Paladin 4: Chapter 3

Cassandra was excited to try out the hot spring beneath Darren’s new cabin. She was so excited that, for once, she kept her dress on all the way there.

Darren half expected to see Sasha, Asuriel, and Morgana still in it from when he’d left them earlier that day, but at some point, they must have got out before they forgot how to walk on dry land after most of a day of soaking.

Cassandra tore her clothes off and tossed them aside before stepping in, and Darren followed her.

“Are we here to bathe?” Darren asked, but he should have known better. Cassandra threw herself at him a moment later, jumping into his arms and wrapping her hands around his back as she kissed him. Her breasts pressed against his chest as he hugged her tightly.

After a few moments, she finally broke the kiss. “We’ll get to the bath... eventually.”

Eventually ended up being a long time away. They kept busy for hours, and they would have kept busy for a few hours more if Darren hadn’t detected someone watching them. He realized who it was, and any tension he might have felt evaporated.

But the same wasn’t true of Cassandra. Her senses weren’t as keen as Darren’s, but eventually, their voyeur got a little too bold and got close enough for Cassandra to hear.

“Who’s there?” Cassandra yelled, a frown on her face and hands over her naked breasts. “Show yourself!”

There was some rustling amid the garden leaves as their voyeur tried to hide herself a little better, but now that Ashe had showed herself, Darren figured this was a good time to finally get her to introduce herself to at least one of his women.

Ashe stepped forward, hand covering her naked breasts just like Cassandra was. She seemed embarrassed about showing her body, though Darren had seen it already. Perhaps she was embarrassed about showing it to Cassandra, but in that case, why was she wandering the garden naked?

“Ashe, did you want to join us?” Darren asked.

Cassandra’s head whipped around to Darren.

“Darren! Did you seduce another slut without telling me?” She poked Darren’s chest with her finger.

“It’s complicated,” Darren shrugged. He glanced at Ashe to see if she would explain. When she didn’t speak, Darren realized he would have to tell the story himself. “She is Asmoth’Koteth. I stole half of her from Kalaziel, put her in my sword, then went to Hell. She died, but the Lady of Darkness helped me fix her. I used my powers to turn her back into a seraph. Now she lives in Melancholy and has been watching us for the last several weeks.”

Cassandra spluttered. “Weeks?”

“Yep,” Darren nodded.

Cassandra blinked and turned to look at Ashe. Then she looked down at herself again and blushed furiously. “Explain!”

“I...” Ashe began, thighs rubbing together as she tried to figure out what to say. She took one step back, but Cassandra waved her hand and activated her Gossamer Strands ability, trapping Ashe in a net before she could run away.

“Got you!” Cassandra said as she jumped out of the pool and pounced. “Now you’re going to tell me the real story! Not Darren’s half-hearted abridged version.”

Darren thought his stories were just fine. People liked his quick, emotionless explanations that skimmed over the general details.

But Cassandra had other ideas. She dragged Ashe into the hot spring, embarrassment gone.

“No! I’m the Prime Saint of Purity!” Ashe protested, finally finding her voice.

“You should have thought about that before paddling the pink canoe in the bushes while Darren and I were having fun!” Cassandra said.

Darren looked around for this pink canoe. He was certain he would have noticed something like that.

Eventually, Cassandra got Ashe talking. She had her retell her entire story from the battle in Salsroth to where they were now, which took considerably more time than Darren’s version of telling the tale. But it succeeded in getting Ashe talking, which was a lot more than Darren had done lately.

Originally, he’d wanted to wait for Ashe to say hello of her own volition, but maybe he should have told Cassandra about her anyway.

The pair of women chatted, and Darren had heard it all before. He was wondering if he should spend the time sorting his Inventory when Cassandra bent over a large rock in the middle of the spring with her ass in the air inches away from his face. That was when he realized he had all he needed to keep himself entertained right there.

“So, you really should have told us what was going on the moment you appeared,” Cassandra said as Darren’s hands caressed her hips and thighs. “Darren, me, Morgana, Sasha, and now Asuriel... all of us are a family, and we need to trust one another. If you want to be a genuine part of that, you have to...” her voice skipped a moment as Darren inserted herself into her soaking wet cunt. “...Be genuine with us and upfront with what you want and how you can add to what we have.”

“A-are you... okay?” Ashe looked on in a combination of fear, arousal, and fascination as Darren’s incredible size nearly split Cassandra in two. It didn’t look like it should be even possible for her to take a man of Darren’s size, and yet he slid into her without the slightest sign of discomfort.

“Yes, dear, I’m fine. But we are talking about you. Don’t worry about me,” Cassandra said as Darren began thrusting into her. “I’m going to tell you what I want from you, and you’re going to do your best to meet my demands, understand?”

