Vortex Quest

== VORTEX QUEST 3-6 ==

== DEMIGODS BETWIXT ==

The academy had gyms for the Hellions. Chay wasn't quite sure how much of their physique was inherent but the skull-headed warriors apparently still needed to train to stay at their extreme peak.

Naturally, he found Goro there, pumping his biceps with a dumbbell of bulky iron on a sandstone slab bench, superhuman muscles glistening, his white fundoshi soaked and hugging the tiny package.

Pie slipped from the umbralist's arms and raced around the powerlifter's legs before dashing off to who knew where.

Goro threw him a smirk. "Craving the pump, too?"

Chay tried not to be mesmerized by the biceps. "Just needed a break from the library. Figured I'd catch you here. Hot new look by the way. Right mix of savage and sophisticated."

The large powerlifter dropped the weights and flung his braid. "Ha, you know how to make a berserker blush."

Chay was taken aback. The hunk sitting before him was feeling genuinely flirty. Or rather, he was horny to a point where sexuality just oozed from his mind. Umbral-analysis made that impossible to miss.

Chay fought the urge to swallow suspiciously. "So Sharpeye thinks we got a chance to kill the vortex before it's up and running, but we got to seriously speed up the revolution. We'll need a permanent connection to Lydeth. Right now, they're only communicating with secret messages over other public channels, in so far as this hell-feudalism has public infrastructure."

He knew he was rambling but he wanted to ramble. The other demigods would have already interrupted him but Goro just waved him to follow to a vacant squat-rack.

While Goro put his plates on the beam – much longer than at earth gyms – Chay kept going over his and Sharpeye's plan.

Eventually Goro started squatting the weight, making Chay's overgrown cyclist-thighs seem average by contrast. The berserker roared in a perfectly human way, face a grimace of pain.

"Uhhhh, fuck!" Another squat. "Uhhhhh ffffuck! So hard not to let magic do the trick by instinct, hehe," Goro said, turning to Chay, neck still under the bar. "I've always dreamed of healing powers so I could train all day every day and my muscles would grow and grown and fucking grow."

"Same," Chay said. "When I do an exercise I don't like, I pretend I've been doing it for five hours after getting a secret military serum that makes me instantly recover."

Goro readied for another rep. "Military serum, huh? For me it's a naked chick with a magic wand." Plates clanked. "Hhhnnnngaaaaafuck!"

"Now I'm wondering if you'd really get bigger. I always assumed the healing resets your body."

"No idea," Goro said and squatted again. "Ggggrrrrr fuck! Not like I'll be at it long enough to find out. Last one, hhhhhffffguuuhh Fuck!"

In a way, the mania-warrior had become Chay's favorite. Sure, Marcus and Xane were more entertaining when they didn't bicker, but Goro's excess of calmness and discipline had seemed aspirational on campus even before Chay had known his name – and unwillingly seen his nudes after the crazy-ex thing.

Pie returned and dropped a dead Gnome at Chay's feet.

"Uh... thanks, girl."

The weight slammed back into the rack. "What's your favorite monster dick, aside from demon?"

"Huh?"

Goro grinned. "Don't say human. Don't believe it for a second."

"W-whats yours?"

Goro shrugged. "Troll, probably, even if it's a little plain. Unless we find something thicker. Marcus said it's a toss-up between Hellions for the length and Kobold for the ribbing. Xane said Kobold first but I think it's Lich now."

"Wow, uh, Drake maybe? I mean, after Sharpeye was done scheming..."

"Is he a good lay?"

"Sure," Chay said and tried to sound locker-room-casual, eyes on Pie as she nibbled his fingers. "Bit rough."

"Going to have to sample him later."

"Oh that reminds me," Chay said. "Reapers should be here any minute."

===***===

Reapers were wingless, minor demons, their skin deep blue, approaching black with purple or teal hues. Their horns were mostly bent forward and spiraling, letting them wear hooded robes.

Of the three Reapers, two were about nine foot tall and in robes that dragged along the floor. The third one was a Reaper Fiend, barely eight foot, with much looser robes that made his bizarrely muscled physique obvious.

