== VORTEX QUEST 5-3 ==
== PARADOX RESOLVED ==
Deep within the floating rock that contained the defiled sanctuary, the pantheon kneeled naked -- save for the aegises -- in a row.
Opposite them were four chained and drugged Gawri, the bipedal but non-sapient dino creatures, with enthrallment pentagrams on their heads.
Kvaff'Ugorg with the split head was fixed spread eagle to a stone altar between the demigods and the beasts. His limbs were pierced by many foot-long golden needles that made blood flow into runic engravings.
Valor and Tranquility were at the head, chanting in Celestial but not to worship heaven. They invoked the power of King Pwen'Gllach.
Chay hoped that wasn't going to get them attention by the realm's overlord. As far as he could tell, the Nephilim hadn't told the *whole* story but weren't setting a trap per se. Still, there was surely another shoe left to drop.
Thralls could not take on transferred curses, so Tranquility released the Gawri from their bond in the middle of the ritual. They stirred in their chains. Chay prepared to puppet any one able to break free. He felt a little bad, though.
Lighting raced through him.
Blinded and deafened -- no, even more, his sensorium shattered, Chay gained an extrahuman sense. He felt something break inside him. Something alien that had latched on so tightly it would have seemed irremovable. It started clinging onto him again but was flipped away from him, violently clicking inside out, to latch onto an entity across the room.
His brain reassembled and he saw dark smoke sink into the Gawri. They'd struggle to survive now, unable to gain satiation from anything they consumed without having been given by someone else.
The paradox curse was transferred.
The pantheon still suffered from Feeding Fate and Drowning Destiny, as well as the open signatures, but could pleasure themselves again. They had agreed to rid themselves of the paradox curse since piss and cum were easy enough to get.
"So..." Chay started the conversation. "We can rub our *own* nipples again?"
He did so, reaching for his chest, and the others followed his example. A warbling whimper left his mouth. Touching his nipples felt leagues beyond the best sex he'd ever had with any girlfriend.
Goro was leaning back kneeling, a tear rolling from his closed eyes. Xane quivered as he creamed on the inside of his thighs. Marcus' eyes were wide open.
"Didn't realize," Chay whispered, "how much I'd been missing."
They touched themselves while the ex-angels cleaned up around them. It didn't take long for the demigods to finger their own asses. Once again Chay learned how much the curse had taken from him. No longer depending on his friends, he fingerbanged with both hands, legs in the air, until his hands fully slipped inside him for a spread.
Xane was on his back, legs raised, fucking himself with a mage-dick.
"N-no fair," Marcus whined.
Goro was bent over, long hair hanging to the ground, fisting himself. He cried.
"Hey buddy," Xane said, sounding freakishly serene compared to the rest of them. "Are you okay?"
Goro sobbed behind his curtain of lush, black hair. "Yeah, I just... know we'll have to stop at some point... and I don't want to."
Marcus was also spreading his ass with both hands, driving his arms in halfway down the forearm with inhuman, animus-powered flexibility. "Can't believe I've wasted all my live jerking my dick, when my ass was there all along."
"Need something deeper," Chay said. "Xane, be a team player."
"Fucker," Xane said. "If you make me stop mage-dick fucking myself for even a second, the pantheon is having a schism."
"Please," Goro sobbed.
Xane gave a groan so long and loud, Chay would have thought he was magically projecting his voice if that wouldn't have required turning the mage-dick off. "Into a square then. You bitches know you could make a triangle without me."
They crawled into their usual fisting square, this time leaving one hand not to caress the bottom in front but to pleasure themselves, rub their own silky skin and rock hard nipples. Over and over Chay was amazed at how much the paradox curse had denied them.
Fisting each other and themselves alternately, they enjoyed Xane's mage-dick in different shapes going around to give them breaks. At some point, their water had made it through and they pissed into each other. They never stopped the sex, though.
Goro had been right. It couldn't go on forever, but Chay really, really wanted it to.
===***===
After kindly disposing of Kvaff'Ugorg's remains, the Nephilim had at last informed the pantheon of the major problem with curse transfer as already hinted at -- blood vengeance.
They were not demonblooded, but any use of a Daemon's essence in a ritual left them vulnerable to several effects. Maybe Kvaff'Ugorg was way too dead to harm them until he reformed centuries later -- if ever -- but he could also cause trouble from beyond the grave. Possession, temporary curses, drawing the ire of King Pwen'Gllach upon them at the cost of his immortal strength. The list went on.
They needed someone truly powerful -- and on their side -- to take over the killed lord's estate and weaken the influence of his immortal essence over the world from his throne.
The fallen angels had someone in mind, kind of.
With the distance too far for a Griffnix ride, Mercy had rented space on a speedy realm liner for himself and the pantheon.
