“Uhm… Hello your Goddess-ness… How do I even address a Goddess?”

Amelia sat on her bed, eyes closed, focusing on her connection to Verita.

“I… uh… I don’t really have anything important to tell you. I’m just sorta sitting here again. But I did promise myself I’d pray to you once per day unless prevented from doing so for reasons outside of my control. So… here I am…”

Amelia scratched her elbow, fidgeting nervously.

“Anyway, I’m still too scared to try casting the evil spell that Lott told me to learn. I feel it there, in my mind, just waiting to be cast, but I don’t exactly know what it’ll do. I mean, I do, kinda. It hastens my enemies’ inevitable decay into entropy, turning them to dust. But that’s sorta vague, and I’m pretty sure I’d get into trouble if I accidentally dusted the walls of my cell. I think the sloth demon wants me to try it out, but I’ll exercise my own judgement in this case. I suspect he’s got a biased point of view.”

Amelia turned to look at Mister Shadow, sitting on her chair near the window, watching her with unblinking eyes. He looked bored, but that was nothing new, he always looked bored.

“I made an interesting observation. When I focus on the spell’s shape, I feel that the spell wants to draw power from an outside source. When I think about that source, I feel a connection to a divine power that is not you. The power feels… I think it’s Occulith! This is a divine spell, granted by a Demon Lord. I didn’t know that was possible. And even stranger, he’s freely offering his power to one of the Chosen. Aren’t you guys like… enemies?”

Amelia waited, but she only felt reassurance through her connection to Verita. The Goddess offered no answers, but it didn’t feel like She was outraged by the idea of Amelia wielding power granted by a Demon Lord.

“Anyway, I got some of the guards to bring me a divine magic spellbook to try out. It was a book dedicated to Thule and it was full of Thule stuff. You know, beauty glamours, calming spells… stuff like that. I did find some healing spells in there though, but when I tried to memorize the shape, I felt a block. No matter what I tried, the shape wouldn’t stick in my mind. As soon as I looked away from the page, I forgot it. It was like holding onto sand with my bare hands. I think Thule doesn’t want me to wield his power. It’s probably because I’m yours, right?”

Amelia waited in silence. Still focusing on her connection. She got a vague feeling of confirmation.

“So in that case, I guess I need a Verita spellbook, don’t I? I asked for one, but they couldn’t find one for me. It’s a shame, because having some basic healing magic would be helpful. If I’d been able heal, I could have prevented that whole nasty scene with Lily in the temple. Sorry for that, by the way…”

Amelia knew she was rambling again. She felt like a child, asking mommy for a favour. She took a deep breath and refocused herself on what she actually wanted to ask.

“So, this is just a crazy thought, and I hope it’s not too impetuous for me to ask, but I don’t suppose you could like… divine intervention that knowledge into my head? If you’re already willing to grant me the mana for that spell once I know it, then maybe you could teach the spell itself to me too?”

There was a pause. A hesitation. A feeling of foreboding. And then finally, there was a question. It felt like Verita was asking, “Are you sure you want me to do this?”

“If it won’t kill me… or permanently damage me… then yes please.”

Amelia’s vision went black. Her hearing fell silent. She had no sense of her body anymore. She was a weightless, bodyless soul, floating in the void. A shape appeared in her mind, bypassing her eyes entirely. The shape was bright, too bright for her eyes if she’d been using them. It burned! Oh Goddess it burned! Amelia held on for as long as she could, focusing on the shape, trying not to resist the agony, to allow it to burn her if that was what it wanted. Finally, after what felt like hours, the shape left her vision, and everything went dark.

When Amelia woke up, she understood.

She opened her eyes, back on her bed once again. It was still morning when she started praying to Verita, but now, stars and moonlight shined in through the window. She’d spent the entire day unconscious. The Saintess massaged her throbbing temples. Her headache was even worse than the one she had after studying the Black Book for the first time.

