"I don't get why you're so grumpy about this. Henry's place is in undertown and we got there all the time." Kara, as was her habit, seemed mostly unbothered by pretty much everything when in mixed company. I knew that she had more doubts than she let on of course, but in public she always tried to be the bastion of hope. We were standing in front of an old run down house she had spotted with X-ray vision from above. "I'm sure it won't be that terrible down there. It's just underground right? Though it's a bit weird I can't see most of it I admit."
She wasn't wrong, especially considering how strong we all were, but I just couldn't shake the inherent fear I had for undertown. I could probably have blamed the books for it id I'd really wanted to but regardless of the reasoning I just felt nervous when the place was brought up. Still, it was better to be too prepared than not enough so I shook my head. "No, everything I know about undertown makes it out to be hellish. Having actually been to hell I can tell you it isn't a great place so I'm going to go ahead and expect the worst. You should do the same."
She shrugged. "You know more about this than me so I'll keep an eye out." As we stepped through the door though she froze." I cocked my head curiously and she swallowed hard. "I hear something." That made me tense up but she shook her head. "Nothing bad, it's just something unexpected. I didn't see or hear anything aside from a hole in the floor before we stepped inside, but now I hear...gears." Sharing a confused and worried glance we both drew on our power, Kara shrouding herself in the power of faith in a way I hasn't seen her do before as I pulled my aspect around me.
But before we could head down into the depths of the ruined house Aiden walked cheerfully past us, seemingly without a care for safety or caution at all. We both froze, clearly unsure what to do, but moved quickly to catch up after as second. I considered calling to him or asking him to hang back, but the weirdo was almost as fast as I was, so I doubted he would be hurt by some random basement sweller. Not my job to prevent him from being stupid, so we would let him look around and be ready to jump in on his side if something nasty tried to make him lunch.
When we came down the step to the basement though Kara and I both froze again. I turned to look at her. "So this hole you saw. You sure it didn't have something...in it?" She stared at the structure in the middle of the room and shook her head worriedly, and honestly I could hardly blame her, it was unsettling. I spoke quietly as I continued. "Aiden." The strange man stopped. "Come back, this feels weird, we'll approach it together. He just shrugged and turned to walk back over. Even he clearly thought it was odd, which made sense because In the center of the room, sitting somehow completely unattended, was a bronze elevator.
It was one of those old timey ones with the scroll work and the half circle readout of the floors on the top, with intricately carved doors covered in shapes and geometric designs. Lots of angled lines. Kara not being able to see this in x-ray was weird, but even stranger was the disturbing feeling of unreality coming off the thing. Like it was some kind hallucination that we were all sharing and definitely couldn't really exist. I turned to the other two. "So...are we going to take it?" Because honestly I didn't see much other choice, and honestly I was pretty sure we could handle anything we came across, but random elevators in basements were a bit suspicious.
Kara frowned at it before turning back to me. "I can see it in the normal spectrum, but when I use my x-ray it just looks like a hole again. Whatever that is it doesn't show up outside the immediate physical image." Which somehow I kind of got. The unfinished nature of the thing made it seem like it wasn't firmly anchored in the world, and an illusion would be one of my first guesses. My instincts told me it wasn't though, that it was physical, but maybe not completely? It was confusing the hell out of me.
I decided to be the one to move forward, since my armor would make it unlikely for me to be hurt. Aside from that I reached for the memory of Yang's earth magic, and, with an ease that had eluded me before I completed my halfway transformation to an angel, called on the spell that I'd been tinkering with slightly in my downtime since hell. I'd gotten it working before, so it only took me a minute or two to get my aspect of earth pulled through my body. I fely the strength and durability of steel roll over me, reinforcing my flesh and muscle with the nature of the nearest earth elemental source to me, the godsteel in my own body.
It wasn't enough to make me godsteel tough all the way through, but it shifted my angelic flesh in a way similar tohow the earth magic imbued essence into stone. It made me strongewr and more durable, and when I poured power into my archangel armor as well I knew I would be fine as I stepped forward to approach the elevator, waving my friends back. Well waving Kara back, I didn't really know Aiden well, but tough or not, if this was genuinely dangerous I could react faster as the target, so the plan had changed.
I walked down the wood stairs, feeling the structure creak under my weight, but it held in the end, and I approached the elevator. I waited as I got closed, trying to ready myself for combat in case I was attacked, but once I got within range I felt...nothing. Nothing attacked me, nothing jumped out, it just kind of stood there. I turned to look at them and they just stared back, Aiden seeming blankly cheerful and Kara confused. Then I hit a button on the side panel and the doors ding and flew open. We all tensed, waiting for an attack buit all we got was a lazy voice issuing out "Oh stop dragging your feet please."
I almost jumped, but kept myself under control, when I looked inside the elevator car I saw something enxepected. An elevator man. One of those red dressed attendants from old movies and buildings with a red pillbox hat and a smart red jacket. He had tan skin and bronze hair, with deep sea green eyes. When he saw me looking he chuckled. "Yes, I'm very surprising, could you step in please? I have a schedule to keep. I'm willing to help because 0f favors owed, but Odin promised me minimal interruptions to my routine." He leaned carelessly against the wall of the bronze contraption, which i could make out was covered with grecian murals along the inside.
