We dashed through the night, sneaking past the city of Perseverance's End and following the river upstream towards the mountains, into valleys nestled between impossibly tall peaks. The moon was out, illuminating the snow capping the looming giants of stone in silvers and blues, but we paid it no mind.
We had to take frequent breaks, despite the urgency and enthusiasm, reduced as we were to pretty much normal mortals and little more, with barely a modicum of magic to our names that we could use.
"We should be close," I said after I caught my breath. The moon was setting, and the first light of dawn was lighting the snowy peaks around us.
"You're good at navigating for a spacer," Vespera said. "I would have gotten lost twice already without using the bond to cheat."
Indeed, despite her initial enthusiasm, the only reason she was still leading the small party of three was her ability to draw information from Elyra and me through the bond. Otherwise, she'd have been completely lost.
"Unbelievable," the angel said with a scoff. "All you have to do is follow the river, how can you even get lost?"
"In my defense, these mountains all look the same. The cave we emerged from could be anywhere!"
Elyra scoffed. "The same? Do they really look the same to you? Let me see…" she hopped over to Vespera, before returning to her body. She swayed for a moment as she did so. "I always forget how strong your body's signals are," she said as she swallowed.
"Well? Did you rummage through my memories?" the demon asked with a smirk.
The angel conceded. "Yes, they do look all the same to your mind, for whatever reason."
"I gather you're all rested?" I said. "If you can bicker, then you can run."
They glared at me but said nothing, and we took off again. The sun was rising by the time we reached the tunnels, and we entered without stopping, although there was no denying the faint shiver down our backs as we did so.
Our voices echoed in the dark, winding underground. The stone muffled all sounds, but the bigger rooms up ahead made them reverberate before they could be absorbed by the earth. They mixed with the sounds of water dripping and chittering monsters lurking.
"Skitterpedes… again…" Vespera said. "I wonder if we can gain back our levels by killing them."
We pressed on, banishing the overwhelming darkness with the glow of the girls' magic. Through the bond, we felt the presence of Calla and Zery watching us with bated breath. It was as if they were here with us, the connection not affected by distance in the slightest.
It made me very happy, and the same went for the girls.
"This part is rather boring," Vespera said. "I forgot how long these tunnels were."
"Don't let your guard down," I said.
"Yes, daddy," she said, rolling her eyes at me.
I blinked.
"Worry not," Zery said telepathically. "Calla and I are also watching through your senses. Still, it would be good if you don't let your minds wander too much. I am also talking to you, Sol."
This jolted me back to the present. I hadn't even realized that I was getting distracted, despite me warning Vespera about this exact thing. The truth was, I was thinking about the fact that we had no real plan for what to do, provided we even found what we were looking for.
"I guess we'll do as we always do," Vespera said.
"Which would be?" Elyra asked.
The demon batted her eyelids at the angel. Of course we all knew the answer. Improvise. We were going to improvise as always.
Finally, we reached the room full of crystals. Again, Vespera had no trouble vaulting and jumping over the impossibly sharp edges of the many formations, while I had to be carried by Elyra.
"You got rather heavy," she said once we were on the other side, panting. "We are lucky I can channel magic through my wings properly now, or I wouldn't have made it."
"Are you telling me I'm fat?" I said, just to poke fun at her.
"No, it is due to all your…" she paused, blushing. "Muscles."
Vespera rolled her tongue at her. "You like his muscles, little angel."
"I do, a lot," the angel said, blushing even harder. "And you do too."
"Totally," she confirmed. "And I'm glad to see that they didn't go away when he lost the stats."
The banter died down as we approached the final chamber. The place where it all began. Then, finally, we were there.
"Just a mountain of rubble," I said, taking in the strange, almost majestic sight. To anyone else, it would have been utterly mundane.
"The beginning of our story," Elyra said. "Where our fates were forever changed."
"We don't believe in fate, my love," I replied.
