Nope. It was Knight Light.

The nude demonic creature on the throne stood up and smiled, “Oh my dear Knight Light. I am soooo happy that I get to see you in person. I worked your body and look over so much that I am thrilled that you’re the one before me. Don’t get me wrong, that dark broody gothy thing you had going on before was fine, I mean with your hot body anything would work. But I do hope you don’t think of myself as being a bit too bold when I say I am quite pleased with the way you turned out.”

Knight Light just stared up at the purple being totally confused as she continued to take in her surroundings. As she finally began to realize what was going on, she noticed that there was a scrying spell floating in midair near the throne, through which she could see herself and her friends not moving, as if frozen in time. Which could only happen a few ways, and with her soul being removed from her contract, winning the game and getting the wish made the most sense. But it didn’t make any sense as far as she was aware since it was Maid that landed on the final square. The demon woman simply continued speaking though.

“And other than Blaze you’re probably the one of your friends that will require the least explanation. Thanks to some of the information I gave her, I guess Maid wouldn’t have been too bad either but it’s nice to have a magically inclined human to explain everything to. It should make things go so much easier.”

She walked up and hugged Knight, which created a whole new world of sensation for her. Since Knight’s form here was just a self-image created by her mind, when the creature grabbed a couple of handfuls of her rear and fondled them for a moment it was almost as intense as some of the most exquisite sex she had experienced. As if the demon was bypassing the skin and manipulating the nerves themselves as it sent pleasure to her brain.

When she was released from the embrace and Knight finally had the chance to speak, all she could do was ask what the hell was going on. “I thought Maid won. She was the one that made it to the final square.”

The demon just gave Knight Light a chuckle and devious smile, “Think back to the rules at the beginning. Did they ever say that the person to make it to the final square first would be the actual winner?”

Knight Light stood quietly for a moment thinking, a loud sigh coming out of her mouth as she realized it hadn’t. The fact that she had known a demonic contract was involved, at least before her memory was fucked with during the first turn, should have made it obvious that deception was involved. The straight-forward answer was never the right one unless it was spelled out beforehand when it came to their kind. “So, would you be willing to tell me what the winning condition was?”

The demon smiled, “Of course. The easiest way to win was to let the time limit elapse while engaging in carnal activity. The first player that did that five times, would be the winner. If someone made it to the end without the winning condition being met, then the player with the most cards drawn would be declared the winner. Blaze and High Tech had 12 total adjustments, Maid of Sterner Stuff had 11, Foxtrot only 10. You, my pretty, dominated the competition with 15. All those black squares you landed on were the key to your victory.”

Knight listened and that all made sense. Especially the carnal activity line. The idea of a sex demon rewarding someone for ignoring what they believed they were ‘supposed to do’ in order to pursue pleasures of the flesh seemed like something one of her kind might consider. So now that she understood how it was that she won, it was time to see if she could get some deeper information from the creature. Once again she sensed only positive emotions from her and, considering this was obviously a creature of lust, she felt surprising little horniness coming from her. The demon seemed preoccupied with her, the game, and something else. Knight didn’t need to speak and ask her next question. The demon was also able to read emotions and Knight’s curiosity and confusion wasn’t hidden at all. The demon turned to walk towards her throne and used a finger indicating she wanted Knight to follow.

“You want to know why I did this and chose you and your friends as my toys. Had you girls not been so entertaining I may have been a little less open but after everything I saw from you, I am willing to tell you the whole damn story. I need to kill a little time before an unscheduled appointment that will be arriving in a while anyway. Have you ever heard of a supervillain by the name of The Shadow?”

Knight followed and listened. The name was familiar but only as a rumor and a myth. The Shadow was the superhero community’s version of The Boogey Man or the monster-that-hides-under-your-bed. Some of the accounts of those claiming to have seen The Shadow seemed legitimate until descriptions were matched up. They often had similar clothing and mannerisms but the physical traits described totally different people. Some descriptions were of a tall, super-muscled Asian man that relied solely upon tremendous strength and didn’t use any weapons or powers at all. Other descriptions of The Shadow were of a little person, a little woman with the blackest of skin, speaking in a French accent, and wielding a sword as if she were a woman straight out of a Kill Bill movie. There were several other, equally diverse descriptions that she was aware of as well.

