Vortex Quest

== VORTEX QUEST 1-2 ==

== WELCOME TO THE ABYSS ==

Four nude, muscular college jocks with divine powers dropped onto black rock, ready to save humankind, their tiny nub-cages gleaming with holy radiance.

The landscape was breathtaking. A jagged canyon large enough to fit Manhattan held immense stone arches, stalactites beyond the size of earth mountains and caverns the size of cathedrals leading away from the main space. More canyons stretched beyond it, domed by a miles-high stone ceiling where gentle Northern Lights danced.

Rivers of red and green oozed like thick honey from several high inlets, meeting in a swirling, yellow glowing lake at the realm's bottom.

Far away, torch-marked paths connected dark stone fortresses, patches of vegetation in unnatural colors and short smoke stacks.

Building-sized humanoid skulls of dark stone dotted the landscape as if the rocks had simply grown in that shape. Some were cracked, some spewed ooze, some appeared inhabited.

The demigods had emerged on a platform nearly a mile off the cave floor.

A swarm of thick, grotesque bats without heads took off at the disturbance, screeching from the maws set where the neck should be. They were imps - actual, non-earthly lifeforms.

"Holy hell," Marcus whispered.

"Spot-fucking-on." Xane said. "Kinda loving the aesthetic."

Behind the men towered a castle of brown stone blocks, each the size of a truck, fitted into a wall with three uneven towers. Spikes of black iron protruded from every possible seam like tumors.

The only ornamentation was stone skulls which seemed to have grown on the walls like barnacles.

Xane would have loved to tour the structure. He took in the sights until-

"Hide," Chay ordered and advanced toward the castle, to stand behind a cairn – a tall stack of flat rocks inscribed with runes.

"Watch out," he added. "Hooded snap weed."

The hunks hopped through a field of cobra-like red stalks that tried to bite into their calves. Xane recognized their description from the knowledge they had been gifted. He used his mage-hand to swat them aside.

"Above," Goro said and ducked under a rough arch in the castle wall, pushing Xane along. The mage's mote – a green butterfly now – fluttered behind, dashing between their legs.

Something moved far up in the `sky', along the aurora-shimmer. A white and gold, humanoid shape – winged. It didn't stick around long.

"Oh fuck," Marcus said and jolted away from a stone skull in the castle wall.

An eye had appeared in one of the sockets, cat-like but red. Xane readied his mage-hand to poke a finger at it.

"Surveillance?" Goro asked. "We've been spotted?"

"No..." Chay said. "I think that's King Zheggyr checking out who teleported in."

Xane relaxed his shoulders. Hopefully Chay's sense were as keen as he claimed.

He glanced at the cairn where pandemonic runes praised King Zheggyr. Not a person, more a force of nature ruling this slice of hell. The sky voice had dropped them off in the realm Jheyr'Udd, a backwater, practically pastoral in abyss terms.

Xane flipped the king's eye off with all three hands.

Chay cleared his throat. "Okay. We're at the Concordance Archives of the Abyssal Lord Tgog'Afnash and-"

"Nash," Marcus suggested.

"-and we're going to steal the shut-down codes for the vortex. Stealthily."

Xane appreciated Chay taking the initiative. The bodybuilder would have liked to be the leader, but he was out of his depth and planning wasn't his forte. He liked to keep things spontaneous.

Chay's eyes had turned to the horizon – or the abyssal equivalent. There was blue light flashing on a cliff wall in a far off canyon, around a bend.

"Must be the vortex," Marcus said.

"Do we go straight there after?" Xane asked. As he pointed the butterfly he had stored some power in hopped onto his finger. The mote, seemed to have a will of its own when he didn't command it directly.

"Probably," Chay said. "Let's get information. This is a library after all. Hm, most of the windows have bars. We climb to that one. Marcus, you first."

"Sure thing."

The lean, agile Filipino with bleached hair clambered up the wall effortlessly. His naked feet rested on rough bricks, spread apart, making him point his freshly fingered hole at the group. He covered his aegis with one hand to keep the gleam from giving him away.

The others followed. Xane reveled in the thaum-powered strength that allowed one handed wall climbing.

They glanced through the skull-topped window ten feet off the snap-weed-infested ground.

A room of the same stone as the outer walls, furniture of lighter stone slabs and spiky metal. Chains and hooks acted as storage for bones, plates, trays.

It was a dining room, carcasses on a long table picked clean. Jugs of green goo moved across the surface.

There were two humanoids feasting. Seven feet tall, red skinned and muscular as fuck. Their bodies weren't as beautifully sculpted as Xane's but they could have tried going on stage.

The least human feature was the head - entirely a skull, bones contorting as they ate.

Hellions, elite warriors guarding demonic property.

One Hellion rose, his body clad in leather straps holding bulky, spiky armor on his red, well-muscled meat. He picked up a spear and left.

"Skully's not going to leave," Chay whispered. "We need to take him out."

"I can do a chaos blast," Xane offered.

Chay pointed. "The Gnomes are going to ring the alarm."

"Huh?" Xane looked again.

