== VORTEX QUEST 1-14 ==
== BLOOD FEASTERS AND DEMON SUCKERS ==
The demigods stepped onto an overcastle balcony, halfway up the massive, squat stalactite. They wore tiny, dark red fundoshi from something like satin, fully covering the light of their cock cages which was still triggered by the various Fiends sieging the place.
Marcus kept twisting the new ring on his middle finger. Part of him wanted to try out the dust right away.
Xane had a linen bag full of nectar buds on a string-belt and the lean, tall swimmer couldn't wait to try those either.
He challenged himself to peak over the balcony's rim and to the lake shore far, far below while Chay let a dark cloud congeal around them.
"Ready for the drop of your fucking life?" the leader asked, casually fanning himself, which did little to keep his ochre skin from glistening.
"Rollercoasters got nothing on that," Xane said, his three butterflies uneasily fluttering into position on his collarbone.
Marcus clapped. "Let's fucking go."
By Marcus' estimate the fall would take about three minutes at terminal velocity. He'd been bungee jumping once and proudly declared as much, but Goro had one—upped him with skydiving experience.
The men grabbed each other's hands and levitated off the edge.
The drop was exhilarating. Marcus and Xane screamed. Chay's cloud swirled around their bodies and trailed them like a comet's tail to make the four humans appear like any number of abyssal phenomena to onlookers.
"Okay then," Marcus shouted. "That's off my bucket list. Which way's the holy spire?"
Goro shouted back. "Yeah, I think we should start maneuvering. Gently drift forward."
"Uh, guys?" Chay said, barely audible. "Company."
Jellons were closing in on them from below, clearly on intercept course. Maybe the house-sized brains didn't like to share air supremacy.
"To the left," Chay commanded. "Drop faster."
He pulled them ahead, smoke plumes pulsing off his body, as he dragged his friends with him in arrow formation. Marcus' sight got obscured by the mist trail.
"They're too dense," Chay said. "We'd get stuck on their tentacles. Marcus, you're up."
"What do I do?"
Chay looked at him with a grin. "Rip through."
Marcus grinned back and charged up. "Can do, boss."
With his fists aglow with white, slow-motion flame, Marcus flexed his body and dropped faster to get ahead. Goro put a bent leg on the Filipino fighter's back and kicked.
Marcus was catapulted ahead, flaming arms ramming into a central Cranio-Jellon.
Brain matter burst apart, forming a tunnel with enough violence to turn the Jellon's head into a donut shape. Tentacles spasmed and curled up as Marcus came out the bottom, all tan muscle, holy fire, grace and vengeance.
Below the first one, two Jellons were squishing together, cutting off the path.
He charged up again – feet this time – and twirled into positon. With his veiny, naked feet spread into a full side split, he hammered his heels into the creatures and carved a chunk out of each, making a second tunnel.
The pantheon flew past spasmically curling tentacles and right at the lake, their flight obscured by the smoke Chay spread behind them.
"Pull up," Chay shouted and Marcus course corrected for a flatter trajectory.
The four demigods impacted on the lake like skipping stones.
Marcus rolled off the wavy surface, parting the glowing ectoplasm with each impact. Goro carved the plasm feet-first and skipped with large steps. Chay and Xane rolled once, then floated more elegantly.
The four came to a halt, hovering a few feet above the surface. Jellon bits rained into the fluid behind them with splashes. The Jellon swarm stayed up. Marcus calmed his breathing. They were safe.
He chuckled and drove his fingers through his faux-hawk. "Man, that made me horny as f-"
"Oh shit!" Chay yelled. "Go!"
A shadow moved beneath them. Ectoplasm was more opaque than water but something huge, no, multiple huge things moveds under the surface.
The pantheon dashed toward the shore as the liquid burst beneath them.
A hydra rose. Marcus counted seven heads, no, eight, at least.
The gray multi-serpent snapped at them. Marcus sent his chakram out to slice the tender flesh inside the creature's mouth.
"It's territorial," Chay yelled. "We just have to get away."
The leader swung his arm, a cloud bursting into two comets that latched onto separate hydra-heads.
The chakram-cut head retreated with a hiss. Marcus moved his weapon over to the nearest throat.
Xane sent a projectile from each hand, green bolts, dripping as they flew. The entire creature jolted as the bolts exploded in one of its faces.
Chay had blinded another head. The creature sank beneath the waves.