“Ugh… Ffff-freckles,” she groaned. “I know I shouldn’t complain, you did try to warn me. Now I see why most of your followers try to learn their spells from a book, rather than directly from you. But thanks, I think it’ll be worth the pain.”

Amelia felt a new spell waiting in her mind, ready to be cast. She felt no connection to Verita when she focused on the spell, but she soon realized that she was already connected to the Goddess, and on a much deeper level than she was with Occulith. It was reassuring. The Demon Lord could grant her a spell, but it was clear that she belonged to Verita alone.

Compared to the absurdly powerful demonic spell, Verita’s newly shared spell felt small and weak. That was probably for the best. Amelia didn’t want to blow herself up, self-immolate in divine fire, or whatever happened when she messed up while channeling divine magic.

“I’m going to test it, if that’s okay with you…”

By definition, a healing spell needed something to heal. Amelia was treated well, but she was still a technically a prisoner, so she wasn’t allowed anything sharp to poke herself with. She’d have to find another way to damage herself. She stood up, faced her bed and hiked her robe up to her knee.

“Don’t laugh,” she mumbled in the general direction of the sloth demon. He never laughed, but she still felt a bit self conscious in his presence.

Amelia drew her leg back, and kicked the bed as hard as she could, impacting the wooden frame with her shin.

“Mother f-word-ing fluffy pancake batter!” Amelia hissed.

The Saintess limped over and sat on her bed again, massaging her sore shin. She could see a line of dark red under her skin. Yep, that was going to be a bruise.

“Okay, let’s try this out.”

Amelia called the spell into her mind and took a deep breath. Instead of pulling mana from inside herself like an arcane caster, she drew a thin little trickle of mana through her connection to Verita. From that point onward, it worked the same as arcane magic. She directed the flow of mana, and tried to shape it inside herself, mimicking the spell shape she’d been granted as best as she could.

Almost immediately, she lost control and the spell collapsed. The Goddess’ mana dissipated into her body, giving her a mildly painful tingle in her chest.

“Ugh!”

It seemed miscasting a small spell wasn’t too bad, but what if she screwed up casting the evil demon spell? Occulith’s spell required a truly ridiculous amount of mana from her demonic patron. She’d explode if she miscast that one…

“Thanks for giving me a weak spell to start with Verita. That was wise.”

Amelia tried again. This time she formed a mostly correct shape and pushed the completed spell to her palm causing her hand to glow faintly. When she tried to move her palm to her leg, her concentration lapsed, and the spell collapsed again. The glow in her hand vanished and she felt the same mildly painful tingle as before, this time, in her hand.

“Oh crackers!” Amelia groaned in frustration.

Okay, attempt number three. Amelia shaped the spell and pushed it to her palm again. This time she held the spell firmly in her mind, struggling to keep it in the right shape. It was difficult, like trying to grasp onto a squirming slippery fish underwater. She managed to hold on long enough to bring her hand to her leg and directed the spell’s magic into the bruised shin.

Once the spell left her hand and started working, it became much easier to maintain it. Unlike before, when it was crazy-difficult to keep it stable, the spell seemed to be “stickier” while she channeled it. She couldn’t easily modify it’s shape anymore, but she also didn’t need to spend much effort to keep it in its current shape either.

Amelia grinned like a madwoman, triumphantly watching her bruise vanish and feeling her pain go away. It took about half a minute to heal the bruise completely. She was pretty sure it would have gone faster if she’d been able to control the mana better, and more perfectly mimic the shape in her mind, but it was a good start.

A lump of dread formed in her stomach. She was going to have to practice this. She was going to have to practice this until she could do it reliably in the middle of a crisis. Amelia stood, hiked up her robe, and brought her leg back. With a reluctant groan, she kicked the bed again, as hard as she could.

“Ow! Son of a negligent mother!”

A massive forest drake lumbered through the woods, taking bites from the low hanging tree branches as it walked by. It was pulling a severely overloaded wagon that creaked ominously every time it went over a bump in the thin cart trail. It was followed by a mob of villagers, nervously peering between the forest trees, on the lookout for a demonic ambush.