I had a decent guess as to what this guy was even if I didn't know for sure who. He noted my eyes tracing the designs and rolled his own. "Yes, yes, I am Hermes of the greek pantheon of deities, god of messengers and travelers and thieves. You're shocked and amazed but not afraid because you're such a big tough man and you've met plenty of gods before, can we skip this please? Like I said, I've got things."My instincts said to trust him but, I looked to Kara and Aiden who both nodded and we stepped into the elevator. With a sigh of relief Hermes hit the button to one side and the doors closed, the elevator beginning to descend.
I turned to Hermes. "So, can you tell me whats going on? Because it's weird that Odin knew where we would be and sent you. Don't get me wrong I'm pleased as punch to have...whatever help you're offering, but what exactly are you doing here?" I couldn't figure out what the hell this was. Had Odin known about Tessa? Was Hermes here to help us find her? It seemed insane to even contemplate sending a god to help us track down and kill some Denarians. He almost had to be here for another reason but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what. More importantly I couldn't figure out why? Why now? What the hell was this?
The pagan god rolled his eyes. "Because now is the time things are bad and the help is needed. There are certain rules that need to be followed, certain conditions to be met, but you have things you need for the upcoming battle and this little trip to undertown fulfills those conditions well enough to make it possible for me to play ferryman. Normally this would have been done more subtly, over a longer period of time, but time is something we don't have much of, so we dispense with the theatrics for the sake of expedience. I'm taking you down to get some weapons. The real ones, the kind you'll need to win this."
And just like that it hit me. This had happened in the books, but it had happened slower and without Hermes interfering. We were skipping the pretense and just taking an elevator down to the underworld. We were raiding Hades, vault for powerful weapons to use against the outsider. I'd forgotten about that, but it seemed Odin hadn't. Apparently going down to undertown would be enough to let Hermes take us into the vault, but it made sense the messenger god could courier us down there more easily than if we went ourselves. The question was, could we afford the detour?
The answer was, no. But also we couldn't really afford not to take it. These weapons had been important enough for the accorded nations to arrange Skin Game just for Harry to get his hands on them, which meant we would probably need them. If Odin felt strongly enough about us using them to call in a favor like this our Denarian hunt would need to wait. We were going to have to take this trip down and gear up. Granted I was betting they didn't have any armor as good as mine, but a weapon wouldn't exactly go amiss. I mostly just punched shit, but I only had one metal arm and something to use with my other hand would be nice.
Kara looked concerned and a bit confused, but she also trusted me and clearly trusted Odin at least a bit. I put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed reassuringly and she smiled and gave me another nod, this one firmer. Aiden meanwhile appeared to neither know nor care what we were doing and just looked around the elevator casually. I turned to Hermes. "So assuming I know where we're going are you dropping us off in his office or are we going to be expected to retrieve everything ourselves?"
Hermes seemed surprised that I knew what was going on, or at least acted like I did but then he chuckled. "You'll be meeting him, Mr. Beddows. I think he'll like you, you're a sharp one. I see why Odin picked you for this, though I imagine that terrifying lorica you're wearing didn't hurt your chances. Makes sense to send someone who already has armor, means you can carry an extra set." He smiled to himself as we descended, clearly enjoying the thought of what our time down there would be like. Finally there was a second loud ding and the doors opened to a white marble lobby. Hermes grinned. "Basement level, everybody off." And with that, we stepped out into the underworld.
The entrance to the underworld was really stylish. I mean sure, the marble was a bit flashy, white with gold veins and all, but the rest of the decor was pretty understated. Sleek lines and lots of black wood furniture that wasn't too intricate or over the top. There were even a few tasteful couches and a nice water feature next to a black marble desk built into the floor. It looked like a really high end office building, with the sole exception of the skeleton in a tuxedo sitting behind the desk clacking away at a computer like a normal receptionist.
It was a bit surreal to be honest, not to mention a surprise that we would be seeing something so different from what Harry saw, but then again we were coming in the front door, not breaking in through a supposedly secret entrance to try to dodge the limits of what was allowed. I almost shuddered to think what Odin must have traded to get this meeting directly as opposed to the indirect way Mab had to do things. He must be taking this whole apocalypse as seriously as I was for him to cash out his chips like he must have.
Hermes nodded to us as he stepped back into the elevator and the door closed with another ding. With a shrug to Aiden and Kara I headed over to the desk. I waited for a minute or two, but after I didn't get a reaction I reached down and rung the black iron hand bell on the surface of the desk. The sound was deep and low for a bell, and the skeleton's head rose slightly from it's previously hunched posture to regard us. It was impressive it managed to convey that with no dace or eyes but it was easy to tell it was looking at us somehow.
The voice that issued forth from the skeletal maw was light and airy, like wind through the trees. "Greetings, and welcome to Hades. Do you have an appointment?" The disconnect of the creepy voice from the skeleton asking me such a stereotypical receptionist question was knocked even me off balance for a moment, and the skeleton sort of shifted his head around in a way that weirdly made it completely obvious he would have been rolling his eyes if he had any. "If you aren't here for an appointment you can have a seat on the couch. We had a cancellation a few decades ago so we can squeeze you in..." He lowered his head again, doing a bit more clacking on the keys. "About a century from now."
Jesus, I thought human paper pushers could drag their heels. These people made wizards look efficient. I cleared my though, shaking off the weirdness of the situation. "No need, we do have an appointment. I'm Cameron Beddows? We should be on the list." I fucking hoped we were on the list anyway. Odin could fuck right off if he expected us to fight our way in here and hadn't told us or some dumb shit like that. End of the world or not I wasn't starting a dust up outside the office of one of the two equally powerful brothers of the king of the greek gods.
