His lips pressed together, Kevin stared at him coldly. “How long will you be staying in my town, Martial?”
“Haven’t decided yet. There seems to be unusually high demon activity around this area. I might stick around for a while.”
“Don’t overstay your welcome,” Kevin said as he stood up. His eyes fell on the demon girl by Martial’s feet. “How did you come by her?”
“Demons attacked a village on our way here. Killed the demons, captured her.”
“I could do with a demon like that,” Kevin said. His eyes then fell on Cassie and Michelle. “Your Legacies are attractive too. If you’re interested in an exchange of any sort, feel free to visit my Hall of Legacies. Otherwise, don’t,” his voice ended in a threat.
“What are we going to do?” Cassie asked, once Kevin had left the room.
Martial sighed. “It’s looking likely I may have to kill him.”
Chapter 30
Martial, Cassie, Michelle and Kagnak left Learmouth’s Hall of Legacies and set off on their horses towards the town’s less desirable part. Martial had enough money for rooms at the best pub in town, but he didn’t want to stay amongst the local gentry. It wasn’t his style, never had been.
After wondering the narrow streets, weaving in and out of the crowds, they stumbled upon a little pub with a green door, written above it in golden letters were the words, Immortal Alex’s Beverage.
Martial seemed enthusiastic about the name, so giving their horses to the little boy working there, they walked inside.
Not many noticed the demon girl Kagnak, as she rode on Martial’s horse. His stallion was a tall and intimidating beast, and most humans, especially those in the poorer neighbourhoods, were afraid to make eye contact with those they thought were from the gentry or were Legacies.
Now that they were in the pub, every eye turned on them. There were audible gasps, and a man in the corner charged at them, a blunt sword in hand, he swung it at the demon girl.
Martial’s sword was out in the blink of an eye. As the steel clashed, the man’s blunt sword flung out of his hand, flew across the room and buried itself into the wooden beam in the corner. The man staggered back, holding his sword-hand wrist.
“I’m a Legacy, and this demon girl is under my protection,” Martial announced loudly. “If anyone has a problem with that, my two apprentices will hopefully next time deal with it,” he muttered, glancing at both Cassie and Michelle.
Oh, yes, right.
Cassie took a step forward, for what reason, she did not know. The danger was obviously over. She took a step back again and muttered her apologise. In response, Martial rolled his eyes.
The small crowd in the pub stared at them, their eyes moving from the Legacies to the demon girl, a mixture of emotions written on their faces. Some were angry, others were afraid.
What with demon attacks having happened in the area, it was entirely possible the few angry men in the room might have lost loved ones to the beasts.
Despite what their feelings might have been, no human was stupid enough, or desperate enough to want to get into a physical tussle with a Legacy, or three.
The room emptied out quickly.
When the last man left, Martial sat on the counter stool and turned towards the barmaid, a pretty girl with hair cut short. “I’ll have a whisky,” he told her.
The barmaid didn’t move. Her hands resting on the counter, she stared at Martial.
But it wasn’t the stare that most girls gave him.
“You cleared out all my customers,” she said.
“Okay…” Martial said uncertainly. “Normally pretty girls just…” he stopped and leaned in to look at the girl. “Short hair… are you a lesbian?”
“You’re fucking kidding me, right? That’s your response to what I said?” the girl muttered. “I borrowed money from Kevin, at a ridiculously high rate to start this place. I had to go into his fucking house to get the money. You know what it’s like to go to his house? There are naked girls all over the place, bodies pierced, being whipped about by his Legacies, who by the way, look like fucking sex dolls from some fucking weirdo’s fantasy.”
The barmaid’s eyes fell on Cassie and Michelle. Cassie, on her part, suddenly felt more conscious than she had ever before regarding the clothing she was wearing.
“Did you pick those things to wear?” the girl asked.