"We rejected it twice," Vespera added. "We sure don't like predestination. But, Sol mine, you have to admit that the way we met felt almost like destiny."
"The one destiny I don't dislike, then," I said.
Zery and Calla were still there, but I felt them withdraw as if to give us space. With a thought, almost playfully, I dragged them back here with us.
"You two as well," I said. "You might have come later, but you are here with us now."
"Such a charmer," Zery said. "I will let you charm me properly after we have dealt with this emergency, little human. Right now, I gather you will have to dig?"
"Oh yes," I said. "Back to digging."
Fortunately, reaching the place where Elyra and Vespera had been held captive for fifteen thousand years didn't take too long. Most of the tunnel had been dug already, and only a few sections had caved in since we all left. It felt like ages ago, but it actually hadn't even been that long.
"How things have changed, in such little time," Calla mused.
She was the one who was feeling the overwhelming speed of change the most, since in her previous life as Calyx, she had been used to timelines that spanned millennia with little to no change. Now, things were happening one after the other.
"So," Vespera said. "Which one are we going to do first? The angel or the demon?"
She was looking at where she and Elyra had been held chained.
"Can we do mine?" Elyra asked. "I wish to know what angelic core might hide behind where I was held captive, if it will even be an angelic core we find."
Thus, we began to dig. Now that we knew what we were looking for, and with Calla's help—which meant the System's help—we soon found magical circuitry connecting the alcove to something hidden behind a rather thick wall.
The core was perhaps even bigger than the one in Zery's room. Here and there, among destroyed circuitry and computers that were barely even recognizable as such anymore, we found the withered remains of roots that had long rotted away. The core was almost transparent, but we saw traces of orange and purple within.
"Draconic," Zery said without hesitation. "Much, much stronger than I ever was."
"Calla," I said, curious about something. "We are still in the same sector as you are, aren't we?"
"Yes," came her soft voice.
"How come there is all this machinery?"
"The System claims that the place where you stand used to be its own sector. It collapsed long ago, wiping out civilization there before it was incorporated into this sector."
"So sectors can merge," I said.
"Not anymore. It used to be a long time ago, when the sectors were many and the energy plentiful. There should be traces of a fallen civilization in the area, the only testament to the tragic past."
"I see," I said. I wasn't wholly convinced, and neither were the other girls.
Zery was glaring at Calla, and the dryad looked like she was ready to cry. Then a wash of warmth flooded the bond, a hug from a dragon who was still bound by chains and could not physically comfort her, telling her that the glare had not been at her, but at the System which spoke through her.
"What do we do?" I asked. I hated to ruin the little moment, but the System was blasting me with error messages, warning that failure was imminent.
"Just… touch it," Calla said. "It will not be the same as bringing it over here, but there is no more time."
"Alright," I said. "Elyra, you do the honors."
The angel stepped forward, nodding and swallowing hard. It felt like closing some sort of circle that's been left unfinished since her imprisonment. She was worried about a great many things, but she bottled them all.
"Nope," Vespera said, taking her hand. "No burying your emotions."
Catching on, Zery was the next to chastise the little angel. "We are in this together, Elyra Nightguard; do not act arrogant."
"Arrogant?" the angel asked, taken aback.
"I know pride and arrogance. To wish to spare others from the sight of your pain, thinking you can deal with it alone. And who knows? You are strong, maybe you can. But you are arrogant nonetheless, and you disrespect us. We are together, joined by a bond."
The dragon's words cut through the silence, bringing tears to the angel and to the dryad. "This bond… it's more beautiful than I ever imagined. Zery is right. We are not alone. It is your turn now, Elyra, but you will not be the only one sharing your pain."
The angel smiled, opening herself up to us. We felt it all: her fear, her regret, and her doubts and questions.
