Sex God Saga

### Sex God Saga 36

### Climax and Freedom

MONDAY:

Near the middle of the night, much of team delta was assembled on the Onyx's rooftop.

Theo wore slightly oversized street clothes with a beanie and an over the shoulder bag, his glinting leather collar serving as Outsider vessel for the wisp Flash.

Paris and Damien were in open jackets, forming a triangle with Caius around a cardboard box within calk circles of Atlas glyphs, reminiscent of pictograms, chicken scratches and cuneiform respectively.

The three Primals of the mini-pack played spin-the-bottle with a plastic bottle, the selected pairs arm wrestling on a standing table with handicaps for winners.

Keith was making everybody nervous with his anxious pacing. An open, white kimono trailed after his strides. His dangling pentagram earring hit his cheek from a sudden turn.

"Countdown one minute," the he said in his function as Agrippa's convent liaison. "We're good to go. Pinerise is starting us off."

Paris leaned in to his slave. "A bunch of poor Baseliners are going to hate Monday even more." Gold buckles on his leather jacket poked the blond conjurer in the shoulder blades.

As far as the shamans knew, the Cult of the Dreamer had switched victims regularly, so there was no obvious epidemic of sleepiness across Harpersfield, but removing all dream wisps at once was going to jolt awake some of the city's population.

"Here's hoping they don't compare notes too much," Theo said. "Though, not like you can figure out the Mysterium just cause nobody in your house can sleep."

Paris nuzzled himself into Theo's neck with a single chuckle.

One by one, the 'bombs' went off. Rose Hall, the Refugium, Knox Porter's basement, Kenya Linwood's garden shack, and a few more temporary locations. The wave reached the Onyx.

The Stygians, now with the rejoined Paris, opened the package, which was filled with identical mason jars, something like multicolored sand swirling in each.

The black men gave the final push of V and the wisps followed their pacts the angels had bound them to.

Theo's mediumship let him see the wobbles in the air that leaked from the jars, sand swirling within them, raining down as the wisps left their vessels behind, pulled along the glyphs and escaping.

Wakefulness was sliding down the dark tower, into a mostly slumbering city.

"Ivory Haven reporting in," Keith said. "This deal roused some kind of nightmare fey, not on record. Seems to have gone demon. Team Alpha is dispatched."

"Damn," Damien mumbled. "That's some manpower tied up."

"We're still on track," Ace said and slapped down Fulin's arm, which the Broodguard in a stringer top had flexed at the mention of 'manpower'.

"Since this went off without a hitch," Mako said, "do we get ready to move into position?"

The short Forgedancer with his trusty Labrador by his side had borrowed a low hanging, black shirt from Ace for a more muted appearance.

Keith got a call. "It's Coralline. Hello? Yeah, we're done. Do you have- Oh, sure. Where?"

Everybody except Caius headed for the elevator. Keith hung up.

"No word on the Cult yet but we need to help with the demonic fey. Theo, can you adept a beacon? Cor should be texting you instructions right now."

They rode down to the garage, Theo, Paris, Damien and Keith going first. They entered a jeep with Damien in the driver's seat and Theo got to work adding more specific glyphs to a mostly finished, generic trap, he'd spent half an hour constructing. He'd started doing those after Halloween, so the design incorporated a lot of little ghosts, pumpkins and bats -- but with meaning magically shoved into the lines, hoping to serve as scares, warnings and directions to Outsiders.

He saw Cain getting into a car with the Primals as they drove out of the Onyx's garage.

"Gamma and Beta are busy as fuck," Keith said. "It's all hands on deck capturing the dream wisps once they've been dislodged. We expected that much. Kenya and her boys have the secrecy aspect under control."

Paris slapped Theo's shoulder. "All according to plan."

"You're oddly cheery," Theo remarked.

"As your master-boyfriend I gotta compensate for your nervous wreck boyfriend before he makes us all miserable."

Keith flashed them a middle finger. "As Theo's analytical thinker boyfriend I have to compensate for his nonchalant goofball boyfriend."

Paris snort-laughed. "Analytical thinker? *I* have a PhD in business. And since when am I the goofball? First of all you're the wannabe-"

"I think," Theo firmly said, "as boyfriends-once-removed, you two should get along."

Paris frowned. "Who *is* the goofball in your immediate boyfriend cluster?"

Theo tried to think.

Keith grinned. "He's not saying anything because it's you."

"'s not why," Theo said. "Uh, can it be me?"

"Nah," Keith said. "You're only *sometimes* funny."

