The wagon travelled along, rocking as it went. It wasn’t the smoothest ride there ever was, but Mara could relax and enjoy it all the same. Just sitting there on the coach seat, leaning back and enjoying the ride.
She still couldn’t believe that dumb bitch had been stupid enough to believe her when she told Rita that she did not know how to horse ride or how to drive a horse and cart. I mean, she was a demon, a 347 year old fucking demon. Why on earth would she not have learnt how to manage a friggin horse at some point in such a lengthy lifespan.
True, she had not spent all of that time here on Exia, but she definitely spent at least half that amount of time on the material plane. And even if Rita did not know how old she was, it was still a natural assumption that she had lived a few hundred years at minimum, she was a demon after all. What a gullible fool!
But thanks to that, she had just acquired what was shaping up to be the best summoning she’d ever had so far. Her master was a naive twat that she could easily ‘handle’ and on her very first day on the material realm, she’d found herself such an interesting playmate.
The thing that most humans didn’t get about demons is that they are not inherently evil. They too are capable of emotions, love, heck even sacrifice. It’s just that their views and their lives are so vastly different from humans.
For one, they can only enter the material realm through summonings, which automatically force them into servitude to their summoner. Imagine being the slave of an inferior and more often than not unscrupulous human being! And this is the only way you can ‘live’ you life. Repeating this cycle over and over again. It’s little wonder demons have no love for the human race and any other enlightened capable of summoning for that matter.
The other thing that typically reflects rather negatively on demon-kind, is that most demons are simply bored and crave excitement. Imagine living for hundreds or thousands of years, and easily half that time or many times more than that, you spend in the netherworld as formless entities where there is absolutely sweet fuckall to do. Couple that with the already established disdain for human-kind and of course you have a recipe for entertainment seeking that would differ rather greatly from what humans consider to be acceptable.
In all honesty though, from everything Mara had seen in her time on Exia, she doubted humans were any more morally clean than the demons they so looked down upon. She suspected demons were just more honest about it.
One of the perks of such long lives is that you tend to develop an immunity to such bullshit as perceptions, and build up the ability to simply not give a fuck. It’s also probably why the older demons are more well known amongst humanity for being the most fearsome. It’s not that they’re any stronger or anything (although most of them are), but probably more that they have even more disdain for, and less tolerance of humanity and its bullshit. Oh and they’re probably even more bored.
She herself had not quite reached the level of depravity of some of those old timers, but she, like all demons, certainly had a penchant for seeking out entertainment. Which brings us to the boy sitting next to her on the coach seat, the one currently guiding the horse.
Aaron. To Mara, he was an enigma wrapped up in a mystery. In all her time on Exia, she had never seen a skill quite like the one he used at the start of last night's ‘festivities’. She couldn’t even be sure if what he used was a skill to begin with.
For one thing, demons are immune to almost all skills related in any way to mental manipulation. So no skill he used could affect her mind in any way. Yet what she had felt at that moment, it was like she was simply drawn to him, like he was the hottest stud alive. Which is funny, because demons don’t find humans attractive in general. Or it might be more precise to say they are mostly unaffected by the charisma stat in general, regardless of species.
For demons, attractiveness is usually measured in power. Powerful individuals regardless of race are attractive. Not some weak little boy that doesn’t seem to have a class above level five. Best guess anyway. This is why female demons are usually ‘hot’ by human standards simply for the purpose of being temptations to other species. Whereas male demons are usually grotesque by human standards, for the purpose of instilling fear in enemies. From one demon to another however, they simply don’t give much of a shit about appearance.
But she had genuinely found the boy unbelievably attractive at the time. She had of course ruled out something as mundane as a ridiculously high charisma stat. Just because demons didn’t find humans or their ‘charisma’ very attractive to begin with, it meant that even if the low level boy somehow magically got his charisma stat up to something truly ridiculous, like say a hundred, it would not have made all that much difference to how she perceived him. Definitely not the kind of effect she had felt at any rate.
So, still a total mystery.