Weaseling between plates were Gnomes – small, dark fuzzy orbs with four to ten legs and moldy growths, like some kind of fungus infested mutant tarantula. Those had been what shuffled the empty goblets away.

Now that he really looked, the room was full of them, their grotesque, fuzzy bodies running along the many storage chains, nibbling carrion off gnawed bones. Disgusting.

"Haha. So cute," Marcus whispered to himself.

"Here's the plan," Chay said and leaned back from the window.

===***===

"Now," came Chay's order.

Xane sent his mote inside. The butterfly burst into forking lighting and zapped Gnomes off the ceiling chains. The weird critter were a telepathic hive mind. Chay had pointed out the manor nodes.

As the charred mold-spiders dropped, the remaining Gnomes freaked out and spasmed in place, their subordinate minds fried for now.

At the same time, Marcus had sent his chakram in sliced through a thick slab of jerky hanging right above the Hellion.

The dried meat came down and smashed the tall, buff, red-skinned enemy's face into a stone place of maggots. Bits of nibbled carcass flew to the ground as he flailed.

Xane collected thaum in his palm, focusing a piercing bolt.

Chay let all the mist he had built up outside rush into the room. At the same time Goro jumped in, his caged crotch shining in the black smoke. The berserker barely fit through the window, taking Xane's view of the room.

Skully rose with an inhumanly deep grunt. Goro was already on him. The naked demigod hopped onto the table and raised one leg higher than his shoulder to crash the heel down on the armored warrior's skeletal head.

The Hellion's face went to the table again.

"Fuck," Chay said. "New main node going online over there."

Xane took one second to aim where the thick-legged Thai guy pointed and reshaped his bolt for a greater area of impact. His blunt thaum-projectile smeared a blob of twitching Gnomes along the floor.

"Keep taking them out," Chay suggested and slipped through the window, turning invisible in his fog.

Xane entered the room, too, loading up a new spell.

The Hellion had rolled away from the table, eyes on Goro, not noticing Marcus sneaking up behind him.

The abyssal creature grabbed a broad sword with a garnet set into the hilt. A red glow ran along the sword's edge with a faint buzz.

"That's a chainsaw," Chay said somewhere in the fog.

"Rad as fuck," Xane whispered and prepared a bolt of ice.

A fat Gnome popped under Marcus' light feed like a gray goo water balloon. The Hellion swirled around, arcane chainsaw-sword swinging.

Chay hopped from his fog with a gesture and Skully's arm twitched mid-swing. Marcus hadn't needed help, bending backward with infinite flexibility.

Goro swirled with one massive leg up high and slammed the Hellion's boney head with the back of his foot. He had to evade the arcane weapon's counter attack.

A light appeared behind Xane, making him turn, ready to shoot. It was just Chay's aegis' glow. The umbralist had invisible walked behind him.

"New hive mind node?" Xane guessed.

"Up there. From the air duct."

Xane sent his magic icicle at the hole where the wall met the ceiling, shock frosting critter and ice-blocking the vent.

With the Hellion swinging at Goro, Marcus had moved in and pushed his flat palm into the leather-harness-clad back with inhuman force. Skully was sent past Goro, stumbling into the table. Chay reached out from across the room, probably making the enemy's legs twitch.

As the arcane sword dropped, its red glow fading, Goro rammed his weight into the massive foe, dropping him to the ground.

Skully hit the stone face first. Goro brought his fist down - bone cracked.

Marcus had picked up the sword, struggling under its weight. He let the broad side come down on the Hellion's back. Goro stomped on the back of the skullhead.

An explosion of brain matter. The Hellion convulsed.

It was ugly and fucked up and Xane was thrilled. He was sweating.

Chay leaned against the door, listening for whoever might be coming. His fog was quickly dissipating.

Goro flung goo off his hands while the deep cuts on his skin healed.

"Let me," Xane offered and swiped his gym buddy's enemy-gunk away with one load of thaum. "Are you okay?"

Goro gave an affirmative grunt.

"Good workout, huh?" Xane asked Goro who was sweating all over his perfectly build, six foot physique, as well. "Too bad we can't hit the showers, haha."

"Xee?" Goro started.

"Yeah?"

"You're shaking."

"Fuck, okay." The mage calmed his breath. "I'm good."

"We killed a guy," Marcus said, mostly in awe. "Like, a real person, kind of. Shit."

"We're safe," Chay said. "No one noticed. Somehow. Better keep moving before that changes."

"Loot time first," Marcus said and pulled at the Hellion's armor.

Goro picked up the broad sword. "How do you turn on arcane weapons?"

"No idea," Chay said. "Wasn't in the briefing."

The Japanese hunk shrugged and carried the blade over his shoulder. It was too dull to cut him.

Marcus hummed and retrieved a five ounce canteen as well as a few small bags. "If this is alcohol I'm calling dibs."

The bag contained spices, smelling caustic. Marcus was brave enough to tip his tongue onto a fingertip and had to heal form acid burn, his tongue lit with whitefire.

"Fuck," he mumbled with a numb mouth. "Now I'm really hoping this is vodka or something."

He popped open the flask, sniffed and- "Woah."

