== VORTEX QUEST 5-2 ==
== TO KIDNAP A LORD ==
The throne room was a fairly round chamber the size of a football field. A `vision bubble' encompassed nearly the entire area, containing a wild garden of torch-lined stone paths, gravity defying fountains and floating gems.
Illusion magic was a special interest of King Pwen'Gllach that his realm profited from. The garden was projected from a deep purple crystal of enriched Alethium, a foot long, hanging from the center of the ceiling like a chandelier, familiar tadpole-like shapes of human souls moving within.
A few Hellions in black and silver armor patrolled around the empty throne. Seeing four presumed slaves enter didn't put them into an alert state yet.
Goro took a deep breath. An incredibly pleasant smell like a garden after rain, shrub blossoms, a scent of flowers – and the promise of ravenous fucking.
His whole body was grabbed by a familiar thirst.
"There's nectar here," the berserker grunted.
"I can tell," Chay said and scratched his tribal-pattern shaved hair nervously. He opened his fan and pulled all his prepared smoke from the corridor. "Get started."
"Time to summon the fucker," Xane said. "Big G, buddy? Yeet me."
Goro grabbed the thaum-mage by the hip and tossed him a few feet up. Xane landed on the mania-warrior's stretched out hand and Goro catapulted him forward and up.
Xane flew with the force of the throw and some thaum assistance right at the vision crystal. The Hellions were reacting, pulling out short spears and activating some kind of rune. Good.
Goro waited for a nod from Chay and rushed ahead, his mark spreading from the small of his back to embrace his hips, then abs and chest, then crawl over his shoulders, too.
His leg muscles pulsed to greater size as he pushed himself into the group of elite solders. He rammed his hands into the spike-riddled armors of the closest two, denting them, and flung them into their compatriots.
The pain of his arm bones cracking and the spikes piercing his flesh were a welcome entry into his manic state of maximum energy Zen.
His bald head was flowing with hair down to his ass, the second his healing kicked in.
===***===
Xane flew with less elegance and flourish than Marcus would have but the straight path gave him a great view of Goro turning into a beautiful god of destruction.
Not as beautiful and destructive as Xane, though, the wizard thought with a grin. He held onto the crystal's chain with one hand, keeping himself in the air with ease.
His Rift Hammer, the angelic item on loan, hit the Alethium, spitting it. A lucky soul leaked out, the others stayed trapped in their respective halves.
The soap bubble popped.
The lovely if disordered fantasy-gardenscape turned into plain rock with iron grates and much harsher light.
This also uncovered the collections of jugs and amphorae filled to the brim with golden honey-like liquid. Xane's first instinct was to get there and drink drink drink dri-
No! He made his mage-hand slap himself.
Goro was closer to the jugs, which were mostly distributed around the throne. His chest had stopped moving. He was holding his breath. It was still difficult for him to focus on the remaining Hellions over the jugs. Marcus and Chay were already beside him and the nectar got covered in fog.
Xane thought about using a mote for some kind of smell blocker or air filtration when Kvaff'Ugorg rammed through a grate.
The lord was nine foot tall, bright red, musclebound, quad-horned and angry as fuck. He wore a large black loincloth, thick belts across his chest and a crown of black wood with red gems.
In his hand was a sword half as long as he was tall, glowing in white-yellow, dripping liquid sparks. He growl-roared through his fang-cluttered lips.
Green fire signaled arriving teleports. Some more Hellions. An Ultrabold, green scales, a long, whipping tail, a thin snout, blue crystals along the spine.
The Daemon and the Ultrabold were heading into Chay's fog, passing right underneath Xane. A perfect ambush opportunity.
The wizard dropped, his falling speed enhanced by thaum-power. With his legs bent, glorious thighs apart, he brought the mallet down with both hands and-
The enhanced lizardman was a Pyrebold. That hadn't been in the briefing.
Fire poured from the snout and enveloped Xane. His skin got crispy while his magic fought to contain the damage done to deeper tissue.
With eyes burned from their sockets, Xane shot a wave of force at the dino, following up with a mote. A cone of piercing shards rammed the Kobold and whoever stood near.
Xane made a butterfly slam itself into his face, restoring his eyes within a second. While the rest of his body drew on the healing, he shot a bolt at where the enemy had last stood.
