The Creators Ch. 16

Chapter Sixteen: Reunion

Prelude: Coming Ashore

DIAMOND

The ocean washed over the desert. Like a biblical tide, it swelled ever forward, consuming sand and rock in a gentle tsunami. I rode it upon a ship made of water. The masts, the deck, the sails, the cannons, and the portholes were all shaped in aqueous detail, trapping the liquid in a prism-shaped by my mind. Even the great wheel was made of water, and I steered the rudder with a hearty pirate laugh, and a "yo-ho-ho!" I sailed my watercraft for miles and drew the ocean ever inland until I reached a chain of mountains. From my memory of what Passion had taught me, these were the Ogre Peaks, a northern uplift that crested the Gratoran Desert's Jenok Peninsula. Great civilizations lived within the vast caves that networked the rock, creating caverns so large they could house cities within them. I stopped my ship and wondered if I wanted to visit the place. I wondered if I wanted to stay there for a while. I loved my mom, truly I did, but the closer I got to her, the less I wanted to see her. I was coming to the realization that I would be perfectly happy to never see her again. I smiled. Nothing was stopping me from doing just that. Nothing but...

I felt a tug on my mind.

"Not now!" I growled.

The tug persisted.

"Hey!" I yelled. "I said no!"

The tug stopped. There was a pause, then I felt something else. I became awash in an overwhelming desire to abandon my side-quest into the Ogre Peaks, and head straight for Droktinar without stopping.

"You don't get to tell me what I want to do!" I hollered. "I do what I want!" I set sail for the Ogre Peaks, and shouted a defiant, "yo-ho-ho!"

To her credit, it took Corruption a long time before she crossed the forbidden line, and forced my desires southward toward Droktinar. Toward Mom.

Part One: Exodus

TERA

"Fuck me, you fucking ape!" I snarled as I rode the orc, rolling my ravenous feminine muscles up his delicious length, taking gout after gout of his thick hot milk deep within my starving womb.

"Master, please!" he croaked. Though his voice was sharp with terror, it was also rich with pleasure. He'd come to me in the morning as a hulking alpha male of four-hundred pounds. Now he was an emaciated husk of skin and bone, everything that was once hard and bulging now rendered to soft atrophied blubber—everything, except one thing. He was pallid, and his flesh was yellowing. His organs were failing him, but I only needed one to work. I'd forgotten how thrilling it was to suck a man dry.

"Fuck me deep," I hissed, slithering my tongue across his face, "fuck my tight little pussy. It's so wet just for you. Drown in it. Die in it."

"Please!" he blubbered. "I have children!"

I grinned. "Any males?"

He sealed his lips, and I giggled, and corkscrewed my pointed tail further into his ass, pressing the tip to his abused prostate and coercing it to give me more. He thrust and heaved, smashed his fat cock into me as though trying to split me in two, but my thighs were strong, and his soul was weak. In the end, he died with a smile on his face.

I tidied myself in the mirror and basked in my vanity for a moment. I had never been so well-nourished in all my years. My hair had never been so luxuriantly black, my flesh had never been so supple and rich, and my curves had never been so bodacious. Even when I was Death Kiss, I hadn't fed so gluttonously. I did up my wavy black hair before my black and purple eyes, then stepped out of my wagon, and into the desert summer heat.

I couldn't see the end of the caravan. The exodus was so enormous that the wagons and carts stretched to the horizon in every direction. Julia had spent a month gathering all the tribes of the Gratoran Desert. They came by the thousands, flocking like the sheep they were, simply adding mass to the momentum that barreled relentlessly eastward.

"Good morning, Aiko!" I called merrily to the Breytan at the head of our column.

"And to you, Director," Aiko smiled politely back, not at all able to hide her contempt. She wore a white robe as a mark of purity, which put her a cut above the Breytans who wore red robes, denoting the loss of their virgin blood or whatever stupid shit Julia had thought up. If I was being honest, the only good idea she ever had was to make me the director of sin. It was a dream come true. I orchestrated sadomasochistic orgies, forced good-looking families into incestual debauchery, changed people's sexuality on a whim, and summarily executed weak men with my cunt. I was feared and revered, desired and hated, infamous and celebrated all at once. I sauntered from the steps of my extravagant wagon, walked past the line of muscle-bound slaves who pulled it for me and strolled up to Aiko.

"How's your mom?" I asked her sardonically.