After an hour’s march, they reached the main road to Befield, wide enough for two carts to pass each other easily. This road connected a whole line of tiny villages to the larger town. With the smoother, wider road, the wagon was able to move a little faster, at a brisk walking speed rather than a crawl.

Lily was bored out of her mind. The wagon was so slow. She zipped around the woods, killing every animal she could see with her new toy sword. She didn’t bother to eat her kills, the amount of essence she gained from a mere animal was barely even noticeable now. It seemed the denser she got, the more she had to eat to increase that density.

She brought the animal meat to the humans instead. They had a lot of mouths to feed, and she overheard how worried they were about supplies. After four hours of hunting, they had enough wolf, direwolf, bear, deer, and rabbit meat to last them several days.

The toy sword had its merits and its drawbacks. The biggest merit was the added reach. She could decapitate a creature in a single swing without getting bitten in return. The downside was that it was duller than her claws, less effective at tearing through thick direwolf hide. It also got stuck on trees. A lot. Lily was able to cut through the thinner trees, but the blade got stuck inside the thicker ones and had to be pried out. Perhaps a dense forest wasn’t the best place to be swinging around a seven foot greatsword.

The caravan kept going until late evening, when they decided they were close enough to reach Befield by nightfall tomorrow. The humans set up a large fire pit and spit roasted two of the deer Lily caught them. They skinned and salted her other catches.

The meat took over an hour to roast, and by the time it was done, the humans were salivating at the smell. Lily was offered a bit of the cooked venison. She liked how the fat melted inside the meat, making it tender and soft, but it was almost too soft, and the lack of a bloody flavour was disappointing. It was close, but she decided she liked the raw meat slightly better.

While dinner was being served, one of the humans, a rotund man with a bushy moustache, opened a cask of ale he’d scavenged from the basement of the tavern. The bartender was dead, so he couldn’t object to the theft. The man passed out small cups of ale. He didn’t have much, but he made sure every adult got at least a small cup. Lily was also given a cup full.

This, she liked. According to the man, it was a type of dark ale, a dwarven stout. It was thick, bitter, black in colour, and had a smoky aftertaste. It reminded Lily of the coffee a bit, but it was even tastier. It was liquid darkness and fire, perfect for a fire-friendly demoness. She memorized the name, Kroagom’s Mountain Brew.

She drank her cup quickly, and was given a second cup full, which she also drank quickly. Unfortunately, by that point, the cask of ale was empty, so she couldn’t drink any more. Two cups weren’t enough to get her drunk unfortunately, so she wouldn’t have the chance to feel what it was like. She suspected she might be immune to alcohol anyway. According to Amelia, alcohol was a mild poison, and she was pretty much immune to every type of poison or venom she’d been exposed to so far.

After dinner, while everyone was sitting around the fire, Eric sang a song about bravery and valour to lift everyone's spirits. This song had words. It was about Sir Okrem, an orcish warrior from the Kingdom of Ryth. Apparently, the Aldmerian Empire wasn’t the only major power on the continent. Sir Okrem was Judicast’s Chosen, and it was apparently his deeds that inspired the formation of the Inquisition and their demon hunting ways. According to the song, he died a glorious death 200 years ago, charging forward into a cave known as the Hellmouth with an army at his back, and fighting an endless tide of demons.

Some of the townspeople were giving Lily nervous glances. She tried to copy Amelia’s ‘friendly reassuring smile’ when she returned their glances, with limited success. They were probably worried about whether she’d take offence to a song about demon slaying. She didn’t. She was a demon slayer too, after all.

When the song was over and Eric was packing away his lute, Lily walked up to him and whispered in his ear, “Nice song. I’m horny, I want to play with you again.”

“I suppose I don’t get a choice this time either?” Eric said, his annoyance was obvious.

Lily was confused, “You didn’t say no last time.”