“So, virgin boy”, Mara spoke to him in a playful tone, a far cry from her former more ‘bitchy’ tone she liked to normally use, “You gonna tell me yet what your class is?”
The boy shifted uncomfortably. He no longer reacted badly to being called a virgin, I mean after last night he wouldn’t be one anyway, so he obviously knew it was only in jest. Besides she now doubted he was one even before last night.
Mara couldn’t help notice that Rita who had been riding in front of them all this time, had slowed her horse down and dropped back to a point where she was almost riding next to them, upon hearing the start of this conversation. She of course pretended she wasn’t listening at all. Ha, poser!
“Come, on, you can at least tell me what level you are, or what your class does, even if you don’t want to name it. I myself am a level ten hunter demon.”
Aaron grumbled, “Fine!”
Mara couldn’t help but notice that Rita had given up the pretence all together at that, and was now looking straight at the two of them.
“My level is five. And my class, which I will not be naming, in part, because you would likely never have even heard of it, has a heavy focus on charisma related skills and also a bit of luck.”
Mara couldn’t help but frown at that, she had already ruled out charisma and now he was telling her that it was basically just that.
“Liar!”. Aaron looked surprised at her proclamation, as did Rita.
“I- I’m not lying, I’m quite serious.”
“Well the level five thing I can believe, you are way too weak to be any higher than that. But if you don’t want to tell me what your class is, since it would seem that it is indeed a rare class, that’s fine with me, I won’t push any further.”
“Again, I’m not lyin-”
Mara had already put one foot up on the coach seat and leaned her back against Aaron’s shoulder as a comfortable ‘body’ pillow, which seemed to shut him up mid sentence. She had a feeling he wasn’t really uncomfortable being this close to her (well while not having sex that is), but rather because it was directly under Rita’s gaze.
Mara quite enjoyed the look that was forming on her face. It was at first one of surprise at their apparent intimacy, but quickly morphed into a scowl. One that Rita clearly thought she was hiding, but was actually failing miserably at. She seems to be one of those girls that can’t hide their emotions, not for a lack of trying though.
Mara, chuckled inwardly, best summoning ever!
Mara decided to take things even further and placed her left hand on Aarons thigh, curling it inwards, more than a little dangerously close to his crotch. Aaron practically jumped at the sudden semi-sexual assault.
Of course Rita did not miss this little gesture, she had apparently been watching them like a hawk. Mara had been ready for this reaction and was already staring at Rita with a shit-eating grin on her face, when their eyes locked, the moment Rita looked their way.
Rita immediately looked away, her face a full shade or red brighter than before. Mara couldn’t tell whether she was embarrassed about having been caught staring at the two of them, or at Mara’s sexual gesture in the first place, but no matter which, it was funny as hell.
Mara couldn’t keep herself from chuckling out loud, “Girl you are way too easy!”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I have no idea what you mean”, Rita retorted rather flatly, her face as red as can be.
“Tell me, Aaron, what do you think about Rita?”
Aaron turned to Mara almost instantly, with a rather shocked expression, “Wh- What do you mean?”
Playing dumb hey. “It’s a simple question isn’t it?” Mara responded in kind, while trying to suppress another chuckle. “What do you think about her.”
Mara noticed that Rita’s head had drooped at this point, like she was literally trying to hide away in plain sight.
“Oh- Well- She’s-”, Aaron was fumbling for words much to Mara’s amusement. Aaron sighed, seemingly giving up. He then looked over to Rita with a serious expression, “I think she’s an incredibly strong person.”
This took Mara by surprise and startled Rita greatly, to the point that she nearly fell off her horse. Mara didn’t even know what to say to that, did the boy really have to go and ruin the fun with such a serious reply.
Aaron looked away from Rita, now really embarrassed at espousing something so seemingly cheesy. And unknown to the others, he even received a skill unlock for it called ‘cheesy lines’.
Skill: Cheesy lines Type: Passive Element: Divine Cost: N/A Description:
Only a haremest could espouse lines so cheesy that they would make others cringe, and yet when you say them, they are somehow powerful and profound. Effect:
Any cheesy lines you use will be taken more seriously by those around you.