She touched the core. My body tingled, like electricity was running through it. Magic gathered, using me as a focal point, but Elyra as the conduit. Silver fire enveloped us, like that of the Nephilim State, except she also had draconic wings, making up a third set, and leaves making up a fourth. More features tried to come out of the flames, but then the fire leapt to the core in front of her and made it crumble into nothingness before disappearing.
Through Calla's eyes, we saw the core reforming where the demonic one had been. It wasn't perfect, though. The once smooth surface was now marred with cracks and chips; the core was murky and opaque, and the energy didn't feel quite as clean and smooth as it used to.
It did not matter. The Green from the glass tubes resumed its flow, and the System shuddered, emptying the core of all its energy. The cracks expanded, the sound of glass breaking reverberating in the room while we watched with bated breath. Then, it stopped.
"The core is holding for now," Calla said. "But the System is not done."
Rerouting power…
Battery connected. Status… damaged / usable.
Delivering rewards…
Change is inevitable...
Vespera stared at the text. "Well, that's not ominous at all."
"Should we try to stop it?" I asked.
"No!" Calla shouted through the bond. "Let it do its thing. Trust me."
Merging General level and Class level.
Upgrading…
Change is inevitable...
New Gestalt approach: Bond Level.
Your souls now share a single, unified reservoir of power that will grow exponentially with the Bond Level. The initial plan was to designate you as the core, letting you access 100% of all the stats at any time, yet feel all the weight, and the other members of the bond as the terminals, allowing them to access only certain stats suited to their biology, with potential to Limit Break at a certain cost.
However.
None of you would ever accept this.
Yours is a bond between equals.
Gestalt core-terminal approach remains, but everyone shares the burden. Any single member of the bond can be designated as the core and access the full stats at any time, while the others will be limited to a main stat and 25% of the other stats. Switching the core requires a full bond merge status.
Please designate core member…
Four voices spoke my name in unison before I could say anything.
Accepted.
Level up! Bond level 1 → 2
+50 to all stats.
New skill - Matter Transmutation X
"Wait," Calla said. "I think I can…"
She did something, because a new window popped up. One we had never seen before, although today was a day of many firsts already.
Upgraded from matter restoration. Change is inevitable, thus the old skill has been improved and expanded. Use mana to transform any matter into an upgraded form.
The skill does not have levels.
Vespera opened her mouth to speak, but no words came. Moments later, we felt another surge of emotion from Calla. It seemed like the System wasn't done yet.
"It… has given me quests!" the dryad exclaimed.
"Quests? Straight to you?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. "It's not the proper way, but it can do that now that we are connected to it through me. It asks to swap this battery core with another before it breaks. Teleporting it here damaged it beyond repair, and it will not last long. After that, it asks that we gather more energy to restore more of its power. We will be rewarded as we make progress; it ensures us of it."
That's when Vespera finally found her words. "Oh yeah, now we are talking! I think I'm warming up to the idea of working for an obscure, totalitarian System that acts as a gatekeeper to magic and classes and brought the world to the brink of ruin just because it was fighting for the quote-unquote 'greater good.'"
"The System says you are its agents now," Calla said. "It is only right it helps you in any way it can."
"So the System really does talk to you," Zery said. "How come we don't feel it, though? You are in the bond with us, we should be able to share everything."
I hummed. "I think we do, but we don't know how to read it. That's what the message windows are for—an interface. Isn't that right?"
Calla nodded. "The System says that I, being the anchor, am the only one who can understand it."
"At least it is holding up its part of the bargain," Vespera said.
The guild token beeped. "What now?" I snapped. The demon snickered at me knowingly.
It was a message from Ted. He had paid good money to use the feature. It was an address for tomorrow.
Induction ceremony. Don't let the informal tone of the dinner fool ya. I hope you have something ready. Big opportunity. Don't be late.
We looked at each other. "Well, well, well," the demon said with a smirk. "What perfect timing. Now that we are the System's favorites, I guess it's time to farm and level up. Tomorrow, we stroll in like we own the place."
"We rest first," Elyra said firmly. "It has been a long day."