Theo leaned forward to Damien. "Are we there yet?"

The driver chuckled. "Yeah, we're far enough from home. Get ready you three goofballs."

Keith fumbled with his bag. "Here, pressed lilac, so we can get Ascelin's power coming down like an orbital laser. If Team Alpha pushes the cunt the right way, she's going to get hoovered. Uh, new message from Cor. We have a lead on the Cult."

### ### ###

Sunrise Gardens was mostly shrouded in darkness of night. The block of houses newly built into the otherwise pristine area of the public park was barely lit either - half-finished construction sites and unsold property.

Rosamunde, the sprite in a raven vessel, landed on the car's hood the moment Damien pulled into the street, prompting the crown prince to decelerate.

Keith let the window down and flinched from the icy breeze. "Where to?"

"Nice and slow," the raven said as she hopped onto the window frame. "Don't want to let them see you coming. Godrick and Dawn are observing. A muse of the hunt or something is giving the cult sanctuary."

"If it's nothing else," Paris said, "we got the answer to that."

Quietly, the two cars came to a stop and emptied, the men sneaking the rest of the way. Rosamunde flew ahead.

A tall, dark, bald man in a leather coat appeared out of nowhere, making everybody jolt. Godrick. Theo took note of just how on edge the whole group felt.

"Where the fuck did you come from?" Fulin asked and got shushed.

"Glamoured out of sight, duh," Godrick whispered. "Dawn is on the roof across, ready to crossbow snipe."

"Is he in there?" Keith asked and pointed to a house just a block away. Light fell through boarded up windows.

"He is," Godrick whispered. "Unmistakable despite the human appearance. It's your fallen angel Xaphan. He's with five cultists, which may be all of them, going by the bed setup. At least all the ones in this house but they don't seem to communicate with the outside."

"Crazy they bewitched a whole city," Keith said, "and nearly bound a god with just five summoners. Let's not underestimate that Xaphan dude."

Theo checked that his prepared diagrams were with him -- for the fifth time since leaving the car. He had paper pinned to the inside of his jacket, covered in Atlas glyphs. They didn't have a way to assemble a proper beacon on the fly but this conduit would do -- along with Sky's preparations.

Theo met Paris' eyes and swallowed dry. They nodded at each other.

"They'll realize we're here at some point," Godrick said.

"The cavalry is about to show up," Keith said and turned to the end of the street where another car pulled into a random driveway.

Willow got out, her frizzy hair tied down with a flowery headscarf. She wore a dark overall, glinting with pins. She grinned as she approached the group. Theo didn't hear her exchange with Keith and Godrick.

Lights turned on up ahead, in the cult's hideout. Theo's mini-pack stepped forward, surrounding him, and their bodies synchronized, able to move shoulder on shoulder without being in each other's way even if they had to dodge or bolt.

A figure in a gray hoodie left the cult house.

"They know," Fulin said. "Now?"

"Willow from the side," Keith said. "The rest of us are going in. As soon as we see the target... Theo?"

"Ready."

Cain tapped Theo on the shoulder and leaned in for a quick kiss before slipping to the back ranks.

"Go," Keith said and speed walked ahead. Darkness congealed around him, his muse of the living night at her most powerful in the cold midnight suburb.

They rushed the cultist on the door step. The three Primals up ahead, Theo in their slipstream, Cain behind him. Damien and Paris formed one flank, Godrick the other.

Theo pumped a tiny bit of V into his prepared conduits and let them rain on the asphalt. Sky and his buddy, the so-called Charioteer, were hopefully picking up the signal.

The figure in the hoodie dashed back into the house and slammed the door. The building wobbled as its sanctuary keeper took over. The muse of the hunt coalesced into the form of a slender humanoid in moss-like clothing with antlers. Garden gnomes, sprite-inhabited, hurried to his side.

But there wouldn't be a fight. The Cult of the Dreamer didn't have a god backing them up at their hideout -- a presence so powerful wouldn't have been able to stay hidden from the Harpersfield shamans.

Willow blossomed. Buds and flower along her overall exploded to life, growing large and bright, shimmering from within. Vines draped themselves around her. She walked along, arms wide, and the frozen front yard greened ahead of her steps.

Ohn, goddess of spring, worked through her champion. The sanctuary muse had no choice but to evade.

Fulin rammed his weight into the front door, his own muse, Weidong, emerging from him as a translucent, lupine overlay. Theo and his pack-mates rushed into the entry hallway.

