[Edited] Chapters 41-42 (Patreon)

So, I had planned to get this portion dropped yesterday, but I ended up spending over 4 hours at the doctor's office. Bronchitis. Bleh. Three weeks of coughing. Total suckage. Anyway, I've got some good drugs now, so I should be okay.

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Chapter 41 - Dreams and Dreamers

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“‘Stits…” Arx swore under her breath as she gazed upward.

“Thank you,” Mia replied absently, her own eyes parallel to the Dolilim’s.

For a moment, Arx continued staring up at the giant tree. It was as big around as a house and looked like it had once been tall enough to stretch to the clouds. However, it seemed to have rotted through and broken at some point, leaving only the stump in its place. Not that it mattered. What was left was easily tall enough to tower over every other building in town.

However, the Faen’s words were so incongruous, they managed to briefly pull Arx’s attention away. “Sorry, what?”

“F-fuck my… fuck my oatmeal!” Mia’s head jerked a couple of times, then she took a quick breath and clarified, “For the compliment, I mean. I never used to think much about it, but now that there’s someone to appreciate them… It’s a thrill to be able to attract his attention, isn’t it?”

Arx opened her mouth, but too many replies crammed into her throat all at once, leaving her momentarily speechless. While she certainly agreed with the sentiment, as far as she was aware, she had not been complimenting anything.

Her manner of swearing was just something she had picked up as a child. She had found it amusing, the kinds of things the red women said once their clients were not around, and playing around them as she often had, she had naturally acquired the habit. Though, her newfound affectation had not met with the smiles she had intended. ‘Crass and improper’ they had called it. Unfitting of one of her lineage. If anything, that had only solidified the habit.

Especially after…

Her eyes refocused as the old wound sealed itself once more. That business had been ancient history even before her new life had begun. Why was she thinking about it now?

Doesn’t matter.

For now, all she cared about was straightening this creature out. Complimenting her tits? As if. They were so pale, you would think the girl had never seen a day of sunlight in her life. Even her sister’s had more color.

They are… a little bigger than mine, though.

A twinge of jealousy flared within her at the silent admission. To have gained as much as she had—and through quest, no less—only to lose out the minute some ridiculous Faen came along? It galled to say the least. This… Mia was not even a real person!

On the other hand… she did have a certain allure. In her own way.

The thought filled Arx with a sudden and unexpected swirl of desire. Visions of laying the shorter woman to the ground danced behind the Siren’s eyes. Of peeling the filthy rags from this unfamiliar creature’s body. Taking those soft orbs into her own mouth, glowing in the moonlight. Trailing her tongue down past the mysterious Faen’s naval. Tasting her honey.

While he watched. Or better yet… While he takes me from behind!

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Mia said, intuiting at least some of her thoughts. “You’re quite lovely and plenty large yourself. I doubt you’ve had much trouble snagging his attention.”

Arx narrowed her eyes, her private fantasy dissolving in an instant. The words had sounded reassuring and complimentary on the surface, but she had detected the smug condescension underlying them readily enough.

“You’re right, I haven’t,” she agreed with an evil grin. “And more than just his attention.”

Mia’s eyes flashed, and her lips peeled back over her fangs before she could stop herself. “That was uncalled for. I long for him every bit as much as you ever could, but with no body to call my own? At least, leave me my pride.”

A dismissive snort puffed from the white-haired woman’s nose. “Don’t taunt the Shepherdess if you don’t like getting scratched,” she returned. “Besides, you seem to have body enough as you are. I see no reason you can’t tempt him with it.”

“It isn’t the same.”

“Hmm…”

Silence returned as the pair turned their attention back to the tree. Despite the apparent rot, it was not truly dead. There were plenty of branches scattered at random about its length sporting new growth. However, what was concerning Mia the most was not the tree itself so much as the thing it had supplanted.

It had appeared in the very same vacant lot the monolith had until just recently occupied. In fact, she was not altogether certain whether it had not once been the monolith. The bark of the tree did retain a certain blackness. And she could easily see the Words of what doubtlessly described skills shining amongst its limbs.

What could this mean? The implications alone… and what of her Core? How could something like this have happened and… and…

She shook her head. The potential for breaches aside, the actual symbolism at play remained quite similar. The roots of the tree would function to search for the Core just the same as had the weight of the stone. Heresy, no matter your outlook.

Was this because she had disapproved? Her new world changing around her, trying to make her feel better about a situation she could not fix? And why a tree?

Hmm. Now that I think about it, there is a certain similarity to that one room…

“I can scarcely imagine what this must have been like in its prime,” Arx said wonderingly, breaking into the Faen’s thoughts. “I didn’t know a tree could grow to be so large.”

“They exist,” Mia informed her. “Far to the north and across the Shallow Desert, there are vast groves of them.”

“The Shallow Desert… I’ve never heard that name for it before. Fitting.” Arx scented at the wind once more, then smiled as though from a sudden epiphany. “Dearest must have seen these groves from his Floating Isles.”

The red-tipped brunette glanced up at her. “I doubt that.”

“Doubt all you like. My nose does not lie. I’m going in,” Arx announced, heedless.

Mia shifted her gaze from the woman’s receding form to the base of the tree. A couple of roots had twisted about an old outgrowth that had since rotted away, leaving a hole in its wake. It was just large enough to allow a person inside without difficulty, though she noticed Arx having to duck. Those horns certainly lent a great deal to the woman’s statuesque appearance, but they were not without their inconveniences.

She just hoped her own did not grow much larger. Her antlers, not her breasts. She was inwardly hoping for just a touch of additional heft in that department, herself.

Her body might well have been copied from that of a goddess and thus undoubtedly pleasing in its own way, but she was growing increasingly discontent with it. Hers was an undirected beauty. Unintentional.

Yes, her skin was smooth and her form symmetric. How could she be less? Such traits were hallmarks of those born in a state of perfect and perpetual health. However, her body’s purpose had only ever been to contain her consciousness.

Now? She wanted to be sexy! Not just to… people. But to him! Captivating. She wanted her lord’s member to tighten uncomfortably within his clothes at the merest sight of her.

To never again witness his back turning away.

The tingling sensation of her breasts twisting and stiffening at their tips pulled her out of her little fantasy, and she took a breath to steady herself. Criminy… This is getting to be torture!

