Vortex Quest Bk. 01 Ch. 01

"Bro," Xane shouted, lightning crackling in his hand. "They're getting huge. Plan?"

The umbralist stepped from the mist with a grin and looked at the dozen suits of armor, eight foot tall, now supplemented by new phantoms of regular size streaming from the portal.

"They may not have eyes," Chay said, recalling the ones who had searched his fog for him, "but they still need to sense us. And they're too tall for their own good."

A wave of his fan sent a cloud into the titan still struggling with his 'handcuffs'. The creature was blinded.

"Goro, Marcus, hit that one. Xane, load up a chaos blast."

Chay's fan gripped his fog like a storm and spread it above the demigods, covering the heads of the overgrown, armored mannequins. The phantoms bent and twisted to escape the fog, but Chay fanned his barrier in their way.

With their enemies blind, the demigods made headway. The mania-warrior's immense power and the animus-fighter's elegant, fiery pushes, drove the titans toward the portal, crowding the newly emerged, smaller phantoms.

Xane finally had the ten second downtime to create his all-deleting chaos orbs -- the only thing able to permanently fell the beings big enough to kick an elephant in the head.

Chay was the only one standing still, directing men and mist.

With a crescendo of the angelic choirs, the ghostly attackers were driven back until their resolve crumbled and the last remaining titans crammed into the portal.

The swirling gateway closed under thunderous applause.

"Everyone okay?" Chay asked. He took deep breaths.

"That's was fucking awesome," the naked Marcus said, cut dick semi-hard. "We totally *are* gods." He tossed the chakram from hand to hand.

"Fuck yes," Xane said, pulled up his boxers and hit a quick, sloppy posing routine.

Goro's bandana was holding up his hair again, leaving him otherwise nude, the uncut cock hanging large and low. "Took me a second to get out of the madness state. But yeah, I'm fine."

The Japanese muscleman's tattoo had retreated to just a few slim, chaotic but symmetrical lines on the front of his neck.

The Korean bodybuilder-mage created a new mote with a minute's concentration. An icy white butterfly appeared on his shoulder from a sparkle of power.

Chay looked up at the eternally gorgeous sky. "What now, Voice?"

[You may be able to survive the abyss and fight the threat to humanity. To enter the abyss, you must cross 'the exoteric reaches' -- the limbo between dimensions, where realms merge. Many a monster lives there, in the fragments of worlds betwixt.]

"You can't send us to the abyss directly?" Chay asked.

Where the guardian's portal had been, a new gate opened, deeper and swirlier, darkness and starlight mixing.

[Enter the portal to the exoteric reach between celestion and the abyss. Hold out for as long as it takes us to establish a hidden path to the abyss.]

Four men looked at each other. Chay could tell they were nervous to say the least -- but eager, too. They just needed someone to take charge.

"Here goes nothing," the Thai hunk said and took the leap of faith into limbo.

The others followed in no time.

===***===

A tumble through a kaleidoscope were gravity shifted violently, the group drifted along a path of heavenly light.

They crashed into each other in the space-time rainbow cacophony. Goro grabbed Xane and Marcus by the hips and held them so neither men would touch the other's dick.

Chay held onto Goro's massive traps from behind, careful not to touch the perfectly sculpted glutes.

They popped out above a beach, dropping at lethal speed.

Foaming white water formed a lake a few miles across. The ring of volcanic black sand beach around it was disrupted by girthy limestone pillars topped with palm trees.

The lake was set on an island in a starry void. Beyond the edge of the beach and all above was a black sky, where gleaming galaxy fragments in every color of the spectrum drifted, making the area bright as day.

Goro zoomed on down and crashed into the dark sand with little slow-down. The other three demigods reduced their fall speed. Xane did a superhero landing, one knee and one fist on the ground, Marcus landed elegantly on one foot, arms spread.

Chay touched down last, already scanning the beach for danger. The lake kept sloshing without an obvious reason to move.

"Demonic as fuck," Xane said and let volcanic sand run through his mage-hand. "But cool as shit."

"It's gorgeous," Marcus said. "You think once we're done we can have this vacation spot as the reward?"

"It's missing the Pina Coladas," Chay said.

Marcus nodded. "And the hot chicks."

"Yeah," Xane said. "A tropical beach needs beach babes, worshiping my muscles." He flexed his biceps and his white butterfly landed on the right peak.

"Don't talk about girls now," Chay said. "I'm more riled up than I've been in years. I fought for my life. I'd fuck *any* chick in this state."