The room filled with the smell of sex. Not like a `someone had fucked in here' smell, however. It was an indescribable, fairly neutral odor but it made Xane instantly think of fucking a chick or two in the shower, getting his muscles worshipped. His horniness shot through the roof.

Chay held his nose, grabbed the canteen and re-corked it before placing it on the corpse. "We should get moving. Let's hide this guy."

Xane walked after the leader, horny to the point of disorientation. Together, the four men shoved Skully's corpse out the window where it dropped onto hooded snap weed.

The carnivorous stalks dug in while the demigods turned to the exit.

The door was dark wood planks, repeatedly repaired by ramming iron spikes through. It opened with a loud creaking. Xane tried to silence the hinges but ongoing spells made him run out of power fast.

A room lit by torches of motionless flame as if frozen in time. Chains again acted as storage in lieu of shelving.

It was a common room. Spiky helmets on armor stands. Kegs-turned-tables with a square of rune-carved stones - some kind of demonic mahjong.

The air was pleasantly warm, which left them sweating. Four avatars of divine might glistened in the light of still flames.

Chay looked at Marcus' crotch, then his own, then Xane's. The Korean mage flexed his abs, thighs and hit double-bis with a grin.

"Just checking aegises," Chay said. "If they brighten up more, we're closing in on `Nash'. Seems we're safe for now."

===***===

The fortress and archives of Lord Tgog'Afnash had a simple enough layout according to their heavenly briefing, but it brimmed with enemies and the naked, sweating hunks with shimmering cock cages had to move carefully.

They proceeded down a corridor carved into the rock, along a series of doors. Chay extended tendrils of fog off his hip to cover their aegises, only occasionally checking the glow wasn't getting stronger.

The Thai guy who still acted as leader leaned around a rugged corner. Xane saw the wiry muscles of his v-shaped back tense.

Chay moved back. "This should be where Nash's right hand man works. Door is guarded. Xane, take a look."

The mage sensed his new mote – blue wings with black rims – flutter on his shoulder. He stepped out of the fog tendril, one hand covering his now-tiny package's glow and leaned around the corner to see a studded metal door.

Hovering in front of it was a Noggin – a skull filled with liquid fire, its shining eye sockets staring down the hallway.

"If I got it right," Xane said, "Noggins are the demon versions of CCTV, yeah? Snipe it?"

"It has to be quiet," the umbralist said. "Marcus, can you catch it?"

The Korean bodybuilder focused energy into his fingers. Pressing himself into the wall reminded him of his nudity. It came with a sense of empowering perversion, especially since he was out of his mind horny.

Marcus rested his hand on the mage's shoulder and gave a squeeze. "Ready."

The undead, floating skull got a piercing burst of ice right into the left eye. Its inner flame sputtered and leaked a spray of liquid fire. Spiraling, the Noggin flew in an arc.

Marcus dashed forward with long, light, tan legs. His chakram flew ahead and slammed into the creature from below to keep it from falling.

The Noggin broke in half.

Xane pulled his power together to summon his mage-hand. Marcus jump-twirled and grabbed one half out of the air, giving the other one a spin-kick to keep it flying.

The mage-hand caught it.

"Fuck. Okay," Chay whispered. "That was close. Not as quiet as I wanted."

Xane felt exposed by the glow of his aegis. Thaum-power should have been able to fix that with an illusion.

He put an image of his dick over the aegis, cutting off the glow. A cut, three inch softie. After a second's thought he grew it to a four and a half inch semi.

Goro gave an inquisitive grunt.

"Just felt like covering up," Xane said with a shrug, playing over his sheepishness.

"Man," Marcus said with a sigh. "Wish I could have mine back like that. Wait, you can make any illusion, right?"

Xane nodded. "Small ones, maybe a few feet across."

"So," Marcus said, "you're all making us look at your dick, when you could wiz up a speedo."

"Yes. You're welcome."

Goro huffed a chuckle and shifted his massive sword to the other shoulder.

The thaum-mage smirked. "Can't believe the sky fucker sent us here without cover for these dick lights."

Marcus cupped his own crotch. "They probably don't do many stealth missions in heaven."

Xane dismissed the illusion, covering with one hand again. "It takes focus, though. Not actually a solution." He glanced at Chay. "Do we go in?"

"Yeah," the pretty-boy in a cape of shadow said. "We need the key from Nash's lieutenant, Raaq-He-Un. A Wraith. Let's hope he's not in, but stay battle ready."

Goro was the one pushing the door open. The heavy smell of salt and herbs hung in the chamber, lit by motionless fire. Jars, dried bushels and fungus crowded on shelves and hung from chains.

After soundlessly shutting the door, the naked, glistening demigods advanced to the next chamber where rune stones and cauldrons were spread across workbenches.

The Wraith was in. A hovering collection of dozens of long, dark gray arms, hanging like a grape bunch from a thick metal disc, like a huge truck wheel cap. Dozens of little chains and bead strings hung from the cap.

Several huge hands turned in the demigods' direction, eyes opening in the backs of them.

As the mass of arms rotated slightly, a voice came from somewhere inside it. "I did not ask for slaves," the Wraith said in pandemonic. "What is this... radiance?"

