Eodora felt the sensitive fur on the back of her neck rise. Igna had already turned to the east, where what was unmistakably a gate was opening. Through it emerged the most impossibly beautiful woman any of them had ever seen, but one with the red skin, claws, horns, and leathery wings of a demoness.
"No, it can't be" Igna muttered. "Astara would never raise her flunky to an equal level."
The succubus was followed by a limping man, suffering from painful burns on his body.
Dana (for it was indeed she) addressed the little party. "Do you seek the doom of Astara?"
"I seek the freedom of my world." answered Eodora.
"I seek to make my world one of love and peace." answered Igna.
"I seek to crush Astara's power, and return to my home." answered Lisa.
"Very well." answered the succubus. "Follow me and I will grant all these things."
"Can we trust a demon?" Eodora whispered to Igna. "Ordinarily no." the sorceress whispered back.
"Very well, sorceress." Dana answered. "Look on my flames and know that I speak truth." The demon locked eyes with Igna. A trained sorceress, the girl avoided being pulled into the infinite dark pool of the eyes o fthe youngest princess of Hell. Instead she used them as window to the soul of the succubus. There she saw an inflexible devotion to the doom of Astara, but she did not see the usual malice and dishonesty of demon-kind.
"I don't think we have much choice here." Igna said to Eodora and Lisa. "We can't trust her, of course, but I'm not powerful enough for us to defend ourselves if she wants to force us into her service. I think we will preserve more freedom of action if we go in voluntarily. And definitely her whole being is focused on destroying Astara's empire."
She turned to the demoness. "I enter your service, for the destruction of Astara."
Eodora followed. "I enter your service, for the freeing of my world from Astara and all demonic rulers."
Lisa, grudgingly, followed. "I enter your service, for the defeat of Astara, reserving the loyalty I owe above all to Jean and Greta, the goddesses of my home world."
The demoness smiled, and even Igna, who had far more experience dealing with demons than the other two, flinched. "I accept your homage." said the demoness. "And now, let's make you into better servants."
Oh great, another transformation, Eodora thought. She felt her arms and legs growing with new height and new muscle. Her face flattened, and her claws grew. Her breasts shrank to swellings on her barrel-like chest. She dropped to all fours. Where once stood the catgirl, now stood a magnificent lioness, twice the size of an ordinary animal, with six-inch razor sharp claws and a shaggy coat that would turn away bullets.
"You shall feast on the hearts of my enemies." pronounced Dana. "Yes, mistress." Eodora answered. Dana turned to Lisa. "You would like to be female again?"
"More than anything." Lisa answered.
"Very well." Dana gave another terrifying smile. Lisa felt her breasts rise again, and her hated male genitals shrink and disappear as her vagina opened. With joy she once again felt the creation of a fruitful womb inside her. But she found other changes as well. Her body was actually expanding, to make room for new muscle. Her reflexes were improving, and she could feel her senses growing sharper. The processing speed of her brain was improving. Her armor was changing to fit her new body, and she found a sword on one hip and a grenade launcher on the other. She had complete expertise in the use of both, and many other weapons as well.
"My perfect Amazon warrior." Dana said. She turned to Igna. Little need to transform this one, she thought, the raw power of her sorcery was off most known charts. But perhaps. . .
Igna found herself growing until she had reached the age she had before she had worked the childhood spell which she realized with a start was only a few hours ago.
Jeffrey, suffering the searing pain of his burns, was still hoping that this new and frightening version of Dana wouldn't notice that he was the only untransformed person there.