== VORTEX QUEST 5-1 ==
== A SLICE OF HEAVEN ==
The pantheon came out in a crawlway of black stone, every surface filled with the spirals and sinuous lines of ancient lava flows.
Goro bent aside the spiky barricades on which feral Kobold skeletons were rotting. The other three were chatting.
No immediate danger. Hiwinymb didn't defy physics in an obvious way. He let his mark of madness shrink back to a few lines on his collarbones and wiped away the drops of precum Xane had left on his back during the shoulder-ride. Not worth a comment.
For optimal logistics he should have swallowed the drops but eating cum wasn't enjoyable unless it was paired with sex.
Half his mind was listening in on the chatty trio, the other was fixated on the flowing lines on the walls bending before them. Xane's orb gave enough light to follow Pie's zigzagging exploits.
"...but supposedly," Chay continued, "King Pwen'Gllach stopped long before the king of Mockery went mad and dismantled most of the crazy tech and it's a 'relatively' stable realm now. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if we find some high tech fuckery around here, too. Oh, and for the record," he turned to Marcus, "if I got flipped, I'd definitely be a top."
"Something ahead," Goro reported. "Looks like... high tech fuckery."
"Shit that was fast," Xane said.
Pie was circling a five inch silver cylinder with a few knobs.
Chay leaned in. "Hey, that's the beacon Gallant promised. Or... *a* beacon. Could be we're activating a trap meant for someone else entirel- Nope, says 'twist me' in English here. Gallant."
===***===
The crawlway turned into a path along a sheer cliff where the gentle flow of ancient lava had broken off. Flowing spiral of smooth black spread into a miles-wide chamber, spirals of silver leading to outflows of teal ectoplasm, stone skulls sprouting tendrils of azure moss from the eye holes.
Hiwinymb presented three striking features: Small volcanos sparked with yellow fire along the cavern's bottom, forcing paths and settlements to wind between; pinkish-white, foamy bubble clouds hung under the ceiling, refracting plasm-rivers and volcanic flames; oblong chunks of dark stone floated as islands the size of city blocks under the ceiling, many drenched in bubble clouds.
The most striking structure was built into the wall just to their left: A castle of thin white spires, smushed together like a bunch of pencils. Sharp golden roofs had ornaments inspired by angelic architecture. Two Wyvern slumbered on the only flat tower tops.
Around the castle was a sphere, like a soap bubble, generously encompassing it. Within the bubble the rock was bright and jeweled, vines, shrubs and perfectly straight trees formed a garden that terminated precisely on the bubble's edge. A gentle stream of teal plasm completed the picturesque style.
"It's gorgeous," Xane said, looking down from the cliff.
Goro grunted in agreement.
"Got a Disney vibe," Chay said. "Not abyssal at all. I don't trust it."
Goro grunted harder in even stronger agreement.
"Seems to be a vision bubble," Chay continued. "Psycho-sensationic conduits embedded in trans... uh..." He looked at Goro, hand resting on Pie's head.
A response was warranted.
"Trans-Alethium," Goro said. "Focusing soul stone energy into illusions via a radial perception matrix."
"Minor shimmer on the aegis," Xane said. "Probably some demons inside. And there's another castle on the floating island way back. Seems to be made of giant flowers. Check out this or the other?"
Goro hummed indifferently.
"Neither," Marcus said. "Piss, cum and fist. I'm parched and horny to death."
Goro grunt- No, this was worth adding his voice to. "I didn't get much cum out of Diego's slaves. We could see if one of you can cream, otherwise I say we look for a load in the castle."
Chay shrugged and lazily slapped Goro's ass. "Sounds like a plan. Get down, stay in the fog, we'll see if the bubble is easy to breach."
The pantheon descended the cliff with magical aid, dropping along the wall in fits as Chay spread his black smoke cover through equally dark cracks in the volcanic rock. Xane's mage-hand carried the goodie bag along.
The soap bubble offered no resistance to touch, letting them pass into the garden as if it wasn't there at all. This seems exactly like the sort of thing that would trigger an alert or activate curse runes or something. Goro stayed vigilance but his gut was aching with an itch that only something as long and thick as an arm could scratch.
"It's not as pretty as I thought," Xane said as they stepped onto soft earth, hip high ferns leading to denser shrubs. "More like someone took bits from better gardens and crammed them in half-haphazardly. My artistic heart is bleeding."
"Maybe they'll hire you as consultant," Marcus said and let his chakram cut an alcove into the tall bush.
"Down," Goro grunted and shoved Chay along to hide.
A Wretcher leapt from a roof and flew off, leaving the bubble. Chay's fog covered the slight flash of their crotches as the demon moved overhead.
"Okay then," the umbralist said. "Who's drinking who?"