== VORTEX QUEST 5-4 ==
== CLIMAX DENIED ==
The vision bracelet test run had been boring, the crawlway was boring, as was skipping a battle. The narrow tunnels had even made butterfly-winged flight boring.
Now nectar-kissing Xane, that had been exciting but it didn't make Marcus less antsy. If he was honest, he wanted the plug stored in his ass to be refueled.
Finally they were getting to a place where shit might be going down.
The air in the crawlway chilled with every step, rime covered the walls like a dusting of sugar, their breaths condensed. Then-
"A dead end?" Marcus asked.
"Not quite, Mercy said. "An illusion but not one powered by human souls. King Pwen'Gllach likes to put his own illusions all around the realm. You can think of them as natural phenomena."
Xane huffed. "I choose to think of them as fuckery. What now?"
The ex-angel pointed at their crotches. "From what you've told us, you can deal with this just fine."
The demigods exchanged glances. Marcus eagerly shoved his fundoshi down his thighs, flexing his ass around the plug.
Four divine lights radiated distortions into the illusory rock. They advanced with the Nephil a step behind. Darkness closed in as they marched through the no-longer-solid wall.
On the other end was a tunnel slick with rime, leading into a stadium-sized cavern where black liquid bubbled in a volcano, sucking up heat in the surrounding. The place was a frost desert, blue sand covering the ground and spilling up the walls.
"Don't let that..." Chay started, "uh... anti-lava... stuff get on you."
"Reverse volcano," Marcus said. "Fucked up."
"O...on..." Xane mumbled. He quickly traced glowing letters in the air. "Onaclov."
"Okay, genius," Marcus said. "Can you spell `elemental attack' backwards next?"
Xane started air-writing. "Ckatta-"
"Elemental attack," Goro forcefully confirmed.
The Glitzers were barely visible against the ground. Despite being behemoths of jagged crystal they matched the hue of the blue sand enough to be camouflaged.
The air above moved. Gusters drew closer, made from nothing but air and swirling sands with sharp debris.
Chay gave orders. He was going to go with Marcus and the Nephil. The martial artist got grabbed by the hip, the leader's legs wrapped around him. They took off with Chay's butterfly wings – a green spackled pair – and rushed the Glitzers.
Chay summoned his fan and snapped Pie from his toe ring. "Up you go, girl," he shouted and shot her toward the other team fighting above. "Be a nuisance."
"Good kitty," Marcus shouted after her.
Smoke bolts shot past him as Chay catapulted them to specific spots on the humanoid elemental monsters. Those were the weak spots. Marcus sent his chakram ahead.
"We're not here to eradicate you," Chay shouted in Elementic. "Let us pass through and we'll be on our way peacefully."
The response was a thrown rock, big as a car.
They reached the cluster of five Glitzers. Marcus dropped from Chay's grasp and fell straight at the first weak spot, his manly foot ablaze with white fire.
The impact shattered the creature's upper torso, perfectly along the crystal's growth direction. It practically spun apart.
Marcus let his chakram be his shield from crystal splinters and used his momentum to evade the next attack with a mid-air backflip.
He zoomed to the next enemy, letting his magically burning muscles sing. Why fly in a straight path when three spins and a flip felt so right?
His burning palm shoved a Glitzer's head down, exposing the creature's back where a little cloud indicated weakness. With another overhead flip, Marcus' heel came down and tore the crystal in half.
Mercy was fluttering between the downed enemies, weaving gleaming, silver twine with angelic magic to tie them in place. There wasn't anything to tie them to but each other and the sand, yet the growing web kept them from reforming.
"Watch out," Chay's voice came from the side and the winged umbralist crashed into Marcus, pulling him away.
A stalactite came down and exploded in the blue sand, cerulean rock shards bursting to all sides. Chay rammed himself into the sand, using Marcus as a shield. Tactically smart but rude as fuck.
Spectral flames flared up on the cuts and scrapes all over Marcus' body, healing them away.
"See that!?" Chay said in Elementic while he unburied himself. "Your friends in the air are nothing but sand now. Flee before we do the same to you. We're not following you."
The last two standing Glitzers exchanged a look despite the lack of faces and grabbed the pieces of one shattered comrade.
"I think we did it," Chay said. "Wait... nope, betrayal."
He fanned smoke to indicate weak spots again, but Xane was faster. Some kind of purple lighting raced into the solid elementals and they collapsed with spasms as if suffering a stroke.
