[Edited] Chapter 37 - The Brink

Added a bit of extra foreshadowing for the cutoff scene that happens later in the chapter. Kind of came out of nowhere previously.

=================

As Arx bolted for the door, I immediately thought to warn her of the floor hazard, however I was still too out of it to do much of anything save wince as her foot came down on the pressure plate. The resultant dart appeared with a thwick at her ankle as if by magic, delivering its payload of corrosive poison.

I felt her cry of anguish almost as if it were my own. She had not been awake for more than five minutes, and already she had suffered a horrific injury while carrying my useless ass. But self-recrimination would get us nowhere. I might have lacked the strength to stand, but I was still the healer. And I still had one trick up my sleeve.

So before she even had the chance to stumble, I allowed my Status conversion aura—the appropriately titled That Only Makes Us Horny—to spread forth. The act sent me reeling. Normally, the ability required next to no effort on my part, but in my current condition, it was all I could do just to remain conscious, never mind converting poisons into suitably palatable Emotional Ailments.

Arx careened into the wall before she could steady herself, the poison already blackening her ankle like meat left to rot. However, with my aura up, it did not take long for the effect to halt. And for other much more useful things to build.

“Good…” she breathed, clutching at my thigh.

A moment later, Lynnria caught up to us.

“You hit the very first one?!” she yelled before quickly yanking the dart from Arx’s ankle. “Mercy’s Hands! We’re dead. Beyond dead! Donum couldn’t heal a fly’s leg right now. And even if he could, the maze out there is pitch black, heavily trapped, and there’s a mindless killing machine headed right for us!”

On cue, the wooden creaking again drifted to our ears. We might as well have been standing on the bow of the ship, it was so close.

“I—I’m fine. Feeling better… already,” Arx argued, ignoring it.

“Oh, so you can string more than two words together now?” Lynnria ranted. “I’m sure that’ll be very helpful once that ceiling starts coming down. It took us hours to get through this maze. Hours! How do you expect to carry him through all that now?”

Arx chuckled throatily. “Children… not bark… elders.”

“What is that supposed to mean? We’re about to be crushed, and you’re spouting platitudes?!” Lynnria yelled.

My lilim did not bother answering. Instead, she just shifted her weight onto her already much better-looking ankle, demonstrating her readiness through action rather than words.

Lynnria blinked, staring in confusion at what had just been a length of rotting flesh yet now appeared little more than a simple bruise. “How… how did…? Some kind of Poison Resistance?”

The ceiling rumbled. It was getting worse, and we were wasting time.

I waved my hand weakly to get their attention, then pointed down the way. “S-secret door. Hu-hurry…”

Arx immediately perked up on hearing that and started away, but Lynnria was quick to dash that hope.

“It’s gone.”

“Gone?” Arx repeated, but she did not slow.

“Yes, gone. Disappeared. I don’t know.” Lynnria gestured ahead of us and to the right. “It should have been about here, but when I came through here last, I found it closed on us. Then I heard that rumbling…”

Arx tutted. “‘Snails. Must remember… block open doors. Dungeon plays tricks.”

I moaned feebly in reply. Noted.

“I haven’t been able to sense any magic here, either,” Lynnria continued. “So I can’t think of any way to get past the locking mecha—”

The three of us froze, listening. The wooden creaking had morphed into tangible footsteps. It was almost on us.

The girls tensed for combat. Lynnria had her wand at the ready, and Arx eased a scimitar from the belt at her waist. It was a battle we could not win, but that did not mean we would go down without a fight.

But before the automaton appeared, its footsteps stopped. There came a long moment of silence, interrupted only by one low rumble from the weakening ceiling. Then an ominous step hit the ground. Then another. Then more.

But… away from us. And rapidly accelerating.

A chill ran down my spine as the implications of that rammed home. “Uh oh…”

Abruptly, there came a horrendous scraping sound followed by a thud. Two more followed in its wake. Then countless others. Each punctuated more by the vibrations they sent through the ground than by the sounds themselves. The hourglass had emptied—and the universe had just tipped it back over… this time filled with multi-ton bricks and us helplessly waiting beneath them.

