Quest towards the demon lands

The next morning, I wake up with a weird feeling at my groin, like a warm wetness. I open my eyes and notice that Amelia is not sleeping next to me, but the covers do have a huge bump in them. I raise them and look underneath, only to see Amelia hiding underneath, sucking on my dick. When she notices, she looks up while still having my dick in her mouth. She gets a little embarrassed and lets go of my dick whispering, “Sorry. I was up early and thinking of last night and how it was a little wild. And your dick was already hard, even though you were sleeping. So, I thought maybe I could experiment a little without anyone judging me for it and …”

I raise a finger to my lips and shh her. Then I gently place the covers back down and lean back. About a second or two later, the warm wetness surrounds my dick again with the bump in the covers moving gently up and down. I am quite happy with how Amelia has advanced in her lovemaking skills. She has always been pretty shy about it. First she only wanted to do missionary and I had to motivate her to try out doggy style. But now she is brave enough to try out a blowjob on her own volition. It is probably because of Kiara.

I look over to my other side and see Kiara sleeping soundly. Whenever she keeps her hood on during sex, she is quite confident and is willing to do many naughty things. I guess her doing all of that in front of Amelia might have caused Amelia to be inspired? Or could it be that Amelia feels she needs to step up her game to be on equal level as Kiara. Regardless of her reasons, Amelia is growing as a sexual partner and I am proud of her.

I close my eyes and enjoy the feeling of Amelia’s blowjob. Maybe next time, she’ll be brave enough to do it without some bed covers hiding her. Damn, I’ve known her since she was a young girl. Back then, people were already making jokes about us getting together. Now that we are grown up, we’re actually here. With all the sexual acts that are involved in a sexual relationship.

I simply wait and let Amelia do her thing, until eventually I cum. I didn’t warn her, because I didn’t want to risk waking up Kiara. Amelia later comes up from under the covers and whisper, “Darx. You came in my mouth.” Accusingly.

“Yeah? So?” I whisper confused.

“So?” Amelia repeats. “I had to swallow it. It tasted all weird and slimey. I don’t wanna do that again.”

“Strange.” I reply quietly. “Kiara never minded it.”

“Yeah well, I am not Kiara.” Amelia responds.

“Neither did Mia.” I add. “In fact, she kinda liked the way it tasted.”

Amelia quickly gives me an angry look. Then she answers, “Next time we have sex, remind me to swallow.”

Then she gets out of bed and heads over to our bathroom to freshen up and get dressed.

When the three of us area ready, we check up on the others. There are a few we have to wait for, Healslut most especially. I guess that bukkake went late into the night. But when we are ready we get a short breakfast and then make our way to the castle. The castle guards are expecting us, having some flying mounts like some Pegasi and even a few griffons, ready for us to use. Livia and Lilith are also prepared to go. After some formal greetings we get on the mounts and head out.

The journey to Oidao takes about 3 days. During the breaks, Healslut uses her mutation magic on us and makes tiny little horns grow on our head. She is clever enough to not grow them on our forehead, but grow them on our scalp instead, so our hair would hide them.

During one of the campfires at night, Leona starts asking about what the demon lands are like. Livia answers, “Pretty much the same as here. We have farmers, craftsmen and laborers, just like you do. Less arable lands, though. And a lot of dangerous wildlife.”

“Sure but, don’t you have a map or something?” Leona asks.

“Uhm, not an official man.” Livia hesitates. “But I have been trying to draw one myself as correct as possible.”

Livia pulls the map out of her backpack and places it on the ground for all of us to see.

“Let’s start at the bottom left.” Livia says. “After we cross the mountains, we will be entering the province of Mictlan. It is mostly made of barren or near barren lands. Farming is difficult here. The only places where it really works is to its northern and western borders. It does have some interesting mineral deposits, hence why this province focuses mostly on industry.”