Chay's aegis was radiating hard enough to shine lightly through the fundoshi.

Sharpeye introduced the pantheon, then Lord Ghir'Ragvel and his associates.

"Pleasure doing business with you," said Ghir'Ragvel, fangs sparkling with gold rings that matched his huge septum ring. "I assume you're ready for a covert takeover mission?"

Chay analyzed his allies. Ghir'Ragvel was driven by bitter revenge, rich enough to ensure his closest followers loyalties but not enough to stay securely in power. While few Reapers were thrilled about the vortex, some profited more from the project than others. He was on the losing side.

"Absolutely," Chay said. "We'll rely on your support." He could tell Marcus was seconds away from asking, so he preempted. "How about nectar for us, as a showing of trust? Do you carry any?"

The Reapers glanced at each other. Ghir'Ragvel dropped his clothes first, the others followed.

While the dark, blueish muscles were already an oppressive wall of flesh, Reaper-cocks were a class of their own.

Each demons sported triple-dicks, each dick a twenty inch tentacle, extending in segments, prehensile.

Chay's hole was twitching. He took off his fundoshi, momentarily blinding everyone, even himself, with the aegis.

"You get used to the glow," he said, apologetically.

He and Marcus knelt on all fours next to each other, getting fucked by one of Ghir'Ragvel's dicks each, while the third tentacle-like appendix traced their back muscles.

The other two demigods were positioned as if sixtynine-ing, with Goro on his back and Xane on top. The Fiend had two dicks inside Goro as requested and spread him while nectar injecting. The third dick was between the slick humans, rubbing off on their abs.

Xane was getting fucked by the other adult Reaper, of course, with the two spare dicks slapping his bubble butt cheeks like drums, flinging little lines of nectar on his shredded back.

It was one of the best nectar injections ever.

Goro's question had made Chay consider his personal ranking of demons. Reapers were probably near the top. Not as thick and pumping as Wretcher's muscle dicks, not as beautifully devastating to his guts as a greater Daemon's rippling, but a good mix.

He certainly could have gone for hours of brain-raping sex visions and whole-body explosions. And he didn't even have to share or switch, just enjoying the tentacle dicks sliding into him.

His hands found Marcus' body and reciprocal caressing ensued. They were both sobbing into each other's necks.

Xane and Goro started laughing uncontrollably, almost panicked. The whole pantheon madly chuckled and cried and giggled and wailed as golden honey drops painted them.

Chay was trembling as he fell apart in the Reaper's grasp.

They had only gone without nectar for a day or so. And already the return of pleasure broke them. At least the addiction wasn't getting worse, or was it?

In the shockingly brutal bursts of pleasure, it sometimes felt like he was riding Marcus' tentacle-cock instead.

Practically screaming at each other in lust, the men melted into each other's embrace.

===***===

The dual realms of Rhibinelg were connected in several places by the twixtway. Most of those locations were sand maelstroms, claimed and fortified by some abyssal faction. But a few were up for grabs at any given moment.

The Thorn Bomb twixtway lay somewhere within a pillar of warped, dead coral in off-white that speared like a minor skyscraper toward the ocean-sky.

As this was a low profile mission, the pantheon revolutionaries traveled light. They were accompanied by three Kobolds and two Goblins, who led the tine-vark that carried equipment.

"Sleuthken ahead," said Grrrn'va - Track-Seeker. He was an Ultrabold, his scared, orange reptile body enhanced with a blue gem in his left eye socket, more gems on his clawed toes, and a silver shotgun barrel worked into one of his four arms.

"Can you take them?" Chay asked.

"Probably," Track-Seeker said, instantly mistrusting, tense. "You're not helping?"

"I think the Nettlex are stirring already."

The enhanced Kobold focused his gem-eye at the coral pillar's many organic holes. "Yes... we'll take the hounds down here."

The Nettlex unfolded. Brown, thorny, complexly woven.