My already taxed mind lurched into overdrive, every thought turned toward our survival. Lynnria had been right about one thing. We would not get far as we were. I needed Energy and, while the Status conversion cycle had lurched into action, Arx would have to fill up completely before I saw any bleed-off.

I extended a frantic arm. “Meat!”

Lynnria, understandably distracted by the oncoming disaster unraveling behind us, ignored my plea and fled into the darkness. For all her talk of hopelessness, when the choice comes between certain death and almost certain death, a person’s survival instinct will leap for the long odds every time. Arx followed not a moment later.

Then the archway was crushed behind us, and I suddenly found myself agreeing with them rather completely.

What light had followed us from the now intangible crystal was quickly subsumed by the rubble falling around it, and by the time we turned the first corner, it might as well not have existed at all. We were running blind.

I quickly summoned the Words to Unclothe the Darkness, but despite being quite proficient with the spell, I simply did not have it in me to cast it. I could scarcely get out a single syllable through my wheezing.

“Meat,” I said again, panting into Arx’s ear.

“You said that before. What kind of—?”

She paused and, for no reason that I could discern, darted to the left. The change set us parallel to the sounds of blocks falling, as if they had altered course along with us.

“You’re saying the baby Dolilim has rations?” she continued, as though never having left off. “How can you be so weak if you have rations?”

Baby Dolilim? It was not a description I was in any rush to apply to the girl even if it was becoming increasingly apt. She had to be fishing for information.

“Meat… poisoned.” It was only two words, but it conveyed a lot of what needed to be said.

“Ah.”

She skidded to a stop for half a heart-beat before turning right, again setting the collapse to our backs. This time, the sounds did not match our flight. It seemed a different section of the maze than ours had been slated for initial demolition, giving us a moment of respite.

But then I realized that despite the lack of any kind of light and multiple turns, we had not so much as brushed against a single wall. I did not even know if we were still following Lynnria.

“How… doing? Where?”

“Just following the sour milk, Dearest,” she explained to my unarticulated questions. Then, most likely realizing how meaningless that would be to me, she elaborated. “Fear, I’m sure. And you can feel the air pressure change whenever there’s a turn. I seem to be much more sensitive to it now than I used to be, but it’s an old Quester’s trick. I’ll teach you sometime.”

Teach me? I chuckled weakly. That was certainly an optimistic outlook. Still, I appreciated it. My spirits needed the touch of confidence in the face of encroaching doom.

Even so, I was still pretty sure that Lynnria was choosing paths at random. We needed to catch her. And quickly.

“Faster.”

“Oh, sure. Just run down a panicked girl in the dark while carrying a full grown man on your back, Arx.” She let out a dismissive snort. “I may have some decent stats, but I’m still only in the 7th Layer, Dearest. And unless you’ve forgotten, I had to give up Runner’s High—amongst other things—when my Core reset.”

I had to think for a moment before I could dredge up the memory, but her old build—whether good, bad, or embarrassing—had been a topic of some interest during the long hours around the campfire. That particular skill was… of the latter persuasion. The more physical pleasure she was experiencing in the moment, the faster she could run.

From what she could gather, she had picked it up during a drunken bender on a dare. She could not recall what the dare had been about, though. Or much of that night. Or the one after. All she knew—other than having woken up in the middle of a field, harnessed to a plow, and with a bit between her teeth—was that her brand new skill point had been replaced with what was, quite frankly, an atrocious skill.

Still… we had managed to make the thing work for us a couple of times. And given our current Class symmetries, I was more than tempted to encourage a repurchase. Especially in light of our current predicament.

“Have…” I began but then immediately ran short of breath. I was wheezing like an asthmatic cripple. “Have… skill point?”

That made her laugh. “Not a bad idea, but I think we’ll come to regret it. This is going to be an endurance race, not a sprint.”

Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on your point of view—I was saved from having to argue the point by the sound of a thwack followed immediately by a startled yelp of surprise. And not as far ahead of us as I had feared.

“Are you alright, little thing?” Arx called as we neared the sounds of Lynnria groaning in pain.

“Motherfucking traps everywhere!” she swore hysterically. “Argh! I think it broke my ankle. I’m dead! I’m so dead!”

