Heretic Spellblade 3

by Robertson, K. D.

  “Then you know what you need to do,” Laura murmured.

  “Let us in,” Maura purred. “I’ll even deliver that little goat to you wrapped up however you like.”

  Their fingers ran over his crotch, but he ignored them despite the pressure of his erection.

  “No.”

  They blinked at him.

  “I didn’t say I agreed to your deal,” he corrected. “I’m offering a new deal, on my own terms. You can take it or leave it.”

  Their eyes glowed. Before they reacted, he reached out and slammed his hands on their shoulders. Both succubi fell to their knees in front of him.

  Nathan glared down at them.

  “None of this bullshit about how you enter my mind and control me. I’m not stupid. Your promises will mean nothing the moment you get past my defenses,” he spat. “I don’t need to hear Kadria’s advice to know how untrustworthy you are.”

  “I’ve taught you plenty about mental magic,” Maura said.

  “Yes, and that’s why I know how dangerous it is to let you into my head. It’s also why I’m offering you this deal at all.”

  She fell silent. Her expression told him to get on with it.

  “If you want out of here, it’s on my terms. You’ll serve me,” he told them. “I’ll connect to your minds. That will give you access to the binding stone’s power, but controlled by me.”

  “You’re turning us into glorified Champions?” Maura spluttered. “I’m not your pet!”

  “I mean, we could be,” Laura murmured. When Maura glared at her, she pretended to be angry. “How dare you?”

  “Great effort,” Maura grumbled.

  “Call it what you want. It’s either this or nothing. Right now, I can use you. But later, who knows? You’re stuck in this shitty little mental hole. Kadria treats you like her personal entertainment. At some point, I’ll learn enough mental magic to sever the mental tether you have to my binding stone and then you’re gone forever.”

  They both froze, eyes widening in terror.

  Laura turned on her sister. “You fucking idiot! Why have you taught him that shit?”

  “Because he’s hot,” Maura mumbled, as her sister pummeled her with her fists.

  Well, so much for Nathan’s theory about which sister was dumber. Neither were particularly smart, it seemed.

  Laura scowled. “I’d hit you harder, but I get it. This new bad boy twist on him is great. He’s not really my type otherwise, other than a quick ride, but this darker “bend over” side has me going.”

  “You’re so stupid,” Maura said.

  The Twins glared at each other.

  “I think you’re forgetting something,” Nathan said, coughing. He pushed them back down, as they had moved around a lot in their excitement. “My deal is that you serve me. No mental nonsense and you won’t turn on me. In exchange, I’ll protect you from anything Kadria has planned in the future and won’t remove you from this world. If you break it, then I have a tether right to your minds.”

  “Ooh, this sounds super hot. I say yes,” Laura chirped, arms raised in a small cheer.

  “What?” Maura snapped. “Are you crazy?”

  “Oh, come on. He’s got everything we want. We’ve made dumber deals before.”

  “That’s a low fucking bar.”

  Maura’s eyes glowed, her horns turned black, and a wind blew across the grass. The dresses of both Twins blew up, revealing a lot of skin, and giving Nathan a glimpse of how incredibly wet they were.

  “Here’s my answer,” Maura growled, staring Nathan in the eyes. “Fuck. No.”

  Then a ton of stone slammed into Nathan’s mind. His vision blurred. He held on tightly to both Twins, desperately reaching for his magic.

  His efforts felt futile. He couldn’t string two words together. His thoughts jumbled. All sense of reality became scrambled.

  Some time later—Nathan didn’t know if it had been seconds, days, or even centuries—his vision returned.

  He felt a wet warmth on his cock. It ran up and down his length. Soon, the slapping of flesh filled his ears, along with ecstasy-laden moans. A pair of hands pressed down on his bare chest.

  Two familiar breasts jiggled in front of his eyes, but an even larger mound lay below them. Nathan recognized the chest as Fei’s. But that belly…

  Fei crouched over him, her movements as intense as always during sex.

  “More, more! I love you so much,” she moaned.

  Fei’s black hair streamed down her back and plump ass. She looked several years older than her current self, but had the same youthful look in her eyes. Her tail wagged back in forth in rhythm with her pumping. Her bloated belly bounced with her movements.

