Lilith's Fall: Eden's Rise Ch. 03

"Remember the dance. If you don't know how to do something, ask the aether to show you the way."

My nostrils flared under my rapid breathing. Desperate, I was willing to grab onto any sort of lifeline. Therefore, instead of fighting or arguing, I did as she suggested. I threw a plea out into the shifting ocean of aether.

Please help me fight this arousal!

My metaphorical eyes darted around, looking for any sort of answer or divine suggestion. The area between my legs throbbed wantonly and my thighs rubbed together ineffectively. Nothing came to me, other than despair from failing Helal. And her face.

I frowned.

An image of her strong jaw, striking eyes, and sunset colored hair dominated my mental landscape.

Now's not the time...

A whirlpool of aether danced around me and the angle of her jaw shifted, the colors swirling. The lines faded in some sections while thickening in others. Her hair turned into a swirling line and her eyes converged into small dots connected by an arch. My breasts ached, begging for touch and the lines pulsed in time with the arousal.

It's a... Rune?

Realization dawned. My hand formed into a claw and I spun, my forehead pressed against the hard plant matter of the wall. Jamming my fingers forward, they sunk into the wall and the vines began to writhe, pieces merging and growing as they began to form the rune I saw in my mind, the one that formed of my lovers face and felt like pure lust. I was so engrossed by what I was doing that I missed it when Tartarus slipped in behind me. She followed after my hand as it clawed its way through the wall, correcting my mistakes and making everything harmonious. Sweat dripped from my brow after only a minute as I pulled my aching fingers free. Setting my palm on one side of the unconventional canvas, Tartarus mirrored mine as she helped me pour the aether into the channels we'd formed. Like staring into a flashlight when it was turned on, the blast of arousal that crashed over us both was intense as it poured from the now empowered rune. I fell to the floor, taking Tartarus with me. Saved from the full force of the projected sexual warfare, I panted as I reached up and pried my new work of art from the wall.

"Helal, down!" I cried as I swung it around to point it down the hallway.

Helal responded instantly, a blackened eye blooming and one of her arms trailing limply after her as she dropped into a controlled crouch. Her shield shrunk into an angled plane that created a ramp along the floor. Samson's heel rose, preparing to stomp my lover into a gooey paste like she was a distasteful bug. The concentrated blast of sexual energy struck him in the chest like a hammer blow. Unbalanced, he was forced to take a few steps back while he shook his head in confusion. As he recovered the wave created by the rune struck first Delilah, and then those behind her. Her grip on her ability slipped, the shielding around her falling. The combined sexual frenzy fell upon them like starving rats, stealing pieces of their sanity. They fell upon each other without regard to modesty or orientation. Proximity seemed to be the only thing that mattered. I was so focused on Delilah, whose delicate hand dipped between her dew-slicked thighs and began to roughly roll her clitorus, that I was taken by surprise when an enraged Samson plowed through her. His charge shoved the Crusaders up against the wall as he carved his way free, his powerful frame disappearing out the entrance. This disturbance was hardly a road bump and didn't stop the women and men from stripping free from their armor and let their sexes slip into one another.

It was in the stillness that followed Samson's passage that I caught my first sight of God. He wasn't what I thought he would be. He wasn't some noble lord riding on a palanquin of gold. Nor was he a commander general leading his troops into battle on a giant steed. I'd thought maybe he'd wear the penitent face of an elderly man and forgo earthly desires, dressing in simple homespun robes. None of that was correct however. He looked to be any other common man of middling years. His dark hair was brushed back and sported the initial threads of silver. That same silver also poked through the edges of his beard. He held a stern expression, his forehead wrinkled like it was something often present on his face. Well built with just a hint of a belly, he seemed like he took care of his body. Clothed in light chainmail and leather, he moved with the easy grace of a warrior that's seen battle. A sword with a simple golden hilt and engraved leather scabbard was strapped to his belt. There was nothing that marked him the leader of a proud nomadic society.

And yet...

A presence surrounded him, following every action like an afterimage, lending weight to even the most casual gesture. I could see why people followed him.

It's like he has all the answers. Helal has a bit of that, whether she'd like to admit it or not. But, with him, it's painfully obvious. A shout to her whisper.

I turned to look at my partner, to see her reaction at the visual confirmation of her father's presence.

The world seemed to slow as I watched Helal make a decision. God's eyes widened in panic when Helal reached behind her back, emerging with a crown of thorns. Her entire being bent toward her father, she pressed the wicked headgear over her dirt-stained sunset-colored hair until the sharp spines split her skin and tasted her blood. Thin rivulets of the red liquid traced parallel lines along her face down to her clenched jaw. The aether surrounding her weapons magnified. What was once a gentle bonfire became a roaring inferno, capable of consuming entire continents with it's cleansing flame. But, the texture of her aether was tainted with something, poisoning her even as it provided her the power necessary to achieve her goals. The artifact sat on her like a malignant cancer, weaving its way inexorably toward her center.

