Disciple of the Liga Umbrei Pt. 04

"Will you leave us for so long, Master?" Caitlyn pleaded. "Can't we go with you?"

I sighed at the silver-haired vampire. "I'm sorry, Caitlyn, but judging the situation, it'll be unwise to bring all of you with me."

"Please come back safely, Master," Andrea said. I nodded and patted her head.

"Your personal cumdump will wait for your return, Master," Seira said, her hand on her pussy. She gave me a peck on the cheek.

"Wait a minute, Karl."

As I prepared to leave, Magna teleported right in front of me. "I heard you accepted House Jade's request."

"Ah, yeah," I said. "Any advice?"

"Careful with Azalea. Also, take this." Magna handed me a pouch. "It is a pocket dimension. You can store your items more efficiently."

"Thanks."

I went to the outskirts of the southern forests, where I saw Azalea arguing with an old woman while an old man sat beside them. "But, Matriarch! I have chosen them myself!"

"Are you challenging me, Azalea?" the old woman asked. "Mr Stormweaver will accompany you."

The old woman left. "Anything wrong, uh, Azalea?"

Azalea sighed. "I recruited a team of mercenary mages to accompany us, but our leader wouldn't let me bring them. So instead we're stuck with this old man." She pointed at the old man.

"Old Stormweaver can still make wonders, young lady," he replied slowly and calmly.

"Bah! You better could! Let's go."

We moved with a carriage and a horse. I took the opportunity to speak with Stormweaver while Azalea controlled the horse. "So, Mr Stormweaver, are you a mercenary, too?"

"I am, but I am retired," he answered. "Joana Jade is an old friend, I cannot turn her down."

"Joana Jade? Ah, that old woman earlier?" Mr Stormweaver nodded.

He laughed dryly. "But enough about me. What about you?" he asked. "The mercenary circles are surprised that you'd accept Gira's invitation. Their noblemen are known to be... less than honest when it comes to payment."

"Yeah, I suffered it firsthand," I said. "Still managed to wrestle some concessions, though."

"I assume they realized they couldn't trick every mercenary they found, hah!"

We talked a lot until we discussed about my brothels and my companions. "Haha!" he laughed when I invited him to 'taste' Janine, "I am much too old for that. I've had my share when I was young."

Suddenly he went silent. "Someone's watching us!" he declared. "Azalea, stop the carriage!"

Azalea did. "What's wrong?" she asked almost lazily.

Mr Stormweaver and I looked left, right, and centre. "There!" I shouted, noticing a shadowy humanoid figure. After several minutes of intense staring, the figure left.

"An ape?" I murmured.

"No. A stalker," Mr Stormweaver said. "We should be very careful from now on."

"I don't like this. A few hours in and there are stalkers already?" Azalea complained.

To mitigate this, Mr Stormweaver and I sat on the front, controlling the horse, while Azalea sat inside the safe carriage. "What do you think that was?" I asked Mr Stormweaver.

"Certainly a highly skilled assassin," he replied. "I suspect the League of Silence, but I'm not sure."

"The League of Silence?"

"Yes. They specialize in killing mages," he replied. "Most mages fare poorly in close combat and they need time to cast a spell. They take advantage of that." He grinned.

"Against mages of our calibre, they'll be in for a surprise."

"I hope so," I replied. "Are they mercenaries?"

"In a way," he said. "But they've always been shady. Recently I heard they threw their lot in with Cawl's army."

"That is concerning," I said.

We continued our journey. Luckily, there were no problems until we camped at night. Azalea slept inside the carriage with Mr Stormweaver while I stood guard. After a few hours, Mr Stormweaver and I changed places. A strange sound took our attention.

"Did you hear that?" he whispered as he prepared to hop out of the carriage.

"Yes," I whispered back.

Out of nowhere, a circle of fire formed around us. Instinctively, Mr Stormweaver and I conjured barriers. "W-what?" Azalea gasped. She came out from the carriage.

Two shadowy figures lunged at us. Mr Stormweaver and I cast thunderbolts, momentarily fending them off. Mr Stormweaver turned to face one, and I unsheathed my blade to battle another.

The figure dashed quickly, their blades almost slashing my throat if not for a layer of dark fire that I conjured at the last time. I unleashed my black tentacles, completely engulfing the figure. I blasted them with a large lust bomb.

On the other front, Mr Stormweaver taught the other intruder what it meant to be electrocuted. Both of them were on the ground now. "Let's see who-"

Before anything else could happen, earth itself trembled. Vines appeared out of nowhere, engulfing and killing the two assassins. "Back off, kiddo! To the carriage!"