The Daemon was entering the fog.
"Fuck," Xane said and shot a mote after him. It was unlikely he'd kill the asshole outright but he couldn't take risks. His stored spell exploded as a chaos sphere on the Daemon's lower half, severing his legs. Chay's smoke poured over Lord Kvaff'Ugorg as the red giant dropped with a scream.
The wizard was about to join the fight when he saw Gloopers leaking in, squeezing their gelatinous, man-high bodies through a grate.
Xane leaped in their way and slammed a white butterfly into the group, an explosion of ice putting the area far below freezing. The Gloopers solidified where the ice bomb had hit. Xane followed up with his free magic as a spray of frost.
With a sigh of relief, the demigod took a second to heal his mohawk back into existence and check the rest of his skin.
Something slithered between the iced elementals, transparent jade in the form of a two headed serpent no bigger than Xane.
"Oh shi-"
Both heads bit him in the calves and tore him to the ground.
===***===
Goro was wielding the stolen spark-sword. It was so long and heavy he'd had to pull his mark to his arms to hold it effectively. It had made mincemeat of the tattered, bleeding Ultrabold.
Frustratingly he could have beheaded or otherwise sliced the Daemon a few times now but they needed him alive.
"Where's Xane?" Goro shouted at nobody in particular, feeling it leave his throat so guttural it was nearly demon-like.
"I'll have a look," Chay said, appearing from the smoke and instantly turning invisible again.
Goro gave a grunt. Pie was perched on his head, her arbitrarily long tail kindly keeping his mane tied up. "He better show," he said.
Pie glanced down, cloud-tongue cutely poking out. Then she turned, so fast it seemed like her head turned inside out.
Goro whipped around, the oversized sword ready. Kvaff'Ugorg descended, legs reassembled down to the toe-claws, around him a dozen fire-leaking noggins.
===***===
The baby Wyrm was spewing corrosive slime from the left head – a snakey bull – and snapping at Xane with the right one – a jaguar head.
The wizard was on his back, pushing himself away. Fire had done little, ice was useless.
Chay dropped next to him and pulled him up. Together they made enhanced leaps backward, chased by the double headed mini-serpent.
"Slime Wyrm," Chay said. "Broad spectrum, please."
Xane readied an everything-bolt in his hand. There was a beauty to the multiplicity of colors and shapes but sadly no artistry. "How's the Daemon hunt going?"
"Middling. We need your hammer."
"One second... now."
The everything-bolt hit the jaguar as it started spewing more slime. It flinched back, jerking the bull-head along, before they gave chase again.
"Electricity, poison," Chay analyzed. "Can you make some kind of toxic lighting?"
"Say no more, boss," Xane said with a smirk and had a stored spell hop from his regrown mohawk. The butterfly split in the middle, the separate wings landing on one wyrm head each. Red lightning fire raced into the serpent from both necks, a magical union of electrons and toxins.
The slime sacks inside the creature exploded. It puffed up, slime now clogging its translucent interior.
Acid splattered onto the demigods as the Wyrm's two throats spewed their innards.
Xane flinched away and started healing as soon as he had juice again. It was just a few droplets but they ate through his flesh fast.
Chay yelled and rolled away. His scalp had been acid burned in a few spots. "Fuck. No time to watch it die. Heal me on the way. Come on, hammer boy."
===***===
"Chay," Goro shouted again. "Chay? Marcus?"
"Right here," Marcus responded from somewhere in the smoke. "The fucker keeps getting away. I'm starting to trip over the Hellions here."
Goro also kept bumping into skullheaded warriors who had torn their armor off and were furiously jerking their twenty inch schlongs, the animus-fighter's slug glitter having made it through their visors.
"The fog is out of control," Goro shouted. He swiped his hair from the face, not that it let him see much. "And he keeps turning invisible."
"We're back," Chay said, appearing in the billowing clouds. "Kvaff'Ugorg has some kind of personal vision crystal on him. He can't stay invisible if he moves. Marcus, wide circles outside the fog. I'll try to sense him."
Shooting smoke tendrils with his fan, Chay faded back into his clouds. Marcus let the chakram race around the room.
Goro held the sword ready. He was better off with bare fists in most fights but the noggins kept reforming. He used the magical blade as a flyswatter for the dripping skulls.