Other times The Shadow was identified in different places of the world at the same time and displaying different super powers which rendered a common idea of shapeshifter as unlikely. Because of that and diminishing numbers of sightings, over time, the existence of The Shadow was treated as the equivalent of an urban myth. But if the demoness was bringing them up, there had to be a reason. “Are you saying The Shadow is real?!”

The demon sat down and crossed her legs, “It’s a bit complicated but it’s probably more appropriate to call them ‘The Shadows’. Plural. The reason that there are so many different descriptions was that The Shadow was originally a supervillain alliance. 8 different people from 7 different countries and 5 different continents. All of them being super-geniuses and manipulative, twisted souls that wanted to bend the world under their powers and thumbs. While not all of them had super powers beyond their heightened intelligence, all of them had gifts that provided them with usefulness well beyond simple brain power. They communicated and planned in secret, agreeing on certain collective behaviors and a style of dress. This was meant to create some common traits when descriptions were made to authorities while looking completely different in others. Regularly each person would change their of operations, often to an entirely continent which left locals totally confused as to who or what The Shadow really was. Of course that was the goal. They sought to deliberately cause confusion and make anyone and everyone unsure of what The Shadow was or what they were capable of. They hoped that confusion and uncertainty would do just what it did; it made people think The Shadow wasn’t real. Which left their organization free to pursue its agenda with even greater impunity. For a while at least.”

Knight Light listened to this and found it a bit hard to believe. The Shadow being real? But some of what the demon said made sense. And Knight had her emotional insights up to their highest levels and she detected absolutely no trace of deception or even **** to share anything. If anything, there were overwhelming amounts of relief coming out as the demon spoke. But the relief wasn’t so much based on what she had said but where the story was going. Since the demon showed no sign of stopping her side of the conversation, Knight remained silent and let her continue.

“But of course when you have eight people like that working together, all of them knowing that the others are a bunch of lying and deceptive pieces of shit, it couldn’t last forever. Eventually one of them would make a powerplay or try to get rid of one or more of their rivals. It took a lot longer than any of us in the spiritual realms thought it would, but it eventually happened. The de facto leader, the most brilliant of the group was the one that broke. Of the 8 members, when they had disagreements over the correct paths to proceed, his way ended up being chosen nearly 2/3 of the time. And those plans always worked out. The problem is that other 1/3 of internal conflicts. Some of the members began to realize that quite often in retrospect, could have led to the total collapse and exposure of their organization had they followed his preferred path. Rather than being grateful for the good advice, he became resentful at being corrected by those he had begun to consider inferior to himself. And one-by-one, other members of The Shadow began to have unfortunate ‘accidents’ that led to their demise.”

Knight continued to listen and did her best to remember everything she was being told. She would need to verify it if given the chance because this information could be invaluable if true. Not to mention just the significance of it. Luckily witchcraft required a strong memory so she felt confident that she would remember just about everything. Assuming she wasn’t mind-wiped again though she doubted it would happen. If the creature was going to wipe her brain, why bother saying all this in the first place?

“Although in a weird coincidence, the third Shadow member to die actually did have a legitimate accident that caused his **** which helped to throw suspicion off of the culprit behind the previous assassinations. By the time those remaining began to realize what was actually happening, it was too late. And they couldn’t go to one another for protection because all they knew was that one of the group was responsible. They didn’t know which one it was. And once the former leader was alone, all his former allies now being deceased, he began to seek out other means of increasing his power. He began to consider himself above partnering with mere humans for any purpose beyond the occasional pawn or a distraction for his own, more devious plans. So with humans no longer good enough, he began to try working his way into the spiritual realm. Often through using strong-arm tactics, manipulation, threats, and even a few murders when necessary.”

When the demon said that, Knight Light simply closed her eyes and breathed deeply. The spiritual realms and forces hated each other most of the time and often had no interest in helping one another out. One of the few things that could do it though, was when mortals started trying to **** their way into their world. Knight Light finally spoke and it was simply to quote something funny she saw on a t-shirt once a few years ago as if felt appropriate considering where she expected the story to go. “Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.”

