== VORTEX QUEST 5-1 ==
== A SLICE OF HEAVEN ==
The pantheon came out in a crawlway of black stone, every surface filled with the spirals and sinuous lines of ancient lava flows.
Goro bent aside the spiky barricades on which feral Kobold skeletons were rotting. The other three were chatting.
No immediate danger. Hiwinymb didn't defy physics in an obvious way. He let his mark of madness shrink back to a few lines on his collarbones and wiped away the drops of precum Xane had left on his back during the shoulder-ride. Not worth a comment.
For optimal logistics he should have swallowed the drops but eating cum wasn't enjoyable unless it was paired with sex.
Half his mind was listening in on the chatty trio, the other was fixated on the flowing lines on the walls bending before them. Xane's orb gave enough light to follow Pie's zigzagging exploits.
"...but supposedly," Chay continued, "King Pwen'Gllach stopped long before the king of Mockery went mad and dismantled most of the crazy tech and it's a `relatively' stable realm now. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if we find some high tech fuckery around here, too. Oh, and for the record," he turned to Marcus, "if I got flipped, I'd definitely be a top."
"Something ahead," Goro reported. "Looks like... high tech fuckery."
"Shit that was fast," Xane said.
Pie was circling a five inch silver cylinder with a few knobs.
Chay leaned in. "Hey, that's the beacon Gallant promised. Or... a beacon. Could be we're activating a trap meant for someone else entirel- Nope, says `twist me' in English here. Gallant."
===***===
The crawlway turned into a path along a sheer cliff where the gentle flow of ancient lava had broken off. Flowing spiral of smooth black spread into a miles-wide chamber, spirals of silver leading to outflows of teal ectoplasm, stone skulls sprouting tendrils of azure moss from the eye holes.
Hiwinymb presented three striking features: Small volcanos sparked with yellow fire along the cavern's bottom, forcing paths and settlements to wind between; pinkish-white, foamy bubble clouds hung under the ceiling, refracting plasm-rivers and volcanic flames; oblong chunks of dark stone floated as islands the size of city blocks under the ceiling, many drenched in bubble clouds.
The most striking structure was built into the wall just to their left: A castle of thin white spires, smushed together like a bunch of pencils. Sharp golden roofs had ornaments inspired by angelic architecture. Two Wyvern slumbered on the only flat tower tops.
Around the castle was a sphere, like a soap bubble, generously encompassing it. Within the bubble the rock was bright and jeweled, vines, shrubs and perfectly straight trees formed a garden that terminated precisely on the bubble's edge. A gentle stream of teal plasm completed the picturesque style.
"It's gorgeous," Xane said, looking down from the cliff.
Goro grunted in agreement.
"Got a Disney vibe," Chay said. "Not abyssal at all. I don't trust it."
Goro grunted harder in even stronger agreement.
"Seems to be a vision bubble," Chay continued. "Psycho-sensationic conduits embedded in trans... uh..." He looked at Goro, hand resting on Pie's head.
A response was warranted.
"Trans-Alethium," Goro said. "Focusing soul stone energy into illusions via a radial perception matrix."
"Minor shimmer on the aegis," Xane said. "Probably some demons inside. And there's another castle on the floating island way back. Seems to be made of giant flowers. Check out this or the other?"
Goro hummed indifferently.
"Neither," Marcus said. "Piss, cum and fist. I'm parched and horny to death."
Goro grunt- No, this was worth adding his voice to. "I didn't get much cum out of Diego's slaves. We could see if one of you can cream, otherwise I say we look for a load in the castle."
Chay shrugged and lazily slapped Goro's ass. "Sounds like a plan. Get down, stay in the fog, we'll see if the bubble is easy to breach."
The pantheon descended the cliff with magical aid, dropping along the wall in fits as Chay spread his black smoke cover through equally dark cracks in the volcanic rock. Xane's mage-hand carried the goodie bag along.
The soap bubble offered no resistance to touch, letting them pass into the garden as if it wasn't there at all. This seems exactly like the sort of thing that would trigger an alert or activate curse runes or something. Goro stayed vigilance but his gut was aching with an itch that only something as long and thick as an arm could scratch.
"It's not as pretty as I thought," Xane said as they stepped onto soft earth, hip high ferns leading to denser shrubs. "More like someone took bits from better gardens and crammed them in half-haphazardly. My artistic heart is bleeding."
"Maybe they'll hire you as consultant," Marcus said and let his chakram cut an alcove into the tall bush.
"Down," Goro grunted and shoved Chay along to hide.
A Wretcher leapt from a roof and flew off, leaving the bubble. Chay's fog covered the slight flash of their crotches as the demon moved overhead.
"Okay then," the umbralist said. "Who's drinking who?"
The bickering couple found each other, leaving Goro with the leader once again. He didn't mind either way but having Chay's head between his thighs remained his favorite option. He wished he could fuck his mouth but sixty-nine pissing was pretty fucking beastly.