The razor ring bounced off nothing and the Daemon faded into view as he evaded, a chakram wound on his chest closing. He wing-swept Chay's tendrils aside as he floated along the room's perimeter.
"Wait..." Chay said, hand raised. "Aaand now!"
Goro let his power rush through him, every muscle ballooning, rock hard. The huge sword pointing forward, dripping sparks the whole length, he held onto the shaft with both hands and launched himself with the might of godly quads.
The chakram sliced across Kvaff'Ugorg's back, up to the head and knocked the crown off.
Goro was upon him. The blade ran through the red skin, searing it away, and dove deep into the Daemon. It wouldn't do much unless someone followed up with-
A section of the rock wall five feet above blurred. Xane abandoned his illusion and dropped onto the lord's head, silver mallet aimed with two human hands and a magical one.
Kvaff'Ugorg's skull split with a wet slurp, tiny strings of brain goop connecting the halves. He crumpled on the ground. The demonic power tried to reassemble him instantly, fighting the Rift Hammer to a stalemate.
Chay calmed the fog in the room to knee height and created a fog-free circle around them. He pulled a Nephil-loan from his shoulder and clicked a lever on the ornate device.
The leader pulled his black fundoshi down and let his fingers grab onto the blindingly radiant light. He pulled a glowing string away. The device was the same that had bound their hands during the ex-angel orgy.
With holy twine from his aegis, Chay hog tied the cramping, spasming enemy. Goro dropped the sword and helped out.
"Good news," Chay said, "no reinforcements. Bad news, it's because we're locked in. Force fields went up around the whole room. Let's check the throne for a control console."
The pantheon wandered to the throne, which was much less imposing without the illusions covering it. There were enough flowing fabrics for them to bundle the lord into a makeshift sack roll.
The smell of nectar was too strong to ignore. They took turns sipping from open jugs. It was almost as relaxing as actually fucking but only took as long as a drop running over his tongue.
There was always a dark moment where Goro's mind reminded him he'd have four times as much nectar if he knocked out the other drinkers. He'd always stayed away from drugs, even steroids – mostly – but he wouldn't have guessed how addictive sexual fulfillment was. Visions of a dozen demons driving their triple dicks into him made him cream his aegis.
"A gulp, anyone?" he asked, gesturing at his jizz-sprayed abs and thighs with the hand that currently carried the mark.
"Already sipped Hellion loads," Xane said. "There's still a few creamy dicks if anyone needs, by the way."
"I'll take it," Marcus said and licked the berserker's skin clean.
"Man," Chay said, bent over a fist-sized garnet, "here's the soul stone that turns those fields on and off, but it's also behind a force field. Hasn't been maintained in a century but I can't break it without... Marcus, cut the bastard. We need a few drops."
While they pulled Kvaff'Ugorg halfway back out of the sack, Goro ripped a strip from the Daemon's black loincloth and tied his ass-long hair into a tail from the top of his head to keep it out of his face.
As soon as Xane's demon-bloodied mage hand rubbed the deactivation rune onto the garnet, more enemies rushed into the chamber.
"Banelions," Chay warned. He was clicking the twine spinner and pulled more holy strings from his crotch to tie the cloth bundle shut. "Goro can you carry this by yourself?"
The mania-warrior emptied a jug with a deep gulp and dropped it. He gave a grunt and picked up the five foot bundle that contained a tightly tied up nine foot demon.
He felt the burn in his quads as he lifted the weight, charming a smile onto his lips.
"This way," Chay said. "I think. And you two, hold them off for a bit. There's a trap door in front of the throne here if you need an escape route."
===***===
Marcus was pirouetting and cartwheeling like a blur, whitefire punches sending armed elite warriors into each other.
Xane found the Daemon's yellow, glowing spark-sword too cumbersome to carry around so he launched it at the gathered enemies with a force blast. The blade sliced a Banelion and it blew up, scalding the whole group with green flaming acid.
The wizard flexed a biceps. "Good shot, me."
"Sword too heavy for you to lift?" Marcus teased as he flew by.
"No," Xane shouted with magic-boosted voice. "It's balanced wrong. Too heavy to wield. I could lift it just fine, mind you, I'm strong as fuck."