The demon laughed out loud at that line. “That’s why I’m glad you were the one that came here. You know damn well how we react to mortals trying to poke around in our business. The sole remaining Shadow found his way to, well, I honestly don’t think any of your human legends mention them which. The closest you have would probably be The Fates from Greek Mythology. There is a universal tapestry of life. It not only depicts the past and present but the future as well. Those around it don’t sew the tapestry of life exactly though, the tapestry is already made and they simply guard and interpret it. The Shadow, was not only able to find it. He was also able to take tremendous amounts of information from it, and he began trying to use that information to manipulate the future. In fact he saw that you, Foxtrot, and Maid all had heroic destinies and tried to corrupt all three of you.”

Knight was rather surprised by that. “H-how?”

“Do you remember early on in your magical studies? Some of the earliest works of genuine magic you found included some rather dark and despicable magic, didn’t it? Magic that churned your stomach and repulsed you. Fighting against stuff like that is why you became who you did. Those books weren’t the original books you were supposed to encounter in the original timeline. The Shadow swapped some of the original books out and instead tried to provide you with those that presented a much darker and more powerful magic. The texts he offered presented that magic in a much more seductive and compelling manner. The guards of the timeline were able to notice the alteration and weren’t able to completely repair the damage. Instead they provided you with books that underscored the more twisted and cruel nature of those types of spells, hoping it would keep you on your original path. And it seemed to have worked.

Dr. DooLots was another example. He saw Foxtrot had a heroic trajectory in adulthood and as interestingly as you may find it, it’s for a power within her body that has still barely awakened. But he came across DooLots and used his manipulative skills to convince him that Foxtrot’s family would be good specimens for his experiments. His hope was that she would be killed along with her parents. When that didn’t happen and Foxtrot continued to survive, he planned to ‘rescue’ Foxtrot from DooLots’ lab and brainwash her into being a grateful, thankful servant. Again the protectors of the timeline weren’t able to repair the damage once it had started but did their best to minimize it. They allowed the authorities to catch the evil doctor before Shadow’s planned rescue, eliminating his chance to supposedly save her.

And then there was Maid, I’m sure you remember hearing that the woman had some accidents caused by her super strength in high school right?” Knight just nodded her head and let the demoness continue. “In the original timeline, her super strength wasn’t even supposed to begin developing until her mid 20’s. Shadow looked at her lifeline and noticed an accident she had in high school that resulted in one of her classmates being injured by her. Shadow used some of his abilities to slip a **** into Maid’s food one day that ensured her powers would awaken both sooner and much faster than it was supposed to happen. Had the defenders of fate not noticed it, Maid would have likely decapitated that poor boy when the softball left her bat and hit him in the head. They were able to alter the trajectory of the ball and ensure that didn’t happen. The ball didn’t hit him, but the **** of the slipstream as the ball nicked his ear was enough to make the pitcher lose his balance and fall over. The fall did break his arm but as you now know, it could have been much worse. But you can imagine what a girl like Maid would do if she accidently killed a classmate couldn’t you?”

Knight wasn’t certain as she hadn’t known her for a long time but she had a feel for who she was as a person. She was such a sweet and sensitive soul that she would be emotionally destroyed by it. Especially with a victim that young and over something as silly as a high school gym class. The idea of a total mental breakdown didn’t seem impossible. Images of Maid, a bit younger and running off into the woods, crying and alone for days entered her mind.

And the demon seemed to be fully aware of what Knight was thinking. “You are good at deciphering people you just met. Then when the poor girl is at her lowest, playing the role of hero, The Shadow finds her and offers her training to control her powers while filling her head with ideas like **** or manslaughter charges over the boy she killed. If he had his way there is a good chance that you, Maid, and Foxtrot all would have become villains. Even willing pawns at his disposal.”

This was a lot for Knight to take in. And it was incredibly hard to believe but she still sensed no attempts at deception. She didn’t even sense any attempts at hiding emotions. Very few times in her life had she even encountered anyone that seemed this much of an open book actually. So she was leaning towards believing the demon in front of her. While trusting demons was inherently a bad idea, those who operated on lust tended to be more forthright than most, especially once their natures were revealed. Though being the most honest demon was kind of like being the skinniest kid at fat camp or the nicest man on **** row. Still, she felt no reason do disbelieve what she was hearing. On top of that, the demon somehow knew that it was some of the horrific depictions of dark magic that had pushed Knight towards the path of heroics. Which made her seem at least a little knowledgeable.

