Vortex Quest

== VORTEX QUEST 6-9 ==

== TOMB RAIDERS ==

Xane swaggered across the Sneak Attack's deck, an illusory, ever-flowing rainbow cape draped over his right shoulder.

He could have pumped a modicum of thaum-power into his sphincter and healed it to full tightness again but with the swaying of the ship nobody noticed he was walking broad legged, and leaving his hole to gape let delicious after-gasms roll through his body, turning every step into a gentle pillow-hit to the brain.

The Rock Lubber chieftain's curse was nearly defeated but cum still bubbled from his shiny nub-dome every so often.

"Docking," the helmsman announced from the front and the vessel trembled as it sat slightly crooked atop the docking bars.

Goro and the Troll mechanic Gonyo Bana let the plank down, opening the ship to a grove of purple-leaved Ginkgo trees.

The pantheon hopped down into the ferns, while the four Hellions of the Sneak Attack disembarked with a chest of their stuff in tow.

Zlennrop met them under the shade of the grove. He was accompanied by two normal looking Hellions in black robes that marked them as Warlocks, two Ultrallions enhanced by embedded blue gems where human souls swam, four Hellion-Abominations with various mutations like green slime dripping from the eye sockets, spikes growing from the back or skeletal, burnt-seeming arms, and finally a blue Drake in a long, silver loin cloth, with a massive sword at the hip.

"Nice alliance," Chay commented. "Enough for a lordship?"

The Bonemaster bowed, his flesh-less wings half unfolding. "We are nearly ready to claim a fringe territory. There should be little resistance. The supply of... rejected Hellions is a rather small trickle, so we would pose no great threat."

"Even so," Chay said, "if there's trouble, you can send us a message."

Xane flexed and let his lightning travel from his shoulders into his fingers. Goro hit a loose most-muscular and let his body pulse to size. Marcus just let a white flame flicker up his mohawk. Diego did nothing but grin and stare in admiration. They'd have to work on his presentation skills.

Zlennrop gave a smaller bow, then fixed his gaze on the approaching crewmen – or former crewmen.

Seventh put his fist over his heart. "My liege? We seek refuge."

"You come with high recommendations," Zlennrop said. "We will skip the proceedings and Gtethian Trials. I will only ask what you have done to be expelled from your birth-court."

Seventh glanced at the pantheon.

"...later," Zlennrop clarified.

"Then this is goodbye," Chay said. "We're always open for helping each other out."

Seventh bowed and so did the other three skullheads. "It was a pleasure. Shall we?"

The alliance around the Bonemaster retreated into the grove. A smooth rock rose at a Warlock gesture, revealing itself as a huge, sunken stone skull. The group descended into its mouth.

Xane conjured a white handkerchief to wave after them like people in old-timey movies.

Chay clapped his hands together. "Well fuck. Now we have to actually work to keep our ship running. First Mate Xane, start the engine."

Co-captain Xane," the wizard said and gave the leader a mage-tongue lick across the hole.

Chay's ass flexed involuntarily. "All right, third mate Xane it is. First Mate Marcus, the engine."

"Ay," the newly appointed crewman said and saluted with enough force to fling himself back into a series of wheels, finishing with a backward somersault onto deck.

"You know," Xane said, "making someone else do the work kinda defeats the point of downgrading me." He conjured sunglasses onto his face and a Margarita into his hand. "But I'm fine with it."

Before Chay could retort, Xane swung his arm around Diego and pulled the warder along. "And you, newbie," Xane said, "need to learn to show off a bit more. People need to see power here to listen, you know that."

"Not everyone's a natural blowhard," Diego said.

Chay caught up to them. "He was distracted."

"By what?" Xane asked, frowning at Diego.

Diego raised an eyebrow. "You got turned gay, man. You know what it's like to watch four gods from behind."

"Demigods," Chay corrected.

Diego grinned and for the first time there was something sheepish about it. "It was a metaphor and you know it."

