[Spirit of Lust] Chapter 159: Ishtar’s memories (Part 3). (Patreon)

The heat around her dowsed Ishtar’s anger and frustrations and made her chest freeze for a second. Her city destroyed, her people screaming. Incubi and succubi soldiers clashed against the more heterogeneous army of the King of Pride. Orcs, elves and halflings wielding swords, bows and magic.Walls came crashing down after explosions, fires spread, screams of battle and pain covered every corner of the city.

Ishtar’s body tensed as she sprinted forward. She needed to get to her mother, get her orders and fight back. As she ran, she kicked the heads of unaware enemies locked in combat with her people. Swift, snappy kicks aimed at their necks did the job against the more heavily armored soldiers.

“Defend the people!” Ishtar shouted as she ran. “Walls can be built again! Get the people to safety!”

“Yes, My Lady!” Answered the soldiers. Flames lit back again in their eyes. Succubi held whips crackling with aether, incubi fought with spears that could pierce through metal. Their army wasn’t anything to scoff at. So why? Why would they attack the capital?

Ishtar ran. She had to run. Flying would mean turning a blind eye to the people she could help along the way. And as her eyes scanned the streets and the sky, she saw it.

A large, dark spectral figure in the sky. Larger than a castle and with the figure of a dark angel. Four, pointy wings on its back, smoke that resembled long, flowing hair. The figure looked down on their city as if passing judgment.

The dark angel raised one hand over its head, long fingers positioned as if to hold something. It began as a small light, but soon a massive ball of fire hovered over the opened palm. It was like staring at the sun.

Ishtar didn’t want to avert her eyes, but it was impossible to look at that thing directly. Instead she focused her eyes on the massive angel figure, and saw as that arm was brought down.

The massive ball of fire began to fall. It would crash directly with the castle. The fire would swallow it whole, and the shockwave of the impact would turn the rest of the city to ashes.

And there was nothing Ishtar could do.

But before despair could consume her, she witnessed the falling inferno explode in the sky before it could reach the city. The flames spread over the sky, creating an ephemeral ceiling of fire that made it almost impossible to breathe. But soon it was gone, and the sky was dark and full of smoke again.

There was only one person in the city who could’ve stopped that.

Ishtar spread her wings. She had to get to her mother NOW. She flew directly towards the tallest tower of the castle. From the air, she saw the devastation that befell her city and wondered: how? Begrudgingly, she would admit that the Kingdom of Pride was larger, stronger and more prosperous than theirs, but there was no way they could bring their capital city to this point so quickly and without their notice.

As she reached the roof of the tower, she saw her there. To stop that massive inferno, she had to have been standing there. Queen Inanna, ruler of the Kingdom of Lust, one of the seven strongest beings in the land, a succubus who fought for a world of love, and Ishtar’s mother.

The queen’s chest heaved from exertion, some of her purple aura still oozed off of her, and her dark eyes were locked on the spectral giant above. Her appearance was as immaculate as ever, despite it all. Her black hair still flowed like a dark waterfall, and her hourglass figure was visible in the contrast of the city fires and her see-through dress.

“Mother!”

“Good. There you are,” her mother said. “Who’s your friend?”

Startled, Ishtar looked back. Johana was just landing on the roof. She had no wings, so Ishtar couldn’t understand how she made it there.

“How did you get here!? And why!?”

“I jumped from building to building.” Johana answered. “I thought following you would be the best way to understand what was happening. I didn’t expect your mother to be the queen.” Johana immediately took a knee and bowed her head. “Excuse my rudeness, Your Majesty.”

“I have bigger offenses to worry about now, amazon. Rise.”

Johana stood up, but Ishtar couldn’t really think about her at the moment. “Mother, what is going on? Scratch that! I don’t care. Give me my orders. Where should I go?”

“Lucifer can’t seem to stand the existence of our kingdom anymore,” her mother said. She sounded more calm than she should, Ishtar thought. “To expend years of accumulated resources to crush us without warning… Fufufu. The others won’t take kindly to it.”

“Mother!”

“You see that over there, Ishtar?” her mother asked, eyes still on the giant form of an angel. “That mass of aether could only be created after years of work, accumulating aether from every possible source. He used his biggest trump card to erase us from this land. Much as I wish to say otherwise, I can’t beat that.”

“Then we evacuate all the people!” Ishtar said, her voice near the point of cracking.

Her mother nodded. “That’s the plan. The soldiers have their orders. They will do their jobs.”

“Where should I go?” Ishtar asked.

“Away from here. Somewhere Lucifer and his army won’t find you.”

“What?”

“I can’t defeat that thing up there,” her mother said. “But I can kill Lucifer. You’re still too young, too weak to help me.”

“Fuck that! I CAN help, mother! Our people are dying and you want me to run!?”

“Our people will live. The soldiers will see to it. Lucifer will not pursue. I will see to that. You? You will run. You will live. And one day, you will return. Go to the human world. See it, feel it, grow. When you come back, gather your people and rebuild. Lucifer will not be there to stop you.”

“No! I’m not going anywhere! Even if I can’t help you fight, I can help evacuate the civilians!”

Her mother turned to her with sadness in her eyes, yet that look lasted but a second. She then focused on the amazon behind her. “You. Your name?”

“Johana, Your Majesty.” She bowed.

“South of here, there is a cave leading to an underground path. There is a rift there, a portal to the human world. I would ask you to take my daughter there, Johana. Name the reward you would ask of me.”

“A weapon. An enchanted weapon from Your Majesty’s armory,” Johana answered without hesitation.

Her mother reached out her hand and dug into a black void that formed in front of her. When she pulled it out, she was holding an exquisite longsword in a red leather scabbard.

“This sword is able to store lust-based aether, or sexual energy. The more it stores, the sharper it becomes. You can also release it for a destructive attack. Does it meet your approval?”

“Mother! I said I’m not going!”

“It does, Your Majesty,” Johana answered solemnly. “Thank you for agreeing to my request.”

“Ishtar,” her mother addressed her. “Always remember this. We live for love. Through sex we demonstrate it, and through war we protect it. That has always been the code of our people. That’s how we become stronger.”

Ishtar grit her teeth so hard her jaw was beginning to feel numb. “Mother!”

Queen Inanna placed her hand on her daughter’s forehead, and the next moment, Princess Ishtar fell asleep.