Goro threw his massive sword. The Wraith was clipped and smashed into a chain tangle. Jars shattered and mushrooms rained. A single severed arm fell to the ground.

"Gnomes?" Xane asked the leader.

"Not that I can see," Chay replied.

The mage sent his prepared bold of vibrating energy forward. It broke into a dozen slashes that ripped dark flesh open across multiple arms. The Wraith rotated to protect his injured limbs.

Marcus moved in. He swiped and kicked each reaching Wraith hand with superhuman martial arts, pinning the creature to a wall. He used the monster's own beads and chains to tangle its arms, while his chakram ran over the reaching arms like a razor, severing one at a time.

Chay clearly did some nervous system fuckery, bending one of Raaq-He-Un's arms inward to make the enemy claw at himself.

A mouth on the back of a gray hand shouted untranslatable insults, then, "Filthy savages. Let's see if you can fight when you're plagued by hunger pangs!"

Some of the arms made gestures, while the rest fought off Marcus' attacks. Something gentle rushed over Xane.

Goro leaped in from the other size and slammed his fists at the disk topping off the enemy's body.

The Wraith evaded with a spin.

Xane had focused power again and sent a beam of heat into the Wraith as if zoomed past him.

More insults, now from multiple hand-mouths. "What are you? Shit yourself to death."

Again, a gentle wave of something rolled over the mage.

"How?" the Wraith cried out. "Then fight this urge instead."

Xane's already high horniness shot up like a switch had been flipped – from on' to ultra-on'.

All four demigods automatically clutched their crotches, trying to jerk off a dick that wasn't there.

Six Wraith arms grabbed Marcus by the throat. He barely fought back, trying to get his dick free. His chakram dropped to the floor.

Goro had picked up his sword again and chucked it, crashing the broad side into the monster at such force that the creature was dragged along the wall. Marcus stumbled back.

Xane spit lubed three fingers. He needed to cream a load now. But... he had to defend his friends. He sent the butterfly. It made its jittering way into the tangle of arms just as Goro grunted at his own finger intrusion.

"Fuck..." Chay yelled. "We have to fight it." He had one hand on his nipples, the other uselessly jerking off air in front of his radiant aegis.

The mote reached its target. Xane expanded his stored energy as a prismatic blast right at the center of the arm tangle. A burst of colors and light threw the Wraith backward. Six severed arms dropped with rainbow trails, flesh sizzling. More arms fell off the creature as it came to a hovering halt.

"Ugh, Xee," Goro shouted. "Milk me."

"What?" The thaum-mage turned toward his friend, barely able to pay attention through the horny-haze. Even the cracks in the floor seemed like welcoming vaginas.

Chay was busy with one hand on his crotch, the other fingering his ass. "We... we have to..."

"Rape my fucking hole, bro," Goro shouted, aggressively rubbing his nub. His long hair framed his face in a sweaty mess.

Xane summoned all his focus to create a mage-hand. He made it slick by default and rammed it up Goro's asshole with two hooked fingers, imitating the motion of his real hand in his own hole.

Goro grunted and frenzied. His pulsing muscles grew firmer, denser. His mark of madness expanded across his chest and halfway down his abs. Eyes pitch black. His breath remained fast but deepened.

With a roar, the berserker rushed the Wraith and slammed the edge of the arcane weapon on the metal cap. Chains and beads burst apart as the cap cracked open. More arms emerged from the break, stunted, pale and unnaturally bendy.

Goro got to ripping. Xane sped up the ass fuck, both for himself and his buddy. Chay, standing squatted, had one hand halfway up his hole and aimed the other at the Wraith. Every time the demon's lieutenant grabbed Goro's flesh it lost control of that arm.

Marcus had two fingers off each hand in his ass, one from the front, one from behind. He stepped on any Wraith hand close to the ground with a foot ablaze with whitefire and strengthend by animus-power, breaking them into pulpy, torn meat.

At last the Wraith stopped moving and the curse of devastating horniness subsided within a second.

The four sweat-drenched, embarrassed demigods collectively sank to their knees.

"I..." Marcus started, shaky, "I'd have let him kill me if I'd managed to grab my dick."

"I'd have let you all die," Xane said. Just now his mind became able to understand the situation clearly. "I'm so sorry. I wasn't even fighting it anymore. I just wanted to cum."

"The aegis," Goro said, breathing heavy. His mark retreated to a small shoulder tattoo. "The dick cages saved us. If I'd gotten to jerk off..."

Xane nodded to himself. "Guess the sky-jackass knew a thing or two."

Chay stood up, still trembling but in admirable control of himself. "Seems like demigodhood has it's issues, but we made it. We killed the demon's right hand. These are thick walls but they're going to realize eventually so we have to keep moving."

Xane pointed his palms at each other and began creating a new energy storage. Threads of nebulous power merged into the outline of a white-cyan butterfly.

Marcus was still unashamedly finger fucking himself from the front as he helped Chay search Raaq-He-Un's corpse.

Goro was tearing strips of beige table cloth.

"What are you doing?" Xane asked.

"Making fundoshi."