The potency of this effect will increase with the level of this skill.
Wanting desperately to change the subject by this point, Aaron tried to turn the focus back on Mara, “So Mara, I’m afraid I don’t really know anything about demons. Could you perhaps explain to me some of the limitations or rules around your presence here?”
“Right… Your amnesia”, Mara rolled her eyes, still not bothering to leave his shoulder. She did not believe that bullshit amnesia story of his. This did however make her even more curious about him, as he certainly did have some monstrous gaps in his knowledge, there was no way he could fake not knowing these things as perfectly as he did. An enigma as always.
Regardless she indulged him with little resistance, “Well, as you know I am bound to the amulet”, she indicated towards the amulet that Rita had now taken to wearing around her neck. “I can come out of the amulet any time I want, provided I have the mana reserves needed to maintain my physical form. I also can’t really be more than about twenty kilometers away from it, my connection to the material realm would become too weak at that point and my soul would have to travel back to the amulet to reestablish it.”
Rita chimed in at this point, “She can pretty much sustain her form permanently off ambient mana alone. However any skills, or regeneration, or active exertions like combat, would drain her mana reserves very quickly and she’d be forced to return to the amulet until she’s recovered. While she’s inside the amulet, she does still retain most of her senses. So she could overhear a conversation for example.”
Mara watched as the scenery passed by, already bored with the conversation. She could appreciate the tranquil surroundings and lush greenery. It was at times like these, that she thought of the more turbulent times the world had known.
Mara strained her eyes into the distance. As a hunter class demon she had very good eyesight. “There’s a goblin, no- make that three of them.”
Rita was alerted almost immediately, “What are they doing?”
“Don’t know, can’t see well from this angle. They seem to be just hanging out near the side of the road.”
“Hmm.” Rita paused in thought. “It would be troublesome to go around them. Mara, I assume you should have no trouble dealing with a few goblins?”
“You don’t need to ask twice, I’ve been itching to stretch my legs a little.” Mara hopped down from the coach immediately and materialised her weapon. It was a spear. Made out of what would appear to be a green hued obsidian. Although the weapon wasn’t exactly made out of obsidian, being born of mana after all, it did basically have the same properties, minus the brittleness. An imitation if you will, and Mara liked to use it for things like deflecting spell projectiles or piercing magical barriers and armours with ease, given its obsidian like properties. Oh, that and impaling things of course.
The weapon had a large glowing green orb embedded near the base of the head and the blade itself curved around the orb, only on the one side, quite widely. Past the orb, it curved into a longer sharp tip, that was bladed on both sides. A truly otherworldly looking weapon.
Mara didn’t bother activating any of her stealth related skills and simply charged ahead at a fearsome speed. There was little use creeping up on the buggers with the horses making as much noise as they did just a little way back.
In no time flat she reached the goblins. Kicking up chunks of dirt as she strode powerfully forward, she had rammed her spear clean through one of them before the wind even had a chance to catch up. The other two simply stared as their companions blood sprayed across the field from the force of the strike.
The fearsome pale-skinned hunter then turned her attention to the next goblin. It barely had time to raise its sword before a bright flash of sunlight reflected off Mara’s metallic colored hair as she dashed across the gap and skewered the second goblin.
While the third had enough time to brace himself for a fight, it had become rather apparent to him that there was no fight to be had here at all. It simply slowly backed off, cowering in fear at having seen his companions butchered in a second or two.
Mara did not bother finishing him off just yet, she was a little drunk on the power, smelling its fear. She casually strode forward towards it with an evil grin plastered on her face, just enjoying the moment.
It was too much for the little goblin and it literally dropped its weapon and made a run for it. Mara burst into laughter, raised her spear and threw it rather casually. Despite the minimal effort apparently used, the spear arced through the air like a green lightning bolt, impacting the goblin straight through his chest and obliterating its small heart.
