CHAPTER 90: MEETING OF CLANS

Night screamed as his flesh was ripped from the side of his chest.

"What the fuck?," he said as he sat up tossing Lili off of him. He was bleeding all over the place and had a mouth sized piece of skin missing from his chest.

"What's wrong?," Lili asked, "I thought you would like it."

"No, I don't like it!," Night said while putting some distance between Lili and himself.

He had a feeling that she knew he wouldn't like it....but she did it anyway.

So, he had to ask, "What the hell would make you think that I like getting bitten like that? And what the hell is with those fangs?"

"I don't know," Lili said with a sultry pout, "You never fussed before when we had sex that was a little rough. I just took it slightly up a itty bitty notch. Quit being so fussy."

Night sighed as he looked down and watched the patch of skin healing on his chest. It had been 5 months since he moved in with Lili and the relationship had not progress the way that Night was expecting.

When he originally settled in to the City of Setting Sun with Lili, Night had some aspirations of a typical husband and wife relationship with the demoness. After all, his life had been a tumultuous clusterfuck for the last year. He had wanted something normal in his life and he thought that he would have an opportunity here. He actually craved the safety of a normal life really bad...but that's not what happened....not at all.

After she had broken through in the Concepts of Lust and Joy almost simultaneously, Lili had decided the next best concept to focus on was Fear. But she never gave Night any warning of the consequences. Succubi cultivate in Concepts of the Truth of Emotions.....and when they cultivate in an particular emotion.....their behavior starts to shift to help develop the current emotion of focus.

Everything was fine for the first month or so....it was more than fine...Night felt like he was in a pleasurable fantasy world....but as time went on Lili started to progressively exhibit more and more negative traits. She went from simply jumping out around corners to give Night a scare....to tonight.....when she secretly slipped in a pair of cut gem fangs, screamed at him, then took a bite out of Night's chest when he was climaxing during sex.

'This shit is getting out of hand,' Night thought to himself as he looked at Lili spread out naked on the bed with blood at the side of her mouth, 'Why the fuck couldn't she have decided to cultivate on Love or Sadness or even Hate. I don't know what to do anymore.'

Night had been draw into this woman's world easily when she was the happy sex maniac that wanted to fuck all the time. But now, the situation was a whole different story....this demon woman was turning into a living nightmare. Night was actually growing afraid to sleep in the same bed with her at night....and that appeared to be exactly what she wanted....she liked being around his fear.

Despite his previous notion of the relationship, Night was starting to think of Lili as a more of a crazy roommate that likes to have sex with him frequently. Although he cared for her, he didn't necessarily love the woman in a conventional sense and now he didn't know if he ever could. This world and it's culture were just too different. He was completely put off by some of the things that succubi considered normal. But he didn't leave because he really enjoyed the sex and other benefits.....that was until today when she had started to get a bit too crazy for him....now he was starting to consider his other options.

Night looked over at her trying to figure out his path forward.

Disregarding his objection to her previous actions, Lili had relaxed on the bed in a very provocative position. Seeing Night look at her, she said with a grin, "Thanks for the sex, my Mate. Let me know when you are ready for another round."

Seeing her flashing the new set of jeweled fangs, Night shivered a bit as he reached for his robe. He quickly left the room, made his way down the hall and walked into the study. Since he had placated Lili for awhile, Night needed to get back to his reading.

He had been researching the methods for progression from a Demigod to God for about two months. Today, his research was nearing its end. After reading several books that he borrowed from the Limim Clan library, Night realized that the concept of advancing to a God wasn't that complicated....it was just hard to achieve. Today, he wanted to finish up rereading all the references to make sure he didn't miss out on some important points.

Essentially, Night learned that a Demigod became a God by condensing a Concept into a Law. The Concept formation when becoming a Demigod was just the initial start to cultivating a concept. As a Demigod practices, a combination of conceptual knowledge and either elemental or soul energies condense into droplets...then the droplets begins to fill the elemental concept orbs or weapons concepts orbiting the soul or the soul concept wrapping that covers the soul...when a concept is completely full, then it crystallizes into a Law.

Night also learned how concepts related to the body were manifested. When a Concept, such as the Concept of Strength, initially forms, it forms a miniature person, like the weapon with the weapon concept, near the soul. When the concept is invoked, the concept leaves the soul space and to enhance the body accordingly. A weapons concept does the same but the concept energy enters a weapon for support. The concepts don't become a part of the weapon or body....the concepts just exist with it as a support structure.

Night also realized that someone couldn't breakthrough to become a God in a Truth until they had developed all of that Truth's six concepts to the basic level. A cultivator could completely fill a concept orb, but they wouldn't be able to crystallize it into a law until the other concepts were initiated.

That information had shocked Night. Mostly because his Shadow Concept orb was already completely full of liquid. It had been that way since he had first broken through in the mines of Manco City. After thinking over how that could have happened, Night attributed his progress to the gift that Nox had once given him. With that knowledge in mind, Night realized that he should be focusing on his remaining Darkness concepts because if he could form those orbs....if he could initiate the Concepts of Doom, Retribution, and Destruction....then he should be able to break through to a God of Shadow immediately.

Nighy had also realized that someone could concurrently cultivate in the different concepts once they are initiated. He actually learned this approach from observing Lili's soul and concepts. When he paid attention with his perception, he could see minute droplets of energy condensing in her Lust Concept when she was scaring the hell out of people in their dreams....because a succubus always seemed to draw some form of Lust based on their appearance and behavior.