He drank while shooting a hard stream into Chay's throat, enjoying the tiny facsimile of a penile orgasm that strongly pissing allowed. Helped along by the insane horniness the abyss provided, he was probably getting as much pleasure as from an earthly orgasm but he knew this was nothing yet.
Xane shaped an ectoplasm orb from the stream and let them dip their arms in.
Goro's body welcomed the intrusion of Chay's arm. He liked all his friend's arms but somehow "knowing" it was Chay felt the best. Marcus ass was probably the tightest in the group, clutching Goro's forearm like it held on for dear life.
Strange, perhaps, that he fucked Xane the least, despite them having been the most mutually trusting initially. But frankly, Xane had been little more than a gym buddy before while Chay felt like someone Goro could get along with long-term. But Chay's punches felt too good to keep the brain focused on the future.
Goro was crying from joy, which wasn't a rarity. And he wasn't the only one either. Xane tended to giggle, Marcus sounded like he was on his final breath, Chay whimper-gasped.
They sounded like animals, their higher brain functions far gone – even more of a turn on.
Goro loved life. Fucking and killing all day – for a good cause – had always been his fantasy.
At this point it no longer mattered he wasn't sticking it in pussy. He wouldn't have said no to nectar hammering fantasies into his mind, but man-on-man fucking had even more of the wild, animalistic, meditative quality he loved.
It could have been anywhere from ten minutes to a day. Magic made stamina a nonissue.
Marcus' glowing cock cage sputtered a load onto his tan abs and thighs. The load threatened to drip onto the packed dirt beneath the martial artist.
"Xee?" Goro said with a croak. "Load... help me."
A mage-hand wiped the cum from Marcus' skin and flung it into Goro's wide open mouth. The taste continued to be unpleasant but it nourished him instantly and he was starting to find it hot in principle.
Chay behind him exhaled deeply. "I... I think I creamed, too, a while ago. Sorry, I didn't say anything. And I think we should stop before we fall asleep like this in enemy territory."
They slurpingly extracted themselves from each other's asses and rose. Goro was surprised to find his hair shoulder long. He must have been drawing more on his mania-magic than he'd realized.
As they crawled from their hiding place, the berserker ripped a vine off a tree stem to tie his hair back, then grabbed the goodie bag from Marcus.
"Hey, they're looking for us," Chay said, eyeing the cliff overhead where a gray and a reddish Griffnix were `parked'. A winged Drake was pacing in front of the crawlway exit.
"Don't we know that guy?" Goro asked.
Marcus beamed. "Triceratops looking motherfucker. Hey Xee, let's prank him."
Chay poked him in the ribs. "Another time. Stay in the fog while we get up there."
===***===
Shadowhand, the Aeodrake whose master the demigods had spectacularly killed, was not surprised to find them. He had a Kobold minion with him who'd been searching the crawlway.
They flew on the Griffnix, with Goro holding onto Chay's hips, who was holding onto the Drake's waist. The other demigods were flying with the Kobold on the other creature.
Chay was making conversation, probably sussing out more than his questions let on. Basically, Shadowhand had joined Gallant when it had become obvious the lord taking over Fno'Xhaan's place had no need for a lieutenant.
Like any realm god, King Pwen'Gllach of Hiwinymb was fed energy from dark chantries, but there was perverse pleasure in fallen angels doing the job inside a former bastion of heavenly resistance. Now, Gallant resided in such a defiled sanctuary inside a floating island.
Shadowhand made the pantheon dismount atop the island and lead them through iron gates into white brick tunnels with colorful glass ornaments, greenskin corpses on sticks serving as contrast to the stripped down angelic architecture.
The pantheon met Gallant with blazing crotches. The golden, babyfaced giant with vibrant dragonfly wings was with three more of his kind, all in flowing robes more opulent than the one Gallant wore.
"Ah, my old allies," the familiar ex-angel said with his shiver-inducing voice. "Or dare I call you friends?"
"Do you?" Chay asked, surprisingly confrontational. Goro kept his face relaxed and dropped the Kobold-skin bag between them on the leader's gesture.
As the angelic goodies spilled out, the three unnamed Nephil reacted with interest, or maybe a flash of greed. The pantheon didn't know how valuable these trinkets really were and Goro trusted the umbralist to bring any of this up if it helped their mission.
On Gallant's request, Chay introduced them and gave a quick overview of their recent exploits, speaking Celestial.
One Nephil stepped forward, 8 foot something, his golden cut muscle poking from the blindingly white robe that was held together by tiny clouds in shimmering blue, looking like a stiff breeze could tear them away and have the fallen servant of the divine naked enough to make Goro crave a fuck.
"You may call me Valor, these are Tranquility and Mercy," the Nephil said through plump, golden lips. "We have agreed to let our defiled sanctuary serve as your refuge. Consider our share of this treasure rent. To make this short: We can rip a curse from the four of you, so long as you were all afflicted with it at the same time."
"You need something for that," Chay said, eyes narrowed a tiny bit. "Something you don't have yet."
