AnnouncementHey girls! My new project Shadow of the False God is now live. I recently posted a new chapter on patreon, my current pn is to post two chapters a day there, and one here until the end of the week. If you haven't already, do check it out! You can find it here“Sex!” decred Kei, just moments before there was a click the wall sliding open to reveal a passage into the room beyond.

  Amy sighed, “Well good job Kei.”

  Mara came close, “Ready to check it out with me?”

  Kei nodded and the pair slipped into the room, checking for traps or monsters that might be hiding within. After a few minutes of searching, Mara called “ALL CLEAR!”

  Amy shared looks with the rest of the party, and they followed the two girls into the room. Her gaze took in the room, noting how the walls were much like the rest of the floor. Solid dark stone bricks with no sign of mortar, four magical torches in sconces provided light to see by. On the far wall raised white stones formed a lovely dias and centrally located on the dias was a rge chest. It looked to be solid wood, the trim inid with silver, while lines of gold formed lovely patterns like a work of art.

  Kei was settled beside the chest fumbling with the lock. Amy moved towards her, covering the distance with quick steps despite the swell of her belly.

  With one st step she stopped beside the chest and knelt down, “Locked or something?”

  “Not really,” she pointed at a small pque above the lock. It was a fancy little clue, and the lock had rotating rings with letters on them.

  “Another letter puzzle?”

  Kei nodded, “Yeah, it’s asking for the vowels we used in reverse order. So part of it’s memory.”

  “I see,” she replied as Kei rolled the st ring to an A. There was a click and the lock released, letting the small catgirl fling the lid open to reveal the contents.

  Something caught her eye, and she reached in to pull out the most well-crafted bow she’d ever seen. Amy barely even noticed Kei pulling out a nice pair of daggers, or Mara and Tammy ciming a pair of swords.

  Her hand ran over the sleek polished wood, it was smooth to the touch and she found it limber when she tried to pull on the string, while taking a good chunk of strength to pull. When she let go, it sprang back to shape, just by the feel she knew this was a good bow. Her hand shaking she used Analyze on the bow, seeking to learn more.

  Item: Demonic Darkwood Longbow (Lust)

  Crafted from carefully selected pieces of Infernal Darkwood that was tended by the ministrations of lust demons and fed the juices of lusty females. This bow has been strung with strands of demonic silk wrapped around a core of demonsteel and the stave has been inid with Lustforged Mythril.

  Effects:

  Superior Durability: Well crafted and enchanted to st, this bow requires little maintenance.

  Perfect Mana Conductor: Lustforged demonsteel and Mythril are both top css mana conductors and the wood of this bow is just as perfect. Allowing this bow to easily channel spells.

  Self Repair: This bow has been enchanted to repair any damage it takes. Ensuring it will st the user a lifetime, if not more.

  Mystical Draw: channeling mana into the bow multiples the effective draw weight of every shot. The more magic spent, the greater the effect.Lust Bolt: Arrows aren’t needed with this bow, by channeling lust mana into the string one can conjure an arrow of pure lust.

  It seemed like a really good upgrade, she just had to try it out. Just not here, there weren’t any good targets, she only had so many arrows and lust mana wasn’t that easy to get. She had some, living here had naturally raised her affinity. A factor that helped her assimite the stuff without being changed by it, not too much anyway.

  Gncing around, she organized her party. “Okay girls let's get a move on. I’d like to find a safe zone.”

  “Sounds good,” said Aidera. “Maybe we could have some fun before we get some rest?”

  Amy gave Tammy a look, who blushed, “Um, sure. Count me in?”

  Several giggles broke out as the group headed deeper into the maze, but they weren’t just having fun. Kei was already hard at work looking for traps, while they kept an eye out for additional threats.

  Milith took a look at the sky, her flight had done a good job getting her some information, there was definitely something Abyssal going on in this town. She still had questions, but it wasn’t the time to ask questions anymore, it was time to act. Only after the threat was dealt with would she have time to dig further. She had a few things to look into, the name Kari certainly stood out to her, but there was also that Cat’s Fang pce. Cat Fang was clearly an important operation of some kind, but for what purpose she wasn’t entirely sure. The only thing she knew for certain was that they were hurting children, something she couldn’t ignore.

  Turning her gaze from the evening sky, she looked around the town as she walked down the main street. Given the hour, fewer people were about. Some were watching her with a weird vibe to their looks. It didn’t feel like the normal distrust of strangers one might get in a small town like this, but something else. Milith wasn’t quite sure what, but the feeling that something was wrong with the town was much stronger now that she was in it.

  Reaching a familiar porch, she saw a pregnant woman knocking at the door. Even from behind, she was pretty but her golden brown hair gave her away. It was that Jill figure her little fly had spied on.