Xane let his hand slip from Diego's shoulder, down his spine, magically chilling his fingertips until he reached the crack. He shoved two fingers into the other man's ass and flexed with the other hand. Diego arched, shivered and reciprocated the pose with his lithe arms.

They made it under the Sneak Attack's arches and the ship took off.

Xane wanted to give the gay man the fuck of his life right then and there, but a huge part of him craved to be admired.

"You know what I haven't done in a while?" Xane asked. "My posing routine." He created an illusory mirror surface on two corner walls. "Mind watching?"

"Nothing I'd rather do," Diego said and sat down, cross-legged on a half-sphere ward. Curse-cum drizzled past the pouch of his jockstrap.

Goro gave a grunt and stepped toward the mirror-corner, too. Chay was quick to hold him back, both hands on the massive pecs. "Sorry, buddy," the leader said. "With those airheads busy sucking each other's cocks – `metaphorically' – you'll have to step it up. Starboard section eight has a trans-focal co-lifter in need of oiling and I have a temporal-creature encyclopedia to read."

Xane gave his gym buddy a nod and watched him walk to the back of the ship. Then he started his routine.

Without music, he didn't have much of a rhythm which sucked immensely. He slowly fucked himself with a ribbed demon-cock, flexing to the beats of his hole. Better than any soundtrack.

===***===

Xane let thaum-magic seep into the converter. The crystal seemed to suck up divine power as eagerly as the mirror tunnel in Mockery had, drinking the drizzle of light insatiably.

He had suggested the name "Xane's massive rod" and been rewarded with a litany of jokes about compensating, so he had asked for name suggestions.

For now it was known as the Fucking Heavy Tube, as Goro had not-so-lovingly called it.

Still wrapped into its blankets, save for the converter compartment and the barrel's end, the FHT was tricky to aim. But Xane wasn't looking for precision on his test shot.

The Sneak Attack had pulled into an abandoned tunnel barely big enough to fit it, which only lead to a condemned, toxic area. The occasional howl of something too big for comfort inside the condemned cavern echoed in the relative darkness.

"...Nine...Ten..." Chay said and slapped Xane's hand away. "Ready?"

"I don't think it's even remotely full," Xane said.

"We'll scale it up slowly," Chay responded. "Go."

The FHT didn't have a trigger like a human gun. You just had to `will' it to fire and hope it accepted you as its owner.

A tremor went through the FHT, no, through the space around it.

A blinding beam zoomed from the barrel, instantaneous like light but seemingly solid, splashing with vaporizing plasma along the beam.

It was over in a second. Smoke sizzled at the tip of the gun.

Xane healed his eyes to speed up the time it took to get used to darkness. At the same time, the demigods turned on their aegises to use them as searchlights. Except Diego who hadn't learned how yet.

The thaum-mage's aegis light flickered as he creamed out a load, forcing him to protect the gun from splatter and let himself get drenched.

A scar had been carved into the rock. One foot wide, five across, a few inches deep. Black glass crept from the sizzling impact size.

Chay's voice was high pitched as he started with a squeal. "Now that's a doom beam."

Xane lowered the smoking FHT and conjured a cigar into the corner of his mouth. "Gentlemen, I propose we move onto stage two."

"Yes," Chay said with a nod. "Load the pipe. Double the amount."

"Pipe?" Marcus said.

"Doom Pipe," Chay corrected, holding a hand before his crotch to direct a shot of cursed cum down his beefy thighs.

Xane lifted the FHT, no, the Doom Pipe, off his shoulder and opened the compartment again. The crystal drank greedily.

===***===

Thick, black chain lay beside the iron gate, which had been forced open by the three Fiends and one Wraith of the Retrieval Institute's Dungeneering Cadre.

The pantheon approached openly, Chay having instructed his men to forego the fanfare.

The first expeditioner to meet them was a Daemon Fiend. Nearly ten feet tall, muscled as fuck, smooth red skin rippling with tendons and veins. He had four short, black horns and a nearly rectangular jaw.