Goro smirked. "I could go for a pussy or two."

"Yeah? I could go for three," Xane said.

Chay grinned. "Weak. From experience, I can do *four* chicks in one day."

"Pussy *and* ass," Xane added. "Legendary stamina."

Marcus straightened his posture. "Oh yeah? Well, I could fuck five. Pussy, ass and throat, each of them. And I'd still swim laps in the ocean."

The ground shook.

A 30 foot scorpion emerged from the sand, chitin shimmering in the multicolored starlight all around. As the monster-bug unburied itself, sand filled the hole it left and the men hop-floated back to avoid being drawn into the shift.

Behind them in the foam lake, something large burst through the surface. A blue hydra reared its five serpent heads, hissing as froth streamed down its scales.

"Fuck," Chay said and tuned his umbra-senses to the enemies. He began pouring gray fog from his body. "Uh... okay. The hydra has no armor. It *will* try to drown you if it manages to bite you. So it will try to bite you, mainly."

"Any weaknesses on *that* thing, boss?" Xane asked, eyes on the scorpion which aimed its tail over itself right at the group.

"Uh... Don't get stung. I think legs and belly are the best target."

"Gotcha," Goro said and slammed his fists together. "Which one do I take?"

Chay felt their eyes on him. Both creatures started moving in. "I have to figure out the scorpion better. Goro, stick with me. Xane and Marcus are good at range. Don't get drowned."

Goro rushed at the scorpion, roaring. He took flight in a burst of black sand and dashed past a claw aimed at him. The nude berserker landed underneath the scorpion and pushed himself off the beach to slam into the creature's stomach.

Chay fanned fog into the scorpion's face but it didn't disorient the beast. The creature didn't rely on sight much. Different tactic then.

He let the dense smoke fade and made a misty white cloud pour from his body, growing it until an area of 20 feet had a coat thick enough for others to hide in.

Staying under the creature, Goro had an easy time evading the stinger but the claws were agile enough to threaten him.

Chay mentally commanded the claws to cramp up each time it got too dangerous but they remained sharp enough to injure the berserker with a swing and Umbralism wasn't strong enough to divert a limb that large.

Marcus swam across the foamy sea, his chakram zooming around the left-most hydra neck and slowly slicing it through. Xane had stayed on the beach and summoned an orb of lightning every five seconds, which he lobbed at the serpent. The crackling projectiles were missing as often as they hit.

Goro flung himself at a scorpion leg and tore. Muscles popping impossibly, veins pulsing underneath, the mania-warrior had eyes of pure black again, his mark of madness spread across his back.

Chay found it strange that the scorpion wasn't committing to tail-strikes, holding back as if careful not to hit the ground too hard. A weakness.

"The tip!" Chay shouted from his invisibility mist. "The tail tip is breakable. But don't touch it!"

Goro dashed away, toward a rock pillar. A claw swipe hit him from behind and he was slammed into the sand.

The totally nude mania-warrior laid still with a wound across his back. He pushed himself up, trembling, not even making it onto all fours before collapsing again.

"Xane, help!" Chay yelled. He fanned his coat of fog over to obscure Goro's position as the berserker's large cut healed.

The short, chiseled thaum-mage abandoned his task and flung his prepared liquid fire at the scorpion instead.

Goro dragged himself out of the fog, barely bleeding. He leapt up the sheer rock wall ahead.

Marcus had disabled one serpent head, leaving it dangling off the hydra's main body only by the spine, the wound scorched by whitefire. He started knocking out the teeth of the next head while his chakram ran along the head's throat.

The hydra's middle head sank its teeth into the broken one and tore if off, twisting to break the spine.

It flung the severed head and neck at Marcus who was too surprised to evade and got dragged into the foam waters as the massive appendage crashed into him.

"Fuck," Chay said. "Xane, break the scorpion tail! I'm going after Marcus."

The wiry Thai man threw himself into the lake. The water was mostly soapy foam, barely granting buoyancy. He had to use his power to stay afloat.

Chay propelled himself to where Marcus had sank. He realized only now that the hydra hadn't closed the distance. It refused to leave the lake. A weakness he should have seen sooner.

Below five feet of foam, the lake turned more dense, liquid and buoyant. Visibility remained low.

Chay found the martial artist. He was not dead. In fact, he was holding his breath, forearms aglow with pale slow-motion fire.