Luckily his...ok I wasn't sure how to describe what happened, if he'd had a face I'd say it lit up, but his skull just kind of...jerked gleefully? Skeleton facial expressions gave me a headache. Regardless he clearly found us. "Ah, here we are! You're expected immediately!" That was a relief, though I suppose it meant he'd been waiting for us, so hopefully we weren't too late considering we didn't even know we were coming. I didn't relish the idea of the lord of the underworld waiting on us to show up. I knew Dresden made him seem pretty cool, but in my head I was expecting James Woods with a flaming scalp.
The skeleton concierge slid out of his chair and headed around the desk to escort us back to see his boss without another word. I looked at Kara and just shrugged before we trailed after him, our shoes clicking across the white marble. As we followed behind him we passed several archways in the walls of the long entryway I hadn't noticed. Each archway showed a different room, only visible when we passed directly in front of it. Some were more fancy rooms and entryways, some were stereotypical caverns like you'd expect from the underworld. Some were beautiful shining fields of emerald grass under gorgeous blue skies.
One of the archways led to what looked like a McDonalds with literally endless lines, while another appeared to be a tailor's shop where people on stools kept getting stabbed mercilessly all over their body but couldn't stop. Honestly I lost track of how many of the damn arches we passed, some with only one or two people, some more widespread, some good, some bad, some just...weird. Like this one we passed where the walls were made of green pulsing flesh and purple orbs of rippling jello floated around the room like a lava lamp, sucking up running people and then spitting them onto the walls to be slowly digested before they were squeezed through a rather disgusting hole on the roof to repeat it all again.
Finally though we made it to the end of the entryaway, where a single dark wood paneled door with a shiny brass knob sat unobtrusively between a pair of columns tucked back in the corner. A black doberman was asleep in a dog bed in front of the door, normal sized and with one head but somehow seeming bigger and more important than any dog really had the right to be without actually doing anything noticeable. I was pretty sure Harry had seen something different but maybe this was Cerberus when he was off work, or maybe I was misremembering. Either way, the dog's red eye perked slightly open and he stared at us like that for a bit before it closed and the big puppy went back to sleep.
The skeleton rapped smartly on the door with his bony knuckles, which made a much deeper sound on the wood then I'd expected of just bones. At the echoing knock, the knob just turned on its own and the door swung slowly open to reveal a firelit office. Without a word the skeleton turned and strolled away, not looking back once. I shared a look with Kara and then we stepped into the room, with Aiden right behind. The inside of the room was intimidating. Not because of its size but pretty much the opposite.
It was a small cramped study lit by fire light, covered wall to wall in bookshelves and with a massive dark wood desk in the center. The desk was covered with ancient scrolls and odd bronze knick knacks not to mention the occasional weapon that might have been used for a letter opener for all I knew. Behind the desk, hidden in shadows cast by the giant ass wing back chair he was perched on, was the roughly humanoid shape of a man I had to assume was Hades. Not just because of where we were mind you, but because without doubt this mans aura was every bit as deep and profound as Loki's, though with a very different flavor.
While Loki reeked of hatred, Hades was much calmer and cooler. He was projecting his Authority around his just like Loki had, but here in the heart of his power it was so much stronger. I felt like I was standing in front of the heart of a cold star, my soul being swallowed by the blazing chill of waves of unquenchable darkness. I had considered before that Odin must be holding back when he met us, must be muting his presence, and this proved it. Because if this was the power of a god-king then old one eye had played us all for fools the entire time we'd known him. This wasn't a person, not even close, this was the embodiment of a force of nature.
Then suddenly it wasn't. The shadows thinned and vanished and the seven foot tall man in the black suit with a mordite crown sat looking amusedly from his chair. I almost staggered at the difference in environment, and he just chuckled. "Ah. Sorry about that. Not many who can take my aura full blast down here, had to see if you were up to the task you've been set. Don't worry I wouldn't have crushed your minds, I could have pulled it back before any real damage was done." His tone was kind and apologetic as he gesture to the chairs I hadn't even noticed across from his. "Now that the unpleasantness is out of the way, please, have a seat."
We did, Kara and I sitting down on wobbly legs as Aiden just strolled casually over to plop down in the seat. That guy's mind was a bag full of rabid cats I swear, but it was nice one of us was operating at peak efficiency, even if it was the one I barely trusted. I turned to Hades, unamused. "Ok, well as unpleasant as that was at least it's over. Now that we have it out of the way I take it we're here to pick up some weapons for the end of the world?" Normally I would have tried to make nice with the scary god who I didn't have a reason to piss off, but I was shaky and annoyed so he got the bad attitude.
In his defense he didn't take it personally, simply giving me a shrug. "Oh, I wouldn't say that. I see the old goat didn't bother to tell you his deal with me. That isn't surprising, he's always been a vague and irritating when it suits him. Which is mostly always. See, Odin doesn't have a favor big enough to cash in to ask me to empty my vaults for him. Rules of the game you see. I'd love to just hand the weapons over, but sadly they need to be won, by hook or by crook." He noted my flat stare and put his hands up placatingly. "Not to worry however, he did get you SOME benefits."
He steepled his fingers. "So here's the deal. Giving out weapons of power to mortals is a no no. Even for big shots like me, its in the rules. There are workarounds that involve trading favors and backroom deals but they take too long to arrange. There is however and exception. Champions of gods can be outfitted by their patron deity. Now each god only gets one champion. But Odin managed to swing a full six slots for you by bribing them out of other gods in my pantheon. You can get six of our strongest items handed right to you."
