Vortex Quest Bk. 01 Ch. 02

== VORTEX QUEST 1-2 ==

== WELCOME TO THE ABYSS ==

Four nude, muscular college jocks with divine powers dropped onto black rock, ready to save humankind, their tiny nub-cages gleaming with holy radiance.

The landscape was breathtaking. A jagged canyon large enough to fit Manhattan held immense stone arches, stalactites beyond the size of earth mountains and caverns the size of cathedrals leading away from the main space. More canyons stretched beyond it, domed by a miles-high stone ceiling where gentle Northern Lights danced.

Rivers of red and green oozed like thick honey from several high inlets, meeting in a swirling, yellow glowing lake at the realm's bottom.

Far away, torch-marked paths connected dark stone fortresses, patches of vegetation in unnatural colors and short smoke stacks.

Building-sized humanoid skulls of dark stone dotted the landscape as if the rocks had simply grown in that shape. Some were cracked, some spewed ooze, some appeared inhabited.

The demigods had emerged on a platform nearly a mile off the cave floor.

A swarm of thick, grotesque bats without heads took off at the disturbance, screeching from the maws set where the neck should be. They were imps - actual, non-earthly lifeforms.

"Holy hell," Marcus whispered.

"Spot-fucking-on." Xane said. "Kinda loving the aesthetic."

Behind the men towered a castle of brown stone blocks, each the size of a truck, fitted into a wall with three uneven towers. Spikes of black iron protruded from every possible seam like tumors.

The only ornamentation was stone skulls which seemed to have grown on the walls like barnacles.

Xane would have loved to tour the structure. He took in the sights until-

"Hide," Chay ordered and advanced toward the castle, to stand behind a cairn -- a tall stack of flat rocks inscribed with runes.

"Watch out," he added. "Hooded snap weed."

The hunks hopped through a field of cobra-like red stalks that tried to bite into their calves. Xane recognized their description from the knowledge they had been gifted. He used his mage-hand to swat them aside.

"Above," Goro said and ducked under a rough arch in the castle wall, pushing Xane along. The mage's mote -- a green butterfly now -- fluttered behind, dashing between their legs.

Something moved far up in the 'sky', along the aurora-shimmer. A white and gold, humanoid shape -- winged. It didn't stick around long.

"Oh fuck," Marcus said and jolted away from a stone skull in the castle wall.

An eye had appeared in one of the sockets, cat-like but red. Xane readied his mage-hand to poke a finger at it.

"Surveillance?" Goro asked. "We've been spotted?"

"No..." Chay said. "I think that's King Zheggyr checking out who teleported in."

Xane relaxed his shoulders. Hopefully Chay's sense were as keen as he claimed.

He glanced at the cairn where pandemonic runes praised King Zheggyr. Not a person, more a force of nature ruling this slice of hell. The sky voice had dropped them off in the realm Jheyr'Udd, a backwater, practically pastoral in abyss terms.

Xane flipped the king's eye off with all three hands.

Chay cleared his throat. "Okay. We're at the Concordance Archives of the Abyssal Lord Tgog'Afnash and-"

"Nash," Marcus suggested.

"-and we're going to steal the shut-down codes for the vortex. Stealthily."

Xane appreciated Chay taking the initiative. The bodybuilder would have liked to be the leader, but he was out of his depth and planning wasn't his forte. He liked to keep things spontaneous.

Chay's eyes had turned to the horizon -- or the abyssal equivalent. There was blue light flashing on a cliff wall in a far off canyon, around a bend.

"Must be the vortex," Marcus said.

"Do we go straight there after?" Xane asked. As he pointed the butterfly he had stored some power in hopped onto his finger. The mote, seemed to have a will of its own when he didn't command it directly.

"Probably," Chay said. "Let's get information. This *is a library* after all. Hm, most of the windows have bars. We climb to that one. Marcus, you first."

"Sure thing."

The lean, agile Filipino with bleached hair clambered up the wall effortlessly. His naked feet rested on rough bricks, spread apart, making him point his freshly fingered hole at the group. He covered his aegis with one hand to keep the gleam from giving him away.

The others followed. Xane reveled in the thaum-powered strength that allowed one handed wall climbing.

They glanced through the skull-topped window ten feet off the snap-weed-infested ground.

A room of the same stone as the outer walls, furniture of lighter stone slabs and spiky metal. Chains and hooks acted as storage for bones, plates, trays.

It was a dining room, carcasses on a long table picked clean. Jugs of green goo moved across the surface.

There were two humanoids feasting. Seven feet tall, red skinned and muscular as fuck. Their bodies weren't as beautifully sculpted as Xane's but they could have tried going on stage.

