Vortex Quest B. 04

== VORTEX QUEST 4-2 ==

== DEALING WITH THE DEVIL ==

There was less overgrowth. The faux buildings were in better shape, perhaps younger. Some streetlamps, signs and storefronts were still lit, shining against the shifting spectra of the void tears far above.

After just a minute of walking, the demigods were attacked.

A dozen or so Kobolds poked out from windows a story higher, clad in leather and bark, wielding iron weapons.

"Their home turf," Chay quickly said, "Intent on capture. Probably assuming we're slaves. Should be easy to scare off."

Their pure white Fiend, Rkethnior, spread his wings and commanded the green, brown and orange lizards to stand down. He was fired upon by some kind of small cannon spewing a geyser of shrapnel.

Chay had to duck behind Xane and lost sight of the situation. The troupe was organized but not large. Easy to dispatch for his boys.

The Kobolds emerged, shouting, and charged.

"Rip their hearts out! Rip their hearts to shreeeeds!"

Goro threw his maces, each one breaking a neck and pulling the victim off its feet.

Some kind of magic activated. Chay felt sleepy. His knees nearly gave out. Rkethnior dropped, snoring before he hit the ground. It had to be a curse to which the overloaded demigods were partly immune. Source? Secondary effects? Countermeasures?

Vines snapped off a building and grabbed at the umbralist and the thaum-mage. Chay tried to stumble away but his feet were already caught in the prehensile net.

Xane and Chay got slammed into each other by the vine web and dragged to a wall, pressed into the concrete at an uncomfortable angle. Pie shot from Chay's toe and started gnawing on the web.

"Uh, let's see," Chay said, sounding barely awake, even to himself. "Just fire, Xee. Try not to hit me, please."

While Xane angrily burned through a vine, fighting sleep, Goro dropped from the sky like a vengeful muscle meteor and pummeled random Kobolds, hunched over as he battled tiredness.

Marcus was on the ground, eyes closed, but his chakram swirled around him chaotically, still controlled by him. His scimitar was stuck in an enemy chest nearby.

This wasn't good but as soon as Chay knew how to turn off the sleep-curse they'd-

Fire blinded him, and it wasn't Xane's.

The lizards were Pyrebolds -- fire breathers. Goro was engulfed in flame from multiple angles. He jumped out of the encirclement, his hair blazing as it regrew with the speed it burned.

Xane sent a butterfly at the lizard group and had it detonate as force and ice shards. There was no 'elemental opposite weakness' but it was effective enough.

Impaled Pyrebolds fell as the trapped demigods slipped out of the burning vine web. It was hard to move as sleep called loudly. Pie nuzzled herself in Chay's neck and nibbled his ear.

Xane reached down and blew icy energy into Chay's face while slapping himself. It helped. Eyes open, the umbralist paid attention to which area the attackers were most concerned about. A bit of road... unusually free from debris.

"Over there, I think," Chay said, yawning, going down on his knees as he gestured. "On the ground."

Xane dutifully sent a butterfly to explode the asphalt before his eyes shut by themselves. Whatever runic trap there was got ripped apart and the tiredness receded.

Marcus woke up and directed his ring more efficiently, Chay blanketed the area with darkness. Xane charged a bolt to-

"Stop! Hold Fire! Let's talk!" shouted a Kobold. Strangely he was speaking *Portuguese* - in the lip-less, long-tongued lizard way. It was surprising enough to give Chay pause. Where would a Kobold have learned a human tongue? The plea sounded genuine.

The umbralist answered in Boldian. "No longer interested in our hearts?"

"Ah," a lizard responded from around a corner. "That's our battle cry. We're the Heart Ripper clan. We didn't expect you'd understand, but it makes sense if you're truly divine." He said 'divine' like it was an insult. "We wanted to capture you for Djegnoth."

"You work for him?"

"Yes."

Chay rolled his eyes. "I can tell that was mostly a lie. Some complicated mercenary relationship? You'd have shopped around before delivering us. It's fine, we just want to fucking get there this centur- uh, this Arc Turn."

There was silence. Then the Kobold who had spoken emerged from the corner, his warriors retreating toward him. He wore an iron crown with colorful feathers over his mohawk of spikes, a molded silver chest piece and a leather thong. In his hand was a spear.

"You're the Urrk?" Chay asked.

"Yes. I'll escort you to Djegnoth, no delay."

"No more curse runes?"