I sighed. "I think that stick has flattened every inch of ground within a mile of that bush. Just get to the point. The catch, this is the part where you tell us the catch. Since we aren't being handed the weapons now that means we need to do something first. Given the absolute nonsense you greeks are known for assigning your heroes to do I imagine it will be dangerous or time consuming or both. Hopefully just the former though, like you said we're on a deadline." I was almost positive what he was going to suggest, at least in a broad sense, and I just wanted it over with.
He laughed, a deep rich sound, like warm chocolate on a cold winter night. "Very well. I'll keep it simple then. Cameron Beddows, I offer you and your women positions as Champions of the greek pantheon. In exchange you must each undertake a trial, and holy challenge to prove your divine right to stand as our champions." He grinned as he finished his dramatic proclamation. "So? What do you say? Think you're ready to try to join the big leagues?" Honestly, that almost pissed me off enough to accept on its own, just to show him how easy it would be. In the end though I knew even without that I'd do it. If Odin sent us down here, this was our only shot.
So here I was, undertaking a trial to be the Champion of a god. Since Hades pretty much doubled as the greek pantheons banker we didn't need to go to Olympus or anything, which was good because of the time crunch. Kara was able to go pick the other girls up from a nearby entrance to the Underworld and after she left, I was asked which of the gods I would like to represent. The girls would take their trials on their own, and I avoided Hades because I knew Barb would want in on that sweet sweet helm of darkness action.
I considered a few different gods, but in the end I decided on Hapheastus. Sure he probably wasn't the baddest bully on the playground, but I was already a badass, and he'd always seemed like a cool guy in the stories. I had a better chance of passing his trial than most of the ones that wouldn't just be straight combat. Or I hoped so anyway. Though some to think of it fighting ancient greek robots would be cool as shit, so maybe combat wouldn't be an issue. Luckily the underworld was easy for the gods to reach so Hades could arrange the test and just let Haphaestus drop in and veto me if he felt like it.
Which was how I found myself on a large black sand beach in a massive black stone cavern. A gently flowing river of glowing green flowed through the center of the cavern, splitting the whole place in two at Hades led me away from his office to where my trial would be. Kara had been escorted back up by the skeleton already and Aiden went with her so I was alone down here. I turned to the dark god and raised an eyebrow, gesturing to the river. "You stole this from the Disney movie didn't you?"
Hades just grinned. Despite his little test, Hades was even more relaxed than Odin was in conversation, and I had to admit I liked his sense of humor. "Maybe they stole it from me, did you consider that? I don't need to take that kind of sass from a bouncing baby brat." I almost choked as he referenced the cartoon version of his life story and he just snickered. "Kidding, yes I remodeled this after I saw the movie. Realistically being a screaming soul in a river is pretty awful, so I used this place for my more malevolent souls."
I looked into the glowing water and sure enough I saw a stretched out wailing face smashed in between a million others, the water literally made of some sort of liquid soulstuff. I was deathly curious what it was, but I resisted the urge to try sticking my metal hand in it. I turned to the death god. "Id this like...soulwater? Like some kind of soulfire alternative?" If I could do other shit with my soul than burn it that would be a pretty big benefit for me, and I wasn't going to miss the chance to learn more about how my powers worked even if I couldn't.
He just chuckled. "No. They're basically collectively shoved into a river of ectoplasm. It's crowded in there though, so not very comfortable. Imagine a million ghosts possessing one body and unable to move it. An exquisite punishment don't you think?" He bared his teeth in something that couldn't really be called a smile and I winced a bit. The scary as fuck monster feeling came back there for a second, but then it was gone and he was just Hades, totally chill divine dude. That was just so damn creepy.
Finally we came to an outcropping and he waved a hand, the river receded revealing a small bridge that we crossed and when we got to the other side we walked another twenty minutes until we reached a huge opening in the cavern. He gestured to the entryway. "Here we are. This is the site of your trial. If you do well enough Haphaestus will be darn to watch, if not then you've wasted your chance. Are you sure you want to do this? Haphaestus is a demanding patron, and strength of arms won't help you with his trials." He seemed more curious than concerned, but when I nodded he just shrugged. "Well good luck then. You're going to need it."
He was gone before I could blink, just there one second and vanished the next and I rolled my eyes at the old gods and their drama. Then I turned and walked into the cavern to find myself in...another cavern. Granted this one had veins of magma instead of a soul river but still. Not exactly a dramatic shift in environment. In the center of the space was a forge, next to which sat several racks of tools and an anvil. I strolled over to pick them up and I was surprised at how light and strong they were. Next to the forge was a metal sign of shimmering bronze on which was hammered the words. "Make something."
I blinked. Ok, well that was open ended. I walked over the the tool bench and sifted through the available tools, then bent down and looked through the supply of metals. Black, silver, bronze, every shade of ingot I could think of was there, some of which I recognized from lessons and some I didn't. I was pretty sure the shiny one was olympian bronze, but my master hadn't had enough to work on that one with me so I knew jack shit about making things with it. I sorted the ingots one at a time, looking for something I felt confident using, but eventually I just tossed them back.
I only had one metal at my disposal that would work well enough. I could only make one thing with that metal that would be up to standard. So it looked like I was going to have to make a godsteel dagger if I wanted any chance of passing. Easy enough. I started focusing power into my arm as per usual. It was the first time since I'd reached fifty percent refinement that I'd tried using my soul like this and it felt...easy. Like qualitatively easier now. My flesh conducted soul energy nearly as well as the godsteel now. I was going to have to condense it some more soon if I wanted it to keep up with my fleshly body. Until then I filled my arm as much as I could in a reasonable amount of time focusing power into the limb.
