by Sam Ryder
Persepheus had managed another small smile. “You’ve never heard of the final upgrade because we’ve never done it before. We’ve never been able to do it before, because it requires two of the Three to have our hearts. Finally, this upgrade is possible. I will admit—the risks are great. The sheer power we would attempt to imbue inside you could very well rip your body to pieces.”
“That sounds fun.”
“It would be highly painful,” Minertha said. “And you would die.”
“My sister speaks true. But the choice is yours, Sam Ryder,” Persepheus said. “But I believe in you like I’ve never believed in anyone. You may remain a Demigod. Even then you will be the most powerful protector we’ve ever had. Or you may attempt the upgrade and become something other.”
I wasn’t sure I liked that word, ‘other’, but thus far every upgrade I’d undergone had made me stronger and more capable. The upgrades had helped me to do what needed to be done.
Persepheus was clearly in favor. Minertha was clearly against. There was one of the Three who’d been silent so far. The one whose opinion I valued more than any of them. The soft spoken, kind, gentle goddess. I turned to Ariel. “What are your thoughts?”
She took a moment to answer, her eyebrows raised as she seemed to genuinely consider the question. “I think you are special, Sam Ryder.” The compliment felt like the waters of a warm bath on a cold day. “I think if anyone could survive this upgrade, it is you.”
Minertha huffed out a breath but didn’t argue further.
I looked at each of them in turn before speaking, finally settling on Persepheus, who seemed to barely be able to keep her eyes open. “Ever since I arrived on your planet, I’ve faced risks beyond anything I’d ever experienced on Earth. Back then I was weak. Back then I was just trying to survive. Now I am strong. And I want to defeat the Morgoss more than anything else. I will accept this upgrade if it will give us a better chance.”
Persepheus sighed deeply, and I could see the relief that washed over her. Again, I could tell it was selflessness. She didn’t think she would survive, but she believed my upgrade would give her sisters a better chance. I liked this side of her very much.
“Then it is time,” Airiel said, snapping me out of my reverie. “Come with me.” She extended her hand.
Before I reached for her hand, Minertha’s body crumbled into stones that melted into the rocky ground. I stared, my jaw dropping open. Airiel laughed. “It’s been a while since she’s been able to do that. She’ll meet us in the other room.”
I took Airiel’s hand and we walked away from Persepheus toward the space that had once held hundreds of hoarded artifacts. I glanced back at the sea goddess, but she was already asleep, that final number still fuzzy above her head. The artifact room was empty now, save for a stone slab. Nearby was a healthy pile of the cocoon-like cloths used for leveling up. There were also two pots of ooze. “Where’s—” I started to ask, but then flinched when the ground exploded in a growing pile of stones that swiftly formed into the form of none other than Minertha.
She chuckled when she saw my surprised expression. “That felt good,” she said.
I shook my head in wonderment, my imagination thinking of all the other powers she might have now that her chest was full again.
I knew the drill. I released Airiel’s hand and made my way over to the stone slab, releasing pieces of my armor as I went, letting them clank to the ground. My underclothes were next, rustling to my feet. By the time I reached the slab I was naked. I sat on the stone and swung my legs up onto its smooth surface. Then I lay back, my feet dangling slightly over one side because of my height.
The two goddesses were so gentle throughout the process, taking one swatch of cocoon at a time and pressing it to my skin. There was nothing erotic about the process, and so my racehorse libido cooperated. I closed my eyes and focused on the feel of soft cloth and then warm liquid as the ooze was poured over top of me. The final covering was on my face. During the leveling up process, the separate bits of cloth would meld together into one seamless cocoon, allowing the ooze to encase me.
My body’s natural instinct was to resist letting the ooze into my nose and mouth, but I’d been through this experience enough times to just open my mouth and speed things up. I breathed in the ooze, which filled my lungs without suffocating me. It was the weirdest sensation—breathing liquid. I felt things begin to fade, as they always did. The deep sleep was coming, as it always did. I would awake a new version of myself, as I always did.