  She was pregnant, Nathan realized.

  “Don’t ignore me,” Narime’s voice whined from the side.

  Nathan looked over to see the fox crouched next to him.

  Like Fei, Narime was also visibly pregnant. Otherwise, she looked the same as always. She moaned sweetly when he showed her some attention with a free hand.

  The room smelled of sex and the arousal of countless women.

  More pregnant women appeared around him. Seraph, Sen, Nurevia, and Vera. For some reason, Leopold’s Champion, Mae, was here, but Nathan didn’t think too hard about her. A bunch of beastkin knights and Champions crowded around the bed, many already full of his seed from earlier in the day.

  This was Nathan’s life now. All of his problems had been solved. Now he enjoyed his life with his massive harem of women. Every day was nothing but endless pleasure and sex.

  The door to his impossibly large bedroom opened and even more naked women streamed in. They smiled at him. The first one that caught his eye was…

  Was…

  Why did she have no face?

  The world froze. Nathan’s wits began to slowly return to him. His mind felt groggy. He tried to pull out from the fake Fei on top of him, but found himself frozen in place.

  “Oh, come on. You definitely have dozens more women you want to bang for the rest of your life,” Maura’s voice murmured inside his mind. “Be happy, for once in your miserable fucking life. Do you want to know more about how you won? Look, there’s Kadria’s head on the wall. You realized she’s playing you and mounted her like a goddamn deer.”

  Out of nowhere, Kadria’s decapitated head appeared on the closest wall. It was mounted on a wooden plaque that read “Dumb Little Goat.” She had an apple in her mouth.

  “Or maybe you want us dead. Fine, whatever.”

  The Twins’ heads appeared on either side of Kadria’s. For whatever reason, their skin wasn’t bronzed. Instead, they had fair skin. Their white hair had turned blonde as well.

  “Oops, fucked up there.”

  The heads flickered and now looked like the Twins that Nathan recognized.

  “See? This is the happy ending. We’re dead. Your harem will give you babies for all eternity. Any woman you know, they can appear here. Bam, yours forever. Happiest place for you. No wars. No schemes. Just sex, sex, sex. Great, right?”

  Nathan tried to shut her out. He reached blindly for his essence and his magic. For some reason, it felt so far away.

  “All you need to do is. Let. Me. In!” Maura roared.

  The world shattered like a mirror. Nathan’s head felt like someone was crushing it in a vice while driving a pick through it. A moment later, he felt worms crawling around in his skull. Pain stabbed at him from every direction, including from within.

  Darkness overwhelmed him. Memories of his past replayed within his mind. Failure after failure struck him. Death after death. He lost count of the number of times he saw Ciana’s pallid face, heard the last words of Jafeila, Vala, or Narime, or said goodbye to Gareth.

  But, slowly, he regained his composure. The pain didn’t dull. The darkness eroding his vision never left him. His failures didn’t cease to hurt. Nothing changed reality for Nathan.

  He stood up, took a deep breath, and reached for his binding s
tones.

  And found them.

  The first surge of power blew away the intrusion. He then focused himself and cast an actual mental magic spell, and righted himself. His vision blurred again.

  When he regained his vision, the familiar yet strange world of the Twins greeted him. The fake sky that shined sunlight on his face and created wind, and the smell of freshly cut grass.

  Once again, he felt a warm, wet sensation around his cock. He looked down to see Maura wrapped around his engorged length. Her naked tits pillowed his shaft, while her mouth worked his tip. She glared up at him.

  Despite the failure of her mental attack, Maura kept sucking away. Nathan groaned, the pressure in his crotch almost too much. He felt her tickling away at the edges of his mind, refusing to completely retreat. Every time she tapped his defenses, he felt a surge of pleasure.

  Reflexively, he gripped her horns. A moment later, he exploded in her mouth. Streams of thick, white seed flooded her throat. He heard her gulping down her meal.

  “You’re spilling it,” Laura murmured.

