Love and War Goddesses

Things have been busy lately between commissions and editing the Winterfang novel (down to the last 100 pages), and the roleplaying system I wrote up is being tested over this week at Gencon. Also hosting a panel at a local con for the Anime Daydream podcast, so all kinds of shit going down. I am super proud and having minor and random panic attacks.

This story's something I kind of stumbled into a week or so back. Kind of in the theme of the "guy finds whacky partner" stories I've been doing, but a little more fear involved. A guy wakes up a forgotten war goddess that he has to help bring into the modern day. Mixed inspirations from Oh My Goddess and Thor's movie persona. Has a hook for possible sequel, but will have to see if I or the fans want to come back to it.

Sort of based her looks on this pic I had laying around from way back:

https://static.f-list.net/images/charimage/2813157.jpg

Also, it's pronounced Zen-yee-yix

Victor's older sister was always sending him stuff from around the world. Nancy had gone globetrotting with her travel blog while he stayed back in his hometown working at the corner store. It was always a mixed bag of envy and delight when she sent him weird and exotic stuff. Sometimes it was candy from other countries, but more often it was odd trinkets and totems. "It's like that magic shit we used to watch on Saturday morning cartoons," she insisted in some of her letters. That point varied from souvenir to souvenir, but the last one was a pretty distinct keeper.

It was simple chord necklace bearing a carved piece of thick, black stone that resembled a panther's head with open jaws. It looked old, judging by the rust that had started to line its teeth. There was Nancy's usual brief note: "Found this one at an African trader's. Don't cut yourself like a spaz!"

"How would I even cut myself? It's made of rock..." Victor asked out loud, rubbing over the edge of the pendant. It was remarkably smooth, until you got to the teeth. It was there that he proved himself a spaz, somehow pricking his thumb on the edge of the fang. He sucked on his thumb to ease the pain, seeing the bit of blood running off the stone panther's mouth... and that it wasn't rust on its fangs.

The pendant started to shake in his hand and its eyes began to glow. Victor panicked and threw it to the ground, steam shooting from somewhere behind its eyes and from its shallow mouth. It bounced around like a jumping bean as the steam spread out, making Victor fall into his desk chair to avoid touching it. When the smoke filled half of the room, it began to recede, and he heard the heavy breathing (almost snarling) of a woman.

Her slick hair was the color of rust, going just past her shoulders. Like the rest of her, it was caked in blood. There was an collar of black iron around her neck with numerous chains that hung over her back, arms and breast like an impractical impression of chainmail. Her skin was deeply tanned, some mixture of brown and red on the spots where bare skin was actually visible under all the gore. Wide eyes looked back at him, sharp and hungry, and the grin that appeared through her parting lips showed thick, sharp fangs like a tiger more than a person. She was built like a fitness model, hardly any smooth surface on her body as curves and muscles made everything swell periodically to create trails for the blood to run through. She rested in a squatting position, breathing heavily with one hand resting on the floor. The other was clutching a simple but incredibly dangerous and well-used handaxe.

"I... live..." she hissed around her vicious-looking teeth. "Who... dies?"

"Uh... nobody please?"

"Then where... is... my sacrifice?"

Victor looked around for anything. He picked up the unopened Snickers bar from the walk home and held it out for her. The bloody wild woman grabbed it from him and devoured it so fast that Victor was surprised that she bothered to rip the wrapper off with her fangs before wolfing it down.

"Uh... who are you?" Victor attempted.

"Zenyiyx," she replied curtly, smearing a hand over her mouth and licking the excess chocolate from her fingers. She didn't mind how bloody they were at all.

"Sorry?"

"Zenyiyx," she repeated again. So he'd heard her right. It hadn't just been because her mouth was full.

"That doesn't tell me much," Victor added.

The bloody woman looked at him with an amused smirk. "Oh. A white man. That would explain it." She stood up, also uncaring of her nudity as if all the blood was appropriate clothing. Upright, she was nearly seven feet tall, giving her over a foot on Victor. "I am the skull collector. Corpsemaker, widower of the axe, obtainer of vengeance, she caked in blood and the bride of the never ending battlefield!" She looked rather pleased with herself, arms out in all her gorey, muscular beauty. "You look upon a goddess of battle," she purred with another flash of her fangs. "Now command me."

"I'm... not really comfortable with that," Victor said as politely as he could. "How long have you been...?" He pointed quizzically at the necklace.