"She is recovering," Aiko answered smartly.

I put my fingers against my nostrils and inhaled deeply. "I can still smell her," I looked up at Aiko, and sniffed down to my elbow, "I can smell her all the way here. She's such a deep woman, your mother. I touched her where you used to live."

Aiko turned red all over and bit her lip. The crescent-shaped scar between her brows turned vividly white with her rage, coaxing me to mock her more.

"My favorite part about ravaging her," I pontificated, "was that moment she finally gave in to me. Her eyes rolled into her head, and she moaned things that no noble samurai woman ever should. She said—well, you were there; I don't need to tell you the whole story."

Aiko shook with fury for a moment, then calmed herself with a deep breath, and smiled politely to me. "Someday, Director Autumnsong, you will overstep yourself, and Sister Julia will make certain your screams are heard in the depths of hell. I will be very glad to bear witness to that."

"Careful, Aiko; there's a very good chance you'll already be waiting for me down there, and you'll have a very rude awakening when you see me crawl into Satan's lap, and give him a kiss." I grabbed her ass and squeezed until she gasped. "You think you're untouchable? What if I have a few of my boys hold you down and pop that precious little cherry of yours, hmm? Do you think Julia will punish me, or you?"

"You would need a hundred men to take me!" she snarled, her hand twitching toward her katana.

I chuckled. "But I'd only need one of me. Go ahead and test me. You're no Jade Tao." I slid my hand through her crack, pushing the fabric deep between her supple cheeks until I could feel her little anus pulsing against my fingertips. Tears poured from her eyes, but she did nothing. "That's right, little girl," I grinned against her cheek, "I can do what I want with you here. No rules about this dirty little hole, are there?"

"Please, Director," she hissed.

"Oh, now it's please?" I giggled, and slid my fingers back and forth across her puckered little butthole, feeling it pulse beneath her cloak. "Yes, you'll be saying 'please' quite a lot when I'm through with you. Just like your mother did."

Aiko closed her eyes, and fat tears rained down her face. "Forgive me, Director."

I circled her rim, pressing into the elastic center until I almost breached it through her cloth, and I sniffed deeply upon the musk of her unbidden arousal. "Pay me proper homage, you pathetic worm," I whispered.

The caravans passed us, the joyful hymns were sung from a myriad of orcish lips, the bullwhips cracked, and the women screamed and moaned. The tortured sinners shrieked along the side of the road, the thousands of black banners billowed in the desert wind, and the millions of orcs with the crescent symbol burned into their brows marched to the east. These biblical scenes played out before me as Aiko got to her knees, and began licking my cunt. Though I appreciated the dichotomy of fear and hate that played across her eyes as she clumsily did her best, I didn't forgive her. I'd forgotten what forgiveness was.

JULIA

It had been three weeks since I'd found Yuntok and his tribe, and two weeks since I'd found the last remaining highway of the orc empire, the Gratoran Road. I had walked all the way to the sea, where the melted ruins of Hektinar lay in great heaps of steel, and then I had turned south and begun my journey toward Droktinar. Many would die along the way—many had perished already—but those who fell would be carried into heaven, and those who stayed were blessed to do God's work. Those sinners who could not be absolved were nailed to the cross and ignited with my fire. Their shrieks of agony alerted me of their purification and confirmed that they would be jettisoned to paradise upon their passing. The Holy Mother was infinitely merciful.

Though I walked upon the sand that steamed when water splashed it, my feet did not burn. I melted the earth beneath my soles, knowing that for millennia to come, millions upon millions would make the pilgrimage their ancestors once did, and they would seek to walk in my footsteps. And I did walk. Though many offered me a cart, and many even offered to carry me, I walked. Only when night blanketed this holy desert, did I dare rest. Only then did I dare look upon my imperfections, and succumb to the piece of the devil that lay within me. I had come to terms with the idea that I had unholiness in me. Sister Tera made sure I admitted it.

"Do you remember our first night together?" the holy succubus sighed as she strolled beside me, hooking her arm into mine, resting her head upon my shoulder, "You were so very frustrated. It was adorable. You just couldn't figure out a way to fuck me in a reasonable manner until I finally had to just... rape you." She giggled. "Then it became quite clear how you liked it. Tell me, do you fantasize about the night while you're trudging through the day?"

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Sister Tera?" I muttered.

