Saralyn was in horrible shape. I had managed to stop most of the bleeding on her right leg, but her left arm was still bleeding profusely. I managed to find another towel to stem the bleeding, but she still couldn't use her left arm. Putting her arms over my shoulder and acting as a crutch for her, we slowly moved out of the house. I looked back at the remains of what had been my home for the past month, and sighed in relief knowing that Sharon had gotten away safely.
Both of us were tired, but there was no time to rest. There could be more order soldiers prowling around the forest, and we were in no shape for fighting. To make matters worse, none of us knew where the nearest civilization was. We just had to keep moving, and hope that we happened upon a path or a road we could use.
Saralyn and I decided that following the river near Sharon's house was as good of an idea as any other. With some luck, it would lead to the small town Saralyn was talking about.
The forest was alive with the sounds of insects… and the sounds of yelling. It turns out that the group that had ambushed us at the house wasn't alone. In the distance, I could see the yellow glow of torches as another group of order soldiers began advancing towards the house. If they saw us, we were done for.
"Keep going. Faster. I know it hurts, but if we get caught, we'll be dead." I warned Saralyn. She seemed to put a little more effort into her walking, moving just a little bit faster. Sharon's house disappeared into the forest, no doubt being fully controlled by the Order at this point.
Once we were a safe distance away, my curiosity got the better of me. "What happened out there? What hurt you so badly?"
"Gray incubus." Saralyn breathed.
"What? What is that?" I knew what incubi were, but not 'gray incubi'. Was this some sort of mutation caused by mamono mana? Why were they helping the order?
"The documents we got back at the prison. They were mass producing gray incubi. Super soldiers, their limits broken without the need for a blessing from the Chief God, or a mamono to corrupt them. I don't know how they managed to make mamono mana harmless to them."
"Fucking hell, and these prisons are all over the world?" I began growing incredibly worried. If a single gray incubus managed to hurt Saralyn so badly, and there were essentially factories pumping these out en masse…
"We have to go to Lescatie."
"Lescatie?"
"Home city of mamono extremists. Powerful people. They'll know what to do. If we can find civilization, we can ask for directions."
I knew who the extremists were; mamono who were dedicated to monsterizing human territory. They believed that every human man needed to be in the arms of a mamono, and every human woman was better off as a mamono. The exact opposite end of the spectrum from the Order. Apparently Lescatie had been an Order superpower country, before they had turned the entire city into a mamono realm. They were our best bets at solving this mess before it spun out of control.
Saralyn and I kept walking until we saw something in the distance. An abandoned building. Abandoned buildings were sometimes used as homes for wild mamono, so hopefully there was no one occupying it. We would also have to hope that any Order soldier that came across the building would just assume it was abandoned, and not investigate it.
Both of us got into the building, and slammed the door behind us. We searched the building for anything that could help heal Saralyn's arm. Nothing. I did find a basement, though. Deciding that this is where we were going to hide for the night, I dragged in some blankets and pillows from the abandoned bedroom, covered the hatch leading to the basement with a carpet and tried to settle in for the night. Sleep was hard to come by, as both of us were scared that the Order might find us.
A couple hours later, I still hadn't fallen asleep. Saralyn clearly hadn't either; she was hogging all of the blankets, and was clearly restless. She tossed and turned every couple minutes.
"Adrian…Blood…" she whispered quietly, probably afraid that someone would hear her.
"What?"
"I want to drink some of your blood. It might calm the both of us down. I'm not in any condition to have sex right now, but I can do this."
"Alright, fine." I exposed part of my neck to her.
Saralyn slowly bit down on my neck. Both of us slowly relaxed, with Saralyn eye's narrowing in pleasure. Both of us forgot our current predicament and enjoyed ourselves quietly. Saralyn eventually stopped after about fifteen seconds. Clearly, she had listened to me when I asked her to control herself when she first started drinking my blood.
"Finally learned some self control?" I teased her with a smile.
"You know I couldn't control myself the first time. Your blood tastes amazing. All the other dhampirs don't know what they're missing out on. They always insist that sucking blood is disgraceful." she smiles back.
"Heh… They're not doing their husbands any favors."
"Yeah. Thanks for the blood. I think I can finally relax now." Saralyn slowly closed her eyes. Feeling at ease as well, I closed my eyes and finally got some sleep.
After a couple hours, I woke up. Thankfully, nobody had discovered our hideout. Unfortunately, there were no windows to see what time of the day it was outside. I slowly climbed the ladder that led to the ground floor of the house and peeked outside. It looked to be early morning. If we left now, we could maybe reach friendly civilization by afternoon.
