Ellori, the Ero Witch of Parthun

Jamminrabbit

"What kind of magical enchantments were so weak that she could just burst out of it?" Mira asked.

Abstinence clutched her head, screaming in apparent agony. Whatever was afflicting her, must have been from Zertos.

"Relax, Elle! We used to serve together, remember? It's Belle!" Belle shouted to her former comrade in arms.

"Hey, you made that rhyme," Mira said

Belle smacked her own face, "That was not intentional. Is this really the time for jokes?"

I smacked both of their heads from behind.

"We got work to do. The barrier won't last, look!" I pointed to the ice barrier where soldiers were banging their weapons on it, cracks snaked up and began to shatter. Other riders made haste to skirt around it instead. Orcs and centaurs were being whipped into helping, their combined strength would break the barrier any minute now.

Mira rubbed her chin as though she had come up with a plan, and Belle was pleading to Abstinence to stand down. If Belle was so confident that the knightess would come to her senses, then she must have a semblance of a moral compass to allow for discourse.

However, that very demonic form of her didn't appear to leave much room for discussion.

"What was Abstinence's strength again?" Mira suddenly asked.

"Oh, uh… Didn't it have something to do with her—" Before I could answer, the knight in question disappeared, then reappeared in front of us, driving a clawed gauntlet into my gut.

The impact sent me crashing to the ground hard. If it weren't for the living robes taking the brunt of the hit, my stomach would have been eviscerated.

Mira and Belle engaged Abstinence with close quarter magical arts, a martial form that allowed witches to stand toe to toe against foes that could easily close the gap. Everytime the knightess disappeared, Mira erected a barrier to block the attacks. Belle took the offensive, condensing powerful spells into fiery punches.

Unfortunately, Abstinence was too quick for either of them. She easily overwhelmed them with devastating swipes that slipped through the barrier's blindspots. 

"I'm not out of the fight yet!" I shouted as black tentacles emerged from my back. It, too, proved useless. Whenever I made purchases on her legs and arms, she would disappear and leave me grasping at air.

"Mraa!" Rio pawed at my legs.

"Not now, Rio— wait…?" I noticed Rio had dug into my backpack and pulled out a familiar wand, the very one that made someone's body overly sensitive. "You don't mean to tell me to use this… do you?"

Rio flew up to me and spat the wand into my hand.

"Whatever you're planning down there, do it now!" Mira shouted.

"Just don't hurt her— we don't know if Elle's death might trigger the opening of the portals!" Belle added.

"If someone were to tell me Demos' stupid orgasm wand would save the day, I would think they were crazy,"  I muttered to Rio. Then I waved the wand in Abstinence's direction. "Here goes nothing… Belle! Mira, move!"

Both of them scattered. Abstinence teleported to where they just were. The wand lit up, as did the knightess. She began to squirm in place, started clawing her own body, particularly at her chest and groin area.

"It worked?! Somehow, I hoped it wouldn't— but I'll take it," I said. But the wand had run its course and turned to ash.

Abstinence fell to the ground. The three of us kept our distance. She clawed at herself, playing an ear-splitting cacophony as metal armor was ripped away piece by piece, until all that was left was a naked woman, drooling from her mouth and hands groping her own body.

"W-What did you do?" Belle asked.

"Ha! So the wand has felled two knights now?" Mira cackled, reminding me of how we broke Aurelias. She kicked the knightess onto her back. Abstinence veins had grown dark and pulsed with foul magic— black magic. She had passed out, yet was still masturbating in her sleep. "I guess I'll grab her. Our job here is done. Shall we pick up our dear priestess and return to Lotherain?"

Not yet. The barrier was on the verge of breaking, but I had to do one more thing. I grabbed onto Rio's leg, and he flew me just high enough that my voice could reach both ends of the caravan.

"Orcs, centaurs, goblins! You're stronger than this, better. Do not settle for enslavement. Cast away your chains, gather your fellows, and head to Parthun. We will not shun you away, we will welcome you with open arms instead!"

The demi-humans did nothing, as I expected. They were far too outnumbered by Juna and Piety knights to attempt any form of rebellion. However, the seed of insurrection had been planted.