Goro plunged behind them, his weight making almost as much impact in the sand as the Glitzers themselves.
"Team melee," Marcus yelled and rushed in. Goro's fists met a Glitzer back just as Marcus' palm tapped it on the chest. The creature exploded upward in a shower of randomly ripped shards.
"Guys," Chay yelled. "Over there. It's why they got bold all of the sudden."
Two Gleamers were approaching from across a blue dune. Balls of lightning, too bright to comfortably look at.
"Not much here," Chay said, "to use as lighting rods. Xane, Marcus, now's the time."
"With pleasure, boss," the bodybuilder wizard in a skimpy black thong said and struck a wide legged pose.
A mote rammed itself into the sand on either side like cannon shots, melting the sand into one-foot semi-spheres of glass. The wizard picked one up, raising the other with his unseen mage-hand. "Here's hoping this works," he said. "Marky-boy, you're up."
Marcus tore his eyes away from the teammate and sent his razor ring at the approaching foes, blown up to full size. The chakram could conduct like metal if Marcus willed it.
The first Gleamer snapped to the chakram involuntarily. It took the energy ball a moment to violently eject the ring, leaving the Gleamer small and partly discharged.
Marcus used the momentum to hit the other Elemental the same way, right next to the first.
Xane rushed them, his butterfly wings a blur, a glass bowl held ahead of himself, the other one telekinetically closing in from the opposite side. Lighting struck the glass ineffectually, sparks obscuring the events.
The domes met. Both light Elementals within. A mote flashed at the rim, merging the semi-spheres into a wobbly globe.
It dropped in the sand, lighting up with the angry sparks of its prisoners.
"Booya," Xane shouted and hit a pose.
"Damn," Marcus said. "You're incredibly sexy when you're playing the hero."
"Oh," Xane said. "Is that so?"
"Yup. Too bad I was clearly the protagonist here, sidekick. But you contributed at the end."
The thaum-mage created the illusion of a sparse few hand slow-clapping. "Buddy, you're wearing a jewel studded anal plug. You're the comic relief."
Marcus twisted around and flashed the garnet poking out under the fundoshi strap. "Jealously is such an ugly trait."
Goro grabbed their shoulders and dragged them along. "We're not staying until they break the orb, or more show up. I'd rather save my bracelet's charge."
Marcus let the back of his fingers stroke Goro's nipples. "Dude, loosen up a little."
"Loosening up is for when we're alone and fist each other's brains out. I'm plenty loose then. This is a mission."
"Man," Xane said. "I'd say you need to get laid if I didn't know I've shoved a few lifetime's worth of hyper-orgasms into you a few Ringturns ago."
Marcus chuckled and gave Xane's ass a slap. He wasn't going to agree out loud with his nemesis-slash-mancrush but he did approve.
===***===
There was a metallic double gate in the wall, three times as tall as Marcus. It was covered in the dark reliefs of humanoid figures fleeing from the gate's center in anguish.
"Classic hellgate shit," Marcus said.
"I wonder," Xane mumbled, "is this a warning for the illiterate, like gothic cathedrals telling people to `behave or else' with gargoyles?"
"A warning of sorts, yes," Mercy agreed and stepped closer. "The Light Aelves trapped in there had decided to stay in the abyss once the threat to their realm was over, locking themselves in so they could not be forced to leave. But the Aelf they left outside to open the gate at a later time failed. Obviously."
At the center of the portal of horrors was a box. Patterns on it – a weird mix of wild, demonic crudeness and ornate, angelic finesse – all ultimately pointed to the key hole in the center.
"I'm sorry," Mercy said. "I'd been hoping this mechanism would have failed by now, but the Summer Lock is intact. Without a Winter Key, I don't think we can get in there."
"Where do we get one?" Goro asked. He gripped the gate and tore, just to make sure it wouldn't budge, his mark exploding from his neck onto his torso, muscles growth-pulsing.
"Technically," Mercy said, slowly, "we know how to make one. We have the diagrams. Just not the magic. I'll talk to the others about our options. Maybe this was for naught."
"Oh come on," Marcus said. "We had a whole big battle, even tried out a new teamwork technique, and now we're leaving without the climax?"
Xane chuckled. "After all that cum denial you should have gotten used to it."
"Not our first tactical retreat," Chay said, then scratched his skull-haircut. "Or is it? Might actually be. Uh, would a voidblade get through there?"
"Unlikely." Mercy stepped back. "This gate isn't just material. But if you have one..."