"Below! Chay shouted. A head rose just underneath them, open mouthed, rapidly closing in.
Xane sent a butterfly down. It turned into blue lightning in the creature's throat. The serpent stopped the ascent and fell over, slapping the waves aside as it impacted.
The pantheon skipped and floated along the ectoplasm and made it to shore. A cracked, unevenly rising cliff wall enclosed a semicircular black sand beach the size of three football fields where long-leaved shrubs swayed.
Marcus sank onto his knees, breath fast. "I would dramatically kiss the ground but that's sand and I didn't bring lip gloss, hehe."
"Fuck," Xane said and dropped into the sand on his back. He lazily lobbed a rainbow-shimmering ball into the lake as a magic middle finger. Then he raised his actual middle fingers at the sea.
Chay took a few steps, a hand on his hips. His round, buff ass was right in front of Marcus, who was torn between making a dumb comment and giving it a smack.
He opted for a hard smack.
Pie burst from Chay's hand and excitedly bounced between the men.
The cake's playfulness evaporated their tension. They were finally safe for real.
"No use putting it off," Goro said and started walking. "I can see the spire glow from here. Let's walk-"
"Watch out!" Xane yelled and swiped at nothing. The Korean bodybuilder's invisible hand grabbed a spear out of the air but there were dozens.
The mania-warrior was hit by three. Crying out, Goro went down and tore at the spears.
Xane dashed behind a fallen pillar of white rock and began the slow process of shaping sand into somewhat more of a barrier.
The spear rain reached Marcus. The animus-fighter took to the air and roundhouse kicked five spears meant for him off their course. He landed on his hands and wheeled into Xane's makeshift holdout.
Goro had ripped the spears out, wounds not yet healed but not even bleeding. He carried Chay who had taken a spear to the calf. It had apparently sliced him enough to sever some tendons.
"Blood Feasters!" shouted a voice in Boldian. Several voices joined. "These are the gods. They can bleed. Drink them!"
A chorus of "Drink the gods!" and "Blood feast!" echoed from the rocks. Bipedal dinosaurs in all colors emerged and rapidly swarmed onto the beach.
"Fucking naturally," Chay said. "We never should have... Ouch."
"We can take them," Xane said, ducking as more spears came their way, and hardened their meager sand barrier.
A butterfly dashed into the best armored Kobolds like an arrow and burst apart as fire, bright as the sun, splattering the reptiles with something like napalm.
Goro picked up projectiles and threw them back. His strength turned them into missiles, each hit spearing a Kobold with enough force to throw the creature back.
Chay only took a split second glance over the barrier. "They've been recruiting. There's Aeobolds, see. We can't just float away. Don't know how many there are but they've got at least four generals. The factions are... that's useless right now. Just kill as many as... ouch."
Pie had been snaking along the beach. Now the battle line was crossing her cloud tail. The cat-faced creature sank her teeth into a Kobold and Chay's sliced calf knit itself together.
"Something big's coming," Chay said. "But not that big. Start killing. I'll think of something."
As prophesized, two Drakes in heavy Elderite armor dropped their way onto the beach. Goro raced ahead toward them and plowed through confused Kobolds in simple bone-and-leather gear.
With Xane's directed lightning as backup, Marcus threw himself into the front line. His circle weapon had already been dashing along the ground, cutting the backs of knees and making badly armored Kobolds drop.
He twirled and kick-flipped and pirouetted with his legs out, floating in the center of a Kobold troupe. His focus was on defense, keeping clubs and serrated axes from touching him so he wouldn't have to waste attention on healing. Inevitably, he landed offensive hits, too. Usually on Kobolds his chakram had brought down.
Xane stayed back and kept Goro safe, sending distorted beams at any Kobolds who dared to interfere. The big dude was pummeling the last standing Drake's helmet. Claws had torn the berserker nearly everywhere but hardly more than a thin line of blood remained from the injuries.
Marcus turned his focus on his own battle again.
Shadows crept along the rocks, Chay's smoke, letting the umbralist move unseen within.
The leader was puppeteering an enemy warrior of course but now there seemed to be more Kobolds fighting each other. Had the leader whispered something to a general to- No, Marcus had to focus on his own fight, for real.
A spiked club narrowly zoomed by Marcus' face. He leaned back farther than physics allowed a mere mortal and let his chakram dance above him to keep claws off.