The least human feature was the head - entirely a skull, bones contorting as they ate.

Hellions, elite warriors guarding demonic property.

One Hellion rose, his body clad in leather straps holding bulky, spiky armor on his red, well-muscled meat. He picked up a spear and left.

"Skully's not going to leave," Chay whispered. "We need to take him out."

"I can do a chaos blast," Xane offered.

Chay pointed. "The Gnomes are going to ring the alarm."

"Huh?" Xane looked again.

Weaseling between plates were Gnomes -- small, dark fuzzy orbs with four to ten legs and moldy growths, like some kind of fungus infested mutant tarantula. Those had been what shuffled the empty goblets away.

Now that he really looked, the room was full of them, their grotesque, fuzzy bodies running along the many storage chains, nibbling carrion off gnawed bones. Disgusting.

"Haha. So cute," Marcus whispered to himself.

"Here's the plan," Chay said and leaned back from the window.

===***===

"Now," came Chay's order.

Xane sent his mote inside. The butterfly burst into forking lighting and zapped Gnomes off the ceiling chains. The weird critter were a telepathic hive mind. Chay had pointed out the manor nodes.

As the charred mold-spiders dropped, the remaining Gnomes freaked out and spasmed in place, their subordinate minds fried for now.

At the same time, Marcus had sent his chakram in sliced through a thick slab of jerky hanging right above the Hellion.

The dried meat came down and smashed the tall, buff, red-skinned enemy's face into a stone place of maggots. Bits of nibbled carcass flew to the ground as he flailed.

Xane collected thaum in his palm, focusing a piercing bolt.

Chay let all the mist he had built up outside rush into the room. At the same time Goro jumped in, his caged crotch shining in the black smoke. The berserker barely fit through the window, taking Xane's view of the room.

Skully rose with an inhumanly deep grunt. Goro was already on him. The naked demigod hopped onto the table and raised one leg higher than his shoulder to crash the heel down on the armored warrior's skeletal head.

The Hellion's face went to the table again.

"Fuck," Chay said. "New main node going online over there."

Xane took one second to aim where the thick-legged Thai guy pointed and reshaped his bolt for a greater area of impact. His blunt thaum-projectile smeared a blob of twitching Gnomes along the floor.

"Keep taking them out," Chay suggested and slipped through the window, turning invisible in his fog.

Xane entered the room, too, loading up a new spell.

The Hellion had rolled away from the table, eyes on Goro, not noticing Marcus sneaking up behind him.

The abyssal creature grabbed a broad sword with a garnet set into the hilt. A red glow ran along the sword's edge with a faint buzz.

"That's a chainsaw," Chay said somewhere in the fog.

"Rad as fuck," Xane whispered and prepared a bolt of ice.

A fat Gnome popped under Marcus' light feed like a gray goo water balloon. The Hellion swirled around, arcane chainsaw-sword swinging.

Chay hopped from his fog with a gesture and Skully's arm twitched mid-swing. Marcus hadn't needed help, bending backward with infinite flexibility.

Goro swirled with one massive leg up high and slammed the Hellion's boney head with the back of his foot. He had to evade the arcane weapon's counter attack.

A light appeared behind Xane, making him turn, ready to shoot. It was just Chay's aegis' glow. The umbralist had invisible walked behind him.

"New hive mind node?" Xane guessed.

"Up there. From the air duct."

Xane sent his magic icicle at the hole where the wall met the ceiling, shock frosting critter and ice-blocking the vent.

With the Hellion swinging at Goro, Marcus had moved in and pushed his flat palm into the leather-harness-clad back with inhuman force. Skully was sent past Goro, stumbling into the table. Chay reached out from across the room, probably making the enemy's legs twitch.

As the arcane sword dropped, its red glow fading, Goro rammed his weight into the massive foe, dropping him to the ground.

Skully hit the stone face first. Goro brought his fist down - bone cracked.

Marcus had picked up the sword, struggling under its weight. He let the broad side come down on the Hellion's back. Goro stomped on the back of the skullhead.

An explosion of brain matter. The Hellion convulsed.

It was ugly and fucked up and Xane was thrilled. He was sweating.

Chay leaned against the door, listening for whoever might be coming. His fog was quickly dissipating.

Goro flung goo off his hands while the deep cuts on his skin healed.

"Let me," Xane offered and swiped his gym buddy's enemy-gunk away with one load of thaum. "Are you okay?"

Goro gave an affirmative grunt.

"Good workout, huh?" Xane asked Goro who was sweating all over his perfectly build, six foot physique, as well. "Too bad we can't hit the showers, haha."