“There are 5 important places in this province.” The demoness then points with her fingers at 4 spots surrounding the big city on the map. “The 2 on the north and west are large farming communities from which Mictlan gets its food shipments. The third one is at the see, which has a large fishing port. Over on the other side, to the east, where we have the barren regions, is where you can find Mictlan’s training ground for its legion. This is a place we will want to avoid.” She then brings her finger to the city in the center of the province and says, “This is Aztlan, the capital of the province. If we want to get our information quickly, this is where we should be going. We should be careful, though. The provincial capitals are where the Dukes have their palaces and those dukes are always S-ranks.”

Ryul looks up and asks, “Why are they always S-ranks? Do they always have S-rank children?”

Livia shakes her head. “Dukes can very easily have non-S-rank children. But demons also respect strength. If you don’t have strength, you don’t have authority. So the dukes seek to either marry their children to S-ranks and bring them into the family that way, or they try to adopt an S-rank when they are still a child and raise them as their heir. Regardless whether it is through marriage or adoption, the S-rank will always inherit the title of duke.”

“I see. That’s an interesting way of dealing with your nobility.” Kiara replies. “For us, it is always the duke’s oldest child that inherits.”

“Yeah, why is that even?” Livia asks. “I mean, it’s not as if the oldest kid is always the best.”

“More like the nobles are also called highborn, meaning they are of a better breeding then the commoners.” Kiara explains. “They have a tendency of thinking they are physically better and smarter, because they are some kind of higher quality humans. Since they are so wealthy, they can also afford to educate their children by the most expensive teachers, thus they can train their kids to be better at managing a province.”

Livia cocks her head at Kiara and frowns. “I can see how training the kids of nobility in management or economics from a young age can make them good stewards. But the whole superior breeding makes no sense to me.”

“Well, I am not of nobility, so I will not disagree with you there.” Kiara says.

“What about the Duke of Mictlan. Can you tell us something about him?” Leona asks.

“I could, but I am not sure if it matters.” Livia answers. “It has been over 20 years since I’ve last been here. I doub the province will have changed much, but the Duke from back then could have already been replaced by someone else. It would be better if we find someone in Aztlan to give us an update on the current state of the Dukes.”

The lot of us nod, understanding that Livia, although trying her best, can only work with information from 20 years ago.

“What about the other provinces.” Leona asks. “Can you tell us something about those?”

“Yeah, I would like to know too.” Lilith says.

Livia shrugs and says, “Alright.” She then points her finger at the province north from Mictlan and says, “This province is named Elysium. It is one of the 2 actually fertile provinces we have. If it weren’t for these 2 bread baskets, my people would have starved a long time ago. The capital, Arcadia, is famous for its many grain silo’s. Not only is centralizing the grain there a good way for facilitating distribution. But it also makes it so when the Duke’s go to war, they will be unlikely to put a siege on this city. Imagine the duke of Mictlan laying siege to Arcadia and some of the grain silo’s catch fire and burn as a result of the siege. It would result in a food shortage and the other Dukes will all blame the Duke from Mictlan. Holding their grain close is a good way for the Dukes of Elysium to keep the allegiance of the other Dukes.”

“Up here is the province of Sheol.” Livia says as she moves her finger north from Elysium. “Sheol is a very dark place. Literally. The seas surrounding it often have storms and always push dark clouds over the province. The lack of sunlight, together with its barren soil, make it so this province can’t produce food. Well, there are some small portions or barely arable land. But to make farming over there worth the effort, they require necromancers to employ animated skeletons as farmhands.” She then points her finger at Sheol’s capital. “The biggest city in Sheol is named Zerzura. I added a tower there, because the last Duke had a thing for demons that could fly. Thus, she had a large tower constructed from which her army could launch raids if she ever could attacked. Though, with the civil war that happened while I was away, I am not sure if the tower still even stands.”