The Bleeding Pearl was a black ferry with a single deck maneuvered along the cliff faces of Hiwinymb, sails by the sides sparking with the red energy of its soul stone engines. Whenever they cut through a bubble cloud, dark red lightning sparked up the few pointed arches spanning the deck as rafters.
Chay and Marcus leaned on the railing, self-fingering past their fundoshi straps, while the free hands caressed each other. Xane was laying on the ground with his tongue poking out, mage-rimming his own ass, seven butterflies lazily hopping around him.
"Back to a plain buzz, huh?" Marcus asked.
Chay kept his hands on the kung-fu-god's nipples instead of driving them through his short hair. "Yeah. I mean, I got it to heal. Bit longer than I'd like though. Xee's going to have to give it a good shave to even it out."
"You don't want the patterns back? No more matchy-matchy with your big, strong lover boy?"
Chay gave Marcus' face a playful shove. "Suck my dick cage."
A Kobold dropped from the arches above -- Captain Toothcracker.
The Bleeding Pearl belonged to the Snoutfucker clan who were the Nephilim's go-to ferry service. Toothcracker was a more nimble version of the Sexy Godzilla template, with orange stripes along the back and arms making him as memorable as his conical hat of tiny bones.
"Say, you there," he started in Pandemonic. "You're some kind of divine god-human freak things. With magic. Right?"
"Yeah," Xane answered for them in Boldian, sitting up. "Need some repairs done, captain? I can mend metal, rope, sails."
"Oh," Toothcracker said, surprised. "That would be... nice. Very 'divine' of you. Not lowering my rate, though. No, I'm just asking you to collect your freak friend at the bow. He's creeping out my crew."
"Will do." Xane gave a lazy salute and dropped back down.
The Snoutfucker Kobold nodded with narrowed eyes and swung himself up into the arches again.
"Hey," Xane said, voice projecting. "Gogo-boy, come back here. Don't know what you're doing to give monsters the heebie-jeebies but we gotta play nice."
Chay watched as Goro arrived from around the deckhouse, walking with legs apart, lightly squatting, giving slaps to his fundoshi every ten seconds.
"Wow," Marcus said with exaggerated amazement. "You ran out of worthy foes so you're fighting yourself. Who's winning?"
Goro stood before them, massive legs in a half squat, continuing to slap his crotch at intervals. "Remember when Diego pulled our open signatures and it let us swim in pure bliss forever?"
Chay was curious where this was going. He could tell Goro was feeling great and eager to share his thoughts for once.
"Not how I would have phrased it," Xane said, "but it kept us at peak while he took turns ravaging our tender behinds."
"I've been plateauing at peak since we boarded," Goro said and slapped his crotch. "Punched my hole a few times to get going and used ball slaps to keep the sensation up. Works like a charm once you find the right combo."
"Man," Marcus said, "I was trying to bend myself to the point where I can auto-fist to the shoulder. Sadly, my celestial powers have limits. But if ball torture is all it takes..." The animus-fighter went on all fours, pulled the fundoshi aside and pointed his hole at Chay. "Punch me, boss. Xee, lube?"
Xane chuckled. "Cap Toothcracker is going to kick us off the boat."
"Worth it," Goro said. "I'm peaking ninety percent as hard as if we're having an orgy."
"Maybe," Chay interrupted, "we should postpone this. Spending every waking second fucking in some way or another probably messes with us."
"In that case," Xane said and shot up, "time for a new hairstyle. Are you sure you're not feeling experimental anymore?"
The thaum-mage gave a cute pout, enlarging his eyes with an illusion so subtle it took umbra-magic to see past it. Still, it was pretty adorable. Hm, maybe that was the sex hormones speaking. When had Chay becomes so soft and easy to manipulate?
"You know what," he started. "...fuck it. Do whatever experimental bullshit you feel like. I'm in your care."
Xane punched the air in joy and the umbralist felt a ghostly lick along the asscrack.
They sat at the ship's rim.
While the wizard worked, Chay let his legs hang off the deck, enjoying the sights. Stone-skull riddled mega-stalactites; wild, illusory gardens and lord castles in vision bubbles along the walls; bubble clouds above, dropping from immense upside-down trees like lost leaves; Hiwinymb's many little volcanoes and teal plasma lakes far below. An imp flock passed close to the vessel, chattering.
Xane at last conjured a reflective disk to let Chay see the fruit of his labors. Chay had vowed to give praise and shrug it off, but his eyes widened.
Shaved into the top of his head was a cartoon skull the size of his palm -- if he lowered his head the skull was looking forward. Around it were more abstract lines reminiscent of Goro's warrior mark, weaving between smaller symbolic motives.
This was more artistry than Chay had ever seen put into a haircut. It make him look like the most stylish rebel punk.
It just... wasn't him. Although... correction. It wasn't something "college debate club leader" Chay would have done. It was perfect for "fuck-the-abyss gang leader" Chay.