With a sigh of resignation on her lips, she raised a foot to follow…

~~~

…and immediately found herself stepping out of a dark tunnel.

What… just happened?

Confused, her eyes swiveled about. She seemed to be standing on a raised platform somewhere along the jagged, upper lip of the tree’s innermost trunk. The center of it had been hollowed out by time and, resting some ten to twenty hands below them, the cavity had filled with rain water.

Arx was standing to one side, her chest heaving. Strangely, a number of tears had appeared along the edges of her blouse, and she was covered in welts. As though from combat.

What in the…? When did that—?

“I was right,” Arx said with a growing smile. “He is here.”

“He… he is?”

Mia approached the lip of their platform to look down. The pool beneath had been cast into shadow by the hollowed shell around them, but that did nothing to obscure its clear waters. She could see every nook, every knotted whirl below its surface. And sure enough, a man was there.

His muscled back appeared as though through a glass lens, magnified and shining. Moving with a casual grace beneath the still waters.

Abruptly, her eyes crossed, and—

I smiled contentedly as the water swirled about me. It was at that perfect temperature. Just warm enough to feel like a caress against the skin but, so long as I did not exert myself too much, it was not so hot as to be uncomfortable.

I never wanted to move again. This was heaven. I just allowed the water to flow about me, letting it fill my lungs only to expel it, and the stress of the day, without care. But my relaxation was soon disturbed by the sound of a splash behind me.

Surfacing, I turned to find a woman floundering about, coughing and sputtering. She did not seem to have the ability to breathe the water as I did and, with her black, skin-tight dress binding her legs, she was finding swimming difficult.

Confidently, I stroked toward her until I could nestle her soft form into the crook of my elbow. She fitted perfectly there, as though made specifically for it. Her breasts pooled into my chest, cupping a slight puddle of water between them. And so soft. She was… glorious. Slowly, I pulled the two of us over to a log that was conveniently floating nearby.

For a few moments, she seemed disoriented, but then she scrubbed some of the mud from her face and looked at me. Whatever she saw there, her eyes widened in shock.

“Hello, beautiful,” I rumbled, the bass of my voice causing tiny ripples to appear in the water. “And here I thought I was already having a nice day.”

Her mouth opened, but the only thing that came out was a nervous little giggle. She was beginning to shiver, I noticed.

Concerned now, I pulled her closer to my warmth. The water was cold, after all. A slip of a girl like her would catch her death in a pond like this.

Silence stretched between us. But not the awkward kind. We were simply lost in one another’s eyes while the afternoon breeze moaned through the branches above. God-rays slanted through the shadows of our hollowed out pool. The deep blue of the water, so rich and vivid, seemed pale and insignificant when viewed from the glorious reflections within her eyes.

Icy blue nearly to the point of being gray. Yet ringed with red. Familiar to me, but no less enticing for it.

“M-my lord?” she whispered finally, her gaze twitching as she searched my face. “Is… is that y—?”

I silenced her questions with my lips. There was no need for words.

She did not fight me. Not even for an instant. Instead, she pressed herself to me all the more. Eagerly. And with growing hunger. Her fingers crawled over the swollen muscles of my arms, her claws raked uselessly down the ridges of my back, and into my firm buttocks.

I returned the favor. She was so incredibly soft. So deliciously curved. My fingers sank into her skin, into the smooth swell of her own backside. The mounds of her chest were crushed indelibly against the hardness of my own.

We did not need to breathe. There was only the kiss. Tongue exploring tongue. Lip to lip. Cheek to cheek. Stretching into eternity. But then her legs began riding up my own, seeking higher purchase.

I rose to meet her.

The base of my rod nestled against the slick heat between her legs, and she almost sobbed at the contact. Lazily, I slid my way backward, savoring every finger’s width of delicious friction. Her folds came alive against my hardness, seeking to draw me into her. As they should. But she could find no purchase.

Nor would I give her the satisfaction. Not yet. Just before lining up my tip with her entrance, I paused, drawing out her anticipation, then reversed course. Simply dragging along the outside of her lips.

Over and over, I repeated this. Each time, her cries of frustration rose higher. Plaintive. Begging. Her claws dug into me. She bit at my tongue. She screamed.

Finally, I allowed our kiss to end, just to see what she might do.

Her eyes had gone mad with lust. Her lips curled over her fangs, snarling with anger, but she was panting so wantonly, it only made her all the more enticing. Then she took my length into her hand.

Immediately, I crushed her to me, trapping her arm between us, and she gasped, betrayed. Yet still she squirmed, seeking to draw me in. I was having none of it. My arm was as steel, unyielding and firm.

Eventually, she realized the futility if it, and she looked up once more, her eyes swimming with need and frustration. Tears began to shine within her eyes.

“Pl-plea—“

Abruptly, a pair of feet thumped onto the log we had been resting against, sending a new set of ripples through the still lake. I let my eyes drift upward but slowly. Enjoying the sweeping lines of this new, gray-skinned goddess until I met her eyes. They seemed to sparkle with an indignant sort of rage, peering down at us over the generous mounds of her chest.

The one in my arms hissed at her with naked threat. It was a long and slow sort of thing. Wild, yet no less full of meaning. To interfere was to lose an arm. Or worse.

Amused, I hooked her lower jaw with my thumb, and she instantly bit down. But when her teeth found no purchase, she began to lick… and then to suckle upon me. Lewd, ecstatic moans began escaping her throat until she became lost within a fantasy of her own making.

And the hand encircling my manhood began working in tandem.

“What is this?” the other rumbled, her black eyes hard.

I quirked an eyebrow and let an easy grin slip over my features. “Well, now. I suppose that depends on you. I was just enjoying a nice little soak in this pond before the two of you showed up, but you are welcome to join me.”

The woman above sucked in a breath as my words passed through her, as if their vibrations had each individually caressed her body. Her anger became uncertain. Brittle. Until her once confident posture drew in on itself.

“That might be f-fun. Or… or no, I…” She paused to allow her eyes to rove my form. I could see the battle playing out behind them. “No, this isn’t… it isn’t right. Not like this. I want… I want…”

The other froze, a look of horror stealing over her features. “No, don’t!”

“I refuse this!” the gray one shouted. A sudden wind rushed through the hollow, fanning her beautiful white hair into a frenzy. “I want my Donum!”

*****

Torpor released me gradually, awakening dormant muscles one at a time. First a toe. Then a leg.

Faded remnants of dreams danced behind my eyelids while I waited. Endless hallways. A ghost town. That one heist thing in Ecuador, but where all the money had been replaced by chewing gum.

That had been weird. But pretty cool.

Especially once Arx had shown up out of absolutely nowhere to start kicking everyone’s ass. The ending in particular still stood out for me. It had been so beautiful. So vibrant with color. But right at the climax, I had been hit by this strange wave of sadness. It was nonsensical, as dreams often were, but emotions tend to be slow in listening to reason.

However, before that, and much more distinctly, I recalled having a conversation with Mia. And that, at least, had felt quite real. The white room. My Core…

Hmm… I hope she got around to distributing my attribute points.

A deep breath stretched my ribs before I could stop myself, and I waited, bracing for the inevitable. But strangely, no pangs from my many injuries came to punish me. I felt… fine. More than fine, actually. I was hale and healthy in a way I had not been for quite some while. But I was still pretty hungry.