"Xee?" Goro started.

"Yeah?"

"You're shaking."

"Fuck, okay." The mage calmed his breath. "I'm good."

"We killed a guy," Marcus said, mostly in awe. "Like, a real person, kind of. Shit."

"We're safe," Chay said. "No one noticed. Somehow. Better keep moving before that changes."

"Loot time first," Marcus said and pulled at the Hellion's armor.

Goro picked up the broad sword. "How do you turn on arcane weapons?"

"No idea," Chay said. "Wasn't in the briefing."

The Japanese hunk shrugged and carried the blade over his shoulder. It was too dull to cut him.

Marcus hummed and retrieved a five ounce canteen as well as a few small bags. "If this is alcohol I'm calling dibs."

The bag contained spices, smelling caustic. Marcus was brave enough to tip his tongue onto a fingertip and had to heal form acid burn, his tongue lit with whitefire.

"Fuck," he mumbled with a numb mouth. "Now I'm really hoping this is vodka or something."

He popped open the flask, sniffed and- "Woah."

The room filled with the smell of sex. Not like a 'someone had fucked in here' smell, however. It was an indescribable, fairly neutral odor but it made Xane instantly think of fucking a chick or two in the shower, getting his muscles worshipped. His horniness shot through the roof.

Chay held his nose, grabbed the canteen and re-corked it before placing it on the corpse. "We should get moving. Let's hide this guy."

Xane walked after the leader, horny to the point of disorientation. Together, the four men shoved Skully's corpse out the window where it dropped onto hooded snap weed.

The carnivorous stalks dug in while the demigods turned to the exit.

The door was dark wood planks, repeatedly repaired by ramming iron spikes through. It opened with a loud creaking. Xane tried to silence the hinges but ongoing spells made him run out of power fast.

A room lit by torches of motionless flame as if frozen in time. Chains again acted as storage in lieu of shelving.

It was a common room. Spiky helmets on armor stands. Kegs-turned-tables with a square of rune-carved stones - some kind of demonic mahjong.

The air was pleasantly warm, which left them sweating. Four avatars of divine might glistened in the light of still flames.

Chay looked at Marcus' crotch, then his own, then Xane's. The Korean mage flexed his abs, thighs and hit double-bis with a grin.

"Just checking aegises," Chay said. "If they brighten up more, we're closing in on 'Nash'. Seems we're safe for now."

===***===

The fortress and archives of Lord Tgog'Afnash had a simple enough layout according to their heavenly briefing, but it brimmed with enemies and the naked, sweating hunks with shimmering cock cages had to move carefully.

They proceeded down a corridor carved into the rock, along a series of doors. Chay extended tendrils of fog off his hip to cover their aegises, only occasionally checking the glow wasn't getting stronger.

The Thai guy who still acted as leader leaned around a rugged corner. Xane saw the wiry muscles of his v-shaped back tense.

Chay moved back. "This should be where Nash's right hand man works. Door is guarded. Xane, take a look."

The mage sensed his new mote -- blue wings with black rims -- flutter on his shoulder. He stepped out of the fog tendril, one hand covering his now-tiny package's glow and leaned around the corner to see a studded metal door.

Hovering in front of it was a Noggin -- a skull filled with liquid fire, its shining eye sockets staring down the hallway.

"If I got it right," Xane said, "Noggins are the demon versions of CCTV, yeah? Snipe it?"

"It has to be quiet," the umbralist said. "Marcus, can you catch it?"

The Korean bodybuilder focused energy into his fingers. Pressing himself into the wall reminded him of his nudity. It came with a sense of empowering perversion, especially since he was out of his mind horny.

Marcus rested his hand on the mage's shoulder and gave a squeeze. "Ready."

The undead, floating skull got a piercing burst of ice right into the left eye. Its inner flame sputtered and leaked a spray of liquid fire. Spiraling, the Noggin flew in an arc.

Marcus dashed forward with long, light, tan legs. His chakram flew ahead and slammed into the creature from below to keep it from falling.

The Noggin broke in half.

Xane pulled his power together to summon his mage-hand. Marcus jump-twirled and grabbed one half out of the air, giving the other one a spin-kick to keep it flying.

The mage-hand caught it.

"Fuck. Okay," Chay whispered. "That was close. Not as quiet as I wanted."

Xane felt exposed by the glow of his aegis. Thaum-power should have been able to fix that with an illusion.

He put an image of his dick over the aegis, cutting off the glow. A cut, three inch softie. After a second's thought he grew it to a four and a half inch semi.

Goro gave an inquisitive grunt.