  She ducked in and lapped up the drops that burst from Maura’s lips. Laura’s hands massaged his balls, ensuring that every possible drop came out. Both succubi wanted everything from him.

  When he pulled away, they fought over the tiny remains dribbling out from his tip.

  “Mmm, I could get used to having this on-tap,” Laura said.

  “You’re not thinking of accepting?” Maura asked.

  “Oh, come on. You just proved we can’t claim him. That was our best shot. I even helped you. If that doesn’t work, we’re done.” Laura rolled her eyes.

  “It’s not my fault the asshole wants to be a miserable shit.” Maura glared up at Nathan. “Do you hate being happy or something? Your deepest defenses are fucking awful to wade through. So much damn misery. Your core is locked up like a vault, and all I had to work with were the women we saw when we invaded. And even at the end there, you just shrugged off all that shit. Most people go catatonic when I turn their own memories on them.”

  He grimaced. “I should punish you for that. But I already am. Servitude, or death. Your options haven’t changed.”

  “You didn’t answer me,” Maura said.

  “You didn’t ask a question.” He shrugged. “Those memories are something I live with every day. I’m a Bastion. I need to keep moving forward, and that means coming to terms with my past mistakes. A lot of my life is formed from regrets, but those are what make me who I am. That’s why I didn’t want your fake ending. Is it really an ending if there’s no journey to reach it?”

  “That almost sounds profound,” Maura mumbled. “Damn. No wonder you never got picked up as a Messenger. I’d been wondering why someone like you got passed over, given your talent. You’re too fucking optimistic. Didn’t Kadria kill everyone you love? And here you are, trucking on with her sucking your cock.”

  He stared down at the Twins.

  “Your answer?” he asked, feeling that this conversation had outlived its usefulness.

  “Oh, I vote yes,” Laura chirped.

  “Of course you do.” Maura sighed. “You mean that you’ll protect us?”

  “I do.”

  “Then, fuck, I guess I’m in. I can’t believe after all this time, we’ve ended up being tamed. Guess Mom was right. Once you find a man you like, you settle down,” Maura said.

  Then both succubi latched onto his cock like limpets. If this was their idea of settling down, Nathan had serious concerns about his ability to leave his bedroom in the future.

  “Don’t resist me,” he warned. “Or I’ll have to use force.”

  “Yeah, yeah. We want out. Get it over with.” Maura waved her hand in the air.

  The process itself was quick. Both succubi kept their minds locked up tight as he entered them. Nathan was reminded of how little he really knew. They essentially guided him to their mental core but prevented him from accessing any of their thoughts or emotions. If he strayed, their defenses would no doubt activate.

  He attached a powerful mental tether to both of their cores. At the same time, he also laid failsafes. One warned him if the tether was destroyed. The other would destroy the tether if too much magic was sent toward Nathan through it. If the Twins tried to attack him using his link, it would sever itself.

  “Huh. Not bad,” Maura said. “I can probably deactivate the warning, but dunno about the other thing. What does it even do?”

  “It’s a self-destruct, right?” the other Twin said, frowning. “Why didn’t you make it blow up our minds if the tether breaks?”

  “Because another succubus might break the tether. I’m not that callous,” he said.

  The two of them continued to blow him between words.

  “You should be that callous, but whatever. I guess you’re the boss. So, what’s the plan?” Maura asked, her face an absolute mess.

  “We’re going to fight another Messenger.”

  The Twins grinned up at him, their faces the very picture of excitement.

  Chapter 35

  Leaving the Twins behind, Nathan returned to his office. His Champions jumped when he emerged. They were standing around the tables, chatting and discussing strategy.

  “You didn’t see the door open?” he asked, genuinely surprised they still couldn’t see the door even after learning about it.

  “No. In fact, I don’t even remember when you left.” Seraph rubbed her temples with her fingertips. “This isn’t the first time you’ve walked out of that door in front of me, is it?”

  “No. Something about the door prevents people from remembering anything associated with it,” Nathan said.

  “Uh, I remember having sex in there pretty well,” Sen said.

  Everyone looked at her, and she scowled at them.