I had much more soul energy lately than I had at any other point, and with the ease of transfer I was able to pack enough power into my arm to create a chunk of metal as dense as my arm itself. My last godsteel dagger had been a pretty low density version of the alloy, and I wanted to see what the stronger variant would be like. Only my Archangel Armor was made of a comparable metal, but my master had done most of the forging. With my new perception and power not to mention my experiences in hell I was betting I could make something really amazing now. I even had an idea of how to do that.
I thought about my plan and decided not to make a dagger. I was going to create a hammer. The quality might turn out a bit worse but it shouldn't be by much and it would suit my plans for the item much better. Before I condensed the energy in my arm into its metallic form I focused on the limb. First I channeled a force aspect through the metal, then I layered on a force Aura, then I triple stacked with my usual strongest combo and layered in a massive force spell. I winced a bit as my arm creaked. I'd never used my triple stack combo when my arm already had a ton of power in it like this, it felt strained, but it wasn't unmanageable yet.
I'd poured in enough energy for a dagger but I wanted the hammer to have some heft so I shifted into the first form of klurkor and started pouring in more. The strain increased a bit, a slight twinge, then an ache, then a stabbing pain, but I pushed harder. I poured more and more in but it diluted the magic so I had to recast my combo spells, until finally I was in so much pain I couldn't fucking see, then I unleashed the thing from my limb and a fucking dryer sized chunk of gosteel spawned into existence right in front of me. With the power gone from my arm the pain faded, though a dull ache took its place, and the glow of power still filled the metal, though it was fading faster than it should have.
Feeling hurried by the enhanced stabilizing speed I focused on the thing and started making my alterations. First up was the head obviously, a massive maul sledge the size of a bread box, tempered by my will to the same level as one of my daggers but condensed even further than my arm was because I had some extra. Then I did the haft, a four foot shaft of intricately filagreed metal with some fancy designs on it I thought looked nice. I pushed all the power from the haft up into the head as soon as I finished it so the force enchantments would all be focused on the striking surface.
Finally I finished, slumping to the ground just as the hammer smashed down into the hard volcanic earth beneath my feet. I looked at the gleaming black war maul and stood, picking the thing up. Then I walked over to the anvil and hefted it up with a normal amount of my strength and brought it down on the chunk of metal. There was a fucking boom and the anvil punched into the ground beneath it shooting down into the earth and creating a massive hole. I grinned at the hammer. It had worked. I'd used my aspect as a binding agent to merge the magic into the energy of the godsteel before I condensed it and created a weapon that was made of naturally enchanted metal.
A clapping sound came from behind me and I spun, hammer raised. I lowered it when I saw the man in front of me. I didn't know him, not exactly, but I'd heard descriptions. Haphaestus was a level of ugly you don't mistake for anything else. The old smith laughed. "That was...an interesting way to go about it. I'm not entirely sure I would call that blacksmithing, but I'd certainly call it making, and that WAS your task. I suppose I only have myself to blame." He held out a massive hand "May I?"
I nodded and passed the huge, scarred, misshapen man my new creation. He twirled the wrist thick length of godsteel in his fingers like a baton, the head singing through the air as it whirled in complex patterns. He gave a grudging nod. "Bit weak, but ingenious in it's own way. The quality is superb. To be able to create a naturally enchanted metal is no small thing. Yes, this will do. You may serve as my champion." He swung the hammer up onto his shoulder. "Well, good luck and all that. If you survive come and seek me out. I could teach you a few things that old elf doesn't know."
Then, just like his uncle, he vanished. I looked around, a bit peeved this had been so quick, but then, this was supposed to be the fast way. I shrugged and headed back down the cavern hall, heading for the soul river cave. Hopefully Hades would have someone there to meet me. The only good thing about this situation was that the girls probably had equally fast if not probably more dangerous tests. I knew they could handle themselves though so all that was left was to collect my weapon from Hades and get going. If he didn't give me something better than the hammer I had just made I was going to be so pissed.
When I got back to the house almost everyone was gone. Clearly Kara had picked up the girls and our other roomies had headed to Charity's or Harry's to wait their tests out. Two people however, were there, and surprisingly one of them was Kara herself. I must have looked surprised as I came in because she gave a quiet nervous laugh at my face when I froze in the doorway. "Hi, Cam. I finished my trial already, so I came home early to talk to you. Raven agreed to bring the others back after they're done."
Inari, the other person in the room, took her girlfriends hand and squeezed it reassuringly before turning to smile at me warmly. "Kara wanted to talk to you about something important." She nudged her girlfriend encouragingly, but when the kryptonian didn't respond she just rolled her eyes. "Fine. If you won't tell him then I will. Kara wants you to take her to pound town." Kara turned bright red and her mouth dropped open in horror. Inari, of course, noticed this and kept going to motivate her to cut in. "You know, stuff her stocking? Lean into her with your tower of piza? Scooby her doo?"
Kara jumped up and whirled on her girlfriend. "Ok, first of all, those last two aren't even proper euphemisms! You just made them up on the spot. Second of all Inari, you know very well this isn't about sex. You keep me more than satisfied in bed. I...I have feelings for Cam. That I wanted to share before this big battle we're going to have." She bit her lip uncertainly. "You said you weren't mad. If this bothers you we should just forget about this whole thing." She turned to me. "I'm sorry Cam forget it it's nothin-"
She was cut off by Inari putting her hand over her mouth. "Hey, whoa, stop it right there missy. I was kidding. I just wanted to break the ice to give you some motivation. I fully support this. You're free to join Cam's little poly group, I won't be sad or disappointed. Besides I know he's open to his girls playing with other women and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about just SMASHING my face between Raven's big thick ass cheeks." She bit hew own lip and shuddered a bit before blinking a few times, her eyes fading from their unnoticed silver tint.