"Just felt like covering up," Xane said with a shrug, playing over his sheepishness.

"Man," Marcus said with a sigh. "Wish I could have mine back like that. Wait, you can make *any* illusion, right?"

Xane nodded. "Small ones, maybe a few feet across."

"So," Marcus said, "you're all making us look at your dick, when you could wiz up a speedo."

"Yes. You're welcome."

Goro huffed a chuckle and shifted his massive sword to the other shoulder.

The thaum-mage smirked. "Can't believe the sky fucker sent us here without cover for these dick lights."

Marcus cupped his own crotch. "They probably don't do many stealth missions in heaven."

Xane dismissed the illusion, covering with one hand again. "It takes focus, though. Not actually a solution." He glanced at Chay. "Do we go in?"

"Yeah," the pretty-boy in a cape of shadow said. "We need the key from Nash's lieutenant, Raaq-He-Un. A *Wraith*. Let's hope he's not in, but stay battle ready."

Goro was the one pushing the door open. The heavy smell of salt and herbs hung in the chamber, lit by motionless fire. Jars, dried bushels and fungus crowded on shelves and hung from chains.

After soundlessly shutting the door, the naked, glistening demigods advanced to the next chamber where rune stones and cauldrons were spread across workbenches.

The Wraith was in. A hovering collection of dozens of long, dark gray arms, hanging like a grape bunch from a thick metal disc, like a huge truck wheel cap. Dozens of little chains and bead strings hung from the cap.

Several huge hands turned in the demigods' direction, eyes opening in the backs of them.

As the mass of arms rotated slightly, a voice came from somewhere inside it. "I did not ask for slaves," the Wraith said in pandemonic. "What is this... radiance?"

Goro threw his massive sword. The Wraith was clipped and smashed into a chain tangle. Jars shattered and mushrooms rained. A single severed arm fell to the ground.

"Gnomes?" Xane asked the leader.

"Not that I can see," Chay replied.

The mage sent his prepared bold of vibrating energy forward. It broke into a dozen slashes that ripped dark flesh open across multiple arms. The Wraith rotated to protect his injured limbs.

Marcus moved in. He swiped and kicked each reaching Wraith hand with superhuman martial arts, pinning the creature to a wall. He used the monster's own beads and chains to tangle its arms, while his chakram ran over the reaching arms like a razor, severing one at a time.

Chay clearly did some nervous system fuckery, bending one of Raaq-He-Un's arms inward to make the enemy claw at himself.

A mouth on the back of a gray hand shouted untranslatable insults, then, "Filthy savages. Let's see if you can fight when you're plagued by hunger pangs!"

Some of the arms made gestures, while the rest fought off Marcus' attacks. Something gentle rushed over Xane.

Goro leaped in from the other size and slammed his fists at the disk topping off the enemy's body.

The Wraith evaded with a spin.

Xane had focused power again and sent a beam of heat into the Wraith as if zoomed past him.

More insults, now from multiple hand-mouths. "What are you? Shit yourself to death."

Again, a gentle wave of something rolled over the mage.

"How?" the Wraith cried out. "Then fight *this* urge instead."

Xane's already high horniness shot up like a switch had been flipped -- from 'on' to 'ultra-on'.

All four demigods automatically clutched their crotches, trying to jerk off a dick that wasn't there.

Six Wraith arms grabbed Marcus by the throat. He barely fought back, trying to get his dick free. His chakram dropped to the floor.

Goro had picked up his sword again and chucked it, crashing the broad side into the monster at such force that the creature was dragged along the wall. Marcus stumbled back.

Xane spit lubed three fingers. He needed to cream a load *now*. But... he had to defend his friends. He sent the butterfly. It made its jittering way into the tangle of arms just as Goro grunted at his own finger intrusion.

"Fuck..." Chay yelled. "We have to fight it." He had one hand on his nipples, the other uselessly jerking off air in front of his radiant aegis.

The mote reached its target. Xane expanded his stored energy as a prismatic blast right at the center of the arm tangle. A burst of colors and light threw the Wraith backward. Six severed arms dropped with rainbow trails, flesh sizzling. More arms fell off the creature as it came to a hovering halt.

"Ugh, Xee," Goro shouted. "Milk me."

"What?" The thaum-mage turned toward his friend, barely able to pay attention through the horny-haze. Even the cracks in the floor seemed like welcoming vaginas.

Chay was busy with one hand on his crotch, the other fingering his ass. "We... we have to..."

"Rape my fucking hole, bro," Goro shouted, aggressively rubbing his nub. His long hair framed his face in a sweaty mess.