Thirty yard long tree-trunk-like beings unwrapped from the corals or slid tentatively from the pillar. They extended loops, like asymmetric, hollow, thorn-riddled butterfly wings.

"Let's go," Chay shouted and took off, levitation-hopping toward the pillar.

The Goblins swung paddles at the territorial sleuthken below as he zoomed past. Chay grunted instruction in their language. Goro landed on one of the mutant-hogs, breaking its neck as he pushed himself into the air.

The pantheon made touch with the porous coral. Thorny shadows moved across them.

"The Nettlex are fragile," Chay analyzed. "Wood-like exterior. Flexible at the joints. They're way faster than they look. Ignore the wings, go for the main trunk. Xee, fire time."

Two butterflies dashed forward and turned the nearest two Nettlex into firework. They didn't burn easy but retreated, smoking.

With levitation assisted climbing, the demigods ascended into the flock of hostile creatures. The first of Xane's victims broke in the middle and dropped as two smoke-trailing, jittering parts.

The immense wood-moth-snakes shifted as if about to-

"Incoming!"

Thorn bombs dropped at the flap of hollow wings.

A hundred needles exploded from the seed-balls and hammered into the pillar. Marcus evaded gracefully, his weapon deflecting stray shards. Xane was hit a few times, his mage-limb taking the brunt of the impact and rippling apart. Goro was nailed to the coral, roared, and tore himself free.

Fog poured off Chay and hugged the pillar. It was light enough to let his friends see but made him invisible. Avoiding detection was his best bet.

Goro pushed himself off the tower and right into the wooden web of an enemy, punching and tearing the bark-like skin. The Nettlex' wings closed in around him, thorns coming from every angle.

"Goro! Get out."

The berserker ripped thorns apart, jumped to the still burning Nettlex higher up and tore it to shreds.

Xane wielded a mote-turned-firewhip, hounding enemies that tried to keep distance without abandoning their nest inside the pillar. Marcus sliced Nettlex flesh at the joints, making green blood rain from his spinning ring-blade. He chopped at them without making contact, his whitefire jumping the short distance to inflict burns.

Chay shouted as he sensed another bomb attack. Needles came in like missiles. He got hit in the shoulder and the hip. Another scraped his scalp. He got dizzied from the impact.

Pie had left her ring some time ago and bit onto a thorn stuck in Chay's skin, pulling it out.

"Thanks, old girl. Could you go down there? Bite some mutant hogs for me."

He catapulted her down with a swing of his fan and let the tool snap back onto his wrist.

He shouted down "she's on our side" in Boldian and Troglo before turning his attention to the fight above.

Xane's whip was spent but he had set the wings of three more Nettlex on fire. Goro was wielding burning thorns like clubs. Marcus was healing at least six entry wounds, tearing a seventh needle from his calf.

The sky was dense with thorn loops. Without his umbra-sense, Chay wouldn't have been able to tell there were twenty six left, nevermind the unknown number still inside the nest. Hm... inside the nest...

Lifeforce came from below as Pie attacked sleuthken.

"We can win this," Chay shouted, hopping upward along the pillar. "New plan. Go in, attack the nest. If they got nothing to defend they might-"

A blinding flash above. Sunlight glittered in a thousand grains.

Elemental creatures dropped from the coral tower. It wasn't just a Nettlex nest.

A Glooper oozed from the pillar, its gelatinous form slowly dripping along the rugged shape. Not fast enough to be an immediate concern. The pressing matter was-

"Guster incoming!"

The being of fine debris and storm washed over Chay, rubbing his skin like rushing sand. He pressed his eyes shut as he screamed into tightly closed lips.

His fundoshi had been sandpapered down to his knees. He tore it away to move freely.

His fog was gone – washed off by the Gusters. The nearest Nettlex, partly ablaze, descended upon him - a bomb ready.

Chay forced his power into the creature's nerves to make it twitch off aim. In his desperation he pushed too hard and... he puppeteered the entire, thirty yard thing.

"Holy shit."

"What?" Xane asked who was next to him, fundoshi gone, down to three butterflies in white, yellow and pink. He was healing from a thousand tiny sandpaper-cuts.