New fantasies began spinning themselves out of the remnants of my dreaming mind, enticing me with bowls of blackberries and cream. A faceless waiter handed me a toddy with a twist of orange peel on a toothpick. One of those fancy balls of clear ice clinked in the glass, and I pulled the rich aroma of alcohol and bitters deeply into my lungs.

Ah… I can almost smell it. That sharp, yet decadent sweetness.

But there was something else in there, sort of flirting with the rest. More an undercurrent than anything, it was acrid. Harsh. Less refined. Though… perhaps a bit smoky? Like something just set to roast over a slow flame.

My lips parted as I drew in another breath, wishfully sampling at the air. I could smell it, I realized. Beyond a simple dream, somehow the scent of food was all over the place! Fruit. Honey. Even that weirdly acidic aroma.

But overlying it all was the spicy sting of whiskey. That particular aroma was so strong, it kind of reminded me of being in the tasting room of a distillery.

Bizarrely, the realization caused my groin to tighten in response—something that should never happen just from sitting in a tasting room—and that was enough to lift a good deal of the fog from my mind.

Waaaait a minute…

Just as my synapses were finally beginning to fire, a previously unnoticed weight shifted on my hips. “Mmmh~”

My left eyebrow twitched, and I cracked my eyelids open just enough to let in a bit of light. Dim—and blue—though it was, I could still make out an ephemeral, semi-opaque cloth draped overhead and the four corners of bedposts. Which… was neither the tasting room I had imagined nor the upstairs balcony I had passed out on.

The weight shifted yet again, this time accompanied by an extremely pleasant suckling sensation along my manhood.

“Come on…” a woman’s voice whispered, and when I glanced down, I found a quite familiar back, an equally familiar pair of black horns, and an instantly recognizable shock of untamed red hair mounted atop me. Slowly grinding away. “I know I felt ye stir. Please… wake up, me master. Need it so bad…”

I was shocked—in a completely unsurprised sort of way. Which is a strange emotional pairing, but no less accurate.

The last time I had awoken from slumber, I had caught Lynnria masturbating to the sight of my morning wood. I remembered feeling embarrassed for her—despite privately enjoying the scene—but that shame had been tempered by a niggling little feeling that my lilim would never have settled for a mere flick of the ol’ bean.

I had been right, it turned out. And now I knew precisely where that scent was coming from. How perverse was I becoming to crave a thing like that so strongly?

That aside, I was confronted with the realization that this was a form of sexual assault.

Technically.

I had been unconscious. It counts.

Not that I was planning on pressing charges. Waking up to a smoking hot red-head gyrating on top of me was pretty low on my list of things to get upset about. Practically non-existent, in point of fact.

Also, this particular red-head had something of a blanket permission slip.

“Please,” Jax moaned again, arching her back so as to address the ceiling and causing her unruly hair to fall between her shoulder blades. For a moment, she pulled her hands away from my thighs to cup her breasts and shuddered into my pelvis. “By the Master’s eyes… so hungry.”

I worked a tongue in a mouth gone suddenly dry. I had thought myself inured to the deprivations of these lilim. I had been chased. Seduced. Bargained with. Begged. But to see one actively beseeching the heavens? For me to wake up and pound her senseless?

More than that, however… I could feel her hunger. There was a hollowness, papery and thin, tracing its way through our connection. Flitting about the edges of my Core. My own seemed to recognize it in kind, and the two began to mirror one another in dance like a distant campfire reflected against a still lake.

My groin pulsed, and the lilim gasped as her own greedily devoured the additional length. “Yes! More! Please,” she whimpered, then leaned forward to clutch at my leg. Her upper body writhed against me, tickling and teasing the fine hairs below my shin with the distended tips of her chest. “Aye, there ye be… yer feelin’ yer Jax now. Can hear her calling fer ye. Ah~ Mercy’s breath.”

I did not say anything. Not that I could have. Whatever thoughts might have been swirling within my mind evaporated.

All that remained were visions of the lilim in my lap. The fine ridges of muscle playing along her spine. The smooth taper of her waist flaring out at her hips. The plush yet wondrously toned cushion of her backside nestled into my lap. Her pleas for me to awaken. To stiffen. To fuck her.

My cock roared to life. In the same instant, the whole of her body seized and contorted. The tunnel within her collapsed along my length, crawled up and down it, greedily sucking it ever deeper. But I had only just started.

Taking firm hold of her wondrous backside, I twisted, toppling her over so that I could mount her properly. And as a special treat, I decided to activate the Hammer of Glory. It had only been…Watcher’s eyes… What? A day? Two? It did not matter. We were so closely bonded, so much an extension of one to the other, even that much had been too long. We had been forcibly separated from one another, and now that we were finally rejoined… I wanted her to remember this.

Just as I was coming to my knees, the flow of raw pleasure lanced through our bond, and she let out a long and tortured moan into the bedsheets. Whatever orgasm she had just endured was suddenly jolted to another level, making it look like just the foreshock of the earthquake to come.

And… I could feel all of it. Though faintly, as from distant echoes. Her body was connected to mine in both a literal and metaphysical sense. I could feel the aftershocks, the plateaus, the spasms. I could feel her catching breaths, her convulsions, the heady rush of endorphins flooding her mind. I could feel her flesh clamping onto my cock, seeking to draw every scrap of essence from me.

The whole of her was laid out before me like an ocean of the faithful, chanting mantras in worship to the sensations I was pouring into her.

Far from distracting, it only served to heighten my own state of arousal. For of course, she too was influencing me. I could feel her own skill trickling through my blood. Subtly fanning the fires of my passion.

She wanted my eyes to crawl over her body. To fixate on the ripples I pounded into her backside. To shiver at the music of her cries of ecstasy. She wanted me to desire her. To see her as the most glorious woman that ever could be.

Rather than fight them, I embraced these feelings. She was my First. I wanted to love her and every inch of her.

“Ah~ fuck me eyes!” she yelled wretchedly. “Come! Fill me! I can’t wait anymore. Three above, please!”

Her outcry sent a shiver down my spine, and my groin tightened precipitously. I was close.

Taking firm hold of her hips, I began to pound in earnest. Her passionate wails—each laced with inhuman undertones—rose even higher and thrummed through my chest. Her nails pierced into the bedding as she sought the traction to match my vigor, thrust for thrust.

My eruption came upon me far too slowly—as though from a gun fired in slow motion—to the point it was almost painful. I had been teased and prodded by Lynnria for what felt like days. My reunion with Arx had been cut short by the collapse of the labyrinth. I had even suffered under the Lust Ailment.

In short, my balls were about as blue as they could get, and now that the pressure valve had been released… Well, when that sort of thing happens, the result tends to be…

Dense.

There might have even been some crying involved.

For some while after, we lay there panting, just enjoying the afterglow. I had collapsed listlessly over top of her, but she did not utter a peep of complaint. She seemed content to let me enjoy her softness… though as often happened when we coupled, she had yet to release me, so I would not have been able to move even if I had wanted.

It was probably for the best. I was still feeling a dull ache down there, and my post-coital softening had reversed course way too soon. Usually, I would have put that down to having been backed up so long.

But this time, there was something else. It was a pleasant sort of feeling, akin to the satisfaction of munching on a bag of peanuts after a particularly long day. Or the feeling you get when the appetizer tray is first placed in front of you.

