Crusade Gone Awry Ch. 16

*

When Marcus opened his eyes again, it took him quite a long time to get his bearings. The numbness that gripped his body was dissipating. A light tingling was in its wake, slowly giving him control of his body again. He gazed up at the ceiling but found it didn't belong to the bathhouse. Instead, it was the white marble of his room, the one he had been recovering in for weeks. When he could move his limbs again, he tried to lift his hand. Something was weighing it down. He turned his head and found a familiar companion.

Lilly was lying beside him, her cheek on his forearm. Marcus paused, simply staring at her. She looked nothing like a demon at the moment. Her hair was neatly done, her expression was innocent, and her cheek was squashed into him. He would have thought she was just a sweet young woman...if not for the ivory horns on her head. Marcus blinked a few times, wondering just what to do. He couldn't move without waking her. Should he wake her? He had seen the demon side of her. Would she still be like that? Then again, he was probably the one who unleashed it. He had never been that aggressive in sex before. He could have choked her out! What could he even say to her? What did he even want to say? His pondering abruptly came to an end. Lilly began to stir.

The demoness let out a little groan as she shifted. Her silver eyelashes fluttered open, her pink orbs meeting his brown one. For a few moments, neither of them spoke and only stared.

"Hi," she finally said.

"Hi," Marcus repeated. Lilly sat up a little, but then stopped.

"Are we clean?" she demanded.

"What?" Marcus asked, all the tension broken.

"We are, aren't we?" she barked. "Dammit! Jadira had tcleaned us up! I HATE it when she does that! GAH!" Lilly sat up and grabbed the covers. She pulled them off of both of them and wrapped herself up in them, covering herself completely. She curled up in a small ball, moaning to herself.

Marcus stared at her, completely stunned. Was she...embarrassed? And hiding herself? It was such a childish thing that he actually laughed a little. Maybe she really was just a nineteen year old girl...at least comparatively to a demon. Sensing his laughter, Lilly sat up and slowly opened the blanket, her face and the front of her naked body emerged, but it stayed on her head and shoulders. Her small horns made the cloth hang down almost like a halo. As Marcus suspected, Lilly's face was red.

"You think this is funny?" she asked, sounding petty.

"Your reaction is!" Marcus replied.

"I don't need them cleaning up my...mess! It's humiliating! Sex always is for me!"

Marcus stopped, blinking dumbly. He didn't know what that meant. He sat up so he could look at her face.

"Why?" he asked.

Lilly sighed and cut her gaze away. "Because sometimes I can't help it. As horny as you were, I was just as aroused. Demons of lust are drawn to people with emotional pain. Feelings of anguish, guilt, regret, sadness, these are things we feed on. When I sense a lot of it, I get hungry."

"Oh," Marcus said. That would explain her sudden aggression last night. "You were...feeding on my pain?"

Lilly sighed a little, as if explaining this was a burden. "Sort of. Demons don't feed on lust directly. When we make someone orgasm, the barrier around their minds drop briefly. With the barrier down, we naturally draw those negative emotions into us, and we turn them into magic energy. This in turn, makes the person we're having sex with lose the feeling of those negative emotions, numbing them. It even becomes addicting after a while. It's how we lure people in and keep them close, so we have a constant source to feed on. A herd of living beings addicted to the sex and relief we bring. The lust is just a by-product."

Marcus took in her words carefully. In a way that made sense. Humans tended to lose lust with age, but if it was part of an addiction, it would last a lifetime. Lilly briefly reached up and pulled the blanket over her face.

"That hunger is how I lost my virginity!" she grumbled.

"What?" Marcus asked, baffled.

Lilly groaned unpleasantly but continued. "Father didn't tell me about it! He didn't warn me! One of the servants lost his wife. He was deep in mourning. I found him alone and tried to comfort him. Next thing I know I'm on top of him, wringing him dry. We got caught by the others. Father thought it was funny! It was humiliating. He walked me around the courtyard, explaining how lust demons work. By the time I got back they had cleaned up after me! It was SO humiliating! I knew these people my whole childhood and now they were...sopping up my sex fluids!"

Marcus squirmed a little. He didn't exactly know how to relate to that. He was drunk for his first experience. He could barely remember it.

"How old were you?" he finally asked.