My stomach began growling again. The soup we had last night had long been digested, and my body was complaining again. Saralyn had run out of rations in her traveling bag, so we needed to get moving. Maybe we could hunt down a wild animal?
I went back down the ladder to wake up Saralyn. She was still fast asleep. Heavy sleeper, I see. I had become a morning person; Sharon usually woke up early to tend to the garden, so I got use to waking up early as well.
"Saralyn, wake up. We should get moving."
"Nghhhhh…" Saralyn slowly opened her eyes and yawned. "Ten more minutes…"
"Saralyn, we don't have any more food. We need to get to civilization before we starve to death."
"Fine… I'm just not a morning person. Sorry." She smirked and slowly put on her clothes. She got up and walked to the ladder, before stopping and wincing in pain. Her leg still hadn't fully healed. I walked over to her to help her walk, but she gently pushed me away.
"It's okay. I can walk on my own. I owe you for practically carrying me on your shoulders last night."
"Are you sure? What if we get attacked?" I was worried. She didn't look like she was in the condition to run.
"We'll just have to be sneaky."
Saralyn and I slowly left the basement, and began hurrying towards what looked to be the edge of the forest. Finally, we would get some adequate sunlight; the thick forest didn't allow much light to enter.
"I'm so glad to finally be out of this goddamn forest."
"You and I both."
We passed the edge of the forest and came to a large, open field of grass. Flowers dotted the fields every now and then, and there was even a herd of deer grazing on the grass. I spotted something in the distance; a gravel path. I weighed my options; we were fugitives, so taking a path would increase the chances of someone spotting us. On the other hand, it could also lead us to civilization.
Saralyn also saw the path. Her eyes lit up, smiling. I decided that we would take our chances with the path. The two of us walked over to the path, and began following it in the opposite direction of the forest. After an hour of relatively uneventful walking, we spotted a wagon in the distance. It looked like the driver was a human.
"Act natural. Let's just hope that they're friendly."
"And if they're not?"
"Get your weapon ready and prepare for a fight." I kept my hands on my mamono realm sword, just in case.
The wagon got closer and closer to us, and eventually stopped next to us. The door opened, and a smiling kobold with farmer's clothing opened the door.
"Hello travelers! What brings you to this part of the woods? Do you need a ride into town?" The dog creature asked cheerfully. Thank Maou. A kobold probably meant that the town she mentioned was at least lenient towards more docile mamono.
"Yes, please. By any chance, do you have any food?" Saralyn asked hopefully. The kobold took out two loaves of bread and tossed one to each of us.
"Alright. It's going to take a bit." The kobold noticed Saralyn's injuries. "Oh wow… What happened to your arm and leg?" She asked worriedly.
"I don't mean to alarm you, but there's an Order outpost deep in the woods. The two of us had to run several times from them."
"That's strange. The Order never showed much interest in our territory. Not much strategic value. What were they doing this close to us?"
"Don't know." That was a lie. We did know, but if we spoke about what we found, the poor kobold might have a heart attack. We could inform the town's leader about it when we got there.
"Ok, then. Let's get the two of you back to town." Both of us got into the wagon. The kobold's husband turned the wagon around.
About fifteen minutes later, we reached our destination. The small town looked very quaint and cozy, perfect for us. We got off the wagon, and Saralyn gave the kobold and her husband some gold as thanks for the ride. The kobold pointed us in the direction of a hotel, and set off. Saralyn and I decided that we were going to take a look around the town to pass the time before we went to sleep.
I went to the local bar to see if anyone had directions to Lescatie. This town seemed to be mamono friendly, so there was a good chance that someone here had been to Lescatie. I began asking around, and someone had something to say to me.
"You're looking to go to Lescatie? You're better off just throwing yourself at the nearest single mamono." The succubus barkeeper said to me.
"I'm married. Can't you tell?"
"Oh. I see. The two of you going on vacation? I don't blame you, Lescatie is a beautiful city."
"Yep." I had never been there.
"Alright. There's a nice centaur that runs a ferry service. They give rides to Lescatie every now and then. Just wait a couple days and they'll eventually start selling tickets. You can find the ferry service on Redd Street. Big sign on the building says "Ferry Service". You can't miss it."
"Thanks."