"I have some fresh-baked wisdom from the Holy Mother just for you."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Perhaps you have wisdom, but I will be the judge if it is holy or not."

Sister Tera slinked before me, walking backward as I plodded ever forwards. "Your red-robed priestesses need more training."

"You have already extensively trained them!" I growled. "And the impure priestesses are now more lecherous than they have ever been! I had to burn fifteen of them because they could not resist sinful copulation after swearing their celibacy to God!"

"Their souls could not overcome the devil's touch. Do you really want priestesses who cannot bar the sanctity of their own womb?"

"No," I sighed. "You are right, of course, and you are wise, but I'm running out of Breytans. I have barely two-hundred left, and the flock they must shepherd is in the millions."

"Just because they have wings, doesn't make them angels. The Holy Mother gifted you with a clear focus of her path, but she gifted me with the vision to see the darkness in us all. Darkness must be brought to light, even if it is ugly."

"Wise words indeed," I said, and turned toward Jade. Though she was most certainly impure, she did not wear a red robe, but a black one. "High Guard Tao," I prompted, "what do you think? Can your soldiers endure more of Sister Tera's tests?"

"If they cannot, then they deserve to burn," Jade said simply, then looked directly at Sister Tera. "I trust that you'll make certain they are tested to the satisfaction of the Holy Mother. Any failings thereafter will be a blemish on your reputation, Sister Tera, not mine."

"Of course," Sister Tera smiled, unable to hide her uneasiness. She seemed to think everyone around her was nothing but a joke (including me), but not Jade. Not after the night of Jade's sacrament. I had written scriptures of flame across the High Guard's beautiful body, covering her from ankle to neck in passages of the Holy Mother. Though she screamed deep into the night, she endured it bravely, even asking me to continue my authorship until every last bit of her canvas was inked. However, I didn't think it was the burns I'd inflicted that so disturbed Sister Tera; it was the burns Jade had inflicted upon herself. For when I was done with my penmanship, Jade handed me an iron rod and asked me to heat it. Then, before the eyes of her brethren, the orcs of Gratora, and Sister Tera Autumnsong, Jade removed temptation from within. After that, Sister Tera could hardly stand to look at her.

Jade stared impassively at Sister Tera until she averted her gaze, and smiled charmingly at me.

"I best get to work then," she said and winked. "See you tonight."

I smiled back at her as she left, then scolded myself for doing it. She was right; I did think about her often as I plodded through the desert with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company. Too often. Her temptation had become so pervasive in my mind that it nearly eclipsed my meditations upon the Holy Mother.

"I am a weak woman," I muttered.

"You are the strongest woman I know," Jade assured me.

I smiled up at her. "You do yourself a disservice, High Guard. No one—not even me—has shown their devotion to God as you have."

Jade did not return my smile. She never smiled anymore. "It as you say, Sister Julia: there can only be healing through pain. Enduring pain does not make one strong. It was my weakness that necessitated my pain."

"Indeed," I said, and looked to the sky, where way up in the glaring pale sun, a falcon circled ominously overhead. I wondered what sign the Holy Mother was giving me. Be ever watchful? Or beware of the opportunistic predator? Sister Tera was certainly that; and the more time I spent with her, the more I felt like her meal.

ANGELA

I circled overhead as a peregrine falcon, flying so high that to those below I would be but a spec. Still, it didn't feel like high enough. My ocular vision could make out the shape of Julia and Jade in front of a massive dust cloud. When the wind blew just right, the dust cloud would thin to reveal a mass of people so vast that its ends couldn't be seen from even this high up. It had taken Julia Gendian three weeks to marshal the greatest force since the fall of the orc empire, and it had taken Justina and I just as much time to recruit exactly one Ionan to our cause. I adjusted my wings and flew toward the distant mountains.

When I got to Iona, it was the late afternoon, and the office of Justina Autumnsong was woefully empty. Only the eminent ambassador herself sat at her desk, passively tossing darts at a board as she compulsively masturbated without any sense of zeal. There was a row of very large and ornate dildos littered across her desk, and I perched myself upon one with two heads separated about an inch from each other.

"Holy hell, did you bring all of these back from Drastin?" I exclaimed. "I knew you had a collection, but damn!"

"These aren't mine," Justina said, examining one with passing interest. "I found this treasure trove beneath Helga Sunscraper's bed."

"What?!"

"They only get to lie with a man once in their lives; is it any wonder they build up a collection?" Justina put the dildo down and pulled out the one that was inside of her. "Helga told me Nona has a whole room full."