Mara raised her hand out and the spear dissolved from the goblins corpse and reformed in her hand once more, one of the advantages of your equipment and armaments being mana constructs.
She then turned to the human lying on the ground, that the three goblins had been hanging around. Mara could already tell from her senses that the young girl was already dead.
On the ground, lay the body of a young teenage girl. She was completely naked, lying face down in the dirt, in a sprawled out position. Her body was covered in cuts, blood and dirt, with one or two rather nasty stab wounds in her back having been the likely final cause of death.
No doubt the goblins had quite a bit of fun with her, promiscuous little buggers that they are. The girl had likely suffered greatly before her ultimate death.
Rita and Aaron finally arrived at the scene. When Rita saw the dead girl, she frowned and looked quite saddened. Aaron on the other hand looked like he was about to become ill.
He managed to blurt out a question regardless, “Is she-?”
“Dead?” Mara replied, “Yes. Quite.”
Aaron looked around at some of the dead goblins. “Did they-”
It seemed that once again, he couldn’t quite get the words out, so Mara helped him along, “Rape her? Yes. Goblins will fuck pretty much anything with a hole.” Mara actually enjoyed seeing how squeamish he was, he had seemed to turn another full shade greener with that last comment. One more thing she knew about him now, he has not seen much in the way of violence.
The boy was turning into even more of a mystery. If he lead a sheltered life you would expect him to have more resources and way more levels at his disposal than what he currently had. After all charisma based classes are usually held by merchants or nobles, due to their lines of work respectively. Everything was currently pointing in that direction. Yet he did not seem particularly refined or wealthy, just based on his mannerism alone. That was not something you could easily fake.
Then let’s not forget about what happened last night. Very few would be willing to fuck a demon, except for the most depraved. Demon’s held a very negative connotation in general when it came to humanity, not to mention the loss of faith that would occur from the ‘taboo’. Yet despite this, he had no hesitation laying with her and did not seem insane or depraved in any way that she could tell.
Not that demon’s were the golden standard for measuring depravity mind you, but still. Not only did he have sex with her, but his first act and something that he had done repeatedly, was to in fact kiss her. Who the heck kisses a demon!? That was the thing she truly couldn’t get her head around. Even if he was some kind of sexual deviant no human in his right mind would kiss a demon and actually mean it!
It was part of the reason she hadn’t skewered him on the spot, was aside from the skill he had used on her, which she hadn’t minded at all, it was ‘interesting’ after all. But she had also genuinely enjoyed the kissing, something that throughout her 347 year lifespan, she had very few chances to properly appreciate to date.
Mara was distracted from her own internal debate, when Rita came back from the wagon with a blanket and laid it over the dead girl to cover her up. Rita looked into the distance, still frowning. “There is a village nearby here, Goran village. It was actually on our path anyway. I think we should take the girl there. There’s nothing else out here after all, so she probably comes from there.”
Rita paused for a moment, a much darker look on her face this time, “I’m sure her parent would want her body back to get some closure, even in her current state.”
Rita then handed aaron a belt with some pouches on it, one of which was a holster carrying a dagger. “Here. I don’t know about your class or skills but I doubt they are very combat suited. Either way it’s probably better not to be completely unarmed right now, this place doesn’t seem very safe at the moment.” Rita herself already had a bow and a quiver of arrows strapped to her back.
She then approached one of the goblin corpses with a knife in her own in hand. She kneeled down next to it and started hacking away at one of its ears.
Aaron frowned, “What are you doing?”
“I’m cutting off their ears as proof of kill. You never know when a couple of goblin ears will earn you a little bit of coin, or in this case…” She paused for a moment, looking into the distance at what Aaron could only assume was the direction of the village, “...perhaps a bit of favour.”
She then went about resuming her gruesome task, although she looked quite unhappy about it. It seemed she was not used to doing things like this.
Mara had, in the meantime, finished wrapping up the dead girls body and loading her into the back of the wagon.
Once Rita had collected all six ears, the three of them once more set off on their way, this time for Goran village.