I left the bar, successful. I walked down to the street she was describing and found the building she was talking about. There was a massive line leading to the only person who appeared to be working, who looked to be the centaur the bartender was talking about. The line moved much slower than I anticipated, mostly because the centaur was a massive chatterbox that had to strike a conversation with every single person she saw.
"Hey! Adrian!"
I began looking around in shock, but then I realized I recognized that voice. A familiar looking unicorn was standing in a corner.
"Sharon! Thank Maou you're okay." I smiled and gestured for her to come over to me.
"I'm glad you're okay too! I was so worried! I looked everywhere for you when I got here. I was hoping you had the same idea as me, but it looks like you ran in the opposite direction of town. I never thought I would get attacked by the Order. They've been getting more and more aggressive recently. How have you been holding up?"
"Just trying to survive. We've been getting hunted like animals. I don't know what the Order wants with me."
"'We've'?"
"I met a dhampir on my way here. Her name is Saralyn. Both of us have been sticking together since we met. We even…" I decided to omit some details about me and Saralyn having sex.
"Oh, I know what the two of you did." Sharon smirks at me. "It's fine. You smelled claimed when we first met."
"Excuse me?"
"You had the scent of a mamono on you when you arrived at my house."
"But she said I was unclaimed?"
"Oh… uh… that's strange." Sharon looked confused. "Anyways, moving on, do the two of you need a place to stay? I got a comfy house here. I'm always willing to keep the two of you company."
"Thank you, but the two of us need to go to Lescatie. We came across some… let's just say, worrying stuff when we raided an Order outpost for food." I decided not to tell her about the prison.
"I see." Sharon pursed her lips. "Well, I'm always here in case you change your mind."
"Thanks." Sharon turned around, and left the building.
I finally reached the front of the line. I began to talk, but the very talkative centaur had other ideas.
"Oh wow! You look so handsome! Are you claimed? Oh wait. Uh… Forget I said that! Can I offer you and your wife a discount? You look like the type of guy to go on-"
"Stop. Are you selling rides to Lescatie right now?" I interrupted her.
The centaur looked a bit dejected that I interrupted her. "Oh. Yes, in two days. The people that usually give rides are taking some time off."
"Thank you."
I exited the building and went back to the hotel we were staying at. Entering our room, Saralyn was on the bed, completely naked. For some reason, she looked even more attractive than she did before. Shockingly, I noticed that her injuries were completely healed. There was a basket with pink fruits in it sitting on the bed with her.
"We're doing this again?"
"Come on. I missed last night. I need to make up for it! We're married now, you can't just expect a mamono to go a day without having sex. I was walking past so many married couples and I got all flustered…"
She then pushed the basket of pink fruits towards me. "Hungry? Eat these. They're called prisoner fruits. They taste absolutely amazing. I nearly ate the entire basket while you were gone. They also… changed me, to say the least. Notice anything different?"
"You look better." I smiled at her.
"Better is an understatement." She looked even sexier than she did before eating the fruits. This also made me realize, I was married to her. Sex counted as marriage for mamono. And I was completely fine with it. It felt natural, like we had been together already. I now understood why every person in the streets holding hands with a mamono looked so happy.
I took out one of the fruits from the basket and bit down into it. It was the sweetest thing I've ever tasted. I could get addicted to it. Needing even more, I quickly swallowed it and reached for another one.
"Good, right?"
After devouring about ten of the fruits, I began feeling very hot and bothered whenever I looked at Saralyn. She grinned back. "Ready?" she asked. I nodded.
Both of us completely stripped naked, Saralyn taking extra long, making an act out of undressing. It only aroused me further. She finally finished, and beckoned for me to come with a single finger.
My penis was already hard due to the amount of mamono mana that was in the prisoner fruits. I jumped onto the bed, and shoved my dick into Saralyn's mouth. She let out a muffled cry of surprise, but the way her eyes narrowed in pleasure told me that she was enjoying it. I began moving my hips back and forth as fast as I could.
After about thirty seconds, I felt that I was approaching my limit. Saralyn began bobbing her head up and down faster and faster, eager for what was about to happen. I could've sworn I heard her say "Give it to me!" but it was too muffled for me to be sure.
The floodgates opened, and I let out an enormous amount of semen into her mouth. My vision went purely white for a second. Saralyn let out a moan of pleasure and happiness as she released her mouth from my cock.
Strangely, I noticed that it was still hard. Must be the fruit. Saralyn gazed at me with a mixed expression of lust and love. She held her arms out to me for a hug and kiss, and I accepted without hesitating.