He flexed most muscular and ejected lighting from the small, pointy nipples on his perfectly sculpted pecs.
The next patch of Hellions accompanied a Wraith. The huge, domed metal disk above the grape-bunch-like collection of a hundred arms was the thickest they'd ever seen on a Wraith, rattling with chains and strings.
Their curse immunity protected them somewhat, but the direct blast still made Xane crave a fuck so desperately he rammed his mage-dick all the way up his hole, shaping it into a Daemon-dick on the way. His guts exploded with vague sensation but pleasure stayed out of reach.
"Fucking... paradox curse..." he mumbled and tried to focus. Marcus was fisting himself with equally naught results. Xane's eyes were basically gazed over. Tears on his cheeks. No focus. Needed to fuck. Somehow. Get dick somewhere.
But that smell...
The wizard catapulted himself inelegantly through the air and dug his face into nectar.
Sweet relief.
He let his asshole wink shut and hammered the mage dick into Marcus' guts instead.
"Marky boy," he shouted, "get away."
A butterfly found its target. The Wraith's many outer arms rose in a blast as his inner ones were obliterated. Under the creature, it rained fingers and eye balls and chain links and sprays of blood.
Marcus was letting his chakram slice through bone, dropping one Wraith arm at a time. He crawled over to the throne, ass pulsing as he got magic-fucked to abyssal super-orgasms deep in his guts. His fundoshi hung unraveled off his hips.
Xane handed him a freshly uncorked nectar amphora and took more sips from his own. Battling during a binge was dangerous since the visions were so realistic.
But as long as he focused he could be fairly sure he wasn't currently getting double fisted by Marcus and Goro in the gym showers, while Hellions sprayed him with never-ending waves of cum and a Fiend was flying toward – No, the Fiend was real.
A bright red demonling with downward curling horns in a clattering chainmail dress was closing in.
The Wraith's curse finally subsided as the floating creature crashed, his overly thick disk now crushing further hands.
"Distract him," the wizard commanded and Marcus pushed off the ground, his hole still gaping. The now exposed aegis shone like a cold sun.
Xane flung a mote at the Fiend while making his mage hand turn a ring on the Rift Hammer. The Alethium chandelier merged like it had never been damaged at all.
The soap bubble grew back. The wild gardens faded in.
Hellions found themselves trapped in hedges and shrubs or got violently shunted aside by structures popping into existence.
With the mallet dropped back into his human hand, the demigod let his second to last butterfly blow up in the Fiend's face. The young demon dropped from the air onto his back with a thud as his face got bludgeoned in and necrosis began to eat it.
The garden was fully reestablished. Dead and exploded Hellions piled up on the paths and in the grass where still living warriors were hiding.
Marcus was collecting bota bags of nectar. "Like we were never even here," he said with glee. "The perfect crime."
"Aside from all the corpses," Xane deadpanned and picked up his share of nectarskins.
"Aside from all the corpses," Marcus agreed.
"And acid puddles and demon blood drops and all that shit."
Marcus nodded enthusiastically. "Ninety-nine percent perfect crime. Ready to go?"
"On my last mote," Xane said. "Here's hoping we bought Team Quietude enough time."
"If we were on a more normal trip," Marcus said, "I'd make a joke how they're secretly fucking. I mean, I can still make that joke but we two literally fucked in secret and I'm dreading the moment Chay calls us a married couple, which is totally going to happen. Not sure I can deal with that yet. We haven't even gone for a night about town yet."
Xane summoned his mage-hand to face palm for him. "High time to get out of here. So... uh, how do we open this trap door?"
===***===
Carrying the holy-twine-tied Daemon bundle on his shoulders, let Goro feel his muscles at work similar to being in a fight. He loved his body.
Working with Chay to get to the edge of the funnelcastle was a pleasure. They understood each other with few words. No sarcasm, no banter, no bullshit. Goro appreciated straightforwardness – and Chay's delectable back and ass.
The leader kicked aside a few feisty gnomes and turned around. His eyes glanced over Goro with lust, lingering on the black fundoshi – Goro liked to keep the pouches as tiny as possible – before smirking at him.
