Paladin Ch. 03: The Demonic Fight

It's boring having been left behind, with nothing much to do until Simon's return. Boredom isn't something Raya is used to feeling in Zeff's keep. Whatever his flaws, he was endlessly resourceful at finding ways of keeping Raya occupied. Unpleasant, humiliating, sexually exhausting ways usually, but still - not boring.

Old habit has her taking an appraising look around the room. It's dusty. Dust accumulates quickly in a stone keep like this. Well, that's somebody else's problem now. Or nobody's problem. That's what her brain said, but still, it takes conscious effort to resist the urge to get a rag and start scrubbing. There's no Zeff around anymore to punish her for not maintaining his standards of cleanliness.

So Zeff is really gone. Oddly, she feels nothing. Neither sadness nor happiness. He got what was coming to him, she supposes. That's how the story always ends for the bad guys, it isn't exactly a surprise. Surely nobody signs up to warlock school, or however they get into the business, without knowing how it's going to inevitably end.

She'd been his captive for the last three months; his cook, his maid, his sexual plaything, and occasionally his labrat for magical experimentation. But despite that, she wasn't particularly glad he was dead. Just as the warlock's role is to be slain by the hero, the damsel's role is to be distressed. From that perspective she could hardly be upset at Zeff for capturing her. Though she did get the impression that her stay with Zeff had perhaps been a bit more... intense, than was strictly usual for these sorts of situations.

Raya's eyes settle on the dildo chair. How many evenings had she spent, bouncing up and down on that rod for Zeff's amusement. Sometimes forbidden to cum, sometimes made to orgasm over and over, sometimes bound, sometimes silenced. Until Zeff got tired of watching, and dragged her to bed, or ordered her into a new sexual perversion, or simply left her to her chores. Yes, intense was a good word for it all.

She's eyeing the dildo hungrily now, still horny from earlier in the evening. It was Zeff's final torment, in a way - and one he would have approved of. The white knight of her dreams finally arrives, and of course, it's to find her naked and frantic after hours and hours of sexual torment with no release - and then he acts like a gentleman and refuses to fuck her. Perhaps one last ride on the chair...?

No, Raya is going to behave herself. Maybe she'll read one of the books Simon left. They all seem like impossibly boring religious texts, which ought to be perfect for killing the mood. "Lumentis' Commentary on the Twin Lake Codex" is the first title. Oh good, Raya thinks sarcastically. I haven't read this one yet.

She does her best to focus on the pages, tedious as the writing is. If nothing else, Sir Simon will hopefully start thinking more highly of her if he sees her reading when he returns - so far she's given him no reason to think she's anything more than an air-headed sex-crazed bumpkin, and if they were indeed going to live happily ever after, there had to be more than just sex between them. Although... sex between them sure would be a nice start.

"Don't speak, don't make a sound."

The commands are hissed in a raspy voice, and so startle Raya that she immediately disobeys, yelling out in shock - only to have her shout choked out by a tightening collar, as the magical artifact around her neck reacts to her violation of the command.

Gliding smoothly into the room, Zeff looks angry and dangerous. His normally immaculate black robe is tattered and burned, and half of his thin black beard is simply missing. He looks pale and shaken, but his eyes are bright and alert, darting to and from about the room. And he is very much not dead.

Under a command of silence, Raya can't ask the obvious question. But Zeff anticipates it anyway, and answers. "Not quite as dead as you and your little hero thought I was, hmm?" he murmurs at her. "I wouldn't be much of a warlock if I didn't have at least a few tricks up my sleeve for cheating death," was the only explanation he seems inclined to give.

Zeff waves his wand about, casting something dark. The words make Raya's skin crawl, even though she doesn't know them, as he paces about the room, poking the wand here and there until he seems satisfied. "That should take care of the wards," he says. He picks up the holy symbol that Simon left on the table, gingerly, as if afraid it might burn him. "Not that those wards would have stopped much more than an angry rat. I'm afraid your hero didn't leave you with as much protection as he should have."

Raya, still lying on the floor clutching her throat, quails as Zeff turns towards her with an evil smile. "He overpowered me earlier, it's true. He took me by surprise, and I fear I misjudged him. But let us see how things turn out when it's me springing the trap on him." He thinks for a moment. "And I think I know exactly the right way to bait it."