Or not.
No, the final upgrade was different. I could feel pressure on my chest. The goddesses’ hands, pressing down on me from both sides. Not just pressing, pushing, as if they were trying to break my ribs and bruise my internal organs. And then came the heat. It poured through me like I was lying in flames, searing my flesh. I tried to scream, but of course I could not with the ooze in my mouth, throat and lungs.
I tried to move, to fight whatever was happening to me, but I could not, the goddesses’ strength beyond comprehension as they held me down and poured their energy into me.
My teeth began to chatter and I swore my bones were clattering together. Something felt like it snapped. A rib? My sternum? Then something else, and something else. The cracking was audible despite the ooze filling my ears. It was my bones. They were breaking one at a time. I remembered Min’s warning about how this final upgrade could break me to pieces. Was that what was happening?
More snapping. More burning. I saw something in the darkness. A light. No. Many lights. Thousands of them. Stars? Fireflies? What are those?
They swooped closer and they were figures. The lights came from within them, their beating hearts. And I knew:
These were gods and goddesses, the rulers of Tor over thousands and thousands of years. Long gone, but not forgotten. They came to me now to bear witness to my pain, my agony. I reached for them in my mind—help me!—but could never get close enough to touch them. They formed an endless line that curved into a circle, surrounding me. The lights inside their chests grew brighter and brighter until I was blinded. It burst forth from them, pouring into me, burning into the very core of my being—my soul. And then—
Nothing.
Darkness.
They were gone.
Hello?
Sam Ryder. Come back to us.
I—I can’t. I am pinned.
That is in your mind only. Untether yourself from the prison of your mind.
Though the words were cryptic, I had no problem deciphering their meaning, my mind whirring like a supercomputer, processing the millions of possibilities and assigning probability to each before determining the most likely meaning and how to accomplish exactly what she was suggesting. My brain did all that in less than a second and my body reacted instantly.
I ripped through the fog, through the melded cocoon. My body was no longer on fire, no longer breaking. No, it had been pieced back together and cooled. I felt like I was cast from iron. I felt, well, I felt…
Fucking invincible.
The cocoon fell away on either side of the stone slab. Everything was blurry at first as the ooze dripped off me, but I blinked my vision clear. I turned to the side and vomited out the viscous liquid. Airiel stood watching me. Minertha too. They were looking at me with awe.
“It worked,” Min said, disbelief in her tone. She’d really believed I would die in the process. “How do you feel?”
The truth? “I feel awesome.”
“Sam Ryder, you look awesome,” Airiel said.
I kicked my feet over the side of the slab and stood, more ooze dripping off me. Something was bugging me, my mind racing over everything that mattered to me. Saving the Three. Restoring their kingdom. Defeating the Morgoss. Uniting the tribes. And—
Persepheus.
I started to stride into the other room, but Airiel stopped me with a gentle but firm hand on my chest. “She is weak. Be gentle. We will help you get used to your new body.”
And I understood what Airiel was saying. My body was too new. I could hurt Persepheus by accident. I needed to take things slowly, even though every instinct was urging me toward action. “Show me the way,” I said.
Airiel nodded. She leaned in and kissed me. I instantly responded to her touch, hungry to taste more of her, my hands slipping to her shoulders, tugging at the straps of her silky dress. I pushed them over the crests of her shoulders and gravity did the rest. She reached down and touched me, caressing along my shaft all the way to the tip. My muscles tightened and I gripped her too hard by accident. She reached up with her other hand and grabbed my jaw, squeezing. “Gentle,” she said, a firm admonishment.
I focused on reining in my strength. It was hard, but I managed, releasing my grip on her skin. She rubbed her round breasts against my chest, the lubrication from the ooze causing them to slide easily over my skin. Something else was different. My senses were heightened even further than they had been as a Demigod. I could hear even her slightest exhalations. I could feel the beat of her heart between us. I could feel the subtle caress of each nipple on my skin. The impression of her very fingerprints on my erection.
