by Prax Venter
Mark changed his target to one of the two remaining clouds of hanging copper when a cluster of glowing green vines grew out of the floor to entwine around their foe’s dinging pipes. Its fluffy face turned to surprise just as Mark’s magic mace bisected it right down the middle. He felt more than saw sparks of friction on his glowing weapon as it passed through the living cloud, and he had an instant to worry that his attack would be useless. But, the magical damage from his ethereal club must have done the trick as he watched the aggressive mist dissipate. He collected its essence as he turned to face the remaining angry cloud when an armored bear galloped past in a brown blur. With a powerful strike from her paw, their shifted Druid knocked the collection of copper and steam over a railing and down to a lower level.
Mark took a moment to check the layout of this new area and saw a wide metal ramp leading down to a lower level. Down near the bottom was the one aggressive cloud that was knocked down, plus two more joining the fight, but Bear-Jezebel was currently galloping down the ramp to stop anything from coming up to meet them.
“Abby,” he started quickly. “Go help Jez. We’ll be right behind you.”
The black-haired monster-woman nodded and slapped her boots into the metal grate flooring as she chased after Jezebel.
“You,” he said to Sasha holding her arm, blood leaking between her fingers. “Hold still.”
The succubus’ blue eyes closed as he bathed her arm in healing power. The slices were deeper than he expected, but Mark was able to restore her perfect pink flesh with ease. He had become very familiar with her body.
With the job done, he took her shoulder. “You ready to kick some more ass?”
She gave him a devilish smile before thrusting both her chrome legs out and vaulting over the railing.
A moment of shocked panic hit him until he saw her leathery wings spread wide and catch the air. With a swooping glide that she canceled at the last minute, Sasha landed on one of the clouds with her sharp black hooves and pinned one of its claws to the ground. With an outstretched hand, she sent a bolt of lightning into its face as she stood over it.
At the same time, Jezebel blocked the slashing copper claws of the two others while Abby stood behind her, waiting for her spell to cool down.
By the time Mark had run down the ramp to join them at the bottom, all the attackers had been finished off, and all their essence had been distributed among his three reservoirs.
“What took you so long?” the blonde sex-demon said, a hand on her round hip.
“It’s not my fault you’re all such badasses,” he shot back with a smile.
“Actually,” the doe-legged satyr said as she pressed into his side, “you are directly responsible.”
Abby nodded, the black tentacles that hung down from behind her ears entwined on her chest.
“It is indeed your responsibility to grow my power, Mark. It is imperative that I acquire more offensive abilities.”
Mark stepped up to the abyssal horror and kissed her forehead.
“As soon as we get these heart shards, I’ll fill you up. Promise. Abby, together we will show all of reality the terrible devastation you are truly capable of.”
She turned her impossibly gorgeous face up to his, and Mark saw undying devotion echoing back to him.
“Come on,” he said. “We’ve got some pissed-off clouds to smash.”
Given the layout he’d seen so far, they needed to take the left doorway out of this industrial area and head back toward the lady in the tank. A brief flash of deja vu washed over him when he remembered the white, ghostly lady in the glass ball he’d glimpsed during his daring prison break with Abby. Was this dimension just a twisted version of the real world?
His mind got stuck again defining what exactly was the “real world”, then he just shrugged it off. There were more important things to pay attention to now.
Mark led his battle harem through another narrow passageway and deeper into the bowels of this mysterious factory. There were no enemies, but they passed a section of wall that was nothing but churning gears and screeching metal. The rhythmic thuds pounded in his ears, and once again he was in awe regarding the enormity of the machine surrounding them.
The corridor ended, and Mark noticed they had come out into the cavernous area he had seen from above. They were very close to the invisible woman in the tank. As they rounded a giant black hose, Mark saw the tank they had sought was only about fifty yards ahead. It was a clear path through the forest of pipes and machinery sprouting from the metal floor.
As he strode forward, a glowing red cloud of danger caught his eye as it moved through one of the larger pipes.
“Hold!” he said, putting up his hand. An instant later, a new enemy dropped down in the area in front of their destination.
“Is she making more of the thing she does not want?” Abby yelled in frustration behind him.
Sasha answered by rushing forward, stomping her hooves against the metallic floor and intending to quickly zap this new creature out of existence. Before the succubus was in range, glowing green vines reached up to ensnare its copper pipes, immobilizing the single enemy.
Sasha stopped and held out her palm but held her Arc Blast until everyone had caught up to her.
Mark turned his attention to the clear woman floating in the murky tank of liquid. The whole thing was much larger up close, and the curvy shape of living air herself had to be at least 18 feet tall. Black hoses and pipes of many different sizes connected her massive cube of a tank to the rest of the machine around them. She was currently pressed up against the glass, watching to see what Mark and his Enthralled would do next.
“Blast it,” Mark said, and his loyal succubus instantly obeyed. He kept his eyes on the mysterious woman-shaped creature in the tank as brilliant light from Sasha’s burst of electricity reflected in the glass. Essence entered his body, and he saw the woman slump with relief.
