"I'm simply saying..." Matt began with a bemused smirk. "...just having all of those tentacles moving in different ways would be a chore, much less trying to coordinate all of that while feeling it. It's an intriguing idea but I don't see it working practically."
Mara rolled her eyes. "Coordination is all about muscle memory. I'm sure you could figure it out. We'd all be
more
than willing to experiment with you."
Matt let out a small chuckle. "Yeah, I bet you would. Anyway, we can talk more about that later. Business before pleasure."
"Says you." Mara purred. "I easily mix them both." But despite her jovial nature, the demon was clearly focusing on the matter at hand now. However, she wasn't kidding about mixing pleasure and business. Sure, Matt took hunting very seriously and to an extent, so did she. Mara was very aware of how important this was to him, but she wasn't going to pretend that she didn't love the freedom of being able to let her demon flag fly for a time.
Her heart was pounding in her chest as she focused. She knew it could be as long as a week before she got this opportunity again. And while Laila had been correct in that all of the familiars could technically do this, it would still come easiest to her. So, she wanted to show off a bit. After all, it hadn't been easy to convince the girls to give her the first hunting trip when she'd had so many others, but she could be very convincing.
"That's the one." Mara said confidently, pointing at the mansion in front of them.
"They always have such nice houses..." Matt mused thoughtfully.
"Well if they aren't successful, then they aren't doing it right..." Mara murmured, before she noticed the glare from Matt. "Not that there's a
right
way to do it. You know what I meant."
"Attic or basement?" Matt grumbled, glaring at the extravagant house. It was always one of the two.
"Basement." Mara nodded, holding out her hand.
"How bad is it?" Matt asked, taking the offered hand. For just a moment, he could see a flash of his nightmares with the dream Mara beckoning him into the abyss. Welcoming him into a world of pain and torture from where he'd never return. He was easily able to shake off the thought. Even still, he really wished his subconscious would get its shit together. He didn't need this popping up during a hunt.
"It's pretty bad." Mara answered solemnly. "Her despair is so...hopeless. She's been completely broken. Who knows how long she's been down there?"
"All the better." Matt stated with a sharp nod. "Let's do this."
"Yes Master." As Mara summoned her magic, the duo became engulfed in flames. Demonic teleportation was like any dangerous skill. The mechanics of it were pretty simple, but the devil was literally in the details. Navigate to the "in-between" as Mara liked to call it, where the fabric of reality was especially weak, and then poof, you can go almost anywhere in the blink of an eye. Well, technically where you can go is limited to the magic you can pull from, but considering how massive Matt's magic pool was, the amount of magic was never an issue.
But while navigating through the in-between itself was quite simple once you knew what you were doing, there were also a lot of ways it could go wrong. It was why Matt always piggybacked off of the pro instead of doing it himself. Sure, he had the power, but he was still learning how to use it. And while he was confident in his healing abilities, he'd rather not lose chunks of his body in a botched teleportation. Not to mention, from what Mara said, the in-between was definitely not a place you wanted to hang out in.
Both hunters were intact as they reappeared in the basement of the mansion in another burst of flames. It didn't even take a second for them to adjust to the darkness. But they immediately felt the dark magic weighing them down and looked at each other curiously.
"Holy shit. That's some pretty strong warding." Matt commented. It had taken some getting used to. The first few times he barged in on a warding spell not even half as strong as this one, it had made him physically sick. Which was the point. Most normal people would have avoided that magic right off the bat. The basement would have seemed scary or eerie to them. Whatever it took to repel them from what was inside, the feeling getting steadily stronger until they couldn't handle it or simply couldn't move anymore.
"I'm really looking forward to finding who made it. Or at least who maintains it." Mara replied lustfully, "Maybe they won't run this time."
Matt rolled his eyes. As if Mara didn't like a good chase. But regardless, he ignored the forces of magic constantly buffeting against him and his demonic familiar as nothing more than a particularly strong wind. He acknowledged it but it wasn't more than a minor inconvenience. The warding wasn't important to him. It was a dragon in a dungeon. It wouldn't be there if it wasn't protecting something.
And then he saw her. While you couldn't visibly see them, the chains were there. The woman was on her knees, looking over to their sudden appearance. As was always the case when Matt found a "muse", his heart broke just a bit at the moment their eyes met. Mara wasn't using hyperbole. Though the woman was looking at him, her eyes were dead. She had nothing left to give. No curiosity. No fear. No fight. She simply waited silently for whatever they chose to do to her as she would have anyone else.
Teriana had been the first to open his mind to the idea. As gods and goddesses were formed whenever enough people decided to worship something and agreed upon a form and name for said deity, they were only as powerful as their worshippers' faith allowed them to be. For every Zeus, who despite not currently being worshipped as much is still widely known enough to keep the faith alive, there would be a goddess like this. A minor one weak enough to be enslaved and turned into a muse if you knew how.
As Mara had said earlier, there was no telling how long the goddess before him had been forced to be in this basement as she was used again and again for the benefit of whatever asshole was currently abusing her. It made Matt sick, but he knew from the moment Teriana had said that doing this had fallen out of practice, that it probably hadn't. Laila and Mara had confirmed his suspicion. It hadn't fallen out of practice. People had just become much better at hiding it.
And so, Matt's hunting trips had been born. He'd use Mara's ability to track negative emotions and find muses and while he freed them, Mara would "take care" of those responsible. It was a win/win. He got to do something good. To make a difference in a way that doesn't trigger an apocalypse, while also feeding Mara's demonically sadistic tendencies in a way that he didn't mind.
As Matt walked over to the kneeling goddess, her blank stare remained on him. It made him feel even worse. Instead of seeing him as her liberator, she was assuming he was just another in a long line to use her. Once he was a few feet away from her, the heaviness of the warding instantly lifted. This was actually a very bad sign. That meant that he was currently inside a magic barrier strong enough that the warding wasn't needed in this area. It was obviously an easy to get in and hard to get out type of situation, but he'd deal with that later.
As no one would put this much effort into protecting something and not be aware that it had intruders, Mara remained outside of the barrier, waiting eagerly for someone to pick a fight with her. Meanwhile, Matt was close enough to the goddess to make out her strong, exotic facial features. She had an olive complexion with long black hair. Her brown eyes continued to follow his movements as he covered her in his jacket. As much as he had grown very used to nudity, he hated to see it on this goddess. It's one thing if she wanted to be nude, but nothing about this situation was her choice.
"What's your name?" Matt finally asked, placing his hand on hers. Like Teriana, this goddess had an aura surrounding her and the moment he touched her, a surge of affection and lust went through him. She was a lust goddess. And far from the first he'd found this way. Lust gods and goddesses were probably the most popular muses to take, along with ones based on skills like music, art, writing, and of course, prosperity deities. Matt had found himself rather disappointed in some of the celebrities who had been involved in this practice.
"Ishara." She answered almost robotically, the three syllables clearly displaying her accent. He couldn't quite place it, but with deities coming from literally all over, there was no telling where she was initially from until she told him.
