A week blurred together into one long, exhausting stretch of days, between basketball, lust, and deep thoughts.
Three more tournament matches came and went, each one drawing a bigger crowd than the last.
Alex learned to find the perfect balance between dominant and believable, adjusting his speed and power just enough to look like a gifted athlete rather than something inhuman.
He let himself get bumped, missed a shot here and there, and let the games look competitive before closing them out.
The campus slowly turned its attention toward the team that had gone from a winless joke to the biggest underdog of the tournament.
The attention was relentless, with students stopping him on the walkways and in the cafeteria to shake his hand or take photos. At some point, he felt more like a celebrity.
Even the Captain Dane's livestream followers tripled overnight as the campus group chat exploded with clips of his plays, attracting people outside their university.
Without forgetting to have some hot time, feeding his incubus blood with thick loads of energy that left Liza satisfied.
Staying over at his apartment a couple times in the week, both times ending with his three girls tangled in the bed sheets, including the succubus Rose in secluded places, who surprisingly was acting like a close friend in front of the others.
As for Janeth, she spent the first half of the week in a quiet deterioration that was painful to watch.
The formal hearing letter from the Dean arrived on Tuesday, confirming the date and listing the charges in cold formal language, and the last of her resistance crumbled.
She stopped sleeping properly, her eyes growing hollow and dark underneath, and she moved through the house in a daze, barely eating, barely speaking.
But shortly enough, she gave up, something changed in her, stopped rehearsing defenses in her head. She accepted that she was going to lose her job, and her past life.
After all, Liza wasn't going to fix everything and reset her destiny.
By Saturday night, two days before the final match, Alex was walking home from the store at nearly midnight.
The residential streets were empty, the lampposts casting long yellow rays of light across the sidewalks.
His shoulders were slumped, his hands jammed into his jacket pockets, and every muscle in his body ached with a deep exhaustion that had settled into his body over the past seven days.
"I just want a hot bath." Alex sighed, his voice low and rough, even his magic enhanced stamina, he felt tired.
'A bath sounds lovely, I wish I could take one~' Liza's voice hummed in his mind, soft and relaxed. 'You've been running yourself ragged this week, handsome.'
"I know... it's been a lot, but I have to." Alex replied back, dragging his feet along the pavement.
It was also for Janeth.
'It's going smoothly, though, the crowds are getting exactly where we need them, and one more game will put the entire campus in one place.' Liza said, her tone optimistic.
Then, after a brief pause, her voice shifted, carrying a quiet wonder. 'I might only need a tiny bit more, Alex. A little more energy, and I'll have enough to start the ritual, to rebuild my physical body.'
Alex stopped walking, standing in the middle of the empty path as the cool night air brushed against his face. "Seriously?"
'Yes, it's been months, months of feeding and absorbing lust, and it's finally almost enough,' Liza said, her voice tinged with awe. 'The queen needed an enormous amount of energy, more than any normal succubus could dream of harvesting, but you did it~'
Alex let out a slow breath, a faint exhausted smile touching his lips. "That's nice to hear, Liza."
'Don't celebrate yet!' Liza said, her tone shifting to something more cautious. 'I'm a little hesitant, to be honest. The mana density on Earth is crap, it's not suitable for high-tier spells, and rebuilding a body from nothing is a royal-level ritual. If the mana isn't dense enough to sustain the formation, it could collapse midway, and if it collapses...'
She trailed off, and the silence in his mind was heavier than usual.
"It could go wrong?" Alex finished quietly.
'Yes, but I'm going to try anyway, once I reach the threshold, I'll give it everything I have.' Liza said, her voice steadying.
"You'll do fine." Alex encouraged in a rare occasion, starting to walk again. "You're the most powerful being I've ever met, you'll figure it out."
'But you've only met two~'
"Still counts." Alex thought with a faint smirk.
Liza let out a soft, amused breath. 'You really think I can do it?'
"I know you can."
A warm silence settled between them, the kind that felt like a hand resting gently on his shoulder. Then Liza's voice returned, stripped of all its hesitation, dripping with her usual, unshakable pride.
'Well, of course I can! I'm the mighty Succubus Queen, I can cast any spell, anywhere, under any conditions! Do you think a little low mana density is going to stop me? Please, I could rewrite the laws of this pathetic world if I wanted to!'
Alex let out a quiet laugh, the first real chuckle he'd had all week, and shook his head as his shoulders loosened just a fraction. "You're ridiculous."