Life was flowing, if only a little. And not a bit of it had come through my mouth.

“Jax…?” I began hesitantly. “Did that… somehow fill you up already? With Life Energy?”

My question was met with a short bark of laugher. “Nay. A good one though it were, ‘twere not near enough fer that, me master. I were near to hollow and long knackered besides.”

Her nether-lips squeezed at my still-sensitive manhood, and my lower back clenched in helpless response.

“I’ll be needing… one or two more, I’m thinking, e’en to be satisfied. When yer up fer it.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

I well remembered what had happened between Arx and me back in that maze. The scent. Consuming her fluids. The Life within them. And here I was doing it again. But with Jax this time. And in a far more explicit sort of way. This was more than simple sex.

I was feeding. From her.

I felt like some kind of newly turned vampire staring at an exposed neck. The craving was undeniable. Real in every respect of the word. I was hungry. Had been hungry. And here I was at the buffet line. The realization was making me swell once more, ready to go far… far sooner than I should have been able.

Watcher’s black eye… what is wrong with me?

Then again… it was only sex, some distant and coldly-rational part of my psyche argued. And while it was a bit weird, Jax was hardly some unwilling participant. I… guess it’s better than starving to death. I glanced down once more, taking in the lines of the gorgeous creature beneath me. A lot better than starving to death.

Still confused but slowly coming to terms with it, I lifted off of her so that we might reposition then, when she rolled to her side, I hoisted her leg over my shoulder. My hips began to rock once more, but with a leisurely pace this time. And rather than pleasure, I switched to my comfort setting.

I wanted to pamper her, a bit.

“So, I’ve been gaining Life through sex recently,” I began in a conversational tone.

“Mmm~?” she replied. “Truth to tell it, that be a bit of news I’m glad to be hearing. It ain’t easy to keep ye fed proper. Be there aught else to it? Other emotions yer feeling or feeding?”

“No, just the sex, so far. You think I’m becoming like you then?” I asked, somewhat dreading the answer but steeling myself all the same.

She chuckled in between gasps of delight. “Ye be the male to me female, if that’s what yer asking. No chance of ye becoming like me. Nay, ne’er. Ye be bigger than ever or I be a tube.”

“That wasn’t exactly—” I paused. “Am I?”

“Aye, that. Proper hnn~ don’t stop!”

“Oh… neat,” I replied simply. Then I resumed my steady rhythm.

Whatever was happening to me, the end result was only something that could be answered with time. But at least for now, it seemed I was still mostly human. Just with certain dietary… quirks. And if Jax were to be believed, whatever I was becoming was quite ostensibly masculine.

While my thoughts wandered, so too did my eyes. There was not much to see, though. Just the bed and the fine mesh curtains drawn about us. Were it not for the steady blue light, I would have thought us in some bordello suite.

“You found a safe room?” I asked.

“Aye,” she drawled listlessly. And without elaboration.

“What happened to the others?”

She groaned at the mention of ‘others,’ and her eyelids momentarily fluttered open, as though annoyed at having to summon the energy to keep talking. But she only managed to drag her wrist upward long enough to twitch her fingers a few times, indicating somewhere over my shoulder. Task complete, her hand dropped to the bedsheets once more, spent.

I smirked before twisting around. Lynnria and Arx had been dumped without ceremony or care in a loose pile right next to a white door decorated in gold filigree. Lynnria was thankfully unharmed—from the scene a moment ago, I doubted Jax’s hunger would have allowed for much else beyond tending to her own needs—though I did notice Arx had been contorted into a spectacularly uncomfortable-looking pose.

“Really, Jax?” I said. “You know that’s going to come back to bite you.”

She took an excessively deep breath. “Mnnshouln’ve lef’ me danglin’… bloody rope then!” she slurred weakly, rushing so as to get it all out in one go.

“You’re still holding a grudge over that?”

She only managed a shallow huff in reply.

Hmm… might be overdoing the comfort a bit.

Thus far, I had not played too much with the Hammer’s response settings. Ordinarily, I could only shift between different ones, and there was a degree of effort involved in doing so. Almost a lag in the response times. However, Mia had mentioned something about developing a finer degree of control since having practiced it to Low Intermediate skill levels. So I decided to experiment.

First, I tried to moderate her comfort levels by only using short bursts, but she was already so relaxed by that point, she was well on her way toward falling asleep. While it was tempting to just let her, I would feel obligated to stop, and that would not do at all. Neither one of us were what I would call satisfied, so I doubted she would let me go just because she happened to fall asleep.

Plus, there was no telling how long Arx would be out.

Maybe Lynnria? I shook my head.

Instead, I began interspersing brief jolts of pleasure and happiness into the mix. It was fascinating to watch the little twitches on her face. She would just start to gasp from the onrush of pleasure before a heady burst of joy would take its place, tugging the corners of her mouth upward. And then I would comfort her for a while, lulling her into complacency before starting over.

“Nnnstop!” she moaned finally. “First ye near rock me to sleep, then this? Yer putting me head in a melt, ye sleekit bastard.”

Whatever that means. Though, stop was clear enough.

“Don’t like it?” I asked.

“Didn’t say that,” she said, slowly beginning to rock her own pelvis to enjoy me all the more. “Ye was making me crazy is all. Keep on, and I’ll ne’er let ye go again. Just ye watch!”

I grinned. “Tempting…”

For a moment, I just watched the play of her muscles dancing along her ribcage. The near unconscious flexing with her every breath, rolling through her center and down into her hips. Damn, she’s hot.

She gasped suddenly as a micro-orgasm rippled through her, heralding another small burst of Life flowing through our connection. While she was quaking, I paused my thrusting so as to avoid overstimulating her. And to drag a finger through the shining fluid between our crotches.

Fucking hell, that’s fantastic, I thought after sucking it into my mouth, letting the flavors roll about on my tongue.

“What were it?” she panted. “What ye was thinking just now?”

“You taste like a whiskey cocktail,” I informed her.

“The hard stuff, ye mean? Aye, I know it,” she informed me. “No finer nightcap, or strike me blind! But nay, I wanted to know the bit before. What made me shiver so.”

“Just how sexy you are,” I said, smiling. “You have really nice abs. I like watching them move.”

“Really?”

The suction along my member redoubled then began to pulse in sensuous rhythm, and she ran a hand down the length of her body.

“Yer a strange one to be looking there… and not glory at a pair like these,” she said, pinching slightly at her nipples. Then she tilted herself so as to show off her backside. “Nor even the swell of me arse?”

My face contorted for a moment as I tried to resist her provocation. I was not quite ready to blow again. Not just yet.

“No…” I managed, but then I hastily corrected myself. “Or yes. But those are just the obvious things. When a woman is genuinely sexy, they have a million and one places to catch a man’s eye.”

She smiled fiercely, then grasped my collar to pull me down. “Not a woman,” she reminded me with a purring sort of growl.

Then her lips welded themselves to my own and, for some while after that, our quiet lovemaking returned to its fierce beginnings.

At least, until the others started waking up.

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Chapter 42 - An Ambition Revealed

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Have you ever seen one of those madcap comedies, like ‘It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’ or ‘What’s up, Doc?’ If not, I would highly recommend them. Great fun.