She looked slightly embarrassed by that. "Damn. I'm hungry tonight." She looked at me. "Since I'm positive you're going to end up breaking that ass in half send her my way when you're done. I'll be in my room listening to her scream and getting ready to get ruined." I blinked in shock as she got up and skipped out of the room. I had to admit being a sex vampire was good for Inari's confidence. Kara in the mean time looked torn between being aroused, mortified, and annoyed, and I had to laugh at how cute it was.
I walked over to sit down next to her with a smile. "First things first. How was your trial? Did you make it and which god did you pick?" I figured giving her brain time to decompress from that fairly overwhelming episode would be a good move so I brought things back to our recent ordeal. "I figure you went with someone associated with the sun or fire, so probably Apollo? I don't know what weapon he might give you but for sure it would synergize pretty well with your powers."
She smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, Apollo was my pick, I know it's a bit basic, sun god and all, but I figured whatever he was able to give me would be the most effective. I passed the trial pretty easily though, and he gave me his Golden Bow. The thing is pretty sturdy too, it takes actual effort to draw it, the arrows seem to imbued with my faith energy too so it works really well for me." She finished talking and seemed to go blank, unsure what to say next. Then she scooted closer and cleared her throat shyly. "I uh, I did want to talk about what Inari said."
I raised an eyebrow and she blushed. "I care for you Cam. I always have, since we first got here, but I wasn't ready for a boyfriend after Power Boy and I love you for respecting that." She blushed harder. "But if we might die during this mess, and I heard you talking to Raven and know we might, then I don't want to do it with regrets." She leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to my lips, tentatively at first, but then deepening as she gained confidence. She stopped abruptly and pulled back. "Raven knows about this, but it's up to you if you want to keep going. So what do you say? Do you want me Cam?"
Her voice was vulnerable as she laid herself bare for me emotionally and I smiled, leaning back down to kiss her again. Unlike her kiss mine wasn't slow or gentle, it was hungry and demanding. She moaned into my lips and I dug my fingers into one of her sweet bubbly ass cheeks as I pulled her into my lap. She wiggled on top of me, grinding that perfect ass on my rapidly hardening dick and I grinned against her lips. I slid my metal hand down her thigh, slipped her panties aside and stuffed my middle and fore finger knuckle deep up her soaking cunt.
I felt her squeal of joy against my lips as I did and pulled back to whisper in her ear. "So do you want me to be all soft and gentle?" She hand a fist in my hair and was shaking her head no almost drunkenly. I curled my two fingers along the top of her twat, finding a spot near the entrance that felt just a bit different and stroking her G spot slowly. A ragged moan tore from her mouth as he head lolled back and she tried to shove her hips further down my fingers, desperate to get more of me in her.
I was planning to tease her more until she reached down and tore open my pants. She grabbed me by the front of the pants and tore, exposing my hard cock. She shoved me back onto the couch, swung her leg over my lap and dropped straight down on my cock with a moan of joy. "Ugggh, yes. Rao, you have no idea how long it's been since I got some good dick. Inari and I have so much fun but there's something to be said for getting stuffed by a man." She gave a ragged and exultant shuddering sigh. Then she started to swing her hips.
I have never, in my life felt someone do to me with their pussy what Kara did. Raven is part sex demon and Cinder had a cunt like a volcano, but Kara was bouncing that jiggly little ass on my lap like she was one of those ping pong paddle string toys. It probably would have hurt if she wasn't so fucking sloppy wet but as it was I felt like I was getting fucked so fast her pussy might as well have been vibrating. I had to shift into the third klurkor form to fucking keep up, not to mention crank my lightning aspect.
Of course that wasn't all I did, I activated my force aura, flipped her over onto the floor off the couch and smashed my cock as deep in her as it would go. She shrieked with delight. "FUCK!" Her eyes were unfocused, but her face flushed. "Harder! You can't hurt me, it's so good I need it!" I cranked my force aspect and started slamming into her again, fucking her so hard my hips rattled as I gave her a double stacked deep dicking. Shame I couldn't use a spell because of her not being resistant to magic.
Still her pussy was fountaining juice with every thrust as she screamed with delight and the image of it was getting me so fucking hot I shifted up to fifth form, pouring every ounce of power into my fucking as I pounded her into the floor so hard I was pretty sure that jiggly golden tan ass of hers cracked the floor. I heard a sound and looked up and almost fucking paused before Kara dug her heels in and yanked me back down as I stared at the spread finger stuffed pussy of Inari. She was going to town on herself as she watched.
She saw my gave and bit her lip. "Don't get used to this. No touching for you, but I want to see my baby get that rough dick so bad." She moaned and masturbated faster. "Fuuuuck, you're giving it to her so good I can fucking taste the lust, harder stud! Wreck that pussy! She's so tiny and soft it's easy to forget what she can take but don't worry, the things ive done to those fucking holes would make an orbital bombardment blush." Her smile was huge and dopey as she fucked herself. "Isn't that right baby? That pretty pussy can take it?"