"I'm in control of that one," Chay said and sent the thorn bomb into the Guster instead. It didn't kill the creature but discouraged it. The particle cloud drifted off in a hurry.

Chay turned his `ally' into a fire-hazard, piloting the creature into the densest Nettlex cluster. "Fuck yeah, that's the god-power I was looking for."

Xane smirked. "Think that upgrade lets you puppeteer a demon?"

"Let's win this first. Shit, more elementals. That's a Gleamer. Don't know how to kill that."

Gleamers were light elementals. An orb of lightning, no material component, pure energy. If floated past the Glooper, crackling.

Goro and Marcus were doing a good job dashing around the spectacular clusterfuck of thorns and fire above. Most loops were broken at least once, leaving the Nettlex as long, winding sticks with tentacles, their torn ends aflame.

"Into the nest!" Chay shouted.

The pantheon dove into the home of the Nettlex, past smaller thorn sticks. A writhing mass of bark loops and fluttering stalks.

Chay puppeteered an adolescent one just to push others out of the way with uncoordinated twitches.

"Down, I think," he said.

Goro dropped and stomp-hammered the coral ground into dusty debris. The Gleamer followed them inside, Nettlex young getting slammed to the side as it electrocuted them on its way.

Another Gleamer squeezed itself through a crack from above. Stroboscopic flickers painted the chamber.

"We didn't know you're here," Chay tried to say in elementic. "We can strike a deal. We only need the twixtway."

The Gleamers crackled at each other. "Get them."

Were they even hearing him? Elementic was hard to pronounce at the best of times - nevermind lightning dialect.

The pantheon broke the floor into a lower cave. An orb of Xane's lit the space. Lightning cast sharp, flickering shadows as the Gleamers followed.

"Earth?" Chay wondered. "Try earth."

The mage-hand picked up debris and tossed it into a Gleamer, which disturbed its form. It stopped and contracted to a ball of blinding light. After a moment it expanded again and continued, slower.

"Okay, that's... something."

Goro continued to punch them a way through the disconnected coral cells. Pie met them, bouncing.

"She found something," Chay said. "Follow her."

Goro and Marcus opened the way, while Xane earth-shaped coral behind them to keep the Gleamers back. The creatures avoided touching things that grounded them. Eventually they'd squeeze or burn through any obstacle, however.

The demigods broke through a dust cloud into a cave with an exit. Sleuthken droppings littered the ground.

Track-Seeker, his two lieutenants and the gobbos were waiting for them. "Down just a bit," said the Ultrabold.

"Gleamer," Chay shouted. "Gotta take care of-"

A light-elemental came through a different, small tunnel in the ceiling. Its radiant light seared the greenskin right below.

The Goblin cried out as his skin turned black and crispy. He took a step and the orb's lightning whipped at him, his piercings sparking.

The other greenskin activated runic tattoos on his shoulders. His life force got exchanged for a shroud of deflection, letting him tumble away.

Marcus made the chakram zoom at the enemy. The metal ring sparked as it ran through the Gleamer's center, but got ejected with a zap, slamming into a wall.

The Gleamer retraced into its tight, ball form. The Goblin dropped, spasming, smoldering, dead.

The chakram returned to Marcus, bent and scorched. It healed in his sacred fire.

Track-Seeker fired a phaser blast from his build-in hand-shotgun, holding the arm stable with another one. Sparks flew and the Gleamer got flung back.

"Run," the Ultrabold shouted.

"Where?" shouted the remaining Goblin.

The Sleuthken mounted a last attack from outside, storming the group. Nettlex young descended through holes in the ceiling. The Gleamer expanded, lightning ready. Every direction was blocked except-

"Down," Chay shouted.

He took control of a Sleuthken and flung its broadside into the incoming thorn bombs, catching most of the needles, letting it die howling. The next hyena-hog-lizard went into the Gleamer who evaded upward. Chay practically `threw' Sleuthken, to keep his friends and allies safe while the three demigods tore and burned away the floor. Track-Seeker fired into the coral to look into caves below.