"Foo-what?" Marcus asked.

Chay gave a nod. "Traditional Japanese underwear. We gotta hide the glow."

By the time Xane had a new mote, Chay had found the reason they'd fought the Wraith – a finger sized silver key. The umbralist wrapped some of the dead creature's bead strings around his beefy calf and tied the key to himself.

Goro showed them how to twist a long strip of cloth into a fundoshi. Xane's magic proved useful in mending the torn fabric at the sides for a fitting hem.

The underwear covered the aegis and balls but nothing more. Xane mended the thin twisted strings together for a more tight, thong-like structure that wouldn't unwrap in battle.

No longer treacherously aglow but no less sweat glistening, the demigods approached a Gnome service tunnel near the Wraith quarter's ceiling.

"Should just be wide enough," Chay said with a glance at the gym bunnies in the group. "Bit of a squeeze with broad shoulders but it's our best bet. Xane, after me. Stay ready to zap gnomes if I point you."

The four men ascended into the duct. It was a tight fit, but propelling himself with divine power made sure Xane didn't have to scrap his knees on the stone.

It was an eerie crawl but it wasn't dark - they only had to pull their fundoshi's pouches off their radiant nubs.

Xane got to look at Chay's illuminated ass while they crawled, knowing Goro was looking at his ass in turn. At least their holes were covered by a string of twisted cloth – mostly.

His mote sat down on his nose, flapping its bright wings in his frame of vision. Was it trying to be funny? He twitched it away.

Chay looked back between his beefy legs. "Lights out."

The sound of running water echoed in front. They passed a grate along the side, warm moisture seeping in. Seven-foot tall, red skinned men with skulls for heads were stripping out of iron and leather in front of water streams drizzling from the ceiling.

The demigods moved on before the elite warriors had full stripped.

"Man, I need a shower," Xane mumbled.

"Yeah," Marcus said at the back of the line. "A cold one."

"Same," Chay said. "I don't even mind sweating I just..."

Xane grinned at the leader's bubble butt. "Just need to jizz down a gutter?"

"Anyone else feeling..." Marcus started, "horny in weird places? I've only ever felt horny in the dick but it has, like, spread."

"Yeah," Xane said with a sign. "I feel it in the thighs. I've been massaging them and it's like edging."

"Lower abs for me," Marcus said. "Hey, why did we stop?"

Chay looked back between his own big, wiry legs again. "There's a slide down. Can't see the bottom. This should lead to the archive underneath us, logically."

The Thai man checked his crotch, which was shining much brighter, turning darkens to golden-white daylight. "Demon. Stay on your guard."

The service tunnel was too narrow to turn so the umbralist went down face-first, using his powers for a light hover to keep his knees from scraping.

Xane moved forward, made sure his aegis and balls were properly tugged away, waited till Chay's ass was out of view, then pushed himself down the slide.

The mage sensed a warm obstacle ahead. He dared to summon a faint orange orb atop his head but it was too late to break. His face pressed into Chay's glistening cheeks.

Xane groaned and pushed himself off the tunnel walls to get a few inches distance.

Goro's face slammed into Xane's ass, making the Korean crash into Thai ass again. Smooshed between Chay's cheeks, the trio crammed the tunnel.

"What's the hold up?" Xane hissed.

"There's a gate."

"I'll blast it. Move."

"No," Chay urged. "This is what the Wraith key is for. Just give me space."

"Fuck, bro," Xane said between his own legs. "Move back."

Goro grunted and pushed himself back. Then Marcus slid down, ramming his face into Goro's ass, and the face-to-ass train was reestablished.

"Got it open," Chay whispered. "Nobody push. Go slow.

The leader's glutes were pulled away from Xane's face but Goro kept pushing forward and Xane couldn't break contact. "Dude, stop pushing."

"Tell that to Marcus."

"Just move," Marcus said.

"Shush," Chay made. "There's light. We're here."

===***===

The archive was an irregular, round chamber the size of a small town stadium. A 40 foot ceiling arched overhead.

Three concentric circles of 30 foot metal shelves, overflowing with scrolls and tombs, stood around a lone tree at the center, its bright blue leaves casting eerie light in contrast to the frozen torches fires in chandeliers and scones in the room's many nooks.

The fundoshi-clad musclemen gently stepped onto the roof of a bookshelf, cowering with their smooth muscles touching to remain unseen from below.

Chay pointed out floating fire skulls. "Noggins, there and there. Mostly focused on the entrances but cutting off this corridor, too."

The magic surveillance devices were static, letting the demigods make their way across the shelf-tops undisturbed.

Rounding the outer circle, they passed a nook with a birdbath-looking bowl full of... liquid golden paint?

A strange smell reached Xane's nose. Fumes from the bowl 30 feet below, hammering into him the thought of a ravenous orgy with the whole cheerleading team.

He bumped into Goro's massive back, face meeting the mark of madness which sat between the Japanese hunk's shoulder blades right where his mullet ended.

"You smell it, too?" Xane whispered.

"It's like I'm back between my ex-bitches legs," the berserker answered.

Marcus took a long drag from the air. "This smells like ten things at once." He pressed his things together. "It's what was in that canteen. Do we take a sample?"