"Man, these nectar aftereffects are fucking with me," the umbralist said, driving his hand through his patterned buzz cut, awkwardly lingering where some kind of acid had burned holes down to the scalp. "Always the mix of lowkey flying high and craving it more than ever."
Goro gave an acceding grunt. "Same here. I'm currently imagining my dick bursting from the cage like a train smashing through a wall and slamming your face into my crotch, impaling you down to the lungs."
Chay slightly spread his arms in a `come at me' gesture. "We both know it isn't that long, honey."
Okay, maybe Goro enjoyed some banter. Only human.
"In all fairness," the mania-warrior said, "I'm also imagining grabbing your hips and pulling your crotch into my face, sucking you dry till your balls turn to dust."
"Wow," Chay said with faux shock. "Violent. And quite dick focused. I won't pretend I can tell exactly when you're thinking about ass but I figured it's often. No ass fantasies?"
"Only when you're showing me your backside."
"Which I've been doing this whole time."
Goro made the Kvaff'Ugorg-bundle jiggle. "If I didn't need both hands to balance this load you'd be a whimpering mess."
Chay took a hard, shallow breath. "Looking forward to rectifying that. I... think I can tell from the stream of gnomes we're closing in on an exterior wall. That door, maybe."
Goro gave the three inch thick wood a knee-kick and tore it from the frame. A bedroom with a balcony.
"You seem to be doing well," Chay said, "with the nectar aftermath. Sorry, I don't mean to `read' you like that. Some of the umbra-magic is happening by instinct now."
Goro dropped the Daemon carelessly, pulled Chay into a hug and licked along his neck. "I just like to crave. I've always wanted to know what overwhelming lust is like, for blood, or strength, or pussy."
Chay licked his nipples back. "And now... you're craving guys... but you decided to enjoy the longing... because it makes the reward sweeter."
Goro squeezed the leader's neck and pulled his away. "I thought you weren't going to `read' me anymore?"
"Few things just clicked. You're really into that `beast nature' thing. Fine by me. What are you craving now?"
"You," Goro said, but it was more of a growl. They didn't have lube or Xane's magic so their spit-lubed fingers didn't get too deep into each other's holes.
But it was mostly a kiss anyway. They'd kissed before, half-accidentally when their eager muscle licking had made their lips meet. This kiss was one of purpose – the main event.
"Uuung," Goro made into Chay's mouth and pulled away. "Just creamed again."
He pushed Chay down without resistance and had the buff Thai buddy lick his fundoshi pouch and aegis clean.
"There's no relief here," Chay said, rising with cum on his lip. "We'll do this back at the chantry."
He was correct so the berserker didn't argue.
Goro grabbed the bundle wrapped in glowing strings. After a pointer, he tossed it into the direction of a platform. No incidental onlooker would see more than typical trash disposal.
Kvaff'Ugorg impacted on a slope and rolled to a halt near the spot where their Griffnix were parked.
"Now us," Chay said and let smoke flow from every inch of his skin.
Goro tightly hugged his buddy, deciding to enjoy the surge of sexual energy that drove him crazy when their bodies touched.
They jumped, windows and caves rushing past them, vaguely visible through the artificial comet trail. His long hair tail fluttered.
They dropped into a swarm of rainbow bubbles, the ones that drifted through Hiwinymb in lieu of clouds.
Shimmering bubbles, Chay's sexy body and the promise of fuck-bliss, his pulsing muscles, death defying flight. Goro couldn't wish for-
They slammed into a Jellon – the massive floating brains with a hundred tentacles hanging off them.
Their impact took them through the leathery, transparent exterior, five feet into the gooey brain. Goro's mania-magic kicked in and made him hold his breath automatically. He gave Chay's ass a knee kick to drive him out of the goop, managing to free Chay at the cost of shoving himself in deeper.
He was fairly well stuck and the brain closed above him, semi-transparent lobes sloshing. It wasn't totally dark and his magic compensated, but he'd have liked to be able to turn his aegis on like the others.
Swim up or punch his way down and through? It was probably more reliable to let himself sink and rip any harder tissue in the way. Maybe the creature died before he emerged underneath and he wouldn't even have to worry about the tenta- The tentacles! Chay!
The blurry, gray shade above him had to be Chay who hadn't jumped and escaped. He was wriggling.
Goro swim-punched through the brain, treading lobes until he broke through to the surface.