Mark crossed his arms and focused on where he assumed her eyes were.
“We’ve done what you asked, but it seems like more are being created.”
“As you cannot stop breathing, I cannot stop production.”
Mark sighed. “So, what? Was this a trap? You gave us an impossible task and never intended to help us?”
“No!” The woman in the tank spun violently. Mark expected to see the cloudy liquid slosh over the edge, but none ever did despite the top remaining open to the air. “You have done what I have asked, and I am speaking to you now. However…” The woman of air let that word hang as her tank came to a rest. “I am in desperate need of your help, and I fear I will now be asking the impossible.”
Mark was losing his patience. “Do you have the Crystal Heart Shards?”
“I do,” she answered, her voice coming from everywhere.
“Then how about this. You give us the shards first, then we try and do this bullshit impossible task for you. The shards will only make me and my Enthralled more powerful, thus making it more likely that we will succeed.”
The woman pushed away from the side of the tank, and he heard Abby whisper, “The logic is flawless,” under her breath.
“Before coming to terms, allow me to tell you my story. I warn you, another misshapen worker will be manufactured, and then another after that, until the ones you destroyed are all replaced.”
A clanking noise in the wall behind him caused them all to spin in place, ready for combat. But it was only a ladder emerging from a hidden compartment and connecting them back with the first tunnel they had entered. The all-encompassing voice of the woman in the tank spoke again.
“Will you stay?”
Mark caught the eyes of his Enthralled, and they all trusted in him to speak for the group.
“For now,” he said, turning back to face her. They could handle one angry cloud every few minutes if it came to that, anything more and he would call a retreat. If anyone became hurt, he would smash his glowing sledgehammer right through the glass tank before him.
“He forced his way into my chamber with his devastating winds and rending claws, searching for his ‘perfect palette’. I remember watching… helpless as the monster poured some foul substance into my tank. My clear waters turned angry, and my workers became misshapen.
“He captured one of my animated vapors in an enchanted jar and returned from whence he came- and leaving me… changed.”
Her invisible head snapped up. “Another comes, Collector.”
Mark spun and saw the telltale red blob within the pipe with his Truthseeing eye.
“Sasha,” he said, pointing, “blast it the moment it appears.”
“Gotcha,” she said, her blue eyes focusing on the spout.
He waited until the angry cloud was dissipated before turning back to the woman in the tank.
“What do you want from us?” Mark asked.
“My original purpose might have been lost forever, overwritten, but my current purpose is intolerable. You must add a potent magical substance into my tank. If you do, and your new purpose can override this one… even if it is only marginally more favorable, I will grant you what you seek.”
“Substance?” Mark repeated.
“Yes, it may take you time to locate something suitable, but once you scour the land and return with-”
“Will this work?” Jezebel said, interrupting the woman. Mark turned to see her holding up one of the Awysai vials of Eternal Echo. “I’ve been carrying these around on my belt wondering when they were going to break.”
“Mmm.” Mark nodded. “And we know where to get more.”
“Y-you brought a potent substance with you? Is it liquid?” The invisible woman pressed her airy body against the surface of the glass trying to get a closer look.
“Yes,” Mark answered as he walked over to his satyr to retrieve the vials. “And I know for a fact that it is potent magic indeed.”
“What do they do? Is it enough? What will happen?” The woman was frantic now, sloshing around in her gray liquid.
He shook his head. “Lady, all of this is nonsense to me, but if you want a new purpose for your life, this is the best I can do.”
Mark gathered the vials in one fist, one between each finger, and approached a metal ladder reaching to the top of her glass enclosure. He noticed magical runes carved into the glass that served as this air elemental’s home. Or was it a prison? Neither term seemed to fit the situation. Once Mark reached the top, he locked his legs against the ladder and uncorked all four vials. He was about to just dump them out into the swirling tank below, but it didn’t seem right. After a pause, he knew what was missing.
“Oh Goddess, hear my plea from faraway lands. This entity seeks new purpose, and I now douse her in your powerful love juices. Please accept her service.”
Mark then poured in the Awysai sex drug.
“Wait! Service? What does…” The woman’s half-formed protest trailed off as the gray water around her shifted to a turquoise blue. “Oh?” she said, her hands shooting to her crotch in surprise, quickly followed by a long, deep, “ohhh…” The woman in the tank moaned with ecstasy, and her form wavered as if trying to hold cohesion.
“Yes,” she said at last. “This is a… ngohhh…” She paused as another wave of pleasure assaulted her senses. “This is a purpose I can tolerate,” she finished.
Another cloud fell out of the machine and Sasha got ready to blast it.
“Hold!” Mark said as he climbed down, and Sasha instantly dropped her hand. The clump of mist was now pink, and the angry face had been replaced with one giant mouth.
