The Pillaging of an Empire

by Amanda Clover

  Tania heard someone be sick behind her, but paid it no mind. She stepped into the room, staring in shock. The amulet around her neck weighed heavily against her chest and glowed fiercely against the unholy rites worked within the room. She inhaled, then coughed, gagging.

  “What was done in here?” Lorik breathed. “What did this to them?”

  “Demons,” Starrik said grimly. The old warhorse looked around the room with a grim certainty. “A ritual gone wrong, I’d say.”

  “No,” said Tania.

  Starrik turned towards her. “No?”

  “No,” Tania repeated as she knelt beside one of the circles. Careful not to let her robe touch the blood on the floor she brushed her fingers across the ill designs, hissing as a spark of latent power snapped against her hand. She scowled, rubbing her hand. “They succeeded. They summoned one… two… three demons,” she said softly.

  “Gods,” Lorik breathed in horror.

  “What manner of fiend?” Starrik demanded.

  Tania rose slowly. She gingerly crossed the room and to the pulpit where the dark volume lay open. She scanned the pages carefully, frowning deeply. “They were… greater demons,” she said. She plucked at the tattered pages to turn them. “A demon of the fourth realm… lust. The third, a gluttony demon of… some kind and…” She squinted. “I can’t make out the rest.”

  “You’re sure?” Starrik growled.

  Tania pushed her glasses back up her nose. “Positive.”

  Starrik nodded slowly as he looked about the room. “Right,” he said grimly. “Everyone! Out of the room. We’ll head back to the keep.”

  Tania raised her head, blinking from behind her glasses. “What?”

  “If it’s demons in force we face then we’ll need the Red Mages to handle them.”

  “Are you mad!?” Tania gasped.

  Starrik stopped. He turned slowly towards her, his gimlet eyes hard through the dark slit of his visor. “Priestess?”

  “We can’t wait for the Red Mages,” she said in shock. “You know how long it takes them to do anything! We have to find these demons now! Look!” She gestured at the bloody marks in the floor. “The rituals got out of hand. The blood is still somewhat fresh! They couldn’t have gotten far. The longer a demon is left in the material realm, the stronger it will grow as it finds more thralls and corrupts others. We have to take them before they can!”

  “Have you fought demons before, priestess?” Starrik said, his voice a rumble. “I have. I was with the Rose Knights during the battle of Candis Ridge. I’ve seen what a demon can do to a man unprepared. Aye, and to women as well. They’ll draw you in and suck out your soul, turn you into a plaything of their lusts before they cast you aside. And pray they do, priestess. For if they decide to keep you, it’s an eternity as their plaything in the infernal realms.”

  “Look!” Tania cried, gesturing about them. “It took all the village to summon them to the material world. And such high ranked creatures with an unskilled caster would leave them drained. The villagers barely had enough life force to pull them through. If they had, the demons wouldn’t have left. They’d be devouring the essence of the survivors. Now is the time!” She touched her chest. “I’ve read all about such demons. I’ve made a study of them. And with Oreth’s blessing, we can take them! I can take them while they’re weak and banish them.”

  “You’ll forgive my impertinence, priestess,” Starrik said blandly. “But you’re a fool.”

  Tania pursed her lips, her eyes flashing. “And you, sir knight, are a coward.”

  “Tania!” Lorik gasped.

  She didn’t hear. She marched down from the pulpit, glaring at the old knight. She faced him, hands on her hips. “If you haven’t the courage to face these creatures then I will!”

  She swept past the knight, marching out of the town hall and back into the light of day. She bristled in anger, marching down the steps and towards the horses. She grabbed hers, hauling herself into the saddle.

  “Tania!”

  She turned to see Lorik race out of the building. He caught the bridle of her horse. “Tania! Please. Don’t do this. Captain Starrik knows what he’s talking about. It’s too dangerous.”

  Tania scoffed. “For him? Maybe. But not for me.”

  “How will you even find them?” he asked breathlessly.

  She touched the hammer around her neck. “My amulet. It glows in the presence of evil. I can follow the demon’s trails with it and send them back. No problem.”

  “You can’t go alone.”