The men spotted each other through the haze. Marcus threw his chakram at Chay -- no, *behind* him. A hydra head was diving for them.

Chay had to surface for breath.

Above the false water, he collected fog in front of his mouth as an oxygen reservoir and hoped it would work as intended. Back down he went.

The men floated at the border between loose and dense foam, circling around the creature which had trouble following them. Multiple heads dove in, mouths open, and snapped at nothing. One head came close enough that Chay had to command its jaw to seize up. This told the creature where they were.

Chay pulled Marcus upward. They were at a disadvantage here. They had to fight on land.

Chay's briefs slipped off his foam slick body, heavy with water. He had to hold onto Marcus and let them go, his uncut cock exposed in its divine smoothness.

As they emerged, Chay saw that Xane had ripped apart the venomous tip of the scorpion's tail. Horrid green dripped off the tattered chitin pipe, onto the creature's black armor. Puddles of toxic green were forming on the beach, limiting where Xane could levitate to as he kept dancing around the beast.

"Are you shitting me?" Marcus said.

The severed hydra head was regrown. Chay understood right away. "Only the middle head matters. It's the main head and the only one we can hurt permanently. That's why it sacrificed one from the edge."

"Gotcha."

Chay evaded toward the beach, the hydra ineffectually snapping at his fog trail. He fanned a dark cloud at the main head to blind it and let more fog pour from his body to obscure his position.

Marcus stayed behind and sent his razor-ring to the central neck of the serpent array.

At the beach, Chay's naked body dried rapidly. He fanned his fog ahead of him and hid in it.

Xane wiped toxic green off the ground with a casual gesture to give Chay room to stand, then shaped a dripping fireball between his palms.

A roar echoed from the top of a rock formation.

Goro jumped down, an uprooted tree held over his head. He sped up on the way down, ramming the tree into the scorpion's back like a derailed train.

The monster was pressed into the sand, legs splaying.

Chitin cracked.

Goro had jumped right underneath the broken tail's ceaseless stream of venom. He got coated and screamed in pain as his skin was acid burned by green sludge so destructive it even dissolved his bandana along with his hair.

As the berserker dashed away, the toxin drizzled into the creature's wound, making it burn itself.

Goro flung himself into the foam lake.

Chay shouted at Xane to get away as the scorpion thrashed madly.

"Is it dying?" the mage asked, landing next to the umbralist.

"Slowly. But it's vulnerable now."

Xane walked to a rock the size of his pecs, lifted it with little issue and guided his throw into the steaming wound where the chitin had broken.

Behind them, the hydra was giving up its advantage to flee onto land, bleeding where Marcus had sliced the necks of the main head and any that had moved to intercept.

Goro emerged under the hydra, pushed off the monster's own body and rammed his fist into the right-most head, shattering the creature's jaw.

Xane tried to levitate away as the scorpion rushed him, claws and broken stinger flailing. Chay made the creature's legs falter and its claws cramp but a swipe hit the Korean bodybuilder and sent him rolling in the sand.

His thigh had been bisected. The creature had tried to snap him in half but Chay had just managed to keep the claws from closing. A bright butterfly - the mage's mote - rammed into the wound and spent itself. Much of the flesh knitted itself back together instantly.

The injured bodybuilder crawled backward, leaving behind his boxers the claw had ripped apart. The fabric dissolved in a streak of acid.

The hydra made landfall. Foam ran off the serpent body from which new auxiliary heads grew. It thrashed under the fist-ramming of Goro and the slicing of Marcus.

The berserker's muscles bulged as if his body was made of nothing else. Pure black eyes, the mark of madness stretched across his chest now.

His semi-hard dick flapped during his erratic maneuvers. The nude mania-warrior threw himself back and forth between the beach and the hydra like a living projectile.

His burned skin was nearly restored. Even his long mullet grew back as his scalp healed, leaving only the sides of his head smooth.

Marcus' dick flopped around even more so as he spun and chopped at the hydra with the edges of his whitefire hands.

Chay fanned fog over Xane who dragged himself backward with his face contorted in pain.

The scorpion was barely dripping venom anymore. Chay went on the offensive. Umbra-power didn't bestow as much strength on him as Marcus now had, let alone Goro, but he had gained superpowers and he had to step in while his friends were busy.

Able to tell exactly where the chintinous creature's weight was resting, Chay could hop around underneath the beast and kick its legs with his powerful feet just as he caused a spasm in the monster's joint.

The scorpion kept stumbling, growing weaker from its own poison.