  The door slipped open and the older man from earlier appeared, a gentle smile on his face. “Ah Jill! Wonderful timing, Kari is ready to go. When should I expect her back?”

  “I’m not quite sure yet, but don’t go expecting her in the morning.”

  “Sounds good, just let me know when she’s coming back.”

  “Will do,” said Jill as the man went into the house.

  Milith watched the open door. Was Kari being taken to the Cat’s Fang? Or was there another shop of horrors in town that her little fly hadn’t found? The question rippling through her mind, made her hesitate, but only for a moment. A pn sprang to mind and she waited. Not long thankfully, as a figure soon emerged. A young girl with pale skin, ruby eyes and long white hair. Her figure was petite yet curvy with rge swollen breasts and a rarity in the town: a ft belly.

  The girl stumbled a bit as she made her way out the door. “Hey Jill.”

  “Kari! Ready to go?”

  The girl was still for a moment before nodding slowly, “are we doing that again?”

  “Of course we are, now be a good heart girl and come along.”

  Milith watched them as she cast a quick spell. A complex tracking spell that would not only let her know where Kari was going but allow her to see what the girl was seeing if she so chose. A very useful surveilnce spell, something she’d used before for some fun games. Now that she wasn’t going to lose track of Kari, she headed off towards the fishy inn.

  The Cat’s Fang was all sorts of suspect and she suspected the shop of horrors in the basement was only the tip of the iceberg. Thankfully it wasn’t that far and she was soon in front of the building in question. The windows were dim and the front door closed, a sign was already in front. At first gnce it said, “Closed! Come back in the morning!”

  She frowned, something wasn’t right here. There was this itch she couldn’t quite scratch, for a moment she wasn’t sure what, then it clicked. A smile graced her lips as she channeled a quick spell. Releasing her magic, the sign flickered then morphed, “Welcome to Cat’s Fang. If you didn’t get a room earlier please come back at midnight. Thank you. If it already is midnight, please take your clothes off and head around back.”

  Milith frowned and checked the door. It was locked, she could bust it down easily but that would make noise. Possibly even draw attention, there was a thought about seeing if the back door was open.

  Looking around, she noticed very few people were around so she went to check out the rear. A path off to the side gave her a convenient route to the building’s rear, where she found a sturdy wooden door with an ornate iny on it.

  Milith barely gave it a gnce before pushing in, the door swung open with a creak, revealing a dimly lit room with rows of evenly spaced seats. On the far end of the room was a stage. At the front of that stage was an altar built of dark stone and encased in oily flesh, something wiggled above on the ceiling. It looked like a mass of wiggling snakes and made of the same oily flesh she’d seen around the altar. Mottled with weird protrusions and barbs.

  She wrinkled her nose at the sight, but it wasn’t hard to guess what this was, something to burn. No one was here though, so she moved on, finding a door that led into the inn proper.

  It looked normal enough, no weird flesh or anything like that. The walls were polished wood, and a long worn rug lined the hall. Doors were pced evenly, some closed, others open.

  Milith took a look around, checking the first door she found it was closed but not locked. Peeking within she noted there was no one inside, same with the second door. The third door was open however and she gnced within to find a young woman lounged out on the bed, naked without bothering to cover herself with the sheet.

  She frowned, sure it was quite warm at the moment but didn’t humans have a thing about privacy of the body? Milith didn’t put that much stock in it, but she certainly tried to fit in with other races. Making a note about that she looked into a few more rooms and noted a pattern.

  It seemed if the door was closed it meant no one was there. All of the open doors were occupied and the occupants were typically naked, aside from a couple of clothed men she didn’t find anyone dressed. It certainly gave her more questions, but it seemed the staff weren’t around, so the only ones to ask were the people resting. She left them be for now, and went looking for a certain door.

  It wasn’t that hard to find, and she made her way downstairs. Passing several doors with locks on the outside, she came to the door she had mentally noted down. Milith suspected the other ones had occupants, but she already knew for a fact that a poor girl had been dragged into this one. Sure, there was a chance she had been moved, but Milith had no reason to think that was the case.

  Grabbing the lock, she unleashed her inner fire. Burning psma erupted from her closed fist, the air sizzled as molten metal dripped from her hand to burn into the floor. The rug burst into fme for a moment before the fire was suddenly gone, smothered by a sheet of ice. Releasing the broken lock, she pushed the door open to reveal the room she’d seen from the eyes of a little stelr fly. It looked a little different now that she wasn’t seeing it with compound eyes.

  Not so different that she didn’t recognize it, the iron tub on the left, the rows of shelves on the right. The myriad tools the inn staff had id out upon them, including various needles, cmps, chains, jars full of various gels, creams, and liquids. Along with any number of odd tools she didn’t have a name for.

  True to her expectations the girl was still here, cuffed into a spread eagle position and a pair of needles in her eyes. However it seemed someone had visited her again in the time since the receptionist had dropped her off.