Sitting in the study, Night was lost in his thoughts about training to become a God when a loud ring of a gong sounded throughout the city. Night was immediately on alert and ran to find Lili to find out what was going happening.

Entering their bedroom, Night could see Lili bent over grabbing her clothing off the floor. She was still naked....and despite his uncertainty toward their relationship....Night was stopped in his tracks as he stared at her ass up in the air.

'Fucking succubus,' Night cursed to himself as he looked at the sexy woman as she slid up her dress.

Regaining his thoughts, Night asked, "Wh....what was that noise?"

"Oh....that was the notice for a city clan meeting. Get ready to go. With our status, we should be there. It's important," Lili said in a rush, "Go get dressed in your best clothes and meet me out front. I'll send for the carriage right now."

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When Night and Lili showed up at the Countess' palace, they were directed to a large courtyard that was arranged in stadium style seating.

'Looks like this will be well attended,' Night thought as he and Lili took their seat near some other members of the Limim Clan.

High ranking members from the City's clans were arriving steadily and soon the courtyard was full.

There were discussions galore as the group waited for the Countess to arrive. Lili told Night that the last time a city clan meeting had been called was over ten years ago. That meeting was held because of a massive sandstorm that threatened the safety of the city, so this meeting may announce some pending disaster. Everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats and speculating what the issue might be.

A few guards walked out from behind the platform at the front of the crowd. The City's clans quieted down as Countess Asta and the Limim Clan leaders walked out. Two large guards were also carrying a sinister looking winged woman seated on a large cushioned chair. A tall demon that shared her appearance was also walking behind the group onto the stage.

A few voices could be heard talking in the crowd. But, they quickly quieted down when the Countess rose and walked in front of the crowd.

Countess Asta had a solemn look on her face as she began, "The City of Southern Wind has fallen to the humans."

Her words instantly caused an uproar in the crowd.

A man stood up behind the Countess and shouted, "Quiet."

His voice and power weighted down on the crowd and the talking stopped.

As they sat in their seats, Lili squeezed Night's hand and whispered in his ear, "That's my dad, Roth Dreamwalker."

"Oh...," Night said realizing that this was the man that he couldn't see through when he met the Countess. The man turned and looked at Night almost immediately after Lili's comment.

'Damn, hopefully I'm not on this guy's shortlist,' Night thought as Countess Asta began her speech. He hadn't seen the Countess or been invited back to the palace since the first time months ago.

"The woman in front of you is the only surviving child of Count Khotan, Mere Pazuza. Please keep quiet so she doesn't have to strain to speak," the Countess said in an order.

The two guards moved the woman's chair to the front of the platform. She placed a stone up to her neck to help amplify her slow, sickly voice. Then, she spoke, "A week ago we began receiving reports of a human army at the fringe of our territory. The initial thought was that the group was just some human raiders. We had previously been told that they were ramping up their efforts on attacking some of the smaller surrounding clans. Regardless, we had sent out a few Pazuza Clan patrols, but before they returned with any news.... the City of Southern Wind was destroyed by a small human army that seemed to appear out of nowhere."

Night listened as he closely observed the seated woman and her guardian. The Pazuza Clan's appearance was that of Night's initial idea of a real demon. Their look consisted of two pairs of wings, long blond hair, rows of fanglike teeth and fingernails that look like tallons. This family of demons looked aggressive and mean. They were also famed for feeding on life energy of others. However, the woman in front of everyone looked weak and defeated as she explained her circumstances.

"The City of Southern Wind was the weakest of the four capital cities of the desert. But, I am here to warn you that no matter the size....The attack of the humans was very vicious. They resorted to two main attack tactics....assault with a few hundred High level Demigods and two God level cultivators....and they poisoned us all," she said drawing reactions from the crowd.

"As you can see, even though I escaped....I am dying from the poison that was used. The dreadful poison was tragic for the people of Southern Wind. Anyone below a Demigod died...normal citizens....the children.....everyone died almost immediately. Low level Demigods such as myself were immediately stricken with sickness. I am only staying alive due some treasures given to me by my father before my escape ...it....it won't last the week...then I will die," Mere Pazuza finished just before she went into a coughing fit.

"As you can see, Lady Mere is not doing so well. Based on our past friendships with the Pazuza Clan, the Limim Clan would like to offer a reward to anyone that can cure the young miss," Countess Asta said drawing a response from the crowd, "Note that our own Phene Clan has already looked into this matter and can not offer any antidote to the poison. Thank you for attending....I will follow up with each clan individually, but do your best to prepare yourself....if the humans can threaten one city, then they can threaten others. Consider this as an approval to begin preparing your clans for war."

The entire crowd broke into a commotion as the group on the platform turned around and started leaving.

When Night heard of the devastation caused by the Diego Family, he was thankful that these demons hadn't been able to determine that he was a human. He didn't think that he would stand a chance if they found out who he really was. A few beads of sweat trickled down his back at the thought.

'When I think about it, exterminating the Diego Clan will not be enough. Another group of humans will just take over the portal and do the same thing. I wonder if all the families are the same. Maybe, I should just destroy the damn portal between worlds. I can't use it since I promoted to Demigod anyway,' Night thought to himself.

Night was running through his thoughts when he looked up at the stage. The Pazuza Clan woman looked in pretty bad shape. Her wings reminded him of Misery. Then, Night had a sudden wild thought. He might actually be able to save the woman's life....if she were willing to pay a certain price.