“So was that The Shadows whole thing then? Just corrupting future heroes before they became heroes?”

The demon tilted her head, “Not all of it, but a big part of it. The way he looked at it, the more heroes he could take out of the game meant fewer enemies to contend with in the future. And if he could turn them into bad guys, well, then the heroes that he couldn’t eliminate might be so busy fighting other bad guys, that he could get by unnoticed a lot easier. And keep in mind though he failed with you three, he succeeded in others where the protectors of the fate weren’t able to mitigate his damage to the future. In fact he succeeded a lot more than he failed. In fact the ever increasing rate of supers going into more morally questionable pursuits is the reason why Blaze wanted to start a team of her own in the first place. Which finally gets us to the game.”

As the demon mentioned it, the table that they had been playing on and Chicken Out appeared on the floor behind Knight.

“The reason he was able to continue for as long as he did was The Shadow was really good at covering his tracks and it took a while to figure out exactly why the future kept getting altered and in need of repairs. Once that was figured out the guardians decided to, for the first time ever, actually change the tapestry of life for themselves. And they did it in a way that was guaranteed to make Shadow notice. It was a future in which Blaze’s decision to form a team would lead to his slow, painful, and humiliating ****. It required a lot of work and creativity to keep it vague enough, but with the work of several spiritual realms unifying, the manipulator was about to become the manipulated.

When The Shadow found out what his future entailed, of course he felt the need to have Blaze’s team eliminated or better still, corrupted. He needed to turn his potential threats into assets as he had done so many times in the past and he decided I would be his pawn. He wanted someone powerful enough to do what he needed, but weak enough that he could kill me if I betrayed him. So he provided me a little gift and tried to bribe me with it.” As she said that the demon took the die off of the Chicken Out board and tossed it on the floor. After a quick stomp with her foot the plastic was cracked and broken, and as the plastic fell to the floor, a tiny glowing blue dot floated in the air just above the ground.

Knight Light took several seconds to stare at it and when her brain and magical senses finally realized what she was looking at, she fell to her hands and knees looking on in awe. It was a Bluzza Stone. She had seen a few before and they were magically attuned stones that could allow a skilled magic user to enhance, channel, and even alter the nature of their magic. The only problem was that the bigger they were, the less precise and effective they became and almost all the ones she was aware of were the size of a house or bigger. As far as she was aware there was one the size of a beach ball and that, up until now, was by a wide margin the best she knew about. One this small would be a magical powerup beyond measure.

“In exchange for this little trinket, he wanted me to take on the task of corrupting you five. He even had a special deal as part of our contract with which I fashioned Chicken Out into. Every odd numbered player that dropped out, would be Demonically restructured into being his devoted, enthusiastic, and willing servant-slash-**** for the rest of their life. I could do what I wanted with the even numbered drop outs.”

This was information that was able to make Knight Light take her eye off of the stone and stand back up, “Wait, so if one of us had chickened out we would have become his?!”

“Remember it was total restructuring. I would have been **** to not only make you work for him, but make you think you always had. I would have been **** to make you love working for The Shadow and enjoy betraying the other women in the game. Since this was all part of a plan to trick The Shadow into a **** position, I needed to make sure he got none of what he wanted. I made sure he had the ability to watch the game as it unfolded and now that it is done, now that he knows that he has been betrayed, I expect he plans to kill me.”

Knight Light in typical hero fashion immediately asked the demon woman if she needed help and wound up being laughed at for it. “No my dear, he is right that he could kill me in a fair fight. Just one problem, do you know how to kill a demon permanently?”

Knight did. Normally if you summoned a demon to the mortal realm and killed them, they’d just return to their plane of origin. Weakened and injured usually but still alive and fine after some time. “They need to kill you on your home realm if they want it to be permanent.”

“Exactly. Which means he’s going to work on some planar teleportation spells, and while he has unmatched tenacity at resisting magic, his skills at actually using it are rather lackluster so he’ll probably be able to get within about a 20-30 mile radius of me with his planar teleportation. Which means it’ll take him hours to get here. Don’t forget several realms have had this plan in the works for years. The initial plan to stop him is flawless but if that somehow fails, there are around a dozen contingency options. He bit off far more than he can chew and I promise you, The Shadow is about to literally **** on it.”

