Of Magic and Steel Ch. 01

Chapter One

The fortress city of Loebrigrad was roaring with activity for the first proper war it had seen in two millennia as people were gathering there from across much of the world for the final push against the Archdevil, Balhomet.

Near a large brazier stood a zealot. Wearing a thick fur lined padded black coat, he stared out from the high battlements at the rolling frigid Buraskian hinterlands, the miles of devil blood tainted rocky barren tundra helped to fortify against the devil worshippers from the Northern Wastes.

He combed his fingers through his sugary blond hair as he sighed.

"Knight Captain," a guard called out to him as she came up, "The Lord Inquisitor wanted to speak with you."

He descended the stairs into the baillie, where a couple thousand of the local Buraskian peasants were helping to construct barricades and make traps to stall the enemy for as long as possible.

As the zealot marched through the fortress he took a quick stock of the newcomers. Apart from the seven Imperial Army regiments from the Holy Solarian Empire there were also mercenary companies from several of the Free Cities of Coullomyre, whole Orcish tribes from mountainous hinterlands of Orsenmoar, mages of the Imperial Arcane Universities, Dwarven engineers and warriors from their strongholds, Elven archers from the southern jungles of the Black Arbors... nearly thirty thousand strong in all, hardly half of what the Lord Inquisitor had called for...

Then again, the Imperial Cult declared that the great hero, Augustin Solaria the Dawnbringer, had led an army of freed mortal slaves when he overthrew the First Devil, Baol, over three thousand years ago.

At least that's what he kept telling himself.

Samuel entered the central circular tower keep, the central hearth was a blaze cooking food. He climbed the stairs to the upper floors where Lord Inquisitor De Martocci had been preparing for the battle ahead for weeks on end, reviewing and revising his plans dozens of times over. He stood with his back to the door when the Knight Captain stepped in, looking over a large set of ancient maps. His new golden colored fluted plate armor had arrived yesterday and it looked like the Dwarves had better fitted it to him.

"You called, my Lor-" the zealot started.

"Samuel, please, we've fought side by side for nearly twenty years now," he laughed, interrupting him, "You even saved my ass from those cultists back in the port of Merdyn, that makes... what, six times now?"

"Actually... it's seven," the Knight Captain commented, "Six was the succubus back in Qorle."

"My point still stands, Samuel," The man declared, turning around and facing the zealot,

"I think we're well past titles."

The dark skinned man was several years Samuel's senior, his once very curly black hair had started silvering along the short cut sides and back.

"Uh... okay..." the Knight Captain said, "You called me... Eddore?"

"That... feels weird... but I'll allow it," the Lord Inquisitor commented, before nodding his head, "But yes, I wanted your opinion on something."

Samuel came around the table to look at the ancient map of the battlefield, it looked like the Lord Inquisitor had everything planned out with over three dozen variables accounted for. But, even if lesser demons and devils were mostly brainless rabid animals and the mutant cultists would be more of a distraction than a properly trained army... this would still be a hard won pyrrhic victory at best.

"To tell the truth, old friend," he started, clearly trying to find the words, something that Samuel had never seen before, "I was thinking more about what comes... after."

"After?" Samuel asked.

"So many years spent fighting Him... so many hundreds of thousands if not millions lost, whole countries were devoured under his hordes," Eddore mused, then asked, "What happens after Balhomet is dead?"

Samuel didn't know how to answer that, in truth he hadn't really considered anything past this last battle.

"I know that you'll always strive to make things better, Eddore," he answered.

"I knew you'd know what to say, old friend," Eddore laughed, patting Samuel's shoulder, "Now, go get some sleep, tomorrow's the final push."

The Knight Captain walked along the inner battlements towards his room in the east tower when he felt a presence coming up behind him. Turning around he spotted a hornless Tiefling woman dressed in fitted emerald mage robes underneath a heavy fur lined brown leather coat.

"Lady Elspeth?" Samuel asked, straightening himself slightly, "How... can I... help?"

The pale skinned arcane trickster looked out towards the battle scarred tundra for a moment, Samuel noticed the long twin braids of her fiery red hair were tied over her shoulders to offer some protection from the wind.

"Well, Knight Captain," she started, glancing back at him before saying, "I was rather hoping if I can have a few moments of your time... alone."

"A-alone... yes, of course," Samuel answered, gesturing a hand down a long stretch of the battlements.