Green gems on his necklace and wristlets decorated him. A sword hung on a thick leather belt, a long loincloth covering his crotch.

Chay gave a wave with one hand, the other scratching Pie who rested around his shoulders. "You must be Skne'Mosh."

The demonling narrowed his eyes. "And you five are demigods, I should assume?"

His voice seemed to travel right between Xane's legs, the urge to hop onto a monstercock intensifying from `merely' insane to in-fucking-sane. Xane took a deep breath, flexed his muscles and did his best to enjoy the animalistic craving – like Goro had taught him.

Chay pulled his black fundoshi down. The other's followed suit with their golden jocks. Xane freed his aegis from the golden fundoshi without using his hands. A little bit of magic surely wasn't against the leader's orders.

Blinding holy brilliance made the young demons flinch and shield their faces, but also drew interest.

Xane let his panty snap back into place just as he ejaculated a blob of cursed cum, which he vanished with a simple wipe.

Skne'Mosh nodded. "Welcome to Dungeneering Cadre Tnu-7. I'm Guide Skne'Mosh but we can skip the formalities. Call me Mosh."

"Somehow," Marcus whispered, "hearing a Daemon try being casual is making me more on edge than ever."

"Keep in mind," Diego whispered, "They're practically teenagers. Uh... Century old teenagers."

"Cool cool," Marcus said. "Groups where I'm the mature adult tend to work out super well."

A Reaper Fiend closed in. The blue-ish, dark giant was clad in a silver harness, molded black armor around it's edges leading to a molded crotch-piece. The wrist of his tattoo-covered arms were wrapped.

"This," Mosh said, "is our Vanguard, Repnus. I was told your duty, little magic slaves, would be similar."

"We're bolstering your ranks," Chay said. "Just in case."

Mosh nodded again. "Few would walk into limbo for free – unless they are too mad to be useful – so we appreciate you working for just a spec of treasure."

The young Daemon turned to the Wraith, who was leading a merely car-sized, porcupine-y Vark on a chain. "This is our Handler, Qoo-Re. He's carrying a charm of depth so don't let his focus get interrupted."

"Let the Wraith work," Chay said. "Got it."

Xane gave a salute.

The Guide and Vanguard walked ahead, their backsides mesmerizing with the interplay of back- and leg muscles. Xane gave his cursed friends a subtle cum-wipe.

The pantheon levitation hopped after the demons, with Xane shoving five mage-dicks up just as many asses to give them some relief.

Mosh stopped at the gate where a Wretcher Fiend waited. The pale giant in a loose gray toga studied a bronze compass. His elfin face showed focus. A Noggin hovered beside him, seemingly also reading the instrument.

"Are we good to go, Navigator Tnav'Hkess?"

Tnav'Hkess looked up, only just noticing the pantheon and took it in stride. "Yes, Guide. Local vibrancy is as red as I've seen it in five Ring Cycles. Dungeon dive Ogg-58 can commence."

"Onward," Mosh said and – along with Repnus the Reaper – wandered into the open gate first.

===***===

Not every twixtway into limbo connected two realms or lead to a crucible. Some were dead ends. And if they weren't properly cleaned up – whatever that meant – they could cause problems.

An abandoned castle had been dragged into this twixtway long ago, and valuable loot with it. The madness of the exoteric reaches made it dangerous territory.

So far, it was just another cave tunnel, the swirls of lava flows crowding around pulsing green fungus blobs.

"This reminds me," Diego said, "of the time I was with the Security Corp in the realm of Beggr'n'Atnr."

Marcus slapped the warder's ass. "You had a... day job in the abyss?"

Diego shrugged. "Several. Becoming a Devil means you do dirty work for your lord, plus I was still looking for purpose. And being demonblooded made me a little greedy-"

"I recall," Xane said with a mage-arm nudge.

"-and it's a good source of nectar, obviously."