After moving her finger to the east of Sheol, Livia says, “Here is Inferno. This province is famous for its 2 great rivers. Styx and Acheron. To the north is a dangerous mountain range with active volcanos. The heat and toxic fumes make it both too deadly to cross it on foot, or fly over it. The place is rich in minerals, though. Mages who specialize in magma often travel there to separate the valuable minerals from it, like iron, aluminum and obsidian. Finally, it also has a region famous for its tar pits. It is where this province can harvest asphalt which then gets used in the construction of roads throughout the demon kingdom.”

“Asphalt?” Shalia asks. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll see what it’s like when we get there.” Livia smiles at Shalia. “Just don’t be too surprised. You’ll give away that you’re not a real demon.”

Livia mover her finger east again, towards a city on the map that is surrounded by a river and says, “Here is Antillia, the provincial capital of Purgatory. The river Lethe goes around it, forming a natural barrier which has helped the city during several sieges. Due to the volcanic activity in the region province has access to obsidian like Inferno. While most of the region has difficult farmlands, the south, where it borders the next province, has some orchards, which help keeping its population fed. But it is in no way enough.”

Moving her finger south, Livia points at a city surrounded by a forest and says, “The city of Dinas Emrys, in the province Annwn. The forest is huge and ancient. There have been many proposals to cut some down to plays towns and farmlands or orchards, but the locals simply have too much reverence for their trees. They have also opted to build their cities in the treetops like gigantic treehouses, allowing the wildlife to live undisturbed underneath them.”

Moving her finger further south, Livia points her finger at a city named Aaru and says, “This is where Duat is. It is the other of the 2 breadbaskets we have. It was originally a human province, which we took in the last war and gave it a new name. Many demons today believe the conquest of Duat made the war worth it, claiming that without it many demons alive today would not even have been born.” Livia looks up at us seriously and looks us in the eyes. “Should you come across some demons that are pro war with the humans, better to pretend you support that war as well and possibly remark that it would be good to conquer more provinces like Duat. We can’t afford to anger the wrong people and get into unnecessary fights.”

Livia then moves her finger to the west and points at a city called Stygia. “Avernus. Another province we took from the humans and changed its name. Though this one is not as popular as Duat. It is another place with a lot of active volcanos, like Inferno, but unlike the volcanos in inferno, these push out a lot of black smoke. On days when the volcanos are especially active, they can even cause the clouds to turn red.”

“Sounds like a pretty hellish place.” Leona mentions.

“Apparently it wasn’t always like that.” Livia continues. “A bit further to the south, you can find the ruins of Zrephia.”

Amelia points with her finger on the map and asks, “This is where the ancient capital of the humans is?”

“It is, but it is no longer accessible.” Livia says. “There is a strange aura around the place which makes everybody feel weak. Even animals avoid it. Rumors say this aura and the volcanos there only appeared after the Wicked Princess destroyed the city.”

Something catches my ear. We know the last princess of Zrephia as ‘the Princess of Calamity’. Which is a bad thing. She is not remembered as a hero but rather as a villain. But a demoness like Livia knows her as ‘The Wicked Princess’. So the demons also remember her as a bad person? Now that is rather odd.

“And here at the center, we have Xibalba.” Livia continues. “The province and capital both have the same name. This is also the only place that isn’t governed by a Duke, but by the demon King. It is the political, martial and economic center of the demon kingdom. Politically because the Demon King has final decision on all matters. Martial, because whatever S-rank that don’t become dukes need to swear fealty to the King and work as his agents. And economic, due to the 4 main roads converging there. Hence why the capital is sometimes also nicknamed ‘the crossroad of 4 roads’.”

“And you think that somewhere over here, we can find Zaine?” I ask.

“I do not think it will be easy.” Livia sighs as she puts the map away. “Zaine was a supporter of the old Demon King, so the new one will not have been her friend. My hope is that she has discovered a way to hide, but I fear it might be worse.”

I share that feeling. If she was merely hiding under a different name, the images I see of her in my dream would not be ones of her being chained, or even nude. I really hope this is going to work out and find Zaine. Perhaps then I can finally speak to her in person.