"Not what we're here for," Chay said and gave the tall martial artist a shove. He conjured white mist and made it hover before his mouth and nose like a facemask.

"Does it filter the smell?" Xane asked.

"Mostly," Chay said. "Thaum should let you do something like that. Let's keep going."

They hopped into the middle circle, reading the pandemonic signs on the shelves.

"Xee, get me that one," Chay said. "Abyssal Cartography Vol. 31 – Jheyr'Udd. Should be useful."

The Korean complied and had his mage-hand lift the tomb. Chay started flipping through it with a huge grin.

"Okay, that one, too," the umbralist said. "The Fifty Greatest Dominions."

"Bookwork huh?" Marcus said with an elbow into Chay's side.

"I'm a kid in a candy store," Chay said. "Look over there. Introduction to Arcane Harmonics. Grab that. Aether Sourcing, too. If you see anything about arcane weapons-"

"Aren't we on a mission?" Xane asked even as he sent his mage-hand to the desired books.

"Fuck, fine," Chay said. He tied his stack of tombs with the bead strings into a bundle he could carry over his shoulder.

The demigods leaped to the inner circle and froze in awe.

A demon stood before a pedestal, reading from a black tablet underneath the lone blue tree.

Nine foot tall, red skinned, built and muscled as fuck. His face was masculine to the point of the grotesque, with a golden nose ring nearly touching his sharp fangs. Two long, gently waving horns and two short, stout ones grew from his hairless head. Bat-wings were folded behind his back, where a tail softly bobbed.

He wore an asymmetric, studded leather harness, baring one gold-ringed nipple. His eight-pack lead to a white, chainmail-covered loincloth that hung to his knees. He had organic-looking gold armor plates on his shoulders, shins and wing-thumbs that looked grafted directly onto his skin.

He was clearly a Daemon' – a major' or true' demon, the most powerful being in the abyss after the god-like kings'.

"Holy shit," Marcus whispered. "Nash?"

"Presumably," Chay said.

Goro pointed his beefy arm at a shelf behind the Daemon. "That's the book, right?"

The innermost shelves were locked, metal grates and glass frames keeping their content out of reach.

"He's got his back to it," Marcus said. "Somebody could pull a ninja."

Chay rubbed his chin. "Let's move into position. Maybe there'll be an opening."

A light jingling alerted the men to duck, pressing flat to the shelf roof.

A second Daemon approached. Equally massive, a physique glorious enough to make Xane snarl with envy.

The newcomer was dressed in a bandolier of bones, holding up a thick metal belt with a skull buckle from which a black cloth hung. His two horns bent back in a near circle, three gold rings pierced into the right one. Gold armor pieces were cast onto his feet and collar bones. His insane thighs quivered with every step, a tribal tattoo ringing the left one.

"Bitch," Chay whispered. "That wasn't the lord. Those are just fucking Fiends."

Demonlings, also known as Fiends, were at most a few centuries old and basically pre-pubescent, waiting to ascend to adult demonhood. Xane was not keen on meeting the grown up version.

The second Daemon Fiend raised a gold-ring decorated hand. "Lord Tgog'Afnash requests to read The Abbreviated Codices."

Xane's eyes rolled back into his head with shivers. The demonling's voice was so deep, it was mostly outside human hearing register. Vibrations rushed through the thaum-demigod's bones, seeming to roll into his crotch.

The Korean mage felt permanently stuck on the edge to orgasm, at the desperate point where he would have kept fucking or jerking for just one more second even if his mom walked in.

The reading Fiend fluttered his wings and gave a nod. "Row six, lines Bhne to Hly, blue cover."

Xane was hoping to hear more pandemonic, more shivers crammed into his spine by a voice so deep he could barely make out words. No such luck.

Goro next to him was breathing shallow, hands pressed flat against the shelf with knuckled gone white.

"Let's," Chay started, swallowed hard and quietly cleared his throat. "Let's get the book. Marcus, still volunteering?"

===***===

Three demigods took position looking at the demon from the side, crouching on the shelves for cover behind a stack of books. Chay tied yet another one of them into his collection, held together by bead strings.

Marcus slid soundlessly down the shelf right behind the Daemon Fiend's winged back.

Xane did his best to project silence into that area but ongoing spells were still draining, it was pretty far away and his heart was beating in his throat so hard that his vision seemed to blur.

The bleach blond Filipino inserted the Wraith's key and carefully drew open the metal grate. He reached for the book – red cover, three pentagrams stamped onto the spine.

"Oh no," Chay said. "Warn him. The Fiend's about t-"

Xane tried to project his voice into Marcus' ear, but it was too late.

The demonling turned and stared at the unmoving athlete, who looked tiny despite coming close to six foot.

The Fiend hummed, ultra-low vibrations rushing up Xane's thighs and down his obliques, giving him tingles in the balls and ass crack.

"How did a slave get in here?" the Fiend asked. "Hm, slipped out of your chain?"

"A-ah..." Marcus made, eyes wide.

"Might as well do it now," the demonling said to himself.

"Do what now?" Xane whispered.