“Not yet, you’re not. Now hurry and—“

She tensed as the sounds of structural collapse turned in our direction, but they soon altered course, again running left to right before fading somewhat into the distance. I was beginning to pick out a pattern. I could not be sure yet, but the bricks sounded like they were falling in ever widening concentric circles. Like some kind of monolithic domino tower.

It probably would have even been neat to look at. Perhaps from a helicopter. Or really anywhere besides directly in its path.

Arx grunted before turning her attention back to Lynnria. “Come on. Out with the rations. My Donum needs his strength.”

“What good will that do?” Lynnria argued, close to sobbing in her hopelessness. “You can’t just instantly draw Life Energy out of a hunk of old jerky, and even if you could, the meat’s poisoned!”

Arx chuckled knowingly. “All the better.”

“W-what?”

Damn it, we don’t have time to explain all this.

I patted Arx’s shoulder weakly. “Pouch… at… her waist.”

Arx sounded her understanding, but before she could start pawing at her in the dark, Lynnria swatted her away.

“Alright, leave off. Let me.”

The sounds of her rummaging through her pouch were quickly overwhelmed by those of the collapsing ceiling, again taking the opportunity to pass us by. And slightly closer this time.

“Here,” Lynnria said as she handed us the jerky. She sounded much calmer. Focusing on the here and now must have helped. “Now help me stand. The ankle’s already feeling better. Must have just twisted it.”

Arx did not waste any more time. She simply hauled Lynnria to her feet and immediately set out again. “Keep moving, girl. But stay behind me. If you’d hit another of those darts…” She chuckled. “Mmm… well now. Not something you’re ready for, I think.”

Lynnria started in on some sort of indignant protest, but I did not pay her any attention beyond the tug of her hand on my tunic as we led her through the dark. I had more important things on my mind.

I tapped Arx urgently on the shoulder. “Food!”

Arx sniffed at it carefully. “I’m not so sure of that. Seems more like tree bark. Can you even chew this right now?”

That was… an excellent question. The answer was almost certainly no, but being weakened to such a point was something I was loath to admit. Fortunately for me, I did not have to.

“Shame?” Arx said after a moment. “I see. Let me, then.”

With that, she shoved the hunk of meat between her fangs and tore a piece of it away. However, she too failed at chewing. For entirely different reasons.

“‘Stits, that’s awful!” She shuttered after spitting the piece back into her hand. “Ugh… Dearest, you can’t! You just can’t.”

I did not care. It was a rotten, almost certainly poisoned piece of what could have been road kill. Still, I did not care. Even if I did not have a ready solution for most of those problems in the form of a one-size-fits-all aura, I would have eaten it. If for no other reason than because the resource was essential to our immediate survival.

“Give,” I said simply.

She just sighed. She could feel my desperation and my resolve. Even so, the wet morsel she handed me was… shall we say, more intimately handled than any I had ever imagined consuming. I tried not to think about it.

Strangely, it did not taste of anything. Just as before, there was no hint of the sickly sweetness or gag-inducing foulness one might expect. It was just… texture.

It was not until I attempted to swallow that I slammed into a brick wall. Every fiber of my being immediately took up torches and pitchforks, ready to storm the castle. There was no reasoning my way around it, either.

It was a non-option. Hateful. The complete opposite of food.

And not just swallowing this. Swallowing at all. The very idea had suddenly filled me with loathing. It was perverse. Anathema. I felt it on a base and instinctual level. The act of willingly allowing something… foreign into my body was akin to desecration.

If it were not for the intense hunger crawling through my veins, I probably would have spat it out instantly. But our need was such that I managed to fight back the impulse through sheer force of will.

“Give,” Arx said quietly, echoing my earlier command. Despite the darkness, I looked at her. I had heard in her voice the resolve that had crumbled from mine. She understood. She wanted no part of what was currently in my mouth, but she understood.

And now, so did I.

I had changed, if not so outwardly as the girls. Somehow, in a very crucial sort of way, I had become something no longer completely human. The lilim had become my literal source of all Life. It was a disturbing revelation, no less so because the only mechanisms through which I could now feed had been products of our own invention.

What else could I do? I could not force it down, and allowing myself to starve to death in some misdirected act of protest would serve no one. Who or what would I even be protesting against? So—with a great deal of reluctance—I spat the now well-chewed morsel back into my palm and handed it over.