“I’m the Prime Saint of Purity...” Ashe muttered, eyes unable to meet Cassandra’s piercing gaze considering the distraction going on just behind her.

Cassandra shook her head, reached out, and cupped Ashe’s chin. “None of that now. Prime Saint of Purity you may have been, but that doesn’t mean you have any greater claim on Darren or any greater standing in the family than the rest of us.”

She sent a look that cowed Ashe into submission, and Ashe hung her head as though she was rooted in place by Cassandra’s Gossamer Strands ability even now, though the effects of that ability had long since faded back into Divine Aura.

How Cassandra looked so intimidating toward Ashe while Darren was taking her from behind was a secret he would probably never know. And frankly, he didn’t really care, since all this trouble of keeping all his lovers happy and coordinated would never be a problem he’d have to deal with. That was something Cassandra always took care of, and he was happy to leave it all to her.

Ashe waited patiently for Darren and Cassandra to finish up, kneeling quietly in the pool's corner all the while. Cassandra spoke with her a bit more, but once her composure had slipped, she turned all her attention to Darren.

Darren’s thrusts became more frantic as he reached climax, and soon he was filling her womb with sticky wet seed. Cassandra had reached her own climax multiple times, and all the pair of them wanted now was to relax in each other’s arms.

“You know, I haven’t had to drink that special tea Morgana, Sasha, and I had been buying in bulk to prevent pregnancies,” Cassandra whispered in Darren’s ear.

“Oh?”

“It turns out, when you reach the fourth order, you can simply decide whether you want to become pregnant. Which is a splendid thing because the tea was losing its effectiveness. I doubt it would work on us anymore.” She ran the tip of her finger along Darren’s chest, tracing the sculpted hills and valleys of his muscles.

“That is good.”

“Mhm, yes. Though I’ve been thinking... we are getting married soon. So maybe it’s time to change my mind about certain things. And of those of us having children, I want mine to be first.” Cassandra glanced shyly up at Darren.

He kissed her forehead. “You would make a wonderful mother.”

Cassandra preened under Darren’s praise, and they basked in one another’s company for a bit.

Eventually, Cassandra took notice of Ashe once again. She’d been watching them quietly from two yards away, hearing everything they said and seeing everything they did.

“You may go,” Cassandra said to Ashe without turning her head away from Darren’s chest. She rested her head against the sturdy muscles of his chest.

Ashe stood from the pool and walked up the stairs, presumably to return to Melancholy.

“But come out again when I call for you!” Cassandra added as she departed. Ashe paused and nodded before leaving, face still covered in a scarlet hue.

“Is she alright?” Darren asked.

Cassandra shrugged. “She came here to watch us, didn’t she? I let her have a far better show than what she’d have gotten sitting in the bushes spying on us from afar. And they were all words she needed to hear if we’re to make her work with us.”

“You’re such a smart girl,” Darren said as he held bounced Cassandra in his lap.

“You should have told me about Ashe sooner,” Cassandra replied, preening once again from his praise. “I would have had much more time to prepare.”

Darren shrugged.

“Oh well. We can still have a bit of fun with this. She clearly likes you. The question is, do you like her?” Cassandra asked.

“She was once a Prime Saint,” Darren replied. “She was on the same level as Kalaziel. That would make her a promising ally if she regained even a fraction of her old power.”

Cassandra shook her head. “Yes dear, I’m sure she’ll be happy to help you crush your enemies. The real question is, do you want her?”

“What do you mean?”

“Pretend I’m her for a moment,” Cassandra said as she wriggled a little in her lap. Her voice became an imitation of Ashe’s. “I’m the naughty little Prime Saint of Purity, who as it turns out, isn’t so pure after all. As a demon, I liked to sacrifice virgin maidens on a giant golden altar by tying them naked to a giant golden altar while my cultists perform a ritual that’s more than a bit on the kinky side.”

Darren chuckled. “Still mad about that?”

“And as a demon, I led an army through the mortal world, raiding and pillaging and probably masturbating whenever I could! So many innocent people were hurt because of my sexual frustration when all I really wanted was a big cock. Specifically, the big cock of Darren Heavengrace.” Cassandra reached down for Darren’s shaft, which she drew from between her legs as she sat on his lap.

He was already half hard again, and when Cassandra cast her healing spell on him, he was fully aroused.

Cassandra smiled as she ran her hands up and down his length. “So I’ll take that as a yes. My dear husband wants to bend a certain little seraph over and claim her for himself.”

“She seems nice. Fights well too,” Darren said.

“Alright then, it’s settled. Still, she was a demon at one point, and I’m not the only woman she needs to smooth things over with.” Cassandra tapped her chin. “Say, do you still have that altar thing from when Morgana and I were captured?”

“And many more like it,” Darren replied. He’d found extra while looting the Seven Hells during his recent quests.

