.”

  “We can prepare the baths.” Ekta stated. “Does your companion wish to join the clergy? It seems like the bird flu hasn’t taken her mind.”

  “Join the clergy?” Grace tilted her head, not quite sure what the priest meant.

  “No.” Alex stated firmly. “Like the maids, we only require to have the curse lifted.”

  “Very well.” The priest sounded disappointed.

  This creeped Alex out a bit. This pce always made her skin crawl.

  They got changed out of their warm items and several priests came and inspected them. They did detect demonic corruption in both Alex and Grace and made promises of purification. Apparently Grace had the worst cast of demonic demon magic coming off of her that anyone had ever seen. Though they assumed it was a more virulent strain of the bird flu.

  Time passed, they got some sleep and Alex worked with the maids to get everyone a tasty breakfast. When the ceremonial baths were ready both women were led into the temple. A young priest tried to get them to dress in the robes Alex wore the first time, and they had to get an older priest to take over and correct them. She didn’t want to turn into another Tika. Luckily she’d watched this enough to spot the problem before it became a repeat of her first visit.

  The purification ceremony was a long, arduous process, beginning with the traditional bathing ritual. They were submerged in water infused with potent, consecrated herbs, the steam rising around them like a protective, holy mist. Alex, whose demonic corruption was partial and recent, felt a searing, painful heat. The sacred water leeched the taint from her soul. Grace, however, a full demon attempting to pass, endured a far more severe trial.

  The purification magic was anathema to her very essence. As the ritual reached its zenith, the carefully maintained gmour she used to appear as a Harpy began to crack. A wave of intense, blinding light emanating from the central altar crashed over her. Grace’s Harpy illusion, violently shuddered, tearing open like worn fabric.

  For a terrifying, heart-stopping moment, her true form was exposed: the crimson hue of her skin momentarily visible. The sheer potency of the purification magic, however, was a double-edged sword. It was so intense, so focused on scouring away demonic taint, that the priestesses running the ritual, their eyes tightly shut in prayer and concentration, only registered the fsh as the final, violent expulsion of the "Harpy's" demonic corruption. They registered the end of the taint, not the nature of the being that shed it.

  The illusion faltered and colpsed, not revealing the creature she truly was, but instead snapping back to the human she had used before. The final, cleansing surge washed over her, leaving her panting, utterly exhausted, and miraculously unchanged on the surface. She emerged from the sacred pool as a young, seemingly ordinary female human. Her hair, now clean and damp, was a vibrant shade of red that looked almost copper in the ritual chamber's low light, starkly contrasting with her unnaturally pale skin. Her eyes, which moments before had held the infernal glow of a demon, were a striking, innocent blue.

  Both Alex and Grace stepped out of the sacred hot springs. They were whole, physically and spiritually, the lingering shadow of the demonic corruption completely gone. For Alex, it was liberation; for Grace, it was a terrifyingly close call and the successful conclusion of a profound and dangerous deception. She was, in the eyes of the priesthood, entirely human and entirely purified.

  “It has been so long.” Grace looked at her hands. “I never thought I’d be my old self again.”