Arx received it dutifully and without fanfare, though I knew she felt nearly the same about it as I did. She simply plucked the thing from my hand with her teeth and choked it down whole.

Lynnria made a gagging sound. “Hands of… Please tell me you two aren’t doing what it sounds like you’re doing.”

Arx’s marathon pace halted briefly. I had thought she might tell the girl off, even with the ever encroaching waves of destruction behind us. However, she just took the moment to hum the melody of a vaguely familiar tavern sing-a-long before setting off again—this time to the right.

Then, she stoically tore a second hunk from the strip of jerky and set to chewing. It sounded a bit like a dog gnawing at a bone.

“Um, hello?” Lynnria persisted. “Can somebody please talk to me? I’m trying not to freak out back here, and that noise is not helping. Do you even know where you’re going?”

“Kind of,” Arx replied—to the latter question. The horror show currently working its way down her throat and the sounds accompanying it were probably the last things she wanted to talk about.

I could sympathize. And frankly, it was making me a little sick just thinking about it. Actually… more than a little.

“I’m using a simple path-finding trick,” she continued over the sounds of her loud chomping. “At my skill level, it takes a lot of luck to get anything useful out of it, but in a situation like this, it’s plenty. All I have to do is hum a little, think about the lovely package pressed into the small of my back, and then I get a rough idea as to which direction leads away from our immediate death.”

My stomach was beginning to churn rather severely, so I almost missed it. But I was pretty sure Arx had just casually dropped a live grenade back there. She was still fishing, it seemed. But with dynamite.

“Wait. Did you just say…?” Lynnria trailed off as the innuendo registered. “Ha! Yes, I suppose it is lovely, isn’t it.”

Arx stumbled and began trembling with sudden anger. I badly wanted to forestall whatever explosion was forthcoming—as usual, her timing could not have been worse—but most of my attention had been taken by the rising tide crawling its way up my esophagus. I could feel it burning, pulsing time and again with greater and greater intensity.

It had to be the poison. I might not have actually consumed anything but, as Lynnria had warned, poisons do not always need you to. Holding it in your mouth is more than enough.

The flames continued, yet each pulse brought with it a soothing balm. Burn… coolness. Fire… ice. Like waves. Then the waves began to overtake the nausea and the fire, driving them back… replaced with a different kind of heat.

I gently bit into Arx’s shoulder, just trying to keep my composure. I knew she wanted to shout and rave right then. Even in jest, Lynnria had just displayed an unacceptable level of familiarity with me. But I did not care.

Arx’s presence was becoming… increasingly distracting. The feel of her skin became as silk. Her conflicted breaths, music. Her breasts, softly brushing against my encircling forearm, were near all I could think about.

She trembled again, this time for entirely different reasons. “Ooh~ that’s not fair.”

“What isn’t?” Lynnria asked, oblivious. “Why did you stop? Did you hit a trap?”

Arx growled softly as her back arched, pressing into the very package she had baited Lynnria with. “No. It’s nothing… just… Gha! I—I’m carrying a lot right now.”

“Okay?” Lynnria said while none-too-gently shoving us forward. “So fight through it! Plenty of time for belly-aching when we’re not about to be crushed.”

Arx snapped her teeth together, wracked with indecision. However, reason quickly won out, and she marshaled on. Even so, I could faintly hear her whisper, “Just you wait, little girl. The sweet suffering I shall inflict upon you…”

Sweet suffering? That sounded… good.

“Like that, huh?” she breathed for my ears alone, as if in direct response to my thoughts… or my emotions. “Yes… you and I together. We could break her with pleasure. Just like you did to me? At the river? Ah~ What glory.”

I bit down, harder than before. There was so much Lust flowing through me that I was struggling to remember why that might not be such a good idea. I needed to get rid of it. And quickly.

However, when I reached for the ability to pass it to Arx, she gasped, “No! Not yet! I—I’ll go crazy, if you do that. It’s too much! Too much all at once!”

“What? What is?” Lynnria shouted in alarm. “Blast it all! What are you two blabbering about when you should be concentrating on getting us out of this mess?!”

Arx groaned as she stumbled to a halt once more. But instead of answering, she began shakily humming again. For a few moments, she seemed disoriented, but then she backed us up a few steps.

“Here! This way,” she said, confident in her new heading.