"No. I see you can overpower our weapons. No use wasting more on you."

Marcus kicked Rkethnior. "What about this guy?" He held his black scimitar to the Fiend's throat and looked up as if waiting for the command.

"He'll wake up," the Urrk said. "Eventually. If nothing eats him first."

They walked off, leaving the snoring Wretcher behind.

===***===

The Heart Rippers were nomads, but currently camped in the three bottom floors of a relatively intact apartment tower, their presence indicated by Troll skulls on crossed sticks along a perimeter of spiky-plank palisade.

Their primitive wood, vine, leather and iron set-up contrasted with the concrete environment. Chay could infer the presence of a demonic being by the noggins hovering as sentries around the buildings top floor even before his aegis took on a light shimmer.

The Urrk lead them up a staircase, supplemented by bolted planks where the concrete had crumbled away.

Djegnoth's throne room was a loft. Skulls formed the base of a throne, but otherwise the place looked almost cozy as far as post-apocalyptic hideouts went. Someone had carried together pillows, carpets and what rare furniture there was from across the city.

A soul stone hung from thick cables on a wall like an ominous piece of modern art, barely standing out among the litany of works Mockery had generated in a mad understanding of human creativity -- from chaotic canvases to dead neon lights forming non-symbols.

A dozen slaves sat or stood around the place. Chay sensed they were fairly conscious, still figments but close to their final cycle, their eyes following them with curiosity and caution.

The Urrk bowed out as a 7'2'' tall man with downward curling horns rose from the throne.

The 'human' had a physique model musculature, but it bulged with veins like not even a strict diet of steroids could have accomplished. His skin was medium brown with a purple tint in the prominent veins. He wore a gold plated utility belt from which a leather loincloth hung and a bunch of random jewelry on his neck and wrists.

A demonblood, Chay knew, like Necrarchs and Dragoons. If he hadn't been infused, he would have been... an Ogre? A very tall Goblin? No...

"Lord Djegnoth?" Chay asked, dizzy with curiosity. "You're human?"

"Please," Djegnoth said with the deep growl of a demonic throat, in Brazilian Portuguese, "call me Diego. The whole pandemonic-name was more of a joke, but, you know, sometimes jokes stick."

"Holy shit?" Marcus questioned, glancing at Chay to figure out what reaction was appropriate.

"Have a seat," Diego said and walked his massive body to a pile of pillows where slaves rested.

Chay resolved to project confidence and led his men to the seating area. He notice that the slaves wore makeshift clothing -- jockstraps mostly, loincloths in a few cases. And they didn't seem afraid of Diego.

"What are you here for?" Diego asked. "How many were you and how long have you been here? Have you succeeded at your mission already?"

"The vortex," Chay said, taking charge. "Or vortices, plural. We've axed nearly all of them now. It's always been us four. I... the sky voice told us our team was the only one they could afford to send. I didn't think we'd run into... you're a demi-demon, right? How did that happen?"

"Yes, a *devil* is what they call a demonblooded human," Diego confirmed. "My life's story, I've told it many times before." He glanced at the slaves who were listening with somewhat more attention than the typical, seemingly stoned or sleepy figment.

"Five of us. At university. We were called by the divine to defeat the Feasting Maw before it broke through to earth, which we ultimately did. But it was costly."

Diego was telling a probably true story about his team in limbo choosing their boon, him and one other going for hunger-immunity like the pantheon had, the other three choosing to have their sexual temptations cut off.

Long story short, the hungry ones were as eager to eat as the pantheon had been to fuck. They started eating gnomes, then killed bigger targets to gnaw down to the bones, then started eating those bones, too, then plants, rocks, shit. During a mission to break the Feasting Maw's third largest gullet, they cannibalized each other when Diego and his horny buddy were off sucking demon cock.

The last two men standing had understandable difficulty dealing with the events. Diego stayed, the other returned to earth.

Interestingly, the devil was quite removed from the events. It had to have been a while, although Chay detected some lingering bitterness and a wish not to dig deeper.

He stopped Marcus from blurting out something. "Careful."

The martial artist pulled away. "I was just gonna ask how he became a devil. Chill."

Diego huffed. "You find a grand demon willing to sacrifice most of himself via a torturous ritual that takes forever and leaves him just alive enough to suffer for a long, long time."

It was a true statement but there was a lie by omission somewhere. Chay wasn't sure if he should press.