Cassie suddenly felt nervous, not an entirely foreign emotion. She often felt nervous around Martial. But it was Martial alone that made her nervous. Not humans. Certainly not a human girl behind a bar. But that was how she felt. Nervous.
She shook her head in response.
“Did he dress you?”
She shook her head again. “It was Martha,” she mumbled. “She’s another apprentice.”
“A girl dressed you like that?” the barmaid said, surprise in her voice. “She must really hate you.”
“It’s functional. Serves a purpose for Legacies, protects the vulnerable parts,” Martial said.
“What, the tits and cunt?”
“The chest, where the heart is, and yes… the cunt. Legacies can heal from most other wounds. We don’t get infections like you normals,” Martial said with a scowl.
“Whatever,” the girl scowled back.
Martial sighed. “Am I going to get my drink or what?”
The girl poured him a drink and slid it across the counter. “You better drink this whole bar, mister,” she said. “I am not going to be in Kevin’s debt.”
“Would that be the worst?” Martial asked, as he downed the drink.
“Yes,” the girl said. She poured herself a drink and gulped it down. “It would be the worst. It would be just the fucking worst.”
“Tell me about him,” Martial said, as he bought himself another drink.
So, the barmaid, who introduced herself as Lucy, told them about Kevin. The Legacy had been in charge of the town before her birth. Rumours were, he was a first-generation Legacy, though Lucy suspected Kevin spread those rumours himself.
He ran the town with an iron fist. He was judge, jury and executioner. He was the king, and everyone in his town were his subjects. He applied a version of prima nocta, in that, every attractive girl had to lose her virginity before him.
Before him, not always to him.
Sometimes he sat back and watched as his Legacies, or the normal humans working in his house, penetrated the poor girls every hole with every imaginable object.
“Thankfully, he doesn’t find me attractive,” Lucy said.
“Really?” Cassie asked, unable to hold back her surprise.
Lucy’s eyes narrowed. “Do I need to be worried about you? You’re not going to try and rape me, are you?”
It was Cassie’s turn to frown. “You’re a bit of a bitch,” she muttered.
“Yes, I am a bad bitch,” Lucy replied. “You might be a Legacy, but I could kick your ass, little girl.”
Cassie turned to Michelle. “Did she just call me little girl?”
“As fun as it would be to watch you two go at it,” Martial said, intervening and using what sounded like a forced grown-up voice, “I think it’s better we focus our energies on Kevin, and the best way to get rid of him.”
“Get rid of him?” Lucy muttered. “You and what army? He has a literal army of five hundred men and twelve Legacies.”
It was a good point, Cassie thought. Martial and what army? Two Legacy apprentices against a first-generation Legacy and twelve more? Not to forget the five hundred men. They might be normal humans, but they were still a threat.
Martial turned to look at Cassie and Michelle; “I have a plan,” he said.
“If you’re going to get rid of him, you should do it soon, before the town goes to shit,” Lucy said.
She told them what she feared would happen. The locals had already been split into two groups, the haves and the have-nots. The crisis with the demons appearing from out of nowhere had spooked the farmers. Though some rema
ined, most had fled, first coming to the town. Some were still camped outside, some had decided to head further inland.
There was going to be a poor harvest if Kevin didn’t provide protection for the farmers. A poor harvest would lead to food shortages for the town’s downtrodden, who were on the brink already.
Owning her own pub, and working in it, Lucy heard the men mutter as she passed them their drinks. They were on the verge of rioting. It had been something men talked about often, not of rioting, but of going into the better part of town and taking it for themselves, a revolution of sorts.
Over the past week, that talk had changed to a want for wanton destruction. For blood.
“My plan is going to have to be accelerated,” Martial muttered.
Cassie had a sinking feeling in her stomach that she was not going to like this plan.
Chapter 31
Martial’s plan wasn’t a very clever plan.
There were lots of ways it could go horribly wrong.
Actually, there was one way it could go horribly wrong. One very obvious way.
