1 Meeting the Demoness

Amid the scattered bodies a lone figure is seen standing staunchly against the rain. He's wearing a torn black cape, tarnished metal armor and holds a dulled blood covered axe. He picks up a drab crown and places it on his head, seemingly indifferent to the blood on it. He was Count Agist, the young count of the fiefdom of Agistania, part of the Feldland Kingdom.

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Count Agist's late father, Duke Agist, groomed him well, taught him to lead with an iron fist and had many instructors train him to fight with a massive executioner's axe. Initially Count Agist resisted his father's teachings and thought that the people would respond well with logic and reason; however, time and time again the people proved to be too stubborn and dim witted as a group to understand logic and reasoning.

When he first became Duke, Count Agist used his power for good and created several laws that guaranteed basic rights for all commoners. While the nobles were not fond of the idea of giving more power and wealth to the commoners, it had proven very successful as other fiefdoms within Feldland were having trouble keeping commoners since they were treated so much better in Agistania.

Titles were normally hereditary so Count Agist should've inherited his late father's title of Duke. Unfortunately due to the jealousy of his fellow nobles, the nobles were able to convince the King to drop Count Agist by one rank. Their reasoning was that the son of Duke Agist wasn't up to his Father's level so it would be more fitting to bring him down to a Count. Of course the real reason was the other Dukes wanted to remove any other Duke when possible to have more power for themselves.

What should have been a simple misunderstanding had quickly escalated to fighting. With his father passing and him being made lord of the realm at a very young age, the population was trying to push their own agendas thinking him weak and would end up fighting amongst themselves. This was one of many disputes recently and not the first one to end in violence.

Count Agist raised his voice as loud as he could. "Good people! Stop this madness!" Count Agist yelled as the commoners around him continued to bicker and in some cases even use their farming tools on each other.

One farmer yelled "We want to ignore the local Lords and governors! They only line their own pockets when the King is the only one that should collect our taxes!"

A lower noble yelled "We still manage and protect you! How can we feed our army if we don't get taxes!"

Another farmer yelled "Sod off! We know most of you have several concubines!"

A knight stepped in front of the lower noble and said "I can vouch for milord, he has nary laid hands upon any lady, most find him quite detestable!"

Unfortunately the noble took offense to this and kicked him in the back which pushed him into the crowd of angry farmers. The knight tried to pull himself back but was instead getting shoved around by the commoners. Some of his fellow knights tried to help him out but it only made things worse as more and more commoners started to jostle with the knights.

Count Agist was getting frustrated, his arguments were being ignored, and his yelling was being listened to by nobody, especially the nobles. He had initially thought to endear himself to the commoners, but the nobles instead spread lies about him to the commoners making him disliked and ignored for the most part.

Scenes similar to these happened every time Count Agist went to the small villages in his fiefdom to collect taxes. He wanted to maintain order and control of the fiefdom the King of Feldland had given him.

Count Agist almost didn't want to leave his manor to try and collect taxes from the next village. He decided that he would be much more aggressive and not be gentle this time so he wore his plate armor and hefted his black executioner's axe, Last Stand, onto his shoulders and would lead the caravan fully armed and armoured.

The Last Stand was his father's legacy, he inherited it after his father's passing. This axe was named 'Last Stand' because of a curse, that was placed on it that would invigorate the wielder the more blood that was spilled. As long as you could spill blood, you wouldn't fall, or at least that is what Count Agist's late father told him.

As Count Agist and his small troupe of tax collectors and knights approached the small village, Count Agist could see the commoners already getting riled up, some even carried farm tools and other items that could be used as weapons.

Count Agist thought he heard a whisper from behind him so he immediately turned around and saw nothing but a group of confused knights and tax collectors. He heard the whisper again, this time coming from his shoulder, it sounded sweet and feminine, but he knew it was anything but.

Count Agist stopped the troupe and then thought maybe it was coming from his executioner's axe, Last Stand, due to the curse that was placed upon it. He put the axe down and stepped away from it, but the whisper actually got louder and he could start to understand it.

Not wanting to panic his men, Count Agist started to scream in his own head "I want no deal devil! Be gone!"

"..." Count Agist received silence in reply and thought whatever it was had left. He then picked up his axe and continued towards the town when he suddenly spotted a female figure walking... no... floating while stepping through the air, she had a voluptuous body, one that any man would desire, but her skin was a soft purple and her body covered in a shroud of black smoke. Her face was too perfect with full lips, soft cheeks, and piercing yellow eyes with long jet black hair that draped down her body. Count Agist knew she wasn't human and was a demon, but only he could see her.

Count Agist started to get panicked slightly when he realized that nobody else was even moving anymore. Gathering his courage, he called out to the demon woman "Be gone Demon! You are not welcome here!"

The demoness pursed her lips and pouted before playfully gliding up next to Count Agist "Awww, but I came just to see you..." she said in a very seductive tone as she lightly raked the tips of her fingers as if they were claws across Count Agist's chest.

"J-just for me?" Count Agist was taken aback, but he quickly shook his head and said "Be gone at once! Your kind only leads to ruin!"

The demoness smiled and said "But aren't you already ruined?"

Count Agist was not ruined, not yet, but he knew the King was getting angry with him at being unable to manage his fiefdom properly. "I'm not ruined yet! I will succeed and return my fiefdom to it's former glory!"

"We're in the same boat then sweetie" the demoness said as she now had stepped behind Count Agist and floated behind him while wrapping her arms around his shoulder and whispering into his ear.

The demoness' long hair tickled Count Agist slightly and he reached back to swat it away but felt nothing.

"No touching sweetie..." the demoness whispered seductively.

"I wasn't trying to! How are we in the same boat?"

"I want you..." the demoness said with a smile while making a gesture as if reaching for Count Agist's groin, causing Count Agist to bite his own lip, "I want you to take control of this place."

"I already do control it woman!"

"Lillica..." the demoness said pouting again.

"Lillica?"

"Yes, that is my name... I don't want you to control just this place, I want you to control the whole of Feldland!"

"Nonsense, I am loyal to my King!"

"Indeed you are, but is he truly loyal to you? He's already thought about replacing you..."

Count Agist bit his lip again in frustration at the thought of the King further pushing him down the ranks of nobility until he was barely above a commoner. "I... I can do it on my own!"

"And you will darling, I'm just here to motivate you, my time is up, you will see how much you need me soon!"

Count Agist felt extremely heavy, as if he was slogging through a muddy bog. The demoness, Lillica, vanished like she was never there and everyone else resumed their actions.