"The blood of a Daemon. All of it. One will suffice for you four but obviously that is already a tall order."
"And you have someone in mind," Chay stated.
The ex-angel Mercy had been inching forward to take an inauthentically casual look at the `gifts'. Some too-honest Nephil never learned to adapt to the way of demonic scheming.
Held together by beads of green glass, Mercy's robe hung lower than the others, messy folds revealing the stupidly long cock that hung halfway down the calves.
Goro was so distracted by animal urges, he missed Mercy's first few words.
"-bringing Lord Kvaff'Ugorg here as intact as possible. Then we can take one curse off you. As a follow up you will have to secure yourselves against blood-vengeance since you will be connected to him once he likely resurrects."
"We'll need more intel on Kvaff'Ugorg," Chay said. "And we'll need uh..." He glanced between his companions. "Nectar?"
Gallant spread his arms, flapped his wings once, and his robe dropped. Three robes followed.
The firehose-like, prehensile angel dicks had Goro's knees hitting the ground so fast, his healing factor kicked in to repair a cracked kneecap.
Mercy gave a nudge to one of the devices the pantheon had gifted and strings of holy radiance shot from the aegises, snapping around the demigods' wrists.
Goro's hands were pulled to his crotch – tied up. He didn't complain. He squeezed his balls to get sensations rolling, his superhuman horniness translating the ballcrushing into pleasures beyond orgasmic.
Valor's dick head danced before him, making him scoot after the Nephil and lick the air to catch the evasive `serpent'.
"Eager slaves?" Mercy asked. "Gallant, I thought you had exaggerated. My apologies."
Gallant grabbed Chay's face by the chin. "Mouth or ass?"
Chay swallowed hard. "I... yes... I'll... Fuck me."
Goro at last got to taste Valor's nectar, getting hit with lifelike visions of humping down on Chay's fist as guttural craving and relief alternately rushed through him.
Someone was spreading and lubing his ass. He didn't care to check. He'd take it. He'd take anything. And it would never been enough.
===***===
After a good angel-dick-fucking, a few Ring Turns of sleep, piss-gulping and a fisting square, the pantheon was on their way to almost-kill a Daemon. It struck Goro that he was living the life he had stopped daring to dream of as his teen years had given way to adulthood. Maybe with more cum eating and less pussy fucking but he got to be a beast in every way that mattered.
The four men had received fabric to hide their glowing dick cages. Black linen Goro had dutifully rolled into fitted fundoshi. Valor and Shadowhand were bringing them as close to Kvaff'Ugorg as possible on the Griffnix.
The targeted lord ruled in a funnelcastle - rather than a stalactite hanging from the realm's ceiling, it was an upward structure into the dark, swirling stone. A plasmafall rushed down the center of the inverse overcastle, reflecting the harsh light of frozen lightning bolts set in the rock.
"Maybe it's the black attire," Marcus said, "but despite not being on a murder mission for once, I feel more assassin-y than usual."
Xane juggled three illusory daggers. "Same."
"We're almost at the platform," Shadowhand said as their steeds took them into the funnel's half-a-mile entrance maw. "We'll wait as long as we can without arousing suspicion. Otherwise, you'll find us on the ground."
"Gotcha," Chay said. "We won't be long."
The demigods hopped off the Griffnix upon landing and headed into the tunnels leading up. Cairns marked lordly claims, large red feathers waving where other realms would have used pendants. Glowing fog oozed along the floor, obscuring razor sharp barnacles.
The flowy, black crawlways of Hiwinymb were a lot more vertical. There were elevators but the demigods couldn't use those inconspicuously. Their climbing ability sufficed.
Getting inside was comically easy – partly due to their growth in skill and power, partly to the toy the Nephil had lent them.
Xane carried a silver mallet – the Rift Hammer – which had been used in earlier curse transfer `volunteer procurements'. He knocked a side gate with a hammer blow and sundered it soundlessly.
The Hellions standing guard in the corridor saw Goro flying at them before seeing nothing ever again. The sundered door merged back like it had never been touched as the thaum-mage turned the ring on the mallet's handle.
"The perfect crime," Marcus whispered with a smirk.
"Aside from the corpses," Xane said, pointing the dead warriors.
Marcus shrugged. "Can't make an omelet without cracking a few skulls."
"Then how is it a `perfect crime', huh? Mister Ass-assin."
Chay stepped between them, fog leaking from his shoulders. "Make out for a minute if you gotta but keep quiet."
"He's the-" Xane started.
"I was jus-" Marcus started, too.
Chay grabbed them by the mohawks, not getting much traction on the short hair, and pressed their faces together.
"Goro?" the umbralist said and slapped the berserker's firm ass, "scout the intersection."
Goro grunted in agreement and went off to kill whoever stood in the way. Xane and Marcus aggressively made out, either to spite Chay or, well, it was a hot enough sight to make Goro want to sink his dick into both of them. He allowed his body to convulse with a shiver of pleasure, once he had turned the corner.