The vines advanced on us from all directions, but they abruptly halted. They withdrew. "What-what on earth happened?"

"I have a few theories, none of which I like," Mr Stormweaver said. "But we're safe for now, I think."

We slept through the night uncomfortably. The very next morning, a burst of green light appeared next to our carriage. The light dissipated and a naked, green woman stood in its place. She had deep green short hair. A goblin? No, she was far too tall. And there was some sort of formidable aura around her.

"Olala! A dryad!" Mr Stormweaver gasped.

"Two humans and you, abomination. Abberation," she said, pointing at me. "But... seems like you are not as terrible as the previous one."

Mr Stormweaver huffed. "What do you mean abberation?"

The dryad promptly ignored him. "You are a half-demon, and I see you have embraced your nature."

"It would be irresponsible not to accept it."

"Explain, please. What is going on?" Mr Stormweaver pleaded. Demons weren't exactly common for the commonfolk, but most adventurers certainly knew them. The most common are the succubi and their male counterparts the incubi, as well as the so-called "hornmen"; demons with humanoid forms and horns.

It was also well-established that they were not compatible with any other species.

"Once every so often, the balance shifts ever so slightly before it returns to balance. When it happens, strange things happen; half-demons one of them. The previous one brought... quite a lot of chaos and destruction."

"Morgana."

"Yes."

"Morgana? She's real?" Mr Stormweaver gasped.

"Men and elves alike have short memories. It happened just five centuries ago, the war it is. But older creatures remember. I pray that the powers of this world do not see another Morgana in you, Karl."

"Hold up, hold up. I understand fuckall. Anyone want to fill me in?" Azalea asked. Mr Stormweaver promptly did.

"Tell me, then. What are you looking for in my domain?"

"I'm just a mercenary here, actually. Azalea here is searching for the treasure of a certain noble family."

"Aah, that one, yes. I veiled it with my defensive wards as Morgana left one of her obelisk guardians there," she said. "I can see you are a different person. Although you own slaves, you treat them well as friends and companions. And I am no fan of retribution, as justified as you think it may be, but it is far from the worst deeds."

She breathed deeply. "I will deactivate my wards once you reach that place. But I will require payment."

"Alright. How many coins?"

"I don't need coins."

"Potions? Artifacts?"

"Sex will suffice."

"What?"

"I said 'sex will suffice'." The dryad repeated. She flicked her fingers, forming walls of vines around us. She sat down, opening her legs. "I never understood human customs of 'oral' and 'anal', nor will I partake in it. I urge you to commit to this sex immediately."

"Uuuh... okay."

I awkwardly and somewhat reluctantly started to insert my cock into the dryad's pussy. "Got you."

The dyrad suddenly turned into a banshee. Its nails were long and its hair horrifyingly extended. Its pussy had fucking claws. Luckily I managed to pull out at the last second. "What the-"

"Heheheh. Half-demon. I cannot allow you to threaten Mistress."

"Mistress? You mean Morgana? She's dead."

"Heh. Morgana's artifacts will revive her."

I drew my blade. "I won't let you."

The vines bent. A truly majestic figure appeared. A gryphon, a half-lion half-eagle beast. "You killed the dyrad?" the gryphon asked. The banshee was silent.

"Half-demon, if you are truly a friend, assist me in vanquishing this ghastly beast."

"I intend to, with or without your help," I said to the gryphon. I glanced and saw

The gryphon began the counteroffensive, launching a ray of fire from his beak. I followed through with a wave of black fire. The banshee conjured a dark shield. The gryphon lunged, its claws clashing against the banshee's. I rained thunderbolts down on the banshee.

"Heah!" The banshee turned against me. My sword clashed against her claws. As I locked her in combat, the gryphon stabbed her in the back. "Krrah!" the gryphon roared, unleashing a blast of fire that incarcerated her.

The gryphon and I looked at the dead banshee, and then at each other. "So."

"So."

"Karl!" Azalea called out to me. Mr Stormweaver and she approached us. "What happened?"

"So, half-demon. I heard your intentions," the gryphon spoke to me.

"The-the gryphon can talk?"

The gryphon promptly didn't give a fuck to Azalea. "Unfortunately for you, to repel those wards it is not as easy as it seems."

"Does it include another of Morgana's barrier?"

"It is more political than anything," the gryphon said. "Come to my lot. We will discuss it further."

After conferring with Azalea and Mr Stormweaver, we decided to trust the gryphon. He brought us to a place nearby a pond. We set up tent. "Are we seriously taking advice from a talking half-lion half-bird?" Azalea complained.

"He seems friendly enough, and if things go south I trust we can handle it, right, Karl." I nodded weakly.