"No way."

Justina shrugged. "Conservative prudes are always the worst deviants."

"Says the open-minded liberal who wouldn't leave the bathroom for three days straight after she grew a penis."

Justina smiled thinly. "I was just testing to see if I could become a self-feeding biological system."

"We had to stage an intervention."

"Wow, who would've thought giving a succubus a penis would be a bad idea?" she snorted derisively. "Anyway, I won't be making that mistake again. Now, what news from Gratora?"

"Looks like they're a day away from Droktinar."

"Droktinar is only four days away from Droktin's Pass."

"They'll stop for a while in the city."

"Droktinar was built to house a million people. Julia's followers eclipse that by an order of magnitude. They cannot stay for long. Any news of Diamond?"

"I didn't see her down there. I don't think the god of water has much use for a desert."

"A desert is the perfect place for a god of water if you think about it. She'll show up soon."

"Have you put any thought into what we talked about earlier?"

Justina picked up her notes and scanned through them. "The only logical explanation is that Diamond was always a Creator. She is spawned from Passion, who was the sister of a Life Giver, which means her lineage is right. She came out of Passion's womb as a late adolescent, which means she was likely in gestation for eighteen or so years. Perhaps she was conceived on the same day your brother and the others were. Like the other Creators, Diamond couldn't express her powers until she came under extreme stress or pleasure. As to why she doesn't carry her mother's patterns, perhaps only one Creator in a bonded pair can become the Bound One. It is obvious by the color of Julia's markings that Corruption's purpose in binding two gods was to hijack their connection. She must've gained some astral power from it."

I scowled as best as a falcon could. "It doesn't really help us to know any of this."

"We don't know anything, and you're right, it doesn't help us at all." Justina turned her notes over and ran her hand through her hair. "Did you see any openings?"

I shook my head. "Your mom never stays too far from Julia. No one will ever get close enough fast enough. Plus, Jade stays on Julia's shoulder like a fucking parrot, and even if she can't kill any of us, she can still delay us long enough. Assassination won't work. How's the recruitment going?"

"Helga is our only volunteer to face Nona, and she's not exactly up to the task. The Ionan scouts are bringing back news of Julia's movement. As you can imagine, it's inspiring quite a bit of awe in the ranks of the Guard. Meanwhile, your brother insists upon staying absent for the sake of neutrality, whatever the good fuck that means. We need him here, Angela. We can't play by imaginary rules anymore."

"Brandon could make Helga invincible."

"You don't think the Ionans would notice that one of their lowest ranking warriors suddenly became the best swordswoman in the clan?" Justina raised an eyebrow. "If the point of Brandon's absence was to remove the idea of outside influence, then I hardly see how that'll work. My point is that we don't need to remove that perception! Have Brandon come in here and shoot a flock of seagulls out of his ass or something! Right now his absence is working against him!"

"You know there's another reason he doesn't want to come here," I said, giving Justina a furtive look.

"Bianca," Justina sighed.

"The woman gave Brandon her daughter's virginity. He impregnated the whole Ofanian Guard. They're practically his family now." I ruffled my feathers. "Brandon is... well, he's really loyal."

"To his dick," Justina grumbled and selected a new toy to play with.

BRANDON

I sat in a chair made of lilac flowers and watched a six-legged bear with the lower body of a mantis fight a snake with the underbelly of a centipede. The two horrific amalgamations of animals warped and transformed as the battle intensified. The bear-mantis became a dragon-tiger-wasp, and the centipede-snake became a spider-crab-jaguar. They collided in a ghastly display of fangs, teeth, mandible, and claws, then retreated once more. The dragon-tiger-wasp became simply a giant wasp with an exaggerated stinger, and the spider-crab-jaguar committed wholly to its arachnid body. The massive arthropods engaged in combat of flailing limbs and stinging underbellies. The spider managed to get its belly lower, and it shot upward and upside down to drive its point into the wasp's abdomen. The stinger bounced harmlessly off the insect carapace, and the wasp used the moment to take advantage. Clamping its horrific mandibles around the spider's head, it slowly began to squeeze. The spider trashed in agony, whipping this way and that, but the wasp wouldn't be thrown. It wrapped its legs around the struggling arachnid and turned it over onto its back. The spider thrashed for a few more useless seconds, then raised its forelegs in surrender.