Phaser crossbow fire rained down. Aeobolds, too far to reach. A problem for a thaum-mage.
The animus-fighter kicked his last enemy in the face and flew into a new group of Kobolds.
With the last Drake's head reduced to iron-packaged paste, Goro was free to ram through the rest of the army. That turned the tide. Kobolds fled into the ring of clouds where Chay's current puppet cut them up and Xane's fireballs sent them slamming into the cliff aflame.
Marcus landed, fists still raised, mind buzzing with rage and fear and horniness. "Are we safe now!? Are we fucking safe!?"
"Seems like it," Chay said, stepping out of the dissipating fog.
Goro was naked and picked up his sliced fundoshi. He patted the sand off. "Xee, fix it for me?"
The shorter muscle man took the strip while zapping at stragglers. "Yeah, clean slice. Let me mend."
"Man," Marcus said. "If I could get a nectar injection after every battle I'd be a lot more okay with nearly dying once per hour."
Chay sighed. "Yeah, let's head home. We should... talk."
===***===
They pissed before entering the hideout and stayed nude while the piss splatters dried off their spectacular bodies.
The demigods hung their fundoshi on golden wall adornments and dropped into a loose circle among the exuberantly ornate arches of the holy spire, their naked asses on the oddly warm crystal floor.
"Who's ready to relax," Xane said and raised his nectar bud bag.
Chay grunted. "Ugh, I hate what it does to me but I crave it."
"Do you really hate it?" Goro asked. "Maybe acceptance is the path."
The rest of the men were stunned silent. Goro continued. "I let it wash over me in the moment. Afterward I take a moment to file it away with... Is gratitude the wrong word? It kind of reminds me of working out."
"How so?" Xane asked. "What's it like for you?"
Goro shrugged his boulder shoulders. "The pleasure of muscles. Having them, training them, worshipping them. Granted, I'd rather have a bitch worship my biceps than, uh, worship a demon's abs." He absentmindedly flexed his arms.
"That's part of it, right?" Chay asked. "A craving for demon muscle."
"More for men in general," Marcus said. "For masculine stuff. Muscle, sweat, dicks, cum. Nectar feels like gay sex, but, uh, good? I'm not gay. It's not turning me gay. It can't."
Chay huffed. "You remember you're having gay sex when you ride demon dick, right?"
"Yeah but... but I'm not." Marcus said.
Goro moved into the center of the group, one hand ahead of him. "Let's make a pact. What happens in the abyss, stays in the abyss."
Xane was quick to add his hand on top. "And we'll make it fun, okay? We'll enjoy this hostile place with as much humor and hijinks and demon sex as we can."
"No judgements anymore," Chay said and added his hand. "We'll take pleasure where we can. We'll survive and fight for humanity. Share like friends, stick together like brothers, help the-"
Marcus slammed his hand onto the pile. "And let's rename pantheon' to demon suckers'."
He was met with a chuckling "fuck off" from Xane and a firm "no" from Chay.
"Okay," Marcus said. "Old name can stay. Now give me a shot of that muscle sex weed, right up the ass."
Chay rolled his eyes. "I do wonder what type of dependency it is. I've smoked weed before and nectar is nothing like that. Anyone else done weed? No? Really?"
"Muscle sex heroin?" Marcus asked.
"Not funny," Xane said as he opened the linen bag. "I'd rather stay sane and find my pleasure somewhere else but it's not like the spire's got Netflix and an Xbox."
The short hunk produced a golden nugget, shaped like a football the size of a chicken egg.
"Oral or anal?" he asked.
Chay laughed. "What a choice. I mean, no idea if the dick riding is part of it but I find injections more blissful."
"Hard same," Marcus said. "Honestly, if I never have to suck a dick again I'll gladly ride ten more."
Each men took a bud. It was embarrassing as fuck to shove a massive gold nugget up your hole in front of other guys, so Marcus avoided eye contact. It slid in just fine with some prodding, huge and awkward and unlike any sensation he'd felt outside the abyss but after riding demon dick it was fairly simple.
The pantheon sat in a circle again and the effect began.
Waves of foreign thought rammed into Marcus' mind, pushing out any worry and sorrow. Muscle, men, sex, dick, sweat and demons crowded his mind, together with an overwhelming sense of pleasure. His constant, frustrating feeling of being at the cusp of orgasm turned to blissful relief.