She sniffed and scratched at her sticky hair thoughtfully. "Time is... vague in there," she admitted, quieter but with all the bravado from before. "Ask a goddess of wisdom for that." She stepped up to him, making Victor cringe before she held up the Snickers wrapper. "You gave me sacrifice!" She grabbed his wrist, the one that held the pendant. "You wield the medallion of the Vizali cult, empowered by the blood of thirty virgins. There are rules to these things." Victor looked at her in more confusion than fear now. She smiled toothily at him. "I do not care how many of my people you slaughtered. I am a being of carnage. I bear no loyalty to those that created me. Now... you have one boon. Spend it before I grow weary of you."

"Then..." Victor thumbed the pendant, which proved more difficult with her squeezing his wrist. "Can you... get off my carpet? Maybe shower off? You're kind of... dripping..."

"You summon me just to banish me to your water prison!?" Zenyiyx barked around the glass of his shower.

"It's not a prison," Victor corrected. "It's for cleaning. Use the white block there too. It'll clean you faster." He heard a pleasantly surprised little purr coming from inside. He looked at the pendant, then pinched himself again. It wasn't a dream, because he could feel pain. It wasn't an anime, because the war goddess didn't have cat ears. "So what are you doing here? And why were you in the amulet?"

"I have been for ages!" she called back. "It is my place. The Vizali cult was a small but powerful tribe. They had many enemies, and so created a pantheon of gods to destroy and defend their order. They sacrifice many to empower us, and your blood marked the thirtieth sacrifice to revive me into your mortal world. Where were the other corpses, anyway? Do you dispose of them so quickly these days?"

Victor shrugged. ""It was just me. I cut myself by accident on the fangs."

"BAH!" The war goddess knocked something over before leaning her wet head out around the shower door. "So undignified! You disgrace the Vizali!"

"Well what did they use you for?"

"I butchered hundreds at a time when needed," Zenyiyx explained simply. Her hair was still wet, but the blood was washed away. She had a sort of stiff and angular features and an especially pronounced jaw and nose now that he saw her cleaned up. "It is why this command to cleanse myself of my glorious visage offends me!" Vic looked over at the removed steel collar and chains sitting in the sink.

"You can do that? Just... hundreds of people?"

"It is my role, yes," she agreed, stepping out of the shower. It was even more clear just how defined she was, breasts wide and perky Her abs were deeply carved, and it was hard to look anywhere that didn't bear some scars. One ran right under her eye, curving where it had healed while leading over the socket in a truly close call. "Hunt and battle. They are my realm." She stood there nude and dripping, starting towards the door when Vic handed her a towel. She hesitated before snatching it and rubbing down her face and front.

"So... can you do anything but fight?" Vic offered. Maybe there was something to gain out of it before he let her go. He still wasn't sure how long she'd been gone, but it sounded like it had been a while ago if she thought slavery was still cool.

She grabbed his chin in one quick gesture, looking into his eyes. Her pupils turned from their dark brown before bright and burning red for a moment. Vague but jarring visions flashed before his eyes. Tribal warriors butchering each other on battlefields, seeing through the eyes of men in trenches right before they were struck down by bullets, and Zenyiyx leaping into dozens of archers just to cleave through their flying arrows and rip them to pieces. Vic came to again and yelped, turning and throwing up into the sick.

"TWO!? I missed TWO world wars!?" Zenyiyx bellowed, throwing up her hands in frustration. "Ugh! I have such catching up to do!" She reached into the sink and took out her crude axe. She gaving it a testing toss and caught it again before starting towards the door. She stopped at the door itself and looked back at Vic. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Lead the way! Show me the carnage that I may join!"

"Hold on!" Victor ran after her. "Look, you've been gone like a hundred years easy. You only just got a shower and at a candy bar..."

"Sacrifice,"Zenyiyx corrected.

"I mean, don't you want to eat? Rest a little? Get some... pants on, maybe?"

"Why?"

"It's like... modern armor. Or camouflage. Don't you have times when you're not killing?" Zenyiyx gave him an "eh" gesture, rotating her hand side to side. "Look, I was gonna make dinner. I can throw on an extra chicken and another scoop of rice. I can't cook much, but I bet you'll like it if you liked the candy."