“I am getting really tired of being left out of the loop, you two.” Lynnria pressed. “What is going on?”

We did not reply for some seconds, too caught up in our own chemical cocktails for things like explanations. Personally, I was having a hard time thinking of anything save how much I wanted to wrestle them both to the ground and enjoy their bodies until oblivion came for us all. I was just glad that was currently beyond my capability. I could only imagine what Arx was going through, and she still had to keep her mind on leading us out. I was beginning to suspect that little strip of jerky was pretty close to death incarnate.

But… that was only to our benefit. All that poison and the Lust I was converting it into would soon be converted into Life Energy. And eventually, that Energy would come to me. Once Arx had her fill, anyway.

However, before either of us could assemble a reply, there came a distinctive click followed by the short and sharp whistle of a projectile in the air.

“Fucking ‘snails!” Arx snarled as she tore something from her shoulder. Her breathing was starting to sound erratic. “Can’t… I can’t!”

I shook my head, trying to dispel the visions of sweet curves and heaving bodies. “Must…” was all I managed.

But then I felt Lynnria’s knuckles at the back of my neck. “Mercy’s hands! You’re burning up. I told you that jerky was poisoned.”

“We know!” Arx snapped. A feral undertone was beginning to creep into her voice, like a cornered animal. “Now, choke on a c-c… shut up! Unless you can contribute something useful for a change?”

“What am I supposed to—” She cut her own heated reply short as she realized. “Oh, whistling dicks!”

Arx gasped again, but instead of fear, this time it was one of delight, and she began to almost uncontrollably shiver and quake beneath me, even the suggestion of genitalia enough to trigger quakes of pleasure rolling up and down her body. And mine as well, for that matter… if only for the realization of what was happening just beneath my legs.

“Sorry,” Lynnria apologized, undoubtedly mistaking the cause of her distress. “I’m such an idiot. I have a luck charm! I think I can tune it to help you miss the traps.”

While Lynnria set to work, Arx’s breathing slowly evened out again. I thought at first that she might have been getting ahead of things, but the little unhinged giggles she kept making were a clear sign things were still getting worse. She could only digest so much Lust at a time, and there was a lot of it in her system.

I was just glad I was no empath. I had plenty of my own to deal with already. But then I remembered that she was… and she knew exactly how much I wanted to explore every inch of her body. Just standing there doing nothing had to have been killing her.

“Done,” Lynnria announced. “Are you alright? Can you move?”

“Oh, yes…” she breathed, slow and seductive, almost a purr. It was like a feral animal had just crawled into the skin of my lilim. And she was in heat.

Something divine wafted beneath my nose. Blackberries…? It was hard to be sure. But I wanted it. I wanted it badly.

However, the distant sound of crashing rocks could not be denied. With a bit of a distracted growl in its direction, she cast over her shoulder and cooed, “Stay close now, dumpling. We wouldn’t want to lose you. Now would we?”

Arx turned and again led us through the darkness. This time, perhaps to help keep her mind off things, she began to explain. It was a mundane sort of topic. Status Effects… Emotional Ailments… Life Energy, and all the rest. However, from her tone, you would have thought she was edging her way toward a massive orgasm. And she might very well have been.

I was certainly having a hard time keeping my hands still. That heavenly aroma was consuming me. It was so strong! How could Lynnria not smell it? Gah! I have to get rid of this Lust! How long does it take to convert a bit of poisoned jerky?!

“You can eat Lust Ailment?” she asked finally.

“Myeah~I can. All day long,” Arx moaned in reply. Then more quietly, “I‘ll eat you, too. All nightlong…”

Lynnria must not have heard that last part. “And still function?”

Arx chuckled, but there was a strained quality to it. Like a wineglass gripped a tad too tightly. “To a point, little pet. I can resist to a degree, but… Ooh~ If we weren’t about to be crushed, there would be nothing keeping me from ripping your clothes off, right here and now. I would tie you as a display. An offering! I would bury my tongue into your naked sex. Sup upon your nectar until you screamed. And all while he watches. Oh… what sweet agony. The anticipation! When we get out of this… Perhaps, I will watch… as my Dearest fucks you until you can’t remember your own name! Then… Ahn~” She panted for a moment, too worked up by her own scenario to continue. “Then… then we’ll give you a new one. Won’t that be nice?”