The hoodie guy stood in their way. The wallpaper contorted, giving him pause. Eyes shaped themselves into the wallpaper's imperfections, a cursory glance could have taken them for a trick of the eye.

"Oh shit," the cultist said, "the Watcher is-"

Fulin kicked him with sneakers that the cold air sprite Xiang inhabited. The gut-kicked man flew backward.

Keith was surrounded by a darkness effect that made his white clothing look dark gray, his face nearly indistinct save for Dash glinting in his earring. Darkness spread along the ceiling as tendrils. "Mel is finding some prepped glyphs. I can cover them. Keep going."

Theo hurried into the living room. Two men, one woman, and one angel. Xaphan was disguised as a human, ambiguous ethnicity, plain clothes. But his height made him obvious.

The last unaccounted-for cultist stormed from the kitchen, stumbled and punched himself in the face. The Stygians stepped into his way and took turns mesmerizing him. No amount of training was going to help with the double assault.

Theo commanded Flash to carry a post-it for him. The wisp zipped from his collar as a rainbow flare and ripped the paper from Theo's hands.

Xaphan shouted orders.

A few household objects moved, sprites suddenly crammed into them. An ink squirting pen, a mattress cover, a heavy book. Fulin, overlaid with Weidong, dealt out cold kicks and some punches aided by wisps in his yin-yang tattoos. His arm veins bulged with the blood flow of excitement, his thighs *thumped* as he landed stomps. Mako had Everest with him in a similar way, her wilder and larger outline suffusing the short, sleeveless man, whose little ponytail whipped around as he left icy traps for the cultists scrambling closer.

Xaphan defended himself against Flash and the piece of paper. He couldn't know what it was exactly but it was coming for him like an angry hornet. The nephil retreated in a circle. He ripped off his shirt and used it to swat at the brightness wisp.

The room darkened as Keith and his nightly aura stepped underneath the ceiling light.

"Close enough?" Theo shouted.

"Yeah, close enough," Ace said with a hand on Theo's back. He acted as rearguard. He'd borrowed firepower for tonight, but he was saving it for what was to come.

Theo pumped V into Flash and through the wisp into the post-it's glyph.

A dull, low buzzing rose all around them, quickly gaining volume. Just as expected.

They came from the corners.

Like shadows taking form, dragonflies emerged, circling. The warping of space around the room was barely noticeable in the chaos.

Xaphan -- perhaps realizing he wasn't winning this fast and easy -- went for Theo. If he eliminated Theo now, like a mistake awkwardly brushed under the rug, he'd likely expect the angels would let him back into their ranks. Even if it took centuries to set aside the grudge.

Just the opportunity they'd hoped for.

The pack wasn't making it easy, snapping at the nephil, ripping his weaponized shirt with canine teeth, the humans under the ethereal forms ducking out of the tall man's grasps.

The Stygians made the remaining cultists head into the kitchen and haphazardly tie each other up.

"Charioteer," Theo called out. "We ask for safe travels to the goddess of birth for all present."

"On me," Keith said and took flight. His muse-boosted jump led him to Xaphan's back, where he clung as the dragonflies blotted out all vision beyond a foot ahead.

Falling and distortion, a rushing sound.

Colder air hit the crowd as darkness faded to the harsh shine of floodlights.

### ### ###

The Green Wild, by the shore of the Black Pepper River. Markandeya loomed beyond the glaring lights as a blob across the horizon. Steam rose off her indistinct shape, freezing into clouds in the late fall air.

Theo tried to take stock. Everybody seemed to have made it through the voidpath but there were many other people present, too, which made it hard to count.

The Watcher followed them, grass twisting into pupils that followed Theo's steps away from the stunned Xaphan.

"Now!" Sky commanded.

Sky was present in his true form, pure white and black across his toga-clad body. "Partake from my V, oh goddess, and grant us an arena so that the enemy of my people may not evade judgement."

Trees rustled and shifted, encircling the area.

The enemy ex-angel stomped and murmured, incredibly complex mandalas lighting up on his skin as his disguise faded to reveal his bald, striped angelic self.

Mud bubbled on frozen earth all around him and imps rose, Outsiders called to his aid before the arena closed.

A light erupted at the edge of the tree circle, flaring like a rising sun before settling on the strength of a bonfire. Cristiano had brought Fino -- his father's sun serpent. The gigantic snake burned the mud monsters solid like clay in the oven. Their bodies creased and cracked with every step.

Jun rushed in. He wore nothing but sneakers, even in temperatures that made breath fog a little. He swung the short stone sword he'd borrowed from the Bellerose collection again, glinting with a new golden edge. It cut the imps like a water gun shooting cotton candy.