“You would have killed me if I’d refused,” Eric replied. There was clearly some bitterness in his voice. He was acting a bit bolder now. He probably realized Lily was more tolerant of insolence than an average demon.

Lily tapped a claw on her chin. She hadn’t really thought about how she’d respond to refusal. “No, I’d have threatened to kill you, and scared you until you said yes. If you still said no after being scared, then I’d have left you alone and found another man to scare into saying yes.”

“Yeah, that’s not exactly consensual. Even if you didn’t plan on carrying out your threat, you were still giving me a choice between submission and death.”

“That’s still a choice,” Lily replied.

Eric didn’t say anything, he just frowned at Lily.

“Ugh fine…” Lily groaned. “Do you want a blowjob right now, yes or no? There will be no negative consequences for refusal. You will not be harmed either way.”

Eric’s face went completely red, “A blow…?” he mumbled nervously, obviously worried he misheard the demoness.

“It’s when I put your dick in my mouth and suck it until you cum. I’ve been told it feels good. Just like having your pussy licked, but for men.” Lily explained. Eric’s face went even redder.

“Uh… okay,” He said quietly. His eyes suddenly shot wide with panic, “Wait! You’re not going to bite it off or something, are you?”

“No,” Lily smirked. “I’m going to make you feel good, and then you’ll do the same for me again.”

Eric nodded nervously, “Can we… uh… go somewhere private?”

“We can go deep into the woods.”

Eric stared nervously into the impenetrable gloom between the trees. Lily guessed his concern, “I'm the most dangerous predator in these woods. I have very sharp senses and perfect night vision. Nothing is going to sneak up on us.”

“Oh, okay, good.”

Lily took Eric’s hand in her claw and led the young man into the darkness.

The pair crunched through the forest and stopped a few hundred feet away from the campsite. The murmured conversations of the villagers sounded distant and muffled by the dense foliage. When she deemed they were far enough away to avoid discovery, Lily grabbed Eric by the shoulders and pushed his back against a nearby tree trunk.

The demoness pushed a knee between Eric’s thighs, and pressed her chest against his. She looked into his eyes, and gently kissed him.

“Take off your pants,” she whispered, holding up her claws and wiggling her sharp claw tips, “I can’t do buttons.”

Eric complied. He nervously unbuttoned his trousers, hooked his thumbs into his underpants, and slid both down to his ankles. Lily gently kissed his lips again, and slid down his body, kneeling in front of his crotch.

A penis. A dick. A cock. A gentleman sausage. A one eyed spitting dragon. There were a lot of funny names for this strange creature dangling in front of her face. Lily learned a bunch of them while eavesdropping on customers at the tavern. Eric wasn’t erect yet, so his pussy-destroyer was drooping sadly. Lily knew how to cheer it up though.

Lily gently kissed the cockhead and took it into her mouth. She slid her tongue along the underside as she took it in deeper, until his pubic hair tickled her nose. As she gently sucked, and teased it with her tongue, the cock quickly started growing inside her mouth.

Though she’d never been with a male partner before, Lily was no stranger to the taste and smell of gentleman sausages. She’d eaten plenty of men after all. She’d always liked the smell and taste down there. It was like the smell of sweat, but much more concentrated. It was the scent of sex, of manliness. It was magnificent, she could stay down here forever.

Lily gently bobbed her head along Eric’s length, feeling his cock grow harder in her mouth. The sensation of a hard cock in her mouth was new. The dead bodies had all been soft. As Eric reached his full length, Lily realized she couldn’t take him all the way to the base anymore. Her mouth alone wasn’t deep enough to hold his entire length.

It was time for the ‘advanced technique’ that Candy the succubus told her about. Taking a deep breath, and relaxing her throat, she pushed deeper, swallowing the cock until she felt Eric’s hair tickling her nose again.

“Wow…” Eric groaned with pleasure, gently placing a hand on Lily’s head.