"Nonsense! Nonsense, I say!" An elder druid walked in. "Gryphon, you cannot convince me. My vote is, and will always be, against."

The druid spat at me, only for me to dodge it (barely). He left. "Not the most friendly chap, right there," Mr Stormweaver said.

"So how does this politicking work?" I asked.

"There are five Elders of the Forest. Well six, counting the druid that the banshee killed. To do anything meaningful, you need the votes of the Elders. As long as the 'yes' votes outnumber the 'no' votes, the motion passes. I have sent messages to the other Elders about this motion to allow you to enter and loot the hidden treasury."

"I assume you're voting 'yes'?" I asked cautiously.

"Yes. I think it's a bad omen to the forest. Better to get rid of it when we have a chance."

"This means we need to convince at least two other Elders to proceed."

"There is another type of vote, 'abstain'. They don't matter, so long as the yes votes outnumber the no votes," the gryphon said. "There are three other Elders. One is an ancient ent. Another is a strong golem. The final one is Erytria, a vampire leader."

"We heard about a goblin tribe here," Azalea said.

"More a disturbance than anything, really. Usually, the ent and the golem stay abstain unless you impress the former or run some errands for the latter. Erytria is a tough one though. At best she might go abstain, but she's very sensitive about the defences Morgana left there."

The gryphon left us with a map roughly showing the Elders' position. "So it looks like the ent and the golem are roughly equidistant to our position, with the vampires' lair being somewhat closer but more dangerous," I pointed at the map.

"I move that we seek the golem first. If we can help him, I think we can get his vote," Mr Stormweaver said. Azalea sighed unhappily.

"Can I-Can I stay in the camp? Please? I didn't expect things to be this complicated."

"It's going to be dangerous, so staying in the camp might be safer for you," Mr Stormweaver said. "Karl, let's go."

Mr Stormweaver flicked his fingers, and his boots glowed with thunderous power. I pulled another card from my sleeves; thanks to my-ehem-strong bonds with Caitlyn, I could manifest bat-like wings, just like vampires. We hastily moved.

"You know, I'm thinking we might get a positive vote from the vampires, after all," Mr Stormweaver said. "You're one of them now."

"I prefer not to count my chickens until they hatch," I replied. "But, from what the gryphon said, even an abstain would help us a lot."

Out of nowhere, the earth trembled. Arrows and magical blasts surrounded us. "The League of Silence again?" I asked as I entered my battle stance.

"Probably. But what of those tremors?" Mr Stormweaver and I stood with our backs against each other.

Out of nowhere a hulking stone golem appeared. A powerful blast took off a few stones. As the situation cleared, we could see that the golem was battling a group of mages from the League of Silence. Mr Stormweaver and I charged into battle.

Mr Stormweaver cast a lull in the battle, before a hail of thunderbolts fried a few of them to oblivion. I fired a few firebolts. The battle devolved into a chaotic meele as the golem took a tree and began swinging it like a madman.

Mr Stormweaver stayed somewhat behind, pelting bombs of thunder, while I worked in conjunction with the golem, sweeping the masked warriors with my tentacles right at the direction of the golem's fists. As the battle turned even more chaotic with the League of Silence summoning minor earthquakes, I joined Mr Stormweaver in the backlines, throwing lust bombs. Ultimately they ran, fearful of the golem's wrath.

We were all silent for a moment. "You helped me."

"Uh, yeah. I think we had the same enemy then," I said.

"You helped me while they harmed me. You have my vote." The golem promptly left.

"Well, that was easier than expected," I commented.

"It's not over," Mr Stormweaver huffed. "Follow me, we're chasing them!" He and I did so, stalking one of the wounded League of Silence member to their hideout.

"Damn it, that fucking golem!" one of them cursed as he entered their hut. "Kanako, what do we do now?"

"What else? Keep on hunting them of course," the woman called Kanako replied. "The League of Silence will not back down so easily!"

"Kanako... she's a formidable hunter of the League. Either of us could probably take her, but with all her associaties, it's risky," Mr Stormweaver said. "We have to lure them out."

"Let's do it then."

And fucking rain fell. "Excellent!" Mr Stormweaver clapped. "I'll rely on you to take Kanako out, alright?"

"Sure."

Mr Stormweaver fired a thunderbolt at a tree, creating commotion. Kanako's men scattered out, and they were claimed by Mr Stormweaver's thunderbolts. I rushed in.

"Heah!" I roared, throwing black flames everywhere.