"Ah. A dead chicken. There's a proper sacrifice." She laughed and clapped Victor on the shoulder hard enough that it made his back crack. "You're learning my ways quickly enough, white thing."

"Yea, that's not going to fly. Can you call me Victor?"

"Your boon is granted," Zenyiyx agreed with a broad and generous wave of her hand. This was going to get annoying fast...

Zenyiyx was soon at Victor's table, wearing a pair of his boxers, jeans (loose on him, tight on her) and the hoodie he had from his sister's college. She was impressed with how fast and well he could cook his food. He explained that the "devil sauce" she asked about was just barbecue, and the "frozen hellmouth" was a freezer. She ate all he could dish out, loudly praising his food and burping between bites.

"Your hospitality is wondrous," she insisted, waving at the simple kitchen. "And such a spacious hut. A goddess' blessing upon it. May you never fall under siege."

"Great," Vic smiled, a bit charmed by the compliments now that her threats had died down. "Do you think you'll be here okay by yourself for a while?"

She raised her eyebrows at him as she gulped down a mug of Dr. Pepper ("black potion"). "I am at home on the battlefield, mortal Victor. I sleep in the trenches huddling among the soldiers and live atop my enemies' bodies. I am alone when all else is dead or I am within my amulet. I do not 'be okay by myself."

"Well I can't take you with me," Victor said, shaking his head and sitting up. "I have to go to work. I do night shifts." She scowled at him and he shrugged. "That doesn't make me have to not work. It's not a long shift, so I'll be back in like 6 hours. Here."

He picked up a remote and switched on the TV. He'd seen enough to movies to predict the next part; Zenyiyx jumped at the sight of the little people in the box, grabbing for her axe. He caught her by the wrist, but her attempted swing was enough to throw him a few feet to the ground. "It's okay! It's TV! You watch it and it tells you stories!" he grunted, pulling himself back up and dusting off. "Look." He flicked the channels around. "Find anything you like. I'll be back in no time."

"Ah. Good sorcery. I see."

Victor patted his armchair for her, Zenyiyx plopping her toned ass down into it and starting to flick rapidly through channels. "Okay, enjoy it. Be right back, okay?"

"Mmm." Zenyiyx grunted in understanding, focusing on the TV.

The shift was quick and easy on Vic. It was a lot of watching monitors and pretending to be awake but not too awake. It was barely a job as he just plugged in his phone and checked the screens once in awhile. The shop didn't really want to blow money on a real security agency, so he just stayed put, turned the lights on the occasional punk kids, and called in the police for any real violators. Nothing much really happened anyway worse than some kids with spray paint or the nice homeless lady that he let sleep under the overhang until his shift was over.

The job went over fine. It was the trip back home that caused him trouble. He would later learn it was a drug deal that went bad in the alley near his workplace. Someone got shanked and started to panic about it, and when Victor happened to walk by, he knew to avoid anybody's eye contact in this part of town. The jumpy buyer spotted him and didn't want any possible witnesses, giving a quick whistle. His bigger buddy who had been watching the alley's entrance grabbed Vic by the arm and pulled him in. There was a lot of startled "Hey!"s and some frantic demands from the coked out killer, a total of four shady gang members inside threatening him with a knife and a dead body on the ground.

"Nobody can know!" the pale head insisted, nodding to his comrades. "Clean up!"

The big guy raised a metal baseball bat while Vic tried to pull free from the other two, shouting for help. There was a sick, metallic crunk that made Victor shudder, expecting that it was the sound of his skull caving in.

"Victor," said the low and grim voice. He looked up to see the tall foreign war goddess gripping the aluminum bat in her hand right behidn the bigger thug. She had squeezed until it crumpled like a tin can. "I have broken your TV. Your soap operas are full of covetous whores and I lost my patience with them."

Victor's eyes went wide, delighted for a moment until the leader pointed his knife at Zenyiyx. "The fuck is this cunt doing here?!" the red-eyed punk snapped.

"No... no, guys you don't want-"

Zenyiyx's flashed red again, wide and predatory and gleeful, and once again Victor saw carnage.

Watching Zenyiyx fight was kind of artistry, especially if you counted wire-fu fighting a form of art. she pulled back hard enough on the ruined bat to bend the bigger man's arm completely around. He gave a pained howl as she ripped the bat from his busted arm and thrust the butt of it into the leader's nose like a rapier. Blood shot from his face as she grabbed the big guy by his shaved head, shoving him face-first into his boss' bloodied, cursing features. they didn't bounce off each other, because her momentum buried both of their skulls in a crater she left on the brick wall.