  “Come with me,” she said eagerly. “Come with me, and we’ll show your captain and the rest what we can do. The demons will still be weakened. Easy pickings. And if I banish three high ranked demons, I will become a high inquisitor on my first assignment.”

  “Tania… please…”

  Her eager smile fell. Her expression grew clouded. “You don’t think I can.”

  “Tania…”

  She yanked her hand from his. Her eyes flashed with anger. “Fine! Stay with your captain. I can do this myself. My faith is strong enough to banish these demons.”

  “Tania! Wait!”

  She didn’t. Her horse whinnied as she yanked the reins, spinning it about. Hooves clattered on the old stones of the dead village, the priestess riding away from him and towards the woods. She grasped her amulet, her golden ring cold around her finger. A flash of regret seared through her like a blade. But then she felt the heavy glow of her amulet, and she steeled herself, riding on and into the brush. Following the trail of the demon’s presence.

  The Thing in the Barn

  Lizzie opened the door with a creak and wearily dragged her bucket towards the well. Her plain dress rustled over the overgrown grass, her brown hair tied back in a braid that snaked down her back to dangle and bounce in her wake.

  She grunted, hoisting the bucket to the rim and sighed, wiping her brow. She looked around the space behind the farm mournfully. Her father, bless his heart, hadn’t been able to do much work back there of late. He’d left a day ago with the family’s horse, bringing their produce to market, and thereby leaving her to keep the place.

  Lizzie shivered. She didn’t much like it, but they had little choice. Her mother was dead and her father had no sons. So it was up to him and her to run the farm on their own.

  She sighed, lowering the bucket into the well. Maybe she should take Vess Clark on his offer of marriage. Though there were rumours that he wasn’t entirely a gentleman. She frowned as the bucket hit the bottom of the well with a splash. She supposed it could be worse though…

  A crash had her spin around, gasp. She pressed a hand to her pounding heart, staring at the distant barn. Her pulse slowed, but the fingers of fear kept their hand around her chest, squeezing her. Nervously, she glanced about. But the forest offered little. The grim reality that she was alone seeped into her truly, then. And the danger.

  She was no fool. She knew that Istanov was dangerous these days. Tales reached even them of things that had awoken in the last few years. Rising out of dark places. Gertlings and wugs and other monsters once confined to children’s tales, now growing into a dark reality. She shook her head. Stop it! You’re just scaring yourself. There’s nothing. It’s probably nothing…

  Lizzie tried to believe those words as she warily crept towards the barn.

  The sound didn’t repeat. She noticed the bar door was ajar. They hadn’t had any animals for a while then, though they hoped to buy a cow soon. Did a fox get inside again? She carefully eased it open and took a wary step inside.

  It was dark within the barn. The scent of old hay and musty places reached her. She peered through the gloom, a sliver of light through the open door cutting a sharp line across the scattered hay and pens. She stepped deeper inside, touching a rail. Something sticky squished under her fingers. She gasped, yanking her hand back and peering at what now coated her fingers. “Ugh,” she murmured. Something… oozing and slimy. It warmed her palm, tingling against
her naked skin.

  Something moved. She caught it from the corner of her eye and spun about. One of the pens had been broken into. Warily she stepped nearer.

  “Hello?” she called.

  Gloop.

  Lizzie froze at the entrance of the pen. Something was there alright. And Something was the best she could describe it with. It was a greenish mass of slime, sitting in the middle of the cordoned off chamber. Faintly transparent, its mass rippled and shifted, always moving and jiggling. The sight for a moment stunned her. She didn’t get a chance to move before the mass rippled, and tentacles burst from it.

  Lizzie screamed, reeling back. But one of the slimy limbs grabbed her wrist, another her ankle. A third wrapped around her waist and pulled her into the pen. Her heels skidded on the ground as she was hauled relentlessly towards the waiting mass. She screamed as her foot caught something, sending her flying towards it.

  She struck the gooey mass full on, the slime rippling as it absorbed the impact, conforming to her curves and drawing her face against it. She shuddered as warmth spread through her wherever the slime rubbed against her. A feverish heat that sent tingles racing across her bare skin.