The arena was tightening its walls, trees stacking densely next to each other, but the foliage overhead was slow to fill in.

Xaphan had backed up from the collected crowd. He tore a bracelet off his wrist and threw it in the air. It dispersed into doves. A dozen of them, trailed by translucent afterimages.

They circled the nephil and he began to rise.

"My turn," Ace said and dropped his jacket. His black stringer top fluttered as wind emanated from his shoulders, a red aura running along his skin. His hair turned gold and crimson.

Bloomdancer Aaron had lent Earthweaver Ace his bound crane dragon Zhulong. Red tipped wings snapped from Ace's arms and lifted him into the air. He ripped through the doves with his dagger Blooddrop as a vengeful phoenix.

"Everybody on him," Sky yelled. "Clear shot."

Godrick and Sacred took position so none of their allies were behind Xaphan. The older redeemer held two ornamental revolvers, Sacred a shot gun.

The air rang with the gun fire as the arena closed overhead. Xaphan's flesh got tattered.

The nephile swiped with his arm and Theo got sand in his eyes -- or so it felt. By the noises he could hear, everybody was suffering the same fate. It wasn't safe to use guns like that.

Fulin in wolf-form and Mako in ice-shedding dog-form attacked by sound alone. Ace came from above with burning claws. Soul-Joined warriors were never in each other's way, moving like the limbs of a single person.

Theo could tell how they were doing -- and how Xaphan struggled under their assault to... pull something from his pocket.

"Get back," Theo shouted. "He's throwing something."

The mini-pack had realized it along with him and retreated. Xaphan let a jar burst on the ground and something like tar or molasses grew from the spot, spilling in amounts far beyond what the glass could have held.

"No clear shot," Sacred complained, rubbing at his eyes like everybody else, constantly blinking.

"I can," Ray said. Right, Ray Johnson was there, too, having stood behind a floodlight, camouflaged in all black leather. He sent his golden money idol, crackling with a trail of sparks. The monkey attached itself to Xaphan's head and zapped him, evading the nephil's large hands.

Keith rushed to the center of the arena. "Everybody! Look at me. Eyes open even if it hurts. Now!"

Theo forced his eyelids apart with cold fingers and his burning eyes calmed down. Mel's magic was removing the "sand".

The enemy shouted in some foreign language.

More Outsiders were called in, but without prepared vessels.

Theo's already racing heart sped up as he realized it was his turn.

Fulin, Ace and Mako made sure Xaphan had no way of getting a breather, assisted by Jun's sword-and-fist-wielding whenever he saw an opening.

Five wobbly shapes coalesced around the enemy.

"Ballari and Koo-eh," Sky said, hands raised, calmly walking toward the shapeless Outsiders. "You two have longstanding relations with Nimbus. Return there instead of fighting on this exiled one's side and Eclipsedrawn will grant you more V than he can."

Two of the Outsiders vanished. Fino encircled another.

This left one blurry silhouette and it went for the Stygians. Theo stepped in the way, feeling barely like himself.

The Outsider washed over him, leaving him with painful rashes and hives. If the blond had been much of a fighter he'd been nearly debilitated by how tight his skin got.

He pulsed into the creature.

Immediately, the rashes vanished and the Outsider slipped into his body.

Theo was thrown to the ground, legs held in the air, and got fucked hard enough he froze mid motion from pure *sensation*.

Cain was right behind him with a single leap and put his hands on Theo's shoulders. The counter-possession fought the intruder to a standstill. Cain focused with a frown and Theo felt the Outsider pushed out, clinging to his asshole for as long as possible, stretching him -- punching him from inside.

Theo squeal-moaned pathetically.

Gunshots. The redeemers had found an opening because Xaphan had pushed the Primals back. Fulin was on all fours, twitching and struggling to find a balance with Weidong's possession. Ace was talking to him, his crane dragon wings gone, exhausted. Everest had reestablished her dog body and walked semi-circles of icy ground that Mako slid along to keep the enemy contained.

Xaphan was drenched in shadow, tendrils from Keith blocking his line of sight toward the crowd. The weird tar was still wobbling in the center of the space but now worked against the nephil just as much, blocking his path straight through.

Backed against the tree line, Xaphan was dripping blood, part of his flesh hanging off him as torn ribbons. He conjured more Outsiders to his side, smaller ones, probably sprites or much less powerful muses. Most got stuck in the arena's wooden walls.