Zenyiyx flipped sideways over Victor's head, landing behind the other two goons. She punched one in the back, a clear sound of his spine breaking giving Victor chills. He fell screaming, Victor pulling away from them as Zenyiyx singlehandedly lifted a dumpster and crushed him underneath it. She swung it twice more, as if just wanting to be sure that her enemy was now a puddle, which allowed the last of them to run for the alley. She sprinted past Vic fast enough to toss some trash around with the wind, but the guy was quick enough to draw a handgun and fire. One shot went wild and hit the wall, but there was a dull thump as two more hit her dead on. There was no metallic clang to imply deflection, but Zenyiyx didn't even slow down as she palmed his face. He let out muffled screams for a moment before in one sharp gesture, she crushed her fingers into his eyes and mouth, throwing his corpse with the ruined face over her shoulder in a quick splash of red.

Victor looked pale at the carnage around him, then back at the blood-speckled war goddess. The moon caught her just right, glistening off the fresh blood and her wide eyes and bared fangs. She looked at him with the same wide, excited eyes.

"Um... thanks..." Victor muttered, but she approached him with long, determined steps.

"I do not take thanks, mortal," she growled, lifting him by his shirt. "I take sacrifice." She kissed him full on the mouth, burying her tongue into his throat.

Zenyiyx's tongue tasted of blood, and Victor was, at first, horrified to find that he liked it. He was never a fighty guy, but the goddess of war had him gripped tight in her hands. It felt like before when she shared her visions, only now she shared her quite literal bloodlust. Her savage advances spoke directly to his instincts, and his shock was apparently ignored by his own body. Zenyiyx's hips pushed demandingly into his, and his erection grew to comply. The barely dressed woman in his borrowed clothes easily held him up with one hand on his side, her fingers gouging into the brick behind him. She kissed him greedily while sharing her saliva in the occasional splash of drool that fell between their chests.

The goddess only released her grip on his shirt by tearing down on it. The loose garment was ripped in half with hardly an effort and all without breaking her kiss. Victor finally found wits enough to look at the alley, making sure there wasn't anyone coming (be they police or more crooks, he didn't want anyone to see him in a scene like this). "Zenyiyx," he muttered, finding his hands rubbing over her hips. It didn't seem to be a literal spell, but her passion was becoming infectious. He could feel her immortal heart pound through her breasts and against his chest like a war drum and the various muscles pressed against him as his feet finally managed to touch the ground. "I'm... can we not do this here?"

"It has to be here," Zenyiyx growling intimately. "We shall celebrate my glory." She pulled her shirt over her head, and Victor could hear a faint clatter. The bullets that had struck her chest fell to the ground, flat and useless against her. The tanned goddess tore at the front of his pants, breaking through a zipper and a button to demand the presence of his manhood. It appeared at her command, hard and ready as she grasped it possessively. She gave it a few short, testing tugs, urging him on and thankfully distracting Victor from the death around them.

"You would be a great sacrifice," Zenyiyx cooed, as if some great compliment.

"Th-thanks. You... too?" Victor panted, overwhelmed by his commandeering instincts.

She stepped out of his shorts, her bushy naked snatch seeming to radiate heat and primal pheromones. Zenyiyx shifted herself a bit higher before she brought her greater height down, sheathing Victor's cock within herself. Victor gave a swift grunt as her warm and powerful pussy engulfed him, while the goddess simultaneously released a sharp growl. Her powerful legs and hips drove her into Victor while holding him flat against the wall, forcing her own rhythm onto their primal sex. Anatomy aside, the war goddess clearly took and was not given.

Her breathing was rapid and her body sweating, despite how effortlessly she dispatched her enemies and lifted her partner. Her muscles tensed and pumped like a running lioness, abs bobbing with every masterful stroke of her perfected warrior body. Even as her pace built up, Victor felt a brush of a small but firm clitoris against his cockhead.