Again, my arousal caused my muscles to tighten and I squeezed at her, wanting to be inside her now.
“No,” she gently chided. “You must learn control if you are to help Persepheus.”
Damn. For all my brain power, controlling my body was like trying to lasso a hurricane. I focused, trying not to lose control. She continued to stroke me, offering her lips to mine once more. Her kiss was wet, her tongue wild as it roamed over mine. She tasted sweet, her fragrance like fresh air in the springtime.
She spoke against my lips, but not to me. To her sister, who was waiting nearby. “He’s ready for more,” she said, pulling away.
I looked over at Minertha, and as I watched her, the stones that covered her nakedness faded, revealing the tanned mounds of her twin breasts, her long, lean torso, her shaven sex, and the miles of smooth legs beneath. She came to me, grinding her midsection against my hip and kissing my shoulder. Her hands split up, one sliding along my backside and the other to the front, joining Airiel’s teasing of my manhood.
Again, my body responded and I wanted to twist Airiel around and pound her from behind while squeezing Minertha against me. Once I was finished with Airiel I would take Minertha from behind too. I would take turns, again and again and again, until I was spent and they were both destroy—
“Control the urges,” Minertha said, grabbing my hand as it tried to manhandle Airiel.
Dammit. I’d done it again—lost control. This new body wasn’t quite synched up with my mind.
I took a deep breath and focused. I kissed Airiel, then pulled away and kissed Minertha. I focused on their touch, each fingerprint. The feel of breast and vaginas pressing and grinding against me. Warm. Erotic.
“You are almost ready,” Airiel said. “But there is still a great risk of you losing control. I fear Persepheus would not survive it.”
I wanted to protest, but I knew she was right. “What do we do? She needs this.” I need this.
“You need to release some of your energy. On us.”
With that said, she guided my penis to her sex, teasing it around her lips. There was moisture from the ooze but also her own moisture. Still, she added more ooze to the mix, spitting on her fingers and rubbing it on my dick. Then she thrust forward and encased me in her warmth. I roped my hands around her from behind and picked her up, walking backwards until I felt the slab against my ass. I sat down and let her dainty weight press down upon me. She arched her back to expose her breasts to my mouth. I took them inside my lips, flicking at her nipples with my tongue.
Minertha had followed us over and was now kissing her sister’s back and shoulders, rubbing her own chest against her. This seemed to invigorate Airiel further and she began to ride me in earnest, her exhalations full of so much pleasure and effort that my new God-ears picked up on every emotion. I felt a tide coming and my natural instinct was to hold back, but Airiel said, “You have plenty. Give me your seed, Sam Ryder.”
As if I needed to be told twice.
I exploded inside of her, the release like nothing I’d ever thought was possible, a crashing tsunami that made her scream as our bodies ground together. With incredible strength, she pressed her hands on either side of the slab and lifted herself off me, but not entire. I could see my whole shaft but the tip was still inside her. Minertha moved in from the side and licked from the base of my penis up to her sister’s pussy, slipping her tongue inside where I could feel it between Airiel and myself.
I should’ve been spent. But that sensation seemed to refill me to brimming. Holy shit. I was ready for round two already. Which was impossible. Thankfully, being a God meant the impossible was now possible.
Persepheus sank back onto me and then lifted up again with her strength. Down and up, down and up. The friction shivered through every nerve ending. The wave was building again. Minertha climbed up on the slab and Airiel began to eat her out from behind while I slipped my tongue inside her from the front. I could feel Airiel’s tongue and Minertha’s pussy at the same time, as well as the feeling of my own erection inside Ariel’s vagina. So many sensations, and yet I was able to isolate each and enjoy them individually. It was fucking epic, emphasis on fucking.