"Don't know," Chay said. "Get ready to cause a distraction."

The Fiend grabbed Marcus by the shoulder and dragged him along, turning his insanely striated back on the three hidden men.

The demigods followed overhead. Xane sent his mage-hand to the opened shelf and retrieved the tomb before handing it to the leader.

Marcus got shoved into an alcove with an empty birdbath and a black, leather-wrapped bench big enough for a demonic ass where the Fiend sat down.

The abyssal giant reached out toward the wall and a black chain flew of a hook and snapped into is palm. The other end wrapped around Marcus' neck.

The animus-demigod seemed to snap out of his state of terror and tried to flee, but the chain yanked him to his knees.

The Fiend opened the buckle of his gold-ringed belt. His reinforced loincloth clanked to the ground.

At the bottom of his popping eight-pack lay a double-cock.

Two red dicks, still swelling, but already a foot long with the thickness of Xane's biceps. Their shafts were ribbed like exotic sex toys, their heads bulging with knots like the knuckles of a fist.

"Fuck," Chay said with an exhale. "If he rapes Marcus we got to make a getaway. I don't think anyone can survive that."

The double-cock rose over a ballsack of matching size and pointed at Marcus' face.

"Come here, slave. Nectar."

The chain around Marcus' neck pulled, leaving him little choice, but he seemed to scoot closer on his knees as if entranced anyway.

Was the Filipino martial artists a cock sucker after all? Xane shuddered. Nobody would voluntarily...

A drop of gold appeared on the tip of either red dick.

"That's the stuff from the Hellion's flask," Chay said. He created a new, black mist-mask in front of his mouth and nose.

"Demon cum," Goro added and snarled.

Marcus' tongue hesitantly touched the drop. A slight convulsion raced through his body. Then he leaned in, eagerly lapping at the Fiend's right cock.

The demonling bend his left cock to the side, holding it over the shallow basin and let golden honey drip into it while Marcus sucked his share like taking care of fast melting ice cream.

"Okay, let's keep moving," Chay said.

"What?" Xane asked, almost too loud.

"Marky-boy is safe for now. Plus, the Daemon Fiend is distracted. I want to look around more." He patted his stack of books. "Maybe I should put some of these back."

Chay leaved through the red-bound novel they'd come here for – Wellspring of N'Golgol – and found a pamphlet of runic codes. He shoved it into one of his collected tombs and handed the `Wellspring' to Xane. "Put that back. Maybe even lock the shelf again if you can."

Marcus, between the impossibly massive demonic thighs, was now using both hands to jerk off the left cock, lapping everything it leaked, while the right cock drained into the basin. ``Nectar' washed over him, goops of shimmering honey on his faux-hawk and slowly running down his neck.

The smell was rising to their position. Xane got a whiff of pure sex, his mind jumping to the one time he had gotten a girl to suck him off in the shower and the many times he'd fantasize about it.

With a desperate need to fuck pulsing through his thighs, abs and glutes, the thaum-mage fled to the open self and put the stolen book back – they had the codes they needed.

When he was done, he rejoined the others, kneading his sculpted thighs just like Chay was doing. Goro had his hands on his nipples.

"I thought you're immune to the allure," Xane said to the leader.

"I can't smell the nectar," Chay said, "but the abyssal horniness is still getting to me."

"I should be cumming," Goro said. "Just flexing my muscles feels like jerking off and I'm so close."

"I'd slaughter a bitch for a cumshot," Xane said. He glanced over the rim of the shelf again, where Marcus was rubbing both demon cocks at once, licking the heads' undersides as they drizzled nectar down his back. "Man, do we have to watch that?"

"I think they're about done," Chay said.

It took another minute of suffering – although Marcus seemed disturbingly enthusiastic – until the flow ceased and the unknown Fiend rose, tugging the animus-demigod's chain to make him stumble along.

The gold-drenched man seemed to snap out of it and looked at the chakram that rested on his wrist as a thin, inconspicuous bracelet.

The Fiend unwrapped the fake-slave's neck chain. Was he just going to let Marcus go?

They'd come to a stand next to a grate. The demonling pulled it aside to reveal a chute, similar to a Gnome service duct but at ground height. A trash chute maybe?

"Shit," Chay whispered. "Stay down."

The double-semi-erect, young demon grabbed Marcus by the waist and snapped his spine with an ugly crunch. Then he tossed the demigod aside, into the tunnel.

Goro's body grew in mania-power, muscles popping with extra density. His mark expanded across his shoulder.

"Wait." Chay pressed his hand on Goro's back until the red titan had turned away. "Okay... Now."

The demigods floated down, into the chute without stopping.

It was dark for a second, but the descent soon ended in a round room, six feet across and so tall the ceiling was lost in darkness. There was a second room next to it, separated by iron bars, where a dark red crystal hung in an assembly of cables.

It emitted an ominous red shine through the bars, lighting up debris and shards.

Marcus was face down, whitefire on his back outshining the crystal. Xane made his mote slam into Marcus' broken spine with healing energy, forcing it back into alignment.

Rainbow light flared up inside the tan man's skin and he shuddered to life with a deep breath.