It did sound nice. Very, very nice. I began exploring the skin at the nape of Arx’s neck with my tongue. She tasted… salty. With wondrous undertones of womanly musk. There was Life under there. I could feel the heat of it. Building. Calling to me. Why was it not flowing into me yet?

But that scent… It was not… quite here. It was coming from Arx. I knew it was. Just… not here. Where I could reach it.

“Uh…” Lynnria laughed as well, though it was more akin to the anxious titter a serial killer’s victim might make after some comment about how nice her skin looked. “He’s… that good? Can he actually do that?”

“Oh, yes!” she shouted excitedly, outwardly in reply to the question, however I knew from her hand clutching mine what she really meant. And what had just happened. Again. I had no idea how she kept running through it all. But before the convulsions had even finished, she quickly amended, “Sort of… there are steps involved.”

Lynnria cleared her throat to change the subject. I did not blame her. “Actually, now that you mention it… uh, since we’re being candid…I’ve already taken a new name. Your… your husband allowed me t-to claim his. As my Clan. Uh… there was a-a ritual.”

Under normal circumstances, I would have pointed out that this was hardly the time or place to be getting into that business—or baring that, quickly battened down the hatches for the coming storm—but I was in no state to argue. And neither was Arx, apparently. The three of us were each lost in our own labyrinths of circumstance. Lust. Darkness. The fear of being crushed. The literal maze. The list went on. All we could do was run. Run and talk.

So, Lynnria continued to prattle, spurred on by her nerves into recounting most everything we had done since meeting on the island. Including a few things she probably should have kept to herself.

However, despite the previous attempts to ferret the story out of us, now that it was in the open, Arx seemed to hardly care. Or even be paying that much attention. Instead, she kept humming like a hippie lost in a field of poppies… or perhaps a woman in the midst of post-coital bliss. The only indication she gave that she was not completely stoned out of her mind were the few times she would pause and turn, so she could not have been as distracted as she sounded.

“But your name is Lynnria, correct?” she interrupted finally.

By that time, we had outpaced the rings of destruction to the point of feeling… relatively safe. Arx still seemed fine if not exactly fresh, but I could tell all the jogging was beginning to wear at Lynnria. Especially with her injuries. Plus, every time one of her charms redirected our feet away from the many pressure plates and catch wires, it would steal a moment’s breath away from her. The combination was beginning to add up.

As for myself… well, if I had not been on the verge of passing out the entire time, I probably would have exploded all over Arx’s back at least twice. From the way the dirty slut kept rubbing and twisting against me, I was sure she would have loved that.

But I still had not found that smell. It was driving me crazy! Like walking into a cottage with a blackberry cobbler baking in an oven, it had been growing steadily stronger the entire time. More deliciously overpowering. Why was no one saying anything about it?!

And why was Arx getting so blasted hot? Come on! Where is my Life Energy?

“That’s right,” Lynnria replied. “Why? Have you… Have you heard of me?”

Arx took a breath, then paused to reconsider her response. “Should I have?”

The question had been directed at Lynnria, but I could tell she was studying me for some reason. Sampling my desperation, perhaps.

“No,” Lynnria said quickly. “Or that is… maybe. I’m the best gameball player in town, you know. Well… in the youth league. But I guess that’s over with now.”

There was a very brief pause. Something she had said had pulled Arx’s attention away from me momentarily, but whatever it might have been was not enough to keep it long. There was something else weighing on my lilim’s mind.

“Dearest… please.”

“Huh…?” It was the first sound I had made in some time, and true to form, it was one of confusion.

“I’m sorry, okay?” she said immediately. “Is that… is that what you wanted to hear? Is that why you’re not letting me… I didn’t die on purpose. You have to know that. I didn’t mean to… to leave you alone so long. P-please, stop punishing me!”

I had no idea what she was on about, but her distress was abundantly clear. Her voice had come close to breaking by the end. It pained me to hear her that way, but I could barely speak, much less soothe her.