"EIGHTEEN!" Lilly screamed. Marcus grimaced again. For a demon, that was probably VERY early.

"What happened to the servant?"

Lilly lifted the blanket from her face. She was crying a little. "He left. Never saw him again. Father told me he decided not to take anymore brandings so he could die and be with his wife. I didn't believe it. He didn't want to leave until I jumped him like an animal."

"Wow I...I don't know what to say."

"There's nothing to say. It's just something I have to deal with."

A silence hung in the air, both of them too awkward. Marcus knew what question he wanted to ask, but she was currently emotional. He...didn't want to see her cry again.

"Am I..." Marcus began, fumbling. "Am I...addicted?"

"Well, not all the time," she replied. "Only if you feel powerful negative emotions. As long as you're not overwhelmed, you won't be drawn to me. Honestly, I've never seen someone get addicted after only twice, but your pain is vast and deep. Every time you orgasmed it was like a...a deluge. I couldn't consume enough of it. I was drowning in it. There was so much that once I was done you would just pass out and go numb as if you were empty. It was like I drained everything out of you. I think when you let all of it go you felt so much better that were instantly addicted. I didn't know that could happen, I'm sorry."

Now that he thought about it, after every time Marcus had sex with Lilly he felt better. It was like all the burdens were taken off of him. Lilly also only suggested they had sex again after he began feeling pain once more. She had sensed it and wanted to feed. Last night when they had sex, he was so aggressive, even violent. It was just like an addict desperate for a fix.

"Am I just a source of food for you?" the human asked, a little more bitter than he intended.

"No," Lilly replied. "I eat real food like every other living being. We don't actually have to consume your pain. It just gives us extra power. Allows us to compete with other kinds of demons, or so father told me. We're not all that powerful compared to them."

Marcus decided to let the mind-boggling statement that lust demons were actually weak pass him by. Considering how many crusades had been annihilated by a "weak" one, the other kinds sounded nightmarish. Instead, he focused on a simpler point.

"It came back though," Marcus said. "After we had sex. The pain came back."

Lilly shrugged a little from under the blanket. "I can take away the pain, but I can't fix the source. I can't make you let it go. It will continue to fester as long as you hold on to it. I can't fix that."

Marcus tightened his jaw. "You know what I did?"

Lilly nodded slightly. "I know."

"How?"

"You dream about it every night. I can see into people's dreams. It makes us better predators for people, so I was told. If we know what your pain is, we can stoke it and feed on it. I saw what happened to you, and I wanted to help you, but like I said, I can't mend the wound, only feed on the bleeding."

"Why would you want to help me? I was sent to kill your father."

"Because the kind of pain you have, I know what it feels like. To make a mistake so monumental it tears you apart. It changes you in such a fundamental way that you're never the same again. I know that pain. I felt it when you first showed up, mad and banging on the gates. I wanted to help you. I wanted to make you feel better."

Marcus knew that the pain she was talking about could only come from one thing. There was something missing in this desert, and he could hold back his question no more.

"What happened to your father, the demon king?" he asked.

Lilly let out a long sigh and slouched her shoulders. "He died."

"Died!? When!?"

"Almost a century ago now."

Marcus grabbed his head. The demon that had existed since time immemorial, the one who had terrorized the world for millennia, the one who had weathered countless crusades and defeated them all...had been dead for Marcus's entire life!

"What happened?" he finally asked.

Lilly gazed downwards and spoke in a low voice. "Below the surface of this desert are these crystals. Most of them are blue. Over time, exposure to the blue crystals makes living beings smarter, more magically adept. Father liked to experiment with them. However, he discovered another kind of crystal, much rarer. They were red and did the opposite. Exposure to them made living beings more savage, physically stronger. He decided to set up an experiment, trying to see what would happen if he combined their magic power together. He wasn't getting anywhere. I was angry with him for not telling me about how lust demons fed on sex. I decided I would show him up. He didn't want to put too much power into them. I thought he was being too cautious. They just needed more power."

Lilly shook her head and cut her eyes to the side, a mournful smile on her face. "I put them together and I set them off. There was this HUGE backlash. I couldn't contain it. My father came running in. He grabbed me and threw me away. The backlash hit him and..."