Their plots tend to revolve around a confusing series of disparate yet intertwined events involving lots of characters all striving towards some sort of MacGuffin. Then, inevitably, it all sort of blows up at the end. Everyone figures out that everyone else is in on it, they all start yelling and—usually after quite a lot of grievous bodily injury and property damage—the whole cast gets shoved in front of some overworked judge who is left to sort everything out.

Take that, add in a bunch of naked women, cast me in the role of the MacGuffin—and the judge—and you have the situation in a nutshell. Honestly, I was torn between throwing my hands up and letting the lot of them tear each other apart… or taking the reasonable approach and diving out the window.

As near as I could determine, the list of grievances were as follows:

Jax was pissed, at least initially, because the others were interrupting our reunion coitus-meal… or whatever. We had yet to develop the sort of vocabulary our evolving relationship required. However, she had quickly moved on to more pressing concerns.

Namely, the fact that I had decided to rescue Arx ahead of her. She was my First, she had reminded me. At length. The world could not be right without my First by my side, and I had been a fool to think otherwise.

I had tried explaining my reasoning—that Arx was the more experienced of the two—but she was not having it. Especially once she had discovered the sorts of difficulties I had encountered. Apparently, her area had been much easier, and had I simply proceeded in the natural and intended order of things, this whole mess could have been avoided.

In hindsight, I had to agree. From the number of traps I had blundered into alone, it was obvious the goddess running the place had been practically screaming at me to try another path first. Unbeknownst to me, of course, but that is hindsight for you. I put it down to the sunk-cost fallacy. The more crap someone has to overcome, the more bullheaded they get in straying from their decided course of action. You would think, as a gamer of some experience, I would know better.

But no.

On this point, Arx had been sticking up for me—which I appreciated—but it honestly was not helping matters. Jax was only getting more pissed she was not bowing to her authority, which Arx cared not a whit for. She maintained it was heroic that I had pulled off something like that for her sake… even if the lot of us nearly had died in the process. Multiple times.

Which turned her on. But for my lilim, that sort of thing is scarcely worth mentioning.

In any case, Arx’s main beef was… well, I was still a little fuzzy on the details. Apparently, she, Mia, and I had been involved in some sort of tryst whilst in the dream fabric the previous evening, and she was upset that I had seduced Mia while wearing… a mask? But it was not a mask exactly…? I was still unclear whether it was the mask or the seducing part that was upsetting her most.

Mind-blowing as all of that was—and for a number of reasons—Arx had said whatever ‘disguise’ I had been wearing was a perversion of my true self, and that this Faen of mine had not only accepted it without question but gleefully embraced the aberration was a crime worthy of death. Or a sound whipping.

Jax had instantly volunteered to accept the punishment in the Faen’s stead, as long as I handed out the beating. Because it turned her on. Again, hardly worth mentioning.

As for Mia, she was on the verge of a screaming fit. Perversion or not, she had been within a hair’s breadth of finally getting laid, and to suddenly have the rug pulled out from under her? And by a lilim of all things?

Apparently, they were not known for such discernment as a species. Who could have guessed?

And while I was not all that surprised at having a dream in that vein—Mia was gorgeous in every sense of the word and from the hints she had been dropping… well—in any case, I was less than pleased to be having one of my random wet dreams rolled out and publicly scrutinized. Like most every other human on Earth, I had about as much control over that kind of thing as Mia did her swearing.

Which she had been. At length. Never mind how angry she was, with the number of questions being hurled about the room, she was going to be a mess for quite some time.

However, what had really set off the powder keg was when we found out that Mia had taken steps to make certain none of this ever happened again. As the arbiter of our skills and attributes, she had way more control over how our points were spent than she should have and, if there had ever been any checks and balances preventing her from fucking us over, they were certainly gone now that she was a Faen.

There was not a thing we could do about it, either. She had us by our collective balls. And yes, I know I was the only one with a pair. Never mind.

The important thing is that she had spent a few of our points against our wishes. For Arx, she had decided the Dolilim could do with a bit more Wisdom—pretty much a dump-stat for someone in the role of a scout… or a Siren, as the case may be. Maybe then, she had said, the girl would know better than to butt her horns in where they were not wanted.

Meanwhile, she had proclaimed that I would be getting a point in Intelligence every Layer from here on out until I gained the ability to remember and meaningfully interact with my own dreams. Or she got some. Whichever came first.

So…

That went over about as well as one might reasonably expect. And being the subject of the ensuing, I felt my wisest move was to crawl under the bed and dig my way to safety. However, lacking the necessary tools, I settled for the far less appealing option of holding very still and waiting for the lilim to return to sanity.

After all, how dare this Faen assume any right to me? As an unbound whatever-she-was, her position within the hierarchy had already been far more tenuous than their own. With this act, she had unequivocally proven herself an outsider. It was a complete betrayal of my trust.

Mia disagreed on all points. From her perspective, she was something like my own avatar, and as such, nothing she did could be a betrayal of any kind. It would be akin to me betraying myself. If anything, her position ranked even higher than First.

No one else found her argument particularly compelling. Least of all, Jax.

Or so I gathered. The whole of the room was awash in thrown furniture, shredded bits of stuffing, and the sounds of everyone yelling over one another. Stitching together some semblance of a reasonable argument out of all of it was an exercise in futility.

As a side note, I should mention that the lilim could hear Mia perfectly fine as long as she was in my head. The particulars were still unclear but, as one might surmise, other matters had taken precedence. To this, Lynnria appeared excluded, though given her situation… well, I will come back to her presently.

She was a little tied up at the moment.

On my end of things, I was… flustered. To put it mildly.

Coming from a largely monogamous culture, I had been unprepared for these sorts of arguments. All this talk of hierarchy and rights seemed like complete nonsense to me—to everyone else’s immense frustration. Where I came from, this sort of thing would usually end up being resolved by the police… probably by way of throwing me into the back of a squad car.

That said—and despite how intensely embarrassing it all was—I will admit there was a shameful sort of thrill to it. After all, how often can a man expect to have a bunch of gorgeous women fighting over who is first in line to hop on his junk?

So instead of trying to deal with any of that, I opted for the head-in-sand approach and began delving into figuring out exactly what Mia had done to me. Starting with the Stat Page she had flung into my face.

The Intelligence investment was doubly upsetting. Not only had she pulled the point I had wanted from Toughness—something that was becoming increasingly critical for my build considering the heavy Life Energy expenditures it required—she had put it in a stat which did not benefit from Ahnbe’s little gift. So I had alsomissed out on one of the points I could have gotten in Charisma for the Layer.

And that sucked! Far from being some narcissistic contrivance, Charisma was proving itself actually helpful. It was a central component in my ability to improvise magic.

Or so I had gathered. It was a working theory.

If that were not bad enough, I noticed two other items of rather extreme concern. One was the Layer Gain settings. Since Jax had been revived without my knowing, it had never occurred to me to change them, and because she was capped, that meant literally every point of Power that should have gone to her had been wasted. Fully a third of the Gems we had consumed during our mad dash through the labyrinth had just vanished into the ether.