Martial’s plan was to challenge Kevin to a duel, much like he had done so with the demon in Coldstream. Despite having tons of admiration for Martial, Cassie did wonder if he lacked some creatively.
As time was of the essence, he wanted his plan to be actioned immediately. He’d drunk a few, so when he said immediately, he meant Cassie and Michelle leave immediately. An hour after having arrived in the pub, an hour and half after having left Kevin’s Hall of Legacies, he wanted them to go back and present Martial’s challenge to duel.
“Can we do it tomorrow?” Cassie asked.
“Yes, tomorrow,” Michelle jumped at the idea.
Martial drained his seventh glass of whisky and turned on the stool, somewhat wobbly, his hands reached back and he grabbed the counter and leaned against it.
“Tomorrow?” he asked, frowning. He turned on his stool to face Lucy, again, his form wobbly. “Isn’t time of the essence?”
“It is,” Lucy said, a smirk on her face.
Martial turned on his stool once more, and this time, he almost slipped off. Steadying himself, “Time is of the essence,” he announced.
Cassie glanced at Lucy, whose eyes sparkled. Somehow, the girl wasn’t affected by Martial’s aura. She wasn’t desperate to please him, wasn’t in the process of tearing off her clothes and doing such things.
Instead, she was having fun with a drunk Martial.
Two could play that game, Cassie decided.
Sure, it wasn’t normal for apprentices to take advantage of their master. But Martial wasn’t your typical master, was he?
Cassie walked up to Martial and dropped to her knees, her hands rested on his lap. She looked up at him, jutting her chest forward, giving him ample view of her breasts barely hidden away by the metal bra of silver.
“Of course, I can go and see him tonight, master,” she said. “But what if he wants to duel tonight? What if he wants it to happen immediately?”
“Then I’ll fight the fucker, won’t I?” Martial asked. “I am Martial the Great, the Killer of Satan, the Destroyer of God, the Vengeance in Heaven, the-”
“Right, of course,” Cassie cut him off, wincing as he mentioned Satan’s name. She still wasn’t convinced the demons had poured out from the ground at the mention of his name. It might have been a coincidence seeing as demons had been pouring out of the ground on a regular basis around this area. But she still didn’t feel comfortable hearing the name. Why take the risk? “But, wouldn’t you rather spend the night with Kagnak here? And tomorrow, we can set off for Kevin’s Hall of Legacy?”
The demon girl was on the floor beside her, minding her own business, she was staring at the brass chandelier hanging from the ceiling when, at the mention of her name, she turned sharply to look at Cassie, fear in her eyes.
Cassie didn’t feel great about suggesting it. After having observed the demon for the past day, it turned out her feelings towards it were now undecided, which was a significant upgrade from pure hatred.
Martial had been right about demons. They weren’t all the same… Not all of them were beings of pure evil.
So, Cassie didn’t feel great about suggesting Martial spend the night romantically with the demon girl. Just the suggestion of something like that would have been preposterous, and she noticed Lucy’s frown.
But Cassie thought she saw something between Martial and the demon. The way he looked at her, especially drunk, those sideway glances, a distant look in his eyes as if he were remembering something. She figured he’d known a demon girl in the past. Known her intimately, romantically perhaps.
And once she got over her disgust of the idea of being romantic with a demon, Cassie could see the appeal of it.
Kagnak basically looked like a girl with blue skin.
She was cute.
Martial seemed to think the same. He stared at the demon girl, that distant look in his eyes, as if he were seeing her, but seeing someone else at the same time.
He reached down and grabbing her by the blouse, he lifted her up to her feet. Kagnak was afraid. Her body was shaking. But she kept her composure as Martial leaned in to kiss her. Cassie felt that familiar pang she so often did around Martial, when he seemed to see every other girl aside from her.
As Kagnak kissed him back, her body relaxed, then it sagged onto him. Cassie sighed deeply, wishing it was her.