She stopped, her words catching into her throat. Tears formed at the edge of her eyes as she spoke. "He just...burned away. In just seconds he erupted in flames and turned to ash. Gone. In the blink of an eye. Thousands and thousands of years and it ended it all ended because I...I was angry, and I had to get back at him. King of the Desert and slayer of armies, killed by his own daughter."

"You didn't know that would happen. That's not your fault."

Lilly's pink eyes darted back up at him.

"And you didn't know that family was innocent. The church misled you."

Marcus flinched and turned his eyes away. It wasn't that easy to untangle oneself from what they believed, it seemed.

"You murdered the innocent, and I murdered my father. I can't fix what I've done, but if I could take away some of your pain...I thought I could actually do some good."

Marcus shook his head. This whole thing was wrong from the beginning. The demon king was long dead. He allowed his pain and anguish to blind him, and it got all of his men killed. This whole thing was a fool's errand, and he was the fool.

"What are you going to do Marcus?" the demon asked. He looked up at her. "If you kill a demon, all of your sins are forgiven, aren't they?"

The crusader stared at her with a grave expression. "If I had attacked you last night, what would you have done?"

"I...I don't know. Maybe I would have just let you. If I don't use my magic I'm just as frail as any human."

Marcus paused, thinking it over. She had done everything to help him, to heal them both. If he attacked her, he would wipe that all away. Anything either of them did here would mean nothing. If Lilly had killed him, she would have felt that pain all over again. It was something she didn't want to experience...no matter the cost.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Lilly," he said. Her eyes flicked back up to his. "We're supposed to kill demons because they are evil. You are the furthest thing from that. Hell, from what you've told me I'm not sure your father was evil either. I came here to kill the demon king. He's already dead. The crusade was over before it began."

"So, what will you do now?" Lilly asked.

Marcus took his time to think. How could his sins be forgiven now? He had persecuted the innocent, gotten all of his men killed, and now had sex with a demon. Even if Lilly wasn't evil, the church would never understand. There was only one thing he could think of.

"The Long Walk," Marcus said. "It's the only other thing that could possibly give me salvation."

"The Long Walk, what is that?" Lilly asked.

"It's an ancient way of showing penance to Vordan. The church usually offers different means of salvation, but some still do it. One throws away all their earthly possessions, swearing off all sustenance, even food and water. They walk until they drop and the animals feed on them. Then after death we throw themselves at the goddess's mercy. The Long Walk is to show our desire for forgiveness and our willingness to suffer for our sins."

"Marcus!" Lilly began, looking shocked. "This is a desert, and you need that vitality potion every day! If try and walk out of here, you'll die before sunset!"

"It will be a short walk, my odds with Vordan aren't good..." Marcus muttered. Lilly, looking increasingly horrified, reached out from the halo of her blanket and touched his face.

"This won't solve anything!" she tried to say.

"It's not about solving. It's about what's right. It's what I deserve."

"I won't allow you to do this! Your goddess can't force you to...!"

Lilly abruptly stopped. Her eyes widened and she jerked her head around. Marcus turned in that direction but saw nothing. What was she looking at?

"What is it?" he asked.

She spun her head back to him, her expression now grave. "Were you expecting reinforcements?"

"What? No!" Marcus shouted, bewildered.

"Then why are there ships on the horizon!?"

*

"What the fuck!?" Catarina crudely shouted. Coming into view on the rolling waves, was a ship. She recognized the style instantly, it was one from her kingdom.

"Were you expecting more ships?" Adrum asked.

"No! We were all told we were on our own before they sent us. The idea was that if it was small enough and quick enough that we would stand a chance."

"That...was a terrible plan," Adrum replied.

"You think!?" Catarina barked. As they spoke, more ships rolled over the horizon, two more, then four, then dozens. Catarina continued to be bewildered. There were more ships than were sent for their crusade!

"Do you recognize any of them?" Adrum asked.

"They're definitely ours but...wait, what does that ship have on its sails?"

Adrum, with much better eyes, squinted to see it more clearly. "It looks like a horse covered with diamonds."

Catarina gasped and clutched her chest. "That's...!"

*

"The King's Ship!?" Lilly demanded. She had jumped out of bed by this point and was pacing in the room, naked.

"Um...that's what the horse with diamonds means," Marcus said. "How do you even know there are ships coming into Tarbat?"