The pair walked in an incredibly awkward silence for the better part of half an hour before Samuel commented, glancing up at the blustery sky, "It's... a... nice night."

"What?" The younger woman asked, clearly in her own thoughts.

"I... uh... there was something you wanted to talk about?" Samuel asked, changing the subject.

"Sam, we've known each other for many years now and I've come to greatly care about you," she started, stumbling a little, "But I... just... dammit."

"But?" He asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"You're leaving the Order of the Dawnbringers... but can you love a Tiefling?" Elspeth asked after a moment, her delicate hands lifting up to touch his forearm, "Could you think of me as anything but a Tiefling?"

"I could," he answered truthfully, before quickly adding, "I mean I have thought of you... for many years now... and what I might say at a time like this..."

"Then... what's stopping you?" The young woman asked, leaning against a rampart.

"Well, we're at war... and we both have obligations," Samuel answered, stepping closer with each word, "And I didn't think you'd feel the same."

Her mismatching green and purple eyes sparkled mischievously into Samuel's blue ones as she retorted, "And yet I'm still here."

"Yes... you are," Samuel mused as he leaned in close.

"Knight Captain, sir," a scout suddenly called, coming up a nearby set of stairs, "I have the reports you wanted to see."

Samuel turned around slowly and almost growled, "What?!"

"Y-you wanted to see..." the scout tried to say, but then noticed the sorceress with her face in her hand awkwardly, "I'll leave them on your desk then?"

Samuel glared daggers at the scout as he left before turning back to Elspeth, she started to say something, "If you need to-"

But the man interrupted her by pulling her in close and kissing her lips. The tiefling was slightly stunned by the sudden act, but quickly returned the affections before he pulled back slightly and whispered, a little pathetically, "Sorry... that was... um really nice."

Elspeth stared up at him stunned for a moment before her hand reached up and traced his jawline as she mused, "I think that was a kiss, but I'm not sure... it all happened so quickly."

Samuel smiled and leaned in again for a longer, slower, more tender kiss. Elspeth led the Knight Captain to her private chambers, they pulled off their coats before she playfully pushed him onto her blanket and fur covered bed.

He watched as she removed the cursed ring from her right index finger, suddenly her body shifted into two identical young women standing in her place.

"Now then, shall I enjoy ourself... dearest Sister?" the one with emerald green eyes and a long braid over her right shoulder, Elsana, started.

"Oh, I've been waiting for this day for a long time... beloved Sister," The other one with purple eyes and a long braid over her left shoulder, Edilpeth, replied.

The two women groped and kissed each other sensually as they stripped naked before looking down at their audience grinning.

Samuel watched the sisters as Edilpeth climbed onto the bed beside him and Elsana knelt down between his knees. She unbuckled and pulled down his trousers and undergarments, fishing out his already very hard seven inch cock as her other sister ripped open his shirt, exposing his battle scarred chest.

Edilpeth grabbed Samuel's chin and tilted his head to look into her beautiful purple eyes, she leaned down and kissed his lips with a needy tenderness. Samuel's hands chose their sister, his left one entangled his fingers in Elsana's hair as she kissed and licked his cock as his right hand groped and smacked Edilpeth's heart shaped ass.

"Cheeky," she giggled.

Leaning up and pulling his face into her perky tits, her long prehensile tail wrapped around his forearm. Elsana meanwhile took his cock into her hot mouth and bobbed her head along his length, his cock head pushing into her hot throat.

"We should've done this years ago," Samuel moaned as the sisters brought him up to the edge of his release.

Just then Elsana batted his hand away, allowing the hard cock to slip from her lips as she smiled up at him.

"Why didn't you let me finish?" Samuel asked in slight confusion and disappointment.

"Oh, you're gonna finish, alright," Elsana purred, both sisters getting up and pulling off their soaked panties and flicking them to the side.

Edilpeth straddled his hips and finished, "But not until you've fucked my cunt with this holy hammer of yours."

Samuel grinned as Elsana held his cock steady before Edilpeth lowered her smaller body onto it. Her slick cunt greedily accepting it into her tight embrace, both her and Samuel moaned loudly at the sensation of finally being connected. Angels above just the tightness of her pulsating devilish cunt wringing his cock shot lightning up Samuel's spine and it took all of his strength to not cum that second.