And that included a Grand Rank III—a Gem fully powerful enough for me to gain nearly ten Layers had I consumed it on my own. Not that I could have survived the process without our ritual, but that is beside the point. I could have bought a house with that thing!

As it was, I had only gained the one Layer, though I knew from experience there was an enforced delay between them. I assumed that was what the ‘pending’ notice was about. It did not indicate how many Layers I had saved up, but I should have at least two more under my belt.

And for Arx… well, the math got a little funky there. She was still in the Foundation Layers, but what with the exponential differences in Gem quality between ranks, I figured she would have enough saved up now to put her all the way to the Boundary. After that, I could not say. If she got capped like Jax had…

Actually, now that I was thinking about it, I never had found out what Jax had discovered during her private meeting with the owner of the stadium but, with Raialie destroyed, the point was more than a little moot. Until we found some other town with a tournament she could participate in, Jax’s Boundary Trial would have to remain unresolved.

Regardless, there was a distinct possibility that a huge proportion of the Power that should have gone to Arx had also gone to waste.

None of which was Mia’s fault exactly. But when you’re already upset—which I was—trying to remain objective and fair can be challenging. However, the same could not be said for the big, fat zero skill points I was staring at. Because she had spent that, too.

On reading the card, my first reaction was to scrub a very tired hand over my face and sigh. I should have been absolutely livid. And I would have been save for one thing.

The skill was… good. Like really fucking good. With this one spell, Mia had nearly doubled my combat potential.

It was such an obvious pick, too! Creating temporary minions? I was a freaking Summoner! It made perfect sense, but I had never even thought to ask. I had just assumed I was limited to the slots I had. Who knew I could double up on them with different types?

Damn it. This is exactly the kind of thing I should have been able to do from the beginning! I had been even been thinking of the summoning school from the Elder Scrolls when I had been asked about what Class I wanted, but as usual, instead of waiting for me to clarify on the specifics, the powers that be had simply plucked a random image out of my head and run with it. Just because flame atronachs are kind of hot… heh.

Wait… Flame atronachs? Hot? Mercy’s ass, is that seriously the joke? Have I been missing it this entire time?

Visual puns aside, I felt like someone had just stolen my car and traded it in for a Kamov attack helicopter. It was cool as hell, but that was beside the point! It was the principle of the matter.

Not that I was unused to getting fucked over around here. It was practically a thematic constant by this point. There had been bugs in the system, poorly phrased and ill-considered skill requests…

Bline’s sense of humor…

Worse, I knew I did not have much ground to stand on. How many times had I wished the Lady of Power would just hand me a pre-generated list of skills to choose from? And that was even assuming I would be getting options in the first place. I was intimately familiar with a number of RPG systems where the player never had any choice in skills. You gained a wizard level? Cool. Now you can cast Firebolt. Have fun.

Now? With this?

I mean… I would never cast this spell on someone I actually liked, willing or otherwise. The whole forced Loyalty thing was problematic to say the least, but you could say that about practically every aspect of my Class.

Plus, the concept of destroying older minions in order to obtain stronger ones down the way was… worrisome. Especially once paired with the knowledge that these temporary minions could not gain in Power. I assumed that meant they would be stuck at whatever Layer I created them at. For an ordinary summoner, outgrowing your summons like that would not be such a problem, but I had a tendency to become romantically attached to my companions. The idea of replacing one of them just because I found something better was not something I relished.

Although, with the blurb about sapience, it seemed as though this had been intended for use on animals or monsters. That would limit its usefulness to a degree but, again with the Loyalty, I could at least depend on the creature to defend me. Which was nice. And I could probably train it to follow some basic commands.

But the reason I had been given this skill could not have been more obvious. The final paragraph summed that up nicely. ‘Named servants,’ it had said. Not lilim.

Which was intriguing. And not just for the obvious reasons. What might someone like Mia be capable of if given physical form? She was a fragment of a goddess. Surely, the world would not… allow that. Right? There had to be some kind of limitation.

“How… how did you even make a spell like this, Mia?” I asked finally, my quiet question putting a sudden end to the shouting. I had maintained my silence for quite some time by then. “It’s so complex. I can’t see how you could have fit it all into twenty-five Words.”

“Your mother’s shit-stained cunt, that’s how!” Mia’s disembodied voice yelled. “I’ll use a Barbed Mucus Fish to—to… I—I… Hnn~ f-fuck! I was only able to do it by… by—ripping a priest’s dick off and shoving it back up the bleeding hole!”

The lilim and I shared a considering look. As one, the pair took a deep breath, slowly folded their legs underneath them, and waited as a prickly silence descended over the room. Maybe it was how in tune with me they were becoming, or it could have simply been the natural reaction to another being’s distress, however when the threat of castration rape is on the table, we all agreed it was time to let cooler heads prevail.

“She weren’t telling fibs, then?” Jax asked me once Mia’s swearing fit had subsided. “She really be yer Faen. Made from the Lady and all?”

Stifling a sigh, I allowed my head to fall back and stared vacantly up along the bedpost I was leaning against. “Yeah, I think so. She looks just like her, anyway.”

Jax began to smooth her eyebrows while she digested this news. However, after a few seconds, her stony expression gave way. “Hrmph. I suppose that settles me some. A lord should have his servants… even if they’s slippery types. But I ain’t seen her looks. She’s a bonnie thing?”

“She is,” Arx affirmed from behind her.

Jax assumed something of a complicated expression, like she could not quite decide how to take this news. As the local queen bee, she would have preferred to remain the de facto fairest in the hive, but fate had not been kind to her in that regard. Not that I much cared. She was still plenty gorgeous for my taste, and I loved her completely.

But before Jax could land on one side of that fence or the other, Arx continued, “She doesn’t talk like the Lady, though. Either one.”

“She ain’t got her voice, none. That much I agree on,” Jax said thoughtfully, before turning back to me. “Why was ye asking about them numbers, though?”

“It’s my Manic Breadth stat,” I replied with a slight lift of a shoulder. “It limits how complex my spells can be.”

“Huh… That anything like er… what were it…? En… Engraver…”

“Engraving Intricacy Capacity,” Arx supplied quickly. “EIC for short. And I have no idea. I’ve never heard of Manic Breadth.”

“What? Yes, you have—painted bitch!” Mia cut in, still somewhat out of breath. “You’ve only asked us… me about it half a hundred times.”

“No, I’ve asked you about EIC half a hundred times. And you never once gave me a straight answer,” Arx replied indignantly. Then she tilted her nose into the air and put on a bit of a stiff voice. “‘That information is discoverable.’”

Sounds like another memory edit. And yet again, I could not see the point in it.

“Now that don’t sound nothing like the Lady,” Jax opined.

“That’s because you’ve been talking to a different Lady,” Mia informed us, offhand. “Specifically, the one ‘of the Dungeon.’ My youngest sibling. Formerly. Which should have been impossible, but with your natures, She must have discovered some loophole. And of course, She’s managed to make a total mess of it. EIC? What nonsense. As if Engravings could interact with Mania in any—well, never mind. Yet another thing for me to clean up around here. I’ve already been at it for hours… not that I have any idea what She’s done or really even how to begin. Especially after that dream of yours. Speaking of which, all of that would have been a lot easier had a certain someone not left me too weak to stand!”

