Zery is gone. We search for her, but she's nowhere to be found. Outside, Calyx tells the riddle to the worker who touched the shield, and the man dies unceremoniously. Just like that, a life has been snuffed out, the dryad using the powers of the very System to end the lives of people the System was supposed to help survive. At least, I hope that's what it's supposed to do.
The demonic core brightens a little. People of the great races do not have cores like monsters and humanoid sentients, but apparently their magic is still good enough for the System to take. The dead man wasn't too powerful, but the demonic core is a little bit brighter and the attacks have stopped. The men outside probably don't want to risk it.
"I suppose it is good enough for now," I say.
"Will it last, though?" Elyra asks.
I don't think it will. These workers will retreat back to the guild, inform the higher-ups about what's going on, and then more people will be sent to try and break the shield. They will soon learn that attacking the shield from a distance doesn't trigger the riddle, and they will use stronger and stronger attacks in an attempt to pierce it.
Vespera is searching for Zery while we try to come up with a more permanent solution. Calyx said that magic generates more magic, and if my understanding of the System is correct, it's designed to take a portion of this magic to power itself. The problem, however, is that we have already seen that direct attacks against an overextended shield, such as the one we had Calyx's tree form around the room, draw more power than the System can take from the attacks the workers send against it.
Might there be an override to force the System to take more energy? If there was, it would have activated on its own already, I think. No, it's a dead end.
"The workers have left," Calyx says with evident relief.
Good, this bought us a few hours at least. Maybe more. I look at my guild token, which is beeping in alarm, and see that the tide meter is rising.
A nagging feeling grips me, and I look at the dryad. "Did the System do this?"
"Do you mean, trigger a tide?" he asks. "I would think it preposterous, but in light of what I have recently learned, I would say it is… not impossible."
"It would make sense," Elyra muses. "The System cannot extract magic from monsters, so it needs someone to kill them. It would also work as a way to prevent monsters from overbreeding, by forcing the great races to cull them periodically. At the same time, it forces the great races to advance their magic, in turn empowering the System even more."
"Evidently something went wrong because from what I see, the great races aren't doing very well," I say.
"It is just speculation, and a very worrying one if true," the angel says quietly.
"The tree says that the System uses whatever instruments it has at its disposal in a certain region. It is not the same everywhere. The System is made up of many, interconnected but independent cells, capable of adapting and changing on their own."
It is like a bombshell dropped on us. Elyra and I want to know more, but the dryad claims that the tree's memories are scattered. We could use the slave bond to see if they are lying, but Vespera returns before we can even consider doing it.
"I searched everywhere," she says. "It's like Zery just vanished into thin air or something!"
She's clearly very frustrated, understandably so.
"Hey," I tell her softly, pulling her into a hug. "We'll find her."
She sniffles, rubbing her face against my shirt. "It's not fair, Sol. This world sucks! Maybe I would have liked your old one better."
I smile. "I don't think so. Besides, we have something we shouldn't underestimate."
She looks up at me, eyes full of hope.
"Silly demon," I say. "Did you forget how overpowered our bond is? Not only because of what it is, but also what it gives us. It gives us a way to gain the power to change things. Look at Calyx."
The dryad in question shrinks under our two gazes.
"We didn't like what his tree was doing. We changed things."
"It is one way to frame it, sure," the demon says. "We also forced the poor dryad to riddle someone even though he clearly hates it, though? And before you say it, I know we had no choice. It's the whole point."
"Things will change," I say. "I promise you."
◈◈◈
"I think Zery will be back," Elyra says. "I just recalled something she told us when Vespera asked her why she wasn't in the room when we entered, and only appeared while we were in the vision. She said that something happened to her, that she sometimes vanished only to reappear later, and that she could tell because the room around her changed every time it happened."
"Might have been amnesia," Vespera says.
"Looks like the devil wants to play devil's advocate," I say.
"I'm a demon," she replies with a snicker and an elbow to my side. She pretends to be offended, but I know she found it at least a little bit funny. "Anyway, it's not like we have anything else to do but wait until the tide ends. Calyx, can you bring us food from the tree?"
The dryad nods. "I shall go right away."
"Nice," the demon says. Then, with a smirk, she adds: "Take the long way back, if you catch my drift. Come back in a few hours, maybe?"
The dryad clearly doesn't catch her drift, but he nods and disappears down the tunnel leading to the roots of his tree.
"Good," Vespera purrs, walking over towards me while dragging Elyra by her arms. "And now that we are all alone…"
"Wait," I say, making her pout. "Hey! What if Zery returns?"
"Well, she's already watched us do it, you know?"
I stammer, feeling some heat in my face. "That's… not what I meant. I was thinking about the chains. They are still there, aren't they?"
"What about it?"
"Do you think she will reappear in the same position she was before?" I ask.
Elyra understands. "We can try to move the chains away. If she reappears where she had been before, then the chains won't be around her wrists anymore."
Vespera chuckles. "Sounds silly and wonky, but it's not like it costs us anything to try. Let's do it."
We move the chains out of the way, taping them to the ceiling with some duct tape we found in a drawer. It was actual, honest-to-god duct tape. Crazy, but incredibly useful. It immediately went into my backpack, eliciting a laugh from the girls who could feel my excitement and look through my memories to see just how many times duct tape saved my ass back on the hauler.
"I can't believe you plugged a leak leading to DEEP SPACE with that shit," Vespera says in disbelief.
"It is all about pressure differentials," Elyra begins to explain. "As long as you—mffh!"