'I am magnificent, handsome, there's a enoumrous difference~' Liza corrected him proudly.
Soon, his house came into view at the end of the block, the lights on inside and casting a soft light through the curtains.
He climbed the front steps with a heavy sigh, turned the handle, and stepped inside.
The house was warm and quiet, the living room light on but the TV off, the kitchen dark, and no sound coming from the hallway. It seemed like everyone had already gone to bed.
Alex closed the door behind him softly, not bothering to go to the kitchen or the living room, his body screaming for hot water and nothing else.
Walking straight down the hallway toward the bathroom, his feet heavy on the wood floor, and reached the door, turning the handle, finding it unlocked, and pushed it open.
He stepped inside and immediately channeled a small pulse of red energy through his skin, his clothes dissolving into mist in a single wave, leaving him completely naked.
His tired muscles ached beneath his skin, the cool bathroom air brushing against his bare chest and legs.
'Smooth.' Liza chuckled in his mind. 'You're getting cocky with that trick.'
"It's convenient." Alex muttered back, taking another step forward.
Then suddenly, a soft gasp broke the silence.
It came from the side, from the large bathtub that sat next to the shower stall along the wall. Alex turned his head and looked to the side.
Janeth was sitting in the tub, her legs stretched out in the steaming water, which only came up to her chest, leaving her bare shoulders and the upper swell of her breasts exposed.
Her blondish hair was damp and clinging to her neck and collarbone, her eyes hazy and distant.
She had been staring blankly at the tiles on the opposite wall, lost in her own numb quiet world, when the sound of the door opening had pulled her out of it.
"Oh?" Janeth murmured softly, still not looking over, her voice distant and drowsy. "I'm using the bath, auntie, just give me a few more minutes..."
She turned her head to the side, expecting to see his mother standing in the doorway.
Her amber eyes landed on a tall, broad-shouldered figure, gazing at the curly black hair, the sharp jawline, the dark red eyes looking back at her with a calm tired expression.
Then her gaze drifted downward, past the defined collarbones, past the hard muscles of his chest and stomach, past the sharp lines of his hips, and kept going.
Janeth froze, her mind failing to process what she was looking at.
"O-Oh! W-What?!" Janeth shrieked, the numbness vanishing from her face in an instant, replaced by a blush that came from her neck and consumed her entire face.
Jerking upright in the tub, the water splashing wildly against the sides, and threw both arms across her chest.
Her huge soft tits pressed together between her forearms, but the water level was too low to hide them properly.
The tender flesh bulged over her forearms as she squeezed them together. Her rosy nipples, stiff from the cool air hitting her damp skin, peeked out just above the crook of her elbows, completely exposed despite her efforts to cover them.
Alex stood there for a beat, completely naked, one hand still resting on the doorframe. He blinked once, taking in the scene.
"Sorry." he said calmly, his voice surprisingly relaxed. "The door wasn't locked."
Janeth's mouth opened and closed twice, her eyes darting everywhere except at him, before she managed to force words out.
"I-I... I thought you weren't coming home tonight!" she stammered, her voice high and shaky, sinking lower in the water and pulling her arms tighter against her chest, which only made more of the heavy, pale mounds spill upward. "Y-You usually stay with your friends later on Saturdays, s-so I thought..."
"Friends?... Ah, yeah. But I missed you." Alex said, a faint exhausted smile touching his lips. "That's why I came home, although a bit late."
Janeth's face burned so hot she thought her skin might melt.
Her mouth parted slightly, the words catching in her throat, unable to find a reply, her eyes flickered down involuntarily, catching another glimpse of his bare body, his defined nice abs and everything below.
Slapping both hands over her eyes, leaving her chest fully uncovered, her wet tits resting heavy and bare, her rosy nipples stood stiff and pink, begging to be played with.
Looking at her reaction, he stepped inside further, shutting the bathroom door behind him.
"W-Wait!" she squeaked, her voice small and breathless, her elbows pressing inward as if trying to squeeze her own breasts out of existence.
"D-Don't be a perv, Alex, I'm a woman, you know... y-you can't just walk in here like that, and without any clothes, what is wrong with you...!"
Alex didn't stop walking, moving slowly toward the bathtub, his footsteps quiet on the damp tile.
Janeth's fingers parted slightly, her eyes peeking through the gap between them, watching him approach with a mix of mortification and other embarrassing emotions.
"A-Alex...I-I'm too shy..." she whispered, her voice barely audible, her cheeks burning, but her fingers stayed parted, just enough to see him coming to her.