Kara keened with pleasure. "Yes! I need it! I can take it so good you'll see just do it harder!" But despite that I was more focused on another thing Inari had said. Grinning ruthlessly I reached down with my godsteel hand and when her eyes were particularly out of focus I shoved my thumb into her tight little asshole. She screamed in ecstasy. "Fuck baby my butt, his fingers up my butt and it's so hard and hes moving it around!" Her screeches ended abruptly as Inari finally gave up observing and sat down on her girlfriends face.
Kara's screams were muffled by succubus pussy and I wondered if Inari had always had booty like that or if it had filled out because her fucking cheeks were clapping as she rough used her girlfriends face. Like she'd said I didn't touch but it was a hell of a view while I got my dick into some hot kryptonian pussy, and I was almost hypnotized by her bouncing bountiful booty. Finally after another fifteen minutes in which I might have possibly damaged the house to the foundations I felt a shift in Kara's tightness.
I grinned and drove into her harder and faster as Inari cackled out between moans. "Fuck yes, eat it, lick that pussy. She's gonna cum stud, she's gonna milk that fat cock of yours. Do it! Empty your balls in her hot little snatch, creampie that little bitch, I want to feel her screams in my cunt." Inari was glowing now, though she wasn't draining me so she must have been drinking deep from Kara, but I wasn't turning down an invite like that and Kara seemed happy to take it judging by her increased speed of fucking. I reach down with my non metal hand to rub her clit, having to balance to keep myself upright with both hands working on her holes but it was worth it as I pounded my way to bliss.
I could feel it coming and I knew I was going to cum as deep in her as I could get, knew she wanted that, and I shoved my cock balls deep inside her, my aura enhanced force multiplied dick slamming into her womb, safely held off by her durability as I groaned and emptied my balls into her pussy full force. Inari screamed as Kara did the same and I bellowed as I came, all three of us orgasming as the same time and I finally felt some of that white court mojo as she drained our collective orgasm, though I wasn't in any danger because of the klurkor state, the last thing I noted as I blacked out from pleasure was that I totally got what everyone in this universe was going on about. White court sex was amazing.
The next few days were both peaceful and hectic at the same time. As much as I'd like to say Kara being part of our little group was some blissful life changing experience, the fact was we had far too much to do to sit around fucking or cuddling all the time. Not that we didn't do a bit of both, but most of the time we spent contacting allies and asking for support, with anyone from the meeting calling in their markers to try to cobble together an army for us to use in the battle ahead. We had Aiden out and about with Cinder and Kara looking for the Denarians but hadn't gotten any leads so aside from knowing big things were coming we were mostly in a holding pattern.
The girls had all passed their trials. They each came back with a new weapon for our big fight. Barb as expected had ended up with Hades helm of darkness, which she loved. Her test had been some kind of weird puzzle game with riddles and dead people and she wouldn't stop ranting about how much fun she had. I suspected Hades was happy with his champion too given the Helmet was his symbol of power and he hadn't made arrangements to take it back after the battle like Apollo had with Kara. She must have made a pretty big impression on the old ghost and I looked forward to seeing what she could do with the crazy overpowered invisibility helmet.
Raven had gotten a slightly less commonly talked about but equally powerful patron. The goddess Hecate had been intrigued by my girlfriend and had decided to offer her use of one of her torches. The object apparently boosted the power of magic and of demonic aspected abilities, which was a double whammy for Raven. Hecate's challenge had been a powerful spell Raven had to learn from scratch and cast herself from a mural with minimal descriptions or clues. Hecate had spoken with her in person much like Hephaestus had with me and the two of them had gotten along well, with the former titan offering Raven lessons after the battle.
Cinder had gotten her own test from an even less well known deity than Raven's. Eris, goddess of discord. I...honestly didn't know how to take that, though it certainly fit with her personality on remnant. Her test had been some kind of war game scenario but instead of being given an army she had to infiltrate a pair of warring kingdoms and collapse them both. It was by far the most intricate test mentioned and Eris had apparently had Hades tweak the time flow in the place because it had apparently taken Cinder months to pull off but she made it back that same night. Eris had gifted my maiden with her very own apple of discord, and Cinder was honestly slightly too gleeful about using it on the outsiders.
Yang had been approached, to the surprise of literally no one, by Ares. His test had been as straightforward as the god himself. She had to fight some insane chosen of his who was stupidly powerful. Luckily after refining herself in hell for months Yang was half angel now in truth and she was ten times as dangerous for that fact. Her semblance worked by soaking up damage to dish it back out as strength and with her new nephilim body she could hold a massive amount of power. Pair that with her improvement in Fenrir's combat style and she'd torn Ares's boy apart within a half hour.
Because she was a brawler he'd gifted her his shield instead of his sword one of his symbols of power, and offered to train her in combat when she returned it.
Kara meanwhile had taken to training with her bow when she wasn't out looking for denarians and she had learned some amazing things about it. Firstly the amount of power you could condense into the arrow wasn't limited but the draw weight increased as the strength of the arrow did. Far from being an issue this was actually perfect for Kara, turning the weapon into an even more dangerous trump card for her. The bow drained solar energy from the user, since it had been made for Apollo, so Kara could supercharge the arrows and then draw it without much trouble, creating massively powerful explosive charges that moved too fast for me to see properly even in my lightning aspect.
Finally there was my own weapon, with which I'd been training pretty frequently. Hepheastus had given me an olympian bronze cestus to wear on my non metal hand in combat. It actually solved a big problem for me because I'd been slowly using my klurkor state at its max to condense my arm further and the result was my durability on my right side being MUCH higher. The cestus let me fight like normal without shattering my fleshy left fist with the impacts of my at this point frankly insane power. I'd been holding back a bit recently with my off hand but this would patch up the one weakness I had in combat.