"I do," Chay said and raised his knuckle. "But if it's not even guaranteed... Rock-paper-scissor time."
Goro lost the match and dutifully took over the knuckle. The void blade sunk into the gate like it wasn't even there, causing absolutely no damage.
The demigods retreated across the sand and into the crawlway.
"Boring," Marcus complained. "Boring, boring, boooring."
"In the nicest way possible," Xane said focused on his mote-creation, "shut the fuck up."
"Make me," Marcus countered.
"I just might."
"Oh yeah, gonna make me suck your dick? Oh right, we're all locked. No climax here."
Chay groaned. "Just make out already, you dumb bitches."
"Oh so you can monopolize Goro again?" Xane asked with some bite to his voice. "Maybe I want my bestie to ravage me for a change."
"Hey," Marcus interrupted. "Save the rivalry. We're dealing with my quirks at the moment."
"No, mine," Goro said, "because I feel the Carnal Craving coming on."
Chay waved them into an alcove and pulled his fundoshi down. "We're one curse short of immunity now, so the craving might hit harder."
Mercy tugged at his own robe. "If you don't mind letting me... experience this rare curse up close..."
Marcus stepped out of his fundoshi, too, spit-lubing his fingers and triple-fingerbanging himself without shame. It felt good to be less cursed.
Xane summoned a sparkling rainbow over his head. "Orgy time!"
Goro tackled Chay but was soon between Mercy's legs, licking golden balls.
"My signature," the berserker moaned into the angelic thighs. "The open signature... activate..."
Three demigods cried out as the Nephil indiscriminately crushed all their balls. If Marcus hadn't been squatting on Xane's arm down to the elbow, feeling the thaum-mage tremble from ghost-fucking himself, and if Mercy's nectar leaking dick hadn't been slapping his face at the same time, he'd probably have objected. But the ball-crushing, brutal as it was, only heightened his pleasure. He could have been going for days.
===***===
They walked back no less horny but temporarily as sated as possible. The Goblin battlefield was abandoned and looted, although Chay said he could tell the attackers had won by the traces left.
Marcus didn't envy umbra-power. It seemed to take a lot of attention.
Waiting for the Bleeding Pearl to pick them up again was tedious but three things made it fun. One, they had a lot to talk about. Two, Xane was easy to needle. Three, learning Goro's ball-spanking technique.
With the Nephil standing watch on the barge dock, the pantheon stood back, legs apart, facing each other to chat, while occasionally slapping their own fundoshi.
Marcus had reached an abyss-orgasmic plateau thanks to the wizard's mage-cock wrecking his insides and was managing to sustain it by `activating' sensations in his crotch.
"We gotta look so stupid from afar," Chay said.
"We look stupid up close," Goro said.
"Touché," Chay said.
"You especially," Marcus teased and went ignored.
"Don't care about my image, though," Goro added. "It feels fucking awesome. One thing I learned when my nudes got leaked is that the ones who care don't matter and the ones who matter don't care."
"Got that from a fortune cookie?" Marcus asked.
Chay chuckled and Marcus shot him a wink.
"Although," Marcus said after a second of thought. "You're sure that has nothing to do with you looking like a god even before all this? I mean, if a random guy's nudes get leaked he doesn't generally end up drowning in pussy for it. I totally would, of course, I'm the hottest hunk who's ever walk the earth. And, uh, other realms."
"Of course you are," Chay said with playful pity.
"What I'm saying is," Goro continued, "we can be as fucked up as we want, especially here. I'm a Daemon's worst nightmare - I get to smack my nuts."
Marcus hummed. "Half that slogan was epic. No points guessing which half."
He turned to Xane who was ball slapping himself with tears of joy rolling down his cheeks.
"No comment?" Marcus asked.
Xane glanced at him, eyes glassy.
"He's fucking himself," Chay said. "Hard to see from here but his hole's gotta be big enough to drive a realm liner through."
"Wow," Marcus said. "Rude. We're having a conversation, Xee."
"Apropos liners," Chay said and closed his legs. Their ship was back.
Letting the pleasure fade felt like a betrayal. Dull but searing ball-aches continued to throb in the martial artist's abdomen but an internal flare of whitefire countered the sensation. Marcus wondered how long ago they would have discovered this technique if it hadn't been for the paradox curse.
"Oh shit," Chay said as their ship lowered itself. "It's a buffet."