  She tried to pull back, but the slime pulled her tighter against it. Lizzie gasped as her clothes began to dissolve, eaten away by the slime now coating her front. “No! No no, please! Gods!” she screamed, panic tightening her chest. She thrashes against the rubbery body, even as her thick spun cottons dissolved. But every blow simply rippled through the slime’s form, useless. She shuddered but, to her relief, the slime did not eat away her skin.

  But the warmth was spreading.

  The limbs pulled her back, Lizzie’s head spinning as she was lifting into the air. What was left of her clothes fluttered away, leaving her utterly naked. Her head was swimming as that insidious warmth spread further across her. She shuddered, her nipples stiffening in the air, her pussy dampening with a strange arousal.

  Gloop.

  She saw more tendrils rising for her. She tried to pull away but the limbs held her fast, suspending her above the slimy mass. “N-no,” she moaned. “P-please. Don-n’t!”

  She arched as a limb stroked her slit, teasing along her labia. Her thighs slapped together at the sudden stab of sweet sensitivity from her loins. “Oh!” she gasped as the tendril again teased along her pussy lips, stroking, teasing open her moistening cunt. “Oh. That… that’s… Nnnn!”

  The tendril slipped inside.

  Lizzie squealed, arching, panting. Oh gods. Oh gods! It wasn’t… how… this shouldn’t feel so good! As that slimy limb writhed into her sensitive cunt her inner walls clamped down on it, massaging the prehensile limb as it slithered around within her.

  The peasant girl panted, gasped. Her generous breasts heaved with frantic breaths. She still had enough sense to know this wasn’t right. To know that such a thing shouldn’t be so wonderfully pleasurable. To fear for a fate beyond being fucked by this creature.

  But that fear was harder to grasp. Washing away in a sea of hot pleasure. A feverish delight that sent her hips rocking against it. “No,” she moaned weakly. “No. Please. Don’t. I… I don’t… Mmph!”

  Her protest died as another tentacle, perhaps growing tired of her protests, slipped into her mouth. Her jaw opened wide as that limb slithered past her soft lips, her eyes widening with shock, then lidding with pleasure.

  As if her words had been all that had kept her from submitting, she began to sag in the grasp of the slime. The feverish heat spread through her more. Her sweat mingled with the oily slime that drenched her. Her long lashes fluttered. Her hips began to thrust, first tentatively, then faster. More eager. She moaned around the tentacle in her mouth, gasped as another slid into her tight backdoor, its slime easing it past her sudden tightening muscles and into a place she never imagined could give her pleasure.

  But oh how she was wrong.

  “Mmmmmrrrr,” she moaned, inarticulate in her pleasure as she rutted against the invading limbs. Her thoughts, her protests, all faded away, washed into oblivion by the sensations pounding through her. She panted, sucking at the limb in her mouth, her tongue writhing around it as she tasted more of the oozing juices. The slime dripped down her body, burning across her shapely form.

  The green mass below shuddered as if sensing her growing surrender. It slowly lowered her, settling her back atop its mass. Lizzie moaned as she reclined against the softness of the slime, her hips rolling as she fucked herself against those invading limbs. Her voice keening and gasping around the one in her mouth.

  Her orgasm grew closer. Panting, she fucked herself atop the slime more eagerly, bound to it, slickened in its juices as she neared her height. “Mrrr! Rrrr! Mrrrrroooooo!”

  She screamed, helpless, lost, as her orgasm ripped through her in a terrible ecstasy of joy. Her eyes rolled back, but she didn’t stop. The pleasure didn’t stop. She rutted more frantically against it. More eagerly. She couldn’t stop. Couldn’t think. Her mind was empty of anything but the pleasure of the slime. Of its oily limbs as they pounded into her pussy, ass, and mouth.

  She came again. Again. Drowning in slime and pleasure and her own pleasured juices. Her muffled screams echoed in the rafters of the barn as she sank deeper into the slime. As its surface slid over her, engulfing her in a thick warmth.

  Gloop.

  The First Foe

  Tania knew she was close when her amulet almost burned her fingers.