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I had no idea—“

“Yes, yes. I know.” She sighed. “Now to answer your—“

“Hold yer wheesht! You can nay just tell a lass she’s been talking to the flaming Demon Queen fer weeks on and then skip away like a fairy.”

“I never skip.”

Jax’s face contorted into a mass of confusion. “That don’t have nothing to do with—what did ye mean about our natures?! What looping holes?”

“It’s loopholes—mangina knobbler!”

I snorted with laughter before I could stop myself. “Sorry,” I said again.

Mia let out a mournful sigh. “No, I am the one who should apologize. Your dream… Actually, it was such a wondrous thing… I honestly cannot recall the last time I was nearer a perfect state of bliss. And then after? Well, I fear I may have acted… a little rash. Though, I am relieved the Lord Master is able to find some humor in my foibles.”

“‘A little rash’ ain’t the least of it. And don’t ye be flirting with my master with that nonsense, poofer talk on yer lips!” Jax growled. “Yer a bad influence.”

“You’re one to talk,” Arx said under her breath.

Jax stiffened. “I ain’t never—!”

I clapped may hands together sharply. “Back to the topic, please. Look, Mia, I’m still feeling… well, I don’t know that I’m quite ready to forgive you just yet. But in the meantime, please explain what you meant by their ‘natures.’”

“Well… because they’re demons, of course,” Mia said simply. And a bit confused.

“Nay talk mince!” Jax shouted, jumping to her feet. “I be Dolilim, and never were nothing else.”

“That isn’t true, though,” Arx said. “Remember? Master told us. We were just lilim before.”

Jax looked down at her sharply. “Master, now is it? Accepted him finally?”

Arx shared a private smile with her. “Yes. I belong to him.”

“And figgered yer flavor, too? Good,” Jax said with a lopsided grin of her own. “I hope ye know why I kept that from ye. Ain’t the kind of thing a person can hear from sommun else.”

I cleared my throat.

“Right.”

Arx’s cheeks darkened, but she maintained eye contact with me, as though daring me to deny anything she had said. When I held my peace, she began to smile toothily.

“I was going to say,” she began again, turning her attention back to Jax, “I don’t think that other one has spoken to us since that one morning. Remember? When you got to the Boundary? You got up and started talking so unlike yourself. It was only after that we became Dolilim.”

“How interesting,” Mia murmured. “I have no memory of this. But we must have figured out some way of closing the loophole…”

“Demons?” I reminder her expectantly, pulling a startled moan from her lips.

“It… it isn’t a formal title, my lord. Any more than ‘Demon Queen’ is. But lilim are what—specifically Xhinn’s—Faen become when they take physical form. You’ve encountered several already… though, of course not as lilim. None of you knew that?”

There was a chorus of shaking heads.

“Well, I suppose that isn’t too surprising. Not many see one and live to tell about it, but it’s hardly forbidden knowledge. Still, you would think… No, I’m sure it has came up at least once in your hearing, Arx. Remember? You had decided to go to that lecture at the Athenaeum? The one about strategies for dealing with rare Dungeon fauna?”

Arx awkwardly coughed into her hand. “Uh… how drunk was I at the time?”

“Oh, that’s right.” She chuckled slightly in between random swears. “Very, now that you mention it. You ended up calling the man next to you a pompous limp-dick and challenging him to a duel. But once everyone crowded outside to watch, you vomited all over yourself and passed out.”

Arx groaned, then slowly dropped her head into her hands. “Okay… yeah. I think I remember someone telling me that story afterward. Flick and I were always at each other’s throats. ‘Snails, how do you know that?”

“That information is—chunder shart—is discoverable,” Mia replied serenely. For the most part.

“Hands preserve…” Arx breathed.

“Whatever! Yer still havering,” Jax persisted. “We ain’t Faen any more’n we’s demons. And I’d like to see some Goddess just try claiming I be Her servant.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about that,” I agreed. “From what Mia has already told me, Faen are some sort of autonomous personalities the Goddesses can split off from themselves. Both of you originated as your own people when you bonded with me. There’s a clear difference.”

Jax squinted at me, “So… what? Yer saying we ain’t what we be?”

“He is saying you are—a cum addict,” Mia began in my stead.

The chorus returned, this time with a general rumbling of agreement.

Mia grunted. “Unique, I mean. I think that may be why you were forced to differentiate. You are similar to lilim. Yet not. Dolilim.”

Jax sniffed. “Ain’t that just the neatest little bow. But ye still ain’t answered our Master’s first question, Faen. That spell ye just forced on him fer creatin’ lessers of us be close on to what made us in the first place, and I seen the look in Arx’s eyes at least when that one were cast. There was half a hundred Words to it, or I be a virgin.”

“A lot more than that,” Arx said, her eyes distant.

“Yet another thing I have no memory of. But if that is true, I—I uh…”Her voice trailed off.

“Mia,” I prompted after a long moment of silence.

“Hmm?”

“The spell?”

“Oh! Umm~” The constant stream of questions was slowly beginning to overwhelm the Faen again, and she had to take a few moments to steady herself. “R-right, of course. W-well, that is… I’m sure that will be made clear once you’ve thought on the Words.”

I frowned. Out of the eleven Words I knew, I could not think of many that would be of any use when creating a demonic subspecies… if indeed that was the proper classification of a ‘lesser Dolilim.’ However, once I pulled the whispering syllables of the spell out of the recesses of my mind, I realized what she meant.

Because there was one word which stuck out like a sore thumb. Because it was nota Word.

“Lynnria?” I whispered.

“Mmph!” she shouted. Through the gag Jax had stuffed into her mouth.

The sound drew a rueful grimace across my lips—and not just because she was currently bound from head to toe. Outwardly, she had not changed all that much since gaining her Layer. She was still the sporty, purple-haired young woman she always had been. Just… slightly more monstrous.

The claws so indicative of the Lilim race were out in full force, though unlike my other two, hers looked like they had been dipped in some sort of thin, purple dye. Their tips had just the faintest hint of color to them, becoming more vivid toward their points. Meanwhile, the fangs she had been threatening had finally come home to stay.

As for her eyes, there was no hint of the faint shimmer the other two sported, though I knew the look she had transfixed me with quite well. After all, it was the reason for her current predicament.

“Don’t you think we should untie her soon?” Arx suggested indifferently. “I don’t like being cruel to pets.”

“Not until we’s got this sorted,” Jax said with a stubborn tilt to her jaw… and a bit of an irritated growl. Like Arx, she had realized much of Lynnria’s developing situation at a glance, which had at least kept her claws from the girl’s throat. However, pleased she was not. “Just look at her. Ain’t took her eyes off Master once. If we set her loose now, she’ll just go after him again.”

Arx sighed. “Yes, I know what hunger tastes like, thank you. But couldn’t we at least give her a little—“

With a flash in her eyes, Jax’s hand shot forward to take a firm grip on Arx’s breast. The still-seated woman gasped softly before leaning into my First’s hold, exposing her neck.

“There ain’t no ‘little’ when it comes to handing out a nip of the Master,” Jax rumbled threateningly.

“How interesting. Not a hint of submission in that one’s personality… until things get physical, ”Mia whispered into my ear. I was not certain who she was referring to, at first. They were kind of both like that. But then she continued, “And yet the dominant one is the masochist? Mmm~ do you think they’ll start making out?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” I replied under my breath. “But back up. I need to be clear as to what you’re saying, Mia. Has Lynnria become some kind of… of subspecies… of a subspecies?”