Easily two dozen naked hunks were crammed into the back of the deck, sitting or kneeling under the black arches, sweating, with very short hair or none. They were squeezed behind a low barrier to keep the front half of the ship's deck open.
The demigods hopped over the barrier and mingled with the slaves. The humans barely registered their presence but some did react.
"It's all thralls," Marcus noted, seeing no shade without a pentagram on the forehead and a mark ringing his neck, arm or leg.
"Transfer," Captain Toothcracker said. "A champion gained some ground and needs fuel there so we bring some of his shades over. Are you going to be back there?"
"For now," Chay answered. "Marcus, the dust."
The pantheon picked eight lucky thralls and Marcus dosed the first four. He liked to suck the cocks of relatively slim guys since they were easy to control when they buckled. Xane didn't show much of a preference but seemed to have similar thoughts.
They picked guys next to each other and had them jerk themselves hard.
"Hey," Xane whispered. "Ever notice how Chay keeps going for black guys? He makes it seem like a coincidence but he really did go black and never went back."
"I noticed, yeah," Marcus said. "One day I'll comment on it."
"Hehe, let me be there when you do. He's cute when he's embarrassed."
Marcus leaned in. "Also notice how Goro keeps picking huge cocks and sucks them way before they cum?"
"Yeah, he talked to me about that. He likes the challenge."
Marcus blew a raspberry. "That's not a challenge. Cocksucking is, I dunno, bitch behavior. We do it cause we're cursed."
Goro was suddenly behind them. Marcus felt intense dread.
"So..." Goro said. "You're not up to the challenge, huh?"
"I... didn't..."
Goro pushed his chosen thrall next to theirs. "Go on, keep sucking those toothpicks. Here's how a man sucks cock."
Goro went on all fours and took the rock hard meat of the glitter-crazed shade in his mouth, down to the balls. He gagged and sputtered but he kept going, bobbing up and down. His lungs ran out of hair, leaving him to gag silently, with mania-power sustaining his blood from whatever oxygen was left in it.
It was so fucking hot, Marcus felt ashamed. His hand habitually wandered to his cotch to jerk off, hit the aegis, wandered farther to his crack and entered his hole.
His own slave spasmed in front of him with the promise of orgasm. Marcus leaned down and took the pulsing dickhead in his mouth, drinking the cum his Feeding Fate curse demanded.
Goro rose just after him. "Okay, your turn."
"Uh, what?" Marcus said.
"Pick a big one. Challenge yourself. It's fun."
"But..."
"But what?" Goro asked.
"It's... gay?"
"And? Image doesn't matter. We just went over this," Goro said and turned to Xane. "And you, too. Time you challenge yourself."
"Uh, I think I've done enough cocksucking."
Goro gave him a slap on the shoulder. "Come on, I miss coaching. Do it for me."
After more hemming and hawing, Marcus glitter-bombed the three biggest dicks remaining – while Chay was `incidentally' sucking his second African.
It was a challenge, yes, and mildly hilarious with Goro acting like a coach who wanted to see them succeed at some competition. Marcus had to turn off the part of his brain that screamed `gay' at him and suddenly it was fun as fuck to get penetrated in the face.
Most abyssal dicks they wrestled with were too massive to swallow but human cock went down his throat nicely. Just the novelty of oral, combined with the insane horniness making him crave any and all penetration... Yeah, it was pretty `fun' for a certain value of fun.
"That looked... interesting," Chay said behind them, just as Marcus was tasting the load. "I guess if we're staying afflicted with this curse, we might as well make the best of it."
"I missed coaching," Goro confirmed again.
"I know you did, big guy," Chay said and patted the berserker's back. "Oh and by the way, you two are really bad at whispering. I don't only go for black guys. They just tend to... well, have bigger dicks."
"Really?" Xane said. "Both of you have the same taste in cock? You really are a match made in the abyss."
He summoned an illusory pair of wedding bells on a white bow between them and got two huffs – Marcus and Chay - and two pairs of middle fingers – Chay and Goro.
Xane threw his middle fingers back at them and summoned his mage-hand for a third one.
Marcus lent his hands, too. "Outnumbered, bitches."
"Whatever," Chay said. "I'm in the mood for monstercock. I'll see if any of the Kobold crew wants this." He gave his ass a slap as he turned around and walked off, stepping between the kneeling thralls.
Marcus threw his arm around Xane's neck. "Oh, you've got some cum on your lip," he lied, leaned in and drew Xane into a kiss between bros.