Both of our lips touched. Electricity ran through my head the moment we made contact. The dhampir's tongue practically tied itself with mine, coiling around it, circling it. It made the taste of prisoner fruit from earlier feel bland in comparison. Both of us stayed there for an indeterminable amount of time. As far as I was concerned, Saralyn was the only other person in the world.
Eventually, she withdrew herself. "You know what happens next, right?" she said breathlessly. She lied on her back, and presented her womanhood to me. I slowly slid myself into her, Saralyn letting out a very loud cry of happiness.
On my knees, I began thrusting back and forth into her, and out of her. Both of us let out moans and grunts of pleasure. "I love you." Saralyn managed to gasp out in between moans.
"I do too." I said.
Saralyn looked like she was in heaven when I said that. She began thrusting upwards incredibly hard, rocketing pleasure throughout my entire body. Eventually I couldn't take any more of it, and with a loud cry, I released inside her.
"Ahhhhhhhh…" she breathed out. "You don't even know how good that felt… How about I repay you?"
I nodded, eager to continue. We had started at around mid afternoon, and by the time we finished, it was mid afternoon, again.
Chapter 6b: Angels of Fear, Monsters of LoveOutskirts of Aperia
Cassiel stared blankly at the map in front of her, deep in thought. She thought about the bridge. She thought about the farms being consumed by flames. She thought about everyone who died that day. Raniel was speaking about another mission given to her by the Matriarch herself, but she wasn't exactly listening. She picked up something about a political assassination, but nothing else.
"Cassiel." A voice spoke to her. "Are you feeling remorseful?"
Cassiel immediately snapped out of her tuned-out state, and began looking around the room. Or rather, where the room was originally. The map room with the team's war trophies and large table were gone, replaced by inky black darkness. The only thing she could make out was what looked like a dark angel, but with six wings. Her dark skin looked soft and silky, her white hair flowing over it. She wore a more elegant version of the clothing Cassiel had seen dark priests wear.
"Who are you?! Where are we?!" Cassiel shouted into the darkness.
"I am the one you call, the 'Fallen God'. You think of me as your enemy but all I want is for you to be happy. We're in your own mind right now."
"I have nothing to say to you. You're just as bad as the Order." The one thing the Matriarch and the Chief God could agree on was that the Fallen God was an enemy.
"You don't have to do this, you know. Your Matriarch has been filling you with false information about me. I've heard your wishes, your desires. You hate what you've been forced to participate in, right?"
"It's for the greater good." Cassiel remembered Ophelia's words.
"You know, you remind me of someone I saved before. Her name was Sasha Fullmoon. She hated what she was doing for the Order, and I set her free. She loves me, but more importantly, she loves her husband. You just need to admit that you want out, just like she did."
"I'm not becoming one of your puppets. I am an angel, not some sex-crazed monster."
"Just like her… I guess I'm going to have to do this the hard way. Just sit back and don't resist the feelings, it will make it easier."
Cassiel's body immediately began heating up. It didn't feel unpleasant, it felt good, in fact. Cassiel began gasping in shock at how hot her body got.
"There, there. It will be over soon. You won't have to-"
"FALLEN GOD!" Another disembodied voice cried out. "DO NOT TOUCH MY SUBORDINATE."
"Oh. It's you. Well Cassiel, just remember my offer. You can stop this any time you want." The Fallen God vanished. In her place stood no other than Ophelia, the Matriarch.
"She won't get her hands on you ever again, Cassiel. I promise that. In the meantime, your commander is calling for you. You'd best start paying attention…" Ophelia promised. The darkness began to fade away...
"CASSIEL!" Raniel yelled, wanting to get her subordinate's attention. The angel quickly snapped out of her vision and looked at her commander. The darkness had vanished, leaving the map room as she remembered it. "Yes, commander?" Raniel shook her head, looking rather displeased at her subordinate's distraction.
"What were our orders?" Nuriel and Ophaniel began snickering at the recruit's misfortune. They knew she didn't pick up a word of what their commander was saying.
"Um…"
"The twin priests of Arcani, A HIGH RANKED COUNTRY OF THE FAITHFUL," Raniel raised her voice suddenly to emphasize her point, "Are going to be giving a speech in a couple days. Just like Ophelia. Do you know what the speech is about?!" Raniel angrily shouted.
"Fuck's sake, you don't have to ye-"
"Ever since the bridge, you've been getting increasingly harder to get through. I understand that there were innocent civilians on that bridge, but you need to get over it. Everyone else did. Wanna know how? It was unavoidable! The bridge needed to fall, and there would always be people on it. It. Had. To. Be. DONE!"