"You serve your goddess well," Zenyiyx panted, her eyes intense and focused. Bloody-tipped fingers ran over his neck and chest, and it may have been her incredibly body heat or the mind-numbing passion, but it still felt hot wherever their red trail went. "Your weapon digs deep, warrior. You would spawn an army with such a hammer, if given the right harem." Victor ran his hands over her breasts, as much to admire them as it was to hold on for dear life. Their softness felt impossible compared to the rippling muscles and powerful thrusting against his shaft. She took hold of his chin and gazed into his eyes, but he saw no carnage or flashes of battle. Her bright and fiery eyes locked with his, whether by choice or because she was too distracted from her obsession with combat by one with sex. This time, it didn't feel like magic so much as genuine intensity that radiated from her. Victor had to admit to himself later that satisfying a literal amazon goddess did a lot for the ego, and her wildly passionate gaze got his pulse and testosterone pumping.

"I don't need an army. I have you..." Victor managed to reply at last through the haze of Zenyiyx's passionate blood orgy. It was as if being surrounded by death made everything about her feel more alive than ever. As if the red of blood and white of bone were her most flattering colors. The Vizali goddess started to bring her hips crashing down against him enough that he felt the brick scratch at his back and his legs struggled to stay unbending. Zenyiyx pumped so hard and her breathing came so deep and hot that Victor was surprised there wasn't steam coming out of her.

The pressure finally overcame any of Victor's apprehensions, cumming hard inside of her. Not a second after, Zenyiyx gasped as she was hit by his "sacrifice" and shook violently Her fingers raked down the brick wall, tearing deep furrows in the stone as she let out a long and deep grunt. Victor emptied himself into her as she squirted for him, mixing their fluids in a miniature torrent from her tightening pussy. Her bared fangs grit together as her numerous muscles tensed and shuddered, Victor afraid to pull away (even if he could) out of what she might do at this level of intensity.

With her pumping, sweaty body propped against him, Zenyiyx slowly calmed her breathing. The wide and feral eyes faded back to her normal (yet still pretty intense) gaze, and she slid herself off of him with a muted, wet sucking sound. "That's good sacrifice," Zenyiyx huffed, brushing back some of her wild hair. She casually pulled her boxers back on, leaving Victor to come down to earth on his own. "Thanks and blessings on you, Victor."

"It's a religion I could get behind," Victor muttered, looking for his own clothes only to find his pants barely wearable and his shirt torn into pieces. "Well now I need new clothes too..."

"More apologies. I shall grant you boon to replace your television and clothing."

"No. Just no, okay?" Zenyiyx tilted her head and gave him a puzzled look. "How about no boons? How about you just... be cool with it?" She tilted her head the other direction, clearly missing her point. "Why don't we just be friends, and not each other's... slaves? Business partners? Whatever this is with wishes and boons."

Zenyiyx sniffed thoughtfully. "I... suppose. None have wished it before. I am more weapon than woman, after all."

"Not from what I'm looking at," Victor muttered, glancing over her naked breasts and abs. "What do you say? You live at my house, you help out when you can, and... just stay here. You don't want to go back to sleep in the amulet, do you?"

Zenyiyx sneered in distaste. "I have slept long enough. This world sounds too interesting to sleep through now."

"So there. I'm your roommate. I'm your guide to the world. Your friend... with benefits, apparently. Cuz that was freaky, but the good kind of freaky. Minus the dead people... speaking of, maybe we should get home."

"Certainly." Zenyiyx started towards the mouth of the alleyway when he grabbed her arm. She spun around with a fist raised before freezing when she recognized him.

"You might want a top first. Can't you... teleport?"

Zenyiyx snorted. "What warrior has ever used teleportation? Keep it for cowardly goddesses." She grabbed one of the dead thug's leather jackets, pulling it on. It barely covered the vital parts of her breasts, which wasn't a bad look as far as Victor was concerned. The bloodstains, however flattering to her coppery skin, were less so. They compromised by letting her keep it as a trophy, but he'd throw it in the washer when they got home. She bypassed the need for clothes by picking him up in his arms and leaping over a few dozen rooftops to land in his backyard.

They went back inside, where Victor was glad to note that Zenyiyx had only knocked the TV over. It was a little scuffed on the edges, but she'd really just unplugged it. He went to bed, inviting Zenyiyx to come along with him. She explained that she didn't sleep, as an immortal, but sleeping in the material plane "sounds like fun."

As Victor walked past the door to his house, he saw another package. It was labeled as from his sister, with several shipping labels in several languages. "Zenyiyx? How many goddesses did you say the Vizali had?"

"Oh, dozens. Why?"

"Nothing. I'll deal with it tomorrow."