"Motherfucker," Xane said, eyes rolled back, fingers on his nipples. "Like I'm... teetering back and forth, orgasm's big brother is... dipping into me. In my ass. Ooooh, it's traveling up my spine. Oh this is gooood."
Marcus kept rubbing his aegis as if there were a way to inflict stimulation. He pulled his balls, rubbed his nipples, massaged his thighs.
He creamed. White ropes splattered everywhere like piss but it added no pleasure. Not that he needed more. He was swimming in bliss and a craving for muscle.
Chay, opposite of him, leaned back, nipple fingering. The Thai guy's thick legs were bent and apart.
His hole was leaking gold. Marcus wanted to drink it. What had Goro said about just accepting? They had promised to find pleasure, right?
"Chay, dude," Marcus said and crawled forward, "you're leaking nectar. Can't let that got to waste."
Chay glanced up. "Are you crazy?"
"Hey," Xane said, weakly, kneading his firm pecs. "No judgements."
Chay kept his legs spread as Marcus dove in. Yes, he was eating a man's sweaty asshole. He was rewarded with the substance he wasn't allowed to call muscle sex heroin.
Getting nectar from both ends felt like Marcus' brain was getting fucked, literally. Waves of sex – the memory of demon cock in his guts – raced through him with every lick, even into places that didn't make anatomical sense. He got fucked into the feet, into each glute, and into his brain stem.
A tongue lapped at his hole. Goro grabbed Marcus' hips and positioned him for better ass eating.
Goro was a greedy rimmer, digging his tongue in and sucking nectar as the bud melted inside Marcus.
Xane moved toward Goro's ass but Chay waved him over. "Hey, come here. Goro, close the circle."
Xane squatted over Chay's face, leaning forward as Goro dragged Marcus into formation. Xane got a face full of Goro's cheeks.
Marcus had no idea how long it lasted, losing all sense of time and self. There was no definitive end point, just the slow melting and absorption of nectar. Eventually his high was dropping. It was probably a gentle drop but it felt steep and Marcus missed the sensation before it was even fully over.
"Well that was something," Chay said. "I'd say it's a nine out of ten, compared to getting it injected directly."
"Yeah," Xane said. "I was missing the stretching and the ribbing."
The mage stood broad legged in a half squat. It looked weird but Marcus wasn't going to comment. Maybe Xane became bowlegged after any type of sex.
Chay chuckled. Apparently he had figured out the mystery. "Ghost sex, already, Xane?"
Marcus looked closer and the bodybuilder's ass was flexing as he got fucked by his illusory dick.
"Sorry teach," Xane said. "Didn't bring enough for the whole class. Ain't gonna stop for anyone, either." His hands went back on his nipples.
"You could share it around?" Goro said. "What is it?"
"Drake," Xane said. "And I'm not done yet. Finger yourself."
To Marcus surprise, Goro really did. Two hooked fingers up his hole, rubbing his insides.
Marcus traced his own hole with a wet finger. He was craving sex. Sex with a chick, fucking pussy – maybe. His mind was still flooded with the impression of muscle and dick and he craved that, too.
Just when Marcus was three fingers deep inside him, Goro dropped on all fours, ass up.
The big guy had creamed out a massive load that made him as sticky as Marcus already was. The load dripped off his crazy ripped thighs and brickhouse abs as he pointed his ass at his friends.
"Fist me, Xee."
"Uhhhh, huh?" Xane made.
"Come on, fist me," Goro repeated. "If you're not sharing your magic dick, help me out."
"Why me?"
"I... I trust you the most. Don't let me down."
"Fuck. A-are you sure?" He looked at his hand. "Isn't it bigger than a demon dick?"
"It's about right," Chay said. "Demons are maybe forearm thick. Hellions had wider mushrooms. I dunno. Never thought I'd sit on anything like that."
Procuring ectoplasm was trivial.
Xane worked slow and gently. He didn't dare actually get his fist in but Goro was blissed out nonetheless. Marcus felt that his own four fingers inside him were inadequate.
"Chay," Marcus asked. "Do we..."
"Damn," Chay said. "I'm still riding that high, so maybe my brain is shut down but... Yeah, I need something demon-dick-sized inside me."
"Who gets fisted first?"
The played rock paper scissor. Marcus won. Chay didn't get his whole fist in either and it was no nectar, but Marcus got spread and discovered a new kind of mindblowing satisfaction.
In a place as dark and horrible as the abyss, you couldn't have enough of those.