"It's not just about the bridge..."
"Anyways, we're going to assassinate Henry and Audrey Serrano. Both of them are part of the council of The Faithful, so there's going to be a lot of security. That includes angels and valkyries that still serve the Chief God. Cassiel, are you listening to me?"
Cassiel nodded back at Raniel.
"Good. I want you to know that the twin priests of Arcani have been embezzling funds dedicated to helping the civilians of Arcani. You know, building orphanages, homeless shelters, creating jobs, lovely stuff like that. Exploiting the common folk. Does that remind you of anyone?"
Cassiel remembered. Priest Noscrim. The true ruler of pre-mamono realm Lescatie. He had vanished shortly after the nation fell to Druella. A couple years later, he orchestrated an assassination on the king and queen of Aperia, later reappearing in one of Aperia's allied countries, Aerokon, intending to overthrow it. The Matriarch had sent her most trusted and experienced team to stop the usurper, and they had succeeded.
"They're just like Priest Noscrim." Cassiel responded. This, she could understand. The thought of becoming a political assassin on top of already being part of what was essentially a terrorist group unnerved her, but if they deserved it…
"I see. We're going to kill them?"
"That's right." Raniel reaffirmed.
"Alright!" Cassiel put on her best smile. This is what she signed up for. Putting corrupt priests six feet under.
"Nice to see you're finally in the mood. I remember why I recruited you now. So, what methods would be the most effective?"
Lescatie
Druella sat atop her throne in her castle, pondering over the events of the past few days. Ichoriya, a major supplier city for the Order, had its main bridge destroyed and its fields obliterated by a wildfire. A mere two days later, the Matriarch of Aperia, Ophelia, had declared war on the leadership of the Order. This was no coincidence; Ophelia had clearly taken advantage of the situation. Diplomat Castor and his wife had even mentioned that Ophelia was going to declare war no matter what, during their failed attempt at diplomacy.
Druella wanted to stop all of the bloodshed. She wanted nothing more than to march over to Aperia with her army and convert it into a mamono realm. It was in her blood to despise unnecessary death and violence. Lescatie's military could intervene in battles when they could, but they couldn't be everywhere at once.
The door to her throne room opened, and two of her most trusted heroes, Primera Concerto and Mimil Miltie walked in. She had remembered that she had sent the two as spies to Aperia to gather what information they could on Ophelia's plans.
"Good morning, the two of you. What do you think is going with Ophelia?"
Primera spoke first. "It appears that she is going to fight the war on the Order… indirectly, to say the least. She has been organizing groups of her elite soldiers to sabotage points of interest. We speculated that she is the one who destroyed the fields and the bridge in Ichoriya."
"How… dishonorable of her. Still, there's a chance that it could just be her taking advantage of the situation. Opportunistic warmongers aren't rare in this day and age."
"Another thing." Mimil added on. "While we were in Aperia, she appeared to be talking to someone. She grew incredibly angry at one point. Afterwards, she spotted us, and we had to bail. From what we could gather, she had a close friend who had feelings for her… that she didn't reciprocate."
"Fascinating." Druella's interest piqued. She had never seen a normal human be this close to a high ranking angel. Her mind began teeming with lewd thoughts. The two of them would be so happy together if Ophelia just turned dark and let out all of those repressed feelings for him. She knew another seraphim that had turned dark for a human she was watching. They had a mansion in Pandemonium, and three kids already.
"What happened to him? You said 'had'."
The short witch's face expression became downcast. "She said she's moved on. I believe that he's passed away."
Druella looked down. This was the exact thing that she wanted to stop.
"Anything else?"
"We talked to the local populace, apparently she also cared deeply for the late king and queen of Aperia. About thirty years ago, right after you took over Lescatie, they were killed in a surprise attack by the Order. They had a son who Ophelia acted as an adoptive mother for as well. Recently, he vanished. Nobody has been able to find him."
Druella pondered the information. It was making her upset; all the chances for potential mamono-human couples were lost.
"Primera and Mimil, thank you for this information. Go be with Elt; I'm sure the subject matter of your trip has made you quite sad as well."
Primera and Mimil both shared an expression of intense excitement, happiness and lust at her last order. Both of them began arguing about who would get to go first with him as they raced each other out of the throne room.
Druella sighed. She could use some time with her husband as well. Getting up from her throne, she stretched her wings, arms, legs, and tail. Gathering her magic, she teleported to her personal chambers.