“Punishing you?” Lynnria replied when I did not. “He’s all but comatose. How can he be doing anything?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” she scoffed. “We are bound! Connected by our very Cores. I can always feel him. Unless he doesn’t want me to. He can sever it whenever he wants. And it kills me! I hate it! I hate not feeling him. He knows I hate it. I can’t even feed him without it, and he’d rather sit there and starve to death than let me… I died when he needed me, and now he’s punishing me for it!”

Our connection? My confusion vanished in a puff.

Mostly. The conclusions she had drawn were considerably suspect… and I was still having an extremely hard time focusing on anything but that smell. But at least I now knew why it was taking so damned long for her to finish eating!

But this was a problem I could fix. Should be able to fix. Except…

“I think you might actually be insane,” Lynnria said. She almost sounded insulted on my behalf. “I’ve barely known this man for a day, and even I know he wouldn’t be so petty. You’re his mate! How can you accuse him of something like that?”

“Then why is he holding me at bay?” Arx cried. “All I can feel is Lust. ‘Stits, so much Lust! I—I’m burning up. Can’t eat any more! I can’t think!”

Damn it. I was having some difficulty with that myself. I had always needed to pull up my menu to do this before. But things had changed.

“Mia…” I gasped out.

“Mia?” Arx repeated, confusion rapidly replacing despair. “Who is Mia?”

Lynnria groaned. “Oh, right… I forgot to mention her. She’s some kind of Faen, I think. Took up residence in Donum’s head just before I met him, or so he said. She makes our skills… and swears a lot. But sometimes she does her own thing. He said she took off exploring or something just before we found you.”

Arx was silent for a moment. Lynnria had barely scratched the surface, but even so, that was a lot take in.

“Then… for him to be calling for her now… that means she controls our connection?”

“Uh… you got me there,” Lynnria replied. “I guess?”

I was beginning to feel faint. I had been holding on with nothing but grit and fingernails for what felt like hours, and by that point, I could almost sense my heart giving out. If it were not for that smell…

“B-berries…” The word was barely even audible. One final, dying gasp.

Even so, Arx froze mid-stride, her breath caught in her lungs. She knew. She knew exactly what I needed. It was not something one was likely to forget…

“What? We’re stopping again?” Lynnria asked. “You thought of something?”

Arx ignored her. I could feel her shifting her stance. Spreading her legs. Hear her trembling breaths. And that scent. Growing stronger. Closer.

“You want this… don’t you?” she whispered.

I barely even registered the words. What was left of my consciousness was focused, wholly and completely, on the precious something hovering in front of my nose. My tongue weakly parted my lips, seeking it out. I had to have it. I needed it!

And then a single drop of sweet Life exploded through me. It rocked me to my core.

Here, finally, was flavor! Warm and delicious brown sugar. Cream. Rich yet mildly fermented honey. And wonderful, glorious blackberries! The nectar of the motherfucking gods!

Tears sprang into my eyes at its touch. Shivers raced up and down my spine. I had never tasted something so overpoweringly remarkable in my entire life. Could scarcely conceive of it.

I wanted more!

Eagerly, I stretched forward until I found it again. And the finger it covered.

“Oh, that is so hot,” Arx moaned as I pulled her clawed digit into my mouth. “Take it. Take it all! All for you, my Dearest!”

“Um… w-what uh…?” Lynnria stammered.

In retrospect, hearing what she was no doubt hearing, in that situation, and in complete darkness would have discombobulated just about anybody. Especially given the previous conversation. But I had no plans on stopping.

And neither did Arx.

As quick as she could, she shrugged me from her back and gently lowered me to the floor. Then there came the heat, so close to my face. Blistering heat. Boiling.

And so very wet.

Life absolutely dripped from her. Soaking her thighs practically down to her ankles. It had been leaking away for who knew how long. Wasted while I slipped in and out of consciousness, unable even to express my desires, much less coherent thoughts.

Without even stopping to catch my breath, I plunged into the source of it, seeking to scrape the smallest drop from her every crevasse. She gasped on contact, her voice high and shocked at my intensity. She began to writhe from the pleasure of it. And not just her body.

Her sex was a living and wanton thing. Designed for the sole purpose of pleasuring men. Pleasuring me. It quivered and twitched, glorying in my touch. It grasped for my tongue. Massaged it. Squeezed it. Seeking to draw it deeper.

I knew there was only one thing that could ultimately satisfy it, but right then, I did not care. I only wanted to drink in the Life seeping from its every pore.