Kanako was a woman perhaps in her late twenties. She had slightly yellow skin and slanted eyes, her black hair tied into two graceful pigtails. She had a full body armor minus the helmet, complete with an iron choker. If I had had to take a guess, I would have said that she hailed from one of the eastern nations; they were reasonably powerful, but they never interfered militarily. Great trading partners, I heard.

Kanako flicked her fingers and strong ice magic formed, extinguishing the black flames. "Out with it. Cawl sent you here, didn't he?" I roared.

"You will not claim information so easily."

Kanako unleashed a barrage of ice knives, prompting me to raise a barrier of black fire. "Keah!" Ice bursts and fireballs flew everywhere.

"Hmph!" I drew my blade, charging at her. She welcomed my attempt with her twin swords. I greeted her with a lust bomb to her face, scarring it. She replied with an ice knive, slashing my chest.

"You're stronger than expected!" I groaned.

"Same goes to you," Kanako replied. "But this ends here!" She gathered all the ice she could, turning it into a giant ice snake that charged at me.

Concentrating all my mana and my rapidly depleting lust energy, I conjured many tens of dark tentacles, wrapping the snake. I hurled a powerful burst of black fire, crushing it. Pumping all my remaining lust energy, I pushed a large lust bomb onto Kanako, knocking her out.

"Ha... ha...."

Kanako fell to the ground. Suddenly, she held her own choker. The choker got smaller and smaller, as if to deprive her of air. "Aaa-akh-h-help!"

"Hey! You alright?"

Kanako struggled as the choker choked her. I took hold of the choker and unleashed a strong flame from the tips of my fingers. The choker broke into two under intense heat on one place. Kanako reached for her breath. "Oh my."

Mr Stormweaver took the broken choker and examined it. "This thing is designed to kill the wearer once the wearer is defeated."

"What?" Kanako and I squealed, then looked at each other.

"The idea being that the wearer is best left dead than to be allowed to trickle information to the enemy."

Kanako slammed her fist. "Those fuckers!" she cursed. "I-I gave everything for them, and they're throwing me away like this?"

She looked at Mr Stormweaver and I. "What information do you need? I'll tell you every-ugh."

"You're wounded," Mr Stormweaver said. "Let's all rest first."

We took over the League's old hideout. Kanako and I drank recovery potions. The next morning, as Mr Stormweaver went to scout out the ent's position, Kanako visited my room. "So, what do you need?" she asked.

"Why did you come here?"

"To intercept your party, of course."

"Yes, but why? I've never crossed the League of Silence before."

"True, but you have crossed Cawl. Multiple times. And I don't know what our leader is thinking, but for now we've thrown in our lot with him."

"I see, I see." Kanako glanced at me.

"So, um, you used emotional-specifically lust-magic against me yesterday right?" she asked.

"Huh? How do you know?"

"Some hornmen I encountered used it in the past," she said. "Um, I suppose you don't have much lust energy left?" I closed my eyes and focused on the jar. Yes, I only had perhaps 10 percent of my initial reserves.

I nodded somewhat weakly. "Umm, do you want me to help you replenish it?"

"Huh? Well, it's always welcome." Kanako blushed intensely.

"O-okay...." She reached out for my penis. "I-I'll use my hands okay? Guide me. I haven't done this before."

"Oh, you're a virgin?"

"Don't say it so loudly!" she barked, flushing red. She not-so-carefully took hold of my penis.

"Ow!" I gasped.

"Sorry, sorry." Kanako grabbed it more carefully now. She massaged it awkwardly, but the awkwardness in and of itself. Eventually she began to understand.

"Does this feel good?"

"Ah, yeah." Kanako rubbed my penis with her hands rapidly. A faint smile formed on her lips. "But it'd be better to have some visual aid."

"O-oh. You want to see my breasts?" Kanako partly undressed, revealing her large breasts that were previously concealed by her armor.

"They're beautiful!" I complimented her as my left hand seized her right breast, playing with her erect nipples. In response, Kanako's hand movement became faster.

"Aah!" I moaned weakly as I ejaculated onto the floor. "Thanks, Kanako."

"Pleasure." At that time I noticed a medium-sized tattoo, perhaps around the size of the orange star tattoo that Caitlyn, Andrea, and Seira had on their bellies, of a black cicada on Kanako's chest, between her two dangling breasts.

"Is that?"

"A mark of the League of Silence. I wish I could erase it right now, but we perhaps have higher priorities. We have to be careful; I am not the leader of the League here."

"You aren't?"

"No. I'm only the second-in-command. You have taken down a good chunk of us, but there are more."

"Obviously so."

Suddenly, a wave of fire approached from nowhere. Kanako managed to cast an ice wall at the last moment. A horde of spellcasters pelted their spells at us.