  Two long needles had been pushed into her thighs a long clear tube filled with red blood flowing into a container off to the left. Several hooks had been worked around her eyes, as someone had gone to the trouble of working them out of their sockets without detaching the eyes, some kind of device had been fitted to the base of each eyeball. For what purpose she didn’t know, but Milith could feel the blood drain from her face.

  In a moment she crossed the distance, her mind’s eye already reaching out to scan the girl’s body. The first thing she’d noticed was the girl had lost a lot of blood, they’d been draining her for a while it seemed. The only other thing she noted was her eyes, whatever they’d done had caused a lot of swelling, pain, and blindness. Nothing permanent yet, thankfully. She let out a breath, the girl might be traumatized by this but she’d be fine.

  Grabbing a needle, she pulled it free, while in the same motion channeling healing energy closing the fresh wound pulling it had created. The nasty fuckers had barbed the needle, so that removing it would hurt the poor girl and widen the entry point. Sighing, she repeated the process, before moving to her eyes. Getting the device detached proved simple, getting them properly back into the socket took some doing and a few well crafted spells to speed the healing process.

  The girl blinked as Milith was undoing the restraints, “My eyes? They don’t hurt! I can see!”

  Milith giggled, “Sorry I wasn’t sooner, but gd you are feeling better.”

  Her blood drained, “Nikyi! They still have her! What if they are...”

  Milith gave her a more serious look, “I know, I’ll find her. Care to help me free the other kids, I can feel more of them in the building and they’ve had worse than you.”

  The girl gulped and nodded just as a voice spoke, “You know for a thief, melting the lock is pretty careless.”

  Milith turned to see the receptionist walking in. She had no weapons and was naked, but she seemed confident. It only took a moment more to notice the mana held at the ready, she was a mage, a strong one from the look of it.

  The receptionist paused, “Oh, a healer are we? No matter, I can undo the damage you did and those talents might be useful.”

  “Not afraid I might burn you or something? I did melt that lock.”

  “Why would I fear a mere mortal mage?”

  “Right, well just to be sure, you are a Qayan aren’t you?”

  “Sure am! You’ve heard of us?”

  “A little, but I do have to admit I don’t know much about Qayans.”

  The receptionist smiled, “Oh, well then let me enlighten you, you are pretty cute afterall, and I’ve got a daughter who’d love a cute host. She has dreams of a willing one and who am I to disappoint? Maybe you’d agree?”

  Milith bnched at the thought, but let her talk.

  “I’ll keep it simple, we are wful snakes that love wearing the bodies of mortal women. They just feel so great you know? I look so cute in this body don’t I?”

  Sure if one forgot about the vile snake creature puppeting her around she was cute. Just a hair taller than average with puffy cheeks, long silky hair, small delightful breasts and a lithe athletic figure. “Adorable, sure but don’t think I didn’t notice you hurting kids.”

  The receptionist grinned, “It’s a lot of fun!”

  She just gave the woman a look, then changed the subject, “So doesn’t anything of the host survive?”

  “Sure does! Most of the time anyway, unless the host mind is highly compatible or extremely combative it should survive the process.”

  “I see, and what happens in those cases?”

  “Well in the former, a merging of minds, its rare but highly sought. As for the ter, the host mind breaks under the strain leaving behind a mindless flesh puppet for the daughter to inhabit.”

  “Thanks, that’s quite informative.”

  “So what do you say? Be a host for my daughter?”

  Milith opened her mouth, about to reject that outright when a face fshed through her mind. The Qayan was talking about a child, it might not be irredeemably evil yet. Of course its own mother may have already started corrupting it, but it was young impressionable. Arrietta had been influenced by a god, what was to stop her from giving a little one a chance? “I don’t know... I don’t really know her, you know? We might not get along, or something.”

  The receptionist giggled, just moments before something started to emerge from her sex. It was kinda cute actually, as it wiggled out, behind her the young girl watched her eyes wide. Milith drew closer slowly and reached out, letting it crawl up her hand and wrap around her arm, then their minds touched. In a moment that was both just an instant and an eternity they exchanged knowledge, insights and dreams. She blinked, her mind was... beautiful, but they weren’t compatible either. Still Milith liked the little daughter.

  She looked up at the receptionist who was grinning, “Well isn’t she the cutest thing ever?”

  “Lovely mind, very inquisitive, did you know she has a fascination with pleasure? She’s been pondering the limits of the human pleasure response.”

  “She may have mentioned it, still wish she’d take a moment to understand the joys of pain.”

  Milith just gave the woman a look, all this chatting had given her some time to think. The nature of these Abyssals weren’t the same as Atarli or Tymesians, she was looking at both a foul corrupted creature and an innocent girl. Leaving her with a question, how was she going to separate the innocent from the Abyssal?