From behind the bar, Lucy watched on, a horrified expression on her face. “Now I’ve fucking seen everything,” she muttered.
Chapter 32
They spent the night at the pub named Immortal Alex’s Beverage. Martial shared the bed with Kagnak while Michelle and Cassie were relegated to share the room with Lucy. The pub was small and only had four rooms for the public to use. Three of the others had been taken, which was quite something, Lucy said.
Normally, at best, she had one room filled. The influx of humans fleeing demons meant more people in town. Though Kevin’s soldiers were supposed to keep out refugees, those with money were able to buy their way in and buy rooms for the night.
When Martial left the common room of the pub, still kissing Kagnak, Lucy had guided them up the stairs to their room, where Martial had kicked the door shut behind him, and in Cassie’s face. Not for the first time.
The room Lucy stayed in was small. There was a single bed in the corner, a beige wardrobe against the wall, and enough space in the middle to open the wardrobe doors.
“I’m taking the bed,” Lucy said. “You can sleep on the floor.”
“I think not,” Cassie said.
“Excuse me?” Lucy frowned.
“I’m taking the bed.”
“My house, my rules.”
“I think you’ll find every Legacy ever would disagree with you,” Cassie said. She was annoyed. A fucking demon was getting it on with Martial before her. She was not in the mood to be pushed around by Lucy. “Downstairs you said you could kick my ass. Called me a kid, right? Or was it a little child? You want to test your theory?”
Lucy squared up to her, her lips pursed, her face scrunched.
But she was half a foot shorter than Cassie, who was over six feet tall. Rather than seem intimidating, she looked more cute, in that angry sort of way, like a pixie. It made Cassie grin, and that pissed off Lucy even more.
But in the end, Lucy wasn’t a fucking idiot. She wasn’t going to pick a fight with a Legacy.
“I’m sharing the bed with you,” Lucy said.
“Fine,” Cassie muttered.
She began to undress, starting with the metal sleeves that covered her arms from wrist to elbow. After that, she took off her boots, then removed the metal shin pads. It was her metallic bra that followed.
She noticed Lucy staring at her breasts as they popped out. Cassie massaged them gently. Her poor breasts were still taking time getting used to being surrounded by hard metal and not soft clothing.
“Does it hurt?” Lucy asked.
Cassie unbuckled the straps of her metal panties, now very conscious of Lucy staring at her. If the girl was shocked by the bra, it was possible she would faint when she learnt Cassie’s metal panties had two round poles protruding from them, one that was buried in her butthole, the other in her cunt.
“What the fuck!”
Yup.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Cassie said, as she spread her legs some to make it easier to pull the plugs out. Once it came off, the placed the armour by floor at the end of the bed.
“You were plugged in both holes the whole time?”
Cassie didn’t like it phrased like that. But it was true, so she nodded her head.
“And you’re going to wear that tomorrow as well, aren’t you?”
Again, Cassie reluctantly nodded.
“Martial is a proper cunt, isn’t it?”
“It wasn’t Martial’s idea.”
“You thought it was a good idea to have dildos in your pants? Lucifer, you’re a sick one, aren’t you? Was it to get Martial’s attention?”
Cassie reached back and massage her bottom, her thumb gently rubbing her sore asshole. She was tired, and she was beginning to find Lucy exhausting.
“It wasn’t my idea either. It was Martha. She’s another of Martial’s apprentices. She was in charge of me briefly.”
“In charge of you?” Lucy’s eyes twinkled. “You like a woman in charge, do you?”
Cassie frowned. “Actually, I don’t.”
“Why did you wear the dildo pants then?”
“Because,” Cassie began, and she took a step towards Lucy. “If a demon ever captures me, it’s going to torture me. It’s going to humiliate me. It’s going to rape me. In all my holes. Having these dildos stuck inside me all the time, its uncomfortable, but less so than what will happen if a demon ever captures me. It’s a constant reminder of what will happen if I am captured, constant motivation to avoid it.”
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