Chay had been grabbed by half a dozen finger-thin tentacles that had reached up to fight the intruders. He was cut deeply with the tissue rapidly atrophying.
His voidblade was slicing aimlessly, most tentacles severed but still wrapped around him.
Goro roared. He ripped the Jellon-appendages off Chay, not caring he wasn't healing as fast as he took damage. Two fingers dropped to the ground, regrowing within a few seconds.
Chay slumped. He'd been nearly cut in half by a steaming cut from his hip to his navel, not to speak of the many smaller ones.
"Pie," Goro cried out.
The smoke-feline shot from Chay's toe ring, saw her owner, and dashed around in a mad panic.
"From me," Goro commanded. "Feed him from me. Before he dies. But we have to go."
He grabbed Chay bridal style, made sure Pie was biting into his shoulder and jumped.
She was taking a lot. She wouldn't have done so unless it was needed, so Goro said nothing. Black crept into the corners of his vision. He pumped as much mania-power as possible through his system. He only needed to land safely and drag them into a crack in the funnel wall. Then it no longer mattered if he stayed conscious.
===***===
"Woooooo!" two voices echoed in a dark tube, spiraling wildly down.
In the frantic glow of two radiant aegises, the men held onto each other as swirling patterns on the smooth, black stone whizzed by.
They kept playfully fingering each other as their bodies wildly tumbled in the plasma chute, with Xane having an advantage since his third hand could reach anywhere he wanted.
"Always my favorite part," Marcus yelled. "Leaving spectacularly."
Xane pulled him closer, hands running over his nipples. "My favorite part... is this."
Their lips gently met, then they crashed into each other with force, abyssal horniness making them desperate for as much touch as possible.
Lips locked, they shot from the chute, somewhere most of the way down the funnel, and hovered onto an outcropping. They walked awkwardly, with legs wide and bent, alternately punching each other in the ass. Their bota bags sloshed around them through the convulsions.
Xane squeal-whimpered. "F-fuuuck. It's crazy how much," –he shuddered- "punishment my ass can take."
"Hey," Marcus said, voice weak, "do you think we can kick each other in the ass. Like, fisting but with a foot. Feet...ing?"
"Are you insane?"
"Considering the cocks we've sat on, I think I could take it to the knee."
"I don't want to hear this."
"Imagine," Marcus said with his smirk interrupted by a convulsion. "Getting your hole kicked by a leg sinking in to the hip. Or double feeting, or-"
Xane drew a red X over Marcus' face. "Shut it until we're a whole group again so I don't have to deal with your freak bullshit alone. This is the spot, right?"
They reached the platform where- Oh no.
"Chay?" Xane asked, seeing the umbralist sitting against a rock, covered in fresh wounds, strips of raw skin indicating an attack by something long and stringy.
The leader weakly raised his hand.
"Goro!" Xane shouted, just noticing his friend in a crevice. Healing magic leaked from his hands before he had laid them on Goro's ashy skin.
Pie was curled up, resting on him. She gave Xane a slow blink.
"He'll be..." Chay started, hoarse, "be fine. He saved me. Splitting up was a dumb idea. The abyss is still dangerous."
"What happened?" Marcus asked, crouching next to Chay. "Man, you must have been in ribbons. And worst of all," he gave Chay a pat on the head, "your impeccable style got sliced off."
Smoke puffed off Chay's body. "Damnit, can't signal our ride. Shadowhand's about to pass us."
Xane slammed his last mote into the leader, healing as much inner damage as possible. "I can signal. What is he looking for?"
"It's fine," Chay said. The thick-legged Thai hunk had regained enough focus to send smoke tendrils into the air.
Goro took a deep breath and jolted awake.
"Xane?" he asked.
The wizard leaned in and pressed their faces together. More of a nuzzle than a kiss. "You scared me, asshole. Never do that again or I'll stick by your side every minute of the day, got it?"
Goro's glassy eyes wandered across the group, then to the pile of nectarskins. "Nectar?"
Marcus chuckled.
Xane leaned back with a groan. "Bitch, we were having a moment."
He collected a bolt of ice wet blue and splashed it in Goro's face, making the berserker hilariously mad. Marcus' laughter increased.
Their ride pulled up.