The Paladin in the Abyss

"This is our best suite," Daryl pushed open the door, leading the three into a bedroom filled with mirrors, ropes, and soft beds.

Kalalin and Bruto walked in first, their faces flushed as they took in the various facilities in the room, wisely keeping silent without making any comments.

Just as Lancelot was about to enter, Daryl quietly pulled him aside.

"It seems your two sisters are a bit restrained," Daryl's words caused a flicker of murderous intent in Lancelot's heart, and he was about to invoke the Qingyun Sword Art to release his Sword Qi, but the Succubus Maid's next sentence dispelled his doubts.

"Is it their first time?" Daryl's face broke into a wicked smile, "The first time is always special, especially with our star performer. He is a true priest of passion. There's no one more suitable than him."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"That couldn't be better," Lancelot said vaguely, "Where is he?"

No sooner had he spoken than the sound of chains rubbing against each other could be heard, and another succubus led in an elf dressed in a long robe. The elf looked very young, with the distinctively delicate features of the elves, pointy ears, pallid skin almost tilting towards blue, and light golden hair.

Unlike the other tamed males, this elf had a mithril collar around his neck, which was attached to a thick chain. The other end of the chain was held in the hand of the succubus who had brought him, making him look more like a slave.

His eyes were like two emeralds, filled with despair and helplessness, but upon seeing Lancelot, they flickered briefly then suddenly ignited with the light of hope.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Alamir. He's yours now," the succubus who brought him gave a slight flap of her wings and hooked the other end of the chain onto a hook in the ceiling of the room.

The chain wasn't long; if the elf stood up straight, he could only move within a range of about four or five feet.

"Just in case, after all, he's a genuine priest," Daryl grinned at Lancelot, "And it's more exciting this way, isn't it?"

"Very well, I think this should be sufficient," Lancelot took out several gemstones, "We hope to be undisturbed for the time being. We'll leave when we've had enough fun; you can come clean up after three hours."

"No problem, I hope you enjoy yourselves," Daryl almost snatched the gemstones from Lancelot's hand, made a courtesy with the other Succubus Maid, turned, and exited the room, closing the door tightly behind her.

The room fell into silence, and Lancelot silently cast a spell, forming an invisible energy field shrouding the room and completely isolating any sounds from inside and outside the room.

"Are you here to rescue me, friend of the Elves?"

After a brief silence, the elf slave called Alamir spoke first. He used the Elvish language, speaking directly to Lancelot who was still standing by the door.

"No, we did not know of your existence before," Lancelot naturally replied in Elvish, then switched back to the common language, "Who are you, and why did you think I was here to rescue you?"

"Oh, I see. I noticed you carry the elves' blessing. Only a high priest can cast that divine art, and I thought..." The elf shook his head in disappointment, then continued in the common language, "But I guess you are not here for pleasure. My name is Alamir Silverleaf, a priest of the love goddess Shuni."

He tilted his head to the side, revealing an emblem on the back of his neck, one with the beautiful face of a human female with thick hair.

"Indeed, it is Shuni's emblem," nodded Kalalin, who was quite familiar with religious knowledge. "But how could a priest of a righteous Goddess end up in this place? Has she deviated from the path of Lady Flame, fallen due to indulgence in carnal pleasures?"

"I have never strayed from the teachings of Lady Flame! Even after coming to this dreadful place and serving those insatiable Succubi day after day, I have never neglected the requirements the Goddess has for her priests!" the Elf replied angrily, then pointed to an empty corner of the room and uttered a word, "Holy Flame!"

A fierce glow, like a flame, suddenly appeared where he pointed, but the Elf let out a painful scream at the same time and collapsed to the ground, hesitant.

Lancelot noticed that a collar on the Elf's neck emitted a burst of energy, severely punishing the priest for daring to exercise divine arts on his own.

"Cough cough... Although it's only a low-level divine art trick, it is still a divine art, cough cough..." Alamir Silverleaf managed a weak smile, "You see, although Demons and their lackeys never allow me to pray to the Goddess, I have never deviated from her path; otherwise, I couldn't cast any divine arts."

"Are you all right?" Kalalin stepped forward to help the suffering Elf and began to explain, "I apologize for what I just said. I was merely curious, how did you end up in this place?"

"There was a lady of high status within the church who fell in love with someone she shouldn't have, a male Succubus," Alamir Silverleaf said bitterly. "For the sake of this dangerous lover, she opened a Portal directly to the Bottomless Abyss during the church's decadal banquet. The Goddess's followers are not lacking in combatants, but no one expects to be ready for battle on such an occasion.

It was an outright massacre." Explore more at empire

With that, the Elf closed his eyes in sorrow, as if by doing so, he could erase that terrible scene from his mind.

"Such things would never happen among us Dwarves," Bruto crossed his arms, "We never leave our armor and weapon out of reach."

"Ah, so you're a Dwarf." Alamir Silverleaf nodded, "I've been wondering what would happen if you took off that beautiful ring on your hand."

The atmosphere became awkward again. At this moment, Lancelot stepped forward and put a hand on the Elf's shoulder.

Seeing the approach of the Succubus, Alamir Silverleaf instinctively felt fear, but as he detected no hostility from Lancelot, he did not dodge and remained compliant.

"We must first confirm your identity, please relax."

Lancelot's Divine Sense passed through his palm into Alamir Silverleaf's body, to carefully investigate whether he was truly an Elf as he claimed and not a disguise created by magic like himself.

Divine arts were indeed exclusive to priests, but from Tijana, he knew of a type of Demon that could also achieve this.

This terrifying Demon, known as a Succubus, by deceiving a group of good-hearted mortals into conducting a blasphemous ritual, could open a Portal to the deepest furnaces of the Abyss. The Succubus would burn to ashes in the supernatural heat and then be reborn from those ashes as a Succubus.

It goes without saying that the deceived mortals who conducted the ritual would become the targets of the Succubus's horrific suffering during its birth process.

There is a belief that as Demons directly born from desire, Succubi do not experience the terrible suffering other Demons go through during evolution.

This leads them to act (in most cases) loosely and casually, even engaging in romantic affairs with creatures of completely opposing alignments, such as lawful or good, making them one of the few kinds of Demons that prioritize pleasure over a desire for destruction.

But a Succubus would not do so.