Then, much to my surprise, a centaur broke his shackle and that was all it took for the rest to follow suit. The humans were scared at the sudden act of disobedience, but the demi-humans didn't attack them. Instead, they began to abandon the caravan.

I pulled out the igni spell scroll and shot a flare into the sky.

The sound of horns blared in the distance. In seconds, riders on both sides of the road poured over the hills in this direction.

"Alright. Let's go!" I signalled to the others.

As we flew into the sky, I was astonished by the sheer size of the Silver Cross. They numbered in the hundreds. I recognized Quinny leading the charge, her fiery mane of hair trailing behind her. She glanced up and saw us, but we were already too far to see what expression she made.

We returned to a city in panic. Hundreds of soldiers hurried to the southern and eastern end of the gates, while the northern and western gates had been closed, but not before reaching inside ourselves. Citizens barricaded themselves inside their homes, shopkeepers boarded up windows and bolted down doors. In a matter of minutes, the city had become eerily quiet, nothing but the sound of ringing tower bells echoing across empty streets.

No one bothered to pay us any mind since we had changed back into our rags. To them, we were just whores scrambling to get to safety.

Ceris, Io, and Mana were waiting for us outside of the Ladies' Garden. They had four horses ready to go. Mira's head cocked up to the sky.

"Into the brothel. Now!" she demanded.

We fell into the lobby to a number of girls gawking at us. Not a second later, Belle and I felt a chill run up our spine. The sensation lingered right above the brothel, but after another moment of idling, it continued south.

"What was a witch?" I asked.

"Her signature was particularly strong. You don't think she noticed us, did she?" Belle reached for the door, only to have Mira snatch her hand.

Mira's eyebrows wrinkled. She peeked out the door herself and gave us the okay that the coast was clear.

"Well then, ladies. We shall be off." Mira bowed to the prostitutes inside. "You will find Madam Gestain a little more… malleable from now on."

We rode out the northern gate after bribing the guards with a good time, but not before finding out that the city was under siege. Mira wanted to circle around the city and find out who it was, then decided against it when I protested. So she sent Talos instead and caught a glimpse of the army's banner— a sparrow holding a ribbon, an emblem none of us recognized.

It was getting dark. Lotherain was another day's ride away, and figured now was a good time as any to make camp. At least out here, in a remote region of Juna, there was little risk of encountering anyone. The worst we could come across in the savannah were lions, but the bunyips, having returned to their original form, acted as a great wildlife deterrent.

Belle was staring hard at Abstinence. She had been unconscious this entire time, but there was no telling when she would awaken— and no telling what chaos she could cause in this state. Bringing her back with us could very well be dragging a bomb to the heart of our rebellion.

Now that I got a good look at Abstinence, she looked like a normal woman. Of course, she was. I sometimes forget that these witch hunters had faces underneath their helmets.

Eleanor Mycasta. Second in command of the Order of Piety. She looked to be in her early thirties. A short, black bob and sharp eyes suggested she was of oriental descent, possibly from Saquin or Valisca.

"You were desperately trying to get through to her back there. Something we should know about you and Abstinence?" I asked Belle.

"Elle isn't like her more zealous colleagues. She treated me like a sister, tried to understand me. It was like we had a covenant going on. I wonder if that was how Anora— Edith wormed her way into Elle's heart. She'd never bargain with demons otherwise," Belle said.

Mira scoffed. She had been silently smoking from her pipe. Of all people, Mira likely doubted the intentions of the knightess. She was more like Edith than she would like to admit, full of doubt, believing witches were the only true power in this world.

"You don't think a Piety Knight and witch could ever understand each other?" Belle asked.

"Not my place to say," Mira blew smoke into the night sky and watched it dissipate with a sigh.

I sat down next to Belle to watch her friend. "I think it's wonderful. If we had more people— demi-humans, too— understand each other, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess. No one wants war. Hell, I just wanted a nice tree to live in, but then that got uprooted twice."

"Forget understanding each other. Belle will have to convince the knight she isn't some perverted degenerate," Mira said, pointing to the collar.

"Oh, gods… I don't need her finding out about my perversions…" Belle said, burying her head into her hands.

Jamminrabbit