Edilpeth, however, was on the edge of losing her mind, the electrifying pleasures at the sheer depths the cock reached in her small body made her purple eyes roll back in her skull.

"Fuck yes!" She moaned loudly as her orgasm rocked her core.

Elsana came around and straddled Samuel's face, he immediately started kissing and licking at her soaked pussy.

"That looks so good, Sis," Elsana, purred, squirming under their shared link as she groped her sister's perky tits.

"I didn't know holy dick felt this... heavenly, Sis," Edilpeth moaned, leaning back and kissing her sister's lips.

The two sisters kissed and groped each other as Edilpeth adjusted, then Samuel started to steadily thrust into her cunt. The bed squeaked loudly as the trio revelled in their shared pleasure as they fucked their longing out, their hair disheveled and skin soaked in sweat.

Finally, with one last push Samuel shoved his cock as deep into Edilpeth's quivering snatch as he could before shooting ropes of hot cum up deep into her.

The sorceress screamed out in pleasure as bursts of bright fire shot out from her palms for a moment as she came, her body twitching slightly as the last of the hot cum spurted into her pussy before his softening cock slipped out. Elsana also brought herself to a squirting orgasm, spraying Samuel's mouth with her juices.

"So... good..." Edilpeth weakly moaned before collapsing back onto the bed and falling asleep, a large glob of cum pooling out of her flush cunt.

"Got anything left for me?" Elsana purred, leaning down and taking Samuel's cock into her skilled fingers.

Samuel grinned and watched as she brought him back up and ready, she climbed his hips and wrapped her tail around his cock, stroking it back to full hardness.

Suddenly Samuel pulled her up into his lap, Elsana giggled as he lined himself up before pushing her down. The rogue gripped at his shoulders as the hard cock slipped just inside before it bottomed out inside her hot loving embrace.

"Fuuucckk!" Elsana moaned, her pulsating cunt gripping at the zealot's cock as she came, "It IS heavenly!"

Samuel couldn't agree more, his hands digging into her thighs as she started bouncing along his length.

"Yes, keep going!" Elsana happily screamed out, her fingernails gripping at his shoulders tightly enough to draw small beeds of blood as she rolled her hips with each thrust, "Fuck, it feels good!"

The rogue instinctively wrapped her arms around her lover tightly as he ravaged her small frame. They kissed passionately and she moaned encouraging things into his ear. His hands slapped, groped and caressed her asscheeks.

"Elsana," Samuel growled through his teeth as he plowed his love, "I'm not... gonna last!"

Suddenly her pussy gripped his cock hard as she came again which drove on Samuel's own release as his cum spurted into her.

"Fuck that's hot!" she moaned into his ear as she pleadingly rutted their sweaty crotches together, "Can you go again?"

Samuel smiled as he laid her down and started pounding into her still gushing cunt making the bed frame squeak loudly.

"Holy fuck," she moaned, fingernails racking across his back, drawing dark red lines.

Edilpeth's still sleeping body jostled around until she woke up and saw the fun was going on. She smiled crawling up and kissing both of their lips. Suddenly Samuel's pace picked up before he flooded his lover's pussy with another hot load that mixed with the previous one.

"Fuck, that looks good," Edilpeth purred as Samuel pulled out his worn out cock and collapsed beside Elsana, the girls snuggled up on either side of him.

"It feels even better, Sister," Elsana purred to her as she cupped Samuel's cheeks and repeatedly kissed his lips.

"I love you, Samuel," both sisters lovingly whispered as the trio laid there under the blankets and furs before he collapsed into the embrace of sleep.

--*--*--

Samuel was desperately running through muddy streets, screaming and yells of pain flooded his ears as the city of Hangel burned around him.

"Mom!" He desperately shouted, "Dad!"

Suddenly he stumbled upon a creature stooping over a bloody woman on the ground, her innards being pulled into the creature's wide mouth.

The young boy suddenly felt his fear be replaced with an unnatural blinding hatred, picking up a loose brick before charging the short distance and tackling the beast to the ground. Samuel held up his weapon and brought it down into the horrific beast's frog face again and again and again and again, covered in more and more purple blood with each strike. Eventually the vile thing stopped moving and Samuel slowly stood up, the blinding unnatural hatred slowly leaving him.

Before he could understand what he just did though, a nearby house exploded outward as a horse headed demon broke out, bloody viscera clinging to its body. Samuel stood there stunned at the sight, the brick dropping. The demon locked its four eyes on him as it stepped forward. The boy stumbled backwards and landed hard on his back, staring up as the demon lifted a bloody hammer.