Lilly briefly stopped, staring at him as if conflicted to answer. Ultimately, she gave in.

"I can see through Adrum's eyes and hear through his ears. It's a skill my father taught me."

"What!? You can see what he does? So...you knew the moment we arrived?"

"Yes, I did, but that's not important right now! Why would the king's ship be coming here?"

"I have no idea! He has no reason to come here! Is it really him?"

"Unless his ship is sailing with a fleet of hundreds of ships without him."

"Hundreds!?"

*

"Why are there so many ships!?" Catarina shrieked as the whole horizon was filled with them.

"Why would I know?" Adrum shot back. "It's your country."

"There would be no earthly reason for the king to be here. What do we do?"

Adrum paused for a moment, thinking. The lead ship, the royal one, was coming first, and would be arriving shortly. He had no doubt that the Demon Queen knew. She could see and hear through his senses, but he couldn't do the same. He needed to gather information, quickly.

"I have an idea."

*

The royal ship pulled into the port. A gangplank was stretched from the longship and a few heavily armored guards shuffled onto the pier. They quickly scanned the area before nodding to someone onboard. A man wearing bright red armor with a purple mantle stepped off of the ship. The young many looked around, pleasantly surprised by everything he saw. He made a motion, and his guards preceded him as they walked to the edge of the docks. Sitting on the shoreline, next to a shack, was a shirtless middle-aged man and a young blonde woman. They were both taking turns gutting and skinning fish. The young blonde briefly became unsettled as the men approached.

"Oh my god that's the king...that's the fucking king!" she whispered desperately.

"Don't react!" the middle-aged man hissed. They both fell silent as the royal man and his guards approached. Once spotted, the king's face brightened as he stepped over to the man cleaning fish.

"Hello good sir!" the royal man said. "Might this be the city of Tarbat?"

The middle-aged man lifted his face from his work.

"It is," he said flatly. "And who might you be?"

"I am King Hensley," the young man replied. "I have come to finally liberate you from your subjugation."

"That sounds a little familiar," the shirtless man replied. King Hensley briefly made a disappointed expression, as if he had expected the man to fall at his feet in gratitude. The royal quickly recovered.

"Might I ask your name?" the king asked.

"Adrum, charmed, I'm sure."

The royal's eyes turned the beautiful, blonde woman beside him. His eyes brightened.

"And who is this ravishing creature?"

The young woman flinched but didn't speak. Adrum's eyes briefly flicked at her before turning back.

"My wife," he said. The young woman smirked as Hensley's expression fell a little.

"I see," the king replied. "I must compliment you on finding such pretty, young woman. It must have been quite a catch."

"Thank you," Adrum said flatly. "It seems a little too soon for another crusade."

The king shrugged. "Or perhaps it was time for the real crusade."

"Oh? So that last little one wasn't real?"

"It was real enough for the Demon King, I imagine. Now that he's sent his army back home and declared victory, any news of the new army will be dismissed and before he knows it, an army of 25,000 will be at his door."

"Very clever," Adrum replied flatly.

"Soon your fair city will be a province of my kingdom," King Hensley continued. "And all the riches of the demon's palace will create a new era of wealth for us all!"

Adrum stared at the young king for a moment. His last statement sounded grand, but there was little sincerity in it. The old fisherman doubted the king intended to share anything.

"Well, looks like you have everything in hand," Adrum finally said. "You're more than welcome to spend money in our shops and set up camp outside the walls if you like."

"Are you the mayor of this town?"

"In a manner of speaking."

"What sort of manner?"

"People generally do what I say."

The king grinned the same shallow smile he had before. "I shall look forward to your cooperation."

Adrum briefly tapped his forehead before giving a salute of sorts to the king. Looking a little annoyed, the king stepped away from Adrum and back to the dock. More men had now emerged from the boats. They quickly swarmed the king, some of them dressed in fine clothes and not armor. These were clearly his advisors. They began chiding their king for how dangerous it was to get off the boat first. Hensley waved off their concerns before motioning towards the armored guards.

"With the arcane knights by my side I was in no danger," the monarch said. "Have the rest of them arrived yet?"

A few of the advisors spoke at the same time, with the general consensus that the knights were on the first boats. The king waved them into silence again.