She's sacrificing herself to stop her father.

My crafted rune slipped from my fingers to point at the ground.

"no. no. No. No. NO. NO!" My denials started small but quickly grew in volume and intensity. Despite my protests, I understood what she was doing, even if I personally didn't agree with it. Helal was willing to sacrifice her happiness to bring justice. She had made her choice.

And it doesn't include me.

Unfortunately for her, she wasn't the only one facing a choice and a crossroads.

I won't let you do this. Not this time. I will not let you die.

Reaching deep inside, I threw my head back and howled with every fiber of my being.

"AaahhhHHH!"

On and on, my scream echoed through the universe, continuing far beyond what my lungs should be capable of sustaining.

Helal would not be the only one to break a promise today. My soul cracked as the firmament began to stir, responding to my desires. Willpower and stubbornness kept me going even while my body began to buckle, blood leaking from the corner of my lips and eyes. Borrowing Helal's metaphor, I couldn't abide the tapestry I was witnessing so I tore it to shreds. I kept going, no matter how much I hurt myself in the process. I had two goals that I tried to force onto a reality that did not appreciate being changed in this manner.

One: Keep Helal safe from that loathsome artifact.

Two: Stop the fighting. Prevent this kind of thing from ever happening again. Which involved stopping God and his loathsome machinations.

Part of me wanted to crush him, to end his life for the personal suffering he'd brought me. But...

I couldn't do it.

I didn't have it in me to dispense judgement in manner. I focused on the easier of the two tasks, eyes blazing like stars as I reached for him with an enormous hand woven from the backbone of the universe.

He swatted at my fingers with desperate swipes of his sword. His feeble attempts did less than nothing as I took him in my fist and squeezed him into exile. Reality folded around him as he popped out of existence. My scream continued on, my internal organs pulping inside me as I fell to my knees.

I probably would have failed at that moment were it not for Alora, my loving daughter, who curled her scaled tail around my thighs and butt, her tendrils slipped inside my body to bolster the crucial pieces of me that were failing. Tartarus joined me, her vocals weaving harmoniously through mine to turn my scream into a performance, the raw noise into a song. The cracking in my soul slowed, but every second this continued brought me closer to my demise. The Crusaders that'd started to gather themselves after the arousal bomb and Samson's charge clutched at their ears as they writhed.

Helal was the only one unaffected. Initially she couldn't figure out what happened, first with the scream and then with God vanishing the way he did. Then my ghostly finger delicately unwove the binding that entangled the artifact's energy with her own. The crown floated off her head, tines dripping blood. It moved over to where I knelt on the ground, head thrown back.

A sense of relief flowed through me.

That relief was exceedingly short lived.

I can't stop.

I tried to cut off the flow but the tumultuous energy was out of control and it held me in its grasp, buffeting me until I was nearly senseless. My scream rose in pitch, toward the upper end of the human-audible register. Internally I sobbed at the terrible pain that ripped through me.

Please... Just let it end...

The tears that leaked from my eyes were a brilliant neon blue, shining with their own luminescence. Chi huddled around me, following Alora's lead, her wings soft as they settled across my arms and back. Tartarus was next, folding her legs beneath me as she drew my limp arm into her lap. Alora kissed my forehead as her tendrils multiplied around her, twisting and curling until they cocooned the lot of us, buffering us from the energies I'd unleashed.

Helal's spear and shield vanished in a flash of heat when they slipped from her nerveless hands. Heels skidding on the ashy floor of the tunnel, it took her a moment to find purchase in her attempt to get to me. I blinked at her, my mouth still wide to issue this hateful, unending scream. Despair shadowed those entrancing eyes I loved so much. Her hand extended, desperately reaching out as the crumbling architecture of the firmament reached a crescendo.

I couldn't hear her over the sound I couldn't stop producing but I could read her lips.

'El! I love-'

The world was swallowed by a roar of light and blessed silence.

"Madam? Madam? Are you okay?"

My eyes darted around, taking in the rough stone architecture. A soft-winged woman and a mermaid were cuddled up next to me.

"I think so," I said haltingly. My voice came out raspy and barely audible and it felt like I'd swallowed a bag of fiberglass.

"What happened here?"

"I- I don't know." The brain felt like it'd been wrung through a spaghetti maker.

An old and rusty one.

The man who was talking to me offered me a hand and I took it.

Why is his skin... green?

"I've never seen anyone like you before. Where are you from?"

Why is it so hard to think?

"I don't know." I looked back at the still unconscious women in the epicenter of a crater.

Who are they?

"That's okay. Let's get you cleaned up first," the stranger said in an even, calming voice.

Who am I?

End of Book 2