Diego broke the silence. "Or, like me, you find a grand demon willing to screw over a dozen other fuckers and do the ritual for you, with that dozen demons you hunt down for him. Then," he waved, "a few Turns of service to that demon until your blood-connection thins and you're free. Ah, it was like leaving home for uni all over again, hehe."

The devil glanced at their crotches where the tiny cages gleamed at the presence of semi-demonic blood.

"You got one of those?" Xane asked.

"I did. I got rid of it when I became a demi-demon. Now..."

The devil grinned and slipped off his belt. His dick was huge, even compared to his body, veins traveling along the brown skinned shaft. The head was elongated, all along the head and shaft were symmetrical bulges and knots promising amazing stimulation. Balls hung heavy underneath, promising a huge load -- sadly not of nectar.

"Time to fuck?" Goro asked.

"Me first," Xane and Marcus said at the same time.

"I see," Diego said, "the divine voices wisened up and sent all faggots."

Chay realized the *hunger* he had perceived in Diego was not just the result of a human eager for earthly company paired with the demonic urge to possess and control. No, the devil found them attractive.

"Nope, Xane said and pounded his flexed chest. "Straight as they come, just cursed."

"Oh please," Marcus said, "you loved dick before the first curse hit you."

"Nectar addiction," Xane said with a shrug. "Doesn't make me less straight."

Goro grunted. "Are we still straight? When was the last time you dreamed about pussy?"

"Uhhhh..."

Chay slapped his friends' backs. "Not the time. So, Diego... you're gay?"

The devil shrugged. "I recall not thinking much of girls and wanting to do things with boys I wasn't supposed to. But it's been a long time. You sound as eager to fuck demons as I did during the Feasting Maw quest. My teammate with the other aegis wasn't so eager. I think that made things easier for me."

"Wow," Marcus said. "If you're a homo you've gotta be living in paradise here."

Chay slapped the animus-fighter in the shoulder.

Diego's expression fell. "Turns out while every bastard in the abyss is a horny fucker, nobody likes to bottom. Let alone cuddle, hehe." He patted the bald head of a slave. "I have a deal with the Reapers to take the most advanced figments so I've got *some* company but even with slug glitter it's difficult to open them enough to..." He patted his crotch. "And they're not always the greatest conversationalists."

Chay felt a drop of precum leak onto his thighs. He hadn't creamed a load in a while. "You wouldn't have any nectar? No, I guess not. Actually, we've accumulated a few curses you should know about first..."

A minute later, the demigods were lined up on all fours, sucking the dicks of four glitter-faced slaves while Diego's massive fingers opened Goro's and Chay's holes.

"Interesting," the devil murmured. "You've been signed around the sack by some lord but I can..."

"D-don't-" Goro said before flinching as the signature activated and 'kicked' him in the nuts. He whimpered.

Diego chuckled. "Time to test my stamina."

He held up a waterskin of ectoplasm to Goro's ass and squeezed to lube the berserker's insides. "Are you sure you don't want slug dust?"

"Absolutely," Goro said and swallowed the leaking slave cock again to catch precious cum.

Maybe Diego liked to fuck like a jackhammer, maybe he was just using the opportunity of not having to be careful. In either case, each demigod received a gut shaking fuck like never before. They had taken huge cocks and gotten brutalized, yes, but the devil fucked with *passion*, making use of the signatures, bringing their bodies together, nibbling on necks.

Every time it was Chay's turn he felt the beyond-orgasms rip through him with a strength he could only compare to his first nectar fuck, if anything. There was something terribly intimate and embarrassing about bottoming for a gay guy who enjoyed his body for its own sake, not just as a tool to rub himself off but as 'a masculine and divine work of art', as Diego himself called each one of them.

In the end, Chay did shoot a load all over himself, but the demigods were too busy to suck it off his abs, thighs and the ground underneath, so it dried to flakes.

It hardly mattered, since Diego shot a load into Xane's ass so massive, the wizard cried out in pain before his hole turned into a jizz cannon. Chay participated in the friendly fight to lick the puddle clean. He thought he'd be used to it by now but he still hated the taste of cum -- as did the others -- but it satiated him like a good meal when nothing else could. And what a generous meal it was.

As Chay looked up, his face dripping with devil-cum, seeing his equally pathetic friends slurp from the floor, he was overcome with a weird fondness. He'd never be tighter with anyone else.

