<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/d/d6/Succubus3.jpg)</div>If Alactra had grown a tail as part of her earlier Abyssal transformation, it would have been twitching back and forth in excitement as she quietly watched the goings-on in the room from the doorway.  The beautiful, serpentine woman from before was giving birth in an obscene fashion to what could only be considered a monstrosity of some kind, a being that mimicked the abilities of a creature from the realm of nightmares, and watching the act itself helped the fallen Archmage to finally identify the Archfiend, the rapid pregnancy and birth bringing to mind old reports of a fiend of unknown origins who was said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances while in Sigil.  Six-armed and serpentine, like a smaller and yet more attractive breed of Marilith, and yet the traits she displayed were almost certainly those of a Baatezu...  Yes, this could only be the one and only Echidna, Mother of Monsters.<br/><br/>Much of the conversation going on was rather enlightening as well, and not just the explanations Vholdran was giving that were so clearly for her benefit.  Though, Ungrath's question about other artifacts aside from this Casket of Souls that were brought forth by the Obyriths did bring to mind another artifact that could potentially have counted, the famous Razor Throne of Shendilavri, upon which only the rightful Queen of Succubi could sit without being shredded to pieces.  It was reportedly an artifact that the Succubus race had found, rather than made, and its discovery was what had kicked off the ancient War of Ripe Flesh, in which the first generation of succubi to come into existence competed for the right to ascend to that throne.  That said, the Razor Throne itself was something mortals were rarely allowed to approach, much less study, and so there was much about it that was still quite mysterious.<br/><br/>More importantly, though, the news that her Master had once been a mortal man named Alexander, that each of the Archfiends in the room had, in fact, once been mortals (save for Torahime)?  Ah, now that was really getting her worked up.  She could still remember the exquisite agony of her own transformation into the rather powerful fiend that she had now become, and while she couldn't hold a candle to any of the gathered Archfiends at the moment, the fact that they had all gone from mortal souls to such a powerful collection of immortal outsiders did much to stoke the fires of her own ambition, her own lust for power.  The thought of rising up to the ranks of those Demon Lords and other Archfiends by becoming one herself, of perhaps even challenging her Master again, and conquering him this time... or of being conquered again...  Ah, yes, now that was a fantasy that was worth indulging in, if only for a few seconds.<br/><br/>By contrast, the revelation that Torahime was a lawful demon, while interesting, wasn't something particularly unusual.  As her Lord had surmised, it was indeed possible for the Abyss to give birth to order as one of the possibilities contained within its infinite chaos.  In fact, not only could she name three other examples of lawful demons right off the top of her head from her own research into the subject, but all three were even succubi!  The first was the enigmatic Fall-From-Grace of Sigil, sold into slavery to Baatezu by her own mother, Red Shroud of Pazunia, subjected to purely psychological torments and torture by her masters, only to have her mind opened to new possibilities by the things she had experienced, such that she joined up with the Society of Sensation after tricking her masters into granting her freedom.  She was said to run a brothel these days, a Brothel for Slaking Intellectual Lusts, where the girls who worked for her provided customers with intellectual and emotional stimulation, rather than physical or carnal satisfaction.  Then there was the succubus Zem'jil, servant to the goddess Wee Jas and Planar Ally to her priests, who had been trapped within a magic lamp gifted to that goddess and had languished in one of her vaults for centuries before the goddess offered her freedom.  She had actually been transformed into a being of Law by divine power, since it was against Wee Jas' own ethical code to force other beings to act against their nature, but not against that same code to transform a creature's innate nature to something more fitting to her needs if the creature in question consented to the transformation.  Finally, there was Eludecia, a succubus whose story had once held quite the fascination to her, but that now only left her with vague feelings of disgust and other such unpleasant emotions.  A succubus who found love with an Angel, who confessed that love to him, was accepted by the object of her love, was lured over to the side of virtue and justice, and managed to redeem herself, after a long struggle and many setbacks, by performing seven good deeds for every evil act she had ever committed... and who now, at last report, was a Paladin, of all things.  Yes, quite a disgusting, disappointing turn of events indeed, at least to her new mindset.  It would have been far better if their love had been consummated atop the corpses of her lover's former allies, his wings stained as black as his heart after she fully corrupted him to the side of Chaos and Evil...<br/><br/>Still, the one thing those three stories had in common was the interference of outside sources, be it Devils, Gods, or even an Angel's love.  The fact that Torahime had forsaken Chaos of her own free will, that it had been entirely her own choice and accomplished entirely through her own effort, did make her tale at least a little more noteworthy than most, Alactra supposed.