“Perfect. I will talk to Morgana about it and then to everyone else. But, for now, this is the last night I’m going to fuck you as an unmarried woman. Once we’re wed, it will lose the dirty and wrong feeling I know I’m supposed to have when making love before marriage. I want to savor it to see how it compares to after we’re wed.”

***

Cassandra monopolized nearly all of Darren’s time as the girl to be wed. Normally Darren would be averse to such an arrangement and would want to have a few moments with his other women, but of all his women, only Cassandra could enhance the rate at which he cast his Limitless Evolution skill.

He'd done a bit of work with that lately, but he had a lot more to do soon. He'd need to make a new sword as a back up for Melancholy, since his trusty weapon was now serving as Ashe's body. She might want to use it to hover in the air and fight independently for a bit.

Unfortunately, Darren's spare swords in his Inventory were no longer up to the task of slaying the kinds of foes he needed to kill. Most of them were just rare or epic ranked items, and the last time he used something like that on Archdemon Dagon in his giant dragon from the sword had broken in his hand.

If he wanted a weapon he could actually use, he would have to make it himself, so that's what he settled in to do. He had a wide array of ingredients in his Inventory, so he decided he'd just pick an ordinary sword and keep upgrading it until he no longer had the requisite materials.

Limitless Evolution: Item Enhancement

Upgrade Rusty Sword (Common) to Demon Bane Sword (Uncommon)?

Upgrading...

Upgrade Demon Bane Sword (Uncommon) to Demon Annihilating Sword (Rare)?

Upgrading...

Upgrade Demon Annihilating Sword (Rare) to Anti-Hell Annihilation Sword (Epic)?

Upgrading...

Upgrade Anti-Hell Annihilation Sword (Epic) to Hell-Sundering Blade of Annihilation (Mythic)?

Darren was hopeful he'd be able to push the sword all the way to legendary like Melancholy, but mythic was as far as Limitless Evolution would take him for now. To take it to legendary, he'd have to use the sword and meet a few more feats with it, as well as acquire a few ingredients he didn't have the slightest idea how to obtain. Hopefully he'd run into them on his future travels.

After all, if one legendary sword was great, wouldn't having two of them be even better? He'd have one for either hand!

After making the Hell-Sundering Blade of Annihilation, Darren focused on his skill books. Thanks to Laura's help, he'd pushed quite a few of his existing skills to the legendary rank, freeing up the skill slots for new skills, since legendary skills didn't count to his skill slot cap.

That meant he had room for a lot of new abilities, and he had plenty of skill books to fill them with. Only most of those skill books were at the rare rank at best, and Darren didn't want to even consider skills below epic, since he wanted abilities that could reach legendary quickly. Also, getting a feel for how the skill books evolved when upgraded made him a bit more confident that what he was picking up would continue to be useful to him even after he upgraded it.

So, he spent the rest of his time upgrading his collection of skill books. Cassandra had to stay in intimate contact with him all while he was performing his Limitless Evolution upgrades, but fortunately she found ways to amuse herself when he was busy fiddling with sigil menus.

"Impale me on that thick cock, Darren!" Cassandra moaned as she straddled his waist and wriggled her ass against his groin. They'd been going at it for days on end with only a few brief breaks for her to cuddle in his arms, never breaking contact the entire time. Darren had been able to cast Limitless Evolution without cease all the while.

But all good things had to come to an end, and it was a little unfair that Cassandra got all of Darren's attention. Even Thalia, Darren’s other bride, barely got to see him in the days leading up to their wedding. Sasha, Asuriel, and Morgana had to lead an intervention just so Thalia could get Darren for lunch and tea.

The brief break at least bought Cassandra some time to speak with Ashe. Cassandra was the only one Ashe really spoke to, though Darren was pretty sure that was just because Cassandra was the only one who could get her out of the sword.

Despite being a former Prime Saint, and Cassandra being a mere fourth-order priestess, Cassandra had firmly established herself as the woman in the superior position. Darren checked in on them through Cassandra’s sigil, looking through her eyes while he was waiting for Thalia.

“Now, pay careful attention,” Cassandra instructed. “I will teach you how to treat Darren right. I won this secret knowledge through many hours of hard work fucking, so you’re really taking advantage of my generosity here as your teacher. A cute, fresh-faced girl like you cannot impress him without my help.”

“Yes, Cassandra! I’m taking notes,” Ashe replied as she scribbled furiously on a piece of paper while Cassandra held her hands up as though she were holding a thick rod, asking questions now and again."

Apparently, Cassandra was playing at being Ashe’s teacher. Before, Darren had been certain their relationship would have gone the other way around. There was a lot Ashe had to teach his other women about controlling Divine Aura. Sasha’s formal training only went up to controlling Divine Aura up to the third order, and Cassandra had only been trained up to holy adept. Morgana was entirely self-taught from the beginning. Having a skilled teacher with centuries of wisdom would help them all.