The demon seals the little angel's lips in a deep kiss and caresses her skin with a finger. "You're very hot when you go all nerdy on us, little cat-angel. But, you see, I had other ideas about how we could spend what little precious alone time we got. Looks like it's at a premium lately, and intend to make good use of it."
She pins the angel against the wall and begins to make out with her. Thrusting her long tongue in her mouth, she invades every inch of her until they are both panting for breath.
—Content warning: NSFW—
Then, one hand goes to her breasts and finds the bindings hiding Elyra's massive chest from the world. It slides below them, and I feel everything she feels, not just thanks to the bond but also because Vespera is pushing her sensations through. It really is just one step below hopping into her mind and actually being in her body. In fact, it might even be worse, because my own body responds to the sensations as if it was the one feeling them.
"Good," the demon says with a smirk. "Your turn comes later, spacer boy. Just sit back and enjoy the ride."
Her other hand slips inside the angel's panties, finding a thick bush of hair that's already drenched in watery secretions. A thick musky smell wafts from the slight opening in her clothes, along with the humidity and heat of Elyra's crotch.
My dick stiffens like crazy, and my breathing grows ragged. Vespera had made me sit on the floor next to them, but they are both still standing, almost on top of me, with the demon pinning the angel against the wall.
Elyra is not resisting at all. If anything, she's leaning into the demon's touch and moaning each time Vespera's nails part her pubes and lightly scratch her flesh around her pussy. She's taking her sweet time, slowly getting closer and closer to the center.
"Push your sensations into the bond, little angel," she commands.
Elyra's chest constricts for a moment as a wave of fear washes over her. Seeing this, Vespera pushes her body close to hers and pauses her teasing for a moment. She lifts the angel's face, forcing her to look into her eyes and smiles softly.
"You are safe with us, little angel," she says. "You can bare yourself naked. Here, I'll do it first."
A torrent of sensations, emotions and feelings invades the bond. I am thankful i'm sitting, because Elyra is not as lucky and her legs almost give out under her. Only the pressure of the demon pinning her against the wall lets her stay upright.
"Can you feel it? This is what I feel all the time, and it's all because of you two!"
The angel pants, eyes glazed over with pleasure even though the two of them aren't doing anything naughty yet. "I can, yes."
"I know it's not normal," the demon says. "I know what I feel is strange and that i'm horny all the time… but it's thanks to you two that I have learned to accept it. Now, I'm not hiding it anymore. I want you to be able to do that same. Do you feel safe with us, little angel?"
"Yes…" she says dreamily.
"Then open yourself up to the bond. Stop hiding."
She does. Her emotions are subtler, but I learn quickly that they are no less powerful. In hindsight, I really shouldn't have been surprised, I guess. Everyone's emotions are strong, especially when they hide them.
I can feel her desire match Vespera's. She is dying to see what the demon will do to her with those hands.
Smirking, the demon happily complies. One hand goes in search of the nipple hiding beneath the bindings, the other goes in search of the secret prize between the angel's legs. She finds it, and the angel moans in pelasure.
I feel all of it, and I am throbbing in painful pleasure together with her. The sensations are alien and strange, but it's not to say I don't like them. Hells and heavens, I am ready to jump at those two. But a glare from Vespera tells me it's not my time yet.
With a playful, teasing smile, her hands retreat from the angel's body. Elyra moans, expecting more, but soon frustration and denial fills her mind and she looks at Vespera.
"Why did you stop?" she pleads.
"You know," she replies with a finger on her chin. "When sharing everything like we are now, it doesn't really matter who cums. We all come together anyway, don't we?"
The angel looks at her with big, round eyes. "I… want to cum though, Vespera."
"Beg," the demon says.
"Please," the angel says. She grabs the demon's hand and forces it against her crotch. "Please, let me come."
The demon pretends to think about it. "Hmm. Nope," she says.
With a snap of her fingers, her armor disappears. She pushes the angel down to her knees, so that she's level with her pussy.
"You wanna come, little cat-angel? Well, then you better get to work. You make me, you also come." she leans closer to her hear, making her—and in turn me—shiver. "And guess what? If you do a good enough job here, Sol will also cum in his pants."
CHAPTER 63.5 NSFW PREVIEW
Vespera's pussy is drenched and dripping, and when she presses it right into Elyra's face the angel gasps in surprise as the smell of my semen and the demon's fluids hits her. She realizes that my cum has been there since we had sex in the vision and I came inside the demon, slowly leaking out and pooling against her armor. When she dismissed it, it all dripped down her thighs and legs.
"It really was real," she whispers.
The demon lifts one leg above the angel's head and presses her pussy into her face.
"Look at this mess. All sticky and smelling so much like Sol. I don't know if I am disgusted or super fucking horny," she says. Then, shaking her head: "Who am I kidding? I can feel how horny YOU are, little angel. You're a degenerate just like the rest of us. Well? Dig in!"
Her flesh is perfectly smooth with not a trace of hair or imperfection, and her labia are swollen and leaking. The angel looks at her longingly, leaning in to give her a tentative lick.
A shiver runs through us, three bodies feeling pleasure at the same time. I feel it somewhere near my balls, below the base of the penis, while she feels it exactly where Vespera also feels it. It's enough to make the dam break, and she dives between the demon's legs with gusto, lapping up all the juices and cum.
Her tongue moves and twirls around as she moans like crazy, the mirror pleasure she feels making her rock her hips back and forth while the demon does the same but with a face between her thighs. Soon, Elyra reaches up with her hands and begins to massage Vespera all over while licking her clit, plunging one finger inside.
Then two, and she shudders in pleasure.
"I'm close," she says. Her muffled voice comes from between Vespera's legs.
"We all are," the demon groans and grinds herself on her. "Don't stop!"
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