Will awoke again. He was starting to get sick of waking from these magically induced instances of sleeping, but there was no time to gripe as he tried to figure out where he was. The first thing he noticed is that he was laid flat on his back on a table, and his ankles and wrists were shackled. The room was made of stone, and it was dingy and dark. He was dead center in the room, and all manner of magical instruments and objects lined the walls, as well as what appeared to be hundreds of ancient tomes. He looked to his right and saw Chloe and another woman who was draped in a black robe, facing the wall. Something was off. It took Will a few moments to realize, but eventually it clicked -- Chloe was the size of a human! She was standing impatiently, and appeared to be in the middle of an argument with the mysterious figure.
"You said I just had to bring him!" Chloe said, clearly annoyed.
"I said you needed to help me find a subject. I need your help still to determine if he'll work," replied the mysterious figure in an emotionless tone. "Besides, you really can't afford to upset me, can you? You were born with a weak affinity to magic and had to come to me for assistance. I could undo that gift."
Chloe sulked and leaned against the wall. "Fine. Just try to be quick. Oh hey, he's awake," she said nonchalantly, walking up to Will.
"What the hell is going on? How can you be that size?" Will asked, confused.
"If you must know, I used a spell called minimi that allows us to shrink down to human size. This woman helped me out with a... personal issue and as part of the agreement I owed her a favor. Well, she called it in. 'Bring me a hero,' she told me. What a strange request, but I guess you fit the bill." Chloe explained casually as if the last thing she had done to Will wasn't torture him and kill one of his friends. The mysterious woman finished what she was working on and turned around, carrying a vial filled with a strange liquid. Will finally got a look at her. That plain black robe was hardly revealing, but still revealed her luscious figure. She had shoulder length black hair and despite making little attempt to look attractive she had an effortless kind of beauty and grace. She appeared to be in her mid 20s. The woman held the vial to Will's lips.
"Drink," she commanded plainly.
"What's in it?" he replied cautiously.
"You have many questions. The concoction takes time to work. Drink and while you metabolize it, I will answer everything." Before Will could protest anymore, she snapped her fingers, and his mouth locked itself open. She poured the liquid into his mouth and his mouth closed and swallowed it, still not by his control. Will was taken aback; the giantesses were capable of magic, but it always required a verbal incantation. This woman had just manipulated his body without just a snap of her fingers. She snapped again, and he unfroze. "I am Diana, a human sorceress. What you just witnessed is true sorcery, and not the crude imitation that the demons use."
"Demons? What do you mean?" Will asked. He was very worried about that liquid, but this woman was clearly in a league of her own and he really didn't want to risk upsetting her.
"I guess most people call them giantesses now. Well, the name is certainly descriptive," said Diana, looking at Chloe. "But, they are no sorcerers. They feed off the despair of mortals and use that to fuel their magic. It's why they all have such a strong instinct to torture and kill humans. Think about how much food it would take to support their size. Without the energy they siphon from the negative emotions generated from humans, they'd wither away all too fast," she continued calmly. "They convert that raw energy into the magical phenomena that you're familiar with, but it's not true sorcery that manipulates matter and time, just the transfer of emotional energy into physical energy." Chloe remained silent.
"But where did they come from?" Will asked.
"Ah... that would be the fault of the sorcerers. A female sorceress had summoned a demon, specifically a succubus, to seduce and kill a male sorcerer that was her rival. Suffice it to say, it worked. Unfortunately, the succubus got too powerful from feeding on his despair, and used the magic to grow to the size of a building. From there, she wreaked absolute havoc on the nearby people in the same town, getting larger and larger before reaching the size of the giantesses you're used to. After seeing how strong the demons were, sorcerers everywhere started summoning them and trying to learn how to siphon power from emotions. As I'm sure you can guess, the succubi got the better of their masters and summoned the rest of their kind into the mortal plane. That happened in the year 2014. Since then, over 500 years have passed. I was the only human strong enough to beat a giant succubus; the bigger they are, the stronger their spells become."