Chay gave a soft sigh. "Don't remind me. My umbralism is torturing me with just the right things to say and do to get an orgy started."

"Well then," Diego said, a bit louder, his arm thrown around Chay's shoulder. "Let me tell you about my non-sexual adventures with the Corp. So one time we were guarding – `we' being a demonblooded Troll friend Dobdab and I – guarding this ancient Tomb of Blessed Seeds where-"

Navigator Tnav'Hkess stopped, hand raised, fixated on a little device in his other hand. "Vibrancy is rising. Orange to yellow now. I think the exoteric border is shifting. Not necessarily expanding but coming in this direc-Aah!"

The Wretcher cried out as he was tossed aside, catching himself with a wing flap before being seemingly ripped apart to nothingness.

Qoo-Re grabbed onto his small Vark with dozens of hands.

"Border encountered!" Mosh yelled and went into a stable stance, wings folded. "Brace yourse-"

A lesser version of the chaos between realms swallowed Xane. He was holding onto Marcus' hand, his grip magically kept from breaking in the spacetime-sheering mess around them.

They emerged into a nightsky-sphere like Xane had seen often in limbo, but staunched and compressed, like the sky was merely painted on. A twixtway dead-end, no larger than a dozen city blocks.

Islands hovered in the space, fragmented castle walls and cliff bits. All at odd angles.

Gravity was weak and local. Xane and Marcus hovered to the ground of a floating island no bigger than a basketball court, landing amidst piles of non-human skeletons.

The Reaper was already there, his wrist wraps extended to prehensile whips, scanning the surrounding.

Chay dropped out of the kaleidoscope and stayed hovering, tendrils of smoke flowing from his body.

Tnav'Hkess appeared farther out and got slammed into a detached wall, sending a rain of bricks into the void. His clothing had been shredded. The wounds on his pale muscle body were rapidly closing as he grabbed for the tatters and their contents.

"Report," Mosh's voice said from somewhere, racing as a shiver up Xane's back.

"All present," Qoo-Re answered.

The Wraith floated to a longer platform and `spat out' his Vark from his grip, which was surpassingly sedate in all this.

The Wretcher rejoined them, wearing a mere loincloth that betrayed the exact shape of the massive muscle dick beneath, sending Xane into hormonal overdrive. His tunic was a mere sash now.

"Move with care," Mosh said. "This place is more broken up than we anticipated. Do not get stuck in a space whirl."

"Already on it," Chay said from above. "I'm trying to indicate safe paths."

Smoke trails in deep pink contrasted against the blue-shaded faux night, spiraling and trailing between islands and cracked rooms.

"Excellent," Mosh said. "Qoo-Re, get collecting. We'll be on the lookout for-"

The Daemon Fiend barely got to yell a curse when a rumble drowned him out. Blinding light crept over a larger floating cliff. A black blob followed, many more lights hanging off its tendrils.

An irrationally strong fear of getting burned rose in Xane. He had a strange urge to dive underwater.

"Singehorror!" Chay and Mosh shouted at the same time.

Tnav'Hkess frantically picked at his tattered sash. "I have... I can... Here it is."

The Wretcher tossed something that shattered mid-trajectory. An Air Phantasm detonated into being between the Singehorror and the dungeneers.

"Go go go," Mosh told his people and the Wraith floated after the Guide and the Vanguard, his Vark in his hands.

Runic magic activated.

Flashes of glyphs raced across the ruined structures and massive, black stone blocks broke through the ground, barring the way.

Mosh hacked at the blocks – obsidian? - with his sword to create safe passages where they interrupted Chay's smoke trail. Otherwise the Wraith and his protectors could simply fly over.

"Xane!"

The thaum-mage whipped around and felt his golden fundoshi pulse with a curse-cum shot. "Huh?"

Chay had been the one calling him. "Freeze it."

"R-right," the wizard said, broke from his terrified paralysis and summoned a bolt. "Those fucking bitch-horrors always get me. Can't stand them. Hey, asshole! Eat ice."