"That way," the Ultrabold shouted. "I see the portal."

Xane shot a chaos-cone, deleting the matter in the way, pale white dust crumbling off the sides of a diagonal tunnel down.

The umbralist did a quick analysis. He had run out of Sleuthken. Puppeteering a Nettlex wasn't enough to deflect thorn bombs – they were too hollow. There was no one for Pie to `eat' to heal him if he was lethally hit. In the next few seconds he'd have to sacrifice a person to discharge the Gleamer. If he was confident he could end this in the next minute...

"My turn," Chay said. "Keep working on it."

The umbralist rushed at the enemies. He raised his iron knuckle, summoned Hole, and sliced his way through a Nettlex. He piloted the bigger half's death throws, while also shoving it with his hands. He tossed the dying creature into the Gleamer, discharging it. The radiance of the orb set the Nettlex' remains aflame.

Chay sliced where he stood, Nettlex falling to bits before they realized what was happening. They retreated. Now he was really out of ammunition. Maybe a berserker or a martial artist could throw dead wood fast enough to hit the Gleamer but an umbralist was barely stronger than before getting divine powers.

"We're in," Marcus yelled.

Chay ran into the carved tunnel, dust raining on him. Hm... structural weakness. He drove Hole into the ceiling as he walked. The tunnel didn't collapse as much as it needed to.

A dead Kobold was nailed to the wall. Some Nettlex must have come in from a side shaft. Another ally down.

The twixtway portal was a swirl in reality. The cave's center spun nauseatingly, as the spherical entry point moved around its multi-dimensional axis.

Track-Seeker was cooling down his shotgun-arm. The remaining Kobold and Goblin activated some kind of soul-stone powered beacon. Of the demigods, only Marcus still wore a fundoshi, too good at evasion even for a Guster.

"I turned it on," Xane said, "...I think. Not sure if thaum can substitute for demon blood."

"You're fine, it's on," Chay said. He saw the structural weaknesses in the reality-swirl, where magic would have to prod to make it collapse.

The tunnel behind him got brightly illuminated. Crackles closed in.

"Let's go," Chay shouted. "Hold your breath in case we come out underwater."

A Gleamer floated into the room just as Marcus jumped into the portal. Chay didn't stay to check on his allies, he just flung himself in.

===***===

It was a kaleidoscope somewhat like a journey to limbo, but with a direction to it, stretching up and turning Chay into a spaghetti shooting into the sky at missile speed. He got re-compressed just in time for the journey to slow down and dropped out of another reality-swirl.

The ocean that was Lydeth was a constantly churning mass of water and ectoplasmic foam, never mixing, never fully separating, ever roiling. Technically, the ocean lay in darkness, but the sky was now a sunlit desert, reflecting enough down (or up?) to recreate dim, orange-tinged evening light.

He hit water as expected, but thankfully right at the surface. His gobbo ally dropped next to him, the short but crazy broad greenskin struggling to stay afloat in the iron-spike-leather harness.

Since Chay had already used Hole, he had no qualms using it again, slicing the hairless troglodyte free from the battle uniform with the blade only extended a quarter inch.

Others dropped into the water around Chay.

Then a Gleamer followed.

"Shit!" Chay shouted. "Get away. Out of the w-"

The elemental hit the water and dissipated in a bright flash that shot out in a circle under the waves, dying instantly.

The zap reached Chay as a jolt across his body, easy to recover from.

Track-Seeker and Goro had been the last ones through the portal, right in the circle of electricity. Both flinched, froze up, and sank.

Goro had died.

Xane shouted something incoherent and dove after his friend.

Chay forgot to tread water for a second. He almost wished his keen, godly sense hadn't told him. Goro was actually, really dead.

There was nothing they could do for the Ultrabold but the mania-warrior had divine healing. Maybe he could come back from a gajillion volt shock. In any case, Chay wasn't going to leave the corpse in an unmarked water grave.

He dove after Xane, who had lit up his aegis and was grasping at the sinking friend's long braid.