Suddenly a bright blue light erupted in the demon's face, making it stagger to the side into another house.

Samuel looked around and spotted a pair of men dressed in bright gold colored armor over black padded clothing stepping through the rubble of a house towards him. The boy knew them, paladins of the Order of the Dawnbringers!

"Vile spawn!" One of them shouted through their great helm, drawing a strange sword with a long curved blade encased in bolts of golden lightning, "I'll drown you in your tainted blood!"

"Woah there," the other said as he knelt beside the boy, he took off his helmet revealing himself to be a dark skinned teenager, "Are you injured, lad?"

Samuel shook his head, "My family."

"Don't worry," he tried to reassure him, helping him to stand up, "We're gathering survivors at a nearby tavern, I'm sure your family is there."

Suddenly the demon howled from the rubble into the burning night. The helmeted one stepped forward, sword raised.

"Eddore!" He shouted, "Get him to safety, now!"

The demon rose from the rubble, snorting and snarling as it picked up its weapon. It looked its black eyes on the new attacker.

"But Father Jauddik!" The teen tried, but was interrupted by the cackling laughter of two more demons that resembled roosters with hyena heads and lizard legs following it through the smoky rubble. One was being ridden by a naked man with bloody red skin, six long gnarled twisted horns, four black bat wings and a long barbed tail.

"You shall not have them!" The man declared valiantly, charging forward, "For Solaria!"

Eddore grabbed Samuel's hand and led him through the destroyed house away from the battle. The young boy looked back and saw the paladin lifting up his sword into the horse headed demon's chest before a blinding light filled Samuel's eyes.

--*--*--

When Samuel woke early the next morning he found the Tiefling sisters had fused back into Elspeth, who had dressed herself and was pulling on her coat.

She noticed him and came around the bed, sitting down she leaned in and said, "I have to organize with the other mages before the attack."

"Right," Samuel said, leaning back.

"Was it a nightmare?" Elspeth asked, placing a hand on his chest.

"They're stronger here... the corruption," he admitted, leaning up he said, "I didn't mean to make you worry."

"You can let me worry a little," Elspeth softly reassured him.

"I've never felt this close to someone else before," he mused, his fingers curling into her sweet smelling fiery red hair, "I feel like I can fight the whole world with you at my side."

"I love you, Sir Samuel Brecharde," she whispered, kissing his lips before pouring out her heart, "I never want to leave you, I never want this to end."

"Marry me then," Samuel declared.

"What?" Elspeth asked, leaning back surprised.

"I love you, Lady Elspeth Blakksaltz of Osoerde," he continued, sitting up and taking her hands, his thumb rubbing along the cursed ring on her right middle finger, "I don't care that your soul was split into two bodies... I love you."

"Samuel..." she whispered, tears in her eyes, before answering, "Yes!"

The two kissed deeply this time, Samuel climbed on top of her as Elspeth leaned back in her bed. Suddenly there was an insistent knocking on the door, interrupting them.

"Knight Captain?" the person on the other side asked, "The Lord Inquisitor requires your presence in his office."

"Right... duty first," Samuel groaned, leaning back.

"We'll continue this later," Elspeth told him, leaning up and kissing his lips, "You had better come back alive or so help me as Larthe as my witness-"

"I intend too, my Love," he returned, kissing her hand as she got up and left.

--*--*--

Samuel swung down his flail upon the pig headed demon as it lifted a corroded scimitar, the smoldering incense inside the spiky head spraying into its patchy black fur and burning away at its putrid bruised and scarred flesh.

The demon screeched in horrific panic, dropping its sword and desperately trying to scrape off the embers and ashes. Samuel kicked out his boot into the demon's sunken chest, sending the diminutive beast back over the battlements. He watched it as it plummeted into the cliff below.

A pair of Imperial soldiers were prying the last of the climbing ladders from between the merlons before it tilted backwards, crushing dozens of lesser devils and demons below.

An Orc berserker grabbed a devil by its broken wings and ripped one out with bits of its bloody spine before a second Orc slammed his hammer into its snarling face. Its head exploded like a grape, purple blood spurting around.

An Elven archer shot a fifth arrow into the chest of a three legged cultist, he collapsed back in a pool of his blood.