“No need to clench my production anymore,” the now-sultry voice of the woman echoed around the chamber. The ceiling hummed with distant vibrations, and Mark could tell a machine was kicked into overdrive somewhere within this immense factory. A hollow thumping noise accompanied the arrival of three more clouds. Once they landed, the puffs of pink lips proceeded to pair up and nuzzle their fluffy lips into the rear of their partner. The transparent woman in the tank moaned again.
“We had a deal,” Mark said. “You are clearly happy with your new purpose.”
A metal compartment at the base of the woman’s tank slid open. Mark approached and found two glowing red shards of crystal lying haphazardly on the bottom like they were dumped in a junk drawer.
Without hesitation, Mark darted his hand down and touched both shards at once. His body was immediately assaulted with not only the rush of essence from the two shards but from also completing this strange creature’s quest. He fell to his knees as all three of his pools filled to bursting… again.
“Thank you, Collector,” the woman said. “I wish you the best of luck in your further adventures. Now if you’ll pardon me, I have some new sensations to explore.”
The woman in the tank dissolved into bubbles as she moaned one last time, her voice growing distant as her body faded into her newly altered liquid. He turned his head to see pairs of pink clouds licking each other’s asses and smiled.
“My work here is done,” he said, standing. “Let’s move out.”
He let all his Enthralled go up the ladder first and found himself climbing after Abby. She deftly coiled her long tentacles around the metal bars, but Mark couldn’t take his eyes off her cute little ass. The air was cool, as deep as they were into this underground machine, and the taut green skin to either side of her yellow bikini bottoms was covered in tiny goosebumps. The small fabric triangle stretched tight as she lifted her oversized boots from one rung to the next and her pussy lips almost worked themselves around its edges.
He knew the reason he was so powerfully affected by this monster-woman’s perfect ass was the unprecedented amount of essence he had collected for them and resolved to take care of this distraction at their earliest convenience.
- 23 -
“Well, would you look at that,” Sasha said as she planted her hoof into the surface of the Infinite Expanse. The succubus was the first of them out of the Steam Pit, and what she saw put genuine amusement in her voice. Mark momentarily forgot about the burning in his calves as he hopped the last few dirt steps.
Sitting about thirty yards away from them was Marla’s Towering Stacks. The brown and white restaurant had followed them across the vast blue desert and two new, brightly colored signs caught his attention.
‘Freshest Food Around!’
‘All you can eat, FREE! Today Only.’
Abby whirled to face him, her long black hair fanning outward. “You promised the next breakfast food place we found, we would eat it out. Here one sits.”
“Abby…” Jezebel began, sadness in her voice. “This has to be a trap.”
Mark shook his head, smiling in disbelief. This building was desperate.
“I don’t know,” Sasha said playfully. “A promise is a promise, and I’d also like to eat out Marla.” The succubus licked her luscious lips as she rubbed a hand over her flat stomach.
The green-eyed satyr cast her gaze in his direction looking for support against these apparently insane people.
He turned back to consider the suspicious structure that had followed them like a lost puppy. His blind eye narrowed, looking for any hint of treachery behind its white painted walls and under its brown shingled roof. What he saw was confusing until he realized the building itself had its own mind. The thoughts and emotions inside were hard to process, as if there were too many surfaces to comprehend at once. The feeling he got was that there was something on the tip of its tongue it wanted to say. Along with a knot of twisted frustration.
It could obviously hear them, or the new signs wouldn’t have addressed their exact concerns from the last encounter. Maybe he should just ask. Mark shrugged, things seemed to go smoother when he just went
with the insanity.
“What do you have to say for yourself, Marla?”
The building felt like it snapped its attention on Mark, but it said nothing. He turned his eyes upward and saw that the red sun still hung frozen in the center of the sky. The temperature was back to sweltering hot and after climbing thousands of stairs, sitting down and having some eggs and coffee would be absolutely fantastic right now. He scanned backward and tried to remember the last time he had slept… was it with Audra? The prospect of trudging all the way back across this dusty blue desert to maybe sleep on the streets of Ring City seemed like a horrible prospect.
Focusing back on the suspicious pancake house, Mark tried the direct approach.
“Are you going to kill us?” There was a brief bulging of tangled thoughts, but he still couldn’t get a definite read on-
“Mark?” Jezebel said, taking a step toward him and breaking his concentration.
“Jezebel,” he began. “You’ve never had any breakfast food, right?”
“I- no, but-”
“Ah!” Mark held up his finger. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
She wasn’t lying, but she was very nervous about this roaming building offering them everything they wanted. She was right, of course, but Mark’s new eye had given him deeper insight into this world- and he was going to abuse the shit out of it.
“Then give me a moment to interrogate this building, would you?”
“You’re right!” Abby gasped next to him. “I can target this structure…” She trailed off and then turned her big yellow eyes on his. “I am prepared to lacerate Marla on your command, Mark.” Her tone was dreadfully serious.
Mark felt the building tense, and he detected a hint of real fear. He lovingly rubbed the bare skin on Abby’s back and grinned.
“Did you hear that, Marla?” he said, turning slowly toward the brown and white building. “We know you can hear us, and there is a good chance we can hurt you.”