The projectiles zoomed through their allied Phantasm and ripped into the creature. The Singehorror's dark body had many pseudopods that ended in a bubble of blinding light and Xane's thaum-attack neutralized one of them. As it fizzled, he prepared the next bolt.

"Hm," Marcus made. "Feels like eat ice' doesn't really have impact. Stick to the classic eat shit' for better results."

"If you're not gonna help, fuck off with that."

The animus-fighter gave an exaggerate shrug. "No more cut-y ring here. I'm all fire and melee now. What do you want me to do?"

"It's still vulnerable to that," Chay said. "Your fire isn't the same as horror fire. The body is safe to touch but it has tendrils it hasn't shown yet."

Marcus straightened up. "Okay then. Berserker buddy?"

The close range fighters rushed in, triggering black blocks to rise. Marcus was fast enough to use them as stepping stones, letting the black pillars give him boosts as he hopped across floating islands. Goro ascended them with his hands ramming into the material to create holds.

Xane kept up the assault.

Diego had gone with Qoo-Re and the demonlings. His wards shielded them from the effect of more triggered runes while the Handler Wraith and Navigator Wretcher shoveled treasure into the bags hanging off the Vark. Qoo-Re also shoved items into himself, like he was eating them somewhere inside his cluster of arms.

Then the expedition reached a mostly intact part of the fractured castle and got pounced by an army. Skeletons streamed from the cracked chambers.

Nothing Repnus' wrist whips and Mosh's sword couldn't handle but it kept them busy. Even Diego was snapping his tinder whip from behind his shield semi-bubble, ripping skeletons in half with sizzles while dollops of cum rained from his golden jockstrap.

The Singehorror had retracted its pseudopods, its black exterior hardened to the assault of demigodly fists and holy karate chops. Xane switched to firing ice-imbued lightning that ripped cracks into the shell.

He got shoved hard, his last shot freeze-zapping the ground before him with cold sparks.

"What the f-"

Chay dragged him aside as a club came down on their position. The men narrowly avoided the blow.

The skeletons all around the dead-end had come to life. An abomination of bones and a lot of short Kobolds were surrounding them.

Xane charged a-

"Fuck them," Chay said. "They can't fly."

Two pairs of glorious thighs catapulted the demigods into the air, thirty feet up, where gravity was nearly absent.

"Where do we go?" the thaum-mage asked.

The expedition had wandered farther, collecting more goodies. Diego had united with Marcus and Goro, shielding them. The Singehorror was now heavily wounded, spitting its blinding bubbles, letting them explode into liquid.

Xane didn't want to move closer to the creature but he knew that was just its mind controlling effect. If his friends needed him, he'd go, he just needed Chay's rational orders.

"A sweep," the leader said and pulled himself into Xane's arms. "Follow my smoke, this way, then up there."

The wizard gave himself lilac and yellow butterfly wings and dashed along the nebulous, pink paths. Chay activated Hole, slicing awoken skeletons as the demigods flew above them.

They reached the Fiends in a ceiling-less throne room, stuffing gold chains into bags on the Vark while Qoo-Re dragged a gem totem twice his length into his embrace, disappearing it somehow.

Chay hopped from Xane's arms and sliced the way out free from black blocks. Cleanly sliced chucks dropped before the Thai man's cum-splatter-painted legs.

"Did you find the lens?" Chen asked without looking back.

Mosh patted his belt. "It was in the laboratory, or what's left of it. You've earned more than that. Are you sure-"

"Yes," Chay said. "Just the lens. Not that I hate money but I'd rather stick to the deal. We might work for the Retrieval Institute again someday."

Mosh slayed five skeletons in one swoop. The big ones were all shattered by now. "We're almost done."

"Good. Xee, this way."

The thaum-mage flew his friend toward the Singehorror with trembling arms.

"Afraid?" Chay asked.

"Hehe, can't help it. It's the Singe-bitch effect."