He turned over, groaning. "More... more dick..."

Chay pulled his fundoshi down, lighting up the space with aegis radiance.

Goro bend down to hold Marcus up, Xane was ready to put his hands on the man and supply more magic.

Then he caught the odor of nectar.

It smelled like brutal sex and insane masculinity and pure perversion and it was fucking beautiful.

He felt like he had discovered sex for the first time. He had to bring his face just a little closer, inhaling just a little deeper.

He was licking Marcus' gold-covered skin before even realizing it.

It didn't taste like sex with chicks at all. It tasted like musclemen and demons and fucking at the gym.

The nectar gave him sexual relief just to replace it with more craving. The bliss and relaxation of a great fuck spread through the Korean wizard's system just as the need for more flooded in alongside it. The gift of delight always replaced by the need and promise for more – ad infinitum.

His face collided with Goro's. He shoved into his friend's face and lost. But there was more down Marcus' back. He turned the well-licked man over and searched for nectar.

Fog moved over his face, a thick black tendril trying to cover his mouth and nose. He sent a vague push of thaum at Chay and the tendril dissipated.

Xane buried his face into Marcus' ass. The crack had stored a good few licks of sexual ecstasy.

Then there was no more. Nothing left but Marcus' smooth, salty skin.

Xane and Goro sat on their knees, shaking.

"Can we go back?" Xane asked in a hushed voice. "Steal some form the basins?"

"I volunteer," Goro said, his long mullet a total mess.

"Me too," Marcus said, then shook his head. "Fuck, I gotta be crazy. He made me suck cock and killed me."

"You had your fill," Xane said.

"Believe me," Marcus said. "I'm craving it as much as after the first drop. But we need a plan to avoid being seen by-"

"Guys!" Chay said, loudly, and slammed his books down. "Your demon cum addiction has to wait. We need to escape. This trash room and this" he glanced at the huge red gem behind bars, "wasn't in the briefing so we need to find a service tunnel. Let's go up."

The shaft seemed to span the height of the fortress. The walls were sufficiently rugged to let them ascend with ease, passing by a few grate-blocked exists until the top.

Chay hid his aegis again and thy emerged into a storage chamber where three men were chained to the wall. One black, one possibly Arabic, one Indian. They were bald, naked, hairless and well-muscled. They were also drooling and half-asleep.

Xane made a new mote, feeling the slaves' eyes on him as his purple butterfly formed. Marcus tried to say hi but got no response.

"They're out of it," Chay said. "Maybe we can come back for them."

The leader looked out into the corridor and formulated a plan. There was a Nogging, easily dispatched by a bolt from Xane's hand. They evaded one Hellion patrol – the missing warrior had been noticed by now. The nearest window was blocked by iron bars. Goro bent them out of shape and slipped through.

One by one, the demigods descended. Xane passed the window last. A green eye with a cross-shaped pupil had appeared on the frame. King Zheggyr checking in? Xane gave a cocky biceps flex and pocked the eye with his mage-hand on the way out.

Fleeing to below an overhand, out of sight from the fortress, Xane pulled his fundoshi down. It gleamed slightly, but the demons were far away.

The landscape was still as beautiful as it was grotesque. Mega-skulls eternally spewed red and green `honey' into the lake, which lit the whole cavern from below for a suitably abyssal mood, while the spectral aurora above intersected plumes of faraway smokestacks.

"There," Goro said, pointing up. The winged white creature was flying a mile or so above. It seemed to circle.

Chay hummed. "Don't think that one works for Nash but we better find a more covered spot."

"I gotta piss first," Xane said. He had started to feel it in the library but becoming addicted to nectar had briefly distracted him from his bladder.

"Same," Marcus said.

The four demigods let their beige fundoshi drop to the ground and stepped out of them.

"Huh, how the fuck do I aim?" Marcus asked.

"I guess we're pissing hands free," Chay said, amused.

"That's weird as balls," Xane said.

Marcus stood wide legged, hands behind his head, crotch pointing forward.

His stream went wild. The rifled exit on the aegis sent his piss in every direction, split into several streams that caused even more splatter as they crossed randomly.

"Hey, fucking hell," Marcus said. More piss sprayed onto his abs and legs then went forward.

Goro pissed next. He clenched his incredible glutes to force greater velocity but all that did was made the wildly spraying streams splash farther, sending drops into his face. The other men stepped aside to avoid the droplets.

Xane pissed with a grin. Thaum-magic let him guide the flow of small amounts of liquid. The streams parted at his nub and instantly combined into a steady run, straight ahead. "Hehe, suckers."

Chay asked, "You wouldn't help me out like that, too?"

"Nah, man. Not touching your piss, even with magic."

Chay sighed but smirked. He let loose with his arms raised and splattered himself freely.

"Okay," Marcus said. "Time to leave. Where to, boss?"

"Anything in the area looking like cover? We need to consult the book on- shit!"

Their aegises were suddenly ablaze with holy light as a giant man of gold dropped from the sky into their midst.

===***===

Chapters from here on will be (mostly) shorter than this one, but it only gets gayer and hornier. If you are enjoying the journey, let me know.