Needless to say we were all much more confident of our victory with the divine gifts, but we weren't exactly assured a win. It wasn't enough to stop the worrying in any case, so we'd been throwing ourselves into training and prep work non stop to make use of our nerves. Lily had been able to rustle up a huge contingent of fae to repay our favors since this was a matter that effected the whole court, with Lara bringing her own vampires along for the ride. The wizards were as mentioned only able to really bring themselves, though at my urging they'd managed to get Carlos, Yoshimo, Wild Bill, and Chandler out here to help. They trusted my future knowledge enough not to ask why though they were clearly a bit skeptical the kids would be of use.
The knights were on side obviously, with all three of them having arrived for this fight, and River had called a few of his kinsmen in to help out as well. The army we had brewing was shaping up to be monstrous in power. We were hoping to take out mantis girl Tessa before the big rumble, but sadly that wasn't to be. We'd had Soldier Field under surveillance by a few fae scouts for a day or two now, and despite the distance needed to keep them safe in case Loki decided to look around the binoculars Marcone had supplied had proven essential to discovering when it was finally time to move.
News of the massing forces at the field as Loki set up the circle with Cowl was passed to us quickly, and despite us moving out to intercept them in what was probably an obvious trap, by the time our forces arrived the circle was already about halfway completed. We all met up in the parking lot of the field museum arranging for everyone to mass there before the attack. We had quite a few people to manage and it would be a chore to pull off, but since we were so numerous we figured it was a better idea to make the arrangements close by so the formations we were using didn't just fall apart.
While the meeting had been pretty cramped since we'd only had the leaders of the various factions and our friends show up. This gathering was on a whole different scale, and my eyes were almost bursting out of my head at the gathered forces. Thousands of people, monsters, spirits, fae, and everything else I could think of were arrayed before us. First we had Marcone and his goons, strapped to the nines with what looked like runic guns enchanted by Gard, who was right there leading them all. No einherjar because they were needed at the gates, but the criminals made up for their lack by being generally tough looking bastards one and all.
Lily and Fix were standing in front of hundreds of fae, sidhe, trolls, centaurs, pixies, undines, and even a fucking unicorn all armed for demonic bear. Off to one side the white court stood behind Lara, with Thomas at her side, all of them strapped with magic weapons they'd sourced from one place or another. Dalton was here with his crew, carrying enough magical hardware to be able to keep up with them, and with a mostly recovered Brynn watching his back as Mina hovered nearby with the other darklings.
Flamebird stood with River's tribe, though not out of sentiment, the forest people just seemed really excited to meet her, and she'd even brought her pawapicts to help out, the unpleasant little monsters swarming around her by the dozens. The alphas were here, and Harry had come with Ebenezar and Joe and Ramirez and the other wizards. Henry had shown up with Calliope, and Tera was here, having left Connor with Charity who stayed home because if Michael and the other two knights somehow fell while also preventing the end of the world someone would need to stay with the kids.
Every supernatural being and monster and friend and ally we had had turned out in force with all their pals behind them to come together into the biggest scariest crew of supernatural baddies the city had ever seen. I just hoped this would be enough. My own crew was behind me and I felt their support as I stepped up to address our forces. "Thank you, everyone, for coming tonight." I had to climb up onto the hood of a car to see everyone, but I made sure to push soulfire into my voice as I spoke so my speech carried to everyone, a tricked I picked up from Harry in the books.
I pointed out at soldier field, where even in the distance we could see the circle beginning to gather power. "Over there, a mad god and a group of psychos being puppeted by an outsider cult leader ghost are preparing to bring down a war on us like we've never seen. Most of you probably know that we're mopping up the smaller force here while the real attack is headed for the gates, but don't think that means this won't be hell on earth." I gave a wry smile. "And I should know, I've been there for real." There was a smattering of chuckles that actually made me feel pretty good about myself but I pressed on.
I stared at the red power gathering into the circle and the small army gathered at its foot and I knew we wouldn't be able to stop the summoning, this would turn into a full on battle against the outsiders. I turned to regard everyone. "I can't promise you'll all live through this my friends. I can't even promise I will. This is the big one, the whole enchilada. We're literally up against the end of the world here, and not that apocalypse is a way of thinking bullshit Nico-dumbass peddles. This is true blue destruction coming for all of us and nothing except the best we have will stop it." I exhaled slowly. "So no pressure."
Everyone rolled their eyes but I grinned. "Seriously no pressure. If we fail none of us will be alive to feel bad about it anyway, so go out there and give it your all, because without us here the world would be doomed so if we don't stop it we broke even anyway. It's not like anyone will be around to bitch at you about it. Go out there and fuck up some outsiders and don't sweat the small stuff." In the field across from us the red energy coalesced into carmine lightning and the explosion of malevolent force literally cracked the skin of the world as the ritual began to power up, aided by Cowl's know how and Loki's raw magical juice. I rolled my neck, cracking it. "Well, lets go save the world" And I jumped down to lead my army to battle.
For everyone dying to see Kara end up with Cam, I told you it would happen lol. Just a reminder there's onlytwo chapters left on here one of which will be 8k instead of ten because an earlier chapter was twelve, but the final chapter count will be 50 with over 500k words. pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent. Currently in the middle of the wrap up chapters if anyone wants to read ahead. hope you enjoy and let me know what you think.