His mind made up, Zeff starts moving rapidly and barking out orders. "Sit down over there - on the floor, back against the wall." His wand is in motion as he's commanding Raya, no doubt on some sort of awful trap for Simon. "Wait - take your outfit off. I want you naked for this. Leave the heels on." Zeff is tracing the outline of the two doorways into the room with his wand now. The way Zeff positioned Raya, she's opposite the main door, which Simon would be most likely to use. He'll be staring right at her as he entered.

"Spread your legs now - wider, wider." Raya has no option but to obey; she opens her legs, lewdly displaying her bare pussy. She doesn't like where this is going. "Now, start playing with yourself," Zeff orders. "That's how Simon is going to find you when he walks in - the perfect distraction. Here - use this."

Zeff throws something to Raya, and she blanches when she sees what it is - Simon's holy symbol. A statuette made of polished stone, depicting a hooded nun with reverently lowered head, and hands folded together at her chest, a supplicant in prayer. Eight inches of long, thin, polished stone - it was indeed extremely phallic. Raya had long ago noticed this was true of a surprising number of different holy symbols.

Hating herself for it, but with no choice, Raya takes the holy symbol and obeys Zeff's orders. It slides easily into her lubricated pussy. "Faster" Zeff demands, and Raya speeds up. "Make it look like you're enjoying it. Not that a slut like you needs to pretend. Get yourself to the edge, then keep yourself there. No orgasm. We'll save that for a celebration later, when the paladin is dead. And remember, not a sound until the trap is sprung."

Raya wants to sob; it's all too much. She thought she was saved, rescued at last. But not only is her captor still alive and seemingly well, to be made turned into a trap that would cost the good Sir Simon his life, and to be forced into this lewd sex act at the same time... it's all too much. Silent tears begin to drip down Raya's face.

But she can't not obey. With deep thrusts of the holy symbol dildo, she drives herself on towards orgasm. Raya is well practiced in the subtle arts of self-pleasure from the year she'd spent in the monastery, and she has no intention of tempting the collar by not doing her best to obey Zeff's order.

Raya suddenly notices that Zeff is gone. She wasn't aware of him leaving, or disappearing, but one way or another - the room is now seemingly empty again, to all appearances just an ordinary dining room. Well, ordinary except for the naked girl against the wall committing blasphemies with a holy symbol.

She closes her eyes, and does her best to shut off her brain. That's the easiest way, she's long since discovered. No sense thinking about what she's doing, if she doesn't have a choice in it. Just go along with it, lose herself in the here and now, don't think about Zeff or Simon. He'll be fine. The hero wins in the end, everyone knows that. Sometimes the villain appears to have the upper hand, but he neglects to consider the power of friendship or something, and the hero triumphs. It isn't Raya's job to figure out how.

It's her job to obey the collar: Enjoy it. Get to the edge. Don't cum.

Raya uses one hand to rub little circles on her throbbing clit, as the other continues to pound the holy dildo in and out of her wet snatch, the squelching sounds loud in the otherwise silent room.

Enjoying it isn't a problem, even despite the circumstances. Her brain may not want this, but her body definitely does. Raya has been craving something long and thick and hard inside her for hours, and her body responds immediately to the stimulation. Getting to the edge - also not a problem. Already she can feel the orgasm beginning to rise, and she slows her pace to make sure she doesn't accidentally pass the point of no return.

But don't cum? Fuck! What's going on today? First the tease illusion in the bed, then holy Simon and his virtue of chastity, now Zeff again. Why won't anyone let her cum? Humiliating her and making her into the bait of a paladin trap is bad enough, can't she at least get some release out of the deal?

Unfortunately, getting mercilessly edged was anything but out of the ordinary for her imprisonment in the keep. Zeff never seemed to get any particular pleasure out of denying her specifically, but he did very much enjoy humiliating her, and also having her desperately eager to be fucked. And since orgasm denial usually achieved both of those it was often on the menu. At least it rarely lasted much longer than it took for Zeff to wrap up whatever magical thing he was working on and finally give Raya the fucking she needed, but by this point it had been going on all day already, and Raya was more than ready to explode. If only the collar would have allowed it.