As the cock brushed the back of her throat, Lily’s pussy started to heat up. Candy told her that mortal women often have trouble with the ‘deepthroating’ technique because it causes an untrained throat to gag. Obviously, lust demons would never have such a weakness. Instead of a gag reflex, the back of a succubus’ throat is an erogenous zone. Apparently, Lily inherited her succubus mom’s ‘throat clit’ response.

Lily gently slid her lips along Eric’s shaft, alternating between teasing the head with her tongue and swallowing it as deep as she could into her throat. After barely a minute of this, Eric’s cock began to swell even further, his legs straightened, and he let out another groan of pleasure. Lily quickly slid the cock out of her throat, and gently sucked on the head. Eric’s cock twitched, and his cum gushed into her mouth. Lily kept her lips sealed around the head, making sure that not even a drop of cum escaped. According to Candy, good girls always swallow.

When Eric was spent, Lily sucked the last few drops clean from his ‘bitch breaker’. She slid back and let the softening cock slip out of her mouth. She closed her eyes, and savored the novel taste of cum. It was… a confusing taste.

Subjectively, it was beyond compare. This was the tastiest thing she’d ever had in her mouth. Ever! Taster than any meat she’d eaten, tastier than any treat Amelia had given her. It was glorious! She eyed Eric’s satisfied cock with hunger, and desperately wanted to earn herself another mouthful as soon as possible.

But, objectively, if she tried to ignore the source and evaluate it only as a food, it was alright but nothing special. For some reason, the fact that she’d milked it out of a cock was what made it delicious. Knowing where it came from subconsciously influenced how she perceived the taste. This was probably another weird succubus instinct.

“Wow…” Eric said breathlessly. “That was… that was really good. I’ve never had a girl… you know…”

Lily snapped out of her blissful daze and swallowed the load. “Suck you off?” She finished his sentence.

“Yeah.”

“First time for me too,” Lily said, licking her lips. “Never gave a blowjob before.”

“Really? It was incredible. You’re a natural.”

“I’m part succubus,” Lily said proudly.

Lily stood again and brushed off her knees. She pressed herself against the man again and gently nibbled on his ear.

“Your turn,” Lily whispered, grabbing Eric’s shoulder and gently pushing downwards.

Eric quickly pulled up his trousers and dropped to his knees. Lily lifted her skirt and pressed his face against her soaking pussy again.

“Make me cum while you recover, and I’ll suck you again when you’re ready,” she said, biting her lip. Eric, the good boy that he was, hadn’t wasted any time. His tongue was already sliding along the length of her slit.

They continued until well past midnight. Eric came three times before he was fully spent, Lily came on his tongue six times. She could have kept going, but they stopped once Eric complained that his jaw was too sore to continue.

Amelia watched another sunset out her window.

It had been an entire day and night since Verita taught her the healing spell. Once she woke up, she spent nearly the entire day smashing her shin against the bed and repairing herself, over and over again. She’d made excellent progress at learning to control the Goddess’ mana, but she was done for now, she needed a break. Since she wasn’t using her own mana, she didn’t have to worry about physical mana drain, but she could still suffer from mental fatigue. Not to mention that she was probably going to have some sort of long term trauma about bed frames from now on.

The silence of the late evening was suddenly broken. She heard screams and shouting in the distance. There were other sounds too, roars and screeches that couldn’t possibly be human.

Seconds later, men were running down the hall, passing by her door, rushing to look out the windows and find out what was going on. Minutes later, the men were organizing themselves in the courtyard outside, strapping themselves into armour, getting ready for serious battle. Nobody had stopped by her room to tell her what was happening, but she could guess it wasn’t good.

Before the men were ready, a small gaggle of little red men, wielding spears, charged into the courtyard, engaging with the guards.

“Sodomize!” One of the red men screeched out in infernal as he charged. These were demons? Where did they come from?

The guards outnumbered the demons, and easily cut them apart, but more were coming.

A lot more.

The sounds of battle were ringing out across the entire town now. It was an attack.