◈◈◈
Status: Sol Nightguard
Human (Great Race)
Bonded to:
Vespera Nightguard (Demon - Great Race)
Elyra Nightguard (Angel - Great Race)
Zerynthia Nightguard (Abyssal Dragon - Great Race)
Calla Nightguard (Anchor Dryad - Great Race)
Slaves:
B2TTn#-7 (Treemind)
Guild Rank: E
[Bound to the Fallen - Upgraded]
Bond Level 2
(+50 to all stats)
Skills:
Matter Transmutation X
NSFW PREVIEW:
After we returned, all the girls strangely found themselves with stuff to do. Elyra and Calla went to a side room to try and repair some of the computers so that they could look at the kill code corrupting the System, while Vespera went out into the collapsed sections in search of Skitterpedes to train against. This left me alone with Zery, which was probably their intention.
The bond confirmed it. Zery and I felt the other presences, two of which were spying on us while trying not to be conspicuous and failing, unable to restrain their curiosity. The only one worthy of saving was Calla, poor girl, too innocent and pure to be a match for what Elyra and Vespera were thinking.
"I guess it's just us," I said as I felt something akin to a kick through the bond when the two gossips realized that I was onto them, and not talking to Zery.
"Are you finally going to charm me, spacer boy?" the big dragon woman asked. "The crowd is quite interested in what we might do."
I noticed that she was blushing. The bond was at its lowest settings, at least with her and Calla, so as not to overwhelm the newcomers, but it was present. Zery was trying her best to put on a brave front, but her heart was palpitating in trepidation for what might happen between us very soon.
I walked up to her. She was kneeling, with her arms up above her head due to the chains around her wrists, but the way she rested her weight on her feet meant that our faces were at the same height. She was… bigger than I was. I suspected her full height might easily be twice mine.
"You're cute, Sol Nightguard," she said warmly. "I would think that you, with already two women conquered and at your feet, would act confident and arrogant but…"
I smiled. "The bond that we share shatters any outward appearance, doesn't it? It lets you look inside and see what's there."
"Might it be," she purred, leaning closer and straining against her bindings, "that our audience bothers you?"
Her face was millimeters away from mine, tilted to the side so that she could whisper in my ear. Despite being similar to what Vespera had done to me countless times, and indeed I felt that she had chosen to do this on purpose, the action, when performed by her, was completely different.
I felt her coolness. Her cheek was dotted with blue and aquamarine scales, here and there giving way to actual skin. It was smooth and slick with what looked like perspiration, and the only source of heat was her breath.
"Some people think that us dragons are cold-blooded creatures," Zery said. She leaned even closer, so that her breath scalded me. "But that's not true."
When she retreated, the blush on her face matched mine. Damn, I was feeling like a flustered schoolgirl. Why?
Then I looked at her. Her golden eyes were shining with might, pride, and desire. Desire for me. I was sure my eyes were burning with similar emotions. The attraction was palpable. Both of us, in our minds, wanted nothing else but to blast past all the conventional bases and go straight to… the deed, perhaps? Or something close to it.
At the same time, though, our more rational minds told us to enjoy and savor the moments one by one. In the end, though, as desire grew, the rational mind was silently relegated to a corner to watch while our more animalistic side took over.
"As it were, my blood is rather warm right now," Zery said seductively. "Normally my skin would help me regulate temperature. With a body so big, I require a lot of surface, and these clothes are making me overheat."
She grinned, twisting her arms so that the chains clanged together.
"Alas," she said, "I will require your help undressing. My hands are tied."
Gingerly, I stepped forward and delicately tugged at her clothes.
"I know what you are thinking," Zery said. "Your mind is like, what's the right amount of clothes to remove in this situation? Will I be too forward? Is this proper?"
Her smile was all sharp teeth, with her fangs poking out at the sides of her mouth as her bifurcated tongue unfurled. "Just remove all of them," she said.