At last, Goro stood on the hydra's body, his arms wrapped around the mostly sliced off neck. He ripped with all his might and the spine snapped.

As the main head was torn off, the whole creature convulsed to death.

Xane had mostly knitted himself back together. Thaum had let him merge his torn flesh inch by inch as he kept dragging himself farther from the battle.

Goro flung the serpent in his arms at the scorpion. The hydra's slack mouth enveloped the scorpion's head.

Goro jumped and rammed his feet into the hydra head to make it bite down. Chitin cracked once more. The dead foam-dweller's bite gave the giant bug the final blow.

The berserker didn't watch. He scanned the beach, his tattoo retreating. "Xee, you okay?"

Chay dismissed his mist layer and the demigods reconvened where Xane was laying.

Marcus shaped his quickly drying hair back into a faux-hawk. Goro reached for Xane's hand and dragged him to his feet. The mage's thick, cut dick dangled freely, his hands rubbing coarse sand off his bubble butt.

Two immense corpses bled silvery sludge into the lake. Monster blood filled the air with a coppery smell as the false stars of the exoteric reach trailed overhead.

To the tune of a churning lake, the four naked men breathed a deep sigh.

===***===

The naked college students had retreated onto a large, flat rock, facing the turbulent, unreal lake in silence.

Goro had used a tree vine to tie his hair up. Marcus wore his chakram as a bracelet -- the edges dulled at his will. Xane had pumped power into a green speckled butterfly that lazily fluttered between his knees. Chay made fog-waves with one hand, the other cupping his hairless crotch.

"Fuck it," Goro said.

He turned away from the others and started jerking off.

Xane chuckled into the stunned silence. "You know what? Same." He turned the other way and rubbed his own semi-hardon.

Chay averted eye contact and reached for his quickly hardening dick, sensing Marcus doing the same.

"Man," Marcus said. "This place really needs some beach babes."

"I'm hungry," Xane noted. "Almost as much as I'm horny."

Chay was hungry, too. He had no plan but he hadn't wanted to be pessimistic.

[Worthy demigods!] came a voice from everywhere.

Chay stopped jerking off as did two other men. Goro kept going. The slapping of his balls intensified along with his breath.

[You are chosen to be mankind's defenders from the abyss, where demons aim to launch an invasion.]

The voice in the sky was not complaining about Goro jerking off so there was no reason to hold back. Chay reached for his dick and worked it, one hand on the shaft, the other on his balls. The newfound smoothness was distracting but sexy. Marcus and Xane followed his lead.

[Demons will soon breach the barrier between their realms and your world. It will be up to you to roam the infernal realms, confront hellish champions and destroy six infernal vortices.]

Marcus huffed. "At least it's not six-six-six many."

"Cool," Xane said, his torso flexed as he rubbed one out. "Where's the pussy, though?"

[As you descend, the forces of light can bestow precious few gifts upon you. The hells will plague you with dark, tempting powers to break your will - hunger and lust. We are strong enough to eliminate one of these.]

Chay forced himself to listen, even as he was flush with pleasure.

[We can take your need to satiate hunger, or curb your sexual urges. Not both. Choose wisely.]

"Easy," Marcus said. "No hunger. I still wanna fuck."

"Yeah," Xane said. "Sex yes, hunger no. Easy."

Goro grunted in agreement. Chay met their gazes, careful not to catch an eye-full of dick.

[If you choose to eliminate hunger, we will still do our best to curb temptations, but beware of the multitude of possible consequences when you give in to sexual urges.]

"So we *can* fuck," Xane said. "We just gotta be careful."

"Hehe," Marcus laughed. "Cock-tease time."

Chay nodded. "Then I also vote to eliminate hunger."

Sparks trailed their abs. Chay had had been famished, but no longer. Slowly, he was edging closer to orgasm.

[The portal out of limbo will soon open. You shall receive final guidance, be able to understand any language you may find in the abyssal realms and - as the light's final parting gift - let us curb your most obvious path of temptation.]

Chay's erection slipped from his hand, seconds before he had reached the point of no return, as he was blinded by light. Knowledge got slapped into his memories, names and concepts, as if he had read a briefing pamphlet on the realm he was headed to.

As his vision cleared, he tried to grab his erection again and found it gone.

"What the fuck?" Marcus shouted.

The four men rose and stared at each other.

Looking down on himself, Chay's dick seemed to have shrunk and been squeezed into a silver dome, half an inch across, almost flat on his body.