Together they pulled the hunk to the surface, Xane at the base of the braid, Chay by the arm. There was no land to swim to and they couldn't levitate holding someone this massive.

Red rays traveled over Goro's body. Some magic Xane was doing.

"He's not healing," the mage said. "The heart. Stopped. I can't... fuck." He grabbed his last butterfly out of his wet mohawk with enough force that a real butterfly would have been crushed to a pulp. He slapped the magic-battery onto Goro's chest as if he wanted to punish his friend for dying.

Goro jolted. He wasn't waking up but he seemed to tremble. Was that just the ocean waves or...

"His heart," Xane said, grinning like mad. "It worked. I'm a fucking defibrillator."

"Shouldn't he wake up?" Marcus asked. "I know that's not how CPR works but he got a healing factor, right?"

"Something's wrong," Chay said. He could see Goro's weak points, which at this moment was his entire body. He was without his godly strength. Had briefly dying made him mortal? Without innate magic they had no way to heal, except-

"Kitty," Chay said and pushed Pie out of his ring. The cat-snake stared at the water and foam all around and threw him an accusatory glare.

"I know old girl, you like solid ground under your cloud paws but we need help. You got to feed the big guy life force."

Pie dashed to Goro, trailed around him and looked between the drifting survivors.

Chay and Xane simultaneously held out an arm. "Drink me, girl."

Marcus splashed as he swam closer with a huge stroke. "I'm the next fastest healer. Drink me. Here."

Pie glanced around for permission, hesitating. Then she dug her teeth into Marcus' forearm. Whitefire flared through her body and she recoiled.

"Fuck," Marcus said. "I can't get fed on. Shit shit shit."

"Me then," Chay said. "Just... don't kill me. Come on, girl. It's okay."

Little feline teeth punctured his skin, or so it felt. There was no loss of blood, no open wound – Pie was more careful than she had ever been – there was only the cold and tired feeling of life getting drained away.

Goro stirred. Xane held him only by the base of the braid and slapped him. "Hey, wake up. Wake. The. Fuck. Up." His voice cracked.

The Goblin came up behind Chay and held him above water as the umbralist's strength faded.

Goro came to. "Wh- th- fuu?"

Xane had a laughing-crying breakdown, hugging Goro as much as possible while holding him above water. Marcus helped, punching the air in triumph with his free hand.

Chay swam onto the hunk who started treading water by himself.

"Hey, good to have you back," Chay said and pressed himself onto the musclebound god. He kissed Goro on the lips, then moved down to the neck.

"Uhhh," Xane made.

"Sorry," Chay said. "Carnal craving is starting. Gonna have to lick the fuck out of someone. Now."

Goro smirked and pushed his foot into Chay's face, floating at the surface half by swimming, half by magic, letting the umbralist lick his toes. He grunted, his brain kicking into gear. "God, I need my dick sucked so bad. Put your tongue anywhere you want. Ughhh, feels like every lick is going right into my crotch."

Marcus drifted a few feet away. "Why does Chay always go for Goro when he's craving man-meat?" he said just loud enough to make sure Chay heard him.

"Boss got taste," Xane said. "Why, are you jealous?"

"Of the fag-servant getting to worship a hunk? Nah, I'm plenty hunky myself. Of the meathead getting a tongue bath? Maybe. I'm horny to death, too, you know."

The divine boys broke into a splash fight while Chay's brain reassembled itself. Lydeth wasn't nearly as salty as earth oceans but Goro's skin tasted as if sweaty. Chay was stunned by how much it turned him on to imaging Goro sweaty again. But that was the carnal craving's doing, right?

"I just want to say," Marcus shouted as things calmed down, "something I thought of right away with my incredibly quick wits, but wasn't appropriate at the time... We nursed Goro back to health... by feeding him Pie."

Xane groaned a `fuck off' and the splash fight continued. Chay felt a new wave of craving coming on and had Goro turn around to eat his ass. He'd need to plan. The demigods and their two allies had made it to the other side of the world without backup. Adrift.