"You can beat a giantess -- I mean, a succubus?" Will asked incredulously. "And you've been alive over 500 years? Why don't you stop them?"
"I've been around over 1500 years, actually. And why would I stop them? I still haven't learned how to maximize their ability to draw power from emotions to bolster my existing sorcery. Once I do that, I'll get rid of them." Will couldn't believe what he was hearing; this woman could beat the succubi, but just to have a little extra power she would let humanity keep suffering for centuries? Before he could get mad and question her, she continued. "It appears the concoction has worked," continued Diana, snapping her fingers. Suddenly, Will was only a few inches tall. "Chloe, kill him."
A sadistic grin broke out on Chloe's face. "With pleasure," she said in that same sultry tone as before. With no warning, Chloe's huge hand came down on top of him with enough force to squish him flat. She lifted her hand, and saw that Will was unharmed. Confused, but not displeased, she lifted him to her mouth and bit into his torso. Again she was surprised that she couldn't tear through him. She increased the pressure more and more. Will screamed in agony as the car sized incisors pressed into his flesh, but didn't seem to break the skin. Suddenly, she spat him back out on the table. "Oh, I get it. That concoction made you immortal, which means I get to toy with you forever," Chloe said. She began to undo her jeans, before Diana snapped her fingers and Will was normal size again with his body back in shackles.Disappointed, Chloe buttoned her pants back up.
"Looks like the experiment is a success. That potion has made you undying; you cannot die from any means except for being stabbed with a mercury infused blade. You see, the biggest limiting factor with the way succubus magic works is that the strongest despair is only produced by killing the victim, making it a fleeting resource. I was able to mimic their technique within a mere year of study, but I've spent all the time since then working on immortality. I've been immortal since long before the succubi invaded, but to make someone truly invincible is a far more daunting task. Well, I have my proof of concept. Now I have to figure out how to mass produce that serum and apply it to thousands of humans. Speaking of which," she said snapping her fingers again, causing Will and Chloe to switch positions with each other. Before Chloe even processed what was going on, Diana plunged a dagger into her arm, causing Chloe to let out a bloodcurdling scream. "That dagger in her arm is mercury infused. Mercury can stop all types of magic. Kill her or leave her here, I don't really care; I took away her magic and she won't be able to grow back to her original size unless a succubus helps her," said Diana. She'd been emotionless until now, but a cruel smirk finally appeared on her face. Will had a thousand more questions to ask her, but Diana snapped her fingers, teleporting both herself and all her belongings except the table to some unknown location.
Will, finally free, was confused. Suddenly, another scream from Chloe brought him back to reality, and he quickly pulled the dagger from her arm. "Kill me," she said, still short of breath. "If I'm found like this, they'll just think I'm a human." Will hesitated. He hated this woman with all his heart; he saw her kill an innocent woman right in front of him, but he couldn't bring himself to kill her in such a defenseless state. He noticed a key attached to the side of the table, and took it and undid her shackles. Her magic was greatly weakened by whatever Diana did to her, but not entirely gone. The wound in her arm seemed to start healing itself, though not instantly. She sat up.
"After everything I did to you... why?" was all Chloe could ask.
"Because it's the right thing to do," Will replied.
"Well, I at least know my way around. This place is built inside a hollowed out brick on the corner of an elementary school," Chloe said. She opened the door and made her way through a short hallway, with Will following close behind. They exited the tunnel emerging into daylight. Chloe had been telling the truth, Will turned back to see a colossal school building. He bumped into Chloe, who had stopped walking.
"Hey, what giv --" he began, turning to face her. And that's when he saw what had her frozen in her tracks; in front of them was a giantess who appeared to be an elementary school student sitting in the grass playing with some rocks, looking straight at the two of them.
"Yay! Tinies!" said the girl in an excited tone. Before either could move, she reached out for them and effortlessly caught them both in one hand.