I exploded again inside Airiel and this time she pulled away, allowing Minertha to spin around and sit on me with her ass in my lap. I stepped down off the slab and bent her over, pounding her from behind. She squealed, reaching back to grab one of my hands, pulling it around her to cup her breast. Her body was wet and sweaty against me, our combined efforts enough to be a day’s workout. Airiel kissed her sister’s other breast while I teased one of her nipples.
A third wave presented itself and this time I didn’t hesitate. I wasn’t sure whether I had any limits, but I knew I wasn’t even close to them yet.
With each release, I felt some of that power leach out of me. I didn’t have the desire to crush or destroy anymore. Just the desire to feel, to experience.
“I want your tongue inside me,” Minertha said. She slid me out and turned around, guiding me to the floor. She sat in reverse on my face and then dipped her head to my penis, taking me inside her own mouth while I obediently slid my tongue inside her. I located her clit and flicked it repeatedly until I swear I could hear it humming. The motion made her own sucking more rapid and eager. This time I held back, because, hell, I didn’t know if it was rude to release inside a goddess’s mouth.
But then she pulled back and said, “Give me your seed,” which was all the encouragement I needed.
I released into her and she lapped at me, drinking down every drop.
“Min,” Airiel said. “It is time.”
She offered one final lick and then pulled herself up. The two sisters helped me up, one pulling each hand. We walked hand in hand to the other room, where Persepheus appeared to be asleep, that floating number 1 even fuzzier around the edges. She was almost gone, prepared to slip away in her sleep.
Not on my watch.
“Sister,” Airiel said soothingly. “Awake.” There was a strange power in that command and Persepheus’s eyes fluttered open. The barest movement of her lip gave away her attempt at a smile. “It…worked,” she said.
“Yes, sister,” Min said. “You were right. And now Sam has come to pleasure you.”
“I will…try.”
“That is all we can ask,” I said, thankful the two other goddesses had expended some of my energy. She looked as fragile as a baby bird and I was afraid of crushing her.
Persepheus’s body trembled as she expended her own effort to make some of her scales disappear, revealing h
er beautiful breasts and endless legs. I slid onto the bed, as careful as I could. I kissed my way up those legs, using my tongue. She shivered, which I took for a good sign. She could still feel, still experience. There was still hope.
I lubricated the edges of her vagina with my tongue and one of her hands came down to touch herself. “Feels good,” she said.
“Good,” I said, sliding further up, kissing her abdomen. Her breasts, teasing her nipples until they were hard. Her lips, my erection slipping close to position. I was about to reach down to guide myself inside her, but Min was there to do so, helping every step of the way. Airiel was close at hand too, seemingly ready to lift my body up if I pushed down too hard. But I knew that wouldn’t happen. I was in complete control now. I slowly ground against her but never fully pressing down. Persepheus’s eyes rolled closed and she licked her lips. I kissed the spots her tongue vacated and then caught up, our tongues sliding across each other. She still had life in her.
“Mmm,” she said. “You taste like my sisters. It is a good taste.”
We continued tasting each other while I eased in and out of her, allowing a few drops inside her with each thrust. My hands were on either side, holding my weight up so that only my penis and lips really touched her. Her sisters moved around us and kissed Persepheus’s breasts while I worked. I glanced up and saw the number 1 growing clearer, losing that fuzziness.
Still. It was only a 1, which scared the shit out of me.
I continued to work, never tiring, again and again, drip by drip, filling her. The pleasure was immense, but this time I held myself back, working slowly, respectfully. Giving her what she needed.
The 1 changed to a 2, then a 3.
Her mouth opened in a gasp, along with her eyes. “Oh, Sam,” she said. “Oh. Oh. Oh. Don’t stop. Oh. Oh. Oh.”
I picked up the pace a little, because I could sense she was stronger now. She could take a little more. It was working. By the goddesses, it was actually working.
“Oh. Oh. Harder, Sam. Harder.”