So I did. Just like her face, her body was slick with perspiration, making it appear almost wet. Wait. It was actually wet. Her scales were shiny in the strange light of the room, lit by what little lights were still working, the magic swirling beneath them, and the light of the core at the far end of the room.
They grew denser and thicker at her legs, back and on her wings. Meanwhile, her midriff, chest, most of her arms, face and her groin were bare.
"Mmh," she moaned. "That's more like it."
She beat her large, powerful wings, kicking up a small gale of air that upset all the dust in the room. It never reached us, however, leaving us perfectly clean in the middle of the maelstrom. At the same time, her skin glistened, and she shivered in pleasure as her heat was carried away by the air.
The same air was also marked by her scent. All the girls had their unique scent, but Zery's was almost overpowering. She had worked up quite a sweat inside the clothes we had provided for her, and I wondered why she didn't tell us sooner.
"I didn't want to," she whispered. "My sweat contains pheromones. Perhaps I am going to be the one charming and you, the one being charmed. Nice reversal, isn't it?"
The smell was intoxicating. It cast my mind to the sight of a beach at night, with crashing waves carrying a salty breeze to my nostrils. But it wasn't all. The sea was there, but the dragon also smelled so alive, so womanly, her sex already wet with arousal that dripped down her legs.
I blinked, not even realizing I had walked forward and was running a hand over her bare stomach. It was flat, with chiseled abs harder than steel, but the skin was soft and gave way under pressure. My other hand was stroking her back, running across her scales, reaching her thick tail and finding strange fish-like fins that stood at attention.
Both hands were already dripping with thick slime.
"It doesn't disgust you, does it?" she asked. Vulnerable, her eyes unblinking as she stared at me, waiting for an answer that might break her heart.
I stepped away, and the breath caught in her throat. She began to sniffle, but then realized what I was doing. After shedding my upper clothes, I returned to where I was, pressing my whole body into hers and feeling the coolness of her skin.
"I hope this is answer enough?" I said.
Her secretions stuck to me, connecting us in little bridges of transparent fluid.
"You run so hot, human," the dragon moaned in my ear, nuzzling closer to me. "I like your heat. I don't want to let you go now."
"Weren't you almost overheating before?" I asked. Despite my words, I leaned in even closer, so that our bodies were touching as much as possible. She was wet and cool and slick and slimy and I loved it.
Zery shrugged. "I enjoy overheating if it's you," she said. "Besides, it makes me sweat more. I think you rather like my smell, don't you?"
I wiped the smirk that was forming on her face by sealing her lips with a kiss. It had been her plan all along, of course, but it didn't matter. This was what we both wanted.
She was shy at first. Inexperienced. My hands roamed about her body, stroking the top part of her tail, which was thicker than my leg, and roaming across her back.
"You should know something." she said.
I perked up.
"My body… it is not untouched."
"So what?"
"You do not care?"
"Not in the slightest. Besides, you act as if it was."
She blushed. "I don't remember my past pleasure at all. It's as if my mind is a blank slate, even though my body isn't."
"That's quite all right," I said, kissing her again.
Her breasts pressed into my chest. They weren't big compared to her frame, but due to the size difference they felt enormous, and they were very firm. Devoid of all scales, they transmitted the furious beating of her heart to me, and mine to her.
"Mmh," she said. "I had wondered what you might taste like, human."
"And?" I asked, slightly out of breath.
"You taste wonderful," she whispered, before leaning in again.
This time, her tongue darted into my mouth. There was no grace, only furious need and desire, and her powerful yet thin tongue curled around mine and invaded my mouth, spitting all her saliva into me. She tasted like the sea breeze, and I wondered if her saliva was the same as the slick that covered her skin.
"Why don't you taste it?" she asked. "Try my breasts."
I didn't need to be told twice. Also, through the bond, I could feel her trepidation. There was something about her breasts that she wasn't telling me, and I was excited to find what it was.
More on Patreon