  “What? I do. I just don’t remember a lot of other things. Sunstorm’s the same way. I hadn’t seen Nathan for ages. Like hell I wasn’t going to fuck him.”

  Sunstorm nodded enthusiastically.

  “So, is it done?” Narime asked.

  Nathan quickly checked the state of his tethers with the Twins, just in case they knew a trick to double cross him. The connections remained intact. Although he felt them doing something to the tether. Some sort of reinforcement.

  The fact they could mess with the mental connection at all suggested that Nathan hadn’t constructed it very well. He needed to ask Kadria for some advice on managing this link.

  “Yes. I’ve bound the succubi in this portal to my will,” he said, avoiding the comparison to Champions for obvious reasons.

  “Allies?” Astra asked.

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Nathan replied cautiously. “But I have leverage over them. Consider them servants.”

  “Slaves,” the dark elf declared.

  The beastkin grimaced. Unfortunately, it was the most apt description.

  “What next? I’ve already mobilized the knights in the portal. I assume that’s where we’re going next,” Seraph said.

  “It is. Even though we’re in a rush, we can’t mess this up. The only thing worse than a Messenger invading the Spires is allowing him to invade us as well, or triggering a cascade,” he said.

  Despite his words, making preparations didn’t take long. Gharrick Pass had extensive defenses against attack from both within and without. Nathan had a lot of soldiers to work with.

  As they left, Sunstorm remained behind. Nathan and Sen spotted her, and stopped. In response to Narime’s questioning gaze, Nathan waved the rest on.

  “Choe, what’s wrong?” Sen asked.

  “Don’t… Oh, they’re all gone,” Sunstorm said, initially getting angry over her name. She rubbed her hands against her arms and grimaced. “This is going to be a huge battle against demons, isn’t it.”

  “Yes. You’ve missed the big invasions. It’ll be great to fight together.” Sen grinned and punched her friend in the arm.

  “Yeah…” Sunstorm ignored Sen and looked Nathan in the e
ye. “Nathan, I want to go help Anna.”

  Sen froze, her grin cracking. Her eyes showed the panic inside her.

  “Choe, stop for a second and explain,” Nathan said. “You’re not alone.”

  “Maybe. But can I really help you in such a huge battle? I excel in one-on-one fights. I’m an assassin. I kill people and other Champions. Other Bastions. Anna’s going to be swimming in targets that she needs help dealing with. I can collect a lifetime’s worth of heads.” Sunstorm smirked, but her eyes remained distant.

  “You’ve never shied away from battle before. What’s really wrong?” Nathan said, remembering the fierce warrior he always sent to solve messes.

  Sunstorm shrugged.

  Annoyed, Sen punched the assassin. This time, the blow was intended to hurt. Unfortunately, Sunstorm was a Champion. She rolled her eyes at Sen.

  “Stop being a bitch. This is about your gem, isn’t it?” Sen said. “I thought you said it was fine.”

  “It is,” Sunstorm admitted. “I don’t want to be the burden in a group of duogems and a trigem. I can do things everyone else can’t, but not on a battlefield full of demons. That Messenger will eat me for breakfast.”

  “Fine,” Nathan said. “Anna will need the help. But we’re going to talk about this later. I just finished grumping at Fei and the others about not being honest.”

  “Doesn’t this count as honesty?” The assassin tried to smile at him, but it faded away under his stare. “Okay, fine. And thanks.”

  “Stay safe, Choe,” Nathan said. He squeezed her shoulder.

  Nathan and Sen left as Sunstorm vanished in a puff of darkness. On the way to the portal, Nathan ensured he collected Alice’s hand mirror. He needed some way to remain in contact during battle.

  While he liked helping his Champions with their problems, he hoped there weren’t too many more lingering beneath the surface. Nathan wanted a happy ending eventually. One that he earned himself.

  By the time he arrived at the portal, Fei had taken charge. Knights trooped down the valley in front of him.

  At a glance, nothing appeared amiss. The sky inside the portal was a familiar hazy red and purple light shined from the volcanic ground beneath him. The world of this portal gave off the appearance of an otherworldly wasteland. Twin valleys ran down to a clearing at the bottom and rocky cliffs kept him inside.