Arx could not remain silent. Her gasps and moans became cries and adulations, rising higher and higher. Broken and hitching swears from various languages rattled out of her helplessly and continuously, all mixed with half-formed words of praise to my growing technique.

I barely heard her. I had been so hungry for so long, I almost feared I might drink too much. Too deeply. Too fast. Even become sick with it. But I was as a dry well. Each splash of Life dropped to the bottom and vanished into the cracked clay like it had never been. Yet, I could feel it beginning to loosen.

Old aches and pains long forgotten began to wake up. The many injuries I had sustained, ignored out of necessity, throbbed as my body diverted its new resources toward their eventual repair. I felt stiff and old. My joints had seized. My muscles were cramped. I wanted to stretch. To crack my knuckles.

I was slowly coming alive again.

But still so hungry. I wanted more. Faster.

“O-okay, look guys,” some buzzing fly commented from behind me. “I’m not sure what’s… or well. I know what is going on. I’m not stupid. I just don’t know why it’s going on. I—I mean… look, the ceiling isn’t exactly going to stop collapsing w-while you’re… you’re… I mean… Hands, that sounds so… hnn~”

She nattered on for a bit longer, but I stopped paying attention. I knew what she really wanted. One day I might even give it to her, but for now, what she had could not tempt me. At that time and in that moment, there was nothing that could compete with my Arx. She was mine. Mine and mine alone.

“Yes! Yours! All yours! F-Forever ha~oh my…!”

She had been practically screaming by that point. Her legs, quivering and shaking almost continuously, had been threatening to crumple over and over, forcing her to rest her weight on my shoulders to keep from giving out. But then, all of a sudden, she went silent. Her frantic, heaving breaths stopped. Her legs locked up. Several long seconds passed.

Then, there was simply no holding her up any more.

The two of us fell over in a tangle of bodies. For a few disoriented moments, I simply lay on the ground while writhing flesh crawled across my face. Some of it was what I wanted, but that part quickly rolled away, replaced by simple, clean skin. It also tasted nice. Like her. But far less overpowering.

Somehow, the contrast helped to clear my head, and I realized I had let my need carry me away. But I felt better now. Not sated by any stretch, but I was not about to die, either.

On the other hand, my manhood was still raging with intensity, and, while tempting, I knew that if I allowed myself to be carried away any further, we would never leave. The implacable waves of collapse had not been idle while I… fed.

I blinked. Okay… I have got to get rid of all that built-up Lust now.

But before I could, Lynnria’s hands found me in the dark. “Do me… do me next! Please? Hands, I—I can’t… I can’t take this anymore!”

Arx growled softly to one side of me, still possessive despite her recent servicing. But Lynnria had been more than patient. I would be merciful. So, I allowed a very brief pulse of pure, unadulterated pleasure from the Hammer of Glory to race from my skin to hers.

Lynnria jerked back like she had been shot, pummeled into submission by my skill. Unfortunately, beyond a startled squeak, she did not make much noise, and I very much wanted to see the look on her face.

I shook my head. Getting carried away again…

“Hey!” Arx’s hands gripped my cheeks. “That should have been for me! You didn’t even use it on me the whole time.”

I just snorted. With a casual flick of a finger, I sent her the full measure of my Lust instead, forcing her to whimper slightly.

“That’s for you,” I informed her. “Punishment for thinking I would ever cut you off intentionally. Where did you even get that idea? I love you, Arx!”

She sucked in a sharp gasp. For a few moments, she merely trembled in my arms. But then, in a rush, she began to speak. Frantically. Like the side of a snow bank long held on the brink of collapse by a single icicle now snapped.

“Oh, Master! My Dearest, Dearest Master! By the Words thou hast inscribed upon me, the compact is fulfilled. I am thine! With thee and for thee. Thy will is mine. Thy want is mine. All that thou art, I am for thee. For I love thee, as well. Forever more, and unto the end—“

Distracted as I was by this surprising and quite familiar confession, that did not prevent the hair from suddenly standing on end in back of my neck. So before she could finish, I grabbed her and rolled to one side.

And not a moment too soon.

With a creaking, thunderous roar, a wooden fist came out of the dark and smashed into the stone to one side of us.