“Yes!” she shouted joyfully. But then a few calming breaths later, she amended, “I mean… not exactly. The girl has become whatever she is, and I have based your spell on the result. As far as the magic is concerned, she is ‘a Lynnria.’ But for the sake of convention, I have dubbed her a lesser Dolilim. It seemed fitting.”

“Because she doesn’t have any horns?” Arx asked. “That seems premature. She could still grow them.”

“It’s possible—tit fucker—but the difference stems more from her lack of any sort of passive Life-absorption capability. From what I can tell, her diet is restricted in much the same way as Donum’s own.”

With a sigh, I ran my fingers over my scalp. Why did everything have to be so complicated? It seemed as though every question answered only opened up about a thousand more. Maybe that was why Bline hated them so much. She must have felt like a kindergarten teacher with the whole of the world constantly shouting why, why, why!

“She can only eat sex?” Jax asked. “Huh… didn’t ye tell me a story about some critter like that, Master? Sucky-busses or sommat.”

“Succubus,” I corrected her shortly, focusing on her rather prominent ram-like horns. “Yeah, that thought had occurred to me.”

She grunted. “Do that mean you’s one, too?”

“I don’t know. Maybe,” I admitted. “Although, since I’m male, that would make me an incubus. Not that it matters. There’s not much difference. Still, neither Lynnria or I can steal souls or whatever, so it doesn’t quite fit.”

“What are the two of you on about?” Mia asked, bewildered. “Nobody here ‘eats sex.’ Least of all, Donum.”

I frowned. “Then… what—?”

“You require purified Life Energy, of course,” Mia explained quickly. “Which is provided by your lilim. Their natural ability to convert emotions suffuses it into their every orifice. Thatis what you have been consuming.”

“You’re saying… he has to eat… us?” Arx asked. From her face, I was not sure which side of that particular innuendo she wanted to land on.

“He could, dick breath, yes. Any part of you. Even absorbing it through the skin is possible, particularly via fluids. However, it is not a very efficient way of feeding. The skills you already possess are far better suited for that.”

“So that’s it,” I murmured, shifting my attention back to Lynnria.

Now that I thought about it, her fangs did seem just a bit smaller. Less pronounced. So perhaps lesser Dolilim was apt. Still, the wild hunger in her eyes was as Dolilim as Dolilim got.

We were going to need to feed her somehow. And soon.

But first…

“The spell you crafted said something about my new minions being locked at their current Power level,” I began.

“Indeed. However, the confluence of events which led to the creation of this being did not begin with that spell. Now did it?” Mia explained in her typical sideways fashion.

I nodded with some relief. In other words, Lynnria was the basis for the spell. Not the other way around. There was no reason to expect her to follow the rules Mia had laid out for it. “Not exactly an answer to the question. But I’ll take it.”

“And?” Jax asked softly. “What happens when the Master makes her a full Dolilim? Will that break this spell of yorn?”

“Why should he bother making her a—pole smoker—full Dolilim at all?” Mia returned. “With the amount of influence he has over her, she will always value his—cock! Huge, veiny—uh… interests. Even over her own.”

I grimaced slightly on hearing that. I still did not much like knowing how much control I could exert over the destinies of the people around me. But there was also very little I could do about it. That ability would only grow stronger as I did. I just had to make certain to maintain a soft touch with them. Else, who knew what kind of damage I could cause?

Still, I could see the conflict between this new paradigm and Jax’s arbitrary rules of access.

“Jax, this spell is going to change things,” I said. “I’m not going to be able to promote every lesser Dolilim I create. And some of them will die. Permanently. I’d prefer that not be from hunger.”

Jax favored me with a patient little smile while caressing one of Arx’s ears. “Now, Master… don’t act the goon with me.”

Arx nodded along, her own hand creeping up the inside of Jax’s thigh. “You said it yourself. She might die. Neither of us want to feel your grief.”

“But your rules,” I persisted.

Jax snorted, then jerked her chin toward the tied up girl. “Ye think that girl be less than yer own creature? Plain as day, that. How’s it gonna look, me being yer First and leaving yer pets to starve?”

I quirked a disbelieving eyebrow. “Okay, then I’m confused. If you weren’t planning on keeping her away from me, then why bother tying her up?”

“Now ye are being daft!” Jax returned with a scowl. “I told ye already, that one be too hungry to pay attention to no rules nor regulars. She’s gotta wait her turn, don’t she? Y’ain’t even gave a proper hello to yer second, yet.”

I cast a quick glance down at the Dolilim in question… who was busily gliding her fangs over the soft flesh of Jax’s leg. And staring raptly at me all the while.

“Well, I mean…” I swallowed awkwardly. “I ate her out a little. Back in the labyrinth.”

Arx pouted. “Only once! And I even carried you most of the way through. I deserve way more of a reward than that.”

“A heavy burden, to be sure,” Jax murmured dreamily, beginning to shift her hips. “With his hands a roving about ye? And he himself pressed against yer back? Mmm~”

Oh, boy…

With most of the anger cleared out of the way, it was inevitable things would turn this direction. But I was still too invested in the conversation to allow my ever-ready second brain to take over. Yet.

“You never answered Jax, Mia,” I reminded her. “About the spell?”

“Donum, please,” she moaned. “All these questions are driving me out of my mind! Couldn’t we take a break? At least allow me a degree of vicarious satisfaction.”

Irritated, I ran a finger down the gap in my beard. The friction burn had healed there along with the rest of me, but that had done nothing to regrow the hair Lynnria had accidentally blasted away. Curiously, neither of my Dolilim had mentioned it yet—and to be fair, we had gotten a little side-tracked—but I doubted they would complain. They both considered me the ultimate paragon of the male sex, just as a matter of my Class, so a bit of an unfortunate facial-hair ‘choice’ would not have registered on their collective radars. But it certainly had on mine. I was going to need to shave just to even things out again.

But then I had thought. While we certainly had a lot of things we still needed to sort out, our biggest problem in the here and now was Mia’s mounting sexual frustration. And I did have one thing that could alleviate it.

“You know, Mia… I could always use a bit of spell practice. And I don’t seem to recall any flying poses in that gigantic list of sexual positions you were showing me the other day,” I said suggestively.

She gasped. “Naughty boy… fine! But you have to look at me while you do it. I want you to see what you do to me. Every day, do you hear? Do that, and I’ll never mess with your stats again! I swear it!”

“Master…?” Jax began, but I waved her off.

“The other spell Mia created. You’ll see. Now answer the question, Mia.”

“Hmm?” the Faen said a moment before her translucent form stumbled into view.

She already had the filthy remains of her dress pulled up and was struggling to get the thing untangled from her antlers. In her haste, I thought I heard a slight rip.

“Oh, that,” she said distractedly, smoothing her hair and settling into a demure pose. “Don’t take me for some amateur, my lord. I may have forgotten the standard forms, but I still have thousands of years of experience. The moment I created the spell, Lynnria was ensconced as a… well, I can’t say the rest. Knowing the unknown and all that. But rest assured, it will work perfectly as long as you or I have the Will to cast it. Now, let’s be about this! How long does a Faen have to stand naked in front of you before you do something about it?”

I could not restrain my smirk. Prior to my coming to this world, I would have scoffed at my current self. How long indeed? But when you have four women—or close enough not to matter—all lusting after you all the time, it can be easy to forget how rare an opportunity this truly should have been.

So I cracked my knuckles and began to loosen my shoulders.

“Let’s do some spell casting, shall we?”