Xane used thaum-power to wipe his face, still breathing like he'd run top speed. "Holy shit, anyone else still cumming?"

"Y-yeah..." Goro said and grunted, face contorting in confusion, fear and pleasure. "D-diego, the signatures... more."

Chay could feel it, too. He had reached a stage of horniness where just holding still felt as orgasmic as an earthly cumshot centered around his core. The sensation ebbed until Diego sent light ball pain around the pantheon, making each demigod flinch in turn, the intense stimulation driving the pleasure forward. What would have been sweet release to the college guys, was now only a tease to the abyss warriors, their craving rising without limit.

Xane and Marcus met each other's gaze and chuckled with despair, unable to control their ridiculous facial expressions.

Goro, eyes rolled back into his head, mouth open and drooling, was quietly freaking out. His mania-power pumped through his muscles, his hands were clawing into his thighs. Having always been one to give in to animal nature, he was getting a little unstable.

Chay needed to do something to ground him, but he didn't want to make Diego stop, riding the high himself.

He dropped himself onto the huge man and licked his nipples, while his hands rubbed along the bodybuilder's flanks. It worked to distract Goro, layering on different sensation that brought him back to reality.

And Chay liked it, too. It wasn't the pure obsession of the carnal craving curse, no, but he was past the point where he could differentiate between nectar visions and his own fantasies. He liked muscles. Or maybe he just liked his friends. Either way, he liked Goro.

The mania-warrior let out a pathetic howl and the leader felt his thigh between Goro's even beefier legs get splattered with cum from the berserker's aegis.

Then Goro reciprocated, practically eating Chay, his lips everywhere they could reach. The other two gods had fallen into the same frenzy with each other.

Chay had no more sense of time. There was only Goro's body, crushed balls, abyss-level pleasure -- and at some point there was Diego's forearm-of-an-erection in his ass again.

Sleep took a while to find him, but found him more willing than ever.

===***===

"Oof," Marcus made and clutched his shimmering crotch as he knelt. "My balls keep aching. Diego, dude, I'm still light headed from the mega-sex but you gotta lay off on the demon magic."

Diego smirked from his throne. "I take it you don't remember how you begged me to step on your nuts? Don't look so shocked, I didn't do it. Although I assume you'd bounce back with just a little magic."

Xane rose, his face cum-glued to a pillow and slow to tear off. "That was..." He flung his hands and projected fireworks.

Chay had his eyes half open. Pie was laying on his chest and he busied himself rubbing her cloudy head.

He took time to assess the others with his umbra-sense. It had been a while since he had checked over them thoroughly.

They were a little loopy from just waking up, jittery with superhuman energy ready to smash a vortex, and desperately horny to the point each one would have sold his soul for the right cock under certain circumstances. So far, so normal.

But the bond between them had changed. Neither of them would betray the group, not even for nectar -- probably. They were tighter than most literal or figurative brothers and more experienced at abyssal shenanigans.

Marcus felt ready to fight at a moment's notice -- perhaps a liability but he'd been reliable so far. He was rambling about the chicks he had dated to Diego, still concerned with appearing straight on an instinctual level but not ashamed of his dick yearning. His need to prove himself had always been a danger to himself but it made him focused and tenacious when it mattered. Honestly, the biggest threat was the ease with which the Filipino martial arts god spewed information, potentially including vital secrets.

Chay moved on.

Easily the most Zen group member, Goro was unproblematic on the surface -- always calm and helpful. But under the neutral serenity was a deep ocean of mystique. It was in the rare moments when the Japanese ultra-hunk deigned to speak that Chay saw glimpses of that hidden depth.

His drive to protect the ones he cared about and attraction to brute animalism, coupled with the strength-obsession that had made him build his glorious physique, gave plenty of opportunity to a skilled manipulator -- which most demons would have been if they weren't so bad at figuring out human motives.

Right now, with his hair untied, the black strands hanging wildly from the top of his head to between his shoulder blades, Goro felt assured in his path, reveling in horny beast-brain, even enjoying the dick sucking -- or at least being able to see it as part of the game.

Chay moved on once more.

Xane was drawing in the air, giving impressionist splotches of their adventures while bickering with the interrupting Marcus. He was motivated by finding outlets for his creativity, balancing a need for approval and accomplishment with a laid back attitude and a desire to have things the easy way. He wanted to be seen as metaphorically big in spite of his stature, as much as he had grown fond of his body.