That answered almost all of Knight’s questions. The reason so much of the game was so sexual was now obvious given who was in charge and corrupting the players was part of the deal she made. So turning everyone into a bunch of sexual deviants and perverts while keeping most of their old personalities intact probably counted as corruption if the demon was able to word things just right in the contract. The succubus was given control because of a small sample size of beings that could accomplish what The Shadow wanted to be done and his desires requiring someone particularly skilled at mental magics. The demon went out of her way to keep the players from chickening out because she wanted to provoke Shadow into seeking **** after not getting what he wanted. It was a bit convoluted and roundabout but demonic dealings often were so there were only a couple other smaller curiosities that she wanted to ask about before making her wish.

“Some of the non-sexual things you did. Like Blaze getting ice breath, me getting the supercharged immune system, High Tech’s new eyes, Foxtrot’s getting Odin’s necklace don’t seem like things a sex demon would usually do. Was there a reason there?”

The demon just bobbed her head a little bit while smiling, “I figured making you a little bit more effective as heroes would piss off The Shadow just a little bit more and the thought of it amused me. Encouraging love and getting along would do that too which is why I tossed it in as a bonus gift.”

Knight Light raised her eyebrows, “So you decided to just mix in a little bit of passive-aggression with your horny corruption to amuse yourself and incite The Shadow just a little bit more?”

“Exactly,” the demon said with a laughing smile.

“And you’re sure The Shadow won’t kill you?”

The demon didn’t show the slightest bit of concern. “If it were a fair fight, he would definitely. But you know the answer there. If someone is coming to kill you and it’s someone that you can’t defeat, what would you do?”

Knight Light took a few moments to think about that. “Ask my friends for help?”

“Bingo. When you’re a sex demon that’s lived for hundreds of years, finding a few powerful friends to help you out in a tight spot is amazingly easy. My only problem was deciding who I should call upon. The Shadow has no idea what I have in store for his arrival, trust me. He will be the only one who dies and I have arranged for it to be particularly fitting for someone like him.”

She kept looking for a hook or something to be suspicious of. She knew that even relatively kind and well-meaning demons, they were few but did exist, often couldn’t be trusted completely. “The game ended and I never was able to see Maid’s last adjustment from the last space. What was it?”

The demon smiled, “One of my favorites and I purposefully left it for the person that landed on the last square. She will now be able to absorb cum through her cheeks and doing so will convert the matter into the nutrients she needs to live.”

“So Maid could now stop eating entirely and just survive off of having cum shot onto her face over and over if she wanted? She can literally live off of bukkake?” The demon smiled and Knight went from suspicion of the demon to jealousy directed at Maid. “That lucky bitch.” The friendly vindictiveness in Knight Light’s voice seemed to amuse the demon.

Knight breathed deeply before asking what might be her final question. “And you’re just fine with me wishing all of us back to the way we were before the game started?” Knight stepped past the demon and towards the throne, where the still frozen image of herself and the other women remained within the scrying spell’s viewing window. The fact that she was about to undo it made her almost want to cry but she felt it was the right thing to do.

“You and your friends were but a means to an end. You served your purpose and for that I am grateful. If you want to go back to your old, boring lives I won’t stop you.” The demon walked up beside Knight’s form and placed a friendly hand on her shoulder in an attempt to be reassuring, “Obviously I wish you girls would go back home with all your changes in tact and the world would just accept all your newfound sexual desires as crazy little eccentricities that they would come to accept over time. That you all would still be seen as role models and eventually you could encourage more people to open up sexually and bump the lust levels of Earth a bit”

Knight leaned in to the demon a bit as she listened to the paradise world that she was describing. With a wistful sigh she shook her head while still staring at her friends’ horny personas for the last time, “Yeah, I wish that too.” She turned around and was about to make her wish for everything to go back to normal when she saw the look of absolute delight on the demon’s face. She was confused until she realized what she had just said.

The fucking demon had tricked her into letting her guard down and ‘wishing’ without realizing it. Before Knight could voice the slightest objection or protest the demon nodded with a devilish smile more radiant than anything Knight had ever seen. “Your wish has been granted.” And with that there was a flash of light before the demon went back to her throne to prepare for another, much less pleasant meeting. The Shadow was probably on her plane by now so it wouldn’t be very long before he showed up.