Raya's pace is much slower now. It has to be. She feels her pussy clenching around the holy dildo with every slow teasing thrust, begging for harder, begging for more - pleas that Raya answers by slowing her pace yet again. She's stopped rubbing her clit. It's rock hard, standing out from its hood, begging for attention, begging to be touched - so of course she doesn't, teasing all around it, not allowing herself the final bit of stimulation she needs to go over the edge.

Her hips are thrusting lewdly into the air, begging for more, more, but her hands aren't operating under her own power - they're under orders to be as cruel as possible, and they are very very good at their job. Raya is beside herself in desperation, wordlessly pleading for an orgasm that nobody will grant.

"Raya?!"

Simon's shocked voice echoes in the still dining room. Raya's eyes blink open and she meets his gaze, her face going bright red with humiliation. But she doesn't stop - she can't stop. Her fingers keep caressing, and working the holy dildo in and out of her, and she's just as powerless to stop her hips grinding against the night air. She has to warn Simon - but how, without making a sound. She begins frantically blinking, but Simon has his attention elsewhere.

"Is that - Good gods, Raya, is that my holy symbol?! That's -"

With a sudden crack of thunder, twin black bolts of energy streak out of the darkness from the doorway Simon entered from, catching the paladin squarely in the back to send him reeling forward. Another bolt of energy follows, catching him on the shoulder and spinning him around.

With the trap sprung, the commands on Raya are lifted. "It's Zeff!" she screeches. "He's alive!"

Simon has already recovered both from the surprise and the energy bolts, and he's now facing the doorway through which the bolts have come, his two hands empty and held high, chanting rapidly. A burst of brilliant light floods the hallway as he finishes his spell, but nothing is revealed. The energy bolts came from that direction - but where is Zeff?

A sickening ripping noise sounds from the left, from the other entrance to the dining room. Simon whirls, already chanting, as something red and pulsing and massive lumbers into the room. Raya instantly knows its a demon; she's seen illustrations on the covers of some of Zeff's book, but they didn't prepare her for the stench of brimstone and death, for the drool and bile dripping off its fangs, for the look of utter mindless malice in its wild yellow eyes. She shrieks, and furiously backs herself into a far corner of the room, as far from the summoned monstrosity as she can get.

Simon's first spell is completed, and a blast of wind flows from his hands, slamming into the hellspawn. It pauses in its tracks, monetarily stunned, then seems to shake it off and continues its slow, malicious advance on Simon.

He's already preparing his next spell though. Another holy symbol has been produced from somewhere, and it disintegrates into nothing as he finishes casting. A semicircle of liquid light now surrounds Simon, some form of protective shield.

More bolts of energy stream out of the main entrance. While Raya has been distracted by the summoned demon, somehow the magical light Simon had summoned has been dispelled, so this fresh attack is lancing out of the darkness again. It splashes up against Simon's shield, which flickers briefly but holds.

Simon has a mace up now, while Raya cowers in the corner. He's chanting again, and the mace is glowing blue, more and more strongly as Simon chants on. The demon is now at the edge of Simon's shield, testing its strength with its huge talons. Still the shield holds, but surely its strength is finite.

At last Simon's spell is done, and his mace now pulses with a holy light that permeates every corner of the room, and makes the demon shrink back. Simon steps through his own shield, and swings wildly, catching the demon in the flank. The demon staggers but doesn't go down; it lashes out at Simon with a claw, and then with its tail - the tail connects, wrapping around Simon's leg, sinking its barbs in, and Simon goes down hard.

But he doesn't stay down - his mace connects with the demon's tail, and the demon howls in rage and pain and pulls its tail back, freeing Simon's leg. The paladin staggers to his feet, and is on the demon again. The two fight in close quarters, and Raya can't follow the action; mace and claw and tail whipping through the air, sickening sounds of heavy blows on flesh, red blood and green ichor flying.

The two fighters at last fall apart, and both look to have suffered greatly in the melee. The demon is missing a talon and part of its tail, and one eye looks dull and lifeless. Simon's clothing is torn and shredded, and blood drips from multiple wounds. Still, he has enough presence of mind to duck behind his shield again, just as a fresh volley of energy bolts blast out of the darkness. Zeff is still out there, lurking - likely he was biding his time to get a clear shot, when Simon was engaged with the demon.