But instead, Cassandra had taken the teacherly role and was now teaching Ashe about how to have sex. Whatever made them happy, Darren supposed. He was glad that they were finding peace. Since coming here to the capital of the Blackwind Empire and emerging from his training in the Seven Hells, life had been rather calm. His forces had taken control of the Blackwind Empire, quietly arresting Thalia’s wayward siblings and keeping them in Limedeep where they couldn’t cause any more troublesome rebellions.

A few had amassed small armies, terrorizing the local lands. They acted enough like bandits that Darren had no problem putting out a few quests to have their bands of outlaws broken up and destroyed.

They were Thalia’s siblings, though, so Darren let them live, especially the ones who’d only been in hiding instead of out to cause trouble. They could leave the Blackwind Empire’s capital once Thalia was secure on the throne. And that day looked like it would come very soon. Fast and mobile sigil-wielders quickly restored law and order throughout the entire Empire. They hadn’t had time to visit every little town and village yet, but all the major cities knew Thalia was ruling in her father’s stead in the Blackwind Empire’s capital.

Now that local garrisons were being paid and equipped again, the Blackwind Empire was well on the road to recovery. Between it, Limedeep, and his deepening relationship with the cities of the Northern Trade Union, Darren dominated a full half of the Sacred Seas. Centuries of planning by Kalaizel and the Order of the Rod had come undone just like that. The only nation still truly under their control was Whiteguard and the main island of the Golden Temple at the mouth of the Greater Sea.

The Eastwood Kingdom was still a mess after demons overran it decades ago and then again, more recently. It probably wasn’t much use to anyone, though Darren wanted to clear it out all the same. There was also the city-state of Marsa to the southeast of the Blackwind Empire, but the Golden Temple barely considered them part of the Sacred Seas, and some rumors said they occasionally worshiped foreign gods. The same was true of Angelless, the city far south of Limedeep.

Kalaziel wouldn’t be there, though. Perhaps he hoped to claim those regions after securing the nations at the core of the Sacred Seas, the Blackwind Empire.

Darren had half expected to confront him in the Blackwind Empire’s capital, yet he wasn’t there. He expected his scouts to run into him while bringing order to the Empire, yet he was also missing there. Thalia’s spies couldn’t find him in Whiteguard, and the other body he sent to the Northern Trade Union hadn’t heard word of him either.

So where was Kalaziel? And what exactly was he up to?

“Sorry to have kept you waiting,” Thalia said as she sat down. Darren opened his eyes and smiled back at her.

“What troubles you?” Darren asked when he saw the tension between Thalia’s brows.

“Just all the details. Undoing thirty years of bad policy, followed by a secret demonic invasion, is a lot of work. Collaborators must be drawn out and executed, and we must hire new people to replace them. That kind of thing,” Thalia sighed. “Fortunately, the people Cassandra lent me are quite capable. Unfortunately, I had to beat some of them off with a stick just so I could come here for lunch with my husband-to-be.”

“I’m glad they are eager to help you,” Darren said. “I can help too.”

Thalia laid a hand on his. “You’ve already done more than enough, Darren. You’re still doing more than enough, really. Do you think I could hold this throne on my own? There have been empresses who ruled on their own before, but all of them had a tough time winning respect, particularly the respect of the military.

“But if any brawny man with a sword spreads words of trouble for me, all I have to do is tell him that if he has questions, he can speak to my husband-to-be. Watching their faces go pale, their hands shake, and cold sweat trickle down their necks is funny. You’ve amassed quite a reputation among the fighters of the Empire. And to be honest, the Blackwind Empire is a shell of its former self, so we’re dependent on your original forces from Limedeep. While they may be small in number, they make up for it because so many of them have powerful sigils.

“Not only that, they’re incredibly loyal to you. The only reason so many of the wealthy lords and merchants showed up for our wedding is because they’re terrified. It’s quite clear to those who know these things that you’ve seized complete control of the Empire already, though most common folk don’t realize it yet.”

Darren shrugged. “Their merits are their own. But I am proud to have them serve me.”

Darren was impressed by how much Thalia said, just tossing around his name and lending her a few of his people had accomplished. He really had done little beyond hanging around the palace, but for Thalia, that was enough.

After that, the conversation turned to lighter things, and to the wedding the following morning. Thalia was anxious, as was Darren. He’d seen weddings before but never really been to one. Still, they’d rehearsed everything they would do three times already. That was more times than he’d had to practice fighting Asmoth’Koteth or Prime Saint Sydyk. A wedding couldn’t be that much harder than fighting some of the most powerful beings in the Sacred Seas to the death, could it?