"Yeah," Chay said, "I feel it, too. Just checking in."

"Or maybe holding you is just making my heart race, hehe."

Chay gave Xane a quick kiss.

"Uh, sorry," the leader said. "I'm just... so fucking horny. It's the Fiends, I think."

Xane grabbed Chay's face and kissed him back. They both leaked shots of cursed cum, which Xane vanished.

"I've noticed," the thaum-mage said as the kiss broke, "you've used Hole."

"Yeah. I have a plan. Get us... there."

The demigod duo landed on a small island a hundred yards below the fire creature battle. Not that `below' meant much when gravity wasn't omnipresent, but they had to look up to see the battle.

Chay swirl-kicked a reanimated Kobold skeleton in the head with his nighty leg, making the skull pop off of the neck.

Xane chuckled. "Very Marcus of you. And very sexy."

Chay caught the skull as it fell and gave the physique builder a wink, the decapitated enemy crumbling behind him. "You underlings tend to forget that your boss is also quite capable."

The umbralist tossed the skull up, to a specific spot besides the battle and black cuboids ruptured from the ground to blockade a passage long torn from its building, pummeling the Singehorror and squeezing it into a narrower arena.

"Call Goro and Marcus down here, please. Or `up' from their perspective."

"On it boss," Xane said and looked for them.

Out of ammunition, the fire creature was using the hidden tendrils Chay had warned about earlier. Whips of fire raced across its dark skin. Oddly similar to Diego's tinder whip. Xane didn't have time to ponder if that was coincidence.

He projected his voice. "Hey, cocksuckers. Up here."

Goro looked up, spotted Xane and flashed his middle fingers. Marcus gave an exaggerated wave.

Xane reciprocated. "Get up. Bosses orders. Diego can stay and distract the bitch."

The berserker let his mania-power pump up his legs and pushed off the ground. Xane sent thaum his way, grabbed the man's braid with a mage-hand and pulled him in.

Marcus flew like a projectile made for air travel, turned mid-flight and touched down elegantly.

The berserker impacted carelessly, his shoulder popping from the socket from the sideways landing and re-popping in before he had even rolled to his feet.

"Gotta say," Goro started, "fighting with a warder is... different."

"Yeah," Xane said. "Normally you'd have lost the panties by now."

"Fundosh-" Goro looked down on himself. "Uh, jockstrap. So what's up?"

Xane pointed `up'. "The Singehorror."

Marcus fell to his knees laughing.

Goro growled. "I can and will fuck you up."

"Hey," Chay yelled. "Get over here."

The leader had used Hole to cut off the rune-summoned blocks in a way that left them standing up straight.

After a word of explanation, Xane used his thaum to give the biggest block a little lift, letting the two melee fighters slip underneath, on their backs, legs bent, ready to push the block up with leg strength. Their flexed muscles were nearly demon-worthy in erotic impact on the Xane.

"Warn Diego."

"Yes boss," Xane said and looked up again where the fire creature was flailing at the man in a bubble.

"Hey cocksucker. Up here again."

"You can't say that," Marcus said from beneath the obsidian. "He's gay."

"W-what? You mean cocks- I wasn't even. You're fucking joking. We're all cocksuckers. How can you even talk with a million tons on your feet?"

"Goro's carrying the whole weight, I'm just waiting to push. Hehehe."

Xane leaned down to see Goro's strained but stoic face. He shrugged and projected his voice again. "Diego, on three. Get out of the way. One... Two... Three."

Goro and Marcus kicked the block up hard enough to overcome local gravity and make it fly into the gravity of the platform above – or below – where the Singehorror flailed.

The impact was dampened by a squelching sound as the creature ripped open at the center. Burning liquid spilled out. Diego made his bubble touch down and used the momentum to bounce up toward them.

Marcus needlessly caught him just to spin him around.

"Okay," Chay said, cum dripping past the edges of his fundoshi pouch. "Guess we didn't need the other pillars. Let's leave before my craving sets in."