Momentarily safe behind his shield, Simon downs a potion from a pouch at his belt, and begins to chant again. Despite his wounds, his voice is strong and clear, and it grows in strength as he chants on, until he is shouting and pleading at the heavens. On the outside of the shield, the demon is content to prowl cautiously, making no move towards the paladin, wounded and wary of what might be coming next.

Simon concludes his shouted prayer, and with a deafening thunderclap, the demon disintegrates into a pile of red dust. Simon staggers backward, and collapses onto the floor. Whereas a moment ago he was shouting his spell loudly and lustily into the night, all the strength seems to have gone from him now; he looks pale and drained.

Raya rushes over to him, cradling Simon's head in her hands. "Simon - Oh, Sir Simon, please, you have to be alright..." What can she do? Should she see if Simon has more potions? No, messing about with unknown potions definitely doesn't seem to be a good idea.

But Simon's eyes are open, and he's smiling. "Don't worry, Raya," he whispers. "There's plenty of fight in me yet."

To prove his words, Simon rises to his feet, staggering only a little. He steadies himself with one hand on the wall. "Zeff!" he screams, and Raya hears real anger. "Your little pet is gone! And now, I'm coming for you!"

Chanting again, and with his mace held high in his head, Simon is striding towards the main door, seemingly gaining his strength back with every step. The hall is once again flooded with holy magical light, and again Zeff is nowhere to be seen.

Simon pauses in the entrance, and casts another spell, and then another. But no attack springs out of the shadows; there's no sign of Zeff.

Simon returns to the dining room, suddenly looking as tired as he had when he'd collapsed next to Raya. "He's gone," he gasps, fighting for air. "For now. We're safe, for the moment."

Raya is on her feet in an instant, running to Simon, pulling out a chair (not the one with the embedded dildo) for him to collapse into. "Oh, Simon!" she gasps. "You - you saved me again. I'm so sorry, Zeff surprised me, and he used the command collar to make me - to make me - to set a trap for you, and good gods, you're bleeding so much, how can I..."

She trails off as Simon lays a stilling hand on her shoulder. "You did nothing wrong," Simon tells her. "It's my fault - I shouldn't have allowed us to split up. I should have used better protective spells. I... I fear I wasn't completely honest, I led you to believe Zeff was dead, because I wanted you to feel safe. I suspected a warlock of his power would have some contingencies, but I didn't think he'd be able to regain strength so quickly."

"But - but we're safe now?"

Simon nods. "He disappeared as soon as his summoned demon was slain. A summoning like that would have required a part of Zeff inside the demon, and when it died, it took that bit of Zeff with him. Zeff has already been slain once today, besides that. He is weak - weaker than he's ever been, most likely. He's hiding now, licking his wounds. But plotting, I have no doubt. We are not safe, not as long as we're in his keep. But for now, he's in worse shape than I am."

"My lord," Raya says. "You are badly wounded. May I help bandage you?"

Simon hesitates, then nods. "Yes, I think so. These are flesh wounds, not too serious - but they need to be treated until I have the strength again for magical healing. Thank you, you will find supplies in my pack."

Raya quickly rummages through Simon's things until she finds the first aid kit. She helps Simon out of the remains of his shirt and trousers, which are beyond repair. At Simon's direction, she begins rubbing an ointment into his wounds which makes him groan and stiffen, but he bids her to continue.

Almost immediately, the familiar ache is back between Raya's legs. She can't help it. It's not her fault. It's biology. What woman could resist a strong tall hero like Simon, risking his life to save her from peril? Even under the best of circumstances, let alone a woman who'd just spent... she didn't actually know how long, maybe thirty minutes, holding herself on the edge of orgasm, forbidden to cum, at the command of a sadistic warlock. And she was naked, and now the hero was nearly so, and she was massaging oil into his hard muscles, and she couldn't seem to keep her eyes away from the bulge in his underwear, and...

And holy fuck she was horny. How could she not be? This was exactly why Zeff did things like this to her. Of course he could chain her to his bed and have his way with her any time he wanted. But he preferred sex slave who was not just available, but willing, and enthusiastic, a sex slave who would grovel and beg for cock not because she was ordered to, but because she really and truly wanted it. And that was the point Raya was out now, only instead of Zeff there was Simon, which should have been better but somehow...