  She snatched back her fingers with a gasp. She didn’t know why she’d touched it. The weight of the amulet was plenty enough to tell her the demon was near. She was leading her horse, now. The animal’s flanks heaved, its head tossing with the rush of her flight through the forest and a growing unease. She felt slightly ashamed at that. She shouldn’t have run off so angrily. At least, she might have been able to convince Lorik to have come. But he’d just been so… so stupid! How could she do as the knights were? Holding back while waiting for aid from the mages. She could banish these demons. Her faith was strong enough to resist the creatures. And if the knights wouldn’t help, then she would do it herself. She would show them.

  Besides, a demon of the pits of lusts and gluttony were hardly the highest in the hierarchies of the hells. She was confident she could take those, and whatever the third creature was.

  She was making her way along a narrow hunting trail. The demon had been by here. That much even she could tell, with her basic wood lore. The bushes were shoved aside and a faint, slimy essence was on the leaves. She knew better than to touch them. A demon’s fluids were among their most corruptive tools. Some, like imps, injected theirs through stingers in the tails. Others, like succubi, used milk of their breasts or other… fluids. Tania felt herself blush a little. It would be a lie to say her studies of the demonic denizens were for entirely academic reasons. The illustrations in those books had been extraordinarily… vivid.

  Someone was singing.

  Tania blinked. It was one of those tuneless songs that were, nonetheless, quite beautiful. And the singer certainly had the voice for it. Tania turned her head, her amulet swinging with her like a lodestone, fairly quivering in the direction of the voice.

  Well.

  Tania tied up her horse to a dangling tree limb and made her way warily towards the singing. A path split off, and through the woods she saw a small farm. The singer was behind the house. A prayer of binding on her lips, Tania carefully crept about the side of the farmhouse and towards the backyard.

  Tania stopped, the spell turning to ashes on her lips as she saw the singer.

  The young woman had that curvy plumpness of a peasant’s daughter in the freshness of her youth. And there was plenty to see! The young woman was utterly naked, though she seemed to faintly shine, her jiggling breasts swaying, her hips swinging as she leaned against the lip of a well, softly humming to herself as she slowly rubbed her flawless skin with a kind of oil. The girl raised her head towards Tania, her lips curving upward in a smile.

&n
bsp; Tania stared. “H-hello?” the priestess said warily.

  The girl giggled, still moving her hands across her body, cupping her soft, jiggling breasts in her palms and squeezing those mouth-watering orbs against each other. Tania swallowed. Her tongue clove to the top of her mouth.

  “Are… what are you doing?” Tania gasped.

  The girl giggled again. One of her hands moved towards the priestess, finger crooking, beckoning Tania nearer. The girl’s other hand kept massaging her breast, circling the generous orb in slow, lazy, circles.

  Tania realized she’d taken a step nearer. She clutched her amulet tightly, the warmth spreading through her, banishing somewhat the strange allure of the girl. Tania’s eyes flicked warily about the clearing as, more cautiously, she approached.

  “What are you doing?” she asked more forcefully.

  The girl giggled. Her hands slid down her oily breasts, along her trim stomach and between her legs. Tania froze, her eyes widening in shock as the girl parted her thighs, baring her tight cunt. The girl moaned as she slid a finger inside herself, lazily masturbating before the priestess.

  Tania was no prude. But this was too much. Her face burned with a flush and she felt her own nipples harden against the tight fabric of her bra. Her eyes slid over the girl top to bottom, the shine of the oily slime covering her flashing in the wane sunlight. Her breasts. Her hips. Her plump ass settled on the rim of the well.

  The well…

  She barely realized it in time. Slimy green tentacles burst from the dark mouth of the well, shooting towards her. Tania yelped as the limbs snatched her by the waist, by her upper arm, dragging her towards the giggling girl with impossible strength

  “Fuck!” the priestess gasped as she was hauled through the air. The limb around her waist hissed, her thick spun robe dissolving where the limb grasped her waist and her arm. But she still had one free. Tania’s eyes flashed behind her glasses. She grabbed her amulet as it blazed with the Maker’s fury at the abominable creature, tearing the hammer idol from around her neck as she was hauled to the rim of the well. She grabbed the edge, fighting the pull as the slimy limbs tried to drag her down, down into the darkened pit. Something luminous and green was in there, pulsating with power, tentacles writhing, more rising, reaching for her.